The Ben Shapiro Show - The Democratic Collapse CONTINUES!

00:00:00.000 Well, folks, Democrats are on the run, and we're going to get to just why in a moment.

00:00:03.000 First, the Daily Wire continues our fight.

00:00:06.000 As you know, on this show, we've been calling for the pardon of Derek Chauvin.

00:00:09.000 Derek Chauvin was railroaded.

00:00:11.000 The medical evidence demonstrates that he did not, in fact, murder George Floyd, that George Floyd had significant pre-existing conditions, that he was high as a kite.

00:00:20.000 The tape itself does not show everything, that the media made it out to show the case when it was actually conducted in court.

00:00:27.000 It was a political sacrifice to appease the mob.

00:00:30.000 That's what it was.

00:00:30.000 The jurors themselves acknowledged they'd been put under severe pressure.

00:00:34.000 President Trump should pardon Derek Chauvin.

00:00:36.000 That would, in fact, by the way, reduce his possible sentence because the federal statute requires a certain level of sentence.

00:00:42.000 His state conviction would remain, but it doesn't have the same sort of mandatory sentencing.

00:00:48.000 We're leading the charge on this one.

00:00:50.000 Go to PardonDerek.com right now.

00:00:51.000 Sign the petition.

00:00:52.000 This is the kind of stuff that we do over at Daily Wire.

00:00:54.000 We need your help on this one.

00:00:56.000 PardonDerek.com.

00:00:57.000 Alrighty, so Democrats are having a really big problem.

00:01:01.000 They are deeply unpopular.

00:01:02.000 And so, while they roam the landscape suggesting that President Trump is falling apart, that the Trump administration is wildly unpopular, that is not what the polls are showing.

00:01:10.000 The polls continue to show that Democrats and the Democratic Party writ large are in serious political straits.

00:01:16.000 Harry Ensign yesterday on CNN explained that there is a real reason why Democrats are currently riding at 20% in the approval ratings.

00:01:23.000 There's a reason why congressional Democrats have like a 20% approval rating and even amongst their own party has like a 40%, the lowest Quinnipiac has ever measured.

00:01:31.000 And I think last night and sort of what's been going on over the past few months is a gosh darn good illustration of that.

00:01:36.000 Agreed.

00:01:37.000 I mean, even Democrats at this point in the mainstream media are recognizing this simple fact.

00:01:41.000 And yet Democrats continue to do performatively stupid things.

00:01:44.000 I don't know who they think they're appealing to, but there is a serious collective action problem inside the Democratic Party.

00:01:49.000 None of the Democrats wants to appoint sort of a Democrat leader to rally behind.

00:01:54.000 That's one problem.

00:01:55.000 The other problem is they all want to be that leader.

00:01:57.000 And so they have their own form of stupid protest.

00:01:59.000 And then finally, they're afraid of being left behind in the Great Awakening.

00:02:04.000 They're afraid of being seen as insufficiently far left and nutty.

00:02:07.000 And so now it's just all signaling all the way down.

00:02:11.000 Yesterday, Al Green, you know, not the famous sort of R&B singer who created Baby Boom, not that guy.

00:02:18.000 The other algorithm, the 77-year-old guy waving a cane with a bad haircut at President Trump, well, he was censured by the House because, obviously, if you get kicked out of a State of the Union address by the sergeant-at-arms, you're going to receive a censure vote.

00:02:31.000 In fact, several Democrats voted in favor of the censure.

00:02:34.000 This censure vote ended with Democrats singing, we shall overcome, as though something had happened to Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma.

00:02:44.000 When Al Green was removed for yelling nonsensical crap about Medicaid.

00:02:48.000 The House has resolved that Representative Al Green be censured, that Representative Al Green forthwith present himself in the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of censure, and that Representative Al Green be censured with public reading of this resolution by the Speaker. and that Representative Al Green be censured with public reading

00:03:07.000 Deeply inspiring.

00:03:23.000 I mean, first of all, is anybody, you know, not tone deaf in the Democratic caucus?

00:03:28.000 But beyond that, this is what you got?

00:03:31.000 Really?

00:03:31.000 Well, that's not all they got.

00:03:32.000 The House Democrats have also released a brand new viral video.

00:03:36.000 It is a take on Street Fighter in which a bunch of Democratic Congress people, as well as a social media influencer by the name of Sulky Jessica Wu. 1.00

00:03:45.000 I will admit I did not know who Miss Wu was until this video dropped.

00:03:49.000 And all I can say is woohoo.

00:03:51.000 In any case, they basically drop into frame.

00:03:54.000 And by drop, they pretend they're dropping into frame like a street fighter character.

00:03:58.000 And then bounce around.

00:03:59.000 And there's a description of them as though they're a character.

00:04:02.000 And it said, choose your fighter.

00:04:03.000 The House Democrats released this video.

00:04:05.000 And let me tell you, President Trump must be just running scared at this point.

00:04:11.000 So she's bouncing around, this soul-heed Jessica Wu. 0.75

00:04:14.000 And then AOC, it says, New York's 14th Congressional District.

00:04:17.000 And then Representative Lauren Underwood.

00:04:19.000 And Representative Catherine Clark, who looks as though she was performing, you know, some sort of bizarre act. 0.93

00:04:24.000 And then, like, I don't even know what to say.

00:04:28.000 Choose your fighter?

00:04:29.000 We need a cutaway there of Rob Schneider from A Hot Chick knocking one of these women through a wall with a pillow.

00:04:35.000 Like, that's...

00:04:36.000 Choose your fighter.

00:04:38.000 Some of these women are like 60 years old and bouncing around. 1.00

00:04:41.000 Like, they're 17. This is what you got?

00:04:44.000 Really, this is the thing that you have?

00:04:48.000 This is not going to do it, gang.

00:04:50.000 The Democrats are in disarray.

00:04:52.000 The best they have is the continuing sort of woke vibes.

00:04:56.000 Tara Setmeyer, Democrat in the mainstream media, was on the Dean Obadiah show.

00:05:01.000 And if you've never heard of that show, you're not unique.

00:05:03.000 The first you're ever hearing of it is here on this show.

00:05:04.000 So congrats to Dean on finally having a listenership.

00:05:07.000 And Tara Setmeyer stopped by to explain that censuring Al Green for screaming nonsensically during the State of the Union gave her slaveick vibes.

00:05:16.000 And when he was removed by the sergeant in arms, which which I found to be very alarming, it bothered me.

00:05:25.000 I didn't like to see a black congressman being talked down to by a southern speaker of the House telling him, you know, sit down.

00:05:32.000 It gave me very like, you know, slave masterick vibes.

00:05:36.000 But to have the sergeant in arms come and remove a member of Congress from a joint session.

00:05:41.000 Yes, it was just like slavery, wherein he was at no point a slave and in which.

00:05:47.000 He implied that he was going to lead an impeachment effort against the current sitting president of the United States, just as a slave would. 0.78

00:05:53.000 Oh my goodness, these folks.

00:05:55.000 Well, some Democrats may be starting to wake up.

00:05:58.000 Anybody who has an IQ above room temperature, one of those people, believe it or not, is Gavin Newsom.

00:06:03.000 So Gavin Newsom, he is slick.

00:06:06.000 He has no principles.

00:06:08.000 The governor of California.

00:06:10.000 I have some personal experiences with Governor Gavin Newsom.

00:06:13.000 In fact, the first time I spoke with Governor Gavin Newsom, It was all the way back in, I believe, 2013. And Governor Newsom was then not governor.

00:06:20.000 He was running for governor.

00:06:22.000 And he was on a Los Angeles morning show that I was doing at the time.

00:06:26.000 And I asked Governor Newsom at the time about the idiotic idea of building a bullet train extending from Los Angeles to San Francisco that would stop in Fresno.

00:06:35.000 And they were talking about how it would cost billions of dollars.

00:06:37.000 And I said to him, well, don't we have cars and planes in this state?

00:06:41.000 Don't we have an I-5 that goes directly up the state?

00:06:44.000 I've driven it many times.

00:06:45.000 Why precisely would we need to spend billions of dollars on a bullet train?

00:06:49.000 And he said, at that time, that it was a terrible, stupid idea.

00:06:52.000 He then proceeded to be elected governor and spent billions of dollars on a stupid, terrible idea that never materialized in any way, shape, or form.

00:06:58.000 So, let's just say that whenever he declares that he's had a change of heart, I treat that about the same way I would treat his prior relationship with Kimberly Goldfoyle, with a large grain of salt.

00:07:10.000 In any case, Gavin Newsom has started a new podcast.

00:07:14.000 And I'll admit that I'm eager to listen to every episode if it's as good as this.

00:07:18.000 So Charlie Kirk, our friend from TPUSA, was on with Gavin Newsom.

