The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1786 - Americans DENIED Federal Aid If They Don’t Support Israel？

00:00:00.000 These are questions that take cultures thousands of years to answer.

00:00:04.740 During Answer the Call, I take questions from people just like you

00:00:07.920 about their problems, opportunities, challenges, or when they simply need advice.

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00:00:20.540 as we hopefully help people navigate their lives.

00:00:24.080 Everyone has their own destiny. Everyone.

00:00:30.000 Is FEMA now denying disaster relief to U.S. states

00:00:36.120 that refuse to do business with the state of Israel?

00:00:38.700 Is NASA Administrator Sean Duffy building a nuclear reactor on the moon?

00:00:44.860 Most important of all, does President Trump like Sidney Sweeney's jeans ad?

00:00:51.100 The answer to all those questions and more.

00:00:53.760 I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:01:00.000 Welcome back to the show.

00:01:16.060 Billie Eilish is being accused of racism.

00:01:19.300 Why?

00:01:20.160 Because she says she likes Ireland.

00:01:22.160 Why is that racist?

00:01:24.220 Because the people in Ireland look like her. 0.99

00:01:26.920 Is it okay to like being around people who look like you? 0.97

00:01:30.720 We will get to that very important question

00:01:33.480 that has confused people in recent years.

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00:02:57.500 Starting off with a major tempest in a teapot.

00:03:01.180 It's a tempest in a teapot, but it was a major tempest in a teapot.

00:03:04.020 Yesterday, it was reported that the federal government would deny disaster relief

00:03:13.000 to states that didn't do business with Israel.

00:03:17.700 And this raised a lot of eyebrows, not only on the left, but even in certain corners of the right.

00:03:23.220 You say a hurricane comes through your state, major flooding, I don't know, a tornado, an earthquake,

00:03:28.700 and the state is not going to get disaster relief from the federal government

00:03:32.920 if that state doesn't have a good business relationship with a Middle Eastern country,

00:03:38.180 with the state of Israel.

00:03:39.300 How does that make sense?

00:03:41.200 There's a little bit of logic to it, which we'll get to in a second, that a lot of people are missing.

00:03:45.000 But the notice that came from the Department of Homeland Security in April

00:03:49.900 was that recipients of federal disaster relief must comply with all applicable federal anti-discrimination laws

00:03:56.760 material to the government's payment decisions.

00:03:59.460 Times of Israel is reporting that FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency,

00:04:04.640 said in grant notices posted Friday that states must follow certain terms and conditions.

00:04:10.260 Those conditions require that they certify that they will never sever, quote,

00:04:15.700 commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies.

00:04:21.200 A little bit weird.

00:04:23.240 So what does that requirement mean?

00:04:25.200 Again, it means that $1.9 billion in federal funding is on the line.

00:04:31.040 That's $1.9 billion for search and rescue equipment, emergency manager salaries, backup power systems,

00:04:39.840 whole lot of disaster relief.

00:04:42.620 Now, I say it's a tempest in a teapot in part because this policy has already been updated or clarified.

00:04:50.820 Probably the administration would say it's been clarified.

00:04:53.080 It's being reported that it's been updated.

00:04:55.480 In any case, it will not cut off American states if they don't want to do business with Israel.

00:05:03.660 Also, on top of that, the terms and conditions also cut off disaster relief to states that would promote DEI,

00:05:12.940 to states that would express a kind of racial antipathy against other people, against white people, against other people,

00:05:19.280 against states that undermined immigration laws.

00:05:22.900 So there was a lot of other stuff in here, a lot of other requirements to get the disaster relief.

00:05:28.360 But the part that's sticking in people's craw is the doing business with the Israel part.

00:05:33.380 And I think there is a coherent way to defend this.

00:05:36.820 Although, clearly, the administration doesn't think the Jews is worth the squeeze because they've already backed off the terms and conditions.

00:05:41.900 Oh, this was some confusion, some mistake.

00:05:44.280 We're going to clear this up.

00:05:45.400 But the coherent way to defend this is on federalist grounds.

00:05:49.080 The coherent way to defend it is to say the national government conducts foreign policy.

00:05:55.280 The state governments do not conduct foreign policy.

00:05:57.760 So if you have a state government or multiple state governments, probably Democrat governments, probably left-wing governments,

00:06:04.980 that band together and say we're going to boycott any country, in this case, though, let's say it's the state of Israel,

00:06:12.300 then you have the states undermining U.S. foreign policy, especially a country that is ostensibly a major U.S. ally.

00:06:20.040 That's an unsustainable situation.

00:06:22.860 And there are going to be people who say, well, the way this country was founded, Michael,

00:06:27.000 it was supposed to be a confederation of states.

00:06:29.260 The states were supposed to have most of the power.

00:06:31.060 Yeah, maybe.

00:06:32.200 That hasn't been true in at least 170 years.

00:06:36.380 We have a system.

00:06:38.540 And that also, by the way, presumes that it was even true at the beginning.

00:06:41.900 In any case, we have a federal system where some rights and privileges belong to the local governments,

00:06:48.500 the townships, the counties.

00:06:50.900 These, some belong to the state government, some belong to the federal government.

00:06:54.600 Foreign policy belongs to the federal government, and so the federal government has the right

00:06:58.540 to beat the states back into line if they're taking some of the power that properly belongs

00:07:05.100 to the national government.

00:07:06.580 That said, I agree, it's not worth it here.

00:07:09.900 It's just the policy looks too confusing.

00:07:12.040 It raises too many eyebrows.

00:07:13.240 So they've backed off it, tempest in a teapot, moving on, moving on, panic hands once again

00:07:19.640 discredited, plan trusters once again vindicated, doesn't end up being a big deal.

00:07:25.440 But it does show that this Israel issue, which used to really only be an issue on the left,

00:07:31.820 the left was at each other's throats over Israel, the base hated Israel, the elites liked Israel,

00:07:36.240 the right was basically in favor of Israel, that is beginning to fray.

00:07:40.560 And the reason it's beginning to fray is not just because some kind of fever has overtaken

00:07:45.220 the American right.

00:07:46.700 The immediate cause of why it's beginning to fray is because Israel has been involved in 0.72

00:07:51.780 a very long war beginning on October 7th when Hamas came over and massacred a bunch of Israelis.

00:07:56.060 But that's been going on now for two years, and people have war fatigue.

00:08:00.300 That's really what's going on.

00:08:01.360 That's what's driving this, I think.

00:08:02.520 Now, to show you some of the rancor on the American right, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the

00:08:08.560 House, went viral just yesterday or the day before because he flew to the state of Israel,

00:08:16.160 he spent some time with Israeli settlers in the West Bank, reportedly, but then he also

00:08:19.920 prayed at the Wailing Wall.

00:08:22.080 Here's what Mike Johnson had to say.

00:08:24.380 Mike Johnson, the 56th Speaker of the House of Representatives in America, we're here with

00:08:29.000 a delegation of members of the House.

00:08:31.220 We're so grateful to be in Israel, particularly on this day, recognizing the destruction of 0.98

00:08:36.700 the two temples and two times in history.

00:08:40.280 But it's such a moving time for us to be here, to be here at the Wailing Wall.

00:08:43.980 We've offered our prayers.

00:08:45.220 We put our notes into the wall as just traditional, and we're so moved by the hospitality of the

00:08:50.480 people and the great love of Israel.

00:08:52.000 Our prayer is that America will always stand with Israel and that we will, we pray for the

00:08:57.480 preservation and the peace of Jerusalem.

00:08:59.360 That's what scripture tells us to do.

00:09:01.280 It's a matter of faith for us and a commitment that we have.

00:09:04.360 God bless you.

00:09:04.940 Okay, so this has raised a lot of questions among some people who, I guess, have only

00:09:11.260 recently started paying attention to politics, because there are a lot of pictures of US

00:09:17.900 politicians, presidential candidates, presidents, praying at the Wailing Wall.

00:09:23.540 Some people, I've heard people ask this.

00:09:26.780 They say, hey, what's that wall you have to touch to become president?

00:09:29.380 How do I do that?

00:09:30.400 This is pretty old.

00:09:31.420 You're telling me the deal is all I got to do is go to the Middle East, touch a wall, 0.98

00:09:34.940 and then I can become president?

00:09:36.380 It doesn't always quite work out that way.

00:09:38.120 But a lot of American politicians, presidents, vice presidents, senators, go and they touch this

00:09:43.320 wall and they pray.

00:09:45.200 They put little slips of paper sometimes in the wall.

00:09:47.200 And some people don't know what the wall is.

00:09:48.480 The wall, ostensibly, is a ruin, a remnant of a wall that surrounded the old temple, a retaining

00:10:01.640 wall.

00:10:02.860 Now, some people, some contrarian historians or archaeologists will say it's not even a retaining

00:10:09.660 wall of the old temple in Jerusalem.

00:10:11.360 It's actually just a ruin from a Roman fort, Fort Antonia.

00:10:15.580 I'm not really persuaded by that, but I don't know.

00:10:19.120 You know, tastes vary.

00:10:21.140 It's been a long time.

00:10:22.240 Opinions change.

00:10:23.040 And actually, the fact that there is any uncertainty whatsoever about what this wall is shows you

00:10:29.160 how strange it is that the wall has taken on this significance in American politics in

00:10:34.100 recent years.

00:10:34.720 It's a very important site for Jews, but it's not a traditionally Christian ritual to go pray

00:10:42.760 at the Wailing Wall.

00:10:44.220 In fact, from right around the year, I don't know, 30 AD, when Christianity begins, you don't

00:10:53.540 really see Christians care that much about this wall. 0.98

00:10:56.900 In fact, our Lord in his ministry says that the temple will be destroyed and he will raise

00:11:02.540 it again in three days, and he does because he raises his body, which is the real temple.

00:11:07.440 And so we can experience God not merely in this temple in Jerusalem, which would go on to be

00:11:12.360 destroyed, but any day that we like in tabernacles all around the world.

00:11:18.080 However, for Jews, they still have this memory of the temple, and the temple goes on to be destroyed

00:11:24.360 in 70 AD by the Romans, and there's this desire to build the third temple.

00:11:28.840 Christians, of course, believe that the third temple has already been raised, and the third 0.97

00:11:32.440 temple is Christ.

00:11:33.740 But anyway, that's the view of the Jews.

00:11:36.160 So why would Christians pray at this wall? 0.98

00:11:41.400 A few reasons.

00:11:42.480 One, because Christians pray everywhere.

00:11:45.360 We're told to pray continually everywhere, so there's no bad place to pray.

00:11:48.580 But two, because of evangelical Protestantism, basically.

00:11:56.760 So this has never been the sort of thing that Catholics have made a habit of doing, or Eastern

00:12:02.620 Orthodox, or even really high church Anglican.

00:12:06.220 Sometimes, maybe in antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages, people would go visit the wall

00:12:10.940 as a historical curiosity, but they were much more likely to pray at, say, the Church of

00:12:14.880 the Holy Sepulchre, which is where Christ was entombed.

00:12:17.920 Now the tomb is empty.

00:12:19.960 They would be much more likely to pray at any of the other holy sites in Jerusalem.

00:12:24.340 So why the wall?

00:12:25.860 Well, I think it's pretty easily explained.

00:12:28.680 This ritual has become popular.

00:12:31.880 You can't even really say in recent centuries.

00:12:33.580 It's really only become popular since 1967, when the state of Israel retook control of the

00:12:39.940 wall from Jordan.

00:12:40.740 And so it's in recent decades that people have gone to pray there.

00:12:45.100 But it gets to something even deeper, I think, than sectarian conflict or distinctions between

00:12:51.860 Jews and Christians or whatever.

00:12:53.440 I think what it gets to is man needs a physical aspect to religion. 0.51

00:13:01.280 And especially in our religion, Christianity, it's an incarnational faith.

00:13:05.060 So we believe that God becomes a man, dies on a cross in a real place, and raises from

00:13:12.040 the dead, and has a bodily resurrection, a glorified body, and that we will have a bodily

00:13:15.960 resurrection.

00:13:16.820 And he leaves us a church, and it's a physical religion.

00:13:21.300 We have to be able to touch stuff.

00:13:23.160 And for certain flavors of Christianity, not all flavors of Protestantism, but certain flavors,

00:13:29.160 there isn't that physical, tangible aspect, a lot of it which focuses on theological notions

00:13:36.020 of faith alone, of not having big, beautiful cathedrals, of not recognizing even the tomb

00:13:41.780 of the Holy Sepulchre, Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

00:13:44.140 You need a physical aspect.

00:13:46.860 And so I think the Wailing Wall just provides a kind of novel way to do that, depending on

00:13:52.600 your theological views.

00:13:54.040 I think this also helps to explain the fascination with the modern state of Israel, especially

00:14:00.560 among evangelicals, because, well, one, they have certain theological views that pertain

00:14:06.120 to the end times, but two, because we all need a kind of physical representation of God's

00:14:11.420 people on earth.

00:14:12.120 And so if you're not going to recognize, say, the Catholic Church, the Pope, the Church

00:14:15.740 of Rome, if you're not going to recognize, I don't know if you're Anglican, the Archbishop

00:14:18.720 of Canterbury, or the King of England, then you need some physical representation.

00:14:22.320 And the modern nation state of Israel, I guess, is just as good as any other that you might

00:14:26.820 choose from those options.

00:14:28.240 So I think that's a big part of it.

00:14:31.220 What it ties into is the fact that we are bodies.

00:14:35.500 We're not just intellect floating in outer space.

00:14:38.980 And so we need a physical representation.

00:14:41.160 And a lot of people, they attribute all sorts of nefarious motives to politicians going and

00:14:45.220 touching the wall.

00:14:45.960 I think it's pretty straightforward and simple.

00:14:48.340 Evangelical Protestantism is a very important political force in America, especially on

00:14:54.100 the right, but a little bit on the left, too, to win voters in the middle.

00:14:58.060 And so politicians will go and do the sorts of things that they do.

00:15:02.880 I don't know.

00:15:03.260 That's not, to me, that's not all that nefarious.

00:15:05.200 It's not traditionally Christian. 0.98

00:15:07.460 It's not the sort of thing that happened for the first millennium and, I don't know,

00:15:11.600 first 1800, 1900 years of the history of the church.

00:15:14.160 But it's pretty explainable by basic politics.

00:15:17.800 One can dispute the matters of theology and the reality of that.

00:15:21.180 But I don't know.

00:15:23.260 It is the sort of thing to be expected.

00:15:25.380 Now, if Alexei de Tocqueville is right, and if that flavor of Christianity will ultimately

00:15:32.220 decline, and if the two forces that will then rise, as Tocqueville predicts in Democracy

00:15:38.340 in America, are Catholicism and atheism, then I think you'll see some of those rituals change.

00:15:44.160 In the meantime, speaking of traveling to different countries, Billie Eilish is in trouble for 0.99

00:15:49.740 saying she likes Ireland.

00:15:50.920 Why?

00:15:51.240 Why is that racist?

00:15:52.060 We'll get to that in one moment.

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00:17:22.040 Billie Eilish, this horrid racist, had this to say. 0.86

00:17:27.720 Well, as you guys know, I'm Irish, so it's cool to be here.

00:17:36.880 Obviously, I am not from here, abida, but it's really cool to come somewhere and like

00:17:44.740 everybody looks exactly like you.

00:17:50.240 Is that racist?

00:17:51.620 Is that racist to say?

00:17:52.700 You can understand why some people are accusing her of it.

00:17:55.340 She says, hey, I'm Irish.

00:17:58.340 I know my name's Eilish, but I'm Irish and I'm American, so I'm not from here, but I come

00:18:05.360 here and it's really cool to be here because everyone looks exactly like me.

00:18:09.080 And that is kind of cool, right?

00:18:10.940 Are you allowed to say that?

00:18:13.280 That's kind of racist, isn't it?

00:18:16.040 It's kind of racist, but it's also something everyone believes in.

00:18:20.580 It's kind of fun.

00:18:21.460 Is it racist?

00:18:24.120 Well, this will get all of us in trouble.

00:18:29.180 It's racially aware.

00:18:31.220 It involves race.

00:18:33.420 It makes claims about race that are not politically correct.

00:18:36.820 But is it racist?

00:18:37.860 Is it wrong?

00:18:38.740 Is it immoral?

00:18:40.100 Is it?

00:18:40.400 No.

00:18:40.640 It's okay to enjoy being around people who resemble you, whether in behavior, whether

00:18:48.100 in education, whether in culture, or even whether in appearance.

00:18:52.860 Let me put it more simply.

00:18:55.620 Do you like going to family reunions?

00:18:58.080 Some of you probably don't like going to family reunions, but I don't know.

00:19:00.760 I don't really like my family.

00:19:02.680 And so we do hold one or two family reunions every year.

00:19:05.920 My extended family, the uncles, and the aunts, and the cousins, and the this, and the that.

00:19:10.060 And we all go somewhere, and we have a great time.

00:19:13.140 And a lot of us look like each other.

00:19:15.240 A lot of the cousins look like each other.

00:19:17.000 And that's fun.

00:19:18.300 That's kind of cool.

00:19:19.320 It's cool to have your own little clan.

00:19:21.680 Your own little clan.

00:19:22.600 Then the bedrock unit of society is the family.

00:19:27.260 Then you have the extended family.

00:19:28.900 It's kind of like a clan.

00:19:30.460 Then you're not like that with a K clan. 1.00

00:19:32.960 You know, not like they're accusing Billie Eilish up here.

00:19:34.600 But just like a clan, you know, like a group of families.

00:19:37.800 And then, I don't know, you've spread it out wide enough, you get to a tribe.

00:19:41.840 And you spread that out wide enough, you get to a nation.

00:19:44.140 And you spread that out wide enough, you get to a big political community.

00:19:48.780 Is that wrong to have an affinity for those people?

00:19:51.900 Well, I don't think it is.

00:19:54.420 Doesn't mean that other people can't come into that kind of group.

00:19:57.280 You know, obviously, in-laws come into a family.

00:20:00.260 Immigrants come into a country. 1.00

00:20:01.960 This is ancient.

00:20:03.020 This is true even for the most coherent tribe, probably, that's ever existed.

00:20:07.540 The ancient Israelites.

00:20:08.620 So when Ruth comes in, she says, your people will be my people. 0.65

00:20:10.880 Your God will be my God.

00:20:12.420 So we totally recognize that.

00:20:14.540 But it's okay to have an affinity for people who look like you.

00:20:18.380 Is it wrong?

00:20:19.540 Is it wrong for a black kid to like it when a black guy achieves something? 0.99

00:20:25.120 You know, who is the guy in the Hitler Olympics? 0.77

00:20:27.740 I actually forget his name.

00:20:28.440 He's a very famous athlete.

00:20:29.420 But anyway, when that guy wins, is it wrong for black people to say like, hey, that's cool. 0.95

00:20:32.640 Our guy won.

00:20:33.660 If Joe DiMaggio becomes a really important baseball player, is it okay for Italians to say, hey, he's our guy.

00:20:38.880 He kind of looks like us.

00:20:39.660 That's great.

00:20:40.000 It seems fine to me.

00:20:42.200 There are two errors in modern life when it comes to race.

00:20:46.680 One is thinking that race means everything, and one is thinking that race means nothing.

00:20:52.080 It doesn't, it's, as Aristotle tells us, virtue is the mean between two extremes.

00:20:58.480 You want that kind of via media, proper mean between preposterous extremes.

00:21:03.840 Yes, it's okay to prefer your family to other people's families.

00:21:11.000 Yes, it's okay to have a sense of community based on all manner of shared traits, including appearance.

00:21:15.960 But you don't want to make an idol out of these things to the point that you engage in cruelty or immorality.

00:21:19.800 There's nothing wrong with it.

00:21:20.780 It's okay if you're an Irish American to get a kick out of going to Ireland where everybody looks like you. 0.99

00:21:25.520 Now, speaking of race baiting, a new race baiting euphemism has dropped.

00:21:31.740 I fear a lot of people missed this, but it's come to us by way of CBS News.

00:21:36.520 This is, where is it?

00:21:38.460 Yes.

00:21:41.340 Aquatic segregation.

00:21:44.300 Are you familiar with aquatic segregation?

00:21:47.040 Black swimmers teach others a mid-history of aquatic segregation. 0.71

00:21:52.580 No one in America should have any barrier to connecting to water.

00:21:58.900 This is a new one.

00:21:59.960 Now, the stereotype is not new.

