Somebody said to me that Trump 2.0 is actually going to be the golden age of lobbying in Washington.

And the reason is because he prefers all these solutions where everything is negotiable, like tariffs, or like I could cut this department or I could cut that department.

All those things run through him.

And it's also because it's about juice. Who knows him? Who's sucked up the most?

And they prefer unofficial lines of decision making rather than four more lines.

But that's just where, guys, we're back into the fever dream. You know, and fever dream literally meaning like a recurring sense that you've done this 10 times.

I remember the story from the first time out of like the guy who was a kind of second tier figure who suddenly found himself in the lobbying hot seat and he was like, this is the greatest thing ever. And I just saw him mention this story the other day. I mean, there.

He was a college, you know, it's now is the era of the college roommate of the third cousin of the president.

Right. So it's a royal court.

It reminds me weirdly of covering Saudi Arabia at times where if you've ever been on the ground doing that kind of reporting, you have this experience where somebody will say, hey, I can introduce you to somebody who is the cousin of the nephew of the tennis coach of the crown prince.

And then you're like, oh, that person actually really is a pathway.

Because otherwise, how else do you get any?

I mean, and the other thing about that in those kinds of governments is why do they rely on family, like cousins, sons, particularly,

and this is all over the Middle East, they're loyal.

Right.

They're the only people you can trust are the relatives, basically.

Well, and who was the very first foreign leader phone call of Trump's presidency again, MBS.

Yeah, good point.

That's actually great points.

He really does feel a certain natural kinship.

Exactly.

And also, remember, speaking of kinship and kingship, I feel like there are a lot of crazy scenes this week in Washington.

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