The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - The Anchormen Show EP 81 - Fatherhood w⧸Terry Schilling

00:00:00.000 Now, it's time for the Anchorman Podcast with Matt Gaetz.

00:00:10.840 Welcome back to the Anchorman Podcast. I'm Matt Gaetz, host of the Matt Gaetz Show here on One

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00:01:20.420 today. So I am so excited about the conversation we're going to have. We'll talk a little bit

00:01:25.100 about family, a lot about politics, what's going on here in Washington, D.C. Terry Schilling

00:01:30.240 is the lead of the American Principles Project here in Washington, a good friend of mine.

00:01:35.360 And Terry, here's why I wanted you on today, okay? As you know, I've got a four-month-old

00:01:40.420 baby lucky, and what I've learned is there's like a certain level of tired as a parent that

00:01:47.660 you just never get past. And you know, I sit there, you know, you do the diapers, you do

00:01:53.300 all the little milestones you're supposed to hit. And every time I start to feel sorry

00:01:59.500 for myself and think, man, you've really been doing a lot today. I think about the like

00:02:04.960 gajillion children you have. What number are you on now?

00:02:09.300 Uh, so we're at seven, but we have number eight coming in March.

00:02:12.340 Number eight on the way, already passed three on three in the half court. And, uh, I, and

00:02:19.220 so whenever I think, you know, that I might be a little tired, I think you got that big

00:02:22.720 a group, you know, in all seriousness, I know a lot of parents who, uh, at times feel overwhelmed.

00:02:29.780 They think this was just not a job I can do. And, uh, what advice do you give to somebody

00:02:35.040 who's got seven of them? Uh, well, first of all, uh, if you, uh, if you're young, start

00:02:41.560 young, right? And I mean that like, I would try and find the woman that you want to marry 1.00

00:02:46.060 in your early twenties. If you could do that, like you hit the lottery. Um, you, when you're

00:02:50.820 younger in your early twenties, you have so much energy, right? And you think about your

00:02:54.800 college days, hangovers aren't that bad. Well, like that energy and that level that you are,

00:03:00.840 that you had during college, that's meant to be applied towards work and producing and

00:03:04.800 having a family. It's not meant to like be getting trashed and hung over every day. Uh,

00:03:08.900 which I participated in in college, but it's, it's all about getting married young and early

00:03:13.800 because like the longer you go without having a family and kids, the harder it is to adjust,

00:03:20.140 right? It's like, um, George Gilder, he wrote this amazing book called men in marriage. And he

00:03:25.240 basically argued that, uh, unmarried men are a scourge to society. They commit like 95% of all 1.00

00:03:32.240 violent crimes. They don't make as much money and that marriage civilized them because it gives

00:03:36.480 them a purpose. But he told me once we had dinner and he said, uh, it's best to get married young

00:03:41.740 because it's like two trees growing together. And if you both get married later in life, you have to

00:03:46.420 like merge those trees together. And it's much tougher because they're, you've like set in your

00:03:50.740 ways. Um, but look, it's all worth it. Like, it's tough. You're in the battle. You're in the thick

00:03:56.300 of it. My wife and I, like every time we get pregnant and we have a new baby on the way,

00:04:00.920 it's like, we look at ourselves and we're like, we just press the frigging reset button,

00:04:04.660 you know? Cause then you got the diapers again. Then you got the feeding schedules again. Then

00:04:08.060 you've got like the sleeping and all the craziness, but you know what? Do you do like a joint effort

00:04:12.800 on that? Does your wife do that? Do you get extra help? I mean, because like, you know, right now 0.98

00:04:18.340 me and my wife, we, we leverage our family, friends, neighbors, everyone just kind of pitches in

00:04:24.540 when there's a shift to pick up, but how does it work in your family? Well, so unfortunately we

00:04:28.760 don't have like, my parents aren't here. Her parents are in Boston. Uh, but we have, uh, you know,

00:04:34.720 seven older children, you know, that can help us. I have a 20 year old, a 14 year old, a 10 year

00:04:40.180 when actually he's just turned 11, but when they turn like seven years old, that's when they transition

00:04:45.660 from being liabilities into being assets and you can put into work, you can reward them.

00:04:50.900 And I was a liability way later for my parents. I can assure you that age seven, my parents would

00:04:57.000 definitely say they would take the over on age of liability. But, uh, but that is interesting

00:05:03.360 because I wonder how that shapes even their own experience. You know, it's probably going to make

00:05:08.440 them great parents and people who understand and appreciate family. Well, a friend of mine told me

00:05:14.340 when we, we, I think we had our third or fourth kid at the time. And he goes, the key is,

00:05:18.440 cause your kids are still young. You don't want to be like running a hotel, right? Your house is

00:05:23.860 not someplace for these kids just to sleep when they're not in school. You're running a household,

00:05:28.520 you're running a family and everyone has duties. Everyone has responsibilities. You got to reward

00:05:32.820 them. You can't just be like a slave labor. You got to take them to seven 11. You got to get them 1.00

00:05:36.720 movies. You got to go to five guys every now and then or McDonald's. But if you do it right with

00:05:42.360 the rewards and the duties and all that, you create this like ecosystem. And one really cool

00:05:47.880 thing that I've discovered is that each kid is actually easier because I don't have to explain

00:05:54.400 the rules to the youngest one anymore. The older kids enforce it. Kids, kids love hierarchies.

00:06:00.040 It's like a gang. And they all outrank the next one, right? So like the eldest is in charge

00:06:04.260 and when she's there, no one messes. Well, they might mess with her, but they're going to learn a

00:06:07.880 lesson, right? And so they enforce the rules on down. And so like once you've established the

00:06:13.020 culture and the ecosystem, it kind of self-perpetuates and it's a really beautiful

00:06:18.420 thing. Now you have to maintain it. You can't let things go out of control. Well, the opposite is true

00:06:21.740 also, right? I mean, we see so much research about how violence, abuse, neglect, those things can be

00:06:29.280 passed along as well. And we actually probably see more of that than what you just described. It's quite

00:06:34.820 hopeful to think that actually if you create the right culture in your family, that is a

00:06:40.320 intergenerationally durable thing. We don't see a lot of those anymore in human existence. And it's

00:06:47.780 like kind of one of the things that's left. Well, I think one thing that gets mixed up and missed

00:06:53.660 with the whole like race argument in America and the hyper obsession from the left is it's like, 0.83

00:06:59.120 yeah, you know, like there's a lot of crime in the black community and there's a lot of violence. 1.00

00:07:04.020 They had a lot of problems, but it's not because of their race. It's because they don't have dads 0.95

00:07:09.740 in the picture, right? Like it's not, if you look at the rates of violence, the rate, the income

00:07:14.880 levels, the educational attainment, it's not based off of race at all. It's actually based off of

00:07:20.400 whether or not you have a father in the home, whether or not your family goes to church on Sunday.

00:07:24.440 The social science on family and how that impacts children and their outcomes is very boring.

00:07:29.900 You talk to any like honest sociologist, they will tell you like, okay, the kids with two

00:07:35.080 married parents that go to church on Sunday, they get the best grades. They have the lowest suicide

00:07:39.620 rates. They use the least amount of drugs. They, they make the most money. And the kids on the

00:07:44.160 bottom end of the spectrum are the ones without two married parents that they don't go to church

00:07:48.580 on Sunday. The one, the interesting thing is the groups that of married parents that don't go to

00:07:53.840 church on Sunday, that fluctuates in terms of outcomes, depending on the cycle with the parents

00:07:59.720 that aren't married, that do go to church on Sunday. But the best possible outcome to have

00:08:04.460 in America, like if you're an American, you're born here, you hit the lottery. If you're born with two 0.67

00:08:09.360 intact parents who take you to church on Sunday and still good values in you, you hit the lottery

00:08:13.300 again, which is just crazy. The worst situation you can have is no dad because dads teach you a lot.

00:08:18.620 They teach you sacrifice. They teach you purpose. They teach you limits, right? Like, uh, there's

00:08:24.400 actually a really cool study by these libertarians at Reason Magazine and they showed that it wasn't

00:08:29.820 mothers who instilled empathy into their children. It was dads. You would think, well, mothers care so

00:08:35.120 much about their kids. That's where they see it. No, no, no. Dads are more selfish. Like they're more

00:08:39.100 like you broke my $400 drill. You know how hard I had to work to get that? Like they forced the kids to

00:08:45.420 think about other people. You learn so much from your dad. And when you don't have that,

00:08:49.760 you're really handicapped in a lot of it. There's no, it's not saying that you can't overcome it,

00:08:53.680 but that's the real crisis America has. That's why we have a lot of crime. That's why we have so

00:08:57.480 much disorder and chaos and fentanyl overdoses is, is these kids are growing up without dads

00:09:02.340 and they're getting influenced. And if they do have parents, both parents, they're getting influenced

00:09:06.900 by a lot of these other kids that don't have parents. I see some of these, I hear what you're

00:09:10.680 saying. I believe the data. I see some of these dads and I just think, what? Like they seem ill

00:09:17.460 equipped at times, but I guess, I guess mother nature instills in us enough that I wanted to ask

00:09:23.740 you about this ecosystem of rewards and consequences, because I think that curating that is really hard

00:09:31.520 for a lot of parents. I've seen the overindulgers, right? Where every small victory is treated as if

00:09:39.020 it's like winning the Miss Universe pageant. And then I've also seen times where, you know,

00:09:45.440 there, there isn't anyone who cares one way or the other, where you get good grades or bad. And the

00:09:50.220 lack of that positive reinforcement can, can also be a downward driver on success in the future. And

00:09:56.600 so there's some tools people have talked about, like, you know, do you pay kids for grades? Like,

00:10:01.640 I get that question. I know parents who say that's great. Give $10 for an A, $5 for a B. Others that

00:10:08.060 would say, no, no, no, like they have to get to the point where that is something that they,

00:10:12.520 that they innately want to do. And until you've nurtured that, you're not there. So how does like

00:10:18.000 the Schilling family go about giving out the, the, the rewards and the nurturing alongside those

00:10:24.080 critical limits that you have to have? Well, so this was part of establishing the ecosystem

00:10:27.940 with rules and getting them used to duties and responsibilities. When my son Bobby was born,

00:10:34.760 so he's number three. And when he was born, I instituted what we call datter day. And every

00:10:40.300 Saturday we would clean the house as a family. And over the, and if they, if we all did that

00:10:46.540 before, you know, noon or 10 or whatever, we'd get donuts, we'd go to the movies, we'd go to 7-Eleven,

00:10:51.940 we'd go to Five Guys, right? And as time has gone on, I've put more responsibility on the kids.

00:10:58.460 Yes. So like the older ones now are like the managers and they're ultimately in charge and

00:11:04.680 responsible for making sure the house gets clean. They, if the kid, if the younger kids don't help

00:11:09.380 out, they don't get to participate in datter day. So I get a report from Reagan, you know, my 14 year

00:11:14.200 old who's my, my eldest is in college. So the 14 year old says, Hey, uh, Max didn't help. Peter didn't

00:11:19.760 help. Bobby was really good. Wow. You have an HR department. It's an HR department, but they also learn

00:11:25.240 that they learn how to manage because Reagan knows that if she goes too hard and then I go to Bobby

00:11:30.320 or Max and she says they weren't helping and they say, well, Reagan was hitting us or Reagan wasn't

00:11:34.360 being nice. Oh, well Reagan, now you're in trouble. Yeah. And then Reagan has to get more of the work 0.99

00:11:39.640 done herself. So like it teaches them proper management. It teaches them like push and pull, 1.00

00:11:44.880 but like you start with the duties and then they get rewards. And if they don't clean the house,

00:11:48.500 well, we're not going to Five Guys or we're not going to McDonald's or we're not, you know,

00:11:51.920 going to seven 11, like you don't get those privileges and those rewards. I don't believe

00:11:56.040 in paying for grades, right? Like I, I just work with my kids a lot. Like I, I actually help with

00:12:02.020 the homework. I monitor the grades with my wife, Katie. Um, and I help them do it. Like I'm really

00:12:07.640 learning that. There's so much transparency with the grades now. Yes. Like, I mean, before,

00:12:11.500 like when we were growing up, I mean, you got like a midterm, yeah. If you got a little soft on the

00:12:17.120 grades after the midterm, you had time. Now there's like real time. You can get right on it

00:12:21.320 and monitor it. And probably anything, I figure anything that draws parents into the experience

00:12:27.060 more is probably good. Yeah. I know a hundred percent. Um, we like it. My, you know, I think

00:12:32.580 women do a really good job of like monitoring the kids cause they want, you know, they want the intel. 1.00

00:12:37.360 They want to know if their kids are struggling. And like, the thing is we just put Reagan in this

00:12:41.260 new school. Uh, she's in high school now. She has a really nice, like all, all girls Catholic

00:12:46.220 school in Virginia. And she's been struggling, but she's been getting great grades, but it's

00:12:51.160 super difficult. So I've been having these like real conversations with her of like,

00:12:54.960 struggling is good actually. Like if you're struggling, that means you're growing. That

00:12:59.060 means you're learning. That means you're like developing skills. And by the way, like you're

00:13:03.760 a freshman in high school. It, it gets way tougher after this. Like it keeps getting worse. So if you

00:13:08.580 can't figure out freshman year in high school, you're in for a long road. So let's figure this out. I can

00:13:13.620 help you. So I'm just like very, I am involved. Like I, I have this, I, I carve out a lot of

00:13:19.120 one-on-one time. Right. And it's not always like a lot, a lot of dads who watch this won't be able

00:13:23.600 to do that because they'll say, look, I mean, you know, we're in this, this era where my housing

00:13:28.760 is so expensive, uh, where the energy bill is something that tends to come every month. Um,

00:13:34.580 you know, mortgage rates, uh, rose under Joe Biden extensively. And I mean, that one-on-one time

00:13:40.140 comes at a, as a, at a financial cost. Um, is there, is there a way with quality time you can,

00:13:47.900 um, make up for the increasing pressures on American dads in their life?

00:13:53.100 A hundred percent. So my dad shared, I was lamenting this to my dad because I was on the

00:13:57.920 road all the time, fundraising and doing media events and rallies. And I was like, dad, I came

00:14:03.560 back from this last trip and Reagan's like turning into like a young lady. And I'm like seeing these

00:14:08.980 kids grow and I'm not there. And he goes, take him with, like take him to work. Like what you

00:14:15.020 think your donors are going to be upset if you bring him to work. And he's, and then he's like,

00:14:18.560 but also, cause that's what he did with me. Like you had a family pizza restaurant. I go into work

00:14:22.780 with him. That's how we really spent a lot of time together. We'd work on cart. It's also about like

00:14:26.800 finding out, like we all have hobbies, like we're not working all the time. We might like go golfing.

00:14:32.240 So if you're like, if you're working all the time, you're going to take some rest time or you're

00:14:36.020 going to take some time for yourself where you're like fishing or golfing or whatever,

00:14:40.000 bring your kids into that. Like teach them the joy of fishing or golfing or basketball,

00:14:44.840 like figure out what you can share with them and bring them along. And by the way, you don't need

00:14:50.120 hours and hours and hours. You need like five minutes going to 7-Eleven or going to the quickie

00:14:56.340 mart to say like, Hey, how are things going? Everything's all right. Just you and them one-on-one.

00:15:02.020 So you have like the group time as a family, but the one-on-one time is super special because

00:15:06.600 like sometimes it's just, that's tough when you got six of them. It is. Well, and you've

00:15:11.460 got to be careful about not playing favorites, right? Cause like I'm very sensitive to that

00:15:15.260 because you've got, I got a lot of kids and I don't want to spend too much time with one

00:15:18.600 and not enough with the other. So I'm always like trying to round it out and I don't, I'm

00:15:21.760 not always perfect, but I make up for it. Um, but yeah, it's tough. What's the hardest

00:15:25.520 part? The hardest part? Yeah. I mean, I, I mean, is it, is it when they have heartbreak,

00:15:29.480 when they have illness, when they, um, when they fail? Uh, what, what is it where you're

00:15:35.220 just like, Oh man, this is tough. It's watching them struggle. It's, it's watching them. You

00:15:40.420 just said that was good. I know it's good, but it still hurts you because you know, it's

00:15:44.680 fresh. Like I keep telling my daughter Reagan, she's struggling with this homework. It is higher

00:15:48.780 level. It's a, it's a tough, they don't do great inflation at the school. So like if she 0.58

00:15:52.860 is getting a C, it's actually a C or like, you know, you know, they're not giving you an A

00:15:56.800 if you're actually getting C's and I see her struggling and it hurts me because I remember

00:16:01.380 how tough it is. I remember how hard it was for me, but I know that ultimately it's good

00:16:06.600 for, it's, it's like anything, you know, like you see a kid fall on their bike. Well, they

00:16:10.320 got to learn how to ride the bike and scraping your knees is part of that. So it sucks. You 0.99

00:16:14.720 want to, you want to like make sure they feel comfortable and know that the scraping is just

00:16:18.380 part of it. But yeah, seeing them struggle, seeing them like go through challenges.

00:16:23.840 Like when you've got the, the infant, like any, anything that could potentially be wrong

00:16:30.040 with them, you know, cause they're like, they're so frail. It's like a Fabergé egg

00:16:34.940 in your mind, especially maybe that's a new parent thing. That's a new parent thing. But

00:16:39.220 when you, when you're got a newborn around for the first time, you're like, oh man, you

00:16:43.340 know, keep it in the notion that anything could be wrong with the baby. I mean, I think

00:16:47.480 about all the time, you know, parents who have young children with challenges and man,

00:16:52.660 that's got a, that's got a call on God, uh, in, in those folks lives incredibly. I want

00:16:58.080 to get to your work here on Capitol Hill because it really is to create a country where more

00:17:03.260 people can have that great American family life. Talk a little bit about the American

00:17:07.960 principles project and, and the core mission there and how you fit into it.

00:17:11.520 Well, we've been on the forefront of the Democrats 21st century cultural war against our kids and

00:17:16.780 our parents, right. And the families. Uh, we've been mostly finding the whole transgender issue 1.00

00:17:21.060 where they're pushing this ideology in schools through the, the, the classes, but also like

00:17:26.480 the surgeries and the hormone treatments are getting kids. We've, we've done great work.

00:17:29.360 We've gotten 27 states to ban men and girls sports. We've gotten 27 states to ban these 0.99

00:17:34.360 gender transition procedures for minors. Um, you know, we still have a lot more work to

00:17:40.480 do. We have to get this stuff done nationally. The Democrats are so vulnerable and I'm, I mean,

00:17:45.060 the polling is getting worse for them. Like in the initial days, on the trans issue,

00:17:50.140 on the trans issue, a hundred percent. It just got so weird. It's so weird. Like everyone's 1.00

00:17:55.180 like basically where America's at is like, okay, if you're gay, great. We don't care, but leave 1.00

00:18:00.300 my kids alone. You know, like don't, don't trans my kids. Don't like, don't push an ideology 0.98

00:18:05.780 on them. Don't like, don't strike my kids either. Like I just figured, yeah, let them do their

00:18:10.540 thing, man. And, uh, it also felt like how you approached the trans issue became this

00:18:17.420 litmus test as to whether or not the left viewed you as an accepting person and that like anything

00:18:23.340 less than wanting a drag brunch in your kids, like school library was deemed hateful. And

00:18:32.300 a lot of just like regular people, especially, I think a lot of African American and Hispanic

00:18:37.300 men who had for almost all their lives voted Democrat. We're like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa to sign

00:18:42.580 up for the Democrat thing. I got to have some guy in my girl's locker room. No, I got to watch some

00:18:48.500 guy go out and pee on the girls sports team. No, you're going to try to tell my son that the nurse 1.00

00:18:54.660 at the school can give him gender blockers. Absolutely. You, you, in some States in the Pacific 0.54

00:19:00.420 Northwest, you're going to tell me as a parent, if I don't agree to the gender blockers that I

00:19:05.220 terminate my parental rights to the state and a bunch of those folks who maybe don't agree

00:19:10.500 with Rand Paul on what the marginal tax rate should be. We're just like, I'm with the red team now.

00:19:16.420 And I kind of think we've got them until we do something crazy, which we haven't.

00:19:21.540 Yeah. Well, so I, I, I, I agree with that, but what I'm really concerned about, so like,

00:19:27.300 I've always viewed the trans issue as like a gateway issue for a lot of people,

00:19:30.740 for a lot of normie Democrats is it's like, wait, they, they want to put boys and girls sports.

00:19:35.860 They, they want to give kids sex change stuff. Like what? And it gets them to sort of thing,

00:19:40.900 like if they're wrong about this, like what could they possibly be right?

00:19:44.580 Well, not only wrong, like so seriously wrong.

00:19:47.460 Yeah. So bad.

00:19:48.500 I mean, I think you look at the Republican party and how we've gone through this confrontation on

00:19:53.220 the abortion issue. And I've talked to some incredible, like I would say pro-life maximalists

00:19:57.940 on this platform. And I still think the way Republicans have reacted to public sentiment

00:20:03.700 about that has been from a place of trying to understand, trying to show compassion, build

00:20:09.940 a culture where life and family is more accepted holistically. And, and you compare that to the way

00:20:17.940 Democrats are reacting to voters aligning with our viewpoint on the trans issue. And it's one of like

00:20:25.780 recalcitrants other than maybe Gavin Newsom, who seems to be getting, getting the drift that the,

00:20:30.820 the rest of the lot seem to still be kind of all in on it.

00:20:33.540 No, they, they are. And it's a great point in the differences between the Republicans and Democrats,

00:20:38.500 because look at 2022, right? Uh, overturning Roe v. Wade, uh, with the Dobbs decision that we didn't

00:20:45.620 even lose. Like we just got a red trickle instead of a red wave and Republicans immediately started

00:20:50.820 like backtracking and figuring out how to moderate on the federal level. Democrats got

00:20:55.860 their butts kicked with Kamala Harris, lost the presidency over, like literally lost the presidency 0.82

00:21:00.180 over this issue. And they're not backing away. They're not retreating. They're regrouping right

00:21:04.740 now. Like they're trying to figure out still happening. That's really what I wanted to know.

00:21:08.500 I mean, I know there've been these executive orders and lawsuits and different state laws.

00:21:13.060 How's that practically playing out in a children's hospital in random somewhere, America?

00:21:18.100 So the, the basically when president Trump has done, he's done several executive works. He's

00:21:23.300 been fantastic on this. Uh, these hospitals will announce that their programs are closing

00:21:28.580 or they're sun setting. So it's still happening. Like they're basically saying, uh, the kids that

00:21:32.900 are currently in the program were to keep doing it, but you can't trust these people because they

00:21:37.140 give sex change procedures to kids, right? These are the, like, these are the most untrusted people

00:21:41.860 ever because they tell these parents, uh, if we don't give your kid a sex change, they're going to commit suicide.

00:21:46.500 Like think about how evil of a thing of like, it's like the most worst thing you could possibly

00:21:51.700 imagine as a parent. And look, I am sympathetic to any parent that has to grapple with a confrontation

00:21:56.660 like that with their child. But Terry, if I'd have gone to my dad at age like 12 and been like,

00:22:03.540 dad, here's the deal. I'm having a sex change or I'm going to kill myself. My dad would be like, 0.97

00:22:08.740 well, son, we really hope you don't do that, but we'll miss you. Like my dad wouldn't have been

00:22:13.540 like, well, then we need to talk about this. He would have said, well, your mother and I never

00:22:17.380 want to see you kill yourself, but we're not going to give you a sex change operation. 1.00

00:22:20.980 I, I, you know, I was a, I was a problematic kid. And like, there was one time where I was like, 0.99

00:22:25.860 I just might kill myself. And for my parents and my dad like took it very seriously. He says,

00:22:30.740 what did you say? And he like asked me, well, how would you do it? If you,

00:22:33.860 cause he wanted to find out if I'd actually considered it. And I hadn't actually,

00:22:37.620 it was just like me being a little. Uh, but, um, he said, if you ever joke about that,

00:22:42.500 if you ever say anything like that, again, we're going to the hospital and we're going to check

00:22:45.460 you into the psych ward. I never said that again. No. Right. Like his teenagers are jerks.

00:22:49.860 Like they're dumb. Seeking limits. Right. Because through adolescence, I think a lot of people are 1.00

00:22:55.380 trying to figure out where they fit in in life and it's really challenging enough as it is. And then to

00:23:01.780 throw this like new layer of, well, if, if things are uncomfortable, if things aren't going well,

00:23:08.260 maybe the explanation for it all is just that you're in the wrong body. Yes. And that's like,

00:23:13.780 it's so deeply cruel to try to convince people that something is so wrong with them that they might

00:23:18.900 be in the wrong body rather than doing what we can to celebrate people. Folks have unique abilities

00:23:24.420 or unique challenges. That's what humanity works through in a compassionate way. What happened to born

00:23:29.060 this way? Right. It was, well, we're born this way. Look, well, you weren't born that way. No.

00:23:33.300 You know, you don't need these surgeries. I, what, what I will tell you what I'm mostly concerned

00:23:37.380 about with like everything that we're seeing in the last month and a half with these elections and with

00:23:41.700 just the political momentum in this country is these issues are still popular. There's,

00:23:45.940 they still work, but I'm worried about a redo of the 2006 election. Right. And if you remember that

00:23:51.860 Republicans were in deep trouble, uh, Iraq was going poorly, Hurricane Katrina hit,

00:23:56.580 they were talking about privatizing social security. It was going out the rails. So the

00:24:00.740 the polling was in the tank and the Republicans all said, well,

00:24:04.260 the Democrats want to redefine marriage because that was the only thing that was polling in the

00:24:08.500 sixties and seventies at the time for them. It didn't work because people were having a hard

00:24:12.900 time in the economy. They didn't like that their neighbors and their friends were getting blown up in

00:24:16.900 Iraq. They didn't like how Hurricane Katrina was performing. They wanted Democrats to like figure out

00:24:22.900 how to help them economically. And I can see the same happening again in 2026, where Republicans

00:24:29.780 are in the tank economically. They're not talking about affordability and they come back and they

00:24:34.180 say, well, I, Democrats want to put boys in your girls sports. That's going to fall on deaf ears. 1.00

00:24:39.860 If boomers keep having their, their kids living with them in their basement. If, if, if the Gen Z 1.00

00:24:46.180 can't have all the houses, they, I know, no, I, we, we had to come up with a solution to that. But,

00:24:50.100 uh, but like if, if people can't put food on the table, if they can't afford to buy a home,

00:24:54.980 if they can't afford a car, they're going to vote for Democrats, regardless if you get,

00:24:59.460 if they're giving kids sex changes, because that's what happens. Well, and in a way it's 0.60

00:25:04.260 whatever is the prescient challenge at that moment. I mean, I think under Biden stuff got so weird.

