IHIP News - Trump Rapidly Declining As MAGA Slowly Dies Off, The Cult is Not Well

Episode Date: May 16, 2026

On this very special IHIP News we are joined by the hosts of  @TheNecessaryConversation  to discuss their parents descent into the cult of MAGA.Pre-order Jennifer’s new book Not Today, Fascists today: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcastFollow Us:I've Had It Podcast: @IvehaditpodcastJennifer Welch: @mizzwelchSpecial Guest: Chad Kultgen: @chadkultgenHaley Popp: @haleypoppSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

All right, joining me today on iHIP news are the quote, lib sibs of the necessary conversation podcast where they duke it out with their MAGA parents. Let's welcome Chad Coltgen. Is it Coltgen or Coltgen? How ever you like. Both are good. However you like. Do you say it, Chad?

We say Coltson, but you know. Colchin. Yeah. And Haley Pop. Haley, your last name is so much easier than your brother. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

So listener. These two siblings have like hardcore MAGA parents, and they have a podcast with their parents where you go over like news headlines, right? And what all the fuckery Trump is doing. Tell my listeners a little bit about your podcast. Yeah. I mean, we started it about four years ago during the kind of last half of Biden's administration. I felt like our parents were getting older.

We didn't really have a relationship with them somewhere between Obama's kind of last year and Trump's first incoming year, we really just kind of stopped talking to them. It wasn't exactly no contact, but we would go home for like Christmas or a birthday and just sit in our living room and listen to our dad scream at us while Newsmax was kind of like echoing from the bedroom and the living room simultaneously. Like in 2026, it wasn't just that like we lost touch. Our mom like stopped following us on all social media. Oh yeah.

2016, you mean. Yeah, 2016. And it wasn't just like, oh, we're not talking. Like, it was outright. We got Napoleon. Okay. Exiled. So I basically was like, the only thing that they will engage with is politics.

So let me see. I was doing some other podcasts at the time. And I really kind of like stumbled into that as an art form. I enjoyed podcasting. So I was like, let me see if my mom would actually have an hour long conversation with me about politics. And so we recorded one. And then my dad was like, I don't want her to be the star. of the show what about me and so I did an episode with him and then I was like I got to get my

sister in here and so the first three episodes of the show which are audio only were basically just about kind of the backstory of each of the three of the other people not myself but the political kind of backstory how they grew up how they became politically activated did trump radicalize them you know that type of thing and then from that point on we've been doing at least one episode a week talking about just the big political issues of each week and where Maga sits on it, where my sister and I sit on it. And ultimately, we're trying to kind of reclaim my mom. And we're getting close, I think, closer than we've ever been.

I've seen some growth. Yeah. I've seen some growth with her. Really, really interesting. And your parents live in Oklahoma City, right? Yeah, suburbs. Suburb. You know, that's where I'm from, Oklahoma City.

Yes. I know. Yeah. Did you all grow up there? No. We both grew up in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. Okay. Yeah.

All right. All right. Well, I want to play for my listeners some clips from your podcast. And Haley, I'll get your reaction to this one. Here is your dad, Haley, on the Pope. Play the clip. Pope, he's going to hell. Okay. Please don't say that again. Here's what I don't like. The Pope is like standing up for illegals, immigration, all of that. That's fine. But as a government, we don't want that border wide open to bring in drugs, bring in kids, traffic them, all of that. Yeah, for all we know, the Pope's a half the people in his administration are. So you don't care about the Epstein files, but we care about the Pope.

Hey, Lee. Okay. So first things first, I don't believe my parents are actually religious. Okay. So I just got to put that out there. All of this, all this bullshit about the Pope, like I'm just saying it right now. They're not Catholic. They're not religious. It's all, my mom is kind of like a spiritual woman. Okay. So there's something, I know she believes in like a higher power,

especially now after my dad, you know, he's in the hospital, a whole bunch of stuff happened. So she's kind of reconnecting with like her spirituality, but they are not Catholic. Okay. So the Pope. I'm always speechless because I, it's like, at first when we started this, I did start to think like, is my dad just a character? Is this all just bullshit? But it's not. Like, it's very real.

And it's deep-seated and it's, like, so rooted in him. So to hear things like, you know, the Pope is a pedophile, but we're not caring about the Epstein files. Why is that so important? You know, it's anything to back up Donald Trump. And that's what it boils down to. They are in what I perceive to be, like, a cult. I think Maga is a cult.

I think my parents are rooted in it, especially my dad. and it just is fed by like newsmax 24-7. And so any kind of topic that comes up, this is obviously ridiculous, you know, what comes out of his mouth. But it's almost like he can't help it because he's just being indoctrinated 24-7 by this shit that he's being fed by the news. So we always laugh it off. You know, I can't take that seriously. But really at its core, like there is a sickness to Maga. Let me ask you guys a personal question, kind of a psychological question, in seeing how easily

it is for your parents to dehumanize people, to how they were talking about illegals and just, is there kind of a Freudian or subconscious feeling as a child that if they're so quick to hate on gay people, immigrants, black people, they could turn on us in a millisecond. Does it diminish their devotion to you? as a parent subconsciously or consciously to you guys. You want to answer that? I mean, yeah, there are moments where they approach things that directly affect me or my family. And when I hear what they have to say about that, it definitely feels dehumanizing, demoralizing.

You know, there's a lot of misogyny going on. There's a lot of obviously racism, like it's just bigotry. So yeah, there are things that they say. that definitely like hurt my feelings that hit hard but ultimately like I've made this commitment and I love my parents and I'm like I really feel like we're trying to pull them out of something that's you know much bigger and people aren't quite understanding that this is cult mentality like and that's a slow role that is a long process to get somebody out of something that is like so rooted in them and I would add to that like I mean obviously if you have parents like this

I don't know. I mean, for me, this is how I've kind of reacted to it. I've done my own deep dives. I'm not a psychologist, but I've done my own deep dives into what I perceive their psychology to be, why they are like this, why were they susceptible to this cult in the first place? And I think a lot of it for, at least for my dad, my mom too, maybe by proxy, it has to do with just a kind of baseline adversarial worldview that they have. And you're talking about like, are we scared that they're going to kind of turn this ire on us at some point? And the answer is, you know, Yes, because they've done it to other family members. They perceive everybody at a certain point as the enemy or the adversary or who they're competing with.

And in most cases, at least for our parents specifically, they choose to just stop talking to those people, cut them out of their lives, no matter how close they are. I mean, we're talking like immediate family members, not Haley and I specifically, but, you know, brothers and sisters and whatever. And I think that just having that kind of mindset allowed the Magna Culp mentality to come in because a lot of what, Trump operates on is saying, this is your adversary, hate this person or this group of people. And that fits just right in line with everything that they have already kind of been believing about the world. Were they authoritarian-style parents? In some ways, but in other ways, absolutely not.

Like they were, both my sister and I are artists in one form or another in terms of what our careers have become, what we went to school for. And they supported that, certainly. but then it was also like, you know, dad ruled with an iron fist in many ways as your children. So it was strange. Like they were very liberal about some things, but in a more traditional sense of like parenting technique, I think, at least with me, the older child. They were not very lenient with a lot of stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Now I'm going to play a clip of your mom talking about the war in Iran. In addition within the next two weeks, this war will. be done. They're very close to it being over. Irrelevant. You saw everything I just played you was him saying he will not get into war with Iran. I don't know how many clips that was in that compilation. 2030, he has done the exact thing he promised not to do. He did it. Things change. He had to do it for our security and the security of the United States. In what way? How has it made us more secure?

We have not had a bomb hit us yet, have we? Did we have one before the war? They were getting close, very close. Where are you getting the information from that leads you to believe Iran was going to attack us? The president himself. Okay, Chad, this was from early, this was from early April. And so my question is, let's say last April, would your mom have said, oh, I like, President Trump because he's anti-war and he's not going to take us to war with Iran.

Yes. She did say that. Yes. So, okay, what's her media diet? Is it just Newsmax? Does she? Yes. That's it.

I'm here in Oklahoma right now helping my mom with some stuff. I live in Los Angeles. It's Newsmax 24-7 and I even try to put on other stuff and not like CNN or MS now. You know, I'll try to put it on something innocuous, just like, oh, here's good morning America. or whatever, I'll leave, I'll like go to the bathroom or something and come back in. It's newsmax. It's back on. Yeah. Like they cannot be away from it.

Do they think Fox is liberal? Yes. Yes. It's wild. It's crazy too to like watch these clips back with any other person. You know what I mean? Because I just cut them and post them and I'm like, go about my day. To watch that back is insane actually. And part of like what to me at least really exposes the idea of the cult mentality is their ability to shift on any given topic where like i was saying my mom used to talk about like biden's going to get us into world war three he's going to go to war with iran that'll be the

end of all humanity and she would always tout trump as being the guy who won't do that now he's done it well things change or my dad for example kind of famously i've stopped keeping track of this but when the war in ukraine started he made a prediction that a nuclear weapon would be used in ukraine within 30 days. It's been years since that prediction, you know, and he still maintains he's not wrong. Yeah. Like they can't kind of reconcile reality in terms of any of this stuff. Pre-Trump, was there this level, were they real into George W. Bush and like the Tea Party with him? No, not at all. So Trump unlocked it. Yes, 100%. Well, I would say Obama unlocked it. For dad, for dad anyway. Yeah.

So your dad's like a default setting of a racist. He, yes, 100%. So I'm seeing a black man eat off the China, wear that tan suit, sleep in the back in the White House. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

That kind of radicalized him. And whatever the opposition was going to be to Obama, whoever was going to come next in line in the Republican party, yeah, was going to be their guy for sure. But I think if it would have been a regular Republican politician, regular meaning like, adhering to most of the norms. Yeah, Mitt Romney or whoever, you know. I don't think it would have been this bad, but Trump obviously, it kind of embodies all of these,

like, worst things about any political institution, let alone American. And they just like ate it up. Living in Oklahoma City during Obama, I could see how it was breaking people. Like normal every day, maybe moderate, center-ish Republicans. And it just kept breaking them and breaking them. And then when Trump started the racism that Obama wasn't born in America, it allowed a permission

structure to otherize him. And I feel like, just like you just said, Chad, I feel like Trump gives a permission structure for everybody to cave to their worst impulses all at one time. Yeah, yeah, including voting rights now, you know? Like we are literally seeing the after effect of the Supreme Court decision. And now the South is like, really, starting to, you know, exhibit racism on a grand scale. And yeah, and like we grew up here in Texas and our parents, you know, are definitely kind of a product of that. And so, you know, it's terrifying to see what's happening right now. And Donald Trump just opened the door for all of that.

Yeah, he really did. I think that goes back to kind of what I was saying too about the adversarial mindset, because our mom is a little different. Like she does still to some degree value fairness and equality in some aspects of American culture. Yeah. Our dad does not. And to him, it's like, I don't give a shit if you redraw the districts. Does that mean we win? Then do it.

That's all that matters is the way. And that's the thing right there that my husband always says. My husband's from Hugo, Oklahoma, which is down in the southeast corner of Oklahoma. He's a criminal defense attorney now. But he always says, Republicans will say, we'll do whatever it fucking takes to win. And the Democrats are like, well, you know, we need to wait and investigate. Merrick Garland, who I think totally fucked us, we need to wait and investigate and pause on this thing and move forward. Your mom showed some empathy to her guest you had on recently, a friend of mine, peppermint.

Yeah. And nobody has been as marginalized, but black people have been completely scapegoated big time. Then they moved on to immigrants. And then the past campaign, they really moved on to jesus. to trans people. And I see and hear people in the Democratic Party saying, well, we can't talk about that. And that makes me think, oh, my God, we really have to protect these people. If people within the Democratic Party want to throw these people under the bus, fuck that shit. We really need to stand with the trans community. And I just think it's so brilliant that y'all had peppermint on. And here's a

clip of your mom asking peppermint about trans people in sports. Let's play the clip. So if you were born biologically a man or a boy, don't you feel that, you're strong. Are you stronger than most females? You know, that's the part where I kind of go down a rabbit hole and go, I don't under, you know, I think boys should play boys sports, girls should play girls sports. But then if you, what do you call it where you, you know, you've gone from a boy to a girl, right? Am I doing this right? I have no idea. Yeah, I'm, yes, I'm with you. I'm following you. You hear kind of what I'm saying. So now, I don't know. Do you play boys sports or do you play girls sports?

Listen, I think all sports should be immediately outlawed. I hate sports. Really? That's a hardcore take. And I'm a freaking mind. You all want to, you all want to cry about sports? How about no sports for a net anybody? All right, Haley, I watched a lot of this interview. And I could tell that your mom really wanted to show empathy and humanity to her.

And peppermint was talking about getting bullied in the 80s for being an effeminate little boy. Before this issue was such a hotbed. And I could tell that it kind of pains your mother a little bit. After this or during this, did she move on this issue at all? I think she did. I think unfortunately for our parents to experience something personally is what it takes. You know, in order to feel empathy for another person, they must know them, experience them. And it's an unfortunence that I think has existed their entire lives.

But I'm thankful. I'm thankful that peppermint came on. My mom got to meet her. And I think it really opened her eyes that trans people are just fucking people, you know? And I think that it really like sunk in like, oh, okay, Pepperman's just a woman and we're talking. And, you know, it really kind of, I think, clicked in that moment. So I would like to think that her perspective on trans people is completely shifted. That personal interaction and experience is 100% what it took for her.

Yeah. Even now, like I was just having a conversation with her the other day and she was like, I really liked that peppermint. She was really nice. She was funny. Like she's still thinking about it. Yes. And part of the show that we do, to some degree at least, is to try and like open our parents' minds in one way or another.

And a lot of people are like, oh, you got to go no contact and blah, blah, blah. And I get it for some people that works. For me, it was not working. And I do feel like unfortunately the responsibility to kind of bridge the thing. gap and have this conversation is on the left. The right is never going to initiate this conversation. They're never going to have the patience to have it. And so it really is up to us.

And I can't think pepper and peppermint enough for coming on and having the patients, having the conversation and kind of like hand holding our mom through these these different issues and stuff. That was like I think one of the best moments that we've had so far. Yes. And it and it was all about like peppermint's approach, you know, she's very gentle. and I will answer any questions. And it is definitely about the approach for our parents.

If it's combative, they're gonna, you know, like Chad said, they're adversarial. So if you come at them like an enemy, they're gonna, you know, it's not gonna work. But peppermint was so kind and yes, I'll answer whatever questions you have, nothing offended her. And so I think just the whole exchange was kind of a turning point for our mom. It was really fascinating. I encourage all my listeners to go watch that episode because you can can see your mom that there was some empathy in there when she asked peppermint about when she was younger about getting bullied and how different she felt and then that that wasn't a choice. My mother told me a long time ago. I was born in Dallas, but then raised in Oklahoma City,

I would ask like, why is somebody gay mom or why is somebody trans? And she's just like, all you need to know is nobody in their right fucking mind would choose to be gay or trans in the middle of the Bible Belt because they just face such an uphill battle. And, Peppermint is such a great voice. I love the way she just, I hate all sports. You know, like your mom expected her to just go hard in the pain that, you know, when it gets to trans athletes, that's their final, you know, pull that they really push. And the fact that she was like, I don't give a shit about any sports. It just defused the whole situation. You guys went on Hassan Pikers screen with your parents.

And Hassan Piker is a friend of mine. And right now, like, it seems like everybody on the right and then like corporate dims, they're all like, oh, my God, Hassan Piker is the worst fucking person on the planet, which is just a ridiculous bedwetting as far as I'm concerned. But your parents really liked him a lot. Let's play this clip. Of him. Okay.

Let's play that. All the attacks. We got some defenders even on the Magasides. Do you mom? Do you have ditties? I'm just making sure that our friend, Mr. Piker, is okay. My husband loves his hat. that you gave him and I've been hooking up every day to stream to see if maybe you forgot my

address and where you might be able to send me something. I hope you're okay and if you need us to slap down that discussing Democrat Brad Schneider that's been on you recently. We can slap him down for you if you need it. Slapin down. Yeah, he's been calling our friend Mr. Piker some bad names like anti-sake and all kinds of stuff and he's a Democrat and it's kind of bizarre. So Mr. Piker's been getting in a little trouble.

And if he needs Bob and I to come out, we are here. And this is your invite to come back on our show because we- God damn, somehow Hassan Piker has become the golden child of our family. It's the most bizarre turn of events that has happened in the course of this entire podcast. You guys, that is so great. It's so good. So she said she's been hooking up to a stream. Is she getting on Twitch and listening to Hassan?

Not Twitch. She probably goes on YouTube and watches clips and stuff. I don't think she is on Twitch or would ever understand how to do that. But in a similar kind of way to what Peppermot was able to do, it's like both Hassan and Peppermott are like super smart, super funny, very charming. And I think that kind of disarms our parents because they're expecting the adversary. And when it's just like the smart, funny person who's like, okay, I get it. You think this. And let's have some fun and have some jokes and just have a conversation. It's harder for them to maintain. that adversarial mindset and be like, fuck you, you're the enemy, I'm going to take you out. And I think both Hassan and peppermot were able to do that expertly. Well, they have the preconceived notion, you know, that like all Dems or all liberals are a certain way. And when somebody comes on that isn't that way, they don't know how to react.

You know, obviously Hassan Piker is charismatic and he's funny and shit. And our parents were just like smitten. So much so that I gave my mother, Hassan Piker merch for Mother's Day, Okay. Oh my gosh. I went to the Oklahoma City Thunder Lakers game with Asan a few nights ago. And I said, you love Maga Culture so much, don't you?

He goes, I'm like Jane Goodall walking into a natural habitat, just observing this shit. He goes, and I can shoot the shit with them. I love it. He absolutely loves it. And your, Hassan gave your dad that big hat. Yeah. That's sitting on a table right. in front of me right now. I'm staring at it.

It's the crown jewel, okay? Yeah. Yeah. I think it's really interesting that everybody's trying to make Hassan Piker the boogeyman right now, and he has penetrated the Maca cult to where they want to go and take out people who are criticizing him. Yeah. It's wild. It's absolutely insane. But it's also that idea of like anything that the Democrats are against MAGA loves. And now it's like a super liberal, uh, political. political commentator in Hassan that like the Democrats like you're saying the corporate Democrats are against him because they fear what he can do in terms of overturning kind

of the status quo and how things are done and so they're against him and so that means my parents are against them it's it's bizarre to me yeah do you guys ever keep track of what's going on in Oklahoma politics and specifically I'm talking about the former Secretary of Education or superintendent of education. Ryan Walters. Yes. Okay. So Ryan, okay, Ryan Walters, listener and Chad was the superintendent of school in Oklahoma. And he's the one who wanted to buy all the Trump Bibles, bought all the Trump Bibles and mandated that they'd be put in every school. And he also spent an inordinate amount of time in his car, filming TikToks and social media reels, talking about

porn, talking about child indoctrination, talking about gay people and talking about trans people, and talking about trans people, talking about family values. So much time talking about gay and trans people that I thought, hmm. Yeah. He's just think about that an awful lot. Well, now Ryan Walters, the MAGA family value warrior against trans woke ideology has filed for divorce in the state of Oklahoma, Republican superintendent, Ryan Walters, mandated teaching Christian values in schools, including the obligation of marital loyalty.

He is now filing for divorce. What do your parents, you're saying that they really don't even believe in religion that much. What do they think of this type of hypocrisy? How does this kind of stuff fit into their worldview? Because it always seems like these mage of people, every time I turn around, you know, like there's this guy named Matt Schlapp who is way up in CPAC. He always gets liquored up and then he starts grabbing the testicles and penises of other Republican men.

Look it up. It's juicy shit. And he still. Oh, yeah. Okay. What do your parents think about that stuff? Or have you ever told him that like grinder crashes at like these funerals? They don't care.

They don't care. Because you've got Trump at the top of that pyramid. Right. Who has been convicted of sexual assault. who is in the Epstein files more than anybody else, et cetera, et cetera, has cheated on every wife. I mean, came into the American political system, basically with the Stormy Daniels controversy,

that he was cheating on his wife while she was pregnant, now paying hush money, et cetera, grab him by the pussy, all that stuff. All of that. I was literally in this very living room that I now sit while that was going on. The October surprise came out that year, and it was the Access Hollywood tape

that we all have heard and know about. And I was standing in the kitchen with my mom and I was like well this is it there's no way she's voting for this guy and my mom literally was like well that was just locker room talk she was repeating the the talking point that they were throwing out there and I was like oh this is done he's going to win that moment for me really made it like holy shit he's going to actually win this that was the first time I thought that was possible for them they don't care about that stuff despite saying that they're catholic and Christian and all this shit and that's another point to Haley's uh

kind of theory that they are not religious at all. They aren't. They are when it's convenient in terms of their identity or when it bolsters some argument they're trying to make. But generally speaking, they do not care about any of that. Like my dad is like, yeah, get rid of the Epstein files. I don't even want to hear that word again. Yeah, I think, I think mom does care a little bit. I think when you isolate her, get her away from our dad and she's able to like kind of have her own opinions and form her own thoughts. She does care about shit like that. Like she doesn't want kids being hurt.

She doesn't like the idea of women being assaulted. But there's something like a stronghold that Trump has on her where he could do literally anything like, well, I didn't see that. You know? So I have to see it with my eyes. Haley, what do you think happens? I mean, Trump is practically, as far as I'm concerned, one foot in the ground. I mean, we've got this dementia duck.

Yeah. Sey Nile at the wazoo. He's got like, you know, these rashes on his neck, his hands, the cancels, etc. What happens? Yeah. What happens to your mom and dad when he kicks the bucket? My hope is that once that cult of personality is gone, it fucking ends. They are not following J.D. Vanson to the fire. Okay. He's a fucking potato. They're not doing anything. Do they like him? Do they like J.D? By default.

You know, like they don't really care about J.D. Vance. He's just, you know, in close proximity to Trump. So I think once he's dead, this may end. I think Maja is over at that point. Really? I think so, yeah. And so your parents were not in the Tea Party because I have this feeling that like, okay, the Tea Party incubated MAGA. And then I'm like, what is MAGA incubating? You know, and then you see like the Nick Fentez, the Tucker Carlson's, this new America first. You don't see your parents like jumping off of the Trump chain,

Trump train, and then on to like Tucker Carlson? No. No. I don't think so either. I'll say this. I have my own theories about, you know, the assassination attempts and stuff like that. I do think there are people inside the whatever you

want to call it, the MAGA party, the Republican Party inside the people who are like authoring Project 2025 and stuff. I think there are smart people that understand Trump, himself embodies something that no other politician in their ranks does. He has that juice for whatever reason he can do this. I don't think J.D.

Vance, I don't think any of the other politicians can. And so I think they are aware of that. And I think they know Trump cannot die in his sleep. He's got to be martyred. And I don't know about like, you know, these assassination attempts and should I'm not saying they're fake, but I'm saying for a very long time, CIA, whoever has been able to like radicalize this person or that. person and kind of just like send them in and see what happens. And there have been a lot of

assassination attempts against him, whether you think they're real or not, like, that's a bunch in a very short amount of time, you know. I picture, this is kind of what I picture, no matter how he dies. If it's in his sleep, if he shot, whatever, like take your parents, for example, they are not going to accept, let's say that he dies of a heart attack, which is totally believable, right? We've all seen his cancels. I don't think your parents, for a second are going to think that that was a legitimate heart attack. I think that's when they're going to like, and it'd be so easy to do it. I'll totally do it.

Did J.D. Vance inject something, you know, just to kind of watch them all cannibalize each other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think they're going to just like, it's like a hit. You know, he's given them a hit. He's given them an identity. And then when he's gone, are they going to accept that this man who they think is invincible, who's omnipon,

omnipotent, all of these things? Are they just going to accept that he just died of natural causes? I think there's going to be so many conspiracy theories surrounding it. Yes, that's what I'm saying. I think they, I think the, again, this is my own theory. I have no evidence of this. I just want to put that out there, but it seems likely to me that the people who would engineer a project 2025 understand the value of Trump's death in terms of forwarding what they are doing

in the American political system. And that death cannot be by natural causes, cannot be in his sleep. must be a martyred kind of assassination thing so that they can turn blame back on the wild liberal. Yeah, exactly. The left terrorist in this country. And then whoever they want to step forward into that void can do it and take that momentum.

And I think maybe perhaps, I don't know if this was like orchestrated in this way, but you look at what happened with Charlie Kerr, and immediately his wife just steps right into the void and they're like, okay, that's kind of, it's the blueprint though. Yeah, but I think the whole Charlie Kirk thing really has shown the American people, because there are the cultists who, you know, just buy into everything.

But I think when you saw Charlie Kirk's funeral and it's this WWE thing, I think all these country club Republicans that are like Episcopalians or Methodists that look down on Bible thumpers, living in Oklahoma, you know the kind of Christians that look down on the megachurch people. They're like, well, they're the trashy Christians. that Christian on Christian crime. I think they, I think they blew the God with that funeral. And I think it's backfired.

I think turning point is done. I think that shit is done. I agree with you that they tried to transfer it all to Erica. But it just, I mean, she's a nut. I mean, she's insane, yeah. Insane. It's absolutely fucking insane how she has behaved. At first I felt bad for her.

But then I was like, is anybody going to talk about gun control? anybody does anything give a shit enough about this man to talk about what killed him that it was totally preventable and they don't they don't give a shit about it it's interesting that Trump is the central focal unifying character in your parents descent into this let's fucking tell me about it yeah it's the weirdest shit to witness you know as a kid like I didn't realize my parents were so easily persuaded by a sack of shit like Donald Trump. Like I thought they were smarter than this, you know? So to watch the dissent has just been a fucking wild ride. How's your relationship with them now that y'all are doing the

podcast? It has opened up so many doors. I think I talked to my mom now like almost daily. So I just kind of I treat it like a sport almost. You leave that shit all on the field. You just fucking get it all out on the podcast. There are some days where I have to go in my room for two or three hours, read a book and try to forget about what the fuck we just did. You know, because I get heated. There are times where my dad's shit. I just want to like, like, what the fuck, man? So there are times, you know, where it really gets to me.

But at the end of the day, like, I can now call my mother and talk to her about life events. And we don't talk politics at all. So I think it has definitely kind of like, you know, mended some fences with us. And so I'm grateful for the podcast. I think it's working. And Chad, how about you? Yeah, I mean, I would say that was kind of an unintended consequence of it or outcome of it, if you want to put it that way, that we do have a better relationship with them.

Because like Haley's saying, all the things that used to stop us from talking, we get all of that out in an hour a week. Like I've been back here for, Jesus, how long have I been here a week now almost? And Haley was here this past weekend. She's coming back to help my mom with all the stuff. the entire time I've been here, and granted, my dad is like in the hospital, so he's not around to, you know, put his finger on the scale. But the entire time I've been here, my mom and I haven't talked about politics one time, except when we recorded the podcast, even though Newsmax is on and stuff like that. She's just sitting there on her iPad, you know, looking at whatever.

And I think that it has gotten us into a rhythm as a family in terms of how we communicate, that the political discourse is just in that podcast. argue and yell and do whatever but then when that's off literally sometimes you can just be like save it for the podcast if that shit starts like you know popping up in our regular conversations yeah do your parents like the uh popularity and kind of fame from the podcast or they enjoy that aspect of it yeah i think so our mom is i mean i i also am a tv and movie writer and stuff and there was a point this is some years ago one of my books got turned into a movie and i was on the set and it was happening in Texas. So my parents drove down for it and I got my mom to be an extra in that movie. She's always kind of wanted to be famous for lack of a better term. And so now

she's getting that a little bit, which is cool. We just hit 100,000 subscribers or whatever on our YouTube channel and I had them send her the little silver plaque, you know, and I think she liked unwrapping that and all that. So that's been kind of a fun thing for her for sure. I think dad too. Like we went to visit him in the hospital and I told him, you know, like I made this post on my social media page. And I didn't know what to anticipate because you know that my dad is obviously very polarizing. So I did not know what was going to come from that. But I was, you know, telling him like these people are wishing you well, you know, like you've got to get better. They miss you on the pod.

And that was, it was actually kind of eye opening for me because the concerns. census is that people hate our fucking dad, but in this moment of kind of like medical crisis, they're all hoping that he gets well. And I think that's also a testament to like you can never judge an entire, you know, group of people that you think are a certain way because most of my followers are quite liberal leaning and they're all wishing my dad well. So I think I always say this to Maggot. I don't wish them death and I don't wish them hard times. I don't want to sit down and have a coffee. Now, if it was my parent like you, then that's a different situation. You want to try to salvage what you can. But to the MAGA person that is looking to have a kumbaya with me,

I'm not super interested. But I want them to have health care. If they have a gay child, I want their child to have equal rights. I want them to have a good life. I don't wish suffering upon them. And I think that's the fundamental difference between the left and the right. You know, there's that lack of empathy on the right where it's like, fuck the libs, the enemy from within. Trump's calling us vermin, you know, which is total Hitler shit, Nazi shit. And at the end of the day, I cannot fucking stand, Maga. I cannot stand it living in the Bible Belt for 51 years and watching all of it just manifest in Oklahoma education going from 14 to 50th and people accepting the lies and the

lower wages and the shitty lives. I don't know how to get them to not believe that shit, but my God, I don't want them to suffer. I don't want to be friends, but I definitely don't want them to suffer. And so, you know, with your dad, update my audience, because I have a feeling a lot of my audience is going to go listen to your podcast now. It's called Necessary Conversations. And I do wish your dad, you know, nobody likes anybody being sick. And I know that's really stressful for you all. Update us on your dad and his prognosis, if you're comfortable with that. Sure, you want to do it, Haley?

Yeah. So, Oh, shit. Okay, so I had to fly out to Boston to get my kid home from college. Upon landing, I get a text message and a voicemail from my mom that just says, your dad coded. That's all I get. So I think that my dad has died. I call my mom immediately.

She's crying and says that he's in like this rehab facility for some deterioration in like two of his vertebrae. So they're trying to assist him in walking. As he's in this facility overnight, his heart stops. They bring him back to life. My mother witnesses the entire thing. She watches my dad die and then be resurrected. Okay.

So we've got, yeah, so zombie dad is back. He is living. He is doing better. Is he still cranky? He's still a son of a bitch. In fact, mom said when he came back to life, he came back swinging quite literally. So yelling at people and throwing his arms. Did he have a near-death experience?

That was the first question that Chad asked. I was like, what did you see? Well, he claims that he can't remember or whatever, but I'm like, I'm fascinated with that kind of stuff. Yeah. It's like my kind of personal interest, I would say, is like human consciousness, what happens when you die, et cetera, et cetera. And so I'm just like chomping at the bit for him to remember anything or to even, I think maybe if he did have the experience, again, part of this like kind of gruff exterior that he puts up this persona he's created, like wouldn't even allow him to address it or talk about it. Yeah.

But he was dead for minutes. I have to imagine he saw something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he's still in this facility where they're trying to rehab him now. they kind of concluded that his heart is okay. We don't really know the cause of it yet,

but he seems to be doing better on the mend. So we're hoping, you know, in the next couple of weeks, he'll be good to go. What are your parents' names? Bob and Mary Lou. Okay. Bob and Mary Lou, I have the biggest compliment for you guys, despite us not agreeing on anything politically.

I think it is a testament to each of their character that they raise such open-minded. critically thinking adults. Truly, I do. I think it's a testament that's inside cranky old Bob and Mary Lou who seems to be a little slightly curious about things that they raised such open-minded critical thinkers. I really do.

I think it's a real testament that there's something, there's something shining in Bob and Mary Lou. There's maybe a central, what do we call it? Centrist Curious. Maybe we can get them to center. to center and then from there maybe go go elsewhere. I know you aren't trying to change their political views. You're trying to, because these aren't political views.

This is, I mean, I, I think I am too. Yeah, I'm trying to turn that shit around. Yeah, I don't think we are like our dad, I think is pretty much cooked. But our mom is like, like we were talking about, she comes around every once in a while. And it's just a big part of it is exposure to other people, other ideas and stuff that she just doesn't ever have right in front of her in her day-to-day life because her friends are like my dad her horse and whoever's talking to her on newsmax and so if you can kind of like crack into that a little bit with somebody else like peppermint or hasan biker or whoever um it it does a world

of good i think for my mom and i just can't imagine like we're talking about after trump dies i think maga unless he dies in a specific way that they can kind of like motivate people with i I think it just loses its juice. And then all of the, I don't know what happens to the MAGA cult, those people who are like wearing the Trump merch, putting on his clone, buying his Bible, wearing the golden sneakers, I don't know what happens to those people.

Like, can they just revert back to being Republican? I don't know. But I just don't think that certainly the MAGICL won't have as much political power as it does without Trump. I hope you're right. Haley and Chad, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm a huge fan. And listeners, please go subscribe online if you're watching on YouTube to the necessary,

the necessary conversation. Yeah. The necessary conversation pod or wherever you get podcasts and you can follow each of them online. Thank you both so much for joining me. I really enjoyed it. Thank you. Thank you for having us.

We're huge fans of you as well. Yeah. Oh, I love that. All right. Bye, guys.