Loading summary
A
With its two juicy beef patties and three slices of melted cheese topped with tangy Big Arch sauce. The Big Arch is what happens when you start making a McDonald's burger and never stop. The Big Arch, the most McDonald's McDonald's burger yet for a limited time.
B
Have you guys noticed that that smug, arrogant asshole JD Vance, little smokey eye sociopath, sure hasn't been front and center on this Iran war? And so I've always wondered, like, what's going on there? Well, it turns out Trump is knifing JD and he's knifing him publicly, even at Mar a Lago. Pop this up. Clash Report reports. At a recent Mar a Lago gathering, Trump informally asked about 25 Republican donors and allies whether they would prefer Marco Rubio or J.D. vance as the GOP presidential candidate in 2028. According to attendees, the room overwhelmingly responded in favor of Rubio with loud cheering when his name was mentioned. And here's where they got that from. This is the NBC headline right here. Trump is Elevating Rubio. Iran War Elevates Marco Rubio and Trump's 2028 succession jogging. Trump has been informally polling his circle of friends and advisors about the 2028 election, which could pit some of his top against one another. And I want to talk to you about what our friend, professor and historian Ruth Ben Guyot, told me in an interview I had with her a couple of months ago. Autocrats frequently use what is called divide and rule. This is a playbook. This is historical. They all use this divide and rule tactics among their cabinets and elites to maintain power. Why do they do this? It prevents any single subordinate from becoming powerful enough to pose a threat. This strategy involves fostering competition, creating an environment of insecurity, and frequently reshuffling cabinet positions to ensure loyalty is directed only to the leader. So, as you can see, Trump does this. He'll trot out little Marco and then he pulls him back, and then he puts J.D. vance out and he puts him back. And he sends Stephen Miller out and he puts him back. This is divide and rule. These people are so unoriginal. They literally follow the history books as to what they do.
C
You know, I saw this about Trump sending all his, you know, who do you think should succeed me, Marco or J.D. vance? And I just thought this is how untethered from reality this entire group is, because this war and the economy and everything that Trump is bringing, in my opinion, Marco Rubio and J.D. vance are going to be, like, completely out of the running. They disqualified themselves when they said they'd work for this. And I honestly thought JD Vance was hiding because this war is so unpopular. But the reality is it's going to be like nobody's going to admit they voted for Trump. I think it will be the death of both political careers having been involved in this administration, but just the lack of, of reading the room in reality that Trump is so unpopular, this war is so unpopular, he thinks he's still a kingmaker.
B
I read some somewhere that people, when they were pitching this to Trump, he lives, he like is wrapped in bubble wrap and they tell him, oh, the support for the war is at 90%. Well, the support for the war among MAGA loyalists is 90%. But I want to push back. I have a differing opinion than you do about both of their political careers being over. That is our thinking that if somebody is involved in this, that it would be over. Something has broken in the American electorate, in the American public for these MAGA Republicans, the country club Republicans, the people who vote with their wallet book who thought Trump was a little crass, but boy, they sure do like his policy. I don't like the tweets, but I really like the policy. So I pay attention to the policy. God, have I had a lot of people say that to me. Marco Rubio. Rubio will be able to come in and say, look, I was a senator and I was able to be a part of this Cabinet because I wanted to make sure he didn't break the United States entirely. He is going to try to provide himself cover and he's going to offer these country club Republicans the old status quo Republican back. When it comes to the Republican electorate, I don't know what to think. I thought Donald Trump's career would be over after January 6th, but they like it. Hell, I don't know, they could nominate Nick Fuentes. The Republican electorate is the most dangerous component of our society. And so I don't know if these guys are washed up. I know JD Vance will have a bunch of tech oligarchs behind him. I know Marco Rubio will have a bunch of oil and gas banking billionaires