The MeidasTouch Podcast

If you read his book that he got famous on, there are so many passages throughout that book that he wrote that kind of rose him to prominence. Hillbilly Elegy, I believe it's called, where he just calls the working class people of this country lazy. He says that they're on welfare. He says they're just not as good as everybody else.

He makes a lot of comments that shows his pure disdain for working class people.

He wrote the book that became a bestseller. The movie became a smash hit. He's a very smart guy without the benefit of having a family that has contacts like a father that was well connected. He got into Yale Law School.

So I'm like oh no. So I call Trump and I'm like hey sir what's going on? He's like J.D. you missed a very important phone call and now I'm gonna have to pick somebody else.

And I'm you know I like tense up and almost have a heart attack. And the crazy thing about it is my son who's seven is in the hotel room with me and he's really into Pokemon cards right now. He's going through a Pokemon phase.

Are you guys into Pokemon? I am. Back in the day. That's a big phase right now I think in general. Yeah yeah so I mean he's really into it. So he's trying to talk to me about Pikachu and I'm on the phone with Donald Trump and

I'm like son shut the hell up for 30 seconds about Pikachu. It's the most important phone call of my life. Please just let me take this phone call.

So I call Trump and I'm like hey sir what's going on? He's like J.D. you missed a very important phone call and now I'm gonna have to pick somebody else.

J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy.

J.D. Vance also thinks stepmoms aren't really moms. Women should be staying in marriages even if they're violent marriages.

It's hillbilly felony.

He becomes a different person.

That's also how he says that he was gay growing up and then he then became an extremist against the LGBTQ plus community.

He called childless cat ladies a big threat to democracy and other horrific misogynistic remarks.

Shady Vance did not have sexual relations with that couch.

His name is not JD Vance.

His name was James Donald Bowman.

He changed his names multiple times from James Donald Bowman to Jimmy Hamill.

Then right when he got married, he changed his name to JD Vance.

He's flipped his entire personality.

He made his whole initial career and sold books lying that he's from Appalachia.

He's quite literally a venture capitalist for- From Silicon Valley.

He's a character.

He is playing a portrayal of a type of human that he believes appeals to Appalachia.

He is a Silicon Valley tech bro who made his money working for Peter Thiel, who went back to Ohio and created a sham charity that exploited people who were suffering from the opioid epidemic.

He funded research from Purdue Pharma by hiring their researchers and gave no money to people who were actually suffering from the opioid epidemic.

It's such an abhorrent thing to say and it's something that I think resonates with so many women.

He's not a real person.

He was a nobody. Shady Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy. He came from nothing.

Shady is kissing my ass. He wants my support.

And he wrote a book, Hillbilly Elegy, where he trashes Appalachia, where he's not even from.

Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a bestseller trashing that community.

Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, J.D. studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a bestseller trashing that community.

He was a nobody JD Vance author of Hillbilly Elegy.

He came from nothing.

It was meant to be at least a little bit. Okay, freedom to rig elections, give votes to all children in this country. But let's give control over those votes to the parents of those children, the freedom to be racist. Now she wants to be known as black. So I don't know is she Indian or is she black and the freedom to control women.

The people who are most deranged and most psychotic are people who don't have kids.

Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, J.D. studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a bestseller trashing that community.

And I got to tell you, I can't wait to debate the guy. That is if he's willing to get off the couch and show up.

or as I call him, Shady Vance,

Shady Vance, get off the couch and debate me.

He's the real deal. He is what JD Vance wishes that he were.

It's called Hillbilly Felony, I guess the sequel to Hillbilly Elegy and it's the story of how Donald Trump and Shady Vance met.

Joining us now, former Marine Yale Law School graduate and author J.D. Vance. He's out with a new book, Hillbilly Elegy, a memoir of a family and culture in crisis.

And a lot of the themes of the book relate to why we've seen voters respond to Donald Trump. Something we've talked a lot about here on the show.

Joining us now, former Marine, Yale Law School graduate and author J.D. Vance. He's out with a new book, Hillbilly Elegy, a memoir of a family and culture in crisis.

And a lot of the themes of the book relate to why we've seen voters respond to Donald Trump, something we've talked a lot about here on the show.

For many, he is the only thing left that offers camaraderie, community, and a sense of purpose.

And I think that what's happened is where in these communities where everything has kind of fallen apart, folks aren't going to church, their kids are addicted to drugs, they don't have a whole lot left.

And Donald Trump is one of the few things that they do have. And I think it's unsurprising that he's not just popular, but in some ways, very, you know, a source of excitement and pride for folks in this community.

If you go and read the Hillbilly Elegy that he wrote though, he's not even like a hillbilly, like he's from the suburbs of Ohio.

J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy.

JD Vance, author of Hill Billy Elegy.

He had a book, Hillbilly Elegy. And I can tell you, hillbilly values, at least from where I'm from in Appalachia, are that the government ought not be able to have absolute immunity when they shoot you in the face.

the judge sounded like the writing sounded like Jim Jordan tweets or like something you'd see on truth social like QAnon ... the judge sounded like the ministry of truth from 1984

It's a quote off. It's a quote off two and two makes five.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. And ignorance is strength.

double think means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them.

Now, this also comes at a time where there are wars across the world right now as Donald Trump, you know, borrows a line from 1984, war is peace.

Trump is creating these wars around the world. But as they said in 1984, war is peace, right?

War is peace in 1984. And that's the dystopian world that Trump and Russia inhabit.

Orwell is just mass producing electricity in his grave right now.

it's like 1984, Jordi, perhaps even worse, 1984, the book on steroids, Oral's book on steroids.

Now, we've been covering here on the Midas Touch Network how Donald Trump's weakness has led to all of these wars breaking out across the world. Donald Trump taking a page out of the playbook of dystopian 1984 predictions.

Orwell was so prophetic in writing 1984 that he saw the future.

You can say Orwell, who wrote 1984, was prophetic.

Watch what Besson says right out of the dystopian 1984 novel.

Kind of ironic that they're banning books like 1984 and then going ahead and installing cameras in schools so that parents could go and complain when they're being taught about America's history.

It's 1984, taken to levels that we could not have even imagined a few years ago.

She starts with a George Orwell quote. All history was a palimpset scraped clean and rescribed exactly as often as was necessary... George Orwell 1984. As if the ministry of truth in George Orwell's 1984 now existed with its motto ignorance is strength.

But isn't that what 1984 said? War is peace and peace is war. That's what we try to do here on the Midas Touch Network.

Peace is war. War is peace. 1984 or well.

I don't want The Handmaid's Tale streamed in America for real life when he tries to deport 15 million people.

You got to put them in concentration camps before you can figure out where to deport them.

We talk about the GOP Handmaid's Tale video that we had released about the young lady crossing the border with her mother and then getting pulled over by the police. When we released that ad, we initially released that ad back in 2021.

I mean, it's horrific to it's horrific. It's sick. It's handmaid's tale. But that is who the Republican parties are taking away our freedoms.

Well, here's the thing. Like, and this is kind of the progression of like, first it was like, wait a minute. You can't even watch Handmaid's Tale anymore because that's not parody.

It's because Ben has apparently entered his phase of life where he gets the names of TV shows wrong. And so Ben called it the handmaiden's tale. It's The Handmaid's Tale. It's like when Ben also now starts to call it Games of Thrones instead of Game of Thrones.

It's not an exaggeration. The Handmaid's Tale. I had to stop watching it because in many ways, the radical right here goes further than, you know, goes further than him.

We made a reference to Handmaid's Tale earlier in this episode, right? ... The Handmaid's Tale was mentioned to highlight how the current political climate feels like a dystopia.

Well, there is a translated phrase from that show that I want you to leave the show with. And that's, don't let the bastards get you down.

I just gotta say like the art of the deal is the biggest sham book in the world.

The guy is literally the worst negotiator ever.

Like he's must have never read how to win friends and influence people because it's unbelievable.

And that's the thing Donald Trump makes the worst deals over and over again.

He wanted to exclude his own statements and speeches and statements that he's made in books claiming that he doesn't really write his own books. They're ghost written and therefore it's here say and those words can't be attributed to him.

...the fact that defendant Trump suggests that books he authored and sold under his name may not in fact contain his own statements because he wrote those books with ghost writers goes to the weight and not to the admissibility of those evidence of the evidence you said it these are your words stop trying to run away from your own conduct is what the DA is saying right here...

I joke very much so they always hold up the art of the deal I say my second favorite book of all time but I just think the Bible is just something very special.

I did the apprentice and I did lots of books that were big, big, big, big sellers. Even now I have books that are tremendous sellers.

the art of the deal. Great book, the Bible even better.

I joke very much so they always hold up the art of the day. I say my second favorite book of all time.

Did you know that there are more references to Donald Trump in the Epstein files than there are references to Harry Potter in all seven Harry Potter books? Yeah, there's over 38,000 references to Donald Trump in the Epstein file.

there are more references to Trump in the Epstein files than there is to Jesus in the New Testament, than there is to Harry Potter in all seven Harry Potter books.

I saw this one meme over here that says Donald, it's true, though, that Donald Trump, Donald Trump's name appears more in the Epstein files than Harry Potter's name appears in all seven Harry Potter books.

More references to Donald Trump in the Epstein files that have been released than Harry and Harry Potter, than God or Jesus in the freaking Bible, folks.

Your name appears more in the Epstein files than the name Harry in Harry Potter.

And Cohen talked about that in his book. It's inDisloyal. If you go read his book, he talked about it. It wasn't like Trump's lawyer went, aha, look what I've discovered. Just go and read Cohen's book, do a scintilla of research, and you would uncover that.

I also talk about that not only in this book, but in my previous book, Disloyal. Donald is the world's greatest deflector.

It's called deflection. I also talk about that not only in this book, but in my previous book, Disloyal.

Cohen, what can we expect for you in 2022? You got the Mea Culpa podcast. I mean, your book, Disloyal, bestseller, number one book in the country. What do we expect?

I write about it in my book, Disloyal, where, you know, he would actually say shit to his father, then they would end up having a massive fight. Don almost didn't end up working at the Trump organization. He was tending bar somewhere. I think it was in Colorado, and the father said, either you get back within three weeks time or you're out. It's exactly the same relationship. It is.

Donald Trump wrote a whole book, letters he received from fascists, not actually he wrote it, he took the letters he got from Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, made a freaking coffee book, coffee table book and sold it for hundreds of dollars to grift off of his, they love those people.

he wrote a book... he didn't write it he put letters that he received from foreign genocidal maniac and rather than write an autobiography he released a book called Letters to Trump letters he received from kim jong un and vladimir putin and carry lake he made a whole coffee table book about that so we know that he will do some of that for vanity but it's always with the transactional end right

It's called Letters to Trump and it's a compilation of letters he received from genocidal maniacs who want to destroy the United States of America.

I put it together with my friends at Winning Team Publishing. This is Letters to Trump.

Guys, super excited about this book.

I find it pretty interesting that these genocidal maniacs sent you all of these letters. What a great book that you wrote.

What's your response like that.

And Donald Trump was all these they all seem to like me. They all seem like like what world is this a normal thing going on.

It is like in fact I get along much better with the genocidal maniacs than I do with the other people in the world.

I joke very much so they always hold up the art of the deal I say my second favorite book of all time but I just think the Bible is just something very special.

You mentioned the Bible you've been talking about how it's your favorite book and you said I think last night in Iowa some people are surprised that you say that I'm wondering what one or two of your most favorite Bible verses are.

I wouldn't want to get into it because to me that's very personal you know when I talk about the Bible is very personal so I don't want to get into verses I don't want to get into it.

The Bible means a lot to me but I don't want to get into specifics.

Even to cite a verse that you like. No I don't want to do that.

The Bible is special. The Bible, the more you see it, the more you read it, the more incredible it is. The whole Bible is an incredible I joke very much so they always hold up the art of the day. I say my second favorite book of all time. But I just think the Bible is just something very special.

two Corinthians, right? Two Corinthians three seventeen. That's the whole ballgame where the spirit of the Lord, right where the spirit of the Lord is. There is liberty.

I think many. I mean, you know, when we get into the Bible, I think many so many and some people talk an eye for an eye. You can almost say that that's not a particularly nice thing. But, you know, if you look at what's happening to our country, I mean, when you see what's going on with our country, how people are taking advantage of us and and how they scoff at us and laugh at us and they laugh at our face.

You know, David, they say great art like the Mona Lisa. Some people, they look at it and it doesn't look as great at the beginning. And then they'll look at it by the time they see it many, many times, it becomes the most of they can't take their eyes off it. Whereas art that's not great. You look at it looks beautiful at the beginning, but you don't you get tired of it.

I don't like to use this analogy, but like great movie, a great, incredible movie. You'll see it once be good. You'll see it. You can see it 20 times and every time you'll appreciate it more. The Bible is the most special thing.

That book is actually the Bible.

He said he doubted that Mike Pence on January 6th was ever even in any danger and that there was any danger that day whatsoever.

We have audio tapes of Donald Trump talking about war plans with the ghostwriter of Mark Meadows' books.

In the initial indictment, it didn't specifically say what those documents were and so Donald Trump and the Trump lawyers and they kind of fell right into Special Council, Jack Smith trap.

Well, Special Council, Jack Smith just said, checkmate, we've got the documents. They were the war plans. We know the exact documents that he was showing Mark Meadows and it's just so amateurish and thankfully Trump's such an idiot and his lawyers are so bad that he fell into that trap.

count 32, which relates to page 17 of the indictment now the superseding indictment makes it clear that those documents were Iranian war plans that Donald Trump was showing it and those documents are in the possession of Special Council, Jack Smith as well.

