The Ben Shapiro Show - 100 DAYS: Where Does Trump Stand?

00:00:00.000 Well, folks, we are almost 100 days into the second Trump presidency, and we will give you our review where the polling stands and everything else.

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00:00:37.000 Okay, so Tuesday marks 100 days of President Trump's second term.

00:00:41.000 And it's been a lot.

00:00:43.000 It's been a lot.

00:00:44.000 President Trump has done an enormous number of amazing things, ranging.

00:00:47.000 From fighting DEI in every aspect of his administration to going after university campuses that are hotbeds of anti-Semitism and leftism and wokeness, ranging from his attempts to inject Pete's headset, the Secretary of Defense, in order to fix all the problems at the Pentagon,

00:01:03.000 to Doge, which is going through all aspects of government spending with Elon Musk and attempting to cut waste fraud and abuse.

00:01:10.000 He's issued more executive orders in his first 100 days than any president in history.

00:01:14.000 He's been incredibly...

00:01:17.000 Effective in terms of pushing forward many parts of his agenda.

00:01:20.000 With that said, the polling right now for President Trump is not good after 100 days in.

00:01:25.000 And that is a reflection of sentiment specifically regarding the economy.

00:01:29.000 So if you look at President Trump's brand new poll numbers, they're a bevy of polls and they're all telling the same story 100 days in.

00:01:35.000 According to a brand new Washington Post-ABC News Ipsos poll, President Trump's approval rating is down from February.

00:01:42.000 It was 45% in February.

00:01:44.000 It's down all the way to 39%.

00:01:48.000 That is lower than any other president at this point on record in his first term, or in his second term, actually.

00:02:01.000 President Trump historically has not pulled particularly well.

00:02:05.000 If you look at his first term, 100-day point, also fairly low.

00:02:09.000 President Trump has always had a very high floor and a very low ceiling in terms of his polling data, meaning that his floor is usually 38, 39%.

00:02:17.000 He rarely goes below that.

00:02:18.000 At the same time, he rarely gets above 45, 46% in the opinion polls.

00:02:22.000 With that said, he has dropped fairly significantly in these opinion polls, in many of them, and it's not just one.

00:02:29.000 This is particularly rooted in the economy.

00:02:31.000 Now, again, when it comes to the Democrats, the good news for President Trump is he's blessed by his enemies.

00:02:35.000 His enemies are awful, and the American people hate the people that President Trump faces down even more than they dislike President Trump.

00:02:42.000 So, for example, The same poll showing President Trump at a 39% approval rating shows that 7 in 10 Americans say the Democratic Party is out of touch.

00:02:51.000 6 in 10 say that about Trump.

00:02:53.000 Nearly 7 in 10 say that about the Democratic Party.

00:02:56.000 So whatever the American people think of President Trump, they think even worse about the Democratic Party. 0.77

00:03:00.000 By the way, there is a good reason for that, which is that the Democratic Party is so unbelievably unhinged. 0.99

00:03:04.000 They are so incompetent at this, truly incompetent. 0.99

00:03:06.000 It is amazing. 0.76

00:03:07.000 As we'll see, it's a target-rich environment for Democrats out there, particularly on the economy.

00:03:11.000 But they cannot help themselves because they are constantly running to the radical left of their own base. 1.00

00:03:16.000 They are saying idiotic things on a daily basis. 0.99

00:03:19.000 So over the weekend, for example, J.B. Pritzker, the rotund governor of Illinois, who has to be lowered into the Illinois capital by Crane, he was giving a speech in which he suggested that basically anybody who is a supporter of Trump ought to be harassed on the streets, a la Maxine Waters several years back. 0.99

00:03:33.000 Here was J.B. Pritzker doing this routine.

00:03:36.000 Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption.

00:03:43.000 But I am now.

00:03:45.000 These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.

00:03:49.000 They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have.

00:03:56.000 We must castigate them on the soapbox and then punish them at the ballot box. 0.90

00:04:02.000 So, Democrats are unhinged. 0.97

00:04:04.000 So instead of them just sitting there and saying, listen, President Trump isn't doing the job Americans want him to do, which would be the smart way to actually approach this, they've decided instead that they're just going to go psychotic.

00:04:12.000 Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, would-be House Speaker, yesterday is in the middle of a protest, and he started quoting Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War, suggesting that America could break down between patriots and traitors.

00:04:26.000 Presumably the traitors would be Republicans.

00:04:29.000 Reminds me of a letter that Ulysses Grant was said to have sent.

00:04:35.000 At the start of the Civil War, of course, the great general who subsequently became president.

00:04:41.000 And at that moment of great turmoil in the country, the country literally tearing itself apart, Grant wrote that whatever my prior political positions have been,

00:04:56.000 my prior opinions have been up until this point, I have but only one objective now.

00:05:05.000 He said we have a government and laws and a flag and they must all be sustained.

00:05:17.000 Government, laws and a flag and they must all be sustained.

00:05:24.000 And then he said something even deeper than that.

00:05:26.000 Because at that time in American history, there were multiple parties.

00:05:29.000 We're in a two-party system right now, but there were multiple parties.

00:05:33.000 And what Grant said is, there are but two parties in America right now.

00:05:42.000 Patriots and traitors. 0.99

00:05:45.000 Okay, so this is just psychotic. 0.90

00:05:46.000 Okay, because now he's not even arguing about the violation of law, supposedly by the Trump administration.

00:05:52.000 He's not arguing about emoluments.

00:05:55.000 He's arguing here.

00:05:56.000 About the budget. 0.95

00:05:57.000 He's suggesting if you're on the wrong side of the budget negotiation, then you are a traitor.

00:06:01.000 So again, President Trump is blessed in his opposition.

00:06:03.000 Absolutely blessed.

00:06:04.000 He brings out the absolute worst in all of his enemies.

00:06:07.000 John Ossoff, the soon-to-be ex-senator from Georgia, is the current senator from Georgia.

00:06:11.000 He's going to lose his next election.

00:06:12.000 He's trying to rile up the Democratic base, too.

00:06:14.000 And he literally said that he'd be in favor of impeaching President Trump.

00:06:18.000 Why?

00:06:18.000 For selling meme coin as a fundraiser.

00:06:22.000 So Democrats, again.

00:06:24.000 They remain wildly unpopular with the American public.

00:06:26.000 With that said, it is not good news for President Trump that he is riding so low in the polls that's particularly true with independents.

00:06:31.000 According to that brand new Washington Post, ABC News, Ipsos poll, among independents, only 33% approve, 58% disapprove.

00:06:39.000 Among independents who lean Republican, Trump's approval has dropped from 76% to 63% since February.

00:06:46.000 And it's a very quick drop, and there is one reason for it generally, one reason.

00:06:50.000 And that reason is not immigration.

00:06:51.000 That reason is not foreign policy.

00:06:53.000 That reason is the tariff war.

00:06:55.000 The tariff war has absolutely crippled him on pretty much every other issue.

00:06:59.000 According to that poll, only 31% of Americans approve of the recent turmoil in the stock market.

00:07:06.000 Only 34% of Americans approve of tariffs on imported goods.

00:07:09.000 Only 38% approve of his relations with foreign countries.

00:07:13.000 And only 39%, the same as his approval rating, approve on the economy.

00:07:17.000 So as the economy goes, so too does President Trump.

00:07:20.000 When it comes to immigration, his most popular issue.

00:07:22.000 He's at 46% approved, 53% disapproved, but that's because whenever a president is unpopular on one issue, it tends to drag him down on a wide variety of other issues.

00:07:32.000 When it comes to whether Americans think he's going too far on particular issues, the issue where only a minority think he is going too far is in deporting undocumented immigrants.

00:07:42.000 50% say that he's either handling it right or not going far enough.

00:07:45.000 So again, on immigration, which is his signal issue, that is his key issue since 2015, President Trump is succeeding.

00:07:51.000 But when it comes to the economy and expanding the power of the presidency, 64% of Americans say that he is going too far, for example.

00:08:00.000 And immigration remains his most popular issue.

00:08:03.000 The economy is where people are freaking out.

00:08:07.000 And again, that freakout is not unjustified given the current situation of the global economy.

00:08:14.000 And it's not just.

00:08:15.000 That particular poll.

00:08:16.000 And we are 100 days in, and so we are doing a sort of retrospective on where the administration stands.

00:08:20.000 And as I've been saying, if you're hoping for President Trump's success, because I'm a voter of President Trump, I'm a supporter of President Trump's, get money to his campaign, fundraise for him, campaign with him.

00:08:29.000 President Trump needs to succeed on the economy, because if he does not succeed on the economy, everything else goes down in flames.

00:08:35.000 According to a new national poll by CBS News, President Trump's approval rating is down from 53% in February to 45%.

00:08:44.000 Very significant decline.

00:08:46.000 On immigration, President Trump is only underwater by a couple of points.

00:08:50.000 That's not because people change their minds on immigration.

00:08:51.000 It's because of everything else.

00:08:52.000 Look at these numbers on the economy.

00:08:54.000 He went from plus two on the economy in February to minus 16 on the economy.

00:09:00.000 He is now at minus 24 on inflation.

00:09:04.000 Okay, those numbers are devastating for President Trump.

00:09:08.000 And again, it is a cross poll.

00:09:10.000 So this is not just one poll that I'm citing.

00:09:12.000 These are not outlier polls.

00:09:13.000 Absolutely clear trend.

00:09:15.000 When it comes to inflation and the cost of living, according to a new decision desk survey, only 40% approve.

00:09:24.000 60% either somewhat disapprove or strongly disapprove.

00:09:27.000 When it comes to trade and tariffs, only 39% approve.

00:09:30.000 61% disapprove.

00:09:33.000 So this is a trend.

00:09:35.000 And so the question is what President Trump is going to do about that.

00:09:38.000 We'll get to more on this in just a moment.

00:09:40.000 First, tax day may already be over, but for millions of Americans, the real trouble is just beginning.

00:09:44.000 If you miss the April 15th deadline or still owe back taxes, the IRS is ramping up enforcement.

00:09:49.000 Every day you wait only makes things worse.

00:09:51.000 With over 5,000 new tax liens filed daily and tools like property seizures, bank levies, wage garnishments, the IRS is applying pressure at levels we have not seen in years.

00:09:58.000 Increased administrative scrutiny means collections are moving fast.

00:10:01.000 The good news, there's still time for Tax Network USA to help.

00:10:04.000 Self-employed or a business owner, even if your books are a mess, they've got it covered.

00:10:08.000 Tax Network USA specializes in cleaning up financial chaos and getting you back on track fast.

00:10:12.000 Even after the deadline, it's not too late to regain control.

00:10:15.000 Your consultation is completely free.

00:10:16.000 Acting now could stop penalties, threatening letters, and surprise levies before they escalate.

00:10:20.000 Call 1-800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com slash Shapiro.

00:10:25.000 You may have missed April 15. But you haven't run out of options.

00:10:28.000 Let Tax Network USA help before the IRS makes the next move.

00:10:31.000 Again, that is 1-800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com slash Shapiro.

00:10:37.000 1-800-958-1000 or visit tnusa.com slash Shapiro.

00:10:41.000 Also, you might already own a firearm, but having something less lethal as an option, that's a great idea as well.

00:10:45.000 Enter Burna.

00:10:46.000 That is B-Y-R-N-A. 1.00

00:10:48.000 I'm as pro-second amendment as it gets.

00:10:49.000 The thought of using lethal force, not ideal for everybody.

00:10:51.000 Luckily, Berna's less lethal launchers are equipped with tear gas and kinetic ammunition designed to incapacitate an attacker for up to 40 minutes without the unwanted repercussions.

00:11:00.000 And Berna is excited to introduce the all-new compact launcher.

00:11:03.000 Sleek, slim, it's like a sledgehammer, the same size as a smartphone, allowing you to conceal carry everywhere comfortably and with confidence.

00:11:09.000 This launcher fires at 400 feet per second with 41 joules of force per square inch.

00:11:13.000 It's a lot of power to stop aggressors in their tracks.

00:11:15.000 One thing I love about Berna is... 0.99

00:11:16.000 It's an American company.

00:11:18.000 Over 80% of the components in the compact launcher are sourced in the United States.

00:11:21.000 Their pistols are hand-assembled in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

00:11:25.000 Again, the reality is that if you ever have to use a firearm, there are all sorts of lethal and legal consequences that could attend.

00:11:32.000 Burna bypasses a lot of that stuff.

00:11:34.000 Burna is legal in all 50 states, requires no background checks, it can be shipped directly to your door.

00:11:38.000 Plus, Burna is trusted by hundreds of police departments and government agencies worldwide.

00:11:42.000 While President Trump over the weekend...

00:11:45.000 He continues, and his administration continue to give mixed signals about the tariff war.

00:11:48.000 So on the one hand, Scott Besson, every time Scott Besson talks, the market goes up, the Treasury Secretary, because he's trying to quiet the market.

00:11:56.000 He's trying to tell the markets everything's going to be okay.

00:11:58.000 We're going to come to trade deals.

00:11:59.000 We're going to get off of this tariff train.

00:12:01.000 So Scott Besson was on ABC News this week, and he was asked about President Trump suggesting that a bunch of tariff negotiations were taking place, that deals were going to be cut, and here was his answer.

00:12:13.000 Let's talk about the Time interview with President Trump.

00:12:18.000 He said that he has made 200 deals on tariffs.

00:12:23.000 200 deals?

00:12:25.000 Who has he made deals with?

00:12:26.000 Is there actually any deal at this point?

00:12:29.000 I believe that he is referring to sub-deals within the negotiations we're doing.

00:12:36.000 And, Martha, if there are 180... 0.95

00:12:39.000 But those aren't actual deals.

00:12:40.000 Martha, if there are 180 countries...

00:12:42.000 There are 18 important trading partners.

00:12:45.000 Let's put China to the side because that's a special negotiation.

00:12:50.000 There are 17 important trading partners.

00:12:52.000 And we have a process in place over the next 90 days to negotiate with them.

00:13:00.000 Some of those are moving along very well, especially with the Asian countries.

00:13:05.000 Okay, so that is not 200 deals that are being done, obviously.

00:13:09.000 So there's still confusion.

00:13:10.000 And here is the problem.

00:13:12.000 When it comes to these trade deals, they usually take a significant amount of time to negotiate.

00:13:16.000 It's not like you can snap your fingers and the trade deals magically get done.

00:13:18.000 There are lots of details.

00:13:19.000 Some of them have to be approved by Congress.

00:13:21.000 And meanwhile, President Trump went on Truth Social yesterday and decided to talk up the tariff war.

00:13:26.000 When tariffs cut in, many people's income taxes will be substantially reduced, maybe even completely eliminated.

00:13:31.000 Focus will be on people making less than $200,000 a year.

00:13:34.000 Also, massive number of jobs are already being created with new plants and factories currently being built or planned.

00:13:39.000 It will be a bonanza for America.

00:13:41.000 The external revenue service is happening.

00:13:43.000 So again, this is sort of a talking point that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has retailed is that we're going to replace the income tax with tariffs.

00:13:49.000 That is not going to happen.

00:13:50.000 We're not going to raise the amount of money in tariffs that would compensate for the loss of the income tax, for example.

00:13:55.000 And that is not how the American people are feeling about any of this.

00:13:58.000 Again, we have yet to actually feel the significant effect of the tariffs on the economy, but it is coming.

00:14:05.000 I'm talking to people who are in the wholesale and retail space, and they are freaking out about the tariffs.

00:14:11.000 They are seeing their orders cut.

00:14:13.000 They are seeing their prices increase.

00:14:15.000 They are seeing the supply chains break.

00:14:17.000 According to Port Technology, the U.S. tariff war is continuing to disrupt container shipping.

00:14:22.000 With a significant uptick in blank sailings on Trans-Pacific Roots reported over the past week.

00:14:26.000 Blank sailings are where you have these gigantic ships that are carrying all sorts of cargo.

00:14:31.000 And they can't just sit in port waiting to be loaded indefinitely because there's something else coming behind them.

00:14:35.000 It's more like a train than it is the way we tend to think of boats floating across the water.

00:14:38.000 And so if they arrive in a port and there's nothing to be put on the ship, they just move on to the next port.

00:14:43.000 Well, it used to be because it's extremely expensive to ship this sort of stuff.

00:14:47.000 I mean, the giant cost to move these giant ships all over the planet.

00:14:50.000 It used to be that pretty much no ship left port without anything on it.

00:14:54.000 There were no blank sailings.

00:14:55.000 Well, as we are now seeing, that is not true anymore.

00:14:59.000 Data from sea intelligence illustrates a steep rise in blanked capacity on the Asia-North America East Coast trade.

00:15:06.000 In week 12 of 2025, there were zero blank sailings scheduled for the period between April 7th and May 12th.

00:15:12.000 By week 15, 35% of all planned capacity for the week starting May 5th had been canceled.

00:15:19.000 Those figures rose to 42% by week 16, representing a 7 percentage point increase in just one week.

00:15:27.000 And a similar development is happening on the Asia-North America-West Coast route.

00:15:30.000 For the week commencing, 28 April, blank sailings increased from 13% in week 15 to 28% by week 16. This is a dramatic change in the market, obviously.

00:15:41.000 You're starting to see a bunch of importers saying, well, we're not going to be able to sell these products with these giant tariffs on them.

00:15:49.000 And so ships are just arriving that are empty.

00:15:52.000 Ships are just not being filled up.

00:15:54.000 Meanwhile, there are a lot of fears of actual shortages, price hikes, sort of like when the supply chains broke during COVID.

00:16:03.000 According to Axios, many retailers stocked up on inventory in the first months of 2025, realizing a storm was coming.

00:16:09.000 Their inventories are poised to dwindle quickly.

00:16:11.000 The National Retail Federation expects U.S. imports to plunge by at least 20% in the second half of 2025 if the current tariffs remain.

00:16:19.000 Shortages are a real possibility, John Harmon, who is a Corsight research analyst, told Axios.

00:16:24.000 The CEOs of Walmart, Target, and Home Depot warned President Trump in a meeting last week that his trade policy could trigger massive product shortages and price spikes as well.

00:16:35.000 And that's the big guys.

00:16:37.000 The smaller guys basically have no options because maybe President Trump relieves tariffs on some of the big guys the way he did with Apple.

00:16:43.000 But if you're a small retailer, you might be screwed.

00:16:46.000 Again, I know people who are in the import-export business, and they're getting hammered.

00:16:49.000 I mean, they're looking at the possibility of actual bankruptcy.

00:16:52.000 A slew of companies are already warning of higher prices, or have already increased them, including Procter& Gamble, Best Buy, Unilever, Ford, Shine, Timu, AutoZone, and Hermes.

00:17:01.000 Now, May.

00:17:03.000 The Halloween and Costume Association warrant tariffs are threatening to wipe out Halloween and severely disrupt Christmas as well.

00:17:08.000 And back-to-school season is already at risk.

00:17:10.000 Remember, there's a long tail to these sorts of policies.

00:17:14.000 Meanwhile, Magnificent Seven, are suffering in the stock market a little bit.

00:17:19.000 They're bruising losses, according to the Wall Street Journal, pose a new test for markets.

00:17:24.000 Even after a rally last week, the Magnificent Seven are off to their worst start to a year since 2022.

00:17:28.000 Each stock has fallen more than 6.5%.

00:17:31.000 They've collectively lost $2.5 trillion in market value.

00:17:36.000 Meanwhile, China is upping its own game.

00:17:39.000 So, one of the big places where America has a systemic advantage is in the field of AI.

00:17:44.000 That requires sophisticated semiconductors.

00:17:46.000 This is why one of the big worries right now is that even if the United States were able to successfully box in China, if China tried to go after Taiwan, TSMC, which is where 92% of all the world's sophisticated semiconductors are produced, would be in their crosshairs.

00:18:00.000 If that were to happen, China would actually benefit.

00:18:03.000 Because if the biggest producer of the sophisticated microchips goes down, China has been doing a great job ramping up its secondary microchips.

00:18:11.000 And now it turns out they've been working.

00:18:15.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Huawei Technologies is gearing up to test its newest and most powerful artificial intelligence processors.

00:18:22.000 The company hopes could replace some of the higher-end products of NVIDIA.

00:18:27.000 The study advanced by one of China's flagship technology companies points to the resilience of the country's semiconductor industry, despite efforts by Washington to stymie it, including by cutting off access to some Western chip-making equipment.

00:18:38.000 Huawei is approaching Chinese tech companies about testing the technical feasibility of a new chip.

00:18:42.000 It's called a Sen 910D.

00:18:44.000 The company is slated to receive the first batch of samples of the processor as soon as late May.

00:18:49.000 Now again, maybe it's not ready, but the bottom line is that right now the world is not prepared for the loss of TSMC chips, except for probably China.

00:18:59.000 And again, when you take a look at the status of the economy, most of the impact of the tariffs has not yet hit.

00:19:08.000 That is the big problem for President Trump.

00:19:10.000 When you look at President Trump's trade war on China and his elevated tariffs on the rest of the planet, as I have said now about a thousand times, there are preconditions to fighting a successful trade war.

00:19:22.000 You need to get ready for it, just like a regular war. 0.83

00:19:24.000 If you're going to win a regular war, you need to make sure your supply lines are in place.

00:19:27.000 You need to make sure that you actually have the materiel.

00:19:29.000 You need to make sure that you have the recruitment efforts.

00:19:31.000 You have to have the strategy, right?

00:19:33.000 You have to have your allies in place.

00:19:34.000 All that stuff happens in a war and it also happens in a trade war.

00:19:37.000 If you just run into the trade war, you end up with the situation in which President Trump currently finds himself with public opinion and with the economy in a bit of a box canyon.

00:19:45.000 Now, maybe President Trump is able to extricate himself from that box canyon by cutting a bunch of trade deals very quickly.

00:19:51.000 That obviously is what Scott Besson is working on.

00:19:53.000 But the markets are freaking out.

00:19:55.000 And again, The main effect of the tariffs have yet to actually hit on a practical level for most Americans.

00:20:02.000 Meanwhile, it is unclear if Republicans are actually going to be able to get their big, beautiful tax bill through.

00:20:08.000 So I think it would be almost unthinkable for Republicans not to be able to get their big, beautiful tax bill through this one big bill that's going to include defense and immigration spending, as well as a tax bill.

00:20:17.000 If that doesn't happen, that's already been baked into the market.

00:20:19.000 If that doesn't happen, you will see a market collapse.

00:20:22.000 If the tax bill does not go through, if the tax rates suddenly skyrocket, Back to what they were before the Trump tax cuts of his first term.

00:20:29.000 If that were to happen, faith in the ability of the federal government to even ensure any level of consistency and predictability in the economy would drop as well.

00:20:38.000 So are Republicans going to get it together?

00:20:39.000 Because so far, it seems like the Republican Congress has achieved virtually nothing.

00:20:44.000 They've not actually enshrined any of the doge cuts that Elon Musk's doge have made at this point.

00:20:49.000 Congress has not yet been able to get this big, beautiful tax bill through.

00:20:52.000 They need to get it through like ASAP.

00:20:54.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Republicans push President Trump's big, beautiful tax and spending package closer to the finish line with votes earlier this month approving a budget framework.

00:21:03.000 But hard intra-party fights remain in writing and ironing out the multi-trillion dollar package.

00:21:09.000 Most GOP lawmakers are on board with the broader plan to extend expiring pieces of the 2017 tax law, introduce no tax on tips, boost border spending, cut other government outlays.

00:21:19.000 Speaker Johnson wants to get the bill finished by Memorial Day.

00:21:22.000 But fights are smoldering over details.

00:21:24.000 You have some deficit hardliners who are very skeptical of the tax bill.

00:21:28.000 That includes members like Chip Roy of Texas and Andrew Clyde of Georgia.

00:21:32.000 Meanwhile, you have people who are concerned that there will be some sort of changes to Medicaid because that health insurance program does have a bunch.

00:21:40.000 It's a means-tested welfare program.

00:21:42.000 There are a bunch of people on it who probably don't necessarily need to be on it.

00:21:45.000 But there are a lot of Republicans in Purple District who are afraid that any Medicaid cuts whatsoever means their seat goes away.

00:21:51.000 Such members, according to the Journal, include Representatives David Valadao of California, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania.

00:21:57.000 Those are both in battleground districts.

00:21:59.000 And again, you have a bunch of senators also who are in sort of purplish states.

00:22:03.000 Susan Collins, who's in a blue state in Maine, Murkowski, who's been in a red state, Alaska, but is a very moderate senator, and Howley in Missouri, have all opposed deep cuts.

00:22:13.000 We'll get some more on this in a moment.

00:22:14.000 First, I need to make sure that I maintain my health.

00:22:16.000 I hit the gym.

00:22:17.000 I spend time with the family.

00:22:18.000 But here is the thing.

00:22:20.000 Eating vegetables?

00:22:21.000 Bad.

00:22:22.000 When I was younger, I used to think I could just power through on the willpower and the caffeine.

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00:22:53.000 It's kosher, so I can pop it right into the protein smoothie, and that keeps the gun show going strong. 0.98

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00:24:25.000 Meanwhile, there are a bunch of Republican lawmakers.

00:24:27.000 Who want President Trump to get rid of the ban on SALT deductions?

00:24:31.000 Again, those would be Republicans in places like New Jersey, New York, California.

00:24:35.000 Right now, the way that it works is that you don't get to discount the taxes you pay on the state level before you pay your federal income tax.

00:24:41.000 A lot of Republicans in blue states would like to see that go away again to preserve their seats.

00:24:45.000 So, will Republicans be able to square all those circles?

00:24:47.000 I think they will be able to get there, but they had better get there.

00:24:50.000 President Trump's presidency now relies on a couple of things.

00:24:53.000 One, ending this trade war or...

00:24:55.000 Recalibrating it so that it will be more likely to be successful, which requires dramatic moves, or two, and or two.

00:25:03.000 It actually requires both.

00:25:04.000 The tax bill.

00:25:05.000 Both those things need to happen.

00:25:07.000 If both those things do not happen, then President Trump's presidency will continue to spin out.

00:25:13.000 Because as the economy goes, President Trump's subtle promise, not so subtle promise.

00:25:18.000 For all of his career is he's a great businessman and he'll make sure the economy is okay.

00:25:22.000 And right now, a lot of investors, including many investors that I know, have a lot of faith in President Trump that he's going to be able to create a solid business environment.

00:25:29.000 One of the reasons that so much of tech country voted for President Trump is because they were deeply afraid of Kamala Harris's anti-tech perspective and anti-market perspectives. 0.90

00:25:40.000 Many of them have been shocked by President Trump's tariff war.

00:25:44.000 They're still hopeful that President Trump is going to Back away from that and move in a more free market oriented direction.

00:25:50.000 That is what President Trump needs to do if he wishes to make the American people happy with his presidency again, which will give him the political capital necessary to do everything else.

00:25:59.000 And again, the part of this 100 days in that's a problem is that he's doing so many other really, really important things.

00:26:05.000 Last week, he signed an executive order, which is one of the most important executive orders that he signed his entire presidency.

00:26:10.000 It was an executive order to get rid of disparate impact analysis.

00:26:14.000 That has been a hallmark of federal government policy.

00:26:16.000 For decades, basically disparate impact analysis suggests that any policy where, in aggregate, say black people don't do as well as white people, even if the policy is totally neutral, must be presumed to be racist. 0.99

00:26:29.000 And he got rid of that because he said that's stupid. 0.74

00:26:32.000 There are lots of policies that are neutral and that have a different impact on groups because it turns out people in various groups don't behave the same way, aren't interested in the same things and all the rest. 0.96

00:26:41.000 As I've said many, many times, if you draw a line down the middle of literally any room with a lot of people in it, You'll end up with two groups, and those two groups will be unequal in a wide variety of ways.

00:26:50.000 Height, weight, good looks, brains, all of it.

00:26:53.000 So disparate impact analysis was always terrible.

00:26:55.000 President Trump got rid of it on the federal level last week.

00:26:57.000 That's an important accomplishment.

00:26:59.000 President Trump has been fighting DEI, tooth and nail.

00:27:01.000 President Trump has been going after these left-wing universities, which, by the way, it is now appearing, are disproportionately funded by foreign sources.

00:27:10.000 There's a piece in the free press today, a shocking piece.

00:27:13.000 That shows an explosion in overseas funding for American universities between 2021 and 2024 under Joe Biden.

00:27:20.000 Basically, our American universities were infiltrated by Qatar and China in the main.

00:27:24.000 Between 2021 and 2024, $29 billion in foreign money was donated.

00:27:31.000 Qatar and China were among the largest sources of funding.

00:27:34.000 That, by the way, dwarfs any other period in American history.

00:27:39.000 According to the Network Contagion Research Institute, The floodgates opened during the Biden era.

00:27:44.000 It's not a financial issue.

00:27:45.000 It's a national security issue.

00:27:47.000 Qatar is the single largest source of foreign donations to U.S. universities since reporting began in 1986 with $6.3 billion coming from Qatar, which, by the way, is a cutout for Iran.

00:27:57.000 Just another reason why the administration should not be using Qatar as a proxy in Middle Eastern peace talks or Hamas hostage releases or Iranian nuclear talks.

00:28:07.000 Qatar is, in fact, an Iranian...

00:28:08.000 You think Qatar has billions of dollars?

00:28:11.000 Just to like blow on American universities. 0.66

00:28:13.000 You know exactly the purpose of that.

00:28:15.000 Qatari donations ramped up significantly during the Biden administration.

00:28:19.000 Nearly a third of all donations from Qatar, over $2 billion over that period, were given between 2021 and 2024.

00:28:25.000 Also, by the way, huge source of foreign funding coming from China.

00:28:28.000 The biggest recipients?

00:28:30.000 Harvard, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, UPenn, MIT, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Yale.

00:28:34.000 So all the top schools.

00:28:36.000 So President Trump has been fighting these schools.

00:28:38.000 All that's really important.

00:28:40.000 On immigration, President Trump has been fighting the good fight.

00:28:43.000 It remains the bright spot of his administration in terms of the polling data, despite all the attempts by the media to simply lie about President Trump's immigration policy, to suggest that he's deporting innocent people, innocent two-year-olds, for example.

00:28:57.000 They just lie about what exactly he is doing.

00:28:59.000 The latest example of this, by the way, a judge over the weekend is raising alarms.

00:29:05.000 The Trump administration deported a two-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras with, quote, no meaningful process.

00:29:10.000 Even as the child's father was frantically petitioning the courts to keep her in the country, U.S. District Judge Terry Dowdy, a Trump appointee, said the child appeared to have been released in Honduras earlier Friday along with her Honduran-born mother and sister who had been detained by immigration officials earlier in the week.

00:29:24.000 Well, it sounds from this article as though this kid was just basically a U.S. citizen randomly deported with mom.

00:29:30.000 Okay, except that mom wanted the child to go with her.

00:29:33.000 That's the actual story here.

00:29:36.000 Trump administration officials pointed out the mother told ICE officials, That if she was deported, she wanted to take her two-year-old with her, which is a perfectly natural thing to do.

00:29:43.000 Most people don't leave their two-year-olds behind in a foreign country.

00:29:46.000 The filing from the Trump administration included a handwritten note in Spanish that was claimed was written by the mother and confirmed her intent.

00:29:54.000 So, again, the media tried to report that as the Trump administration kind of stealing away in the dead of night two-year-olds.

00:29:59.000 That's not happening.

00:30:01.000 And meanwhile, the left wing has been very, very bothered and hot.

00:30:09.000 That judge's name is Hannah Dugan. 0.99

00:30:14.000 Hannah Dugan is a Wisconsin judge, and she was arrested for obstructing justice. 1.00

00:30:19.000 By the way, she deserved it.

00:30:21.000 This is the part that actually is hilarious.

00:30:24.000 So, here's Chuck Schumer, for example, suggesting a constitutional crisis has arrived because a judge in Wisconsin has been arrested by the FBI.

00:30:32.000 What Trump, Biondi, and the whole Justice Department are trying to do is push that judge, threaten that judge, so the judge is no longer impartial.

00:30:40.000 It is outrageous in both cases.

00:30:42.000 In both cases, you can't believe what they said.

00:30:45.000 You know, in the case with the two-year-old girl, they're saying, oh, the mother wanted to take her.

00:30:50.000 Well, she's entitled to due process. 0.98

00:30:52.000 The father says that's not true.

00:30:53.000 And I don't believe ICE or anything they say, because they've made up things so many times in the past.

00:31:00.000 This is a constitutional crisis.

00:31:02.000 You cannot have a democracy without an independent judiciary, and they're trying to clip the wings of that independence.

00:31:12.000 Okay, so that's actually not what happened here.

00:31:14.000 So what exactly happened here?

00:31:15.000 Well, there was a judge, and this judge had in her courtroom a person named Eduardo Flores Ruiz.

00:31:22.000 He was a Mexican national illegal immigrant who was there for a hearing on battery charges.

00:31:27.000 Before the hearing, a lawyer told Judge Dugan that ICE agents were waiting outside the courtroom in the public area, and they were going to arrest this guy and deport him.

00:31:36.000 So Judge Dugan spoke with the federal agents and said they needed a judicial warrant and to speak with the chief judge of Milwaukee County.

00:31:42.000 So they did.

00:31:43.000 One of the officers went to the chief judge, who told the officer there was a policy in the works about where in the courthouse ICE agents could actually arrest people.

00:31:52.000 Ashley told the agent hallways were areas where an arrest could be made.

00:31:57.000 So, this illegal immigrant, who has a rap sheet as long as your arm, was going to be reported as soon as he stepped out of the courtroom into the hallway. 1.00

00:32:05.000 So the judge took this person, who was in fact an allegedly violent criminal, right, was there for an assault charge, and said, wait, come with me, and ushered this person through a door leading to a non-public area of the courthouse.

00:32:19.000 Agents then saw Mr. Flores Ruiz and his lawyer, this is the New York Times, again, this is not like some right-wing publication, and his lawyer in a public hallway.

00:32:25.000 One agent entered an elevator with them and watched them leave the building, but did not immediately make the arrest.

00:32:30.000 The complaint said other agents then arrested him on the street after a foot chase.

00:32:33.000 A week later, FBI agents came and arrested Judge Dugan at the courthouse and she was charged with obstructing immigration officers and concealing someone to prevent an arrest.

00:32:41.000 Which, by the way, is the correct charge.

00:32:44.000 Under 18 U.S. Code, section 1505, it literally says, whoever impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law under which any pending proceeding is being had before any department or agency of the United States, or the due and proper

00:32:59.000 exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either house shall be fined under this title in prison not more than five years, or if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism in prison not more than eight years or before

00:33:09.000 So, she tried to help an illegal immigrant escape from the Trump ICE department by taking him through a secret entrance, and they arrested her. 0.95

00:33:18.000 As they should.

00:33:19.000 Even Andrew McCabe.

00:33:21.000 You'll remember Andrew McCabe from Russiagate.

00:33:23.000 Andrew McCabe, who is no right-wing fan of Trump, even he admits this is a solid case against the judge.

00:33:28.000 I think it's fairly strong, Victor.

00:33:30.000 As I said, there's a number of witnesses here who perceive these events in real time.

00:33:35.000 They've reported what they saw to the agent who's put that into the complaint.

00:33:40.000 There's a bunch of law enforcement officers who were there who listened to the things she said, who will testify about how she reacted negatively to the discovery that there was law enforcement outside of her courtroom.

00:33:52.000 So there's a lot of circumstantial evidence there.

00:33:56.000 Okay, so again, even the left is sort of admitting that this person ought to be arrested, but according to the left, it's also a constitutional crisis. 0.97

00:34:03.000 The New York Times is David Brooks, a man so ridiculous. 0.89

00:34:07.000 He once suggested that Barack Obama would be an excellent president because he had a nice crease in his pants. 0.98

00:34:12.000 I'm not even kidding.

00:34:12.000 That's a real thing he did.

00:34:14.000 Here's David Brooks suggesting it's time for civil disobedience.

00:34:17.000 Let's say she did escort this guy out the door.

00:34:19.000 If federal enforcement agencies come to your courtroom and you help a guy escape, That is two things.

00:34:26.000 One, it strikes me as maybe something illegal, but it also strikes me as something heroic.

00:34:32.000 And in times of trouble, then people are sometimes called to do civil disobedience.

00:34:37.000 And in my view, when people do civil disobedience, they have to pay the price.

00:34:41.000 That's part of the heroism of it, frankly.

00:34:43.000 And so you can both think that she shouldn't have legally done this, and that morally, protecting somebody against, maybe not even in this case, but in other cases.

00:34:53.000 Frankly, a predatory enforcement agency.

00:34:55.000 Sometimes civil disobedience is necessary.

00:34:59.000 Again, if they think this is heroic, then good luck for them in the polls.

00:35:02.000 Again, if the American people are focusing on immigration, President Trump is popular.

00:35:05.000 It's the economy that is sinking him right now.

00:35:07.000 President Trump put out a truth over the weekend saying, quote, we need courageous justice in our country.

00:35:11.000 If the courts don't allow what we've been allowed to do for 250 years, America can no longer be the same.

00:35:15.000 Crooked Joe Biden will have destroyed our country with his open border madness and allowing criminals of every type to enter.

00:35:25.000 Meanwhile, President Trump does look like he is shifting on the war in Ukraine,

00:35:45.000 as he should.

00:35:46.000 The fact of the matter is that the Russian government has shown little Desire, predilection, interest in natural end to this war.

00:35:53.000 Over the weekend, more drone attacks across Ukraine, four dead in those drone attacks.

00:35:57.000 That's after President Trump actually asked Putin to stop multiple times.

00:36:02.000 He literally last week said, Vladimir, stop after a gigantic drone and missile assault on Kiev, among other areas of the country.

00:36:10.000 Well, President Trump put out a statement on Truth Social, literally saying that he is tiring of Vladimir Putin playing around.

00:36:20.000 He said, with all of that being said, he has a long thing about how it was Biden's fault that the war happened, which is true. 0.87

00:36:26.000 But then he says, with all of that being said, there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns over the last few days.

00:36:32.000 It makes me think maybe he doesn't want to stop the war.

00:36:34.000 He's just tapping me along and has to be dealt with differently through banking or secondary sanctions.

00:36:39.000 Too many people are dying.

00:36:40.000 Well, I mean, there's a third way that he could be helped along, and that would be increasing the amount of military aid to Ukraine's put actual military heft.

00:36:49.000 Behind any sort of secondary sanctions.

00:36:51.000 Russia economically has escaped many of these sanctions by selling oil to the Indians or the Chinese.

00:36:57.000 They've created their own sort of shadow banking system.

00:37:00.000 So the sanctions have been effective in some ways, but they have not been completely effective for sure.

00:37:04.000 And if Ukraine does not succeed on the military front, the rest of it becomes sort of a moot point.

00:37:09.000 Over the weekend, President Trump did meet with Vladimir Zelensky.

00:37:12.000 This happened at the funeral of the Pope.

00:37:15.000 Pretty iconic photo that happened at the funeral of the Pope in which President Trump was sitting tete-a-tete with Vladimir Zelensky in St. Peter's.

00:37:23.000 Apparently, the French President Emmanuel Macron wanted to sit with them, and Trump was like, no, not happening.

00:37:28.000 And so Macron's chair ended up being taken away.

00:37:31.000 So President Trump had this long conversation with Zelensky.

00:37:34.000 The cameras and microphones were far away, but they're obviously talking mano y mano.

00:37:40.000 President Trump is...

00:37:42.000 That does suggest some sort of warming to the idea, the reality, that Russia is the problem here because Russia is the problem here. 0.96

00:37:49.000 The New York Times has a piece today saying President Trump's standing among Ukrainians is practically on life support, but many cheered one statement he made on Saturday after meeting with Zelensky.

00:37:58.000 That would be the statement that I just read.

00:38:00.000 The day's events were a victory at sorts for Zelensky and Ukraine at a critical junction in the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

00:38:07.000 The United States has been pushing Ukraine to accept a peace plan that seems in part a gift to Moscow.

00:38:11.000 But now Ukrainians see a small glimmer of hope that Mr. Trump will not try to force Ukraine into a lopsided peace plan.

00:38:17.000 Now again, the United States can't actually force Ukraine into a lopsided peace plan.

00:38:21.000 We can't.

00:38:22.000 Nor should we.

00:38:23.000 Because Ukraine simply cannot give up all that territory and have no security guarantees and vow never to join NATO and not have any European troops on its soil to provide a trigger force or anything like that.

00:38:38.000 It can't do those things.

00:38:39.000 It just will refuse.

00:38:40.000 Because that's essentially guaranteeing that in two years Russia invades again and takes the rest of the country. 0.97

00:38:45.000 However, it is very good that President Trump is seeing reality when it comes to the Russians.

00:38:50.000 He should.

00:38:52.000 According to Vladimir Dubovic, the director of the Center for International Studies at Odessa Mekinov National University, Trump's team has had too much exposure to the Kremlin and its talking points lately, so for Kiev to be able to present their perspective directly to Trump was useful.

00:39:07.000 And I think that that is right.

00:39:09.000 Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, he mentioned over the weekend that there are options for those held responsible for not actually wanting peace.

00:39:18.000 We should all be happy that we have a President of the United States and Donald J. Trump who wants to end and prevent wars.

00:39:24.000 And that's what we're trying to do here.

00:39:26.000 And so ultimately, look, if it doesn't happen, it doesn't come to fruition, then as a nation state, there are options that we have for those who we hold responsible for not wanting the peace.

00:39:35.000 But we'd prefer not to get to that stage yet because we think it closes the door to diplomacy.

00:39:40.000 So, again, I think that that is the proper perspective.

00:39:45.000 But the person who obviously doesn't want peace here is Vladimir Putin.

00:39:48.000 Speaking of which, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Russians have been increasing their military presence not just with regard to Ukraine, but also along the entire NATO border.

00:39:57.000 Quote, some 100 miles east of its border with Finland in the Russian city of Petrovodosk.

00:40:03.000 Military engineers are expanding army bases where the Kremlin plans to create a new army headquarters to oversee tens of thousands of troops over the next several years.

00:40:10.000 Those soldiers, many now serving on the front lines of Ukraine, are intended to be the backbone of a Russian military preparing to face off with NATO.

00:40:17.000 According to Western military and intelligence officials, the Kremlin is expanding military recruitment, bolstering weapons production, upgrading railroad lines in border areas.

00:40:24.000 And again, this is part of the broader Eurasian vision that Russia has, what it would like to be.

00:40:29.000 Russia sees itself as the center of the universe. 0.78

00:40:31.000 We discussed this on Friday on the show when we were going through the philosophy of Alexander Dugan, who's widely perceived to be Putin's brain.

00:40:36.000 But it's also been repeated by people like the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

00:40:40.000 It is just a generalized Russian perception that Russia needs to be an empire.

00:40:45.000 That that empire is eventually meant to span all the way from China in the east, all the way to the Atlantic in its west?

00:40:52.000 That means finding or creating friendly regimes not only in Eastern Europe, but eventually in Western Europe as well.

00:40:58.000 Now, not all of that's going to be done through military conquest.

00:41:01.000 But if you're Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, you're the Baltic states, if you're Finland, and you're looking across the border at a giant Russian military, and you have a NATO that seems bizarrely unwilling to face up to the problem, if that is the issue, Then maybe you see Putin try to break NATO directly by invading a small country and then making the argument,

00:41:20.000 well, do you really want to die for Moldova?

00:41:21.000 Do you really want to die for Latvia or Lithuania?

00:41:24.000 You could easily see that case being made and forced by Putin.

00:41:29.000 Or you could see Putin do with these various states what China has been trying to do with Taiwan, which is through threat of military force and the possibility that no help is coming, try to convince people in those areas to vote for governments that are more Russia-friendly.

00:41:44.000 Create a Russian proxy state the way that Russia has created Russian proxy states in places like Kazakhstan or in Belarus.

00:41:51.000 These are all areas that Russia has really flexed its muscles and has come up with administrations that are extremely friendly to the Russians.

00:42:00.000 Russia is again a country that has its own actual driving force.

00:42:04.000 One of the great fallacies of isolationist foreign policy is this idea that everyone is just reacting to what America does in the world.

00:42:09.000 That is not true.

00:42:10.000 Not everybody thinks the same way.

00:42:12.000 Not everybody's an American or a Britisher. 0.99

00:42:14.000 It turns out the Russians have their own perspective on the world, and it's quite aggressive. 1.00

00:42:18.000 The Chinese have their own perspective on the world. 0.99

00:42:20.000 It's quite aggressive.

00:42:21.000 The Iranians have their own perspective on the world, and it is quite aggressive. 1.00

00:42:24.000 Speaking of which, over the weekend, a massive explosion in Iran at a port.

00:42:31.000 It killed at least 40 people.

00:42:33.000 What blew up were clearly munitions.

00:42:36.000 I mean, you can see it from the video.

00:42:37.000 There was a fire at the port of Bandar Abbas.

00:42:40.000 It killed at least 40 people.

00:42:42.000 You can see from the fire, it is not burning in sort of a normal color.

00:42:45.000 It's clearly burning chemicals.

00:42:47.000 Those chemicals are supposedly used to make missile propellants.

00:42:50.000 The death toll has now spiked sharply.

00:42:53.000 At least a thousand others are reported injured, according to the Associated Press, citing Iranian state TV.

00:42:58.000 190 are still in the hospital.

00:43:01.000 There is a surveillance video that was distributed by Fars News Agency, which is Iranian, showing a small fire that begins among the containers.

00:43:08.000 And you can see workers moving away from the scene.

00:43:10.000 And then...

00:43:10.000 Gigantic explosion that probably killed some of the workers.

00:43:14.000 This is an area where Iran typically ships munitions to places like Lebanon for the help of Hezbollah.

00:43:23.000 So there's speculation as to whether this was an attack by the Israelis.

00:43:30.000 There's been speculation that maybe it was just them failing because they've actually had that problem before.

00:43:35.000 Remember, there's a giant explosion at the port outside of Beirut just a couple of years ago in Lebanon, enormous explosion.

00:43:40.000 And it turns out that that might have just been by accident.

00:43:43.000 The Iranians are not particularly good at handling their munitions. 1.00

00:43:48.000 This we know.

00:43:48.000 According to Andrea Sella, professor of chemistry at University College London, this bears the hallmarks of an ammonium nitrate explosion.

00:43:55.000 Ammonium nitrate is a commodity chemical widely used as fertilizer and as an industrial explosive.

00:44:00.000 But poor storage can significantly raise the risk of an explosion in the event of a fire.

00:44:04.000 so again the Iranians 1.00

00:44:13.000 Meanwhile, things are heating up between India and Pakistan.

00:44:16.000 According to the New York Times, India seems to be building a case for striking Pakistan.

00:44:20.000 There was a terrorist attack in Kashmir last week.

00:44:23.000 Kashmir is a border area between India and Pakistan that is controlled, at least titularly, by the Iranians.

00:44:29.000 It's heavily Muslim.

00:44:30.000 There are basically really three areas of Kashmir.

00:44:33.000 One is controlled really by the Chinese, one is controlled by the Indians, one is controlled by the Pakistanis, but it's supposed to be under the control of the Iranian government.

00:44:41.000 There is a massive terror attack killing some 26 people by a Pakistani Muslim terror group.

00:44:49.000 Narendra Modi, who is the leader, the prime minister of India, has made the case that there's going to need to be military action against Pakistan for it.

00:44:59.000 According to the New York Times, according to four diplomatic officials aware of discussions, New Delhi appears to be building a case for military action against its neighbor and archenemy.

00:45:08.000 Modi said in a speech on Thursday that he was going to deal out severe punishment and the raising of terrorist safe havens.

00:45:16.000 Already, there are security forces between India and Pakistan who are firing at each other.

00:45:21.000 Two of the past three nights, actually.

00:45:24.000 In Kashmir, Indian forces are also doing a clampdown right now.

00:45:27.000 And India is declaring its intention to disrupt the flow of water to Pakistan.

00:45:31.000 They have an irrigation system that depends largely on the Indians.

00:45:36.000 Pakistan, in the meantime, is saying that it will suspend participation in bilateral treaties as well.

00:45:41.000 Now remember, both of these countries have nuclear weapons, so things could get very hot very quickly between India and Pakistan.

00:45:47.000 Obviously, India is a democratic ally of the United States.

00:45:50.000 Pakistan is effectively an Islamic dictatorship. 0.96

00:45:54.000 So, in terms of rooting interest, the West should be rooting for India in this particular conflict. 0.99

00:45:59.000 In terms of the actual dangers of the conflict heating up, obviously those are quite real.

00:46:05.000 Meanwhile, speaking of sort of pseudo-democracies that aren't actually democracies, Turkey is heating up its own ambitions.

00:46:13.000 According to the editorial board of the New York Times, Erdogan continues to...

00:46:21.000 Erdogan, of course, has total control over the military at this point.

00:46:24.000 When he was first elected, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is going all the way back to the beginning of the century.

00:46:31.000 He's now been 22 years in power, Erdogan.

00:46:33.000 When he was first elected, he was elected as a sort of pseudo-moderate, actually.

00:46:37.000 And then he turned into an Islamic radical.

00:46:39.000 And he has basically reoriented his entire country toward Iran, toward Russia, toward a wide variety of terror states in the region. 0.51

00:46:49.000 Turkey, kind of famously, has taken over Syria now.

00:46:52.000 Well, Erdogan, he's moved away from the EU, even though there's a large trading relationship between Turkey and the EU, and Turkey is a NATO member, which is absolutely insane, because Turkey supports terror regimes, including Hamas.

00:47:06.000 According to the New York Times, Erdogan continues to retain control.

00:47:12.000 The Turkish people are not necessarily in love with Erdogan at this point.

00:47:16.000 By whatever polling data is available, His chief rival, apparently, is a person named Ekrem Imamoglu.

00:47:23.000 And now Erdogan has detained him.

00:47:25.000 He's now arresting him.

00:47:27.000 Imamoglu is more likely to form relationships with the West.

00:47:32.000 Meanwhile, Erdogan is going more and more radical.

00:47:37.000 So, you know, the West should be looking very seriously at what to do about Turkey.

00:47:42.000 Certainly, the notion of selling Turkey F-35s, which is something, apparently, the Trump administration has discussed. 0.85

00:47:48.000 That's ridiculous.

00:47:49.000 We should certainly not be doing that with the Turks, given their current orientation. 1.00

00:47:54.000 Finally, in sort of foreign news, the Canadian election takes place today.

00:47:58.000 Unfortunately, Pierre Poliev, who was leading by 20 points in the polls at the beginning of the year, right now in the polling data is trailing Mark Carney, who's the person who took over for Justin Trudeau.

00:48:07.000 And there's only one reason for that, one and one alone.

00:48:09.000 That is the trade war with Canada.

00:48:10.000 That is the only reason.

00:48:11.000 It is because the United States launched a trade war with Canada that this happened.

00:48:16.000 Because Poliev dumped in the polls.

00:48:18.000 Canadians decided to orient against the Trump administration.

00:48:21.000 Poliev was perceived as an ally of the Trump administration, and so Carney jumped.

00:48:24.000 It's that simple, which is ridiculous and sad and really, really frustrating because the United States could have had an excellent ally in Canada in Pierre Poliev.

00:48:36.000 I hope, I hope, by the way, there is a late surge for Poliev where people may be waking up from the reverie just long enough to vote.

00:48:41.000 I'm hopeful that maybe that puts Poliev over the top.

00:48:43.000 But if Poliev loses to Mark Carney because of the trade war, That is one of the biggest own goals for the Trump administration over the first 100 days.

00:48:51.000 Alrighty, coming up, we'll get to the White House Correspondents' Dinner, where things were said that were bizarre, plus breaking news.

00:48:59.000 You remember that helicopter and plane crash that happened outside Reagan National?

00:49:03.000 We now have some information that is really disquieting about it.

00:49:06.000 Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

00:49:08.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

00:49:09.000 Use code Shapiro at checkout for two months free on all annual plans.

The Ben Shapiro Show - April 28, 2025

100 DAYS: Where Does Trump Stand?

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