The Philip DeFranco Show - Trump's Joe Rogan ICE Problem Is Getting Worse

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

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ICE in Minnesota is now allegedly arresting refugees, including children who have fled persecution, gone through exhaustive vetting, and have been legally admitted into the country. And that, as ICE is reportedly transferring them to facilities in Texas, a state where immigrant children and attention have allegedly faced unsafe conditions.

We're in a state where officers have been accused of beatings and sexual abuse, and a state where a detained migrant died just this month, one of four people who have died in ICE custody so far in 2026 alone. And so all of that, along with the scenes, pouring out of Minneapolis, of masked men roaming the streets and taking people away, That may be why you even have pro-Trump podcaster Joe Rogan coming out and comparing ICE to the Gestapo.

So yeah, there's a lot we've got to break down, really dive into, but where we're going to start are with these refugees who are now being detained, according to lawyers and immigrant rights advocates. Right, and a big and important thing to know is that refugee applicants, before they're admitted to the country, they have to go through a very long and very difficult process. It involves vetting by the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and other government agencies, right? And these people, they have to prove that they have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of their race, religion, political opinion, now. nationality or membership in a particular group. But then last week we had the Trump White House saying that is not enough with specifically Citizenship and Immigration Services announcing that it would be starting what it called a sweeping initiative to conduct new background checks and Intensive verification of refugees to check for fraud and other crimes saying the initial focus is on Minnesota's 5600 refugees who have not yet been given lawful permanent resident status And permanent residence status that's otherwise known as a green card and refugees in the United States they're technically required to apply for green cards within a year of admission though sometimes it takes a bit longer because of money or bureaucracy or or

And one of the points being that's reportedly never been caused to arrest refugees or threaten them with deportation. Right with Tracy Roy, the legal director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota explaining, this has never happened that you arrive as a refugee and that on day 366, if you are still not a green card holder, you are deportable. That has never been the way the statute has been interpreted. Though either way, at least one of the detained refugees may have already filed documents to get her green card anyways. Or at least according to the woman's daughter who said she had proof, and also I'll say a mix-up, it wouldn't be all that surprising because even as the administration is demanding this one-year deadline be met, It has suspended the processing of Green Guard applications for people from 19 countries including Somalia,

Myanmar, and Eritrea. And I mentioned those three because those are the three countries that refugees detained so far have reportedly come from, with the most coming from Somalia. And that is actually not that surprising because, one, Minneapolis and the greater Twin Cities area hosts the largest Somali population in the United States. And two, they've been a particular target of Trump who's called them garbage that he doesn't want in the country. And with that, his administration has moved to end temporary protected status for Somali, immigrants leaving them until mid-March to leave the country. Right, and a lot of this seem to be part of the backlash to the fraud scandal that's been racking Minnesota because, according to the White House, 85 of the 98 people charged in connection so far are of Somali descent.

Though, of course, as many have pointed out, one, that's out of a population of around 80,000 in Minnesota. And two, if Trump really cared about fraud, he maybe wouldn't have pardoned some of the country's most prolific fraudsters and robbed their victims of millions of dollars in restitution. And in any case, at least so far, there's no indication that the refugees allegedly being detained are implicated there. Or with Roy from the immigrant law center saying that none of the cases she has been contacted about involved, involved a refugee who would commit a crime beyond traffic violations. But despite that, and despite an apparent lack of many due process, they're being held against their will. And well, you know, I highlighted allegations surrounding facilities in Texas specifically, you know, I should note that there are concerns about conditions at detention centers all over the country.

All while, the administration has restricted the ability of lawmakers to inspect those facilities, and there are actually plans to massively expand detention capacity, including by renovating industrial warehouses to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees. And ultimately, there's all this crazy stuff happening that we don't see, Although, to be fair, we're pretty distracted by all the crazy stuff we do see. Right, because more and more, videos just continue to come out of encounters with federal agents, things that appear to show them shoving people on sidewalks, throwing flashbangs and protesters, and of course, dragging people away and shoving them into unmarked cars.

And so you have examples like two Minneapolis residents, both American citizens, claiming to have been stopped in their vehicle by officers who then fired pepper spray through the windshield vent and smash the window. Also claiming that one of the officers threatened them, telling them that obstructing ICE was how Renee Good got killed and then taking them away. Right, and with that, they said that they said that they, they were put into adjacent cells and pressured to rat out their friends. One claiming that he was even offered money or legal protection if he gave up the names of organizers or neighbors who were in the country illegally. But in the end, they were let go without charges, though.

They then say they were tear gassed on the way out of the facility by officers who were dealing with protesters in the area. And all of this, it brings us to these new comments from Joe Rogan that are getting a lot of attention. Because Rogan, in addition to always looking like a boy who won free candy for life and every photo where it's him and Trump, he of course famously endorsed Trump in the 2024 election. And while recently he's become more and more, at least somewhat critical of how the deportations are being carried out on this recent show with Rand Paul, he went even further. I can also see the point of view of the people to say, yeah, but you don't want militarized people in the streets just roaming around, snatching people up, many of which turn out to actually be U.S. citizens that just don't have their papers on them?

Are we really going to be the Gestapo? Where's your papers? Is that what we've come to? And also notably had Rogan questioning the Trump administration's narrative of Renee Good's death. It's complicated, obviously. but it's also very ugly. To watch someone shoot a U.S. citizen, especially a woman in the face,

I'm not that guy. I don't know what he thought. And again, this is a guy who'd almost been run over. But it just looked horrific to me. I mean, when people say it's justifiable because the car hit him, it seemed like she was kind of turning the car away. Now that said, you know, it's still Joe Rogan.

He knows who his audience is. He also paired this by saying the good seemed out of her fucking. mind and crazy. Right, and he also seemed to express support for deportations in general, even giving weight to the conspiracy theory that undocumented immigrants have been brought into the country to win elections for Democrats. But definitely it's the Gestapo comment that's been turning the most heads, getting the most traction, and it's also an argument that many more people have been making for multiple reasons. Right, it's not just one thing. You have recent posts by accounts within the administration that have been seen as a nod to neo-Nazis and extremists. And as we've

talked about, you have examples like two days after Renee Good was shot and killed, DHS put out a recruitment post on Instagram saying, we'll have our home again, which is the name of a song featuring language, often used in white nationalist calls for a race war. In fact, the lyrics opened the manifesto of the man behind a 23 mass shooting in Jacksonville targeting black people. You also had a lot of people what the hell when the Department of Labor posted over the weekend, one homeland, one people, one people, one heritage, which is not only a batshit way of describing America, but it's also, as people have argued, pretty similar to Nazi propaganda declaring one people, one nation, one leader. And then you had things like with Christy Noem standing at a podium

that was plastered with the phrase, one of ours, all of yours. Right in there you have people claiming that's associated with a Nazi massacre of a Czech village, although with that one I will say historians have said that they're not aware of that specific phrase being used historically in that context. So still, you have people saying it sounds like a threat from the administration. And with that we may be seeing the administration following through on that, not just through the presence of thousands of agents, but with financial pressure. Right, because you had Trump yesterday saying that his administration will start denying federal funding to entire states if they're even home to so-called sanctuary cities. Which are generally considered those that have policies limiting local law enforcement's ability to work with federal immigration officers. Now with that, it's unclear if Trump can actually do that in a way that'll stick, right? The courts have already shut down two of his past efforts to cut off funding for sanctuary jurisdictions. Once during his first term, another during this term. Also, a judge has blocked his attempt to stop setting money to five Democratic-led states or daycare subsidies and other aid to low-income families with children. You also had another judge ruling against a threat to cut nearly $8 billion in clean energy funding to states that voted against him in the 2024 elections.

Right, and then there's also a legal battle playing out over, a warning from the Department of Agriculture that it would withhold funds from states refusing to provide data about SNAP recipients. And so with all that said, you know, it's really the mass deployment of federal agents that seems to be having the greatest impact right now. Though on the note of agents, the identities of around thousands of them have allegedly just been leaked and shared with a website called the ice list. Or with the ICE list calling itself a journalistic project meant to share information to hold ICE members legally accountable. And very notably, Dominic Skinner, who runs the website from the Netherlands, says that individual reports about DHS personnel from the public. that has spiked since good shooting. With them adding, I've had hotel staff sending Post-it notes, bar staff, sending DHS IDs, and loads of people saying their neighbor is an agent.

And this alleged leak of 4,500 names all at once, apparently from a whistleblower, reportedly may be the largest ever breach of department staff data ever. And so with that, you had DHS spokesperson Trisha McLaughlin, who's included on the site, claiming that the leak would constitute 4,500 felonies, and adding, the disgusting doxing of our officers put their lives and their families in serious danger. And adding, anyone who doxes our officers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Now that said, since the website is hosted abroad, there might not be much that the White House can actually do on that front. And making that an even bigger deal as you have Skinner saying that he plans to release the majority of names from the leak,

but he will make exceptions. Right. Exceptions that include nurses and those who work in child care at the agency. Though, very interestingly, he claimed today that the website came under a prolonged and sophisticated cyber attack after news of the leak broke, and he said that the attack originated from Russia and added, it is clear, some people out there do not want the names of ICE and Border Patrol agents made public. And so while we're gonna have to wait to see, you know, how all this plays out, in the meantime, while we're on the topic of ICE agents, we should talk about what it takes to be one. And the answer there actually might be not much. Or because ICE is apparently hiring recruits before they submit basic paperwork or drug test results and without conducting the most cursory

background check. That was the experience of a recruit who wrote a Slade article exposing some just absolutely horrifying issues with the agency's hiring process. Right, and the recruit at the center of this story is Laura Jadid, a freelance journalist who focuses on American conservative and far-right movements. And Jadidid, she went to the ICE Career Expo in Texas last August because she wanted to learn what it was like to apply to be an ICE agent. And while having no actual intent to join ICE, Jadid thought, hey, my resume is pretty strong, strong enough that maybe I can get my foot in the door to check out of the whole recruiting process. Which she enlisted in the army right out of college, she served two deployments in Afghanistan before then working as a civilian analyst for a few

years. Though notably, Jadid intentionally left out any mention of her current occupation as a And she figured that that omission would prevent her from even making it through the initial review, because once the hiring managers did even a simple Google search, they'd find a whole host of articles where she's condemning Trump, his administration, and the right-wing shift of the country at large. Which even has a dossier on Antifa watch, this right-wing website that says it tracks what it says are alleged members of a group that conservatives have branded as a domestic terrorist organization. So she goes to the Expo, registers for an interview time slot, but when she gets there at 9 a.m., there's barely anyone there. There's no line to check or go through security, and the hallways and drug testing stations, they're nearly empty. There are only six people ahead of her for the interview, and even though the expo was held in a massive esports stadium, Jadid said that there couldn't have been more than 150 people in the event space during the entire visit.

Though, I will say another reporter said that over the course of the two days, 3,000 people attended the event. But again, at least while Jadid was there, the stadium was pretty damn empty. And then when it comes time for her interview, it ends up being pretty surface level, where she's asked for basic identifying information, whether she is law enforcement or military experience, and her location preferences. She also explains the gap in her resume where she omitted her current occupation, saying that she went to college party, time and was doing gig economy stuff. But then the interviewer telling her that ICE is prioritizing current law enforcement first and would look at her resume and if they liked what they saw, she'd get an email with

next steps. And so she leaves the interview going, okay, this is probably the end. There's no way they're going to hire me once they Google my name. But still, she initially keeps a close eye in our inbox, but then after a few days, she's not as careful and that's how she initially missed the email from ICE giving her a tentative job offer. She says this email provided a series of steps that she had to take on a tight deadline. She had just 48 hours to log on to USA jobs and fill out a declaration for federal employment and five five more days to return the forms attached to the email. In those forms, including driver's license information

and affidavit that she never has been convicted for domestic violence and a consent for a background check. And this is a key thing for what happens next, right? The instructions in the email explicitly stated, if you are declining the position, it is not necessary to complete the action items listed below. But because she didn't see the email, she already missed the deadline to do all those things.

And such a deed assumes, okay, that's the natural end to this experiment, but then plot twist, it gets so much crazier. Three weeks later, she gets another email that reads, thank you for confirming that you wish to continue with the hiring process. Which of course is a surprise to her because she literally did not confirm that she wished to continue. But still, she goes, okay, well, let's try and move ahead. Let's take the pre-employment drug tests at ICE requests just for shits and giggles.

Right in there thinking that, well, there's no way she's gonna pass because she had smoked pot six days before her test. And so she waits for that call saying, you failed your drug test. But after not hearing anything for nine days, she decides, hey, and let me go log on to USA jobs and check the application to see if my drug test had come through. And that is when she learned that ICE had offered her a job Oh, without her even knowing or even submitting any of the paperwork they requested. No background check, no domestic violence affidavit, no clean drug test result, nothing, boom, hired by ICE. While the portal noted that pre-employment activities remained pending,

it also showed that she had accepted a final job offer and listed her onboarding status as entered on duty. Where with the portal indicating that she had officially been entered on duty on September 30th, several days earlier in, supposedly, the same day that ICE sent her the final offer that she had supposedly accepted. Now, notably here, GD does acknowledge that maybe if she had accepted the job, They would have demanded her pre-employment paperwork done some basic screening and then fired her ASAP. But even then, she writes that the pending and upcoming task list suggested a very different outcome. Right, noting that on October 6th, a date three days in the future at this point, her physical fitness test had been initiated and both her medical and background checks had been completed.

And so she wrote and wondered, was ICE seriously going to let me start training without finding out the first thing about me? And with that saying, I reached out to ICE for an explanation, but never heard back. But also, you know, she never found out because ultimately she declined the job. So overall, she said her experience should make everyone very concerned. Right, noting that maybe this was a computer glitch, maybe this was a one-of-a-kind situation, an outlier, but with that, arguing, given all the above, it seems far more likely that ICE is running an extremely leaky ship when it comes to recruitment. And adding that it's basically impossible to know for sure because there's just so little oversight of ICE and the agency conceals its agents identities. Right, and with all this, you know, wondering if this agency missed the fact that she was an anti-ice journalist who didn't even complete her paperwork, what other major things are they missing for everyone else?

Asking how many convicted domestic abusers are being given guns and sent into other people's homes? How many people with ties to white supremacist organizations are indiscriminately targeting minorities on principle, regardless of immigration status? How many rapists and pedophiles are working in ICE detention centers with direct and unsupervised access to a population that will be neither believed nor missed? How are we to trust ICE's allegedly thorough investigations of the people they detain and deport when they can't even keep their HR paperwork straight? And adding, if ICE didn't screen her out, they also can't be expected to hire competent recruits. And with all this, she then specifically pointed to, the killing of Renee Good. And to just a completely insane situation.

And as far as how DHS has responded, they have now released a statement on X saying, this is such a lazy lie. This individual was never offered a job at ICE, saying applicants may receive a tentative selection letter following their initial application and interview that is not a job offer. It just means they are invited

to submit information for review, similar to any other applicant. But that appears to directly fly in the face of Jadid, literally sharing a screen recording of the portal where it says in multiple locations that she was sent a job offer, including one page that a case, explicitly reads, the final job offer has been sent out for response on the following September 30th,

2025. And Dede actually shared that screen recording well before DHS made their statement. So if anything, their response is the thing that seems lazy. Right, it lends itself to the idea that they don't actually know what the fuck is going on over there. So, you know, all of this, it's just a crazy situation. I'd love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reaction to everything. Of course, share to spread the word. And then there's more we've got to dive into here. But first, let me say, you know, if I stop using a service, it's usually because it didn't actually do anything. Today's sponsor, Incogni, it passed that test years ago, which is why I'm still using it. But I signed up because I didn't love the idea

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check out Incogn. Just scan that QR code or go to incogni.com slash DeFranco and use Code DeFranco for 60% off. That's incogny.com slash DeFranco, code DeFranco because scammers can't steal what's not there. But then getting back into the news, more news you need to know. We need to talk about how

Denmark is mobilizing troops now to protect Greenland, probably from Donald Trump. Because among the millions of things happening, you've got that Trump administration gunning for a U.S. takeover of Greenland, even though pretty much everyone's against the idea, including residents of Greenland as well as leaders in Denmark, NATO, and the EU. Though Trump has repeatedly claimed with the U.S. needs Greenland for national security and saying that it's just covered by Chinese and Russian ships, which is a claim that both experts and Greenland residents have expressed doubt over. Greenland's prime minister has made their stance very clear, saying Greenland does not want to be owned by the U.S. Greenland does not want to be governed by the USA,

Greenland will not be part of the USA. We choose the Greenland we know today, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. And with that, adding, now we are faced with the geopolitical crisis. And if we have to choose between the USA and Denmark here, and now we choose Denmark. Something that you've seen echoed by many Greenland residents saying that they're concerned about cultural differences

as well as losing the Scandinavian welfare system. Because among other things, exchanging free healthcare for whatever the fuck it is we have, doesn't sound appealing to a lot of people. And even back here in the states, that the majority of Americans aren't really on board. But according to a Reuters poll, only 17% of Americans support Trump's efforts to annex Greenland.

But Trump really doesn't seem concerned with American or Greenland or opinions on this, and he's very pointedly said that he hasn't ruled out taking Greenland by force. He's even promised that we'll do this what he called the hard way, if necessary, which has led to several European countries, promising to defend Greenland in the case of an invasion. And all of that's connected then to the news today that Denmark is increasing military presence in and around Greenland in the coming period involving aircraft, ships, and soldiers. You're also saying Swedish armed forces,

riding as a part of a group from several allied countries, which includes Germany, France, and Norway. But again, even in the face of that, Trump is not letting up. In fact, early this morning, he doubled down on this whole thing again. Right, Trump's saying Greenland is necessary for his plan to build the Golden Zone. And if you don't remember, that's his grand plan for a futuristic missile defense system. Right. And then Trump also directly called out NATO saying that they should be leading the way for the United States to take Greenland or else, quote, Russia or China will, and that is not going to happen. Adding that NATO is not an effective force or deterrent and saying NATO becomes far more form.

formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the United States. Anything less than that is unacceptable. And you know, the timing of all this is interesting because Trump's statement on truth social. It came just hours before a scheduled meeting between Denmark's foreign minister as Greenland counterpart and J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to discuss Greenland. And you know, this meeting it's been seen by Copenhagen as a crucial chance to ease tensions with the Trump administration. You've even had a Danish foreign minister saying our reason for seeking the meeting we have now been given was to move this whole discussion, which has not become less tense since we last met into a meeting room where we can look at each other in the eye and talk about these things. While it was initially just a meeting with Rubio, Vance reportedly jumped in as well, offering to post the meeting at the White House. And after that meeting, we saw the Danish and Greenland officials

giving a press conference saying that the discussion was constructive and they were able to challenge from social media narrative about Chinese and Russian ships surrounding Greenland. But as for a genuine solution, it looks like that's still a ways off. Or the Danish foreign minister is saying that the meeting to establish a new high-level group that will meet for the first time in the next few weeks to address what he called the security concerns of the U.S.

while still respecting the borders of Greenland as a part of the kingdom of Denmark. Because as we get closer to November, Trump seems determined to not let power slip out of his hands the way that it did in 2020. Now, whether Republicans, they get on board, that's an open question publicly. They praise him, he's a god, but we do know that privately at least, some of them think he's just a buffoon. And we just got secret grand jury transcripts confirming that from the now dead Georgia election interference case in 2022. So for example, in his testimony, Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina who just last week called Trump, The greatest president of all time. Also called Trump's scheme to enlist fake electors from swing states in 2020,

weird and adding, I don't know what to tell you, just weird. With him saying at the time, I have told him more times than we can count that he fell short. And then adding, if you told him Martians came and stole votes, he'd be inclined to believe it. But also, Rick, Graham's not alone here. You also had former Georgia State House Speaker David Ralston, who resisted Trump's demands that he tried to throw out the election results. You do it to uncover... A federal judge. But I'm later calling the fake elector's scheme the craziest thing I've heard.

Also you had Liz Cheney saying that on January 6th after rioters had already stormed the Capitol, her fellow GOP House members lined up to sign on to Sheets objecting to Biden's electoral votes. One of them, Mark Green, saying she busshely to no one in particular the things we do for the Orange Jesus. You know, all of that craziness and the flip-flopping since then and the gas sliding, it's not just ancient history. It matters right now because Trump's approval ratings, they're in the toilet. You've got polling predicting that if nothing changes, Democrats are going to win the midterms and historically the governing party it just tends to lose the first midterm

after winning the presidency. So there's a lot of talk right now about are we going to see a replay of the 2020 election. Now of course you know there is a difference the presidency itself is enough for grabs until 2028 but in a speech to house republicans this month you had trump casting 2026 as existential for him. You gotta win the midterms because if we don't win the midterms it's just gonna be I mean they'll find a reason to impeach me. Uh, I'll get impeached. Also keeping that in mind at another point he added, I won't say cancel the election, they should cancel the election

because the fake news will say, he wants the elections cancel, he's a dictator. Right, and with all this, you're seeing experts worried that Trump might invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the military, the National Guard, or federal agents to Democratic cities on election day. Right, and short of, you know, just canceling the elections, which is something Trump definitely cannot do legally,

there are numerous levers that he can pull to try to make things go his way. Right, he's already got Republicans in Texas, Ohio, Missouri, and North Carolina to redraw congressional districts five years ahead of in Florida, they still may join in. Then in August, he announced that he directed his Commerce Department to immediately begin work on a new census that excludes non-citizens.

And that could be huge because the census determines how many electoral votes and how seats each state gets, as well as how their maps are drawn. But there I'll say it's highly unlikely that Trump can force a new mid-decade census in time to impact midterms, at least. Especially with primaries happening early in the year, but there is much more, right? For example, he truth last August. I'm going to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots, and also while we're at it, highly inaccurate, very expensive and seriously controversial voting machines, which cost 10 times more than accurate and sophisticated watermark paper, which is faster and leaves no doubt at the end of the evening

as to who won and who lost the election. We will begin this effort, which will be strongly opposed by the Democrats because they cheat at levels never seen before by signing an executive order to help bring honesty to the 26 midterm elections. Remember, the states are merely an agent for the federal government in counting and tabulating the votes. They must do what the federal government as represented by the president of the United States tells them, for the good of our country to do. The mail-in ballot hoax using voting machines that are a complete and total disaster must end now. So, few things. First of all, it is not true that states are merely an agent of the federal government. In fact, if anything, it's the opposite, right, that the Constitution gives states broad leeway to run elections how they see fit.

Second, there's no evidence that mail-in ballots are fraudulent, but maybe more importantly, neither is there for voting machines. In fact, of anything, they're much more accurate and faster than tallying votes by hand. So if Trump got his way and, you know, states stopped using voting machines altogether, states would have to recruit hundreds hundreds to thousands of additional poll workers. Results would take days, weeks, or even months to compute in recounts and court challenges, they'd probably spike because the tallies would be less reliable. But, you know, even if he can't get rid of them, Trump can still so distrust in the machines and then exploit that confusion to do the nuclear option, seizing them by force.

Right, during his interview with the New York Times last week, he expressed regret that he didn't order the National Guard to seize voting machines after the election in 2020. Right, and for some context there in December of that year, two of his most crackpot outside advisors, Sidney Powell, and Michael Flynn, they earned urged him to direct the military or federal agents to seize voting machines and they even presented him with draft executive orders to do it. And Trump, he seemed receptive at the time, right? He brought up the idea with his attorney general, Bill Barr, who then shot it down. And then he directed Rudy Giuliani to ask high-ranking DHS officials if they could actually legally seize the machines, but that was shot down again. And so now Trump, he told the times he should have just moved forward with the idea, which then raises the question.

If he tries to do that in 2026, who's going to stop him? Probably not A.G. Pam Bondi, who is Trump's lawyer in 2020, claimed that he actually won Pennsylvania and then dodged questions about whether Biden won during her confirmation hearings as Attorney General. Definitely not Harmeet K. Dillon, the assistant attorney general and head of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, which oversees voting issues, who's an election denier. You also have Heather Honey, the Deputy Assistant Secretary at Homeland Security, who now helps oversee election infrastructure. She's also probably unlikely because she worked on a probe into Arizona's 2020 election and has challenged voters' eligibility in Pennsylvania. You then have Eric Neff, the acting chief of the DOJ's voting rights division, who once filed highly dubious charges against the head of an election software company when he was a prosecutor. And then, of course, you have this man, Cash Patel, and he has his own history of election denialism. How, Trump's White House reportedly vetted job applicants all the way down to entry-level positions with questions like who won the 2020 presidential election.

And so even if Democrats do well and understand the message of this is not to just give up or don't go out, you got to make the numbers matter and undeniable. You've some Dems worried that with their extensive gerrymandering, voter suppression, and other tactics, they just might cling on to their razor-thin House majority anyway. And so with the lunatics running the asylum, the asylum here being the executive branch, one of the main checks left on Trump's power is a conservative judiciary. Which I will say does hold out some hope, though how much is really an open question. Where the Supreme Court upheld the gerrymandered map in Texas, but there are other maps still being considered. It also dealt Trump a surprising blow recently by ruling that his deployment of National Guard to Chicago was illegal,

so it's doubtful whether they'd support a scheme to seize voting machines. So with all this, I'll say they're set to hear a case this summer addressing the legality of Trump's executive order barring election officials from accepting mail-in ballots received after election day, even if they're postmarked before. And that's begun its own, but also because the U.S. Postal Service just changed its guidelines so that some mail won't be postmarked until days after it was put into the mailbox. But hey, we are still many months away from November, and there is a lot that could happen in that time, including the resurrection of his best friend, Jeffrey Epstein. Which, yeah, you might say that's impossible, but how many things are we living through right now that, felt impossible just weeks, months, and years ago. And then there's more you need to know,

more we need to dive into in just a minute. But first, let me take a second to sponsor myself because right now over at beautifulbatcher.com, we are restocked with our signature collection and revamped prints. Right over the break, we were working with our manufacturers, not only to make sure that, you know, the shirts and the hoodies, they were top notch,

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But then, from that, the final thing that we need to talk about today, or really maybe I just want to talk about with you today, you had Trump flipping off that heckler yesterday. Especially as that heckler yesterday is, we'll say, having job troubles, but also maybe it was actually a good monetary decision. Because yesterday, Trump was touring a Ford plant in Michigan, and in a viral video, you can vaguely hear an employee off camera call him a pedophile protector. With then, Trump's response being to point at the person seemingly in mouth a fuck you twice and then give him the middle finger. And with that, you had the White House defending the move saying a lunatic was wildly screaming expletives and a complete fit of rage and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response. And that as far as the heckler's place to work, they did not adamantly defend him with the United Auto Workers saying that the Ford employee was suspended after the incident. Right. And the employee in question has now been identified by multiple outlets as T.J. Sabula, a 40-year-old line worker at the factory with him then telling the Washington Post, As far as calling him out, definitely no regrets whatsoever.

Though he said he is concerned about the future of his job and says that he was targeted for political retribution for embarrassing Trump in front of his friends. And also, in case there was any doubt what he meant by pedophile protector, he clarified that he was in fact referencing the Epstein file, saying that he was, you know, just 60 feet away from Trump who could hear him clearly. And so he thought, I don't feel as though fate looks upon you often. And when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity. And today, I think I did that.

With him describing himself as an independent who has never voted for Trump, though he has voted for other Republicans in the past. And then as far as Ford's response, you had a spokesperson saying, one of our core values is respect, and we don't condone anyone saying anything inappropriate like that within our facilities. When that happens, we have a process to deal with it,

but we don't get into specific personnel matters. And you had the company's executive chairman, Bill Ford, also trying to downplay the interaction as just a brief six-second moment out of an otherwise very successful tour. You know, really, if you look online, no one's talking about any other part of the tour. It's pretty much all about this.

Trump's supporters kind of loving this from him. Though also a lot of others thinking this is, low, even for Trump, it's not presidential, though what does that even mean anymore? But you also had a lot of people defending the employee, not only for calling Trump out, but saying, you know, he didn't shout expletives, that the only obscene part of the whole interaction was Trump giving a fuck you gesture. The UAW union also releasing a statement saying they stand with him and his freedom of speech, right, adding that they will ensure that his rights is a union member or protected and saying that workers should never be subjected

to vulgar language or behavior by anyone, including the president of the United States. And so with all this, right, one of the ways we've seen people rallying around this employee is that people have made go-fund means to support him amid his suspension. Right and some have actually already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, which really makes you think, wow, calling the president a pedophile protector for, you know, fighting against the release of the Epstein file so hard and jumping through hoops and trying to distract everyone. Who knew that was essentially a lottery ticket? So there, your friendly neighborhood, Philip DeFranco is going to say, uh, you know, be careful. A lot of people lose the lottery. Use your best judgment. Results may vary. You know, with this

and really anything else that we covered and really stood out. to you today you want to sound off on, let me know what you're thinking in those comments down below. Because that, it brings us to the end of your Wednesday, Philip DeFranco show, dive into the news. But of course, one, I'll see you right back here tomorrow. That's how daily news shows work. Maybe even friendships are we friends? And two, if you want to keep watching more right now, my brand new episode of the Crashing Out podcast also just went up today. I highly recommend it. It's a great watch or a second screen listen. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think of, yeah, this whole new swath of ICE agent. I imagine, especially when you're talking about influencers,

is that they're going to be kind of gearing things towards people that are really like drinking the Kool-Aid from rat fuckers like Asman Golds, who see things like what happened with good and saying rip bozo and saying that Trump, if he's actually serious, he needs to go in there and crack down more and he doesn't. And you just, you look at this and you're like, oh my God, you're just, you're a fucking insane person that doesn't see people as people.