August 12, 2025 • 60 mins
The line between political theater and public safety has never been more blurred than in President Trump's recent declaration of a "crime emergency" in Washington DC. Despite data showing violent crime at a 30-year low and homicides down 34% from 2023, the administration has invoked rarely-used powers to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department—a move Mayor Muriel Bowser calls "unsettling and unprecedented."
What happens when statistics contradict political narratives? We dig beneath the surface to examine what's really happening in our nation's capital. The numbers tell a compelling story: murders down from 274 in 2023 to 187 in 2024, carjackings decreased by 87%, and overall violent crime rates lower than during any year of Trump's first administration. Yet the administration's executive order explicitly claims crime is "rising" in the capital, setting a concerning precedent for federal intervention in locally-governed cities.
Beyond this high-profile takeover lies an equally troubling story receiving far less attention—the quiet diversion of $934 million from nuclear missile modernization funds to outfit a luxury Boeing 747 jet donated by Qatar. This aircraft, intended for Trump's use but unlikely to be ready until after his term ends, represents an alarming shift in national security priorities that's happening with minimal public scrutiny.
We also explore a moment of perfect irony: a Trump Burger restaurant owner in Texas facing deportation as an undocumented immigrant, highlighting the complex relationship between political identity and real-world consequences. These stories together paint a portrait of an America where perception often trumps reality, and where the implications for democracy demand our closest attention.
Join us as we cut through the rhetoric to understand what these developments mean for local governance, federal power, and the future of American democracy. Subscribe now and share your thoughts on these critical issues shaping our nation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the things that we have seen over and over
from the president, from histeam.
You know Stephen Miller sayingit's like Baghdad and Ethiopia
they seem to hold their harshestcriticism sometimes for cities
that are majority black andbrown.
Do you see that and what do youthink that means?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
that I have been dealing kind of with this issue
for a number of years.
It's kind of easy fodder on thecampaign trail, but now we're
talking about governing and myjob is to focus on making sure
our city is running, is runningwell and people enjoy a great
quality of life, and I thinkwe're doing a really good job.
We do need the federalgovernment's help, as I
(00:49):
mentioned, because they have anoutsized influence on our
criminal justice system.
We need more prosecutors, weneed more judges.
There are other ways to help.
Even we want to rebuild ourjail and, uh, there, there are
ways that the feds can help withthat, but also just doing their
part cutting the grass, fixingthe fountains, making sure that
(01:12):
federal law enforcement is doingall of the policing that they
can do.
And I just have to say thankyou to mps, fbi, atf, who've
always worked cooperatively withus and we expect that they will
again.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I should note that the most violent moment in
recent history in DC was January6th and it was an attack on the
United States Capitol by a lotof people who were doing it in
the name of Donald Trump, and itincluded the people who were
hurt, included members of lawenforcement.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
My message to residents is this we know that
access to our democracy istenuous.
That is why you have heard meand many, many Washingtonians
before me advocate for fullstatehood for the District of
Columbia.
We are American citizens, ourfamilies go to war, we pay taxes
(02:08):
and we uphold theresponsibilities of citizenship.
And while this action today isunsettling and unprecedented I
can't say that, given some ofthe rhetoric of the past that
we're totally surprised I cansay to DC residents that we will
(02:29):
continue to operate ourgovernment in a way that makes
you proud.
We will balance our budgets, wewill deploy our services, our
kids are going to start schoolon August 25th and we will work
with the federal government todo the things that they should
do for our city.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
There was a lot of deception from the president
there, so here's a reality check.
There is no doubt that DC has,for decades, been a high-crime
city.
It is among the US cities withthe highest homicide rates,
though there are a bunch ofother big cities that are worse.
And DC did indeed have a bigcrime spike in 2023, which is
the year the president keptciting.
But, contrary to what thepresident said today, even in
(03:11):
2023, dc did not have anall-time high in murder.
It was way worse during thecrack crisis of the 80s and
early 90s.
And, more pressingly, dana, thepresident was just flat wrong
when he said it's getting worsenow, not getting better.
Crime in DC, including murder,has fallen sharply since that
2023 spike.
It fell in 2024.
It's fallen further in 2025.
(03:33):
So let's look at some of thisdata.
In 2023, dc had its mostmurders in more than two decades
274.
Of course, that's terrible, butit then plunged to 187 murders
last year and it's been fallingagain so far this year, through
July.
According to figures compiledby crime data expert Jeff Asher,
dc has 34% fewer murders thanit did through the same period
(03:56):
in that year, 2023.
Now how about violent crime morebroadly?
Well, that's also down sharplyin the last year and a half.
In fact, per Jeff Asher, dc'sofficially reported violent
crime rate in 2024 was thesecond lowest since 1966, so
lower than every year of Trump'sadministration.
It's about a third of what itwas in those bad old days that
were in the 1990s.
(04:17):
And you heard from thepresident and his team about
carjackings.
Well, indeed a problem in DC.
But what do the numbers say?
Again, a big spike in 2023,down, since Asher noted that 16
carjackings reported in Julywere the fewest reported in any
month in more than five years inDC.
Down more than 87 percent fromthe same month in 2023.
(04:37):
So look, we know crime is anissue in DC.
We've lived there.
We know that every violentcrime is a shame, a tragedy.
Of course, not excusing any ofthem, but this isn't an ongoing
crime spike, like PresidentTrump suggested, and he said
it's rising.
Even in the text of theexecutive order I went through
it the first section says crimeis rising in the Capitol.
That is just not true.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
As our home rule charter is also clear and the
president's executive orderrestates, Chief Pamela Smith is
the chief of the MetropolitanPolice Department and its 3,100
members work under her direction.
(05:18):
The Home Rule Charter requiresthe mayor to provide the
services of MPD during specialconditions of an emergency and
we will follow the law, thoughthere's a question about the
subjectivity of that declaration.
In fact, the chief has alreadyprovided a high-level liaison
(05:44):
and point of contact with thefederal government and made
those initial contacts.
The executive order is alsoclear that the president has
delegated his authority to makerequests of us to Attorney
General Pam Bondi.
I have reached out to AttorneyGeneral Bondi and hope to
(06:06):
schedule a meeting school soon.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
The briefing, they gave us a packet of information
to show us some of the arreststhat were made over the weekend,
as this starting to ramp up orincrease in federal law
enforcement took place, and theywere fairly low-level criminals
.
It was somebody with possessionor a DUI at one point and there
(06:29):
were only five of them, Ibelieve, listed in this packet.
So it's unclear.
You know he's talking aboutthis major escalation in violent
crime, but that is not quiteclear from the packet of
information they gave us here.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
We've been making these threats since last year
and now he's carrying throughwith them.
There's no reason to believe hewon't go further.
What do you say to thepresident about his threats to
bring the military?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
We don't.
We don't I think I speak forall Americans we don't believe
or believe it's legal to use theAmerican military against
American citizens on Americansoil.
I'm not a lawyer but I thinkthat's a fairly widely held fact
(07:14):
.
But we've seen them move, Ithink, the active military into
California.
So it's a question.
We've seen active military onthe borders of DC some years ago
and we don't believe that ourmilitary should be used against
American citizens.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
Welcome to the Darrell McLean Show.
We are back home in Virginia.
Independent media that won'treinforce tribalism.
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving.
I miss you guys, and let usreason together on 469 episodes.
We're in now, so welcomeeveryone.
(07:57):
Welcome.
Today we're going to examinePresident Trump's bold,
controversial decision tofederalize the DC police and
deploy the National Guard.
Now the president says it wasactually necessary, and the
president is saying it wasnecessary because of a spiraling
(08:17):
out of control crime rate.
But we have to ask ourselves isthat really the case?
Anytime a politician even theones we like and the ones we
don't like make a claim, we haveto test it.
So let's break this all downand so let's get some context
and the legal framework.
So on August, the 11th of 2025,president Trump declared a
(08:42):
crime emergency in Washington DC, invoking Section 740 of the
District of Columbia House RuleAct.
This particular act allows thepresident to place the
Metropolitan Police Departmentto Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Now, this is, of course, donewithout congressional
(09:16):
intervention, and that isbecause this measure is allowed
is allowed about every 48 hoursor so, and the president is
allowed, when I looked into it,to do this up to 30 days.
Now Trump painted a dire picture, calling this city plagued by
(09:37):
crime, bloodshed, bedlam andsqualor.
During what he calledLiberation Day in DC, he framed
it as a rescue mission for thenation's capital, signaling that
similar action could alsofollow in places like New York,
(10:01):
chicago and in California.
Explicitly, he talked aboutOakland.
Now, so that was the claim.
What is the reality?
I think I want to say andhere's the thing, and it does
get somewhat interesting Crimein DC is actually declining.
(10:22):
Violent crime in DC is actuallydeclining.
