The Ben Shapiro Show - September 01, 2026


Why Republicans Are About to Lose Big — and What They Can Do


Episode Stats


Length

41 minutes

Words per minute

188.2

Word count

7,826

Sentence count

570


Transcript

Transcripts from "The Ben Shapiro Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
00:00:00.000 The polls say Republicans are likely going to get absolutely shellacked in the midterm elections.
00:00:05.000 Today, I'm going to talk about why that is happening.
00:00:07.000 There are four specific reasons, and we're going to go through all of them.
00:00:10.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.
00:00:19.000 Okay, so there are four reasons that Republicans look like they're about to get their asses handed to them in the midterms.
00:00:24.000 Today, I'm going to go through why things look pretty rough for the Republicans.
00:00:27.000 Tomorrow, I'll talk about why they could buck history and the Democrats could fall apart.
00:00:31.000 But here is the very short story.
00:00:33.000 People want normalcy.
00:00:35.000 I've been saying this for literally years.
00:00:37.000 They just want normalcy.
00:00:39.000 In 2024, Trump was the normie candidate, and Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were very not normie.
00:00:44.000 In 2020, people wrongly perceived Joe Biden as a normie, and so he won.
00:00:48.000 Again, what people want in the United States from their politics is very simple.
00:00:53.000 They basically want two things.
00:00:54.000 One, a healthy economy.
00:00:56.000 Two, they want to feel secure.
00:00:58.000 Those are the things.
00:00:59.000 That's all the things.
00:01:00.000 Every single poll is downstream of how people feel about those two things economic success and the prospect thereof, and security.
00:01:08.000 In fact, every time you look at a poll of priorities, everything can be boiled down to those two things.
00:01:13.000 Harvard Harris poll, July 2026.
00:01:16.000 Looking at which issues dominate voters' concerns, the top two issues are price increases, inflation, affordability, 34%.
00:01:24.000 Economy and jobs, 30%.
00:01:27.000 By far, by far, the top two issues.
00:01:30.000 And then healthcare, which is also a cost and affordability issue.
00:01:33.000 So the top three issues, like 85% combined.
00:01:37.000 Again, you can pick more than one.
00:01:39.000 The top three issues are all economic security related.
00:01:43.000 The next issues are crime and drugs, 15%, US-around conflict, 15%, immigration, 21%.
00:01:48.000 Those are all security related.
00:01:50.000 And then you have corruption at 19%, which is people concerned that other priorities are taking people away from the things they ought to care about, like economy and security.
00:01:59.000 And again, that makes sense.
00:02:01.000 This is the reason why people institute governments.
00:02:03.000 The Constitution of the United States essentially deals with a federal government that is capable of doing two things one, protecting private property rights, and two, ensuring national security.
00:02:14.000 That's the whole thing.
00:02:15.000 So, again, every election in the United States comes down to those two things in varying degrees economic success and security, always.
00:02:22.000 And how people feel about whether those things are being achieved will determine whether the party in power retains power or not.
00:02:28.000 So, this brings us to four reasons for why the Republicans.
00:02:31.000 Look like they're going to have a bad election cycle, like a very bad election cycle.
00:02:34.000 One, obvious off your election dynamics, which we'll talk about in a second.
00:02:38.000 Two, President Trump is extraordinarily distractible.
00:02:42.000 He is not focused on the things that people want him to be focused on, and he feels like he is picking every apple off every tree simultaneously.
00:02:50.000 Three, bad candidates do not help.
00:02:53.000 And four, there are actual traitors in the GOP who want Trump and the Republicans to lose, who want Mike Johnson to lose and John Thune to lose, and are more than excited.
00:03:01.000 They're ecstatic about the idea of a fractured Republican party.
00:03:04.000 So, Some of these four things can be changed, some can't, and are basically baked into the cake.
00:03:09.000 So let's begin with where we are because we are now, it's September, we are now about two months away from the election.
00:03:16.000 In the polling data at this point, the Democrats are about six and a half points up in the generic congressional ballot.
00:03:22.000 In 2022, it was basically dead even at this point.
00:03:25.000 In 2018, it was D plus eight about now.
00:03:27.000 That was a good year for Democrats.
00:03:28.000 In 2014, it was D plus 1.5, which was a decent year for Republicans.
00:03:33.000 Now, good news Republicans generally outperform the generic congressional polling in terms of seats.
00:03:39.000 Because you don't vote for generic Congress, you vote for your specific congressperson.
00:03:42.000 So it may not be as disastrous as it sounds, but in the Senate, things are looking pretty negative for the Republicans right now.
00:03:49.000 North Carolina is a state that President Trump won by some four points in the last election cycle.
00:03:55.000 And North Carolina right now looks like it's going to go for the Democrats.
00:03:58.000 Roy Cooper is up eight versus Michael Watley.
00:04:01.000 Texas, which is a state that Trump won by 13 points, James Tallarico, the self righteous LGBTQ divided by a sign advocate, Howdy Doody Doll.
00:04:10.000 Is up two against Ken Paxton.
00:04:12.000 We'll get some more on that in a minute.
00:04:13.000 In Ohio, Shard Brown, who had a formidable record of winning elections in Ohio before he was defeated by Bernie Moreno in the last election cycle, he's running again against John Husted, who took JD Vance's seat.
00:04:25.000 And Shard Brown right now is up about three points against Husted in Ohio.
00:04:29.000 Ohio, again, is a state that President Trump won going away.
00:04:32.000 He won by 11 in Ohio.
00:04:34.000 Maine, which is a state Trump lost, Troy Jackson, who is basically Graham Platner liked, is up two versus Susan Collins.
00:04:41.000 She's a survivor, but that is a very tight election.
00:04:43.000 Alaska, a person named Mary Peltola. Is up two against Stan Sullivan.
00:04:48.000 Alaska is a state that President Trump won again by 13 points.
00:04:52.000 Iowa right now is about dead even.
00:04:55.000 Ashley Hinson, the Republican, is up about a point and a half against Josh Turek, the Democrat.
00:04:59.000 If that polling were to hold, Republicans would lose the Senate, which again is insane considering that Trump won pretty much all of these seats, many of them by double digits 13 in Alaska, 11 in Ohio, 13 in Texas, 13 in Iowa.
00:05:13.000 Okay, so this brings us to reason number one where Republicans have a problem.
00:05:17.000 And this is the obvious one.
00:05:18.000 You all know the answer already.
00:05:20.000 Midterm elections are bad for the party in power.
00:05:23.000 And that heavily correlates with the approval rating of the president at the time of the election.
00:05:27.000 So in 1982, for example, President Reagan's approval rating was at 42%, and Democrats picked up 26 seats in the House and one seat in the Senate.
00:05:34.000 Fast forward four years, Reagan's approval ratings were in the 67% range.
00:05:40.000 Democrats still picked up eight seats in the Senate and five seats in the House.
00:05:43.000 In 1990, H.W.'s approval ratings were at 58%.
00:05:46.000 Democrats picked up seven in the House and one in the Senate.
00:05:49.000 In 1994, Clinton got wiped out.
00:05:51.000 His approval ratings were in the mid 40s, and Republicans picked up 54 seats in the House and eight in the Senate.
00:05:56.000 That, of course, was the big Republican flip.
00:05:58.000 First time Republicans had won Congress in 30 years.
00:06:01.000 In 1998, there was basically no change.
00:06:04.000 Bill Clinton's approval ratings were 66% at the time.
00:06:07.000 In 2002, Republicans gained control.
00:06:10.000 They gained control of the U.S. Senate with a couple of seats, but that was because it was right after 9 11, and George W. Bush had a 63% approval rating.
00:06:18.000 By 2006, again, reversion to the norm.
00:06:21.000 Bush's approval rating was in the mid 30s.
00:06:23.000 And Democrats had a wipeout election in 2006.
00:06:25.000 They picked up 30 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate.
00:06:29.000 In 2010, Republicans had a wipeout election against the Democrats.
00:06:33.000 Barack Obama's approval rating at the time was 44%.
00:06:35.000 Republicans picked up 63 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate.
00:06:39.000 In 2014, again, Republicans had a good year.
00:06:42.000 Obama was stuck at 41%.
00:06:44.000 And the Republicans picked up nine in the Senate and 13 in the House.
00:06:48.000 In 2018, you remember the first time around for Trump, Democrats picked up control of the House.
00:06:52.000 They gained 40 seats from Republicans.
00:06:55.000 And Republicans actually won a couple of Senate seats because it was a very weird election cycle.
00:06:58.000 Trump's approval rating at the time was 41%.
00:07:01.000 And of course, the last midterm election cycle, 2022, Republicans picked up control of the House and Democrats picked up a Senate seat.
00:07:07.000 And Joe Biden's approval rating was 40%.
00:07:09.000 So right now, Republicans are defending somewhere between 21 and 26 vulnerable seats in the House.
00:07:17.000 They're not defending 40, 50 seats.
00:07:17.000 So that'll limit their losses.
00:07:19.000 That is because of migration.
00:07:21.000 A lot of purple seats have turned red.
00:07:24.000 Migration from purple areas has turned some seats blue.
00:07:27.000 So that means fewer vulnerable seats for Republicans.
00:07:30.000 And again, the House is pretty closely divided right now, obviously.
00:07:33.000 In the Senate, as we've mentioned, Republicans are vulnerable in a wide variety of states.
00:07:38.000 So, right now, again, Democrats look like they're in pretty good shape in the off-year election cycle, and that's normal.
00:07:44.000 It is normal for the out-of-party power to look pretty good.
00:07:49.000 Again, right now, if you look at our sponsors over at CalShee, they believe the Democrats have the advantage in Maine, in Ohio.
00:07:58.000 That they have the advantage in North Carolina, that they have the advantage in Michigan.
00:08:03.000 So, factor number one midterm election, the president has a low 30s approval rating.
00:08:10.000 Doesn't bode well.
00:08:12.000 Which brings us to the things that you can change.
00:08:13.000 You can't change the time.
00:08:14.000 You can't change the fact that when you're the party in power and people are in a bad mood, they tend to swivel to the other party.
00:08:19.000 Happens all the time.
00:08:21.000 But this brings us to factor number two.
00:08:23.000 And this really is the biggest factor in the problems for Republicans looking forward to the election.
00:08:28.000 All right, coming up, we'll get to the second reason why Republicans got some 2026 troubles.
00:08:34.000 But, you know, we have bigger troubles than that, even than 2026.
00:08:37.000 One of those problems is continuous inflation of the currency.
00:08:40.000 We spend too much money here in this country.
00:08:41.000 That means eventually you have to inflate or tax your way out of it.
00:08:44.000 It's one of the reasons why diversification into precious metals has always been a smart move.
00:08:48.000 Now, I can't tell you where gold is going to be six months from now because I don't know and nobody does.
00:08:52.000 But I do pay attention when some of the largest financial institutions on planet Earth put their own numbers on paper.
00:08:57.000 JP Morgan is telling clients gold could hit 6,000 bucks an ounce by Q4.
00:09:01.000 Citibank has put a $90 target on silver.
00:09:04.000 Those are their predictions, not mine.
00:09:05.000 Both metals are still trading below those targets right now.
00:09:07.000 Again, forecasts are not guarantees.
00:09:09.000 Things could change.
00:09:10.000 But if you're looking at the way the currency is being inflated globally right now, the spending habits of countries like the United States, And something hard and fast like precious metals, not a bad investment.
00:09:21.000 Take a look at the central banks.
00:09:22.000 They bought a record 289 tons of gold last quarter, up 62% year over year.
00:09:26.000 This is one of the reasons I recommend Golden Crest Metals, that are boutique firm with transparent pricing, widely recognized liquid coins, and real people, not a giant call center.
00:09:33.000 Right now, get a free 2026 info kit or a free portfolio review plus up to 25 grand in free silver on qualifying purchases.
00:09:40.000 Call 888 429 39 99.
00:09:43.000 Text Ben to Metals at 638 257 or go to goldencrestmetals.comslash Ben.
00:09:49.000 Factor number two is that President Trump.
00:09:51.000 Is not focused purely on the two things that matter, the economy or security.
00:09:58.000 He's been fragmentary in his approach to both of those things.
00:10:02.000 See, here's the thing.
00:10:04.000 When it comes to politics, most people are not granular addicts of politics.
00:10:08.000 Even most people who consume this show, for example, don't necessarily consume it every single day.
00:10:13.000 The percentage of Americans who consume politics at a granular level, they're watching it day to day, like a sport or something, is very low.
00:10:20.000 So overall, what do Americans want?
00:10:22.000 They just want direction.
00:10:23.000 They want a narrative.
00:10:24.000 They want a gestalt.
00:10:25.000 They want a feeling of what is happening.
00:10:27.000 They want solidity.
00:10:29.000 They want predictability.
00:10:30.000 They want to know where those, where everything is going, right?
00:10:33.000 President Trump is famous for none of those things.
00:10:34.000 He's not famous for being predictable, for being solid, for being narratively consistent.
00:10:40.000 Now, there are benefits to that, right?
00:10:42.000 Because Trump is non-ideological, because he is a so-called pragmatist, this means that he is not wedded to any particular ideology.
00:10:48.000 He will pick from various buckets and he, his policy will be very trial and error.
00:10:52.000 He'll try something, it fails, he tries something new.
00:10:55.000 But the result is, especially when the president is running issue to issue, that the administration feels and is narratively confusing.
00:11:03.000 So take the economy.
00:11:04.000 Again, the American people are very concerned about the economy.
00:11:07.000 Now, realistically, the economy right now is doing pretty well.
00:11:11.000 Our unemployment rate remains low historically, our inflation rate is down in the mid threes.
00:11:17.000 So it's not amazing, but it's also not catastrophic.
00:11:20.000 Right now, we need to bring it down a little bit so that it gets below the rate of increase in wages.
00:11:25.000 But we are in, by no means are we in a disaster level economy here in the United States.
00:11:29.000 Obviously the stock market is doing quite well.
00:11:32.000 We have a series of booming businesses.
00:11:34.000 Okay.
00:11:35.000 But people feel discombobulated.
00:11:37.000 They feel as though there's a grab bag of various policies, none of them directed at a singular end.
00:11:44.000 So let's say that the president actually were narratively directed.
00:11:48.000 And let's say that the president said, listen, here's what I want.
00:11:51.000 I want economic productivity.
00:11:53.000 We need to be the leading economy on planet Earth.
00:11:54.000 The way that you become the leading economy on planet Earth. is to drive up productivity, to drive up innovation.
00:12:00.000 That means leaving money in the pocket of the American people so that they can build and consume.
00:12:07.000 That means relieving regulation.
00:12:10.000 That means battening down the hatches against global opponents like China, but it also means cutting better trade deals with our friends.
00:12:19.000 We have a singular end.
00:12:20.000 That singular end is America outproducing, outcompeting, defeating everyone else on earth, and not just in a zero sum way, maximizing economic gains.
00:12:31.000 And everything is geared toward that.
00:12:33.000 Now, the president doesn't tend to talk like that.
00:12:35.000 And so what you end up with is a weird sort of grab bag of policy.
00:12:38.000 So, on the one hand, He wants productivity, so he's very pro data centers, for example.
00:12:43.000 But also, he wants protection against the predations of global economics.
00:12:47.000 He wants tariffs.
00:12:49.000 Does he want low prices?
00:12:51.000 Because he says he wants inflation to go down.
00:12:52.000 Does he want low prices, or does he want to reduce the interest rates and increase the prices?
00:12:59.000 Does he want a trade war with Canada, or does he want you to have cheaper lumber so that you can build?
00:13:04.000 These are all discombobulated policies.
00:13:07.000 Does he want regulatory relief, or does he want to take government stakes in private companies?
00:13:12.000 Does President Trump want to ferret out waste, fraud, and abuse and put his VP on it?
00:13:16.000 Or does he want family and friends making bank, including people who are associated with the administration?
00:13:24.000 Who is he going to deploy to discuss economics?
00:13:26.000 Is he going to deploy Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary, who is good at it?
00:13:29.000 Or is he going to deploy Peter Navarro and Howard Lutnick to rant about tariffs and railroads?
00:13:35.000 That discombobulation has a cost.
00:13:37.000 Again, it's okay for people to feel a little discombobulated when they feel like things are going swimmingly.
00:13:43.000 People can stand an awful lot of confusion if overall they feel safe and secure and economically successful.
00:13:48.000 But when things start to feel dicey, if they don't feel like we're driven toward an actual end, it starts to feel like you're a sea in choppy waters.
00:13:57.000 The same thing, by the way, is true with national security.
00:13:59.000 Again, there are only two issues and two issues in the end for the American population economics, security.
00:14:07.000 That's it.
00:14:09.000 So, on certain issues, President Trump has been perfectly consistent, right?
00:14:11.000 Illegal immigration is a national security issue.
00:14:14.000 He's been very consistent on it, which is why that has always been his best issue.
00:14:17.000 But on national security, it feels discombobulated.
00:14:21.000 It does.
00:14:22.000 Does the president want to face down America's enemies like Iran?
00:14:25.000 Or does he want to treat with them while ripping on allies?
00:14:29.000 Does he want to take an anti Russian position?
00:14:31.000 Does he want to go to the EU and rip on the EU?
00:14:34.000 Does he want to yell at the Italian prime minister?
00:14:35.000 Does he want to be friends with the Italian prime minister?
00:14:37.000 Like, what are we doing?
00:14:39.000 Does he want to oppose China in every aspect because China has been interfering in a wide variety of ways in the American economy, even in our election system?
00:14:48.000 Or does he want to make nice with China and talk about what a great friend he is with Xi Jinping?
00:14:53.000 And even with regard to specific policies, even the ones that I like, what does he actually want to do when it comes to Iran?
00:14:59.000 Does he want to treat Iran as an implacable foe?
00:15:02.000 And does he want to bring them down the way that Reagan did the Soviet Union?
00:15:05.000 Or does he want to pretend that they're rational actors and deploy JD Vance to broker a crappy MOU?
00:15:10.000 Does he want to open the Strait of Hormuz or abandon the Strait of Hormuz?
00:15:13.000 Does he want to bomb Kharg Island via AI?
00:15:16.000 Or does he want to send JD Vance to talk about how wonderful the Pakistanis are?
00:15:19.000 Like, what is all of this?
00:15:21.000 And when you feel confused and you feel dyspeptic, you tend to turn to the other party.
00:15:25.000 Now, again, There is some method to the madness, historically speaking, for President Trump.
00:15:30.000 His approach politically has always been laser pointer with cat, right?
00:15:35.000 The media are the cat, and he just points the laser, and then they just jump wherever he wants them to jump.
00:15:40.000 But when the seas are placid, that's fine.
00:15:43.000 When the seas get choppy, you start to feel a little seasick.
00:15:46.000 And right now, people are getting sick of feeling whipsawed.
00:15:49.000 And you can see this.
00:15:51.000 One of the kind of fascinating things about Trump's disapproval versus approval rating, this is from Nate Silver's aggregation of polls.
00:15:59.000 So you can see where The streams cross.
00:16:01.000 I've mentioned this many times, his approval and his disapproval ratings.
00:16:05.000 So basically, his approval and disapproval ratings crossed streams for the first time when it came to Liberation Day.
00:16:11.000 Liberation Day was the moment, right?
00:16:13.000 That was the day when he decided to tariff the living hell out of pretty much everybody on earth.
00:16:20.000 And his approval ratings basically have never recovered.
00:16:22.000 It looks like just a straight algorithmic line down.
00:16:26.000 That's all it looks like.
00:16:27.000 It looks like a basically, it is just a declining.
00:16:32.000 A declining line at a fairly steady pace since that moment.
00:16:37.000 Why?
00:16:38.000 Well, because that was the moment for a lot of Americans where it was like his priority is not economic strength, it is whatever the hell this is.
00:16:46.000 And it really has not abated since because once you believe the president does not have singular focus on, say, productivity, competition, economically outstripping our opponents, growing America, once you believe that he's got a bunch of other issues, then it just continues to feel like he's got a bunch of other issues that are distracting him.
00:17:05.000 And the tariffs were the turning point for the president in terms of his approval rating.
00:17:10.000 Even among Republicans, they're not all that popular.
00:17:13.000 According to Pew, there's a poll from January, February of 2026 60% disapproval rating on the tariffs, 37% approval rating, which again mirrors his general approval rating.
00:17:24.000 Even among Republicans, only seven in 10 Republicans approve of the tariffs, which again, for members of the party in power, that is a very, very low number.
00:17:32.000 Okay, so when it comes to handling of the economy, Echelon Insights has some polling data showing something similar.
00:17:41.000 It shows that only 37% of Americans strongly approve of his handling of the economy.
00:17:45.000 61% strongly disapprove of his handling of the economy.
00:17:48.000 So all the numbers start to look the same.
00:17:50.000 Right?
00:17:51.000 Which is weird unless you understand how politics actually works.
00:17:55.000 You should think that the numbers would differentiate pretty strongly, right?
00:18:00.000 That people might hate his Iran policy, but love his economic policy.
00:18:02.000 They might hate his immigration policy, but love his environmental policy.
00:18:06.000 In the end, pretty much all of his policies have the same approval rating.
00:18:09.000 Why?
00:18:09.000 Because either the presidency feels as though it is a directed missile or it feels like an undirected scattergun approach to politics.
00:18:19.000 And this is why so much controversy has broken out around AI.
00:18:24.000 In a second, we'll get to dyspepsia with AI.
00:18:26.000 How does that tie into all of this and what should happen next?
00:18:28.000 First, sleep used to be the one part of the day you didn't have to optimize, you just went to sleep.
00:18:32.000 Well, now apparently you must sleep max.
00:18:34.000 You have special glasses, you got to tape your mouth shut, monitor the room temperature, put on a $400 ring so it can tell you every morning that.
00:18:41.000 You were not asleep.
00:18:43.000 You probably don't need to turn bedtime into a science experiment.
00:18:45.000 You just need a better mattress.
00:18:46.000 And that's why my wife and I share a Helix sleep mattress.
00:18:49.000 It's great.
00:18:50.000 It is firm.
00:18:51.000 It is breathable.
00:18:52.000 It is something that we both settled on and we're both sleeping better because of it.
00:18:55.000 Why wouldn't you do the same?
00:18:56.000 And there are so many things in life where you're personalizing them.
00:18:58.000 Why wouldn't you do the same with the object that you're going to spend years sleeping on?
00:19:02.000 Helix's quick sleep quiz matches you with one of more than 20 mattress models based on your sleep position, comfort preferences, and support needs.
00:19:08.000 Helix is the most awarded mattress brand recognized by experts, including Forbes and Wired.
00:19:12.000 Shipping is free.
00:19:14.000 Every mattress includes 120 night sleep trial and the Happy with Helix guarantee.
00:19:18.000 Skip the bedtime command center.
00:19:19.000 Go to helixleep.comslash Ben for 27% offsite wide during Helix's Labor Day sale.
00:19:25.000 That's helixleep.comslash Ben for 27% offsite wide.
00:19:28.000 Again, helixleep.comslash Ben.
00:19:31.000 So, again, Americans, if they felt really secure about the future of the economy, if the president had been saying, listen, we need to out innovate our competition, right?
00:19:38.000 AI is a way that we out innovate.
00:19:40.000 And don't worry, we will draw appropriate regulations and we'll work across the aisle to draw appropriate regulations because nobody wants The destruction of all human life.
00:19:48.000 Nobody wants AI to destroy everything and nuke us, right?
00:19:51.000 We're all on the same page about all of that.
00:19:53.000 This should be a bipartisan issue, but AI is good for the American economy.
00:19:57.000 And if we fall behind, China wins.
00:20:00.000 However, AI has now become a flashpoint in this debate because Americans are very fearful of the economic future.
00:20:08.000 They feel uneasy and confused about the economic future.
00:20:14.000 So, AI is the most controversial technology in America, probably since the railroad, because it does represent to a lot of people a fundamental shift in how economics is done.
00:20:22.000 Now, again, I think a lot of that is exaggerated.
00:20:24.000 I think that AI is a tool that you will use.
00:20:27.000 The idea that it's going to eliminate literally everything that humans do.
00:20:31.000 I think that you hear that from the AI bros because, again, if they could do their biggest job, it would be the robots replace all of us.
00:20:38.000 But I don't think that's actually what's likely to happen because no tool has ever replaced everybody.
00:20:42.000 People just find other things to do.
00:20:45.000 With that said, generalized heartburn with regard to the economy is creating flashpoints with regard to AI data centers.
00:20:55.000 Now, again, that's because people don't understand what AI is and they don't understand what data centers do.
00:21:00.000 They think AI data centers is Skynet.
00:21:03.000 That's not what AI data centers are.
00:21:05.000 They're just gigantic processing facilities for data.
00:21:07.000 That's it.
00:21:08.000 It's crunch numbers.
00:21:09.000 That's all they do.
00:21:11.000 But look at these numbers.
00:21:13.000 This is Gallup.
00:21:15.000 Only 7% of Americans strongly favor the construction of a data center in their area to support AI technology in the US.
00:21:24.000 20% somewhat favor, 23% somewhat oppose, 48% strongly oppose.
00:21:29.000 Now, I know that a lot of people are thinking that the data center is going to appear in your backyard.
00:21:33.000 That is not what is happening, by and large.
00:21:36.000 Data centers are not being built like right next to your house.
00:21:40.000 President Trump has taken the perfectly appropriate and correct position, by the way, that data centers are quite good for the American economy.
00:21:48.000 However, he's done so in the most militant fashion.
00:21:50.000 So the president put out a statement, quote, the only reason communities throughout the USA should not want data centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor.
00:21:58.000 If they want to be successful and rich with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let data reign.
00:22:03.000 The good news is there are plenty of other places that want them.
00:22:05.000 If we kill the golden goose, You'll have only yourselves to blame.
00:22:08.000 China could not be happier with this anti data center movement.
00:22:10.000 Actually, they can't believe it's happening.
00:22:12.000 Okay, now, it happens to be true that the Chinese are overjoyed about all of this.
00:22:16.000 For sure, for sure.
00:22:18.000 In fact, X's account for global government affairs shows a bot farm of 200,000 accounts.
00:22:27.000 And within that farm, 200 accounts posting in a manner designed to manipulate debate about American AI and energy policy.
00:22:36.000 And a huge number of these are springing from China, apparently.
00:22:39.000 And here are some examples of Chinese bot generated anti data center content.
00:22:42.000 Obviously, China is very much in favor of the United States destroying its own capacity to outcompete the Chinese.
00:22:48.000 The Chinese have zero problem with building data centers.
00:22:51.000 They also have zero problems with killing millions of people, but they certainly have no problem with the building of data centers.
00:22:58.000 With that said, President Trump's, shall we say, blunderbuss approach to AI data center, and again, I am as pro AI data center as it is possible to be economically speaking, because the lies that have been promulgated about Data centers are in fact untrue.
00:23:13.000 So, for example, as Gavin Baker, who's a partner and CIO at A Trade East Management, he points out that there's this lie that basically they're going to steal your precious drinking water and then they're going to use it for the data center.
00:23:26.000 That is not true.
00:23:28.000 Most of the data centers are now using closed loop systems or recycled water.
00:23:33.000 Data centers also pay significant property taxes, so, it radically increases governmental intake.
00:23:41.000 In places like Quincy, Washington, data centers represent more than half the property tax roll.
00:23:45.000 And when it comes to jobs, these are jobs creators because there is the direct job creation in terms of electricians, plumbers, welders, HVAC techs, and all the rest.
00:23:54.000 But there's also the spillover effect of the fact that AI will create jobs by allowing people to start new businesses in significantly more efficient ways.
00:24:03.000 Again, all data centers have to go through local zoning and land use approval processes.
00:24:09.000 Steve Ballmer, when he was on our show Titans on Tomorrow, explained what data centers mean to actual local communities.
00:24:17.000 My dad worked at Ford Motor Company, and I got to Microsoft in the 80s.
00:24:23.000 By the mid 80s, we were producing these things called floppy disks.
00:24:27.000 They were about this big.
00:24:29.000 You waggled them around.
00:24:31.000 There was no factory to speak of.
00:24:33.000 I mean, there's a little place where they were copying them.
00:24:36.000 And my dad would come to Microsoft and he said, What do all these people do?
00:24:41.000 I mean, you don't have anything that comes out the other end.
00:24:46.000 Where's the factory?
00:24:48.000 If you go to these big data centers today, you are going to the factories of today.
00:24:54.000 Nobody would turn down a new factory in the US to go build a few more cars.
00:25:00.000 And yet these data centers are the factories.
00:25:03.000 My dad would go to one and say, okay, now I understand what all these people do.
00:25:09.000 He's right about all of this.
00:25:11.000 But because you have the AI creators who are frankly very weird, and because they talk about economics in a bizarre way, because of all of that, people have bad feelings about AI data centers.
00:25:24.000 And that's also because the administration, again, takes this very weird position.
00:25:27.000 With regard to governmental involvement in the economy.
00:25:29.000 So, on the one hand, we need top down management of the economy.
00:25:33.000 We need to bring our precious manufacturing jobs back.
00:25:35.000 On the other hand, we need to take government stakes in particular businesses.
00:25:39.000 So, either you want a free market economy in which innovation is the key, or you want a protectionist, isolationist economy in which it isn't the key.
00:25:49.000 This is why, for example, JD Vans, who's trying to do the populist routine, is trying to explain AI data centers in a different way than the president.
00:25:58.000 Well, what the president said about data centers is they're an important part of the AI economy.
00:26:03.000 When people build them, they have to build the power plants along with the data centers.
00:26:07.000 I think probably 99% of the backlash to data centers has come in areas where building a data center means higher utility and higher electricity for the people on the ground.
00:26:17.000 So I think what these companies have to do is take advantage of some of the federal deregulatory efforts that we've undertaken.
00:26:23.000 If you build a data center, you should be putting power back into the grid, not taking It out.
00:26:28.000 And if that is happening, I don't think the data centers are that controversial.
00:26:32.000 It's when the utility bills get so much higher that's when it's a real problem.
00:26:37.000 Okay, that's actually not true.
00:26:38.000 I mean, just by the polling data, it is not about people who are actually suffering higher utility bills.
00:26:42.000 It's a thing people are worried about, but it actually isn't materializing.
00:26:45.000 Like, you can't say 75% of Americans are experiencing higher utility bills because of the data centers.
00:26:50.000 That's not true.
00:26:52.000 What's actually at odds, again, it's part of the problem for the administration.
00:26:55.000 Do you want a free market oriented economic policy that drives toward productivity and innovation?
00:27:02.000 Or do you want a government managed economy in which all of the supposed predations of capitalism are curbed by centralized power?
00:27:08.000 You cannot have it both ways.
00:27:10.000 This is why I say Republicans cannot outbid Democrats when it comes to this sort of stuff.
00:27:16.000 Again, people who hate AI dentist centers are probably going to be sympathetic to Rokhana, who says that basically we need to stop technological development entirely.
00:27:26.000 We need to have a vision for how we're going to create jobs for young people.
00:27:30.000 Let me give you two ideas.
00:27:31.000 We need to tax the usage of AI and robots.
00:27:35.000 So that we incentivize human hiring.
00:27:38.000 We need a federal jobs program.
00:27:39.000 I've called it Work for America to hire young people coming out of high school and college to rebuild communities of the federal government at a time where a lot of people are having a tough time with entry level jobs.
00:27:52.000 Okay, again, this is the democratic idea.
00:27:54.000 The democratic idea here is what if we just stop progress in the name of social redistributionism?
00:27:58.000 AOC is doing the same thing.
00:28:00.000 Hilariously, she suggested that if Trump likes data centers so much, what if we put one in Mar a Lago?
00:28:06.000 There's literally a data center pretty much across the street from Mar a Lago.
00:28:10.000 So there's that, like within sight lines of Mar a Lago.
00:28:13.000 There is AOC being a foolish, of course.
00:28:17.000 Congressman, what do you make of Donald Trump saying that Americans who oppose data centers are backwards and poor?
00:28:21.000 Oh, I mean.
00:28:23.000 How about we put one in Mar a Lago?
00:28:25.000 I love that.
00:28:26.000 Let's put a data center up in Mar a Lago and we'll see how backwards and poor he is in response to that.
00:28:34.000 Okay, well, I mean, there are data centers right near Mar a Lago.
00:28:36.000 But again, Tim Burchett from Tennessee represents a more rural area.
00:28:41.000 He says that he is sympathetic, again, to the anti data center push.
00:28:47.000 What do you make of Donald Trump saying that Americans who support data centers are backwards and poor?
00:28:52.000 Well, I guess I'm that don't support.
00:28:56.000 Yeah, if they don't support the data centers, then it's backwards and poor.
00:28:59.000 I guess you're backwards and poor, you say?
00:29:00.000 Yeah, I think what we need to do is start putting those in military installations.
00:29:07.000 Okay, so again, it's the discombobulation that is a large part of the problem.
00:29:12.000 You can be pro data center, anti data center, we can have those arguments.
00:29:14.000 Again, I think a lot of these arguments are founded on bad information.
00:29:18.000 The reality, again, is that when it comes to, for example, electricity, the data centers have been paying for upgrades to the grid, generally speaking.
00:29:28.000 Because they don't want to pay for higher electricity rates either.
00:29:31.000 They don't want to overall raise the rates of electricity.
00:29:33.000 So they're building new capacity.
00:29:35.000 Most of them are using natural gas, the cleanest power source available outside of nuclear, solar, and wind, according to Gavin Baker.
00:29:42.000 And again, places like Quincy, Washington, the economy has been entirely transformed thanks to the data centers.
00:29:47.000 But it's not really about the data centers, it's about generalized anxiety about the economy.
00:29:53.000 And that is exacerbated by confusion.
00:29:56.000 It's true in Iran, it's true in Russia, it's true with the economy.
00:30:00.000 If it feels like everything is discombobulated and confusing, it's because everything is kind of discombobulated and confusing.
00:30:05.000 So that's reason number two why Republicans have a problem, which means, by the way, that it's fixable.
00:30:10.000 That if the president were to actually get on message, this has always been the issue with President Trump.
00:30:15.000 If President Trump were to get on message, the way he's on message on immigration, right?
00:30:19.000 Same message over and over.
00:30:20.000 If you were on message and on policy about economics, it would help.
00:30:23.000 If you were on message and on policy about Iran, it would help.
00:30:27.000 So that's number two.
00:30:29.000 You can't have discombobulated messaging and discombobulated policy in a time where people feel uneasy.
00:30:34.000 Number three, reason why Republicans got a problem in the midterms.
00:30:37.000 You can't pick crappy candidates.
00:30:39.000 You can't.
00:30:40.000 And now, I understand a lot of Texans were unhappy with John Cornyn, but they felt he was too moderate, he was too easygoing with Democrats and all the rest.
00:30:46.000 I did warn that Ken Paxton was a bad candidate.
00:30:50.000 And I think it is fair to say that if you are running a competitive race with James Tallarico in Texas, you are by definition a bad candidate.
00:30:59.000 So Ken Paxton is running ads talking about his record as AG.
00:31:05.000 These ads are not stellar.
00:31:09.000 Google secretly tracked your location.
00:31:11.000 Captured your face, your voice, no permission, no warning.
00:31:14.000 Ken Paxton fought back and made Google pay $1.4 billion.
00:31:19.000 The largest privacy settlement any state has ever won.
00:31:22.000 Toxic dyes and cereal marketed to our kids.
00:31:25.000 Paxton took on the big food companies and stopped it.
00:31:28.000 Now he's fighting to get toxic chemicals out of products women use every day.
00:31:32.000 Ken Paxton.
00:31:33.000 When they come after Texans, he comes after them.
00:31:36.000 Lone Star Liberty Pack is responsible for the content of this.
00:31:41.000 So, again, is that what the people of Texas are deeply concerned about?
00:31:48.000 Is that he sued Google back in the day?
00:31:50.000 Is that going to be the big winner?
00:31:52.000 And it's like a target rich environment with James Tallarico.
00:31:55.000 I have to say, Ken Paxton is a uniquely lazy candidate.
00:31:58.000 He has done very few appearances.
00:32:02.000 His fundraising capacity is extraordinarily lackluster.
00:32:06.000 He's basically counting on Texans to recognize that James Tallarico is, as we say, a radical leftist howdy doody doll.
00:32:13.000 And that's true.
00:32:15.000 But you have to make that clear to people.
00:32:17.000 And clearly, that's not happening because Tallarico is leading in every single major poll.
00:32:22.000 Right now, again, that may change.
00:32:24.000 I expect the Texans will revert to type and Paxton ends up in the Senate, but it makes it a little tough when you run bad candidates.
00:32:30.000 Here he was on Fox, again, in relatively lackluster fashion, explaining the problems with Tallarico.
00:32:37.000 Is there an issue here with the Trump voters not transferring to you?
00:32:41.000 Do you see the claims about an electability problem, or is there anything happening right now with the Trump South Texas coalition that Republicans should be concerned about?
00:32:55.000 No, I just don't think they know the other side.
00:32:57.000 They don't know what James Tallarico is all about.
00:33:00.000 He's this sort of unnamed guy that they have no idea what his views are.
00:33:04.000 In South Texas, his views on transing kids, on boys and girls sports, and voting for a state income tax, on saying that the oil and gas industry should be basically dismantled and that you can't be a Christian if you support the oil and gas industry.
00:33:19.000 These are all things that in South Texas, when you're claiming that there are six genders and that modern science has proven it, those are not going to go well in South Texas.
00:33:27.000 The voters just don't know yet because we have not been up on TV, but that's coming.
00:33:33.000 Okay, so apparently a $15 million ad buy is happening beginning on Tuesday.
00:33:38.000 He's going to need it because right now, Tallarico has $21.5 million in the bank, and Ken Paxton has only $1.8 million in reserves.
00:33:46.000 And again, Paxton is a rather uninspiring candidate.
00:33:48.000 Now, Republicans are going to have to put some money in here.
00:33:51.000 So, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who I like, he was asked about the Texas race, and he said, listen, we have no intention of putting serious money into Texas because he should be winning this thing by himself.
00:34:01.000 Why does he need our money?
00:34:04.000 You can't win an election by saying the other guy's worse than me.
00:34:08.000 Money is an issue.
00:34:10.000 Mr. Tallarico has been raising bucket loads of money from California, Hollywood, all the beautiful people who partied with Harvey Weinstein.
00:34:21.000 We in the Senate don't have the money budgeted for Texas.
00:34:24.000 We need help from the president.
00:34:26.000 The president says he has $850 million in his campaign accounts.
00:34:33.000 That's a lot of jack.
00:34:35.000 I'm hoping that the president's going to spend $100 or $200 million in Texas, but he hasn't committed to it yet.
00:34:43.000 So he says, obviously, that he doesn't want to spend money on Paxton.
00:34:46.000 A lot of people in the Senate don't like Paxton.
00:34:48.000 They liked Cornyn.
00:34:49.000 OK, fine.
00:34:49.000 The reality is that Republicans must win Texas.
00:34:52.000 So, whatever it takes to win Texas, if you lose Texas, you lose the Senate.
00:34:55.000 It is that simple.
00:34:56.000 However, we should just recognize here if you cannot raise money to beat James Tallarico in Texas, you are definitionally a crap candidate.
00:35:04.000 James Tallarico is such a bad candidate.
00:35:08.000 The fact that Paxton is currently even running competitive with him is totally insane.
00:35:12.000 And to be fair, right now, Republicans are running competitive races in and trailing in Ohio, Alaska, Maine, just to pick three out of a hat.
00:35:24.000 And Michigan is pretty fraught as well.
00:35:25.000 So, I mean, all of those are places where Republicans need to spend money.
00:35:28.000 If they're forced to actually defray cost for Paxton in Texas, that's terrible.
00:35:32.000 So, reason number three bad candidates.
00:35:33.000 So, one, just natural midterm dynamics.
00:35:37.000 Two, Discombobulated messaging and policy out of the administration.
00:35:41.000 Three, bad candidates like Paxton.
00:35:44.000 And four, and this is a big one.
00:35:46.000 There are, in fact, traitors in the GOP who are looking to undermine the GOP.
00:35:51.000 There are people who are desperately desirous of the GOP failing.
00:35:56.000 They want the GOP to fail.
00:35:58.000 They look at Trump and they see his term is going to end.
00:35:58.000 Why?
00:36:01.000 They look at Mike Johnson and Mike Johnson is a pretty traditional conservative.
00:36:03.000 They look at John Thune.
00:36:04.000 He's a pretty traditional conservative.
00:36:06.000 And they want that GOP to die.
00:36:09.000 They want that GOP gone.
00:36:10.000 And they see the GOP losing as the predicate to them fracturing the party and then taking it over.
00:36:16.000 These are people who actively want the Republican Party to lose.
00:36:20.000 They're not shy about it, by the way.
00:36:21.000 Again, it's amazing.
00:36:22.000 Many people who are not conservative, you're not America first, you're not.
00:36:27.000 Those same people are running a gambit to take over the GOP from within.
00:36:32.000 They don't like that President Trump is pretty hawkish on foreign policy.
00:36:36.000 They don't like the fact that the GOP, generally speaking, is free market oriented.
00:36:40.000 They don't like any of those things.
00:36:42.000 What they want is a GOP that is big government in nature.
00:36:46.000 Is significantly more sectarian and a GOP that is isolationist on foreign policy.
00:36:51.000 That is what they want.
00:36:52.000 And they're being open about it.
00:36:53.000 And that has electoral consequences because obviously in close elections, when quote unquote part of your party, the part that is being appealed to by specific politicians in the administration, right, they won't build new audiences.
00:37:05.000 They're going to try and get the Tucker Carlson audience.
00:37:07.000 If you spend all your time appealing to the people who are actively saying they want you to lose, you're probably going to lose.
00:37:13.000 It's going to be a problem for you.
00:37:15.000 I picked Tucker out of a hat here because he's openly said that he would like the Republicans to lose at this point.
00:37:19.000 I mean, over the weekend, he literally said that President Trump should be removed from office immediately for supposedly considering using nukes in Iran, which is kind of hilarious because Tucker himself told Ted Cruz that if Iran had attempted to assassinate Trump, we should nuke Tehran.
00:37:36.000 But, you know, consistency is the hobgoblin of sane minds.
00:37:43.000 Here is Tucker Carlson calling for Trump to be immediately removed from office.
00:37:45.000 And then, don't worry, he's the loyal conservative.
00:37:49.000 Again, there are people who want to fracture the party and destroy it, and they're saying it.
00:37:55.000 The second any president actively considers first use of nuclear weapons, that person should be removed from office immediately, immediately, because that's got to be the red line, destroying all of humanity with a nuclear strike.
00:38:10.000 I mean, so why isn't there an attempt to remove him from office immediately?
00:38:16.000 Anyone who would even tolerate that kind of talk from any of his subordinates or employees is by definition unfit.
00:38:26.000 Okay, not only does he want the president removed from office, He also says that he is no longer a Republican.
00:38:31.000 This is just a few weeks ago.
00:38:32.000 He said, There's no defending this, so I'm out.
00:38:35.000 I've been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party.
00:38:41.000 I mean, very consistent defender, but there's no defending this because it's immoral and it's exactly the opposite of what a political party in a democracy is charged with doing, which is representing its own voters, its own citizens, its own nation.
00:38:56.000 And they're not doing that.
00:38:57.000 So, no, I'm out.
00:38:58.000 And if I'm out, then I think a lot of other people are out.
00:39:03.000 And so it's Tucker.
00:39:06.000 It is obviously MTG.
00:39:07.000 I mean, again, these people are running an active operation against the Republican Party.
00:39:11.000 They are not being shy about this.
00:39:13.000 So if you're wondering who's undermining the Republican Party, I don't know.
00:39:15.000 Maybe the people who are saying that they wish to undermine the Republican Party.
00:39:18.000 Maybe it's those people.
00:39:19.000 Here's MTG with Alex Jones.
00:39:21.000 Again, a rare interview in which Alex Jones is the saner of the two people on screen.
00:39:26.000 We have to be realistic about the Republican Party.
00:39:29.000 The Republican Party needs burn to the ground, it's completely controlled.
00:39:34.000 As a matter of fact, much of Congress is controlled by AIPAC.
00:39:37.000 And by Zionists.
00:39:38.000 And that is a serious problem.
00:39:40.000 That means you, the American people, don't control your own government and those you elect.
00:39:45.000 They're controlled by donors that have one specific interest, and that is Israel.
00:39:53.000 Candace Owens, of course, doing the same thing.
00:39:53.000 Okay.
00:39:55.000 She says satanic Zionists occupy the White House.
00:39:59.000 Well, this is a satanic administration.
00:40:01.000 We all realize satanic Zionists occupy the White House, and Congress needs to move to have the mad King Trump removed.
00:40:07.000 This is back in April.
00:40:09.000 All of our lives may depend upon other countries realizing Trump is deeply unwell.
00:40:13.000 And surrounded by religious fanatics who have convinced him that he is a messiah.
00:40:16.000 Again, these are people active.
00:40:18.000 Nick Fuentes, same thing.
00:40:19.000 He says the GOP needs to be destroyed.
00:40:21.000 When people tell you who they are, you probably should believe them.
00:40:26.000 I care about affordability.
00:40:28.000 I care about foreign interventions.
00:40:30.000 I care about the border.
00:40:32.000 I'm a non woke moderate Democrat.
00:40:34.000 I think the GOP needs to be destroyed.
00:40:36.000 I think the corrupt criminal government of Trump needs to be slowed down.
00:40:40.000 We need to impeach the Orange.
00:40:42.000 It's time to put this.
00:40:43.000 And a peach.
00:40:44.000 Trump needs to be placed inside of a crystal.
00:40:46.000 He needs to be impeached.
00:40:48.000 This fat orange, tiny hands needs to be impeached.
00:40:52.000 And then in 28, no Vance, no Rubio.
00:40:54.000 We have to burn down the whole party.
00:40:58.000 So again, they are just saying it.
00:41:01.000 They're just saying it.
00:41:02.000 They would like to destroy the party because if they destroy the party, they hope to take over whatever fragments remain in the wake.
00:41:08.000 So those are the four factors that are putting Republicans in a seriously bad position for the midterms.
00:41:13.000 Again, just normal midterm dynamics.
00:41:17.000 Completely discombobulated policy and narrative coming out of the administration, a couple of bad candidates, and a wing of the party that actively wishes for the party to lose.
00:41:26.000 What an amazing video you just watched!
00:41:27.000 Wasn't that amazing?
00:41:29.000 Well, you know, if you think so, head on over to dailywire.comslash subscribe to watch the full show ad free or check out this crazy story here.