What’s Driving Trump’s Hot Streak?

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Summary: What’s Driving Trump’s Hot Streak?

Release Date: July 1, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook, Zach Nunn

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Introduction

In the episode titled "What’s Driving Trump’s Hot Streak?" the Ruthless Podcast team—Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook, and Zach Nunn—delve into the current successes and ongoing influence of President Donald Trump and his administration. The discussion spans domestic policies, legislative breakthroughs, Supreme Court decisions, foreign policy achievements, and cultural shifts impacting American politics.

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Trump’s Continued Influence and Achievements

The hosts begin by emphasizing President Trump's relentless momentum and its positive reception among his supporters.

• Josh Holmes (00:00): "There's no brakes on this train. ... you’ve got to be feeling pretty good."

• Michael Duncan (00:22): "President Trump looks like he's going to win again."

• John Ashbrook (00:57): "Trump country is booming."

The consensus among the hosts is clear: Trump's policies are yielding significant results, reinvigorating his base and positioning him strongly for future elections.

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The "Big Beautiful Bill" - Tax Cuts and Budget

A central focus of the episode is the "Big Beautiful Bill" (BBB), a comprehensive tax cut package aimed at reducing taxes for working-class Americans and stimulating economic growth.

• Zach Nunn (02:03): Highlights the importance and ambition of the BBB, noting its potential to pass by the July 4th deadline.

• Zach Nunn (29:11): "It's all nonsense and bullshit."—refuting Democratic claims that the BBB would explode the deficit and act as a wealth transfer to the rich.

• John Ashbrook (29:36): "If wealthy people in this country aren't forced to pay more money, then they are getting a wealth transfer from their own pocket."

• Zach Nunn (30:17): "It just is."—expressing skepticism towards Democratic critiques of the BBB.

The hosts argue that the BBB will not only prevent significant tax increases but also foster economic growth, allowing families to retain more of their earnings and invest locally.

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Supreme Court Ruling and Judiciary Reforms

The podcast discusses a pivotal Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision that restricts district court judges from imposing nationwide injunctions against Trump administration policies.

• Zach Nunn (16:39): "Meaning all of this stuff that you're seeing when it comes to immigration ... cannot get a stay on it."

• John Ashbrook (18:08): Criticizes Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent as immature and unprofessional.

This ruling is portrayed as a significant victory for the Trump administration, ensuring that executive actions can proceed without undue judicial interference, thereby strengthening conservative governance.

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Foreign Policy Successes: Iran Strike and Middle East Leadership

A major segment covers President Trump's military and diplomatic achievements, particularly the targeted strike on Qasem Soleimani and subsequent regional developments.

• Zach Nunn (65:10): Engages with Congressman Zach Nunn on his firsthand experience with the Soleimani strike, highlighting its precision and impact.

• Congressman Zach Nunn (67:42): "It was the first real glimpse ... President Trump was not messing around on this stuff."

• Zach Nunn (74:50): "This is Reagan era in the modern day. It's exciting for us. This is where we grew up."

The strike is depicted as a strategic move that not only eliminated a significant threat but also restored America's leadership role in the Middle East. The hosts laud the administration's ability to execute precise military operations while simultaneously engaging in diplomatic efforts to foster peace and stability in the region.

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Youth Voters and the Rise of Socialism

The podcast addresses concerns about younger generations shifting towards socialist ideologies, influenced by progressive education systems.

• John Ashbrook (40:00): "The fallacy of the left ... you are the professional poor."

• Josh Holmes (41:30): Criticizes academia's left-leaning bias, arguing it fosters anti-capitalist sentiments among privileged students.

• Michael Duncan (43:21): Notes a shift among teenagers favoring trade schools over traditional college degrees, indicating a practical mindset contrary to socialist ideals.

The hosts contend that progressive education indoctrinates young Americans with anti-capitalist beliefs, contributing to a rise in socialism. They argue for a return to market-based education and vocational training as solutions to economic disenfranchisement.

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Cultural Issues: Visa Denial for Controversial Artist

The episode highlights the Trump administration's decision to deny a visitor visa to artist Bob Villain due to his incendiary lyrics targeting Israel and advocating for its elimination.

• John Ashbrook (45:57): "Hell, yeah."—expressing strong disapproval of Villain's messages.

• Zach Nunn (47:16): Describes Villain’s lyrics as calling for violence against Israel and mocking immigration policies.

This segment underscores the administration's stance against hate speech and extremist ideologies, reinforcing national security and cultural integrity.

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Senate Retirement and Political Implications

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina announces his retirement, prompting discussions on potential Republican replacements and the impact on the party's strength in swing states.

• Zach Nunn (50:11): Mentions potential candidates like Pat Harrigan and highlights the need for strong representation to maintain Republican dominance.

• John Ashbrook (51:14): "Who's saying that?"—indicating skepticism about the current state of candidate selection.

The hosts emphasize the importance of selecting a capable successor to sustain Republican momentum, particularly in pivotal states like North Carolina.

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Listener Comments and Engagement

The hosts review and respond to listener comments, providing insights and reinforcing their viewpoints.

• Joseph Travers (36:39): "Historically progressive politics always requires the movement to become more progressive until they destroy themselves or their country."

• Chris Arias (36:46): Discusses younger Democrats embracing socialism, linking it to disenchantment with the party and the "American Dream."

These interactions highlight the show's active engagement with its audience, fostering a community centered on conservative principles and critical analysis of progressive movements.

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Lightning Round and Light-Hearted Segments

To balance the serious discussions, the podcast includes lighter segments such as marriage advice and cultural commentary.

• Josh Holmes (61:08): "Find a bride who understands the difference between appreciating and depreciating assets."

• Hosts (57:08 onwards): Share amusing anecdotes about weddings, General Lee replicas, and cultural misunderstandings, adding humor and relatability to the episode.

