Verdict with Ted Cruz - Historic Victories： ALL the Major WINS in the First Six Months of the Trump Presidency

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.680 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.780 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz.

00:00:08.080 We're in studio this week as well, so people that are listening,

00:00:10.700 they can also watch this episode on YouTube or on Facebook, X, etc.

00:00:15.120 This is going to be a fun show,

00:00:16.800 one that people are going to want to share with their family and their friends

00:00:19.240 because we're going to talk about how just six months in to this presidency,

00:00:24.660 the winds are incredible, even comparing it to 2016.

00:00:28.060 This is moving at such an incredible pace for the president's agenda items.

00:00:33.240 Having the Senate and the House on your side and working with you is amazing.

00:00:37.060 And there's been some celebration on that,

00:00:38.940 but the media is not covering much of the success.

00:00:41.800 Well, that's exactly right.

00:00:42.880 And this is one of those episodes where the value of a podcast becomes clear

00:00:46.580 because the corporate media does not want the American people to know the size,

00:00:52.120 the scope of President Trump's success.

00:00:54.100 And so the only way you can get the information we're going to have in this podcast

00:00:57.880 is listening to this podcast or other things similar,

00:01:00.660 although I'm not sure there's a whole lot similar to listen to.

00:01:03.460 But let's take what President Trump just put up on Truth Social.

00:01:07.560 Wow, time flies.

00:01:10.200 Today is the six-month anniversary of my second term.

00:01:13.900 Importantly, it's being hailed as one of the most consequential periods of any president.

00:01:18.180 In other words, we got a lot of good and great things done,

00:01:22.420 including ending numerous wars of countries not related to us,

00:01:26.320 other than through trade and or, in certain cases, friendship.

00:01:30.580 Six months is not a long time to have totally revived a major country.

00:01:35.120 Quote,

00:01:35.560 One year ago, our country was dead with almost no hope of revival.

00:01:40.300 Today, the USA is the, quote,

00:01:42.280 Hottest and most respected country anywhere in the world.

00:01:46.840 Happy anniversary.

00:01:48.080 I love it.

00:01:48.700 I got to say, that is not hyperbole.

00:01:51.180 Yeah.

00:01:51.700 The six months that we have seen in 2025 under President Trump's second term,

00:01:56.340 I believe have been the most consequential six months of any president of our lifetime.

00:02:01.440 We are going to break down the victories, the major victories right now.

00:02:05.500 Yeah.

00:02:05.980 Want to talk to you real quick, though, about a bill that you've got every month

00:02:08.740 and a change you can make and support the causes that you believe in at the very same time.

00:02:13.740 And that's Patriot Mobile.

00:02:15.500 Look, there's a lot of choices for cell phone service,

00:02:18.020 but there's one that is really a big difference.

00:02:21.940 And it's one where you can boldly stand in the gap for every American that believes in freedom

00:02:26.720 and that it's worth fighting for.

00:02:28.600 And that is a company called Patriot Mobile.

00:02:31.200 Now, switching to Patriot Mobile today is easier than ever,

00:02:34.320 and I'm going to give you a free month of service.

00:02:36.380 But let me explain to you about what you get.

00:02:38.980 If you're worried about coverage, you shouldn't be.

00:02:41.740 Patriot Mobile uses all three major U.S. networks,

00:02:44.520 and that means that you're going to have premium service wherever you are.

00:02:49.440 Now, if you think switching is a hassle and that's why you haven't made the switch,

00:02:53.420 it's not anymore in 2025.

00:02:55.840 You can keep your same number, keep your same phone, or upgrade to a new one.

00:02:59.720 And Patriot Mobile has a 100% U.S.-based team that will get you activated literally in minutes

00:03:05.880 from the comfort of your home or your office.

00:03:08.280 Now, if you've got a small business in multiple lines or family with a lot of phones, not a problem.

00:03:13.800 If you're stuck in a contract or owe money on your phones,

00:03:16.700 no worries because Patriot Mobile right now has a contract buyout program.

00:03:22.240 This is how we win, folks, by aligning our spending with our values.

00:03:27.600 And about 5% of your bill every month with Patriot Mobile,

00:03:31.100 they put back to work to stand up for your First and your Second Amendment rights,

00:03:35.320 the rights of unborn children, and to stand with our wounded warriors and our veterans.

00:03:40.020 That is just some of the great things they do every month.

00:03:43.160 So make the switch. It's never been easier.

00:03:46.200 Now, let me give you that free month of service.

00:03:47.940 Go to patriotmobile.com slash verdict, patriotmobile.com slash verdict,

00:03:53.500 or 972Patriot.

00:03:55.540 Use that promo code VERDICT to get a one month of free service switching today.

00:04:00.340 Patriotmobile.com slash verdict, or 972Patriot.

00:04:04.140 So, Senator, you guys got to have actually a celebratory dinner at the White House.

00:04:08.800 Not a bad place to hang out.

00:04:10.840 The president decided, let's celebrate the accomplishments of the big, beautiful bill.

00:04:15.300 I actually think this speaks to him understanding politics so much more now than he did in 2016.

00:04:19.880 When you win, celebrate with your team.

00:04:23.240 There does seem to be a team mentality with this president now in Congress.

00:04:27.220 I don't know if we had that in 2016.

00:04:29.380 That's paying dividends, and you guys got together for a dinner to celebrate the hard work.

00:04:34.020 So it was a fantastic celebration dinner.

00:04:35.960 It was Friday night.

00:04:37.280 The president invited Republican senators to come join us.

00:04:40.980 About 30 Republican senators came with our spouses.

00:04:43.940 So Heidi was there, and it was great fun.

00:04:46.820 We were celebrating the victories of the first six months, but in particular, the one big, beautiful bill.

00:04:52.240 And I'll tell you, you can see some of the images from that night.

00:04:56.260 Heidi and I were with the president.

00:04:57.640 He was in as good a mood as I have ever seen him.

00:05:00.860 He was jubilant.

00:05:02.540 Look, we were celebrating.

00:05:03.860 We were celebrating that night.

00:05:05.340 We were feeling fantastic.

00:05:07.280 It turns out winning is a good thing.

00:05:09.660 I'm not tired of winning yet, and none of the rest of us are either, and it was the entire atmosphere.

00:05:17.200 The president said, but the rest of us agreed with what he said in that truth. 0.85

00:05:21.840 These have been the most consequential six months of any president of our lifetime,

00:05:26.360 and also we have seen the most conservative victories in any six months period in our lifetime.

00:05:34.380 And I want in this podcast, I want to highlight five of those victories.

00:05:38.360 But the fifth one is the one big, beautiful bill, and one of the things we're going to do in this podcast

00:05:42.760 is we're going to break down some of the major elements of that one big, beautiful bill

00:05:46.820 because the press has demonized it, and it is extraordinary how many wins were in the one big, beautiful bill.

00:05:53.500 But if you're looking at President Trump's first six months, the number one victory is obvious,

00:06:00.280 and it has to be the border.

00:06:02.880 No doubt.

00:06:03.320 This election was a referendum on Joe Biden and the Democrats' open borders,

00:06:08.560 on four years of 12 million illegals flooding into this country.

00:06:12.780 The American people said enough is enough, and the results President Trump has produced

00:06:19.140 are utterly unprecedented.

00:06:21.840 And by the way, if you don't want to believe Ben, well, that's usually a good instinct.

00:06:25.840 But even if you don't want to believe me, believe ABC News.

00:06:31.260 And God help me that I just uttered that sentence.

00:06:33.280 But give a listen to what ABC News says about what President Trump has accomplished on the border.

00:06:38.400 Today marks six months since President Trump returned to office for his second term.

00:06:43.140 It has been a head-spinning half year, from sweeping changes in the federal government

00:06:47.980 to mass deportations and bombs dropped on Iran.

00:06:51.560 The president promised changes, and there is no question he has made them.

00:06:56.660 President Trump won the 2024 election based largely on his vow to improve the economy

00:07:02.320 and crack down on illegal immigration.

00:07:05.500 He has declared success on both.

00:07:08.000 I mean, that's coming from ABC News.

00:07:10.300 It was also interesting this week.

00:07:11.660 I was up in New York for a couple of days, and I love green room conversations

00:07:14.620 because you're hanging out with usually someone from the opposite party.

00:07:18.700 And I won't say their name.

00:07:20.020 It was a Democrat operative, high up in the Democratic Party. 0.70

00:07:23.620 And what was said to me was, you guys screwed up.

00:07:26.480 Y'all secured the border too quick.

00:07:28.300 I would have slow-played it longer to get more of a victory lap out of it

00:07:32.200 because it was shut down so fast.

00:07:34.460 They said to me, they're like, we can't believe how fast

00:07:36.940 you guys had the success of closing the southern border.

00:07:40.600 And they said, politically, you should have played it out a little longer.

00:07:44.200 You know what?

00:07:44.780 That doesn't shock me a Democrat says that

00:07:46.720 because to Democrats, everything is political.

00:07:50.100 Yeah.

00:07:50.280 It's all about political battles.

00:07:52.400 Never mind what that Democrat is saying. 0.91

00:07:54.860 You should have let more Americans be murdered for longer. 1.00

00:07:57.480 You should have let more women be raped by illegals for longer. 1.00

00:08:00.300 You should have let more children be brutalized by child molesters. 1.00

00:08:04.140 I mean, what a revealing comment. 0.74

00:08:07.040 Yeah.

00:08:07.300 And I got to say, I disagree, even as just a matter of political strategy

00:08:11.640 with whatever that unnamed strategist named David Axelrod said.

00:08:20.700 But, and here's why I disagree, because the fact that it was done so quickly

00:08:25.400 demonstrates for all times that what the Democrats did was deliberate.

00:08:30.740 That they could have fixed it at any time, and they didn't because they wanted the border open,

00:08:38.120 and they were perfectly fine.

00:08:39.920 Everyone who died the last four years, every single Democrat said, 0.99

00:08:44.660 hey, if it benefits me politically, I will let your family die.

00:08:49.320 That level of cynicism, I think it's very hard to come back from. 0.99

00:08:52.900 And even now they're telling you, gosh, you should let more people die

00:08:56.500 because you'd get some political advantage from it.

00:08:58.480 That's just wrong.

00:08:59.140 It's also interesting in the conversation that we had,

00:09:01.540 and I think this is a bigger point the American people need to understand about the win

00:09:05.200 and how big of a deal this is.

00:09:07.100 They were even talking about how flooding the border and illegal immigrants

00:09:10.880 really helped shape the map for Democrats.

00:09:13.500 We were able to give them more votes in Congress because of population,

00:09:17.000 and we were counting illegal immigrants as a part of the population.

00:09:20.980 They were saying that's one of the things that because the border was open,

00:09:24.300 I mean, this was an open conversation.

00:09:25.760 They were completely open about it, but in terms of the successes on this,

00:09:29.120 let's go back to ABC News because, again, and what's very funny is you can tell Martha hates this. 1.00

00:09:33.860 She's miserable.

00:09:35.260 You know, in that last segment we played, she describes it as head spinning. 0.97

00:09:38.900 I got to say I am glad the corporate media's heads are spinning.

00:09:42.560 I want them to spin a whole lot more, but listen to ABC describing the president's success

00:09:47.080 on securing the border.

00:09:48.020 You will hit the border with Mexico, where there is little question that Trump is fulfilling a campaign promise.

00:09:56.020 All illegal entry will immediately be halted.

00:10:00.020 In a matter of months, migrant crossings have hit record lows.

00:10:04.700 Apprehensions at the southern border dropped to 6,072 in the month of June,

00:10:09.720 a massive reduction from the 83,532 apprehensions recorded in June of last year.

00:10:18.240 Over 25 miles of Constantino are our U.S. Marines put up for us.

00:10:22.700 Acting patrol chief Jeffrey Stalnacher tells us the San Diego sector has seen a significant drop in illegal entries.

00:10:30.720 And what that has done, it's allowed us to get our agents back on the border to do their traditional work.

00:10:35.900 In addition to that, we have maximized consequences.

00:10:39.920 It can be an immigration consequence or a consequence because of a criminal history,

00:10:43.560 something that they've done in the past.

00:10:44.940 So in other words, if they come across, you find out they have criminal history,

00:10:48.280 they go to jail and probably be kicked out later.

00:10:52.220 Or if they don't, they're just immediately repatriate.

00:10:54.380 Yeah, so criminal history and immigration. 0.81

00:10:56.380 You go back to one thing he said there.

00:10:57.780 He said, we've been able to now get our officers to be able to go back to the border and do their job.

00:11:03.340 One of the things that happened was there was so much taking care of all these illegal immigrants 1.00

00:11:07.280 that were coming across on purpose that you pulled them away from their jobs at the border,

00:11:11.500 which allowed more people to come across the border and allowed the cycle to continue to grow.

00:11:16.780 And the border patrol agents were processing.

00:11:18.820 They were changing diapers.

00:11:20.780 They were administering baby food.

00:11:22.960 Look, one of the things we covered in a previous pod talking about the flooding in the Texas Hill Country,

00:11:27.920 Texas DPS said, we were able to be here rescuing people from drowning.

00:11:34.200 Yeah.

00:11:34.980 Why? Because we're not on the southern border anymore,

00:11:37.460 because finally the federal government is doing its job.

00:11:40.220 So DPS was able to be in Texas saving Texans.

00:11:44.000 And so that consequence is massive.

00:11:46.240 All right, that's victory number one, the border.

00:11:47.980 In the first six months, we have secured the border,

00:11:50.380 and we're going to lock that in and make it permanent.

00:11:52.500 Victory number two, President Trump won a war with Iran.

00:11:57.520 Yes.

00:11:58.360 Period. The end.

00:11:59.680 Iran, the Ayatollah chanting death to America, death to Israel. 0.52

00:12:04.400 Israel defeated Hamas.

00:12:06.320 Israel defeated Hezbollah with our support. 0.57

00:12:08.700 Yep.

00:12:09.160 And Israel defeated Iran, took out their nuclear capabilities 0.96

00:12:14.080 in one of the most amazing, successful military strikes of our lifetimes.

00:12:19.460 And President Trump ordered a targeted bombing strike.

00:12:22.960 B-2s flew all the way around the world, 0.75

00:12:25.200 took out Iran's nuclear facilities, not a single U.S. casualty,

00:12:30.040 utterly decimated and destroyed Iran's nuclear capability,

00:12:34.540 secured the border, and won a war, and we're just six months into it.

00:12:37.580 Hold on. Democrats said he was going to start World War III if he did this.

00:12:40.940 What happened to that narrative?

00:12:42.080 By Democrats, do you mean Tucker Carlson?

00:12:43.580 Yeah, yeah.

00:12:44.740 Let's be clear.

00:12:45.420 That's true. He did say that as well.

00:12:46.720 So let's be clear. Tucker and others said if Donald Trump bombs Iran,

00:12:52.700 he said it will start World War III.

00:12:54.180 Yep.

00:12:54.660 He said thousands of Americans will die.

00:12:56.920 Yep.

00:12:57.560 And he said it's a world war that America will lose.

00:13:01.740 So that was his prediction. Iran will beat us in World War III. 1.00

00:13:05.220 Now, that wasn't just a teeny-weeny bit wrong.

00:13:08.640 Yeah.

00:13:08.880 It was totally 100 percent absolutely false.

00:13:13.160 And all of the Democrats who agreed with Tucker Carlson,

00:13:15.980 all of the AOCs and left-wing nuts who agreed with Tucker Carlson,

00:13:20.040 all of the corporate media hacks who agreed with Tucker Carlson,

00:13:23.780 all of them were wrong.

00:13:26.240 And President Trump was right.

00:13:27.280 How much safer are we now that we actually not just took out their nuclear facilities

00:13:31.720 and pushed them way back?

00:13:32.780 But also, I do think it also sends a very big message to other terrorists around the world

00:13:40.060 and to other bad actors around the world.

00:13:43.100 If you push America, we will defend ourselves under this administration.

00:13:47.660 The enemies of America are terrified of Donald Trump.

00:13:50.640 That is a very good thing.

00:13:52.540 Look, I believe in peace through strength.

00:13:54.640 I want our commander-in-chief to be strong.

00:13:57.080 Now, that doesn't mean that we engage in forever wars.

00:14:00.480 Look, it's important to understand Donald Trump didn't invade Iran.

00:14:03.260 He didn't send boots on the ground.

00:14:04.900 He's not trying to turn Iran into Switzerland.

00:14:07.340 But what he did do is acted decisively to take out nuclear weapons being developed

00:14:12.720 to potentially be used against the United States of America.

00:14:16.380 That is a strong commander-in-chief.

00:14:18.100 By the way, he is also acting to take out the Houthis who are bombing American ships

00:14:22.300 and harassing American commerce.

00:14:24.120 And the message, the message to Iran, the message to North Korea, the message to Venezuela,

00:14:28.300 the message to Cuba, the message to Russia, the message to China.

00:14:31.540 If you are an enemy of America, you are dealing with a commander-in-chief who will stand up

00:14:35.620 and defend America.

00:14:37.040 And here's what the isolationists never understand.

00:14:42.000 Weakness produces more military conflict.

00:14:44.600 Because our enemies are afraid of President Trump, we are much, much less likely to go to war.

00:14:51.260 I want our enemies afraid of the American president.

00:14:53.400 This, again, I think you said it's victory number two.

00:14:57.020 I think it's so understated by the media just how big of a victory this was.

00:15:01.800 And the fact that there was no loss of American lives, and World War III wasn't started,

00:15:06.600 and now the rest of the world is on notice.

00:15:08.100 And by the way, that wasn't guaranteed.

00:15:09.040 I mean, when President Trump gave that order, it could have gone very, very differently.

00:15:13.180 Imagine if those B-2s had dropped a bunker buster and had missed its target 0.86

00:15:17.360 and hit a civilian target instead, and there had been hundreds or thousands of casualties.

00:15:21.480 That would have been a dramatically different event.

00:15:24.520 Imagine if those American planes had been shot down.

00:15:27.420 Remember Jimmy Carter, when Iran took Americans hostage, he launched a military strike to try to

00:15:33.440 get them down, and our helicopters crashed in the desert with no opposing fire.

00:15:39.080 The entire dynamic would have been very different if we had lost American servicemen and women on that attack.

00:15:45.200 Instead, it was delivered with incredible precision and total success.

00:15:51.180 That's valuable not only for defeating Iran, but for every one of our enemies, 1.00

00:15:55.600 and by the way, every one of our friends, to sit back and say,

00:15:59.740 holy cow, don't mess with them. 0.65

00:16:01.320 Don't mess with them.

00:16:02.240 All right.

00:16:02.560 Big victory number two.

00:16:03.620 What's three?

00:16:04.060 Victory number three.

00:16:04.980 It's one that I care particularly about, the Take It Down Act.

00:16:08.540 And I'll tell you, Friday at the White House, the president brought the Take It Down Act

00:16:12.240 as one of the major victories of his first six months.

00:16:14.880 He brought up Melania Trump.

00:16:16.780 Yeah, she was all involved in this.

00:16:18.220 She leaned in hard. 0.87

00:16:19.620 I wrote the Take It Down Act.

00:16:21.340 It is the first bill in years restricting big tech.

00:16:24.720 It is protecting children, women, and teenage girls from non-consensual intimate imagery,

00:16:31.200 either real intimate images or deep fakes made using AI.

00:16:36.120 We passed it through the Senate.

00:16:37.680 We passed it through the House.

00:16:38.980 We had a great bill signing on the South Lawn.

00:16:42.820 And in fact, when you walk into the White House, and you can see this is framed.

00:16:47.200 This is the first picture that's framed as you come into the White House.

00:16:51.260 I'm standing directly behind the president.

00:16:54.000 And this is the signing of the Take It Down Act.

00:16:57.220 And what was interesting is after President Trump signed it, he handed it to the first lady.

00:17:02.060 And he said, here, Melania, you want to sign it.

00:17:03.780 So the picture is actually of her signing it.

00:17:06.000 Remember, we talked on this podcast.

00:17:07.520 I'm willing to bet, I'm virtually certain, this is the first and only law in American history

00:17:12.480 that's been signed by the first lady. 0.95

00:17:14.160 And so the bill has two signatures, Donald Trump and then Melania Trump under it.

00:17:18.500 And one of the questions you asked is, you said, well, does that create a legal problem

00:17:22.120 that Melania signed it?

00:17:23.060 It's like, no.

00:17:23.520 Once the president signs it, Mickey Mouse can sign it.

00:17:26.500 And it doesn't undo it.

00:17:27.900 But it's still very cool that the first lady signed it.

00:17:30.480 It was a great victory for kids.

00:17:32.160 And it wasn't an auto pen.

00:17:33.260 What an idea, right?

00:17:34.120 It was not an auto pen.

00:17:35.540 We were standing there.

00:17:36.800 And I just love that that's the first picture when you come into the White House.

00:17:40.040 Well, and I also think it talks about how important this is to the White House and to the first lady.

00:17:44.740 And Melania Trump has made it pretty clear. 0.98

00:17:48.280 She says out of the political stuff, this was a moral issue for her.

00:17:51.940 Yeah.

00:17:52.180 This was a-

00:17:53.360 Protecting kids and protecting women.

00:17:54.440 And that to her was a non-political issue, which is, I think, why she's there and signing it.

00:17:59.540 Absolutely, yes.

00:18:00.660 So fourth big victory, rescissions.

00:18:03.360 This past week, we passed the first rescissions.

00:18:05.840 Rescissions is an expedited process to cut spending.

00:18:10.360 We cut $9 billion in spending.

00:18:12.240 We cut a bunch of foreign aid spending, which was a good thing. 0.77

00:18:15.440 We codified some of the doge cuts on foreign affairs.

00:18:18.680 But most notably, we cut the federal funding for PBS and for NPR.

00:18:24.300 Now, that is something conservatives have been fighting to do for 50 years.

00:18:29.140 As long as you and I have been alive, conservatives have been fighting to cut the funding of PBS and NPR.

00:18:35.380 We talked about the president talked at dinner when we were at the White House.

00:18:38.360 He said, you know what?

00:18:39.200 Reagan couldn't do it.

00:18:40.240 Bush couldn't do it.

00:18:41.080 And they tried, by the way.

00:18:42.140 And they tried.

00:18:42.420 They did.

00:18:42.980 I want people to understand the history of this.

00:18:44.520 This is something they tried to do.

00:18:45.960 Couldn't get it done.

00:18:46.820 And just a week ago, we were on the Senate floor until 2.30 in the morning.

00:18:51.260 I'll tell you, the reason we were there at 2.30 in the morning, the last four hours,

00:18:55.440 there was a real chance we were not going to get the votes.

00:18:57.980 It looked like the votes, it was going to go down.

00:19:00.380 And we were spending four hours.

00:19:02.080 It wasn't that we wanted to vote at 2.30 in the morning.

00:19:04.320 It's that at 10 p.m., we didn't have the votes.

00:19:07.240 And so we spent four hours trying to get the votes.

00:19:10.200 We got them.

00:19:11.420 How hard is that?

00:19:12.200 I just got to ask.

00:19:13.140 And you're one or two votes, I'm assuming, at that point, right?

00:19:16.580 So you know who they are.

00:19:18.500 There were four no votes.

00:19:20.320 We could only afford to lose three.

00:19:21.760 And so we had to work and talk to the folks and strategize and go back and forth.

00:19:27.520 And we got it done.

00:19:28.680 But it was four hours of major uncertainty.

00:19:31.820 Because if it had been voted down, it would have been catastrophic.

00:19:35.900 And so we avoided that.

00:19:37.700 And I just want to say, look, there's going to be more rescissions that come over.

00:19:42.140 Heidi and I were sitting with Russ Vogt, who's the head of OMB, great conservative, great friend.

00:19:47.340 We were telling Russ, send more.

00:19:49.480 And he's like, look, this was a test case.

00:19:51.800 Will Republicans in Congress stand up and actually cut spending?

00:19:55.460 And we did.

00:19:56.400 And for it to be PBS and NPR, you know, I spoke on the Senate floor.

00:20:00.400 We talked about this in the last podcast.

00:20:02.880 And I said, listen, if you want to listen to left-wing propaganda, turn on MSNBC.

00:20:08.360 Yep.

00:20:09.360 They do a great job.

00:20:10.560 There's no reason.

00:20:11.720 I wouldn't know.

00:20:13.720 But there's no reason the taxpayers should subsidize it.

00:20:17.560 And we actually got that done.

00:20:19.100 And I will confess, I did somewhat tongue-in-cheek ask the president if the dinner menu Friday night, if they were serving Big Bird for dinner, which some of my colleagues groaned a bit at.

00:20:30.960 But look, that is a massive conservative victory.

00:20:35.660 That's victory number four.

00:20:36.600 That's a huge one.

00:20:37.620 I want to take a moment and talk to you about an awesome company.

00:20:40.580 Two of my good friends, Clay and Buck, they decided to start a coffee company with small batch coffee.

00:20:46.960 Now, if you start your day with coffee, then you need to check out Crockett Coffee.

00:20:53.300 If you haven't had it yet, then you've got to try it.

00:20:56.680 And I'm going to save you 20% off your first order.

00:21:00.360 Now, Crockett Coffee is small batch roasted to perfection on purpose by experts who love the taste of a great cup of coffee.

00:21:09.700 It's also roasted in our nation's heartland and delivered fresh to your home.

00:21:14.900 Crockett Coffee also gives back.

00:21:17.540 Yes, Buck Sexton and Clay Travis, my fellow patriots, they wanted to make sure they never sold out and they gave you coffee that you love.

00:21:26.280 And look, in the coffee space, there are a lot of really liberal, woke companies.

00:21:30.960 So why give them your money?

00:21:32.480 Now, you can choose between fresh ground coffee, whole bean coffee, or even K-cups if you choose.

00:21:39.060 And if you're interested in mushroom coffee and the positive benefits that come with enjoying that each day, Crockett Coffee is now producing that as well.

00:21:46.520 There's dark roast, a mild roast, a light roast, a decaf version.

00:21:50.560 I drink that in the afternoon, the evening when I'm doing my show.

00:21:53.500 And the mushroom organic blend.

00:21:55.960 You choose what you like to try first.

00:21:58.060 And here's the part I love.

00:21:59.760 A portion of your purchase goes to support the Tunnel to Towers Foundation because the good people at Crockett Coffee also pledge to never forget.

00:22:10.040 Now, let me save you money while you try a great cup of small batch coffee. 0.95

00:22:15.460 CrockettCoffee.com.

00:22:17.460 Use my name, Ben.

00:22:18.960 You'll get 20% off your first order.

00:22:21.660 That's CrockettCoffee.com.

00:22:24.220 My name, Ben, and your promo code.

00:22:26.740 When you put that in, you're going to save 20% off CrockettCoffee.com.

00:22:31.000 Promo code Ben, 20% off your first order.

00:22:34.520 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:22:36.700 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:22:40.860 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:22:44.620 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:22:45.780 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:22:47.020 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:22:50.660 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.

00:22:54.320 All at different stages of their journey.

00:22:56.200 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:22:59.740 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:23:05.620 Senator, you said you had a top list here.

00:23:07.560 Five.

00:23:08.460 This is the big one.

00:23:09.660 Number five is the whole meat and potatoes.

00:23:12.760 Number five is the one big, beautiful bill.

00:23:15.880 And, you know, it's interesting.

00:23:17.200 We have seen for months Democrats in the media trying to demagogue this bill,

00:23:21.380 trying to spread lies about this bill, trying to fearmonger about this bill.

00:23:24.980 I will tell you something.

00:23:26.840 The president said Friday night, and multiple of us, including me, said Friday night.

00:23:31.640 This bill has the most conservative victories in it of any piece of legislation I think that has ever passed into law.

00:23:39.400 I don't think that it's hyperbole.

00:23:41.240 There is no other bill that has as many major conservative victories.

00:23:44.900 I'm going to walk through quickly 12 of them.

00:23:47.180 We're going to do this fast, but this is information you cannot get anywhere else.

00:23:51.200 And this segment right now is the reason to listen to Verdict.

00:23:54.860 It's the reason to share it with your friends.

00:23:57.040 It's the reason to post it online.

00:23:58.980 It's the reason to make sure you subscribe because you can watch CNN all day long.

00:24:04.880 God help you if you do.

00:24:06.220 Your eyes will bleed. 0.99

00:24:07.440 You will go insane and run around in circles.

00:24:09.460 But you could watch it all day long, and you will not get this information that you're getting right now on Verdict.

00:24:16.100 Twelve victories that are in the one big, beautiful bill.

00:24:19.540 Victory number one.

00:24:21.360 We have stopped a $4 trillion tax increase.

00:24:24.960 If we did nothing, on December 31st, the Trump tax cuts would disappear,

00:24:29.200 and every American taxpayer, your taxes would go up.

00:24:32.280 Significantly.

00:24:33.280 $4 trillion.

00:24:34.680 Every taxpayer.

00:24:35.760 And by the way, the Democrats wanted your taxes to go up.

00:24:39.520 To stop a $4 trillion tax increase is a massive victory.

00:24:44.300 That's victory one in the one big, beautiful bill.

00:24:47.120 Victory two.

00:24:48.540 We enacted new tax cuts.

00:24:50.680 No tax on tips.

00:24:51.860 Yep.

00:24:52.220 That's my legislation.

00:24:53.520 I drafted it.

00:24:54.600 It is in this bill.

00:24:55.780 That means if you're a waiter or a waitress, if you're a bartender,

00:24:59.060 if you're a barber or a hairstylist, if you work in a nail salon,

00:25:02.540 if you're a taxicab driver or an Uber driver,

00:25:05.860 millions of Americans rely on tips.

00:25:08.160 We're providing real and meaningful tax relief to working Americans.

00:25:11.540 That's in there.

00:25:12.700 No tax on overtime is in there.

00:25:14.820 No tax on Social Security is in there.

00:25:16.680 All three of those were President Trump's campaign promises.

00:25:20.060 We delivered on all three of those.

00:25:22.060 And working Americans all across Texas and all across this country

00:25:25.180 will see the benefits of those major tax cuts.

00:25:30.060 That's huge.

00:25:30.880 I mean, it's just huge when you think about that

00:25:33.280 and you think about the promise and how it was, you know,

00:25:36.480 you look at the president.

00:25:37.320 I go back to the campaign.

00:25:38.580 Yeah.

00:25:39.040 And he came out and he was in Vegas and he was like,

00:25:41.400 hey, we shouldn't be taxing people.

00:25:43.140 They're working their tails off in the tips and everything else.

00:25:45.300 And then the left actually came out and immediately started attacking him

00:25:48.320 for the saying it'll never happen.

00:25:49.520 This is not a good idea.

00:25:50.940 They did say it'll never happen.

00:25:52.520 They said it's an empty promise.

00:25:53.860 Yep.

00:25:54.120 By the way, I've told the story of where he came up with the idea of no tax on tips.

00:25:57.660 He was the day of his Vegas rally.

00:25:59.180 He was having lunch in Vegas.

00:26:00.700 He said there was a waitress who came up to him,

00:26:02.960 was serving him lunch.

00:26:04.160 And Trump being Trump, he told us, he said, she was beautiful.

00:26:07.920 I'm telling you, she was beautiful.

00:26:10.320 And he said she was saying how stressful it was to pay taxes on tips

00:26:14.320 and how complicated it was.

00:26:15.980 And he said he just put on a piece of paper and he wrote on the piece of paper,

00:26:18.580 no tax on tips.

00:26:19.720 He said, what do you think?

00:26:20.740 She says, that sounds great.

00:26:21.920 And he said, I had a rally that afternoon.

00:26:23.760 So I went out to the rally and I said, all right, let's try it out.

00:26:26.240 And he said, no tax on tips.

00:26:28.020 Place went nuts.

00:26:28.840 It went nuts.

00:26:29.800 And I saw it.

00:26:30.680 Because it's a tip town.

00:26:30.960 I mean, it is.

00:26:31.820 People make a...

00:26:32.920 25% of the workers in Nevada are tipped workers.

00:26:36.460 And so...

00:26:36.980 They rely on it as their income.

00:26:38.340 Yes.

00:26:38.680 And so I saw it and I said, this is political genius.

00:26:41.940 And I immediately drafted the legislation to make it happen.

00:26:45.140 That is part of one big, beautiful bill.

00:26:47.180 Victory three.

00:26:47.720 Securing the border.

00:26:50.220 We mentioned what the president has done by enforcing the law.

00:26:53.680 What we put in one big, beautiful bill is $150 billion to secure the border.

00:26:59.520 It is the largest investment in border security in the history of America.

00:27:04.080 It will build the wall.

00:27:05.540 It will complete the wall.

00:27:07.040 We will hire more border patrol agents.

00:27:08.860 We will hire more ICE agents.

00:27:10.380 We will build more detention facilities.

00:27:12.700 We will have more detention beds.

00:27:14.340 And we will employ technology, infrared, drones, helicopters.

00:27:19.300 It is, as I said, the biggest investment ever to secure the border.

00:27:23.520 That is in the bill.

00:27:24.720 One of the things that you mentioned there was technology.

00:27:27.120 It is amazing to see how far behind we've been on technology.

00:27:30.620 And how we didn't have the funding for the technology that we knew we needed.

00:27:34.560 That was clearly done on purpose by the prior administration.

00:27:37.100 Because if you don't have the technology, then you're behind.

00:27:39.680 The cartels are ahead.

00:27:40.680 The human traffickers are ahead.

00:27:42.160 The people are ahead of you.

00:27:43.500 They held us back on purpose to, again, open the border.

00:27:48.200 Yes.

00:27:48.460 So we've been playing catch up.

00:27:49.880 And that's why this money was so important to this bill.

00:27:51.660 There's another strategic victory, which is every spending bill, the Democrats hold border

00:27:56.140 spending and military spending hostage.

00:27:58.040 What we've done is funded the things that are critical to keeping this country safe,

00:28:02.140 which means the Democrats can't hold it hostage anymore.

00:28:04.480 So there's a tactical advantage going forward on the next budget battle.

00:28:09.000 Because this $150 billion, we have appropriated it.

00:28:12.300 It is going out the door.

00:28:13.900 And there's not a damn thing Chuck Schumer or AOC can do to stop it. 0.56

00:28:17.540 That is valuable.

00:28:19.200 On the psyche aspect of it, because I do think this is one of the things that I'm witnessing a change.

00:28:25.300 Our Border Patrol agents, whether it's Department of Homeland Security, ICE,

00:28:28.540 their mentality right now has got to be on a high.

00:28:33.340 It is like a drowning man about to die, given a life preserver, lifted out, saved.

00:28:41.080 They're able to do their jobs.

00:28:42.700 They're locking up bad guys.

00:28:43.820 They're fired up.

00:28:44.480 They're ready to go to war.

00:28:45.380 They're stopping human traffickers.

00:28:46.040 They're stopping drug traffickers.

00:28:47.380 Every time I see a Border Patrol agent or an ICE agent, to be honest, half the time we just hug.

00:28:52.680 I mean, the level of they're just like, thank God.

00:28:55.380 We get to do our job.

00:28:56.920 Victory number four, repaying the states for border security.

00:29:02.360 Thirteen and a half billion dollars, over $10 billion going to Texas.

00:29:06.420 Texas taxpayers spent over $10 billion to secure the border because Joe Biden and the Democrats refused to do so.

00:29:14.000 I helped lead the charge to repay the states.

00:29:16.540 That is in there.

00:29:17.500 That means Texas is getting over $10 billion paid back.

00:29:21.600 That's a huge victory.

00:29:22.640 Victory number four.

00:29:24.300 Victory number five.

00:29:25.060 Rebuilding the military.

00:29:28.520 Over $150 billion to support our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen, our Marines, to build new submarines, to build new next generation fighter jets, to improve our ability to stand up to China, to stand up to our enemies, to combat hypersonics.

00:29:47.980 The next generation of warfare.

00:29:49.920 Look, with the military, often you're fighting the last war.

00:29:54.160 We're going forward.

00:29:55.220 We're going to face 10,000 drone swarms using AI.

00:29:59.520 Investing $150 billion to make sure we can defend this nation.

00:30:05.620 There's no responsibility the federal government has that is more important.

00:30:09.100 And by the way, this is the money the Democrats always hold hostage.

00:30:12.800 So we funded it right now.

00:30:15.140 They can't, they can no longer touch this hostage because this is done.

00:30:19.140 Huge.

00:30:19.580 Victory number six.

00:30:22.680 The Coast Guard.

00:30:23.780 Now, this is something I'm particularly proud of because, as you know, I'm the chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

00:30:30.160 Yep.

00:30:30.540 The Coast Guard is in our jurisdiction.

00:30:32.020 So I wrote the Coast Guard provision.

00:30:35.460 $24 billion for the Coast Guard.

00:30:39.120 This is the single largest investment in the Coast Guard in the history of the United States of America.

00:30:44.720 To give you a sense of the scope, of the order of magnitude, the annual budget of the Coast Guard is about $12 billion.

00:30:52.680 We are spending about 200 percent of the annual budget on the Coast Guard in investments.

00:30:58.960 And what are we doing?

00:30:59.740 We're buying new ships.

00:31:01.440 We're buying new helicopters.

00:31:03.060 We're buying new physical infrastructure.

00:31:05.180 And critically, we're investing in ice cutters and polar ice cutters and Arctic ice cutters. 0.99

00:31:10.280 Right now, China is kicking our ass in the Arctic. 0.99

00:31:14.740 And the Arctic is critical for national security. 0.99

00:31:17.760 Any war ICBMs are going to come over the Arctic.

00:31:20.380 The Arctic is now, you've got the United States on the Arctic.

00:31:23.280 You've got China playing on the Arctic. 0.93

00:31:25.280 You've got Russia playing on the Arctic. 0.77

00:31:26.960 And we are losing.

00:31:29.580 This funding will enable us not only to compete to win.

00:31:33.080 And by the way, a huge theme of everything I do in Congress is beat China, beat China, beat China.

00:31:38.680 This investment in the Coast Guard is to beat China and the Arctic.

00:31:42.220 But let me tell you a huge America First benefit for this, which is shipbuilding in America has almost entirely disappeared.

00:31:49.940 Yeah.

00:31:50.080 And that's scary from a national security standpoint.

00:31:52.580 It is very scary.

00:31:53.900 But this Coast Guard bill will bring shipbuilding back to America.

00:31:58.740 You look at Galveston, Texas.

00:32:00.240 Yeah.

00:32:00.480 There's a huge multi-billion dollar shipyard that is being built and expanded right now to build these ice cutters.

00:32:07.360 And the problem previously is if you're a private company, you couldn't make the multi-billion dollar investment because you didn't know where demand was going to come from.

00:32:16.900 Because we have $24 billion appropriated, there is a multi-year stream of buy orders coming from the Coast Guard for these ice cutters.

00:32:26.120 That is going to bring back thousands of jobs, good American jobs, right here building ships to keep America safe.

00:32:33.980 That is in the bill.

00:32:35.060 I'll tell you, when I was in the Hill Country, when I was with the Coast Guardsmen who were rescuing Texans from the floods,

00:32:41.940 every single Coastie, every one of them, every man and woman knew exactly about this investment in the Coast Guard.

00:32:49.820 They knew it was the biggest in history, and every one of them said, thank you, this will make a massive difference in our ability to do our job.

00:32:56.920 I've got a good friend in the Coast Guard, and he said to me the other day about this.

00:32:59.860 He said, you know, the Coast Guard, he's been in for 20-plus years.

00:33:03.500 He said, we've always gotten the hand-me-downs.

00:33:05.640 We get the leftover equipment and the old equipment.

00:33:08.280 That's a lot of their equipment.

00:33:09.360 Literally come from surplus, from military and other things.

00:33:12.680 He said, this is the first time that we are now, like, on the cutting edge on our own because of what you just described.

00:33:18.860 He said, not only has morale gone through the roof, we're no longer like the forgotten agency.

00:33:23.320 Like, we're kind of like, oh, the fifth wheel of military and government.

00:33:27.300 He's like, now we matter, and it matters for national security, as he described it, and I think that's a great point.

00:33:31.940 That is absolutely right.

00:33:33.080 And by the way, the Coast Guard also does drug interdiction.

00:33:35.940 It does border security.

00:33:37.200 Exactly.

00:33:37.620 The Coast Guard is critical for securing our border.

00:33:39.880 And so this investment, having those Coast Guard cutters to stop drug traffickers, stop human traffickers,

00:33:45.300 and also to engage in search and rescue, which is hugely important.

00:33:50.060 That investment is something I care deeply about.

00:33:53.100 And by the way, we're at number six.

00:33:56.740 I told you I'm going to give you 12 major conservative victories in the one big beautiful wheel.

00:34:01.440 We're at six.

00:34:02.080 I actually want listeners to pause for a second.

00:34:04.000 How many of you could list the first six before this podcast?

00:34:09.040 And I just want to make the point.

00:34:10.980 What kind of job does the corporate media do? 0.72

00:34:13.140 I'm willing to bet virtually none of our listeners could have listed those first six because the news hasn't covered it.

00:34:19.640 And it's why we do this podcast, to give you information so that when you're talking to your friends and your colleagues,

00:34:26.360 you will know what's being accomplished.

00:34:28.080 There's a reason President Trump is so excited about this one big beautiful bill,

00:34:32.280 because it is massive, massive victories for America.

00:34:36.660 Number seven.

00:34:37.620 Number seven.

00:34:39.180 Spectrum.

00:34:40.460 Now, spectrum.

00:34:41.460 What is spectrum?

00:34:42.500 Electromagnetic spectrum.

00:34:43.540 It is how we communicate.

00:34:45.340 It's how our cell phones work.

00:34:46.440 It's how Wi-Fi works.

00:34:47.520 It's how satellites work.

00:34:48.780 It's how streaming works.

00:34:49.880 It's all of electronics.

00:34:52.380 Spectrum.

00:34:53.240 The largest holder of spectrum is the United States government.

00:34:56.640 The United States government has vast swaths of spectrum.

00:35:00.060 And under Joe Biden, the United States government stopped making new spectrum available to the private sector.

00:35:06.300 They ended auction authority.

00:35:07.800 It was grotesquely irresponsible.

00:35:10.340 It did massive damage to America.

00:35:12.220 It destroyed jobs in America.

00:35:13.920 And it let China get ahead of America. 0.82

00:35:16.440 In this bill, I wrote the legislation that directs the federal government to auction to the private sector 800 megahertz of spectrum for private sector investment.

00:35:29.780 What does that mean?

00:35:31.460 Number one.

00:35:33.080 That will generate in excess of $100 billion of revenue to the federal government.

00:35:39.880 Wow.

00:35:40.340 Real money.

00:35:40.940 Now, even in government terms, $100 billion is real money.

00:35:45.660 And listen, you and I are deeply concerned about the deficit and the debt.

00:35:49.100 The entire commerce title that I wrote that had historic investments in Coast Guard and a bunch of other things, I ended up saving over $40 billion, reducing the deficit and the debt by over $40 billion.

00:36:02.240 And the driver was, because of Spectrum Auction Authority, we will bring in $100 billion to pay down the debt.

00:36:10.980 That's real money, but it's not the biggest piece of this.

00:36:13.720 The biggest piece of this is by auctioning the spectrum off, we will open up billions and billions of dollars of private sector investment.

00:36:23.100 The companies that buy this spectrum are going to invest.

00:36:26.320 It is going to create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

00:36:30.240 That is not an exaggeration.

00:36:31.900 Hundreds of thousands of jobs.

00:36:33.700 And you know what Spectrum is all about?

00:36:35.880 Beating China to 6G.

00:36:37.900 I mentioned my consistent theme, beat China.

00:36:40.440 Beat China in the Arctic with the Coast Guard.

00:36:43.180 Beat China to 6G with Spectrum.

00:36:46.220 And I've got to tell you, three months ago, there was nobody in Washington who thought we could get this done.

00:36:54.260 I sat in the office of the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, a good friend of mine.

00:36:58.400 I said, Mike, we're going to do Spectrum on the one big, beautiful bill.

00:37:02.060 And Mike laughed in my face.

00:37:03.360 He's a good friend.

00:37:04.160 Yeah, he's like, there's no way.

00:37:05.500 He said, there's no chance because the Department of Defense and the CIA will fight you.

00:37:10.920 They will stop you.

00:37:11.700 You cannot get it done.

00:37:13.000 We not only got it done when I cut the deal and got it in the bill, President Trump called me the next morning.

00:37:19.500 He said, Ted, this is incredible.

00:37:22.400 This is like, how did you get such an incredible deal?

00:37:28.240 Historic Spectrum Auction Authority producing hundreds of thousands of jobs and beating China to 6G. 0.89

00:37:34.460 That's in the bill.

00:37:36.460 Number eight, air traffic control.

00:37:39.040 This bill invests $12.5 billion modernizing our air traffic control to keep your family safer when you fly, to keep my family safer when we fly, to stop using outdated radars, to stop using computers that have floppy disks.

00:37:54.380 And copper wire.

00:37:55.540 Copper wire to modernize our air traffic control.

00:37:58.980 A massive investment in keeping the American public safe.

00:38:02.500 This bill, I wrote that portion, that is also in the commerce title, so I wrote that portion that will fund and improve air traffic control a huge victory.

00:38:11.620 Number nine, space.

00:38:13.880 Yep.

00:38:14.080 This bill has $10 billion for NASA to go to the moon for the Artemis program, for the Gateway program, to beat China to the moon.

00:38:26.220 China has said they intend to return to the moon by 2030.

00:38:30.200 In my view, if we lose the moon to China, it would be a catastrophic loss. 0.96

00:38:35.620 It would be a loss if we woke up in a few years and China was on the moon and China established a base on the moon, which is what they said they intend to do with the Russians. 0.97

00:38:44.300 And they made that very clear.

00:38:45.420 That is the sole intent of going.

00:38:47.200 It's not just to go to the moon.

00:38:48.000 It's to have a base on the moon.

00:38:49.780 Yes.

00:38:50.420 If they did that and we lost, I think it would be worse than Sputnik.

00:38:56.140 That it would be a national body blow that would crush this country.

00:39:01.020 And look, the moon is critical, number one, for national security.

00:39:04.560 The moon is the high ground.

00:39:06.040 You look at so much of our national security and so much of our commerce depends on satellites in orbit around the earth.

00:39:12.120 The moon gives you the high ground.

00:39:14.300 It is very dangerous for us to cede that to China. 0.78

00:39:17.320 It is unacceptable for us to cede that to China.

00:39:20.100 But number two, there are massive rare earth minerals on the moon.

00:39:24.680 There are enormous economic advantages.

00:39:26.640 It is current U.S. law that it is the policy of the American government to have a sustained human habitation,

00:39:33.780 either on the lunar surface or in cislunar orbit.

00:39:38.260 This investment in beating China to the moon. 0.93

00:39:41.220 And by the way, the moon is a stepping stone to Mars.

00:39:44.420 We will go to Mars.

00:39:45.940 But we haven't landed on a celestial body in over 50 years.

00:39:48.580 So we're going to land on the moon first to make sure we know how to do it.

00:39:51.280 And then we're going to go to Mars.

00:39:52.980 This investment, I wrote this investment in there.

00:39:55.820 I will say there was significant resistance.

00:40:00.280 And without getting too much into the sausage making, we won against the resistance.

00:40:06.560 This is in there.

00:40:07.720 It is a massive investment.

00:40:09.820 And China is going to notice this as well.

00:40:11.880 Yeah, that is exactly right.

00:40:13.720 That's number nine.

00:40:14.440 Number 10.

00:40:16.580 Cafe standards.

00:40:18.360 The standards that mandate you keep having to have higher and higher fuel efficiency on your cars.

00:40:23.820 That's what the Biden administration has used as its tool, as one of its tools, to wage the war on the internal combustion engine,

00:40:31.460 to try to force every car to be electric, is they keep jacking up cafe standards higher and higher and higher.

00:40:37.400 What does that mean?

00:40:38.300 Number one, it drives up the cost of your cars.

00:40:40.160 You notice cars have gotten a lot more expensive.

00:40:41.760 Trucks have gotten a lot more expensive.

00:40:43.700 Number two, it makes cars less safe.

00:40:45.240 Because one of the ways you get the gas efficiency higher is you replace metal with plastics.

00:40:49.640 Yeah, make a lighter.

00:40:51.160 Cheap plastic that crumbles in a crash and more people die.

00:40:56.240 In the commerce section of the one big beautiful bill, you know what we did to cafe standards?

00:41:00.960 What was that?

00:41:01.820 Zeroed them out.

00:41:02.760 Really?

00:41:03.220 They're gone.

00:41:04.180 So it's actually...

00:41:05.180 So you're telling me that my car, instead of being all plastic, we have a little fender bender and everything, brakes,

00:41:10.140 they could actually go back and say, hey, we're not trying to save weight here.

00:41:12.560 We're trying to actually make safe cars again.

00:41:14.280 It can be a great American car again, made of steel, tough as hell.

00:41:18.880 And by the way, you want to buy an electric car?

00:41:20.680 Great.

00:41:21.200 That's your choice.

00:41:22.140 You want to buy a hybrid?

00:41:23.260 Great.

00:41:23.520 You want to buy a gas car?

00:41:24.960 Great.

00:41:25.200 It ought to be consumers choosing.

00:41:27.060 And actually, the way we did this, we very much modeled how, in 2017, we repealed the individual mandate on Obamacare.

00:41:34.900 So that was a fight I led in 2017, the individual mandate.

00:41:38.600 The way we eliminated it is, under the rules of reconciliation, we could not eliminate the legal mandate to buy health insurance,

00:41:49.420 which was the individual mandate under Obamacare.

00:41:51.560 So you know what we did?

00:41:52.880 We made the penalty zero.

00:41:55.200 So it used to be the IRS fines you.

00:41:57.400 If you didn't buy health insurance, the IRS would fine you.

00:41:59.740 It is still the law.

00:42:00.980 You're required to buy health insurance.

00:42:02.200 And if you don't, you will be fined zero dollars and zero cents.

00:42:05.780 We did the same thing to CAFE standards.

00:42:07.520 So they can put their standards out.

00:42:08.920 Yeah.

00:42:09.240 But the penalty for violating it is zero.

00:42:12.760 And I want to mention, look, this is, again, like PBS and NPR, this has been a conservative battle for 50 years.

00:42:21.560 And Democrats have been winning for 50 years, unfortunately.

00:42:24.160 And we got this done.

00:42:25.720 I wrote this portion.

00:42:26.960 It is in the bill.

00:42:28.040 It is zeroed out.

00:42:29.360 And we got this done.

00:42:30.740 And I'm willing to bet fewer than 1% of our listeners even knew we had done it because we won so many victories that this falls all the way down to number 10 on the list.

00:42:41.360 Incredible.

00:42:42.540 Well done.

00:42:43.420 The final two.

00:42:44.240 Yep.

00:42:44.660 The final two, as you know, are very near and dear to my heart.

00:42:48.520 Number 11 is school choice.

00:42:50.680 In this bill, we passed the single largest and most consequential federal school choice bill in the history of our country.

00:42:58.180 I wrote this provision.

00:43:00.200 Every single American taxpayer can now contribute up to $1,700 a year to a scholarship granting organization in the states and get a dollar-for-dollar credit on their taxes.

00:43:12.320 It means the money is free.

00:43:13.920 Yeah.

00:43:13.960 The effect of this is going to be tens of billions of new scholarship money in the states for school choice, for K-12 school choice.

00:43:24.880 We're going to do a subsequent pod that does a really deep dive because...

00:43:29.000 This is part of your legacy, by the way.

00:43:30.760 This is going to be part of your legacy.

00:43:32.140 This is the issue I care more about than anything else.

00:43:35.600 I have spent 30 years fighting for it.

00:43:37.580 And we're going to do another pod where we do a very deep dive because there are some aspects of this that I want the listeners to appreciate that are both incredible policy victories, but also massive political victories.

00:43:48.980 We are creating incentives to turn blue states red, to build constituencies of parents and kids who want fantastic education.

00:43:57.580 This is, I told the president, if and when we get this done, you will go down in history as one of the greatest civil rights presidents in our nation's history.

00:44:06.780 Your critics will never acknowledge that.

00:44:08.440 Yeah, but the reality will be you're going to change poor communities.

00:44:11.380 The reality is the school choice provision is massive, and it's in the bill.

00:44:17.700 And then the final number 12 are the Trump accounts, the Invest America accounts.

00:44:21.380 Again, I wrote this provision.

00:44:23.020 This could fundamentally change this country, by the way.

00:44:25.320 Starting next year, July 4th of next year, the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.

00:44:32.540 Every child in America will have a personal investment account.

00:44:36.340 Every newborn child will have it seated with $1,000.

00:44:40.200 Parents, family, employers can contribute up to $5,000 a year in a tax-advantaged account.

00:44:47.680 All of that money is invested in the S&P 500, is invested in the stock market.

00:44:51.860 That enables every kid to enjoy the incredible benefits of compound growth, which will transform our kids.

00:45:00.480 The wealth creation for the next generation of Americans will be utterly transformative.

00:45:05.960 And not only that, this creates a new generation of capitalists, as our kids will all be owners of the largest employers in America.

00:45:14.120 These two victories, school choice and personal investment accounts for kids, without exaggeration, Ben, and I've told the president this, I think 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now, these will be the two things everyone remembers from this bill.

00:45:32.040 Everything else I listed, 1 through 10, which are massive, they are conservative victories for the generations.

00:45:39.080 I think 11 and 12 will dwarf 1 and 10, because the difference, we will see trillions of dollars invested in 401ks for kids in these Trump accounts that will change the future of every one of our kids and make them all have skin in the game in our capitalist society.

00:45:56.660 And school choice is going to literally provide hope and opportunity to millions of kids.

00:46:02.900 We got both of them done.

00:46:04.540 Those are victories, generational victories.

00:46:07.820 And when the president signed it on July 4th, they were victories for all of America.

00:46:11.900 I hope you share this one.

00:46:13.500 This is one of those shows I love that we've done.

00:46:15.640 You get all this information.

00:46:17.140 We give it to you.

00:46:17.960 Share it wherever you can.

00:46:19.080 If you're watching on YouTube, share it there.

00:46:21.240 On social media, if you're watching on Facebook, share it there.

00:46:23.660 If you're on X, share it there.

00:46:24.860 Share it with your family and your friends.

00:46:26.660 This is big victories and a long list of what has happened since Donald Trump was inaugurated January the 20th.

00:46:32.460 Six-month checkup.

00:46:33.820 I'd say we're doing pretty darn well right now.

00:46:36.020 Don't forget to hit that subscribe or auto-download button wherever you get this podcast as well, so you don't miss a single episode.

00:46:42.960 And then Senator and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.

00:46:46.720 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:46:49.620 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - July 21, 2025

Historic Victories： ALL the Major WINS in the First Six Months of the Trump Presidency

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript