The Young Turks - Mahmoud Khalil Ruling - June 11, 2025

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

Mayor Karen Bass implements curfew in Los Angeles amid protests. Walmart Faces MAGA Boycott After Heiress Funds ‘No Kings’ Ad. Court rules against the Trump administration in Mahmoud Khalil case Hosts: Ana Kasparian 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. There are some good things happening in the country today, and I'm super excited to share those stories with you. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. One state has finally decided to take it to these private equity firms and implement some really important regulations, which California had the opportunity to do until Gavin Newsom, who's positioning himself as the opposition to the Republican Party, the opposition to Donald Trump, vetoed that bill. But it's okay. The good news is that one other state did manage to pass this legislation. We'll tell you what that is later in the show, one of my favorite stories. The war between the Mark Levins and the Tucker Carlson's over the idea of invading Iran or going to war with Iran.

Oh man, that little conflict between Lavin and Tucker continues, but we've got some receipts on who's lying, who's telling the truth. My other favorite story of the day. And we finally have some good news in regard to what's been transpiring in L.A. with some of these protests. And then, of course, separate from the protests, these disgusting rioters who honestly, I think finally have been effectively dealt with. with, and I'll tell you why in the first story that we'll cover. But as always, just want to encourage you to like and share the stream. If you are watching us live, it's an easy and free way to help support the show. You can also support us by becoming a member, t-y-t.com slash join. And why don't we get right into our first story?

Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted. But protesters continue to pour into the streets of downtown L.A. has allowed several hundred protesters here to meander pretty freely right down the streets of downtown Los Angeles for several hours now. The one thing they have not allowed them to do, to send down to the 101 freeway. And when hundreds of protesters briefly blocked traffic on the 101, police pounced. Yesterday, pretty much the worst that happened in regard to protesters, demonstrators being disruptive is when they were briefly. basically blocking the 101 freeway, which is a major highway in Los Angeles.

And they did so around 4 o'clock, which was, of course, during rush hour traffic, which is kind of disastrous for people who are trying to get home from work. But nonetheless, that was the worst of it yesterday. And I'm really, really happy to say that because I think that we finally have a solution in which in Los Angeles, the peaceful demonstrators, the peaceful protesters are able to do what they are legally and constitutionally allowed to do, which is peacefully assemble and protest. And that's what they did all day yesterday. The SCIU held its own protest in this context, of course, and they had roped it off. They ensured that anyone wearing a mask to hide their

identity was not included in their demonstration. Because they understand the importance of protecting the freedom of speech, the right to peacefully protest from these bad actors who really have no interest in doing the right thing or accomplishing anything politically speaking. So let's get into the details of why last night in downtown Los Angeles was very different from what we've been seeing with these images in the previous nights. So apparently there were fewer clashes with authorities and less unrest in L.A. specifically because Mayor Karen Bass finally did what I believe she should have implemented earlier. She imposed a curfew.

The curfew begins at 8 p.m. and ends at 6 a.m. the following day. So the Los Angeles Police Department reported that at least 25 people were arrested for violating the curfew. So the LA police said that they made 27 arrests specifically on Saturday, 40 on Sunday, and more than 100 on Monday. An additional 205 protesters were arrested Tuesday before Karen Bass had announced curfew at 5.30 p.m. Tuesday. And so the curfew was also very limited, meaning it was limited to one square mile of downtown Los Angeles. Because as I had told you guys repeatedly on the show, it was these riots were nothing like what we experienced in the summer of 2020 when the rioting was really widespread throughout sprawling Los Angeles. Angeles. In this case, it was limited to downtown LA, which obviously makes it easier to control if you are willing to control it. And I think this curfew was an important tool

in order to shut down rioters, you know, basically nip it in the bud before things start to get a little unruly. And that's exactly what happened here. So there were arrests of individuals who refused to abide by the curfew, but you know, you're not going to see the same types of gross images and videos that we saw the previous nights, which thankfully is allowing for the media to stop being so focused on the riots and focus on something else. Now, and by something else, I mean the point of the peaceful demonstrators, they're trying to draw attention to what ICE is doing with these raids, who they're targeting, which I think is really important and important part of the story that needs to be explored more, and we will be exploring it

