Mike Baker — Former CIA covert operations officer, host of the President's Daily Brief podcast, and co-founder of intelligence/due-diligence firm Portman Square Group.
The gist
Joe Rogan and ex-CIA officer Mike Baker cover a sprawling political and geopolitical landscape ahead of the 2024 election. They dissect the Secret Service failures around the Butler assassination attempt on Trump, Biden's mental decline and the Harris 'coup', and what they see as a compliant, narrative-driven media. Baker draws on his intelligence background to explain Israel's deep penetration of Iran and the IRGC, the Ukraine incursion into Russia as a negotiating ploy, and why Iran sits at the top of Middle East instability. The pair also rant about ultra-processed foods, the obesity crisis, free-speech censorship, and the erosion of trust in institutions like the CIA and Secret Service.
Big reveals
- Joe cites a study showing creatine boosts performance and cognition when sleep deprived, not just muscle building.
- Baker argues Israel's killing of Ismail Haniyeh inside an IRGC-guarded safe house in Tehran shows extraordinary intelligence penetration of Iran.
- Baker frames Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region as a deliberate ploy to force Putin to the negotiating table.
- Baker reveals his Widowmaker heart attack happened on a flight right after one bite of a McDonald's sausage McGriddle.
- Joe says MSNBC edited a clip of him praising Tulsi Gabbard and falsely attributed it to Kamala Harris on TikTok.
- Discussion of Trump claiming Pompeo talked him out of releasing the JFK files because of what he was shown.
- Baker says there are tens of thousands of migrant kids the government can't account for and minimal border vetting.
Things worth remembering
- Baker cites a statistic that upwards of 70% of people have padded their CVs or resumes.
- Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France over money laundering and content-moderation accusations, then released after 96 hours.
- Texas removed 1.1 million ineligible voters from its rolls, including 457,000 deceased and ~6,500 potential non-citizens.
- IMG Academy graduated 88 basketball players last year and 82 of them went on to play college ball.
- The Biden administration released roughly $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds for 'humanitarian purposes'.
- Joe says half the country is technically obese, an unparalleled health crisis.
- Baker explains drones have completely changed the game in targeted assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas commanders.
- Baker says he finds the MLK assassination more unsettling and 'local' than the JFK case from an investigator's view.
- Discussion of Lue Elizondo's claims of 4K video of craft moving 500 knots underwater, faster than an oil rig.
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Creatine
“there's a study that came out about creatine which most people think of is like a muscle supplement which it is but creatine actually helps performance when you're sleep deprived” — Joe Rogan 00:16:40Find it on Amazon
President's Daily Brief
Mike Baker
“so on the president's brief we try to just walk kind of down the middle we just tell you the news here's the top things that are happening” — Mike Baker 00:01:34Find it on Amazon
Portman Square Group
Mike Baker
“I've got a service line in in the company Portman Square group I am a marketing machine and uh we have a due diligence uh group that does nothing but background investigations” — Mike Baker 00:07:18Find it on Amazon
National Treasure
“it sounds a little bit like National Treasure that movie with nichas cage where you know the secret book that they have and they they open the book and they read what all the presidents have told them” — Mike Baker 02:31:22Find it on Amazon