Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 25, 2026


State of the Union Extravaganza


Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 1 minute

Words per minute

179.40822

Word count

11,108

Sentence count

991

Harmful content

Misogyny

11

sentences flagged

Toxicity

58

sentences flagged

Hate speech

17

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Ted Cruz is on a plane, Ben Ferguson is in a highfalutin cigar bar in Washington, D.C., and there's a coup at Daily Wire. Ted and Ben discuss what happened on the day of the State of the Union.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.340 Welcome.
00:00:05.040 It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.
00:00:08.480 And it is 1 a.m. in the morning Eastern time after the State of the Union.
00:00:14.520 I want to be very clear that I am doing this show in protest right now because I was on a plane.
00:00:20.780 No, no, let me rephrase that.
00:00:22.980 Senator, true or false, you and I hung out yesterday in your office.
00:00:26.440 We did.
00:00:27.400 And you were in D.C.
00:00:28.640 And I can't help it that you fled Washington during the State of the Union. 0.97
00:00:33.720 And listen, karma is a b***h.
00:00:36.980 And so when you decided you were a little girl and you had to get out of town because the Democrats getting mad at the president were scary. 0.73
00:00:46.460 Yeah, yeah.
00:00:46.880 There was a consequence, which is for those who are watching on YouTube, a coup has occurred.
00:00:53.880 The original co-host of Verdict has returned and seized the seat.
00:00:58.640 To be clear, he has relegated Mr. Ferguson to appearing as a little box on a monitor.
00:01:05.080 Yeah, yeah.
00:01:06.140 We banished Ben.
00:01:07.680 And I saw not just the seat, but I saw the cigar and I said, this is very good.
00:01:12.480 And this has actually become something of a tradition, I've noticed.
00:01:16.640 I've only ever been to two State of the Union directions.
00:01:19.300 By the way, if only T.C. would tell us that there is a tradition, then I wouldn't have gone on a plane at 2 o'clock this afternoon.
00:01:26.280 You could have changed your flight.
00:01:26.840 To then leave Washington, D.C.
00:01:29.500 Like, think about this.
00:01:31.400 Hey, Ben, we should have cigars at the State of the Union and do the show here.
00:01:34.960 Great idea.
00:01:35.940 I'll change my flight.
00:01:37.380 That is how normal people would have done this.
00:01:40.120 Michael and I could have figured this out a year in advance.
00:01:42.940 This happened late on the fly.
00:01:45.540 And so this afternoon, Michael texted me and said, hey, you want to grab cigars after everything tonight?
00:01:53.420 And I was like, well, we have to do the pod.
00:01:56.360 But, aha, I have an idea.
00:01:59.360 And I didn't really want to do the pod and finish at 2 in the morning and then have cigars.
00:02:03.400 And so I'm like, we'll combine it.
00:02:05.180 And by the way, Daily Wire does this great, what is it, late night?
00:02:08.080 What is it called?
00:02:08.760 Backstage.
00:02:09.280 Backstage.
00:02:09.980 So I've done several times, done backstage with them where they sit around and drink scotch and smoke cigars.
00:02:18.900 And so I said, let's bring some backstage. 0.53
00:02:21.000 Backstage, this is like a Marvel Universe crossover where, like, Daily Wire and iHeart are intersecting.
00:02:31.180 This also really, it's kind of a double verdict tradition in that two years ago, I came to my first State of the Union address.
00:02:39.260 It was Biden's State of the Union, the one where they injected him with whatever they injected him with.
00:02:43.360 Oh, yeah.
00:02:43.680 And he yelled for 92 minutes.
00:02:45.460 Oh, yeah.
00:02:45.780 And then afterward, or actually before I'd set it up, I said, hey, Senator, I happen to be in town.
00:02:52.120 Hate to pressure you for a cigar.
00:02:53.480 Same thing.
00:02:54.100 He said, well, okay, we can have a cigar, but you've got to do the podcast first.
00:02:57.340 I said, okay, well, that'll be a lot of fun.
00:02:59.240 And so, of course, it's, you know, midnight, 1 o'clock in the morning.
00:03:01.940 And this really takes us back because when Verdict started, it was always 1 o'clock in the morning, and it was actually not all that far from here in Washington, D.C.
00:03:12.700 Though I noticed the digs have improved a little bit.
00:03:16.800 So we're in a highfalutin cigar bar in D.C.
00:03:19.880 Because it turns out it's actually complicated to find a studio that will let you smoke a cigar.
00:03:26.020 And my team was-
00:03:27.440 By the way, I don't get to light my cigar.
00:03:29.340 That's the part that I'm really chapped about.
00:03:31.740 I did look at my wife, and Senator, you know Anna well, and I was like, what are the chances for the sake of the show and authenticity I could smoke said cigar?
00:03:43.280 I literally did not get an answer.
00:03:45.320 I got the look.
00:03:46.400 And when you're married, you guys both know the look.
00:03:49.760 Each one of our wives all have a look that they give you. 1.00
00:03:54.440 And I was like, okay, I got it.
00:03:55.760 I know how this is.
00:03:56.880 So, yeah.
00:03:57.180 So, Ben, you are thoroughly domesticated.
00:03:59.320 Yes, yes, yes.
00:04:00.060 And it does impugn your manhood.
00:04:02.140 Yes.
00:04:02.540 But, and I'm now going to tell a story on myself.
00:04:05.800 So when Heidi and I were engaged in an apartment in D.C., and I would host poker games.
00:04:12.080 And at the poker games, we would smoke cigars, and we'd do it at my dining room table.
00:04:18.820 And my buddies that would come over and play, they'd be like, dude, how does Heidi let you smoke cigars inside? 1.00
00:04:25.360 And I was in my 20s and stupid. 1.00
00:04:27.340 So I'm like, look, if you're the man of the house, and you want to smoke a cigar, you smoke a cigar in your damn house. 1.00
00:04:36.780 That's right. 1.00
00:04:37.300 And I said it with all the bravado of a young idiot. 1.00
00:04:41.400 Yeah. 1.00
00:04:41.600 Meanwhile, he didn't own said house.
00:04:43.140 It was an apartment.
00:04:44.040 But keep going.
00:04:44.800 I like the story.
00:04:45.680 Yeah.
00:04:46.520 So then we get married.
00:04:47.960 We actually get married 25 years ago, May 27th, 2001.
00:04:51.240 This is our 25th anniversary.
00:04:52.400 Wow.
00:04:52.740 And we come back from our honeymoon, and shortly thereafter, I'm hosting a poker game. 1.00
00:04:58.140 And Heidi says, get the damn cigars out of the apartment. 1.00
00:05:00.980 You will never smoke another one inside again. 1.00
00:05:03.060 And in 25 years, I never have.
00:05:04.940 And so when I say you are domesticated, that's another way of saying you're actually married.
00:05:10.400 Aren't we all?
00:05:11.160 Aren't we all?
00:05:11.940 It's good to be domesticated in a way.
00:05:14.060 There you go.
00:05:14.680 So more of the story is for planning purposes for all the VUIC listeners and watchers.
00:05:19.000 Next year, Michael and I are in charge of programming.
00:05:22.960 Michael, I think we should do the show together, all of us in D.C., and smoke cigars together
00:05:29.340 after, say, the Union.
00:05:30.400 What do you think, Michael?
00:05:31.320 Is that a good idea?
00:05:32.520 That's a great idea.
00:05:34.000 Listen, I'm in.
00:05:35.760 All right.
00:05:36.080 Good.
00:05:36.340 All right.
00:05:36.540 Well, you and I will have a group chat to set it all up in advance, and we will all be
00:05:41.060 one happy family with all of us smoking a cigar.
00:05:43.860 The Ferguson family got bigger over the holidays with a new puppy.
00:05:47.660 And I can tell you, having one dog that is over a decade old and a new dog that's just
00:05:53.460 months old, there's one thing they both have in common.
00:05:56.820 I want them to live a great quality life.
00:05:59.820 And that is exactly why I give them Rough Greens.
00:06:02.940 Now, I've been telling you about my older dog and some of the symptoms that he was having,
00:06:08.220 slowing down and itching and having bad breath, losing interest in playtime.
00:06:13.420 That is just part of the aging process.
00:06:15.820 But it doesn't have to be.
00:06:17.600 And after just a few weeks of Rough Greens, we start to see a real difference.
00:06:21.820 The stuff is truly amazing.
00:06:24.140 And if you have a dog you love, you've got to try Rough Greens for your dog for life.
00:06:29.880 It not only supports long-term health by providing live, bioavailable nutrients, including essential
00:06:35.600 vitamins, minerals, probiotics, and digestive enzymes, as well as omega oils.
00:06:40.820 The ingredients work together to improve nutrition absorption and maintain joint and muscle health
00:06:46.360 and enhance overall vitality.
00:06:48.820 And you can witness it happen over weeks.
00:06:51.140 So if you love your dog and you are ready to get your dog back to the way maybe he used
00:06:57.000 to be and was more playful, then check out Rough Greens.
00:07:00.960 It's so easy.
00:07:02.220 You just put it on top of your traditional dog food and that is it.
00:07:06.180 And dogs absolutely love it.
00:07:08.180 Go to roughgreens.com.
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00:07:14.400 Use the promo code VERDICT and you're going to get a free Jump Start trial bag.
00:07:21.800 All you got to do is add Rough Greens to your dog's food.
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00:07:27.420 That's it.
00:07:28.380 Promo code VERDICT to claim your free Jump Start trial bag at roughgreens.com.
00:07:33.860 That's R-U-F-F-G-R-E-E-N-S.com. 1.00
00:07:38.400 Promo code VERDICT. 0.98
00:07:40.600 So, Ben, what did you think of the damn State of the Union? 0.97
00:07:44.080 I actually think it was the best speech Donald Trump has ever given. 0.99
00:07:49.200 I actually thought it was one of the most real and authentic responses from him to the
00:07:55.880 Democrats and how they were acting.
00:07:58.380 I love that he was like, you can't even stand for that.
00:08:01.640 You won't even stand to say American. 0.99
00:08:02.660 He turns to them and said, you guys are crazy. 1.00
00:08:04.800 Yeah, you guys are crazy. 1.00
00:08:06.520 That was like the third most incredible line. 0.99
00:08:08.900 I mean, there were a lot of them.
00:08:10.460 Yeah, but it came across on TV in an amazing way.
00:08:14.960 Did it?
00:08:15.840 Yeah.
00:08:16.160 Oh, I mean, it was just his look, his demeanor.
00:08:19.340 He was looking over at them.
00:08:21.080 I mean, you were there, obviously, so it's going to feel different to you.
00:08:23.740 But like, I'm watching, I'm going, that line landed.
00:08:26.460 And I think the American people probably saw it and they're like, wow, this is going to
