The Future of Trump's Agenda in Congress

Summary

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Ruthless Podcast: "The Future of Trump's Agenda in Congress"

Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, John Ashbrook, Michael Duncan (absent this episode)
Date: September 2, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this post-Labor Day episode, the Ruthless crew dives into "five things to watch" as Congress returns for a consequential legislative fall in President Trump's second term. The team provides their trademark irreverent conservative analysis on high-stakes developments: Trump administration nominations gridlock, the possibility of a government shutdown, the contentious National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), ongoing Russia-Ukraine negotiations, and Middle East peace efforts. Notably, the episode features interviews with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and chief economist Kevin Hassett about Trump policy impacts. Interspersed throughout are lighter segments, including a deep-dive into the business woes of Hooters and wild animal encounters.

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Main Topics and Key Discussion Points

1. The Trump Nominations Blockade in the Senate

[06:57-21:40]

• Summary:
  The hosts lament the unprecedented slow pace of confirmations for Trump’s senior-level nominees, attributing the bottleneck squarely on Senate Democrats, particularly Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

• Key Points:

  • Only 135 out of over 1,000 Trump nominees have been confirmed (Josh Holmes, 08:23).
  • Unlike past bipartisan cooperation, Democrats are refusing to provide even the required bipartisan nominees for certain commissions (John Ashbrook, 11:32).
  • Technical explanation of Senate rules: any senator can require up to 30 hours of debate per nominee, dragging out the process for potentially 15 years if applied to every appointee (Josh Holmes, 09:31–10:36).
  • Republicans consider, but are split on, using the "nuclear option" to change the Senate rules and speed confirmations, wary after previous backfires on Democrats (Josh Holmes/John Ashbrook, 18:09–21:12).

• Notable Quote:

  "Only 135 of President Trump's more than 1,000 senior level appointments have been approved so far."
  — Josh Holmes, [08:23]

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2. Government Shutdown Likelihood

[21:40–28:46]

• Summary:
  The hosts see a government shutdown in the fall as highly likely, blaming infighting among Democrats and progressive pressure on Schumer. They argue that the frequent shutdown drama is now “an annual tradition” but that progressive activists want Schumer to take a harder line, raising the odds further.

• Key Points:

  • Schumer is constrained by past party pressures and risks from the progressive “Hamas caucus”—host’s term for the left-wing of the Democratic Party.
  • Democrats, the hosts claim, repeatedly "move the goalposts" and are unwilling to bargain in good faith (John Ashbrook, 24:46).
  • Senator Chris Murphy is positioning himself to challenge Schumer by stoking progressive anger and calling the congressional process “illegal” (John Ashbrook, 28:06).

• Notable Quotes:

  "They're moving the goalposts. They'll continue to move the goalposts...the government might shut down, probably will shut down. And it's because Democrats don't care."
  — John Ashbrook, [24:46]

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3. National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Battles

[28:46–34:10]

• Summary:
  Once a reliably bipartisan annual bill, NDAA passage is now threatened by “poison pill” amendments from Democrats, according to the hosts. Main areas of projected breakdown: provisions on transgender service, abortion policies for troops abroad, and diversity initiatives.

• Key Points:

  • House and Senate versions elevate China deterrence and domestic military manufacturing.
  • Hosts claim Democrats are driving partisan conflict, using NDAA as leverage over niche social issues, threatening national defense consensus.

• Notable Quotes:

  "[NDAA] used to be super bipartisan… If this breaks down, it’ll be things like trans in the military, abortion provisions in bases overseas… Niche issues that Democrats care about… Stupid shit that has nothing to do with protecting you and your family."
  — Josh Holmes, [31:22]

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4. Russia-Ukraine Negotiations

[34:10–38:06]

• Summary:
  White House optimism signals negotiations are closer to ending the war than the media reports. Trump, the hosts claim, is showing unique foreign policy leadership, both with Putin and EU partners.

• Key Points:

  • Trump is engaging directly; process is ongoing with both sides.
  • Stakes are high: if Ukraine “wins too much,” Russia may escalate with “something more significant,” potentially nuclear.
  • Sharp critique of Biden's approach as weak and disengaged; the hosts credit Trump for taking responsibility upon inheriting the conflict.

• Notable Quotes:

  "It’s just so obvious…this is a problem Donald Trump did not want to inherit, but when he inherited it, he took responsibility for it…they question his motives."
  — Josh Holmes, [37:29]

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5. Middle East Peace Initiatives & Israel-Hamas

[38:06–42:57]

• Summary:
  The hosts highlight upcoming diplomatic maneuvering at the UN with Israeli PM Netanyahu and possible Israel-Syria security agreements. They draw a direct line to Trump’s Abraham Accords legacy, predicting further consequential breakthroughs.

• Key Points:

  • Progressive and global left politics complicate US diplomacy ("Michigan problem" = Democratic voter bloc critical of Israel).
  • Trump could secure an “Abraham Accords 2.0” involving Saudi Arabia and other regional players.
  • Emphasis on Trump’s ability to get deals done and shift regional dynamics.

• Notable Quotes:

  "If this super uncomfortable for the region conflict can resolve itself…do not be surprised if…the last two years of this administration provides an Abraham Accords 2.0."
  — Josh Holmes, [41:19]

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Interview Highlights

Chris Wright, Secretary of Energy

[43:00–46:49]

• Summary:
  Wright details aggressive Trump administration moves to deregulate and expand American energy, especially natural gas exports. He touts U.S. economic and security benefits.

• Key Points:

  • End to LNG export pause—Trump admin now expanding natural gas exports at record pace.
  • Administration focusing on all sources: “oil, gas, coal are 82% of US energy today.”
  • Regulatory rollbacks to reduce energy costs and boost US competitiveness.

• Notable Quotes:

  “We permitted more capacity to export natural gas in the first eight months of this than any other country has export capacity…Great for our allies, for national security, great economically for the United States.”
  — Chris Wright, [44:54]

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Kevin Hassett, Chief Economist

[63:08–66:41]

• Summary:
  Hassett, the architect of Trump’s tax overhaul, lauds “big beautiful bill” for personal income growth, rising wages, and a return to blue-collar, native-born hiring.

• Key Points:

  • Post-2017 tax cuts led to $6,500 average wage jump; predicts further $10,000 gains in coming years.
  • Factory construction, job creation, and wage increases accelerating post-tax reform.
  • Decline in non-native jobholding, rise in native-born employment as higher wages pull Americans off sidelines.

• Notable Quotes:

  “You’re gonna see a massive increase in wages, reduction in unemployment…because of the explosion into activity following the big beautiful bill.”
  — Kevin Hassett, [64:46]
  “Non native-born workers…employment has declined by about half a million and native born workers…up by about 2 million.”
  — Kevin Hassett, [65:29]

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Senate obstruction:

  “There are all these boards and commissions that…by statute…[must contain] Democratic or Republican nominees. What Schumer has not done is provided a single Democrat to be a part of these. He’s walked away from that process…They refuse to work with this guy. Absolutely refuse.”
  — John Ashbrook, [11:32]

• On government dysfunction:

  “Functioning government is part of [what’s being undermined].”
  — John Ashbrook, [13:43]

• On media and leftward Democratic pressure:

  “Chuck Schumer will likely shut the government down in September, not because of…tax credits or protecting a constituency…[but to] cover his ass with the progressive left that called for him to bait it in March.”
  — Josh Holmes, [26:14]

• Casually hilarious:

  “When it comes to building ships…war fighters need…we’re focusing on making sure those jobs and those plants are here in the country. And Democrats will try to fight that tooth and nail…with their stupid little pet issues they try to poison the well.”
  — Comfortably Smug, [32:01]

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Variety Segments & Cultural Commentary

The Hooters Bankruptcy Saga

[46:53–54:38]

• Summary:
  The hosts delight in the Wall Street Journal’s deep-dive into Hooters’ bankruptcy, split branding battle (“family-friendly” vs. “sex appeal”), and increasingly absurd private equity-driven business decisions.
• Memorable Quotes:

