Matt Frei: It’s amazing to watch all the Silicon Valley and other billionaires having lunch at the moment with President Trump. What do they have in common, Heidi, with all the millions of people who voted for them, who are not billionaires?
Heidi Ganahl: Well, I think we all were ready for some change, a different direction for America, one that unleashes innovation and provides people hope and prosperity. We want to get the economy going again. I think that’s the most important thing to the billionaires, but also bring safety back. People are so concerned about safety right now with what’s happening at the border in our own communities, especially in Colorado. We’ve got Venezuelan gangs in Denver. It’s an issue in every city across the country.
Matt Frei: The speech seemed to me less angry compared to the one he gave in 2017 when he talked about carnage in America. But there was still that spirit of vengeance, if you like, going after people who don’t like this country, whether they’re criminal gangs or unfriendly countries, and also a real plan about how to change this place.
Heidi Ganahl: Yeah, I think he laid out his plan very, very specifically and told us exactly what he’s going to do. And part of it is, making lawfare not okay – and fairness. Americans care deeply about fairness. We don’t like it when people aren’t treated fairly and that’s how a lot of Americans feel right now about the last four years, so.
Matt Frei: Lauren, you’re not a great fan of Donald Trump, if I remember correctly, are you going to be treated fairly as a critic of Trump?
Lauren Windsor: I don’t imagine so, but we’ll see how that plays out. I mean, he said that he’s going to rebalance the scales of justice and take away the weaponisation from the Department of Justice.
Matt Frei: What does that mean, by the way, to you?
Lauren Windsor: That means to me that you’re going to have a lot of litigation vengeance against people who sought to hold him accountable for January 6th. I think that really underlines why Biden had to grant pardons to General Milley and also to Anthony Fauci because of the threats of payback from Donald Trump.
Matt Frei: Heidi it is extraordinary that the outgoing president had to pardon all those members of his own family and other people – the head of the CDC, Anthony Fauci, was trying to deal with Covid. I mean, that does tell you something about what they’re afraid of Donald Trump will do to them?
Heidi Ganahl: Well to us it tells us that somebody is guilty. So when you have to pardon someone, that means that they’re in danger of being guilty.
Matt Frei: I thought it was the other way round, innocent until proven guilty?
Lauren Windsor: We could say the same about the last administration with Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and everyone that Trump pardoned. I mean, every administration has their pardons and every party criticises that as, ‘that’s an admission of guilt’.
Heidi Ganahl: He did not pardon his own family going out of office last time. And boy, were they under attack at the same time. But I’m really hopeful. I think the speech was filled with lots of inspiring information about how we’re going to turn things around. Those of us that are parents are really worried about our next generation and making sure that our kids have a secure and safe future and a prosperous one. One of my favourite moments of the event was when Usha and JD’s little daughter had the Band-Aids on her fingers, I was like, you know, this is just a really neat family that’s coming in and going to set the stage for the rest of us.
Matt Frei: And that did all look rather touching. But if you’re the parent of a transgender child, and he has said very clearly, from now on, America will not recognise anything more than two genders, I mean, you’re going to be very worried, aren’t you? This is a real blow to you.
Heidi Ganahl: I don’t think they have to be worried. I don’t think they have to be worried. I think fairness means fairness for everyone.
Lauren Windsor: I mean, I would be worried if I had immigrant children who were born on American soil, who by the Constitution itself have citizenship rights. And Trump has said that he’s going to revoke citizenship, which he’s not able to do because it’s a constitutional right. So I’d like to see how that’s going to be carried out.
Heidi Ganahl: Lauren what about the 300,000 children that are missing, potentially human trafficked that no one can account for? That’s terrible. That can’t happen anymore.
Matt Frei: Lauren, he said that he would try to unite America, although he didn’t use quite as much of his speech as presidents normally do to talk about unity.
Lauren Windsor: I mean, I don’t think this speech is about unity.
Matt Frei: Do you take that as face value? I mean, is he trying to unite it and ‘rejoin the unity party’?
Lauren Windsor: Liberation Day? Henceforth January 20th 2025 will be known as Liberation Day because America is basically this terrible hellscape when inflation is lowest compared to countries around the world, under Biden’s leadership, we’ve had record economic growth and job growth. And, you know, I think that he paints it that way very conveniently. He’s being handed over a very strong economy compared to the rest of the world, after what happened with Covid and his botched handling of the Covid response.
Heidi Ganahl: Lauren, I think you definitely live in DC because Americans do not feel like the economy is strong right now. Everyone’s feeling it at the gas pump. They’re feeling it at the grocery store. It’s painful, right now.
Matt Frei: I mean, listen, I know that inflation was a big problem. It is in many countries around the world and people really felt that. But what he was calling for was a transformation of this country. And he wasn’t elected with a landslide. It was a convincing victory. You know, the numbers stacked in his…it was convincing, but it wasn’t a landslide. And half almost half the country would not agree with him.
Lauren Windsor: It was not a landslide.
Heidi Ganahl: Winning in seven swing states is incredible. That’s a huge statement to the rest of America.
Lauren Windsor: By tiny margins. It was like 1.5%.
Heidi Ganahl: You guys, he won it in a resounding way.
Lauren Windsor: It was not a landslide. You can’t call it a landslide if it’s 1.5%.
Matt Frei: What about humility in victory?
Heidi Ganahl: I think his speech was very uniting and very hopeful and very positive about how we’re going to approach the problems that we’re facing today.
Lauren Windsor: You can’t with a straight face say that he has any humility whatsoever. I mean, that’s part of the reason that people love him is because he’s a bragger.
Matt Frei: Before the election, there were an awful lot of Democratic candidates who were talking about him being a fascist and a dictator and so on. I mean, there’s been very little criticism of him. There was one flag being burned today that we saw on the streets. But no mass anti Trump demonstrations. Is the opposition to Trump pulling its punches?
Lauren Windsor: I think that people are tired. I think that people – the resistance to Trump this time around, is not going to look like the resistance the first time around.
Matt Frei: What’s it going to look like this time?
Lauren Windsor: I think that it’s going to be more measured. I think it’s to be more strategic, smarter. And I just think that people are, you know, holding their powder dry.
Matt Frei: And briefly, you’ve got all these alpha-male billionaires like Elon Musk – will they carry on being his best friends or will they fall out with each other?
Heidi Ganahl: I think as long as everyone’s focused on one thing and that’s making America more prosperous, stronger and safer, we’re all going to be on the same page.