B (2:37)

You know, I think for a lot of right wing media personalities, I think the war is still pretty unpopular. I think as you said, I mean there are polls saying that, you know, majority of Trump voters are still with him on this, but you know, even losing 15% in, I mean that poll was taken I think within the first like four days of the war. I mean that's not a great sign. I mean that's the President's party. That's not a national poll of everyone. And so I think that's an issue. I think also this war, it's kind of like the initial outrage over it from people on the right who are going to be mad about it is settled down. But there's kind of just like this sense of like bad feeling. I feel like it's really highlighting a lot of the discontent that already existed over issues like Israel or anti Semitism in the Republican Party. And now it's kind of like the gloves are off, people are really like tearing into each other.

A (3:20)

Yeah, I was thinking about the 14. So like, you know, you could point to a poll, it's like, oh, well, self identified, you know, MAGA supporters, 86 support what's happening in Iran. And I'm with you, it's like, well, if you lose 14 of that, you know that, that, that's bad. Now I will say this. I, I went and looked at the, at the polling around the Afghanistan withdrawal during the, during the first year of the Biden administration to just get a sense of how Democrats felt about that. Because my theory of the case was that they would be, there would be similar numbers to what's happening now. There were more Democrats self identified Democrats upset with how Biden was handling the Afghanistan withdrawal than there are self identified Republicans who are upset with what's going on in Iran. That being said, this was not just Republicans, it was specific to maga. Can you, I could not think of another issue where self identified MAGA voters were upset with the president. At least 14 of them were upset. It's usually like 5%.

B (4:20)

I mean it's got to be Jeffrey Epstein.

A (4:25)

Do you think it was that bad? I can't remember.

B (4:27)

It probably was that bad. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, it's hard to know. I can't call the mind a poll immediately back from July, but. But I do think that that was like. I mean, that's kind of like the last time we had one of these, like, big kind of like crisis moments within maga.

A (4:41)

But they got over it.

B (4:44)

Yeah, I think that's right. And, you know, but I think it's interesting here that this sort of like this erosion of Republican support, I think, points to a larger thing that the administration has really not really cared to explain to any Americans what's going on here and has sort of been like, yeah, we're going to war. I mean, people have talked about this a lot, but, I mean, we know the run up to the Iraq war, I mean, there was like a year of just like, making the case, even if it was a fraudulent one. Whereas this one now we're looking at. I mean, they're just like, yeah, well, we're doing it, and who knows how long it's gonna go for? And, you know, there it is.

A (5:14)

You know, I'm gonna make you put your old media reporter hat on for this one. But, like, what do you make of Trump calling reporters mostly mainstream reporters for like, seven to eight minutes at a time and just like, plucking them off? What do you think's going on there?

B (5:29)

You know, here's what's interesting. You say it's mostly mainstream reporters. It's actually like a bunch of random outlets, too, who like, really like the Washington, which is like a conservative blog. He called them a bunch. And I mean, there's a couple other examples. I can't think of them immediately where I was like, what am I reading this?

A (5:48)

Right?

B (5:48)

This person just got off the phone with Trump. Like, you know, it's not like Maggie Haberman. I mean, it's like, really like someone that I would consider like a C list conservative media outlet. And I think that points to the fact that I think there's just like a lot of effort, you know, from this administration to message. And particularly in the first couple days of the war, there were all these calls where he was just like, hey, it's going great, Bye. You know, know, I mean, they were saying exclusive. Trump says the war is good, right?

A (6:13)

It is. It also raises some serious questions about how he's allocating his time. Right? Like, he's, he's spending a lot of time on the phone and messaging. And then every now and then, you'll see Like, a truth that comes up about how great the White Room, the White House ballroom construction is going. And then he was, like, videotaped golfing yesterday. And, you know, he bleeds about, like, the Save America act and all this stuff. Like, I don't. I don't get the sense that he's, like, pouring over battle plans and, like, working the phones with Middle east diplomats and things like that. He seems to try to be massaging the messaging around the war.

B (6:49)

Yeah, I don't think he's, like, hunched over in the Situation Room a lot. I mean, I think this is, you know, there's clearly this. There's other things going on with Trump. And I mean, this is just this weird thing where, you know, we can look at these. This disconnect between. We can look at, like, the huge oil explosions in Tehran, and yet here in the US I think there's this sense of, you know. Yeah, that's like, one thing we have going on. And especially, you know, if we look at the potential for oil to spike or other economic issues, I think it's an issue the administration is sort of going to have to face reality on relatively soon.

A (7:19)

Now, I just. Because it's also on my wall. We've been talking about my wall. I want to see if I can get the image of back there. You see that George W. Bush.

B (7:27)

I do. I do. I remember.

A (7:29)

That's from.

B (7:30)

No, I don't.

A (7:32)

Now watch that drive. You don't remember that famous George W. Bush moment because did he say it

B (7:38)

was, like, during the war? And he got a question. He said, yo, check this out.

A (7:40)

Yeah, yeah. He was on the course. He was. He was talking about how bad Saddam was. I wish we had the clip to play. Maybe we can get that clip up very, very, very rapidly. But he was on the chorus. He was. Just got his driver out. He was taking some questions, and then he's just like, it, I gotta hit this golf ball. So he said, now watch this drive. Trump didn't do that yesterday. He. He was videotaped golfing. I don't think it was Mar a Lago. I think it was another club. Speaking of people who he's talking to and spending his time on the phone with, or at least in person, Tucker Carlson. So Tucker, let's play the Tucker video because Tucker is, like, not done trying to persuade Trump to get the hell out of this war. Here is Tucker talking about. I think we touched on this yesterday, too, but talking about a poll that Trump apparently saw. And this combines two things we just talked about. Where apparently Trump is being shown a poll. 90% of people should support the war. Let's play it.

C (8:33)

Also, when he knows him just. I said, I'm just gonna fly anyway and tell him this because I think it's so important. And the person says, don't bother, because he's being shown polling that this war is like a 9010 win for him. And I said, I don't know where that polling is coming from. It's like, I guess you could make any kind of poll. And he's watching Fox News, which is telling him the same thing, and he's getting fake polling. I guess they're only polling Sean Hannity's viewers or something. And so I'm not sure that there's a sense, as if this was yesterday, because I was getting so agitated and worried. I don't think that there's a sense that this is unpopular.

B (9:15)

Great.

A (9:16)

I mean, is. So what do you make of that? First of all, I, the polling thing is, I don't. I, I haven't seen polling like that. He must be getting a poll that shows that 90% of MAGA supporters like it, because there's no, there's no poll that exists that shows this war as a 9010 issue. It shows the war as a 4060 issue at best. But what do you make of Tucker still trying to work it here? Because he obviously lost the first round, but he's not given up.

B (9:46)

Yeah. This is interesting. I mean, I think this is the first time he's sort of openly said, you know, these trips to the White House I was taking, I was trying to avert the Iran war. I'm sure it was not, you know, I'm sure he couched it in nicer language when he was in the White House. But, yeah, I mean, it's interesting, this idea that, you know, Trump has been, you know, I would certainly believe that, you know, he is seeing these polls that perhaps, as you said, he's being shown that, well, 85% of MAGA people support it. And so, you know, maybe that's getting in his head in terms of. Because I think Trump is a guy who's very sensitive to the sense of, like, oh, I'm in a quagmire, whether it's tariffs or something like, I need to taco out of it. And the fact that, you know, he hasn't done that so far. You know, it's not even clear if he has that option at this point. But. But I think it does suggest that he has some kind of like, poor sense of how this is being received.

A (10:32)

Yeah. What would a taco out of it even look like at this? I mean, he did try to declare victory, right? Like, there was a bleed over the weekend where he was like, Iran basically surrendered. They lost the first war in a thousand years. And yet obviously that didn't, they didn't surrender. So what would a taco even look like?

