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Smerconish

18 States Restrict SNAP Recipients From Buying Junk Food. Interview With NYU Stern School Of Business Professor Scott Galloway; Stocks Hit Historic Milestone As Dow Crosses 50,000. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired February 07, 2026 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FYUTCH, SINGER: In on a celebratory dinner.

AURA V, SINGER: Can we go to sky zone?

FYUTCH: Sky Zone 2, Trampoline Park. We doing it all. Whatever you want.

AURA V: Yehey, yehey, yehey.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And now they shared this with us, Aura V getting that steak. So well deserved. Congratulations, Aura V and Fyutch. I see you.

Thank you for joining me today. I'll see you back here next Saturday at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Smerconish is up next.

[09:00:35]

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: A new message. I'm Michael Smerconish in the Philly burbs.

The search for Nancy Guthrie, mother of "Today" show anchor Savannah Guthrie, goes into its seventh day. The 84-year-old believed to have been abducted in the middle of the night last weekend from her home in Tucson. CBS affiliate KOLD reported Friday that it received a second message related to Guthrie's disappearance and send it to authorities. This latest e-mail did not have the same IP address as the first letter, but it appears the sender used the same type of secure server to hide that information. KOLD reporter Mary Coleman said the note includes sensitive information, but there are no deadlines unlike the first.

The reporter said that she thinks it appears to be in response to the videos the Guthrie family posted on social media asking for proof that their mother was alive. CNN's Ivan Rodriguez joins us now from outside Nancy Guthrie's home.

Ivan, what's the latest from there?

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michael, good morning. It really is a big development here in terms of those notes, right? Because that's now that second note that a T.V. station here has received. That first note was sent to two T.V. stations here in the Tucson area as well as TMZ, this one appearing to only go to KOLD here in Tucson. And as you mentioned, that anchor with the new stat saying that it doesn't appear to have a deadline, it doesn't appear to have any sort of ransom or demands.

Possibly it could be a communication. And that's what the Guthrie family has been asking for in those previous two videos. The first one we saw with Savannah Guthrie and the second one we saw on Thursday with the son of Nancy Guthrie really asking for any sort of communication. And I think that's been a major talking point and from officials of we want to hear from whoever may have taken allegedly Nancy Guthrie. So that is a big development here.

We know that the other deadlines that were originally in that first letter that was sent out, one was for Thursday at 5:00 p.m. and there's another deadline for Monday at 5:00 p.m. but experts have said that this could possibly change in terms of deadlines because these communications now could offer a new possible line to extending a deadline, whatever it may be. Now previously, we've heard from the Pima County sheriff in terms of no new press conferences until they have new evidence. So we'll see if this new note will prompt the sheriff and other officials to provide any sort of update, whether that's today or tomorrow.

SMERCONISH: Ivan, it seems like there was a flurry of activity yesterday that this second communication came in, and then there was activity on the roof of the property, as well as the seizing of what was believed to be her vehicle. Can you speak to either of those?

RODRIGUEZ: Yes. So yesterday we saw officials come back here to the home. They were also on the roof placing evidence markers down. And later that evening, we even saw a car be towed from near this residence of Nancy Guthrie. So there still appears to be a lot of movement, I will say, from crews that have been here all week we have been reporting that investigators seem to be coming back daily to come back and look for new signs of evidence.

But, I mean, it does coincide, right, with that second note. Some say that it might not have anything to do with the second note, and investigators are just going back to square one. Maybe they haven't been happy with the forensics so far, the evidence that has been collected, and they're continuing to look for more. But I think it is interesting, and it is a question of why would they be placing specific evidence markers on a roof and what exactly they could be looking for.

SMERCONISH: Ivan Rodriguez, thank you for the report.

TMZ and its founder, Harvey Levin, have been reporting the story closely, regularly breaking news on the kidnapping. I just spoke to the man himself, executive producer of TMZ, Harvey Levin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Harvey, thank you so much for being here. Tell me the very latest.

