Republican Elaine Chao is finally snapping back at Trump after he made remarks about her and her family a few months ago.
She did wait a long time. However, this does raise a lot of questions, David.
Yeah, this is going super viral right now. I'm not saying amongst 20 or 30 year olds, Andrew,
but there are hundreds of thousands of comments on every single post about Elaine Chao
sort of half firing back at Trump.
Now, I do want to be honest, guys, we are not a political pundit channel.
However, we are talking about this because she is Asian.
This is viral news, and she is a very powerful Asian person.
Whether or not you agree with how she rose up to power, you agree with her politics,
or who her husband is.
I'm just saying she is a fully Asian woman that is very powerful in America.
I'm just saying Coco Chao was hiding her family's dealings with China,
along with the Joe Biden secret documents in Chinatown,
along with Youngkin, who also sounds Chinese.
I'm just saying there's a lot of China involved in a lot of things.
So those were amongst the non-verbatim quote that Trump had about her family
a few months ago that was offensive.
And at that time, because real quick background,
Elaine Chao is President Trump's former Secretary of Transportation, right?
And she is married to Mitch McConnell, who is a very powerful man himself,
or married to whatever, I don't know.
And then, so basically, when she first heard the remarks a few months back,
she was like, you know, I just hope that the media
does not repeat those things.
Those are hurtful.
And then that's all she said.
She played it soft.
And then now she's kind of being like,
well, those comments say a lot more about him than they do say about Asian Americans.
Yeah, I would say it's really interesting if you listen to Elaine Chao talk,
because she kind of talks like Bruce Lee,
because she has that 1960s syntax that never got updated.
But almost like, you know, it's a very royal, formal way of speaking English.
Right, right.
But Dave, I guess the main questions here,
and the main questions are about assimilation here.
Because we're not debating Elaine Chao, guys, by the way.
Yeah, I mean, real quick, if you guys want to get into the politics of it,
Trump, he kind of pops off like a middle schooler,
or like a rich, drunk uncle, right?
And Elaine Chao's family does have a shipping empire in New York State
that possibly does do some business with China.
However, there was an independent investigation,
and she was cleared of all tiers of conflict of interest.
Right, right, right.
Although I'm sure, by no doubt in my mind,
does she use her political position to also help her family get more rich.
I think a lot of politicians, including her,
operate in the gray zone to enrich themselves.
But they go through great lengths to conceal it.
And like I said, a lot of times when politicians are dissing each other,
Andrew, you say something about me that's three out of ten true,
so there's some truth to it, but not fully.
And I say something about you that's four out of ten true.
Do I win out because my accusation was four out of ten true,
or since they were both below five or six, they're both false?
Yeah.
And you know what?
To be a little bit empathetic on Elaine Chao right now,
I will say she did stand by Trump when she was working for him back even in 2017,
when Trump was going at her husband, Mitch McConnell,
and criticizing him, but she was working for Trump.
She goes, you know, I will stand by my men.
Both my men.
Cringe, cringe, but she was standing by him.
It's a super cringe quote, but...
Well, I'm glad that she said that,
because Coco Chao was great for those times until she turned on me.
Now she's a traitor.
I would say that a lot of Asian Americans, man,
from what I know, there's definitely not that much positive feelings around Elaine Chao,
especially if you're leaning more left.
But I do know a few rich Taiwanese guys who low-key give her props,
but they would never come out and publicly admit that,
due to, obviously, Asians needing to be more politically neutral or on the left.
Right, but it's, yeah, it's always a conversation like,
as an Asian, do you want to cheer on any Asian who does achieve a high position,
whether or not they're for your side or the other side?
Why not? Just climb the ladder.
It's a difficult ladder to climb.
What, you're saying you can't climb the red ladder?
You only got to climb the blue ladder?
Wait, if you're against Elaine Chao, let me tell you this,
you're against the American dream.
She came here as an immigrant from Taiwan, an Asian,
even no English, and look where she's at.
Yeah, I mean, honestly, if we were to really break it down,
I do think this has to do with assimilation.
And what, I guess, socioeconomic status or social class
does your family envision you assimilating into, right?
Like we said, Elaine Chao is from a very prestigious family in Taiwan.
Their parents, you know, did very good business, became wealthy in America.
Obviously, she went to Harvard.
She wants to enter the halls of American power, Andrew,
that are very, very seldomly touched by, until recently, by minorities.
Yeah, and especially during that time,
it's not like the power was in the Asian student organization
back at Harvard, you know?
It's like if you wanted to move up at that time,
I think she's like 69 years old or 70 years old now,
it's almost like you were just with the mainstream system, you know?
The mainstream system, which is probably the Anglo-Saxons, right?
They still rule a lot of power in America,
like way more than other people who are not Anglo.
I mean, I would say this.
