The Matt Walsh Show - Daily Wire Backstage： Trump’s Address to Congress

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, this is Matt Walsh. Drop everything you're doing and check out the latest episode of

00:00:03.720 Daily Wire backstage. You're going to hear Jeremy Boring, Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klavan,

00:00:07.540 Michael Knowles, and yours truly talking about all the important issues affecting you and your

00:00:11.000 family. You don't want to miss it unless you're a leftist, in which case you're canceled.

00:00:30.000 Welcome to Daily Wire backstage's live coverage of Donald Trump's address to Congress. Some people

00:00:49.100 will call it a state of the union. Some people will get onto us if we do call it a state of the union.

00:00:52.620 It's very controversial. It will look exactly like a state of the union, and I think that's

00:00:56.800 really what matters. I'm joined here in Nashville by Andrew Klavan and Michael Knowles. Of course,

00:01:00.960 I'm your host, Jeremy Boring, and joining us remotely from the Capitol itself tonight, we have Ben

00:01:06.160 Shapiro, Matt Walsh. There's an empty chair, which we were saving for Elijah, but it has now been filled,

00:01:11.120 and the man filling it is the former acting director of ICE, and the current borders are in the second

00:01:15.500 Trump administration, Tom Holman. Thank you for being with us. Thanks for having me. If you are

00:01:22.260 not a Daily Wire Plus member, here's what you're missing. Ad-free, uncensored shows from the most

00:01:26.600 trusted names in the conservative media, plus Andrew Klavan. If you're not watching Daily Wire Plus,

00:01:30.940 you're not getting the full show, plus exclusive investigative journalism, first access to what's

00:01:34.780 next, and if you join now, you can take part in the live chat where you can ask us questions during

00:01:39.100 the live show, dailywire.com slash subscribe. Obviously, a really big night, the sort of triumphal

00:01:46.480 return of Donald Trump to the Capitol as now the 47th president. What can we expect tonight, Ben?

00:01:51.920 Well, I mean, I think that you're going to expect a very enthusiastic Republican reception.

00:01:57.880 It heard from the speaker that we are expecting a bunch of Democrats to show up with empty egg

00:02:02.440 cartons, and they're going to wave them at the president about egg prices. That'll show him.

00:02:05.900 Noisemakers. They're going to try and disrupt as many things as possible, but they've been unable to

00:02:10.780 disrupt the agenda thus far, and so I think they're going to have a rough time of it tonight. But,

00:02:15.560 you know, it would be remiss we don't get to sit with the borders are very often. So,

00:02:18.660 borders aren't on home. What are you expecting tonight? I expect President Trump to educate

00:02:23.680 American people on the facts of the border that what he did in three weeks, Biden administration

00:02:28.040 failed to do in four years. We had the lowest border numbers in the history of the United States

00:02:32.320 border, and that's not an exaggeration. Last month, we had the fewest number of encounters in

00:02:37.360 the history of this nation, and President Trump did that in four weeks. So, think what he's going to

00:02:42.840 do in the next 47 months. So, we've got the most secure border ever right now. We've got a little bit

00:02:47.620 more work to do. I said record amounts of arrests in the interior. So, and as we, as the president

00:02:53.600 secures the border, here's what I hope people take away tonight. When you have 97% less people

00:02:58.760 coming, Border Patrol is now on the border, 100% engaged, 100% on duty, not changing diapers,

00:03:03.860 not making baby formula, not making hospital runs, means we seize more fentanyl, less Americans die from

00:03:08.800 fentanyl. We arrest more traffickers, so less women and children are sex trafficked. We got less,

00:03:14.160 no inspector terrorists getting away in this country. The gotaways alone, under Biden average,

00:03:19.520 1,800 gotaways a day that we know of. The other day, it's 41. And we're going to get that down

00:03:25.640 to zero. So, we're going to have total operational control of our southern border. It'll be the first

00:03:30.540 thing in history. Just to state the obvious, so when the media tries to claim that, well,

00:03:36.020 the deportation numbers aren't as high as what Trump promised, the point is that the border is being

00:03:41.820 secure, so we're not having the people come in, right? Exactly. They're counting the numbers of

00:03:45.840 what was removed. Look, President Trump can remove 90% of people coming across the board. His

00:03:51.400 deportation numbers are still going to be lower than Biden, even if Biden deported 10%, because they

00:03:56.480 brought millions of people in. Understand, in one month, a total of 8,000 in one month,

00:04:03.560 and under Joe Biden, we're doing 11,000 a day, right? It's a big game changer. And I say every

00:04:13.440 day, and I'll say it tonight, President Trump proves every day why he's the greatest president

00:04:19.600 in my lifetime. It doesn't seem possible that the administration could have made this accomplishment

00:04:25.340 because I was under the impression that it was impossible to secure the border unless we voted

00:04:29.660 for Joe Biden's comprehensive immigration reform package. So somewhere I just got bad information.

00:04:37.920 Well, look, the President Trump did it before. This administration knew how to fix it,

00:04:42.880 and they just didn't choose to fix it. This isn't, what Biden did was not mismanagement,

00:04:47.560 it was not incompetence, it's by design. They knew exactly what they're doing. He ran on open borders.

00:04:52.980 He said he's going to shut down ICE detention. He said he's going to put a moratorium on deportations.

00:04:57.920 He says he wanted to give free health care to illegal aliens. The promises he made,

00:05:02.440 we knew the whole country, the whole world's going to come to the greatest nation on earth

00:05:05.680 when you're offering all these giveaways with no consequences. They knew how to fix it,

00:05:09.880 they refused to do it. Again, what they failed to do in four years, Donald Trump did in three

00:05:15.460 weeks. You know, Mr. Homan, Mr. Homan, Ben just mentioned that the Democrat lawmakers are planning

00:05:23.220 to interrupt the speech with all sorts of noisemakers and make a general nuisance of

00:05:27.280 themselves. I know you're busy, sir, but would it be possible for you to deport them as well, please?

00:05:35.180 Don't tempt me. Don't tempt me, because, you know, I've been fighting with the Democrat side of the

00:05:41.880 House for a long time, but especially the last couple of days, there's going to be members of

00:05:45.800 Congress sitting in the audience tonight who are educating criminal illegal aliens how we evade

00:05:51.000 law enforcement. They say, well, we're educating them as a constitutional rights. Okay, plan what

00:05:56.000 you want. We all know what you're doing. You're educating those how do we evade law enforcement.

00:06:01.100 Don't open your doors. Don't answer questions. You know, hide. And these are Congress people

00:06:06.220 that begged that these people had a right to claim asylum. They got a right to see a judge.

00:06:12.380 They got a right to due process. And that happened. They had that due process. But 90%

00:06:18.020 have been ordered removed. So if we don't execute the final decision of the courts, there is no due

00:06:22.260 process. It means nothing. You can't demand due process and ignore the final decision of the

00:06:26.680 courts. If we do that, they might as well just shut down immigration courts, take the border

00:06:30.640 off the border. There's no consequences. You can't ask to implement a system of laws and ignore the

00:06:36.880 final result. And that's why we're going to have a massive deportation operation, because

00:06:40.760 millions of people across this border, 90% would get an order of removal. We got to

00:06:44.740 remove them. So any member of Congress who wants to educate, and we made it clear the

00:06:49.020 Trump administration is going to concentrate in this, the worst of the worst, worst public

00:06:52.160 safety threats, right? I can't believe any member of Congress wants to educate an illegal

00:06:57.360 alien who's been convicted of a serious offense, he's got order of removal at the due process

00:07:03.400 at great taxpayer expense, and wants to educate them on how to date arrest. To me, they are

00:07:09.160 resigned their position as member of Congress, because they're doing the complete opposite

00:07:12.420 with American taxpayers' expectable.

00:07:14.000 Can I ask you about, what about the Democrat mayors and governors who have promised, claimed,

00:07:19.200 in some cases claimed, that they're going to harbor illegal aliens in their own homes?

00:07:22.760 Have you found that they're actually doing this? What are they doing to interfere with

00:07:27.780 your operations? Or are they kind of getting in line? What's going on there?

00:07:30.260 They haven't crossed the line yet. But if they cross the line, they're going to be prosecuted.

00:07:36.200 You can stand aside and watch ICE do your job. ICE is making their community safer. And I find

00:07:43.140 it hard to believe every day that there's any mayor or governor or city council person that

00:07:48.340 doesn't want public safety threats removed from the public. It's in their more responsibilities

00:07:52.360 for community safety. If you want to help us, get the hell out of the way. Well, I've been,

00:07:56.600 I've warned numerous mayors and governors, don't cross that line. If you impede us, that's a felony.

00:08:04.320 And Pam Bondi, we'll ask Pam Bondi to prosecute. If you harbor or conceal an illegal alien,

00:08:10.060 knowingly harbor or conceal an alien from ICE, that's a felony. In my career, I've arrested

00:08:15.660 U.S. citizens for harboring, concealing an illegal alien in the workplace or a home. If I can prosecute

00:08:21.380 a U.S. citizen for doing it, why can't we prosecute a politician who does that same thing?

00:08:27.500 So, you know, I think we've got a strong A.G. and Pam Bondi. And if they cross that line,

00:08:31.340 we should prosecute and make an example of them.

00:08:33.260 You know, to your point earlier, sir, it's perfectly reasonable, perfectly understandable

00:08:40.160 why someone living south of our border in particular would want to get to the greatest

00:08:45.080 country in the history of the world. That's, it's a no-brainer. When you add further incentives

00:08:50.300 through all of our government programs, all the handouts, the open invitations that Joe Biden and

00:08:54.960 his administration were putting out to people to come to the country, you can't be surprised

00:08:59.000 when they do. At the same time, the idea that American politicians would engage in harboring

00:09:08.480 those people, it seems to me, it's very easy to throw around words like treason in political

00:09:13.740 discussion. But when you're actually using your position as an elected representative of the

00:09:19.080 American people to help criminal aliens in the country at the expense of your own constituents,

00:09:25.760 I mean, how is that not a treasonous offense? When Joe Biden shuts down the Remain in Mexico

00:09:30.200 program and says, no, instead, we're going to bring millions of people into the country who

00:09:35.320 don't need to be here. We already have a solution. The first Trump administration implemented the

00:09:39.860 solution. We're going to remove the solution. How is that not treasonous?

00:09:44.880 Look, I think a lot of what they did is treasonous. Take, for example, the Gataways, right?

00:09:50.080 They overwhelmed the Border Patrol where many nights, 70%, 7-0, 70% of agents were pulled off

00:09:57.280 the line to make sandwiches, change diapers, make baby forms, make hospital runs, dealing with this

00:10:02.100 humanitarian crisis they created on purpose. And the Border Patrol is overwhelmed. So we've got 30%

00:10:07.840 of Border Patrols left on the line. Then the criminal cartels have sent a group of 100 family units in

00:10:12.460 one area, knowing that 30% are going to seize that opportunity to deal with a humanitarian crisis

00:10:17.100 there, which the cartels create gaps. So you've got 2.2 million known Gataways. You've got to ask

00:10:22.960 yourself, why did 2 million plus people pay more to get away? Because you pay the cartels one amount

00:10:29.940 of money to get to the border. The cartel's job ends when you get to the border because you turn

00:10:34.680 yourself into a green uniform. You get released within 24 hours. You get a free airline ticket to

00:10:39.620 the city of your choice. You get put in a free hotel room. You get three meals a day in free medical

00:10:43.800 care. After about three months, you get work authorization, the very reason they came here.

00:10:48.040 So why did 2 million people pay more not to take advantage of that giveaway program?

00:10:52.280 Why did they pay more to get away? Because they didn't want to be vetted. They didn't want to

00:10:56.280 be fingerprinted. These are going to be people are trafficking women and children. They're going

00:10:59.720 to be ones carrying a fat and all. And they're going to be ones coming from a country sponsoring terror.

00:11:06.040 Now, under Trump in four years, we rest a total of 14 people on terrorist watch list. 14 in four years.

00:11:11.800 This Biden administration had 14 in a day. I mean, they were up over 400. So the question is,

00:11:19.080 Border Patrol has arrested people from 181 different countries. Many of these countries are sponsored

00:11:23.000 of terror. They've arrested over 400. How many of that 2.2 million came from countries sponsored

00:11:28.280 terror? If you think it's zero, you're a moron. So this is the biggest national security vulnerability

00:11:33.960 I've seen in my lifetime. Even FBI Director Wray, who I don't like, even he agreed this is the biggest

00:11:40.840 national security vulnerability. He's seen a lot of red flags. What they did when they purposely opened

00:11:47.080 this border up is create the biggest national security vulnerability this nation's ever seen.

00:11:53.240 And we know there's people here that want to do us harm. We know national security threats entered

00:11:59.640 this country. We're monitoring some. Some, we don't know where there are. So when you use the word

00:12:06.040 trees, I agree with you. Because they, on purpose, created this open border, which resulted in a

00:12:12.040 significant national security concern, national security vulnerability. We all know something's

00:12:17.400 coming. The intelligence community believes something's going to be coming. And thank God

00:12:21.320 we got President Trump in the Oval Office to deal with it when it happens.

00:12:24.120 And when you talk about this, it's very clear that the Biden administration, it was an act of will for

00:12:29.400 them to leave the border this way. I was talking to you before we were on air that I was actually

00:12:32.840 down at the border in Arizona. There's a Native American reservation right along the border. There's

00:12:36.680 no fencing there because the Native American reservation doesn't want there to be fencing there.

00:12:40.040 And so basically it's wide open. And the Biden administration, I was told by Border Patrol,

00:12:45.000 had assigned them to process people as a number one priority. The drug cartels would essentially

00:12:50.440 drive up with a truck filled with people. They would unload them at the border. There was actually a

00:12:53.720 button they could hit at the border that would call Border Patrol to them. Border Patrol would

00:12:57.240 then have to take them for processing and that would leave the rest of the border completely

00:13:00.760 wide open for the predations of the drug cartels. I think one part of the story that hasn't been told

00:13:05.720 here is just how much the Biden administration enriched the drug cartels. The drug cartels made

00:13:09.720 literally billions of dollars off of human trafficking and drug smuggling during the course of the Biden

00:13:15.080 administration. No one celebrated that election more than the criminal cartels. They knew they were back

00:13:19.240 in business. The reason there's so much violence in Mexico right now, because the cartels make

00:13:23.560 them more money they've ever made in sex trafficking, women and children, alien smuggling, and the

00:13:28.840 smuggling of narcotics. Now, there's a lot of discontent in Mexico because President Trump has

00:13:34.920 taken billions of dollars out of their pockets when he secures that border. So I think you're

00:13:38.760 going to see more violence on the border. I don't think they're going to go away quietly. I think

00:13:42.120 President Trump did the right thing, designated them terrorist organizations, because these cartels

00:13:46.600 have killed more Americans than every terrorist organization in the world combined.

00:13:50.520 But what they did to the border was on purpose. I agree 100%. And here's why I know it's on purpose.

00:13:56.600 We never talked about this. Let me just mention this. When Barack Obama was president,

00:14:01.800 Joe Biden was vice president, Secretary Mayorkas was a deputy secretary. We had a surge of family

00:14:07.960 groups coming across the border. How did we stop it? We built family residential centers. We held them long

00:14:13.320 enough to see a judge. 91% lost their case. We put them in an airplane, send them home, and the border

00:14:18.600 numbers dumped. So Mayorkas knows how we fixed it. And Biden knows how we fixed it. So what they do when

00:14:24.200 he becomes president, Mayorkas becomes secretary. They don't contain him. They don't make him see a judge. They

00:14:30.840 don't deport him. They did exactly the opposite of what proved worked when he was vice president,

00:14:36.760 the secretary of my office, the deputy secretary. So this wasn't an accident. They did the exact

00:14:41.560 opposite of what they knew we succeeded with when President Obama was in office. So this wasn't,

00:14:49.640 again, this was by design. They knew exactly what they were doing. And the reason they didn't detain

00:14:54.760 them is because when an alien is in detention, they get a hearing within 40 days at top,

00:15:01.160 which means in 40 days, that 91% be ordered, removed, and they go home. That's not what they

00:15:05.640 wanted. So they released them to NGOs, put them in the hotel room, because once you're out of

00:15:10.280 ICE custody, it's called the non-detained docket. Non-detained docket takes anywhere from three years

00:15:14.760 to nine years, depending on what city you're in. Wow. And they knew in that three to nine years,

00:15:19.400 they'll get one or two-year citizen kids. They'll get equities here, and hopefully a

00:15:24.200 Democratic Congress and Democratic president that will reward them an amnesty.

00:15:27.960 This is why they didn't detain them. They don't want them removed,

00:15:31.160 so they figured they put them on the non-custody docket with immigration court.

00:15:35.240 Their cases are so far down the road that there'll be a change in the administration,

00:15:40.280 and they can award them an amnesty. That's exactly what is their plan. And thank God we

00:15:44.520 changed that in November. Mr. Holman, you mentioned just now that President Trump redefined these

00:15:50.760 organizations as foreign terrorist organizations. And a lot of people hear that, and they think,

00:15:56.200 well, that's just kind of a new way of describing them. But obviously, that is an official

00:16:01.640 classification that then frees up certain American resources to deal with them. So in case there are

00:16:06.840 any face-tattooed gangsters watching the stream tonight, practically speaking, what does it mean

00:16:11.960 that the cartels can anticipate now that they're designated this way? If you're involved in cartels

00:16:18.600 anyway, if you're transporting for them, if you're moving money for them, if you're helping these

00:16:24.600 cartels in any way, then you are part of a terrorist organization, and we'll charge you with terrorist

00:16:29.560 related crimes, which has significant penalties. Being designated terrorist brings a whole of U.S.

00:16:35.160 government, I'm including the military. We're not just going to attack them on our southern border,

00:16:39.320 we're going to attack them across the globe. Calisco cartels in 43 countries around the globe.

00:16:44.440 Not only are they moving drugs across the border, that's the way it used to be, now they have a

00:16:48.440 presence in every major city in this country. So on top of smuggling narcotics in this country,

00:16:53.000 they're taking over the interior distribution of narcotics within our largest cities. We're going to

00:16:57.160 attack them on the border, we're going to attack them in the interior of the United States, we're going

00:17:00.360 to attack them in every country around the world with the assistance of the other countries. This designation

00:17:06.040 is put them on notice. We're going to use the whole might of the United States government

00:17:10.840 to take them out. We're going to, and the first thing we do is take their money. If they don't

00:17:14.600 have money, they have no power. They can't buy the Mexican military. They can't buy Mexican

00:17:18.600 legislation. They can't buy Mexican judges. So we're going to shut them down one piece at a time.

00:17:24.200 What President Trump did by designating a terrorist organization, take the first step

00:17:28.680 of whiting these cartels off the face of the earth. You know who's going to be more grateful

00:17:32.360 than anybody? The country in Mexico. I've said this many times, there's a lot of corruption in Mexico,

00:17:38.200 whether it's the military, law enforcement, or government officials. Many of them didn't choose

00:17:43.960 to be corrupt, but cartels will tell you, you're going to do this and we're going to kill you and

00:17:48.200 your family. To take the cartels out of Mexico and demolish them and incinerate them and take them

00:17:55.080 off the face of the earth, we're going to free Mexico. Mexico wants to be under the control of the

00:18:00.040 cartels. They can operate in a free society. So I think no one's been more grateful in Mexico.

00:18:06.440 Porter's our Tom Holman, thank you for making time with us. It's a huge night. We're very

00:18:10.200 grateful for the work you're doing. Very grateful for the work that President Trump is doing and

00:18:14.440 just looking forward to actually having some sanity and law and order on the southern border. Thank you.

00:18:20.920 I appreciate the thanks. Let's give the thanks to the men and women wearing the green uniform. We're

00:18:25.000 down there 24-7. While I'm sitting at this event tonight, there's some board

00:18:29.080 tribulation standing on a dirt trail someplace. It's going to take somebody on, whether it's just

00:18:33.320 an illegal ant or a heavy-armed drug smuggler. These are the men and women who sit on that board 24-7

00:18:38.680 while we're laying in bed sleeping safe at night. Thank the ICE agents who are out there, you know,

00:18:43.160 with a Kevlar vest and a gun on their hip, going to sanctuary cities, arresting bad people because

00:18:47.240 they couldn't arrest them in the jail. And we got leakers telling people where these operations are.

00:18:52.360 Let's pray for the men and women with ICE that they go home safe to their families every night.

00:18:55.960 There's the real heroes. I'm grateful to be in. I got a great president, but I want to thank the

00:19:00.680 men and women on the front line who are doing the job. Steve Miller is the architect, brilliant,

00:19:05.880 probably one of the smartest men I ever met. We strategize. We come up with plans. We come up with

00:19:10.760 the methods of what we want done. But the men and women carrying the badge and gun,

00:19:15.080 God bless them. Let's keep them safe because they're doing God's work on the front line.

00:19:19.240 Amen. Amen. Ben, it's hard to follow that with an ad read, but if anyone can do it.

00:19:29.640 Folks, I need to tell you about a great way you can improve your quality of life. It's something

00:19:33.960 I've been doing for years that I cannot recommend enough. Is it transcendental meditation classes?

00:19:41.320 Nope. Me meditating? It sounds unbelievably boring, so it's not going to happen. Is it Reiki energy

00:19:47.240 healing? I mean, that looks relaxing, but nope, I'm not going to be doing that. I don't know about you,

00:19:54.840 but that kind of stuff is not for me. So what do I do to improve my health and energy if wacky

00:19:59.080 self-care schemes are out? Well, it isn't complicated. It's bull and brand sheets, baby. With their 100%

00:20:04.200 organic cotton sheets, I get a great sleep every single night, and I wake up refreshed to tackle the

00:20:09.000 day. You ever wonder why you're feeling groggy and frankly resentful toward the world every second you're

00:20:13.480 forced to be awake? It's because your cheapo store brand sheets are holding you back. Getting sleep

00:20:17.880 is one of the most important things you can and must do to be a functioning, happy human being.

00:20:22.680 I can even rest when I'm on the road with their wonderful waffle throw. I do not travel without

00:20:26.040 it. Not even joking. It's in my suitcase. It's truly the easiest thing you can do to feel energized and

00:20:30.920 refreshed. Feel the difference for yourself, gang. Try bull and brand sheets for an entire month.

00:20:34.600 If they don't change the way you sleep, you can send them back for a full refund for limited time

00:20:39.080 only. Get 20% off plus free shipping at bullandbranch.com slash backstage. And as your

00:20:44.040 chance, change the way you sleep with Bull and Branch. That's Bull and Branch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D,

00:20:49.240 branch.com slash backstage to save 20%. Exclusions apply. See site for details.

00:20:56.600 So quite a treat to have Tom Holman with us, and also a treat that Ben and Matt get to attend

00:21:02.120 this event. And to make it even better is that you had to go to the Joe Biden.

00:21:07.080 I know. I'm feeling a little gypped. I mean, I'm very grateful to my friend Congressman Andy Ogles

00:21:13.240 for having me last year. It was very cool to be at the State of the Union. But I had to listen to

00:21:18.840 Joe Biden incoherently scream for like 45 minutes. And you guys get to go to the UFC fight of State

00:21:24.680 of the Union addresses. It's going to be super fun. Oh, it is going to be great. First of all,

00:21:30.520 I think there's a good shot that President Trump is going to announce this rare earth mineral deal

00:21:34.360 with Ukraine. So that'll be a big win for him. And I think it'll rectify a lot of the breach that

00:21:38.680 happened last Friday in that extraordinarily combative press conference between Zelensky,

00:21:43.320 President Trump, and Vice President J.D. Vance. He's obviously going to talk about his

00:21:47.240 accomplishments on immigration that Bordazar Homan just mentioned a moment ago. He's going to be

00:21:52.120 talking about the investments that were just made by a number of companies in America. The TSMC,

00:21:57.240 which is, of course, the gigantic semiconductor maker in Taiwan, has announced they're going to spend

00:22:01.480 a hundred billion dollars additionally in the United States. The Honda Civic is now going to

00:22:04.840 be produced entirely in Indiana as opposed to in Mexico. I'm sure he's going to be talking a lot

00:22:08.920 about that. There's been a lot of winning. He's going to talk about DEI. I'm sure he'll talk about

00:22:12.520 Matt's big issue, the issue that if one person really helped push over the line, it was Matt Walsh,

00:22:17.320 the death of men in women's sports. I'm sure he's going to mention that as well. I mean,

00:22:21.960 this has been, as we discussed last time we were together, the fastest moving administration

00:22:26.840 in modern American history. I mean, this administration is moving like absolute

00:22:29.880 lightning. It's going to give Trump a lot to talk about. And of course, it's going to get

00:22:33.240 spicy because I would be shocked if there's no dramatics from the fainting couch left out there.

00:22:38.520 Some of them are not showing up. And frankly, to me, that seems like the best tactic for some of

00:22:43.320 them. I think that the ones who are idiots are going to show up and make fools of themselves.

00:22:46.440 You know, it seems like not showing up, though. They actually get paid to show up. That's what

00:22:49.400 they're there for. It seems like everything they do, every strategy they come up with,

00:22:53.560 which just sends them further and further into the wilderness. And I agree for them. I miss them

00:22:57.560 deeply. But I think that if they just continue to protest cutting fraud and waste, if they continue

00:23:02.440 to protest securing the border, if they continue to protest putting not allowing men into women's

00:23:07.800 sports, I could be gone before there's another Democrat administration, which may be only 10 minutes

00:23:14.120 away. But still, I think that this could be a long, long term in exile. They seem to have learned

00:23:19.240 absolutely nothing. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned some of the members not showing up tonight,

00:23:24.040 but even the Democrat governors who say, no, by golly, we're going to ignore federal law and we're

00:23:29.240 going to force hulking dudes to crack women's skulls. And they elect David Hogg, one of the least

00:23:35.560 likable Democrats, even among Democrats, to be the vice chairman of the party. It just seems like

00:23:40.920 these guys cannot possibly win for losing. I would like to ask a question of you guys.

00:23:45.800 You know, when I'm listening to Hulman talk about the border, this lawlessness, this incredible,

00:23:52.220 it was an invasion. I mean, I know that's like a big word, but it was an invasion allowed by the

00:23:57.080 president of the United States, allowing us to be invaded. And you hear all these theories,

00:24:01.360 they're bringing in voters, it's the great replacement and all this. Do you think that

00:24:06.000 that was the strategy? Was that it, that they just thought that this would turn the Democrats?

00:24:10.340 They told us this in 2004. Ben, you correct me because you probably remember the paper better.

00:24:14.960 It was 04 or 06. There was a very prominent political science paper pushed by the left

00:24:20.160 on this strategy to import people from all over the world and to have a permanent electoral majority.

00:24:26.160 And I don't think they were counting on Trump winning 46% of Hispanics or an increasing number

00:24:30.500 of black male votes or anything like that. But, but they were, I think they were pretty open about

00:24:34.260 it. I don't think they hid the ball. Because they say it's happening in Europe too.

00:24:37.280 I mean, I think there's some of that. I also think that there was, I think that there's something

00:24:40.100 else happening too. And that is that there's been this myth in democratic politics really since 2012

00:24:44.280 that you could create a permanent minority majority coalition. And so it was almost a

00:24:50.160 no loss proposition for them. They figured that they were going to win more Hispanic votes in

00:24:53.180 the United States by opening the vote and by opening the border. And they could simultaneously

00:24:57.020 bring in new voters. And at the same time, they'd be pleasing all of their white liberal college

00:25:01.000 graduates who believe that the United States bears blood guilt for ever having won Texas and

00:25:04.320 California from Mexico. And so it was sort of a win-win for them. And what they didn't understand is that

00:25:08.700 you are now creating a backlash that's going to make for your undoing. I mean, if there's one issue

00:25:11.980 more than any other that really swung the election, it was the illegal immigration issue. And number

00:25:16.220 two, it was the trans issue. And Democrats are unable to, to kind of let go of both. But I want to ask

00:25:20.100 my buddy Matt here, because he's been sitting here silently as is his wants during, during our

00:25:23.400 backstage. He's, he's always very excited to be here as, as we know, and he's even more excited to

00:25:28.320 travel. Matt, do you feel the electricity? Do you feel the energy? Are you just like ecstatic to be here?

00:25:34.140 Okay. I appreciate the pity, uh, throwing it to me. So I have, I have something to say. Uh, and I,

00:25:39.800 I, it's a, it's a great honor to be here. We're a little too physically close right now. So this is,

00:25:43.680 it's an uncomfortable physical proximity. I'm not accustomed to, uh, I am wearing, I'm wearing a tie

00:25:49.660 for the first time in two years. So that shows you how much I, and actually, and there's a pocket

00:25:54.260 square. I'm going to note that right before this, by the way, Matt actually did up his tie. Like a few

00:25:58.400 minutes ago, before we began, uh, Matt had not buttoned his top button.

00:26:01.740 Yeah, but you've, you've got the tie tight enough that you can masquerade and his short

00:26:06.280 was pretty loose. And he kind of looked as though, and he had the cup of whiskey in front

00:26:10.060 of him and the glass of whiskey. And he looked as though, you know, he'd worked a long day

00:26:13.640 at the, at the accounting office and now he'd been finally released to his local pub where

00:26:18.280 he could, where he could, you know, just let the tie down a little bit. And that was actually

00:26:21.340 him dressed up. So I'm just going to point that out.

00:26:23.660 I don't even know if we're, can we drink alcohol where we are right now in these sacred

00:26:27.380 halls?

00:26:27.640 It's Congress, my friend. I will say it was pretty cool. We, we, we met with Speaker

00:26:35.040 Johnson right before this and, uh, he actually took us to take a picture, which I'm sure

00:26:38.660 has now been posted online. And, uh, and you can, and he actually showed us a room that

00:26:42.640 apparently has never been used in the Capitol building, which was a prayer room. It was actually

00:26:47.840 like a prayer room off to the side. It was really cool. It is a beautiful stained glass window

00:26:51.580 of George Washington kneeling in prayer, you know, the famous painting, uh, and emblems

00:26:56.120 from all 50 States.

00:26:57.140 And George Washington was the last one to use it.

00:26:58.880 Yes, exactly. Well, I mean, at least use it for prayer. I mean, I'm hoping that none of

00:27:02.920 the other Congress people discovered it because the one rule about Congress is you never want

00:27:06.400 to blacklight anything here. It's just a huge mistake.

00:27:08.780 Yeah. So basically this is going to be a giant pep rally for the right tonight and to make it all

00:27:17.560 the more glorious, we're going to be filling up with leftist tears, left, right, and center.

00:27:20.920 Is there anything, is there anything being bandied about that we think, um, would, would be a

00:27:27.320 surprise? Is there anything that is Donald Trump going to do anything here tonight that shocks his

00:27:31.680 constituency or is this pure fan fiction playing out right in front of us tonight?

00:27:35.620 Right. Well, I think the, the big floating idea is that you could get an announcement of the

00:27:41.460 Ukraine deal, which might surprise some people because a president Trump picked that fellow up

00:27:46.720 and flung him out the window the other day during the Oval Office meeting. But again, you know,

00:27:50.460 these kinds of deals are bigger than just one shouting match in the Oval Office. So you could

00:27:54.480 see that that would be somewhat surprising. Obviously president Trump last night implemented these

00:27:58.580 tariffs on Mexico and Canada, uh, which surprised some people because I think some people believed

00:28:03.200 that the tariffs were merely a negotiating ploy to try to get concessions on fentanyl or border

00:28:09.540 enforcement or whatever. Uh, however, I think Trump campaigned on believing in tariffs in terms of

00:28:15.220 economic theory, like in, in tariffs for the good of the American economy. Well, not just tariffs

00:28:19.880 themselves though, balanced tariffs. In other words, why should we have tariffs on our goods going out

00:28:24.480 and not put tariffs on people coming in? The whole ethos of Trump is we're not your daddy. You know,

00:28:30.060 if we're going to help you, you're going to help us. We want to get paid for what we do. We want you

00:28:33.900 to take a part of your own defense. And I've been telling Europeans this for over a decade, that all

00:28:39.260 their, their wonderful welfare programs that they have in their universal healthcare that they have

00:28:43.760 is paid for by us because we protect them. Right. Of course. But the one surprise tonight,

00:28:48.680 uh, potentially could be that Trump, as Howard Lettnick was suggesting earlier today, Trump could

00:28:54.700 roll back some of those tariffs that he announced last night. So that might be somewhat surprising.

00:28:59.580 Otherwise I'm expecting the pep rally. I don't know about you guys. It's too late to buy any index

00:29:04.620 funds. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I would be, I'd be a little surprised if he rolls back to tariffs that

00:29:10.640 quickly. Um, I think that he has to have some sort of headline that he can latch onto in order to do

00:29:15.460 that. Some sort of win that he can say that he prized out of Canada or Mexico in, in order to do

00:29:20.020 that. The one thing about president Trump that I've said many times, but I think you're going to see

00:29:24.140 it play out with regard to these tariffs is that president Trump likes good headlines and he does not

00:29:27.880 like bad headlines when to the Dow Jones industrial average drops by 1500 points in two days. And

00:29:32.800 suddenly the lights start blinking red. I don't think the president Trump is so wedded to the

00:29:36.560 magical idea of tariffs. They won't reverse himself in order to sort of preserve economic

00:29:40.760 health. Yeah. That's one thing. And there had been some, some rumors, you know, I doubt that he'll do

00:29:44.920 it tonight, but obviously I was pushing very hard today, uh, to pardon Derek Chauvin, which I think

00:29:49.320 would be a good move for the country because I, you know, while he was convicted on state charges,

00:29:53.740 wouldn't free him from prison. I do think that it would be very good and salutary for the country

00:29:57.540 for the federal government to make clear that it is not going to hold to account people for crimes

00:30:02.880 they, they did not commit and which the jury was pretty obviously poisoned by everybody

00:30:07.240 surrounding the court. Anybody who thinks that Derek Chauvin got a fair trial, regardless of what

00:30:10.940 you think of the actual outcome of the trial, anybody who pretends that that was even remotely a

00:30:14.520 fair trial or the evidence stacked up to the conviction in that case, I honest to God, don't

00:30:18.700 understand what, what you're thinking to, to be fairly frank with you. Uh, and, uh, again,

00:30:23.280 I think it would be a shocker if president Trump said anything about it tonight. Um, but I would not

00:30:27.080 be surprised if something in the near future is done about it. Yeah. Well, Ben and Matt, uh, you've

00:30:31.540 got to get to your seats. The show's about to begin. You're sitting with speaker in speaker Johnson's,

00:30:36.260 uh, uh, box, as I understand. It's an unbelievable honor. I have no doubt that Drew and I will be

00:30:42.300 invited to the next state of the union. Tell speaker Johnson, we actually met, he and I met right after he

00:30:47.660 was elected. I sat next to him at the first Trump prayer breakfast and he's forgotten me entirely.

00:30:52.000 He doesn't care. Yeah, I know. He doesn't care. You guys have a great night. We'll see you after

00:30:56.500 the president's remarks. Hopefully we're able to get you back. Um, and in the meantime, we're going

00:31:00.860 to look at the people coming in, which is always kind of my favorite part of this, like the red carpet

00:31:04.900 of ugly people, when people walk, make their grand entrances into the state of the union. All right,

00:31:11.680 guys, we'll see you later. Yeah. Yeah. Bye. Catch you later.

00:31:17.660 Ben and Matt off to the speaker's box to hear president Donald Trump make his address to a

00:31:25.380 joint session of Congress. We're seeing all the best people walking into,

00:31:29.640 walking into the Capitol as we speak. It's actually kind of fun. I mean, it really

00:31:33.680 saw Elon a second ago and, uh, of course, vice president J.D. Vance and speaker Mike Johnson

00:31:39.420 already, uh, up on the podium. And then, uh, a bunch of really sullen looking Democrats,

00:31:45.000 which makes it, I can't imagine what's wrong with them. They are quite colorful though. It's

00:31:49.400 interesting because in recent years, the Democrats, especially the squad Democrats have worn white

00:31:54.580 to make themselves look like the suffragettes or something this year. They're wearing pink. I

00:31:59.460 maybe the, I don't know the purity femininity. It's the femininity. No one was buying the white

00:32:03.780 softness and gentleness in the day. I noticed that none of them have shaved their heads.

00:32:07.580 Yeah. I feel like if you're going to do it, if you're going to do it, do it all the way.

00:32:10.900 I'm waiting. I, you know, I like this whole idea of them having noisemakers and, you know,

00:32:15.240 like throwing, throwing egg, firecrackers and things. Yeah. They can't humiliate themselves

00:32:20.380 anymore. At least as far as I'm concerned, they can't humiliate themselves enough to actually,

00:32:25.140 uh, humiliate themselves as much as they deserve. So Nancy Pelosi is not a young woman.

00:32:32.020 Well, you know, evil ages you. She's actually only 40. It's just the evil has sucked all the life

00:32:38.840 of it. What does it say on that lady's jacket? We the people. Huh? It may have been the 14th

00:32:44.220 amendment on her sleeve. It's interesting. I'm not positive, but I think it may have been

00:32:48.520 the text of the 14th amendment. We're hearing that the president is running just a few minutes late,

00:32:53.020 which I call presidential prerogative. Of course. You, you, or just rudeness. Wherever the president

00:32:58.160 arrives, he is precisely on time. That's right. That is one of the perks of the job. It's like

00:33:02.980 classifying documents. He just declares it. You know, it's hard to tell exactly what the Democrats

00:33:07.380 are trying to convey with their coordinated outfits, because the white was supposed to

00:33:11.340 coordinate, to convey women's rights, you know, hearkening back to the suffragettes.

00:33:15.460 The pink presumably is more, and we have Melania walking in now, uh, looking much more elegant

00:33:19.880 than any of the Democrats. Anybody else? But, but the pink, I suppose, is to communicate

00:33:23.900 women's rights vis-a-vis abortion, I would guess. Hey, there's Ben Shapiro. I know them.

00:33:30.500 Wait a second. I'm certain it has something to do with abortion. It's really the, it's the only

00:33:37.740 issue they care about. But I guess it, that to me again states that the Democrats haven't learned

00:33:42.880 anything from the election because abortion was supposed to win in the election and they lost the

00:33:47.200 biggest, the biggest, uh, election that they'd lost in 20 years. So then even this 14th amendment

00:33:53.120 thing, you know, trying to make an argument that birthright citizenship, uh, pertains to anchor

00:33:58.200 babies and illegal aliens. Even the New York times ran a column the other day, uh, making a good

00:34:04.320 point that actually it's unclear from the 14th amendment and the Supreme court has never definitively

00:34:08.740 ruled on that. So I don't know. It seems like they're fishing for an issue. Well, see, usually

00:34:12.540 it's the right who is blind to the culture, but this is a really interesting situation in which the

00:34:18.900 left does not know that that shield of invisibility that was created by our corrupt news media has

00:34:24.340 vanished. It's been, it's been destroyed by the evil us. And, and I think that they just don't get

00:34:30.320 it. They do not get that. We can see them. They don't get that they're standing there naked and

00:34:34.000 like the whole country is kind of laughing at them. The president's cabinet arriving now is the

00:34:38.380 secretary of state, Marco Rubio and, and crew, uh, Pete Hegseth, who's kind of a friend of the

00:34:45.740 organization and a fellow Nashville, uh, resident with us. Howard Lutnick. People don't know this.

00:34:52.700 Howard Lutnick, uh, talked to us one time about buying the daily wire. Really? Not buying it. He,

00:34:56.840 he wanted to help us take it public at one time. Can we nationalize it now? Yeah. Well, that would

00:35:00.820 be, is it gone? I like Lutnick. He's, I like his enthusiasm. I do too. I get a big kick out of,

00:35:05.500 uh, out of Lutnick. He's a, you know, he's, he actually is Bobby Axelrod. They say that the

00:35:12.820 character was actually, they say the character was actually written in part. Is it really based on

00:35:16.940 Lutnick? Yeah. Yeah. That checks out. Based on Howard Lutnick. His RFK, I'm surprised he showed up

00:35:21.100 because he has measles. Oh yeah. Heart's breaking all over the crunchosphere as he, uh, endorsed the

00:35:28.620 mRNA vaccine. Except, did you read the column? So the, the headline. Not mRNA. Oh, the, the measles,

00:35:34.380 the MMR. So the headline from foxnews.com was, you know, uh, the measles vaccine is really important

00:35:41.020 and it's crucial to fighting the disease. If you read the column. So the editors write the headline.

00:35:45.400 If you read the column, he never endorses the vaccine. Really? And in fact, he says, really,

00:35:50.380 the best way to fight this is good nutrition. And you know, actually 98% of deaths, uh, disappeared

00:35:56.120 before the measles vaccine. So if you read the text of it, clearly HHS and the white house want to hedge

00:36:01.940 their bets a little bit in case there is a big outbreak. But what's funny is if I'm reading the

00:36:06.820 tea leaves, I'm looking to invest maybe in different big pharma companies. I think this health

00:36:11.260 secretary still hates the vaccine. If he hates the measles vaccines, he's a, he's a doofus

00:36:16.540 because the measles vaccine cured the measles. It's like, whatever it appears, they're gone.

00:36:21.820 At the very least, he is the greatest Kennedy. That's a cruel thing to say. I will say that the

00:36:29.080 make America healthy again movement, I think that it has some very good foundations. And then it also

00:36:34.960 has a little bit of kooky, uh, uh, silliness to it. I get the sense though, that RFK Jr. is one of

00:36:43.020 the most genuinely decent dudes in, in American politics. Really? I just think that he's a,

00:36:49.360 I think he actually likes people. Yeah. I think he actually likes the country. Yeah. I think he's,

00:36:54.680 I think he's intelligent. I think he's intelligent. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that he drove a chainsawed

00:37:00.540 off whale head from Kennebunkport to my hometown. Okay. That's the part I like. Yeah. I don't know.

00:37:05.480 There's a lot of stuff with the women. I'm not sure. Well, you can't judge a Kennedy.

00:37:10.780 That's only 50% of the world. If, if all of the women, uh, in his background are still alive and

00:37:16.580 none of them are submerged. We lost one, we lost one of them, didn't we? Yeah. That's a fair point. Yeah.

00:37:22.580 Hmm. We, uh, we also now, I actually, oh, I guess that's Usha Vance. I don't know who the

00:37:27.780 two other women are. But I want, you know, you know how they always introduce people that

00:37:33.080 they've helped, but I want one is for Trump to say, heal and for Walsh to stand up and go,

00:37:37.820 I can walk again. Shapiro can say like, that was better than Jesus. I'd never like that.

00:37:44.820 Oh man. Oh man. You can't say things like that. Oh, I'm sorry.

00:37:48.560 We've got just imagining what would be fun. Long speeches. So everyone's still mingling. This is

00:37:58.160 not kicking off for a little while now. No, no, no. This is mingle city. Yeah. Yeah. It is

00:38:03.440 interesting though, to think in, in recent memory, we've had a mixture of conservatives and liberals

00:38:09.800 up there on the dais. We've had at least one woman, you know, Nancy Pelosi ripping up the beach.

00:38:15.220 We've had Kamala Harris up there, you know, being Kamala. And now just a bunch of Republican dudes,

00:38:21.980 you know, just a bunch of normal looking Republican white dudes. Yeah.

00:38:26.900 Yeah. I like to think we're back. We're back. We're so back.

00:38:31.220 The New York Times today ran an article, Trump has bullying masculinity. I thought good.

00:38:37.300 A lot of people who need bullying in that town.

00:38:40.340 It'd be very interesting to see what the president chooses to cover in the speech. Obviously Donald Trump

00:38:44.840 has never given a short speech. Well, except his inaugural speech.

00:38:51.900 That's true. He was pushed inside. Yeah. That's right. But then in fairness,

00:38:56.040 he immediately went downstairs and gave the rest of the speech. Absolutely true. That's absolutely

00:39:00.840 right. And this one, you know, truly, Trump said we get tired of winning and I almost am tired of

00:39:08.060 winning. And I mean, in a very literal way, and I do have three kids, four and under, and I've been

00:39:11.380 traveling a lot. This news cycle is exhausting because Trump, whether you love him or hate him,

00:39:18.400 you have to admit he has notched so many victories in the first month in office.

00:39:23.460 Yeah. We're like 45 days or something into it. Less than that. Less than that. Yeah. And I, I,

00:39:28.120 I personally have not stopped grinning. I have been giddy and it's like, you know, sometimes Trump

00:39:32.540 annoys me. Sometimes he doesn't, but like, I think he's doing great. I love what he's doing. And you know,

00:39:37.680 it's funny, this needed to happen and there's going to be some ancillary damage. I mean, I,

00:39:43.360 I'm sorry for some of the people losing their jobs. Some of the people who lose their jobs are

00:39:46.520 going to be good people. Yeah. But this cancer of these agencies has to be ripped out. There's just,

00:39:51.160 just has to. And, and the president needs to be able to run the executive. The executive. I mean,

00:39:56.100 this is kind of basic stuff. So, you know, the Democrats are whining. I was on a liberal news show

00:40:02.020 recently. They said, oh, isn't there a threat to the separation of powers? And I thought, no, no,

00:40:06.280 there was a threat to the separation of powers. Trump is exerting actually his just authority.

00:40:11.400 I would like to hear a lawyer. I have not asked a really, a real constitutional lawyer,

00:40:15.220 how the legislature can create an agency in the executive branch that the executive can't destroy.

00:40:21.320 It seems to me if it's in the executive branch, the executive can do anything he wants with it.

00:40:25.080 Well, the trick of it is, and this is kind of what Chevron is ultimately,

00:40:29.680 was ultimately about is that it actually is the legislature ceding its authority

00:40:35.660 to regulate to executive agencies. But then the executive doesn't have control over.

00:40:43.760 No, they created a branch of government. They created a branch of government.

00:40:48.320 And all this stuff about Elon Musk wasn't elected, you know, when they have all of these people.

00:40:52.980 But the other crazy thing when they knock Elon and the Department of Government Efficiency,

00:40:57.900 Doge has a 100 year plus precedent that this began really under Wilson, Wilson, the Bureau of Efficiency,

00:41:05.000 that reformed the executive branch. After that, you had FDR, had the Brownlow Commission.

00:41:10.820 That created the executive office of the president. After FDR, Truman had the Hoover Commission.

00:41:16.300 Same thing, reorganized the executive. Reagan had the Grace Commission.

00:41:19.460 My favorite example, though, is more recently Al Gore as vice president.

00:41:23.140 I was just going to say that.

00:41:24.480 It was Al Gore in the 90s. I actually, oddly enough, was just sitting behind Al Gore on an airplane.

00:41:28.960 Well, apparently global warming doesn't pay anymore because he was sitting right in front of me, commercial.

00:41:32.660 But Al Gore in the 90s had the National Initiative for Reinventing Government.

00:41:37.340 Yeah.

00:41:37.760 And it fired a quarter million federal employees and it consolidated 800 agencies.

00:41:43.220 Yep.

00:41:43.460 Elon hasn't come anywhere close to that.

00:41:45.080 I know. He was the most successful. The only problem with him is a lot of it was gutting the military.

00:41:49.580 Yeah.

