December 3, 2025 • 47 mins
Scott Jennings latest book: A Revolution of Common Sense: How Donald Trump Stormed Washington and Fought for Western Civilization
- Book Overview: Jennings explains the book’s premise, which chronicles Donald Trump’s second term, his governing style, and major policy initiatives.
- Behind-the-Scenes Insights: Jennings shares personal anecdotes about meeting Trump, interviewing cabinet members, and observing Oval Office dynamics.
- Key Themes:
- Trump’s aggressive use of executive orders and rapid policy implementation.
- Immigration enforcement and cultural issues (e.g., DEI, transgender policies).
- Energy policy and its link to AI competitiveness against China.
- Foreign policy framed as “peace through strength.”
- Media and Political Strategy: Commentary on how Trump overwhelmed opposition and media outrage cycles.
- AI and Future Challenges: A detailed discussion on the geopolitical race for AI dominance, public skepticism, and implications for jobs and education.
- Tone and Style: Conversational, humorous, and strongly partisan, with frequent jabs at Democrats and mainstream media.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you and Senator, We're going to have a really
fun show today with a happy warrior, A good friend
of mine, a good friend of yours is going to
join us, a man that you know from probably going
viral on CNN. Scott Jennings is going to join us
to talk about a really cool book he's written where
(00:21):
he actually got to sit down multiple times with the
President and every one of the cabinet members to talk
about the inner workings of the President, what he's doing
to save the country.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We have a terrific guest on our show today, Scott Jennings,
the intrepid conservative warrior who goes on CNN every day.
He battles the crazy comedies on CNN. He does so
with a smile, he does so with a light touch.
He absolutely dominates the lefties. And he's written a brand
new book and the book is entitled A Revolution of
(00:51):
Common Sense How Donald Trump stormed Washington and fought for
Western civilization. Here's the book. I would encourage you go
by it. And we're going to talk to Scott right
now about this book and about battling for truth and
justice every day on CNN.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Speaking about truth and justice.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
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All right, it's really fun on Verdict when we get
to take a moment to have a good friend on
especially when they're out there selling a great book that
(03:03):
you should check out.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Cenator. You're in Washington, d C. I'm obviously in Houston.
This man.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I get to do battle with the comedies on CNN.
Often they've stopped putting us together. I think that's on purpose.
I think they didn't like it was an unfair fight.
When you have the brilliant brain of Scott and then
you know I'm there as well. I'm not saying I'm brilliant,
but I'm saying it's a nice duo here.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
But it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
To have Scott Dinnings with us on the podcast where
a really cool book he has put out.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Well, Ben, I will say, you spent seven years battling
the comedies on CNN and then I love you man,
But you ran scared for the hills. Ah.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
You came to the.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Safe confines of the Verdict podcast swhere. Other than some
ridicule about old miss and you used to have a
football coach. Other than that, you avoid any confrontation.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yes, outside of that, I'm Switzerland, as you put it, sir,
in Republican primaries.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
So and I will say Scott Jennings has joined us.
I got to tell you Scott is on CNN now.
He is battling with these Bolshevik idiots and I actually
feel bad for them because like he is beating the
living crack out of them, and I watch I watch
(04:22):
the clips on Twitter. I'll confess I do not watch CNN,
so it's got to go viral for me to watch it.
If it's actually on TV, I won't turn the damn
thing on. But if you have a moment that is
ninety seconds that you're just like body slamming someone I
inject it like heroin into my veins. I mean, it
is so all right. And let's be clear. Why is
(04:45):
Scott here. He is here for the oldest reason in
the book. So it is eleven forty three at night.
This poor man has to get up at four in
the morning to fly on a plane to La correct.
He is here for one reason only. It's not that
he loves me. It's not that he loves Ben Ferguson.
Here because he is selling a damn book.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
So it's a good one.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
It's a good So his book is a revolution of
common sense, how Donald Trump stormed Washington and fought for
Western civilization. And there's a great picture of Donald Trump
and a bright red tie. So go buy his book.
His book is on Amazon, It's on Barnes and Noble.
I feel confident you can get it. And any place
books are sold, yes, sir, other than a lefty bookstore
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they will not have this book, but
(05:26):
they will have how to be a transgender Witch and
study Marxism. So if you want that book, go to
that bookstore. But anywhere else you can get a revolution
and common sense. Scott, Welcome to Verdict.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Thanks for having me on, and it's a true story
about the bookstores. We've been setting up book tour events
around the country, so we'll call ahead and say, oh,
these people want to buy you a couple hundred books,
and we've been hung up on We've been told no.
I mean, I'm like literally trying to filter, you know,
book purchases through your.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Bookstore, and they literally won't do it.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
And so we talk about these lefties constantly complaining about
banning books.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
The only one I ever.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Heard of was this one.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It would carry it, all right.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So how did you come? How did you start to be?
And Sea tell us the start of how this began.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Yeah, I've actually been there for eight and a half years,
but for the first six years of it or so,
it was really very much a part time job for me.
I got recruited in twenty seventeen. I had done some
work on Fox News in the election in twenty sixteen.
They recruited me over because after Trump won and they
didn't expect it, they didn't have many conservatives been was there,
he knows, and so they were looking for a few
(06:33):
people who could explain what was going on, and so
I did it. It was very part time. But then in
the twenty twenty four election and the advent of this
debating show, it's become a much bigger part of my life.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So I've been a long time.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Member of the family, but lately it's taken up a
big percentage of my life.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Scott, I want to ask you real quick about this book.
And the cool part about this book is a lot
of people write books, but one of the things is
you actually talked to the White House the President about
writing the book and them cooperating with you to do
this book.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
How did that come about?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Who did you get to sit with How often did
you get talk to the President to come up with
all of the material in it?
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Yeah, I went to see him in February. You know
this title, a revolution of common Sense is a phrase
that he used in his inaugural address. I was sitting
on the set at CNN listening to the speech, thinking
that would be a good title for a book, and
so I went to pitch a president on it. Truthfully,
I didn't really know him. I talked about him a lot,
but it hadn't spent any time with him. So I
went to meet with him in early February and thought
I was meeting with him alone. I went into the
(07:35):
Oval office, and the whole cabinet and the staff were there,
so I sort of got inserted into one of these
famous meetings where it's like six meetings at the same time,
and we spent some time together. And I just told
him that day, like, I think one hundred of the
usual suspects are going to come along and write books
crapping on you. I think someone who likes you and
voted for you and wants you to succeed, should, you know,
(07:57):
get a chance to cooperate with you about a book
about what you're trying to accomplish here and the obstacles
that you face. I told him, I thought he revolutionized
campaigning in twenty twenty four, and he was about to
revolutionize governing, and that it would be a good opportunity
to tell the story to you know, half or a
little more than half the country that doesn't get that
much good news or you know, true narrative about what's
(08:17):
going on out of his White House.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And so we discussed it. He agreed.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
I spent some time with him a few meetings over
the course of the spring. I traveled with him to
Michigan on his one hundred day in office. I interviewed
most of the cabinet, interviewed quite a bit of the
White House senior staff, and you know, some of the
book is also just my observations. I picked out the
issues that I thought were the biggest ticket issues of
the first hundred days, and some of it's also informed
(08:42):
by the debates that I was having on CNN.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I was, so, what are the biggest ticket issues from
the first hundred days.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Well, at number one, I thought the volume of executive
orders made his presidency the most active presidency since FDR.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
To immigration is a big issue in this book.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
At a massive success.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
And probably his biggest success, and it's the biggest promise.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Kept ninety nine percent decrease. I mean, that's insane, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
We have passed any new laws.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
As you know, We've just got a new enforcement mechanism
called the President. And then also energy frankly, and the
book kind of ends where they're getting to passing the
big beautiful bill and the energy piece and sort of
how that's going to impact the race to win the
AI competition against China. Also, frankly, some of the cultural
(09:28):
issues that he took on transgender issues, the DEI stuff.
I mean, these are not inconsequential matters because not only
did he sort of rip them out of government, but
it created a permission structure to rip them out of
corporate America. Yes, even just today, I think I saw
AT and T get rid of their DEI stuff finally,
and so the world's changed. It was an amalgam of policy, political,
(09:50):
and cultural issues, and he put a lot of balls
in the air. A lot went through the net, some
are still laying out there. But what I came away
with was this that when you become a Republican president,
you have entrenched things that are working to destroy You
have media that's trying to destroy you, bureaucraft's trying to
destroy you, you have federal judiciary trying to destroy you.
(10:13):
And they're all sort of worked together to overwhelm you.
And he basically just decided, I'm not going to be overwhelmed.
I'm going to overwhelm them.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
That's the story of the book.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
So look, I think there are very real differences between
first term President Trump and second term President Trump. What
do you see is the biggest differences?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Totally agree.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Spending time observing him with the team, he got the
team that matches his leadership style.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
First time around, not sure they expected to win, sort
of inherited, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
The first time. I think they were kind of the
dog that caught the car. They were like, holy crap,
we won. And I'll confess that there were some mistakes
in terms of the early appointments that were people that
were put in the administration the first term who worked
against the president. And I think he regrets making those
appointments this. I think the second term is much better.
It's a much stronger team.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Yeah, and they know how to work with him. They
know that they're there to execute his agenda, not their own, yep.
And they also understand the hands on nature of it.
What I witnessed in the Oval office with him is
this is not a passive sort of situation. This is
him telling them, go do this and come back to
me and report. One of the cabinet secretaries said to me,
you can tell the President we're working on it one time,
(11:24):
but you don't get a second bite at that out.
He expects you to go do it and come back
and tell him what's happened and give your progress report.
