How Trump Is Destroying The Legacy News Media - Trump Chief Strategist Chris LaCivita Joins The Progrum!

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary
Title: How Trump Is Destroying The Legacy News Media - Trump Chief Strategist Chris LaCivita Joins The Progrum!
Release Date: February 4, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, Comfortably Smug, and John Ashbrook
Guest: Chris LaCivita, Chief Strategist of Trump 47 (Trump 2024) Campaign

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of the Ruthless Podcast, hosts Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, Comfortably Smug, and John Ashbrook delve deep into the transformative impact former President Donald Trump is having on the legacy news media. The episode features an exclusive interview with Chris LaCivita, Trump’s Chief Strategist, who provides insider insights into the Trump campaign’s strategies and the administration’s aggressive stance against traditional media outlets.

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Legacy Media vs. New Media

[00:00 – 01:11]
The episode opens with a critical analysis of how legacy media has historically marginalized regular people, relegating them to comment sections rather than valuing their voices. Josh Holmes emphasizes the shift towards new media platforms that prioritize audience engagement over media gatekeeping.

• Josh Holmes: "The whole point of new media is to give voice to regular people. And that's why it's successful."
  [00:21]

John Ashbrook echoes this sentiment, highlighting the top-down approach of legacy media and the empowering nature of new media.

• John Ashbrook: "They think that it's top down and they should be telling the public what to think."
  [00:38]

---

Breaking Into the White House Briefing

[01:11 – 05:44]
A significant milestone discussed is the Ruthless Podcast becoming the first podcast to pose a question during a White House press briefing, thanks to John Ashbrook’s efforts. The hosts reflect on how this achievement underscores the shifting media consumption habits, with more Americans turning to podcasts for unfiltered information.

• John Ashbrook: "We're getting the people to ask the question in that briefing."
  [03:25]

Michael Duncan praises the professionalism of Carolyn Levitt and her team, commending their ability to provide unfiltered information about the Trump administration’s actions.

• Michael Duncan: "They’re doing a terrific job over there."
  [06:12]

---

Interview with Chris LaCivita

[53:48 – 91:35]
Chris LaCivita joins the program to discuss the Trump campaign’s unprecedented strategies and the administration’s immediate actions. He highlights how the campaign effectively targeted younger voters and utilized data-driven approaches to build a robust voter base across all 50 states.

• Chris LaCivita: "The mission was the man. The man... working for what he wants to accomplish for the country."
  [62:43]

LaCivita elaborates on the administration’s swift actions, such as imposing tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China to address border security and fentanyl trafficking. He contrasts these measures with the Biden administration’s more gradual and less effective approaches.

• Chris LaCivita: "They’re weaponizing the Justice Department... but when he gets another shot, boy, he's running in the other direction, fast."
  [28:33]

Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook discuss how the Trump administration’s decisive actions have led to immediate results, such as Mexico deploying 10,000 troops to the U.S. border to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking.

• John Ashbrook: "Mexico's caving. They agree to send 10,000 troops to the border to stop illegal immigration and drugs."
  [32:40]

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Impact on Immigration and Border Security

[10:40 – 17:02]
A highlight of the episode is the discussion surrounding Carolyn Levitt’s statements on immigration policies. Levitt reveals that 97% of deportations under the current administration are individuals with prior removal orders from the previous administration, countering legacy media narratives of random and indiscriminate deportations.

• Carolyn Levitt: "97% of the deportations that this administration has made thus far are of individuals who had a removal order from the previous administration."
  [11:16]

Michael Duncan underscores the significance of this statistic, arguing that it refutes mainstream media’s portrayal of a border crisis fueled by randomness and panic.

• Michael Duncan: "Joe Biden's legacy for seniors. He raided Medicare, made premiums skyrocket..."
  [00:40]

This segment emphasizes the administration’s commitment to enforcing existing laws and correcting previous deferrals, thereby dismantling the legacy media’s negative narratives.

---

Tariffs and International Relations

[26:02 – 29:19]
The discussion transitions to the Trump administration’s strategic imposition of tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. LaCivita explains that these tariffs are a form of maximum pressure to address illegal immigration and drug trafficking, particularly fentanyl.

• Michael Duncan: "They're doing all this, and it's like, there's important results here."
  [29:19]

LaCivita elaborates on how these measures have led to immediate responses from neighboring countries, showcasing the administration’s effectiveness in leveraging economic power to achieve policy goals.

• Chris LaCivita: "President Trump has 100% name ID... so how do you battle that? You don’t battle it. You embrace it."
  [27:02]

---

Addressing Opioid Crisis and Fentanyl Trafficking

[28:14 – 42:58]
A critical area of focus is the administration’s aggressive stance on combating the opioid crisis, specifically fentanyl trafficking. The hosts discuss the dire consequences of fentanyl on American communities and the administration's categorization of cartels as terrorist organizations to facilitate stronger enforcement measures.

• Michael Duncan: "Fentanyl has been a major problem... it's a killer in this country."
  [29:19]

LaCivita details how the administration’s actions have led to significant breakthroughs, such as the arrest of cartel leaders and increased border security measures.

• Chris LaCivita: "Nearly as many people have died from fentanyl... as in World War II."
  [29:07]

This segment underscores the administration’s dedication to resolving the opioid crisis through decisive and impactful policies, contrasting sharply with the previous administration’s approach.

---

Campaign Strategies and Voter Engagement

[56:04 – 66:43]
LaCivita discusses the Trump campaign’s innovative strategies that defied conventional wisdom, particularly in engaging younger voters and leveraging digital platforms. The campaign’s focus on direct voter engagement and targeted messaging played a pivotal role in securing victories across traditionally challenging states.

• Chris LaCivita: "We improved our numbers everywhere... every single county in the United States went more conservative."
  [62:43]

He credits the success to a unified team effort, data-driven targeting, and the ability to adapt strategies in real-time based on voter behavior and feedback.

• Chris LaCivita: "The greatest plan in the world, you could be aggressive, you could be different."
  [58:19]

LaCivita emphasizes the importance of maintaining campaign discipline and focus despite external attacks and internal challenges, ensuring that the campaign stayed on track to meet its objectives.

• Chris LaCivita: "We want to drive a particular issue... We're doing it to meet our goals."
  [66:14]

---

Humor and Light Banter

Throughout the episode, the hosts infuse humor and light-hearted banter into their discussions, making the intense political analysis more engaging and relatable.

• Michael Duncan: "If you believe that we're entirely altruistic about all of that, why don't we put up graphic one, please?"
  [16:15]

• Comfortably Smug: "I thought that was a novel solution."
  [51:21]

This balance between serious topics and humor maintains a lively and entertaining atmosphere, keeping listeners engaged while delivering substantial content.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Josh Holmes: "The whole point of new media is to give voice to regular people. And that's why it's successful."
  [00:21]

• John Ashbrook: "They think that it's top down and they should be telling the public what to think."
  [00:38]

• Carolyn Levitt: "97% of the deportations that this administration has made thus far are of individuals who had a removal order from the previous administration."
  [11:16]

• Chris LaCivita: "The mission was the man. The man... working for what he wants to accomplish for the country."
  [62:43]

• Michael Duncan: "They’re doing a terrific job over there."
  [06:12]

• Josh Holmes: "Donald Trump is about American excellence."
  [42:17]

• Chris LaCivita: "President Trump has 100% name ID... so how do you battle that? You don’t battle it. You embrace it."
  [27:02]

---

Conclusions and Takeaways

The episode underscores the transformative impact of Donald Trump on both the political landscape and the media ecosystem. By leveraging new media platforms and implementing bold, data-driven strategies, the Trump campaign and administration are effectively challenging and reshaping legacy media norms. Chris LaCivita’s insights reveal a campaign focused on direct voter engagement, rapid policy implementation, and a steadfast refusal to conform to traditional media expectations.

The hosts advocate for the continued rise of alternative media voices like the Ruthless Podcast, which prioritize audience empowerment over media gatekeeping. This shift not only democratizes information but also holds legacy media accountable for perpetuating outdated narratives.

Key takeaways include:

1. Empowerment through New Media: New media platforms are essential for giving regular people a voice and bypassing legacy media gatekeepers.
2. Strategic Campaigning: The Trump campaign’s data-driven, targeted strategies have successfully engaged younger voters and expanded the Republican base.
3. Decisive Policy Actions: The administration’s aggressive stance on border security and fentanyl trafficking demonstrates effective use of economic leverage to achieve policy goals.
4. Media Transformation: The success of podcasts and similar platforms signals a fundamental shift in how political information is disseminated and consumed.
5. Resilience Against Legacy Media: By maintaining focus and unity, the Trump campaign and administration continue to counteract negative legacy media narratives with tangible results.

---

Final Thoughts

This episode of the Ruthless Podcast provides a thorough and engaging examination of the evolving dynamics between politics and media. Through insightful discussions with Chris LaCivita and the hosts’ strategic analysis, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of how Trump is redefining media interactions and advancing conservative agendas. The episode reinforces the importance of alternative media in shaping public discourse and highlights the ongoing battle between new and legacy media paradigms.

For those seeking an in-depth political analysis with a blend of humor and factual discourse, this episode offers valuable perspectives and actionable insights.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

It's about the people who are listening, reading, and looking for information. And that's where the legacy media has gone way off the rails over the last couple of decades. They think that they're the main character and their audience is secondary. When legacy media for years and years and years has relegated regular people to comment sections that they roll their eyes at.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, they don't.

[Josh Holmes]

And the whole point of this show, the whole point of new media is to give voice to regular people. And that's why it's successful.

[John Ashbrook]

They think that it's top down and they should be telling the public what to think. And we see ourselves, especially when we take in people's questions, is we're getting the people to ask the question.

[Josh Holmes]

We finally beat Medicare.

[Michael Duncan]

He's right. He did beat Medicare.

[Chris Lacivita]

He beat it to death.

[Michael Duncan]

Joe Biden's legacy for seniors. He raided Medicare, made premiums skyrocket, and drove up drug costs. Worse, the Biden pill penalty is already slashing the development of affordable drugs, forcing seniors to pay the price of Biden's failed policy. Biden broke Medicare, but President Trump can fix it. Call Congress and urge them to end the Biden pill penalty.

[Chris Lacivita]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Comfortably Smug]

Just a catching strays over here.

[Michael Duncan]

You're in for a hell of a show.

[John Ashbrook]

Keep the faith, hold the line and own the lids.

[Josh Holmes]

It's time for our main event.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, good Tuesday to you and welcome back to the Ruthless Friday program. I am Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and White House correspondent John Ashbrook. How are you guys?

