Trump's Q&A after his first State of the Union address was widely panned, but that doesn't mean it didn't have its own special place in the hearts of Americans. Ben Shapiro explains why Americans are ready for Trump to step up to the plate and deliver the change he's preached for so long, and why it's time for the media to allow him freedom to pursue that change. He also points out that Americans are tired of the media and other elites who oppose Trump, and want to see him free himself from the shackles of Washington, D.C., and the bureaucracy that keeps them stuck in their old ways, and allow them to do their job. Ben Shapiro is the host of The Ben Shapiro Show on Fox News Radio and host of the Daily Wire's "The Weekly Standard" and is a regular contributor to the New York Times, CNN, CBS, and other media outlets. He is also a frequent contributor to The Daily Wire and the Weekly Standard, and is one of the most influential conservative publications in the country. He is the author of several books, including The Weekly Standard s own newsletter, The Civility Project, and has been featured on CNN, Fox News, NPR, and The Hill, among other publications, and many other publications. You can find Ben Shapiro on all social medias including The Hill and The Huffington Post, and subscribe to his podcast The FiveThirtyEight. Ben's newest book is out now on Amazon Prime Video on the Apple Podcasts app on the App Store and Podchaser. Subscribe to Ben Shapiro's newest podcast on the Fourcast on Apple Podcast, wherever you get your eardrums are listening to the latest episode of the Ben Shapiro s newest podcast. and listening to him on the show on the airwaves on your favorite podcast on all things political and social media platforms. If you like what he's listening to, be sure to subscribe to Ben's podcast on social media? Subscribe and subscribe on iTunes and other podcasting platforms are mentioned in his podcast on The Ben's new podcast, The Six Sigma Podcasts! Subscribe on iTunes! and other links mentioned in this podcast are linked in the show. Thanks for listening to this podcast? Subscribe in the podcast? Subscribe on Podcharity Thank you for listening and sharing Ben's work? and his podcast is linked in your bio on this podcast on my social media in his profile on Instapay?
00:00:00.000President Trump's approval ratings are nothing special.
00:00:03.000Actually, they're extraordinarily low by historic standards.
00:00:05.000He's clocking in at 44%, according to the latest NBC News Wall Street Journal poll.
00:00:09.000His support base is highly polarized, with 85% of Republicans behind him and just 9% of Democrats.
00:00:15.000If those rates dropped steadily for the next two years, and given the level of polarization, they certainly could, Republicans would be in serious danger of losing the House, since low presidential approval ratings correlate significantly with House elections.
00:00:27.000Then again, Trump's support base may be stable.
00:00:43.000And 31% approve of Democrats in Congress, while 32% approve of Republicans in Congress.
00:00:48.000The most unpopular figure in American politics?
00:00:50.000That's still House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, with 19% of people feeling positively about her in any way, against 44% who feel negatively about her.
00:00:59.000The Democratic Party's negatives double up the Republican Party's.
00:01:02.000This relatively positive feeling toward Republicans means 60% of respondents are hopeful and optimistic about the future of the country, only 40% are pessimistic.
00:01:10.000And that's with a sample that shows just 37% of respondents who voted for Trump himself in the presidential election.
00:01:16.000None of this says that everybody is comfortable with Trump.
00:01:18.000Fifty-two percent say Trump's chaotic style is unique to this administration and suggests real problems, but the American people largely agree with Trump's agenda.
00:01:27.000Eighty-six percent say a small group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.
00:01:34.00053% say the news media and other elites are exaggerating the problems with the Trump administration because they're uncomfortable and threatened with the kind of change Trump represents.
00:01:41.000While 37% of respondents say they want Democrats in Congress setting the agenda, 19% say Republicans in Congress should do so, and 37% say Trump should do so.
00:01:51.00057% of Americans say Trump is likely to bring change, 63% of those people say he'll bring the right kind of change.
00:01:57.00041% of Americans say the economy will get even better.
00:02:00.000And 73% of those people attribute that success to Trump.
00:02:03.000Only 4% of Americans think Obamacare works well the way it is.
00:02:07.000And here is the best statistic of all for Trump personally.
00:02:11.00038% of Americans say they like him personally, regardless of whether they like or dislike his policies.
00:02:16.000All of this suggests that Americans are giving Trump a chance, and that they're tired of the media failing to do so.
00:02:20.000They think Trump is going to bring change.
00:02:22.000They want to allow him freedom to pursue that change.
00:02:24.000Democrats and members of the media who keep saying Trump can't be trusted with the tiller of government ought to have an easy solution.
00:02:29.000Give Trump all the leeway he wants, and then watch him pursue policies they think are unpopular.
00:02:34.000By acting as foils for Trump, the media and the left actually prop him up.
00:02:38.000They allow him to position them as obstacles to making change.
00:03:01.000We're going to talk about what it meant in terms of rhetoric, what it meant in terms of policy, why it was such a success even though he was basically preaching a lot of big government programs, where he was truly successful, and why the Democrats just can't help stepping on their own beliefs.
00:03:14.000Before we get there, we have to talk about our friends over at Tracker.
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00:03:30.000When you lose your stuff, it makes you feel like a moron.
00:03:32.000And when my wife loses her stuff, it certainly makes her feel bad, because I make her feel bad, because I'm a terrible person.
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00:05:06.000When I first saw the excerpts, I thought that it was horribly written because it had things about shouting your dreams and all this kind of nonsense that sounds like it's from a Joan Baez
00:05:50.000Ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemy.
00:06:18.000Ryan's legacy is etched into eternity.
00:08:36.000Excuse me, Barack Obama, rather, brought a wounded warrior to the 2014 State of the Union Address.
00:08:44.000Full standing ovation from both sides of the aisle, but when it's Donald Trump bringing somebody to the State of the Union Address, and it was really moving.
00:08:50.000I mean, you can see she's weeping for her husband, and she's signaling to heaven, I love you baby, as she's looking up to
00:09:37.000Tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of Black History Month, we are reminded of our nation's path towards civil rights and the work that still remains to be done.
00:10:05.000Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week's shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies
00:10:19.000We are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.
00:10:27.000Each American generation passes the torch of truth, liberty, and justice in an unbroken chain all the way down to the present.
00:10:38.000That torch is now in our hands, and we will use it to light up the world.
00:10:46.000He continues along these lines, but the fact is that Trump is, a lot of this is stock speech, but it works because, as you'll see, the Democrats don't agree with the stock speech.
00:10:56.000So, the art of politics, the real art of politics is, it's like sumo wrestling.
00:11:01.000Basically, what you want to do is you want to bring the audience into the circle with you and then throw your opponent out.
00:11:05.000You want to bring the audience in and you want to say, I agree with you, you agree with me.
00:11:11.000And Democrats made it real easy last night because every time Trump said something that was eminently true, the Democrats would sit on their hands or they would fuss or they would moan.
00:12:04.000Our allies will find that America is once again ready to lead.
00:12:09.000All the nations of the world, friend or foe, will find that America is strong, America is proud, and America is free.
00:12:18.000Okay, so he does that, and then the next thing he does is he begins describing some of the problems that we're facing and what he is here to fix.
00:12:26.000Some of this is true and some of it isn't, but it's, again, smart speech writing because he's creating this contrast.
00:12:32.000He's saying, here's what it was and here's what I'm going to fix.
00:12:35.000So here he describes sort of where we were, and then he moves to, here's the big movement that's built up around me.
00:13:35.000It's when he gets to the stuff where he talks about drug dealers and criminals that it's clear the Democrats are not on the same wavelength.
00:13:41.000And Trump is very good at drawing the contrast between himself and the so-called enemy.
00:13:45.000And in this case, the enemy is not just the people on the left.
00:13:48.000The enemy is the drug dealers and the illegal immigrants.
00:13:52.000Before we go any further, I do have to say thank you
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00:15:23.000So Donald Trump continues along these lines, and there's one point here where he says something really smart.
00:15:31.000There are a bunch of phrases that he uses that are really, really smart.
00:15:33.000One of the phrases that he uses that's really smart is he says, what would you say to the American family that loses their jobs, their income, or a loved one because America refused to uphold its laws and defend its borders?
00:15:43.000That's the sort of smart phraseology that you need from Donald Trump.
00:15:46.000You need him to pose his policies in opposition to Democrats who don't pay attention to those policies.
00:16:01.000And you can see, I mean, we'll go to the parts of the speech where you can see the Democrats are just sitting there on their hands doing nothing.
00:16:11.000There's one point, I don't know if we can find it because the clips are kind of cut together.
00:16:14.000There's one point where it says, where he starts talking about police and sheriffs.
00:16:18.000He says police and sheriffs are members of our community.
00:16:21.000And it's pretty, it's pretty amazing to watch the Democrats sit on their hands as he talks about how wonderful the police and the sheriffs are.
00:16:29.000And we must support the victims of crime.
00:16:54.000I have ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an office to serve American victims.
00:17:01.000The office is called VOICE, Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement.
00:17:07.000We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media and silenced by special interests.
00:17:14.000Okay, what's funny is when he says that final line, and the police line they sat on their hands too, but this is the biggest one.
00:17:19.000He says, free nations are the best vehicle for expressing the will of the people, and America respects the right of all nations to chart their own path.
00:17:25.000My job is not to represent the world, my job is to represent the United States of America.
00:17:29.000When he says that, the obvious answer is, that's true.
00:18:21.000I believe I'm a citizen of the United States, a country with a creed.
00:18:25.000People on the left believe that they are citizens of the world because the entire world should be united by an internationalist creed that may or may not jibe with what America wants.
00:18:33.000That's a huge problem, and it's the reason why Donald Trump has really seen this upsurge, because there still is such a thing as nationalism.
00:18:40.000You know, I've ripped down the idea of blood-and-soil nationalism, but I've never said that nationalism itself, as a feeling, is the thing that's wrong with the world.
00:18:50.000In fact, what I've said is that nationalism is necessary but not sufficient.
00:18:54.000If you're a good American, you must be nationalistic, but that's not enough.
00:18:56.000You also have to be philosophically American.
00:18:59.000So you can say, America's a great country, I want to stand with the flag, but you have to know what the flag stands for.
00:19:09.000You can't have one without the other, or it doesn't work.
00:19:12.000If you're patriotic for ideals without being patriotic for the nation, then you don't understand what America is all about.
00:19:18.000If you're patriotic for the nation without being patriotic for the ideals, you also don't understand what America is all about.
00:19:24.000But at least Trump is providing this nationalistic perspective, and people on the left are rejecting it wholesale.
00:19:29.000They won't cheer for this, because they think that they're global citizens, they're world citizens.
00:19:33.000And so, you know, you end up with this bizarre situation where he's saying he's President of the United States, not of the world, and the left is basically confused by this, because they think the President of the United States ought to be the head of the UN.
00:19:43.000Now, we'll continue by talking about the downside to Trump's speech, and that was the actual policy discussion.
00:19:48.000We'll get to that in just a second, but to see that, you have to go over to dailywire.com, you can check it out there, dailywire.com.
00:19:57.000If you want an annual subscription, then you can get that at dailywire.com as well.
00:20:01.000Right now you get a free copy of the Arroyo DVD, which is a terrific fictional film set on the southern border about one rancher trying to take on the system that is allowing his land to be used as a thoroughfare for drug cartels and illegal immigration.