Tulsi Gabbard revokes a top CIA Russia expert's clearance days after an Alaska summit, alleging involvement in a 2017 operation to undermine Trump and citing the Steele dossier funded by Fusion GPS. The report details an FBI investigation into John Bolton regarding classified documents, Cracker Barrel's reversal of its LGBTQ+ branding amid backlash, and Kent Strang's analysis of mixed Trump approval ratings linked to the 2017 tax cuts. Ultimately, these events highlight a broader political realignment where executive actions challenge deep-state narratives while corporate and economic policies shift toward deregulation and traditional values. [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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Tulsi Fires CIA Expert00:14:12
Tulsi Gabbard.
Ooh, she is out for some blood, and you know what?
She's firing some more people.
She's like purging away.
It had to be done, right?
I mean, it had to be done considering what went down.
The newest, latest, and greatest is that she just fired a top CIA Russia expert.
This is days after the Alaska summit.
So this CIA agent was actually about to take up this really, really prestigious assignment overseas in Europe, and it was actually already approved by the CIA director, John Radcliffe.
But instead, Tulsi took away her security clearance.
And that means no more going over there for the big gig.
And the reason she took away the security clearance is because this particular person is alleged to have been involved in the 2017 operation that was trying to take one President Trump down.
Detail how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment.
That they knew was false.
They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true.
It wasn't.
The report that we released today shows in great detail how they carried this out.
So apparently, and you know all the details, we've been through this at length, and I don't want to repeat too much, but don't forget.
Tulsi has been doing this massive investigation and what she has discovered is that there seems to have been a very deliberate effort by the Obama administration to taint and make difficult the Trump presidency because, you know, they couldn't believe that Hillary Clinton didn't win and they knew that Russia was not involved.
They knew that they didn't actually work with Donald Trump and that they didn't have any goods on Donald Trump.
And don't forget the Russian dossier, which was nothing but a bunch of garbage.
It was actually opposition research, which had been bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Courtesy of, UH, was it COY Perkins COY?
I had a Biden moment.
Perkins COY was the law firm that bought that, that paid for that.
And then they are the ones that then went out and got Fusion GPS, which was that opposition research firm, interestingly like a bunch of ex WALL Street Journal reporters that were running that.
And then they went out and hired Christopher Steele, who was the ex British spy kind of washed up in the Uk.
And then he went out and hired some people, including somebody that the U.s government actually believe might was suspicious about being a Russian spy himself.
So it's like super convoluted.
But the point is, you know they're out there trying to say Trump is this Russian asset?
I mean, that's a heck of a thing to say.
But you know, Tulsi went through the same exact thing herself.
Think about what they were saying about Tulsi.
What did Hillary Clinton do when she realized that Tulsi Gabbard was a threat?
She started saying that Tulsi might be a Russian asset herself.
So I think Tulsi's kind of had it up to here.
Tulsi Gabbard however, kind of blindsided.
According to the WALL Street Journal, the CIA over revoking clearance of this undercover Officer, the naming of an agency Russian hand on the list of officials has alarmed people, apparently, within the CIA, within the spy agency.
So they're a little caught off guard.
She basically put forward a list of 37 current and former officials and said, We're stripping every single one of them of their security clearances.
And obviously, that this person who was supposed to go overseas to the plum European gig couldn't actually take that job because this person no longer had.
The security clearance that would be required in order to perform the job.
Gabbard apparently Gabbard apparently didn't know that the CIA officer had been working undercover.
According to the Wall Street Journal and some of their sources, Gabbard's office apparently delivered, again, that list of 37 people to the CIA the evening before the list's release with the knowledge that all 37 of them were losing their security clearances.
So that meant that the one person who was sort of the Russia expert couldn't go over and continue that out.
There are some people that are worried.
They're like, oh my gosh, we're not going to have the same access and level to intelligence.
And what's going to happen with all these people leaving?
I think there's also the flip side of this, which is that if this particular person was indeed involved, as Tulsi has alleged, in the construction of this narrative to try and take Donald Trump down, how are you going to trust that person?
You actually do have to clean house and get people.
I realize it's hard.
You're going to have to go out and scour the earth for intel assets.
But you need to have people that you can trust there that aren't going to be trying to take down a government, specifically Trump's government.
So this is where we are.
According to a spokesperson in Gabbard's office, the director of national intelligence directed the revocations to ensure individuals who have violated the trust placed in them by weaponizing, politicizing, manipulating, or leaking classified intelligence are no longer allowed to do so.
Makes sense, right?
Makes sense.
Look, you know, she's differed occasionally with Radcliffe.
We saw some of those differences come forward in July when she declassified a lightly redacted document about Russian influence in the 2016 election.
Apparently the CIA had wanted to redact a greater portion of the report because it revealed sensitive things like agency sources, et cetera.
And she's like, nope, it's all coming out.
It's all coming forward.
So these are some of the things that they're working through right now.
But I can just assure you that she is absolutely focused on rooting out any of this insane bias that we saw against Trump.