00:41:49.740 Because they thought the Cold War was over and they were going to get rid of all these soldiers.

00:41:52.980 It was actually a bad thing. But in terms of cutting government and cutting regulation, Gore was very successful.

00:41:59.300 Yeah.

00:41:59.600 You know, Clinton was a good president domestically. If you don't look at him overseas, he was actually not a bad person.

00:42:05.000 And if you don't look inside the office.

00:42:06.020 And you don't look inside his heart.

00:42:07.820 Never look inside.

00:42:08.460 Inside his black heart.

00:42:09.540 Yeah.

00:42:11.440 It is fun to think back to the 90s. As you know, I always say that the 90s were the peak of American civilization.

00:42:19.280 The 90s are like the new 50s. That's the new era that you look back to.

00:42:22.660 It was sort of nostalgically.

00:42:23.880 But it's so much better than the 50s. In the 50s, we were in the middle of this Cold War, the nuclear arms race, the space race.

00:42:30.800 Everyone had PTSD from the war.

00:42:33.180 In the 90s, we didn't have a single problem. In the 90s, we could ascend Bill Clinton twice to be president of the United States.

00:42:41.860 It didn't matter.

00:42:42.380 And it didn't matter.

00:42:43.400 It was actually pretty good.

00:42:44.360 In the 1990s, we could make Smash Mouth, a best-selling rock and roll band, singing songs about having your finger and your thumb in the shape of an L on your forehead, because literally nothing was wrong.

00:42:59.740 No, somebody once told me about that.

00:43:01.180 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:43:01.580 That was the great Onion headline when 9-11 happened. Americans yearned to care about stupid crap again.

00:43:08.080 Yeah, yeah, right, right.

00:43:09.760 That was the 90s, no question. I spent the 90s in England, so I missed the whole thing. It was great in England.

00:43:14.840 You missed the height of American power.

00:43:18.480 You missed the height of American power.

00:43:19.620 There is truth to that.

00:43:20.480 In the 1990s, Kurt Cobain killed himself to protest that nothing was wrong.

00:43:27.740 There was literally nothing wrong.

00:43:29.900 Now, is this? All right, now we have, ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States.

00:43:42.180 I mean, what a triumphant moment for Donald Trump.

00:43:45.000 No kidding, man.

00:43:49.620 This is like the greatest version of when Nigel Farage went to the European legislators.

00:43:57.820 And he said, you know, I came here a decade ago, and I said we were leaving the EU, and you all laughed at me.

00:44:03.180 Who's laughing now? This is Donald Trump's who's laughing now moment.

00:44:07.520 And in living memory, nothing like this has ever happened.

00:44:09.900 No, I don't think it's ever. I can't think of anything. Maybe Napoleon is skipping from that.

00:44:15.000 You know, my son has a little placemat with all the presidents on the dining room table, and he loves Trump.

00:44:24.440 He loves Johnson for some reason, but he loves Trump. He points to Trump better.

00:44:27.600 He loves impeached presidents.

00:44:31.320 Not that Johnson.

00:44:32.900 No, Lyndon Johnson.

00:44:33.980 But there's one president with two pictures on there.

00:44:38.520 And on the next edition of that placement...

00:44:40.480 Yeah, there'll be two.

00:44:41.200 There are going to be two.

00:44:42.220 And, you know, so Trump runs for president in 16, and he says, I'm going to be great, I'm going to be greatest president, so historic.

00:44:48.260 And he has now made that happen.

00:44:51.540 Yep.

00:44:52.240 He is now one of the most significant figures in American history.

00:44:55.920 No, there's no question about that.

00:45:01.640 And it's still, you know, it's up for grabs whether he's going to get away with doing what he has to do, which is killing the influence of the deep state.

00:45:10.540 Yeah.

00:45:11.340 But he did get kissed by Nancy Mace, which I think is...

00:45:14.200 That's my personal dream.

00:45:17.060 I'm a simple man.

00:45:18.060 Win the presidency. Win the presidency again.

00:45:21.660 Excludes from Nancy Mace.

00:45:25.920 I keep thinking that the sergeant-in-arms is Senator Bob Menendez.

00:45:37.940 And then I remember that Menendez is out.

00:45:39.680 Yeah, not going to the claim.

00:45:40.860 If he was, he's not anymore.

00:45:42.160 Yeah.

00:45:47.700 Is that Chip Roy?

00:45:50.060 I can't tell in the sea of...

00:45:51.960 Yeah, uh...

00:45:52.660 I don't think anyone else has such a handsome goatee.

00:45:56.420 True, you know, you make...

00:45:57.180 The United States Congress.

00:46:01.060 Oh, this is the joke.

00:46:04.660 Rubio nearby.

00:46:05.560 He's recovered from sinking into the couch during that Oval Office.

00:46:08.580 The old man, he looked like he was just going to see some steam behind him.

00:46:11.560 Yeah, yeah.

00:46:12.140 It was sort of like that meme of Homer Simpson backing into the bush.

00:46:14.880 He, by the way, is doing great.

00:46:16.360 He's doing a great job.

00:46:17.040 He's doing a great job.

00:46:20.680 Kavanaugh.

00:46:22.660 All the justices, he's saying all right.

00:46:24.320 Yeah.

00:46:29.620 You're welcome, Brett.

00:46:31.360 You're welcome, Amy.

00:46:33.460 Who are you?

00:46:34.480 Who are you?

00:46:45.300 The president greeting the Joint Chiefs?

00:46:47.200 Now, I couldn't quite see which justices made it.

00:46:52.320 I did not see Ketanji Jackson.

00:46:54.320 No.

00:46:54.900 I did not see Sotomayor or Kagan.

00:46:59.160 Now, I might have just missed him.

00:47:00.540 It's hard to see.

00:47:00.700 Yeah, it's hard to see.

00:47:01.220 The cameras are moving.

00:47:02.740 Scalia, famously, would not go to the State of the Union.

00:47:05.880 He went in the first few years, and then he said it was just a ridiculous political display,

00:47:10.160 and the justices really had no role there.

00:47:11.660 So, the president about to take the podium and address the Joint Session of Congress.

00:47:17.260 We'll cut to his remarks, and then we'll be back as soon as the speech is over to tell you what we think about it.

00:47:23.380 We'll see you then.

00:47:26.380 An amazing speech by Donald Trump to the Joint Session of Congress.

00:47:30.280 Maybe the longest joint session ever by a president of the United States.

00:47:34.660 I mean, if we think of it as a State of the Union address, even though technically it isn't one, you know, was this an hour 40, an hour 50 minutes?

00:47:41.580 It sounded like an hour 40.

00:47:42.820 Bill Clinton had some doozies in there, so I don't know if it was the longest ever.

00:47:46.500 But, you know, I was there at Biden's last year, and it felt long.

00:47:50.540 At 40 minutes or something?

00:47:51.780 Yeah, I mean, he might have pushed it closer to an hour, but it felt like two days.

00:47:55.820 And this one, I'm not saying there weren't moments that lulled compared to others, but I was engaged for about 92 percent of this.

00:48:04.980 I mean, this was an amazingly well-written and delivered speech.

00:48:09.560 Also, Trump set this trap for Democrats.

00:48:12.700 Really, the Democrats set the trap for themselves, and he just called their attention to it.

00:48:16.640 When he said, I could get up here, I could cure the worst diseases, I could do the greatest feats, and they would not stand up and applaud.

00:48:23.580 And at that point, they said, well, now we're really not going to stand up and applaud.

00:48:27.340 So, you know, just to use the most stirring example, in a night of amazing moments, the one that stole the show was that 13-year-old boy who's been fighting brain cancer.

00:48:37.440 DJ.

00:48:38.600 Special agent, Secret Service agent.

00:48:40.460 Yeah, exactly.

00:48:41.260 You know, he always wanted to be a cop, and he's now made a member of the U.S. Secret Service.

00:48:45.920 And you just think, man, if you can't agree in this country that that is a good thing, we have nothing in common.

00:48:54.360 We have nothing that we can agree on.

00:48:55.660 And the Democrats would not stand up.

00:48:57.900 Many of them would not even applaud a little kid fighting cancer.

00:49:02.660 You know, these are sick people.

00:49:04.980 It was an extraordinary speech.

00:49:07.360 And, you know, yeah, you can say it was too long, Trump thinks, to do that.

00:49:10.800 Guys, according to AI, which knows everything, the record belongs to Bill Clinton.

00:49:18.320 Yep, I knew it.

00:49:19.720 One hour, 28 minutes, 49 seconds.

00:49:23.060 Oh, wait.

00:49:24.180 I think there may be a new record.

00:49:25.520 We might have a new record.

00:49:26.100 Wow, okay, all right.

00:49:26.780 I think there may be a new record.

00:49:27.900 Wow.

00:49:28.480 But I've never, I don't think anyone has ever seen a president go in there as pugilistically as he did

00:49:33.740 and really take the Republicans, the Democrats, head-on like that.

00:49:38.360 And the Democrats, who came to start trouble, were bullied into silence, beaten into silence

00:49:45.420 by this one man who has just taken everything from them.

00:49:49.860 You know, false accusations, impeachments, an assassination attempt, you know, convictions

00:49:55.480 for felonies that don't even exist, that no one can name.

00:49:58.440 And he has beaten them every time, and he did it again.

00:50:01.280 He did it again.

00:50:02.000 And I just can't help thinking that, look, in the end, the proof is in the pudding.

00:50:07.060 He's going to have to pull it off.

00:50:08.160 He's going to have to improve the economy.

00:50:09.420 He's going to have to bring down prices.

00:50:10.840 He's going to have to resolve the debt and all those things and build our military back

00:50:14.160 because we're in big trouble with our military as China's military soars.

00:50:18.120 But in terms of a promise, in terms of looking at a president and thinking, yeah, that guy

00:50:22.640 could do that, that we now have a leader.

00:50:25.680 It's an extraordinary.

00:50:26.840 He's an extraordinary person in an extraordinary moment.

00:50:29.200 And, you know, he has this way of blowing away all the kind of picayune criticisms that

00:50:38.580 you can throw at him because it's been so long since anybody stood up and said, this

00:50:45.680 is a great country, and I will bring it to another level of greatness.

00:50:50.160 Who has said that besides Reagan, since Reagan?

00:50:52.480 Right.

00:50:52.680 Who has said, this is a wonderful, wonderful country, which it is, and I will make it in

00:50:57.300 and I will stand up into that tradition and move it to the next step.

00:51:00.940 It was an amazing thing.

00:51:02.400 And I don't know.

00:51:03.120 I can't help thinking.

00:51:04.160 I could be wrong.

00:51:05.140 You never know about this stuff.

00:51:06.100 But I can't help thinking that after the press fumes and screams and roars and shakes

00:51:10.480 their fist, the American people are just going to, you know, pushes his popularity up to

00:51:15.040 the next level.

00:51:15.560 You know what they won't be able to say?

00:51:16.880 They always say after Trump's speech is, it was dark.

00:51:19.820 Dark.

00:51:19.980 And the reality is, there was nothing dark about this speech.

00:51:24.200 Trump was having a great time.

00:51:26.220 Yeah, he looked like he was having fun.

00:51:27.200 And this, I think, really off-footed the Democrats.

00:51:30.020 Trump was having so much fun, and it was infectious, and the audience was having fun, and they did

00:51:36.340 not know how to react to that.

00:51:37.960 So I can't name even a tenth of the examples, but when Trump goes out there, he says, we killed

00:51:44.500 the top terrorist in Afghanistan.

00:51:46.780 The Democrats, not only do they not stand, they don't applaud.

00:51:49.580 So the Democrats formally come out in favor of the top terrorists in Afghanistan.

00:51:53.620 When Trump says, we're taking down the cartels, the Democrats don't applaud.

00:51:57.500 Democrats formally come out as pro-cartel.

00:51:59.940 That's a curious political choice.

00:52:01.380 Right.

00:52:01.460 When Trump announces that he brought an American citizen home from a Russian prison, they can't

00:52:06.900 even applaud that.

00:52:07.960 They booed the police.

00:52:08.960 They booed the police.

00:52:09.580 That's no surprise.

00:52:10.340 We've got to support the police, and they booed.

00:52:11.800 Yeah, but that moment has passed.

00:52:13.800 That moment when you could say, maybe one of the stupidest things any political party

00:52:19.000 has ever supported defunding the police.

00:52:22.160 That moment of hysteria and dizziness and vertigo has gone.

00:52:27.960 And now we know, we remember the obvious thing.

00:52:30.820 We need police because they're bad guys, and we need good guys to stop the bad guys.

00:52:34.240 And he supports them, and they're booing.

00:52:36.440 They're literally booing it.

00:52:37.380 They're not just not standing up.

00:52:38.420 They're literally booing them.

00:52:40.840 Unbelievable.

00:52:41.760 And you know, the Democrats, they do not know.

00:52:44.940 I said this to Megyn Kelly the other day.

00:52:46.980 They simply do not know what has happened.

00:52:49.560 And what has happened is that force field of protection that was given to them by our

00:52:54.740 rotten, corrupt, left-wing establishment press has been destroyed by people like us.

00:53:01.520 You know, and by Meghan, and by Joe Rogan, and by all those people, this new media has

00:53:05.960 wiped it away.

00:53:06.960 And you know, they're still there.

00:53:08.260 They still have a lot of reporting power.

00:53:10.000 But they do not have the power to lie without being exposed in real time, thanks to Elon Musk

00:53:16.320 to some degree on X, you know, that they can be exposed, and people see through them.

00:53:21.020 They don't get it.

00:53:22.060 They don't get that their force field is gone.

00:53:23.960 Should we talk about Al Green getting thrown out?

00:53:26.080 Not the good singer.

00:53:27.200 Yeah, I was going to say, I always liked Al Green.

00:53:29.520 You know, when he stood up there right at the beginning, I just thought, wow, this

00:53:33.640 is, he's a ridiculous person, but really, he was just, by degree, a little bit more extreme

00:53:40.640 than the Democrats.

00:53:41.540 Many of them were heckling him tonight.

00:53:43.160 And I thought, from the moment they started doing that, I said, this is a, it's inappropriate,

00:53:48.680 it's disreputable, but it's just a bad political choice.

00:53:52.540 I also think it was a bad choice of, of the people who were producing the actual video

00:53:59.040 broadcast of the speech, not to let us hear what he was saying.

00:54:02.100 Yeah.

00:54:02.780 Because he went to all that trouble, it was so disruptive, it shut down the speech, all

00:54:06.320 these things happened, and none of us know what on earth, I mean, he had a cane, I think

00:54:10.080 you made the point that it was like from the 1800s.

00:54:12.300 The caning of Sumner or something, yeah, yeah, right.

00:54:14.420 But I don't know what the guy was on about.

00:54:16.100 But you could tell, obviously, that Speaker Johnson was already prepared for this.

00:54:22.120 Yes.

00:54:22.320 He had all of the procedural order in front of him so that he'd be able to react because

00:54:28.020 the Democrats were forecasting that they were going to cause this kind of trouble for the

00:54:32.360 entire day leading into this.

00:54:33.420 And Al Green, I think, has already introduced articles of impeachment against Trump, and

00:54:37.260 he's tried to impeach him like 150 times already.

00:54:39.480 So he's a slightly more extreme version of the Democrats.

00:54:43.580 But all the heckling tonight, I just thought, you know, it was going to be a bad night for

00:54:48.940 the Democrats because they lost the Electoral College by a lot, they lost the popular vote

00:54:53.360 significantly, and for the first time in 20 years.

00:54:55.720 So it was just going to be a bad night.

00:54:57.180 And if they just sort of were even slightly normal, they might have gotten through it and

00:55:03.140 lived to fight another day.

00:55:04.420 But I don't think the median American or even the center-left American watching that display

00:55:09.840 tonight is taken aside.

00:55:11.000 It's a terrible night for the Democrats.

00:55:12.380 And truly, if they had just treated it like any 1990s State of the Union address, they

00:55:18.100 would have come out far ahead of what they would have.

