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Sept. 9, 2024 - Dinesh D'Souza

45:55

VINDICATING TRUMP Dinesh D’Souza Podcast Ep913

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	Coming up, the new movie is going to be called Vindicating Trump.
	I have a new book of the same title coming out around the same time.
	The trailer for the film is out today.
	I'll give you the details.
	I'll also reveal the significance of Judge Juan Merchant postponing Trump's sentencing in the New York case.
	And Michael Scott, who's CEO of Pinnacle Peak Pictures, joins me to talk about his new film, God's Not Dead, In God We Trust.
	Hey, if you're watching on YouTube or Rumble or listening on Apple, Google, or Spotify, please subscribe to my channel.
	This is the Dinesh D'Souza podcast.
	The times are crazy.
	In a time of confusion, division, and lies, we need a brave voice of reason, understanding, and truth.
	This is the Dinesh D'Souza Podcast.
	Guys, I'm really delighted to announce that our new movie is out of the gate very soon.
	The trailer I just released all over my social media today.
	And you can watch it, obviously you can watch it on my feed, on X or on Getter.
	Truth Social.
	It's up on Facebook and YouTube and Rumble.
	And it's also up on our movie website.
	So here's the website.
	VindicatingTrump.com.
	So Vindicating, V-I-N-D-I-C-A-T-I-N-G.
	VindicatingTrump.com.
	You can watch the trailer.
	And you can also order, pre-order, my forthcoming book, which is same title, Vindicating Trump.
	And books and movies, you know, they're different.
	A movie is a story, it's a narrative, it's highly entertaining.
	This is going to be a movie you're going to want to see, if you can, in the theater.
	And the book is more of a systematic argument, a case, if you will, for Trump.
	And I remember when I texted Trump about this idea, he's like, yeah, make it definitive.
	That's what he says.
	Make it definitive in all caps.
	He texts me back.
	And I've tried to do that.
	So Trump is interesting because he doesn't, in a way, make the case for himself or he does it in his own Trumpian mode.
	But it's not like, you know, Reagan would stand up and go, here are four reasons that you should vote for me.
	And he would kind of make the case for himself.
	In Trump's case, I'm going to do it, and I do it both in the film in one way and in the book in a different way.
	And so go ahead and pre-order the book on the website vindicatingtrump.com.
	There are two tabs.
	You can order from Amazon.
	You can order from Barnes & Noble.
	So just pick where you want to get it from, and this way you'll be one of the first people to get the book when it comes out.
	It comes out a few days after the movie.
	Now, the film will be in theaters.
	On September 27th.
	And this is not a kind of a theatrical buyout.
	We were forced to do these movie buyouts for Police State and also for 2,000 Mules.
	But that was the aftermath of COVID.
	Because of COVID, the theaters were not in normal functioning.
	And so we did this buyout strategy where we would, in a sense, buy all the tickets.
	But as a result, Two things about that.
	One is we'd have limited theaters.
	So three or four hundred theaters and not eight hundred theaters or a thousand theaters.
	And second, what we would do is we would only have very limited screenings.
	So the movie would be like Monday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.
	That is not the way that this movie is going to be released.
	It's released in the normal fashion.
	It's a normal film, normally in the theater.
	So you get tickets the normal way.
	You go to Fandango or the usual ticket sites, but The tickets are not available yet.
	It's a little too early.
	We're still lining up the theaters.
	And you know, we work with all the different chains to get all this done.
	So it takes a little bit of time to get your full theatrical roster lined up.
	Tickets will be available starting Probably Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
	And I'll announce it both on the podcast as well as on my social media.
	But right now you can check out the film and you can make plans.
	It's really great.
	It's very helpful to us if you see the movie right away.
	Go right in the opening weekend.
	And so which weekend is that?
	The weekend of September 27th.
	So plan to do it.
	Plan to go with friends.
	It's also, you know, a movie experience.
	It's cool to see it in a gang.
	It's cool to see it with your family.
	It's cool to see it with your Republican club.
	It's cool to see it with like-minded people.
	And it's going to fire you up for this election.
	It's also going to be something that you can be great if you could share the message with others.
	And one way to do that is to share the trailer.
	A lot of times I find people go on my feed on X and they just hit like.
	That's good.
	I'm glad you're doing that.
	But even better is if you hit retweet.
	Why?
