Dec. 23, 2025 - Human Events Daily - Jack Posobiec
45:18
AmFest Exclusive - The Demise of Performative Politics
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This is what happens when the fourth turning meets fifth-generation warfare.
A commentator, international social media sensation, and former Navy intelligence veteran.
This is Human Events with your host, Jack Pasovic.
Christ is King.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard today's special edition of Human Events from Amfest.
Now, one of the breakout panels that we did, probably one of the most interesting ones, I think, at Amfest was something where it didn't get broadcast publicly, but we recorded it and we wanted to turn that into an episode for you.
So it's myself, Rich Barris, the people's pundit, Joshua Lyssek, the greatest ghostwriter in the world.
And towards the end, we get joined by Mark Mitchell, the honest pollster from Rasmussen Reports.
And it's a panel about performative politics and whether or not performative politics is hurting or helping in the current moment and really talking about where the movement is, where the MAGA movement is, where the Trump administration is.
So this one is going to cause some sparks, and I think you're going to enjoy it.
Stay tuned.
Good morning, Amfest.
Wake up.
Pray up.
All right, let's sit down.
So today we're going to talk about the demise of performative politics.
And if you're in this room right now, I think you kind of already know what we're talking about.
Who here, and you could, let's do a show of hands.
Who here is sick of all the talk with no action?
Okay, that's 100%.
We would have 200% if I had said to put up both hands.
So we're here with Rich Barris.
He's the people's planet.
He's been doing all the polling out there.
Love that.
I am Charlie Kirkshir right in the front.
We love that.
We love that.
Don't we love that, folks?
And Joshua Lysak, he's here and he's written, Joshua.
How many books have you written at this point?
I just finished writing my 110th nonfiction book.
110 books he's written.
Joshua is the world's most public ghostwriter.
So you won't see those books all with his name.
However, multiple New York Times bestsellers, but he can't tell you what they are.
Yeah, that's how we're.
But he's out of Ohio.
And so being a man of Ohio, he was very close with JD Vance when he ran for Senate.
He's been out there.
He's understood all of these dynamics that have happened in the Rust Belt in these areas that led to the deindustrialization because of globalization and then also the rise of populism.
And I would also note that he does live right down the street from Springfield, Ohio.
So Joshua, you're making sure to count the cats, right?
Because the Haitians are still kind of running around a little bit.
The population of domesticated felines does seem to be increasing recently.
Interesting.
So the feline population goes up as the Haitian population goes down.
An incredible correlation.
I can't believe it.
It's an inverse relationship, yes.
So as you would say in the business.
And Mark Mitchell from Rasmussen is going to be joining us soon as well.
But Rich, let's kick it off with you because you've been causing a stir lately.
People are saying, oh, Rich Barris, he's crazy.
He doesn't know anything.
He's making it all up.
What do you mean?
You know, people are souring.
You're crazy.
Trump's numbers are the best ever.
This is going great.
And yet I do see it online.
And I'll actually just tell you, Rich, before we came out here, I did an event where I was speaking out in Indiana, in Carmel, Indiana.
We had a great group of people, great group of patriots.
And I had one man who got up and said, I'm sick of all the talk with no action.
And he said, Jack, you need to promise me that you'll go to Amfest and talk about those issues.
And I said, well, buddy, I'm doing a whole panel on it.
So I promise you I will.
So, Rich, where is that?
Is that dynamic real?
Where is it coming from?
And how big are the numbers that you're seeing on this when you're out in the field doing polling, specifically, by the way, in those seven key swing states that we know that Trump of the coalition and MAGA and Charlie worked so much on in 2024?
Well, first, we'll talk after the breakout about a ghost right.
Oh, secondly, Jack, it is real.
Maybe a co-author.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, Jack, it is real.
I mean, I was right in 20, 24, even 16 since the guy came down the golden escalator.
I'm not wrong now.
There is this, I don't want to call it malaise, but there is this frustration because to so many of Donald Trump's voters, these people, by the way, who I talk with Charlie over so much about, they are Trump or bust or Trump's vision or bust.
And they want really not much at all to do with the Republican Party.
And they have seen this first year, and in the first couple months, they loved it.
That's why his approval rating was skyrocketing.
Republicans on the generic ballot were leading for most of that year.
It's only recently that the Democrats took over.
And there's this feeling that towards the end of this first year, the administration got a little bit sidelined.
They got distracted and they didn't keep their eye on the ball.
These voters were always going to be the Republican Party's number one goal and they didn't even know it.
You have to convince them that you're one of them and that you have to earn their vote, Jack.
And so you say the Trump or bust voter.
I remember when Charlie and I would talk about this all the time.
We're talking about those low-prop voters and a guy or a girl, a man or a woman who's not going to come out for the generic Republican, the old school Republican, the propositional nation Republican.
They're going to come out for Donald Trump.
They're going to come out for MAGA.
They're going to come out for a populist.
And they want to see that type of action.
This is a working class.
So profile this type of voter for me, someone who doesn't normally get involved in politics, but gets so motivated to come out when Donald Trump's there.
You know, it's interesting because before, during the nomination process this past year, the DeSantis campaign made the argument that I'm going to win back suburban women, and that will account for not getting these people out, who everybody, they know they exist.
That was a false argument.
We're in a demographic change.
We're in a shift.
We're in a realignment.
The only way to win is to get these people out.
And they are deeply disgruntled with society.
They distrust everything.
And interestingly enough, they lean to the right, but they don't necessarily call themselves conservatives at all.
Donald Trump won in one of the most moderate electorates in our lifetime.
I had to go back to Bill Clinton's win in 92.
It was only 34%, 32, depending on which exit poll you're looking at, percent who said they were conservative.
And yet Donald Trump still won, kind of easy.
It's because of these voters.
And I got to tell you, let me just say this.
I've listened to a lot of people that speak throughout this event.
Some people are using it for this proxy war of what's going to happen with the party after Donald Trump.
I am going to say this.
I flew six hours to say this.
You go back to Ben Shapiro's version of the Republican Party and the Mitt Romney version of the Republican Party, and you are cooked.
You're cooked.
You can't do it.
If you want 50 million votes, go ahead.
If you want 78, 80 million votes, you have to move forward with America first.
Those are the numbers.
That's it.
And again, profiling those people, when conservatives come out and say the Constitution's so great and capitalism's so great, these people are being hurt by this system because we're not really practicing true free market capitalism, are we?
They're being crushed by it.
The Constitution isn't protecting them from liberal judges or from crazy school boards when they go to a school board meeting and say, I don't want these people allowing transgender people in the bathroom with my daughter.
I'm uncomfortable with this.
And the police drag him out.
So the Constitution isn't saving that guy.
It's not protecting that guy.
So for some of us who may be a little bit more privileged than these people, we have to remember that.
It's a different experience.
And Trump has only been the one to speak to that.
This is that working class coalition that he put together, which, by the way, was a multi-ethnic coalition.
Rich is one of the first people to call this.
I want to switch to Joshua here because Joshua, look, I'm from Pennsylvania.
You're from Ohio right next door.
You're very familiar because you're literally living there.
When you see people who were for Trump in 2024, do you talk to people now who are saying, where's the action?
And actually, by the way, there's something I do want to say because you just mentioned his name.
I know there's little ears in the area, so I'm going to be careful about how I say this.
You just mentioned Bill Clinton.
Has anyone seen those pictures of Bill Clinton that just came out last night?
Has everyone seen that?
That's some of the most disgusting stuff I've ever seen in my entire life.
I think these files, you almost want to call it the Clinton files that just came out.
It's just the Clinton-Epstein files.
And to anybody who said there was no there, you just lied.
You obviously lied.
This always should have been made public.
It's disgusting that this was kept from the American people.
And we got to get to the bottom of what exactly was going on between Clinton and Epstein.
Just got to say that, because that was sick.
I was sick to my stomach looking at some of this stuff, just sick to my stomach.
But Joshua, so when you're out there, when you're talking to people, are you meeting this type of populist who says, I don't want the talk, I want the action?
Yes, I am.
And I attend and I speak at and I go to various right-wing political events in Ohio.
And we've all heard this reference that the right is a big tent.
And I think it was, in hindsight, and perhaps even foresight, pretty obvious that Charlie Kirk was the tent pole, keeping everyone together.
And now there has been a re-tribalizing of the various right-wing factions.
Meanwhile, characters like Vivek Ramaswamy last night, you might have heard also from Ohio, just down the road in Cincinnati, from me.
The vision he laid out for Ohio and for America last night was a continued detribalizing, going back to the, let's say, the Ben Shapiro, Ritt Romney, sort of principles first, conservatism.
America is an idea.
There's this thought that you might have heard it called magic dirt theory, right?
Which is anyone can come to the United States and instantly become a heritage American sort of a concept.
That, from my perspective, is a conservatism of the past.
We talk about the Constitution, our principles, heritage, values, eggs are $6.
Let's talk about deportations aren't happening fast enough.
Well, what about the election?
We have to win.
We have to.
My property taxes are still too high.
These are the things that I'm hearing about.
I supported several local candidates for office, true economic populists for office last year locally in southwest Ohio.
And these are guys who, their campaign speeches are showing up.
They're showing up in t-shirts and tennis, these guys.
One of them is a farmer.
The other one, he is an assistant little league coach.
And they're showing up, say, hey, I may not win, but I'm going to try hard.
That is populist authenticity.
We've all heard the expression, you have to know, like, and trust before someone's going to buy from you.
In the past, performative politics meant, oh, so you have to know me and like me.
So I will project a certain image.
I will dress super nice so that you know me as someone respectable and that you'll like me.
So I will pretend.
I will put up a facade that I am just like you.
And through my eloquence and my tail spinning, I will persuade you to then trust me to vote for me.
Whether or not any of that is actually authentic or real.
With the various factions that I see in Ohio and also throughout the United States, it does seem that when we people say, you know, social media isn't real life, it does in fact seem that Twitter is real life.
The conversations happening, even among anons in the replies, are happening in real life.
Generally, under 30 that I talk to in Ohio, under 30 right-wing people, they describe President Donald J. Trump as centrist or a center-left administration.
Meanwhile, the events I go to, people are asking, the speakers are asking me, so what can we do to better support Israel if you're over age 65?
This is what people are saying.
I'm concerned that Vice President JD Vance has become an isolationist.
How can we get more money to Ukraine?
Again, over age seven, just out of nowhere.
And I want to pee on that.
So you're seeing an age split there on the issues.
Yes.
So when you're seeing that, and I'll come to Rich in a second here.
So when you're seeing that, so that's the over, you know, over 60, over 65.
What about the sort of 40, 45, and under?
What are they saying are the top issues?
Biggest issue I hear from 40, 45-ish, like the elder millennial, younger Gen X, is I have to work two jobs, mortgage payment, or trying to get the first house or trying to go from an apartment or renting a single family home into a home.
It is economics.
Economics, economics, economics.
And that is the message of populism.
Who is going to best help the people?
believe through I'm doing a lot of work with Data Republican we have a fun little project that you guys know Data Republican out there All right.
Joshua and Data Republican and Jennica have a book.
She's here, right?
I think she's actually attending.
I don't know if she's in the room, but I'm not going to call her out like that.
But she is attending Amfest.
I saw her around a little bit.
So if you see her, go up and say hi and give her some love because she doesn't usually come.
I think it's like her first big event that she's come to like this.
So she's phenomenal and she was very, very close to Charlie in 2024.
She was really one of the secret weapons.
And her and Joshua are working on a very secret, very cool book that I've got to see a little glimpse of already that's going to be coming out soon, all about the deep state and how the infrastructure of it, the mapping of it, the understanding of this is the real power structure and why we can't just get people elected to office who snap their fingers and change things because this power structure is in place and it's called the unelected, the unelected.
It's going to be amazing.
Rich Barris, I want to piggyback on what I just asked Joshua, that idea of this issue split that we're seeing going on generationally.
He mentioned, do you agree with what he said about the 40, 45, the sort of like elder millennial Gen Y cohort?
But then also I want to ask you about Gen Z.
I want to ask you about these people coming online politically.
Do you see that more of a split towards economic as well?
Yeah, so I'm listening and I'm nodding in agreement because, I mean, we'll say under 50.
That's a good, that's a good, that's a good baseline too.
What's interesting is, and I mean, we're calling this the demise of performative politics.
These people feel like that the 50 and overcrowd had it really good and squandered it all.
And they have it really bad.
And now they're going to have to work twice, three times, four times as hard to be able to have the standard of life that the people who came before them and, oh, by the way, had the luxury of being happy losers and principled conservatives.
They had the luxury of that.
While these younger voters do not.
And when we were even before, when we were talking about the difference in the moderate versus conservative, right?
These younger voters, they're much more populist.
They don't even want to call themselves conservative, right?
I mean, that's what we're looking at like 29% self-identification of conservatives.
Mark, when he comes, talk to him about this.
The attitudes with the 45 or 15 under crowd are vastly different from those principled conservatives.
They wouldn't care less if Donald Trump just pretended as if there was no Congress and just did everything he could do to fix the problem.
And, you know, they see the Congress as part of that deep state.
Maybe just for one day.
Maybe just one day.
24 hours.
24 hours.
2%.
2%, right?
That's why he wasn't hurt with them with that comment.
I mean, you have a guy running for president who says, you know, I could stand to do it for one day.
Everyone else.
Do you guys remember what we're referencing?
Hannity asked Trump.
He said, they call you a dictator.
Are you a dictator?
And he said, no, I'm not a dictator.
I wouldn't be a dictator, except maybe just one day.
And they drove them nuts.
And they'd be okay with that.
That's because they're so, I mean, this is trepidation we're talking about here.
A short 24-hour period to restore the Republic.
Just a little Franco fix for 24 hours.
That's all.
And if he gets it done, he'll be remembered for it.
But people feel like Donald Trump's presidency really was their last chance.
So I think this is why people have a hard time understanding.
You put out a generic ballot and all of a sudden everybody's head hits the ceiling and it's not even that bad, but it is if you can't even get those people to come out to vote because they're upset.
They felt like this was their last opportunity to fix this country.
That's how they're doing.
And so what you're saying is that for this under 50 cohort, the idea is that they think Trump isn't going far enough.
It's not that 100% conservative enough.
It's not that he's too conservative.
He's not conservative enough.
Show of hands.
Is there anyone out there who agrees with that?
And you're not down a camera on you.
I see a lot of this.
I see a lot of this.
People saying they want more of that.
They want less of the performativeness.
They see the tweets.
It's not that they disagree with the tweets, but they want to see the action that follows up with those tweets at the same time.
And the danger here, and I'll toss to Joshua here for a little bit, because the danger here is that populism is a tool.
And populism is a powerful tool that can be wielded by the right to immense popular success, immense electoral success.
However, if populism moves to the left, it becomes extremely dangerous because the populism of the left is the populism of Zora Mamdani.
It's the populism of grievance politics, of instead of we're going to build everything up and have that rising tide that lifts all boats, that's what Trump is for.
That's what we're for.
That's MAGA populism.
But in this case, it's the populism of we're going to tear down everything that everyone's built.
We're going to go after the banks, the churches, the businesses, Elon Musk, and Zora Mamdani, who, oh, by the way, I called him out in the Oval Office to his face about this.
He said that he was going to put an overburdened tax on white neighborhoods and redistribute it to people who were new migrants.
And then he tried to say, well, that wasn't my intent.
That was my description.
I say, oh, so you described your intent of taxing the white people more and distributing to migrants.
Oh, these theater kids, you just got to boo them.
You just got to boom, guys.
Wasn't he great, though?
Did you guys see what he's talking?
Wasn't he great?
I want to know one of the policies as well that Mayor Lekmondamu talked a number of times about on the campaign was shifting the tax burden for property taxes from what he called minority communities to white-based communities and putting more taxes on white people.
I also noticed that in your acceptance you didn't mention anything about America or Christians or white people in general.
And so I didn't know if that was one of the policies that you guys had spoken about.
We focused on affordability.
We focused on the cost of living crisis.
What I will say is that I am very much interested in property tax reform because what we see right now in New York City is a system that is so inequitable that it can't even stand up in court.
And the president and I spoke about the importance of not only building more housing, but also making sure that regulation of housing is something that is manageable to actually get through and not the cause of yet another weight that we see.
You're continuing this idea of race-based property taxes.
No, to be very clear.
That's what you said.
No, the use of the term was a description of neighborhoods, not a description of intent.
So you intend to tax the whiter neighborhoods more.
You got to hold their feet to the fire.
These communists, they're all liars.
They lie every time.
As Joshua and I would say, this is what they do.
But Joshua, I'll toss that to you.
Talk to me about the danger then if populism moves to the far left.
Fortunately, what we did see from approximately the Occupy Wall Street era 2010 to 2012 and in 2016 via first the Bernie Sanders kind of Bernie Bro coalition and then with the Maha Moms, the independents, we did see a move from economic, let's say left-wing economic populists to being right-wing economic populists, finding that, oh, Sanders sells out.
Okay, he's just another spokesboy for the regime here, right?
Well, ultimately, populism, as Jack said, can go either way.
And populism is basically: we are a people, normal, everyday individual people, and it's our responsibility to support them, to help them thrive, to help them prosper.
Well, one of those is an uplift.
That is the traditional right-wing values of law and orderliness and 1940s Norman Rockwell paintings, right?
Those are the aspirations.
That's why we see Gen Z youth sharing those as means.
That's sort of the golden standard, let's say.
Whereas on the left, Steve Saylor, if you're familiar with him, he has a phrase called the coalition of the fringes.
And what left-wing political organizers have done for more than 250 years, in every time, place, space, and race they do this, they will go find the troubled and the troublemakers, those who have the strongest grievances.
First, that was the unemployed, the working class, the criminal class in various countries in the industrial period.
Oh, gosh, I got Benny Johnson calling me.
Let's see what Benny wants.
No, I'll take it later.
I'll take it later.
We're cooking something up, folks.
You'll see.
Very cool.
So what we saw is the left-wing, they will organize and they will agitate.
They will say, look at what they did to you.
It's not about what do you want and how do we help you get it?
That is right-wing populism.
Right-wing economic populism.
What do you want?
Let us help you get it.
I want eggs to be a dollar again.
I want to deport 100 million people.
Okay, very simple, right?
And meanwhile, wait, wait, let's check.
Let's check.
Who here thinks there's only 10 million illegal aliens in this country?
All right, 20.
Who I got?
20.
All right, who's going 30?
Who's going 30?
All right, a little bit for 30.
40?
40?
Do we have 40?
50?
50?
All right, how many say it's 100?
Oh my gosh, this is amazing.
This is such a little poll, right?
It's like a focus group.
40, 40.
Go afraid a focus group, right, Rich?
It's like one of your focus groups.
No, and by the way, I'll say this, Joshua.
Just one of the save rounds that I had that you were mentioning about this idea that anyone can just show up in America and become an American.
And I like that.
It's a romantic thought, right?
And if you're leading with your heart, you want to say, I wish we lived in a world where that were true.
But ladies and gentlemen, does Zora Mamdani seem like a regular American to you?
How about Ilhan Omar?
How about Hassan Piker, right?
And all these guys, right?
No, no, we just, we know that's not an American.
You don't act like American.
You don't have American heritage.
You're not interested in assimilating to this country.
We've seen it in Minneapolis with what is it, $8 billion?
Or no, $9 billion.
So it's half of the $18 billion was scammed by Somalians in Minneapolis.
And the problem is when you import these people from cultures that don't have the same values as us, they don't value honor.
They don't value the honor system.
They don't value the golden rule.
They say whatever I can take is something good because I've gained something.
They will abuse our systems and walk right away to the tune of billions of dollars.
I love, by the way, Tim Waltz, after he's been caught with his, you know, letting them take all their hands in the cookie jar.
He goes, well, I was always against the fraud.
I was.
And Keith Ellison, they got a real scandal on their hands up there, folks.
And I'm telling you, we have the ability right now, the popular support President Trump does, to end every single program for the Somalis in this country to get them out.
And Rich, and I'll throw it back to you, Rich.
If Trump were to do that and visibly do that, and he's talked about it, to be sure, but if he were visibly doing that, what would that happen?
What would that do with this coalition of voters that you're talking about, these low-prop working class voters?
Nothing juices them more than immigration.
Let's go.
Because they see this.
Yeah.
They see this as an economic issue, too.
It's not just.
And it is, of course, right?
In fact, they probably did long before we ever started talking about it in political discourse.
And by the way, here's a little bit of a warning, though.
And this is what the left used to say about mass immigration and illegal immigration.
Bernie Sanders, the unions, they would always say that when you import this foreign cheap labor, that it depresses wages and is downward deflationary pressure on wages.
This was a left-wing issue, and then they all started shutting up about it because they were getting money from the different coalitions that are bilking the system when it comes to illegal aliens and mass migration.
Yes, it's the Chamber of Commerce, but you know what?
There's religious organizations involved as well.
And as a Catholic, I've got to call out Catholic charities.
I've got to call out all that.
There's Lutherans that are involved as well.
There's Jewish groups that are involved as well.
I don't care.
Don't take the name of my church and use it to cover for your facilitation of breaking the law.
How many people have lived in the Vatican lately?
Right?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and Pope Leo, let's say, how many migrants are you taking in, Pope Leo?
Yeah, yeah.
When we had that Tennessee 7 special election, Donald Trump came out and he posted, I am pausing permanently, moratorium on third world immigration.
The percentage of certain to vote on the Republican side jumped 10 points.
Extremely enthusiastic jumped 10 points.
Donald Trump knows how to just push a little bit.
He has a way of nudging people to get out there and vote.
But at a certain point, they do ask, I need some action here.
And I was listening to talk about Mamdani, and you did do great with him.
But there were Mamdani Trump voters.
This is something people just can't get their heads around.
He did amazing in New York City, Donald Trump.
He did.
I mean, unfortunately, I'm not sure.
Mandani talked about this in The Oval.
He pointed out that one out of 10 Trump voters in New York City also voted for Mandami.
You could see it too.
If you follow this campaign, you could see, and especially what'll jump right out at you is how non-white that coalition is, right?
So he did very well, not by winning silk-stocking Republicans and, you know, yuppie kind of the 80s Republican voter.
That is gone.
That's over.
He did well by winning non-whites in the five boroughs.
And many of those very same voters then went and voted for Mamdani.
Their ideologies supposedly have nothing in common.
What do they have in common?
I want to help you.
Yeah.
I want to help you.
I want you to survive.
I want you to thrive instead of actually just survive.
They have that message and it appeals to people.
And, you know, just going to what you were saying.
Right-wing populism ends with national resurgence and growth and prosperity and the peace dividend.
Left-wing populism ends with democide.
That is where it goes.
So.
It always ends in a pile of skulls and mass graves and bones.
That's where communism and Marxism always lead.
So when you want to know why I'm blackpilling on Twitter all day long, it's because when I see these fractures in the coalition, and I know they need to be put back soon, because if you don't put them back, they'll go somewhere else.
And ladies and gentlemen, speaking of black pillars, Mark Mitchell of Rash Music Reports has found his way to join us.
Rich, if you mind sharing the mic there with Mark.
So Mark, we've been going through, I'm sure you already know the conversation we've been having, performance versus action.
Talk to us.
Now, we know that you were, and in the Washington Post reported that you had a conversation in the White House with President Trump in the Oval Office.
You talked about a little bit about that with them.
You talked about it on your show.
What was the presentation that you made to the president there regarding this very issue?
So his approval rating is not terrible.
I don't think that's the problem.
I don't think that's a polling to look at anymore.
Really, I think the problem is that the Republicans are going to lose.
Like right now, you look at the polling, it's not going to look too good a year from now.
And so how do you prevent this historic pattern of statistically, it just happens.
The pendulum swings back.
Well, they need, in my opinion, like a Manhattan Project in order to get the Republican rotted husk across the finish line in only 315 days or whatever it is from now.
And so I told you it was going to be Spice, folks.
I told you it was going to bring the heat.
And how do you even do that?
You have to lay out a plan.
It's like, hey, we know we can't fix the problems that are bigger.
I mean, the real number that I've been tracking is only 27% of America thinks that today's children, like mostly you, will be better off than your parents.
And that's horrifying.
And that's way different than in 2016.
So this is a different America than the first time Trump won.
And I think that they need to acknowledge how bad the actual problems are.
They're systemic.
And so you're not going to be able to fix that between now and November of 2026.
So lay out a plan and show Americans that, hey, we're going down the path to the golden age.
It's not here yet.
Now, I would even note, though, because since you had your meeting in the White House, there were some other people who also had meetings in the White House around that period.
You've noticed a shift in the messaging from the president, from Caroline Levitt, from the communications team out there.
The president did just give this speech the other night from the White House regarding economic issues, economic conditions.
Do you think they're starting to be a little bit more resonant with what you're saying?
I think they're taking a step in the right direction.
I heard the word American dream.
I heard acknowledgement that they're going to come out with more plans for things like housing.
But I'm worried fundamentally that the right metrics aren't being tracked.
And so they keep coming back to things.
And the word is affordability.
That's what everybody uses.
No, I'm talking about the death of the American economy that works.
Like, I'm really worried that my kids aren't going to have jobs.
I'm, quite frankly, worried they're going to get pulled into a war with NATO against Russia or whatever.
But he's, like, I still don't see an acknowledgement of focusing on that.
If I were the Republican Party right now, I would be trying to come up with like new measures of the economy that reflect things like wealth inequality.
And people's, like, they should be tracking things like the median first-time homebuyer age.
And I don't even think it's on the radar screen.
And so what economic metric can we all feel happy about in October of 2026 and look back and say, you know what?
Like Trump got us there.
I argue there isn't one.
It's not going to be the stock market.
The job market's not going to heat up.
Like, how are we going to do that in time?
What about the Gini coefficient?
Something like that.
Let's do this, right?
The Gini coefficient.
But, like, if you look at all these metrics, they're bad.
Like, top 10% of income earners are half of all retail sales in America.
It's really bad.
And I'll give you another example of that because if you guys, you know, any Black Friday shoppers out there today, and a couple of, you know, it's fine.
did it.
But, you know, I've noticed though, did anyone see that the Black Friday shoppers, suddenly, well, all the sales, all the retail stores, they were extending the Black Friday days.
So it was Black Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday, then Monday.
It became the entire week.
You don't do that if people are out there shopping on Black Friday the way they usually do.
That meant that sales were down.
And any retailer is going to tell you that because they're trying everything they can to get people in.
And when people are doing that at Christmas time, that is not a solid economic indicator.
That's an indicator that people out there are hurting because prices are high.
And I've said this to the White House, and I say this publicly.
They're high because of Joe Biden.
All right.
Let's be very clear about that.
Bidenflation is still in the system.
Bidenflation is the reason we're in the situation that we're in.
However, you have to be able to be clear about this and say we're fighting a war against Bidenflation.
And ultimately, it isn't going to be that in some cases, gas prices, egg prices, beef prices, you can bring prices down.
But in most cases, it's going to be about bringing wages up.
100%.
100%.
Joshua, there we go.
Yeah, I just wanted to add your touchdown spiking cannot exceed the number of yards that you've actually run down the field.
All right?
That speech, they went in the right direction.
They tried.
They tried to listen to you, Mark.
They did.
And we know there are other people.
They're trying.
But you can't go out there and pretend the golden age is here already.
You can't do it.
And I understand that people want to take credit for their successes.
But Barack Obama did what with George Bush?
He blamed him for four years straight.
Why?
Because it works and because it's true.
And it works better when it's actually true.
But you have to lead with empathy.
And that's something the White House hasn't been able to do.
Obama was great at it.
He said, you know, Bush destroyed it.
You know, we've done a lot of great stuff, but there's just so much more to go.
There's so much more we have to do.
That is the way he always spoke about it.
That's the way you got to do it.
I will say I think my absolute favorite part of that speech, well, there are two things.
One was, of course, the information operation that they ran, right?
Where they claimed, where they made everyone think that it was going to be like a Venezuela invasion and bombing and all the rest.
So they get, why did they do that?
They got all the broadcast TVs in America, all the broadcast networks, all those editors and every single ABC, NBC, CBS affiliate to say, oh, maybe we better tune in.
This could be a big speech.
And he gets out there and he starts saying that, oh my gosh, not only am I going to help you with economics, but we're giving the entire active duty military a Christmas bonus of $1,776.
That was great.
I think that was the best note.
I think that was the best target.
They're giving me the 10-minute sign.
Do we want to do a couple of questions?
Anybody want to do a couple of questions?
Let's do that.
We're going to have to do these quick, so we'll just go.
I saw over here first, actually.
So let's go right there.
There's a mic coming for you here.
Just a moment.
Mike's going.
Mike's going.
Hey, how can we start communicating about the Biden thing?
Because inflation is cumulative, and people need to know that.
And somehow they don't get it.
Like, hello?
I just keep saying, look, we have the greatest word.
We invented it in 2021, linguistic warfare, which Joshua knows, Bidenflation, Bidenflation, Bidenflation.
If you notice, Secretary Besant has started to use that word again.
And I think I would love to see the entire administration just reminding people over and over that Bidenflation is still there.
And it's a zombie inflation.
Can I make people mad?
I want to make some people mad.
Here we go.
Here it comes.
So, yeah, you know, Biden inflation was bad, but the system's been broken for a lot longer than that.
And if I look back specifically at the thing that had the most impact personally on my career, and I think a lot of people would agree with me here, it's not the Biden administration.
It's George H.W.'s Immigration Act of 1990.
And so what I would say is, yeah, sure, definitely.
Biden was the cherry on top of this wreckage that has stolen the American dream from everybody.
But I think that, and one of the things I said for Trump is that, like, sir, I think you need to fight the oligarchy and not be the oligarchy.
And I've done a lot of polling, for instance, on JD Vance.
He polls incredibly.
He's doing better than Trump was in April of 2022.
In all of our matchups, there's only one person that's ever beaten JD Vance.
Bernie Sanders.
Wow.
Wow.
Warning.
Warning.
Wow.
Warning.
Think about that.
You see what I'm talking about?
All right, let's go.
I think there was right there.
Hi, Jack.
So I'm also a Catholic, and I think it's been shameful to see conferences and, sorry, diocese and bishops like the USCCB speak out against Trump's immigration policies despite them saving millions of children's lives.
And I think that's something that really hit home for me after recently seeing Sound of Freedom for the first time.
I'm a little bit more.
Sound of Freedom.
So my question for you is, how can we as Catholics and more importantly as Christians and fellow believers educate each other, especially I'm a Torne Point Chapter Officer as well, and I want to teach my community in El Paso, Texas, a very blue city, about how Trump is actually saving lives and stuff.
So what are some suggestions that I can?
I mean, I think you just answered the question.
Get people to watch Sound of Freedom.
Just get them to watch that more and more and more to actually understand that these people that are coming in, they're not just being, you know, coming here.
Oh, we want a better life.
They're being exploited.
In many cases, children are involved.
In too many cases, children are involved.
And that's exactly what Trump is doing to fight this.
This isn't about assimilation.
It's about exploitation.
And I think that's key.
I think that's really a big part of the key to shifting on this issue.
Yeah, turn the moral high ground around.
Because the truth is they make those arguments thinking and pretending they have the moral high ground until they learn that human trafficking is big business and it's being driven and fueled and allowed by these groups.
Turn it around in them.
Turn it around.
Who's next?
Let's go right in front trying to do them quick I'm trying to get as many as we can.
Hey, Greg Jones from Conservatives USA.
Hey, question I have for you is, you know, back in the 60s, there was a housing crisis.
I don't know if you know that in California.
So what developers did went out and bought land and they just made track housing.
Three bedroom houses, one car garage, 1,100 square feet, and they built them in masses.
Now that's called Orange County, California.
So why don't we look at developers to build these houses, which we have the land, and just track them all out, let the young people purchase them.
You can build them for $150,000,000, $200,000 and get them in the initial housing, and then let them step up from there.
It's my understanding that the administration is actually working on a housing plan that's going to be coming out here very soon.
I don't have specific details on it, but stay tuned.
I think you're going to hear something very, very soon about that.
All right.
I see a bunch of hands.
The lights are like really bright.
So just grab somebody.
I see Captain America back there as well.
That's a Captain America shield?
That's a hat.
That's a shield.
No, that's a shield.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a hat.
It's a hat.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Hello.
So there's four of you up there, and we came here to find out what we can do about it.
I'd really like to find out.
This is about 100 people here are pretty well involved, pretty well, they understand what's going on.
But what do we do?
What do you actually really do?
I mean, do all of us write letters to the editor?
They won't print most of it.
Give us, each one of you, what we can specifically do to start moving down what you want.
And part of that is which peoples do we listen to?
We just went through a whole thing about people dumping on each other in the main union over there.
That's not helping us.
We need you to give us some specific attitudes of what to do.
Thank you very much.
I appreciate the passion.
So one thing that each and every one of us can do, we all live in an area where I'm sure there is a village council, there's a city council, there are township trustees, there are local officials.
The best thing that we can do is localize first.
Your community, your city, your elected leaders, talk to them about what it is that you care about.
If you attended Cliff Maloney's session yesterday, I'm doing a book with Cliff about local politicians and how to become one.
One thing is to consider running for office and making changes that are local.
The second thing to do is people who are currently in office, their priority is to stay in office, get re-elected, or get promoted to the higher office.
Anything that threatens that terrifies them.
A little bit of fear persuasion goes a long way.
The left wins, despite unpopular ideas, because they agitate.
The best thing you can do is agitate your local leaders, annoy them respectfully, show up gently, and make them do their job.
That is the best thing you can do.
Get in their ear.
Yeah, I'm not a political activist.
I don't think Rich would consider himself a political activist either.
I think the way to look at pollsters is that I've been to DC, I've seen how it works.
I think that a lot of people who are rich, a lot of foreign governments, a lot of people who are not you, have their interests represented.
And I kind of see myself as really one of the few lobbyists for the American people.
And what I'm going to tell you is that when I hear Republican officials talk, systematic change is not on the map.
They think they have the right message.
They think they just need to vote harder.
They think they just need to raise a little bit more money or have a better ground game.
And I think we're in a major political realignment.
I think that they need to acknowledge that they have to actually stand for something, and that something is systematic reform, economic and government reform.
My big thing, and I'll add just to this, and I want to get time for two more quick questions.
Name and shame.
Just name and shame these local officials.
You're going to say the same thing.
Find the local communists in your area and name and shame them.
And by the way, find the local rhino in your area and name and shame all the rhinos as well.
They cannot stand mockery.
They cannot stand being named.
All right, we've got to get Captain America back there.
We've got to get Captain America.
It's so good.
Thank you for giving me a chance to speak.
And thank you for providing this.
Anyway, is there any actions about reforming the welfare and the health care and this tax loop?
Because I do taxes and I do see so many people taking advantage of the tax loop and they getting the maximum benefit of everything.
And if we tighten up the welfare reform so that we can get rid of a lot of the illegals.
I'll tell you one way.
I know how to get rid of $8 billion of welfare fraud in Minneapolis in two seconds.
Stay on track.
They all go back.
They all go back.
Stay on track.
They all go back.
But number two, we have to absolutely reform these systems because there's so much scamming, there's so much fraud that goes in.
There's too many loopholes in the tax code.
And I'm sorry if that's not a Republican kind of thing to say, but it is a populist thing to say.
I think healthcare is a really good example of how the right needs to get smarter because I don't think they have a plan for this.
And right now I'm telling you that the Democrats are winning on the issue of health care.
And what's their solution?
Their solution is single payer.
And so I don't think the Republicans can actually compete on that unless they do something better than just transfer payments.
And also, you got to go full Maha.
You absolutely must go full Maha.
And we're not seeing that happen yet.
There's a lot of, there are schemes afoot to try to separate MAGA and Maha.
Maha is one of the most popular political movements in all of America today.
It's probably more popular.
You guys would know.
Is Maha more popular than MAGA?
Well, certainly with certain people it is.
And key groups like, oh, I don't know, suburban women, which we're trying to win back.
I think we have time for one more.
So I have a question about the book.
Let's go.
So I've read it already, but how do I inform people that don't read books, don't pay attention to politics, that communism is here and is thriving?
How do I get the uninformed people, the people that don't care, to care about the communism and how bad it truly is?
Real quick here, we're getting this top sign.
But on that, rather than focus on the problem, the communism trying to convince them on that, rather show the anti-communist, the positive populist, right-wing economic populist vision instead.
What is often more compelling to action besides fear?
And if you can't sell the fear, you sell the vision of the better way and lower egg prices, lower housing prices, more affordability.
And like we always say, stay on track.
They all go back.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.
Mark Mitchell, Rich Barris, Jack Pasovic, Joshua Lysak.
I'm going to be leading for the Catholics or anybody who wants to come.
We're doing a Catholic adoration here.
I think in the next breakout session, you're all absolutely invited to come by because we are going to be worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ.