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Dec. 27, 2017 - The Dan Bongino Show

46:18

Ep. 620 Is Trump Playing the Democrats for Fools?

Is Donald Trump playing the Democrats for fools? The exodus from liberal states continues. A conservative wishlist for 2018. Trump deserves credit for his war on red tape. These immigration numbers are incredibly troubling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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	Get ready to hear the truth about America on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host, Dan Bongino.
	Alright, welcome to the Dan Bongino Show.
	Producer Joe, how are you today?
	I'm doing well.
	The show must go on, Dan.
	Yes, everybody's slowly recovering from Christmas.
	Yeah, I was in for Levin last night.
	Mark Levin, thanks to everybody who listened in, and thanks to all the new listeners for finding the podcast today.
	If you did, we appreciate it.
	Great to have you.
	Our listenership keeps exploding since we partnered up with Westwood One, so we appreciate that.
	Joe tells me we have been in the top charts now for the last couple of weeks, so thank you very much.
	You all are doing us justice, as we used to say growing up, by spreading the word.
	We appreciate it.
	All right.
	Interesting piece sent in by a listener, a guy named David W. Really good piece.
	You know, I get it, the Trump-Russia thing, right?
	People freaking out about it.
	Enough of the Trump-Russia thing.
	But this, you know, I'm fascinated by the story for a number of reasons.
	It speaks to government overreach.
	I, as a former federal agent, fear the federal government and the power of it, having wielded it at one point.
	And, you know, you should too.
	I can't say that enough.
	But he sent me a fascinating piece from The American Thinker, which I'll put in the show notes today.
	Always available at Bongino.com.
	And if you subscribe to my email list, I will email you these stories every day.
	But a fascinating theory I want to throw out there for you, Joseph.
	All right, Dano.
	I also want to give a Quick shout out to our buddy Ron P, again, who sent us some other great clips.
	We're actually running out of clips on our soundboard now.
	We have the dude, we have yoga instructor from Couples Retreat, we have the Trading Places Yeah Guy, Macho Man, Randy Savage.
	But he sent in a great one that I think is going to be appropriate.
	Joe, you have that one queued up?
	Yes, I do.
	This is a great one which we'll have to queue up for Democrats in the future who continue To propagandize America and tell people that the Russian collusion story exists.
	This is going to be the cut for them if you're a democrat who believes in Russian collusion.
	Are you like a crazy person?
	That's great.
	That is Natalie Portman from V for Vendetta.
	I'd seen the movie, I don't remember that line, but play that again.
	Democrats Who Believe in the Russian Fairy Tale.
	This is for you.
	Are you like a crazy person?
	Are you like a crazy person?
	So, interesting piece.
	Thanks, Rod, for that one.
	That's a good one.
	We're going to keep that one handy.
	That actually applies to a lot of what Democrats tell you.
	Right?
	Yeah.
	So, the premise of the American Thinker piece is genius.
	He starts off, and it'll be in the show notes again, and read it please, on the premise that the author, that Trump is not a dumb guy.
	You may not like him, you may not like his oratory skills, you may not like his rhetoric or his Twitter behavior, you may not like any of that stuff, whatever, that's your bag of donuts, right?
	I personally couldn't care any less, but that's up to you.
	Saying that he's stupid or some kind of a dope or adult and he just doesn't know what he's doing just ignores the fact that the man has been a tremendous success in a lot of areas of his life.
	He's had some business failures like everyone else, but ultimately in the end, you know, he has been very successful in business and must know some, he has to know something.
	So, he talks about how Trump is also a fan of Sun Tzu.
	I don't particularly get into the Sun Tzu thing.
	I think it's, you know, one of those things people say to sound smart a lot, like, you know, Sun Tzu.
	But they do talk about how Sun Tzu talks about military strategy in his books.
	And one of the things Trump likes to do is to ambush people and set people up.
	And the premise of the piece is amazing, Joe.
	It's that the Mueller investigation is this one big setup that Trump is maybe not You know, orchestrating like a, you know, an orchestra conductor.
	But is Trump aware of information out there and allowing this to continue, this witch hunt, this investigation into a non-crime, right?
	This investigation into Russian collusion that never happened, no one can prove it, no one can show any evidence that it happened.
	Is he allowing this to continue because he has information And as it continues and gains steam into other things, not related to Russian collusion, in other words, perjury charges, business charges against Manafort that have nothing to do with Trump, is he allowing it to continue knowing that the credibility of it's going to collapse any minute now because of information they already have?
	Fair question for you, Joe, and everyone else will be like, well, what are you talking about?
	What information does he have?
	The piece talks about something that's been going on on the sidelines.
	This has been gaining steam with conservative commentators, too.
	An investigation that's been going on on the sidelines that hasn't gotten a lot of attention, but is now, and that is the IG investigation into the FBI's behavior surrounding the Hillary Clinton investigation.
	A guy named Michael Horowitz is conducting an Inspector General, which is like the Internal Affairs for the federal government, investigation into how the FBI handled the Hillary email investigation.
	Now, what does this have to do with Trump Russia?
	I'll get to that in a second.
	But this is the investigation, Joe, that was responsible for the texts, the uncovering of the text between Peter Strzok and his mistress regarding Trump, how they hated Trump.
	Now, Peter Strzok was the man who He interviewed Mike Flynn and was a senior FBI figure on the Hillary email investigation.
	It was the IG, the Inspector General, essentially an internal affairs probe, which uncovered those texts.
	It also uncovered a bunch of other significant information as well, a lot of the Weissman stuff, Andy Weissman, who is a lawyer, his email about how he was celebrating Sally Yates, the Deputy Attorney General, when she defied Trump and was terminated after that, was let go from her job after that.
	So, the theory in the piece, which is an interesting one, Joe, is that this IG probe, which Trump certainly would be privy to the information, he's the Chief Executive and the President of the United States, May have even more damning information sitting out there about how the FBI handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation, and even more damning emails about how they're handling the Trump investigation.
	And therefore, he's letting this thing continue, right?
	To reach a critical mass, knowing this information is going to come out in the future about how corrupted this investigation's been, and knowing that it's going to collapse their entire credibility later on.
	Interesting premise.
	I'm not going to beat it to death because we've we've spoken a lot already on the show about this case.
	But read the piece.
	It makes a very compelling case that Trump is not being played for a sucker here, that he's in fact playing them for a sucker.
	He's letting them.
	It's like that thing, Joe, like he's letting them run.
	You know, it's you know, the Charlie Brown getting ready to kick the football thing, right?
	Yeah.
	Like he you know, he they think they're Charlie Brown always thinks he's going to kick that football.
	Oh, that football, he's getting ready to do it, and he's running, and he's letting him get a head start, and boom, boom, boom, and they're running, and boom, the football disappears right at the last minute.
	And that football disappearing, Joe, just to be clear, would be the IG releasing information that Trump may already know.
	Now, just to wrap this up, one of the questions I've posed on this show often is, why isn't Trump demanding the release of the FISA warrant application to spy on Carter Page and other members of the Trump team?
	In other words, there was a warrant by federal agents.
	There was a warrant through the FISA court to spy on Trump people, Trump folks, Carter Page and other folks.
	I mean, this guy was loosely affiliated at best with the Trump team.
	But one of the questions that's been out there that a lot of people have been asking, me included, is why not just release the warrant?
	Now, why would you want to release the warrant or the application for the warrant, I should say, from the Department of Justice?
	Because in that application, Joe, the key question, which I've asked repeatedly, is was the fake Trump dossier used as a premise in the application to spy on members of the Trump team?
	If that's the case, we have a hijacking of the Department of Justice by a political party.
	Because we already know Hillary and the DNC paid for the fake information on Trump, which was given to them through conduits, through Russian intel.
	The Russians would have essentially gotten a warrant then, in fact, to spy on Hillary's political opposition.
	Now Trump is tweeting today that FBI cannot, after all this time, verify claims in the dossier of Russian-Trump collusion.
	He's tweeting that today, just now as a matter of fact.
	Now, that's the key question.
	Was the dossier used to spy on the Trump team?
	Now, I've said to you repeatedly that, and Andy McCarthy's been pushing this in National Review, that Trump's the chief executive, Joe.
	Why is it, why can't he just release the application?
	He can!
	Just order it!
	He's the head of the Department of Justice!
	I mean, the Attorney General is, but he's the head of the Department of Justice works for Trump.
	They fall under the executive branch.
	Release the application!
	Release the hounds!
	Release them!
	And a lot of people say, why not?
	And this American thinker piece...
	May provide the answer.
	That Trump knows already that the FISA warrant and the application for the warrant was issued on the basis of fake information in the dossier, which is going to destroy any remaining credibility the Department of Justice and their investigation into Trump had.
	And secondly, Joe, he also has through the Inspector General's report, which he's probably already seen, and it's going to be released soon, information about emails within the Department of Justice and within the FBI that are even more damaging than they have now.
	Makes sense?
	Yeah, yeah.
	He's letting them get that head of steam Joe Muller run to kick that football and at the last minute boom that football's gonna go away and this entire thing's gonna collapse.
	I'll tell you what, like we said before he's been one cool dude for a guy that you know doesn't hold anything in.
	Yeah!
	And that struck me you know.
	Yeah I mean remember we we talked about this I think it was last week and I brought this up to you I'm glad you brought it up again how Most people would say, I wouldn't, I think there's a strategy to the Twitter war but most people think he's impulsive and we brought this up last week how he just he has his critics would say the guy can't control himself you know look at him he's out of control he's a madman and yet if he's a madman
	Why not lash out against this FISA warrant and demand it be released immediately?
	Yep.
	There has to be a strategy here, folks.
	And the reason is I think he already knows.
	He already knows that the people who applied, and Christopher Wray, the head of the FBI, knows this too, assuredly.
	Rod Rosenstein already admitted he knows it.
	Under oath.
	He just said he wouldn't give you the answer.
	If that's the case, that the dossier was used to spy on the Trump team, we have a hijacking of the Department of Justice by a political party!
	Yes!
	This is, by the way, someone emailed me about Yoga Guy from Couples Retreat, said there's a couple of other priceless quotes from there, and he's right.
	One of them is, uh, uh, do it!
	Do it!
	Yes!
	Yes, that guy's priceless.
	That guy does some really great lines, but that may be the answer.
	He already knows.
	You know, I know I said I wasn't going to beat this thing to death, but guys, ladies who listen regularly, I don't I don't tell a lot of Secret Service stories on the show, maybe in rough cuts, but you know that.
	I mean, you know what I did.
	It's not a mystery.
	It's not a secret.
	Yeah, it's not a secret, right?
	Pun intended, right?
	But as a federal agent, and most of you out there who were federal agents would understand what I'm telling you.
	You are blessed with an absolutely awesome power.
	I mean, I think I was 24 when I got on with the Secret Service.
	Even little things used to blow me away.
	I'll give you like a quick example.
	Up in New York City, Joe, when I was a police officer, right?
	You're gonna laugh like you think that blew you away, but I mean you could take people's freedom.
	Yeah.
	You can ruin people's lives.
	Now again, some of them deserve it because you have probable cause they committed a crime, so you arrest them.
	But little things used to blow me away about how powerful the job was.
	So I was up in New York and when I was a cop, an NYPD officer, they used to give you these parking plaques so you could park around the precinct.
	It was like a paper plate you used to put in the windshield, right?
	Back then, before, you know, everybody had a camera phone or everything, I'm just telling you the truth.
	I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just telling you what happened.
	Back then, that paper plate meant you were a cop because it said it.
	You worked in a precinct, right?
	I mean, it wasn't... And most other cops, you know, 99.99% of them, Joe, would not give you a ticket.
	So it really meant outside of like a fire hydrant and a bus stop, you could pretty much park anywhere in New York.
	Now, with the advent of the camera phone, that all changed.
	Well, why?
	Because, you know, people now take pictures and tweet it out.
	Look at this guy parked here.
	And then, you know, next thing you know, the cop gets in trouble.
	So nobody really does that anymore.
	But Those paper plates were not as good as what they used to call pool plates.
	Pool plates were these plastic license plates, right?
	They were laminated, laminated in plastic.
	And these were only given to police department supervisors and big shots.
	They were called pool plates.
	I mean, to have one was a big deal.
	So the cops really stayed away from those cars because, Joe, you certainly didn't want to ticket the captain or the deputy inspector, right?
	The pool plaque was a big deal.
	So I get on with the secret service and the first day, first day in the office.
	I don't mean first day as an agent.
	I mean, first day as an employee.
	I hadn't even gone through training yet.
	Right?
	They're like, Hey, here's the keys to your car.
	Uh, you're going to get a, a secret service, uh, you know, the car I'm like, well, the keys to my, what do you mean keys to my car?
	I'm like, my car's at home.
	No, no, no.
	You're going to get a car here.
	Here's the keys downstairs in the garage.
	It's a Ford Taurus or whatever it was.
	I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
	I get a car.
	They're like, oh, and by the way, here's your plaque.
	And they bring out basically an NYPD pool plaque.
	I'm like, this is for me?
	And I don't want to look like a rookie noob, like a dope joe, but I'm like, I get a pool plaque?
	You have to understand, coming from the NYPD where I was a cop, a street cop, you had to get promoted like 57 times to get a pool plaque.
	I'm like, wait, wait, I'm 24.
	You just handed me the keys to a car and a pool plaque.
	I was like, this is the greatest job ever.
	Folks, I was blown away.
	Now obviously you don't get your gun and your shield until you graduate and train with it.
	But you do get credentials and everything, and I was like, oh my gosh.
	Folks, that was a little thing, the pool plaque.
	But when you get out of trading and you're 25 years old, it really impacts you like, my gosh, you have an absolutely unfathomable power.
	Someone calls you from a bank and says, hey, we think we got a case of possible fraud.
	This used to happen all the time.
	Bank investigators.
	They'd say, yeah, we got some suspicious credit card activity.
	Now, why would they do that?
	Because the Secret Service was responsible for credit card fraud, right?
	So they would call up the office and they would look for a referral.
	Joe, the bank can do nothing.
	Nothing.
	Despite the fact that we used to work with Bank of America a lot, Chase.
	Despite the fact that these institutions are worth billions of dollars, They can do nothing without you.
	Folks, I'm not kidding.
	Zero.
	They call your office.
	The crime happened in your district.
	I was in Long Island at the time, in New York.
	And you say, no, I don't want the case.
	It's over.
	They can bring it to the local cops, but good luck with that.
	The case is over.
	You see what I'm saying, Joe?
	You were the key to the entire Dora process.
	You!
	Now, the boss sometimes would tell you to investigate a case you didn't like, but I was like, gosh, I'm 24 years old and I'm telling Bank of America or Chase what cases they can and can't work.
	Like, it was amazing.
	Folks, this should frighten you a little bit.
	Only later on did I process how much power I was really given at a young age.
	The ability of the federal government to go after people they just don't like and based on their own discretion of agents who may be compromised.
	Compromised based on political beliefs like Schrock appeared to be.
	Peter Strzok, the investigator in the Flynn case, in the Clinton email case, who admitted to hating Trump.
	They called him an idiot.
	Talked about an insurance policy against him.
	How does this not scare you?
	And I'm not suggesting that everybody who has political beliefs is going to be compromised.
	I had political beliefs.
	I protected Barack Obama.
	I left after I thought those political beliefs not would impact my job, but was starting to take over good portions of my attention.
	Strzok didn't do that, folks.
	Strzok not only remained with the FBI, Strzok remained with the FBI on the two most critical cases of our time while openly texting back and forth how much he hated Trump.
	Ladies and gentlemen, how fair is that?
	You know, again, I left the Secret Service, and when I had no inclination whatsoever to do my job, better or worse, because of my political beliefs, but only because I knew it would be unfair.
	It would be unfair to have such outspoken, you know, powerful political affiliations and then to stay on with the Democrat administration.
	I walked away.
	These people didn't do that.
	How does that not concern you?
	I'm asking our liberal friends very seriously.
	How does that not concern you?
	That should deeply trouble you.
	Lady Justice is blind.
	Apparently not.
	Apparently only for Democrats.
	It's blind to their malfeasance.
	It just bothers me.
	But yeah, sorry for getting off.
	I never usually tell those stories, but the power of the federal government is awesome, folks.
	We should all be a little bit scared of it.
	We shouldn't have to be, but you should be.
	It keeps you on your toes.
	That the Democrats are allowing this investigation to continue unabated with no evidence at all.
	You know, there's another piece on Drudge today in the Daily Beast, right, Joe?
	Last thought on this, I promise.
	But there's a piece of the Daily Beast, it's headlining Drudge today.
	It says that, oh, the investigation now has turned into like a money investigation where they're following the money all over the place.
	And Joe, here's the critical takeaway.
	The Daily Beast, no right-leaning operation by any measure, right?
	Right, yeah.
	Says people on both sides of the aisle are starting to freak out.
	Well, why?
	Why would that be?
	Well, because they're following the money on Manafort, who was Trump's campaign manager for a while and then was terminated, was fired, on business dealings.
	But Joe, who is Manafort doing business with?
	He was doing business with Tony Podesta.
	Who is Tony Podesta?
	The brother of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's most trusted advisor.
	So the article clearly indicates that Mueller's probe is starting to freak out people on both sides of the aisle because they're like, wait, wait, wait, Joe, I thought this was about Russian collusion, not Democrat John Podesta's brother's lobbying efforts.
	Uh-oh, did I have something to do?
	Did I take money from Tony Podesta?
	Again, folks, we target crimes in this country.
	We don't target people.
	You don't walk into a Secret Service or FBI office and say, hey, I don't like my neighbor.
	I'm sure he committed a crime.
	Can you go get him?
	We don't do that, despite the fact, Joe, that he may have, in fact, committed a crime.
	You walk in and you say, hey, my neighbor stole $300,000 from me from a credit card fraud scam.
	That's different.
	There's a crime.
	Involving a person, Joe.
	Right.
	Not a person reported that may involve a crime.
	Does that make sense?
	Yeah.
	We don't do that.
	We don't do that in a constitutional republic.
	This is what the Democrats are failing on in this Trump-Russia thing, which is going to boomerang back on them.
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	Okay, let me see, couple other stories.
	Oh, another good one from the Daily Caller.
	Um, about the blue exodus.
	You know, this is a story I love because I exited from a blue state that Joe is still, uh, living in.
	But, you know, who knows, Joe, if things are the new year, right?
	You never know.
	Things are changing.
	Things are changing.
	We have a lot of, uh, explosive news coming in the new year.
	Um, the blue exodus continues.
	Peace in the Daily Caller, I'll put up at the show notes today.
	Folks, uh, I talk about this story often.
	I hope I'm not You know, insulting your intelligence by bringing it up often, but it speaks to the argument that the Robert Reiches of the world and these far-left economists, when they put out their videos, they try to compare states to California and they talk about how wonderful California is all the time and these blue states and how these blue state models are so successful.
	But the data does not back up what they're saying.
	The reality is different.
	Now, one data point that should matter to you is the exodus rate.
	Why are people leaving?
	If people are leaving a state and moving elsewhere, that should tell you that there's a problem.
	Now, as I say often, and I mean this, I am not suggesting that everybody exiting blue states is doing so because of the taxes, the regulations, and the liberal-dominated policies.
	I'm not suggesting that at all.
	I am simply suggesting to you that it is a reason, and an important one, and a reason a lot of people, maybe not all, frankly maybe not even a majority in some cases, although we all know that's true, maybe not even a majority, but if a hundred people leave your state and move, and even forty of them say I'm doing it because of the taxes, some people would call that a clue!
	Now, adding to the silliness, Joe, did you see this story yesterday about the LGBT compliance in the California textbooks?
	No, I didn't.
	Yeah, you may have, but this was on Fox, I didn't see it anywhere else, but another story that'll blow your mind.
	California is now mandating in their textbooks that they recognize LGBT historical contributions to the country.
	Now, on its face, I have no issue with that.
	Here's the problem, Joe.
	If you're dead, how do you know they were gay?
	Folks, this is not a smart question, okay?
	I'm not trying to be a smart... Rhymes with crass.
	I'm not trying to do... I'm asking a legitimate question.
	The California textbooks are now... The...
	The mandate to recognize contributions of LGBT Americans are claiming contributions for gay Americans.
	They don't know we're gay!
	And you wonder why California, by the way, who cannot teach its kids how to read, has an overall failing public education system by any sensible measure, right?
	They can't teach their kids math, science, or reading, is now worried about rewriting history.
	They are citing the contribution, like here's a perfect example, Joe.
	One of the textbooks written by this PhD who has gotten his textbooks approved talks about the contributions of President James Buchanan who, there were allegations, were gay.
	Well, one, who cares?
	Do you care at all if he was gay or not?
	Oh no.
	Have you spent, in your fruitful 50 plus years on the planet, I'm not kidding, have you spent, this is not a joke, have you spent 10 seconds in your entire life thinking about if James Buchanan was gay?
	Oh hell no!
	Of course you haven't!
	That's Joe's contribution to the show.
	Very savvy cat he is.
	I like that.
	No he hasn't!
	Because nobody cares!
	And nobody even knows if he was gay!
	Great if he was, terrific if he wasn't, who cares?
	Who cares?
	Nobody!
	Nobody cares!
	But this is what California is wasting its money on.
	That's probably reason number two why people are leaving, not because of this specific story, but because liberal governors, liberal legislators, liberal state senates, this is what they waste a lot of their time on.
	The exodus continues.
	Now Joe, the number of people leaving these three states now, We're going to play Joe Armacost trivia.
	This is always tough.
	Now Joe's been on fire in Joe Armacost trivia lately.
	Here's a hint, folks.
	For those of you who are not regular listeners, me and Joe play this game where I pretend it's going to be a tough question, but I set it up so Joe can't possibly get it wrong.
	I'm just saying, I know it takes the sting out of it, but you have to know if you're a new listener how me and Joe play the game.
	So Joe, are you ready for Joe Armacost trivia?
	Yeah, Dan, I'm ready to go.
	Joe is ready to go.
	So these three states share something in common, okay?
	I'm going to give you these three states.
	Now one of the things they share in common, I'm going to ask you at the end what the defining characteristic you think is, but they've had Hundreds of thousands of people in these three states leave.
	They have left for other states like Florida and Texas that share something else in common.
	Now, here are the three states.
	All right.
	Number one, New York.
	New York.
	Got it?
	New York.
	Number two, California.
	California.
	Number three, Illinois.
	Now, these three states, Joe, have seen hundreds of thousands of people leave.
	Now, to be fair, New York and California have had a general population growth only because the birth rates, though, and immigration into those places because of loose immigration policies.
	Now, having said that, Those states would have grown substantially more in population if people weren't leaving by the hundreds of thousands.
	Now, Joe, this is a tough question, but those three states, New York, California, and Illinois, what political ideology dominates those three states, conservatism or liberalism?
	Joe Abacus, go!
	Liberalism!
	Liberalism, you're right!
	Ding ding ding ding ding ding!
	Armacost is right again!
	Liberalism dominates these three states where hundreds of thousands of people can't escape fast enough.
	By the way, although California and New York still are a small uptick in population due to immigration and birth rates, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are evacuating, Illinois actually lost 30,000 people on net.
	In other words, Joe, despite the fact that immigrants are moving in and people are procreating, Illinois still lost people, which is an amazing, amazing number.
	Now, those places, Joe, one more quick question for you.
	This is going to be equally as tough.
	Oh man.
	They are fleeing in droves towards basically two states which are growing dramatically.
	Those states are Florida.
	Florida.
	And Texas.
	Are those states dominated by conservative ideology or liberal ideology?
	Joe McCormick, Costco.
	Well, Dan, I'd say Conservative!
	You would be right, Joe!
	You would be right.
	You would be 2-0 on this issue of Joe Armacost trivia.
	You'd be absolutely correct.
	Now, again, liberals, I'll put this article in the show notes today at the Daily Caller.
	I am not suggesting to you, to be fair, that taxes are the only reason.
	I'm just telling you, if Robert Reich, through his videos up in his Facebook page, who's a far-left pseudo-economist, is correct that California has such a successful business model, Then why is it that as people become successful, they are exiting the state and taking billions of dollars of income with them?
	Why?
	I'm just asking you a practical question.
	Why is it?
	If you think Texas is such a mess, which Reich in his latest video takes a shot at Texas, why are people leaving California and New York to go there?
	If you think Florida is such a mess, why are people leaving to go?
	I don't understand.
	People vote with their feet and newsflash.
	They are not voting for you.
	And they're not voting for your economic model.
	That you profess to be so superior.
	It's very frustrating dealing with liberals, because they just don't seem to pick up that basic point.
	But I'll put the article in the show notes, take a look.
	All right, today's show also brought to you by my buddies at BrickHouse Nutrition.
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	Okay, yesterday I said I would get to this story about regulations and I don't want to miss out on it because it's a good one.
	Folks, one of the biggest accomplishments of the Trump administration that has gone relatively unheralded by anyone outside of conservative media, because the liberal media doesn't want to bring attention to the fact that they are having a love affair with the discretionary state, is Trump's war on the bureaucratic state and government red tape.
	Remember, red tape is government's permission to tell you no.
	That's what it is.
	As Chuck Ecker, the Howard County Executive, I quote often told me once, the government bureaucracy always grows and government will always get bigger because there is absolutely no power in yes.
	Every government regulation promulgated and piece of red tape added to the federal register is another way for government to tell you no.
	You want to build a stream in your backyard?
	Let's write a rule called the waters of the United States telling people they can't do it.
	Why is there power in that?
	Because then to build said stream in your backyard you have to go lobby a congressman who gets to tell you no.
	They fall in love with the power and they fall in love with your ability to lobby them and then all of a sudden you have to pay a lobbyist who has to cut a campaign contribution for you to get in his office and lobby for your ability to do what you could have done without the regulation which is build a darn stream in your backyard.
	Democrats love regulations.
	They love regulations because it's thousands of ways for the government to tell you no and they are in love with control and they are intoxicated by power.
	Regulations should frighten you just as much as an unregulated federal investigation should.
	Now, here are the numbers on this to show you just, you know, for all you anti-Trumpers out there and never-Trumpers out there.
	None of this happened under prior Republican administrations and it's happening now and I'm going to give you the evidence because we do facts on the show.
	Joe, six of the seven highest years ever for growth in regulations as based on, so we're clear, new pages in the Federal Register.
	The Federal Register is a log of new regulations.
	So page growth is a good proxy for the growth of new regulations.
	Obviously more pages mean more regulations to document, right?
	Six of the seven highest years on record unsurprisingly belong to Barack Obama.
	2016 being his highest with 95,894 new pages added.
	That is a staggering number.
	We didn't cover this yesterday, right Joe?
	I don't think we did, no.
	Yeah, I didn't think so either.
	I folded my paper to make sure I didn't tease the story and talk about another one.
	So 2016, 95,894 new pages.
	That is a record.
	No one has ever added that amount of regulations to the federal government and its federal register.
	Nobody.
	Now, to be fair, George W. Bush was no saint on this either.
	In 2008, his highest year of new pages added to the Federal Register, meaning new regulations, 79,435, which isn't anywhere close to Barack Obama's 95,894, but is still relatively high.
	Now, Trump.
	We're coming to the end of 2017.
	Obama's 95,894 but is still relatively high. Now Trump, we're coming to the end
	of 2017, Trump's first year in office 45,678. Now you may say well it's still
	45,000 new pages.
	Folks, even those new pages were, and I'm quoting a Wall Street Journal piece, follow-ups on Obama regulations they just haven't been able to get rid of yet.
	You get what I'm saying, Joe?
	In other words, the Obama administration had issued a regulation that required some follow-up and an additional page later on, and the Trump administration just hasn't been able to wipe that regulation clean yet.
	So by law, they do have to add something.
	But think about what we're talking about here.
	This is, again, 95,000 pages under Obama and a record year of government, of ways for government to tell you no.
	Trump cut that in half.
	In half.
	45,678.
	This is where I don't understand the virulent strain of NeverTrumpism out there.
	I just don't get it.
	Supreme Court appointments, appellate court appointments, circuit court appointments, the elimination of the individual mandate, 3% GDP growth over two quarters, major tax cuts for promoting economic growth, slicing in half of government red tape.
	I don't understand what you're so aggravated about.
	I mean, outside of personal, you know, piccadillos you think he has, what are you so upset about?
	Now, I took a note on this at the bottom, and I covered a little bit of this on Levin last night, but I didn't cover this part.
	I don't like to repeat content and, you know, too much of it on shows, even if it is another show.
	Why do you think Trump has been so bold on this?
	Because, folks, as I told you, even George W. Bush kind of fell in love with the regulatory state when he was in office.
	79,000 pages is a lot of new regulations.
	Why has Trump cut that in half?
	I have a theory, folks, and I brought it up to you before in the show, so regular listeners may have heard it before, but it's worth repeating here.
	My theory on this is that the Democrats did this.
	You may be like, well, what the heck?
	The Democrats hate Trump.
	What are you talking about?
	They certainly love regulation.
	So what do you mean they did this?
	Folks, Bush derangement syndrome was a serious thing, but it did not really kick in until the Iraq war, when the Democrats saw an opening to take down Bush.
	They saw the Iraq war, Joe, as growing in unpopularity.
	They got on the Senate floor.
	Some of them declared the war already lost while we had our fighting men and women overseas, an act of unbelievable moral ineptitude.
	But the Bush derangement syndrome, although it was bad, was never as bad as this, and it didn't start the day Bush got into office.
	Now listen, after the Gore election there was a lot of hurt feelings, but there wasn't talk, at least at the level it is now, of immediate impeachment, Russian collusion, investigations.
	I don't remember that, you won't either, because it didn't happen.
	On a smaller scale with the kooks, of course it did, but it wasn't as mainstream as it is now against Trump.
	I'm convinced that Trump wasn't sure he was going to win this thing.
	Matter of fact, I'm pretty convinced Trump thought he was going to lose.
	He follows the media.
	The media was convinced.
	I have a screenshot of a Chris Eliza piece in the Washington Post saying Trump's chances of winning the election are approaching zero.
	Well, Trump won.
	I think he was surprised.
	And I have to tell you, I think he was also a bit surprised.
	I think he knew this was going to upset the Democrats.
	Obviously, Joe.
	Their chosen one, Hillary Clinton, had lost.
	But I don't think he expected the level of hatred directed at him.
	Now, think about why.
	You may say, come on, Dan, that's a little naive.
	Is it?
	Really?
	Think about the people he'd had personal dealings with in the past that turned on him like that.
	Kirsten Gillibrand?
	You may say, well, who's that?
	Kirsten Gillibrand is a Democrat Senator from New York.
	She'd been in his office.
	She had asked him for money.
	Chuck Schumer turned on him like that.
	Chuck Schumer and him had been friends.
	Folks, Hillary Clinton was at, wasn't she at Trump's wedding?
	There was some function.
	I don't want to speak out of my caboose here, but there was some function.
	There's a picture of the Clintons and the Trumps there.
	They were friends!
	I genuinely believe, being a Queens guy like Trump, that he figured, Joe, alright, Schumer's gonna be mad, Gillibrand's gonna be mad, their chosen one lost, they're Democrats, but they're not, it's not gonna be personal.
	Like it was under, you know, under Bush, like the Bush derangement syndrome was a political response to the Iraq war.
	They'll wait for me to pass tax cards, they'll have a hissy fit, but they're not gonna come after me personally, try to jail me, put me in jail, start a fake investigation.
	I am of the absolute opinion in my mind, I am convinced of this, that he was shocked, Joe.
	That he was genuinely surprised that they not only made this personal, they made it vindictive, and they made it unethical, too.
	To try to charge someone for a crime they never committed.
	Trump knows he didn't collude with Russia, Joe.
	How would he know that?
	Because he's Trump!
	He knows what he did and didn't do!
	If I accuse Joe of committing a murder, Joe's pretty... Joe's okay, because Joe knows he didn't do it.
	You can talk all day about Joe doing it.
	He didn't do it.
	He knows he didn't do it because he's Joe.
	I don't think he expected this.
	So, wrapping up the thought here, I think, after a few months of this, and it not, obviously Joe, so this is showing no evidence of running out of steam, this Trump collusion, Trump this, Trump impeachment, Trump put him in jail, lock him up, all this stuff.
	I think he saw that there was no, he sees at this point, no path to this drying up.
	He knows they have information, again, on the corrupt nature of the investigation.
	So I think at this point, him and his advisors probably sitting around with their feet up, sitting in one of their offices over in the east wing side and saying, you know what?
	Screw them.
	We got nothing to lose.
	Now, I bring this up because I did kind of a long extended monologue in a Levin show about four or five months ago when I was filling in for Mark.
	And I don't think, I'm not suggesting that my monologue had anything to do, just to be clear, I don't have an ego that big or ridiculous.
	But I did give a monologue on the show that got a lot of attention on social media.
	And during the monologue, Joe, I said that the Trump team should just go for the Hail Mary.
	In other words, Joe, do everything Republicans have talked about forever and never done.
	Because they were afraid of the media.
	Because the media hates Trump so much there's nothing he can do that's going to be good.
	So if there's nothing you can do that's going to be viewed positively by the media, you might as well do things you personally know are going to be good.
	Tax cuts, getting rid of Obamacare, appoint strict constructionist judges on the courts, get rid of government red tape.
	These are things RINO Republicans in the past in the presidency have been afraid to do, Joe, because they were afraid of the media backlash.
	I'm absolutely convinced that the war on Trump by the left, that they did this, that instead of taking a responsible political approach to attacking him, right Joe?
	Making principled positions and ideological fights against his stuff, regulations, Against his approach to tax cuts, against his judges.
	Instead of doing this show, they committed to pure obstruction and trying to criminalize Trump.
	And in their efforts to do that, they actually incentivize him to take that football and not hand it off, but to go down the field every single play.
	So I say to the Democrats listening, thank you.
	I mean it.
	I think you would have gotten a populist president if you just would have played ball with Trump.
	And instead, your immaturity, your vindictiveness, your nonsensical, emotionally driven, not ideologically driven behavior has caused Trump to lurch far to the right and I think it's only going to get worse for you.
	I think in the new year, given the success of these tax cuts, you are going to see some really terrific changes.
	Fed appointments, better judge appointments, Obamacare going away, Dodd-Frank going away.
	I think this is just the beginning, and Democrats, you only have yourself to blame for falling in love with emotion rather than reasoned political arguments.
	You have screwed everyone over, including yourself.
	All right, folks, thanks again for tuning in.
	I really appreciate it.
	Please go to bongino.com, check out the show notes.
	The articles are pretty good, and sign up for my email list if you want me to email them right to your inbox.
	I'll see you all tomorrow.
	You just heard the Dan Bongino Show.
	Get more of Dan online anytime at conservativereview.com.

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