The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1716 - BLM 2.0 - Metcalf's Attacker BLOWS GoFundMe Money On A NEW HOUSE

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

President Trump threatens to obliterate Harvard, the family of the teenager who allegedly murdered Austin Metcalf is using his GoFundMe money to buy a new house, and Katy Perry officially becomes a space cadet.Click here to join the member-exclusive portion of my show: https://bit.ly/4biDlriEp.1716- - -DailyWire+:We’re leading the charge again and launching a full-scale push for justice. Go to https://PardonDerek.com right now and sign the petition.Now is the time to join the fight. Watch the hit movies, documentaries, and series reshaping our culture. Go to https://dailywire.com/subscribe today.Live Free & Smell Fancy with The Candle Club: https://thecandleclub.com/michael- - -Today's Sponsors:Balance of Nature - Go to https://balanceofnature.com and use promo code KNOWLES for 35% off your first order PLUS get a free bottle of Fiber and Spice.Birch Gold - Text KNOWLES to 989898 for your free information kit.Done With Debt - Start building the life you deserve! Visit https://donewithdebt.com and talk with one of their strategists. It’s FREE!- - -Socials:Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RwKpq6Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3BqZLXAFollow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3eEmwygSubscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3L273Ek Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Trump threatens to obliterate Harvard. The family of the teenager who allegedly murdered Austin Metcalf is using his GoFundMe money to buy a new house. Where have I heard that before? And Katie Perry officially becomes a space cadet. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles show. Welcome back to the show, really awful news out of Nigeria that basically no one is talking about. But 51 Christians were murdered in Nigeria on Palm Sunday. media almost entirely silent about it.

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Use promo code Knowles, KNAW.LES. For 35% off your first order as a preferred customer, plus get a free bottle of fiber and spice. That's Balance of Nature.com, promo code Knowles. Here we go. I want to start with the family of Austin Metcalf's alleged killer. I smell a little BLM 2.0 here. The bond was set at $1 million for this young man who allegedly stabbed Austin Metcalf in the heart because Austin Metcalf asked him to get out of his chair.

Then, prosecutors said, we got to keep it this high because of the severity of this crime. The family of the alleged killer raised about half a million dollars on GoFundMe. Why was there a go fund me? Why did they raise this money? We'll get to that in one moment. But they raised like half a million dollars for it. And so the prosecutor said, well, you can't say the bond is too high. you've raised all of this money. But the father of Austin McHaff's alleged killer said that he was going to use the cash for something else, namely, he was going to use the cash to buy a nice new house. In his words, I don't want to put words in his mouth. The father, quote, disclosed that the cash should be used for security and to help the family move after the threats they have allegedly faced since the killing, according to reporting from the Daily Mail. Okay, let me translate that. family of Austin Metcalf's alleged killer is upgrading its house using the money that their son

received as a reward for allegedly murdering a white teenager. That's what this is about. Race is at the forefront of this case, not just in terms of pointing blame at the alleged killer, but also giving plaudits, giving money, giving support to the alleged killer. any other two races that you threw in here, you wouldn't have seen a GoFundMe raise this kind of money. This is BLM 2.0. They called BLM by large mansions for a reason, okay? Seems to me, I've heard this song before.

It's from an old familiar score. The father gives away the whole game here, inadvertently, in what's being reported by the Daily Mail. It says they've received threats, and so they need to move and hire security. If they're hiring security, why do they need to move? if they're going to move, why do they need security? You understand?

I understand hiring security. All right, sometimes, believe it or not, there have been a few threats on little old me, your beloved podcaster, and sometimes, though I try to resist it, but sometimes we've had security at my house. Okay, I get that. And that's not cheap, and you raise money for that. Okay. But if people know where you live, then you can hire security,

or I guess you could move and hope that your new address doesn't come out. But if you move so that people don't know where you are, why do you also need to hire security? If you move and you do need to hire security, it's because people know where you move too, so why do you need a new house in the first place? If all your enemies, anyone who's motivated to go kill you knows where you are anyway, why do you need a nice big new house with the $500,000 that your kid got his blood money for allegedly murdering a white teenager in our highly racially charged politics? Why do you need that? this is this is such revoltingly crass exploitation of the murder of a teenager

it is par for the course this is the BLM playbook but that's what you're going to see play out from the moment this news story hit a popular imagination this became a major racially charged case not from white people who don't like black people

but rather from the people who are supporting a black kid who was accused of murdering a white kid for the white kid's alleged offense of asking him to move out of his seat. Get ready. Get ready. This case hasn't even really started yet. You are going to get the Al Sharptons of the world, Jesse Jackson's of the world. Now there's a new generation of them. I think he's still around. All the BLM ladies, Patrice Cullors and all them, they're off in their mansions. They kind of got their bag. But there's going to be a whole new generation of racial hucksters and shakedown artists. It's already started.

Speaking of young people, President Trump is taking on Harvard University. This is a beautiful story, and even conservatives don't appreciate how beautiful this is. And some people are actually complaining about it because they can't take yes for an answer. President Trump and his administration have frozen more than $2 billion in grants to Harvard. after Harvard refused to comply with policy changes that were requested by the administration. What were the policy changes that were requested? Namely, don't let the Kefi-a-clad foreigners and Hamas sympathizers go around harassing the Jews on campus. That was it.

Harvard couldn't do that. So now Trump is threatening two billion in grants, freezing two billion in grants, threatening Harvard's tax-exempt status. Don't forget, these big universities are exempt from paying taxes. Trump is saying, yeah, maybe you've got to pay some taxes because Harvard's endowment is $53 billion. Harvard's one of the biggest hedge funds in the world. Caroline Levitt explains the situation.

Is this a case of the Trump administration just wielding the state to pummel its enemies through the caprice of the commander-in-chief who's ruling like a tyrant? No. Caroline Levitt says, all the president is asking is, don't break federal law. Then you can have your federal funding.

She says Trump wants to see Harvard apologize for, quote, the egregious anti-Semitism that took place on their college campus against Jewish American students. When she's talking about don't violate a federal law, she's talking about Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. And this is where the case gets really, really interesting. because conservatives generally hate the fact that the federal government can wield the Civil Rights Act to punish enemies, to obliterate federalism and subsidiarity, to push a usually leftist agenda, to favor certain racial groups, ethnic groups, national groups, sexual groups, at the expense of others. Okay. First, first question I want to ask when you're thinking about this.

How long have conservatives been prattling on about how the universities are the beating heart of American leftism? That's where the rot really lies. You know, the campus leftists of the 1960s have become tenured radicals. And they're now ensconced in the universities to convince innocent students, to hate their parents, hate their country, become trans-pigmy lesbians, and just rip up. apart all that is normal and traditional about America. How long have we heard this? I have heard and given speeches for years saying that these universities, especially the elite universities, are the beating heart of leftism. They indoctrinate the new generations. They get, you know, they're like a petri dish to show you what the future of the country is going to look like.

Not just a petri dish to grow the next generation. They're like a looking glass even. So why don't we want to punish Harvard? Well, because some people are saying that this is, it's annoying that the excuse to go pummel Harvard is anti-Israel activism or even anti-Semitism. I said, why is it? Everyone gets protection except for regular old white people and Christians. There's been anti-Christian sentiment on Harvard's campus for decades. We don't see anything done about that. Anti-white sentiment on Harvard's campus and other campuses for decades.

Calls to abolish whiteness. You don't see the civil rights law coming down on that. How come every group get special treatment? Black people get special treatment. Hispanic people get special treatment. Jews get special treatment. Muslims get special treatment. But what about the white people and what about the Christians?

All right. Yeah, I get it. I would be all for wielding civil rights law to punish places for discriminating against Christians and white people on the basis of their race. For sure, I would. But can we just take the win? Can we just, can we just take the win here? If this is going to be the excuse to pummel Harvard, Harvard, which is one of the leading causes of leftism in America, can we please just take the win? And then work on wielding civil rights law in other ways, I don't know, like tomorrow, tonight, this afternoon? Can we just take the win? Please.

because there will be a final objection, which the conservatives make, they'll say, well, we don't want to wield civil rights law. Why not? There was a great book by Chris Caldwell that came out a few years ago, The Age of Entitlement. The Age of Entitlement claimed that in the 1960s,

America created a second constitution, a constitution that was a rival with and in fact superseded in many ways, the original constitution of the 18th century, the one written on parchment, you know, we the people in order to form a more purpose, union. So I think that's probably true. I think that by obliterating freedom of association, by obliterating equality under the law for all of these different groups, the Civil Rights Act really

did create in many ways of parallel constitution. All these branches of the government have their own departments of civil rights. Sure, that's all real. So if we're conservatives and we want to live in reality, if we say one of the big differences between conservatives and the left is that we're tethered to reality and the left is often its utopian fantasies. Okay, then let's accept what the lower C constitution, the way that we actually live, the way that we're actually governed, let's accept how that really works and let's use it to our benefit within the confines of the law and in a just and moral way. This is something that Trump gets that the ideological Republicans and conservatives, you know, conservative movement capital C, capital M, it's something they don't get.

okay Trump is just willing to govern according to the way that we're actually governed and so for him he doesn't have any particular ideological antipathy to Title VI or to the Civil Rights Act he's just going to wield it for the common good

according to his lights in a way that is just so great let's do it you're telling me that I get to destroy Harvard University and I, or seriously, pull Harvard University into line, I get to wield the power that people have given us happily. And the only downside is I get to protect students who are pro-Israel and Jews.

That's the alleged downside. And for some people, that really is a downside. I don't, that doesn't keep me up at night. In fact, you might say that's a good thing to not harass a group on campus. But you're saying that the only downside is it doesn't go far enough. How about you take the win today, guys? we could take down Harvard. This is great, man. This is so, yeah, great. If all Trump did was take Harvard down a notch, he would go down as one of the greatest presidents in American history. There's so much more to say first, though. Text Knowles to 98, 98, 98 tariffs have thrown the global economy into chaos.

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Speaking of the advancement of human knowledge and ability, Katie Perry has gone into space. She boarded the blue origin rocket-looking kind of thing that Jeff Bezos was behind. And she went up with a few other people, Jeff Bezos's wife and Gail King, I think, from CBS News was there, a bunch of ladies, a bunch of celebrity ladies.

And here is what Katie Perry had to say when she returned to Earth. It is the highest high, and it is surrender to the unknown, trust. And this whole journey is not just about going to space. It's the training. It's the team. It's the whole thing. I could have recommend this experience more. This is like up there with all the, you know,

different tools that I've learned in my life from meditation to the Hoffman process. This is up there because what you're doing is you're like really finding the love for yourself because you've got to trust in yourself on this journey. And then you're feeling the love when you come down for sure. And you're feeling that strength. So I feel really connected to that strong, divine feminine right now. By the way, you're such a bad. I love that the month of April, you're like, I'm going to space and I'm launching my tour.

What? there's another video of her getting out of the capsule and she kisses the dirt. She was off the ground for 11 minutes. She was in space, technically, for like the blink of an eye. And then she kissed the dirt and she came down and talked about, you know, the strength man and the divine feminine. She essentially took a roller coaster ride. The reason that Katie Perry is not technically an astronaut right now is because none of the people in this capsule could actually operate anything. It was all being remotely controlled. So it was cool. They took a very,

very expensive, very, very cool roller coaster ride that technically put them into space. And then Katie Perry comes down and gives this word salad soup of an answer. And people are making fun of her. People are saying that she should have come up with something better, something more profound to say, no, no, no. People should not make fun of her for this answer. This was the perfect statement to make when she landed. Sincerely, that was the perfect statement for her to make because the accomplishment of Blue Origin was not that Katie Perry went to space.

The accomplishment of Blue Origin is that Katie Perry went to space. Do you see the difference? Do you understand the difference here? The accomplishment is not in the hands of these women. These women did nothing. Truly, they could not have possibly done less for this 11-minute voyage. That's the point. We have gotten so good at space travel. We've become so technologically advanced that we can send these people into outer space. That's what's so impressive. If they loaded up, you know, I don't know, John Glenn and

is John Glenn still around? I don't think so. Or if they loaded up a bunch of actual astronauts into this capsule, that wouldn't be interesting at all. The fact that they can put a bunch of bubbly, not necessarily the most mathematically or technically advanced lady pop stars into a capsule and have them go to outer space, that's the accomplishment. That is amazing. That makes me more likely, I probably don't have enough money. But if I had enough money, I probably, that would make me much more likely to sign up for the next blue origin.

It's Katie Perry proof, man. that's a big, that is a big accomplishment. That's very impressive. Now, speaking of generally ignorant women, there's a woman who's accused of selling human bones on Facebook marketplace for as little as $35. Kimberly Schopper, her name's shopper. That's kind of funny. Fifty-two-year-old woman, not a kid, she's a 52-year-old woman, was charged with trading in human tissue, according to Fox 35. She's a Florida woman. She bought and offered human bones for sale on Facebook Marketplace. Her business was identified as Wicked Wonderland.

She was selling two segments of a skull for 90 bucks, a clavicle and scapula for 90 bucks also, a rib for 35, it's a little cheaper if you want to deal, a vertebrae for 35, and a partial human skull for 600 bucks, if you're a big spender. Now, where'd that come from?

Do we need to look into some of the ex-boyfriends of this? woman or something? No. The police say that some of the bones found were likely archaeological fines. One was more than 100 years old. Another was more than 500 years old. This woman was arrested. She was released from jail on $7,500 bond. I just have one question. Why is this wrong? Why is it wrong to sell human bones? Really old ones, like 500-year-old ones. Why? I think I might start a new segment on the show called Why Is This Wrong? For just stories of things that go on that everyone knows intuitively are wrong, that we can't articulate anymore, that we can't explain why these things are wrong, because we live in this ideology of liberalism, which is,

establishes moral error as its foundation. I think I need to start that new segment. Because we know that it's wrong. Why? Because, well, one, because you're supposed to properly dispose of human remains. You know, we give human beings burials when they die. We don't just leave them out for the dogs to eat in the street. You have to properly handle human remains.

Now, this is a particularly pertinent question for Catholics. These Catholics venerate relics, the relics of the saints. First-class relics could be a piece of a bone or something like that, a heart. In fact, I possess a first-class relic, just one, the first-class relic of Padre Pio, recently came into it. I didn't buy it. You're not allowed to buy and sell relics. You're not allowed to sell because human beings are not commodities to be bought and sold.

Human remains are not commodities to be bought and sold. Human beings are subjects with rights and assumptions. certain dignity. Okay. So even with when it comes to the case of relics, which could be 2,000 years old, relics are handled properly with it with an appropriate kind of respect. They're not just treated like commodities that you sell at a bazaar or something like that. But let's say, okay, we've established this principle that human, but you can't buy and sell human bodies. Well, that means that you can't buy and sell organs. They do, in America, we still don't let you buy in cell organs. In China, they do buy and sell organs.

But also that means, if human beings are not commodities to be bought and sold, that means that the IVF and surrogacy industry has got to go, doesn't it? If human beings are not commodities to be bought and sold, that means that Planned Parenthood executives need to go to jail. Because Planned Parenthood executives have been caught on camera admitting that they sold baby body parts to the highest bidder. And they joked about how they wanted to get really high bids because they wanted to be able to buy a Lamborghini. What about that? This woman's not allowed to sell some 500-year-old clavicle on Facebook marketplace, but Planned Parenthood executives are allowed to sell babies who were just murdered and who were murdered with the intent to sell their body parts to the highest bidder.

That doesn't make any sense. We know it's wrong. I'm not, some people will say that and say, you're right. I guess we should be able to sell bones on the open market. No, no, no, no. That's not the conclusion. You're right. Your intuition that there is something wrong about buying and selling human remains is right.

Now let's take it to its logical conclusion. And that's going to take you into uncomfortable places in modern politics because it's going to require you to contradict some of the premises of liberalism. And it's going to require you to stop engaging in some of the liberal practices. In this case, at the very least the consequences of abortion, what follows abortions, and IVF and surrogacy. Are you willing to go there? Are you willing to stop being a lib? I don't know. There's so much more to say first, though, go to done with debt.

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Do not let debt hang over your head, ruin your life. go to done with debt.com today. Speaking of gruesome things, horrible story that is being reported essentially nowhere. 51 Christians were slaughtered in Nigeria on Palm Sunday. And, you know, in part, I was talking with my team about this earlier, in part I think the reason that we're not really talking about it, why this doesn't make the news, in part because the media don't care about Christians,

but in part because this happens regularly. in Nigeria and other places in Africa. But 51 Christians slaughtered on the first day of Holy Week. Palm Sunday. That leads into Holy Week, which concludes with Mondi Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday. What a way to start. Islamist Fulani militias attacked two Christian villages in Plateau State,

killing at least 51 people. The assault on Ziki Village in Bassa County left homes burned. Entire family slaughtered, reportedly, including women and children. Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. Period. Bar none. And Christians are the group that receive the least sympathy. Period. Full stop. So when we're focusing on the plight of all these different groups, racial, religious, I think that's fine. Some people say we should have no sympathy for. innocent Muslims who are the victims of war. I have sympathy for those people. I think we can have sympathy for those people. Some people say we should have no sympathy for Jewish students on Harvard's campus who are being harassed. I think we should definitely have sympathy for those people. We should protect those people when we can within our own country. Certainly we should protect them.

And we should have sympathy for Christians, the most persecuted religious group in the world. And we should, in a prudential way, from American national policy, seek to protect them even beyond our own borders. We should seek to do things that will help them. We're a Christian country. We are part of, one might say the pinnacle of, Christian civilization. This doesn't even make the news. Not right. Now, speaking of hatreds, President Trump was in the Oval Office with President Buckele, the greatest leader of Latin America, and they were chatting about all sorts of things. And President Buckele was asking about the strange situation of the media not talking about how the illegal crossings into America dropped basically to zero when President Trump took office.

Joe Biden said there's no way to stop the illegal crossings unless we pass some big new law. And then Trump comes in, doesn't pass some big new law, and yet the illegal crossings dropped to zero. And Buckele says, this is so weird. Why aren't your media talking about this? Here's Trump's answer. The number's not in the media. Well, they get out with the fake news. You know, like CNN over here doesn't want to put them out because they don't like, they don't like putting out good numbers.

They don't like putting out because I think they hate our country, actually. We've been listening to a lengthy live press conference inside the Oval Office. I want to start with you. You are at the White House. Before I get to you, I just want to say, for the record, since we heard President Trump say in the Oval Office that CNN hates our country. CNN does not hate our country. I love this fact check.

They can't help themselves. Trump goes out there and he bates them. He says, well, good question, President Buckele. Actually, they don't cover it because I think they hate America. Like CNN, they hate America. And they can't, any sensible news organization would just roll its eyes. So here he goes again. Whatever.

We're just covering the news. We're going to be honest brokers. We're going to tell you what he has to say. We'll show you the other side. You know, come on. Give me a break. But instead, they have to say, fact check, actually,

CNN does not hate America, which is much more likely to make me think CNN does in fact hate America. Like the lady protests too much, me thinks. Actually, no. He shouldn't say it because we totally don't hate America. We definitely, you're talking about me? We hate America? What are you talking about?

I don't. I'm like the least hating guy of America ever in the whole world. You kind of act in guilty, man. You're kind of acting like a guy who hates America. They can't resist. And this is how Trump leads. For my lifetime, Democrats would do stuff and then Republicans would react to it. And that's just how it worked. I'm not saying at the pundit level, pundits to some degree, obviously are just reacting to this. news usually. I mean at the politician level. Democrats do something, then we're on defense. And with Trump, he's on offense all the time, even up to the tariffs. It's not just that we're trying to defend ourselves against the left's predations. Then Trump comes out, he goes,

hey, we're going to tariff the whole world and potentially send the global economy into depression. And obviously, he doesn't want to do that. But the fact that he is proactive means that they flip the script. For my whole life, the liberal media do stuff and the conservatives react to it. Under Trump, Trump does stuff and the liberal media react to that. Trump, it's the Republican that's leading the show. That's good politics. Now, speaking of the liberal media, Trump is not only triggering them, he is also, it would seem, persuading them. Whoopi Goldberg must have been a chilly day in hell. Whoopi Goldberg on the view, makes an impassioned case for why she supports Trump's policy to shut down the Department of Education.

What we have to always do, regardless of who you voted for, you still got to pay your rent, you still got to take care of your kids, you still got to take care of your business. And maybe some of what's happening, like, you know, they're trying to take apart the Department of Education. Maybe that is a good thing, because maybe it will force us to make sure that our kids actually get what they need. Maybe it'll force us to go to our state and say, listen, I want to make sure, since you're taking all this money from my taxes, I want to make sure that my kids get exactly what they need. I don't have to wait for the government to do it. We can do it. This is now in our hands. This is in our hands. And it's going to be tough. And nobody wants to do it because

it's a bitch. But you know what? If it comes down to your survival, this is what you got to do. You got to take care of what you got to take care of. And they're telling me that we're going to be right back. Yeah. And actually, did you guys know that since the Department of Education was founded in 1979, the test scores have gone down? Isn't that so crazy? And then some people say the Department of Education exists to make college more affordable.

But from the very moment that Department of Education was founded, the cost of college skyrocketed. I mean, it's totally crazy. And yeah, I mean, why should some federal bureaucrat be determined? what your kid is going to learn in school when the local communities are obviously much better equipped. Hold on. They're screaming in my ear that they want me to shut up and go to commercial now. I don't know why, though, you know? I just want to make America greater.

Wait, did I just accidentally agree with everything Trump is doing? Wow, that's crazy, man. But it isn't crazy. This shouldn't really surprise anyone. most people agree with Trump's policies. That's how he won the popular vote. And look, it's amazing to hear them admit it. And obviously the producers of the view are saying,

cut away, cut away, shut up, stop agreeing with Trump. You're not supposed to do that. Abort, abort! But, yeah, if you want to have a popular TV show, if you want to appeal to the opinions of most people, You're going to agree with Trump. Trump has the popular opinions. That's how he won the popular vote.

This is not, some of these issues, by the way, are not particularly close. There are certain issues that are a little more controversial, abortion, say, or, I don't know, Israel, Palestine or something. Ukraine, I don't know, something like that. But on the big issues here, it's education. to use what they were talking about. Mass migration. The economy. American manufacturing, made in America.

This kind of stuff? It's not close. Paper straws. You know, Trump had that executive order, which is one of my favorite ones so far. It says we're going to get rid of these stupid paper straws. We're going to bring back plastic straws. So now the libs have to defend paper straws.

Nobody, not even the libs like that. Trump's views are popular. Even the libs know that. even even whoopey goldberg on the view knows most people agree with trump i want to give a quick shout out to all of the chem d'allem right now who are here in our chat live at dailywire dot com live at the daily wire plus app i see you i see you are seen you are seen and i will actually see your comments shortly in the member of segmentum thanks for being here if you're not in the chat what are you doing what are you doing?

Join the conversation real-time unfiltered with me, the team behind the show, thousands of people just like you, go to dailywire.com slash subscribe, become a DailyWare Plus member right now and chat with us. My favorite comment yesterday is from Jessica Haggurty, Z8X, who says child sacrifices only about 3%

of what Aztec pagan temples do. Mostly they perform tests and other religious services. Pastor Brandon probably. That's a little, if I had written that, I would not have singled out pastor Brandon. He's the left-wing pastor who comes on the show sometimes. However, that is kind of the argument that he made. Only 3% of what Planned Parenthood does is abortion. No, no, they really just exist to pass out condoms or something. Ah, I don't think so. I think it's kind of about that. I think the Aztec temples and the pre-Aztec temples in this case that were just discovered in Guatemala

with a bunch of bones and remains of four-year-olds and three-year-olds around it. I don't think it was just about like keeping time or something, you know. I think that's kind of the defining feature of it. Now, we turn to a little bit of good news. It was tax day yesterday. Hopefully, none of you will be audited or go to jail or anything. The tax code is so complicated. Who know?

I guess we all could at some point. Some really good news. More than 20,000 IRS employees have offered to, resign. So, you know, the IRS had about 100,000 employees right when Trump took office. Joe Biden really beefed up the IRS. Democrats, they love the IRS. They love just any opportunity to go after you, find you, take your money, throw you in jail. So Trump wins between resignations and layoffs. The IRS is on track to lose about a third of its staff this year. Started out with 10 to 15,000, and now you got another 20-22,000.

Wow, this year they could lose a third of their staff. And I say, it's a good start. It's a good start. My question for the Democrats is, they're going to try to make a big deal about this. This is the end of the world. This is the crumbling of our government. Among actual Americans, among people who vote,

certainly people who pay taxes, who's going to complain about that? When the libs are raising a ruckus, Oh no, the IRS was losing a third of its employees. Who do you think you're appealing to? What American wakes up at night and says, Oh, honey, I just had a nightmare. There were fewer IRS agents.

I thought I might not get audited this year. Or I might have to, I don't even want to say it. I might have to keep more of my money. Now, what the libs are going to try to say is they're going to say, Trump crumbling the IRS, this is a business. this is about letting billionaires off the hook from paying their fair share. Elon Musk had a great rejoinder to this years ago before the election. I think it was during a Biden administration when he said this whole, you know, the IRS

needs to beef up to go after billionaires thing. It's such a crock because there are already teams at the IRS devoted to taking Elon Musk's money. You think the richest man in the world doesn't have a point guy. at the IRS. It's difficult for me. I'm not the richest guy in the world, and I have relatively simple taxes, and it's difficult enough for me to figure out

what I'm supposed to pay, what I'm owed, what I can get back. I always overpay just because I don't want to get caught doing anything wrong. And I am a broke, indigent street creature compared to Elon Musk. And he says,

you think billionaires don't have teams at the IRS. devoted to tracking our money and taking it has nothing to do. Beefing up the IRS was not about going after Elon Musk. It was about going after you. It was about going after the middle class. It was about going after the people who did not have all the attention on them at the IRS. And now Trump is saying, see you guys.

See you. Who needs you? No wonder Trump's approval rating is really high. We talked about this last week. there was a poll out of jail partners and Daily Mail, which showed that Trump's approval rating not only didn't crater during the tariffs and the stock market collapse and all that,

but it actually increased a little bit. Some people said, well, forget about that poll because the full effect of the tariffs, the full effect of the stock market volatility was not felt by the time the poll was taken. Okay, well, there's a new survey from Daily Mail, jail partners,

found that Trump still remains popular with more than half the country. His current approval rating is 54%. That's higher than last time. In fact, 54% is a tie with Trump's all-time highest approval rating. So much for the tariffs killing him. So much for the turmoil and potential war with Iran killing him. so much for the deportations of gangsters killing him. The Libs have tried to make such a big deal about some guy who might not be an MS-13 gangster,

but he still might be, and it's sort of, it's like, I guess, slightly unclear. He's in El Salvador. Oh, no. That's going to kill him. Now the walls are closing in. Trump is today. The man who won the popular vote is today, as popular as he ever has been in politics. That's after imposing tariffs on like every country on earth.

That's after the stock market took a massive hit. That's after the bond market took a massive hit. That's after the media I've been going after him left and right. What more can you throw at this guy? This is an example. I've applied it to him over the years of what Nassim Nicholas Talib describes as antel fragility. This guy gets tougher, the harder you beat him. Some people are fragile.

You know, it's like an egg. You drop it off the counter, it cracks. Some things are tough like a rock. You drop a rock off the counter. It's probably fine. Some things are anti-fragile. You drop it off the counter, it gets stronger. That's what it seems to be with Trump.

Not just with the prosecutions improving his poll numbers. Not just with nearly being murdered, improving his poll numbers. But even this stuff, people's wallets in principle being hit because of his policies, and they still support his policies. and they trust him enough to carry out the policies in a good way, and they support the policies in principle. If I were a Democrat strategist right now or a Democrat candidate, that number would terrify me. Yikes, man. What can we run it? What can we run on? Now, speaking of approval ratings, a Trump acolyte has really nice approval ratings right now. Vivek. Vivek. Vovac Ramoswamy, a former presidential

candidate, then was one of the founding heads of Doge, then left that. to go run for governor in Ohio. Vivek is currently standing at 71% in the Ohio governor's race. This is after President Trump's endorsement. So his lead in the race increased significantly after Trump endorsed him. This is according to internal polling by Tony Fabrizio. By this month, Vivek's lead expanded even more. It went from 52% to 71%.

It's a 19 point jump. What's really interesting about Vivek's candidacy is he represents one of two sides of MAGA. You know, I really like Vivek. I'm a big Vivek fan. I'm also friends with people who are on the other side of MAGA. Vivek represents the free marketeer, pro-legal immigration, pro-meritocracy side of MAGA. and he obviously had a ton of support in the presidential contest, obviously has a huge amount of support in Ohio, and he has the support of Donald Trump, the head of MAGA.

But what about the other side of MAGA? The ones who aren't totally pro-free marketeer, the ones who are maybe pro-tariff, who are pro-economic protection. What about the other side of MAGA that is not pro-legal immigration? President Trump is pro-legal immigration. He's anti-illegal. He's pro-legal.

That's a vague stance. but there's a big side of MAGA that wants to reduce all immigration. In fact, according to multiple public opinion surveys, most Americans want to drastically reduce all immigration. That's a different side. It raises questions about what the future of MAGA is when Trump is gone. Is it Vivek Ramoswamy or is it J.D. Vance? I'm not saying those guys have any personal beef or anything,

but they represent different sides of MAGA. Is it Elon Musk, or is it Steve Bannon? Elon Musk and Bannon seem to hate each other. Bannon has made it his personal mission to destroy Elon Musk and take him out of the White House. Is it Larry Cudlow on the economic side, or is it Peter Navarro? You know, pro-trade or pro-tariff? What is it? What is MAG?

I mean, this, the one. Democrat critique of the Trump movement that I think is valid and remains an open question right now is that the movement is about the man. Trump really is a singular figure. There is no Trumpism without Trump. There is no MAGA without other people try to claim the mantle of what true MAGA is. It's Trump. It's really this guy, this political genius who has done things that no other Republican in our lifetimes have been able to do. when he's gone and we now have to judge individual candidates by some more abstract kind of platform

or principle or theory what is MAGA after Trump? I mentioned Steve Bannon. Steve Bannon says we don't have to worry about it because Trump's going to win a third term. We're going to have to get to that tomorrow though. Because today's woke Wednesday, the rest of the show continues. Now you do not want to miss it. Become a member use code.

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