PowerfulJREJoe Rogan Experience #2542 - Steve Hilton
PowerfulJRE
How Steve Hilton and Joe Rogan Met 0:01
Steve Hilton and Joe Rogan recall meeting on a beach in Hawaii in 2012, when their children, close in age, were playing together in the sand. Hilton had just moved from England, where he had worked in business and government, and remembers being struck by Rogan's very different, unfiltered style. He later appeared on the podcast, episode 509, recorded around June or July of 2014, at a time when he did not even understand what a podcast was and kept expecting another guest to arrive after twenty minutes. Rogan notes that since then the show has produced roughly two thousand more episodes, and Hilton reflects on how few people were listening back then, which let both of them speak more freely.
Ignoring Online Opinions 4:31
Rogan explains that a key to handling public life is simply not paying attention to what people say about you online, since a large share of critics act in bad faith and push the least charitable version of events. He compares social media to a restaurant where twenty percent of the food might kill you, arguing that a similar percentage of people online are essentially poisonous to engage with. Hilton, now more publicly exposed as a candidate for governor of California, admits he is often tempted to respond to abusive comments, like being told to go back to England, but has so far resisted.
Bots and Fake Engagement 7:00
The conversation turns to how much of the abuse and political engagement online is not from real people at all. Rogan cites a 2022 forensic analysis by cybersecurity expert Dan Woods suggesting around eighty percent of Twitter activity could be bots, compared to the company's own claim of under five percent based on a sample of just one hundred tweets, a discrepancy that mattered greatly since Twitter was being sold for roughly forty billion dollars. Rogan describes bot farms, rows of Android phones controlled by keyboards that blast out identical messages, and notes that paid actors, including state-sponsored ones, coordinate talking points, mentioning that Israel has openly discussed paying people to fight what it calls the digital war against the woke Reich.
Checking In Versus Scrolling Opinions 11:30
Hilton says he limits his own social media use to short check-ins during the day, mainly to see what news is happening on X, but avoids reading people's opinions once a story is posted. Rogan agrees X is useful for headlines but not worth engaging with commentary. They also joke about Hilton's old habit of being nearly unreachable, having no phone on him for long stretches, which once left his wife unable to reach him during a trip to San Diego.
Instagram, TikTok, and Attention 13:01
Rogan describes a morning ritual with comedian Tom Segura of sending each other disturbing videos, and notes Instagram's algorithm serves up a mix of gruesome content and interesting historical or scientific facts, while X is dominated by opinionated text. They discuss TikTok's design, which starts playing content immediately and hooks users within seconds, unlike Instagram's slower start. Hilton points out that China's domestic version of TikTok is curated toward martial arts, science, and music rather than viral distraction, and restricts children from using it after 10 p.m., which Rogan says shows deliberate government control over what content shapes a society.
Suing Meta Over Child Addiction 17:32
They discuss a major lawsuit against Meta, with four states seeking damages reported around two hundred billion dollars, though Meta says its exposure could reach 1.4 trillion, over claims that the company deliberately addicted children through features like algorithmic recommendations, infinite scroll, autoplay filters, and disappearing stories. Hilton mentions writing back in 2015, in his book "More Human," that kids under sixteen should not have smartphones, and worries that even as Meta faces scrutiny, platforms like YouTube may be targeted next. Rogan questions whether government-mandated redesigns would actually help users, suspecting such intervention would only benefit bureaucrats and companies rather than the public, and both agree the underlying problem is the addictive design of screens themselves rather than any one platform.
MySpace, Video Games, and Ideology Online 22:30
Hilton brings up a planned relaunch of MySpace built around being algorithm-free, letting users choose content rather than being fed outrage-driven feeds. Rogan agrees this would likely be healthier, and both note that when Hilton discusses screens and kids at campaign events, it provokes much stronger reactions than typical political topics like gas prices. Rogan adds that video games are even more addictive than social media yet largely ignored in this debate, and argues that social media has fueled political shifts, including rising interest in socialism among people unaware of its historical consequences, since giving power entirely to the state leaves citizens without recourse once the state controls force. The conversation closes with both agreeing capitalism needs guardrails and that social safety nets are necessary for people through no fault of their own, while also possibly discouraging ambition, drawing on Hilton's childhood memories of shortages in communist Hungary.