00:22:02.380 The stereotype is that black people don't swim generally.

00:22:05.600 And this is reflected in statistics.

00:22:07.300 Black people, unfortunately, are more likely to drown.

00:22:10.520 Black people often don't swim. 1.00

00:22:13.480 What's the cause of that?

00:22:14.660 Well, segregation, racism, systemic oppression.

00:22:19.040 Black people are in cities. 0.99

00:22:20.320 They're not allowed into the YMCA.

00:22:21.580 I think they're allowed into the YMCA.

00:22:23.020 They're not allowed into the public pool.

00:22:24.000 I think they're allowed into the public pool.

00:22:25.360 They can't go to the ocean.

00:22:26.840 If they're along the coastal regions, they can't go into a lake.

00:22:29.920 I don't.

00:22:32.260 Aquatic segregation.

00:22:35.060 It's a perfectly fine thing for black people to go swimming. 1.00

00:22:38.040 Not every quirk of the differences between peoples demands an activist slogan.

00:22:50.020 Not every quirk demands a claim of oppression and victimhood.

00:22:55.140 And not every quirk needs to be a cause.

00:22:58.760 Italians, they're not the tallest people in the world generally. 1.00

00:23:01.960 This is not based on altitudinal oppression or segregation.

00:23:11.040 Asians are just stereotypically not the greatest drivers in the world. 1.00

00:23:16.600 This is not based on transmissional oppression.

00:23:22.880 Black people often don't swim. 1.00

00:23:25.240 It's okay.

00:23:25.600 It's not to say that an Italian can't play basketball.

00:23:28.560 It's not to say that an Asian can't drive.

00:23:31.580 It's not to say that a black person cannot swim.

00:23:34.680 But it's okay to acknowledge that there are just quirks and strengths and weaknesses of all sorts of peoples.

00:23:47.100 And if the headline is black people want to swim more, that's a good thing. 1.00

00:23:51.500 Can't you phrase it in a positive way?

00:23:53.080 This gets back to a story we were talking about yesterday.

00:23:55.060 Jonathan Capehart, who is with the Washington Post, and he's quitting the Washington Post now because he had demands placed on his editorial coverage.

00:24:04.460 And he was describing this on MSNBC, and he said it was outrageous.

00:24:07.320 They demanded that we writers be patriotic and say positive things about America.

00:24:13.920 Can't you just phrase this in a positive way?

00:24:16.480 Can't you just say, hey, black people are going to learn how to swim? 1.00

00:24:19.720 Hey, Italian people are going to learn how to, I don't know, put down the salami, eat a little healthier.

00:24:26.960 I don't know what it would be.

00:24:27.980 But can't you say that?

00:24:29.240 Can't you put it in a positive way?

00:24:31.420 I have a thesis.

00:24:32.720 This is highly scientific.

00:24:34.020 I have a thesis that if everyone in the country just stopped complaining, just stopped complaining for 36 hours, 94% of our problems would go away, our political problems.

00:24:50.140 If we just stopped complaining, this is true in your household, it's true in your office, it's true women complain more than men. 0.99

00:24:58.820 It's just a scientific fact.

00:25:00.420 And if we just stopped, it's kind of funny because I'm not complaining.

00:25:03.600 I'm being constructive.

00:25:04.580 I'm offering advice.

00:25:05.860 I'm offering a suggestion here.

00:25:08.060 Not everything has to be whiny and negative.

00:25:10.820 Say, hey, it's good.

00:25:12.560 We're going to learn how to swim.

00:25:13.860 That's great.

00:25:14.360 Isn't that great?

00:25:14.900 I think it's great.

00:25:16.680 Now, speaking of transportation, speaking of doing something constructive, apparently the Trump administration is going to construct a nuclear reactor on the moon.

00:25:26.320 We'll get to that.

00:25:27.200 First, though, I want to tell you about a more important scientific development, and that is beef tallow Vandy Crisps.

00:25:32.780 Go to vandycrisps.com slash Knowles.

00:25:35.780 Did you know that all chips and fries used to be cooked in beef tallow up until the 1990s when big corporations made the switch to cheap processed seed oils?

00:25:44.320 Today, seed oils make up a staggering 20% of the average American's daily calories.

00:25:49.580 Recent studies have started linking these oils to metabolic health issues and inflammation throughout the body,

00:25:54.100 which got the folks at Vandy Crisps thinking there had to be a better way.

00:25:57.980 They decided to go back to basics and created a potato chip with just three simple ingredients.

00:26:02.960 Heirloom potatoes, sea salt, 100% grass-fed beef tallow.

00:26:06.880 What makes Vandy different is not just what they've taken out, but what they've put back in.

00:26:11.740 That grass-fed beef tallow is not just for flavor.

00:26:14.780 It is packed with nutrients that are great for your skin, brain, and hormones.

00:26:18.280 When you snack on Vandy, you will notice the difference immediately.

00:26:22.260 The thing about these chips, I don't even want to call them chips.

00:26:25.760 They're like a different thing.

00:26:27.560 They are like the platonic form.

00:26:30.380 They are the ideal iteration of the chip that exists only in Elysium and now can exist in your pantry.

00:26:39.100 Made 100% in America with zero shortcuts, Vandy represents what snacking should feel like.

00:26:43.700 Ready to give Vandy a try, go to VandyCrisps.com slash Knowles.

00:26:46.520 Use code Knowles, K-N-O-W-L-E-S, for 25% off your first order.

00:26:51.420 VandyCrisps.com slash Knowles, code Knowles, for 25% off your first order.

00:26:57.040 Sean Duffy is the transportation secretary.

00:26:59.480 But in the Trump administration, because Trump is a businessman, he's an entrepreneur, he expects a lot of people,

00:27:05.000 everyone is wearing multiple hats.

00:27:07.100 Sean Duffy is also the interim NASA administrator.

00:27:09.720 And as NASA administrator, he has announced that we're going to build a nuclear reactor on the moon.

00:27:16.660 That's pretty good stuff.

00:27:17.880 You know, things are going very well for the Trump administration right now.

00:27:20.780 But this is the sort of thing that I would reserve for if there were some really bad scandal going on,

00:27:26.760 like if Trump were about to be impeached, if, I don't know, if we'd just been invaded by Mongols or some really bad political scandal.

00:27:34.460 That was, that's when I would play the, we're going to build a nuclear reactor on the moon card.

00:27:38.960 Because that's pretty big news.

00:27:41.520 Sean Duffy says, to properly advance this critical technology, to be able to support a future lunar economy,

00:27:47.260 high power energy generation on Mars, and to strengthen our national security in space,

00:27:51.380 it is imperative the agency move quickly.

00:27:53.440 The reactor will be a 100 kilowatt nuclear reactor.

00:28:00.020 It's supposed to launch by 2030.

00:28:02.480 And why are we doing this?

00:28:04.420 I confess something.

00:28:05.900 This is going to make me sound very stupid.

00:28:07.920 I, when I read this, I thought, well, wouldn't it be more efficient to build a nuclear reactor on Earth?

00:28:13.360 Like, you know, if the point is to power our suburbs, why would, isn't it going to be kind of complicated

00:28:18.540 to take all that nuclear energy from the moon and then transport it back to Earth?

00:28:22.420 But, I don't know, if anyone else had that stupid thought, it turns out the nuclear energy is supposed to stay on the moon.

00:28:29.060 And the point of this is to develop a more permanent human presence on the moon.

00:28:35.900 Half a century after we first went to the moon, now we want to develop a longer presence there.

00:28:41.040 There are many people who don't think we went to the moon.

00:28:42.760 But for those of you who do accept the evidence that we went to the moon,

00:28:46.620 we've actually already had a nuclear reactor on the moon, a very small nuclear reactor on the moon in 1969.

00:28:52.420 Again, with Apollo 12.

00:28:53.660 So now they want to build a really big nuclear reactor on the moon because you need a nuclear reactor

00:28:57.840 if you are going to maintain a human presence on the moon for any longer period of time.

00:29:03.420 After, say, lunar day.

00:29:05.060 Lunar day is not 24 hours.

00:29:06.420 Lunar day is 29 and a half days.

00:29:08.600 That's when the sun is there.

00:29:09.680 And then you go into darkness.

00:29:10.500 And then the astronauts will be very, very chilly unless we have power, unless we have a way to sustain their presence there.

00:29:16.580 So why are we doing this?

00:29:18.000 Because then you're also going to hear from, especially libertarians, who say,

00:29:22.320 who cares about going to the moon?

00:29:24.000 Who cares about going to Mars?

00:29:25.160 Who cares about all this stuff?

00:29:26.000 It's a huge waste of money.

00:29:27.180 We have a massive national debt.

00:29:28.840 We have people who are stressed out about paying for groceries.

00:29:31.960 We have a housing crisis in this country.

00:29:34.260 Why are we waste of money going to the moon?

00:29:35.760 And I'll tell you why.

00:29:36.680 I'll tell you why all of this is happening.

00:29:38.040 I'll tell you why we're building nukes on the moon.

00:29:40.660 Because if we don't, China's going to do it first. 0.98

00:29:43.840 That is the explicit reasoning of the Trump administration.

00:29:49.000 The first country to have a reactor on the moon could, according to this directive,

00:29:55.040 declare a keep-out zone, which would significantly inhibit the United States.

00:29:59.160 And there's potential for a joint Chinese and Russian project.

00:30:02.660 And geopolitics continues, despite domestic disputes.

00:30:09.500 And this gets to a lot of the issues.

00:30:11.800 You know, we complain about not just the deep state, but specifically the deep foreign policy

00:30:16.600 state.

00:30:17.040 You know, it seems like you elect Republicans, you elect Democrats.

00:30:19.140 The foreign policy remains the same.

00:30:20.900 And there are certain aspects of foreign policy I'd really like to tweak.

00:30:23.660 But we shouldn't be surprised that certain foreign policy initiatives just continue on,

00:30:30.100 no matter which party gets elected.

00:30:32.660 Because they kind of have to.

00:30:34.660 Because no matter how the ideological winds blow in the United States,

00:30:38.840 nations continue to have concrete interests in the world.

00:30:42.940 We need certain precious metals.

00:30:45.800 We need certain minerals.

00:30:46.980 We need certain natural resources.

00:30:48.540 We need oil.

00:30:49.300 We need gas.

00:30:50.420 We need microchips. 1.00

00:30:51.680 We need, you know, we need things.

00:30:55.360 And so even if you get a change of political ideology in the country, and all of a sudden

00:31:04.100 we are more positively inclined toward Russia than we were in decades past, Russia still has

00:31:10.240 ballistic missiles pointed at us.

00:31:12.560 We still have these firm rivalries, adversarial relationships.

00:31:17.080 And so we just got to do stuff sometimes.

00:31:20.240 We have to build a nuclear reactor on the moon. 0.79

00:31:23.320 That transcends partisan squabbling.

00:31:27.280 A lot of the reason that there's rancor over Ukraine right now or over the state of Israel right now,

00:31:32.340 put the domestic squabbles aside.

00:31:33.920 I'm intimately involved in the domestic squabbles.

00:31:36.020 I'm all about it.

00:31:36.760 But part of that is because from a geopolitical perspective,

00:31:40.260 Israel is seen as being on team United States.

00:31:43.380 And Iran is seen as being on team Russia and China.

00:31:46.440 And the U.S. is fighting a war with Russia right now.

00:31:49.360 And we're fighting a war with Russia through the proxy of Ukraine.

00:31:52.140 We don't really care that much about Ukraine.

00:31:53.860 Nobody really seems to care that much about Ukraine.

00:31:56.060 But we do care about our interests vis-a-vis great power politics in Russia and China.

00:32:01.780 That's what it's really about.

00:32:02.700 It's not that people care all that much about Taiwan, qua Taiwan,

00:32:05.760 but we care about the resources that Taiwan has.

00:32:07.860 And we care about preventing China from expanding and gaining leverage on the geopolitical stage.

00:32:13.560 We care about control of Africa. 0.99

00:32:15.220 We care if China is getting involved in Africa.

00:32:17.940 That's one of the reasons why we keep spending a lot of money in Africa.

00:32:20.860 And I understand that this is very frustrating to a lot of people who say,

00:32:25.080 hold on, what do I care about?

00:32:26.540 Some far-flung country.

00:32:27.700 What do I care?

00:32:28.160 I don't care about the state of Israel.

00:32:29.440 I don't care about Taiwan. 0.98

00:32:30.360 I don't care about any of these things.

00:32:31.520 But that is how imperial politics plays out.

00:32:34.880 And to a point that I've made that's deeply unpopular, but it's just a fact,

00:32:39.320 we're an empire.

00:32:40.460 We're not just merely a nation in a Westphalian system where we all get an equal seat at the UN.

00:32:44.840 We're an empire.

00:32:45.800 What we do affects everything around the world.

00:32:48.260 And that's just a fact.

00:32:50.320 And we can acknowledge that or we can bury our head in the sand and deny that.

00:32:55.100 But that's just how it goes.

00:32:57.060 So we have to wield power given those political realities, which is deeply conservative.

00:33:01.160 It's not conservative to deny hardline political realities and say,

00:33:05.500 well, would that our country were a yeoman republic as Thomas Jefferson envisioned?

00:33:09.980 Yeah, maybe he envisioned that, but we're not.

00:33:12.520 We're not, okay?

00:33:13.560 We're an empire.

00:33:14.960 The only options really are, are we going to behave like a good empire or a bad empire?

00:33:20.400 But we can't contradict reality.

00:33:22.840 Reality gets a vote.

00:33:24.600 Reality has a say.

00:33:25.880 That is a deeply conservative insight.

