Badlands Media - Taking It Back Ep. 123: Trump, Iran, and the Battle Inside the America First Movement

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Adel Nero and Zak Paine dive straight into one of the most heated debates circulating across the America First movement: the backlash surrounding President Trump’s actions toward Iran and the growing accusations that the U.S. is sliding toward another global conflict. With plenty of sarcasm and blunt analysis, the hosts push back on the online narrative that Trump has betrayed his base, arguing instead that geopolitical decisions require far more context and patience than social media outrage allows. The conversation explores Trump’s track record with military force, the strategic argument for limited strikes against Iranian capabilities, and why many critics may be ignoring the broader diplomatic and regional dynamics at play. Adel and Zak also examine how anti war sentiment is being weaponized to divide the movement itself, and why some influencers may be fueling unnecessary panic. In the second half of the discussion, the focus shifts to domestic politics with a breakdown of the Texas Senate primary battle between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton. The hosts analyze the massive spending disparity in the race, the possibility of strategic endorsements, and how political deal making in Washington can conflict with the will of voters. Throughout the episode, Adel and Zak emphasize a central theme: big geopolitical moves and political strategy rarely look simple from the outside, and reacting too quickly to headlines can play directly into the hands of those trying to fracture the movement.   

of the badlands explain those badlands that's a hell of a name they skipping the intro today why oh sorry i got to go to hide myself on this here uh sorry for being late uh just had a call that did not go as smoothly as i hoped it would but we're here we'll salvage uh what time we have we have left um the good news is zach it's it's a slow news week so if there's ever you know If there is ever a show to miss the first 20 minutes of, you know, it's a good thing that was this week. There's like nothing at all to talk about here. Well, with that, I guess let's just not waste any time. World War III has started.

I don't know if you've heard. President Trump has stabbed us all in the back. Israel is now running the White House, or has been, I guess, the entire time. And I think we're all going to be wearing yarmacas, but. the end of the month here. Either that or we'll be the gristmill for hamburgers. Submitter else, boy.

I mean, I don't know what you've been seeing or how you've been. I've definitely seen people echoing those sentiments. I don't really subscribe to them, but... I don't either. I say them all with the utmost sarcasm and cynicism that I possibly

freaking can because I'm just I'm so tired of it dude like is it a lack of pattern recognition or an intentional attempt to demoralize is it centralized messaging like because

it's all of the above dude I mean like none of these things exist in a vacuum and because of the way the internet works like people people obviously have their own fears and their own preconceived notions and a lot of people are simply unable to take a larger viewpoint on a lot of these things. And, you know, for me, I've been paying attention to President Trump for a really long time.

And I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on his actions and his motivations and, you know, what he's doing. And I also even in a larger sense, understand the sensitive nature of larger geopolitical situation. I mean, if every single thing that President Trump did only affected the United States, then it would make it so much easier to just do whatever we needed to do. But at the same time that we are planning out this very calculated effort to fix the problems that have been present in the United States for decades upon decades and also bring peace to the rest of the world and settle all of these international disputes. I mean, it's a juggling act. And I think that ultimately he's doing a great job. And, you know, I mean, maybe sometimes there are things that individual people would have done differently. But, I mean, they're not president.

Like, you know, I mean, if you want to do something different, like, you go out there and, and you run for office. Doesn't mean that you're going to win. Doesn't mean that it's going to be even be a fair election. But fuck, you got to try. In North Carolina, we got a, we got a war. woman in a fucking a cob who's only voted Democrat who ran unopposed for a Republican state Senate seat. And, uh, and she's now going to be the Republican candidate, uh, in the election in November. Now, it's an overwhelmingly Democrat district. So she might actually win.

It would be. So I mean, it's kind of, it's kind of a funny troll, really at the end of the day. But at least she went out there and went for it, right? You know, I mean, like, there's a lot of people out there who I just, you know, ah, you know, this is fucking bullshit and I hate what I'm seeing. And like, I just, I don't know. I mean, I think that it requires a, a certain amount of action on behalf of people if they really do want things to be different. And if you don't want to take the action, then I think that we owe it to President Trump to see how it's going to play out. I mean, it doesn't mean that you can't, like, vocalize your displeasure, all right? But like, quite honestly people need to understand that they're not in the president's head and that there is

like a million other things going on at the same time that if they really want to get down and determine why it is that they might be seeing what they're seeing they need to take all of this stuff into account because that's what the president's doing on a daily basis well yeah and again like i'm a big picture guy zach like you're you're so good at the details like you get in there and you really um siphon through a ton of information i i i i'm I really respect, you know, how you generate your takes on things. I'm, like I said, I'm definitely more of a, I see more of the forest than I do the trees most of the time. And I've seen President Trump accuse starting World War III, I think, like four different times leading up until this, you know, and you get the same bedwetting and people turning.

Like, Alex Trump has gone from, I'm the most maga guy that's ever been to fuck Trump, fuck Trump and his family. I've been with Trump the whole time. I golfed with Q for crying out. And all these people tend to kind of do a lot of that stuff and whatever. So I see something like this. It's like, do I like the optics of us bombing anybody? Of course not. Do I want military conflict anywhere?

Of course not. But President Trump, to me, when it comes to foreign policy and the use of our military, I would say he's been pretty judicious in the way he's used military resources. So when he comes out and he says, you know, this is necessary. It's going to be about a month or two. Doesn't his track record leading up to this point, like should he not get at least from his supposed base and the conservatives and the people that, you know, helped get him elected, quote unquote, but doesn't he deserve at least that chunk of time to sort this out over there before, you know, we start throwing around accusations of him betraying the base or being pro war? And then this whole thing, like, Israel is telling him to do this.

This is for Israel. We're fighting Israel's war. And I have no problem with being skeptical of Israel. I have no problem with people not liking Israel. I mean, hell, I'm on, I don't really like Israel either. But my hatred doesn't blind me to the point, or my dislike. I shouldn't say hatred, but my dislike doesn't blind me to the point to where I can't imagine a world that, I don't know, there might, there might be an issue or an action that could

be mutually beneficial between our two states. Just because something's good for Israel doesn't automatically make it bad for America. Right. Right. And so just on like the high level terms of all of this, those are the things that like from our side, that things that are coming from our side, frustrate the living hell out of me because it's like, one, how about a little leash to run with on this? He hasn't dragged us into anything up until this point. So like, how about just a little bit of a chance? And then, too, like, this whole Israel, if it's good for them, then it's automatically, like, at the expense of America. I think that's, yeah, I think, I think that's an incredibly oversimplified take on things. And I think that it beyond, it requires, it requires,

thought a little bit more critical than I don't like Israel. So if they like it, then I have to hate it. I agree with you. And honestly, if anybody has a right to have a nuanced opinion on this shit, it's you because you're a fucking Palestinian American, okay? You know, I mean, so, so yes, I totally agree with you. And there will inevitably be moments in time where the interests of a whole variety of different nations are going to coincide. And it doesn't mean that the the decision making is based upon what other nations are telling us to do. In fact, I don't think President Trump is doing anything that other nations are telling us to do. I think that he may take preemptive actions to stop another nation from doing something that

he thinks would be bad universally for the world. But if this was going to be World War IV or World War III or whatever the fuck we're supposed to be at now, then we would have immediately gone into Iran with 50,000 U.S. troops. And it would have been just like Iraq. It would have been just like Afghanistan. And it's been completely different, all right, just like from the start. And it also has shown that if any of these other wars that have been fought in the past were truly about any of the goals that were told to the American people, they would have been fought in a far different way from a strategic sense. I mean, because we just went in there hot, heavy, hard, boom, boom, boom, boom, all right, and immediately decimated.

a large portion of their defensive capabilities and offensive capabilities. And I truly do think this is probably going to be over pretty quickly. You know, I mean, when we went in and got Maduro, there was a whole bunch of people who were like, oh, Trump did it. We're going to war with Venezuela. Well, that didn't happen. You know, I mean, it hasn't ever happened. I remember even back in President Trump's first term, I love telling this story because it brings up Alex Jones again.

when we hit that Syrian air base. And it turns out that it was an Iranian or uranium enrichment site. Now, just everybody needs to like go back in time and see how long President Trump has been talking about the danger of Iran from his perspective. Okay? This is not like a brand new thing that's just happening out of nowhere. And the entire time that he's been in office, they've had envoys talking with Iranian officials trying to get to a point so that this wouldn't happen. And for whatever reason, man, I mean, now was the time President Trump and his team at the Pentagon must have believed that this was not something that could wait because I just don't think that he would make a decision like this lightly. But we took out that Usyrian Air Base and everybody, so many people online were like, I'm done.

Trump promised us he would never do this. Okay, you know, you fucking simpleton, all right, either you're going to have a military that you can use and you're going to use it to keep the country safe and you're going to reserve it for the times. when it is absolutely necessary, or you're just going to bend over and let any nation that wants to fuck you in the ass, pardon my language, okay? But that's the way that it is. Peace through strength or no strength at all. And Alex Jones came out and he did an emergency broadcast and Trump has betrayed us and we're going to war with Syria and this is exactly what I do was probably going to happen, but I

didn't want to say it because I had my sources. And then within 24 hours, he had to completely backtrack that. So many people had to walk it back on the internet. internet. And it turns out, hey, you know, there was no deaths. Same thing with Fordow and those other uranium enrichment sites last year. Nobody died. They totally warned Iran. And I've seen people, well, I thought we decimated Iran's nuclear capabilities. Okay, well, you know, we've had about six months since then. Does anybody think that if they really wanted nuclear weapons, they were just going to say, okay, we'll stop. Because if that was the case, then they would have made a deal with the

United States and we never would have had to continue with all of the the talks that they were going through. So that that's a great point. I saw sorry to jump in, Zach, but that's a great point because and this is what he said from the very beginning. And I know you and I both, you know, really got into this deep like through the cue drops, but he posted that video over and over again, you know, the speech he'll get Trump elected. One of the things he said there's like, gladly take these slings and arrows for you, right? And what is he done this, this past year? And, calling the Epstein thing a hoax, jumping in front of the slings and arrows, knowing that the mainstream would attack him on it,

make it a major story, raise major awareness to the point where you have people like Bill Marr, be like, I owe the Q people an apology. Like, you have Jen Sacky talking about how it's all the, it's politicians, it's movie stars, like it's entertainers, like it's everybody's involved in this. Like you have, so, but he took a reputational hit for that. He probably could have kicked the can on Iran down the road and made the next president's problem, right? Kept his approval, right?

But again, he wants to deal with this, in my opinion, look, I leave it open that I could be completely wrong and be misled by this guy. I don't think that's the case, obviously, but I feel pretty strongly that, again, what he's doing is what he knows is right in order to actually stabilize that area for generations to come. So the next four presidents, five presidents, aren't still dealing with. a war-torn Middle East. Exactly.

And that resource-rich area can stop being a collection of angry third-world countries, impoverished by conflict, and turn them actually into prosperous, happy, net positives to the global society that they could be. And just kind of finally put this whole nonsense in that region to rest. And trust me, nobody wants it more, peace in that area more than the Arab nations. Right, right. And this is why the Arab nations are like, they're like, hey, we're totally fine with this, because Iran has been a destabilizing force for years.

You know, and you can't look at the way that Iran has behaved in the last 47 years without recognizing that it was the CIA, MI6, and Mossad that took out Mohammed Mossade. Okay. They completely deep-sixed, a Democratic nation, got rid of their president, installed the Shah, and the Shah was basically a tool for American intelligence throughout that his, entire reign. And if it wasn't for that, then the Islamic revolution never would have happened and the mullahs wouldn't have come to power. And the mullahs may have been dealt with if it wasn't for the fact that there was an election. And the mullahs might have been dealt with even

more directly if it wasn't for the fact that Iran-Contra had to happen so we could get the hostages released. Okay, that emboldened the mullahs that kept them in power. And the CIA went from having a proxy in Iran to having a boogeyman. foil in Iran that could still be used for the purposes of doing whatever it is that they wanted to achieve in the Middle East. Plus, having that proxy foil in Iran is good for the Zionists. Okay. I mean, people, I hope you realize that.

Like, as long as Iran was there causing problems, it gives the Zionist deep state government of Israel something to play off of, to constantly use as a fear-mongering tool. Now, what happens when there's peace in the Middle East? Well, Israel has nothing to bitch about. Right now with the creation of the Gaza peace plan, Israel has nobody to go to war with. And once Iran is brought under the heel of the entire Trump global order that he's building, well, then Israel's just going to have to be at peace with everybody. And all of those Arab nations are going to happily engage in economic cooperation with the United States because they don't want to be living in a sandglass dome desert for the rest of their lives,

trying to figure out where water is and, you know, determining how they're going to make a life for themselves if it's not through terrorism and through bullshit skirmishes with the Israelis. A hundred percent, man. That's also what I see, too, is you're removing, removing their boogeyman that they've used as a Hegelian dialectic vehicle to, to cause a lot of problems. And this is, I, honestly, I see this as liberating of both countries. I think Israel is a tool. I've been listening to a lot of analysis about like the British Empire, the city of London,

and how this really kind of ends their monopoly over logistics in the area, the insurance schemes and things like that. So who's to say that Israel, you know, is a, it wasn't. until this point or maybe in the process of being liberated you know that was a tool of the city of London same with Iran used to play off of each other to keep uh you know firm control over that piece of economic gold as they would consider it i guess uh to you know to in that region so i think there's way more than this than meets the eye and i think that um there's a lot of divisive negativity uh and and blackpilling out there uh That's weaponized, like, they're weaponizing the anti-war stance of the America First Movement.

And they're using that sediment against the people that are behind it in a way. They know that we're all anti-war. So they want to convince us that this is a betrayal so that we turn on the very man that's trying to actually put a long-term solution in place that would, you know, prevent a lot of that conflict. Not to mention, not to mention, you know, the, if we were to get a Western friendly government, for a lack of a better way of putting it in Iran, their oil will no longer be sanctioned, which means they won't be forced to sell at a discount to our adversaries, which is going to really hurt the, the troublemaking power of places like China and Russia and, you know, adversaries like that.

Um, this is, I think the continued, um, dismantling of the old guard of control. And I think you're seeing a lot of misinterpretation, whether it be innocent or bought and paid for division tactics. Um, because of the, the overall, like, what's where I'm looking for? reputation of Israel, whether for or against, they know, like, the people that wish to stop the America First Movement understand that that is like a pinch point or a very polarizing thing that they could divide and conquer within the MAGA movement. Because I don't know what you, Zach, I'm not afraid of the left anymore. Like, I'm not afraid of them.

I haven't been for years. Yeah. Well, just like in general, right? Like, they don't really, I don't think they put, they're, they're, they're, they're, you've already seen a large, largely collapse of the Democrat Party between redistricting. a couple of like a voter ID law and you know end of like race or changing the way censuses are done or the deportations a end of jerry or race based gerrymandering like there's so many things that would just end any hope of that party ever had of real control um or any hope at real real

control on the national level that you could already kind of see that isn't really the threat the biggest threat right now are these people, in my opinion, that have built up followings and influence and reputations as, you know, pro-America, pro-Trump or pro-America-first politics that are now using stuff like this to try to convince us that, you know, we've been betrayed and it's over and we all need to just go vote Democrat or not vote at all to, you know, really stick it to these traitors you know it yeah that's the biggest threat in my opinion it's from within in the movement which not really in the movement but the people perceived it be i would agree with you i would agree with you you know i think that this is all going to pass and when it passes there's going to

be a bunch of people who were bitching and talking shit and they probably won't come back and do a mea culpa they'll just move on to the next thing which is going to heighten their profile on social media yep yeah that's that's what they do that's exactly what they do um all right i want to i want to jump around a bit here because there's a lot to talk about and uh i feel like the iran thing has been largely spoken about by tons of people many of them far uh better research than i am so let's just let's go to um i want to touch on the primaries in texas first of all no more dan krenshaw I think that might be of everything that happens this year. I don't know if it's going to top the end of Dan Crenshaw's reign in Washington, D.C.

That guy was a special kind of, like, oh, just a special kind of evil, in my opinion. So Cyclops McCain is out. Just that, that's a huge step forward. That shows me that, like, the America First movement is really, like, maturing. And I agree. And then, you know, I don't even want to talk about Jasmine Crock as hilarious as that whole thing is. But the big thing is in the Senate seat, Cornyn versus Paxton. Cornyn spent $100 plus million.

Paxton spent $4 million. And it was within like a point and a half or something like that. They were going to go to a runoff. President Trump came out yesterday and said, I'm going to endorse one. The other one should drop out. Cornyn, or not Cornyn, I'm sorry. Paxton came out to,

I'm not dropping out regardless. I owe it to the people of Texas, which I think is awesome, right? Like, yeah, me too. That's who, like, we've lost the plot a little bit here, I feel like, that's who your, like,

congressional representative, Senate or House should be loyal to is their people. Mm-hmm. You know, like not to Donald Trump necessarily, not to anything but the very people that vote for them or want, you know what I? So the fact that he said that makes me think like, okay, he still gets it. You know, I'd like him and Trump to be on the same page because I think that they should be.

But I kind of like that response. President Trump came out and said, oh, he shouldn't have done that or he shouldn't have said that. You know, maybe it might send me a different direction, which I don't know what Donald Trump was thinking up until that point. Some of this seems a little bit weird to me. And then. Well, I think also Donald Trump says things that are just meant to be misdirects. and people like hang really heavily on the words, like literal words that are coming out of his mouth. And it doesn't always necessarily mean what people think it means.

You know, I think that ultimately President Trump wants someone to accept the fact that he can only support one of those people. And Trump likes to bet unsure things. We've seen it before when he's endorsed people who were like, God, why, like Lindsey Graham, why is he endorsing Lindsey Graham? Well, there's no viable candidate going up against Lindsey Graham, and he doesn't obviously want a Democrat to win. So the best thing to do in his mind is the sure bet. And that would be Lindsey Graham. You know, in the case of Paxton and Cornyn, I think Cornyn and Thune have Trump's backup against a wall. I think that I love Ken Paxon.

Excuse me. I think that, yeah, Cornyn and Thune have Trump's backup against a wall. I love Paxton. I love the fact that he said that because it's genuine. But then you've got Cornyn and Thune coming to Trump. Like likely they are saying, you know, please endorse me, President Trump. And then we will make sure that you get what you want with the filibuster and the Save Act. They're using it for their own personal benefit.

They're holding America hostage. Whereas Ken Paxton is saying, you know, I want to represent the people. Okay. This is about the people who will vote for me. This is not about my own career interests. which is what John Cornyn, I think, is doing. And even if President Trump was to endorse John Cornyn and Ken Paxton doesn't drop out, that would still perhaps allow John Cornyn to support the talking filibuster and get the Save Act through,

and then people might still end up voting for Ken Paxton. So I think that if President Trump, if Ken Paxton ends up staying in the race and President Trump endorses Cornyn, it's a calculated move to get what he wants, and have the Save Act passed before the midterms, and then I think that the people would still end up voting for Ken Paxton, okay? Because you're going to have a runoff. That's going to be in May, and they would likely have the vote on the Save Act before the actual runoff takes place. The people who voted for Wesley Hunt, I think that they would automatically vote for John, for Ken Paxton. And I think that that would ultimately be the only thing that matters.

I would I hope you're like you're right about that I don't know how much Trump endorsing Cornyn would get Paxton voters to flip or you know those undecided voters like to to go out and and vote for for Cornyn I don't know it's Texas is an interesting proposition there because I feel like most of the people in Texas are pretty based and they had to outspend Paxton 20 to 1 right right to even stay competitive So like $116 per vote versus Ken Paxton's $567 per vote. So like he didn't have to work anywhere near as hard as John Cornyn.

And John Cornyn is known for not supporting President Trump. Okay. There's a reason that so many people voted for Ken Paxton. If you'll also remember, Ken Paxton was the only guy to bring forward that, that lawsuit in 2020, suing the states that cheated to put Joe Biden in office. Yeah, there were 23 other states that joined him. but he was the one who had the balls to get out there and do it president trump knows that john pack that ken paxton would have his back if he makes it into the senate the and i agree so i i i tend to agree with you that there there it could be i could understand i could understand

i could understand it if he went that route that you're describing yeah i could under i could understand but my god would that like right on the heels of of the Iran thing, which people already kind of like losing their minds out over. Like if he goes and endorses Kornan on the heels of that, the optics of that to the people who aren't deep into like really understanding how this all works is going to be incredibly, incredibly bad. you know Paxton I thought made a brilliant move by basically saying like look if you actually you know implement the talking filibuster on the save act and force this through

then I'll drop out because in a way he's he's kind of calling their bluff he totally is calling their bluff which is which maybe this was kind of you know a move from the very start I don't I don't know but I What it highlights to me, Zach, and what really kind of sticks in my craw is, and I made a tweet about this today, the dynamic between the people in their representation in this country is completely and utterly, excuse my French, but completely and utterly fucked. You have Senate leadership in the GOP investing tremendous amounts of money into a guy that nobody, none of their voters actually like, and they're holding hostage. a 90 plus percent issue that their voters want to protect a guy that their voters don't want. When they have a viable winning option that Texas would embrace, he'd easily beat the Democrats in a general election. They are having us negotiate with them like a hostage or terrorist situation.

Exactly. Rather than actually representing the will of their party and the people. It is so disgusting to me. It is so offensive to me. It makes my freaking skin crawl, honestly. Like, the fact that this is where their priorities lie, that they are like, well, if you want, if you want this issue, then you have to keep our swamp creature in there. Right. Are you kidding me?

Like, who do you work for? What is going on here? Like, and that, that to me, again, I'm a big picture guy, Zach. That's what strikes me. It's like, you get into all the dealmaking and the details of it. Why are the people that? are supposed to be representing us holding a 90 plus percent issue hostage for someone that we don't want and then spending tremendous amounts of resources on that race that could be used,

I don't know, in some competitive states later on. Like, that's $100 million. You wouldn't be able to spend on Paxton's campaign in the general against Telarico, someone that were actually, you know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's so freaking backwards to me. It's disgusting. It's because they're narcissists, okay? I mean, the only reason they're in politics is because it's a job, they get power, and they get access.

And they don't care about people. They really don't care about the issues. They don't care what our opinions are mostly. And they know that they can use that power and that access to get leverage for what it is that they want for, you know, I mean, future jobs in the in the future after they leave office. You know, I mean, if Cornyn secures another six years, all right, that's a guaranteed salary. And during that time, he can basically just set himself up to take some cushy lobbying job or enter the private sector in a corporate job or something like that. And he doesn't ever have to do what President Trump wants him to do again.

You know, I mean, the only way that this works for Cornyn in any way is if he and Thune push the talking filibuster and get the save act passed as quickly as possible because I don't think Paxton would actually drop out until that moment. And if that happens, it may be again that Ken Paxton says, you know what? I'm glad you did that, but I just don't feel right about it. I just feel like I got to stay in. I've heard from the people, the people of my district, the people of Texas have spoken to me. And they've said, Ken Paxton, we don't want you to drop out. And but I, I, I, I do not think Cornyn and Thune will do this unless they believe that there is something in it for them. And the endorsement of President Trump under most circumstances would be golden.

But all President Trump has to do is say, I am urging everyone in Texas to vote for John Cornyn because John Cornyn will pass the Save Act. Okay. But here's the thing. They need more than just John Cornyn. They would need John Cornyn and John Thun to go to bat and get the rest of the votes together to make sure that they have everyone. that they need. And if they can't do that, then there's no reason for Paxton to leave. And he may end up being the senator either way. I hope so. I hope so. And I think that would be a hilarious slap in the face, too. Like, if President Trump endorses Cornyn and Paxton still wins, like the legacy that Cornyn leaves is they spent $100 million, coerced, you know, the most popular Republican president in history. to endorse me and I still couldn't beat Ken Paxton.

You know, like I still got primaried out. There would be, there would be something about that that would, that would put a big smile on my face. I just, I don't, you know, Lindsay Graham has had at least moments where you're like, all right, Lindsay, like, I agree with that. Hell, like early on during the Kavanaugh thing, like he kind of turned that whole thing on its head with his little five-minute rant in that situation. and I don't I don't like Lindsay Graham necessarily but he at least has like some things where he's not like he's a warhawk right I think that's our biggest problem with Lindsay is he's a very pro war guy but he's pretty good outside of that for the most part maybeish I don't know um

John Cornyn has absolutely no redeeming I can't think of anything where I was like oh John Cornyn was lit on fire there I can't think of a single sound bite I've heard from him in a And like a hearing. I can't think of a bill that he has written or anything since I've been covering stuff since 2000, you know, early 2018 where I've been like John Cornyn nailed it. He has been nothing, he has been nothing but a net negative, an obstruction to everything we hope to see. And this is, and this is why my assessment is what it is. You know, look back, Cornyn has already screwed President Trump once. He told President Trump and he told the press that they would allow President Trump's recess appointments to go through. And every single time they've taken a break they haven't had to.

So my assessment is based upon John Cornyn's will to survive, you guys. This is not wishful thinking, Rye guy. This is a realistic assessment based upon a group of people who only care about their own political survival. And in order to survive in Washington, D.C., you survive through the art of the deal. Now, President Trump wrote the art of the deal. Okay, I mean, that man knows how to make a deal. He knows how to get people to give him what he wants in exchange for something else. This is quite literally a realistic assessment of how John Cornyn might potentially stay in the race.

Now, Ken Paxton also knows that John Cornyn is not to be trusted. Okay, so he's also trying to play this exact same game. Is he going to play it as good as John Cornyn? I don't know. But if he truly believes that he would be the best candidate, if John Cornyn does not get the SAVE Act pass through, then there's no reason for him to drop out. And he's already said the only thing that would get him to drop out would be for Cornyn to support and get the Save Act passed.

It's not enough to make a promise because, as I just said, Cornyn has broken his promises. The only thing that would get Paxton to leave is if the SAVE Act is successful. All right. So that has to happen before Paxton just turns tail and leaves. That would leave the people of Texas in a position where they have to choose John Cornyn. And why would they choose John Cornyn if he doesn't back President Trump? Yeah, that would, that makes sense to me.

My hope, Zach, before I let you go, is that Trump has another avenue to secure elections. that does not involve Congress. He can endorse who he wants. And we could be one less rhino in the herd. But, you know, we'll see what happens, man. I feel like there's a million chess moves on the board, and all we can do is kind of watch from the stands. But we don't know what's in his mind.

And we don't know what's the conversations and card trading happening behind the scenes to really be able to know for sure. But, Zach, I know you've got to run, man. I'm so sorry that this has a short, installment today, but I appreciate you being patient and hanging out. It's all good, homie. Take it easy. I'm going live.

We'll see you guys. All right. Go hang out with Zach Payne over at Redpill 78. Redpill 78 News.com is where he hangs. And guys, I am very sorry for being late today. This got held up. Something that was supposed to take about 10 minutes. I ended up taking over a half hour.

And I hate that because it's a big news week. The show is fairly short as it is, and we had to truncate it even more. And I had, I want to talk about Christy Nome. I want to talk about the Clinton testimony. There's more Epstein files that are coming out at the end of the week, supposedly, on Friday or next Friday. I wanted to kind of get into that as well. But obviously, with the truncated first hour, that was all going to be. to be very difficult to do. But I appreciate you guys hanging in there and be impatient and

spending some of your Thursday afternoon with me for taking it back with Zach and I. Again, Redpil 78News.com is where you get to all things, Zach Payne. If you want to hang out with me beyond this one hour we do each week over on Badlands, yes, I'm talking to you folk over in the Badlands rumble chat. I would love to earn your follow on my channel 412 Productions. If you want to follow me over on Twitter or X, it's at 412 Anon 87. So please come over there and say hello. And then on pill.net is really the best place if you enjoy if you enjoy this show or you want to hang out with me on more live streams.

Pilled.net is really where you should go. I do a two-hour show Monday, Thursday, and Fridays. And I do the second hour, always exclusively on pilled.net. So head on over there. And you can find me there at 412 Productions, which I'm going to be going over there in about five minutes here after we take care of some sponsors and doing some overtime, doing some overtime over there.

I saw Dangleberry or somebody say that Massey is more MAGA than Trump. And Massey is a grandstanding, a grandstanding opportunistic, self-serving douchebag. Do I agree with his big picture vision as far as financial conservatives, and, you know, his anti-war stance on things, sure. You know, I think he does have a lot of strong views that I do appreciate, but he's an obstructionist. You can sit there and you can act like you want all these things, but when you block any progress towards them, when you, you know,

I always just say, like you can't get from A to Z in one jump. You know, you got to go from A to B, from B to C to C to D, to E to, right? You got to go through it. And Massey wants us to go from A to Z, and he won't let us go from A to B, or he'll fight against us going from A to B because B isn't Z. So while he sits there and says he wants to be over here, and right now we're stuck over here, he won't let us take a step this way because it's not good enough for him. So he bitches and complains and tells everyone that, you know, it's all broken. because we can't just make this one big step.

You know, it's it's so nonsensical. He's this he's an idealist, which again is fine, but like, why stand in the way of actual progress towards what you claim your goal is? You know, and the way he's paraded around these women, you know, exploiting, like, he's calling them victims. Many of them are actually complicit in the Epstein crime. he's a he's a total snake I think that knows that that knows how to position himself in a way that makes him seem very based at times but if you could find me one one one example of him really pushing for Epstein files during the Joe Biden years you know I'd be I'd love to see it you know I'd love to see it um he's got worse Trump's arrangement syndrome than than Rachel Maddow.

He really does. He's, in my opinion, a wolf in chief's clothing. But again, I'll leave that there. I'm just tired of him being propped up as some kind of unicorn congressman. You know, it's just above and beyond anybody else in the conservative movement. Anyway.

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Promocodes not apply. All right. And Dangleberry, you don't question Trump. You make outright declarations that his intents are nefarious or that he's wrong. The question is one thing. You don't ask questions or question things. You don't phrase anything as a question, buddy. You have a very confrontational tone to the way you put things out there.

And then when people respond to you, that you act like, oh, why are you responding like this? It's because that's what you're looking for. You know what you're doing. So to sit there and be like, but when I question Trump, like, no, you're not questioning anything, man. You're trying to start confrontation in the chat. So don't act like you're, you know, just this like objective guy looking for good faith conversation because it's not what you're doing. You would take a completely different tact if that's what you were doing.

I don't mind you trolling or whatever it is you know you're doing. I don't care. Just be respectful to the other people in the chat. But like it's the way you phrase things sometimes or the way you rewrite the interactions that you're having is kind of comical, man. That's not what I see or most people sees. But I love you either way, man. I like having some contrarious. used to work off. It's, it makes it easier, honestly. It makes it easier. I mean, you're more

ideologically consistent than Alex Jones, Dangleberry. I'll give you that. Anyway, we do have another sponsor. I forget what button I programmed them into on my, is this one? No, that's not working. Now I'm just confused. Hold on a second, guys. One of these. Ah, there it is. Okay. Bam, conscious strength. Conscious strength. Maha yourself with supplements that don't suck from conscious strength. Founded by Badlands very own Jordan Sather in 2019, Conscious Strength products are made in America and won't break your bank unlike other online brands.

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I can't speak to conscious strengths personally. I'll never lie to you guys and say I've tried something when I haven't. But I will say Shillijit's pretty interesting product in general. Flip the finger to pharma, be your own doctor, get supplements that you can trust from conscious strength. Go to badlandsmedia.tv. Forward slash strength to shop now.

One more time, badlandsmedia. Dot TV forward slash strength. Link will be in the description below. So go check it out. Go check it out. That's Jordan Sather company over at Badlands Media. A big thank you to Badlands Media for allowing us to. simulcast our show.

I gotta get out of studio mode here. To simulcast our show over to their network. And again, I hope you guys will come over and continue hanging out for hour number two, which will be exclusively on Pilled.net at 412 Productions. If not, please give me a follow at 412 and on 87 over on X so we can keep in touch. Otherwise, I will. I'll be back over for next week's taking it back on Thursday. of next week. I'll be right back over on PILD exclusively. Everybody else, have an awesome

rest of your afternoon. I'll see you guys next time.