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May 16, 2024 - Triggered - Donald Trump Jr

01:56:07

The Swamp Runs Deep but Thankfully Senator JD Vance is Standing in Their Way | TRIGGERED Ep.137

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	you you
	hey guys what's going on with Welcome to another huge, with a capital Y, episode of Triggered.
	I'm gonna take a couple comments.
	I apologize for a little bit of the late start, obviously with all the craziness going on today in court in New York.
	Like, I was like, I just want to make sure we have it all so that we can compile it because, you know, we're not going to get to it otherwise till Monday.
	It looks like, looks like Michael Cohen, let's just say, really bombed.
	You know, I know he's been, you know, plotting his revenge for not getting the Chief of Staff position.
	I know, it's laughable.
	I guess he thought he was going to be the Chief of Staff for some reason.
	No one, no one in our world at that time thought it was realistic.
	It was like one of those things were like we didn't even want him on television because every time you know this is the guy that was like you can't rape your wife on national television I mean he actually said that I'm like Michael this is not uh this is not uh not helpful not helpful at all so I used to you know I'd get calls from guys like Sean Hannity were like, Hey, Michael says he really, you really want him to go on TV tonight.
	Are you sure?
	I was like, I never said any of that.
	Like, I, I, I promise you, like, zero, like, no, I've said the opposite.
	I told him specifically, like, I don't want him to be on television anymore because he's no good at it.
	It's, uh, like, like he's really bad at it.
	Like every time he goes on, it's negative for us.
	It's not a positive, but you know, some people, Well, some people fall in love with that stuff, right?
	They fall in love with the limelight, whether they're good at it or not.
	You know, that's what it is.
	Fancy Mimi looking so... I assume that's a red sweaty person emoji in that white shirt.
	So, apparently I look hot in the white shirt.
	Thank you, I'll take it.
	My old ass, I'll take whatever compliments I can get.
	So, thank you very much.
	Lemonade says, the implosion was awesome.
	I figured I'd do a couple minutes of, you know, questionnaire before I get into the sort of news of the week and then JD Vance, I know a lot of you guys love JD, probably my favorite senator, someone who literally fights for what we actually believe in.
	But just because of the little bit of the delay in the timing and just kind of compiling all of the clips that I was getting last minute, I didn't want to go live and then not have it.
	Health613 also says I'm hot.
	I'll take it.
	I'll take it, guys.
	You know, listen, could be worse.
	Could be worse.
	I figured I got like a year or two left before.
	They're like, Don, you look like shit.
	Actually, that's what most of the commentary.
	Don, you look tired today.
	It's like, well, you know, this isn't like this is my full time job.
	Like I do this for fun.
	Usually, you know, like I said, after six o'clock and sometimes I'm up 12 hours of other work before I go live and you get a little bit, a little, little tired.
	So, uh, let's see.
	What do we got here?
	Announce JD Vance for VP already?
	Yeah, listen, that'd probably be my pick, because, you know, you watch him, like, he goes on CNN, and he just tears these, like, intellectual lightweights apart, you know?
	He doesn't just do the, they're like, don't you believe January 6th was an insurrection?
	Like, he doesn't just take what they say as gospel, and then, well, yeah, but, you know, he just gives it right back to them.
	So I think he's one of those guys that's, That's really good at it.
	Red Lobster, I know, Red Lobster's going, you know, going chapter 11, I guess it seemed like.
	So, I imagine that's...
	Someone wrote it down four times, so it must be a very big deal to them.
	You know, I don't know much about it, but I always hate when I see American businesses like that go out, because I understand there's a lot of jobs created with this.
	But, you know, by dynamics and otherwise things probably help that.
	Molly from Alaska, hello.
	God bless you, you too.
	JD is a good pick.
	Okay, that's good.
	Well, I hope JD is less soy than Mike Pence.
	JD is a lot less soy than Mike.
	Like, I don't know if you've, if you, you know, you'll see him tonight.
	I'm sure he'll be, uh, you know, measured and not off the cuff, but the best is you watch him like when he does like the CNN interviews and like, you know, when he's really up in there against, uh, You know, the enemy and the spokespersons for the other side.
	He literally just takes all of their stuff and he just tears them apart.
	So he does that so well that my logic for like a J.D.
	Vance, it's partly why like, you know, a J.D., even like a Tucker, someone like that you put in there early, like while they're trying to keep my dad on the stand or, you know, in court forever so he can't campaign.
	It's just election interference.
	You need someone You know, who is going to be able to, like, aggressively prosecute the other side and do that, you know, with like a master class, you know, level of talent.
	So I think JD is one of those.
	Yeah, let's see.
	MGO, blue girl.
	He's so smart and scrappy.
	Yeah, he's all of those things, but he does it with a good, incredible background.
	I don't know.
	I read his book Hillbilly Algae a while ago.
	I mean, he grew up in like Appalachia, like dirt poor, like, you know, just an incredible American success story.
	And so, you know, it's just an injury.
	Ohio loves JD Vance.
	I love JD Vance.
	I voted for him.
	I'm from Ohio.
	Yeah, he's one of those guys, one of the few guys in the Senate that like literally like lived up to all the stuff he campaigned on.
	You know, that's a big deal.
	Someone wants a Peter Navarro for VP?
	That's fair.
	Peter's a fighter.
	I mean, listen, Peter's in prison standing on principle right now.
	I visited him, for those of you who missed Monday's show, I visited him on Saturday at the federal penitentiary in, you know, south of Miami.
	I got there, you know.
	Left here at like 5 a.m.
	and got there and like just, you gotta support those who stand on the stuff that we believe in.
	So I thought that was really important.
	So yeah, Peter's incredible.
	Focus on the Attorney General.
	Yeah, that's another, obviously that's going to be a very, a very big one.
	JD's the only one still speaking out for East Palestine, Ohio.
	Yeah, no, it seems like Palestine over in the Middle East, you know, The place known as, you know, even if it's... I haven't quite been able to find it on an accurate map, but minor details.
	Yeah, JD's still fighting for that.
	Obviously, that's his home state, but like, when that happened, like, he was the guy that... I went up there with my father when that tragedy happened, and we were there before the Biden administration and all that stuff.
	And like, uh, you know, we got there on the ground.
	JD was there.
	He was fighting.
	He's, you know, he's that guy.
	Like he's doing this for the right reasons.
	Uh, and he didn't just get absorbed by the swamp.
	Like so many of the people in there.
	Deb with 17.
	What about Doug Mastriano?
	I don't know.
	I like Doug, but I don't know about that for VP.
	You need someone, I think, that's out there showing that they're in there with that experience in government, that's actually taking that on.
	But I like Doug from PA a lot.
	Um, you know, I don't know that, you know, I, well, I know that he's not on, you know, on that shortlist, uh, you know, or anything like that.
	So, you know, of the guys that are, uh, there's some good choices.
	Uh, JD's probably my personal favorite, but, you know, there's, there's a lot that goes into this.
	I'm of the mindset you gotta pick someone now because you need to be out there fighting when they're trying to clearly keep my father away from the fight.
	And I'm sure they'll bring up other stuff or try to push other things forward so that even when this thing's over, you know, they'll get the next thing going.
	So, you know, let's see what happens with that.
	But who for AG?
	That's a good one.
	I don't know.
	We gotta find, you know, someone who's a freaking animal.
	You know, these guys have been so, you know, Mike Davies for AG.
	I know that won't happen, but you put him in as temporary AG so you can get something else.
	Mike's always on the show.
	He gets it.
	He understands it.
	He headed up the defense of Kavanaugh and these things.
	He worked in a lot of the Senate stuff, understands those things.
	Don Jr.
	for VP.
	Watch the left explode.
	Trump.
	Yeah, Trump, J.D.
	By the way, There is an argument to be made that Don Jr.
	as VP would be the, like, the greatest insurance policy for my father ever.
	Junior for 28.
	I appreciate that.
	Thank you, Don Jr.
	for VP.
	Uh-oh.
	Now we've started something.
	Dan Bongino for AG.
	I don't know.
	Dan's not a lawyer, though, so I think you probably, you know, if you're gonna be the Attorney General, you probably have to be a lawyer, but he would actually... You may not.
	I mean, I think Dan Bongino would do better than, you know, probably better than, you know, anyone we had in there, so...
	Uh, let's, you know, we'll see.
	But yeah, uh, Don Jr.
	for VP would be like, maybe the great insurance policy from my father.
	I think I'd have to move out of the state of Florida.
	That's, that's sort of a, there's a residency problem.
	Something in the constitution about, you know, not being from the same state.
	I guess there's probably ways around that.
	I have other residences.
	I don't know if I want to...
	You know, move to my cabin in New York and pay New York taxes anymore.
	I'm sort of done funding the insanity of the radical left.
	But, you know, who knows?
	Dan Ball for AG, that's Tom Fitton in his role.
	Grinnell for DHS.
	Scratch your nose if JFK Jr.
	is alive.
	Come on, guys!
	I don't know.
	That one's always been a long shot for me, but you know, hey, you never know.
	Junior 28.
	Yeah, you know, make the debate for VP a shooting competition.
	Well, I...
	Badger, I win that then.
	If I'm in the mix.
	But you know, maybe, maybe not.
	But I do pretty well in those.
	Let's see.
	Don Jr.
	Gates, 2028.
	That would drive people crazy.
	Turley for AG.
	That's interesting.
	Stephen Miller for AG would be great.
	I don't know that he'd be able to get, you know, the problem is you still have to get through the Senate process.
	But that's why you put like a Mike Davis in there.
	You put an absolute animal, let him just run as like a, you know, acting AG for a little while.
	And then they'll probably give you whoever they want to get, you know, to get those guys out of there.
	But it will be good.
	Let's see.
	Yeah, so yeah, we'll get to the Cohen stuff now.
	JD Vance is great.
	Totally MAGA.
	Yeah, now I think, listen, that would be, I think that's probably my choice, you know, off the record.
	I'll keep it off the record.
	We won't tell too many other people other than, you know, thousands of people watching right now.
	But Kimberly for press secretary.
	Perfect.
	You know what?
	That'd be great.
	She can do like six days a week in Washington, D.C.
	I get peace and quiet.
	Everyone wins.
	Don't tell her I said that.
	That would be trouble.
	But yes, I appreciate the honor.
	Don Jr., come back to Turnbull County, Ohio before the election.
	Your dad did a rally here at their base in 2016.
	I've been there.
	I've been there.
	Cash for H.E., Kim for Press Secretary.
	Yeah.
	Hey, I think Kim for Press Secretary is a great idea.
	Okay?
	You know, she moves up to D.C.
	I get like four years of peace and quiet.
	Like I said, everyone wins.
	Everyone wins, but... Alright.
	Maybe you guys want to get down to the rundown?
	We'll talk a little bit of the news of the day, and then we'll get to JD?
	Kimberly is not too wishy-washy, yeah.
	If there's one thing Kimberly is not, it's that.
	So, uh, Don Jr.
	sleeping on the couch tonight?
	Fact check, true.
	But, hey, listen.
	Sometimes you sleep on the couch and it's just worth it, because it's just worth it.
	Uh, you know, so, yeah.
	If Kim is watching, I'm probably in trouble.
	If you guys know her, you're probably texting her right now.
	Maybe, hopefully she's not watching.
	Uh, Kim has a great voice.
	Yeah, Kim's an animal.
	Like, she'd be... She'd be good at that, you know?
	She's one of the, you know, and she does her, like, she's a worker also, so she'll do the homework to, uh... Tanjun, you're digging a hole.
	Yes, I... Thank you, Ratchet.
	I'm aware.
	Kimberly's a fighter.
	She takes it on, says, I agree.
	Uh, you're a riot.
	Uh, listen, we gotta have some fun, right?
	I mean, like I said.
	I think she'd do a great job at the job.
	I get peace and quiet.
	Everyone wins.
	You think she's tough?
	You think I don't have to put up with that shit?
	Like, you know, I do.
	That doesn't just turn off, you know, when you're not on a show or you're not on TV.
	Kim is a gem.
	Look at you guys kissing ass.
	Now you're trying to make me look bad.
	Yeah, so, could be fun.
	We could make Kim an AG.
	If she's a lawyer, she's an undefeated prosecutor.
	Again, and I still win because she's in D.C.
	for four years.
	Come on, weekends will be great.
	It's fine.
	Your husband wants Ben Carson for VP.
	Listen, I think Ben would be great.
	Ben is actually a great, great human being.
	I think he's a brilliant guy.
	And it's not a negative.
	I wish all people in D.C.
	were just good people, but they're not.
	I feel like Ben may be too good a human being for that role.
	You know, you watch these animals in the media.
	You know, he's gonna be a Trump guy.
	They're gonna savage a guy that, like, has just a storied career.
	So, you know, I don't know.
	You know, Ben would have been a great choice, probably.
	Honestly, like, the last time around, it could have, you know, been like, you know, where you needed sort of a calming force.
	The logic of Pence was like, you sort of had a pirate, you needed someone to calm that.
	Now, We're living in an insane world on the brink of World War III.
	You may need someone who's just an absolute killer.
	You need an axe murderer.
	I love Ben.
	I'd love for him to be in that position.
	I'd love for him to be in that administration.
	I literally cannot speak more highly of the individual other than, again, in this day and age, in this time, he may be too nice to deal with the insanity of all of that stuff.
	Wear sunscreen, Don.
	Am I that?
	Like, I guess it just looks brighter because the windows are open, but am I that?
	I don't know.
	I didn't think I was out all that much, but maybe I was.
	I don't know.
	I don't think so.
	I saw a couple of those.
	And I don't wear makeup.
	I'm probably a little sweaty because it's kind of hot down here right now.
	But, you know, I don't really wear the makeup on TV.
	So, we'll see.
	This is AIG.
	I look like a lobster.
	Okay.
	Maybe.
	You're burnt.
	I'm not burnt!
	Okay, everyone's saying I'm Orange Junior.
	Okay, relax.
	Markers.
	Orange man, good.
	But I'm not orange.
	I don't even think I've been in the sun in the last couple days.
	So that's kind of weird.
	Yes, you're very red, Don.
	You look great.
	Ignore the trolls.
	Thank you, 2AChickens.
	You look fine, Junior.
	Yes, you're very red.
	Rosie O'Donnell for Preston.
	Rosie O'Donnell for deportation.
	How about that?
	He's blushing.
	Maybe that's what it is.
	I'm blushing.
	I doubt it, but let's see.
	Okay, I don't know.
	Let's get to work.
	Also, hey, while I got you guys, while you're tuned in, while you're making fun of me for being Orange Man Jr., make sure you guys are hitting the like button.
	Like, share, subscribe.
	Let's make sure we get the message out.
	Let's make sure we grow the movement.
	The rest of big tech is stacked against us.
	We need to work harder, faster, better.
	More perfectly to make sure we break through all of the noise that we can actually grow this movement.
	Don't forget, guys, you can also get Triggered, this podcast, you can get it on Spotify, you can get it on Apple Podcasts.
	So if you miss the show here on Rumble, if you, you know, if you get your podcast, perhaps when you're, you know, Driving, or traveling, or whatever it may be in other formats.
	Don't forget to download it on there as well.
	Share it with your friends, if perhaps that's where they get their podcasts.
	For all of the headlines that we'll spotlight right here on the show, go over to my news app, MXM News.
	Like, minute by minute.
	MXM News.
	Where you can get the mainstream news without the bias.
	You know, all these guys, they all say, hey, you don't like it, you know, build your own, build... So, guys like me actually do that.
	We put in a lot of money.
	We put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.
	So if you guys can help support us, help get the word out that way, it's the best way that we can really get that message out there.
	Don Jr.
	has the best show on Rumble.
	Thank you.
	I appreciate that.
	Harry, Amanda, I appreciate that.
	We try to have some fun.
	We try to tell it how it is.
	But let's get into some of those top headlines.
	And I'll probably keep going in and out of the commentary because it seems Actually seems really- I like sort of- you guys like when I do the warm-up Q&A just to get things going a little bit or not?
	Little change of pace, we tried something a little different.
	You know, I kind of screwed up with you guys at the time a little bit, so I wanted to make sure everyone could tune in.
	But, you know, I think a couple minutes of that is good, because sometimes I feel like I get to it and it's like, you just see people building, but it takes 10-15 minutes for them to kind of get in there to full effect and they miss half of what I say.
	You're handsome and don't worry, Kim, I'm closer to Trump senior in years.
	Oh boy.
	Kim's got some competition apparently.
	I don't know.
	I don't know.
	I don't want to know.
	Warm up is great.
	Love the chat.
	Warm up.
	Love it.
	Yes, warm up on Q&A.
	Absolutely.
	When's your wedding?
	Relax.
	Relax, people.
	Just calm down.
	We got elections to win.
	We got to save Western civilization, there's a lot of stuff we gotta worry about first.
	Yes, warm up and Q&A.
	Okay, guys, I think we have a mandate.
	Yes, I enjoy having a conversation with you in the chat.
	Of course, happy freedom.
	You have our attention.
	Okay, I got you.
	Jeff Clark for AG.
	Hey, that'd be a good one too.
	Um, that'd be a good one.
	Uh, he's an animal.
	Uh, the Tucker, spacey thing though.
	Uh, Tucker, yeah, the Tucker would be, Tucker would be great.
	Um, love what you're doing the show, as always.
	Okay, let's get going.
	First, I think we're gonna start by saying...
	It was not exactly a great day for Alvin Bragg and his bullshit case in New York.
	Michael Cohen was a disaster.
	It looks like he bombed and we'll get into more details on just what happened in a moment, but I want to begin by playing Some of the reactions from the media, because I think that's important, right?
	And I don't mean conservative media, I mean like, you know, when you're losing CNN, it's a problem.
	It went so poorly for the prosecution today that even deranged, insane, Radical leftist never-Trumpers are having to face actual reality.
	They're having to face the facts.
	For example, here's unhinged Trump hater and The View co-host Alyssa Farrah saying even she wouldn't or couldn't vote to convict.
	I couldn't today convict beyond a reasonable doubt.
	Michael Cohen is just such a problematic figure.
	And in this own cross, I was just waiting to see somebody who was above board, didn't step in it, didn't lie, didn't end up getting kind of hostile and pushing back in some of these challenges.
	And it's hard for me to believe him when he's misrepresenting something as fundamental as having wanted a job in the White House.
	Now guys, my father's lawyer, Todd Blanche, caught Cohen in such a lie on the witness stand today that Even Anderson Cooper realized it was a disaster for the Democrats' case.
	Witness that piece of cross-examination.
	Do you have doubts that that conversation happened the way Michael Cohen testified on his direct examination?
	That he called Trump insular?
	Absolutely.
	Absolutely.
	I think it's devastating, I mean, for Michael Cohen's credibility on this, I mean, on this one particular topic, whether it's, you know, he just didn't, I mean, it's hard to I don't know.
	Yes.
	I think if I was a juror in this case, watching that, I would think, this guy's making this up as he's going along, or he's making this particular story up.
	You know, Todd Blanch is pointing out, you were testifying just on Tuesday in this court, you know, and all morning long he's been pointing out You know, inconsistencies in Michael Cohen's testimony, or at least questionable aspects of Michael Cohen's testimony, but nothing that you would necessarily, as a juror, think, OK, that's clearly a lie.
	Maybe he was misunderstanding, or he was bragging, or whatever.
	This one, Todd Blanch clearly saved this to right before the lunch break, I'm assuming, because it was just so well crafted.
	And just point by point walking through this story, which at first seemed, you know, why, why this seems like a ridiculous story.
	Some 14 year old is sending him, you know, nasty text messages and he's going to call a Keith Schiller about it.
	And then you realize you look at the, he showed the phone logs that the prosecutor had shown.
	And it's the phone call that, that, that, that Michael Cohen had previously talked about.
	I think it is severely damaging to Michael Cohen's testimony.
	And we've actually been busy right here on the show doing some real investigative reporting, getting inside details on what went on in the courtroom.
	These are some nitty-gritty details, but it's important to understand them all because, again, this is the stuff that won't even make CNN.
	It's certainly not gonna make MSDNC.
	These are the places.
	If you've lost them, just understand it's probably so much worse than they'll ever even allude to.
	So we're told that before court broke for lunch, my father's attorney, Todd Blanche, went over call logs.
	Anderson Cooper started talking about this, but the call logs were between Cohen and my father's former bodyguard, Keith Schiller.
	Cohen testified earlier this week that he made a call to Schiller in October 2016 to speak to my father and confirm the so-called hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
	But Blanche questioned Cohen about a series of harassment calls where Cohen claimed he received around the same time, referring to text messages between Cohen and Schiller.
	Blanche pointed to a message exchange where Cohen said a 14-year-old prank called him.
	In the message exchange, Schiller asked Cohen to call him.
	And according to the call logs, the call Cohen made to Schiller was less than two minutes long.
	Blanche made the argument that the call was too short for Cohen to have explained both the prank call and shared confirmation about the payment with my father.
	So here's the big picture.
	What my father's lawyer is saying is that the call Cohen claims was him informing my father about the payments was actually a call about him dealing with a prank caller.
	And that he never actually spoke to my father at the time about this payment.
	We understand also, obviously, the DA's office, they misplaced, you know, call logs with Stormy Daniels.
	They misplaced all these things that seem to magically disappear, yet you heard about, and it all starts to make sense.
	Of course, they're covering this stuff up.
	As Todd Bland said to Cohen today, I quote, that was a lie.
	You did not talk to President Trump.
	Translation, Cohen is caught red-handed and it appears that he's only helping to sink Alvin Bragg's sham prosecution against my father.
	And if all that wasn't bad enough for Bragg, Biden, Michael Cohen, the Democrats, Michael Cohen's former attorney, Bob Costello, His former attorney, okay, went on TV and laid out how Michael Cohen told him he had no evidence of my father being involved in any crimes.
	Think about that.
	His own attorney, Michael Cohen's own attorney, said Cohen told him that these things didn't happen.
	Costello even made it clear that Cohen is lying right now to help out the Democrats' lawfare.
	Check this out.
	...seeking, according to his own words, an escape route.
	I want you guys to tell me how I can get out of this, because he saw these enormous legal problems coming his way that were so bad in his mind that he was willing to kill himself.
	And so I kept on going back and suggesting to him, listen, Michael, if you have something truthful on Donald Trump, Now is the time to cooperate.
	And he kept on saying over and over again, 10 to 20 times, I swear to God, Bob, I don't have anything on Donald Trump.
	I even said to him, Michael, think about this.
	Isn't it easier to cooperate against Donald Trump if you have truthful information than it is to kill yourself?
	Well, the answer is obvious.
	That was his moment in time.
	If he had something truthful, To say I'm willing to cooperate.
	But he didn't take that.
	He kept on saying, I have nothing on Donald Trump.
	And then when we got into the discussion of the Stormy Daniels NDA, he said specifically, and I cross-examined him on this, this was my idea.
	It was his idea to take care of the NDA because he had been contacted by a lawyer for Stormy Daniels who said she was going to claim that Donald Trump had sex with her.
	Cohen said, I didn't believe the allegation.
	Yeah, I mean, that's Michael Cohen's own lawyer talking about Michael Cohen being a liar.
	I mean, think about how insane that is.
	Now, Michael Cohen, he can go out and he can do his podcast and he can sell merch and try to pitch a reality TV show.
	He can be the most biased human being in the world against Donald Trump.
	Strangely.
	Shockingly.
	I'm shocked, guys.
	I'm totally shocked.
	He is not under a gag order.
	He can just say whatever he wants about Trump.
	He can continue his perpetual lies that he's already gone to prison for.
	But, you know, I guess, hey, if you're lying about Trump, I guess you can keep doing it and that's okay.
	Only Donald Trump is not allowed to talk to defend himself against this insanity.
	Only Donald Trump has his First Amendment rights stripped away from him.
	But Alvin Bragg is living in an alternate reality.
	He wants to bring a baseless case he doesn't even have the power to enforce for violations that don't actually exist.
	He hasn't even said what the actual crime is.
	It's just this is in preparation of these crimes and I guess they wait till see what the rest of the testimony comes and maybe maybe they'll tell my father what he's actually accused of at the end.
	I don't know.
	Seems to Seems to be a little bit crazy.
	We'll talk to J.D.
	about that.
	J.D.
	Vance about that shortly.
	Obviously, you know, he, you know, is a lawyer and yada, yada, yada.
	We could get into the details.
	And he was in the court, I guess, Monday or Tuesday.
	And so, you know, he saw some of this stuff going down in real time.
	But meanwhile, guys, Joe Biden has apparently agreed to presidential debates.
	He wanted to hide in the basement, but he just can't.
	His polling numbers are too bad.
	Biden will be forced to defend his awful record and his agenda at this bait, but he's going to have to answer for a record of high inflation, a bad economy, and a crisis that he caused at the southern border.
	And that's before we even get into the wars.
	We just got new numbers showing how bad the border has gotten under Biden.
	The Border Patrol keeps stats on so-called gotaways.
	These are illegal immigrants who avoided agents but were detected by forms of surveillance such as cameras, sensors, drones, whatever it may be.
	And new data released this week shows that a number, the number that got away, has ballooned heavily under Joe Biden.
	For example, in 2018, there were just 128,000 gotaways.
	In 2023, there were 670,000.
	Almost three quarters of a million.
	Here's another way to illustrate how many more illegal immigrants are pouring in under Joe Biden.
	There were more gotaways in the first three years of Joe Biden's presidency than in the entire decade of the 2010s.
	In the entire decade, we have no clue what these gotaways are up to.
	We do know that many illegal immigrants are caught and released by Joe Biden and have been committing crimes.
	Here in Palm Beach County, police just arrested an illegal immigrant that was released into the country this year.
	Authorities say that the illegal raped an 11-year-old girl.
	Here's the local news.
	covering the case.
	The case is being reviewed.
	The case is being reviewed.
	girl. Lopez is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala.
	According to authorities, he left Guatemala in early January, crossed through Mexico, turned himself in to Border Patrol, and was given a court date for some time in 2027 and then released.
	He found his way to Florida at the end of January this year.
	And now he commits a crime where he held an 11-year-old girl against her will, sexually assaulted her, That's a capital crime.
	We grabbed him.
	He's confessed to the crime.
	So why was he given a court date for 2027?
	Immigration attorney Richard Huber says he knows the answer.
	So the courts are overwhelmed for sure.
	That's the answer.
	He says vetting at the border is poor.
	That they will get a hearing date many years from now.
	And during that time, you know, just with that hearing notice, for example, they can get a driver's license.
	If they seek asylum, they can then also get a work permit.
	And nobody's actually looking at the merits as to whether they actually have a legitimate or a valid asylum claim.
	Honestly, it's so sad.
	It's so easily avoidable.
	It's so preventable.
	Other countries are literally sending us their shit.
	Their criminals.
	They're emptying their prisons.
	They're sending every freakish animal To America, so they don't have to pay for it.
	And we're going to have to live with this.
	And this stuff's going to happen times a thousand as more and more come, as they get more and more comfortable, as time goes by and there's nothing the Democrats want to do about it.
	Crimes like this are happening every single week.
	Joe Biden is directly responsible.
	Biden's also responsible for the inflation crisis that's making life more difficult for everyday Americans to afford.
	And now you'll have the privilege of also paying for all of these illegals, many of whom will never, ever be able to take care of themselves.
	They'll always be a drain on our coffers, and in many cases, on our society.
	The new inflation data released yesterday shows that overall prices have increased 19.9% since January 2021.
	19.9%!
	I'm gonna call it 20%.
	They'll fact check me and probably throw me off the internet because that's what they do.
	If you look at gas, It's up over 55% since Biden got elected.
	But they don't care.
	Guess what?
	We'll send another $160 billion to Ukraine.
	Biden has recently been lying about inflation.
	He claimed in two separate interviews this past week that inflation was at 9% when he was elected.
	That's a lie.
	It was at 1.4%.
	1.4 percent. Not 9 percent, Joe. 1.4 percent. No one's gonna fact check that because it's true.
	They're just going to ignore it like they do all the other facts that don't look so good for Democrats.
	Even Biden's surrogates are pushing this lie.
	Here is one of them on Fox this week, and let's just say it didn't go so great.
	Welcome to both of you.
	Robert, what was inflation when Biden took office?
	I'll tell you if you don't know.
	I think it was probably 9-10%.
	No, no, no.
	Come on!
	Come on, Robert!
	It's 3% now, so it's down by two-thirds.
	I set you up.
	I apologize.
	I put you on the spot there.
	It was 1.4%, and that is fact.
	So Doug Holtz-Eakin, these are the claims that- You guys, I know Robert. I know him from New York.
	I know he's a Democrat, but I also know he's not stupid.
	And he knows that.
	But they're more than happy to still get on TV and push that lie to save Democrats.
	I guess, I don't know, guarantees you a spot on TV as a Democrat surrogate, whatever it may be.
	But it's nonsense.
	If you notice at the end of the clip, the guy was pretending like his earpiece was broken.
	Again, I know Robert, I've had dinner with him.
	It's just, it's classic.
	But there are plenty of other programs where they can just get away with that.
	They can just say it and it's the gospel.
	No one's gonna correct it, you know, online because big tech won't do that.
	They'll continue to run the Democrat narrative.
	While Joe Biden is lying about inflation at home, his Secretary of State is abroad in Ukraine trying to pretend he's a rock star or something with guitar diplomacy.
	Watch this crap.
	This is a video of a man who was trying to get his car fixed.
	He was trying to get his car fixed.
	That's our Secretary of State.
	He's a clown.
	Okay?
	This is the guy that thinks, and it was shocked and dismayed, that the Taliban didn't install a diverse and inclusive government in Afghanistan.
	I mean, you know, I don't know, probably not.
	Something that was ever going to happen.
	If he's shocked and dismayed about that, I got bridges all over the place I could sell him and, you know, waterfront property, oceanfront property in Arizona, and all sorts of other stuff.
	This guy's an idiot.
	But instead of providing any oversight to the hundreds of billions of dollars we're blowing in Ukraine, he goes there and does a crappy job playing guitar.
	They're literally partying in Ukraine.
	I thought it was a war zone, but hey, What do I know?
	Apparently they just send what they call their peasants over there to die on the front lines and everyone else can have a party in Kiev.
	Finally, Joe Biden is asserting executive privilege to stop the Justice Department from giving Congress the audio of his interview with Robert Herr.
	That's the interview in which Joe Biden forgot the year his son died.
	After conducting that interview, Herr wrote that Joe Biden is an elderly man with poor memory that is unfit to stand trial.
	Doesn't stop him from having the nuclear codes, but he's apparently unfit to stand trial according to someone put in place by his own DOJ.
	The transcript of the interview is already released, so the only reason to block the release of the audio is that Joe Biden knows, or the people that are his handlers know, That the delivery of his answers would destroy his already failing presidential campaign.
	Joe Biden wants to hide the evidence that he is publicly unfit for office.
	Don't forget!
	The debates that we're doing, they're going to be hosted on CNN by ultra-liberal hosts.
	They don't want to have a live audience.
	I'm hearing that they want to negotiate so they can have earpieces in their ears.
	So, you know, there's a reason Joe Biden wants to debate under those rules, because they're going to do whatever they can to rig them, to give Joe Biden, to give someone an earpiece in a debate so that, like, I don't know what, Obama can whisper to him what he wants his little puppet to say?
	Well guys, the good news is that today, House Republicans moved to hold A.G.
	Garland in contempt of Congress over this abuse of power.
	But the real question is, will there ever be any actual accountability?
	It's one of the many things we'll talk about with Senator J.D.
	Vance.
	So we're gonna get to that in a couple of seconds, but before we get to tonight's interview, a quick word from some of our incredible sponsors.
	I really appreciate you guys doing what you can to support them.
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	Support those great patriotic small businesses that are on there.
	Give them your money.
	Take the extra second to support those businesses rather than big woke corporate conglomerates that are out there.
	You'll be glad you did, and you can start actually voting with your wallet.
	Also, guys, remember to protect yourself from Biden inflation, stupidity, and insanity with the Birch Gold Group.
	Our country's $34 trillion in debt.
	The inflation is only making it worse.
	The Fed just keeps printing money.
	That means your costs go up and your quality of life goes down.
	In just the last week, we've seen gold surging as Americans look to guard against economic disaster.
	So like I always said, I just want you to be prepared.
	Don't bury your head in the sand.
	Actually be proactive and do something about it.
	Diversify a portion of your savings into gold with the Birch Gold Room.
	Gold is your hedge against inflation, and Birch makes it really, really easy to own.
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	So to learn more, text Don Jr, D-O-N-J-R, to the number 98-98-98.
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	You see it right there in the bottom?
	Text it to 98-98-98 three times.
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	Educate yourself.
	Inform yourself.
	And, you know, I think it's what we need to do to take on this insanity, to diversify a portion of your portfolio.
	It's a huge thing.
	So again, Don Jr.
	to 9-8-9-8-9-8.
	And with that, joining me now, the great senator from the state of Ohio, J.D.
	Vance.
	What's up, man?
	How are you?
	I'm good, man.
	How are you doing?
	Pretty good.
	I guess you had a little bit of an untraditional week.
	You made the journey to downtown New York to sit in the courtroom on this, you know, Bolshevik trial.
	What did you see there, J.D.?
	What was that like?
	I haven't even been yet.
	They're already starting.
	Don Jr.
	no longer likes his dad.
	It's like, I had knee surgery.
	I couldn't go.
	I'm going to go next week.
	Like, you know.
	But when I called my dad like, hey, how are you doing?
	He's like, what are you talking about?
	I'm like, I don't think he needs the moral support, but you know, you'll do it anyway, I guess.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Well, so this conversation is very dangerous for me, Don, because I feel like if we just, you know, shoot the shit like we normally do, then I'm going to say some things that are going to get me in trouble.
	So I'm going to try to be careful here.
	Okay, so here's my initial take on it, right?
	So I'm sure you've like been to this, you know, this building a million times.
	It was my first time being in like the residence at the top of Trump Tower.
	Yeah.
	So, you know, like beautiful view of Central Park.
	It was like a very nice morning in New York City.
	Very understated decoration.
	Very understated decoration.
	And then you hop in the car and you go to the most depressing place in the world, which is this courtroom that's ugly and old.
	It's not like these grand courtrooms that make you think of the greatness of the American legal system.
	It actually makes you think like you're in a sham trial in a sham courtroom.
	And then, you know, the testimony of Michael Cohen is like so dry and so ridiculous that I look over the jury a few times and they're clearly getting bored with it.
	I'm getting bored with it.
	Everyone's getting bored with it.
	It sort of hit me.
	The purpose of this thing is twofold.
	First of all, it's like psychological torture for Donald Trump, for your dad.
	Because, you know, they yank him out of, like, a beautiful place and force him to sit in an ugly place for eight and a half hours to listen to, you know, Cohen, who's an obvious scumbag.
	And then the second thing is, their entire legal strategy, such that it exists, is to just wear the jury down, right?
	If you're a juror, you would do anything to get out of this situation.
	Just tell me what I have to do, and I will get out of this situation.
	And I think that's actually their only hope for a conviction, even as far left as New York is.
	And even if you judge by the statistics, probably every single juror voted for Joe Biden in 2020.
	Even with those circumstances, my assumption is that these guys, they see how ridiculous this whole thing is, and they just want to get the hell out of there.
	And I hope that they do the right thing, but I actually don't think it matters, but neither here nor there.
	Yeah, so, I mean, you tweeted sort of funny.
	You were there on Tuesday.
	There was no court yesterday.
	They're back in.
	You know, sort of discuss some of the craziness that's breaking today, because we're finally on cross-examination.
	But you tweeted, basically, hey, I've been here for about 10 minutes, and when they write stories about Donald Trump sleeping, like, you can understand why, because it isn't exciting.
	There was nothing there.
	Like, you're sitting there for eight hours with nothing.
	He can't speak about it.
	He can't talk about it.
	Later on, like, he's gagged.
	I mean, it really does reek of a show trial when you look at even the basic facts of what's going on.
	No, that's right.
	So, you know, so President Trump sort of sits there, and except for when something is actually going on, that's interesting, you know, because most of it, it's, you know, Michael Cohen, I worked at this place from 10 years ago to eight years ago, and this place from eight years ago to six years ago, and it's just incredibly dry, sort of basic foundational testimony.
	I was there Monday, and that was sort of the original prosecution hit.
	on Michael Cohen.
	So, you know, President Trump's sort of sitting there like this.
	And I saw some media report from, you know, a few weeks ago that said, well, Donald Trump
	is falling asleep at his own trial.
	And you know the game that they're trying to play here, right?
	One of the main issues- He's not energetic.
	Joe Biden is a vibrant guy, a great orator, the leader we need.
	Like, yeah.
	Yeah, exactly.
	So they have to hide Joe Biden walking from the helicopter because his gait shows that he clearly just isn't the same guy that he was even 10 years ago.
	And they're trying to sort of draw this false comparison.
	And I'm sitting there.
	My initial thought is I've been here for 25 minutes.
	I'm 39 years old, a pretty high energy guy, and I'm already about to fall asleep because of how dry and boring this is.
	And again, man, you realize that the purpose of the trial is to neutralize Trump's strengths.
	And to try to eliminate Biden's weaknesses, right?
	So no, it's not about Biden being old and feeble.
	It's that Donald Trump, you know, is allegedly falling asleep in his own trial, which is ridiculous.
	Or, you know, obviously Trump engages and, you know, it's like one of his strengths as a candidate is that people like him, right?
	He has a lot of energy and he's funny and people like to sort of be around him.
	But they can't do that, right?
	Because he's stuck in this trial for five, six, maybe even seven weeks.
	So it really is just obviously political.
	So I will tell you this, Don.
	We went out and did like a little press conference and it was one of the things I wanted to do by being there.
	One, just provide some moral support.
	But second, like actually get out there and make as good of a case as I could make to people that this was ridiculous and that they should reject it by voting for President Trump in November.
	And, you know, so some, like, random journalist yells out and says, well, you're not allowed to violate the gag order either.
	What gives you the right to violate the gag order?
	And I'm just, I think to my head, you know, well, the answer is the First Amendment, you dipshit.
	But I don't say that.
	You wouldn't voice with me if you say that.
	I was on message and I did not, you know, answer the ridiculous questions, but the legal case itself, man, and I, you know, like I went to law school, but I sort of, as you know, sort of went to the business world right after law school.
	The legal case is really crazy.
	Yeah.
	Because the basic argument is he committed a paperwork violation in service of some broader crime.
	Which they haven't even articulated yet.
	That's what people don't understand.
	They're like... Exactly.
	It's like they're gonna get to the end of the thing and in summation they're gonna say, and this is what he did, so that you can't actually prep for whatever it is.
	It's almost like they don't know.
	They're trying to back into an answer which seems to defy... I'm no lawyer.
	I took some basic, you know, real estate law classes at business school, but like...
	Doesn't seem to jive with literally anything that you'd have in a democracy or certainly in our republic.
	Yeah, exactly right.
	You're supposed to give the witness or the defendant proper notice.
	You're supposed to actually tell them what they're allegedly being charged with.
	And you're right.
	It's like, look, if you think that he committed a paperwork violation in service of some other crime, then tell us what the other crime is.
	Right.
	Nobody cares about the paperwork violation.
	People care about the other crime.
	It just isn't there.
	That's why they can't tell us what it is.
	It just isn't there.
	One other thing, Don, just about this whole deal.
	So this happened probably four or five months ago.
	You know, like I like to do a lot of opposition media because I think, you know, it's important to sort of take our message.
	You do it well.
	Not just the friendlies.
	I appreciate that.
	But I was in a scene in Green Room, you know, four or five months or so ago, and it was right after the brag thing had come down.
	And it was funny, like, all of these guys, and these are sort of, you know, almost everybody else in that room was like anti-Trump, and they were mad at Alvin Bragg.
	And why were they mad at Alvin Bragg?
	Because the case was so ridiculous that they thought it actually increased the argument that this is all a witch hunt, right?
	This is all about getting Donald Trump.
	This is not about justice.
	So they were actively mad at Alvin Bragg for being such an idiot and bringing this case.
	And now that all the other cases have fallen apart, and this is the only one where you have a political judge and a political prosecutor, so it's still going to trial, this has become the thing the media is focused on.
	Yeah.
	And I kind of just want to talk to these people and be like, you guys recognize this was bullshit a few months ago.
	And I will say, Don, even CNN, to their credit, some of their people are recognizing that this is absurd.
	Yeah, well, one of the clips, you know, I played in the intro is, you know, Anderson Cooper being like, if you're the defense, you better put the witness in a box and, like, make him look like an ass.
	And he's like, and they did that today with Michael Cohen.
	You know, you saw the beginning of that, but even still, I mean, the whole thing, the paperwork thing is that An assistant in the accounting department like Mark next to this expense, you know legal expense like He didn't do that.
	He was in DC.
	He wasn't having communications This wasn't even a high-level person that I bet he wouldn't know the person's name You know in there and yet they're still trying to make that link But then you have you know, two days of Stormy Daniels on the case and none of it is about accounting It shows that it was just they're just there to try to embarrass We're just gonna talk about all these things that aren't germane to any case that we'd be making or otherwise, but we have a free venue and a hometown media that will just try to use this to, I guess, hurt Trump's credibility.
	These are not people that talk about Joe Biden or the Hunter Biden laptop or the umpteen millions that the Bidens have made from foreign governments, our adversaries and enemies.
	They won't have that conversation, but it seemed very much like that.
	Yeah, that's exactly right.
	So today's Thursday, yesterday was Wednesday.
	We actually did a fundraiser for your dad in Cincinnati.
	And it was sort of, I think, the only day that week he actually had, at least during the work week, to get out there and campaign.
	And when you realize, to run a national campaign in this day and age, you need 750 million, maybe a billion dollars to actually run a competitive national campaign with all the grassroots and organizing and the TV ads and everything that goes into it.
	And, you know, you just realize like what an unbelievable advantage this is for Joe Biden to have the leader of the opposition stuck in this courtroom for three or four days a week, right?
	He gets one day to go out there and fundraise, one day to get that out there and go engage with voters and actually gin up enthusiasm.
	And, you know, again, the case is so absurd.
	It makes you realize it actually has two purposes.
	Again, one is the psychological torture and the other is the election interference.
	And that's all this is really about.
	It's been all that it's about from the beginning.
	And good news, and I'm sure you made this point, I've made this point a number of times, but we make it because it's true.
	I actually think that it's backfired.
	Oh yeah, I think without question, because each one of these cases has so much shade around it, right?
	It's not like one's legit, and this guy's a prosecutor with a great record who's beyond reproach.
	It's like, you would choose Jack Smith because he had questionable dealings in the Hague, right?
	You had, you know, during Mueller you have Andy Weitzman because he was a scumbag and they knew that he would do anything he could to win even if it meant, you know, violating the law or breaking norms of, you know, decency.
	You have it with Fannie Willis down in Georgia.
	You know, you have two cases with Jack Smith.
	I mean, you may, obviously, this is Alvin Bragg, but, you know, they don't point out that, you know, Matthew Colangelo is Biden's number three in his Department of Justice, the same Department of Justice that thinks, you know, Catholics are terrorists and concerned mothers at PTA meetings are domestic terrorists, but actual domestic terrorists aren't.
	That person gets sent to Alvin Bragg's office.
	Alvin Bragg himself and the prior DA turned down this case.
	But Biden's number three shows up, and then two weeks later, all of a sudden, they're prosecuting it.
	You know, I think people get it, but do you think the jury understands that, like, you know, again, whether it's Stormy Daniels, whether it's Michael Cohen, you know, that these aren't exactly credible witnesses.
	I mean, these are not people that you would choose to defend yourself in any way, shape, or form.
	Do you think they get that, or does it even matter in New York, because it is so lopsided?
	Yeah, well, so Don, what are my grandmother's most important bits of wisdom to me?
	And I called her Mamaw.
	Mamaw would always say, never give a person an important job if you wouldn't trust them to babysit your kids.
	And let me tell you, Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, not getting anywhere near my kids, right?
	No babysitting of the van's children from those two people.
	So the fact that they're like the prosecution's star witness is really bad for their case.
	I mean, look, I'm of two minds of this, Don.
	On the one hand, the case is so absurd.
	The jurors, as I saw it, were not super engaged.
	They were not like blown away by Michael Cohen.
	These are not people who are like watching him thinking this is a really believable person who's talking about a very serious crime.
	On the other hand, the reason they did this in South Manhattan is because the pool of people is so heavily tilted against Donald Trump.
	And I just don't know.
	I mean, my guess here take this for what it's worth is the jury's not buying it
	because it's so absurd.
	But maybe that's like, maybe I still have too much faith in humanity,
	at least in the jurors of South Manhattan. But man, it is such an absurd case.
	Well, because I can see where you could be like, I agree with Trump.
	Trump's right, but I'm not willing to not be able to show up to my kid's school because I'm the guy that hung a jury that could jail Donald Trump.
	It's not worth the social stigma, which I feel like it's clear.
	All these places, they were designed this way.
	They were venue shops.
	Even the Florida case, the grand jury happened in D.C.
	Because you know you're gonna get an outcome.
	In New York, you could have a couple people on that jury that are like, you know, Trump's totally innocent, this is insane, and yet, I don't know, I'd like to be able to go out to dinner again in New York, and you may not be able to do that.
	You can't stack a jury when it's 95-5, you know, ultra-liberal to conservative.
	You know, you only get so many people that you can strike on our side, and you do that long enough, eventually you run out, and you could have a 100% stacked jury, and you know, That was a made-to-order jury in a made-to-order venue with a made-to-order judge.
	You know, it's all by design, but it may not matter.
	Yeah, well, that's exactly right.
	It reminds me, one of the great sources of power that the left still has, right?
	I mean, I think most people roll their eyes at the craziness and the alphabet people and the purple-haired pro-Palestinian protesters on campus.
	Um, but like the one thing that the left still has kind of going for it is they're able to exert incredible social stigma.
	And it's less, I mean, it's less frankly, uh, thanks in large part to your family than it was six years ago, but it's still very much there.
	And I, you know, I have this like buddy in Silicon Valley, you know, he's, nobody really knows who he is, younger guys, but sort of has made a fair amount of money.
	And, you know, he's like having this internal debate and I think he's, he's going to come out on the right side of it where he's like, Should I come out publicly for DJT and give the campaign a lot of resources?
	And he's like, on the one hand, I'll lose a lot of friends.
	On the other hand, like screw those people if they're not your real friends.
	I'm sure you're friends with people who don't share your politics.
	I can't imagine.
	ruining a friendship over politics.
	But some of these people are that crazy.
	And that is the dynamic I worry about with that New York jury is, you know, you can't go to your kid's soccer game anymore, because you voted to acquit Donald J. Trump, even if it's the right thing to do.
	So, you know, let's be honest here, it will take some courage from the jurors to come down on the on the right side here.
	But I still am somewhat optimistic because the case is so bad.
	Yeah, I'm hoping so.
	And I had that.
	I mean, politics, getting into it as a guy from New York City, as a real estate developer from Manhattan, it was interesting.
	Because, you know, you had a couple of friends that were just, hey, I may not agree with you, but I'm dying.
	I had friends that wrote checks to the campaign.
	He's like, I just believe in you.
	I don't believe in most of the power, you know, whatever it may be.
	But like, you know, I'm friends.
	Then I had the friends that were like, texting me like love what you guys are doing it's great but then they're posting on Facebook like the woke like these guys are fascists it's like like wait a minute like what like what do you mean so for me it was cathartic because it's like that guy was out of my life and then he called like hey man you know the obligatory like you know once a year lunch like hey we haven't caught up in a while like yeah i'm good
	What do you mean?
	It's like, dude, like, you don't think I'd see?
	Like, what am I, an idiot?
	And so, you know, that's the problem.
	It's the, you know, the people who may not even believe the stuff but are still willing to virtue signal because, you know, there's enough, you know, social credit Attributed to that in New York, you know, that's at least still a big deal, although you're right.
	I think people are sort of waking up to it.
	There's, you know, the things that were cancelable a few years ago, people are having those conversations.
	They're saying those words that were verboten, you know, not all that long ago.
	And I think that's a step in the right direction.
	I just don't know if we're getting to a point where the critical mass is there to overwhelm the amount of bullshit that's in there.
	Yeah, I feel like the scale is close to tipping, but it hasn't quite tipped over yet.
	But yeah, I think it's really important, Don, for those of us who have achieved anything in our lives, to just say to that entire social pressure, social credit system, you put it well, like, screw you.
	I'm not playing that game.
	I don't care if you vote against the guy that I'm supporting, but if you're not going to be somebody's friend over politics, Uh, or if you're going to say one thing about them publicly and another thing privately, you're not a good friend to begin with.
	And we, we really, I think this is maybe the most important thing that we can do is just to push back against this like left wing narrative that you're a good person if you share their politics and you're a bad person if you share somebody else's politics.
	It's a very new thing in our country.
	It's incredibly destructive and it's how the left I think has been able to maintain power without really making a good argument.
	Right?
	Like, like if you're, if you're, Joe Biden right now, right?
	Can you run on lowering inflation?
	No.
	Can you run on securing the border?
	No.
	Can you run on keeping the fentanyl out of our communities?
	No.
	Can you run on, like, world peace, right?
	God, no.
	There's a new war in nearly every continent in the world, but the thing they still have is, well, we're the good people.
	Well, hell, if you guys are the good people and it produces higher inflation, you know, on the verge of world war and a ton of other bad outcomes, then give me something else.
	Yeah, good people don't produce poverty and death.
	That's not the outcome of good people.
	I'll take mean tweets and world peace literally any day because just because a tweet is mean doesn't mean it's not also accurate.
	And us pretending that that's not the case doesn't do anyone any favors.
	Yeah, and being direct, right?
	This is just something that, you know, Our country's really lost this, where we need to be comfortable actually disagreeing with one another.
	And there's no way to solve a real dispute if you just pretend that you agree with somebody.
	And I'm sure you saw this in Manhattan real estate world.
	I certainly saw this in Silicon Valley tech world, which is what I did before I started to get into politics.
	It was like, look.
	You are allowed to actually have a difference of opinion, right?
	And different people are going to have ways that they express it, but you shouldn't fall all over yourself pretending that you agree with somebody when what they're saying is obviously crazy because that's how you end up disservicing the country and going down this weird spiral we're in right now.
	Yeah, the Wuhan Lab League, clearly, it didn't come from the lab.
	It came from two feet outside of the lab that studies the exact virus in question.
	Trust the science.
	I feel like you sort of do yourself a major disservice if you're the boy who cries wolf every time because it's like why would you have any faith in your government?
	Why would you have any faith in the institutions that are supposed to protect you when they fail to do so and it's so flagrantly obvious like you didn't need to be an epidemiologist to be like yeah that makes no sense whatsoever like of course it came from the lab like there's there's literally no other plausible answer but It didn't matter.
	Yeah.
	Option A, it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which is doing gain-of-function research on coronaviruses.
	At ground zero.
	Option B is that a bat got too close to a pig and then fell into a soup in a wet market Come on, guys.
	Common sense here.
	Just accept the common sense.
	But no, it's so much from the gender stuff to the inflation stuff to, you know, like the trade, the war question.
	There are so many issues where like basic common sense.
	OK, here's an idea, Don.
	Let's send all of our industrial base to China and then let's like fight a war against China.
	OK, that's really stupid.
	That's really stupid.
	And so, you know, you have like these people where they seem to want to do the obviously dumb thing each time.
	And again, I think just calling it out is really important.
	Like, here's a solution, Don.
	How about we rebuild our own industrial base and rebuild our own country, and then maybe the Chinese won't be so aggressive because they'll be afraid of us.
	And then you get peace on the one hand, and prosperity on the other hand, and you have options.
	JD, you're such a radical.
	It's such a radical concept.
	I can't believe you'd say something.
	It's probably also racist, right?
	Because everything's racist.
	But so I guess, listen, hey, you and I agree a lot on this stuff when we talk, you know, foreign policy.
	Like, I love that you're one of the few guys in the United States Senate actually talking about this.
	But like, let's say, you know, speaking of just the utter lack of credibility, you have our Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken over in Ukraine.
	You know, he's jamming out on a guitar, you know.
	Do you have any faith in this?
	Don't do this to me.
	Don't make me watch the Anthony Blinken rock and roll.
	Let's just say he goes to a bar in Kiev and he's playing like rock and roll guitar.
	I mean, it's nice that he plays guitar, but like, you know, this is the same clown that got on a world stage after the Afghan withdrawal and said that he's shocked and dismayed that the Taliban didn't install a more diverse and inclusive government in Afghanistan.
	So like, I guess my question to you is like, if you're shocked, That the Taliban didn't install a more diverse and inclusive government there.
	If you're jamming on a rock guitar in Ukraine when you're on the brink of, you know, World War III with the world's largest nuclear superpower, you know, 160 billion dollars, you know, with nothing to show for it.
	Do you have any faith?
	Uh, in this administration's ability to handle these things.
	We were told the adults are back in charge, and it feels like, like the morons are in charge.
	Like, it's not, there's not an adult in the room.
	It's just, you know, again, either virtual signaling or like, well, you know, the electric guitar is wonderful.
	I mean, I, you know, shit, I wish I could play classical rock guitar, but like, I don't know, doesn't seem all that relevant to ending the war.
	No, not at all.
	And it's all vibes, man.
	These people, they don't have any governing success to go on, so it's all vibes, and they'll put the Ukraine flag in their bio, and they'll talk about defending freedom and democracy, and it's like, oh, by the way, you guys have gotten millions of people killed with nothing to show for it.
	The Ukrainians, by the way, it looks like wanted to sort of negotiate a year and a half ago.
	The Biden administration stopped them from doing it.
	That was when Ukraine was actually at its strongest, right?
	Like if you want to help the Ukrainians as much as possible and preserve their territory,
	you would actually say, well, let's let the Ukrainians negotiate
	from a position of strength rather than from a position of weakness.
	But look, here's the craziest thing about our posture in Ukraine, Don,
	is you talk to these guys and you realize that they're listening to all of the rejects
	who left the Republican Party when Trump became president, And like, you sort of know my background.
	I was like a Trump critic back in 2015 and sort of... I heard a little bit about this in the past.
	Listen, I'd say, great turnaround player, but maybe the best turnaround player.
	You know, when I was talking to DJT about, hey, we got to go in for JD, like he's become a friend.
	You know, I got to hear some of those clips.
	Not the easiest, but you know.
	But you've been a rock star.
	I mean, I used you as the example.
	I was like, hey, this is the one guy in the United States Senate.
	Quite literally, the one guy that's conservative in the United States Senate that'd be like, I want to fight with this guy because he gets it.
	He's doing what his constituency wants and no one else does.
	Yeah, and look, let's take Bill Kristol and everybody who was wrong about everything for 20 years and put them in the Democratic Party, and it's like, what are you guys doing?
	You know, when you're sort of like recruiting for a football team, it's like you don't recruit the rejects, right?
	You recruit the smart people who have actually gotten some things right.
	And the entire Biden approach to foreign policy, man, is listening to, like, take the 10 most wrong people for the last 30 years, put them in positions of power, and that is like who the Biden administration takes as their foreign policy advisors.
	It's just preposterous.
	You know, the thing that I kept coming back to, Don, when I was talking about the Ukraine conflict was, okay, like, set the moralisms to the side, right?
	Ukraine good, Putin bad.
	I agree with you.
	I like Ukraine.
	I don't like Putin.
	Like, we're not making a moral judgment about the Ukrainians being bad by saying we shouldn't write these guys $160 billion in blank checks.
	They do, by the way, have a corruption problem.
	nothing they were ranked more corrupt than Russia like prior to you know prior to Zalinsky becoming
	like you know the modern day deity of the left right he became like god i guess he replaced
	Fauci who had replaced Greta Thunberg as like the high priestess of the left. The holy trinity.
	The holy trinity.
	So what are we getting out of the billions that we spend though, JD?
	We're 160 billion in, you know, and every time, like, the Ukrainians shot a Russian tank today.
	Like, that's a big story.
	But when they lose, like, a quadrant of the country, it's like, it was a strategic withdrawal.
	I'm like, Yeah.
	You know, how much of this is being... I heard there's more millionaires being created in Ukraine, you know, than ever before.
	Like, 10x... I don't even know what the number is, but like, stupid numbers.
	I mean, it's just, it's grift.
	I mean, they're, you know, one of these towns, they lost one of these towns because the money that was designated to defend the town was stolen by the general in charge of the town.
	It's like, well, I'll pocket the money and you guys can have the town.
	I mean, what's going on here?
	Yeah, so I made a comment, Don, that really pissed off the left a while ago.
	And most of your colleagues on the right in the Senate, because let's say 40 over the 50 are probably pretty much in line with the left on this one.
	Yeah, a lot of neocons.
	And it was something to the effect of, look, these people want to cut Social Security so that they can send Ukraine more money.
	And I'm not throwing my grandparents into poverty so that we can buy Zelensky's ministers a bigger yacht.
	People went ape about that particular quote.
	They were very pissed off about it.
	You know why I said that?
	Because it happened.
	Well, because yeah, because a couple of weeks before I made that observation, we were talking to
	an energy company that does a lot of work all over the world
	and they told us this story of corruption in Ukraine where I was like, what is this?
	How is this not like the biggest story in the world?
	But like basically they were talking about bidding for various energy contracts.
	And these energy contracts of course are being paid a lot of them with American taxpayer dollars, right?
	Because so much of our money is going to the country.
	So these energy contracts are going to...
	People, not who are providing the lowest, highest quality bid, but to friends of the ministers and the government, right?
	It's the definition of corruption is you do these contracts, paid for with American dollars, and then you charge more money and give the contracts to your friends, right?
	So everybody gets rich, of course, except for the Ukrainian people, who are the ones who are actually suffering because of the conflict.
	And then I was like, okay, so let's look at some of the energy conglomerate oligarchs in Ukraine, and a couple of them are people who are literally buying superyachts.
	So I'm like, wait a second, our taxpayer dollars are funding corrupt energy oligarchs who are then You know, putting that money to yachts.
	Okay, that's bullshit.
	Yeah.
	And we should not stand for this in the Republican Party.
	We stand for anything.
	It's that we put the interests of American citizens first.
	And it's telling, that's maybe the thing I've said about Ukraine that has made people the most angry.
	It's always the true things you say that get people the most pissed off.
	And that, by the way, is the lesson of the Trump presidency.
	Yeah.
	Is when he said something that was true and you're not allowed to say it, that's when people went nuts.
	Yeah, no, 100%.
	I mean, the underlying other aspect of that is that it's those elites, whether they're American elites that are part of the sort of industrial military complex, big war, so to speak, or the elites in Ukraine that are those cabinet ministers.
	They're getting rich, but the people that are dying are not those guys.
	Zelensky's not at risk of anything happening to him.
	Uh, they're sending, you know, the people that they view as, you know, the peasants to go die.
	I mean, it's hundreds of thousands of, you know, young men sent to a front line as cannon fodder.
	Uh, and no one's even talking about that, right?
	It's sort of interesting.
	You know, you hear about, you know, the Israelis hit, you know, Hamas, a terrorist organization, and, you know...
	They're hiding behind children, so there's going to be casualties.
	I think that's terrible.
	I think it's horrible.
	I wish it would stop.
	But, like, maybe, you know, don't use children as a human shield if they... Absolutely.
	You know, minor details.
	But it seems like that's a real problem.
	But, you know, essentially committing genocide on both sides, you know, here, where it's just, you know, unlimited death for Russia.
	Take out... Might as well take out all of Russia.
	Who cares?
	Let every, you know, peasant Ukrainian that's sent to the front lines, oftentimes against their will, because half of them are ethnic Russian anyway.
	Why is there that disparity there?
	Why is it okay just to perpetuate the death there?
	But, you know, you go a little bit, you know, further to the west, in the Middle East, and all of a sudden it's like, well, that's different.
	We gotta stop this right away.
	Yeah, and I'm going to steal somebody's line.
	I forget who said this, Don, but they were, I think it was one of my maybe Senate colleagues who was talking about, you know, when the Biden administration, when the Democrats talk about Russian lives, they're like, you know, they're, they're like real tough guys.
	It's like, they've all taken, you know, like, like a bunch of steroids because they're like, oh, we're going to kill every single Russian.
	Who cares?
	We'll, you know, we'll bleed these guys dry.
	And yeah, a lot of Ukrainians are going to die, but it's worth it to bleed the Russians dry.
	And it's like, okay, well, aren't we supposed to be like helping the Ukrainians and you're talking about bleeding them dry so that we can bleed Russia dry too?
	Like that doesn't make a ton of sense.
	But then they talk about Israel and Hamas, and all of a sudden,
	these guys turn into big humanitarians, right?
	Every drop of innocent blood that is spilled is a tragedy.
	And I actually think that every drop of innocent blood is a tragedy.
	I can just hold that principle consistent across different wars,
	and also recognize that like, yeah, when you hide behind innocent women and children,
	as the Hamas terrorists are doing, it is unfortunate and terrible
	that people are going to get killed.
	I just tend to blame the people who are hiding behind the children more for that than anybody else.
	Yeah, no, I mean, they sort of have, you know, for Hamas, it's almost, I don't want to say perfect in that I agree with it, but they have this sort of perfect excuse because they're made to be the victim somehow, you know, in the mainstream press.
	So when you've won the PR war, you can actually do that.
	You hide behind children.
	No one calls you out for that.
	But then if children are unfortunate collateral damage, when you're going after literally people who would, you know, killed and murdered children and raped them in the streets, I mean, it's sort of the perfect cover.
	It's totally irrational, but that's the environment that today's media has created that sort of lets them get away with that entirely.
	Yeah, that's exactly right.
	And it's, again, it's a total double standard.
	And I think the basic answer here, Don, is the left is so obsessed with this oppressor versus oppressed narrative, and everything gets fit into that box.
	And if you're the oppressor, according to the left, then it doesn't matter what you do, you're always the oppressor.
	And poor little innocent Hamas, they're always the oppressed.
	Even when they murder women and children, they're still the oppressed.
	And I think that that is like the dynamic.
	I really hate this, right?
	Because I think that like a classic American understanding of the world is that, you know, yeah, sometimes you can get dealt a crappy hand in life, but you still try to persevere and do something with whatever, you know, make lemons out of lemonade, right?
	Like a classic American phrase.
	And this is like a real sickness, I think, of the modern American left where they want to turn everybody into a victim.
	And then they want sort of people to promote their like victim status.
	Yeah.
	And when I think about watching these college protests or just watching university students in classes and talking to people, there is this weird desire to just overstate how hard and how bad your life has been.
	So my theory on this, in the same way that you have a bunch of politicians who lied and said that they served in Vietnam and they really didn't, because that was the thing to do.
	Yeah, Don Heng, Dick Blumenthal, I guess.
	It wasn't really there, but it sounded good at the time.
	The thing to do was to serve your country.
	Set aside whether the Vietnam War was a good idea, of course it was a terrible idea.
	People were proud to serve their country.
	I'm telling you dude, in 10 years, Washington is going to be filled with congressmen and senators who talk about how if they grew up in like a one-room shack in the in the in the basement of you know a Hamas encampment and it's gonna turn out that they were like the son of the Sultan living in Qatar flying around on a private jet like this is people are so warped by this by pretending to be a victim that I think that like the next generation of Americans
	The smartest thing you can do, the wisest thing you can do is break free of that and not see yourself as a victim because it's going to screw with your whole psychology.
	Yeah, I mean, listen, you have an incredible story about that.
	I mean, your life.
	I mean, you wrote, you know, the New York Times bestseller, Hillbilly Algae.
	I mean, talking about like growing up, you know, in that sort of, you know, Appalachia and having, you know, a, let's call it, you know, fairly broken family and how the opportunities that you had and took got you out of that mindset.
	You know, you wrote a book about how you got out of it, not how you perpetually maintain, you know, Maintain that victim status you actually achieve and that seems to me like to be you know That's the American dream is you know being born into that and being able to get out of it Not permanently sort of resort to this is this is who I am to try to leverage some sort of other nonsense
	Yeah, absolutely.
	And the other thing, Don, is like, yeah, you know, I didn't always have the easiest life, but I feel incredibly grateful for all the good stuff that's happened to me.
	And I'm sure you've seen this and you've seen it with rich people and poor people.
	Like to me, like one of the biggest differences from whether somebody is a piece of shit or not is whether they have a sense of gratitude.
	And if you've got a sense of gratitude, man, like that is just such a powerful way to walk around is feeling like, you know, like, like people helped you.
	And you ought to be grateful for it.
	You shouldn't just constantly look in the mirror and whine about how terrible everything is.
	Yeah, no, I sit there and listen, I bitch a lot too.
	But like, you know, I constantly try to reinforce how I understand how blessed I've been and I want to make sure that that exists for other Americans because the American dream is real.
	The people who oftentimes bitch about it most, whether it's some professional sports player who's worth a billion dollars and somehow still manages to be super oppressed.
	You know, it feels sort of nonsense, and I think, you know, the whole idea of why we fight like this is to preserve, you know, the ability for others to be able to do that in America, because I think it's probably the only place in the world where you can still do that with regularity, and that's such an important foundation for what we all stand for as a country.
	Absolutely, and it's one of the things the media says about your dad that really bothers me.
	It's like, if you know Trump, right, and you talk to him, he talks about his dad, and he talks about his mom, I guess your grandparents, he talks about his kids, and all the workers that he dealt with, union workers, non-union workers, and there is just this sense, and he talks about the country, right?
	He's grateful for all of these various forces That have been there, that have made this such a good country to live in, that have made it possible for him to build this real estate empire.
	The media never tells that story.
	I think it's actually one of the reasons why more people haven't come around is they have this very warped media impression.
	And if we could just get the truth out, sometimes I feel like we're going to win a landslide in 24.
	We just have to tell the truth.
	It's so crazy.
	You just have to tell the truth.
	It's so easy, but there's so many insurmountable forces against us.
	A trillion dollars of big tech.
	You came from the tech world.
	You're one of 100,000 people that actually isn't looking at it through that warped lens.
	Speaking of warped lenses, you've been in the Senate now for a year and a half.
	What about the Senate has surprised you?
	What do you like?
	What do you hate?
	You know, it always shocks me.
	I see, you know, there's guys in Congress that fight.
	There's so few in the Senate that don't just get absorbed by the swamp, don't become, you know, oftentimes probably the thing that they hated about Washington, D.C., but they get there and it's like they get enveloped.
	What is it about the Senate that you've noticed that happens there?
	Well, it's interesting.
	I just came from lunch a few hours ago, and I was talking with Ron Johnson at lunch, and one of the things about Ron Johnson is when he talks about Wisconsin, when he talks about the plumbers and the electricians and the manufacturers, because he has this sort of business background, his face lights up, right?
	And Ron is funny.
	He's kind of like a grumpy guy on the one hand, but on the other hand, he has this real sense of passion and affection for the people of Wisconsin.
	I think the biggest problem in Washington, man, especially in the Senate, is that not enough people feel any attachment to the people who actually elected us, right?
	This is fundamentally a service business, right?
	You are sent to Washington to do a job, to save the country, to try to fix the problems that exist out there, and you're sent there by people who have very real issues.
	It doesn't mean they're victims, it just means they have problems and they want their government to address those problems, and there's not enough of that recognition.
	And I think a lot of people, you just think about like, Why is Washington broken?
	The fundamental question, it goes back to the social credit issue on the left, is whose opinion do you really care about, right?
	Ask yourself, and this is, if I could give you or anybody else advice, in who goes Native, corrupt in Washington, and who actually, like, stays true to the state that sent them, it's whose opinion do they care about?
	Because if they really care about the opinion of the people who sent them, they might be wrong on some issues, or I might disagree with them on issues, but they will always have that inner core, because they're always going to listen to the voice that they should be listened to.
	Whereas the people who care about, you know, what they say at Davos, or what they say at the Munich Security Conference, or what they say at all of these, like, summits, and journalists and everybody else who has influence in this town, if you care more about what those people think about you, you will eventually stab your voters in the back.
	Yeah, because it is one of those things.
	It's like, at least the Democrats, when they're doing this crazy stuff, it's like, well, you know, if they're from Manhattan, it's like, maybe that's where those people actually are.
	But it's the Republicans where I see that just that huge dichotomy between, you know, those who elected them to represent them in D.C.
	and D.C.
	You hear it like with Mitch McConnell.
	Ukraine funding is the number one issue for Republicans across the country.
	It's not.
	It's not even close.
	And I know because I've spoken to more Republicans across the country than Mitch McConnell has ever in his entire 476 year career in the United States Senate.
	It's just not.
	It's not a top 10 issue for that.
	I literally do a survey every time I speak in front of a large group and it's like 55,000 people I think I've probably done it to in the last 18 months and it's like One, the guy who happened to be from Kiev.
	So I was like, okay, it wasn't even a top 10, it wasn't even a top 10 issue.
	Sorry, it wasn't even a top three issue.
	Is it top three?
	Is it top 10?
	So far, one guy.
	There was another guy that was from DC that, you know, presumably he was a military contractor, but like 55,000 people, two people, actually it was three people, but the one guy, he heard the question as a double negative.
	So he changed his mind, you know, so two out of 55,000.
	In terms of polling, that's a very large sample set.
	That is not a strong thing.
	And the two people that were, it was only a top ten issue.
	And yet...
	Doesn't matter.
	Like for him, it's number one.
	It's the only thing that matters.
	And I guarantee you, no one in Kentucky gives a shit.
	And yet, that's his thing.
	Absolutely.
	So first of all, I've seen you do that at a number of different events, like in front of big crowds.
	And I remember like three months ago, you texted me, dude, I finally got the one guy who thinks that you...
	Yeah, I was shocked.
	I was like, wow.
	I was like, hey man, like, have that conversation.
	I had it at Rockbridge a couple weeks ago.
	He was another guy.
	He's literally wearing a suit and flip-flops.
	And he comes up and he just, you know, it's like, well, what about this?
	I was like, well, okay, so what's your answer?
	I was like, we're just gonna keep giving unlimited- and it was like, you could see it.
	Like, they clearly had no idea, so I literally engaged with him back and forth at the point.
	It was like, you haven't done anything to win me over.
	The whole crowd is like, being like, okay, stop.
	We heard your point, but you're not making a good one.
	Like, there was no answer.
	Is it- is it- do we- do we cut it off at a trillion?
	Ten trillion?
	Do we- I mean, we're paying Ukrainian pensions, you know.
	I don't know, I'd say unfunded pension liability in the United States is a real problem, whether it's for the people of your home state in Ohio, you know, car workers, steel workers, you know, teachers, whatever it is, it's a serious problem that we have no answer for, but we're funding pensions in Ukraine, so they're taken care of.
	I'm like, it's lunacy, I've never seen anything like it.
	Yeah, it doesn't make any sense, and you're exactly right.
	Nobody's identified how long does this go on, how much money does it actually cost, and this is what's interesting, Don, is to get a little bit into the weeds of political polling.
	Tony Fabricio, who's my pollster and he's your dad's pollster, he's a really, really smart guy, You can't ask people, well, what do you just think about this issue?
	Because that doesn't tell you what they're motivated by, right?
	You gotta ask them the issues they're motivated by.
	And right now, what people are motivated by is, you know, if you're a young person, good luck buying a home because mortgage interest rates are through the roof.
	Good luck going to the grocery store and actually staying in budget for a middle-class family because food is crazy right now.
	Then you talk about energy costs.
	Then you talk about the fact that they're worried about sending their kids to a school where they're not going to get a good education.
	They're going to get indoctrinated.
	That's true at their elementary schools.
	It's also true, of course, at the upper levels too.
	There are real things that actually motivate and piss people off.
	Even if they disagree with me on Ukraine, it is almost never the main issue they're voting on.
	And like, you know, again, politics, you gotta stand on principle, right?
	And you remember this, because you were right there with me.
	Our Ukraine view is not necessarily the most popular view two years ago, but we made that argument because I think that we were right.
	Yeah, because no one ever articulated an endgame.
	Like, no one told me, like, I still have, like, we're 160 billion in, what's a win?
	Like, you know, I don't know.
	You're in the Senate.
	What do your colleagues tell you?
	Because you're asking the same question.
	You're with me.
	But, you know, they're voting on these things as, you know, they're absolutes.
	We've just got to do it.
	But, like, what does a win look like?
	Is it you lose half the country, but we're $3 trillion in?
	If that means that a family can't feed themselves in America, like, is that still a win?
	And that's what we're talking about.
	Because, you know, It's not like we're doing great.
	I mean, we're $34 trillion in debt.
	We're sending, you know, here's another $25 million to Pakistani trans education programs.
	I'm sure that's not being stolen.
	You know, we're like the piggy bank of the world for like the dumbest things, and yet You know, this is an unlimited thing, and not a single person in DC has said, what's a win look like?
	And by the way, or what's a win look like even within the realm of reasonable?
	Meaning, it's not like, you know, Russia doesn't have the upper hand right now because we let it go so long, we didn't get to the table when we could.
	The sanctions that we put on have jacked up energy prices so much that Russia's basically net neutral.
	They're paying for it with this while simultaneously building their economy, because that's what happens in war, especially when you're selling oil to others.
	At this point, it's almost like a win for them.
	And I don't see that stopping anytime soon.
	And when I talk to my colleagues, I do ask this question, I do have conversations, and I like most of my colleagues, right?
	I'm a pretty friendly guy and I get along with most people.
	The thing that they will tell me is...
	Well, we don't necessarily know what a win looks like, we just know that Ukraine will definitely lose if we don't write this additional check.
	But that logic is going to have you writing a $60 billion check in a few months, and then a $60 billion check a few months after that, and it's just going to get us further and further down this rabbit hole, and a lot more people are going to get killed, and eventually an adult is going to have to stand up and say, What are we trying to accomplish?
	How long does it take to accomplish?
	How much money does it take?
	And I think when we get to that point, what we're going to realize, Don, is what the Ukrainians realized two years ago, which is negotiate a peace, accept that it's going to suck, but that we stop the killing, we stop the risk of escalation into a broader war.
	I mean, these people, they say that they care.
	The Biden people, they care.
	Ukraine is like the most important issue in the world to them.
	And yet, they're pushing Germany to adopt green energy policies that's turning Russia into the distinct energy superpower of the world.
	Like, you can't on the one hand say, we've got to fight the Ukrainians, or fight the Russians to the last Ukrainian, and with the other hand say, we're going to pursue energy policies that make Russia one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
	It doesn't make an outcome.
	But they do that, right?
	That's what they did with NATO.
	That's what they do.
	Trump's like, well NATO's got to, and Germany's like, we're not going to pay our 2% or a fair
	share, but it's like contractually written.
	But we want you, America, to step up and defend us more against Russia while simultaneously
	opening up the Nord Stream pipeline.
	So we're going to enrich the enemy that we want you to protect us from.
	We're not going to even contribute our fair share because you guys are schmucks.
	And you know, that's just the way it is.
	And we're like, we're supposed to be like, oh, this is great.
	My father says like, uh, no, no, like you're congratulations.
	You want to do that?
	You're on your own.
	I can't believe Trump.
	He's pro-Russia.
	It's insane.
	It's totally crazy, and here's the thing.
	The Germans will say, on the one hand, that if you guys don't stop the Russians in Ukraine, they're going to march all the way to Berlin.
	And then you go to Berlin, and it's like, they're sure as hell not acting like they're about to be invaded by the Russians.
	There's no sense of urgency, and they're still, to this point, not at 2% of GDP.
	If you really thought the Russians were about to invade your country, you'd be spending 10% of GDP on defense, not us begging you to spend 2% of GDP.
	And I mean, all of this stuff is built on a house of cards and contradictions that doesn't make any sense.
	We want to fight the Russians, but we want to empower the Russian economy by our ridiculous energy policies.
	You know, we need to manufacture more weapons so that we can take a bigger role in our self-defense.
	But Germany is de-industrializing because this green energy stuff, Don, you can't make anything.
	You can't manufacture stuff with like energy generated by solar panels and wind farms.
	So the whole thing is utter bullshit.
	Nobody believes it.
	But again, you have to kind of repeat the lie.
	You know, it almost would have been easier to walk this back six months ago or two years ago.
	Now people are so invested in it, they have to just keep on repeating it.
	And I fear, unless we get your dad back in office, this is going to totally go off the rails.
	Yeah, but they're trying to make it harder for him, right?
	They're trying to say, well, if we commit this amount of money for the next three years, if you try to roll that back as president, you're going to be impeached.
	And I'm like, wait, the one guy that they know that could actually create peace there, that could actually get both sides to sit at the table, they're trying to take away the ultimate leverage he has, which is the money.
	Because if the money goes away, Ukraine's at the table in about 0.2 seconds.
	Uh, but why stop the death?
	If the people are making decisions, they're not at risk, and they're buying their yachts, that's never gonna happen.
	And, you know, again, you're just literally creating death and mayhem.
	Yeah, and you're eliminating negotiating leverage from the one president who's actually, to your point, delivered some measure of peace in the world for the last 20 years.
	He's the only president who hasn't started a new war, by the way, in the past 20 years.
	And he's the only president who actually successfully dealt with guys like Putin and Xi.
	So, okay, here's like a pet peeve of mine, Don, about your dad's foreign policy.
	People always said, and this is right, right?
	They would always say Trump is strong.
	And Trump was strong on foreign policy, right?
	There was a certain amount of respect.
	But the more important thing is that Trump was smart.
	He actually recognized that when you're sitting across from an enemy or an adversary or a competitor, whatever word you want to call them, you have to recognize, well, they have interests.
	They're trying to accomplish something.
	We have interests.
	We're trying to accomplish something.
	Like there's a whole interplay that happens there.
	It's not just like, I'm going to beat my chest and be the tough guy.
	You have to not be a total idiot.
	Yeah, it's the art of the deal.
	You can't have someone, they're trying to negotiate world peace where they've never negotiated a car lease.
	Like it, you know, you just, there's other considerations.
	And that's why when they're like, well, Trump, Trump didn't call Putin an impotent cuck on national TV in front of the world.
	It's like, because what would it accomplish?
	Like, you know, fine.
	Oh, he stroked his ego?
	That doesn't mean he doesn't recognize who he is exactly.
	It just means that it serves no purpose to demean him on a world stage, because then one day when you do have to make that phone call, you do have to have an uncomfortable talk.
	Like, there's at least a rapport.
	He did the same thing with North Korea, and they were like, it's so terrible.
	I'm like, it's so terrible.
	Like, what have you done?
	You've been in charge for 40 years, and jack shit has happened.
	Like, You know, we changed the game.
	Like, you know, these guys were doing Einstein's definition of sanity, you know, doing the same thing over and over, hoping for a different result.
	And strangely enough, it never happened.
	Trump comes in, changes the game, actually accomplishes something.
	It's like, well, he's doing it all wrong.
	I'm like, based on your total lack of accomplishment, it makes no sense.
	Yeah, Biden called Putin the worst names in the book and then Putin invaded Ukraine anyway, right?
	Like, this is not what matters in foreign policy.
	You have to have a strong country and you have to have a leader with some wisdom and intelligence in negotiating these things.
	We don't have either, of course.
	I think we have a weaker country.
	We also have a complete dimwit as president and that is a big, big problem, man.
	And I think, you know, this is like, this is where You know, the neocons get on my nerves is they talk like it's all about strength, right?
	You know, there's the Reagan Doctrine, the Roosevelt Doctrine, the Trump Doctrine.
	All of these people were strong, yes, but they were also intelligent and they recognized like, you know, Kissinger, love the guy or hate the guy.
	Kissinger was a smart dude and he was one of the most successful diplomats we've had because he wasn't an idiot.
	Yeah.
	So listen, lastly, I got to ask you, because you're believed to be on the shortlist for VP.
	Oh man.
	Believed may be, you know, a weak word.
	I think I'd probably have some inside knowledge on that.
	But, you know, if you get that call, what's the answer?
	Well, look, man, I've told you, I've told everybody, I want to help your dad however I can.
	And so certainly if he asks me, I want to help him.
	Now, here's the thing.
	You know, as much as the media is reported on this, I mean, I think you certainly know more about this than I do.
	Because I, you know, I saw your dad yesterday.
	I was with him all day, or half the day, and we didn't talk about vice president once.
	And I've never talked with him about the VP thing.
	And so, you know, my assumption is like, this is a little bit of media speculation.
	Maybe it's a little bit real, but He'll make his decision.
	I'm sure that whoever he picks will be a good vice president, and I'll cross that bridge if I have to.
	But look, man, I want to help him because, as you know, I think he did a good job, and I think that we really need somebody who is both strong and smart.
	And if we had that for four years, I think we could have it again.
	Well, listen, I've advocated for you for all the reasons you're not afraid to take this on.
	You go on, you know, CNN.
	I really want to see, like, the J.D.
	Vance Kamala Harris vice presidential debate because, like I said, you know, there's some other nice people that could be vice president, I guess, but, like, I'm like...
	There's not many, especially when they're trying to hold him up in court, right?
	There's a portion of that.
	You said it earlier.
	They're keeping Trump off the playing field because they know Trump on the playing field is bad for Joe Biden.
	They'll keep Joe Biden in a basement because you put him in front of even a teleprompter and it's an abject disaster.
	So while they're keeping him on the sidelines, I think we need someone like yourself who can actually go out there and fight, not just take the... Well, Jake Tapper said January 6th was an insurrection.
	It was, I guess, kind of the first unarmed insurrection in the history of the world, but I'm going to accept your premise, Jake.
	I mean, what I love about you, J.D., is you just give it back to them in their face.
	You do it respectfully and calmly, much more calm than I am with these lunatics.
	But, you know, I think that's an important thing that we need out there right now.
	So, you know, hopefully that happens.
	I say we should choose sooner than later because I want that to be out there right now.
	I don't want to be relegated to sort of, you know, the basement like Joe Biden, but, you know, We'll play that out and see how it goes.
	Well, I appreciate it, man.
	And you're, of course, a good friend.
	But I will say, on the vice presidential debate, you know, I'm really worried about Vice President Harris.
	She's very smart and very eloquent.
	So, you know, I don't know if I want to take that on.
	You're so afraid you actually wanted to go on for 24 hours so that we can give yourself some runway to build up and maybe be able to come up with a good one-liner somewhere in there to be able to take it on.
	Yes, I'm with you 100%.
	Let's maintain proper expectations, J.D.
	That's right, that's right.
	Alright man, thanks.
	It was fun.
	Guys, Senator J.D.
	Vance, check him out.
	Follow him.
	One of the true warriors out there, J.D.
	Thanks so much.
	Really appreciate it.
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