	Because then it goes to all your followers and all your buddies.
	And so this is a way where you can be almost like a little publicist, a little publisher of your own, and help us to get the message out.
	The film is very powerful.
	I'm really proud of it.
	Debbie, by the way, sings in the film, and in fact, sings in a number of parts in the film.
	Debbie flew out to L.A.
	a few weeks ago, I guess two, three weeks ago, and so you'll hear the sounds of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and just know that that's Debbie, and then Debbie also does generic vocals for some of the other music in the film.
	The centerpiece of the film, we've got entertaining recreations that will make you laugh out loud.
	We've created all these cool, you know, war rooms.
	And so we've got a sort of a democratic war room.
	We've got a media war room.
	We've also got the innards, the inside workings of the police state or of the intelligence agencies.
	All of this is done at a very high level and is also very, very amusing.
	I mean, interestingly, when Debbie and I were watching the final version of the film, and we were watching it with a couple of friends, in fact, two of our investors, they were laughing out loud as the film went through.
	There's also a one-on-one interview with Trump.
	And this is something very unique because I want to say two things about this that I think are very interesting and that I want to share.
	One of them is that we had been trying to nail down our interview with Trump.
	And it was proving to be a little elusive.
	Now, not surprising.
	Trump is dealing with a whale of legal problems.
	Trump was also, of course, trying to get out there on the campaign trail.
	And so we were getting a little frustrated because it was, you know, approaching our movie deadline.
	Say, if we're going to have a movie in the theaters in September, we're going to have to wrap this up.
	And, um, but, uh, when our dates kept getting pushed back, it turned out to be, well, as they say, fortuitous.
	So one could even say providential.
	Why?
	Because had we interviewed Trump early on, we would have missed the assassination attempt.
	We would have missed the Republican National Convention.
	So as it turns out, my conversation with Trump was after all that, which makes it incredibly timely.
	It's almost like this movie was made, you know, Yesterday or the day before yesterday.
	And the other thing about it was it's a very unique type of interview with Trump.
	We're kind of sitting on two stools, you know, two feet apart, and we're looking each other in the eye.
	And it's a back and forth conversation.
	And it's a conversation that engages a whole range of topics, many of which go beyond The normal things that Trump gets asked about.
	Trump comments here about Lincoln.
	He comments on the Lyceum speech.
	He comments on stuff that I like to talk about and I like to put in my films.
	But it's quite unique.
	This is a unique sort of facet or side of Trump that people haven't really seen.
	So this is a movie you're going to want to watch.
	And of course, it's a movie that we have made putting, you know, we have a small team of about six or eight of us.
	Now, we often work with Other production companies and actors.
	We've got the great Nick Searcy, again, making another debut in this film.
	He was also, you might remember, in Police State.
	And once again, he's kind of playing the bad guy, and he does it in such a sort of unforgettable way.
	So check it out.
	The trailer is out there.
	Help me to get the word out.
	Go ahead and make plans for The weekend of September 27th to see the film in the theaters.
	You'll love the book, so go ahead and pre-order that.
	You can do that now.
	The website is vindicatingtrump.com.
	Again, it's vindicatingtrump.com.
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	I told Debbie a moment ago that I'm going to talk in this next segment about one merchant.
	This is the Trump's judge in New York.
	And she goes, it's not Juan Merchan.
	It is Juan Merchan.
	Merchan.
	Debbie and I have fun with all these Mexican names.
	In fact, when we were...
	He's from the Dominican Republic.
	Is he Puerto Rican?
	I think he's from the Dominican Republic if I'm not mistaken.
	Dominican Republic?
	I believe so.
	Yeah, maybe I should go Archie Bunker and just go whatever.
	No!
	You think it matters?
	I guess it does matter.
	It really does matter.
	Debbie and I were in London this summer and we walk into Harrods and there's a very chic perfume guy.
	whose name is Roja.
	Roja perfumes.
	You can actually check them out.
	You can hardly buy them in this country.
	You have to go to like Neiman Marcus to get them.
	And these perfumes are absurdly expensive.
	They're like $500 for a bottle.
	But the guy's name is Roja.
	But we were having some fun with the sales girl.
	We kept calling him Roja.
	And she was like, no, it's not Roja, it's Roja.
	And we were like, you mean he's not some Mexican guy who kind of came through the, waded across the Rio Grande?
	She's like, oh no, he's, you know, he's a gay European.
	And in any event, she didn't say he's a gay European.
	Anyway, let me return to Juan Merchan.
	I'm trying to understand why this guy postponed the case.
	Let's remember that in postponing the case, he has given Trump what Megyn Kelly calls the inside straight.
	Now, what does the inside straight mean?
	Well, what it means is this.
	Trump at one point was facing, this is concocted from the left, 91 criminal charges.
	Now not 91 separate cases, six or so separate cases, but combined 91 charges.
	And I think
	Really no legal mind or even no rational person looking at this would think Trump is going to be able to beat all these cases, at least beat them before the election, at least get the cases either dropped or kicked out or postponed so that he doesn't have to deal with it and it doesn't become what the left had hoped it would become, namely a massive liability, a millstone around his neck for the campaign.
	And Trump has now achieved this.
	Let's quickly review.
	What happened to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case?
	Well, the government is appealing, but the case has been thrown out.
	The January 6th case pretty much stopped in its tracks.
	Complicated immunity issues to be dealt with.
	This is going to come back after the election.
	And come back after the election is a little bit of a maybe.
	Why?
	Frankly, I think that It all depends on whether or not Trump wins.
	If Trump wins, what?
	Are they going to start prosecuting him as he gets ready to assume the Oval Office?
	That seems extremely unlikely.
	It would seem at the least that then the cases would be kicked back another four years to after Trump finishes his term, which is basically a kind of sayonara to all these criminal cases.
	Now, let's come back to Judge Merchant.
	And when Debbie and I were talking about this, Debbie's like, well, you know, one possible explanation for why the guy might be pushing the case back.
	Because see, Merchant is kind of one of these guys who I think would have loved to have been the one guy to stick it to Trump.
	Hey, listen, Fannie Willis couldn't get him.
	Jack Smith couldn't get him.
	I got him.
	I locked him up.
	I put him in handcuffs.
	So it's gotta be that there are strong forces on the other side that have convinced Merchant.
	You know what?
	You better not do it.
	I think one of these possibilities is Judge Merchant was afraid if Trump wins the election, he, Judge Merchant, could be arrested.
	He could be put in handcuffs.
	For what?
	Election interference?
	Depriving Trump of his basic rights and civil liberties?
	In other words, two people can play at this game.
	And I don't think that Trump is the kind of person who takes this kind of thing lightly.
	In fact, Trump has talked a number of times about why he likes the idea of an eye for an eye.
	He likes the idea of revenge.
	And I think that revenge often gets a really bad name.
	Oh, he's engaging in revenge.
	Well, have you ever seen a Western movie?
	Pretty much one out of every three Western movies is about revenge.
	A lot of very powerful non-Western movies are about revenge.
	Have you seen Mel Gibson's The Patriot?
	Mel Gibson gets involved in the fight against the British, not because he, quote, loves the country, not because he just read the Constitution, not because he's inspired by the Declaration of Independence.
	No.
	The British come and they burn his house.
	They destroy his family.
	And so he's like, guess what?
	I'm going to now take it out on you.
	So, movies from the old Charles Bronson movies to Western movies to The Patriot, the theme here is that if somebody does you a grievous wrong, guess what?
	You have every right, it is in full justice, to extract, in some sense, your due retribution.
	And I also think that that is the real basis of justice.
	The real basis of justice is not deterrence.
	Because think about it.
	Deterrence?
	I mean, this guy does something, so you're going to do something to him or lock him up or chop off his arm to inspire other people not to do it?
	Well, how can that be justice?
	That may be socially beneficial.
	You can make a utilitarian argument for that.
	But it has nothing to do with justice.
	Justice means this guy did something wrong, and therefore this guy must pay for the wrong that he's done against other people and against society.
	So I think that Judge Merchant here realized that this is very deep water he's getting into.
	There is a national presidential election, and should a local judge have the power to lock up the presidential candidate of one of the two major parties, this is going to reverberate.
	This is going to have massive consequences that go way beyond New York.
	And so I think this little weasel decided, oh, I better get out of this, you know.
	And so he's decided, let me push it past the election again.
	Guess why?
	Because if Trump wins, then Judge Merchant is probably going to be running for the hills.
	But if Trump loses, he's like, then I will move in.
