This Is Why Democrats Can’t Stop Trump
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This is what's gotten them going. Yeah. Like they're searching for footing. And you read about this in the papers. Look, you probably don't if you're listening to this program. We do. So you don't have to. But you read about this stuff and they're like Democrats searching for a message. Democrats rudderless trying to find a foothold. Well, now they're convinced.

They know where to find it, and it is in the fervent defense of USAID. Right now, the news cycle, Democrats think they have a winning issue. They're like, Elon Musk is cutting wasteful spending by the government. The audience cheers, and the Democrats are like, no, wait, you don't get it. All our hobby horses are getting defunded. The audience cheers louder. We finally beat Medicare.

He was right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death. Joe Biden's legacy for seniors? He raided Medicare, made premiums skyrocket, and drove up drug costs. Worse, the Biden pill penalty is already slashing the development of affordable drugs, forcing seniors to pay the price of Biden's failed policy. Biden broke Medicare, but President Trump can fix it. Call Congress and urge them to end the Biden pill penalty.

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. Just to catch up strays over here. You're in for a hell of a show. Keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. It's time for our main.

We're going to have a whale of a time. Good Thursday to you all and welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I am Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan, White House correspondent John Ashbrook. Left to right across your radio dial as always. Folks, I just got to tell you, there are entertaining episodes. There are some vegetables. There's some candy. There's all kinds of things that we deal with on the Variety Program. I can promise you this.

You're going to laugh a lot at this episode. We've got a lot of material to show you. When it rains, it pours. I mean, like...

Man, the Democrats are really doing their best to make us laugh. We appreciate their efforts. It's just, it's incredible. It's almost like they make the job easier. Like, granted, what President Trump, his administration, Republicans in Congress are trying to do, very difficult by any stretch of the imagination. They make it look easier than it should be. The Democrats are certainly helping things out, aren't they? Yeah, it's like they have a humiliation fetish. Like, just for our enjoyment. Yeah.

It is. It's like they took the time to say, you know, the Ruthless Variety Program, we know their shtick. We'd like to make sure that we spend at least one, maybe two press conferences per day to fill their episodes. And then they go ahead and they provide content.

It's incredible, isn't it? Oh, it really is. And my favorite part is they're fighting amongst themselves for the microphone. Schumer is like, no, this belongs to me. I'm an old man. I've earned it. Jasmine Crockett and the Youngs are like, no, no, it's my turn. Let me talk. We win either way. And they keep one-upping each other in terms of hyperbole and how outraged they are to the point where it sounds like,

The craziest shit you've ever heard of in your life. And we're going to get to all of that right off the top. I can tell you this. We've got a much reaction to what's going on. We gave you on Tuesday's episode a lot of what's going on, a lot of what's happening here. The updates here, you know, look, turns out we're going to have golf courses in Gaza.

We didn't know that was going to be an option, but I'm very pleased that we've headed in that direction. We're establishing a sovereign wealth fund. Yeah. There was an executive order signing yesterday on transgender situation, no men and women sports. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that supplements what we talked about on Tuesday, but the vast majority of it we kind of locked you down on on Tuesday. Yeah.

Now we're going to give you the reaction to all of that. We're going to do it right up top. We're also going to play King of the Hill.

And for those of you who are sort of new, remember, we also have a YouTube. This is where this thing comes in handy because you want to see some visuals on it. You got to like and subscribe. Go to the YouTube page, YouTube slash Ruthless podcast. And we're going to give you some of that. Like and subscribe. You can comment away. It's very, very important because we're getting close to 100,000, too. Very close. We are. Smug is already called dibs on the plaque. Yep.

Yep. It's going with me. You're taking it out of the studio? I earned it. Okay. All right. Well, that'll be a discussion, uh, forthwith. Uh,

We've got King of the Hill, and that is a game that we play of former Republicans who made a lot of money in this line of work, basically burgeoning conservative credentials upon the world and talking in a high-minded way about how they're rock-ribbed conservatives and they only wish that the whole operation worked in the way that they had sort of sought. And then President Trump came along and they've lost them.

Yeah. And we play one against another in a game that we call King of the Hill for the craziest fucking nuts take that you can have of the week. And we confine it to one week of takes. Out of their mental illness, we derive joy. Yeah. Yeah. And so...

Our joy becomes your joy because we play the game King of the Hill. We also have a great guest, Alex Bruchewitz. Now, some of you know him from X. Some of you know him from the various write-ups about his strategy behind the Trump campaign. He's near and dear to our heart for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is he's sort of the brains behind. He would never say this. He would never admit this. And, you know, you get a personality on X where he looks like, you know,

arrogant or whatever. In real life, this guy is the most humble individual of all time. Never wants to take credit for anything, but I'll say it so he doesn't have to. I think this guy is the brains behind the strategy to go beyond a mainstream media filter, go out and reach different audiences through different podcasts that Joe Rogan talks about. That makes news on that. Mm-hmm.

Tony Hinchcliffe, you know, all the various, Theo Vaughn, all the various places you saw President Trump during the course of the campaign that also was translated into the White House were our direct beneficiary here at the Ruthless Variety Program and White House correspondent John Ashbrook.

That's right. And you know what? I think I'd be remiss if I didn't take this moment and thank Michael Duncan. Oh, here it comes. I need to thank him because Michael Duncan did not choose to take the opportunity, and what he did was offer it to me. So I thank you, Michael, the king of friendship, right here sitting next to me.

He said he was going to do it. What do you think, Michael? Very patronizing, but I'll accept it. Well, I will tell you, dear listener, when the old man goes on vacation, the voice goes to work. Yeah, I knew it was coming. He was there for you. We're doing a wedding and a funeral, you dick. Listen, for you OGs, you know how fun this is for all of us. It's so good. So let's get right into it, fellas. Uh...

Listen, it's Super Bowl week. There's a bunch of Super Bowl stuff going on. In some ways, it's hard to imagine anything better than the pageantry that happened in Washington, D.C. this week. I'm going to set this up with a clip and we can react to it. We have several clips, some of which you've probably seen, some of which you haven't. Either way, the way that this crowd reacts to it, you're going to want to be a part of. Let's play clip one, please, Spaghetts.

Democrats agree that Musk is a problem, but listen to them today, and they have a pinata in search of a stick. To our Republican colleagues, if you do not see the light, we will bring the fire. Resist! We are going to be on

We have days to stop the destruction of our democracy. We have work to do. Tell Elon Musk to take his hands off your money. We don't pledge allegiance to the creepy 22-year-olds working for Elon Musk. We pledge allegiance to the United States of America. And God damn it, shut down the city. We are at war. We will win. We will win. We will win.

We will risk. We will change this. Can we play it again? Can we play it again? That's our buddy Scott on CNN between an entirely Democratic panel saying, can we play it again? Yes, Scott. We all agree with that. We would play it a million times if we could. If I could found a super PAC just to fund that rally, I would do it. Context, folks. That was a rally that...

hastily scheduled outside of USAID, where you will never find a more vociferous

than Democrats in Washington trying to protect USAID. That should tell you something, shouldn't it? I want to be, you know, everyone here knows I'm from North Carolina. I did not see a single one of these senators rushing out, holding news conferences, demanding that these people in Western North Carolina get any help. Great point. Not even for the fires in California. There's no instance when American people are suffering

that you see a dozen, 20, 30 elected Democrats being like, right now we've got to help the American people. What you will see them for is

All our left-wing groups are getting their money taken away from them by Elon Musk. But our NGOs! Shut down the city! But our NGOs! For the NGOs, these people are like, shut down the city. When it's Americans in need, not a peep. So we mentioned this on Tuesday, but just to get you caught up, I mean, basically what happened is Elon Musk went in and took a look at USAID and an awful lot of what they fund.

Turns out to be just sort of paying off the paymasters in the Democratic Party for all kinds of nefarious reasons. I'm not saying the whole of USAID is nonsense. I might say that. But there's a vast majority of stuff that has been surfaced since this whole thing has come out that are just –

the worst shit that you've ever heard. The Politico subscriptions, the enormous amount of money going to... Did you see it just came out they had over 5,000 Disney subscriptions? Wait, what? That just dropped. Charges. Disney! They're paying for Disney subscriptions with taxpayer money? Are you kidding me? The larger piece of this is that this is kind of a dark area of

of your tax dollar, where it gets filtered through an organization that was dedicated to provide relief for third world countries, places that, you know, ultimately, you know,

It would be great if there were allies, but like infrastructure in which you could interact with these countries and, you know, I mean, the intent behind it, whether you agree with internationalism or not, sort of altruistic. Where it's in practice been worked through is that there's a whole – there's a cottage industry on the progressive left that uses appropriations through USAID to push progressive values, things like climate change.

Things like EV mandates, everything all the way up and including press mandates.

coverage of certain things. And it's only now that you have Doge and Elon Musk that are going through the books. They're like, you're getting a look at this for the first time. Yeah. And you know what the left is doing? And I think some of the people listening to this show have seen it. They are going after these 20-something, 30-something geniuses who are helping Elon to

sort of filter through where the money is going. They're looking at this with a fresh set of eyes and Democrats are like, no, no, no, you're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to expose where this money is going. You're the bad guy. And that's the thing. It's taking, like, one of the folks who Elon's got working on this project used AI to decode scrolls in Rome that were burned during the fire when Mount Vesuvius went off.

It's taking kids who have this level of like genius to go through this network and web of payments that were happening at USAID. And then I can't help but take a second and be like, Democrats wanted to go through every American's Venmo transactions. Right. You split dinner with a buddy. They're like, hmm.

I want to know what's happening. Do I need to audit this guy? Can I get a piece of this money for taxes? Let's hire 80,000 IRS agents because we just put in place any sort of automated transaction or any sort of transaction electronically that you do through Venmo rather than your traditional bank account.

Let's make sure we have agents who can really crack down on the babysitter. But when it comes to spending your money, they don't want anyone to see where it goes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, dude, it's such a great point. But I think, Duncan, to the point that you were making earlier today as we discussed all of this, it's USAID. Like, this is what's...

This is what's gotten them going. Yeah. Like they're searching for footing. And you read about this in the papers. Look, you probably don't if you're listening to this program. We do. So you don't have to. But you read about this stuff and they're like Democrats searching for a message. Democrats rudderless trying to find a foothold. Well, now they're convinced.

They know where to find it, and it is in the fervent defense of USAID. Yeah, you know, I think we're at sort of like peak theater kid behavior right now. Yeah, I thought we were going to OD on it after Trump won the election. But in fumbling around for a message, I think the Democrats are in full theater kid mode. I mean, you look at those clips, and it's like, man, these people...

Unbelievable. And like, I know that Jon Stewart and everybody else has made fun of Chuck Schumer in the We Will Win. How aroused he was? Yeah, well, the We Will Win chant that he changed because no one was chanting along to We Will Not Rest or something like that. And the point that Stewart made was it's just like the least inspiring dude of all time. But like, we've been on this for a little bit.

That's bizarre behavior. I mean, this is what they count on for leadership. They just elected him, acclamation. After losing everything, they were like, no, this guy, he should be our voice going forward. Unbelievable. It is tough to watch. But again, you know, part of the reason we got Bruce Schwitz on the show today, Republicans have taken over the culture contest here.

And he is a perfect example of someone who loses it day in and day out. Is there anyone who can look at that and be like, yeah, he speaks for me? On this issue specifically, it's like right now the news cycle, Democrats think they have a winning issue. They're like Elon Musk is cutting wasteful spending by the government. The audience cheers and the Democrats are like, no, wait, you don't get it. All our hobby horses are getting defunded. The audience cheers louder. Yeah.

We will win! Yeah. But they can't even agree on what they're talking about. I know we have another clip in here. This one's fantastic. I love this so much. This is so good because it encapsulates all the various pieces that go into a Democratic coalition that don't agree on a single thing in one beautiful short clip. Clip two, please, Spaghetts. What do we need? Freedom!

Not a one with the same answer. Great friend of the program, Kate Hyde. I know a lot of you guys all follow her on Twitter. She was like, I still don't know what they need. What do we need? Food!

That's their message right there in a nutshell. Well, that's what happens to your message when you all have your handout for some special liberal pet project is nobody can actually decide what the government should do because government to you is all of our left wing NGOs get funded for who knows what. I mean, all of these Politico pro subscriptions that we have all through USAID and these other agencies and departments. Have they ever heard of like, I don't know, login sharing? I,

I've got a pitch for Elon Musk. Hire my brother. Every time I go over to his house, I have to log out of everything I logged into on the TV. Otherwise, he's on it for the next week. He's had your Netflix for a couple of years. All of a sudden, you're like, why is Bluey on my television? The funny thing is, I was hanging out with a buddy who works at Treasury the other day, and they had a bunch of these protests out there, and he was like,

We had one group there that was complaining about Elon Musk. We had one group there who was complaining about Gaza. And then we had like, you know, dozens of the usual like panhandlers out there trying to beg for money. I was like, that's what you don't get, buddy. They're all panhandlers. Yeah, they are. Well, we had some original reporting. We had our White House correspondent, John Ashbrook, last, I guess, Tuesday night.

That's right. That wandered on down to a protest in front of the White House. This is where Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, was meeting with President Trump. Now, what we know, an incredibly momentous press conference. But it turns out a couple of the old familiar faces showed up. I was like two blocks from the White House and I could not help myself. But I heard them chanting and banging drums. And I was like, what is this about? And so I walked a little bit closer.

closer and sure enough it's the palestinian flag and it's every sign and they're chanting like we hate zionists no zion is here you know and it's just like oh my god i mean just can you people unrepent anti-semitism here in america a block from the white house thank god that donald trump and benjamin netanyahu were in there signing things and talking to people and getting everything

Yeah, Kamala Harris spent the last 30 days of the election after ramping up all of the outside sort of pro-Palestine, anti-Israel comments throughout her entire course of her vice presidency and then spent the last 30 days being like, no, no, we stand with Israel. And it's like, you know, she leaves the scene. It's like, no, these people are the Democratic.

This is what it is. Here they are. Here they are. Wait till they find out what was talked about inside. You're not going to love Trump International sitting on the Gaza Strip, which I'd love to visit, by the way. Beautiful piece of land. The land of milk and honey is going to be the land of casinos and golf courses. It's going to be wonderful.

Such a big deal. But it's like this kind of outside the box stuff that so intrigues us about the first couple of weeks of the Trump administration. Like the sovereign wealth fund, you're like, oh, that's interesting. There could be 100 reasons behind establishing that on Tuesday morning. And then like Tuesday night, you're like, Gaza. I get it. Okay. Yeah.

Oh, maybe it's not. Maybe they deny that, but I'm putting two and two together on that. Right. There's probably a lot of people in the middle, a lot of countries that are sort of allies of the United States that would be interested in investing in such a project. It would be nice if we got a little something out of it. Egypt wouldn't need to have a big wall. They could build an expressway to get to the Trump Hotel Casino Gaza. Wouldn't it be nice to go to a nice place like that? Terrific. Yeah, gosh, it sure would.

So it gets worse, though. The liberals are cranking up the hyperbole across the board in an effort to block Trump's agenda. We're going to show you more of this insanity. And like, honestly, I just can't understate it. It gets so bad. It gets so bad. We're going to get to all that right after this.

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We'll do this together, building a brighter future for us, powered by America's oil and natural gas resources. You can learn more about all of this at API.org. All right. So, look, as we said, Democrats are struggling for a message here, but their pundits have to fill their time.

And nobody apparently is putting an arm around these folks to be like, hey, maybe tone down. We're like two weeks in. Let's find something to actually drive rather than shooting at everything out there and making the most hyperbolic claims of all time. Well, it didn't reach the set of CNN. Let's look at clip three, please.

We can brag on Marco Rubio. I'd be happy to do it. But I'm going to tell you right now, people are going to die in very large numbers around the world. The United States live up to our promises to get them medicine, to get them help. And when that happens, people are going to remember that there are people right now who have HIV who are alive only because the United States is making sure that Donald Trump says we don't care. You go die.

That's the message from the United States government. It is the wrong message to be sending, and it opens up the door for China. And other people say, at least we're a stable government who's not going to leave you out here to die. This is not an abstract conversation for people around the world.

You know, he's talking about medicine and help, but USAID was funding LGBTQ comic books in South America. Yeah. Well, first of all, look, there's an ideological discussion that you have within this country that doesn't necessarily break down on partisan lines, although Democrats clearly have a partisan point of view on it, is whether or not, you know, it's in America's interest to help Americans.

Third world countries and everything else sort of sort things out. Awful lot of Americans look at $35 trillion in debt and they're like, look, I live in Chicago. It's a fricking war zone here every day. Why don't we get like the paratroopers in here and take care of that stuff? And I get that, all of those arguments, but like what these guys are talking about is if you even look,

Remember, this is the threshold. If you even look, because what they've promised to do at this point is not to like get rid of USAID, not to do whatever. What they're doing is stopping and examining where the money goes. If there is things that are in the American interest, presumably they will pursue them. The only thing they've done up to this point is press pause. And they're like, everyone's going to die. Right.

And that should tell you about the motivations of the Democratic Party. It's not just about the people that they claim to be representing and helping, which, by the way, don't live in the United States. It's about where the money goes. I used to think nothing scared Democrats more than Donald Trump, but it turns out what scares them most is following the money. I've never seen them so upset. And the American people, I wasn't even real. I didn't even know the extent to which

They have turned this entire left-wing infrastructure is taxpayer supported. We've been paying for these crazy people.

It's amazing. Like, thank God Elon Musk got in there and is just revealing this information. And Democrats have never been more terrified. But Smug, if they don't have climate justice in sub-Saharan Africa, how in the world is anybody going to survive? How about some running water? I saw a video on X where this guy, Lord Miles, who travels to war zones in the most dangerous places on Earth.

was in Afghanistan after President Biden had that disastrous withdrawal. And he found these books and pamphlets that were being put out there. It had the USAID label on it, and it was like, Preventing Gender Discrimination in Afghanistan, a guidebook for you. Oh, Jesus.

In Afghanistan. In Afghanistan. So that's where your money was going. Think about that in terms of the macro policy. The macro policy was the United States was going to abandon every single person in Afghanistan who may have helped the United States or translated for the United States or, in other words, tried to –

modernize that culture. They abandoned them overnight, left all our shit at Bagram Air Force Base, had people clinging off planes and throwing babies over fences so they could get out, so they could do a press conference about how we're out before the 20th anniversary of 9-11. At the same time, they're delivering...

that are propaganda about like gender discrimination. They were like when you're leaving the place to a regime in the Taliban that not only is not interested in gender discrimination, doesn't think that women should show their faces, let alone go to school or anything like that. That gives you a window into the insanity of a foreign policy of a Biden administration and an establishment Washington.

They were like, here's the thing is our outreach to try to get more people in Afghanistan on our side is we will distribute pamphlets saying of how transgender ideology should be respected. They were like, get the hell out of here. They're like, transgender? No, we want nothing to do with this. Can you imagine the balls on an Afghani walking around as a transgender? That's the guy I would hire for the Navy SEALs, to be honest with you. There's no risk taker more significant than that dude. Yeah.

But I mean, there were all of these military guys who were over there at the time and probably felt like they couldn't speak out at the time, but are now on X. And they're like, yeah, the USAID was spending all this money on these like solar powered streetlights in Afghanistan that would be stolen basically day in and day out. And then all of a sudden USAID put up another solar powered street lamp so they could put out a press release that the Washington Post would write and CNN would cover about how. The good. Exactly.

Meanwhile, people in California couldn't get water out of the fire hydrant to put out the wildfires. And that's exactly it. That's why this is such a loser of an issue.

for the Democrats, when the American people are now saying, my God, you could be in Western North Carolina, you could be in California, you could be at any part of this country where fentanyl has flooded your community, where illegal aliens are committing murders, rapes. You could be in any part of this country and see for four years the U.S. government did nothing to help you and your money was being lit on fire on these kind of ridiculous projects. Isn't this part of the genius of Trump, though? Yeah.

Everybody wanted to put him in an ideological box for the last four years that he's out of office. Like he believes in this. Like every libertarian in the world was like, well, he doesn't believe in internationalism. He doesn't he doesn't believe in anything outside of the borders of the United States. And then, you know, the Democrats are like, oh, he's a racist. It's all these things like ultimately becomes president again.

And he's engaged in the international community in a positive way, as we saw in that press conference with Bibi Netanyahu, where like he's not in that box, but also he's securing the border, which is like vitally. It's it's like the nuance that every American just instinctively understands because it's common sense. But like Washington has been governed by so long by people who are like either you believe in this or you believe in that.

And he's like, I don't even know what those walls are. I just love when it comes to how Trump interacts with the international communities. You don't have to worry about him doing stupid shit like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did building this dock, this pier that sinks into the ocean, spending hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.

His interaction is, oh, so we have some terrorists? Drop the biggest damn bomb you can. Cave in their caves, and then I'm going to send out the tweet that says, if you're a terrorist, we will kill you. That's how you interact on the world stage. I can't wait for the whole Gaza Strip to look like Las Vegas.

Everyone will be so much happier this way. I mean, if you can get over some light terrorism in the morning, I think it should be pretty good. I think it should be pretty good. Anyway, there's reason for optimism. There's more. Do you want more Schumer? Always. Oh, yeah. Let's check out more Schumer in clip four. And the American people, mark my words, the American people will not stand for an unelected secret group to run rampant through the executive branch. Oh. Okay. So it's like, oh, okay. Yeah.

That's great. You know, like I understand what he's getting at. You know, it should be a concern to people where they don't, you know, sort of know what people are doing. I think this administration has been very transparent about what they're doing. But like, I get it. Like the point is made and then he puts it out on X. Have a look at the dude who retweeted this thing. Look at the graphic one, please.

Oh, man. For only listeners, it's Chuck Schumer tweet saying, an unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government. Retweeted by Alex Soros.

He's like, yeah, Chuck's right. I should be the unelected shadow government. He's like, this must be an old tweet. I already did that. Like if you're an OG listener to this program, we've made a great deal out of all of the almost baseball cards that Alex Soros has collected over the last six months of every single politician in the Democratic or progressive side.

that has needed his money to try to get to an election, and they show up in his penthouse taking a picture with him? Well, the thing that really struck me is, I don't know, the lack of tact. He would tweet these out throughout the DNC as the person was talking. It was like, that person you see on the screen? Yeah, I own them. I own that person. I own that person. I own the next one, too. Here I am with this one. Yeah.

Who's on deck? I got him. You visit a buddy's house and you'll have a photo frame of him catching this massive marlin. For Alex Soros, it's every elected Democrat in the country. He's like, look at this. This guy's my catch. Perhaps an unelected shadow government figure. Yeah, pretty much. The irony is just so good. It's like they're running a parody of themselves. It really is like a Christopher Guest film. Right. The whole thing. From the protests to stuff like that, it's like they just don't get the joke anymore.

At all. And Trump has broken them. Absolutely. So our question of the day, now that you've seen a couple of different Schumer submissions and it's been widely discussed in D.C. about the lack of a leader on the Democratic side. Is there any person drawing breath on the liberal left that would be worse?

as the face of the Democratic Party than Chuck Schumer? Oh, great question. Interested in your thoughts. Remember, you got to like and subscribe to YouTube. Put that in there. And like, you know, you could take it ideologically and be like, yeah, you know, AOC, whatever would be a lot worse. Or you could just be funny about it. Either way, we're going to read through all these and get to your submissions next Tuesday.

