Verdict with Ted Cruz - January 30, 2026


Trump Accounts Launched to Help America's Kids Save & Invest Millions plus Media Lie about Minneapolis Violence


Episode Stats


Length

35 minutes

Words per minute

181.1729

Word count

6,432

Sentence count

490

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joins Sen. Ben Fincher (D-Illinois) to discuss the Trump Account and School Choice Act, two of the most important pieces of legislation passed by Congress last year.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.680 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.300 Welcome at His Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as well.
00:00:09.440 And it's so nice to have you with us if you're listening on the radio around the country.
00:00:13.340 Senator, we've got a lot to talk about on today's show.
00:00:16.500 And you had a really fun week and something that you've been working on for a long time
00:00:20.580 has become a reality.
00:00:21.660 It's going to fundamentally change the future for so many young people in this country as well.
00:00:27.260 Well, that's right.
00:00:27.800 So this week I joined President Trump for a big event at the Treasury Department rolling out the Trump accounts.
00:00:34.260 And as you know, the Trump accounts are a major provision that we passed last year as part of the Working Families Tax Cut.
00:00:43.120 I authored the Trump accounts.
00:00:45.080 I wrote the legislation for what became the Trump accounts.
00:00:48.360 And it is the Trump accounts and the school choice provision are, I believe, the two most significant provisions in the entire bill.
00:00:56.600 There are lots of other things that matter in the bill.
00:00:59.360 Obviously, the tax cuts are hugely important, securing the border, rebuilding the military.
00:01:03.240 All of that is enormously important.
00:01:05.760 But I think the two provisions that will still be making a massive difference in this country 10, 20, 30 years from now are the Trump accounts and school choice.
00:01:15.500 On school choice, we're going to see tens of billions of dollars of scholarships for kids all over this country to be able to go to the school of their choice,
00:01:24.780 for kids trapped in failing schools to be able to get out of those schools and get an excellent education.
00:01:30.140 That is transformative.
00:01:31.600 And for the Trump accounts, starting on July 4th of this year, every kid in America is going to have a private investment account open for them.
00:01:42.260 Newborn kids are going to have it seeded with $1,000.
00:01:46.080 And then parents and family and employers can contribute $5,000 a year in a tax advantage account.
00:01:52.200 And all of that money will be invested in the stock market, the S&P 500.
00:01:55.600 And so President Trump did a big event celebrating these accounts.
00:02:00.420 It was really powerful.
00:02:01.960 And there's just enormous enthusiasm for the impact these Trump accounts are going to have.
00:02:07.640 Yeah, it really is.
00:02:09.040 The president also loves giving you a hard time.
00:02:11.980 It's really fun to watch you guys spend a lot of time together.
00:02:15.460 And you've actually, especially this last year, you guys have done a lot of things together with legislation.
00:02:22.480 You've been, and there's weeks where I laughed that you would be at the White House three or four days in a row with a different piece of legislation each day that you were a part of.
00:02:31.320 This was a core part of that.
00:02:33.280 You guys worked hard.
00:02:34.780 And he made sure, he mentioned you, and I want people to take a look at this.
00:02:39.260 It was really fun to watch the president talk about you as he was having this signing day.
00:02:44.380 And a senator who was a friend of mine, you wouldn't believe that because we went through a rough campaign together.
00:02:49.180 It was nasty.
00:02:50.120 We got along so well, and everybody, we actually did joint rallies.
00:02:54.420 Can you believe it?
00:02:55.840 He wanted to get some of the action, so he's smart.
00:02:58.100 He said, would you do a rally with me?
00:03:00.360 But we did joint rallies, and the press used to say, will you ever, you know, start fighting?
00:03:06.460 I said, don't worry, it'll come.
00:03:07.680 He said the same thing.
00:03:08.680 Don't worry, it'll come.
00:03:10.220 He's a very tough guy, very brilliant guy.
00:03:12.560 In fact, when I said, you know, because I had never gone into a debate before, officially.
00:03:16.420 My whole life was a debate, but I'd never debated before, officially.
00:03:20.700 And I said, let me find out about my competition.
00:03:24.320 Who are these people?
00:03:25.400 Because many of them, you know, there were senators, and mostly senators and governors.
00:03:29.060 And I said, well, why don't we start with this guy named Ted Cruz?
00:03:34.120 Let me, you know, give me, well, he was the best student at Harvard, number one in his class.
00:03:39.700 He was the best student at Princeton or something.
00:03:42.160 And he was the national debate champion for three years.
00:03:45.520 And I said, well, I don't like that.
00:03:48.000 I didn't know that.
00:03:49.760 I don't like that.
00:03:51.100 And he was a very good debater, I will tell you that.
00:03:53.460 He's a smart guy.
00:03:54.880 But I'll never forget, because he was the first one I looked at.
00:03:58.020 You know, I've just joined the ranks of politics.
00:04:01.300 And the first famous, that was the Rosie O'Donnell.
00:04:05.460 Remember that?
00:04:06.220 Only Rosie O'Donnell? 0.97
00:04:09.220 They can, Ireland, you can keep her. 0.99
00:04:13.500 Ireland has done us tremendous.