Rethinking Universal Basic Income 27:01
Steve Hilton explains he has generally opposed universal basic income, but notes the original version, championed by Milton Friedman and Charles Murray on the right, was meant to replace all other government programs entirely, no Medicaid, no other services, just a simple payment. That is not what is being proposed today. Hilton and Joe Rogan agree that the original version would actually shrink government and bureaucracy rather than expand it, cutting out the middleman and giving money directly to people instead of funneling it through layers of administration.
The Living Wage Idea 28:02
Hilton describes a concept from his 2015 book, More Human, called the business-friendly living wage. The problem, he says, is that minimum wage often isn't enough to live on, especially in expensive places like California, where hardworking people with two jobs still can't make ends meet. He points out that in some California counties, the official government threshold for low income is now $100,000 a year. His campaign proposed eliminating state income tax under $100,000, later raised to $150,000 tax-free, calling it the working-class tax cut. The idea behind the living wage is that businesses would pay workers more directly instead of paying high taxes that the government then redistributes back as benefits, cutting out the bureaucratic middleman.
Minimum Wage And Job Losses 30:31
The conversation turns to California's fast food minimum wage hike to $20 an hour, which Rogan notes led to job cuts and increased automation. Both agree entry-level jobs, especially for kids learning basic work habits, aren't meant to support a full living, but jobs meant for adults working forty hours a week need to actually be livable.
The Doom Loop Of Bigger Government 32:02
Hilton argues California's bloated bureaucracy makes everything more expensive through hidden taxes on gas, housing, and more, while delivering little in return. He calls this the "doom loop": when people struggle, Democrats respond by raising taxes to fund more welfare, which only raises costs further. He notes California's population growth has slowed while government has doubled in size, and criticizes enormous nonprofit salaries, citing a homeless nonprofit executive paid $1.6 million and another nonprofit leader paid $2.6 million, even as homelessness worsens.
Cannabis Taxes And Hidden Spending 37:32
Hilton describes tracing cannabis tax revenue from California's Prop 64, meant for substance abuse prevention, into a nonprofit that distributed $350 million in grants to hundreds of other nonprofits, many of which spent it on voter registration and ballot harvesting rather than its stated purpose. He also notes California's budget grew from $170 billion to over $350 billion in a decade while prison populations were nearly cut in half, yet costs still rose. Both mention the Los Angeles fire relief money scandal, where charitable donations reportedly went to some 200 nonprofits rather than fire victims.
Hilton's Campaign And Polling Momentum 40:02
Hilton discusses running against Javier Becerra, Biden's former health secretary, in a race polls once showed him losing badly, 61 to 36. Since then, the gap has narrowed to under ten points. He argues voters feel hopeless about one-party rule in California but believes turnout could change outcomes.
Medication And Los Angeles Culture 42:02
Rogan and Hilton discuss how heavily medicated Los Angeles may be, guessing at the number of residents on SSRIs and antidepressants, and suggesting overmedication contributes to political complacency. They argue the chemical imbalance theory behind depression has been disproven, and that lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and community matter more, referencing a bit about ads showing medicated people playing basketball as the real solution being exercise, not pills.
Health Policy Lessons From Britain 45:01
Hilton recalls his time as a senior adviser in 10 Downing Street, where he pushed for the National Health Service to focus on prevention and health promotion rather than just treating sickness, since it competes for government funding against everything else. He found that despite meeting with numerous medical experts, the answers for better health were basic: diet, exercise, moderation, and enough water.
A Tragic Case And Drug Side Effects 46:30
Hilton references a recent story about a mother with severe postpartum depression who repeatedly sought help and was given medication that seemed to worsen her anxiety before she killed her children. Rogan and Hilton criticize antidepressant commercials listing suicidal ideation as a possible side effect, calling the pharmaceutical industry a kind of cartel that benefits from ongoing sickness rather than genuine health.
Corruption In Sacramento 48:30
Hilton describes California's political system as one where lobbyists effectively buy legislation, with bills often written by lobbyists and passed without lawmakers even reading them. This creates outcomes that seem baffling to ordinary people, reinforcing a system where accountability is nearly impossible to trace.
Kamala Harris And Election Rhetoric 49:33
The conversation shifts to Kamala Harris, with Hilton recounting her recent comments echoing the "too big to rig" phrase originally used by Trump's campaign, seemingly unaware of its origin. He also brings up Becerra's inability to name any policy he'd change despite California having the highest unemployment and poverty rates in the country, joking that his answer was simply that people still go to Disneyland and the beach.
Political Intimidation And Business Flight 52:31
Hilton and Rogan discuss how candidates who don't follow the political establishment's expectations often face manufactured scandals meant to destroy their credibility. Hilton then shifts to describing California as a nightmare for businesses, citing companies like Elon Musk's and In-N-Out leaving the state, and Chief Executive Magazine ranking California last, 50th out of 50 states, for business conditions as of the most recent survey.
Business Groups Endorse the Incumbent 54:32
Steve Hilton describes running for governor of California as a small business owner against an opponent, Bera, whose platform is to change nothing, despite California ranking 50th out of 50 states for business climate. Hilton expected the California Chamber of Commerce to back him as the pro-business candidate, but they endorsed Bera instead, dismissing Hilton's call for policy change as unhelpful. He argues the Chamber only cares about aligning with whoever seems likely to win, not with actual business interests.
Police Union Backs Opponent Over Pensions 56:30
Hilton recounts a similar experience with the police officers association, which he expected to reject him since he refused to promise anything in exchange for endorsement. Despite his strong law-and-order stance against defunding the police and reversing prison closures, the union endorsed his opponent because that candidate promised to deliver a pension increase bill. Hilton and Rogan discuss how teacher and public employee pensions already consume a large share of school budgets, even as parents are asked to pay for basic supplies, leaving schools underfunded despite record taxes.
Billions Missing From Homelessness Spending 58:31
The conversation turns to $24 billion spent on homelessness in California with no accounting, an audit that Governor Newsom vetoed twice. A parallel case in Los Angeles found a similar pattern, where a lawsuit forced an estimate of $2 billion unaccounted for, and Mayor Karen Bass vetoed that audit as well. Hilton and Rogan imagine that money instead funding better police training, pay, and staffing, especially since LAPD is expected to have half the officers it needs by the time the Olympics arrive in two years.
Downtown Los Angeles Described as Lost 1:00:00
Rogan and Hilton describe downtown Los Angeles as unsafe and squalid, citing Skid Row's roughly fifty blocks where no business will lease space near open encampments. Rogan recalls filming Fear Factor there among abandoned buildings and later encountering a street filled with tents and cardboard boxes as far back as 2004. They discuss the Cecil Hotel and a documentary about it, tying the neighborhood's decline to a long-standing practice of moving homeless people from wealthier areas into Skid Row to keep them contained, a containment that no longer really holds since drugs and government-provided harm-reduction supplies, including opioids and crack pipes, now draw people there directly.
Crime, Masked Robbers, and Weak Prosecution 1:07:01
They turn to home invasions and masked robberies, which Hilton says have become common enough that his plan includes sentencing enhancements for wearing a mask during a crime. Rogan argues that releasing violent offenders while progressive DAs invoke words like systemic racism is effectively how you would deliberately destroy a city. Hilton credits the newly elected DA, Nathan Hochman, with doing a better job, though he says the broader political system remains captured by the same ideology.
One-Party Rule and Political Corruption 1:09:02
Hilton describes a Democratic state legislator whose campaign was funded against by a government union after voting the wrong way on a bill, illustrating enforced party discipline. He and Rogan agree that having only two parties leaves voters choosing between extremes, and that total control by either party breeds corruption, comparing California's Democratic supermajority, in place for over sixteen years, to Viktor Orban's sixteen years in power in Hungary. Hilton notes that a Republican state auditor's report exposed the missing $24 billion, and that even the Democratic supermajority initially called for a proper audit before backing off with excuses.
The Homeless Industrial Complex Explained 1:17:31
Hilton lays out what he calls the homeless industrial complex, split into two parts: nonprofits operating under a rule called Housing First, which makes it illegal for state money to require addiction treatment or job training as a condition of help, and crony developers who build "permanent supportive housing" units costing up to 600,000 to a million dollars each, versus roughly 250,000 if built without added government requirements. He describes visiting a real recovery program in Venice run by a man 23 years clean, who explains that housing addicts without addressing addiction just gives them a base to keep returning to the street to buy and sell drugs. The discussion closes by tracing the roots of mass homelessness to the closure of mental institutions under the Reagan administration and a federal Medicaid rule called IMD, institutions of mental disease, which restricts funding for such facilities.
