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December 23, 2025 18 mins

What was the most important story of 2025? Buck reflects on the year’s biggest developments, arguing that immigration and the rapid securing of the border defined the national conversation. He also shares personal reflections on a milestone year, from becoming a father to looking ahead to what 2026 may bring for the country, politics, and everyday life.

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Speaker 1 (00:11):
You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast, Let make
sure you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts. What was the most
important story of twenty twenty five? This is our wrap
up show here on the Buck Sexton Show or the
Buck Brief, same thing. And it's my last time that

(00:33):
I get to talk to you all before we're in
twenty twenty six, which is pretty amazing, pretty crazy, how
fast the time flies. Next time I speak to you,
I will be forty four years old, and that is
definitely middle aged. So I'm a middle aged guy now
and forty four feels like I'm deep into my forty

(00:54):
So here we go. Now, I will say that I
want to give a little bit of a reflection on
the news of this past year, and then I want
to just reflects as me Buck Sexton on the last year.
You know my name, but on the last year. I'll
start with the news. I think the biggest single story

(01:14):
of this year has been variations on immigration. Illegal immigration.
For example, the biggest win of twenty twenty five for
Trump two point zero the second Trump term was securing
the border so quickly and so effectively such that we
don't really have illegal entry going on anymore. No one's

(01:37):
coming across the border southern border illegally. Now this is
a huge deal because of all of the downstream effects
of illegal immigration, but also because it shows that we
were lied to for so long about this. And that's
what I don't want anyone to forget. I don't want
anyone to get over this. They acted like and the
Biden administration, and this was somewhat bipartisan. They pretended that

(02:01):
there was no way all the border's too big, you
can't build a wall, it's not going to work, all
this stuff. No, it actually is very possible to have
a secure because we have one. So what were all
those people saying. Now, I will tell you the ones
who were saying that they feel no shame at being
so wrong and this whatsoever, because even if they had

(02:23):
to and I think some of them knew that they
were lying, even if they had to lie, they believe
that the lie was a righteous one. It was a
good thing to do to lie because they believe this
propaganda that America is a nation of immigrants, and no,
we're a nation of Americans. There are some immigrants. And
then they have children who are Americans if they're coming

(02:46):
legally to this country. I might add I do not
agree that illegals who have a child here. I do
not believe in birthright citizenship for illegals. I think that
that's crazy idea. Actually, if any other nation state had this,
you would say, well, that's that makes no sense. This
is not the case in a whole range of other civilized, developed,

(03:08):
rule of law countries, So why should it be the
case here. There's a tremendous amount of lying and dare
I say disinformation around the immigration issue. And I will
say this, I also disagree, and this has come up
more recently. I disagree with this presentation of America as

(03:29):
just a creed that you can ascribe to or you
can subscribe to. Rather and that this is like the
vi vague piece that was written recently, like oh you
just you say you're American. You know, you come here
and you say, oh, I like the Constitution and apple
pie and you're American. It doesn't really work that way either.

(03:49):
America is what it is because it was a country
built overwhelmingly by Western European Christians, particularly Anglo Saxon Protestants,
in the earliest phase and then black Americans. Obviously, this
is a very challenging and sensitive and tragic part of

(04:12):
our history in so far as the slave trade is
what began it. But black Americans played an important role
in the formation of this nation. But no, people that
have arrived here in the last few years from Yemen
did not play an important role in the creation of

(04:32):
this country. Okay, they did not forge it with their
own two hands as pioneers in the woods, like they
had no role in any of this. And it's interesting,
America is really about Americans. And this is a different
thing than what is being presented, which is just anybody
who says I will check the box that I believe
in your American ideals, which we fight about constantly in

(04:56):
this country, I might add, but I believe in your
American ideals, is somehow American. No, that's not true. That's
not true. Somebody who arrived five minutes ago from Somalia,
even if they're let's say, pending asylum hearing or even
if they get a green card, they are not as
American as I am. Just a fact. It's very obvious, right,

(05:16):
and yet we're told that it's just the it's just belief.
It's almost like your gender. If you believe then it is, well,
that's not really true either, and maybe we could have
a conversation about there's different levels of Americanness. That's clearly
the case, right, because you can be kind of pre
American if you're waiting for your Green card, and then

(05:37):
you can be a Green card holder but not a citizen.
So this whole thing is structured in a way that
there are different levels of you know, were you born here,
and were your parents born here? And are you historically
aligned with and from this country? These things all matter.
If I were to move to Japan next year, in

(05:59):
a couple of years, maybe I would be lawfully in Japan,
but I would not be as Japanese as the rest
of the Japanese people. I would be maybe in process
of adopting their Japanese ness. But we can see this
in every other country but our own. And it's increasingly
clear that there is an effort to convince Americans that

(06:21):
it's not that we are unique and distinct as a
people in this world, on this planet, but that we're
just kind of an economic zone. You know, we're like
a free trade economic zone, and welfare ward for the
rest of the world and just show up and be like, yeah, sure,
I like the Constitution in whatever language you want to speak,
by the way, not even English, and know nothing about

(06:42):
the Constitution, but just show up, so, yeah, sure, I
want a piece of your America and you're American. No, sorry,
it's not how it works. And this is an ongoing conversation.
I understand there are nuances, and I understand that there
are sensitivities of course at play, but we have to
speak honestly about these things. And I think that's very
very important. So immigration and with it the legal aspects,

(07:05):
but also what is it to be an American? It
is not just a person who says is I believe
in free speech and the Constitution and I like apple
pie too. No, there's more than that, and there's also
levels within that, and that is a reflection of the
reality that we all live in and people should be
able to speak honestly about it. Our sponsor here is

(07:26):
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(07:48):
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(08:09):
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(08:31):
So that was a big story, the immigration story, and
now on the on the personal side of things, I
honestly now it's not a surprise, I think, but I've
had a couple of life events in recent years that
have been incredibly important and powerful and amazing. And I

(08:51):
got married three years ago and it's all be coming
up on my three year anniversary in February. But I
so that was that was amazing. I have a wonderful
wife I love very much, and I'm very proud of
and feel very blessed to have had her say yes
and to marry me. I In this past year though,

(09:13):
I had a baby, baby boy, James Speed Sexton, and
being a dad is just the best. I love being
a dad, spending time with my son. It's as it's
as incredible and perspective changing, and it gives you all

(09:33):
of the meaning all these things that people have been
saying who have been parents for a long time. So
this is my way of saying. Twenty twenty five was
honestly one of the best years of my life. And
that's it was a great year. With the Trump administration overall, yeah,
there's complaints and everything else. I don't view my life
as coinciding with you know, things are going well for
the Republican Party, it's going well in my life. No,

(09:55):
I live separately or I have a life separate from politics.
But I'm just in general, this has been a really
good year. I've had overall very good health. My little baby,
he's been amazing, My wife has been great, spent a
lot of time with friends, loved ones, and I just
you know, the country is not at war, We're not
going through some pandemic or some horrific ordeal. We're actually

(10:18):
doing quite well. And I'm always a big proponent of
for those of you who had a really good year,
take you know, and whatever that means for you, take
stock of that. Take a moment, whether just go take
a walk outside, go walk in nature, and think, this
has been a really good year for me, and celebrate that.

(10:41):
Enjoy those moments, because I think it's so important for
your brain, so important for your soul to count your
blessings and to revel in the goodness that is in
your life and all around you. I would say it's
also something that helps you when you're in dark times,

(11:02):
which we all go through. I've certainly gone through. When
you're in dark periods, that you can remind yourself, well,
I've had a really had had really good times too.
I'll get back there or I'll have them again, and
you will figure out a way. I think that can
be very useful when you're going through challenging period. And

(11:22):
I will also say this if you are having if
you had a challenge in twenty twenty five, I'm sure
that's true for some of you. Just always remember the
great thing about about coming to the end of the
year is that a new year begins and you get
a start. Yes, I know it doesn't just like reset
the clock on everything in your life, but you get

(11:43):
a start of a new narrative. Because we really do
think in stories. We remember our lives in stories. We
think about Look look at the Bible. The Bible is stories, right.
Our understanding of the world around us is formed in stories.
And you get to start a new one in twenty
twenty six. So I think that's if you had a

(12:05):
tough year. You know, I had a I think twenty
twenty three was just for a bunch of reasons, a
tough year for me. Twenty four got better, a bunch better,
and then twenty five got was great. You know. So
things are trending in the right direction. Maybe they are

(12:27):
for you, or maybe you had the opposite, but we're
all going to have these ups and downs. I think overall,
the If you're asking me for the country, I mean
to look at this at a thirty thousand foot view
of America. I think this has been a very good year.
I think that America did very well overall. I think
the Trump administration is doing very well. It feels like

(12:48):
there has been a restoration of sanity, not just in politics,
but in our discourse. It feels like the madness of
COVID has receded finally and we're no longer we have
really no major elements of that still lingering. So that's
really important. So yeah, our sponsor is pre Preborn does

(13:11):
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(13:32):
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(13:53):
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(14:17):
and now, as for next year, what am I looking at?
I think twenty six is going to be a great year.
I think we're going to get really geared up for
the midterms politically, and starting really in the summertime, things
are going to get interesting there. Really, the future of
Trump's agenda hangs in the balance at some level of

(14:39):
that because if the Democrats win, they're going to impeach
Trump again. They're going to do everything that they can
to just bring the gears of government to a grinding
halt to try to stop Trump from enacting his agendas.
So I think there's a lot to be focused in
on there. I also think the economy is going to

(15:00):
get to a even better place than it is right now.
I know some people are saying, oh, there's going to
be a recession. They've predicted fifty of the last two recessions.
So I'm not too worried about that, and I could
be wrong, but probably i'm not. And I think that
it's going to be a year where we really see
a lot of fascinating things happen. And I mean this

(15:24):
even beyond politics. The world is changing so quickly all
around us with artificial intelligence and the technological leaps that
are just just galloping, just wanted. Everything is going to
be so different. I got little robots delivering cheeseburgers outside
my house right now. It's a real thing. If I
told you that ten years ago to be like, come on,

(15:44):
We're not no there right now, little robots driving around,
no person controlling it, well they control them remotely, but
no person actually with eyes on, and they are driving
around delivering food. You're going to have this for Amazon
packages soon. You're going to have people who are getting packages.
They're brought to them by drone. Think about how that's
going to improve. You could live off grid somewhere and

(16:06):
the Amazon drone comes probably within twenty four hours to
drop off whatever you know eat. Also, in transport and
Miami to Palm Beach, they're already talking about these air taxis.
They're kind of like almost like a hovercraft looking thing,
and they're gonna be able to take people on this
specific route because there's so much traffic to get it
to them. I never really go to Palm Beach because

(16:27):
it's such a nightmare with the traffic. And then just
with artificial intellig I use AI now every day. I
ask it questions. I say, how do I fix this
light bulb that's broken or you know whatever. I guess
you'll fix the bull but you know what I mean,
how do you do all these different things? So we
certainly live in interesting times. As the old what the

(16:48):
old fortune cookie saying, may you live in interesting times?
We certainly live in interesting times, and I think it's
going to be even more so. So I'm expecting big
things for next year. I want to say to all
of you who listen to the podcast, I know I
do three hours of radio a day, but I like
to speak to you. Just doing this informally, just me
have a chance to chat with you directly, and I'm
planning to do more of this and I want to

(17:08):
try to build things out next year. So thank you
for listening, thank you for continuing to support this additional
show of mine, and I want you to have a
fantastic Christmas. Have a great honkkah, have a beautiful New Year.
And love and hugs to you all from me Carrie

(17:29):
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(17:49):
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(18:13):
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Happy New Year, Merry Christmas. Shield high

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