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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Friday, May 16th. I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that stands with Texas Democrats and sports fans who want to ban Republican Senator Ted Cruz from college playoff events. Because when Ted Cruz is in attendance Texas teams tend to lose. To quote a Democratic Party official, the nine scariest words for any college fan to hear are, I’m Ted Cruz and I’m coming to your game. Now as a good journalist, I reached out to the Cruz team. Via a spokesperson, I received the following response. The senator has been attending Texas sports games his entire life. When they win, he’s there. When they lose he’s there! Okay. [music break] On today’s show, the Supreme Court appears torn over the enforcement of President Donald Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship. And Walmart says it’s going to have to raise prices soon because of Trump’s tariffs. But let’s start with the President’s trip to the Middle East. On Thursday, Trump started his day in Qatar before flying to the United Arab Emirates, the last stop on his trip. While in Qatar, Trump visited the United States’ largest army base in the Middle East in Doha. And took part in a business roundtable. And in the UAE, he toured the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque and once again regaled an audience with his views on the term, groceries. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Costs are way down. Groceries are where they have a term grocery. It’s an old term, but it means basically what you’re buying, food, it’s a pretty accurate term, but it’s an old-fashioned sound, but groceries are down, costs are down. Eggs are down. 

Jane Coaston: Groceries are now on the list with Hannibal Lecter as things I don’t think Trump understands at any level. But, groceries aside, this trip wasn’t about diplomacy. This trip was about doing deals. $600 billion in deals with Saudi Arabia’s government, the details of which remain extremely vague. And nearly a $150 billion defense deal with the kingdom, which the White House calls, quote, “the largest defense cooperation agreement in U.S. history.” There’s also a major artificial intelligence deal with the UAE. Qatar Airways ordered 160 Boeing jetliners with the option to buy more. And of course, there’s that gifted plane from the Qatari royal family. The country’s prime minister told CNN this week that it was just a normal, everyday transaction with absolutely no influence peddling involved. 

[clip of Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani] Why would we buy an influence in the United States? If you look just, you know, in the last ten years of the U.S.-Qatar relationship. Qatar has been always there for the US when it’s needed. 

Jane Coaston: I mean, from our side of the deal, there is that little line in the constitution about how public office holders aren’t supposed to accept, quote, “any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind, whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state, without Congress’s okay,” but sure I guess that’s pretty vague and open to one’s own interpretation. So to get a better sense of what Trump’s been up to on this trip. I talked to Mohammed Sergie, Gulf Editor for Semafor. He is based in the UAE and has been covering the president’s travels in the region. Mohammed, welcome to What a Day! 

Mohammed Sergie: Thank you for having me, Jane. 

Jane Coaston: So this is Trump’s first major international trip of his second term in office. Why do you think he chose to go to the Gulf? 

Mohammed Sergie: Well, it kind of reflects what he did in his first term, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have become as central to a lot of the diplomatic back channels that Trump has undertaken so far in the last, what is it now, 120 days or so, as well as the major pools of capital that he can lean on to come to the U.S. and fulfill this vision that he has for for the new Golden Age, as he calls it. 

Jane Coaston: Right. I think listeners and viewers might remember during his first term, the Gulf was pretty central to Trump. There was the photo of him, the president of Egypt and the king of Saudi Arabia, all touching a glowing orb for reasons I still don’t 100% understand. So what is it about this region that you think particularly intrigues Trump? Because it seems to really reflect to me a vision of foreign policy that is purely transactional. 

