← Mark Levin Podcast
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- [00:01]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
America's best days are yet to come. That's because conservatives like you know and live the values our great country was built on. The Heritage foundation exists to make sure your voice is heard in the D.C. swamp each day, shining the light on a bright future. The Heritage foundation stands for your values and won't give up the fight because they know you never will. Paid for by the Heritage Foundation.
- [00:21]
Caller
He's here.
- [00:23]
Ben Ferguson
He's here now broadcasting them from the.
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Mark Levin
Underground command post deep in the bowels of a hidden bunker somewhere under to the brick and steel of a nondescript building.
- [00:35]
Ben Ferguson
We've once again made contact with our leader, Mark Len. Welcome, it's the Michael Ben Show, Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great One today. It's so nice to be with you for the next three hours. Wherever you are around the country, we have got a lot to talk about. There is a rumor right now that the media and the Democratic Party are pushing that Donald Trump is a disaster. His approval rating is a disaster. The Republican Party is a disaster. His supporters are fleeing, they're angry with him and everything's terrible. We've got data to show that that is nothing but political propaganda from state sponsored media. How do we know this? Well, get ready to use this around the dinner table with your woke liberal family members. When they tell you that Donald Trump is a disaster, it's a lie. President Donald Trump now enjoys a 50% approval rating with a net approval rating of +9 points, according to the latest polling from Insider Advantage. The national poll of 800 likely voters conducted on Saturday finds that 50% of respondents approve of the president's performance 11 months into his administration. Another 41% disapprove of the job Trump has done, while 9% are undecided. That is significant. The poll shows that a substantial majority of men give Trump positive remarks, while most women disapprove of his performance. So there is a issue on sex here which Democrats will never figure out because they don't even know what the definition of a woman or a man is. They can't define it. So, like, the good news is as long as they're fighting over that, we're probably going to be okay. We are seeing trends in the polling ahead of the midterm elections coming. All right. Of men surveyed, 59% are happy with the president's performance, 34% disapprove. Why are men so with the president? I'm going to explain it very simply. Men like decisive action from leaders. They just want to know what they're dealing with. Even if it's something they disagree with. Men don't like ambiguity from any leader. They just want to know what's happening. They want to know what's going on. They want to know if something is going to be different, then tell them it's going to be different. That is all they care about. Especially in business now with Donald Trump, it's clear that men feel like he's in charge. It's very clear. They feel like he's doing the right thing there. He's keeping them safe, he's working on their businesses, he's trying to lower taxes, he's trying to make it easier for them to run their businesses with deregulation. There are a significant number of things, okay, a significant number of things that men are saying, I'm behind that. I like it. I think this is great news. That's number one. I want to be very clear now, of the 39% of men that don't like the president, most of those are going to be hardcore leftists, woke liberals, okay? That's just who they're going to be. They're going to be woke liberals and, and they're going to be people that were never going to vote for them anyway, no matter what. And that's just the way that was going to work. So no one should be surprised by that, okay? Like everyone should understand it that this is just how it's going to be. I think this is amazing for the president having approval rating landing at 59 points above water. And then people say, oh no, this is somehow a disaster. No, it is not. Now Trump is even, is even by the way, with voters under 40. That is significant because usually younger voters are woke liberal people. Now we're finding out that's also not the case anymore. There's a lot of people under 40 that just want a president that supports them and allow them to grow and make more money to be able to buy a house, for example. Home buying experience under the Biden administration was a disaster. The highest age we've ever seen for first time home buyers, interest rates out of control. People felt like they're being left behind. That is the reason why Trump is even with under 40 voters. That should usually be a negative for Republican candidates because they feel like the president's actually rooting for them, not against them. Something else that's interesting here is Democrats have a very worrying issue because not only is Trump even with voters under 40, but he enjoys a net positive approval rating among voters 40 and up. That is a problem for Democrats heading into the Midterms. Because what they're also saying, voters like, hey, I may not be jumping up and down as independent for Trump, but at least I know what he's going to do, and I stand with him on a lot of the issues are 50% plus one more than the Democratic Party, which is a socialist party, all over the place. Trump has a 44% approval rating among those ages 18 to 39. That is a massive number for Republican. 44% of the demographic disapproves. That's not surprising. Of those 18 to 39, when you're younger, you don't pay as much taxes, you're a little more woke, you're a little more kumbaya, you're coming out of college where they've indoctrinated you. And a lot of times you'll go against, like, sanity and you want handouts and free government stuff. And you live in this utopia of like, well, everybody should get everything for free. College should be free, and we should get free health care and all those things. Right? So the fact that the president 18 to 39 is at 44%, 44% approval rating and 44% disapproval is incredible. There's also something else in there that's really important, and that's the those that are, in essence, independent or have no opinion, it is at 13%. That is significant. Now, of those between 40 and 64, okay, 54% give Trump a positive grade, while 39 give him a negative one almost a year into his first term in office. I'm going to say that again. Of those between 40 to 64, this is where Donald Trump eats. This is where conservative candidates usually have their best polling number. 54% say, yes, we give him a positive grade, 39 give a negative. That's almost a year into his term. That means that people are not only just standing with the president, but they actually believe that what he's doing is working.
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Donald Trump
And it's.
- [07:18]
Ben Ferguson
And we're past the tryout period is the way I could describe it. Now, if you look at political affiliation, this is another one of the big lies that's been out there that's been told by the media and the Democratic Party, and that is that Donald Trump is somehow losing support among his own party. That's just a lie. All right? Donald Trump earns an 84% approval rating among Republicans and a 25% approval rating among Democrats. So if you're going to election day and 25% of Democrats are looking at Trump's policies in a positive light, that is A disaster poll for Democrats. I want you to understand that 11%, by the way, of Republicans say they are dissatisfied with Trump's performance. That is, again, not surprising. Many of them may disapprove with the president on a multitude of different things. One of the issues that's probably in there would be, my guess, is a support and standing by Israel. There, there, there is a section of the conservative movement that is anti Semitic right now. I, I believe there's a large chance that 11 of that is going to be in that, you know, America only, who cares about Israel, we hate the Jews kind of, you know, the Nick Fuentes, the, the Tucker Carlson, the Candace Owens part of the Republican Party. That's where that 11% is probably coming from. That's why they're saying they're just dissatisfied with Trump's performance. Now, there's also some that may be in that group that are against him in the oil and gas industry. Why? Oil and gas is not where the industry wants it to be. The President has put the oil and gas prices lower than what the industry would like. So I know people in the oil and gas industry. They're very upset with the President because they want gas or oil prices to go up so they can make more money. Right now, there's a lot of areas where you can drill and a lot of areas where there's drilling that's expensive, that financially is not feasible. So they're upset because they have these leases, they have this equipment, and they're not making money off of these areas where oil was another $25 a barrel higher, they'd be killing it. Right. So this is a, this is, some of those people are in that industry. By the way, I bought premium unleaded gasoline today for 252A gallon. Like not, not 87.
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Caller
All right?
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Ben Ferguson
I'm talking about the 93 octane, the premium. That is crazy how fast the President has gotten that, that low. Because I was paying more than that, much higher than that for the cheap stuff, for the 87 octane when Biden was present. Now I'm paying for the premium, the 93 at that level. That's just incredible. So there's some of the politics involved in there. You're never going to get 100 approval rating within your own party, but being at 89% within your party is pretty impressive. Now, here's the part that matters. For the midterms, Trump is narrowly okay underwater with independent and unaffiliated likely voters. 37% of independents view Trump's performance positively 41% give him a negative grade. 22% have no opinion. Can Donald Trump improve their. Yes, I think no tax on tips, no taxes on security, no tax on overtime. Those are three issues that, once they're implemented, come the beginning of the new year, that's going to bring, I think, some of those under those numbers and independents and unaffiliated voters up because they're going to see way more money in their paycheck every month or every week or every two weeks. And that's where it's like, oh, okay, yeah. The other party, Joe Biden never did this for me. I'm now a big fan of this policy. I don't want to let it go. It's literally changing my life. Now, the Insider Advantage poll also showed stronger numbers for the present than those reflected in the Real Clear Polling national average. Now, that's where they take multiple polls. They average them together. All right, that finds them with a 44 approval rating and a 53 disapproval rating as of early Monday afternoon. I, I do believe that some of those polls are just skewed heavily against the president. That's the reason why I'm not as worried. And I go back to the, the main point here. Donald Trump has made it clear that his job is to make life easier for everyone. His job is for you to be able to make it on your own in life and without the government ruining it for you. He believes the government shouldn't be your sugar daddy. He believes the government shouldn't be subsidizing you all the time. That's the other reason why the President, United States of America, is, is doing it this way. And I really, really, really genuinely appreciate the president doing it this way. Now, I want to move on to another issue, and that is the president. The other night when he addressed the nation, you may have noticed he didn't talk about Venezuela. He didn't talk about going after the cartels. He didn't talk about shipbuilding. He didn't talk about those types of issues. And there was a lot of people that were expecting it, and he didn't do it. Why? Because he wanted to focus on the economy and, and the issues that I just talked about. But what the president is doing is making a special announcement in Mar a Lago. And next to him is the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the Secretary of War, Pete Hedgetseth, and the President, United States of America came out just a few moments ago. And I want you to hear what he had to say.
- [12:38]
Donald Trump
The first renderings of what we're doing so I want to wish everybody a big hello and merry Christmas and welcome to Mar a Lago for this exciting announcement of the new Golden Fleet. We're calling it the Golden Fleet that we're building for the United States Navy. As you know, we're desperately in need of ships. Our ships are some of them have gotten old and tired and obsolete and we're going to go the exact opposite direction. We're delighted to be joined by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who's doing a fantastic job and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan. Marco Rubio is here, who gave a great few words toward the end of last week. He spoke for a couple of hours on what a good job we're doing, which is true. As commander in chief, it's my great honor to announce that I have approved a plan for the Navy to begin the construction of two brand new, very largest we've ever built battleships. You know, you used to build the Iowa, the Missouri, the Wisconsin, the Alabama, many others. We had big battleships. These are bigger, but they will have 100 times the they'll be 100 times the force, the power. And there's never been anything like these ships. These have been under design consideration for a long time. And it started with me in my first term because I said, why aren't we doing battleships like we used to? And the these are the best in the world. They'll be the fastest, the biggest and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built. So if you look at the Iowa, the Missouri, Wisconsin, Alabama and others, but they're they were similar in size, some a little bit bigger than the others, but if you take the biggest one, it's 100 times more powerful. They're longer by a little bit, but the and they're bigger. They're bigger ships, but they hold much more. They use the word lethality. Battleships are the largest, sturdiest and most heavily armed vessel built specifically for naval combat. While America has built many new warships over the years, they've been, they've tended to be smaller and much smaller and not conducive to where we are and where we're going. And peace through strength. But including we've been building aircraft carriers, we're going to be upping that also. We're going to be going to a superior aircraft. We have the Ford class, we're going to be upping that to a different class of aircraft carrier. And we haven't built a battleship since 1994. These cutting edge vessels will be some of the most lethal surface warfare ships. It will be actually the most ever built other than our submarines. We have submarines which will have in many ways even more lethality. And we have many of them under construction.