I witnessed that, and so this time around. They thought
they were going to win. They knew who they wanted
to do a point, they knew the issues they wanted
to attend.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
And they had spent four years thinking about exactly what
they wanted to hit, and so they hit the ground
running with a speed. I mean, there is literally no
precedent in American history for a president that has moved
so fast, so many executive orders, so many actions, and listen,
the vast majority I agree with are a couple of
missteps that I think occurred. But you know what, I
would describe this as a bias towards action versus a
(12:03):
bias towards it action. And I'll take action. If you're
moving fast, you make a few things. But they are
moving And it's I joke, but it's actually the truth.
I wake up every morning, I grab my cel phone
and I'm like, what the hell did we do today? Yeah?
And it is, I mean, it is fast moving.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
And in the early days, in the.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Early days of this, it had the effect of overwhelming
the opposition. Yes, the Democrats really didn't know what hit
them for the first several weeks of what he was doing.
And one reporter told me that I interviewed she said,
we don't know what to cover every day because.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
There's so much we don't know where to start. That
was the point.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
He overwhelmed the forces that normally try to engulf and
suck under any Republican administration.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
So you and I met twenty five years ago when
we were both young staffers and the George W. Bush administration.
You were in the White House, and we've known each
other a long time. And I actually came up with
this theory then, which is there is a quantum of
outrage in the media, and I call it the arsenic quantum.
(13:08):
So if you remember, in two thousand and one, George W.
Bush becomes president and one of the first things that
happens is the EPA repeals a rule from the Democrat
administration concerning the percentage of arsenic that could be at
a water and it went from I don't know, like
four million parts per gallon or whatever it was to
(13:31):
five million parts per gallon. I mean, it was an
infinitesimal shift, but the media lost their ever loving mind,
and for about three months, every media story was George W.
Bush wants to put arsenic in your water to poison
your kids, and I mean their hair was on fire.
They were losing their minds. And I think one of
the things that the tru President Trump has understood, particularly
(13:53):
the second term, that's all the outrage there is. So
if you do one hundred things and a hundred things
that are incredibly consequential, you get the arsenic quantum of outrage.
They're still they scream, but they don't know what to
hit because they're moving so fast on so many fronts.
They're repealing regulations, they're implementing policies that the media are
(14:17):
just frustrated out of their mind. You're living on CNN.
Do you see that on a daily basis?
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Yes, I mean every day you're going to get some
outrage about some I mean today, the guy had a
three hour cabinet meeting.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
YEP.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
So I showed up over there this afternoon and for
like six seconds of the three hours, he closed his
eyes listening to Marco Rubio talk about something. And they're like, oh,
Donald Trump slept through a cabinet meeting. He literally conducted
a three hour meeting. He held a press conference at
the end of it.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
This is crazy.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
And so yes, they have to pick something and try
to generate outrage, whether it's warranted or not. I will
tell you I think in this book and my recollections
of the first part of the year, the outrage was
almost all directed towards these immigrats stories. Yeah, particularly the
Kilmer Obrego Garcia case.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
And that's so.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Tell me, do you think it is a good political
judgment for Democrats to say our party wants more illegal alien,
violent gang member, wife abusing human trafficking criminals in America,
and if you elect us, the Democrats, we will bring
MS thirteen to your neighborhood. Like, help me explain, Help
(15:30):
me understand the reasoning behind a party that says, let's
go have dakeries with MS thirteen gang bangers and say
we're for bringing them into your community.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
I'm only moderately good at math. But no, I don't
think that is a great political strategy. But you know,
I also think they're doing it again on this narco
terrorist issue. I mean, you've got people out here, you know,
buying into the idea that these poor Venezuelan fishermen, you know,
have fallen under the gaze of Don Trump.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
You look at the loud style fasherman. Fisherman don't have
twelve kilos of.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
Coke in their boat and then you know, on top
of that sort of basically.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Maybe it's one hundred kilos of coke. I don't even
know how much they have, but it ain't good.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
And also threatening these I mean essentially that like Mark
Kelly and others are saying, now, look, if you follow
the president's orders, we may come back to you in
a few years and retroactively decide that you broke the law,
and we will come after you if you help the
president serve as the legitimately elected commander in chief. I mean,
that's what they're It's all about throwing sand in the gears,
(16:34):
shut down the government to keep him from operating, get
military people to stop obeying orders, to keep him from
operating his commander in chief. That's the outrage that is
coming out of their base. It's it's the demand, like
you must stop him because we still don't give him
as legitimate.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
They're the party of hate, Like the unifying theme of
the Democrat Party is they hate, hate, hate Donald J. Trump,
and and it's performance theater each one of them. The
shutdown happened because Chuck Schumer and the Democrats had to
show they hate him, Yes, and it is. Listen, I've
been in the Senate thirteen years. This is the stupidest
(17:11):
shutdown I've ever seen because it had no objective other
than simply demonstrating we hate Trump. And look you see
it on CNN. I mean, I mean, I actually really
like your book, A Revolution of common Sense. You know
it used to be all right, So there's a very
common As you talk to people just across the country,
(17:33):
there are a lot of folks that will say both
parties have gotten to extreme, and that sounds very reasonable.
Like if you're sitting around at the dinner table and
you say that, that makes you seem very reasoned, very moderate.
And I'll say to folks like, look, I get why
you're saying that. That feels like it makes sense. I
just don't think it's true.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I agree with you.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And if you look at the two parties, one part
of the Democrat Party has gone backcrap crazy. I mean
they've embraced policies complete open borders, embracing human traffickers and
narco terrorists, abolishing the police, boys and girls, sports mutilizing
little boys and little girls like these are extreme rat
(18:17):
embracing hamas, celebrating anti Semitic protesters, Like, it's almost like
every issue that's eighty twenty. Yes, they went across the
bard and said, let's take the twenty. Let's take the twenty.
Sometimes it's ninety ten.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
And why because Trump's on the eighty.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And if you look at the other side, and I'll
say to people over dinner, I'll say, look, what are
Trump's policy positions? Secure the border, cut taxes, cut job
killing regulations, support small businesses, support the police, protect our families,
support the constitution, and the Bill of.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Rights, welfare reform.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Like those are mainstream, middle of the road positions. Those
are not crazy right wing positions. Those are common sense.
And what's amazing is the Democrats have abandoned the middle
of the of the field. They've abandoned the middle ground. Now,
sometimes the rhetoric is a little hot, so the sort
(19:14):
of both sides are two extreme. I do wish occasionally
the rhetoric would ratchet back a little bit, but the
actual substance of the policies, and I got to say,
even when I'm sitting down with lefties that they don't
have a good response, like what policies is Trump implementing
that are extreme? Well, he's deporting illegal aliens, you know,
you mean like Barack Obama, who deported millions of illegal aliens.
(19:36):
Like he's actually going and arresting murderers and rapists and
child molesters and gang mayors. That ain't extreme. So my
question to you, number one, do you agree with that?
And since you've been nodding emphatically, I kind of assumed
that the answers yes, But I'm not nodding. Off you
close your eyes for a second. And by the way,
(19:57):
I have that effect a lot. I put people to sleep,
So feel free to not off. But if you agree,
here's my real question why, Like, if you're imagine for
a second you're in the ninth circle of Dante's Inferno
and you are Chuck Schumer's chief political advisor, why would
you do this? Like, what's the reasoning that? Presumably they
(20:21):
think this makes sense? So what would what would a
Democrat strategist say that would justify this.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Well, it's very simple fear, and they operate out of fear.
I mean during the shutdown, which you're exactly right, this
was the most pointless exercise. One of your colleagues anonymously
told a newspaper, Oh, we have plenty of votes to
open the government, but none of us want to face
the guillotine.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Their words, Yeah, their words.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
So they're using the language of the French Revolution to
describe their own political base. They operate only out of fear,
not principle, not ideas. It's strictly operating out of fear,
and it's also strictly operating out of hate. I totally
agree with you, and this this is something about the
book that I've picked up on. If Trump has sort
of an idea of like what the eighties are and
(21:05):
he knows, they will reflexively pick the twenties because he
picked the eighties. Whether it's secure the border or get
rid of paper straws, either way, it's going to drive
Democrats into a silly position. I, for one, want toilets
that can't flush and don't have enough water to actually
remove your your waist, like, like.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Who the heck is that an eighty twenty or is
that a ninety ten issue?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
That would be a ninety ten okay, that don't disintegrate
in your mouth, Toilets that can remove your extrement, and
like light bulbs that can turn on, like.
Speaker 5 (21:40):
There may be a dark niche corner of the Internet
that takes the other side of the toilet issue. But
most people, most people would like more water.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
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Speaker 4 (22:48):
Scott. I want to ask you your question.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Quick as side hold on part of Verdict is bringing
you inside the Senate. So I'm going to tell you
a funny story. So when the Democrats, when Harry Reid
had the majority, just off the Senate floor, there is
a restroom that is the senator's restroom, and when the
Democrats took over, they replaced the toilet paper with little
(23:15):
square strips of Kleenex. And it was the most frustrating.
I assume it's some lefty environmentalist idea that like a
tiny little like four by four square is what you
would pull off one at a time. And it was infuriating.
And that's what the.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Democrats are saving the environment, sir, You were saving the
environment one square at a time.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Man.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
So when we retook the Senate in twenty fourteen, Richard
Shelby became the chairman of the Rules Committee, Republican from Alabama.
Richard is a good guy. It's good friend, and I'm
on the rolls Committee. I came to Richard. I said, okay, Richard,
I got a simple request, and could you put some
friggin toilet paper in the restroom that actually works? And
(23:55):
like two weeks later, I go to the restroom and
there's a roll of toilet paper there, and I will confess.
I went to Richard. I said, Richard, I've got your
reelection campaign slogan. You need to make a bumper sticker
right now, Richard Shelby, he gets shipped done.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And I will confess.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Even when Schumer took over, he did not return to
the little squares of paper and it remains remains fixed
to this day. But why is that complicated? And yet
for the Democrats? Like, all right, is there any person
on earth that does not hate a paper straw that
disintegrates in your mouth and doesn't actually serve the function
(24:37):
of taking the liquid in your cup?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
All right, So you're gonna as The only one I
hate more than that is the bamboo straw that cracks
every single time.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
The paper straw story, which I tell in the book.
Actually I was in the Oval office today he signed
the executive.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Order on paper straws. It.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
It was something funny actually when I was in there,
like some aid came in. He said, mister President, I
just found out they're still using paper straws in the
White House.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Mess He said something like, well, I guess they still
had a few left over, you know, from Biden or whatever.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
But I tell the story of that paper straw because
it's it's even more absurd than you think. Number One,
they got the idea for paper straws because like a
little kid gave a school report one day claiming that
Americans were using like tens of millions of plastic straws
and they were going in the ocean.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
It was completely fabricated.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
And then the other thing about paper straws is that
they actually contain lots of these like chemicals and plastics
in the paper straws that you ingest because they dissolve
in the water. So it's terrible for you and it's
terrible for the environment.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I haven't heard that, but I can believe that.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yes, and so.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
But because this kid one day in his like elementary school,
gave some report about supposed plastic straws in the ocean,
Democrats adopted this cause of banning plastic straws. And Donald Trump.
It took Donald Trump winning an election to finally bring.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Back all right, So let me ask you, it's amazing
a decade from now now, what is going to be
the legacy of Donald J. Trump. What are people going
to remember from the Trump presidency?
Speaker 5 (26:07):
Broad macro foreign policy wins, bringing peace to all the
corners of planet Earth. I think he has been the
most consequential foreign policy.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
So why what has But I agree with you, But
what has been consequential? What has mattered?
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Well, what has mattered is you now have a strong
American president who's willing to engage. I mean, this was
the great failing of Biden. He was weak, and he
was indecisive, and he didn't fundamentally believe in engagement. And
they didn't trust him. The other players on the board
didn't trust him, and they didn't really care what he
had to say, and so he weren't afraid of him. Yeah,
(26:44):
and that's a dangerous thing. I think our enemies should
be afraid of the commander in chief. And I will
tell you.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I talk with our allies, I talk with with our adversaries,
and our enemies are afraid of Donald J. Trump. That's
a good thing. I want Iran afraid of Trump. I
want North Korea afraid of Trump. I want Venezuela afraid
of Trump. I want Cuba afraid of Trump. I want
China afraid of Trump. And look, it goes back to
(27:14):
when Reagan was president. The philosophy of peace through strength,
that is what Trump is implementing. And I will say
there's a debate in our policy, in our party. There
are some who are arguing, oh, Trump is an isolationist.
He's never been an isolation never. He's not interested in
extending in unnecessary foreign wars. And I agree with him
in that, and he has been ending wars, which is
(27:37):
the right thing. But look, he stands up to our
enemies in one of the great faults. Both the isolationists
left and the isolationists right believes that if you don't
engage with your enemies, it will produce peace. History stands
to the contrary. I pointed out there's a reason nobody
(27:58):
studies at the Nevill Chamberlain School of Foreign fiew like
appeasement doesn't work. And if you want to avoid war,
the best way to do it is to be so
strong that your enemies are terrified as screwing with you.
And Trump is doing a fabulous job of doing that.
And the difference between Biden and Trump is weakness versus strength,
and weakness produces war and strength produces peace.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, I think this will be an enduring legacy for him.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
And you know, we talk about war and peace a lot,
and that's the phrase we may just talk about peace
and war because he is a peace president, yes, and
he's for smart engagement, but he's not for adventurism.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I think that's one. Number two.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
I mean, clearly he showed us how to enforce current
immigration laws. That's a legacy. And number three, I think
what they're doing on AI actually putting the United States
in the position to win the AI race, to produce
enough energy to win it. That is going to be
talked about ten, fifteen, twenty years from today. Did we
do what we had to do to defeat China? I
(28:54):
think we are. I think most of our tech companies
think we are. And so if that comes to pass,
those are three pretty great legacies.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
So let's talk about the third one for a second.
So on AI. AI is an issue I care about
a lot, and I agree with you that we are
in a race. AI is coming and either the United
States is gonna win or China's gonna win. And I
think the world is much much worse off if China wins,
and it's much better off of America wins. I will
tell you the polling on AI is terrible. AI is
(29:24):
unpopular in America. If you do almost any polling. I
use it's about seventy thirty. People are terrified. They're afraid
they're going to lose their jobs. They don't trust it,
they're scared of it. And I get that, And in fact,
I talk with a lot of the tech leaders and
I say, look, if you don't engage on this issue,
the easy political outcome. Every Democrat and a number of
(29:44):
Republicans are like, AI is horrible, We oppose it, and
that if you look at the polling, that's that's the
knee jerk response. I get that fear. I understand anytime
you have economic disloke, it is frightening, it is dangerous.
But at the end of the day, I'm not a lot.
(30:05):
I don't think you can stop technological advancement. I'll give
you an example. If I could right now destroy every
cell phone in America, I would. I think these are
evil portals to everything harmful in the world. All three
of us are parents. These things invite every horrible force
to our children. But we don't live in that world.
(30:27):
We can't end that. I'd also like a world with
no nuclear weapons. Like if I could push a button
and every nuclear weapon disappear, I would, But we don't
live in that world. And if we're going to live
in a world with nuclear weapons, I sure want to
make sure the United States has enough that China and Russian,
our enemies, can't dominate US. I view AI in the
same world, even if you don't want it to happen.
It is coming, and one of two outcomes will occur
(30:51):
in five to ten years. Either China will have won
the race, in which case AI worldwide will reflect China's
values will be totalitarian, controlling will be censoring, will reflect
the values of communists China, or America will have one,
in which case, hopefully AI will reflect American values of freedom,
free enterprise, free speech. That is a massive shift between
(31:14):
those two worlds. World two is much better, where America wins.
Two questions. Number one, do you agree with that? And
number two? If so, how does the politics change? Do
you agree with my point that right now the politics
is against AI and that is dangerous?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
I agree.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
First of all on point one. I agree with everything
you said about which world we want to live in.
Number two, I agree with you on the polling, and
I think people have a healthier fear of how this
is going to upend their life and reasonable and which
is a reasonable fear? And so the next iteration of
this march towards AI is going to have to be
not how it's going to make your life worse?
Speaker 2 (31:55):
How's it going to make your life better?
Speaker 5 (31:57):
How is any other technological evolution all stimately made your
life better? And so that explanation has to come. And
then point four is just going to be how are
we going to power it all? And you know, are
we going to be able to produce enough energy to
do what we have to do now?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Plus what we.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Have to do AI is energy, and if we don't
not leash energy, we cannot win the race FRAEI.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
One other issue on this that is on my mind
is how are we going to build enough of these
data centers to win this thing? I'm noticing in local
communities in a lot of places, folks are like rising
up against data center development.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
So the polling is terrible in most communities. But I
will say, by the way, one of the few exceptions
is sort of West Texas. You've got West Texas in
the Panhandle and you're seeing a ton of data centers
come in there, and Texans are like, all right, we
want jobs, we want investment. We want billions in investment,
and there'll be jobs for construction, there'll be jobs for
running the data centers. Look, I think in dense urban
(32:50):
areas people are afraid. They're afraid it will suck power,
it will drive up their electricity prices, it will suck water,
And I get those fears. Look, anyone, if you're given
a choice, do you want something that will make your
life worse or better? People are naturally going to say,
I don't want something that makes my life worse. And so.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I think the guy by the way, Sentata, I had
a guy the other day that said to me in
the AI industry, he said, the hardest part for them
now is overcoming what you're describing, because he said they're
polling that internally says that the fear and a lot
of parts of the country right now are at the
level of where they were with nuclear reactors back in
the eighties.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yes, interesting now, and there's been a lot of demagoguay
and but there's also the demagoguery is there. But I
will say the fears of AI are real and justified.
And all right, Look, with every great technological change, there's
been economic dislocation. So when the automobile was invented, the
(33:49):
horse and buggy industry was decimated, and if you were
in the buggy business, you were screwed. The difference with
AI is twofold. Number One, the volume is greater. I
think there are going to be more jobs that are
going to be threatened by AI than have been in
previous technological innovations. Number two, it's a different contour of jobs.
(34:14):
So often in the past it's been blue collar jobs
that have been at risk. Many of the jobs that
are at risk with AI are white collar jobs. There
if you look at Mondami, part of what elected Mandami
is you have young college graduates who have two hundred
thousand dollars in college debt who were told I can
(34:35):
go and be an investment banker, a consultant, or an accountant,
and they're seeing those jobs being eliminated as AI is
replacing thousands and thousands of those jobs. That's a level
of I guess I would call elite discontent that is
politically complicated and so and I get those concerns are
(35:00):
very real. If you've gone and worked hard, and you've
got a degree, and you took out loans and you
were told this is what I got to do, and
then suddenly you come out and you can't get a job,
you're pissed like. That's a very real concern. And so
I actually think as policy makers, as people in an
elected office, we need to have real solutions to that
problem because that disc content is not illegitimate, but it
(35:25):
is driving much of this resistance, and it's a very
real battle.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
We've got, well and you have now, for you know,
many years, people teaching their children here's the course you
got to get on. If you well in school, go
to college, you can get one of these white collar jobs.
And you know, for you know, a few generation we've
been telling people this is the path. It may not
be the path anymore. We're going to have to reorient
how we're educating kids, what we're teaching them to do,
(35:51):
What other skills can we teach them to do. I
agree with you on the white collar versus blue collar issue.
Also creatives, I mean I speaked out. I've seen Ai
apps and a matter of seconds write songs that sounded
like they had a whole team of musicians and writers
over weeks putting them together in California, And it literally
happened on my phone in a matter of seconds.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
By the way, I'll tell you in politics, it's interesting.
I'll pull up AI and I'll ask something like, what
has Cruz said on the following issue? And listen, I've
been doing this a long time, so I don't remember
every comment I've given in every newspaper interview ten years ago,
and in like four seconds it comes out with he
said this here, he said this here, and it like
traces and it's like.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
It's insane.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
It is insane. The ability of power you have on
your cell phone.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Oh yeah, I mean, and it's basically free. I mean
information for the first time in human history is basically
accessible to all and free to all and instant. And yeah,
it's I can see why the pulling on this is bad. Now,
the positive outlook here is how can we use these
tools to make your life easy, make you more productive,
(37:01):
and maybe make you more economically successful. Maybe you haven't
conceived of how that will work yet, but that's the
challenge of these companies that are developing the technology.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Well, in past, technological inventions that have increased productivity have
created brand new jobs, created grand, brand new focuses, and
so dislocation doesn't mean that people lose jobs forever. But
it is complicated. All right. Let me ask you this. Yep,
you're listening to this podcast right now. You're trying to
decide do I buy Scott Jennings' book. What's the sixty
(37:35):
second pitch for why you right now should go on Amazon.
As you're listening to this, click on and buy the book.
What's the most powerful reason to buy the book?
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Because most of the political narrative and information narrative you
get on Trump, I think is totally misguided.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
A lot of it's false.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
This is a true inside account of how Donald Trump
retook power, what he did with that power, how he
overcame the interest to execute on the promises that he made.
I think you'll see some eye popping quotes in here
from people like Marco Rubio, Scott Bessen, and Elon Musk,
who I interviewed on his one hundred and first day
in office, and I could tell by the way he
was bent out of shape that day and really worried
(38:16):
about the future of Western civilization. I didn't know he
was going to have his dramatic momentary break.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
But how quickly after your interview did that happen?
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Just a couple of weeks. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
It was.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
It was day one oh one, and of course he
got been out of shape.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
So I was actually sitting in the Oval office when
Elon like really unloaded on Trump and unloaded on Twitter,
and it was I will say, I was having a
meeting with Trump on school choice, where I had brought
Byron Donald's and Burgess Owen's in and We're in the
middle of the one big, beautiful bill, and I was
trying to make the case, mister President, there's nothing we
(38:49):
can do that's more important in this bill than school choice.
This will be a legacy. I said, if we get
this done, you will go down in history. Your critics
will never acknowledge this, but you will go down in
history as the greatest civil rights president of our lifetimes.
We ended up getting it done, so we adopted the
school choice provision that I wrote. But in the middle
of that meeting, as I'm pitching it to Elon sent
(39:11):
I will say his most aggressive tweet against Trump. And
so Trump is actually not on his phone a ton.
So when you're in the Oval, they will print out
tweets on a piece of paper and they will hand
it to him, and they handed it to him, and look,
Elon is a very good friend. President Trump is a
(39:31):
very good friend. I will say when that particular tweet
came out, he was pissed and our meeting was done.
We were there for another half hour, but our discussion
topic was gone because he was like unloading. So it
was And I'm very glad I spent a lot of
time with both President Trump and Elon. I'm very glad
(39:53):
that that acrimony has diminished substantially in that they've come
back together, because I think they're both incredibly important leaders
for the country, and I think we're better off if
they're rowing together than if they're antagonist.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Yeah, the day that they had their break, I was
on CNN when it happened. I picked up a garbage
can and I put my head in it live on
the air to mimic how I thought all Republicans were feeling.
Because when they joined forces, yes, they worked together to
do nothing less than begin the process of saving the West.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Amen.
Speaker 5 (40:27):
If we had not won the November twenty twenty four election,
we would be on a death spiral for the future
of the West.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Trump is our leader in this. Elon knows it.
Speaker 5 (40:36):
He's worried about our fiscal situation, the mass migration crisis,
the birth rate crisis, and all these things converging to
destroy the West.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
He knows that.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
I think Trump and the Republicans are the only vehicle
to save it. And so when they had their break,
I mean it was a it was a vomit inducing moment,
but it appears to me that they're rea and by
the way, on much better footing.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Seeing the two of them come back together was important.
And listen, nobody who knows the two of them well
thought that the romance was going to last forever. So
the first several months where they were just like bosom buddies.
They're both alpha males. They every room they have been
(41:20):
in for the last thirty years, everyone in the room
has deferred to them and kissed the rear ends. And
you didn't have to be the most sophisticated analyst of
human nature to say, Okay, that's probably not going to
last forever as a harmonious when they're both used to
being the guy the a dog. That's going to end.
(41:45):
I don't think any of us envisioned it would end
quite so spectacularly in a technicolor manner. I think most
of us figured, Okay, they'll come a point where they say,
all right, let's just go our separate ways and do
our things. But and the good news is it got
really ugly. And by the way, I use the analogy
(42:05):
that I felt, like, you know, the children of divorced
parents saying, I wish mommy and daddy would stop fighting
because it like it was, it was painful. Because they're
both I admire.
Speaker 5 (42:14):
Them, both agree I'm the same way. I've defended them
both on television. And the attacks Elon faced for the
sin of supporting a Republican and choosing to do public service,
that was his only sin.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
And by the way, Elon demonstrates the utter hypocrisy of
the left. So the left for a decade has been
saying that climate change is destroying the world and nothing
matters more. We should produce massive human poverty to stop
climate change because if we don't, humanity will be extinct.
That's been their talking point for a decade. Sheldon Whitehouse
(42:45):
gives a damn speech on the Senate floor every single
week for years. I have presided during those they make
your eyes want to bleed, they're so bad. Elon Musk
has produced more electric vehicles than any human being who
has ever lived. Like, if you actually believe their rhetoric
(43:06):
about climate change, the left should be carving Elon's face
into Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
But so they were firebombing Tesla doers. They were firebombing
so damaged to because.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
He supported Trump and who cares. Like every word they
said about climate change was all garbage. If you support Trump,
you must be destroyed. And it demonstrated the absolute hypocrisy
the left. And I gotta say, Scott, I commend you
because you work on CNN every day. You like you
swim in that hypocrisy. And what you do a nice
(43:41):
job of doing is you're not mean or bitter about it.
You do it with a slightly amused you're full of crap.
And look, if you were mean and punching him the face,
it wouldn't work. But you do it more gently, and
it is devastating and beautiful.
Speaker 5 (43:57):
These are the lessons of President Reagan. We're all happy warriors.
We argue best when we argue with a smile on
our face and a little bit of humor and a
little bit of self reflection. And I found those debating
tactics to be of great use on CNN. I think
we're reaching people. I'll give you one other reason to
buy this book. Everybody has a relative that's like totally
lost to Trump derangement syndrome. I'll give you a piece
(44:19):
of advice. You buy this book and wrap it up
and put another Christmas tree. It'll be the most memorable
Christmas you ever had.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
All Right, So the book is a revolution of common sense.
How Donald Trump stormed Washington and fought for Western civilization
is by Scott Jennings. We are at the beginning of December.
Christmas time is coming up. So I'm going to say,
don't just buy one by two, three four, Buy it
for your crazy uncle Joe, buy it for your kids.
Go buy the book. It is a great thing. I
(44:47):
will say it is almost as good before Ben Ferguson,
the Great Ben Ferguson. The previous co host of my
podcast was Michael Knowles. His first book was What is
It All? The Wisdom of the Democrats? I think is
what it was entitled. The book.
Speaker 4 (45:02):
Yeah, and it was an empty book.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
The sob has made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling
a blank book, empty book genius, and he continues to
sell it. People go buy Michael every Christmas.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Christmas, Michael Knowles gets a great check and I'm proud
of that check he gets because people buy it for
their crazy kid or their crazy daughter's boyfriend who's a
woke liberal out there.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
I will say the last book I wrote, I did
inscribe to Michael on the blank front page. I said,
I apologize, but I did plagiarize this page from your book.
That's great, So by Scott's book by Mouppies.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Grab the book wherever you can on Amazon, buy it
for your family friends.
Speaker 4 (45:46):
It's an awesome book.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
One thing I'll say about the book that I personally
think you're going to really like is the fact that
he talks about the cabinet members and what they had
to say. I think it's going to go down in
history is the most the biggest secret weapon of Donald
Trump is going to be this cabinet and how they
work so well with him. You get a lot of
what they had to say in the book as well,
because you sit down with those cabinet member Scott. I
think that's probably one of the coolest parts of the
(46:08):
aspect of this book.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
So grab that as well. That's a really fun part.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
And listen for our listeners. I will apologize in the
picture section of the book, Scott does include naked pictures
of him in Nantucket. I'm sorry for that, but you know, look,
you gotta do what you can to sell a book. Yeah,
this photo shoot for that was actually quite amazing. Useless
all right, I want the record to record. I've never
seen Scott Jenny speechless, and I think for at least
(46:35):
a half second.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
You were Yeah, we took those pictures on a warm day.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
What is that out of Seinfeld? The water is cold,
but it was cold.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Oh, it's great.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
Don't forget.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
We do this podcast Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Hit that subscriber
auto download button. Grab Scott's book. Yes, it does a
great radio show as well in the Salem Networks. You
can you can listen to that as well in the Senate.
I will see you back here in a couple of days.
Welcome in his verdict with Center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you and Senator, We're going to have a really
fun show today with a happy warrior, A good friend
of mine, a good friend of yours is going to
join us, a man that you know from probably going
viral on CNN. Scott Jennings is going to join us
to talk about a really cool book he's written where
(00:21):
he actually got to sit down multiple times with the
President and every one of the cabinet members to talk
about the inner workings of the President, what he's doing
to save the country.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
We have a terrific guest on our show today, Scott Jennings,
the intrepid conservative warrior who goes on CNN every day.
He battles the crazy comedies on CNN. He does so
with a smile, he does so with a light touch.
He absolutely dominates the lefties. And he's written a brand
new book and the book is entitled A Revolution of
(00:51):
Common Sense How Donald Trump stormed Washington and fought for
Western civilization. Here's the book. I would encourage you go
by it. And we're going to talk to Scott right
now about this book and about battling for truth and
justice every day on CNN.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Speaking about truth and justice.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
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All right, it's really fun on Verdict when we get
to take a moment to have a good friend on
especially when they're out there selling a great book that
(03:03):
you should check out.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Cenator. You're in Washington, d C. I'm obviously in Houston.
This man.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
I get to do battle with the comedies on CNN.
Often they've stopped putting us together. I think that's on purpose.
I think they didn't like it was an unfair fight.
When you have the brilliant brain of Scott and then
you know I'm there as well. I'm not saying I'm brilliant,
but I'm saying it's a nice duo here.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
But it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
To have Scott Dinnings with us on the podcast where
a really cool book he has put out.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Well, Ben, I will say, you spent seven years battling
the comedies on CNN and then I love you man,
But you ran scared for the hills. Ah.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
You came to the.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Safe confines of the Verdict podcast swhere. Other than some
ridicule about old miss and you used to have a
football coach. Other than that, you avoid any confrontation.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yes, outside of that, I'm Switzerland, as you put it, sir,
in Republican primaries.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
So and I will say Scott Jennings has joined us.
I got to tell you Scott is on CNN now.
He is battling with these Bolshevik idiots and I actually
feel bad for them because like he is beating the
living crack out of them, and I watch I watch
(04:22):
the clips on Twitter. I'll confess I do not watch CNN,
so it's got to go viral for me to watch it.
If it's actually on TV, I won't turn the damn
thing on. But if you have a moment that is
ninety seconds that you're just like body slamming someone I
inject it like heroin into my veins. I mean, it
is so all right. And let's be clear. Why is
(04:45):
Scott here. He is here for the oldest reason in
the book. So it is eleven forty three at night.
This poor man has to get up at four in
the morning to fly on a plane to La correct.
He is here for one reason only. It's not that
he loves me. It's not that he loves Ben Ferguson.
Here because he is selling a damn book.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
So it's a good one.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
It's a good So his book is a revolution of
common sense, how Donald Trump stormed Washington and fought for
Western civilization. And there's a great picture of Donald Trump
and a bright red tie. So go buy his book.
His book is on Amazon, It's on Barnes and Noble.
I feel confident you can get it. And any place
books are sold, yes, sir, other than a lefty bookstore
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they will not have this book, but
(05:26):
they will have how to be a transgender Witch and
study Marxism. So if you want that book, go to
that bookstore. But anywhere else you can get a revolution
and common sense. Scott, Welcome to Verdict.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Thanks for having me on, and it's a true story
about the bookstores. We've been setting up book tour events
around the country, so we'll call ahead and say, oh,
these people want to buy you a couple hundred books,
and we've been hung up on We've been told no.
I mean, I'm like literally trying to filter, you know,
book purchases through your.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Bookstore, and they literally won't do it.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
And so we talk about these lefties constantly complaining about
banning books.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
The only one I ever.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Heard of was this one.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It would carry it, all right.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So how did you come? How did you start to be?
And Sea tell us the start of how this began.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
Yeah, I've actually been there for eight and a half years,
but for the first six years of it or so,
it was really very much a part time job for me.
I got recruited in twenty seventeen. I had done some
work on Fox News in the election in twenty sixteen.
They recruited me over because after Trump won and they
didn't expect it, they didn't have many conservatives been was there,
he knows, and so they were looking for a few
(06:33):
people who could explain what was going on, and so
I did it. It was very part time. But then in
the twenty twenty four election and the advent of this
debating show, it's become a much bigger part of my life.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
So I've been a long time.
Speaker 5 (06:47):
Member of the family, but lately it's taken up a
big percentage of my life.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Scott, I want to ask you real quick about this book.
And the cool part about this book is a lot
of people write books, but one of the things is
you actually talked to the White House the President about
writing the book and them cooperating with you to do
this book.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
How did that come about?
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Who did you get to sit with How often did
you get talk to the President to come up with
all of the material in it?
Speaker 5 (07:14):
Yeah, I went to see him in February. You know
this title, a revolution of common Sense is a phrase
that he used in his inaugural address. I was sitting
on the set at CNN listening to the speech, thinking
that would be a good title for a book, and
so I went to pitch a president on it. Truthfully,
I didn't really know him. I talked about him a lot,
but it hadn't spent any time with him. So I
went to meet with him in early February and thought
I was meeting with him alone. I went into the
(07:35):
Oval office, and the whole cabinet and the staff were there,
so I sort of got inserted into one of these
famous meetings where it's like six meetings at the same time,
and we spent some time together. And I just told
him that day, like, I think one hundred of the
usual suspects are going to come along and write books
crapping on you. I think someone who likes you and
voted for you and wants you to succeed, should, you know,
(07:57):
get a chance to cooperate with you about a book
about what you're trying to accomplish here and the obstacles
that you face. I told him, I thought he revolutionized
campaigning in twenty twenty four, and he was about to
revolutionize governing, and that it would be a good opportunity
to tell the story to you know, half or a
little more than half the country that doesn't get that
much good news or you know, true narrative about what's
(08:17):
going on out of his White House.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And so we discussed it. He agreed.
Speaker 5 (08:21):
I spent some time with him a few meetings over
the course of the spring. I traveled with him to
Michigan on his one hundred day in office. I interviewed
most of the cabinet, interviewed quite a bit of the
White House senior staff, and you know, some of the
book is also just my observations. I picked out the
issues that I thought were the biggest ticket issues of
the first hundred days, and some of it's also informed
(08:42):
by the debates that I was having on CNN.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
I was, so, what are the biggest ticket issues from
the first hundred days.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Well, at number one, I thought the volume of executive
orders made his presidency the most active presidency since FDR.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
To immigration is a big issue in this book.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
At a massive success.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
And probably his biggest success, and it's the biggest promise.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Kept ninety nine percent decrease. I mean, that's insane, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
We have passed any new laws.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
As you know, We've just got a new enforcement mechanism
called the President. And then also energy frankly, and the
book kind of ends where they're getting to passing the
big beautiful bill and the energy piece and sort of
how that's going to impact the race to win the
AI competition against China. Also, frankly, some of the cultural
(09:28):
issues that he took on transgender issues, the DEI stuff.
I mean, these are not inconsequential matters because not only
did he sort of rip them out of government, but
it created a permission structure to rip them out of
corporate America. Yes, even just today, I think I saw
AT and T get rid of their DEI stuff finally,
and so the world's changed. It was an amalgam of policy, political,
(09:50):
and cultural issues, and he put a lot of balls
in the air. A lot went through the net, some
are still laying out there. But what I came away
with was this that when you become a Republican president,
you have entrenched things that are working to destroy You
have media that's trying to destroy you, bureaucraft's trying to
destroy you, you have federal judiciary trying to destroy you.
(10:13):
And they're all sort of worked together to overwhelm you.
And he basically just decided, I'm not going to be overwhelmed.
I'm going to overwhelm them.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
That's the story of the book.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
So look, I think there are very real differences between
first term President Trump and second term President Trump. What
do you see is the biggest differences?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Totally agree.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Spending time observing him with the team, he got the
team that matches his leadership style.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
First time around, not sure they expected to win, sort
of inherited, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
The first time. I think they were kind of the
dog that caught the car. They were like, holy crap,
we won. And I'll confess that there were some mistakes
in terms of the early appointments that were people that
were put in the administration the first term who worked
against the president. And I think he regrets making those
appointments this. I think the second term is much better.
It's a much stronger team.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Yeah, and they know how to work with him. They
know that they're there to execute his agenda, not their own, yep.
And they also understand the hands on nature of it.
What I witnessed in the Oval office with him is
this is not a passive sort of situation. This is
him telling them, go do this and come back to
me and report. One of the cabinet secretaries said to me,
you can tell the President we're working on it one time,
(11:24):
but you don't get a second bite at that out.
He expects you to go do it and come back
and tell him what's happened and give your progress report.
I witnessed that, and so this time around. They thought
they were going to win. They knew who they wanted
to do a point, they knew the issues they wanted
to attend.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
And they had spent four years thinking about exactly what
they wanted to hit, and so they hit the ground
running with a speed. I mean, there is literally no
precedent in American history for a president that has moved
so fast, so many executive orders, so many actions, and listen,
the vast majority I agree with are a couple of
missteps that I think occurred. But you know what, I
would describe this as a bias towards action versus a
(12:03):
bias towards it action. And I'll take action. If you're
moving fast, you make a few things. But they are
moving And it's I joke, but it's actually the truth.
I wake up every morning, I grab my cel phone
and I'm like, what the hell did we do today? Yeah?
And it is, I mean, it is fast moving.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
And in the early days, in the.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Early days of this, it had the effect of overwhelming
the opposition. Yes, the Democrats really didn't know what hit
them for the first several weeks of what he was doing.
And one reporter told me that I interviewed she said,
we don't know what to cover every day because.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
There's so much we don't know where to start. That
was the point.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
He overwhelmed the forces that normally try to engulf and
suck under any Republican administration.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
So you and I met twenty five years ago when
we were both young staffers and the George W. Bush administration.
You were in the White House, and we've known each
other a long time. And I actually came up with
this theory then, which is there is a quantum of
outrage in the media, and I call it the arsenic quantum.
(13:08):
So if you remember, in two thousand and one, George W.
Bush becomes president and one of the first things that
happens is the EPA repeals a rule from the Democrat
administration concerning the percentage of arsenic that could be at
a water and it went from I don't know, like
four million parts per gallon or whatever it was to
(13:31):
five million parts per gallon. I mean, it was an
infinitesimal shift, but the media lost their ever loving mind,
and for about three months, every media story was George W.
Bush wants to put arsenic in your water to poison
your kids, and I mean their hair was on fire.
They were losing their minds. And I think one of
the things that the tru President Trump has understood, particularly
(13:53):
the second term, that's all the outrage there is. So
if you do one hundred things and a hundred things
that are incredibly consequential, you get the arsenic quantum of outrage.
They're still they scream, but they don't know what to
hit because they're moving so fast on so many fronts.
They're repealing regulations, they're implementing policies that the media are
(14:17):
just frustrated out of their mind. You're living on CNN.
Do you see that on a daily basis?
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Yes, I mean every day you're going to get some
outrage about some I mean today, the guy had a
three hour cabinet meeting.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
YEP.
Speaker 5 (14:29):
So I showed up over there this afternoon and for
like six seconds of the three hours, he closed his
eyes listening to Marco Rubio talk about something. And they're like, oh,
Donald Trump slept through a cabinet meeting. He literally conducted
a three hour meeting. He held a press conference at
the end of it.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
This is crazy.
Speaker 5 (14:46):
And so yes, they have to pick something and try
to generate outrage, whether it's warranted or not. I will
tell you I think in this book and my recollections
of the first part of the year, the outrage was
almost all directed towards these immigrats stories. Yeah, particularly the
Kilmer Obrego Garcia case.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
And that's so.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Tell me, do you think it is a good political
judgment for Democrats to say our party wants more illegal alien,
violent gang member, wife abusing human trafficking criminals in America,
and if you elect us, the Democrats, we will bring
MS thirteen to your neighborhood. Like, help me explain, Help
(15:30):
me understand the reasoning behind a party that says, let's
go have dakeries with MS thirteen gang bangers and say
we're for bringing them into your community.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:43):
I'm only moderately good at math. But no, I don't
think that is a great political strategy. But you know,
I also think they're doing it again on this narco
terrorist issue. I mean, you've got people out here, you know,
buying into the idea that these poor Venezuelan fishermen, you know,
have fallen under the gaze of Don Trump.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
You look at the loud style fasherman. Fisherman don't have
twelve kilos of.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
Coke in their boat and then you know, on top
of that sort of basically.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Maybe it's one hundred kilos of coke. I don't even
know how much they have, but it ain't good.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
And also threatening these I mean essentially that like Mark
Kelly and others are saying, now, look, if you follow
the president's orders, we may come back to you in
a few years and retroactively decide that you broke the law,
and we will come after you if you help the
president serve as the legitimately elected commander in chief. I mean,
that's what they're It's all about throwing sand in the gears,
(16:34):
shut down the government to keep him from operating, get
military people to stop obeying orders, to keep him from
operating his commander in chief. That's the outrage that is
coming out of their base. It's it's the demand, like
you must stop him because we still don't give him
as legitimate.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
They're the party of hate, Like the unifying theme of
the Democrat Party is they hate, hate, hate Donald J. Trump,
and and it's performance theater each one of them. The
shutdown happened because Chuck Schumer and the Democrats had to
show they hate him, Yes, and it is. Listen, I've
been in the Senate thirteen years. This is the stupidest
(17:11):
shutdown I've ever seen because it had no objective other
than simply demonstrating we hate Trump. And look you see
it on CNN. I mean, I mean, I actually really
like your book, A Revolution of common Sense. You know
it used to be all right, So there's a very
common As you talk to people just across the country,
(17:33):
there are a lot of folks that will say both
parties have gotten to extreme, and that sounds very reasonable.
Like if you're sitting around at the dinner table and
you say that, that makes you seem very reasoned, very moderate.
And I'll say to folks like, look, I get why
you're saying that. That feels like it makes sense. I
just don't think it's true.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I agree with you.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
And if you look at the two parties, one part
of the Democrat Party has gone backcrap crazy. I mean
they've embraced policies complete open borders, embracing human traffickers and
narco terrorists, abolishing the police, boys and girls, sports mutilizing
little boys and little girls like these are extreme rat
(18:17):
embracing hamas, celebrating anti Semitic protesters, Like, it's almost like
every issue that's eighty twenty. Yes, they went across the
bard and said, let's take the twenty. Let's take the twenty.
Sometimes it's ninety ten.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
And why because Trump's on the eighty.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And if you look at the other side, and I'll
say to people over dinner, I'll say, look, what are
Trump's policy positions? Secure the border, cut taxes, cut job
killing regulations, support small businesses, support the police, protect our families,
support the constitution, and the Bill of.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Rights, welfare reform.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
Like those are mainstream, middle of the road positions. Those
are not crazy right wing positions. Those are common sense.
And what's amazing is the Democrats have abandoned the middle
of the of the field. They've abandoned the middle ground. Now,
sometimes the rhetoric is a little hot, so the sort
(19:14):
of both sides are two extreme. I do wish occasionally
the rhetoric would ratchet back a little bit, but the
actual substance of the policies, and I got to say,
even when I'm sitting down with lefties that they don't
have a good response, like what policies is Trump implementing
that are extreme? Well, he's deporting illegal aliens, you know,
you mean like Barack Obama, who deported millions of illegal aliens.
(19:36):
Like he's actually going and arresting murderers and rapists and
child molesters and gang mayors. That ain't extreme. So my
question to you, number one, do you agree with that?
And since you've been nodding emphatically, I kind of assumed
that the answers yes, But I'm not nodding. Off you
close your eyes for a second. And by the way,
(19:57):
I have that effect a lot. I put people to sleep,
So feel free to not off. But if you agree,
here's my real question why, Like, if you're imagine for
a second you're in the ninth circle of Dante's Inferno
and you are Chuck Schumer's chief political advisor, why would
you do this? Like, what's the reasoning that? Presumably they
(20:21):
think this makes sense? So what would what would a
Democrat strategist say that would justify this.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Well, it's very simple fear, and they operate out of fear.
I mean during the shutdown, which you're exactly right, this
was the most pointless exercise. One of your colleagues anonymously
told a newspaper, Oh, we have plenty of votes to
open the government, but none of us want to face
the guillotine.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Their words, Yeah, their words.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
So they're using the language of the French Revolution to
describe their own political base. They operate only out of fear,
not principle, not ideas. It's strictly operating out of fear,
and it's also strictly operating out of hate. I totally
agree with you, and this this is something about the
book that I've picked up on. If Trump has sort
of an idea of like what the eighties are and
(21:05):
he knows, they will reflexively pick the twenties because he
picked the eighties. Whether it's secure the border or get
rid of paper straws, either way, it's going to drive
Democrats into a silly position. I, for one, want toilets
that can't flush and don't have enough water to actually
remove your your waist, like, like.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Who the heck is that an eighty twenty or is
that a ninety ten issue?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
That would be a ninety ten okay, that don't disintegrate
in your mouth, Toilets that can remove your extrement, and
like light bulbs that can turn on, like.
Speaker 5 (21:40):
There may be a dark niche corner of the Internet
that takes the other side of the toilet issue. But
most people, most people would like more water.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
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(22:09):
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Speaker 4 (22:48):
Scott. I want to ask you your question.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Quick as side hold on part of Verdict is bringing
you inside the Senate. So I'm going to tell you
a funny story. So when the Democrats, when Harry Reid
had the majority, just off the Senate floor, there is
a restroom that is the senator's restroom, and when the
Democrats took over, they replaced the toilet paper with little
(23:15):
square strips of Kleenex. And it was the most frustrating.
I assume it's some lefty environmentalist idea that like a
tiny little like four by four square is what you
would pull off one at a time. And it was infuriating.
And that's what the.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Democrats are saving the environment, sir, You were saving the
environment one square at a time.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Man.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
So when we retook the Senate in twenty fourteen, Richard
Shelby became the chairman of the Rules Committee, Republican from Alabama.
Richard is a good guy. It's good friend, and I'm
on the rolls Committee. I came to Richard. I said, okay, Richard,
I got a simple request, and could you put some
friggin toilet paper in the restroom that actually works? And
(23:55):
like two weeks later, I go to the restroom and
there's a roll of toilet paper there, and I will confess.
I went to Richard. I said, Richard, I've got your
reelection campaign slogan. You need to make a bumper sticker
right now, Richard Shelby, he gets shipped done.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
And I will confess.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Even when Schumer took over, he did not return to
the little squares of paper and it remains remains fixed
to this day. But why is that complicated? And yet
for the Democrats? Like, all right, is there any person
on earth that does not hate a paper straw that
disintegrates in your mouth and doesn't actually serve the function
(24:37):
of taking the liquid in your cup?
Speaker 1 (24:39):
All right, So you're gonna as The only one I
hate more than that is the bamboo straw that cracks
every single time.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
The paper straw story, which I tell in the book.
Actually I was in the Oval office today he signed
the executive.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Order on paper straws. It.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
It was something funny actually when I was in there,
like some aid came in. He said, mister President, I
just found out they're still using paper straws in the
White House.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Mess He said something like, well, I guess they still
had a few left over, you know, from Biden or whatever.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
But I tell the story of that paper straw because
it's it's even more absurd than you think. Number One,
they got the idea for paper straws because like a
little kid gave a school report one day claiming that
Americans were using like tens of millions of plastic straws
and they were going in the ocean.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
It was completely fabricated.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
And then the other thing about paper straws is that
they actually contain lots of these like chemicals and plastics
in the paper straws that you ingest because they dissolve
in the water. So it's terrible for you and it's
terrible for the environment.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I haven't heard that, but I can believe that.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Yes, and so.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
But because this kid one day in his like elementary school,
gave some report about supposed plastic straws in the ocean,
Democrats adopted this cause of banning plastic straws. And Donald Trump.
It took Donald Trump winning an election to finally bring.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Back all right, So let me ask you, it's amazing
a decade from now now, what is going to be
the legacy of Donald J. Trump. What are people going
to remember from the Trump presidency?
Speaker 5 (26:07):
Broad macro foreign policy wins, bringing peace to all the
corners of planet Earth. I think he has been the
most consequential foreign policy.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
So why what has But I agree with you, But
what has been consequential? What has mattered?
Speaker 5 (26:23):
Well, what has mattered is you now have a strong
American president who's willing to engage. I mean, this was
the great failing of Biden. He was weak, and he
was indecisive, and he didn't fundamentally believe in engagement. And
they didn't trust him. The other players on the board
didn't trust him, and they didn't really care what he
had to say, and so he weren't afraid of him. Yeah,
(26:44):
and that's a dangerous thing. I think our enemies should
be afraid of the commander in chief. And I will
tell you.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I talk with our allies, I talk with with our adversaries,
and our enemies are afraid of Donald J. Trump. That's
a good thing. I want Iran afraid of Trump. I
want North Korea afraid of Trump. I want Venezuela afraid
of Trump. I want Cuba afraid of Trump. I want
China afraid of Trump. And look, it goes back to
(27:14):
when Reagan was president. The philosophy of peace through strength,
that is what Trump is implementing. And I will say
there's a debate in our policy, in our party. There
are some who are arguing, oh, Trump is an isolationist.
He's never been an isolation never. He's not interested in
extending in unnecessary foreign wars. And I agree with him
in that, and he has been ending wars, which is
(27:37):
the right thing. But look, he stands up to our
enemies in one of the great faults. Both the isolationists
left and the isolationists right believes that if you don't
engage with your enemies, it will produce peace. History stands
to the contrary. I pointed out there's a reason nobody
(27:58):
studies at the Nevill Chamberlain School of Foreign fiew like
appeasement doesn't work. And if you want to avoid war,
the best way to do it is to be so
strong that your enemies are terrified as screwing with you.
And Trump is doing a fabulous job of doing that.
And the difference between Biden and Trump is weakness versus strength,
and weakness produces war and strength produces peace.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, I think this will be an enduring legacy for him.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
And you know, we talk about war and peace a lot,
and that's the phrase we may just talk about peace
and war because he is a peace president, yes, and
he's for smart engagement, but he's not for adventurism.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
I think that's one. Number two.
Speaker 5 (28:34):
I mean, clearly he showed us how to enforce current
immigration laws. That's a legacy. And number three, I think
what they're doing on AI actually putting the United States
in the position to win the AI race, to produce
enough energy to win it. That is going to be
talked about ten, fifteen, twenty years from today. Did we
do what we had to do to defeat China? I
(28:54):
think we are. I think most of our tech companies
think we are. And so if that comes to pass,
those are three pretty great legacies.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
So let's talk about the third one for a second.
So on AI. AI is an issue I care about
a lot, and I agree with you that we are
in a race. AI is coming and either the United
States is gonna win or China's gonna win. And I
think the world is much much worse off if China wins,
and it's much better off of America wins. I will
tell you the polling on AI is terrible. AI is
(29:24):
unpopular in America. If you do almost any polling. I
use it's about seventy thirty. People are terrified. They're afraid
they're going to lose their jobs. They don't trust it,
they're scared of it. And I get that, And in fact,
I talk with a lot of the tech leaders and
I say, look, if you don't engage on this issue,
the easy political outcome. Every Democrat and a number of
(29:44):
Republicans are like, AI is horrible, We oppose it, and
that if you look at the polling, that's that's the
knee jerk response. I get that fear. I understand anytime
you have economic disloke, it is frightening, it is dangerous.
But at the end of the day, I'm not a lot.
(30:05):
I don't think you can stop technological advancement. I'll give
you an example. If I could right now destroy every
cell phone in America, I would. I think these are
evil portals to everything harmful in the world. All three
of us are parents. These things invite every horrible force
to our children. But we don't live in that world.
(30:27):
We can't end that. I'd also like a world with
no nuclear weapons. Like if I could push a button
and every nuclear weapon disappear, I would, But we don't
live in that world. And if we're going to live
in a world with nuclear weapons, I sure want to
make sure the United States has enough that China and Russian,
our enemies, can't dominate US. I view AI in the
same world, even if you don't want it to happen.
It is coming, and one of two outcomes will occur
(30:51):
in five to ten years. Either China will have won
the race, in which case AI worldwide will reflect China's
values will be totalitarian, controlling will be censoring, will reflect
the values of communists China, or America will have one,
in which case, hopefully AI will reflect American values of freedom,
free enterprise, free speech. That is a massive shift between
(31:14):
those two worlds. World two is much better, where America wins.
Two questions. Number one, do you agree with that? And
number two? If so, how does the politics change? Do
you agree with my point that right now the politics
is against AI and that is dangerous?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
I agree.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
First of all on point one. I agree with everything
you said about which world we want to live in.
Number two, I agree with you on the polling, and
I think people have a healthier fear of how this
is going to upend their life and reasonable and which
is a reasonable fear? And so the next iteration of
this march towards AI is going to have to be
not how it's going to make your life worse?
Speaker 2 (31:55):
How's it going to make your life better?
Speaker 5 (31:57):
How is any other technological evolution all stimately made your
life better? And so that explanation has to come. And
then point four is just going to be how are
we going to power it all? And you know, are
we going to be able to produce enough energy to
do what we have to do now?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Plus what we.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Have to do AI is energy, and if we don't
not leash energy, we cannot win the race FRAEI.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
One other issue on this that is on my mind
is how are we going to build enough of these
data centers to win this thing? I'm noticing in local
communities in a lot of places, folks are like rising
up against data center development.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
So the polling is terrible in most communities. But I
will say, by the way, one of the few exceptions
is sort of West Texas. You've got West Texas in
the Panhandle and you're seeing a ton of data centers
come in there, and Texans are like, all right, we
want jobs, we want investment. We want billions in investment,
and there'll be jobs for construction, there'll be jobs for
running the data centers. Look, I think in dense urban
(32:50):
areas people are afraid. They're afraid it will suck power,
it will drive up their electricity prices, it will suck water,
And I get those fears. Look, anyone, if you're given
a choice, do you want something that will make your
life worse or better? People are naturally going to say,
I don't want something that makes my life worse. And so.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I think the guy by the way, Sentata, I had
a guy the other day that said to me in
the AI industry, he said, the hardest part for them
now is overcoming what you're describing, because he said they're
polling that internally says that the fear and a lot
of parts of the country right now are at the
level of where they were with nuclear reactors back in
the eighties.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yes, interesting now, and there's been a lot of demagoguay
and but there's also the demagoguery is there. But I
will say the fears of AI are real and justified.
And all right, Look, with every great technological change, there's
been economic dislocation. So when the automobile was invented, the
(33:49):
horse and buggy industry was decimated, and if you were
in the buggy business, you were screwed. The difference with
AI is twofold. Number One, the volume is greater. I
think there are going to be more jobs that are
going to be threatened by AI than have been in
previous technological innovations. Number two, it's a different contour of jobs.
(34:14):
So often in the past it's been blue collar jobs
that have been at risk. Many of the jobs that
are at risk with AI are white collar jobs. There
if you look at Mondami, part of what elected Mandami
is you have young college graduates who have two hundred
thousand dollars in college debt who were told I can
(34:35):
go and be an investment banker, a consultant, or an accountant,
and they're seeing those jobs being eliminated as AI is
replacing thousands and thousands of those jobs. That's a level
of I guess I would call elite discontent that is
politically complicated and so and I get those concerns are
(35:00):
very real. If you've gone and worked hard, and you've
got a degree, and you took out loans and you
were told this is what I got to do, and
then suddenly you come out and you can't get a job,
you're pissed like. That's a very real concern. And so
I actually think as policy makers, as people in an
elected office, we need to have real solutions to that
problem because that disc content is not illegitimate, but it
(35:25):
is driving much of this resistance, and it's a very
real battle.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
We've got, well and you have now, for you know,
many years, people teaching their children here's the course you
got to get on. If you well in school, go
to college, you can get one of these white collar jobs.
And you know, for you know, a few generation we've
been telling people this is the path. It may not
be the path anymore. We're going to have to reorient
how we're educating kids, what we're teaching them to do,
(35:51):
What other skills can we teach them to do. I
agree with you on the white collar versus blue collar issue.
Also creatives, I mean I speaked out. I've seen Ai
apps and a matter of seconds write songs that sounded
like they had a whole team of musicians and writers
over weeks putting them together in California, And it literally
happened on my phone in a matter of seconds.
Speaker 3 (36:12):
By the way, I'll tell you in politics, it's interesting.
I'll pull up AI and I'll ask something like, what
has Cruz said on the following issue? And listen, I've
been doing this a long time, so I don't remember
every comment I've given in every newspaper interview ten years ago,
and in like four seconds it comes out with he
said this here, he said this here, and it like
traces and it's like.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
It's insane.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
It is insane. The ability of power you have on
your cell phone.
Speaker 5 (36:40):
Oh yeah, I mean, and it's basically free. I mean
information for the first time in human history is basically
accessible to all and free to all and instant. And yeah,
it's I can see why the pulling on this is bad. Now,
the positive outlook here is how can we use these
tools to make your life easy, make you more productive,
(37:01):
and maybe make you more economically successful. Maybe you haven't
conceived of how that will work yet, but that's the
challenge of these companies that are developing the technology.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
Well, in past, technological inventions that have increased productivity have
created brand new jobs, created grand, brand new focuses, and
so dislocation doesn't mean that people lose jobs forever. But
it is complicated. All right. Let me ask you this. Yep,
you're listening to this podcast right now. You're trying to
decide do I buy Scott Jennings' book. What's the sixty
(37:35):
second pitch for why you right now should go on Amazon.
As you're listening to this, click on and buy the book.
What's the most powerful reason to buy the book?
Speaker 5 (37:44):
Because most of the political narrative and information narrative you
get on Trump, I think is totally misguided.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
A lot of it's false.
Speaker 5 (37:53):
This is a true inside account of how Donald Trump
retook power, what he did with that power, how he
overcame the interest to execute on the promises that he made.
I think you'll see some eye popping quotes in here
from people like Marco Rubio, Scott Bessen, and Elon Musk,
who I interviewed on his one hundred and first day
in office, and I could tell by the way he
was bent out of shape that day and really worried
(38:16):
about the future of Western civilization. I didn't know he
was going to have his dramatic momentary break.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
But how quickly after your interview did that happen?
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Just a couple of weeks. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
It was.
Speaker 2 (38:26):
It was day one oh one, and of course he
got been out of shape.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
So I was actually sitting in the Oval office when
Elon like really unloaded on Trump and unloaded on Twitter,
and it was I will say, I was having a
meeting with Trump on school choice, where I had brought
Byron Donald's and Burgess Owen's in and We're in the
middle of the one big, beautiful bill, and I was
trying to make the case, mister President, there's nothing we
(38:49):
can do that's more important in this bill than school choice.
This will be a legacy. I said, if we get
this done, you will go down in history. Your critics
will never acknowledge this, but you will go down in
history as the greatest civil rights president of our lifetimes.
We ended up getting it done, so we adopted the
school choice provision that I wrote. But in the middle
of that meeting, as I'm pitching it to Elon sent
(39:11):
I will say his most aggressive tweet against Trump. And
so Trump is actually not on his phone a ton.
So when you're in the Oval, they will print out
tweets on a piece of paper and they will hand
it to him, and they handed it to him, and look,
Elon is a very good friend. President Trump is a
(39:31):
very good friend. I will say when that particular tweet
came out, he was pissed and our meeting was done.
We were there for another half hour, but our discussion
topic was gone because he was like unloading. So it
was And I'm very glad I spent a lot of
time with both President Trump and Elon. I'm very glad
(39:53):
that that acrimony has diminished substantially in that they've come
back together, because I think they're both incredibly important leaders
for the country, and I think we're better off if
they're rowing together than if they're antagonist.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
Yeah, the day that they had their break, I was
on CNN when it happened. I picked up a garbage
can and I put my head in it live on
the air to mimic how I thought all Republicans were feeling.
Because when they joined forces, yes, they worked together to
do nothing less than begin the process of saving the West.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Amen.
Speaker 5 (40:27):
If we had not won the November twenty twenty four election,
we would be on a death spiral for the future
of the West.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Trump is our leader in this. Elon knows it.
Speaker 5 (40:36):
He's worried about our fiscal situation, the mass migration crisis,
the birth rate crisis, and all these things converging to
destroy the West.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
He knows that.
Speaker 5 (40:46):
I think Trump and the Republicans are the only vehicle
to save it. And so when they had their break,
I mean it was a it was a vomit inducing moment,
but it appears to me that they're rea and by
the way, on much better footing.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Seeing the two of them come back together was important.
And listen, nobody who knows the two of them well
thought that the romance was going to last forever. So
the first several months where they were just like bosom buddies.
They're both alpha males. They every room they have been
(41:20):
in for the last thirty years, everyone in the room
has deferred to them and kissed the rear ends. And
you didn't have to be the most sophisticated analyst of
human nature to say, Okay, that's probably not going to
last forever as a harmonious when they're both used to
being the guy the a dog. That's going to end.
(41:45):
I don't think any of us envisioned it would end
quite so spectacularly in a technicolor manner. I think most
of us figured, Okay, they'll come a point where they say,
all right, let's just go our separate ways and do
our things. But and the good news is it got
really ugly. And by the way, I use the analogy
(42:05):
that I felt, like, you know, the children of divorced
parents saying, I wish mommy and daddy would stop fighting
because it like it was, it was painful. Because they're
both I admire.
Speaker 5 (42:14):
Them, both agree I'm the same way. I've defended them
both on television. And the attacks Elon faced for the
sin of supporting a Republican and choosing to do public service,
that was his only sin.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
And by the way, Elon demonstrates the utter hypocrisy of
the left. So the left for a decade has been
saying that climate change is destroying the world and nothing
matters more. We should produce massive human poverty to stop
climate change because if we don't, humanity will be extinct.
That's been their talking point for a decade. Sheldon Whitehouse
(42:45):
gives a damn speech on the Senate floor every single
week for years. I have presided during those they make
your eyes want to bleed, they're so bad. Elon Musk
has produced more electric vehicles than any human being who
has ever lived. Like, if you actually believe their rhetoric
(43:06):
about climate change, the left should be carving Elon's face
into Mount Rushmore.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
But so they were firebombing Tesla doers. They were firebombing
so damaged to because.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
He supported Trump and who cares. Like every word they
said about climate change was all garbage. If you support Trump,
you must be destroyed. And it demonstrated the absolute hypocrisy
the left. And I gotta say, Scott, I commend you
because you work on CNN every day. You like you
swim in that hypocrisy. And what you do a nice
(43:41):
job of doing is you're not mean or bitter about it.
You do it with a slightly amused you're full of crap.
And look, if you were mean and punching him the face,
it wouldn't work. But you do it more gently, and
it is devastating and beautiful.
Speaker 5 (43:57):
These are the lessons of President Reagan. We're all happy warriors.
We argue best when we argue with a smile on
our face and a little bit of humor and a
little bit of self reflection. And I found those debating
tactics to be of great use on CNN. I think
we're reaching people. I'll give you one other reason to
buy this book. Everybody has a relative that's like totally
lost to Trump derangement syndrome. I'll give you a piece
(44:19):
of advice. You buy this book and wrap it up
and put another Christmas tree. It'll be the most memorable
Christmas you ever had.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
All Right, So the book is a revolution of common sense.
How Donald Trump stormed Washington and fought for Western civilization
is by Scott Jennings. We are at the beginning of December.
Christmas time is coming up. So I'm going to say,
don't just buy one by two, three four, Buy it
for your crazy uncle Joe, buy it for your kids.
Go buy the book. It is a great thing. I
(44:47):
will say it is almost as good before Ben Ferguson,
the Great Ben Ferguson. The previous co host of my
podcast was Michael Knowles. His first book was What is
It All? The Wisdom of the Democrats? I think is
what it was entitled. The book.
Speaker 4 (45:02):
Yeah, and it was an empty book.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
The sob has made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling
a blank book, empty book genius, and he continues to
sell it. People go buy Michael every Christmas.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Christmas, Michael Knowles gets a great check and I'm proud
of that check he gets because people buy it for
their crazy kid or their crazy daughter's boyfriend who's a
woke liberal out there.
Speaker 4 (45:25):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (45:26):
I will say the last book I wrote, I did
inscribe to Michael on the blank front page. I said,
I apologize, but I did plagiarize this page from your book.
That's great, So by Scott's book by Mouppies.
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Grab the book wherever you can on Amazon, buy it
for your family friends.
Speaker 4 (45:46):
It's an awesome book.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
One thing I'll say about the book that I personally
think you're going to really like is the fact that
he talks about the cabinet members and what they had
to say. I think it's going to go down in
history is the most the biggest secret weapon of Donald
Trump is going to be this cabinet and how they
work so well with him. You get a lot of
what they had to say in the book as well,
because you sit down with those cabinet member Scott. I
think that's probably one of the coolest parts of the
(46:08):
aspect of this book.
Speaker 4 (46:10):
So grab that as well. That's a really fun part.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
And listen for our listeners. I will apologize in the
picture section of the book, Scott does include naked pictures
of him in Nantucket. I'm sorry for that, but you know, look,
you gotta do what you can to sell a book. Yeah,
this photo shoot for that was actually quite amazing. Useless
all right, I want the record to record. I've never
seen Scott Jenny speechless, and I think for at least
(46:35):
a half second.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
You were Yeah, we took those pictures on a warm day.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
What is that out of Seinfeld? The water is cold,
but it was cold.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
Oh, it's great.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
Don't forget.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
We do this podcast Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Hit that subscriber
auto download button. Grab Scott's book. Yes, it does a
great radio show as well in the Salem Networks. You
can you can listen to that as well in the Senate.
I will see you back here in a couple of days.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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