Mohammed Sergie: It does seem that way and he does use, you know, the transactions and the headline figures as a measure of his success of his trip. But I kind of look at it from a longer term perspective. You know he’s been dealing with the Saudis and with the Emiratis and wealthy Gulf investors for a really long time. He sold a yacht to a Saudi prince. I think in the in the ’80s or early ’90s. He sold the Plaza Hotel to the same prince, Alwaleed bin Talal. He has his business transactions on a personal basis. And he’s found that these six monarchies and really the three powerful ones are Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar to be good partners for his foreign policy. And they delivered on certain elements of it. So his biggest achievement from his first term, the Abraham Accords was brokered with the UAE, right? The UAE was a pillar of it, and Israel, and he wants to add on to that. So there is a, a kind of a U.S. security prism interest long term. That he’s pursuing. But yes, the deals, the pomp, the circumstance. It’s obvious that he doesn’t like that. 

Jane Coaston: One highlight of the trip so far for Trump includes the announcement of a $600 billion investment in the US from Saudi Arabia. Can you break down that deal for us? What’s actually in it? 

Mohammed Sergie: Yeah, that’s something I can’t break down. Economists can’t do it either. It’s a very opaque type of dealings it, you know, it comes out as a lot of MOUs, memorandas of understandings, long-term negotiations that follow on. Some of the deals were actually negotiated or even signed prior to the visit months before. And then if we look back to his big headline figure from 2017, when he signed a $450 billion deal. Maybe 20% of that were actual transactions or actual deals that have happened. So I don’t take that as a literal figure. But what is clear and you know, this is you know, based on reality. The gulf states have invested trillions of dollars in US equities and treasuries and infrastructure. 

Jane Coaston: Universities as well. 

Mohammed Sergie: Exactly, Qatar has [?] universities, it’s a massive investment and it will continue to grow. Because the best companies in the world happen to be in the United States, the best technology that’s emerging happens in the United States. So they would have invested regardless. They were investing under the Biden administration. It’s a longer term type of deal between the Gulf States and the United States. 

Jane Coaston: So I think that this gets to my broader question about this trip. Which it seems that the general gist of this trip is doing deals. But deals for whom? 

Mohammed Sergie: Yeah. The conflict of interest that were kind of brewing beforehand, the crypto project that is run by his family, the real estate projects that Eric Trump came in and signed prior to his visit, those haven’t been popping up at all. He’s traveled with a pretty big entourage of business people. Some of the biggest companies and investment banks and private equity firms in the US are there also doing deals. So there are real things like Boeing’s selling up to 210 jumbo jets to Qatar Airways. Again, Qatar Airways is gonna buy either from Boeing or Airbus, and they actually buy from both. But signing it there, making the order there, showing him the commitment. Those deals are happening really for the American people and for American companies. I wouldn’t say it’s really it’s happening for Trump. He gets the added benefit of being the person who gets to boast about it and broker it. The diplomacy aspect, I have to say has taken a much bigger role in both his comments and in the outcomes of this trip. It’e been Syria, and to some extent, Iran and that’s really where the main progress has come through. 

Jane Coaston: You did mention Syria. Trump also met with Syria’s interim president earlier this week. It was the first meeting between the U.S. and Syria’s top leaders in 25 years. He also announced the removal of US sanctions on Syria to major applause. Can you talk about the significance of that? 

Mohammed Sergie: Well, you know, even for me personally, I’m from Syria. I’m From Aleppo. I grew up there and just sitting there and hearing that the sanctions would be lifted. I grew up under sanctions. Sanctions have been placed on Syria since 1979. So those sanctions were crippling. And when he said it, the reaction from the audience, which vast majority of them were Saudis. They were genuinely just like elated. And the applause was continuous. I was watching them and then I was watching Trump and like Trump kind of steps back and takes it in. I don’t know what he was thinking at the time, but he did say it in Qatar that you know it was a very well received moment and he would probably have done it before if he knew it was going to be such a [laugh] such a positive thing for him to take credit for, right? 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, and I mean, I can’t imagine what it must feel like for Syrians to be in that moment. But the Syrian government right now is still in a very tenuous position. After former president Bashar al-Assad was ousted. So why lift the sanctions now and do you think that there are risks as the country figures out how to transition away from the Assads and into a more stable form of governance? 

Mohammed Sergie: Without lifting the sanctions, there was no chance for the economy to restart. Serious GDP declined by about 90%. You have 90% poverty. You can’t transfer money into the country, even if you wanted to. If you wanted to do any types of deals with the central bank if you want to restart power. They get power maybe two, three hours a day. So you can’t restart factories. It’s literally spiraling. So the government is not collecting any revenue either. So it’s just one thing after another and it will snowball in the sense, you know, even if people respect Ahmed al-Sharra, they respect his authority and the fact that he liberated the country and all of that stuff. They’re not going to join a police force that doesn’t pay salaries, they’ll go back to whoever the benefactor was for them before. And those benefactors are literally warlords, right? I’ve been back to Syria a couple of times already. You know, helped renovate my parents’ house, all that stuff. Like we have to send cash we have to like you know there’s all different ways of doing it. You can’t run a country with truckloads of cash. It’s just a recipe for disaster. So very, very significant. Without it, definitely going towards a failed state. 

Jane Coaston: One place that is interesting that Trump is not visiting is Israel, which is on the verge of a potential major escalation in its war with Hamas and Gaza. Why was Israel left off the list and what does that say about this administration’s priorities? 

Mohammed Sergie: Yeah, in the 2017 trip, he did go to Israel afterwards. This time, you know, he spoke a little bit about Israel, but it seems to be that the situation in Israel today, the Netanyahu government isn’t willing to budge to end the conflict the way that Trump is trying to push and the way the Arab countries want it to happen. So it would probably not have been a successful tack onto his trip. That’s my read on that. 

Jane Coaston: Mohammed, thank you so much for taking the time to join me. 

Mohammed Sergie: Thank you Jane, I appreciate it. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Mohammed Sergie, gulf editor for Semafor. We’ll link to his work in our show notes. We’ll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube. And share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines.

[clip of Justice Elena Kagan] Let’s just assume you’re dead wrong. How do we get to that result? Does every single person that is affected by this EO have to bring their own suit? 

Jane Coaston: Okay, go off, Justice Elena Kagan. The Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday in a case related to President Trump’s executive order to end the century-old constitutional right of birthright citizenship. But the arguments in court centered on a more wonky side issue. Nationwide injunctions, or, put more plainly, whether one lower court judge can effectively block presidential orders for the entire country. The case comes after three federal judges said Trump’s birthright citizenship order violated the 14th Amendment and blocked it from going into effect across the nation. Similar injunctions have been issued for some of Trump’s other orders. Like his cuts to government medical research and efforts to slash the size of the federal workforce. The Trump administration argues these judges have exceeded their authority. But the justices seem torn between wanting to claw back the lower court’s abilities to issue these sweeping rulings and the potential consequences for this specific case. Of the Court’s conservatives. Justice Amy Coney Barrett sounded pretty skeptical of the Trump administration’s position. Like in this exchange, where Barrett jumped in during Kagan’s questioning of Solicitor General John Sauer. 

[clip of Justice Elena Kagan] If one thinks that it’s quite clear that the EO is illegal, how does one get to that result, in what time frame, on your set of rules without the possibility of a nationwide injunction? 

[clip of John Sauer] On this case and on many similar cases, the appropriate way to do it is for there to be multiple lower courts considering it, the appropriate percolation that goes through the lower courts, and then ultimately this court decides the merits in a nationwide binding precedent. You have a complete inversion of that. Through the nationwide injunctions with the district courts–

[clip of Justice Amy Coney Barrett] Are you really going to answer Justice Kagan by saying there’s no way to do this expeditiously? 

[clip of John Sauer] Well I’ll refer to my former answers, rule 23 provides the tools to do so, multiple injunctions–

[clip of Justice Amy Coney Barrett] But you resisted Justice Kagan when she said, could the individual plaintiffs form a class? 

Jane Coaston: Barrett and Kagan, this fall on CBS. It’s like Ally McBeal meets the odd couple. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh asked Sauer about how the federal government would enforce Trump’s order, like what hospitals and states would do with newborns? It’s still unclear how the justices will ultimately rule. The court typically wraps up its term at the end of June. Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine were postponed, after delegations from both sides failed to meet in Turkey Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin Sunday proposed the two nations meet there for direct talks this week. The meeting would have been the first in nearly three years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accepted the offer and quickly upped the ante. He challenged Putin to meet him there face-to-face. And Zelensky pulled up in Turkey as promised. But Putin never committed, and ultimately didn’t show. The Kremlin sent a lower-ranking delegation to attend talks instead. Adding to all of the confusion Thursday, the two countries respective parties showed up in completely different cities. Speaking to reporters in Qatar. President Trump said he wasn’t surprised his buddy Vlad was a no-show. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I actually said why would he go if I’m not going because I wasn’t going to go. But I wasn’t planning to, I would go. But I wasn’t planing to go and I said, I don’t think he’s going to go if I don’t go and and that turned out to be right. 

Jane Coaston: This is basically how planning a weekend brunch has gone for me, like every time. And later aboard Air Force One, Trump said there would be no movement on a peace deal until he meets with the Russian president. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I don’t believe anything’s gonna happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. 

Jane Coaston: Ain’t no party till you get a Trump Putin party. As of our recording Thursday night, Ukraine and Russia confirmed that their delegations will meet in Istanbul. But it was still unclear when the talks would get underway. The time has come. Executives for Walmart, the country’s and the world’s largest retailer said Thursday the company will start raising prices soon because of President Trump’s tariffs. I for one am shocked! Shocked! On a call with analysts Thursday, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the company would do its best to keep prices low but quote, “Given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure.”

[clip of Doug McMillon] We’re positioned to manage the cost pressure from tariffs as well or better than anyone. But even at the reduced levels, the higher tariffs will result in higher prices. 

Jane Coaston: Walmart CFO and executive vice president John David Rainey said in a CNBC interview the company is trying to navigate the back-and-forth from the administration especially around tariffs on China. 

[clip of John David Rainey] Keep in mind, just a week ago, we were at 145% tariffs. Now we’re very appreciative of the progress that the administration has made to get them down to this level, but I would say that it’s still too high for consumers. We’d like to see them come down more. 

Jane Coaston: Rainey told the AP the price of bananas is rising. And that he thinks car seats from China could likely cost shoppers an extra hundred bucks. The price tag is in for President Trump’s planned military parade next month, and it’s a doozy. A spokesperson for the Army told the Washington Post it could cost as much as $45 million! The parade is scheduled for June 14th. The official reason behind it is to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US Army. But and I’m sure this is just purely coincidence and not at all an intentional move on the part of the White House, June 14th also happens to be President Trump’s 79th birthday. Shock it up to Kismet, I guess. According to planning documents obtained by the Associated Press, the parade is set to include almost 7,000 soldiers, 150 vehicles, and 50 aircraft. It will follow a route from Arlington, Virginia to the National Mall. Permits for a counter-protest have also been filed. And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing. Let’s talk briefly about weightlifting. Yes. Weightlifting. There has been a lot of talk online and elsewhere about how lifting weights has become right coded or that working out can make you quote, “right wing.” Which is bullshit. I’ve been lifting for more than a decade. Working out is my hobby. Kind of my obsession. And quite possibly my absolute favorite thing to do. And I think that working out and lifting weights specifically can be for everyone because it’s truly good for everyone. Building and maintaining muscle mass is amazing for your quality of life. And millions of Americans are starting to agree. As Bloomberg detailed in a piece from last month, more and more people, especially women, are lifting heavy. Women are hitting higher squat totals and learning the wonders of the Romanian deadlift and the truly horrible Bulgarian split squat. But more importantly, more women are getting comfortable with getting strong. At a time when it feels like a whole bunch of people want women to feel weak and disempowered. Many of those women are learning how to lift from Casey Johnston. She’s the author of the She’s a Beast newsletter. She also has a new book out called A Physical Education, How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting. Casey, welcome to What a Day! 

Casey Johnston: Thank you for having me. 

Jane Coaston: So something that has always interested me about your work is how you put weightlifting in a cultural, social, and political context. Can you tell me a little bit what you learned about the history of weightlifting in America, especially the secret socialism, which might surprise some people? 

Casey Johnston: Right. We do have this like perception that it is the provenance of you know, the military, cops, and there’s like a sort of even fascististic association with strength. That stems from the two world wars, really, that physical fitness became a focus for a lot of the armies at that time, especially the fascist ones, the Germans and the Italians. But they got all of this physical fitness stuff from a group called the Turners who came from Germany. A lot of them immigrated to America in the early to mid 1800s. And they establish what were called, Turner Halls, which were sort of like proto YMCAs, at a certain point there were tons of them in the U.S. and they sort of focused on physical education for the community. They didn’t like competition and they didn’t like sort of achievement in the way that the American culture did. They were all about sort of fitness for the betterment of the community as like a foundation for everybody. So they had an important role in what became our physical culture much later, but it’s been sort of lost. 

Jane Coaston: You talk in your book a lot, obviously, about being the only woman on the weight side of the gym so many times. What do you think has changed in your view as a woman who lifts about women and weightlifting since you started working out? Cause I think I’ve seen a shift. Like I’m definitely seeing more women working out. More women lifting. Maybe that’s CrossFit. Maybe that we all want to eat more. What are you seeing? 

Casey Johnston: Yeah, I think things have changed a lot. It’s actually helped having a lot of resources democratized through the internet because I think that’s brought a lot more people in. I think additional research and science have started to establish that there are benefits to exercise in general, but especially weightlifting that have nothing to do with losing weight, which used to be the sort of big emphasis about any kind of exercise. Now we’re learning that weight is not in lockstep with our health and that a lot of lifestyle habits contribute to our health a lot, whether they change our weight or not. 

Jane Coaston: Something that really impacted me about your book is that about like 200 pages in, you write about trying to get your mom to squat. And talking to her a little bit about training and also about how if she wants to be able to do more. She might need to eat more. And it doesn’t go great, that conversation. We have generations of women and femme people from boomers to quote unquote, “almond moms,” who have this long-standing bias against getting bigger, even if it means you’re getting stronger or more able to do things. If your clothing size goes up, I know for me. When I started lifting and I stopped being able to fit into button-down shirts like a normal person, I got really stressed out. Why is it important for you to help change that narrative? 

Casey Johnston: I think a lot of people suffer from feeling trapped by all of these ideas about what they should be and what they should look like. And I think that for me and for my mother and for a lot of people that sort of radiates outward into life where it’s like doing anything worthwhile must involve some pain. And that you for some reason need to suffer and not only does it not work that way, but sometimes the suffering is for no good reason and sometimes it’s specifically to keep us trapped in these vicious cycles of dieting and exercise and focus on our appearance and ourselves and our own guilt and our own shame when there’s many larger forces at work that we deserve to be really angry at. But we’re not able to accurately perceive their role in our lives because we’re believing the lie that we have to be focused on ourselves first and that if something isn’t working, it’s our personal burden. 

Jane Coaston: Casey, thank you so much for joining me. 

Casey Johnston: Yeah of course. 

Casey Johnston: That was my conversation with Casey Johnston. Author of the new book, A physical education. We’ll link to her work in our show notes. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, Celebrate Texas Republicans! Yes. Texas Republicans, taking steps to end the state’s ban on gay sex and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how Texas still has an unenforceable law against sodomy on the books, but on Thursday Texas legislators came together to move a bipartisan bill repealing that law through the House, like me. What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston. And the bill might not pass the Texas State Senate, so if you’re in Texas, talk to your state senators. Because, come on! [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Fohr. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Claire. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]

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