00:08:30.140 be really good.
00:08:30.780 So I'm sitting there.
00:08:33.180 It was very kind of Speaker Johnson to invite me.
00:08:36.200 And I'm sitting over the Democrats.
00:08:39.280 So I got a prime view of the Democrats.
00:08:42.880 And the first line that really brought down the House was when President Trump looked over,
00:08:49.380 and it was beautifully written and beautifully executed.
00:08:51.520 He looked over, he said, okay, I want everyone to stand up if you agree with the statement
00:08:57.980 that America should protect Americans, or something to that effect.
00:09:02.540 And not illegals. 0.60
00:09:03.240 Americans first. 0.97
00:09:03.720 And not illegals. 0.60
00:09:04.460 And not illegals. 0.60
00:09:05.300 America, the point of the country.
00:09:06.580 Or over illegals.
00:09:07.600 Yeah.
00:09:09.280 And they refused to stand up.
00:09:11.280 Political malpractice, the likes of which one has rarely seen.
00:09:15.900 And it was a brutal moment.
00:09:18.260 He totally took advantage.
00:09:19.820 Then, so that moment will be played in a million campaigns.
00:09:24.680 Yes, yes.
00:09:25.780 And by the way, it was the longest sustained applause of Republicans.
00:09:30.000 We stood and we applauded and we applauded.
00:09:33.280 And he just looked over.
00:09:34.940 He stepped away from the lantern.
00:09:36.280 With amazement watching them.
00:09:38.980 And the ad writes itself.
00:09:41.560 They're for illegals and not for you. 1.00
00:09:44.480 And they were given that choice.
00:09:46.000 Do you stand with Americans or do you stand with illegals? 0.69
00:09:48.760 And the entire party, no.
00:09:51.980 We're the party of illegal aliens and not the party of Americans. 0.99
00:09:56.460 It was shocking.
00:09:57.440 So then he doubles down on, I'm skipping around a little bit in time because it escalates.
00:10:03.460 Well, by the way, he noticed a trend.
00:10:05.100 He noticed this is going to be the turn of my speech.
00:10:07.220 Like, I don't think he planned it.
00:10:09.100 This whole, like, you guys aren't going to stand for that.
00:10:11.500 It was the moment and then it hit and then it was like, I'm going to keep doing this tonight
00:10:15.960 to show Americans how crazy these guys are on the left.
00:10:20.100 That's how it came across on TV. 0.99
00:10:21.560 Well, he landed it on the transgender ideology. 0.72
00:10:25.560 Yes.
00:10:26.060 The kid who had been trans and it destroyed his family. 1.00
00:10:28.560 And then the kid finally ended up in the right place.
00:10:30.480 And he said, isn't that wonderful?
00:10:33.860 The family's reunited and everyone's flourishing and the Dems wouldn't stand.
00:10:37.480 And that was when he dealt the blow. 0.99
00:10:39.740 He said, these people are crazy. 0.99
00:10:43.340 And that, too, lit it up. 0.89
00:10:45.080 Now, where it got a little dark, but it was the same strategy, it was the same tactic,
00:10:49.000 I suppose, is when he started bringing up violence.
00:10:53.680 And he obviously turns to Erica Kirk, this national hero, perhaps the most sympathetic
00:10:59.620 figure in the entire country, certainly up there.
00:11:02.080 And the Democrats didn't want to stand for Charlie.
00:11:05.660 They didn't want to stand for Erica.
00:11:07.040 Again, that itself is disgraceful.
00:11:09.560 But he even gave them an out.
00:11:11.060 He said, we are a country where we say in God we trust and we reject political violence
00:11:17.300 of all kinds.
00:11:18.800 And I was looking over.
00:11:20.460 Some Democrats stood for that.
00:11:21.740 I'd say more than half.
00:11:23.180 On the political violence, I looked and it was probably 60, 70 percent.
00:11:27.220 Think about that.
00:11:27.940 But a third did not.
00:11:29.020 What an indictment.
00:11:30.040 A third did not.
00:11:30.880 A third would not stand for we reject political violence of all kinds.
00:11:34.960 It was, I felt, a disaster of optics for Democrats and a disaster of morals.
00:11:41.300 Well, and on the we don't stand for political violence, the reason two-thirds stood is Schumer
00:11:45.740 stood.
00:11:46.460 By the way, have you ever noticed how much Chuck Schumer looks like the villain in the Smurfs?
00:11:52.200 What's the name?
00:11:53.080 I don't even remember the name of the villain.
00:11:54.420 Like the curved over, like, you know, he's hunched.
00:11:58.600 He has kind of a hunchback.
00:11:59.800 Maybe Penguin from Batman was what I got.
00:12:02.180 Yeah.
00:12:02.200 There we go.
00:12:03.420 Yeah.
00:12:03.780 Yeah.
00:12:04.720 But he sort of.
00:12:07.220 No, I couldn't agree with you more.
00:12:08.880 By the way, you guys are in there, so you may not know this, so I may break news to you.
00:12:12.820 Did you guys see what Rashid Tlaib was chanting while everyone was chanting USA, USA at one
00:12:19.620 of the points in the speech?
00:12:20.840 No.
00:12:21.280 She was chanting, KKK, KKK, KKK.
00:12:26.300 KKK.
00:12:28.640 Really?
00:12:29.960 Yes.
00:12:30.960 Well, you know, truth in advertising, credit to her. 0.73
00:12:33.960 You guys, I don't know if you can see, but our good friend Steve Guest put it out there.
00:12:38.500 Watch, Democrat Representative Tlaib, she's chanting KKK while everyone else is cheering
00:12:45.060 USA.
00:12:46.700 Well, let's be honest.
00:12:47.980 It's there.
00:12:48.460 The KKK was founded by Democrats. 0.67
00:12:51.380 It was almost exclusively populated by Democrats.
00:12:54.220 Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Klan, was a delegate, a delegate to the DNC National
00:13:00.600 Convention in 1860.
00:13:01.880 I didn't know that.
00:13:02.420 He was a national delegate.
00:13:03.360 And you look at, the Klan was founded by Democrats, Jim Crow laws were founded by Democrats, segregation
00:13:11.220 was enforced by Democrats.
00:13:13.740 They have been the party of racial bigotry the entire history.
00:13:18.000 And by the way, our party, I mean, we often refer to our party as the party of Lincoln,
00:13:22.260 but we were literally founded to abolish slavery.
00:13:25.200 Right.
00:13:25.500 That's why the Republican Party came together.
00:13:27.840 And by the way, we did.
00:13:29.020 The first Republican president is who signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
00:13:32.460 Well, you know, on racial animus and Rashida Tlaib, did you see, I don't know if you caught
00:13:37.620 this, but when President Trump said, what a wonderful thing, we released all the hostages.
00:13:42.960 We got the hostages released, both dead and alive.
00:13:45.200 We returned even their remains.
00:13:47.080 And most people stood up.
00:13:49.580 I looked, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib were sitting down.
00:13:52.900 Yep.
00:13:53.240 Yeah.
00:13:54.360 And by the way, at one point they heckled when there was a reference to the end of
00:13:58.480 the war in Gaza, they heckled and screamed genocide.
00:14:01.200 I mean, that's who their party is.
00:14:05.120 Well, and look at tonight, there was four Democrat responses.
00:14:08.840 Like, that's not good for your party when you're that broken.
00:14:12.860 There were four.
00:14:13.060 Who were the four?
00:14:14.100 So you had one in Spanish.
00:14:15.780 You had one that was a progressive radical.
00:14:18.160 You had one that was like the next level moderate.
00:14:20.740 And then you had the Virginia governor.
00:14:22.120 You had four official responses tonight.
00:14:24.140 I'm sorry.
00:14:24.620 I'm going to have to disagree with you.
00:14:26.220 I don't even know who they were, but there are four who were progressive radicals.
00:14:29.200 Well, I agree with you.
00:14:31.700 Yes.
00:14:32.340 I'm giving you their official statement, but they literally had, hey, depending on how
00:14:37.980 crazy you are, if you're a Marxist socialist communist or a radical lefty or like the 0.90
00:14:43.040 transgender or maybe just like a normal Democrat, here's all of your responses for you. 0.99
00:14:48.320 And we'll have all of those for you.
00:14:50.100 So right after the State of the Union, I did Hannity.
00:14:52.900 And as I was sitting there waiting to go on, Fox wouldn't put Hannity on air until Spanberger
00:14:58.780 finished her response.
00:15:00.320 So I sit down and put my earpiece in and it's just her voice screeching and loud. 0.99
00:15:05.500 And I turned to Hannity and I said, Sean, I haven't led nearly a wicked enough life to
00:15:13.060 deserve to listen to this.
00:15:14.600 And so I just turned the volume off.
00:15:15.720 I'm like, I can't, there's just a limit to how much pain I can endure.
00:15:21.060 But you know, what's very telling about Spanberger is you had Andy Beshear come out, who is a serious
00:15:27.280 presidential candidate, Kentucky governor.
00:15:28.980 And he said, Spanberger is the model for Democrats in the midterms, which means translation will
00:15:36.560 run, they will run as moderates.
00:15:38.720 It means lie.
00:15:39.280 They'll lie.
00:15:40.000 They'll lie.
00:15:40.660 They'll run as moderates and they will immediately enact the most radical leftist agenda you could
00:15:45.760 maybe imagine.
00:15:47.800 Michael, I love, by the way, I know you're a man of the people and you do all of your own
00:15:51.740 yard work. 0.51
00:15:52.880 But if you, if you lived in Virginia, she's so crazy. 0.99
00:15:56.780 How many people here are wearing French cuffs?
00:15:58.980 Yeah, that would be only that guy right there.
00:16:01.060 I just want to be clear.
00:16:02.280 The one where the big cloud of smoke that just went up in the air, that would be that
00:16:05.880 guy's cufflinks.
00:16:07.520 Yeah, that's the one there.
00:16:09.240 So they're, they're.
00:16:10.220 But look, it is impressive because at Yale he wore a cravat.
00:16:15.200 I'm going more populist as I age.
00:16:18.040 And I will say.
00:16:18.640 Michael had designer jeans before we knew what those were.
00:16:21.680 Okay.
00:16:22.140 But I'm also impressed because Ben at Ole Miss never wore pants.
00:16:25.380 So, so we're kind of reaching a kind of middle ground.
00:16:28.480 It evens out, actually.
00:16:29.980 A man of the people, a man of Prada and Gucci.
00:16:32.840 It just, it is, it is what it is.
00:16:34.660 No, but like in Virginia, they've gone so crazy.
00:16:37.960 They're, they're, they, they literally have laws written right now that she's in favor of
00:16:42.300 to ban gasoline powered weed eaters and blowers.
00:16:46.160 And then they're putting a 10% tax on electric blowers.
00:16:50.140 So they're going to charge you even more to be green.
00:16:53.140 That's Virginia.
00:16:53.980 By the way, I love that the president brought up that to shovel snow in New York
00:17:00.100 under Mondani, you need two forms of ID, which I actually had been advising.