00:25:09.780 Yes. And then when people saw that Kamala was for taxpayer funded sex change operations, 0.93

00:25:14.740 for, yeah, for illegal alien inmates, like it got so crazy and people, you know,

00:25:19.780 Biden was causing price increases too. But if you like, if you confront folks and say,

00:25:23.780 like the eggs might be 10 cents more, but like they want to, you know, uh, remove like the organs

00:25:30.420 of your child, uh, people start to think about that. Like you said, Trump's been so good on the

00:25:36.020 issue. He's put out these executive orders. He's calmed the waters, I think a bit. And now

00:25:41.780 people are returning to those economic anxieties that were caused by so much of this spending

00:25:47.380 during the Biden administration. So, uh, that's where I want to take the conversation. We've,

00:25:51.540 we've talked about these social issues and how they impact the mission of your organization,

00:25:56.500 but ultimately whether people are going to be able to have a family and be prosperous

00:26:01.220 is impacted by whether or not they can afford it these days. And, uh, so much of the affordability,

00:26:08.260 uh, discussion to me is driven around personal debt. People have, people are spending so much

00:26:14.500 money to service their own debt. And, uh, I am seeing more and more of this type of content online

00:26:21.140 where people are flippantly talking about 60, 70, $135,000 in personal debt. How did we get here?

00:26:29.460 Uh, what you will, we will never be able to build wealth, uh, if people are constantly making

00:26:36.340 $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 debt payments. No, it's, it's unsustainable. We've never had this

00:26:42.900 amount of credit card debt. The credit card debt levels are out of control. And that's like trillions,

00:26:46.580 trillions of dollars. And that's like the most dangerous type of debt. It's unsecured. It's 16,

00:26:51.620 18, 25, sometimes higher percent. That is a death knell. Even if it's $10,000 at 22% interest

00:26:59.620 rates is, is absolutely killer. Um, and it's super tough to get out of it. There's way too much

00:27:05.780 predatory lending in this country. Um, they need to curb back the credit cards, but guess what?

00:27:10.820 That hurts big business. That hurts Apple, right? You had, it's the, the, the debt in this country

00:27:15.860 is so bad individually and personally. We're not talking about the $38 trillion that we have

00:27:20.180 for the federal government. It's bad person. People are financing pizzas. Yeah. They're doing these

00:27:25.540 BNPLs or buy now, pay later things to buy their pizzas. What? That's not prosperity. I don't care

00:27:32.340 what you say. That is not prosperity. If you're having to finance your pizza, pizza's a cheap food.

00:27:38.020 I know that my, that's what our family business was. It's a family food. It's literally one $20

00:27:43.060 pizza when I was growing up fed six people, you know, like probably, you know, four people now,

00:27:48.020 but, uh, it's crazy. It is not sustainable. And on top of that, so I think we're getting crushed by

00:27:53.940 housing, education costs. And I'm not just talking about to college tuition. That's crushing us,

00:28:00.100 but like I have to pay. It's, it's ungodly. I've got so many kids. I pay five grand a month

00:28:06.020 for my kids just to go to school where they'll learn how to read and write and do math.

00:28:09.860 That my property taxes in Fairfax County are so high and these schools can't educate. It's a,

00:28:16.500 it's supposed to be one of the top 10 school districts in the country, but only a third of

00:28:19.860 the kids can read at grade level. Only a third can do math at grade level. What the, and they spend

00:28:25.540 $19,000 per pupil in the school district. They should know Greek and Latin at that rate.

00:28:31.300 You know, like this is unsustainable. It's not okay. And we have to get out of it. So it's,

00:28:37.620 it's housing, education, and healthcare. Obamacare was a total scam. It was a total fraud. Built

00:28:44.500 into this is that the insurance companies get 20% profits every year. They don't negotiate these

00:28:50.420 rates actually down the lowest fossil rate. It's terrible. So I think those are the top three

00:28:54.740 things that like energy prices are getting out of hand. These, these blue states are like,

00:28:58.820 I don't know if you've heard about these, these green energy compacts where you have to buy the

00:29:03.540 clean energy and it's like four times the rate. How many of those people elected that said,

00:29:07.380 here's what we're going to do. We're going to all get together and agree that in our entire region,

00:29:12.020 energy is more expensive. Because if any one of us just make energy more expensive,

00:29:15.940 people will go to the surrounding areas. It's like a, it's like a compact of economic self-mutilation

00:29:22.180 in the American Northeast. When, when all of your listeners and viewers, when they hear green energy,

00:29:29.300 they need to stop thinking about the environment and about leaves and grass and, you know, saving

00:29:34.580 the environment. When they hear green energy, they need to think dollars. Yeah. Because that's what it's

00:29:39.220 all about. We've created a trillion dollar green energy economy with garbage solar panels, 0.99

00:29:45.860 garbage windmills that actually don't, they, they produce more, they, they produce more carbon to

00:29:51.140 create them. Yeah. They're there to absorb credits. Yes. They exist to absorb tax credits and it distorts

00:29:58.340 the energy market for regular folks. But I mean, you know, I, we have seen gas prices certainly lower now

00:30:04.420 than when Joe Biden was in charge of the global economy. Now, I really do think that housing issue

00:30:12.980 you raised is something that a lot of families are dealing with. Do you think that the solution

00:30:18.420 there is this populist proposal to ban entities like BlackRock from being able to buy houses at scale?

00:30:26.340 I'm so excited when we get our Meriwether farm shipments in, you get a beautiful piece of rib.

00:30:30.820 I look, look at that marbling. Now I take it out of the package, let it get down to room temperature.

00:30:36.100 All I've got on here is a little salt, a little pepper, and then a little avocado oil. And then I've had my

00:30:41.300 pan preheating with a little oil.

00:30:49.860 Head to meriwetherfarms.com and enter promo code Matt G for 15% off your first order.

00:30:56.180 I think that's a huge part of it. I think that, well, there's a few things I would do. I would come

00:31:00.820 up with first time home buyer programs. I would come up with, you know, things geared towards the

00:31:06.580 family where you might have like a lower, like an FHA loan, but for families, something along those

00:31:11.540 lines. I would remove the capital gains tax. You know, you met, you said earlier, the boomers are 0.99

00:31:16.580 sitting on multiple homes. Oh yeah. Well, let's incentivize them to like help their children buy 1.00

00:31:21.620 homes, right? So like give them a tax deduction. If they help their child with the down payment for

00:31:25.300 their first house, encourage them to sell their homes by getting rid of capital gains taxes on

00:31:30.580 houses under a million dollars. Well, yeah, it really is true that a lot of boomers feel like

00:31:34.420 they're stuck in their homes because of that, because the tax consequences of leaving would be

00:31:38.900 a lot. Well, and what's funny, I, so I have a one rental property, um, and I used, I, we had one in

00:31:44.900 Virginia and when COVID was happening, I was like, oh, I think these are bad. So we bought a home in Florida.

00:31:51.540 I used a 1031 exchange to avoid paying capital gains taxes.

00:31:55.940 Why don't everyday people who don't have rental properties get to use that too? Like our system

00:32:01.700 literally favors landlords over the people that need to buy homes. You are sounding like Zoran Mamdani.

00:32:07.700 Well, there's a lot of similarities, right? Because where Zoran Mamdani is right is in diagnosing what

00:32:14.740 Americans and what, what New Yorkers and people in this country are suffering from. He's crazy on the 0.96

00:32:20.980 solutions, but he's right on what people are suffering. The Democrats do this really good,

00:32:26.820 good job at listening to people and what they're, except on the trans issue. Like I don't know where 1.00

00:32:30.980 they get that, but when it comes to economic problems, they do such a good job at listening

00:32:35.060 to what people are actually suffering from, but they totally take advantage of them once they get them

00:32:40.340 over. But there is a, there is an elegance to how easy some of the Democrat solutions roll

00:32:46.020 off the tongue, right? Mikey Sherrill in New Jersey get, I will, I will freeze up energy bills.

00:32:51.220 I'm like, oh, well, how come we didn't think of that? Just like make it where stuff can't be more

00:32:56.180 expensive. Of course, that, that, that creates distortions in the market that collapses inventory

00:33:02.100 that's available for people and ultimately leads to considerably higher prices. I don't hear a lot of

00:33:10.100 Republicans on Capitol Hill, speaking to these affordability issues in a compelling way that

00:33:17.380 doesn't sort of sound like a governmental theory lecture. Are there folks you're looking at here

00:33:22.020 and saying, you know what, this is somebody we really need to elevate and, and listen to when it

00:33:28.180 comes to this affordability crisis? I really like Ben Klein. I think he speaks in pretty plain.

00:33:34.740 Virginia Congress. Yep. Yep. From Virginia five. Um, I really like, uh, Jim Banks. I think Josh

00:33:41.300 Hawley does a good job of talking about economic populism. Eric Schmidt's been doing a good job. I

00:33:45.620 think Missouri has a really good, uh, delegation, uh, over there. Um, no, we need way more, right? We

00:33:52.180 need way more. I, I, I thought Marjorie Taylor Greene did a good job about talking about the everyday 0.54

00:33:56.100 concern, economic concerns of people. Now she's gone. Um, I, we need way more people that come from normal

00:34:02.900 America. Like, and that's so rare. Like my dad was a one-term member and they redrew his lines and

00:34:09.220 gave him a district that was twice as democratic. He had no college degree. He was literally just a

00:34:13.540 pizza guy with 10 kids at the time. Like, but he knew what people were suffering from. He was in a

00:34:18.900 union for 14 years. He owned a business for 14 years. They kicked guys like that out of Congress

00:34:23.860 just to rig the game for their political power in Illinois. Like, it's super frustrating, but I, I will

00:34:30.020 just tell you, I do think that like there are real concerns about doing like economic stimulus

00:34:36.900 packages and giving people huge checks, assuming that the economy, because the money's all messed

00:34:42.580 up, right? No one wants to talk about it because one, monetary policy is boring as hell and it's,

00:34:48.420 you're really messing, playing with fire. But this easy money policy that we've had for the last,

00:34:53.300 what, 40 years, we have a K-shaped economy. Yeah. 0.90

00:34:56.820 The rich are getting super rich. The, the middle class is being eliminated. They're

00:35:01.140 doing terribly. I just read this, the top 10% of Americans with their, with their annual incomes,

00:35:07.380 they accounted for 50% of all spending last year. The, that it was 20 years ago, it was only 30%.

00:35:15.860 It's not sustainable. The rich are getting super wealthy and they don't care about the rest of us.

00:35:20.820 And if you mess with their game, you're next. Is that why socialism, uh, is increasing in

00:35:26.900 popularity in virtually every poll we see? Just because you've got a lot of people say, look,

00:35:31.620 I don't really know. I probably couldn't, uh, delineate socialism from capitalism, but I know

00:35:36.500 we've had a capitalist system. That capitalist system has screwed me. Uh, I don't have any real 0.61

00:35:41.540 prospects to gain wealth. So this, this other thing, I'll give it, I'll give it a shot. Is that,

00:35:46.180 is that the chapter of the book? It's exactly right. And I forget who said it. I got, you know,

00:35:50.500 I got eight kids names to remember, but they said that basically if you just sort the money

00:35:54.980 and you mess with the money supply, no one will know what the hell the problem is because it's

00:35:59.620 too complicated to understand really. And they'll blame everything else. And so like right now,

00:36:04.420 people are thinking that our country's failing because of capitalism and because of the free

00:36:08.420 market. No, it's failing because these guys in government are rigging the game. People don't

00:36:13.220 realize. I don't think we have capitalism. No, we don't. I think we have the apparatus of

00:36:16.820 government that wraps around the business model of the people who can sway power in this place.

00:36:23.140 And that is, that is the worst type of, of klepto capitalism you can have even in the category.

00:36:29.460 And, uh, when, I mean, are, are we long away from Republican candidates for office talking about

00:36:37.060 things like universal basic income? Oh, they already are. And like single payer healthcare?

00:36:42.100 Uh, I, I think single payer healthcare is a ways off, but yeah, I mean, this is, this is what

00:36:47.300 happened in Canada. This is what happened all throughout Europe. Like we are on the same path.

00:36:51.380 We're a little bit delayed. Our system's different. Our country's bigger. It's more diverse

00:36:56.100 in a lot of ways, but it's really bad. And the thing is money affects the whole economy. If you met

00:37:03.220 the federal reserve, what they do, it impacts the whole country, the whole economy. When you change

00:37:08.100 the tax rate, this doesn't actually impact everyone, right? It impacts a group of people.

00:37:12.260 And yeah, maybe that might spread out, but when you affect the dollar and the value of the dollar,

00:37:16.340 you can make everyone's money worth less or more. You can cause inflation and then deflation. Like,

00:37:22.660 it is way too much power for men to be in charge of, right? And, and I think it's a really, I think

00:37:27.700 it's been a disaster. And you've seen the middle class be eliminated in the 20th century. 0.97

00:37:31.300 Well, they are going to be voting and that these midterms are coming up. And I think that Republicans

00:37:38.660 are going to be running on the one big, beautiful bill. They're going to say,

00:37:40.980 we secured the border. That was a core promise we made. There's not this border crisis. We said

00:37:46.020 we would enforce immigration laws in the interior of the country. We're doing that. We said we would 0.97

00:37:51.060 get rid of the crazy transification of everything. We've done that. And the economy takes longer 1.00

00:37:58.340 because Trump's whole theory on tariff and invest has a gestation period. Uh, you know,

00:38:05.060 if we were to just drop all tariffs, allow all cheap goods to flow to the country for a time being,

00:38:13.220 stuff would be cheaper. I mean, everything would be cheaper if you did that. It would,

00:38:16.980 it would have long-term catastrophic impacts on the country, but there would be a sugar high there.

00:38:22.260 The converse of that is tariff, drive the investment, build durable economic foundations.

00:38:29.140 Uh, but what I'm concerned about is I don't see Trump get enough credit for that. I don't see,

00:38:34.020 I don't see your regular truck driver married to a teacher sit, uh, watching the Saudis announce 0.63

00:38:41.060 that they've gone from 600 billion to a trillion in investment and saying, well, that's going to make

00:38:46.180 my world. That's going to make my life. And that's going to, uh, that's going to be a hard thing to

00:38:51.140 connect, uh, between now and next November. I agree. And I think you had to do twofold.

00:38:56.500 So I read, uh, last week under Biden, Americans lost $2,900 annually in purchasing power. Prices

00:39:04.820 increased that much more than wages during that time. Under Trump's first 10, 11 months in office,

00:39:10.500 he's gotten $700 of that back. We need to talk about what president Trump's doing to get that

00:39:15.380 $700 back and get back on top, but also remind people, these are Democrats. They took $30,000

00:39:22.340 annually away from you just last year, right? We also need to remind people, under Biden,

00:39:28.580 mortgage rates increased by 450 basis points. What does 450 basis points mean? It means $1,200

00:39:35.380 more for your monthly mortgage payment. Or that credit card.

00:39:38.180 And the credit cards. It's, it's so bad. And so we need to remind people about direction. I mean,

00:39:44.660 what, what seems to be what you're saying is you have to show people that this is directionally

00:39:49.140 better and you have to remind them what, what, uh, what a sewer fest that was.

00:39:54.420 Trump gets a lot of grief from like the old guard about when he starts attacking Biden and bringing

00:39:59.540 up what a failure he is. He should never listen to those people every day. He should be reminding

00:40:05.140 them about what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the Democrats did to our country. You can't stop

00:40:09.940 talking about that. At the same time, you need to talk more about, I didn't know about the $700

00:40:13.620 until last week. That's crazy. I'm in politics. I should know that. So talk about the damage and

00:40:19.540 the destruction of the Democrats did because they're going to do it even worse now. Like we, we kicked

00:40:23.620 up a hornet's nest, you know, by getting into office. He, Trump winning and being as aggressive

00:40:28.180 as he did, he has pissed off these Democrats like we've never seen before. No, they are angry.

00:40:33.060 They are playing for keeps. They are voting. We saw in Tennessee, Democrats had strong turnout,

00:40:37.460 though they came short of, of winning a seat that is a hold for Republicans and a very safe Republican

00:40:42.260 seat. Uh, I, I do think we're going to have to confront that and we got to get our best team on the

00:40:46.740 field. Uh, I heard, uh, a critique today from someone who loves president Trump and they said,

00:40:53.300 I love president Trump, but I want to see him out in the country more. I want to see less

00:40:58.820 president Trump hanging out with MBS and more president Trump, uh, handing out french fries

00:41:04.100 at McDonald's. And by the way, he loves that stuff. He is, he is such an extrovert. He is recharged

00:41:10.660 by, uh, his time with, with folks and out in the country. Uh, you know, uh, D there are some

00:41:17.860 consultants in this town who will say, well, that does motivate the Democrats when he goes out in

00:41:22.900 these places. I think, I think that is where you are. Uh, and only with Trump's aggressive campaigning

00:41:29.620 will Republicans be able to meet that enthusiasm. Well, I agree with that. Getting him across the

00:41:34.980 country will be great for his morale, for our morale, getting that message out. Every time he does those

00:41:40.580 rallies, that's literally tens of thousands of people just from the rally alone that are hearing

00:41:45.300 his latest updates from what he's doing as president. Get him on the campaign trail. But

00:41:48.740 here's the, here's the magic about Trump that everyone's discounted and they really don't

00:41:52.500 understand it. Those rallies are focus groups for him. He pays attention when people cheer. He pays

00:41:59.060 attention when people boo. The whole women's sports thing, he started talking about it because,

00:42:04.580 you know, he's out in Iowa. My mom was there. It was at the Adler Theater in Davenport, Iowa.

00:42:08.820 And he's talking about bringing billions of dollars back to the farmers in Iowa. And

00:42:12.740 there's like a tepid, like, oh, okay, thank you. And then he's like, well, you know what I'm going

00:42:16.660 to do? I'm going to get these, these men that are in girls sports. Can you believe this? And

00:42:20.180 they're like, I'm going to get them out of there. The crowd went wild. And Trump in the middle of

00:42:23.540 the speech, he's like, I don't get you people. I'm talking about bringing billions of dollars

00:42:27.700 back and I get this, oh, thank you. But then when I say get men out of girls sports, 1.00

00:42:31.540 you all lose your minds. These things are focus groups for him. His magic is he listens

00:42:35.780 to us. No, it's an osmosis effect, right? That is such a good point. I think that when

00:42:41.140 the person I was talking to mentioned this, they were talking about the value of Trump just being

00:42:44.980 in the communities. You know, he always does the local media. There's always the big buildup when

00:42:49.700 he comes, the afterglow of his highlights. But what you actually said is perhaps more prescient

00:42:54.740 because it's about the feedback he receives from people who aren't ever going to be inside the Oval

00:43:00.580 office with him. And that is so key to, I think, nurturing his exquisite political instincts.

00:43:07.540 I don't want to touch a third rail here, right? But I kind of do. You think Trump on the campaign

00:43:11.860 trail, is he going to get a huge, raucous applause bringing up 15-year car notes and 50-year mortgages?

00:43:19.060 Yeah. I don't think he does. No. I think he might get booze from that. And that's why we need him

00:43:23.380 on the campaign trail. Get him out of D.C. What about when he brings up Israel? What will happen then?

00:43:28.100 I actually, I think the base, I think that there's a good portion of the base that's like

00:43:34.820 starting to question Israel more, especially young people. But I still think the base is like so 1.00

00:43:38.800 evangelical that it's like, they don't, they don't really view Israel and America as separate

00:43:44.300 interests. So you think that debate that's happening in the Republican Party about our relationship

00:43:50.280 with Israel is largely an online debate? You think it's not one that's...

00:43:53.020 I think it's largely online. I know, I talk to a lot of people. I have town halls all the time,

00:43:57.440 like teletown halls, and we open up for questions, and we never get any questions about Israel. And we

00:44:02.480 talk about everything. I mean, we talk about transgender surgeries for kids, you know, like

00:44:05.700 everything from that to tax cuts. Israel never comes up. When I go back home in Illinois and Iowa,

00:44:11.960 I, we have this little Saturday morning breakfast club, Reagan, the breakfast club, and

00:44:16.960 never brings up Israel. Why do you think it comes up so much more with young people?

00:44:20.700 Well, I think that there are like these like, you know, newer influencers that are hot on the right. They're questioning a lot of this stuff. I also think that like, young people are just more open asking questions. They see this system that is chewing them up and spitting them out. And they're like, questioning everything.

00:44:37.940 Like, anything that has power in that system generates...

00:44:40.580 They're questioning the moon landing. Like, I mean, like these young people, I'll never forget COVID, COVID made a lot of these young people crazy and question everything. Because we all knew we were being lied to about COVID and the shots and all that. My, my, I'm not gonna say who it is, friend of mine, we were, we got in a huge argument about the moon landing, about, about whether or not Winston Churchill was the bad guy. And I'm like, what are we debating here? Like, this is all settled. We've been to the moon. The earth is...

00:45:07.920 He's not round. Like, I get... These young people are going crazy because they're being lied to on fundamental things.

00:45:14.160 But that has to be a COVID thing, right?

00:45:15.800 I think it's a COVID thing. Man.

00:45:17.280 Everyone's locked in their homes. They're in these bubbles. They're just scrolling.

00:45:20.060 Well, and also, again, just what a wide-scale lie it was, how many people bought into it, and that we had to pay all such a collective punishment price for it.

00:45:30.800 Like, the Russia hoax was a crazy lie, but the Russia hoax didn't fundamentally change how America...

00:45:37.020 No one died alone in the hospital without their family because of the Russia hoax. 0.75

00:45:41.660 Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I think that, that is why it caused such a, a cultural time of questioning.

00:45:47.780 But, look, we're going into these midterms. You've talked about the challenges.

00:45:51.120 I have my perspective on the U.S.-Israel relationship. I think that Netanyahu's damaged it terribly.

00:45:56.160 But I think that it's not the time for the circular firing squad here.

00:46:02.420 If going into this midterm with what we're facing, we want to expose ourselves to a series of, like, regressive purity tests, that will demoralize our base.

00:46:13.280 So I would even say to the pro-Israel crowd, to the crowd that loves Netanyahu, we ought to be on the same team to build stronger families, to build a stronger economy, to work together where we can for peace in the world.

00:46:27.580 Do you think that's achievable with what you see in some of the schisms on the right today?

00:46:31.000 Yeah, I think so. And I think Trump's the key to that.

00:46:33.080 And I think Trump is the key to all this stuff.

00:46:35.000 I think he's the leader of the party.

00:46:37.740 And what he says people typically listen to, especially if it's on point.

00:46:41.700 We've got to get him back on the campaign trail.

00:46:43.380 He's got to do some rallies.

00:46:44.620 Go to Iowa. Go to Ohio. Go to Florida. Go to North Carolina.

00:46:48.820 And the rallies are great, but I loved the off-the-records he did.

00:46:52.600 I loved the ice cream cone stop.

00:46:55.320 I loved the, you know, swinging by the McDonald's.

00:46:58.680 McDonald's was amazing.

00:46:59.900 I loved when he stopped the fire, the firehouses and bring pizzas.

00:47:03.960 I just think that that showed such a charm in Trump.

00:47:08.220 And I think that people would see him interacting with that.

00:47:12.680 And like you say, the feedback he would get.

00:47:15.580 So is it too early to start preparing for the minority? 0.90

00:47:18.520 Because there's stuff you've got to do in the minority because you don't have the staff.

00:47:23.600 You don't have control of the agenda.

00:47:25.860 And so in the minority, you have to prepare for an onslaught against the administration

00:47:31.720 from Hakeem Jeffries and Jamie Raskin and AOC.

00:47:35.620 And you've got to start digging some trenches if that's where we're going.

00:47:39.600 Are you that pessimistic yet?

00:47:41.160 No, no. I'm an eternal optimist.

00:47:44.840 But how I'm handling this is we've got to work for the best and prepare for the worst.

00:47:51.360 Right?

00:47:51.600 Like we cannot get caught on our laurels again.

00:47:53.780 We cannot get caught on our back feet. 0.99

00:47:55.460 These Democrats want to kill us.

00:47:57.020 Well, being caught on our back feet will be, you'll have a bunch of people leave the Trump administration

00:48:01.420 because they were there, they were sunshine patriots, you know, and a bunch of them will be out the door.

00:48:07.820 And then there'll be a need to refresh the hockey line.

00:48:11.580 And then there will be a need to endure this oversight effort that I think will make the January 6th committee look like a patty-cat game.

00:48:20.420 Yeah, no, these guys need to be held accountable.

00:48:22.120 More and more comes out about January 6th and everything that these guys pulled there, like, it is so crazy what they've gotten away with.

00:48:29.900 And the more you learn, the more you're appalled and angry.

00:48:34.220 And we need to make sure the American people know what happened.

00:48:38.020 Because Trump almost had his whole life ruined over it.

00:48:39.740 This might be our only chance.

00:48:40.240 I mean, this might be what we were building for everything.

00:48:42.240 We have the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, we have the presidency.

00:48:45.740 Every day is incredibly precious.

00:48:47.280 If folks want to follow the work of the American Principles Project and the Terry Schilling Show, please let us know how to do that.

00:48:53.080 Well, thanks so much, man.

00:48:54.020 I always love talking to you.

00:48:55.440 I learn every time I talk to you, actually.

00:48:57.760 It's just Schilling1776 across all social media.

00:49:01.060 I promote the Terry Schilling Show all the time on there, so you'll be able to get it.

00:49:05.140 AmericanPrinciplesProject.org.

00:49:06.300 It's, like, my favorite thing I've ever been a part of in my entire life.

00:49:08.400 And I ran my dad's campaign.

00:49:09.440 Actually, my dad's campaign was number one.

00:49:11.380 This is number two.

00:49:12.100 It's been an honor and a blessing.

00:49:13.920 We've had so much fun.

00:49:15.160 Well, thank you, my friend.

00:49:16.200 Look forward to checking back in with you soon.

00:49:17.960 We always love having you on the Matt Gaetz Show as well.

00:49:20.160 And until then, thank you all so much for joining us.

00:49:22.340 Leave us a five-star rating.

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00:49:26.480 Let us know if there's somebody you'd like us to talk to.

00:49:28.240 Until then, we'll catch you next time on Anchorman.

00:49:30.820 Want to see more great videos like this?

00:49:33.140 Click on the link below to subscribe to OAN Live and watch Dan Ball's Real America and the Matt Gaetz Show on Dish Channel 212.

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The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - December 05, 2025

The Anchormen Show EP 81 - Fatherhood w⧸Terry Schilling

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