These segments provide a personable touch, making the hosts more relatable and the content more engaging for listeners.

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with a forward-looking perspective on the BBB's passage, reaffirming confidence in its success and the administration's ability to meet the ambitious July 4th deadline.

• John Ashbrook (78:40): "American strength starts with American energy."

• Josh Holmes (86:15): "Absolute banger of an episode."

The hosts reiterate their commitment to promoting conservative policies, supporting Trump's agenda, and encouraging listeners to stay engaged and informed.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• "There's no brakes on this train." — Josh Holmes (00:00)
• "Trump country is booming." — John Ashbrook (00:57)
• "It's all nonsense and bullshit." — Zach Nunn (30:17)
• "The fallacy of the left ... you are the professional poor." — John Ashbrook (40:00)
• "This is Reagan era in the modern day." — Zach Nunn (74:50)

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Key Takeaways:

• Trump’s Momentum: President Trump continues to maintain strong support and achieve significant policy successes.
• Big Beautiful Bill: A major tax cut bill is nearing passage, promising economic growth and tax relief for working-class Americans.
• Judicial Victory: A Supreme Court ruling limits judicial interference in the executive branch's policies, strengthening conservative governance.
• Foreign Policy: Strategic military actions and diplomatic efforts are restoring America’s leadership in the Middle East.
• Youth and Education: Progressive bias in education is fostering a rise in socialist ideologies among younger generations.
• Cultural Stance: The administration takes a firm stand against extremist ideologies, as seen in the visa denial of controversial artists.
• Political Landscape: Senatorial retirements could impact Republican strength in key swing states, underscoring the need for strong candidates.
• Community Engagement: Active listener participation reinforces the podcast's role as a hub for conservative discourse.

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For those seeking in-depth discussions on conservative policies, political strategies, and cultural critiques, the "What’s Driving Trump’s Hot Streak?" episode of the Ruthless Podcast offers a comprehensive and engaging analysis.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

There's no brakes on this train. And like we said the previous week that President Trump and his administration have had bonkers like you look to have a four year stint as president as successful as what was pulled off in seven days. I think, you know, for Americans who supported him, for voters, you've got to be feeling pretty good.

[Michael Duncan]

President Trump looks like he's going to win again.

[John Ashbrook]

Our nation is standing up for American.

[Zach Nunn]

Workers, restoring the pride of making products here at home. That's what we do every day. 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, of America and the people who make it great.

[John Ashbrook]

Trump country is booming.

[Unknown Speaker]

We're building, hiring and winning in America.

[John Ashbrook]

Because energy tax credits create jobs and put America first.

[Zach Nunn]

Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country. More production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.

[John Ashbrook]

And America's comeback depends on American energy. President Trump, keep what works. Don't repeal energy tax credits.

[Zach Nunn]

Learn more at Built For America US Paid for by Built For America. Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Josh Holmes]

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

[Michael Duncan]

It's time for our main event.

[Zach Nunn]

Well, good Tuesday to you. All is well with the world. And welcome back to the Ruthless Variety program. I am Josh Holmes, along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left to right, across your radio dial, it turns out that President Trump is swinging a very hot bat. I think a phrase that you came up with, Michael.

[John Ashbrook]

I invented that.

[Zach Nunn]

You invented that phrase.

[John Ashbrook]

No one's ever said it before.

[Zach Nunn]

No one's ever said it. It's. I mean, being a pioneer of the.

[John Ashbrook]

English language novel, I'm like William Shakespeare.

[Zach Nunn]

Just like that. We're gonna give you a heck of a show today because it's a look. This is a seminal moment. You get to the middle of summer, you get to halfway through the year. We got Fourth of July coming up. There's a bunch of things that have happened traditionally. The sort of momentum of a new administration wears down and you begin getting into like, the nitty gritty, the partisan politics. Everybody kind of puts their jersey back on. They don't have fear of reprisals from the electorate that had just chosen one party over another. And so things kind of grind to a halt. Not the case. Yeah, not the case. As evidenced by the fact that we have a big, beautiful bill that is making its Way into law with a deadline I think a lot of us thought was pretty darn ambitious that look, it could very well happen. We're gonna give you an update on all of that. Got Zach Nunn in the House today. For those of you who don't know Zach. Oh, geez. Know because he was on our program, I think a couple of different times. He was part of our Iowa. We did a couple of Iowa stints out there for state fairs and whatnot. He was an incred host. We've maintained our relationship. We love him to death. He comes in and gives us not only an update on the big beautiful bill because it's going to go back to the house so he can give us an inside under the hood. Look at that. It turns out the guy guy flew missions over Iran was a part of the Soleimani strike. I'm not sure there's anybody in all of Washington that has a very unique perspective, a better sense of, of what it is that we're seeing on the foreign policy front in the Iran, Middle Eastern thing that he does. So perfect time for him to come on in and give us that discussion. We're going to talk about some SCOTUS rulings. There's a Canada trade component that I think is very interesting that should provide a little aid and comfort for those of you who are worried about tariffs. We'll give you the foreign policy. There's a DRC Rwanda thing that has a component that I understand how everybody's interested in that, but portends for a larger discussion of success overseas that I think is relevant for today. We got some awesome variety here, folks. So you just need to stick around, sit back, relax and enjoy. Everybody have a good weekend. Everybody was good.

[Josh Holmes]

Terrific. I mean, you said it yourself. Typically, you see, and we'd even mentioned that the first hundred days of a new administration, they're so important because you really try to use the momentum. But like this administration didn't get that memo. There's no brakes on this train. And like we said the previous week that President Trump and his administration have had bonkers like you look to have a four year stint as president as successful as what was pulled off in seven days. I think, you know, for Americans who supported him, for voters, you've got to be feeling pretty good. Yeah, pretty good.

[John Ashbrook]

Trump had a great weekend. I did not have a great weekend. Well, let's hear about being honest.

[Zach Nunn]

Oh, good. I'd like to hear about it.

[John Ashbrook]

It was very hot.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I was outside doing stuff with the kids, you know, like went To a splash pad.

[Zach Nunn]

Oh, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

In a park. You're sitting there just sweating. They enjoyed it a lot, don't get me wrong.

[Zach Nunn]

Splash. Is that like a water park?

[John Ashbrook]

It's like a water park, but you're not. It's not deep water. Right. It's like they've got like fountains and things that are sort of splashing the water about. Kids loved it. Absolutely loved it.

[Zach Nunn]

Not so much for their father.

[John Ashbrook]

No. Dad doesn't really get to enjoy much of that. You know, you're just sort of basically sitting there sweating.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Applying sunscreen.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You know. You know, it's just part of the deal.

[Zach Nunn]

Well, Ashbrook watched me miss a hole in one by an inch and a half on Friday.

[Michael Duncan]

It was very close. It lipped the hole. You couldn't see from the tee box. You could not see the ball on the other side of the pin. We really thought it was in.

[Zach Nunn]

I'm convinced that I'm not going. Like, when you have that experience and you've had many of them, I'm convinced that it's just not going to happen for me. Hole in one is very difficult.

[Michael Duncan]

Look, that was as close as it gets.

[Zach Nunn]

An element of luck that goes into all of that.

[John Ashbrook]

I was not there for this. You sent me the picture how close it was, and I texted you back immediately. And I said, if it would have went in, I would have jumped off my roof.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

If I. If I would have somehow missed that.

[Zach Nunn]

Also, look, a little bit of ink for the variety program. I'd be remiss if I didn't touch on a Daily Mail article from last week. For those of you who missed it, the most trusted news source for young men revealed. And it was based on some polling that was done, I guess, a couple of weeks ago by Adam Geller, who's a noted Trump pollster. He spent time in the 16 campaign and then did outside super PAC work in both 20 and 24 on behalf of Donald J. Trump. And he was doing some polling that is something that the Trump administration has been discussing. One of the things that, like Alex Bruschowitz, good friend of the program, has talked about in unlocking this new demo for Trump voters we saw show up in 24, but they're continuing to actually capitalize upon. And it's this podcast audience. And according to this outfit, a new poll shows that men 18 to 45 believe that long form podcasts are more trustworthy than traditional news. He goes on to say that podcasts like the one hosted by comedian Joe Rogan in The Ruthless podcast. Pretty good company as the most trustworthy and honest source of information about politics and government. And they've got a big number associated with Outpaces, basically every other purveyor of news and information. How about that?

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, that adds a lot more weight to Damageiorno. We're not just making fun of you. We've replaced you.

[Zach Nunn]

It's true. It's true. And I noticed. I couldn't help but think, Smash, as is always the case with the mainstream media, I suspect that you have some influence on this because it noted you in particular.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, you're referring to the key graph of the story in question. Let me just read it verbatim. The Ruthless Podcast grew in influence after one of the hosts, John Ashbrook, appeared in the new media seat created by Trump press officials in the White House press briefing room.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, this is one of those things that's sort of blind to all of us as hosts. We grind it out for four years. We do our work. You know, we make sure that every Tuesday and Thursday you have a program, and then when somebody writes us up, as was the case with the Wall Street Journal several months ago, and now, as it appears in Daily Mail, John Ashbrook. There's one, one host here that's highlighted.

[Michael Duncan]

I'll tell you, fellas, the story that compares us to Joe Rogan continues. It says Ashbrook's viral appearance at the White House press briefing in January helped them reach new levels of popularity and grow their subscriber base.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm just happy to. In the shade, provided by my co host, Jon Ash.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, I've always said he's a hitter. He's a home run hitter. The man knows one speed. He hits him out the park.

[Michael Duncan]

And now, you know, the rest of the story.

[Zach Nunn]

I mean, it's just incredible. The guy is just, look, he's got a magical touch. That's difficult. You know, they're writing something up. Yeah, we don't know it. The three of us don't have any clue. And then all of a sudden we see nut graphs that are like, well, if it wasn't for the leadership of.

[John Ashbrook]

John Ashbrook, I would love to think that we all have a magical touch. But I think the reality is the reason why shows like ours or Joe Rogan's show have gained popularity is really the vacuum that mainstream media has left here over the last decade. You look at the Russiagate collusion bullshit, you know, you look at the impeachments of Donald Trump, you look at Covid, you look at the Hunter Biden laptop over and over again, they have failed to do the job of educating and telling the truth to their audience. The result of that, shows like ours have huge listenership and viewership.

[Zach Nunn]

Also. There's an element of humility and humanity involved in what we do in that we give you our best take. We're not telling you everything is exactly the way we say it and everybody else is a liar. We're giving you our take on it, we're gonna give you the news and then we're giving your take on it. And like, we trust you as the audience to try to figure out whether what we're saying makes sense or not. You can go to all kinds of different areas to get that. But like, you look at the difference between CNN or MSNBC and the way that they handle that, they're like, no, there can be no dissent.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, that's the thing, is that you touched on a very key thing. I think it's a lot of Americans were very put off by the attitude that journalists have had over the past years where they, the Washington Post changes their tag to democracy dies in darkness. And you hear like, all these journalists being like, I am in the most noble profession known to man. I'm a journalist. Like, you know, these people are out there doing open heart surgery on babies. You know, like, get the hell out of here.

[Zach Nunn]

It's very, very true. Anyway, thanks to the Daily Mail and Adam Gallagher, who apparently threw us into that pot, that question in his poll. Good stuff. 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 Petroleum Institute. It's been crisis after crisis. COVID lockdowns, Biden's inflation, open borders and rampant crime. Now liberals want the largest tax hike in history, crushing families unless we stop them and bring America back. President Trump and Leader John Thune's plan will cut taxes for working families, strengthen our border and our economy. With no tax on tips or overtime wages, America is ready for President Trump and Leader John Thune's working family tax cuts. Let's talk about the wins here. We're going to do a brief summary. We'll get into the BBB stuff, the big beautiful bill here in a second. But if you look at the big wins There was something happening you probably didn't pay a ton of attention to. But obviously the trade relationship between Canada and the United States has been a big deal for a lot of people, not the least of which are those border states that have huge, huge crossover stuff. And Trump basically said, look, I'm open to negotiation, but as of maybe a week or two ago, he said that they were trying a digital services tax. He's like, as long as you're doing that in Canada, I'm not open for business. They're like, fine, we're just going to go ahead and do it. And then, like, less than a week later, they're like, okay, we're not. That's off the table. And the reason that we bring that up and now, apparently those negotiations have come back to the fore is the thing that we've consistently said when it comes to tariffs in the international economic policy of the Trump administration is don't look at this from a static standpoint. Don't look at it in terms of this is happening now. Think of it in terms of giving the international community an opportunity to react and make changes, and then deals can be done. This is a perfect example. It's like example 8 million that we've had across the globe of people saying, like, I'm gonna rat fuck the United States of America. And he's like, well, if you're gonna do that, then we're not open for business on negotiations. And like, lo and behold, they come back and they're like, I'd like to undo that commitment.

[Josh Holmes]

And this is an amazing thing to see now, repeatedly, you're seeing this with these deals that Trump is making, is the Democrats tried so hard to come up with a message that was like, oh, Trump chickens out. He's gonna just chicken out. And you're seeing the exact opposite. You're seeing other countries are now having to adapt to Trump drawing the line in the sand. And now you're seeing the results of it in the numbers. The stock market hit an all time high.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Everyone has now realized, oh, so this is how it works. He draws a line in the sand. He says, we're not gonna get ripped off anymore. And everyone comes to him. And all the panic that went on and all the like, think pieces of, like, Trump's destroying America. Look at the scoreboard.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no, that's exactly right. He draws a line in the sand and he projects strength. And one of his secret ingredients is that the Americans stand behind him. And for 30 plus years, the Americans have beaten the Canadians in the Stanley cup finals. And this year was no different. The Florida Panthers crushed the Edmonton Oilers and their great Connor McDavid to continue the streak. And so you have people from all walks of life. That's just me standing behind. That's just our great president.

[Zach Nunn]

It is mean. It's also true.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, but standing behind Florida hockey, I just. I won't stand for it.

[Zach Nunn]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm sorry.

[Zach Nunn]

Well, you.

[Michael Duncan]

Look, Duncan's got a soft spot for the Canadians.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, clearly.

[Zach Nunn]

Well, I mean. Okay, well, let's move on. The other piece of this is. Which has now become a June ritual here since the first four years of Donald J. Trump, is being delivered a goodie basket by the Supreme Court. I think there's a tendency for us to downplay this because of all of the judiciary back and forth and all of the federal judges trying to put stays on Trump administration. Like, there's a tendency to discount what's happening in the federal judiciary. But the groundwork that he laid in the first four years of his administration has now gotten us to a point where the Supreme Court has issued a decision that probably is more monumental than anything I could imagine when it comes to this administration, that district court judges cannot oppose, impose nationwide injunctions.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

Meaning all of this stuff that you're seeing when it comes to immigration or, you know, all the DEI stuff and everything else, the funding battles when it comes to, like, trans studies in Tanzania that, like, you can't get just some random federal court judge that puts a stay on it.

[Josh Holmes]

You get a district court judge who's like, turn that military plane around immediately. Yeah, yeah, get the hell out of here.

[Zach Nunn]

And the Supreme Court told them, not anymore. Not anymore.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, especially when you're dealing with an issue like the sort of venue shopping that these liberal, you know, activist groups utilize to do these injunctions, where you end up in a situation where something like, you know, five jurisdictions of these district courts impose, like, 80% of the injunctions against the Trump administration, you end up in a situation where you have, like, a tyranny of the super minority.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, right.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, like where. Where. Where you're not actually reflecting in any shape or form the United States. You're not. You're not reflecting what the voters want. There's some random district court judge who can decide that the elected president of the United States can't do something, and then you end up with the tyranny of the judiciary, which was pointed out by the majority in that SCOTUS decision. And I have to point out for this, you know, if you if you aren't on Twitter, Hilarious. Katanji Brown Jackson.

[Zach Nunn]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, probably the dumbest Supreme Court justice in American history. And read her dissent in this. It reads like a fucking toddler. Like, it was written in crayon. There are actually parentheticals. She writes like a zoomer.

[Josh Holmes]

This is the most annoying thing.

[John Ashbrook]

This is the person who went to an Ivy League school and ended up in the Supreme Court. Dumbest person on the Supreme Court in history.

[Michael Duncan]

It was.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you for pointing that out. It was the most irritating kind of like, zoomer, millennial brain shape where she says. And get this. Full stop.

[Zach Nunn]

It's like, full stop.

[Josh Holmes]

It's in there. She wrote like, are you for real?

[Zach Nunn]

Full stop.

[Josh Holmes]

Number one, you're an adult. Number two, you're a Supreme Court justice. Like, are you for real? Putting this in paper.

[John Ashbrook]

So. But even better than that, Smug, which I love the most, was Amy Coney Barrett, who wrote the majority opinion in here. The majority opinion was just dripping with disdain for Ketanji Brown Jackson's dissent. And at various points, there's something in there that is just, like, hilarious. What they actually reference, like, Marbury versus Madison, which is like. It'd be like the SCOTUS equivalent of having to bring up the fact that, like, a touchdown's worth seven points. It's like, you are. You are just condescending to somebody's intelligence so dramatically if you're bringing that up.

[Josh Holmes]

Like.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, at one point, she's like, we're not even. We're not even talking about the merits of her argument because it makes no sense.

[Zach Nunn]

First, like, the first case that you learn about in law. First year. Yeah. No, I mean, you're right. You get the majority decision, and then you get Kentanji Brown Jackson, which is something just short of, like, Skibidi Ohio. No cap. Well, yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

Seriously.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, and there's certainly a lot of time.

[Josh Holmes]

He's not wrong.

[John Ashbrook]

It was not bad. There's certain. Look, I would say for our listeners and viewers, there's certainly. There's certainly a lot of times, as a republic, as a Republican, you'll see an opinion from the Supreme Court that you might not agree with. But the difference between a majority in the Supreme Court who cares about limited government and the Constitution, all these things is. That's what drives them. Yeah, Right.

[Zach Nunn]

They like the law.

[John Ashbrook]

They like the law. And so the liberals on the court like the activism. They like the activism. They don't actually believe in the Constitution or any actual law. Right. So it's easy for them to put on a jersey like, our people actually believe in something.

[Zach Nunn]

It is why there's a lot of frustration on the conservative side about our justices versus their justices. The ones that they appoint are just simply activists. They don't give a shit about the law whatsoever. Our people, we've always believed, have a commitment to the Constitution and the law of the land, and they rule accordingly. It's somewhat of a hamstring for conservative justices, certainly, and that they have to actually adhere to what their job description is. Right where it is that the Democratic side has always appointed nominees that have no such commitment.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, my side wants to do it. Well, then it's okay.

[Zach Nunn]

Oh, then we're good. I will simply skip Ohio my way into whatever that it is. But listen, they made another big one. Parents have a constitutional right to invoke religious liberty, withdraw their children from LGBTQ educational material. This has been a big deal over the last four years. And it isn't about discrimination, as the left has talked about. It's more about educational freedom and the right to make parents understand and know what the material is that's being provided to their children. I don't know if people are gonna opt out or not, but the transparency in and of itself is just radically important. It's things that like Ron DeSantis was talking about in Florida that just get entirely misconstrued to make it sound like people are like, oh, we just don't like gay people. Well, that's never been the case. It's all about whether or not the school boards and these teachers have unilateral authority to educate their children over whatever the hell it is that they want to. But now they have to at some point, at least inform a parent about what the curriculum is.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's the thing is, for God's sake, this is taxpayer funded curriculum. Teach these kids reading, writing, arithmetic. What the hell are you trying to. As a teacher? You see this so much impose your own. Like, oh, today, kids, instead of math, we're going to talk about my sexuality. Okay, what the hell does this have to do with anything? Teaching these kids, right? And this guy made this.

[Zach Nunn]

You may see that I'm wearing a dress this afternoon. I'd like to talk about it in detail and get a blue book paper.

[Josh Holmes]

And the kid's like, what does this have to do with algebra? You know? And this guy brought this great point where he showed. This article had just come out about how in China, the government is intentionally sending, like, Uyghur children and Tibetan children to these schools. That focus on teaching like Mao, it's a re education.

[John Ashbrook]

So they. They lose their local culture and history. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Intentionally.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So then they lose any sort of identity or traditions that their family had to. Because that's the glory socialist revolution is. It's needed and the tactics don't change. Folks like we're seeing in New York, they don't care that you stop calling them Democrats and start calling them socialists. What they are. They're doing it themselves now.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, historic. Historic time for the Supreme Court. Huge wins if you're a conservative. The drc, Democratic Republic of the Congo, making a deal with Rwanda again. When we're talking about global leadership, we spent an awful lot of time last week, and you'll hear again from Zach Nunn about the impact that we've had with Iran, how that impacts NATO, the world, and how we're sort of once again the leader of the free world. This goes into Africa, where you're seeing two outfits that have been at war forever, that they're now, like, signing historic peace deals. This is the most underrated component, I think, of the Trump administration. We saw it in the first term with the Abraham Accords or whatever, where you've got civilizations that have been at war forever that people think are irretractible, just stay out of it type battles, that people are finding reasons to sign peace deals under the framework that Donald Trump has provided. It's a big fricking deal.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. It turns out you didn't need USAID and billions and billions of taxpayer dollars. You just needed leadership.

[Zach Nunn]

The trans studies under Tanzania. You don't think that got it done?

[Michael Duncan]

Who knew?

[Josh Holmes]

That didn't get it done.

[Zach Nunn]

It didn't get it done. That's crazy. I can't believe that. A few more children books about men being women and women being men. I think that would have been.

[Josh Holmes]

You'd have thought that would get the peace deal done.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah. We have to probably pass that through a Democratic official at some point.

[John Ashbrook]

Some former elected Stacey Abrams is ready, willing and able.

[Zach Nunn]

We gotta make sure that they're administering those books for a cool $2,500 pop.

[John Ashbrook]

Hey, hey. Just a nominal fee.

[Zach Nunn]

Just a nominal fee. But listen, when we come back, Trump inches closer to completing the domestic agenda when it comes to the big beautiful bill. We're going to give you a recap of where all of that is in the House and when you can expect it to come into law right after this.

[John Ashbrook]

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[Zach Nunn]

Okay, the big beautiful bill and listen for our listeners. If you want to get a little bit deeper into a breakdown of somebody who's actually serving the House of Representatives, who has a good take on how they're going to process that and when we can expect it to come into law, stay tuned for that interview with Nunn. He gives us a good overview on all of that. But we're just going to give you a little bit of our overview because again, the media is only stressing whether it can get done the process, the negativity involved. They only highlight people who vote against the dang thing. We've talked a lot about what it is that it's going to do in terms of preventing the largest tax increase in American history and preventing people in the working class arena to actually get a meaningful tax cut and not just one for the upper class. But you're not going to hear that on CNN or MSNBC or anywhere in your local newspapers. This has been a struggle. You got a House package with a very slim majority that makes it across the finish line. It goes to the Senate. Senate has always got a different view of how they want to do it, but they've done an admirable job of working across chambers to get to a point where they can find something that's mutually exclusive or mutually acceptable, I should say. And we're now on the precipice of actually getting this done on a July 4th deadline that this president said that I think all of us deep in our heart thought was true. Super ambitious.

[Michael Duncan]

I thought it was. I thought it was super ambitious. I mean, I was sort of expecting an August recess reality for passing it. But like one of the things you said that's exactly right is the media's characterization of this bill is, is incomplete at best. I was watching golf on Sunday and the CBS News break comes in and it's just always a downer. And she's like, trump's big spending and tax bill on CBS News tonight. And it's just like, you people do not understand why nobody believes you and nobody listens to you. But they just continue to drive the disagreements among Republicans. They try to shape everything. You've heard a lot of talk about process from the media because they're trying to upset it. They're pushing this idea that J.D. vance should overrule the parliamentarian, for example, which everybody knows is not exactly a good idea, because if he did that, then you have a whole host of senators who are against the thing. He loses. Exactly. So it's in a narrowly divided chamber. You have very, very little wiggle room. And so whether you're talking about the process with the parliamentarian or you're talking about major changes to the tax side or major changes to Medicaid or anything, there is a, there is a give and a take with these votes.

[John Ashbrook]

So there's two things that I want to add on to that, and they really are the same thing. But the first is a talking point from the media, which is that, you know, this is going to explode the deficit, you know, $3 trillion or whatever that they say. And the other one that's related to that is the one that the Democrats use. The largest wealth transfer to the wealthy in American history. Remind both of them. Based on, on the same exact.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Point.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

Which, which is that if we keep tax rates the same, it's a wealth transfer. It's a wealth transfer. If, if, if, if wealthy people in this country aren't forced to pay more money, then they are getting a wealth transfer from where? From, from their, from their own pocket.

[Josh Holmes]

From their own pocket, pocket to the right pocket. That's a wealth transfer.

[John Ashbrook]

Now we're going to explode the deficit not because of the spending, not the irresponsible spending in this country. It's because these people didn't opt in to, to paying a higher tax rate for future spending we might want to do.

[Zach Nunn]

It's all nonsense and bullshit.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

It just is. And look, the largest part of what it is that we're seeing in the big beautiful bill is just a continuation of 2017 tax rates, as we saw. And the CBO and all of that analysis said they were going to lose a trillion and a half dollars. Turns out we gained a trillion and a half dollars because of economic growth associated with the components of the tax bill. Like, there's no reason not to assume that we're in the Same category. And yet they use that talking point to say wealth transfer. Right. And you hear people like Thomas Massie pick up on the Democratic talking point where they say you can't, I saw this thing over the weekend. You can't have a tax cut without a budget cut. Okay, well look, I'm all for budget cuts, no question about it. And I think that they ought to get on that. And they already are in this bill. I mean, it's the largest reduction of spending that we've seen in quite some time. But the idea that our economy is so static and you're so beholden to the Democratic version of events that the only way that you can get into plus territory as a country is taxing your way out of it is wild. How can you call yourself a conservative and ever say that?

[Michael Duncan]

Like people don't work hard enough for what they earn? You know what? The money actually does belong to the government. Thanks for educating us, Thomas Massie. It belongs to you. It doesn't belong to the people who work their ass off five days.

[Zach Nunn]

But I would love to hear a question, like an answer to a question of. Okay, so you're all about the balanced budget. What tax rate do you think is appropriate.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

To tax your way out of the deficit problem that you have helped preside over, by the way. Because let's be honest about it, you've had a point of view, you've driven it, but you've been unable to persuade any of your colleagues to take your point of view over what, eight, ten year career. So now we're in a standpoint where you say the taxes need to go up in order to work your way out of the problem that the Congress you served in created. What is that tax rate? How much do you need to take? Do you need to take like 75% of the American people's money? I don't know, like just tell us. Cuz that's what that logical argument is.

[Michael Duncan]

Right? You're right.

[Zach Nunn]

And that is not a Republican argument. It's just not a conservative argument anyway.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, thank God President Trump looks like he's going to win again.

[Zach Nunn]

It does, it does. And it's going to go to the House. You can hear from none on all of that. Hopefully the President will be able to meet the deadline that they set ambitiously by Independence Day, Fourth of July. Wouldn't that be an little firework on the White House lawn and celebration for Americans? They can keep a little bit more of their money this year. Big deal. Huge, big, big deal. So our question of the day revolves around all of that. Do you think that the Independence Day deadline is one that they're going to meet? We have pontificated over the last couple of months about whether it's realistic or not. A lot of us, me included, have thought maybe this slips to like when they said the debt ceiling needs to be raised in mid July or whatever, but it feels like they're on the glide path. So that's our question of the day. Do you think it's going to get it done? And what's that party going to look like? Give us a little color. I'd like to hear from all of you about what, what you think is appropriate.

[John Ashbrook]

My party's going to look like two racks of ribs and a brisket.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

On my big green egg.

[Zach Nunn]

That's what I'm talking about. Let's fire up the free bird.

[John Ashbrook]

Hell, yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

Let's go. So, coming up, your comments from last episode. Remember, you gotta like and subscribe, and when you do that on the YouTube, you like and subscribe and you comment. We read all of them, and then we put them all together and we give you a little sampling of what we think best reflects the common understanding of our question of the day. And we're gonna get to last week's right after this.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, folks, time to sound the alarm. Trump's big, beautiful tax cut is coming down to the wire in Congress, and my friends at Americans for Prosperity want your help to get it across the finish line. If the bill doesn't pass, the average American family is looking at a $1,500 tax hike. Americans for Prosperity says not going to happen right now. Some members of Congress are getting very shaky with every special interest in D.C. pounding on their doors. But AFP thinks it's time for hardworking Americans to do some pounding of their own. So AFP and its grassroots army is already out there pushing back on crazy ideas like raising tax rates and supporting the congressmen who want to cut taxes. AFP is the only organization I know that can bring this kind of grassroots pressure to bear. If you want to join the fight to Protect Prosperity, visit ProtectProsperity.com to help Trump get his big, beautiful bill. That's ProtectProsperity.com.

[Zach Nunn]

Okay, you liked and subscribed, you added your comments, and we'll get to it. As we do that, we always start with a voice.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, remember, like and subscribe if you wish to opine like Too Tall Bill did, and he wrote, when did the Democrats ever go moderate? Remember Jimmy Carter? Then the Dems kept nominating lefties until Bill Clinton four elections later. So hopefully they lose the next three. Then the GOP ran a ton of loser rhinos. Too Tall Bill not hiding any of his thoughts?

[Zach Nunn]

No, he's giving it straight, uncut dunks. What do we got?

[John Ashbrook]

Joseph Travers has his own opinion here. He writes, historically progressive politics always requires the movement to become more progressive until they destroy themselves or their country. In American politics, the Left up until 2012 made compromises with the right to maintain political power. Since they've made compromises with a progressive left for electoral power, the DNC is now in a position where they either double down with progressives moving farther left or cut off the hand that has fed them. The New York City primary seems to indicate indecision, failure to feel the viable candidate that can do the latter, and an action that leads to the former.

[Zach Nunn]

Interesting analysis. Well, well done.

[John Ashbrook]

Smart. We got smart people.

[Zach Nunn]

We got smarts. There's a lot of smarts out there. What do we got? Smug Comment 3 Comment 3 is from.

[Josh Holmes]

Chris Arias and they write Question of the day. Yes, I've been working as a news cameraman in the New York, New Jersey area for 13 years.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow.

[Josh Holmes]

Over the years I've seen a big increase in younger Democrats embracing socialism as they become more disenfranchised with their party and the idea of the American Dream. Especially after Trump took Kamala and Tiana and Timmy to the back of the barn in November. Ideas and beliefs like Mamdani's will become more mainstream as the older Democrats, politicians and voters die off and the AOCs and crockets take it over with their younger followers. Socialism will be a staple of the Democrat Party in the not so distant future and New Jersey real estate will skyrocket with all the New Yorkers fleeing the Madani's nyc. Unrelated note, the production value of your show is phenomenal. Keep up the great work.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's from a cameraman. I love to hear that.

[Zach Nunn]

Well done.

[John Ashbrook]

Shout out to Spaghetti and Wolf.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, one thing I want to say, how dead on that comment was. I just saw some polling exit numbers from New York City and the share of the youth vote that was like 18 to 24 in this Democrat primary had like tripled. Tripled. It was the number one voting group, 18 to 24.

[Zach Nunn]

So I had an interesting conversation with a neighbor the other day about all of this and it sort of flies in the face of some of the more populist view, even populist right of what's happening on the socialist left. And like the populist right likes to believe basically that because of your inability to buy a home, your inability to be a serious player within an economic marketplace, and like your, your inability to fundamentally change your lot in life, that, that this is basically where you land, which is just like destroying all that. His take is it comes from the fundamental lack of education that our educational systems have provided the youth of today. In that you've got a whole bunch of quote unquote, highly educated. Right. More degrees than a thermometer. Except they've been taught that the system's always against you and that like you have to have this basically socialist view or, you know, I mean, what do you call it? It's like the, the larger dynamic of just resisting the system. And a failure to recognize how you got into the place that you're at is a failure of the education system. Meaning that you live in these big blue progressive cities where you can't afford a home and then you don't have enough education to understand why that is, that the socialist policies put you in that place. And it's not a market based system where people can keep more of their own money.

[Michael Duncan]

You're led to believe over a lifetime that you get another degree, you spend another hundred thousand on a bachelor's, another hundred thousand on a master's, another hundred thousand on a PhD. And that should equal the ability to buy a home.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And you've been lied to.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. But here's the thing. The fallacy of the left, I disagree with that because I don't think those people are those two things at the same time. Like, I don't think a person who's getting that master's degree and that PhD is a person who's still struggling to buy a home. Like, if you look at the breakouts by income level, the poorest New Yorkers voted for Cuomo.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, it was the wealthiest New Yorkers who voted for Mamdani. Yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

But, you know, doesn't it underscore his point?

[Josh Holmes]

The education system.

[John Ashbrook]

The education thing is absolutely correct. I would merely suggest that in every socialist revolution, if you look anywhere throughout history, it always starts with the student vanguard. And it never is the poorest people. No, it is the highly educated, wealthy people who've never earned an actual paycheck in their lives.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And so they don't actually understand how a capitalist system works. They have a fucking trust fund. They're the professional poor. They go out and they, and they protest, but they are entirely insulated from the results of what they're Advocating for. Yeah, it's a luxury belief that they have that they can go out there and protest on behalf of because even if it goes badly, they're insulated from that too.