00:07:22.000 And Charlie asked Gavin Newsom, like, why is your party so addicted to the idea that boys should play in girls' sports?

00:07:28.000 And Gavin Newsom, the reason I'm bringing this up, is not to strip on Gavin Newsom, which is fun.

00:07:32.000 I mean, let's be real.

00:07:33.000 But the reason I'm bringing it up is because Gavin Newsom is doing the intelligent thing.

00:07:38.000 He says, hey, maybe boys shouldn't play in girls' sports. 0.98

00:07:42.000 And, you know, acceptance is the first step toward actually fixing the problem, Democrats.

00:07:48.000 And here is Gavin Newsom leading the way.

00:07:51.000 Would you do something like that?

00:07:53.000 Would you say no men in female sports? 0.99

00:07:54.000 Well, I think it's an issue of fairness.

00:07:56.000 I completely agree with you on that.

00:07:57.000 So that's easy to call out, the unfairness of that.

00:08:00.000 There's also a humility and a grace that these poor people are more likely to commit suicide, have anxiety and depression.

00:08:07.000 And the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that...

00:08:11.000 I have a hard time with.

00:08:14.000 Wow.

00:08:15.000 Wow, wow, wow.

00:08:16.000 So that is Gavin Newsom giving up the ghost on this issue, which is, of course, the thing that Democrats must do.

00:08:21.000 As I've been speaking about for years at this point, the thing that makes Democrats seem totally nuts the most is this particular issue.

00:08:28.000 But Democrats are having a hard time on this one because just a few days ago, the entire House Democratic caucus voted in favor of the idea that men need to play in women's sports if they identify as women.

00:08:39.000 The entire Senate Democrat caucus voted the same exact way and ended up defeating a bill that would have enshrined rights for women in sports.

00:08:46.000 Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, was asked about Gavin Newsom's comments.

00:08:50.000 And here's what he had to say.

00:08:52.000 I haven't seen his comments.

00:08:58.000 What Democrats opposed was unleashing sexual predators on girls throughout the United States of America. 1.00

00:09:08.000 The hell?

00:09:09.000 The what?

00:09:12.000 So the way you oppose sexual predators being unleashed on girls is forcing grown-ass men with their dingleberries hanging out to shower with the ladies in the women's room before a swim meet. 0.94

00:09:25.000 That's the way you prevent sexual predation, according to Hakeem Jeffries.

00:09:28.000 Again, at some point, the reality is going to set in for Democrats.

00:09:34.000 That's what's going to happen.

00:09:36.000 The reality is going to set in for them.

00:09:37.000 Either it will...

00:09:37.000 Because they decide to wise up or because the voters keep clocking them over and over and over.

00:09:42.000 And so much of this, again, is being driven by the media's bizarre fixation on the idea that this is some sort of civil rights issue.

00:09:52.000 So, for example, Politico has a piece titled Newsom's Move on Trans Athletes Jolts 2028 Campaign.

00:09:59.000 Gavin Newsom's provocative new position on trans athletes on Thursday reopened a rift in the Democratic Party that could serve as one of the earliest flashpoints in the party's 2028 primary.

00:10:08.000 Is it a provocative new position?

00:10:10.000 Or is it the position of literally all of humanity for all of human history until the last seven minutes when the entire media and Democratic Party decided that boys who cut off their junk were girls?

00:10:22.000 Within hours of the California governor condemning trans athletes playing in female sports, shocking his party in his home state, some Democrats unloaded on the likely presidential contender.

00:10:30.000 It's disgusting, said Lori Lightfoot, the former Chicago mayor, with a...

00:10:35.000 An approval rating so low that she ended up being ousted as the mayor after one term. 0.98

00:10:38.000 There are kids waking up in California with this news thinking their governor hates them, and rightly so, said Pramila Jayapal. 1.00

00:10:43.000 She urged Democrats to, quote, not take the bait and give into their anti-trans people rhetoric.

00:10:49.000 But to moderates, Newsom was offering a lifeline for a party plagued by culture wars and the polarizing politics of trans women in sports. 0.88

00:10:55.000 His comments were the latest from a field of potential contenders seeking to distance themselves from identity politics in 2024. Again, sort of fascinating to see some Democrats beginning to wake up to the political realities of the dumbass positions they've been holding on this one.

00:11:11.000 And they're going to need to come to terms with some other political realities, like, for example, the fact that Americans are very much in favor of closing the borders.

00:11:18.000 It turns out that Americans don't like open borders very much.

00:11:22.000 And some Democrats, say John Fetterman, have been coming to grips with this.

00:11:26.000 The reality is that in order for Democrats to win the presidency, they have to run as left-to-moderate Republicans.

00:11:32.000 They must.

00:11:34.000 Joe Biden ran as a left to moderate Republican in the 2020 election.

00:11:38.000 Barack Obama in 2008, before his re-elect in 2008, Barack Obama ran as a person who wanted to bring common sense to government and unify the country after a divisive era.

00:11:47.000 Bill Clinton, by today's standards, would have been judged a left to moderate Republican.

00:11:52.000 That's just the reality.

00:11:54.000 And so Democrats are going to have to start to recognize they've ceded the middle ground to Republicans over and over and over again.

00:11:59.000 And if they want to keep doing that, listen, I'm perfectly fine for them doing it.

00:12:02.000 But at a certain point, reality is going to have to set in.

00:12:05.000 Listen, reality needs to set in.

00:12:07.000 We live in a world where narratives often matter more than reality, but here's the thing, the data don't lie.

00:12:11.000 If you want the data, you need USAFacts.org.

00:12:14.000 USAFacts isn't about the narratives, it's about data.

00:12:16.000 Real, nonpartisan, verifiable data straight from government sources.

00:12:19.000 Whether it's taxes, healthcare, or the economy, USAFacts gives you the numbers you need to cut through the nonsense and make informed decisions.

00:12:25.000 And they make it super easy.

00:12:26.000 Go to USAFacts.org, sign up for their free weekly email that you can rely on to get the data behind the news.

00:12:31.000 It's like a personal briefing on the state of the nation delivered directly to your inbox.

00:12:34.000 No spin, no bias, just facts.

00:12:36.000 Like if you care about how our government is, for example, spending money and where your taxpayer dollars are actually going, this is for you.

00:12:43.000 A lot of folks are interested in what Doge is doing.

00:12:44.000 If you want the background, go to usafacts.org right now.

00:12:47.000 Get clear, contextualized facts on the issues that matter.

00:12:50.000 It's time to know those facts because the data don't lie.

00:12:53.000 And you can always have your own narrative.

00:12:54.000 But the data are the data.

00:12:56.000 You want to know the data so that you understand what the hell is going on in the world.

00:12:58.000 That's usafacts.org.

00:13:00.000 Go check it out today.

00:13:01.000 Again, usafacts.org.

00:13:04.000 All the rest is spin, but the facts are the facts.

00:13:06.000 usafacts.org to get just the data.

00:13:09.000 Also, starting a business is really exciting, but the financial chaos that comes with all of that, not quite as exciting.

00:13:14.000 When I launched The Daily Wire, I became very familiar with compiling a sea of receipts, trying to track employee expenses, spending countless hours reconciling statements.

00:13:21.000 It was a nightmare until we got it all figured out.

00:13:24.000 But it doesn't have to be that way.

00:13:26.000 You need RAMP. RAMP is a free corporate card.

00:13:28.000 It handles all your tedious financial operations, like manually logging receipts and chasing approvals.

00:13:32.000 RAMP does all that automatically, so your team can focus on the stuff that truly moves the needle.

00:13:36.000 Forecasting, planning, scaling your business.

00:13:38.000 If you're in an industry the way I am, time to execute breaking news coverage right when it happens.

00:13:42.000 And here's the reality.

00:13:43.000 Most finance teams spend 80% of their time on mind-numbing busy work, chasing down expenses.

00:13:47.000 Only 20% on what actually matters.

00:13:49.000 Strategic planning and growth.

00:13:51.000 RAMP flips that equation completely.

00:13:53.000 Over 25,000 businesses trust Ramp, including Shopify and the Boys and Girls Club of America.

00:13:57.000 That's why they were just named number one in spend management by G2. And right now, for a limited time, listeners of the show can get $250 when you join Ramp.

00:14:04.000 Just go to ramp.com slash Shapiro.

00:14:06.000 That's ramp.com slash Shapiro.

00:14:08.000 R-A-M-P dot com slash Shapiro.

00:14:10.000 Cards issued by Sutton Bank member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply.

00:14:14.000 Now, meanwhile, on the right side of the aisle, one of the big problems for the right side of the aisle is, yes, you want to move fast.

00:14:19.000 You have power now.

00:14:20.000 You got to move fast.

00:14:20.000 You got to break things.

00:14:21.000 You got to do them.

00:14:22.000 At the same time, you have to balance that with the reality that Americans actually don't like radical change very much.

00:14:28.000 You have to somehow achieve the signal ability to craft radical change without undermining your own agenda.

00:14:35.000 And so far, the Trump administration has been doing a good job on this.

00:14:37.000 So, for example, despite all of the media freaking out over Doge, the Department of Governmental Efficiency and Elon Musk, it turns out the poll numbers remain pretty strong on this.

00:14:46.000 Here's Harry Enten explaining this.

00:14:48.000 Americans on Trump and Joe's efforts.

00:14:50.000 Musk and Doge should influence government spending and operations.

00:14:54.000 Look at this.

00:14:55.000 54%.

00:14:55.000 The majority say that he and they should.

00:14:58.000 How about a proof of Trump trying to cut staff at government agencies?

00:15:01.000 Again, you get a majority here.

00:15:03.000 51%.

00:15:03.000 So yeah, Elon Musk might not be that popular, but these cuts and the idea of spending cuts, at least within the federal government and cutting at government agencies, that actually has majority support.

00:15:14.000 Okay, so.

00:15:14.000 Herein lies the rub.

00:15:16.000 If you look at that poll, it says Musk should have, quote, at least some influence on government operations.

00:15:21.000 In other words, people don't want him to go in there with a chainsaw the way many people on my side of the aisle would love for him to do.

00:15:28.000 They want him to go in with a scalpel.

00:15:29.000 And President Trump recognizes political reality.

00:15:31.000 Again, I've said this about President Trump before.

00:15:33.000 This is a man who lives in the world of political reality in a way that most politicians do not.

00:15:38.000 Most politicians...

00:15:39.000 are so ideologically attached to their positions that even if those positions start to go wrong with the American people, they hold by them.

00:15:46.000 And there's something to be recommended about that because at least you know the differentiation between the parties.

00:15:50.000 I mean, I'm clearly an ideological person.

00:15:52.000 I have a set of beliefs that fit into a broader worldview.

00:15:56.000 And I think that that's helpful to my listeners because they know where I'm coming from.

00:15:59.000 But for President Trump to be successful, he has to continue to be as pragmatic as he has been.

00:16:04.000 So yesterday, he made clear that he would be.

00:16:07.000 Yesterday, according to Politico, President Trump convened his cabinet in person to deliver a message.

00:16:11.000 You are in charge of your departments, not Elon Musk.

00:16:14.000 According to two administration officials, President Trump told top members of his administration that Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments, but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy.

00:16:24.000 Musk was in the room.

00:16:26.000 The meeting followed a series of mass firings and threats to government workers from the billionaire Tesla founder who helms the Department of Governmental Efficiency.

00:16:33.000 President Trump then stressed that he wants to actually keep good people in government and not to eject capable workers en masse.

00:16:39.000 Here's President Trump saying just that yesterday.

00:16:42.000 I want the cabinet members to keep good people.

00:16:45.000 I don't want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut.

00:16:49.000 I want the cabinet members to keep the good people and the people that aren't doing a good job, that are unreliable, don't show up to work, etc.

00:16:57.000 Those people can be cut.

00:16:59.000 So I had a meeting.

00:17:01.000 And I said, I want the cabinet members to go first.

00:17:04.000 Keep all the people you want, everybody that you need.

00:17:07.000 I mean, again, this is President Trump saying, let's use a scalpel, not a chainsaw.

00:17:12.000 And then he put out a statement to that exact same effect.

00:17:14.000 Quote, the golden age of America has just begun.

00:17:16.000 Over the past six weeks, our administration has delivered on promises like no administration before it, always putting America first.

00:17:21.000 Doge has been an incredible success.

00:17:23.000 And now that we have my cabinet in place, I've instructed the secretaries and leadership to work with Doge on cost-cutting measures and staffing.

00:17:29.000 As the secretaries learn about and understand the people working for the various departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain and who will go.

00:17:35.000 We save the scalpel rather than the hatchet.

00:17:37.000 The combination of them, Elon, Doge, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level.

00:17:42.000 We just had a meeting with most of the secretaries, Elon and others, and it was a very positive one.

00:17:46.000 It's very important that we cut levels down to where they should be, but it's also important to keep the best and most productive people.

00:17:51.000 We're going to have these meetings every two weeks until that aspect of this very necessary job is done.

00:17:56.000 The relationships between everybody in the room are extraordinary.

00:17:58.000 They all want to get to the exact same place, which is simply to make America great again.

00:18:02.000 So, again, that is President Trump reading the tea leaves.

00:18:04.000 He understands that many people are going to start targeting these sort of broad-level cuts without specificity and pointing to victim stories.

00:18:12.000 And, of course, there will be victim stories because when you move fast and break things the way that you would at a tech company, then there are a bunch of people who lose their jobs who are sympathetic.

00:18:20.000 There are going to be some things that get broken that actually might not need to get broken.

00:18:23.000 And so Trump's saying, Listen, at the very beginning we go super hard, but now it's time to actually make sure that we don't break anything that we need and that the departments actually go through and take the recommendations under consideration and then with a scalpel, not with a baseball bat, go through their departments.

00:18:37.000 That is a smart move by President Trump.

00:18:40.000 A lot of people are painting this as a sort of flip by President Trump.

00:18:43.000 It is not.

00:18:43.000 It is what President Trump always does.

00:18:45.000 He course corrects to the most successful position.

00:18:49.000 That is the thing that he is attempting to do right now.

00:18:52.000 And meanwhile...

00:18:53.000 The same, I believe, is holding true with regard to tariffs.

00:18:56.000 So yesterday, amid all of the hubbub about President Trump's new tariff regime, President Trump reversed some of these tariffs.

00:19:04.000 According to NBC News, President Trump issued exemptions on tariffs for a variety of goods coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada just two days after he put the sweeping tariffs in place, leaving investors and businesses grappling with the whiplash of his back-and-forth Trade policy.

00:19:17.000 Those exemptions to the 25% tariffs enacted on Tuesday would apply to about half of goods coming into the United States from Mexico and about 38% of goods from Canada that comply with the North American trade deal reached during Trump's first term, according to a senior administration official.

00:19:31.000 So again, this is being portrayed as a flip-flop, and in a certain way, it is.

00:19:34.000 But it is also a recognition of reality, which is when the market takes a giant bump.

00:19:39.000 At a certain point, you're going to look at that and go, hey, maybe we shouldn't do as much of this as we've been talking about.

00:19:45.000 When the poll numbers start to go the wrong way, maybe that requires a course correction.

00:19:50.000 A brand new poll from the economist YouGov on the tariffs explains that a majority of Americans believe that the cost of tariffs on foreign products imported into the United States would fall mostly on companies and people in the United States.

00:20:03.000 Now, whether that is true or not, that perception is really bad for President Trump.

00:20:07.000 If the prices rise, and all of that is blamed on the tariffs, the American people are not going to be happy.

00:20:13.000 And trying to whistle past the graveyard on that was a mistake that Joe Biden made, right?

00:20:16.000 You remember the transitory inflation that was not transitory at all?

00:20:19.000 Or the implication that your life was better than you thought it was?

00:20:22.000 People don't like being told that when the prices are going up, actually everything is hunky-dory.

00:20:28.000 So, again, it is not about whether, in fact, China feels it more than we do.

00:20:32.000 China will feel it more than we do, but what do we care? 0.99

00:20:34.000 If you're an American citizen, what you care about is how America is feeling it, unless you actually believe that Canada and Mexico are enemies.

00:20:41.000 Why do we care if a tariff is affecting Canada and Mexico more than it is affecting us?

00:20:46.000 It's not a comparative thing.

00:20:48.000 Most things affect foreign countries more than they affect the United States.

00:20:51.000 We are uniquely strong.

00:20:53.000 We are uniquely well-positioned in the world.

00:20:54.000 We have a uniquely strong economy and constitution.

00:20:57.000 But if things are worse for Americans on an absolute level, not a relative level with regard to other countries, on an absolute level, Americans feel it.

00:21:06.000 This is why, for example, So, out of respect for President Scheinbaum.

00:21:27.000 Our relationship has been a very good one.

00:21:29.000 We are working hard together on the border, both in terms of stopping illegal aliens from entering the United States and likewise stopping fentanyl.

00:21:34.000 Thank you to President Scheinbaum for your hardworking cooperation.

00:21:36.000 So again, if the idea here, as I've said before, if tariffs are for leverage, if tariffs are a ratchet, then great.

00:21:43.000 You got something you want from Mexico?

00:21:44.000 You don't have to tariff the products.

00:21:45.000 That's good.

00:21:46.000 If, however, there is a principled attachment to tariffs as though tariffs are going to make America economically stronger just on their own, that is not a saleable position for the vast majority of Americans.

00:21:58.000 When it comes to the economy, there's just reality.

00:22:01.000 There are just facts.

00:22:02.000 That's also true when it comes to nutrition.

00:22:04.000 A lot of people worry about their kids' nutrition.

00:22:05.000 I certainly do.

00:22:06.000 You know how most children's vitamins out there are basically candy with a vitamin label?

00:22:09.000 They're loaded with two teaspoons of sugar, artificial ingredients that kids really do not need.

00:22:13.000 Well, this is where Haya comes in. 1.00

00:22:15.000 They've created an amazing chewable vitamin that kids actually love.

00:22:18.000 The best part?

00:22:18.000 Zero sugar, still totally delicious.

00:22:21.000 What impressed me was learning about their ingredient list.

00:22:23.000 They've packed in 12 organic fruits and veggies plus 15 essential vitamins and minerals.

00:22:26.000 And they've thought of everything.

00:22:27.000 It's non-GMO, vegan, allergen-free, thoroughly tested for safety.

00:22:30.000 That means you and I can both feel confident giving our kids vitamins made to this high-quality standard.

00:22:35.000 Are you tired of battling with your kids to eat their greens?

00:22:37.000 Haya now has kids daily greens plus superfoods, a chocolate flavored greens powder designed specifically for kids, packed with more than 55 whole food ingredients to support brain power, development, and digestion.

00:22:46.000 You just scoop, shake, and sip with milk or any non-dairy beverage for a delicious, nutritious boost your kids will actually like.

00:22:52.000 They even send stickers with your first order so your kids can decorate the bottle and make it their own.

00:22:55.000 We've worked out a special deal with Haya for their best-selling children's vitamin.

00:22:58.000 Receive 50% off your first order.

00:23:01.000 To claim the deal, head on over to HayaHealth.com slash Shapiro.

00:23:03.000 Again, that's H-I-Y-A-H-E-A-L-T-H.com slash Shapiro.

00:23:09.000 Get your kids the full body nourishment they deserve to grow into healthy adults.

00:23:13.000 Also, Did you know that Andrea Bocelli, Steph Curry, Justin Bieber, Tim Tebow almost didn't exist?

00:23:18.000 All their moms were encouraged to end their pregnancies. 1.00

00:23:20.000 When a woman faces an unplanned pregnancy, she's often pressured by somebody else to terminate.

00:23:24.000 She wants to make the right choice, but society tells her, well, the baby isn't really alive.

00:23:28.000 It's not a big deal.

00:23:28.000 This is where Preborn steps in.

00:23:30.000 Preborn and their network of clinics offer compassionate care to moms, providing the support they need to choose life, including a free ultrasound.

00:23:36.000 It's amazing, but when a mom hears her child's heartbeat, she becomes twice as likely to continue the pregnancy.

00:23:41.000 If you believe in protecting life, it is time to join with Preborn. 0.95

00:23:44.000 Together, we can empower women to make life-affirming choices. 0.56

00:23:46.000 When we support moms and motherhood, we transform families and futures.

00:23:50.000 Just 28 bucks provides one ultrasound, 140 bucks helps rescue five babies.

00:23:54.000 Monthly donors receive stories and photos of the lives they've helped save.

00:23:57.000 Dial pound 250, say baby.

00:23:59.000 That's pound 250, baby.

00:24:02.000 Or visit preborn.com slash ben to make a difference today.

00:24:05.000 Again, that's pound 250, say keyword baby.

00:24:08.000 So Scott Besson, who's an excellent Treasury Secretary, he really knows what he's doing, but he's being put out there to defend tariff policy.

00:24:14.000 He's at the Economic Club of New York, and he was talking about what he thinks the American Dream is, and he dropped this line.

00:24:22.000 Access to cheap goods is not the asset, is not the essence of the American Dream.

00:24:28.000 The American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security.

00:24:37.000 For too long, the designers of multilateral trade deals have lost sight of this.

00:24:43.000 International economic relations that do not work for the American people must be reexamined.

00:24:50.000 Okay, now, again, if these trade deals are actually hurting the American people, and there are some that are, then we should reexamine them.

00:24:55.000 However, part of the American dream and part of upward mobility is being able to afford things, obviously.

00:25:01.000 Making the argument to Americans that access to cheap goods is not part of the American dream?

00:25:05.000 Tell that to people who have to pay more for their mortgage.

00:25:07.000 That is a good.

00:25:08.000 Tell that to people who have to pay more for services.

00:25:10.000 Those are all goods and services that you have to pay for.

00:25:13.000 Actually, access to affordable things is, in fact, part of the American dream because upward mobility relies on you being able to afford things.

00:25:20.000 That is a reality.

00:25:22.000 And so, again, I think President Trump is going to look at the markets.

00:25:24.000 I think that, once again, he looks at the results of his policies, and if they're not achieving what he wants them to achieve, he changes the policy.

00:25:32.000 Speaking of which, Vladimir Zelensky has changed his suit entirely in Ukraine.

00:25:35.000 He is now not saying any longer that the war is going to last a very, very long time.

00:25:40.000 He was saying that just a few days ago.

00:25:41.000 Now he is saying that they are seeking a swift end to the war.

00:25:48.000 He says there were some special issues concerning our national resilience on the staff meeting agenda today.

00:25:54.000 We are working on all possible scenarios to protect Ukraine.

00:25:57.000 The baseline scenario is to hold positions and create conditions for proper diplomacy.

00:26:05.000 For the soonest possible end.

00:26:08.000 To this war with a decent peace.

00:26:10.000 Again, Zelensky is where the United States wants him.

00:26:13.000 Now the United States needs to get Putin to the table.

00:26:15.000 That's the next step.

00:26:16.000 We have massaged the Russians enough. 1.00

00:26:19.000 Now it's time for us to exert enough pressure to get Putin to actually come to the table, make some concessions, and get to the end of the war.

00:26:25.000 It takes two.

00:26:25.000 It takes two to tango with regard to that war.

00:26:29.000 Now speaking, by the way.

00:26:30.000 I know a lot of people connect this war to corruption.

00:26:33.000 You want to hear about actual corruption?

00:26:34.000 This is my favorite corruption story of the day because it is quite wonderful.

00:26:37.000 So apparently, apparently Hunter Biden is no longer able to do his art.

00:26:42.000 I know you're shocked.

00:26:43.000 You thought that Hunter Biden was a great artist capable of selling his paintings for half a million dollars a pop.

00:26:48.000 However, according to Politico Playbook, a pardon from his dad spared Hunter Biden from prison, but the former president's son remained saddled with debt and was forced out of a home he was renting.

00:26:57.000 By the recent Pacific Palisades fire, according to Politico's Josh Gerstein.

00:27:01.000 Biden detailed his grim financial situation in a court filing yesterday, saying he has struggled to sell his paintings in recent months, moving only one in the past 14 months, compared with 27 in the prior two or three years.

00:27:11.000 He reported significant debts and lackluster sales of his memoir, just more than 4,200 copies during a one-year period that led up to the trial in Delaware last spring, in which he was found guilty of lying about his drug addiction on a federal gun purchase form.

00:27:23.000 Well, I wonder what happened.

00:27:24.000 Why did the market drop for his paintings?

00:27:26.000 I mean, that's weird.

00:27:27.000 So for like two or three years, his paintings were selling like hotcakes because everyone wanted a Hunter Biden painting.

00:27:32.000 And then no one would buy his paintings.

00:27:34.000 What could have changed?

00:27:36.000 Hmm, it's a mystery wrapped in enigma.

00:27:39.000 Or maybe people realized that his father was not going to be president for much longer.

00:27:44.000 And then if you bought a Hunter Biden painting, you were flushing your money down the toilet.

00:27:47.000 Whereas before, if the idea was that he was actually the president of the United States and you bought a Hunter Biden painting, guess who got access to daddy?

00:27:55.000 But don't worry, it was never corrupt.

00:27:56.000 This family is as clean as the driven snow.

00:27:58.000 I can't imagine why the Biden administration was widely derided and hated by the vast majority of the American public.

00:28:05.000 It is a gigantic, unsolvable mystery.

00:28:08.000 Meanwhile, it's time to initiate a brand new segment here on the Ben Shapiro Show.

00:28:11.000 We call it The Takedown.

00:28:12.000 Here is the deal.

00:28:13.000 The left loves to put out monologues, speeches, grandstanding diatribes.

00:28:17.000 Completely unchallenged, but not here.