	And then Trump will be vulnerable because he will have lost the election.
	And of course, Kamala Harris will be right behind me.
	She'll be all for locking Trump up.
	So I think this guy is not giving up.
	He's definitely gonna sort of stay in the game here.
	But on the other hand, I think he thought it was a little too dangerous to try to lock Trump up right now.
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	It's D-I-N-E-S-H, Dinesh.
	Guys, if you'd like to support my work, here's the best way to do it.
	Join my Locals channel.
	Become an annual subscriber.
	I post a lot of exclusive content there, including content that's censored on other social media platforms.
	On Locals, you get Dinesh Unchained, Dinesh Uncensored.
	You can also interact with me directly.
	I do a live weekly Q&A every Tuesday.
	No topic is off limits.
	I've also uploaded some cool films to Locals.
	Documentaries, feature films, 2,000 Meals is up there.
	And also the film that came out last year, Police State, the new film vindicating Trump, will also be up on my Locals channel.
	And if you're an annual subscriber, you can stream and watch this content for free.
	It's included with your subscription.
	So check out the channel.
	It's dinesh.locals.com.
	I'd love to have you along for this great ride.
	Again, it's dinesh.locals.com.
	Guys, have you seen the movie God's Not Dead or any of the subsequent God's Not Dead movies?
	They're awesome and they're part of a great franchise of God's Not Dead films.
	And there's a new one, God's Not Dead In God We Trust.
	I'm lucky to have today as my guest, Michael Scott.
	He's the CEO and founder of Pinnacle Peak Pictures, also of Pure Flix Entertainment.
	And he has been associated not just with God's Not Dead, but Do You Believe?
	The Case for Christ.
	Michael Scott has degrees in theology and applied science.
	He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
	By the way, the website godsnotdead.com.
	You can follow on x at godsnotdeadfilm.
	Michael, thanks for joining me.
	I really appreciate it.
	You know, the whole God's Not Dead series has developed a massive following.
	There's been a lot of Christian movies out there that in some ways try to tell an inspiring story and sometimes have a Christian message that's either soft and implicit or, you know, hit you over the head with it.
	But there's something about the God's Not Dead franchise that seems to make it special.
	What do you think that that secret sauce is that you have developed?
	Well, you know what?
	I think people, if you look at people, they're craving, they want to know more about what they believe, right?
	And so we do an interesting way, we mix entertainment and message together in a very interesting way.
	In the first one, we really dealt with the existence of God.
	Does God really exist?
	You hear it so often, God doesn't exist.
	He's just this.
	He's a myth.
	He's that, you know.
	And we really tackle those subjects and put interesting facts in there, factoids in there, and everything like that to really give people something to grasp onto and see their faith or what they believe lived out and proved and through that.
	And I think these movies really create conversation.
	And throughout this time, each movie, we tackled different subjects.
	First one, we tackled the existence of God.
	Second one, we tackled, is Jesus really man, myth, and Messiah?
	And in this current one, we're talking about, does God have a place in the public square?
	Does he belong?
	Is there really, what do we think about separation of church and state?
	And what was our country truly founded on?
	Guys, we're going to push forward with this, but before we do, God's Not Dead and God We Trust.
	It's in theaters September 12th in association with Great American Pure Flix and also Fathom.
	Again, the website is godsnotdead.com.
	So Michael, yeah, the premise of this movie I think is fantastic, which is that you've got a pastor and the question that he's facing is, should he confine his message to the pulpit, so to speak?
	Should he stay within the four corners Should he talk to people about their own salvation, or is there a broader message that is relevant to our society, a message with cultural and political and moral implications?
	Talk a little bit about how the story sets that up, and why this is a timely message, not just for pastors, but Christians everywhere to pay attention to.
	Well, you know, it starts off, there's two candidates running and one of them passes away.
	And it's left basically a vacant void in this thing for this congressional race.
	And the pastor's confronted with this character that's actually from number two.
	And he's running on a premise to basically eliminate God from the public square.
	He does not want God there.
	He doesn't think it has a place for it there.
	He's a strict atheist, and he wants to remove it and to really have that platform.
	And the pastor's debating whether or not he should be the one to run.
	And he eventually takes up that torch to run.
	And you watch this play out.
	You see the debates about very relevant subjects.
	What was our country founded on?
	You know, the separation of church and state.