- [15:56]
Ben Ferguson
You hear the president, United States of America, Donald Trump, they're making a major announcement about what we're going to be building major ships, battleships that we haven't even built one since the 1990s. That is shocking to hear. And the president saying we're getting back to having the most lethal force in the world on the water and we're going to build here. Notice how he keeps talking about that. This is going to be something that will keep American jobs alive in this country as well. We'll take a very quick break. We'll come back more with the president of the United States of America. Plus your phone calls. 1-877-381-3811. You can also send me your comments during the break. Follow me on Instagram. Ben Ferguson podcast On Instagram on X it's been Ferguson show. So if you can't get through on the phones, send me your comments. I read them all during the show, I can promise you that. And on Facebook, you can follow me there. BEN Ferguson show, quick break, Mark Levin Show, Ben Ferguson filling in. We'll be right back.
- [16:58]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
Folks, I have a question for you. Do you believe America's best days are still ahead? With the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence coming up in less than a year, my friends at the Heritage foundation are taking stock of the current situation and they need your input. They've launched a survey on America's future to gauge how America's feel right now about where we are as a nation and where we're headed in the next 250 years. You know, for decades, your American values have been under attack. But now with President Trump's administration in office, we have an opportunity to turn the tide and usher in a new golden age for America. But the Heritage foundation needs to hear from you. What policies do patriots like you most care about? What do you believe are the defining principles of America? What legacy do you believe we should pass on to the next Generation? Please visit heritage.orglevin today and share your feedback and help shape the future of America. That's heritage.org Levin paid for by the Heritage Foundation.
- [17:57]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome back. It is the Marco Ven Show, Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great One. It is so nice to have you with us. And I do want to get some of your phone calls and I get your reaction. The president's big announcement that we're going big ship building new destroyers and going to be upgrading our military in a way that has been, well, desperately needed. 1-8778-1381-1877-3813, 811 we'll get your phone calls in here. One of you, by the way, just sent me a message and I read them all during the break. So you can send me a message on X at benferguson show saying this is a waste of taxpayer dollars. This is why I hate Republicans. You guys, I have small blanks. This is not a joke. And therefore you build big ships to make up for it, to compensate for it. Yeah. Tell that to ISIS and al Qaeda. Sounds good to me. Like tell that to Venezuela and the guys that are fishing in the middle of the ocean that we keep blowing up. That's why we're doing this. Got it. Got it. More coming up.
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Heritage Foundation Announcer
We're coming upon the 250th birthday of the United States. And it has me thinking, what will America look like 250 years from now? My friends at the Heritage foundation want to know what you think. What policies should America prioritize, what principles should carry us into the decades ahead as America enters a new golden age? Heritage recognizes that this is the time to take stock and to be intentional about how we shape the future of America. And they can't do it without your input. So please go to heritage.org Levin and let them know what you think is important. Without patriots like you stepping up and speaking up for what you believe in, America as we know it can't survive for another 250 years. Please go to heritage.org Levin heritage.org Levin take the survey on America's future. This survey takes less than 10 minutes to complete, but it is critical for making sure that the America we pass on to future generations is an America we're proud of. Go to heritage.orglevin today. That's heritage.org Levin paid for by the Heritage foundation, the Mark Levin show, live.
- [20:04]
Donald Trump
And national at 877-381-3811.
- [20:12]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome back. It is the Mark Event Show. Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great One. And if you just joined us, so we've got a lot that we are chatting about. Benjamin Netanyahu has come out with a very interesting and blunt statement of what he's planning to do moving forward when it comes to the investigation of the October 7 terrorist attacks. He says that he has a plan. He wants to investigate the October 7, 2023 attacks. The same way the US investigated 9 11. Along with the unfolding political response and the controversy, Netanyahu does have many that are frustrated that the country did not keep them safe from those attack, that the intelligence clearly broke down in some capacity and now there are people asking questions, okay, when are we going to get real answers? Well, Netanyahu is explaining that pushing for the government controlled inquiry, he compared it not only to the US's bipartisan commission used to study the September 11, 2001 attack, citing the model as a way of for broad questioning and examinations of failures. Also admitting that there were obviously clear failures. He has repeatedly rejected a formal state commission of inquiry, arguing that such a panel, often appointed by the Supreme Court, would be wouldn't be trusted by a significant portion of the public. Instead, his government is advancing a bill to establish a committee whose mandate and members are influenced by the governing coalition, with three from the coalition and three from the opposition. Though opposition parties have said they will not, quote, unquote, participate, Netanyahu insisted the inquiry will be balanced and broad, claiming all relevant political, military and security levels will be examined. Now, the 911 Commission in the United States was a bipartisan federal commission established by Congress after the September 11 terror attacks to investigate the intelligence and policy failures leading to the attacks and issued a comprehensive report with actionable reforms. Netanyahu's reference to the US model highlighted what he described as desire for bipartisan and public accepted inquiry. Critics say the process and structure he is proposing differ substantially from the independent 911 model. I want you to listen to what he had to say in his own words as Netanyahu talked about why there needs to be, as he described it, a real investigation suggested that the way.
- [22:54]
Mark Levin
That we address this question of investigating what happened on October 7 is the same way that the United States investigated the question of what happened on September 11th. Okay? This was the greatest tragedy that befell Israel in our modern history. And this is the greatest tragedy that befell America on its greatest tragedy, okay, in their history, actually their total history. All right, so what did the United States do? They had a president, okay? He was there. What did he do? He said, look, there is no way to turn this into a partisan issue. So I'm going to turn to both Republicans, Democrats, and establish a special committee. He actually legislated a special law and he said, this is a law for the investigative, bipartisan investigative commission to investigate what happened in September 11th. That's exactly what we are doing. I suggested that the only way that this can be dealt with is to establish a Bipartisan investigatory committee, half of whose members will be appointed by the coalition, half of whose members will be appointed by the opposition. There is no better way to do this. They can ask any question, they can raise any subject, they can question anyone they want, including me.
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Ben Ferguson
Now, the interesting thing is, why would the opposition to Netanyahu, as they've already described it, refuse to participate in this? It is because clearly they want Netanyahu gone. They want to get rid of him. And doing this commission, if it comes up with transparency and there's not a smoking gun showing that Netanyahu somehow was asleep at the wheel, then it's going to be much harder for them to gain seats and more power. It would also help in many ways, I think, add to the power that Netanyahu has. Now, there is a approval rating question there. There's no doubt about it. There are people that want answers. Netanyahu's approval rating is lower than it should be, than he would like it to be. And so that's part of the reason why I think you decided to have this press conference. I also think, though, that Netanyahu understands now that there are too many people asking too many questions. And you need to just show that you're not afraid to have a real investigation. The families have become very vocal about this. All right? The opposition parties have, have, in essence, I would argue, teamed up and used politically the brief families who are strongly opposed to Netanyahu's government led inquiry, calling it what they described it today as a, quote, whitewash and demanded, they say, a quote, truly independent state commission with the authority to hold political and military leadership accountable. Now, if you listen to that verbiage, let me explain what they're trying to do on the opposite side. They're trying to get rid of Netanyahu and any of his allies. They want there to be an inquiry that would allow for them to get rid of Netanyahu and the people in and around him. So they want to use the angry, and I don't blame any of the victim's parents, those that are upset, those that are angry with Netanyahu, for example. I want to be clear about that. I don't criticize people that lose their kids. I don't criticize people that lose their family members in a terrorist attack. If they act out afterwards, they're angry. You have every right to be angry. But what I do have a problem with is when political leaders or parties then exploit that anger and that rage and this and the tragedy to push their own political agenda. We see this constantly in this country on the issue of guns, right? There's a terrible tragedy immediately. Democrats never let a crisis go to waste. They run in, they try to use the pain and the suffering of those people to then push their political agenda, which is gun control. And in many cases, they'll advocate for gun control when even if the law they're advocating for would have been enacted, it would have had no bearing on the shooting that took place that day. When they're trying to exploit the grieving parents and loved ones. That's what I do have a problem with. And I think that's part of what we're kind of witnessing here from the opposition that hate Netanyahu is they want power, and they're like, all right, let's go find these angry parents and let's use them so that we can weaken Netanyahu and his leadership and the people that are around him. That, to me, is incredibly sick. No different than what we witnessed in this country. You know, I remember when, when in this country it was Michael Moore, remember when he did the movie Bowling for Columbine after the Columbine shooting. And I watched it, and I was, at first, I was in total awe by the movie. I was much younger than documentary, whatever. Then I started doing research afterwards and realized how much of it was actually just pure political propaganda. And then what made me even more angry is the fact that how much money Michael Moore made off that tragedy and exploited people with that tragedy. I, I would argue it's no different than what we've witnessed with guys like on the right for. Well, forget that. Let's deal with Charlie Kirk for a moment. It's no different than what we witnessed with Charlie Kirk and the people that are profiting off the conspiracy theories of Charlie Kirk.
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Heritage Foundation Announcer
Right.
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Ben Ferguson
That have. That are out of thin air. It's no different than what we've witnessed with Candace Owens, for example, and those that are, that are profiting from that. It's no different than the people that have, in this country profited, clearly made money off of being deniers of what happened in Israel on October 7th. We've seen it with Fuentes. We've seen it with Tucker Carlson. Right. We've seen it with Candace Owens. The list goes on and on. And many of those people have made a lot of money off of the opportunity to say, no, I'm not going to stand with Israel, or to say that, you know, for example, that Charlie Kirk's murder was not real. Like the other day. I'll give you a great example. I had someone send me a link to somebody and I'd never seen this person before in my life. And I work in this industry. And what they were saying on video is they were like, well, Charlie Kirk isn't actually dead. He's still alive. And it had millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of views. And it's like, what in the actual hell is wrong with people when they will use someone dying to then make money off of it? The number of people that made money off of his death with the T shirts that they were selling and immediately went to a profitability, oh, let's make mugs and T shirts. The list went on and on. And why did they do it? Why'd they do it? One reason they saw an opportunity to make money off of a tragedy. That to me is just incredibly sad. It is no different than what we're witnessing here with this issue with Israel. There are people in this country that have figured out you can make a lot of money being anti Jewish. And so they're going to keep making that money because that's what they do, right? Like that's their thing. That is their MO and it really is incredibly sad. But it's also the reality of where we are. 1 877-381-3811-187738-13811 Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great one. We'll be right back.
- [30:56]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
Folks, I have a question for you. Do you believe America's best days are still ahead with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence coming up in less than a year? My friends at the Heritage are taking stock of the current situation and they need your input. They've launched a survey on America's future to gauge how Americans feel right now about where we are as a nation and where we're headed in the next 250 years. You know, for decades, your American values have been under attack. But now where President Trump's administration in office, we have an opportunity to turn the tide and usher in a new golden age for America. But the Heritage foundation needs to hear from you. What policies do patriots like you most care about? What do you believe are the defining principles of America? What legacy do you believe we should pass on to the next Generation? Please visit heritage.orglevin today and share your feedback and help shape the future of America. That's heritage.org L E V I N paid for by the Heritage Foundation.
- [31:55]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome back. It is the Mark event show. It is nice to have you with us and Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one. I do want to get some of your phone calls in here. The number 8773813811 877-3813-811. I want to run an idea by you and I want to get all of your take and I'm, I want to, I want to throw this up as a poll question. So if you're on X, respond to me on X. BEN Ferguson show on X. What do you think about the Department of Homeland Security offering illegal immigrants a three thousand dollar holiday stipend for self deportation? Are you in favor of that? Yes or no? If you're on X, I want you to tell me what you think. Send me a, send me a tweet at Ben Ferguson show because here's what we found out. Federal government is offering a three thousand dollar holiday stipend, they're calling it, to encourage illegal immigrants to self deport over Christmas. The small expense, they say, is far less than the cost of chasing and deporting migrants. And it comes amid growing economic pressure on migrants who are losing jobs and housing amid President Trump's enforcement of the nation's immigration laws that are very popular right now, quote, during the Christmas season, the US Taxpayer is so generously tripling the incentive to leave voluntarily for those in this country illegally, offering a $3,000 exit bonus, but just until the end of the year. That is what the Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said, saying, quote, illegal aliens should take advantage of the gift and self deport because if they don't, we will find them, we will arrest them and they will never return. Now here's the cool part. Since January of this year, 1.9 million illegal aliens have voluntarily self deported. Tens of thousands have used the CBP Home program. The agency also has put out the statement added this self deportations through the CBP Home app is the best gift that an illegal alien can give themselves and their families this holiday season. It's a fast, free and easy process. Just download the app, fill out your information and DHS will take care of the rest, including arranging payment for your travel back home. Those illegal aliens who take advantage of this, they say special offer today have only one alternative. They'll be arrested, deported and they will never be able to return to the United States of America. Now reduced number of migrants will help raise American wages. It also is reducing the price of homes and rent and encourage sidelined Americans to now seek jobs. It also forced US Government and media elite to shift their focus from the concerns of migrants and business groups to the concerns of ordinary Americans who are facing real crime, discrimination and poverty. There is a ton of evidence, by the way, and countless anecdotes that many migrants are self deporting, but no firm data on exactly how many could be gone. The government is now saying it's about 1.9 to 2 million. I'll give you another example of this. Thousands of Haitians and other migrants in the United States of America have crossed the border into Canada. The Canadian Border Agency Services Agency says they processed officially about 32,000 asylum claims through November. That is a, they say a 42% decline from the same period last year. Now, According to a Dec. 22 report in the Detroit Press, they say they're seeing more and more of this that's actually happening now. It's also interesting because some illegal immigrants are actually filming themselves deporting themselves, avoiding being picked up by ice. They make us feel unwelcome. Here is how one illegal immigrant put it. So now he says, I'm going home. He shot a video at the airport. I would say, good, I don't want you to feel welcome here if you're coming in and breaking into this country. I do want you to feel welcome here if you come into this country. The legal in the right way. Now, in December, this illegal immigrant described early in December the self deportation of a Columbia family after the father had been deported from Tucson, Arizona. The mother of the four children previously told the local news that self deportation was the best decision for her family after her husband was deported in January. On Tuesday, the Santos Go. Go. As Santos remained firm in her decision to do this, which is pretty cool, though bittersweet tears as she described it because, well, I mean, America's awesome. I think we can all agree on that. She expressed her gratitude saying, quote, I don't have the words to express just how grateful I am. I want to thank all the people that we met while we stayed here. So self deportation and the US Customs Immigration Enforcement actually put out the local Channel 13 news video and here's what part of it sounded like. Listen carefully.
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Colombian Mother (Maribel)
For three years, she's been raising her children on her own since January after her husband was deported. She tells me she wanted to stay in the country longer and have better education for her kids. Go. Santos says ICE agents contacted her over the phone and gave her an option to either be detained or self deport. She believes leaving is the best choice for her family. She says, I don't want my kids to see someone come into the house with a gun or have them or her be handcuffed. Go. Santos plans to make the most of her last few days. She has here. She still says she has been plenty to be grateful for. She's thankful to God for her kids and family. I asked her what she'll miss most about being here in the US the people, she tells me.
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Ben Ferguson
The people. You listen to that story and I just say good. Like this is exactly what we need. We need more of this. We need more self deportation. And by the way, if you self deport, you have a chance to come back into this country legally, keyword legally. Now there are some that are mad about the price tag of paying someone $3,000. Let's talk about it. 1877-381381-11877-381-3008 11 Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one. Mark Levin, your phone calls coming up next.
- [38:55]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
This segment of the podcast is exclusively sponsored by Pure Talk. PureTalk offers great coverage and can save your family money on your wireless bill every single month. Go to PureTalk.com to find the plan that's right for you. Thank you again for listening and thank you so much for this sponsorship. Pure Talk.
- [39:16]
Ben Ferguson
He's here now, broadcasting from the underground.
- [39:20]
Mark Levin
Command post deep in the bowels of.
- [39:23]
Ben Ferguson
A hidden bunker somewhere under the brick.
- [39:25]
Mark Levin
And steel of a nondescript building. We've once again made contact with our leader, Mark Len.
- [39:35]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome, Mark Levin Show Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great One. And it is so nice to have you with us. I got a poll question for you and I want to get your thoughts on this idea. Is this government waste or is it absolutely brilliant? The President's new plan that by the end of the year, if you self deport, then we will give you money, we will help you leave and you have the chance one day of coming back into the country. Now if you're picked up by law enforcement and you're kicked out of the country because you're here illegally, you're not getting to come back. Let me explain to you the program and I want to know if you think this is a good idea. 1877-3813-8111-8773 8, 13811 Liberals freaking out at the idea of giving someone $3,000 a holiday stipend for self deportation. The question all of us should be asking is why would you not be in favor of that? Democrats claim they're all about right humanity. They want to make sure that everyone's happy and safe and well taken care of even though they're the party, of actually putting children in cages. That was under the Obama administration. Now treating people like a human being, which is what Democrats have been obsessed with. Are again angry that we're saying, if you're willing to self deport, we will give you three thousand dollar holiday stipend. Now, this is running through the end of the year. It's a brilliant Trump policy. And it's also being sold as a small expense is far less than the cost of chasing and deporting an illegal immigrant. And it comes amid the growing pressure of the economic issues that migrants, illegal immigrants have put on this country. Taking jobs away from American citizens, raising the cost of rent for American citizens, and raising the cost of home pricing for American citizens. The president said it this way. During the Christmas season, the US Taxpayer is so generously tripling the incentive to leave voluntarily for those in the country illegally, offering a $3,000 exit bonus. Now you only have till the end of the year. Kristi Noem saying illegal aliens should take advantage of the gift and self deport because if they don't, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return. Now, I think this is like one of the most humanitarian things I have ever heard, right? Like, I think this is amazing. There was a man that even filmed himself his deporting video at the airport to avoid being picked up by ice. He said that he doesn't feel welcome here anymore as an illegal immigrant. Now he's parked his car, he's got his pillow around his neck and he's speaking into TikTok. Right? The reason why I play this is because this to me is like the best video that illegal immigrant could ever put out. Why? One, there's basically admitting defeat. Two, they're telling other illegal immigrants, don't come here. It's not worth it.
- [43:01]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
Right?
- [43:02]
Ben Ferguson
The chance of you getting picked up are very high. He's doing a PSA that is telling illegal immigrants to stop coming into this country. That is again another example of just how incredible this is. ICE putting out this channel 13 video. Self deported or be deported, the choice is yours. As they described it, as a mother, a Colombian mother is self deporting with her kids next week after her husband had already been deported. And again, this is great news because it's a walking billboard. You had an illegal from Guatemala say she may have to move home with her kids since her husband got deported while waiting to work. Waiting for work outside of a Home Depot. Another example of self deportations. Again, part of the story Listen, this.
- [43:51]
News Reporter
Mother wants to be known as Maribel. She's not sure how much longer her six year old will still be playing with these kids. Here at Esperanza Elementary School, Mirabel is undocumented and now parenting on her own after her husband was detained while he looked for work outside of Home Depot. He's since been deported back to Guatemala. It's affecting their children, Maribel says as she speaks through the tears. The children have fear that makes them not want to go out on the street. But their one year old daughter was born in the US and so was their six year old, who's now a first grader here. Right now, the district's enrollment stands at just over 409,000 students. That's down 4% from last year, 2% more than what was projected.
- [44:42]
Ben Ferguson
The projection for this year was off by a significant margin, and that margin is absolutely associated with, with federal immigration.
- [44:52]
Caller
Actions in our community.
- [44:55]
News Reporter
For every single student, LAUSC brings in about $20,000 in state and federal funds used to pay for a variety of programs many students use and benefit from.
- [45:07]
Ben Ferguson
The loss is as high as $140 million for one single year. If that continues, then year after year, then we're talking about a significant impact to the budget.
- [45:22]
News Reporter
When you tell your daughter that you may have to pull her out of this school and move her to Guatemala.
- [45:28]
Ben Ferguson
What does she tell you?
- [45:30]
News Reporter
She doesn't want to leave, Maribel says. But her daughter may have no choice. Maribel can't afford to keep living in LA much longer, so Esperanza is likely to lose one more student very soon.
- [45:45]
Ben Ferguson
Again, this report I just played for you is exactly the best public relations campaign that the Trump administration could have ever asked for. You can leave now. We will give you a $3,000 bonus. You can have a chance to come back legally and do it the right way. And if you don't, we will hunt you down. We will find you and you will be gone. Now, the departure of economic migrants is also pressuring uncaring elites in the business. They say politics and government to help discarded Americans return to work. Health and prosperity, this new report says, which again, makes me laugh. You have the crazies out there. One of them said, quote, I feel like the system isn't broken, it's working against us. A young American with $10 left shares a home with four roommates, lives off granola bars, drives a car she can't afford to fix, and watches rent, bills and basic necessities wiped out of every paycheck. Why? Well, guess what? When you are supporting people that are allowing for illegal immigrants to come into this country and take your jobs and drive up the price of housing and rent. This is what you get. Which goes back to the question that I ask everyone, is it the best money we can spend and showing compassion for illegal immigrants at the same time humanizing them that Democrats have said that Republicans will never do by giving them $3,000 to self deport. This is, by the way, I believe, a incentive based program. Donald Trump understands incentive based programs and how powerful they can be while also warning you that if you don't take this sweetheart deal, you've broken our laws and we're willing to fly you home and give you a bonus to do it. But if you don't do it right, this is important. If you don't do it, what's going to happen? Well, unfortunately, we're going to hunt you down, we're going to find you, we're going to come after you and you are going to lose. You will be deported and never allowed back in. That right there is exactly, I mean exactly what I voted for. 1877-381381-11877, 3811. I want to get to your phone calls on this. Danny. Welcome Washington, D.C. you're on the Mark Levin Show. Ben Ferguson with you.
- [48:30]
Caller
Hi. Hey, good evening, Ben. Merry Christmas. I've got a 50, 50 here. We're already paying for them to be here illegally. Why are we giving them $3,000 to go back home? Probably just to get thrown back in jail where they came from. Now that's not all of them. The thing is we're already spending taxpayer money flying them home. So it's, it's, it's almost like Chaz Palmettieri in the Bronx Tale. Now you can't leave, look, turn yourself into the local ICE office. It's, you're, you're basically starting the self deportation and whatever country you came from, they will, they will get you on a flight, whether it be through, you know, a commercial airliner going to South America or to Central America or what, or the Air Force will fly you. Either way, we're already paying for that. Why give them another $3,000 of our money to do this?
- [49:33]
Ben Ferguson
So let me, let me explain what I've been told about this. All right, so I'm in Houston, Texas as we speak and I was talking to some ICE agents, gosh, 48 hours ago, and when this was becoming a thing and I was like, all right, explain to me why I should be in favor of this or against it. And they all unanimously said, you don't understand the amount of time, resources, court appearances, documentation, fingerprinting, processing, even more paperwork, then lawyers get involved. If we catch someone at the Home Depot parking lot, the 2000 or $3000 is a steal compared to what we pay while we hold them, while we go through the process, and then we, we deport them. It is also when we deport them, right, we're paying for that deportation flight. This is cheaper than that. As they described it. And they said, if you could take tomorrow a million people and give them all $3,000, it would be so much cheaper than what it would cost to deport a million people. And ultimately, if you're deporting these people and then the people who are taking their place are keeping their money in America, in our systems, as sending the majority of it back home via Western Union to whatever country they came from, because the majority of legal immigrants do not keep their money in this country. That's also, I think, something really important that people need to understand. And so that's another part of the frustrating aspect of this. People are very, very, very frustrated by this, right? They're frustrated that, that the, the math is just so much cheaper if we do it this way. Are you rewarding bad behavior? Is. Is how I, I asked the question, like, well, but aren't we rewarding. They're like, look, if, if this was a revolving door, this would be a bad proposition, right? Like, we wouldn't advocate for this 3,000 under the Biden administration, because a lot of people just go back, see their family, you're paying for their trip back, and then they're coming, right? They're seeing right back in America. Well, we've locked down the border. Like, the illegal immigrants are not coming across the border. We have locked it down because of the leadership of Donald Trump. So they described it as, now it's worth it to do it because you're getting a great bang for your buck. The other part is you're only doing this through the end of the year. It's also, they said, a psychological thing. Those who go to the front of the line in the good graces to leave early are the ones that we're willing to look at when we come back. Okay? So, like, when they were going through the process of seeing who may get to come into this country, if you wait too long, not only do you lose the incentive of the three grand, it drops back down to a thousand, but at some point, you're going to get caught. As Kristi Noem described it, we've seen a lot of people get caught and then you get nothing. So there is a, there's, there's a lot here, you understand, like there's an awful lot of X factors here. And I think that's the important part.
- [52:29]
Caller
That's good. I, I didn't realize that it was only till the end of the year.
- [52:32]
Ben Ferguson
So it's only through the end of the year and they're trying to basically in the first year in office with a significant number of people self deporting, it's cheaper. I mean, look, have you ever gotten a lawyer for anything in your whole life?
- [52:45]
Caller
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [52:47]
Ben Ferguson
They, they ain't cheap, dude. Like $3,000 is nothing when you're dealing with deportation and you're dealing with, with time, paperwork. And part of this is it frees up for us to go out, go after the hard criminals and the worst among us. If we have millions of people that are self deporting who may not be the hard criminals, that's another like massive perk.
- [53:10]
Caller
Yeah, it is. But you know, but still, again, you know, if, if, let's, let's, let's say they all decide all at once, hey, you know what? We, we, we, we, we got to do this because we're, we're not going to get a second chance. That's, that's a hell of a lot of money. And you know what? The tax, that's, that's our money. We're, we're already spending thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars to fuel the aircraft if we're using the Air Force.
- [53:37]
Ben Ferguson
I get it. I understand, I did, I understand what you're saying. But I do think this is the fastest way to get people out. And then the dollars they were making are now going to Americans and those dollars are staying in America in our economy, like 3,000 to get rid of someone who's taking up a home or an apartment and their money is not staying in America's economy is a no brainer. It's not just the tax dollars. It's the cash. The number one stimulus of Mexico's economy has been illegal immigrants sending money back to Mexico. It is outpaced oil production. So think about that. If you can have that amount of money stay in America, what does that do for our economy? Because the majority of illegal immigrants that stay here, they do not keep all their money here. They send it home. It's a problem, man. Like, it's a huge problem. And I hate that we're having to spend any money at all. But I know that we have to spend money to get rid of illegal immigrants. And if we're going out there to track them down, then it's a really big problem and it costs a lot to do it. I appreciate the phone call man, and enjoyed it. 877-3813-8 11. Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one, Mark Levin. We'll be right back.
- [54:48]
Mark Levin
Mark LE BEN Foreign.
- [54:56]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
As a consumer, you can carry the success or failure of businesses in the palm of your hand. Their success can depend on your decision to spend money with them or their competitor. Well, my friends at Pure Talk would like to say thank you from the bottom of their hearts for choosing Pure Talk for your wireless needs. Because of you, they've had a record breaking year because of your generosity. Through their Roundup for charity program, they've been able to donate over half a million dollars to America's Warrior Partnership who stands on the front lines of helping to prevent veteran suicide. Your patronage has allowed Pure Talk to donate a thousand hand sewed main in America flags to your fellow veterans. And when you choose PureTalk as your wireless provider, you help Pure Talk support American jobs right here in our country. Like I said, as a consumer you have the power to make or break companies. And with the money the big wireless guys throw around on advertising, you're inundated with offers everywhere you look. So from everyone in the Pure Talk family, thank you for your trust and God bless you.
- [56:00]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome back. It is the man Ferguson filling in for the great one, Mark Levin. So nice to have you with us as we are getting a few days away from Christmas. I love it. It's so good to be with you during this holiday. And if you just join us, we're talking about a very interesting idea through the end of the year. I think it's brilliant. You may disagree. Incentivizing people to self deport with a $3,000 bonus. I would say why not? Like this is if we can get rid of a couple hundred thousand illegal immigrants by, by paying them three grand to get out of here, like that's just money well spent. It's a lot cheaper than going after them, having to find them, dealing with all the deportations like it is it. That, that is a hard thing to do. It takes money, it takes time and everybody knows it. It's a lot of cash. I want to get to your phone calls. The number 1877-381381-11877-3838, 1-38-11. Let's get to your phone calls and see what you think about this. Let me go to Jeff, all the way up in Hawaii. Welcome. You're on the Mark Levin Show. Ben Ferguson with you. Hello.
- [57:22]
Caller
Oh, thank you Ben. What a great topic. Ben, all I really want to add to your conversation here is that I truly believe this is a great program. But again, it's got to be executed with great discipline.
- [57:38]
Ben Ferguson
Let me say this Jeff, it's only through the end of the month. This is not that many days. That's why I love it. It's quick. It's an opportunity. Take it or leave it. More coming up.
- [57:51]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
As a consumer, you can carry the success or failure of businesses in the palm of your hand. Their success can depend on your decision to spend money with them or their competitor. Well, my friends at Pure Talk would like to say thank you from the bottom of their hearts for choosing Pure Talk for your wireless needs. Because of you, they've had a record breaking year because of your generosity. Through their Roundup for charity program, they've been able to donate over half a million dollars to America's Warrior Partnership who stands on the front lines of helping to prevent veteran suicide. Your patronage has allowed Pure Talk to donate a thousand hand sewed main in America flags to your fellow veterans. And when you choose Pure Talk as your wireless provider, you help Pure Talk support American jobs right here in our country. Like I said, as a consumer you have the power to make or break companies. And with the money the big wireless guys throw around on advertising, you're inundated with offers everywhere you look. So from everyone in the Pure Talk family, thank you for your trust and God bless you.
- [58:52]
Mark Levin
Mark Levin, a proud conservative, no ifs, ands or buts.
- [58:59]
Ben Ferguson
Call in at 877-381-3811. Welcome back. Mark Levin Show. Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one. And it is so nice to have you with us. Is it tax dollars and your tax dollars well spent to give $3,000 to an illegal immigrant if they're willing to self deport. I personally say hell yes. Now this isn't open ended. This is a one time offer AKA you better take it through the end of the month. 1-800- or 1877-381381-11877-381-3811. Let me go to John in California. John, you've got a lot of people in California that are illegal immigrants. It is a a problem there and I think this would be a great thing if I'm a citizen in California Beck. Yeah. Please. As many people as can take this money, take this cash. Your thoughts?
- [60:09]
Caller
Yes, I think it's a great idea, but it should come with stipulation. Before they receive the money, they must provide a photograph, fingerprints and DNA sample and then sign a contract acknowledging the fact that if they return illegally, they'll be charged with a felony. But if they return legally, before they receive citizenship, they must repay the three grand.
- [60:34]
Ben Ferguson
You know, it's an interesting question that you talk about the stipulations there, right? And so that's one of the things that I asked. It's described as a $3,000 exit bonus, right. It's part of the voluntary self deportation program. References Project Homecoming. Now, here's the eligibility requirements, because I asked for this. So I'm going to go through them. So you understand only undocumented immigrants, people in the US without lawful immigration status are eligible. So that'd be an illegal immigration. You have to have registration through the Department of Homeland Security app. Individuals must register and arrange their departure using the home, the home smartphone app. There's a depart by deadline. The bonus would apply only if the individual voluntarily exits the country by December 31st. So you got to go fast. The free travel provided, they say DHS will arrange to pay for transportation flight for the person's home country as part of the offer as well. Then there are waivers of fines and penalties. So this is the incentivizing part. Okay. Participants, quote, may be eligible for forgiveness of certain civil fines or penalties tied to their unlawful presence if they voluntarily depart using the program. The payment in the flight are usually processed after departure is completed. All right, so there's a check and balance there with that. Some previous participants criticized delays or problems with receiving earlier versions of the payments because they wanted the money, like, immediately, like instant gratification or up front. They're not doing this now. The consequences are the incentive as well. DHS has said those who do not leave voluntarily could face enforcement actions, including arrest and formal deportation under immigration laws. They say those forcibly removed through deportation typically face longer bans on reentry than people who leave voluntarily. And they said this $3,000 bonus is not a general. Everyone gets 3,000 to leave the country. It's temporary for the illegal immigrants to voluntarily exit. And they said it's tied to self deportation. So if you're willing to do it yourself, do it now, get out of the country by the end of the month. Then, bam, you get it. And they said, look, if you want to walk or talk through this, you can literally Go on the CBP app about the self deportation process and go step by step. Like they're, they're trying to make this as easy as possible to leave, but you must leave by the end of the year. That's part of where they're like, let's see how many we can get as fast as we can get them. I love that. Did I lose you? You're still there. All right, we drop, we lost you there, so we'll try to get you back. And I appreciate the phone call. 1-877-3813, 8 11. Let me go to Howard and Boca Raton, Florida, line four. You're on the Mark Levin Show. Ben Ferguson with you.
- [63:24]
Caller
Hi.
- [63:26]
Donald Trump
Hi.
- [63:26]
Caller
How you doing, Ben? Good.
- [63:28]
Ben Ferguson
How are you?
- [63:28]
Caller
All right. So I think I agree with the policy that you're talking about, but the question is, is the American public buying a lot of the policies that the Trump administration is putting forward? So the MAGA Republicans, they're all going to be in favor of whatever he does. But based on some of the election, my concern is that his policies aren't going as well as they were intended. And I'm not talking about in blue states. I'm talking about in Miami who just a mayor got elected. They haven't had a Democratic elected mayor in 50 years. There's elections in Georgia. Another one is the attorney general threatened to kill the family of or fantasize about killing the family of his opponent, and he still wins elections. So my concern is while these policy seems to make some sense, how is it being perceived and received by the general public, not just maga?
- [64:23]
Ben Ferguson
Let me say this, not all, I want to be clear about this, okay? Not all of the MAGA conservatives are in favor of this. Like that, that's something that I think is really important that people understand. Like, I, I have MAGA friends. Like, this is stupid. Why the hell would we be giving them 3,000 hours? We ought to just arrest their ass and send them home immediately. And I kind of laughed at that one. I really did, because it's just so funny to me. I'm like, dude, $3,000 to get rid of an illegal immigrant is like a steal compared to what it costs to go find them and round them up. It just, it's a steal. It really is.
- [65:00]
Caller
Yeah. I mean, that probably makes sense, but I'm saying how it's being perceived, because right now, if this is a football game, we're down 21 to 3 and it's not halftime yet.
- [65:14]
Ben Ferguson
You're referring to how many are here Illegally.
- [65:17]
Caller
No, no, I'm talking about how we're getting. We're getting like the elections in November. I'm not talking about like the New Jersey, which was a lot closer than it, which was a blowout compared to the last time it was. But I think the Democrats are winning the elections. Like, you know, like they're blowing us out here and there's something not going well. Either the policies are not being explained right or it's not playing out right. Something's not right. But we are losing and the midterms are coming up and I'm afraid that that's really what we're looking at through the future.
- [65:49]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, well, I, I do think this midterm election is going to come down to the economy. I think it's going to be all the economy. And what I know about the economy is if you get rid of 5 million illegal immigrants, the economy drastically improves for American citizens. So that's part of this is the President saying, we got rid of two. And now we're seeing rent prices drop, we're seeing wages go up, we're seeing unemployment rates drop. There's a lot of things that are happening that we're really excited about. Let's supercharge this. So come November of next year, right, nine, I mean, we're talking 11 months from now, we've got some really big things that we can point to and say to voters, this is why you should keep us in office. This is why Republicans, you keep control of the House and the Senate and, and hopefully add to those leads instead of it being in a, a if we lose the House and Senate, it's game over. All the Democrats are going to do. And I think you guys know this is. They're gonna, they're gonna go to impeach and investigate and impeach and investigate and impeach and investigate. Like that's just what they're gonna do. And if that's it right, then we know that's the plan moving forward and that's what this is going to end up being. Then how the hell do we make sure that we get away from it? This is the only way I see that we can get away from it.
- [67:09]
Donald Trump
Maybe.
- [67:09]
Caller
But by the way, unemployment is at 4.6. It's a lot higher than it was when Trump took over office. And also inflation at the end of December, it's about where it was before. And gas prices that they're bragging about.15 cents a gallon cheaper. That's really relatively the only thing substantial that's actually Cheaper.
- [67:29]
Ben Ferguson
I got to disagree with you. Based on the facts, gas prices are substantially lower now than they were when he took office. Inflation is significant. Lower 2.7% than when he took office. So, like, that's just not true. Unemployment rate that you're, that you're discussing right now, I mean, what, what is your definition of a great unemployment rate?
- [67:52]
Caller
Below 4.
- [67:54]
Ben Ferguson
So below. So what was the unemployment rate the day that Joe Biden left office?
- [68:06]
Caller
It was about 4.1, if I'm not mistaken. It could be wrong. We're talking about December of 2024, which I was.
- [68:14]
Ben Ferguson
The last full month of Biden's term, It was over 4%. It was 4.2. Then we found out they lied about the employment numbers. Do you remember that? They lied about about 800,000 new jobs.
- [68:26]
Donald Trump
Right?
- [68:26]
Caller
But those.
- [68:27]
Ben Ferguson
So then, and then the Dunham Point rate went up because they lied about the jobs, the jobs report they lied about before the election day. They literally, fictitiously made up about 2 million jobs that never existed.
- [68:39]
Caller
I agree with you. But the point is that how is it being perceived? 4.6 is high. You know, inflation is about 3, right? 2.9. They came in this month, lower 2.7 in December. Yes, that's true. But in December, when Biden left office, it was about 2.9. And gas prices was higher. 15 to 16% cents a gallon. It's not enough to convince the American public that this administration is fulfilling its promises. I voted. I'm not saying I won't. I'm just thinking, you know, how other people might perceive it. That's all I'm saying.
- [69:18]
Ben Ferguson
Well, you had. Look, the official inflation rate for January of 2025, all right, was 3% year over year. All right, now you're down to 2.3. That's an improvement. Can we both agree on that?
- [69:34]
Caller
Yes.
- [69:35]
Ben Ferguson
Okay, so. So that's good. Gasoline prices on Biden's last day in office, all right, it was, was in January of 2025 was 308A gallon.
- [69:48]
Caller
Okay?
- [69:49]
Ben Ferguson
And we all, and we all know what they did right before the election. What they do. They lowered the gas prices artificially. They pumped mass amounts of oil into the marketplace. They drained our oil reserves going into summer and fall before the election. And we all know what it was really like. The majority of his time in office. It was $4 a gallon average. You remember that?
- [70:12]
Caller
That's true.
- [70:14]
Ben Ferguson
So it was artificial. They tried to crush it down quickly, and then as soon as they, if they would have won reelection, they would have done what they did. Before they wanted to go to five. They've said this publicly. They want it to go to $5, $6 a gallon to force you into electric vehicles. What it, what? Look at Ford and what they just announced this week. They're getting rid of the lightning because no one wants to buy an electric F150. And the reason why no one wants to buy it is because they'd rather pay for gas when it's at $2 a gallon to, and change. But when it gets up to five and six dollars a gallon. Yeah, you're looking at electric vehicle, so that's like a big deal.
- [70:50]
Caller
Again, I agree with you. I'm not saying that, but I'm looking at the results right now and I'm not thinking that it's looking good.
- [70:58]
Ben Ferguson
Okay, so, so final question. You're saying that inflation coming down, massive amounts of money coming in from tariffs. Right? That, that did happen. We can agree on that.
- [71:08]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
Right.
- [71:09]
Ben Ferguson
The tariffs have, have brought in tons of job creation in this country. Commitment to, to jobs in America and, and from foreign countries and buying American goods and having a grand reset in 11 months with inflation lower than it was the day you got into office. Somehow that's not good enough for you in 11 months. When I think part of the reason why you voted for Trump is because you knew we were heading the wrong direction.
- [71:33]
Caller
Right, Right. Well, that's okay.
- [71:37]
Ben Ferguson
So, so, so now I go back to the, the basic question, like, is there anything he can do for you that is going to get your praise based on what you just said? It doesn't seem like it.
- [71:49]
Caller
So do you know why affordability became such a buzz phrase? Because there's nothing demoralizing to have to tell people. I'm thankful. Not in that category, but people are. I can't afford this over and over. Why can't we get this? I can't afford. I can't afford. So that is why that is such an emotional buzzword. They picked up on it, the Democrats. They might be smarter than Republicans when it comes to promot and using those types of things for their own benefits, but we're not winning. And I know that.
- [72:18]
Ben Ferguson
Okay, so, so again I go back to where do you want it to be by next November? Where, like for you to say we're winning? Because it seems like we are winning. We're just not winning at a fast enough pace for you to be happy.
- [72:31]
Caller
Oh, it's elections that I'm worried about. I don't, I'm not. Look, the, the public decides if the policies are working. For them. When you ask people, are you better off a year ago today, most people say not really. Now.
- [72:46]
Ben Ferguson
Oh, see, I got it. Hold on. I got to disagree with you on that one. The majority of people that I talked to say they do believe we're going the right direction. It's not as fast as they were hoping.
- [72:58]
Caller
Right. Okay. So we'll see. There's plenty. There's time left. But I am concerned. That's all I'm saying.
- [73:05]
Ben Ferguson
All right. I appreciate the phone call. Thank you, sir. 1-877-3813-811 Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one. By the way, do you feel like you're better off now than you were a year ago? It is the grand question. 1-877-381-3811 don't forget you can follow me on X and send your comments at Ben Ferguson show and grab my podcast, the Ben Ferguson Podcast. I do it each and every morning. I'd love for you to keep up with me there wherever you get your podcasts. More after this.
- [73:42]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
As a consumer, you can carry the success or failure of businesses in the palm of your hand. Their success can depend on your decision to spend money with them or the competitor. Well, my friends at Pure Talk would like to say thank you from the bottom of their hearts for choosing Pure Talk for your wireless needs. Because of you, they've had a record breaking year because of your generosity. Through their Roundup for Charity program, they've been able to donate over half a million dollars to America's Warrior Partnership who stands on the front lines of helping to prevent veteran suicide. Your patronage has allowed Pure Talk to donate a thousand hand sewed main In America flags to your fellow veterans. And when you choose Pure Talk as your wireless provider, you help Pure Talk support American jobs right here in our country. Like I said, as a consumer, you have the power to make or break companies. And with the money the big wireless guys throw around on advertising, you're inundated with offers everywhere you look. So from everyone in the Pure Talk family, thank you for your trust and God bless you.
- [74:45]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome back. It is the Mark Levin Show, Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one. It's so nice to have you with US Department of Homeland Security offering illegals $3,000 to self deport 3,000 bucks by the end of the year. Is that money well spent? 1 8773-8138-1187-7381-3811 Also, another question for you. Are you better off now than you were a year ago? That is a question that every politician should be asking when they're in charge. Democrats want this to be clearly a answer of no, like it's terrible, everything's awful. No, my question is when you look at the economy, who do you think is doing a better job? Donald Trump. And you could go back and say, do you think Kamala Harris would be doing better than this right now? 1-877-381-3811 let's get to your phone call. Some of your thoughts on this and your reaction to it. Let me go to, let me go to John in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Welcome. You are on the Mark Levin Show, Ben Ferguson with you.
- [75:55]
Donald Trump
Hi.
- [75:58]
Caller
Hi, Dan. I'm a big fan of the show.
- [76:00]
Ben Ferguson
Thank you, sir. I appreciate you listening. Thank you for calling in. Give me your thoughts.
- [76:05]
Caller
Well, I actually submitted that same idea to the White House about a month before they started doing the thousand dollar offer. When I suggested it, I actually put the number of 5,000 on it. I don't know if they used my idea or not, but I'm glad to see that they are doing it. I do think $1,000 was a bit low to entice people to do it. 3000 should probably bump those numbers up. And my thought process when I actually made the suggestion was that it's a lot cheaper to do it this way. By the time you adjudicate everything and house them and whatever until they get deported, that's terribly expensive. This would be a lot cheaper. I think it's a lot more humane. And the other thing was that it's not just saving us money along those lines, but it saves a lot of resources as the populate that population actually gets thinner.
- [77:12]
Ben Ferguson
Sure. And it also allows you to focus on the worst among them. Right. Like if you're not having to worry about dealing with millions of people in this country illegally because a lot of them are self deporting. That's where then your resources are focused on the hardened criminals, the gang bangers, those running Fentanyl, those that are molesting children, like those that are raping people, those that are sex trafficking kids. That's like for me the holy grail. Get the recess sources going after them. That's the whole ball game for me. Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one, Mark Levin. We'll be right back.
- [77:53]
Public Service Announcement Narrator
Foreign.
- [77:58]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
Office. One of his biggest adversaries, top Democrat Dick Durbin of Chicago, is leading the charge to derail President Trump's agenda at every turn. And now Senator Durbin has a new scheme, a government takeover of your credit card. Right now, Americans have thousands of credit card options, all with equal strong security. But Durbin's plan could result in less security. That means more risk for your credit, your identity, and your financial future. Durbin's bill isn't about helping consumers. It's a giveaway to corporate megastores, which could shift costs onto you while putting your rewards and fraud protections in jeopardy. We've seen Durbin's failed policies before his last big banking regulation backfired, leading to higher costs and fewer benefits for American families. Tell Republican senators, stop Durbin's government takeover of your credit card before it's too late. Learn more@guardyourcard.com that's Guard YourCard.com paid for by the Electronic Payments Coalition.
- [78:58]
Caller
He's here.
- [78:59]
Ben Ferguson
He's here now, broadcasting them from the.
- [79:03]
Mark Levin
Underground command post deep in the bowels of a hidden bunker somewhere under the brick and steel of a nondescript building. We've once again made contact with our leader, Mark Love.
- [79:16]
Donald Trump
End.
- [79:19]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome, it is the Mark Event Show. Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great one tonight. It is really nice to have you with us. Two white and two Male Woke museum has now issued a guide to decolonizing Santa. They call it Father Christmas. If you thought the left was going to just sit by quietly as we try to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and, you know, just have a normal straight Santa Claus, yeah, you'd be wrong. Santa is not just a man that they say is too male. I'm not making this up. But they also say that Santa is just too white. There are just three of the major accusations of a Woke museum that is made about Father Christmas and a bizarre guide to decolonizing the man in red, white and well, he's a dude so that just immediately he's already in trouble. It is also demanding that Santa be more understanding and nicer to naughty children lest they feel, quote unquote, oppressed. I'm not making this up. It's truly awesome. The sun reports that the Brighton hub museums in the uk these are same people arresting people for putting out tweets right now that are not like terroristic threats or just straight up like words against. The government published a new report on its website suggesting that Santa, okay, should work alongside his elves on the Presence production line to show that they are equals. If you want to know why London has fallen and the UK has fallen, this is why Mrs. Christmas should also emerge from the shadows and take her place at his side. At a time when Christmas is being reassessed in many parts of the world as a symbol of everything it was never designed to be a part of. Okay, I'll take the bait. The group, granted over 1.2 million of taxpayer cash in October, says Santa's naughty and nice list is teaching children the colonizers has the power to judge all people. And the time has come to right the wrongs of centuries of disinformation and hurtful attitudes. So this is your tax dollars at work there. The post was written by the museum's joint head of cultural change and defines historical records which show Father Christmas first appeared in English folklore as a spirit of winter and universal good cheer in the 15th century. So having a naughty list now apparently changes all that. So you're white, that's a strike against you. You're a male, that's a strike against you. And the fact that you're in implying that there's like some sort of good or evil or good and bad or naughty or nice. Yeah, you're done. We can't have any of that now. He is was referencing the carols of Sir Christmas. But the character they say became a distinct personification of Christmas feasting in the 17th century, notably in. In, they say in. In pamphlets and plays as a symbol against Puritan bands on Christmas. The mystical figure when then evolved into the modern gift giver in the Victorian era when merging with the American Santa Claus figure. The woke post redefined Santa and points out a host of, quote, problems with the accepted character. Reading the tale of a white western Santa who judges all children's behavior has problems. This is literally from their website. I wish I was joking. I'm not. Quote. As he visits each nation, he determines if the children deserve presents based on being naughty or nice. But who decided Santa should be the judge of children's behavior in every community? Now, let me just pause there and explain to you that sentence and what the real underlying issue is here. You notice there's a direct correlation that we're witnessing in the way that this is being described in the same type of criticism that, that you hear from people about Christianity about believing in God, believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. This is the same type of. Of undermining and attacks that you hear in this scenario. And, and why, right? Like, why would this be a thing, right? Like why would this actually, like, be said the way that it was said? Because these are the same people that say there is no God and that there is no right and wrong and that you just always find your own way as they describe it, right? Everyone finds their own way that you can do whatever you believe in, you can do whatever you want to do, you can do whatever you think is, is, is your right, your truth.
- [84:34]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
Right.
- [84:34]
Donald Trump
Right.
- [84:34]
Ben Ferguson
It's, it's all that right? Over and over and over and over and over again. We see this. Now what's also interesting is while this is happening, we see the left do what they do when it comes to hateful rhetoric towards law and order, hateful rhetoric against ICE agents, for example, in this country or law enforcement UK or those that are standing up for securing our borders. Right? Like the left has no problem going just like pure rage and has no problem going pure, just anger. Like, just like genuine, genuine anger and bigotry and hatred. Like the list goes on and on. That, that is something that I think is really important part as well for people to understand is that this is the future of these bigots. And they go Santa. Because it's pushing their bigger agenda moment. It's, it's, it's, it's pushing their bigger just hatred towards anyone that believes in faith or in God. And that's why they describe it this way. Quote, as he visits each nation, he determines if the children deserve presence based on being naughty or nice. But who decides Santa should be the judge of children's behavior in every community? Like, there's a clear direct attack being made on faith and Christianity here. Like, who are you decide what is right and wrong, what's good and evil. Let's undermine this and then we can undermine the rest. Now they also, this group who got over 1.2 million of taxpayer dollars tells parents Santa should be a more diverse character who celebrates cultural exchange, quote, unquote. Have Santa learn about different cultures rather than judge them. Stories could show him experiencing their traditions. Santa should include some Mother Christmases with the posted adding per patriarchy and colonialism went hand in hand. The sun report noted that senior Tory MP said one of them, Sir Alec Shellbrook, said, quote, at a time of goodwill and festive cheer, it seems woke do gooders would rather everybody was miserable. Then went on to say, quote this is the worst possible use of taxpayers funds. Like I, I could not agree more. Why should $1.2 million go to a group that is this angry and this hateful and, and say, and again, it's attack on men that are white. It is attack on men in general. So that's another problem. Like it's not just. It's men in general as well. So it's white men, men in general. And the list goes on and on and this is, this is what they believe. Like this is the whole ball game for them. 1-877-381-3811, 8773813811 this is why I always tell people, watch where your tax dollars go. Watch what your tax dollars are being used for. Watch what your tax dollars are funding. Because the easiest way for your tax dollars to be abused against what we believe in is to do exactly what you just heard there. Like, this is the easiest way for that to become a reality. 1 877-38-13-811 let's get some of your phone calls in here and get your reaction. This and other things we've been talking about tonight. Let me go to Earnest in Rockland County, New York. You're on the Mark Levin Show, Ben Ferguson with you.
- [88:17]
Caller
Hi, good evening, Ben. You're doing a great job. Thank you so much. I just wanted to point out a couple of things. The producer number one, this is about the illegals. And, and people don't know that this is a country of law. And if they pick up the law and they read it, the Constitution, and Most importantly the 54 titles of law, you'll see that under US Code, which by the way, was launched in 1947, codified positive law, and Title 4, Section 4 is the pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge of Allegiance is law and our flag stands for a republic. And I respectfully correct anybody, including our amazing President Trump, that this is not a democracy. A democracy is all foreign lands. America was started and founded for the happiness of the people. So title four, section four says the flag stands for a republic. A republic is a commonwealth. And the commonwealth is both the state, the ground you stand on, and the people. So under you, under codified positive law, 54 titles of law are out there that protect people. And under US code 1323, that's all you have to look up. USC 1323, unlawful entry. All these illegals that are here need four documents. A visa, passport, their birth certificate and a thumb seal. We all have seals. That's what makes us great Americans. Our thumbprint. They cannot be here without a bus driver cannot let them on the bus. A pilot can't let you on the plane. A ship captain can't let you on the ship. You need these four documents. And here's the part that that's most shocking. I come from a long line of law abiding people, okay, myself included. But the local police, the locals, the county sheriffs and the state troopers have, have breached their oath by not upholding federal law by. By what, enforcing 1323. They've let these people, these illegal immigrants work with diners and landscapers, and they're getting busted all over this country. But. But these people have let us down, and we're paying them, and they're still writing us tickets. And they were warned about that eight years ago by the Department of Justice. The local and the county courts were warned. So I'm up in Tuxedo, New York, and the judge lets two illegals, they couldn't even speak English. They both got DWI's. And the judge fined both of them 680 bucks. Tuxedo, New York. And they let them walk out of that courtroom. And I was there. The policeman said my license was suspended, and he arrested me and impounded my vehicle. And I went up there, and I had my law with me and everything. And when I said to the. To the prosecutor, I said, did you. Did you just let those guys out of here? And he goes, yeah, well, we're dismissing you. I said, whoa. I reserve the right to sue that officer for violating the Driver's Privacy Protection Act. You want to look that up? Oh, my God. The cop writes you a ticket, he owes you 2500 bucks. Drivers Privacy Protection Act. It's every state law, everywhere. So I had my file. They dismissed it. And as I was leaving, the prosecutor, the assistant DA who was the defender, he said to me, he goes, listen, if you need any help, let me know. I said, no, sir, I don't need any help.
- [91:56]
Ben Ferguson
He goes, let me say this real quick, because I got a hard break here. But the point that I think what you're talking about is for far too long, there was too many people that were not abiding by the law. And there are far too many sanctuary cities and states even now that are refusing even ICE detainers, which is totally crazy. And you let these people out and you let them. And we gave them driver's licenses, right, which gave them a sense of they can stay here and that everything's fine. That's also a really big problem. Like, it's a huge problem. Why are we doing this? Why on earth would we allow this to happen? And.
- [92:33]
Donald Trump
And.
- [92:33]
Ben Ferguson
And so we've got to stop it. Which is part of the reason why I think that $3,000 bonus is such a great thing. Like the $3,000 bonus to get out by the end of the year. Great. It's saving us time and money so we can go after the people we actually need to go after. That part I agree with Quick break, Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great One. Don't forget, follow me on X Ben Ferguson Show. If you're on Instagram during the break, I'd love to keep up with you there. On Instagram it is Ben Ferguson Podcast and grab my podcast every day. You can start your morning off with it, the Ben Ferguson Podcast as well. Wherever you get your podcasts. Much more after this. Much love in.
- [93:18]
Public Service Announcement Narrator
All right everyone, let's talk about drinking and driving, a decision that will change your whole world. Things will never be the same once you get a DUI because legal fees, time in court are just the beginning. Getting into a crash is another way your world could be irreversibly changed. After drinking and driving, your vehicle may not be the only thing that gets damaged in that crash. You could face a life altering injury or even death. But you're not the only one who could face those consequences. Your decision to drink and drive could permanently change someone else's world whether you injure them or leave their loved ones grieving. The next time you're out drinking, call a ride, share a taxi, a sober friend or a designated sober driver. Always plan for a safe ride home. The only decision that will change your world for the better is the decision to call for a sober ride. It's never worth it to drive drunk. Don't risk it. Drive sober or get pulled over. Paid for by nhtsa.
- [94:19]
Ben Ferguson
Welcome back. It is the Mark Levin Show, Ben Ferguson filling in for the Great One. It is good to have you with us during this Christmas season and I hope you and your family are doing extremely well. We've got a lot that we've been chatting about tonight. I do want to get some of your phone calls. 1-877-3813, 811-877-3813, 819-1111 Donald Trump having a press conference earlier today. He was asked about Venezuela and then Colombia came up as we've seize another oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. And I want you to hear what Donald Trump said about the Colombian leader.
- [94:58]
Donald Trump
Yeah, go ahead please.
- [95:00]
Ben Ferguson
So in response to the United States taking sanctioned oil from from Venezuela, Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized the United States by saying, well, the Southwest has stolen land and that it should be returned to Latin America. I just wanted to know what your response to that is.
- [95:13]
Donald Trump
Well, he has to watch because you know, he's got drug factors. They make cocaine in Colombia and he's no friend of the United States. He's very bad, very bad guy and he's got to watch his ass because he makes cocaine and they send it into the United States of America from Colombia. We love the Colombian people. I love the Colombian people. They're great people, energetic, smart, great. But their new leader is a troublemaker and he better watch it. You better close up those cocaine factors. If at least three major cocaine factories, we know where they are. He better close them up fast.
- [95:51]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, we know where they are. He better close them up fast. Trump threatening the Colombian leader better watch his aws and close the cocaine factories. They make cocaine in Colombia and he better we know where they are.
- [96:09]
Donald Trump
And.
- [96:10]
Ben Ferguson
They better close it up fast. He was also asked about Bill Clinton in the Epstein files and how many pictures there were of Bill Clinton. I want you to hear the president's response to that as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Were you surprised by the number of photos of Bill Clinton and the Epstein files? And you could can you commit to their and were you surprised by the number of photos of Bill Clinton in the Epstein files? And can you commit to their full release by the end of the year? Some of the victims were protesting that too many of them were redacted.
- [96:45]
Donald Trump
I know there are a lot of people that are angry about all of the pictures of other people you know, but I think it's terrible. Look, I don't like the I like Bill Clinton. I've always gotten along with Bill Clinton. I've been nice to him. He's been nice to me. We've always gotten along, respect him. I hate to see photos come out of him. But this is what the Democrats, mostly Democrats and a couple of bad Republicans are asking for.
- [97:07]
Ben Ferguson
So this is what the Democrats and a couple bad Republicans are asking for. I'll have more of what the president had to say coming up next. Plus your phone calls. 877-381-3811. Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one. We'll be.
- [97:25]
Public Service Announcement Narrator
All right, everyone. Let's talk about drinking and driving, a decision that will change your whole world. Things will never be the same once you get a DUI because legal fees, time in court are just the beginning. Getting into a crash is another way your world could be irreversibly changed. After drinking and driving. Your vehicle may not be the only thing that gets damaged in that crash. You could face a life altering injury or even death. But you're not the only one who could face those consequences. Your decision to drink and drive could permanently change someone else's world, whether you injure them or leave their loved ones grieving. The next time you're out drinking, call A ride. Share a taxi, a sober friend or a designated sober driver. Always plan for a safe ride home. The only decision that will change your world for the better is the decision to call for a sober ride. It's never worth it to drive drunk. Don't risk it. Drive sober or get pulled over. Paid for by nhtsa.
- [98:23]
Ben Ferguson
This is the nation's town hall meeting and you can join in at 877-381-3811. President Donald Trump speaking from Mar a Lago, talking about building our military, new ships that our military desperately needs and not, not just talking about that, but clearly being the most transparent president in modern political history. At a more than 50 minute press conference, the president took questions about building the new Golden Fleet, about the Golden Fleet counters with China, intercepting drugs on land and what could happen with possible attacks on land, what he was going to do with the seized oil of oil tankers coming out of Venezuela and the black fleet of oil tankers that also deal with Iran. He also was asked about Venezuela and U.S. oil companies working together. And he was asked about Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein, a workforce to build the Golden Fleet that will help American workers. The end game with Maduro was also covered. He was asked about Colombia and the present there and could that be next after Venezuela and a new envoy to Greenland. He was asked about the war with Ukraine and Russia. Had he spoken with Vladimir Putin or Zelensky recently and what did they say? And then the pursuit of other oil tankers came up. Would America continue to push forward with that? And is the goal to force Maduro from power? He also talked about health care, insurers, meetings and exactly what had happened there. Now the president making it clear there is nothing he is unwilling to discuss. There's no question that he is saying, no, I'm not going to answer that. This is part of the president being the most transparent president in modern political history. One of the big questions was about the Epstein files and there was an awful lot of pictures that came out of a former president by the name of Bill Clinton with Jeffrey Epstein. The president's response may be one that will surprise you. I want you to hear what he had to say. Thank you, Mr. President. Were you surprised by the number of photos of Bill Clinton and the Epstein files? And you can you commit to their full and were you surprised by the number of photos of Bill Clinton in the Epstein files? And can you commit to their full release by the end of the year? Some of the victims were protesting that too many of them were redacted I.
- [100:54]
Donald Trump
Know there are a lot of people that are angry about Bill. All of the pictures of other people, you know, but I think it's terrible. Look, I don't like the. I like Bill Clinton. I've always gotten along with Bill Clinton. I've been nice to him, he's been nice to me. We've always gotten along, respect him. I hate to see photos come out of him. But this is what the Democrats, mostly Democrats and a couple of bad Republicans are asking for. So they give me their photos of me, too. Everybody was friendly with this guy, either friendly or not friendly. But they were, you know, he was around. He was all over Palm beach and other people, places. The head of Harvard was his best friend, Larry Summers, and Bill Clinton was a friend of his. But everybody was. I actually threw him out of Mar A Lago. And as a, you know, as a person that was in Mar A Lago, I threw him out Mar A Lagos. This is Mar a Lago. It's the hottest place in. I think it's the hottest place in the world, but it's the hottest place in Florida. And everybody would come here, come here. We actually threw them out. But no, I don't like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown. I don't like the pictures of other people being shown. I think it's a terrible thing. I think Bill Glenn's a big boy, he can handle it. But you probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago, and they're, you know, highly respected bankers and lawyers and others. And they'll end up because of guys like Massey, who's a real low life, whose polls are down to about 9%, by the way, the great state of Kentucky, if you look at Kentucky, Kentucky is such a great place. But I don't know, they've got a couple of people on there that are very strange in terms of leadership. But Massey's a loser and he likes it. And he works with the Democrats. He's just being used by the Democrats. Because what this whole thing is with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has. Like, for instance, today we're building the biggest ships in the world, most powerful ships in the world. And they're asking me questions about Jeffrey Epstein. I thought that was finished. I believe they gave over 100,000 pages of documents and there is tremendous backlash. It's an interesting question because a lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had Nothing to do with Epstein, but they're in a picture with him because he at a party and you ruin a reputation of somebody. So a lot of people are very angry that this continues. A lot of Republicans are angry because of the fact that it's just used to deflect against a tremendous success. Look, we have eight.
- [103:27]
Ben Ferguson
The President talking about those tremendous successes and yet again having to deal with the Epstein files that have been released. President wanting to talk about other issues as well. One of the things he talked about is about American investment. This is one of the things he says is really important that he's working on.
- [103:48]
Donald Trump
We're doing a great job and we enjoy doing it. Our border is secure. Our country is strong. Trillions of dollars is coming into our country from other countries and companies. They're building factories and plants, including auto plants, all over the United States of America. Without tariffs, they wouldn't be doing anything, although they were very happy with the November 5 election. But it's only because they want to avoid paying tariffs that they're all coming in. And again, the biggest number was $3 trillion in history. That was China many years ago. Now it's $18 trillion, and that's just in 10 months, we think we could hit $20 trillion. That's investment in the United States, including plant and equipment.
- [104:30]
Ben Ferguson
So you listen to the President talk about the investment. He also talked about protecting Americans when it comes to drugs. Something else that he says is a very important point of his administration, and it's something that we must stand firm on. Part of that is dealing with the cocaine coming out of Colombia. The President asked about Colombia, and here's what he said.
- [104:55]
Donald Trump
Yeah, go ahead, please.
- [104:57]
Ben Ferguson
So in response to the United States taking sanctioned oil from. From Venezuela, Colombian President Gustavo Petro criticized the United States by saying, well, the Southwest has stolen land and that it should be returned to Latin America. I just wanted to know what your response to that is.
- [105:11]
Donald Trump
Well, he has to watch because, you know, he's got drug factors. They make cocaine in Colombia, and he's no friend of the United States. He's very bad, very bad guy. And he's got to watch his ass because he makes cocaine and they send it into the United States of America from Colombia. We love the Colombian people. I love the Colombian people. They're great people. Energetic, smart, great. But their new leader is a troublemaker, and he better watch it. You better close up those cocaine factories. They have at least three major cocaine factories. We know where they are. He better close them up fast.
- [105:49]
Ben Ferguson
Yeah, he better close them up fast. The president also wasn't done there as he talked about this major important announcement that deals with the Golden Fleet of battleships, saying these are the best in the world and long overdue.
- [106:11]
Donald Trump
So I want to wish everybody a big hello and merry Christmas and welcome to Mar a Lago for this exciting announcement of the new Golden Fleet. We're calling it the Golden Fleet that we're building for the United States Navy. As you know, we're desperately in need of ships. Our ships are some of them have gotten old and tired and obsolete, and we're going to go the exact opposite direction. We're delighted to be joined by Secretary of War Pete Hagseth, who's doing a fantastic job, and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan. Marco Rubio is here, gave a great few words toward the end of last week. He spoke for a couple of hours on what a good job we're doing, which is true. As commander in chief, it's my great honor to announce that I have approved a plan for the Navy to begin the construction of two brand new, very large, largest we've ever built battleships. You know, you used to build the Iowa, the Missouri, the Wisconsin, the Alabama, many others. We had big battleships. These are bigger, but they will have 100 times the they'll be 100 times the force of power. And there's never been anything like these ships. These have been under design consideration for a long time. And it started with me in my first term because I said, why aren't we doing battleships like we used to? And the these are the best in the world. They'll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built. So if you look at the Iowa, the Missouri, Wisconsin, Alabama and others, but they're they were similar in size, some a little bit bigger than the others. But if you take the biggest one, it's 100 times more powerful. They're longer by a little bit, but the and they're bigger. They're bigger ships, but they hold much more. They use the word lethality. Battleships are the largest, sturdiest and most heavily armed vessel built specifically for naval combat. While America has built many new warships over the years, they've been, they've tended to be smaller and much smaller and not conducive to where we are and where we're going. And peace through strength.
- [108:47]
Ben Ferguson
President Trump yet again saying, a, I'll talk about anything, B, I'm going to keep you safe, C, I'm going to make sure that we bring jobs back to this country, making this fleet be built in America, something we stopped doing. And we're far too reliant on foreign countries for our ship making. This is all part of his plan to put America first and from a national security standpoint. And the president sang I'll stand here and answer as many questions as I need to. It's important that you have a president that's transparent. And that is exactly what Donald Trump did yet again on a multitude of issues. Quick break. We'll come back. Ben Ferguson filling in for the great one, Mark Levin back after this.
- [109:33]
Mark Levin
MARK Levin.
- [109:45]
Donald Trump
All right.
- [109:45]
Ben Ferguson
I want to get some of your phone calls. 1877-381381-11877-381, 3008-1111. Let me go to Christopher, line two in California. Welcome. You are on the Mark Levin Show. Ben Ferguson filling in high hey, Ben.
- [110:03]
Caller
It'S a pleasure to talk to you.
- [110:06]
Ben Ferguson
You as well, sir.
- [110:07]
Caller
You know, you, you, you're exactly right that this is all going to boil down to the midterms and the midterms are going to boil down to the economy and this, you know, giving these people that need to go home $3,000 is like you said, it's really, it's a steal. The way that I heard it at the beginning of the year, it's about $17,000 ahead to try to catch these people. And like you were saying earlier, all the, the legal processes and the transportation and the housing and everything that goes along with it, that, that people don't realize that, that, that goes on into it. I don't even know what, what all goes on into it. I, I've heard some things that, you know, here and there, but it's, it's much, much cheaper. Just give them the $3,000, let them go home. And that way we can have our economy strong, stronger. And because if the House or the Senate, President Trump is not going to have four years of his presidency, he's going to have maybe two. Yeah, because it's all going to be.
- [111:43]
Ben Ferguson
And he knows that. Right? Like, that's something that's pretty clear. He knows that that's coming. That's part of the reason why he's out there campaigning so hard is and he's going to be hitting literally the campaign trail doing what you do in a campaign for that exact reason. I, I, you're, you are 100 correct on that one, and I appreciate the phone call. 1-877-381-3811. Let me go next to Rory, Rory in Dallas, Texas, line Five, you are on the Marco Ven Show. Ben Ferguson with you.
- [112:17]
Heritage Foundation Announcer
Hi.
- [112:18]
Caller
Thank you for inviting me to sit with you in your catbird seat. Christmas blessings to you, sir.
- [112:24]
Ben Ferguson
You as well.
- [112:24]
Caller
All right, let's get on this. All right. Thank you. $1,000 was the original program that they put out for the illegal aliens to exit and leave. Christian home has raised the bar to $3,000 which is still a drop in a bucket. But however, you know, I foresee this here being in state of Texas, us taxpayers, we have property tax and breaking it down. I say this is a great idea because with our property taxes, we're having to pay for them and their children to go to public schools, support their school lunch programs and breakfast programs, school bus transportation, the CHIP program, which is the children Health Insurance program. And also here, the property taxes go to Dallas County Community College for illegal aliens to attend college, Community college and also with the Dallas County Health Program for Parkland Hospital here. And they go there so they can have their babies. And we're paying for that. To me, $3,000.
- [113:53]
Ben Ferguson
3,000 to me is a no brainer to get them out because it's saving you a ton of money.
- [113:59]
Caller
Absolutely. And here's the other thing I think is smart about this because Trump sees we've got a backlog with the hearings for those who want due process so they can remain here. They can do that due process on the other side of the border and save that money on those courts and those judges. Because what Kamala Harris as wars are my Harkis, Joe Biden and Obama did is that they allowed. I will say I'll slam it back to them. Their dei, which is their is gonna be a deportation exit invitation for these folks to leave.
- [114:50]
Ben Ferguson
Well, I think again, over and over again, one of the biggest problems that we have is we don't, we allow people to stay for far too long. It allows them to just waste our dollars, our tax dollars at record numbers. And the longer they stay, the more they cost us. Everyone knows it. Why would we ever want to keep them here for extended period of time? This is a short term where you're saying get out fast by the end of the year. Right. This is not long term, it's short term. Hey, instead of a thousand to leave, we'll give you three. But if we catch you, you're done. This is the best money we could spend as taxpayers ever compared to how much money it's costing us just to educate illegal immigrant children, for example, or the hospital visits or the food stamps. The list goes on and on. All right, I'll see you back here tomorrow. Have a great night.