B (10:47)

Well, and he said, yeah, we're going to choose their new leaders. And then they did not do that. They chose their own Ayatollah son. Yeah, so so much for that. It is, I mean, it's crazy. I mean, I just feel like there's this sense of like we're getting the classic, like, Trump spin, that Trump's trying to throw things out. But, you know, as we're going to talk about, I mean, this, I think a lot of these right wing media pundits and talking heads, they're not fooled. They know that this is a sinking ship in terms of the popularity of this war. And I think they're trying to. I think so. I mean, I think people are kind of trying to triangulate.

A (11:18)

Right.

B (11:18)

Like, even Tucker, I think we have this tweet from him. He's not saying, like, I denounce the, you know, Trump's out of control. I mean, here you go. He goes, pray that the spell breaks and the world is saved. I mean, I think there's an implication.

A (11:29)

Who is, what is the spell?

B (11:31)

What is the spell? I think the wizard is Benjamin Netanyahu here. I mean, you know, he's talked before about, you know, this is Israel's war or whatever. And so, but even here he's kind of like, oh, it's not Trump's fault, you know, who's to say what's going on?

A (11:46)

Okay, back to the Civil War component of it in Maga, because while Tucker's doing this, like, and you talked about it in your, your newsletter last week, but there's people who are just like Tucker, right? I mean, they're just like, get this guy out of the party. And they, they view him as just channeling a threat of anti Semitism that they can't countenance. So let's play, let's put up the Mark Levin treat. The great Mark Levin. This is. So what's the background here? I'm not going to read this whole thing because it's too long, but what is the background here?

B (12:18)

Sure. So basically here we see Mark Levin is eating or, excuse me, Mark Levin is issuing. So Mark Levin is issuing a message. I Was saying, issuing and meeting. So the Republicans are getting together in Florida, and he's the House gop, and he's saying, you have to kick Tucker and Candace out or we're going to lose the midterms. Now, I think losing the midterms may. I think there are larger issues at play for them, but basically he's like, they gotta go. This is almost like an ultimatum. And I think what's going on here is we're seeing that obviously, particularly since the death of Charlie Kirk, the murder, there's this rising discussion about anti Semitism in the party. Figures like Candace Owens, figures like Nick Fuentes obviously have kind of risen to prominence. Even Tucker was saying last week, well, the Chabad Jewish organization helped inspire this war and all this stuff. And so now I think Mark Levin is, you know, pushing back. He's obviously very pro war with Iran. But I guess, like, overall, the message here is that we're seeing these tensions that were already building over the past six months or so, five months, really sort of. They're kind of like, playing for keeps. They're like, I have to take out my rivals now.

A (13:28)

Yeah, no, it's definitely opportunism, right? Like, oh, if we lose the midterms, it's definitely Tucker's fault. I did notice there's a funny moment where Fuentes, because Fuentes has been going off against the. Were on his show for a while now, and there was some. I forget who the Democrat was. He's like, I'm all for, you know, welcoming in people outside the temp. He's like, there's no tent big enough for this. Like, not gonna let Nick Fuentes into this one. Back to the House, because the House. I'm sorry, the midterms. The House increasingly feels like it's gonna, you know, fall from the grip of the Republican Party. You had Dan Crenshaw lose a primary bid. Now, this was not over Iran necessarily, though. People are saying they're. They're. They're. You know, I don't really follow the logic about how the Iran war hurt Dan Crenshaw more than, say, the redistricting, which made his district different. But maybe you can unpack it. But let's play the video of him being.

B (14:24)

Yeah. Can I just set this up here for this character is.

A (14:27)

Sure.

B (14:27)

So Dan Crenshaw, obviously, we all know Dan Crenshaw. People. A lot of people on the far right don't like him. They think he's, you know, he's a simp. He's a. He's a. He's a wimp. Whatever.

A (14:37)

What's the balance between a simp and a wimp?

B (14:38)

Well, a simp, you know, would be kind of like someone who's like sucking up to someone, particularly a woman, but in this case, maybe to the global war machine, you know. And so in this case, we have Alex Stein, who is sort of a right wing.

A (14:49)

Not related. Not related.

B (14:51)

Thank goodness. Thank goodness. He's kind of like a right wing prankster. I think he's in Dallas, so they're both Texas guys. And his kind of like his deal is kind of like he does confrontations. He's kind of a Loomer esque figure. And so basically, just briefly, that he was supposed to have a debate with Crenshaw and then Crenshaw with the Daily Wire. And then according to Stein, and he posted text messages to this effect, Crenshaw said, I'm not doing it with Alex Stein, which probably makes sense. And then.

A (15:19)

Wait, so just so I understand this, Crenshaw was supposed to debate Alex Stein at a Daily Wire event. And Crenshaw said, no, I'm canceling that.

B (15:27)

Yeah. He basically said, you know, I'm not going to do it with Alex Stein. You can get someone else. Which it's probably not that bad of an idea because this guy is like a real. He calls himself the pimp on a blimp. And so, you know, this is. Maybe if you're a member of con, maybe.

A (15:39)

Maybe we are related. Let's play the video.

D (15:46)

Dan, I bet you didn't see that loss coming. Dan, did you see that loss coming? Crenshaw. Crenshaw, you took the L. Hey, Crenshaw, you took the L. Did you see that coming? I know you only got one. One eye Cyclops.

B (16:00)

You lost.

D (16:01)

Did you do a good job?

B (16:02)

Oh, he's not a good guy.

D (16:05)

Hey, Dan.

A (16:06)

Dan.

D (16:06)

Great job on your election, brother. You're a loser. You're a loser. We got your ass, Dan. You're a loser. Great job, dude.

A (16:14)

Okay, yeah, I think we could stop there. Not a good look.

B (16:18)

So this is kind of like. Wait, what's that say?

A (16:22)

I said not a good look for the Steins. Jeez.

B (16:24)

You know, but that's kind of. Yes, he's, you know, you got to raise the bar for style, behavior. I don't want you confronting anyone. Okay, so this is kind of in the lower tiers of the right wing influencers. You know, Alex Stein is much more of a. In the kind of the Alex Jones anti war mold. And you can see, you know, the tensions are high.

A (16:45)

Well, can you explain why they think the Iran war contributed to Crenshaw's loss? I could not follow that.

B (16:51)

You know, I haven't seen a great argument about that myself. I mean, I think that's kind of like these anti war.

A (16:55)

It's out there though. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen it.

B (16:59)

I think, you know, I don't know a ton about the redistricting there, but I do know that like it's just a reality. Like a lot of Trump supporters don't like Dan Crenshaw. And this can be kind of a weird thing to keep up with because I think people think like the last time Dan Crenshaw was like really in the news in a general way was like when Pete Davidson, you know, mentioned his eye patch and all this stuff and then people, oh, this is like a MAGA guy. But in fact, Crenshaw has been, you know, a bit more in the McCain's, you know, every so often critical of the administration. Very mildly, very mild.

A (17:27)

Selectively this is sucked up to Trump in his. In his. He did suck up to Trump on multiple occasions. I know Tim Miller has a little bit of a beef with Dan, so no tears were shed. I suppose A couple of topics I want to get to. I suppose this gets back to the folks like Alex Steinl. I don't think he participated in this, but, you know, young Republican operatives continue to do really bad things and they get caught particularly texting each other. It seems to be a thing. Now, I know you talked about this on Friday, but can you recap what the f is going on with the Republican Party in Florida and the young. I guess it was the young Republicans in Florida.

B (18:10)

Yeah, just briefly. And then we can kind of get into what happened over the weekend with this. So there were a bunch of young Republican GOP operatives, the head of a Turning Point USA chapter at Florida International University, the secretary of the Miami GOP party, kind of these other sort of would be future Republican leaders. And they had this insanely racist group chat called Gooning in Agartha. And they said, I mean truly by the standards of.

A (18:40)

Do you want to explain Gooning again very briefly?

B (18:43)

Gooning is a sort of hypnotic masturbation and Agartha is sort of a sort of Nazi heaven, essentially. And so, you know, these guys were. I mean, the stuff that was going on here, it's like of all like the racist Republican group. I know you like that one. Over the past year, I think this is like truly the most shocking. I mean, you Know, it's. These people were Senate. I mean, it's so racist. I mean, you know, like.

A (19:09)

I mean, it's beyond racist. But why is it more shocking than

B (19:11)

New York Republican one?