00:28:19.000 In Takedown, we're going head-to-head, breaking apart their arguments piece-by-piece, exposing the contradictions, the logical fallacies.

00:28:24.000 And the actual lies.

00:28:26.000 It's time for the takedown.

00:28:30.000 Today, we are going to go through the response of the venerable intellect, Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, to President Trump's State of the Union address the other night.

00:28:39.000 And it was amazing.

00:28:40.000 She was knitting a sweater while she did it.

00:28:42.000 And so, you know, her brain was apparently largely taken up by that absolutely difficult task.

00:28:49.000 Here is some of what Alexander Ocasio-Cortez had to say about the President of the United States address to a joint session of Congress.

00:28:55.000 I didn't feel like I could legitimize his presence.

00:29:02.000 And so Trump actually has to be formally invited to the House floor in order to be allowed into the House floor.

00:29:11.000 Same thing with all those senators and the cabinet members, etc.

00:29:15.000 So, you know, I think other people had a certain logic, which is that this is the people's house, and Trump showing up should not kind of force the duly elected representatives of that chamber, especially those who disagree with him, out.

00:29:36.000 Okay, so I assume here she's talking about Representative Val Green.

00:29:39.000 You will note at this point that President Trump was, in fact, invited to address Congress.

00:29:44.000 That is how he got there.

00:29:45.000 He was invited by the Speaker of the House to address Congress.

00:29:48.000 And then everybody else was invited.

00:29:49.000 And then you get kicked out if you break the rules.

00:29:52.000 So, immediately, she's starting off without any logical foot.

00:29:56.000 And it gets worse from here.

00:29:59.000 The reason they're shaking all these couch cushions and the reason that they are rattling off all these numbers is because all those numbers they are trying to add up into one of the most massive tax cuts for billionaires and the 1% probably in modern American history.

00:30:18.000 And do not forget that.

00:30:22.000 Don't forget that.

00:30:23.000 It's not just about what Trump is saying.

00:30:27.000 Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, it was the people at the top of the income tax spectrum who benefited the most from the Trump tax cuts of 2017. It was geared toward millionaires and billionaires.

00:30:37.000 Now, I can tell you that my tax rate actually increased under the Trump tax cuts.

00:30:41.000 However, the question that really should be asked is not whether people at the top saw more of a decrease in their taxes than people at the bottom.

00:30:49.000 Of course they did.

00:30:50.000 People at the top pay way more taxes than people at the bottom, on both an absolute and a relative level.

00:30:55.000 The top tax bracket in the United States at the time of the Trump tax cuts was 39%, and it dropped down to 37%, 36%.

00:31:03.000 If you're at the bottom of the tax bracket, you're paying basically no income tax, so it'd be very difficult to actually pass a tax cut that benefited you.

00:31:12.000 Obviously, gains from income tax cuts are going to be disproportionately to the people who pay the taxes.

00:31:18.000 The real question, and the only one that really matters, is after the Trump tax cuts, Did the share of total taxes, like all taxes, paid by the top increase or decrease?

00:31:30.000 So in other words, if $100 in taxes got paid by the American people, what percentage of those taxes were paid by the top 1% in 2016 before the Trump tax cuts?

00:31:40.000 And what percentage were paid in, say, 2020 after the Trump tax cuts?

00:31:44.000 So I asked our friends over at Perplexity that question, quote.

00:31:48.000 What percentage of total income taxes did the top 1% pay in 2016?

00:31:51.000 And what percentage of total income taxes did the top 1% pay in 2020?

00:31:55.000 And here is the answer.

00:31:57.000 In 2016, the top 1% of taxpayers paid 37.3% of total income taxes.

00:32:03.000 In 2020, the top 1% of taxpayers paid nearly 42% of all income taxes.

00:32:10.000 This data shows an increase in the share of income taxes paid by the top 1% between 2016 and 2020. Rising from 37.3% to 42%.

00:32:18.000 So all that talk about how the richest in our society were sort of disproportionately benefited by the Trump tax cuts.

00:32:24.000 If that's so, then why did we pay a larger share of the taxes total than we did before the Trump tax cuts?

00:32:33.000 Can we continue with AOC here?

00:32:35.000 Medicaid.

00:32:36.000 Don't you find it interesting that he did not mention Medicaid?

00:32:44.000 Once?

00:32:46.000 Once?

00:32:48.000 The largest source of health insurance, one of the largest insurers in the United States that impacts most Americans, if he was confident about his attacks on Medicaid, he would have said something, Wouldn't he?

00:33:07.000 He's confident about his attacks on immigrants. 1.00

00:33:10.000 He's confident about his attacks on federal workers.

00:33:13.000 He's confident about all those things.

00:33:14.000 Why won't he own up and Republicans own up to their attacks on Medicaid?

00:33:20.000 I love this non-argument by AOC here.

00:33:24.000 This is a tremendous logical fallacy.

00:33:26.000 So, she is essentially arguing that absence of evidence is evidence of absence, meaning that there's a complete...

00:33:35.000 Absence of evidence that President Trump wants to cut Medicaid.

00:33:38.000 He said over and over and over he doesn't want to cut Medicaid.

00:33:40.000 That's why he didn't mention it, because he doesn't want to cut Medicaid.

00:33:42.000 And she is suggesting he didn't mention it because he does want to cut Medicaid.

00:33:48.000 I'd need, like, some evidence to suggest that he wants to cut Medicaid.

00:33:53.000 Like, where is she getting all of that?

00:33:55.000 And the answer is she's sort of inferring it from the fact that if you are going to do a budgetary bill, as Republicans are proposing in the House, then it needs to be deficit neutral.

00:34:04.000 And that means there need to be cuts from somewhere.

00:34:06.000 But again, President Trump has already said he doesn't want to cut from Medicaid, which means the cuts are going to have to come from somewhere else, or the bill is going to have to change, obviously.

00:34:14.000 Here's AOC continuing.

00:34:16.000 Because what they are trying to cut from Medicaid, I'm going to tell you, is somewhere to the tune of $880 billion from Medicaid.

00:34:31.000 Okay?

00:34:32.000 $880 billion.

00:34:34.000 And I sit on the committee that Medicaid goes through.

00:34:40.000 And the math ain't mathin'.

00:34:43.000 The math ain't mathin'.

00:34:44.000 Wow.

00:34:46.000 She sounds like a great accountant.

00:34:49.000 The math ain't mathin'.

00:34:51.000 Well, I mean, what she's actually referring to is the fact that part of the bill refers to the committee that deals with Medicaid, among other things.

00:35:00.000 to try to identify cuts.

00:35:02.000 But it doesn't say that Medicaid has to be the source of the cuts.

00:35:04.000 So Democrats just keep saying a thing over and over for which, again, there is no evidence.

00:35:08.000 So then she decides that she is going to start talking about the work requirements of Medicaid.

00:35:15.000 Now, one of the things that Democrats don't like to talk about a lot is the fact that there are a lot of people who are on Medicaid who are on Medicaid because, in fact, they are claiming disability falsely.

00:35:24.000 One of the great multipliers in terms of our welfare dollars is disability.

00:35:28.000 But here was AOC. Talking about how work requirements were really not in any way being harmed by Medicaid disability.

00:35:37.000 Work requirements.

00:35:39.000 The amount of people that are actually...

00:35:44.000 If you are, for example, 29 and you're on Medicaid and you are not working...

00:35:57.000 You are most likely disabled. 1.00

00:36:00.000 You most likely have a major, major disability.

00:36:10.000 When they talk about if you do not have a job and you do not have a job for a long period of time and Like, the percentage of people on that, on Medicaid, it's like, I, don't quote me on it, but I think it's like 3 or 4%.

00:36:32.000 Very, very, very small.

00:36:35.000 Okay, so, a few notes here.

00:36:37.000 Once again, I asked my search partner here, Perplexity, what percentage of people on Medicaid are working?

00:36:44.000 Because she says it's all hardworking people, nobody's jobbing the system or anything like that.

00:36:49.000 The answer.

00:36:50.000 In 2023, approximately 64% of Medicaid adults under the age of 65 were working either full-time or part-time.

00:36:58.000 I'm just going to point out that means 36%, more than one-third of the people who are on Medicaid, were working not at all.

00:37:06.000 Not at all.

00:37:08.000 Because that is not a very, very minute percentage.

00:37:10.000 That is a lot of people who are, in fact, not working.

00:37:13.000 In fact, 44% of Medicaid enrollees under the age of 65 were employed full-time.

00:37:20.000 20% were working part-time.

00:37:21.000 Now remember, these are people who are lower than the retirement age.

00:37:24.000 They're lower than the retirement age.

00:37:26.000 It is also worth noting here that an enormous number of people on Medicaid do claim permanent disability, including huge percentages of people claiming disability who are relatively young.