behind him who long for the days of Reagan, you know, the Reagan Republicans. And Marco will come in and he'll be like, you know, I was Secretary of State and blah, blah, blah. But here's the thing, for me personally, I don't think either one of them has the charisma or the ability to keep the cult together. But I always have to remind myself because I start buying into these narratives, like, okay, if Trump died or if he ends up only serving this term and he doesn't try to fuck with the elections and cheat and all this stuff, nobody can keep the cult together. But you know what? The Republicans were a cult before Donald Trump. The Republicans have been culting for a long time. These people were all around George W. Bush. These people liked Sarah Palin. These people think Ronald Reagan was God's gift to Jesus Christ himself. And Ronald Reagan was demeaning to poor people, to sick people. He was just polite about it. It was just better looking about it than Trump is. So I think that the Republican Party is so broken. I don't know if these men's careers go on or not. I mean, I don't know. I think that the Republicans wouldn't move on to them for moral reasons. I think they would move on for electability things. And I think the person kind of who has more res that could consolidate a lot more people. Somebody like Tucker Carlson. And they've taken notice because Lyon Ted was on Lyon Ted, which is one of Trump's better nicknames for Ted Cruz. Lyon Ted was on TV talking about how the America's worst demagogue is is Tucker Carlson. He was recently doing this because of course, Ted Cruz is a big Israel thumper and Tucker Carlson calls out Israel as being not in America first thing. So it's going to be fascinating to watch. But I mean, these two queens, I agree with you, but I have to always point back that the Republican Party is just so morally depraved. Nothing these two are doing is disqualifying for them. Nothing. Okay? This is insane, insane, insane. Okay, so you know how the on the bro sphere, they like to talk about masculinity and Democrats are pussies and they're demon Kratz and they're libtards and all these stupid things, right? Miles Taylor is reporting. And I vetted this. This is a real thing. Pop this up. Trump coercing staff to wear the same black pair of shoes that he wears. Everybody's afraid not to wear them, a staffer said, as some reportedly ditched their own footwear to comply with Trump's wishes. Miles goes on to say, we're officially in the dumbest timeline and there's a photograph of all of them wearing matching shoes because Trump wants everybody in his posse to match shoes. This is the political movement. All those people on that stage right there, all those fuckers, I guarantee you they appetized entree and deserted. On Fox News wall to wall coverage of Barack Obama wearing the tan suit I don't really care if these dipshits all want to wear the same shoes like Tweedledee and Tweedledem fucks. I don't really care. What I hate is the hypocrisy that these guys act like they're just. They're such individuals and personal accountability, and we are the. You know, the freedom and all of this stuff free. You have to wear whatever ratchet shoes that old queen picked out for you. It's embarrassing.
C
Yeah. When I saw that picture, I was just like, look at just the cowards. They are cowards to the core. They don't even have the balls to say, I'll wear my own shoes. It's pathetic.
B
It's really. It's fascinating when you think about, like, how little it took for so many men to capitulate to this man. I think about all the podcast bros, the Joe Rogans, the. The other ones. I can picture their faces right now, but not their names. But, you know, they all had Trump on, and Trump's talking about, I like to weave, and I can do all of this stuff. That they weren't just sitting there going, this person is not all there. This person shouldn't be in charge of us. And they just capitulated so quickly, quickly to him. And it shows you that there is a problem with men not learning to stand up for themselves and to stand up for what they believe in, that they fall prey to a group think a lot easier than other people do. MAGA men do, at least. I mean, they all are wearing the same shoes. I mean, what are they in fucking sixth grade? I mean, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. So here's the problem, you guys. All of that's fine and good, but these dipshits that are matching their shoes have started a war in Iran. And people who have not been voted for or appointed or gone through congressional hearings or Senate confirmation