This morning I watched an Ezra Klein video titled "Don't Believe Him".
Normally I try to avoid the well‑polished but ultimately hollow takes of Ezra Klein. But the fact it was only a 13‑minute video and had been shared by several friends who work in government, I gave it a watch.
I love old‑time sports broadcaster voices—the cartoonish affectation and musicality in how they build and slow with the pace of the game. Almost all sports broadcaster voices are contrived and aren’t the natural voice of the broadcaster, but we go along with it because it adds to the experience. Ezra Klein has a broadcasting voice that I would describe as “Gay Grandpa”: vocal fry, nasal resonance, downward intonation, with a smattering of a slower‑paced, deeper tone that an old, wise grandpa might have. The fact is that the lower notes and measured pace that create the gentle, wise grandpa effect are manufactured by Ezra as part of his broadcast voice. In general, I assume that anyone who changes their voice to sound more convincing or legitimate is not acting in good faith. I also can’t stand the sound design of his podcast—when listening, you feel as if you’re inside his mouth, as if Ezra is deep‑throating the microphone.
“Of course the listener wants to feel like they’re inside Ezra, that in a way Ezra is their internal monologue—no thinking, only wise grandpa Ezra making you dumber.” — NYT producer
Setting aside my (very valid) critiques of the sound design of Ezra’s podcast to look at the content of “Don’t Believe Him,” there seem to be a few key points:
- Trump is an aspiring monarch.
- Trump wants to seem like he has a plan but actually doesn’t.
- Using speed and force is not a replacement for planning and will backfire.
Why I felt like journaling about this is because Ezra is very popular among people who I would consider reasonable, smart Democrats—people who are the fruits of our meritocratic/nepotistic education pipelines. People who are mostly uninterested in starting new ethnic pogroms, who care about good governance, and who are worried about the climate but not degrowthers.
Ezra, more than anything else, is a broadcaster. He gets his status by ensuring he has a reliable audience tuning in to listen to him. Telling your audience bad news they don’t want to hear is a very bad decision if you’re in that position. So obviously, Ezra doesn’t do that and instead feeds his little piggies some delicious copium.
Is Trump an Aspiring Monarch?
The F‑word is getting thrown around way too freely these days, Fascism, is something there seems to be a legitimate fear of America falling into. Reinterpreting the humiliating rout and decimation of your political party as the rise of Fascism might feel good, but it does not lead to any meaningful introspection about why young people and Latinos shifted massively toward Trump. I guess maybe young people and Latinos are just particularly vulnerable to fascism?
My grandpa, like all of us, had some prejudice in him. It was a unique, playful flavor not based on skin color but simply against Germans in general. Phrases like “you just can’t trust Germans with a vote” were not uncommon. He grew up on a farm in the Netherlands during the German occupation in WWII. As a young boy with older sisters, his parents were generally unfocused on what he was doing day-to-day relative to their daughters when Nazi troops were around. His dad (my great grandfather) was a failed farmer—or at least that’s how he felt. You see, my ancestors were not just any ordinary peasants; we were royal peasants, leasing farmland directly from the Dutch crown, which according to my grandpa was quite a prestigious position if you lived in a small village. Unfortunately for my great grandpa, shortly after he inherited the lease, the Dutch crown raised rents so high that it was no longer viable. This, combined with two world wars fought in his backyard, resulted in him immigrating to America penniless. However, it was always important to him that everyone knew he paid all his debts before leaving—a point of pride for a royal peasant. Being reluctant to change and clinging to prestige can destroy you. Anyway, my grandpa’s prejudice was largely informed by his childhood, which prominently featured the impacts of wars with Germans. Maybe Germans just have some DNA that makes them love fascism?
Anecdotes aside, pretty much every country in the early 20th century had some type of fascist political movement. Germany and Japan did not become fascist empires because Japanese and German people were uniquely evil, but because those countries were structurally capable of becoming fascist empires, while other countries, despite their best efforts, could not. Countries like Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece had fascist governments and failed to execute fascism quite like the Germans and Japanese. America, to the dismay of neo‑Nazis and hysterical liberals alike, is without a doubt structurally incapable of fascism. The US today is one of the most racially and religiously diverse countries in the world. Countries that are considered more diverse are mostly African/South‑Asian pseudo‑states and economic city‑states like Singapore. The US has some of the strongest libertarian undercurrents—from gun rights to contempt for the federal government (ala DOGE)—and these are not things that lead to fascism. Anyway, nothing makes me want to put a gun between my teeth when talking about American politics more than when someone throws their hands up in dismay, saying that fascism is around the corner for the US.
Back to the question: Is Trump an aspiring monarch? Who knows? I think it’s more likely that Trump is just emulating the management style of the US corporate sector, which is modeled after tiny monarchies (as people like Curtis Yarvin love to point out). Maybe Trump wants to become king, but it’s far more likely that he’s just running things in the only way he knows how, based on his experience—with strong executive power. Even if Trump wants to be a monarch, people like Ezra shouldn’t just assume that a monarch is a bad thing, which is intellectually lazy. Instead, they should outline why we don’t want a monarchy—a debate that, funnily enough, is happening but mostly outside the shores of Ezra’s podcast empire.
In summary, so what if Trump wants to be a monarch? Instead, explain to us why that is bad.
Trump Wants to Seem Like He Has a Plan but Actually Doesn’t
In the first part of the video, Ezra talks about Trump’s concept of “flood the zone” and “muzzle velocity”—their plan to do so much, so fast, that the media can’t sufficiently follow or build support for opposition to whatever current policy objective is being pursued. Ezra says this is anti‑democratic, but embedded in that is the assumption that the media cycle is a foundational part of American democracy. This is great because instead of celebrating the rare politician who actually does what they say they will during the election, we instead just want leaders who cater to the media cycle and will pursue the agenda the public voted for at a pace that garners the most viewership for people like Ezra Klein.
Using Speed and Force Is Not a Replacement for Planning and Will Backfire
Anyway, instead of taking the time to examine all the stuff that the Trump administration is doing, Ezra boldly claims that they don’t actually have a plan and that the fact they are moving so fast is a sign they are flailing—and it’s just a matter of time before it blows up in their faces. At the very least, he’s underestimating Trump, who’s got a chip on his shoulder and has had four years to plan what he would do. But mostly, it’s just pandering to Ezra’s audience and pure laziness.
Why Did I Waste My Morning on This
TBH, this was definitely a waste of my time, and it was mostly a selfish exercise—quite egotistical to push. In my opinion, the largest risk at the moment is that the Democratic Party is imploding, mostly due to its own fault but also because supposed reasonable voices like Ezra are useless, stand for nothing, and can only see themselves in relation to what others are.
Mostly, I’m shouting into the void because I don’t really want to engage on these issues for realsies, but I would say if you’re smart, reasonable and care about good governance, you should quietly join the Republican Party and wait for the inevitable rift that occurs during the Trump succession battle. The Dems are cooked, and the fact that Ezra is saying things like “Don’t Believe Him” is a sign that there’s no one who’s going to save that sinking ship.