[Josh Holmes]

I am very good, Josh. Thank you for inviting me back today.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, the little program that could has gotten a little history under its belt, fellas. As it turns out, this became, as you're listening to this, some of you, maybe for the first time, became the first podcast that asked a question at the White House press briefing. Thanks to our very own John Ashbrook.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I got to tell you fellas, when I was a kid and I was touring the Dayton bike shop of Orville and Orville and Wilbur Wright or fishing in Neil Armstrong's pond, I never knew that I would be another Ohioan to make history in this country.

[Michael Duncan]

Neil Armstrong of new media.

[Comfortably Smug]

I can't believe he made it about Ohio.

[Michael Duncan]

He did.

[John Ashbrook]

Of course he did. And to CL clarified, the first flight happened in North Carolina, but please continue.

[Michael Duncan]

So for those of you who are brand new to this program, we've been going on here about four years, and what you like about it is that we have a little bit of sense about the way Things work in dc. Lots of us have worked in here for a very long time. All of us have worked in politics for a period of time. So we can kind of translate to you what's happening up here in a way that the mainstream media never will. And I think that was the point of what the White House had done bringing John in for a question last Friday. But more importantly, we do a little humor. We do. We have some fun here on the variety program.

[Josh Holmes]

We do. And you never get that from the mainstream media.

[Michael Duncan]

You never do.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're always so serious, so dour.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Mean a lot of dour. You know, long faces. Looking at our friend John Ashbrook in that briefing room.

[Michael Duncan]

Negativity.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I'll tell you, that was the best part of it. I mean, I thought the one reason I was not nervous going into it was because I was so excited about the reactions I knew I was gonna get from everybody in that room. Cuz I know a lot of them, you know, and I knew the second I walked through that door, they were gonna be like, you've gotta be getting.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And also so much credit to this White House because, you know, they'd said that this is the podcast election that the Trump campaign had leveraged, that folks out there, voters out there, they are not getting their news from like the 6:30 news. They're tuning into podcasts. They want to hear the truth. They want to hear exactly what's going on unfiltered, without the media gatekeepers. And for the White House now, the Trump administration have the foresight to recognize this. And then Ashbrook becomes the first podcaster to ask a question. Huge.

[Comfortably Smug]

And to piggyback on what Holmes said earlier, especially for our new listeners who maybe don't know, you know, I mean, like, Josh made his bones doing, you know, campaign management and chief of staff, you know, smug. And I more on sort of the tech and digital side of politics for our whole careers. But. But John Ashbrook here, comms guy, PR guy through and through.

[Michael Duncan]

I know. Which made it so much better that he was the.

[Comfortably Smug]

Exactly. And so that's sort of my point here is it's perfect that it worked out this way.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because of all four of us, he's the funniest to be in that.

[Michael Duncan]

If you know anything about the politics of the White House press briefing room, the idea that John Ashbrook, someone that literally every person in that place knows exactly who he is, was the one that rolled in and asked the first question. What a stamp.

[Comfortably Smug]

Very funny.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, aye, aye.

[Josh Holmes]

I remember 15 years ago, when I would send these people suggested questions that they might consider asking the Obama administration, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would be a guy that actually got to ask a question. And we all talked about it ahead of time, and we all put our heads together, and we were like, we need to ask a question that will be a little bit provocative but also make news. And that's what we did. She actually made news based on what the Ruthless Variety program asked. And people had to write it, right?

[Michael Duncan]

They had to.

[Comfortably Smug]

And it was a service to our listeners, which is like, that's what we do here. That's what we do.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, you get your actual information here, you get to hear it from professionals. But the fun little trolling twist of every reporter had to write. He then asked why us in the mainstream media are so out of touch.

[Michael Duncan]

Why we didn't do our job. Oh, it's just so good. So we're gonna get into that in greater detail. We have a terrific show coming up, including the Trump changing the media landscape. Big, big hats off to Carolyn Levitt and her entire team.

[John Ashbrook]

Awesome.

[Michael Duncan]

Awesome. Just an incredible amount of professionalism going on over there. That is the reason why you are getting unfiltered information about what this administration is doing. I can't say that it's ever happened in my lifetime, certainly not my professional career. They're doing a terrific job over there. So when you get into that, we talk a little bit about all these executive orders and how some of them come into fruition. Read a lot about tariffs that went into place over the weekend. We're going to give you some context on all of that and why all of these things are more than meets the eye. And you've seen some results already. We have some variety, as we always do on the variety program.

[John Ashbrook]

Have fun.

[Michael Duncan]

Some variety. Some fun. Well, I'm told there's monkeys involved.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's an important follow up on a previous story covered on the Ruthless Variety program.

[Michael Duncan]

So for our OGs, you're gonna need this. You're gonna need it. Answers the questions that you had in the previous episode. And then we have a special guest, huge friend of ours, Chris Lacivita, campaign manager of Trump 47, the Trump 2024 campaign, along with Susie Wiles, an incredibly good friend of the program. It's his third time. Third time here on the program.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's a little like snl, you know, when you get a repeat guest or.

[Michael Duncan]

We should get a wolf. Can we get a jacket?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, we need to get a jacket.

[Michael Duncan]

We needed some kind of a jacket for anybody who hits five, they should get. It's probably, like, cotton at this standpoint. Who's got one? You know, maybe Wesley Hunt. Close.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

But, like, Chris is pretty close to getting a jacket.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

At this point. So we're gonna get all of that and we're gonna have fun along the way. Thank you for joining us. Remember, you can. I mean, you're listening to this. You know, you can find it anywhere. You get podcasts. We're also on YouTube. YouTube, slash Ruthless podcast. And if you're not on that, you gotta like and subscribe and then comment away because we use a lot of your stuff, as you see in this program. But more importantly, we provide some visuals along the way.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a lot of fun.

[Michael Duncan]

So, like, look, I was in a podcast on the way to work, way home for work, so I get. If that's your thing. But if you've got some time and you want the visuals, add something.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

They mean, particularly when we get to some of our racy content in the variety section of the program, they really.

[Michael Duncan]

They really do. So get on that thing, like, and subscribe. That's how more people can find out about us along the way. I would do that. We have a merch store. You can check that out. We're endeavoring to provide a few more items. Well, now that we have the first, with a generationally important individual moment in history. A moment in history, I don't have to tell you, Americans are ready for what's next. Moving beyond the hardships of inflation and economic anxiety towards building a future, a better future for our families. Ensuring greater access to more affordable energy that powers daily lives. Reliable energy that fuels innovation and economic growth, and the abundant energy that keeps our nation safer and more secure. It's all within our grasp. We'll do this together, Building a brighter future for us, powered by America's oil and natural gas resources. You can learn more about all of this. On we go. I want to set up this Ashbrook clip for those of you who didn't see it the first time, because I think it is it literally, you know, look, we're the little program that could, but it does make it. There's significance attached to this, so let's play clip one.

[Carolyn Levitt]

And in lighter news, but in exciting news, after announcing our briefing room changes on Wednesday, this White House has received more than 10,000 submissions from individuals across the country who are eager to join all of you. We might have to make this room a little bit bigger to do that. Who want to participate in our new media seat at a future briefing? So, in this seat today, we have the Ruthless podcast. They humbly started by entertaining small audiences on Capitol Hill. But after four years, this program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America. They previously reached number one on the charts and earned over 25 million downloads as they deliver political news with a humorous touch. The hosts are Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, comfortably smug, and the man joining us today, John Ashbrook. So with that, I will take your questions. John, please kick us off.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you very much. You know, Caroline, in your first briefing, so handsome media went administration for deporting illegal immigrants they claimed were not criminals. The question is, do you think they're out of touch with Americans demanding action on our border crisis?

[Carolyn Levitt]

The media out of touch? I think that's okay. It certainly is out of touch, and I think that's prudent. Number one, there was a New York Times poll that was released prior to President Trump's inauguration by the New York Times, which of course, is a legacy media outlet that show that 83% are.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, oh, my God.

[Carolyn Levitt]

Deporting the individuals that you mentioned, illegal immigrant criminals, especially those who have committed heinous crimes in the interior of our country. And I received a very actually interesting statistic on this front from ICE this week. 97% of the deportations that this administration has made thus far are of individuals who had a removal order from the previous administration but were never removed from the interior of our country. So this shows that the previous administration was actually defying our laws. And all this administration is doing is simply following the laws, the immigration laws of this great country. Thanks for the question, John.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, geez. First of all, fantastic. Again, Carolyn Levitt, perfectly. But you didn't know what you're going to ask, clearly, but she made significant news there. You've seen all these legacy media outlets over the last couple of weeks talk about, well, there's panic in communities across the country that all of these deportation orders, they're visiting churches, they're visiting schools, they're visiting all these places. They're just randomly throwing people out of the country.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And then she comes back and she's like, actually, 97% of people have a deportation order that were made by the previous administration, which, you know, look, I don't think I'm breaking any news on our part here by saying they didn't actually prioritize this sort of thing or we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. That's a big Stat that adds value to information. The American people need to know. It's not a front page story saying people panicked. It's 97% of the people who've been deported in the first two weeks of this administration had a deportation order by the previous administration.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's the key of it is when all of these legacy media companies are so angry that fewer and fewer Americans are tuning in, it's because you have organizations like our program that ask a question that lets Caroline Leavitt inform the American public of that fact that 97% of the people had a deportation order in place. That's actual news that the American people care about. They don't care about the New York Times being like, isn't this scary?

[Michael Duncan]

Cuz they have no intent in leading the news with it.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

That is a newsworthy lead. The news of cbs, NBC, ABC statistic. And now you have a the spokesperson for the White House confirming it as such. But it would never lead. It's information that's useful, but it would never lead because they can tell you about all the things that they're drawing controversy, right?

[Comfortably Smug]

And the only way that we get in that room is because of you, dear listener.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

So a special thank you to everyone watching and listening to this and the millions who have over the last four years, because without this platform, without this audience, we wouldn't be in that room 100%.

[Josh Holmes]

And she, you know, I've gotten, since that moment, I've gotten so many text messages, so many emails, you guys can imagine, we've talked about it, but several people have been like, she gave you a shot at asking another question. Why didn't you ask another question? And I had a lot of ideas about another question. But after that moment where you ask a question and she makes news with the answer. And I looked around that room and I thought to myself, you know what? We've already won. I don't need to belabor the point. Let somebody else ask.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, and that just in and of itself outlines the ideological difference of how we see news and how they see news. How journos typically see news. What it is is to make enough of a scene about things to sell their next book, right? And they just want to take up time hoping they can get some viral clip where the resistance left is like, oh, finally, a newsman holding people to right. And like your point of view on this was I asked a question that I wanted the answer to, right? She provided an answer that was newsworthy enough to lead local newscasts Right. And I'm not gonna waste everybody's time with me. It's not about me.

[Josh Holmes]

It's exactly right. It's not about us. It's about the people who are listening, reading, and looking for information. And that's where the legacy media has gone way off the rails over the last couple of decades. They think that they're the main character and their audience is secondary.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

What we try to do on our show is. I mean, look at, look at what we do. Every single week, we ask people to give us an answer to a question or an idea or something that informs what it is that we do. When legacy media, for years and years and years, has relegated regular people to comment sections that they roll their eyes at.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, they don't.

[Josh Holmes]

And the whole point of this show, the whole point of new media is to give voice to regular people. And that's why it's successful.

[John Ashbrook]

They think that it's. And they should be telling the public what to think. And we see ourselves, especially when we take in people's questions, is we're getting the people to ask the question in that briefing.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, unless you believe that we're entirely altruistic about all of that, why don't we put up graphic one, please?

[Chris Lacivita]

Look at that.

[John Ashbrook]

Look at that.

[Michael Duncan]

There is the gentleman in discussion now, John Ashbrook, standing at the famed pebble beach of the White House, getting a standup interview on Fox News, looking like.

[Comfortably Smug]

A true newsman at those steely eyes. I know looking off into the middle distance there.

[Michael Duncan]

And the flow.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, the flow looks great. That hair, I mean, you really.

[Michael Duncan]

That was some top notch fl. I bet you spent a little extra time with that, huh?

[Josh Holmes]

You know, I actually, it was raining on Friday and the, the hit started a little bit before we thought it would. Would. So we sort of hustled over there, walked in from the rain and just stood and delivered. That's what the Ruthless variety program does.

[Michael Duncan]

That's what we do. Well, you look good doing it, Johnny.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, very kind.

[Michael Duncan]

You look good doing it. But the media, predictably. One of the reasons you said you were not nervous going in is because you anticipated seeing the faces, the displeased faces of many people you've worked at work with throughout the years. Well, in typical fashion, they reacted exactly as one would expect. Graphic two, please. Spaghetti is from Politico. In the new media seat, the row of chairs reversed in prior administrations for members of the White House press shop was John Ashbrook from the far right, Ruthless prop podcast father called the podcast One of the most influential podcasts in America. We appreciate that. We appreciate that. Describing it as providing political news with a humorous touch. Very apt. Appreciate that. Far right, fellas. That was a. Well, they came back and they said, you know, we may have overstated it. They're a conservative podcast. We didn't call. You know, my experience with these kind of journos is anytime they mischaracterize something one way or another, it takes, like, a full battle royale to get them to sort of, like, sand the edges of it. We were, like, perfectly comfortable with the way that they did it. Did they change it anyway?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, you know, I'm comfortable with being described that way because I know the only time they describe people that way is when they're trying to scare people. Yeah, we're doing damage, you know, and I kind of do want them to be a little scared of what we might say.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, they should be now. They should be now. No question about it. So, anyway, that's what we're dealing with. Listen, we're gonna be in and out of this situation and working obviously with the White House people in on the Hill. Heard from Jason Smith last week, who's writing a tax bill. We're gonna have basically everybody who's involved in affecting your lives one way or another in this Trump administration and the majorities in Congress, you're gonna hear from them directly.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

But we're not leaving that room anytime soon either. So we're gonna ask you a question. We typically do a question of the day here on the Variety Program, which, if you like and subscribe and you get on board and you. You write a question, we're gonna read all of them, and ultimately we're gonna provide you some of those in our next episode. So this one, which I listen, this is. Right. This is kind of like the way to do it. Next time Johnny's in the old room, maybe it won't be Johnny. Maybe we'll say one of you bozos.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, why not? Oh, the first time they said comfortably small from the White House podium.

[Comfortably Smug]

Bozos. I would have it be known that I was offered that seat. Well, and I graciously. I couldn't attend because I was out of town for a wedding and actually ran into a lot of Day one listeners of the ruthless Variety Program while I was at a wedding. But I was. I was traveling on Friday and. And asked if my. My friend here, my pal John Ashbrook, could take the seat. He obviously did a much better job than I would have, never missing an.

[Michael Duncan]

Opportunity to pup Your own tires, Duncan?

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, you called me a bozo.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, I just say I think he, you know, he brought with it a.

[Comfortably Smug]

Level the White House doesn't think so he offered me.

[Michael Duncan]

He brought with it a level of credibility that frankly, we're uncomfortable with here at the ruthless variety program.

[Josh Holmes]

Michael also knows himself as a libertarian. And his first question might have been, when are we going back to the gold standard?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, you never know.

[Comfortably Smug]

I've got a bunch.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a tougher question. So our question to you, dear listener, is what should we ask the next time we're in there? We don't know when it's going to be. Might be soon, it might be a little later. But what should we ask? What would you ask if you were in that room to try to get some information that you know, you're not getting from the mainstream media, like subscribe. Put your question down. We read all of them and when we come back, we have your predictions about the deportation. Last Thursday we asked how many of these things can they get done in the first hundred days? Well, your answers were instructive. And I think it's probably set some kind of an over under if you're a Vegas fan, you know, if you like the online betting thing. I think we've said it over under. You guys are the smartest people in the business. We'll get to all of that right after this.

[Josh Holmes]

So we just got some big news from Americans for Prosperity, the most effective grassroots organization in the country. They've just launched a massive $20 million campaign to protect your hard earned money. Here's the deal. If Congress doesn't act, the Trump tax cuts will expire. That means families could pay 1500 more in taxes next year. We all remember the benefits of those tax cuts. More money in your pocket, higher wages and thriving mom and pop businesses across the country. But Biden nomics has taken us backward. Record inflation and rising costs mean families are paying over $13,000 more per year just to make ends meet. Now is not the time for higher taxes. That's why AFP is unleashing its grassroots army to protect the tax cuts. With hundreds of local events, millions of voter contacts and direct pressure on lawmakers. Join the fight. Visit ProtectProsperity.com to demand Congress renews and strengthens the Trump tax cut so we can reignite the American dream. That's ProtectProsperity.com okay, so unless you're living.

[Michael Duncan]

Under a rock, you have noticed this administration has taken action.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

On all the things that they said they would do. The one that should come as least of a surprise to the American people is border security, immigrant, legal immigration. What they're doing about it, they said they were gonna do deportations. They're doing it. Made a lot of headlines in week one and two. And they put some. Dr. Phil was a part of one.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, I mean, so it's a little. Got some Hollywood involved in all of this. Anyway, we asked you how many you think they can actually get done and you have some great answers. To do this, we always start with the voice. Our White House correspondent, John Ashbrook.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, first comment comes from Rodney Carey. And Rodney writes, I think 45,047 people will be deported by Trump's 100th day in office.

[John Ashbrook]

That's a good number. Hit that 4547.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Perfect.

[Michael Duncan]

I feel like they're ahead of pace.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. On the last day, slow down a little. Just hit 4547. Exactly. And the next day, double down.

[Michael Duncan]

I love it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I like that.

[Michael Duncan]

All right, come in to hrunks.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is from Mindy M. My guess is 452,002. Deported in the first hundred days. Very specific number. After all, Tom Holman said that after they burned through these criminals, they will turn to those illegal aliens who have had cases adjudicated and have been told to leave but haven't. There are over a million in that category. Parenthetical exact number is uncertain. He said those people will be easy to find compared to the real baddies. I think it's going to get wild real fast. Keep the news and analysis coming, boys. I love it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, Mindy, we will endeavor to do that in a good answer. I like that. It's a thoughtful like they're trying to win some merch. Remember, you get the number somewhere close, you get some merch. And we did that with the number of pardons that the Biden administration ultimately bestowed on their family. So, like, you know, there's this thoughtful number crunching here.

[Josh Holmes]

And remember, each piece of merch is hand sewn by our own Michael Duncan.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right. Very, very important. It's done with thought and love.

[Comfortably Smug]

And love. And carpal tunnel now.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because now we are the big program.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes. The big program that could smuggles.

[John Ashbrook]

Comment 3 comes from Gringo Loco and they write QOD guesstimate 128,420 QOD real answer. Not nearly enough.

[Michael Duncan]

Very well done. Very well.

[Comfortably Smug]

I love that name too. Gringo Loco.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Gringo Loco's bringing heat right on the comment section. So remember, like subscribe and add your question that we should ask in the next White House briefing and we'll read it on Thursday and maybe even deliver your question next time we're in the House over there. We wanted to go over the impressive wins that the Trump administration is going through. Because if you pick up your newspaper, you look at your newscast, all of this is muddied by the controversy of disruption. Right. They don't want anything that is disruptive at all.

[John Ashbrook]

The media was very comfortable with Joe Biden just being a zombie asleep in the boat, not rocking the boat.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

It's not how things are with President Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

That's not. I mean, he has problems that he's outlined during the course of a two year campaign that he intended to fix. Did you think he was not going to try?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, he's doing it.

[Michael Duncan]

Of course he's going to try. But we're going to provide some context to some of this. So look, over the weekend, there was three tariff policies that were unveiled by this administration. 25% on Canada, 25% on Mexico, 10% on China. China won is not a surprise. He did this the first four years and then worked through a whole bunch of things that he's talked about on the campaign trail. Insulate our farmers from any sort of repercussion, worked it through where they had, I think, a much better relationship in terms of understanding each other during the Trump administration than they ever did during the Biden administration when they just had to pay his son.

[John Ashbrook]

Pretty much they're like, that's how it works.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, many people are saying so, but the 25 and the 25 on Canada and Mexico makes business people go crazy. So all of your newspapers are going to be filled with like, what a disaster this is. You know, you're bankrupting American. That's like the best thing that they say, bankrupting American business, because, you know, so much of our commerce runs through these two countries. And then they'll say, and ultimately you're going to pay much, much more for everyday products because we can't get these things as a part of it. Well, to understand President Trump, first of all, I don't know how anybody doesn't get it at this point.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

But just in case you don't, this guy negotiates things.

[John Ashbrook]

Who'd have known? He knows the art of the deal. Who could have guessed?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. If you read a page of the art of the deal, you understand how he wants to get in the room. And if you haven't noticed a high tee at some G6 with Biden taking a nap and, like, whispering relative concerns hasn't actually produced an outcome with any of these people.

[Comfortably Smug]

Was it there that he pooped his pants?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I think that was.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's where he pooped his pants.

[Michael Duncan]

There was a pooping. Alleged pooping.

[Comfortably Smug]

Alleged. Many people are saying. And then also the Queen noticed maybe a smell when he was in Britain.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah, that's been reported.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. So peace through strength there.

[Michael Duncan]

Peace through strength. Yeah. No strength of smell, for sure. So if you look at what Trump is trying to do, he is grabbing some leverage here, knowing that the American economy and our American military are the two most significant items in this world. And if you're not going to go start a bunch of wars, which he said he doesn't want to do under any circumstance, you've got to use the American economy as an example for people to pay attention to, you know, and it's different. It's not something that a president has done because they don't want to upset all the business leaders that are concerned about their products and whatnot being used as leverage. They just want to conduct business as usual. But when you do something like that, you get people's attention pretty damn quick.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

And I don't know if you've noticed, but Mexico caved to Trump's tariff threat and agrees to send 10,000 troops to the border to stop illegal immigration and drugs. That is shorthand for something that showed up in the fact sheet that the White House put out in all three countries, which is his grave concern about fentanyl entering this country. We have for the length of this show, fentanyl has been a major problem.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

We've talked about this since day one. About. There are literally hundreds of thousands of Americans that are being killed in communities across this country. They don't know poverty lines, they don't know geographical lines. It is a killer in this country. And so you, as an average American, are sitting around saying, like, well, why don't you just ban it? Well, you can't if you don't enforce the border, and you can't if you don't eliminate the incentive of other countries that are facilitating it coming in our country from doing it. Right. But if you do that, if you say, no, this is a huge priority, you're gonna pay a serious price if you don't focus on this. All of a sudden, you get people's attention. So when they say stop illegal immigration and drugs, they're talking about fentanyl here. Yep, that's what they're talking about. And just as a matter of background, fentanyl, much of it produced in China.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

Makes its way through Mexico into the United States. Now, there's also been, what, 43 pounds of it, and over the last year that entered through the Canadian border and you had a bunch of idiots that were like, 43 pounds. Only 43 pounds, yeah. Only enough to kill about 10 million Americans.

[Josh Holmes]

Right?

[Michael Duncan]

Only that much.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And to your point about how everything is happening so quickly, within minutes of this announcement from Mexico, there was reporting on X that Mexico had caught and arrested El Ricky, who is the leader of Cartel de Nostra. I mean, the Biden administrator, presumably. They knew where this guy was last year at this time. And the Biden administration was like, ah, don't worry about him.

[Comfortably Smug]

But it's. It's proof of the whole Trump strategy, right? Of, like, this whole, like, Crazy Ivan strategy. The madman, you know, like, when you're dealing with Donald Trump and he can say anything and he has the leverage of the United States of America behind him, this asymmetrical warfare of being like, well, we're going to do tariffs until you solve this problem. Right. Or in dealing with Panama and the Panama Canal, it's never like the Biden strategy of, well, we'll have a high tea or we'll have a summit and we'll talk about this thing. It's like, no, I have the full power of the United States government behind me and we lead the world, and I will use every tool in my arsenal to put maximum pain on you until you solve this problem.

[Michael Duncan]

It's amazing how quickly you can get somebody's attention.

[Chris Lacivita]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing is, it's about results. Because, you know, you see all these newspapers freaking out and being like, oh, God, these tariffs. Why would he do such a thing? Look at the results. Mexico says they're going to send 10,000 troops to the border to stop illegal immigration and drugs. What was the Biden administration doing? They're like, well, we'll make Kamala borders. We'll try to investigate the root cause. Do you want to investigate the root causes, or do you want 10,000 soldiers that Mexico's putting at the border to make it stop?

[Michael Duncan]

I always thought, by the way, that was the funniest campaign insulation moment, when they're calling her the border czar, which many of the media labeled her the border czar after he made the announcement that she was going to be in charge of the quote, unquote, root causes and the Kamala campaign was like, no, no, no, no. We had nothing to do with the border. We're not the borders. Are you. You've made this up. We were there to examine the root causes of illegal immigration.

[Comfortably Smug]

Just think about how offensive.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, what the hell did you come up with?

[Comfortably Smug]

Think about how offensive that is to communities across the United States of America that have been ravaged by opioids and fentanyl and all of this sort of stuff that Kamala Harris is going, you know, all the way to South America to discuss the root causes of migration. Like, she's like going there for fucking teach for America.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I mean? And somehow the cartels didn't come up. Yeah, they only came up this week when we leveraged a 25% tariff. And they were like, we don't want that. Let's throw L. Ricky in jail and El Johnny and El Freddie, too.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly. You have to go back. Going back to the Biden administration, you have to ask yourself, why did they label Kamala Harris as the border czar at the very beginning? And that's because the most important Democrat in the world wanted her to be saddled with the border problem so that it insulated him from any challenge against Joe Biden. The media, legacy media, wrote it dutifully as soon as the coup happened. And Kamala Harris was the most important Democrat in the world. All of a sudden, she wasn't the border czar anymore. She was just looking for the root causes. And I mean, this goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning, why it's so important that the Trump administration allow new media to come in. Because the legacy media has a narrative and drives a narrative, and the narrative is written by powerful Democrats and powerful left wing NGOs who back them. I mean, think about this other thing, and I'll just. I'll let you guys take it back because I don't want to go down a rabbit hole too much. But the Biden administration revoked press credentials for over 400 reporters inside of that briefing room. Why? Because they wrote things that the Biden administration didn't like. So you have all these reporters who are living in fear of writing things that the Democrat power structure doesn't like. I talked to one reporter, and I won't say the name, who said that. They asked a question at the very beginning of the Biden administration about his mental acuity. The second he asked that question, all bets are off. He's out. They're freezing him out of the process because they didn't want that conversation to happen. And then you also think about last summer when the first person in a major publication to write about Biden's mental acuity was the Wall Street Journal. But who wrote it? It wasn't their White House correspondent. It was somebody who couldn't be penalized by the fact that they wrote that story.

[Comfortably Smug]

Are you telling me that the Biden administration tried to make sure that democracy died in darkness?

[Josh Holmes]

What I'm telling you, that is 100% it. And that is why it's so important that the Trump administration is able to execute on what they're trying to do to expand the media access so that future administrations don't have the same sort of cod lock on the access that regular people have to information from their government.

[Michael Duncan]

Ah, it's really, really well said. Great explanation, Smash. There's more, even more. So quickly after the election, President Trump does a press conference where he's like, yeah, another thing that bothers me, we didn't talk a lot about on the campaign trail was the fact that we built the Panama Canal. Blood, sweat and tears of the American people went into doing that. It's since been taken over by Chinese operators. Yeah, I'm not happy about that. I don't like it. I don't like the way that this is operated. It puts us at a disadvantage. It's in our hemisphere. We're gonna revisit all of that immediately. All the press jumps, all. Well, he's talking about going to war with Panama and all this, this, that and the other. Over the weekend, once again, Secretary Rubio makes his first trip down to Panama. Well, lo and behold, lo and behold, this problem, which you've been insulated from because nobody in the mainstream press reports about a problem in a Democratic administration.

[John Ashbrook]

That's it.

[Michael Duncan]

But the problem exists nevertheless, was fixed. So this is according to Bloomberg, Panama offers concession to us after Rubio meets with President. Panama promised free passage for U.S. warships through the Panama Canal and said it would withdraw from China's signature lending program after Secretary of State Marco Rubio blasted the government during his visit on Sunday. Rubio, echoing President Donald Trump's complaints about the Chinese influence on the waterway, warned that the US Would take measures necessary to protect its rights unless Panama would make significant changes. Well, they did.

[John Ashbrook]

And the other thing is to take a step back when they said that China has put in place a way to try to control this is many people have heard about the so called Chinese Belt and Road program where their whole approach is we go into countries, China does and says, okay, we will build you some roads, or we'll build you a soccer stadium like they have all across Africa. And they're like. And then what they do is they saddle this country with the debt to build them these roads or stadiums or whatever, and then they use that as leverage and try to control it. And they've done this in Panama until President Trump brought this up. How many Americans knew that US Warships were having to pay money to access the panel canal that we built?

[Michael Duncan]

That we built. Imagine the first time that that happened, not as a commander in chief of the United States, being like, whoa, whoa.

[Chris Lacivita]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Michael Duncan]

We built this thing for you. What are we talking about here? Nope, didn't. No news. No. And, like, look, we don't live in a entire silence chamber. Like, clearly, this was known in defense circles and people who have beats for mainstream press that cover this sort of thing. It was unknown to the American people before President Trump surfaced it shortly after the election, and now it's dealt with.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. I just think, like, philosophically in the United States, and I think this is a bipartisan problem, is for too long, America has been seen as a force in the world for good, that does things first and foremost for the world and not for America first. And those things aren't always in conflict. We should be able to do things in the world that are good for America, but it always has to be good for America. That's the point. And that is the new posture of America under Donald Trump.

[John Ashbrook]

And also, this is becoming a pattern where, you know, you had the situation with Columbia, where before the news could even get started, where they started their whole outrage thing of, oh, no, Trump's going to put all these tariffs on Colombia and you're gonna pay more for Valentine's flowers before they could even really get the ball rolling on that. Columbia Caves. And so then, like, President Trump sends Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, down there before, like, this outrage cycle can even build. Rubio's like, I have a significant announcement. Colombia's caved.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Well, you got Chuck Schumer, just the absolute schmo of the world, out doing a press conference with a. Did you see him doing a can. Eat a can of Corona?

[Comfortably Smug]

Come on.

[Michael Duncan]

Where he's like, well, it's gonna be a. Drinkers are really gonna be. This is his way of, by the way, trying to relate to the middle class.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, when he was doing his fake grilling with the burgers, everyone made fun of him for not knowing what he's doing.

[Michael Duncan]

The raw burger with the cheese on top. Yeah. So this is. He's like, well, the real hardest hit Americans are gonna be beer drinkers because we get most of our beer.

[John Ashbrook]

He's like, I understand you people drink the sarona. This is your popular drink, gentlemen.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no, he's whole. He's holding it like it's like it's a. Like a nitrogly. Like a bomb or something. And he's like, oh, look at this thing. This is. People drink it and we like this. Well, you know, less than 24 hours later, the president of Mexico is like, no, you make a good point. We're going to do something about fentanyl. Human trafficking the border. And by the way, we're now arresting cartel members. He looks like a complete asshole. But it also totally undermines everything that all of these clowns have said for decades, like, oh, don't disrupt the trade. Don't do the. Don't do. The. Terror companies are gonna be met. It's gonna cost Americans. Okay, how about in 24 hours, we fix a problem that has killed hundreds, hundreds of thousands of Americans. There is a nine, 11, 10 times in this country every year, thanks to a failure to address fentanyl getting in this country. And they take care of it in G6 summits where they whisper little sweet nothings about how this is sort of a concern, or they fund these pilot programs that are like, oh, we're interested in trying to help people, maybe providing like, a few of those. What are those shots that, like, bring you back to life. Like, that's their answer, Narcan. That's like, their answer to all of this. Instead of asking the Mexican president, please make sure that fentanyl isn't trafficked into the United States of America.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because those people were all about, man, managing the decline of America.

[John Ashbrook]

You nailed it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right? And Donald Trump is not. He's about American excellence.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's what we're striving.

[John Ashbrook]

The golden age doesn't mean let's have a chat and fund an ngo. The golden age means you lay down the law.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Like, it is not going to be this easy. Right? These three items that all happened right after presidential announcements give you an idea of what's possible here. There is gonna be international resistance to what needs to happen. So make no mistake, some of this stuff might get painful at some level, but it's going to be a plan to try to address this stuff, which it's all any of us could ever hope for. I know that you've got an update on this, Ashburn.

[Josh Holmes]

I have breaking news, actually. You Mentioned Mexico. You mentioned Colombia, you mentioned Panama. Will add Canada to the list.

[John Ashbrook]

No way. Really?

[Josh Holmes]

A statement from Justin Trudeau, alleged son of Fidel Castro.

[Comfortably Smug]

Many people have said. Many people have said, we're joking, we're laughing.

[Josh Holmes]

And in response to the strength of America delivered through President Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau writes this. I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan, reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Comfortably Smug]

Would you look at that?

[Michael Duncan]

And, you know, it's like I'm just sitting there preparing for a Sunday show, reading the White House fact sheets, and I'm like, you know, it's interesting. All three White House fact sheets, everybody's concerned about the economic impact of tariffs. All three include fentanyl. Interesting. Maybe that is the top priority here, to try to figure out a way to get the attention of these countries for the very first time.

[John Ashbrook]

I keep saying it, but I'm going to keep saying it is. It feels incredible. Like, we can feel so optimistic as Americans. We are not worrying about, well, you know, things take time and lower your expectations. The realm of the possible is here. President Trump got. I mean, we can't even finish a show without another accomplishment coming across.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I don't.

[Michael Duncan]

My point is, it's not all gonna be this easy. These ones are giving you an idea of what's possible. China's a tough fix. Europe is gonna be a tough fix. People are gonna be whining a lot about trade relations and all of these things. Point is that there's something larger here. This is not just like a difference in ideology that we've had over the years about whether tariffs make money or whether free trade makes money or all these things make money. That's not what it's about. It's about getting these people's attention for the very first time on issues that plague the American citizens.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

And it's working. In case you had any other doubt. Turns out Venezuela just worked its way in. You mentioned Colombia. We mentioned Panama, Mexico, Canada. Well, Venezuela. Turns out it had some American hostages. Why they had these remains a question.

[Josh Holmes]

And why we didn't know about it. Like, I don't remember reading about this in the Washington Post.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, I don't even know when these people were taken.

[John Ashbrook]

I remember reading about it when Rick and Al had the photo of, like, got him. We're bringing them home.

[Chris Lacivita]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

No, And I was like, what? Got who? Like, when this was a thing, like, we should have been outrageous in our own hemisphere, for crying out loud. But Rick Grinnell sent. It gets sent down. Venezuela, according to Politico, released six detained Americans on Friday as President Trump's envoy for special missions ended a visit that included talks on US Efforts to repatriate a large number of people who fled the South American country in recent years. So what he means by that, that's like Politico speak for, we got a bunch of your illegals. Yeah, we're gonna send them back. And those Americans that you have, you can send us them back, too, or we can have a further conversation than likes that we're having with Mexico and Canada.

[John Ashbrook]

You may notice the hemisphere is kind.

[Michael Duncan]

Of going our way right now, you know, and so anyway, they're doing all of this, and it's like, there's important results here. So, like, slow the roll on the. He's doing too much too fast. It's reckless. He doesn't. Playing games with the American economy. There's a larger plan here. There's a larger. He's not. He spent four years thinking about the way that he could do the first four years better. Because, by the way, the first four years, the intent was totally right. But anybody who's coming into office for the first four years having spent no time in politics, had to learn the hard way about a whole bunch of stuff, including the fact that they've now weaponized the Justice Department and all these things against him. But when he gets another shot, boy, he's running in the other direction, fast.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, he's ready to go. I mean, he is locked in. Bro's on the grind set. I hope the folks in the White House. You have those cold Diet Cokes ready because he's working on the clock.

[Michael Duncan]

Get those Diet Cokes and just bear. Steak, steak. Let's just get a butter knife, a steak, a fork and some Diet Coke.

[John Ashbrook]

This man is working round the clock.

[Michael Duncan]

God, I love it. Maybe a couple of McDonald's hamburgers.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Filet o fish, perhaps?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, get them ready.

[Michael Duncan]

Do you guys want to do some variety?

[John Ashbrook]

Always. Always.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is very important.

[Michael Duncan]

It's an important update for those of you who don't know. Animal fighting is a big piece of this program. We've talked about it for years. It all started when Smug said that he could fight and beat a horse.

[John Ashbrook]

Very doable. They're very fragile animals.

[Michael Duncan]

Extremely controversial here on the program. We've had a lot of takes on that, but We've entered other animals over the years. One of them that snuck up on us is the monkey.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And a lot of people underestimate the monkey. You know, they do those, those graphs on what animal you think that you can beat. One of the publications like Forbes or something does like a routine survey that they include of like, what animal you.

[John Ashbrook]

Think, and they compare around the world. Like, Europeans are like only 50, think they could beat a rat in a fight. And you've got like 100 of Americans.

[Michael Duncan]

Being like, yeah, no, no, it says a lot about you. But then, you know, they go up to like donkeys or like, you know, dogs.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, large dog, kangaroo. They also have chimpanzee in there, which people far.

[John Ashbrook]

You don't want to tangle with those.

[Comfortably Smug]

Overestimate their ability to tank.

[Michael Duncan]

I think any in that family, whether you're talking about a gorilla, chimpanzee, oh, they're yoked. Like they'll rip your arms off and beat you.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, they're like 3% body fat. The things are just ripped.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is why at the Ruthless variety program, we fight with our head. And when it comes to monkeys, our recommendation is to take an Olympic sized swimming pool, fill it with water and cover it with bananas. The monkeys go in for the bananas, they can't swim, they drown, they don't get out.

[Michael Duncan]

So we've already solved this problem, but the world continues to have an issue with it. We covered several months ago a story about escaped macaques. These are a brand of monkey.

[John Ashbrook]

You gotta be careful of them.

[Michael Duncan]

Particularly, you gotta be careful of macaque. Anyway, these things were captured in South South Carolina because they were on the loose and nobody really knew there was a bunch of them. Like, what? They're testing macaques, Maybe like a makeup.

[Comfortably Smug]

Makeup, you know, maybe they test on animals.

[Michael Duncan]

We don't know what we're doing with these macaques, but they escaped. And only a few. They could only gather a few of them. Well, According to the AP news, authorities in South Carolina said Friday the last four of the 43 escaped monkeys have been recaptured after two months living in the woods, weathering a rare north snowstorm, and being tempted back into captivity by peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Peanut butter and banana.

[John Ashbrook]

Here's the thing, it's funny because, like, it also works for children on a snow day. If you want them back in the house, peanut butter and jelly will do it. And turns out monkeys are the same way. There's a snowstorm, like, yeah, I think I'm done monkey now.

[Michael Duncan]

I think I'm done. So it's the russeus macaque monkey that we're talking about here. All females that they.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you're kidding.

[Michael Duncan]

No, all females.

[Chris Lacivita]

They make a female.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, they made a break for it after police say an employee did not fully lock their enclosure at Alpha Genesis, a facility that breeds them for medical research also.

[John Ashbrook]

That's like a scary name. That's like how the horror story or the horror movie starts. It's like, outbreak, Alpha Genesis. And then the monkeys escape and all hell breaks loose.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, they call it the monkey farm. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Dangerous.

[Michael Duncan]

So they recapture the monkeys. They appear to be in good health. Good news.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, I guess it's better than hearing about monkeys escaping fauci form God knows what that situation.

[Michael Duncan]

But the one thing like the good people of South Carolina now know after this outbreak, is it like, you got to be careful, macaque.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm just offended that we didn't have any. We didn't have any listeners to the ruthless variety program at Alpha Genesis because they didn't use the banana pool.

[Michael Duncan]

They didn't.

[Comfortably Smug]

I thought that was a novel solution.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it took. It took them 60 days. It would have taken them six hours, right?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And they. They wouldn't have come back healthy.

[John Ashbrook]

One thing I've just noticed here says like I love.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can I just pause that? My favorite part in it is Ashbrook isn't satisfied unless the capture includes a capture and kill.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no. Drowning seems to be a full through line on all of this.

[Josh Holmes]

It works. I mean, if they escape the Alpha Genesis lab, you know that they're infected with something, so you gotta think they're wanted dead or alive, and dead is preferable.

[John Ashbrook]

And I think it's also important to note, it says here in the article of the date is all the monkeys escaped on November 6th. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Are you kidding me?

[John Ashbrook]

On November, today. Right. And now President Trump's in office. Boom. Like that. We're talking about Colombia, we're talking about Venezuela, Canada, Mexico. Even the monkeys know the hemisphere belongs to President Trump. You're locked up.

[Michael Duncan]

If one of these things exists, we're gonna have to get you in. Now, there's talk about DOD and DHS and how they're reshuffling press chairs there. I'd like to get Smash in there to ask about their monkey control.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah, 100% very good question that nobod in the legacy media is asking.

[Comfortably Smug]

But I want him to be dressed like Crocodile Dundee when he walks in.

[Michael Duncan]

Excuse me, sir, how do you plan to deal with Macock? Oh, we Love. We love the Macock monkeys. We just love them. What we love more than anything though is our next guest who has been here, as we said three times, to give us everything from what's happening on a Trump campaign to how they were dealing with the media. He's going to give you a summary of the campaign and a look ahead. You are not going to want to miss this. Well, listen, we're having a lot of fun around here. When we have a lot of fun, we like to bring in people that we like and we have fun with who also happen to be amongst the smartest people that we know. And in this case, what am I here for? Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but over the last few months you've grown taller, you've gotten skinnier and more handsome.

[Chris Lacivita]

I did and I lost 20 pounds.

[Michael Duncan]

Also joining, the rare like three time appearance ruthless guy, which we reserve for very few individuals.

[Chris Lacivita]

Flattered.

[Michael Duncan]

Chris La Savita, ladies and gentlemen.

[Chris Lacivita]

Good to see you guys. Great to be here. I mean the famous guy at the end.

[Michael Duncan]

How about that?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh my God.

[John Ashbrook]

Artist, working journalist in the business.

[Chris Lacivita]

He is. He most certainly is.

[Michael Duncan]

What, what'd you make of that?

[Chris Lacivita]

Well, I mean I was thrilled for you guys and obviously for John who's such a great guy. But you know, it's literally, I know that some folks maybe in the White House press room wouldn't have taken it this way and several of those folks are, you know, we know we work, worked with for many years and, and they do their jobs but you know, it's a new day and people consume media differently now and they get their news differently through different, you know, medians. And of course having you guys to be the first, I think from the podcast space was amazing. But you know, this should not really surprise anyone. Yeah, I mean, you know, this is, except maybe you know, the legacy medium.

[Michael Duncan]

But, but they think they just own those seats.

[Chris Lacivita]

Yeah, I mean it's remarkable. But you know, we do in all our survey work and when we do polls and all this stuff and campaigns, we always ask people, where do you get your news? Yeah, because it's very important because it, you know, drives our spend and you know, who we talk to and this kind of thing and you know, not everybody is watching the 6:30 news.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Chris Lacivita]

You know, or 6:00 in Brett's case, you know, on, for, for to, to get their information. And not everybody is, you know, reading the New York Times or the Compost or you know, say that with a degree of affection. But Sort of. But, you know, they just, they just don't. As a matter of fact, I think the, the, the, the most consistent number that we see in some of our data is that people who get their information from newspapers is below 17%. Actually, it's about 12 on average. So, you know, there's a reason why campaigns have never really advertised in newspapers. If you see a campaign, I'm not talking about like a public affairs campaign, but an actual political campaign buying ads, you know, in a newspaper, they're idiots.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Well, it's like billboards, right?

[Chris Lacivita]

Yeah, they're like billboards.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

Now you do, you do billboards occasionally to troll. Yeah, you know, the trolling. But important. You know, you can't really, you know, drive a message as you're going 80 down 95.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Chris Lacivita]

But, but people aren't doing that in, in the, in newspapers. And, you know, so you've got to shake, you got to shake it up and make it different.

[Josh Holmes]

And.

[Chris Lacivita]

Which is actually part of the reason why on the Trump campaign, we were so successful in meeting the goals that we established in campaign to win the younger vote.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

Because people, we went to where the voters are.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

And, you know, it's not about conforming people to get their news from one place. That's not good. Right. So the competition and having everybody competition for news and the competition for information is, I think, key to maintaining the democracy, frankly.

[Michael Duncan]

You're right. But I also think it's really impressive in that so much in our collective world over the years has been about campaign consultants, campaign managers. As you and Susie were on Trump 24th. You don't get fired for doing things that everybody else has always done. Right. You get fired for taking risks and finding audiences and doing things that are outside of the norm of what people should be doing. And yet you're all's view going into this is we're gonna take risks because it's worth the risk that we need to go out and meet people where they are and break the whole, you know, sort of establishment, both on the media side and the political consulting side of what it means to drive a message and get to the target audience. And, you know, look, you had to have thought about that somewhere along the way when you're, you're laying out a game plan that runs contrary to what presidential campaign managers had done year after year after year.

[Chris Lacivita]

Yeah. And. But there's also this, you know, the old adage that at least we had when I was, my time in the Marine Corps, and I know it's still Something that. That is used to this day, which is no plan survives first contact.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

So, you know, you can have the greatest plans in the world, and, you know, the other side gets a say. And for us, it was, you know, we had the Biden campaign, then Harris campaign, then we had, you know, all the media, then we had the Justice Department, then we, I mean, you know, then we had the Iranians, then we had the crazies, then, you know, I mean, every single day tested the integrity of what we wanted to accomplish. But I'll tell you what made it so much easier. When you have a candidate.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

Like we had in Donald Trump, who you would not be penalized for being aggressive. So you could be aggressive, you could be different, you could. Would be daring almost, and not. Not have to worry about, you know, second guessing which. Which was, you know, for. In any campaign. Yeah. I mean, and it's the biggest thing. And so it gives you a degree of latitude and a degree of confidence. But if you're out pushing a particular message, we're, you know, we're doing. We want to drive a particular issue. Labos just makes it so easier because nine times out of 10, he was usually the one out there first. All we had to do was get in line.

[John Ashbrook]

I have a question right along the vein of that is the campaign you ran was against so much conventional wisdom for decades. Republicans were told, don't go after younger voters. Number one, they don't turn out and they won't vote for us. Number two, high turnout hurts Republicans. Both of those, you proved wrong. High turnout only helped President Trump get elected. Younger voters came out in droves. When was the decision made that we are going to specifically try to make these things happen? And what did you do to make those things happen?

[Chris Lacivita]

Well, it was a couple things. First of all, you know, you're led by a great candidate who, Who. Who literally. There's somebody who literally leads from the front. Right. So, yeah, we've seen that. Yeah. Yeah. Literally and figuratively. And then, of course, you know, the team that, that. That really Susie had started putting together, you know, with Susie and I doing our roles, and then, of course, having Fabrizio around, Tony, just like, driving the targeting with James and Tim Saylor, James Blair, who's now White House Deputy Chief of staff, and, you know, Taylor, who's another White House chief of staff on the comm side, but earlier he was on the. On the. On the super pac. I mean, it was just. It was a. It was a great. It was a great team of people. Who were unified in one mission and one mission only. And that was winning. Winning. There's no jockeying for who, who's going to do what. It's about accomplishing the mission. The mission was the man. The man, you know, you know, working for, for what he wants to accomplish for the country. So that kind of made things a little easier. Plus, you know, in campaigns, you know, 20 hours a day, seven days a week, high stress, you know, you, you, you, you, you get a sense of camaraderie that you work with people and everybody has their back. So gallows humor at some level, there's a ton of gallows humor. I mean, you know, I used to say that, you know, I could get whacked at any particular moment. And so going in with a, with a sense of an attitude of, of, you know, I'm just going to do what I've spent the last 35 years doing. But, but I learned something new every day.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, that is a distinction. I'll be honest. You. That has been your MO since the moment you stepped, stepped foot into politics.

[Chris Lacivita]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Which is. No two cycles are alike. I'm going to learn something new every day. We're going to put in place something that is based upon what I've learned rather than the way everybody has done it up to this point.

[Chris Lacivita]

Well, that and also, you know, what really drove, I guess, the necessity or what drove our ability to target and talk to new groups of voters, whether they were Hispanics, whether they were black men, whether they, whether they were white, working class, without college or degrees, was those were the folks we needed to actually win. And so, I mean, like, we improved our numbers everywhere. I mean, we won Long Island. Yeah, we, every single county in the United States went more conservative. You know, we increased our voter share in all 50 states. California, New York, Florida. Look what we did to Florida.

[Michael Duncan]

Right? Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

I mean, so, you know, the level of discipline internally within the campaign, you know, we had developed this list of persuadable voters that Tony and Tim Saylor had spent, you know, weeks, weeks, hell, months. And we tested and counter tested and stress tested and all of these particular segments of the electorate that we needed to increase our vote share with, with. And that process stayed with us. And what was weird was when the coup happened, right? Because that's basically what it was when they, when they got rid of Joe, they got rid of Joe. The coup. You know, everything was geared toward, toward Biden. And we're sitting there looking at ourselves and we're like, we just spent 30 million bucks right. On all this data. And. But the one thing that. That we realized was the issues, the underlying issue set and the underlying persuadable voters really, at the end of the day, did not change.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, that's. Well, I noticed. I'm glad you brought this up because. Remarkably disciplined campaign in terms of the way you all operated internally and what you would let the external world see. But also in terms of a campaign message. Right. The messages against Joe Biden, if anything became more acute against Kamala Harris.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes. Right. You had a younger candidate, but you had a candidate who had worse tape out there, worst tape from that primary.

[Chris Lacivita]

Target, rich environment and the issues that.

[Michael Duncan]

You'Re litigating, the economy. I mean, this lady has the balls to roll up and be like, I'm a champion of small businesses.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, because she spent that whole 20. 19, 2020 primary in the Democratic primary, like, running to the left of everything that Joe Biden was trying to triangulate on. So the tape was fantastic. But. But I guess what I'm wondering, Chris, is like, there's been, you know, all these post mortems on the Kamala campaign and every. A lot of finger pointing and.

[Chris Lacivita]

The perfect campaign.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, right. Yeah. I remember that whole roundtable where they anticipated everything. They knew exactly what you were doing, and then they fell flat on their face. I love that. I'm.

[Chris Lacivita]

But I'm wondering from you, somebody just dropped F bomb before I.

[Comfortably Smug]

But they did that whole thing on Save America where they're like, nothing surprised us. We had planned for everything and we were totally wrong, which I just loved listening to. But I'm curious, from your perspective, was there ever a time, a moment, something that her campaign did that you were like, that's going to be a problem. That's actually smart. Was there ever a time where that happened?

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, I got to imagine at some point between her announcement and their convention when it was nothing but corporate legacy media acclamation.

[Chris Lacivita]

Coronation.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

Went from a coup to a coronation.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Chris Lacivita]

I mean, really, it just. Just that quickly. And for someone who was considered by the legacy media and by, you know, politics at writ large that she was not a very good vice president and a horrible communicator and all of these things to then all of a sudden.

[Michael Duncan]

A generational change agent.

[Chris Lacivita]

Generational change. And you're like, what the hell? And you. And of course, you know, we knew. We saw what was happening. And I said this to somebody a couple weeks ago where it's sort of like, because, you know, we were. The campaign was at that point in such a good rhythm. And campaigns have to find a rhythm.

[Michael Duncan]

That's it.

[Chris Lacivita]

I mean, timing and rhythm is actually a real thing.

[Michael Duncan]

It is.

[Chris Lacivita]

And just like it is in a football game, I'm not, you know, it's not the same, but momentum is real. And you know, and this had the makings of instead of a, instead of a, you know, a 21 to nothing halftime lead, you know, in a football game, it was more reminiscent of, you know, a two nothing halftime lead in a hockey game.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, the most dangerous lead in hockey.

[Chris Lacivita]

No, seriously. And of course I'm a bit of a hockey nut. And, and so I have a little bit of an appreciation that the smallest thing, you know, can literally change momentum on a dime. So, you know, this, this and they know that and the media knows that. And you know, I refused to play baseball while they were playing hockey. And, and so, you know, our entire focus was during that period of time when the coronation was happening. You know, we were looking at our numbers and seeing that, you know, the, the President's numbers never once changed. They never went down. They stayed consistent.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, we noticed.

[Chris Lacivita]

But. Right. And, but what did change was Harris was able to consolidate.

[Michael Duncan]

They reconsolidated Democratic base who was leaving.

[Chris Lacivita]

Because, you know, they were going with Kennedy or they were going with, you.

[Michael Duncan]

Know, an 85 year old guy walking around, falling off stages and know what.

[Chris Lacivita]

Planet he was on, you know, let alone what century it was. And so, you know, that, that was a, that was a, a moment where you're like, okay, we're going to have to, we're going to have to, we're gonna have to finish really, really strong. And you know, so it, and you know, the boss was pissed because just from the sense of, you know, how do they do this?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. How do they consistently, how can they.

[Chris Lacivita]

Get away with, with and, and you.

[Michael Duncan]

Know, pay no price for.

[Chris Lacivita]

No. And, and you know, I remember saying to the boss, I said, look, you'll be the first candidate in American history to beat two Democrat nominees in one year. I bet he loved that. Oh, loved it. I mean, but it's again, it's another example of American history made in this campaign, which I call a campaign of firsts.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

Because like every week there was a first. Right. In some, in some regard. And so there really wasn't, there really wasn't a path, you know, that you could go back and say, oh, I remember XYZ campaign when they did this. Or you know, because, you know, your, your experience informs.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[Chris Lacivita]

Right. I mean, it's sure ain't stuff they teach you in a book. Right? Like, I mean, it's just not. Doesn't happen. So. So, you know, part of it is, is you're winging it. Part of it is you. You do rely on your collective experience collectively experience with the team. But that's what kept the focus. The messaging. Classic example. There was one particular week during the course of the campaign in October, where the Harris campaign was running over 160 different creatives on TV and digital across all platforms. Broadcast, cable, cord cut, I mean, you name it, but you're talking over 116 competing messages. We had seven.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

And we drove those points continuously. And it was. It was, you know, for the. For the vast majority of time was mostly economic in nature. And they were switching back and forth between, you know, talking about her bio and trying to inform people. And I'm thinking to myself, if they're running biographical ads in October, yeah, not good. They. They got a problem. And so. And, you know, when you're an incumbent, if you're a challenger, you know, you have to do two things. You have to give voters a reason to vote for you and fire the other person. And so there was always this internal battle going on as who really was the challenger.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Chris Lacivita]

And. And who really was the incumbent. And we took the challenger. We. We. We took the challenger status just by virtue of the fact that Donald Trump had 100% name ID. What could they possibly say or do by October that anyone in the world hadn't heard totally in some form or fashion? Right. We're talking about probably the most defined man in the world, clearly. So everybody's got an opinion. And so, like, how do you battle that? Well, you don't battle it. You embrace it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, well, you. You also clearly defined. And didn't let her get out from underneath.

[Chris Lacivita]

No.

[Michael Duncan]

Her very clear role within the Biden administration on things like immigration, border security, the economy, and everything else.

[Chris Lacivita]

Same thing during the primaries. You know, I hate to always revisit that, but I think it was instructive because, you know, in, you know, the boss announces, you know, right after, you know, the 22 cycle, which didn't end well for anyone. And, you know, we're looking at, you know, the announcement and then. And then going into, you know, the primaries, and the. The whole focus up to that point was, you know, about how great of an opponent Ron DeSantis could be. And. And, you know, the boss read out of the gates is we're gonna hit him. And Susan and I are like in January.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right.

[Chris Lacivita]

And he's like, in January and. And hell yeah. Hell yeah, double down. And we're like, okay, we know how to do that. And that really, I thought, you know, set the stage for the. Just the overall disposition that the campaign would take from that point to the very end, which is it's going to be constant now. I mean, honestly, it was, I guess it was maybe late September when I started looking on the Internet for countries with non extradition treaties. I mean, and you know, my God, bag is a little larger than most.

[Michael Duncan]

I can only imagine it has been for years.

[Chris Lacivita]

It has been. And so, I mean, we were ready to go, but, you know, as we got closer and closer to the election, that go bag became a little smaller. A little smaller. Maybe not as much ammo. So.

[Michael Duncan]

But yeah, you're like, well, this might work out.

[Chris Lacivita]

Well, I mean, two weeks out we knew.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

Yeah. I mean, you know, it was funny because one of the, one of the states that was most consistently had had the president winning by, you know, outside the margin of error, anywhere from 4 to 7 points was Arizona.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

And so, you know, we knew a Sunbelt strategy was not going to be in the works for them.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

Which is part of the reason why we took such, you know, an aggressive semester in Nevada. Oh, boy.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

Yeah. Well, they were pulling, you know, they weren't buying as much and they were really putting all their eggs in that blue wall. And, you know, I mean, it just. A lot of those things clicked, but, you know, it was. And so you're seeing the manifestation of a lot of those things, you know, come to pass now with, you know, you shouldn't have been surprised over the course of the weekend that Donald Trump, you know, I'll just jump right in and say it and levy to 25% across the board, the tariff on, on, you know, Mexico and Canada. But what. And you shouldn't have been surprised either, when you woke up this morning and found out that the one in Mexico had been delayed.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

Because this is about changing behavior. Right. And attitudes and how you deal with the United States. This is a negotiating tack. And so we wake up this morning and to find out that, you know, the Mexican government's actually going to put 10,000 troops on the border to stem the flow of fentanyl. And I don't think people have an appreciation for the fact that, that, you know, nearly as many people have died from fentanyl over the, you know, few last few years have died in all of World War II. And so it's an actual war. And so the first demonstration of that was, you know, the President classifying the cartels as terrorist organizations. That gives us the ability to engage with them in a different way.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I think, listen, I mean, we talked a lot about the campaign is the most professional, most successful presidential campaign than anybody has ever seen. But the president didn't stop on November 6th. Turns out he is day one. He is there delivering on his promises that he made to people, people who cast their vote, trusting in him. He's proving them right right out of the gate. And I mean, there's no way you're surprised about that because this man had a vision in his mind. And it's not just with Mexico. I mean, Panama, we were talking about Panama earlier. You know, the, the Panamanian government is now saying that they want to move China out and it's strictly Belt and Road is over.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's the thing is the breakneck speed of it. And I keep coming back to this is for so long, Americans have expected, okay, the government's gonna be slow. I should lower my expectations. With Colombia, that was what, a three hour news cycle if that, like, the media can't keep up with it. Like, I saw this messaging and I thought when you brought up fentanyl, it was particularly disgusting. What they did is you saw journalists being like, oh, it was only 43 pounds of fentanyl that was seized at the border last year. That's enough to kill 10 million people. And the media can't keep up with the speed of it. Like you saw Panama, they canceled Belt and Road.

[Josh Holmes]

They can't keep up with it because all they want to do is play the opposition. They don't want to observe what's actually happening. And what's actually happening is historic. This is a figure that we haven't seen in a very long time in American history. And what he's delivering in the first couple of weeks, I can only imagine what's going to happen in the next few years.

[Chris Lacivita]

And he's in a hurry. Right. And you know, and I know in some form or fashion, all of us are, you know, a product of the United States Senate. You know, we've all spent a lot of time working in the Senate and electing senators and all of them good people. But not everything in Washington moves at the pace of the United States Senate. Right. And you know, the most deliberative body in the world. Well, you know, it's time. The time for deliberation is over.

[Michael Duncan]

The time for action we also have not had. We have not had, and I said this all day yesterday, we have not had a president that understands the power that they have, the leverage that they have, and actually uses it. They're all. Everybody's afraid to do that.

[Chris Lacivita]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

They rock the boat. Anytime you're talking about tariffs, all of the business community freaks out about. Except when you sit back and understand that American's leverage over the rest of the world is our economy, the size of our economy, the power of our economy, all of these things. So if you use it as leverage for the first time in 10 years, you can get people who are responsible for fentanyl coming into our country to actually pay attention to it. This isn't a fucking high tee. Like, we're very serious about doing it. That's what I love the most about the first couple of weeks of this presidency is he's like, like, no, no, no, you're going to listen to this.

[Chris Lacivita]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And you're, you're going to do something about it.

[Comfortably Smug]

It feels like a permanent campaign, you know, like the campaign was about maximum volume, maximum pressure, no free shots, which is a thing we always say.

[Chris Lacivita]

That's my people say. Why would, why did you say that? I'm like, no free shots. Yeah. You know, you take a shot at a, you know, incoming ambassador to the United States from England. Why'd you do that?

[Comfortably Smug]

But I feel like that, that's, that's informed.

[Chris Lacivita]

Free shots on goal.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's carried over now to the administration in a major way. You know, this, this strategy of sort of maximum pressure, do everything. There was like a school of thought in politics for, like, most of our careers where it was like, this is our message this week, and we're going to have the event and the rollout, infrastructure week, press, you know, strategy. And it's like, no, you can actually do multiple things and be successful. In fact, sometimes by enacting a bunch of things at the same time and exuding maximum pressure as the United States of America, you can get done.

[Chris Lacivita]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

They pay attention to it.

[Chris Lacivita]

Well, you know, and when you say that, you know, the permanent campaign look good politics has always made good policy. Just, you know, and I think the, the politicians that, that don't understand that or heed that are the ones that, you know, fade in obscurity. They never get anything done. You gotta be gutsy. I mean, look, look, what could they possibly do to him now? I mean, they tried to put him in jail. They tried to kill him. What? He has two shits to give, right? Except let's get this stuff done.

[Michael Duncan]

But also a basic understanding for the master's degree, understanding based on the first four years of the power and the limits of mass media distribution. Right. A media center that is entirely focused on and trying to undercut everything that you're doing by going outside of that and being able to talk directly to people, not just through the press conferences he's doing all the time. The things that you developed in, you know, during the course of the campaign, the maligning of characters and the maligning of intent falls away. Like it probably just doesn't have the same sort of meaning to a Trump administration than it would to be to somebody who just showed up on the scene.

[Chris Lacivita]

True, but doesn't mean, obviously that it still doesn't happen. I mean, look, look, you know what happened with, with ABC News. Yeah, right. I mean, I hate to say that.

[Michael Duncan]

They'Re building a presidential library, from what I understand.

[Chris Lacivita]

Yeah. I mean, but I mean, you know, they knew what was, you know, what was said that day. And, you know, there have been plenty. I mean, look, I had to deal with it on a campaign toward the end directly when, you know, an online publication, you know, decided to literally print defamatory, you know, comments about me, wrote a whole story about it, then did podcasts about it, actually.

[John Ashbrook]

So sick. They do this kind of garbage.

[Chris Lacivita]

Oh yeah. And, and you know, without, without, with this belief that there's not going to be any recourse. Well, you know, those days are long gone.

[Michael Duncan]

That's it.

[Chris Lacivita]

I mean, those, those things, those days are long gone. And, and you just can't do that, you know, that kind of thing anymore without there being, you know, serious consequences. And it's something I'm gonna live with and I'm gonna follow through with that much I can tell you. So, yeah, let me put a finer.

[Michael Duncan]

Point on that, cuz I don't want you to have to do that. But what happens when you can't beat a campaign or an operation is that the press, in conjunction with your activist left, basically try to take the head off the snake in campaigns. Like, you know, if you can't take the candidate out, Lord knows they've tried indictment 47 different indictments, nonsense, bullshit, you know, two assassination attempts, all kinds of different stuff. If none of that shit works, what they try to do is get as close to the inner circle as possible.

[Chris Lacivita]

Correct.

[Michael Duncan]

And lop the head off that way. Like I've been a victim of it over the years. Anybody who's gotten into a consequential position where they're actually doing damage to the left. Narrative control in this country has suffered it. Nobody more so than this guy to my right who, honestly, there was something was posed, like, this guy's a profiteer. He's profiteering off of the Trump campaign, which, for anybody who's ever read an FEC sheet, like, if you spent one minute around politics, you look at it and you know that that's a completely bullshit case. But if you know nothing and you're willing to just write anything, you're willing.

[John Ashbrook]

To lie about it.

[Chris Lacivita]

Well, not only do they. Not only did they do that, but then, you know, the. The lead writer went out and did a podcast and made it even worse.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

And. And it has an impact.

[Michael Duncan]

That's why they do it.

[Chris Lacivita]

Well, they don't do it because they.

[Michael Duncan]

Just don't like Chris La Savita.

[Chris Lacivita]

No, no, no. Yeah. The entire goal was, you know, I think it was to inflict maximum harm on the campaign, the candidate, myself.

[Michael Duncan]

Undermining morale. Undermining donor.

[Chris Lacivita]

Creating division. And, well, the donor confidence part too. You know, they, they wanted to think that the consultants were ripping off Donald Trump. Yeah. Right.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, good luck.

[Chris Lacivita]

I mean. Yeah, please. And, and, and, you know, when you've been in the business for as long As I have, 35 years, your most important commodity is your reputation.

[Michael Duncan]

Totally.

[Chris Lacivita]

Right. And so, so when, when, when you're dealing with a frontal assault on that, you have to deal with that. But at the same time, you can't allow to, you know, deviate. You can't take your eye off the ball, which is, you know, actually winning. And, you know, you're in the crunch time of a campaign and, you know, you've got, you know, it literally is to create chaos and division.

[Michael Duncan]

Try to take your eye off the ball. Well, trying to make you.

[Chris Lacivita]

Oh, yeah. And dry up the money. That, that, that is obviously, that the campaign is raising, that it's using to, you know, be effective. And of course, you know, with, with, you know, the Harris campaign raised, I think, what, two and a half billion dollars because they're literally running around saying, oh, we didn't have enough time to actually perfect our perfect campaign.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

Break. Right. I mean, it seems like the longer.

[Michael Duncan]

It went, the more imperfect it became.

[Chris Lacivita]

I mean, you know. Yeah. Given me six more weeks, the result would have been a whole lot, you know, probably even a wider margin, you know, so. But, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's part of modern campaigns. But that's got to stop now.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Chris Lacivita]

Yeah, that's Got to stop now. And it's not just for the people that are engaged in the process. And we've obviously seen the courts and we've seen, you know, people taking a different look, that, you know, maybe this is getting a little out of hand and it's sending a message, but, but at the same time, it's, it's actually good for the consumer. Right. The voter. You know, they've got to know that because right now they don't. I mean, the media has one of the lowest approval ratings of any institution, really, that's in existence. And, and they wonder why, you know, they're laying off. And I mean, if people just covered their news and left the editorial comment out of it and left the agenda out of it, of it. I mean, there are, I'm not going to name them, but there are publications in DC right now that, you know, are dealing with, you know, they're cleaning out people because they're not conforming to this one very leftist perspective. And, you know, those things have, those things have impact. But I dare to say that, that the most that you'll start seeing, I believe you'll actually start seeing because the pendulums move so far, you know, you're. If you're not, you know, behind it, you're in front of it. And, and that, that pendulum's got a blade on it. And right now, you know, at least from the media standpoint, I think people are, are getting the joke that they're going to have to at least try to be a little bit more objective in how they, you know, and how they portray things, because that's. At the end of the day, the American people don't want to be told. They just want to know. Right, Right. And there is a difference.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah, huge difference. We only have a couple minutes left. Chris, I imagine you're still talking to the boss.

[Chris Lacivita]

I don't disclose or talk about that stuff, but yes, I talked to a lot of people in administration. I will tell you, the boss left me this message, which I, of course, I saved because he left me a voicemail message and about something he wanted me to do on the fentanyl stuff and something that I'm working on and we'll be talking about in the not too distant future. But. And then, and, and he left it. It was Thanksgiving morning at 12:18am wow.

[Josh Holmes]

Guy does not stop working. Amazing.

[Chris Lacivita]

It's, it's a very detailed. Hey, Chris, it's your favorite president, I swear to God. And, and, and I look at it and I'm like, it's 12:18am My app ass was soundlessly, I was duck hunting that morning. So I was literally wiped out. And then I, and, but the first thing I say to myself is the one phone call I don't want to miss.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right.

[Chris Lacivita]

So I'm like, all right, I'll, I'll, I'll call him back Thanksgiving morning. So it's 9am I'm literally in the kitchen cooking my in laws breakfast because I'm good son in law. And he calls me 9:00. I'm like, hey, boss, did you get my voicemail message? I did. Did. Who'd you play it to? My in laws. It was so funny. It was great.

[Michael Duncan]

I thought you'd be watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day.

[Chris Lacivita]

No, no, no. Truth be told, it's in the background, but no one pays attention. But it was, it was, it was, it was quite amusing. But they're running at a million miles an hour and of course the inaugural was nuts. And you know, but, but, but, and that's the other thing. I mean, you know, you go straight from a campaign like that and in which we had prepared for that campaign to last 60 days longer. Right. Or three counts, and we had this amazing operation that, that I think we've really changed how, you know, Republicans, you know, wage their efforts. You know, the RNC was a phenomenal partner this cycle in doing that. And we're going to actually seek to codify a lot of those things that were done, you know, that we had come up with during the course of the year in terms of ballot integrity and ballot security, I mean, because Americans really care about that. And you know, you hear about stolen elections, you hear about these things that happen in other countries and people look at us as an example. And so we've got to obviously maintain the integrity of all that as well as the, you know, getting rid of all the bad apples that decided that, you know, the weaponization of the DOJ was a good thing. Yeah, right, right. So. And that changes perceptions on how people look at us around the world. But also it also gives despots and the bad guys around the world the opportunity to say, well, hell, if they can do it in America, then I can get away with it here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Chris Lacivita]

So the fact that, that President Trump won in the manner in which he did by not only winning the Electoral College, but winning the, the popular vote, has really given. I don't think people really understand the impact it's had worldwide. Just the sheer volume of calls and people that I've talked To not just here, but in other countries who are just like, wow. And it gives them that degree of hope. So, I mean, you know, the golden age isn't just a slogan. I think we're living it. But, but again, all of those gains that we made in the election, all of those voters, we don't own them.

[Michael Duncan]

No.

[Chris Lacivita]

We're merely renting them. And in order for us, at least from the Republican standpoint, for us to maintain, maintain that coalition and make that coalition more of a permanent part of the party, we have to accomplish what we said we're going to accomplish, which is something that the boss is keenly aware of, which is why he's in a hurry, which is why there's this shock and awe really, for lack of a better word, a term going on with, with, with, with what he wants to accomplish because we have a limited amount of time and we got to get these things done. And so I think that's being reflective in the speed in which they're doing things.

[John Ashbrook]

On that note, one thing I definitely wanted to add is not only do you have a point of pride of being a part of this election victory, but seeing the results of it. So I live in North Carolina, I'm a North Carolinian, and seeing JD Vance is there today. Yeah, we've seen the Army Corps of Engineers has just been deployed. They're going to work, they're helping the people there. The result of his election is not just a win for President Trump, but you're seeing right now the result of that. And you should feel a tremendous amount of pride for Americans are being helped right now, which shows in the case of western North Carolina, not only was it willful that they were being ignored by the Biden Harris administration, but now they're seeing that there's actual hope that someone is there who actually cares and is making a change for their lives for the better.

[Chris Lacivita]

It was a great thing to be a part of of. It's, you know, obviously the crowning achievement for me personally. And I've always told the president, I told the president, you know, I appreciated the opportunity just to be a part of it, really.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, well said thing.

[Chris Lacivita]

And you guys have been great. And I mean, look, we had a lot of friends, we had a handful of, of, of not so friends, but speed bumps, I mean, you know, that's, that's the nature of politics. But wouldn't be worth doing if it.

[Michael Duncan]

Wasn'T there to do it.

[Chris Lacivita]

That's 100. Nothing good comes.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, 100%. Well, listen, we've known each other for, gosh, almost 20 years. I can just tell you there's nobody that I felt more comfortable with, you and Susie running this campaign. Not only just the integrity of the campaign giving us the best shot to win, but also building a culture that allowed this president to do what it is that he was saying he wanted to do. And I think all that's coming to fruition. Can't thank you enough, not only for your friendship here to the program, but, like, what you've meant to our listeners and everybody else. You don't. I think you might understand, because, you know, this guy's a Italian with a healthy ego.

[Chris Lacivita]

But, like, you know, I get my politics from the Irish side.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm just saying I could appreciate that.

[Chris Lacivita]

I'm always looking for a fight I can appreciate, but there's anybody out there that. That doubts that, oh, don't doubt. Stand the body.

[Michael Duncan]

Thanks for everything. Really appreciate it.

[John Ashbrook]

Thank you so much.

[Chris Lacivita]

Thank you. Appreciate you, man.

[Josh Holmes]

I just love that guy. And anytime he wants to come back, I feel like we should have him back because he has so many stories that we weren't able to get into in the time that we had. And, you know, that he would love to tell him right here on the Ruthless Variety Program.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, entirely.

[John Ashbrook]

He's a man who's seen some shit and done some shit and always has a good story to tell.

[Michael Duncan]

He always has a good story, but he's just really good at what he does. And we've all been witness to that during the course of the Trump campaign. He's been doing it for 20 years plus before that. And it's just rare to find a guy with utmost integrity, knows what he's doing, is a leader of people that can get a big, unwieldy presidential campaign pointed in the right direction to accomplish incredible things for the American people. I'm so glad to be his friend. I'm glad he was here on the Variety Program. So we've got the question. And remember, this is like, we've got a big guy over here. He can get the questions right.

[John Ashbrook]

He can get it straight to the wall where he needs to be at.

[Michael Duncan]

White House correspondent John Ashbrook has got his ears on. He's listening to you, if you like, and subscribe and add right into that YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. What question would you like him to ask next at the White House briefing? We're gonna listen to it. It may very well happen. We'll read a bunch of different responses. Use some humor, too, because we like.

[John Ashbrook]

To Laugh here always works.

[Michael Duncan]

So if you got something, you know, there were some people who were like, like, I'm really, I'm really surprised you didn't ask about animal fighting. Yeah, like, what's the biggest animal that you, Carolyn Levitt, could take down with your bare hands? Because it's always been part of our questioning. That could work. You know, I mean, she may come on the program at some point.

[Comfortably Smug]

We might get an answer.

[Michael Duncan]

Answer on that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

So you just, you just hold out. People want to know, do all that with that. Thank you to all of you for listening. Thank you for your newcomers, of which there are several.

[John Ashbrook]

Welcome to party.

[Michael Duncan]

We appreciate it. We're gonna keep going here and having a lot of fun in the process. I think we did it, Smuth.

[John Ashbrook]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much. Chris Salvita, always welcome on the show and thank you so much to listeners. Remember, like and subscribe on YouTube if you have. Not yet. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.

[Unknown]

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