HARVEY LEVIN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, TMZ: Well, there is a second note that was sent, and the way it's being reported, it has many of the markings of the first note, the first note we received as well, and it's the same note that the local station got. So the second note does not include any kind of ransom demand according to KOLD, the station that got has sensitive information in there.

[09:05:07]

So, Michael, look, I'm going to speculate at this point, but, you know, the note we got said we're not getting in touch with anybody anymore. Here's the demand. That's it. But the family came out and said we need proof of life. So I would think that in this letter, maybe it includes something that tells the family that this person who wrote the letter has Nancy Guthrie.

That could be something that no one would know except the family. You know, it could be something as simple as, you know, what's the last birthday present Nancy gave Savannah? It could be something involving her medical condition, because that seems highly relevant right now, you know, given the fact that she had high blood pressure, she has a pacemaker, and that she needs her medication. So it could be something like this. The reporter from KOLD suggested there was something in there that was somewhat alarming, and it could have to do with her medical condition.

I don't know. But they are clearly trying to show, yes, we are the people who have it. We are the real deal. And I don't think it's much of a coincidence that they rushed out to the house and did a search shortly after receiving that second letter.

SMERCONISH: Harvey, I've been watching you all week, and I think you're doing a hell of a job covering this. But there's so much that doesn't make sense to me, not the least of which is, and maybe I watch too much television or have seen too many movies. Why go through media outlets? Why go through TMZ? Why not go directly to the family?

Surely you've thought about that.

LEVIN: I have. And, you know, sometimes you go to the family and it says, you know, the police aren't going to be able to help you. This person wanted this information. They knew we would transmit this to the police, and they knew KOLD would do the same thing. So, you know, sometimes it's almost like a cat and mouse game.

But whoever -- look, Michael, whoever did this is really sophisticated. It is almost impossible to trace, you know, where it came from. The bitcoin address is real. This is a sophisticated person who wrote this letter, and it's somebody who's intelligent. This letter is constructed well, the one we received.

It's layered. It is grammatically all correct. And, you know, I think this is a sophisticated, intelligent person who wrote this. I also think -- I also think that this person is in the Tucson area because, you know, we actually looked at this -- the first letter we got says, that if you pay us the money, we will get you, Nancy, back to Tucson within a certain period of time. And if you look at that period of time and say they're going to drive 12 miles, 60 miles an hour, and it's going to take them all that time to get there'd be a 700 mile radius.

I think it's a lot smaller than that. Why did they send two notes to KOLD? They have some connection to KOLD. It is the community television station of Tucson. And this person seems to have a connection to that station.

So it feels like a local person. The other thing it feels like to me is it seems odd to me that somebody would be watching television one day and say, oh, wow, there's Savannah Guthrie. She's rich and famous. Let's find a relative. Seems more likely that somebody would know in the Tucson area, hey, that's Nancy Guthrie.

Her daughter's really famous and she's also rich. And it seems more likely it would be hatched from there. So one of the things I was thinking about this morning is I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the police are looking for a really intelligent person who is tech savvy, who has just gone missing or MIA for the last six days and ask people within that range, you seen anybody like that? Because it's just feeling like it's a person like that, somebody who's smart, somebody who's tech savvy. It seems there's a connection to Tucson.

So I don't know that that's the course they're going, but that just makes sense to me.

SMERCONISH: So Harvey Levin has read the note. I have not. I respect the fact that you're walking a fine line and you don't want to be too revelatory about it. I kind of have to yield to you when you say this is a sophisticated person. But here's something else I've been wondering from a distance.

I get the Lindbergh baby. I get William Randolph Hearst's, you know, granddaughter. I get Sinatra Jr. I don't get, and I don't mean any disrespect in raising this, I don't get Savannah Guthrie's mom. Like, who comes up with that as a caper?

[09:10:06]

LEVIN: That's what I'm saying. That if it were just I'm going to television and looking for a famous person, and I'll pick Savannah Guthrie, that makes no sense to me either. What I'm saying to you is, what if this person who I think has a connection to Tucson just happens to know, look, in a way, Nancy Guthrie, you know, in Tucson. Nancy Guthrie, you know, she has a really famous daughter. So it may be that somebody either knows Nancy Guthrie or knows of Nancy Guthrie.

Oh, that woman lives in a nice house, and her daughter is really famous. And so what I'm saying is it would be hatched not because, oh, I'm looking at Savannah Guthrie on T.V. It would be hatched because somebody is saying, oh, I know Nancy Guthrie lives there. I know Nancy Guthrie's daughter is really famous. I know Nancy Guthrie's daughter has been on T.V. a long time, and she's probably rich. Nancy Guthrie lives in a really nice house. That would be interesting. And that's the way it seems to me, the only thing that makes sense about the abduction.

SMERCONISH: Final question for Harvey Levin. It sounds to me like you're convinced the note you received is totally legit.

LEVIN: Look, I don't know that. But what I will say, Michael, is there are two items mentioned in the note. A white smartwatch. And people knew she had a smartwatch. But there was -- it was where it was placed that I don't think anybody knew.

And the authorities were really interested in that because they called me -- the FBI called me a couple hours after we sent it to the sheriff. Second thing is, they didn't just say, like, a damaged floodlight. They said a destroyed floodlight. That word destroyed is really interesting to me because you just happen to see a broken light. You'd say it was a broken light, maybe a damaged light.

But when you say destroyed, that seems to be an act they're talking about. So again, maybe I'm over reading this, but the way when somebody says a destroyed light, it may be they destroyed it because maybe it was illuminated and they don't want to be seen. So I just think the word destroyed and by the way, nothing was out that there was a damaged or destroyed light at the time we got the letter. So those two things were markers. And based on what the KOLD reporter said yesterday, it sounds like they mentioned something else that would show that they were familiar with Nancy's house.

So do I know that it's a legitimate ransom letter, no. Are there markers that suggest it might be? I think the answer is yes. And I think pretty clearly at this point the authorities are taking it seriously.

SMERCONISH: Final question. And this time I mean it. Is the deadline Monday one of harm will come to her if you don't do X?

LEVIN: The only thing I'm going to say is it is profoundly consequential.

SMERCONISH: OK. Harvey, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: What are your thoughts? Hit me up on social media, follow me on X, subscribe to my YouTube channel. Maybe I'll read yours during the course of the program.

Prediction, it's someone close to her possibly looking for money or valuables. And it went very, very wrong. The ransom bid is a distraction. Praying they find her. Prayers to the family.

They're going to need every prayer.

Right. Kelly Ann, obviously Godspeed to the entire family. As I just said to Harvey, it just doesn't make sense to me. With no disrespect intended, obviously toward Nancy Guthrie or Savannah Guthrie, the part that's completely nonsensical. Then again, I'm trying to get into the mind of a perp. But OK, you know, Patty Hearst, William Randolph Hearst's granddaughter, there's a lot of money there and she's a target and they're high profile.

But who the hell goes after an 84-year-old woman in the dead of night? That's really what I'm saying and thinking.

In one of the largest television events of the year, the Super Bowl halftime show set to draw even more attention, Bad Bunny becoming the first artist expected to sing entirely in Spanish. Now, during his acceptance remarks at the Grammy Awards last weekend, Bad Bunny used the spotlight to express political views. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAD BUNNY, SINGER: We're not savage. We're not animals. We're not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: We're not savages. We are Americans. The crowd in Los Angeles, you can hear and you can watch, largely met his statements with applause and ovation. But what about tomorrow? Bad Bunny will meet a larger and potentially more politically divided audience at the Super Bowl.

[09:15:02]

Which brings me today's poll question at smerconish.com. I'm asking you should, not will, should Bad Bunny get political in the Super Bowl halftime show? Go cast your ballot at smerconish.com.