The Sixteen Bed Rule 1:21:00
Federal Medicaid will not reimburse any mental health treatment that happens in a facility with more than sixteen beds. That specific limit comes from an old philosophy of avoiding large mental institutions, but it has the side effect of blocking any incentive to build modern, large-scale mental health care. Rogan and Hilton note this leaves the system fragmented into small facilities with no financial support for scaling up.
The Vancouver Detention Video 1:21:30
The two watch and discuss a viral video of a Canadian man, Nicholas, pulled over by police and a psychiatrist working with Vancouver Coastal Health. He is calm, articulate, and asks to simply schedule an appointment, but is told he was already certified under the Mental Health Act by a doctor who briefly saw him in a cafe weeks earlier and later spoke with his family. He is taken in for testing despite showing no visible signs of being a threat to himself, and the discussion turns to whether some of his other, "kooky" videos online might even be AI fabrications rather than real footage of him acting erratically.
Suspicion Of Selective Institutionalization 1:22:30
Hilton and Rogan question why, if erratic behavior alone triggers institutionalization, no similarly "kooky" left-leaning people in a city like Vancouver, which they compare to "Portland on steroids," seem to get pulled into psychiatric holds. They note the man had been labeled a conservative influencer with reportedly 67,000 Instagram followers, and that he had circulated a document accusing China and the Canadian government, including Prime Minister Carney, of corruption, secret Chinese policing operations, and turning Vancouver into a police state tied to Indigenous land deals. They point to real recent news, like the mayor of Arcadia, California being revealed as a Chinese spy, and Eric Swalwell's admitted relationship with alleged Chinese spy Fang Fang, as evidence that such corruption claims aren't fringe, and suggest the man could be genuinely uncovering wrongdoing while also being somewhat unstable, comparing it to the premise of the film Conspiracy Theory.
AI Executives And Doom Talk 1:29:30
The conversation shifts to Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, who has been accused of hyping AI doom scenarios to push government regulation that protects large incumbent companies from competition. In response, Amodei published a long essay called "Machines of Loving Grace" to argue he isn't only pessimistic about AI. Hilton describes the essay as unsettling anyway, since it discusses a future where people can't contribute economically, play video games instead, and have their lack of purpose numbed through medication like Ritalin, which Amodei cites as an example of chemically managing depression. They also mention a lead AI programmer who left the United States for Ireland, wrote a farewell statement about civilization's impending doom, and said he plans to write poetry while waiting to see what happens, alongside a reference to Peter Thiel pausing for fifteen seconds when asked whether humanity should survive.
Medication Versus Natural Solutions 1:33:30
Rogan shares that he personally knows people saved by SSRIs, including a friend who was suicidal, got psychiatric help, and later weaned himself off medication successfully. Still, both agree that these drugs are ridiculously overprescribed and often addictive, with a friend of Rogan's cycling on and off them for twenty years and experiencing side effects like emotional numbness and sexual dysfunction. Rogan argues there's a free, natural alternative involving exercise, nutrition, and community that doesn't require pharmaceuticals.
Comedy Lost To Ideology 1:41:00
The conversation moves to how comedies like Superbad and Ace Ventura, which openly joked about taboo subjects, couldn't be made today, and that even the people who made them wouldn't attempt it now. Rogan argues that comedy became falsely labeled right-wing simply because it stopped conforming to a dominant ideology that decided which subjects could be joked about, comparing the reaction to treating certain topics as blasphemy. They also discuss Louis C.K., agreeing his comedy was brilliant and that his controversy, involving a consensual but awkward habit of asking people to watch him, was categorically different from predatory abuse like Bill Cosby's, alongside a lighter aside about Fox commentator Kennedy's path from MTV VJ to libertarian pundit.
Designing the Comedy Mothership 1:47:01
Joe explains that his club rooms are named Fat Man and Little Boy after the atomic bombs, tying into the club's UFO theme, since UFO sightings spiked after nuclear weapons testing began in the 1940s, with Roswell in 1947 being the most famous case. Louis CK helped design the physical space, suggesting a smaller stage for the small room, a lower ceiling, and sound deadening for clearer acoustics. Joe says he built the whole club by asking every touring comedian, including Brian Simpson, Ron White, and Tony Hinchcliffe, what they wanted, then voting on ideas like green room monitors, free mental health services and counseling for employees, and paying comedians more than any other club.
Why Great Comedians Are Weird 1:50:01
Joe describes Louis CK as brilliant but genuinely strange, and says that trait runs through nearly every great comedian he knows, including Chappelle, Chris Rock, Hinchcliffe, and Shane Gillis, each weird in his own particular way. Hilton reflects that doing live political commentary in front of hundreds of people has given him new respect for how hard standup actually is, since comedians have to stay entertaining for a full set rather than just dropping the occasional joke.
The Hardest Easiest Job 1:51:31
Joe repeats Joey Diaz's line that standup is the hardest easiest thing you'll ever do, because performing while it's flowing feels effortless, but building the material takes real work. He describes splitting time between sitting alone with a notebook or computer honing bits, and hanging out with fellow comedians in the green room, where casual riffing often produces lines worth writing down, as happened recently with Brian Simpson. Testing new material onstage is a gamble, since a bit that felt solid in your head might land or might completely bomb, something Joe puts at roughly fifty-fifty odds.
Reading the Room While Performing 1:55:01
Joe explains that performing means committing fully to the thought you're delivering in the moment rather than thinking ahead to the next line, while still keeping a flexible set list in mind in case something happens in the crowd that calls for pulling a bit out of order. He says a comedy club is the most connected format, but that arena shows staged in the round are surprisingly intimate too, because thousands of audience members end up watching each other's reactions rather than facing a distant stage. Flat, elevated arena stages feel the most detached by comparison. Joe mentions MCing UFC weigh-ins in front of eighty thousand people at the White House Ellipse as the largest crowd he's addressed, and notes Shane Gillis recently sold out a seventy-six thousand seat Philadelphia football stadium for standup, breaking a world record.
Austin's Comedy Migration 2:01:00
Joe credits Austin's comedy scene to comedians who relocated there on their own before he even had a club, drawn partly by pandemic-era restrictions elsewhere and Texas's comparative freedom to keep businesses, restaurants, and shows running, unlike California's prolonged lockdowns.
Fauci, Origins, and Accountability 2:02:31
Hilton describes his Fox News reporting on Fauci and the pandemic's origins, informed by contacts at Stanford, and argues Fauci was not merely a passive funder of gain of function research but its leading global advocate, citing a 2011 paper he co-wrote with Francis Collins arguing that engineering dangerous viruses was a risk worth taking. Both men note Fauci pushed the lab leak theory aside as racist, violated an Obama-era moratorium and a Trump-era review protocol on such research, and later received a preemptive ten-year pardon covering any wrongdoing, despite still invoking the fifth amendment. They discuss Jay Bhattacharya and John Ioannidis, Stanford researchers who used Santa Clara County data early in 2020 to show the case fatality rate was far lower than officials claimed, and who were subsequently persecuted, with Bhattacharya suspended and investigated, allegedly at the urging of Stanford Medicine's head, married to the county's public health director who pushed the first lockdown. Joe closes by comparing Fauci's record to his earlier promotion of AZT during the AIDS crisis, an FDA-approved but toxic drug pushed using unreliable testing methods, echoing the same playbook later used with COVID PCR testing, a comparison Joe ties to the film Dallas Buyers Club.
The AIDS Vaccine Testing Allegation 2:12:31
Steve Hilton brings up RFK Jr.'s claims that foster kids in New York were used to test an AIDS vaccine and died as a result, a story documented in Kennedy's book. He notes that if the book contained lies, Kennedy would have been sued, and marvels at how such allegations get almost no media attention while other stories dominate the news cycle endlessly.
Pharmaceutical Ads and Media Silence 2:13:31
Hilton and Rogan argue that pharmaceutical advertising on television, legal in only the United States and New Zealand, exists mainly to buy the silence of networks like CNN. Drug companies do not need to sell products through these ads since so few people watch cable news; instead the massive ad spending ensures networks avoid reporting on drug side effects or FDA recalls. Rogan recalls someone once explaining that this spending functions less as marketing and more as leverage over the networks themselves.
Bobby Bonta and the Migrant Children Scandal 2:15:31
Hilton details a story involving his political opponent, Bonta, who served as HHS secretary during the Biden administration's open border period. Nearly 479,000 unaccompanied migrant children arrived and became HHS's responsibility, overwhelming processing camps in Florida, Texas, and California. Reports surfaced of sexual and physical abuse inside these camps, and Bonta, embarrassed by comparisons to "kids in cages" criticism of Trump, allegedly dismantled vetting procedures to move children out faster. A New York Times investigation from 2023 found thousands of children were lost track of, with many ending up with child sex traffickers or in forced labor. Whistleblowers described instructions to prioritize "speed over safety," including sending 200 kids to a fake address that was a trafficking front and one child to a woman wanted by Interpol.
Whistleblower Accounts and Racial Pattern 2:20:01
A case worker at the Pomona camp testified that after Bonta's visit, urgency increased and staff were told to stop scrutinizing obviously fake IDs. The New York Times documented a 13 or 14 year old boy who lost his arm in a meatpacking plant accident, and a girl from El Salvador who was picked up by strangers and forced to work 20 hours a day sleeping on the floor. A trafficking safety hotline meant for at-risk kids logged 65,000 unanswered calls, and staff who raised concerns were fired. Hilton notes the case worker observed that trafficking victims near the camp shifted from mostly African American girls to mostly Latina girls after the camp opened, and points out that around 330,000 children remain unaccounted for with 40 known deaths.
Motives Behind Open Borders 2:25:33
Rogan suggests the open border policy served a political purpose: bringing migrants into swing states, using census counts (which include all residents regardless of citizenship) to boost congressional representation, and eventually creating new Democratic voters through pathways to citizenship. Hilton and Rogan both criticize California's lack of voter ID requirements, noting the state's attorney general Bonta rewrote a November ballot measure's description to make voter ID sound as negative as possible.
California's Gas and Energy Costs 2:31:01
Hilton explains California has the nation's highest gas prices, worse than Hawaii, despite sitting on abundant oil reserves that the state has chosen not to develop, instead importing oil from Iraq and increasingly from the Amazon rainforest even as Governor Newsom lectures at climate conferences. He attributes high prices to the gas tax, refinery regulations, and hidden costs like the low-carbon fuel standard and cap-and-invest program funding high-speed rail. He also criticizes proposed floating offshore windmills near Morro Bay and Humboldt, some nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower, while existing natural gas plants run at only 20 percent capacity. Both men argue these policies amount to climate posturing that has zero measurable effect on global temperatures while raising costs for working people, contrasting this with China's coal-heavy but pragmatic energy approach.
California's New Tire Regulations 2:41:30
California regulators unanimously approved new rules restricting which replacement tires can be sold, based on rolling resistance standards meant to improve energy efficiency. The rule lowers the allowed rolling resistance from 9.1 to 7.2 newtons per kilonewton by 2033, and reporting suggests it could eliminate roughly 70 percent of tires currently sold in the state, according to reporter Ashley Zavala. The stated rationale is consumer savings, nearly a billion dollars a year in fuel costs, plus reduced CO2 emissions equivalent to removing 400,000 gasoline cars from the road, along with lower gasoline and electricity demand. Numerous categories are exempted, including racing, snow, off-road, motorcycle, and emergency vehicle tires, but Hilton argues the exemptions still don't erase the core problem: a government agency reshaping the consumer market based on climate ideology rather than genuine cost concerns, with no real input from voters.
Buried Laws and Unchecked Bureaucracy 2:51:03
Hilton explains that this tire rule actually originates from a law written back in 2003 that sat unnoticed for 23 years before a regulator revived it, illustrating how California's legislature passes enormous volumes of legislation, over 1,118 bills in one recent session, without real scrutiny. He argues that as governor he could rein in this system by controlling the executive branch, firing or reorganizing agency boards, and using veto power, noting that the legislature has not overturned a governor's veto since 1979 because doing so forces public justification. He also points to control over the budget as another lever, citing his proposed "Operation Zero Waste" plan to cut funding for high-speed rail and free healthcare for illegal immigrants.
The High-Speed Rail Fiasco 2:53:30
The conversation turns to California's high-speed rail project, originally budgeted at 30 billion dollars in 2008 with a 2020 opening promising a two-and-a-half-hour San Francisco-to-LA trip. Fifteen billion dollars has been spent with no track laid, the budget has ballooned to 230 billion, and the current plan patches together a regular rail line, a high-speed segment from Merced to Bakersfield, and then a bus from Bakersfield to LA. Hilton mentions Gavin Newsom staged a press event near unused tracks to suggest progress, calling it entering the "track laying phase," which could still take another decade, while the route would also require tunneling through the San Andreas fault.
Closing Exchange and Encouragement 2:58:00
Rogan closes by telling Hilton he hopes he wins the race, calling him a genuine person rather than a typical political figure, and jokingly invites himself to a future inauguration if Hilton is elected.
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