  “Apparently in this case, private equity was like, ‘No, we need you to look like strippers.’”
  — Comfortably Smug, [49:18]
  “We’re Hooters girls, and no, we’re not on the menu.”
  — Hooters owner clip, [51:22]

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Animal Kingdom Mayhem

• Giraffe vs. Boar:

  • The panel reacts to viral animal attack footage, discussing natural animal aggression and joking about devising new “variety program” solutions to animal problems.
  • “Animal kingdom does what it wants to do. It doesn’t care what the Disney adults want to see on a day to day basis.”
    — John Ashbrook, [56:29]

• Raccoon Menace Solutions:

  • Wry tips on raccoon removal (“banana pool” method), with macabre humor about animal control bureaucracy.
  • “Raccoons will tear you to shreds. It will kill your dog…”
    — John Ashbrook, [58:04]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [06:57] – Trump nomination battle begins
• [21:40] – Government shutdown forecast
• [28:46] – NDAA battles and defense priorities
• [34:10] – Russia-Ukraine negotiations
• [38:06] – Middle East, Israel-Hamas, Abraham Accords 2.0
• [43:00] – Chris Wright (Energy Secretary) interview
• [46:53] – Hooters bankruptcy saga
• [55:03] – Giraffe vs. Boar animal segment
• [56:48] – Raccoon menace solutions
• [62:46] – Kevin Hassett (Economist) interview
• [68:08] – Closing remarks and sign-off

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Tone, Language, and Format

• Style: Irreverent, combative, and dense with inside political references and gallows humor.
• Format: Segmented into policy topics, high-profile interviews, and lighthearted riffing on cultural news.
• Notables: Memorable quips, direct language, in-group slang (“big beautiful bill,” “banana pool,” “own the libs”), and anti-Democrat sentiment woven throughout.

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For Listeners: Why It Matters

This episode is essential listening for conservatives wanting to understand the tactical and political state of play as Congress returns, the challenges facing the Trump White House, and the behind-the-scenes shenanigans driving headlines (or, as the hosts frame it, the “dysfunction” of the Democratic Party). With direct insight from top policy officials and an ability to both skewer and inform, it’s a signature "Ruthless" blend of substance, snark, and satire.

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Transcript

[John Ashbrook]

That not only do the Democrats take the opposite position of Trump under every single 80, 20 issue, but also in the mechanics of government. They refuse to work with this guy.

[Josh Holmes]

This four year term from President Trump could be known as the most consequential foreign policy term of any president in my lifetime. But it's right there. He's pursuing stuff that could absolutely codify that 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 and the people who make it great.

[John Ashbrook]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Comfortably Smug]

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

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Good Tuesday to you. Welcome to the fall, ladies and gentlemen. The summer is dead and gone. Right, Smug.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's right. It's over.

[Josh Holmes]

It's over. So we're back to work. Everybody's back to work. We never stopped, by the way.

[Comfortably Smug]

Never.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm Josh Holmes, along with Comfortably Smug and John Ashbrook. Michael Duncan. This will be the last day that he's out. I can, I can assure everyone he's fine.

[John Ashbrook]

Fine.

[Josh Holmes]

Everything's good. Memo to Karen Duncan, who I know listens and is very concerned about these kind of things. We've seen him. He's quite well. He's quite well. He just needs to, you know, get back into full form. He wants some yucks, and so we're gonna give him some yucks. He'll be back on next episode. But we've got a very big episode for you because we get into the thrust of fall work. Everybody's kind of refocused. Kids are back in school. There's some things with Congress coming back. We're gonna give you five. Yeah, five things that you need to pay attention to. They're gonna happen to you from this federal government in one form or fashion that they are grappling with. And these are the things you need to look for. We're gonna amplify a little bit about that and give you a little bit of the political debate, what to expect. And it's gonna be a fun episode. Then we got some variety. We got some good interviews. You got a couple interviews?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. No, no. Two outstanding interviews from this administration. Chris Wright, the Secretary of energy, and Kevin Hassett, the top economist in our government.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and there's nothing you'd rather focus on in his post Labor Day than the economy. And energy is a huge component to it.

[John Ashbrook]

That's exactly right. And Chris Wright is the man for the moment. There's so much about our economy that needs more energy. The last four years of Joe Biden were absolutely terrible for American energy. Now that President Trump is in charge, he has put his guys on the fucking moment and said, you have to expand energy. I don't care what it is, we need more. These data centers need energy. If we're gonna compete with China, we have to be able to fuel it. And the costs are coming down in the process. So I can't wait till everybody gets to hear what Chris Wright has to say.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it. It's great stuff and we're gonna have some yucks in the process. The first thing that we wanna cover. Let me just give you the five. Right. We're going to deal with Trump nominations. I know this has been a source of frustration for many conservatives out there. We're going to give you the context as to where things sit and where they go from here. Second thing, government shutdown. The only thing that you're going to read in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press, all the shitty, like, local scrub publications, it would be like, government shutdown, government shutdown. As if this is not something that we've dealt with in perpetuity in my entire lifetime. But that is a real thing. And Democrats are basically in a really rough spot that we're going to walk through here shortly. Ndaa, that's the National Defense Authorization, which provides authorization for the defense of our nation. It's something that there has been rare bipartisanship over, well, the entire history of America right up until like the last couple of years where, you know, believe it or not, Democrats not terribly concerned about it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Surprising, isn't it?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. If it doesn't have like a, a trans carve out, we're not interested. I mean, I mean, I wish I was. I wish I was like making that up.

[John Ashbrook]

They've lost their minds.

[Josh Holmes]

They've lost their, their minds. And like you get like a mark, Millie. Like, oh, well, we have to do some like DEI components and all these other things. And they're like, well, no, we'll go to the mat and shut the government write down no defense for this country unless you have it within yourself to make sure that our trans community is feeling safe on the front lines. Which is, I mean, listen, we're not exaggerating that. I think we got a little bit of an upper hand on that, but we're going to cover that. We, Russia, Ukraine, recall over the summer, really important meetings. You had Trump in Alaska with Putin, and then you had the entire European Union and the Prime Minister of England that were in the Oval Office talking about the importance of trying to bring that war to an end. I give Trump a hell of a lot of credit just for getting in the discussion. There is no political capital to be gained by solving the world's problems. You only do it when you understand that you're the leader of the free world, which this president uniquely understands. Joe Biden didn't care for it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Nope.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. So he's in the middle of it. There's gonna be probably some action this fall on that. We're gonna give you a little preview. And then the Middle east, continued problems. I mean, you could say this since the beginning of time, but the Israel, Hamas conflict, does it resolve itself? What is the body politic? Where's the Democratic Party? Because anything that this country does, United States of America, in terms of trying to bring that conflict to a close, relies on Democrats setting aside their quote, unquote, Michigan problem, which, of course, is the Hamas caucus within the Democratic Party that they've gone out of their way to try to ameliorate. Right. I mean, it's why the governor of Pennsylvania wasn't on the ticket last year.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. Big problem for them.

[Josh Holmes]

So it's a complicated thing, but it's worth talking about. We're gonna get to all of those things, and we're gonna start with the nominations component. There was a Wall Street Journal op Ed that was written by the majority whip. Whip, which, by the way, Brasso hasn't been on here, has he?

[John Ashbrook]

We need to get him. He's a doctor. And I know that Duncan has ankle problems, he has knee problems. He's an orthopedic surgeon. And I think that he could actually help bring Duncan back.

[Josh Holmes]

We need.

[Comfortably Smug]

We need him not to save Duncan's life.

[Josh Holmes]

We need him not for his political prognostications or his guidance of the government. We need him for the orthopod component.

[John Ashbrook]

That's exactly right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Please save Duncan.

[Josh Holmes]

Make sure his joints are in working order. He's an old man. He's an old man. Well, anyway, he wrote an op ed that I thought was pretty instructive. That lays the groundwork for an awful lot of things. And then we're gonna get to the frustration that's been expressed online and I think a lot amongst our audience and Constituency in terms of the pace of play, ensuring that Donald J. Trump has the administration that he deserves. So this is entitled Chuck Schumer's unprecedented blockade. Only 135. This is Barrasso. Only 135 of President Trump's more than 1,000 senior level appointments have been approved so far.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's an outrage.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. And this is like the thing that everybody seized upon when they talked about August recess. We'll get that to a minute. But that's like the crux of the issue. The Senate confirmed most nominees quickly by voice vote or unanimous consent. For past presidents, 98% for George H.W. bush, 90% for, for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama had 90%. 65% for Trump's first term, 57 for Biden. But under Trump's second term, none have been confirmed. And the reason this matters. So this is like technical, but this is one of the reasons why you listen to the ruthless Friday program, having worked in the bowels of government. If you're gonna have a vote on something in the United States Senate, it's not just simply the Majority leader walks to the floor and says, we're vote on something. They set the agenda for sure. But there are a bunch of different tools that draw out the debate. Anybody can object to a vote, at which point it triggers 30 hours, meaning you waste two calendar days.

[Comfortably Smug]

Are you for real?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah. And then like we did away Harry Reid, thankfully to our benefit, he did it to himself, gave away the filibuster where he made all of these things confirmable at a 51 vote margin versus a 60. And we jammed it up his ass with a two by four, including with Supreme Court nominees. But that's the process. So you can understand when you have more than a thousand senior level appointments that are in need of confirmation by the United States Senate. We did the math at one point when we were working in the Majority leader's office where you could draw out every single nominee that required confirmation. Not seeking like replacement level stuff, which is done all the time over a period of years. Like you need to confirm different people, but just the base level of people who needed confirmation votes. 15 years.

[Comfortably Smug]

Are you for real?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

No, it's like you would be way outside.

[Josh Holmes]

You would be through a two term president elected in 2028, right before you could get Donald Trump stuff, if you didn't have some acquiescence under Senate rules.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

By the minority, in this case, Chuck Schumer.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. And one of the things that makes the system work is a minority that actually is interested in the government doing what it's supposed to be doing. And there's an aspect to nominations that really nobody talks about, which is that there are all these boards and commissions that have seats set aside for both parties. So in other words, by statute.

[Josh Holmes]

By statute, it's not like a Republican is cucking out or a Democrat is. Is giving something to Republicans. By statute, they have to be Democratic or Republican nominees.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. And in the past, what has happened is if Republicans are in charge, the Democrat says, okay, here are some Democrats that I would submit that I would like to see on these commissions. And there's usually a trade involved. What Schumer has not done is provided a single Democrat to be a part of these. He is. He has walked away from that process. And so that is further evidence that. That not only do the Democrats take the opposite position of Trump under every single 80, 20 issue, but also in the mechanics of government. They refuse to work with this guy. Absolutely refuse.

[Josh Holmes]

This is a good lesson for an awful lot of people, because detriment. Hardworking Americans know when it's time to 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 Institute. So for most minority parties, you look at a problem like that and you think of. Because that's what you're elected to do, what's in the best interest of my country. Because honestly, that's what you're doing here. And whether you agree with the results of the American people in their election or not, you want your country's government to be fully functional. And so what's happened over, you know, the entirety of the American existence is that you have a minority party that understands that. And that's the stats that I read off. Like, 90% of people get confirmed unanimously, and they just try to get these people in these seats. This has changed in recent years. And Democrats are abusing this to a point where, like, quite obviously, they don't give a shit. They don't care whether or not there's anybody working for you.

[John Ashbrook]

They don't. And I don't think anybody should be surprised because this is consistent with what they're doing with their politics. They are supporting violent crime. They are supporting every 20% side of every 80, 20 issue in the country and functioning Government is part of that.

[Comfortably Smug]

So to pause real quick to be clear, from my understanding, so you can have 51 Republicans on board with confirming this person for this job. And then the Democrats can one by one be like, I demand a 30 hour debate.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Comfortably Smug]

I like one after the other 30 hours. Then 30 hours. Then 30 hours. Yeah, 30 hours. They can do that for every nomination.

[Josh Holmes]

They can do that forever.

[Comfortably Smug]

Even if you've got the 51 Republicans, no matter what. That's ridiculous.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Which is why you come to these accommodations historically, that you work out like.

[Comfortably Smug]

Pretty quickly, commission thing.

[Josh Holmes]

But listen to some of these things. Right. The undersecretary for nuclear security.

[Comfortably Smug]

That seems like you need someone there.

[Josh Holmes]

At the Energy Department, ambassadors to key North Atlantic treaty organizations. These are NATO countries, by the way. NATO. You sit down with Donald Trump, you agree to double and then quadruple your commitment that Donald Trump asked for. And you can't send anybody other than the president.

[John Ashbrook]

United States Democrats don't care.

[Josh Holmes]

They don't care. Right. The Commerce Department's Undersecretary for Intellectual property is another pretty good one.

[John Ashbrook]

Democrats don't care.

[Josh Holmes]

They don't care. It turns out that the rest of the world is reliant upon our commitment to intellectual property. And it turns out that is a core of what President Trump is trying to accomplish with China. Right. The intellectual property of the United States. But you don't have anybody representing you there because, you know, let's just burn clock and the Central Intelligence Agencies Inspector General. I can't imagine that there is something in this day and age, after everything we've found out about the deep state and the intel agencies and everything else, a more important position than somebody who's watching the checkbook of a bunch of career intelligence folks and where they're spending your money.

[John Ashbrook]

Democrats do not care.

[Josh Holmes]

They do not care. So anyway, the other lesson that we learned was McConnell always said to me like the three most important words in the English language are cash on hand. Right. But the second thing he said in terms of governing the United States Senate. Time. It's time. Because the nature of the Senate is beholden upon giving the minority rights. It's why it's different from the House, why it should always be different from the House. But this is abuse to the point where we may have to do something about it, but it's time. If you can control the clock, you can control how much forward progress an opposing administration makes on a domestic agenda in a lot of different ways. McConnell did this fabulously in that he just like stymied Obama for eight years on not being able to accomplish what it is that he wanted to accomplish because he would just slow walk into all of these things. They would burn clock, they would do all these things. Then of course we all know about the Supreme Court and everything else, but he was really, really good at it. And I think over a period of time, Democrats got wise to this. Chuck Schumer ham handedly tried to adopt some of this, but in a much less deft way. Because McConnell always understood that you needed people to do their jobs. Like the America is vulnerable. When you don't have people doing defense, when you don't have people doing intelligence stuff, when you don't have senior advisors to the president. Like he understood that. Like you may disagree with them, but it's like you need your personnel at some level. And so there was always trades and give offs and whatever. This guy, not so much like Schumer, doesn't give a shit. He's just like straight up blockading this stuff.

[John Ashbrook]

And the truth of it is he's been in the Senate long enough to know how the place works, but the guy has been in the job for 40 years or whatever, and now he's found himself as a lieutenant to Zoran Mamdani. So there is nothing that he can do.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep. So anyway, where we're at is for this is according to Barraso, again, for decades, non controversial nominees move through the Senate in timely manner. Democrats destroyed this tradition by treating every Trump nominee as controversial. And according to semaphore, Republicans prepare to go nuclear for Trump picks. All right, so the nuclear thing is like a very inside jargon. We always called it the nuclear option because this dates all the way back to 2005, when Democrats decided to invent a filibuster for judicial nominees. Now Harry Reid got rid of it and we jammed it up their ass. But that's what's the shorthand for changing the rules of the Senate. They call it nuclear every single time. Doesn't matter what the rule is, it's nuclear. That's what they call it. So Trump expressed a lot of frustration, clearly and rightly so, about all of this stuff. And you saw a fair amount of online activists take up the cause. You know, there were people in my mind unfairly blaming Thune for this. Not much Thune can do. Like you got to do the big beauty. You got to do a whole bunch of other stuff. But people who are passed out of committees of jurisdiction with like a unanimous vote were being objected to on the floor. So you Couldn't like pass a tax bill because if you dealt with all those nominees one by one, there'd be no floor time to actually deal with the domestic agenda of the Trump administration, which, thank God, got done in a timely manner. So there were people suggesting that, you know, like, don't do August recess or whatever. And it seems to me like Senate Republicans in particular are in a bind over that issue in that their hands are tied. They want to get this stuff done, but they also know that they have to do things like turn the lights on in the Capitol with the government shutdown thing. So they got, they have to figure out a different way. And what Burgess Everett, who's a good reporter, he was a politico for a long time. We saw him the other night. We did good, dude. And he fairly covered us when we were under the dome. He understands an awful lot of it. But what he talks about is Republicans are still unprepared to change the chambers rules unilaterally to quicken the pace of, of confirming Trump's picks. Republicans are planning to discuss the impasse next week as soon as they return from Washington. So as you're listening to this, they're talking about it. Whether or not they're going to change rules. Now, this is not lightly done.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And there's a, there are some institutionalists still in the Senate who don't believe that you should give anything away for the same reason all the admonitions of Harry Reid, we're done. Like, don't change your rules, cuz Republicans will figure out how to jam that up your ass. Well, sure enough, everything that Harry Reid did did not work out for the liberal left.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

So Republicans are wary about that. So they talk about it anyway. They're talking about it right now. And it seems to me like there is at least an equal odds chance that they do something about it. Right, Johnny?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, no, it seems, it sure seems like it. And your point about them talking about it right now as you're listening to it is exactly right. I mean, they, they are meeting and they are coming up with a way forward. And so you need to watch the news for the developments on that.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so next topic, government shutdown.

[Comfortably Smug]

There we go.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, this is a thing I like. You're a consumer of political news. Like, how many times do we have to have this discussion?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I mean, at this point it's like it doesn't really carry the same weight because now it's just like, here we go, annual tradition, you know.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's Pathetic.

[Josh Holmes]

It really is. I think what makes this one a little bit different. So the way this works for those of you who aren't educated in the, in the sort of bowels of it, is that you have to pass all these appropriation bills in a fiscal year, in the fiscal year ends September 30th. If you don't do that, the government shuts down at some level. And it's an annual tradition. No, they never do it.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's gotten sold well.

[Josh Holmes]

Plus it's like impossible to do these things. They're just, nobody agrees on anything. And it's just, it's, it's one of the primary dysfunctions of a federal government. Anyway, this is happening again. But the wrinkle here, if you recall, and you are a longtime listener, you remember back in March where they had all of the work that Joe Biden, the Democrats didn't do. Right. They didn't ever fund the government. They did CRS and whatever. They spent all of your money on a party line basis, but they never actually negotiated with Republicans about any sensible policy whatsoever.

[John Ashbrook]

Of course not.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. So they left all that to Donald Trump. And Donald Trump wisely decided with the speaker of the House and the majority leader to have a reduced number of spending that they would just sort of kick until the end of September, but not get into like the line by line of, of all that smart play, in my view, Chuck Schumer got crushed. He, I think, also wisely deduced that shutting the government down in the first 60 days of a new administration where he's got a 55% approval rating and a huge bully pulpit was probably not wise for Democrats. Well, Democrats didn't feel the same way. The progressive base got super pissed off. There was calls for ouster like they wanted. For the first time in his career, they wanted Schumer out. Now, it shouldn't have been the first time.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, that's overdue. They got to it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but they got to it eventually and they're for all the wrong reasons. They're calling for him to beat it. So that leaves a scar tissue, which means that an actual negotiation to try to get something done to make sure the government doesn't shut down is propped up against the backdrop of the political liability that nearly cost Chuck Schumer his job a mere six months ago. He's not going to go into that with the same lens that he did in March. Like he will have to demonstrate to a progressive base that he's fighting at some point, which is led many to speculate that there will be a government shutdown at some level. Smash, what do we know about this?

[John Ashbrook]

Well, listen, dude, I think you laid out the stakes pretty clearly. And there are a lot of people in town who are sort of expecting the government to shut down because they don't believe that Schumer will actually bargain in good faith. They have all of these things that they're trying to say that they want to accomplish that they know can't be accomplished. They're moving the goalposts. They will continue to move the goalposts. And what I will tell you is that as you watch this process play out over the next few weeks, just watch, Democrats will time and time again change what it is they want. They're just going to do it. And the government might shut down, probably will shut down. And it's because Democrats don't care.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow, look, we had Thune on, right? Smug. I mean, Thune kind of laid this out all the way back in June or July where he was saying, like, this is the thing that I think, I think my card playing partner here is in a tough spot because he's got a political liability.

[John Ashbrook]

And the pressure on Schumer has only increased as Zoran Mamdani in the left has become more and more powerful, powerful within that party. That is the only part of the party that gets any attention. That's why their party is taking every 20% side of every 80, 20 issue.

[Josh Holmes]

So think of it. They're going to try to obfuscate, and this is the last thing I'm going to say about this, but they're going to try to obfuscate the terms of the deal, as you suggested, and make this a conversation about things that I don't know are esoteric and not terribly, like, top of mind from anybody. But the bottom line is Chuck Schumer will likely shut the government down in September, not because of like, health care tax credits or protecting a constituency of vulnerable Americans, which they all will say, like, that's what we're doing. What he's doing is trying to cover his ass with the progressive left that called for him to bait it in March because he dared sign off on anything relatively responsible.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's not just Mamdani. It's not just Democrats. Outside of his conference, Chris Murphy, a senator from Connecticut, said recently that every single day there's new evidence that our democracy is failing.

[Josh Holmes]

It's such a great.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's so old. Isn't that the thing it's gotten. That's that it doesn't. It doesn't work anymore and people are over it.

[John Ashbrook]

Murphy goes on and says, you've got to take stands, you have to take fights. So he's getting pressure inside of his own membership.

[Josh Holmes]

And also, I just want you to listen to this, this guy, Chris Murphy, that he just mentioned. He's running for majority leader. Bottom line, that guy has a mission. And none of the press are going to cover it because they don't like to cover uncomfortable truths within the Democratic Party. But the truth is that guy's running for majority leader. And so he's trying to tack to the left of where Chuck Schumer is in the hopes that he draws progressive ire, is ousted, and that, lo and behold, falls to him.

[John Ashbrook]

Here's more proof, Murphy continued, and said, I just worry every time that we go along with appropriations bills, we're putting a bipartisan veneer of endorsement on an illegal process that's ultimately part of Trump's campaign to destroy democracy.

[Josh Holmes]

Think about, think about what the just the vernacular and the phrasing an illegal process. So the process to create law is illegal.

[Comfortably Smug]

And, you know, what a dumb fuck. And Trump's continued attacks on democracy, like winning the electoral college and popular vote, like, that's the thing is, like, the argument just doesn't work anymore.

[Josh Holmes]

No. And they can go to all their interest groups and be like, well, I did it for the trans. Well, I did it for, you know, the usaid. I did it for like, all of the people who just, like, fund their coffers. And that's, that's the way that it works. The other thing that we've got to deal with, ndaa. This is the thing that used to be super bipartisan. The House readies NDAA vote for September House Republicans is According to Politico, House Republicans announced plans to advance the chamber's annual defense policy bill during the second week of September and one of the first major measures lawmakers will address after the summer recess, the House Rules Committee, which sets guardrails for legislation and determines what amendments receive votes, announced that it will meet, likely on September 8th to prep for that debate. There's a few things in there worth note. Both the House and the Senate versions of the NDAA contain critical substantive provisions. The Senate version increases the national defense top line to 924.7 billion. Accounting for historically high inflation of the Biden era and the need for revitalization and modernization of the military in this era, the bill does an impressive job of aligning the budget with strategy, prioritate, prioritizing the deterrence of China and the Indo Pacific. Now this stuff, we'll do another pod at some point about that and like the foreign policy components. But that description's pretty, pretty right on in terms of NDAA and what it tends to do. Like, they put a huge emphasis on China, Indo, Pacific, making sure that our national defense is realigned in some ways.

[John Ashbrook]

And that description you were reading comes from the Heritage Foundation. So you can see that conservatives, Republicans are working to try to make this government operate. Democrats are in the opposite position.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they are. So anyway, that's going to go down and we're going to see it's gonna break. If it breaks down, go down as.

[John Ashbrook]

In it's gonna happen.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but if this breaks down at any one level, it'll be things like trans in the military, abortion provisions in bases overseas.

[John Ashbrook]

Niche issues that Democrats care about.

[Josh Holmes]

Stupid shit that has nothing to do with protecting you and your family. Like, I don't know about you, smug, but, like, when I think of the federal government, I don't think about like the pothole that's for the mayor to deal with. What I think about is like, you take care of the national defense and you make sure that we've got commerce capable of growing our economy. And like, what else is your job here?

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, and that's the thing is like, this historically had been a very bipartisan bill. Like, it didn't used to be an issue. And you've seen Dems have started this new strategy of like, almost like a poison pill.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Of trying to like, he's not kidding when he says they try to introduce this stuff like, you know, abortion overseas and like a trans thing, because they know that right now, specifically the agenda that President Trump, Secretary Pete at the Pentagon have put forward prioritizes America. Things that like, bring the industrial base back to the United States. We saw during COVID you can't make anything in the United States. The factories have shut down and been overseas. So when it comes to building ships in this country, when it comes to any material that's put into anything that our warfighters need, we're focusing on making sure those jobs and those plants are here in the country. And Democrats will try to fight that tooth and nail, like Homestead with their stupid little pet issues that they try to poison the well.

[Josh Holmes]

And Johnny, I know this is top of mind for you, but Secretary Pete, your comms team take note because when they're talking about the ndaa, you know damn well the New York Times, the Washington Post are going to find some Scandal. That's not a scandal.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Blow it up into something and use that as an argument to not do what they should do. It's coming. You know it's coming. It'll be three weeks from now, it'll be four weeks from now. Mark my words. Cut this and paste it. This is going to happen. They're going to come up with some rationale for how you're not doing your job and that they can't possibly in good conscience sign off on national defense with this kind of scandal.

[John Ashbrook]

Pathetic song as old as time.

[Josh Holmes]

It is. It is. It will happen, but it is what it is. The other thing, obviously Russia, Ukraine, we saw and we talked about the obviously huge summit meetings that were happening this summer. You know, I had a chance to sit down with Witkoff, who's in charge of this stuff. It was off the record, but I don't think he'd mind me giving a little, like, context for the discussion. But he's optimistic because he said this stuff publicly. I'm not going to give you the specifics of what we discussed, but what his view is, is that we are a lot closer than media would lead you to believe at getting to a point where we could end this conflict. Now, is it going to be a comfortable resolution that everybody will celebrate? Like this situation is uncomfortable for everyone, as obvious by the hundreds of thousands of people who've already perished in the fricking war. It never should have been started if you had President Trump in the first place and you didn't have a President Biden who got out of Afghanistan recklessly and everything else and left this huge void. We all know that. But this is a conversation that is happening on a day, daily basis, Woff tells me, with the Russians and the Ukrainians.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, it's because they're taking it seriously. I mean, they are actually trying to broker a peace, which is something that the Biden administration never even really tried to do. They let the war start and they were like, ah, we're not going to talk to anybody about it. We're just going to complain, which is what Democrats do. I mean, it's, it is. It sounds like a broken record, but that's what they are.

[Josh Holmes]

And one of the things that he raised for me, he didn't say this specifically, but it raised the prospect in my mind is what's the consequence of failure here? Right. And what happens if Ukraine starts winning the war against Russia? They can't ultimately win without Russia pulling the trigger on something more significant. And what happens to the global Marketplace, global security, if a tactical nuclear weapon is used.

[John Ashbrook]

Right. Unthinkable.

[Josh Holmes]

So, so the stakes of this are a lot higher than is discussed in the media today. Like, it's, it's, but it's only because the Trump administration has decided they were gonna do it. Like we were told throughout all of the summer of 2024 and then the four years prior that Trump's an ally of Putin, he doesn't care about Ukraine. And they like assigned some weird libertarian, like basically like a Tucker Carlson view of the world to Donald Trump when it never existed, as evidenced by what he's done in Iran. Like, they just suggest that he never cared about this, that he was just willing to just throw it all away. Obviously, that's not the case. I mean, if you think about what the Biden administration did for four long years during this war in terms of trying to bring it to an end, nothing.

[John Ashbrook]

Which is nothing.

[Josh Holmes]

Zero.

[John Ashbrook]

Right? They did less than zero. In fact, they started it because they showed weakness from America with the Afghanistan pullout, with everything that Joe Biden did on a day to day basis falling asleep on camera and, and doing nothing for this country. They demonstrated weakness. And you heard it from Putin himself. He wouldn't have invaded if Donald Trump had been president at the time.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just, it's just so obvious to me that this, this is a problem that Donald Trump did not want to inherit, but when he inherited it, he took responsibility for it. And that's something you're never going to hear credited to him. In fact, the opposite is true. They question his motives.

[Comfortably Smug]

And I mean, like, that's the thing is like, look at his track record. In his first administration, for the first time in our lives, there was like peace in the Middle East. The guy is a peacemaker. He's shown that he, and he pursues it fully. He brings people together and he's like, stop the killing.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, smug. You mentioned the Middle east and that is the fifth thing that everybody needs to watch this month because Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is coming to America to make remarks, I believe, at the United Nations.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, is that right? I didn't even know that. Well, it's interesting because in New York later this month, it comes at a point of inflection for the world writ large, because not dissimilar from the progressive liberal debate that you have in America. Unsurprisingly, they follow a progressive liberal global debate that has less tolerance for the people who are beheaded, raped, killed and held hostage in Israel than they do for the people who did the beheading, the killing and the raping. Right. So you hear a bunch of outwardly anti Semitic stuff, certainly anti Israel and absolutely anti Netanyahu, about the way that this conflict is going on between Israel and what's happening in Gaza. And you know, look, I'm not going to go through all that. I have some definitive opinions, but that's for another time. The point is, is it needs to come to an end in many forms, in fact. And I understand that Netanyahu gets that, but it's being driven towards an end by Donald J. Trump because he, more than anybody else globally understands the politics of it. He understands that you are negotiating with terrorists at some level which he is deeply uncomfortable with. He doesn't want to do that. Like with Trump, it's always like you got two choices. Deal with the problem or you just let the problem set. And he always deals with the problem. Right. That's the nuclear situation in Iran or everything else. What's happened with the Israel Hamas issue is it's gone on because there was no like definitive end instantly. So.

[Comfortably Smug]

So as Ashbrook mentioned with Netanyahu coming to the UN So this is from the Jerusalem Post. This is really striking. This seems like, you know, the ball is being moved. So it says right here that the US Seeks Israeli Syrian security deal announcement During September's United Nations General assembly the US Administration is working to bring about an announcement by Israel and Syria on agreed security arrangements, quote, by the time of the UN General assembly in September. Syrian President Ahmed Al Shawra is scheduled to attend the UN General assembly on September 25. This will mark the first time in several years as Syrian president has delivered an address assembly on the same day that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to arrive in New York and deliver his own speech the following day. If it could get the things in.

[Josh Holmes]

Motion that quickly, yeah, it's a big deal. But again, I'll just remind the audience because this is not covered in the press, but your memory will remind you of the fact that like the Abraham Accords were real.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing. The track record is there. Trump can get things done.

[Josh Holmes]

It's there. And if this super uncomfortable for the region conflict can resolve itself in one form or fashion, do not be surprised if the last two years of this administration provides an Abraham Accords 2.0 where you've got Saudi Arabia involved, places like Qatar involved, Everything that they've criticized this president over having relations with foreign leaders who have passed debts to America, he has those relationships where they have already proven dividends previously. And this is kind of a stumbling block, you know. And I don't mean to minimize that in terms of like the loss of life, but in terms of global policy that could lead to, for the first of its time, thousands of years of conflict. Something that has a light at the end of the tunnel. Incredible. Which is really, I mean it's a lot. I said this the other night on Fox. I would never have bet that this four year term from President Trump could be known as the most consequential foreign policy term of any president in my lifetime. But it's right there. He's pursuing stuff that could absolutely codify that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, we always joke about that in terms of like Nobel peer's prize, like who gives a shit. But in terms of like where that leaves the world after the presidency of Donald J. Trump, much better place.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, we got some interviews, Johnny.

[John Ashbrook]

So our first interview today is with our great energy Secretary Chris Wright. And you know, during the four years of the Obama administration, when China was putting a brand new power plant online every week I said Obama, I meant Biden. When China was building power.

[Comfortably Smug]

Is there a difference?

[John Ashbrook]

Every single week Biden was shutting American power down. And what Chris Wright knows is that you have to have energy to be able to compete on a, on a global scale. And this guy is so smart. He's an MIT grad and we are very, very lucky to have him in the job where he currently serves. Very, very lucky to have here. Secretary Chris Wright. Very excited to talk to you after what I am convinced is the longest cabinet meeting in history. Somebody said in the 1800s there was a meeting that was longer, but they did not have an MIT grad in there. And I'm guessing you know that today's timekeepers are a little more accurate than.

[Josh Holmes]

Those four and a half hours.

[Chris Wright]

It was a fulsome meeting. A fulsome meeting, but active in dialogue the whole way. That's the energy of this president. Unbelievable. He's busy on all sorts of other issues this morning. He goes in, leads a four and a half hour cabinet meeting.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean it must be incredible to work with this guy. I know you've been around a lot of big players in your entire life, but this guy is something special.

[Chris Wright]

It's uplifting and that I'm passionate about energy. I want to make big changes and he is absolutely on board with all of them. It's also exhausting. He is seven days a week.

[Josh Holmes]

Go, go, go, go, go.

[Chris Wright]

That's great. But what's next? What's next? He is hard driving and incredibly high energy.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, there's such a great need for it in our country. And your expertise in energy is unmatched. And what I'm really, really interested in is everything that you're doing to expand access to American energy. I know you're doing things with coal, you're doing things with gas, you're doing things on every sector. Because all of it is important.

[Chris Wright]

Absolutely, absolutely. You don't. You have to have reasonable regulatory regime. You have to get the stuff out of the way that prevents stuff from happening. You know, there was that pause. We're not going to approve any more LNG export terminals. That's crazy. That's the fastest growing energy source on the planet. The United States is by far the biggest producer of natural gas. It's our fastest growing export. Soon it could be our largest export. And the last administration hampered it. This president day one, we got rid of the pause. We permitted more export, more capacity to export natural gas in the first eight months of this than any other country has export capacity. So you'll just see rapid growth in US LNG exports. Great for our allies, for national security, great economically for the United States. And in addition to that, you're just going to see huge growth of consumption in the United States of natural gas, of coal, of oil, of nuclear, solar. We're going to continue to see solar built, but it's a much smaller energy source than the other ones. It's a little over 1% of energy. You know, oil, gas and coal are 82% of U.S. primary energy today.

[John Ashbrook]

And you mentioned the economy and all of your work is bringing down energy prices and that's going to fuel our comeback.

[Chris Wright]

That's what drives the President. He's constantly on me. You know, prices are lower than they were, but get them lower, get them lower. What are you doing? Why can't you do more? Where's that going? So, yes, we are doing everything we can. I'm pleased. Energy prices now are a lot lower than they were than the average in the last four years. But more work to be done. There's more obstacles we can remove that will bring more supply on. There's more bureaucracy we can remove that will lower the cost to produce more energy and that'll drive prices down and bring job opportunities for Americans.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, I can't thank you enough for spending some time with us today. We can't wait to have you in studio. Maybe in a month or so we can have a little bit longer conversation and talk about everything else you've got coming up.

[Chris Wright]

I look forward to it, John. You guys have an incredible show. I'm a listener, I'm a fan, so I look forward to being on it and having more time to talk.

[John Ashbrook]

Thank you very much.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, fellas, you want a little variety?

[Comfortably Smug]

Always.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

So Hooters, esteemed restaurant.

[Josh Holmes]

Esteemed.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

There's no question. At least when we grew up, like, Hooters was. It was like one of those provocative interests for young men.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, we didn't have a lot of them where I grew up, but I know, like, when I went to college, they had a few of them, got to know a few of the.

[Comfortably Smug]

Did you really?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, a little bit.

[Comfortably Smug]

I went one time as, like, with a buddy. It's like a sociological experiment, because he was like, you won't believe. He was like, you won't believe how ridiculous this place is. And it was completely absurd.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude. I remember when one of my very best friends got his driver's license. He got it before I got my driver's license. And within a month, we went to Hooters. And we walked in and. And we were like, I don't. Where are you supposed to look? What are you supposed to do? What are we supposed to do here?

[Comfortably Smug]

Just intimidated.

[Josh Holmes]

We were totally intimidated.

[John Ashbrook]

We're like, wow, this place. I didn't know it existed. I knew it existed. I hoped it existed. But now I don't know. What?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, in the advertising. 16 years old in the advertising in that era, like, they didn't leave a lot to be.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, they didn't.

[Josh Holmes]

They gave. They gave you what you hope to expect.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, they sure did.

[Josh Holmes]

Anyway, they're going through some stuff.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. So there. There's been some articles about Hooters going bankrupt and. And kind of a fight going on among ownership of Hooters of, like, what direction do we take? And I thought, this is, you know, whatever kind of story. And then I saw this, like, Wall Street Journal. I mean, this is how nerdy I am when it comes to what I do with my time. I watch Wall Street Journal, YouTube. Right. And they had a great video on what's going on. So can we first start with clip four, please?

[Josh Holmes]

I have heard for the last 20 years.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, my wife wouldn't let me go in there.

[Josh Holmes]

For years, Hooters has been operated by two different companies. One owned by private equity that emphasizes the brand's sex appeal, and the other, which includes the original founders, that says the restaurant is actually family oriented and always has been. After filing for Bankruptcy earlier this year. Hooter says it's trying to bring all its restaurants back to that purportedly more wholesome vision.

[Comfortably Smug]

So that was wild to me because.

[Josh Holmes]

Usually wholesome vision, I missed that markup.

[Comfortably Smug]

So that's the thing is like, I was shocked because like, that my mom described. Typically when you hear about like private equity or consultants showing up to a business, it's like what we saw, the cracker barrel effect, where it's like everything, the logo, everything becomes just like flat and modern. And you go inside the restaurant and it all becomes like, what happened to cracker barrel? But apparently in this case, it was the private equity. I was like, no, we need you to look like strippers.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, we want hookers.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can I get clip 5 explaining this.

[Josh Holmes]

Waitresses known as Hooters girls have always worn low cut tops and shorts. But in 2021, the restaurants owned by private equity launched a contradictory. Look at that uniform.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's not a short, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

The sexualizer.

[Comfortably Smug]

What made it shorter, Almost shorter than hot pants. That is expensive. That's what the private equity team when this brand started.

[Josh Holmes]

And still the way we run our store, it's an athletic fit. In 1983 and the 70s, jogging was huge.

[Comfortably Smug]

The dolphin short was the short that everybody wore. So that's the thing is, you know, it's tasteful. 80s running shorts and then private equity gets in the.

[Josh Holmes]

No, you all thought that private equity did nothing good for you. Everyone thought they were the enemy.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, can you imagine that meeting? Like you're in the building in New York and you're like, oh man, these 5x a bit does look like trash. We're never gonna get out front of this debt load, gentlemen. Not shorts.

[John Ashbrook]

Thongs.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like put them in guns.

[Josh Holmes]

Bring up the shorts.

[Comfortably Smug]

It was incredible. Incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

They basically. All right, so how's that going? Like it's a. What does it go?

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, I conducted more research. Can I get clip six, please? My understanding is at the hooters of.

[Josh Holmes]

America stores, they could actually sit next to guests.

[Comfortably Smug]

We don't allow that.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, okay. You know, there's things in those are like hula hooping. Of course you know how to hula hoop.

[Comfortably Smug]

Who the heck wants to hula hoop.

[Josh Holmes]

In the middle of a restaurant? Okay. It looks silly.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay. Sitting down with the customer. I didn't ask you to sit down here.

[Kevin Hassett]

That's a little too cozy.

[Comfortably Smug]

And by the way, my wife's sitting right there. Yeah, why don't you sit with her?

[Josh Holmes]

That's crossing the line. That's not requested for Good service.

[Comfortably Smug]

And we frankly don't allow it. We're Hooters girls, and no, we're not on the menu. Okay, so I thought the whole. A lot to digest. A lot to digest. Right. First off, the clip of, like, inside a Hooters straight up in, like, a string bikini, hula hooping. Folks who haven't subscribed to the YouTube, tremendous mistake for this segment to start with. But then also the, like, guy who owns the, like, other smaller part of Hooters, the stores that he says are more, like, family oriented.

[Josh Holmes]

That's that cat.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, that's that guy. He's like, you know, I'm at the Hooters with my wife, and I'm like, whoa.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, dog, how do you talk your wife into going to Hooters?

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, you want to grab some wings, honey?

[Josh Holmes]

He's like, well, I own it, so were sort of obligated. But there's no other man in the entire 340 million Americans who is like, hey, honey, let's go to Hooters. And then makes that sale.

[Comfortably Smug]

Zero chance.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, if. If you try, there's a murder that occurs in between that moment.

[Comfortably Smug]

You're dead, man.

[Josh Holmes]

But my favorite, he's like, oh. And they were at times they were encouraged to sit down with the customers, and he's like, we can't have that. Like.

[Comfortably Smug]

So that's the thing is apparently him and his group that owns, like, I want to say, like 20 or 30 of these, mostly around Chicago and in Tampa, they run that set of rules where, like, you know, they're not having girls in bikinis, hula hooping, and, like, sitting down with the customers. All the rest is where it goes down, where it's like, so they're at.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, active hot war.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

With the other side of Hooters. Yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

And so, like, is it franchise?

[Josh Holmes]

Like, how does that work? Or is it just to buy ownership?

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, so it is franchise, but, like, the majority of them got bought up by private equity when they put that bid in years and years ago. And a lot of folks have complained that, like, the menus aren't as good because at his location, it's amazing, too. He openly is like, so here's the secret. Our wing sauce. I buy, like, £20,000 of butter every month. Like, straight up. He's like, we're just putting tons of AAA grade butter in everything. And like, at his shops, the sales have exploded because, like, good food. Yeah. And like, at the other places, they're like, to slop. Yeah. Like, just feed them slopping.

[Josh Holmes]

You don't come here for the wings.

[Comfortably Smug]

Sit down this broad with, like, a bikini next to the guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, it's two different business models. I'd be interested to see who's doing better.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, so the numbers are better at his shops. They are, but I think there's got to be a mill ground or something here, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. There's got to be some kind of, like, maybe just a £10,000 of butter.

[Comfortably Smug]

When you went to the Hooters, did you have the girl sit down next to you and try to, like, have a conversation?

[Josh Holmes]

Listen, I want to talk a lot about it. So there was this before I was married. I was a young man.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm happy to admit. I went before I was married, and the lady sat down, and I was like, I'm, like, eating wings. Like, what are you talking to me about? You know what I mean? Like, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, they came. So you remember the 100%?

[Comfortably Smug]

I remember my friends looking at me. I'm eating wings, There's a football game on, and she starts talking about, like, what do I do for hobbies? It's like, bro, I eat wings and watch football. Like, it's pretty clear what I do for a hobby. I'm not here for conversation. I got a picture of beer. I'm trying to turn the brain off.

[Josh Holmes]

All I can say to my Arizona State Sun Devils listening is PV East. Just keep that in mind.

[Comfortably Smug]

That must have been an incredible Hooters location.

[Josh Holmes]

Should fill in a lot of blanks. What an incredible story. Thank you for that, pal. Yeah. So there's something going on in the animal kingdom. You know, we love animals. Oh, it turns out, like, giraffes. They look like a docile animal in Disney's animal kingdom. Nah, a little bit more aggressive.

[John Ashbrook]

Really?

[Josh Holmes]

Like, we may need to formulate some kind of a strategy to take on the giraffe as we do here. I mean, you're sort of the principal author of how to Combat the Animal Kingdom Smash. But take a look at this clip. Clip seven.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah. That was not nice. Yeah. Just dropped a full lazy leg drop. He wants some bacon. Lazy leg drop. Oh, yeah. He's coming back. He's not. He's not done with that boar.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's hiding behind the stump. Wait, can we play it again? I want to hear the board, because I was talking, and that boar sound was incredible.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, can we play that?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the sound, bro.

[John Ashbrook]

That was not nice.

[Josh Holmes]

Holy shit. I want some bacon.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, the sound is just so great.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, it makes the squeal and the thump.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, that thing.

[Josh Holmes]

It was like a. Like an old school sort of like WWE lazy leg drama and the giraffe.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like ran him down. It's not like the boar was in the way or the boar. Because typically, I mean, my understanding is, I mean, boars are a problem. They're a menace to begin with.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

So like, I already take the side of the giraffe.

[Josh Holmes]

You, like wanted a helicopter gun that day.

[Comfortably Smug]

You want to hog the thing. But like the fact that what had the hog done that the giraffe rolled up and just like square in the back, bro, got a squeal out.

[John Ashbrook]

It doesn't matter. The animal kingdom does what it wants to do. It doesn't care what the Disney adults want to see on a day to day basis. It's going to take something out that's in front of it. And if it defends the lunatics who are 50 years old watching it as adults by themselves at Disney literally does not.

[Josh Holmes]

Do you think that might be the purpose of the attraction? Because, like, I don't know that I would be opposed necessarily to see a full fledged giraffe v. Boar.

[John Ashbrook]

Do they.

[Comfortably Smug]

They do they allow like carnivores back there? Like, are kids getting to see the like real circle of life in action?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you mean you get like a. Like a couple of lions in that?

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't know what it's like.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't think that they have that.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, that would be pretty cool.

[Josh Holmes]

That would be an exhibit. That's a Disney adult exhibit for sure.

[Comfortably Smug]

Kids got to learn sometimes.

[Josh Holmes]

Anyway, Animal kingdom, we got to keep an eye on those giraffes. No question about it. Speaking of animals that you need to keep an eye on. So the raccoon has long been a menace. We've talked about it a lot. They're discussing on the variety program. You remember the old man? Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Duncan knows how to handle.

[Josh Holmes]

Duncan. He had like traps on the roof. I think you were suggesting at one point that you just simply drop the.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, no, listen. A raccoon is an aggressive, dangerous rabbit animal. And there are too many people in suburbia who look at it and think, oh, it's cute. It's just like a little puppy. These things will tear you to shreds. It will kill your dog.

[Josh Holmes]

They got claws and thumbs.

[John Ashbrook]

Exactly.

[Comfortably Smug]

They have weird, like, thumbs. If you see them up close, they're disgusting. It's like they have like human hands.

[Josh Holmes]

No. They can like, take the lid off your trash can.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, well, so I knew I Knew a guy who. Who had an idea.

[Comfortably Smug]

Was.

[John Ashbrook]

I thought it was a. It was a. Seemed like a solution. No, no. I knew a guy who had an idea. You dig a hole in the ground, and you put a trash can in the ground. You fill the trash can with water, and you cover it with, you know, garbage and stuff that floats because the raccoon wants the trash. It wants the garbage. It goes in for the garbage that's floating and it sinks. Raccoons cannot swim. They can survive anything but water.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the funniest thing about all of his animal solutions. It is all a derivation of the banana pool. Every single one.

[John Ashbrook]

But it's cool.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's a good. It's also a good way to get rid of them because, like, I remember when Duncan caught the raccoons, I was like, well, did you shoot him? And he was like, no, I. You know, legally, you have to call animal control, because, like, if. If you've got, like, a dead raccoon, all of a sudden, it's a problem. And so, like, this is a total solution. Instead of, like, well, if you've already got him trapped, just fill the trash can with water, dunk them in some city. Like, the raccoon did it itself. Like, there's no, like, signs of struggle.

[John Ashbrook]

Some cities, it just drowned.

[Comfortably Smug]

It was a dumb raccoon.

[John Ashbrook]

Some. Some cities have those rules, cs, of.

[Josh Holmes]

How you kill a raccoon without leaving any trace.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, because, like, that's what we have in this country is, like, you've got these bureaucrats who are more concerned about, like, what they did to that squirrel in New York.

[Josh Holmes]

Can we play the clip?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Oh, for this one. Let's see.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. This woman gets mauled.

[John Ashbrook]

A Massachusetts woman is recovering after a terrifying raccoon attack right outside her home.

[Josh Holmes]

Katherine says she was letting her dogs.

[John Ashbrook]

Out early Saturday morning when a raccoon jumped at her.

[Josh Holmes]

It clawed her face, scratched her arms, nodded her hands and legs up, flew at me from several different directions. All it could do was scream, help me. Help me.

[John Ashbrook]

That thing had to have been rabid.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow. Catherine believes the raccoon was eating from.

[John Ashbrook]

The compost bin on her deck. So yesterday. Keep the raccoons away. She is expected to make a full recovery.

[Josh Holmes]

That's scary.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, it's. These animals are absolute menaces. This poor woman, Nobody is letting her protect herself. Some cities protect raccoons more than they protect the people who live there. And I'm telling you, listen to me. If your city allows it, this idea about a trash can filled with water may be the only solution because there is not a lib ngo that has been stood up yet that takes raccoons to the Y to teach them to swim. So until that day happens, you have the advantage.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, my question is. So, like, what you said, the kind of dogs she had, she had the shitty dogs.

[Josh Holmes]

The ones that I thought they're not going to do.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, they're sitting there just like watching her get mauled. Yeah, they're just chilling. Well, that's.

[Josh Holmes]

They were down the list. I mean, if that thing took her down, those dogs were toast.

[Comfortably Smug]

Horrible.

[John Ashbrook]

It's an argument for having an angry mangy mutt who is out there just.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like a German shepherd or like a doe.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Is there everything? Is everything. Like a derivation of the banana pool, though.

[John Ashbrook]

Look, there's. There works.

[Comfortably Smug]

It works.

[John Ashbrook]

There's science.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like, hey, there's. There's an animal. Just get a pool with their favorite food and then close the lid.

[Comfortably Smug]

No signs of struggle, you know?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, Well, I mean, he.

[Comfortably Smug]

Seriously, they just drowned these.

[John Ashbrook]

They're nasty animals. I don't know how to impress that upon people more. These are very, very nasty animals.

[Josh Holmes]

Is the giraffe, like you get a couple of eucalyptus up there and then all of a sudden it falls into a pool giraffe.

[John Ashbrook]

18 foot pool giraffe has a very long neck.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay. So it has a very, very long, vulnerable section. So if you're looking to take it out, I think you aim directly at the neck.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you go. You just. You just strike the neck.

[John Ashbrook]

You don't have to be what they fight with.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know if you knew this, but like, I learned from a friend of mine that we went on vacation several years ago that they only fight with their neck and head. That they.

[Comfortably Smug]

Except for Dropkick earlier.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, except for that.

[John Ashbrook]

He's.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, that guy's laying down new rules. He's a pioneer in violence.

[Josh Holmes]

He's a pioneer. This is a different breed.

[Comfortably Smug]

I like that guy.

[Josh Holmes]

A captivity lazy leg drop giraffe. Yeah, it's something to keep an eye on.

[John Ashbrook]

Got to respect it.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so listen, we again, you have had the good fortune, Mr. Ashbrook, of being at White House grounds on several occasions and talking to important people. One of the things that is the top of mind for most Americans is the economy.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep. And one of those guys who is almost maybe absolutely the smartest guy on the economy in this administration, his name is Kevin Hassett. And I say that because he makes predictions and those predictions come true. So when you hear what he has to say, you know, you can take it to the bank. I think people are going to be very interested to hear what Kevin Hasset.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's hear it.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, it is very, very special today that we get to talk to a guy who works all the time. And I don't suspect you're the kind of guy who stops and smell the roses, but I do think that you might be the greatest economist of our lifetime because all the predictions you made ahead of the 2017 tax cuts have come true. Everything it's done for workers, everything it's done to boost business in this country. And I wonder if you could just talk about what you saw before 2017 and what happened after.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Kevin Hassett]

Well, really, it goes back to what Ronald Reagan taught us, that President Trump re emphasized that if you want people to have more income, higher wages, then we have to have a business friendly environment. And so in 2017, we put forward the Trump tax cuts. And we predicted before, when we were selling the bill to senators, some reluctant, that it would make incomes go up by between 4 and $8,000. And before the COVID pandemic crisis struck, then they actually went up by 6,500 using the same model. We just had this big beautiful bill. We say that over the next three to five years, those same people are going to see their incomes go up by about $10,000. And so it's a great time on Labor Day to celebrate this great accomplishment of President Trump's.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, it's really incredible to me because there are so many left wing economists who just tried to pretend like this wasn't going to happen. There are so many left wing economists who push against things like dynamic scoring. And so many of these things that, you know, actually happened because your modeling has proven right. And I wonder what sort of things that we can expect from the big beauty as it goes into the ether and it just improves our economy.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Kevin Hassett]

Well, you're going to see explosion and factory construction in the US you're going to see a massive increase in wages, reduction in unemployment. And also, you know, one of the things people said is that because of our border policy that we're going to not have enough workers for all this. But what we're seeing is that a lot of people who are on the sidelines that are native born are coming back to work because of the much higher wages.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Which is very, very exciting. And you mentioned labor, you mentioned the border. And I've seen a stat recently that shows that American workers, native born Americans, are now coming back to work, like you said, in droves. And most of these new jobs are being taken by people who, who were born here.

[Kevin Hassett]

Yeah, that's right. That's right. In fact, the non native born workers have, their employment has declined by about half a billion and native born workers, their employment has gone up by about 2 million. And so, you know, it used to be that people would say that there's no relationship between illegal immigration and employment and that the illegals are doing jobs that nobody else wants and so on, but we're seeing that's to going clearly not true. What was going on is that lower wage workers were taking jobs that are now paying a lot more and drawing native borns back into the labor force.

[John Ashbrook]

So if I could just ask you to put your prediction hat on here and just look forward over the next quarter in our economy. I wonder if there are things that we should be watching for and things that we can expect.

[Kevin Hassett]

Yeah, well, right now we're looking at data that says that things are really surprising on the upside relative to, you know, like the CBO says, we're only going to have 1% growth. I think that we're looking at a third quarter that's going to be north of 3% and maybe even going up to 4 in the fourth quarter because of the explosion into activity following the big beautiful bill.

[John Ashbrook]

That's fantastic. Kevin Hassett, thank you so much for joining us today. We'd love to get you in studio sometime.

[Kevin Hassett]

You'd love to do that?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Thank you. Okay, so look, a good discussion. Yeah, it's the, it's the great unknown, right. I think midterms largely are defined by what the American people think of the economic condition, them for their families, their own paycheck, their communities and whatever. What he's talking about, it seems to me has more bearing on the larger political universe than almost anything else we're talking about right here.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think that he makes the case, fellas, for why this economy can be even stronger than it already is. And I for one, can't wait to watch it play out.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, we've always said rocket fuel. If the right conditions are there, rocket fuel is possible. Listen, great interview. This has been a very fun Labor Day edition and I hope everybody had a wonderful summer here at the Ruthless Friday program. Not much of a vacation. Not much of a vacation. Certainly worked a little bit more in August than we're typically accustomed to. But we do it for you because we absolutely love the interaction with this audience in our day to day conversations. We're going to have a lot to say this fall. Huge dynamics going on. Stay with us. I promise you, we're going to be entertaining and funny, but we're going to give you stuff you need to know, too. With that, fellows, I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to the Minions for tuning in. Remember, if you have not yet subscribe to the YouTube because 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 Thursday. Stay ruthless.