The MeidasTouch Podcast - MAGA gets UNCOVERED in New Hit MeidasTouch Series

Episode Date: June 3, 2023

Today, we are excited to introduce you to the newest podcast series on the MeidasTouch Network, MAGA Uncovered! During this age of misinformation, journalist Anthony Davis and former Federal Prosecutor Ron Filipkowski expose the extremist propaganda spread via hidden right-wing media, responsible for Republican voter brainwashing. So enjoy episode 1, and make sure to go and add MAGA Uncovered right now on your favorite podcast apps to hear new episodes every week! Listen to MAGA Uncovered here or anywhere you find podcasts: https://pod.link/1690214260/episode/7af3b9c5b5fccd2a709ff525765f7113 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hey, this is Brett from the Midas Touch Podcast. Today, I'm super excited to introduce you to the newest show on the Midas Touch Network. And this is no ordinary show. We're bringing together top researcher of the right, Ron Filipkowski, and journalist Anthony Davis to create something truly special. It's a look into the deepest recesses of MAGA presented by those who know it best.

New episodes of MAGA Uncovered air live every Wednesday at 4 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Pacific time on our YouTube channel, and then they are posted to the MAGA Uncovered podcast feed after. So make sure you go right now and subscribe to MAGA Uncovered anywhere you listen to podcasts. Without further ado, enjoy episode one. Hi, Ron. Anthony, good to see you again. Great to see you. Thank you so much for being part of

this very special thing. This is new for us because we're doing something live, which is kind of special, isn't it, to kind of have this opportunity to kind of do a live show together. And we should probably explain what this show is all about and why we're doing it and why we feel that there is a need at this moment in American political history to actually do a show like this. Because, you know, let's be clear, it's not a great situation at the moment, right?

And so, just so people understand, I mean, I'm a British journalist. I've been in the US for seven years. You and I have met on my other Midas Touch show called The Weekend Show, and we have talked a lot about an area of propaganda that is not really covered by the mainstream media. And that is what you as a former prosecutor do now. You expose this kind of extremism, which is not covered on cable news or the mainstream. So just tell us a little bit about that work that you do before we get into the kind of nitty gritty of what we're going to do today. I've joked a couple of times on Twitter that I've trained my whole life for this year, this primary. And what I mean by that really is I've come up through the Republican Party, through the grassroots at almost every level,

working on campaigns, being a club president, through the grassroots, and getting to know these people, getting to understand them, being part of them, having them be part of my family. And then watching the Trump movement come in, how the party changed during the Obama years, then into the Trump years, watching what happened to the party, studying it. Sure, I feel like I'm very plugged in. I've been to many Trump rallies. I've been to Marjorie Taylor Greene rallies, Matt Gaetz rallies as an observer. And I just blend in and I talk to the people. And I'm comfortable in those environments because I came up in those environments for many years. So I feel like I have a very good understanding of what's happening on the ground at the grassroots level, at the influencer level in the Republican Party. And so,

yeah, this primary is going to be very unique, very unlike any other primary in history. And I just feel like I'm pretty well prepared, pretty wired in to know what's happening behind the scenes. I just want to be clear with people that they understand that this is not about us hating MAGA and hating, you know, everything it says about hating Republicans, because I'm not a Democrat. You know, I'm a pro-democracy journalist, but I believe in political opposition and I believe that Republicans should have fair representation. And you're a former Republican who, when Trump showed up, not just, you know, Democrat voters, everybody. And we want MAGA people to be watching this to understand that they're being sold a lie and that their lives did not get better under Donald Trump. In fact, they got worse and the country got worse.

And America on the world stage lost its credibility in many ways. And, you know, that has been clawed back a bit since Joe Biden showed up. But this is not about us being kind of lefties and hating the right. This is about information, giving voters the truth, because so much of what they're seeing on the news and listening to podcasts and on social media is not true. And there can only be one truth, unlike the alternative facts that seem to have become a thing. Just explain what it is that you, where you get your information from. Because, you know, this is not, we're not talking about Fox News. We're not talking about these mainstream places. Tell us where you go looking for the kind of stuff that we're going to be talking about on this show. Sure. So when I first got into social media to sort of become

involved in the anti-Trump movement within the Republican Party, I really noticed that the people that were primarily covering the Republican Party were covering Fox, maybe Newsmax, and that was about it. But what I realized was that there is this massive ecosystem that has developed of podcasters, of social media people, alternative channels, internet stations that have millions and millions of viewers and participants. And many of the grassroots activists, these are the places that they go for their information and they go for their news. So you can't really understand MAGA or what is happening in the Republican Party by watching just Fox News. You just simply can't. In fact, Fox is really more of an establishment organ now, especially with Tucker Carlson being gone. Because there were

many of the hardcore MAGA people who would only watch Fox for Tucker. That's the only time that they would watch. So now they don't watch it at all. So you really have to delve into that ecosystem. But that is very time consuming. It's very annoying. It's very frustrating. You watch people that you can't stand to listen to, but you've got to do it to understand them. So I try to do it for many other people. I go through that. I'll watch Donald Trump Jr. for 45 minutes, rant. And by the way, as an aside, his podcast, he'll have a member of Congress on like Greg Stubbe the other night. Donald Trump Jr. will talk for 44 of the 45 minutes. The member of Congress might get to talk for one minute.

So yeah, it's no fun doing it. I don't enjoy it necessarily, but I feel it's necessary and important. This is how I feel. You know, I love the United States of America. I choose to live here and bring my children up here. But I recognize that, you know, the threat of fascism, the rise of fascism, this kind of neo-Nazi stuff, this, you know, Christian nationalism, it has kind of infiltrated everyday life. And, you know, the rest of the world is not like this. Sure, other countries have their problems too. But things like, you know, Roe or Dobbs, the rest of the world is not even considering a rollback of abortion rights or women's rights, you know, and the US has kind of got itself into this place where this type of these type of laws that should remain on statute forever are now being weaponized. I just want to say that when you watch these videos and listen to these podcasts, a lot of the guests like Trump or Trump Jr. or whoever,

they forget that Democrats and journalists and analysts might be watching. They sometimes think that they're just talking to their MAGA people, right? So they say things often that they really feel that they wouldn't say if they were going on mainstream media or on a mainstream podcast even, right? They tend to get lost in their racism and their extremism and their misogyny. And it all comes out when they're in these kind of very niche channels. Tell us about that. That is a very, very good point. And that's one of the main reasons why I started doing this is because I noticed that pattern. I noticed that a member of Congress would go on Fox and maybe be

interviewed by Hannity and say one thing, but then go on an obscure podcast with, say, a pastor and say completely different stuff, wild stuff, because as you said, they're trying to pander to that person's audience. And so when many of these people are going on, I'm talking about members of Congress going on Alex Jones's show, for example, or some really wild podcasts, and sometimes I'll see the matchup and I'll say, oh, Lauren Boebert's going on this person's podcast. Well, this is going to be great. This is going to be wild. So I hone in on that and I know to watch that. But yes, as you said, that's when they make their most extreme outrageous statements. And then we surface those

into the mainstream and then the mainstream media picks up on what got said on this podcast. But one thing I will say, though, is now they're becoming more aware that people like me are out there watching them, because one thing I've noticed is when they make a big mistake, and when something slips out, and they see something really crazy, they'll always catch themselves and go, oh, that's the part they're going to clip. And I'm sitting there listening to them, recording them going, yep, you're right. You're about to go on CNN, buddy. You know? Yeah. And that does happen more and more. It's so interesting, isn't it? Because there are two Americas, and I talk about this a lot on The Weekend Show. there are very much two Americas.

And you can choose to live in reality, or you can live in this kind of MAGA space that is riddled with propaganda, and it's very dangerous. And, you know, your Twitter, Ron, you know, you have a lot of followers, you have a huge amount of people who are, you know, really look forward to kind of finding what you unearth. But I want to just make it clear that Trumpism is not just Donald Trump and MAGA, you know, is make America great again. Well, Ronald Reagan kind of coined that phrase, didn't he? And so, you know, Trump loves Reagan. And so the whole thing got regurgitated. This is Trumpism will live on even if Donald Trump doesn't win in 2024, right? I mean, this now has become very much embedded in the very center of the Republican Party, hasn't it? Yeah. In fact, I've often said Trump could die tomorrow and this movement will continue on. That's the thing. We're under

this mistaken impression, and I see this a lot on liberal progressive Twitter, is, well, Trump's going to go to prison and we're going to be done with all this. Well, I don't agree with that. I really don't. And in fact, I think it's now completely reversed from 2016-17, where Trump really controlled the movement and set the tone and set the messaging. I really feel like that is completely reversed. And now the movement controls Trump. Trump echoes what they're saying and picks up on what they're saying, not the other way

around anymore. And that's happened in the last two or three years. And that makes him more unhinged and more dangerous because he's now repeating the talking points of the real extremists and the conspiracy theories of the real extremists on the internet. And let's not forget that the platform has now been weaponized because Twitter, where you and I met and so many people use as the town square, is now in the hands of somebody who we used to think was like Tony Stark, you know, this kind of super cool dude, right, who sends people to space. But it turns out that Elon Musk is a far right

operative. And he now, he paid, what, $44 billion for a platform that is now not worth a third of that. You don't spend $44 billion on a platform unless you have an agenda. So, I mean, you must worry about act where I really want to criticize Musk and I really want to hold his feet to the fire for the things that he says and does. And I think I was probably the first person to out him on his Paul Pelosi tweet where he tweeted the story. It was very early. It was like six o'clock in the morning and I get up early. He tweeted the blog from the Santa Monica Times. And I immediately dove in to researching who the Santa Monica Times was. Turns out it's one guy, you know,

and he and delving into his conspiracy theories. And then I started putting all that out on Twitter. It was like a Sunday morning. And immediately, you know, there was the pushback of him where he and the story was that, you know, the guy who attacked Paul Pelosi was a gay prostitute who was had gotten in a spat with his customer, who was Paul Pelosi. That was the story. So, yeah, when you have somebody like Elon Musk tweeting that to one hundred and thirty million people, that's a very dangerous thing. And I've sort of watched. So, yes, when I do things like that, I get a little concerned that he can sure push a button and delete me off Twitter anytime he wants. And part of what makes me even more nervous is the fact that when he has done that in

the past, media hasn't really stood up and fought back. And this is frustrating to me. It seems to me like when he takes a CNN journalist off Twitter for no reason other than they wrote maybe a bad story about him, every media company should stop posting for the next 72 hours. Teach them a lesson. But it seems like they don't present a united front, the media. They all have their own individual thing. Well, because it's also box office, isn't it? You know, the right wing is a great way to build an audience. And, you know, the left, I mean, look at talk radio in the US, right? the drama. They want the sensationalism. And

because that's where the money is, that's where the advertisers can make most of their return. And that's really the tragedy. The media has not really, or the mainstream media, has never really known how to handle Trump and the MAGA movement. The way they cover it has actually given rise to fascism in the West. And that is very selfish, isn't it? Where you put your advertisers and your revenue at a higher place than the safety and security and the future of the country that you seek to serve. Yeah, I think they went from one extreme to the other. They went from 16 to covering everything he did and said because the ratings were great and the drama was great, to now almost going too far the other way to where they don't want to cover him at all to a fault because when he makes mistakes and when he says crazy things, they almost don't want to cover that now. And my position is, look, almost don't want to cover that now.

And my position is, look, you don't need to give him wall-to-wall coverage and put his entire rally speeches on primetime. But when he says something really crazy, you need to show that. And people say this to me all the time. They're like, why do you keep talking about him? And I'm like, the moment we stop talking about a threat that is so dangerous to the U.S. is the moment that complacency will enable fascism to rise. And it is fascism. I mean, let's not question this. This is an important point.

This is a mentality, Anthony, that really exists only on the left. And I've said this before, and people hate when I say this, but it's absolutely true. You will never see a single person on right-wing social media or media say, hey, we shouldn't amplify AOC. We shouldn't amplify Joe Biden. We shouldn't amplify pick your Democrat. We shouldn't amplify Joy Reid. Like no person right-winger has ever said that once in their life. It doesn't exist.

And yet on the left, what do we do? We can post Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about Jewish space lasers. And there will be people on the left that will go, don't give her what she wants. You're giving her publicity. You're giving her attention. And my response to that is, yes, that is what they want want but that's also what we have to do in certain cases we give them negative attention i don't believe in this thing like all publicity is good publicity not in politics no there's an intelligent way to cover these people and i think that that's what i try to do

as much as i can and that's what the media has to do. On today's episode, we're going to look at a MAGA propagandist that has defected to Russia. We've got Trump planning to deny citizenship to U.S. babies born to migrant parents. We've got Target and that war on woke continuing with them removing stuff off the shelves and Trump attacking Kayleigh McEnany and the Freedom Caucus is in revolt because of Kevin McCarthy's debt ceiling deal. I mean, we've got a lot to talk about and we've only got another 42 minutes to do it. So and I want to make it absolutely clear that the stuff we're going to talk about on MAGA Uncovered going forward over the next weeks and months and hopefully years is not stuff you are going to see on the mainstream media. And, you know, people, even the phrase mainstream media has been

weaponized, hasn't it? It's like, oh, the mainstream media. I mean, I'm including everything. I'm including Fox and Newsmax and all that. They are all the mainstream media now. And even if they don't want to be thought of as the mainstream media, they are. And so what we're going to focus on is the stuff that you are finding in the depths of this kind of MAGA world that does not get covered and not get reported on. And I just want to quote somebody. There's a guy, you know, I follow you on Twitter and have done for ages, and I just love the way you post. And I have another friend called Luke Zaleski. You probably follow him as well. And I just want to read a couple of things

that he often replies to people with the same phrase. And this thing has stuck with me for months, actually. And I just want to kind of analyze it with you. He says, Trump is the manifestation of everything ugly in America. Racism, sexism, unfettered capitalism, domestic terrorism, repression. He is a cultivated and self-created weapon of entrenched corrupt power that feeds the rich and foils the true

American promise of a better life for all. He says Trumpism isn't politics. It's a long-standing violence and intimidation generation machine. It's racism, fascism and lies combined to further fracture social divisions and deteriorate societal stress points. From the Central Park Five to the wall to George Floyd and the big lie or January 6. This is it. This is what we are living through. The longest, largest coordinated propaganda campaign and hostile takeover of American history. I mean, Luke's got a point,

hasn't he? I mean, it is this serious, and this is why you and I are sitting here doing this show. It's not for our own purpose. You know? It is because this is so important just kind of respond to to the way luke phrases this oh that that's a pretty good summation um that's why i always talk about this being an ecosystem or a movement it's not it's not a man i do think we focus too much on

trump when there's there's plenty of other people waiting in the wings to take his place. So sure, it's an entire approach. And there's foreign actors involved in here as well that are putting their fingers in and exacerbating. There's people on Twitter from all over the world who are posing as Americans, who are just stoking the fires of this division, because that's what they want. It's trying to destroy us from within. And people don't know what is real and what isn't real. And this is something that, you know, this kind of right-wing media campaign enjoys, is confusing people. It's a kind of Steve Bannon

thing, isn't it? Creating this chaos. And so people often say to me, you know, they go, how do you as a journalist know what is real and genuine and what is propaganda and false? And I'm like, well, I just trust the fact that I've been doing this for a long time. And I hopefully I still live in reality. Yeah. Not everyone is blessed with that radar, are they? No, just kind of that. No. And many mainstream journalists have get sucked in on this stuff. I see it all. It's sort of why I don't like political satire stuff where people are maybe on the left or putting out things that they think are funny, like fake Trump posts or fake video.

The reason why I'm so against that is on political social media is because that's a weapon of the right. They intentionally put out fake stuff like that, and they want it to get into the mainstream, and they want Democratic politicians to pick up on them and repost them and retweet them. So then they can go back and say, you all are idiots, you fell for it. So I think it's important for people on the left just not to do that at all. We have to be able to believe what we're getting from the people that we get it from. So sure, a big part of what I do is constantly debunking. I'll post things. This is fake. This is not real. But every single day I see very famous people get sucked in and suckered in by fake stuff. And I do my best to try and keep up with saying, no, that's not real, but it's hard. And this is before we even get into AI and deepfakes and all that stuff. I mean, we can't even get to that bit yet, because that is going to become a big problem in the future.

In fact, Barack Obama, in an interview, said that is going to be, because someone did a kind of deepfake of him towards the end of his presidency. And he was like, this is going to be one of the most dangerous things going forward. Let's start kind of looking at the news and seeing what's going on today. I want to talk about Kayleigh McEnany. Is that how you say her name? I think so. She's the former press secretary for Donald Trump.

She was a pretty good press secretary. She was confident. She could fire her guns back at the press room. And now, of course, she's a host on Fox. So that's a kind of natural thing to do, right, if you've worked for Donald Trump. She was auditioning for that job while she was in the White House. Right. Yeah. He he really should have her on his side. Right. She is a useful mouthpiece for Donald Trump. Sure. And and and yet she kind of misspoke and he has turned on her. Just explain to us what that means. Well, it's not just this incident. This was probably the straw that broke the camel's back for him. But this has been building for a while. The reason why this is a big deal is this. Look, Trump has attacked his former officials and cabinet members many times, as we know. You could go right down the line from Mike Pence, Bill Barr, his former chiefs of staff, Elaine Chao, attacks him all the time. But a lot of time, in most of those

instances, his supporters agree with him. It's not controversial. They agree with his critiques of his former people. In the case of Kayleigh McEnany, that is not true. I mean, Kayleigh McEnany is almost universally liked. There's very few people in the MAGA movement who dislike Kayleigh Mc. There are a few, but very few. So when he attacked her, that really set off a firestorm. In fact, right-wing Twitter all day today has been all Kayleigh McEnany all the time. And they've all picked sides, half of them defending Kayleigh, the other half going after Kayleigh, going after Trump. It's just caused this firestorm back and forth between them all day long.

Every time I've been able to check in with social media today, it's all McEnany. So Trump really, I think, made a big mistake here on this one. But this has been building for a while. Kayleigh's been pretty much sending out signals that she's leaning DeSantis. And I think Trump has picked up on those signals. And he figures when she misstated the poll numbers last night, she did it on purpose. So I think this was a long time coming for Trump. I don't see them kissing and making up. This is kind of, I think, a break for them. But it's a big deal. And this is also why, I think a break, you know, for them, but it's, it's a big deal. And this is also why I said for a long time, we really need a DeSantis candidacy

to break up this movement, because this is a perfect example. This one tweet about Kaylee McEnany has got them tearing each other apart and fighting with each other all day long. If DeSantis wasn't running, that never happens. The infighting is something we should talk about for a moment, because, you know, with a with a upcoming primary, that kind of starts to get people at each other's throats. Right. And if you go back to 2016 and think about those kind of primary debates that were going on with Donald Trump and him like rubbishing. Was it Jed Bush? It was one of his least favorite people. You know, he kind of really just went for everybody by the throat. Unfortunately, that MAGA brigade enjoy seeing that.

It's like watching wrestling or boxing, some kind of, you know, attack, you know some kind of sport, blood sport. And my fear is that every time Trump attacks somebody, whether they're on his team or another team, that actually there will be a large proportion of his supporters who will be like, yeah, go for it. Say terrible things. You know, that's why the Access Hollywood tape didn't even dent his popularity, because there is something uncivil about people now where they're so done with politicians, they're so done with the establishment, they really think that he is the kind of anti-establishment he's painted himself as an anti-politician and so in fighting aside the the worse he is the more they're going to support him but you're only talking about his hardcore supporters and let me let me just point this

out too it's one thing to attack jeb bush ron deSantis is not Jeb Bush. OK, you know, Trump likes to pick on weak people that don't fight back, that are easily bullied. This is why I felt it was so important for DeSantis to run, because DeSantis and the DeSantis supporters who are, I think, going to grow are going to fight back and they're going to fight back nasty and they're going to fight back hard so they're going to go back at trump in a way that none of the people in 2016 were capable of doing none of them had the stomach to do it ted cruz marco rubio all these beta males that he was running against who just you know sucked up to him they didn't have what it takes and their supporters weren't tough enough.

But I don't believe that's the case with DeSantis, and I think DeSantis' support is going to grow. His people are going to get more militant, and they're going to start fighting back a lot more. He already has pretty good support among that ecosystem of people. He's got Fox people. I could rattle off a whole bunch

of names that are supporting DeSantis. And so, yeah, these people are not weak people and they will fight back. And I, that's why I think this is really going to get ugly. Let me ask you a question about DeSantis and his followers. You know, yeah. Okay. He's popular in Florida. How much of that is based on him rigging the vote? I have no idea, but you know, yeah, OK, he's popular in Florida. How much of that is based on him rigging the vote? I have no idea. But, you know, he did very well in the November governorship, you know, vote. How many of DeSantis supporters are MAGA people? Well, not many, I don't think. I mean, this is the mistake that he's making right now, is that his own internal polling, as the leaked release tape showed, show that 35% of the Republican Party is Trump or die. If Trump is not on the ballot, they may not even show up to vote. They may not even support another Republican if he's not the nominee.

This is what DeSantis' polls show. The mistake that DeSantis is making is what you just said. He's trying to make a play for that 35%. And he thinks he's going to be able to chip some of those people away from Trump on policy. This is the fundamental mistake he's making, is that he can throw out all this culture war policy stuff that he's done in Florida, and he can rattle them off. But that 35% does not care about policy, fundamentally. That's not why they love Trump. They don't love Trump because build the wall or something. They love Trump because of who he is

and what he is, and DeSantis is nothing like Trump from a personality standpoint. So while DeSantis wastes so much time and energy trying to win over that 35%, he should be going after the 65% that aren't Trump or die, but he's not doing that yet. I think he'll ultimately probably figure that out and shift. But this is the mistake that he's making, is he's trying to go after the MAGA base, and that's not the smart play. Who is DeSantis, really?

It's very hard to tell, isn't it? Because he's one of these people, it's like he's a puppet, but you're not really sure who's pulling the strings. He does not have the donald trump kind of magic that kind of charisma you know he talks in a weird kind of monotone way and we've seen these videos of him recently you know in a kind of social environment like throwing his head back and being a little bit weird a bit weird i i think you know people vote

for personality over policy don't they i mean not just in the u.s all over the world, you know, people vote for personality over policy, don't they? I mean, not just in the US, all over the world. That's why Berlusconi in Italy does so well. You know, the guy's a kind of charismatic mobster. People seem to find that attractive. But DeSantis really is a kind of lax soul. Is he really a kind of neo-Nazi supporter? Because, of course, he failed to condemn these Nazi rallies that took place in Florida. The way he talks about to those kids, take off those masks, they do nothing. really hard to get my head around who he really is. How much of it is an act that he's putting on based on research to say stuff that is going to do well for him in the polls versus what he really

stands for? I mean, that's such a big question. You could really write a whole book. Yeah. I mean, I think you have to factor in so many things. I think you have to factor in, you have to look at his old speeches from back when he was in congress when he spoke about many different things than he talks about now uh especially foreign policy he talks much differently today than he did back then when he was pretty much a neoconservative more of a hawkish uh person than he is now um and i think you have to factor in his wife and the influence that she has on his views and on his policy statements, because I think it very much is a team in that respect to where I think it's very much like the Clintons in 92, where it's one and one A. They're co-candidates,

but we tend, because of the way she dresses and things like that, we tend to not look past the substance of influence that she has on him. But the other thing is you can find some moderate stuff that he said in the past, but he was an original founding member of the Freedom Caucus. So this guy was always right, okay? It's the personality that's changed and and that you can clearly see if you watch old tapes the way he talked the way he said his name the way he carried himself the way he walked that's all been completely transformed the weight loss as well all of that the hair for a reason the clothes all of that has changed but i don't think deep down the policy beliefs that he has have changed very much.

And, you know, some of these characters behind him who are kind of working for him, Christina Puschel is one of them we know about, you know, she likes to block everybody on Twitter, I know that much. What is the agenda? Because some people have said that, you know, his connections are coming from a, you know, where in the Republican Party are the people that are pulling those strings coming from? Are they people who are, you know, Republicans against Trump? Are they people that want, you know, Trump out and DeSantis is the next best thing because he's shown some success in Florida? I mean, who's really pulling the strings on that campaign? I think it's sort of a coalition of a couple of different camps.

On the one hand, it's the country club, Wall Street establishment Republicans that just want to win. I mean, the way that they've always approached things, what I always used to call the aura of inevitability, which is all they care about is backing the winner. OK, they don't care so much about ideology, policy, personality, any of that. They just want to be on the winning team. So a lot of those kind of people will sit back and they'll try and figure out who's got the best chance to win and that's who we're going to back. So you've got those people who have made the calculus, I think, that the Trump indictments, the criminal charges that

are going to come, his unhinged mentality is going to eventually derail him. And they want to be on the ground floor of Team DeSantis when he surpasses Trump. So I think there's that camp out there as well. And then there's just the hardcore right-wing ideologues who think that Trump is not really a true conservative, a true right-winger. He mouths the words, but he's not really in his heart that way. And I believe that too. I don't believe he is. I think he's an autocrat, but I don't think in his definitely on Team DeSantis for that reason. They think he's more disciplined on policy, which he is. He's smarter on policy. This is why many people think he's more dangerous. He'll actually get things done that Trump couldn't get done from a policy perspective. He uses that phrase, getting things done, referring to Florida And this is very dangerous, isn't it?

Because Florida is not the rest of the country. Florida, you live in Florida, right? So you know firsthand it is different. And, you know, I was thinking about this shooting that took place on Hollywood Beach a couple of days ago. I mean, I think nobody died, but it was just a video of seeing people running in all directions and people being scared. And I was like, well, you know, people being scared in Florida because Ron DeSantis in April signed this new bill to say that permitless carry was a thing. every man for himself with firearms, and that all kicked off off the back of an altercation. To take Florida policies and present them on a national platform, including the hardline about abortion and education and everything else that he is pushing in Florida, I mean, he's going to

come out pretty unlucky, isn't he? I mean, America is not going to be welcoming of these extremist policies unless he knows something that we don't. Yeah. 32nd Florida constitutional history is we have the youngest state constitution. There's a reason for that. When we were readmitted into the union in 1868 after the Civil War, our constitution sunsetted after 100 years. In other words, we wrote into our Constitution that this is temporary, and it's going to expire in 100

years. So we had to have another constitutional convention in 1968, which is when our current Constitution was drafted. So most states, they're hundreds of years old. Ours is not very old, as old as me so we design the florida constitution to have a weak governor there's so many checks on the governors can't even appoint his own cabinet members you know they're independently elected statewide so we he can't even appoint whoever he wants as a judge we have judicial nominating commissions which desantis appointed me to by the the way. So we have so many checks on the governor's power of the governor. But Ron DeSantis transformed that. He used force

of will, threats, cajoling, arm twisting to turn himself really into the most powerful and impactful governor in Florida history, because we're not supposed to have a powerful, impactful governor, you know, but somehow he was able to do it. And so that's, yes, that's what makes him so scary, because the president of the United States has way more power than the governor of Florida has. We're supposed to have weak governors. And somehow he was able to make himself an autocrat, basically. What would he be able to do with the powers of the presidency? That's a scary thing. He rewrote the constitution a few days ago to enable him to not have to give up the governorship to run for president. Sure. Well, not the constitution, but a statute. But yeah,

yeah, I mean, sure, he's transformed so many. Look at Disney. I mean, Disney, you know, that was created at the same time as our constitution the disney charter um and he's tried to dis disband that there there's just one thing after another creating a state police national police election police so many in so many ways he's completely transformed the landscape of florida in a way that really the people who wrote our state constitution never intended a governor to have that much power. The irony of his fight with Disney makes me laugh because his wife dresses like a Disney princess. I mean, she must love Disney with these long silk gloves. I've never seen anybody. I mean, the late queen of England wasn't that fancy. I'd be very interested to see, because what you've said about her is fascinating, because it didn't occur to me that, of course, behind every man is a great woman.

And in this case, or certainly in the case of a governor, we've seen these relationships before. I mean, you know, you only have to look at Melania Trump to know that she pulled some. She didn't pull any punches with Donald Trump. You know, she often didn't show up to things. She was like, nope, I ain't going to that. Let me tell you. I mean, I could tell you many stories that I have heard from legislators and cabinet members who talk about Ron DeSantis bringing home reams of policy papers and the two of them sitting down at a table, pouring over those and crafting a plan. She's right in it with him. A hundred percent. It sounds like Ginny and Clarence Thomas

sitting, sitting at the dining table, discussing what policies should be heard by the court or not, contrary to what they've said. We need to talk about the announcement from Donald Trump about the immigration situation. It's chain migration is the phrase that's been given to it. I hate the phrase chain migration. I'll give you a worse one. Anchor babies. Anchor babies, yeah. Well, I have an anchor baby, so I think I'm a very good person. I have a five-year-old American son

who I'm very proud of, and apparently he can sponsor me for citizenship when he's 21. There you go. So I'll stick around for that. The reason this is important is basically what Trump is saying is that anybody who is born in the U.S. of asylum-seeking migrant parents will not be entitled to citizenship, and he will sign this as an executive order on day one of his presidency. Just talk to me about this. Well, this is the old canard. And, you know, I've heard this many times

in Republican club meetings where you hear the old people grumbling about this. The way that they envision it in their head is there's these millions of, you know, illegal immigrants who run across the border to give birth, you know, on the other side of the line so that they will instantly have citizenship when, of course, it doesn't work like that it's far

well as i've just proved with my son i've got to wait i've got to wait 21 years for that yeah so look what's in our constitution is is clear um that if you're born in the united states you're a u.s citizen um by birthright and you can also run for president. And so what Trump talked about in that video, and I only posted a short clip, but he talked about this a little more in depth. And by the way, that speech was written by Stephen Miller. Okay. I mean, I can, Stephen Miller's fingerprints are all over that clip. This was one of those shadowy videos that he puts out on the Trump campaign website where he's in semi-darkness looking like a true dictator with the flags behind him. And they kind of shoot him from the front and then

from the side. And it's very dramatic, isn't it? I mean, it's almost like he wants to be a dictator character. Like these are the people he's seeking to emulate. What he does is he goes in that studio and he'll do four or five of them and then he'll release them maybe one or two a day over the next few days so that that's how he does it and they're written by various different people uh jason miller's in there rick brunel's in there i think stephen miller's in there cash patel's in there and i can sort of tell now who writes what. That one was written by Stephen Miller. But these never end up on the news. These videos are never replayed on the mainstream news.

And that's a big mistake. And yet he is saying in these videos, and anybody can go online and go back and listen to them, some of the darkest, most kind of fascistic policies that you will ever hear, he is saying them in this dramatic way. He's not hiding who he is or what he plans to do and why, and showing us what kind of presidency we can look forward to if he wins in November next year. Yeah. So I don't really remember that particular clip that he put out on the immigration. Was it yesterday or the day before really being talked about much on

msnbc or cnn it should be um so what he said longer in that clip was that he believes that the u.s supreme court has misinterpreted the constitution and that's what gives him the right to do an executive order where where he will correctly interpret the constitution so he's saying is i'm going to go against the Supreme Court. I know what the Supreme Court has said about this issue, but I believe they're wrong, and I'm going to do the opposite. That's fascism. That's authoritarianism. He's not shy at all now.

It's almost like the next Trump presidency, if it happens, will be one of retribution. And he said this, right? He said, I am your retribution. You remember that one? I mean, it's like to speak in these terms. You know, he previously said that he felt like he'd been chosen by God to be the president. And a lot of MAGA people jumped on that, that he was like the chosen one and overlooked all of his, you know, exploits in order to kind of bring him in. And I'm talking about the evangelicals, of course, you know, kind of overlooking his sexual misdemeanors and his business things. They really do think that,

you know, he is their savior. And yet he offers nothing for those people. He has nothing in common with those people. He's nothing in common with those people. He's never hung out with those people. You know, the people that he hangs out with are like the late Jeffrey Epstein. Those were Trump's buddies. And so this kind of chasm between who Trump claims to represent and who will benefit from his presidency. I mean, really, everyone's voting for the wrong team. You know, all the MAGA people would have a better quality of life if they voted Democrat. And yet the propaganda is so delicious for them that it's like a drug.

It's a cult. And they cannot wash their hands of him, which is why DeSantis really doesn't stand a chance against this movement. This it's not even, you know, as Luke says, it's not really a political thing anymore. It is it is a cult. It is a it's a kind of I can't even describe it. I mean, it's scary, right?

Some to me, some of the most interesting clips that I post on Twitter are the crowd clips from Magarang. Those are those are my favorite things. I told you, I've been to many of these rallies and I talked to people and these interviews are definitely a reflection of, and I get upset too, because sometimes I read the replies and they go, oh, these are paid actors. And I get mad about that. Sometimes maybe like blacks for Trump are paid, but these aren't paid actors. This is who these people are. This is what they think. I know it's hard for you to believe, so you want to believe they're paid actors,

but these are real people. They're family members of mine. My mom has a Trump flag. My kids love Trump. These are real people. This is really what they think. And so Brian Glenn is the one who mostly does these, who is Marjorie Greene's new boyfriend. And he works for Right Side Broadcasting. And they sort of have become famous for him jumping into the crowds five hours before the rallies and talking to the people. And the question that I've talked to him and the questions that I tell him that I like the best, because I think they're important for him to

ask, is why is it that you love Trump? What is it about Trump that you, that's my favorite question out of Trump, right? What is it about Trump that you like? And you just get the craziest answers. And I post those answers. And those answers are very important to understand the mentality and the mindset. Can I play the clip of Marjorie Taylor Greene and her boyfriend, the one that you posted earlier? And I'll play it first, and then we'll kind of just analyze it as best we can. We simply believe that what you choose to do sexually is not your identity and it shouldn't be the face that you wear publicly. What is she talking about? She's talking about gay people. What they believe is that, you know, you should keep it in the closet. You should you should not you should not wear your gayness on your sleeve.

You should not be obviously gay by what you wear, how you talk, how you dress, the way you act. That should be back in the closet. We should not talk about that. And so what she's saying is, well, we don't care what you do in your bedroom. We just don't want to know you're gay, you know? So, I mean, that's kind of how it was like in the 80s, you know, in the 70s, you had so many closeted people that hid their whole identity and their whole life. And I think that that's what's the whole point of the last 20 years is for gay people to

feel liberated and to feel like they don't have to hide who they are. They don't have to be ashamed or embarrassed with their friends and family member. And this movement wants to stop that. This movement hates the fact that gay people are now comfortable openly being gay, and they're getting married, and they're adopting children, and they're happy, and they're openly gay. This is what they don't like. What they're saying is, well, we don't mind if you're gay. Okay. Well, they probably do, but we just don't want to see it. So there is, there is a problem here, isn't there? Because, you know, somewhere between 10 and 12 of the 10 and 12% of the U S population population is of the lgbtq plus community they

don't they don't believe it because they don't see it with their own eyes in the same way that carrie lake thought she'd won in arizona because everyone she spoke to said they voted for her i mean they believe that people are being brainwashed and convinced to be gay yeah that's what they believe the the the the serious issue here and there is a very serious issue, is, and I want to talk about Target a little bit, the store. And that is that Target has been supporting gay pride for over a decade, right? They put products on their shelves for over a decade that give people the opportunity to buy into this ecosystem, to wear a t-shirt or some kind of accessory. And no one's really had a problem with that until now. And I'll just show you how bad it's getting. Target, you have put the children in your crosshairs. Now you have become the target. Go woke, go broke. I mean, this is very unhealthy, isn't it? And the sad part of the story is that Target have kind of heard this

and responded by either pushing stock to the back of the store or removing stock from the shelves. Well, and you got a lot more than just her, of course. You know, you got the guy more than just her of course you know you got uh the guy like the rapper for gotchio blow who you know has a a song uh anti-target song on itunes on the charts now sure i mean this is uh they saw it all started i think it really started with the bud light you know thing where it was just one little Instagram ad and they all went nuts. Dylan Mulvaney. And they boycotted they did the big Bud Light thing.

That same Brie there. Brie is an Instagram model who and people say, well, she's just doing that for clicks. Well, yeah, I mean, she's trying to get attention, but she is a right winger. She's been at Mar-a-Lago before. I follow her like I follow a lot of influencers who are in that orbit. And she was the one who did the video shooting up the Bud Light cans. So she's done this before. But yeah, it's – but here's the problem. Almost every company in America does this. And so they're kind of figuring out like, well, wait a minute,

we have to boycott everybody. Chick-fil-A now, Kohl's, Bud Light, you can go on and on. So I'm not sure where this is going to end if they're going to keep trying to boycott these companies, because for one thing, if you want to boycott Walmart or Chick-fil-A, I don't think people on the left really care, you know, or Budweiser. I mean, all companies really are starting, if they haven't already, having departments that deal with equity and inclusion and all of these things, right? It is important because we live in a multifaceted world. We are not all white and cis and christian and and republican and and you know a business can't really operate i do believe it is going to cause some companies to pull back though yes yes um the chick-fil-a thing is kind of interesting isn't it uh you put you posted on

your twitter a piece about chart from charlie kirk actually and and I'll just show it here. He posted, I've heard from multiple franchisees begging me not to lump Chick-fil-A corporate with the local owners, which are largely conservative Christians, who are against the HQ's left-wing drift. I mean, you know, this is a concerning thing, isn't it? Well, this is what happens because they're hurting their own people. This is what happens, which is, oh, we this is a boycott chick-fil-a and now you have

chick-fil-a is all republican you know they're all conservatives so they're like wait a minute you're you're boycotting us we're your people yeah so so you have people like kirk and this is with the military too you know woke military and then they try and come back with well we're not talking about the troops we're talking about the generals you know um they say they're doing the same thing with chick-fil-a we're not talking about the franchises we're talking about corporate well how are you going to boycott corporate without boycotting the franchises you know this desperate desire to compartmentalize everything in America. You know, you've got to be either in that camp or that camp. You know, there's no interest in the nuance or the gray, either side of the black and

white. Why is that? You know, why is the U.S. so tribal and binary and, you know, refuses to kind of understand that the whole joy of humanity are its differences? I don't think it's always been that way. I think social media has really pushed it into camps. You know, the way the algorithms work, you kind of join a team and you're on that team. And, you know, I've talked about this when I was going to leave. I had made up my mind to leave the Republican Party early in 20, but I stayed as a Republican through the election so I could be a Republican against Trump.

But it was my intention to go independent after the election. But when January 6th happened, I decided to go Democrat. And my mentality at the time feeds into what you just said, which was my mentality at the time was, I can't be in the middle. I can't be wishy-washy as an independent. I have to pick a side. I have to be with team democracy. So I've got to get on this team. And I don't regret that decision, but it is along the lines of what you said, which is, I felt compelled that I had to join the other team rather than try and straddle the fence. And I also get frustrated by a lot of former Republicans sometimes, like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, George Conway. We could go on and on and on, who are kind of like have a toe in each world now, where they're kind of like conservative or Republican on some things and they're not really sure what to do. So I sort of get frustrated with them because I'm like, Adam, you know, come join us. We're the only people who like you anymore. You might as well,

you know, but I think social media is part of it. Yeah. And Trump has been part of it too. Can you remember what life was like in the U.S. before the 2017 inauguration? I mean, the timing was weird because I actually moved to the U.S. in January 2017 to get away from England after Brexit. And suddenly I came here and Trump changed America. You know, I had planned to move to Obama's America, you know, or Hillary Clinton's America, as everybody thought that might happen. And do you remember what it was like in, like, the last months of the Obama presidency before the kind of threat of Trumpism became a thing? I mean, it wasn't so polarizing. People like DeSantis could never have become so

autocratic, as you describe, without Trump laying the foundations for that. I was president of a large Republican club during the Obama presidency, and I watched it change. And so the change really started then. It really did. In terms of the hostility on a personal individual level, some of the racism coming out, it was really the Obama first few years. And it's not Obama's fault, but he brought it out. And that's also when the Tea Party movement came. A lot of that was a function of really the first black president. And, you know, they viewed him also as a socialist and, you know, an activist and all that kind of thing. So that's really when I started to see it change. But then it was still tamped down.

You know, it was still suppressed by the leaders of the party, people at the local level like me, people at the national level like John McCain, Mitt Romney. They pushed that stuff, the crazies into the corner. Trump came out, not only did he unleash those people and put those people in leadership positions, he brought more of them in. When you started, 16 was when you started seeing all these people showing up at the Republican meetings that you had never seen before, who had never voted before, never been Republicans. And you're looking around going, who are these people? Well, now those people are in charge. And Marjorie Taylor Greene, who I presume you are describing amongst others. Yeah, good example. She is now at the very center of the Republican Party in Congress.

I mean, she is, to all intents and purposes, the deputy speaker. She is the person who kind of held all the cards when Kevin McCarthy was having to find 15 separate rounds of voting to get the speakership. I mean, this is what's so dangerous. It's like these people are not fringe. These people are at the speakership. I mean, this is what's so dangerous. It's like these people are not fringe. These people are at the very center. And it was only Mitch McConnell who made a speech earlier today talking about the debt ceiling, which we haven't really had time to talk about today,

that is kind of a moderate, even though he isn't. He is having to play the role of a kind of moderate grandfather to get this bill passed. Listen, when I listen to MAGA all day, as I do now, you know, I listen to them all day. And then I go watch Mitch McConnell or Lindsey Graham. It's like I'm watching almost a Democrat. I mean, I know Democrats recoil about that. But when you compare it to MAGA, these guys are pretty normal now. I mean, by comparison, they haven't changed, but everybody else has gotten crazy on them. So no, look, when Marjorie

was first elected, I predicted, I said, she is going to in very short amount of time, rocket to the top of the leadership of the Republican house. And people all said, oh, that's crazy. She's a nut job. She's a conspiracy theorist. Ignore her. I said, absolutely not, because I understood the movement. And I understood she connected with the movement much better than a Mitch McConnell. And that has what has propelled her to the top. Listen, we have to finish. I could talk to you for hours. And the great thing is Midas Tatar have given us the opportunity to do this every Wednesday at one o'clock Pacific, four o'clock Eastern.

You want to come back and do it again next week, Ron? If you promise to be a little nicer. I mean, this was a little rough. It was a bit rough, wasn't it? All right. Well, I'm so grateful. You're an amazing guy. And so let's do it again.

The podcast to this, the audio podcast, will be available later tonight. If you want to listen to the audio version, you'll be able to rewind and watch the show on YouTube or wherever you find it pretty soon, actually. I think almost immediately. So thank you for joining MAGA Uncovered, where we uncover not just the stories behind MAGA,

but we are looking at the stuff that is not covered by the mainstream media right here. So thank you again, Ron Filipkowski. Great to be here again. Thank you for listening. Such an incredible show. We are so proud of it here on the Midas Touch Network. If you enjoyed what you just heard, please make sure to go right now and subscribe to MAGA Uncovered anywhere you get your podcast.

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