It's just very interesting to me when I watch like things like politicians
or possibly even Hollywood, Andrew,
the amount of assimilation that goes into it
because Bobby Jindal was a Hindu Indian who had a different name
and he converted to an American name and became a Christian.
However, Bobby Jindal still had the Indian wife and family,
but then he takes his Indian kids like hunting all the time with shotguns.
That's an interesting photo.
You do not think that a Hindu guy or formerly Hindu guy
is going to take his kid hunting in Louisiana?
I'll tell you this, man.
That man is trying very hard to be in Louisiana.
Right.
Because I will say it always shocked me that he was the governor of Louisiana.
But it's even true for the guy politician, Andrew.
There was this guy, Alan Fung, who recently,
you know, a lot of people thought he was our cousin,
that he was running for what?
The Senator of Rhode Island.
He has a white wife.
Yeah.
So some of the Asian guys do have white wives
and I'm not saying they do that for political reasons,
but obviously a guy who's marrying a non-Asian,
like an American person.
Statistically, it's like very rare for Chinese guys.
But it also goes to show you that type of mindset that you probably have,
just like a lot of the other ethnic politician women
that are very powerful, like AOC or Ilhan Omar.
They're actually currently right now with white guys.
Right.
And I would say that white people would be like,
you know, that's real interesting because I thought they were anti-white.
Yeah.
So yeah.
No, no, for sure.
But we got a shout out to Judy Chu, Grace Meng, Tulsi Gabbard,
all these other people who are Asian women who are with Asian guys.
Like I said, we're not like saying it's good or bad.
You could be in a good or bad marriage with whoever you're dating, by the way.
It's just like interesting to point out
because it is a point about assimilation
and entering the halls of power in a place
where a lot of people who look like you don't have a lot of power.
My question, my big question is,
if you see these politicians,
and maybe we're not going to point out Elaine Chao exactly,
you know, everybody's case is a little bit different.
But do you need these like politicians sellouts for progress?
Do you need sellouts?
And by the way, we're not calling them sellouts for sure.
We're just saying that that term is often used to describe them.
Yeah, exactly.
So my question is, do you need sellouts for progress?
Because selling out means that they're getting in the door.
They're getting into the party.
They're getting onto that ladder and they're able to climb it.
And that is progress.
Because how can they even help or raise up anybody else
if they're not already there?
So yeah, it is a good point.
And I do think that obviously, you know,
marriage or getting with somebody who's in the party,
in the club is a really great way to get in the club.
Yeah.
And I'm not saying that it doesn't work out sometimes
where maybe that is the best person for you too.
So there is like true love involved.
But then there's also other incentives involved too, right?
Exactly, exactly.
So I guess you guys let us know in the comments down below
what you think about these assimilation questions.
Like, is this what real power looks like in America, right?
Political power, right?
I would say because Hollywood has a lot of influence
in how people feel or the public perception,
but it doesn't have that much like political power
unless it changes votes, right?
Right, it's more roundabout because Hollywood will affect
the minds and the minds theoretically if they vote
and they're eligible to vote can change which politicians
and the politicians dictate the policies.
Exactly, my second question is like,
what type of way of assimilation
would you want to pick in America?
If you could pick or redo your immigration,
how would you want to assimilate?
Because to gain any sort of power in this country
or to make sometimes it feels like
to just even have a good life,
you have to assimilate on some level.
And then also, do you need sellouts for progress?
You know, I always say this in society,
there's probably overall three rankings, right?
And it's kind of like a pyramid
because the distribution at the top
is like the smallest, right?
There's low, middle and high.
I would say that the majority of Asian American immigrants
want to either be live the middle class American dream,
which is, you know, own one house,
maybe two houses or just one house,
two cars, have everything paid off,
not have to worry about bills.
Some Asian Americans like the upper middle class version
of that, which means your cars and your house
and maybe you have two houses and they're just nicer, right?
One's a rental property,
but not that many Asians have that desire
where they're like, it is my life's dream
to enter the halls of power.
Many of the halls of which somebody who looks like me
has never entered.
But that is a whole nother ladder.
You know what I mean?
So it just really depends on your family.
I think what makes you happy
and also like, I guess what's your end goal, right?
Right, right, right.
Yeah, if you have an end goal in mind, right?
I mean, yeah, if you want to be as powerful as possible,
you got to do what you can, right?
That's the...
Anyways, guys.
You got a Wendy, dang it.
Yeah, let us know in the comments down below
what you think about all this.
What do you think about Elaine Chao?
If you know about her,
like if you're more into politics even than we are,
let us know if we...
I don't think we got any details wrong,
but let us know.
When she was on my team, she was Elaine.
She was a fine secretary of transportation.
When she turned on me, she turned into Coco.
Coco Chao from...
Coco Chao does sound like a movie character.
But anyways.
All right, everybody.
Thank you so much for watching the Hot Pop Boys.
Until next time, we out.
Peace.