Verdict with Ted Cruz - BONUS SHOW： Daily Review with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton - Mar 18 2025

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.700 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.480 Welcome, everybody.

00:00:05.480 Tuesday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show kicks off right now.

00:00:11.140 Thanks to the guy who high five me on the way out of the gym today.

00:00:13.840 Clay says he listens every day, loves the show.

00:00:16.420 I wish I could have stayed longer, but I was like, I got to go do the show.

00:00:19.520 So it was it was a close one.

00:00:21.660 Had to run home.

00:00:23.140 But I got here and we have a lot to get into today.

00:00:27.880 President Trump announcing 80,000 documents on the assassination of JFK will be released.

00:00:34.460 And he has asked that the files not be redacted.

00:00:38.880 I can't imagine how there would be any justification to continue a redaction at this point.

00:00:43.900 But we shall see what is released.

00:00:47.080 Remember, 80,000 pages.

00:00:48.860 So anybody who within minutes of this thing, of the of the document drop says, I know who killed JFK.

00:00:55.580 Just grain of salt.

00:00:56.880 Like, let's see what's actually in this thing.

00:00:59.340 I know I'm not going to take out my my womp womp button quite yet on it.

00:01:03.520 We'll see.

00:01:04.520 But I am in wait and see mode for sure.

00:01:07.260 President Trump has announced that Hunter and Ashley Biden will no longer have Secret Service protection.

00:01:14.600 They had, Clay, 18 and 13 agents assigned.

00:01:18.220 That is crazy.

00:01:19.380 Respectively.

00:01:20.040 Hunter Biden had 18 Secret Service agents.

00:01:22.660 18 Secret Service agents.

00:01:25.280 Like, this is outrageous.

00:01:28.120 Outrageous.

00:01:28.600 I mean, this.

00:01:30.780 Well, you know, if you're the president, the way they usually do this is they start to fade it out.

00:01:35.660 I mean, presidents, I guess, former presidents.

00:01:38.400 I think once you get past two terms, you really don't need a Secret Service detail anymore.

00:01:42.300 I'm I'm a little bit of a maybe a radical on this whole thing.

00:01:45.160 I think people just need to, like, get a grip.

00:01:47.560 It's OK.

00:01:48.240 You know, no one cares that you were president three presidents ago that much.

00:01:50.920 You know, like, don't don't go to Moscow on vacation and you'll be fine.

00:01:55.880 So anyway, I find this.

00:01:58.100 I think we've gotten way too much of a Praetorian.

00:02:01.140 I didn't realize it was 18.

00:02:03.740 That is crazy.

00:02:06.120 I mean, that is this guy was traveling with a platoon of Secret Service agents in case what?

00:02:12.560 I mean, think about and think about what they probably saw, too.

00:02:15.520 Don't even get me started.

00:02:16.840 And also, to your point, it's not.

00:02:19.060 I mean, he lived in Malibu.

00:02:20.900 I mean, do we think that he was in perpetual danger from all of the super libs in Malibu,

00:02:26.460 like that they were going to do something to him?

00:02:28.420 No, this is this is just so that you can have a you can have a taxpayer funded chauffeur and and security.

00:02:36.460 And, you know, I want to know what all these guys are doing all the time.

00:02:40.100 It's the whole thing is completely outrageous.

00:02:42.380 And this this thing, you know, we allow presidents to determine really what the presidents get.

00:02:47.540 And these guys have way too much.

00:02:50.640 It's it's it's crazy.

00:02:51.800 The former presidents, some of them have just I think, like Nixon said, I don't even really I want to get my own.

00:02:57.320 You know, if you mean, I wouldn't want.

00:02:59.560 I mean, I doesn't feel to me like it would be very much fun to have security with you.

00:03:06.060 I mean, we've had to have security for some events.

00:03:08.700 Obviously, when somebody wanted to kill me, we had security.

00:03:12.040 So we have security off and on.

00:03:13.820 I'm not knocking the idea, but it isn't a 18 agents is for someone who has ever had security is a absolutely insane number.

00:03:26.300 And I remember if I recall, maybe we'll talk to Miranda Devine about this tomorrow,

00:03:29.940 because she really kind of broke this story on The New York Post.

00:03:34.300 But, Buck, it also was the case that I believe that Secret Service was renting a high end mansion next door to him to use as the base to be able to protect Hunter

00:03:46.500 when he was living in the sugar daddy's house in Malibu.

00:03:49.380 But, yeah, the whole thing is outrageous, man.

00:03:51.640 This is completely unjustifiable.

00:03:53.760 And I think that it's it's the right move.

00:03:56.160 Look, presidents, you know, they need to be protected, especially this president, need to be protected with whatever is required.

00:04:03.500 But, you know, if you were just the most recent president, OK, but your family, Ashley Biden, give me give me a break.

00:04:09.840 All right.

00:04:10.260 You know, you got to live with a certain degree of just life is uncertain.

00:04:14.700 I'm sorry.

00:04:15.160 Like, you can't go around on your 20 Secret Service agents the rest of my life, please.

00:04:19.940 All right.

00:04:20.300 So, anyway, that that's something we can we can talk a little more about.

00:04:23.420 Ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is over.

00:04:26.720 Israeli jets have been striking Gaza and the Israelis are just saying they're not waiting for they're not waiting for hostages anymore.

00:04:33.340 Enough is enough.

00:04:34.560 That judge who ordered the planes to turn around with the Trenda Aragua members on it is really digging in and getting crazier and crazier.

00:04:45.160 Which which we will make some sense of today.

00:04:48.380 And yes.

00:04:50.040 Oh, and then we have what's going on right now.

00:04:52.200 Why don't we jump into this one?

00:04:53.180 Because I think it ties into everything.

00:04:55.080 Trump has been on the phone this morning with Vladimir Putin.

00:04:58.700 And remember, Clay, last week, the conversation was, oh, it's too early.

00:05:03.820 And there's so many conditions and really downplaying that Trump was even likely or was even possible he could get any kind of a breakthrough.

00:05:12.400 If this results, if this call results in a ceasefire, and we should know pretty imminently, I think, if at least a ceasefire has been preliminarily agreed to.

00:05:20.380 Does the media cover it as a breakthrough or do they cover it as, well, we won't really know?

00:05:27.100 Yeah, look.

00:05:29.840 The ceasefire in general is now ended in the Middle East, right?

00:05:35.400 So ceasefires are not perpetual, never-ending ceasefire realities.

00:05:43.360 But I do feel like if they start the ceasefire in Ukraine with Russia, tell me if you agree with this.

00:05:50.740 At least during Trump's remaining term in office, Vladimir Putin will not invade Ukraine anymore.

00:05:59.620 Do you feel good about that?

00:06:01.360 Like if you had to predict based on what we saw in the first term when he didn't invade, and whatever you feel about this,

00:06:09.120 I do believe that Trump and Putin have a somewhat decent relationship that actually is brought together by the total lie that Russia won Trump the 2016 election.

00:06:22.600 Trump knows that's not true.

00:06:24.080 Putin knows that's not true.

00:06:26.380 And by the way, the United States, I'm curious if you would agree with this, Buck,

00:06:32.180 probably spends more money trying to influence foreign elections than any country in the world.

00:06:38.040 So the idea that we're going to be grabbing our pearls and falling onto a fainting couch that other countries would in some way seek favor in our own elections

00:06:50.180 when we are, I believe, probably the biggest manipulator of international elections of any country in the world.

00:06:58.980 But they didn't have any massive impact.

00:07:01.480 The whole Russia collusion story was a lie.

00:07:04.980 The money that Russia spent on Facebook ads was a pinprick of what was spent like $100,000 of billions of dollars that were spent.

00:07:14.500 Hardly anyone saw them.

00:07:16.160 They were poorly designed.

00:07:18.180 My point on this is I think the Trump-Putin relationship is actually closer because of the lies that they both went through there.

00:07:25.600 I don't feel like if we get a ceasefire, Putin will violate it.

00:07:28.740 Am I crazy in your mind as a former CIA analyst?

00:07:32.740 Put your CIA analyst hat on here.

00:07:35.680 How would you assess the likelihood?

00:07:38.220 I think you have to add to that that these are two men who recognize in each other historic figures and alpha dogs, so to speak.

00:07:47.620 I think that that shouldn't be underestimated, that there is some degree of respect between these two.

00:07:56.920 I don't know if it would be affection, but it's respect.

00:07:59.880 I'm not sure they like each other, but they definitely look at each other as two guys who, like I said, they're historic.

00:08:07.280 They are men of the moment.

00:08:08.380 And, yes, I think that if there is a ceasefire that is agreed to, I think that Putin knows that making Trump look silly is a dangerous thing to do, meaning that there would be real consequences for Russia that he does not want.

00:08:24.400 And I think that Putin recognizes that is true now.

00:08:28.840 That was not true in the same way, obviously, under Biden when he invaded on Biden's watch and did all this stuff.

00:08:35.700 So we are in a better a better situation.

00:08:39.380 I think that, you know, there'll be there'll be some negotiating that happens here.

00:08:44.440 This is not going to be everyone comes out of this phone call today high fiving and the war is over.

00:08:49.740 And, you know, Russian Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are going to be kissing ladies out in the street in jubilation.

00:08:54.460 That's not going to happen, unfortunately.

00:08:56.320 But I think that you might get to, you know, a couple of points have to be agreed to and then there'll be a ceasefire for 30 days.

00:09:03.560 And then we'll see.

00:09:05.700 And the ceasefire is going to be a rolling process.

00:09:08.780 Look, the same thing has been true with the Israeli ceasefire, which just ended.

00:09:12.900 The Israelis said, OK, we'll do a ceasefire and we have these conditions and this is what we expect. 0.98

00:09:18.140 And Hamas, because it's a psychopathic terrorist organization, violates the conditions, won't give back the hostages.

00:09:24.220 So then fighting resumes.

00:09:25.740 You may see something similar with Russia and Ukraine, but to your your point overall, I think is true, which is you're not going to have Trump say, I think we've got to ceasefire for 30 days.

00:09:37.240 And then 10 days into it, Vladimir Putin is pulling pulling some nonsense, you know, firing missiles into Kiev and acting like he can get away with whatever he wants,

00:09:47.880 because there will be consequences when Trump is the commander in chief financial, maybe diplomatic, maybe, maybe other stuff.

00:09:55.680 But Trump's not going to allow that to go unpunished.

00:09:58.480 Yeah, I think you're I think you're right.

00:10:00.800 And look.

00:10:03.460 I am genuinely curious how the media will cover it.

00:10:08.120 I saw I was reading over the weekend, Buck, I don't know if you saw it.

00:10:11.500 They do this gridiron dinner where everybody in the media comes and they and they make their usual jokes.

00:10:18.740 And your boy, Governor Westmore of Maryland got up and made all these jokes about Russia and Trump and how Trump is Putin's stooge.

00:10:29.140 And everybody was just rolling over laughing.

00:10:31.980 And it feels to me such an antiquated joke to be making, but I would almost guarantee for you that whatever the peace agreement or ceasefire is reached between Ukraine and Russia,

00:10:46.360 that it will somehow be used as evidence that Trump is the Manchurian candidate for Vladimir Putin.

00:10:54.000 And I say that because they don't seem to be able to come up with any other new lines of attack.

00:11:01.980 Is that kind of interesting?

00:11:03.180 Like Trump is in office right now and leave aside the fact that the Democrat Party has lit itself on fire.

00:11:08.720 Lowest approval ratings going all the way back for NBC and CNN as long as they've been doing those polls.

00:11:15.320 Right. Literally have never been lower.

00:11:17.220 But the thing that maybe surprises me the most is they buck.

00:11:21.180 They can't even come up with any new lines of attack.

00:11:24.320 They tried the oh, it's President Elon and everybody was like, yeah, that's not really working.

00:11:30.500 Right. Because you told us he's a dictator.

00:11:33.300 So is he a dictator or is he actually just the stooge of someone else?

00:11:38.140 Like they're actually mixing messages.

00:11:39.780 They can't even figure out what their attack angle is on Trump right now.

00:11:44.680 Look, there is a it is deep in the recesses of the Democrat mind right now.

00:11:51.220 But I really do believe that there is a widespread quiet panic that they will never address and they will never accept.

00:12:01.540 But it's in the back of their minds and it's it's saying maybe you were just wrong about this top to bottom.

00:12:07.720 Maybe you were just wrong about this guy in every respect and he's actually going to be great for the country and you did everything possible to ruin and destroy him.

00:12:17.920 And he just kept on coming and it's going to benefit not just his voters, but America. 0.97

00:12:24.040 As you know, people, we saw this with covid people would rather look like morons than accept that they were really wrong on something they were very dug in on. 0.97

00:12:35.960 And you're even seeing some of these people. 0.98

00:12:39.720 I think you're right, Buck.

00:12:41.160 Privately, they're having light bulbs go off and they're thinking, what if I was actually on the wrong side of history?

00:12:48.960 Right.

00:12:49.440 Because remember how long they hit us with that all through your enabling your platforming, you're on the wrong side of history.

00:12:56.120 I don't hear wrong side of history arguments really anymore.

00:12:59.260 Let's we can just take stock of this for a minute.

00:13:01.160 They said and it was a widespread narrative across the entire Democrat Party from the top down, from from Kamala to to who was the guy who was their vice president, Tim Walls, all these people.

00:13:15.000 They said he was a fascist and that he was Hitler like that.

00:13:19.240 He was he was America's Hitler. 0.93

00:13:21.240 Here we are.

00:13:21.720 It's not even two months in.

00:13:23.020 He's bringing an astronaut.

00:13:24.140 He's letting astronauts come back from outer space while Biden left them up there stranded for political reasons.

00:13:29.180 He secured the border, which every country should be allowed to do.

00:13:33.180 And every Democrat said they wanted to do.

00:13:34.980 They were lying.

00:13:36.100 He's trying to get rid of government waste, fraud and abuse.

00:13:39.440 He's trying to end a horrific meat grinder of a war that has got hundreds of thousands of casualties and no end in sight. 0.87

00:13:46.720 Does any of this sound like Hitler stuff?

00:13:49.140 Like, where's the where's the scary fascist stuff?

00:13:52.080 Yeah.

00:13:52.240 He's got the richest man in the world working for free to try to stop waste and fraud.

00:13:56.640 So the price of eggs will come down.

00:13:58.520 And wow, guess what?

00:14:00.380 The price of eggs is already coming down.

00:14:02.260 Clay.

00:14:02.840 Remember when two weeks ago was why hasn't he brought the price of eggs down?

00:14:06.980 I'm literally looking right now from our friend lives of tick tock buck price of eggs since he entered office has collapsed by 50 percent.

00:14:16.120 I mean, their attack angles, according to her, January 21st, 2025.

00:14:20.740 And I will let me be clear, because I always get egg emails.

00:14:24.200 People are like, I cost this at my store.

00:14:26.880 I was like, OK, I'm not an expert at what you paid for eggs this morning.

00:14:30.740 All right.

00:14:31.160 But according to Haya at lives of tick tock, six dollar fifty five cents was the average cost of a dozen eggs.

00:14:39.220 When Trump entered office on January 21st, they now cost three dollars and twenty two cents.

00:14:45.820 That's half right.

00:14:47.460 Just and I apologize if you paid for 60 this morning.

00:14:51.080 I don't need you to email me about what the Safeway cost in your hometown.

00:14:54.740 I'm just telling you nationwide.

00:14:56.540 That's the average now.

00:14:57.520 You know what they're going to have to explain to us on Morning Joe, though, you know, who is really opposed to eggs costing too much?

00:15:03.880 Hitler. 0.57

00:15:07.640 Just like Hitler, bringing the price of eggs down. 0.98

00:15:10.680 Hitler. 0.57

00:15:11.240 I always love, you know, when we were at Mar-a-Lago with Trump and he insisted that we get milkshakes because Mar-a-Lago made the best milkshake.

00:15:18.240 Classic, classic, classic Hitler move. 0.98

00:15:20.460 Just total Hitler move. 0.98

00:15:21.720 You know, it's like, your lives are beautiful.

00:15:23.480 We're getting everyone milkshakes.

00:15:24.740 High fives for everybody.

00:15:25.960 Just like Hitler would have done. 0.98

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00:16:34.040 One more time, that's ClayAndBuckForHillsdale.com.

00:16:40.120 ClayAndBuckForHillsdale.com.

00:16:42.380 Saving America.

00:16:44.360 One thought at a time.

00:16:46.320 Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.

00:16:48.960 Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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00:17:24.500 All right.

00:17:25.280 Welcome back into ClayAndBuck.

00:17:27.060 Occasionally, you see a butt-kicking on cable news that involves so much knowledge.

00:17:35.900 It is so erudite, so exceptional, that you feel like everybody was done a favor by this.

00:17:44.780 The anchor who gets completely crushed by the guest, who knows a lot more.

00:17:50.620 The audience, including audience that does not like the conservative guest, because at

00:17:55.700 least they're learning something, and all of us get to just cheer and clap and laugh

00:18:02.180 about how the whole thing went down.

00:18:03.920 Stephen Miller, we should put this up on ClayAndBuck.com.

00:18:06.460 In a nine-minute long segment that was essentially about whether this judge who decided that he

00:18:15.020 would tell planes in the air that they had to turn around.

00:18:21.400 Think about the authority.

00:18:23.100 Think about the power that this judge thinks that he has.

00:18:25.500 The planes have already left.

00:18:26.380 I am ordering those planes to turn around and come back to the United States?

00:18:33.620 One, there are hundreds of federal district judges across the country, hundreds of them.

00:18:39.040 One of them can just be like, I disagree with this move by the president.

00:18:42.840 He has to bring the planes home.

00:18:45.820 Oh, okay.

00:18:47.940 Stephen Miller had an exchange with one of the, is it Casey Hunt?

00:18:52.760 Is that right?

00:18:53.460 I don't even know who's on CNN at this point.

00:18:57.560 Tomato, tomato, right.

00:18:58.880 So, I'm not sure, but he had an exchange with a CNN anchor.

00:19:01.880 We wanted to hear some parts of this.

00:19:03.340 We broke it up for you.

00:19:04.160 It's nine minutes long.

00:19:05.140 The whole thing's up at ClayAndBuck, but Stephen Miller was taking no prisoners on this

00:19:09.980 one.

00:19:10.220 One of his best, he's had many good moments on TV, but one of his very best, the school

00:19:14.800 bus was parked out front and school is in session.

00:19:18.100 Play, uh, play clip one.

00:19:19.540 This judge violated the law.

00:19:22.080 He violated the concept of the system of government that we have in this country.

00:19:27.180 Because that does seem to be what you're arguing.

00:19:28.460 These same, these same district court judges didn't do a damn thing to stop Joe Biden from

00:19:33.460 flooding this nation with millions of illegal aliens. 0.98

00:19:35.760 Do these district court judges didn't issue any injunctions to save the lives of Jocelyn

00:19:40.100 Montgomery or Lincoln Riley or anyone else?

00:19:42.640 Is that what you're saying?

00:19:43.620 What I'm saying is that what you said, there's a separation of powers.

00:19:48.160 The, the, the judiciary exercises judgment and relief.

00:19:52.280 I don't speak for the white house.

00:19:53.460 You are here to speak for the white house. 0.61

00:19:56.260 I just want you to answer that one simple question.

00:19:58.560 Okay.

00:19:59.120 Ready?

00:19:59.500 Here we go.

00:20:00.180 Under a proper reading of the constitution, district court judges provide relief to individual

00:20:05.580 plaintiffs seeking relief.

00:20:07.600 District court judges do not have the authority as a general matter to enjoin the functioning

00:20:13.540 of the executive branch, but their authority is at its lowest point when the president is

00:20:18.460 exercising his powers as commander in chief.

00:20:20.920 And I asked you a question.

00:20:21.920 You never answered it.

00:20:22.920 Can a judge enjoin troop movements overseas?

00:20:25.080 Can a district court judge enjoin troop movements overseas?

00:20:27.200 Steven, yes, I am not going to get into the, the, just say no, and then you'll know that

00:20:31.840 I'm right.

00:20:33.280 I like that.

00:20:34.320 I'm going to steal that one for the next time I get into an argument with my wife. 1.00

00:20:39.080 I don't know if Steven uses that one with his lovely wife, Katie, just say no so that

00:20:44.160 you'll know that I'm right is probably not a marital argument tactic that works well,

00:20:49.300 but it's phenomenal television buck.

00:20:51.580 I mean, that was just a whipping here's, here's what is at the core of the, and again, it's,

00:20:57.040 it's nine minutes, which we're not, we can't play the whole thing on air, but you can go

00:20:59.920 to clay and buck.com.

00:21:00.980 We'll, we'll have it up there for, if you want to see it in one place, it's worth watching

00:21:04.180 if you, if you can, it's nine minutes.

00:21:06.040 And, and what's at the, there's a lot of things that are an issue, but really at the

00:21:09.740 core of the whole thing, clay is these judges, first of all, we talk about the number because

00:21:14.380 you can tell this is how partisan leftists, some of whom are judges have decided that

00:21:19.760 they're going to oppose Trump.

00:21:21.200 They're just going to stop him from doing things that as president, he has the right and the

00:21:25.740 authority to do.

00:21:27.340 They're just going to say, no, you can't do that.

00:21:28.960 And they'll eventually get overturned by the Supreme court.

00:21:31.180 And they know that, but they're just going to keep trying to stop him.

00:21:33.760 And if, if he, if a judge is allowed to tell the president when he has used executive authority

00:21:40.460 to expel non-citizens from the United States, you have to turn the plane around.

00:21:46.320 Can a judge say you can't bomb the Houthis in Yemen? 0.99

00:21:50.020 You have to turn those missiles around, or you have to turn those planes around?

00:21:53.700 Like, where does it stop and start?

00:21:56.100 I think that's why Stephen Miller's argument is so persuade, persuasive.

00:22:00.980 Also, I'm going to circle back to that in a sec, Buck, but this is, I think, emblematic

00:22:06.700 of why Trump 2.0 is so much more successful than Trump 1.0 was.

00:22:12.380 Trump got his fighters and he put his team together and they are a dream team of advisors

00:22:18.900 of an incredibly high intellect.

00:22:22.080 How many IQ points do you think the difference between Stephen Miller and that CNN anchor was,

00:22:27.120 Buck?

00:22:27.240 20?

00:22:27.540 I mean, this is, there's, there's a miss, there's a mismatch here.

00:22:31.200 There is a mismatch to be sure.

00:22:32.640 And there is a high level of intellectual heft that did not exist on the same level for Trump

00:22:39.840 1.0.

00:22:40.660 And I think when you hear the Trump team make their arguments and you see how well they

00:22:46.800 can slap down the counter arguments, it is incredible how much difference there is in

00:22:53.480 not only intelligence, but also comprehension of the issues.

00:22:56.620 Now, let me circle back because I think this is an important part of the larger story here.

00:23:01.780 What Stephen Miller is pointing out is that federal district court judges do not have the authority

00:23:10.260 to micromanage the power of the executive branch.

00:23:14.380 Trump clearly, and even this CNN anchor didn't argue, Trump clearly has the ability to, as you

00:23:21.300 pointed out, order strikes against the Houthis or to decide that he wants to, in some way,

00:23:27.640 move around brigades inside of Europe or in the United States.

00:23:31.820 There isn't an ability of a federal district court judge to challenge it.

00:23:36.760 And Democrats are so desperate to restrain Trump that what you really have, and this is why the

00:23:43.780 Supreme Court needs to look at this, is a distinction between the Supreme Court reviewing

00:23:50.220 and the judiciary reviewing the acts of the executive to determine whether or not they are constitutional

00:23:56.900 in a big picture sense and micromanaging on a day-to-day basis the individual actions that

00:24:03.760 the executive orders.

00:24:05.300 And what they're trying to do, and this is what I was pointing out yesterday, arguing about

00:24:09.280 birthright citizenship is the province of the judiciary.

00:24:13.260 That's a big picture thing.

00:24:14.720 Trump said, executive authority, hey, I'm interpreting the 14th Amendment this way.

00:24:21.280 Courts are going to have their take.

00:24:22.840 I actually think that's going to be a challenge for Trump, even at the Supreme Court.

00:24:26.740 But Trump has the clear ability to make decisions as it pertains to border security, which is

00:24:34.460 the same thing that Biden was allowed to do, unfortunately, to the detriment of the country.

00:24:39.660 And so Stephen Miller is just destroying this argument that this left-wing CNN host is trying

00:24:47.060 to make, and you know this buck from television, there's probably some frantic producer in her 1.00

00:24:51.840 ear trying to give her all the resources she needs. 0.99

00:24:54.960 Yeah, they're trying to bail her out.

00:24:57.180 And this also, though, I think goes to what the administration learned from the first term

00:25:01.960 to this term, and that is, the process is the punishment, delay is the game, and they

00:25:08.560 can't allow that to happen.

00:25:10.400 A big part of, people will say this, and they don't like when I point this out, but then

00:25:14.260 they always admit that I'm right.

00:25:15.680 Like, I'll hear people on the right who voted for Trump say, well, you know, Russia collusion,

00:25:19.400 it didn't work.

00:25:21.160 I mean, it didn't get all the way, but it certainly slowed down and jammed up and messed up the

00:25:27.920 administration in 2017 to have to deal with all the nonsense and the media and the lawyers

00:25:33.620 and the depositions and everything else.

00:25:35.700 Here's Stephen Miller saying, we see the game here.

00:25:39.460 If every person that Trump is going to deport who is an illegal gets a federal judge saying,

00:25:44.520 no, you can't do that, you know, then the whole thing just collapses.

00:25:48.740 This is cut two, play it. 1.00

00:25:49.700 How are you going to expel illegal alien invaders from our country who are raping little girls, 1.00

00:25:55.840 who are murdering little girls, if each and every deportation has to be adjudicated in 0.99

00:26:00.060 a district court judge?

00:26:01.200 That means you have no country.

00:26:02.840 It means you have no sovereignty.

00:26:04.040 It means you have no future.

00:26:05.300 It is fundamentally incompatible to have a country and have individual expulsions adjudicated

00:26:10.540 by a single district court judge.

00:26:12.000 I'm just trying to figure out at what point in the system do you, because what does the

00:26:16.500 Trump administration believe?

00:26:18.000 Because we do have separation of powers in this country.

00:26:19.980 I hear what you're saying.

00:26:21.140 Yes.

00:26:21.420 Separation of powers.

00:26:22.360 This is the judiciary interfering in the executive function.

00:26:27.080 That is the separation of power.

00:26:28.800 That is the separation of power.

00:26:29.900 Did you ignore the judge's order here because you thought you could?

00:26:33.980 So the judge's order and the actions taken by the Departments of Defense, Justice, and

00:26:38.760 Homeland Security are not in conflict.

00:26:40.720 And the Department of Justice has been clear that they are not in conflict.

00:26:44.280 See, the whole thing here with the CNN anchor, to be clear, is they want the administration

00:26:48.880 to say, well, they're just ignoring judges.

00:26:51.760 And then that becomes, oh, my gosh, you know, constitutional crisis and all the rest of it.

00:26:56.180 But in reality, the judge's order was insane.

00:26:58.560 OK, yes, plain plain in flight.

00:27:00.720 Turn the plane around.

00:27:02.920 Steven, he even went in to point this out.

00:27:05.220 He's like, do they know what route the plane is on?

00:27:07.700 This is a national security issue.

00:27:09.060 It's got a bunch of trend of Aragua terrorists on it. 0.52

00:27:12.280 You're just going to change the route.

00:27:13.840 Do you know who's meeting the plane on the other side?

00:27:16.960 The whole thing, it is insane that this judge did this. 0.99

00:27:22.300 But if you go and you look at him, he's got a super anti-Trump lunatic wife. 1.00

00:27:26.000 He was involved with the Russia collusion FISA nonsense. 1.00

00:27:29.020 He's an anti-Trump hashtag resistant psycho. 0.87

00:27:32.380 It's like a member of what's that group? 0.98

00:27:35.040 The Lincoln Project or whatever.

00:27:36.840 The Lincoln Project has a judge and it's this guy.

00:27:40.440 Yeah.

00:27:40.740 And look, this is the angle I told you that this is the angle they're going to try to

00:27:45.240 take yesterday.

00:27:46.780 They're very clearly going to try to avoid arguing against what Trump did in terms of

00:27:53.500 the deportation.

00:27:54.840 And instead, Buck, they're going to argue he's a dictator.

00:27:59.480 He's defying court orders, right?

00:28:01.600 They're not going to talk about whether the court order was legitimate.

00:28:04.400 They're not going to talk about what the court order actually did or would have required,

00:28:08.900 which is bringing felons back into the country. 0.97

00:28:12.800 They're going to talk about the fact that he defied an order.

00:28:16.440 And I'll tell you what they're also going to do.

00:28:18.320 And we told you this was coming, but prepare yourself.

00:28:22.240 Trump is not going to be flawless on the deportations.

00:28:25.060 I'm just telling all of you this.

00:28:27.120 He's not going to be flawless.

00:28:28.600 They're going to get the wrong guy.

00:28:30.580 They're going to it's it's impossible to be 100 percent accurate.

00:28:34.360 And what they're going to do is they're going to find that anecdote, that guy who was

00:28:39.220 misidentified, and they're going to turn him into a national symbol of Trump's authoritarianism.

00:28:46.740 And this is why anecdotal stories, Buck, are often unfair, because the anecdote should be

00:28:53.040 representative of the larger story.

00:28:55.620 People connect on a story basis.

00:28:57.960 When an anecdote is the outlier, which is what happened with BLM.

00:29:01.780 Most people have great relationships and interactions with police.

00:29:05.160 One thing goes bad.

00:29:06.820 And this is indicative of how every black person in America is taught is treated.

00:29:10.940 And so it's fundamentally unfair.

00:29:13.220 It's propaganda.

00:29:14.540 This is what they're trying to do right now.

00:29:16.720 This Mahmoud Khalil guy.

00:29:18.400 What you're saying is what they're trying to do right now.

00:29:20.680 Now, Mahmoud Khalil is for a lot of us not sympathetic at all.

00:29:25.020 So that's the only difference.

00:29:26.460 But they've tried to rally around this guy and say that he is the first example of Trump's

00:29:31.700 overreach and authoritarianism and all the rest of it.

00:29:35.240 You know, yeah. 0.99

00:29:36.160 I mean, try not to have some pro-Hamas, Jew-hating maniac as your standard bearer. 0.98

00:29:40.820 And things will probably be better off for the Democrats. 0.98

00:29:42.800 But we'll see.

00:29:43.620 Once again, with Trenda Aragua, you have Democrats going to the mat to defend really the worst

00:29:49.800 of the worst.

00:29:50.920 The worst of the worst.

00:29:52.500 And that's the other part of this, too, Clay.

00:29:53.840 Like, we're arguing about this on the legal grounds and the constitutional grounds. 0.98

00:29:58.020 For a lot of people, it's just, you know, I just don't want these scumbag gang members 0.97

00:30:03.680 who aren't even allowed to be in the country in the first place to be here anymore. 0.98

00:30:06.720 And whoever gets rid of them, I like that.

00:30:09.340 Get them out of the country.

00:30:11.260 You know, Trump understands that aspect of this, too.

00:30:13.700 There's no normal person who's like, you know what we really need?

00:30:17.560 More Trenda Aragua hitmen in America.

00:30:20.060 That would be good.

00:30:20.940 Let's have more of that.

00:30:21.920 So, yeah, he's forcing them to take some very unpopular stands.

00:30:29.080 But Democrats, again, run up the scoreboard, everybody.

00:30:32.080 We've got to keep running up the scoreboard.

00:30:33.400 That's what Trump's doing.

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00:31:27.220 Patriots, radio hosts, a couple of regular guys.

00:31:31.420 Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.

00:31:33.420 Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:31:39.660 Welcome back in.

00:31:41.100 Clay Travis, Buck Sexton's show.

00:31:43.760 Okay, a report on what Trump and Putin spoke about is now out.

00:31:49.900 I am reading this from Caroline Levitt, who posted this on social media.

00:31:55.560 Today, President Trump and President Putin spoke about the need for peace and a ceasefire in the Ukraine war.

00:32:02.320 Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace.

00:32:07.320 They also stressed the need for improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia.

00:32:13.600 The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people.

00:32:22.220 Conflict should have never started and should have ended long ago with sincere and good faith peace efforts.

00:32:28.820 Again, I am reading from the statement.

00:32:30.960 The leaders agreed the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace.

00:32:47.520 These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.

00:32:51.840 The leaders spoke broadly about the Middle East as a region of potential cooperation to prevent future conflict.

00:32:58.720 They further discussed the need to stop proliferation of strategic weapons and will engage with others to ensure the broadest possible application.

00:33:08.600 The two leaders shared the view Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.

00:33:13.680 And the two leaders agreed a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Russia has huge upside,

00:33:21.160 including enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.

00:33:28.720 That is the statement that was just released on the call between Putin and Trump.

00:33:34.960 Cleaning up a little bit earlier, we were talking about when was the last time Biden talked.

00:33:40.420 Biden had not spoken to Putin since the invasion of Ukraine.

00:33:44.560 He did speak to him in 2021.

00:33:47.480 Just FYI, we were asking, I was, whether they had spoken while Biden was in office.

00:33:53.000 It happened in 2021.

00:33:55.620 Buck, I think all of that is moving in a very favorable direction.

00:34:01.960 I guess the question out here, and again, that is the statement we just released, that was just released by the White House.

00:34:09.420 If Trump is able to actually get peace in Ukraine, wouldn't he deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?

00:34:16.280 Like, in an honest, legitimate world, wouldn't this be the very definition of what a mediator and or leader

00:34:25.400 who was not directly involved in the conflict should receive for ending a conflict of this significance?

00:34:31.900 Yes, of course.

00:34:32.580 But the Nobel Peace Prize has gone to Barack Obama for doing nothing.

00:34:36.720 I think Yasser Arafat got it at one point.

00:34:39.320 And you look at the people who've got the Nobel Peace Prize, and it has unfortunately become a bit of a political joke in a lot of ways.

00:34:47.180 So I know your point is well taken, which is that this would be a momentous, momentous diplomatic win.

00:34:55.800 And not just a win for humanity.

00:34:57.940 I mean, truly, when you I don't know how many of you have watched.

00:35:01.460 There's a lot of video out there about what's going on on the Ukraine-Russia front and what these soldiers are going through.

00:35:10.380 It is trench warfare.

00:35:12.660 They have drones that are flying in at them and blowing people up every day.

00:35:19.300 They've got artillery rounds blowing up all around.

00:35:22.100 I mean, it's you've got guys that are storming trenches and, you know, machine gunning each other at close range.

00:35:28.400 Like, it's horrible stuff that's happening day in and day out over there.

00:35:32.320 And bringing this to an end would be such a win.

00:35:37.360 And it's very frustrating is even the right word.

00:35:41.220 It's it's grotesque when you see these people that are saying, but Trump is just throwing in the towel.

00:35:46.780 You what do these people think is going to happen?

00:35:49.900 You know, at some point, it feels like the Slava, Ukraine people really just feel like if they if they string this thing out long enough,

00:35:56.480 maybe we'll have Americans sent over there to do the fighting for them, which is an absolute red line for you, for me.

00:36:02.180 And I know for everybody listening, I mean, that's just completely beyond the pale.

00:36:05.700 We should not lose a single American life, a single American finger fighting over who's in control of the eastern portion of Ukraine.

00:36:13.340 And in the meantime, there's nothing to be gained in the long run for Ukraine continuing to fight and lose its entire able-bodied male population

00:36:25.000 when there's the possibility that you could still have a country that is functioning, a country that is a homeland for the Ukrainian people

00:36:32.860 and wouldn't be in the midst of a horrible and bloody war.

00:36:36.400 Or like I said, Clay, it used to be that the Democrats were supposedly the peace party.

00:36:40.620 They were really the undermine America during time of war party. 0.84

00:36:43.560 That's actually more accurate.

00:36:44.720 But they would at least go through the motions of pretending that they didn't want, you know,

00:36:49.200 don't go after Saddam in the first war.

00:36:51.220 Don't go after Saddam in the second war.

00:36:52.700 Don't you know, they were the ones that were saying we and maybe they're right about the second one.

00:36:56.940 But we shouldn't be fighting these wars, except when it comes to wars like this, where there's some humanitarian interest and no real American interest at stake.

00:37:07.260 So I think that if Trump is able to pull this off, it's a huge win all around.

00:37:12.500 And again, it brings us back to, yes, Trump out there negotiating to end wars and stop bloodshed, just like Hitler would have done. 0.79

00:37:20.640 So I would also point out, if we could get a ceasefire, the price of gas would drop immediately in a significant fashion.

00:37:35.340 Trump sees that.

00:37:36.600 He knows all this stuff with Russia has hurt us economically, probably in the West more than it's hurt Russia. 0.99

00:37:42.000 Russia doesn't really care. 0.79

00:37:43.060 And even the opening back up of the Black Sea would dramatically decrease prices for a variety of goods, including is.

00:37:52.980 Am I correct that Ukraine is one of the largest wheat producing countries in the world and that, you know, that, you know,

00:38:01.440 the amount of goods that the grain is used to produce has also driven up the cost.

00:38:07.060 And I've been told that because of the shipping costs associated with the dangers of the Black Sea.

00:38:13.580 The other thing is Trump has attacked the Houthis in in the Red Sea area.

00:38:19.640 Right.

00:38:20.360 That is also driven up the cost of goods being shipped around the world.

00:38:25.020 So while there is a great focus on tariffs and what the impact of the cost of goods could be for tariffs,

00:38:31.600 I think in Trump's internal calculation, he is seeing the ending of the wars to the extent that we can keep them ended.

00:38:40.820 And I know they've reignited right now in the Middle East.

00:38:44.240 But if you could end the war in Ukraine this summer, I think you would see a massive deflationary movement on a variety of the price of goods,

00:38:55.880 in particular oil and gas.

00:38:57.640 You know, there is there is a historical mirror image here, perhaps, or there's echoes of when Reagan came into office,

00:39:07.260 Volcker had to tighten things, tighten things at a level that way beyond what we've seen so far in terms of how high rates had to go.

00:39:16.520 And yeah, I mean, there was essentially a recession.

00:39:19.620 And Reagan more or less inherited that recession.

00:39:22.760 But you had to you had to get the you know, you had to clear the system out.

00:39:27.820 You had to get things under control.

00:39:29.900 And there was a little bit of economic pain that the country had to go through early on.

00:39:34.600 And then 20 years of boom and prosperity afterwards.

00:39:37.820 Right.

00:39:38.260 So if if this is a Reagan moment for Trump on the economy, and I think there are a lot of reasons to believe that that it could be and that it will be.

00:39:47.360 The historical analogy here is very favorable, but it might take a year, 18 months, something like that, for things to really get cooking the way they would like them to.

00:39:59.040 You cannot fix a problem that others refuse to fix and expect that there's not going to be some discomfort along the way, because why wouldn't they fix it if that wasn't the case?

00:40:08.980 This is, though, a very good sign.

00:40:12.380 I think it's hard to spin it as a bad sign.

00:40:14.940 It'll be interesting to see what the larger media ecosystem says about this.

00:40:21.540 Remember, Ukraine has effectively already agreed to a 30 day ceasefire.

00:40:26.440 And it sounds like Russia is willing to potentially get involved as well.

00:40:32.280 Let's say let's just go through a best a best case scenario here for those of us who are adults.

00:40:37.340 And then I'll tell you what the libs will say and how they'll play this.

00:40:40.400 Right.

00:40:40.520 Let's assume that this ceasefire goes forward and maybe it doesn't.

00:40:44.620 And maybe, you know, maybe Trump ends up having to drop the hammer on Putin with a whole lot more economic warfare stuff.

00:40:50.000 And that's all possible.

00:40:51.220 OK, we don't know.

00:40:52.300 We don't get ahead of ourselves here.

00:40:53.900 But if you're going to war game this out a little bit, let's assume, Clay, that the ceasefire goes forward and it is durable.

00:41:02.680 And we go into at every phase of the ceasefire.

00:41:05.660 You know, you'll be hearing from Democrats, Putin got too much of what he wanted and he could break the ceasefire at any moment.

00:41:12.540 Putin got too much of what he wanted and he could break the ceasefire at any.

00:41:15.940 You're going to hear that over and over for months and months and months.

00:41:19.100 So that by the time it's clear that this conflict, if this happens, this conflict actually has ceased to be the war, the meat grinder of humanity that it has been.

00:41:30.540 They're just hoping to play this out so that nobody even realizes that Trump is what, you know, if you extend this out and complain about it the whole time, it denies him at some level the victory, the political victory, at least to some that he would be winning by ending this thing.

00:41:47.540 Do you see what I mean?

00:41:48.340 They they complain.

00:41:49.580 They say, we don't know yet.

00:41:50.540 We don't know yet.

00:41:51.280 And they keep doing that until eventually when it's clear, oh, no, Trump actually pulled off something of a diplomatic miracle here.

00:41:57.640 People have moved on to other things that I think that's how they play it, because they're never going to say, wow, he's a brilliant statesman.

00:42:04.140 And he saved thousands and thousands of lives and had the economy boom because of it.

00:42:10.440 It is a really good sign that they are talking.

00:42:14.460 I think, again, we read you the readout on the report.

00:42:19.340 I am cautiously optimistic.

00:42:21.240 I like to go to look at Polymarket.

00:42:23.280 It has now bucked the chances of a ceasefire by May 1 at 60 percent.

00:42:29.400 You know, you can go take either side on this on this prediction market.

00:42:34.740 Right.

00:42:35.100 It's why it's kind of interesting to look at.

00:42:37.480 But that is a small favorite that we may have a ceasefire in Ukraine by May 1.

00:42:42.680 The other reason the timing matters on this a lot, Buck, and I do think it's worth reinforcing this on a regular basis.

00:42:50.260 Typically, as it gets warm in Ukraine, the armies are better able to move and the overall fatality rates increase.

00:42:58.920 It's still the midst of winter over there right now, but moving the fighting season, essentially.

00:43:04.200 The same thing was true in Afghanistan.

00:43:05.520 When the mountain passes melt down and it's easier to move around, you get more fighting, more shooting.

00:43:11.260 So hopefully, if there is a ceasefire, they could get a ceasefire in place by the time it starts to warm up there so that we can limit the overall amount of death that might be occurring.

00:43:22.760 And again, to your point, yes, very Hitlerian of Trump to try to end the largest war in Europe since World War II.

00:43:32.960 It's exactly what Hitler would have done if he had been in a position of prominence in America. 0.96

00:43:38.820 And obviously, we're ridiculing the absurdity of that.

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00:46:19.680 Already doing great numbers on Amazon.

00:46:22.420 Go get your copy today.

00:46:24.100 Mr. Hammer, great to have you with us, sir.

00:46:26.360 I wanted to get your take first, if I could, before we dive into the book, which everyone should go get a copy of.

00:46:32.780 I know it's doing great so far.

00:46:35.500 The end of the ceasefire in Israel and the new posture or the renewed posture, perhaps, toward Hamas.

00:46:42.300 What do you make of it?

00:46:44.480 Well, Buck, great to join you.

00:46:45.800 And thanks for the book support.

00:46:47.960 Look, to me, the ball is clearly in Benjamin Netanyahu's court, Buck.

00:46:52.700 I mean, Donald Trump is all in for U.S.-Israel relations.

00:46:55.360 He's used the rhetoric of give them hell to pay.

00:46:58.580 He's made it very clear that he and his cabinet are going to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Israeli government when it comes to diplomacy,

00:47:04.600 when it comes to military, when it comes to trying to eradicate the entirety of the Hamas political and military cancer from the Gaza Strip.

00:47:12.160 So for some weeks now, Buck, I've been saying the ball is in Netanyahu's court.

00:47:17.480 I mean, Bibi has basically lived his entire adult life for moments just like this.

00:47:22.200 He has led his entire adult life to wait for the opportunity to go in and do what needs to be done, so to speak, whether it's in Gaza, whether it's in Lebanon and Hezbollah.

00:47:30.920 He did that partially last summer, actually, or whether it's really the grand threat of all in the region, which, of course, is is the Islamist regime in Tehran.

00:47:38.540 So I'm not surprised that the ceasefire broke.

00:47:41.640 Frankly, Hamas only has itself to blame. 0.62

00:47:43.580 I mean, with a medieval Islamist death cult, they had any number of opportunities to avoid this outcome. 0.98

00:47:49.780 They completely brought this upon themselves.

00:47:51.900 And frankly, this is a necessary thing that has to happen or if there to be any resolution whatsoever in the region.

00:47:57.120 Congrats on the book.

00:47:59.700 I know all the work that goes into that.

00:48:01.380 I hope you're having a good time with it officially being out.

00:48:04.720 What is the ultimate goal, do you think, when it comes to Gaza?

00:48:09.940 What should happen?

00:48:11.160 What's likely to happen?

00:48:13.000 What does history suggest should happen?

00:48:15.460 It looks like Donald Trump has a certain vision in mind.

00:48:18.180 I mean, he wants the United States to take over Gaza.

00:48:20.620 I'll be honest with you.

00:48:21.780 That was not on my personal bingo card.

00:48:24.060 I'm not sure that, frankly, that it was on Bibi Netanyahu's bingo card.

00:48:27.480 I mean, you look at his facial expression at the joint press conference when Donald Trump announced that to the world.

00:48:32.180 It was quite humorous to look at the way that Netanyahu and the Israeli officials in the room reacted to that.

00:48:38.840 I'm open to being persuaded of that.

00:48:40.840 That's not entirely what my first guess would have been.

00:48:43.760 But look, in my heart of hearts, I would love to see the Arabs there find a permanent home in Jordan or Egypt,

00:48:49.480 which seems to be Donald Trump's preferred approach, and for Israel to go ahead and take it over.

00:48:53.540 Realistically speaking, I think the most likely way that this ultimately ends is you get some sort of consortium of the more moderate Sunni Arab states,

00:49:01.020 the Saudis, Emiratis, Bahrainis, maybe the Egyptians if they're willing to play a ball,

00:49:05.420 and they kind of go in there jointly together and try to make sure that Islamism and jihadism will not be the way forward there.

00:49:11.940 But that's going to entail some sort of American-Israeli or some sort of joint presence there, even with that,

00:49:18.580 because frankly, even these guys, the more moderate forces, I'm not sure just how much we can trust them for the mid to long term.

00:49:25.480 Josh, for people who don't know, I was over in Israel in December.

00:49:30.920 The amount of immense popularity for Trump in Israel is off the charts.

00:49:34.780 In fact, Trump, if Israel had had a vote in the American presidential election, would have won like he did in West Virginia or Wyoming.

00:49:44.220 What do you think Israelis believe when they see that Trump is being attacked by Democrats here as Hitler?

00:49:50.540 Well, Clay, I'll tell you exactly what Israelis believe, because I happen to be married to one, 1.00

00:49:57.140 and I happen to have in-laws here in Florida where I live who are them, and I taught them every day.

00:50:03.740 The Israeli people are about the Trumpiest people basically in the entire world. 0.99

00:50:09.060 I'm not sure if there's a single foreign country where Trump has a higher approval rating than the state of Israel,

00:50:13.420 for very clear and compelling reasons, which is that Donald Trump is the most pro-Israel,

00:50:17.500 frankly, he's the most pro-Jewish president in American history there.

00:50:22.240 And, you know, this is something of an issue that I think a lot of people here, even on the right, don't fully understand,

00:50:28.500 is how can American Jews vote disproportionately so much for the Democratic Party

00:50:32.760 while Israeli Jews are so supportive of the Republican person in this case?

00:50:37.960 That would be Donald Trump.

00:50:39.200 I actually talk about that quite a bit in the book Israel and Civilization.

00:50:42.100 It's maybe a longer, more complicated conversation there.

00:50:45.100 But the Israeli people in general are emphatically pro-Trump.

00:50:48.100 They even named a town after him, Clay.

00:50:50.060 There's literally a town in the Golan Heights called Trump Heights.

00:50:53.840 Ramat Trump would be the Hebrew word.

00:50:55.980 I know it because I've been there.

00:50:57.420 I actually drove by, got out of the car, took a selfie on the side of the road there with the road sign Ramat Trump.

00:51:03.020 So they're all in.

00:51:04.400 They're all in for President Trump there, as they should be,

00:51:07.660 because Donald Trump is deeply supportive of the state of Israel.

00:51:09.900 All right, let's talk about the book, Josh, out today.

00:51:12.100 Israel and Civilization, The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West by Josh Hammer.

00:51:17.240 What do people need to know and why should they pick up their copy?

00:51:21.460 So, Buck, the book Israel and Civilization, both fortunately and unfortunately, I think, could not possibly be timely.

00:51:27.700 I'm a little biased, but I happen to think that it is very timely.

00:51:30.920 On the one hand, Buck, you have the woke left, which is obviously a horrific, cancerous actor.

00:51:37.660 But there is an increasing portion, even of people on the nominal rights.

00:51:42.620 Not a loud portion, but there are some people that are really calling for the U.S. to abandon Israel.

00:51:48.180 And frankly, I think deep down in these people's hearts, what they really want to do is ultimately to convince American Christians to just leave the Jewish state and leave the Jewish people behind. 0.61

00:51:56.600 So I took it upon myself to write this book basically calling for Jews and Christians alike to lock arms and stand shoulder to shoulder like never before and to fall in love with the biblical inheritance again.

00:52:07.580 Because it actually is that ecumenical, biblical inheritance that frankly founded this country going back in 1776.

00:52:14.200 Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, they wanted the National Seal of the United States to be Moses parting the Red Sea.

00:52:20.040 Abraham Lincoln, my own favorite figure in American history, described famously Americans as an almost chosen people using that covenantal language from the Hebrew Bible.

00:52:28.460 The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia literally has a scriptural quote from the book of Leviticus right on the outside of it there.

00:52:34.620 So the book is kind of painstakingly arguing that so much of what we take for granted today when it comes to our law, politics, morals, ethics, and so forth really does go back to scripture and that we cannot abandon that.

00:52:46.400 But the book is also relevant, Buck, because I make a very clear MAGA, America first, hard-headed realist case for U.S.-Israel relations and the importance of U.S.-Israel ties.

00:52:57.180 You have a lot of people that are screaming, oh, the Israel issue.

00:52:59.920 Oh, it's an old neocon, neoconservative issue.

00:53:02.180 It's an old Bush administration, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld issue.

00:53:05.760 And I'm sorry, but the answer is no.

00:53:07.500 That's not what it is.

00:53:08.700 Donald Trump is not a neoconservative.

00:53:10.180 He is a foreign policy realist.

00:53:11.740 He's the most pro-Israel president in American history there.

00:53:14.420 If you want to focus disproportionately on China, which I think America needs to do because, again, I'm a realist who believes in limited resources, the question is how do you secure American interests in the Middle East while allowing you to extricate resources to the Indo-Pacific?

00:53:59.220 How optimistic are you about peace in the Middle East?

00:54:04.020 Because for thousands of years, obviously, it hasn't happened.

00:54:08.180 Are you optimistic that in the lifetime of the people that are listening to us right now, we could have some form of peace in the Middle East?

00:54:14.480 Yes and no.

00:54:16.280 I think that there is such a thing as a more tranquil region, as a more peaceful region that is less prone to violent eruptions of jihadism.

00:54:25.900 Frankly, Clay, that's ultimately going to take – it's going to have to take the Iranian regime to go because the Iranian regime currently is the head of the snake. 0.98

00:54:33.500 They are the source of virtually all of the violent jihad that goes across the Middle East. 0.98

00:54:38.160 Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that America needs to go and start toppling the Ayatollah.

00:54:42.620 That's not my stance.

00:54:43.780 But some way or another, whether it comes from sanctions or the Mike Pompeo-esque maximum pressure campaign, that regime is going to have to go.

00:54:52.440 So at some point, God willing, in a post-Islamic republic Iran there where jihad is on the decline, then, yes, I think the Middle East could be a lot more stable than it is today. 0.75

00:55:02.440 Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, all these forces would be subdued if not made completely extinct without their major benefactor in Tehran.

00:55:09.360 On the other hand, you still do have the issue of Islam, and there are very real questions I think are worth asking and exploring as to the extent to which Islam will ever itself, even any more moderate form, ever be comfortable fully with a Jewish state there in the heart of the Middle East. 0.68

00:55:27.100 And I don't really fully know the answer to that, but I do think that after Iran goes, and God willing, it'll be at some point, again, not that the U.S. has to topple them, but at some point, that regime is going to have to go. 0.68

00:55:37.220 At some point, Clay, after that, I think things will definitely be better, if not fully solved.

00:55:41.800 Israel and civilization, the fate of the Jewish nation, and the destiny of the West.

00:55:45.760 Josh Hammer is the author.

00:55:47.060 Go get your copy of the book today.

00:55:48.920 Hammer time.

00:55:49.800 Great to have you, my friend.

00:55:50.720 Thanks for being here.

00:55:52.700 Gentlemen, my pleasure.

00:55:53.580 Thank you so much.

00:55:54.120 Thank you so much.

00:56:24.120 My dad has made his living researching and predicting the stock market for decades, and when he is right, he is right in a big way.

00:56:41.740 To his credit, my dad created a name for himself back in the day on Wall Street when he called the crash of 87 in advance on television.

00:56:49.840 Still can see the videos of it.

00:56:51.020 You can still see his prediction, by the way, his forecast for the future that affects you and your finances now at this website, disruption2025.com.

00:57:01.380 Video is free for you to watch, and it is worth the time to check it out.

00:57:05.280 Go check this out today, disruption2025.com.

00:57:10.120 Paid for by Paradigm Press.

00:57:11.680 Keep up with the biggest political comeback in world history on the Team 47 podcast.

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00:57:23.780 Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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