I mean, if you're willing, as these people were, I mean, you have 51 ex-spooks that drafted that letter.
Not just drafted, they published the letter in Politico, I believe.
51 ex-spooks and hacks from Brennan to Comey.
I mean, you know whose idea it was?
Our former Secretary of State, for goodness sakes, under Biden.
Think about that.
Blinken, Tony Blinken had the idea that they should do this.
And he worked with the rest of them to round them all up, and they put this thing together, and it's like they're treating it like it's gospel.
And the next thing you know, the New York Post loses its Twitter account.
Thank God for Elon.
I mean, what a different place the world would be without Elon.
It's really quite, quite staggering.
So at present, right now, there are people that are worried, okay, we don't have the same kind of security apparatus team there.
I would just say that one of the biggest issues you've got to face is that you cannot have people who are political in the ranks, right?
You need to wipe that all clean.
And that is what Tulsi is trying to do right now.
So it's a big purge and she's going to continue at it, 37, losing their security clearances.
Now, Tulsi Gabbard's doing that.
Meanwhile, you get the media out there saying, oh, they're just going after John Bolton because it's a personal vendetta.
And granted, Trump didn't like him very much, but it turns out new information today showing it may not just be a personal vendetta.
This is actually an investigation that was ongoing, that had already been initiated under the Biden administration.
John Bolton was already in hot water.
Why?
Because John Bolton got a little sloppy allegedly with his emails.
This is the headline in the New York Times today.
John Bolton inquiry eyes emails obtained by foreign government.
It is not clear what country intercepted Mr. Bolton's private emails.
I'm betting on Iran, but you know, hey.
But the investigation into President Trump's former national security advisor picked up momentum under the Biden administration.
So forgive me, this is the problem with not having any commercial breaks.
Sometimes I have to gulp my water live on the set or refresh my lipstick.
Transparency, transparency.
Anyway, so Bolton, Bolton basically is now in trouble because this is my conjecture.
I think that he was probably emailing some stuff on his book, his really boring book.
I mean, don't take my word for it.
THE NEW YORK Times.
Was like tortured to have to read this.
They gave a terrible review.
They said it was like completely long-winded.
He just kept rambling and rambling and occasionally it sounded um, like he was really off his rocker.
They were brutal to him in the review.
But anyway, and maybe as he was trying to shop this book, it's quite possible that he was sending what we call in the industry a treatment.
When you want to write a book, you usually put together what's called a treatment and you send that to a book agent so you might have a thesis and then you've got an outline of some chapters and you may have some tidbits of information in there And what I'm, I mean, I have no particular Knowledge.
This is all conjecture.
I'm speculating at this point because I'm trying to make sense of how these emails were intercepted.
And maybe he's a little sloppy.
So maybe he actually sent some of this book material onto a book agent.
And then one of the foreign governments, China, Iran, whoever it would have been, one of those spy agencies intercepted perhaps the book agent's email because it would not have been as secure, hopefully, as John Bolton's would have been.
Although, you know, John, I'll tell you about John.
You could be walking down the street.
And this happened to me, actually, at, gosh, it was the RNC.
I was anchoring at the RNC event for Fox Business.
And I remember it was me and Lou Dobbs.
Poor Neil had just had a quintuple bypass or something.
So they said, Trish, can you fill in and do primetime every night?
And I said, sure.
And, you know, I come on right after Lou.
And I'd always convince him to stick around with me for an hour or so.
We had a good time.
But that was the RNC event.
And I remember at one point walking down the street and Bolton's like coming towards me.
And he's like in La La Land.
It was like, we know each other, right?
We're working together regularly.
He'd probably been on the show the night before.
And I'm like, and I, you know, I'm full hair and makeup.
I'm there with my producer.
And I'm like, hi, hi.
He like, I don't think he saw me.
He seemed at some point, he was like, hi.
And it almost seemed like he was in another world.
And he had no one with him.
He was kind of like a mad professor.
And so I was like, gee, sort of strange.
Like, you know, you kind of think that John Bolton would be a little bit more on his game.
But no, I think he was kind of like off in the clouds sometimes.
And maybe it was a little sloppy.
Remember the time that he was in the meeting with the president, the press briefing, and he had on his notebook something about 10,000 troops to Colombia?
And everybody was like, what is that that he had scribbled on?
You just let everybody see it.
Again, sort of mad professor, right?
Like not paying attention to his surroundings, not really like, you know, maybe he's a little on the spectrum.
He doesn't really get.
I mean, I think he must be because he's never met a war he doesn't like.
Really, I mean, he's very, very much about being so aggressive.
And I'm always like, diplomacy, diplomacy, money, money, money.
Use your financial tools.
He's like, why use your financial tools?
I'm like, because then you don't lose lives, right?
We've had this argument before, Bolton and me.
Anyway, the point being, he's now being exposed as having already been under investigation.
The New York Times says that they were beginning to pick up momentum on an investigation during the Biden administration when U.S. officials collected information that appeared to show that he had mishandled classified information.
