First, we review the good, the bad, and the ugly of Trump’s appointees so far. I make the case for shooting down Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary and Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary. Also, with Marco Rubio becoming secretary of state, I argue that the best person to fill his Senate seat is James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ chief of staff. Next, we’re joined by my colleague Kevin Freeman, author of “Pirate Money,” for an update on his plan to enact transactional gold in the states. He offers a sobering view of the feasibility of ever cutting spending at the federal level. He believes the best we can do is work with the Trump administration to facilitate the designation of transactional gold as functional and legal tender. We are facing unavoidable economic pain; we as may as well build an escape hatch. Kevin has the most realistic plan to do just that. He believes that if Texas and Florida adopt this plan, it will be more transformational than anything we can hope for in Congress.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices