Christy Walton's full-page NYT ad triggering a MAGA boycott has sent Walmart shares down ten consecutive days, the worst streak in two decades. While management distances the corporation from her liberal politics and funding of the Lincoln Project, the company faces tariff pressures and potential price hikes. Simultaneously, CBS grapples with Trump-related election manipulation lawsuits affecting Paramount's merger prospects, and Sherry Redstone attempts to sell her stake amid bribery allegations. Ultimately, these intertwined corporate and political crises highlight how personal wealth and partisan divides are destabilizing major American institutions. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, Qwen/Qwen3-ForcedAligner-0.6B, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Walmart Faces Boycott Threats00:12:27
And we're live.
We got a lot of news going on right about now.
Walmart shares really have been feeling the heat, shall we say.
And it's in part, well, primarily because of threats of a boycott coming from MAGA supporters.
We're going to get into that all because an heiress decided to take out a giant ad in the New York Times.
And I'll tell you, conservatives, they vote with their wallets.
We've seen it before and it's happening to Walmart.
The company's getting really, really nervous.
CBS.
Another nervous company right about now, its parent company Paramount is trying to do a deal with Skydance.
And so they want to get this whole Trump thing kind of out of the way because, well, the FCC might have a lot of say in whether or not that merger gets approved.
So there's a lot of concern right now that they get that CBS Trump lawsuit put to bed.
We're talking about $35 to $50 million that they're going to have to pay up to Donald Trump because of his allegations regarding how they manipulated the Kamala Harris sound.
Well, That may be actually happening.
We're going to get into all of that.
Plus New York governor, well, she's just ended her career.
We talked about this yesterday.
You get the Ninth Circuit Court out there saying, okay, you know what?
Donald Trump can move forward and nationalize, federalize the National Guard, if you would.
But Kathy Hochul doesn't seem to get that.
Now she's using taxpayer dollars to cover migrant legal fees.
We will discuss.
Plus Whoopi Goldberg.
Well, wow, she's really just jumped the shark.
I mean, you want to talk about Kathy Hochul ending her career.
How about Whoopi going on about this?
Yeah, yeah, I think it's very different to live in the United States in 2025 than it is to live in a rural country.
Not if you're black, not for everybody, not if you're black, guys.
Let me tell you about that.
Okay, we will discuss.
Good to have you all here.
Oh, and big news we are again on the top 100 list for YouTube's most watched podcast.
So that's all thanks to you guys and all of your help and all of your goodwill.
So, subscribe, share, like, comment, all that good stuff.
We're off to the races here, everyone, as we look at Walmart.
Walmart feeling the heat, feeling the pressure amid.
calls to boycott the company.
So this is swelling and the company's kind of freaking out, understandably so, right?
Because we've seen it before.
Look what happened with Target.
Look what happened with Bud Light.
Look what's happened even with Disney, although you could argue that Disney is just giving really, really, really bad content and therefore nobody actually wants to go and see it.
But in the case of Walmart, they're up against it because, you know, this is really something when you think about the heiress, Christy Walton, who married into the family and she's, you know, total lib, whatever.
She's got her causes, etc.
She decided to get political, which is kind of something the company typically does not do.
Why?
Well, I mean, Christy wouldn't have all those billions of dollars.
She's one of the wealthiest women in the world.
Now, would she if it weren't for the conservative American customers that shop and have shopped historically since the 1960s at Walmart?
So it makes it especially unsettling, shall we say, to the conservative shoppers that go to this store when they see that the people they have helped create to become American billionaires actually really don't value them that much because Well, they're calling on everybody to protest Trump.
It's not going over well.
And you know what?
The company knows that they're trying to distance themselves.
They're like, okay, she's not on the board.
She doesn't have anything to do with policies of the company, et cetera, et cetera.
But you know what's fascinating?
The company actually suffered 10 straight days of losses, which is probably the worst we've seen in two decades at the company.
And it is amid concerns about this MACA boycott.
You also have tariffs out there, which are causing investors to think twice as well.
But the boycott thing, don't underestimate it.
Barron's doing a big piece, saying, okay, maybe the company's poised for some kind of revival because you know, it's been 10 days, 10 days straight.
I think they saw a little bit of an upside in yesterday's session.
We're closed, of course, in the stock market today because it is a holiday, ladies and gentlemen Juneteenth, anyway.
The heiress at the center of all this is named Christy Walton, and she apparently bought this big ad we can look at it because everybody's been tweeting about it for those demonstrations for No Kings right, and she's also had a history of this kind of stuff where she's funded causes that are very Anti-Trump, and this is all coming out, And again, it's setting up sort of this situation where the people that have made her family so successful are saying, well, hang on.
You know, maybe this isn't fair.
Maybe this isn't right.
Management, as I said, really trying to distance itself from this particular woman because, hey, you know, she really could take the whole thing down.
It's like, Christy, don't bite the hand that feeds you, for goodness sakes.
And so, again, here's a picture of her, Yahoo News covering this as well.
She has a 2% stake now in the company, but she did inherit a 19% stake in Walmart from her late husband, John Walton, when he passed away in that tragic plane accident.
They do have one son.
We're going to get to him in a moment because he's also in the news today.
Very much a liberal as well, though tries to stay perhaps a little less out of the political scene.
I mean, he'll leave that to mom.
Here is Anna Polina Luna.
We had her on the other day and she talked about exactly this.
She's saying, oh, they must really, really dislike those tariffs because, you know, they've come out and said, well, we're going to have to raise prices because of the tariffs.
And then you had, of course, the heiress, one Miss Christy Walton, taking out that full page color ad in the New York Times.
You know, that cost a pretty penny, shall we say, especially the full page and color for the New York Times to basically encourage people to protest against Donald Trump.
I'll just say it's not playing well in Peoria, so to speak.
Anapolina Luna writing that it's related to the China terrorists, that they're really mad about that.
And something that she told us as well, don't forget, China is believed to be playing a role in all of these protests.
A gentleman by the name of Neville Singman, Anapolina Luna has subpoenaed him alongside James Comer to come and testify before Congress because he spends reportedly most of the year in China, in Shanghai, where he is reportedly being paid to push propaganda that is exactly this, right?
These kinds of protests.
So you can understand China doesn't really like the tariffs.
They have an incentive to maybe say, hey, you know what, Neville, go ahead, go forward with that.
And that's what Anna wants to get to the bottom of.
He may not show up for his testimony, in which case he would have to be held in contempt.
He would have to be effectively sent to jail if he's not willing to testify.
We saw that happen to Bannon.
We saw that happen to Peter Navarro.
So if he were to step foot in this country, who knows if he will, he's going to face the consequences.
She's making this point that maybe this is all tied together.
It may just be as simple as this is a brainwashed woman who really doesn't have any respect for the people.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
China does not want these tariffs.
Walmart as a corporation does not want these tariffs.
Neville Sigmund with his Communist Party doesn't want the tariffs.
He's trying to push a Chinese agenda, but it may also come down to the simplicity of a woman who is of ample means.
and just doesn't like Trump, right?
I mean, she's certainly entitled to her opinion.
But what makes it difficult, I think, to bear, especially as conservatives look at this is we're saying, hey, wait a second.
Like you wouldn't have that company.
You wouldn't have those billions of dollars, lady, if it weren't for conservatives backing your company.
And so this is what is going to become increasingly an issue if people follow through with this and say, I'm not going to shop at Walmart anymore.
And we saw them do it at Target.
We saw them do it with Bud Light.
There's other options out there, right?
I mean, Amazon.
And hey, it gets delivered easy.
Now, in Walmart's defense, they are actually trying to do more online a la Amazon.
And they are also trying very hard to run as far as they can from Christie.
Because Christie doesn't actually have any involvement in the business.
You know, she's living high on the hog, not having to do anything with the business.
And they're making that clear.
Okay, this lady is not one with us at Walmart.
And they put out a statement.
And I'm going to quote from that statement.
We condemn violence, including when it's directed towards law enforcement and the damaging of property.
As a company with associates and customers in the Los Angeles region, they were referring to those protests that you saw last weekend, we remain focused on their safety and that of the impacted associates.
This is according to Walmart's VP, Dan Bartlett.
They also said, the advertisements from Christy Walton are in no way connected to nor endorsed by Walmart.
She does not serve on the board or play any role in decision-making at Walmart.
So I'm glad that we cleared that up.
But I'm not sure, again, that it's still going to go over well with everyday folks.
You know, it comes at a time when obviously Walmart is confronting other challenges.
Yes, the tariffs might be a challenge.
And so they've come forward and say, hey, you know what?
We're going to have to raise prices on everything.
I don't know if that's entirely the case.
Rob over at 76 Research, my partner and I were doing some math on this.
And when it's all said and done, you shake it out, the tariffs aren't quite as bad as you think.
But, you know, hey, Walmart's like, any chance we can get to raise prices, right?
Why do they want to have to take slimmer margins?
You know, maybe they shouldn't have to take slimmer margins.
This is a capitalist country and, you know, let the best man win, so to speak.
We'll shop where we get the cheapest prices and maybe we like their politics, but but it just shows you the tremendous amount of pressure this company is under.
Donald Trump standing out on TRUE Social the other day.
Walmart should stop trying to blame tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain.
Walmart made billions of dollars last year, far more than expected between Walmart and China.
They should, as it is said, Eat the tariffs and not charge valued customers anything.
I'll be watching, and so will your customers.
A threat from Donald Trump, one that Scott Besant picked up on when he was asked about it recently on NBC.
Let's listen.
Big news from Walmart.
It says it will start raising prices on its consumers, Mr. Secretary, as early as this month due to the tariffs.
Now, President Trump out with a very stern warning on social media saying Walmart, quote, should eat the tariffs, adding the company made far more than expected last year.
Is the president asking American companies to be less profitable?
I was on the phone with Doug McMillan, the CEO of Walmart, yesterday.
And Walmart is, in fact, going to, as you describe it, eat some of the tariffs that just as they did in 18, 19, and 20.
The other thing, though, that we are seeing that Doug passed along to me that with their consumer, the single most important thing is the gasoline price.
And gasoline prices have collapsed under President Trump.
So, we are seeing that.
The other thing that will happen is a direct tax cut for consumers.
Then the transportation costs are also a big input.
So, let's see what happens.
What you were describing was Walmart's earnings call.
The other thing that companies have to do, they have to give the worst case scenario so that they're not sued.
So, you know, I think overall we are seeing a decline in services inflation, and I We saw inflation come down for the first time in four years.
Well, you know, in my conversation with former Vice President Mike Pence, he says he's like, Walmart, you're going to have to eat them.
So maybe that'll affect earnings.
That could have an effect, of course, on stock price at the stock price as well.
But it's remarkable.
I mean, again, when you look at these numbers, guys, and I know that they ticked up a little bit yesterday, but you look at 10 consecutive trading days of losses, they have not seen that in 20 years.
ESG Investing and Wealth00:04:57
You're going to go all the way back to June of 2004.
So this is a big deal.
Okay.
It's a big deal.
They're suffering.
They're feeling the heat.
And you know what?
Maybe Christy should have thought this one through, maybe just a little bit better, right?
Before deciding to take out the full page ad.
I mean, if she actually sees a suffering of her own personal wealth, does that actually register?
Probably not.
Because like at some point, I think she's worth like $18 billion.
Like at what point do you actually feel it, right?
I'm guessing, you know, she's not counting her pennies, so to speak.
She's 76 years old.
She is not involved in the company.
She's not involved in any of the company's trusts, etc.
They've been very clear about that.
But don't forget, she married one of Sam Walton's sons, okay?
So John was the son, and thus she inherited some of his wealth.
Her son, of course, inherited a lot of the wealth as well when he passed.
If you take a look at this nifty family tree that the Wall Street Journal put out, I was looking at this.
So basically, you have Sam who married Helen, right?
And they had five kids.
Forgive me, four kids.
John married Christy, who we were just talking about, and she gave birth to a son who is also in the news right now for his liberalness.
Okay, so, you know, it's funny how apparently like Buffett's son is with him on his liberalness and it's like, great, you know, like once you make the money, look what happens to the next generation.
That's why he keeps saying, you know what, the U.S. needs to get tougher, right?
If we don't, if we don't, I'm going to use Donald Trump's expression, China's going to eat our lunch.
China's going to become the next USA, and we'll be lucky to be France.
Thank you very much.
I mean, they got good food, and maybe that's about it.
Christy's donations, they tend to be extremely liberal.
Since 2020, federal records show that she donated more than $500,000 to the Lincoln Project.
You know that one.
That's the conservative group.
It's very, very, very anti-Trump.
She hosted a fundraiser for them in Jackson Hole, or forgive me for Kamala Harris' presidential campaign out in Jackson Hole.
and she's very philanthropic.
That's how she spends her days on environmental stewardship as well as, quote, economic development and community support through a group called Innovaciones Alumbra.
Is this like a Spanish reference?
I don't know.
Quote, my interest is in investing in systems that bring positive change to social, environmental, and economic health.
This is what she says on the group's website.
So she's a philanthropist and she bred a philanthropist as well.
So this is her son, Lucas.
And he's putting $15 million, billion, forgive me, dollars.
I think he's got like 38 from his dad.
Again, it must be nice.
To put into environmental causes.
He apparently brought over the head of his philanthropy team and has them now working on these new investments.
You know, his get-three priorities, like any good air to billions of dollars should have, ocean conservation, regenerative agriculture, and clean energy.
So these are the, the core sort of foundations of something he's got called Builder's Vision.
He founded it eight years ago.
It serves as his quote family office, so this is what he's investing in.
He wants this impact investment fund.
He kind of sounds a little bit like his mom now.
He hasn't weighed in on any of the political stuff and as far as we know, he's not terribly political.
But you know, you can judge based on his ESG desires.
I thought ESG was over.
Didn't we actually finish all that?
Didn't we decide that we actually need to invest in things that are going to turn a profit?
I mean, he believes he can.
And you know what?
Hey, you know, more power to him if he wants to spend all that money chasing a dream.
I don't know as I'd invested it.
Thank you very much.
But, you know, people with all this money, as I said, may not be counting their pennies.
Howard Buffett, he is the grandson of Warren Buffett.
According to this new article in the Financial Times just out today, he has written a book on social value investing.
And he sees, quote, no reason why all rich people couldn't follow suit.
I know lots of families that have tried to integrate this in their approach.
To their work, in part because you know it boils down to how innovative you are and how willing you are to take those risks.
Again, I would just say I thought we sort of went through that, and I think the conclusion was as much as Larry Fink wanted that to happen, right?
And BlackRock was all over that.
Let's do ESG and DEI.
What was discovered was at the end of the day, you just need to earn your investors some kind of interest on their investment, right?
And if it's not a good investment, then you shouldn't be doing it.
Now, hey, if you can get the two things to go hand in hand and you get to follow your dream and your passion and you simultaneously are making money at it, then great, all power to you.
Sherry Redstone's CBS Deal00:04:20
But it's not clear that that actually works so well, right?
We've discussed this a lot of my company, 76 Research.
I encourage you guys to look at this.
We had a Father's Day pick out that is up 23%.
we believe is actually poised for more growth.
You can get all of these picks if you go to 76research.com.
Use code word dollar today.
I'll tell you, we've got another heiress to talk about because the Paramount heiress is up against it.
She stands to make $2 billion if she sells her company, Paramount, which includes CBS News, you know, 60 Minutes, 2-1 Skydance.
Larry Ellison's son runs that one, but it's not clear the deal's going to go through in part because they can't seem to come to any kind of terms here on this agreement with Donald Trump and how much.
he should be paid because of his allegation that they were trying to manipulate the election by manipulating the sound from Kamala Harris.
That story coming up.
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Okay, all these heiresses in the news today.
We've got another one to talk about, Sherry Redstone.
Sherry Redstone is trying to get a deal done with Skydance.
And it is believed, and this is not really fair, right?
But it's believed that if they can't actually resolve things with Donald Trump vis-a-vis 60 Minutes and the lawsuit he leveled against them, then they're not going to get to first base in terms of FCC approval for the deal.
But simultaneously, you see there's a catch here.
If they do settle for a lot of money, the FCC can come back just as they did to Disney and Bob Iger and ABC and say, hey, you know, nobody really trusts you.
So what are you doing in the news business anyway?
And look, here's proof.
You just settled Georgie Porgy's thing, Stephanopoulos, on the weekend for 16 million bucks, right?
So now if they settle this for $35 or it's reported even $50 million, can the FCC then say, hey, you know, forget it.
We're not going to really renew any of these affiliations all around the country with your CBS affiliates because it is clear your news division is so freaking messed up that you had to settle this massive thing.
So it's like, damned if you do, damned if you don't.
And you got this heiress there, Sherry, who's like, for goodness sakes, can we just sell this thing and move on with it?
Because, you know, she's got some big tax bills apparently in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Coming up on the Redstone estate.
She needs to get moving with this thing, not to mention like the company is basically done right, like unless they find a way to innovate, unless they find a way to move forward.
Here's a picture of Sherry Redstone.
The Trump people appear to be willing to settle for less, but even that amount worries the Paramount people.
This is the reported 35 million dollars.
That might be the amount of money that is agreed to for that CBS Trump suit.
Now, this is a story in the NEW YORK POST today by my friend, Charlie Gasparino, Great reporter, and he's basically got some sources saying, Look, you know, Trump is holding up for the 50 million.
Maybe they could get to the 35 million, but you get a problem here because people are saying, Well, could that actually open her to bribery allegations?
The Democrats are actually threatening that, you guys.
They're saying, Okay, if CBS makes this settlement, is it actually this merger?
Is this going to come back to haunt them?
Because they know that she stands to make a lot of money, $2 billion actually.
She's recused herself.
Officially from any of these negotiations, even though it's kind of obvious she wants it to go through.
And so now they're in this kind of just no man's zone right, no man's land.
They got the whole mutiny going on at CBS, where the executive producer decides to resign and then his talent, what's his name?
Scotty Pelley there goes on air and says ah, you know, it's all bad.
And now and now Leslie Stahl's also sounding the alarm.
Another longtime stalwart of the 60 minute stable.
The CBS Merger Stalemate00:00:23
You can't make it up.
This is a disaster for Paramount.
It's a disaster for CBS.
It's a disaster for the entire news division for 60 minutes.
And it all goes back to this moment in time.
You know it.
I know it.
The President of the United States and his lawyers know it.
Watch.
But it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.