Up ahead, should those who get government assistance paying for groceries, what we used to call food stamps, be banned from buying soda and candy? We'll get to that next. And also, the Dow just closed at a historic high, yet my guest, Scott Galloway, wants you to unsubscribe and boycott the very companies that are driving the market.

Don't forget, sign up for my newsletter. When you go to smerconish.com to cast your ballot, you'll get the work of some of our illustrators, like Eric Allie.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:00]

SMERCONISH: Should states ban the use of food assistance benefits, what we used to call food stamps for purchasing candy and soda? SNAP recipients in these 18 states will be restricted from buying non nutritious items in 2026. It's part of a push by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Agricultural Secretary Brooke Rollins aimed at reducing chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes, which they link to sugary drinks and processed foods. But retailers and health policy experts warn that the rollout could be messy as SNAP recipients try to figure out which foods are still eligible, with no uniform list of restricted items and rules that vary by state and by store.

Joining me now to discuss is Johns Hopkins Associate professor of Public health Julia Wolfson.

Dr. Wolfson, let's talk the basics first. Program's been around since the 60s. Forty-two million are served by it, and any food or food product is eligible except alcohol and ready to eat hot foods. Plus, it's not a food group, but no tobacco either. Are those the general parameters?

JULIA WOLFSON, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, JOHN HOPKINS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes. Thank you. That's correct. So the food stamps program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, serves 1 in 8Americans. So more than 41 million Americans get this supplemental benefit which provides money to purchase food and cannot be used for anything that is not food, as you correctly said, tobacco, alcohol, and any other products.

SMERCONISH: It sounds like a slippery slope. I mean, intuitively it might make sense, but what is to distinguish my chocolate bar from my chocolate chips or my potato chips, right? The chocolate bar would be impacted by this, but I could still have the chocolate chips and I could still eat the potato chips.

WOLFSON: Yes, I think that's a really good point and one that a lot of folks have been making in light of these new restrictions. You know, historically, SNAP has been to provide a supplemental benefit for food without any restrictions on it. Recognizing the program's primary purpose is to reduce food insecurity, not necessarily to promote some foods rather than others. But now, you know, since this spring, we have 18 states that are restricting mostly sodas, sugar, sweetened beverages, and in some states, candy, as well as in the name of promoting a more healthful diet, which is an admirable goal. We have a lot of chronic related disease in this country, and this seems like a nice policy lever to promote healthful diets.

But as you say, it can feel a little bit arbitrary, especially when it comes to the candy, right. There's a -- there's a lot of public health evidence to support restricting sodas or sugar beverages, but when you start getting into candy, what's a candy? Why the chocolate bar versus, you know, a granola bar, versus the chips versus ice cream. You know, it can, as you say, become a slippery slope and a little bit arbitrary as to what will be restricted in some states, what will be restricted in other states.

SMERCONISH: But it could also be a slippery slope relative to sodas, because the soda versus a fruit drink, I could see the same kind of a conundrum. Let me ask you this question. Why are the states involved if it's federal money? In other words, speak to me about the partnership for how these services are delivered.

WOLFSON: Sure. So SNAP is a federal program. The federal government funds the program, the federal government sets the benefit levels, and then the federal government distributes the money out to states. And the states are the ones who actually administer the program. They enroll the participants, they distribute the funds on something called the electronic benefit transfer card, which is like a debit card that participants get their money loaded on every month.

State is doing all of that stuff. And the states have somewhat different rules across states and they can request waivers to do different things from the USDA. And so these 18 states have requested waivers from the USDA to restrict different combinations of sugar -- of sugar, sweetened beverages and candy. And the USDA for the first time has approved those waivers. This is something that has been requested over time by some states.

They've never been approved until now.

SMERCONISH: When I was a kid, I loved it when my mother made Rice Krispies treats. Could -- in one of the restricted states, could I go by now you can just purchase, you know, the pre made Rice Krispie treat? Could I buy a Rice Krispie treat? Separately, could I buy the raw ingredients to make Rice Krispie treats?

WOLFSON: Yes. This is a really interesting question. And it's looking different in different states depending on their rules. For example, in Indiana right now, you cannot buy marshmallows with your SNAP benefits anymore, but you could buy a pre made Rice Krispie treat. You could buy marshmallow cream for -- another interesting thing is you could not buy chocolate chips because they meet the definition of candy in that -- in that state. And so it's -- and the rules are different depending how the states have chosen to define what is a candy.

[09:25:14]

So in some cases, you know, a candy bar will not be allowed and maybe that loops in some granola bars or protein bars in some cities, but not others. So it's creating these, as you say, you know, arbitrary and kind of slippery slopish scenarios where, you know, if you're going to make the thing yourself, you can't do it Indiana because you can't buy marshmallows with your benefits. But you could buy some pre made marshmallow treats, Rice Krispie treats.

SMERCONISH: Dr. Wolfson, thank you for the explainer. We appreciate it.

And from those at home, here's some social media reaction from the world of X, I think. Follow me on X, subscribe to my YouTube channel. No SNAP recipients should not be allowed to buy soda and candy.

Luke, I disagree. And here's why I disagree. I don't want the food police. And also I find those memes that I see on Instagram often where one person is looking in the food cart of another person and telling them they shouldn't be buying X, Y or Z. Like who needs the food police?

They're illogical to me. I want us to eat healthy. Maybe GLP1s are going to change the nature of this debate. But how do you defend the idea that says you can't have soda in that cart, you can't have a chocolate bar in that cart, but you can have ice cream, you can have potato chips. I mean, wherein lies the line?

No, I don't want to see it.

The Super Bowl tomorrow. That's highly anticipated. And so too it's halftime show with Bad Bunny. His presence on that stage is not without controversy. And that's why I want to know what you think.

Go to my website at smerconish.com answer today's poll question, not will. I'm not asking you to be predictive. I'm asking should do you want to see Bad Bunny get political during the course of that halftime show? By the way, there's an alternative halftime show. You can go watch Kid Rock if you don't watch Bad Bunny.

Still to come, your social media reaction. And it was a rough week on Wall Street. But the Dow rebounded, hitting an historic high. Good news for those invested in the market and with four 401ks, so is now the time for a boycott against major tech companies. NYU Professor Scott Galloway is here to discuss a website he's created.

It's called "Resist and Unsubscribe."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT GALLOWY, NYU PROFESSOR: When stock prices fall, when GDP looks threatened, when interest rates increase, all of a sudden we see very crisp walking back of the president's plans. We have a $30 trillion economy and roughly 70 percent of it is driven by consumption. Consumer spending that is our secret weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:32:15]

SMERCONISH: You can find me on all the usual social media platforms, particularly X and YouTube. And if you have a comment, maybe I'll respond to you during the course of the program. JFC -- oh, come. Don't hit me with the acronyms. The only one that I know is WTF.

That's the best you can come up with? Give us a break. Boring news. How about Epstein?

What? Parkavenue32, you think we shouldn't be discussing this? And how much Epstein can I talk about? Honest to God, 15 hours a week I talk about Epstein. This is a show that -- this is an issue that has captivated the country.

There's a legitimate issue here as to whether it would have captivated the country if it were the mother of a non-celebrity. We can have that conversation. But I make zero apologies for talking about the Nancy Guthrie disappearance, and I wish the family Godspeed.

More social media reaction. What else has come in during the course of the program?

I don't think that Bad Bunny saying, we are not savages, we are not aliens, we see Americans is not -- I don't think is not, double negative there, is not a political statement. It's a statement of fact.

Hey, Reverend, I'll tell you my view of the poll question. I don't want to hear any politics from Bad Bunny. And I will tell you why. Tomorrow is the nation at worship. Like it's a community event. It's the only time we are together on the same page.