Violent crime in DC is down Now.
Nbc and CBC site declines aroughly 26 to 35 percent in 2025
compared to the prior year.
The FBI projects historicallylow murder rates nationally and
(10:48):
DC murders and assaults havedropped meaningfully.
In fact, dc has actually hit a30 year low in violent crime in
2024.
So local leaders blasted themove.
Mayor Marion Bowser called itunsettling and unprecedented and
said the District of Columbiawill continue to govern the way
residents expect.
Democrats like Delegate EleanorHolmes, norton and Attorney
(11:13):
General Brian Schwab I think Ipronounced that right labeled it
unlawful and an assault on homerule.
Civil rights groups condemnedwhat they called authoritarian
overreach.
Donald Trump's actual oldfriend, but a civil rights
leader over.
I forgot what his thing iscalled.
It's that, yeah, but anyway Iwant to say it's the Rainbow
(11:38):
Coalition and that could be it,and that could be Jesse
Jackson's thing I'll look it uplater but anyway, the civil
rights leader, donald Trump'sold friend and NBC host and
pastor, the Reverend Al Sharpton, called it the ultimate affront
to justice.
Even some residents saw it as apolitical theater.
(12:02):
One actually noted it seemedlike red meat thrown to the
president's base.
Critics warned about thelegality of the matter.
So while Section 740 actuallygrants the president's emergency
power, many view this as adistraction of its intent,
(12:23):
especially absent actualemergency condition.
The commentary warns this couldset a dangerous precedent for
federalizing local lawenforcement at will.
Others question theeffectiveness of
demilitarization in reducingcrime.
Studies have shown that simplyaiding a state or city by adding
(12:48):
military-style interventionsdoesn't actually improve safety,
and the studies also show thatit can actually exasperate
tensions.
I kind of jokingly played withthis when we talked about it a
few months ago when thishappened in California and I was
(13:11):
you know, I'm more of alibertarian on the side of the
aisle, leaky libertarian that isand I was talking to some of my
conservative friends that Icare about and I said I played
with this term, but I keptcalling them outside agitators,
(13:32):
saying that they were cominginto communities that care
nothing about agitating thepeople and then being upset when
the people you know, did thingslike throw rocks and be spit at
police officers and it's youknow, stuff like that?
I'm not.
It's obviously ridiculous whenyou assault police and things of
that nature.
But I kind of say, what do youthink is going to happen if I
(13:54):
came into your house and to yourneighborhood federalize the
whatever.
And I don't think that theconservatives would have a very
good reaction if Barack Obamawas doing to them what Donald
Trump is doing right now, ifBarack Obama had said that
Florida was out of control andtook over the federal troops.
(14:16):
You know we kind of takeover ofDC police and deployment of the
National Guard was portrayed asnecessary to combat rampant
crime.
But the data doesn't actuallysupport that narrative.
When you consider that crime isfalling, not rising, and local
(14:37):
officials are pushing back hard,it actually raises serious
questions about federaloverreach, the erosion of local
government and the politicalmotives under the guise of
public safety and not.
Now that that was the strictanalysis of it.
(15:00):
Now here's the commentarybackground of it.
So you don't have to be aSenate to actually see what's
going on here, but it does kindof help.
The president didn't Federalizethe police in DC because the
(15:21):
streets are running red withblood.
The FBI's own data show thecrime is down.
Violent crime and murder isdown.
The city isn't perfect, but thecrime emergency isn't there.
The crime emergency is apolitical emergency of Trump's
(15:45):
own making.
When you really dig down intoit, what this really seems to be
about is about optics.
It's about a man whounderstands that fear is the
most reliable fuel in politics.
If you can make people feelunsafe, even when they are
(16:06):
statistically safer than theywere last year, you can justify
extraordinary measures, measuresthat make you look like a
strong man riding in to save theday.
It's also about layinggroundwork.
So let me lay this out for youIf you can take over the police
(16:31):
force in the nation's capital ona paper thin pretext, then you
can do it in New York, you cando it in Chicago, you can do it
in Oakland, you can do it in anycity that doesn't politically
align with you, and that isn't acrime strategy.
It's a power strategy.
(16:52):
The real emergency isn't on thestreets, it is in the precedent
it sets for democracy.
And I'll tell you the truthwhat keeps me up at night isn't
whether Trump fix DC.
Especially it isn't if Trumpfix DC's crime.
(17:13):
It's the creeping normalizationof federal muscle being flexed
over local government when itsuits the political narrative of
the day, over local government,when it suits the political
narrative of the day.
That's not law and order.
That's law as performers aren'tand, like most political
(17:40):
theater, the real show ishappening offstage.
So now it's Liberation Day inDC.
Please, this wasn't liberation,it was a photo op with riot
gear.
The president didn't sweep inbecause the city's on the brink
of collapse.
He swept in because nothingsells in America, especially
(18:01):
during an election cycle, likefear and a stage rescue.
We have to be honest.
Let's just be honest here.
Crime in DC is down accordingto every statistic you can look
at.
The murder rate is down,assaults are down.
But if you actually acknowledgethat you can't ride in on a
Humvee like you're auditioningfor Saving Private Riley, so you
(18:27):
inflate the danger, slap thewords crime, emergency on it and
suddenly boom, you're the heroin your own made-for-TV law and
order movie.
And here's the kicker.
This isn't about DC at all.
This is a test run.
(18:49):
You get it, folks, becausethere used to be an idea that
you could take over cities bypolice force anytime you want,
but not here.
That was in third worldauthoritarian countries.
You expect that in Russia, youexpect that in Venezuela, you'd
(19:11):
expect that from Maduro, you'dexpect that from Kim Jong Un or
something.
But now, if you and I get usedto the idea that in the United
States, you're allowed to takeover a city's police force
anytime you declare a disasterand pretty soon you keep doing
(19:32):
that you're going to be watchingas you'll start to see it more.
You'll start to see it more.
We already saw it in Californiaand I have to remind us,
(19:53):
president Trump has only beenpresident for six months Already
.
We saw it in California and nowhere is DC, and it will
eventually be New York andChicago and Oakland, and it will
happen in any city where anysitting president finds a mayor
that they don't like.
(20:13):
This isn't a crackdown on crime.
This is political theater withlive ammunition and, like most
political theater, the audienceis supposed to forget.
The script was written beforethe curtain even went up.
But we have to see the script,and if you think this was about
(20:35):
making the streets safe, you arenot watching the movie.
You're in it.
You are not watching the movie,you're in it.
I have lived in the District ofColumbia.
Me and Gene live there, and Iremember going to a Safeway that
(21:01):
was by the apartment and Iremember standing there being
fascinated that I was in D and Iwas going to be living there
and I watched as somebody camein and went into a store, stole
goods and walked right out and Iwas amazed that nobody's
stopped the person.
And I remember standing therealmost like a human nature thing
(21:26):
, and I was standing therethinking why should I pay for my
stuff if this guy is just goingto run out and steal the whole
store?
And I'm a fairly decent person,I like to think but what if
somebody is not a decent person?
Or let's say, for all intentsand purposes, they were a decent
(21:48):
person who was on really hardeconomic times?
The more you allow that type ofbehavior to happen, the more
you give people the incentive tocontinue that type of behavior.
(22:09):
And because there is aperception that the people who
are in charge in DC do not doanything about it and it can be
argued that they are doing thecorrect anything about it, and
it can be argued that theyAren't doing the correct thing
about it, when people likeDonald Trump come in and they do
what we perceive as the wrongthing about it.
(22:30):
We complain and we murmur andwe're upset Because we don't
like the optics.
So my criticism here is thisthis all came in part due to the
fact that there was a stafferthe pejorative that he goes by
(22:53):
is Big Boss.
He's part of the Doge staff.
Apparently he was trying tostop somebody from being
assaulted or something and hewas beat up, and I have seen
some stories that there was analleged alleged carjacking and
so, of course, that got back tothe White House and the
(23:15):
president used that as a pretextto say that this is DC is out
of control.
Yet you know, you have hadreports of even senators and
congressmen getting carjacked inthe District of Columbia,
(23:50):
failing to do anything.
Are the correct things to stopthe problems to where even
congressmen and senators and DCstaffers are not getting
assaulted and robbed?
And if you can go to theDistrict of Columbia and see
homeless encampments and youwalk up the street and you don't
seem, it doesn't seem safe.
It doesn't seem safe Eventhough you can statistically
point to a piece of paper thatshows well, it's actually better
than it was in 2023.
And it's actually better thanit was in 2024.
(24:13):
And it's actually a 30-year lowand it's actually not even the
most worst city that it'shappening.
It doesn't matter, because thelocals will say look, I'm tired
(24:33):
of being afraid to go to thestore.
I'm tired of being harassed inthe street by you know people.
I'm tired of this guydefecating in my, in my front
yard.
I'm tired of going to the storeand everything being locked
because there's rampant theft.
I'm tired of me going to workin busing my tail and paying for
(24:58):
my stuff and it being nopenalty for the person who is
stealing.
If they happen to steal under athousand dollars worth of goods
, why am I going to continuouslydo correct If there is no
punishment for people who aredoing wrong?
I see it from both sides ofthis coin.
(25:21):
Dc is not a state.
It should have stated.
I argued for years that DCshould not a state.
It should have stayed that.
I argued for years that DCshould be a state.
But I have to say this, and Isay this for any city if, when
you are in charge, if when youare in legislating, if there are
problems and you are notaddressing the problem directly,
(25:43):
if there are problems and youare not addressing the problem
directly, then when youropposition?
Since we live in a countrywhere we have opposition parties
comes to power, they are goingto address the problem in ways
you do not like, and even inways that I may not like.
(26:04):
The problem is, you had theopportunity to fix the problem
and you did so.
As bad as you think it is, asbad as it may be, as much as I
may recognize it, this allpolitical theater.
I may recognize that this isall political theater.
(26:24):
I also recognize there arepeople with policies that they
put in place to leave the doorwide open for this political
theater to be possible.
Be right back with more on theDarrell McLean show.
Welcome back to the DarrellMcLean show.
Now here is a headline that Iactually could not make up if I
(26:44):
tried.
Trump burger co-owner inhouston facing deportation and
no, this isn't satire, this isnot the onion.
It is not one of those facebookmemes that your uncle post at 2
am.
This is straight from the WorldWar file, where I already packs
(27:07):
a punch and comes to workovertime.
The man's name is Roland MerezBaini, 28 years old, a national
Lebanese I'm sorry, I guess Ishould say a Lebanese national
and he came to the United Statesin 2019 on a non-immigrant
(27:29):
visitor visa.
Now, that type of visa is oneof those where you're supposed
to enjoy some sightseeing checkout the Grand Canyon, and then
here's the big one You'resupposed to leave when the visa
expires.
The only problem is his visaexpired in February of 2024.
(27:51):
And instead of going home, icesays he decided Texas was too
good to give up.
Even better, they allege heattempted to secure his stay
through a fake marriage, whichimmigration officials
investigated, saw as fraudulentand then voided.
(28:12):
Now that's a hard legal strikeone.
And just to spice things up,there was also an assault charge
in the mix.
Hard legal strike number two.
Now let's just add a twist.
The man co-owns a restaurantcalled Trump Burger.
(28:35):
Yes, a burger joint decked outin a full shrine to Donald John
Trump, maga colors, pro-trumpposters everywhere, even menu
items itself named after thepresident.
You walk in to this Trumpburger restaurant and it is
(28:58):
basically a campaign rally withfries.
The irony is so thick you couldspread it like ketchup, and
here is where it getsfascinating, but also
uncomfortable.
The politics around immigrationin the Trump era and in the
post-Trump era have been laserfocused on a tone of nothing but
(29:24):
tough exceptions for no one.
Deport them all.
No excuses, no sympathy.
The political culture birthedplaces like Trump Berger is
built on the idea that theillegal alien is public enemy
(29:50):
number one.
And yet here we are.
The corner of a brand is,according to ICE, exactly what
the brand's political iconwarned us about.
What the brand's political iconwarned us about If this was a
movie script and I pitched thisto Hollywood, if I pitched this
to Netflix, a producer wouldhave thrown it out.
(30:11):
They would have told me you needto go write something else,
darrell, look, that is too onthe nose.
But reality has no shame aboutwriting plot twists that make
everybody squirm.
I want to be careful here,because real life is not a meme.
(30:33):
Real life is not a gotcha.
Immigration law is complicated,people are complicated and
people's reasons for staying ina country, especially the United
States of America, illegallycan range from the desperate to
(30:54):
the selfish, and I don't want topaint everybody under the same
brush.
Some people come here becausethey have legitimate
humanitarian needs and otherpeople come out of sheer
stubbornness.
But the optics for this case aTrump-themed business in a state
(31:20):
like Texas, run in part bysomeone now fighting deportation
Well, that theme the jokeseverything it writes itself.
So this is also a teachingmoment about politics and the
(31:41):
politics of belonging.
I would say specifically,america has a very strange
relationship when it comes toimmigrants.
We love the idea of immigration, we love the idea of the Statue
of Liberty.
Give us your tired, your hungry, your poor, your huddled masses
.
We love the idea of immigrants,especially when they're
(32:04):
building our roads.
We love the idea of immigrantswhen they're staffing our
kitchens and cleaning our hotelrooms.
But we have a habit of turningon immigrants when it comes to
political rhetoric.
It's a we like you when youserve us, but not when you stay,
(32:26):
kind of attitude.
And too often even immigrantswho buy into hard right
immigration politics think thatthey have to do that as a shield
for themselves and they do itto shield themselves from the
system's blade.
But the blade has no favorites.
(32:48):
It cuts whoever the law says itcan cut whoever the law says it
can cut.
Ronald Beeney, who was arrestedby ICE in May of this year,
bomb was granted in June.
His immigration hearing isscheduled for November, the 18th
2025.
Until then, he's a free man,but his future in the United
(33:15):
States is very much in question.
I would say this Whether youcheer for this news or lament on
the facts of this news saysmore about your politics than it
does about Ronald Bonini.
(33:35):
At the end of the day, thisstory isn't about a guy running
a novelty burger shop.
It's about the coalitionbetween personal identity,
political branding and the coalmachinery of an immigration
(33:56):
system.
When you attach your business,your image and your livelihood
to a political figure whosepolicies directly target the
demographic you belong to, you,my friend, are playing a very
dangerous game and sometimes,and I even dare say most of the
(34:21):
time, the House wins.
So Ronald Beeney now waits forthe gavel to fall in November,
waits for the gavel to fall inNovember.
Trump Burger will keep servingup patties with a side of
politics.
And for the rest of us, we geta reminder that American irony
(34:46):
isn't dead.
It just may be overcooked.
Right back with more of theDarrell McLean channel.
We're coming out swinging today.
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(35:30):
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Patreon.
And if you go to listen to theshow on Buzzsprouts, the
(36:38):
Buzzsprouts actually has areally cool feature where you
can text.
You can, you can.
You can text on Buzzsprouts,you can go to your phone, send a
text to the Darrell McLean show, and I actually get those text
messages, um, and I can see whatget feedback.
That's actually somethingfairly new that I, that they
(36:59):
offered and I did sign up for,so that is pretty cool.
So we're going to get right backinto it, my friends, and we're
going to, we're going to tellyou to do something.
Here, you got to pull up achair, you got to pour your
coffee.
Um, here, you got to pull up achair, you got to pour your
(37:31):
coffee.
Or, if you like me and you arereading the headlines and it
gave you high blood pressure andyou're a recovering sailor, you
may have to do, uh, poursomething a bit stronger.
Uh, for your libations, becausewhat I'm about to walk you
through is well, the kind ofstory that forces you to decide
whether to laugh, cry or tothrow the whole damn tv out the
window.
So and that is this golden jetproblem and the price tag and by
(37:54):
the tag, let me go ahead andthrow this out to you the $934
million price tag.
That's your money, folks.
That's my money.
You ever notice how the worstscandals are the ones that no
one talks about.
The worst scandals are the onesthat no one talks about.
The worst scandals are the onesthat are buried in bureaucratic
(38:20):
language.
They're hidden under a stack ofclassified memos, quietly
signed off by people who hope.
You and me are too distracted,maybe by football season, maybe
by the latest celebrity divorce,maybe by our family, maybe our,
(38:43):
you know, we are distracted,maybe our church, anything.
We are too distracted to noticethat's what they hope.
We're too distracted to noticethat's what they hope.
Well, this one even almostslipped by me.
As somebody who's a dork whopays attention to this stuff.
(39:04):
This almost slipped under myradar.
And it starts with the Americanground-based nuclear missile
program, ground-based missilenuclear missile program, and
this is what we have called fora long time Minuteman, and I
think Minuteman number threewould be this one.
So these things are sittingunderground in the Dakotas, the
(39:27):
Wyomis and the Monotamas.
Each one gets a nuclear warheadcapable of leveling a city.
They're old, really old.
Some of these silos were builtback when we had black and white
TV.
Now the plan was to replacethese aging missiles with a new
(39:52):
system called Sentinel, moremodern, more reliable, more safe
, and this is not some optionalluxury.
This is part of a nuclear triadthat's supposed to make
potential adversaries thinktwice before starting trouble
with the United States ofAmerica.
(40:12):
So what happened?
What did the Pentagon do withnearly a billion dollars
earmarked for this type ofmodernization?
They moved quietly intosomething called Unnamed
Classified Project.
(40:32):
Now if you're like me, who hadthe pleasure of working for the
federal government For a longtime, and If you have been
around Long enough, you knowWashington code and you know
that was Washington code, forwe're doing something that we
(40:54):
don't want to explain Because weknow, if you know, you're going
to get angry.
Sure enough, investigativereporters started digging.
I was reading the New YorkTimes and David Sanger and Eric
(41:16):
Schmidt connected the dots andthe Congressional Budget
Watchers confirmed their rumors.
The classified project was, infact, the Boeing 747 jet donated
by Qatar.
But that donated word is doinga lot of heavy lifting here,
because, while the Qatarigovernment provided the airframe
, you and I suites and a custominterior that would make any
(41:42):
oligarchs blush, this is theplane Trump's intends to use as
(42:09):
Air Force One during hisremaining time in office.
But here's the kicker the planeis not going to be ready until
after the president leaves andthen, after he leaves, he plans
to keep the Trump for him, tokeep the plane for Trump's
presidential library.
You know the presidentiallibrary, that Trump presidential
(42:38):
library, the one that doesn'texist Now.
When reporters were asked aboutthis and they went and asked the
Air Force for details, they gotthe same answers over and over
again Sorry, classified, theycouldn't talk about the cost.
They couldn't talk about theupgrades.
Classified, they can't talkabout anything.
(43:00):
Zip Zitch, no, nothing.
But here's the part that'salmost funny if it wasn't so
infuriating.
Senior Air Force officialsprivately admitted to people
like me, journalists yes, we'retaking the money from the
Nuclear Modernization Fund topay for it.
(43:21):
So much for secrecy.
They're not even denying it,they're just hoping no one cares
enough to make a fuss about it.
Everybody knows I'm a fan of thepeople who are witty the George
(43:41):
Orwells, the Oscar Wiles, theChristopher Hitchens, the Gore
Vidal's, the William F Buckley's.
You know I like witty, funnypeople.
I just somewhat imagine that ifVidal, hitchens, orwell, oscar
(44:04):
Wilde were alive today, thatthey would.
I could hear them, you know,saying something like that.
So the safety of the nation'snuclear arsenal is being
sacrificed and reupholsteredseating and gold place fixtures,
(44:25):
and this is filed under thenational defense.
I say it's more of the defenseof a man's vanity.
That's what I think they'd say.
And this is what you call statetheft.
Not in the legal sense, though,frankly, if you got me fired up
(44:51):
enough I'd probably even debateyou on that.
But I'll just say, in a moralsense, this is state theft.
You took taxpayers money meantfor national survival and you
spent it on a flying monument toyourself.
(45:13):
The symbolism of all this isjust too perfect.
Picture this In the Americanheartland missile silos rust
quietly in the wind, the steelcorroding, the electronics
outdated.
The maintenance teams are doingtheir best that they can, with
the equipment older than theyare.
(45:34):
The equipment is actually theage of their grandfather.
And somewhere else in a securehangar, workers are polishing
gold plating onto the nose of ajet.
I think I say this a lot.
You know.
Say it again.
You know.
(45:55):
If I were to pitch this toHollywood, they'd reject it for
being too on the nose.
It's like Orwell's Animal Farmthe barn roof leaks, but the
pigs just ordered anotherchandelier.
Now let me get serious for amoment about why this is a
(46:15):
national security issue.
The Minuteman III was firstdeployed in 1970.
That's over half of a centuryago.
The engineers who built this.
They are retired and tellingstories to their grandchildren
(46:45):
or they are dead.
Every year the risk of criticalfailure grows.
This isn't about keeping up withthe Joneses.
This is about making sure themost dangerous weapons in the
world don't malfunction at theworst possible time.
Shaving a billion dollars offthat program is not just
(47:07):
irresponsible, it is dangerous.
But isn't this Trump's playbook?
Of course, this is a classicTrump.
Trump has always been aboutoptics, the gold trim the marble
, the bragging.
He was bragged about having apersonal Boeing 757 with 24-7
(47:38):
carrot seat buckles.
So, of course, when he waspresented with a gift from Qatar
, he saw an opportunity.
Let's make it the mostluxurious plane in history and
let's get the taxpayers to footthe bill.
And this isn't new.
This is nothing new.
The Shah of Iran had goldenbathrooms.
Idi Amin had fleets of RollsRoyces.
(48:01):
Muammar Gaddafi had a privatejet with a custom throne.
Trump's twist is that he's notplaying with oil money or looted
treasuries.
He is paying with this, withfunds meant to maintain
America's nuclear defense, whichmight be the most on-brand
(48:24):
America of 2025 thing that I canimagine, besides alligator
alcatraz in my home state ofFlorida.
Thankfully, some in Congressare trying to slam the brakes.
Elizabeth Warren, tammyDuckworth, ed Markey, adam
(48:47):
Schiff, jamie Raskin, johnGreenwood have sent letters
demanding explanations.
John Greenwood have sentletters demanding explanations.
They've given the Pentagonuntil August 20th to spill the
details.
Republicans have joined in aswell and are muttering concerns,
(49:07):
but most are keeping theirheads down because in the grand
old party of 2025, crossingTrump means you have to be
willing to retire, becausecrossing Trump at this moment is
career suicide.
(49:28):
But here is the bigger problem,and here's what really worries
me is that I'm actually notshocked anymore.
If this happened 20 years ago,it would dominate every front
page in the country for a month,but now it's so much of a blip.
(49:53):
I had to just be sitting inCalifornia reading a lot of
stuff while my friend James wasat work, and I just happened to
see it.
Did you hear about this at thecoffee shop?
(50:13):
Is anybody talking about thisat work?
Did you see this in yournewsfeed?
Did you see about this at thecoffee shop?
Is anybody talking about thisat work?
Did you see this in yournewsfeed?
Did you see this anywhere?
Maybe, but I doubt it.
We have normalized this type ofabsurdity.
We have turned governmentcorruption into background noise
.
The Golden Jet isn't just aboutPresident Trump.
(50:33):
The Golden Jet isn't just aboutPresident Trump.
It's about a political culturewhere personal indulgences
trumps national duty.
It's about a Pentagon that willquietly shuffle nearly a
billion dollars away frommissile safety and not expect
anyone to notice.
And guess what?
(51:03):
I didn't hear a lot of outrageabout it.
I'm online all the time.
I got political brain rot.
I didn't see it like theoutrage that it is.
Or is it just another Tuesdayin America?
Because if you can read thenuclear budget for Gold Trim and
still keep your job, what elsecan you get away with?
(51:30):
That's the question we shouldall be asking.
Thank you for tuning in.
I'm going to play a audio clipfrom our amazing segment that I
love to do blast from theinternational, the international
(51:55):
.
Blast from the intellectualpast.
Maybe I should find aninternational person to play for
our segment.
Blast from the intellectualpast.
Maybe I should find aninternational person to play for
our segment.
Blast for the intellectual past.
And after that I hope to seeyou on the next episode.
Thank you for tuning in.
As always, we have one planet,nobody is leaving, and let us
(52:15):
reason together.
Speaker 6 (52:26):
From this distant vantage point, the Earth might
not seem of any particularinterest, but for us it's
different.
Consider again that dot, that'shere, that's home, that's us On
(52:47):
it.
Everyone you love, everyone youknow, everyone.
You ever heard of every humanbeing who ever was, lived out
their lives, the aggregate ofour joy and suffering.
(53:08):
Thousands of confidentreligions, ideologies and
economic doctrines.
Every hunter and forager, everyhero and coward, every creator
and destroyer of civilization,every king and peasant, every
young couple in love, everymother and father, hopeful child
, inventor and explorer, everyteacher of morals, every corrupt
(53:32):
politician, every superstar,every supreme leader, every
saint and sinner in the historyof our species lived there on
the moat of dust suspended in asunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stagein a vast cosmic arena.
(54:06):
Think of the rivers of bloodspilled by all those generals
and emperors so that, in gloryand triumph, they can become the
momentary masters of a fractionof a dot.
Think of the endless crueltiesvisited by the inhabitants of
(54:27):
one corner of this pixel on thescarcely distinguishable
inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their
misunderstandings, how eagerthey are to kill one another.
In the next episode we'll seehow the by this point of pale
light, our planet is a lonelyspeck in the great, enveloping
(55:08):
cosmic dark, in our obscurity.
In all this vastness, there isno hint that help will come from
elsewhere to save us fromourselves.
The Earth is the only worldknown so far to harbor life.
There is nowhere else, at leastin the near future, to which
(55:32):
our species could migrate.
Visit, yes, settle.
Not yet, like it or not.
(55:57):
For the moment, the Earth iswhere we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomyis a humbling and
character-building experience.
There is perhaps no betterdemonstration of the folly of
human conceits than this distantimage of our tiny world.
(56:21):
To me, it underscores ourresponsibility to deal more
kindly with one another and topreserve and cherish the pale
blue dot, the only home we'veever known.
One of the things that we have seen over and over
from the president, from histeam.
You know Stephen Miller sayingit's like Baghdad and Ethiopia
they seem to hold their harshestcriticism sometimes for cities
that are majority black andbrown.
Do you see that and what do youthink that means?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
that I have been dealing kind of with this issue
for a number of years.
It's kind of easy fodder on thecampaign trail, but now we're
talking about governing and myjob is to focus on making sure
our city is running, is runningwell and people enjoy a great
quality of life, and I thinkwe're doing a really good job.
We do need the federalgovernment's help, as I
(00:49):
mentioned, because they have anoutsized influence on our
criminal justice system.
We need more prosecutors, weneed more judges.
There are other ways to help.
Even we want to rebuild ourjail and, uh, there, there are
ways that the feds can help withthat, but also just doing their
part cutting the grass, fixingthe fountains, making sure that
(01:12):
federal law enforcement is doingall of the policing that they
can do.
And I just have to say thankyou to mps, fbi, atf, who've
always worked cooperatively withus and we expect that they will
again.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I should note that the most violent moment in
recent history in DC was January6th and it was an attack on the
United States Capitol by a lotof people who were doing it in
the name of Donald Trump, and itincluded the people who were
hurt, included members of lawenforcement.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
My message to residents is this we know that
access to our democracy istenuous.
That is why you have heard meand many, many Washingtonians
before me advocate for fullstatehood for the District of
Columbia.
We are American citizens, ourfamilies go to war, we pay taxes
(02:08):
and we uphold theresponsibilities of citizenship.
And while this action today isunsettling and unprecedented I
can't say that, given some ofthe rhetoric of the past that
we're totally surprised I cansay to DC residents that we will
(02:29):
continue to operate ourgovernment in a way that makes
you proud.
We will balance our budgets, wewill deploy our services, our
kids are going to start schoolon August 25th and we will work
with the federal government todo the things that they should
do for our city.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
There was a lot of deception from the president
there, so here's a reality check.
There is no doubt that DC has,for decades, been a high-crime
city.
It is among the US cities withthe highest homicide rates,
though there are a bunch ofother big cities that are worse.
And DC did indeed have a bigcrime spike in 2023, which is
the year the president keptciting.
But, contrary to what thepresident said today, even in
(03:11):
2023, dc did not have anall-time high in murder.
It was way worse during thecrack crisis of the 80s and
early 90s.
And, more pressingly, dana, thepresident was just flat wrong
when he said it's getting worsenow, not getting better.
Crime in DC, including murder,has fallen sharply since that
2023 spike.
It fell in 2024.
It's fallen further in 2025.
(03:33):
So let's look at some of thisdata.
In 2023, dc had its mostmurders in more than two decades
274.
Of course, that's terrible, butit then plunged to 187 murders
last year and it's been fallingagain so far this year, through
July.
According to figures compiledby crime data expert Jeff Asher,
dc has 34% fewer murders thanit did through the same period
(03:56):
in that year, 2023.
Now how about violent crime morebroadly?
Well, that's also down sharplyin the last year and a half.
In fact, per Jeff Asher, dc'sofficially reported violent
crime rate in 2024 was thesecond lowest since 1966, so
lower than every year of Trump'sadministration.
It's about a third of what itwas in those bad old days that
were in the 1990s.
(04:17):
And you heard from thepresident and his team about
carjackings.
Well, indeed a problem in DC.
But what do the numbers say?
Again, a big spike in 2023,down, since Asher noted that 16
carjackings reported in Julywere the fewest reported in any
month in more than five years inDC.
Down more than 87 percent fromthe same month in 2023.
(04:37):
So look, we know crime is anissue in DC.
We've lived there.
We know that every violentcrime is a shame, a tragedy.
Of course, not excusing any ofthem, but this isn't an ongoing
crime spike, like PresidentTrump suggested, and he said
it's rising.
Even in the text of theexecutive order I went through
it the first section says crimeis rising in the Capitol.
That is just not true.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
As our home rule charter is also clear and the
president's executive orderrestates, Chief Pamela Smith is
the chief of the MetropolitanPolice Department and its 3,100
members work under her direction.
(05:18):
The Home Rule Charter requiresthe mayor to provide the
services of MPD during specialconditions of an emergency and
we will follow the law, thoughthere's a question about the
subjectivity of that declaration.
In fact, the chief has alreadyprovided a high-level liaison
(05:44):
and point of contact with thefederal government and made
those initial contacts.
The executive order is alsoclear that the president has
delegated his authority to makerequests of us to Attorney
General Pam Bondi.
I have reached out to AttorneyGeneral Bondi and hope to
(06:06):
schedule a meeting school soon.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
The briefing, they gave us a packet of information
to show us some of the arreststhat were made over the weekend,
as this starting to ramp up orincrease in federal law
enforcement took place, and theywere fairly low-level criminals
.
It was somebody with possessionor a DUI at one point and there
(06:29):
were only five of them, Ibelieve, listed in this packet.
So it's unclear.
You know he's talking aboutthis major escalation in violent
crime, but that is not quiteclear from the packet of
information they gave us here.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
We've been making these threats since last year
and now he's carrying throughwith them.
There's no reason to believe hewon't go further.
What do you say to thepresident about his threats to
bring the military?
Speaker 2 (06:53):
We don't.
We don't I think I speak forall Americans we don't believe
or believe it's legal to use theAmerican military against
American citizens on Americansoil.
I'm not a lawyer but I thinkthat's a fairly widely held fact
(07:14):
.
But we've seen them move, Ithink, the active military into
California.
So it's a question.
We've seen active military onthe borders of DC some years ago
and we don't believe that ourmilitary should be used against
American citizens.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
Welcome to the Darrell McLean Show.
We are back home in Virginia.
Independent media that won'treinforce tribalism.
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving.
I miss you guys, and let usreason together on 469 episodes.
We're in now, so welcomeeveryone.
(07:57):
Welcome.
Today we're going to examinePresident Trump's bold,
controversial decision tofederalize the DC police and
deploy the National Guard.
Now the president says it wasactually necessary, and the
president is saying it wasnecessary because of a spiraling
(08:17):
out of control crime rate.
But we have to ask ourselves isthat really the case?
Anytime a politician even theones we like and the ones we
don't like make a claim, we haveto test it.
So let's break this all downand so let's get some context
and the legal framework.
So on August, the 11th of 2025,president Trump declared a
(08:42):
crime emergency in Washington DC, invoking Section 740 of the
District of Columbia House RuleAct.
This particular act allows thepresident to place the
Metropolitan Police Departmentto Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Now, this is, of course, donewithout congressional
(09:16):
intervention, and that isbecause this measure is allowed
is allowed about every 48 hoursor so, and the president is
allowed, when I looked into it,to do this up to 30 days.
Now Trump painted a dire picture, calling this city plagued by
(09:37):
crime, bloodshed, bedlam andsqualor.
During what he calledLiberation Day in DC, he framed
it as a rescue mission for thenation's capital, signaling that
similar action could alsofollow in places like New York,
(10:01):
chicago and in California.
Explicitly, he talked aboutOakland.
Now, so that was the claim.
What is the reality?
I think I want to say andhere's the thing, and it does
get somewhat interesting Crimein DC is actually declining.
(10:22):
Violent crime in DC is actuallydeclining.
Violent crime in DC is down Now.
Nbc and CBC site declines aroughly 26 to 35 percent in 2025
compared to the prior year.
The FBI projects historicallylow murder rates nationally and
(10:48):
DC murders and assaults havedropped meaningfully.
In fact, dc has actually hit a30 year low in violent crime in
2024.
So local leaders blasted themove.
Mayor Marion Bowser called itunsettling and unprecedented and
said the District of Columbiawill continue to govern the way
residents expect.
Democrats like Delegate EleanorHolmes, norton and Attorney
(11:13):
General Brian Schwab I think Ipronounced that right labeled it
unlawful and an assault on homerule.
Civil rights groups condemnedwhat they called authoritarian
overreach.
Donald Trump's actual oldfriend, but a civil rights
leader over.
I forgot what his thing iscalled.
It's that, yeah, but anyway Iwant to say it's the Rainbow
(11:38):
Coalition and that could be it,and that could be Jesse
Jackson's thing I'll look it uplater but anyway, the civil
rights leader, donald Trump'sold friend and NBC host and
pastor, the Reverend Al Sharpton, called it the ultimate affront
to justice.
Even some residents saw it as apolitical theater.
(12:02):
One actually noted it seemedlike red meat thrown to the
president's base.
Critics warned about thelegality of the matter.
So while Section 740 actuallygrants the president's emergency
power, many view this as adistraction of its intent,
(12:23):
especially absent actualemergency condition.
The commentary warns this couldset a dangerous precedent for
federalizing local lawenforcement at will.
Others question theeffectiveness of
demilitarization in reducingcrime.
Studies have shown that simplyaiding a state or city by adding
(12:48):
military-style interventionsdoesn't actually improve safety,
and the studies also show thatit can actually exasperate
tensions.
I kind of jokingly played withthis when we talked about it a
few months ago when thishappened in California and I was
(13:11):
you know, I'm more of alibertarian on the side of the
aisle, leaky libertarian that isand I was talking to some of my
conservative friends that Icare about and I said I played
with this term, but I keptcalling them outside agitators,
(13:32):
saying that they were cominginto communities that care
nothing about agitating thepeople and then being upset when
the people you know, did thingslike throw rocks and be spit at
police officers and it's youknow, stuff like that?
I'm not.
It's obviously ridiculous whenyou assault police and things of
that nature.
But I kind of say, what do youthink is going to happen if I
(13:54):
came into your house and to yourneighborhood federalize the
whatever.
And I don't think that theconservatives would have a very
good reaction if Barack Obamawas doing to them what Donald
Trump is doing right now, ifBarack Obama had said that
Florida was out of control andtook over the federal troops.
(14:16):
You know we kind of takeover ofDC police and deployment of the
National Guard was portrayed asnecessary to combat rampant
crime.
But the data doesn't actuallysupport that narrative.
When you consider that crime isfalling, not rising, and local
(14:37):
officials are pushing back hard,it actually raises serious
questions about federaloverreach, the erosion of local
government and the politicalmotives under the guise of
public safety and not.
Now that that was the strictanalysis of it.
(15:00):
Now here's the commentarybackground of it.
So you don't have to be aSenate to actually see what's
going on here, but it does kindof help.
The president didn't Federalizethe police in DC because the
(15:21):
streets are running red withblood.
The FBI's own data show thecrime is down.
Violent crime and murder isdown.
The city isn't perfect, but thecrime emergency isn't there.
The crime emergency is apolitical emergency of Trump's
(15:45):
own making.
When you really dig down intoit, what this really seems to be
about is about optics.
It's about a man whounderstands that fear is the
most reliable fuel in politics.
If you can make people feelunsafe, even when they are
(16:06):
statistically safer than theywere last year, you can justify
extraordinary measures, measuresthat make you look like a
strong man riding in to save theday.
It's also about layinggroundwork.
So let me lay this out for youIf you can take over the police
(16:31):
force in the nation's capital ona paper thin pretext, then you
can do it in New York, you cando it in Chicago, you can do it
in Oakland, you can do it in anycity that doesn't politically
align with you, and that isn't acrime strategy.
It's a power strategy.
(16:52):
The real emergency isn't on thestreets, it is in the precedent
it sets for democracy.
And I'll tell you the truthwhat keeps me up at night isn't
whether Trump fix DC.
Especially it isn't if Trumpfix DC's crime.
(17:13):
It's the creeping normalizationof federal muscle being flexed
over local government when itsuits the political narrative of
the day, over local government,when it suits the political
narrative of the day.
That's not law and order.
That's law as performers aren'tand, like most political
(17:40):
theater, the real show ishappening offstage.
So now it's Liberation Day inDC.
Please, this wasn't liberation,it was a photo op with riot
gear.
The president didn't sweep inbecause the city's on the brink
of collapse.
He swept in because nothingsells in America, especially
(18:01):
during an election cycle, likefear and a stage rescue.
We have to be honest.
Let's just be honest here.
Crime in DC is down accordingto every statistic you can look
at.
The murder rate is down,assaults are down.
But if you actually acknowledgethat you can't ride in on a
Humvee like you're auditioningfor Saving Private Riley, so you
(18:27):
inflate the danger, slap thewords crime, emergency on it and
suddenly boom, you're the heroin your own made-for-TV law and
order movie.
And here's the kicker.
This isn't about DC at all.
This is a test run.
(18:49):
You get it, folks, becausethere used to be an idea that
you could take over cities bypolice force anytime you want,
but not here.
That was in third worldauthoritarian countries.
You expect that in Russia, youexpect that in Venezuela, you'd
(19:11):
expect that from Maduro, you'dexpect that from Kim Jong Un or
something.
But now, if you and I get usedto the idea that in the United
States, you're allowed to takeover a city's police force
anytime you declare a disasterand pretty soon you keep doing
(19:32):
that you're going to be watchingas you'll start to see it more.
You'll start to see it more.
We already saw it in Californiaand I have to remind us,
(19:53):
president Trump has only beenpresident for six months Already
.
We saw it in California and nowhere is DC, and it will
eventually be New York andChicago and Oakland, and it will
happen in any city where anysitting president finds a mayor
that they don't like.
(20:13):
This isn't a crackdown on crime.
This is political theater withlive ammunition and, like most
political theater, the audienceis supposed to forget.
The script was written beforethe curtain even went up.
But we have to see the script,and if you think this was about
(20:35):
making the streets safe, you arenot watching the movie.
You're in it.
You are not watching the movie,you're in it.
I have lived in the District ofColumbia.
Me and Gene live there, and Iremember going to a Safeway that
(21:01):
was by the apartment and Iremember standing there being
fascinated that I was in D and Iwas going to be living there
and I watched as somebody camein and went into a store, stole
goods and walked right out and Iwas amazed that nobody's
stopped the person.
And I remember standing therealmost like a human nature thing
(21:26):
, and I was standing therethinking why should I pay for my
stuff if this guy is just goingto run out and steal the whole
store?
And I'm a fairly decent person,I like to think but what if
somebody is not a decent person?
Or let's say, for all intentsand purposes, they were a decent
(21:48):
person who was on really hardeconomic times?
The more you allow that type ofbehavior to happen, the more
you give people the incentive tocontinue that type of behavior.
(22:09):
And because there is aperception that the people who
are in charge in DC do not doanything about it and it can be
argued that they are doing thecorrect anything about it, and
it can be argued that theyAren't doing the correct thing
about it, when people likeDonald Trump come in and they do
what we perceive as the wrongthing about it.
(22:30):
We complain and we murmur andwe're upset Because we don't
like the optics.
So my criticism here is thisthis all came in part due to the
fact that there was a stafferthe pejorative that he goes by
(22:53):
is Big Boss.
He's part of the Doge staff.
Apparently he was trying tostop somebody from being
assaulted or something and hewas beat up, and I have seen
some stories that there was analleged alleged carjacking and
so, of course, that got back tothe White House and the
(23:15):
president used that as a pretextto say that this is DC is out
of control.
Yet you know, you have hadreports of even senators and
congressmen getting carjacked inthe District of Columbia,
(23:50):
failing to do anything.
Are the correct things to stopthe problems to where even
congressmen and senators and DCstaffers are not getting
assaulted and robbed?
And if you can go to theDistrict of Columbia and see
homeless encampments and youwalk up the street and you don't
seem, it doesn't seem safe.
It doesn't seem safe Eventhough you can statistically
point to a piece of paper thatshows well, it's actually better
than it was in 2023.
And it's actually better thanit was in 2024.
(24:13):
And it's actually a 30-year lowand it's actually not even the
most worst city that it'shappening.
It doesn't matter, because thelocals will say look, I'm tired
(24:33):
of being afraid to go to thestore.
I'm tired of being harassed inthe street by you know people.
I'm tired of this guydefecating in my, in my front
yard.
I'm tired of going to the storeand everything being locked
because there's rampant theft.
I'm tired of me going to workin busing my tail and paying for
(24:58):
my stuff and it being nopenalty for the person who is
stealing.
If they happen to steal under athousand dollars worth of goods
, why am I going to continuouslydo correct If there is no
punishment for people who aredoing wrong?
I see it from both sides ofthis coin.
(25:21):
Dc is not a state.
It should have stated.
I argued for years that DCshould not a state.
It should have stayed that.
I argued for years that DCshould be a state.
But I have to say this, and Isay this for any city if, when
you are in charge, if when youare in legislating, if there are
problems and you are notaddressing the problem directly,
(25:43):
if there are problems and youare not addressing the problem
directly, then when youropposition?
Since we live in a countrywhere we have opposition parties
comes to power, they are goingto address the problem in ways
you do not like, and even inways that I may not like.
(26:04):
The problem is, you had theopportunity to fix the problem
and you did so.
As bad as you think it is, asbad as it may be, as much as I
may recognize it, this allpolitical theater.
I may recognize that this isall political theater.
(26:24):
I also recognize there arepeople with policies that they
put in place to leave the doorwide open for this political
theater to be possible.
Be right back with more on theDarrell McLean show.
Welcome back to the DarrellMcLean show.
Now here is a headline that Iactually could not make up if I
(26:44):
tried.
Trump burger co-owner inhouston facing deportation and
no, this isn't satire, this isnot the onion.
It is not one of those facebookmemes that your uncle post at 2
am.
This is straight from the WorldWar file, where I already packs
(27:07):
a punch and comes to workovertime.
The man's name is Roland MerezBaini, 28 years old, a national
Lebanese I'm sorry, I guess Ishould say a Lebanese national
and he came to the United Statesin 2019 on a non-immigrant
(27:29):
visitor visa.
Now, that type of visa is oneof those where you're supposed
to enjoy some sightseeing checkout the Grand Canyon, and then
here's the big one You'resupposed to leave when the visa
expires.
The only problem is his visaexpired in February of 2024.
(27:51):
And instead of going home, icesays he decided Texas was too
good to give up.
Even better, they allege heattempted to secure his stay
through a fake marriage, whichimmigration officials
investigated, saw as fraudulentand then voided.
(28:12):
Now that's a hard legal strikeone.
And just to spice things up,there was also an assault charge
in the mix.
Hard legal strike number two.
Now let's just add a twist.
The man co-owns a restaurantcalled Trump Burger.
(28:35):
Yes, a burger joint decked outin a full shrine to Donald John
Trump, maga colors, pro-trumpposters everywhere, even menu
items itself named after thepresident.
You walk in to this Trumpburger restaurant and it is
(28:58):
basically a campaign rally withfries.
The irony is so thick you couldspread it like ketchup, and
here is where it getsfascinating, but also
uncomfortable.
The politics around immigrationin the Trump era and in the
post-Trump era have been laserfocused on a tone of nothing but
(29:24):
tough exceptions for no one.
Deport them all.
No excuses, no sympathy.
The political culture birthedplaces like Trump Berger is
built on the idea that theillegal alien is public enemy
(29:50):
number one.
And yet here we are.
The corner of a brand is,according to ICE, exactly what
the brand's political iconwarned us about.
What the brand's political iconwarned us about If this was a
movie script and I pitched thisto Hollywood, if I pitched this
to Netflix, a producer wouldhave thrown it out.
(30:11):
They would have told me you needto go write something else,
darrell, look, that is too onthe nose.
But reality has no shame aboutwriting plot twists that make
everybody squirm.
I want to be careful here,because real life is not a meme.
(30:33):
Real life is not a gotcha.
Immigration law is complicated,people are complicated and
people's reasons for staying ina country, especially the United
States of America, illegallycan range from the desperate to
(30:54):
the selfish, and I don't want topaint everybody under the same
brush.
Some people come here becausethey have legitimate
humanitarian needs and otherpeople come out of sheer
stubbornness.
But the optics for this case aTrump-themed business in a state
(31:20):
like Texas, run in part bysomeone now fighting deportation
Well, that theme the jokeseverything it writes itself.
So this is also a teachingmoment about politics and the
(31:41):
politics of belonging.
I would say specifically,america has a very strange
relationship when it comes toimmigrants.
We love the idea of immigration, we love the idea of the Statue
of Liberty.
Give us your tired, your hungry, your poor, your huddled masses
.
We love the idea of immigrants,especially when they're
(32:04):
building our roads.
We love the idea of immigrantswhen they're staffing our
kitchens and cleaning our hotelrooms.
But we have a habit of turningon immigrants when it comes to
political rhetoric.
It's a we like you when youserve us, but not when you stay,
(32:26):
kind of attitude.
And too often even immigrantswho buy into hard right
immigration politics think thatthey have to do that as a shield
for themselves and they do itto shield themselves from the
system's blade.
But the blade has no favorites.
(32:48):
It cuts whoever the law says itcan cut whoever the law says it
can cut.
Ronald Beeney, who was arrestedby ICE in May of this year,
bomb was granted in June.
His immigration hearing isscheduled for November, the 18th
2025.
Until then, he's a free man,but his future in the United
(33:15):
States is very much in question.
I would say this Whether youcheer for this news or lament on
the facts of this news saysmore about your politics than it
does about Ronald Bonini.
(33:35):
At the end of the day, thisstory isn't about a guy running
a novelty burger shop.
It's about the coalitionbetween personal identity,
political branding and the coalmachinery of an immigration
(33:56):
system.
When you attach your business,your image and your livelihood
to a political figure whosepolicies directly target the
demographic you belong to, you,my friend, are playing a very
dangerous game and sometimes,and I even dare say most of the
(34:21):
time, the House wins.
So Ronald Beeney now waits forthe gavel to fall in November,
waits for the gavel to fall inNovember.
Trump Burger will keep servingup patties with a side of
politics.
And for the rest of us, we geta reminder that American irony
(34:46):
isn't dead.
It just may be overcooked.
Right back with more of theDarrell McLean channel.
We're coming out swinging today.
Guys, I want to say if you, ifyou, um, are a listener and you
have some segments that you areinterested in and and, and you
think that I would be um, itwould serve the show if I
(35:09):
discuss the segment um, send methe segment and um, and I'll
definitely take a look at it andsee if it's something that I
could do something with.
If I don't cover it for a fullsegment on the show, I will
definitely, out of respect formy audience, mention it, maybe
(35:30):
read it without commentary.
If you think that it'ssomething that you agree with
that you think I may have somedisagreements on, send me the
segment article or whatnot.
You could put your opinion ontop of it and I will leave your
(35:51):
name out of it unless you havegiven me permission to say your
name.
I will leave your name out ofit unless you have given me
permission to say your name andI'll discuss whether we're kind
of read what you said.
Read whether I, whether I thinkit's correct or not.
You can do that with me onPatreon.
I am on Patreon, patreon Ithink it's Patreon slash Darrell
(36:13):
McClain.
You can do it on the DarrellMcLean Facebook page.
You can do it on.
I have I do have a LinkedIn.
I don't know how the LinkedInupdates work, but you can do it
on LinkedIn, instagram, on theDarrell McLean and I have a
Patreon.
And if you go to listen to theshow on Buzzsprouts, the
(36:38):
Buzzsprouts actually has areally cool feature where you
can text.
You can, you can.
You can text on Buzzsprouts,you can go to your phone, send a
text to the Darrell McLean show, and I actually get those text
messages, um, and I can see whatget feedback.
That's actually somethingfairly new that I, that they
(36:59):
offered and I did sign up for,so that is pretty cool.
So we're going to get right backinto it, my friends, and we're
going to, we're going to tellyou to do something.
Here, you got to pull up achair, you got to pour your
coffee.
Um, here, you got to pull up achair, you got to pour your
(37:31):
coffee.
Or, if you like me and you arereading the headlines and it
gave you high blood pressure andyou're a recovering sailor, you
may have to do, uh, poursomething a bit stronger.
Uh, for your libations, becausewhat I'm about to walk you
through is well, the kind ofstory that forces you to decide
whether to laugh, cry or tothrow the whole damn tv out the
window.
So and that is this golden jetproblem and the price tag and by
(37:54):
the tag, let me go ahead andthrow this out to you the $934
million price tag.
That's your money, folks.
That's my money.
You ever notice how the worstscandals are the ones that no
one talks about.
The worst scandals are the onesthat no one talks about.
The worst scandals are the onesthat are buried in bureaucratic
(38:20):
language.
They're hidden under a stack ofclassified memos, quietly
signed off by people who hope.
You and me are too distracted,maybe by football season, maybe
by the latest celebrity divorce,maybe by our family, maybe our,
(38:43):
you know, we are distracted,maybe our church, anything.
We are too distracted to noticethat's what they hope.
We're too distracted to noticethat's what they hope.
Well, this one even almostslipped by me.
As somebody who's a dork whopays attention to this stuff.
(39:04):
This almost slipped under myradar.
And it starts with the Americanground-based nuclear missile
program, ground-based missilenuclear missile program, and
this is what we have called fora long time Minuteman, and I
think Minuteman number threewould be this one.
So these things are sittingunderground in the Dakotas, the
(39:27):
Wyomis and the Monotamas.
Each one gets a nuclear warheadcapable of leveling a city.
They're old, really old.
Some of these silos were builtback when we had black and white
TV.
Now the plan was to replacethese aging missiles with a new
(39:52):
system called Sentinel, moremodern, more reliable, more safe
, and this is not some optionalluxury.
This is part of a nuclear triadthat's supposed to make
potential adversaries thinktwice before starting trouble
with the United States ofAmerica.
(40:12):
So what happened?
What did the Pentagon do withnearly a billion dollars
earmarked for this type ofmodernization?
They moved quietly intosomething called Unnamed
Classified Project.
(40:32):
Now if you're like me, who hadthe pleasure of working for the
federal government For a longtime, and If you have been
around Long enough, you knowWashington code and you know
that was Washington code, forwe're doing something that we
(40:54):
don't want to explain Because weknow, if you know, you're going
to get angry.
Sure enough, investigativereporters started digging.
I was reading the New YorkTimes and David Sanger and Eric
(41:16):
Schmidt connected the dots andthe Congressional Budget
Watchers confirmed their rumors.
The classified project was, infact, the Boeing 747 jet donated
by Qatar.
But that donated word is doinga lot of heavy lifting here,
because, while the Qatarigovernment provided the airframe
, you and I suites and a custominterior that would make any
(41:42):
oligarchs blush, this is theplane Trump's intends to use as
(42:09):
Air Force One during hisremaining time in office.
But here's the kicker the planeis not going to be ready until
after the president leaves andthen, after he leaves, he plans
to keep the Trump for him, tokeep the plane for Trump's
presidential library.
You know the presidentiallibrary, that Trump presidential
(42:38):
library, the one that doesn'texist Now.
When reporters were asked aboutthis and they went and asked the
Air Force for details, they gotthe same answers over and over
again Sorry, classified, theycouldn't talk about the cost.
They couldn't talk about theupgrades.
Classified, they can't talkabout anything.
(43:00):
Zip Zitch, no, nothing.
But here's the part that'salmost funny if it wasn't so
infuriating.
Senior Air Force officialsprivately admitted to people
like me, journalists yes, we'retaking the money from the
Nuclear Modernization Fund topay for it.
(43:21):
So much for secrecy.
They're not even denying it,they're just hoping no one cares
enough to make a fuss about it.
Everybody knows I'm a fan of thepeople who are witty the George
(43:41):
Orwells, the Oscar Wiles, theChristopher Hitchens, the Gore
Vidal's, the William F Buckley's.
You know I like witty, funnypeople.
I just somewhat imagine that ifVidal, hitchens, orwell, oscar
(44:04):
Wilde were alive today, thatthey would.
I could hear them, you know,saying something like that.
So the safety of the nation'snuclear arsenal is being
sacrificed and reupholsteredseating and gold place fixtures,
(44:25):
and this is filed under thenational defense.
I say it's more of the defenseof a man's vanity.
That's what I think they'd say.
And this is what you call statetheft.
Not in the legal sense, though,frankly, if you got me fired up
(44:51):
enough I'd probably even debateyou on that.
But I'll just say, in a moralsense, this is state theft.
You took taxpayers money meantfor national survival and you
spent it on a flying monument toyourself.
(45:13):
The symbolism of all this isjust too perfect.
Picture this In the Americanheartland missile silos rust
quietly in the wind, the steelcorroding, the electronics
outdated.
The maintenance teams are doingtheir best that they can, with
the equipment older than theyare.
(45:34):
The equipment is actually theage of their grandfather.
And somewhere else in a securehangar, workers are polishing
gold plating onto the nose of ajet.
I think I say this a lot.
You know.
Say it again.
You know.
(45:55):
If I were to pitch this toHollywood, they'd reject it for
being too on the nose.
It's like Orwell's Animal Farmthe barn roof leaks, but the
pigs just ordered anotherchandelier.
Now let me get serious for amoment about why this is a
(46:15):
national security issue.
The Minuteman III was firstdeployed in 1970.
That's over half of a centuryago.
The engineers who built this.
They are retired and tellingstories to their grandchildren
(46:45):
or they are dead.
Every year the risk of criticalfailure grows.
This isn't about keeping up withthe Joneses.
This is about making sure themost dangerous weapons in the
world don't malfunction at theworst possible time.
Shaving a billion dollars offthat program is not just
(47:07):
irresponsible, it is dangerous.
But isn't this Trump's playbook?
Of course, this is a classicTrump.
Trump has always been aboutoptics, the gold trim the marble
, the bragging.
He was bragged about having apersonal Boeing 757 with 24-7
(47:38):
carrot seat buckles.
So, of course, when he waspresented with a gift from Qatar
, he saw an opportunity.
Let's make it the mostluxurious plane in history and
let's get the taxpayers to footthe bill.
And this isn't new.
This is nothing new.
The Shah of Iran had goldenbathrooms.
Idi Amin had fleets of RollsRoyces.
(48:01):
Muammar Gaddafi had a privatejet with a custom throne.
Trump's twist is that he's notplaying with oil money or looted
treasuries.
He is paying with this, withfunds meant to maintain
America's nuclear defense, whichmight be the most on-brand
(48:24):
America of 2025 thing that I canimagine, besides alligator
alcatraz in my home state ofFlorida.
Thankfully, some in Congressare trying to slam the brakes.
Elizabeth Warren, tammyDuckworth, ed Markey, adam
(48:47):
Schiff, jamie Raskin, johnGreenwood have sent letters
demanding explanations.
John Greenwood have sentletters demanding explanations.
They've given the Pentagonuntil August 20th to spill the
details.
Republicans have joined in aswell and are muttering concerns,
(49:07):
but most are keeping theirheads down because in the grand
old party of 2025, crossingTrump means you have to be
willing to retire, becausecrossing Trump at this moment is
career suicide.
(49:28):
But here is the bigger problem,and here's what really worries
me is that I'm actually notshocked anymore.
If this happened 20 years ago,it would dominate every front
page in the country for a month,but now it's so much of a blip.
(49:53):
I had to just be sitting inCalifornia reading a lot of
stuff while my friend James wasat work, and I just happened to
see it.
Did you hear about this at thecoffee shop?
(50:13):
Is anybody talking about thisat work?
Did you see this in yournewsfeed?
Did you see about this at thecoffee shop?
Is anybody talking about thisat work?
Did you see this in yournewsfeed?
Did you see this anywhere?
Maybe, but I doubt it.
We have normalized this type ofabsurdity.
We have turned governmentcorruption into background noise
.
The Golden Jet isn't just aboutPresident Trump.
(50:33):
The Golden Jet isn't just aboutPresident Trump.
It's about a political culturewhere personal indulgences
trumps national duty.
It's about a Pentagon that willquietly shuffle nearly a
billion dollars away frommissile safety and not expect
anyone to notice.
And guess what?
(51:03):
I didn't hear a lot of outrageabout it.
I'm online all the time.
I got political brain rot.
I didn't see it like theoutrage that it is.
Or is it just another Tuesdayin America?
Because if you can read thenuclear budget for Gold Trim and
still keep your job, what elsecan you get away with?
(51:30):
That's the question we shouldall be asking.
Thank you for tuning in.
I'm going to play a audio clipfrom our amazing segment that I
love to do blast from theinternational, the international
(51:55):
.
Blast from the intellectualpast.
Maybe I should find aninternational person to play for
our segment.
Blast from the intellectualpast.
Maybe I should find aninternational person to play for
our segment.
Blast for the intellectual past.
And after that I hope to seeyou on the next episode.
Thank you for tuning in.
As always, we have one planet,nobody is leaving, and let us
(52:15):
reason together.
Speaker 6 (52:26):
From this distant vantage point, the Earth might
not seem of any particularinterest, but for us it's
different.
Consider again that dot, that'shere, that's home, that's us On
(52:47):
it.
Everyone you love, everyone youknow, everyone.
You ever heard of every humanbeing who ever was, lived out
their lives, the aggregate ofour joy and suffering.
(53:08):
Thousands of confidentreligions, ideologies and
economic doctrines.
Every hunter and forager, everyhero and coward, every creator
and destroyer of civilization,every king and peasant, every
young couple in love, everymother and father, hopeful child
, inventor and explorer, everyteacher of morals, every corrupt
(53:32):
politician, every superstar,every supreme leader, every
saint and sinner in the historyof our species lived there on
the moat of dust suspended in asunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stagein a vast cosmic arena.
(54:06):
Think of the rivers of bloodspilled by all those generals
and emperors so that, in gloryand triumph, they can become the
momentary masters of a fractionof a dot.
Think of the endless crueltiesvisited by the inhabitants of
(54:27):
one corner of this pixel on thescarcely distinguishable
inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their
misunderstandings, how eagerthey are to kill one another.
In the next episode we'll seehow the by this point of pale
light, our planet is a lonelyspeck in the great, enveloping
(55:08):
cosmic dark, in our obscurity.
In all this vastness, there isno hint that help will come from
elsewhere to save us fromourselves.
The Earth is the only worldknown so far to harbor life.
There is nowhere else, at leastin the near future, to which
(55:32):
our species could migrate.
Visit, yes, settle.
Not yet, like it or not.
(55:57):
For the moment, the Earth iswhere we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomyis a humbling and
character-building experience.
There is perhaps no betterdemonstration of the folly of
human conceits than this distantimage of our tiny world.
(56:21):
To me, it underscores ourresponsibility to deal more
kindly with one another and topreserve and cherish the pale
blue dot, the only home we'veever known.
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