00:37:38.000 Again, according to Perplexity, approximately 21-22% of Medicaid enrollees have a disability.

00:37:45.000 That is way higher than it used to be, by the way.

00:37:48.000 The claims of disability in the United States have risen almost exponentially over the course of the last couple of decades.

00:37:55.000 According to Perplexity, adults aged 19 to 49, 22% claim a disability on Medicaid.

00:38:03.000 If you're 50 to 64, 43% are claiming a disability.

00:38:07.000 So, I asked my magical friend at Perplexity, what qualifies you for a disability under Medicaid?

00:38:14.000 The answer is that you have to meet these criteria.

00:38:17.000 One, the disability must prevent the individual from working and be expected to last for at least 12 months or result in death.

00:38:23.000 Two, the condition must be a medically determinable physical or mental impairment that results in anatomical, physiological, or psychological abnormalities as shown by a medically acceptable clinical and laboratory diagnostic technique.

00:38:35.000 Now, there is only one problem with this.

00:38:38.000 You know how easy it is to find a doctor who will say that because you have high blood pressure you have a disability?

00:38:42.000 Or you have back pain and that is why you have a disability?

00:38:46.000 And there is not a really fantastic way of checking whether these folks have disability.

00:38:51.000 The instances of disability fraud in the United States are legion.

00:38:55.000 They are radically high.

00:38:57.000 Here is an insane statistic for you.

00:39:00.000 I asked my search partner, Perplexity, the following question, quote, How many Americans claimed disabilities in 1980?

00:39:05.000 How many claim disabilities today?

00:39:07.000 Here is the answer.

00:39:08.000 In 1980, 933,597 disability benefits were awarded.

00:39:13.000 In 2024, Over 70 million Americans reported having a disability.

00:39:21.000 Did we get all that disabled over the course of the last 45 years? 1.00

00:39:25.000 Like, were people really that much healthier in 1980?

00:39:27.000 Then we went from, like, 1 million to 70 million reporting a disability in 2022?

00:39:34.000 Really?

00:39:35.000 I understand we're a little older of a country, but not 70 times older of a country.

00:39:39.000 Hey, finally.

00:39:40.000 Finally, AOC had some ideas about the evils of tax, no tax on tips.

00:39:45.000 This one is particularly rich because she used to be a waitress. 1.00

00:39:48.000 Listen to her argument for why there should, in fact, be a tax on tips.

00:39:54.000 Let's talk about a couple of these things.

00:39:57.000 In terms of no tax on tips, obviously you all know I was a waitress for many years.

00:40:05.000 I was a bartender on many years.

00:40:07.000 Someone said your sweater.

00:40:08.000 Guys, I made it.

00:40:09.000 Thank you.

00:40:10.000 My hair's covering all the holes up here.

00:40:14.000 But in terms of no tax on tips, listen, I was a waitress.

00:40:18.000 I was a bartender.

00:40:20.000 I get it.

00:40:23.000 And if you live off of tips, I get it.

00:40:28.000 I do think it's important for us to recognize the danger of every job becoming a tipped job.

00:40:44.000 Now, having to pay each other's wages, not just in waitressing, not just in bartending.

00:40:53.000 And if you don't want every single person that you interact with starting to turn an iPad screen around, we need to take this very carefully.

00:41:10.000 Because employers, Okay, so let's talk about the myriad idiocies in this particular segment because there are a bunch.

00:41:36.000 Number one, she's admitting full scale that a bunch of people are going to start taking tips in order to avoid taxes.

00:41:43.000 Why it's almost as though economics is dynamic.

00:41:45.000 And when you increase the tax rates on certain things and decrease them on other things, people do the things with less taxes.

00:41:53.000 Remember, the entire democratic idea about economics is that it is a fixed pie.

00:41:57.000 So if you tax people more, they won't change their behavior.

00:41:59.000 You'll just get more money from them.

00:42:01.000 And here she is acknowledging that if no tax on tips goes through, a bunch of people are going to start taking more of their pay in the form of tips in order to avoid taxes.

00:42:11.000 Almost as though tax rates impact economic activity.

00:42:16.000 And then she adds another thing here.

00:42:20.000 I love this.

00:42:20.000 She says, you know, the employers need to pay.

00:42:23.000 Do you really want to be paying tips?

00:42:24.000 Do you want to be paying tips to everyone?

00:42:27.000 The employers should just pay a living wage. 0.97

00:42:29.000 Now, this mistakes who actually pays the bills of the employers.

00:42:34.000 The answer is the customers.

00:42:36.000 So here are your choices as a customer.

00:42:38.000 Either the employer pays.

00:42:40.000 A lower wage, say $7.50 an hour if you're talking about the federal minimum wage.

00:42:44.000 And then you take a bunch of tips on top so you don't have to pay taxes on it.

00:42:46.000 And then the customer is the one paying for those things in order to achieve the same result as if you had to pay a higher price in order to pay the taxes that the employer is going to have to pay on the wage.

00:43:01.000 You understand?

00:43:02.000 The customer has to pay for all of it.

00:43:04.000 The employer don't got a source of money other than the customer.

00:43:08.000 So no matter how you slice it, is the customer paying?

00:43:10.000 The only question is, if, for example, you get rid of the tax on tips, are the employees going to be taking more of their pay in the form of tips from the customer?

00:43:19.000 Or are they going to be taking their pay more in the form of a check from the employer?

00:43:24.000 But the bottom line is probably going to be about the same.

00:43:28.000 And if you force the employer to pay more, to increase the quote-unquote living wage, that all gets passed on to the consumer anyway.

00:43:38.000 So, there you have it.

00:43:39.000 The brilliance of Alexander Ocasio-Cortez.

00:43:41.000 Just stunning, stunning stuff.

00:43:43.000 Well, folks, since we do have this new segment called Takedown, if you see any crazy monologues that you'd love to see me debunk, leave them in the comments section below.

00:43:50.000 Well, folks, it's a Friday, and that means it's time to talk about stuff that I don't know about, namely cultural stories.

00:43:55.000 Now, you know I'll talk about tariff policy.

00:43:57.000 I talked earlier this week about whether the dollar will...

00:44:00.000 Long remain the world's reserve currency.

00:44:02.000 But the thing I don't know about is the stuff that literally millions of people actually care about and talk about.

00:44:06.000 And that is these big pop culture stories.

00:44:08.000 I've brought on an expert on that.

00:44:09.000 That's our Daily Wire host, Reagan.

00:44:11.000 Conor Reagan, thanks so much for stopping by.

00:44:12.000 Thank you for having me.

00:44:13.000 First of all, I just have to say that I've worked at this company at Daily Wire for three years.

00:44:17.000 Before that, I was a fan of the show.

00:44:18.000 So it was a full circle moment to be on here telling you about pop culture.

00:44:21.000 There's a massive story going viral about an old mommy vlogger.

00:44:25.000 And there's so many...

00:44:26.000 Ethical implications that come from this story, which is why I wanted to talk to you and your audience about it because it talks about exploiting children, but also the implications of what family vlogging can do to a family.

00:44:37.000 And it's also important to point out the crazy juxtaposition that happened because this woman was famous and viral for being this beloved mommy vlogger.

00:44:43.000 She was so happy, so great, painted such a perfect life until she got arrested for child abuse, has been convicted of child abuse and will remain in jail for 30 plus years.

00:44:52.000 So the story got even wilder because the daughter now has come out and she's an advocate against family vlogging.

00:44:57.000 So she speaks publicly about it all the time.

00:44:59.000 And one of her quotes said, there is no such thing as a moral or ethical family vlogger.

00:45:03.000 I mean, once you involve the kids in that, I kind of agree with it.

00:45:06.000 Meaning that if you're kind of blogging about you cooking at night, or it's you and how you put the kids to bed or something, that's one thing.

00:45:14.000 Once you start actually involving your kids in the making of this sort of stuff...

00:45:18.000 Then you're just a Hollywood mom. 1.00

00:45:19.000 And I mean, I've known a lot of Hollywood moms because I used to live in Hollywood and I knew a lot of people who had kids in the industry. 0.64

00:45:24.000 And that stuff is always borderline exploitative.

00:45:27.000 There's a reason why Hollywood kids generally end up screwed up adults.

00:45:30.000 And so it's not a real shock that when you take those means of production that used to require an entire studio system in order to make it happen, and then you just give it to everybody, there can be a lot of people who exploit their kids for the money.

00:45:41.000 I mean, I think it's a pretty good take, actually.

00:45:43.000 My wife has said, I've mentioned this on the show before, that she at some point wants to write a book.

00:45:47.000 I'm a terrible mother and so are you.

00:45:49.000 Because that's actually the reality of being a parent is that you realize that you fail literally all the time.