00:17:07.120 I think humor is a really powerful way to drive this point.
00:17:11.000 And I think that, and also the fact that John Ossoff, to get to his rally against photo ID
00:17:17.220 for voting, you had to show an ID.
00:17:19.040 Show a photo, yeah, you had to photo, you had to show a photo ID.
00:17:21.400 Yeah.
00:17:21.700 This, I think, was the key.
00:17:23.200 I mean, really the reason that the, the State of the Union succeeded, and I agree, it was
00:17:28.520 one of Trump's best speeches.
00:17:30.120 The Warsaw speech in the first term was also an excellent speech, but this was up there.
00:17:33.960 And I think the reason it succeeded was the president had to reassure voters who voted
00:17:40.620 for him en masse, you know, he won the popular vote, he had to reassure them that we are still
00:17:45.660 the party of normal, of safety, of flourishing, of sanity, of sanity, where I think some voters,
00:17:56.960 you have this question, after the Minneapolis immigration enforcement, why is it that voters
00:18:02.580 still support mass deportations, but oppose ICE deporting people?
00:18:07.900 You know, that's kind of a contradiction.
00:18:09.540 Why is it that the fundamentals of the economy are looking pretty good?
00:18:13.700 You know, recordized stock market, pretty good inflation, pretty good job numbers, pretty
00:18:17.460 good GDP, could have been better if not for the government shutdown that the Dems gave us.
00:18:21.700 Why is it that they're a little, the voters are a little worried about the economy, but the
00:18:26.380 economy seems to be doing well?
00:18:27.280 Well, it's, it's this fear that we're in a precarious moment.
00:18:31.460 And so I think both sides went into this saying, we want to be the party of stability, of security,
00:18:37.080 of normal, of flourishing.
00:18:38.620 That's why Hakeem Jeffries told the Democrats, hey, be cool.
00:18:42.520 And if you can't be cool, don't show up.
00:18:44.640 You know, I think it's like...
00:18:45.360 Of course, Al Green got thrown out again.
00:18:46.500 Al Green couldn't resist.
00:18:48.600 I...
00:18:48.960 At least he, at least he had a big sign that he got to walk around with, right?
00:18:52.340 He felt, he felt, just apparently he was happy to do that. 0.57
00:18:54.660 So, and his sign said, blacks aren't apes. 0.90
00:18:57.700 Yeah. 0.83
00:18:58.180 And I turned, I was sitting next to Todd Young, and I said, wow, is Al Green protesting Gavin
00:19:03.280 Newsom?
00:19:03.980 Yeah.
00:19:04.420 Yeah.
00:19:05.140 Yeah.
00:19:06.880 Like it, by the way, Gavin Newsom, he's like the perfect Democrat made in the laboratory.
00:19:12.940 Yeah. 1.00
00:19:14.080 An idiot. 1.00
00:19:15.680 Who says racist things. 1.00
00:19:16.820 An open racist.
00:19:18.020 Yeah.
00:19:18.600 Who says racist things.
00:19:19.320 Who goes in front of a crowd of African Americans and goes, I'm just like you. 1.00
00:19:23.120 You're stupid, and I am too. 1.00
00:19:25.020 Unbelievable. 1.00
00:19:26.260 And then he goes in front of whites. 0.81
00:19:26.520 I can't read.
00:19:27.480 He said, I got a 960 on the SAT, which, by the way, Michael got a 960 on the verbal portion
00:19:34.080 of his SAT.
00:19:36.420 Yeah.
00:19:36.700 And yes, I know it's only 800, but still.
00:19:40.000 Yes.
00:19:40.380 I love that you just had to geek out and show all the geeks that you know the max is an 800
00:19:44.280 there, to be clear.
00:19:45.700 I can't remember. 0.98
00:19:46.820 I took the damn thing, and I can't remember what it was. 0.99
00:19:49.300 Did anyone doubt I was a geek? 0.99
00:19:51.340 Yeah, that's, I know.
00:19:52.580 I just, we have to remind you, though, every once in a while.
00:19:55.060 Let's be clear.
00:19:55.980 On things like that, I pop, Michael, mostly because my own vulnerabilities are so glaring
00:20:00.860 on that.
00:20:01.500 No, listen.
00:20:02.340 The admission rate for Princeton, I think you have a 970.
00:20:06.020 Wait, wait.
00:20:06.900 Let's be clear.
00:20:08.000 Both of you know your scores, right?
00:20:10.800 By heart?
00:20:11.600 Yes.
00:20:11.740 What you made?
00:20:12.780 What were you, Michael?
00:20:13.800 Don't lie.
00:20:14.880 It was higher than Gavin Newsom's.
00:20:16.400 I'll tell you that.
00:20:17.000 What?
00:20:17.620 No?
00:20:17.920 What was it?
00:20:18.360 I want to know.
00:20:18.960 I want to know what it was.
00:20:20.140 Do you want to know the irony?
00:20:21.200 I'll tell you the irony of my SAT score.
00:20:22.460 Oh, I can't.
00:20:23.020 This is him delaying the brilliance.
00:20:25.040 Keep going.
00:20:25.580 I did get, on the math and the verbal, I got a perfect score.
00:20:30.720 That's what I was, yeah.
00:20:31.860 However, you don't want to know the irony, there was, at that time, there was a writing
00:20:37.240 thing that they added that was kind of optional or experimental, and the funny thing is, I
00:20:41.720 did not get a perfect score.
00:20:42.700 I actually don't remember the exact, it was less, it was the 680 or something, but the
00:20:47.660 funny thing is, that's the thing I went into, and my most famous book has no words in it.
00:20:52.140 So, it ended up, it ended up working out just fine.
00:20:55.880 Ted, DC, what was yours?
00:20:57.860 Newsom.
00:20:58.920 I am going to decline to answer on the advice accounts.
00:21:01.960 Oh, wow.
00:21:02.780 Because, because I am in elected politics and running around, like, squawking about
00:21:07.620 your SAT score.
00:21:09.180 Did you have two perfect scores out of the three categories, like Michael?
00:21:12.220 I just want to know, wait, can we at least get that?
00:21:13.940 Did you have a perfect score in any of that?
00:21:15.320 I did not, and I did well on the test.
00:21:19.120 But, I am, I'm just telling you, I may not know much about politics, but I am quite certain 0.93
00:21:26.440 it is dumb as hell to say this was my SAT score. 0.58
00:21:31.160 To prove how much of a man of the people I am, I walked in and took the test. 0.93
00:21:37.340 I forgot my calculator, and I looked at the lady that does the test, and I said, what is 0.90
00:21:43.660 the minimum for NCAA requirements?
00:21:46.680 Can I do it without a calculator?
00:21:48.400 And she goes, I'm intrigued to see if you can.
00:21:50.700 And I was above the NCAA minimum without a calculator, and I took it once, and the score
00:21:56.440 came in, and my mom was furious when it came in the mail.
00:21:59.640 She's like, you're taking it again.
00:22:00.720 She was so mad, I forgot my, remember the TI-83 or whatever it was?
00:22:03.980 Like, you know, like the calculator you took with you.
00:22:06.340 And I was like, I forgot it.
00:22:07.720 My mom's an educator. 0.68
00:22:09.100 She was like, you're taking it.
00:22:09.960 I was like, no, I'm not.
00:22:10.540 I'm above the minimum for NCAA requirements.
00:22:12.360 That's all I care about.
00:22:13.140 And that way, I took it once.
00:22:14.380 All right.
00:22:14.860 So, I'm going to tell you a SAT LSAT story.
00:22:18.500 So, when I show up at college, my first job, I worked at Princeton Media Services, videotaping
00:22:26.980 things.
00:22:27.440 And like, I run and operate a video camera and like videotape all sorts of different programs
00:22:31.520 and things.
00:22:31.920 And that paid either seven or eight bucks an hour.
00:22:34.960 And then I got hired by the Princeton Review to teach the SAT, which was a much better job
00:22:40.820 because it paid 15 bucks an hour. 0.95
00:22:42.080 And so, I'm like, hot diggity damn, I can do that math and 15 is better than seven. 0.95
00:22:47.960 So, for like a year or two, I taught the SAT, I guess a year. 0.98
00:22:52.800 And then I'm like, wait, there's no margin in teaching the SAT.
00:22:57.260 I've already taken it.
00:22:58.200 And I knew I wanted to go to law school.
00:22:59.840 So, I went to the course and said, hey, can I teach the LSAT?
00:23:04.120 And so, they paid me to train me to teach the LSAT, which was useful because I had to,
00:23:11.460 in fact, teach the LSAT.
00:23:12.880 So, when I was a sophomore in college, I was teaching the LSAT.
00:23:16.000 And the students would say, well, what score did you get?
00:23:18.140 This sounds like a Somali daycare right now.
00:23:21.300 Well, no, no, it was, there were real classes.
00:23:23.980 But the hysterical story is, so I taught the LSAT for a year.
00:23:28.900 And then, so junior year, we're taking the LSAT.
00:23:32.580 And you guys both know my college roommate.
00:23:34.480 It was my law school roommate.
00:23:35.820 And other than Heidi, my best friend in the world, David Panton.
00:23:38.740 Yeah.
00:23:39.020 Jamaican, incredibly talented, became, Barack Obama was the first black president of the
00:23:46.800 Harvard Law Review.
00:23:48.020 David was the second black president of the Harvard Law Review.
00:23:50.860 So, but when David and I were in college, we're both taking the LSAT. 0.98
00:23:54.300 The night before the LSAT, David and I, like complete morons, did I mention that we were 0.97
00:23:59.720 like 19 or 20, I guess 20? 0.99
00:24:01.480 We stayed up all night playing Nintendo.
00:24:05.140 We literally did not sleep.
00:24:07.160 We pulled an all-nighter playing Mario Brothers on Nintendo.
00:24:11.640 This story checks out, by the way.
00:24:13.900 Okay.
00:24:14.420 The LSAT was in Newark.
00:24:16.500 So I had a, my first car was a green 78 Ford Fairmont.
00:24:21.160 Right.
00:24:21.660 So I drove us to Newark.
00:24:23.120 We take the LSAT.
00:24:25.380 It was at 8 a.m.
00:24:26.620 So we leave at like 6, 630, go sit for the test.
00:24:29.760 It's like four hours or so.
00:24:31.200 So we're coming home, coming back to college at like one in the afternoon.
00:24:35.880 And we're driving back.
00:24:37.000 And I said, so David, how did it go?
00:24:39.400 And he said, well, during one of the sections, I put my head down and fell asleep.
00:24:44.760 And he said, I woke up with two minutes left and I just filled out B for every question.
00:24:52.520 And he turns to me and says, do you think B is the right answer?
00:24:55.760 And so it turns out you can cancel your LSAT score on the spot if you want to.
00:25:01.340 And C went up and just canceled the score.
00:25:03.260 Oh, that's good.
00:25:03.960 And so the poor guy had to take it again.
00:25:05.120 And then he did well the second time he took it.
00:25:07.280 But he literally, I laughed so hard, I almost crashed the car.
00:25:11.140 But I ended up keeping him up all night and making him fall asleep during the LSAT.
00:25:15.880 What if all the answers were B?
00:25:17.840 They could have been.
00:25:18.560 He might have missed out on the perfect score.
00:25:20.300 He could have the perfect score.
00:25:21.720 For the next 60 seconds, can you hit pause on your life and just think about this.
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00:25:34.880 and a lack of opportunity dim their bright futures.
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00:25:44.520 Lucy receives nourishing food, vital medical care, and the chance to go to school.
00:25:50.960 She learns life skills, develops God-given talents, and builds a loving relationship with Jesus.
00:25:57.800 It's a journey from vulnerability to empowerment.
00:26:00.880 And it's sparked literally by your love.
00:26:03.680 This transformation echoes far beyond Lucy, impacting her family, the community, and shaping the future of her nation.
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00:26:17.520 Visit Compassion.com today.
00:26:20.420 You'll empower a life and change the world.
00:26:23.280 That's Compassion.com to learn more.
00:26:25.880 The Newsom thing is really frustrating.
00:26:29.260 Because right now, he is the leading candidate for the Democrats, I think, without question.
00:26:33.500 And I'm so happy he is, by the way.
00:26:35.000 At the Munich Security Conference, Newsom's still the leading candidate.
00:26:38.600 Yeah.
00:26:38.820 And on the one hand, he has these social media posts where he's sitting there performatively reading Beloved by Tony Morrison.
00:26:46.760 Performatively reading all these books that are supporting him.
00:26:48.440 By the way, are you aware that Newsom lit himself on fire in a social media exchange about verdict?
00:26:55.740 No.
00:26:56.980 So, coming back from Munich, we did a whole show on Munich.
00:27:01.680 Yeah.
00:27:02.420 Lighting up AOC and lighting up Newsom.
00:27:05.160 And Newsom in Munich said,
00:27:08.720 Donald Trump is the first president in history to federalize the National Guard.
00:27:11.900 And so, on verdict, I said, Gavin Newsom is historically illiterate.
00:27:18.240 Yes.
00:27:19.180 Yes.
00:27:20.140 And actually, you talked about it on your show.
00:27:21.980 I defended your use of the English language properly.
00:27:26.240 And so, I said that, and then he tweeted out, he said,
00:27:34.340 Calling someone who's dyslexic illiterate is a new low, even for Cruz.
00:27:41.900 Yeah.
00:27:43.060 And, mind you, who knew he was dyslexic?
00:27:45.500 I didn't know that until he sent out his tweet.
00:27:47.980 I'm a little skeptical to this day, yeah.
00:27:49.620 For a guy that then also claims on a white podcast that he can read a 300-page book in two hours.
00:27:54.640 Don't forget that came out as well.
00:27:56.620 So, so much for being majorly dyslexic, right?
00:27:59.660 But then, so we had, we actually had twin responses.
00:28:04.940 So, my staff came up with a response with a GIF from Zoolander. 0.98
00:28:09.280 And I wrote a response and said something like, I didn't say you couldn't read, you clown. 0.97
00:28:19.240 I said you were historically illiterate because you apparently have no idea about the civil rights movement 0.98
00:28:26.000 and the fact that Eisenhower federalized the National Guard.
00:28:29.900 And this is actually a cool, I think this is the first tweet I've ever sent that was partially written by AI.
00:28:38.060 So, I went to Google and I just typed in Eisenhower federalizing National Guard.
00:28:45.840 Yeah.
00:28:46.260 And instantaneously, several paragraphs pop up that are beautifully researched.
00:28:51.360 And so, I cut and paste one of them that said on date, and I didn't know the date,
00:28:56.240 you know, Eisenhower signed executive order number and I didn't know the executive order number.
00:29:00.680 But it was like this beautifully researched.
00:29:03.300 So, the second half of the tweet, I actually wrote that tweet while playing hoops.
00:29:09.440 So, as you guys know, I play hoops twice a week.
00:29:11.280 So, it was like in between games on my phone.
00:29:14.320 I, like, typed the first half, put it in the AI.
00:29:17.980 Hold on, hold on, hold on.
00:29:18.000 Were you the last?
00:29:18.820 Wait, wait, wait, wait.
00:29:19.400 Time out, time out.
00:29:20.180 I got it.
00:29:20.660 You opened up something there.
00:29:22.280 You said in between games.
00:29:23.920 Were you the odd man out?
00:29:26.100 Yeah, I lost.
00:29:26.520 Did you?
00:29:26.940 I lost.
00:29:27.280 Okay, you lost.
00:29:28.020 I just want to get that on the record, Michael.
00:29:29.580 I lost the game.
00:29:29.660 Did you hear what he said?
00:29:30.820 Michael, can you make sure his mic's working?
00:29:32.240 He just, did he say he lost?
00:29:33.780 I just want to be very clear about that.
00:29:35.020 I think that was recorded, in fact.
00:29:36.660 Okay, got it, okay.
00:29:38.580 Yeah, yeah.
00:29:39.100 I'm glad that we got that.
00:29:40.260 That was worth staying up late for just that right there.
00:29:42.320 Keep going with your story, sir.
00:29:43.560 This is getting good.
00:29:44.900 So, but when I sent my tweet, my social media team was all mad.
00:29:48.920 And they're like, wait, we like our Zoolander tweet.
00:29:52.120 And I said, no, no, no.
00:29:53.560 Put them both out.
00:29:54.840 Yeah.
00:29:55.340 And let's have an experiment.
00:29:57.560 Let's see who wins, who gets more.
00:30:00.140 Like, you've got mine.
00:30:01.260 And, you know, you guys, and so it was close.
00:30:08.240 I only beat them by 250%.
00:30:10.920 So they got, I think, 400,000 engagements, and I got 1.1 million.
00:30:15.960 But I will confess, making an admission on this,
00:30:20.580 although they didn't get nearly the reach,
00:30:24.120 the comments on the Zoolander gift, the people that saw it loved it.
00:30:29.120 I mean, they're just, like, best tweet in the history of the internet.
00:30:32.660 Like, they were.
00:30:33.600 So I think it was a smaller niche audience.
00:30:36.140 Yeah.
00:30:36.660 But the ones it hit, it really hit.
00:30:38.580 That's good.
00:30:39.320 It's almost like as good as when you were the Zodiac Killer.
00:30:42.300 Maybe you still are.
00:30:43.360 But, you know, those never make me not laugh.
00:30:45.980 What do you mean when I was the Zodiac Killer?
00:30:47.600 Yeah, exactly.
00:30:48.320 When did I?
00:30:49.520 I haven't checked the statute of limitations recently.
00:30:52.600 Yeah.
00:30:52.860 But I think you're safe now.
00:30:55.180 So you can.
00:30:55.480 Do you know that in 2016, an actual poll done in the state of Florida
00:31:01.800 found 38% of Floridians believe that I could be the Zodiac Killer?
00:31:08.300 I still believe.
00:31:09.180 Now, to be clear, the Zodiac Killer killed at least five people
00:31:12.520 in Northern California in the late 1960s.
00:31:15.220 I was born in 1970.
00:31:17.540 Yeah, yeah.
00:31:18.760 And yet, nearly half of Floridians believed I could be the Zodiac Killer.
00:31:22.800 Yeah, yeah, that's a pretty obstacle to the Zoltans. 0.88
00:31:26.860 You could have lied about your age.
00:31:28.500 This is how conspiracies begin.
00:31:30.980 I did have one rally where this kid had a sign.
00:31:36.140 He's like 20, and he had a sign that said,
00:31:38.300 Are you the Zodiac Killer?
00:31:40.180 And I went up to him.
00:31:40.980 I put my hand on his shoulder.
00:31:42.200 I said, Son, if I was the Zodiac Killer,
00:31:45.240 would you really want to be here with that sign right now?
00:31:47.760 You know, this actually was the point,
00:31:51.000 which is how we got on to Newsom.
00:31:52.440 The sign, I don't know if you guys saw the memes that were going around.
00:31:56.100 So, I lost a bet on this.
00:31:58.900 I bet that the Democrats would not have a member ejected from the speech.
00:32:03.240 I thought they might have a supporter or some cast or something.
00:32:05.700 Did you actually believe that, though?
00:32:07.760 I didn't think that.
00:32:08.520 I thought they would listen to Hakeem Jeffries and try to chill.
00:32:11.240 But they can't.
00:32:11.680 No way.
00:32:12.020 Al Green has no chill.
00:32:13.180 So, he opens up.
00:32:13.880 By the way, there's a very real chance Al Green loses his Democrat primary a week from now.
00:32:18.720 Really?
00:32:19.160 Yeah.
00:32:19.460 Really?
00:32:20.300 He's actually in jeopardy.
00:32:22.480 And so, I think the antics were partially.
00:32:24.680 Of course, he did his antics last year, like waving his cane.
00:32:28.260 Yeah.
00:32:28.740 Which, like to embody a grumpy old man, like, get off my lawn, you kids.
00:32:34.500 It's perfect.
00:32:35.180 But he made a real optical error, which is he unfurled the sign,
00:32:39.540 which from my angle in the gallery, I could not see.
00:32:42.260 And so, I said, what's he saying? 0.92
00:32:43.680 And I guess the sign said, black people aren't apes. 0.92
00:32:46.700 But the problem was the way he was holding it. 0.96
00:32:48.900 It looked like it said R.
00:32:50.960 It looked like it said R.
00:32:52.360 The one that I saw, and maybe one of those said that too, 0.99
00:32:55.520 the one I saw said, black people rent apes. 0.98
00:32:59.080 Which was like an unfortunate, any way you slice it, these are very unfortunate optics. 0.98
00:33:03.700 And I thought, you know, the Democrat leader in the House asked one thing.
00:33:08.100 He said, hey guys, please don't look crazy.
00:33:12.020 During the speech.
00:33:13.400 And as the president is walking into the room, Al Green unfurls this sign.
00:33:19.400 And I thought, you have the discipline of a fruit fly.
00:33:22.920 Like, there is no chance.
00:33:24.680 They didn't make it five minutes. 1.00
00:33:26.740 They're insane.
00:33:27.380 All right, I have to ask you guys, being there, because one of the best lines of the whole speech,
00:33:31.540 that was just one of those little kind of tit-for-tat lines, but it worked,
00:33:36.740 was when he was talking about insider trading, and then he said Nancy Pelosi's name.
00:33:42.880 And it was amazing on TV, because if you didn't know the story, you immediately went to Google.
00:33:49.660 Every one of us was there.
00:33:51.220 Yeah, and I was too.
00:33:52.620 But like, if you didn't know, and then you saw the reaction, and you heard the hissing,
00:33:58.920 whatever it was in the hall, I don't know exactly what they were saying.
00:34:02.040 It was like, they were like, you can't say her name like that.
00:34:04.920 You know that everybody went and Googled insider trading Nancy Pelosi,
00:34:09.180 and then they learned about the story.
00:34:10.900 Like, they literally helped him sell the story.
00:34:13.560 What was the reaction?
00:34:14.520 Were Democrats mad, or what was the reaction?
00:34:18.100 You were on the floor.
00:34:19.220 Oh, look, they were mad constantly.
00:34:21.480 So is there one?
00:34:22.480 I will say, though, there's a difference from this year and last year.
00:34:26.080 So last year, they went through the entire State of the Union,
00:34:29.140 and they didn't applaud.
00:34:31.640 They didn't applaud when Trump walked in.
00:34:34.220 They didn't applaud for anything.
00:34:35.960 They just sat there stone-faced.
00:34:37.720 And heckled and waved their K-unanimity. 0.98
00:34:42.000 This year, before the State of the Union,
00:34:43.660 I actually went to several Democrats and asked them.
00:34:46.960 I said, okay, are you guys going to applaud for the U.S. hockey team?
00:34:52.740 Like, come on.
00:34:53.780 And they all said yes.
00:34:55.640 In fact, several of them had an expletive.
00:34:58.260 They said, F yes.
00:35:00.220 And I said, look, to be clear,
00:35:02.680 last year you didn't applaud for a kid with cancer.
00:35:06.860 Is that a crazy question?
00:35:08.680 Okay, one of the Democrats, who I actually like,
00:35:11.100 I'm not going to identify him, but he's got a good sense of humor.
00:35:13.520 I said that to him, and he said, yeah, we hate kids with cancer.
00:35:17.500 Which was like, all right, don't argue.
00:35:19.700 Just kind of own it.
00:35:20.840 I'm like, all right, well played.
00:35:23.800 They did it again this year, by the way.
00:35:25.480 There was a little girl who couldn't walk,
00:35:27.420 who now might be able to walk.
00:35:28.480 And it was the same thing.
00:35:29.660 A good chunk of Democrats would not,
00:35:32.580 I guess they were trying to play the stoic card.
00:35:34.300 It did not read, at least from my vantage,
00:35:37.280 I thought it looked really callous,
00:35:39.220 because there was no unity within the party,
00:35:41.260 so there was no clear messaging.
00:35:43.180 You know, look, it all seemed pretty disastrous.
00:35:46.220 The question that I have,
00:35:47.800 as a proper conservative,
00:35:49.780 who is always looking for the downside of things,
00:35:52.280 just to temper my jubilation,
00:35:55.940 do you think,
00:35:57.400 I think universally the speech was viewed as quite good,
00:36:00.800 quite effective.
00:36:01.920 Does it make a meaningful difference in the midterms?
00:36:05.220 Look, I don't know how many.
00:36:07.900 Do you?
00:36:08.520 All right, lay out why.
00:36:09.220 And I'll tell you why.
00:36:10.040 This speech was the things that irritate Republican-slash-moderate voters about Trump,
00:36:22.280 that it's all about him,
00:36:23.960 and he doesn't know when to,
00:36:25.200 you know, the mean tweets,
00:36:26.540 and when to shut up,
00:36:27.740 and the things that irritate those that can stay home.
00:36:31.680 Watching his demeanor tonight,
00:36:33.780 he came across in such a way of like,
00:36:37.540 these guys don't want this,
00:36:39.180 these guys don't put you first,
00:36:41.020 these guys don't do this.
00:36:42.600 He also was giving incredible accolades and awards,
00:36:46.320 and the U.S. hockey team,
00:36:47.440 there was momentum there.
00:36:48.920 It was one after another.
00:36:50.580 It was a hundred-year-old man, a veteran.
00:36:52.600 It was the guy who was flying the helicopter to the Chinook,
00:36:55.360 and telling a story.
00:36:56.400 He was praising what makes America great,
00:36:59.620 and the people that make America great.
00:37:02.020 I actually think that if you are a moderate voter,
00:37:05.740 someone, maybe a Republican,
00:37:06.780 that traditionally stays home during the midterms,
00:37:10.040 I actually think that this speech landed with you
00:37:13.520 more than any other speech of Trump,
00:37:15.180 the way it played on TV.
00:37:16.980 I think it also is going to land on the economic issues
00:37:21.000 of him reminding the no tax on tips,
00:37:23.640 the no tax on overtime.
00:37:25.280 I'm trying to make life more affordable.
00:37:27.480 The gas prices.
00:37:28.480 Those are things that I actually think will,
00:37:31.280 you know,
00:37:31.560 they've been hammering him on all these approval ratings
00:37:33.820 at 40 this or 39 or 38,
00:37:35.640 depending on what poll.
00:37:36.660 I think he gets a bump that actually stays
00:37:38.900 because he landed it so well in the audience,
00:37:42.540 and he looked really calm.
00:37:44.500 He looked really just like,
00:37:46.240 I'm doing this because I want to fix the country.
00:37:48.660 And other speeches haven't come across that way always.
00:37:51.960 Yeah, let me agree with you
00:37:53.420 in that I think the message tonight
00:37:56.280 was the record of the last year.
00:38:00.120 And the record of the last year,
00:38:01.520 I believe, is objectively phenomenal.
00:38:04.360 And I've been in the Senate now 14 years.
00:38:06.620 We've never had a year
00:38:08.220 where we've accomplished even a fraction
00:38:10.680 of what has been accomplished in the last year.
00:38:14.040 I mean, it is staggering,
00:38:15.040 and he did a good job.
00:38:15.940 You know, we talked about on the last pod
00:38:19.340 how I spent 30, 40 minutes on the phone
00:38:22.360 with Trump last week.
00:38:24.240 And one of the things we talked about
00:38:25.740 was messaging for the midterms.
00:38:27.800 And I said, listen,
00:38:29.580 we need to focus on results,
00:38:31.680 on the very real results,
00:38:34.020 securing the border,
00:38:36.800 99% drop in illegal crossings.
00:38:40.300 And then I encouraged him
00:38:42.020 a message that's not getting the attention it should.
00:38:45.940 is the impact on crime.
00:38:48.420 Yes.
00:38:48.720 Amen.
00:38:49.120 Murder rates have dropped 20%.
00:38:51.260 Drug overdose deaths have dropped 20%.
00:38:54.960 There are literally thousands of Americans
00:38:57.380 who are alive today
00:38:58.380 because Trump was elected
00:38:59.520 and Republicans won Congress.
00:39:00.960 It's a great message.
00:39:01.660 Yeah.
00:39:02.120 And that's been lost.
00:39:04.780 And I was really happy,
00:39:06.440 like the first 20 minutes of the speech
00:39:09.220 were laying out that message.
00:39:11.520 Yeah.
00:39:11.820 And going through murder rates
00:39:13.560 and crime rates and D.C. rates
00:39:15.400 and like how unhappy the Democrats were
00:39:18.400 that crime rates had plummeted
00:39:21.180 in D.C. and New Orleans
00:39:22.800 and your hometown of Memphis.
00:39:24.180 Memphis, yeah.
00:39:24.720 And the Democrats were furious
00:39:25.960 that fewer people are being murdered.
00:39:28.320 They wouldn't stand up en masse
00:39:30.120 for murder declining.
00:39:31.720 You know, this,
00:39:32.300 I was looking at the polls
00:39:33.400 and aggregate of the polls
00:39:34.560 from just January and February
00:39:36.600 leading into this.
00:39:37.320 And to be fair,
00:39:37.940 the pro-murder community in America
00:39:39.620 is pretty small.
00:39:40.260 It is.
00:39:41.660 Look, it's a constituency,
00:39:42.760 but it's not the one you want.
00:39:45.000 And so I was looking
00:39:46.100 at this aggregate of polls,
00:39:48.120 Marist, PBS,
00:39:50.100 a handful of others.
00:39:51.620 And the hard fact,
00:39:53.460 I spoke to some members
00:39:54.180 of Congress about this today.
00:39:55.640 The hard fact is
00:39:56.700 Republicans are underwater
00:39:58.320 on the economy,
00:39:59.780 on economic perception.
00:40:01.160 I think you could turn it around,
00:40:03.100 but right now
00:40:03.800 we're a little bit underwater.
00:40:04.980 On health care,
00:40:05.760 Democrats always win on health care.
00:40:07.000 And on defense of democracy,
00:40:10.200 it's kind of a contrived category.
00:40:12.520 But anyway,
00:40:13.520 they win on that.
00:40:14.380 So the ones that we're winning on right now,
00:40:16.320 quite decisively,
00:40:17.620 are immigration
00:40:18.600 and border enforcement,
00:40:21.080 even more so,
00:40:22.360 now the border's shut down,
00:40:23.900 and especially on crime.
00:40:25.940 So the key, it seems to me,
00:40:27.360 is one,
00:40:27.980 that tells you people are concerned
00:40:29.320 about safety.
00:40:30.560 And two,
00:40:31.740 if you can tie all of that together,
00:40:34.640 the crime relates,
00:40:36.280 obviously,
00:40:36.580 to illegal immigration.
00:40:37.800 That's why it's called illegal.
00:40:39.120 And the housing prices, even.
00:40:41.680 All the way to the,
00:40:42.240 you know,
00:40:42.480 the fact that you have
00:40:43.180 six months consecutive decline
00:40:44.920 on housing prices
00:40:46.140 coinciding with mass deportation.
00:40:47.600 With two million people
00:40:48.340 being deported,
00:40:49.000 and that's just less demand.
00:40:50.520 That's right.
00:40:51.020 You know, by the way,
00:40:51.880 like a couple of weeks ago,
00:40:52.980 the Houston Chronicle
00:40:53.900 had a front page story
00:40:55.540 that said murder rates
00:40:58.000 in Houston have declined 18%.
00:41:00.420 Yep.
00:41:01.560 And Heidi showed me the article
00:41:03.260 because she knew
00:41:04.200 it would piss me off.
00:41:05.740 You talked about this
00:41:06.960 the other day.
00:41:07.520 Yes.
00:41:07.740 I love this.
00:41:08.240 The article,
00:41:08.820 the Chronicle says,
00:41:09.980 nobody can figure out why.
00:41:12.220 It's completely inexplicable.
00:41:13.960 The experts we talk about
00:41:15.260 have no idea
00:41:16.280 why the murder rate
00:41:17.020 is dropping,
00:41:17.580 and it, like,
00:41:18.000 doesn't occur to them
00:41:19.220 that arresting and deporting
00:41:21.220 murderers and gangbangers
00:41:22.480 will reduce the murder rate.
00:41:25.020 Like, it's not,
00:41:26.560 this is not rocket science.
00:41:29.100 Yeah.
00:41:29.400 Fewer murderers
00:41:30.240 means fewer murders.
00:41:31.520 But yet,
00:41:33.460 to Democrats,
00:41:35.300 that makes no sense to them.
00:41:36.540 Yeah.
00:41:37.420 And so,
00:41:37.960 that message was good.
00:41:39.220 I also liked on
00:41:40.220 No Tax on Tips
00:41:41.100 that he had the mom
00:41:43.560 who was the waitress 1.00
00:41:44.540 stand up
00:41:45.880 and he said,
00:41:47.080 between No Tax on Tips
00:41:48.200 and No Tax on Overtime,
00:41:50.020 she's going to take home
00:41:52.020 $5,000 more this year
00:41:54.080 than last year.
00:41:54.880 That was real
00:41:55.880 and it's not abstract.
00:41:57.740 And by the way,
00:41:58.180 the Democrats
00:41:58.680 wouldn't applaud for her.
00:41:59.760 Like,
00:41:59.940 like,
00:42:00.160 like the mom waiting tables,
00:42:01.740 they're not rooting for her
00:42:03.020 and they want to take
00:42:04.380 that $5,000 from her.
00:42:05.400 And that's real money.
00:42:06.280 You know,
00:42:06.440 $5,000 is real money.
00:42:08.280 Yeah.
00:42:08.400 It's not some abstraction.
00:42:10.120 Israel is a very hot topic
00:42:12.140 right now
00:42:12.780 and with so many opinions
00:42:14.200 and emotions surrounding it,
00:42:15.780 it can feel hard
00:42:16.680 to know where to start.
00:42:17.960 The Bible tells us,
00:42:19.180 I will bless those
00:42:20.660 who bless you.
00:42:22.020 That isn't just
00:42:22.880 a comforting promise.
00:42:24.360 It's a clear calling
00:42:25.300 from God.
00:42:26.260 And today,
00:42:26.860 with anti-Semitism
00:42:27.820 rising around the world,
00:42:29.520 that calling is more urgent
00:42:31.080 than ever.
00:42:31.940 At a time when Jewish communities 0.98
00:42:33.360 are experiencing
00:42:34.200 more hostility,
00:42:35.480 more threats,
00:42:36.540 and more violence than ever,
00:42:38.180 Christians have a powerful
00:42:39.640 opportunity to respond
00:42:40.720 with God's love to say,
00:42:42.480 you are not alone.
00:42:44.360 When Christians choose 0.90
00:42:45.580 to bless Israel,
00:42:46.640 we're not entering
00:42:47.500 a political issue.
00:42:48.680 We're honoring
00:42:49.440 the root of our faith
00:42:50.720 and standing
00:42:51.540 against hatred.
00:42:52.920 Supporting Israel
00:42:53.700 is more than a belief.
00:42:55.300 It's a biblical mandate.
00:42:56.860 And by partnering
00:42:57.640 with the International Fellowship
00:42:59.500 of Christians and Jews,
00:43:00.800 you can push back
00:43:02.100 against darkness
00:43:02.980 and be a light
00:43:04.200 to God's people.
00:43:05.460 Learn how you can
00:43:06.340 bless Israel 0.97
00:43:07.120 and be blessed in return.
00:43:09.040 Visit ifcj.org today.
00:43:12.120 That's ifcj.org today.
00:43:14.400 Be a blessing.
00:43:15.460 Live in the world.
00:43:16.440 Answer the call.
00:43:17.680 So, nuts and bolts,
00:43:19.320 you know,
00:43:19.600 if this was a speech,
00:43:20.820 obviously geared
00:43:21.620 at the midterms,
00:43:22.920 do you think
00:43:23.560 it moves the needle?
00:43:26.160 If we can keep
00:43:27.060 message discipline
00:43:27.900 of focusing on it,
00:43:28.920 yes.
00:43:29.960 By the way,
00:43:30.540 yesterday morning,
00:43:32.520 you and I
00:43:33.060 have been talking about this.
00:43:33.620 I had breakfast
00:43:34.120 with Speaker Johnson
00:43:34.960 and you talk about
00:43:37.720 the reason why
00:43:38.140 I think this one sticks.
00:43:39.640 There is a very real sense
00:43:42.280 that Republican leadership
00:43:43.780 have our act together
00:43:45.080 for once
00:43:45.840 that we haven't had
00:43:46.780 in a long time.
00:43:48.160 I also think
00:43:49.220 that matters.
00:43:50.320 Speaker Johnson
00:43:50.980 understands he basically
00:43:51.980 has a one-person majority.
00:43:55.460 He does not want
00:43:56.200 to have
00:43:56.760 and President Trump
00:43:58.220 doesn't want to have
00:43:58.940 the Democrats
00:43:59.960 take over the House.
00:44:01.160 It is insanely slim
00:44:02.660 and I think
00:44:04.000 they're working
00:44:04.680 so well together
00:44:05.620 the same way,
00:44:06.300 Senator,
00:44:06.480 that you work
00:44:07.100 so well with the President.
00:44:08.340 There does seem to be
00:44:09.620 that we're actually
00:44:10.420 on the same team
00:44:11.380 for once.
00:44:12.000 I've not experienced
00:44:12.960 that many times
00:44:13.820 in my life
00:44:14.380 in the Republican Party.
00:44:15.700 Like,
00:44:15.940 there's always
00:44:16.380 the infighting.
00:44:17.220 We always want to
00:44:17.760 screw it up
00:44:18.240 when we get power.
00:44:19.380 There's different people
00:44:20.340 jacking for positions.
00:44:22.120 There does seem
00:44:22.960 to be a little bit
00:44:23.680 of momentum now
00:44:24.260 that we're on the same team
00:44:25.220 going to the midterms.
00:44:26.000 That's the other reason
00:44:26.580 I think this speech
00:44:27.380 will continue
00:44:28.080 and the momentum
00:44:28.720 because you have
00:44:29.280 Johnson and others
00:44:29.900 advocating.
00:44:31.440 Look,
00:44:31.920 I hope so.
00:44:33.080 To play devil's advocate,
00:44:35.680 we're a very divided country
00:44:37.480 and so the people
00:44:39.120 who hate Trump
00:44:39.820 still hate him
00:44:41.040 after this speech.
00:44:42.140 For sure.
00:44:42.700 Because they're not
00:44:43.020 actually listening.
00:44:46.240 And so,
00:44:46.940 I do think,
00:44:48.860 Ben,
00:44:49.060 you focused
00:44:49.580 on the right area
00:44:50.560 which is the people
00:44:51.660 who voted for him
00:44:52.780 in 24
00:44:53.320 but may be demoralized
00:44:56.200 by the press narrative
00:44:57.320 that has been driven
00:44:58.260 and to the extent
00:44:59.980 this focuses them on,
00:45:01.740 wow,
00:45:02.180 we're winning
00:45:02.780 some big,
00:45:03.580 big victories.
00:45:04.760 I also really liked,
00:45:06.080 look,
00:45:06.460 the no tax on tips
00:45:07.400 emphasis I liked
00:45:08.380 because I wrote
00:45:08.980 that bill
00:45:10.120 and I really liked
00:45:12.000 his emphasis
00:45:12.620 on the Trump accounts
00:45:14.300 because as you guys know
00:45:15.300 I wrote that too.
00:45:16.940 And the Democrats
00:45:18.180 wouldn't applaud for that.
00:45:19.100 Sorry,
00:45:19.520 I actually have to pause here
00:45:20.660 because I'm sitting
00:45:21.860 in the upper part
00:45:23.260 of the gallery
00:45:23.780 to the right
00:45:24.860 if you're the president
00:45:26.120 pointing
00:45:26.580 and you didn't get,
00:45:28.980 everyone was standing up
00:45:29.760 at certain moments.
00:45:30.900 That was one
00:45:31.340 where I bolted up
00:45:32.420 and other people
00:45:33.440 were kind of slower.
00:45:34.220 I think they didn't quite
00:45:34.900 process what the Trump
00:45:35.780 accounts meant.
00:45:36.720 I'm really into
00:45:38.140 the Trump accounts
00:45:38.860 like the Trump accounts
00:45:40.080 I think are such
00:45:41.340 a white pill,
00:45:43.360 you know,
00:45:43.780 focusing on families
00:45:45.680 which is an existential issue
00:45:47.260 it's so practical
00:45:47.980 and I'm going to
00:45:49.040 confess something
00:45:49.720 I should follow this
00:45:50.540 I'm like professionally
00:45:51.540 I'm supposed to
00:45:52.040 follow this closely
00:45:52.680 I did not know
00:45:54.460 that you were pushing
00:45:56.040 the Trump accounts
00:45:56.940 I wrote it.
00:45:58.680 Unbelievable.
00:45:59.240 I should have known
00:45:59.940 but I didn't know.
00:46:00.840 In fact,
00:46:01.440 do you want to hear
00:46:02.080 the story of the origin
00:46:03.040 of the Trump accounts?
00:46:04.080 It's a cool story
00:46:05.000 I've told it on the pod
00:46:05.900 but not in a while.
00:46:07.960 So,
00:46:08.680 they originated
00:46:10.020 from a poker game
00:46:10.860 in Vegas.
00:46:12.500 So,
00:46:12.900 as you guys know
00:46:13.700 I like poker.
00:46:15.540 By the way,
00:46:15.920 Michael,
00:46:16.280 were you invited
00:46:16.880 to this poker night?
00:46:17.780 I just want to be clear
00:46:18.440 about this.
00:46:19.020 I'm very offended
00:46:19.900 but I'll deal with that later.
00:46:21.880 I was not invited
00:46:23.460 to the poker game.
00:46:23.860 Okay,
00:46:24.000 neither was I.
00:46:24.460 Alright,
00:46:24.740 we're on the same team again.
00:46:25.740 Keep going,
00:46:26.320 Senator.
00:46:26.500 It was a poker game
00:46:27.700 for political donors.
00:46:29.240 If you guys want to
00:46:30.040 write me a check,
00:46:30.880 I'll invite you
00:46:31.540 to the poker game.
00:46:32.400 Okay,
00:46:33.160 so now he's saying
00:46:33.920 we're poor.
00:46:34.600 We're poor people now.
00:46:36.160 Got it.
00:46:36.340 We're just counters over here.
00:46:37.140 You're both rich podcasters
00:46:38.640 so,
00:46:39.060 you know,
00:46:39.420 you ought to be able
00:46:40.300 to write a check.
00:46:41.320 Michael,
00:46:41.680 if you and I ever
00:46:42.540 have a poker game,
00:46:43.600 I think we will
00:46:44.480 organize it next time.
00:46:45.820 We'll invite the center
00:46:46.740 in advance.
00:46:47.300 Do you agree with that?
00:46:48.160 We're very generous people.
00:46:49.280 Yes,
00:46:49.540 we are.
00:46:49.880 We're very kind podcasters.
00:46:51.620 Keep going with your story.
00:46:52.660 Alright,
00:46:53.020 so I do a poker fundraiser
00:46:54.480 typically in April
00:46:55.480 in Vegas.
00:46:56.860 And so,
00:46:57.260 not last April
00:46:58.160 but two Aprils ago
00:46:59.100 I was there
00:46:59.720 and typically
00:47:02.260 several poker pros
00:47:03.560 will come.
00:47:04.120 I'm buddies
00:47:04.480 with a number
00:47:04.840 of the poker pros.
00:47:06.260 And so,
00:47:06.860 we're sitting
00:47:07.420 at the Bellagio
00:47:08.140 at three in the morning
00:47:08.900 and Phil Helmuth,
00:47:10.000 who's one of the
00:47:12.140 greatest poker players
00:47:13.160 to have ever lived.
00:47:14.060 Phil would tell you
00:47:14.760 he is the greatest
00:47:15.640 poker player
00:47:16.540 to ever live.
00:47:17.460 And he's got
00:47:17.840 a real argument to it.
00:47:19.720 He's got,
00:47:20.360 I think,
00:47:20.580 15 bracelets.
00:47:21.680 So,
00:47:21.860 it's crazy.
00:47:23.760 That's a lot.
00:47:25.020 So,
00:47:25.460 we're sitting there
00:47:26.100 playing poker
00:47:26.780 and he asks me,
00:47:27.780 he says,
00:47:28.020 hey,
00:47:28.200 do you know
00:47:29.000 Brad Gerster?
00:47:31.380 And at the time
00:47:32.220 I didn't.
00:47:32.720 I'm like,
00:47:33.040 yeah,
00:47:33.200 who's he?
00:47:33.560 And he's a very
00:47:35.040 successful venture
00:47:36.180 capitalist
00:47:36.820 in Silicon Valley
00:47:39.000 and he has this idea
00:47:40.680 that was called
00:47:41.260 Invest America.
00:47:43.040 And I'm like,
00:47:43.360 what's that?
00:47:43.960 And Phil describes
00:47:44.820 it for a minute.
00:47:46.400 And I said,
00:47:46.960 hey,
00:47:47.160 that sounds like
00:47:48.100 something I'd be
00:47:48.920 really interested in.
00:47:50.640 And so,
00:47:51.480 Phil pulls out
00:47:52.240 his phone
00:47:53.000 and he puts together
00:47:54.440 a text thread
00:47:55.180 and connects me
00:47:56.020 and Brad
00:47:56.480 and says,
00:47:57.600 you two should talk,
00:47:58.920 you would really
00:47:59.340 like each other.
00:48:00.900 The next week,
00:48:02.680 Brad gets on a plane,
00:48:04.320 flies to D.C.,
00:48:05.700 comes to my office
00:48:07.300 and pitches
00:48:08.120 the Invest America accounts.
00:48:10.820 I immediately
00:48:11.600 called my policy team in
00:48:13.020 and said,
00:48:14.060 let's start drafting this.
00:48:15.640 So,
00:48:15.960 we drafted the legislation.
00:48:17.540 Now,
00:48:17.660 Brad has said
00:48:18.320 for months
00:48:19.620 he had talked
00:48:20.220 to a bunch
00:48:20.720 of other senators
00:48:21.340 and none of them 0.72
00:48:22.940 did a damn thing.
00:48:24.140 He talked to them 0.99
00:48:25.240 and they'd all
00:48:25.700 kind of nod
00:48:26.420 and be like,
00:48:27.140 yeah,
00:48:27.280 yeah,
00:48:27.380 that's a great idea
00:48:28.080 and then no one
00:48:28.520 would do anything.
00:48:28.960 We sat down
00:48:30.040 and wrote the bill.
00:48:31.760 That is the bill
00:48:33.520 that is Trump accounts.
00:48:35.460 It was my bill
00:48:36.120 that we wrote
00:48:37.840 and it is literally
00:48:40.800 the case
00:48:41.580 that if Phil Hellmuth
00:48:44.180 does not connect me
00:48:45.280 with Brad Gerstner
00:48:46.240 April a year ago,
00:48:47.900 there are no Trump accounts
00:48:49.420 and the American,
00:48:50.840 the kids of America
00:48:51.840 do not have trillions
00:48:53.140 in investments,
00:48:54.180 which is what they're
00:48:55.160 going to have
00:48:55.480 through Trump accounts.
00:48:56.180 You know,
00:48:56.460 this is the thing
00:48:57.420 I love about this.
00:48:57.760 You know what I heard there,
00:48:58.620 by the way?
00:48:59.140 I heard that,
00:48:59.980 could you imagine
00:49:00.880 the bills that could
00:49:01.820 have been written
00:49:02.520 if you,
00:49:03.980 Michael,
00:49:04.280 and I were there
00:49:05.120 at that table?
00:49:06.220 I know.
00:49:06.820 I mean,
00:49:07.540 the ideas that we could
00:49:09.040 have come up with,
00:49:09.880 we could have cured cancer
00:49:11.300 maybe at this point.
00:49:12.200 We could have ended
00:49:12.740 the 9th and 10th wars
00:49:13.960 that could have added
00:49:14.740 to the record
00:49:15.420 of the State Department.
00:49:16.560 The ending of the Michael
00:49:17.800 and Ben wars.
00:49:18.460 I like this.
00:49:18.980 You know,
00:49:19.300 the thing that I love
00:49:20.800 about the Trump accounts
00:49:22.000 in particular
00:49:22.540 from the Republican
00:49:24.160 coalitional standpoint
00:49:25.460 is, you know,
00:49:26.780 the right always has
00:49:27.760 all these different
00:49:28.340 ideological factions
00:49:29.760 because we're more
00:49:31.000 independent thinkers
00:49:31.720 and the left
00:49:32.680 has progressives
00:49:33.360 and very progressives
00:49:34.160 and John Fetterman,
00:49:35.200 I guess.
00:49:35.780 And we, you know,
00:49:36.420 we kind of have
00:49:36.980 all these divisions.
00:49:37.900 And so one of the divisions
00:49:38.960 that's come about
00:49:39.520 in recent years,
00:49:40.560 last five or ten years,
00:49:41.360 is people who are focused
00:49:42.980 on more of the common good,
00:49:45.360 you know,
00:49:45.540 kind of an Aristotelian
00:49:46.540 view of politics
00:49:47.400 and people who are more
00:49:48.500 focused on the libertarian view
00:49:49.960 that comes from
00:49:50.860 classical liberalism
00:49:51.700 up through, say, Hayek.
00:49:53.080 And what I love
00:49:54.060 about the Trump accounts
00:49:54.940 is it actually marries the two.
00:49:56.920 Yep.
00:49:57.140 It's this beautiful,
00:49:58.500 it just hits this sweet spot.
00:50:00.720 It's good.
00:50:01.160 That, no flattery
00:50:02.580 because I actually
00:50:03.280 didn't even know
00:50:03.900 you were behind it.
00:50:04.700 That is really good stuff.
00:50:06.360 By the way,
00:50:06.720 we had Brad on verdict.
00:50:09.300 No, no,
00:50:09.860 he's come on verdict
00:50:10.820 and talked about
00:50:11.560 the whole idea.
00:50:12.420 That's great.
00:50:12.820 And Brad came up
00:50:14.300 with the idea
00:50:14.840 with his two teenage sons
00:50:16.300 and they spent years
00:50:18.320 pushing it
00:50:19.080 and it,
00:50:21.020 and Brad was there
00:50:22.200 and recognized
00:50:22.760 by the president
00:50:23.300 of the State of the Union.
00:50:25.400 So Brad had put together
00:50:26.900 a CEO's council
00:50:27.900 behind the
00:50:28.660 Invest America accounts
00:50:29.740 and the chairman of it
00:50:31.000 was Michael Dell.
00:50:32.160 And Michael's
00:50:32.800 a good friend of mine.
00:50:33.340 He's a Texan.
00:50:34.000 We spent a lot of time together.
00:50:35.960 And the CEOs
00:50:37.960 had all committed
00:50:38.860 that they would
00:50:40.600 contribute or match
00:50:41.860 to Trump accounts.
00:50:42.560 So there are two accelerators
00:50:43.820 that are written
00:50:44.320 into these Trump accounts
00:50:45.680 that make them
00:50:46.140 even more potent.
00:50:47.600 Number one
00:50:48.360 is that employers
00:50:49.340 could contribute or match.
00:50:50.640 And listen,
00:50:52.360 when Congress passed
00:50:54.640 Section 401k of ERISA,
00:50:58.120 nobody knew
00:50:59.160 how fundamentally
00:50:59.880 they were changing
00:51:00.680 how Americans
00:51:01.300 saved for retirement.
00:51:02.820 Today,
00:51:03.420 there's more than
00:51:04.040 $12 trillion
00:51:04.920 in 401k accounts.
00:51:07.480 Trump accounts
00:51:08.360 are 401ks for kids.
00:51:09.620 So in very short order,
00:51:11.780 you're going to see
00:51:12.280 trillions of dollars
00:51:13.380 in there.
00:51:16.600 The two accelerators,
00:51:18.440 one is that employers
00:51:19.800 can contribute or match.
00:51:21.000 And so all the employers
00:51:22.100 on the CEO council
00:51:23.300 had already committed,
00:51:25.060 we're going to contribute
00:51:25.760 or match.
00:51:26.600 This is going to become
00:51:27.700 a ubiquitous,
00:51:28.520 a standard
00:51:29.340 employee benefit,
00:51:30.720 just like
00:51:31.240 a 401k contribution
00:51:33.300 is a pretty standard
00:51:34.240 employee benefit.
00:51:35.920 You're going to see employers,
00:51:37.100 we're already seeing
00:51:37.620 a bunch
00:51:38.040 who will match
00:51:40.160 or contribute
00:51:40.840 to the Trump accounts
00:51:42.260 of the kids
00:51:42.740 of their employees.
00:51:43.580 So that accelerates
00:51:44.620 massively.
00:51:45.680 The second thing,
00:51:46.540 and we deliberately
00:51:47.320 wrote this
00:51:48.160 so that it can
00:51:49.540 accept philanthropy
00:51:50.680 and it can accept
00:51:51.520 charitable gifts.
00:51:53.380 And as you know,
00:51:55.480 Michael and Susan Dell
00:51:56.560 have given
00:51:57.900 six and a quarter
00:51:59.120 billion dollars
00:52:00.260 and what they've given
00:52:01.840 is $250
00:52:02.920 for America's
00:52:05.180 250th birthday
00:52:06.100 to every child
00:52:09.080 in America
00:52:09.740 under age 10
00:52:11.140 who lives
00:52:13.220 in a zip code
00:52:14.120 where the median
00:52:15.400 income is
00:52:16.020 $150,000 or less.
00:52:17.880 And so we wrote it
00:52:19.080 so you can turn
00:52:19.900 the dials.
00:52:20.700 You can turn
00:52:21.400 the dials geographically,
00:52:22.840 you can turn
00:52:23.640 the dials age-wise,
00:52:24.860 you can turn
00:52:25.240 the dials income-wise.
00:52:27.080 So Michael's done that.
00:52:29.460 Brad Gerstner
00:52:30.380 has given
00:52:33.220 $250
00:52:33.900 to every kid
00:52:35.980 in Indiana
00:52:36.720 under age 5
00:52:38.080 in zip codes
00:52:39.880 with median income
00:52:41.420 of $150,000 or less.
00:52:43.440 And Ray Dalio,
00:52:44.360 the hedge fund billionaire,
00:52:45.640 has sponsored
00:52:46.600 the kids in Connecticut.
00:52:48.080 That's so cool.
00:52:48.720 And I actually
00:52:49.540 have talked
00:52:50.100 to a number
00:52:51.180 of gazillionaires
00:52:51.960 and Michael Dell
00:52:55.740 and Brad
00:52:56.520 are getting on Zooms
00:52:57.760 and talking to people
00:52:58.760 with great wealth.
00:52:59.500 That's awesome.
00:53:00.380 encouraging them
00:53:01.780 to give your resources.
00:53:03.980 And here,
00:53:04.260 Michael and I
00:53:04.660 have talked at length
00:53:05.300 about that.
00:53:05.740 And one of the things
00:53:06.700 that he got excited about.
00:53:09.200 So, look,
00:53:10.720 Michael and Susan
00:53:11.580 have between
00:53:12.340 $100 billion
00:53:13.060 and $200 billion.
00:53:14.360 Like, it's a massive
00:53:15.560 amount of money.
00:53:16.840 And they're smart
00:53:17.920 and responsible.
00:53:19.260 And so they've had
00:53:20.040 serious conversations
00:53:21.260 about how do you
00:53:22.960 give away your fortune.
00:53:24.340 Yeah.
00:53:24.400 And, look,
00:53:27.220 you look at people
00:53:28.260 who've achieved
00:53:28.700 great fortunes.
00:53:29.560 They create a foundation.
00:53:31.280 The foundation
00:53:31.920 gets taken over
00:53:32.780 by a bunch of Marxists
00:53:33.880 who spend all their money
00:53:34.820 undermining everything
00:53:35.640 the founders believed.
00:53:36.620 Every time.
00:53:37.360 Right.
00:53:37.720 Henry Ford
00:53:38.420 is rolling over
00:53:39.120 in his grave.
00:53:40.720 John D. Rockefeller
00:53:41.920 is spitting in his grave.
00:53:45.680 And one of the problems
00:53:47.140 with that much money
00:53:48.600 is it's hard
00:53:50.960 to give it away.
00:53:51.640 Most charities
00:53:52.280 can't take a billion dollars.
00:53:53.620 Like, it's too much money
00:53:54.800 and it swamps them.
00:53:55.940 Yeah.
00:53:56.560 So, Michael and Susan
00:53:58.260 have given
00:53:58.720 $6.25 billion.
00:54:00.760 But they've told me
00:54:02.360 they are contemplating
00:54:03.580 giving much,
00:54:05.280 much more than that.
00:54:06.500 That's so cool.
00:54:07.760 One of the things
00:54:08.660 that's really powerful
00:54:09.580 about these Trump accounts
00:54:10.620 is they're infinitely scalable.
00:54:13.460 Yeah.
00:54:14.520 They could literally
00:54:15.800 absorb the entirety
00:54:17.440 of Michael Dell's fortune
00:54:20.300 and the fortune
00:54:21.140 of every other gazillionaire.
00:54:24.400 And what is really potent
00:54:26.500 is the time value
00:54:28.280 of investing.
00:54:29.020 Look, if someone starts
00:54:30.180 saving or investing
00:54:31.180 when they're 60,
00:54:32.960 it's hard for it
00:54:34.460 to grow and accumulate
00:54:35.740 enough to be
00:54:37.600 really significant
00:54:38.520 by the time they retire.
00:54:40.620 What makes the Trump account
00:54:43.220 so incredibly potent
00:54:44.660 is we're starting
00:54:46.920 at age zero.
00:54:48.080 Yeah.
00:54:48.340 We're starting at babies
00:54:49.660 so you've got
00:54:50.380 a time horizon
00:54:51.500 where the kids
00:54:53.360 of a single mom
00:54:54.440 waiting table
00:54:55.240 Yeah.
00:54:56.000 can accumulate
00:54:57.240 hundreds of thousands
00:54:58.720 and even millions
00:54:59.800 of dollars.
00:55:00.560 Yeah.
00:55:00.960 And so for philanthropy,
00:55:03.000 the math is powerful.
00:55:04.400 If you put another
00:55:05.120 thousand dollars
00:55:06.000 in at the outset,
00:55:06.840 it really, really grows.
00:55:09.760 And so that's something
00:55:10.940 that is going to be
00:55:11.780 really significant
00:55:13.300 to speed these up.
00:55:15.100 And the point, Michael,
00:55:16.500 you made,
00:55:16.960 which got me really excited
00:55:18.760 is we're creating
00:55:21.080 a new generation
00:55:21.800 of capitalists.
00:55:22.400 Amen to that.
00:55:23.440 Every kid
00:55:24.260 will have skin in the game
00:55:26.040 and be an owner
00:55:27.500 of the biggest employers
00:55:28.420 in America.