00:33:27.180 Okay, now speaking of the administration, going back to domestic squabbles,

00:33:32.040 Bobby Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services.

00:33:35.620 I think, I'm just remembering now.

00:33:36.660 I think he might have been in my dream last night.

00:33:38.600 That's weird, probably because I was writing my show right before bed.

00:33:40.700 What was I dreaming of about?

00:33:42.880 Anyway, there's nothing more interesting than listening to someone's dream.

00:33:45.540 I'll have to remember what that dream was about.

00:33:47.000 In any case, Bobby Kennedy Jr. has announced that they are going to ban thimerosal,

00:33:53.380 this mercury-based compound, in all vaccines.

00:33:58.400 Hi, I'm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., your HHS secretary.

00:34:02.520 I'm happy to report that last week we closed the final chapter in the long history of thimerosal

00:34:08.240 in the United States.

00:34:10.380 Thimerosal, of course, is a mercury-based vaccine preservative.

00:34:14.180 Its main component, ethyl mercury, is a known and very potent neurotoxin.

00:34:18.860 Until we withdrew the recommendation last week, flu shots containing thimerosal, astonishingly,

00:34:26.340 were still being administered to millions of Americans, including pregnant women and children.

00:34:32.100 Now, I've taken a lot of flack from the vaccine industry and from its allies in the press

00:34:37.980 about my decision to ban it.

00:34:40.840 So I want to talk a little bit about my reasons.

00:34:43.740 In early 2001, the director of the FDA Office of Vaccine Research and Review,

00:34:50.660 late William Egan, admitted under oath before Congress,

00:34:55.160 that thimerosal safety had never been studied in human beings.

00:34:58.940 Further, CDC has no existing guidelines for safe exposures to hasyl mercury.

00:35:05.180 Okay, so it goes on, but that's the thrust of the announcement,

00:35:08.340 is he's going to ban thimerosal.

00:35:09.580 Bobby Kennedy has been going off about thimerosal in vaccines for decades at this point.

00:35:13.180 And some people have claimed that thimerosal is linked to autism.

00:35:16.140 He's not going that far to make the claim here in this video.

00:35:18.460 He's just saying it's a neurotoxin and I'm getting it out of the vaccines.

00:35:22.900 The reason I care about this is a little bit because I'm interested in the vaccine issue.

00:35:27.900 I did a long Michael and with a vaccine skeptic.

00:35:30.100 You can check that out on the Michael Knowles YouTube channel or on Daily Wire.

00:35:32.600 But mostly, it's because I'm curious about how the Trump administration is going to behave

00:35:41.260 vis-a-vis its campaign promises.

00:35:44.060 No administration fulfills all its promises.

00:35:46.840 Most administrations don't fulfill any of their promises.

00:35:49.520 For goodness sakes, George W. Bush ran in 2000 against nation building.

00:35:53.300 Okay, so sometimes things go really, really screwy.

00:35:56.020 Trump has a good record of making good on his promises.

00:36:00.100 I mean, for goodness sakes, the guy got Roe v. Wade overruled.

00:36:03.040 So he's got a pretty good record here.

00:36:05.240 But this was an issue that was kind of a weather vane.

00:36:08.400 Is the administration going to stick to its promises or not?

00:36:12.040 You're going to pick as your health and human services secretary,

00:36:14.860 one of the most outspoken radical health reformers, public health reformers in the country,

00:36:20.700 who happens to be from a different political party,

00:36:23.180 who's been canceled even by that political party, who ran for president.

00:36:27.980 You got, this is a major lightning rod.

00:36:31.900 And on his biggest lightning rod issue, he's now making good on the promise.

00:36:38.740 It tells you that this administration is going to be bold.

00:36:42.280 This administration, the Kennedy versus Big Pharma fight,

00:36:45.640 the Kennedy versus Big Pharma on vaccines fight was always going to be a big tell.

00:36:50.280 Is this administration going to do what it said it's going to do?

00:36:52.880 Or is this administration going to make nice with all the usual powers that be

00:36:57.800 and just kind of moderate their message and go along to get along?

00:37:01.080 And the answer here is clear as day.

00:37:03.500 They're doing what they said they were going to do.

00:37:06.240 Regardless of what you think about vaccines.

00:37:07.940 To me, vaccines are a secondary issue on this.

00:37:10.880 The fact that Bobby Kennedy is going to stick it to the vaccine industry like this

00:37:14.340 after decades of being maligned, after massive campaigns against him,

00:37:20.100 after effectively switching political parties in order to get anything done.

00:37:24.460 That's a big tell.

00:37:25.520 This administration is not going to be cowed.

00:37:28.240 Okay.

00:37:29.300 Now, Kennedy also making another big announcement on public health.

00:37:32.100 We'll get to that in one second.

00:37:33.040 And then we'll get to the most important issue of the day.

00:37:35.100 There's a lot coming to Daily Wire Plus.

00:37:36.440 And it's not inclusive, safe, or moderated by NPR.

00:37:38.760 You will love it.

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00:37:53.060 The Vatican's receipts are wide open.

00:37:54.520 This fall, Isabel Brown's new show joins the lineup alongside the most trusted and handsome voices in conservative media.

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00:38:12.620 My favorite comment yesterday is from Johns363, who says,

00:38:15.000 Sidney Sweeney is a modern-day Rosa Parks.

00:38:18.800 I don't think any further explanation is necessary.

00:38:21.700 I think we would all agree with that.

00:38:25.960 So obvious.

00:38:27.400 Bobby Kennedy, moving on from vaccines, is not just banning mercury and thimerosal.

00:38:33.080 He's also banning Mountain Dew.

00:38:34.760 Snap, we're spending $405 million a day on Snap.

00:38:41.320 About 10% is going to sugary drinks.

00:38:45.200 And between, and if you add candies to that, it's about 13 to 17%.

00:38:52.760 And we all believe in free choice.

00:38:55.960 We live in a democracy.

00:38:57.480 People can make their own choice about what they're going to buy and what they're not going to buy.

00:39:01.300 If you want to buy a sugary soda, you ought to be able to do that.

00:39:05.460 But the U.S. taxpayers should not pay for it.

00:39:09.440 The U.S. taxpayers should not be paying to feed kids foods, the poorest kids in our country,

00:39:18.060 with foods that are going to give them diabetes.

00:39:21.360 And then my agency ends up, through Medicaid and Medicare, paying for those injuries.

00:39:27.580 Oh, we're going to put an end to that.

00:39:30.300 Okay, so he's not banning your Mountain Dew, unless you're on Snap, unless you're on food stamps, in which case he is.

00:39:36.900 And this has been a debate going back years and decades, really, on the right.

00:39:42.200 Because you can see strong arguments on both sides.

00:39:45.600 The one argument is, why are we paying for these luxury goods for these poor people who, you know, 1.00

00:39:51.500 we're already paying for them to eat, but I don't want to pay for them to have nice, tasty soda.

00:39:54.680 It is ridiculous.

00:39:56.780 And so they don't get that.

00:39:58.040 They have to drink tap water.

00:39:59.720 I don't know.

00:40:00.880 And then there's a related argument, which is, yeah, why am I going to have to pay for their health care costs?

00:40:06.000 If they're going to just stuff their faces with donuts and Mountain Dew and become big fatties,

00:40:10.440 and why am I going to have to pay for all their health care costs later on?

00:40:14.840 Bobby Kennedy is making that argument a little bit.

00:40:17.760 Then there's another argument, also a kind of a libertarian argument,

00:40:22.640 which is, well, hold on.

00:40:26.580 Why is big government coming in this nanny state and deciding what people can use their SNAP money on?

00:40:32.680 You know, look, I'm a libertarian, and I don't think that we should have SNAP anyway.

00:40:35.880 I don't think we should have food stamps anyway.

00:40:37.460 But as long as we're going to have food stamps, you should let the people pick whatever they want.

00:40:40.400 We don't need big nanny government coming in and picking out what kind of soda you're allowed to drink. 1.00

00:40:44.720 Let the people decide what they want.

00:40:46.240 He who governs least, governs best.

00:40:48.180 And I think what the stronger argument actually does not come from those libertarian premises,

00:40:56.840 because any country, any civilized country is going to have some kind of national policy for the poor,

00:41:04.760 for the people who really can't afford to eat.

00:41:07.820 It's better when those policies are a more local level, but any country such as ours is going to have a national policy for the poor.

00:41:12.600 So, okay, should we be allowing the poor to have soda?

00:41:20.080 Are we going to pay for their sodas?

00:41:21.820 Some people are going to argue they don't deserve these kind of luxury goods.

00:41:24.800 We should just give them bare sustenance, give them cereal and rice. 1.00

00:41:28.680 And then once they can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, then they can buy luxury goods if they want.

00:41:33.120 That's not really my argument.

00:41:34.420 I actually don't mind a national welfare policy that allows for poor people to have some luxuries, some minor luxuries.

00:41:42.960 I'm not saying, you know, they're not going to buy them a Rolex, but like there's some, you know, having a nice drink or something like that.

00:41:48.540 The reason I think this is a good policy, the reason I think it's good that we should not allow food stamps to pay for soda,

00:41:53.900 is actually a little bit more esoteric than all this.

00:41:56.920 It's that soda isn't actually a luxury good.

00:42:02.620 My argument is not we shouldn't allow these filthy poor people to have what we, you know, fancy elites get to enjoy. 1.00

00:42:11.580 My argument is the fancy elites don't drink soda.

00:42:14.860 It's not actually a luxury good.

00:42:17.500 Do you know, of all, I know a lot of people who are a lot richer than I am.

00:42:21.100 I know a lot of rich people.

00:42:22.380 And none of them drink soda.

00:42:25.460 With one exception, some of them drink Diet Coke because it's a habit they cultivated over the decades.

00:42:31.140 And Diet Coke is very popular because Trump drinks Diet Coke.

00:42:34.820 But with the exception of Diet Coke, and even largely including Diet Coke, soda is not like a luxurious, fancy thing.

00:42:41.840 They drink seltzer, you know, like fruity seltzers.

00:42:46.760 They drink, I don't know, Topo Chico.

00:42:49.340 They drink some like, they drink kombucha.

00:42:52.240 I don't know.

00:42:52.540 They drink all these like stupid bougie drinks. 0.99

00:42:54.440 But they don't drink soda.

00:42:57.980 So it's not, it's actually not, because soda is not good for you.

00:43:00.740 And it does give you all sorts of problems down the line.

00:43:03.220 So that's my argument.

00:43:04.080 I think the robust defense of this decision not to pay for soda through food stamps is to say, oh, it's not, it's not good for you.

00:43:15.100 And this has been a big shift in politics.

00:43:16.680 We talk about it a lot.

00:43:17.640 It's not just about rights.

00:43:19.620 It's not just about liberty, the liberty to have Mountain Dew, the liberty not to have to pay for Mountain Dew, the liberty for, it's, it's about, well, what's good?

00:43:26.280 This isn't good for you.

00:43:27.280 And it's not good really for anyone in society.

00:43:30.040 And so we shouldn't encourage it.

00:43:31.400 We're not going to ban it necessarily.

00:43:32.640 We're going to have a nice, we're going to have a nice mean between extremes here, between miserliness and prodigality.

00:43:38.960 We're going to have a nice mean between total decadence and indulgence of toxic foods and a total abstinence from anything that's kind of sugary.

00:43:50.740 We're going to have a nice mean, but we're going to recognize it's not really good for people.

00:43:54.780 No, we should, if anything, if we're going to inject anything back into the SNAP program, have it be some like fruity millennial seltzer or something.

00:44:02.780 You know, have it, have it be a genuine luxury good.

00:44:04.860 Okay.

00:44:05.720 Before we go, I have to get to the most important story of the day.

00:44:09.360 President Trump finally weighing in on Sidney Sweeney's jeans ad.

00:44:13.180 Uh, actress Sidney Sweeney, it came out this weekend that she was a registered Republican.

00:44:19.360 Any thoughts on that?

00:44:20.420 That who was?

00:44:21.160 Sidney Sweeney, she's like a very hot actress right now. 1.00

00:44:23.540 She's a registered Republican?

00:44:25.180 Yes.

00:44:25.300 Oh, now I love her ad.

00:44:27.720 Is that right?

00:44:28.720 Is Sidney Sweeney?

00:44:30.440 You'd be surprised at how many people are Republicans.

00:44:33.140 That's what I wouldn't have known, but I'm glad you told me that.

00:44:38.480 If Sidney Sweeney is a registered Republican, I think her ad is fantastic.

00:44:44.240 Okay.

00:44:44.680 Thank you very much, everybody.

00:44:46.160 Thank you, Mr. President.

00:44:46.880 I love the shamelessness of it, and I love the little wink.

00:44:52.280 Huh?

00:44:52.700 What's this thing that you're asking me to give my opinion on?

00:44:56.340 Huh?

00:44:56.800 Oh, this thing that I obviously haven't seen?

00:44:59.120 Hold on.

00:44:59.580 Hold on.

00:44:59.860 Tell me.

00:45:00.140 Tell me just one question.

00:45:01.620 Is she on my team or the other team?

00:45:04.120 Is the person in question, before I give my objective opinion about a work of art, let

00:45:11.820 me just, is the artist on my team or the other team?

00:45:15.440 Sir, they're on your team.

00:45:16.960 I love it.

00:45:17.880 It's great art.

00:45:18.860 It's brilliant.

00:45:20.240 This commercial is basically Michelangelo.

00:45:24.720 If you had told me that the artist is on the other team, I would tell you it's absolute

00:45:28.540 garbage and trash. 0.68

00:45:30.120 I love it.

00:45:30.560 And he's kind of smiling.

00:45:31.280 And some people will say that's a cynical approach.

00:45:35.700 No, I don't know.