00:45:54.000 And so the sort of perfect parent that mommy vloggers very often are portraying, the only way you can achieve that is actually through just lying or through exploiting your kid. 0.85

00:46:04.000 There's no way to do it.

00:46:05.000 Yeah.

00:46:06.000 Yeah.

00:46:06.000 Well, Ruby is proof of that, unfortunately.

00:46:07.000 So I want to show you some of these footage first before I get into this because it's crazy.

00:46:11.000 And I just want you to react to this.

00:46:13.000 So if we could roll the footage on this one.

00:46:16.000 Do you know where your name came from?

00:46:18.000 Grandpa.

00:46:19.000 Of course you know.

00:46:21.000 Grandpa.

00:46:22.000 Let's all suit your name after.

00:46:24.000 Grandpa.

00:46:27.000 Which grandpa?

00:46:28.000 Okay, we're going to try this again.

00:46:30.000 You'd be a little more talkative here.

00:46:32.000 I am.

00:46:32.000 I'm talking.

00:46:33.000 answer your questions hey If I hear you, I'm more worried.

00:46:42.000 Get out! 0.98

00:46:43.000 If I'm going to let you, I don't vlog.

00:46:54.000 And if I'm going to spend all my time helping you, you're going to help me too.

00:46:58.000 I don't want you too.

00:47:00.000 I don't want you too.

00:47:01.000 Be excited to tell them where your name came from, even if you have to fake it.

00:47:08.000 Fake being happy.

00:47:13.000 Okay?

00:47:15.000 I don't know if I can right now.

00:47:17.000 I don't know why, it's just...

00:47:21.000 Well, that seems not great.

00:47:22.000 Just a clip.

00:47:23.000 Again, there's a whole docu-series about this.

00:47:26.000 But you see that she's just saying, you know, do it regardless if you're happy.

00:47:30.000 Fake it.

00:47:30.000 I mean, it's Hollywood production very clearly, right?

00:47:32.000 And I think that's the thing people miss about.

00:47:34.000 This is true of reality TV. It's also obviously true of mommy blogging or whatever. 0.66

00:47:38.000 There's a reason none of my kids, there are no pictures of them online, and we keep them completely away from the spotlight, specifically because of safety reasons and we don't want their life to be dominated by it.

00:47:47.000 But, I mean, if you're making money off putting your kids on camera, then it, Is likely going to devolve into that, unfortunately.

00:47:53.000 That looks pretty much like every Hollywood mom that I've ever met. 0.89

00:47:57.000 It's pretty bad.

00:47:58.000 So kind of like only for moms, right? 0.79

00:48:01.000 They democratize the means of production.

00:48:04.000 Speaking of which, apparently there are only updates that I have not yet heard.

00:48:07.000 Unfortunately, yes, there are many of those.

00:48:09.000 The same kind of unethical and ways that you make money is exactly, obviously, what they're doing with only and what women, unfortunately, are seeing, too. 0.99

00:48:16.000 So they're seeing role models like...

00:48:18.000 The Ruby Frankies of the world. 1.00

00:48:19.000 And then they're seeing the role models like Bonnie Blue, who is the woman.

00:48:23.000 I'll specify because there are multiple now.

00:48:24.000 But the one woman is Bonnie Blue. 0.99

00:48:26.000 She slept with 1,000 men in 24 hours.

00:48:28.000 That's her claim to fame. 0.95

00:48:29.000 And I have so many questions about the logistics.

00:48:31.000 I mean, just like the...

00:48:32.000 Who provided the buffet?

00:48:34.000 Like, I just...

00:48:34.000 I don't know.

00:48:35.000 I know too much about the logistics.

00:48:36.000 And I'm not going to share because...

00:48:38.000 Thank you.

00:48:38.000 I appreciate that, actually.

00:48:39.000 I wasn't that curious about it.

00:48:40.000 Yeah.

00:48:41.000 No, it's horrifying.

00:48:42.000 But she has been flaunting a lot, like, her money. 1.00

00:48:44.000 Obviously, she's making tons of money because of this. 1.00

00:48:46.000 And a bunch of young girls are seeing that.

00:48:47.000 Bonnie Blue, the infamous only model, has recently made so much money that she has bought a $500,000 Ferrari and she's posting about it on all of her social media. 0.97

00:48:56.000 So I wanted to show you that because I think, again, there's more ethical and important questions to talk about regarding these women. 1.00

00:49:02.000 You ready to see your one-of-one custom 458 Liberty Walk?

00:49:05.000 I'm ready.

00:49:10.000 Fully customized and blue wrap, carbon everywhere, wide body kit.

00:49:14.000 Okay, so you just saw that, right?

00:49:16.000 She's making tons of money, obviously. 1.00

00:49:18.000 Someone commented something which I did want to share with you because, well, we all thought it was funny.

00:49:22.000 She said, I wonder if she will let 1,000 random men take it for a spin or if it's too valuable to her to let that many people touch it.

00:49:30.000 That was just brutal.

00:49:31.000 Yeah, that was, I will be honest, one of the first things that occurred to me about that car.

00:49:36.000 But it is, you're right, a horrifying thing.

00:49:40.000 Unfortunately, mainstreaming...

00:49:42.000 It has been a thing for a very, very long time.

00:49:44.000 I mean, I wrote a book back in 2005 that I was widely derided for called Generation, all about the population of American society.

00:49:50.000 And I suggested that it would become absolutely endemic, that every young person in America would have seen by the time they were 13, 14 years old.

00:49:58.000 And again, everyone mocked me at the time for saying that, but it became very clear that that's exactly what's happened here.

00:50:02.000 Of course, young women are only seeing sort of the quote-unquote upside and never the downside, which would be, you know, the fact that she has no soul. 0.99

00:50:11.000 That's going to drive a bunch of young women to do really, really stupid and terrible things to themselves. 1.00

00:50:15.000 And if they think that the money is going to pay for all the damage they're doing to themselves, I have a hard time believing that.

00:50:19.000 The other thing that I wanted to point out, though, specifically with Bonnie and why I wanted to show you anything about her, is that her mom is her manager.

00:50:26.000 That's so nice.

00:50:27.000 Isn't that so nice?

00:50:27.000 That's beautiful.

00:50:28.000 Watch this clip of her mom talking about her daughter's new profession.

00:50:32.000 What was it like after cleaning up after Bonnie?

00:50:35.000 Messy.

00:50:36.000 Hundreds of condoms, boxer shorts, tops, stained bed sheets, wet bed sheets.

00:50:41.000 So even when you hear, you know, that she slept with 158 guys in two weeks?

00:50:46.000 It's just part of a job and that's it.

00:50:48.000 So you don't have any kind of, you know, emotional response to it?

00:50:51.000 At first I did, but not anymore.

00:50:55.000 Yeah, well, I can see why Bonnie Blue turned out the way she did.

00:50:58.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:50:58.000 That's pretty obvious.

00:51:00.000 And by the way, not a rarity.

00:51:01.000 We now know that Kim Kardashian's tape was pre-screened by her mother.

00:51:05.000 For, like, particularly salacious cuts.

00:51:08.000 So, good times.

00:51:09.000 Even in the duration of that, further on in that clip, the mom talks about, well, you know, I get good holidays now.

00:51:14.000 She was so proud to keep saying, well, you know, the holidays are nice and she's safe.

00:51:18.000 She's saying the quiet part out loud.

00:51:19.000 Oh, we have money now.

00:51:20.000 And that justifies my daughter's soul.

00:51:22.000 But the other thing that I want to note about these girls, unfortunately, is Lily Phillips announced just yesterday that she's going to old folks' homes, specifically elderly care facilities. 0.99

00:51:32.000 And...

00:51:33.000 And meeting her men there, which is, here's a video from that.

00:51:35.000 I found my oldest fan via Facebook.

00:51:39.000 And when I asked for his address, he actually sent me the address of a care home.

00:51:44.000 So I'm actually here with him and his friends.

00:51:47.000 And I'm going to show them a good time.

00:51:51.000 I think people are waking up because it's so absurd.

00:51:53.000 They're finally realizing, hey, maybe we should have this conversation.

00:51:55.000 maybe these things are bad, which I'm absolutely very happy to say that there's also some more improvements in Hollywood.

00:52:01.000 And I say it, I'm sort of celebrating crumbs here, but I'm going to show it nonetheless because, you know, we got to take the wins when we get them.

00:52:07.000 White Lotus, the show that I know you're familiar with, there's a new season out and a new episode in which a Trump supporter is talked about in a good light.

00:52:15.000 So I want to show you the scene because frankly, I've never seen a Trump supporter even really talked about in television, let alone not being exclusively made fun of.

00:52:21.000 And yeah, watch this.