hearings are making the biggest decisions. They're pulling the biggest levers. And I'm talking about Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, and these guys are the ones that are doing pretty much all of our diplomacy. So it's interesting that he's propping up Marco Rubio while at the same time knifing Marco Rubio where the State Department would be more involved in this, and he's letting these two unapproved people do make all of these decisions. They talked to Benjamin Netanyahu every day. These are the ones that fled, were flying over, talking to Vladimir Putin all the time. So also, we know that the Trump regime Doesn't give honest information. And so we have reporting now coming out of Reuters and the Midas touch is posted the following. As many as 150 US troops have been wounded in the war with Iran, according to sources familiar with the matter. Far higher than the Pentagon's publicly disclosed figure. Out of just eight seriously wounded troops, the true toll of this war is already far worse than the public has been told. And Senator Blumenthal and some others went into a closed door Senate meeting yesterday and they come out of it convinced that this regime is going to put boots on the ground. And if we already have seven, that we know of seven troops dead and that wouldn't include like CIA assets and undercover allies and things that we have over there and then 150 injured soldiers, I think, I personally think the death toll is probably higher. And I think if they put American boots on the ground, it's going to be an absolute disaster for these men that aren't even, don't even have enough conviction to pick out their own shoes. And I know that seems silly, but think about that. These guys have no agency or no autonomy to walk to their closet and say, I think I want to wear these brown penny loafers today. They can't do that because the nut job pulling all calling all the shots here wants them to all wear matching shoes. So what this is going to lead to is we have an incompetent president that has full blown dementia, but before he ever had dementia, he was a dipshit, a con artist, a compulsive liar, you know, malignant narcissist. And then we put dementia on top of that. And then all of these people around him so desperately to please him, they match their shoes and they're going to send American troops to Iran to die for what? They haven't even told us what this war is for. Nobody even knows what it's for. And I've been reading online and I'm going to do this later tonight. Apparently a lot of Americans are getting VPNs and logging into the international news about what's going on in Iran. And it's a lot, a lot different than the way it's being reported here. And so we're already in a regime where you have the President's oligarchs buying up media, controlling what we can read and not read. You have Israel, who has never allowed press on the ground in Gaza unless they're escorted by the idf, which that's not a free and fair press. And they're not accurately reporting the toll that this has had on Israel because they want to run a war of propaganda with the American people.
C
Well, I look at that, that group of men, and I always. I've asked the question on this podcast a hundred times, who around him can give him advice? Who does he listen to? And the response is everybody around him tells him what he wants to hear to the point that instead of saying, you know, I prefer loafers, they will wear the same shoe. So is he getting real advice and true advice?
B
Fuck.
C
Oh, this is the same regime that refuses to release the job numbers, the labor statistics, like they lie about everything. That is not complimentary of them. And then you look at, you know, you mentioned he has all the oligarchs buying all the media, social media. I am confident they are lying to us. That this will be done in the most ridiculous, poorly executed, poorly planned, incompetent way that is humanly possible on planet Earth. This is how this is going to go. And service members are going to die, full stop. They already have died. They're going to wound more. There will be generational trauma in the Middle East. They will breed more American hate, and we will never know why we are there. You cannot get a complete, coherent message from any member of this administration on why we are here. So to think that service people are going to die in relationships and generations of families and children and lives will be ruined and for nothing because nobody had any balls to say, I want to wear penny loafers today. That's who, that's what we're dealing with here.