Okay, the U.S. gathered data from an adversarial country's spy service, including emails with sensitive information about Mr. Bolton while still working in the first Trump administration.
It appeared to have been sent to people close to him on an unclassified system.
So close to him.
So maybe it was, I don't know, producers at Fox, if he was going to go on and do a television show.
Maybe it was book people.
I don't know.
Maybe it was his friends and family.
But you can't do that, right?
Like you can't actually use classified information.
And apparently he was speaking to all of them about these sensitive things.
And this is what has come out.
Now, this is important, guys, because you know what?
It totally complicates what the left is trying to say.
They're trying to say this is nothing but a vendetta.
So think twice about that because as the Times reports, while those searches have raised fresh questions, you know, you had the big raid the other day about the extent to which Mr. Trump may be using the Justice Department and the FBI to try to punish those that he dislikes, the new details in the case present a more complex chain of events.
I love the way they phrase that, right?
Only the New York Times.
I'm just going to tell you what they mean.
Here's what they mean.
It's not just a complex chain of events.
It's the reality that John Bolton had classified information.
that he was treating willy-nilly, that he was emailing around.
And not only did Trump know it, Biden knew it, and he was under investigation.
Okay, so this is not a vendetta like the left would like you to believe.
The disclosures, they write, suggest that a long-running investigation into Mr. Bolton's activities changed over time with some of the issues echoing past inquiries into the handling of national security secrets.
They go on to talk about the emails in question, and they say that the people who got this appeared to derive from classified documents that he had been sending to them when he was national security advisor.
Oh, is he working on his book then?
I don't know, but they say Mr. Bolton apparently sent the messages to people close to him who were helping him gather material that he would ultimately use in his 2020 memoir.
What did I tell you?
The book agent.
I don't know that for fact, but I'm betting like he's working on his book, his really, really boring book that nobody actually likes and nobody actually read.
And it's kind of funny that he was there gathering all this information.
I'm sorry, it's not funny, but for his book and that this is what's bringing him down, the book that nobody read.
Bolton DOJ Investigation00:09:01
Okay.
Nobody read it.
So Headline Guess what?
It's not Trump, even though everybody wants to say it is.
I mean, Vance tried to explain this to NBC News the other day.
Remember?
I do want to start with some breaking news.
We've learned that the FBI is searching the home of former Ambassador John Bolton, his office as well.
Sure.
Can you tell me why the FBI is raiding Ambassador Bolton's home and office?
And did the White House get a heads up?
Well, so we're in the very early stages of an ongoing investigation.
Into John Bolton, I will say we're going to let that investigation proceed.
What I can tell you is that unlike the Biden DOJ and the Biden FBI, our law enforcement agencies are going to be driven by law and not by politics.
And so if we think that Ambassador Bolton has committed a crime, of course, eventually prosecutions will come.
But as you know, Kristen, this is all part of gathering evidence, trying to understand something that we're worried about.
And of course, I'll let the FBI comment on the next stage of the investigation.
What's at the root of this?
Is this about classified documents?
Well, I'll let the FBI speak to that.
Classified documents are certainly part of it.
But I think that there's a broad concern about Ambassador Bolton.
They're going to look into it.
And like I said, if there's no crime here, we're not going to prosecute it.
If there is a crime here, of course, Ambassador Bolton will get his day in court.
That's how it should be.
But again, our focus here is on did he break the law?
Did he commit crimes against the American people?
If so, then he deserves to be prosecuted.
As we have this conversation, has Ambassador Bolton been detained, taken into custody, or arrested in any form?
So this news just broke this morning in the FBI.
I haven't talked to the FBI this morning.
I don't know the answer to that.
Question.
I assume that he hasn't been detained and won't be detained until there's an actual prosecution if that actually happens.
As you know, Ambassador Bolton is a frequent critic of President Trump's.
Here we go.
He's also on Kash Patel's enemies list.
The administration has already revoked his security clearance, Secret Service protection.
Is Ambassador Bolton being targeted because he's a critic of President Trump?
No, not at all.
And in fact, if we were trying to do that, we would just throw out prosecutions willy nilly like the Biden administration DOJ did, prosecutions that later got thrown out in court.
If we bring a case, and of course, we haven't done that yet.
The Department of Justice has not done that yet.
We are investigating Ambassador Bolton, but if they ultimately bring a case, it will be because they determine that he has broken the law.
We're going to be careful about that.
We're going to be deliberate about that because we don't think that we should throw people, even if they disagree with us politically, maybe especially if they disagree with us politically, you shouldn't throw people willy nilly in prison.
You should let the law drive these determinations, and that's what we're doing.
But you know, a lot of people have already looked at this and said, this looks a lot like retribution.
Is this retribution?
Well, who has said it looks a lot like retribution, Kristen?
A lot of people who tried to throw Donald Trump in prison for completely fake charges that were later thrown out by multiple different courts.
