The Ben Shapiro Show - GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: VP JD Vance Stops By To Discuss

Oct. 1, 2025 - The Ben Shapiro Show

01:09:10

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN: VP JD Vance Stops By To Discuss

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	A government shutdown is on.
	President Trump and Pete Heggseth address the top brass at the U.S. military, and we discussed bad bunny at the Super Bowl.
	A lot coming up.
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	So yesterday, the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States spoke before hundreds of top military leaders.
	Now, this had been touted for a few days in advance.
	The idea that basically all the top brass in the U.S. military was going to gather in one place in Virginia at the Marine Corps base in Quantico.
	And there's a lot of speculation as to what this meeting was going to be about.
	Was it going to be a sort of announcement of forward facing in Ukraine or with regard to China?
	Was it going to be about Venezuela?
	Well, actually, as it turns out, it was going to be a speech from Pete Heggseth, the Secretary of War, and the President of the United States about sort of recalibrating our military approach, particularly internally.
	So Pete Heggseth has spoken about this a lot over the past few years.
	If you go back and you watch an episode of the Sunday special that I did with Pete Heggseth about a year ago, he had a new book out in which he was talking about wokeness in the military, lowered standards in the military.
	The fact that more militaries around the world were not fearing us as much because we had implemented all of these left-wing ideologies within the military.
	This has been a big bugaboos of Pete's for legitimately years.
	Well, now he has the opportunity to change all that because of course he sits atop the Department of Defense.
	The event, according to the Washington Post, was organized by Heggseth's team at the Pentagon.
	And again, it did summon generals and admirals from command posts throughout the world to Virginia.
	Washington General Dan Cain, Trump's hand selected chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told attendees in his opening comments the event was an unprecedented opportunity and honor for assembled senior officers and their top enlisted advisors to hear directly from the military's civilian leadership.
	So we begin with Secretary Heggseth's remarks.
	Heggseth was going again after wokeness in the military.
	And he railed against what he called fat dudes and men in dresses.
	So again, this is optically, I understand the left being very, very upset about it, but it happens to be something that the American people agree with, and so do the people who enlist in our military.
	I understand that editors around the nation are very, very upset about what Pete Heggseth did yesterday.
	They're very angry because they believe that the military should be a place for social engineering as opposed to a place for war fighters.
	Well, Secretary Heggseth was a grunt.
	He's a person who served in the trenches, who's on the front lines, and what that means is that he is significantly more in touch with the feelings of people who actually serve in the military than certainly the people in the journalistic world.
	And truthfully, then many of these sort of political generals who have spent the last 40 years rising in the ranks.
	And that means that him recalibrating along those lines is actually not a bad thing at all.
	Here was Secretary Heggseth yesterday.
	Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops.
	Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country in the world.
	It's a bad look.
	It is bad, and it's not who we are.
	So whether you're an airborne ranger or a chairborn ranger, a brand new private or a four-star general, you need to meet the heightened weight standards and pass your PT test.
	So this apparently was very upsetting to folks, and we'll get to the left-wing reaction in a minute.
	He also went after, as we say, what he called dudes in dresses, which was a specific reference to the fact that under the Biden administration, there were legitimately videos of troops doing drag as an attempt to drive people to the military.
	I can't think of anything that would drive the types of young men who want to join the military away from the military more than men in drag.
	Honestly, like that does not seem like a recruiting center for the U.S. military.
	And you can see it in the numbers.
	The Biden administration was having a very, very difficult time fulfilling its recruiting quotas.
	Pete Heggseth, from literally the minute he was announced as Secretary of Defense, started to get those numbers up.
	So Heggseth apparently said, quote, no more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, gender delusion.
	Okay, that that is that's I mean, it's on point.
	Here he was saying just that.
	This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics.
	No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses.
	No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions, no more debris.
	As I've said before, and will say again, we are done with that.
	And again, people are apparently angry at this.
	And there's a fair bit of gaslighting going on here.
	So the way that this works is that the left takes institutions and they skew those institutions.
	And then when somebody who is not of the left takes over the institution and says we're going to unskew it, the left says, How dare you politicize?
	How dare you do this?
	And they do this with so many institutions in American life.
	So take higher education.
	They will take higher education, which used to be a domain designed to actually create better American citizens, people who are in touch with their civilization.
	It took an institution that was supposed to be at least titularly nonpartisan and turned it highly partisan and of the left.
	And then people get in power who are not of the left, and they say, let's shift it back, let's shift it back towards center.
	And less is how dare you touch our hallowed institutions.
	How dare you attempt to change the underlying politics of that institution?
	The same thing in the military.
	There is an attempt by the left to hijack the military and use it for a wide variety of social engineering causes, ranging from climate change to DEI to gender identity.
	And now, when the right takes over and says, hey, we're not going to do any of that stuff.
	We're actually going to go back to status quo ante, where the military was about winning wars.
	How dare you?
	How dare you politicize?
	How dare you intervene?
	How dare you get involved in the politics?
	Understand that it's an exercise in gaslighting.
	The left is perfectly willing to gut these institutions and wear their faces around like a mask from silence of the lambs.
	But the minute that the right says, let's restore those institutions to what they were before, the left then claims politicization.
	It's nonsense.
	Hegseth specifically went after General Mark Milley.
	You remember Milley was the person who suggested that he had to examine his own white privilege among many other wonderful lines from the former general.
	Here was Heggseth saying we need more like Patton and fewer like Mark Milley.
	The new compass heading is clear.
	Out with the Sherelli's, the McKenzie's and the Millis, and in with the Stockdales, the Schwartzkoffs, and the Patents.
	More leadership changes will be made, of that I'm certain.
	Not because we want to, but because we must.
	Once again, this is life and death.
	The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies.
	personnel, his policy.
	Okay, so again, he's not wrong about any of this.
	Now, it happens to be true.
	When he says that he doesn't want fat generals or fat admirals walking around, we've had some overweight generals before who are pretty good generals.
	I mean, Norman Schwarzkopf, who was name checked there by Heggseth, was pretty famously a little bit on the tipping, the scales side of the weight spectrum.
	With that said, the general idea here is again not wrong.
	And Heggseth says, listen, we're not going to use softened standards.
	There's been an attempt to inject diversity into the military by lowering standards.
	It's one thing.
	If diversity is a byproduct of quality, it's another thing if we lower quality standards in order to ensure diversity.
	He says, we are going to ensure the highest male standards in the military.
	If you meet it, great.
	If you don't, tough.
	Today, at my direction, each service will ensure that every requirement for every combat MOS for every designated combat arms position returns to the highest male standard only.
	Because this job is life or death.
	Standards must be met.
	And not just met.
	At every level, we should seek to exceed the standard, to push the envelope, to compete.
	It's common sense and core to who we are and what we do, it should be in our DNA.
