The Tucker Carlson Show - Anson Frericks： Bud Light’s Fall & Comeback Attempt, Zyn’s DEI Agenda, & Why Big Business Hates You

00:00:00.000 So, what happened to Anheuser-Busch?

00:00:03.720 Like, what is, if you don't mind, since you've thought about this probably more than any living person,

00:00:10.100 how exactly did a company, an American company like that, that you felt like had a sense of the country that it served,

00:00:18.560 go off in a direction that was so obviously crazy and self-destructive, like, how could that happen?

00:00:30.000 Yeah, you know, Tucker, there's a short story to it, and there's a long story.

00:00:49.520 I mean, I'll give you the short version, then we can get into the longer version of what happened.

00:00:51.760 Great.

00:00:52.000 But, you know, I mean, the short version is it used to be a great American, you know, company.

00:00:55.860 This was owned by the Bush family.

00:00:57.040 The Bush family had started this thing in the 1850s.

00:00:59.220 You know, this is the same time you have the Carnegies, the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers.

00:01:02.540 You didn't have any of those folks still in the, I don't know, 20 years ago,

00:01:05.140 but the Bush family was actually still running Anheuser-Busch 20 years ago, which is crazy.

00:01:08.740 I think they actually have houses right around here, as a matter of fact.

00:01:11.080 I know them.

00:01:11.680 Yeah, you probably know them well.

00:01:13.320 And so the short story is—

00:01:14.020 Very nice people.

00:01:14.920 Very nice people.

00:01:15.260 Not everyone in the family, but some of the people—

00:01:17.420 It's a big family.

00:01:18.780 One of the former presidents, great man.

00:01:20.440 Yeah, it's a big family.

00:01:22.420 So, and long story short, I mean, the company got so big,

00:01:25.260 and at some point it owned SeaWorld, it owned Busch Gardens, it owned eight helicopters,

00:01:29.380 ten private jets, and it got a little bit bloated.

00:01:30.840 So it got taken over by this Belgian company, European company called InBev.

00:01:35.740 InBev came in and bought it in 2008.

00:01:38.020 And the culture has really changed, whereas Anheuser-Busch was all about growing the brands,

00:01:41.160 understood the U.S. consumer, Budweiser, Bud Light, all these things.

00:01:44.240 InBev had a different mentality.

00:01:45.460 They were much more of a—they called it the world's largest private equity from the happen to sell beer.

00:01:48.380 A lot of cost-cutting that went on, brought a lot of European people into the United States, 1.00

00:01:52.800 changed the headquarters from St. Louis, Missouri, which is almost the geographical center of the country.

00:01:57.360 And a wonderful town.

00:01:58.200 Wonderful town.

00:01:58.980 And they moved it to New York City.

00:02:00.780 And then when they moved it to New York City—

00:02:01.840 Not a wonderful town.

00:02:03.020 Very, very different town, different mentality.

00:02:04.920 And then all of a sudden, they had bought a bunch of different beer companies.

00:02:07.660 After buying Anheuser-Busch, they bought Group Modelo, SCB Miller, took on too much debt.

00:02:11.720 All of a sudden, the company in 2017—

00:02:13.380 Wait, you're saying a private equity firm took on too much debt?

00:02:16.080 Yeah, it wouldn't be the first time.

00:02:17.700 So, you know, never happened before, right?

00:02:19.340 Never happened before.

00:02:20.440 And I think the bigger problem was is that in 2018-19, for a bunch of different reasons,

00:02:25.560 the company to try and grow, they adopted a lot of the ESG, DEI philosophies that we've heard a lot about.

00:02:31.000 Stakeholder capitalism, which is this European concept that businesses are supposed to serve all types of purposes.

00:02:35.820 That pops up.

00:02:36.920 And then two or three years later, all of a sudden, the company has really changed.

00:02:39.700 It changed from sort of a great American company based in the Midwest, based off meritocracy values.

00:02:45.100 And then all of a sudden, in the, you know, kind of post-COVID, post-George Floyd era, Anheuser-Busch, they start moving away from being a meritocracy,

00:02:53.080 moving more towards diversity, equity, inclusion, moving more towards getting more involved in political issues.

00:02:58.380 And, you know, unfortunately, with what happened with Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light,

00:03:00.920 that was the product of maybe 10 years of mistakes the company had made.

00:03:04.440 And now all of a sudden, you have a company that's lost 50% of its sales with the biggest beer in America, Bud Light,

00:03:08.840 and they still haven't turned it around.

00:03:10.900 So that's the short story.

00:03:11.840 Now we can get into the longer story about maybe more broadly what happened.

00:03:14.580 Okay, so, I mean, you're describing so many American companies, by the way.

00:03:18.440 Yeah.

00:03:19.780 That trajectory downward.

00:03:22.360 But at the end of the story, there was this revealing moment where Anheuser-Busch executives,

00:03:30.160 or one of them, basically just admitted, I hate our consumers.

00:03:32.940 And you wonder, like, where does that mindset? 0.99

00:03:35.940 I mean, people have all kinds of dumb ideas about business and dumb ideas about everything else. 0.95

00:03:38.960 But if you're in the retail business, if you're selling products to consumers, 0.98

00:03:43.880 and you find yourself in a place where you're like, let's piss them off and humiliate them.

00:03:49.280 Like, that's so obviously insane.

00:03:50.900 Like, how could anybody say something like that?

00:03:53.400 No, totally insane.

00:03:54.260 And I think, like, let's back up.

00:03:55.780 Because, I mean, really, I think this story starts almost 40 years beforehand,

00:03:58.580 where you really are starting to talk about what is the purpose of a corporation?

00:04:02.040 Like, what are businesses in the business of doing?

00:04:04.980 And in the United States, since the 1970s, you had sort of this view of Milton Friedman.

00:04:08.440 Milton Friedman, famous economist, said the purpose of a corporation was to serve its shareholders,

00:04:12.620 the people who actually owned the business.

00:04:14.200 How do you do that?

00:04:15.160 Well, you focus on your customers, focus on creating great products and services.

00:04:18.360 When you do that, you generate more revenue, you can hire more people,

00:04:21.440 and business continue to grow and do all the great things businesses do.

00:04:24.240 There was this other philosophy that was more this European view of the world

00:04:27.740 that says the purpose of a corporation is to serve all stakeholders.

00:04:30.520 That was started by Klaus Schwab.

00:04:32.220 This is the World Economic Forum, Davos type of elite, that over in Europe—

00:04:36.380 What's a stakeholder?

00:04:37.580 So that's the problem.

00:04:38.660 There are thousands of stakeholders.

00:04:40.560 You know, it's almost the idea of, like, when you have this shareholder capitalism model

00:04:43.380 that Milton Friedman says, you must have, like, one god.

00:04:45.540 The god is the shareholder.

00:04:46.400 That's who you have to take a look at.

00:04:47.920 But this stakeholder capitalism model, you have thousands of gods.

00:04:51.140 Those can be activists, government employees.

00:04:54.300 They can be suppliers.

00:04:55.440 They can be social activists.

00:04:59.500 I mean, you name it.

00:05:00.000 There's thousands of them.

00:05:01.360 People have nothing to do with your company.

00:05:02.580 It has nothing to do with the company.

00:05:04.300 But you're supposed to be in the business of maximizing value for all so-called stakeholders,

00:05:08.980 for the greater good of society.

00:05:10.520 Sounds very European socialism.

00:05:12.360 And that's effectively what it was.

00:05:13.920 And both of these systems, they purported to do the same thing 40 years ago.

00:05:17.580 They said, we're going to make people more money and lead to better societal outcomes.

00:05:21.700 Problem is, over the last 40 years, I mean, if you just take a look at sort of the U.S. economic model

00:05:26.440 versus Europe since the 1970s, U.S. has trounced Europe on both of those premises.

00:05:31.840 If you take a look at our stock market returns in the U.S., take an S&P 500.

00:05:35.840 Over the last 40 years, we've generated 10% a year on average.

00:05:38.860 Europe broad-based industries are like 6% to 7%.

00:05:41.060 But then in perspective, you had $100,000 invested in the U.S. in 1970 and $100,000 in Europe.

00:05:46.380 In the U.S., it'd be worth $4.5 million today.

00:05:48.540 It'd be worth $1.5 million in Europe.

00:05:49.920 So that's a huge difference based on the compounding interest of money.

00:05:54.800 And then separately, if you take a look at the U.S., you know, Europe might say,

00:05:59.040 okay, well, we didn't make as much money, but do we lead to better societal outcomes?

00:06:01.800 And I would say, no.

00:06:02.540 I mean, if you take a look at the U.S., almost every broad-based prosperity metric,

00:06:05.380 GDP growth, per capita income, interest rates, unemployment rates,

00:06:09.360 the U.S. trounces Europe on all of those.

00:06:10.800 I mean, like our poorest countries in the United States are generally wealthier

00:06:13.920 than most of the European countries on a per capita basis.

00:06:16.800 And so over the last sort of 40 years, you kind of had these two systems that were developing.

00:06:20.880 And the U.S. model, to me, is just the superior model.

00:06:23.680 I mean, I believe in American exceptionalism.

00:06:25.280 I think our American model works.

00:06:26.980 The problem is with the American model is every once in a while,

00:06:29.040 there are kind of bumps in the system, bumps in the road.

00:06:31.740 And the last time we had kind of a real economic bump in the road, let's call it, was 2008, 2009.

00:06:36.680 You had sort of the great financial crisis that happens.

00:06:39.300 And after the great financial crisis, there's sort of a lot of people that were upset that banks got bailed out.

00:06:44.060 It seemed like Main Street was the one that sort of lost out.

00:06:46.540 People lost houses.

00:06:48.420 And so all of a sudden, business and capitalism kind of has to repair itself and repair its image.

00:06:54.020 And the way that it did that is, especially if you remember the Occupy Wall Street movement,

00:06:57.340 you know, Occupy Wall Street and everyone else says,

00:06:59.220 okay, well, banks and financers and companies,

00:07:02.480 they need to be a bigger part of the system in making sure that everybody can succeed.

00:07:06.680 At the same time, then you had Obama was the president,

00:07:09.980 and he came up with some diversity, equity, inclusion mandates

00:07:12.340 that were happening within sort of the broader-based government.

00:07:15.480 And for the next three or four or five years,

00:07:17.540 you see a lot of companies that are trying to repair the image of so-called business and capitalism in the United States.

00:07:23.820 McKinsey came out with a famous study that says diversity wins,

00:07:27.520 where they said we're going to have, let's force sort of diversity initiatives on a lot of companies,

00:07:31.320 and those ones would do better.

00:07:32.360 This study has been thoroughly debunked.

00:07:33.600 You had a lot of asset management companies, the BlackRock, State Streets, Vanguards of the world.

00:07:39.200 They started really talking more about environmental social governance issues,

00:07:44.280 which is a term that was coined in 2005.

00:07:46.500 Really never went anywhere.

00:07:47.820 The United Nations originally coined it.

00:07:49.440 You know, if the United Nations coined something, usually, you know, be skeptical of it.

00:07:52.880 Didn't go anywhere for the first five or 10 years.

00:07:55.300 But after the Occupy Wall Street movement,

00:07:57.100 a lot of big asset managers kind of picked up this term,

00:07:59.600 started talking about environmental social governance issues.

00:08:02.080 And really, a lot of these issues picked up tons of steam when Trump was first elected.

00:08:06.840 And when Trump was first elected, and he pulled out of these supranational organizations,

00:08:11.500 the Paris Climate Accords, pulled out of the human rights sort of campaign coalitions.

00:08:16.480 All of a sudden, a lot of these more progressive institutions that said,

00:08:19.920 wait a minute, like, we thought government was going to solve these existential crises of,

00:08:23.360 you know, climate change and banking systems and systemic racism and you kind of name it.

00:08:27.840 Now, all of a sudden, they're not.

00:08:28.720 And we need business to do this.

00:08:30.800 And by the way, a lot of progressive pension funds,

00:08:33.660 state of California, state of New York, European sovereign wealth funds like Norway and others,

00:08:38.220 they have collectively trillions of dollars of assets.

00:08:41.280 And they said, okay, now, if these a lot of these banks that had all of a sudden started talking

00:08:45.240 about environmental social governance issues,

00:08:47.400 we're going to manage money on our behalf.

00:08:49.440 We wanted them to solve a lot of the existential crises in this country

00:08:53.520 that Trump was not going to do in 2016.

00:08:55.660 And at that time period, you had a really interesting thing that happened.

00:09:00.100 We've been with BlackRock.

00:09:01.380 Quite.

00:09:01.920 Yeah.

00:09:02.120 The largest asset management company in the world.

00:09:04.480 Managed about over $10 trillion worth of capital.

00:09:07.180 And what was interesting is BlackRock was really one of the leaders of this movement,

00:09:10.600 along with State Street, Vanguard, those three largest asset managers in this entire country.

00:09:15.160 Managed about $20 trillion worth of assets.

00:09:17.020 They're the single largest shareholder in, you know, 95% of the S&P 500.

00:09:20.160 And they wield a lot of influence in terms of telling companies kind of what to do.

00:09:24.840 And the problem with a lot of these big asset managers is that

00:09:27.540 it's not their own money that they're managing.

00:09:31.160 You know, if this was like George Soros type money or, you know, Bill Gates,

00:09:34.120 like it's their own money and they, you know, ask companies to do all types of crazy things.

00:09:37.400 But the problem was with BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard is they were managing,

00:09:40.380 I mean, a lot of times like your money, my money through 401ks or pension funds or others.

00:09:44.260 And because of their largest sort of clients, which again, are more the progressive pension funds

00:09:48.140 and others, are telling them that they want business to get more involved in politics and

00:09:51.920 social issues, then all of a sudden they're starting to force a new agenda on corporations. 0.58

00:09:57.360 Telling companies that we want you guys to get more involved in environmental, social,

00:10:00.800 and governance issues.

00:10:01.980 And they even changed the purpose of a corporation in the 2018-2019 time period.

00:10:07.060 There was a famous letter that Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, wrote in 2018,

00:10:11.020 essentially telling companies that we want them to now earn their social license.

00:10:17.100 And you're going to do that because we have evolved the purpose of a corporation with a

00:10:21.000 group known as the Business Roundtable in the United States to be more focused on your

00:10:26.100 stakeholders.

00:10:26.980 So you're no longer focused on shareholders, we want you to focus on stakeholders.

00:10:30.460 And that is now who you are now going to focus on for maximizing value without defining,

00:10:34.920 again, who those stakeholders are.

00:10:36.000 And so this becomes very, very problematic in this sort of 2018-2019 time frame because

00:10:41.220 companies are frankly confused.

00:10:43.200 And it set up really a lot of, I'll call it kindling, for an event that happened in 2020,

00:10:49.200 which was COVID.

00:10:50.800 And all of a sudden, companies are being told they need to earn their social license.

00:10:54.420 They're being told that now no longer your shareholders, your kind of primary person that

00:10:58.480 you're serving, but you're now serving all stakeholders without defining what that is.

00:11:01.740 And in the 2020 time period, now all of a sudden you have this event of COVID.

00:11:07.540 And when COVID happens, the music problem is a crazy time period, we don't need to go through

00:11:10.600 all of it, but companies frankly like lost their sense of direction about who were they

00:11:15.040 serving, what their mission is.

00:11:16.540 I mean, you remember we all had to flatten the curve and, you know, the so-called flatten

00:11:18.760 the curve in early 2020.

00:11:20.800 And companies were essentially-

00:11:22.080 Except for the George Floyd rioters who were under no such obligation, I noticed.

00:11:26.480 Correct.

00:11:26.700 But that, you know, that's obviously after this, but, you know, in March of 2020, I mean,

00:11:32.120 almost every company lost what its mission was.

00:11:34.920 And what do I mean by that?

00:11:36.080 Well, let's go back to what at Anheuser-Busch, we were making hand sanitizer in 2020 all of

00:11:41.460 a sudden because we need to flatten this curve and we were all in this existential crisis of

00:11:45.320 COVID.

00:11:46.180 You had Delta Airlines, no longer flying passengers, but it's now flying medical supplies all around.

00:11:50.300 You had General Motors, which is now making ventilators for the country.

00:11:54.260 Walmart, setting up COVID testing facilities.

00:11:56.700 So all of these companies all of a sudden were told to focus on a lot of different initiatives

00:12:00.440 besides just their typical products and services.

00:12:02.880 And frankly, like a lot of these efforts, like you think about it, like the curve has

00:12:05.460 flattened very quickly.

00:12:06.320 You know, there was no like real existential crisis like we thought there was.

00:12:09.660 But the problem was that since all these companies had kind of been pushed off their

00:12:12.780 mission, then we had this next issue, which was the George Floyd issue that pops up in

00:12:17.360 May of 2020.

00:12:19.040 And, you know, George Floyd, you know, George Floyd dies.

00:12:22.120 And now the next existential crisis that every single company in the United States is looking

00:12:26.600 to solve is systemic racism because their largest so-called shareholders in the Black

00:12:32.400 Rock, State Streets, vanguards of the world who had told them that now we want you focused

00:12:36.580 on solving more of these stakeholder and societal issues.

00:12:39.720 We need you to now solve these issues.

00:12:41.920 I mean, you went down the list.

00:12:42.900 I mean, it was crazy.

00:12:43.540 After George Floyd was murdered, you had 70 different companies in the United States

00:12:48.100 here donated over $200 billion to Black Lives Matter in the United States.

00:12:52.360 That's like more than the GDP of Portugal, which is crazy in terms of the amount of money

00:12:55.540 that was donated to these causes.

00:12:57.660 And banking donations just wasn't enough.

00:12:59.580 I mean, even, you know, Zuckerberg and Facebook at the time donated some eight-figure sum to it.

00:13:03.940 But then when that summer, Trump had the famous tweet about when the looting starts, the shooting

00:13:08.340 starts, then everybody wanted him to now all of a sudden take Trump off of Facebook because

00:13:13.860 it just wasn't enough just to donate.

00:13:15.580 You actually had to silence folks as well.

00:13:18.220 On top of that, in 2020, 2021, you had the Black Rocks and State Streets, vanguards of the

00:13:25.600 world as well.

00:13:26.560 Not only are they, this is where the big problem comes in, is because they are controlled, the

00:13:32.020 largest percentage of companies in the United States, they have disproportionate power to

00:13:37.940 advocate for policies at companies, and then most importantly, to vote for shareholder proposals

00:13:44.060 at companies, where if you own $25,000 of stock in any company in the United States, you can

00:13:49.620 put up what's known as a shareholder proposal that the so-called shareholders of the company

00:13:54.820 they can vote on.

00:13:55.740 And what was crazy is in 2020, 2021, you had a lot of these activists that because the

00:14:02.720 purpose of this corporation had changed in the United States, away from shareholder value

00:14:06.300 to this European stakeholder model, said, okay, now businesses, again, they have to maximize

00:14:10.180 value for me.

00:14:10.720 So you saw there's a group called Color of Change, and it's a nonprofit group, and their

00:14:17.480 mission is to stamp out systemic racism in the country.

00:14:19.940 You know, okay, fine.

00:14:20.640 Like, you know, you can do that, you're whatever.

00:14:21.840 But like, they went to Apple, they bought $25,000 worth of shares at Apple, you know,

00:14:25.500 and they put up this shareholder proposal that said, hey, you Apple, we want you guys

00:14:29.580 to do a racial equity audit to figure out how you've contributed to systemic racism and

00:14:34.300 white supremacy in the country.

00:14:35.780 And Apple, which is, you know, pretty liberal leftist board, you know, company of Tim Cook,

00:14:39.840 who's the CEO and very liberal board, they said, guys, like, thanks, but no thanks.

00:14:43.820 Because Apple's mission is to make magical devices at unbelievable prices.

00:14:47.920 Like, that's what we just do.

00:14:49.300 You know, that's our thing.

00:14:49.960 Like, these are important issues, but we're going to recommend against this proposal because

00:14:54.420 we don't want to spend tens of millions of dollars hiring, you know, Eric Holder and

00:14:57.900 Loretta Lynch to go and do a racial equity audit. 0.57

00:15:00.360 But this passed by 52 to 48 percent because you had firms like BlackRock, which is the

00:15:06.320 second largest shareholder of the company, voted for it.

00:15:09.080 You know, Vanguard, State Street, everyone else are voting for these issues and forcing

00:15:12.220 corporate America to now get involved in social and political issues.

00:15:15.460 And this went the same thing for election integrity law issues that people were asking companies

00:15:19.200 to get involved in, defund the police initiatives, help PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment

00:15:23.080 of Animals.

00:15:23.780 They put up a proposal telling Starbucks, we don't want you to use cow milk anymore because

00:15:27.060 we don't think you should use cow milk at Starbucks.

00:15:29.080 I mean, it's crazy.

00:15:29.760 All these proposals that popped up in this post sort of COVID George Floyd era and companies

00:15:35.700 were essentially forced by these large asset managers to get involved in a lot of political

00:15:39.620 and social issues.

00:15:40.420 So that was sort of the backdrop.

00:15:41.300 So can I just give you my theory on this?

00:15:43.900 Yeah.

00:15:44.460 Here, there's a backdrop to all of this, which is the movement of, you know, the economic

00:15:51.980 center of gravity upward in the United States.

00:15:54.480 So Obama becomes president in 2008.

00:15:57.400 Middle class is the majority in the United States.

00:15:59.720 He leaves in 2016.

00:16:01.500 The middle class is no longer the majority for the first time, maybe ever.

00:16:04.280 Um, and at the same time, we've got free money that we're down to zero interest rates and

00:16:10.620 that money is being pumped way disproportionately into a certain sector of the economy, the banking

00:16:14.760 sector.

00:16:16.180 And so basically most people are getting poorer, but a small number of people are getting way

00:16:21.420 richer.

00:16:21.740 I mean, it's measurable.

00:16:22.700 I live among them.

00:16:23.460 Everyone's got a plane now.

00:16:24.420 That was not true in 2008.

00:16:26.680 There's just created a lot of wealth.

00:16:29.140 The Fed created a lot of wealth.

00:16:30.520 And so in a certain sense, that's like immoral or it's certainly hard to defend.

00:16:36.400 And so rather than defend it, it wasn't the companies that wanted this stuff.

00:16:40.820 It was the debt holders.

00:16:41.640 It was the finance people who wanted it because it was a cover for what they were doing, which

00:16:45.120 is getting really rich.

00:16:45.860 Lady Fink got super, super rich. 1.00

00:16:47.420 Yeah.

00:16:47.860 A lot of like manufacturing concerns, family businesses went under or did not get rich at

00:16:53.220 the same scale.

00:16:54.340 And so you just like throw out like race war, you know, hate people because of their, you

00:17:00.620 know, whatever immutable characteristics.

00:17:02.160 Hey, let's throw the trans stuff in there too.

00:17:04.000 By the way, we're all going to die from global warming.

00:17:05.720 You basically just freak everybody out through the entire society off balance so they don't

00:17:10.180 notice the looting.

00:17:11.220 Yeah.

00:17:11.600 I mean, that's essentially, I mean, but it is all about it's controlling money.

00:17:16.300 I mean, it's control and it's money.

00:17:17.760 I mean, you think about, but all these social issues were always a cover for what was actually

00:17:21.720 going on, which is like Larry Fink getting richer.

00:17:23.960 Oh, a hundred percent.

00:17:24.660 And it's so, it's so funny.

00:17:25.900 So when he started talking a lot about ESG, environmental social governments in 2018,

00:17:29.760 2019, all of a sudden they started a scoring system.

00:17:32.380 You know, it's almost like a social credit system you'd have in China or somewhere else.

00:17:35.300 Scoring companies on how little carbon that they use are scoring companies on how did

00:17:40.780 they do gender affirmation care for their, for their employees.

00:17:43.500 And these scores were used to essentially, you know, pick and choose companies that could be

00:17:48.180 included in indices that Larry Fink and BlackRock and others, they could charge investors three

00:17:53.320 to four times the amount of money for these ESG funds versus the regular funds.

00:17:57.980 And the funny thing was these ESG funds underperformed their broad-based counterparts.

00:18:02.160 So you ended up with less money and, but you were charged more for doing it, which is,

00:18:06.320 which is crazy.

00:18:07.740 And, you know, it's really funny that.

00:18:09.260 So do you think it would, since you've studied this much more than I have, do you think it

00:18:12.180 would be a mistake to think that there was any sincerity behind this?

00:18:15.580 Like, do you think there was ever a moment where like Larry Fink, or for that matter,

00:18:19.360 Tim Cook, or anybody at State Street or Vanguard thought, you know, we're going to solve systemic

00:18:23.740 racism by attacking the white working class.

00:18:26.440 Like we're actually going to solve this problem.

00:18:27.820 Do you think they really thought that?

00:18:29.620 I mean, there might've been one or two people there.

00:18:31.320 They're just, you know, totally.

00:18:32.140 But no, I mean, I don't really think, I think this was all just sort of a money grab

00:18:36.120 and a feel good and being able to go to the right parties in New York City.

00:18:38.980 That's the way it seems to me, but, you know.

00:18:40.400 I mean, it really is because it just doesn't pass any of the first principle test whatsoever.

00:18:45.580 And, you know, it's funny that the companies that were the worst, I mean, this tended to

00:18:49.480 be more of a New York City, you know, kind of ideology, also European ideology as well.

00:18:55.080 I mean, there is some sincerity to it.

00:18:56.360 I mean, this is funny.

00:18:57.280 You'll appreciate this because I think where we're going with all of this, because you've

00:19:00.460 seen obviously a retreat with a lot of companies have backed away from DEI over the last couple

00:19:05.260 of months.

00:19:06.420 There's other companies that are holding on to some vestige of it, but there's others that

00:19:09.640 are really all in on diversity and inclusion.

00:19:12.220 To this day.

00:19:12.740 You're going to love this and the worst of the Europeans, because they really, I think, 1.00

00:19:16.540 believe in this sort of European stakeholder capitalism model.

00:19:21.040 So you have, I'll give you a plug for Alp right now.

00:19:24.000 So if you talk about one of the worst companies that's out there.

00:19:27.500 America's greatest nicotine pouch.

00:19:29.640 America's lip pillow.

00:19:30.840 But who is your biggest competitor?

00:19:34.020 That would be the Zinn Corporation.

00:19:35.760 Zinn.

00:19:36.020 Do you know who owns Zinn?

00:19:37.020 I do.

00:19:38.040 So it's Philip Morris International.

00:19:39.740 Yeah.

00:19:39.920 They are operationally headquartered in Switzerland on their website to this day.

00:19:44.380 I mean, you go to their website today.

00:19:45.200 They have a massive diversity, equity, inclusion piece that is on their website.

00:19:49.820 They have that.

00:19:50.780 And I would say it's the, I'll call it the worst aspects of DEI.

00:19:53.740 It's going to be quota systems, race-based systems.

00:19:57.180 And on their website today, they say, we're going to hire 20% of our people.

00:20:00.920 We want to be Asian.

00:20:02.120 Literally on their website, just 20%.

00:20:03.320 They want 40% women. 1.00

00:20:05.500 I mean, literally quota systems they have on their website today.

00:20:07.780 It should be 100% African, by the way, if they're really going to make a dent. 1.00

00:20:12.080 But they're racist, so they wouldn't do that.

00:20:13.880 Yeah.

00:20:14.200 So, I mean, but the other piece is that on their website, and this is a company that makes Marlboro cigarettes and Zinn and other things, is, so they are like one of their big, one of their big partners for Pride Month that's coming up is the Stonewall Org.

00:20:26.600 And Stonewall Org is one of these LGBTQ plus organizations.

00:20:31.220 And, you know, fine, you can do that.

00:20:32.020 But, like, they are advocating for biological men to compete against women in sports.

00:20:37.140 Wait, Zinn is all in on the gay thing?

00:20:39.400 I mean, but, like, this is what's crazy, is that, like, and I think this is the problem about where we're going, is.

00:20:44.560 What does that have to keep that out of my mouth?

00:20:46.380 I mean, this is like, come on.

00:20:48.160 So, but, like, this is the problem of, I think, like, where you're seeing trying to serve multiple masters.

00:20:52.380 I'm not making this up.

00:20:53.260 You can literally go on their website literally today and see all of this.

00:20:55.480 And I think this is the problem we're seeing, is that you have these more, like, European-based companies that I think might sincerely probably believe a lot of this, or the European mindset, which is very distinct from sort of the American capitalist model.

00:21:06.900 Crippled by war guilt, bent on suicide, yes.

00:21:09.320 Yeah, and, I mean, at least here in the United States and others, we have a democracy.

00:21:13.020 We can throw people out if we don't like them.

00:21:14.880 But corporations, I mean, they're transnational organizations.

00:21:17.820 They operate at—

00:21:18.580 With an emphasis on the trans.

00:21:19.700 Yeah, yeah.

00:21:20.820 With an emphasis on that.

00:21:22.100 But they go across borders.

00:21:23.600 And if you are sort of operation philosophically sort of a European-based company, but you have operations in another country and you're imposing those values in another country, I think that's problematic.

00:21:35.420 You probably have no idea where your meat comes from.

00:21:38.040 You probably should know.

00:21:39.400 The likelihood is that the meat you're eating passed through a massive industrial processing plant probably owned by a foreign corporation.

00:21:47.160 Foreign meat.

00:21:48.100 Did you sign up for that?

00:21:49.120 We don't think you did.

00:21:50.000 So, you probably have no idea of knowing where the animal grew up, what that animal ate, or what chemicals big food pumped into that animal to increase profits.

00:22:00.380 That's all kept secret, meaning you can never really know what you're putting in your mouth and in your body.

00:22:06.480 That's disgusting if you think about it, and it's easy to fix.

00:22:10.080 Merriweather Farms, a farm owned by friends of ours, is a great option.

00:22:13.980 We use their meat, we eat their meat for every meal.

00:22:17.980 Unlike corporate farmers, Merriweather Farms controls the entire thing, from the pasture the cattle graze on to the facility where the beef is packaged.

00:22:26.440 In Wyoming and across the Mountain West, the cattle are raised without hormones, without antibiotics, or any other additive.

00:22:32.700 Clean American beef you can trust every single time, and they will ship it straight to your door.

00:22:37.720 Go to merriweatherfarms.com slash Tucker, use the code Tucker2025 for 10% off your first order.

00:22:44.560 You can also save it a monthly subscription if you sign up today.

00:22:47.400 That's merriweatherfarms.com slash Tucker.

00:22:50.720 We eat it and vouch for it.

00:22:52.580 Don Jr. here, guys.

00:22:53.900 Are you receiving letters from the IRS claiming you owe back taxes?

00:22:57.140 As penalties and interest fees pile up, the IRS gives you no clear path to resolution.

00:23:01.860 Don't speak to them on your own.

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00:23:19.600 That's 1-800-780-8888.

00:23:22.820 Tucker says it best.

00:23:24.340 The credit card companies are ripping Americans off, and enough is enough.

00:23:28.920 This is Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas.

00:23:31.060 Our legislation, the Credit Card Competition Act, would help in the grip Visa and MasterCard have on us.

00:23:38.900 Every time you use your credit card, they charge you a hidden fee called a swipe fee, and they've been raising it without even telling you.

00:23:46.540 This hurts consumers and every small business owner.

00:23:49.880 In fact, American families are paying $1,100 in hidden swipe fees each year.

00:23:55.080 The fees, Visa, and MasterCard charge Americans are the highest in the world, double candidates, and eight times more than Europe's.

00:24:03.740 That's why I've taken action, but I need your help to help get this passed.

00:24:08.140 I'm asking you to call your senator today and demand they pass the Credit Card Competition Act.

00:24:14.520 It does feel like one of these, like in 10 years, we're going to look back and be like, you know, they were major consumer products companies that felt empowered to talk about your sex life and the sex lives of your children.

00:24:33.520 I agree. 0.81

00:24:34.120 Back off with the gay stuff, by the way. 1.00

00:24:35.600 Just stop. 0.98

00:24:36.260 No one hates gays. 0.63

00:24:37.980 Like, stop that. 0.79

00:24:38.760 Stop that.

00:24:39.160 Get out of my face with that stuff.

00:24:40.420 Yeah, like, I don't care how people dress.

00:24:41.800 People are sick of it, actually.

00:24:43.540 But, like, it's just insane that, like, a nicotine pouch company would be lecturing me about people's sex lives.

00:24:50.380 Like, stop.

00:24:51.020 I agree.

00:24:51.660 And this is the other thing about, like, authentically, what is a, you know, whatever, nicotine pouch, cigarette company, Marble, like, what are they doing working with organizations?

00:25:00.620 I mean, another thing at Stonewall is, like, hey, we want to do youth sex education for LGBT.

00:25:05.400 How about I get my gun when you do that?

00:25:07.320 Like, stay away from my kids.

00:25:08.580 How's that?

00:25:09.000 Again, like, just stay out.

00:25:09.860 I don't understand that.

00:25:10.920 Like, why any society would put up with it?

00:25:12.720 Why Zin would pay for it?

00:25:14.160 And, of course, it's not just Philip Morris International.

00:25:16.320 It's, like, so many of these companies.

00:25:17.480 No, it is.

00:25:17.860 And, like, here's the other thing.

00:25:18.480 It's, like, I don't want Philip Morris to do the other stuff.

00:25:19.880 I don't want them advocating for the Second Amendment either.

00:25:21.660 It's, like, you're a cigarette company.

00:25:22.740 Just do that.

00:25:23.420 Yeah.

00:25:23.660 Just do that.

00:25:24.420 They don't even sell cigarettes well.

00:25:25.820 They don't even believe in what they do.

00:25:27.440 Yeah.

00:25:28.020 So, I think what's interesting about where we're going is that you're going to have sort of these companies.

00:25:33.700 You're seeing the same thing with China.

00:25:34.540 I mean, why is TikTok being asked to be sold in the United States?

00:25:37.460 Well, because it's technically owned by a Chinese company, and the Chinese values, they're collecting data and information.

00:25:43.460 That's not going to work for the United States, so they might need to sell it.

00:25:46.740 That's not why.

00:25:47.560 They got involved in some, you know, they were considered a vector for unapproved foreign policy positions, and that's why the Congress did that, and they pretended it was about collecting data.

00:26:02.060 These are, you know, people who are all in on, you know, warrantless searches of Americans and spying on Americans, and they have no problem with violating your civil liberties at all.

00:26:12.560 They don't think you have civil liberties, but they were under pressure to ban TikTok because it was considered radicalizing in ways that their donors wouldn't accept.

00:26:21.440 So, that's the truth.

00:26:22.440 Sorry.

00:26:23.000 Got it.

00:26:23.280 Well, you know, it's—

00:26:24.720 It's never what they say it is.

00:26:26.460 It's never what they say, but I think the broader piece is, though, is that whether it's TikTok, whether it's, you know, Zinn in the United States, whether—or Anne has a Bush, which used to be American-owned.

00:26:34.240 So, I think you're going to have a lot of these companies need to have choices about what they're going to make moving forward.

00:26:38.980 I think it's going to be very difficult to operate in the U.S. if the U.S. is leaning more in towards, you know, these radical ideas of free speech and religion and open dialogue and those things, whereas we've always kind of been a city on the hill in the United States.

00:26:52.140 We've always been this big sectional difference.

00:26:53.320 Now more than ever, really.

00:26:54.380 Probably now more than ever.

00:26:55.140 I mean, we're almost more isolated than probably we've ever been.

00:26:57.120 The last four or five years, yes, we were going more towards this quasi-European socialism, government intervention and free speech and everything else.

00:27:05.480 And we have now rejected that as a country.

00:27:08.180 But I think what's difficult is that, yes, we've rejected it politically, but again, corporately, there's all these tethers from around the world because of the effects of globalization over the last 20 years that you have a lot of these companies that, frankly, might not hold sort of those same American values.

00:27:23.200 Talk Philip Morris, you know, Anheuser-Busch InBev, based in Europe.

00:27:26.800 In Europe, they have quota systems for how many board members have to look this way or be that way over in Europe.

00:27:32.040 And one of the reasons that I think, again, going back to the original question, like how did this happen in the United States, right?

00:27:37.540 Bud Light, the biggest beer brand in the United States, how do they have a partnership with Dylan Mulvaney?

00:27:41.900 Well, they, I think, have a lot of these European-type values now, diversity, equity, inclusion.

00:27:46.380 I'm so grateful for that scandal, for the effects on the company of that scandal, and for you writing this book, because, and for what you just told me,

00:27:54.360 because I think most Americans, I'll put my, I'll say of myself, I have no idea.

00:27:58.340 Like, you know, you just use Crest toothpaste, you have no idea what they're sending money to.

00:28:03.160 I use Zinn for years.

00:28:04.640 I finally realized it was a left-wing company.

00:28:06.520 I didn't get that at first.

00:28:07.780 But most Americans just don't know what's happening to their money.

00:28:11.700 No, they don't.

00:28:12.240 Yeah, and then really, I think the eye-opening moment, even for me, where how companies have been co-opted is,

00:28:18.060 I don't know if you meant to have the Black Rifle Coffee Company cup on your-

00:28:21.140 Yeah, yeah, I love it, Evan.

00:28:22.960 So, I mean, you'll appreciate this story, and I write about this in my book, Last Call for Bud Light,

00:28:28.260 but one of the opening chapters I have is, so I was president of Anheuser-Busch in the U.S.,

00:28:32.240 and I tried to do a distribution agreement with Black Rifle Coffee Company,

00:28:36.720 because a lot of times, the same people that were drinking a six-pack of Bud Light, you know, Budweiser at night,

00:28:40.980 were drinking six Black Rifle coffees in the morning.

00:28:43.680 And so, we were going to put the Black Rifle Coffee, their kind of 16-ounce drinks,

00:28:47.720 on the same trucks that carry Bud and Bud Light to Walmart and Kroger and 7-Eleven.

00:28:51.340 And so, I had this whole deal, and we were going to make a bunch of money on that.

00:28:54.620 And our legal team, which was now based in New York City,

00:28:58.680 and our external affairs team based in New York City,

00:29:01.040 this is in 2021, killed the deal.

00:29:03.800 I said, you can't do it.

00:29:04.660 I was like, what do you mean?

00:29:05.360 Like, here's all the financials.

00:29:06.560 This makes tons of sense.

00:29:07.380 Like, this is a great company.

00:29:08.580 They're growing like gangbusters.

00:29:10.140 I said, can't do it.

00:29:11.120 Company's too controversial.

00:29:12.820 I was like, what do you mean?

00:29:13.740 Controversial.

00:29:14.100 I was like, you know, the company, like, their mission is to serve coffee and culture

00:29:17.000 to firefighters, police officers, law enforcement people who love America.

00:29:19.340 And the coffee, just in point of fact, is excellent.

00:29:22.920 Yeah, great coffee.

00:29:23.620 I drink it every day.

00:29:24.020 It's great.

00:29:24.480 This is my thing.

00:29:25.320 I mean, you know, this is, that's their mission.

00:29:27.300 That's what they do.

00:29:27.820 Yeah, and, you know, Budweiser, we had partnerships with Folds of Honor and other military, but

00:29:31.720 in 2021, because of the whole DEI movement, which said like, ooh, you know, they fund the

00:29:37.940 police and like, you know, defund the police was a big thing, you know, kind of going on

00:29:41.220 at the time.

00:29:41.680 And ooh, military, you know, I don't know about that.

00:29:44.040 That seems a little bit too controversial.

00:29:45.820 I'm like, guys, like we sell like King Cobra 40 ounce bottles, you know, like all over the

00:29:50.640 place.

00:29:51.600 America's favorite malt liquor.

00:29:53.120 You know, like, what are we talking about?

00:29:54.660 Do you guys make Old English 800?

00:29:56.100 No, we didn't make Old English 800, no.

00:29:57.720 That was a brand.

00:29:58.680 I drank that as a kid.

00:29:59.680 Yeah.

00:29:59.940 That's one of the reasons I no longer drink.

00:30:01.300 Yeah.

00:30:01.500 Did you ever do like the Edward 40 hands with that one?

00:30:03.980 No, no, that was a...

00:30:05.460 Did you miss the Edward 40 hands?

00:30:06.240 I did. 0.77

00:30:06.900 And it just, you know, everyone beats up on kids for being dumb, but actually the newer 0.98

00:30:11.420 generations are way more brilliant than we ever were. 0.97

00:30:13.520 Edward 40 hands is like the funniest thing that ever happened.

00:30:15.620 Yeah.

00:30:15.800 Edward 40 hands was amazing.

00:30:17.300 So duct tape.

00:30:19.120 I'm against drinking.

00:30:20.060 I don't know why I'm laughing.

00:30:21.080 I don't drink.

00:30:21.840 I hate alcohol.

00:30:22.460 But that is hilarious.

00:30:25.240 Duct tape, 240 ounce malt liquor to kids' hands.

00:30:28.560 That's it.

00:30:29.020 You know, you couldn't untape them until you finished both of them.

00:30:32.720 So I feel guilty for laughing.

00:30:34.560 Yeah.

00:30:34.800 There were too many bad stories.

00:30:35.780 Like, you know, someone get through one or half of them.

00:30:37.320 Like, you know, you're rumbling around and you fall and it's like, you know, you get

00:30:40.280 glass everywhere.

00:30:40.920 But anyway, so no, not OE.

00:30:43.720 There were other ones.

00:30:44.880 Sorry.

00:30:45.140 Sorry for the digression.

00:30:46.220 But I can't remember where we were going with that.

00:30:49.240 Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

00:30:50.860 No, we were talking Black Rifle.

00:30:52.780 And yeah, so the deal gets killed.

00:30:54.900 And that exact same, because it was too controversial of a brand, yet a year later, that exact same

00:31:00.260 department based in New York City now that killed the Black Rifle coffee deal, they greenlit

00:31:05.320 the Dylan Mulvaney partnership.

00:31:07.340 And the Dylan Mulvaney partnership, like, it was incredibly puzzling if you're a Bud Light

00:31:11.160 drinker.

00:31:11.600 And, you know, again, like, I mean, I don't care how people identify or what they want

00:31:14.440 to, you know, do with their lives.

00:31:15.460 But like, one of the reasons that Bud Light became the biggest, most popular beer brand

00:31:19.440 in the United States is because it was remarkably apolitical.

00:31:22.700 Like, it was a brand that was enjoyed by Democrats and Republicans alike.

00:31:25.200 Of course.

00:31:25.540 Because it was about, like, fun and it was humor.

00:31:27.360 It was sort of this, like, you know, somewhat, you know, countercultural, you know, type of

00:31:30.560 brand.

00:31:30.760 It was about sports and music and, you know, backyard barbecues.

00:31:34.080 And all of a sudden, the Bud Light had just hired its first, you know, female head of Bud Light

00:31:39.740 in the history of the brand.

00:31:40.880 And, you know, no problem with that.

00:31:42.140 I've, you know, I'm sure there'd be, there are a lot of, there are a lot of people that,

00:31:44.520 a lot of girls I know, there'd be great VP of marketers at Bud Light. 1.00

00:31:47.160 The problem with it was, the person they hired was a lady who had grown up in New York City, 0.88

00:31:51.560 went to Harvard for undergrad, Wharton for grad school, had only lived in basically the

00:31:55.400 Northeast her entire life.

00:31:57.320 I don't know if she'd ever drank a Bud Light in her life.

00:31:58.900 And, you know, I don't know if she ever knew anybody who had as well.

00:32:01.260 And she was very-

00:32:02.340 Why would she make her the head of the brand? 0.98

00:32:04.360 Well, because like the DEI movement basically said that you need to essentially, you know, put different

00:32:08.660 people in different roles based on, yeah, based off immutable characteristics.

00:32:12.200 And even the 21, 22 time frame-

00:32:14.400 What was her name?

00:32:15.220 Alyssa Heinerschneid.

00:32:16.420 And I know Alyssa.

00:32:17.300 I mean, Alyssa, she's, you know, nice girl.

00:32:19.060 And I worked with her when I was at the company for a while.

00:32:21.080 But she probably wasn't the right person for Bud Light.

00:32:25.360 Yeah, probably not.

00:32:26.700 Well, she obviously wasn't the right person for Bud Light. 0.84

00:32:28.580 I mean, literally, I can't complain.

00:32:29.800 Probably not.

00:32:30.420 Almost 50%.

00:32:31.160 So obviously wasn't the right person for the company.

00:32:35.440 But in this broader kind of narrative in 2021, 2022, this is when I was deciding to kind of

00:32:42.500 like leave Anheuser-Busch.

00:32:43.560 I'd mentioned the Black Rifle thing was kind of the final sort of last straw for me. 0.72

00:32:48.640 But even before that, the principles of the company changed.

00:32:51.100 My joint was the meritocracy.

00:32:52.160 It was like, we want to hire the best and brightest, and we want to reward them based

00:32:54.800 on their results and, you know, pay them accordingly.

00:32:56.820 Great.

00:32:57.620 But in 21, 22, all of a sudden, that principle, there were 10 principles of the company, that

00:33:01.820 one around really, you know, hiring the best and brightest changed towards, we now reward

00:33:05.680 people based off the quality and diversity, which was bolded by the company and diversity

00:33:09.860 of your teams.

00:33:11.240 And then all of a sudden, the company starts putting in these, you know, diversity dashboards

00:33:15.600 where you can see what the diversity makeup of your team is.

00:33:18.080 White men did a pretty good job making beer, I think.

00:33:20.460 Whatever you say about white men, like they created the company, they made the beer, like 0.94

00:33:23.580 why we hate them all of a sudden. 0.88

00:33:25.680 They created Budweiser.

00:33:27.000 Well, I think it was just more so that the head-scratching piece of like, you know, it 1.00

00:33:30.720 doesn't matter if you're, again, like white or black or gay or shit, like don't care. 0.99

00:33:33.580 I just want the best people. 0.99

00:33:34.540 Right.

00:33:34.800 But the DEI is, the only people discriminated against in DEI are white men, obviously, straight

00:33:39.860 white men.

00:33:40.580 So like, I don't understand.

00:33:42.040 There are probably some Asians in there too, so.

00:33:43.840 Well, they definitely have, well, they have been.

00:33:46.140 And a lot of Indians and a lot of other folks as well.

00:33:47.880 A hundred percent, Asians, South Asians. 0.91

00:33:50.280 But the point of it was to reduce the percentage of white men in positions of leadership or

00:33:54.920 with paying jobs. 0.98

00:33:56.700 And I just, I felt like nobody had the balls to say that out loud. 0.90

00:34:00.420 Like that was considered controversial to say that. 0.99

00:34:02.080 You would get fired if you said that out loud.

00:34:03.660 It's true.

00:34:04.140 This was in the 21, 20, 22 timeframe.

00:34:06.020 But that's the problem with where we were.

00:34:07.420 I mean, you made this censorship regime.

00:34:09.140 I mean, heck, you had the Biden administration.

00:34:11.100 Well, I got fired.

00:34:14.140 In the end, thank God.

00:34:16.300 But no, yes, I did get fired.

00:34:17.680 So actually, it's kind of.

00:34:19.380 So you remember this.

00:34:20.480 I do.

00:34:20.960 Yeah, I guess I do.

00:34:21.820 More so than anybody.

00:34:23.680 But yeah, I mean, you couldn't speak up during this timeframe.

00:34:26.360 That was the problem.

00:34:27.200 And then at the same time, you had all these companies that made all these pledges.

00:34:30.540 I mean, the chief diversity officers.

00:34:32.880 Like this really wasn't even a position before 2020.

00:34:35.760 Chief diversity.

00:34:36.620 What do you make?

00:34:37.680 I make diversity.

00:34:38.700 Well, I mean, but this is crazy.

00:34:39.720 Like, you know, and then all of a sudden there was like a 400% increase in chief diversity

00:34:43.140 officer position.

00:34:43.700 And these were all high six figure salary positions.

00:34:46.680 All the executive level.

00:34:47.420 What do you do if you're a diversity officer?

00:34:48.920 This is the problem.

00:34:49.620 You find things to do.

00:34:50.980 And this was the problem.

00:34:52.260 So the first thing was the whole pronoun police comes in.

00:34:54.820 Well, let's be more inclusive of all the pronoun piece.

00:34:57.120 And then, hey, let's put in quota systems that we're going to put in place. 0.77

00:34:59.480 So we hire a certain number of people with this immutable characteristic or that of characters.