00:55:19.360 Yeah, they could have walked out and just said, what a divisive speech.

00:55:21.720 That's right.

00:55:22.160 You know, he could have brought the country together and he didn't.

00:55:24.300 It would have been ineffective, but it would have been a lot more effective than this.

00:55:27.940 And because he knew it was coming, he brought that force of personality.

00:55:31.840 I've never seen it.

00:55:32.640 You know, he's just, he's like those old sheriffs in the movies who go out and stand up against

00:55:36.700 a lynch mob and just the force of their personality makes everybody kind of ashamed and

00:55:40.340 go home.

00:55:40.620 By the end of it, they weren't saying anything.

00:55:42.180 They were just sitting there.

00:55:43.200 They put down their stupid signs and all this.

00:55:45.440 What do they support?

00:55:46.700 You know, what do they support?

00:55:47.800 They're stuck.

00:55:48.440 They're stuck with this transgender garbage.

00:55:50.800 They're stuck with this racial garbage that people, you know, I think people on both sides

00:55:55.640 of the racial divide, if it still is a divide, I think they're sick of it.

00:55:58.840 You know, they know it doesn't work.

00:55:59.900 The DEI thing is disgraceful.

00:56:02.180 It is racism embedded in government like it hasn't been since the end of the Jim Crow laws.

00:56:06.820 It's all of it is so disgusting.

00:56:08.620 And I think that that that fog that people were in.

00:56:11.740 I mean, this is the thing that bothered me most about the Biden administration is I would

00:56:15.300 talk to normal, everyday people who were not particularly political.

00:56:19.440 And you would say, you know, sexually mutilating a child is a Nazi-like atrocity.

00:56:25.800 It's not like saying, oh, Donald Trump is Hitler.

00:56:28.300 It's actually like what Nazis did.

00:56:30.660 And they would kind of just gloss, you know, kind of go into this fugue state because we

00:56:35.280 were all in this bad dream that this was the way it was going to be, that this was normal,

00:56:39.140 that there was something right about this or defensible about it.

00:56:41.580 And I think people have woken up from that.

00:56:43.540 And he just took advantage of that and slammed them.

00:56:46.000 And one last thing.

00:56:47.240 He's right about Joe Biden.

00:56:48.660 Joe Biden was the worst president ever.

00:56:51.040 And the fact that he was protected by the press and Jake Zapper is writing a book, if I did

00:56:56.280 it, you know, it's like, yeah, no, I mean, they think we're going to forget, but we don't

00:57:02.160 have to forget anymore because this new media is here to remind us and to show us and bring

00:57:06.520 the results.

00:57:06.800 I think there was that look on some of the Democrat members faces tonight, which was

00:57:11.580 and not all of them, but some of them where they thought, you know, yikes, maybe just maybe

00:57:17.220 we shouldn't have raided this guy's house.

00:57:19.940 Like, you know, because Donald Trump woke up today and he chose violence.

00:57:25.480 He knew he came to this thing.

00:57:27.920 He said, you know, I've paid a lot and I nearly lost my life very nearly on one occasion

00:57:32.860 and almost on another occasion to be here.

00:57:35.220 I've given up a lot for this job and you people, you tried to throw me in prison four

00:57:41.200 times.

00:57:41.520 You tried to kick me off the ballot.

00:57:43.100 You tried to murder me.

00:57:44.080 You raided my home.

00:57:45.420 And guess what?

00:57:46.340 Guess who's laughing now?

00:57:47.680 Yeah.

00:57:47.940 Guess how did he even ask the question of the members?

00:57:50.520 How did that work out?

00:57:51.140 How did that work out for you?

00:57:52.840 You know, I mean, just a political vindication, the likes of which we have never seen in this

00:57:58.560 country before.

00:57:59.320 And you're right.

00:57:59.900 That line where he said, you know, I could do anything and you wouldn't stand up.

00:58:03.200 It actually kind of cut their legs off because because he started by saying, look, you know,

00:58:08.960 what would you applaud for?

00:58:10.140 What would you?

00:58:10.540 And they proved that he was right.

00:58:12.020 And so it just kind of took the legitimacy away from them.

00:58:15.320 It's kind of amazing.

00:58:16.240 And I did enjoy seeing Walsh and Shapiro in the in the gallery.

00:58:20.660 Do we have any video of Ben and Matt at the event?

00:58:23.960 Quite an amazing thing.

00:58:26.300 Yeah.

00:58:26.640 Oh, I believe we may have the Democrat response.

00:58:29.260 Let's let's hear what they're saying.

00:58:32.360 I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women's sports.

00:58:38.960 Here we are.

00:58:48.000 Here we are.

00:58:48.560 Here we are.

00:58:49.620 With our friend Riley Gaines.

00:58:50.940 That's Riley Gaines.

00:58:52.340 Hey, guys.

00:58:53.020 Can we get the Democrat response?

00:58:53.640 I believe we have the Democrat response.

00:58:54.860 Can we hear it?

00:58:57.860 I guess not.

00:58:59.860 You can find that sad sense of patriotism here in Wyandotte, Michigan, where I'm speaking

00:59:04.500 from tonight.

00:59:05.340 Is there a way we can hear this?

00:59:06.300 It's a working class town just south of Detroit.

00:59:08.900 President Trump and I both won here in November.

00:59:11.540 Well, the Democrats don't have anything to say.

00:59:12.320 It might not seem like it.

00:59:13.240 Maybe it's not.

00:59:13.980 Maybe it's not.

00:59:14.600 Maybe it's actually just in your mouth.

00:59:15.900 We actually cannot.

00:59:17.540 Places where people believe that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should do

00:59:21.940 well and your kids should do better.

00:59:23.900 You don't believe that.

00:59:24.540 It reminds me of how I grew up.

00:59:26.560 My dad was a lifelong Republican.

00:59:28.180 By mom, a lifelong Democrat.

00:59:29.880 What is your name?

00:59:30.180 But it was never a big deal.

00:59:31.240 Because we had shared values that were bigger than any one party.

00:59:37.120 We just went through another fraught election season.

00:59:40.940 Americans made it clear that prices are too high and that the government needs to be more

00:59:45.120 responsive to their needs.

00:59:47.340 America wants change.

00:59:48.940 And we don't want gangsters and we don't want you castrating little kids.

00:59:53.100 And we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country and as a democracy.

00:59:58.600 So that's what I'm going to lay out tonight.

01:00:01.240 Because whether you're from Wyandotte or Wichita, most Americans share three core beliefs.

01:00:06.800 That the middle class is the engine of our country.

01:00:09.780 That strong national security protects us from harm.

01:00:13.420 And that our democracy, no matter how messy, is unparalleled and worth fighting for.

01:00:19.600 Let's start with the economy.

01:00:21.920 Michigan literally invented the middle class.

01:00:24.120 The revolutionary idea that you can work at an auto plant and afford the power of a million.

01:00:27.900 There's a lab, I think, in Minneapolis.

01:00:30.740 Oh, that's not even Michigan.

01:00:31.800 Sorry, Detroit.

01:00:32.980 Because I'm pretty sure it was like Italy in the high middle class.

01:00:36.040 But it went in the middle.

01:00:36.880 I don't know.

01:00:37.620 The price of things we spend the most money on.

01:00:39.780 Groceries, housing, health care.

01:00:42.100 We need to make more things in America with good-paying union jobs and bring our supply chains back home from places like China.

01:00:47.740 She's right.

01:00:48.300 I'm voting for Trump.

01:00:51.280 I'd have to say she's doing a very good job.

01:00:53.480 But I don't, I actually don't understand how she is juxtaposing the Democrat platform from Trump's administration right now.

01:01:01.100 Look, the president talked a big game on the economy.

01:01:03.620 But it's always important to read the fine print.

01:01:06.880 So, do his plans actually help Americans get ahead?

01:01:11.220 Not even close.

01:01:13.080 President Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends.

01:01:18.160 He's on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America.

01:01:23.180 And to do that, he's going to make you pay in every part of your life.

01:01:28.540 Grocery and home prices are going up, not down.

01:01:31.440 And he hasn't laid out a credible plan to deal with either of those.

01:01:35.460 His tariffs on allies like Canada will raise prices on energy, lumber, and cars.

01:01:40.720 And start a trade war that will hurt manufacturing and farmers.

01:01:43.720 Your premiums and prescriptions will cost more because the math on his proposals doesn't work without going after your health care.

01:01:53.220 Meanwhile, for those keeping score, the national debt is going up, not down.

01:01:57.780 And if he's not careful, he could walk us right into a recession.

01:02:01.060 And one more thing.

01:02:04.020 In order to pay for his plan, he could very well come after your retirement.

01:02:08.200 The Social Security, Medicare...

01:02:10.060 Come on, they were talking about taking your savings, these guys.

01:02:13.480 The president claims he won't, but Elon Musk just called Social Security the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.

01:02:19.620 I mean, in fairness, it is the biggest...

01:02:20.680 But Trump won't touch it.

01:02:23.120 Is there anyone in America who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20-year-olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information, and your bank accounts?

01:02:33.620 No oversight, no protections against cyber attacks.

01:02:34.800 They're actually using the U.S. Digital Service, which is a branch of the federal government.

01:02:37.820 No card rails on what they do with your private data.

01:02:41.600 And 20-year-olds are the only people who know how to do this.

01:02:43.720 If it's my private data, why does the government have it?

01:02:45.840 Yeah, and all those people, what are they, like 100,000 people in the Treasury Department looking at you?

01:02:51.200 The mindless firing of people who work to protect our nuclear weapons, keep our planes from crashing, and conduct the research that finds the truth of the answer...

01:02:57.520 This is, by the way, what I mean by the press, right?

01:02:59.320 In the old days, the press would have said all this was true.

01:03:02.740 No CEO in America could do that without being similiarly fired.

01:03:05.200 Yeah, people would have actually, you know, thought that maybe it was true.

01:03:06.640 But now...

01:03:07.280 So we've talked about economic security.

01:03:09.560 How about national security?

01:03:10.260 She is quite good, whoever she is.

01:03:11.740 Let's start with Warner.

01:03:12.140 Actually, she's quite a good presenter.

01:03:13.580 They made a choice to seem normal.

01:03:15.840 They picked someone we never heard of.

01:03:17.880 Yes, that's true.

01:03:18.940 That's right.

01:03:19.080 She's a blue dog.

01:03:20.880 Period.

01:03:21.840 Democrats and Republicans should all be for that.

01:03:25.020 But securing the border without actually fixing our broken immigration system is dealing with the symptom and not the disease.

01:03:31.360 Oh, my Lord.

01:03:32.260 America is a nation of immigrants.

01:03:34.040 No, but yeah.

01:03:34.660 We need a functional system keyed to the needs of our economy.

01:03:37.660 But that's dealing with the diseases.

01:03:39.000 The symptom is all the illegals that are here.

01:03:41.120 Right.

01:03:41.200 So I look forward to the president's plan on that.

01:03:44.840 Because here's the thing.

01:03:46.520 Today's world is deeply interconnected.

01:03:49.340 Migration, cyber threats, AI, environmental destruction, terrorism.

01:03:53.660 Until we can solve it all, we can't solve any of it.

01:03:55.880 Yeah.

01:03:56.840 We need friends in all corners.

01:03:58.980 And our safety depends on it.

01:04:01.980 President Trump loves to say peace through strength.

01:04:04.260 That's actually a line he stole from Ronald Reagan.

01:04:07.680 But let me tell you, after the spectacle that just took place in the Oval Office last week, Reagan must be rolling in his grave.

01:04:15.620 Well, here's the thing.

01:04:16.620 We all want to end the war in Ukraine.

01:04:17.700 They should have edited this part of the speech.

01:04:20.800 The events in the Oval Office with Zelensky were very difficult to watch.

01:04:26.140 But in order to have a judgment about them, now you have to ignore the fact that he got the deal.

01:04:32.880 Well, Zelensky literally today sent him a letter and said, yeah, all right.

01:04:37.660 As we knew he would when we were watching, because he had no choice.

01:04:40.500 I swear, the Democrats told him he could go in there and the American people.

01:04:45.880 They'll greet him as a conqueror.

01:04:47.740 Yeah, greet him as a liberator.

01:04:48.700 A liberator, yeah.

01:04:49.560 Reagan and not Trump in office in the 1980s.

01:04:52.200 Trump would have lost us the Cold War.

01:04:55.580 Well, that is bad.

01:04:57.040 Now I'm sorry we elected him, because he would have lost us the Cold War.

01:04:59.400 He doesn't believe we're an exceptional nation.

01:05:01.800 He would have lost World War II.

01:05:02.800 He would have lost the Spanish-American War.

01:05:04.780 He would have.

01:05:06.420 But I stand with the majority of Americans.

01:05:08.440 I stand with the Rough Riders.

01:05:11.120 Unparalleled.

01:05:12.180 And I would rather have American leadership over Chinese or Russian leadership any day of the week.

01:05:17.580 Oh, wow.

01:05:18.260 Me too.

01:05:18.860 Because for generations, America has offered something better.

01:05:22.620 Our security and our prosperity, yes.

01:05:24.540 But our democracy, our very system of government, has been the aspiration of the world.

01:05:29.400 And right now, it's at risk.

01:05:32.320 It's at risk when the president decides you can pick and choose what rules you want to follow,

01:05:37.040 when he ignores court orders and the Constitution itself,

01:05:40.380 or when elected leaders stand by and just let it happen.

01:05:44.220 But it's also at risk when the president pits Americans against each other,

01:05:49.560 when he demonizes those who are different and tells certain people they shouldn't be included.

01:05:54.400 Are you doubling down on trans?

01:05:55.920 Tell me you are.

01:05:56.560 Because America is not just a patch of land between two oceans.

01:05:59.920 We are more than that.

01:06:02.040 Generations have fought and died to secure the fundamental rights that define us.

01:06:06.680 Those rights and the fight for them make us who we are.

01:06:08.520 This woman has secured her career if there's an opening of the view.

01:06:11.240 We're a nation of strivers, risk-takers, innovators.

01:06:14.420 And we are never satisfied.

01:06:16.280 I don't know. She's too good for the view.

01:06:17.360 That is America's support.

01:06:17.980 I'm actually somewhat impressed with her.

01:06:20.360 I've lived and worked in many countries.

01:06:22.720 I've seen democracies flicker out.

01:06:25.060 I've seen what life is like when a government is rigged.

01:06:28.340 You can't open a business without paying off a corrupt official.

01:06:31.160 You can't criticize the guys in charge without getting a knock at the door in the middle of the room.

01:06:36.180 That's why I'm announcing tonight.

01:06:37.140 I'm becoming a Republican.

01:06:39.540 The kind of countries that have ballot drop boxes.

01:06:42.080 It's all over unsupervised.

01:06:44.580 Widespread mail-in ballots contrary to the state constitution.

01:06:46.780 You don't even need your identification to vote.

01:06:49.260 I know a lot of you have been asking that question.

01:06:52.340 First, don't tune out.

01:06:54.760 It's easy to be exhausted.

01:06:56.600 All right, I'm officially saying let's tune out.

01:06:59.460 I'm not joking, Matthew.

01:07:00.940 As soon as she said we can't tune out, I'm out.

01:07:03.900 Game over.

01:07:04.540 However, I will say, I have truly, I'm not, this is not a joke.

01:07:08.580 I do not know who this human is.

01:07:09.960 I get the sense that she's from Michigan.

01:07:12.340 I think this is maybe one of the best responses that I've ever seen.

01:07:15.080 Consider this indictment of the Democrat Party.

01:07:17.880 They had to find someone who was reasonably normal.

01:07:21.560 And they scoured.

01:07:23.620 Anyone we've ever heard of.

01:07:24.840 Anyone we've ever heard of.

01:07:26.740 And anyone that we might have even seen on TV one time.

01:07:30.260 Yes.

01:07:30.760 And they came up with the dog catcher from Michigan or whatever.

01:07:34.000 I have no clue what position she awkwardly in.

01:07:36.520 Her name, according to the control booth, is Alyssa Slotkin.

01:07:39.400 Oh, it's Slotkin.

01:07:40.460 Actually, she is like a name.

01:07:41.800 She ran, you know, she's actually, she is a member of the Senate.

01:07:44.900 I didn't even recognize her, though.

01:07:46.600 Is she a member of the Senate?

01:07:48.080 Yeah, she.

01:07:48.680 I feel bad about this.

01:07:49.680 Slotkin ran.

01:07:50.440 I don't feel bad at all.

01:07:51.640 She, because, also, that was a close race, and that was very frustrating, this cycle.

01:07:55.600 But, you know, it is funny, because, like, this woman, so she's relatively new.

01:08:00.000 That is also why people don't, like, recognize her.

01:08:02.040 She's kind of new to her job.

01:08:03.220 And they do try to pick fresh faces.

01:08:05.940 Yeah.

01:08:06.120 You know, they did it with Katie Britt last year for the Republicans.

01:08:09.340 And this is the worst job in politics.

01:08:11.600 Yeah, it's awful.

01:08:12.440 You never do it right.

01:08:13.200 That's why I'm quite impressed with her.

01:08:14.880 Yeah.

01:08:15.220 I'm also, it's a very moderate speech.

01:08:17.760 Yes.

01:08:18.000 It's so moderate, in fact, that it is actually difficult to distinguish most of what she

01:08:21.960 just said from what Trump actually said.

01:08:23.740 That's what I mean.

01:08:25.000 She's actually attacking the Democrats' policies and pretending they're the Republicans' policies.

01:08:30.540 Yeah, that's exactly right.

01:08:32.460 Yeah.

01:08:33.320 You know, Pavel, can you please bring in the basket?

01:08:37.140 A basket?

01:08:37.880 Yeah.

01:08:40.840 Oh, my.

01:08:41.680 Holy angel of mercy.

01:08:44.100 What on earth is that?

01:08:45.480 That is a lot of fruit.

01:08:47.120 I'll say.

01:08:47.680 I had to get the strongest man on this property to even get that thing out there.

01:08:53.000 Pavel, is it heavy?

01:08:54.780 Yeah.

01:08:56.780 Can you imagine?

01:08:58.080 Can you imagine?

01:08:59.440 I cannot imagine.

01:09:00.420 Having to eat all of that fruit in one day.

01:09:04.160 What about every single day?

01:09:06.300 How many Polish men would we go through?

01:09:08.920 That would be absurd.

01:09:10.660 You want to get all of that nutrition, but you don't want to be sickeningly stuffed with

01:09:16.020 fruit or breaking the bank on an absurdly large basket of healthy food or taking the

01:09:22.240 time it would take to eat everything in that basket.

01:09:24.220 Let me introduce to you balance of nature.

01:09:27.880 With balance of nature, fruits and veggies, there's never been a more convenient dietary

01:09:32.860 supplement to ensure you get a wide variety of fruits and vegetables daily.

01:09:36.540 31 fruits and veggies, to be exact.

01:09:39.260 Drew, can you eat 31 fruits and veggies every day?

01:09:42.160 You're damn straight I can.

01:09:43.960 I'm not a wimp like you, but I prefer not to.

01:09:47.060 Ha ha, because it sounds miserable and it drips in my beard.

01:09:51.600 But I can take one of these.

01:09:55.280 Balance of nature takes fruits and vegetables, freeze dries them, and turns them into powdered

01:10:00.060 capsules.

01:10:00.820 It sounds painful, but take it from me, it is.

01:10:03.880 Take balance of nature, fruits and veggies every day, and your body will do the rest.

01:10:09.080 I don't want to see that.

01:10:09.840 Do that in the privacy of your own home.

01:10:12.020 Go to balanceofnature.com and use promo code BACKSTAGE for 35% off your first order as a

01:10:18.520 preferred customer.

01:10:19.380 Plus, get a free bottle of fiber and spice.

01:10:21.320 That's balanceofnature.com, promo code BACKSTAGE.

01:10:26.300 Ow!

01:10:26.880 That hurt!

01:10:27.640 Because you don't take a balance of nature.

01:10:28.920 I'm not healthy enough.

01:10:29.940 You're a weakling, that's it.

01:10:31.280 God, I miss Shapiro.

01:10:35.140 That was quite a display, guys.

01:10:36.760 So are we cutting back to the trash collector from Michigan?

01:10:40.780 No, no, no.

01:10:41.860 The mayor of political Michigan?

01:10:43.240 I'm not joking, I have a monitor here, and I can see the audience numbers beginning to plummet.

01:10:47.500 The minute she was speaking.

01:10:48.640 Yeah, you know.

01:10:49.620 But it was, look.

01:10:50.580 We had just heard that speech.

01:10:51.960 It was a repeat.

01:10:52.700 Yeah.

01:10:53.440 So where is Shapiro and Walsh?

01:10:55.940 They're out drinking with the Senate.

01:10:57.420 Difficult to get out of the House chamber, but they are.

01:11:01.560 We do think there's some chance that they will make it back to Speaker Johnson's office.

01:11:04.880 I think it's possible.

01:11:07.020 Last year, I was up there, I was actually sitting right behind Tennessee Governor Bill Lee.

01:11:12.300 And Bill Lee, if you're a governor, it turns out you get to keep your cell phone during the State of the Union.

01:11:17.200 Most people do not.

01:11:17.900 And you get a heads up from Secret Service before the president's about to wrap so you can get out of there before they lock you down.

01:11:26.260 So they lock you down in the House chamber, and you just kind of sit there and schmooze with the people to your right and left.

01:11:33.420 But what's a little weird, not if you're sitting, as Ben and Matt were, with Riley in the Speaker's gallery, but when you're sitting just with the hoi polloi, with the regular, you know, members' guests, you're often sitting next to Democrats.

01:11:47.080 So, you know, some people who might be fuming about the speech or, you know, it's a little bit awkward.

01:11:51.920 But you make small talk.

01:11:53.180 And, you know, it takes something like half an hour to get out of there.

01:11:55.440 Now, happily, because, you know, now the Republicans are back in charge in D.C., I think Ben and Matt will be able to broadcast from the Capitol.

01:12:04.100 So it won't take them five hours to get out of there, and we might be able to hear what it was like in the room.

01:12:08.980 But of all the State of the Unions that I've watched, one in person, all of the rest of them on television, I think that was the best one I've ever seen.

01:12:18.360 Yeah, I have to say, it was a bit rambling in places, as Trump speeches can sometimes be, and went longer than it needed to, as Trump speeches almost always do.

01:12:31.420 He's sort of like the modern Martin Scorsese of speech makers.

01:12:34.960 You're like, somewhere in there, there was a perfectly good 90-minute...

01:12:38.440 The greatest master of this, of our generation.

01:12:41.640 However, it was the most fun State of the Union address I've ever seen.

01:12:46.400 No question.

01:12:46.840 He was there, it was triumphant, and you said it before, he was enjoying himself.

01:12:51.760 You know, he had some great lines, too.

01:12:53.680 I mean, what a mic drop moment to be able to say, oh yeah, and Zelensky just called and wants me to make a peace deal with Russia.

01:13:00.640 That's a...

01:13:02.740 One week ago, people were essentially saying the world order was over.

01:13:07.000 Yeah.

01:13:07.380 There's going to be a unified European army, and now he's just getting exactly what he wants.

01:13:12.080 Less than one week ago, Friday afternoon.

01:13:14.500 Friday afternoon.

01:13:14.980 And you know, when he said to Zelensky, you don't have the cards, that was true.

01:13:19.140 Yeah.

01:13:19.280 You know, I mean, you knew that was true when he was saying it.

01:13:21.880 And it really, nobody really asked, like, what was Zelensky thinking?

01:13:26.040 You know, even if, you know, there was this idea that it had been some kind of setup that they were waiting to line and wait for him.

01:13:31.800 But what did Trump have to gain from that?

01:13:33.160 Nothing.

01:13:33.420 Where Zelensky spent 40 minutes kind of sighing and rolling his eyes and shaking his head and needling him.

01:13:38.720 Provoking J.D.

01:13:39.800 He started that part.

01:13:41.120 And Trump remained very gracious to him until that moment when Zelensky said, you are going to feel this.

01:13:47.360 You don't feel it now.

01:13:48.500 And he was like, don't tell me.

01:13:49.840 And I was kind of like, ooh, you know, that was a mistake.

01:13:53.520 There are a couple theories on it.

01:13:54.740 One is that Zelensky wanted there to be a tense moment to spur Europe to greater aid because he kind of knew that Trump wanted a peace deal.

01:14:02.780 And if Trump negotiates a peace deal with Putin, then that's going to involve concessions from Ukraine.

01:14:06.760 Yeah.

01:14:06.880 And Zelensky doesn't want that.

01:14:08.780 The other theory that was going around some of the press was that Zelensky was talking to some of his friends from the past Democrat administrations,

01:14:16.820 many of whom have been integral in American policy in Ukraine going back to 2014 even,

01:14:21.680 and that maybe they encouraged him not to play nice with Trump.

01:14:25.920 And so then I have this image afterward of, you know, Zelensky running up to Victoria Nuland like,

01:14:31.720 I will kill you.

01:14:32.500 You are going to make me dead.

01:14:34.960 What did you do to me, woman?

01:14:36.880 And so clearly within 48 hours or something, he's back on the horn to the White House and it looks like they have a deal.

01:14:43.140 That was clearly a mistake.

01:14:44.520 And, you know, the thing is, no matter if Biden had negotiated this deal, if that woman who ran for, I can't remember her name,

01:14:51.680 had, you know, oh, yeah, Kamala something.

01:14:53.540 Oh, yeah.

01:14:54.280 I can't remember.

01:14:54.740 I forgot.

01:14:55.280 But if she had negotiated this deal, same thing would have happened.

01:14:57.420 Putin would have gotten some of the stuff that he'd already stomped on, and they just would have had to settle for that.

01:15:02.960 There was never going to be, you know, the Ukrainians were never marching on Moscow.

01:15:07.100 That was not something.

01:15:08.820 I find it distasteful that some on the American right now are playing the Putin is the great defender of Christendom.

01:15:15.600 I hate that.

01:15:16.140 It's absolute nonsense.

01:15:17.460 Vladimir Putin is the aggressor in the war.

01:15:19.060 He invaded a sovereign nation in Ukraine.

01:15:21.600 He has missiles pointed at us.

01:15:23.020 He has nuclear missiles pointed at us right now.

01:15:25.220 He's not our friend.

01:15:26.620 But Ukraine can't win this war.

01:15:28.080 Right.

01:15:28.360 Yeah, that's right.

01:15:29.040 That can't be done.

01:15:29.620 The other, I know we're not allowed to have any historical nuance or anything in here, but some of the territories that we're talking about, most notably Crimea, have been contested for millennia, many centuries at this point,

01:15:42.940 and have historically been part of Russia and have been considered very important to Russia.

01:15:47.240 And so, like, I know Americans decide they're going to become experts on every issue overnight, but this is a complex issue.

01:15:54.380 And that was kind of Trump's point in the Oval Office is, you know, look, we're going to have to come to a deal here.

01:16:00.580 Unless you want to be like the Democrats and just have it be a meat grinder forever with no end in sight.

01:16:04.720 But if you are going to have a deal, then you need to figure out what these strategic objectives are and the interests and where is it there?

01:16:13.220 It's also different in kind than any war that we've seen in our lifetime.

01:16:18.600 I'm not making an age joke, but you actually have seen things like this.

01:16:21.860 Michael and I have not.

01:16:23.320 Yeah.

01:16:23.640 This is a war where the casualties are in the seven figures.

01:16:31.040 Yeah, yeah.

01:16:31.440 You know, America lost something like 5,000 troops in the totality of the war on terror.

01:16:39.160 You're talking about hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have died in the last three years in this war.

01:16:46.060 When we say meat grinder, we're not being rhetorical.

01:16:49.500 It's a World War I kind of stalemate that they're just killing each other.

01:16:53.540 And the other thing about it is, you know, you don't have to make excuses for Putin or say that it's a good thing that he invaded.

01:17:00.660 To understand that in these situations, power matters.

01:17:04.560 Yes.

01:17:04.680 And who is in power matters.

01:17:06.620 And we're not going in there.

01:17:07.800 We're not putting boots on the ground.

01:17:08.900 America, and this is the other thing.

01:17:11.080 Because the Putin apologists make of him this larger-than-life figure and they want to say, well, America couldn't beat Putin.

01:17:18.420 Of course America could beat Putin.

01:17:19.440 Yeah, yeah.

01:17:20.260 Europe could beat Putin if they set their mind to it.

01:17:22.320 But Europe and America would destroy Putin at risk of nuclear war.

01:17:27.080 Yeah, yeah.

01:17:27.620 Which is why it will not happen.

01:17:29.640 It will not happen because it cannot happen.

01:17:32.380 Yeah.

01:17:32.740 And just on a, I don't think this is really cynical, but on a realistic level, China is the threat to America.

01:17:39.960 We are not under threat from Russia.

01:17:41.680 China is the threat.

01:17:42.820 China and Russia have formed an alliance.

01:17:44.620 This is a way of breaking that alliance.

01:17:46.260 It is better for Putin to be friends with us who will not try to devour him than friends with China who will devour him last.

01:17:52.440 And Putin knows that.

01:17:53.520 He knows when he's not looking at Xi and thinking he's a great guy.

01:17:56.100 I look into his eyes and see his soul and he's going to be good to me.

01:17:59.400 He knows that the price of an alliance with China is Russia ultimately and he won't have to pay that price to us.

01:18:06.080 And so if we separate them and we have to make a little bit nice to him, you know, it's distasteful.

01:18:10.420 I think it is distasteful.

01:18:11.960 But it may just be necessary because we have to be ready for China.

01:18:15.160 And that's the one thing I think is in Trump's mind in a way that it's not in the minds of our intelligence community.

01:18:20.780 And I don't know why it's not, but it's not.

01:18:23.000 Maybe because the head of our intelligence is named Heinz Eichel.

01:18:25.900 I don't know.

01:18:27.900 The one thing that I found disappointing in the foreign policy part of the president's speech is that he didn't talk about the new Trumpistan colony in what was formerly the Gaza Strip.

01:18:39.320 I wanted at least three paragraphs.

01:18:41.440 The Gaza.

01:18:43.380 The Gaza.

01:18:43.780 The Gaza International Hotel and Casino.

01:18:47.200 You know, part of that, when that announcement came out, everyone lost their minds, as is often the case when President Trump makes big declarations.

01:18:54.560 And some people still haven't learned it 10 years into this thing.

01:18:58.180 But, you know, when Trump throws something out there, he is often negotiating or speaking past the sale to you.

01:19:05.200 Scott Adams' phrase.

01:19:05.880 And so, in this case, why didn't he bring it up?

01:19:09.660 Because he, well, just look at the news today of the Arab states coming in and saying, no, no, no, hold on.

01:19:14.980 We don't want you.

01:19:15.940 Maybe we'll be involved in this.

01:19:17.500 And maybe that sort of thing is what Trump was actually after.

01:19:19.740 Obviously, he was.

01:19:20.860 And he was also after putting paid to the two-state solution, which is the dumbest idea that people have clung to for decades.

01:19:28.960 You know, it's like one state called Israel, another state that wants to kill Israel.

01:19:32.120 It'll be perfect.

01:19:32.660 And I think he just avoided that exactly for what you said.

01:19:37.960 He had negotiated them into a position, which we said at the beginning, where he would be able to say to them, okay, what's your idea?

01:19:43.880 You don't want me to build my hotel in Gaza.

01:19:45.600 What's your idea?

01:19:46.400 And now there's talk.