00:55:28.920 I thought this was
00:55:29.800 a really important point
00:55:30.840 the president touched on.
00:55:32.100 Well, one,
00:55:32.800 the Trump accounts
00:55:33.700 just do that.
00:55:35.400 So it gives people
00:55:36.520 skin in the game.
00:55:37.280 Even when the president
00:55:38.220 pointed out only half
00:55:39.160 of Americans have access
00:55:40.100 to 401ks.
00:55:40.880 Yeah.
00:55:41.360 He said,
00:55:41.780 we want to bring
00:55:43.100 that other half of Americans.
00:55:43.960 Let them opt in
00:55:44.960 to the thrift savings plan.
00:55:46.320 That's an idea
00:55:46.860 I've talked with the president
00:55:47.820 in the White House about.
00:55:48.980 I think it's a brilliant idea.
00:55:50.140 I strongly support it.
00:55:51.900 I'm working on legislation
00:55:52.900 to do that as well,
00:55:53.840 to codify that.
00:55:54.760 Great.
00:55:55.680 Because it's,
00:55:56.720 look,
00:55:56.960 the more you can
00:55:57.980 create investors,
00:56:00.360 get people with equity,
00:56:02.580 and one of the important things
00:56:03.920 about how the administration
00:56:05.940 is designing
00:56:06.880 the Trump accounts app
00:56:08.040 is that it is not
00:56:10.660 going to simply say
00:56:11.880 you've got X dollars
00:56:13.740 in the S&P 500.
00:56:15.140 Yeah.
00:56:15.960 It's going to break down
00:56:17.380 every constituent stock
00:56:19.260 they own within it.
00:56:20.420 That's awesome.
00:56:21.100 So a 10-year-old
00:56:22.000 will be able to see,
00:56:23.200 I own $100 of apples.
00:56:25.020 Yeah.
00:56:25.580 Or Tesla,
00:56:26.860 or Ford,
00:56:27.560 or McDonald's,
00:56:28.940 and they'll see.
00:56:30.280 So a kid won't be rooting,
00:56:33.020 I hate evil corporations,
00:56:34.360 I want them to fail.
00:56:35.240 They're going to be like,
00:56:35.640 wait, I own that corporation.
00:56:36.960 Yes.
00:56:37.200 I want them to do better.
00:56:39.000 That changes
00:56:39.660 their whole world view.
00:56:40.780 It makes them capitalists.
00:56:42.120 You know,
00:56:42.500 even during
00:56:43.620 one of the big crises
00:56:44.700 of capitalism
00:56:45.320 in the early 20th century,
00:56:47.500 where you had
00:56:48.320 real excesses
00:56:49.500 of industrialization
00:56:50.440 that created,
00:56:51.040 you know,
00:56:51.320 like child labor 1.00
00:56:51.940 and all this stuff,
00:56:52.400 there was this movement
00:56:54.360 among serious
00:56:55.520 Christian thinkers
00:56:56.280 to try to resolve
00:56:58.520 these tensions
00:56:59.100 between capitalism
00:56:59.840 and the working poor.
00:57:01.860 And there were all these,
00:57:02.680 Chesterton had a version
00:57:03.680 with Belloc,
00:57:04.760 distributism,
00:57:05.660 and the whole point,
00:57:06.740 and theirs didn't really work,
00:57:08.340 but the whole point was
00:57:09.520 you need people
00:57:10.700 to really have a stake
00:57:13.320 in the society,
00:57:15.160 in following subsidiarity
00:57:16.400 and, you know,
00:57:17.660 all these principles
00:57:18.320 that are so enshrined
00:57:19.220 in the American system, too.
00:57:20.640 And this really does that,
00:57:23.200 where you think,
00:57:23.700 oh, I have a stake
00:57:24.420 in the corporations.
00:57:25.680 I have a stake in this.
00:57:26.560 By the way,
00:57:26.780 I miss geeky,
00:57:28.540 cerebral academic stuff
00:57:29.920 on the pod.
00:57:30.600 I will say
00:57:31.420 the sort of tenor
00:57:32.780 of verdict has shifted.
00:57:34.660 I don't know why.
00:57:35.680 I can't imagine the cause,
00:57:37.200 but I'm just saying,
00:57:38.600 you know,
00:57:39.900 I'm having a waft
00:57:40.920 of nostalgia.
00:57:41.880 There's a little more
00:57:42.660 Chesterton comes in, yes.
00:57:44.540 All the people
00:57:45.160 that just fell asleep,
00:57:46.380 wake back up,
00:57:47.120 I got you back,
00:57:47.880 keep going, okay.
00:57:48.760 All right, all right,
00:57:49.180 wake up now, all right.
00:57:50.320 Our audience level
00:57:52.060 just went like this,
00:57:53.100 but we're back now.
00:57:53.840 They're all awake again.
00:57:54.640 Make your final point,
00:57:55.580 go ahead.
00:57:58.300 This key is really important
00:58:00.600 because this is what
00:58:01.560 really jazzed me about it.
00:58:03.300 I don't like it
00:58:04.560 when the right fractures
00:58:05.520 into a million directions
00:58:06.380 because, you know,
00:58:07.200 I feel for Speaker Johnson.
00:58:09.620 He has the worst job
00:58:10.920 in all of politics.
00:58:12.040 Yes.
00:58:12.280 He has to herd
00:58:12.800 a bunch of cats.
00:58:14.060 They all have
00:58:14.520 all sorts of views.
00:58:15.400 They have all sorts
00:58:15.920 of principles,
00:58:16.780 some of which
00:58:17.120 conflict with each other.
00:58:18.180 And so it's hard
00:58:18.840 to get the right
00:58:19.380 to do anything together.
00:58:21.240 And he is a good
00:58:22.640 and decent man.
00:58:23.800 He's a good friend.
00:58:24.400 He's doing an amazing job.
00:58:25.700 Yeah, he's a wonderful guy
00:58:27.780 and he's doing a great,
00:58:28.700 he happens to also
00:58:29.520 be doing a great job.
00:58:30.680 But I just think
00:58:31.200 what the President
00:58:32.540 was speaking on,
00:58:33.160 especially these kinds
00:58:33.900 of issues,
00:58:34.800 these are the kind
00:58:35.520 of things that can
00:58:36.220 actually rally
00:58:37.340 the right together
00:58:38.060 with moderate voters,
00:58:40.400 frankly,
00:58:40.900 even center-left,
00:58:41.700 who don't want
00:58:42.540 the craziness.
00:58:42.960 Final question
00:58:43.720 for each of you quickly
00:58:44.820 as we are hitting
00:58:45.900 about an hour here
00:58:47.120 in our State of the Union
00:58:48.480 coverage.
00:58:50.340 Over, under,
00:58:52.180 on the midterms now,
00:58:53.900 how much better
00:58:54.720 do you feel
00:58:55.240 going at leaving
00:58:56.340 the end of the night
00:58:57.200 compared to going
00:58:58.040 into the beginning
00:58:58.640 of the speech tonight?
00:58:59.540 How much more optimistic
00:59:00.920 are you that we can
00:59:01.660 hold the House?
00:59:04.800 Hold the House?
00:59:06.740 It's going to be
00:59:07.440 very hard,
00:59:08.180 in my view,
00:59:08.600 to hold the House.
00:59:09.200 I would say,
00:59:11.120 look,
00:59:11.360 I feel,
00:59:11.980 I'll just pick a number,
00:59:13.020 I feel 20% better
00:59:14.580 if the Republicans
00:59:16.160 can stay on message,
00:59:18.400 if the Republicans
00:59:19.260 cannot devolve
00:59:20.140 into petty infighting,
00:59:21.540 if the Republicans
00:59:22.400 can be disciplined
00:59:23.900 in the way
00:59:25.740 they campaign.
00:59:26.960 These are all,
00:59:27.680 you know,
00:59:27.900 if wishes were horses,
00:59:29.500 beggars would ride. 0.59
00:59:30.660 I still think
00:59:31.760 historic headwinds,
00:59:33.160 best of circumstances,
00:59:34.840 the party in power,
00:59:36.080 especially with
00:59:36.460 unified government,
00:59:37.200 loses the House
00:59:37.800 in the midterms.
00:59:38.420 However,
00:59:39.380 I think that the
00:59:40.240 president did
00:59:40.680 every single thing
00:59:42.700 possible
00:59:43.380 to put the party
00:59:45.240 in an advantage
00:59:45.960 heading into November.
00:59:46.540 Senator?
00:59:48.240 And look,
00:59:49.080 my view,
00:59:51.080 right now,
00:59:52.620 the political environment
00:59:54.280 is rough.
00:59:54.920 Yes.
00:59:55.480 If the election
00:59:56.680 were today,
00:59:58.020 it would not be
00:59:59.180 a great outcome.
01:00:00.760 We are nationally
01:00:02.240 in about a
01:00:03.180 D plus six environment.
01:00:04.920 What that means
01:00:05.700 is where polling
01:00:07.580 is nationally
01:00:08.420 is about six points
01:00:09.500 more Democrat
01:00:10.140 than it was
01:00:10.740 on election day
01:00:11.420 in 2024.
01:00:13.020 If we're in a
01:00:14.020 D plus six environment,
01:00:15.800 we lose the House
01:00:17.540 and the Senate
01:00:19.400 is potentially
01:00:20.100 in jeopardy.
01:00:21.220 Crazy.
01:00:22.580 If the election
01:00:23.600 were today,
01:00:24.260 that would be
01:00:24.760 a real possibility.
01:00:26.440 The good news
01:00:27.300 is we got eight months
01:00:28.100 and the substantive
01:00:30.880 record is
01:00:31.700 phenomenally good.
01:00:33.060 It's not just
01:00:33.500 a little bit good.
01:00:34.400 Yeah.
01:00:35.000 It is insanely good.
01:00:37.180 And so tonight
01:00:37.920 was encouraging
01:00:38.860 because Trump
01:00:39.760 focused most
01:00:40.720 of his time
01:00:41.480 on laying out
01:00:43.240 methodically
01:00:44.080 that substantive
01:00:44.880 record
01:00:45.300 and just how
01:00:46.160 good it is.
01:00:47.700 And what we
01:00:48.380 have to do,
01:00:49.360 I mean,
01:00:49.640 I do like
01:00:50.320 that we have
01:00:50.720 eight months.
01:00:52.200 Most Americans
01:00:53.000 don't know
01:00:53.620 all these victories
01:00:54.360 we're winning.
01:00:54.860 Exactly.
01:00:55.240 And so our task
01:00:56.520 is communicate
01:00:58.140 the victories
01:01:00.160 that are making
01:01:00.840 a real difference
01:01:01.900 in people's lives.
01:01:02.980 But the good news
01:01:03.880 is we have
01:01:05.680 a monster amount
01:01:06.840 of substance
01:01:07.420 to talk about.
01:01:08.260 We just need
01:01:08.860 to talk about it.
01:01:09.920 And I think
01:01:11.180 if we make
01:01:11.660 that case,
01:01:13.660 we could certainly
01:01:14.760 keep the House
01:01:16.880 and the Senate
01:01:17.620 and grow our
01:01:18.220 majorities in both.
01:01:18.880 There you go.
01:01:19.700 Michael,
01:01:20.160 next year,
01:01:21.000 say the union,
01:01:21.700 you and I
01:01:22.020 will be hanging out.
01:01:22.820 We'll make sure
01:01:23.380 we invite Senator Cruz.
01:01:24.500 And so we can
01:01:25.640 Maybe we will.
01:01:27.600 Maybe.
01:01:28.040 You're going to make
01:01:28.480 me fly home?
01:01:29.220 We might make you
01:01:30.080 fly somewhere.
01:01:30.760 Exactly.
01:01:31.340 We'll tell you
01:01:32.080 why you're on the tarmac.
01:01:33.160 Don't worry.
01:01:33.700 There'll be plenty
01:01:34.160 of time for you
01:01:34.700 to get off the plane.
01:01:35.680 Don't forget
01:01:36.240 we do this show
01:01:36.860 Monday, Wednesday,
01:01:37.480 Friday.
01:01:37.940 Always a pleasure
01:01:38.580 to have you,
01:01:39.280 Michael,
01:01:40.180 hanging out
01:01:40.720 on a really fun
01:01:41.860 evening.
01:01:43.000 Hit the download
01:01:43.680 auto-subscribe button.
01:01:45.360 You can watch us
01:01:45.960 on YouTube
01:01:46.440 or Facebook as well.
01:01:48.220 The Senate
01:01:48.500 and I will see you
01:01:49.080 back here
01:01:49.540 in a couple of days.
01:01:51.340 This is an
01:01:51.980 iHeart Podcast.
01:01:52.880 Guaranteed Human.