
Loading summary
Ali Stuckey
President Trump delivered his first address to Congress and the American people of this presidential term. We've got a lot of highlights and some lowlights to get to today with journalist Josh Hammer. We will also be breaking down the latest in the Ukraine, Russia conflict, where America stands when it comes to that conflict, as well as interpreting that heated exchange between Zelinsky, Vance and Trump. What was really going on behind the scenes there that led to that moment that went viral. Josh has some fascinating insight and information for us today as he breaks it all down on today's episode of Relatable. Josh, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. Okay, Trump's speech last night, I just want to hear your initial thoughts.
Josh Hammer
I thought he did great. I, I mean, look, it was long. I mean, it definitely was rambling at times. But that's kind of just who Trump is, right? I mean, I think back to his RNC acceptance speech in Milwaukee this past summer, which I think was the longest acceptance speech in the modern history of either political party's national convention. But Trump thrives, Ali, in this element. I mean, I mean, he's a showman. I mean, he's a guy who's, whose literal claim to fame is the Apprentice on fire. He's been a New York tabloid figure for the better part of a half century now. He loves the spectacle, he loves the show, he loves the glitz, the glamour, the lights that this. And I thought he did great there. I mean, his agenda right now when it comes to the core issues is very popular. And he did a good job of emphasizing the issues that I think poll in his favor right now. Issues like the economy, like immigration. Right now there, look, the tariff conversation is starting to take over a little bit more. So we'll see exactly where that goes in the weeks ahead. But for now, when it comes to everything that Elon Musk and Doge are doing, when it comes to the world stage and Ukraine, I think he's very much in lockstep with the sentiments of the American people. Democrats, by the way, I think, did themselves absolutely no favors whatsoever last night, Ali, which I think you and I probably both knew was going to be the case going in. But, but it's one thing to know it going in. It's another thing then to kind of see it. Actually, it's an action there. They were wailing and they were flailing. They had nothing. They continue to be, I think, in just about the worst shape that I have ever seen that political party. But as someone who wishes them, frankly, nothing but the wor Pretty happy about.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah, let's look at some of the lowlights there. So the first was the removal of Democrat Representative Al Green. He is from Texas and he's made headlines for. I don't know if this kind of behavior would be an accurate description for why he's made the news, but he makes the news for the things that he says, how out there he is. So he's this old man shaking his cane at the sky because of what Donald Trump is saying. Here's that one.
Speaker of the House
Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House and to cease any further disruptions. That's your warning. Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of decorum. And the chair is prepared to direct the Sergeant at Arms to restore order to the joint session. Mr. Green, take your seat. Take your seat, sir. Take your seat. Finding that members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the Sergeant at Arms to restore order. Remove this gentleman from the chamber.
Ali Stuckey
Now, this is probably an effective fundraising tactic. He probably raised some money by the end of the night there from his donors. However, it's not a good look for the Democrat Party in general. What do you think?
Josh Hammer
Yeah, I mean, I think you nailed it. I mean, it's pure theater. He's doing it to raise coffers from the people that are addicted to MSNBC and are addicted to people like Rachel Maddow and just can't get enough of the left wing TDS Trump derangement syndrome stuff. But they look stupid. I mean, we should not mince words. I mean, they look like a bunch of juvenile low IQ brats. I mean, this is, you know, if you want to respond intelligently to what's being said, you know, wait for the response there. You, maybe you come out with a House floor speech next day or kind of you write an op ed or something like that there. That's not the way to do it. I couldn't even hear what he was saying there. But I mean, you know, it kind of reminds me.
Ali Stuckey
There's no mandate. There's no mandate.
Josh Hammer
No mandate. Okay, so, but I mean, like this whole thing of like the guy with the cane there, I mean, it reminds me of like that old Simpsons episode from many years ago where it's like old man staring at clouds. Like that whole thing. There's, I mean, like, they just look patently silly. And again, for a party that is currently polling literally the worst for Gallup, Quinnipiac polling, the Democratic Party's approval rating all across the country now is roughly 33%. These tactics are surely not going to help them get on the better side of that number.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah, some other demonstrations that we saw from them last night, they were holding up these little signs. I don't know if we have any full screens of the signs that they were holding up. If not, we can put them up. But these little signs that said like Elon steals or he's lying or protect Medicaid, you never hold up a sign because that's always going to be a meme template. And that's exactly what happened. People took that immediately, made fun of them, wrote different things on the sign as they should, because they're asking for it. They look like, in the kindest terms possible, huge dorks. And we've talked about this shift on the show before, that it is, I would say cooler, maybe not than ever, but maybe since the 1980s, to identify as a conservative and a Republican and you're just kind of embarrassed to be a Democrat or progressive right now, which is great. But they just added fuel to the fire last night. It was horrible branding.
Josh Hammer
Yeah. Look, your point is very well taken on kind of the cultural dynamic shift is something that I've been talking a lot about over the past four or five, six months as well. I mean, after 2008, Barack Obama really brought in a massive sea change in American culture. For better or for worse. I would, I would obviously argue for worse, but he was a cultural totem. I mean, he became kind of a cultural figure. We had, I think back in 2008, the hope, the hope and change stuff, the colors there. You know, you fast forward now into the year 2025 and it's like it's totally switched. I mean, the young people, based on the polling there, I'm not saying that they're coming out in 9010 in favor of Maga, in favor of Republicans there, but the Young Gen Z 1829 Demographic Alley, the most recent exit polling, basically a toss up demographic there. I mean, Donald Trump MAGA has become kind of cool in a countercultural sense where you see football players doing the Trump dance in the end zone. People are doing it on TV now. It's kind of become kind of the modern manifestation of the old 2008 Barack Obama hope and change. I didn't necessarily have that in my bingo card, to be honest with you, but kudos to Donald Trump, kudos to his campaign and all of the above for actually effectuating this cultural shift there. And again, if Democrats think that these sorts of things, these petty low Ball, gutter kind of antics are possibly going to do anything to bring them back into the favor, to curry them any kind of favor whatsoever with young people or frankly with older people even for that matter too there. This is the party, frankly, in the midst ally of a crippling identity crisis. From my vantage point, what the Democrats have to do is they basically have to make a decision one way or the other.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah.
Josh Hammer
Are we actually going to keep the post 2008 post Barack Obama woke identity politics coalition, this coalition of aggrieved interests as called for this identitarian kind of, you know, look at the whole American people and slice it and dice it up there. What kind of niche issue can I do to kind of appeal to this vote or this voter? This voter There you have to decide, Democrats, whether you want to stick with that or abandon it. Because the American people spoke with a very loud and clarion Voice in the 2024 election this past November. They don't want any of that. They're not interested in this identity politics, appeasing the transgender lobby, appeasing the illegal alien lobby, this lobby, that lobby there. They just want common sense policies that are in the American national interest. So Donald Trump continues, I think to kind of score lots of points. American people and the Democrats continue to find themselves alongside of this debilitating identity crisis.
Ali Stuckey
And Trump last night, he called it a common sense revolution. And you're absolutely right that that is what Democrats are actually opposing is common sense. Quick pause to tell you about our first sponsor for the day and that is Seven Weeks Coffee. Seven Weeks Coffee is America's Pro Life Coff. They donate 10% of every sale to pro life pregnancy centers across the country. They have raised because of you guys over $750,000 for pro life centers across the country. This is translated into saving thousands of little baby lives as these pregnancy centers supply these moms in crisis with the resources, the classes, the education, the support that they need. Plus, seven weeks coffee tastes really good. It is the highest quality coffee that you can get. It is sustainably sourced. It is ethically raised. It is clean, it is pesticide free, it is mold free. It is so good. We love seven weeks coffee in our home. They also have these seven weeks on the go pods that you can take with you so you don't have to taste that nasty hotel coffee. They are awesome. Subscribe to their heartbeat club. You can get that box of coffee to your front door every month. You'll save when you do that. Plus you can use my code ali at checkout for an additional 10% off seven weeks coffee.comcode ali the women in the Democrat party last night, a lot of them were wearing pink. I don't know if they all received the mass text planning that because it seemed like some of them weren't. But they were wearing pink, I guess to represent that they're defending women. But as I've said many times, when they talk about women's rights or defending women, they are only talking about abortion. They're only talking about being able to kill their daughters inside the womb. They're not talking about, for example, Peyton McNabb, who of course is the volleyball player who in high school, she's been on this show, was pummeled in the head by a male pretending to be a girl on the opposite team by a volleyball, suffered brain damage. She was there last night. I thought this was a very sweet moment that she, that she was honored there. And no Democrat stood up. No Democrats stood up because all of the Democrats in the Senate had just blocked that bill that would have protected girls and women in sports. And so you're right, they have a choice. They could simply not be insane. They could simply say, you know what, we're going back to being the party of the working class. We're going back to being the party of caring about wages and about industry and about the practical needs and desires that people actually have. But they can't, they want to be that. They want to focus on tariffs because they think that that's probably a winning issue. But they can't let go of the trans stuff. They can't let go of the insanity. And again, like you, I only wish the Democrat party the worst. So I'm not complaining. It's just a strange choice.
Josh Hammer
Yeah, I mean, it's a choice that definitely goes against self interest. I mean, I think what I see when I look at the current state of their party, Ali, you have this massive, massive chasm between the Democratic elites and the mainstream American people. Obviously that is the chasm that Donald Trump and this coalition of the common sense that this coalition massively exploited in the election this November. But I think even looking just on the Democratic side of the ledger, just focusing within intra Democratic party dynamics, you actually have a pretty large chasm there as well between Democratic elites and many, perhaps even most rank and file Democratic voters. I'm not actually sure that the median Democratic voter at this point would support things such as a biologically male volleyball player who's just pounding a volleyball into the face. I mean, maybe, maybe not. It's probably close to a jump ball, probably close to a 50, 50 proposition, which itself is terr, by the way. But the point, but, but the point is that the Democratic elites, New York Times, msnbc, all these types there, they're all lined up ducks in a row for all of that stuff. And they will never, never, never let it go. So when you have kind of the ruling class within the Democratic Party, the professoriate, the academics, the New York Times, journalists, people like that there, you know, good luck. Institutional DNC establishment, possibly trying to kind of move the rudder of the ship towards a place of relative sanity. Not absolute, but relative sanity. When you have the elites and the opinion makers who just refuse to countenance the possibility that there was anything remotely wrong whatsoever. I think back to this clip that was on the View. I think it was like a day or two after the election. It was on Thursday there. And one of the ladies on the View, it might have been Joy Behar, I can't remember who was, was just having an absolute meltdown over the fact that Kamala Harris had lost two days prior. And she basically said there, is there any reason whatsoever that Kamala Harris lost other than the fact that this is a racist and misogynist country? And that actually got even Alyssa Farah on the View to basically, basically say, you know, what are you talking about There, there's actually more. And you know, when you've actually alienated Alyssa Farr, then you know, you've really gone too far there. But that's, but that's the kind of sentiment that the Democratic elites, I think it's pervasive, perhaps even outright ubiquitous, is that Kamala actually only lost because the American people are a bunch of troglodyte, Bible thumping bigots who, who hate black people, Indian people, whatever Kamala Harris wants to call herself. They hate women, they hate this category. They hate this category. And unless until they're able to move past that, they're not going to be relevant again. They're just not.
Ali Stuckey
There were a few more moments that were really supposed to be nonpartisan last night. One of them was honoring this young woman, 15 year old Ellison Berry. She was the victim of an AI deep fake that depicted her in some kind of like pornographic AI generated video. Terrible. Melania Trump is really championing what's called the Take It down act, which makes it illegal to make this kind of content, which I think is absolutely good. It's also so interesting that an almost 80 year old president really seems to be on the cutting edge of a lot of the technological issues that we're facing today, even when it comes to trying to get the law to catch up to those things. But again, Democrats, no applause for Ellison Berry or no even attempt to honor her or honor what was going on there. And then, of course, when we looked at illegal immigration, this is where Republicans are very popular, especially, especially the president. They honored, for example, Lake and Riley, who was murdered in Athens, Georgia. Athens, Georgia, Jocelyn Nungare. Also no applause from the Democrats. And I don't think Trump really cared about their approval. I thought it was sad to see that even just from a PR branding perspective, they couldn't manage to, you know, muster any kind of courage or enthusiasm or just respect for these victims. But he or Trump just ended up kind of eviscerating them with what I thought was a very sassy quip. Here's Sat 3.
Donald Trump
The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation, we must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.
Ali Stuckey
I mean, just his expression after of the sassy and the leaning over and the looking around, as many have said, he could have been a comedian. His timing, his expressions are perfect. But I mean, this is a sad and very serious truth that the deaths of these young women, Jocelyn and Laken, were deliberate policy choices by the Biden administration. They were not inevitable. They didn't just happen. They were deliberate policy choices. And now that's changed.