00:04:15.940 The head of Ireland said, are all your people this way?
00:04:18.060 We don't want that.
00:04:20.100 But, but, Ted Cruz has one thing that I like, if I ever have problems, because it's hard to get people to prove.
00:04:26.960 He's a brilliant legal mind.
00:04:28.680 He's a brilliant man.
00:04:30.260 If I nominate him for the United States Supreme Court, I will get 100% of the vote.
00:04:36.520 The Democrats will vote for him, because they want to get him the hell out.
00:04:40.120 And the Republicans will vote for him, because they want to get him the hell out, too.
00:04:44.920 Where's Ted?
00:04:46.140 Where are you, Ted?
00:04:50.700 And with all of that being said, he's a great guy, too.
00:04:53.460 He's a great guy.
00:04:54.320 We've become friends, and he's a very effective person, too.
00:04:57.640 Thank you, Ted, very much.
00:04:58.760 Senator, that joke, by the way, is going to have, like, a really big life shelf there.
00:05:04.940 It's been going on since, what, like, 2016, 17, 18?
00:05:08.660 And he loves using it.
00:05:09.940 I laugh every time he does it, because I just know it's coming, and I know where he's going.
00:05:14.240 But it gets bigger and bigger every time.
00:05:17.140 Yeah, no, he's been using that joke a long time.
00:05:20.280 He's used it at rallies.
00:05:21.500 He's used it in the Oval.
00:05:22.600 Look, President Trump is a force of nature, and also, when he's at the microphone, you
00:05:28.880 never know what he's going to say.
00:05:30.080 I'm not sure.
00:05:31.160 I mean, it's kind of, it's extemporaneous, and he can, like the Rosie O'Donnell line that,
00:05:37.280 you know, Ireland can keep her, that, you know, that's just kind of him riffing.
00:05:41.400 But I've got to say, he also, the courage he's shown has been extraordinary.
00:05:49.860 And look, the Supreme Court thing, he's brought up a lot of times, and you know that I've
00:05:54.940 told him that my answer is not just no to that, but hell no, that I don't want to be
00:05:59.740 a judge.
00:06:00.820 I want to be in the political fight, and the right place to be in the political fight is
00:06:04.220 exactly where I am now.
00:06:06.340 But you know what?
00:06:07.380 You know what's funny the other day?
00:06:08.320 I was at the Supreme Court, and I didn't get to tell you this, but I was watching the
00:06:11.740 case, the West Virginia case.
00:06:13.240 My old roommate's the AG from West Virginia, and they were fighting that case.
00:06:17.060 And as I was sitting there, because I don't normally go to the oral arguments, but like
00:06:20.620 I had an interest in being there for that.
00:06:22.260 It was a big case.
00:06:23.300 And I was looking up there, and I was just imagining you being on the court, and in my
00:06:27.260 mind, I was like, it would be really cool if you got it, and I think you'd be bored
00:06:30.960 out of your mind if you were there.
00:06:32.140 Like, I could just see you.
00:06:33.620 I was watching, I think it was Roberts who just kept doing this back and forth, rocking, and
00:06:38.020 I'm like, I wonder what your tick would be as that would be going on.
00:06:41.060 But I laugh, because I'm like, I don't see you there at all.
00:06:44.060 Well, look, and a lot of people are surprised when they hear that I don't want to be a judge,
00:06:48.740 because a lot of my life, my whole career before being in the Senate, was a Supreme Court
00:06:53.680 litigator.
00:06:54.280 And so that's what I did for a living, is represented Texas, represented private clients,
00:06:58.360 arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court.
00:07:00.380 And it's an institution I revere.
00:07:03.240 I care deeply about having principled constitutionalists on the court.
00:07:08.420 The reason, and people are sometimes really surprised, like, why would you not want that?
00:07:12.900 And the reason is a principled federal judge stays out of politics, stays out of policy.
00:07:18.060 So, for example, we talked about the two huge victories that I authored that are in the
00:07:24.980 working families tax cut, school choice and the Trump accounts.
00:07:28.420 If I were a judge, I couldn't do either one of them.
00:07:31.640 And I want to be fighting for victories like that.
00:07:34.240 I want to be fighting to secure the border.
00:07:35.740 I want to be fighting to enhance our national defense.
00:07:37.940 I want to be fighting to cut taxes and repeal job-killing regulations.
00:07:43.020 And if you want to do that, the place to do it is in the elected branches of government.
00:07:48.800 And so, and that's why.
00:07:51.560 I think you're exactly where you need to be.
00:07:52.360 And I think most people listening to this show agree with that, especially on the issues
00:07:55.440 you're talking about right now.
00:07:56.680 And I like being in the battle.
00:07:58.680 I mean, I like, you know, I mean, it is every day that the Senate is like the Roman Coliseum
00:08:04.220 where you're battling the barbarians.
00:08:06.160 And it's a heck of a lot of fun.
00:08:08.800 All right, Senator, I want to get back to these Trump accounts.
00:08:11.400 And let's talk about the nitty gritty of this.
00:08:14.000 When you look at the dollars and the growing of wealth and how this could fundamentally change
00:08:21.880 a country where every child that is in poverty could get out of poverty just by having these
00:08:27.580 accounts and talk about where they could start a small business or be able to pay for college
00:08:32.260 or different things like that.
00:08:33.920 It is truly empowering for an entire generation what we are now starting with these Trump's
00:08:39.460 accounts.
00:08:39.880 I actually think it's going to be one of the biggest parts of your legacy ever.
00:08:42.600 Yeah, look, I think the Trump accounts will be truly transformational.
00:08:46.940 I will say it's interesting.
00:08:48.140 I think President Trump initially, when we laid out the idea to him, he liked it.
00:08:52.620 But I think as he's seen more and more what these are going to do, I think he's really
00:08:57.700 appreciating that these are going to be a huge part of his legacy.
00:09:01.120 When all of us are dead and buried, people are still going to, the impact of the Trump accounts
00:09:06.160 is going to echo forward.
00:09:08.540 And the two massive benefits are, number one, every kid in America is going to get the benefit
00:09:14.740 of compound growth.
00:09:16.120 You know, half of the people in America don't own a single stock and don't own a single bond.
00:09:20.840 And the impact, well, here, give a listen to Fox News talking about just how much wealth
00:09:27.420 kids can accumulate through these Trump accounts.
00:09:30.900 You've kind of touched on this by age 18, right?
00:09:35.860 You could have $303,000 by age 28.
00:09:40.980 It's more than a million.
00:09:42.280 If you do the maximum contributions, if you give no contributions, you're still shy of
00:09:47.560 $6,000, which ain't nothing.
00:09:49.420 And then $18,000 by age 28.
00:09:52.740 You know, President Bush 43 pushed this idea about 25 years.
00:09:57.240 I mean, you look at just the political willpower of getting something like this done.
00:10:01.640 It shouldn't take this much.
00:10:03.400 But this was a major fight center that you had to go to war with to get it to happen.
00:10:08.740 And I don't understand why.
00:10:10.940 Look, in the tax cut, you were competing with everything else.
00:10:14.880 Everyone else had a priority.
00:10:16.420 And so it was dividing the pie.
00:10:19.540 And it was also, look, this was something new.
00:10:21.940 It was major.
00:10:22.640 Getting it through the Senate parliamentarian was a real challenge.
00:10:25.240 And we fought hard and got it through.
00:10:28.240 And, you know, you look at that math.
00:10:31.100 You know, you're not talking about just the kids of rich people.
00:10:34.540 You're talking about the kids of a single mom who's waiting tables. 0.99
00:10:39.520 And the math of that, so a little girl born this year, she gets the $1,000 automatically
00:10:46.180 put in the account.
00:10:47.400 And that can accumulate and grow.
00:10:49.420 But where the real math is, is if their contributions of $5,000 a year, now those can come from a
00:10:55.440 parent, those can come from a family member, or those can come from an employer.
00:10:59.540 And there are two big accelerants that we wrote into the bill.
00:11:05.380 Number one is the employer piece of it, that the employers think about, to give you a sense
00:11:10.780 of the scope and magnitude, think back to when Congress passed Section 401k of ERISA.
00:11:17.800 That was decades ago.
00:11:19.600 And I suspect nobody in Congress knew just how fundamentally they were going to change how
00:11:25.820 Americans save for retirement.
00:11:27.420 There are right now more than $12 trillion in 401k accounts.
00:11:34.440 It's massive.
00:11:36.300 And there will be, in just a couple of years, trillions of dollars in Trump accounts as well.
00:11:42.500 The volume of it is massive.
00:11:44.180 And one of the things that's a real accelerant is, you know, most big employers match 401k contributions.
00:11:52.120 If you're an employee, sometimes employers will contribute directly to 401ks.
00:11:55.920 Other times they'll match.
00:11:57.580 If you make a contribution, I think we're going to see the same thing with Trump accounts.
00:12:01.840 This is going to become a standard, a ubiquitous employee benefit that employers will say,
00:12:08.280 we're going to match your contributions or contribute directly to the Trump accounts that your kids have.
00:12:15.160 A bunch of big employers have already announced they're doing that.
00:12:18.620 Actually, Visa had a very clever thing they announced.
00:12:21.440 They said you can use your reward points.
00:12:23.840 You can convert them into money and deposit them in your kids' Trump accounts.
00:12:27.940 That's an accelerant to help more dollars get in. 0.60
00:12:32.460 And one of the things about compound growth that you know is the earlier you invest,
00:12:38.440 the bigger it grows.
00:12:40.020 And that's one of the things that's really powerful is starting, you know,
00:12:43.720 if someone starts saving at age 40 or 50 or 60.
00:12:47.860 You're so far behind.
00:12:48.940 Yeah, they don't have a long enough time horizon for it to really grow into big, big numbers.
00:12:54.740 If you start at age zero, that gives a long time for that growth to compound.
00:13:00.580 That's really powerful.
00:13:02.000 The second accelerant.
00:13:03.400 Go back to the number that you mentioned that Fox had there.
00:13:06.500 If you do the maximum contribution, you have a child five grand a year.