It's true, the Super Bowl. It is a moment of unity in the country, and it is indicative of sort of a bygone era when we all watch the same things on television. And then we went to work the next day and communicated with one another, having spent our day with family and friends.

And I don't take it lightly. I think it's a really -- it's a mingling opportunity with no competition. It makes me think of the days when 20 -- 25 million people used to watch Cosby or Seinfeld or Friends, and we all had that in common. But we fragmented as a society.

Our politics have fragmented, our cultural choices have fragmented, our entertainment choices have fragmented. And the one exception -- think about this. I can't think of anything else where so many in the country are doing the same thing at the same time, and that's the Super Bowl. And I don't want it tarnished by a political message, a message in this case, which would be from the left, or a message if I flip over and I watch Kid Rock, that would come from the right.

Just give me one effing day when I can watch football and enjoy the commercials and forget about this faux political divide in the country. I'm Michael Smerconish and I approve this message.

Don't forget to vote on today's poll question at Smerconish.com where I'm asking, not whether, I'm asking -- pardon me, not will, but should Bad Bunny get political in the Super Bowl halftime show?

[09:35:01]

You just heard my vote. And by the way, I think the NFL is taking a risk and probably fingers and toes crossed from Goodell and company that it doesn't get political like everything else in this country.

Still to come, the Dow hits an historic milestone, crossing 50,000. So, why does NYU professor Scott Galloway want to boycott the very companies that move the market? Sign up for the newsletter at Smerconish.com when you're voting on the poll question. Check out what Rob Rogers just sketched for us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SMERCONISH: Stocks hit a historic milestone as the Dow crossed 50,000 points for the first time ever. The move follows a volatile week on Wall Street. But even as markets rebounded, some of the companies driving those gains are now facing growing scrutiny from critics. The very stocks that move the market are companies that my next guest wants to boycott due to the current administration's immigration enforcement policies.

[09:40:05] NYU professor and serial entrepreneur Scott Galloway has identified what he calls Ground Zero, subscription-driven tech companies with outsized influence on the economy and policy makers, Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, OpenAI and more. And others that he refers to as the Blast Zone or consumer-facing companies that he's identified as active enablers of ICE. Think AT&T, Marriott, UPS, Dell.

Scott says that broad actions against ICE, like general strikes, are unlikely to get the attention of the Trump administration. And he argues that political and corporate leaders are more likely to respond to disruption that has targeted and directly affects the marketplace, meaning an economic strike.

To that end, he's created a new Web site, resistandunsubscribe.com. And he says that if you target the subscription services that provide a backbone to several tech companies and top S&P 500 companies, you can make a meaningful dent in their market value. And that will get the president's attention.

Professor Scott Galloway joins me now. Interesting that we're here having this conversation at a time when the Dow just broke 50,000 and the S&P is moving in parallel direction. I saw a timeline, Scott. I don't know if you have returned, but it's interesting, 1972 the market was at 1,000. And now here we are February 6th at 50,000. Is it a bubble given that the magnificent seven are pushing so much of this growth?

SCOTT GALLOWAY, CREATOR OF NEW WEBSITE RESISTANDUNSUBSCRIBE.COM: Well, we know it's a bubble. The hard part is picking when the pen pops the bubble. In 1997, "The Economist" perfectly called the dot-com implosion. Unfortunately, they called it a 1997 and the Nasdaq doubled.

What I think is important to remind people, Michael, is that the Dow is not the real economy. In the same month that the Dow hit an all- time high, we also had our greatest number of layoffs since the great financial recession. If you look at what's driven the Dow's rise, it's 30 to 40 percent margin expansion, which quite frankly, is Latin for layoffs. It's 10 to 20 percent financial engineering or stock buybacks. And the rest is underlying economic growth.

So, I would argue right now the Dow has figured out a way to rebrand layoffs in a more positive -- in a more positive light. The Dow loves efficiencies, margin expansions, and layoffs, but it doesn't love labor. This is going to be similar, I think, to the Biden administration, where they fell under criticism for saying everything is OK when consumers felt it isn't.