	You know, we talk about Christian nationalism.
	We talk about all these different subjects that are playing out.
	And you're watching also the political underbelly of what really goes on behind the scenes as well.
	And then that's in direct opposition to the pastor's faith.
	And he's trying to deal with, to say, What do I represent?
	What do I stand for?
	And he's going through this movie to find out, is God really going to bless his campaign and what he's set out to do to make sure God doesn't get eliminated from the public square?
	And one of the most interesting things I learned from this movie is that 40 million Christians don't vote in a presidential election.
	I mean, what a scandalous number.
	And think about the difference it would make to our country if those 40 million Christians were mobilized.
	I mean, you're talking about people who are... Now, let's explore why that is.
	Do you think it's simply because These are lethargic people who have just stayed on the margins of politics.
	Do you think that it has been the old sort of fundamentalist tradition of keeping, if you will, keeping separate from society?
	Do you think it's the belief that, you know what, the two candidates are both flawed and it's going to compromise my moral principles if I vote for either one, so I'm staying out of it?
	I mean, to me, there are a lot of conceivable explanations for this sort of I think you hit on a lot of them.
	I don't think it's one necessarily reason.
	I think it's lethargic.
	I'm disenfranchised with the candidates.
	I don't agree with this or that little pieces.
	But, you know, I say God's given us a voice.
	He's also given us a vote.
	And we need to look at it.
	It's not just the presidential election we're talking about.
	It's the Senate.
	You know, it's the House.
	It's everything downstream to the states and everything like this.
	And we, so as Christians, you hear us, I hear so often, you know, I'm being challenged on, you know, I can't do this anymore.
	I can't pray here or I can't do this.
	Or, you know, I feel like the left is coming against me for all my beliefs and everything.
	Well, this is the chance that you have to vote to change that, to see the right people you want that represent your values, your beliefs put into office.
	Are you going to ever find a perfect candidate?
	Absolutely not.
	But you need to look at and take away the personality sometimes and look at the issues and what they stand for, the different parties, the different individuals and vote.
	I always say, vote from a biblical standpoint.
	Vote your conscience.
	Vote what you see represents you.
	And I believe if we do that, we're going to see fundamental change.
	I think so often people are looking to an individual to bring the divide, to fix the divide.
	And I believe the only person that can fix the divide in our country and where it stands is God.
	You know, it seems interesting because particularly in the Old Testament, God seems to choose some fairly morally ambiguous characters, and I know the famous example that people typically give is David, but Debbie and I were reading the early sections of the Bible together, and we were sort of focused in a little on Abraham, you know, and it was so...
	I'm accustomed to thinking of Abraham as this marvelous guy and, you know, and Sarah's wonderful wife and then he's got this concubine and that was very unfortunate but she was the real, you know, culprit.
	But when you look at it more carefully, you realize that Abraham is a pretty ambiguous character.
	I mean, he's the powerful guy, you know.
	The concubine is at his mercy.
	He's the one who takes advantage of her.
	He's the one who sends her away.
	Then when she comes back, he tells the wife, you do whatever you want with her.
	And yet God chose Abraham.
	And so it seems that God himself does not insist upon having these kind of moral exemplars all the time to carry out his will.
	And I think there's a lesson in that for us, isn't there?
	Oh, I totally agree.
	We're all flawed, you know.
	We all have sinned and fallen short, right?
	And there's not one of us.
	And so, you know, some people's sins are on more public display as you get into office versus us, you know.
	I always say, you know, anybody without fault casts the first stone, right?
	But it just can't do it.
	And so, you know, I think that you look throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, and you see all of these biblical characters that were active in the public square.
	David, Abraham, you just go through the list all the way through there.
	They're perditioning the king.
	They're asking for this.
	They're doing so much throughout.
	And so for us in the church to think that we shouldn't be involved in what God's given us the right to be able to vote in our country, I mean, and I think it's so important that we get out and use that vote and we should be active in our faith at the election poll to say, this is what we want.
	And I think that will make a difference.
	And I do believe that every candidate is flawed in some way.
	But let's look at the issues.
	I think we get so caught up in the personalities or one little thing and we miss all the other things because of that.
	And I think that's we've got to really look at those things.
	I mean, Michael, we surely want pastors to step up and talk about these issues from the pulpit, and yet there is something different and I think powerful in a very different way in what a movie does.
	And what a movie does is it structures these kinds of issues in the form of a story.
	Talk about the importance of storytelling, and if some of our viewers or listeners are like, well, what makes a good story?
	What makes a story really work?
	What makes it resonate with people?
	What would you say is the answer to that question?
	I say any good storytelling always has great conflict in it.
	And when you have the highs are high, the victories are big, and the lows are low, and the more you have that rollercoaster ride throughout a movie, the more interesting it is for the viewer.
	And I think in this movie particularly, you have incredible highs and incredible lows in the movie that the character's going through.
	And I think that Telling a story like this, you know, about the God and his place in the public square can be very, not very interesting in a documentary or just facts.
	But when you can take an incredible story and you watch a character going through the toughest moments in his life, right, regarding this, and you see that entertainment and you cry with him, you laugh with him, and then you also learn an incredible message, that's a powerful thing.
	It captivates people for two hours To take something out of their busy schedule and go to something, and they learn and they're entertained at the same time.
	And I say great movies, especially faith movies, are a mix of a message and entertainment.
	And would you say that the prime goal of this film, I mean, a film is an entertainment, like you said, it's fun to watch, it's exciting, it's, you know, it's an experience that you can have, not just individually, but shared.
	Take your family, you take your friends, you know, we make movies very much with the same motivation.
	Are you...
	Is the goal here to convince pastors, hey, don't be such a, don't be so timid, don't be such a coward.
	Or is it the goal to tell, for Christians at large, listen, you get involved, you vote, and you know what, it's not the worst thing for you to sidle up to the pastor after the Sunday sermon and go, hey, I notice you're not talking about any of the issues that are coming up in our country right now.
	It's almost like our church is disconnected from the surrounding society.
	I mean, it would be nice to have a little bit of grassroots influence on the pastors to get them to realize, hey, you know what?
	My guys would actually like to hear from me on these topics.
	I think so.
	I think people are always looking for relevant topics.
	But at the very end of a movie, I always say, everybody stay at the end.
	You'll see it right away.
	There's a QR code you can scan.
	You can learn about the issues.
	You can register to vote.
	It has all the information you can do to get involved in this current election coming up.
	So we want to see those 40 million Christians that are idle To be able to that are not voting in our election, go out and get involved.
	Of those 40 million, 15 million of our not registered.
	So there's still a big get out the vote type thing here.
	There's get into the thing.
	So take this movie.
	We want this to be a stepping off point to say, I am not going to sit idle here.
	I'm going to do something.
	And I think that'll also translate into the pulpit.
	We hope that lay people come to see this movie and then go to their pastor and say, we should talk about these issues.
	Let's do a church screening of this movie.
	Let's take all of our congregants, let's invite them to the theater.
	Because sometimes people have a hard time inviting someone to church, but it's a lot easier to say, hey, you want to go check out a movie with me?
	What a great place to jump off.
	And we've seen very great success where people take people to a movie and then it's an easy jump to get them to go to church.
	So, love to see that, those types of things happen.
	But I think this movie's timely with the election and what's going on.
	And I do think that, you know, my hope is that we can have a dent in seeing more of these people get active.
	Absolutely.
	Guys, once again, if you want to go to X, it's at GodsNotDeadFilm, but the website GodsNotDead.com.
	It's going to be in theaters September 12th in association with Great American Pure Flix and Fathom.
	I've been talking to Michael Scott, the CEO of Pinnacle Peak Pictures.
	Michael, it's a great pleasure.
	Thanks for joining me.
	Thanks so much.
	Go check out the film this weekend.
	This is the time to go see it.
	Thanks so much, Dinesh.
	Appreciate it.
	Booker T. Washington, we're in Chapter 11 of Up From Slavery and we are now well past the halfway point of the book and I think I'm going to speed things up.
	I've been going rather slowly and in part because I think that the first half of the book just has so much depth and profundity and things that are worth thinking about.
	The second half of the book is really more about Booker T building a massively successful institution.
	Not to say that there aren't beautiful passages, but instead of going systematically chapter by chapter, I'm going to move a little more speedily, focusing just on some key episodes in the latter third, or just more than third of the book, so that I can get us to the finish line.
	And I think I might, after this project is done, actually focus on my own book, Vindicating Trump, because it covers very timely material for this year and for now, what's happening now.
	And it might be fun for us to sort of read through that together.
	If you agree, I would urge you to get a copy of that book.
	You can pre-order it now, and it's available on Amazon, on Barnes & Noble.
	But if you just go to my social media, the links are all up there.
	Or you can just go, by the way, to the movie website, VindicatingTrump.com, and there's a link on the movie website, which connects either to Barnes & Noble or to Amazon, and you can order the book that way.
	All right, let's talk about Booker T. Washington.
	He's describing his journeys to both in the North and in the South.
	And he's talking about the fact that even in the South, he is now getting a very positive reception.
	Let's look at a couple examples.
	He says, not long ago I was making a journey between Dallas and Houston.
	In some way it became known in advance that I was on the train.
	At nearly every station at which the train stopped, numbers of white people, including in many cases the officials of the town, came aboard and introduced themselves and thanked me heartily for the work I was trying to do for the South.
	Very interesting phrase there, for the South.
	For Booker T, he's not just doing it for the blacks.
	He's certainly not just doing it for himself.
	He's doing it, and he's not just doing it generically for the country.
	He is doing it for his part of the country, which is the South.
	The very same South that had slavery, the very same South that even then has segregation, and yet Booker T is like, I want to be helpful to the South.
	I want to be a benefactor to the South.
	Why?
	Because he realizes that that's the way for the Southerners to go, you know what?
	This guy is not so bad.
	We shouldn't be against this guy.
	This guy is trying to help not just his own people, but all of us.
	So, this is what Booker T is going for.
	And these anecdotes are ways of showing that he's successful.
	People do see it that way.
	On another occasion, he writes, when I was making a trip from Augusta, Georgia to Atlanta, He says, being rather tired.
	And then he says, I rode in a Pullman sleeper car.
	When I got into the car, I found there were two ladies from Boston that I knew well.
	The two ladies were perfectly ignorant, it seems, of the customs of the South.
	And in the goodness of their hearts, they insisted I take a seat with them in their section.
	Aha!
	We are living in the era of segregation.
	Booker T., in theory, is not supposed to be in that section.
	But, he says, after some hesitation, I consented.
	So, Booker T.' 's in an awkward position.
	He wants to say, well, no, but on the other hand, he also doesn't want to be rude or decline their hospitality.
	So, he reluctantly says, yes, okay, I'll do it.
	And he says, but he says, they ordered supper to be served for the three of us.
	This embarrassed me still further.
	And not only that, but during supper, the lady says she wants Booker T to try a special kind of tea that she, she alone knows how to brew.
	And so she, he says, she insisted upon getting up and preparing it and serving it herself.
	So here you have a complete Repudiation of the whole ethic of segregation.
	Number one, Booker T is in the sort of white car.
	Number two, he is associating and dining with two white women.
	Number three, one of these women is actually serving him, so not the other way around.
	It's the white woman serving the black man.
	And so you can see this is a controversial event that's happening.
	Booker T is very aware of it.
	Apparently the two ladies from Boston don't think it's any big deal at all.
	And Booker T says, but somehow it had become known in some way through the car who I was.
	He tries to beat a hasty retreat after dinner, but he says, when I went into the smoking room, I was never more surprised in my life than when each man, nearly every one of them a citizen of Georgia, came up and introduced himself to me, thanked me earnestly for the work I was doing for the whole South, and he says this was not flattery because each one of these individuals knew he had nothing to gain by trying to flatter me.
	So here's Booker T. talking about the fact that his work, and even this kind of awkward situation as he describes it, no, he's getting a kind of broad acclaim in the South, not just from blacks who see what he's doing, but also from whites who also see what he's doing.
	And then Booker T says, because he knows the way that this book is written, he knows what's going through the reader's mind, including the sort of not convinced and somewhat hostile reader who's thinking, well, yeah, but that's because, you know, you're the great Booker T. Washington, so you're getting special treatment.
	And he immediately pulls back from that and says, Tuskegee is not my institution.
	I don't own it.
	I started it.
	But he says it is... I always tell the students and the staff that it is their institution and that they have an interest in it no less than me.
	I want them to feel that I am at the institution as their friend and advisor, not as their overseer.
	So...
	Look at the importance of this for leadership.
	Booker T is quite clearly in charge.
	He's the leader.
	But the message he wants people to know is, I'm the leader, but I'm not here to boss you.
	I'm not here to tell you what's best.
	What I'm here to do is make this institution successful.
	And so I want you to see me as your friend, because who's getting the education?
	Not me.
	I've already got it.
	Booker T is involved in the administration and teaching.
	He is not now a student.
	He was a student at the Hampton Institute, but here his point is that you are the beneficiaries of this institution.
	I am trying to help make it as good as I can so that you benefit more.
	I want you to see that so you see me as a friend and not as some kind of a quote.
	Overseer.
	Notice he uses that very interesting word, taken straight out of slavery.
	Who are the overseers?
	The overseers were the hired guys.
	Very often, you'd have the plantation owner who didn't want himself to be out in the sun, wouldn't want himself to be telling the slaves what to do.
	Well, in the smaller plantations, the plantation owner had to do that because there was no money to bring on an overseer.
	But in the large plantations, they'd bring in another guy, typically a white guy, but sometimes a black guy, and a free black guy.
	And the black guy's job would be to sort of drive the slaves.
	So that's Booker T's point.
	I'm not an overseer in that sense.
	I am your friend.
	He says, once a year.
	Oh no, two or three times a year.
	He says, I ask the students to write me a letter criticizing or making complaints and suggestions.
	And he says, few things help an individual more than to place responsibility on him and to let him know that you trust them.
	And he says, he often reads about institutions that are in trouble because there's all this tension between the staff and the administration.
	He reads about all these disputes between unions and management.
	And he says, basically, all of this would go away if management made it really clear to the workers that management is there to make their lives better.
	He says, let people understand that you are unselfishly interested in them and you can lead them to any extent.
	Now, Booker T now moves on to talk about the ingredients, the basics that he absolutely insists upon for Tuskegee, including and maybe especially for the boarding school students who are living there.
	Rule number one, Absolute cleanliness.
	Booker T says, it doesn't matter how poor you are, there's no reason for you to be dirty.
	You can be clean.
	He says, and this is a part which I think is kind of funny, and Booker T is always aware of the humorous underside to what he's saying.
	He says, one of the most elevated principles of the Tuskegee Institution is regular use of the toothbrush.
	He says, this is part of our creed at Tuskegee.
	He says several times, apparently word goes out to blacks throughout the South that, hey, at Tuskegee, they're really big on the toothbrush.
	And let's remember this is a time when no one actually, or at least none of the newly freed slaves, uses toothbrushes.
	So the word goes out, hey, listen, this is kind of like one of those places where you gotta use your toothbrush.
	And he goes, several times in recent years, students have come to us who brought with them no other article except a toothbrush.
	Kind of like, hey, I got my toothbrush.
	Where are your books?
	I don't have any.
	Where are your clothes?
	I don't have too many.
	But I do have my toothbrush.
	And...
	And so, at one point, Booker T says he went with the lady principal on a morning tour of inspection of girls' rooms, and he says, and he asked the girls, do you have your toothbrushes?
	And one of the girls said, well, yes, sir, but that is our brush.
	We brought it together yesterday.
	So apparently, all three of these girls are using the same toothbrush.
	Booker T is telling these things not to make fun of these people, not at all.
	What he's really doing, in a kind of a wry way, is trying to show that the beginnings of civilization, to someone who's already past that, are somewhat comic.
	It's like, wow, you don't even know how to use a toothbrush, really?
	But yeah, really.
	And for Booker T, it's like there's no beginning that's too humble.
	He realizes that these people are beginning at the beginning, and he's sort of going there with them.
	But he also knows that he's writing for a cultivated readership.
	I mean, who's going to buy up from slavery?
	By and large, people who are educated.
	By and large, people who respect Booker T. By and large, people who can afford books.
	So these are people who are long past, you could say, the toothbrush stage.
	So Booker T has to sort of navigate between the students that are starting out over here and the readership of the book that is kind of way up here and he does this in this form.
	He tells these kind of wry anecdotes and he recognizes a little bit of the ha ha ha element to them but at the same time you've always got to realize that he is very much on the side of the students and not only does he understand what they're going through, he went through it himself.
	So he's been there.
	He's done that.
	That's where his creed comes from.
	And that's part of the strength of this book.
	You're listening to somebody who has done the journey himself and therefore has a lot of credibility when he looks at other people and says, let's do it my way.

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