00:13:10.280 Yeah.
00:13:10.440 All right.
00:13:10.700 Like, five grand a year, you think about that over, I mean, over 12 years, that's $60,000
00:13:16.780 that you put in.
00:13:18.140 But if you keep going, and I'm putting that in perspective to realize, like, this is not
00:13:21.800 a crazy amount of money if you're disciplined.
00:13:24.220 You're talking about $1,091,900 by age 28.
00:13:29.120 That is unbelievable.
00:13:31.180 Yeah.
00:13:31.340 And look, look, $5,000 a year is about $100 a week.
00:13:34.500 And so that can come from a parent, come from another family member.
00:13:38.340 But the other accelerant that's really powerful is we wrote this so that it can accept charitable
00:13:44.220 gifts.
00:13:44.980 So as you know, Michael and Susan Dell are giving $6.25 billion.
00:13:50.540 They're giving $250 to every child under 10 who lives in a zip code where the median income
00:13:57.400 is $150,000 or less.
00:13:59.780 That is a massive contribution.
00:14:01.960 Brad Gerstner, who came up with the idea for the Trump accounts and who was my partner
00:14:07.340 in getting this done, and we worked hand in hand, Brad has announced he's doing the same
00:14:11.400 thing for the state of Indiana.
00:14:13.180 So cool.
00:14:14.020 $250 for every kid under five, but it's going to be about $250 million that he's giving.
00:14:19.920 And same thing targeted for kids in zip codes with a median income is $150,000 or less.
00:14:26.400 I think you're going to see lots of people doing charitable contributions.
00:14:29.840 That is really, really powerful.
00:14:33.280 And it's something President Trump is encouraging.
00:14:35.580 It's something I'm encouraging every employer to do this.
00:14:38.460 I'm encouraging philanthropists.
00:14:41.100 And by the way, Michael Dell has said he's not done at $6.25 billion.
00:14:44.160 He's talked about giving a lot more money than that.
00:14:47.360 One of the cool things about this is it's infinitely scalable.
00:14:50.920 So Michael Dell has more than $100 billion.
00:14:54.900 If you're thinking about where to give your money away in philanthropy, there are not a
00:14:58.740 lot of charities that can take amounts that big.
00:15:01.680 This is infinitely scalable.
00:15:03.480 And so it has a potential really to accelerate the wealth creation for kids.
00:15:09.940 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00
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00:15:22.260 And I'm Catherine Clark.
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00:15:35.960 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:15:42.040 Senator, you know, it's amazing to see that these incredibly wealthy individuals doing
00:15:47.960 this amazing work with philanthropy, giving money to these accounts for kids.
00:15:52.700 It's going to change lives.
00:15:54.180 There are going to be amazing stories that come out of this.
00:15:56.360 But it's not just the super uber multi-billionaires that are getting involved and inspiring.
00:16:04.060 Nicki Minaj is a great example of that.
00:16:06.360 She was there.
00:16:07.200 She loves the present.
00:16:08.660 And not only is she a powerful voice by giving, but really by letting younger people pay attention
00:16:13.700 to the advocacy for, hey, it's never too early to start investing.
00:16:18.480 Yeah.
00:16:18.720 And look, on the philanthropy side, you know, if you don't have billions of dollars like
00:16:23.240 Michael Dell does to give away, you know, Nicki Minaj was there.
00:16:26.680 She was at the event with the president.
00:16:28.020 She's announced she's going to give between $150,000 and $300,000 to the Trump accounts
00:16:34.040 of her fans, to their kids.
00:16:36.160 And, you know, she's obviously a big rap star. 0.70
00:16:39.000 It's funny.
00:16:39.360 Trump asked her, come on up on the stage, come join me.
00:16:42.580 And she spoke to everyone.
00:16:44.640 And then it was funny.
00:16:46.040 He actually kind of dissed Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, who's a great guy and doing
00:16:50.640 a phenomenal job.
00:16:51.580 But Trump says, you know, Nicki Minaj is better to listen to than Scott Besson, which got
00:16:56.080 a pretty big laugh.
00:16:57.700 And I told Scott backstage, I said, OK, tell me, Scott, did you have on your bucket list
00:17:03.140 being compared to Nicki Minaj, and by the way, disfavorably compared to Nicki Minaj?
00:17:08.560 And he just laughed and said, no, I did not predict that one.
00:17:12.260 And so it's on the bingo card.
00:17:13.640 But it shows the breadth of appeal.
00:17:18.100 And by the way, the philanthropy can really get turbocharged if lots of people are giving
00:17:23.280 smaller amounts, whatever's in their means and in their communities.
00:17:27.560 You know, Ray Dalio, who runs a big hedge fund, decided to give to the kids of the state
00:17:33.580 of Connecticut.
00:17:34.300 And people can do it in smaller.
00:17:35.780 They can give it to their city or their neighborhood.
00:17:38.800 But it's able to be targeted.
00:17:40.780 That philanthropy is really going to accelerate it.
00:17:42.900 But I'll tell you what makes me the most excited about this is the long-term change it's going
00:17:49.900 to have for our country, because we are literally creating an entire new generation of capitalists.
