Trump changes the energy equation; dark money fireworks, CA’s Super Bowl “jock tax”

Summary

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10 Minute Drill – “Trump changes the energy equation; dark money fireworks, CA’s Super Bowl ‘jock tax’”

Host: Matt Whitlock
Date: February 11, 2026
Episode Focus: A rapid rundown of the week’s biggest political and policy news, including the Trump administration’s climate policy overhaul, dark money campaigns in U.S. politics, radical Virginia policies, and how California tax laws hit Super Bowl winners.

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Main Theme or Purpose

This episode unpacks several breaking political stories and their implications on U.S. governance, energy policy, dark money in politics, state- and national-level legislation, and even sports taxation. The tone is incisive, quick-paced, and leans toward critical analysis of Democratic policy measures, highlighting ways the Trump administration and current conservative campaigns are pushing back.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump Administration’s Repeal of the EPA “Endangerment Finding”

• [00:35–02:04]
  • Trump’s administration announces the repeal of the 2009 EPA endangerment finding—which declared that greenhouse gases jeopardize public health.
  • This ruling was the legal foundation for most of the climate-related regulations implemented by the EPA, including vehicle emissions standards, power plant carbon rules, and methane regulations.
  • Whitlock criticizes how the finding came into effect, arguing it was predetermined by the Obama administration and dismissive of public input.
  • Caroline Levitt (guest):

    “This will be the largest deregulatory action in American history, and it will save the American people $1.3 trillion in crushing regulations.” – Caroline Levitt [01:52]

  • Whitlock contextualizes: The repeal is positioned as freeing U.S. energy policy from "politically charged climate alarmism," reinforcing energy’s critical link to affordability, foreign policy, U.S.-China AI competition, and overall innovation.

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2. House Deep Dive into Foreign “Dark Money”

• [04:15–05:03]
  • A House Ways and Means Committee hearing spotlighted foreign billionaires funneling $2.6 billion into U.S. political advocacy, especially progressive activations.
  • Americans for Public Trust’s Caitlin Sutherland testifies on tactics and agenda items such as:

    “Abolishing private cars, eating less meat, training judges, protests, suing energy companies. These are just a few examples of what is being financed by foreign money and it must stop.” – Caitlin Sutherland [04:24]

  • Highlights concerns over links between donors like Christopher Hohn and CCP-affiliated organizations.

    “Hones charity actually has an office in Beijing. They actively work with the Chinese government. They bankroll CCP connected organizations.” – Caroline Levitt [04:48]

  • Whitlock frames the issue as deeply impactful on U.S. sovereignty and policy, especially in radicalizing environmental and social justice policies.

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3. Affordability Focus: Banks vs. Trump’s Agenda

• [05:46–06:37]
  • Trump’s platform on making America more affordable extends to challenges posed by the banking sector.
  • “Save Our States” campaign alleges that big banks, after previously targeting Trump-associated accounts, now aim to undermine affordability with new hidden fees (via “open banking”) on platforms like Venmo, Coinbase, and PayPal.

    “I have no higher priority than making America affordable again. That’s what we’re going to do. The banks that went after Trump now want hidden fees on every transaction.” – Save Our States ad [05:46]

  • Whitlock points listeners to more details at banksvsamerica.com and frames the issue as broader than politics—directly impacting ordinary Americans’ daily costs.

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4. Virginia’s Aggressive Policy Shifts: Taxes, Gun Laws, and Gerrymandering

• [06:37–09:15]
  • Virginia as a “test case” for what Democrats might do nationally if they win further power.
  • Over 50 new taxes are being considered, targeting not just the wealthy but also individuals and small businesses, e.g., dry cleaners.
  • Gun restrictions: Proposed bans on standard handgun magazines, new liability standards letting victims sue manufacturers (with the goal of bankrupting the industry).

    “In what world should a firearms manufacturer be held liable for the acts of a deranged madman or crimes that they committed? It’s insanity.” – John Comerford, NRA [08:16]

  • Aggressive gerrymandering: Proposed congressional map would flip representation, giving Republicans just 9% of seats despite nearly half the vote share.

    “So now from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Democrats moving forward with a plan to redraw that state’s electoral map. This would give them four more seats the way the voting is now set up.” – Bill Hemmer [09:03]

  • Whitlock asserts these moves prove Democrats’ “scary plans” for after the midterms.

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5. “You Can’t Make it Up” Segment: California’s “Jock Tax”

• [09:54–end]
  • Features the impact of California’s aggressive athlete “jock tax” on NFL quarterback Sam Darnold:
    • Darnold’s Super Bowl winnings: $178,000.
    • California tax bill: $249,000.

    “Sam Darnold’s insane California tax bill stunningly exceeds Super Bowl winnings... the Seahawks star reportedly will owe more than the 178,000 he earned.” – Matt Whitlock [09:59]

  • Whitlock questions the priorities of such taxation, especially contrasted against state projects like the “vanity project” high-speed rail and rising homelessness.
  • Concludes with skepticism towards California fiscal policy and a tongue-in-cheek warning about future sporting event planning.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “[This] will be the largest deregulatory action in American history, and it will save the American people $1.3 trillion in crushing regulations.” – Caroline Levitt [01:52]
• “Abolishing private cars, eating less meat, training judges, protests, suing energy companies. These are just a few examples of what is being financed by foreign money and it must stop.” – Caitlin Sutherland [04:24]
• “In what world should a firearms manufacturer be held liable for the acts of a deranged madman or crimes that they committed? It’s insanity.” – John Comerford, NRA [08:16]
• “Sam Darnold’s insane California tax bill stunningly exceeds Super Bowl winnings... the Seahawks star reportedly will owe more than the 178,000 he earned.” – Matt Whitlock [09:59]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• EPA Endangerment Finding Repeal: [00:35–02:04]
• Foreign Dark Money in U.S. Politics: [04:24–05:03]
• Banks vs. America’s Affordability: [05:46–06:37]
• Virginia Extreme Legislation: [06:37–09:15]
• California “Jock Tax” Explained: [09:54–end]

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Tone & Delivery

The episode is rapid and irreverent, with pointed criticism of Democratic policies and cheerleading for deregulatory and affordability-focused actions. Commentary is lively, occasionally sardonic, and underpinned by a sense of urgency about upcoming elections and their consequences.

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This summary captures all the high-impact content for listeners who want to stay current without sifting through the rapid back-and-forth of the original episode.

Transcript

[Host]

The Trump administration has a major announcement that's going to change climate and energy regulation forever. We're looking at more craziness coming out of the state of Virginia in a fireworks heavy, dark money hearing on Capitol Hill. All of that and so much more in another very Newsy Week special Wednesday episode of 10 Minute Drill.

[Guest/Commentator]

Everybody get up. Get up.

[Host]

The story of America is the story of an adventure.

[Guest/Commentator]

I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. We are nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be.

[Host]

Free first with the Olympics. I hope you are ready for US Hockey. Being able to represent the US at this stage in the Olympics is one of the greatest honors that I've ever had. This week, the Trump administration has announced that they are repealing the 2009 EPA endangerment finding. In the Wall Street Journal, Trump to repeal landmark climate findings in huge regulatory rollback move would reverse legal determination that greenhouse gases threaten public health. Now, the endangerment finding is the legal backbone for the entire regulatory framework that allows EPA to pass on climate regulations because it found that gases like methane and CO2 endanger people's lives. And with that as a tool, the entire climate agenda moved forward. Now, there's been a lot of complaints about this for several years, complaints about how this was carried out through the Administrative Procedure act, the fact that the Obama administration ignored lots of public comments. There's been scandal about how this draft rule came to be. The fact that essentially people in the Obama administration came into office with this plan, meaning that it was predetermined. We're gonna get into some of that, but this is a major, major deregulatory effort. Here's Caroline Levitt on that.

[Caroline Levitt]

This will be the largest deregulatory action in American history, and it will save the American people $1.3 trillion in crushing regulations.

[Host]

So what that endangerment finding enabled was things like vehicle emission standards, power plant carbon rules, methane regulations, fuel economy coordination. And it gave, as I said before, the EPA the power to act in place of Congress. Now, we knew at the time following this, in 2008 and 2009, that the climate regulations that Democrats wanted to push for are politically unpopular because they drive up the cost of everything. Fuel emissions standards might sound good to a small group of activists. People don't want to pay more for gas to fight climate change if they still have a very abstract view of how climate change affects them. Democrats, knowing this, wanted to empower EPA through the administration to pass on all these new massive climate regulations. And this endangerment finding is what allowed it to happen. And so with this being repealed, we'll be able to begin to approach energy policy in terms of actual science and not politically charged climate alarmism. President Trump has stressed from the beginning of his administration that energy is central to everything. It's central to affordability and fighting inflation. It's central to our foreign policy and America not relying on other countries the way that many European countries are finding themselves right now with Russia and things like that. But it's also critical to things like our tech innovation, the fact that AI development now AI is the great space race of our time. The race between the United States and China for AI dominance is incredibly important. And it comes back to so many other fights about national security and things like that that that doesn't work without access to reliable energy. So things like repealing the endangerment finding are critical for so many of those fights. Yesterday was a big day in the fight to highlight and try and root out the influence of foreign dark money in our politics. First in Fox News, foreign billionaires funneled 2.6 billion to US advocacy groups to influence policy. Watchdog Report claims. Now that watchdog is Americans for Public Trust, who we've talked about before. They have identified all the different funding streams that foreign billionaires like Hans Jorg Wyss, the foreign pervert and Christopher Hohn have used to shove their money into the American political system to help the left. Now there was a hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee where Caitlin Sutherland of Americans for Public Trust testified about this yesterday. Here she is explaining how that foreign dark monies used to influence politics.

[Caroline Levitt]

Abolishing private cars, eating less meat, training judges, protests, suing energy companies. These are just a few examples of what is being financed by foreign money and it must stop.

[Host]

Here are a few other highlights of that bombshell hearing. What's concerning about this is Mr. Hones.

[Guest/Commentator]

Ties to CCP linked organizations which led.

[Host]

To him abruptly pulling his funding from US Groups once it was exposed.

[Caroline Levitt]

Hones charity actually has an office in Beijing. They actively work with the Chinese government. They bankroll CCP connected organizations.

[Host]

The reason this is so important is this is the real foreign influence. We've been talking about what foreign influence means for a long time. The fact that foreign billionaires can help the left by giving them billions of dollars to push really radical ideas like banning your gas stove, banning your personal car, training judges to find climate change caused the rain that you felt yesterday is absurd and needs to be ident for the American people. So kudos to Americans for Public Trust for their incredible work on this front. On the issue of affordability, President Trump has made it a major focus making energy cheaper. He highlights constantly the fact that gas prices are looking lower than they have in years. Food prices are going down. There's so many different things his administration's trying to do to make things cheaper. But the group Save Our States has identified one major threat to that entire agenda.

[Guest/Commentator]

I have no higher priority than making America affordable again. That's what we're going to do. The banks that went after Trump now want hidden fees on every transaction.

[Host]

What Save Our States is identifying both with that ad and their campaign that you can find@banks versus america.com is the fact that the same big banks who, after January 6th and after President Trump was out of office, tried to shut down his bank account and even shut down the accounts for Melania Barron and others as retribution, are now trying to upend his affordability agenda by inserting hidden fees. This is something we've talked about called open banking, where big banks are trying to shut down the little guy, or not even the little guy, but the financial technology tools that you use, Venmo, Coinbase, PayPal, by putting these hidden fees in there, which will make everything in life more expensive. So check out what Save Our States is doing with that@banks vs.america.com. we've been talking a lot about Virginia and some of the crazier things they're doing. One reason that that's particularly relevant is because of Virginia's election cycle. They have their elections a year before the rest of the country, which means they have people in office for a full year while we prepare for the midterms. And why this is relevant to someone like me is I can point to what Democrats are doing now that they're in power in Virginia and say this is what you can expect from Democrats around the country if you give them power after the midterm elections. And what we're seeing so far in Virginia is very chilling. We've talked about more than 50 new taxes that Abigail Spamberger and Democrats are considering. Not to the wealthy like they normally like to go after rhetorically, but on everybody, on small businesses, on individuals. Dry cleaners. What is the thesis behind trying to increase taxes on dry cleaners? I don't know any dry cleaners that are giant conglomerations. These are going to hurt individuals and families. And one topic we wanted to get into today was Abigail Spamberger and Virginia Democrats radical efforts to try and get rid of the Second Amendment in the State of Virginia. First they're dealing with things like magazines. They are out to ban all magazines that go into guns and carry a certain number of bullets for anything with more than 10 rounds, which would immediately make most commonly owned home protection handguns illegal. With the swoop of a governor's signature pen. They're talking about new liability standards so that if someone shoots somebody, instead of holding the shooter accountable, you can sue the gun manufacturer and try and hold them liable for it with the larger goal of bankrupting and destroying the entire industry.

[Guest/Commentator]

In what world should a firearms manufacturer be held liable for the acts of a deranged madman or crimes that they committed? It's insanity.

[Host]

That was the NRA's John Comerford explaining again how absurd that liability structure would be and how it doesn't really make any sense. But they're going even further than that. They're targeting guns based on looking scary. Really, anything they can do to try and restrict second Amendment access at a time when people are wanting home protection guns so they can take care of themselves from the rising crime, as Abigail Spamberger and Democrats make it more difficult to put criminals in jail. But the other really scary thing that Virginia Democrats are doing right now is pushing forward the most radical gerrymandered congressional map in the country.

[Guest/Commentator]

So now from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Democrats moving forward with a plan to redraw that state's electoral map. This would give them four more seats the way the voting is now set up.

[Host]

As Bill Hammer said right there, that would give Democrats four more seats and take a state that President Trump won 47% of and give that 47% of Republicans who voted for President Trump only 9% of the representation, you'll remember the Commonwealth of Virginia had a Republican governor two months ago. So between the congressional maps, the anti Second Amendment activism to make it impossible for for you to protect yourself and your family and this insane range of taxes, Democrats are showing, they have a lot of scary plans for the country. After the midterms for our you can't make it up segment today, we go back to the Super Bowl.

[Guest/Commentator]

The Seahawks super bowl champions for the second time.

[Host]

The New York Post has a very interesting article about how California tax policy will impact winning quarterback Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold's insane California tax bill stunningly exceeds super bowl winnings. Because of California tax laws, the Seahawks star reportedly will owe more than the 178,000 he earned. According to Sportico, Darnold's bill to the Golden State will be $249,000 following Seattle's latest championship. The outlet stated the sizable check is due to California's jock taxes, which force pro athletes who don't live in the state to fork over percentage of their yearly income based on the number of days they work in California. Now, because Seattle and San Francisco are in the same division, Sam Darnold has to come to California for a number of days and California taxes him for those days of being in the state. Now if I were planning Super Bowls, I would say let's avoid the states that have ridiculous tax policies like this. Now if you think this tax policy is a good idea, look at where this might be going. The Gavin Newsom high speed rail vanity project to nowhere. Medicaid fraud, the billions for fighting homelessness that actually made homelessness worse. Or perhaps things like Gavin Newsom's slush fund to fight Donald Trump. It's not going anywhere good and nobody can feel really good about this. Even if you think Sam Donald makes a lot of money, he can afford it. Afford it for what? I don't like. That is all the time we have for today. Thank you so much for joining us on 10 Minute Drill. Please leave us a review like subscribe, tell your friends and we will see you tomorrow.