01:19:46.840 Because they were in sort of a stalemate of these two notions, and no one was moving.

01:19:51.060 And then Trump just came in and dropped this wild idea.

01:19:55.260 And everyone sort of just stopped and said, wait, what?

01:19:57.040 Wait, hold on.

01:19:57.600 BB Netanyahu when he announced it.

01:19:58.940 Wait, hold on.

01:20:00.120 Yeah.

01:20:00.660 Did I catch that right?

01:20:01.400 We didn't talk about this.

01:20:03.960 I mean, I was a little surprised he didn't mention it, only because, as we knew they would, Hamas is violating, you know, not going forward with the ceasefire and has not returned all the hostages.

01:20:14.220 And I assume Israel is going to go back in there and kick some ass.

01:20:17.540 And I think that he probably didn't want to seem to have incited it.

01:20:21.180 Right.

01:20:21.880 Though he's going to support it, I suspect.

01:20:23.680 He's going to support it.

01:20:24.580 And it is, at this point, it's a fait accompli.

01:20:27.300 Of course, Israel is going back into the Gaza Strip.

01:20:29.200 I thought it was, you know, it's funny, at the inaugural ball that we were at, they interviewed me on the red carpet and they asked me what I thought of the deal.

01:20:37.080 And I said, well, the deal is terrible, but we know that Hamas is going to break it and we know that Trump is going to support them when they go back in.

01:20:42.320 Right.

01:20:42.480 That was kind of the setup of the deal, that it was always going to come to this, you know.

01:20:46.040 But he got the win that he needed, you know, so he could, he didn't stand in the way of a ceasefire, which would have been bad for him.

01:20:53.480 And it would have been bad for everybody.

01:20:55.100 But he's now going to support.

01:20:56.580 Also, in terms of foreign policy, he presented tariffs in a way that was digestible and common sense to people.

01:21:03.380 First of all, I mean, I've been advocating throughout the campaign that really the key phrase here has got to be common sense.

01:21:10.340 That's why, I mean, and I'm not the first to notice it.

01:21:12.820 It goes back to Antonio Gramsci and many other political thinkers.

01:21:16.160 But, you know, he held on to that.

01:21:18.020 And so when we're talking about free trade or tariff theory or these kind of complex economic concepts,

01:21:25.060 it's a little difficult for any, even someone who's studied economics to really grasp what he's talking about.

01:21:30.740 And so when he says, look, you guys charge us a lot of money for our products,

01:21:35.900 but you expect us not to charge you a lot of money when you bring your products into our market,

01:21:41.020 which is much more valuable, that's not going to happen.

01:21:43.580 We're going to have tariff parity.

01:21:45.140 Yeah.

01:21:45.400 Okay.

01:21:45.580 And if we get into a trade war, I promise you we're going to win.

01:21:48.900 Yeah.

01:21:49.060 That is really clear, common sense thinking that doesn't require a degree in economics.

01:21:53.360 I have to say, I am maybe the only person in America who does not know what the result of the tariffs will be

01:21:58.080 and will openly admit it, but that did make sense to me.

01:22:00.660 You know, I mean, I thought like that.

01:22:01.780 I thought it was a sensible enough rhetorical argument for something that I think is somewhat nonsensical in practice.

01:22:08.880 I'm completely against the tariffs.

01:22:10.640 I think using tariffs as a form of leverage to get us better trade deals than we might otherwise have,

01:22:15.900 which we've seen President Trump do in the past, is a perfectly good thing to do.

01:22:19.740 But free trade has been very good for America, and the dollar being the standard currency, basically, of all global trade.

01:22:27.300 Yeah, that's been good for us.

01:22:28.320 It is very, very good for us, and that's a thing that you do not want to lose and that you put at risk with this tariff.

01:22:34.300 But globalist trade has not been so good for us.

01:22:37.080 It's not been good for everyone.

01:22:37.880 Yeah, the idea that the center of the country is going to be gutted of jobs, but your iPhone is going to cost less because it's made by slave labor,

01:22:45.340 has not really worked out for us.

01:22:47.180 He's right.

01:22:48.220 Remember, this is why his first inaugural speech was called Dark, because he talked about American carnage.

01:22:52.920 I was out there during the Biden administration and all the boarded shops and all the people out of work and all the closed factories.

01:22:59.020 It was heartbreaking.

01:22:59.880 And I think he was right about that.

01:23:01.960 So if he can bring America back to the place where we support American goods and still can have free trade,

01:23:08.520 I mean, that would be better than the globalist trade that we were dealing with.

01:23:11.720 Well, I think that if we're going to talk about things that none of us understand,

01:23:14.500 we should bring someone on who doesn't understand some of them, and that is Matt Walsh.

01:23:19.040 And also Ben Shapiro.

01:23:20.680 You guys are at the Capitol.

01:23:22.240 What was the energy like in the room?

01:23:23.520 I mean, it was pretty outstanding from where we were sitting.

01:23:26.260 I mean, right now we're just wondering why we're here, because, I mean, well, we're exhausted.

01:23:29.260 I mean, it's been a very, very long evening.

01:23:32.000 And my annoyance is you sent the two most easily annoyed people in America to this.

01:23:39.220 And now you're bringing us back, and it's 11.35 at night.

01:23:44.840 I have not clapped that much, like, in total in my entire life as I did in the room.

01:23:52.920 So it's a lot of clapping.

01:23:54.080 I will say that I thought it was a great speech.

01:23:57.600 But for me, unfortunately, being in the room, even though it was a really good speech,

01:24:03.340 the big takeaway is just the Democrats, and I'm sure you guys have covered it.

01:24:07.660 But the performance by the Democrats, I thought, was just disgraceful and ridiculous.

01:24:13.760 And being in the room, I mean, I don't know how much you pick up on camera.

01:24:17.040 I'm sure the one guy standing up and refusing to leave, that certainly made it in.

01:24:20.520 But just constant comments, the little stunts.

01:24:24.940 They're looking down at their phone.

01:24:27.360 You know, I had a woman who was right in front of me down below who was, like, taking angry

01:24:30.800 selfies of herself and texting them to her friend.

01:24:32.920 I could see that happening.

01:24:34.280 So this is what the lawmakers were busy doing.

01:24:37.100 Matt, did you photobomb any of the selfies for this Democrat woman's friend?

01:24:40.860 I got in one of them.

01:24:44.580 I got in one of her that she sent to a friend.

01:24:47.180 But to me, the thing that kind of tells you everything you need to know is that the Democrats

01:24:53.700 sat on their hands and did not clap anything.

01:24:56.420 They didn't clap a child cancer survivor.

01:24:59.700 They didn't clap planting a flag on Mars.

01:25:02.900 They didn't clap protecting Americans from crime, killing terrorists and all of that.

01:25:07.780 The only thing they clapped for, the only thing that they clapped for was Ukraine.

01:25:12.320 That was the one single applause line from the Democrats.

01:25:15.680 And I think that that sort of tells you everything you need to know about the Democrat Party,

01:25:19.680 which is just nothing but a...

01:25:21.020 They didn't even clap for their own vote.

01:25:22.320 There was one point when Trump thanked them for voting for Marco Rubio for Secretary of

01:25:25.100 State.

01:25:25.260 They didn't even clap for that.

01:25:26.120 I mean, it really was an impressive show.

01:25:28.100 And they kind of were gradually walking out.

01:25:30.440 Like, you could see Bernie Sanders maybe 15, 20 minutes before the end.

01:25:33.520 He gets up and he walks out.

01:25:34.700 You can see a bunch of the Democratic Congress people starting to file out kind of slowly

01:25:38.480 during the actual event.

01:25:41.360 You know, President Trump's energy was really good.

01:25:43.300 I mean, President Trump is happy to be there.

01:25:45.380 He's in a very good mood.

01:25:46.920 Obviously, Republicans love him.

01:25:48.420 They were really pumped.

01:25:50.120 They were really ready to go.

01:25:51.140 A lot of enthusiasm.

01:25:52.620 And I got to tell you, the Democrats felt dead.

01:25:54.680 They felt dead.

01:25:55.260 I mean, it felt like the air had been sucked out of their side of the room, not just because

01:25:57.640 they were depressed because they lost, but also because there's just no juice to the

01:26:00.480 resistance anymore.

01:26:01.220 It feels as though they have kind of lost their points of opposition.

01:26:05.020 And so they're kind of sitting there in weirdly disparate fashion with signs that read different

01:26:10.800 things and they're holding them up.

01:26:12.400 And we're supposed to take away from that that they're unified.

01:26:15.280 The only points of unity they seem to be able to find in opposition to President Trump

01:26:18.400 were at one point they tried to start a chant on January 6th, which is so played out

01:26:21.720 as to be meaningless.

01:26:22.480 Oh, my gosh.

01:26:23.080 And then again, when they applauded Ukraine, which again, was less about their love of

01:26:28.000 Ukraine and much more about their belief that President Trump is a cast paw of Vladimir

01:26:31.140 Putin.

01:26:32.060 So as far as the speech itself, I think that it was very clear that President Trump was

01:26:37.000 focusing in on two really, really big themes, aside from the tariffs, which I heard you guys

01:26:41.820 talking about.

01:26:43.120 The two big themes that he kept coming back to, and he actually did come back to them

01:26:45.620 multiple times.

01:26:46.520 He actually would go away from them and then come back to them again.

01:26:48.660 Illegal immigration.

01:26:49.440 He beat the border to death tonight.

01:26:50.820 And I think that that was actually a really smart strategy because it is the greatest

01:26:54.480 single success of the administration so far.

01:26:57.220 I mean, we were talking to Tom Homan earlier.

01:26:58.980 The stats that he was citing are extraordinary.

01:27:01.200 And when President Trump brought that up and talked repeatedly about the damage that criminal

01:27:05.300 illegal immigrants have done in the country, and he kept going back to that, that is a

01:27:09.100 huge issue.

01:27:09.740 It is an entire country moving issue.

01:27:12.020 And then the other big issue was, of course, one that is all near and dear to our hearts.

01:27:15.080 I mean, obviously, we all care about illegal immigration, but the one that maybe the Daily

01:27:17.640 Wire has taken the lead on as a company more than any other company in America

01:27:20.360 is the trans issue.

01:27:21.500 President Trump spoke about it.

01:27:23.420 He left it.

01:27:24.200 He came back to it.

01:27:25.360 He came back to it repeatedly.

01:27:27.100 And we had the pleasure, Matt and I, of sitting next to Riley Gaines, who, of course, has also

01:27:30.180 been a big sort of character in pushing forward the notion that traditional sex actually is

01:27:36.200 the metric for how we measure human beings in terms of, for example, sports.

01:27:40.520 And the energy in the room for those two issues was extremely high.

01:27:44.320 He gave what I thought was properly short-triff to foreign policy, actually, because he is a

01:27:48.100 domestic policy president.

01:27:49.460 He said, we're going to strengthen the military.

01:27:50.860 We're going to rebuild our shipping.

01:27:53.040 We're going to build Golden Dome, which is a take on Iron Dome, even though Iron Dome,

01:27:57.100 for the record, is actually a system for shooting down short-range rockets.

01:28:00.200 And Golden Dome would be presumably a large missile defense system designed for shooting

01:28:03.540 down, say, supersonic, sort of low-altitude Chinese missiles.

01:28:09.820 But same difference.

01:28:11.560 He kind of talked about that.

01:28:12.540 But it was all domestically focused, and I think that's totally appropriate for a president

01:28:16.340 who is, in fact, domestically focused.

01:28:18.540 And I know you guys were talking about the tariffs.

01:28:20.640 It's interesting to see how he's playing the tariffs, and it'll be interesting to see

01:28:23.140 how they materialize.

01:28:23.880 The big question going forward, I think, for both the economy and for President Trump

01:28:26.600 is whether the key word in the phrase reciprocal tariff is reciprocal or tariff.

01:28:32.360 So if the key word there is reciprocal, I think that what he's going to do is what, Jeremy,

01:28:36.920 you were talking about, leverage other countries to lower their own tariffs in order so that

01:28:40.860 we can get our tariffs lower, and then more free trade for everyone, yay, hooray.

01:28:44.900 If the key word there is tariff and not reciprocal, meaning what he actually just likes are the

01:28:49.100 tariffs, economic theory and history tell that that is a dicey proposition.

01:28:55.020 And you can see the effects on the stock market almost immediately, right?

01:28:58.740 I mean, you've seen it over the course of the last couple of days alone when Dow Jones

01:29:01.280 Industrial Average dropped 1,500 points.

01:29:02.840 So, again, that is a dicey game that he's playing right there if he's fighting inflation.

01:29:08.520 Even large-scale tariffs tend not to lower inflation.

01:29:11.700 They tend to increase, you know, sort of prices of goods and services because you're limiting

01:29:14.680 supply while leaving demand exactly the same, which obviously increases prices.

01:29:19.560 And then the question is just going to be whether it is a leverage play or whether it

01:29:22.520 is a principal play that he sort of likes tariffs and has a vision of the world in which everyone

01:29:26.240 reshores to the United States and we export but we don't import, which, you know, again,

01:29:31.460 I think that is likely to result in some pretty dire economic side effects.

01:29:35.000 Well, this is to me the most interesting question because the guy is a good poker player and

01:29:40.760 it's hard to read it.

01:29:41.920 You know, on the one hand, there are people, though I know it's unfashionable in our day

01:29:46.300 and age, but there are people who make a serious, principled economic argument for tariffs.

01:29:51.740 And there's a long history of tariffs in the Republican Party.

01:29:53.960 Going back to Abraham Lincoln, who said, give me a tariff, I'll give you the greatest country

01:29:56.560 on earth.

01:29:57.180 Now, that obviously fell out of favor in the middle to the latter part of the 20th century.

01:30:00.180 But there is a world in which, and Trump has been, I think, advancing this view, that

01:30:05.480 he really believes as a matter of principle in tariffs, and many of his economic advisors

01:30:10.540 do as well.

01:30:11.640 However, Trump is a dealmaker.

01:30:14.240 He has promoted free trade, global free trade, for, you know, many years of his career.

01:30:19.480 And so there is also a view that he's kind of bluffing.

01:30:24.160 But the thing is, if he's bluffing, he's doing so in an extraordinarily persuasive way, which

01:30:30.840 is his great strength on the global stage, is his unpredictability.

01:30:35.160 So if you are an adversary of the United States, or a trading partner of the United States that's

01:30:39.380 kind of maybe ripping us off a little bit, and you're trying to read Trump right now,

01:30:43.640 at least 10 to 20% of you has to think, the guy might just love tariffs, and I better play

01:30:50.840 my cards real cautiously.

01:30:52.340 Yeah, and it is, it does, I mean, I don't know, I'm a simple man.

01:30:55.560 When you tell me that they're putting a 275% tariff on milk going out, but we can't put

01:31:00.500 anything on, you know, and I think, well, why not?

01:31:02.160 I don't understand why we can't play.

01:31:04.120 It's all part of Trump's, we're not your daddy strategy, you know?

01:31:06.880 Like, we are not here to just support the world.

01:31:09.880 And we have been treated like that, especially by Europe.

01:31:12.120 But we have been treated like that by the country.

01:31:13.900 We're supposed to show up, but they don't have to show up for us.

01:31:16.660 And Trump's, you know, it may be garish, it may be a little boorish to say, what's in

01:31:20.680 it for us all the time?

01:31:22.000 But what is in it for us?

01:31:23.280 We are a sovereign nation.

01:31:24.540 I mean, I think what's in it for us is actually a pretty good pitch.

01:31:27.720 What's in it for us is a pretty good pitch.

01:31:28.980 Yeah.

01:31:29.180 I think the thing that we do have to remember, however, is that we are also, that there is

01:31:33.780 something in it for us, which is namely that our gigantic national debt is actually funded

01:31:38.260 by other countries who are buying our bonds.

01:31:41.120 I mean, so it turns out that actually there are two sides to the story.

01:31:44.220 It's not just the United States funding everybody else.

01:31:45.820 The reality is that everybody else is also funding us by holding the dollar as the global

01:31:49.000 reserve currency and then holding bonds that they can easily transfer into dollars.

01:31:52.400 So again, economics is a bit of a sensitive game.

01:31:55.440 And, you know, the one thing, and this is the thing that I really fear for President Trump's

01:32:00.100 administration, the one thing that can send things south, because the Democrats are so

01:32:03.900 gone.

01:32:04.360 They're so gone.

01:32:05.100 I mean, that's what you can see in the room.

01:32:06.240 They have lost it.

01:32:07.560 They've lost it.

01:32:08.280 When it comes to the trans issue, they've completely lost it.

01:32:11.420 When it comes to illegal immigration, they've completely lost it.

01:32:13.540 They're just so far from common sense.

01:32:14.720 The one thing that could really hurt Trump is an economic downturn.

01:32:17.700 It's the one thing he cannot afford.

01:32:18.960 No president can afford it.

01:32:20.200 President Trump more than most because he's seen as a pro correctly as a pro business president.

01:32:24.480 And so anything that can be done to avoid an economic downturn is the thing that he really

01:32:28.020 has to do.

01:32:28.480 The good news about Trump, I think, is that even if he loves tariffs, like adores them,

01:32:32.400 President Trump also, even more than that, likes good headlines and does not like bad headlines.

01:32:36.780 And so if the economy starts to go south, this is one area where President Trump will stick

01:32:40.740 and move.

01:32:41.020 Though, again, even on that point, Trump seems to, in recent weeks and even in that speech

01:32:46.480 tonight, be preparing the American people for some potential short-term economic challenge.

01:32:52.600 He says, look, it's going to be a little tough in the short term.

01:32:55.620 But so, again, I don't exactly know how to read it because that might just be him bluffing

01:33:02.820 really well to say, no, I am really serious about you because I understand the implications.

01:33:05.380 I don't know that Donald Trump bluffs.

01:33:08.620 I think that Donald Trump changes.

01:33:11.100 I don't think that Donald Trump is fundamentally ideological.

01:33:14.820 He fundamentally wants to make a deal.

01:33:17.640 And so I think that one of the reasons that he is so unpredictable is because everyone assumes

01:33:23.860 that there is some other motive at play.

01:33:26.620 When, in fact, it may just be as simple as the thing's unfair.

01:33:30.360 I'm going to put tariffs on it.

01:33:31.400 And if somebody comes back to me and there's a better deal to be made in the future where

01:33:35.560 I take the tariffs off because something good's happening, then that'll be the thing that

01:33:39.000 I'm for.

01:33:39.740 I don't know that he's, I don't know that Trump is sophisticated.

01:33:43.220 And I don't say that as a knock on Trump.

01:33:45.340 I'm actually saying it kind of as a good thing.

01:33:47.100 Like, I just don't think that he is, I don't think that he is that.

01:33:50.380 I don't know.

01:33:50.820 I think he has this way of looking at things in a general way that seems unsophisticated,

01:33:57.100 but it's not.

01:33:57.640 He can't have won as often as he's won and be unsophisticated.

01:34:01.900 I think what he does is he thinks differently.

01:34:04.040 He thinks in a gestalt style that everybody calls gut politics, but it's really a way of

01:34:08.420 seeing the world in total.

01:34:10.760 And sometimes, I do believe that sometimes even he hasn't got his whole strategy worked

01:34:14.820 out.

01:34:15.220 Look, there are going to be some bad headlines.

01:34:16.860 You cannot bring down inflation without increasing unemployment.

01:34:19.980 There are going to be bad headlines.

01:34:21.240 And I notice nobody's talking about unemployment because it always goes up when inflation goes down.

01:34:26.020 And so no one is talking about it.

01:34:27.640 So they're waiting, lying in wait so that when it goes up, they can hit him with it.

01:34:31.020 He's going to have some bad headlines.

01:34:32.620 Happened to Reagan when he brought down inflation.

01:34:35.020 The unemployment went up and it cost him his majorities in the legislature.

01:34:39.760 But still, I do think he has an idea of what he's doing.

01:34:43.420 And I do think, I don't think he bluffs.

01:34:45.440 I think he makes a deal and takes an extreme position knowing that's not where he's going to end.

01:34:50.100 Right, right, right.

01:34:50.840 Yeah, I think, and I agree with that.

01:34:54.240 I don't see this as a bluff at all.

01:34:55.560 I mean, it might change.

01:34:56.540 That might be the case that it changes.

01:34:58.240 I certainly don't think that it's a bluff because, I mean, I agree with Drew that I think Trump

01:35:01.680 thinks in a, his great appeal is that he thinks in a very simple way, which is not to say

01:35:06.400 simplistic, but I say simple.

01:35:08.300 I consider myself to be a simple guy in a lot of ways, which is just, you look at an issue

01:35:13.200 like this.

01:35:13.640 Well, why should they slap us with higher tariffs than we put on them?

01:35:17.060 I mean, you did it to us.

01:35:18.020 Why shouldn't we do it to you?

01:35:19.000 It's a pretty, it's the same thing with Zelensky.

01:35:21.140 He visits the White House and it's like, hey, we gave you all of this.

01:35:26.260 And so if we're going to give you this, then we expect something in return.

01:35:29.740 It's, you know, in that case, it's kind of similar to the, you know, I say to my kids all

01:35:35.360 the time, you're in my house, you know, you're under my roof, it's my food, you're going to

01:35:41.220 play by my rules.

01:35:42.220 Every father says that.

01:35:43.040 I gave you javelin missiles and you're going to listen to me.

01:35:46.140 Right, exactly.

01:35:46.900 I say that to my kids all the time.

01:35:48.320 I give you all the weapons.

01:35:49.340 So you're going to play by my rules.

01:35:51.180 So, and I think most, most people hear that and think, yeah, well, it, it kind of makes

01:35:55.540 sense.

01:35:55.920 Like, why not?

01:35:56.780 And that's, that's the way that I look at it.

01:35:59.840 By the way, credit to Zelensky for recognizing that he really, really needed to put out a

01:36:04.140 statement before the speech.

01:36:05.200 Yeah.

01:36:05.700 I mean, seriously, like Zelensky blew that meeting on Friday in a massive, massive way.

01:36:11.080 I went through on my show, like the entire details of that meeting, like went through

01:36:14.460 all 50 minutes of that particular meeting and Zelensky really blew it.

01:36:17.860 And then he continued to blow it.

01:36:18.840 And then today he came back and he said the thing he was supposed to say, which is we're

01:36:22.080 very, very grateful for all the support.

01:36:23.760 We're ready to sign a rare earth mineral deal.

01:36:25.280 We're trying to get to the end of this war.

01:36:26.720 Or, and so tonight, instead of President Trump spending half the speech shellacking Zelensky

01:36:30.600 in Ukraine, instead, President Trump did what he does, which is he pocketed the victory.

01:36:34.780 And again, this goes, I think we're all saying very similar things here.

01:36:37.920 I don't think that President Trump, when it comes to these policies, is sitting there

01:36:42.360 thinking, okay, if I make, if I move my rook here, they're going to move their knight

01:36:45.820 here.

01:36:46.140 And then if they move their knight here, I'm going to move my bishop here, checkmate.

01:36:48.420 Like, that's not how President Trump thinks.

01:36:49.960 The way that he thinks is much more like, I'm going to do this thing.

01:36:53.500 And if you respond in the way that I want, then we can make a deal.

01:36:56.260 And if you respond in a way I don't want, I'm going to hit you.

01:36:58.580 And you know what?

01:37:00.100 Most policy can actually get done fairly well that way.

01:37:03.360 I will say, I did enjoy the break with tradition that was pretty evident from the beginning

01:37:07.300 of the speech.

01:37:08.040 I think this is what he meant when he said, remember, he had to put out this truth social

01:37:10.800 in all caps, I'm going to speak plainly tonight.

01:37:13.000 And everybody's like, I don't know what that means.

01:37:14.420 Like, when has he ever not spoken plainly?

01:37:16.420 Where is the subtlety, my man?

01:37:18.320 But it's, but, you know, I think what he meant, I'm going to speak plainly.

01:37:21.760 What he meant was, I'm just going to, if I feel like banging on the Democrats, I'm just

01:37:25.020 going to bang on the Democrats.

01:37:25.820 When he started off, right, I mean, it was hysterically funny.

01:37:28.420 When he started off right near the top, he said, listen, I've been doing this for five

01:37:31.580 years, five years, five times I've come to you.

01:37:34.400 They never clapped once.

01:37:35.740 I don't even care anymore.

01:37:37.900 I'm sorry.

01:37:38.520 That's really funny.

01:37:39.560 And it cuts through the bullshit of the entire sort of evening, which is, you know, propped

01:37:43.800 up as the sort of almost post-imperial event.

01:37:48.060 I've spoken on the program a thousand times about how much I generally hate State of the

01:37:51.760 Union addresses.

01:37:52.200 I will say it was kind of funny because it felt like kind of a post-State of the Union

01:37:54.840 State of the Union.

01:37:55.740 But I'll go just like, I'll go a step further.

01:37:57.960 It was kind of like, I don't think that it was just funny, although it was certainly

01:38:01.680 funny.

01:38:02.280 I don't think it was just plain speak and shellacking the Democrats, although it was certainly

01:38:06.000 that.

01:38:06.540 It was also a perfect trap that he put them in.

01:38:09.120 Because once he said, they cannot clap for me no matter what, he took all the tools that

01:38:15.400 they had.

01:38:15.820 I mean, this is the reason all their shenanigans basically fizzled out in the first three minutes

01:38:19.740 because what was left once he had already established, here's how the game's going to

01:38:24.120 get played.

01:38:24.760 When he promoted no tax on tips, a policy that the Democrats stole from him and campaigned

01:38:31.080 on.

01:38:31.400 That's right.

01:38:31.680 And they couldn't even applaud for it.

01:38:33.300 They looked absolutely ridiculous.

01:38:35.080 Had he not made those remarks at the beginning of the speech, they would have clapped for

01:38:39.840 the 13-year-old boy.

01:38:40.760 By the way, I agree that Trump has a good gut and everything like that, but I do think

01:38:46.200 he also has strategic sophistication.

01:38:48.060 Maybe that's one area where I disagree.

01:38:49.700 That was clearly a trap, and it worked very well.

01:38:53.120 Yeah, I don't mean that he doesn't have strategy, but it's not the same kind of strategy.

01:38:57.540 I can't remember which one of you guys said it, but he's not talking about a chess game.

01:39:01.060 He's more talking about a kind of, like I said, a gestalt, an atmosphere that he

01:39:04.900 knows how to move through, and he does it really expertly, you know?

01:39:10.080 Well, fellas, it is very funny.

01:39:12.120 He's really funny.

01:39:13.020 He's just hilarious.

01:39:14.320 In the room, it was very funny.

01:39:16.080 There were a lot of things that we were chuckling at in the room, for sure.

01:39:18.660 Yeah, I'll say that this was my first time I've been in a room for, actually in the room

01:39:22.140 for a Trump speech.

01:39:24.200 And, you know, I knew he was a really funny guy, but that's one thing you appreciate

01:39:28.280 when you're in the room, it's just kind of the energy of it and sort of the aside

01:39:30.940 comments and, I don't know, being in the room, you kind of...

01:39:34.860 The little hand motions.

01:39:35.940 Yeah, at the very beginning, they're clapping for him, and he actually did the Trump dance.

01:39:39.660 I mean, could you...

01:39:40.700 I don't know if you guys can see that on camera.

01:39:42.220 No, we didn't.

01:39:42.500 He actually did.

01:39:43.280 When they were doing the...

01:39:44.080 When they were giving, like, the big ovation, I don't know if they're panning to the crowd

01:39:46.080 or whatever, he literally stepped to the side of the podium and did the...

01:39:48.940 This thing.

01:39:50.580 Yeah.

01:39:51.240 I noticed...

01:39:52.040 It was really funny.

01:39:53.380 Like, really funny.

01:39:54.040 At the MSG rally right before the election, I noticed it was the first time I'd seen him in person,

01:39:59.720 I think, ever, certainly that close, but I think maybe in person, and he gets up on stage,

01:40:03.740 and I realized, oh, I get it now.

01:40:06.020 He's Elvis.

01:40:07.500 That's his thing.

01:40:08.460 He's actually Elvis.

01:40:09.640 That's what he...

01:40:10.000 It's not that he's Reagan.

01:40:11.120 It's not that he's Bush.

01:40:12.960 He's Elvis.

01:40:13.960 And there was...

01:40:14.600 Speaking of these great little moments and these great little asides, there's one that

01:40:18.340 no one is talking about, but it killed me, which is that Trump was talking about illegal

01:40:22.420 immigration, and he goes, and these people, you know, coming over, murderers, human traffickers,

01:40:29.220 and then he just points to the Democrats in the room, like, these murderers, human traffickers,

01:40:34.820 and I go, well, you know, shoe fits, man.

01:40:39.620 Truly the most entertaining State of the Union that I've ever seen, and, you know, I had a

01:40:45.320 kind of sadness watching it, because Donald Trump's not a young man.

01:40:50.260 Like, this...

01:40:51.220 We are in the end of whatever this is, and, you know, four years is a long time.

01:40:55.620 We get to enjoy the ending of it.

01:40:57.140 Eight years with a third term.

01:41:00.800 Thank you.

01:41:02.300 But it was the first time that I felt a kind of nostalgia for Donald Trump, and I was feeling

01:41:06.080 it while he's still president, because we will never see anything like this again.

01:41:09.900 No, no, no.

01:41:10.480 Yeah.

01:41:10.860 It's going to be...

01:41:12.360 Well, it's going to be the last great administration of my lifetime, but it may be the last great

01:41:16.200 administration of your lifetime, too, because they don't come along.

01:41:18.540 Though I am hopeful for the reign of Baron Octavian Augustus Trump, and I don't know if

01:41:23.660 it'll be exactly like this, but, you know, Augustus was actually better than Julius in

01:41:27.720 any ways, so we'll see.

01:41:30.480 Fellas, I know it's late in D.C., and you have shows to do tomorrow.

01:41:33.340 Thanks for hanging out with us.

01:41:34.240 Thanks for coming back after fighting your way through whatever mob there was and signing

01:41:39.540 autographs for Congress people.

01:41:40.980 Boebert, I know.

01:41:43.100 There's just all kinds of weirdness that you guys had to deal with, but it was a good night.

01:41:48.800 Yeah.

01:41:49.680 Very marvelous night.

01:41:51.440 Marvelous night.

01:41:52.400 Thanks to all of our DailyWire.com subscribers for hanging out with us, making it possible

01:41:56.600 for us to do this work.

01:41:58.440 We do have one fun thing going on, and that is that Ben is leading this crusade to get

01:42:02.780 President Trump to consider pardoning Derek Chauvin of the federal charges that he was convicted

01:42:09.500 of.

01:42:09.700 I'm for it.

01:42:10.000 It won't mean that he gets out of jail.

01:42:12.140 It won't mean that he has to go to a state prison, but it will still be the beginning

01:42:15.280 of correcting this horrible injustice, and we have a petition at pardonderick.com.

01:42:19.860 We'd love for you to sign it as we're letting President Trump know that this is still an

01:42:23.680 important issue.

01:42:24.740 He's given all these great pardons already in his time as president, but there is like

01:42:28.760 one guy who's obviously still been left on the field, and that's Derek Chauvin.

01:42:32.580 So head over to pardonderick.com and add your name to our petition today, and we'll see

01:42:39.200 you guys back here next time for Daily Wire Backstage.

The Matt Walsh Show - March 05, 2025

Daily Wire Backstage： Trump’s Address to Congress

Episode Stats

Length

Words per Minute

Word Count

Sentence Count

Misogynist Sentences

Hate Speech Sentences

Summary

Transcript