I suspect that if the media and the American people let this case actually unfold, if they let the investigation unfold as it's currently doing, they're going to find out that what we're doing is being very deliberate and being very driven by the national interest and by the law here.
And that's as it should be.
Exactly.
You know, I got to tell you, this is why I can never be a politician.
Do you know how annoyed I would be with those questions?
How many times would you tell her it was not about retribution?
I guess he couldn't tell her that the guy was already under investigation by the The Biden administration.
You know who should have known that but didn't bother saying anything was Andy McCabe, who went on to CNN and was like, oh, yeah, well, you know, this is what we all think it is.
It's just Trump being Trump.
What a loser.
Yeah, right.
He went through the process.
The question is, who approved it?
And that was, you're right, that was a big point of contention in Trump One.
Andy, I want to bring you back in and just put up some of the quotes that John was referring to from the current heads of the Justice Department and This is Pam Bondi, 7 45 a.m.
America's safety isn't negotiable.
Justice will be pursued always during the raid.
Kash Patel post, 7 03 a.m.
No one is above the law.
FBI agents on a mission.
How unusual is that kind of post from the heads of the law enforcement agencies in America while this high profile raid is going on?
I can't think of another FBI director.
Or attorney general, and I worked for many of them who would have done something similar.
This is just simply not the way Department of Justice employees at the department or the bureau operate.
We understand.
I'm sorry, what happened when they raided Mar a Lago?
Weren't they all bragging about it?
Didn't like they take special pictures and release them all?
But whatever, Andy, you keep going because you're going to just dig yourself in further.
Attention and reputation impact that comes along with having something happen like what's happening at John Bolton's house right now.
In the past, DOJ leadership has always taken the role like we don't go out of our way to draw suspicion or castigate people unless we are doing it officially in court in the form of an indictment and then going into court and proving our case.
They speak through the court filings and that is it.
So I think what you're seeing from Pam Bondi and Kash Patel and Dan Bongino is pretty typical for them.
But it is absolutely atypical for anyone else who's ever served in those roles.
And I think it really degrades the Bureau and the department's image and legitimacy in the way that they are so blatantly trying to generate social media attention for themselves at the expense of not just the people who are being investigated, but also the investigators who are doing that work.
I can't think of anyone at the FBI who would call attention to a search warrant that.
While it's taking place, you never want to have that.
Blah, Okay.
Sorry.
I actually bailed on that soundbite earlier than I wanted to.
But I wanted to remind you of something because you brought up my friend Bongino.
And you know what?
Dan Bongino, a salt of the earth guy, didn't need to take this job.
Believe me, he had a very successful show and was making a ton of money on his wonderful Bongino report show.
He did not need this gig.
But you know what?
When the president called, he answered.
And you know what else?
He is a man of principle.
And he may have been friends with John Bolton.
I mean, like I said, you know, we all worked with him.
I don't know if John was really friends with anyone, though.
I mean, if I'm being honest.
But Dan's a good guy, right?
Like, and Dan made it clear about eight weeks ago that something was coming.
And he put Letitia on notice.
He effectively, we didn't know it at the time, but Bolton on notice.
He almost put the, you know, the 37 people that just lost their intel clearance all on notice.
Hello, hello.
Dan called it.
Watch.
Are you going to be looking into, Cash and Pam, any potential collusion between the DOJ, Letitia James, the novel legal theory of Alvin Bragg or Nathan Wade or Fonnie Willis and the DOJ?
Is that something?
Has anything come up?
Is there any way to determine whether or not evidence was destroyed in any of these cases?
Well, there's always a way to determine that.
I don't want to comment on that specific case right now for a reason.
I don't want to get ahead of the Department of Justice on that.
But I want to say this you know, the FBI obviously has the public corruption portfolio.
And yes, if you are a corrupt politician out there, if you are engaged in behavior, you know what you're doing, we're going to find you.
I promise.
No one is going to get off the days of selecting and putting your partisan bias on and taking care of your friends.
Those days are over.
You know what, Sean?
I don't have any friends.
I don't want any friends.
Well, maybe outside of you and a couple of.
I don't care.
I didn't come here for the money.
I didn't come here to make.
I know.
No, you didn't go there for the money.
I can tell you what I did.
I didn't come here to make friends.
I don't give a damn about friends.
I don't have any friends.
I don't want any friends.
Wife, I got you, and I got a small crew of people, so I don't need any friends.
But if you're a friend in DC, get a dog, we're coming for you.
That'll help, yeah.
Exactly, you want a friend in DC, right?
Get it, go get a labradoodle like I have because there are no friends in DC.
You've been doing this what 30 years, there are no friends here.
Hmm, hmm, hmm.
Okay, so I think the big takeaway from that, and I know like some of you got annoyed with Pongino over you know some of the other stuff.
Cracker Barrel Spin00:06:25
I'm just going to tell you, I trust the guy.
I really do.
Because he's like, I can count on one hand the people in television, kid you not, that are just good, really like straight up people.
And he's one of them.
So I'm going to take him at his word.
And he's saying there's more to come.
And I'm pretty darn sure there's more to come.
Okay.
Because now we've just learned that Bolton was in trouble.
They were trying to spin this up.
Oh, by the way, did I tell you he got Abby Lowell?
Abby Lowell, who's making a killing.
Man, oh, man, he's riding this one all the way to the bank.
He must have voted for Trump, for goodness sakes.
Like he's got family wealth he's going to generate off of this boondoggle right, everybody getting in all kinds of trouble because they did some really shady things allegedly allegedly, allegedly.
It's going to come out and it's going to be proven and we're going to know exactly what went down.
Meanwhile we got to talk about Cracker Barrel, because Cracker Barrel has just folded.
Cracker Barrel said, you know what?
You guys were right.
They're admitting defeat over there at that nice little country store.
It's like, I like it.
I liked it.
I'm in this ridiculous Burger King redo.
I'm sorry.
Like, does nobody have any taste?
Who's their decorator, for goodness sakes?
It's a disaster.
Well, guess what?
Moments ago, here we go.
Some breaking news for you.
They got rid of the LGBTQ plus alliance.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Instead, they're going to actually refocus on corporate giving for people with food insecurity.
Oh, for goodness sakes.
I hate that food insecurity.
You know, who don't have enough food?
Okay, can we just like speak plain English?
Supporting community needs through food and reducing food waste.
Lovely.
Okay, lovely.
That's great, guys.
So they actually, they've taken down this page on their website and they're committing it to space for helping people who don't have enough food.
Okay, that's better.
It's much better.
I mean, look, I think they got the message, right?
My friend Ashley was out at a a Cracker Barrel the other day great guy I used to work with at FBN FOX Business NEWS and he did a very nice little report.
You saw the stock tank and it was like down nine percent.
But guess what?
It's recovered.
It's recovered why?
Because Cracker Barrel was smart enough and I give them this credit to take the president's advice.
The president sent a lovely message on TRUE Social, saying, hey, listen to your customers.
They're the best polls ever.
Do what they want, don't go woke.
And what do you know?
They brought back this guy talking about we need a rebrand.
Then, poof, how are you going to rebrand without debrand?
Cracker Barrel, you might be going the way of Bud Light.
That was also in my shorts feed.
But you know what?
They're not going to go the way of Bud Light.
I mean, it may be a little rocky.
I know a lot of you don't really want to go there right now, but they're at least trying to salvage themselves.
They're not that dense.
It seemed like they were for a minute.
Backlash.
Cracker Barrel spending $700 million on a rebranding plan that they say will turn the product from old rustic to perhaps more modern streamlined.
Customers say that's just a giant helping of biscuits and baloney.
They don't like it.
So, after a week's worth of backlash, the Tennessee based company did put out an apology statement of sorts, which said, in part, We know we won't always get everything right the first time, but we'll keep testing, learning, and listening to our guests and employees.
But the Mayor Culpa, well, it didn't go down that well.
Critics called it lame and social media lit up with comments like these You kicked Uncle Herschel to the curb.
Now you are paying the price.
own it and stop making excuses.
Another wrote, eating Sunday supper in a place that looks like a car dealership does not say vintage Americana.
Ah, but the company's new logo.
Let's begin there.
A simple gold shield with the restaurant's name, but gone is the image of a man affectionately called Uncle Herschel dressed in overalls sitting by a barrel.
The company also says stores will be decluttered with fewer knickknacks on the wall with brighter paint and booths.
Critics call that soulless, sterile and woke.
A raising heritage, they say.
Another part of the apology statement, though, went on to say Look, the things people love most about our stores aren't going anywhere.
Rocking chairs on the porch, a warm fire in the hearth, peg games on the table, unique treasures in our gift shop, and vintage Americana.
But you know what, guys?
It's not just the criticism that won't go away.
The stock price for Cracker Barrel has dropped 10% since this controversy began.
That translates to about $143 million in value.
Being wiped off the books.
So, yes, Cracker Barrel wants to move ahead and wants this controversy to go away, but it's not happening anytime soon.
Back to you.
Well, it's getting better.
It's getting better.
So, that was a couple of days ago.
And I think people feel a little bit vindicated.
They feel like, okay, the company listened to us.
I mean, it doesn't change, I guess, the reality that you know what direction they were going in.
I mean, for goodness sakes, the CEO was on Good Morning America and she was trying to convince everybody this was just great.
This was just great.
And we're like, okay, woke lady, enough.
Overwhelmingly positive that people like what we're doing.
I'll give you another sound bite.
I actually happened to be in Orlando last week with all of our managers.
We bring them together and.
Once every other year.
And the number one question that I got asked, Michael, was how can I get a remodel?
When can I get a remodel?
How do I get on the list?
Oh, really?
So, because the feedback and the buzz is so good, not only from our customers, but from our team members.
No, it wasn't that good.
Okay.
It wasn't that good.
So now you're apologizing and now you're going back to the old Uncle Herschel logo and you're getting rid of the LGBTQ stuff on the website and refocusing.
And I would say, good.
You know what?
At least you clued in finally.
Maybe you're not an ignoramus as you go.
Are they going to allow that anymore?
Here's another controversy.
You know that little pin game?
If you've ever been to a cracker barrel, they have this little game that you can have to play, and it's kind of fun, and you have to get a certain number right.
Or else you're an ignoramus.
Market Uncertainty00:05:08
No more.
Two, you're pretty smart.
If you leave three, you're just plain dumb.
And if you leave four, you're more than just plain ignoramus.
Now that was the original.
That's the offensive version.
Now they've changed that.
So you'll feel, you won't be as offensive as you are.
The new one says if you leave only one, you're a genius.
If you leave two and the rocking chair, but not the game.
Wait, if you leave two and rocking the chair, but not the game.
Okay, you're rocking the chair, but you're not rocking the game.
Leave three or more.
No reason to be embarrassed.
Try again.
Yeah, okay, because that's the woke thing, right?
Nobody can be embarrassed.
You're never going to be an ignoramus in this new, happy little world in which we live.
Except, you know what?
We don't want that.
We elected Donald Trump.
Popular vote and the Electoral College, right?
We don't want that.
We're sick of the wokeness.
Look, I mean, they tried to destroy so many companies.
It was partly why I started 76 Research with Rob, because we're looking at all these stocks and we're like, for goodness sakes, this is kind of a bargain.
You know, nobody wants to invest in this because they're too worried about, oh, this, that, and the other.
I'm sorry.
You know, when you're more focused on having somebody with purple hair and like multiple genders on your board of directors instead of actually making money, that's a problem.
That needed to change.
Plenty of great companies out there making plenty of money.
And that's what you want to find.
And that's what we try and do for you at 76 Research.
Go there, use code word dollar and, you know, engage in this economy because this is going to be good.
I'm telling you.
I want to turn to some of the new polls that have just come out right now because they've kind of had a large span.
I mean, on the one hand, like he's doing great.
And then on the other hand, if you look at this Quinnipiac one, which threw me off because Quinnipiac has usually been pretty good and very positive on Trump, that one he's not doing as well.
And I think that there's just so much in the terms of news flow as I explain this to you guys that it you know it's like what, what minute do you catch someone in?
Because you know one minute they may be worried about tariffs and then the next minute they're like, wow, look at that crackdown on crime.
One thing that we saw overall in terms of the polls was that there was a lot of appreciation for the crackdown on crime for sure, and actually what he's doing on the immigration front is being very, very well received.
If you look at the aggregate numbers, not bad between the NEW YORK Times and REAL Clear Politics, for 43 and 45.3 respectively.
Not bad, not bad at all.
Again, there's a lot going on.
This one kind of surprised me, okay.
So this is Quinnipiac most recent polling, actually showing the lowest approval rating for the Republican president among the bunch, slipping three points since the survey was conducted in mid-June.
Again, I would just say that you've got to take into consideration all that's happening right now because there's a lot.
There's a lot happening, right?
There's so much going on right now.
So how do you think about these things?
I asked my friend Kent Strang from AFP.
Watch.
Joining me right now with a look at some of these polls and the state of the economy, we have my good friend back on the show, Kent Strang from Americans for Prosperity.org.
How are you doing?
I'm doing great.
Thanks for having me back, Trevor.
So I'm looking at these polls, and some of them are really good.
Like, you know, the Harvard Harris one, pretty impressive 47%.
Some of them, 37% out of Quinnipiac.
I was a little surprised by that.
What people are saying, analysts are saying, is contributing to this is a little bit of uncertainty over the economy.
I'm looking at the markets going, you know, they feel pretty good.
They seem pretty good.
Especially when you look at the tech sector.
What do you think is really going on?
What's affecting these poll numbers right now?
Look, I think a lot of Americans can look at this and feel like prices are high, and maybe that's leading to some of the consumer sentiment.
But let's take a look at what's happened since President Trump has regained office here.
Inflation has remained steady at 1.9%.
We see weekly wages are growing and outpacing inflation.
We see the small business confidence is at a five month high.
And I think what's driving that particular part is the one big beautiful bill.
What that did for small businesses was ensure that they can thrive and grow by reinvesting in their business with the 100% deductions on buying machinery.
They can hire more employees.
They know that the corporate rate is going to be there forever, that it codifies the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act rates.
And so I think we're seeing a lot of stability in our market.
It's a durable economy.
Gas prices are down.
And I think that that's going to result in a good thing for Americans.
Yeah.
I mean, like I'm looking at it saying, I don't know what anybody's got to complain about.
I mean, things are actually looking a whole lot better.
than back in the day.
And there's a lot, I think, promising to look forward to.
Perhaps maybe it's just some of this rhetoric from the mainstream media that's scaring people.
I don't know about tariffs, et cetera, international issues.
I'm surprised.
I actually am surprised at the Quinn Piak poll because they often tend to be pretty spot on.
I'm heartened by what we're seeing in terms of the 47%.
But, you know, overall, if I were going to give them a grade, it's an A plus because one big beautiful bill happened.
We're looking at lower taxes being cemented in that so Critical, as you well know, for small business owners, we're looking at this burst in AI activity, which is a big, big deal.
Economic Rhetoric Scare00:07:06
And I can't stress that enough.
And this is a president who understands it and embraces it, right?
Like, as opposed to, say, the Elizabeth Warrens, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's of the world that were scared of it, that backed away.
He's like, no, no, no, we're going to own this space.
Right.
It's incredibly clear that AI is going to be the next economic driver, the next economic revolution.
And what we need to decide right now in our government and as Americans is do we want to be the Global leader in AI and compete with China.
I think we do because that's the future of the economy.
And one thing that we need to make sure that we do that to be prepared for the infrastructure of that is as all these data centers come on board, what are they going to need?
They're going to need energy.
Energy?
I was just going to say that.
And if they can't produce affordable energy to drive the data centers and also lower costs for Americans, we're in big trouble.
So, what we really need Congress to do is we need Congress to zero in and focus on permitting reform.
So, what is permitting reform?
It lowers the red tape.
It makes it easier to build those energy projects because, as you well know, these projects get caught up in legal ease, they get caught up in red tape, they get caught up in lawsuits, and we can't.
Build anything if we keep that red tape intact, it's going to make it so we're behind the curve on AI, behind the curve on energy production, and we're not going to be the global leader to compete with China in that space.
Oh, we got to own it, we got to own it.
Hey, I'm curious, what do you think?
Because I'm very curious about this, Kent, and we haven't talked about this offline or anything, but you know, you see the government now taking a stake in Intel or the government taking a stake in defense companies.
So, you know, me, good red blooded American capitalist, my first instinct was, Oh, I don't know about that because you know, I don't want the government involved.
But at the same time, I'm also like, you know, Intel's kind of important from a national security standpoint.
All of these defense companies are really important from a national security standpoint.
And when you see sort of the demise of Intel that's been happening, let's face it, right, over the last 15 years, it used to be the hottest thing since sliced bread, and it's just deteriorated massively.
When you see that, you know, some of these defense companies maybe aren't keeping up because, I don't know, maybe they're too interested in DEI stuff, that makes me nervous.
The flip side, of course, is gosh darn it, what if Kamala Harris were president and suddenly she's dictating how they're going to run the defense companies and Intel?
What's your take on that?
What is AFP thinking about it?
I am with you in that assessment that there are certainly national security concerns, and that's why President Trump and this administration are looking at that.
But I'm with you that I'm a believer in free market capitalism, that the government doesn't pick winners and losers, the marketplace decides.
And what gives me pause is exactly what you said is what happens when a hardcore progressive leftist President comes along.
It could happen, right?
We're going to nationalize American industry.
Well, we know what happens when that goes on and that takes place.
And so I think we should exercise an incredible amount of caution as we look at the United States government taking stake in companies.
It's so hard.
Or maybe the answer is we just always need to have business people in that slot.
I mean, he's a business guy.
He gets it.
For goodness sakes, he's out there giving Cracker Barrel advice, right?
It was good advice, by the way.
Cracker Barrel took it, and what do you know?
The stock recovered, and people are still a little bit bruised, but it moved quickly.
And that was a smart thing to do.
His point was, hey, Cracker Barrel, You know what?
Admit you're wrong and accept the fact that you just got a billion dollars worth free marketing and move on.
And, you know, listen to your consumers, listen to your customers because they are really ultimately the best polls.
And I thought it was great advice.
Look, he's a business guy.
He gets business.
He's looking at Intel saying, you got to do better.
If we're going to give you money, you better actually do better.
So I understand that perspective.
I just worry from the standpoint that we may not always have a Donald Trump-like figure in office.
And if you get somebody who's a commie.
you know, AOC or Bernie Sanders-like or Tim Waltz or any of these characters, Gavin Newsom, for goodness sakes, you're going to be up a creek without a paddle.
Again, where do you see us right now?
I know some analysts, oh, you know, there's a recession coming.
I look at the markets every day.
I don't see it, Kent, only because I look at, you know, where the stock market is and they're trying to plan six months out.
And I'm seeing a lot of upside and consistency and optimism.
Where are you?
Sure.
I certainly don't have the crystal ball on that right now, but I see optimism too.
And again, I look back at what Congress did with the one big beautiful bill.
They made the 2017 tax cuts permanent for American families.
And we know that if that didn't happen, it would have resulted in the largest tax hike in American history.
I think there's a lot of good to glean from that.
And we need our economy to focus on that.
But we also need Republicans to go sell that bill and sell that language to provide the confidence to consumers and the American people, because failure to do so would be a mistake.
And to hide away from this transformational piece of legislation.
Would be a problem because there is so much good that will light our economy on fire.
We need to make that be known.
And we're doing that at Americans for Prosperity every single day.
Just in August recess alone, we've had over 48 lawmakers join us for events.
We've had over 500 events this year on the one big beautiful bill.
And we've knocked on about 800,000 doors on this issue, made over 600,000 phone calls on this issue.
And so we need to be doing great stuff.
No, you really are.
I mean, it's why I'm so happy to partner with you because you get such a great message.
It's so much about making these opportunities for everyday Americans, giving everybody, as I call it, the freedom to prosper.
So I encourage people to go check out AmericansforProsperity.org.
You can get involved.
You guys have all kinds of grassroots levels for people to get involved and roll up their sleeves and join your community and help make it a better place.
This is a great country.
We're coming up on 250 years.
I love it.
We're celebrating all year long.
It is good to see you, my friend.
Thank you so much, Trish.
Keep up the good stuff.
Thank you.
Again, my thanks to Kent.
Yeah, this is really strange.
I see some of your comments on Quinnipiac just being a miserable poll.
Again, AmericansforProsperity.org.
You should go check them out when you have a moment.
Terrific organization doing a lot to advance the Trump agenda and the conservative agenda right now.
Yeah, it was a wild poll.
Listen, I think that things are pretty good right now.
And, you know, I don't know.
You can say I'm living in a bubble.
I do need your help, though.
I just put a message up.
Help me get to a million subs, okay?
Subscribe, share, like, make a comment.
It's really, really, really important.
I love having you all here.
I'm seeing some new names, new names here.
So I appreciate you joining me.
Millions soon.
Uncandy, I hope, I hope.
I think they make it harder for you.
It's like a battle of wills, right?
Like they're like, okay, can you do it?
100k Sub Milestone00:03:11
This happened when I was trying to get to 100,000, just 100,000 subs.
It was in August of, gosh, two years ago, two years ago.
Think about that, guys.
We hit 100,000 in August.
I remember because I was up in Maine on a family vacation and I was still doing the show from Maine.
I had like this little hovel like in the room.
It was all like this pine wood around me in this little cabin, right?
And I'm like just like inching back into that little corner of the room.
And I was doing my show from there.
And anyway, it was 100,000 that I was coming up on.
I was like, oh, if I can only get to 100,000.
And so here we are two years later.
And I'm like, oh, can we get to a million?
It's like we were flying.
And then all of a sudden, like as we inch closer, so much for compound returns, right?
Compound interest.
Thank you guys.
I know that we will get to a million.
David Lorenzo, is this not a miracle?
I told you I'm getting better and better at tech.
I found this little tiny fan that I can put on the camera itself.
Amazing what you learn.
I'll tell you, thank you very much, ChatGPT.
You're teaching me every day.
Charlotte, it's good to see you.
You're not getting the notifications.
All right, we really need to do something about that.
We really need to.
I'm going to create like some kind of newsletter.
Stay tuned.
Give me a couple of weeks because it's a little bit of work.
But I want to make sure that we have some kind of newsletter where you guys can at least get the alert.
I hope I don't annoy you too much with it, but we'll get the alert out there.
But it's great to have you all here.
David, thank you for the nice thoughts.
I got to get Fluffy back on, right?
Fluffy is my dog that Don is referring to my little teeny tiny Maltese and he it's actually a he he's wonderful.
He's just the cutest little you know the kids call him Fluffy because you know they were kids when they got him.
I'm actually Afraid of dogs not anymore This is like what do they call this CBT cognitive behavioral therapy because I was actually really afraid of dogs like weirdly afraid of dogs like little dogs and You know, we all have our things mine was dogs.
So I would actually hear a dog coming towards me, like if I was walking down the street and I would cross to the other side of the road.
No joke, like I was really scared of dogs.
I did get bitten as a kid, but I can't blame it on that, because I was scared of dogs before I even got bitten.
So the kids really wanted a dog and, like you know, I'm a mom.
I want my kids to have a dog.
It seems like a nice thing to have in childhood and I didn't want them to be like me and be afraid of dogs.
But I said, here's the deal, we're gonna get a really little dog, like a really little little dog.
So I found the smallest dog I could, a Maltese, And my husband's like, you're going to be kidding me.
Because he's 6'7", okay?
He's a big guy.
He's like, are you kidding me?
We're getting the Maltese.
And I'll tell you, he fell in love with that dog from day one.
We went to go see this dog at the breeder, and he was just the cutest little thing, just such a good, good dog.
And we left, and my husband said, that is a good dog.
And of course, now my giant 6'7 husband will walk the dog, this little, tiny little guy.
Live Tomorrow00:00:44
And he's the best.
We just adore him.
We love him.
And he is such a part of the family.
He's actually the only one of my kids, I joke, that really listens and does what I say.
You heard what Ponchino said earlier.
If you want a friend, get a dog, right?
Listen, if you want a child that's going to obey you constantly, it's the dog.
Love seeing you all.
It is really, really good to have you all here.
And thank you for everything you do.
I'm going to be back with you live again tomorrow.
And hopefully we really do hit that million mark soon.