New Low: Democrats Will Try Anything to Stop Trump

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Summary

Episode Title: New Low: Democrats Will Try Anything to Stop Trump
Release Date: August 29, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan (absent this week), John Ashbrook
Theme: Next-generation conservative talk with “lighter analysis” on news, politics, culture, and the “lows” of Democratic party tactics, mixed with humor and notable guest interviews.

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Overview

This “Fun Time Friday” episode of Ruthless brings a high-energy, satirical analysis of current political news. The hosts dissect recent Democratic Party missteps (including a botched fight song and their approach to crime), media absurdities, and the finger-pointing at Republicans, especially Donald Trump. They also spotlight how the Trump administration is handling current challenges, especially on crime and domestic policy, and feature substantial interviews with Ambassador Monica Crowley (Chief of Protocol) and Secretary Brooke Rollins (Agriculture). The episode mixes biting commentary, memorable quotes, and audience interaction.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Democratic Party’s Recent “Theatrical” Missteps

• DNC’s Fight Song Flop
  • The hosts ridicule a hastily presented DNC fight song, calling it “cringe, absolute worst of the worst of the theater kids.”
    • Ashbrook: “It’s not like Democrats are like, oh, I appreciate Phantom of the Opera...they want to be the most cringe.” (03:08)
  • Lyrics lack a tune; confusion and awkwardness ensued at the event.
    • Smug: “There is no tune.” (04:58)
    • Josh: “I desperately want to know who it is that wrote this piece of poetry.” (05:27)
• Grassroots Disconnect
  • Mockery of elite DNC donor events at luxury resorts.
    • Josh: “$20 million plan...40 beta males sitting in the audience that...we don’t know.” (10:54)
    • Smug: “Hollywood folks have, like, wised up to that shit...I’m not gonna do it for free.” (11:36)

2. Media Critique and Left-Leaning Journalism

• Extended jabs at journalists Dave Weigel and Ben Smith for their liberal sympathies.
  • Holmes: “He’s had a pretty successful journalistic career, but now he’s working at Semaphore for your boy Ben Smith.” (00:00, repeated at 08:04)
  • Smug: “Another person who should be in jail. Honestly, Rico. Semaphore.” (08:11)
• Criticism of mainstream media groupthink via “JournoList” and coordinated Democrat narratives.
  • Ashbrook: “If you’re ever wondering why mainstream media seems to right [sic] everything Democrats say...what Josh just described is your reason.” (07:41)

3. Pro-Crime Messaging and Border Debates

• Mocked Democrats for defending criminal figures and prioritizing controversial causes.
  • The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia (alleged human trafficker).
    • Smug: “You can get this group of people to get dressed, make signs, and sing a song for a human trafficker.” (13:17)
    • Holmes: “It seems to me...you’re not gonna hitch your wagon to the most amount of liability that you can. And that’s where Democrats are right now. They’re pro crime.” (14:09)

4. Listener Interaction: Mental Health and Gun Control

• Emotional audience engagement regarding recent high-profile shootings and mental illness.
  • Need for more mental health facilities and recognition of societal/parental failures.
    • LC333 (comment read by Ashbrook): “Even if you seek help voluntarily, there’s no room in the very few available.” (19:25)
    • Holmes: “There are not enough facilities and enough treatment for folks to go around.” (19:53)
  • Critique of the left’s focus on gun control at the expense of institutional reform.

5. Trump Administration: Energy, Crime Policy, and Cabinet Unity

• Crime
  • D.C. crime drop highlighted as the result of federal action.
    • Holmes: “This 20 day period of this federal surge and last year represents an 87% reduction in carjackings in Washington D.C.” (52:43)
    • Smug: “Turns out when you say crime is illegal and you try to enforce the laws, carjackings go down by 87%.” (53:02)
• Cabinet Harmony
  • Praised the Trump team for unity and effectiveness.
    • Holmes: “It seems like everybody’s kind of rowing the boat in one direction. You can agree or disagree...but it seems like from a personal level.” (50:48)

6. Republican Convention as a Contrast to Democrats

• Trump proposes a Republican convention to outshine the DNC’s media spectacle.
  • Ashbrook: “Nobody puts on a show like our great president. He is the P.T. Barnum of our time.” (38:27)
  • Hosts emphasize the contrast: “Every time [Democrats] present themselves in public as a group, it is the most objectionable thing you’ve ever heard.” (37:11)

7. Media Clickbait and Cultural Hot Takes

• Satirical take on the Washington Post writing about Taylor Swift’s engagement as a sign of political/media decline.
  • Josh: “The editorial board wrote an editorial entitled why Taylor Swift’s Love Story Defies the Gravity of Spectacle.” (45:01)
  • Smug: “How is it that after Jen Rubin left, their editorial board got even more ridiculous?” (46:41)
• Jokes about cloning, clickbait history, and sensational media cycles.
  • Ashbrook: “Time magazine...in the 1990s headlined again and again stories about cloning...That was the original clickbait.” (47:14)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Democrat Messaging:

  • Ashbrook (re: DNC song): “It wasn’t Woody Guthrie.” (05:53)
  • Holmes: “Marketing is only part of what it is that we’ve done over the years. But marketing, it seems to me, you’re not gonna hitch your wagon to the most amount of liability that you can.” (14:09)

• On Media Absurdities:

  • Josh: “The Washington Post. Democracy dies in darkness. Editorial board: Why Taylor Swift’s love story defies the gravity of spectacle.” (46:04)

• On Crime:

  • Holmes: “When you improve the lives of the people who vote for you, it makes a difference. People think you’re doing a good job. It’s not that hard.” (53:49)

• On Cabinet Dynamic:

  • Smug: “That wide shot...This cabinet’s just like a murderer’s row. You’ve got, like, Burgum right next to Rubio, you’ve got Pete Hegseth right there.” (50:41)

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Guest Interviews

1. Ambassador Monica Crowley (Chief of Protocol)

[Timestamps: 31:11–35:28]

• Discusses high-profile diplomatic events, including organizing unprecedented simultaneous visits by multiple world leaders.
• Responsible for America 250 celebrations, FIFA World Cup, and LA Olympics planning.
• Monica Crowley (33:32): “I do believe it was unprecedented to have this many world leaders all come to the White House on the same day...and be in the Oval Office...”

2. Secretary Brooke Rollins (Agriculture)

[Timestamps: 60:01–66:17]

• Describes early action on food price inflation and aggressive reform at USDA.
• Detailed her efforts to “move most of the USDA headquarters out of Washington D.C. and back to the people” (63:02).
• Rollins (64:39): “The invasive DEI woke culture had basically submerged or subsumed every part of the government. It’s a hundred times worse than that.”
• Stresses the Trump administration’s “swing for the fences” ethos and lack of risk aversion.

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Important Timestamps

• DNC Fight Song Coverage: 03:08–05:53
• Kilmar Abrego Garcia Song/Pro-Crime Analysis: 12:31–16:46
• Audience Comments on Mental Health & Guns: 19:25–28:16
• Monica Crowley Interview: 31:11–35:28
• Republican Convention Discussion: 37:11–41:21
• Washington Post & Taylor Swift Editorial: 44:16–48:31
• D.C. Crime Drop and Federal Surge: 52:06–53:10
• Brooke Rollins Interview: 60:01–66:17

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Tone & Style

• The hosts combine irreverence, sharp satire, and serious points, often seamlessly transitioning between humor and more weighty topics.
• Language is direct, colloquial, and at times repeatedly uses “dude,” “bro,” and strong language for comedic/lampooning effect.

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Conclusion

A dynamic and wide-ranging episode: The Ruthless fellas use sharp wit and biting critique to expose what they see as “new lows” for Democrats and mainstream media, while championing Trump-era policies, administrative unity, and engaging seriously with issues like mental health and violent crime. The episode is anchored by two substantive interviews showcasing prominent women in the Trump administration, and peppered throughout with quotable lines and memorable, if sometimes caustic, analogies.

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Final Sign-Off
Comfortably Smug (67:15): “Absolute banger of an episode, gentlemen...Until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We’ll see you Tuesday. Stay ruthless.”

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

He's had a pretty successful journalistic career, but now he's working at Semaphore for your boy Ben Smith.

[Comfortably Smug]

Another person who should be in jail. Honestly, Rico. Semaphore. I mean, great point, Holmes.

[John Ashbrook]

That was the original clickbait. Time magazine was at the forefront, and the idea that the press is adopting something that was forced on them by Twitter is ludicrous.

[Josh Holmes]

I have some bad news for you, Ashbrook. Smug has been dead for years.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, make cloning real.

[John Ashbrook]

Hardworking Americans know when it's time to.

[Josh Holmes]

Roll up our sleeves and get the job done. Now is the time to unleash our nation's energy, to create jobs, secure our future, and make life better, more affordable, and full of opportunity for all Americans. That's the power of America's oil and natural gas. Learn [e-mail] paid for by the American Petroleum Instit.

[John Ashbrook]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.

[Comfortably Smug]

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

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Fun Time Friday. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. My name is Josh Holmes, along with Comfortably Smug and John Ashbrook. And it may seem like perhaps we buried Michael Duncan in the backyard because he hasn't been here, but he's still recovering. And I'll be honest with you, like, I know people are concerned. Don't be concerned. He's fine. It's just, like, he's getting well, and he doesn't want to do anything where he can't have some yucks. And so if he doesn't have some yucks, like, you know, he leaves it to us.

[John Ashbrook]

No, we do love old man Duncan.

[Josh Holmes]

We do. We love him with all of our heart. And he'll be back here next week. I don't know if he's gonna be back for the Labor Day thing, but he's definitely gonna be back next week, so don't worry about it. Listen, we're gonna have a fun time. Thank you for all of you bearing with us and really appreciate an incredible number of people tuning into yesterday's episode to talk about a very serious discussion which we had to do. And frankly, I couldn't do anything other than have that discussion because that was the only thing I could think about. But we're here to have fun today.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, Fun Time Friday.

[Josh Holmes]

Fun time Friday. So we're back in action, fellas. I don't know if you've noticed, but the Democrats, they have a bit of a theatrical component to what it is they do.

[Comfortably Smug]

Their parties run by theater kids now pretty much like, that's. That's their whole shtick.

[Josh Holmes]

Seems like it. Like, it definitely has always been a part. The underlying theme of the more feminine party in American politics. But this one is just incredible. They've got two new tunes out, and.

[John Ashbrook]

Can I just stop you right there? Because it's not like Democrats are like, oh, I appreciate Phantom of the Opera, or I appreciate the Broadway greats. They're like, no, we want to be the most cringe. Absolute worst of the worst of the theater, kids.

[Josh Holmes]

So, like, we've made fun of what is a Hank Johnson trying to repurpose, like, rock legends Jimi Hendrix and whatever else and try to, like, give new lyrics to it. And we find this completely hilarious. And I know you do, too, but this is different stuff. They've got. They've got a new fight song that they debuted at this DNC meeting this week. You guys are just not gonna believe it. Hold on. Let's just play that. Let's just play the song.

[Comfortably Smug]

So there's no audio.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, there's no audio. Wait, we have no audio.

[Comfortably Smug]

So. So Weigel put this. Dave Weigel, he was at their meeting, and they, like, hastily just put this on the screen because they're kind of ending the meeting in a hurry because, I mean, one of their supporters ended up shooting a school. So, yeah, they didn't really have time to, like, present this to the public. They're like, and this is gonna be our fight song. Just read it off the screen, and then everyone go home. It was, like, a chaotic situation to begin with. And also, there was confusion because I think most people remember Hillary Clinton's campaign theme song was fight Song, and all the celebrities sang it, and then she got smoked. It was hilarious, horrible.

[Josh Holmes]

So they're trying to recreate it, but they're doing it, like, at a very grassroots level. And the grassroots, in terms of songwriting means fucking terrible. And if you can. If you wouldn't mind, Jerry, just popping that back up one more time. It is D, E, and I don't know what the tune is. That's why I want.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, that's what makes it so confusing. There is no tune.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, I can only imagine. It's got to be acoustic at some level, because that's the only way they roll. But D, E, M, S, we rise stronger together Blue skies Lift your voice we're bold and true Onward Democrats we shine Blue.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, how is that even real?

[Josh Holmes]

I want to know. I want to know so many things about this one. I gotta have the tune. I gotta have it. If any of you listening to this can find anything, like, if it's a cell phone, recorded video, anything, send it to us immediately. We're gonna put it immediately on the air and credit you because I need to know the tune. Secondly, I desperately want to know who it is that wrote this piece of poetry.

[John Ashbrook]

It wasn't Woody Guthrie.

[Josh Holmes]

This is not Henry David Thoreau. This is. It wasn't Guthrie. It's so good. I mean, it's just so bad. So. But while they're doing all of that, you've got the DNC chair, you know, obviously, the horror. They interrupted the whole meeting, I guess, yesterday. Like, all of that stuff notwithstanding, this dude is grappling with all kinds of things that we've covered this week. And part of that is he brushed off concerns according to the semaphore. Semaphore. This is Dave Weigel, who was doing this. Right. Poor Dave Weigel. I mean, I've gone so back and forth on this cat. So there's.

[Comfortably Smug]

He should be in jail.

[Josh Holmes]

There's this.

[John Ashbrook]

I think here. I think he is very funny.

[Josh Holmes]

He's very funny.

[John Ashbrook]

I think he's very funny.

[Josh Holmes]

That's why I'm back and forth on him, because I appreciate his sense of humor. Now, do I think he's, like, left of center? Of course I do.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, that's just par for the course with mainstream media. But if you recall, this is the guy who was hired by the Washington Post to be the other conservative columnist with Jen Rubin, of all things. Right. This was the conservatives that they'd hired to try to provide a conservative perspective at the Washington Post.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And like, within months, he was a part of the journo list.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're all Obama supporters, and they're plying together how to support Obama.

[Josh Holmes]

And for those of you who don't know what we're talking about, there was a listserv that went out that was basically Democratic talking points that went to a whole bunch of Democratic operatives and also included more than a handful of journalists who dutifully wrote up whatever it was that they were talking about.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. And if you're ever wondering why mainstream media seems to right. Everything Democrats say, what Josh just described as your reason, well, it's alive in a well.

[Josh Holmes]

And no question about it, it just is not as public as it was back in 2010, I think is when this happened. He got in trouble for it. People expressed outrage. He got fired for being the conservative columnist. He's had a pretty successful journalistic career, but now he's working at semaphore. For your boy, Ben Smith, another person.

[Comfortably Smug]

Who should be in jail. Honestly, Rico Semaphore. I mean, great point, Holmes.

[John Ashbrook]

Ben's a smart guy, but I will hit me for it. But I think he's, I will say.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't, I don't agree with his takes often, but he's one of the funnier people in media. And that I appreciate good comedy, whether it comes from the left or right. Makes you laugh. Makes me laugh. And that guy's funny. He's, he's really, really good. Anyway, they send him for obvious reasons. You send a guy who gets comedy to a DNC meeting. And so he came up with the, like, he posted the song or whatever. And then he says Ken Martin brushed off concerns about GOP's fundraising advantage, telling the party's executive committee that Donald Trump has sold the government to the billionaires. What an amazing statement, given the fact that the actual billionaires are the ones that are entirely responsible for not only the Democratic party, but the 501C4 network of slush fund foreign investment stuff that supports everything it is that they do. Meanwhile, like, Republicans are raising money, 25 bucks a pop across the middle of the country. So a hilarious deal there. And then Martin vowed that the party was now bringing a bazooka to a knife fight.

[John Ashbrook]

The bazooka is the, the song. The bazooka is that lady saying, like, this time we're living in right now is worse than the pandemic. Yeah, that's, that's the bazooka.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the bazooka. Also feels like a 30 year dated description of a weapon of some destruction.

[John Ashbrook]

Right, right.

[Josh Holmes]

A bazooka. Anyway, he says they're, they're no longer going to play by the rules, quote, unquote. Oh, surprise, surprise.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, the Democratic Party's not going to play by the rules.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think it kind of felt like when I saw the discussion online about this whole the DNC meeting, it feels like the grassroots is not happy about it. Like, especially when this corny song got out there, like, the replies to it, I saw a lot more outrage coming from folks on the left than even Republicans dunking on it. Because they're like, what the hell is going on with these clowns? They're so out of, they're completely out of touch with the public in so many ways. I mean, those stories came out of how they were like all in their luxury resort trying to be like, how do we reach out to men in between, like, spa treatments?

[Josh Holmes]

No, it's like $20 million plan how to talk to men. And there's like 40 beta males sitting in the audience that are like, we don't know.

[Comfortably Smug]

Even from this Semaphore article, when we were talking about that song, it says a leader of the donation portal, Act Blue, shared a fight song that the party could adopt, putting its lyrics on screens so that the crowd could sing along. If the dude from Act Blue's up there, he was like, this is the fight song we've come up with. I'm like, well, where's the money going, bro? It's not going to anyone to write a song. Where's the money, Lebowski?

[Josh Holmes]

So bad.

[John Ashbrook]

Can they not find. I mean, every single songwriter in this country a Democrat? Could they not just find one?

[Comfortably Smug]

I think also the Hollywood folks have, like, wised up to that shit where they're like, I'm not going to do it for free. It was like, what Beyonce wanted, like a million dollars for the.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're having to pay now, and they're like, yeah, really? Raising money like we used to, guys.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally. Like, the last guy standing is Springsteen, who shows up once a cycle to give a concert for a losing campaign somewhere across the country.

[Comfortably Smug]

Again, another guy that should be in jail. It's like today's theme.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's possible to like the music without liking the message. There's no question about that. But they're not done on the musical front.

[Comfortably Smug]

No way.

[Josh Holmes]

In this one, we actually do have some audio and some video for those of you on YouTube, remember, like, and subscribe while you're there, but listen to this situation. Kill Marv is our neighbor.

[John Ashbrook]

You can't have him tr.

[Josh Holmes]

No, Kilmar is our neighbor. It's for real.

[John Ashbrook]

Everybody's wearing a pink vest, a pink fest.

[Josh Holmes]

And that is a song. If you couldn't make out the lyrics about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who they have adopted as, I guess, something of a folk hero in the Democratic Party.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, that is just such brain dead nonsense that we have seen video of this guy. Human trafficking, folks, and they're like, this guy's our neighbor. Like, what? You can't have him, Trump. Like, this is. I mean, we keep talking about how Democrats have become pro crime, like, openly, but it is still, to me, despite how many times I see these maniacs, absolutely shocking. It's shocking because every sane person understands you want to have a safe community for your family, for your friends, for yourself, and. And. And that you can get this group of people to. To get dressed, make signs, and sing A song for a human trafficker. It's like, dude, it's.

[Josh Holmes]

But not really.

[Comfortably Smug]

Just doesn't make sense.

[Josh Holmes]

Look, guy was investigated for domestic violence. He was never a citizen of Maryland. He never had a right to be in the United States. He was deported accordingly. And all of a sudden you had Chris Van Hollen, a senator from Massachusetts, go down and have a margarita with the guy and made him a cause celeb at some level. Now they're singing songs about him. I don't know about you guys. And look, marketing is only part of what it is that we've done over the years. But marketing, it seems to me, is like you're not gonna hit your wagon to the most amount of liability that you can. And that's where Democrats are right now. They're pro crime. They're open borders. When they see what they think is an injustice. It's not the kids that are shot in school or the, you know, victims of violent crime in cities throughout this country. What their real person they need to write songs about and put on pink vests and get in front of cameras over is an alleged human trafficker with a history of domestic violence who entered our country illegally that they need to go see in El Salvador. Like, that is the bottom line, isn't it, fellas?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's it right there.

[Josh Holmes]

That's it. But if you need. And I don't think we're being hyperbole.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, dude, that is all facts. It's insane.

[Josh Holmes]

Those are all facts.

[Comfortably Smug]

Believe, but it is all true.

[Josh Holmes]

But they're like, yes, this is the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Not only are they like, yes, this is the thing. They wrote a song. Jared, can we just. One more time, please, just to just kill Marvin.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, I'll say something. They clearly have the youth on their side.

[Josh Holmes]

Just nothing but full booms.

[John Ashbrook]

Nobody understand.

[Josh Holmes]

Just full booms. White as it could get. You don't see a single Hispanic anywhere in that situation, right?

[John Ashbrook]

And the conversation as I understand it, is that he is going to be deported to Uganda. And that is the home of the Democrats. New standard bearer, Zorin Mamdani.

[Comfortably Smug]

Maybe he'll live. Zoramdani.

[Josh Holmes]

And I don't know all the specific. I haven't read everything about it because frankly, the story's a little bit. Bores me now that it's like a few months old. And I'm like, all right, are we still talking about this cat? But remember, the big democratic push was like, you can't send him. If there's anywhere that you're going to send him and deport him. You can't send him to El Salvador because of rival gangs. Meanwhile, not a gang member. Oh yeah, not a gang member.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

But there are people that are trying to kill him because of his gang members.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's not a gang. It's just that rival gangs trying to kill him.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, just rival. Because that happens to normal individuals. There are rival gang members that want to kill you when you're not involved, affiliated with a gang. Anyway, that's what the main case was. Like how inhumane it was to send this guy to El Salvador. And they're like, he comes back here for human trafficking or whatever, they let him go. And the Trump administration's like, okay, how about Uganda? Yeah, we'll see if the new mayor of New York City's got anything. Any poll for this cat, right?

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, like that, send him to Uganda.

[Josh Holmes]

It's unbelievable. So anyway, when we come back, we've got more news, more yucks. Crime related and otherwise. You're going to love this stuff right after this.

[Comfortably Smug]

America is back. Thanks to President Trump and Leader John Thune's working family tax cuts. We stopped the biggest tax hike in history, but that's only the beginning. The big beautiful bill also cuts taxes on tips and overtime, secures the border, finishes the wall and protects Medicaid for Americans, not illegals. Leader Thune and Senate Republicans got President Trump's conservative agenda done, providing real relief for every hard working American that's up early and home late. We're bringing manufacturing jobs back home and making America great again. Tell Leader John Thune and Senate Republicans thank you for delivering President Trump's agenda. Learn more@one nationamerica.org.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so welcome back to the ruthless variety. Just a footnote here. In the next portion of this program, we also have some incredible interviews. Yeah, we're gonna get to the ambassador chief of protocol at the White House, Monica Crowley. You probably remember from her Fox News days, she's now doing an incredible job. We're gonna get to that after a couple of different segments, but definitely stay tuned because that's a good one. But we have our comments, right? And look, you know by now what we do is we ask you sincere questions. We actually want to know the answers. Like there are a lot of people, you do a show and you're like, hey, you know, comment on this. And it's like just an all an algorithmic thing. We actually learn stuff from you. We try to read every single one of them. We respond when we can, but we digest it and we pick stuff out. And obviously we had a tough show on Thursday. Tough topic, right? You know, it's personal for some of us. And, and we had a tough question. It was the, what's the conversation that America needs to be having right now after the shooting in Minneapolis? Like, what's the, the conversation you're not getting? Because inevitably after every single one of these, you have the, the predictable partisan response and everybody's just like, nothing to solve the problem. Just awful, awful. The left is just terrible on this stuff. And so we opened it up to you and your communities and the conversations that you want to have with you and your relatives and what we should be having as a country. To do that, we start with a voice.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, first one comes from LC333. LC writes, the conversation needs to be about solid, respectful investment in mental facilities. Currently, even if you seek help voluntarily, there is no room in the very few available. The wait to get in can be devastating. And this is a sincere, realistic need.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so good. I was unaware of this, but this commenter is right in that there are not enough facilities and enough treatment for folks to go around. And like, that's something we need to think about. You know, I mean, we all talked about this trans situation and that it seems to be an epidemic in that you have people who have distinctive and obvious mental health issues that everyone in the world can recognize. But we've now been treated as a society where it's like, no, it's to be celebrated and then nobody gets the help because it's seen as some kind of a courage in and of itself to be something that is quite obviously in need of mental health. And so I think that's a really good point. Something that we ought to talk about more anyway. Smug, what do we got for comment 2?

[Comfortably Smug]

Comment 2 comes from Martin Cull. And Martin writes, this young 23 year old man had no friends, no family, and was allowed to get not one gun, but several guns. How was his insanity not recognized? Who were his enablers? This is about failed society, failed government, failed families. Blaming guns is like blaming cars or alcohol for a drunk driver who kills innocent people. That's the thing is, I mean, in the aftermath of this, you know, we even saw the documentation of where his mother signed for to change his name to a woman name. And it's like, it's. And that he's taking photographs of all these weapons that he has in the house. It's like, what are the parents up to in this situation? Who all was an enabler and closing that loop for an individual to be able to, like, clearly have signs of mental distress in the House and then get armed and then be like, oh, well, I guess I'll just sign off on you changing your name.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I think it's pretty clear that Democrats gun policies do not work because they got what they wanted. That they celebrated in terms of a gun crackdown in the state of Minnesota under Governor Tim Walz, who was the vice presidential candidate under Kamala Harris. So this is a standard bearer for Democrats coming up with his ideas for what should happen and gun restrictions that didn't protect anybody. So I think that it's only natural to wonder what else can be done and to blow off what Democrats are suggesting.

[Josh Holmes]

I think that's right. The only other thing, and I agree with almost all of what Martin had to say here, but, you know, I had a sleepless night on Wednesday night, as I imagine a lot of parents around this country did, thinking about all kinds of different scenarios. And, I mean, it was just a tough night. So I read not all, probably three quarters of this psychos manifest. I just read three because I wanted to understand how nobody noticed. And it's more of a mystery after I read it than it is before I read it. Like, I don't. I don't know how somebody could be consumed with school shootings for 10 years and not have somebody say, hey, like, this guy's got a real unhealthy obsession at some level with killing children. But that is. That was what was evident, I will say, is that the analogy of cars or alcohol for a drunk driver who kills innocent people is not a good one because there is not a choice to kill people there. Right. It's reckless behavior, and it should be treated as reckless behavior. Endangered the lives of a lot of people. But it wasn't. There was no intent behind it. There was very clear intent on the killer in Minneapolis to do very real damage.

[John Ashbrook]

And he laid all of that out in the manifesto line by line, over.

[Josh Holmes]

A period of time. Over 100 pages.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's 100 pages.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, dude. I mean, it's all handwritten. Fucking gobbled. It's crazy. There was one hero online who, like, translated it so we could all again.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because, like, after the Nashville shooting, like, the authorities were like, hide it all away.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. But it was all out there. And so I was like, before it gets hidden away and before next week we're talking about tariffs or something, like, I want to know. I want to know everything there was to know. So I read it. And dude, there was no secrets to it. It's not like a drunk driver. This is somebody who had intent to kill children for multiple years over a period of time.

[John Ashbrook]

It's just disgusting.

[Josh Holmes]

Gotta have something to do with that. Anyway, our comment 3 is from N Dog. We must rebuild institutions. I'm sorry, but these people need serious help and need to be put into an institution, not just to protect them, but more importantly others. I'm with you on this. There was this move in the late 70s during the Carter administration that basically stigmatized anything that had to do with mental health facilities. They called them insane asylums prior to that. And there was this liberal move in this country that was like, these are not politic. Right. Like these, what they called asylums, what I would call like a mental health facility were. They fell out of favor because people were like, well, they just. We can't house people. They have done nothing wrong. They just, you know, we have to let them free. By the way, that's most of your homeless population right now.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

It's either drugs or it is a mental health institution. And that. That is the situation that we've got because they have got nowhere else to go an awful lot of ways. And we as a country have not grappled with a fall off from the late 70s in the reality that in any population, much less one that's 340 million people, you're gonna have a percentage. I don't know if it's 2 or 3%, but you're gonna have a percentage of people who are capable of really dangerous violent acts. And there's nothing you can do about it in today's society. Like, I think there's something they could have done about this Minneapolis killer in terms of reporting to the police an imminent threat. Certainly something that would have eliminated their ability to go purchase firearms for sure. By the way, the red flags and all the things that people are talking about in terms of legisl. It was all in effect, people act as though there's nothing that's happened on gun control. This is an area where there's been more gun control efforts than anywhere else on the planet, like outside of like New York and D.C. i mean, it's. It's not a zero tolerance, but it's certainly something close to that. And red flags didn't do a goddamn thing about it. So, like, there is something that you could have done in this situation. But I think the larger point is when someone is clearly mentally unstable, you're talking about somebody who wants to change their gender, regrets Changing their gender, which as the New York Post reported was in that manifesto where they were like, I can't believe I did this type stuff. Which is a common thematic.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep, it's very frequent. You see that in studies that were done. There was again, I keep forgetting, I think it was Harvard who conducted that study where they had. For years they studied transgender individuals. They found that high degree of suicidal tendencies. And then they found that among the group that had received gender surgery and hormone hormones, it did not change the suicide and it actually increased the suicidal tendency. Because there is a very common reaction where they realize, wait a minute, I was told that all of my problems are because I was the wrong gender.

[Josh Holmes]

Because I was a man trapped in a women's body. And it's like, well, that didn't do the trick.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

So what, what else do I have? Maybe violence, you know, and like, it's just too often. How do you not come to grips with that? I mean, this is the conversation that we had yesterday that you all were along board for is that you've got to have honest conversations about that. And that's. Look, it's an important thing. We're not going to dwell on it because we already covered it. But I will say you spent our White House correspondent, ruthless White House correspondent, recall that he was featured in the Wall Street Journal, many other publications as being the first podcaster to ask a question at the White House briefing. Well, the White House is offered to bring you back. And you spent some time there this week.

[John Ashbrook]

I did. And I spent time there on Tuesday of the week, which was the day of the President's cabinet meeting. And it was actually the longest cabinet meeting in the history of our country. Some people said that, oh no, Andrew Jackson had a longer cabinet meeting in the 1800s. But I questioned the timekeepers in the 1800s. I don't think their clocks were as advanced as our clocks are today. I think that this president who goes non stop seven days a week on Tuesday, had the longest cabinet meeting in history. And fortunately they invited the Ruthless Variety program to come in and talk to some of the people who are working there on a variety of issues. You know, they're very focused on labor. There's a big movement in the Republican Party to make sure that we're helping working people because our party is now actually the party of working people. And they have so, so many influential and talented people in this administration who our president has hired to actually put them first. And one of the great things about our president that I don't think gets enough credit is his ability to surround himself with the most talented people. And I would be willing to say, fellas, the chief among them is Monica Crowley. Wow, that's high praise, dude. I mean, I talked to her and in just like a couple of minutes, I was like, man, I can tell why this woman has the job that she has, because her responsibility as Chief of protocol and there comes with the title of ambassador, a really big title, but it also has a really big set of responsibilities. And you'll hear it in the interview, everything that she's required to do. And you know, over the last couple of years, weeks, what this president has done in terms of bringing the European leaders in, in terms of trying to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, the Alaska summit, Monica Crowley has been right at the center of that. And then she also talks a little bit about the America 250 celebration and everything that's on the horizon in 2026.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't wait.

[John Ashbrook]

Very, very lucky to have Ambassador Monica Crowley with us. She's the Chief of Protocol for the United States of America and she's got a lot of work ahead of her Planning for America 250. But I was hoping to start with everything that you've done over the last couple of weeks. A lot of European leaders in here. And I think you were also in Alaska. Right?

[Monica Crowley]

Well, first of all, it's great to be with you. Thank you so much for having me, especially on this glorious day. Great to be here. Yes. President Trump is superhuman in terms of his energy and his strength. And so the rest of us are just struggling to catch up. What we had over the last couple of weeks has been extraordinary in terms of President Trump's interactions with world leaders. First, over the last week or week and a half, we had the president visit Alaska, of course, to engage with President Putin to try to find a viable path to peace. So we traveled to Alaska for that meeting, that was an all day meeting. And then we boarded Air Force One to come back to Washington to. And we were flying into the evening. President Trump was on the phone for the hours that we were on board, coming back home to D.C. and at about 2:00am Eastern time, we get word further back on Air Force One that we will have President Zelensky at 1pm on Monday. So we literally had 36 hours to put together a visit by another head of state, President Zelensky, but not just him. We had an additional seven either heads of state, heads of government, or heads of major European institutions like the European Commission. This is what we do we scrambled over the next 36 hours? I certainly did not sleep, but I'm very blessed with an extraordinary team as well. We all work very, very well together, including with the White House, to make these kinds of events happen. And it's our role at Protocol to make sure that we are creating the kind of environment that is most conducive and welcoming to world leaders, their delegations, but also conducive to the most robust, effective diplomacy possible for both sides.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, and you talk about effective diplomacy, you talk about the great energy that our President has. I can't imagine putting this stuff together in 36 hours. I wonder, has it ever been done before having that many European and world leaders sitting in front of the desk in the Oval Office?

[Monica Crowley]

Well, they say it's never been done before like that. I mean, certainly there are summits like G7 or G20 where they have years to prepare for this kind of event. We had 36 hours to prepare for it. And I do believe it was unprecedented to have this many world leaders all come to the White House on the same day and then be in the Oval Office with the President together.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it's a really big job you have once held by the famous Shirley Temple, as I understand. And you have a lot of responsibilities, not just with foreign leaders and not just with planning those sorts of trips, but also with the America 250 celebration. And there's so much going on over the next two or three years. I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about that.

[Monica Crowley]

Yes. Well, I'm very blessed to not just have the protocol portfolio, but the President also announced me as his administration's representative for these major US hosted events, including America 250, the FIFA World cup and the 2028 Olympic Games, which will take place in Los Angeles, which the President heroically brought to America in his first term.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Monica Crowley]

And the President has often said this, that in retrospect, 2020, as horrible as it was, had to happen that way so that he could be President now to preside over these extraordinary events. So, yes, we are planning America 250 and I want to encourage everybody to visit America250.org we have big national events planned. We just had Army 250. We're going to be celebrating this fall Navy 250 and Marine Corps 250. And then going into next year, we have all kinds of incredible things planned. So america250.org is one step. Shop for everybody to find out what's going on nationally, but also all 50 states will be celebrating America's 250th birthday. So you can go there and find out what's happening in your neck of the woods. We're so excited about the next year of celebration.

[John Ashbrook]

Pretty exciting stuff. Ambassador Crowley, thank you for being with us today.

[Monica Crowley]

My pleasure.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you. Our nation is standing up for American workers, restoring the pride of making products here at home.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what we do every day.

[Josh Holmes]

We're America's beverage companies, making American products with American workers in America's hometowns, delivering brands that have been enjoyed for generations, creating good paying jobs, the kind that require only a strong work ethic because we believe in the promise of America.

[John Ashbrook]

And the people who make it great.

[Josh Holmes]

What a great interview, buddy. A good opportunity. I'm glad that they invited you to go do that. Monica Crowley has been a friend of the program and somebody that we've admired for a long time. She's doing a hell of a job. Yeah, it's. I mean, also she's in charge of like the Olympics and stuff.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah. We're very lucky that she's doing it because there's nobody who is more dedicated to the details and will get it right.

[Josh Holmes]

She is, too. It's so great. All right, are you guys ready for a little bit of variety?

[Comfortably Smug]

Always.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay. So you recall early this week, one of the things that came out of the DNC convention was they're like, we're going to have a mini midterm convention, which I'm in favor. I hope Democrats have hugely the biggest convention in the history of the world. Because every single time that they present themselves in public as a group, it is the most objectionable thing you've ever heard. If every American was actually privy to the conversation that the DNC had this very week at their annual meeting, you would never vote Democrat ever.

[Comfortably Smug]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. I mean, this is like the craziest time capsule. Bizarre behavior. Like you wonder what the information flow is at some level. Like, how is it that these people can think what they. It was like, oh, double down on dei. People love that we want in on that. Yeah. You know, we do have that Michigan problem. So let's make, let's make sure that we have the pro Hamas constituency taken care of. Crime. Well, we can't be with Trump on eliminating crime, so we'll call it something else and we're going to get to that in a bit. But like, every single thing that they talked about was in a 25% or less constituency within the general electorate of America. So Trump sees this and of Course, it's like the PT Born of our time. Greatest showman on the political stage of my lifetime. And it's not close. He sees that and he's like, that's a great idea. We should have the same thing, and we'll go back to back with it. So he comes up with an idea, saying, in that light, I'm thinking of recommending a national convention of the Republican Party just prior to the midterms. What a wonderful contrast.

[John Ashbrook]

Brilliant.

[Josh Holmes]

Wouldn't that be fantastic?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, it's absolutely brilliant. I mean, nobody puts on a show like our great president. And I think you said it right. I think he is the P.T. barnum of our time. I think that this guy entertains in a way that people have wanted for a very long time.

[Josh Holmes]

I just want. I want to make sure that ruthless variety program has the same real estate.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I want to be at the convention because it's always a terrific time. But also, it does. Like, every convention Trump has had did such a great job of focusing the party on one mission of like, okay, everybody, focus up. We need to win. This gets everyone on the same page, and just. And everyone has a great time. It makes our party look so great. It looks. All of our policy positions seem like common sense and brings more people. I remember we're at the last convention, and I was seeing the reaction it was getting online every night on tv, because you have, like, normal people who aren't as politically engaged as our listeners as us who are tuning into a convention, and they're like, wow, right? So I guess they're just the normal people. That's just their whole thing.

[John Ashbrook]

This is the great genius of Trump, is that he gives and he gives voice to people who are shut out by the mainstream press. He had all of these working people who were given the stage people.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so funny. I mean, I'm glad you brought this up, because you think of, like, the two conventions of last year, but then you think of, like, any sort of gathering of Democrats, whether it was the convention or anything else. The convention for Republicans last year clearly came in the backdrop of Butler, which is an emotional moment. Everybody was sort of rallying around at that time. But he also led night one with a union activist that some of us, myself included, find many of their ideas completely objectionable, like, antithetical to everything that I believe in. But they were part of the coalition. They were willing to have a conversation. They were willing to address a Republican National Convention, and their ideas were accepted, maybe disagreed with at some level, or agreed with in others, but they're part of the thing. And, like, you go to the Democratic side and it's like, all right, we're just going to confiscate any wealth that we deem to be excessive. Government is going to centrally plan your lifestyle for you. By the way, trans are the most valuable commodity that we all have. And so, of course, sports and everything else is totally on the table. The rest of these people are trying to kill you. And, like, line by line, I don't care what it is that you care about. They found a position on each one of those and had a speaker associated with it that was in the 25% or less.

[John Ashbrook]

That's exactly right. And if you look at the people who were speaking at the Democrat convention, they were the elite politicians who are sitting behind the scenes trying to manipulate your lives because they know better than you.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the modern Democratic Party. When they're trying. What they're trying to do by being more provocative is to try to, at some point, compensate for Barack Obama's salesmanship. That's what it is. Like, if you look back on the 2004 speech, the Red state, blue state, whatever, there's not an American in the world that could disagree with what it was that he was saying, what the riff was that he was saying. Everybody's like, wow, that's really impressive. Even if you're weren't going to vote Democrat, you're like, wow, that's. That's good stuff. But because he could sell it and then, like, as evidenced by his presidency, nationalize health care all of a sudden, turn us into a, like, racially divisive country and, like, push all kinds of policies that were negative towards our country. Because you could sell the big thing. They have nobody who can sell the big thing. So they have to focus on the divisive components that Barack Obama actually did rather than the things that he actually talked about. And that's, like, the trick in politics, right? I mean, Democrats have done this forever. Like, Bill Clinton is a good example of that. Although he did some moderate things, but he was somebody who, like, you could relate to at some level, never really got into what it was that they were talking about.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think they've completely abandoned that approach. And interestingly enough, Obama himself, I saw the other day, he tweeted out this article, and he said that President Trump sending National Guard out to fight crime is an example of authoritarianism. Yeah, dude, you've lost. I mean, like, it is really incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

Imagine coming out opposed to solving a crime problem. I Don't care what it takes. Does anybody? Anybody listening to this? Do you care what it takes to solve a crime? It's crime, for fuck's sakes.

[Comfortably Smug]

His whole biography part, I mean, straight up, is the foundation of it. He's like, well, you know, I grew up on the south side of Chicago, which was dangerous. And that's why it's amazing that I made it. And it's like, okay, so you don't want anyone on the south side to be safe. You're kicking the ladder down behind you like, yo, I made it out of there. I got like a billion dollars lined up for my library. If you're still there, you're fucked.

[Josh Holmes]

Good.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's like, I signed my Netflix deal. I'll see you guys in hell.

[Josh Holmes]

Honestly, dude, he doesn't care. He doesn't.

[John Ashbrook]

He does.

[Josh Holmes]

He doesn't. Anyway, so we mentioned the Taylor Swift thing. And by the way, I got a lot of blowback online because I said the biggest gender divide in American politics was how you receive wedding announcements, which I still believe is true at some level. But we have an awful lot of ruthless variety program listeners, women who are like, I don't give a about Taylor Swift.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, interesting.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. They weren't happy about it. They were like, no, no, none of my girlfriends care about this. Which I thought was interesting because, you know, like, I mean, you're always silent a little bit, but our immediate surroundings, everybody was like, oh, my God, what a ring look like?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And so that was like a huge gender divine. Well, anyway, the Washington Post wants to get in on this because they're just like, it's basically like today's version of what became of Newsweek or Time. Like when you stopped publishing a magazine, you just wanted the clickbait so you could sell some advertising and pay the staff. And they're like, how do we get in on this? The Washington Post editorial board, and I'm not making this up.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is the editorial board?

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, my God. It was.

[Josh Holmes]

The editorial board wrote an editorial entitled why Taylor Swift's Love Story Defies the Gravity of Spectacle.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, what, what are we doing here?

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, we were told, look, mere months ago, there was a whole bunch of resignations from longtime contributors to the editorial board, none of which we particularly agreed with any form or fashion. So we were happy to kind of see them go at some level, but they were told directly like, well, this editorial board is going to be focused on capitalism, on market based economy, on like objective truth democracy, like objective truths that represent America, because we're Covering the capital city. And, like, this is what we're going to. They're like, oh, how can you do that? It's a racist. And whatever. And then you see this.

[Comfortably Smug]

Do we get the graphic of it up there? So this is what's so hilarious to me.

[Josh Holmes]

So ring is.

[Comfortably Smug]

We know the Washington Post. It's still there. So it says, the Washington Post. Democracy dies in darkness. Editorial board. Why Taylor Swift's love story defies their copies.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so. It's just so good. So they go through this whole thing where they're talking about, like, how this is the closest thing we have to the royals. It was basically our conversation that we had yesterday about how it's like a. A bizarre sort of gender divide of, like, royal weddings and stuff that none of us particularly care about, but there's an awful lot of women that do. Well, they're going to capitalize with some clicky clicks.

[Comfortably Smug]

How is it that after Jen Rubin left, their editorial board got even more ridiculous?

[Josh Holmes]

Like, that's an accomplishment, dude. It really is.

[John Ashbrook]

I do want to take issue with one thing, and that's this idea that the mainstream media has just now woken up to. Clickbait like that. Because they're writing a Taylor Swift story. The Washington Post. Post is like, we're adopting this new modern rage in clickbait.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay. Time magazine in the 1990s headlined over and over again stories about cloning. You remember this?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

The front of Time magazine, Cloning. What's the moral question about cloning? How are we. Like, they gave you the impression that science was advanced to the point where you were gonna be sitting in a classroom next to a clone if they didn't get to the bottom of the story. And, like, I don't know about you, I've never met a clone. I mean, that was in the 90s. This is like, we're talking 30 years ago that they were writing these stories. That was the original clickbait. Time magazine was at the forefront. And the idea that the press is adopting something that was forced on them by Twitter is ludicrous.

[Josh Holmes]

I have some bad news for you. Ashbrook Smug has been dead for years. Dude.

[Comfortably Smug]

Make cloning real, dude. I was hearing that, and I was like, number one, we've already talked about this.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, you would do it in a heartbeat.

[Comfortably Smug]

Not for myself. I want. I want mammoths that we could hunt.

[Josh Holmes]

Mammoths. Oh, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I want T. Rexes from Helicopter. So here's the thing is, like, all.

[Josh Holmes]

These tiktoks with the vestigial.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Like, the arms of a T. Rex, I bet, are better than chicken wings. Guarantee it. And I'd want to hunt them from helicopters like you could hell a hog. But what about a T. Rex? You know, like shooting a T. Rex down.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Be good.

[John Ashbrook]

Time magazine told us 30 years ago that was possible. They misled us.

[Josh Holmes]

They also gave us the whole acid rain thing, too. I remember the COVID of that bad boy.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

This is going to be. This was like a global warming before it was global warming. First of all was global cooling, and then it was acid rain before it was global warning. Like, they were like, oh, acid rain is going to kill everything. No crops are going to exist.

[John Ashbrook]

They've been doing this for ages.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, it's true. It's true. Although it's only a matter of time before they start printing stories, like, online, people say, you know, where they report out a story that's based upon, like, what people on X are saying. I can't wait for that. Okay, so you mentioned the Cabinet meeting that you were at. One of the, I think, most underappreciated elements of this because the Rubio comment that he had about being a Labor Day and, like, it's so extraordinary. Yeah. Because I'm, you know, I have four jobs, whatever, that stole the. The show. And everybody led with the news on that. Here's an underappreciated one I didn't know until a day later because the clips didn't make their way around, so. Good clip 2. This thing about people getting married on Saturdays during college football season is a scourge, Mr. President. It's divided families. I don't know if we can have an executive order on this. It's insane, but it's really difficult. There's, you know, seven other months of.

[John Ashbrook]

The year that people can get married.

[Josh Holmes]

So I just wanted to say that because Very, very difficult. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you. This is a policy proposal that the ruthless Variety program can get behind.

[John Ashbrook]

Absolutely.

[Josh Holmes]

An executive order banning weddings during college football season. I mean, I just. Dude, he's just. He's firing on all cylinders.

[Comfortably Smug]

Rubio's on fire. I mean, he's been not only in terms of professional, like, knocking out crisis after crisis after crisis. He's gone and saved American hostages, brought them back from overseas, handling so many things. The Secretary of State has nine other jobs. Yeah. And then he still is able to, like, crack a joke. And then when you got that wide shot, it's like, this cabinet's just like a murderer's row. You've got, like, burgum right next to Rubio, you've got Pete Hegseth right there.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what the most important part is? Seem to like each other. Yeah, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, that really helps with the teamwork. That helps with the team.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, I mean, look, we've been around a while, Republican or Democrat, there's always like a little click of a third and a third and a third. Some people get along with others. It doesn't seem so. No, here it seems like everybody's kind of rowing the boat in one direction. You can agree or disagree with what it is they came up with. And there are elements, obviously where you have disagreement. And I'm sure they have full throated debates internally. But it seems like from a personal level.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep. And the results speak for themselves.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's really good. All right, so we talked about last week and a little bit this week you mentioned in relation to the Minneapolis shooting, like, wouldn't it be nice if you had a Democrat who had a little bit of a Sister Soja moment saying, like, we need help and if Donald Trump is willing to offer some help, perhaps that's a good thing. Right. They would never be reelected. And we talked about that or whatever. Well, the D.C. mayor wasn't out of her own choice because of the White House's ability based on federal jurisdiction of D.C. in order to come in and crack down on crime. But she's now had 10 days for two weeks to observe the results of it. Check out what she says.

[Brooke Rollins]

The federal surge has had a significant increase on crime in Washington D.C. and.

[Josh Holmes]

We greatly appreciate the surge of officers.

[John Ashbrook]

That enhance what MPD has been able to do in this city.

[Brooke Rollins]

The most significant thing that we are.

[John Ashbrook]

Highlighting today is the area of crime.

[Brooke Rollins]

That was most troubling for us in 2023.

[John Ashbrook]

Now, the difference between this period, this.

[Josh Holmes]

20 day period of this federal surge and last year represents a 87% reduction in carjackings in Washington D.C. holy shit. Were those facts?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's impressive.

[Josh Holmes]

Was that. Were those facts?

[John Ashbrook]

Unreal.

[Comfortably Smug]

Turns out when you say crime is illegal and you try to enforce the laws, carjackings go down by 87%.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm gonna give Bowser credit. I'm gonna give Bowser credit. Like, look, this is the same mayor that decided to allocate an enormous amount of government resources to, to paint and repaint Black Lives Matter Avenue over and over again following the death of George Floyd before they decided to tear it up. So there's. She's not without fault, you know where her constituency lies on all of that. But in terms of crime, she's willing to say to a camera with a microphone in front of her face what the result was of what Donald Trump has been helping them to do. That's a thing.

[John Ashbrook]

It is. And the results are unmistakable.

[Josh Holmes]

Note Democratic mayors throughout the country. I understand that nobody wants to do anything with Donald Trump. I understand your constituency. But when you improve the lives of the people who vote for you, it makes a difference. People think you're doing a good job. It's not that hard. You don't actually have to create an argument not to do it. Good job. Right, Right. It's incredible. All right, so the last piece on this before we get our to our interview, Carolyn Levitt addressed what Trump was talking about earlier in the week as it relates to fat. So isn't that what, what does Trump call him?

[John Ashbrook]

Big slob.

[Josh Holmes]

Slob.

[Comfortably Smug]

Straight up.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Family pushed him out of the business.

[Josh Holmes]

Governor Fatso.

[Comfortably Smug]

That must have been a heavy lift.

[Josh Holmes]

Dordomo Pritzker, a heavy lift. Could work there, pal. In Illinois. Anyway, he's made a big show of the fact that he's that, no, we're not going to. Despite the fact that his like literally capital city looks like Mogadishu. He's like, we're not dealing with all that. Anyway, here's what she has to say.

[Brooke Rollins]

Clip for as for Chicago and cracking down on crime, it is a priority of this administration to ensure that American cities are safe again. And I'm so glad that you brought up the crime in Chicago because we've been seeing the governor of Illinois parading out there saying that there's nothing wrong with Chicago. It's a great place to live. There's no crime there. He doesn't need President Trump's help. Well, I think the residents of Chicago beg to differ and the statistics beg to differ. And this is Governor Pritzker's legacy. He should put politics aside. He should pick up the phone and call this president who would be more than happy to do right by law abiding American residents in the city of Chicago. And we hope that he will.

[Josh Holmes]

She's good, dude.

[John Ashbrook]

She's just very, very good.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a succinct encapsulation of the actual argument that's what you want out of a press secretary. But it's a thing that everyone, every objective person around this country would need to hear. I think we've talked about it a lot. If there's something you can do about crime, why don't you do it right?

[Comfortably Smug]

And it's very Helpful that she's extremely straightforward and, like, surgical.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

When she delivers the message. Because, you know, we have to deal conservatives, with a media that is beyond hostile. They will openly lie. Like, I saw, it was ABC News last, the other night said this killer had Donald Trump's name written on his gun. Which the killer wrote, I want to kill Donald Trump on their gun.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they said.

[Comfortably Smug]

But the ABC News is like, no, it said, donald Trump on his gun. Like, conservatives have to deal with that level of dishonesty from the press. So you've got Caroline Levitt, who can just formulate the argument, deliver it. Straightforward precision.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the first time that I actually have had confidence in an administration to tell the real story. Yeah, right. I mean, we talked about the Nashville thing, and as it relates to the Minneapolis thing, the similarities with the trans shooter and all that went away. We never saw a manifesto or any sort of further discussion if it was a white supremacist, as we had in, like, Buffalo or somewhere like that. You had, like, three weeks of coverage of the motivations and then speculated about whether or not Donald Trump was responsible for it and that kind of thing. And then you get the other side of the coin. It becomes inconsistent, convenient for a mainstream media, and so they ignore it. And you saw it in all the coverage of the Minneapolis shooting, like, nobody said trans. In fact, many headlines, the New York Times used pronouns that were the preferred pronouns of the alleged killer.

[Comfortably Smug]

The New York Times straight up said, it's impossible to know her motives, her motive.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's just.

[Comfortably Smug]

They really did.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they really did. So that's what you're up against. And when you have somebody like Carolyn Levitt or a Trump administration, you have comfort in knowing that you're actually going to have a full conversation. That's not advocacy for one ideological point of view. You know what I mean? That's. Look, dude, there is many things over the 10 years in the Donald Trump era of politics that I've been like, ah, that's not my favorite stuff. These last eight months, I've felt more comfortable about the leadership of this country than I've been in any era of my lifetime. Because, you know, they're not going to brush that shit under the rug.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, there's no. There's no free shots.

[Josh Holmes]

You're gonna have a real conversation. She's having a real conversation. You're not allowed for the governor of Illinois to be like, yeah, we have no crime here. Oh, really? You have the highest crime statistics of anywhere in the organized world. Let's talk about why it is that you don't want to do anything about it. And that's the national conversation. It makes a big difference.

[Comfortably Smug]

Huge, Huge.

[Josh Holmes]

It really does. Anyway, so we've got an interview the second of your White House. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Fellas, last year at this time we were being lectured over and over again by the mainstream media about how Donald Trump is going to put his thumb on women in this country. And what we all knew at the time is what we're witnessing today after we just heard from Caroline Levitt, one of the most accomplished, talented women in this country, who is the spokesperson for the administration. Earlier in this show we heard from Monica Crowley, also supremely accomplished, supremely talented. We're about to hear from Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture and is so smart. She's actually, I think one of the most powerful members of this president's cabinet and she's a woman. One year ago @ this time we were told this wasn't possible. But here we have the triumph of talent in Brooke Rollins. We are very, very lucky to have Secretary Brooke Rollins with us today who is doing so much work on the heels of, of what was probably the longest cabinet meeting in history.

[Brooke Rollins]

It has been confirmed the last there was a three hour and I think ten minute one in 1830 or something. So yeah, we are just, we're all part of history today, everybody.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, it's incredible. And you got off to such a fast start. You know, this president made so many promises about how he was going to bring prices down. And I know at the very beginning of the term egg prices were up because of Biden. You dug right in and you started working on it right away. I to wanted I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about what you did and how that happened.

[Brooke Rollins]

It's funny and the President still talks about it seven months later, which is so kind. But yeah, he when I was first egg prices were up 237%. When the President took over in January of this year, I was sworn in I think February 13th and one of the first things he said was Brooke, I am getting like people are blaming me. They can't buy eggs. And eggs of course a low cost source of protein, especially for maybe the lower income families that can't afford a ten dollar carton of eggs. Not many of us can. So we immediately got to work within a couple of days had a five point plan put together. We rolled it out I think a week later and very, very aggressive pushing back on avian bird flu, which was one of the drivers pushing back on over regulation under the Biden administration. They just put too many cost drivers on a lot of our ag producers and our layers and poultry especially putting some money into investments and looking to see what we can potentially do and then importing some eggs from overseas. And it's so funny that the price immediately started coming down. And I think it's a, it's really reflective of the larger Trump sort of approach, his cabinet, his leadership. If there's a problem, we have been equipped and empowered to swing for the fences and go fix it. Don't worry about what the media is going to say. Don't worry about next week if someone's going to be mad at you. Just do what you think is right. And in other administrations, Republican and Democrat, just politics in general, there's such a kind of an anti body effect. There's everyone's so risk averse, everyone. And I've been in this for a long time. There is no risk aversion from Donald Trump. And so whether it's that or whether it's international affairs and seeing how he's dealing with all these peace agreements, but also the strike on Iran, whether it's the immediate securing of the border, whether it's the one big beautiful bill, I mean the list that was in there, no one thought our side would ever be able to get even a third of that done. And it's all in there. So I just couldn't be more proud. Four and a half hours is a long time. But you're sitting in the room where Abraham Lincoln sat and thought about how to, how to save the union. You're sitting in the room where, you know, Roosevelt and all these great leaders sat and thought about how to save America, what world peace needed to be. And it's just, it's very inspiring to be a part of the team.

[John Ashbrook]

It is. And you are making a lot of changes in your department. I mean, you are breaking down a lot of these barriers. A lot of the old bureaucracy, a lot of the old ways. You are just moving out. You're even talking about moving parts of the department out to the America where regular people are living. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that.

[Brooke Rollins]

Well, it's funny, I announced it, big announcement, right. We're going to move most of the USDA headquarters out of Washington D.C. and back to the people. We're going to Missouri, Indianapolis, North Carolina, Utah and Colorado. And different headquarters of USDA is massive but different mission areas go to different parts. And you would have thought, and it wasn't just Democrats, I had Republicans on the Hill. I call them the uniparty. Well what do you mean you can't move this, this and that to North Carolina or Utah? I say, well of course I can. This is the President's vision for this country. And the federal government by any measure has gotten so big and so out of control. And listen, the Democrats may not agree with it that are on the Hill, but even the average, I'll say moderate Democrat voter who's now coming to the Republican side would say that this is not okay. The government is way out of control. Well, the way we solved that is to drain the swamp which he's been talking about for 10 years. And we didn't quite know how to do it in the first term. When I was here we sort of were putting plans in place and testing things. But now we had the four year pause. We prepared almost like it was a war situation. How do we return the power to the people? How do we get back to the self governance that our founders envisioned when they fought when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton when they were setting up this government 249 years ago. This is a revolution and we're in the middle of it and we have to effectuate if we're going to save this country.

[John Ashbrook]

One of the ways you're doing that is making sure you have the best people possible working for you in your department. I know that you've broken down a lot of the DEI barriers that were set up in the last term.

[Brooke Rollins]

Yeah, it is as bad as you and your viewers may have thought or think that the invasive DEI woke culture had basically submerged or subsumed every part of the government. It's a hundred times worse than that. And I think it's just the way our government is set up where you've got a team that comes in for two or four years and then they leave and another team that comes in. Even if it's our side and even if it's well in intentioned, it's never enough time unless you're given an opportunity like us, which is we were here the first time, we had a four year break and now we're here again. You never have the time to really get in and root out that corruption and corrosiveness. And what Biden did, he took what was already a very broken government and he doubled down on it. He took that IRA money, that inflation reduction money and he put it into every corner of USD, which is what I know he was giving farmers loans based on the color of their skin. He had a thousand DEI, 1000 DEI trainings that I canceled within a thousand. What in the world is happening? The money that was going through USDA to spend on green New Deal climate things to support their friends that basically would be used against us and again, against freedom. Every day we're still uncovering more. But I feel so good and I'm so grateful to Doge. They have been such great partners in this, too.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, you're doing a lot of great work. I can't wait to keep in touch. And I can't wait to keep talking about the stuff that you're doing. Thank you so much for spending some time with us.

[Brooke Rollins]

Oh, so glad. And y' all come to my office and we can do a little bit longer.

[John Ashbrook]

Love to do it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, whatever.

[Brooke Rollins]

Thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you. I mean, incredibly impressive again. Thrilling to be able to sit there and talk with somebody like Secretary Rollins over a whole bunch of things, and he's got, like, Swalwell and all those idiot idiots out there trying to, like, denigrate her or whatever. She's obviously, for anybody who wants to listen to her, extremely well qualified.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, no, no, there's no doubt. And we're very lucky that she's in the job that she's in.

[Josh Holmes]

That's so good. It's so good. Listen, we've had a hell of a week. Ups and downs, fellas. I mean, look, we ride along with you as the audience is. There are a lot of gears to life, and there are some days you take a little differently than others, and you want to deal with things a little differently in others. And we probably didn't envision Thursday's show being what it was. But I hope you had a good time with us here on Friday. A couple of really important interviews. Some yucks along the way with that, fellows. I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much, Ambassador Crowley. Thank you so much, Secretary Lawtons, and thank you to the listener. Remember, if you have not yet subscribe to the YouTube, it's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you Tuesday. Stay ruthless.