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12/29/25 - A Year of Trump: Triumphs and Trials - Mark Levin Podcast | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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12/29/25 - A Year of Trump: Triumphs and Trials

Mark Levin Podcast

Tue Dec 30 2025

Summary

Mark Levin Podcast – Episode Summary

Episode: "A Year of Trump: Triumphs and Trials"
Date: December 30, 2025
Guest Host: Larry O’Connor (in for Mark Levin)

Overview of the Episode’s Main Theme

This episode, hosted by Larry O’Connor filling in for Mark Levin, offers a year-end retrospective titled "A Year of Trump: Triumphs and Trials." The show not only reflects on Donald Trump’s first year back in office for his second term, highlighting his achievements and challenges, but also deep-dives into a major, ongoing governmental fraud scandal centered in Minnesota—especially focused on the Somali community. O’Connor explores the implications of this fraud, the media’s reluctance to cover it, the political fallout, and the reaction (or lack thereof) from Democrats. The episode balances serious policy analysis with O’Connor’s trademark sarcasm and wit, and invites audience participation with call-ins about both Trump’s record and the issues in Minnesota.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Year in Review: Trump’s Second Term – Successes & Challenges

O’Connor frames 2025 as a landmark year due to Trump’s return to office.
Hypothesis: Trump's immediate successes, particularly in border security and immigration, have made subsequent accomplishments less visible and allowed Democrats/media to downplay his achievements.
- Quote: “He’s actually a victim of his own success.” (04:33)
Highlights rapid improvement of national issues inherited from Biden.

2. Minnesota Somali Community Fraud Scandal

A major focus of the episode is a multi-billion-dollar welfare, daycare, and Medicaid fraud in Minnesota.
Details the work of Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old independent journalist who exposed extensive government funds ($19 billion) funneled to fraudulent organizations, many tied to the Somali community.
- “Nick Shirley does this story… The state of Minnesota has received about $19 billion in Medicare assistance… He goes to the addresses on these forms… they’re empty. There’s nothing there.” (07:23)
According to DOJ estimates, about half ($9 billion) is implicated in this fraud.
The comparison: Somalia’s entire GDP is $12 billion, highlighting the magnitude of the Minnesota fraud.
Explores connections to political figures, notably Ilhan Omar and her family background, suggesting possible nepotism or corruption influences.

3. Democrats’ Response (or Lack Thereof)

O’Connor repeatedly questions why Democrats aren’t outraged by the fraud, arguing the left should be most upset if they truly believe in social programs.
- “Why aren’t Democrats as outraged about … fraud … as you are, as I am, as conservatives are, as any normal person would be?” (05:00)
- Later frames this as possibly due to political connections, fear of disrupting voting blocs, or complicity.
Satirically channels a hypothetical liberal to expose the incongruity between Democrat rhetoric and silence on the fraud.
- Quote: “If I see that fraud, I’m angry, I’m upset, I’m anguished … I’m calling a press conference … and yet Democrats don’t care. They’re ignoring it. Why?” (16:00)

4. Racial Politics & Media Manipulation

Discusses accusations of racism directed at critics of the scandal, the "soft bigotry of low expectations" from left-wing media, and the way race is wielded to stifle discussion.
Criticizes the “one-voiced beast of the left”—Democratic leaders, the media, academia, pop culture—for using moral posturing to misdirect from effective policy criticism.
- “It makes no sense until you realize they don’t actually care about people. It’s just about growing political and economic power.” (22:05)
Praises citizen journalism and free, unfettered speech—specifically pointing to Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter as enabling actual reporting on the scandal.

5. Community Responsibility

Raises pointed questions about the lack of whistleblowers or reformers from within the Somali-American community:
- “If your community truly was innocent… Would you stay silent?... I don’t know. I’d be going overboard to try to flesh out the bad guys… Why aren’t they acting like that?” (31:00)
O’Connor draws a comparison to the Italian-American community’s outrage against mafia stereotypes, asking why no equivalent arises among Somalis.

6. Callers Weigh In

Multiple callers (Robert in California, Lisa in Maine, Tariq in Maryland) share personal anecdotes and cultural perspectives, sometimes controversially, about fraud patterns or community reactions.
Lisa from Maine voices concern over fraud in local Somali communities:
- “I feel like I’m being pushed out by the Somalis that live in Lewiston. … There’s a big Somali population. And I think there’s some fraud.” (61:00)
O’Connor is careful to distinguish criticism of corruption from ethnic or racial generalizations.

7. Reflections on Broader Immigration and Assimilation

Debates the role of federal refugee resettlement policy, the high rate of government assistance dependency among Somali immigrants (citing 87%), and links to naturalized/illegal status.
Questions America’s capacity for continued large-scale, poorly monitored immigration, especially when benefits fraud is rampant.

8. Trump’s Policy Achievements—Border, Economy, Stability

Returns to Trump’s year-one record in the second hour:
- Major immigration enforcement success: 2.5 million deported (two-thirds self-deported); no new illegal crossings since April.
- Economic boom: stock market records, implemented 2017 tax cuts made permanent, deficit and trade deficit reduced, tariffs reshaping international relations.
- Strong, stable administration with little staff turnover.
O’Connor notes Republican messaging remains fractured and predicts tighter focus in the 2026 election.

9. Audience Participation: “Year in Review” and “Unfinished Business”

Listeners reflect on other issues: FEMA neglect in Western Carolina post-hurricane, wish lists for Trump’s second year (including further actions on corruption, infrastructure, China, and bringing justice to Epstein associates).
O’Connor emphasizes that vigilance remains necessary and closes with calls for continued engagement.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments with Timestamps

On Trump’s Immediate Success:
- “He’s actually a victim of his own success.” – Larry O’Connor (04:33)
On the Scale of Minnesota Fraud:
- “The state of Minnesota has received about $19 billion … By some estimates, half of it, $9 billion, is all wrapped up in fraud, most of it within the Somali community…” (10:45)
On the Somali GDP Comparison:
- “The entire output of … Somalia this year: $12 billion. So … the Somali community in Minnesota is involved in about $9 billion of fraud…” (11:22)
On the Democratic Reaction:
- “If I see that fraud, I’m angry, I’m upset, I’m anguished … but Democrats don’t care. They’re ignoring it. Why?” (16:00)
On Political Power and Frauds:
- “They don’t actually care about people. It’s just about growing political and economic power.” (22:05)
On Community Responsibility:
- “If your community truly was innocent … would you stay silent? Would you circle the wagons? Would you play Keep Away with the Truth? … I’d be going overboard to try to flesh out the bad guys.” (31:00)
On Citizen Journalism vs. Legacy Media:
- “That report by Nick Shirley … is the kind of thing ‘60 Minutes’ used to do back when they cared about journalism.” (42:49)
On Free Speech and Media:
- “Freedom of the press is not about Jim Acosta and George Stephanopoulos. … it’s your freedom.” (50:18)
On Trump’s Immigration Policy:
- “605,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended and deported forcibly in the last year. 1.9 million left voluntarily … and people still think the president isn’t doing enough. He’s a victim of his own success.” (75:24)
On Democratic Messaging:
- “If a Republican says let’s just freeze it at $19 billion and not give them any more, they will scream like you are killing grandma and killing babies.” (72:23)

Timestamps of Important Segments

| MM:SS | Segment / Highlights | |---------|-------------------------------------| | 04:33 | Opening thesis: Trump “victim of his own success” | 07:23 | Nick Shirley’s investigation in Minnesota | 10:45 | Welfare fraud in Minnesota summarized, Somali community focus | 11:22 | Somalia GDP comparison, implication for US policy | 16:00 | O’Connor “channels a liberal” on fraud | 22:05 | Politics vs. Compassion – Democrats’ priorities | 31:00 | Discussion of internal community responsibility | 42:49 | Nick Shirley’s citizen journalism as turning point | 50:18 | First Amendment analysis; defense of citizen journalism | 61:00 | “Lisa from Maine” on Somali communities in Lewiston | 75:24 | Reviewing first-year Trump policy stats (border, economy) | 100:26 | Caller review of Trump’s year (Colorado Springs) | 108:23 | Requests from callers: infrastructure, Trump’s promises | 113:33 | Callers’ “unfinished business,” wish lists for Trump 2026

Tone & Language

Consistently direct, provocative, and sarcastic, especially when challenging political opponents or “virtue-signaling” leftists.
Employs a blend of seriousness (on policy/fraud) and humor (pop culture references, satirical “channeling” of liberals).
Maintains Mark Levin’s energetic, combative radio style, with O’Connor’s own brand of pointed commentary.