00:35:02.640 Did everyone buy into the pronoun thing?

00:35:04.480 Did anyone say I'm not doing that?

00:35:06.200 Yeah, a lot of people did.

00:35:07.540 But this is the problem as well.

00:35:08.720 A lot of people just went along with it because they felt if you didn't, then you could be

00:35:12.280 called out by your HR team. 0.99

00:35:14.140 Cowards. 0.99

00:35:14.660 And I think that's what's part of the problem. 0.90

00:35:16.340 Now what's nice is that I think people have the ability to say, you know, I'm not going

00:35:18.740 to do that.

00:35:19.120 But three years ago, you couldn't.

00:35:20.260 Three years ago was.

00:35:21.460 The whole thing is designed to degrade you.

00:35:24.400 Yeah.

00:35:24.740 And what are you really saying, by the way, if when you announce your pronouns, what you're

00:35:28.000 saying is it's not evident to people watching what your sex is.

00:35:31.600 Yeah.

00:35:32.140 Like your pat or something from Saturday Night Live.

00:35:34.280 You may not know this, but I'm a man.

00:35:36.220 Like you can't tell by looking at me, but I'm actually a man.

00:35:38.980 It's like the most degrading thing I can imagine.

00:35:42.720 I completely agree.

00:35:43.980 And I don't know.

00:35:45.400 And if you're unsure, just ask how are you doing?

00:35:47.780 That's it.

00:35:48.240 And you don't even have to use a pronoun if you're unsure.

00:35:50.120 But I think for 99% of the time, you're pretty sure.

00:35:52.140 And that's the problem.

00:35:52.840 It's forcing these sort of agenda on 99% of the population.

00:35:56.340 Wait a minute.

00:35:56.680 What is this?

00:35:57.120 But the people who work there, I mean, now I'm being mean, but I, I, I've lived it.

00:36:01.480 So I feel it like there were so few noble, honest, brave people in American corporate

00:36:09.480 culture that I was shocked.

00:36:10.780 I was shocked by what sheep they were.

00:36:13.200 You'd think at least 20% and be like, buzz off. 0.98

00:36:16.200 I'm not giving you my, that's disgusting. 0.98

00:36:17.760 This is insane. 0.99

00:36:18.640 And by the way, you're discriminating against white men, which is illegal and immoral. 0.92

00:36:22.220 And we've got this monument on the mall from Robert Luther King telling us you can't do

00:36:25.340 that, but you're doing it anyway in his name. 0.94

00:36:27.520 You know, why don't you go screw yourself actually? 0.97

00:36:29.240 Yeah. 0.96

00:36:29.580 I don't think anybody said that.

00:36:30.880 There were a couple of brave people.

00:36:32.140 This is disappointing.

00:36:33.300 But the, but the brave people who stuck their neck out, I mean, they were eviscerated in

00:36:36.420 the media.

00:36:36.760 The first guy actually was, was Brian Armstrong.

00:36:39.180 He was the CEO of Coinbase.

00:36:40.520 I don't know if you remember this.

00:36:41.360 Very well.

00:36:41.860 And this is at the end of 2020, I mean, right after all of the BLM and everything.

00:36:45.220 And Brian Armstrong said, listen, like, I'm not going to tie it to the BLM movement.

00:36:48.460 I'm not going to make a statement that we're in support of.

00:36:50.620 That's exactly right.

00:36:51.580 Of, of, of BLM.

00:36:52.500 I'm not going to do that either.

00:36:53.480 He said, because the mission of our company Coinbase is to bring crypto to the masses.

00:36:57.540 That's what we're doing.

00:36:58.360 And if there's something related to crypto regulation or policy, sure, we'll have a view

00:37:01.580 on that.

00:37:02.220 But am I going to have a view on climate change or, or BLM issues or transgender policy?

00:37:08.420 No, I'm not.

00:37:09.540 And by the way, if you as an employee don't, don't want to be here, then go, go work somewhere

00:37:15.100 else.

00:37:15.480 And I think they had, I don't know, 50 employees or something locked out, but then he had 5,000

00:37:20.100 people that applied to work there.

00:37:21.220 Oh yeah.

00:37:22.080 But in the media though, he was called bigoted and he was called racist and he was called

00:37:26.100 you name it all in the media because of him just having a view that says, I'm just not

00:37:29.580 going to do this because that's not important to the company.

00:37:32.040 And if I want people to come here and work for our mission, not necessarily for all these

00:37:35.960 orthogonal things that have nothing to do with the masses.

00:37:38.820 It's funny how much just telling the story would, I mean, of course I remember when it

00:37:42.820 happened, I defended him when it happened, but it seems like you're talking about a different

00:37:46.780 country.

00:37:47.180 Like things have changed so much.

00:37:49.160 So much.

00:37:50.100 Is that, that's my perception.

00:37:51.520 Is it yours?

00:37:52.320 It is.

00:37:52.880 Things, things have definitely swung back.

00:37:54.440 But as I mentioned earlier, it's almost as if we're going into.

00:37:57.400 I would say it's almost three camps with the purpose of business in this country and business

00:38:02.900 getting involved in social, political, ESGDI topics.

00:38:06.280 You have the people that have backed off because they've said, you know what?

00:38:09.180 Getting involved in a lot of these political and social, it wasn't good for my company from

00:38:13.520 the stock standpoint.

00:38:14.560 It wasn't because I lost money or divided my customer base.

00:38:17.160 It wasn't really good for the country either.

00:38:18.080 You've seen Meta and, and McDonald's and Walmart and Apple or not Apple, sorry, Google.

00:38:25.700 A lot of people have rolled back a lot of those policies.

00:38:27.500 You have a second group of companies that are trying to kind of rebrand the whole sort

00:38:31.820 of DEI narrative.

00:38:33.100 They haven't realized it's become a pejorative term to the majority of Americans.

00:38:36.140 They're calling it inclusivity, inclusivity and belonging, or I don't know, all these other

00:38:39.960 words they're trying to mash together.

00:38:42.400 I would put probably more of the JP Morgans and I don't know, those folks in that boat. 0.99

00:38:46.840 But then you have the real adherence.

00:38:48.600 And these are the people that Philip Morris Internationals, even today.

00:38:52.100 I mean, Anheuser-Busch InBev on their website for the UK, big DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion

00:38:57.120 piece, because I think you do have these real adherence.

00:38:59.900 And then even certain companies in the United States, I mean, Costco is doubling down big

00:39:02.700 time.

00:39:03.080 I think partly because they're based in Seattle and because I think Costco has doubled

00:39:07.500 down big time.

00:39:08.500 That's like a warehouse store where you buy stuff by the pallet kind of thing.

00:39:11.340 That's it.

00:39:11.540 That place has doubled down massively talking about that.

00:39:13.980 We're going to continue to have quota systems about who we actually get to.

00:39:16.840 They have preferential treatment to, to who gets their products in store based off race

00:39:20.240 or sex or gender.

00:39:21.860 Yeah.

00:39:22.100 They've been doubling down on this.

00:39:23.280 So they're one of the companies that has kind of dug their heels in.

00:39:25.200 I hope they go out of business soon.

00:39:26.800 So, but it's really interesting.

00:39:28.460 And the way that I think about it, I think the companies that have just moved on, I think

00:39:31.240 we need to get more to a, I'll go back to a corporate pluralism of whatever your mission

00:39:36.340 is as a company, just do that.

00:39:38.560 And however you need to recruit people, you know, the best and brightest to your industry,

00:39:42.880 figure out how to do that.

00:39:43.960 I would say probably move on from the DEI.

00:39:46.960 Yeah.

00:39:47.180 And I, and I don't think we can say that the United States has civil rights law at that

00:39:50.860 point.

00:39:51.160 If you're openly discriminating against people on the basis of their race, then all the 1.00

00:39:54.820 civil rights act, it's all bullshit. 0.99

00:39:56.080 None of that means anything. 0.99

00:39:57.140 And so like, let's just stop pretending.

00:40:00.340 Okay.

00:40:00.580 So if Costco wants to continue with racist policies, then I guess everyone gets to have

00:40:04.580 racist policies if they want on whatever basis of any race they want.

00:40:07.940 Like, you know what I mean?

00:40:09.360 It's, it's a principle.

00:40:10.320 So either you're against and in fact, banning through federal law discrimination on the

00:40:15.820 basis of race or you're not.

00:40:17.240 Yeah.

00:40:17.400 That's it.

00:40:17.700 And the civil rights act of 1964, it literally says like, you cannot discriminate based

00:40:21.520 of race, sex, gender, national origin, et cetera.

00:40:23.400 And a thousand subsequent laws and regulations underscore that point.

00:40:28.520 And you know, this is funny.

00:40:29.260 I mean, so the, the, actually the Senate, um, the floor manager at the time was Hubert

00:40:32.980 Humphreys who became Lennon Johnson's VP.

00:40:35.080 He was one who was ushering through the civil rights act 1964.

00:40:38.360 He said, this is his quote says, if this leads to quota systems, I will eat my hat.

00:40:42.980 This is what's his quote.

00:40:44.140 And that's exactly what we got.

00:40:45.480 He's been dead too long to do it, but yeah, no, it kind of wrecked the country.

00:40:48.740 Burma, Washington is terrified and distraught by the Trump revolution now in progress.

00:40:53.920 And it is a revolution and it's unfolding along very familiar lines.

00:40:57.980 The White House is now giving voters what they actually want and what they've wanted

00:41:02.700 for a long time.

00:41:03.480 And that's the one thing that permanent Washington doesn't want to give them.

00:41:07.800 They are working to stop it.

00:41:09.740 Fortunately, our friends at Heritage, the Heritage Foundation in DC are fighting back.

00:41:13.240 They've spent years thinking this through.

00:41:15.080 How do you dismantle permanent DC, the deep structures underneath everything?

00:41:18.860 How do you train replacements for the bureaucrats getting canned?

00:41:21.600 How do you enact policies that voters actually voted for?

00:41:24.640 Well, now that Biden is gone, Heritage's vision is finally becoming reality and you can help

00:41:29.120 push it forward by going to heritage.org slash Tucker and making a tax deductible donation.

00:41:34.660 Your gift fuels their American rescue plan and helps stop permanent Washington from crushing

00:41:40.420 it, from strangling it in the cradle.

00:41:42.500 Heritage has been doing this a long time.

00:41:44.040 They've been successful and they're more aggressive now than ever.

00:41:47.400 Their work is worth supporting.

00:41:48.480 Go to heritage.org slash Tucker to make your gift today.

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00:42:23.120 That's tuckerforhillsdale.com.

00:42:25.920 I've got to say, almost everyone on our team looks suspiciously well-rested every morning.

00:42:30.900 It turns out most of them are using a product called Sambrosa.

00:42:34.080 Sambrosa blends antihistamine with a syrup of herbs and honey and is designed to help you

00:42:38.760 sleep well, waking up, feeling refreshed and revitalized.

00:42:41.860 And based on the sunny, cheerful faces of the people I work with, it works.

00:42:47.420 It's inexpensive.

00:42:48.180 It's less than 50 cents a night.

00:42:50.020 And we know the people who own the company and they are great people.

00:42:53.400 They are faithful people.

00:42:54.960 And they are about the happiest family we've ever run across.

00:42:58.500 The product Sambrosa has a ton of five-star reviews.

00:43:00.700 You can check it out on their website, sambrosa.com.

00:43:04.100 Well, so just back to Anheuser-Busch, this disaster happens and it seems to be, I mean,

00:43:13.820 according to the video that everybody saw, it really a product of this one decision.

00:43:18.620 Well, it's the end of a chain of a lot of decisions as you so ably described.

00:43:22.060 But the key decision in the fall of Bud Light was by this Alyssa Schneinhauser, whatever 0.98

00:43:29.500 her name it was, who went to Harvard. 1.00

00:43:32.260 And there's this famous video where she's saying, you know, basically, I think the old

00:43:37.300 white guys who drink our beer could used to be shaken up a little bit.

00:43:41.300 The fratty and out of touch. 0.95

00:43:42.480 That Bud Light has been fratty and out of touch.

00:43:44.660 Sorry, fratty and out of touch.

00:43:45.280 Fratty and out of touch.

00:43:46.380 Yep.

00:43:47.060 And I just have to say, I mean, she didn't run the company.

00:43:49.480 She's the head of the brand. 1.00

00:43:50.420 She has supervisors. 0.97

00:43:51.140 If someone who worked for me, well, we sell Alp. 0.99

00:43:53.920 And if someone's like in a meeting with me, like the problem with Alp is its users suck 0.97

00:43:59.120 and they've got like antique retrograde attitudes and we just need to give them the finger. 0.96

00:44:03.940 I would say you're fired because you don't love our people.

00:44:08.440 That's it.

00:44:08.900 Exactly.

00:44:09.480 So why did no one say that?

00:44:10.740 But that's what's crazy is that she literally called the customer base, you know, the fratty

00:44:15.660 out of touch and like, you know, immediately lost trust with the whole entire customer

00:44:19.320 base saying, what are you guys talking about?

00:44:20.480 And, and, and do people like to be lectured?

00:44:23.700 I love it.

00:44:24.700 Nailed at by Alyssa Schneehauser from Harvard.

00:44:28.460 And what's crazy about this, so the timeline of events was so, because we're coming up

00:44:33.380 on actually two years when this happened.

00:44:34.700 So this partnership with that Bud Light did with Dylan Mulvaney and controversial transgender 1.00

00:44:39.060 actors happened on April Fool's day of 2023.

00:44:42.420 So, and a lot of people originally thought this was a joke of like, oh, this is like Bud

00:44:46.740 Light must be joking about this because there's no way that they would ever do a partnership

00:44:49.680 with somebody who was literally just at Joe Biden's White House advocating for gender

00:44:53.200 affirmation care and biological men to compete against women in sports.

00:44:56.020 But this is all of a sudden Bud Light's in a partnership with this.

00:44:58.840 Like, I don't understand this.

00:44:59.600 Then two or three days later, that video comes out of Alyssa essentially being like, Bud

00:45:03.720 Light is fratty and out of touch.

00:45:05.600 We're going to be more inclusive.

00:45:06.220 Fratty and out of touch?

00:45:07.080 And we're going to be more inclusive.

00:45:09.100 That's the problem.

00:45:10.300 Alyssa was out of touch.

00:45:11.320 I mean, this is who's out of touch.

00:45:13.260 I mean, that's some self-awareness, honey.

00:45:15.480 I mean, it's crazy with what's going on.

00:45:17.320 I mean, this is what, this is how out of touch.

00:45:18.700 I think a lot of the people in New York became where all of a sudden they're saying, you

00:45:22.900 know, no, no, no, our, our customers out of touch, we need new customers and the new

00:45:26.000 customers are going to be whoever follows Dylan Mulvaney on Instagram, which, which I

00:45:29.360 think was actually like mostly like underage girls because there were, because there were

00:45:34.920 literally all of these now investigations going on saying, wait a minute, you guys sponsor

00:45:39.400 the Mulvaney who just has a bunch of underage followers.

00:45:41.440 Like what are you guys doing?

00:45:42.280 This makes no sense.

00:45:43.060 Dress like a child.

00:45:44.580 Yeah.

00:45:45.340 Some dude dressed like a little girl.

00:45:47.140 Well, first of all, who's looking into that guy's personal life?

00:45:50.180 You know what I mean?

00:45:50.520 Like that's dark.

00:45:51.600 Yeah.

00:45:52.060 But yeah.

00:45:52.900 So, so, so, so the partnership itself was, it was obviously incredibly flawed.

00:45:56.600 Is it true that Dylan Mulvaney is like a huge Zinn user?

00:45:59.760 Someone told me that he loves Zinn.

00:46:01.100 I don't know.

00:46:01.460 I've, I've never met Dylan.

00:46:02.500 I don't know if that's true or not.

00:46:03.820 Do you think it's...

00:46:04.340 You should have Dylan on the show so you can figure it out.

00:46:06.100 You know what?

00:46:07.200 You should.

00:46:07.960 I keep hearing, and I have no idea if it's true.

00:46:09.920 I'm not endorsing this, but that Philip Morris and Zinn are hiring Dylan Mulvaney.

00:46:14.140 I don't know if that's true.

00:46:15.280 I don't know.

00:46:15.620 I mean, based off what I saw on their website, it would make perfect sense.

00:46:18.540 I mean, they're almost becoming the Ben and Jerry's of...

00:46:20.880 A hundred percent.

00:46:21.760 I mean, that's what it is.

00:46:22.780 And actually, you know what?

00:46:23.340 That's fine.

00:46:23.660 I don't want that in my mouth.

00:46:24.820 Okay?

00:46:25.140 I just don't.

00:46:25.800 You know what?

00:46:26.220 I actually, I actually respect Ben and Jerry's as a brand because they at least stand.

00:46:29.820 They're very clear about what they stand for.

00:46:30.900 I completely agree.

00:46:31.500 They say, we're going to use ice cream to advance a socially progressive mission.

00:46:35.040 Great.

00:46:35.280 Hey, in this country, you can do that.

00:46:36.480 If there's a customer base for that, go do that.

00:46:38.400 I couldn't agree more.

00:46:39.280 I find their ideas repugnant, but I respect their bravery and their principle.

00:46:43.380 Their ice cream's like unbelievable.

00:46:45.620 I don't have diabetes if I eat it again, but it's really good.

00:46:49.020 And they're consistent in their views.

00:46:50.720 Yeah, they're consistent in their views.

00:46:52.320 But like a company like Zinn or AB, like you had no idea that they were, you know,

00:46:57.900 spending money on causes that were like, you know, in direct conflict with your own family.

00:47:03.560 These people hate your family and you're buying their products.

00:47:06.300 And this was the whole deal.

00:47:07.280 So like, obviously the partnership itself made no sense, but the response to it was just as harmful.

00:47:12.280 And that was just as problematic.

00:47:14.080 Really?

00:47:14.400 Because if you recall that there was, so, you know, Alyssa goes on the TV where she's fratty out of touch. 0.97

00:47:20.500 Kid Rock then lights up a pack of Bud Light with an AR-15, which was a big deal.

00:47:25.280 So then all of a sudden you have all of these sort of people saying, you know, screw Bud Light,

00:47:28.740 people posting videos of them not buying it.

00:47:31.120 And then the company said, hey, there was a quick press release saying, yes, we do partnerships with influencers to celebrate milestones.

00:47:40.380 In this case, we did this milestone of 365 days of womanhood.

00:47:44.280 Everyone's like, what are you talking about?

00:47:45.520 Bud Light?

00:47:46.240 It's a dude, by the way.

00:47:47.220 It's not.

00:47:47.560 These are not women. 1.00

00:47:48.380 These are men dressed as women. 0.94

00:47:49.740 The whole thing is so insulting.

00:47:50.940 And in the same way, you probably wouldn't at that time have sent a can to Donald Trump to celebrate his coming in because Bud Light was not a political brand.

00:47:58.800 And so everyone's really confused.

00:48:00.280 And so the sales just tumble.

00:48:01.540 And what's really –

00:48:02.600 Was that obvious right away?

00:48:04.340 So, yeah.

00:48:04.700 So this is what's really interesting.

00:48:05.820 It's like boycotts tend to work for two reasons.

00:48:08.600 And they actually had never worked almost in history.

00:48:10.120 Everyone talks about, I hate it when the NFL had the whole kneeling thing going on, but NFL ratings were super high.

00:48:14.880 Other people have called it boycott.

00:48:16.100 It's never worked.

00:48:16.620 But in this case, it worked for two reasons.

00:48:18.640 One, if there's a easily accessible substitute –

00:48:22.520 So if you think about it, everywhere you can buy Bud Light.

00:48:24.320 You have Coors Light.

00:48:25.060 You have Miller Light.

00:48:25.640 I mean, you go to a gas station.

00:48:26.680 You have Coors Light six-packs, Miller Light six-packs, Bud Light six-packs.

00:48:29.640 Yeah.

00:48:29.920 And then you also, if you go to a bar, you have Miller Light on tap.

00:48:31.720 You have Bud Light on tap.

00:48:32.720 And for 95% of Americans, I mean, Bud Light is indistinguishable from Coors Light and from Miller Light.

00:48:37.240 So the substitutes are easily there.

00:48:38.880 Do you know, I quit drinking before light beer was a thing.

00:48:41.140 I never have had a light beer in my life.

00:48:43.360 Men just did not drink light beer when I quit drinking.

00:48:46.620 Is it good?

00:48:48.240 Bud Light?

00:48:48.440 Yeah, I've never had a Bud Light.

00:48:49.320 Yeah, I mean, like, yeah.

00:48:49.980 But if you like light beer, I mean, it's a great light beer.

00:48:52.560 It's very consistent.

00:48:53.400 They have great brewmasters.

00:48:54.620 They have – so it's very good as a product.

00:48:57.160 But so also is Coors and Miller Light.

00:48:58.820 But it's almost like a commodity of a brand.

00:49:03.100 So therefore, the only thing you actually did have was your brand itself, which Bud Light was funny, humorous, and apolitical.

00:49:09.540 The other reason that boycotts work is that if you actually feel like you're having an impact and having an effect.

00:49:13.600 And the other thing that happens, which is interesting in the beer industry, is every week you get data that's reported by Walmart and Kroger and 7-Eleven and all these big retailers about what sales look like.

00:49:24.460 And that's just reported every week.

00:49:26.400 Usually people don't care about that at all.

00:49:27.800 I mean, you know, no one ever cares what the real sales are.

00:49:29.720 But in this instance, all of a sudden, the media was reporting every single week that Bud Light sales were down 10%, 20%, 30%.

00:49:37.800 So it snowballs.

00:49:38.700 So it starts snowballing.

00:49:40.320 And in Anheuser-Busch, they can't starve the media of information and data.

00:49:45.100 And so all of a sudden, like, Anheuser-Busch is watching their sales decline a lot.

00:49:48.920 And they realize, wow, we got to do something.

00:49:51.680 The problem was they always say they're stuck between this, you know, the black rock and a hard place.

00:49:56.100 You know, it's black rock for saying, hey, you guys need more DEI and inclusivity.

00:50:00.600 And that's the agenda we're pushing.

00:50:02.600 There are corporations like the Human Rights Campaign that scores Anheuser-Busch every single year on there.

00:50:08.300 Why would a beer company?

00:50:09.840 I mean, the Human Rights Campaign are freaks.

00:50:12.280 I mean, they're literally freaks. 0.97

00:50:13.660 And they're evil, completely evil, in my opinion. 0.96

00:50:16.260 It's not about equality. 0.97

00:50:17.500 It's about crushing families and Christianity, obviously. 1.00

00:50:20.840 So why would a beer company care what they think?

00:50:23.160 Well, because the problem was, again, BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard, who are technically these large shareholders of your business, they have adopted ESG and DI.

00:50:32.020 And they're saying if you want to get included in our ESG indexes, or Mike Bloomberg, Bloomberg has a gender equality index.

00:50:38.240 If you want to get included in these, you guys need to have a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign.

00:50:42.360 Man, if I'm the Chinese, I'm encouraging this a lot.

00:50:44.840 Oh, 100%.

00:50:45.620 Because you just wreck your opponent with this stuff.

00:50:47.620 I mean, it's insane.

00:50:48.520 Like, it made no sense.

00:50:49.380 And when the Human Rights Campaign started, I don't know, 20 years ago, like, the whole thing was like, okay, like, I don't know, don't make fun of, like, I don't know, LGBTQ+.

00:50:56.380 Okay, fine.

00:50:56.940 I was never against Human Rights Campaign.

00:50:58.660 I worked, like, a block from them for 15 years in downtown D.C. on 17th Street.

00:51:04.640 I was never against them at all.

00:51:06.420 I was like, okay, I'm for civil liberties, including for gays.

00:51:09.580 I'm not against that at all.

00:51:11.000 I'm for it.

00:51:11.900 But it became incredibly rigid.

00:51:13.060 It wasn't about that at all.

00:51:14.300 It was about destroying American society, which they have done a lot to achieve. 0.95

00:51:17.820 And now, to get these perfect scores, then you had to have so many commercials that advertised, you know, to do LGBTQ+.

00:51:23.400 You had to do all the gender affirmation stuff in your health care. 1.00

00:51:25.780 You got to sell gay beer. 0.77

00:51:27.000 I mean, that was essentially, like, what it was becoming.

00:51:30.100 And even the company itself, I mean, they were trying to win these, like, con line awards over in Europe.

00:51:34.840 And so, we used to always think, like, our advertisement was, did you win the USA Today's Super Bowl ad meter award?

00:51:40.660 That showed, like, you were in touch with the kind of American consumer.

00:51:42.880 And for, I mean, from, like, 2003 to 2013, Andersen Bush won it every single year.

00:51:47.900 Then when they brought in new European ownership and new marketers, all of a sudden, they didn't win it for 10-plus years.

00:51:53.120 And what they tried now start winning and showing they won these con line awards, which, over in Europe, they had these awards in con France.

00:52:00.820 And to win the con line advertising awards, you have to have your DEI and your ESG policies.

00:52:06.340 And you have to do all of the advertisements that are essentially—

00:52:08.960 You sell beer.

00:52:09.440 Why do you care about an award in can France?

00:52:11.680 You shouldn't.

00:52:12.220 But, again, to get included in the BlackRock State Street Vanguard indexes for ESGDI, you can highlight your awards that you won from con line.

00:52:19.780 You can highlight your perfect score from the human rights campaign.

00:52:22.620 You can highlight your—

00:52:23.360 So, these are just all control mechanisms run by people like Larry Fink, like the worst people in the world.

00:52:27.720 I mean, there was a whole—I call it the stakeholder capitalism industrial complex.

00:52:30.820 And everybody was just trying to make money.

00:52:32.860 McKinsey, they were the big consulting firm.

00:52:34.800 I mean, they had this, again, this diversity matters, diversity wins report to sell consulting services for DEI.

00:52:41.080 BlackRock had a whole DEI component to put people into certain funds to charge investors more money.

00:52:46.800 You had a lot of activists that they wanted to show that they were—could get more money from Soros or whoever else that they're making progress by putting up.

00:52:54.840 Actually, activist proposals at companies that shareholders would then vote on.

00:52:58.320 So, it was this big, almost, like, industrial complex just kept feeding on itself.

00:53:02.220 To destroy the meritocracy and destroy the United States.

00:53:04.460 I mean, essentially, like, that's where we were going.

00:53:06.360 Well, it destroys the country.

00:53:07.380 If you don't have a meritocracy, if the best people can't rise because they're the wrong color or the wrong sex, then your country collapses. 0.99

00:53:13.380 And almost, I mean, Bud Light was essentially holding the pin when this whole, I mean, bubble popped.

00:53:18.260 They were—this is the first time that people saw, like, wait a minute.

00:53:20.820 You know, okay, I didn't like when Disney got involved in the parental rights issues down in Florida.

00:53:24.580 But, you know, Disney's always kind of a little out there.

00:53:27.360 And it didn't make any sense that Disney was getting involved in this year.

00:53:30.140 Well, it's the same attitude, same—

00:53:31.780 But kind of same attitude.

00:53:32.940 Yeah.

00:53:33.220 But the problem with Disney is that, okay, you know, I don't like Disney, but there's only one Disney World.

00:53:37.240 I don't really have a lot of other places to go, so I'm still going to go to Disney World.

00:53:39.800 But with Bud Light, people easily went to Coors Light and Water Light.

00:53:43.400 And so, going back to this whole story about why the response was so damaging, so—

00:53:47.800 Can I just ask, since you worked there and you've written a book on it?

00:53:51.540 Yeah.

00:53:51.760 And I had left by this point, so—

00:53:53.320 Right, of course.

00:53:53.880 But, I mean, you know the business.

00:53:55.080 Yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:53:56.080 What's the right—before you explain what they did, what's the right answer?

00:53:59.680 So, you're running Anheuser-Busch right now.

00:54:02.040 This happens.

00:54:03.640 It's a huge threat to your core business, which is selling beer.

00:54:06.440 Yeah.

00:54:07.140 How do you—what do you do?

00:54:08.420 I mean, like, the answer is so simple.

00:54:09.800 The first thing you do is that you fire the VP of marketing, who just called your entire customer base, fratting it out of touch.

00:54:15.980 And then you say, we fired her, because that was obviously not empathetic to our customers and not core to our business.

00:54:21.360 You hate our customers.

00:54:22.120 You can't work here.

00:54:22.560 You can't work here.

00:54:23.280 Like, just, like, far.

00:54:24.540 Done.

00:54:24.900 Like, out.

00:54:25.700 And then separately, like, the biggest piece is, like, then you just apologize.

00:54:28.500 You know, I always say it's like the path to—

00:54:30.760 Apologize! 1.00

00:54:32.300 What are you, crazy? 0.97

00:54:33.200 But it's like the path to, like, I always say, like, redemption, it goes through forgiveness. 0.97

00:54:37.140 Amen.

00:54:37.500 But the only way you're going to be forgiven is if you admit you made a mistake.

00:54:40.700 Exactly.

00:54:41.020 And then what you say is like, hey, this was obviously a mistake that this person made, and so we've moved on from this person, because we've made a mistake hiring this person, putting them in.

00:54:48.360 And then separately also, we made a mistake as Bud Light.

00:54:51.400 We made a mistake because Bud Light was never supposed to be involved in controversial political issues.

00:54:56.760 And Dylan Mulvaney was not the right choice of a person to get involved with, because there are things—I mean, if you recall as well, the week this partnership happened, this was during the time when a lot of legislation is in session.

00:55:09.560 So there were, I think, 25 bills across the country to ban biological men from playing against women in sports.

00:55:14.900 There was a bunch of bills banning gender affirmation care.

00:55:17.220 And also leading up to this week, that was the week that you had the transgender shooter in the Christian school in Tennessee. 0.83

00:55:22.720 Yeah, whose manifesto we weren't allowed to see.

00:55:24.460 Right, exactly.

00:55:25.180 So, I mean, this was like a very big issue across the entire country right now.

00:55:28.800 It's a violent group.

00:55:29.820 Whoa.

00:55:29.960 So this is why there was a lot of problems with Dylan Mulvaney, who'd become kind of the face of really the very progressive transgender movement, why Bud Light never should have done the partnership in the first place.

00:55:39.560 And say, like, because Bud Light was always about fun and music and sports, it's like, we should have never had this person as a sponsorship.

00:55:45.280 Again, they shouldn't have Donald Trump as a sponsor either.

00:55:47.660 Of course.

00:55:47.780 They just shouldn't.

00:55:48.720 Just so that's what's with Bud Light now.

00:55:50.340 You sell beer.

00:55:50.940 Just sell your beer.

00:55:52.040 We're going to get back to selling beer.

00:55:53.460 Guys, we screwed up.

00:55:54.300 We apologized.

00:55:54.960 We want our customers back.

00:55:55.900 We're selling beer.

00:55:56.640 End of story.

00:55:57.400 The problem is they couldn't do that because they'd made all these other commitments.

00:56:01.260 To the human rights campaign, who they highlighted every single year in their annual ESG report that they had a perfect score on it.

00:56:07.920 But the human rights campaign is like, they're not big shareholders of AB.

00:56:12.800 No, but they have no right to run a beer company. 0.72

00:56:15.320 But they're a stakeholder of AB.

00:56:16.780 And that becomes the problem.

00:56:18.680 You have all these.

00:56:19.520 They have no, like, moral legitimacy.

00:56:21.180 Even if you love the human rights campaign, which is totally evil, just that's my opinion, having, you know, known them.

00:56:28.380 But even if you love them, why do they get a veto over the behavior of, like, a huge publicly traded company?

00:56:35.960 It's just, like, crazy.

00:56:37.060 It all just feeds on itself.

00:56:38.800 It's called the stakeholder capitalism industrial complex.

00:56:41.480 But the stakeholder are really the beer drinkers.

00:56:42.960 But that's the problem.

00:56:44.340 That became the least.

00:56:45.000 But we can insult them.

00:56:46.160 Your customer became sort of the lowest priority, which is the problem.

00:56:49.280 This made no sense.

00:56:50.420 It made zero sense.

00:56:51.880 And then so, again, this partnership originally happened on April 1st.

00:56:54.820 On April 15th, that's when you have the CEO for the first time, a guy named Brendan Whitworth, who I know, you know, very well.

00:57:00.900 He made a first public, essentially, response.

00:57:04.440 And it's almost this comical letter.

00:57:06.800 I think it was called, like, Our Letter to America or something.

00:57:09.360 We never acknowledged the situation they were in.

00:57:12.680 They never acknowledged the controversy, never mentioned Dylan by name.

00:57:15.980 It was just a, hey, we're going to get back to brewing beer, and here's a video of some Clydesdale riding across America.

00:57:21.560 And, I mean, as you can imagine, the outrage was, I mean, palpable.

00:57:26.140 Both on the right and their local customers that were like, wait a minute, we wanted that exact, you know, kind of apology.

00:57:30.840 And, hey, we fired the person I just gave.

00:57:32.620 But then now you have all these people on the left that are saying, wait a minute, I wanted you guys to see you're going to become like Ben & Jerry's.

00:57:37.520 You know, I want you guys to be doing more of the Dylan campaign.

00:57:41.420 And so, all of a sudden, the company, actually, its sales declined even more.

00:57:45.100 And, funny enough.

00:57:46.200 Is he still there?

00:57:47.260 He's still there, which is crazy.

00:57:48.180 Everyone is still there.

00:57:48.760 There's been zero accountability for this.

00:57:50.740 Despite the fact.

00:57:51.240 I don't want to say, so, you know, I don't know the guy.

00:57:54.200 I've met him and talked to him.

00:57:55.700 Former CIA guy.

00:57:56.860 Former CIA guy.

00:57:57.520 He told me.

00:57:58.040 Right.

00:57:59.660 Extremely physically fit.

00:58:01.580 Big CrossFit guy.

00:58:02.660 Most CEOs I've met, and particularly, the more disconnected from manufacturing they are, the more finance-oriented they are, the better physical condition they're in.

00:58:12.440 Just cut jawlines.

00:58:13.680 They all play lacrosse at Middlebury.

00:58:15.280 They're always on the vertical.

00:58:15.760 The guy looks like G.I. Joe.

00:58:16.900 A hundred percent.

00:58:17.800 I'm not against physical fitness.

00:58:18.980 I could use a little more myself.

00:58:20.180 But that doesn't seem like a relevant criterion if you're choosing a CEO, and yet every—Larry Fink is kind of pudgy, so I'm on his side for that.

00:58:29.440 But it feels like whoever's doing the hiring here is doing it based on appearance.

00:58:33.700 And these are white people mostly, so it's not DEI exactly, but it is a form of DEI.

00:58:39.080 Like, why—like, that guy seemed like every other CEO I've met in the last 10 years, vapid, afraid, completely terrified.

00:58:48.700 You could smell the fear on the guy, obsessed with his physical appearance, and totally lacking creativity.

00:58:56.360 Are those fair descriptions?

00:58:57.700 That was just my reaction from spending an evening with him.

00:59:01.100 That's amazing.

00:59:01.900 I mean, you spent one evening with him.

00:59:03.340 I spent—I don't know.

00:59:04.140 I've known Brendan for 10 years, 15 years.

00:59:05.620 I'm not saying he's, like, a terrible person.

00:59:06.820 And I'm sure, you know, I don't know that.

00:59:09.520 But he is definitely—and I hate to single him out, though.

00:59:12.420 He is a former CIA guy, which should be disqualifying right there.

00:59:15.740 But—oh, I'm sorry.

00:59:17.460 But, like, he seemed emblematic of an entire class of people who, in my pretty extensive experience around them, are deeply unimpressive.

00:59:27.340 Like, I would not hire any of them to do anything in my life.

00:59:30.100 I mean, I think the bigger piece is just—

00:59:31.340 Do you know what I'm talking about?

00:59:32.000 It's the lack of courage.

00:59:33.220 And I think we saw this with a lot of CEOs.

00:59:35.280 And I think especially with Brendan Wareham—so he reported into a global CEO, which is this guy, Michel Ducaris, who's European and kind of—

00:59:44.540 I'm sure he's a good guy.

00:59:45.920 Yeah.

00:59:46.320 Yeah.

00:59:46.780 So—and I think this is, again, the bigger—

00:59:49.380 Some, like, French mastermind.

00:59:51.620 I mean, but it's a little bit of that, where Brendan all of a sudden, like, man, he needed to take a hard stand and say, you know what?

00:59:56.620 We screwed up.

00:59:57.260 We're firing this person.

00:59:58.400 We apologize.

00:59:59.300 We're going to get back to doing Bud Light commercials that are, you know, fun and humorous, whatever else.

01:00:03.140 And he didn't do it.

01:00:04.500 And he didn't do it that first time in April.

01:00:06.440 There was another really—

01:00:07.580 But so how does he keep his job?

01:00:09.000 Well, I'll get back to that in a second.

01:00:11.080 But then, like, this was really telling.

01:00:12.720 There was—going into July 4th weekend of 2023.

01:00:16.200 This is the biggest beer-selling weekend of the year.

01:00:18.060 Bud Light sales had tanked down 30%, 40%.

01:00:20.140 The stock's lost $40 billion in market cap.

01:00:23.060 The business had gone from making $6 billion of profits in the U.S.

01:00:25.540 It lost how much in market cap?

01:00:26.700 It lost $40 billion of market cap.

01:00:28.200 $40 billion?

01:00:28.440 $40 billion of market cap.

01:00:29.660 I mean, the stock was around $70 a share when this happened.

01:00:32.440 It went down to $40 billion.

01:00:33.340 So how can this Alyssa chick and the CIA dude still—I mean, how could they ever work again in American business?

01:00:38.160 $40 billion?

01:00:39.400 You'll love this.

01:00:40.460 Alyssa was placed on leave at some point along this.

01:00:42.440 She's actually now working for Liv in the Liv Tour, the Saudi Golf Tour.

01:00:46.520 Not really.

01:00:47.200 I swear to God.

01:00:47.880 I feel like you can't make this up.

01:00:49.100 Actually?

01:00:49.620 I swear to God.

01:00:50.200 Yeah, I swear to God.

01:00:51.160 So it's—at least under LinkedIn.

01:00:53.380 It's working for the Liv Saudi Golf Tour.

01:00:55.100 So anyway, that's—we can get to that in a second.

01:00:58.240 So we'll get to that in a second.

01:01:00.560 But the—so going to July 4th week in 2023, for the first time, Brendan goes on national TV.

01:01:06.560 And he goes on CBS.

01:01:08.120 And he has this live interview where he's going to try and get this back on track because he's now missed twice with a response.

01:01:14.700 And it's only antagonized people and things have gotten worse.

01:01:17.540 So he goes on CBS.

01:01:18.260 And one of the hosts, first off, says, hey, thank you for being here because most people in your seat, they would run for the hills.

01:01:22.840 I mean, after what we've seen with millions of customers losing, leaving you, billions of dollars being lost.

01:01:28.220 But they say, hey, the question everyone wants to know is, was this partnership a mistake?

01:01:32.580 And would you do it again?

01:01:33.380 And he gives some real wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed answer.

01:01:38.240 Well, there's a lot of things going on in the world and culture and this and that.

01:01:41.360 And after 30 seconds of kind of wavering around, the host comes back and says, to be clear, like, you do realize the answer you just gave is the reason why millions of people have left, billions of dollars have been erased.

01:01:50.540 Let me ask again, was this campaign a mistake?

01:01:53.160 And would you do it again?

01:01:54.320 And again, he gives a completely evasive—

01:01:56.520 $40 billion loss.

01:01:57.920 $40 billion loss.

01:01:58.500 And he can't say it's a bad idea.

01:01:59.680 Can't say it's a bad idea.

01:02:00.460 And what's crazy is that literally that exact same week, Dylan—and I only—I can't—I feel bad for Dylan in this whole thing because Dylan essentially comes out and says, hey, if you can't stand by, like, a transgender, you know, person, then don't do the campaign.

01:02:14.580 Don't do it.

01:02:15.500 You know, that's worse than not hiring somebody at all, but, like, just don't do it.

01:02:18.520 And so Dylan essentially said it was a mistake because they couldn't stand by it.

01:02:21.960 Larry Fink that week at the Aspen Ideas Festival says, I'm not using the term ESG anymore because it's become too controversial and it's lost its meaning.

01:02:30.460 And you have this now CEO of one of the most iconic companies in the United States, Anheuser-Busch, can't make a direct response about a campaign that has cost this company billions of dollars, millions of customers.

01:02:41.340 They had to fire thousands of employees after this.

01:02:44.120 Suppliers shut down.

01:02:44.920 But not the CIA guy.

01:02:46.060 He kept his job.

01:02:46.660 But he's kept his job still.

01:02:48.060 I mean, he's still kept his job.

01:02:48.580 I don't understand that.

01:02:49.640 Like, where's—does the company have a board?

01:02:52.060 Well, there's a problem.

01:02:52.700 But it's a European-based board.

01:02:54.520 So it's based over in Europe.

01:02:56.260 It's based in Belgium.

01:02:57.400 They still abide by a lot of these different philosophy.

01:03:00.320 And this is where we're coming into an issue.

01:03:01.940 So what's the point of having a head of the company, a president of the company?

01:03:05.520 If you're just going to be a puppet.

01:03:06.600 That's the problem.

01:03:07.400 And that's where I almost think that for a lot of companies, I think, and specifically, I think their company's actually better off probably selling its U.S. business unit at this point.

01:03:15.300 Because I don't think you can serve this European system.

01:03:17.600 But it's so damaged.

01:03:19.080 Well, it is.

01:03:20.180 But I think people love a great American comeback story.

01:03:22.500 I agree.

01:03:22.920 Like, they do.

01:03:24.040 But to make that story, you have to admit, again, that there was a mistake and that you screwed up and that you've taken accountability for it and that we now have a different plan.

01:03:31.600 It doesn't matter how much money the company has subsequently spent on—I mean, it's $100 million for Dana White and the UFC.

01:03:38.260 They've hired Shane Gillis.

01:03:39.740 They've hired Peyton Manning.

01:03:41.280 They've done all these things to try and get their customer back.

01:03:43.680 But all the customer wants is, like, guys, let's say you screwed up.

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01:05:05.860 But all of it is so far from the core mission.

01:05:09.360 I mean, I knew, you know, former head of that company pretty well, wonderful man.

01:05:14.840 And it's probably still was true as of last year.

01:05:17.280 You know, he doesn't run the company anymore.

01:05:19.800 It's August Bush.

01:05:20.720 August Bush the third?

01:05:21.580 Yeah, the third.

01:05:22.220 What are the best meetings I've ever been in my entire life?

01:05:24.440 That guy's unbelievable.

01:05:25.660 He's unbelievable.

01:05:26.680 I could tell stories.

01:05:27.540 But yeah, he's an unbelievable person.

01:05:29.240 But he, and this may be true today, you know, he's an older man, mid-80s anyway.

01:05:34.300 But he was still tasting Budweiser beer every single week.

01:05:37.660 They send him every single U.S. product and he tastes it.

01:05:42.140 He's one of six or seven.

01:05:43.100 You know this because you work there.

01:05:43.860 And the people who founded that company, that family, you could say a lot of things about

01:05:48.980 the family and this big, fractious family with all kinds of stories, but they all love

01:05:53.340 beer.

01:05:53.920 Oh, yeah.

01:05:54.320 Like, they truly love beer.

01:05:55.920 They drink their beers.

01:05:56.920 Like, they think that Bud Light's an amazing beer.

01:05:59.080 And they think, you know, Bud Heavy's a great beer.

01:06:01.240 Like, they're into the product.

01:06:03.240 Oh, totally.

01:06:03.640 And it just feels like that's a correct, like, I use Alp from the second I wake up to the

01:06:07.920 second I go to bed.

01:06:09.040 That's what happened.

01:06:10.200 That's why we own the company, because I love it.

01:06:12.400 And I think if you don't have that spirit, if the head of Philip Morris doesn't even

01:06:17.680 smoke Marlboro Reds, get out.

01:06:19.960 Yeah, I totally agree.

01:06:20.740 If you're embarrassed of what you do, don't do it.

01:06:22.780 I completely agree.

01:06:23.640 I mean, the Budweiser, they said they almost had Budweiser in their veins.

01:06:26.500 I think there was a whole story that when you're born, they let me give you a thimble

01:06:29.220 of Budweiser.

01:06:30.080 It's like the first thing I think you drink.

01:06:31.500 And if you've got a problem with it, don't work there.

01:06:33.340 That's it.

01:06:34.480 Why is that hard?

01:06:35.620 Yeah.

01:06:35.820 If you go to church and, like, the priest is like, well, actually, I'm an atheist.

01:06:38.420 It's like, okay, I'm not saying you should go to jail for atheism, but I don't think

01:06:41.880 you should be preaching in a church.

01:06:43.280 Yeah, shouldn't be here.

01:06:44.320 Yeah.

01:06:44.420 So I completely agree.

01:06:45.980 And I think that's one of the problems that we have is that even here, and there's a bunch

01:06:49.220 of other brands as well.

01:06:50.080 I mean, like, you know, Jeep's another great one.

01:06:51.720 Jeep's owned by now Stellantis, which is based over in the Netherlands.

01:06:54.600 And you're talking about, man, if you're going to have an American brand like Jeep, should

01:06:57.880 that really be owned by the Europeans?

01:06:59.460 If they just have a completely different philosophical system and they just have the European mindset,

01:07:03.580 this is very different. 0.97

01:07:04.300 Like tiny little electric cars, little gay cars. 1.00

01:07:07.240 It's so weird. 0.81

01:07:08.420 You might be seeing a little mini Jeep.

01:07:10.280 Yes, yes.

01:07:11.060 I have an eight-year-old daughter.

01:07:12.160 She used to have one of those, like, Barbie Jeeps. 1.00

01:07:13.720 That's probably-

01:07:14.920 Like a big Jeep, a little Stonewall Jeep. 0.97

01:07:17.060 No, it's like-

01:07:18.020 That's fine.

01:07:19.460 I mean, I'm not, like, go make a Stonewall Jeep if you want, but, like, there should be 1.00

01:07:22.620 just, like, a regular Jeep too.

01:07:24.040 Yeah, and that's okay.

01:07:25.200 And give that customer that regular Jeep as well.

01:07:27.560 And so, I don't know.

01:07:28.440 This is where I think also these companies also need to go to.

01:07:31.960 Actually, another company that's actually done, like, a pretty good job of navigating a lot

01:07:35.140 of the cultural wars.

01:07:36.680 They actually have Netflix a lot of credit.

01:07:38.740 If you remember, there was two or three years ago, Netflix getting a lot of pressure to cancel

01:07:42.680 Dave Chappelle.

01:07:43.480 Remember when there was this Dave Chappelle special?

01:07:45.200 Well, they wanted to cancel Dave Chappelle.

01:07:46.680 Well, a lot of other people wanted to cancel Dave Chappelle because he had jokes about the

01:07:51.220 LGBTQ, and a million other communities, by the way.

01:07:53.400 I mean, Dave Chappelle doesn't leave anybody unscathed.

01:07:55.480 And there was a lot of pressure.

01:07:56.760 He was tough on the trans thing, though.

01:07:58.100 He's like, this is not right.

01:08:00.400 I mean, he, like-

01:08:01.560 Yeah, he was tough on that.

01:08:02.920 He wasn't just mocking.

01:08:03.700 He was like, men cannot become women, period. 0.97

01:08:05.540 Sorry.

01:08:06.140 I'm a Muslim.

01:08:06.900 I'm not doing this.

01:08:07.700 But, you know, his, that's, hey, it's freedom of speech in the country.

01:08:10.440 I agree.

01:08:10.500 No, I'm 100% on Dave Chappelle's side.

01:08:12.200 I'm just saying, he was, it was more than just a joke.

01:08:14.680 Like, he was serious about it, I think.

01:08:17.020 Yeah, and the thing I at least give Netflix credit for is when all of this was going on,

01:08:21.160 they were told to cancel Chappelle, they came out with this Culture of Excellence document.

01:08:24.400 And this Culture of Excellence document essentially said, like, we are not going to censor artists

01:08:28.260 at Netflix.

01:08:29.140 We are going to put out content for liberals, conservatives, whatever, you kind of name

01:08:33.900 it.

01:08:34.020 And people will watch whatever they want to watch, but we are not going to censor it at

01:08:37.140 Netflix.

01:08:37.820 And if you have an issue with that, then go work somewhere else.

01:08:40.680 And I actually give Netflix a lot of credit for that because they're based in California

01:08:43.120 and everything else.

01:08:44.060 And that's great.

01:08:45.180 They didn't play the Obamas.

01:08:46.240 Yeah.

01:08:46.600 Yeah, that's it.

01:08:47.700 They'll play that.

01:08:48.320 But then also, well, I guess it was Amazon that picked up the Melania Trump deal.

01:08:52.300 But great.

01:08:52.760 Like, put it all out there.

01:08:53.560 I mean, who cares?

01:08:54.060 America's watched whatever they want.

01:08:55.580 And so I give them a lot of credit for that.

01:08:57.760 I think that that's also where Anheuser-Busch kind of needs to go as well, is to say, listen,

01:09:01.300 we have a whole portfolio of beers.

01:09:02.640 I mean, hell, we have King Cobra 40-ounce bottles.

01:09:04.860 That is for a certain person.

01:09:06.760 But then we also have craft breweries like Goose Island.

01:09:09.460 So they make King Cobra 40s.

01:09:11.640 And again, I don't drink.

01:09:13.240 I'm opposed to alcohol.

01:09:14.100 But I love that I live in a country that still makes King Cobra 40s.

01:09:17.300 I do.

01:09:17.620 I do.

01:09:17.920 I can't help it.

01:09:18.960 And I assume that is, I assume they weren't pushing Dylan Mulvaney on King Cobra drinkers.

01:09:24.680 No, they were not putting it on King Cobra 40s.

01:09:26.120 That's the way they were not doing it on King Cobra.

01:09:27.280 That would be hilarious.

01:09:27.540 That would be hilarious.

01:09:28.660 That would be awesome.

01:09:30.340 That would be amazing.

01:09:30.860 That would be amazing.

01:09:31.420 Bring that back.

01:09:32.180 That would be.

01:09:32.820 Can you imagine?

01:09:33.720 A pinup of Dylan Mulvaney on a King Cobra 40-ounce.

01:09:36.460 If Alyssa Schopenhauer or whatever her name is, like, I think King Cobra drinkers are out 1.00

01:09:41.360 of touch, that would take some balls. 0.96

01:09:43.620 Yeah, that would. 0.96

01:09:44.120 That'd be amazing. 0.99

01:09:44.780 That would take some balls. 0.99

01:09:45.520 That'd take some balls. 0.99

01:09:46.880 So, yeah, but they also have Goose Island.

01:09:48.720 And Goose Island in Chicago, they have a Sounds Queer I'm In IPA.

01:09:52.000 And fine, you're in Chicago.

01:09:53.080 And that's what people want.

01:09:55.040 Great.

01:09:55.440 Give them to those folks for your craft beers as well.

01:09:57.340 I've never had it.

01:09:58.020 I don't know.

01:09:58.500 There's a Beer Advocate thing.

01:10:00.340 It's just one of these websites that rates beers.

01:10:02.340 They say it's great.

01:10:03.240 So, great.

01:10:03.940 They can do that as well.

01:10:04.580 By the way, I haven't had a beer in almost 25 years, but someone, the head of the Athletic

01:10:10.080 Brewing Company, which is not a sponsor of the show, by the way, you just sent me a

01:10:13.260 couple cases of it.

01:10:13.980 Have you ever had that?

01:10:14.880 Oh, yeah.

01:10:15.220 I have it.

01:10:15.500 I have it in my, I actually traded emails.

01:10:18.500 That's like the best thing I've ever had.

01:10:19.600 It's great.

01:10:20.260 So, I like it a lot.

01:10:20.840 I actually traded emails with Bill Schufeld, who's the CEO.

01:10:23.200 That's exactly right.

01:10:23.860 What a good guy.

01:10:24.740 Yeah.

01:10:24.920 Great guy.

01:10:25.520 So, it's funny because he's done an amazing job.

01:10:27.480 And I respect the company.

01:10:28.800 The product is just so good.

01:10:30.060 The product is very good.

01:10:30.900 Great product.

01:10:32.160 I wrote a post.

01:10:33.620 So, he got almost a billion dollar valuation for this company in his latest round.

01:10:37.540 And I just disagreed with the valuation.

01:10:39.960 I do some consumer investing.

01:10:41.680 So, I wrote a post about like, hey, great job.

01:10:43.640 Kudos.

01:10:43.920 Congratulations.

01:10:44.480 Here's why I don't think it's going to be a $3 billion company.

01:10:46.920 He had some issues with my post.

01:10:48.620 But I said, hey, I respect what you've done.

01:10:51.860 And I just don't think you're going to be a $3 billion company.

01:10:54.060 Well, what I like, get back.

01:10:54.900 You're wrong.

01:10:55.320 I don't know anything about it.

01:10:56.180 I like him.

01:10:56.920 Nice guy.

01:10:57.420 Again, they are not sponsors of this show.

01:10:59.620 But he's totally focused on the product.

01:11:03.040 Yeah, that's it.

01:11:03.780 Like, he just thinks it's the best product ever.

01:11:05.220 He just thinks it's amazing.

01:11:06.200 And he's right.

01:11:06.880 It is.

01:11:07.580 Yeah, it's a great product.

01:11:08.480 It tastes just like regular beer.

01:11:09.880 I think it's better than why I haven't had a beer in a while.

01:11:12.340 But it's really good.

01:11:13.920 I had four at dinner the other night.

01:11:15.820 Yeah, they're great.

01:11:16.580 Which ones do you have?

01:11:17.340 Probably not good for me.

01:11:18.380 I don't know.

01:11:19.020 He sent me all kinds of different.

01:11:21.640 One was called Tucker, actually.

01:11:23.360 Oh, really?

01:11:23.900 Yeah, I think it was a wheat beer.

01:11:25.160 It was the least good.

01:11:26.140 But they were all great.

01:11:27.420 They were amazing.

01:11:28.580 Yeah, and it's opened up what his non-alcoholic beer used to do.

01:11:31.560 I mean, it was terrible.

01:11:32.600 I never had one.

01:11:33.940 It was so bad.

01:11:34.460 It felt so degrading.

01:11:35.120 It was kind of a joke.

01:11:36.460 Now, that feels like a Dylan Mulvaney segment.

01:11:38.540 You know what I mean?

01:11:39.340 Like, go ahead, Dylan.

01:11:40.300 You love the—

01:11:40.760 That's what it was.

01:11:41.600 That was essentially what non-alcoholic beer was.

01:11:43.860 And he totally just reframed what it can be, where it can be good, cool.

01:11:47.740 You have it after a run.

01:11:49.100 You feel better.

01:11:49.740 Like, actually delicious.

01:11:50.880 Actually delicious.

01:11:51.680 And there's this whole movement now.

01:11:52.760 I mean, it's crazy.

01:11:53.380 I was like, even though I'm categorized as a millennial, you know, I like to identify

01:11:58.160 as the greatest generation here, Tucker.

01:11:59.800 But, you know, I think I'm categorized as a millennial.

01:12:02.940 But my cohort, I think 80% of us used to drink alcohol when we were in our 20s.

01:12:06.620 And now that Gen Z is in their 20s, only 60% of them is drinking alcohol at this point.

01:12:11.920 Yes, I mean, there's been a massive drop-off in the number of people drinking alcohol.

01:12:14.700 And then across all cohorts, Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X, Boomers, everyone's generally drinking

01:12:19.320 less also because people are just becoming more health-conscious.

01:12:21.920 So he's doing a great job of picking up a lot of those people that still like the taste

01:12:24.960 of beer or the occasion of beer, but they just don't want to drink a six-pack of beer

01:12:29.040 and feel like trash.

01:12:29.720 You forget how good hops are.

01:12:31.160 Yeah, they're great.

01:12:31.880 Hops are amazing.

01:12:33.260 And hops exist for a lot of reasons, but one is to counterbalance the taste of alcohol because

01:12:37.460 alcohol does not taste good.

01:12:38.620 Right.

01:12:38.740 If you take the alcohol out, the hops just, pardon the pun, flour into this amazing, now

01:12:45.620 I'm getting very out of control, but like this bouquet of flavor.

01:12:49.940 Yeah, but beer complements food a lot better than wine does because it's so diverse.

01:12:56.860 Because you have lagers and porters and stouts and IPAs, usually with wines, you're kind

01:13:00.720 of red and white, and that's about it.

01:13:02.320 But there, it actually does a much better job with food.

01:13:04.160 Have you ever seen Alyssa Schopenhauer or whatever her name is?

01:13:08.460 It's Alyssa German name from Harvard and then CIA guy, CEO.

01:13:11.620 Have you ever seen them drink beer at lunch?

01:13:14.480 Probably not at lunch.

01:13:15.980 I don't know.

01:13:16.420 I feel Brennan was more of like a, you know, he would drink Budweiser like here and there,

01:13:21.180 maybe one or so, but I think he was much more into the, you know, muscle milk and that

01:13:24.480 was kind of his, you know, his thing.

01:13:26.480 So come on now.

01:13:27.700 But I, I don't know, man.

01:13:29.000 And again, it's, it's, Brennan should have been more courageous.

01:13:33.000 Um, I don't know.

01:13:33.960 Like the guy, he took a company that was doing $6 billion of profits and now doing $4 billion

01:13:37.620 of profits.

01:13:38.160 I mean, just there, you've lost $2 billion.

01:13:40.480 We're still here.

01:13:41.240 That's the problem.

01:13:42.160 I, I, what is, what is that?

01:13:44.700 Yeah.

01:13:45.040 It's just.

01:13:45.300 Oh, you say like, okay, he's a puppet. 0.90

01:13:46.820 He's clearly a puppet and he's terrified. 0.83

01:13:48.640 And I, again, I don't mean to attack him personally though.

01:13:50.880 Of course I am, but I'm sure he's not a bad guy.

01:13:53.120 I'm sure his wife and kids like him, but, um, it does seem like the people pulling his

01:13:59.880 puppet strings.

01:14:00.460 That's obviously true.

01:14:01.640 Yeah.

01:14:01.920 They even interested in making money.

01:14:03.260 Like, I don't understand the total lack of accountability in corporate America.

01:14:06.820 Yeah.

01:14:07.280 So I, no one's ever fired it.

01:14:08.840 It's like the U S military.

01:14:09.760 Well, but I think this is, this part of it, again, when you're controlling this European 1.00

01:14:12.100 corporation, like they think they're doing a good thing by trying to get involved

01:14:14.800 and pushing more of the political issues.

01:14:17.140 Also, I think there's something to be said is that when you, I don't know, reach a certain

01:14:19.540 level of wealth and money and you're, you know, billionaire type class.

01:14:22.320 Well, that's it.

01:14:22.800 You want to be part of the right social circles, the right scene.

01:14:26.340 That's it.

01:14:26.680 And I think that's part of it because the whole company is more controlled by these

01:14:29.520 Belgian families and a couple of Brazilian families as well.

01:14:32.100 And now their kids are on the board and I think it's just being in the right.

01:14:35.120 I bet their kids are pretty great, right?

01:14:36.520 You know, I, I've never met them, but, but, but.

01:14:39.140 Billionaire kids.

01:14:39.900 Let's put some billionaire kids on the board.

01:14:41.820 Yeah.

01:14:42.260 Let's get James Murdoch on the board.

01:14:43.860 That's it.

01:14:44.020 He's a genius.

01:14:45.880 You know, so, so this is the bigger issue.

01:14:47.460 And then what's even funny about Brendan, I mean, you almost feel, I feel bad for

01:14:50.340 Dilma.

01:14:50.700 You almost feel bad for Brendan because Kid Rock actually went on Rogan's show and

01:14:54.440 essentially he had a big conversation with Brendan as well.

01:14:57.480 And he was talking about how he's, you know, Kid Rock was making fun of him for the whole

01:15:01.320 CBS interview he did.

01:15:02.800 And he's like, I don't get it, man.

01:15:03.640 Like, why did you just get up there and you were like a puppet?

01:15:05.660 And essentially this Kid Rock's words and telling the story was like, Brendan said he was

01:15:09.360 coached.

01:15:09.720 He was like, yeah, I was coached.

01:15:10.480 I have to say what I have to say.

01:15:11.800 Like, that's what's problematic.

01:15:12.840 And again, this is where you come back to this fundamental, just like disconnect between

01:15:16.500 the American sort of way and American business and the European way.

01:15:19.820 He was essentially coached by the board.

01:15:21.200 No one is served.

01:15:21.900 So you have to ask like, what actually is this?

01:15:24.420 So the company is not served.

01:15:25.680 Its employees are not served.

01:15:27.300 Its consumers are not served.

01:15:28.840 Poor Brendan, who's just like a hapless bystander to his own life, guzzling muzzle milk and

01:15:33.120 hitting the elliptical.

01:15:34.180 So he's not, he's humiliated.

01:15:36.500 And then the shareholders lose $2 billion a year.

01:15:38.960 So like, who is winning here?

01:15:41.820 And you've got to think that maybe this is part of a bigger play to destroy the West.

01:15:46.360 I mean, I've thrown that out there.

01:15:47.720 I mean, who's winning?

01:15:48.960 It's again, I think a lot of the board members.

01:15:51.060 China's winning.

01:15:51.920 China's probably winning in this thing. 0.97

01:15:54.100 I don't know if this is like as much of a, China is winning.

01:15:56.520 I don't know if they have much to do with this.

01:15:57.760 I think this is more of this, again, out of touch.

01:15:59.180 But all this stuff, the Black Lives Matter helped zero black people except the ones who 1.00

01:16:02.540 stole the money from Apple.

01:16:04.000 Except the big lavish mansions.

01:16:05.740 Exactly. 0.97

01:16:06.140 No, but it didn't help black people.

01:16:07.300 I'm all for helping.

01:16:07.980 I'm all for helping everybody.

01:16:09.220 Okay.

01:16:09.380 But it didn't help black people.

01:16:10.860 It didn't help, you know, Kenosha, Wisconsin, which is destroyed, never will be rebuilt.

01:16:15.300 Didn't help all the Hispanic families who live in Kenosha. 0.98

01:16:17.800 It didn't help anybody, actually.

01:16:21.300 It didn't help anybody, trans. 1.00

01:16:23.680 How many happy trans people are there?

01:16:25.620 Zero.

01:16:26.260 That does not help, actually.

01:16:28.040 It just denies people grandchildren.

01:16:31.000 It's, I don't know.

01:16:32.680 It's hard to see who the winners are.

01:16:34.120 Like in an armed robbery, there's the victim.

01:16:37.120 There's a liquor store owner.

01:16:38.440 Okay.

01:16:38.700 He gets shot.

01:16:39.600 But then the guy who takes his money gets the money.

01:16:42.260 Yeah.

01:16:42.520 So he wins.

01:16:43.460 So like, I'm not endorsing that, of course, but there's a logic to it.

01:16:47.660 But some of the biggest social trends in the United States don't seem to have any

01:16:51.220 winners.

01:16:52.280 And that freaks me out.

01:16:53.820 Well, but again, but I think the winners are more of the Chinas. 0.99

01:16:57.200 Well, yeah.

01:16:58.140 The big picture.

01:16:59.000 The Europe, et cetera.

01:16:59.680 Because, I mean, if you almost think about it, I mentioned this earlier, but the U.S.

01:17:02.660 was always exceptional.

01:17:04.080 It's always been the city upon a hill that people want to go to.

01:17:05.860 It's always been unique and distinct and different.

01:17:08.080 And there have been, you know, it's always been radical ideas in the United States to

01:17:11.100 have free speech and American capitalism and freedom of religion.

01:17:14.700 These have all been radical ideas for a long time.

01:17:17.140 And that's allowed us to become the most successful, prosperous, you name it, country.

01:17:20.220 And I think that there's been ways that sort of the Europeans, the Chinese, others, they've

01:17:24.420 been able to infiltrate that and try and rebalance.

01:17:26.480 I mean, going into a, you know, the so-called like oppressor versus oppressed framework.

01:17:29.840 Like for the rest of the world, this U.S. was always this, you know, oppressor type country.

01:17:34.660 We're always oppressed.

01:17:35.640 How do you rebalance?

01:17:36.980 Well, you try and social engineer and you try and-

01:17:39.420 You get the country to kill itself.

01:17:40.680 Yeah.

01:17:40.960 I mean, that's the way that, that's essentially the way that you do it.

01:17:42.920 It does seem that way if you're thinking long-term.

01:17:44.840 And by the way, I don't mean to blame China.

01:17:47.420 I don't hate China.

01:17:48.400 I respect China.

01:17:50.040 And they're acting in what they think is their own interest, which I think is what countries

01:17:53.000 ought to do.

01:17:53.420 So, but I'm not blaming them for, you know, Melissa Skopenhauer or whatever her name is.

01:18:02.220 Alyssa, sorry.

01:18:02.780 I'm just going to let you just keep going.

01:18:03.960 Because I love everyone.

01:18:05.680 Everyone's great.

01:18:06.380 Yeah, I know.

01:18:07.700 I'm not going to correct at all.

01:18:08.860 The German lady from Harvard is the CIA guy who drinks muscle milk. 0.89

01:18:11.720 I'm not blaming China for their personal inadequacies, their mediocrity, whatever.

01:18:16.740 That's their fault.

01:18:17.780 But big picture, like, it's just like, what is going on here?

01:18:21.860 Yeah.

01:18:21.980 I mean, so I think that is what's going on, is that you have, obviously, you know, governments

01:18:26.640 that are antagonists towards the United States are trying to, I mean, China, Europe, et cetera,

01:18:32.060 trying to kind of pull us back, tear us down.

01:18:33.920 But even a lot of these other, you know, companies as well, unfortunately, they just have a different

01:18:38.600 view of what business should be.

01:18:40.460 And I don't think it's going to be good for the business units in the U.S.

01:18:44.400 That's bad for everybody.

01:18:45.360 It's bad for everybody.

01:18:46.220 I came in the other day who knows Larry Fink really well, and I said, boy, I think Larry

01:18:51.160 Fink has really been damaging to the country, to the world.

01:18:54.140 And this person said, you know, I feel sorry for Larry Fink.

01:18:56.820 Why?

01:18:57.240 Why do you feel sorry for Larry Fink?

01:18:58.060 Because he's the single unhappiest person I've ever met.

01:19:01.060 I'm not surprised by that.

01:19:02.360 It's so weird.

01:19:03.160 Like, what's the point of making billions of dollars if you're miserable?

01:19:06.320 But here's the thing, because he doesn't have any principles.

01:19:08.040 Because if you take a look at BlackRock, it's just been blowing in the wind over the last

01:19:10.900 couple of years.

01:19:11.920 When it was all about the ESG and stakeholder capitalism, we're going to hold that flag and

01:19:16.460 we're going to carry it.

01:19:17.180 But then as soon as people just with principles thinking about saying, guys, you're violating

01:19:20.620 your fiduciary obligation because I just asked you to make money for me, not do social

01:19:24.560 engineering policies that are losing money for me.

01:19:26.900 And so when all of a sudden people started pulling their money from them, they got pulled in

01:19:30.080 front of Congress by a bunch of politicians.

01:19:32.740 Now all of a sudden, Larry Fink is backing away.

01:19:34.400 He says, I don't say ESG anymore.

01:19:35.860 He pulled DEI off their website over the last couple of days.

01:19:38.700 But why do all these people hate the United States?

01:19:39.560 Like, the hostility you feel from someone like Larry Fink toward the U.S. is like unmistakable.

01:19:45.140 It's like you're mad at the United States, but you're American and you can only have done

01:19:49.100 what you did in this country with all of our legal protections and all the freedoms that

01:19:53.720 you have.

01:19:54.080 Like, why declare war on your own country?

01:19:56.320 And they all have.

01:19:57.380 Yeah, I don't know.

01:19:58.240 It's just because he lines his own pockets along the way.

01:20:00.680 I guess, but there are lots of people who can be rich and patriotic too.

01:20:03.180 You could even, I don't know, be unscrupulous in business and be patriotic.

01:20:07.020 You know, you used to work at Fox in New York.

01:20:10.120 There are a lot of people that literally say, I wouldn't say I worked in Fox.

01:20:13.680 Who's Kat Timpf? 0.99

01:20:15.060 She used to tell people she worked in the porn industry instead of saying Fox News in New

01:20:19.980 York City.

01:20:20.380 I'm not going to comment on that.

01:20:23.220 I mean, but I think, especially when you're in New York, if you want to go to the right

01:20:26.480 schools and go to the right parties and get your kids into this and that, like, you can't

01:20:29.920 be patriotic in a lot of cases.

01:20:31.680 I know.

01:20:31.920 And you can't stand up.

01:20:32.880 And that's problematic.

01:20:33.140 Of course.

01:20:33.460 And I don't mean to single out Larry Fink.

01:20:35.340 It sounds like he needs our prayers, not our scorn.

01:20:37.640 But it's that whole leadership class, which is so angry going back to, you know, Melissa

01:20:45.620 Hindenburg or whatever her name is, sorry, whatever, the German girl from Harvard. 0.98

01:20:52.200 I can't believe that hasn't been picked up, Melissa, the Hindenburg ones. 0.96

01:20:55.380 I haven't heard that one.

01:20:56.000 No, I was thinking of Paul von Hindenburg, not the blimp, but whatever.

01:21:00.360 The last president of Germany, the one who handed it to the Nazis, actually. 0.72

01:21:05.220 No, people like that.

01:21:07.880 And it's not just her.

01:21:08.760 Of course, it's an entire class of people who I've lived around my whole life.

01:21:11.600 I know them and I know their attitudes and they're all like they just hate the country.

01:21:15.840 There's like a gut level contempt for the United States.

01:21:18.740 And it's like, what did America ever do to you, actually?

01:21:21.860 Give you a ton of opportunity.

01:21:23.260 You made way more than you deserved.

01:21:25.300 Your life is a lot easier than it would have been in any other place.

01:21:28.440 What are you mad about?

01:21:29.520 But they all feel that way.

01:21:31.680 No, I agree.

01:21:32.180 It's almost you have to be apologetic about being here.

01:21:36.120 But they work to undermine it.

01:21:37.660 They work to wreck it.

01:21:38.860 Like, what's America?

01:21:40.040 It's a meritocracy.

01:21:41.040 It's like, that's the whole promise of immigration, by the way.

01:21:42.980 Immigration only works in a meritocracy. 0.99

01:21:45.240 It's like, yeah, the smartest, most ambitious, fairest, most decent people around the world get to move here and just kick ass. 0.99

01:21:52.080 OK, everyone's for that. 0.99

01:21:53.460 We're not going to, like, move hundreds of thousands of Haitians into your neighborhood just to wreck it. 1.00

01:21:58.500 Like, you can't do that.

01:21:59.800 Yeah.

01:22:00.000 You know, I mean, the greatest sort of asset that we have in this country, it is the American dream.

01:22:04.180 I mean, that is the greatest asset why people want to move here, why people want to invest here, why people want to be here.

01:22:10.140 And there's a lot of other people that want to tear down that American dream.

01:22:12.640 They want to make you feel like it's not real.

01:22:14.060 But they're all Americans who want to. 0.95

01:22:14.960 I just find it so strange.

01:22:17.660 If they took that destructive energy and focused it on our actual enemies, whoever those might be, you know, we could get a lot done.

01:22:24.760 That stuff is more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

01:22:26.840 Yeah.

01:22:27.060 Well, I think the pendulum's swinging back.

01:22:28.780 So we've got a lot of people that have finally—

01:22:30.080 I hope that's right.

01:22:30.620 You know, I think a lot of brave people.

01:22:31.740 It's been amazing to see what's happened in Silicon Valley over the last year or two.

01:22:34.760 For sure. I agree.

01:22:35.320 These are a lot of smart, bright people that were afraid to stick their neck out there.

01:22:39.020 I mean, thank God for Elon that all of a sudden came around and he gave people the ability to put their neck out there also.

01:22:46.560 And the fact that he represents or owns or runs or whatever his relationship is, companies that make things, physical things.

01:22:52.680 Yeah.

01:22:52.840 That's why it's so sad to see it happen to AB because it's like they actually make a product.

01:22:56.100 Make a product.

01:22:56.540 You can hold in your hand.

01:22:57.620 And this thing, and it's a great product.

01:22:59.560 And whether you like alcohol or not like alcohol, I mean, Budweiser to some degree was the American dream in a bottle.

01:23:03.880 This is the famous Budweiser beer.

01:23:05.560 We know of no other beer that costs so much to ruin age.

01:23:07.680 Our exclusive Beachwood aging produces a taste, a drinkability.

01:23:10.380 You will find it.

01:23:10.800 No other beer at any price.

01:23:12.460 You've got to be the only person who hasn't drank a beer in 25 years that can recite that up from the bottle.

01:23:15.460 That's how much beer I drink.

01:23:17.540 Is that what it was?

01:23:18.600 For me, it was always a breakfast beverage.

01:23:20.500 Yeah.

01:23:20.840 I was never—you know, I probably should have worked there because I was never embarrassed.

01:23:24.300 I mean, I think, haven't I quit drinking, but I was never embarrassed to drink in the morning, ever.

01:23:29.240 It never even occurred to me.

01:23:30.300 I just grew up in a different world.

01:23:32.220 And I always have felt my whole life—

01:23:34.020 That's the breakfast of champions back in the day.

01:23:35.240 If you're embarrassed to do something, don't do it.

01:23:36.860 Yeah.

01:23:37.340 And so I was never embarrassed.

01:23:38.340 Like, I'd like a beer, please.

01:23:39.700 I'd like a Bud Tallboy.

01:23:40.580 Like a Bud Tallboy for breakfast with French toast.

01:23:42.660 You know what I mean?

01:23:43.160 Just kind of get you an even keel.

01:23:45.120 And I've never had a Bud Light in my life, but I did think that Budweiser was, like, a pretty serviceable beer.

01:23:51.360 It was.

01:23:51.680 It was a great beer.

01:23:52.320 Very serviceable beer.

01:23:53.200 Great sort of Americana beer.

01:23:55.520 And again, like, the history of the company is amazing.

01:23:57.940 It's almost intertwined with the history of the United States.

01:23:59.760 It really started before the Civil War, which is crazy.

01:24:01.840 Oh, I know.

01:24:02.260 And there was a huge supporter in World War I, World War II.

01:24:05.280 Have Folds of Honor Foundation.

01:24:06.720 I mean, hires thousands of veterans.

01:24:09.260 And so, like, more long-term, I want the company to get back.

01:24:11.800 And it was intertwined with American political and labor history.

01:24:14.820 I mean, August Bush III, who is still alive, knew Jimmy Hoffa.

01:24:20.420 Yeah.

01:24:21.340 Not, like, post-prison get murdered Jimmy Hoffa, but, like, labor leader Jimmy Hoffa.

01:24:25.940 Oh, yeah.

01:24:26.540 Definitely.

01:24:27.040 I mean, this was at the center.

01:24:28.460 There was a huge employer.

01:24:30.080 It was a builder of the middle class in this country.

01:24:32.640 They built this distribution network of 500 independent family-owned wholesalers across the country.

01:24:36.640 Unbelievable.

01:24:36.780 Which are amazing.

01:24:37.700 And all those families got rich.

01:24:39.400 Yeah.

01:24:39.620 And everyone did incredibly well.

01:24:40.940 And so, I mean, more broadly, and I know a lot of the wholesalers, and they're all upset about what happened the last couple years because they lost tons of their business.

01:24:48.180 They had to fire those employees. 0.51

01:24:48.560 But CIA guys still lose his job?

01:24:50.140 Yes, which is crazy.

01:24:51.320 And it's, I mean, it's even funny as well.

01:24:52.660 So, this year he tried to, you know how beer on menus usually says domestic or import?

01:24:57.520 Yeah.

01:24:58.140 So, he tried to reframe domestic beer as American beer, which sounds like a great idea.

01:25:02.820 But if you're not an American-owned company, then where do you put Anheuser-Busch?

01:25:06.240 Do you put them on the American beer or on the import beer?

01:25:08.820 I know.

01:25:09.260 A lot of times it's important.

01:25:10.200 I think that's one of the reasons they should actually either sell it back to the Bush family or sell it back to Warren Buffett.

01:25:14.800 You know, I think it was, I don't have any special knowledge beyond what's obvious, but I think the problem with these family-held companies, like a family summer house, there's too many stakeholders, as you say.

01:25:25.760 Too many family members who want the money.

01:25:28.760 And it's hard to keep them going for that reason.

01:25:31.120 No, I mean, it is.

01:25:32.400 Now, I mean, even in the Bush family, it's their credit.

01:25:34.360 I mean, they got through four generations.

01:25:35.660 It's amazing.

01:25:36.140 No, I'm not criticizing them at all.

01:25:37.360 I'm just saying, at a certain point, the family gets really big.

01:25:39.420 Yeah, they didn't own it anymore.

01:25:40.380 And there are certain members who want to run it and own it because it's their family legacy, it's their history.

01:25:44.660 And there are certain members who are just like, I live in Aspen, send me the money.

01:25:47.500 Yeah, no, you're right.

01:25:48.280 So, I mean, you've got to find that right person.

01:25:49.560 At some point, just nepotism just doesn't work, and there's going to be somebody outside better.

01:25:53.040 But I think that you can have, actually, U.S. ownership, again, of the business.

01:25:56.920 And whereas, excuse me, Anheuser-Busch InBev, it's a global company.

01:25:59.740 They have operations in China and Africa and South America and everywhere.

01:26:02.660 The U.S. at this point is only about, I think, 20% of their revenue and maybe a quarter of their profits.

01:26:07.400 So, it actually, to me, it makes tons of sense.

01:26:10.820 And the company this year will do, I don't know, $4.5 billion of called profits.

01:26:15.260 So, I think there's somebody like Warren Buffett could come, and maybe he buys the thing for $30 to $40 billion.

01:26:20.400 I mean, he's sitting on $300 billion of cash.

01:26:22.640 And maybe all of a sudden, you give actual real authority to U.S. leadership.

01:26:27.080 And move it back to St. Louis.

01:26:28.520 Move it back to St. Louis.

01:26:29.380 Move it back to where it was.

01:26:30.380 Great town.

01:26:31.140 Yeah.

01:26:31.520 I mean, put its whole corporate headquarters back there.

01:26:33.180 Put it back in the Midwest somewhere.

01:26:34.460 I think that would make a lot of sense.

01:26:38.160 Because otherwise, you're going to continue to have a lot of competitors coming in and taking jobs and who knows.

01:26:42.720 Or give opportunities to folks like yourself.

01:26:44.340 I mean, you're already going after the Zen folks with Alp. 0.99

01:26:46.320 So, yeah.

01:26:47.940 The Stonewall brand.

01:26:49.420 This is the non-Stonewall brand.

01:26:50.640 It's just Alp.

01:26:51.700 American lip pillow.

01:26:52.540 You can put it in your mouth.

01:26:53.520 You don't have to worry about where it's been.

01:26:54.920 It's good.

01:26:56.360 Thank you.

01:26:56.880 That was absolutely fascinating.

01:26:58.540 I appreciate it.

01:26:59.180 Thank you very much.

01:26:59.820 And then, if you don't mind, just plug it at the end.

01:27:01.920 But talk about it on the list in Last Call for Bud Light, which is the book that we just released on this this past month.

01:27:06.920 So, I love people to go check it out.

01:27:08.700 I know your editor, Paul Schwa, one of my favorite people.

01:27:11.120 Oh, he's great.

01:27:11.800 Love Paul.

01:27:11.980 He's the best.

01:27:12.660 You probably know Keith at Javelin as well.

01:27:14.320 I certainly do.

01:27:14.900 Yeah.

01:27:15.700 Great to see you.

01:27:16.420 Yeah.

01:27:16.660 Thanks, Tucker.

01:27:17.000 We want to thank you for watching us on Spotify, a company that we use every day.

01:27:25.420 We know the people who run it, good people.

01:27:27.400 While you're here, do us a favor.

01:27:29.160 Hit follow and tap the bell so you never miss an episode.

01:27:33.400 We have real conversations, news, things that actually matter.

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01:27:42.080 Thanks for watching.

The Tucker Carlson Show - April 07, 2025

Anson Frericks： Bud Light’s Fall & Comeback Attempt, Zyn’s DEI Agenda, & Why Big Business Hates You

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