It's a great deal. This is one of those that I would love to weigh in on. So I've got thoughts. It's a tough one. It's a tough one. I mean, worse. Like, like think, try to put, try to like empty your brain to a point where you're actually a liberal Democrat. And then think about who advocates on behalf. Is there somebody that's worse? I don't, I mean, I saw Chuck Schumer try to grill hamburgers and I saw him try to hold a beer and,

The bar's going to be pretty high for somebody who can do worse. You know? It's so bad. It's so bad.

a raw burger with cheese just on top of it. 16 ounce Corona and he's holding the thing out like this like it's a priceless work of art. Never held a beer in his life, I'm sure. Just a salmonella cocktail that's got going on. Anyway, your comments from last episode, which was about our dear friend, the White House correspondent, John Ashbrook, in terms of questions that you would ask if you were sitting in that briefing room because we take all these things seriously and surely enough we'll be sitting there

forthwith. And when we do, we will take your thoughts in mind and we will read a few of them right after this. So we just got some big news from Americans for Prosperity, the most effective grassroots organization in the country. They've just launched a massive $20 million campaign to protect your hard-earned money. Here's the deal. If Congress doesn't act, the Trump tax cuts will explode.

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lawmakers. Join the fight. Visit protectprosperity.com to demand Congress renews and strengthens the Trump tax cuts so we can reignite the American dream. That's protectprosperity.com. Okay, so we asked you what you would ask if you were in our position at the White House, able to ask Carolyn Leavitt a question about what's going on.

A lot of thoughtful submissions, some funny stuff, some very serious stuff. We thought we would call through some of the serious stuff here because these are like things that you might actually ask. And to do that, we always start with a voice. OK, this first one comes from Terry Wyant. And Terry writes, congratulations, John. Thank you, Terry. My question is.

Since President Trump wants to push abortion issues to the states, can the money earmarked for federal funding be moved to assist individuals that want to adopt children? Terry, that is a great question. I am going to make a note here for the next time. That is very, very good. Yeah. And thoughtful. I mean, we've had a lot of listeners talk about this issue.

Over the years and the difficulty of adoption and, you know, how do you be more pro-family as a country? Right. And this is good. That's very good.

All right, comment two, Dunks Harunks. This is from Carbone Ignatius. Carbone writes, question for the next White House press briefing. How many billions of waste and fraud have been identified so far? Good question. This can be the recurring theme that will energize voters on all sides as they are struggling to pay their taxes, only to find precious revenues are just being wasted.

Remember the Democrat senator from Wisconsin with his famous, quote, Golden Fleece Award. I still remember it. It's a good one. It is very good. It's very good. I think, look, if you're on X, there are periodic updates. Like Elon provides periodic updates about...

the thresholds by which he thinks that they can find based on what they've already found. And like the numbers are pretty staggering. It's something else. It's really mind blowing. It really is. And on the note, when I see someone from DC say something like, Oh, this was only a $40 million program. Nothing makes me angrier. Nothing makes me angry because every American, especially now that tax day is coming up, every,

Every dollar that you pay towards the federal government is a very hard-earned one. People work so hard for what they earn. That's right. It's so offensive. It is. And I don't love the class resentment politics because I just don't think that conservatives do that. I don't think Donald Trump does that. I think he's an embodiment of success. Yeah, American success. And this is what you should all strive for. But I will say it's hard to ignore that.

If there is a class of Americans that are walking around just simply by birth, what you always call the make-work-fail-sons dunks, that have been just bestowed upon them millions of taxpayer dollars to go push a leftist agenda, boy, that makes me mad. I mean, that really... Because it affects property values. It affects everything. It's not just about...

Is this an injustice? Clearly, that's to be sure. But it also affects the broader economy where you've got everybody working hard to try to provide product, to try to do what they do to earn a living for them and their families and communities across this country. And then you have a class of people that simply just by being adjacent to democratic power structures –

are just forever feeding off the government teat. Like, that makes me... And those are the people that these elected Democrats go to bat for. That's who they'll fight for. God, it just makes me so mad. All right, comment three, Smuggles. This is a really good one, and I'll have an update on it. Comment three comes from Colleen Sailors. Colleen writes, I would ask if Trump plans on doing away with sanctuary cities. I mean, what good are they to the American people anyway? Keep America safe again. Great point.

And as I said, Trump's administration is moving so fast. Right before we started recording, I saw there are now going to be congressional hearings where they're bringing the mayors of every sanctuary city in America. Hell yeah. So, you know, Colleen, there you go. Your wish is our command. Yeah. I mean, it is amazing that the Trump administration is accomplishing so much so quickly. Every concern you could bring up because this is a great one.

Boom. Right there. There's going to be a congressional hearing on it. Maybe this is just because I'm from there, but you know that weasel in Minnesota, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye? Yes. Who made a lot of news this week about him holding a press conference saying, we will not comply with the federal government's efforts to try to get illegal immigrants out of our city and this, that. First of all, he's not complying because he's just complicit. Has been for decades.

ever in that city. But this is the same guy that was doing all the George Floyd stuff and all of the everything about the degradation of the city that he's supposedly presiding over. I'd love to see that guy before a congressional panel. It's going to be great. If you're in charge of that, and I know you're listening, if you're in charge of that, we've got some recommendations. Yeah. I can provide some contact numbers if you're interested. All right. Thank you for all of your comments.

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It's our signature presentation here on the Ruthless Friday program, King of the Hill. Yeah. I'm a champion. You're the defending champion, and you've got Sherry, my Sherry, and I'm bringing the challenger today. I'm bringing a special challenger. Bill Crystal's coming back, folks. Bill Crystal is back. And so our judge is Ashbrook, and you're Bailiff. That's right. I think it's time to go ringside. Ladies and gentlemen, your

Attention, please. It's time for King in the Red Corner fighting possibly from an NGO funded by the USAID. Bill or now or forever, Crystal.

And now, in the blue corner, fighting from her own Twitter account and current champion of the world, Kami Cherry Jacobus!

Best in the business. Best in the business. Dude, it's so good. The best part about the intro is that he does a little nuance change. Yeah, and they're all recorded live. This is not pre-recorded. Oh, God, it's just so good. If you've seen it in person, it's as good as it gets. And we may have an announcement on that. We'll get to that. You're the defending champion. I'm the defending champion, so I have to start, if I'm not mistaken. This is my favorite Democratic...

talking point with no existence in reality that we've had in decades. I mean, decades. They make shit up out of whole cloth all the time. This one is fantastic to the point where my wife the other day was like, you know, she follows a bunch of like fashionistas and stuff. Yeah. And they were like all up, up in arms about it. And I was like, I actually don't even know how they get to that. Anyway, check out exhibit six.

I want Elon Musk arrested for breaching my social security and bank data, bank data. So wait, wait, I sincerely, and I mean this sincerely, because I do spend time thinking about this stuff on like how Democrats get a talking point. Like what, what like thing rule are they using? I do. I can't come up with something on this. Like just by virtue of Doge looking for inefficiencies in government,

Democrats have somehow gotten to a talking point that they're messing around with your Social Security. Shereme Sherry is taking that beyond, first of all, like, I don't think she's a Social Security recipient. Well, I think she's concerned that Elon Musk, who's worth over $100 billion, might be taking out a credit card in her name. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, but my bank data. Like, what the hell? What are all these charges for cat food? Yeah. I didn't make those. Could I ask counsel? Think about the insanity involved. Could I ask counsel what time she made that submission? I'd love to, but I have to ask because my... So it looks like it's a...

5.40, so it's firmly in happy hour. Firmly in happy hour. Thank you. And for some people, it starts a little earlier. Some maybe it never stops. I'll just leave that to your discretion. Your honor. Thank you. Okay. I don't need the preamble here. I think that's done here by Bill Kristol. So let's just go right to exhibit number 14, Spaghetts.

Members of Congress take an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that the Constitution's enemies now include the president, does not relieve members of Congress of their responsibility to that oath. And then he links to his article at the Buller. This is an insane take. The president, who was popularly elected, won the popular vote in the Electoral College in a landslide,

is an enemy, a domestic enemy of the Constitution. That is, you know, that's one thing that I don't think they will ever be able to get through their thick skulls is this is what the American people voted for. They said democracy is the most sacred thing. Well, it's pretty damn clear that people wanted Donald Trump as president.

Isn't this guy's thing, though, is he's falling out of favor? Oh, here he goes. Well, I'm just saying, like, you know, as he loses a public argument, it's always like, well, this is not what the Constitution envisioned. Like, you don't have any other argument, basically. It's all he's got. And I think, you know, when Ashbrook in the intro is like, this guy's possibly making money off USAID, if I had to guess, that's the motivating factor behind this guy. Fair enough. Thank you, Bailiff.

As judge today, I have the authority to rule on each and every round. And for this first round, Cherry taking a shot at Elon for sneaking a look at her personal data. And bank account. And bank account is as offensive as it gets, but it is not quite as offensive as...

as suggesting that the president of the United States is an enemy of the Constitution. And for that reason, Bill Kristol wins round one. But Elon, if you're listening, just release that bank data. I want to see. It's like $4,500 a month on whiskers, $1,100 a month on kitty litter, $3,200 a month on Franzia. I think we would be entertained by seeing these numbers. I would like to see it. Cut.

I'm just going to call my shot here and say this is going to be a two-round knockout. Oh, wow. Okay. We'll see, pal. Exhibit number eight, spaghetti. The deep state is far preferable to the Trump state. Oh, my God. From Bill Kristol. Now, you may recall we were told the deep state was a conspiratorial fiction that Donald Trump and maggots made up.

It really is like the meme. First they're like, no, this doesn't exist. This is not happening. And then finally they get to actually this is happening and it's very good. It's very good.

I'm sorry that I've led you to believe that you're going to have a two-round knockout and that you had to play such a—I mean, that's a legitimately great take. The deep state is good. This is my take. Amazing. In any other game, it would be a two-round knockout because that is a hell of a take.

I'm sorry you had to burn it. I'm going to bring up Exhibit 2, where she is retweeting a story about migrants being taken to Guantanamo Bay. No word yet on the gas chambers and ovens. Holy shit. So it's a Holocaust tweet against a deep state tweet. This truly is, this is Ali Foreman. This is Ali Foreman. Yes.

Wow. I am sorry. I'm sorry that you had to burn that one with that. That is just... There was no better encapsulation of how crazy these people have gotten. I'm just not sure. I'm not sure we've ever had ovens involved in it. Holy shit. It's a long-lasting. We probably played 200 rounds of this thing. Counselor, these are both former Republicans and...

Crystal's tweet was outrageous, but nothing compares to suggesting ovens at Guantanamo Bay. That's why Sherry My Sherry is unfair. She should be removed from the game for cheating. It's just unfair. I mean. I think that might be the craziest take we've ever had on the show. I think it might be. I think.

It is so good. I mean, I literally picked Bill Kristol for that take alone. Like, that's why I picked him. I mean, it's an incredibly crazy take, but I have never heard anything that's not. You watch an entire slam dunk contest on All-Star Weekend, and all of a sudden Vince Carter gets up and he spins six times and does a backflip and then dunks it. Yeah. And I think we're looking at the Vince Carter of takes here. Yeah.

That is okay. It's as good. You're up for round three. It's as good as it gets. All right. So like, you know, part of the challenge is, is figuring out what's the right, what's the right stuff here in terms of what the judge and jury is looking for. I think I'm, I think I'm going to go with exhibit seven, please.

Trump and Elon and their goons are raping and pillaging the United States as they plan to do the same to Greenland, perhaps Canada, if they can break them. Wait, counsel, could you please tell me what time this tweet was entered? 7.20 p.m.

Yeah, she's a big PM person. She's a big PM, I mean, for obvious reasons, right? She's got to settle down after the work nights, pour a couple of tip-toppers and get into the groove. There's a large body of work that she may be, maybe many people are saying, mentally unstable. Maybe that makes her unfair, but it doesn't matter. Because what I have was alluded to earlier here on the show, and that is the ultimate hypocrisy in exhibit number nine, Spaghetts.

Bill Kristol writes: And you think to yourself, why? Why would Bill Kristol care about this so much?

Well, if you've been on X today, you've seen that through a variety of third party groups, Bill Kristol is funded by USAID. For real? Yes. Through defending democracy, fucking whatever he runs. No way, dude.

They get USAID grants. And if I'm not mistaken, Holmes earlier... He's like, lawmakers, please do something to keep the gravy train flowing. If I'm not mistaken, Holmes himself earlier said the worst people possible are those who are fail sons making money off of getting on the dole like this. Was that an amicus that the bailiff was adding? Well, Holmes, I mean... I feel like the bailiff has really got a thumb on the scale here. You filed an amicus. He's filed an amicus. You just didn't know you had. Yeah.

And that's what makes it such a great tweet. It's called accountability. This is outrageous. It's also very difficult to decide. I'm wondering if we can put the Jacobus tweet up one more time. Let's get that back up there because you've got to refresh on just how insane this thing is.

Well, that's I just want to look at it again. Well, hold on. I'm saying the first tweet is that this is always Bill Kristol's thing. The Constitution, her thing is always talking about rape and all of these sorts of things. It's crazy. She's an insane person. But at some point we've normalized rape. We're not normalizing. I'm just saying she has a, you know, a panache to her.

Whole thing. I think Colin's part of a good point is that those are the worst people. These fail sons who are on the government roll. I'd like to hear from the judge and the jury rather than the bailiff or advocate on behalf. Good court bailiff. Jesus. Okay. Given that Crystal has played directly into his brand new fighting corner by talking about

Anybody trying to take money away from USAID. He's in his intro.

It is very, very hard for me to make this decision. Oh, come on. Very hard for me to make this decision. But the idea that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are raping people in Greenland and then in Canada. Empty calories. Complete non sequiturs. Bullshit. Bullshit. Listen to this. This guy should deserve a reprimand. If I had a real bailiff, he would cut him off. It's the second time he stole from me this week. You just...

Unbelievable. I'd like this court to know that I will not stand for it. In future rounds, I will remember it. Okay. Well, all of the internal antics aside...

Raping and pillaging Greenland, Canada, just is a skosh above Crystal trying to feather his own nest once again. And for that reason, Jerry Jacobus wins. A just court once again, despite, and I will add, great integrity to this court because they had a lot of pressure from within. This is the first time in a long time that we've had... And I look forward to being judged in the next game. Just a disgusting...

Disgusting miscarriage of justice. I'm going to read the next Sherry thing and he's going to be like, wrong, wrong, boring. Ha ha ha.

The court doesn't need to hear this. Dismiss with extreme prejudice. So if you're a first-time listener, a first-time listener to this particular game, this is what we do here. You're going to love it a lot. I'm the two-time champion. I think I'm probably the most winningest member of King of the Hill. I wish we still had T-Rex keeping the stats. I beg of T-Rex.

to come back and keep the stats because those were great. He was a good man. Those were great. But anyway, that's our signature game. We play a lot of games. We sing, we dance, we entertain here on the Variety Program. We also do interviews.

with like super important people that one, you know, or two, you may not know as a household name, but are integral to the success of this president, of how all these things come about. And we're doing so now with Alex Brucewitz. Well, you've heard him here before on the Ruthless Variety program. He's a good friend of ours and somebody who's got an incredible story to tell.

One of which I feel like is a little bit self-serving in that, you know, we've talked a lot about new media and different way to do politics and everything else. Well, this is one of the authors of all of this stuff. Yeah. Alex Bruchowitz, welcome to the program, pal. Hey, thanks for having me back. Listen, buddy, we talked during the course of the campaign, probably early on in primary season. You made your name in this line of work of being sort of a

shall we say, pugilistic voice at some level on the old X machine. Great machine. A great machine. But as we got to know you, there's a lot of depth there. This is a guy who sort of understands how it is that people consume information differently. And we've talked a lot on this show about legacy media and it's just sort of aging out, different ways to sort of reach voters.

One of the things that the Trump campaign puts you in charge of is how to figure out how to reach a different segment of voters and pick up the New York Times. Right. Younger voters, black men, women, everything else. That's seems to be something you figured out. Yeah, we had a really fun role on the campaign and was fantastic.

you know, able to do so many unique projects and, you know, Susie and the whole team kind of let me run with it. And so when I get, uh,

able to run with something. I like to go as fast as I can. So we also had so many unique friends that wanted to help us. So like Dana White or John Shahidi, the co-founder of the Milk Boys. These guys would just send us suggestions of different interviews that we should do. People have mastered this element. Right. Some of the best marketers in the entire world wanted to give us advice for like just because they love our country and they love the president. And so it made my job really easy because they put me in a group text with people

one of the biggest podcasters in the world. I'm like, what's up, man? But like, it was really that easy. Like we, like the whole pitch was, hey, Mr. President, this guy's got 10 million followers. Big deal. Big deal, sir. And he would agree to do it. Like we didn't need to do like these big briefs and say, sir, like these are, this is his demographic or this. Yeah. All he cared about was sheer numbers. Yeah. And also having like

with people that would be good chemistry. And fortunately, right now, there's a lot of podcasters, be it Andrew Scholes or Theo Vaughn or Sean Ryan, or even you guys that are rejecting the woke agenda and rejected the Biden administration and were

became Trump curious. So that's kind of the demographics that I was looking for, people with voices that were Trump curious. I didn't want to go necessarily talk to our friends because we have those. And I didn't want to go talk to people that make podcasts like there's a girl named Call Her Daddy. Are you familiar? Oh, yeah. Hey, we beat her on the charts last week. Well, congratulations. And I'll probably continue because she's hemorrhaging an audience because of her terrible Kamala Harris interview, which was basically a paid for promotion of the Kamala Harris campaign.

But I just want to— You didn't think it was a good idea to build a set for one-time use and get fewer than a million views? Yeah, yeah. And that's the funny thing, right? To your whole point of, like, you know, your operation was more shoot from the hip and, like, go and capture as much audience as you could, do as much volume as you could. You didn't have all these barriers, you know, between the operation and the candidate, right? Like, you got put on a group text, and it's like, all right, let's make it happen. Yeah.

Kamala Harris has to like stagecraft a $100,000 set with a podcaster. It's like the landing in Normandy for her to be able to talk about it. Also, to her team's defense, would you trust Kamala Harris to go do an off-the-hip interview? You've said to me many times off-air that when you have a candidate like President Trump, you have the luxury of going out and doing these guys. This guy's the master of the media. Donald Trump was influencer number one, okay?

He created the entire influencer industry, if you will. The Trump brand. Now all of these different influencers have their own brands and their own products. Trump's been doing that since

the 80s. He invented this game and it was such a seamless... It was seamless for him to get it with these other guys. Kamala is clueless. She is not somebody that can have a normal conversation with somebody. She is a buttoned up politician. She's been doing politics. And if you call her outside the lines at all, it just starts to devolve. Right. Whereas him, he can sit with Theo Vaughn and talk about his...

Theo Vaughn's previous cocaine use, right? - And create viral moments just like that that get seen. Another fun thing was that the media didn't know how to cover our reach. So they'd just go on YouTube and they'd be like, oh well, Trump reached two million people today on this podcast. But in reality, that's just scratching the surface. The clips were insane. So the Theo Vaughn interview on YouTube might have 12 million views on YouTube,

But the clips that I would calculate via TikTok or Instagram Reels or X would be in the hundreds of millions of impressions. That's wild. And so that's how I was calculating the views in our reach. And the media is like, oh, well, that's not really that impactful. Well, because they don't understand that, right? Because they only understand...

you know, a 30-minute show on broadcast or cable with, you know, 11 minutes of ads in between six minutes of content, right? Like, they don't understand that the show is the show, but the real show is the clips and the distribution of the clips. And they fundamentally didn't understand that part. And it's one of the reasons why they're losing so much market share, I think.

think. Yeah, no, I think that's right. They are totally clueless in this space. And maybe it's because they don't want to believe what's happening because they want to think that they're still important and that they still are the voice of the people. Well, they spent 40 years trying to lock down every institution in this country as a liberal left progressive, whether it's mainstream media or the entertainment center or higher education or whatever. They thought they had this thing buttoned up. And then four jackasses like you start a podcast. Right.

Now you guys are significantly more impactful than a multimillion-dollar startup newspaper here in town, right? It's funny, right? Yeah. But the media doesn't want to believe that's true. And it's been happening. It's been forming for a long time. I think that's something that is hilarious to me because I've been in the right-wing influencer space, if you will, for decades.

eight going on nine years. And this has been something that's been present and existing for the entirety of the Trump... Trump actually kind of created... When he got involved as running for president, a lot of reply guys came up, right? Yeah, it took it into a cultural space rather than a political space.

But guys like me, we started building our followings and our audience being defenders of the president. And so the president basically built up this organic army of trolls like me that built decent-sized followings, built decent-sized platforms, and then organically would disseminate his message. Yeah.

But the media would always dismiss us as like right-wing extremists. And, you know, some of us are fair, right? But like not all of us. But there'd be, you know, they totally dismissed us for eight years. And all of a sudden they're like, wait a second. How are there 50 accounts with a million followers that all regurgitate Trump talking points? I'm like, well, it doesn't just happen overnight. This has been something that you guys neglected or –

dismissed for the last decade. Well, you know, we have an in-house troll, a right-wing extremist here in Comfortably Smug who's, I think, seen the world your way for quite some time. I mean, that's the thing is, I think you've completely nailed it in how, yes, the left did capture institutions like you've got the New York Times and you've got Hollywood, but no one's going to see the movies anymore. No one's reading the paper anymore. And it's not an overnight story like they try to present it. You've been cracking at this for the better part of a decade now at this point.

Specifically, I have a question for you. There's been a lot of mysterious chatter over... Baron was helping advise that, hey, we should reach out to these different groups. We should go on this podcast and stuff. And that Baron's like a 90 chess...

You know, kind of like a mastermind. That's a good question. I want to know how much truth there is to that. There's truth to that. Barron's a really smart guy and he's really plugged in. I mean, he's an 18-year-old dude. I mean, you can't find a better person to reach out to the youth. And every 18-year-old dude likes, you know, these podcasters and he has input. And the president has a great deal of respect for his family. Believe it or not, this president has smart children, unlike the previous one. Yeah.

And so, you know, the Biden administration had a senior advisor named Hunter Biden, who was a cocaine addict and doesn't pay taxes. And he was the smartest guy that President or that President Biden knew.

And that was an unfortunate situation for the administration in the country, given, you know, look what happened. But the president, President Trump, actually has smart and impressive kids. All of them had input on the podcast and the strategy of the campaign and what we did. You know, I don't know if, you know, Jared Ivanka wants me to share this, but like they were involved in helping set up

the Rogan interview. And so, you know, and Don had input on a lot of the different, uh, influencer meetups that we did. And so the whole family played a role in that. And it's, uh, a luxury for the president that he has smart and capable kids and not Hunter Biden. It's also fascinating to me that they, I mean, look, generationally, you understand how they could understand a new media dynamic as it involves politics just because they're younger and they're sort of into things, but they sort of all instinctively get it. Yeah. Right. And, and,

I think why that's so remarkable is, look, this is a presidential election. It's not like we're running for governor or like a city council somewhere where you have to try weird different things, grassroots things. I mean, he's running for president of the United States as a former president of the United States. And to take those kind of risks at that level is—

Like, you got to be pretty confident in the strategy that you're trying to unroll. More importantly, he has to have some confidence. And you know what you're talking about. Yeah. Well, we had actually a lot of positive press early on from those interviews that we did. And so the press actually kind of helped reinforce our podcast strategy. And they probably don't want to hear that. But had the press covered it negatively...

Like they've covered everything else negatively. Maybe it wouldn't have the same efficacy. But they covered it very positively, talked about the reach that the president was getting. And that was our emphasis was reach. I think that, you know, a governor's race, right? Like going on a national podcast like at Theo Vaughn. I don't know if that necessarily makes the most sense. But when you're talking about reaching the American public. Yeah. Like some of these people have and they all have unique audiences. And so for us, it was just a numbers game. And.

If you spent an hour of your day talking to some guy that was going to reach 15 million people on average on his YouTube show, you might win some new voters. Yeah, especially when you have a candidate who can handle it. Right. And we have an experience where we had a candidate where the more you heard from him, directly heard from him, the more you understood him and the more you liked him. Or you saw a side of him that the media didn't portray, and so we showcased that a little bit more. Kamala's situation was the more you heard from her, the less you liked her.

And so I think, you know, it's so true. The whole comps team, Chris and Jason and Chung,

when Kamala first got into the race, uh, she didn't do any interviews. So every day they were hammering, where's Kamala, where's Kamala, right? Well, simultaneously we're doing all these podcast interviews. So we're getting great press on how we're doing the podcast interviews. They're driving the narrative that she's hiding. Basically it forced her to come out of hiding. And then, and there was a disaster from her. And so, uh, it was, it was amazing how like all the different parts of the campaign just kind of work together. And, um,

We had obviously good success. I mean, it seems seamless. One of the things that I found so interesting, part of this is just the nature of President Donald Trump. And he attracts people from all walks of life to sort of find out more and have conversations. But like it's been a long time since Republicans have been owners of pop culture. And this happened in this election in part just because of the candidate.

but also because of what you're talking about. And then like the introduction of new voices to all, I mean, you mentioned Joe Rogan,

You know, look, I thought that the Tony Hinchcliffe situation, which everyone like it was Atlantic magazine. It was like, oh, not a good paper, by the way. Yeah, it was like it was like, oh, it's all this Alex Bruce, which guy got Tony Hinchcliffe involved and he's destroyed the election prospects. We were on this show like two boots in on that story because it was like everything you know about politics is.

tells you that this is like an absolute bullshit story. Well, remember the Kamala campaign was claiming that focus groups were turning away from Donald Trump as a response to what a comedian said at Madison Square Garden. It was complete bullshit. And the idea that you would spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last week of the campaign to run a fucking focus group. Like,

Like the people who are self-selecting for a focus group as an undecided voter in the last week of an election, they exist to waste your time. I'm sorry. Well, for the Tony thing, I was not the one that booked him for the record. The Atlantic is fake news. Tim Alberta is a low IQ individual. He's just trying to sell books.

books. But he's a, you know, he's a friend of Ashbrook. Yeah. He was the best man at Ashbrook's wedding. Ashbrook's a nice guy. He's also an esteemed member of the press now. Well, that's true. That's true. I don't know if we can trash Ashbrook much longer. We're keeping him away. Watch the line. The silver lining is now we get to send him to Gitmo. Oh,

Well, no comment. I'll refer you to the White House. But with Tony, I'm obviously not going to throw Tony or anybody under the bus because it was totally fake outrage. Yes, it was. And some of his better jokes actually didn't get the attention I think they deserved from that. Of course not. But not only that, but he's a cultural icon. Like for those of us of a certain generation who enjoy comedy, we like to laugh.

This is somebody who's instantly recognizable that for me anyway, the first time I saw him on stage, I was like, holy shit, they got Tony Hinchcliffe here. To open, to open that right after the prayer. Yeah. You're right. Maybe the sequence. Maybe the sequence. It's a hard pivot. I mean, my thought process was, is it really the best use of their time to complain about Tony Hinchcliffe with a week to go? Yeah.

And then a couple things happened. You should take credit. You'd be like, I booked them, and now they're spending all their time talking about Trump. Well, I mean, that's kind of what I was just in the back of my mind. I'm like, well, you know, this piece is not that great, but, like, there's no way this is going to have any effect on the election. What was a big moment for me was we went to Allentown, Pennsylvania, massive Puerto Rican population, two days after, right?

And for 48 hours, the media was like, this is it. Trump is done. Puerto Ricans are going to come out in massive numbers for Kamala. Right. So I'm like, all right, our only test is going to be in Allentown. Two days later, Trump does this big, big rally. We get endorsed by the senator from Puerto Rico.

Only two people show up to protest. Yeah. Only two people. So I'm like, all right, this has been the number one story in the world for 48 hours. And only two people in Allentown, which is a very heavily populated Puerto Rican city, care to show up. And then later that evening, a guy named Joe Biden went on a Hispanic coalition Zoom meeting from the White House.

And decided to say that...

Puerto Ricans aren't garbage. They are. And he called half of the country garbage. It was very offensive to me. And many of you, I'm assuming. 100%. And that was a turning point in the election, actually. I think it revved up the base and the garbage turned out to vote. I have a specific question. When we're talking about all these different groups, like, you know, whether it's Theo Vaughn or Joe Rogan, specifically, I remember he did

President Trump did a meeting with Aiden Ross and XQC showed up and I was watching it happen live and then it hits 1 million people viewing concurrently. I was like, this is insane. They're getting a million concurrent viewers. This is unprecedented.

Did they reach... Did Aiden reach out to you guys first, or did you reach out to Aiden? And also, what happened to the MAGA Cybertruck that he presented President Trump with? Is that, like, doing security at Mar-a-Lago now, or...? Aiden had to get that back, unfortunately. Is it some, like, gifting rules or something? Yeah, gifting rules. But, yeah, Aiden reached out to us, and Barron's obviously a big fan of Aiden's, because, like, that's Aiden's target demo. Totally. You don't need a focus group. You've got, like, a family right there. Right. And so, like, Aiden, I mean...

I also play video games, something a lot of people know about me, but I'm an elite NBA 2K player. Nice. Is that right? Oh, yeah. So Little Pump and I run it on the court sometimes. Oh, yeah. It's a great way to reach new friends. I once met a guy who caught – you ever see the video of the guy catching the alligator in a trash can? Yeah. So one night, like 2 a.m., I'm playing Xbox, and this guy Gio's on.

And he's like, where are you from? I'm like, Florida. He's like, me too. You ever see the video of the guy catching the alligator in the trash can? And I'm like, yeah, it's an awesome video. He's like, that's me. No way. So just through NBA 2K, I met that guy. Are you a Madden guy at all? Do you play any Madden? Madden, for me, it's been the same game over and over and over again. You're like an innovation. Yeah. What about the college game? You know,

It was kind of fun for two weeks, but then Madden comes out, right? Then you want to buy Madden. And then a week later, NBA 2K comes out. And I like 2K because you play more. I play with the center. So you play as a squad. So everybody has one position and you go. Are you an NHL or an NBA guy? Because I play both.

But, like, most people, you either play NHL or you play the NBA 2K. Yeah. You're an NBA 2K guy. I'm an NBA 2K guy. No NHL. But, I mean, look, you grew up in Wisconsin. We actually didn't have a hockey team where I grew up. We didn't have a hockey team. You should have come over to Minnesota. It's a nice place. Yeah.

I heard Tom Emmer is actually an incredible hockey player to this day. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it turns out like the vast majority of us have to be on skates by like three or four. So I was playing. I was on the sticks by three or four. But Aiden Ross, I mean, his reach is incredible. It's unreal. So we had one of my favorite moments in the entire campaign where Trump.

obviously Fannie Wills was involved with prosecuting Trump. She was also involved in another high-profile case where a rapper named Young Thug, right? And so Trump, Aiden Ross is friends with Young Thug. So I briefed the president on this Young Thug situation before he was on Aiden Ross. That is so genius.

And he's like, that's terrible. What's happening to him? It's not fair. And he goes on Aiden Ross' podcast and he goes, look, we got to treat Young Thug fairly. That clip did numbers. 25 million views on an X clip in less than 24 hours. That was all over Billboard, all the hip hop pages. Talk about earned press. Like Kamala would have to spend hundreds.

$150 million to get that type of reach that we got off of the president understanding the situation and be like, that's not cool. Meanwhile, she's like, well, I'm a champion of small businesses. Young thugs out of jail, by the way.

Yeah, there it is. There it is. Dude, I got to ask you this because obviously this is a historic presidency. It was a historic campaign. And when we all grew up, the one thing we learned about presidential campaigns was that John Kennedy took it to Richard Nixon because he had an understanding of the media that Nixon didn't quite grasp at the time.

And I don't think – I know there was a lot of coverage about what you guys were doing, but the media has not given you the sort of credit that you deserve for changing the game the same way that John Kennedy changed the game so many years ago. And I just wonder, man –

I know you're a humble guy in reality. I mean, you like to mix it up online, but in reality, you're a humble guy. Do you ever think about your place in history? Because you revolutionized politics in a way that people will be studying for years to come.

I actually don't think about that. You know, it's actually pretty surreal. I'd have moments where I was flying on the president's plane. I'd be like, how the hell does life get cooler than this? Yeah, right. And so, you know, it really hasn't sunk in. Like, just even being involved in this moment, it hasn't really sunk in, and it still feels kind of surreal and maybe, you know,

if I ever leave this game of politics and I'll have some more time to reflect on what's happening, maybe it'll sink in. But I appreciate those kind words. And you're also part of history. You were the first journalist to ask in the new media scene. The difference in ego where Ashbrook was sending us this, look, it says I'm the first podcaster in history. And Alex is like, no, actually don't think about my story. Yeah.

I think we had to throw a ticker tape parade for this guy. I've been blessed with so many, you know, just meeting so many incredible people that... Well, that's the thing. The Rolodex has got to be just insane at this point. It's been fun. I meet people through the internet. I meet people like you. We got to tell the story of how we met. Well, this is good. So, believe it or not, we were not born allies.

And I've alluded to this on the program before, but we got into a situation where we're both at the same bar and you had some things to say. Well, look, my thought process was right.

In this world, you meet up with a lot of people that talk crap online. And I'm, believe it or not, occasionally somebody that says mean things about people online. Just don't believe it. Specifically Adam Kinzinger, right? But we've exchanged words online. And it's like, fuck, if I show up here and I see these guys...

and I don't talk crap in person, they're going to call me a pussy. I'm going to lose. I'm like, all right. Dude, he's right. This is exactly the way I think about it. I got to mix it up. And, you know, I wasn't expecting you guys to talk crap back. And I was like, I'm just going to look like a total jerk, but...

You guys reciprocated the energy. And I was like, okay, I kind of like these guys. A friendship was formed. A friendship was formed. Instantly. Yeah. I remember a text the next day. I was thinking about it, and I remember a text like the next day or the day after or whatever. It was like,

"Hey man, maybe we should talk again." I was like, "Yeah, yeah." "No, this is our kind of guy, to be honest with you." - You gotta respect the people who can at least talk crap to your face because there's a lot of keyboard warriors out there, right? - Totally. - It's true. Sometimes fighting solves everything. - Absolutely, that's exactly right. A lot of my best friendships in this game have been people I've sparred with in the past. - Isn't it funny how that works?

Game recognizes game, I think. I think so, too. More often than not, the people who are like the biggest reply guys or the biggest people who are trying to support you when you're on top are the people that are first to run when things happen. Right. But like when you recognize somebody who's willing to just get in there and fight.

There is a certain level of respect for it, and it's not necessarily even partisan where it's like I I've got some Democratic friends who like back in the day, they used to just bring heat. This is like pre Biden pre, you know, whatever they used to bring heat all the time to this day. I still talk to him because I'm like.

Man, that's great. Where do these guys go? They're really weak right now. They could maybe use them to come back. They could use them. Well, I mean, you know how Democrats work. They work for a day and a half, and then they go sit on a corporate board for the rest of their lives. Not David Hogg. David Hogg is going to be out there. He's going to be out there in the streets. I want to talk David Hogg before we get off of this because you trolled him into running. Yes, we did.

Incredible. You've been on to this for a long time. You ran for chair. You ended up as vice chair of the DNC. This is a gentleman, shall we say, who is not in the center of the electorate. He's not. And he's also...

a dork. I like to say he doesn't belong in the vice chair. He belongs in the cuck chair. The Tim Wall special. But, but, but yeah, I mean, David, he did this semaphore piece, right? Talking about how Democrats need to regain their coolness and,

And I'm thinking they're like, do the Democrats think that David Hawk will help them reclaim their coolness? We need to do everything that we can to make sure that David Hawk is as elevated as possible. You were relentless.

I'm a big supporter of him. I want him to continue. I want him to be DNC chair by this time next year. Like this guy. If they really want to reclaim their mantle, that's the direction they're not ahead. That's him. Look, you know, as a Gen Z whisperer for the president, like I understand that David Hogg, like he's my number one competitor. I'm terrified. I understand.

I want, I want, like, oh, it's this guy. It's so good. It's so good. But then you look at, like. David Hawks is going to see that clip and be like, see, guys, he's right. I'm the guy for the job. We talked about it in the show. If you look at, like, the USAID protest yesterday or Chuck Schumer with his weird chant. Like, you don't understand. Like, cool. It's not exactly. For the avocado and the corona? Yeah. Right?

But by the time he gets the avocado and the Corona though, there's a new thing to be outraged by. Like the administration's moving at light speed, like speed. So that's my last piece is how gratified are you to see what's happening? I mean, you invested, literally took a gamble of your life. You had a successful business. You built this whole sort of online ecosystem. I know that president Trump was like at the heart of why you got into this in the first place, but,

But then when he's elected president, to immediately see him executing upon all of the things you were talking about with all these people that you helped bring into the fold. Yeah, no, it's a lot of fun. I'm just so happy for him because I know how much he loves the presidency. He actually has a great deal of respect for the presidency. I don't think his predecessor did very much. And I think that's underreported how much he...

respects the office. And he has a vision for how he believes he can make our country great again. Now he's got the team around him that's going to help him execute. I don't think he necessarily had the highest caliber team the last go around, but he learned from his mistakes and this team is getting

getting results very quickly. And I don't think this town is ready for a lot of those results, but I think our country is. And, um, uh, but he's having fun and I'm just happy for, just happy for him. Cause you can see that he's got a swagger back. Okay. And, uh, and,

And I don't think he's going to let that go. Man, it's fantastic. Listen, this is one of the preeminent media strategists of our time. And I mean that sincerely. This is a guy who's got it from day one and figured out how to broaden a reach for President Trump. Important when you have to figure out how to get through media, mainstream media filters that at the...

end of this campaign in particular. We spent a lot of time on this. We're nothing short of a Democratic campaign. Absolutely. You know, so if you're getting your information through mainstream sources, like, it's just not going to work. You've got to go beyond that. This is a guy who I think is most responsible for doing this, not only just for President Trump, but the whole Republican ecosystem and understanding that, like, dude, go do the different stuff. Go speak to the million people who are downloading Ruthless, for crying out loud.

Absolutely. More people are going to download now that you got Ashbrook as the new media czar. You guys are doing a great job. Yeah. There has to be some kind of a medal ceremony involved in that. We'll see. I just want to end with Michael Duncan. He disappointed us because he said he was going to go to the White House and he was going to wear a specific hat.

I did. And so I think a good consolation, like I think just something you can do to make amends is wear the hat on the show. I think that'd be good.

I will do it after my appearance at the White House. I love it. Buddy, thank you so much for stopping in here. Don't be a stranger. Anytime you're up and around here in town, stop on by and give your thoughts. Thanks, brother. Thanks, guys. Thanks so much.

Man, just a great interview. And obviously he made news there. And I can't wait to have him back again because, you know, every time he comes, he's got a little something new to share. Yeah. Yeah. And a humble guy. Humble guy. And again, he's played such an integral role, not just in this election, helping get President Trump elected, but also...

And the right capturing culture and taking it back from the left. And, you know, the importance of that cannot be stressed enough. And he's never the first guy to take credit for any of it. Paving the way for a new generation of conservatives that are the cool ones, the fun ones, and the ones that, like—

a new generation of America wants to be a part of, which has been a long time in the Republican Party, probably since Reagan, that we've had any of that. So, Alex, thank you for joining us. Welcome back anytime. Thank you all for joining us. Look, we're getting to be kind of a big program around here, and it's all thanks to you. Like, subscribe, tell your friends about it. Let's get those numbies up.

With that, Smug, I think we did it. I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thanks again to Alex. Thank you, dear listener. We are a hair away from 100K subscribers. Please go on YouTube, subscribe, and like now. So, until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you on Tuesday. Stay ruthless.