00:52:23.000 Yeah, there's like Christianity and most religions they're made for men. 0.97

00:52:28.000 Right?

00:52:29.000 The father sacrifices the son, the son's a man, dies on the cross, the heroes are all men, and the women just cry on the sidelines. 0.97

00:52:37.000 You want the woman to be centered in the story? 1.00

00:52:40.000 No, no, no, no, no.

00:52:41.000 It's all just so male. 0.82

00:52:43.000 You know, the epic battle for good and evil just doesn't speak to me.

00:52:49.000 Well, I'm a woman, and I get a lot out of going to church.

00:52:56.000 I just...

00:52:57.000 I love the people.

00:53:00.000 It's very moving.

00:53:04.000 I didn't know you went to church.

00:53:06.000 Oh, yeah.

00:53:08.000 We go every Sunday.

00:53:10.000 Yeah, ever since we moved to Austin.

00:53:13.000 Is it like a real Texan church, like with Bible thumpers? 1.00

00:53:17.000 Well, the people are, you know, more conservative than, like, L.A. people or, like, New York.

00:53:26.000 Is that weird for you?

00:53:28.000 Why would it be weird?

00:53:32.000 I don't know.

00:53:33.000 If I was just around a bunch of Texans who voted for Trump, I guess I'd just feel a little alienated.

00:53:40.000 They're nice people.

00:53:43.000 Really good families.

00:53:45.000 Cool.

00:53:46.000 But do you ever talk politics with them?

00:53:48.000 Sometimes.

00:53:49.000 I'm going to get awkward?

00:53:52.000 Why would it?

00:53:53.000 Because...

00:53:56.000 Wait.

00:53:57.000 Are you a Republican?

00:54:00.000 No!

00:54:02.000 I'm an independent.

00:54:04.000 But Dave is...

00:54:07.000 An independent?

00:54:11.000 Since when?

00:54:13.000 You didn't vote for Trump though, did you?

00:54:15.000 Are we really gonna talk about Trump tonight?

00:54:24.000 That's amazing.

00:54:25.000 I mean, White Lotus actually is pretty subversive in this particular way.

00:54:28.000 They take a bunch of liberal values and then they really mock the hell out of them.

00:54:32.000 It doesn't make the show conservative.

00:54:34.000 I mean, the first season is certainly not conservative, but they will definitely mock the living hell out of kind of the pretensions of limousine liberals.

00:54:40.000 And that's really what the show is about.

00:54:41.000 It's about limousine liberals from New York and L.A. who go on these extraordinarily expensive vacations and just act like horrific human beings, basically.

00:54:49.000 I'm wondering, though, if in the future her character will end up being the worst person.

00:54:54.000 I'm giving Hollywood too much credit.

00:54:55.000 Maybe.

00:54:56.000 We'll see.

00:54:56.000 But the other thing I wanted to show you is from Disney's Pixar.

00:54:59.000 They just released this show, and they talk about Christianity for a bit, which, again...

00:55:04.000 Never happens.

00:55:05.000 And so I wanted to show you this as well.

00:55:07.000 First episode of the new Pixar Disney Plus series, Win or Lose, features a character called Lori, the daughter of the team's softball coach who struggles with insecurity.

00:55:16.000 In one of her first scenes in the show, she begins with the words, Dear Heavenly Father, please give me strength.

00:55:23.000 This is the first Christian character from Disney since their 2007 film, Bridge to Terabithia, in which kids Jesse and Leslie attend church together and discuss religion.

00:55:33.000 The shocker there is that it took them 20 years, basically, to put another Christian in a kid's movie. 0.86

00:55:41.000 And so subtly.

00:55:42.000 But as a Christian watching that, I didn't even realize that it had been 20 years.

00:55:46.000 I watched Bridge to Terabithia and wouldn't have thought anything of it at the time.

00:55:49.000 But thinking back that there literally hasn't been anything like that since is crazy to me.

00:55:54.000 Now, that show originally, I believe, was supposed to feature a transgender character, correct?

00:55:58.000 It was, exactly.

00:55:59.000 But they removed that and added this in, which...

00:56:02.000 Potentially.

00:56:02.000 Is that a sign of the times changing that they're catching on, too?

00:56:05.000 I mean, they better because they have completely failed.

00:56:08.000 I mean, Disney's stock has been just ravaged over the course of the last few years.

00:56:12.000 Their growth trajectory is terrible because they alienated all the parents.

00:56:16.000 They forgot that the people they actually need to cater to are the people like me with four kids.

00:56:19.000 We used to be Disney annual pass members.

00:56:21.000 In California, we used to go to Disneyland almost twice a month, maybe.

00:56:25.000 We used to take the kids out of school and go.

00:56:27.000 And I have not been back to Disney World.

00:56:30.000 Now that we're in Florida for several years because of the move that they made into sort of wild social leftism.

00:56:36.000 Do you think there's any world in which they could change course and you'd go back?

00:56:40.000 Yeah, I mean, if they change course, sure.

00:56:41.000 You know, forgiveness is, I think, a virtue.

00:56:44.000 And so if they actually change course and you start to see more of a consistent stream of non-woke nonsense coming from Disney, then absolutely.

00:56:51.000 I mean, I would love nothing better than to take my kids to Disneyland.

00:56:54.000 It's great.

00:56:54.000 Disneyland is wonderful.

00:56:55.000 I mean, it's some of the greatest IP in history.

00:56:58.000 It's going to take a while to earn back trust.

00:57:00.000 Yeah, more than just the crumbs of saying maybe one nice thing for people of faith to actually appreciate.

00:57:05.000 But there was kind of, to end this segment about pop culture and obviously some negativity with it and the chaos of OnlyFans and all that, there's a new study out about Christianity leveling off and no longer being on decline in America.

00:57:19.000 And I think that that's a sign of potentially the changing times about the perspective of faith and the importance of having faith in a household again, which I found shocking.

00:57:27.000 The headline was from...

00:57:29.000 New York Times, and it was a Pew Research study, and they said, Christianity's decline in the U.S. appears to have halted major study shows.

00:57:35.000 That one shocked me, because what they pointed out in the article was, over the last 20 years, ironically, the same time that we're talking about Bridge of Terabithia to this, but it was going down, and now it's stopped for a couple years.

00:57:46.000 It's not going any lower.

00:57:47.000 So maybe that's changing.

00:57:50.000 And as they say, it's young white males who are going back to church.

00:57:55.000 I'll take a little credit for that one, guys.

00:57:57.000 Ben deserves some credit here.

00:57:59.000 I mean, that's huge.

00:57:59.000 And it's, again, young, conservative males.

00:58:02.000 Now, the other thing for Gen Z to give us a little bit of credit, because we don't typically get a lot of credit, you know?

00:58:08.000 We're typically always the ones causing chaos.

00:58:10.000 There's another article that I saw.

00:58:12.000 It said, Gen Z is more pro-marriage than millennials and have less casual sex, which is surprising.

00:58:19.000 That's a backlash.

00:58:19.000 There we go.

00:58:20.000 Yeah, so we're redeeming ourselves a little bit, except we still have the Bonnie Blues in our generation.

00:58:25.000 The study went on to say that in 2004, 78% of people commonly engaged in one-night stands.

00:58:31.000 In 2024, 23% did.

00:58:34.000 So a huge shift.

00:58:36.000 Well, hopefully that results in marriage and not just insult-ness. 0.96

00:58:40.000 That would be the only complicating factor.

00:58:42.000 Also that, also that.

00:58:43.000 But I just thought it was at least something hopeful to end on of maybe not everything is doom and gloom and the generations can kind of change course.

00:58:50.000 Well, Reagan Conrad, thank you so much for stopping by and informing me on all the things the world actually talks about most of the time.

00:58:56.000 I really appreciate it.

00:58:57.000 You're more than welcome.

00:58:57.000 Great to see you too.

00:58:58.000 Well, folks, it's time for you to go behind the paywall and explore the rest of the news with me.

00:59:04.000 But in order to do that, you actually have to be a member here at Daily Wire.

00:59:07.000 We have so much great stuff behind the paywall.

00:59:09.000 So, Reagan, what is your favorite thing that we have behind the paywall?

00:59:12.000 Now, I know a lot because, again, I work here and have for three years.

00:59:16.000 But I would say my favorite is still what is a woman. 0.94

00:59:19.000 That is the absolute.

00:59:20.000 If you haven't watched it, you are missing out.

00:59:22.000 I'm a little bit hurt and insulted, but if you're not a member, become a member.

00:59:24.000 Use code Shapiro.

00:59:25.000 Check out for two months free on all annual plans.

The Ben Shapiro Show - March 07, 2025

The Democratic Collapse CONTINUES!

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript