Stephen Miller’s Promotion, Big Tech’s Reality Check, and Guest Harvey Levin

Nov 8, 2026 · Summarized Nov 8, 2026

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Key takeaways

Harvey Levin believes TMZ’s unconventional, conversational reporting can make politicians appear human while still asking questions that conventional Washington media often avoid.
Levin is shifting TMZ toward YouTube and social platforms because he sees television and websites as legacy distribution, and because digital-native productions can cost a fraction of traditional ones.
Kara and Scott argue that Stephen Miller’s promotion could remove remaining restraints around Trump and make the administration more aggressive and unstable.
Scott says recent elections were driven less by a national embrace of socialism than by younger and more diverse swing voters demanding jobs, housing, health care, and lower living costs.
The data-center backlash shows that local communities can impose real limits on AI infrastructure, particularly when companies avoid transparency and community-level agreements.
The hosts conclude that billionaire wealth and political influence require stronger campaign-finance rules, taxation, oversight, and limits on the power of unelected private individuals.

Summary

Harvey Levin says Trump’s political persona replaced a more tolerant celebrity

Harvey Levin says he knew Donald Trump for 20 years as a businessman and star of The Apprentice, and that the earlier Trump was “laissez-faire”: he did not care that Levin was gay, accepted how people chose to live, and treated workers in his buildings well. Levin says people who knew Trump were “dumbfounded” by his transformation after entering politics. He agrees that Trump may be acting the role of president, but Kara Swisher argues that the anger is too consequential to dismiss as performance. Levin says TMZ’s Washington coverage began after the government shutdown, when a TSA worker described losing her home and mental health.

TMZ’s shutdown coverage turned congressional vacations into a political story

After hearing the TSA worker’s account, Levin told TMZ viewers to send photos if they saw members of Congress vacationing during the shutdown. Two days later, Lindsey Graham appeared at Disney World holding a bubble wand, and viewers began sending more vacation pictures. Levin says the coverage had an impact and convinced him to launch TMZ’s Washington bureau within a week. He wanted reporters who did not conduct conventional interviews: two young, unconventional journalists instead have conversations with politicians, follow the exchange wherever it goes, and expose a more human side regardless of party.

Levin is moving TMZ toward YouTube and cheaper, platform-native production

Levin says television news has a median audience age of roughly 67 to 70, while people under 30 generally do not have cable; he calls television and even websites “legacy.” TMZ is therefore launching one documentary per month on YouTube, filmed in a rawer style with more direct audience connection. He says one documentary cost $1,000 even though a comparable traditional production might cost $300,000. Levin also wants to combine linear television and digital material—his old, rejected label was “Intervision”—so broadcasts can incorporate galleries, comments, and other online assets.

Levin says politics belongs to pop culture, not a separate civic sphere

Levin rejects the idea that politics becoming entertainment is entirely new, citing senators and politicians including George Murphy, Ronald Reagan, Fred Thompson, John Glenn, and Sonny Bono who came from celebrity culture. He sees politics as part of “pop culture,” alongside sports, business, technology, and celebrity. He says content should be distributed everywhere because TMZ’s Pete Buttigieg interview performs cumulatively across television, YouTube, its website, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook rather than cannibalizing itself. Levin points to the Johnny Depp–Amber Heard trial as a “TikTok trial,” where user commentary made the proceedings feel like a digital town square.

Kara and Scott argue Stephen Miller will intensify Trump’s second-term instability

Discussing Stephen Miller’s promotion to chief of staff, Scott says replacing Susie Wiles—who managed Trump through a historic political comeback—with someone who appears to enable his worst instincts is like sending a gasoline-soaked person into a five-alarm fire. Kara says Miller and aide Natalie are controlling information around an 80-year-old president in cognitive decline who controls the nuclear codes. They fear Miller will remove remaining guardrails, while Scott describes Trump’s remaining time as a “snatch and grab” focused on extracting money, reputation, and assets. They also mention possible impeachment proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio’s presidential ambitions.

Los Angeles’s mayoral result was about renters, age, and the Palisades fire

Scott says Nithya Raman’s victory should not be read as a national referendum on socialism: he believes Karen Bass lost because of the Palisades fire, dissatisfaction among renters, and the contrast between a 45-year-old challenger and a 72-year-old incumbent. He notes that Los Angeles’s mayor controls about $17 billion, far less than New York City’s $112 billion, and that county supervisors hold much of the city’s power. Scott says voters want “capitalism with more empathy,” housing, jobs, and social programs, while Kara observes that her son’s support for Zohran Mamdani centered on Medicare for All and housing.

Scott says Democrats need economic delivery, not only investigations or resentment

Scott says the voters who shifted most sharply—Hispanics by 28 points, people aged 18 to 29 by 30 points, and young men by 38 points—are not permanently Democratic or Republican; they want jobs, homes, and spouses. He supports congressional accountability, including questioning the Witkoff family’s crypto dealings, but says investigations must be paired with policies such as universal health coverage, a $25 minimum wage, housing credits, vocational programs, and removing the Social Security payroll-tax cap. He criticizes billionaire wealth taxes as ineffective, citing European countries that repealed them, and favors growth, an alternative minimum tax, stronger IRS funding, and closing corporate loopholes.

Data-center backlash rattled AI companies more than diversified tech giants

Scott says 41 of 42 data-center measures on ballots passed against the projects, frightening highly leveraged AI-focused companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and CoreWeave. Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft are better insulated because they have diversified businesses. He warns that regulation can strengthen incumbents by making it harder for newer companies to obtain computing capacity. Kara says the public backlash reflects how data centers were imposed through nondisclosure agreements and political access rather than community consent. She argues for closed-loop water systems, no NDAs, guaranteed property-tax payments, and local compensation instead of letting a handful of AI executives decide policy.

Musk’s spending and influence may no longer buy political power

The hosts discuss Elon Musk’s weakening position: Tesla plans to reduce Cybertruck production to make room for a cyber-cab and robo-van, while the Pentagon paid SpaceX nearly $1.2 million for Starlink work at the White House despite claims that the service was donated. Scott says Musk spent almost $500 million on the midterms with little apparent return, suggesting candidates can matter more than campaign capital. He supports campaign-finance reform and progressive taxation as safeguards against unelected billionaires controlling public decisions. Kara says no individual should have Musk’s level of unaccountable power and jokes that the Cybertruck was a poor product.

Show notes

Kara and Scott are live in Los Angeles! They unpack Stephen Miller’s promotion to chief of staff, the post-election stock market roller coaster, and the ongoing backlash against data centers. Then, what L.A.’s mayoral shake-up means for the city, and a farewell to the Cybertruck. Plus, TMZ founder Harvey Levin joins to discuss the colliding worlds of politics and pop culture.

This episode was recorded live at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on November 6, 2026.

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