The Megyn Kelly Show - August 26, 2025


Trump Attempts to Punish Flag Burners, Cashless Bail Crackdown, Snoop Slams Pixar： AM Update 8⧸26

Topics
burning American flag cashless bail policies Snoop Dogg movie experience outrage
Hosted by
Megyn Kelly
Mentioned
Trump Greg Johnson Rapper Snoop Dogg Dick Durbin Buzz Lightyear Pixar William Brennan Will Scharf Joseph Bao George Floyd Bob Korn-Ravere Antonin Scalia Eric Erickson Chris Ruffo Jesse Kelly Papa Snoop Old Glory Pam Bondi Tim Walz Eisenhower and 2 more
Trump Eyes Chicago for Crackdown, FBI Raids Bolton, Parents of Missing Baby Arrested： AM Update 8⧸25 Horrifying Catholic School Shooting in Minneapolis - What We're Learning About Victims and Perpetrator

Episode Stats


Length

19 minutes

Words per minute

162.54

Word count

3,157

Sentence count

190

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

21

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Trump signs an executive order attempting to work around Supreme Court precedent on flag burning, plus a new pair of executive orders targeting cashless bail in deep blue cities. Plus, Rapper and Trump antagonist Snoop Dogg reacts to woke Disney Pixar programming in a very relatable way. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:00:30.000 Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly.
00:00:35.480 It's Tuesday, August 26th, 2025, and this is your AM Update.
00:00:40.420 Instructs the Department of Justice to prosecute those who are engaged in these instances of flag burning.
00:00:45.700 President Trump signs an executive order attempting to work around Supreme Court precedent on flag burning.
00:00:51.580 Plus a new pair of executive orders targeting cashless bail in deep blue cities. 0.99
00:00:57.080 Y'all throwing me in the middle of shit that I don't have an answer for. 0.98
00:00:59.600 Rapper and Trump antagonist Snoop Dogg reacts to woke Disney Pixar programming in a very relatable way. 0.99
00:01:07.120 All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.
00:01:10.700 You know those movies that tell the stories of real-life heroes with the courage to stand up in the face of indescribable evil and hatred to protect and save others?
00:01:23.740 They're important, especially now when the world seems to need heroes more than ever.
00:01:28.480 Bao, Artist at War, is a film about how art and love can save lives literally and spiritually.
00:01:34.700 It's the remarkable true story of Joseph Bao, a gifted artist and master forger who risked his life to save others during the Holocaust.
00:01:44.800 There, he not only found the strength to survive, but also an unexpected love with Rebecca, a woman whose courage matched his own.
00:01:53.420 Their secret wedding, held inside a concentration camp, was later immortalized in the film Schindler's List.
00:01:59.540 Bao, Artist at War, opens only in theaters for a limited run beginning September 26th.
00:02:06.580 Go to baomovie.com, B-A-U-movie.com to watch the trailer, read about Joseph's real-life journey, and find showtimes near you.
00:02:15.620 Visit baomovie.com to watch the trailer and learn more.
00:02:20.480 And you can also sign your organization up for group screenings.
00:02:23.140 Again, that's B-A-U-movie.com.
00:02:28.280 On Monday, President Trump signing an executive order attempting to punish those who engage in flag burning,
00:02:35.540 ordering the Department of Justice to prosecute individuals who violate laws while desecrating the American flag,
00:02:42.880 so long, he says, as the First Amendment is not violated.
00:02:46.980 Good luck with that.
00:02:48.120 In 1989, the Supreme Court ruling in a 5-4 decision that burning an American flag is expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.
00:02:57.520 The case originating with the arrest of one Gregory Lee Johnson in 1984 for burning an American flag outside of a convention center in Dallas, Texas,
00:03:07.140 protesting President Reagan's policies.
00:03:09.060 Johnson was convicted under a Texas statute outlawing the desecration of a venerated object, including the American flag,
00:03:17.660 if such an action were likely to incite anger in others.
00:03:21.820 The majority siding with Mr. Johnson, who said this violated his free speech rights and overturning his conviction.
00:03:29.000 Justice William Brennan, appointed by President Eisenhower, writing for the majority,