00:45:37.300 Politics is a team sport, and we give a little bit more grace to the people on our side, and

00:45:41.660 we're nicer to the people on our team.

00:45:43.260 And we should give a little more grace to our families than we would to other people.

00:45:49.420 And yeah, this all ties in.

00:45:51.560 It ties into Billie Eilish.

00:45:52.560 It ties into the Ordo Amoris that the vice president was talking about not so long ago.

00:45:56.720 Trump then went to Truth Social.

00:45:58.240 He says, Sidney Sweeney, a registered Republican, is the hottest ad out there.

00:46:01.780 It's for American Eagle, and the jeans are flying off the shelves.

00:46:04.960 Go get him, Sidney.

00:46:06.120 On the other side of the ledger, Jaguar did a stupid and seriously woke advertisement.

00:46:11.420 That is a total disaster, all caps.

00:46:14.460 The CEO just resigned in disgrace, and the company is in absolute turmoil.

00:46:17.780 Who wants to buy a Jaguar after looking at that disgraceful ad?

00:46:21.140 Shouldn't they have learned a lesson from Bud Light, which went woke and essentially destroyed

00:46:24.380 in a short campaign the company?

00:46:25.980 The market cap destruction has been unprecedented with billions of dollars so foolishly lost.

00:46:30.280 Or just look at woke singer Taylor Swift. 0.68

00:46:32.640 Ever since I alerted the world as to what she was by saying on truth that I can't stand

00:46:41.980 her, parenthesis, hate, she was booed out of the Super Bowl and became no longer hot. 1.00

00:46:49.940 She's no longer hot.

00:46:52.200 Neil Obstatt, so declareth Mr. Trump.

00:46:56.020 The tide has seriously turned being woke is for losers.

00:46:58.680 Others, being a Republican is what you want to be.

00:47:01.040 Thank you for your attention to this matter.

00:47:05.540 You can laugh at this.

00:47:07.180 I mean, it's beautifully written.

00:47:08.120 The man has poetic diction.

00:47:09.140 I've said this ever since he settled on Make America Great Again for his hat all the way

00:47:13.240 back 10 years ago.

00:47:14.700 He has a way with words.

00:47:15.820 He really does.

00:47:16.340 I'm not being facetious in any way.

00:47:17.900 That's evocative language.

00:47:19.020 That's good prose.

00:47:20.560 We can laugh at this.

00:47:21.680 We say, this is so funny.

00:47:22.480 This is so weird.

00:47:24.720 Show me the lie.

00:47:26.560 Show me the lie.

00:47:27.200 I know some people are going to say, oh no, this is going to be bad for Sidney Sweeney

00:47:29.560 because she's a Hollywood starlet and everyone likes her. 1.00

00:47:31.620 And now she's got Trump supporting her and that's going to be bad for her.

00:47:34.560 This is going to be bad for American Eagle.

00:47:37.760 Nah, man.

00:47:38.340 The stock price jumped again.

00:47:40.200 So when American Eagle first released the Sidney Sweeney ad, the most effective ad campaign

00:47:44.340 of the last 20 years at least, the stock price jumped 10% and they gained $200 million

00:47:51.280 in market cap yesterday after Trump's comments on the True Social Post.

00:47:57.840 The American Eagle saw its stock price jump 23.7%.

00:48:02.060 It was already up on the ad campaign.

00:48:04.240 Then it jumped 23.7%.

00:48:08.700 And the stocks rally was the biggest since it rose 26.5% 25 years ago.

00:48:18.080 Almost to the day, 25 years ago.

00:48:21.640 When Trump says all these things, I like Sidney and she's hot and being woke is for losers.

00:48:27.320 And I destroyed Taylor Swift.

00:48:29.180 When he says all these things, these audacious claims, he's basically right.

00:48:36.840 Which American Eagle knew.

00:48:40.560 That's why American Eagle did the ad campaign.

00:48:43.080 They knew that there would be backlash.

00:48:45.820 They knew it was provocative.

00:48:47.800 It's the sort of thing that Sidney Sweeney knew.

00:48:50.540 That's why, that's one of the reasons why I suspect she did the ad campaign. 0.99

00:48:53.620 It's one of the reasons why I suspect she hasn't been out there promoting Democrats and Planned Parenthood

00:48:59.160 and doing everything else that every other Hollywood starlet does. 1.00

00:49:02.460 Part of it might be her principles.

00:49:03.920 Part of it might be what she really believes.

00:49:05.280 Part of it might be, but she's also a very savvy operator in Hollywood. 1.00

00:49:10.500 And the cold calculating reality here is Trump is hot.

00:49:17.720 His enemies are not.

00:49:18.720 That's how it is, right?

00:49:19.440 Maybe it won't, that won't always be the case.

00:49:21.360 Right now it is.

00:49:22.260 The numbers don't lie.

00:49:24.400 Okay, speaking of hotness, there's a story I really, really want to get to.

00:49:27.900 This is great.

00:49:28.360 This will be my tease for tomorrow.

00:49:30.400 Wired Magazine has an amazing article called Confessions of a Recovering AI Porn Addict.

00:49:40.100 I should have understood this already, but porn has come to AI.

00:49:44.740 And apparently this has become something of a phenomenon.

00:49:46.780 And it is, the tales that this guy tells are horrifying.

00:49:52.120 And they tell you so, so much about technology, about liberalism, about who we are.

00:50:00.360 It's a major warning.

00:50:02.020 Anyway, we'll get to that tomorrow.

00:50:04.340 Because today we need to move to funnier matters.

00:50:06.100 Because it's Tee Hee Hee Tuesday.

00:50:07.400 The rest of the show continues now.

00:50:08.660 You do not want to miss it.

00:50:10.400 Become a member.

00:50:11.020 Use code NOLS.

00:50:11.560 At checkout for two months free on all annual plans.

00:50:14.360 Like many of you out there, I enjoy shooting guns in my free time and in my busy time.

00:50:35.680 Now, I thought I had it pretty good until my friends over at Silencer Shop showed me what I was missing.

00:50:40.460 Shooting suppressed is not just quieter.

00:50:43.460 It's just all around better.

00:50:46.180 Less noise, less recoil, a lot more fun.

00:50:49.060 Once you try it, you will wonder how you ever shot guns without silencers.

00:50:53.160 Your ears, your range neighbors, your aim, all of those things will thank you.

00:50:57.420 Now, Silencer Shop is not just another gun website.

00:51:01.120 They are the go-to for suppressors in America because they make the entire process super simple.

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00:51:13.920 They also happen to be one of the strongest advocates for the Second Amendment in the industry.

00:51:17.660 Silencer Shop puts in the work.

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00:51:23.940 If you've been thinking about getting a suppressor, now is the time.

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00:51:38.280 Silencer Shop, because your rights and your lines are worth protecting.

The Michael Knowles Show - August 05, 2025

Ep. 1786 - Americans DENIED Federal Aid If They Don’t Support Israel？

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