April 16, 2026 • 36 mins
Hour 1 of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show is led solo by Buck Sexton and centers heavily on escalating U.S.–Iran tensions, domestic political fallout, and sharp criticism of progressive governance in New York City. Buck opens the hour with a detailed breakdown of the Trump administration’s current military posture toward Iran, focusing on the naval blockade of Iranian shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Using remarks from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Buck explains that the United States is choking off Iran’s economic lifeline by preventing Iranian oil exports while allowing international shipping to continue, a strategy designed to maximize pressure without a full-scale war. Hegseth warns that Iran faces a stark choice: abandon its nuclear ambitions or face intensified U.S. action, including potential strikes on critical infrastructure, power generation, and Iran’s energy sector, underscoring that the U.S. Navy maintains absolute control of the region with only a fraction of its total force.
Buck analyzes the likely endgame of the Iran blockade, arguing that the Trump administration’s real objective is not regime change, but permanently preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He emphasizes that reopening maritime traffic is secondary to forcing Tehran to abandon its nuclear program, and he notes that Iran’s leadership has historically shown a willingness to allow its population to suffer rather than concede, referencing past conflicts and decades of international isolation. The hour frames the situation as high-stakes geopolitical pressure, with Trump betting that sustained economic strangulation will either force Iranian capitulation or trigger internal unrest against the IRGC regime.
Domestically, Hour 1 pivots to New York politics, where Buck delivers an extended and highly critical assessment of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul. He argues that Mamdani’s proposed policies—including a $30 million, government-run grocery store and new luxury “pied-à-terre” taxes on properties valued over $5 million—reflect economic ignorance and Marxist class warfare. Buck contends these policies will worsen the city’s affordability crisis, drive investment out of New York, and accelerate population flight to states like Florida, Texas, and Tennessee. He frames Mamdani’s agenda as punishment of perceived “class enemies” rather than serious solutions to housing costs, taxation, or supply constraints created by overregulation and union-dominated construction markets.
The hour also addresses a tragic national security story involving the killing of a Department of Homeland Security employee by an individual who should not have been in the country. Buck connects the incident to broader failures in border enforcement and immigration policy, arguing it represents yet another preventable crime linked to lax enforcement and progressive governance. He further references political fallout surrounding Congressman Eric Swalwell, suggesting legal and political consequences loom following his resignation and ongoing scrutiny.
Throughout Hour 1, Buck weaves in reactions from listener talkbacks, blending serious political analysis with humor and cultural commentary, including lighthearted exchanges about fashion habits like drawstring pants. The tone alternates between hardline national security analysis, economic critique, and conversational engagement with the audience.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everybody to the Thursday edition of the Clay Travis
and Buck Sexton Show. Clay is in flight, so you
are rolling with the Buckster solo today, that would be me.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Thanks for being here, everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Clay and I are Lincoln up for a lovely charity
event tonight at Mara a Lago, a place I'm sure
you're quite familiar with. So yeah, that's what we got
going on, and we have a lot of news to
talk about. A Department of War press conference this morning,
DW Secretary he set laying out where things stand right
(00:36):
now with this blockade, and it's now just a blockade of.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Iran in the strait of horror moves.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
We've got Mom Donnie's New York getting crazier by the
minute and doing exactly what you would expect an economic
ignoramus communist to do, and that is class warfare, redistribution
of wealth, find some way to blame other people and
(01:06):
take their money while you're doing it. That's what's going
on in New York City. It is the case I
think that Mamdannie will be seen as real estate salesman
of the Year for Florida. That is likely to happen
along with some Texas and Tennessee. But New Yorkers, like me,
like Hannity, like a bunch of us, we tend to
(01:29):
retreat to Castle, Florida when we've had enough of the
comedies in New York. So we've got that going on.
You've also got some, I mean a really just gut
punch of a story about a slain DHS employee and
the guy who killed her. So Department of Homeland Security employee,
young woman and she was murdered by some maniac who
(01:51):
went on a terror spree, essentially a terrorizing people. And
guess what, he's somebody who was brought into the country,
another person who should not have been here, another person
who has preyed upon the innocent and never should have
been in a position to do so.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
A little more of the fallout.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
From Eric Swalwell's resignation and the end of Swalwell's political career.
Now I think he's focused on the staying out of
prison side of the equation. And then we'll get a
lot of your talkbacks and calls and everything else. So
a very stacked show today. And that brings me to
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who was speaking this morning
(02:34):
about the situation in Iran, and this is where this
is where we are, This is where things stand right now.
We are a few days into this, a few days
into saying that every ship can go through the Strait
except Iranian ships. So we are choking off their economic
(02:54):
lifeline right now, and Trump feels like we have all
the cards to do so. Secretary Heggsath coming in over
the top with a reminder that there is a definitely
not just a willingness, but in fact preparations are underway
to take action against the Iranian should they not concede,
(03:15):
should they not agree in a deal, or if they
do anything aggressive, which would seem even crazy under the circumstances,
this is let's do cut one here, Secretary of War,
speaking directly to the Iranian regime.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Play it.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We'll start with a message to Iran's military leadership, to
the Cage leadership and IERGC leadership, We're watching you. Our
capabilities are not the same our military and yours. Remember
this is not a fair fight. We are locked and
loaded on your critical dual use infrastructure, on your remaining
(03:50):
power generation, and on your energy industry. We'd rather not
have to do it, but We're ready to go at
the command of our president and at the push of
a button. You'd like to say publicly Roan that you
control the Strait of horm moves, but you don't have
a navy or real domain awareness. You can't control anything.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Can't control anything, he says. Now, the only way I
think that the Iranians are able to change the game here,
the only thing that I can see as their next level.
Their next move would be something that is so aggressive
and catastrophic for them as well as for the Strait,
(04:36):
and that would be to blow up a ship, an
oil tanker. And I don't think that they're going to
do that. I think they recognize that that would not
serve their interests. I think they recognize that America would
react even more strongly to that, and it would also
bring the international community onto our side, or well some
(04:56):
of them, some of them would blame us, to be clear,
some other country there's lots of other countries, unfortunately, would
rather blame America than blame Iran for.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
All of this. They view us as the instigator here.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Now, we did start this conflict, but we didn't start
the overall disagreement with Iran, and we didn't start the
decades of terrorism. We didn't start the isolation of Iran
from the international community because it refuses to act like
a normal state. You'll notice we have no interest in
(05:31):
blockading Spain or the Philippines or you know, India, or
go around the world. We're not looking for fights. We
just refuse. And this Trump administration refuses to back down
to bullies and to bad actors and to malefactors. And
(05:51):
this is where Hegseth just says, Look, this is the
carrots and sticks moment. Iran can play ball or this
just gets worse with them. This is cut too. He's
just saying, this is how it's going to play out
over the days ahead.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
This blockade, which the Chairman will detail this morning, is
the polite way that this can go. Your energy is
not moving and will not move, and we can do
this all day, but it's not destroyed yet. Your energy
industry is not destroyed yet. The United States Navy controls
the traffic going in and out of the Strait because
(06:25):
we have real assets and real capabilities, and we're doing
this blockade, performing it with less than ten percent of
America's naval power.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
The math is clear.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
We're using ten percent of the world's most powerful navy
and you have zero percent of your navy. That's real control,
and we have a long track record of dealing with
pirates and terrorists.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
We do have by far the most powerful navy. We
have the most powerful military, of course, but our navy
is in just a whole different league from every other
navy around the planet. The Brits used to have some
great stuff, but their navy now is a couple of
row boats and a dinghy. It's gotten, gotten, sad, gotten sad.
The once great British navy is not what it used
(07:14):
to be. But we have a great navy and we
are using it here to bring maximum pressure against the
Iranian regime. And what you're going to see is how
much pain can the Iranian the Iranian regime tolerate before
they will concede. Now, this is going to be interesting,
(07:34):
and it's going to take time. This is not going
to be an overnight. I think the Iranians are not
going to come back to us in a few days,
in my opinion, and say, you know what, fine, all
that stuff we refuse to do, we're willing to do.
And this is why Secretary heg Seth has said to them, look,
you have a choice to make here. You should choose wisely.
This has cut three play it.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
To Iran, choose wisely.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I pray you choose a deal which.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Is within your grasp for the betterment of your people
and for the betterment of the world. In the meantime,
the war department is locked and loaded.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Now, the problem here that we run into is that
the Iranian government as it still stands, and we're told
that much Tabah is deep, deep, deep underground somewhere, the
Iranian governing body, which is still in place, does not
care about the suffering of its own people. That's why
(08:32):
I have brought up numerous times the Iran Iraq War
of the eighties with they think about a million people died,
and it was just a brutal border and trench warfare
conflict between Iraq and Iran, and they're willing to use
their people as cannon fodder, as we discussed. So the
idea that the Iranians calling the shots are going to say,
(08:55):
you know what, food prices are too high, people are suffering,
just going to have to bend the knee on this.
I don't see that. In fact, what may be the
end state here. What may be the goal of Trump
and the whole team is that things get so rough
inside of Iran that the Iranian people finally do say,
(09:19):
whatever it takes, whatever the costs, We've just got to
get rid of these I ERGC scumbags, and we've got
it now.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Is that even possible?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
We have seen so little of it thus far, so
I do have my concerns about it. But then there's
this other piece of it, and I'm I wonder if
we're gonna if we would really do this. It's it's
gonna be tough if we do this, is Secretary Heck said,
this is cut four. He's saying, if Iran is unwilling
(09:51):
to play ball, meaning conceit, we're very straightforwardly telling them
you're giving up your nukes now and forever, or not
your nukes, but you're your nuclear material and your nuclear ambitions,
like you're never allowed to have a nuke. And Trump
has been clear that that is the goal. Reopening the
strait is not the goal. Iran. Never having a nuke
is the goal of this whole operation. It's not regime change,
(10:13):
but it's never having a nuke.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
That is where this really has come down. If they're
not going to see the light on this, Secretary Heagset
is telling them, this could get a lot tougher for you.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Cut forward.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
We're doing this blockade, performing it with less than ten
percent of America's naval power.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
The math is clear.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
We're using ten percent of the world's most powerful navy
and you have zero percent of your navy. That's real control.
And we have a long track record of dealing with
pirates and terror.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
No, no, no, this is but there is an orgies.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
If Iran chooses poorly, they will have a blockade and
bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy. Can we find
that one, please, because that is what I'm talking about here,
which is the next phase would be bombs on as
I said, infrastructure, power and energy. This is what President
Trump said. President Trump said before that if they won't deal,
(11:09):
we are going to do a little bit more of
a bomb them back into the Stone Age's campaign, which
would cause immense civilian suffering. This is the This is
going very deep into the bag of options that the
Pentagon has here to do something that is pretty radical,
and at that point you will be inflicting a lot
(11:32):
of pain on the Iranian people, ninety million of them,
not just the military aspects and the military capability industrial
capability of Iran. That's a pretty extreme place to go.
It sounds like Trump. I would not ever doubt Trump's
seriousness with this mission. It sounds like Trump is planning
on that as a next phase, a next stop. So
(11:55):
we shall see where this goes. But as of right now,
it sounds like the Trump administration is very comfortable, very
confident in its position. As articulated by Secretary of warheck
Set this morning, that this has now turned into a
waiting game where we have all the resources, we have
all the cards, so to speak, and it's just a
(12:16):
question of when the Iranians will see that reality.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Or at least the regime will see that reality.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
So this is going to be something we're following for days, weeks,
maybe months. I think the ceasefire is going to come
up here pretty quickly. I still believe that there'll be
an extension of that ceasefire, but I could be wrong.
And Trump is saying that the pain will be ratcheted
up considerably if there's not a deal done by then,
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So what's the next phase of this Iran blockade? That
is now where we are, It's no longer really a war.
(13:49):
It's a naval blockade. The air campaign has been put
on pause. We're gonna ceasefire. And this is going to
make I think, a huge difference into what the future
looks like. How does this campaign now unfold? What happens
with this blockade? Now, the Iranians are very dependent and
this is all function of geography and pipelines. You know, Iran,
(14:12):
some countries have pipelines, like Russia has pipelines that go
right into Europe, and Russia has pipelines I think that
connect into China. But you can look at maps of
this stuff. Iran really only has pipelines to get to
oil terminals inside of Iran on the coast. So if
(14:32):
it can't get the oil out through this strait, then
guess what happens. It can't get the oil of the market,
it can't get hard currency. It's effectively economically dead in
the water, if you will.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
But there's more.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
That isn't the only leverage point here, And this is
what I was talking about before. Secretary Hegseth this morning
said that if Iran makes the wrong choice here, they
are facing even greater punishment than choking off their economy
via the Strait of Hormuz blockade Play twenty five.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
There is an alternative, as our negotiators have said, you
Iran can choose a prosperous future, a golden bridge, and
we hope that you do for the people of Iran.
In the meantime and for as long as it takes,
we will maintain this blockade, successful blockate. But if Iran
chooses poorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs
dropping on infrastructure, power.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And energy, infrastructure, power and energy. So if we plunge
Iran into the dark, which we can do, if we
destroy critical infrastructure in that country, that is a major
escalation and it could create a humanitarian crisis inside the country.
(15:51):
I think it likely, wood depends on the extent of it.
But again it goes back to Trump is seemingly completely unwilling,
and I will say I am impressed with the resolve
here because given the mid terms and the political pressures
and the price of gas, it would be much easier
to take the position we're going to just negotiate and
(16:14):
then talk to talk and more negotiations, and that is
what Iran. That is Iran's best case scenario. So just
understand that.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Now.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Iran's best case scenario is what I had initially said,
which is that there's no deal, but there might be
a deal, they say, and so they get us talking,
and they get us moving forward into some kind of
just merry go round of talks, talks, talks. A lot
of Ron's been doing that for twenty something years now
in the nuclear program, and this has been the whole game.
So they would be very happy with that as long
(16:43):
as the oil is flowing. Now, if the oil is
not flowing, that puts pressure on them. If beyond just
being able to talk this out endlessly, if they lose
a lot of critical infrastructure, then we're kind of upending
their society and just seeing what happens. I mean, that's
we're flipping over the table and looking underneath and come
(17:04):
what may that's what will be. It does seem like
the Trump administration is willing to see it through to
that extent, which is pretty remarkable. This is the highest
of high stakes poker. Trump chose this war. Trump chose
this showdown, and he's either going to walk away from
this I think the most statesmanlike commander in chief slash
(17:30):
strategists slash political tactician that we have seen in our
lifetime in the Middle East, or it's going to be
a real drag on us in the midterms and people
are going to say that there was some folly in this.
I am actually though, seeing more now that I am
looking at the way this has lined up with Iran
(17:51):
getting choked off, but the rest of Hormu's going. I'm
actually starting to feel pretty optimistic about Trump getting what
he wants out of this.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
So we'll talk more about it.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
But you know, if you know, you know that phrase
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gold investors. Millions of Americans already own gold as part
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seven hundred percent. That's a staggering number.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
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(18:41):
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Speaker 2 (18:56):
Ninety eight, ninety eight ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
So what does COMMI mam don mom Donnie.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It's not that.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Easy to say, kwame mom Danmi mam don meh. Gosh
is a tongue twister, not easy to say what does
he have in store for.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
The city of New York?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Whereas you know, I still have family that lives there,
and so I am very sympathetic to all of you,
especially our WOR listeners who are in the Greater New
York area and have to deal with the consequences of
some of the worst governance in the entire country. Some
of the highest taxes, the greatest dysfunction, and there's no
(19:39):
sign of any of it getting any better.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
And this is.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Something that as a more general rule, and this is
applicable to dealing with Democrats anywhere. So whether you live
in Manhattan or Montana, this is something to keep in mind.
Democrats do not learn the lessons that you, as a
rational person learn from this visions from policy. They don't
(20:02):
come away from Oh, this was a massive failure. This
was a giant boondoggle. This was huge waste, fraud and abuse.
People suffered because of this comma, Maybe we should do
something different. Their mindset is always we needed to do.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
More of it.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
The reason we didn't get the outcome that we wanted,
the reason we didn't get to the utopian place, the
place of perfection, the place.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Of Oh, everybody has all the money.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
They need, and everybody is totally equal, and there's no
one who feels left out, and there's no resentment and
there's no envy.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And that doesn't sound like reality, does it, But doesn't.
That's what they're going for. It's why they're commies.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
This is the vision of the future that they think
they can construct for all of the rest of us
if only they have enough power. And that's the key.
The problem is never the idea is bad. The problem
is they had insufficient authority over you. Another way of
saying power, insufficient authority to achieve the end state. And
(21:11):
one version of this, or one variant of this, is
they did not have enough of your money to get
done what needed to be done. And another a corollary
of this is they have never taken enough of your money.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
It's never enough.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Because there could always be more brilliant, humanitarian, equitable things
that they could do with your cash that you, of
course won't do because you're a fat cat.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
You were one of the you're one of the elite.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
And many of were saying, buck, you know, I made
fifty sixty seventy grand a year, what are you talking about. Yeah,
but you're not looking for handouts. You're not down with
this Democrat welfareism and everything else. So you're you're a problem,
and you are a cow to be milked like all
of the rest of us. You're not some illegal who
showed up here who's getting on benefits as fast as
(22:05):
they can, defrauding the taxpayer and not contributing. No, no, no,
you want autonomy, You want to contribute, You want to
do things. And does the government ever thank you? Now,
let's speak to New Yorkers for a second. Does the
State of New York thank you for your high taxes?
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Do you feel thanked? If anything, I.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Think they are outraged every time they take money from you.
And I went through this myself, so I speak of
that which I know they feel like. You should thank
them because they didn't turn you upside down and fully
empty out your pockets. You are supposed to have a
form of economic Stockholm syndrome in New York. You are
(22:50):
to thank your economic captors for leaving you with some
of the crumbs from the cake that you baked. And
once you understand that mentality, once you have a full
grasp and understanding of the mindset of the people who
are pushing this stuff, who are demanding this stuff, then
(23:11):
you're never surprised. Then it all lines up and you
can see it coming a mile away. And with that,
I give you Commie Mom Donnie talking about a new
luxury tax on properties play cuts six.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
When I ran for mayor, I said I was going
to tax the rich. Bill today we're taxing the rich.
I'm thrilled to announce Who've secured a pew of tear tax,
the first in New York's history. This is an annual
fee on luxury property is worth more than five million
dollars whose owners do not live full time in the city,
like for this penthouse, which hetch On CEO Ken Griffin
bought for two hundred and thirty eight million dollars. This
(23:51):
pert of tear tax is specifically designed for the richest
of the rich, those who store their wealth in New
York City real estate, but who don't actually live. Most
of the time, these units are sitting empty since again
they don't actually live here. This is a fundamentally unfair
system that hurts working in yours.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Now it's coming to an end.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
I believe everyone has a role to play in contributing
to our city, and some a little bit more than others.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
This is moronic. He does not understand. He does not
get why this is a bad idea. I truly believe
that because he governs and he became the Mayor of
New York off of feel goodism for people who are ignorant, unaccountable,
(24:39):
and don't want to face reality. They want to create
some perception. They want this utopia future that they'll never achieve.
But like I said, their inability to achieve. And this
is what's so important. Wherever you are, Oregon, Georgia, Arizona, Maine,
anywhere and everywhere in between. When Democrats fail, it's your fault.
(25:05):
It's your fault, don't you see. You didn't give them
enough money, you didn't give them enough power.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
You are the weak link in the chain. They say.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
They don't ever want to sit there and look at
their idiotic ideas and the history of failure of those ideas.
We've got mom Donnie saying he's going to open a
government funded grocery store that's gonna cost thirty million dollars
and take three years to build.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Does anyone do you hear this? You don't know if
you should laugh or cry. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
But it's all about the idea. It's all about pushing
this forward. It's saying, see, I am soaking the rich.
And this is the other part of it as well.
The politics of envy are not about math. You just
had tax Day yesterday. You just had to deal with this,
many of you. I had to write a big check
(26:03):
irs just sucking money out of my bank account. The
politics of envy are not about math, meaning they will
do these things, and this was true of Obama's through abiding.
This is the Democrats really understanding how they view this stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
They would rather try to soak the rich.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
It's very hard to do so, which we'll talk about
in a second, but they would rather target the rich
and have less revenue over time, then promote pro growth
policies and have more revenue because if that more revenue
means people doing well, continue to do well, and even
do better, that's unacceptable. It is about tearing them down.
(26:49):
It is about blaming them. It's the emotional appeal of
this to people in New York. Otherwise you'd sit there
and say, hey, why is housing so expensive?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Gee, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Maybe because of insane regulations the City of New York has.
Maybe because the unions drive up the costs of all
all construction in ways that are just incomprehensible. Maybe it's
because the tax climate is such that developers are having
to make all kinds of concessions and deals just to
get things done to build more. It's a mess. And
(27:24):
the people telling you in this case Mamdani. But this
is true in la this is true in New York City,
this is true all over the country, in any urban center. Really,
the people telling you it's because the rich don't pay enough,
they've created the environment that makes it all so expensive.
The people like Mamdanni with his silver tongued nonsense, They
(27:47):
promise you that they will address these problems and hope
you don't notice they are the cause of the problem.
And this is where all this blame shifting and understanding
the mentality of these people is so powerful and is
so important, because otherwise you would say, Okay, let's get
to this piaa terre tax for a second tier. Does
he think it's very specifically targeted, he says, at homes
(28:09):
over five million dollars people don't live in. Does he
think that there's going to be some downstream effective this
has he considered that people? First of all, if you
buy a very expensive obviously a very expensive home, if
you buy it in New York City, there's five million
dollar homes everywhere, as you know, I mean that's like
a in Manhattan, it's a nice two or three bedroom apartment,
(28:32):
standard standard three bedroom, part of five million bucks. In Manhattan.
That's not a There are other states. We're a five
million dollar home. You know, if you're in Nebraska, five
million dollar home is going to have like a bowling alley,
it's going to have a private pond you can water
ski on. I mean, you know, you're talking about really
probably twelve to sixteen thousand square feet. Right in New
(28:56):
York City, it's a three bedroom apartment. That's how expensive
it's gotten there now. But he's saying, this is going
to help people. Some of the best residents you can
have are people who don't use any of your services
at all, aren't there that much, and are already paying taxes,
have already put a lot of money into the economy. Right,
(29:19):
So this might have the effect of people buying fewer
of these five million dollar homes. This might have the
effect of people saying, fine, I'll try to sell it.
But then also your other buyers recognize that they're going
to be targets for this too, and so they start
putting their money in other places. I got to tell
you a five million dollar house down here in South Florida.
(29:41):
It's a nice house. It's not a crazy. Nice house.
Won't get you on the water in most places. That's
how tight the market has gotten here now. And I
mean South Florida pretty broadly, right, I'm just talking about
Miami and Naples and some of the fanciest places.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Palm Beach.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Palm Beach, you can't even get five million dollars to
get you like a glorified out house somewhere.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
So it's gotten so expensive, the money is going to
move elsewhere. And you might say, well, why do we
care and everything else? Well, because the very decision making
of someone like a mom Donnie is gonna make all
this stuff worse. This is what I think you have
to remember. It's it's not that they're offering trade offs.
(30:27):
It's that they're doing things that exacerbate the thing that
they claim they are fixing. Right, It'd be one thing
if they said, hey, you know, I'm we're we're going
to increase We're gonna have way more doctors to increase
the supply of doctors in New York City. But we're
gonna have to raise some taxes for that. And I'm
(30:49):
just coming up with something on the fly here. You
could say, well, look, you're gonna have to raise taxes
a lot in this program. Is it even gonna But
you would at least theoretically have more doctors. So maybe
that's a good thing for my Donnie capping rent. Putting
these wealth taxes, and that's exactly what this is. Putting
these things in place, will make the affordability crisis worse,
(31:11):
will make the long term fiscal projections of New York
City worse.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
And this is again that key.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
And he knows it, and he doesn't care, and he
still wants to do it. It is about punishing your
perceived class enemies. It is about every person who lives
in New York channeling who is frustrated about costs, who
is frustrated about their economics situation, instead of being angry
at the bureaucracy and the high taxes there, which is
(31:41):
a very reasonable position, thinking yeah, if only Ken Griffin
paid more in taxes, I could afford to send my
kids to that Catholic school or that religious school in
my neighborhood. It's Ken Griffin's fault. It's not Ken Griffin's fault.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
This is idiotic.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
In fact, he's a job who's bought a lot of
properties and moving a lot of cash around and creating
a lot of a lot of actual wealth. But at
the same time, you can see now why it never
gets better with these people. You can see why after
de Blasio to Adams, you know, Adams was we should
(32:18):
appreciate him, I guess more than we did at some level,
because while he was incompetent, he wasn't he wasn't nefarious,
He wasn't.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Intentionally ruining New York City. He just wasn't a very
good mayor.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
We are now back to for ideological reasons, Mamdani intentionally
ruining New York. He thinks he's saving it, of course,
but I can assure you this is only going to
one place, and it will be a bad place.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
So remember that. Friends.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
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Speaker 2 (33:46):
Looking for normal in a world of crazy. Playin Buck
have your back. We got some calls, we got some talkbacks.
We've got good things going on here. Let's go to it.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
A back listener, Michael from Arizona wants to weigh in
on something.
Speaker 6 (34:04):
Here we go, Buck, got to give you some crap
drawstring pants. You can't carry a nineteen eleven like a
real man. Should just make him fun, just having a
good time with you. All love your show.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Well, Michael, we love you too, But I just want
to be clear that the proper way to carry your
nineteen eleven is in your breaches, like from what they
wore during the Revolutionary era, you know, with like the
high white sox, because you want you wanted to fit
in with the timeline, So you gotta go nineteen eleven.
You gotta go back dress a little bit like George Washington,
(34:39):
because that's how old you're vibing with your nineteen eleven.
I'm just I'm here for you and on the drawstring pants, guys,
I'm telling you, even my team, my team is making
fun of me. I am telling you, guys. It's a
it's like a life changing thing. My parents and it's
funny because they both take credit for this, So I'm
gonna get a text from probably both of them after this.
(35:00):
My mom and my dad both claim that have comfortable
shoes doesn't mean ugly shoes, just means comfortable shoes is
a life hack. Don't ever let anyone tell you to
wear shoes that hurt your feet because it will ruin
whatever you're doing and everything else. They're completely correct on that.
Many of you have followed me down the sartorial pathway
(35:20):
of freedom from the necktie, and as I have explained
because a French king in the seventeenth century had a
bunch of Croatian mercenaries who had to have a brightly
colored cloth around their neck so they could look cool
and also probably not shoot each other on the battle
or stab each other on the battlefield, as it were.
That doesn't mean that I should have to put a
put a self induced noose around my own neck with
(35:43):
the neck tie. I do not like it. And people
have followed me on that one. They're correct, they know
that I'm right. See podcast listener and West Treasure Island
Flora once talk.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Mom Donnie hit it playing buck.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
I just want to remind you that Mom Donnie's grocery
store cannot fail because he's a communist. No communist plan
ever fails because it wasn't true communism. When the grocery
store fails, it's going to be capitalism's fault, not his.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
The gentleman is correct.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
When the grocery store becomes a debacle, when people are
seeing empty shelves or rotten meat in the case, when
all of that happens and that is inevitable, you know
what they will say. It is because of the stinginess
of capitalism, not the failure of communism. It is because
(36:35):
the rich are not paying their fair share. You see, friends,
even when they force you to do something you don't
want to do. Their failure when they take your money
is because you weren't a source of even more money
for them
Welcome everybody to the Thursday edition of the Clay Travis
and Buck Sexton Show. Clay is in flight, so you
are rolling with the Buckster solo today, that would be me.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Thanks for being here, everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Clay and I are Lincoln up for a lovely charity
event tonight at Mara a Lago, a place I'm sure
you're quite familiar with. So yeah, that's what we got
going on, and we have a lot of news to
talk about. A Department of War press conference this morning,
DW Secretary he set laying out where things stand right
(00:36):
now with this blockade, and it's now just a blockade of.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Iran in the strait of horror moves.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
We've got Mom Donnie's New York getting crazier by the
minute and doing exactly what you would expect an economic
ignoramus communist to do, and that is class warfare, redistribution
of wealth, find some way to blame other people and
(01:06):
take their money while you're doing it. That's what's going
on in New York City. It is the case I
think that Mamdannie will be seen as real estate salesman
of the Year for Florida. That is likely to happen
along with some Texas and Tennessee. But New Yorkers, like me,
like Hannity, like a bunch of us, we tend to
(01:29):
retreat to Castle, Florida when we've had enough of the
comedies in New York. So we've got that going on.
You've also got some, I mean a really just gut
punch of a story about a slain DHS employee and
the guy who killed her. So Department of Homeland Security employee,
young woman and she was murdered by some maniac who
(01:51):
went on a terror spree, essentially a terrorizing people. And
guess what, he's somebody who was brought into the country,
another person who should not have been here, another person
who has preyed upon the innocent and never should have
been in a position to do so.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
A little more of the fallout.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
From Eric Swalwell's resignation and the end of Swalwell's political career.
Now I think he's focused on the staying out of
prison side of the equation. And then we'll get a
lot of your talkbacks and calls and everything else. So
a very stacked show today. And that brings me to
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who was speaking this morning
(02:34):
about the situation in Iran, and this is where this
is where we are, This is where things stand right now.
We are a few days into this, a few days
into saying that every ship can go through the Strait
except Iranian ships. So we are choking off their economic
(02:54):
lifeline right now, and Trump feels like we have all
the cards to do so. Secretary Heggsath coming in over
the top with a reminder that there is a definitely
not just a willingness, but in fact preparations are underway
to take action against the Iranian should they not concede,
(03:15):
should they not agree in a deal, or if they
do anything aggressive, which would seem even crazy under the circumstances,
this is let's do cut one here, Secretary of War,
speaking directly to the Iranian regime.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Play it.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
We'll start with a message to Iran's military leadership, to
the Cage leadership and IERGC leadership, We're watching you. Our
capabilities are not the same our military and yours. Remember
this is not a fair fight. We are locked and
loaded on your critical dual use infrastructure, on your remaining
(03:50):
power generation, and on your energy industry. We'd rather not
have to do it, but We're ready to go at
the command of our president and at the push of
a button. You'd like to say publicly Roan that you
control the Strait of horm moves, but you don't have
a navy or real domain awareness. You can't control anything.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Can't control anything, he says. Now, the only way I
think that the Iranians are able to change the game here,
the only thing that I can see as their next level.
Their next move would be something that is so aggressive
and catastrophic for them as well as for the Strait,
(04:36):
and that would be to blow up a ship, an
oil tanker. And I don't think that they're going to
do that. I think they recognize that that would not
serve their interests. I think they recognize that America would
react even more strongly to that, and it would also
bring the international community onto our side, or well some
(04:56):
of them, some of them would blame us, to be clear,
some other country there's lots of other countries, unfortunately, would
rather blame America than blame Iran for.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
All of this. They view us as the instigator here.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Now, we did start this conflict, but we didn't start
the overall disagreement with Iran, and we didn't start the
decades of terrorism. We didn't start the isolation of Iran
from the international community because it refuses to act like
a normal state. You'll notice we have no interest in
(05:31):
blockading Spain or the Philippines or you know, India, or
go around the world. We're not looking for fights. We
just refuse. And this Trump administration refuses to back down
to bullies and to bad actors and to malefactors. And
(05:51):
this is where Hegseth just says, Look, this is the
carrots and sticks moment. Iran can play ball or this
just gets worse with them. This is cut too. He's
just saying, this is how it's going to play out
over the days ahead.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
This blockade, which the Chairman will detail this morning, is
the polite way that this can go. Your energy is
not moving and will not move, and we can do
this all day, but it's not destroyed yet. Your energy
industry is not destroyed yet. The United States Navy controls
the traffic going in and out of the Strait because
(06:25):
we have real assets and real capabilities, and we're doing
this blockade, performing it with less than ten percent of
America's naval power.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
The math is clear.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
We're using ten percent of the world's most powerful navy
and you have zero percent of your navy. That's real control,
and we have a long track record of dealing with
pirates and terrorists.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
We do have by far the most powerful navy. We
have the most powerful military, of course, but our navy
is in just a whole different league from every other
navy around the planet. The Brits used to have some
great stuff, but their navy now is a couple of
row boats and a dinghy. It's gotten, gotten, sad, gotten sad.
The once great British navy is not what it used
(07:14):
to be. But we have a great navy and we
are using it here to bring maximum pressure against the
Iranian regime. And what you're going to see is how
much pain can the Iranian the Iranian regime tolerate before
they will concede. Now, this is going to be interesting,
(07:34):
and it's going to take time. This is not going
to be an overnight. I think the Iranians are not
going to come back to us in a few days,
in my opinion, and say, you know what, fine, all
that stuff we refuse to do, we're willing to do.
And this is why Secretary heg Seth has said to them, look,
you have a choice to make here. You should choose wisely.
This has cut three play it.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
To Iran, choose wisely.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I pray you choose a deal which.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Is within your grasp for the betterment of your people
and for the betterment of the world. In the meantime,
the war department is locked and loaded.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Now, the problem here that we run into is that
the Iranian government as it still stands, and we're told
that much Tabah is deep, deep, deep underground somewhere, the
Iranian governing body, which is still in place, does not
care about the suffering of its own people. That's why
(08:32):
I have brought up numerous times the Iran Iraq War
of the eighties with they think about a million people died,
and it was just a brutal border and trench warfare
conflict between Iraq and Iran, and they're willing to use
their people as cannon fodder, as we discussed. So the
idea that the Iranians calling the shots are going to say,
(08:55):
you know what, food prices are too high, people are suffering,
just going to have to bend the knee on this.
I don't see that. In fact, what may be the
end state here. What may be the goal of Trump
and the whole team is that things get so rough
inside of Iran that the Iranian people finally do say,
(09:19):
whatever it takes, whatever the costs, We've just got to
get rid of these I ERGC scumbags, and we've got
it now.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Is that even possible?
Speaker 1 (09:28):
We have seen so little of it thus far, so
I do have my concerns about it. But then there's
this other piece of it, and I'm I wonder if
we're gonna if we would really do this. It's it's
gonna be tough if we do this, is Secretary Heck said,
this is cut four. He's saying, if Iran is unwilling
(09:51):
to play ball, meaning conceit, we're very straightforwardly telling them
you're giving up your nukes now and forever, or not
your nukes, but you're your nuclear material and your nuclear ambitions,
like you're never allowed to have a nuke. And Trump
has been clear that that is the goal. Reopening the
strait is not the goal. Iran. Never having a nuke
is the goal of this whole operation. It's not regime change,
(10:13):
but it's never having a nuke.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
That is where this really has come down. If they're
not going to see the light on this, Secretary Heagset
is telling them, this could get a lot tougher for you.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Cut forward.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
We're doing this blockade, performing it with less than ten
percent of America's naval power.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
The math is clear.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
We're using ten percent of the world's most powerful navy
and you have zero percent of your navy. That's real control.
And we have a long track record of dealing with
pirates and terror.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
No, no, no, this is but there is an orgies.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
If Iran chooses poorly, they will have a blockade and
bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy. Can we find
that one, please, because that is what I'm talking about here,
which is the next phase would be bombs on as
I said, infrastructure, power and energy. This is what President
Trump said. President Trump said before that if they won't deal,
(11:09):
we are going to do a little bit more of
a bomb them back into the Stone Age's campaign, which
would cause immense civilian suffering. This is the This is
going very deep into the bag of options that the
Pentagon has here to do something that is pretty radical,
and at that point you will be inflicting a lot
(11:32):
of pain on the Iranian people, ninety million of them,
not just the military aspects and the military capability industrial
capability of Iran. That's a pretty extreme place to go.
It sounds like Trump. I would not ever doubt Trump's
seriousness with this mission. It sounds like Trump is planning
on that as a next phase, a next stop. So
(11:55):
we shall see where this goes. But as of right now,
it sounds like the Trump administration is very comfortable, very
confident in its position. As articulated by Secretary of warheck
Set this morning, that this has now turned into a
waiting game where we have all the resources, we have
all the cards, so to speak, and it's just a
(12:16):
question of when the Iranians will see that reality.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Or at least the regime will see that reality.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
So this is going to be something we're following for days, weeks,
maybe months. I think the ceasefire is going to come
up here pretty quickly. I still believe that there'll be
an extension of that ceasefire, but I could be wrong.
And Trump is saying that the pain will be ratcheted
up considerably if there's not a deal done by then,
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So what's the next phase of this Iran blockade? That
is now where we are, It's no longer really a war.
(13:49):
It's a naval blockade. The air campaign has been put
on pause. We're gonna ceasefire. And this is going to
make I think, a huge difference into what the future
looks like. How does this campaign now unfold? What happens
with this blockade? Now, the Iranians are very dependent and
this is all function of geography and pipelines. You know, Iran,
(14:12):
some countries have pipelines, like Russia has pipelines that go
right into Europe, and Russia has pipelines I think that
connect into China. But you can look at maps of
this stuff. Iran really only has pipelines to get to
oil terminals inside of Iran on the coast. So if
(14:32):
it can't get the oil out through this strait, then
guess what happens. It can't get the oil of the market,
it can't get hard currency. It's effectively economically dead in
the water, if you will.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
But there's more.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
That isn't the only leverage point here, And this is
what I was talking about before. Secretary Hegseth this morning
said that if Iran makes the wrong choice here, they
are facing even greater punishment than choking off their economy
via the Strait of Hormuz blockade Play twenty five.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
There is an alternative, as our negotiators have said, you
Iran can choose a prosperous future, a golden bridge, and
we hope that you do for the people of Iran.
In the meantime and for as long as it takes,
we will maintain this blockade, successful blockate. But if Iran
chooses poorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs
dropping on infrastructure, power.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And energy, infrastructure, power and energy. So if we plunge
Iran into the dark, which we can do, if we
destroy critical infrastructure in that country, that is a major
escalation and it could create a humanitarian crisis inside the country.
(15:51):
I think it likely, wood depends on the extent of it.
But again it goes back to Trump is seemingly completely unwilling,
and I will say I am impressed with the resolve
here because given the mid terms and the political pressures
and the price of gas, it would be much easier
to take the position we're going to just negotiate and
(16:14):
then talk to talk and more negotiations, and that is
what Iran. That is Iran's best case scenario. So just
understand that.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Now.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Iran's best case scenario is what I had initially said,
which is that there's no deal, but there might be
a deal, they say, and so they get us talking,
and they get us moving forward into some kind of
just merry go round of talks, talks, talks. A lot
of Ron's been doing that for twenty something years now
in the nuclear program, and this has been the whole game.
So they would be very happy with that as long
(16:43):
as the oil is flowing. Now, if the oil is
not flowing, that puts pressure on them. If beyond just
being able to talk this out endlessly, if they lose
a lot of critical infrastructure, then we're kind of upending
their society and just seeing what happens. I mean, that's
we're flipping over the table and looking underneath and come
(17:04):
what may that's what will be. It does seem like
the Trump administration is willing to see it through to
that extent, which is pretty remarkable. This is the highest
of high stakes poker. Trump chose this war. Trump chose
this showdown, and he's either going to walk away from
this I think the most statesmanlike commander in chief slash
(17:30):
strategists slash political tactician that we have seen in our
lifetime in the Middle East, or it's going to be
a real drag on us in the midterms and people
are going to say that there was some folly in this.
I am actually though, seeing more now that I am
looking at the way this has lined up with Iran
(17:51):
getting choked off, but the rest of Hormu's going. I'm
actually starting to feel pretty optimistic about Trump getting what
he wants out of this.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
So we'll talk more about it.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
But you know, if you know, you know that phrase
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Speaker 2 (18:18):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
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Speaker 2 (18:56):
Ninety eight, ninety eight ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
So what does COMMI mam don mom Donnie.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
It's not that.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Easy to say, kwame mom Danmi mam don meh. Gosh
is a tongue twister, not easy to say what does
he have in store for.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
The city of New York?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Whereas you know, I still have family that lives there,
and so I am very sympathetic to all of you,
especially our WOR listeners who are in the Greater New
York area and have to deal with the consequences of
some of the worst governance in the entire country. Some
of the highest taxes, the greatest dysfunction, and there's no
(19:39):
sign of any of it getting any better.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
And this is.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Something that as a more general rule, and this is
applicable to dealing with Democrats anywhere. So whether you live
in Manhattan or Montana, this is something to keep in mind.
Democrats do not learn the lessons that you, as a
rational person learn from this visions from policy. They don't
(20:02):
come away from Oh, this was a massive failure. This
was a giant boondoggle. This was huge waste, fraud and abuse.
People suffered because of this comma, Maybe we should do
something different. Their mindset is always we needed to do.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
More of it.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
The reason we didn't get the outcome that we wanted,
the reason we didn't get to the utopian place, the
place of perfection, the place.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Of Oh, everybody has all the money.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
They need, and everybody is totally equal, and there's no
one who feels left out, and there's no resentment and
there's no envy.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
And that doesn't sound like reality, does it, But doesn't.
That's what they're going for. It's why they're commies.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
This is the vision of the future that they think
they can construct for all of the rest of us
if only they have enough power. And that's the key.
The problem is never the idea is bad. The problem
is they had insufficient authority over you. Another way of
saying power, insufficient authority to achieve the end state. And
(21:11):
one version of this, or one variant of this, is
they did not have enough of your money to get
done what needed to be done. And another a corollary
of this is they have never taken enough of your money.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
It's never enough.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Because there could always be more brilliant, humanitarian, equitable things
that they could do with your cash that you, of
course won't do because you're a fat cat.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
You were one of the you're one of the elite.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
And many of were saying, buck, you know, I made
fifty sixty seventy grand a year, what are you talking about. Yeah,
but you're not looking for handouts. You're not down with
this Democrat welfareism and everything else. So you're you're a problem,
and you are a cow to be milked like all
of the rest of us. You're not some illegal who
showed up here who's getting on benefits as fast as
(22:05):
they can, defrauding the taxpayer and not contributing. No, no, no,
you want autonomy, You want to contribute, You want to
do things. And does the government ever thank you? Now,
let's speak to New Yorkers for a second. Does the
State of New York thank you for your high taxes?
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Do you feel thanked? If anything, I.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Think they are outraged every time they take money from you.
And I went through this myself, so I speak of
that which I know they feel like. You should thank
them because they didn't turn you upside down and fully
empty out your pockets. You are supposed to have a
form of economic Stockholm syndrome in New York. You are
(22:50):
to thank your economic captors for leaving you with some
of the crumbs from the cake that you baked. And
once you understand that mentality, once you have a full
grasp and understanding of the mindset of the people who
are pushing this stuff, who are demanding this stuff, then
(23:11):
you're never surprised. Then it all lines up and you
can see it coming a mile away. And with that,
I give you Commie Mom Donnie talking about a new
luxury tax on properties play cuts six.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
When I ran for mayor, I said I was going
to tax the rich. Bill today we're taxing the rich.
I'm thrilled to announce Who've secured a pew of tear tax,
the first in New York's history. This is an annual
fee on luxury property is worth more than five million
dollars whose owners do not live full time in the city,
like for this penthouse, which hetch On CEO Ken Griffin
bought for two hundred and thirty eight million dollars. This
(23:51):
pert of tear tax is specifically designed for the richest
of the rich, those who store their wealth in New
York City real estate, but who don't actually live. Most
of the time, these units are sitting empty since again
they don't actually live here. This is a fundamentally unfair
system that hurts working in yours.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Now it's coming to an end.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
I believe everyone has a role to play in contributing
to our city, and some a little bit more than others.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
This is moronic. He does not understand. He does not
get why this is a bad idea. I truly believe
that because he governs and he became the Mayor of
New York off of feel goodism for people who are ignorant, unaccountable,
(24:39):
and don't want to face reality. They want to create
some perception. They want this utopia future that they'll never achieve.
But like I said, their inability to achieve. And this
is what's so important. Wherever you are, Oregon, Georgia, Arizona, Maine,
anywhere and everywhere in between. When Democrats fail, it's your fault.
(25:05):
It's your fault, don't you see. You didn't give them
enough money, you didn't give them enough power.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
You are the weak link in the chain. They say.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
They don't ever want to sit there and look at
their idiotic ideas and the history of failure of those ideas.
We've got mom Donnie saying he's going to open a
government funded grocery store that's gonna cost thirty million dollars
and take three years to build.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Does anyone do you hear this? You don't know if
you should laugh or cry. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
But it's all about the idea. It's all about pushing
this forward. It's saying, see, I am soaking the rich.
And this is the other part of it as well.
The politics of envy are not about math. You just
had tax Day yesterday. You just had to deal with this,
many of you. I had to write a big check
(26:03):
irs just sucking money out of my bank account. The
politics of envy are not about math, meaning they will
do these things, and this was true of Obama's through abiding.
This is the Democrats really understanding how they view this stuff.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
They would rather try to soak the rich.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
It's very hard to do so, which we'll talk about
in a second, but they would rather target the rich
and have less revenue over time, then promote pro growth
policies and have more revenue because if that more revenue
means people doing well, continue to do well, and even
do better, that's unacceptable. It is about tearing them down.
(26:49):
It is about blaming them. It's the emotional appeal of
this to people in New York. Otherwise you'd sit there
and say, hey, why is housing so expensive?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Gee, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Maybe because of insane regulations the City of New York has.
Maybe because the unions drive up the costs of all
all construction in ways that are just incomprehensible. Maybe it's
because the tax climate is such that developers are having
to make all kinds of concessions and deals just to
get things done to build more. It's a mess. And
(27:24):
the people telling you in this case Mamdani. But this
is true in la this is true in New York City,
this is true all over the country, in any urban center. Really,
the people telling you it's because the rich don't pay enough,
they've created the environment that makes it all so expensive.
The people like Mamdanni with his silver tongued nonsense, They
(27:47):
promise you that they will address these problems and hope
you don't notice they are the cause of the problem.
And this is where all this blame shifting and understanding
the mentality of these people is so powerful and is
so important, because otherwise you would say, Okay, let's get
to this piaa terre tax for a second tier. Does
he think it's very specifically targeted, he says, at homes
(28:09):
over five million dollars people don't live in. Does he
think that there's going to be some downstream effective this
has he considered that people? First of all, if you
buy a very expensive obviously a very expensive home, if
you buy it in New York City, there's five million
dollar homes everywhere, as you know, I mean that's like
a in Manhattan, it's a nice two or three bedroom apartment,
(28:32):
standard standard three bedroom, part of five million bucks. In Manhattan.
That's not a There are other states. We're a five
million dollar home. You know, if you're in Nebraska, five
million dollar home is going to have like a bowling alley,
it's going to have a private pond you can water
ski on. I mean, you know, you're talking about really
probably twelve to sixteen thousand square feet. Right in New
(28:56):
York City, it's a three bedroom apartment. That's how expensive
it's gotten there now. But he's saying, this is going
to help people. Some of the best residents you can
have are people who don't use any of your services
at all, aren't there that much, and are already paying taxes,
have already put a lot of money into the economy. Right,
(29:19):
So this might have the effect of people buying fewer
of these five million dollar homes. This might have the
effect of people saying, fine, I'll try to sell it.
But then also your other buyers recognize that they're going
to be targets for this too, and so they start
putting their money in other places. I got to tell
you a five million dollar house down here in South Florida.
(29:41):
It's a nice house. It's not a crazy. Nice house.
Won't get you on the water in most places. That's
how tight the market has gotten here now. And I
mean South Florida pretty broadly, right, I'm just talking about
Miami and Naples and some of the fanciest places.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Palm Beach.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Palm Beach, you can't even get five million dollars to
get you like a glorified out house somewhere.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
So it's gotten so expensive, the money is going to
move elsewhere. And you might say, well, why do we
care and everything else? Well, because the very decision making
of someone like a mom Donnie is gonna make all
this stuff worse. This is what I think you have
to remember. It's it's not that they're offering trade offs.
(30:27):
It's that they're doing things that exacerbate the thing that
they claim they are fixing. Right, It'd be one thing
if they said, hey, you know, I'm we're we're going
to increase We're gonna have way more doctors to increase
the supply of doctors in New York City. But we're
gonna have to raise some taxes for that. And I'm
(30:49):
just coming up with something on the fly here. You
could say, well, look, you're gonna have to raise taxes
a lot in this program. Is it even gonna But
you would at least theoretically have more doctors. So maybe
that's a good thing for my Donnie capping rent. Putting
these wealth taxes, and that's exactly what this is. Putting
these things in place, will make the affordability crisis worse,
(31:11):
will make the long term fiscal projections of New York
City worse.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
And this is again that key.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
And he knows it, and he doesn't care, and he
still wants to do it. It is about punishing your
perceived class enemies. It is about every person who lives
in New York channeling who is frustrated about costs, who
is frustrated about their economics situation, instead of being angry
at the bureaucracy and the high taxes there, which is
(31:41):
a very reasonable position, thinking yeah, if only Ken Griffin
paid more in taxes, I could afford to send my
kids to that Catholic school or that religious school in
my neighborhood. It's Ken Griffin's fault. It's not Ken Griffin's fault.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
This is idiotic.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
In fact, he's a job who's bought a lot of
properties and moving a lot of cash around and creating
a lot of a lot of actual wealth. But at
the same time, you can see now why it never
gets better with these people. You can see why after
de Blasio to Adams, you know, Adams was we should
(32:18):
appreciate him, I guess more than we did at some level,
because while he was incompetent, he wasn't he wasn't nefarious,
He wasn't.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Intentionally ruining New York City. He just wasn't a very
good mayor.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
We are now back to for ideological reasons, Mamdani intentionally
ruining New York. He thinks he's saving it, of course,
but I can assure you this is only going to
one place, and it will be a bad place.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
So remember that. Friends.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
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Speaker 2 (33:46):
Looking for normal in a world of crazy. Playin Buck
have your back. We got some calls, we got some talkbacks.
We've got good things going on here. Let's go to it.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
A back listener, Michael from Arizona wants to weigh in
on something.
Speaker 6 (34:04):
Here we go, Buck, got to give you some crap
drawstring pants. You can't carry a nineteen eleven like a
real man. Should just make him fun, just having a
good time with you. All love your show.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Well, Michael, we love you too, But I just want
to be clear that the proper way to carry your
nineteen eleven is in your breaches, like from what they
wore during the Revolutionary era, you know, with like the
high white sox, because you want you wanted to fit
in with the timeline, So you gotta go nineteen eleven.
You gotta go back dress a little bit like George Washington,
(34:39):
because that's how old you're vibing with your nineteen eleven.
I'm just I'm here for you and on the drawstring pants, guys,
I'm telling you, even my team, my team is making
fun of me. I am telling you, guys. It's a
it's like a life changing thing. My parents and it's
funny because they both take credit for this, So I'm
gonna get a text from probably both of them after this.
(35:00):
My mom and my dad both claim that have comfortable
shoes doesn't mean ugly shoes, just means comfortable shoes is
a life hack. Don't ever let anyone tell you to
wear shoes that hurt your feet because it will ruin
whatever you're doing and everything else. They're completely correct on that.
Many of you have followed me down the sartorial pathway
(35:20):
of freedom from the necktie, and as I have explained
because a French king in the seventeenth century had a
bunch of Croatian mercenaries who had to have a brightly
colored cloth around their neck so they could look cool
and also probably not shoot each other on the battle
or stab each other on the battlefield, as it were.
That doesn't mean that I should have to put a
put a self induced noose around my own neck with
(35:43):
the neck tie. I do not like it. And people
have followed me on that one. They're correct, they know
that I'm right. See podcast listener and West Treasure Island
Flora once talk.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Mom Donnie hit it playing buck.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
I just want to remind you that Mom Donnie's grocery
store cannot fail because he's a communist. No communist plan
ever fails because it wasn't true communism. When the grocery
store fails, it's going to be capitalism's fault, not his.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
The gentleman is correct.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
When the grocery store becomes a debacle, when people are
seeing empty shelves or rotten meat in the case, when
all of that happens and that is inevitable, you know
what they will say. It is because of the stinginess
of capitalism, not the failure of communism. It is because
(36:35):
the rich are not paying their fair share. You see, friends,
even when they force you to do something you don't
want to do. Their failure when they take your money
is because you weren't a source of even more money
for them
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