The Young Turks - Dictator Donny - January 15, 2026

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Donald Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota as Kristi Noem suggests U.S. citizens should be prepared to show proof of citizenship, escalating fears of authoritarian overreach. Trump also signals he wants any military action against Iran to be “swift and decisive,” while openly musing that the U.S. “shouldn’t even have an election” when discussing the midterms. Fox News accuses Ms. Rachel of antisemitism over her appearance with Zohran Mamdani. If your work depends on conversations — interviews, meetings, calls — Plaud AI just makes sense. Check it out at plaud.ai/tyt Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/TYT and use code TYT and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup! Hosts: Jordan Uhl, Sharon Reed SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. To the Young Turks, I'm Jordan Yule. Joining me, the one, the only, Sharon Reed. Sharon, how are you? I better hope there's only one of pay. I'm good. It's a little chilly. And can you imagine?

What if there are two? I'm doing well. It's just pretty chilly in Atlanta, Jordan. How are you? I'm doing all right. We can barely handle one, Sharon. Imagine if there were multiples. I think it's a scary thought.

It is really frightening. Well, we've also got some scary news. We've got some interesting stories. We've got a lot to cover. So let's jump right. in starting with this. So Congressman Fitzpatrick, President Trump is now threatening to institute the Insurrection Act in Minnesota.

Do you think that's what the state needs right now? I think everyone needs to start seeing the humanity in each other. This is the president, making sure, as the secretary indicated, making sure that people are safe, that communities are safe. We did discuss the Insurrection Act. He certainly has the constitutional authority to utilize that. Amid yet another shooting and escalating protests in Minneapolis following the killing of Renee Good. President Donald Trump is threatening to send troops to Minnesota using the

Insurrection Act. He posted on Truth Social this morning if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don't obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the patriots of ICE who are only trying to do their job, institute the Insurrection Act, which many presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in the once great state. Thank you for you attention to this matter, President D.J.T. Invoking the Insurrection Act would allow Donald Trump to put active duty military members on the streets of Minnesota, despite the objections of local leaders. Before we get into the latest updates from Minnesota, Sharon, what is your thoughts here? This is an extremely dangerous next

step. Who knows what that might look like, how that would manifest in the streets and it certainly would only escalate things. So what do you make of it? I think we have to understand where we are. He has Donald Trump, Donald J. Trump has created chaos. He has damaged people. He has made people sicker, poor, and their mental help has suffered. But this is a new one. We've watched over the course of the last several days, a woman be, I believe, murdered, okay? No charges brought, no investigation. In fact, we're investigating her partner who witnessed it. We saw and have gotten word of another shooting.

And if this goes through, watch out. We will have martial law will have people, bodies on the street. No justice. We are there. We're not kind of there. We're not inching up. We are there. It's a good thing that he's friends with Vladimir Putin because this is where we are.

Yeah. Just a few examples of how the insurrection, or sorry, yes, how this has been used in the past. I mean, there were deployments of the military in the 90s during riots in Los Angeles after the beating of Rodney King. There were, it was used in a civil rights movement when schools were being deced. segregated and active duty military members were used to escort people into their school. That's how it has been used in the past, not to intimidate to crush a protest seeking justice for the murder of somebody by ICE, by a rogue administration. And in the case of Los Angeles, that was requested by the governor. It wasn't just

the president sending, it was Bush at the time, sending it in to take over to amplify things. And I think what's worrying here is it seems like tensions are deliberately being escalated to trigger this, to justify this. And that is extremely dangerous and irresponsible for the president to be doing. But Trump's threat comes after another ICE shooting yesterday, this time of an undocumented immigrant. Unfortunately, most of the information we have about the shooting is coming straight from DHS. So personally, I want to see more. I want to know more before I give it much way, but we'll tell you what they have said.

Here's their account of what happened. DHS says federal officers stopped an immigrant from Venezuela who allegedly resisted arrest. DHS claiming two other people joined the struggle and the original target began striking the officer with, quote, a shovel or broomstick, adding the officer was fearing for his life and fired, hitting the man in the leg. The agent and the man who was shot are in the hospital, and the other two people accused of attacking the agent are in custody. But as the New York Times wrote in the reporting about the incident, the federal government's narrative could not immediately be verified. The Minneapolis police chief suggested at least part of DHS's story was accurate. But at this point,

we don't have enough evidence to say exactly what went down. Either way, after the shooting, protests became even more unruly with ice agents using flashbangs and pepper spray against demonstrators, some of whom threw fireworks into the line of ice agents and damaged cars. In one incident of ice violence, flashbangs and tear gas deployed by officers hit a van and six children ended up hospitalized. You could see that headline here. The father, Sean Jackson, said he put his kids in the car to get them out of the neighborhood. Officers threw flashbangs and tear gas in my car. I got six kids in the car.

My six-month-old can't even breathe. This was flipped over. Sean said holding his child's car seat. My car filled with tear gas. I'm trying to pull my kids from the car. And here is footage from the scene. The ambulance is bringing my newborn out to help. I told him I was trying to leave.

In an address to the state last night, Governor Tim Walls called on protesters to stay peaceful, but also slammed the Trump administration and ICE for assaulting and even kidnapping Minnesotans. Reports simply don't do justice to the level of chaos and disruption and trauma. The federal government is raining down upon our communities. Two to three thousand armed agents of the federal government have been deployed to Minnesota. Armed, masked, under-trained ICE agents are going door to door, ordering people to point out where their neighbors of color live. They're breaking windows, dragging pregnant women down the street, just plain grabbing Minnesotans and shoving them into unmarked vans, kidnapping innocent people with no warning and no due process.

Donald Trump wants this chaos. He wants confusion, and yes, he wants more violence on our streets. we cannot give him what he wants. We can. We must protest loudly, urgently, but also peacefully. While all the local officials in Minnesota urged peaceful protest,

despite the Trump administration's claims to the contrary, there are some people who want no real protest at all. Here, conservative Brad Todd tells people who are upset about ICE to just start a substack. We actually Protest in the town square. You peacefully protest with a letter to the editor.

Are they completely violence or no? You peacefully protest by starting a setter to the editor? Like starting a podcast. And our colleague Anna Kasparian was on that panel and you could hear her say, oh my God, because it is, Sharon, a ludicrous proposition. Oh, if you want to protest, just write a letter to the editor. Just start a podcast or a substack.

Do things that we can easily easily. ignore because I think maybe you might agree. What they ultimately want is for us to just roll over and accept this takeover. What do you make of it? That's exactly what it's about and what kind of buffoonery who utters such garbage. And that doesn't even mean that podcasts and a letter to the editor is going to be received under this administration, the way the media is looking here. Listen, this governor Woles is doing a delicate balancing act. You must continue to go out there, protest, have your voices heard. But in doing so, even instructing people to do so peacefully, he knows he is putting

Minnesotans in peril because there's nothing this guy won't do. Like the other cases that you cited where the insurrection act was invoked throughout the history of America. That was so cooler heads could prevail. That was welcome. The feds to the rescue. Here it's the opposite. No one's doing. The big game's almost here. And there's no better way to cash in during America's biggest sporting event than prize picks, where it always feels good to be right. And since the big game is right around the corner, that also means it's your last chance to get into the football action before next season. So close the season outright with price picks by getting $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first $5. Look, I got to

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assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. Doing anything that deserves any of this, he is sending in, he is weaponizing the military against the American people. It's not America anymore. Or maybe it is now, by definition. Maybe this is the new definition of America.

This is stunning. It's scary. I had a thought, Jordan, that, wow, you know, he's going to send him to Atlanta. So what would I do? Where would I be? What would I tell my daughter? I mean, it's sick. I'm a big mouth.

I like to speak truth to power. Would I have the courage to do that? And would someone get hurt? It's exactly what he wanted. It's happening. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's, I guess, America in name only. This is not, I think America should be.

I don't think it's what a majority of Americans think America should be. And we see polling to justify that, to explain that. I mean, ICE's approval rating is underwater by 20% or 20 points across the board. Of course, that's a vast majority of Democrats and most independents. There is a majority of people who disapprove of ICE, and there's a plurality of people who want ICE abolished. This isn't a beloved institution or agency. It's a relatively new one. And the people who only seem to like it are Republicans.

And when you see what ICE is doing, if you can strip your partisan framework or lens from it and just look at it objectively. And imagine what you would think if the other party was in power, I'd imagine a lot of Republicans would be upset by this. If a federal agent shot someone in the head, shot a teenager, I think some of them would be, more of them would be upset, but because it's their guy doing it. And because especially in Minnesota, this whole thing is couched in this Somali fraud, bogus narrative, they're okay with.

One day the boot's going to be on your neck. And what you do now, I think, reflects how you will be treated in that moment. At least it should. But sharing, before we get to our next story, any final thoughts? No, listen, I think it's one thing to appeal to try to appeal to the decency of people who would root this on. By now, Jordan, we've all seen enough. We've seen enough to go ahead and make a decision about where we stand on this issue. So if we can't hit them with that, you know, in the heart, some kind of a moral check.

They hit them in the wallet. This institution, this ICE agency has ballooned to. like $85 billion, 30% of the Homeland Security budget, half a percent of our entire budget. For what? People want immigration to be done orderly, respectfully. We don't want, you know, people who are whatever he said coming down that escalator. But at the end of the day, by and large, that wasn't happening. That wasn't happening to justify this enormous expense.

So if people can't be moved by a woman murdered after dropping off her six-year-old son while we were able to watch her final moments. Start with the money. Just start with the money. There's another angle of this, and it involves how this is expanding to citizens. Take a look. Why are we seeing Americans being asked on the street to provide proof of citizenship in Minnesota? Is that targeted enforcement and are you advising Americans to carry proof of citizens? In every situation, we're doing targeted enforcement. If we are on a target and doing an operation, there may be individuals surrounding that criminal that we may be asking who they are and why they're there and having them validate their identity. That's what we've always done in asking people

who they are so that we know who's in those surroundings. And if they are breaking our federal laws, we will detain them as well until we run that processing. EHS Secretary Kristy Noem told reporters today that American citizens may need to show proof of citizenship to immigration agents. This comes as multiple observers and protesters in Minneapolis have reported being asked to show documentation, something American citizens typically don't carry around with them. The Trump administration's papers please immigration enforcement is clearly expanding from just immigrants. Last January, among President Donald Trump's list of executive orders, one was requiring that immigrants carry proof of their legal status, such as their visa, green card, or other form of identification. Under Trump's order and through the Alien Registration Act, immigrants would be expected to carry ID proving their status. They do not comply, then they face either civil or criminal prosecution per the order.

While the law has been in place with a few amendments for decades, it has not always been widely enforced. Now, with thousands of people protesting against ICE and smaller groups working as legal observers of federal agent activity, U.S. citizens are also coming into close contact with those who may ask for proof of ID under this rule. But immigration law experts are already firing back on Nome's claim that this only occurs during targeted enforcement. Aaron Reichlin Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said, this is simply not true. In Los Angeles, for example, DHS officers outright admitted to doing roving patrols, which are not targeted.

Similarly, if an officer is doing a targeted operation and then detain towards to interrogate random people walking by, the latter is not targeted. But even if you do show proof of citizenship, it doesn't always matter. Mother in Maryland detained for 25 days despite producing multiple documents, proof of citizenship. She was sent to four different states before finally being reunited with her family. There was the Minnesota parent picked up while waiting with their child to get on the school bus. A 17 year old New Jersey high school students, whose priest, by the way, calls him a good kid. He was arrested while doing his laundry.

There's also a landscaper who's caregiver to a nine-year-old son with cerebral palsy who was swept up. He's been in this country for 20 years. And I'll even add a personal anecdote. Several months ago, ICE was in my neighborhood in Los Angeles. They were just driving around doing those roving patrols that that legal expert talked about. They saw someone in their front yard who had tattoos and was Latino. They drove up and demanded to see his paperwork. They demanded to see his proof of citizenship.

He was on his own property in his front yard. And because he had tattoos and he was Latino, they harassed him and demanded to see proof that he was a citizen. I know this because I went to his house and talked to him. This is happening across the country, whether you're a citizen or not. Sharon, this is absolutely insane. And people have compared it to a Gestapo for good reason. Yeah, and they need only compare it to America when blacks in the North had to hold on to their freedom papers, their emancipation papers. And basically what Christy Noam said there when she was asked, oh, she's just so gross.

She's so gross. She said, well, when criminals, she just had already adjudicated them. And she started out by saying when criminals, this and that and whatever, law. she was telling there. But what it's really doing is saying that all of us must carry paperwork at all times. And oh, yeah, by the way, they'll ignore that when they want to. Like the report you just showed where a mother was gone, sent to several states, and 25 days away from her family just disappeared like that. This is outrageous. And I don't want anybody else hurt. I don't want any other mothers taken from their children, any other neighbors with tattoos being harassed. But I

We're so, there's so much PTSD, Jordan, that I really believe that that. Otherwise, why wouldn't we all be, we wouldn't be able to do the show. We're all out on the streets saying this stops now. This is how far they keep going, not by inches, but yards at a time, miles at a time, eroding our rights. And nothing seems to be done about it. Sure, you can go to the courts and there's been some big wind. But after what? You've just been horribly treated. or your loved one's been killed, medicine taken away, basically. I mean, it's sick. Yeah. I mean, there's a few other examples here. Like the one I think many people have seen this week was the 17-year-old target employee who, when ICE, Gregory Revino and a few other agents showed up to the target that he was working at in Minneapolis, he taunted them.

Completely legal. It's not polite, but it's legal. It's exercising your free speech. An agent ran after him into the store, tackled him to the ground. He is screaming, I'm a citizen. And he was, think about that. If you are working for ICE, everyone has to fill out the I-9 paperwork to show their proof of citizenship, to show that they can work here.

Do you think a major retailer like Target is hiring people under the court? So give me a break. So this kid is screaming, I'm a citizen, as they drag him in. into a car or a truck. And then another video shows he was dropped off at a completely different store across town sobbing and beaten up. All they did with a handcuffed this kid, kidnapped him while he was working, assaulted him and took him somewhere else and dropped him off.

If you are not, I don't care who you voted for or what your political persuasion is, if you are not outraged by that, you're not American. Sharon, any final thoughts? Words matter. And I'm so glad we have to keep using words like kidnapped. That's exactly what that was. You're right. Committed no crime.

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Stay tuned for that. Welcome to the social break. Let's get into some of your comments over on t.yt.com. Bunkin for funds as I live in Iowa. A lot of migrant factory and farm workers here. If ICE were really about illegal immigration, they'd be here in much larger numbers. This in Minnesota is political. He'd start a war with Americans just to distract from his past and his failures.

It's not just that. I mean, maybe. We certainly wouldn't want this. I know that's not what you're saying. But if you really think about where they focused, it'd likely be Texas, Florida, Arizona, Mississippi, Louisiana. They're not focusing on the southern states. They're not focusing on the red states. They're focusing on blue states because they want to turn this into a political wedge issue.

And they want to create a headache for Democratic governors. That's why they're in Minnesota. And that's why they're not, at least to this scale in Florida. That's it. We don't want that. But you can see, like you're pointing out, that's where they would be. Another thing is that would severely hamper and hinder the workforce there. We don't want that either.

These people are just contributing. Leave them alone. I know that's, I know you're on our side, Funkin, but I think we could, when you think about what they're doing and why you say it perfectly, it's just political. See, Ned Ferguson says the guy they put that petition for a peace prize was gifted a peace prize, can't keep and doesn't want to keep peace within his country's own borders. I'm sure we'll talk about that tomorrow. I did see before we went live that Machado gave Trump or presented Trump with her peace,

Peace Prize and honestly we're on the verge of the funny and stress truth social post of all time. We've got so many more and we're already out of time. So stick around. To the Young Turks, I'm Jordan Yule, joined by Sharon. I have a question. Are you tired of the Doom Scroll? You're not alone. The entire system is designed to keep you glued to your screen while the billionaire owners of big wireless profit from every minute you're on it. What if you could break that cycle and get rewarded for it. It's that Noble mobile have a revolutionary idea. They pay you to use your phone less.

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to what's going on in Iran over the last two weeks. In just three days, we don't have an exact death toll, but it could be more people than have been killed in Gaza and over the three years that we had that war. But why do you think, oh my God, I mean, can I speak? You know, you know what with this? Sorry, go ahead, go ahead, but that is, that is just, I mean, you shouldn't just invent statistics. I will never, I will never take away from the fight of the Iranian people because of where

I say, you know why I do what I do? I'm not taking away from the Iranian people. I just don't want people to lie about them and I don't want my government intervening militarily. Glenn Greenwald duked it out with Iranian-American analyst, Lisa Daphhtari on Pierce Morgan's show yesterday. After Daphari, absurdly claimed that the death toll in the Iran protests

could be higher than that of Gaza, and that is such an insane statement. She, like Warhawks in the media and in politics, are arguing, she's arguing in favor of the U.S. engaging in regime change, with Iran. And unfortunately for those of us who actually prefer not to be at war constantly, it appears as though the Trump administration is leaning in their direction. NBC News published a somewhat laughable piece last night headlined, Trump would want military action in Iran to be swift and decisive, sources say. They write, President Donald Trump has told his national security team

that he would want any U.S. military action in Iran to deliver a swift and decisive blow to the regime and not spark a sustained war that dragged on for weeks or months, according to the U.S. official. Two people familiar with the discussions in a person so close to the White House. One of those people said, if he does something, he wants it to be definitive. But Trump's advisors have so far not been able to guarantee to him that the regime would quickly collapse after an American military strike. And there is concern that the U.S. may not have all the assets in the region.

it would need to guard against what administration officials expect would be an aggressive Iranian response. NBC claims this could be reason for Trump to keep any military offensive in Iran limited. Regarding the claim that Trump wants to get in and out quickly, that Trump also said he wanted our last bombing campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities to be a one and done. And look where we are now. Additionally, there was originally some reporting suggesting that there was a handful of people within Trump's inner circle who were discouraging military action against Iran. Ryan Grimm reported last night, inside the White House, there is effectively nobody arguing against strikes on Iran,

with Rubio arguing Trump has to do it or he loses credibility. That means the only opposition is coming from outsiders like Bannon, and Tucker and allies who are opposed like Saudi, Qatar, and other regional partners. That's a heavy imbalance, suggesting strikes remain likely. On the other hand, there are some conflicting reports suggesting that Trump is backing off military action, at least for now. The New York Times reported that Netanyahu asked Trump to postpone an attack on Iran. The Times of Israel also claimed earlier today that Trump reportedly informed Iran

that he won't be ordering a strike on the country over its deadly crackdown on protesters after the leaders of four Arab countries convinced him to hold off. But as they critically point out, the U.S. did, however, offer similarly de-escalatory messaging last June before Trump ordered a major strike on three of Iran's nuclear sites. Today, when NBC asked Donald Trump if military action was coming, he simply said, I'm not going to tell you that. comforting. King of the Warhawks, Lindsay Graham, is still hopeful he will get his precious war. There are a lot of headlines out there that are, in my view, not accurate. President Trump's resolve is not the question.

The question is, when we do an operation like this, should it be bigger or smaller? I'm in the camp of bigger, Tom O'Tail. I'm hopeful and optimistic that the regime days are numbered. Now we have more we can get into, but Sharon, I want to bring you in here. There's a lot of back and forth.

There's a lot of speculation. What do you make of what the administration's current posture is? And what do you think we might see over the coming days or weeks? It's a crapshoot. I don't know. go to the circus. Is the circus still in town? Look, if Trump wakes up with a gas bubble tomorrow, he might strike. If he can grab a bottled tums, he might not. I mean, it's literally that ludicrous. All of this inside report, oh, he wants it to be a definitive strike. He just

left Venezuela in chaos. Okay? It couldn't be more destabilized than it is right now. On the one hand, he's putting on true social that he's the leader, the interim president. On the other hand, he's saying the opposition leader, oh, I like her. She's great. Oh, not credible. Then part of the regime that was left in place, she's doing a fantastic job. She better or else. This is, none of that reporting means anything. And I don't know why these insiders are whispering to reporters in Washington trying to make him seem smarter than he is. If he has gas, he'll strike. If he's feeling good, he won't. Nobody knows. What the, lead was that was buried there is that Netanyahu asked him not to do it. So that's probably

the thing that we can hang our hats on there. For now, if Netanyahu's not interested for the moment while he gets some other ducks in a row, then it won't happen. Yeah. I mean, it's scary. It's worrisome, like you point out with Venezuela that didn't take out the machine government. You took out the leader. You bombed the country. you kidnapped a leader. The rest of the government is still in place. What do they expect here? That's the thing.

Lindsay Graham is out there. Do you make it big? Do you make it small? He, of course, wants it big because he wants the show. The guy is blood. Hey, Ontario. Come on down to BentMGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive the Price is Right Fortune pick has to offer.

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Thirsty. But in reality, you're not going to gain any support. You're not going to garner any new allies by bombing a country. because as we saw in Venezuela, they killed innocent civilians. Sure, they kidnapped Maduro, but they killed thousands more innocent civilians. So you're going to turn people against you as you come in and try to replace their government. There are certainly a large share of the population that still is supportive of the current government. While there are protests, it's only going to make things worse if you come in and throw a malt off cocktail, figuratively speaking,

because this would be much larger and much more severe. But the thing is, this isn't a popular idea. President Donald Trump is still weighing military action against Iran, but new polling shows just how unpopular that decision might be. Quinapec University asked registered voters if they think the U.S. should engage in war with Iran. You can see those results here. 70% said no.

18% said yes. 12 doesn't know. Broken down by party, independence, 80 to 11%. Democrats, 79 to 7%. And Republicans, 53 to 35%. Think the U.S. should not get involved if protesters in Iran are killed while demonstrating against the Iranian government. That's 53% of Republicans saying, no.

Don't get involved. I guess Sharon, do you think that that public polling that you have across the board people not wanting this? Do you think that'll impact Trump's decision here? Or is the military industrial complexes or warhawks like Lindsey Graham? And potentially if Netanyahu says go do it, do you think we might see a different course from Trump? Netanyahu, sure, that could change things. The rest of it now. Yes, he looks at polls and the light, but he always thinks he can weasel his way out of it by sending people like $2,000 checks or something to get back in good graces.

It hasn't worked this time around thus far. But no, I think it's a crapshoot. I ask Grock. And Grog said, well, it depends on his business interest, congressional approval, risk to regional stability, saving face. I mean, for once I agree with Grock. None of it makes sense. And we'll see. We'll just have to see.

But he doesn't care what you think, I think, or the American people thinks. Yeah. I mean, I'm curious here, like how much backlash, if any at all, there will be. Because, again, this is the no new wars guy. This was his whole thing. All of the Trump campaign, the Trump team. beat their chests. No, no new wars with Trump.

We're going to get more. Hillary's a war hawk. Biden's a war hawk. Okay. Well, now what? You've bombed six or seven countries already this year. You've kidnapped a leader. You're trying to do regime change in Iran.

I mean, not just the no new wars line, which was used sporadically, but specifically Donald Trump on the trail. and for years, you can go through all of his public comments, and as we did in a recent video, showed all the times, going back to 2015, this is over a decade. He has been promising. The days of regime change are over. Another lie. Another betrayal of independence, of his base, of people who, because they were unhappy with their options on the Democratic side, for whatever reason. There is a contingent of people that believed him. I'm not saying that was a good idea, but if you are still of the mind that Donald Trump is some anti-war Republican, anti-intervention

Republican, what more do you need to see? There's another point in here that we talked about in Ryan Grimm's tweet. He talks about how the only opposition is coming from outsiders like Bannon and Tucker and allies who are opposed like Saudi, Qatar, and other regional partners, and that heavy imbalance, Ryan suggests, says strikes remain likely. Again, I reiterate, Tucker Carlson is not an effective influencer here. He's not shaping public policy, and he's certainly not changing Trump's mind. Sharon, any final words before we go back to break? No, here, here. Nobody's going to change his mind. He's going to do what he wants to do.

I we perhaps left out one possibility. If anything else comes out Epstein files that makes him look like who we all know he is, his best friend was a purve, then maybe the strike will happen within three hours. That could be a factor. Yeah. This is who your president is. This is who is leading us, okay? Leader of the free world.

This is what he's doing. And I firmly believe that if something comes out, I actually do believe that. Epstein like he could strike imminently. Yep, if they need another distraction, that's on the table. But we've got to take a break. We've got another update on Donald Trump's authoritarian power grabs on the other side. So stick around. From the social break, let's get to some of your comments starting with tyt.com.

Embedded dude says I'm not protesting today because my check from George Soros hasn't cleared yet. I'm curious if people have seen the interview that I think status coup did in Minneapolis with the guy who was out there last night protesting for the very first time in his life. It's hilarious. The guy has just reached his breaking point and he was out there just yelling, what the blank is going on? And they were like, so this is your first, you are you an active protest? Like, no, I'm out here for the first time. I don't like this. He's fed up and even made a line.

He's like, they always say people are paid. No, I'm out here. To your point, I would encourage people to go watch that interview. It's all over Twitter today. It's hilarious. Let's see. Old Woodsman 53. That's precisely how Trump wants to shut down the midterm election.

Marshall, blah, well. Now, give you a little teaser, that's our next story. So stick around. Got some thoughts on that. We shouldn't let the fear he's trying to instill in us affect us because he can't do that. But I think he will try to shape it and I think you're on to something there.

So we'll get into that in our next block. Meowzers says, this isn't a reality TV show. Yes, you'll get attention for using force against innocent civilians, but there's a reason no other U.S. politician has ever resorted to this. It's heinous.

I mean, this guy is truly an outlier. Like, we've had bad presidents before. Many of them, is just on another level. And this is what so many people have said. We talk, you think about how people describe the administration during his first term and what it could be and the depths that it could reach.

We are there now. We are here now. What people warned about in the first term is happening now and it's important that everyone treats it with the severity. It requires. No more tinkering around the edges. No more small reforms. no QR codes on ice agent uniforms.

It requires a real and substantive attack for the defense. But I'm not holding my breath. Rob Chatsworth says I have Iranian friends that I dearly love. They are wonderful people to be around. What is it about media that they seek out the nut job pundits to have on their shows? I mean, some people like his show. Some people like Pierce Morgan. Personally, not the biggest fan because I do think it just pits.

some of the dumbest people against very smart people to water down, to reduce the debate to the lowest common denominator, just so you get shouting matches. So Pierce Morgan gets views. That's my two cents. Other people have a completely different take, and I think that's totally fine. But that shows not for me. Let's see. Let's head on over to Twitch. If we have time, we don't.

Metal Turtle 571 gifted here once up. Thank you. I will end with that and we'll see you on the other side. All right, welcome back to the Young Turks. I'm Jordan. You'll joined by Sharon Reed. Let's get into our next story. Donald Trump thinks it's unfair that the party in power does poorly in midterms. And he went one step further. He told Reuters, we shouldn't even have an election this year.

During an interview, the president expressed frustration that his Republican Party could lose control of the U.S. House of Representatives. or the Senate in this year's midterm elections, citing historical trends that have seen the party in power lose seats in the second year of a presidency. It's some deep psychological thing. But when you win the presidency, you don't win the midterms, Trump said. He boasted that he had accomplished so much that, quote, when you think of it, we shouldn't even have an election. And this isn't the first time he's talked about it.

Here he is this month on of all days, January 6th. We had the worst president, did the worst job, they had the worst policy. We have to even run against these people. Now, 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. They always called me a dictator. I wonder why.

Of course, he can't do that. He doesn't have the power or authority to utilize. unilaterally cancel the election. Elections are run by states, not the federal government. The law is clear, Trump or any president cannot cancel elections. The timing of federal elections is set by Congress, and the administration of those elections is handled by state and local election officials. There is no legal mechanism for a president to declare elections unnecessary, suspend them indefinitely, or bypass them altogether. At the White House press, today, Caroline Levitt responded like this.

Follow up on one of my colleagues who asked you about the president's interview with lawyers. You said that he was joking about canceling the elections. But Americans for generations have fought and died for democracy, for this democracy. Are you saying that the president finds the idea of canceling elections funny? Andrew, were you in the room? No, you weren't. I was in the room. I heard the conversation. and only someone like you would take that so seriously and pose it at a question in that way. It's not a laughing mad at her. This is something that he has talked about more than once. He talked about it again on January 6th. The anniversary of the day that his own supporters,

at his request, tried to storm the Capitol on the way. They assaulted police officers. This is something that I'm told you should be shot on the spot for. and then tried to steal the election, or steal the electoral college votes to change the results of the election because they were unhappy. It was an insurrection. And then he pardoned the people who did it. Sharon, I'm missing the punchline here.

How is this a joke? Well, it's not. And she can do her greatest Regina George routine from the briefing room there. and we can all just sit there stunned every time she says another lie. He tried to pause, steal corrupt democracy. History will reflect he absolutely has considered not holding elections. There's been reporting about this as it looked like he was going to lose after his first term or as it was winding down. And I believe history will show that he's considering it right now.

We'll see what happens as we get closer to November. Yeah. Let's take a step back also. And I want to remind you all of what legal experts have pointed out, that quote that I read to you from Democracy Docket lays it out succinctly. He can't do that. But there are other things that the president could try. And I think we're seeing that to go back to our. our very first story with him talking about invoking the Insurrection Act.

Now, that would give him the power and authority to deploy the military domestically. And what I would imagine, you hinted at it earlier, Sharon, and our viewers are already talking about it in the comments during the social break. I would not be surprised if he invokes the Insurrection Act, deploys the military or the National Guard, especially in swing states for Senate races or key districts in House races to try to suppress turnout, just to try to intimidate people. We've seen, we have seen federal agents intimidate citizens. I'm not saying, I don't want to feed into this right-wing myth that there is this massive wave of illegal fraudulent voters.

That's not true. But what they will try to do is scare people who are registered to vote away from even showing up because they're harassing people who are citizens. We cover that in the first block. So what I would imagine is that's what it's going to look like, something like that. And I don't want people to give in or acquiesce or cave or obey in advance. Because again, yes, he cannot do that. This is a power held by the states.

and I think a good precedent for this and something that we can take from is Indiana saying no, we're not going to do mid-decade redistricting. We're not going to gerrymander in the middle of a decade, not tied to a census because you want us to, because you are trying to rig the results. And when a state like that is saying, no, we're not going, a ruby red Indiana is saying, no, we're not going to do this. That gives me a little bit of hope that a lot of states, probably all states are not going to unilaterally cancel their elections.

So this might be something that he wants. He will not get it. But I think the other avenue for him is to try to suppress turnout and intimidate people with force. Sharon, any final thoughts? And that's the rub. He will intimidate people. He will suppress turnout because there's people right now who don't want to go outside of their homes in Minnesota because of what this guy is doing. So he's absolutely going to do that.

There's also other tricks he can pull. You know, we saw what happened with drop boxes and this and that. He'll work with some of the friendly states and do that. He'll likely not be able to do anything as we saw another ruling today in California with their gerrymandering. It sticks for now. But he will do whatever it takes to suppress turnout and rob people, one American at a time, of their right to be heard. This is my prediction.

It's federal immigration agents and maybe some military, national guard. Hey, Ontario. Come on down to BentMGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive the Price is Right Fortune Pick has to offer. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show

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or someone close to you, please contact, Ontario at 1866. 531,2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. Ben-M-Gium operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. Presence at polling locations, and just the fact that you would have, like, ICE, patrolling, a polling station, will lead to people interacting with them, shouting at them, you know, doing whatever. and they love to instigate. We have seen it time and time and time again over the past year, and especially over the past couple weeks in Minnesota. They love to instigate the federal agents.

And what I would imagine is they will try to instigate at polling locations, someone understandably defends themselves, and then it turns into chaos, and they shut polling locations down. I it's a bleak it's a bleak prediction but it's not outside of the realm of possibility but that's Donald Trump he's anti-democratic and he wants to rig the system to keep Republicans in power and that's all this is it's about power they do not care about our democracy he's shown you he doesn't care about the peaceful transition of power of course he would try this the guy is a lunatic but for our final story Let's head on over to New York, starting with this.

I don't know who Miss Rachel is. My kids are old enough, but she seems annoying, and I don't know that she is anti-Semitic. But if she's sitting next to Mumdani and they're like doing little hand gestures together, since he's anti-Semitic, I would just assume she is as well because misery loves company. Fox News contributor Nicole Safier just assumes Ms. Rachel is anti-Semitic because she was seen singing and reading to children with New York City Mayor Zoran Mundani. The joint appearance by Mamdani and Ms. Rachel, who was a part of Momdani's inauguration committee, was all part of Mondani's push for free child care in the city.

He posted, this morning, Ms. Rachel and I visited District 2 Free KT Center, where we sang and read with the wonderful students and educators. We also discussed universal child care and how we're making it happen for New York City. Sounds great. The proposal will expand free and affordable child care for, thousands of New York City families. Under the proposal, New York City would roll out a new two-care program offering free child care for two-year-olds, beginning in high-need areas as early as 2026 and expanding citywide over four years. The state would fully fund the program's first two

years. Governor Kathy Hochel and Momdani also pledged to stabilize and expand the city's 3K program with the goal of achieving universal access. Here's more of what Fox had to say about the story. What a time to open a child care center, right? More leering centers. If there's anything we've learned from Nick Shirley is we need more child care centers with no children, more daycares with no children, more medical, non-emergency transport programs with no people.

I mean, of all the times to announce you're going to put more funding into something like this, now is an incredible time. And I just got to say with this, this Rachel person, it just immediately creeps me out when you have adults that dress like children and behave that way. If you're a parent that has your children watching this, maybe second guess it for reasons of being creepy and also some of her political leanings a little problematic. Well, she is absolutely not in our house at all, at all. And it's not just because she's annoying, which I find it all very grating and cloying, but when she also made her whole personality about hating the Jewish state and basically apologizing for Hamas and promoting all their propaganda, That was a definite hard no red line in my household.

Well, now we know why Mom Doni likes her. I mean, right, it's sort of on brand, isn't it? No, it's not because she never apologized for Hamas. She's just against the genocide in Gaza and the slaughtering of innocent children. And the same applies for Momdani. In fact, yesterday, Ms. Rachel published a series of videos calling for an end to the suffering in Gaza. Let's watch. You can't bomb a child's home, kill their family members, bomb their schools, bomb their hospitals, and then say they're just going to live in tents now that are cold and leaking and babies are dying of hypothermia.

You can't bomb all their schools and then just say they live in tents now and don't get to have an education. Time of excuses and lies and dehumanization is over. Everyone knows deep within that hurting a child and keeping a child from the things they need is wrong. Mr. Rogers said, how I would love for my two and a half year old grandson to be able to grow up in a world, which refuses to abuse its children. That's the world I want. I want a world that refuses to abuse its children, whether it's in Sudan, the Congo. It's 2006. We cannot have children be killed and be out of school and not have shelter.

Those are such basic needs. Everyone is connected. Our kids will not meet their full potential until all kids have the opportunity to meet their full potential. It's the golden moment. Triumph on the podium, golden hand. But with Corona Serro, golden moments go beyond the Winter Olympics. They're enjoying sunsets, time outside, reconnecting with nature, and laughs shared with friends. For every golden moment at the Winter Olympic Games, enjoy your own with Corona Serro,

0% alcohol and a source of vitamin D. Corona Serro, the official non-alcoholic beer of Milano Cortina, 2026. Sharon, I want to bring you in here. You're watching that video. You, I am sure, are familiar with her body of work, how she has spoken out. Do you find anything objectionable in what she's saying? No. I wanted a warm cup of cocoa.

She talked about children being able to eat, go to school, and not be bombed, regardless of what country they live in under whatever regime. That's all she said. She quoted Mr. Rogers. And for Nicole, who was the first Fox panelist who talked about wrongly what Mundani is and what Ms. Rachel is, I mean, I think you are the company you keep. And I'm with Ms. Rachel, okay, and Mum Donnie. Okay, I'm with them, not with she should, Nicole and the others should look to the left and the right and see who they're sharing a panel with. If we can't agree the children who, by the way, Miss Rachel talked about the terrible things they're existing under, but by the way, you're also radicalizing people because they have no choice. No hope means I just fill whatever void with something else. And that's going to come back to bite you too. And I don't think that should be the reason why you do the right thing, the humane thing, but it's just another byproduct of this. Others.

Those people, as if a Palestinian mother doesn't love her children as much as those women do. It's just, God, awful. Keep going, Miss Rachel, and keep dressing however you want. Yeah, I mean, her statements from the jump were, I don't want to see kids dead. If you are twisting yourself into a pretzel to think that the person who says that is your enemy, You're the problem. Think about how evil, how warped you have to be to take issue with a statement like that. To think that someone saying, all kids around the world should grow up in a safe area, should not have to worry about their homes being bombed, their parents being killed. What's wrong with that?

And I think it speaks to how brainwashed, how warped, especially the right. But there's some contingent on the Democratic side that would probably also take issue with that out of loyalty to another country, another government. And that's sad. She's not saying anything objectionable. She's not saying anything anti-Semitic. She's just saying, I don't think those kids should die. I don't see an issue with that. Sharon, before we wrap for the out, any final thoughts?

No, it's just, you know, we've been called as Americans, the USA Today Society, and maybe that's too kind at this point because we just want headlines, we want to just keep moving about our day. But what's been going on is smacking us in the face that we can't ignore it. And so you don't even have to listen to those people on Fox News unless you want to, because we all see it. It's everywhere. You have to actively choose to live in that bubble and allow children to die. It really is a choice. Yes. Well, Sharon, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you. Always a pleasure. You know, if I had to rank who I do the show with, Sharon.

Well, I love you, Jordan. It's John. And then way down at the bottom, it's Brett. So, well. Thank you so much, Sharon. I love Brett too, but we'll see you next time. Yaz and Waz are waiting for you on the second hour, so stick around. You won't want to miss it. Hey, Andrew, what's up? Hey, Jank, you ready to make the switch? Yeah, I guess.

I promise it's easy. Universal, basic, and you get income. Yeah, you keep saying that. But you sure I'm going to have coverage? Of course you will. You think I would have bad service? I'm Andrew Yang. Of course I have good service.

All right, let's try. But I'm so bad at tech. So, wait. Should I do this thing of the hashtag business? Andrew, you're still on, right? Yep. Oh, I see it. Oh, wait, I don't see it.

Oh, yeah, I do see it. Here we go. I actually did not realize that you'd be searching in real time, but I love it. How much do people actually normally say? Yeah, the average American is going to save between $500 and $1,000 a year on doable. Yeah, no. You know what I'm going to do, Andrew? Are you ready to become a noble member?

The two buttons are do it and go back. There's no going back. We're doing it. We're doing it. Here we go, Noble, Mobile. Oh my gosh, I just called you and are you now on Noble and not Verizon? Why didn't you tell me it was going to be super easy? I know, man.

Now you just stay away from your phone and watch the money roll in. I can do that. Phone, yeah. Jenk, you still there? Andrew? Oh, Prue. Well, at least I got Noble Mo. It was really just one tape.

The whole thing is wild. It's in my shoes. It's in my shoes. Hi, I'm Brett Ehrlich with Breaking News with Brett Ehrlich. This is Breaking News with Brett Ehrlich. Hi. Brett Ehrlich here. According to EPA head Scott Pruitt, climate change is not happening.

He cited a meme on Facebook he saw. When pressed to back up this source, he said it must be accurate because the watermark said it was made by a scientist. So your move, truth. At TYT, our mission is to boldly pursue truth, challenge the establishment, and drive positive change. At a time when corporate capture of our media, our government, and our politics is nearly absolute. Everyday working people need a champion to fight for them and a push back against the powerful interests that threaten our democracy itself. At TYT, we're proudly progressive and call out corruption and duplicity wherever we see it. from Republicans, Democrats, or anyone else.

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The people who support us on the internet, that's what gives us strength. That's what allows anyone who was in there who was undecided to think, one side seems to be winning. They seem to have a bigger army. It might be a reason for that. So thank you guys. Young people, get them. Out of the Young Turks. I'm your host, Yasmin Aaliyah Khan, and I'm joined by Was Lambrae. Was, how are you doing?

I'm doing fantastic, happy to be on with you guys, as always. Of course, yeah, both Jank and I have the night off, so you guys get us today. So we have a lot to get to in this hour, and also we have some more stories for you in the bonus episode. So let's get right into this first story. President Trump came after you hard the other day. This is just a few days ago. He posted on Truth Social. He said, the following, which we can put upon the screen, Republicans should be ashamed of the centers that just voted with Democrats and attempting to take away our powers to fight and defend the United

States of America. He listed several senators, including you, Senator Josh Hawley, he said should never be elected again. You've changed your vote on the war powers resolution now, not voting with those senators. Tell me why you voted the original way and why you changed. We love a flip-flopper, and that was Republican Senator Josh Hawley. So he had supported supported a war powers resolution until President Donald Trump smacked him around a little bit. And yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote to shut down the resolution altogether. So if passed, the war powers resolution would have prevented the U.S. military from executing any further operations within or against Venezuela without the approval of Congress,

which they're not supposed to be able to do anyway. Holly was one of five Republican senators who broke ranks with Trump and supported the resolution. Here is why Holly changed his mind, though. Well, for me, this has always been about ground troops. Will ground troops into Venezuela, occupying Venezuela? That's not something that I think I would want to do. And listen, I talked to the president, I talked to the Secretary of State, I talk to the Department of Justice.

I thank the administration for all of their outreach. And what the Secretary of State said to me very clearly is, we're not doing that. We don't have ground troops in Venezuela. This is not another Iraq. going to occupy Venezuela. And you know what? That's good enough for me. Yeah, well, as you're laughing, I mean, we're not going to occupy Venezuela, but you just saw bombs going off in Caracas and we have our president proclaiming himself to be the acting

president of Venezuela. So, you know, we're not occupying it though. So Todd Young is another senator who supported the resolution at first, but just like Josh Hawley, he also flipped. And thanks to the two of them, the resolution was defeated. So Young wrote this on X. He said after numerous conversations with senior national security officials, I have received assurances that there are no American troops in Venezuela. I've also received a commitment that if President Trump were to determine American forces are needed in major military operations in Venezuela, the administration will come to Congress in advance to ask for an authorization of force. Yes, I'm sure this administration will go to Congress and ask for permission

before it does whatever it wants to do. So meanwhile, Republican Senator Rand Paul is continuing to fight back against the administration. And here's why. I promise to defend the Constitution. The debate over war powers is bigger than Donald Trump. It's bigger than me. And it's been going on for, you know, my entire lifetime. So I've informed the president, it's not personal. Look, I've voted for 91% of his legislation. I voted for nearly 100% of his nominees. I've been one of his biggest defenders when he was impeached twice. If he can't appreciate that, that's too bad.

But at the same time, I haven't given up supporting the president. I support him on many things. I actually like him personally. I enjoy his time. I've known him for a decade. I've played golf with him dozens of times. All right, was I know that the story is bigger than this, I mean, sort of, right? What bothered me about that last clip that we just watched with

Rand Paul is why does he need to assure the president of the United States that voting on behalf of your constituents, voting for what you believe is right for the American people, why do you have to then go to the president and say, you know what, it's nothing personal though, we're still friends, I still like you, I still wish we could go golfing? Why are all of these senators that we have running our country so spineless to the point that they're more concerned about Donald Trump's friendship and being in his good graces than actually voting their conscience and voting the way that they feel that they should be voting. That's one thing.

But then, of course, the bigger story, the actual story is, you know, Trump is saying no boots on the ground in Venezuela, but we know that he kind of just does whatever he wants to do. We go through this whole rigmarole with Congress and saying, oh, he's not allowed to do that, but he's already done it. You know what I mean? So a lot of the things that this Congress ends up doing is just retribes. retroactive and it's all just bureaucratic because like it's not going to change the things that have already happened. What are your thoughts once?

I think there's a lot of elements at play here. The first one, I don't think Congress as a whole as a body wants this power actually. I don't think they want to have to be able to decide when or where we should go to war. And I think the very recent past of Iraq, although it was, you know, 20 plus years ago, so many people got burned for being in support of that war. And I think they learned the wrong lessons of what that was instead of being like, yo, next time we should step up to the plate and be like, hell no, we're not going to war. We're not starting forever wars.

We're not doing regime change. We're not doing, you know, democracy building and nation building in foreign. entanglements anymore. The lesson they learned is let's stay out of it. That's the lesson they learned from, you know, people like Hillary Clinton and others getting electorally burned for being behind stuff like Iraq. I think that's one of the sad lessons that Congress took from is that they should stay out of matters of war in the first place. Second, the executive branch and my friend Daniel Bessner talks about this all the time. The power is the problem is the off itself in that it just keeps accruing more and more powers for itself with each successive

administration. And I think, you know, when people like FDR or, you know, St. Ronnie Reagan are doing this kind of thing with supermajorities, there's kind of an understanding that these guys are behaving like baby dictators. But, you know, whatever, they've got 60-something percent of the country behind them. The will of the people is behind them. When a guy like Donald Trump, when with 50.01% of the vote. And he's basically, you know, governing via fiat. And as if he's a king, that's a problem. And what you're seeing from people like Senator Josh Hawley, who, you know,

I know a lot of people like to put up as this paragon of Republican, you know, basically reasonableness. He's still a coward. He still feels scared to challenge Trump in any meaningful way on the public stage. And the last thing I'll say is, I don't think you'll ever see these guys step up to the plate and fight Trump on something unless there's something like, you know, beating back health care subsidies. They'll be brave for that. They'll risk electoral annihilation for that. They'll be brave when Donald Trump floats.

You know, we want to cap credit card interest. Trust me, they'll be brave and going against them for that. But in terms of something that makes some actual sense and that would be to the benefit of the actual American people. people and not our owners in the ruling class, they'll just never do it and step up to the plate. Yeah, and even with Rand Paul, we saw him stick to his guns, but he was still coutowing to Donald Trump and begging for his forgiveness and like reassuring him that, you know, we can still be cool. But you know, the United States has a lot of work to do in Venezuela, even if we don't have boots on the ground. The United States though has officially

completed its first sale of Venezuelan oil following the capture of president. President Nicholas Maduro. And while not much is known about the sale itself yet, we do know where that money is being kept and it has very many people concerned. So according to an administration official, the first sale of oil was valued at $500 million and additional sales are expected to be made soon. So the details about the first oil sale were unclear on Wednesday. But in a statement, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said that President Trump's team is facilitating positive, ongoing discussions with oil companies that are ready and willing to make unprecedented investments to restore Venezuela's oil infrastructure.

So Trump has previously met with U.S. energy executives on Friday to discuss the administration's plans to capitalize on the oil that they seized. During this meeting, Trump stated the oil industry would need to invest at least $100 billion into rebuilding the country's energy sector. in Venezuela, but many executives at the meeting actually showed some skepticism, including ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods. Take a look. With respect to Venezuela in particular, we have a very long history in Venezuela. In fact, we first got into Venezuela back in 1940s. We've had our assets seized there twice. And so you can imagine to reenter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we've historically seen here and what is currently the state.

If we look at the legal and commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it's uninvestable. And so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system. There has to be durable investment protections and there has to be changed to the hydrocarbon laws in the country. Well, executives like Woods and also So Conoco Philips, CEO Ryan Phillips, they made it very clear that they wanted deep reforms and political stability in Venezuela before they look into making any kind of real investments in the country, which is very understandable. But as you can see, Donald Trump wanted to make a quick deal because that's what he does.

He's a dealmaker, you guys. So now, according to an administration official who spoke to Seymour, the interim leadership in Venezuela, led by former Maduro number two, Delci Rodriguez, has fully. cooperated since the U.S. Venezuelan energy deal was announced last week, adding that the U.S. has leveraged through sanctions and oil sales. But there is concerned with where the money is actually going. So revenue from the oil sales is currently being held in bank accounts, controlled by the U.S. government, as indicated in Friday's order, according to the administration official. The main account, according to a second senior administration official, is located in Qatar.

The second official described Qatar as a neutral location where money can flow freely with U.S. approval and without risk of seizure. Trump's order noted that at least some of the revenue would be held in U.S. treasury accounts. It is unclear who the Trump administration believes, who would try to seize the cash, or why money being in Qatar would be. less of a seizure risk than a bank account in the United States. But as you can imagine, the idea of using an offshore account has raised some red flags. There is no basis in law for a president to set up an offshore account that he controls so that he can sell assets seized by the American military. That is precisely a move that a corrupt politician would be attracted to. And that was from Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts.