	Now, again, all of this does seem pretty commonsensical, and as Heggseth says, high standards shouldn't be controversial.
	They shouldn't be toxic.
	High standards should be the standard.
	Upholding and demanding high standards is not toxic.
	Enforcing high standards, not toxic leadership.
	Leading war fighters toward the goals of high, gender neutral and uncompromising standards in order to forge a cohesive, formidable, and lethal department of war is not toxic.
	It is our duty, consistent with our constitutional oath.
	Now, again, not wrong about that.
	And Heggseth makes the point that none of this should be political.
	Really, I mean, what's more political?
	Saying that we ought to appoint generals by race and gender, or that we should not appoint generals by race and gender.
	Obviously, the second is significantly less political than the first.
	The media, of course, treat that as the reverse.
	Here's Hegseth saying, listen, we need strong apolitical leadership in the military.
	If I've learned one core lesson in my eight months in this job, it's that personnel is policy.
	Personnel is policy.
	The best way to take care of troops is to give them good leaders committed to the war fighting culture of the department.
	Not perfect leaders, good leaders, competent, qualified, professional, agile, aggressive, innovative, risk-taking, apolitical, faithful to their oath and to the Constitution.
	Now, again, the reality is that the recruitment numbers have been up under Heggseth.
	They're rising under the latter days of Joe Biden, and then they really skyrocketed under Heggseth specifically because of all of this stuff.
	Already coming up, the left is very upset about Pete Heggseth's comments.
	Very, very upset.
	Plus, we'll get to the government shutdown and all the latest breaking news on it.
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	Now, for some reason, again, members of the sort of journalistic contingent, and I use that term loosely because we're talking about the ladies of the view, are very upset about this.
	And I definitely want to hear military advice from the ladies of the view.
	I cannot think of a better chiefs of staff meeting than the ladies of the view.
	Here they were, Confused as to why Pete Hexeth would want physical fitness in the military.
	After all, why don't we want the morbidly obese across our military?
	It also didn't make a lot of sense to me that he was saying that he was going to toughen physical standards and re and review the anti-hazing policy by sort of implementing a hazing policy.
	And then also he said he was going to um return to the highest male standard for combat positions because the troops were fat.
	I just, I don't understand how that was supposed to be an uplifting message for our military.
	He was referring to Colonel Sanders.
	It was really a bizarre thing.
	I'm confused as to why that's bizarre.
	Why is any of that bizarre?
	I mean, is the idea supposed to be, again, that we don't try to meet standards?
	Is the idea that the military is supposed to just be a place that makes the ladies of the view feel comfortable?
	The military is designed to go break things and do bad things in the night that need to be done to keep all of us safe so the ladies of the view can sit there and cater wall about the latest Mel Gibson movie.
	That is what the US military is designed to do.
	And that requires civilian leadership that is deserving.
	A civilian leadership that actually understands why the military is there.
	Molly Johnfast, again, it is it is hilarious to me that the left keeps trotting out some of the worst people that they can possibly trot out optically to criticize policies like this.
	Molly Jongfast, she of the multicolored hair, also slammed Hag Seth and President Trump.
	I think we're gonna see pushback to this.
	I I think a lot about the Vietnam War, which was sort of a moment in in, you know, the the an end of discrimination.
	You know, there was much the white the army really focused on making on anti-discrimination, and they ended up really helping the army in a lot of different ways because people were a lot, you know, it was just a much more egalitarian force, and it ended up being really great for the military.
	I mean, woke doesn't come from recent, it comes from experience in the military.
	So I do think this is kind of bizarre.
	And if you think about like um, you know, Winston Churchill, the idea that people have to be thin in order to run the military seems kind of wild.
	Uh Winston Churchill was the civilian leader of the British military during World War II.
	Bernard Montgomery was not famous for being a giant hubbo.
	These people should make our military policy.
	I'm gonna listen to Molly Jongfast about military policy when her best example is restructuring of the military during the Vietnam War, which was a disaster for the United States, by the way.
	Like great great job there, Molly.
	It really strong stuff.
	President Trump also spoke at this sort of convention of generals.
	And there he said that we're gonna start using the military to crack down on what he called enemies within.
	Here was President Trump telling the troops he has their back.
	This is a big thing, by the way.
	It really is.
	You would hear this from democratic politicians who say, we'll have your back, but then they would put in place rules of engagement that literally made it impossible for members of the military to do their job.
	There's been a major issue as long as I have been alive and longer.
	The rules of engagement put in place by political generals and politicians who don't actually seem to make a first priority out of protecting American troops.
	Our troops need to be engaged in war in ways that allow them to both achieve their mission and protect themselves, and putting them in no win positions where they believe that if they do their job, they're suddenly gonna be court-martialed based on political considerations.
	That is a disaster area.
	And it leads, by the way, to worse military outcomes.
	Not only that, in the end, it actually leads to more civilian casualties because what you end up doing in order to avoid domestic casualties, like American military casualties is fly 30,000 foot sorties like the Clinton administration was famous for doing.
	If you use air power, you don't have to worry about your soldiers getting killed.
	You just end up killing more civilians.
	And that's the outcome of very, very tight rules of engagement is the temptation to use air power as opposed to using power on the ground.
	And war is a messy business.
	And you do need leadership that will back up the men and women of the armed forces.
	Here's the president of the United States yesterday.
	In this effort, we're a team, and so my message to you is very simple.
	I am with you, I support you.
	And as President, I have your backs 100%.
	you'll never see me even waver a little bit.
	That's the way it is.
	And that includes our great police officers and firemen and all of these people that are doing so well.
	Together over the next few years, we're going to make our military stronger, tougher, faster, fiercer, and more powerful than it has ever been before.
	The president went on to say that the goal here is to protect the republic.
	That is the point of military power.
	It's not just about flexing, it's about protecting American interests.
	We're bringing back a focus on fitness, ability, character, and strength.
	And as because the purposes of America military is not to protect anyone's feelings.
	It's to protect our republic.
	And it's the republic that we dearly love.
	It's to protect our country.
	We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom.
	And we will be a fighting and winning machine.
	We want to fight.
	We want to win.
	And we want to fight as little as possible.
	You have to count on people like me to keep you out of wars because we don't want to go into wars.
	President Trump then said the goal here is to reawaken the warrior spirit and move away from a spirit of political correctness.
	Together we're reawakening the warrior spirit, and this is a spirit that won and built this nation.
	And from the cavalry that tamed the Great Plains to the ferocious, unyielding power of Patton Bradley and the great General Douglas MacArthur, these are all great men.
	Okay, the president also discussed what he called the enemy within.
	And there he was talking about criminality.
	He essentially said, Listen, if we have to use the military to quell criminality and enforce federal law, then that is precisely what we will do.
	He actually said there's a pretty good training ground for America's military forces.
	Now, of course, this scares the hell out of people who are on the left predominantly because they believe that this means a fascist takeover of the United States.
	That is not what he is talking about.
	And the president uses colorful language, he exaggerates, he uses superlatives, it's a thing that he does.
	But if you truly believe the president is about to launch like an armed takeover of all auspices of the United States, that is that is silly.
	The goal here, in terms of building up the military, is to be so strong that nobody challenges us.
	This is the thing.
	People who characterize President Trump as an isolationist completely miss his entire foreign policy.
	He is not an isolationist.
	He is a foreign policy realist who is hesitant to use American force except when it is in America's interest, and he wants limited use of America's force, even when it is in America's interest.
	And the goal is to actually use the power of intimidation to get things done, which means credible threat of use of force.
	That is the nature of foreign policy.
	Here's the president saying we have to be strong enough that nobody actually challenges us in the first place.
	But as leaders, our commitment to every patriot who put on the uniform is to ensure that American military remains the most lethal and dominant on the planet, not merely for a few years, but for the decades and generations to come for centuries.
	We must be so strong that no nation will dare challenge us, so powerful that no enemy will dare threaten us, and so capable that no adversary can even think about beating us.
	Now, again, all of that is true.
	And listen, no Trump speech would be complete without him making fun of Joe Biden's inability to walk downstairs.
	The man's he came in a one of one package.
	There are no more like President Trump.
	Here we go.
	America is respected again as a country.
	We were not respected with Biden.
	They looked at him falling downstairs every day.
	Every day the guy's falling downstairs.
	He said, "It's not our president.
	"We can't have it." I'm very careful, you know, when I walk downstairs, like I'm on stairs, like these stairs, I walk very slowly.
	Nobody has to set a record.
	Just try not to fall.
	Okay.
	Okay, well, as we say, this is all geared toward a military strategy that is supposed to intimidate our enemies.
	That does mean, in terms of actual foreign policy, that we have to be on a forward footing vis-a-vis our enemies.
	And this brings up the question of the so-called national defense strategy.
	So the Washington Post has a piece about the Department of Defense and a recalibration of our national defense strategy that is drawing critiques from some of our best officers, including General Dan Cain, raising Kane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
	According to the Washington Post, the debate over the national defense strategy, the Pentagon's primary guide for how it prioritizes resources and positions U.S. forces around the world is the latest challenge for top military officials navigating the Trump administration's unorthodox approach to the armed forces.
	Apparently, there's a lot of concern about the national defense strategy.
	It's still in development.
	Apparently, Trump political appointees within the Pentagon's policy office drafted the strategy, which is now his final edits.
	The assumption here is that it's people like Elbridge Colby, one of the undersecretaries of defense, who is making this play.
	He, of course, is very much on the isolationist side.
	His original sort of pitch was that he wanted to swivel America's force concentration from Europe and the Middle East over toward China to try and stand China down with regard to Taiwan and the South China Sea.
	That seems not to be particularly true.
	Elbridge Colby seems significantly more likely to stand America's forces down pretty much everywhere, because it doesn't seem as though he has a plan for the South China Sea or Taiwan, so far as I'm aware at this point, I would be happy to be reinformed of this.
	Apparently, Raisin Kane shared his concerns with top Pentagon leadership in recent weeks.
	And again, Colby was apparently included in the discussion.
	Apparently, Kane tried to get the NDS to remain focused on preparing the military to determine if necessary defeat China in a conflict, but the national defense strategy thus far seems to be less about forward deployment or about building up the military for the potential of standing down America's enemies, and it seems significantly more about domestic concerns.
	According to the Post, the document's tone is far more partisan than past strategies.
	And the defense strategy itself is apparently not focused on global competition with China.
	So, yeah, again, we will have to keep an eye on that because the purpose, of course, of a lethal military is to stand down America's enemies.
	I'm not sure what else the purpose would be.
	Alrighty, coming up, the government shutdown has now kicked into effect.
	Plus, Hillary Clinton says we've had enough of these white Christian males.
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	Joining us on the line right now is the Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance.
	Mr. Vice President, thanks so much for taking the time.
	Really appreciate it.
	Of course, likewise.
	Thank you, Ben.
	So let's start with the news of the day.
	Obviously, the government shutdown is on.
	Democrats have decided that they would rather that a bunch of workers get furloughed and or fired than something.
	It seems unclear exactly what they want at this point.
	Can you clarify what exactly they are asking for in order to avert a government shutdown?
	Yeah, so it's a great question because their demands have changed a little bit.
	If you go back even a couple of months ago, the Democrats were basically saying we have to shut down the government because Donald Trump is a fascist.
	And to allow him to have an open government would be to be complicit in whatever bad things Donald Trump is doing.
	So that was obviously childish and ridiculous.
	They updated their demands a couple of weeks ago, and they actually sort of put forward this $1.5 trillion spending plan for three months of the government being open, and hundreds of billions of dollars of that was literally we want to give taxpayer-funded health care benefits to illegal aliens.
	Now that's of course preposterous.
	And so now, even though last night they still support the taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens, they've now added a third demand on top of that, which is that they want us to work on the premium support for Obamacare, which doesn't even run out until next year.
	So the basic argument, as far as I can do, you're asking me to sort of get into the heads of Democrats, which is always a dangerous thing to do.
	The best way I can present this argument from Senate Democrats, Ben, is that for a program that doesn't expire until next year, they want to shut the government down now and, And if we don't give them everything they want from taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens to everything else on the health care front, they're going to keep the government shut down.
	I don't think that's a tenable situation.
	I think you saw some moderate Democrats crack even last night.
	And just on that, this is actually a very important point because if if you go back to yesterday afternoon in the Oval Office, I was talking with the president and some of our legislative team.
	He said, How many votes do you think we'll get?
	I said, Well, we'll get nearly every Republican to keep the government open, but we'll probably get one Democrat to keep the government open too.
	We actually got three.
	And so you already see, I think the Democrats cracking a little bit because they realize it's such a preposterous position to say we're going to shut down TSA, we're going to not pay our troops because you guys won't give us benefits for illegal aliens.
	It's crazy, and I don't think it's a it's a tenable political situation for them to be in.
	So, Mr. Vice President, one of the things legs media have been picking on you for specifically, but the administration in general is the claim that you're making that they want taxpayer benefits for illegal immigrants.
	They suggest, of course, that it's against the law for federal taxpayer dollars to go to illegal immigrants.
	But the truth is something different.
	They are trying to revise the terms of the one big beautiful bill.
	Specifically the terms that have to do with restricting the amount of state aid that can be reimbursed by the federal government that goes to illegal immigrants.
	Is that correct?
	Yeah, that's exactly right.
	So there's always a sleight of hand.
	The Democrats play tricks with words here, but there are two very specific ways.
	And you can look at the legislative text, uh, two specific ways in which the Democrats are asking us to give taxpayer-funded health care benefits for illegal aliens.
