June 30, 2025 • 54 mins
Trump Keeps Winning The hosts highlight a series of recent wins for the Trump administration, including economic indicators, legislative developments, and media narratives shifting in his favor. WI Senator Ron Johnson's support for the "Big Beautiful Bill" in the U.S. Senate, which aims to address tax policy, border security, and healthcare reform. The bill is positioned as a major legislative victory for Republicans and a critical step toward repealing parts of Obamacare. Economic optimism under President Trump, with the stock market hitting all-time highs, gas prices at a four-year low, and inflation showing signs of retreat. The hosts credit Trump’s tariff strategy and economic leadership for these positive trends. WI Sen. Ron Johnson on Why He Flipped Tariff policy and trade negotiations, particularly with Canada, are discussed in depth. The hosts argue that Trump’s tough stance has led to increased federal revenue without the inflationary impact critics predicted. The 2026 Senate race in North Carolina, where Senator Thom Tillis will not seek re-election. Speculation surrounds a potential run by Laura Trump, which could reshape the GOP primary landscape. Media acknowledgment of Trump’s success, including segments from CNN and other outlets recognizing his growing political strength. Criticism of the Senate parliamentarian and the reconciliation process, especially regarding the exclusion of provisions like removing suppressors from the National Firearms Act. Healthcare reform and Medicaid expansion rollbacks, with Senator Johnson advocating for ending what he describes as a “financing scam” that incentivizes states to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. Cultural commentary, including critiques of progressive figures like Ketanji Brown Jackson and New York City political candidates, as well as a broader discussion on leadership, media bias, and conservative values. Socialism is a Religion The rise of Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, and the potential fallout of his far-left platform on the city’s future. The hosts explore the political dynamics of the NYC mayoral race, including speculation about a possible independent run by Andrew Cuomo and the strategic implications of a crowded field. They scrutinize Mamdani’s controversial rhetoric, including his refusal to condemn inflammatory slogans like “globalize the Intifada,” and raise concerns about the normalization of radical ideologies within the Democratic Party. A major theme of this hour is the economic exodus from high-tax, high-crime cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The hosts argue that progressive tax policies and soft-on-crime governance are driving billionaires, businesses, and middle-class families to relocate to states like Florida, Texas, and Tennessee. They cite examples like Ken Griffin moving Citadel to Miami and emphasize how wealth migration is reshaping America’s economic map. The conversation also tackles the debate over capitalism versus socialism, with Clay and Buck defending capitalism as the engine of American prosperity. They argue that redistributing billionaire wealth won’t solve poverty and highlight how even the poorest Americans enjoy a higher standard of living than much of the world. The hosts warn that anti-capitalist policies threaten economic growth and personal freedom. Mayor Pete PSA Democrats won't be honest about why black male Democrats won't vote for the former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, particularly his standing among Black voters. The hosts argue that Buttigieg’s identity as a gay white man presents significant challenges in securing support from a key Democratic voting bloc. They discuss polling data showing 0% support among Black men and question the Democratic Party’s future leadership, referencing figures like Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, and Wes Moore.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome in July fourth edition of Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
July fourth week edition.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I am down on the Gulf of America for what
should be one heck of a celebratory experience surrounding the
very first fourth of July on the Gulf of America
and all weekend long, it just felt to me like
everything continued to break in Donald Trump's direction, and we
(00:40):
are living in a pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Timeline right now.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Updating you on the big stories over the weekend, the
big beautiful bill nearing its passage in the United States Senate.
We will talk with Senator Ron Johnson, who was one
of the last to flip and support this big news
in terms of the twenty twenty six elections, one of
the two individuals who voted against this bill, effectively Senator
(01:11):
Ran Paul One of the others, but Tom Tillis, who
was going to face a very difficult race in the
United States Senate in North Carolina, Republican Senator there is
not going to run for re election, so there will
be a big primary probably, although I would imagine whoever
(01:31):
Trump endorses, and there's some talk that Laura Trump, his
daughter in law, who was involved with the RNC, might
decide to step forward in that race, which will be
a big battleground and one of the top targets. Regardless
even if Tom Tillis was going to run North Carolina
battleground state, Democrats are going to feel like they have
(01:54):
a chance to win that Senate seat and try to
make a run at the fifty three forty seven margin
that Republicans have right now.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So that is big news.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
The Mom Donnie fallout in New York City continues to build,
but I would say overall, even CNN I saw had
a Michael Schmerconish big discussion about how Trump is winning
on levels that we have not seen before. As we
are speaking to all of you on Monday, stock market
to another all time high, buck, these are winning times,
(02:27):
and I gotta be honest, it feels pretty good.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Clay. There's one thing I think we left out of
the winning parade there that I want to throw for everybody. Well,
there's a few things we could talk about, but one
important one, because I know you're somebody who follows us
very closely, and let's just say, your trip to the
Gulf of America more economical than it would have a
couple of years ago. Gas price is my friend, Remember
(02:54):
the first thirty days of the Trump administration. Why hasn't
he brought prices down? Look how expensive eggs are? Trump
is lying? Remember all that here we have and that's
how they sound. By the way, that's that's how all
the guys reporting on it sound. It's actually a perfect
representation of their voice. Here is on Good Morning America
(03:14):
reporter Goo Benitez on gas prices. Play it.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
There is some good news, and that's good news because
most people traveling right now are traveling by road. Gas
prices three eighteen a gallon right now. That's the national
average for regular unleaded Last year that was three p
forty nine a gallon, so significantly lower.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So some good news if you're hitting the road, Clay.
It's the lowest that it has been in quite some time. Actually,
the gas price, isn't it fascinating? Donald Trump comes into
office and gas prices drop down quite a bit. Lowest,
I'm sorry, the lowest, since I wanted to make sure
twenty twenty one lowest gas price in four years. Everybody
(03:58):
I think that's just a marker here, because you know,
if the gas price was the highest it had been
in four years, Clay'd be the number one story going
into Independence Day weekend.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
No doubt, it's actually the four year low for summer,
because inevitably somebody's going to come out there and they're
going to be like, well, actually they were low. Yes,
gas prices, as everybody knows, for Independence Day weekend, the
lower summer years, and a lot of you will remember
down twenty twenty two. Summer was the absolute apex of
Biden inflation, and gas prices were out of control in
(04:32):
the summer of twenty twenty two. I noticed this in
a big way because I just drove. I just drove
from Nashville down to the lovely Gulf of America here
and along the way, I take note of what the
price of gas looks like. And you mentioned that clip
which includes the crazy prices that people have to pay
(04:54):
for gas in states like California, where they are taxing
you like crazy on gas.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Everywhere I drove.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida, all the gas prices unleaded are
under three dollars a gallon, sometimes as low as like
two sixty to fifty, even with the summer hike that
always happens because so many of you are going to
be on the road. So yes, you're one hundred percent right.
They tried to make egg prices a big story. Egg
(05:24):
prices are lower than when Trump came into office. Now
uh and uh and and people are recognizing. And by
the way, the reason that egg prices went up so
much was because the Biden team decided to kill over
the bird flu fears. So many different, so many different
of the of the animals out here that are laying
(05:44):
the eggs.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Killed chickens.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
They killed a lot of chickens. And now now the
gas prices are down. What is We talked about this
a little bit, but maybe we can get the clip
from Trump's press conference on Friday where he was directly
asked about this. As one so called expert economist is
now saying, actually, the impact of the tariffs on overall
(06:07):
inflation seems to not have emerged. They keep saying, Oh,
you're going to see this in a month, or you're
going to see this in two months. And we're sitting here.
When was Liberation Day so called early April? If I remember,
we have not seen any increase in prices by and
large associated with the tariffs, and now people are starting
to say, wait a minute, this is going to be
a four hundred or five hundred billion dollars net proceeds
(06:31):
to the government. And the overall prices are not increasing.
To your point, the average price that people are paying
for groceries, the average price egg, specifically gas, all of
it is down compared to in the Biden era. And
we have to also remember that while there's no inflation
from the tariffs, according to Secretary of the Treasury Vessened,
(06:54):
we also have very high rates right now. And the
Fed chair Jerome Powell, they're starting to say out loud
in the Trump administration, time for a successor at a pal.
If you get a start to get a substantial drop
in rates, that'll add some rocket fuel to the economy,
which will also help. But so we're already at all
(07:14):
time behind the stock market. Your four oh one k's
are absolutely cruising your pension plans because remember the pension
plan that you have that also requires a return in
the market based on.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
The capital pool. So if you've got retirement anything, the
market being really high is what you want to see,
and so we're looking at the possibility of I think
an even stronger economy going forward. You know, Canada said
it was going to have a digital services tax on
tech firms in the US. Getting a little frisky with
(07:47):
US over the trade negotiations, Trump said, you know what,
no more negotiations with you guys, and you're gonna get
hit with some big time tariffs. Guess what, Clay, they're
tough talk from Canada on the digital tax line about
seventy two hours and now here they are backing off
of that one, saying, you know what, we should talk.
We should talk on the tariff thing specifically. I just
(08:08):
want to add it's one thing wheneveryone who hates Trump
opposes something, because they'll oppose anything. Right. Trump can say, hey, guys,
I want to put one hundred billion dollars toward during
all forms of terminal cancer, and there'll be lunatic Democrats
who are like, they won't really spend the money on this.
It's all going to go to Trump's family member. You know,
they'll just they'll find some way to hate whatever it
(08:30):
is he says on tariffs. There was a lot of
dare I say the conservative orthodoxy on this was opposed
to Trump. You know, the old school National Review. Oh
what about Milton Friedman and William F. Buckley, et cetera.
They were opposed to him on this. And it turns
(08:50):
out it looks like Trump was right, even in the
face of a lot of people on his own team
who were rooting for him saying that this was going
to cause problems.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And here's a cut from the Friday news conference proving
that there is starting to be a reassessment. And I
would say in general that in the wake of COVID,
and I think you're probably the same as me, buck
my willingness to blindly accept expert opinion is basically at zero. Yeah,
because they're wrong on so many things that they're supposed
(09:20):
to be experts on. And here is that that question,
as one of the top economists has now said, looking
at the data, hey, and I give them credit for
being willing to acknowledge, Hey, maybe I was wrong. There
has not been any inflationary price pressure based on the tariffs.
And here is that question from Friday's news conference with Trump,
(09:42):
cut twenty five.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I believe let's play.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It, mister President.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
A leading global economists just at a one to eighty
and says, your tariff plan you may.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Have as smart everybody with it.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
So what is your message? I love this. I love
this question is a favorite.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
This is the best question I've ever been asked, because
I've been going through abuse for years on this, mister,
because as you know, we're taking in hundreds of billions
of dollars no inflation, and.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
He continued there, but I mean, this is the reality
when you look at what the data has shown so far,
it is that. And it makes some sense that price
competition is so intense in the United States that many
of these businesses don't have the capability to raise prices
right now. And frankly, as many of you know, they
(10:29):
used the Biden era inflation as an opportunity to massively
raise prices because everything was going up, and they also
shrunk the amount of product that you're often getting in
the prices in the process. Go look and right now,
because the economy is rolling and there is massive price pressure,
in fact contraction in many different things that you buy,
(10:52):
they have not been able to actually do what everybody
told you they would do, which is raise prices on
a substantial lay level to make the consumer cover the
inflation costs so far that is non existent.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
If you're Trump, would you listen to any of these
so called experts ever again, who are all shouting at
you that they are econ models show that he's wrong,
You know, really like you know, if I'm Trump, I'm
just gonna say, you guys, shut up. I'm doing what
I'm doing for the next few years. You know, Trump's
going to be eighty years old soon. He's been to
the mountaintop. He knows what's going on here. He does
not need the chirping in his years from the economists.
(11:31):
Economists in quotes, what does it even mean. It's like
when people refer to consensus opinion on anything without actually
telling you who the consensus is. So I think Trump
is once. Remember we talked about this on China and
how everybody said he's going to start a trade war
with China, and then he was so successful actually with
China that Biden didn't even mess with the China stuff
that he did because everyone realized he was right. This
(11:53):
looks like another one of those moments, which is a
big win for Trump. That's why he was he was
strutting his stuff in that SoundBite. You played because you
know no doubt.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And also, I mean, I think it speaks to the
fear of challenging conventional wisdom in the so called expert class.
Nobody wants to step outside and be noticed by doing
something outside of the herd. It's human nature in many respects,
but what you see as a herd of opinion, and
it can't be the case that everyone uniformly agrees on
(12:22):
a dynamic situation that is very difficult to predict. But
being wrong, the fear of being wrong is actually more
prevalent in most of these people than the risk of
being right.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
You know, you're also getting we're all getting a real
vision here, real view of what does leadership look like
when you're the leader of the free world, which is
what the president is. What does leadership look like. It's
deciding that you're going to hit the Iranian bunkers, even
though people are shrieking about how it's going to cause
World War three, and being right, it didn't cause World
War three. It's set back the Iranian program and backed
(12:57):
up our Israeli allies. It means starting terariff negotiations. Despite
the so called consensus of economists out there shouting about
how it's going to cause inflation and price rises and
everything else. This is real decision making with real consequence.
Where Trump has been right, he has been correct, and
I just don't think he gets enough credit. Everyone realizes, Clay.
(13:18):
You know, he's a he's a political and cultural phenomenon,
and but he is making calls against what the so
called experts and certainly what the what the general momentum
on these issues has been, and he's already show a
huge result. So I think that going into this weekend,
we all have to remember that this is not easy
(13:38):
stuff he's doing and we're all benefiting from it, and
we need to keep encouraging this sort of leadership and
supporting this kind of leadership, including with the big beautiful bill,
which we're gonna get to here in just a second
with Senator Ron Johnson. You know, I was at the
range this weekend, Clay. I'm now also a range safety
officer certified, so I really act think you are the
boys down. I mean, I'm trained, i'm insured, I'm all
(14:00):
those things coming up this fall, so it's gonna be
good times. But I was talking to the guys out there,
so many different law enforcement officers who are there as
well because they want to be able to either for
training purposes themselves with their team or on their own.
They want to be an rs O rain safety officer.
And one thing we talked about was non lethals. Do
you know what the favorite by far pepper spray brand
of the officers to talk to is because a lot
(14:21):
of them carry the pepper spray Saber. So if these
guys who have to rely on this day in and
day out trust Saber more than anything else, you should
trust Saber too. It is the number one pepper spray
brand trusted by law enforcement. And I've got people telling
me exactly that face to face. Sabre is how you
spell it. Their pepper gel projectile launcher, shaped like a
(14:42):
pistol or a rifle depending on the model, fires off
of pepper gel projectile targeted goes a longer distance than
you'd think, very effective stopping an intruder. Sabers spelled sabre.
Their website is Saber Radio Sabre saberradio dot com. This
is not about getting away from two A or guns.
This is about additional options, non lethal force escalation. Just
(15:06):
like cops have, you can have this too. I've got
a lot of guns. I've also got a lot of
saber kerry, like saber. Laura likes saber. Get yourself some
today sab R radio dot com. That's SA b r
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two four safe, eight four four eight two four safe.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
We head up to Washington, d C. Now where Senator
Ron Johnson. I imagine a lot of people are heading
to the lakes up north in Wisconsin for this time
of year when it is spectacular. But you are working, Senator,
and we had you in studio a couple of weeks
ago breaking down the Big Beautiful Bill, and you changed
your vote at the last minute or signed on with
(15:55):
the bill at the last minute. What is the latest?
What can you tell us about where we are compared
to when we talked about talked with you on air.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
Last Okay, yeah, I should be trolling for Walleye right now,
but we're here working on the Big Beautiful Bill. Iain
as far as the primary components of this bill, I'm
fully supportive of Right, We're gonna make sure that we
don't have a massive automatic tax increase. That's about that's
about four trillion dollars in the score. By the way,
(16:25):
nobody wants that. Nobody wants to default to our debt. Unfortunately,
Democrats left these enormous messes the open border, so we
have to provide funding for border, the wars, We have
to provide funding for the defense. Massive four year average
just in to one point nine trillion, the seven years
before the pandemic our death at average six hundred and
sixty billion. Four years afterwards under Biden Democrats one point
(16:49):
nine trillion. So again it is true the House provided
us with the spending reduction about historic spending reduction about
one point four trillion, tend to actually is about one
point six. Our difference in our scores is we make
sure the business expensing provisions are permanent versus the short term.
So that's the main difference between the House and the Senate.
(17:09):
Now you know we're hearing from the House, you're not
real happy, and we're short from their math somewhere around
six hundred billion dollars. Rick Scott has an excellent amendment
which was not including the base film, and that was
really the sticking point on the motion proceed We got
the commitment of the leadership to now we offer amendment vote,
(17:30):
but whip it and try and make sure this thing
gets passed. I'm hoping President Trump helps us get this
thing passed because that heady on the date. So here's
what the amendment does. It doesn't kick anybody off of Medicaid.
What it does is it stops enrollment into the Obama
Care addition to Medicaid, which threatens traditional Medicaid for disabled children,
(17:54):
for example. So at some point in time in the future,
we're debating that you just don't allow states to enroll
them under the a nine dollars to one dollar match.
I mean, I think you guys realize that. Right for
a disabled child, for every dollar the state puts in
the Medicaid, the federal government matches it for a dollar
thirty three. But for the Obamacare single working age able body,
(18:15):
childless adults, for every dollars state puts in, federal government
kicks in nine. There's a huge incentive for states to
gain the system provider taxes, provider fees, which aren't healthcare,
by the way, but they get reimbursed nine dollars for
every dollar the states kicks in there. So against it's
a financing scam. We're trying to end that because it's
(18:35):
causing the Outfloak comes to billions of dollars out of
the federal government. We don't have the money, so that
alone could feel about five hundred billion dollars of that gap.
If we give states until the first part of twenty
twenty nine and the scam I mean, very reasonable proposal
most Republicans support. In the Senate, we've got some holdouts
and that's where we need leadership for pressure people. You know,
(18:58):
there are other things in the build, some extraneous task
credits that you know, one word, thirty seven jillion dollarsand debt.
Do we really have to add task credits for this,
that and the other thing. So again, I think this
is entirely doable. It's going to take the President a
weigh in, It's going to take Republican leadership to make
sure that we can satisfy the House requirements. And then
when all said and done, this would be the huge
(19:20):
achievement repealing at least the most damaging part of Obamacare,
which was the addition to Medicaid, which puts it risk
the Medicaid for disabled child. I mean, do you think
it's fair that for a disabled child the phedograph kicks
in a Dallas thirty three. But for a working age
person that should be working getting health care from their employer,
(19:40):
we provide nine dollars for everyone. It's just out of whack.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Senator Johnson. People are reading about I think many of them,
if not for the first time. It's certainly a helpful
reminder about the Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough, who has been
in this role since twenty twelve. This is on an
elected office. This is a it's pretty fascinating actually, right,
this started sometime around with the nineteen twenties, nineteen thirty,
(20:08):
so it's about one hundred years ago. There's somebody who
helps with administrative procedures rules within the Senate. I guess,
like when you guys are allowed to have bathroom breaks
or I don't know, whatever it is. And now there's
somebody who is stripping out parts of the bill like
the NFA National Firearms Act and silencers no longer being
an NFA item because the parliamentarian what is going on here?
(20:31):
And by the way, talk to you about that NFA
silencers or suppressors issue.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
Well, I believe that was included. So this is incredibly complex.
I mean, this all has to do with the Budget
Act sets up this reconciliation process where we can reduce
mandatory spending or we cut taxes or increased taxes with
a simple majority vote. Because of that process, the Senator
(20:58):
Robert Byrd had rules in terms of what would qualify
for that what wouldn't qualify. From my standpoint, the parliamentarian
has been pretty even handed. When Democrats wanted to include
things or more policy than budget, she didn't allow it.
She's done the same thing here by the way, We've
modified things that she wasn't going to kick out. We
listened to her instructions, we got it back in. So
(21:19):
I realized that ends up being kind of a bonus contention.
What we don't want to do is eliminate the philibuster.
I know a lot of people want us to, but
the filibuster has protected us from all kinds of massive
Democrats spending programs because in the minority, Republics had the
right to block some of that stuff. So, I mean,
I realized at the moment, it's like, get rid of
that so we can get everything we want. That would
(21:40):
be pretty short sighted thinking, but yeah, we've got a
way to do this. You know, Rick Scott knows healthcare
like nobody else. So he brilliant proposal doesn't keep anybody
off Medicaid, just ends the Medicaid scam a few years
in the future, gives states, gives propriet writers a chance
to readjust how they're budgeting. Basically, states and providers are
(22:02):
based in their budget off of this financing scam that
has to end. We simply can't afford it.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Where we stand now. I know that Chuck Schumer made
the entire bill be read aloud in the Senate chamber,
and that took a long time. There's talk that Trump
wants to get this thing signed on July fourth. You're
in the Senate right now. What does the timeframe look
like for everybody out there? And where do we go
from here?
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Well, we're in the voter rama, so it's unlimited amendments,
so I can't predict how long it'll go. Again, we're
in very close conversation with conservatives in the House. They're
telling us this product right now is debt on arrival.
I actually take them seriously. You know, we kind of
ignored their formula, their math. They looked at this differently
than we did. We're I think about six hundred and
(22:51):
fifty billion dollars short. Now, from my standpoint, I'm I'm
fine it satisfying their requirement again, use Rick Scott's amendments
and in enrollment for new Obamacare nine dollars a one match.
Those guys can go on to standard Medicaid, get get reversed,
same things as a sable child. Okay, do that start
(23:11):
at twenty twenty nine that say, this is about five
hundred billion dollars. Get rid of some of these extraneous measures,
some of these new task credits that just some some
Republicans center thought, oh this is an important thing. Now
just get work. Thirty seven trillion dollars in death this
is not a time for additional task credits. For jumping
out our task gode further. So, I would have no
problem taking a look this, going look at this and say, okay, no,
(23:33):
we can reduce the deaths at by six hundred and
fifty billion. Not a problem. Again, Politically, you've got constituencies.
You've got people that apparently like to spend money, like
to offer new tax credits, refuse to do what they
promised to do, you know, repeal Obamacare, rip it out
by the root and branch. This is just one route
that is probably the most damaging aspect of Obamacare. And
(23:53):
we've got Republicans now that aren't willing to do it.
Just where we need presidential leadership, say honor your promise,
get that additional death suit relief, get this past to
the Senate, get this pass to the House, and then
we really will end up with one big, beautiful bill.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Outstanding stuff, Senator Ron Johnson. We appreciate all the work
you're doing and keep us updated. You can hop on anytime.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Have great day you too.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
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Speaker 2 (25:56):
Hey buck, one of my kids called me an unk
the other day, and unk yep slang evidently for not
being hip, being an old dude.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
So how do we ununk?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
You get more people to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
At least that's what my kids tell me.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
That's simple enough. Just search the Klay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show and hit the subscribe button.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Takes less than five seconds to help ununk me.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Do it for Clay, do it for freedom, and get
great content while you're there the Clay Travison Buck Sexton
Show YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
As I know many of you are likely to be
on the road, I would encourage you as always go
download the podcast. You can search out my name Clay Travis,
you can search out Buck Sexton, and you will be
well on your way to being able to take us
with you anywhere. We also have a fabulous podcast network
with voices that range the spectrum from moms like Carol
(26:47):
Markowitz and Mary Katherine Ham who have a great show,
to badass former special Forces like David Rutherford. You will
be able to find as much as you would like
from that perspective and beyond, and you'll be able to
take us with you wherever you may be. If you're
on the road and you need something good.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
To listen to.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I was listening to some podcasts on my drive down
to the Gulf of America on Saturdays, in the car
for about nine hours, lots of traffic, and got through
a lot of different cool podcasts, so I know a
lot of you are going to be on the road
and Buck as we went to break at the end
of that first hour, we were talking about some of
the situation that's going on in New York City where
(27:29):
Mom Donnie, this crazy left wing effective communist, has won
the nomination for the Democrat side of the mayoralty. There
has not yet been a decision by Andrew Cuomo about
whether he's going to run as an independent or drop out.
To me, and I'm just kind of assessing this from afar,
(27:50):
the decision has to be Eric Adams versus Mom Donnie.
I think that's the only way Mom Donnie loses if
there's multiple independents, if you have a Republican nominated like
Curtis Lee while running aggressively, I just don't the more
opposition there is to Mom Donnie, the better it is
for his likelihood. But I bet you were like me.
(28:10):
Over the weekend, a lot of deep dives into his
videos started to go public, and these are I would say,
truly outrageous perspectives that he has adopted publicly and I
know you've been following it, You've got some you want
to kind of shine a spotlight on.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Jane because I keep hoping that New York is going
to wake up and go through a Juliani Bloomberg Golden
Era again. But you have a lot of people that
know nothing about that era. That's part of the problem.
The people like me who grew up in very dangerous
New York City, and I would people say, oh, no,
it was very dangerous in the seventies. The most dangerous
(28:52):
was the late eighties, early nineties. By the numbers, no question.
Go check it out for yourself. Over two thousand murders
in New York City when I was in grammar school
nineteen ninety nineteen ninety one, two thousand plus murders. Think
about that, all right. New York City has gotten down
as low as I think, below three hundred at one
point in the last decades, so massive, massive, And people say, well,
that's just murders. Yeah, but murders are very very solid
(29:16):
proxy for overall pretticly violent crime. But crime in general,
it's tough to hide dead bodies and people are upset
about them. Right. Burglaries don't necessarily get reported or investigated.
I mean there's other things ways you can mess with
the stats, murders or murders. So a lot of people
Clay who voted for Momdani are either too young. You
know he got because he was huge with gen Z,
(29:38):
or they came here in the last fifteen hund and
twenty years. They don't know. They're foreigners who have become
you know, green card holders, or they maybe become citizens.
And now they're saying, oh yeah, I like this guy.
Like what he's saying. He's going to make you know,
he's going to make food cheaper in the kabab stands,
he's going to make groceries cheaper, and he's talking about
all this stuff. Let's get into some of the things
(29:59):
that this guy has had actually said. The Kami mom
Donnie here he is. I mean, we've got so many
of these. I'll start with this one. He talked about
increasing Well, here, let's do this one. First, billionaires. We
shouldn't even have this is cut seven. We shouldn't even
have billionaires. Play seven.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
You are a self described democratic socialist.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Do you think that billionaires have a right to exist?
Speaker 7 (30:24):
I don't think that we should have billionaires because Frankly,
it is so much money in a moment of such inequality.
And ultimately what we need more of is equality across
our city and across our state and across our country.
And I look forward to work with everyone, including billionaires,
to make a city that is fairer for all of them.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I hate this so much because we can sit here, Clay,
and we will and make all the arguments about how
you can take all the money from the I don't know,
one hundred two hundred billionaires whatever it is in New
York City, or a few hundred billionaires maybe maximum. You
could take all the money they have and try to
redistribute it. You wouldn't solve poverty in New York City
for a year, Okay, it wouldn't change it. They're spending
(31:07):
fourteen billion a year just on the illegals in New
York City, fourteen billion a year on special care for illegals.
You think you're gonna seize a few hundred billion dollars
from New York's billionaires, you're gonna fix the problems. But
even beside that, Cly, the whole argument here is just
one about envy. It's one about emotion. This is why
it's so pernicious and why communism keeps creeping up wherever,
(31:29):
you know, wherever there's prosperity in the West, and it's
because it just makes people who are upset feel better
about themselves to think that there's some other person who's
their problem.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Look, I really do think it sums up the flaw
of capitalism is it creates wealth in leisure, which leads
to the illusion that capitalism is unnecessary. And the reason
we have the wealth and the leisure that exists in
this country. And by leisure, I mean you don't have
to constantly be in a mad scramble to have water
(32:04):
or food or the ability to you know, the poor
people in the United States are not actually poor relative
to the standards for what poverty looks like in the
rest of the world. Our poor people, I think one
of the great stats that kind of brings this home.
Even in a country like India, the poorest people in
(32:24):
the United States would be in the top twenty percent
richest in India. That's true for almost every country that
is in the world. The poorest people here would be
among the wealthiest anywhere else. And if you wonder why
people are risking their lives to come through the Darien
Gap during the Biden era or come across the Rio Grande.
It's because even being poor in the United States makes
(32:47):
you wealthy in.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Many other countries. And that's an incredible degree that we have.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
But the poverty, it comes along with obesity in this country,
which is an excess for example, of food. There's a
correlation between poverty and obesity. There were times actually, like
all of human history, for the laste hundred or so years,
where poverty and starvation were actually what we're correlated.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
And actually being fat was a sign of tremendous wealth
because it meant that you had to your point another
all time.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
To tell my wife, but she wanted me to get
in shape anyway.
Speaker 6 (33:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
It was kind of sad if you go back and
look at all the kings, you know in England back
in the day, for instance, when they became super wealthy,
they were often very fat because that meant that you
had the ability to have too much to eat, which
was a rarity. But the billionaire thing to me is
it's it's it's so important for everybody to focus on.
(33:42):
First of all, I want there to be way more billionaires.
I want there to be way more millionaires. I want
the overall pie of economic wealth in the United States
to grow massively, and I want everybody to be able
to feast on economic success, whatever your current status of
life is. But this is so important, and I think
(34:02):
you're a perfect example of this because what this happens
is and you're going to start to see this in earnest.
I think I would even argue this is a generational
story that you need to put a pin in and
pay attention to. People who have success in life who
have wealth are far more mobile in general than people
(34:24):
who do not have success in life and do not
have great opportunity. Right with wealth comes the ability to
go to different places to relocate your life. And what
a lot of people found out during COVID is they
could move to different parts of the United States or
even the world and they would have never tested it
(34:45):
but for COVID, and they found out, Hey, I can
be running Wall Street from Miami just as well as
I can from Greenwich, Connecticut, or a super luxury pad
somewhere in a high rise bill overlooking Central Park. And
what you are going to see. And I want all
of you to kind of think about this because it's
(35:06):
going to happen La Chicago, New York City. They are
going to increasingly tax the successful people in these communities.
And Mom Donnie is reflective of this, and the successful people,
the most successful people in those communities. You just saw
Ken Griffin Citadel. He just up and said, screw it,
Chicago's not safe. I'm moving all my people to Miami.
(35:29):
You are going to see I just mentioned Buck, born
and raised New York City kid who probably would love
to have stayed in New York City. But you start
to have success and you look at other parts of
the country and they're they're grabbing so much of your
money that at some point you just say enough, I
can't deal with this anymore, even in a city that
you may have grown up in and loved.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yeah, And it's frustrating because you can also see the
recent history of cities that have gone down this pathway
and it is universally a bad idea. It universally creates
more negative things, whether it's crime, disorder, you know, filth
on the streets, economic light from the city is. We
(36:14):
go through this over and over again. But this brings
me back Clay. The reason I'm concerned about Mom Donnie
is that he is good, He is slick, He is
adept at appealing to people's emotions who are frustrated and
who don't want to even get into the merits of
the argument. They want an excuse. It is the politics
(36:35):
of envy. Somebody else has it better than me, by
the way, you don't even know. I mean, there's some
of the happiest people I know lead some of the
most humble and basic lives, and truly some of the
most miserable people I know have the most money and
the most influence and the most power, and they just
can't escape their daily misery. But put that aside for
a second. And I know that sounds like a cliched
I swear it is true, Okay, I mean I could
(36:57):
go through chapter and verse. People who have you know,
they're having a very sort of you know not moditor
is not the word I'm looking for. What do you
call modest, very modest life in America? And they're very,
very happy, and people who have incredible lives of extravagance,
and they're truly miserable. But again, aside Clay, this is
the politics of somebody is excusing all of my choices
(37:19):
and says, they're going to make my problems go away.
And it never works. It never works. It's not going
to work this time. It has never worked before. But
people like to believe this is why socialism is actually
a religion. I mean, communism is a religion. This is
not an economic system because the economics can't work. We
just went through it. You can take all the money
(37:40):
from the rich people in New York, it's not going
to pay for all the poor people stuff forever. It's
not going to make the poor people not poor. But
it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. They want this, they
feel this, and Momdani feeds it to them, he gives
it to them. He makes it seem like none of
this is anyone's fault. No one stays in life. Is
the result of choices, no one's It's the system. And
(38:05):
what's going to happen is the system is going to
have a lot less money because when you go dive
into the actual revenue produced by taxation, the billionaires that
Mom Donnie claims shouldn't exist, in fact, if New York
wants to have the best quality of life, they should
have way more billionaires. They're going to leave and then
that's going to create a vicious cycle because you're going
(38:27):
to have to increase taxes in order to try to
replicate the services that the taxes are creating. Now, the
tax dollars are going to leave, They're going to go
to states like Florida, Tennessee, Texas where there's zero state
income tax. I mean, again, this is a generational flaw
of Democrats that I think is going to be exposed
(38:49):
in a big way. And again, if you make a
million dollars, let's say you make a million dollars a year.
Not that many people who make a million dollars a year,
but let's say you do.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
You're paying one hundred and fifty thousand dollars extra for
the privilege of living in New York City. Okay, if
you make ten million, you're paying one point five million
dollars for the privilege of living in New York. You're
getting up to the high levels above ten million dollars.
Think about even at a million dollars, you can pay
(39:18):
an entire mortgage living in Tennessee or Texas or Florida.
That increases your assets compared to what you're paying. And
people would say, okay, well, there's a benefit to living
in New York City, right, or Chicago or La. I'm
here to tell y'all, I've spent a lot of time
in all these places. It's fun to visit. Uh, there's
(39:39):
no city in America I would pay one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars extra of my tax dollars to live
in compared to Florida, Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Or Texas. Now, you guys, have you guys have good
food in Nashville too. I can't even I can't even
throw shade at some of these other cities thirty years
ago New Yorkers. I'm just telling you guys the truth.
New Yorkers could be like, honestly, we just have better
food than you guys. And that was true of most
cities he's in America thirty years ago, maybe even twenty
years ago. Nashville, Charleston, you know, Atlanta. I mean you
(40:08):
just look like you know, Phoenix. These places all have
great food. Now, I mean it's great food.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
It's not even cool enough to know good restaurant stuff.
I've never even noticed that, but I am told that
the foody scene for people who love restaurants in a
city like where I live.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Nashville is out of control. Ever, you can't even keep
up well in Nashville. Nashville Punch is way above its way.
But every decent mid size city and above in America
has great food now. So I'm saying some of the
advantages that New York used to have as a place.
New York, Chicago, and LA used to just have better
job opportunities and better food than most of the rest
of the country. And it's just you can say you
want to live in a rural area, that's great, that's fine.
(40:42):
But if you're looking to work at a top law
firm and you want to go to a Michelin three
star restaurant, those were really in San Francisco too. Those
are really the choices that you had, which is not
true anymore. To your point, you can do these jobs
from wherever.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Everywhere.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
It's got great food. You can buy anything anywhere you
want now thanks to the Internet. But Clay, I mean,
we can make these arguments all day. Here's a stat
one percent of New Yorkers pay fifty percent of New
York City's tax rate. One percent, one in one hundred
people are paying for fifty people. And Mamdani's like that's
not enough. It's unequal. How much more does it have
(41:14):
to be? How much more is there going to be? Look,
this is the problem, friends, is these budgets can get
out of control and the Democrats want to keep spending
us into oblivion. You need to take action. Next week,
the US dollar is going to be at the center
of a debate among nations gathering in Arrea Detionario, Brazil.
The Brick nations are meeting. Okay, now, these nations want
(41:36):
to move away from the US dollar as the reserve currency.
They're trying to do this slowly, but surely if that happens,
our quality of life takes a huge hit and the
dollar takes a bath, it's going to be rough. You
should prepare for this possibility today and also just diversify
because inflation is going to continue slowly but surely. I
know Trump's doing a great job with it, but in
(41:56):
the next ten to fifteen years going to chip away
at that dollar. How can you protect your eye four
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Speaker 1 (42:41):
Buck.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
I saw over the weekend, as you look ahead to
twenty twenty eight, the data on who people would support,
and I just feel like I should make a public
announcement here.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Mayor Pete was the leader.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Okay, I just came back from Traverse City, Michigan. I
think Mayor Pete has moved to Traverse City, had a
good choice there. I saw that people are saying, oh,
look he started following the UFC our Buddy Jesse Kelly
had a tweet about that.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Here's the deal.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Mayor Pete is the leading Democrat projected favorite in twenty
twenty eight. Right now he gets zero percent of the
Black vote, zero percent. I feel like we need to
make a PSA to Mayor Pete. Maybe in twenty years
(43:37):
you can be the Democrat nominee.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Black dudes are not voting for a white guy who
is gay.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
You have a zero percent chance of actually being the nominat.
Remember when nobody would talk about this. He was having
a great campaign. He did well in Iowa, he did
well in New Hampshire. White Democrats love Mayor Pete. The
fact that he's gay might even help them. Black people,
black men in particular, they're not voting for a gay
(44:06):
white dude.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
He cannot.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
We went to South Carolina, his entire campaign collapsed. He
went across to the South. All the black people in
the South voting in the Democrat primary a gay white dude.
I don't think a gay black dude would do well.
I don't think a gay Hispanic guy would do well.
I don't think gay people are going to be supported
by most black voters, but a gay white dude is
definitely not.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
So what does Mayor Pete do.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
He's got all these aspirations to be the next president
of the United States, and nobody else will even address
this on the left because that would require you to
acknowledge that the most prominent bits of homophobia are actually
from black voters in the Democrat Party, and nobody will
even address it because that requires them to honestly assess
(44:53):
what's going on here.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Should we just.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Tell mayor Pete he has no chance of being president.
Maybe he could be.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Vice president, but he's not gonna get He's not gonna
win Democrat primary because the black bass will not vote
for a white dude who is gay.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
I don't think they would vote.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
For a gay guy, period, but I do think that
this is a funny thing. To get zero zero percent
of the black vote is really really funny to me,
and yet he was.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Still the leader.
Speaker 7 (45:24):
The law.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Also won't be any effort to push on this, push
back on this from the Democrat powers that be. I mean,
they're not going to say, they're not going to try
to strong arm, if you will, the members of the
black community into voting from a or P. You know
you're not going to see You're not going to see
(45:47):
pushy lectures on MSNBC about this, which I think is
also interesting. So just just put that. Put that aside
for a moment. Notice how quickly the whole Kamala situation
has faded to as a possibility for the Democrats going forward.
As I've said all along, she's going to be a
provost at a second tier UC school. Just give it time.
She cannot win. They know she cannot win. She's a
(46:08):
horrible politician, and that will become more apparent as time passes.
I think that that's why the Mamdani situation Clay is
interesting because it's an indicator of Democrat base sentiment right now,
which is very strongly with AOC and Bernie Sanders. You
(46:28):
do not see anybody who is a more centrist Democrat
catching fire again with the Democrat base. I'm not talking
about how they would even do nationally, but you have
to win a primary before you'd get further. And you
also want to know who the biggest voices are in
the Democrat Party going into the midterms, and they're leftists.
And the ones that still get attention are Bernie Sanders,
(46:50):
Elizabeth Warren, AOC. What centrist Democrat and I say centrist
in quotes, but you know more mainstream Democrat is getting
That's not even the way to say it. I'm not
even sure you know Purple State Democrat. Maybe you could
say you know somebody who operates someone like a Gretchen
Whitmer who operates as a as a governor in a
purple state. They don't get any attention right now. The
(47:12):
base is not excited about them, and I think that
that's likely to continue. So, yeah, Mayor Pete is not
going to become president of the United States. It's to
me what the data shows you is that there is
the fact that he is the leader of the Democrat
Party in terms of choice right now for nominee. Is
actually just proof positive that there is no leader of
(47:35):
the Democrat Party for the nomination right now. It's totally
an open field.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Also, has there ever been a leader of a party
that has done less in his life than Mayor Pete?
I mean, he was the mayor of Southend in Indiana.
He was a disaster of a transportation secretary. I'm not
sure that we've ever had a less accomplished person than
(48:02):
Mayor Pete. As I mean, he's still only like forty
two or forty three years old. I think he's a
young guy. But yeah, he has zero chance of actually
being the nominee you mentioned. Gretchen Whitmer. I'm actually reading
the original sin Book. I know, I know, I know,
I am reading the original sin book. I did find
this interesting. The book they say that Kamala, you know,
(48:26):
the public reporting was that it was that Biden decided
he was going to pick a black woman, and so
there was a lot of discussion about who the black
woman he would pick would be. They actually say in
the book that Gretchen Whitmer was the runner up for
Joe Biden in the twenty twenty decision making. If he
(48:47):
had picked her, she would have run as a much
better contender when they had to bump up the VP
than Kamala did.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
Right, huge mistake.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
I mean, she would she would have won, unfortunately, because
I think she's been a bad governor, but she is
very popular there and look at and wiscon so go
with Michigan probably so go with Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
I think. So it would have been very tough, would
have been very tough if she had been the Kamala was.
It would be hard to find a worse choice than
Kamala Harris, given the way that it all played out
with Joe Biden. That's what I mean. It really was
what did she bring to the table California machine party
(49:30):
machine politicians.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
She was back all she brought was black women, which
theoretically we're going to vote Biden anyway. But that's the calculus.
I mean, it was the ultimate identity politics calculus. The
same reason sadly Katanji Brown Jackson is on the Supreme Court.
They eliminated ninety seven percent of all lawyers. Basically, I
(49:52):
think black women are three percent of the overall three
or four percent of the overall legal profession, and they her,
and so she is nowhere near the most qualified Supreme
Court justice. I think similarly, Kamalo was nowhere near the
best choice that Joe Biden could have made, even when
he said I'm going to pick a woman, which I
(50:15):
think was a poor choice to say, like, hey, I'm
eliminating half of all the contenders, because whenever you give
the criteria, you delegitimize whoever you pick. Because you're not
saying I'm picking the best person, you're saying I'm picking
the best woman, or I'm picking the best black woman.
You're automatically making it clear that they're not the best
contender by delegitimizing them publicly in playing that identity politics game.
(50:41):
But I think Gretchen Whitmer, if you go back in time.
If Biden makes that pick, then when he steps down,
she's a far better candidate than Kamalo would have been.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Well, I do like that, And this I'm sure comes
across in the book that you're reading as unfortunate it
is that you are helping to pay the Tapper industrial
industrial propaganda complex. But that's fine, that's fine. I'm glad
one of us is reading. At least one of us
can reference it from having actually read it. I'm sure
this comes across. There's an assumption. I think that a
lot of people have that. The other side, meaning the Democrats,
(51:12):
are they're always a step ahead, and they're so smart
and they're so crafty. Joe Biden was a dementia patient
and he was done before he had dementia, and he's
making a lot of these decisions. Sometimes they just make
dumb moves. Yeah, And with Joe Biden, they made a
lot of dumb moves. And Biden himself, I should say,
made a lot of dumb moves. There were things that
he did that were not It was not for dchs.
(51:34):
It was a blunder and they paid the price for
it in this last election in a big way, as
they should have totally.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
And I do think it's interesting because I Gretchen Whitmer
is going to think of herself as a contender in
twenty eight. Wes Moore is going to think of himself
as a contender in twenty eight. A lot of these
governors Josh Shapiro are going to try to stay away
from the Washington mess and run as outsiders in twenty
twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (51:59):
And meanwhile, Thrump's walking around right now. This is cut
too saying it's only taking me six months, but I'm
turning things around and kicking ass and taking names. Play two.
Speaker 7 (52:09):
Have you been able to digest what has occurred.
Speaker 8 (52:11):
In the last seven days?
Speaker 7 (52:13):
Not really.
Speaker 8 (52:13):
It was pretty wild period of time. And I really
think in six months we've taken the country and turned
it around. I was told by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
by the leader of Qatar and the leader of Yuoe
when we went over there, we've worked back five point
one trillion dollars investment into the United States. They said,
you know, you're presiding now over the hottest country in
(52:35):
the world, and a year ago we thought your country
was dead. It could never come back. It was so
incompetently run by a very band president, and I said,
you're right. This country is hot.
Speaker 3 (52:49):
Country's hot played. It's doing great, very exciting.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
No doubt.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
And I think that's one reason why everybody should be
excited as we get ready for this celebration of July fourth.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Everything.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Even if you're a crazy left wing Democrat, Trump's making
decisions that are actually benefiting you in terms of the
direction of the nation.
Speaker 3 (53:10):
Close out with some of your calls, your thoughts, your talkbacks,
So throw them in now, get in the mix. Eight
hundred and two two two eight a two. Since nine eleven,
the Tunnel the Towers Foundation has been supporting America's greatest
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That's t the number two t dot org
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Welcome in July fourth edition of Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
July fourth week edition.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I am down on the Gulf of America for what
should be one heck of a celebratory experience surrounding the
very first fourth of July on the Gulf of America
and all weekend long, it just felt to me like
everything continued to break in Donald Trump's direction, and we
(00:40):
are living in a pretty phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Timeline right now.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Updating you on the big stories over the weekend, the
big beautiful bill nearing its passage in the United States Senate.
We will talk with Senator Ron Johnson, who was one
of the last to flip and support this big news
in terms of the twenty twenty six elections, one of
the two individuals who voted against this bill, effectively Senator
(01:11):
Ran Paul One of the others, but Tom Tillis, who
was going to face a very difficult race in the
United States Senate in North Carolina, Republican Senator there is
not going to run for re election, so there will
be a big primary probably, although I would imagine whoever
(01:31):
Trump endorses, and there's some talk that Laura Trump, his
daughter in law, who was involved with the RNC, might
decide to step forward in that race, which will be
a big battleground and one of the top targets. Regardless
even if Tom Tillis was going to run North Carolina
battleground state, Democrats are going to feel like they have
(01:54):
a chance to win that Senate seat and try to
make a run at the fifty three forty seven margin
that Republicans have right now.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
So that is big news.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
The Mom Donnie fallout in New York City continues to build,
but I would say overall, even CNN I saw had
a Michael Schmerconish big discussion about how Trump is winning
on levels that we have not seen before. As we
are speaking to all of you on Monday, stock market
to another all time high, buck, these are winning times,
(02:27):
and I gotta be honest, it feels pretty good.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Clay. There's one thing I think we left out of
the winning parade there that I want to throw for everybody. Well,
there's a few things we could talk about, but one
important one, because I know you're somebody who follows us
very closely, and let's just say, your trip to the
Gulf of America more economical than it would have a
couple of years ago. Gas price is my friend, Remember
(02:54):
the first thirty days of the Trump administration. Why hasn't
he brought prices down? Look how expensive eggs are? Trump
is lying? Remember all that here we have and that's
how they sound. By the way, that's that's how all
the guys reporting on it sound. It's actually a perfect
representation of their voice. Here is on Good Morning America
(03:14):
reporter Goo Benitez on gas prices. Play it.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
There is some good news, and that's good news because
most people traveling right now are traveling by road. Gas
prices three eighteen a gallon right now. That's the national
average for regular unleaded Last year that was three p
forty nine a gallon, so significantly lower.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
So some good news if you're hitting the road, Clay.
It's the lowest that it has been in quite some time. Actually,
the gas price, isn't it fascinating? Donald Trump comes into
office and gas prices drop down quite a bit. Lowest,
I'm sorry, the lowest, since I wanted to make sure
twenty twenty one lowest gas price in four years. Everybody
(03:58):
I think that's just a marker here, because you know,
if the gas price was the highest it had been
in four years, Clay'd be the number one story going
into Independence Day weekend.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
No doubt, it's actually the four year low for summer,
because inevitably somebody's going to come out there and they're
going to be like, well, actually they were low. Yes,
gas prices, as everybody knows, for Independence Day weekend, the
lower summer years, and a lot of you will remember
down twenty twenty two. Summer was the absolute apex of
Biden inflation, and gas prices were out of control in
(04:32):
the summer of twenty twenty two. I noticed this in
a big way because I just drove. I just drove
from Nashville down to the lovely Gulf of America here
and along the way, I take note of what the
price of gas looks like. And you mentioned that clip
which includes the crazy prices that people have to pay
(04:54):
for gas in states like California, where they are taxing
you like crazy on gas.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Everywhere I drove.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida, all the gas prices unleaded are
under three dollars a gallon, sometimes as low as like
two sixty to fifty, even with the summer hike that
always happens because so many of you are going to
be on the road. So yes, you're one hundred percent right.
They tried to make egg prices a big story. Egg
(05:24):
prices are lower than when Trump came into office. Now
uh and uh and and people are recognizing. And by
the way, the reason that egg prices went up so
much was because the Biden team decided to kill over
the bird flu fears. So many different, so many different
of the of the animals out here that are laying
(05:44):
the eggs.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Killed chickens.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
They killed a lot of chickens. And now now the
gas prices are down. What is We talked about this
a little bit, but maybe we can get the clip
from Trump's press conference on Friday where he was directly
asked about this. As one so called expert economist is
now saying, actually, the impact of the tariffs on overall
(06:07):
inflation seems to not have emerged. They keep saying, Oh,
you're going to see this in a month, or you're
going to see this in two months. And we're sitting here.
When was Liberation Day so called early April? If I remember,
we have not seen any increase in prices by and
large associated with the tariffs, and now people are starting
to say, wait a minute, this is going to be
a four hundred or five hundred billion dollars net proceeds
(06:31):
to the government. And the overall prices are not increasing.
To your point, the average price that people are paying
for groceries, the average price egg, specifically gas, all of
it is down compared to in the Biden era. And
we have to also remember that while there's no inflation
from the tariffs, according to Secretary of the Treasury Vessened,
(06:54):
we also have very high rates right now. And the
Fed chair Jerome Powell, they're starting to say out loud
in the Trump administration, time for a successor at a pal.
If you get a start to get a substantial drop
in rates, that'll add some rocket fuel to the economy,
which will also help. But so we're already at all
(07:14):
time behind the stock market. Your four oh one k's
are absolutely cruising your pension plans because remember the pension
plan that you have that also requires a return in
the market based on.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
The capital pool. So if you've got retirement anything, the
market being really high is what you want to see,
and so we're looking at the possibility of I think
an even stronger economy going forward. You know, Canada said
it was going to have a digital services tax on
tech firms in the US. Getting a little frisky with
(07:47):
US over the trade negotiations, Trump said, you know what,
no more negotiations with you guys, and you're gonna get
hit with some big time tariffs. Guess what, Clay, they're
tough talk from Canada on the digital tax line about
seventy two hours and now here they are backing off
of that one, saying, you know what, we should talk.
We should talk on the tariff thing specifically. I just
(08:08):
want to add it's one thing wheneveryone who hates Trump
opposes something, because they'll oppose anything. Right. Trump can say, hey, guys,
I want to put one hundred billion dollars toward during
all forms of terminal cancer, and there'll be lunatic Democrats
who are like, they won't really spend the money on this.
It's all going to go to Trump's family member. You know,
they'll just they'll find some way to hate whatever it
(08:30):
is he says on tariffs. There was a lot of
dare I say the conservative orthodoxy on this was opposed
to Trump. You know, the old school National Review. Oh
what about Milton Friedman and William F. Buckley, et cetera.
They were opposed to him on this. And it turns
(08:50):
out it looks like Trump was right, even in the
face of a lot of people on his own team
who were rooting for him saying that this was going
to cause problems.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And here's a cut from the Friday news conference proving
that there is starting to be a reassessment. And I
would say in general that in the wake of COVID,
and I think you're probably the same as me, buck
my willingness to blindly accept expert opinion is basically at zero. Yeah,
because they're wrong on so many things that they're supposed
(09:20):
to be experts on. And here is that that question,
as one of the top economists has now said, looking
at the data, hey, and I give them credit for
being willing to acknowledge, Hey, maybe I was wrong. There
has not been any inflationary price pressure based on the tariffs.
And here is that question from Friday's news conference with Trump,
(09:42):
cut twenty five.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
I believe let's play.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It, mister President.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
A leading global economists just at a one to eighty
and says, your tariff plan you may.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Have as smart everybody with it.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
So what is your message? I love this. I love
this question is a favorite.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
This is the best question I've ever been asked, because
I've been going through abuse for years on this, mister,
because as you know, we're taking in hundreds of billions
of dollars no inflation, and.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
He continued there, but I mean, this is the reality
when you look at what the data has shown so far,
it is that. And it makes some sense that price
competition is so intense in the United States that many
of these businesses don't have the capability to raise prices
right now. And frankly, as many of you know, they
(10:29):
used the Biden era inflation as an opportunity to massively
raise prices because everything was going up, and they also
shrunk the amount of product that you're often getting in
the prices in the process. Go look and right now,
because the economy is rolling and there is massive price pressure,
in fact contraction in many different things that you buy,
(10:52):
they have not been able to actually do what everybody
told you they would do, which is raise prices on
a substantial lay level to make the consumer cover the
inflation costs so far that is non existent.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
If you're Trump, would you listen to any of these
so called experts ever again, who are all shouting at
you that they are econ models show that he's wrong,
You know, really like you know, if I'm Trump, I'm
just gonna say, you guys, shut up. I'm doing what
I'm doing for the next few years. You know, Trump's
going to be eighty years old soon. He's been to
the mountaintop. He knows what's going on here. He does
not need the chirping in his years from the economists.
(11:31):
Economists in quotes, what does it even mean. It's like
when people refer to consensus opinion on anything without actually
telling you who the consensus is. So I think Trump
is once. Remember we talked about this on China and
how everybody said he's going to start a trade war
with China, and then he was so successful actually with
China that Biden didn't even mess with the China stuff
that he did because everyone realized he was right. This
(11:53):
looks like another one of those moments, which is a
big win for Trump. That's why he was he was
strutting his stuff in that SoundBite. You played because you
know no doubt.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And also, I mean, I think it speaks to the
fear of challenging conventional wisdom in the so called expert class.
Nobody wants to step outside and be noticed by doing
something outside of the herd. It's human nature in many respects,
but what you see as a herd of opinion, and
it can't be the case that everyone uniformly agrees on
(12:22):
a dynamic situation that is very difficult to predict. But
being wrong, the fear of being wrong is actually more
prevalent in most of these people than the risk of
being right.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
You know, you're also getting we're all getting a real
vision here, real view of what does leadership look like
when you're the leader of the free world, which is
what the president is. What does leadership look like. It's
deciding that you're going to hit the Iranian bunkers, even
though people are shrieking about how it's going to cause
World War three, and being right, it didn't cause World
War three. It's set back the Iranian program and backed
(12:57):
up our Israeli allies. It means starting terariff negotiations. Despite
the so called consensus of economists out there shouting about
how it's going to cause inflation and price rises and
everything else. This is real decision making with real consequence.
Where Trump has been right, he has been correct, and
I just don't think he gets enough credit. Everyone realizes, Clay.
(13:18):
You know, he's a he's a political and cultural phenomenon,
and but he is making calls against what the so
called experts and certainly what the what the general momentum
on these issues has been, and he's already show a
huge result. So I think that going into this weekend,
we all have to remember that this is not easy
(13:38):
stuff he's doing and we're all benefiting from it, and
we need to keep encouraging this sort of leadership and
supporting this kind of leadership, including with the big beautiful bill,
which we're gonna get to here in just a second
with Senator Ron Johnson. You know, I was at the
range this weekend, Clay. I'm now also a range safety
officer certified, so I really act think you are the
boys down. I mean, I'm trained, i'm insured, I'm all
(14:00):
those things coming up this fall, so it's gonna be
good times. But I was talking to the guys out there,
so many different law enforcement officers who are there as
well because they want to be able to either for
training purposes themselves with their team or on their own.
They want to be an rs O rain safety officer.
And one thing we talked about was non lethals. Do
you know what the favorite by far pepper spray brand
of the officers to talk to is because a lot
(14:21):
of them carry the pepper spray Saber. So if these
guys who have to rely on this day in and
day out trust Saber more than anything else, you should
trust Saber too. It is the number one pepper spray
brand trusted by law enforcement. And I've got people telling
me exactly that face to face. Sabre is how you
spell it. Their pepper gel projectile launcher, shaped like a
(14:42):
pistol or a rifle depending on the model, fires off
of pepper gel projectile targeted goes a longer distance than
you'd think, very effective stopping an intruder. Sabers spelled sabre.
Their website is Saber Radio Sabre saberradio dot com. This
is not about getting away from two A or guns.
This is about additional options, non lethal force escalation. Just
(15:06):
like cops have, you can have this too. I've got
a lot of guns. I've also got a lot of
saber kerry, like saber. Laura likes saber. Get yourself some
today sab R radio dot com. That's SA b r
E Radio dot com. Or call eight four four A
two four safe, eight four four eight two four safe.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
We head up to Washington, d C. Now where Senator
Ron Johnson. I imagine a lot of people are heading
to the lakes up north in Wisconsin for this time
of year when it is spectacular. But you are working, Senator,
and we had you in studio a couple of weeks
ago breaking down the Big Beautiful Bill, and you changed
your vote at the last minute or signed on with
(15:55):
the bill at the last minute. What is the latest?
What can you tell us about where we are compared
to when we talked about talked with you on air.
Speaker 6 (16:05):
Last Okay, yeah, I should be trolling for Walleye right now,
but we're here working on the Big Beautiful Bill. Iain
as far as the primary components of this bill, I'm
fully supportive of Right, We're gonna make sure that we
don't have a massive automatic tax increase. That's about that's
about four trillion dollars in the score. By the way,
(16:25):
nobody wants that. Nobody wants to default to our debt. Unfortunately,
Democrats left these enormous messes the open border, so we
have to provide funding for border, the wars, We have
to provide funding for the defense. Massive four year average
just in to one point nine trillion, the seven years
before the pandemic our death at average six hundred and
sixty billion. Four years afterwards under Biden Democrats one point
(16:49):
nine trillion. So again it is true the House provided
us with the spending reduction about historic spending reduction about
one point four trillion, tend to actually is about one
point six. Our difference in our scores is we make
sure the business expensing provisions are permanent versus the short term.
So that's the main difference between the House and the Senate.
(17:09):
Now you know we're hearing from the House, you're not
real happy, and we're short from their math somewhere around
six hundred billion dollars. Rick Scott has an excellent amendment
which was not including the base film, and that was
really the sticking point on the motion proceed We got
the commitment of the leadership to now we offer amendment vote,
(17:30):
but whip it and try and make sure this thing
gets passed. I'm hoping President Trump helps us get this
thing passed because that heady on the date. So here's
what the amendment does. It doesn't kick anybody off of Medicaid.
What it does is it stops enrollment into the Obama
Care addition to Medicaid, which threatens traditional Medicaid for disabled children,
(17:54):
for example. So at some point in time in the future,
we're debating that you just don't allow states to enroll
them under the a nine dollars to one dollar match.
I mean, I think you guys realize that. Right for
a disabled child, for every dollar the state puts in
the Medicaid, the federal government matches it for a dollar
thirty three. But for the Obamacare single working age able body,
(18:15):
childless adults, for every dollars state puts in, federal government
kicks in nine. There's a huge incentive for states to
gain the system provider taxes, provider fees, which aren't healthcare,
by the way, but they get reimbursed nine dollars for
every dollar the states kicks in there. So against it's
a financing scam. We're trying to end that because it's
(18:35):
causing the Outfloak comes to billions of dollars out of
the federal government. We don't have the money, so that
alone could feel about five hundred billion dollars of that gap.
If we give states until the first part of twenty
twenty nine and the scam I mean, very reasonable proposal
most Republicans support. In the Senate, we've got some holdouts
and that's where we need leadership for pressure people. You know,
(18:58):
there are other things in the build, some extraneous task
credits that you know, one word, thirty seven jillion dollarsand debt.
Do we really have to add task credits for this,
that and the other thing. So again, I think this
is entirely doable. It's going to take the President a
weigh in, It's going to take Republican leadership to make
sure that we can satisfy the House requirements. And then
when all said and done, this would be the huge
(19:20):
achievement repealing at least the most damaging part of Obamacare,
which was the addition to Medicaid, which puts it risk
the Medicaid for disabled child. I mean, do you think
it's fair that for a disabled child the phedograph kicks
in a Dallas thirty three. But for a working age
person that should be working getting health care from their employer,
(19:40):
we provide nine dollars for everyone. It's just out of whack.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
Senator Johnson. People are reading about I think many of them,
if not for the first time. It's certainly a helpful
reminder about the Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough, who has been
in this role since twenty twelve. This is on an
elected office. This is a it's pretty fascinating actually, right,
this started sometime around with the nineteen twenties, nineteen thirty,
(20:08):
so it's about one hundred years ago. There's somebody who
helps with administrative procedures rules within the Senate. I guess,
like when you guys are allowed to have bathroom breaks
or I don't know, whatever it is. And now there's
somebody who is stripping out parts of the bill like
the NFA National Firearms Act and silencers no longer being
an NFA item because the parliamentarian what is going on here?
(20:31):
And by the way, talk to you about that NFA
silencers or suppressors issue.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
Well, I believe that was included. So this is incredibly complex.
I mean, this all has to do with the Budget
Act sets up this reconciliation process where we can reduce
mandatory spending or we cut taxes or increased taxes with
a simple majority vote. Because of that process, the Senator
(20:58):
Robert Byrd had rules in terms of what would qualify
for that what wouldn't qualify. From my standpoint, the parliamentarian
has been pretty even handed. When Democrats wanted to include
things or more policy than budget, she didn't allow it.
She's done the same thing here by the way, We've
modified things that she wasn't going to kick out. We
listened to her instructions, we got it back in. So
(21:19):
I realized that ends up being kind of a bonus contention.
What we don't want to do is eliminate the philibuster.
I know a lot of people want us to, but
the filibuster has protected us from all kinds of massive
Democrats spending programs because in the minority, Republics had the
right to block some of that stuff. So, I mean,
I realized at the moment, it's like, get rid of
that so we can get everything we want. That would
(21:40):
be pretty short sighted thinking, but yeah, we've got a
way to do this. You know, Rick Scott knows healthcare
like nobody else. So he brilliant proposal doesn't keep anybody
off Medicaid, just ends the Medicaid scam a few years
in the future, gives states, gives propriet writers a chance
to readjust how they're budgeting. Basically, states and providers are
(22:02):
based in their budget off of this financing scam that
has to end. We simply can't afford it.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Where we stand now. I know that Chuck Schumer made
the entire bill be read aloud in the Senate chamber,
and that took a long time. There's talk that Trump
wants to get this thing signed on July fourth. You're
in the Senate right now. What does the timeframe look
like for everybody out there? And where do we go
from here?
Speaker 6 (22:29):
Well, we're in the voter rama, so it's unlimited amendments,
so I can't predict how long it'll go. Again, we're
in very close conversation with conservatives in the House. They're
telling us this product right now is debt on arrival.
I actually take them seriously. You know, we kind of
ignored their formula, their math. They looked at this differently
than we did. We're I think about six hundred and
(22:51):
fifty billion dollars short. Now, from my standpoint, I'm I'm
fine it satisfying their requirement again, use Rick Scott's amendments
and in enrollment for new Obamacare nine dollars a one match.
Those guys can go on to standard Medicaid, get get reversed,
same things as a sable child. Okay, do that start
(23:11):
at twenty twenty nine that say, this is about five
hundred billion dollars. Get rid of some of these extraneous measures,
some of these new task credits that just some some
Republicans center thought, oh this is an important thing. Now
just get work. Thirty seven trillion dollars in death this
is not a time for additional task credits. For jumping
out our task gode further. So, I would have no
problem taking a look this, going look at this and say, okay, no,
(23:33):
we can reduce the deaths at by six hundred and
fifty billion. Not a problem. Again, Politically, you've got constituencies.
You've got people that apparently like to spend money, like
to offer new tax credits, refuse to do what they
promised to do, you know, repeal Obamacare, rip it out
by the root and branch. This is just one route
that is probably the most damaging aspect of Obamacare. And
(23:53):
we've got Republicans now that aren't willing to do it.
Just where we need presidential leadership, say honor your promise,
get that additional death suit relief, get this past to
the Senate, get this pass to the House, and then
we really will end up with one big, beautiful bill.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Outstanding stuff, Senator Ron Johnson. We appreciate all the work
you're doing and keep us updated. You can hop on anytime.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Have great day you too.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
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Speaker 2 (25:56):
Hey buck, one of my kids called me an unk
the other day, and unk yep slang evidently for not
being hip, being an old dude.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
So how do we ununk?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
You get more people to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
At least that's what my kids tell me.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
That's simple enough. Just search the Klay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show and hit the subscribe button.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Takes less than five seconds to help ununk me.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Do it for Clay, do it for freedom, and get
great content while you're there the Clay Travison Buck Sexton
Show YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
As I know many of you are likely to be
on the road, I would encourage you as always go
download the podcast. You can search out my name Clay Travis,
you can search out Buck Sexton, and you will be
well on your way to being able to take us
with you anywhere. We also have a fabulous podcast network
with voices that range the spectrum from moms like Carol
(26:47):
Markowitz and Mary Katherine Ham who have a great show,
to badass former special Forces like David Rutherford. You will
be able to find as much as you would like
from that perspective and beyond, and you'll be able to
take us with you wherever you may be. If you're
on the road and you need something good.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
To listen to.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I was listening to some podcasts on my drive down
to the Gulf of America on Saturdays, in the car
for about nine hours, lots of traffic, and got through
a lot of different cool podcasts, so I know a
lot of you are going to be on the road
and Buck as we went to break at the end
of that first hour, we were talking about some of
the situation that's going on in New York City where
(27:29):
Mom Donnie, this crazy left wing effective communist, has won
the nomination for the Democrat side of the mayoralty. There
has not yet been a decision by Andrew Cuomo about
whether he's going to run as an independent or drop out.
To me, and I'm just kind of assessing this from afar,
(27:50):
the decision has to be Eric Adams versus Mom Donnie.
I think that's the only way Mom Donnie loses if
there's multiple independents, if you have a Republican nominated like
Curtis Lee while running aggressively, I just don't the more
opposition there is to Mom Donnie, the better it is
for his likelihood. But I bet you were like me.
(28:10):
Over the weekend, a lot of deep dives into his
videos started to go public, and these are I would say,
truly outrageous perspectives that he has adopted publicly and I
know you've been following it, You've got some you want
to kind of shine a spotlight on.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Jane because I keep hoping that New York is going
to wake up and go through a Juliani Bloomberg Golden
Era again. But you have a lot of people that
know nothing about that era. That's part of the problem.
The people like me who grew up in very dangerous
New York City, and I would people say, oh, no,
it was very dangerous in the seventies. The most dangerous
(28:52):
was the late eighties, early nineties. By the numbers, no question.
Go check it out for yourself. Over two thousand murders
in New York City when I was in grammar school
nineteen ninety nineteen ninety one, two thousand plus murders. Think
about that, all right. New York City has gotten down
as low as I think, below three hundred at one
point in the last decades, so massive, massive, And people say, well,
that's just murders. Yeah, but murders are very very solid
(29:16):
proxy for overall pretticly violent crime. But crime in general,
it's tough to hide dead bodies and people are upset
about them. Right. Burglaries don't necessarily get reported or investigated.
I mean there's other things ways you can mess with
the stats, murders or murders. So a lot of people
Clay who voted for Momdani are either too young. You
know he got because he was huge with gen Z,
(29:38):
or they came here in the last fifteen hund and
twenty years. They don't know. They're foreigners who have become
you know, green card holders, or they maybe become citizens.
And now they're saying, oh yeah, I like this guy.
Like what he's saying. He's going to make you know,
he's going to make food cheaper in the kabab stands,
he's going to make groceries cheaper, and he's talking about
all this stuff. Let's get into some of the things
(29:59):
that this guy has had actually said. The Kami mom
Donnie here he is. I mean, we've got so many
of these. I'll start with this one. He talked about
increasing Well, here, let's do this one. First, billionaires. We
shouldn't even have this is cut seven. We shouldn't even
have billionaires. Play seven.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
You are a self described democratic socialist.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Do you think that billionaires have a right to exist?
Speaker 7 (30:24):
I don't think that we should have billionaires because Frankly,
it is so much money in a moment of such inequality.
And ultimately what we need more of is equality across
our city and across our state and across our country.
And I look forward to work with everyone, including billionaires,
to make a city that is fairer for all of them.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
I hate this so much because we can sit here, Clay,
and we will and make all the arguments about how
you can take all the money from the I don't know,
one hundred two hundred billionaires whatever it is in New
York City, or a few hundred billionaires maybe maximum. You
could take all the money they have and try to
redistribute it. You wouldn't solve poverty in New York City
for a year, Okay, it wouldn't change it. They're spending
(31:07):
fourteen billion a year just on the illegals in New
York City, fourteen billion a year on special care for illegals.
You think you're gonna seize a few hundred billion dollars
from New York's billionaires, you're gonna fix the problems. But
even beside that, Cly, the whole argument here is just
one about envy. It's one about emotion. This is why
it's so pernicious and why communism keeps creeping up wherever,
(31:29):
you know, wherever there's prosperity in the West, and it's
because it just makes people who are upset feel better
about themselves to think that there's some other person who's
their problem.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Look, I really do think it sums up the flaw
of capitalism is it creates wealth in leisure, which leads
to the illusion that capitalism is unnecessary. And the reason
we have the wealth and the leisure that exists in
this country. And by leisure, I mean you don't have
to constantly be in a mad scramble to have water
(32:04):
or food or the ability to you know, the poor
people in the United States are not actually poor relative
to the standards for what poverty looks like in the
rest of the world. Our poor people, I think one
of the great stats that kind of brings this home.
Even in a country like India, the poorest people in
(32:24):
the United States would be in the top twenty percent
richest in India. That's true for almost every country that
is in the world. The poorest people here would be
among the wealthiest anywhere else. And if you wonder why
people are risking their lives to come through the Darien
Gap during the Biden era or come across the Rio Grande.
It's because even being poor in the United States makes
(32:47):
you wealthy in.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Many other countries. And that's an incredible degree that we have.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
But the poverty, it comes along with obesity in this country,
which is an excess for example, of food. There's a
correlation between poverty and obesity. There were times actually, like
all of human history, for the laste hundred or so years,
where poverty and starvation were actually what we're correlated.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
And actually being fat was a sign of tremendous wealth
because it meant that you had to your point another
all time.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
To tell my wife, but she wanted me to get
in shape anyway.
Speaker 6 (33:18):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
It was kind of sad if you go back and
look at all the kings, you know in England back
in the day, for instance, when they became super wealthy,
they were often very fat because that meant that you
had the ability to have too much to eat, which
was a rarity. But the billionaire thing to me is
it's it's it's so important for everybody to focus on.
(33:42):
First of all, I want there to be way more billionaires.
I want there to be way more millionaires. I want
the overall pie of economic wealth in the United States
to grow massively, and I want everybody to be able
to feast on economic success, whatever your current status of
life is. But this is so important, and I think
(34:02):
you're a perfect example of this because what this happens
is and you're going to start to see this in earnest.
I think I would even argue this is a generational
story that you need to put a pin in and
pay attention to. People who have success in life who
have wealth are far more mobile in general than people
(34:24):
who do not have success in life and do not
have great opportunity. Right with wealth comes the ability to
go to different places to relocate your life. And what
a lot of people found out during COVID is they
could move to different parts of the United States or
even the world and they would have never tested it
(34:45):
but for COVID, and they found out, Hey, I can
be running Wall Street from Miami just as well as
I can from Greenwich, Connecticut, or a super luxury pad
somewhere in a high rise bill overlooking Central Park. And
what you are going to see. And I want all
of you to kind of think about this because it's
(35:06):
going to happen La Chicago, New York City. They are
going to increasingly tax the successful people in these communities.
And Mom Donnie is reflective of this, and the successful people,
the most successful people in those communities. You just saw
Ken Griffin Citadel. He just up and said, screw it,
Chicago's not safe. I'm moving all my people to Miami.
(35:29):
You are going to see I just mentioned Buck, born
and raised New York City kid who probably would love
to have stayed in New York City. But you start
to have success and you look at other parts of
the country and they're they're grabbing so much of your
money that at some point you just say enough, I
can't deal with this anymore, even in a city that
you may have grown up in and loved.
Speaker 3 (35:51):
Yeah, And it's frustrating because you can also see the
recent history of cities that have gone down this pathway
and it is universally a bad idea. It universally creates
more negative things, whether it's crime, disorder, you know, filth
on the streets, economic light from the city is. We
(36:14):
go through this over and over again. But this brings
me back Clay. The reason I'm concerned about Mom Donnie
is that he is good, He is slick, He is
adept at appealing to people's emotions who are frustrated and
who don't want to even get into the merits of
the argument. They want an excuse. It is the politics
(36:35):
of envy. Somebody else has it better than me, by
the way, you don't even know. I mean, there's some
of the happiest people I know lead some of the
most humble and basic lives, and truly some of the
most miserable people I know have the most money and
the most influence and the most power, and they just
can't escape their daily misery. But put that aside for
a second. And I know that sounds like a cliched
I swear it is true, Okay, I mean I could
(36:57):
go through chapter and verse. People who have you know,
they're having a very sort of you know not moditor
is not the word I'm looking for. What do you
call modest, very modest life in America? And they're very,
very happy, and people who have incredible lives of extravagance,
and they're truly miserable. But again, aside Clay, this is
the politics of somebody is excusing all of my choices
(37:19):
and says, they're going to make my problems go away.
And it never works. It never works. It's not going
to work this time. It has never worked before. But
people like to believe this is why socialism is actually
a religion. I mean, communism is a religion. This is
not an economic system because the economics can't work. We
just went through it. You can take all the money
(37:40):
from the rich people in New York, it's not going
to pay for all the poor people stuff forever. It's
not going to make the poor people not poor. But
it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. They want this, they
feel this, and Momdani feeds it to them, he gives
it to them. He makes it seem like none of
this is anyone's fault. No one stays in life. Is
the result of choices, no one's It's the system. And
(38:05):
what's going to happen is the system is going to
have a lot less money because when you go dive
into the actual revenue produced by taxation, the billionaires that
Mom Donnie claims shouldn't exist, in fact, if New York
wants to have the best quality of life, they should
have way more billionaires. They're going to leave and then
that's going to create a vicious cycle because you're going
(38:27):
to have to increase taxes in order to try to
replicate the services that the taxes are creating. Now, the
tax dollars are going to leave, They're going to go
to states like Florida, Tennessee, Texas where there's zero state
income tax. I mean, again, this is a generational flaw
of Democrats that I think is going to be exposed
(38:49):
in a big way. And again, if you make a
million dollars, let's say you make a million dollars a year.
Not that many people who make a million dollars a year,
but let's say you do.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
You're paying one hundred and fifty thousand dollars extra for
the privilege of living in New York City. Okay, if
you make ten million, you're paying one point five million
dollars for the privilege of living in New York. You're
getting up to the high levels above ten million dollars.
Think about even at a million dollars, you can pay
(39:18):
an entire mortgage living in Tennessee or Texas or Florida.
That increases your assets compared to what you're paying. And
people would say, okay, well, there's a benefit to living
in New York City, right, or Chicago or La. I'm
here to tell y'all, I've spent a lot of time
in all these places. It's fun to visit. Uh, there's
(39:39):
no city in America I would pay one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars extra of my tax dollars to live
in compared to Florida, Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (39:47):
Or Texas. Now, you guys, have you guys have good
food in Nashville too. I can't even I can't even
throw shade at some of these other cities thirty years
ago New Yorkers. I'm just telling you guys the truth.
New Yorkers could be like, honestly, we just have better
food than you guys. And that was true of most
cities he's in America thirty years ago, maybe even twenty
years ago. Nashville, Charleston, you know, Atlanta. I mean you
(40:08):
just look like you know, Phoenix. These places all have
great food. Now, I mean it's great food.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
It's not even cool enough to know good restaurant stuff.
I've never even noticed that, but I am told that
the foody scene for people who love restaurants in a
city like where I live.
Speaker 3 (40:21):
Nashville is out of control. Ever, you can't even keep
up well in Nashville. Nashville Punch is way above its way.
But every decent mid size city and above in America
has great food now. So I'm saying some of the
advantages that New York used to have as a place.
New York, Chicago, and LA used to just have better
job opportunities and better food than most of the rest
of the country. And it's just you can say you
want to live in a rural area, that's great, that's fine.
(40:42):
But if you're looking to work at a top law
firm and you want to go to a Michelin three
star restaurant, those were really in San Francisco too. Those
are really the choices that you had, which is not
true anymore. To your point, you can do these jobs
from wherever.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Everywhere.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
It's got great food. You can buy anything anywhere you
want now thanks to the Internet. But Clay, I mean,
we can make these arguments all day. Here's a stat
one percent of New Yorkers pay fifty percent of New
York City's tax rate. One percent, one in one hundred
people are paying for fifty people. And Mamdani's like that's
not enough. It's unequal. How much more does it have
(41:14):
to be? How much more is there going to be? Look,
this is the problem, friends, is these budgets can get
out of control and the Democrats want to keep spending
us into oblivion. You need to take action. Next week,
the US dollar is going to be at the center
of a debate among nations gathering in Arrea Detionario, Brazil.
The Brick nations are meeting. Okay, now, these nations want
(41:36):
to move away from the US dollar as the reserve currency.
They're trying to do this slowly, but surely if that happens,
our quality of life takes a huge hit and the
dollar takes a bath, it's going to be rough. You
should prepare for this possibility today and also just diversify
because inflation is going to continue slowly but surely. I
know Trump's doing a great job with it, but in
(41:56):
the next ten to fifteen years going to chip away
at that dollar. How can you protect your eye four
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Speaker 1 (42:41):
Buck.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
I saw over the weekend, as you look ahead to
twenty twenty eight, the data on who people would support,
and I just feel like I should make a public
announcement here.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Mayor Pete was the leader.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Okay, I just came back from Traverse City, Michigan. I
think Mayor Pete has moved to Traverse City, had a
good choice there. I saw that people are saying, oh,
look he started following the UFC our Buddy Jesse Kelly
had a tweet about that.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Here's the deal.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Mayor Pete is the leading Democrat projected favorite in twenty
twenty eight. Right now he gets zero percent of the
Black vote, zero percent. I feel like we need to
make a PSA to Mayor Pete. Maybe in twenty years
(43:37):
you can be the Democrat nominee.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Black dudes are not voting for a white guy who
is gay.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
You have a zero percent chance of actually being the nominat.
Remember when nobody would talk about this. He was having
a great campaign. He did well in Iowa, he did
well in New Hampshire. White Democrats love Mayor Pete. The
fact that he's gay might even help them. Black people,
black men in particular, they're not voting for a gay
(44:06):
white dude.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
He cannot.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
We went to South Carolina, his entire campaign collapsed. He
went across to the South. All the black people in
the South voting in the Democrat primary a gay white dude.
I don't think a gay black dude would do well.
I don't think a gay Hispanic guy would do well.
I don't think gay people are going to be supported
by most black voters, but a gay white dude is
definitely not.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
So what does Mayor Pete do.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
He's got all these aspirations to be the next president
of the United States, and nobody else will even address
this on the left because that would require you to
acknowledge that the most prominent bits of homophobia are actually
from black voters in the Democrat Party, and nobody will
even address it because that requires them to honestly assess
(44:53):
what's going on here.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
Should we just.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
Tell mayor Pete he has no chance of being president.
Maybe he could be.
Speaker 2 (44:58):
Vice president, but he's not gonna get He's not gonna
win Democrat primary because the black bass will not vote
for a white dude who is gay.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
I don't think they would vote.
Speaker 2 (45:09):
For a gay guy, period, but I do think that
this is a funny thing. To get zero zero percent
of the black vote is really really funny to me,
and yet he was.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
Still the leader.
Speaker 7 (45:24):
The law.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Also won't be any effort to push on this, push
back on this from the Democrat powers that be. I mean,
they're not going to say, they're not going to try
to strong arm, if you will, the members of the
black community into voting from a or P. You know
you're not going to see You're not going to see
(45:47):
pushy lectures on MSNBC about this, which I think is
also interesting. So just just put that. Put that aside
for a moment. Notice how quickly the whole Kamala situation
has faded to as a possibility for the Democrats going forward.
As I've said all along, she's going to be a
provost at a second tier UC school. Just give it time.
She cannot win. They know she cannot win. She's a
(46:08):
horrible politician, and that will become more apparent as time passes.
I think that that's why the Mamdani situation Clay is
interesting because it's an indicator of Democrat base sentiment right now,
which is very strongly with AOC and Bernie Sanders. You
(46:28):
do not see anybody who is a more centrist Democrat
catching fire again with the Democrat base. I'm not talking
about how they would even do nationally, but you have
to win a primary before you'd get further. And you
also want to know who the biggest voices are in
the Democrat Party going into the midterms, and they're leftists.
And the ones that still get attention are Bernie Sanders,
(46:50):
Elizabeth Warren, AOC. What centrist Democrat and I say centrist
in quotes, but you know more mainstream Democrat is getting
That's not even the way to say it. I'm not
even sure you know Purple State Democrat. Maybe you could
say you know somebody who operates someone like a Gretchen
Whitmer who operates as a as a governor in a
purple state. They don't get any attention right now. The
(47:12):
base is not excited about them, and I think that
that's likely to continue. So, yeah, Mayor Pete is not
going to become president of the United States. It's to
me what the data shows you is that there is
the fact that he is the leader of the Democrat
Party in terms of choice right now for nominee. Is
actually just proof positive that there is no leader of
(47:35):
the Democrat Party for the nomination right now. It's totally
an open field.
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Also, has there ever been a leader of a party
that has done less in his life than Mayor Pete?
I mean, he was the mayor of Southend in Indiana.
He was a disaster of a transportation secretary. I'm not
sure that we've ever had a less accomplished person than
(48:02):
Mayor Pete. As I mean, he's still only like forty
two or forty three years old. I think he's a
young guy. But yeah, he has zero chance of actually
being the nominee you mentioned. Gretchen Whitmer. I'm actually reading
the original sin Book. I know, I know, I know,
I am reading the original sin book. I did find
this interesting. The book they say that Kamala, you know,
(48:26):
the public reporting was that it was that Biden decided
he was going to pick a black woman, and so
there was a lot of discussion about who the black
woman he would pick would be. They actually say in
the book that Gretchen Whitmer was the runner up for
Joe Biden in the twenty twenty decision making. If he
(48:47):
had picked her, she would have run as a much
better contender when they had to bump up the VP
than Kamala did.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
Right, huge mistake.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
I mean, she would she would have won, unfortunately, because
I think she's been a bad governor, but she is
very popular there and look at and wiscon so go
with Michigan probably so go with Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (49:08):
I think. So it would have been very tough, would
have been very tough if she had been the Kamala was.
It would be hard to find a worse choice than
Kamala Harris, given the way that it all played out
with Joe Biden. That's what I mean. It really was
what did she bring to the table California machine party
(49:30):
machine politicians.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
She was back all she brought was black women, which
theoretically we're going to vote Biden anyway. But that's the calculus.
I mean, it was the ultimate identity politics calculus. The
same reason sadly Katanji Brown Jackson is on the Supreme Court.
They eliminated ninety seven percent of all lawyers. Basically, I
(49:52):
think black women are three percent of the overall three
or four percent of the overall legal profession, and they her,
and so she is nowhere near the most qualified Supreme
Court justice. I think similarly, Kamalo was nowhere near the
best choice that Joe Biden could have made, even when
he said I'm going to pick a woman, which I
(50:15):
think was a poor choice to say, like, hey, I'm
eliminating half of all the contenders, because whenever you give
the criteria, you delegitimize whoever you pick. Because you're not
saying I'm picking the best person, you're saying I'm picking
the best woman, or I'm picking the best black woman.
You're automatically making it clear that they're not the best
contender by delegitimizing them publicly in playing that identity politics game.
(50:41):
But I think Gretchen Whitmer, if you go back in time.
If Biden makes that pick, then when he steps down,
she's a far better candidate than Kamalo would have been.
Speaker 3 (50:49):
Well, I do like that, And this I'm sure comes
across in the book that you're reading as unfortunate it
is that you are helping to pay the Tapper industrial
industrial propaganda complex. But that's fine, that's fine. I'm glad
one of us is reading. At least one of us
can reference it from having actually read it. I'm sure
this comes across. There's an assumption. I think that a
lot of people have that. The other side, meaning the Democrats,
(51:12):
are they're always a step ahead, and they're so smart
and they're so crafty. Joe Biden was a dementia patient
and he was done before he had dementia, and he's
making a lot of these decisions. Sometimes they just make
dumb moves. Yeah, And with Joe Biden, they made a
lot of dumb moves. And Biden himself, I should say,
made a lot of dumb moves. There were things that
he did that were not It was not for dchs.
(51:34):
It was a blunder and they paid the price for
it in this last election in a big way, as
they should have totally.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
And I do think it's interesting because I Gretchen Whitmer
is going to think of herself as a contender in
twenty eight. Wes Moore is going to think of himself
as a contender in twenty eight. A lot of these
governors Josh Shapiro are going to try to stay away
from the Washington mess and run as outsiders in twenty
twenty eight.
Speaker 3 (51:59):
And meanwhile, Thrump's walking around right now. This is cut
too saying it's only taking me six months, but I'm
turning things around and kicking ass and taking names. Play two.
Speaker 7 (52:09):
Have you been able to digest what has occurred.
Speaker 8 (52:11):
In the last seven days?
Speaker 7 (52:13):
Not really.
Speaker 8 (52:13):
It was pretty wild period of time. And I really
think in six months we've taken the country and turned
it around. I was told by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
by the leader of Qatar and the leader of Yuoe
when we went over there, we've worked back five point
one trillion dollars investment into the United States. They said,
you know, you're presiding now over the hottest country in
(52:35):
the world, and a year ago we thought your country
was dead. It could never come back. It was so
incompetently run by a very band president, and I said,
you're right. This country is hot.
Speaker 3 (52:49):
Country's hot played. It's doing great, very exciting.
Speaker 1 (52:53):
No doubt.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
And I think that's one reason why everybody should be
excited as we get ready for this celebration of July fourth.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
Everything.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Even if you're a crazy left wing Democrat, Trump's making
decisions that are actually benefiting you in terms of the
direction of the nation.
Speaker 3 (53:10):
Close out with some of your calls, your thoughts, your talkbacks,
So throw them in now, get in the mix. Eight
hundred and two two two eight a two. Since nine eleven,
the Tunnel the Towers Foundation has been supporting America's greatest
heroes and their families, Heroes who protect our communities and
our countries. Hero like firefighter James Dickman. He was passionate
about fire safety and aspired to do everything in his
(53:32):
power to keep his community and his fellow firefighters safe.
While responding to an apartment fire, James and his crew
tried to save people who are thought to be trapped inside.
When the situation escalated, James was not able to escape.
He perished in the blazing inferno. The cause of the
fire was arson. James leaves behind his loving wife Jamie,
and his children, Page and Grant. Tunnel the Towers gave
the Dickman family the gift of a mortgage free home.
(53:55):
Jamie is grateful to Tunnel the Towers and to caring
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That's t the number two t dot org
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