more in the story. But Bass said that she expects the curfew to remain in place for several days and will consult with law enforcement and elected leaders before she decides to lift that curfew. She also said that the curfew was necessary to curb the actions of bad actors who do not support the immigrant community. Now, there are some people chiding me for saying something very similar, but it's the truth. And if you don't believe me, here you have Mayor Karen Bass calling it like she sees it because it's based in reality and it helped inform the smart decision she made in implementing the curfew. Take a look. I wanted to let the city know that I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop

the vandalism to stop the looting. Many businesses have now been affected by or vandalized. Last night, there were 23 businesses that were looted. And I think that if you drive through downtown L.A., the graffiti is everywhere and has caused significant damages to businesses and a number of properties. So my message to you is, if you do not live or work in downtown L.A., avoid the area. So as we were approaching curfew, the crowds did kind of thin out. And then as we hit the curfew time, which was 8 p.m., local time, Pacific time, you know, more and more people were leaving. But there were definitely some people who decided to stay behind specifically because they wanted to engage in civil disobedience. They didn't get unruly. They were arrested by the police, 25 arrests.

It's not the end of the world. It's nothing like we experienced the night before. So now that that rioting in L.A., and hopefully this continues, is less of an issue. News reporters I've noticed have actually started focusing more on the stories of the individuals who have been detained by ICE in Los Angeles. So first, let me just say, when it comes to the arrest made by federal authorities, Immigration and Customs, enforcement officials said that hundreds of people have been taken into custody during the raids since Friday night. However, it's not really clear exactly how many people, you know, have been arrested. So they've been detained, but are they still detained? Were they arrested? Do they have charges? We don't know. An immigration rights leader, though, in Los Angeles said that about 300 people have been detained by federal authorities in California since the sweeps began last Friday. So let's talk about how insane some of these raids are.

And more importantly, what's the motivating factor? Like what changed? Why are we suddenly starting to see these daytime, very public, and in some cases, violent raids that are happening, not just in Los Angeles, but across the country? Well, it turns out that this was very much intentional and this was a directive passed down by Stephen Miller, which none of us should be surprised by. So again, there's still a lot of questions about who was arrested, why they were arrested, and how many of the arrests were the result of ice raids essentially targeting suspected undocumented immigrants. But the Wall Street Journal, which is not some like leftist publication, wrote a fantastic. piece shining light or shedding light on what's been going on with the Trump administration

and their thinking. So they're reporting that the administration is definitely motivated to carry out more of these ice raids because President Trump was falling short of the number of daily deportations carried out by the Biden administration in its final year. So you know how Trump is? I mean, he's laser focused on ensuring that his deportations. numbers are better than that of Biden's in 2024, because that's when he really got serious about deportations. Or more importantly, I'm sure he's constantly comparing himself to the deporter-in-chief, which, of course, was President Barack Obama. Now, Obama was able to deport far more people because he directed customs and border enforcement to essentially immediately deport someone as soon as they get caught trying to cross the border. So that really did inflate the numbers under the Obama administration with Trump's very vocal anti-immigration policies and the fact that he keeps talking about how he's going to, you know, go after undocumented immigrants aggressively, no holds barred. Less people have been coming to the border, which makes it difficult for Trump to bolster his numbers the way that Obama was able to do so.

So as a result, in late May, Stephen Miller, a top White House aide and the architect of president of the president's immigration agenda addressed a meeting at ICE's headquarters to say that the president who promised to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally wasn't pleased. The agency had better step it up. So instead of focusing on what the Trump administration promised they would focus on. which was the deportation of, yes, undocumented immigrants, but undocumented immigrants who are committing other violent crimes, individuals who are part of gangs. They're now very much intentionally going after like immigrants who haven't committed any other crimes. And more importantly, immigrants who are low hanging fruit, the most vulnerable among us and the easiest to find. So this is, in my opinion, like some of the laziest and lamest

type of immigration enforcement the administration can take part in, and the types of people who are being targeted, just absolutely heartbreaking. So he says the federal agents needed to just go out there and arrest illegal aliens, Miller told top ICE officials, who had come from across the United States, according to people familiar with the meeting. And it gets worse. Miller argued that ICE agents did not need to develop target lists of undocumented immigrants, which, by the way, has been a long-standing practice for the agency.