00:03:33.640 Johnson's expressive conduct does not fall within that small class of fighting words that are likely to provoke the average person to retaliation
00:03:43.240 and thereby cause a breach of the peace.
00:03:46.220 No reasonable onlooker would have regarded Johnson's generalized expression of dissatisfaction with the policies of the federal government
00:03:53.080 as a direct personal insult or an invitation to exchange fisticuffs.
00:03:58.200 Brennan also writing, quote,
00:04:00.100 The way to preserve the flag's special role is not to punish those who feel differently about these matters.
00:04:05.180 It is to persuade them that they are wrong.
00:04:08.160 Conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia, siding with the majority in that case,
00:04:13.400 later saying of the decision, quote, 0.78
00:04:15.060 If it were up to me, I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag. 0.90
00:04:21.880 But I am not king. 0.87
00:04:23.040 Senior White House staffer Will Scharf explaining the executive order Monday from the Oval.
00:04:28.960 What the executive order does, sir, it charges your Department of Justice with investigating instances of flag burning
00:04:34.520 and then where there's evidence of criminal activity,
00:04:38.400 where prosecution wouldn't fall afoul of the First Amendment
00:04:41.400 and instructs the Department of Justice to prosecute those who are engaged in these instances of flag burning.
00:04:46.980 That's like saying the DOJ is charged with investigating whether people can have individual opinions,
00:04:53.040 and where there is evidence those opinions are really, really bad,
00:04:57.380 if the prosecution would not fall outside of the First Amendment, we prosecute.
00:05:02.720 Also in the EO, quote,
00:05:04.240 In cases where the DOJ or another executive department or agency determines
00:05:08.580 that an instance of American flag desecration may violate an applicable state or local law,
00:05:15.300 such as open burning restrictions, disorderly conduct laws, or destruction of property laws,
00:05:21.020 the agency shall refer the matter to the appropriate state or local authority for potential action.
00:05:27.280 Eh, maybe the open burning thing could stand,
00:05:30.900 certainly if the flag is someone else's property you could get in trouble,
00:05:35.020 but the act of burning the flag will not be criminalized,
00:05:38.620 not under our First Amendment, no matter how much one may dislike it.
00:05:42.180 The Attorney General and Secretary of State also directed to deny, prohibit, terminate,
00:05:47.060 or revoke the visas of, and even seek the removal of,
00:05:50.500 foreigners who desecrate the American flag when legally applicable. 0.63
00:05:54.500 President Trump with more.
00:05:56.200 As you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a five to four decision,
00:06:01.660 they called it freedom of speech,
00:06:03.240 but there's another reason which is perhaps much more important.
00:06:06.520 It's called death, because what happens when you burn a flag is the area goes crazy.
00:06:13.700 If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy.
00:06:16.000 You can do other things.
00:06:17.140 You can burn this piece of paper.
00:06:18.640 You can, and it's, but when you burn the American flag,
00:06:22.560 it incites riots at levels that we've never seen before.
00:06:26.780 People go crazy.
00:06:28.260 In a way, both ways.
00:06:30.300 There are some that are going crazy for doing it.
00:06:32.360 There are others that are angry, angry about them doing it.
00:06:36.520 Mr. Trump going on to say the penalty for inciting a riot via flag burning will be one year in jail,
00:06:42.700 but that punishment is not spelled out in the executive order.
00:06:45.880 The federal statute for inciting a riot carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.
00:06:51.280 The incitement exception to the First Amendment, however, is very limited.
00:06:55.160 It would only apply if the flag burning, the speech,
00:06:58.400 is both meant to and likely to incite imminent lawbreaking.
00:07:03.960 Tough standard.
00:07:04.480 The president has long been interested in this topic.
00:07:07.940 Mr. Trump floating consequences for flag burners as early as November 2016.
00:07:12.900 Instances of flag burning becoming more common in recent years as left-wing radicals protest
00:07:17.720 everything about America, from the BLM riots of 2020 to the anti-Israel demonstrations across
00:07:23.820 college campuses to anti-ice protesters in L.A.
00:07:27.420 taking to the streets in June, waving foreign flags proudly as Old Glory burned on the ground.
00:07:34.200 Conservatives appearing divided on the order, some citing an incident in 2019,
00:07:38.600 an Iowa man sentenced to at least 15 years for stealing a gay pride flag from a church
00:07:44.100 and burning it outside of a strip club.
00:07:45.940 Theft and destruction of property do not fall under protected political speech.
00:07:51.480 Activist Chris Ruffo posting, quote,
00:07:53.900 I'm sorry, but as long as this is the status quo, I'm not going to work myself into a state of hysteria
00:07:58.460 about Trump's executive order on burning the American flag.
00:08:01.580 However, many prominent conservative voices speaking out against the order.
00:08:06.260 Right-wing radio host and former Marine Jesse Kelly posting, quote,
00:08:09.960 I would never in a million years harm the American flag, but a president telling me I can't
00:08:14.980 has me as close as I'll ever be to lighting one on fire.
00:08:18.540 I am a free American citizen, and if I ever feel like torching one, I will. 1.00
00:08:23.920 This is garbage. 0.98
00:08:25.420 Commentator Eric Erickson, who also has a law degree, 0.97
00:08:28.340 positing his theory about the executive order on X, quote,
00:08:31.020 The president's executive order on flag burning is not legal,
00:08:34.580 but it will get the Democrats to all go out and burn American flags,
00:08:38.800 yet again putting them on the 20 percent side of an 80-20 issue.
00:08:43.180 Right on cue, failed VP candidate Tim Walz from the DNC's summer meeting on Monday.
00:08:48.720 Now he's talking about burning flags.
00:08:50.580 He's going to have flag burning or whatever,
00:08:52.180 because he knows there's a hell of a lot of flags with his picture on it that are going to get burned.
00:08:56.280 We spoke to chief counsel at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE,
00:09:01.020 Bob Korn-Ravere, who says this order flies in the face of the First Amendment.
00:09:05.960 It's a longstanding principle of First Amendment law that someone in a crowd who doesn't like
00:09:12.000 what a speaker is saying doesn't get to silence them by threatening to be disruptive.
00:09:17.260 The law and the First Amendment require that the government protect the speaker,
00:09:22.360 not the person who threatens violence.
00:09:25.400 And it appears that this executive order is predicated on saying that there are likely to be people out there
00:09:31.160 that don't like what the speakers are saying, what protesters are saying,
00:09:35.780 and therefore because of that we're going to silence the protesters rather than preserving order.
00:09:41.980 That seemed to be what President Trump was talking about when he was talking about crowd reactions to it.
00:09:47.120 And it's precisely the same argument that the Supreme Court confronted in 1989 in Texas v. Johnson
00:09:52.820 when it held that that justification couldn't support the Texas attempt to prosecute Gregory Lee Johnson
00:09:59.520 when he burned a flag in protest.
00:10:02.660 Revere describing what legal challenges may arise out of this order.
00:10:05.800 It looks like what is likely to happen is that someone, either at the federal level or state level,
00:10:12.760 will initiate some sort of prosecution against a flag burner,
00:10:17.320 someone who is protesting using that as their means of expression,
00:10:21.560 and that the defense, I would imagine, would include a constitutional argument
00:10:27.120 that this is merely an example of someone being prosecuted
00:10:31.480 because the government doesn't like what they're trying to say.
00:10:34.180 And that is a plain violation of the First Amendment.
00:10:37.140 If you go back to the whole question of incitement,
00:10:40.160 the Supreme Court in 1969 in Brandenburg v. Ohio said that
00:10:45.160 Klansmen burning a cross didn't constitute incitement.
00:10:49.700 And so this really is a non-starter from a constitutional perspective.
00:10:54.240 Revere also predicting this executive order will not have its intended effect.
00:10:58.760 President Trump in his statement appeared to say that by issuing this decree,
00:11:03.020 that was going to end flag burning in America.
00:11:06.060 And I think history shows that exactly the opposite is likely to happen.
00:11:11.660 After the Supreme Court struck down the Texas attempt to prosecute flag burning in 1989,
00:11:17.660 Congress adopted the Flag Protection Act that was designed to prevent flag burning
00:11:22.760 as a result of the Supreme Court decision.
00:11:25.000 And the effect of that was that we had more examples and instances of flag burning
00:11:30.640 in protest of passing that law than had existed in the previous 200 years in American history.
00:11:37.860 So I think that the reaction to this executive order is likely to be the opposite of what President Trump intends.
00:11:45.020 Coming up, President Trump puts far-left cities on notice by going after cashless bail policies.
00:11:53.320 And rapper Snoop Dogg draws backlash for complaints about woke Disney content.
00:12:02.620 As President Trump is settling into his new administration,
00:12:05.800 one of the top Democrats in Congress aiming to undermine the Trump agenda
00:12:09.100 is Democrat Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois.
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00:12:16.140 Senator Durbin has a new plan, a government takeover of your credit card.
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00:12:41.160 before it's too late.
00:12:45.940 President Trump also on Monday signing a pair of executive orders taking aim at cashless bail,
00:12:51.900 meaning when people accused of crimes are not required to pay money to be released from jail pending trial.
00:12:58.380 One executive order purporting to end cashless bail entirely in Washington, D.C.,
00:13:03.960 the latest action amid the Trump administration's federal takeover of local law enforcement there.
00:13:09.000 White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf describing the second order Monday from the Oval.
00:13:13.760 Cashless bail policies are a key driver of the disorder we see on city streets all over America.
00:13:20.320 Catch and release system allows criminals to keep going back out onto the street and reoffending.
00:13:25.020 What this executive order does, it charges your attorney general
00:13:28.100 with identifying jurisdictions all over the country that have cashless bail policies.
00:13:32.700 And then it withholds or revokes federal funds and grants that are flowing to those jurisdictions
00:13:37.980 to ensure that we're only supporting the people who have reasonable common-sense policies around crime.
00:13:43.520 The bail reform movements began across deep blue pockets of the country around the mid-2010s,
00:13:49.060 that trend catching fire during the George Floyd era.
00:13:51.580 Washington, D.C. had already eliminated cash bail in the 90s,
00:13:55.920 while New Jersey and Illinois later followed suit by instituting purely risk-based bail assessments,
00:14:02.340 meaning you're either too risky to be released or you're not,
00:14:06.060 but there's no buying your way out of jail.
00:14:08.620 New Mexico and New York adopting policies heavily curtailing cash bail,
00:14:13.560 and cities like L.A., Philadelphia, San Francisco rolling out reforms of their own.
00:14:18.440 Progressives arguing cash bail unjustly punishes low-income offenders who cannot pay,
00:14:24.180 while wealthier suspects walk free ahead of their trials.
00:14:27.620 Supporters countering that it provides a crucial incentive,
00:14:30.780 ensuring suspects show up for their court dates,
00:14:33.680 and helps keep repeat offenders off the streets.
00:14:36.860 Throughout the 2024 campaign, President Trump vowing to reverse soft-on-crime policies.
00:14:41.900 Here he is from the Oval on Monday.
00:14:43.980 One of the executive orders has to do with cashless bail.
00:14:46.720 That was when the big crime in this country started.
00:14:50.700 When somebody kills somebody, they go in, 0.83
00:14:52.440 don't worry about it, no cash, come back in a couple of months, we'll give you a trial.
00:14:56.180 You never see the person again.
00:14:58.340 And, I mean, they kill people and they get out.
00:15:00.900 They thought it was discriminatory to make people put up money
00:15:04.300 because they just killed three people lying on a street.
00:15:07.140 Any street all over the country, cashless bail, we're ending it.
00:15:11.060 Attorney General Pam Bondi flanking the president,
00:15:14.240 offering some examples highlighting the risks of cashless bail.
00:15:17.680 A mother, a single mom whose house was burglarized,
00:15:21.320 and the defendant got out on cashless bail,
00:15:24.840 went back the next night and burglarized her house again.
00:15:28.720 That's why this is so important.
00:15:30.700 A man got in a fight with another guy.
00:15:32.860 He had a gun.
00:15:33.940 He was let out. 0.96
00:15:35.040 Next night, he got out, went back and killed him.
00:15:37.500 So that's why it's so important, President, what you're doing.
00:15:41.880 As we've reported on yesterday's AM update,
00:15:44.140 President Trump is eyeing Chicago and New York
00:15:46.460 as the next targets for a federal crime crackdown,
00:15:49.640 with Baltimore potentially in the running as well.
00:15:52.540 Legal challenges are expected for all of Trump's recent actions on crime.
00:15:58.840 Rapper Snoop Dogg angering the left with his recent comments
00:16:02.400 about his experience watching a Pixar movie with his grandson,
00:16:05.900 saying he was blindsided by an LGBTQ storyline in the movie Lightyear.
00:16:11.820 The comments made on the It's Giving podcast last week
00:16:15.340 going viral Monday on social media.
00:16:17.900 I took my grandson to see, uh, what was the movie with, uh, Buzz Lightyear.
00:16:23.180 Toy Story?
00:16:24.080 Not that one, but this.
00:16:25.100 Oh, the new, the new Buzz, the Lightyear.
00:16:27.280 So we watching it, and the lady, when they're like,
00:16:30.540 man, she had a baby with a woman.
00:16:33.000 One of my grandsons, in the middle of the movie, like,
00:16:35.920 Papa Snoop, how'd she have a baby with a woman? 1.00
00:16:38.400 She a woman. 1.00
00:16:39.560 Oh, shit. 1.00
00:16:41.140 I didn't come in for this shit. 1.00
00:16:42.340 I just came and watched the goddamn movie. 1.00
00:16:44.740 Hey, man, watch the movie. 1.00
00:16:45.920 Uh-uh.
00:16:47.060 They just said she and she had a baby.
00:16:50.220 They both women's.
00:16:51.240 How does she have a baby? 1.00
00:16:53.320 Shh.
00:16:54.320 The movie ain't over with. 1.00
00:16:56.000 So it's like, fuck me, I'm scared to go to the movies, man. 1.00
00:16:58.240 Like, y'all throwing me in the middle of shit that I don't have an answer for. 1.00
00:17:01.620 Outraged woke viewers firing off in the comments on YouTube. 0.99
00:17:05.180 One writing, quote,
00:17:05.960 Wow, I am so embarrassed that I ever liked him.
00:17:08.460 And I spoke positively about him to my kids.
00:17:11.360 Another posting, quote,
00:17:12.840 Wow, this is sad.
00:17:14.000 I thought Snoop was pretty open and accepting.
00:17:16.520 The comment panned by entertainment outlets.
00:17:19.400 AV Club writing, quote,
00:17:21.000 Snoop Dogg is opening up about a terrifying experience he had at the movies.
00:17:24.580 One that was seemingly so distressing,
00:17:26.940 it took him three whole years to talk about it.
00:17:29.060 No, it wasn't at a screening of Hereditary or Weapons or anything that would be slightly less
00:17:34.820 embarrassing for the gin and juice rapper.
00:17:38.120 Snoop Dogg couldn't handle a children's movie and a Pixar one at that for one specific reason, 0.98
00:17:44.700 lesbians. 1.00
00:17:45.980 Lord.
00:17:47.160 Despite the backlash, Snoop's views are far from unique.
00:17:50.540 The 2022 Pixar film Lightyear drawing backlash as the studio's first to feature a gay kiss. 0.93
00:17:56.700 The scene reportedly at one point cut from the film,
00:17:59.940 then restored after internal pushback from Pixar and Disney employees.
00:18:05.020 You know, the ones who were trying to get their self-described
00:18:07.840 gay agenda into Disney movies at every turn? 0.69
00:18:11.600 The film banned in more than a dozen countries in the Middle East and Asia,
00:18:15.400 like many other decidedly woke Pixar films since.
00:18:18.640 Lightyear going on to flop at the box office,
00:18:21.220 grossing just $226 million globally on a reported budget of $200 million.
00:18:27.940 As a point of comparison, Toy Story 4, which is normal,
00:18:32.260 also features Buzz Lightyear as one of the leads,
00:18:34.660 and it made over a billion dollars at the box office worldwide.
00:18:39.580 That'll do it for your AM update.
00:18:41.400 I'm Megan Kelly.
00:18:42.420 Join me back here for The Megan Kelly Show,
00:18:44.320 live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east,
00:18:47.100 on youtube.com slash megankelly and on all podcast platforms.
00:18:55.500 I'm Chris Hadfield.
00:18:57.020 I'm an astronaut, an author, a citizen of planet Earth.
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