And remember, Qatar and the Trump family are very, very close. And that may become relevant later on in our show tonight. We'll have to see we're keeping an eye out for some breaking news. But back in May, the royal family gifted Trump a $400 million plane after securing a deal with the Trump family to build a golf resort in Qatar. That seems like a lot of money for a golf resort. But, you know, this is the world that we live in, and this is our very corrupt president that we have elected twice.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried, emphasis on tried, to be a bit more transparent, telling the Economic Club of Minnesota, that the Treasury Department will oversee the accounts, and then at the direction of Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, be in charge of the disbursement that goes back into Venezuela. The Treasury's role will be making sure the funds get to the proper place. We're the bankers here. We don't direct the funds.

Good. Was, that doesn't make me feel good about a lot of what's happening. But you made the illusion earlier in the show to 9-11 and the invasion of Iraq that followed that. This all feels very much in line with that, which is something that a lot of us said from the very beginning. I think there's a lot of things folks need to remember here. One, you know, this idea that the bank needs to be in Qatar for some security reason is absurd. We have some of the most secure. We are the banking system of the world.

Like, it's all based on our stuff. So this idea that we would need to have accounts in Qatar is quite ridiculous. And, you know, more to the point about, because I've seen a lot of these right-wing idiots in their commentary about Venezuela, like, oh, we're going to get cheap oil. Who is we? Like, American consumers are not getting cheap oil. Folks need to always remember when it comes to oil and our prices that we pay. We have a ton of oil in America, but what that also means is we have American producers, American companies who want to do what, yes, make profits.

It's not in their interest for oil to become dirt cheap for Americans, okay? Because that will disrupt the overall oil market, which they don't want to. They want it to get too low. They don't want to drive down the price of oil for everyday Americans. Because that would mean their oil also becomes cheaper. They can't sell it for a higher price point. Like this whole, we're getting, like, as if the average American person is going to benefit from any of this. It's ridiculous.

And my favorite part was that white boy talking about our assets were seized in Venezuela. Yeah. Like, you own the oil assets in those people's countries. It's quite hilarious in telling just the attitude about this entire, you know, Venezuela entanglement. Yeah, and that's a line that they keep trying to push on the American people. They're like, if we just keep repeating over and over again that our oil is in another country under the ground in another country, then maybe the American people would be like,

I guess that's ours. I guess they stole it from us, even though, again, It's in their country. And it's a hell of a loophole. It's a hell of a stretch of the justification for why Trump even says that at all. And of course, it makes no sense. But you know, that's the line that they're gonna go with. And that's how they're going to sell it and continue to sell it or attempt to, to the American people.

And by the way, it just related to this, why this is also just ridiculous. And this whole might makes right thing is so ridiculous. We spent three years between Americans and European nations. finger wagon at Vladimir Putin about he doesn't have the right to police his own region. He doesn't have a right to call a regime illegitimate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then we completely back this Venezuelan nonsense. This just straight up bullying and criminal theft of their resources that we have no right to do. Don't respect any of their sovereignty.

And now we're talking about, oh, we want to topple the Iranian regime. And we spent three years lecturing Vladimir Putin about Ukraine. Like these people just don't have any like to stand on. They have no principles. And it's in it's no wonder that we have no respect across the world. Yeah. And you know, we're going to hear some more about that because we're obviously not just doing this in Venezuela. Trump has big plans for the United States and for our military and for our industries and all this.

But speaking of our industry in Venezuela, it gets worse. So now they're talking about private security contractors in Venezuela. Right now, Chevron is the only major U.S. oil company staying operational in Venezuela. And as the Trump administration tries to convince other players to reinvest, it must prove they'll have some kind of security to operate. So what does that look like if there's no boots on the ground? Well, the Trump administration is preparing to use private military contractors to protect oil and energy assets in Venezuela rather than deploy. U.S. troops, according to two sources familiar with the plans, setting up a potential boon for security firms with experience in the region and ties to the administration.

Discussions about how to secure those assets remain in the early stages. Sources said, still multiple private security companies are already jockeying to get involved in the U.S. presence in Venezuela, according to a person familiar with the matter. Interest is high given the potential payday during the Iraq war, for example, the U.S. spent some $138 billion on private security, logistics, and reconstruction contractors. So now again, this has some people skeptical because private contractors typically lead to some sort of controversy. You know, he uses a lot of private contractors as Vladimir Putin, just, you know, just throwing that out there. For example, private contractors hired during the Iraq war face

allegations of things like war profiteering. And, you know, potentially that is something we can see going on in Venezuela going forward. So one source suggested that Eric Prince, the former Blackwater founder and controversial Trump ally, could also be tapped for help. Prince's Blackwater played an outsized role in Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion providing security, logistics, and support for oil infrastructure. But the firm came under intense scrutiny following the 2007 deadly shooting of Iraqi civilians. Yeah, that's what happens. You know, when you're not beholden to these certain standards that the American military is, if you just have a bunch of, you know, pirates running around, then you're going to have instances where an entire population is

being terrorized by private military groups. And this is why Trump can get away with saying, we're not going to put boots on the ground in Venezuela, even though they obviously need to do something. You can't just invade a country, take their president out, and then leave it along. and do nothing and say nothing. And then also on top of that, expect to profit off of their oil industry. And, you know, was I want to hear from you, but also I just want to mention real quick that the United States, we are incredibly hypocritical in what we're doing. I don't know how we can stand up to someone like Vladimir Putin who is doing imperialism

in Europe right now in his attempts to take over Ukraine. But also right now, troops from several years. European countries have been sent to Greenland from France, Germany, Norway, Sweden. These are our allies and they are being sent to Greenland to protect Greenland from us. So just want to throw that out there. Yeah, just one quick note, because I know we do got a kick to break in a second about the privatization of the American military. I mean, this has been going on basically since Iraq and Afghanistan. This was Donald Rumsfeld's brainchild when he took over the defense, the police.

was that he was going to privatize it and make it less dependent on the basically the volunteer services so that, you know, when a guy's leg gets blown off while he's doing God knows what in a boda bottle or wherever he's at, when he comes home, that doesn't count towards like U.S. military death toll, right? And these guys get to operate in a more rogue fashion because they're private military. contractors. And that's been the trend. And so the military, it's, you know, if we're not doing like special forces operations, like the Maduro kidnapping or the bin Laden raid or, you know, many of those other things or, you know, what we did in Libya and stuff like that, which is like super specific, very small scale, get out. And then, you know, we outsource our treachery to local militia groups or private contractors. Like, that's just been the game. It's gross. It's disgusting. But this is what it's been for going on 20 something years now. Yeah, and just to cap off on that note, whenever we talk about our military budget, how much money we put into our American military, we have the most, the best funded military in the world by a lot.

You know, number two is like way down past us. But, you know, this budget is just like more money that we're paying on top of that, you know. So that's another thing. But we do need to take a break. We will be right back with more stories. Hey everybody, welcome to our social break. I'm gonna get to some of your comments and see what's going on over there. TYat.com members comments. Let's see.

Rob three chatsworth says love the days with Yaz and Woz. Thanks, good, I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. Huang Jun says Josh Hawley runs away from his positions. Ooh, faster than he ran away from the January Sixers. That's funny, I forgot about that, but that is immediately you get a image in your head when you say that because it was everywhere. It was just Josh Holly running away from these guys that he had helped to emboldened. Eclectic miscellaneous says both Democrats and Republicans are a bunch of pathetic cowards. Democrats are too afraid to go against whatever their

donors order them to do and Republicans are scared to death that Daddy Trump will be mad at them. Yeah, we are in a sad state of affairs right now as a country because we don't have a whole lot of leadership. Even if we go off subject and we talk about what's going on. with ICE right now. All we're hearing from the Democratic side is a lot of mouth, right? They're like, oh, we're angry. Oh, we're going to say the F word. And it's like, yeah, we're all already doing that. Okay, you're the ones you could actually maybe do something about it, but you're not. There is, well, we're going to talk about it later on the show, so I'll save it. Rob through Chatsworth also says, I had hopes for Holly for about two months early last year when he got

out of pack money, but there's been no follow through. Yeah, you know, it's these people are disappointing. You know, it's whenever you have a relationship with certain people, you have to expect to be disappointed. And that is the American people with our own elected representatives. Nerd Ferguson says, I just can't believe Venezuela had the audacity to build their country on top of our oil. Yeah, it's, it's unbelievable. Like this line that they keep saying, they keep trotting it out. It's not. And, and the, the only reason why, they're able to say that is because Venezuela owes Conigone go Phillips a bunch of money that they never paid. And so it's a stretch, but Conago Phillips is one of those oil companies that doesn't

want now to invest in Venezuelan oil. Over on Twitch, Microgram says we should have a law forcing a certain amount of Congress members from both parties to be deployed with the soldiers to any type of military action they vote in favor of, you know, it's nice to dream and we should keep these dreams alive, but there's no way that members of Congress will vote for that for themselves. Octo Squitty says silver lining, Trump bankrupted two casinos. Maybe he can do the same to the oil and gas industry. Oh, you know what? That would be a fun outcome for a lot of this. Christina Elisa, Brown says, ah, I love, love, yes and was. Thank you. It is a fun combination. And California Young Turk also says, I love you two together. Thank you so much.

On that note, we're going to get back to the show, so we'll see you there. Welcome back to the Young Turks. You have Yaz and Woz tonight on this Thursday. We have a lot more stories to get to, so let's get right into this next one. A new analysis from public employees for environmental responsibility or peer found that Doge wasted $10 billion on paid leave, or rather they were paying workers $10 billion to stay home. So in 2025, when Doge was assaulting various branches of our government, it's estimated that roughly 7% of the federal civilian labor force or roughly 154,000 employees were put on paid leave. In other words, the American people were still paying their salaries, but we weren't getting any of the work that they were doing in exchange for it anymore.

So spending over $10 billion of taxpayer money to prevent people from working is a hell of the way to run a railroad, said Peer. senior council, Peter Jenkins. Ironically, this outrageous waste of human capital when key federal agencies such as the National Park Service were horribly understaffed was done in the name of government efficiency. And yeah, that is the irony of all of this. And of course, this isn't just a giant waste of money, but it is also, you know, legally dubious, as you could imagine. The Administrative Leave Act, or the ALA, was passed by Congress in 2016.

And it says that paid leave can only be imposed for a maximum of 10 workdays per year. Trump violated the ALA when Doge went in. But accountability, you'll be surprised to find, may be hard to come by. It would involve ironically navigating a lot of bureaucracy, which is I thought that's what Doge wanted to get rid of. And ultimately, the case would have to contend with the Trump control justice department. For one, the regulatory rules of the ALA were never implemented by the first Trump administration. nor by the Biden administration. They didn't actually go into effect until September of last year.

And on top of that, Trump, we know, loves a good loophole. So the Trump administration carved out separate classifications of paid leave and claimed the ALA 10-day rule only applies to what it calls investigative paid leave. Materna said, but the provision does not apply to the various other types of paid leave the administration has created. And Materna, who was quoted there is Madeline Materna. She's a Stanford University doctoral student in comparative science, and she has been studying this issue. But moving forward, Pierre has filed a administrative complaint before the U.S. Office of Special Council. If that office finds wrongdoing, the cases could be taken before a little known

office called the Merit Systems Protection Board. It has authority to take action, but Ruch says, It hears cases involving termination, demotion, or suspension without pay for two weeks. It may not have the jurisdiction overpaid leave cases. However, very conveniently, notably the Trump administration fired all the Democrats on the board, which has left it without quorum. So, was the irony here is it's so blatant that you can, you know, I don't even have to point it out. The biggest and most obvious one is that Doge was mad about government inefficiency in the first place, But then they specifically were trying to make the case that most of these government workers just sit around all day getting paid to do nothing.

And then they paid them to do nothing. They sent them home. What do you make of that? Doge being a scam. I mean, yeah. Who could have seen it coming? Who could have seen it coming? It only took about three weeks into that whole thing, that debacle fiasco.

to see that Elon much just wasn't serious, especially when you consider the biggest line item in the government budget is the defense budget, which was a trillion dollars last I checked, and also has never passed an audit. This is the most wasteful part of the government by a million. And all you have to do, Yasmin, is go to where, Northern Virginia, Maryland, in and around D.C., the richest area of the country. Why? Because there's a bunch of these defense contractors getting fat on the government tit. Like, this is literally what they do. And this idea that Doge was going to be make the government more lean and efficient while never even touching any of that, just showed you that they were never. serious. It was always a joke. And this whole premise of like paid leave and we're paying people to quit and that kind of thing was always very wasteful and stupid. The idea that they did that

then had to rehire a bunch of people for key government roles as if like all of these jobs within the government is just fake and people are just lazy and stupid. It was always just kind of ridiculous. And again, it was basically skin deep. And you know, the last thing I'll say is, I think broadly there is an appetite of Americans for the government to be more efficient, to be less wasteful in its spending. I just don't think we'll ever actually get that because again, the places that we put are the most of our government resources are untouchable. Yeah.

And I think that's why they were so successful in selling Doge to the American people. Because who doesn't want a more efficient government? Who doesn't want more efficiency? who that's the one aspect of running a country like a business that is attractive to, you know, for example, me or I think generally people on the left. I don't think the country should be run like a business because businesses are all about profit. But if we can find ways to make it more efficient, then, you know, who's going to be mad about that? But Doge was never about government efficiency.

That's just the PR aspect of what they were trying to do. We know that they went in there. They dismantled half of our government. They sent half of our government employees home without pay, get some with pay. And they also sent all of our personal data around the world to God knows who and where. Here's a thing. Yeah, I'm glad you said what you just said. As a leftist, it's in our interest to see government run efficiently.

Government programs don't have fraud and waste because when they do, it erodes trust in those institutions. And it's our belief that government institutions can be ran for and of the benefit of the people. And so, yeah, it's in our best interest for the government to not be wasting money. But like the idea that Elon Musk, another person who's on the government dole, the idea that he's going to go in there, like the conflict of interest that create in and of itself, that he would be the one to go in there and quote unquote clean it up was always. laughable. Yeah, you know, politics is really just about taxes and who's going to spend the money where and who's going to spend it better, right? That's why we have political systems. But on that note, we're going to take another break and then we'll be right back with much more.

Hey, everybody, welcome back to our second social break. Real quick before I get to your comments, I want to tell you, do not forget about our sponsor, Noble Mobile, the only phone plan that pays you to use your phone less, which is definitely something that I can get behind. Get unlimited data for just $10 your first month, powered by the T-Mobile network, plus you get cash back for your unused data. Switch today at t-y-t.com slash switch. All right, so now we have a lot of comments to get to. Let's see. Durge over on t-y-t.com says, Doge's only goal was to destroy threats to Elon and steal data for him. Absolutely. That's, I mean, it was never about government efficiency because that would actually maybe benefit the American people.

Eclectic miscellaneous says, why can't Trump use his enormous power for something useful, like banning kids from saying six, seven every five seconds, or every six or seven seconds, I think is what she wanted to say there. I hate it, I hate it. I apologize to whoever is watching. Let me check out the super chat, see what's going on down there. Free meatballs and linguine. That sounds good.

Gave us $9.99. Thank you so much. And says Trump having the Peace Prize is almost as legit as the fake sports illustrated with me on the cover in my little league uniform that I got as a gift when I was 10. It does have this exact same vibes. It's so weird. Like they always make fun of us for things like, you know, the participation trophies. But like they gave him a fake FIFA trophy for no reason.

You know, it's like you didn't earn it. You know you didn't earn it. Why do you want it so bad? I also have a picture of myself on the cover of a fake magazine from when I was a kid, except the magazine was Golf Digest, which is really funny because I don't golf. I've never golfed. I'm not even very good at mini golf. DJ Payne, 1, 2, 3,6 gave us 499, thank you very much, and says, Lindsay Graham looks like a guy that eats boogers.

Sorry, I'm literally exhausted with these fascists. I guess they were talking about Lindsay Graham in the first hour, but that is one mental image that you just gave all of us. Thank you very much. Over on the YouTube members, let's see, Jillian Seven says, are there some hidden perks to golfing with the Orange Baffoon? It's not like he's going to let you win. L.O.L. L.L is right because we know like he'd just be cheating everywhere, right?

Like we see him on camera cheating. We know that he's accepted trophies for tournaments that, again, he wasn't even present for. So he just like collecting trophies for things he didn't earn, which is gross. Christy Bellen says 1929 all over again. The oligarch reign of takeover continues. That is something to look forward to, I'm sure, for all of us. Disrupt Daily says, why would we sanction ourselves?

I thought Trump was Venezuela's president. That is interesting. You know what? It is confusing. We're in uncertain times and even our leaders who do things don't seem to know why they do the things that they do. And Argent's 80, 59 says, I'm paying, I'm fine paying $5 for gas. Just let me afford a house again.

Yeah, that's, you know. Things are not getting better for the American people. We're here back. Welcome back to the show. You have Yaz and Woz here tonight. We have a couple more stories to get through, and then we will see you guys in the bonus episode. So let's get right on with this next story.

Some exclusive reporting about an apparent error in the ICE recruitment system that meant some officers got sent into field offices without proper training. Apparently, ICE uses this AI tool to categorize new recruits who have worked in law enforcement before. But there was some kind of a glitch, according to our reporting with it. that led to ICE temporarily putting recruits with a little to no experience into a more experience category, meaning they got less training, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with this error. Well, if you needed proof that ICE is not being run by our best nor our brightest. It's now being reported that thanks to over-reliance on an AI tool, some ICE recruits were sent to field offices without the proper training. So the AI tool used by ICE was tasked with looking for potential applicants.

with law enforcement experience to be placed into the agency's LEO or Leo program, short for law enforcement officer. For new recruits who are already law enforcement officers, it requires four weeks of online training. Applicants without law enforcement backgrounds are required to take an eight-week in-person course at Isis Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia, which includes courses in immigration law and handling a gun, as well as physical. fitness tests. So when the AI scan these ICE resumes, if the word officer was anywhere on the

application, the applicant would then just be automatically put into the Leo program. So it didn't necessarily mean that they were a law enforcement officer. They could be like, you know, some other, I don't know what other kind of officers there are. They can even just say, I want to be an ICE officer. And then they would get put into the Leo program. So once the Department of Homeland Security clocked the error about a month in, they started. started manually reviewing the resumes at that point. However, this error occurred at the height of ICE recruitment last year. By the end of 2025, ICE was supposed to hire 10,000 new agents, a goal that ICE claims

to have hit, but this new insight means that they didn't actually meet their hiring target. Also, Kristy Noem claims that ICE hired actually 12,000 new agents last year, but new federal workforce database contradicts. Noam's claim of 12,000 new ICE agents, the agent. has hired 7,114 employees and lost 1,746 since January of last year, according to the Office of Personnel Management data. So that means a net growth of not 10,000, not 12,000, but just 5,368 employees since Trump took office last year.

And this should be encouraging because we know that they're not being picky about who they let into their ranks and maybe people just don't want to join it. But Laura Jedeed, a veteran turned independent journalist who has been publicly outspoken against Trump and his administration and ICE got hired to work for ICE when she really should not have been. Initially, she just wanted to see what the application process would be like, you know, for science. But here's what happened.

The hiring event, basically, you brought your resume in, you handed it over. They were going to do an interview and they were promising on the spot hiring to where you could in fact walk out with your $50,000 bonus that day possibly. I went in, I handed in my resume, which is I did a skills based resume. I'm a veteran, I served two chairs in Afghanistan. So on the surface, their resume looked pretty good, had a very brief interview, took all of six minutes, they didn't ask very many questions. And then I left, assuming I would never hear back, because I'm a very Googledable person.

I have an unusual name. I'm the only Laura Judy on the internet. And I make no secret of how I feel about ICE and Trump and all of it. So I was not expecting several days later to receive a tentative offer. I missed it in my inbox and it sunk to the bottom, which means that I never filled out the paperwork they requested. I never accepted the tentative offer. I never filled out my background check paperwork. I never signed the affidavit saying I committed no domestic violence crimes, none of it.

So she goes on to say that she shouldn't have been eliminated based on the drug test alone. Instead, this is what happened. A few weeks later, I got a message from Lab Corps saying that ICE wanted me to do a drug test. And I went ahead and did that. I was pretty sure I wouldn't pass. I'd partake it in legal cannabis six days before the test, but why not with some of their money, right? And the nine days after that, I decided I wanted to, you know, I was curious had they

processed the drug test yet. So I logged onto the ICE hiring portal. And what I found was that not only did the drug test not seem to be relevant, I had been, I was listed as having joined ICE as of three days earlier. I had listed that I had accepted the offer. They had offered me a final position as a deportation officer. My background check was listed as completed three days in the future for when I was looking at it. So it seems like the answer to the question, who are they hiring is they don't know.

Yeah, and you know what? I'm starting to think that these numbers are unreliable. So overall, the American people, they are fed up with ICE and its antics. It's ramping up its operations in places like Minneapolis, as we've all seen, and it seems likely to do so in other major cities across the country like Boston, for example. However, backlash against ICE is becoming more pronounced. And apart from all the protests, a new CNN poll found that ICE's net approval rating is sitting at negative 17. In his first term, it was at zero in Trump's first term. Now it's dropped 17 points, and that number is even lower among independents.

Also calls to abolish ICE not to reform ICE are getting louder and not just from random people on the internet. Representative Sri Thandadadar from Michigan announced that he will be introducing a bill this week to abolish ICE. Here's what he had to say. He said we must reform ICE. It looks, but it looks at this stage, folks, ice is beyond reform. Ice is totally out of control. And this week I intend to introduce a bill to abolish ICE. We do not need the murders.

We do not need this paramilitary organization's members on our streets, terrorizing U.S. citizens, terrorizing moms, terrorizing our children. And just a quick in case you were wondering, by the way, Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who murdered Renee Good, was not one of these officers who was improperly trained. He's been with ICE for about a decade. So he can't be like, oh, well, they didn't tell me what to do in the situation. Oh, I didn't know how to use my gun properly.

So I just shot it accidentally three times. He's not one of those. He knew what he was doing. And when he walked away, he had new remorse about it. So it is encouraging, was that the American people seem to be souring on ice. I would be curious to see how many people were pro ice to begin with. And now they're like, ooh, I imagine that that number of people, the explanation for the drop has more to do with people who just genuinely thought that this was a border patrol.

agency that was like really out here to pick up the bad guys and the criminals and the really dangerous people. But then, you know, a lot of people have as soon as ICE actually started working the way that they intended to work under the Trump administration, people saw like, these are not the criminals that we were promised. These are just everyday people. And hopefully the killing of Renee Good was a big wake up call to some people who are still holding out hope that Trump is actually not the worst person to be leading our country right now. It's crazy because so many things pop into my mind. This program is like extremely well funded, right?

And they're well funded and they'll take anybody. And yet over the course of a year, only 5,000 people were hired net. That's, I mean, that's just bad news for the sort of market. of the work that they're doing. I think people are looking at it, even in our horrible economy, with something that's this well funded and is an automatic ticket to a middle class job. And people are just straight up like, no, I'm not doing it because it's disgusting. People are repulsed by what they're doing.

Like, to be asked to do is be separating parents from their kids, just snatching them out of their homes and snatching people out of school and snatching people from court and the agony and the just, you know, the horror of all of it. Like the fact that nobody wants to do this is, it's just kind of crazy to me. I'm honestly surprised by this because of how hard it is to come by a solid middle class job. Like I think about even something like NYPD in New York, which is another well-funded police, law enforcement, whatever agency you want to call. And man, a lot of people join up because you don't need to have a college degree. You'll be in six figures in no time.

You're going to have a pension after 25 years or 30 years or whatever the hell is going to be. Incredible benefits. You basically can't get fired. Like, it's an obvious job that you should want to take. Even though we know it's difficult what police officers do on a day to day. So for ICE to just have no enthusiasm in terms of recruitment, it's just quite telling about how people feel. And I think the other thing that we know guys is that ice was never meant to actually perform the task that Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are alleging. Like you cannot remove 10 million people from this country with freaking ice.

It's just not possible. Yeah, the numbers that they were, and they said that they were gonna remove that many criminals, like dangerous criminals. And it's like, we don't have them, you know. And that's why they started picking up people in front of the Home Depot and saying we're going to deport these people instead. And it, you know, it is encouraging that they're having such a hard time hiring to the point that they're lying about the recruitment numbers and they're lying about how many

people have, you know, quit since they started working there. And also in that interview, I didn't show this clip, but the journalist, she also said that the goal, she was told by the ICE recruitment agent that the goal is, that the goal is to get all of these people in the field, you know, not behind desk, but in the field deporting people or whatever. So we do have one more story, though, to cap off Trump's, his bad approval. Let's roll the tape on this one. He has just fallen off a clip when it comes to generations. They look at this. Donald Trump's net approval rating in February of 2025. John said it right. Wow. This was actually a month

into the administration. This was a month into the administration. He was at plus 10. points in the approval rating. He was on the right side of ledger. Look at this, falling off that cliff. That is a drop of 42 points to negative 32 points. This, as I said, is a very swinging group, and it has swung very much away from Donald John Trump. Yeah, well, to quote Harry Enten there, Trump's approval rating with Gen Z has, quote, fallen off a cliff. And if you think those numbers are bad, just wait until you see his approval ratings overall. But first, more on Gen Z, And 10 also found that Gen Z voters are identifying as Democrats now in huge numbers, especially when compared to other age demographics.

These guys are swingers. That's what we're talking about here. Take a look here. Generation Z. John, like that. Gen Z, party ID margin, Dems versus the GOP in 2024. Look at this. It was just a six point margin between the Democrats, Republicans. Democrats just led by six points. Very small. Remember, Donald Trump did very well for a Republican candidate amongst the youngest part of the electorate. But take a look here, 2025. Hello, a huge widening of the lead for Democrats among Generation Z, tripling their lead on party identification from six all the way up to 20. That was, in fact, the largest shift considerably more so than any other group. Yes, there was a shift in the overall electorate, but this more than double the shift that we saw among the

electorate at large. All right. So earlier this month, we actually did a deep dive into Trump's numbers with young men specifically, and we'll link to that segment in the description below. But spoiler alert, his polling is very bad. Here is a very small preview. Last spring, Trump's favorability rating among young men was 56%, and it now stands at 46%, and a lowly 36% among all young people. And Trump isn't just hemorrhaging young voters. He's losing the American people entirely. Here's one more clip from Harry Anton. Just look at Donald Trump's not approval rating.

Negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative, negative 14, negative 16, negative 17, and negative 19, according to AP Nork, with no real change in the aggregate from where we were last month. What issues is President Trump doing well on? None of them, really. He's doing poorly on all of them. What are we talking about here? Well, we spoke about immigration last hour. He's at a negative of 11 points there, of course, had been a strength of him.

Foreign policy minus 14 points. The economy, the reason that Donald Trump really got elected to a second term was to fix the economy. He's at 16 points underwater there. Trade and terror is such a big part of his second term agenda. Negative 18 points there. And we really haven't spoken about the Epstein case in a while, but 38 points underwater there. Negative, negative, negative, negative, and negative. Well, I can't say it any better than he just did.

These numbers are very exciting to see. They're very encouraging to see this from the American people and the response from it. My concern, not to be like a Debbie Downer, is that the Democratic Party will see that and be encouraged and think that they don't have to do anything to better themselves or to actually give the American people these things that we are asking that we're desperate for from seeing from the Democratic Party. what do you think was? It's not hard to understand why Trump is underwater in these categories and why I think, you know, some people on the left kind of overrate his project in terms of his strength and viability. He's an extremely weak president.

Everything he has to do has to be done by executive order. They can't pass anything in the Congress. And the reason is, yes, he's not doing anything redistributive, okay? Like if they would have took this ICE funding and been targeted about how they distribute these like brand new government jobs in certain areas, that's a material good and benefit that he's providing for communities that would be lasting and binding. It's like, yo, Donald Trump got me this job. Donald Trump got my town this funding. And so Donald Trump can go out and do his ridiculous adventurism abroad. He can be as corrupt as he wants with crypto.

He can do all this nasty stuff that he's doing because he has a redistributive agenda that's actually benefiting people. But the problem for Donald Trump, I think young people, young men in particular liked him because they thought he was different, is that he's not different. He's exactly the same, but just worse. He's more corrupt. He's a bigger warmonger. He's even more of a finger wagger. He's the worst. Like, he's the same, but all of their worst quality.

and tendencies. And so, yeah, it's no wonder that people have quickly realized that this guy's not different. He wants to do the wars. He's freaking paid to play. He's not going to do anything for normal people. And he's just like every other politician before him except worse. Yeah. Yeah.

And, you know, I hate to say I told you so, but like we did. Like, we told them so many times. And that's not helpful now. I understand that. But I can't help me. And you know, last one not least, if the Democrats come in and they don't offer, they're going to come in sweeping in midterms. They'll probably win the next presidency. They're going to come in and win.

But if they don't offer, you know, a program that's redistributive and actually benefits normal everyday people, they're going to get swept out too. And on and on and on we go. Yeah, I think what we're seeing is Gen Z. They're switching their registration from Republican to Democrat. I think that's very encouraging because hopefully, hopefully, in my mind, what I'm choosing to believe is that they're doing so so that they can actually vote in different Democrats, maybe more progressive Democrats if I'm like really dreaming big here. So on that note, we're going to wrap this hour of the Young Turks, but I will see you all in the bonus episode. We have more stories for you.

We're right back.