
In the October 15th episode President Trump has what some are calling a “Berlin Wall moment” in the Middle East. We break down the phases of the new Israel–Hamas peace deal, how Trump’s “peace through strength” strategy worked, and why...
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As President Trump returns from a triumphant visit to the Middle east, we break down Democrat reactions. The latest on the shutdown as Democrats face the consequences of their strategy. And stay out of Katie Porter's shot. All of that and so much more today on 10 Minute Drill. Everybody get up. Get up. The story of America is the story of an adventure.
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I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you.
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We are a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free.
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As we talked about yesterday in our lightning round episode, President Trump returned triumphant from a visit to both Israel and Egypt, where he signed historic accords marking peace in the Middle East. This is being described as a Berlin Wall moment for President Trump and something that many believe only he could have accomplished. Now, you'll remember President Biden came into office touted as the president with the most experience in foreign policy in history, but he didn't get close to this. And I believe a lot of it has to do with the fact that President Trump is the perfect combination of Nixonian madman theory, which is, you know, when President Nixon was president, foreign leaders had no idea what he was going to do, so they didn't try him. And that's been President Trump's M.O. since he's been in office. But it's also the mess around and find out mentality where President Trump has made clear to the world that if you mess with us or our allies, you're going to find out. And, of course, the Reagan peace through strength. So this is a massive victory for President Trump. We're going to talk about the reactions to it, but first, what this deal means. This is the culmination of phase one. Phase one is an initial ceasefire and hostage exchange. The images of hostages returning to their families, the 20 remaining living hostages were incredible. The entire world watched that and were moved by it. But now we move into phase two, which is critical. Full Israeli withdrawal, disarmament, the final hostage release, and the end of war. Phase two is going to rely very heavily on trust but verify. But a big part of President Trump's strategy here has been to enlist the entire region to engage and make sure that Hamas keeps up their side of the bargain. This regional engagement strategy is similar to what President Trump has been trying to do in Ukraine by empowering NATO and empowering other NATO allies, specifically around Ukraine, to play a role in their own peace. A number of Democrats have actually given President Trump some credit for this. People like Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Anthony Blinken, even President Biden have given some acknowledgement to the fact that President Trump led the way on this. But one common theme from a number of Democrats has been why isn't Joe Biden getting more credit? And one reason that Joe Biden's not getting more credit is cuz his strategy in the Middle east, in this region in particular has primarily focused on appeasing Iran. And it followed President Obama's long history of appeasing Iran with pallets of cash that we believe eventually fel their way into supporting Hamas on October 7th. But the other glaring thing from the Biden administration is the fact that his number two, Vice president Kamala Harris, made a point of racing to be the first person in the administration to call for a ceasefire with or without the return of the hostages, which immediately undercut our allies, particularly Israel's fight in the region and their own ability to defend themselves, to get revenge, but also to fight as they tried to free the hostages themselves. So one question I have watching this is where is the Free Palestine crowd? Where is the Queers for Palestine? All of the numerous groups that lined up demanding that Israel get out of Gaza in this conflict, you would think they'd be thrilled because they are getting so much of what they want through this deal as Hamas is giving back hostages and pulling out and relinquishing their arms. I have two theories on this. One is the fact that the Free Palestine crowd is largely animated by people who just hate Israel. And while they might be getting what they are demanding on paper, their real hope is an end of Israel completely. That's what from the river to the sea actually means. But the other part of this is one thing that we've talked about here is much of the pro Hamas and Free Palestine movement has been astroturfed by left wing dark money Americans. Republic Trust revealed. A number of dark money groups have been funding these protests around the country. And so maybe people have just stopped giving money to these. And so we're not seeing as much activity on that front. I guess we'll never know. Checking back in on the government shutdown now, first off, one theme that I wanted to address first and foremost is why this shutdown is happening now. Last week Hakeem Jeffries went on CNBC and did a terrible job defending their strategy, defending their posture. He looks tired, he's dead eyed. But here's one point that I wanted to highlight.
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Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency. Joe, you're exactly right. So if the government shuts down, they've made the decision to shut the government down and they can reopen it right? Now, if they chose to, with a rule change in the Senate. But the real. I just explained it.
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No, Hakeem, you did not explain it. Because the reality is, while Democrats want people to believe this is Republicans fault because they control the White House, House and Senate, what Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer both know is that to pass a continuing resolution in the senate, you need 60 votes. Now, Hakeem Jeffries and other Democrats have talked about this in a way that suggests they want Republicans to break the filibuster, to pass the continuing resolution without them. That's not something that anyone wants to see, but it allows them to, again, try and evade blame just a little bit. But one thing that's been happening these last few days is Democrats facing the consequences of their own shutdown actions. First and foremost, they are frustrated to see government workers not working, which is the first thing that happens in a shutdown. Here's Mark Kelly. They do not have to do this. They do not have to punish people. Now, as you hear Mark Kelly say, they don't have to punish people. Remember, it is Democrats who are punishing people who have now voted 7, 8, 9 times against a continuing resolution that would fund the government and pay government employees. But the other major problem coming up is military pay periods. Now, President Trump has talked about trying to find ways to divert any funding and budget money we can to pay our armed forces and, and to ensure that their families don't go without a paycheck just because Democrats are having a political hissy fit identity crisis. Now, Democrats reportedly have threatened to sue if President Trump does that, which is a critical reminder that Democrats want people to feel pain as they maintain this government shutdown. Right now, they are the ones maintaining the shutdown and the threats are rising and they're upset that they can't control the pain points that come from this. They'd like to be able to shut down the government, but not have any consequences flow from that shutdown. But one of the other major, major challenges that we're seeing from this shutdown relates to air travel. Here is Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
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But we have controllers who are upset. They're angry at Chuck Schumer. They're doing their job, making sure that our skies are safe and airplanes are moving. All the while, Chuck Schumer won't stand up and fight for them to make sure that they get paid. He is instead fighting for illegal migrants.
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Now, as you consider Secretary Duffy's discussion about air traffic controllers and the safety of traveling being hindered by the Democrats, shutdown. Hear this quote by a senior Democrat aide to cnn. Another senior Democrat aide said just as long as public perception is in their favor, the party will not concede short of planes falling out of the sky. This follows Chuck Schumer saying the quiet part out loud, saying every day of this shutdown gets better for them. A Democrat senior aide saying that they will keep the government shut down until planes fall out of the sky is incredibly foreboding and dark, but highlights just how twisted their approach to this shutdown has been. In yesterday's Lightning Round episode we talked about the Virginia AG race and the Virginia Governor's race and the fact that in the wake of J. Jones insane texts about wanting to shoot his political opponents and and watch their children die, both of those races have tightened significantly. Even the Governor's race, which has always been a bigger challenge, has gotten within 5 or 6 points according to some polls. And in the AG race, Jason Miaras in some polls has pulled ahead by as many as four to six points. A new bombshell today from Jerry Dunleavy of Just the news. Jay Jones, Running for Virginia AG had a BLM style platform in his first run in 2021. Divesting from the police, pulling cops from schools, ending qualified immunity, abolishing cash bail and claiming George Floyd and Jacob Blake could have been him. Oops. Now you'll note that a couple weeks ago we talked about another revelation from J. Jones emails saying that he would be comfortable seeing a few police officers die. So this all checks out and reminds the people of Virginia just how radical this person is. Not only does he want to shoot his political opponents and and watch their children die, but he wants to actively make Virginia less safe. Which is a tough sell when you want to be Virginia's top law enforcement officer. Highlighting what we talked about yesterday, a foreign British billionaire named Christopher Hone was highlighted in a report by watchdog group Americans for Public Trust for giving over half a billion dollars to American dark money groups to carry out left wing politics, primarily environmental groups like Energy Foundation China, which is heavily invol in attacking American energy resources and promoting the left's climate agenda. He's also funded groups like the Natural Resource Defense Council and the Rocky Mountain Institute, the left wing dark money group that met with Jennifer Granholm dozens of times as they were working against gas stoves here in the United States. After Americans for Public Trust called out Hone and his organization, they announced over the weekend that they would be cutting off all funding for American political activities. This is an earth shaking development that will do serious damage to the left's dark money astroturfing universe. But it also once again begs the question that we talked about when we previously covered foreign pervert Hans Jorg Wyss. Why are foreign billionaires trying to influence US Politics? And why is that allowed? To touch on a story we covered very briefly in yesterday's Lightning Round episode, we want to go back to those LA wildfires you'll remember. They began on New Year's Day. They ravaged areas like the Pacific Palisades and 10 people lost their lives in these fires. Now Democrats were immediate in who they called out as the culprit of this.
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The worst wildfire in Los Angeles history should happen in the dead of winter.
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Is another warning of the dangers of climate change.
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There is something so fundamental that also cannot be denied, and that is climate.
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Change scientists confirming that climate change caused the fires. But the really big thing is climate change.
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The existential threat of climate change has never been clear. Just look across the country from California.
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To North Carolina, because one of the reasons why we are dealing with the fires is because of climate change caused.
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By human caused warming due primarily to the burning of fossil fuels.
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Now allow me to present climate change. This is a young man named Jonathan Rinderknecht, who is actually a climate activist who's written extensively about how climate change is destroying the world and going to make US summers uninhabitable. Now, it's ironic that he's writing and warning about these things while also causing the fires that are killing people. But again, this highlights why so many people doubt the climate alarm is a movement. The last person you saw in that sizzle reel was climate scientist Michael Mann, who has been disgraced from numerous jobs because he has cut the corner on science and tried to argue everything under the sun was the result of climate change. And when people found out later, actually it's just a sad loser kid who was playing with matches in a forest. They never go back and correct themselves. This week, podcaster Gavin Newsom hosted our favorite Democrat senator, the brightest bulb in the Democrat caucus, Chris Murphy, to talk about the current state of the Democrat Party.
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You feel like our party is in better shape for or worse shape? Are we finding our voice? Is this shutdown, in a perverse sense helpful in terms of just organizing that voice and a clarity of what's at stake?
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All right, well, I'm going to turn that question back around on you too, but I mean, the polling would not tell you that our party is in good shape today. I mean, we are historically unpopular.
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Oh man, it is nice to like hear him acknowledge it. But I also prefer Harry Anton's approach to it. The Democratic brand is in the basement.
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It is total and complete garbage.
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Now I enjoy irony and Chris Murphy and Gavin Newsom talking about being historically unpopular with zero self awareness about what caused it is fantastic. It reminds me of this. We're all trying to find the guy who did this. It could be things like Gavin Newsom's cringe tweets or it could be things like Katie Porter who we talked about a little bit yesterday in our Lightning Round episode.
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Here.
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Here is she.
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You're not gonna do the interview with us?
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Nope. Not like this I'm not. Not with seven follow ups to every single question you ask and the state could lose. Get out of my shot. But real ones know that Katie Porter's history goes back well before this. Here she is in her Batman costume in the halls. If you return the Batmobile, could you pay for the Green New Deal? Let's show that one more time so you can see that coffee falling. Cause I know that some staffer is going to get yelled at for that one. Could you pay for the Now I share all this with the reminder that this is currently the person leading the polls in California in the Democrat primary to take over for Gavin Newsom as governor. But it's not just Katie Porter. Let's introduce you to again, Chris Murphy.
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And on this question of dei, I think the thing that we can do is just call it out every single time for what it is. It is white male supremacy. We are not on the verge of an authoritarian takeover. We're in the middle of it. We have an opportunity through the protests on October 18 to show the country and the world that we aren't lying down. It has failed to deliver for the people we care about most, the undocumented.
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Like we're in a.
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We're in a war right now to save this country. And so you have to be willing to do whatever is necessary in order to save the country.
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That is all the time we have for today. Thank you so much for joining us us. Please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or YouTube. We love your comments. React to them. Have a great day.
Host: Matt Whitlock
Date: October 15, 2025
In this rapid-fire 10-minute episode, veteran strategist Matt Whitlock covers major political stories shaping the day: President Trump’s widely-lauded Middle East peace deal dubbed his “Berlin Wall moment,” the ongoing government shutdown and the Democrats’ messy political strategy, the exposure of foreign influence in US progressive politics, and some attention-grabbing moments in Democratic circles from Virginia's AG race to California politics. The tone throughout is sharp, irreverent, and unapologetically critical of left-wing figures.
Segment Start: 00:36
Whitlock describes Trump’s recent trip to Israel and Egypt, culminating in historic peace accords, as a “Berlin Wall moment.” The agreement features a phased ceasefire, a major hostage release, and full Israeli withdrawal to come.
Whitlock draws comparisons:
Democratic Reactions:
Grassroots & Astroturfed Protest Movement:
Segment Start: 04:43
Whitlock highlights Democrats’ attempts to shift blame for the shutdown to Republicans, playing a clip of Hakeem Jeffries:
“Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency. …If the government shuts down, they've made the decision to shut the government down.” – Hakeem Jeffries (04:43)
Whitlock rebuts, emphasizing Senate rules (“to pass a continuing resolution in the Senate, you need 60 votes”) and criticizes Democrats for suggesting Republicans break the filibuster.
Notes Democrats’ votes “7, 8, 9 times against a continuing resolution that would fund the government and pay government employees” (05:36).
Military and Federal Worker Impacts:
Major Fallout: Air Travel Threatened
“Why are foreign billionaires trying to influence US Politics? And why is that allowed?” (09:48)
“We're not on the verge of an authoritarian takeover. We're in the middle of it. …you have to be willing to do whatever is necessary in order to save the country.” – Chris Murphy (14:01–14:24)
This episode gives listeners a brisk, opinionated rundown of top political stories, marked by sharp partisanship, skepticism of Democratic narratives, and a focus on the consequences of both political strategy and outside influence. Whitlock’s rapid delivery and use of pointed audio clips keep the pacing energetic, providing a snapshot of the current political battleground as seen through a conservative lens.