A (19:12)

That was pretty racist.

B (19:13)

Well, I mean. Oh, that was bad too. And like, people were saying, oh, you know, Hitler or whatever. This one, I mean, was. There's one guy in particular who was just like specifically saying, like talks about act of violence towards black people. Like, very like, you know, it was crazy. And now Florida Republicans are, who are not in the chat are saying, oh no. And they're, they're condemning it.

A (19:33)

So, yeah, we have Rick Scott, distinguished senator from Florida, saying, this is disgusting. It cannot be tolerated. I'm glad that the Republican Party of Florida is launching an investigation and expect anyone who engaged in this horrible behavior to be held accountable. Racists and anti Semites are not welcome in the Republican Party. Not totally sure if that's true, Rick. Are there any other negotiations? Yeah, I was like, what are we talking about?

B (19:58)

Yeah, so the Florida Republican Party, as Rick Scott mentioned there, is looking into it. I think this Turning Point usa, the Florida International University is looking into it. I mean, there's potentially a criminal investigation just because of like, how threatening some of these messages were towards black people. But it's, you know, I guess the larger picture is, you know, we talk about how this kind of like young GOP operative class, how many of them are kind of groiper fied and sort of into this racist stuff. And I think these text messages can illuminate that.

A (20:29)

Well, it's like, so here. I mean, there's like a rich irony here, right? Like, so here you have a young group of Florida Republicans sending each other horrific, nasty, anti Semitic racist texts, laughing it up. It gets surfaced. And then the old guard Rick Scott's like, oh, this is abhorrent, unacceptable. We can't have people, you know, believing these things in the Republican Party. We shouldn't be, you know, accepting this type of language, literally. Over the weekend, another Florida Republican luminary, our Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is photographed with Enrique Tarrio. I mean, again, the Proud Boys leader himself. Proud Boys leader.

B (21:17)

So like fourth degree Proud Boy did the serials, you know, all this stuff.

A (21:22)

Why don't you give people the background on Enrique, Keep the picture up, but tell people what Enrique did and how bad a person he is.

B (21:30)

Is the guy who took over the Proud boys after Gavin McGinnis. I mean, he was involved in the planning of sort of the Proud boys actions at January 6th, which I think were really crucial in terms of kind of like lighting the spark that kind of like started the mob. You know, he is a very bad guy. You know, I mean, he tore down the Black Lives Matter flag at a church. He's I think, still facing legal stuff over that. I mean, this guy is essentially, I think about as close as we get to sort of an American fascist in waiting. I mean, this is a guy who very much is sort of like leading the Trump brown shirts.

A (22:01)

All right, so let's say you're a young Florida Republican operative trying to make it up the ranks. It seems like a little bit of cross current messaging here. On the one hand you have Rick Scott saying these texts are abhorrent, and the other hand you have Marco Rubio pictured with Enrique Tario. Again, not the same exact thing, but the message is being sent is that they are in fact comfortable with these types of people. They're just saying when they get a little bit of unwelcome media coverage that they have to sort of slap you on the wrist. I thought that was an interesting duality from the weekend. The last thing I want to talk about, and I'm going to let you talk about whatever you want to talk about. I don't really know if we have any more topics, but the Trump brothers, I don't know if you saw this because this didn't happen over the weekend. This broke this morning. The Trump brothers are getting into the drone business. So apparently they are investing in this power. US is a new drone company. You see the Wall Street Journal piece, It's a drone company vine to meet Pentagon demand and fill a hole left by the administration's ban on Chinese drones. I am not surprised that they're doing this and I will not be surprised when they get a very lucrative Pentagon contract for many, many hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars to do drones. This is, you know, this is the world we live in where family business is government business and so on and so forth. Eric Trump doesn't even start deny. He just makes fun of the paper for not making money.

B (23:24)

Well, you know, one thing I would note here, Sam, is that the Trump brothers have a lot of experience in sort of military drone technology. And you can tell this because the company they're using that they're sort of merging this drone company with is a, is a golf course company. I mean, that's kind of. No, I didn't see it. For taking. Yeah, that's in the article. That's, that's sort of the vehicle for taking over this drone company. Company. So, you know, I mean, clearly there isn't some influence trading thing. I mean, this is just a natural fit for them.