B
And I also want to mention that, and I know you share this with me, pumps. But the, the Iranians that are getting killed absolutely pitch this bill of goods that were your liberators, and they're BO schools and they're bombing hospitals. They just bombed another school yesterday. And then they're hitting all of their infrastructure. And toxic rain is getting a city of 10, 11 million people, and they're going to breathe in all of these carcinogens. And I'm. I feel for human beings. Like, I didn't choose to be an American. I didn't vote for this president. There are millions upon millions of Iranians that didn't choose to be Iranian, but they have pride in that. It's where they're from. They didn't like the ayatollah, but so they thought, okay. And then, you know, the Israelis and the Americans come in and start bombing the. And lying and say they're going to liberate them and we're some beacons of democracy. We're incompetent, arrogant megalomaniacs to the core. To the core. It's just disgraceful. And then this is something that just. The military. All right, maga, all this shit's going on, and this pops across my timeline. Erica Kirk appointed to Air Force Academy board. I just. It's just we're in the dumbest timeline with the dumbest people, with the worst of us. The worst. The villains are getting celebrated. The worst snake oil salesman, the worst con artists, the worst that America has to offer is representing us right now. And it's so maddening to all of our international listeners. It's so frustrating because my experience, when I see other Americans, they share what I share. They're proud of the music, all of the things. Our cities, our football teams, our basketball teams, our fantastic universities. And MAGA wants to dismantle every bit of it. Our government, our free speech, our educational systems, and then appoint the worst of us to be in charge of stuff. It's just. It's so incredibly depressing. But in this format and on this platform, I think it's important that we all stay engaged and we don't descend into nihilism. And then we get to where we don't believe in anything. We have to still believe in each other, and we have to believe in what we think is right and faith. Keep forming a community. Because when we go out for these midterms, they are going to mess with them with the full might of the federal government behind them. But the turnout must be too big, too rig. All right, that's all we have. Like, subscribe, comment, and we'll be back later with more news.
Podcast: IHIP News
Hosts: Jennifer Welch & Angie "Pumps" Sullivan
Episode: JD Vance Shunned By Trump in Public Humiliation Ritual Against Marco
Date: March 11, 2026
In this episode, Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan dissect the latest in Trump-era Republican politics, focusing on rumors that Donald Trump publicly snubbed JD Vance at Mar-a-Lago in favor of Marco Rubio as his 2028 successor. Their signature progressive, comedic, and incisive banter also interrogates the ongoing U.S.-Iran war, Republican loyalty rituals, and the dysfunction propelling both policy and personality in the GOP.
Mar-a-Lago Humiliation:
Trump reportedly asked a group of Republican donors whether they preferred Marco Rubio or JD Vance for 2028, and the crowd overwhelmingly cheered for Rubio, sidelining Vance.
Divide and Rule in Action:
Jennifer cites historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, explaining Trump’s classic autocratic strategy of “divide and rule”—pitting allies against each other to ensure loyalty only to him.
Assessment of GOP Succession:
Angie suggests the public humiliation is emblematic of how out-of-touch the Trump circle is, especially amid an unpopular war and economy.
On Divide and Rule:
“Autocrats frequently use what is called divide and rule... It prevents any single subordinate from becoming powerful enough to pose a threat.” – Jennifer Welch (01:13)
On GOP Out-of-Touchness:
“This is how untethered from reality this entire group is…” – Angie Sullivan (02:37)
On the Republican Electorate:
“Something has broken... They like it. Hell, I don’t know, they could nominate Nick Fuentes.” – Jennifer Welch (04:27)
On Performative Unity:
“Everybody’s afraid not to wear them… as some reportedly ditched their own footwear to comply with Trump’s wishes.” – Jennifer Welch (08:05)
On Cowardice:
“They are cowards to the core. They don’t even have the balls to say, I’ll wear my own shoes.” – Angie Sullivan (09:00)
On Policy & War:
“We have an incompetent president that has full blown dementia, but before he ever had dementia, he was a dipshit, a con artist, a compulsive liar, you know, malignant narcissist.” – Jennifer Welch (13:42)
On Service Member Sacrifice:
“Service members are going to die, full stop… and for nothing because nobody had any balls to say, I want to wear penny loafers today.” – Angie Sullivan (14:29)
On Hope & Engagement:
“We have to still believe in each other, and we have to believe in what we think is right... the turnout must be too big to rig.” – Jennifer Welch (16:45)
The episode is sharply progressive, freely irreverent, and blends political analysis with biting humor and exasperation. Both hosts deploy sarcasm, pointed swearing, and grim comedy, while still conveying sincere concern for the future and a resolve to stay engaged.
This installment delivers an unfiltered look at the chaos and sycophancy within the current GOP, the performative rituals signifying Trump’s dominance, the tragic absurdity of the ongoing Iran war, and why progressive engagement (however darkly hopeless things may look) is still crucial.