It talks about this encounter where Donald Trump's showing the classified material, the war plans for invading Iran to mark Meadows ghost riders saying doesn't this make me better than the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley.

Aren't I cooler than Mark Milley? Aren't I the best? Like that's actually what Donald Trump is saying.

Hey, you see these plans aren't I better than chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley? These are our plans to attack Iran. What do you think about this? Didn't I win? Aren't I a winner?

Fire and Fury. Fear. A Short History of Brexit. The list really goes on and you'll get the key points.

I read Fire and Fury. And I remember seeing all the news reports coming out about this book.

I use Blinkist to read Fire and Fury about the Trump White House.

I just finished reading The Attributes, 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance by Rich Devinney and I cannot recommend it enough.

This is one of Bookshop.org's bestsellers and after reading through it, I totally understand why.

I just finished reading The Attributes 25 hidden drivers of optimal performance by Rich Divini and I cannot recommend it enough.

She just wrote a book called Melania.

Go out and buy it. It's great.

And if she says bad things about me, I'll call you all up and I'll say, don't buy it. Get rid of it.

And speaking of the transactional aspect of Melania you know she's out there selling a book like this it's called Melania. The cover looks like the same text as Chanel and it looks like an AI book like I don't know that doesn't even look to be like a real book right there.

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, which helped me teach me about self-confidence and so much more!

thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman which helped me teach me about self confidence and so much more

And then Pomerantz wrote a book about it, which frankly isn't helpful because by Pomerantz writing a book, now Jim Jordan is able to argue, well, you wrote a book about it. So now you can't testify.

The seven year old is probably somewhere around here reading a book.

there's more references to Donald Trump in the Epstein files that have been released than to the word Harry in the seven Harry Potter books.

Trump's name also appears more times in the Epstein file than Harry Potter's name appears in the seven books about Harry Potter.

You've spent 25 to 35 percent of your term in this regime like golfing and doing great Gatsby parties with half naked women in martini glasses with the theme.

Is that why you're having these great Gatsby-themed parties at Mar-a-Lago to just rub the wealth disparity that you're making even worse in everybody's face?

great Gatsby-themed party of basically half-naked girls or women in champagne glasses, like dancing around and gyrating.

And the judge was basically saying, oh you are you're just making a literary reference there as a joke because the question was so ridiculous to Jonathan Swift's satirical essay.

And then Joe Toccapina said, oh there you're prejudiced that's why there should be a mistrial.

At one point I think in your book you propose we should dispose of all men. And she answers, yeah, into Montana. And he thinks like he's got her, right? He's like question into Montana answer. And she goes, yeah, and retrain them.

Question so retrain. So all the men here in this courtroom in this country all get shuffled off to Montana and get retrained. So at that point, he thinks that he's got this moment.

You do understand that that was satire, right?

It comes from Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' 700 years ago, right?

Yeah. And the court's like, all right, let's well, it also does come from Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' like read Jonathan Swift's 'A Modest Proposal'. It is a satirical essay that is about that. It's about the poor. It's about the aristocracy. It's about the attitudes towards the poor of the rich. And it's known as being this piece of literary genius. Now, one of the top satirical works in the entire English language that, you know, through satire suggests that the impoverished Irish people could ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to the rich. So that's what Eugene is playing off of in her book. It's a reference to that's what her book is called. Her book is called 'What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal.'

Hunter Biden wrote in his book that he was addicted to drugs and did not check the box when he purchased a firearm during the period where he was addicted to drugs, that he was addicted to drugs.

The evidence against Hunter Biden came in a book that Hunter Biden wrote where he was talking about his struggles with addiction and how he got over his struggles with addiction, and talking about how desperate he was when he was addicted to being accountable.

And he opened up in his book about how low it was for him. And that was used as the evidence in a case while the United States Supreme Court with Trump appointees are basically saying, bump stocks, you can have it, everyone, bump stocks are cool.

The truth of the story is that this was a working dog and it was not a puppy. It was a dog that was extremely dangerous.

It had come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive. We were her second chance and she was the day she was put down was a day that she massacred livestock that were part of our neighbors.

She attacked me and it was a hard decision. And the reason it's in the book is because this book is filled with tough challenging decisions that I have to make throughout my life.

Cricket was a wire hair pointer about 14 months, I absolutely hated that dog, the dog was untrainable, at that moment I realized I had to put her down, it was not a pleasant job but it had to be done and after it was over I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done

she talks about killing her puppy and then killing a goat and she wrote she wrote that this fan that this male goat she thought was nasty and mean and musky and rancid so she so she killed it and she dragged it into a gravel pit and hurried back to the gravel pit to put it down because when she shot the goat she didn't kill the goat right away