	The first of which is, you know, if you're an American citizen and you've been to a hospital in the last four or five years, you probably notice wait times are especially long.
	And there's a very good chance that there's a person who's ahead of you in line who is an illegal alien.
	The reason that is is because under the Biden administration, we would pay all of the hospital benefits for illegal aliens if they went to an American hospital.
	Now that's bad for American citizens who want to use those services.
	It's also bad for American taxpayers who don't want to pay for illegal aliens to use those services.
	So that we turned that program off in President Trump's one big beautiful bill.
	The Democrats want to turn it back on, and that would cost, again, hundreds of billions of dollars.
	There's a second way they want to pay for health care benefits for illegal aliens.
	And to get into the weeds a little bit, if you remember the Biden administration did mass parole.
	So they took millions of illegal aliens, they would wave the magic wand of amnesty and say, no, no, no, these are no longer illegal aliens.
	They are now parolees because we're not going to deport them.
	And then they would give those parolees uh health care benefits funded by taxpayers.
	We turned that off as well, and Democrats want to turn it back on.
	So it's it's just a matter of fact.
	As much as they try to change the words that they use and hide from the reality of the policy, it's a matter of fact that there are two programs that total hundreds of billions of dollars taxpayer-funded health care benefits for illegal aliens.
	The Trump administration turned it off.
	Democrats want to turn it back on.
	And not just, it's not just that we have a policy disagreement here, as crazy as That one is, it's not just they want to turn those benefits for illegal aliens back on.
	It's that they're willing to say that our troops aren't going to get paid until Donald Trump relents and turns those benefits for illegal aliens back on.
	It's preposterous.
	It's bad policy, but we also are not going to negotiate with hostages here, which is why the government is shut down right now, because the Democrats have taken it hostage.
	And if they want to turn it back on, there is a clean, easy piece of legislation that nearly every Republican supports.
	They should just vote for it, turn the government back on, and then we can have the debate about health care policy that they seem to want to have.
	So, Mr. Vice President, can you tell us a little bit about the sort of threat that's been issued by the administration that some of the people who are being furloughed may just not come back?
	Obviously, the administration has been very practical in its use of executive power in order to cut the size and scope of government.
	That's what doge originally was about.
	The president has, of course, gone into every area of the federal government looking for places to cut waste fraud and abuse.
	And the president himself has said that this may be an opportunity to do more of that, even though Democrats are the ones initiating the shutdown.
	Can you give us some details as to what that means?
	Yeah, of course, you know, Ben, we'd love to cut the size of government more.
	We'd actually love to cut the amount of money that the um the government's spending even more, but we're not gonna shut down the government to get our policy priorities.
	That's basically all what we're asking the Democrats to do is look, let's have that policy disagreement.
	Let's not shut the government down over it.
	Uh but to answer your specific question, I mean, what what's basically happened here is that the the Democrats are saying we're gonna shut the government down.
	And we're saying, well, look, if you're gonna shut the government down, we have to ensure that as many essential services as possible still function.
	I mean, there are obviously a a lot of things that you and I would say the government shouldn't be doing at all, but there are critical things like the TSA, like air traffic control, like our military getting paid.
	And if we have to furlough workers or we have to do a lot of other things in order to ensure those essential services, as many of them as possible remain turned on for the American people, that's what we're gonna do.
	And so the Democrats are saying, well, Donald Trump wants to fire hundreds of thousands of people.
	No, no, we want to make sure the government, as much as possible, still functions.
	And if we have to cut some fat in order to ensure that's possible, well, the Democrats shouldn't have shut down the government and put us in this position to begin with.
	As we've discussed, Mr. Vice President, it's pretty obvious that the Democrats have shifted their rationale for a government shutdown for for months here.
	They're looking for an excuse.
	It seems that they are enthralled to a far-left base that seems to want conflict no matter what.
	And as you've mentioned, there are three senators, all of them are in swing states who are Democrats who have decided they didn't want to go along with that.
	Are you seeing any more wiggle room from Democrat leadership even this far, as far as trying to get off of this particular issue?
	Because it's not a political winner for them.
	The poll the polls are showing 60% disapproval for this government shutdown.
	Yeah, so I think there are about two dozen Senate Democrats who don't want to shut down the government and privately admit that their negotiating position is ridiculous.
	Effectively, give us everything that you want, or we're gonna shut down the government.
	Uh, they recognize that's a ridiculous position.
	So the Democrats are starting to show some signs of folding a little bit.
	I don't know how long they hold out.
	I don't think it's gonna be much more than a couple of weeks at most.
	But look, we're gonna keep on working with everybody, right?
	We want to open up the government.
	We want to actually solve some of these issues.
	So we're gonna keep on working with them.
	But I I don't think that they have a ton of fight in them, Ben, because their negotiating position is so ridiculous.
	I mean there, there are there are uh different ways you can answer the question of why is the government shut down.
	I mean, as you and I talk, the government is shut down.
	Why is that?
	Well, one answer is because Senate Democrats are trying to take the American economy hostage.
	A much more practical political answer to the question is because Chuck Schumer doesn't want a primary challenge from AOC.
	So what's happening is that the far left faction of one body of Congress is actually holding the entire government hostage because Chuck Schumer is terrified that if he does the right thing, if he does what 80% of the American people want him to do, then AOC is gonna have a successful primary challenge.
	That's no way to run a government.
	Chuck Schumer should deal with his own political problems in his own way, but he shouldn't take the American economy hostage to do it.
	Mr. Vice President, it definitely is a rarity to watch a government shutdown in which the party shutting down the government is shutting it down because they want to spend a lot more money.
	And typically when we've seen government shutdowns over the course of the last decade, it's been Republicans who are pushing for less spending and saying that they want to sort of revise the bargains that we are going not as far into debt.
	Democrats here are saying they want to basically overrule whatever spending cuts happened in the one Big beautiful bill because they lost that particular legislative fight.
	And now they're trying to reverse that by shutting down the government to get more spending, which is definitely a unique take on the situation.
	It's a very unique take on the situation, Ben, and it's a preposterous number if you look at what they're asking.
	I mean, this is what's called a continuing resolution.
	It just continues spending at the level that it currently exists today, which again, Ben, I would like it to be lower, but we're not going to take the American economy hostage over these disagreements.
	So we're trying to keep the government open basically for about three months.
	That's it.
	And in order to keep the government open for three months, the Democrats are saying give us literally 1.5 trillion dollars of new spending.
	That is the price.
	So they've taken their hostage, and their price is 1.5 trillion dollars of new spending, again, like we talked about, a lot of which goes to health care benefits for illegal aliens.
	So it's bad policy.
	It's actually bad fiscal management.
	Republicans want to cut the size, cut the amount of money that the government is wasting.
	Democrats want to increase it and they're willing to shut down the government for their very ridiculous demands.
	That's why it's such a losing position politically.
	Well, Mr. Vice President, I know you've got a very busy day.
	Hopefully that will involve negotiations with more reasonable Democrats.
	Thank you so much for taking the time.
	Really appreciate it.
	Thanks, Ben.
	Take care.
	Well, there's a constant suggestion that during a government shutdown, everybody gets fired.
	The entire government shuts down, everyone dies, just like during net neutrality.
	So I asked our friends and sponsors over at Commit a project of perplexity.
	What percentage of the federal workforce continues to work during a government shutdown?
	And the answer is during the government shutdown, about 60 to 75% of the entire federal workforce continues to work, either because they are considered essential, or they're funded through sources not affected by annual appropriations.
	Recent estimates from the Trump administration indicate less than a quarter of federal employees would be furloughed, meaning about 77% would continue to work using newer contingency plans for the 2025 shutdown.
	Essential personnel like law enforcement, military air traffic controllers, and those funded by mandatory spending like social security continue to work without pay until appropriations resume.
	And departments like veteran affairs and treasury furlough less than 5% of their employees keeping pretty much everybody working.
	So I mean, it kind of feels like, you know, a government shutdown is mostly the stuff you need and kind of gets rid of a lot of the stuff you don't.
	Now, apparently the Trump administration is continuing along the lines of saying, listen, if there if there is a shutdown, then I guess we'll we'll fire people.
	Here's what President Trump had to say about that.
	He says a shutdown means, not like what Democrats thought it meant when there was a shutdown where they were shutting down services in order to harm the American people and make it uncomfortable.
	Trump's basically like, you know what?
	You want to shut down the government and furlough the government?
	Some of those people ain't coming back.
	You all know Russell vote, he's become very popular recently because he can trim the budget to a level that you couldn't do any other way.
	So they're taking a risk by having a shutdown because because of the shutdown, we can do things medically and other ways, including benefits.
	We can cut large numbers of people out.
	We don't want to do that, but we don't want fraud, waste, and abuse.
	Okay, so the president then went on to describe his take on why the Democrats are shutting down the government.
	This is this is sort of the big question here.
	Because by the polling data, this is a terrible move for Democrats, truly.
	There's a brand new poll out of Ugov, I believe, that suggested that 60% of Americans think it's a bad idea for Democrats to shut down the government.
	President Trump says the goal here for Democrats is to continue subsidies for illegal immigrants among others.
	We could come up and through this whole thing, you know, because I don't know, we'll probably have a shutdown because what one of the things they want to do is they want to give uh incredible Medicare Cadillac, the Cadillac Medicare to illegal immigrants.
	Now, what that does is it keeps them coming into our country, and like they do in California.
	And no country can afford that.
	No country.
	So what is the actual issue here?
	Democrats say it's about additional ACA subsidies.
	That'd be the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare subsidies.
	So what exactly are the subsidies?
	Well, back in 2021, the Biden administration decided to subsidize everybody who's making up to 400% of the federal poverty level.
	400%.
	Just cut them a government check.
	Not 100% of the power, 400% of the poverty level, which definitionally means not poverty Level.
	According to the Wall Street Journal, premium tax credits are a form of government subsidy that caps the maximum percentage of household income in individual pays toward their ACA health coverage.
	In 2021, the Biden administration expanded eligibility for the tax credits and increased subsidy amounts.
	The enhanced provisions eliminated the prior income cap for eligibility, which was 400% of the federal poverty level, and lowered the maximum percentage of income enrollees can be required to pay out of pocket.
	And again, maybe a million point two, something like that people would presumably fall off the ACA rolls because of something like this.
	What about the claim that some of this money is going to go to fund unauthorized immigration?
	Well, there were tax law provisions that Democrats are trying to reverse, including provisions that limited federal funding for immigrant health care.
	Democrats are seeking more than a trillion dollars altogether in health care funds, including for ACA subsidies and Medicaid over the next 10 years.
	So basically, Democrats are trying to put back in place all the subsidies that got cut in the tax bill that President Trump and Republicans passed just a couple of months ago.
	So, how about the claim that it's illegal immigrants who are going to benefit from all of this?
	Well, Obamacare legally is not supposed to cover illegal immigrants.
	However, there was eligibility prior to that tax law for lawfully present immigrants, which includes refugees, asylum seekers, and some visa holders that includes so-called dreamers who are here, in fact, illegally.
	People who came to the country as children or as minors, and really never had a legal rationale for being here and have been given a temporary stay that has now lasted since the Obama administration.
	Apparently, according to the Wall Street Journal editorial board, the case needs to be made as to why this is all a bad idea to restore all of this.
	As the editorial board says, Democrats are warning of higher premiums if the GOP does not extend turbocharged Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of the year.
	Speaker Johnson is right, the subsidies are bad policy.
	The supercharged subsidies first passed in 2021 for a COVID-19 emergency.
	Democrats had a 2025 expiration date to make the inflation reduction act look less expensive over that 10-year budget window, expecting the Congress would then sign up again for more of these subsidies.
	Republicans did not vote to extend those subsidies.
	So what would the effect be?
	Someone at 100% of the poverty line would, on average, pay three bucks and forty-five cents a week in premiums for the cheapest middle tier plan.
	Taxpayers would still put 98% of the premium.
	The cost would run $52 a week for a person at 250% of the poverty line.
	Taxpayers would still pick up two-thirds of the premium.
	Extending those subsidies will cost 450 billion dollars over a decade.
	So might you see some Republicans cave?
	It's possible here.
	But again, this is this is not a great hill for Democrats to die on.
	Democrats continuing to claim that millions will die, which is their usual millions will fall off the health care rolls and then die because they're not willing to pay three bucks and forty-five cents a week.
	Or because they're not willing to pay 52 bucks a week if they're making 250% of the poverty level.
	I just don't think that that's gonna hunt.
	Which is why Democrats actually had a tough time shutting down a late breaking attempt last night from Republicans to move forward a continuing resolution.
	Multiple Democrats dropped off the bandwagon, including John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, most of the Purple State Democrats actually dropped off the bandwagon here.
	And so it seems likely that by the end of the week, the shutdown, if not over, will be in its death rows.
	That we'll already be at the end of the shutdown.
	Because again, Democrats really don't have a lot to stand on here, and much of this is simply about virtue signaling to their extremely left-wing base.
	Meanwhile, President Trump, he can't stop the trolling.
	So just a couple of days ago, the president put out an AI video of Chuck Schumer talking about the government shutdown.
	And of course it's an AI video.
	So, you know, Schumer didn't actually say this, but it's Schumer talking about how he wants to make sure that illegal immigrants are subsidized in terms of health care.
	Look, guys, there's no way to sugarcoat it.
	Nobody likes Democrats anymore.
	We have no voters left because of all of our woke trans bullshit.
	Not even black people want to vote for us anymore.
	Even Latinos hate us.
	So we need new voters.
	And if we give all these illegal aliens free health care, we might be able to get them on our side so they can vote for us.
	They can't even speak English.
	So they won't realize We're just a bunch of woke pieces of shit, you know, at least for a while until they they learn English and they realize they hate us too.
	Well, Democrats then got very upset at President Trump because how dare he use the this sort of racist imagery.
	In the video, of course, you can see Schumer arguing for illegal immigrants to get free health care, and mariachi music is playing in the background.
	And then Schumer in AI says that there's no way to sugarcoat it, nobody likes Democrats anymore.
	And it has Schumer standing next to Hakeem Jeffries, and Hakeem Jeffries in that AI video has a handlebar mustache and is wearing a sombrero.
	This prompted Hakeem Jeffries to say that bigotry will get you nowhere.
	Cancel the cuts, lower the cost, save health care.
	We are not backing down.
	And then Schumer put up a post on X quote.
	If you think your shutdown is a joke, it just proves what we all know.
	You can't negotiate.
	You can only throw tantrums.
	Guys, you're throwing a tantrum over a dumb AI video of Hakeem Jeffries with a handlebar mustache and a sombrero.
	I gotta tell you, it ain't working.
	Well, President Trump never won to stop the trolling, President Trump.
	He then put out a video that was actually a real video of Hakeem Jeffries talking about the shutdown with Lawrence O'Donnell and Virtue signaling about how you can't make jokes about this, except this time the AI cuts in, and Hakeem Jeffries gets his mustache and his sombrero back, as well as an entire mariachi band of President Trump playing the guitar.
	It's a disgusting video, and we're going to continue to make clear.
	Bigotry will get you nowhere.
	We are fighting to protect the health care of the American people in the face of an unprecedented Republican assault.
	We live in both the dumbest and the funniest timeline.
	I gotta say, this is this is our this is our the this is all of our life now.
	This is the business we have chosen, my friends.
	Coming up, the left keeps just kind of running into a buzzsaw.
	It's kind of amazing.
	Hillary Clinton is out there saying that white Christian men need to be stopped.
	Zor Mamdani is out there claiming to be a hero of the Republic.
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	Now you may be wondering if amidst all this chaos, Democrats have a hope in hell of winning back Congress or the presidency.
	And the answer is that if they weren't insane, then maybe they might have a shot.
	The problem is they're crazy.
	So all the things that Americans hate, like for example, DEI, which is an 80-20 issue.
	Americans want meritocracy.
	They do not want special privileges for people based on race.
	Or say gender identity ideology, radical gender notions that men can be women and women can be men.
	Another 80-20 issue.
	Or Democrats insist on taking the 20% side.
	Or open borders, which is almost a 100% issue in America.
	Nobody wants open borders except for an elite coterie of Democrats, they will not let go of that stuff.
	And they simply believe that if they keep saying the same stuff over and over, but somehow more passionately, that's going to win over Americans.
	Well, good luck to them.
	Hillary Clinton, it is amazing.
	Every so often it appears that maybe Democrats will begin to gain some momentum.
	And then Hillary Clinton emerges from the woodwork and proceeds to do a dive from the top rope onto Democratic hopes.
	So she was on MSNBC the other day, and she dropped the idea that white Christian males are the problem.
	Slow clap for Hillary Clinton.
	Really, I mean, genius level stuff from Hillary.
	Yes, what you need to do, Democrats, is you need to keep insulting white Christian males.
	That is going to go so well for you electorally.
	The idea that you could turn the clock back and try to re-cate a world that never was dominated by, you know, let's say it, white men uh of a certain persuasion, uh, certain religion, uh a certain point of view, a certain ideology.
	It's just doing such damage to what we should be aiming for.
	Um, so what she's talking about there, people of a certain race and a certain white Christian men.
	Right?
	The idea that you can turn back the clock to a time when white Christian men ran the country.
	And now again, there may be a coterie of people who believe that that is the thing that matters most.
	That is not the vast majority of Americans.
	And and characterizing all of her opposition is people who effectively are people who only believe that white Christian males should run the country.
	Is it's truly insulting and silly.
	It is just a riff on her deplorables comment that Republicans, writ large, are people who are deplorable and awful and racist and evil.
	It's a throwback to Barack Obama's bitter clingers comment that the people who were voting against him were simply white people living in Appalachia who are xenophobic, who are racist, who are clinging to God and guns.
	If Democrats keep doing I I don't know why they keep playing this hit song over and over, because all it does is ensure they they never get elected.
	But I guess their solution is they're gonna keep doubling down forever and ever and ever, tripling, quadrupling down on the multiracial socialist coalition they think Barack Obama forged in 2012.
	And I've said it before, 2012 was the seminal moment in American politics in my lifetime.
	The election everybody's forgotten about is the one that changed America the most.
	Why?
	Because in 2012, Barack Obama, who campaigned as a unifier in 2008, decided he was no longer going to be a unifier.
	America had turned on him because of Obamacare, and that must be because America was racist.
	And so he decided to cobble together a majority-minority coalition with a bunch of white college-educated liberal women, and that was going to be the coalition for Democrats going forward, ignoring white men, ignoring blue-collar people, focusing in on that coalition of the willing for Democrats.
	And Democrats keep doing this, except further to the left.
	This is why they keep promoting Zoramdani.
	Zor Mandani in a national election does not do well.
	He does not.
	He might be able to sneak through in all Democrat New York with 47% of the vote or something.
	But the notion that that makes him a national candidate or the guiding light of a new generation for Democrats, pretty crazy stuff.
	That doesn't mean you couldn't get an AOC type as president.
	You certainly could if the economy tanks.
	But it require external circumstances changing massively for that to happen.
	At heart, the American people are not up for this.
	But Democrats keep pushing it nonetheless.
	Zorin Mamzani, again, he's a great example of how Democrats have crappy plans, but lots of passion.
	Here is Zorn Mamdani yesterday doing his smiling through the evil routine.
	We will fight for every single dollar that the city currently receives from the federal government.
	And I look for examples across this country that showcase the best way to respond to Donald Trump's strengths is not collaboration, is his threats rather.
	It's responding with strength.
	And what we see in California is an attorney general of the state has estimated that for every dollar they Spent on lawsuits against the federal government's threats to withhold funding.
	They won more than 30,000 in what would otherwise have been lost.
	And so we will take that same approach.
	Wow.
	Wow, the resistance.
	He is such a resister.
	Amazing, amazing stuff.
	Well, basically, all he is is more intelligent Brandon Johnson in Chicago.
	He'll have a moment of popularity in New York, and then he will absolutely tank the way the Brandon Johnson did.
	Brandon Johnson continues to claim that federal troops in Chicago protecting ICE officers, for example, and lowering crime rates is a bad thing that is fomenting chaos.
	I swear, I do not understand how Democrats believe this is a winning combination here.
	There's no way that anyone in this country should be okay with armed militarized troops being sent to cities.
	These individuals, these brave women and men who sign up to serve and protect this country, they do not do it with being deployed against American citizens and residents in mine.
	This is not only appalling, uh, but this is quite frankly an egregious attempt to undermine um the sanctity of our democracy.
	What we are seeing from this president is an absolute um rejection of our constitution.
	Uh there is no one in the city of Chicago or cities across America that are calling for the militarized occupation of our cities.
	This is not about safety.
	This is not about immigration.
	This is about fomenting chaos and terrorizing the people of Chicago and cities across America.
	Okay, I'm not sure how many Chicagoans believe that more law enforcement means fomenting chaos and terrorizing neighborhoods.
	It seems to me that crime foments chaos and terrorizes neighborhoods, but Democrats gotta keep doubling down.
	They gotta keep doubling down.
	And the extreme language continues a pace.
	Ilhan Omar continues to go after Charlie Kirk.
	She says that his legacy was bigotry and hatred.
	This, of course, is following commentary from Tanahassi Coates saying the same thing.
	And Ilhan Omar literally wrote a letter to a judge some years ago trying to find mercy for people trying to join ISIS.
	But somehow the legacy of Charlie Kirk is bigotry and hatred from the most hateful person in Congress, Ilhan Omar.
	I have nothing to apologize for.
	Um, you know, it is it is a tragedy that Charlie Kirk was killed in that way.
	Um I feel for his widow and his children.
	They will have to live with that for the rest of their lives.
	But there is no legacy to honor.
	It was a legacy filled with bigotry, hatred, and white supremacy.
	And as a black woman and as a Muslim in this country, I refuse for uh I refuse to join the chorus that changes the history of what is on the record from this man.
	Wow.
	Well, I mean, she the queen of verbal grind is uh she she's going strong here.
	She also, by the way, blames President Trump for a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility, which was perpetrated by a person who hated ICE, literally wrote anti-ICE on the bullet casing.
	You don't think Republicans are responsible for the fact that detainees were killed?
	The fact that they dehumanize immigrants all the time.
	You don't think that rhetoric is responsible?
	Man, oh man.
	Okay, keep going with this Democrats, really.
	I'm enjoying it.
	Randy Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, she too is on the radical bandwagon.
	They just keep trotting out their worst side.
	It's it's a political strategy.
	I'm not sure if it's a winning political strategy, but it certainly is a strategy.
	She says that she is now wearing a paper clip publicly.
	Why?
	Because apparently some teachers during the Nazi occupation of Europe wore paper clips or something.
	So now she's wearing a paper clip.
	Oh boy.
	There is a reason why in Norway, when the Nazis took over Norway, that's why I'm wearing this paper clip.
	I wear two things now.
	The American flag, nobody can take patriotism away from me, and a paper clip.
	What did the teachers in Norway do when there was the when there was the Nazi occupation?
	They started wearing paperclips.
	Really?
	This is okay.
	All right.
	Well, you know, the stupidity on the left never ends, so I hope that they're enjoying defeat because they're gonna get more of it through this particular angle.
	Well, speaking of stupidity, the media are trotting out a judgment from a federal judge named William Young from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
	It's a 161-page opinion, ripping on President Trump for using the power of the executive branch to crack down on immigrants who have a green card to the United States who are engaging in anti American pro-terrorist activities.
	And And this is an insane opinion.
	It's truly insane.
	Like this person is a screw loose, this federal judge.
	I'll explain in a moment.
	But the opinion is all about the detention and deportation of students who are attending college in the United States on student visas and the fact that the State Department has basically said listen, if you're coming here and you support terrorist groups, we don't want you here and you can leave.
	And that if you're coming here at the behest of the United States to enrich our country, and in fact, you make our country poorer and dumber and more pro-terrorism, you're out.
	Well, the judge who wrote this, he's getting all sorts of plaudits from the legacy media saying, The judge has a screw loose.
	I provide to you as evidence of this, the fact that he opens his judgment with a photocopy of a bizarre handwritten note that somebody sent him that said Trump has pardons and tanks.
	What do you have?
	Postcard dated June 19th, 2025.
	And then he writes back, dear Mr. or Miss Anonymous, alone.
	I have nothing but my sense of duty.
	Together, we the people of the United States, you and me have our magnificent constitution.
	Here's how that works out in a specific case.
	He does that before the actual entry of the case.
	And this person is now being touted as resistance hero, because this is the way this stupidity works.
	He literally quotes his own wife in the opinion.
	I'm not kidding.
	On page 150 of the opinion, he writes, quote, President Donald J. Trump, he seems to be winning.
	He ignores everything and keeps bullying ahead.
	Half admiring, half quizzical, a very wise woman.
	My wife made this comment about our 47th president in an entirely different context.
	And then it's footnoted, quote, I do not discuss pending cases with anyone outside chambers.
	I quote it here because it is so perfectly capturing the public persona of President Trump, especially as it pertains to the issues presented in this case.
	A brief explanation will suffice.
	One, he seems to be winning.
	Triumphalism is the very essence of the Trump brand.
	Does this sound like a judicial opinion to you?
	Or does it sound like a rambling screed from a dude who is entering perhaps Alzheimer's territory?
	This was treated as resistance hero stuff.
	Truly.
	This is an appeal, this is a judicial opinion from a federal judge.
	Quote.
	Triumphalism is the very essence of the Trump brand.
	Often this is naught but hollow bragging.
	My perfect administration, wearing a red baseball cap in the presidential oval office in blazing Trump was right about everything.
	Or most recently depicting himself as an officer of the first cavalry division.
	Unfortunately, this tends to obscure the very real and sweeping changes President Trump has wrought in his first year in office.
	If change is a mark of success, President Trump is the most successful president in history.
	Two, he ignores everything.
	This is indubitably true.
	So it's just a giant op-ed for slate.
	Entered as a judicial opinion, and the media are treating this as legitimate.
	This was the headline on Drudge.
	I'm not even kidding you.
	The headline on Drudge was Reagan appointee rips into Trump.
	Wow.
	Such heroism.
	The headline was admin absolutely scorched by Reagan appointed judge over chilling free speech crackdown.
	But the me the the opinion is from a nutty person, like a nut.
	Yeah, lifetime appointment to the to the courts.
	It has some upsides.
	It definitely has some downsides, but it is amusing to me how far the left is willing to go to attack President Trump, even upholding the opinions of people who clearly are losing it somewhat.
	And meanwhile, the White House has now unveiled what they are calling Trump RX, which is a drug buying site, and they are giving a special deal to Pfizer, according to the Wall Street Journal.
	President Trump unveiled plans on Tuesday to launch a government-run website dubbed Trump RX for consumers to buy drugs directly from manufacturers.
	He said Pfizer plans to offer some of its drugs on the side of a reduced rate.
	Separately, Trump told Pfizer that they would offer all their drugs to Medicaid to reduce most favored nation price, as well as introduce any new drugs to the U.S. market at those reduced prices.
	In return, the company gains a three-year grace period to exempt it from national security-related tariffs as long as the company invests in domestic manufacturing.
	Pfizer stock then dramatically shot higher.
	Apparently, they already had a lot of that deal with Medicaid, where they're already selling the drugs at a real discount price to Medicaid.
	So they're basically getting a removal from the tariff regimen.
	He was flanked, by the way, by top health officials as well as the Pfizer chief executive, Albert Borla.
	For Pfizer, the agreement with the White House brings more certainty to issues that have been hanging over it and other drug makers, the threat of tariffs and the pressure to cut prices.
	Pfizer's concessions might only have a limited impact on its sales and profit, and they serve as a blueprint for similar White House deals with other drug makers.
	So apparently, Pfizer didn't change any of its financial guidance.
	So it doesn't seem like much changed here.
	They already apparently have these arrangements with the federal government, but it appears they're making promises to build in the United States, and that's going to free them of some of the tariffs.
	This is the beautiful thing about the tariff regime for those who like it, is it allows you to claw at least titular concessions from certain people.
	Dr. Oz touted this change.
	We're going to finally deliver on the fair drug prices that President Trump has been speaking about for two terms.
	We're going to celebrate this historic day.
	I predict this historic day in the medical field for generations to come.
	Okay, so we'll find out whether this actually effectuates change in the drug pricing.
	Obviously, the big problem in drug pricing is that if this really were to have an impact on drug pricing in the United States, driving down profit margins or making these drug makers put out the drugs below profit margin, that has an impact on R&D.
	You can't just squeeze the balloon without the air going somewhere.
	So I'm always quite skeptical of these sorts of government interventions.
	It seems to me that the best available use of tariffs would be to force other countries.
	You want to use tariffs as leverage against other countries.
	We should force other countries to pay the market value of the drugs they buy from American companies, as opposed to American taxpayers footing that bill.
	Okay, meanwhile, on the entertainment front, big controversy because a person who calls himself bad bunny is now going to be doing the halftime show.
	Now, I I'm aware of this human who calls himself Bad Bunny.
	I assume that's not his given name.
	I don't think he came out of his mother and she said I shall call him Bad Bunny.
	But uh apparently this is causing controversy because Bad Bunny does not like President Trump and also likes to cross dress for the press.
	So pictures have emerged of him wearing a mini skirt and heels and all the rest.
	His actual real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio.
	And um, he apparently had said that he would not perform in the United States again because he disagrees with President Trump's immigration policies, but he is going to actually appear at the Super Bowl.
	So actually, I'm kind of in favor of this because showing that members of the entertainment community are just gigantic sellouts.
	That that that to me is just wonderful.
	I I kind of enjoy that actually.
	Of course, Bad Bunny hates Trump.
	So does Taylor Swift.
	Okay, let's stop pretending.
	All of these all of these big pop singers are not Trump fans.
	But forcing them to eat crow is kind of funny.
	Like Bad Bunny's doing the halftime show, where he'll do some virtue signaling about how Trump is bad to Latinos or illegal immigrants or whatever he's gonna do.
	He might do some of that stuff, but let's be clear, dude's a total hypocrite.
	He wanted to take the check in the fame, and so he's coming back to the United States to perform.
	He had told the media, quote, honest, I can't risk the safety of my fans like that.
	Mainland America just doesn't feel necessary to me anymore.
	I've already performed there many times.
	Fans in the US have had plenty of chances to see me perform live.
	Okay.
	Whatever.
	Whatever.
	People are saying the NFL doesn't know its audience by having Bad Bunny perform.
	Let's be real.
	The halftime show is not for the dudes.
	The football game is for the dudes.
	The halftime show is where we all go out to the bathroom and all the ladies then jet in to watch the halftime show.
	That's the real use of the halftime show.
	Again, I can't remember the last halftime show where men were like, gotta stay in for this.
	This is like vital watching.
	Have you ever been to a Super Bowl party?
	This is exactly what happened.
	So, you know, everybody needs to calm down about the bad bunny at the Super Bowl thing.
	Yeah, he's a schmuck, who cares?
	Meanwhile, again, the the entertainment community being a bunch of giant sellouts, Jimmy Fallon, he now says that he's gonna keep his head down to avoid politics.
	Why why does he only say that now?
	He should have done that before.
	Like they all should do that.
	It is unbelievably silly to me.
	These late night hosts feel the necessity to speak out politically when we have no interest in what they have to say politically.
	They tell jokes, usually bad jokes about politics.
	Here is Jimmy Fallon pretending he's been intimidated into silence.
	We hit uh both sides equally, uh uh, and uh we try to make everybody laugh.
	Uh, and that's really the way our show really works.
	I mean, uh, our monologues are kind of, you know, the same that we've been doing since Johnny Carson was doing the tonight show.
	So, really, I just keep my head down and make sure the jokes are funny.
	I have great writers, clever, smart writers, and we just uh, yeah, we're just trying to make the best show we possibly can and entertain everybody.
	Okay, well, again, that's not him being intimidated.
	That That that should be the typical viewpoint of people in late night.
	But late night is dying anyway, so it really does not matter.
	Okay, meanwhile, no late breaking developments at this point on whether Hamas has accepted President Trump's tight deadline as far as releasing hostages at this point.
	Apparently, according to the New York Post, President Trump has given Hamas three or four days to accept that Gaza peace deal.
	Again, he presented that on Monday.
	It is now Wednesday.
	So it's not going to be long here before the green light is given and Israel basically just finishes the job.
	Let's be also very clear about this.
	If Hamas refuses, the deal that President Trump put forward is still the deal that's going to happen.
	It's just going to happen in the areas Israel already controls, which is nearly all of the Gaza Strip at this point.
	Israel, the the IDF has been moving roughshod through Gaza City with minimal casualties.
	So the pressure is on Hamas.
	Here's the president saying so.
	We're going to do about three or four days.
	We'll see how it is.
	All of the Arab countries are signed up.
	The Muslim countries are all signed up.
	Israel is all signed up.
	We're just waiting for Hamas.
	And Hamas is either going to be doing it or not.
	And if it's not, it's going to be a very sad end.
	And well, you know, that pressure, that's real.
	And again, President Trump has done something incredible diplomatically by getting everybody in the world, literally, to unite against Hamas.
	Which is a thing they should have done naturally.
	But they decided to revert to type and engage in their typical anti-Israel behavior.
	And President Trump has single-handedly swiveled that entire logic, which is amazing.
	Truly amazing.
	Alrighty, folks, the show continues for our members right now.
	We'll jump into the mailbag.
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