Summary Takeaways

The episode is a hard-hitting, wide-ranging year-in-review: It blends a political policy report card with an in-depth exposé on Minnesota’s welfare fraud and the role of both the media and political class in shielding the guilty and weaponizing race.
O’Connor’s main arguments:
- Conservative outrage over fraud is justified; Democratic silence is self-serving.
- Trump’s second term has produced rapid policy results but faces relentless media downplaying.
- True accountability and citizenship require both government and community intervention against corruption.
The podcast is a rallying call: For accountability, for honest media, and for persistent vigilance—ending with a call for listeners to remain engaged, question authority, and recognize the success and challenges of the Trump administration as groundwork for the coming year.

End of Summary

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Transcript

Heritage Foundation Announcer (0:00)

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.

Larry O'Connor (0:21)

He's here.

Mark Levin Show Announcer (0:22)

He's here now. Broadcasting from the underground command post deep in the bowels of a hidden bunker somewhere under to the brick and steel of a nondescript building, we've once again made contact with our leader, Mark Levin.

Larry O'Connor (0:43)

It's Larry o' Connor sitting in for the Great One. Mark levin, on this 29th day of December, winding down 2025, and what a year it's been. We're going to do some looking back today about what this year has been like. And of course, the big headline coming out of this year is the first year of the second term of President Donald Trump. And what a year it's been. We're going to about some of the highlights, some of the things yet to be accomplished. And my hypothesis that the president's incredible success right out of the chute, taking care of, honestly, one of the biggest, most insurmountable problems that he inherited from Joe Biden that he solved so quickly, it's kind of worked against him. He's, he's actually a victim of his own success. I want to get into that later. Later in the show, we're also going to bring you some audio from a press conference that President Trump held in Mar a Lago just about an hour ago with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came down to talk about some concerns over the peace deal. I mean, I'll bottom line it for you, shockingly, and I know you're going to be shocked by this, the Hamas terrorists aren't trustworthy. Yes, I know. Same people who just murdered a thousand innocent people on October 7, 2023, and held untold numbers of people hostage, abused them, tortured them, sexually assaulted them, used them as ransom and leverage for their own pathetic political goals. They also can't be trusted. We'll get to the details of that coming up a little later, too. First, though, we got to turn our sights to the great White North. No, not that far north. Not Canada. Not talking about Canada. Southern Canada, really. Minnesota. We got to talk about the fraud in Minnesota. And we will. I have a question for you, though, if you don't mind. And My number is 877-381-3811-877381-13811 It's a simple question. Why aren't Democrats as outraged about the tax fraud and benefits fraud and government fraud and daycare fraud and health care fraud and Medicaid fraud that's going on in Minnesota right now? Why aren't they as concerned about it as you are, as I am, as conservatives are, as Republicans are, as any normal person would be? It's striking to me how they either don't want to talk about it, want to ignore it, want to rationalize it away, or, of course, their usual response when confronted with an issue that makes them look bad. This is what happens when they target communities for their own benefit. This is what happens when they scapegoat. And this is what happens when they no longer hide the idea of white supremacy. There you go. See, you're racist. This is that's Tim Walls, the pathetic governor of Minnesota, who says because you've noticed the fraud going on in his state right under his nose that he benefited from, make no mistake. We'll connect those dots for you in just a moment. Because you noticed it and actually raised objections and say, hey, you know, those are my tax dollars. Maybe, maybe we shouldn't have people robbing us blind. He calls you racist. He calls you a white supremacist. Why is that? Why aren't Democrats upset about this? 877-381-3811 by way of introduction, by the way, my name is Larry O'. Connor. I'm a radio host in Washington, D.C. i do the Morning show on WMAL, which is, well, I mean, the most powerful and influential talk radio station in the country. And since really we have the best talk radio in the world here in the United States of America, by definition that means it's the greatest, most influential and important talk radio station on the planet. And of course, you can extrapolate that to the solar system in the galaxy. Anyways, I do the morning show there. I also do a daily livestream podcast on all video platforms and audio platforms for Town Hall Media. Town Hall Media. The mighty town hall media. So you can check that out anytime you'd like. So here's the story. Nick Shirley is an independent journalist. He's got his own YouTube and X channels. He's the epitome of citizen journalism. This is exactly what Andrew Breitbart envisioned when I worked with Andrew back in 2009-2010-2011-2012, when he was first launching what is now known as Breitbart News and He brought in and, and platformed and elevated a guy named James o'. Keefe. This was the vision. Citizen journalists with your smartphone, with, with your basic audio equipment that you can literally buy at Target or, or, or Walmart or wherever you like to buy or, or at higher end places, certainly off Amazon, you can basically do a 60 Minutes report that Nick Shirley did. Nick Shirley's a 23 year old dude who for two years has been producing a weekly report on his channels. And in this report about Minnesota, he took existing journalism from local media outlets, from some national media outlets that have done some investigation into the fraud in Minnesota. He found an expert on the ground there who's gone through all of the government documents and seen all of the federal grants and the amounts of money that these various entities have gotten. And it's all public record. It's all out there. Anybody at CBS News or ABC News or what are they calling a Ms. Now Ms. Now, darn it, anybody there, they could have done this investigation if they wanted. Washington Post, Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. I think they've got a budget. They could have done exactly what Nick Shirley did with his iPhone and with a microphone. But they didn't. New York Times to their credit, like two and a half weeks ago, had an article talking about some of the convictions that have happened in Minnesota so far. Strange part of that story though. It's funny, you'll be shocked. There are like three judges in Minnesota, left wing, liberal, progressive, woke radical Marxist Democrats who are judges and they, they threw out the convictions. They threw out the convictions that had been reached by a jury's unanimous verdict. So sure, the New York Times did a little bit of coverage on it, but not what Nick Shirley did. Nick Shirley does this story. Then he goes to the addresses on these forms. The government report that shows the millions and millions and millions it's clocked up to. Well, I can tell you this. The state of Minnesota has received about $19 billion in Medicare assistance for healthcare centers and for daycare centers. Remember that number, 19 billion. Nick Shirley goes to the address of a ton of these places. It's, they're empty. There's nothing there. On one of the places, a early childhood learning center. On the sign they misspelled the name learning. It's a leering center, which I guess in Tim Walls's Minnesota is appropriate enough, a leering center. My friends. He went up, he started to talk to people. He said, oh, this is child care center. It's a daycare center that's licensed for 99 people, they got $2 million this last year. No one's there. Doors are locked, middle of the day, no children anywhere to be seen. Tim Walls reaction. Well, you're all white supremacists. Of course. This is white supremacy. Remember that number. I wanted you to remember. $19 billion. $19 billion for the Somali community. They've gotten a huge lion's share of it in the state of Minnesota. Minnesota got $19 billion total. Huge percentage of it went to the Somali community. You know, the Somali community. Everyone tells you. Where would this country be without the Somali community in Minnesota? Wouldn't have been able to accomplish anything. We would have never gotten a man on the moon. If it weren't for the Somali community in the Greater St. Paul, Minneapolis area, we would forget about inventing Velcro and Tang. I was always told that those are two great benefits that came out of the moon. The Apollo program. Yeah, I think they could have done better. I mean, Velcro's fine. The country that brought you the personal computer as well as the supercomputer, country that brought you copy machines. The country that brought you, I don't know, things like electricity, mass production, automobiles. We've done a lot here in this country. None of it, none of it would have happened without the Somalis. Let's not forget the Somalis who fought in the Revolutionary War and crossed the Delaware with George Washington on Christmas Eve, 1776. Let's not forget such things. We'd be nowhere without the Somalis. So the Somali community comes here. And by the way, that Somali community that's so vital that we wouldn't be able to do anything here in this country would have never even been a country without the Somali community. The Somali community, by some estimations, are currently receiving. 87% of them are receiving some kind of federal or state benefit. 87% of them are receiving some sort of welfare. But they're vital to our community. We'd be nowhere without them. $19 billion is the number I asked you to remember. The state of Minnesota got $19 billion. A huge chunk of it went to the Somali community, by some estimates from The Justice Department, 9 billion of it, half of it has been. Has been involved in these fraudulent schemes. 9. Half of the money that the federal government gave the state of Minnesota is fraudulent, according to the latest Justice Department estimate. They're still investigating. So, total of 19 billion, about 9 billion of it fraudulent. Here's, here's, here's why I wanted you to remember those two numbers. The country of Somalia, that'd be on the Horn of Africa. Familiar with it. Right. It's where the pirates are, where they, you know, take over ships. It's where we lost American soldiers in the 90s during their civil war. It's where a communist Marxist dictator took over in 1969 and started using machetes to slaughter his opponents. Different tribesmen up in the northwestern part of the Horn, now an independent region called Somaliland, tried to declare their independence. Oh, by the way, one of the top colonels in that Marxist communist dictators murder squads that went up there and slaughtered people happens to be the father of one Ilhan Omar, congresswoman out of that same community in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. I know. The coincidences, it's amazing. It's like a rom com. Yeah. So that country, Somalia, their gross domestic product this year, the entire output of that country, the economic output of the country of Somalia this year, $12 billion. So let's talk through these numbers again. The federal government gave the State of Minnesota $19 billion for welfare programs of all shades and shapes and colors and sizes. $19 billion. By some estimates, half of it, $9 billion, is all wrapped up in fraud, most of it within the Somali community in Minnesota. So the Somali community in Minnesota is involved in about $9 billion of fraud in the entire country of Somalia. Can produce $12 billion this year. Make of those numbers what. The question on the table is, why aren't Democrats angry about this? Why do you have to be conservative? Dic. If I'm a Democrat. You know what? I'll explain in a second. You know, and I do want to hear from you. 877-381-3811. And in a moment, I'm going to channel a liberal. I'm going to channel a Democrat. I'm going to. I'm going to channel Gavin Newsom, Tim Walls, Kamala Harris. Pick your poison. I'm gonna pretend that I'm like them, that I have their perspective, that I have their focus, that I have their compassionate priorities about all the great things our government can do. And if you really do believe the things that Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris and Tim Walls and AOC and all of them say they care about, then you should be the angriest about this fraud. And yet they're silent. Yeah, we'll discuss that in just a moment. 877-381-3811. I'm Larry O'. Connor. This is the Mark Levin Show.

Larry O'Connor (15:01)

Larry o' Connor in for Mark Levin today. Happy New Year to you all. Merry Christmas, all that jazz. We don't waste time on Kwanzaa. Don't worry about that. I'm conservative, but I know liberals. I can channel them if I have to. I, I used to work in the theater, entertainment business. Oh, heck, I work in radio now. You think everyone who works in radio is conservative? No, I mean, you know the hosts, sure. But yeah, you know, and also I've lived most of my life in either Los Angeles or New York or D.C. and Maryland. Okay, so I'm surrounded, right? Always have been. Maybe I'm the problem, actually, now that I think about it. So I'm a liberal. Let's just say I'm. Let's say I love Gavin Newsom. Let's say I think Joe Biden and his auto pen were the greatest presidents in my lifetime. I love the idea of taking your tax dollars, giving it to the government and have the government redistribute that to the truly needy or to everyday average, economically middle class people who just won't spend their money properly. So they need me to spend it for them because I'm smarter. I do everything better. I don't want your kids to stay in your house and have mom or dad take care of them. No, I want you to give your kids to government funded daycare center. That's what I want. And I want, I don't want you to be able to get your doctor's appointments or your medical procedures on the open market and compete and pay out of pocket. No, I want you to have to use your Obamacare program that's way too expensive and get your health care from a health care facility that is government funded, right? We're going to set them all up and we're going to pay for all of it. Right? And we're going to do it all because, well, we're just better and we're smarter and we can spend your money better than you can. So we're going to tax and we're going to tax and we're going to tax and we're going to spend and we're going to spend and we're going to spend. And just as an example, we're going to give $19 billion last year to the state of Minnesota so they can do all those things, right? Because I care about children, I care about six people and I care about poor people and I care about, about the government being smarter than you with how you can spend your money to get those things done. Because that's what my socialist utopia is, is gonna, is gonna bring to this nation. That's who I am. I'm a liberal, left wing, woke progressive Marxist. And then I turn on social media over the weekend and I see this report out of Minnesota where all that money that I just joyfully took from you at gunpoint, the theft known as taxation and redistributed to Minnesota, all that money that I took from you and I set up for all of those wonderful things that I was going to do, it's all been flushed down the toilet. It's made people rich, criminals, rampant fraud. And by the way, what about the children? Will no one think of the children? They were supposed to have benefited from all these great programs. Well, I mean, where are the children? What about all the people who aren't getting their health care? Because all of these healthcare centers that we've set up, they're all frauds. And so now we've got people dying in the streets because they're not getting health care, because they're shell companies and they're, they're Potemkin villages. They're not real. It's all fraud. This is terrible. I mean, if I see that fraud, I'm angry, I'm upset, I'm anguished, I'm, I'm calling a press conference. I'm trying to get to the bottom of it. I'm demanding answers. I'm applauding the Trump administration and FBI Director Kesh Patel for throwing more resources in Minnesota to try to investigate this on steroids. That's what I'm doing right Because I honestly believe in those programs. I honestly believe that people need that money in these programs. And yet. And yet Democrats don't care. They're ignoring it. Why? I have a hunch. Give us a call. It's Larry O' Connor in for Mark Levin.

Larry O'Connor (20:13)

Larry O' Connor in for Mark Levin. We're talking about the fraud in Minnesota, but it's more than just Minnesota. It's more than in Minnesota in terms of other states, but it's also, it's more than Minnesota in that this isn't just about the fraud in Minnesota. This is about political ideology and your approach to government and the government's role in, in the virtue signaling left personified by the media who anytime a Republican or a conservative or an Elon Musk or a Donald Trump or a J.D. vance or a Mark Levin or a Larry O' Connor stand up and says, hey, hold on a minute. Why are we spending all this money and things aren't getting any better? Why look at Obamacare. I mean, how much, how much money has been spent there? And people still complain about their health insurance. They still compare about their health care. We're no healthier than we were and it's costing us, you know, twice, three times, four times more. And you stand up and you say that and the mind meld, the. One Voiced beast of the left personified by your elected officials, your news media, your government bureaucrats, your pop culture represented in your music industry, your late night talk shows. And it is the one voice that they all have. Academia all across the board. They all scream that you are, that you have no compassion, that you're selfish, that you're greedy, that you don't want to help anybody, that you want people to die in the streets. I'm sorry. Every single American should be absolutely disgusted by this fraud. Every single Democrat, every single Republican, every single Libertarian, every single Marxist. You're Zoran Mamdani. And you're about to institute $100 billion all encompassing universal childcare plan in the city of New York City. And you're seeing this in Minnesota. You should be outraged. You should be screaming from the top of the Empire State Building like King Kong calling for people's heads. But you're not. No one on the left cares about this. In fact, they want to cover it up, they want to ignore it, they want to hide it, they don't want to talk about it. They want to pretend it's not real. And if you stand up and say something about it, they want to call you racist. It makes no sense until you realize they don't actually care about people. And it's not really about the children. It's not really about people dying in the streets. It's not about any of those things. It's just about growing political and economic power. And oh by the way, one other reason real fast, just to set aside the political power aspect that permeates every single Marxist behavior in this country. There's one other thing. Ask yourself this. I won't give you the answer. Just ask yourself this question and maybe you can come up with it yourself. When there's a giant multi billion dollar fraud scheme and there are people in political power who are, you know, responsible for growing the programs and funding the programs that are now being defrauded. And you're not upset about it and in fact you want to ignore it and pretend it didn't happen. What does that really say about you? I mean, what's a logical conclusion one can reach when the people who created the program demanded funding for the program and now see that the program's being robbed blind and yet you don't want to say anything about that? What can we assume about your connection to these programs? 877-381-3811. Why? Why aren't Democrats upset about this? We're going to start with line five. That would be Robert. Santa Clara, California. Beautiful. Santa Clara, California. Robert, you're first up. I'm Larry o'. Connor.

Larry O'Connor (25:19)

There's a lot of what you're saying here that rings true, most specifically about what other ethnicities and nationalities in that part of East Africa think about Somalis. You hear it all the time. That's. There's no secret there. And I appreciate the observation, my friend. Thank you for calling in. I'll just expand on that because I just want to. It's funny, as soon as you say something like that, people immediately will start calling you racist, which makes no sense because he was specifically drawing on the fact that other black nationalities and ethnicities there characterize Somalis specifically as. As being prone to corruption and fraud. So, so how. How can you be racist if you're actually siding with other people of color? But that doesn't stop anybody from calling anybody a racist. I will say this. I don't think it's a secret that the Somali government has been corrupt since 1969. And most specifically, it has been corrupt in a way that all communist dictatorships and authoritarians were corrupt in the 20th century. And that is you had a small handful of people that benefited on the oppression and. And confiscation of wealth of the rest of the people in that country. That's exactly what you're seeing here. You've got people gaming the system and gave in the government and getting government money, which, which is your money. This is tax dollars, by the way, for everybody who thinks, oh, well, who cares? Minnesota, they get the government they elected. No, this is your money. My God, I sure hope you realize that this is not Minnesota taxpayer money. This is your money. This is federal money. This is all money that Obama and Biden all confiscated from you through the irs. This is people in Mississippi and Alabama and Oklahoma and Wyoming who dutifully send their checks into the federal government and then they took your money and they gave it to these criminals in Minnesota. And, and the kind of fraud and the kind of corruption and the kind of outright theft that you see in Minnesota focused within the Somali community is exactly the kind of fraud and corruption that you see in Somalia. Now that's not a racial observation at all. Has absolutely nothing to do with the color of the people's skin. But, but let me just say something about this because I keep hearing race, race, race. The only reason people are caring about this is race. The only reason people are focusing on it is race. I think one of the only reasons that this hasn't gotten any attention up until now is because of race. It's clear that the politicians there were terrified to be called racist. How do I know that? Because that's immediately what a lot of the politicians did the second that the story came out. Is it called anybody drawing attention to a racist? Number two there says half of what they're terrified to disrupt the political influence and power that they get from the Somali community. Oh, these guys? You kidding? The voting bloc of Somalis there can swing an election for the Democrats. They're the captain now and the Democrats know it. Okay, so that's a big part of it too. The reason that this didn't get attention is because of racism, because of the soft bigotry of low expectations. Now let's strike that. The outright bigotry of low expectations where you had Democrats and yet people in the media in Minnesota who literally don't think that the Somali community is capable of anything better than this. Oh, you know how those people are. They say to themselves as they drink their very bad beer in Minnesota. Yeah.

Larry O'Connor (29:06)

That the racism here is for people not expecting anymore from the community. But I've got one other thing to say about this that, that I sure hope resonates with you. And I sure hope you can repeat it to your liberal brother in law when they come over for New Year's Eve dinner this weekend or to maybe watch some football with you and they start calling you racist because you think that this fraud is an absolute outrage. I just want you to say something to them. Think about it for a second. If you were the member of a racial or ethnic minority that has just Come to this country over the last 20 years and you find out that in your community you have. We keep hearing, oh, it's just, you know, 80, 90 people who have committed all this fraud, which is a lie, by the way. I'll blow apart that lie in a moment. But, but let's say you believe that this is a handful of people in the Somali community or whatever community you belong to, you know, Mesopotamian Americans or, you know, whatever, whatever hyphenated group you belong to. You're the minority. You're very easily identifiable by the community at large. You live amongst yourselves, just like the Somalis in the Twin Cities, okay? You're a part of that community and you find out that this international scandal is going on and it's at the heart of your community and you are innocent. And, you know, the people of your community are really good, upstanding citizens who are the backbone of the community. And our nation wouldn't be anything without you. Let me ask you something. Would you. Would you stay silent? Would you circle the wagons? Would you play Keep Away with the Truth? Would you slam the door at someone with a camera and a microphone and stay behind locked doors and not say a damn thing? Would you stand up and accuse anybody who's trying to get the facts about this fraud and about this criminal activity? Would you call them names and try to shut them down if you truly were innocent? If your community truly was innocent? See, I don't know, maybe I made of different stuff than people who grew up in the Horn of Africa and came here as refugees. Maybe I can't walk a mile in their sandals. And I'll never quite know what it's like to be a Somali American. But I know for me, for my community, for whatever group that I belong to, where suddenly some people within my group behaves abhorrently and in a criminal fashion, in a despicable way, in a way that makes us all look bad. I don't know. I'd be going overboard to try to flesh out the bad guys. I would be joining with the authorities to root out the fraud. I would be doing whatever I could to demonstrate to the general public that this does not reflect on our entire community that we are good, law abiding, patriotic Americans and we are as disgusted and outraged by this criminal behavior as anyone else. In fact, we're more outraged and disgusted by this behavior because my group should be better than that. We're grateful to be here. We're guests. We were welcomed to this country. And the last thing we want is for the people who have welcomed us to think that we're criminals and we take advantage of this system and those, those horrible, horrible members of my community that have done this, they're the bad apples. And I'm going to work with you and do everything I can to root it out and convict all of these people of fraud. Why aren't they acting like that? Why don't you see that? Why don't you hear anything from any of the members? All they do, all I've seen from people who have speak out, spoken out, is to stand up and tell you how amazing and wonderful they are. There's nothing to see here. And how dare you shine a light on the corruption. You're the problem. You're at fault. And now if you really want to be my ally, if you really want to be on my side, it's incumbent on you to throw a hijab on and do a press conference. That's. That's what we saw. The lieutenant governor of Minnesota, woman, whiter than the snow on your front yard right now in many parts of this country running for Senate for the Democrats, naturally decided that she was going to throw a hijab on and give a press conference to show solidarity with the Somali community, with Somali standing by, nodding and smiling as if it was a terrorist video without the AK47s. And I would think again, as a guest of the country, I know I would behave differently. If I truly believe that this was such a small handful of people that are making us all look bad, I would be walking over broken glass to prove to the country at large that this is not who we are and those people do not represent us. And I'm going to demonstrate it. I'm going to prove it. I'm going to help you root out this fraud. Why aren't they doing that? Why aren't they doing that? 877-381-3811. It's Larry O' Connor in for the Great One. Mark Levin.

Larry O'Connor (35:42)

Larry o' Connor in for Mark Levin. And real fast, I mentioned the, the, oh, it's only 80 people or so. We'll get your cousin. Here's Tim Waltz the other day. And I think the biggest thing on this is, is just making sure that we're educating the population. And Again, this is 80 people or so that have been convicted in this. Maybe some more in that. Yeah, okay, so when he says that, that becomes some talking point that people repeat all the time. Oh, you guys are making a big deal out of this. It's only 80 people. First of all, it's a lie, and I'll expose the lie in a second. But beyond that, I always like to do this when you're in a political argument with somebody and they're, they're not being truthful, they're lying. They're, they're throwing fake statistics at you, and you know that they're wrong. Before you blow apart the statistics and, and show him why he's, he's being deceitful, stop for a minute and just say, you know what? Let's stipulate that even if it's true, even, even if Tim Walls is telling the truth here and it's only 80 people in the Somali community. What do you mean, only 80 people? We're talking about 8 or 9 billion dollars, and only 80 people were able to do that. And, and you're not running around like, with your hair on fire screaming about how awful this is. Why is this man not concerned? But even beyond that, I'm sure you heard it, but just in case, because this is what happens in the cable news and social media. You see a stat like this and you don't really think about what you're seeing. You don't think about the words you've just heard. Listen, again. Committed by white men asking us to do more about that. I think it's crime in general. And I think the biggest thing on this is just making sure that we're educating the population. And Again, this is 80 people or so that have been convicted in this. There it was. I'm sure you heard it that time. This is 80 people or so that have been convicted. That is irrelevant. I don't care how many people. You know, we've got a, a murder spree in Chicago right now. You know, on any given day, you might have 20 people murdered a night. But, but the good news is we've only convicted five people of murder this year. So we're really only talking about five people. It's not that big a deal. The number of people convicted is irrelevant, especially when you've got a corrupt fraud like Keith Ellison as the attorney general, when you've got a corrupt, incompetent fraud like Tim Walls as the governor. And suddenly you see, you know, Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper repeating, well, just to be clear, there's only 80 people so far that have been corrupted, convicted. As if that's a data point that is relevant in any way to the scope of the crime. In fact, the fact that only 80 people have been convicted is part of the scandal. But that's what you'll see on cable news. That's what Morning Joe will say. That's what George Stephanopoulos will say because that's the media we have right now. But you're smarter than that. You're here. You know better. We've got more on this topic. And again, why aren't Democrats upset about it? I'll tell you why in a moment. Moment. It's Larry o' Connor in for the Great One, Mark Levin.

Larry O'Connor (42:49)

Nick Shirley, 23 years old. He's been doing it for two years these kind of YouTube videos. This one obviously blew up 120 million views just on X. YouTube even more. That report right there. It's kind of thing 60 Minutes used to do back when they cared about journalism, back when they, they weren't shills and propagandists for the machine. The left wing, liberal, progressive government machine that works hand in glove with the Democrat Party and with the media. That's why my friend and mentor Andrew Breitbart used to call this the Democrat media complex. They all work together. And by the way, it's not a conspiracy theory or anything, it's just reality. They all work together, they all have the same goals, they're all on the same side. Is that shocking? Ask Jake Tapper what he did before he became a journalist. Ask George Stephanopoulos what he did before he became a journalist. How about Chuck Todd? What did he do before he. How about Joe Scarborough? How about Mika Brzezinski or her dad? I mean, it goes on and on and on that Jen Psaki redhead there on Ms. Now. What did she do before she got her job as a TV host and journalist? That's fine, but that's what it is. It's why I wrote one of my two. But it's funny, I wrote two books last year and if you, you know, forgot anybody's Christmas presents, here's the book. I wrote one book called Shameless Liars and it's all about the media. About the corrupt, irrelevant, corporate legacy media, how they got everything wrong in the 2024 presidential election and how Trump defeated them in the same way he defeated Biden and Kamala Harris. And how the new media, represented by Nick Shirley here with this expose, has changed everything and how it will never be the same again. And we will never be beholden to the corporate gatekeepers in the media as long as we can keep these platforms free. That book's called Shameless Liars. Number one book. Earlier in the year, I came out in February. My other book, I wrote a novel. It's my first novel. It's kind of a. A government corruption thriller. It's called the Corruption Protocol. It's actually called Doge Squad. Doge Squad is the name of the series. It's loosely based on Doge. And it's all about government corruption. It's all about this beast. It's all about the vested interests that keep the machine going, funds the machine. And this is the cycle that we see in Minnesota that I lay out in my novel, because the novel is very, very loosely based on what really goes on in Washington D.C. right now. The only difference is in my book, the good guys win in the end and we actually catch the bad guys and expose their fraud and people go to jail. But what, what happens in my book is what happens in Washington D.C. and what happens in Washington, in Minnesota, right here. Here's what happens. You got Democrats who control the government in that state and for 12 of the last 17 years have controlled the government in Washington D.C. and so they set up all of these programs, all of these welfare programs, all of these daycare programs, all of these healthcare programs. They brag about it. They get votes by saying, I'm gonna do this thing and we're gonna help all these people. And all you good hearted liberals and some of you people who are wishy washy, who don't like to be called names and don't think deep enough about these issues to actually say, wait a minute, since when does government actually help people in times like this? They always make things worse. It's like the people who voted for Zora Mamdani. You know, it's too expensive to live in New York. And the solution is the government will fix it. The government has never made anything less affordable. The only way an elected official can make things more affordable for you is to lower your taxes and to cut regulations. That is it. And I assure you that's not what Zuram Donnie plans to do. All right, so they get all these votes, they get power, they set up these programs, then they fund the programs with your money. They confiscate it. They said, taxation is theft. There's no two ways about it except that you voted for your thief, they take your money, they fund the programs. And then it's always politically connected groups or individuals who have some sort of relationship with those very same elected officials who end up creating these organizations. They get all the tax dollars that are supposed to fix the problems. Now in Minnesota, it's more blatant than usual. These are just shell companies. They're storefronts, they're misspelled signs hanging over a door in a ghetto. And then they get $2 million. So they go through the process of getting the government grant because the elected official has well placed advisors that are in the community that say, here, let me show you how to do this. So they show them how to do it. They set up the money, they set up the fraud scheme, they catch all the money. And then what are those fraudsters? The people who have like set up the little shell corporation with the misspelled sign above the door in the ghetto that's getting $2 million a year. What do they do? Well, they take a good percentage of that money and they make a political donation back to the party and back to the candidates and back to the super PACs that keep those Democrats in power that set up the program in the first place. And it just goes on and on and on and on. What they didn't take into account was Trump winning the election and actually starting to do something about this stuff and citizen journalism, see if they've got the media on their side. If Elon Musk had not purchased Twitter, we wouldn't know about this story. Nick Shirley's report would never get published. He may have tried to do it, but it would have been de platformed immediately. He would have been censored. It would have been called unverified and unsupported and fake news. And he'd be under investigation. He'd be demonetized and deep platformed. And that's across the board on all the other social. The only reason that YouTube is free now, the only reason Facebook is free, relatively, only reason that you've got other platforms is because Elon Musk bought Twitter and said, enough of this, we're not going to do it anymore. And the other places were shamed into following suit. That and Trump winning the election. Of course, he wouldn't have won the election had Elon Musk not purchased Twitter. It all comes back to free speech, free unfettered speech, which again, I wrote about in my book Shameless Liars. Whole section there about the First Amendment, Madison's vision, the fact that you are the media, the fact that the First Amendment protection of the press. You ever wonder how protection of the press doesn't really match the other freedoms in the First Amendment?

Larry O'Connor (50:18)

You have freedom of speech, you have freedom of free expression, freedom of assembly, freedom to practice your own faith. Right. Those are all your personal freedoms that you can do. And then suddenly you throw in their freedom of the press. Suddenly Madison and Hamilton and the founders, Jay Washington, they all wanted to make sure that reporters were protected on the First Amendment. That people who own newspapers or pamphlets or eventually, yes, the Internet and television stations, they didn't envision it, but they wrote the First Amendment in such a way that it was applicable to all forms of modern communication. You think they. They. Yeah, we wanted. We need to make sure every single American citizen has the right to personal speech, personal assembly, personal religious faith, and oh, by the way, let's just protect reporters while we're in it. While we're at it. No, the freedom of the press is exactly like those other freedoms. Freedom of the press is not about Jim Acosta and George Stephanopoulos. Freedom of the press is about you. It's your freedom not just to express yourself and publish your own ideas and your own thoughts and your own investigations and your own efforts to hold your government accountable, but also you are the one who benefits from the government getting out of the way of censoring the media, the press, reporters, pamphleteers, newspapers, whatever form or platform. It's for you. It's not for the reporter, it's for you. Freedom of the press is for the American citizen. Because this thing doesn't work if we can't get unencumbered free information. None of it works. The Constitution requires it. Our free constitutional republic, utilizing democracy to choose our elected representatives, requires free press. If it's not free, then it's all a game. It's all. The game is rigged. It's fixed. Which is exactly what we saw in 2020, exactly what we saw. We couldn't report about the hundred Biden laptop. We couldn't report the truth about the origins of the COVID virus. We couldn't report the truth about social distancing. We couldn't report the truth about all of the restrictions that the government put on us during the. During the pandemic, including forced mail in ballots and dropboxes which exploded voter fraud. But then you weren't allowed to talk about the voter fraud. And when the government stifles all of that expression, all of that information, all of that reporting, all of those opinions, all of that analysis, all of that speech, when the government stifles it, look what happens. Joe Biden ends up in the White House and we have the four years that we had. That's why what Nick Shirley did was so important. And that's why all those other places that benefited from the government control. It's not like there was no media. Just like in every Orwell story, the authoritarians got to pick and choose who the winners were. And that was NBC. Cbs, abc. They were fine. That's why they're not talking about this story. They don't want you to know about it. They don't want you to be informed. But you are, because you're right here. More on the other side. 877-381-3811. It's Larry O' Connor in for the great one. Mark Levin.

Larry O'Connor (55:11)

Larry O' Connor in for the great one. Mark Levin, 877-381-3811. How about we go to Line 6 in Brunswick, Maine? It's Lisa. Oh, Lisa, Maine, Maine. You got your own host issues up there, don't you, Lisa? No. That's too bad. Lisa's been holding for a while. All right. Oh, now, now I want to make sure I have enough time. I'll tell you what, we'll take the rest of your calls on the other end. Tyreek, hold up. Paul, hold up. We'll get to you in a moment. I did leave one question. Hang in there. When I said, hey, think about it. If Democrat who set up the program and funded the program and bragged about the program and fought for the program and criticized the political opponents like Republicans for not supporting the program, you have so vested an interest in making sure that program is great and wonderful and pristine and functioning and keeps going and then suddenly you've got this big fraud scandal there and you don't want to talk about it, you want to ignore it, you want to wish it away. Why would you do that? I don't know. I'm just going to throw it out there. Could be wrong. But maybe it's because you're part of the scheme, maybe because you are getting rich off the thing too. I don't know that for a fact, of course. I'm just following the facts and just throwing it out there. And I think that's something that you should consider. Oh, by the way, this is totally unrelated New York Post article. Ilhan Omar's husband's $30 million firm quietly scrubs names from his website as squad member faces mounting questions on sudden wealth amid Minnesota welfare. That's right, she was a impoverished refugee from war torn civil war Somalia when she came here a handful of years ago. And when she first took office in 2019, she had a net worth of negative $25,000 because she had no assets and she was carrying student and car debt. Now, Ilhan Omar has a net worth anywhere between 6 million and $30 million. But she does not want to talk about this fraud in Minnesota, especially as it relates to the Somali community, her congressional district. Weird, isn't it? That's weird. 877-381-3811. Larry O' Connor in for the Great One Mark Levin.

Larry O'Connor (62:58)

Yes. Thank you, Lisa. God bless you, Mary. Merry New Year. Happy New Year. Merry Christmas. And we'll see you Monday morning on the Morning Report there with Halperin. Thank you for that call. Yeah. You know what? It reminds me of The. The movie. A great movie. The Untouchables. What an incredible movie that is. David Mamet's script, You know, you remember Kevin Costner and Sean Connery, of course, and Robert De Niro. But you know, who was brilliant in that movie? And it was. It wasn't his debut, but it might as well have been because it was his breakout role. Andy Garcia. You remember Andy Garcia's character. He was a cop. He was an Italian cop. And the Untouchables, Elliot Ness, FBI agents back when the FBI was, you know, an organization that without hesitation, we could admire. Elliot Ness goes to Chicago with the responsibility of finally bringing in Al Capone and reining in the Italian mob. Because the government and the police were so corrupt, they were all entangled in it. And so it took, you know, feds, it took the. The. The Untouchables. Right. That was the whole point there. You can't touch them. You can't bribe them. They're not part of the corrupt scheme in Chicago. And when he was recruiting, he and Sean Connery are recruiting police officers who are going to be able to go after the mob without being bribed, without being on the take, without, you know, being corrupt. And so they go to the rookies, they go to the training police academy, and they find Andy Garcia, who's Italian. You remember how Sean Connery, you know, starts calling him all these names and Andy Garcia, his character, hates the mob because he's an Italian American. He wants to be a cop. He wants to stop the mob. He wants to get the criminals behind bars because they're making the Italians look bad. Where's the Andy Garcia from the Somali community? Why are they all circling the wagons are running interference? Why are they all coming after us? Because we're pointing out what's going on. Why are they making people like Sweet Lisa in Maine having to, you know, trip over her tongue because she's pointing out the obvious fraud that's going on and then saying, oh, But I'm not saying all Somalis, I'm not saying that. I don't want to cast aspersions on the whole community. We shouldn't have to jump through hoops and make that proclamation. And the good, patriotic, law abiding, taxpaying Somalis should be the loudest voices we hear right now. Where are they? Where are they indeed? Tariq is on line three now. Tariq is in Baltimore, Maryland, a stone's throw from where I'm sitting right now. Hey, Tariq. Boy, the wind is pretty rough here in Maryland, isn't it?

Larry O'Connor (67:09)

Happy New Year, Tariq. I too. Thank you for calling from the. From Baltimore, Maryland. That was good. Although I don't think that no Somalis, no tamales thing is going to fly. As much as I appreciate the Sondheim esque inner rhyme, I don't know if it'll fly. But you make a good point about going back to the time when if you wanted to immigrate to this country, you needed to have a sponsor that was already here and would vouch for you so that you weren't on government assistance. The most astounding stat of this entire expose on what's going on with the Somali community. There's two stats that are astounding the Somali community in Minnesota. The first one is the number of illegal immigrants. You know, everybody, we opened our doors, we opened our arms and welcomed these people back when their country was a bleep hole. And that there was, you know, massacres and carnage and dysfunction and no running water. Mogadishu was a nightmare and a mess. They were in the midst of a civil war. There were people who needed refuge. We offered the refuge. They were refugees. We gave them asylum. Many of them ended up, you know, you get asylum, you go one of two ways. You either wait until things get better and then you go home. Hell, we've got people. We've got people from El Salvador in this country who are refugees, who sought asylum, temporary asylum, because of. I think it was a. Was either an earthquake or a volcano 30 years ago. And they're still in this country under temporary status, temporary protective status, for 30 years because of a natural disaster in El Salvador. So, you know, you figure you come here, you're a refugee, you seek refuge, we take care of you, we'll give you a place to, you know, live, we'll help you out, and then you go back to your country when things are normal. Of course, Somalia is still a basket case. So many of those people ended up becoming citizens. They were naturalized, and, you know, they're the backbone of the community, I keep hearing. So the number one astounding statistic out of this absolute corruption in the Twin Cities is that I believe, I believe I said was nearly half or just over half of the Somalis currently living in the Twin Cities are actually illegal immigrants. Meaning they did not come in that wave of refugees after the civil war. They've come in the intervening 20, 25 years. Their. Their friends, their family members. They've. They didn't come when asylum was granted. They stayed back, and now they keep coming and they keep coming and they keep coming, and then they stay and they stay illegally and nothing's ever done. So whenever you hear Ilhan Omar screaming about what an important and vital community this is because they are legal and they were granted asylum. Yeah, she's right about, at this point, a minority of the Somalis who are living up there, half, if not most of them, have come since then illegally. And the second most astounding stat, and really is the cherry on top, is that the estimates are now upwards to over 80%, if not close to 90%. I think the number was 87% of the Somali nationals who live in the Minneapolis area, whether they're citizens or not, are receiving some kind of government assistance. That. That's. That's not. That's not how a civilization survives. That's not how a government survives. Incredible. 877-381-33-811. I did what Tariq just said, though, there, about immigration I do want to spin off of that with a second topic as soon as we wrap things up here on the, on the Minneapolis Somali story. But we've still got more to say, so let's go to line four. Now we've got Paul in Boise, Idaho. Boy, Idaho is a beautiful place, and I love Boise, but I don't think you have a vibrant. How has Boise, Idaho been able to thrive without a vibrant Somali community there as the backbone of your, of your society?

Larry O'Connor (75:24)

Larry o' Connor in for the great one, Mark Levin. Coming up in our next hour, we're going to give you some highlights of the President's remarks with Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar A Lago. But we're also going to spend some time looking back at this last year, the President's first year, And I want to hear from you. 877-381-3811. What were his biggest achievements statements in your mind? What, what, looking back now, was the high point for you of Trump's first year in office for his second term? It is astounding when you look at it as I just said, if he could shut down the border and not one person cross the border illegally, and on top of that, two and a half million are sent packing in just the first year, you, you would have said, no way, no chance, not gonna happen. If I had, if I had told you it would, would you be a happy man? Would you be a happy woman? Of course you would. And that's exactly what happened? How quickly was that border shut down? People don't even want to talk about the border anymore in Washington, D.C. think about this. Gavin Newsom wants to be president. Josh Shapiro, I'm told Pete Buttigieg wants to be president. Maybe Kamala run again. Tim Walls, who knows? They got to answer a very simple question. Will you reverse the Trump policy at the border, or will you keep it exactly the way it is right now? President Trump has shut down the border, and there have been no illegal encounters in crossing since April. If you are president, will you go back and implement the policies Joe Biden had put in place? Yes or no? And if you intend to keep President Trump's policies, are you in fact admitting that he was right? Can a Democrat answer that question? I don't think they can. 605,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended and deported forcibly in the last year. 1.9 million left voluntarily, for a total of two and a half million. And they're just getting started. And there are no new illegal immigrants crossing our border to the south. And people still think that the president isn't doing enough. He's a victim of his own success because it seems so easy. We'll get into that and a whole lot more. Next, it's Larry o' Connor in for Mark Levin.

Larry O'Connor (79:20)

Connor. I'm sitting in for the great one, Mark Levin on one of our last broadcasts of 2025. I'm gonna be back on tomorrow, by the way, as Mark is enjoying a well deserved vacation. No one works harder than Mark, and that's coming from a guy who works pretty hard. Mark Levin is brilliant and iconic and inspirational and an incredible mentor and a great friend and people who do what I do and do radio, specifically radio. I'm not talking about being an influencer. I'm not talking about being a podcaster even. No offense to podcasting, I podcast people who are in broadcast radio on radio stations with call letters with the guidelines and guardrails that the FCC and our corporate owners so kindly provide for us. And I only jokingly point that out because unlike podcasts and unlike influencers on social media, when you have to communicate what you want to communicate with the passion and drive and, yes, engaging entertainment value that is required within the confines of FCC protocols and adhering to a contract that you have with a major corporation, it takes talent, it takes energy, it takes focus, it takes thoughtfulness, it takes wisdom. Mark Levin is the best of the best. His show is an education and his show is hilarious and his show is inspirational and it's maddening. And even when you disagree with Mark, as everybody disagrees with everyone at some point, you still have respect for where he's coming from. And you learn something from Mark Levin. Not since Rush Limpa, the greatest of them all, has someone been able to do what Mark does night after night on hundreds of stations. You know, it is. And again, I just want to point out, I do both platforms. I do radio and I do a podcast. And I will tell you, it is infinitely easier to turn on a microphone and start streaming or recording direct to someone's device or platform and say whatever the hell you want. I promise you that's easier to get a rile up out of people. It's easier to get people riled up and wanting to, you know, light the torches and grab the pitchforks. But we've learned, I think, over the last several years that with that kind of enthusiasm that you get from someone yelling into a microphone, flexing their biceps with their eyes bulging, With that, sadly, comes a incredible lack of accountability. How many people do you listen to on these podcasts who promised you things with regard to, you know, federal crimes and corruption and Hillary Clinton getting arrested and handcuffed any day now? Tick tock, tick tock. How many of them promised you that they had people Very, very well placed in the government. Who guaranteed you that Jeffrey Epstein was being protected by these powers? And it's all going to come tumbling down, the whole house of cards, and everyone's going to be exposed, and we're going to send people to Gitmo. How many people did you hear on your podcast or on your streaming platform that promised you all of those things? And you got passionate about it, and of course you did, because you're normal, you're a human being, and you're a patriot, and you love this country. And by the way, I'm not saying that any of those things probably are wrong. I'm sure that that corruption is there. I'm sure Hillary Clinton deserves to go to jail. I'm sure that there are very powerful people in government and in the business world that have protected the Jeffrey Epstein secrets. I'm not saying they were wrong. What I'm saying is they promised you things. I'm saying that they extended themselves in such a manner that as soon as things don't go their way and that story seems to be blowing up in people's faces, well, they can just move on. They move on to the next story, they move on to the next outrage, they move on to the next conspiracy or the next scandal. They move on to the next thing that will make their eyes bulge and veins and biceps flex and their sweaty screaming into a microphone gets you just as worked up over that next thing. And that's why Mark Levin is different. That's why what he does is different. That's why Mark Levin is not an influencer. He is a brilliant broadcaster. I can say all these things about him because I know he's on vacation and he's not listening. Otherwise he would probably call me and say, oh, Connor, what are you doing? But it needs to be said. It needs to be said because there is a difference, there is a distinction between what Mark Levin does and what your friendly neighborhood influencer does. And Mark's been doing it for us three hours a night, five nights a week, close to 50 weeks a year, except for your occasional vacation. And thank God he takes them. So I get a chance for decades now. And the cream certainly rises, doesn't it? And as. As people are vying for your attention and for your passions and for your loyalty, as people are out there hoping to wean away Mark's blockbuster, incredible, powerful audience, just keep in mind, you know who Mark is. You know exactly where he comes from. You have gotten to know him all these years, and he leaves it all out on the field. He doesn't have secrets. He's perfectly honest with you about his family, about his wife, about his dogs, about his dad. Remember when his dad would come on. What you see with Mark Levin is what you get is. Can the same be said about that influencer trying to get your attention? Listen, you're gonna think for yourself and you're gonna do what you want to do. And there's a lot of people out there competing. But just remember, Mark's already got the audience. He doesn't have to. He doesn't have to do any stunts to build his audience. He doesn't have to spin tails and wind you down a path and make you promises about how all the conspiratorial corruption is going to be exposed. Just tune in tomorrow for our next episode. Mark doesn't need to do that. He's already earned your trust. He's already earned your respect. All those other people who are trying to maybe knock him down or try to weasel into what he's built from nothing, what have they really done for you? And have they really earned anything? Have they earned your loyalty? Have they earned your respect? Have they even asked for it? Are they interested in building up their own reputations and their own track record and their own credibility? Or they are. Or are they interested in burning everyone else down? It's not so hard to create. It's not so hard to. Excuse me. It's not so easy to create and it's not so easy to build. It's not so easy to do what Mark Levin has done. And sadly, the easiest thing in the world is to burn it all down. Arsonists don't have to work nearly as hard as the architect. So as we wrap up this 2025 and we look back on what an astounding year it has been in politics, in news, in international affairs, and as we reflect on President Trump's track record, I think it's worth noting that a lot of those same influencers that will go nameless, those same people who have not always gotten it right, but every time they get it wrong, they just scream louder. All of those people who claim to be MAGA through and through, I was MAGA from the beginning. I was MAGA before Trump was maga. All those people who try to take credit for all of the president's achievements and the president's elections and the president's victories and the president's cabinets and all those people, well, Mark Levin has something that those people don't have. Mark Levin actually has the President of the United States Donald Trump hosting him at the White House for the Hanukkah celebration. Ten days ago, President Donald Trump taking to the podium and calling Mark and Julie up to the podium spontaneously, unscripted, because he saw him in the audience. The President embraced Mark that night, embraced Julie, allowed Mark to speak spontaneously. This doesn't happen in the White House as you've got all of those real mega types, those influencers, those podcasters, those streamers with really impressive numbers clicking away on the download chart. Just remember, a lot of them are great. Some of them are my friends or acquaintances. They're very talented and they're very good at what they do. Do it for a quarter century and then check in with me. Do it when President Trump isn't in the White House, and then check in with me. And do it in such a way that not only earns you the kind of adoration and love and grateful gratitude that you saw from Donald Trump at the White House this holiday season, but do it and get that kind of admiration and that respect and that support from President Trump while still maintaining the ability to offer your constructive criticism of the president when you believe it's necessary. Because that's Mark Levin. It's one thing to be a sycophant influencer, selling stuff and doing whatever it takes to make it look like you're a cheerleader for Donald Trump. It's another thing to have the kind of track record, intelligence, wisdom and integrity that Mark Levin has, support this president, fight for this president, and at times suggest that maybe the president might not want to go in a direction that it looks like he might be going or might not want to listen to one of the people that he might be listening to. And actually use your platform and use your microphone to maintain your values, your principles, and in your own way influence the electorate, influence the American people, and, yes, even influence the president. And still having him embrace you at the end of the year. That's Mark Levin. And boy, I'll tell you, all the influencers out there listen, they have parties and they have fireworks and they have sparklers and they have light shows and they have big screaming audiences. And if Mark wanted that, he'd have it, too, I promise. I've seen him at a book signing where the line is outside the door, down the escalator of the mall and out the door of the mall. If he wanted that, he could have it. Mark Levin's got something more, and it is an honor, as always, to sit in his chair a few times a year. All right, coming up, I want to hear from you. 877-381-3811. What is your highlight of this year with the Trump presidency? What do you think he did right and what would you like to see him get done next year? 877-381-3811 I'm Larry O' Connor and this is the great Mark Levin Show.

Larry O'Connor (94:30)

It's Larry o' Connor in for the great one. Mark Levin, thanks for listening tonight and thanks for calling in. If you are calling in. A lot of you still want to talk about the Somali fraud, but I kind of want to move on to a couple of other things, like the Trump presidency this first term, his incredible success with with border security and deportations. And then what about the big beautiful bill? I don't think people have even begun to realize the impact of the tax cuts because most of them haven't even been implemented yet. They start well this Thursday on New Year's Day. They're implemented in calendar year 2026. But even still, some of them are already in place. Or the fact that the 2017 cuts did not sunset as the Democrats would have had them do. And they are permanent now. You've gotten a boost out of that. The market has hit its highest levels. When everyone thought that inflation was going to go up, it actually dropped again this last quarter. And your gross domestic product, the actual rate that the economy grows, exceeded expectations by a full percentage point in the last report. I mean, everything is lining up Right now for a boom in 2026. And by the way, while all of that's going on, the trade deficit has declined and the federal deficit has declined because despite the tax cut. Well, it's funny. I was about to do what the left would do. Strangely, despite the tax cuts, revenue has increased to the federal government. No, actually, it's the opposite. Because of the tax cuts, revenue has increased to the federal government, and it's only the first year. And a lot of people are complaining that Trump has spent too much time on international affairs, which, I mean, it doesn't even seem like he's really spent that much time in international affairs, but what he has done has been effective. And, you know, tariffs, which are a domestic issue, but they are part of foreign policy. And the use of those terrorists have been able to make hostile countries, you know, like the European Union, actually bow to our will and do the things that Trump wanted to get done. Did you think, you know, 10 years ago when the president said that NATO nations need to step up and honor their commitment that they promised to do for decades and spend 2% of their domestic product on national defense, People said that he was insane, they'd never do it. And by demanding they do it, he was destroying NATO. Now, not only are they doing it, but he got them to agree to increase it to 5%. And everyone who said he was wrong and a lunatic and crazy, and it'll never work. They never have to apologize. They never say I'm wrong. They never correct the record. They just move on to the next outrage. They're like those conservative influencers I was talking about. Sorry, Maga. Influence influencers. All right. 877-381-3811. Larry O', Connor.

Larry O'Connor (97:48)

My name is Larry O'. Connor. I'm sitting in for Mark Living. I do radio morning show host on WMAL in Washington, D.C. i've also got a streaming podcast I do live every day at noon through town hall media, whatever platform you like to watch video on the you thing. Yeah, I'm on that. The rumble thing. Yeah, I'm on that. The Facebook. Sure, whatever. You'll find us. Or just go to the town hall websites. Town Hall.com TownHall.com we'd love to hear from you here. We're looking back on this first year of the Trump presidency, which I think by any objective measure was a success, an incredible success, frankly. You forget what got accomplished in this first Year. Did you know the federal government shrunk this year? The employees, the number of employees in the federal government shrunk. And look, and not from the military, because the military exceeded their recruitment numbers across the board. Every branch of the military exceeded their recruitment numbers. First time in many, many years. And I already mentioned just scratching the surface on the economy. And it's not like he had a lot of success that he inherited. You know, I mean, it was a bit of a basket case. Everything about the federal government and our economy and our military, and yet we're on the other side. And by the way, what about this debate? You know, the only person I believe that didn't make it through the entire first term. I'm just pausing to collect my thoughts because I think. Yeah, I think the only. The only. Every single cabinet secretary is still in place. Every major staff member at the White House is still in place. I think our buddy Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, is the only person who. He started in mid March, and he announced his resignation, what, two weeks ago. Right. So that it's been a stable administration so far. I mean, I can go on and on, but I want you to go on. 877-33-818-3-811. What has stood out to you so far? We'll start with line three in beautiful Colorado Springs, home of the United States Air Force Academy. I'm in Annapolis, the Naval Academy. So, you know, Patrick, I'm sorry, we got a little bit of a thing there. But anyway, thanks for calling. Is it snowing in Colorado?