Josh Hammer
Yeah. What about that poor woman who was literally burnt to death in the subway car in New York City? I mean, exact same situation there. I mean, illegal alien who was previously deported there, who came back into the country there, you know, on the illegal immigration issue. Ali, for many years now, for basically as long as I've been in this business, the left just loves making the talking point about compassion. They love trying to turn the tables on you and say, oh my God, you know, this person just stumbled here, not of his or her own volition there. You know, maybe they're a so called dreamer. They were born to the parents of illegal aliens here and so forth there. Where is your compassion there? You know, don't you love your neighbor as yourself? You know, as it says in the good book there. And I guess, I guess I turn around there and I say, where is your compassion for the victims of the crime? Where is your compassion for four people like Lake and Riley, like her family there? Like this poor woman in New York City tragically burned to death by an illegal alien for literally no reason whatsoever other than Pure. I mean, I cannot identify any other reason other than just this pure sadistic tendency from this illegal alien there, there. But this happens all across the country, tragically, on a daily basis, or at least it was happening on a daily basis until more or less January 20th, about a month and a half ago or so. There. This is an issue, as you pointed out, that the American people overwhelmingly agree with the Republican Party on. Overwhelmingly agree with Donald Trump on. But it's also interesting, Ali, insofar as the following, since they're on there. To me, the illegal immigration issue, to me, which is issue I've tracked for a long time because I feel very strongly about it personally, it's an issue where you've actually seen a massive shift in the polling. So, for instance, around the time that I was in law school, maybe a little over a decade ago or so, 2013, 2014 or so, I remember looking at polling that suggested that only 30 to 35%, more or less, give or take, of the Americans at that time actually supported something that we today would call mass deportation, basically this policy aim of deporting all the illegal aliens. Here you look at that polling today, in the era of Donald Trump, in the era of maga, America first and so forth, there, that polling has almost doubled. It's currently in the low 60s, the percent of Americans who support the Tom Homan mass deportation operation. And my take on that, Ali, is that this is a great example of kind of the two way street of politics and culture. So I think back to the famous Andrew Breitbart line, where he famously said many years ago that politics is downstream of culture. And my response to that has always been that Andrew Breitbart, who was a legend, of course, he actually only had it half right here. That culture is also downstream politics. The other way around, we're now living in basically a decade since Donald Trump came down that gilded escalator at Trump Tower in 2015. I think to conclude that Donald Trump's rhetoric, his aggressive, I would say righteous stance on this issue, his policy initiatives, the people that he surrounds himself with, the way that he has generally shaped his party, the GOP at large on this issue there. To say that politics and all of that more generally has not had an effect on the culture when it comes to this issue, I think would just be a mistaken conclusion as well there. So that's another takeaway that I have on this there. But. But whether it's politics, culture, or some combination thereof, yet again Democrats find themselves wholly on the wrong side of another issue. It's another issue where they are woefully out of touch. And it is yet another issue that they're going to have to scramble to get on the correct side of in order to regain any sense of relative sanity with the American people.
Ali Stuckey
Second sponsor is Good Ranchers, y'all. I love Good Ranchers. We have their chicken, we have their ground beef multiple nights a week. It just makes my life so much easier and I just like to know where the meat that we're eating comes from. We're trying to be as healthy as possible in our home and making sure that our meat is locally raised, at least within the United States is really important to us. Plus, if we're going to feed our kids chicken nuggets, which we don't do on a daily basis, but sometimes you just need a chicken nugget meal. It's great to know that the chicken nuggets from Good Ranchers are seed oil free. That is extremely hard to find even at your health food store. The healthiest brands, the organic chicken nuggets, they still have canola oil which is very inflammatory for the insides. It's just not good for you. And so knowing that we have seed oil free chicken nuggets that are made from avocado oil, it is a game changer. So if you want to support an American industry, family owned farms that are really going through a hard time have been for the past decade. But Good Ranchers is helping revitalize them. Get all of your meat from Good Ranchers. Plus you can subscribe. Get that box of meat to your front door every month. Makes your life so much easier. Subscribe to the Ali Beth Ducky box. It is everything that you need to make really good meals every night of the week. Go to goodranchers.com use code ALI for $40 off. That's more than it usually is. It's usually 25 off. $40 off. You can get an add on to your subscription too. Go to ranchers.com code ally. They follow that formula that you described of ignoring the actual victims of the crimes and reserving their compassion for the perpetrator of the crime. On everything, whether it is abortion, whether it's transgenderism, whether it's immigration, whether it's crime, like, you know, social justice, what they would call social justice and abortion. It's the woman who is exclusively the victim. It is the man pretending to be a girl that's exclusively the victim. It is the illegal immigrant that's the victim. It's the imprisoned person that's the victim. And they want to ignore the people on the other side of the moral equation. And I think at least when it comes to immigration and gender and hopefully abortion too, but at least on immigration and gender, you've got enough people on both sides of the aisle, voters anyway, that see the other side of that moral equation. Because Democrats, basically what they are demonstrating right now, at least, at least this is what's implied by their behavior last night. That your stance is that we should not deport illegal immigrants who have committed murder, we should not deport illegal rapists. Like that's the position of the Democrat Party. You would think that they would at least be able to say, okay, maybe I disagree with Trump on some immigration policy, but on this, we can all get behind this. We can all get behind that Lake and Riley should still be alive. We should all get behind trying to protect our daughters. They could not even do that. They can't not be insane. They can't. So really I don't think it matters what Trump does with tariffs. I mean, of course people really care about their pocketbook and all of that. And if Democrats were smart, they would leverage that as a tool. They absolutely could. I just don't think to your point earlier that they can let go of the insane stuff.
Josh Hammer
They can't. I mean, because these structural incentives again are not necessarily pointing them towards doing so. When you have this chasm that I, that I described between their elites who to this day are still kind of the Obama esque elites, the people that are enthralled to the broader woke DEI agenda, this identitarian, let's divvy up the masses and kind of give all these various aggrieved interest groups what they want, we'll give the illegal aliens their amnesty. We'll give the transgender lobby their chemical castration general mutilation, we'll give the Hamas lobby whatever these little Kaffir Khlaji hadis want there. But I mean that's the sentiment of the Democratic elite. But again, I actually do not think it's necessarily the sentiment of the Democratic rank and file who disproportionately still are oftentimes comprised of these kind of blue collar working class voters. I mean Donald Trump has done yeoman's work in cutting into that demographic for sure now for multiple elections in a row. But I just continue to think that unless, until the Democratic Party's institution finds some way to try to pull their elites, and you see some people who are Democrat aligned trying to communicate the message, right, Jimmy Carpel has at various Times told his party in no uncertain terms, you know, the woke crap is over. Jimmy Carville is not a great example because he also has a debilitating case of Trump derangement syndrome. But you see some people that are trying to speak out there, but they're just totally drowned out by the masses there. And again, I wish them nothing but the worst, frankly. I hope that they never win another election in my lifetime. So I'm not exactly crying myself asleep over this there. But you would think at some point that the will to survive as a political party in America's two party system would take over, and we simply have not seen that yet. Maybe at some point it will, but it's probably going to take a while, honestly.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah. Here are two more, two more moments that I thought were really sweet. Good. On Trump's side. Democrats obviously didn't clap for them. And then we'll move on to some other things, but this was probably the sweetest moment of the night. And this was to honor 13 year old DJ Daniel. He was diagnosed with brain cancer, given five months to live six years ago. Praise God, he's still here. His dream was to be in law enforcement. During his speech, President Trump made him an honorary member of the Secret Service. Here's up for DJ has been sworn.
Donald Trump
In as an honorary law enforcement officer actually a number of times. Peace. The police love him, the police departments love him. And tonight, D.J. we're going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.
Ali Stuckey
I mean, that's just a really precious moment. I think while he was invited there, his brain cancer was caused by some kind of environmental toxic oxen that I guess the Trump administration is going to try to go after. I think that's maybe the connection. Regardless, it was a really sweet moment that I think everyone should be willing to rally behind and say, yes, let's support this person because he's human, because he's a child. Apparently people had a hard time doing that.
Josh Hammer
Yeah. And again, what does it say about the party that that thinks of itself as the party of humanity, the party of compassion, the party of moral decency, the part, the party of, of upright. I mean, was it say that they can't be bothered to get off the rear end and applaud a 13 year old who is surviving? Praise God, indeed. An assessment of terminal brain cancer and given this word there. But it also kind of just speaks to Trump's, his total mastery of moments like this, right? I mean, we've seen any number of these moments in his previous State of the Union addresses. I know this was technically not State of the Union address, but, but basically same thing. I think back to Rush Limbaugh, I think that was in the final year of Donald Trump's presidency in 2020 there. And Rush, we all knew, had deeply ailing health there. But watching that expression on Rush's face and just how deeply touched he was by getting the Medal of Honor there, right there in that setting there, that was one of those moments that will last with me a very, very long time. The Democrats definitely did not get off their rear ends to applaud Rush Limbaugh then, but surely you would think that, that maybe a little bit more would have gone off to applaud this 13 year old boy there who was having his dream realized before an international television audience. But again, partisan politics alley really just continues to be the name of the game and continues to drive the agenda for, for the Democrats at this point. Unfortunately for them, they just continue to drive themselves further and further off a cliff into this abyss of just total and complete irrelevance.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah. Okay, here was my favorite line from the night Stop five.
Donald Trump
And now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie. And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.
Ali Stuckey
If you cannot clap for that line that to every child you are perfect exactly the way God made you, I assume that you believe that you are not, that you should tell a child you are not perfect the way God made you. Something is wrong with you. We believe this really weird paranormal idea that you can be born in the wrong body, that the real you is trapped inside the wrong body. Like, how freaky would that be to tell a child and to place that burden of confusion and chaos on a young child's mind without even their ability to understand what you're saying. Trump is saying something very clear. Democrats lack of applause means again, there are four illegal aliens staying here after they have raped and murdered women and they are for mutilating the bodies of children who have been told that they're trapped in their own body. Those are the stances of the current Democrat Party. I'm assuming.
Josh Hammer
You know, Ali, what I was thinking about when I was watching this last evening, actually, was I. My mind kind of went. And in a slightly different but nonetheless very related direction, which Was I thought about the following. Before the rise of the transgender lobby and the transgender interest group on the left, you had the homosexual lobby and the homosexual interest group there. And last I checked, if I, if I think back to the whole same sex marriage debate and the general kind of decades long fights over homosexuality, you know, the less big argument on that particular issue was that you were born this way. I mean, that you were just born this way. That had nothing to do necessarily with nurture or your environment, the way you were raised there. You know, Lady Gaga had that song form this Way, which is literally about this. So I mean, how do you square that circle? I mean, I literally don't understand there. If you're objecting to what Trump is saying on transgender gender affirmation euphemistic grounds, if you're doing that, what do you say to the Lady Gaga born this way crowd? I mean, I genuinely do not understand how you can square this circle. There is kind of this irreconcilable tension, I think, that exists between these warring transgender and homosexual identitarian groups on the left there. I mean, honestly, that's kind of the whole problem with Wokeism and this whole identity politics coalition. Right. I mean, I think back to Linda Sarsour that you don't really hear about very often anymore. You know, she was leading the women's march back in the early days. The Trump administration, on the other hand, you know, Linda Sar Sar is also a Sharia supremacist, I mean, who had various tweets over the years lauding how Sharia law is so favorable for people who are delinquent on their credit card debts. I mean, you know, maybe we should look at what Sharia law says about, oh, I don't know, women, about how women should be treated in a society there. Right. So, I mean, like, none of this makes any sense. Their entire, their entire Wokeism DDI thing is totally predicated on all sorts of intellectually irreconcilable and morally irreconcilable internal tensions there. And it's ultimately a reminder. And this is kind of the point that Donald Trump was powerfully making there. It's a reminder. And Ali, I actually argue this pretty forthrightly in my book that comes out in two weeks. Israel and Civilization, the Fate of the Jewish Nation and Destiny of the west for preorder. So the book is real quick. It's really not just about the state of Israel. It's really more broadly about the Judeo Christian west and the biblical inheritance there and so forth there and one of the things that I argue repeatedly in the book is that Genesis 1:27 in Hebrew, we would say b'tselem Elohim. In Catholic, that's imago dei, this notion that God made man in his image, male and female. He created them. I argue in the book that Ali that is the single overarching ethical imperative for all of Western civilization, that that really is kind of the singular ideal, that it kind of all comes back to there. And ultimately, you kind of believe in that Ali, or you don't. But when you don't believe in that, it starts to get really, really, really dark very, very quickly there. And that's kind of where the modern Democratic Party has found itself.
Ali Stuckey
Totally. I totally agree. Gosh, we recite Genesis 1:27 probably more than any other verse on this show. Okay, one last thing about this before we get into Ukraine, because I had a lot of, you know, Democrats in my dm. I actually had a woman this morning who told me, and I actually thought this was a little endearing. She said, said, look, I know I have a huge case of tds. She. So she acknowledged. She said, I've got a huge case of Trump derangement syndrome. But Trump started all of this partisanship. It is Republicans who are the ones who are divisive. They're the ones who are disrespectful. Democrats are just responding to that. So I went back to Biden's 2022 State of the Union because I thought that I could remember them clapping when it was appropriate for them to clap. And so just to show you that really there is a difference when it comes to just this kind of behavior and strategy for Republicans and Democrats. Here's SA8.
Josh Hammer
We should all agree the answer is.
Donald Trump
Not to defund the police. It's to fund the police. Fund them.
Ali Stuckey
That's what you do when the president says something that is undeniable, that everyone agrees with, that Republicans agree with. The only time that Democrats that I saw applauded last night is when he mentioned a foreign country, and that is donating bill or, you know, donating, giving whatever billions of dollars to Ukraine. At no other time did Democrats applaud for things that were completely nonpartisan. That's the only thing it seems like Democrats can get behind. So as we shift into the Ukraine conversation, tell me, what is their thinking? What is Democrat strategy there when they are thinking, apparently this is the only thing we can get on board with. This is the only thing that excites us. Some Democrats immediately whipped out their Ukraine Flag, waving it at that moment. Not the American flag, the Ukraine flag. What the heck is going on there?
Josh Hammer
So I have a lot of thoughts on this. I thought about this a lot over the past few years because it's been literally three years now since Putin invaded Ukraine, and we've had a lot of time to think about this. So first of all, Ali, I mean, you know, I'm 36 years old. I think we're roughly the same age. Maybe I have a couple of years on you. But, you know, growing up, I mean, the Democrats were still kind of on the tail end of being an anti war party. I mean, you know, going back to the 1960s, they were the party of the Vietnam War protests there and whatnot there. You know, it got a little complicated in the 90s. I mean, Bill Clinton, you know, had some wars over in southeastern Europe, Bosnia, Serbia, around there, but they were still more or less the war skeptical part party. So the question then arises, why have Democrats found the one war that I have ever lived through my lifetime, that they are not merely gung ho about, but they are zealous about? They are extraordinarily zealous about waving and flying the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine. They are about this notion that the United States and Europe and the west has to pour every single final penny of taxpayer dollars into this one war. And the conclusion that I have reached that I've been saying for the past couple of years, is that I think that this is actually psychologically downstream of Crossfire Hurricane. And what I mean by that is the Russia collusion delusion, Russiagate and that whole hoax Back from 2016, this whole Fusion GPS Hillary Clinton laundered dossier, basically implying that Michael Cohen went to Prague and Donald Trump is a Putin agent there. I mean, Democrats, for years and years, really, for the entirety of his first presidency, and some of them still peddle this. They actually think that he is a Manchurian cand, that he is a genuine pawn of the Kremlin, which I think is very curious, right, because it's interesting to note that Vladimir Putin has a tendency to invade Ukraine when Democrats are presidents. He invaded Crimea in eastern Ukraine in 2014 back when Barack Obama was president. He did the same thing in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine in 2022. Donald Trump, lest we forget, actually in 2017, gave one of the best speeches of his presidency in Warsaw, Poland, where he physically turned eastward to face Moscow and gave kind of a very Reaganite speech. We're not gonna abandon our central and and European allies. There. So this notion that Trump is a Putin puppet is simply not borne out by history. But they actually do think it. And I think, Ali, that psychologically, if I'm trying to do the whole kind of Freudian Jungian analysis thing, that actually is my best guess as to where they are coming from when it comes to this particular conflict. Because they do not feel the same way, suffice it to say, about Israel's defensive war against Hamas and Hezbollah and Iranian proxy warfare. General they certainly do not feel the same way when pretty much any other American ally that I can think of is under threat anywhere around the world. So there's something that's specific about this one issue that really, really, really grinds their gears. I think it's mostly Russia. Gate. The other thing that I guess I'll just throw out there is that there was a revolution in Ukraine in 2014, the Maidan revolution. And I think it's just simply empirically accurate to note that around that time and afterward, a lot of liberal NGO money, Clinton foundation, those sorts of organizations, started pumping of money into Ukraine. You know, it's not a coincidence that a lot of that, a lot of the Hunter Biden drama, Ali is in Ukraine. I mean, that's where he was on the board of PRISMA there. That's not a coincidence. The Democratic elites, a lot of people there in kind of left wing NGO circles more generally started pumping a lot of money and getting a lot of money out of Ukraine, specifically around the time of about a decade, decade and a half ago or so. So there's a lot, there's a lot of financial pecuniary interest, at least for some there as well. But I think overall, if I had to kind of paint with a broad brush, I continue to think that Russiagate is actually driving a lot of this narrative narrative, basically a decade later, which is really quite crazy.
Ali Stuckey
Next sponsor is Carly Jean. Los Angeles. I, of course, am wearing a C gel CJLA sweater right now, and it is in my color season. And that's one thing I love as an autumn about CJLA is that I always have options in the colors that I like to wear. This bright orange is a little different for me, but I love it. And this is one of my favorite sweaters. I have this sweater in all different kinds of colors. And that's the only problem I have with Carly G. In Los Angeles is that I want every single item that they have in every color that it comes in. But it's a good problem to have because this is a clothing line that I can wear in every season of the year, in every season of life. Always looks good, makes me feel good in my skin is really high quality. They come in very classic, classic style. So you don't have to worry about missing the trends. You'll still love your CJLA clothes in five years from now. So go right now. Carly Jean Los Angeles.com Check out their jeans too. They're amazing. Use code ali b for 20 off your first order. Receive 20 off your first order with my code ali bcarlyjean los angeles.com okay, let's talk about the interaction. I actually had a lot of conservatives and a lot of people who voted for Trump saying that they did not like how Trump advance treated Zelensky when he was in the White House. I completely disagreed with that. But for those who don't know exactly what happened last Friday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Valinsky visited the White House for what was supposed to be the signing of a mineral deal between the US And Ukraine as part of the ongoing discussions aimed at negotiating peace with Russia. However, the meeting ended in fiery exchanges between Trump fans and Zelinsky. And this is what caused such an uproar on X. You really had a lot of people on both sides of the aisle landing in different places. But here's one of the sassy exchanges that occurred. Sat 6.
Donald Trump
Second question for President Zelensky.
Josh Hammer
Do you ever. Why don't you wear a suit?
Donald Trump
Why don't you wear a suit?
Josh Hammer
You're the highest level in this country's office and you refuse to wear a suit. Just want to see if you. Do you own a suit.
Volodymyr Zelensky
Yeah. Yeah. Problems.
Josh Hammer
A lot of Americans have problems with United States.
Volodymyr Zelensky
I don't have such office. I will wear costume after this war will finish. Yes. Maybe. Maybe something like yours. Yes. Maybe some. Something better. I don't know. We will see. Maybe something cheaper then. Yeah. Thank you.
Ali Stuckey
Okay. So this was apparently a sticking point. That wasn't Trump or Vance. But earlier in the day, Trump had said something when he met him. Oh, look, he dressed up for us, which was sarcastic. And I think Vance might have even noted that it was a sign of disrespect. Zelensky says that he has his reasons for that, that, you know, he's waiting until the war ended and then they discuss more. After 40 minutes of discussion in the Oval Office, the meeting turned sour when Zelinsky complained that the United States States had not done more to help his country since 2014 when, as you mentioned, Russia invaded Crimea for four years in the United States of America. This is what Vance said. We had a president who stood up at news conferences and talked and talked about Vladimir Putin and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country. The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging, engaging in diplomacy. And then Zelensky said, what kind of diplomacy, JD are you speaking about? Which I take as aggressive. And later, Zelensky was reprimanded by Trump and Vance. Here's seven.
Volodymyr Zelensky
During the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the future. God bless.
Donald Trump
You don't know that.
Volodymyr Zelensky
God bless. God bless you.
Ali Stuckey
War.
Donald Trump
Don't tell us what we're going to feel. We're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what we're going to feel.
Volodymyr Zelensky
I'm not telling you because you're in.
Donald Trump
No position to dictate that.
Volodymyr Zelensky
Remember this.
Donald Trump
You're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel. We're going to feel very good. We're going to feel very good and very strong. You're right now not in a very good position. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You gambling, gambling with World War Three. You're gambling with World War Three. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, far more than a lot of people said they should have.
Volodymyr Zelensky
Have you said thank you once a lot of times?
Josh Hammer
No. Even today you said thank you, went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who's trying to save your country.
Ali Stuckey
Okay. Your thoughts, Ali?
Josh Hammer
I don't think that Donald Trump and J.D. vance did anything wrong whatsoever. In fact, if you go back and actually watch the whole tape, which I would encourage the viewers to do, what you'll see is for roughly the first half hour of this 50 to 55 minute interaction before the whole thing blows up and Zelensky basically self deports prior to that. For the first half hour, it's Trump himself who repeatedly is trying to steer the conversation back towards a place of mutual productiveness there. You know, let's try to get this mineral rights sharing arrangement done. Let's try to get the framework to ultimately bring in Russia and Putin there and try to end this horrific conflict there. And it is Zelensky who decides to basically try to renegotiate the previously largely agreed to mineral rights deal in real time by trying to change the terms. Terms and say that economic security in the form of this mineral deal is not good enough, but we actually need NATO alliance style hard military physical security, which Trump has made very, very, very clear that he's not going to get that. And reasonably so, I think that Donald Trump is correct to not offer that there. But what Zelensky should have obviously realized is that a mineral rights deal is actually pretty good to put the United States economically invested in the health and prosperity of Ukraine, gives them a direct stake there. I mean, this should be exactly what he wants there. So that leads us to the ob, which is the subject of my newsletter out today, the Josh Hammer report for Newsweek, which is what the heck was he thinking? I mean like literally what actually was he thinking there? And my best guess, and it came out afterwards, that he met with Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who like a lot of these Senate Democrats is a massive, massive booster of the Ukraine. Cause there, I think that these Senate Democrats basically falsely buttered up his ego and said, don't worry about Mr. Trump, don't worry about Vance. Somewhere in this there, your support remains strong, your support remains bipartisan. So go up there and stand up because the United States Senate with us and Mitch McConnell and some of these kind of old guard Republicans, we have your back, we have your back. So don't worry about what Donald Trump's gonna say there and talk about the worst possible advice that he ever could have been given there. But the other thing as well here, Ali, there's this old saying or this old principle known as Hanlon's Razor, which basically says don't attribute to malice, which can be described by stupidity. I happen to think that Vlamor Zelensky is just not a particularly serious person. He's not someone who has a particularly clear understanding of geopolitics in general. He definitely does not have a clear understanding of internal American political dynamics, as evidenced by the fact that as JD Vance properly brought up in that clip, he literally campaigned on the campaign trail at a munitions factory in Pennsylvania with Kamala Harris. What the heck was he thinking? Literally throwing in his lot with one party over the other. Not a good thing for any ally of the United States to ever do there. So he's not particularly sharp guy and he literally was comedian there doing stupid jokes on local television prior to his ascendance to national prominence there. So I don't know ultimately exactly how he can recover from this. I mean, surprise, surprise, now he's basically trying to walk it back and say that I'm ready to come negotiate. There But I mean, to me, it's like, dude, like, you were literally just there on Friday. I mean, you had the whole world watching you there. You could have been a statesman. And what Donald Trump and J.D. vance doing, and I'll make this final point, point is I think that they are actually, and I'm not a Ukrainian citizen, I don't live there, but from my vantage point, I think that Donald Trump and J.D. vance are actually at this point looking out for the future of Ukraine more than Vladimir Zelensky is the death toll, the carnage, the utter wreckage in Ukraine has been catastrophic. The media focuses on the death toll, whether real or Hamas fabricated in Gaza. But even if we go with the totally fake Hamas numbers, which again, are totally fake, but let's even stick, for the sake of argument, let's go with those. The actual death toll in Ukraine is still orders and orders of magnitude, you know, 10, 20 times higher than that. This country's been devastated, utterly devastated. An entire generation or two of Ukrainians has either fled, they've been conscripted, they've died, they've suffered grievous injuries there. You know, young women need husbands, and the husbands are nowhere to be found there. It's going to take Ukraine a half century or more, maybe even more than that, to possibly recover from this. So if their mentality is that despite all of what I just said, you're still going to go to recover every possible square inch of territory, I genuinely question whether or not you, as a leader of your country, actually have your country's best interest at or as a statesman. I think the clear answer is that, no, he does not. In which case he should promptly resign and get an adult in the room who can actually get his peace deal.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah, I mean, it's pretty simple. You're losing the war. You're losing the war and millions of your people are dying. And it seems to me that Trump and Vance want to figure out a way to stop that. And the media and Democrats, Ben Stiller and all of these celebrities and a lot of people even in my dms are reducing this to this idea which you call The World War II theory of history, of every conflict, comparing it to the Nazis versus the good guys, that if you oppose the side in any conflict that progressives say that you have to oppose, or if you don't align exactly with the exact same enthusiasm and the exact same black and white perspective of a conflict that Democrats have, then you are on the side of the Nazis. But this isn't World War II. It's not exactly the same. We're not dealing with the same exact two sides and the same exact issues. And there may be disagreements on how much we should support Ukraine in all of that, but it's not the same. And that actually makes it seem to me like Democrats don't actually care about this issue, that it's not actually sincere, that it's just a cudgel, it's just a way again to reduce Donald Trump to Hitler, which is offensive in itself.
Josh Hammer
Yeah, I'm happy you brought up my line about the World War II theory of history. I mean, I was responding to this column that Bret Stephens wrote in the New York Times. Bret Stephens, who is nominally on the right, he's kind of an old school neoconservative pundit. And, you know, I mean, he's basically just comparing Putin to Hitler and saying that we're appeasing just like Neville Chamberlain. I mean, you know, Ali, there was this talking points. The left for a long time was talking about Harry Potter at some point, I can't remember when it was, and we on the right kind of turned to them and said, guys, read another book. And my response to like The World War II theory of history, people that compare each and every conflict around the world to World War II is like, guys, can you study a different conflict maybe? I mean, there are other wars in human history going back literally to biblical times. Not every war actually is exactly the same. By the way, there actually are some wars in the modern age which do fit this stark moral dichotomy of World War II. I would submit to you that Israel's righteous defensive wars against jihadism fit that paradigm quite nicely, actually. But the Russia, Ukraine war is one instance of a war that actually is a little bit murky. Now, is Vladimir Putin a bad guy? Yeah, he sure as heck is. He's a very bad guy. He supports interests all across the world that are hostile to the United States. He was friendly with Bashar Al Assad. He's friendly with North Korea, China, Iran, you name it. He's friendly with all the worst guys there. Did he start this war? You betcha. He was one who physically invaded Ukraine. Now it's a little more complicated. I think the west could have done a lot to preclude that. But it's still true that Putin actually was the one who initiate hostilities there. And he is ultimately morally to blame for that which we have gotten there. But is you, is Ukraine kind of this bastion of liberal democracy that I think the neoliberals and the neoconservatives alike would like, would like to portray it as, as. No, no, it's absolutely not. In fact, according to some metrics, Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world in terms of public corruption there. They do not necessarily have free and fair elections there. It is not an American Canada, Australia style Western democracy. It is a, is a fledgling, fledgling state that has mightily struggled ever since the fall of communism and the fall of the Berlin wall back in 1989 there. And this actually is a conflict that is a little more nuanced than this stark World War II moral dichotomy view. Again, I'm not saying that Russia is a good actor. I'm just saying that Ukraine maybe is not necessarily like the greatest thing since sliced bread or anything like that. But more importantly, Ali, my personal foreign policy, I'm a hard headed realist here. I look at every conflict around the world and I say, what is the American national interest in this particular conflict? To me, that is the sole and exclusive thing, thing that we ought to look at in every conflict around the world. So for instance, when it comes to the Israel Hamas conflict, I think that militates in a very different direction actually than the Ukraine, Russia conflicts. You go back to October 7th and dozens of Americans were killed or taken Hostage in fact, October 7th. And to an extent, the situation in Gaza today is actually the largest American hostage crisis Since Tehran in 1979, the infamous Jimmy Carter hostage crisis there. Hamas obviously is a US recognized foreign terrorist organization and on and on and on. So it seems to me that there is a pretty clear national interest in supporting our ally to just take care of business in Gaza, which Donald Trump seems, thank God to totally understand and agree with there. But in Russia and Ukraine, there, you know, let's look there. I mean, what exactly is the American national interest in exactly how the Donbas region border in eastern Ukraine is divvied up? We're talking here about these towns along this border, by the way, this border which has shifted hands hundreds, thousands of times over the course of the past two millennia there. These are not exactly strong historically defined borders. But you know, what exactly is interest in drawing the border? One way to incorporate some ethnically linguistically split 50, 50 Russia, Ukrainian towns on one side of the border versus the other there. I would submit to you that there really is not a clear and compelling national interest for the United States one way or the other. Now, if Vladimir Putin decides to start marching in on Warsaw, Poland, a NATO country there. Okay, slightly different conversation. I'm willing to have that conversation for sure. But Ukraine is not in NATO. Ukraine does not trigger Article 5 NAT NATO treaty obligations to kind of send in the 101st Airborne to start bombing Russians.
Ali Stuckey
Should we get out of NATO? Do you think we should get out of NATO like Donald Trump has suggested?
Josh Hammer
I'm very open to that conversation. I'm not entirely sure that today is necessarily the best day to having that there. I happen to be deeply skeptical of these transnational organizations in general. The un, NATO, the World Trade Organization there. I mean, I'm a nationalist, you know, I think that sovereignty is best held when the American people wield it and the American Congress wielded there. So I'm deeply skeptical of transnationalism. NATO is. It's worth pointing out, Ali. I mean, NATO quite literally outlived its usefulness in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell, or at least in 1991 when the Russian Federation emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union. So at this point, I think, I think it's totally fair to ask what purpose does NATO serve at a bear at the barest of bare minimums? I think it's crazy, frankly, in retrospect, that Eastern European Baltic states like Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, I mean, why were ever of these countries in consideration for a recension to NATO in the first place there? If memory serves, there was a vote in the Senate maybe about two years ago, year and a half, two years ago or so. When it comes to Finland and Sweden, I mean, why in the world we would be adding new countries to NATO at this point? Makes no sense whatsoever to me. Ukraine obviously fits in that. So at a bare minimum, we should not be adding new countries. But yeah, I'm definitely open to the conversation about actually winding down the entire thing in its. In its entirety.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah.
Josh Hammer
America's geopolitical challenge this century is rolling back the Chinese Communist Party. China, China, China. That is our challenge of century. To the extent that NATO is distraction from that, then it probably should ultimately be wound down. Maybe not today, but at some point.
Ali Stuckey
Last sponsor for the day is Jace Medical. You don't want to get in a situation where you don't have the medication that you need, whether it's the prescription that you or your family members rely on on a daily basis crisis, or whether it is some kind of situation where you have an infection and you need an antibiotic, or you need an EpiPen, or you need Tamiflu and maybe there's something wrong with the supply chain, maybe you're in a natural disaster, whether it's fires that are that are roiling outside or whether it is some kind of hurricane or flood or tornado. You just want to make sure that you have an emergency medical supply kit of everything that you need. So go ahead and get your JF case from Jace.com this is a supply kit of things like antibiotics. You can add on an EpiPen, Tamiflu, Ivermectin and also get the Jace Daily case. This is a year long supply of the prescriptions that you and your family rely on. It is so much better to be safe than sorry when it comes to this. Go to jace.com use code ALI at checkout for a discount on your order. That is jace.com code ALI foreign let's tie a bow on this Zelinsky conversation. It seems like Trump won. All these people saying this was embarrassing, this was horrible diplomacy. First of all, I think that a lot of people are used to kind of like the fake, feminine, uncontroversial, unconfrontational, anti confrontational diplomacy that we've seen at least displayed when the cameras are on from past administrations. And so they're just uncomfortable with this kind of direct talk. Again, I saw nothing wrong with it. I didn't see it as disrespectful. I saw it as men talking about a very important life or death issue. And also I saw some people saying, yeah, this is what happens when you take money from people. When you take money from people, you are put in a position where, whether you feel it or not, you've got to be the grateful one. You've got to be the respectful one, because the person lending you the money, giving you the money, is in the position of power. But Zelensky issued a statement on X to apologize and return to the negotiating table. I'm with you. I think he kind of blew his chance there. Crazy that he just blew up that opportunity. But my team and I stand ready to work under President Trump's strong, strong leadership to get a piece that lasts. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. Our meeting in Washington at the White House on Friday did not go the way it was supposed to. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive. You know, President Trump kind of echoed those sentiments, obviously not apologizing in any way, but saying we still want peace too. We're still ready to sign a deal. We want to move forward as well. Would you say that Trump decidedly won this round or Is it yet to be seen?
Josh Hammer
I mean, Ali, I'm not sure that anyone won or lost. I mean, I think that you. I think that the country of Ukraine lost because they were failed by their leader who should have gone in there and agreed to this deal that was in the Ukrainian national interest to agree to this mineral rights deal there. So I prefer to think of it as a loss for Ukraine is a victory for Trump advance. I mean, I guess if you want to do kind of the victor loser dichotomy, then sure, there. But I mean, ultimately no one's a winner here because the winning solution is that this terrible war ends. The winning solution is that America finds some way to give Ukraine some security after into NATO style physical security commitment. That was the whole purpose of this mineral rights deal. Ultimately, I think victory and winning looks like Ukraine and Russia both coming to the negotiating table, finding some way to redraw the map in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine and Crimea, to, to basically allow all parties to go home to their domestic audiences and say that we got a decent deal there, that that's what victory looks like. You know, I'm not sure that what happened on Friday is necessarily a victory. I do think that Donald Trump and J.D. vance, maybe J.D. vance above all, who has been kind of a critic of Ukraine ever since his Ohio Senate campaign, I think that they're absolutely vindicated because Zelensky behaved, frankly like a clown, like a totally unserious politician, like an ignoramus, a buffoon, someone who just has no business whatsoever trying to make peace, which again leads me to my conclusion that he really ought to resign. You have to step down post haste for the sake of his own country, for the sake of peace there. So to that extent, yes, I do think that Trump and especially probably JD Vance come out out of this looking quite good. But ultimately, Ali, victory for Ukraine, victory for the United States, victory, frankly, for the world, if I can even go that abstract, I think looks like a durable, lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine.
Ali Stuckey
Yeah. Well, we absolutely have to have you back on in a couple of weeks when your book comes out to talk more about what's going on in Israel. As much as I would love to get your thoughts on some things right now, we're, you know, I know that you got to go, we're short on time, but tell us everyone the title of your book where they can preorder and we'll definitely talk more about it when it actually comes out.
Josh Hammer
Yeah, thanks so much, Ali. Can't wait for that. So the Book is titled Israel and Civilization, the Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West. You can pre order it now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, wherever you get your book, pre orders. And you know, just, just real quick, as I said, Ali, the book is not just about the state of Israel and US Israel relations that's in there. I mean, I have multiple chapters on that. But this audience I think will really, really appreciate because it's really a book more broadly about the Bible. I basically argue that Western civilization begins with God's revelation to Moses and the Israelites. They're standing at Mount Sinai and that all of that which we call Western civilization today is ultimately downstream of our biblical inheritance. And the book ultimately ally calls for a Jewish Christian nationalist alliance to ward off the three hegemonic forces that we face, which are in no particular order, wokeism, Islamism and global neoliberalism. So there's a lot packed in there, but Israel and Civil Israel and Civilization is the title of the book you can preorder today.
Ali Stuckey
Okay. If you can send me a book before our next interview, I would love to make sure that I can make all my notes on it before we talk. Thank you so much, Josh. I really appreciate your time.
Josh Hammer
Thank you so much.
Ali Stuckey
Okay, I just want to take a quick break to remind you guys about Share the Arrows. We are so pumped. October 11th, Dallas, Texas. We are having Grammy award winning artist Francesca Battistelli back to lead worship. It was incredible last year. It's going to be even more amazing this year. We're in an even bigger venue that's still going to feel so intimate as we have the voices of believers just singing together in worship to God and hearing the sound. Teaching from incredible Bible teachers, incredible speakers. We will be dropping our speaker lineup very soon. Go ahead and snag your ticket. There are a limited number of seats and we want to pack out the stadium as much as we can, but we still have seven months, which means we will probably get to the point of packing out that stadium, which means you need to go ahead and get your tickets, book your flights, book your hotels, all of that good stuff. If you go to share the arrows.com you can find all of the information there. I'm so excited for this women's conference, y'all. It's going to be so good. Share the arrows dot com.
Episode: Ep 1151 | What REALLY Went Down Between Zelenskyy v. Trump & Democrats’ Embarrassing Show
Guest: Josh Hammer
Release Date: March 5, 2025
Host: Ali Stuckey
Network: Blaze Podcast Network
In Episode 1151 of "Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey," host Ali Stuckey welcomes journalist Josh Hammer to dissect President Donald Trump's inaugural address to Congress and the American people. The discussion navigates through the highlights and pitfalls of Trump's speech, analyzes the Democratic Party's performance, and delves deep into the contentious interactions between President Trump, Senator J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Josh Hammer commends Trump's address despite moments of rambling, highlighting his showmanship and ability to engage the audience:
“I thought he did great there. I mean, his agenda right now when it comes to the core issues is very popular.” ([00:56])
Trump emphasized popular issues such as the economy and immigration. Hammer notes Trump's alignment with American sentiments, especially regarding tariffs and his stance on Ukraine:
“when it comes to everything that Elon Musk and Doge are doing, when it comes to the world stage and Ukraine, I think he's very much in lockstep with the sentiments of the American people.” ([01:30])
The episode criticizes the Democratic Party's ineffectiveness during Trump's address. Hammer argues that Democrats' antics, such as disruptive behavior and theatrical gestures, have only harmed their public image:
“They look like a bunch of juvenile low IQ brats.” ([04:30])
Ali highlights Representative Al Green's removal for disruptions, suggesting it damaged Democrats' reputation:
“It's not a good look for the Democrat Party in general.” ([03:40])
Hammer agrees, labeling Democratic tactics as pure theater aimed at fundraising but ultimately appearing foolish:
“They look stupid.” ([04:30])
During Trump's address, Democratic Representative Al Green was removed from the chamber for continued disruptions:
[02:55] Speaker of the House: Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum… Remove this gentleman from the chamber.
Hammer interprets this as a fundraising strategy that backfired, further diminishing Democrats' credibility:
“They look like... they look like a bunch of juvenile low IQ brats.” ([04:30])
Hammer discusses the cultural shift favoring conservative identities, noting that Trump has successfully made MAGA a countercultural movement:
“Donald Trump MAGA has become kind of cool in a countercultural sense...” ([05:53])
He credits Trump for revitalizing conservative appeal, contrasting it with Democrats' struggles:
“They just look patently silly.” ([04:30])
The conversation delves into the Democratic Party's internal struggle with identity politics, which Hammer believes alienates mainstream voters:
“From my vantage point, what the Democrats have to do is they basically have to make a decision one way or the other.” ([07:27])
Hammer argues that Democrats' focus on identity politics and appeasing specific lobbies has led to a disconnect with the broader American populace:
“They have a choice. They could simply not be insane.” ([05:53])
Ali criticizes Democrats for selectively showing compassion, focusing on perpetrators rather than victims:
“Where is your compassion for the victims of the crime?” ([22:43])
Hammer echoes this sentiment, asserting that Democrats prioritize the welfare of criminals over law-abiding citizens:
“They can't let go of the trans stuff. They can't let go of the insanity.” ([22:43])
A significant portion of the episode analyzes the fraught interaction between President Trump, Senator Vance, and President Zelenskyy. The meeting, intended to solidify a mineral deal, devolved into personal jabs and criticisms.
Trump's Sarcastic Comment:
“Why don't you wear a suit?” ([39:55])
Zelenskyy's Response:
“I will wear costume after this war will finish...” ([40:08])
Trump's Reprimand:
“Don't tell us what we're going to feel. We're trying to solve a problem.” ([41:55])
Hammer contends that Zelenskyy's unprofessional demeanor undermined the meeting's objectives:
“Zelensky behaved... like a clown, like a totally unserious politician.” ([42:51])
He accuses Zelenskyy of lacking geopolitical insight and mismanaging the opportunity for peaceful negotiations:
“He really ought to resign and get an adult in the room who can actually get his peace deal.” ([47:18])
Hammer suggests that while the interaction was embarrassing for Ukraine, it showcased Trump and Vance's commitment to America's interests. He emphasizes that true victory lies in achieving lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine:
“Victory looks like Ukraine and Russia both coming to the negotiating table.” ([57:02])
Additionally, Hammer foresees ongoing challenges for the Democratic Party unless they address their internal crises and realign with mainstream voters.
The episode wraps up with Ali acknowledging the complexities of the Ukraine situation and promising further discussions on related topics. Josh Hammer teases his forthcoming book, "Israel and Civilization, the Fate of the Jewish Nation and Destiny of the West," which explores the intersection of Western civilization and biblical heritage.
Josh Hammer on Trump’s Speech:
“He loves the spectacle, he loves the show, he loves the glitz, the glamour, the lights...” ([00:56])
Ali Stuckey on Rep. Al Green:
“It's not a good look for the Democrat Party in general.” ([03:40])
Josh Hammer on Democratic Tactics:
“They look like a bunch of juvenile low IQ brats.” ([04:30])
Josh Hammer on Cultural Shift:
“Donald Trump MAGA has become kind of cool in a countercultural sense...” ([05:53])
Josh Hammer on Democrats' Identity Crisis:
“Are we actually going to keep the post 2008 post Barack Obama woke identity politics coalition...” ([07:27])
Ali Stuckey on Democrats' Compassion:
“Where is your compassion for the victims of the crime?” ([22:43])
Josh Hammer on Zelenskyy’s Diplomacy:
“Zelensky behaved... like a clown, like a totally unserious politician.” ([42:51])
Josh Hammer on Victory in Ukraine Conflict:
“Victory looks like Ukraine and Russia both coming to the negotiating table.” ([57:02])
This episode provides a critical analysis of recent political events, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of both the Republican and Democratic parties. Josh Hammer offers a perspective that underscores the importance of leadership, cultural alignment, and strategic communication in shaping political outcomes.