A (23:51)

I mean, what do you put the over under on them winning a very lucrative contract?

B (23:55)

Well, I mean, huge. I mean, does Pete Hegseth want to keep his job? I mean, I, I would say like, you know, they will. I mean, it's crazy. I, I feel like this one is, you know, it's good to bring these things up and it's good to stay alive to these. I mean, I feel like my first reaction was just like, oh yeah, you know, kind of put it on the pile of all these other things they're doing, you know.

A (24:13)

And you know, does that bother people in MAGA world that there's just obviously complete grifters or in this case just family business and that they're just enriching themselves? Doesn't that bother them to a certain level or. No.

B (24:27)

You know, I think on, I think they sort of see it as, you know, the ends justify the means here. You know, if they think Trump is doing other things they want, they're happy to look the other way. On the other hand, you know, I do think back to the famous Mike Cernovich remark a few months back where he was visiting D.C. and said, you know, everyone here is acting like Democrats will never take power again and that there will never be corruption prosecutions. And it's just a very weird situation.

A (24:52)

So I think, didn't he say like the grid, like the grifting is just like all anyone's talking about? It's just like.

B (24:58)

Yes. Yeah, just like how can you, how can you cash out during this administration?

A (25:03)

You raised Pete Hegseth. His, his, his kind of like showy pressers, the braggadocious, you know, we're gonna, you know, be more aggressive than there. And the weird rhyming that he had, I mean, he got spoofed on Saturday Live. But do people in, in the like magusphere find it refreshing or are they kind of tiring of that?

B (25:25)

Well, you know, I think it depends which faction we're talking about. I mean, I think if we're talking about kind of the classic Fox News people who obviously he's, he's a Fox News host. You know, I think they, you know, they, they like the war stuff, they're in for it. I mean, I think these kind of the right wing media cognizanti, maybe the kind of further right people, I think they look at him, I think as many people on the left see him as kind of this, like, boozy, blow hard type.

A (25:47)

Okay, I'm gonna end it there. We did locate the George W. Bush clip. We're gonna go out on that clip. So we'll play it and the feed will end. But Will, I appreciate your help and getting me up to speed. It's weird watching all this happen with, like, a serious war in the backdrop. And so while we're kind of chuckling at some of this stuff, just want people to know we take it very seriously. I'm. I. I do think it's important, honestly, in an earnest way, the 15 or so of MAGA that don't like this war that matters. I. I actually do think that matters materially. And I think it could end up getting higher, depending on how the war goes, depending on what happens with oil prices, things like that. But when you see people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Megan Kelly rail against this war, I do think that they have some influence. And I. You know, I don't think. I haven't really seen the podcast bro weigh in too much, have you? No, I haven't. Okay, so that'll be my next one to watch is like, where do the Rogans come down on this? Tim Dillon. I think we know where he's down on this, but, like, where does that crowd end up here?

B (26:58)

Theobo.

A (27:00)

Yeah, Theo. I guess there's five of them that you have to watch, but I think Trump's tr. You know, I think Trump knows this. I think he's. I think he's aware, and that's why he's making all these calls. I didn't realize he was calling that many people, but I do think he is aware of this. Any final thoughts before we set this out with George W. No, you know,

B (27:18)

I. I think there's a. You know, it's a. It's a time of high feud, and, you know, there's a lot of division right now because of the. And I think we'll have to. Everyone's looking to see if Trump can wrap it up.

A (27:29)

All right, man. Well, you heard the man. He's got the best insight. Subscribe to his newsletter, False Flag. Subscribe to our Bulwark feed, where you can get great conversations like this. Honestly, it's the best subscription in the news business, if I do say so. On that note, thank you for turning into MAGA Mondays. We're gonna leave you with George W. Bush telling reporters to watch his drive. Take care, guys. Must stop the terror. I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers.

B (28:02)

Thank you.

A (28:02)

Thank you. Now watch this. Drive.

B (28:08)

All right.

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