00:17:56.180 This is what got me excited about this idea.
00:17:59.480 You know, there had been ideas like Cory Booker, a Democrat, had proposed previously baby bonds,
00:18:07.260 basically putting money in a savings account for kids.
00:18:11.040 And look, that has some value, but it's not nearly as exciting as this, because what really
00:18:17.120 makes this potent is that this money is invested in the stock market.
00:18:20.680 And the impact of that is that every kid in America is going to be an owner of the largest
00:18:28.660 employers in America.
00:18:29.880 And when you're an owner, it changes your whole perspective.
00:18:33.440 Look, we've all seen the lousy statistics about young people who say they're losing faith in
00:18:41.040 capitalism.
00:18:41.480 They don't believe in capitalism.
00:18:42.760 They think socialism might be a better idea.
00:18:45.580 Yeah.
00:18:45.920 You know, the effect of this in, you know, 10 years, a kid's going to pull out his cell
00:18:52.100 phone and look at his Trump account.
00:18:53.600 You're going to have an app.
00:18:54.280 And it's going to break down not just what's in your Trump account, but all of the 500 companies
00:18:59.220 that are part of the S&P 500.
00:19:01.240 And that kid's going to see, gosh, I own 100 bucks of Apple or 75 bucks of Boeing or McDonald's.
00:19:08.060 And that kid now has a stake in the economy, in those companies, in their employers, in seeing
00:19:16.480 economic growth.
00:19:17.400 So instead of being, you know, an angry teenager going, all corporations are evil, which unfortunately
00:19:23.960 some of these knuckleheads hear that propaganda from the college professors, they're going
00:19:28.380 to be like, no, no, no, I want these companies to do better because when they do better, I
00:19:32.720 do better.
00:19:33.440 And that is fundamentally an ownership society.
00:19:38.820 And I'll tell you, Ben, this is actually the culmination of what I set out to do when I
00:19:46.280 got elected to the Senate.
00:19:47.940 I mean, this was your dream.
00:19:49.340 That's our reality.
00:19:50.640 So when I was first elected, the very first op-ed I ever wrote in the Senate in January
00:19:55.420 of 2023, not 2020, in January of 2013, was called The Rise of Opportunity Conservatism.
00:20:03.720 And what it said is that every policy, every economic policy we look at should focus on easing
00:20:12.200 the means of ascent up the economic ladder.
00:20:14.420 Focus on opportunity.
00:20:16.280 And the basic philosophical difference between the left and right on economic policy is they
00:20:22.040 both look at the socioeconomic ladder.
00:20:24.680 The left sees people on the bottom and they want to physically grab them and move them
00:20:28.240 up.
00:20:28.620 And look, that's a noble instinct.
00:20:31.760 It just doesn't work.
00:20:33.640 It's a train wreck.
00:20:34.740 It fails.
00:20:36.320 And look, think about it in simple terms.
00:20:39.160 Let's say you have a five-year-old daughter who is struggling with her math homework.
00:20:44.600 None of us as a parent would do the homework for that kid.
00:20:47.180 That's not helping your child to do her homework for her. 1.00
00:20:50.120 What you want to do is teach her and help her master the skills.
00:20:54.460 And the only way anyone has ever climbed the economic ladder, and this is what conservatives
00:20:58.420 and free market conservatives get, is to pull yourself up one rung after the other.
00:21:03.700 But they're economic policies that can accelerate that ascent.
00:21:08.620 And actually, the two policies that I talked about the most in that very first op-ed as a
00:21:12.860 senator I wrote were, number one, school choice.
00:21:16.120 Yep.
00:21:16.380 And number two, Social Security personal accounts, the ability to accumulate assets in the stock
00:21:21.720 market.
00:21:22.100 And what is amazing is we accomplished both of those last year, and it is transformational.
00:21:29.360 And so I think economic policy should focus on ownership and savings and investment, and
00:21:35.300 that's exactly what we've done.
00:21:37.600 That impact in terms of just changing the philosophy of kids.
00:21:41.820 By the way, financial literacy is another issue.
00:21:45.560 Look, a lot of kids don't know basic financial literacy.
00:21:48.960 A lot of schools don't teach it.
00:21:50.680 You'll now have a vehicle where you won't be discussing it in the abstract, where a teacher
00:21:55.620 in third grade will be able to tell the kids, you know, okay, look at your Trump account.
00:21:59.780 Look at the growth, and how much do the numbers change if you invest early?
00:22:05.780 And I think you're going to see kids saying, you know, Aunt Susie, instead of getting me,
00:22:13.180 you know, this toy for Christmas, you know, maybe you could give me 50 bucks or 100 bucks
00:22:18.780 in my Trump account.
00:22:19.780 And not every kid will say that, but when they see the math and the power of, wow, if
00:22:24.860 we invest, this can grow and expand, getting children to think like investors and to think
00:22:31.160 like owners changes their whole world view.
00:22:33.740 I started my kids young on that, and I told them that I made the same deal with them that
00:22:38.520 my dad made with me.
00:22:39.580 Whatever your first car you want to be, I will match what you save.
00:22:43.620 If you save a thousand bucks, you're going to get a hoopty for two thousand.
00:22:46.700 Like, that's just, it's on you, and I'm going to do it.
00:22:49.520 But my kids now, even at a young age of six and nine, they're now making different decisions.
00:22:54.720 Like, my son has invested some of his money in Ford and Lockheed Martin, and every day
00:22:59.000 he asks me, how did my stock do today?
00:23:01.680 Are we up or down?
00:23:02.920 And so he's learning from that, because now he understands where he'll go to the store
00:23:07.480 and he won't buy something.
00:23:08.400 He'll be like, hey, dad, can you buy more stock for me?
00:23:10.600 Can you put more money in this?
00:23:12.660 And we look at companies, and we decide what he wants to invest in.
00:23:16.920 He invested in a golf company, for example, that's on the S&P, because he understands golf
00:23:21.020 being a golf.
00:23:21.940 And he's like, how's my stock doing today?
00:23:23.680 Even my six-year-olds now, their birthday's coming up on the 13th, and you can either at
00:23:29.440 school get a birthday shirt and something else, and they both ask, or can we have the
00:23:33.660 money?
00:23:34.640 It's six years old.
00:23:36.140 That's the connection.
00:23:36.900 And I'm grinning from ear to ear, because I'm like, you're saying, I don't care about the
00:23:41.040 birthday t-shirt at school that day.
00:23:43.080 Can I have the $30 to then invest?
00:23:45.940 This is exactly what the Trump accounts are going to do to so many young kids.
00:23:49.360 It makes an idea a reality.
00:23:51.940 Look, there are life habits.
00:23:53.460 If you look at kids that learn delayed gratification, you know, there's a famous social science experiment
00:23:59.700 where kids had a plate with a marshmallow on it, and they were told, if you don't eat
00:24:05.260 the marshmallow now, you'll get two marshmallows.
00:24:07.540 And the difference between the kids who could actually refrain, some kids would just grab
00:24:11.900 the one marshmallow and stick with it, but others could delay their gratification, and
00:24:15.920 it is a much more successful long-term strategy.
00:24:19.180 A kid learning, you know, there's a related principle, which is a portion of what you make
00:24:24.340 is yours to keep.
00:24:26.120 And look, a lot of people are stretched, but getting into the discipline of no matter what
00:24:31.720 you're making, saving a portion of it, investing a portion of it, is how you accumulate real
00:24:37.340 wealth, and teaching kids that from an early age makes a big difference.
00:24:42.140 Now, this is the public service announcement component of the podcast.
00:24:46.280 Everyone who is listening or watching, if you have kids, there's a website you need to go
00:24:50.380 to.
00:24:50.620 It's trumpaccounts.gov, trumpaccounts.gov.
00:24:53.120 Go to the website and sign your kids up.
00:24:55.200 I mean, we're expecting, you know, this is designed for every kid in America.
00:25:02.760 And so if you've got kids, go to trumpaccounts.gov and sign them up so that their accounts can
00:25:09.360 be opened as well.
00:25:10.740 Yeah, it's awesome.
00:25:11.720 trumpaccounts.gov.
00:25:13.020 And we'll remind people of that, I'm sure, throughout this show and in the future as well.
00:25:17.880 But again, trumpaccounts.gov and get in the game early.
00:25:21.440 You'll regret it if you don't.
00:25:22.360 That's the bottom line here.
00:25:23.740 It's really incredible.
00:25:24.760 It's exciting.
00:25:25.840 Congratulations.
00:25:26.960 It's fun to see something like this that also is bipartisan just become a reality.
00:25:32.280 And that was, I think, one of the fun things about watching this take place.
00:25:36.640 It was just enjoyable to watch the president have a success that is going to help so many
00:25:41.920 kids in this country.
00:25:43.060 Yeah.
00:25:43.200 And I would even argue it's going to help disproportionately poor kids more than kids
00:25:48.420 that are wealthier.
00:25:49.460 I'm okay with that.
00:25:50.700 Get them in the game.
00:25:51.740 That's amazing.
00:25:52.180 That's the whole point.
00:25:53.260 That's what makes it transformational.
00:25:54.900 Right now, somewhere in the world, a kid you've never met is writing you a letter.
00:26:00.580 They're telling you about their day, their dreams, the goal they scored, the test they
00:26:06.500 passed, the new friend they made at school.
00:26:08.880 Maybe they're drawing you even a picture.
00:26:11.220 Maybe they've asked you about your family, your favorite color, what makes you laugh.
00:26:16.360 They're wondering who you are, this person who cares enough to be part of their story.
00:26:21.780 And you, you're not just sending money.
00:26:24.200 You're writing back.
00:26:25.520 You're showing up month after month, letter after letter.
00:26:29.240 You're celebrating their victories, encouraging them through challenges, and reminding them that
00:26:35.320 they truly matter.
00:26:36.320 Now, this isn't a transaction.
00:26:38.880 It's an incredible relationship that spans continents and changes everything for both
00:26:44.200 of you.
00:26:44.820 That is where Compassion International connects you directly with one child.
00:26:49.880 Real letters, real relationships, and real change.
00:26:53.520 Because poverty isn't solved with donations alone.
00:26:57.000 It's solved by showing up, impact the world, one child at a time, and learn how at Compassion.com.
00:27:05.560 That's Compassion.com.
00:27:08.400 All right, Senator, I want to get into this other story that is the media and the bias
00:27:13.620 of the media and the narrative.
00:27:15.440 They've been pushing in Minnesota specifically with this ICU nurse.
00:27:22.640 They turn him into a do-gooder.
00:27:24.720 We then get a video that comes out showing him attacking ICE agents days before the fatal
00:27:30.680 confrontation with ICE.
00:27:31.860 And that part seems to be just disappearing from the media's coverage.
00:27:36.960 Well, yeah, look, we have seen with the protests and the riots that are unfolding in Minneapolis,
00:27:43.120 we have seen the corporate media just turn into shameless propagandists.
00:27:47.780 And they have a narrative.
00:27:49.300 And that narrative is disconnected from facts and reality.
00:27:52.900 And they're trying to mislead people.
00:27:54.980 And so we've seen that.
00:27:56.640 We've seen that with the headlines everywhere saying ICE arrested a five-year-old boy.
00:28:01.260 And, you know, people read that and are like, okay, that's crazy.
00:28:03.540 Why are you arresting a five-year-old?
00:28:04.840 Well, turns out they didn't.
00:28:06.160 It's false.
00:28:06.880 It was a lie.
00:28:08.180 What actually happened is they were there arresting his father, who was an illegal immigrant,
00:28:12.980 and the father ran away and abandoned the five-year-old.
00:28:15.960 And so the five-year-old is left alone in the cold on the streets of Minneapolis.
00:28:20.020 Of course, ICE didn't just leave the kid there to wander outside.
00:28:23.940 They had to take care of him.
00:28:26.040 And, in fact, they tried to return him to his mother.
00:28:27.700 His mother said no, wouldn't let him in the house.
00:28:29.960 And so that's an example.
00:28:32.700 Look, another example, the man who was shot in Minneapolis, Mr. Preddy.
00:28:40.140 You're right.
00:28:40.820 The media portrayed him as this peaceful protester, this ICU nurse.
00:28:45.860 And just you saw Democrats saying that ICE are cold-blooded murderers.
00:28:51.920 And that's a flat-out lie.
00:28:53.340 And it's a slander.
00:28:54.840 And it is something that—
00:28:56.140 By the way, you even had one of your colleagues put up an AI picture on the floor of the Senate,
00:29:01.380 for goodness sakes, that was not a real picture.
00:29:04.420 Look, it is designed to be manipulative and dishonest.
00:29:08.260 And then a couple of days after the shooting, we had a video that the BBC put out that they had gotten to Mr. Preddy a couple of weeks earlier.
00:29:17.420 And let's look at the video.
00:29:18.700 For those who are watching this online, let's look at the video real quickly.
00:29:22.660 Yeah.
00:29:22.880 And, by the way, for those listening right now on the radio, we'll put this up on social media.
00:29:27.600 But this shows the man spitting in the face of ICE agents, kicking the tail out of their car in a full-on confrontation.
00:29:35.140 Take a listen and watch if you're watching online.
00:29:36.940 This is a moment the news movement filmed on January 13th in Minneapolis,
00:29:41.940 showing a man who appears to be Alex Preddy interacting with federal immigration agents 11 days before Border Patrol shot and killed him.
00:29:50.600 Our footage was analyzed by the BBC, whose facial recognition technology confirmed his identity to a 97% degree of accuracy.
00:29:59.020 Now, the video goes longer than that, and you can watch it online.
00:30:02.460 But I think the point that so many people don't understand is they were talking about the accuracy of this video.
00:30:08.080 And, hey, it's almost positive at Tim.
00:30:10.740 Well, the family has now confirmed that this is actually him doing this, kicking out the taillight, screaming F you at the ICE agents, spitting at the ICE agents.
00:30:19.620 Like, this is a man that wanted a confrontation with law enforcement.
00:30:23.460 He was there for that reason that day and in the day that unfortunately cost him his life.
00:30:27.700 Well, that's right, and this was not peaceful protest.
00:30:33.380 In the video, as you said, he was spitting at ICE agents, but he also is repeatedly kicking the taillight.
00:30:40.200 He kicks the taillight out of an SUV.
00:30:42.420 I mean, it's a hard kick that he, like, knocks it out.
00:30:45.120 And that was clearly a violent assault.
00:30:47.560 By the way, he has his gun strapped on his waistband while he is attacking law enforcement officers.
00:30:54.080 And the media wanted to convey it as just, you know, he's this peaceful soul.
00:30:58.340 Listen, if you engage in acts of violence directed at law enforcement, there is a very real risk that the response to an act of violence will be the use of force and, in some instances, can be the use of deadly force.
00:31:12.540 At any time, an American is killed in an interaction with law enforcement, it is tragic.
00:31:17.460 Yes.
00:31:17.880 But the media was being deliberately deceptive in falsely portraying him as this peaceful protester, almost like a nun holding a candle by the side of the road.
00:31:30.760 And that's not.
00:31:32.080 He was clearly and captured on video engaged in violent attacks on law enforcement.
00:31:38.940 And then in terms of propaganda, I've got to say, MSNBC went even further.
00:31:44.200 And rather than me tell you what happened, listen to Joe Rogan, because Joe Rogan comments on just how shamelessly MSNBC was acting as a political propagandist.
00:31:55.440 Yeah, was wanting you to root for this nurse, like, wanted to change who he was so that everyone would root for him.
00:32:01.860 Here it is, Joe Rogan.
00:32:02.820 And Joe Rogan also talking about his own experience when he was attacked by the media and they changed the color of his skin during COVID.
00:32:12.000 Did you see what MSNBC did to his image?
00:32:14.360 Yeah.
00:32:15.040 Where they gussied it up?
00:32:16.180 Basically the opposite of what CNN did to me.
00:32:18.720 You know, CNN during the COVID times turned me green and they made me ugly and look like I was dying.
00:32:24.560 And they made him handsome.
00:32:25.580 So people would be more sympathetic to him getting shot, which is kind of wild.
00:32:30.300 Like, are ugly people less valuable to MSNBC?
00:32:34.080 Less marketable.
00:32:35.120 That is crazy to me.
00:32:37.920 Like, look at the difference.
00:32:39.140 Yeah.
00:32:39.560 Look at the difference.
00:32:40.280 They shortened up his face.
00:32:41.900 They gave him a little bit of a tan.
00:32:44.060 They widened his face a little bit, it seems like.
00:32:46.940 They just made him a little handsomer.
00:32:49.240 Yeah.
00:32:49.500 A little hotter.
00:32:49.980 They gave him a bit of that Chad jaw, didn't they?
00:32:52.240 They shrunk his nose a little too, didn't they?
00:32:54.040 Yeah, they did.
00:32:54.580 They shrunk his nose, gave him a little bit of a handsome jaw.
00:32:57.960 So he looks like an American.
00:33:00.260 Even made him, if you look at the shoulders, it even looks like they may have plumped up the shoulders there a bit.
00:33:04.720 A little bit.
00:33:05.420 Yeah, the one on the right looks like he's a little plumper.
00:33:08.740 Yeah.
00:33:09.140 Yeah.
00:33:10.100 Yeah, they changed the tone of the color.
00:33:12.840 Wild.
00:33:14.460 I mean, look at the, they changed his teeth, man.
00:33:17.360 Communist News Network.
00:33:18.060 Look, they gave him veneers.
00:33:19.340 Yeah.
00:33:19.760 Look at the difference in his teeth.
00:33:21.960 He's a much more handsome guy.
00:33:23.520 Like, that one on the right is like the handsome brother.
00:33:27.180 I mean, Senator, you want to talk about just straight up propaganda.
00:33:29.880 This dude, they literally made him jacked.
00:33:32.020 They gave him muscles.
00:33:33.200 They changed the color of his scrubs from the picture.
00:33:35.780 They gave him veneers.
00:33:37.220 They even made his beard look a little bit darker and more full.
00:33:40.900 Changed his nose.
00:33:41.840 It was like you went to AI and you said, hey, make this guy the most attractive you can, and then we're going to put that up on TV so that somehow people will be rooting for him a little bit more.
00:33:53.000 It's truly amazing that MSNBC did this.
00:33:56.080 And they haven't actually technically apologized for it yet.
00:33:58.580 They've put a statement out there, but that's about it.
00:34:01.460 Yeah.
00:34:01.760 Understand, there is zero dispute that MSNBC did this.
00:34:05.140 In fact, MSNBC put out a statement.
00:34:07.660 They said, editor's note, MSNOW swapped out the original thumbnail image for this video.
00:34:13.780 The previous thumbnail image was an AI-enhanced image of Alex Preddy.
00:34:19.160 So they've acknowledged they used AI to significantly change his appearance and to make him markedly better looking.
00:34:26.920 And look, I looked online.
00:34:29.120 As far as I can tell, MSNBC has not apologized.
00:34:32.160 Nobody has been fired.
00:34:33.440 If they are, in fact, a news organization, they pretend they are.
00:34:36.680 You fire somebody immediately.
00:34:37.960 Their job is to report the news and report facts.
00:34:40.820 Not only were they not reporting facts, they were lying to their viewers.
00:34:44.540 They were creating a fabricated and false image to change the facts to fit their political narrative.
00:34:52.360 And any journalistic outfit with any integrity would fire whoever was responsible,
00:34:59.000 would go on air and apologize and say, we violated our integrity.
00:35:03.560 The fact that MSNBC doesn't think they need to shows just how much the corporate media,
00:35:09.120 they are political liars. 0.77
00:35:11.340 They are not even attempting or pretending to be journalists.
00:35:14.720 Yeah, no doubt about it.
00:35:15.600 Don't forget, we do this show three days a week.
00:35:17.440 So make sure you download Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcasts.
00:35:21.200 And we'll see you back here on this radio station as well next week.
00:35:24.600 Have a great one and be safe.
00:35:26.560 This is an iHeart podcast.
00:35:29.440 Guaranteed human.