So it's like, no, no, no, don't plan ahead. Don't have a list of people that you're targeting. Just go for it. Just go to very specific places where it's easy to find day laborers, literally people who are trying to earn an honest living, arrest them and deport them. Indeed, Miller directed them to target Home Depot, where day laborers typically gather for hire, or 711 convenience stores. Miller bet that he and a handful of agents could go out.

on the streets of Washington, D.C. and arrest 30 people right away. So I want to also just note that the Trump administration has been attempting to deny that they're doing these arrests at Home Depot parking lots where day laborers are trying to earn an honest living. You want to know why? Because that information, that type of targeting is actually not favored by the majority of Americans. The majority of Americans do want to get rid of the bad actors. Okay, they absolutely do. But they don't think of day laborers in Home Depot parking lots, okay, waiting in the freaking heat on summer days in order to earn an honest thing. That's not who they're thinking about when it comes to deportations. And let's not

forget, obviously, all of this costs a lot of money for the taxpayers. So is the juice worth the squeeze? And I would argue, no, it is not. But the story gets even worse than that. So last Friday, ICE immediately targeted a Home Depot in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Westlake. And they did it in broad daylight. Gee, I wonder why they targeted Westlake, a predominantly Latino community. I wonder why they did this very public spectacle of arresting and detaining day laborers at a Home Depot parking lot. Could it be that there's also that added benefit in Trump's head of protests that could devolve into riots that he can then use to his advantage, and that's exactly what happened here.

So again, this happened in broad daylight. It set off protests, later riots on Friday night. That was the first night on Saturday. Trump had seen everything he needed to see. He ordered the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to Southern California, despite objections by local politicians and Governor Gavin Newsom. And as these riots grew, Trump announced that he was going to. sent 700 active duty marines to the scene who, you know, from what everyone has seen last night haven't really been active in responding to demonstrators or anything like that. And then since Miller's meeting with ICE officials, daily arrests have risen,

according to ICE officials. There are no written directives, but officers have been told to do what you need to do to make more arrests according to current and former ICE officials, familiar with the directives. And so that comes at a cost, by the way, for all of us. So, you know, you're one of those, like, cold-hearted people who doesn't care that we're talking about immigrants who have been in this country for decades. They haven't committed any crimes. They've contributed to society.

They're constantly trying to earn an honest living. They're literally day laborers in some cases, waiting at home deep. You don't care about any of that. You think you're here illegally, no pathway to citizenship. We just want to get rid of you. Go, get out of here. We're going to separate you from your family members who are legal here in the U.S. They are citizens of the United States. You might have had children here. Who cares? We're going to separate you guys. Go, go, go. Okay, fine. I disagree with you entirely. I think we should prioritize people who are not productive members of society, who are causing harm. But here's the thing. That kind of work takes a lot more effort. It takes a lot more investigation. And when you just want to bolster. your immigration or deportation numbers, you're not going to want to do the hard work. And you're just going to target anyone that crosses your path. You're going to go for a low-hanging fruit.

But our rights are on the line here as well. For those of you who only care about yourselves, so federal agents make warrantless arrests. Mast agents take people into custody without identifying themselves. Plainclosed agents in at least a dozen cities have arrested migrants who showed up to their court hearings. Yeah, great job, Trump administration. Way to discourage, you know, people who are here seeking asylum from appearing at their court dates.

Because if they know ICE is ready and waiting to arrest them as they are following the rules and going to their court dates, they're going to stop going to their court dates. It's so stupid and counterproductive. But there's more. Across the U.S., people suspected, simply suspected of being in the country illegally or disappearing into the federal detention system without notice to families or lawyers, or lawyers.

So due process thrown out the window. Everyone should be able to speak to a lawyer, including people who are here with undocumented status. But what if the feds make a mistake? And they suspect an American citizen is undocumented. How the hell is that American citizen supposed to argue their case if they're not even able to talk to a lawyer or family member? In Coral Springs, Florida, at least eight agents in tactical gear shields and rifles surrounded the home, a home, I should say, with guns raised to arrest a father with no criminal history whatsoever. Nice. A Cuban father who worked at a local candy factory began loading two young children into a red SUV. The agents initially planned to follow and arrest him after he had dropped the children at school. Instead, they decided to arrest him immediately because the children's mother was also in the car, real classy. The man stepped from the driver's seat with his hands up, while the woman in the passenger seat scolded the agents for,

arresting him in front of the children. She asked if she could give her husband a kiss before they took him. None of the agents responded. I'm sure some of you have seen that video of a suspected undocumented immigrant mother in Texas who's being detained. She's begging to see her children. They're in school. She's wailing. She's crying. She's worried about her kids. She doesn't even get an opportunity to see them, talk to them, tell them what's going on before they arrest her. And it gets worse. In Irvine, California, ICE agents drove a phalanx of military vehicles in the Orange County suburb to arrest a person, though not for illegal immigration. They were seeking a resident son who had allegedly posted flyers alerting neighbors to the

presence of ICE agents. So you're not even allowed to warn your neighbors that the Gestapo is coming. They might arrest you. Elsewhere, Americans detained by ICE have said that they were held for hours or longer before being allowed to prove their citizenship. Because this administration doesn't care about your rights. They don't. They don't care about due process. They don't respect our constitution. They take orders from one foreign government in particular, and that's the government of Israel, of course. It's pathetic. This is not a government for the people. It's not a government by the people. I get that there's a lot of of resentment in the country toward undocumented immigrants at this moment because of how

how badly the Biden administration bungled the situation. But I think a lot of Americans are forgetting just how many members of their community that they love, how many members of their community that actually enriched their communities happen to be undocumented immigrants. And it sucks that these people have not had an adequate pathway to way to legal citizenship in this country, all due to the lack of effectiveness, the lack of concern, the interest in doing anything productive in the United States Congress. It's so infuriating. And I really don't like the system of, oh, let's just do immigration policy based on executive order. If Congress isn't going to do their jobs, what is the point

of Congress. You know, yesterday I was obviously being sarcastic by saying we should abolish Congress. And someone took me seriously and it was like, oh, so authoritarianism then? Okay, so let me just say this. I was joking. But let's say I was being serious for argument's sake. When exactly has Congress held the executive branch accountable in recent terms, presidential terms? It's just they're useless. They've been incredibly useless, you know, with the exception of raising the debt ceiling as they have to do every year, with the exception of with very little debate, increasing the military

budget year after year after year, without much debate, adding to our deficit, adding to our debt that's already at $36, 37 trillion dollars and cost a trillion dollars a year to service. Congress is useless. And it sickens me to see that These gross acts of injustice and moving forward without any concern for due process hasn't riled many people up in Congress. We've heard some Democrats, you know, in their old age, try to give some speeches about it. But they're really not well suited to respond to this current moment, in my opinion. I mean, honestly, Gavin Newsom is exploiting what's happening right now to position himself as the leader of the Trump opposition.

It's not about doing right by these immigrants. It's not about ensuring that due process is being implemented when it comes to these detainments, these arrests and deportations. It's just about exploiting a terrible situation for political gain. And by the way, don't think I'm under any impression that Trump isn't doing the exact same thing. This is why I was so furious about the riots. Because we don't want federal agents showing up to squash the rioters. And the only way that you prevent that from happening is to not allow riots to happen.

So thank you to Karen Bass for finally doing the right thing and implementing that curfew because I think that did make a difference. Now, I should finally note that ICE has stopped regularly publishing data on their acts and what they're up to. But nonetheless, the Trump administration arrested roughly 65,500 migrants living in the United States, illegally and deported nearly 66,000 in its first 100 days. And I want you to focus on this last part for anyone who's like obsessed with thinking that like Trump is a unique evil. All right. Let's read it. A higher pace of arrests compared with 2024 and a slightly slower pace for deportations. So if you're comparing where Trump is currently at right now with what the Biden administration did in 2020, still at this point, the Biden administration deported more people in 2024 than the Trump

administration has been able to do. Obviously, it hasn't been a full year for the Trump administration, but nonetheless, deportations were happening under Biden only, by the way, when it became a political liability for the Democrats. They're playing with people's lives. We need immigration reform. We need a pathway to citizenship. So the productive members of society who are not causing any harm, who are actually enriching our country and our communities can be here legally. They'll be protected by our laws. That's the right way to do it. And yeah, deport the bad actors. I don't give a damn, okay? I don't care. You're committing crimes. I don't care if it's, you know, doing looting thefts, you know, rape, murder, whatever. You're out of here. After we prosecute you, after you serve your time,

I have no problem deporting those people. But the day laborers in the Home Depot parking lot, those are good people. And the idea that we're targeting them under the Trump administration, disgust me to no end. So those are the updates that we have for Los Angeles. I should note that there are now demonstrations, protests, and unfortunately some riots in other parts of the country. I'm sure that will develop further and will pivot over to covering some of those demonstrations. as well. But for now, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk a little bit about other news. What are we going to talk about? Oh, MAGA is boycotting Walmart. And I want to

tell you why. So come right back. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the show. I just want to read a few super chats before we move on to our next story. Make It Makes Sense says my family was attacked. They live in L.A., in the L.A. area, east of Washington Boulevard and San Pedro as a veteran, a group attacked their car because of the license plate. What did the license plate say? And that's awful. Make it make sense also says ICE isn't the problem. Trump isn't the problem. The problem is we have laws that haven't been enforced. And now people are acting like children throwing a temper tantrum. In L.A., that's true. That is definitely true. So in a way, local leaders here have kind of made their bed.

And I was, there are some members of the city council who literally cannot stop themselves from discussing how much disdain and hatred they have for the police department, which doesn't really inspire much confidence in the police departments, like partnership with local politicians. I don't know. I just think the whole situation is messed up. So there is truth to what you're saying. I do think ICE is part of the problem, but ICE is carrying out what the Trump administration is demanding of them. So that's something to keep in mind as well. Make It Make Sense also says, and I did see this. And I'm sure you saw the video of a mom begging the rioters to not attack her and her kids as they destroyed her car. I did see that. I saw the video, I believe it was in New York, of two white activists screaming or shouting down a black woman who was begging them to like

make way in the road so she can go to work because she doesn't want to lose her job. And they tell her, no, this protest is more important than your job. These people are the worst. They're not helping the cause in any way. But I know I'm the bad guy for stating what should be obvious. All right, let's talk about the MAGA boycott. heiress to the Walmart fortune at about 19 points a odd billion is saying that we, the American people reject kings. And I say, okay, good for you. I reject Walmart. First of all, y'all suck. Y'all are evil. I don't like you in the first place. I almost never go to Walmart. I try to avoid it whenever possible. That wasn't some socialist, leftist. That was Tim Poole talking about

how he hates Walmart. Didn't see that coming until I realized MAGA is in fact. considering a boycott against Walmart, which will be a lot more complicated and difficult to carry out compared to the but light boycott. But nonetheless, before we get to MAGA, here's what we know so far and the question that we should all be asking ourselves, why exactly is a multi-billionaire who's worth a fortune, absolute fortune, because she's a Walmart heiress, shelling out big bucks to support protests against Donald Trump. We really should be asking that question. So Christy Walton is her name, and she is a Walmart heiress.

She was married to, you know, one of the men in the Walton family. So that's how she inherited her wealth after her husband passed away from a, you know, tragic plane accident. But she's worth nearly $20 billion, billion with a B. And she just paid for a full page ad in the New York Times promoting the no King's Day protests against Donald Trump, which will be taking place this Saturday. So you're looking at the full page ad as we speak. It features an image of the Statue of Liberty with a series of declarations like we honor our commitments and stand by our allies. We defend against aggression by dictators. And we respect our neighbors and trading partners.

Okay, fascinating. I mean, if I'd want to get into like the granular details, but so far those declarations seem all right, but what's going on? Why is this billionaire, you know, so vociferous against the Trump administration? And she doesn't ever really specifically name Trump in her attacks, but she does bankroll protest efforts against him, ads against him. And it's pretty fascinating. So the Saturday, no Kingsday demonstration, happen to coincide with Donald Trump's birthday, which will, yes, also feature a military parade in the national mall. The Trump administration claims they want to do this to commemorate the Army's 250th anniversary, but I'm old enough to remember Trump wanting a military parade for himself in his first term. So I don't believe for a second that he's like, oh, I'm so concerned about the Army. Like I want to do an anniversary celebration by having a military parade. But whatever, I'm not going to get into that because what's more important is, the people behind, like, funding this protest, right?

And I don't have a problem with protesting Trump. I don't have a problem with you being part of these no Kings Day events. Apparently, there are going to be thousands of them all across the country. The protests are being organized by a small group of billionaires. And that's what I'm actually concerned about. Not because I just inherently despise billionaires and think they're all evil. I know some people do. For me, it's what are you doing in society?

What kind of contribution do you have to society? And I'll judge you based on that. Organizers of the counter protest told Axios, they are expecting this to be the largest single-day rally since the start of the administration. No King's spokesperson Andrew Cook told Forbes there will be more than 1,800 events across the country. So though they say that they're organizing this event, they're staying away. from D.C. in particular, probably because they don't want to be blamed for any potential riots that might take place in D.C. as this like Trump birthday slash military parade is happening. They say that instead of allowing this birthday parade to be the center of gravity,

we will make action everywhere else the story of America that day, people coming together in communities across the country to reject strong men, politics and corruption, the collective states on its website. So look, so far so good. They're protesting Trump. They want to support those who want to protest Trump. They're organizing this. But I want to focus a little bit on Christy Walton. Because Christy Walton is not our friend. I just want you guys to be aware of that. And I don't want you to make the mistake that I think the Democratic Party overall has made in that thinking enemies of Trumps, regardless of who they are, have to be our friends. No, sometimes there are enemies of Trumps that are not our friends.

And based on Christy Walton's campaign donation history, not our friend. Not our friend. So she has co-hosted a fundraiser for Kamala Harris in Jackson Hole. So she really didn't want Trump to win. she hates Trump. The question is why. Why does she hate Trump? We'll get to that. She contributed $100,000 to the Welcome Pack, which is a political action committee that helps Democrats. She also gave the Lincoln Project, which is run by Never Trump Republicans from the Bush era, $200,000 in donations. In fact, her donations lately are very different from what you'll see from her history.

In fact, she donated almost exclusively to Republicans in the 90s and throughout the Bush administration. Seems like a bit of a never, never Trump Republican, right? Her political donations did switch a little bit to Democrats in the summer of 2008, likely because Obama appeared poised to win the presidential election and Congress was going to be taken over by Democrats. So she was probably hedging her bets, you know, that's what donors do. They want to have influence over both parties. And look, what's really interesting to me is that she was still giving campaign donations to union busters, like Scott Walker. In fact, she gave him a massive contribution of $50,000 on May 10th of 2022 alone. She also gave the Libertarian National Committee $33,400 in August of 2016.

Now, this is going to shed some light on my theory here, because there are two camps in the libertarian movement. There's the, we love corporations, we're so pro-business that we want undocumented immigrants to come in because we want these corporations to have access to cheap labor that they can exploit individuals who will have no recourse. So they like the type of open borders type policy, right? And then there's the camp that people like Dave Smith fall under. He's very much a libertarian, but he is not in favor of bringing in undocumented immigrants so corporations can exploit them to the detriment of American workers, right? So that's the argument that I've heard him make. So I don't want to say that all libertarians have the same view on immigration, but there is a long history of libertarians wanting to have undocumented immigrants easily accessible to corporate interests. So why does she hate Trump so much, especially given his affinity for tax cuts, deregulation,

you know, the very things that would benefit Walmart. Well, it's because there's a catch. We know what the catch is, right? And if you don't, it's okay because one of my favorite reporters, James Lee, gives us some insight. Take a look. What do you think her endgame here is? Like, is she really worried about authoritarianism or human rights abuses? Or is she just after cheap labor?

Okay, over 70% of SNAP recipients and Medicaid users were full-time workers, and many of them are from Walmart. The irony is certainly not lost on me that the biggest organized protests against a so-called king is being organized by an oligarch. I mean, I don't think it's by accident that the bottom 50% of China holds twice as much wealth as the bottom 50% of America. Okay, China is the blue line. America is the red line. This should wake a lot of people up. Like, think about it. Why is China where we get all of? are cheap goods from? Why are they able to pay their workers, but not us? It's almost like they're

trying to distract us from everything other than paying people a living wage. Aside from that, Walmart has gotten into a bit of a spat with President Donald Trump over his tariffs policy. In fact, the executives over at Walmart have gotten into a public fight with him over that. And so it's worth knowing that 40% of the products, I'm sure it's more than that, but 40% of the products that Walmart sells is imported, and they do love cheap labor. And if you're thinking, well, she inherited her husband's wealth, I mean, is she like some sort of executive or something over it? Well, no, she owns a part of the company. Okay, she owns, I think it's like 1.9% if I'm not mistaken. That's a lot. And so the profit maximization

of Walmart is obviously something that she knows is going to benefit her. And so if Walmart's business will be undercut through the lack of access to cheap labor, whether it's abroad or on our own soil due to undocumented immigrants, well, then she's going to hate Trump because he wants to do something about those two things, right? He wants to implement these tariffs. He wants to stop undocumented immigration. Those two things are going to hurt the bottom line for Walmart. So finally, I'm going to pivot over to the MAGA boycotts because news that Christy Walton is, paying for ads that promote anti-Trump protests has really upset Maga. Okay, they are very upset. They're talking about it. You heard Tim Poole a little earlier. So they're calling for a Walmart boycott, which again, I'm going to repeat, is not going to be as easy as a Bud Light boycott. You know, you're just boycotting one item, one product.

There are parts of this country where literally all there is is a Walmart. So I don't know if it's going to be as effective this time around, but here's Tim Poole raging out. and honestly accidentally making a progressive argument against Walmart's practices. I still don't like Walmart and I'll take the excuse to boycott them. There were accusations that Walmart locations were telling people who work there to go on food benefits because they didn't get paid enough money. They said if you can't afford to work here, consider going on benefits, which are kind of weird because in order to qualify for benefits, you have to make below a certain amount of money. That's right. Walmart uses our tax dollars to subsidize their employees, at least that was the big

accusation. The argument being that if we did not offer that welfare benefit, Walmart wouldn't be able to hire these people because they'd simply say you don't pay enough. Well, as the story went, Walmart told everybody, sure we do. You just got to get supplemental income for food from the government. My biggest takeaway from this story is that we need to find a way to get corporate executives to attack Trump more. That's it. That's all we need to do.

And then we can sit back and wait for right wingers to do our messaging for us because that's what you just heard from Timpool. That was amazing. Congratulations, Tim Pool. Welcome to 2025. Yes, this has been an issue with Walmart for many, many years. So if we want to boycott Walmart for that reason, I jump in it. I hope it does work out because those labor practices absolutely disgust me.

And they should discuss to everyone across the board, regardless of your political affiliation. Let's take a break. We'll be right back with more, including this big fight over a possible war with Iran. And we've got an important update on Mahmoud Khalil. I want to share that with you as well. Come right back. We've got a big update on Mahmoud Khalil, that, of course, was the Columbia University student who, with absolutely no evidence, was accused of being a Hamas sympathizer and was detained for deporting. And this is a good update. I'm really happy to hear it.

So let's get into the details. Mahmood Khalil has been detained, who has been detained by the Trump administration for over three months now, is getting a little bit of relief from the federal courts because today a federal judge overseeing his case ruled that the government cannot detain or deport Khalil for one specific reason. So let's explain the caveats at play here. But before we do, for anyone who missed this story, Khalil was a Columbia University student. He was a green card holder, so a legal resident of the United States. He had no criminal record whatsoever.

He was not here illegally. And there is no evidence that he is a terrorist sympathizer. He did make the grave error of taking part in pro-peace, Palestinian demonstrations on Columbia's campus. Yes, I understand that some of those protesters did behave in ways that they could face charges for. He wasn't one of them. At least there hasn't been any evidence presented indicating that he was one of them. So with that in mind, you have the Trump administration that detains him and gets ready to deport him with the argument that under the Alien Enemies Act, and because he's allegedly a terrorist sympathizer,

the Secretary of State Marco Rubio can just deport him. Luckily, Khalil challenged this in the courts, and then that brings us to today. So for one, the decision that was made by the federal judge does not take effect until Friday morning, which gives the U.S. government time to appeal the decision. And also keep in mind that the government has argued that Khalil's presence in the United States poses a threat to the country's foreign policy goal of preventing anti-Semitism. There's no there's no foreign policy. There's no goal of our government to prevent racism. Sure, you'll have like the government, meaning Congress passing anti-discrimination laws and stuff like that.

But to have the executive branch unilaterally act like this at the behest of the Israeli government, let's just keep it real. That's what this is about is pretty freaking gross. And that's what frustrates me about this story, that good people exercising their free speech who haven't done anything wrong, there isn't any evidence of them being terrorist sympathizers, they're being targeted at the behest of a foreign government for deportation. Hey, Israel, what are you going to do about me? You're going to deport me? It's just so pathetic. The more they try to silence their critics, the more counterproductive their causes. It really is. I mean, the more negative attention is directed toward Israel and the crimes that they're committing in Gaza and the

West Bank. Anyway, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security has alleged that Khalil has acted to glorify and support terrorists. That's the big claim. Calil has yet to be accused of a specific crime. He doesn't have a criminal history, and there's no evidence that he supports terrorists. Secretary St. Marco Rubio has argued that a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 allows him to personally, unilaterally determine whether or not Khalil should be able to remain in the United States. However, the federal judge overseeing Khalil's case ruled that Khalil can no longer be detained based on the foreign policy argument that the Trump administration has provided. So the judge is like, no, this is not justification

for his detainment, and it's not justification for him being deported. However, New Jersey district court judge Michael Farbriaz said his findings have no impact on efforts to remove Khalil for reasons other than the Secretary of State's determination. So if the Trump administration finds some other justification to deport Khalil, they might be able to do so. But the reason that they've given so far makes no sense. And luckily the judge realized that it makes no sense and cannot be used as justification to deport Khalil. That means the Trump administration, again, could attempt to keep Khalil in detention for other reasons. And I'm sure they're going to try. We'll see. The Department of Homeland Security DHS has said that Khalil failed to accurately complete his application for the green card and that this could be a reason for permanent resident status being revoked. The judge said that may lead to Khalil being detained again, but that this was unlikely as lawful permanent residents were, I'm sorry, but that this was unlikely.

as lawful permanent residents were virtually never detained pending removal for something as small as a form error. And that strongly suggests that this is the Secretary of State's determination that drives the petitioner's ongoing determination or detention. Not the other charge against him, the judge wrote. So in other words, like the other ridiculous claim about him not filling out his green card form perfectly or completely is not the claim that Marco Rubio really presented front and center because it's a ridiculous claim number one. But his justification for targeting Khalil also doesn't make any sense because there's no evidence to it, none at all. We would have seen it by now.

Geez, now the Trump administration has also accused Khalil of willingly failing to disclose his membership in several organizations when he applied for permanent residency allegations that Khalil's lawyers have contested fearly. Finally, the judge wrote that it was overwhelmingly likely that Khalil would not be detained based solely on those allegations. But it is not clear if he would be released on Friday if the government were to argue that those allegations were, in fact, the reason for his detention. So this disastrous, terrible story, this saga is an over yet. We're going to wait and see what happens on Friday. While in detention, Khalil has missed the birth of his firstborn child. And time will tell how the Trump administration responds

to the judge's ruling here. I think it would be best for them to just free Khalil and not be dog walked by a foreign government because it's embarrassing. It just is. It makes me sick to my stomach that innocent people are being targeted on U.S. soil at the behest of Israel. Oh, your feelings are hurt because people are drawing attention to the atrocities you're committing in Gaza. You think that the critics are going to stop because you're targeting people? No, it's just going to make our voices grow louder. And that's what's going to happen moving forward. You're not going to be able to silence people.

We're not living in the era of four news networks that gate keep everything. We see what's happening on the ground, we see the videos, we hear the testimony from American doctors who risk their lives to provide aid in Gaza and then come back to the United States and explain what they saw with their own two eyes. We know what's happening. So targeting Khalil only draws more attention to Israel's atrocities, but they're too stupid to realize that. Let's take a break when we come back. Waz will join me to talk a little bit about Mark Levin scheming to send your family members to warn Iran. We'll be right back.