This is a very insecure time for a lot of Americans. But the Dow, which is really a tracking index on the top 10 percent, who own 80 percent of the stocks, well, spoiler alert, the top 10 percent are doing really well.

I also think A.I. is beginning to kick in. I think CEOs, behind closed doors are all saying, how do we do more with less? And what I mean more with less. I mean, the great taste of more earnings without the calories of more employees.

SMERCONISH: Fair to say that an increasing number of those layoffs are driven by the introduction of artificial intelligence, and it's the whole string of artificial intelligence by those magnificent seven that is making their value go sky high.

GALLOWAY: Keep in mind, Amazon is claiming they're going to be able to double their retail revenues, which is their largest business. They're going to be able to double it by 3032 -- excuse me by 2032 without making a single incremental hire.

I had David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, on my podcast. And he said in three years he expects his earnings, I would imagine, to be up 40 or 50 percent, his top line up 20 or 30 percent. And he used the word flat around employment.

So, if a CEO had an honest all hands in an S&P company right now and they don't do this, but the honest all hands would go something like this, I have good news. The underlying economy is stronger than I thought. We have really strong product market fit. I think we're going to grow our revenues eight to 12 percent a year. That's the good news.

Here's the great news. I need 10 percent fewer of you. I think A.I. is corporate Ozempic and that it shuts off the signal to the CEO and shareholder's brain that they necessarily need to eat more in this case, hire more to in fact survive or grow. So, growth without an increase in labor is kind of the Ozempicing, if you will, of corporate America. It's great for shareholders. The interesting question is what will it do to the underlying kind of vibe, economy and labor.

SMERCONISH: From the Web site that you've created? Here's the ground zero section. If we could put that on the screen. Explain to me why I should unsubscribe from Amazon Prime, or I should unsubscribe from Apple music or YouTube premium as a means of sending a message to ice. Where's the nexus?

[09:45:01]

GALLOWAY: Well, I'll start with the meaningful and then the profound. The meaningful is that, you know, when I went on, I found out I had three Apple TV plus accounts. When I went onto the AT&T account, I found that I had four AT&T accounts at $70.00 a month for iPads and Blackberries I hadn't used in ten years. So, you're just bottom line, going to find places you're spending money you shouldn't be.

And then the profound is, if like me, you are really disturbed by a mass secret police shooting, mothers and ICU nurses taking care of veterans, and you have some anxiety from it. Action absorbs anxiety.

And I have put up this Web site in the Ground Zero for where President Trump listens to is the following. He doesn't listen to protests. He doesn't listen to citizenry. He doesn't seem to listen to the courts. He listens to the markets.

The time he walked back, the threat to annex Greenland, the times he's walked back threats for tariffs have been when one thing happens, when the market moves. The soft tissue of the markets is the following, 40 percent of the S&P is made up by just 10 firms. And these 10 firms are highly sensitive to recurring revenue subscription growth.

So, if you cancel your OpenAI subscription, which I did, that's $240, they're raising money at 40 times revenues. You're effectively taking $10,000 out of their market capitalization.

These are the firms he listens to. This is what the market listens to. This is the fastest, biggest ROI way to have a big impact and send the strongest signal with the least amount of consumer disruption.

And just bottom line, Michael, it feels good to be doing something. You know, instead of hectoring from the cheap seats and being indignant and looking at memes or the Obamas, I want to send a message. I want to be able to say, dad, what did you do in the war?

You know, I tried to have an impact on the companies and send a strong signal to the Trump administration. And I think this is a fairly easy, non-disruptive way to have a big impact on these companies and send a very strong signal to the Trump administration.

SMERCONISH: One of my radio listeners said to me, quote, "I want to boycott Scott Galloway" because Trump has already said that he needs a lighter touch, that we need body cams, that we want to -- he swapped out his leader. He's already made a movement. But the left -- I'm reading this literally. But the left, you know, they want to move the goalposts. They want to go for blood. They want to take him off.

You would say what to that radio caller?

GALLOWAY: There are more people -- there are more undocumented workers being deported during the Obama administration, and it didn't involve bringing a set of terror. It didn't involve bringing terror and anxiety to good people, just trying to get along with their lives.

You know, when you have parents shot in the face, when you have ICU nurses pumped with 10 bullets, when you're bringing -- when terror is the point, when you ask not for a de-escalation -- those moves have been symbolic. But for them to hand over the voter rolls, when you have a secret police, a masked secret police, it goes to visions of early 30s Germany, where there was a federal police force loyal to one man, and corporate leaders ignored the slow descent into fascism in exchange for greater profits. They said to Hitler, if you crush our trade unions, we'll let you do what you want. And we know how that ended. And I feel like we have echoes of early 30s Germany.

I don't -- I see the president doing nothing but implementing an increasing level set of actions that terrorize good Americans are bad -- basically, attack everything. The reason I'm here with you is rule of law, competitiveness, civil rights, a belief that I was protected by the law.

The top one percent now, for a lot of reasons, feel that they are protected by the law, but not bound by it. And the bottom 99 are bound by the law, but not protected by it. This is -- this is an administration that is part kleptocracy, autocracy. And this feels like a slow burn into fascism.

So the notion that he's replaced the name of the person overseeing this and gone from 3,000 federal agents to 2,300, that's not de- escalation. That's symbolism. This is wrong. And it needs to stop.

SMERCONISH: OK. Can I say they're waving at me and they're saying you're way over time? I'm a huge Professor G fan, you know that. But Scott, I have to lay down a marker. I have to lay down a marker. The 30s references lose me because I think it then diminishes what transpired in that era. I'll give you 10 seconds to respond to that.

GALLOWAY: I think it's a fair criticism. I'm not accusing Trump of being a genocidal maniac, but we can -- we can draw lessons from history in early 30s Germany and see the very strong echoes of what is happening in our own nation.

SMERCONISH: Scott Galloway, ladies and gentlemen. You still have time to vote on today's poll question, which I had more time for Scott, because I'd love to continue that dialog. Should Bad Bunny get political in the Super Bowl halftime show?

[09:50:01]

And while you're there, subscribe to the newsletter. It's free. You'll get exclusive editorial cartoons like this from Steve Breen and this from Jack Ohman.

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SMERCONISH: OK, there's the poll result thus -- oh, wow. I'm in the majority. Should Bad Bunny get political in the Super Bowl halftime show? Two thirds of us, literally 67 percent of more than 36,000, say no. And that is the right answer.

Please give us -- give us just a couple of hours, a couple of hours when we can remember that we're all Americans. And these political divides that we have don't have to take precedence over our one day of worshiping, you know, football and good entertainment at halftime. I love that. I love that answer.

[09:55:00]

OK. More social media reaction. What do we have? This from the world of X.

Why shouldn't Bad Bunny get political? You want everyone to be on the same page and hold hands on game day? Yes, I do. The MAGAs are doing the opposite by having their own halftime show. That's political.

Well, they're having their own halftime show because they perceive Bad Bunny as proven by what Bad Bunny said at the Grammys to be political. I totally get it.

I'm sick of the tit for tat, is what I'm trying to say. Can we just -- we used to have television programing in common. We were watching the same shows and we were watching them on the same day of the week at the same time as everybody else. And then we'd go to the workplace and we'd have a common bond, a common denominator. And what we most lack in this country, in my opinion, in the opinion of Robert Putnam and a lot of other social scientists, is common experience.

Tomorrow -- tomorrow truly is like the one day that we have in common. So, let's not tear it apart. Let's enjoy the day. Eat some wings, drink some beers, and root for your favorite team. More social media reaction. What do we have?

No time. No. OK, gang, thank you for watching. Appreciate it. Vote on the poll question if you've not yet done so. If you missed any of today's program, you can always listen anywhere you get your podcasts. See you next week.

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