[Michael Duncan]

Not unlike their standard bearer, Mandani, who went to a school, yes, $65,000 a year. I don't think how many people listening to this show ever went to a school that cost $65,000 a year.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, I mean, I think that's the fundamental point is that like if you are a grad student or you've been privileged enough to go get more degrees than a thermometer, you have some means and some resources, and yet you are somehow ill equipped with the knowledge that socialism has never worked.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's the thing, isn't it?

[Zach Nunn]

And you have no idea.

[Josh Holmes]

It's such a terrific point because academia has, for the large part, been completely captured by the left in whole hog. Whether you're talking about from grade school all the way through, you know, higher education, the collegiate level, whether you're getting a master's or PhD, the left has taken over it completely. And part of that education is, yeah, you'll attend a college and you're being taught by someone who's like, well, here's the thing, is that capitalism is an absolute failure and all it leads to is human misery. You know, I'm allowed to have tenure in a system that keeps me incredibly comfortable and New York City is unaffordable. Well, it has nothing to do with, you know, price ceilings and rent control. It has nothing to do with any of that. You take an intro econ class, you'll realize how messed up the system is and it leads to what we have here. But other than that, yeah, it's capitalism's fault, folks. And so like this education system, and it's of the upper classes, perpetuates itself again and again. You'll never find more ardent communist than like a woman who graduated from Brown, like she's ready to throw Molotovs and kill people, she's out of there.

[John Ashbrook]

Right, right.

[Michael Duncan]

And it's a disease that is pervasive in New England and pervasive in California. But there are parts of this country, particularly in the Midwest, that is resistant to that sort of like anti common sense point of view. Case in point, a brand new poll from Fox News found just yesterday that the gap is narrowing as teenagers across the country are showing a growing interest in trade schools over traditional college degrees. So kids in the younger generations there is there somewhere out there, and I'm guessing it's in the Midwest, there is a practical strain of thinking where people are like, wait a minute, I can be an electrician and I can make bank, real bank, change my family's life. Exactly.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And I can't take that job.

[Zach Nunn]

But I mean, again, and I'll wrap it up with this. It's not by coincidence. It's not just that they've captured education. If you had any question about the motives of the progressive left, you might ask yourself why it is that tuition for all these elite schools has never decreased. It only goes to up. And yet their advocacy is that everyone has an opportunity to get that education. They just want to do it on your dime, the taxpayer for middle America.

[Michael Duncan]

Such a good opportunity.

[Zach Nunn]

And the only reason that you can get into that headspace where you can increase the prices and yet make somebody else pay for it is when you are the financial beneficiary. You yourself, the progressive movement, are the financial beneficiary of the policy. And that is how you understand how institutional capture is done in a machine America. It's the reason why they have Hollywood. It's the reason why they've got so many information flow sources, because they are the direct beneficiary of it.

[Josh Holmes]

Also, do they never have a second to pause and wonder why is it the cities that the left has absolute control of are the most unaffordable? New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco. It's funny. When they have total control, it's the most unaffordable. Weird.

[Zach Nunn]

But that's like the core of the point. I know. It's just. It's absolutely. You ready for a lightning round? Because we got to tick through a couple of things that everybody needs to know about.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

If you follow this rapper situation.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Zach Nunn]

You followed it probably more closely as our. Our resident pop culture guy.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I know things, you know.

[Zach Nunn]

What's up?

[Michael Duncan]

Cultural Polyglot.

[Zach Nunn]

So this got on the radar because the wonderful title.

[Josh Holmes]

We should make that his chiron. I mean, Duncan speaks cultural polyglot.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, I feel like that's right. So the United States Department of State has indicated they are not going to provide a visitor's visa for an artist who has got a particular message in some of his songs. Two messages we'd like to highlight and get everybody's thoughts on this guy named. What's his name?

[Michael Duncan]

Bob Villain.

[Zach Nunn]

So he's just like basically stealing a name, appropriating it. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

When you consider his politics is kind of hilarious in and of itself.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah. All right, so can we play clip one of this, please? This Is a Jesus, it's a big crowd.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a Glastonbury.

[Zach Nunn]

Free, Free, Free, free, free, free.

[John Ashbrook]

All right, but have you heard this one, though?

[Zach Nunn]

Death, death to the idf. Deaf death to the idf. Death, death to the idf. Gu to the idf.

[John Ashbrook]

Lot of Palestinian flags.

[Zach Nunn]

Death, gu to the idf.

[John Ashbrook]

Hell, yeah. From the river to the sea Palestine must be Will be Inshah.

[Zach Nunn]

It will be free. Oh, that's an interesting little tidbit. So, obviously he's calling for the death of Israel in multiple forms, and he's got quite a crowd, and he intended to come to the United States of America. The Trump administration said, no thanks. Here's a second clip that I think contextualizes this in some ways, because it's. That's one piece of it is the Israel component. Not just that, is it. CLIP 2 Shit. Me too. Heard you want your country back. Shut the fuck up. Heard you want your country back.

[Unknown Speaker]

You can't have that.

[Zach Nunn]

The only place I know stolen right under my nose.

[John Ashbrook]

My ignorance.

[Zach Nunn]

Stop trying to lay claim to a land that ain't bears Anyway.

[Michael Duncan]

Wait, what did you say?

[John Ashbrook]

Hmm.

[Zach Nunn]

So that gentleman was speaking about immigration policies and his, shall we say, disinterest in entertaining any of that by saying, I heard you want your country back. Fuck that.

[Josh Holmes]

He's like, england was stolen from the Anglo Saxon. Like, what is he even talking about? Like, I saw a bunch of discussion of his, like, past lyrics. The guy wants to kill white people. He's, like, an absolute lunatic. And he's been given that platform. And thing is, like, this is in England, where if you're conservative, you'll get, like, arrested for posting on Facebook. But they're like, you know what? Let's get this guy Glass.

[Zach Nunn]

I mean.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I mean, like, this is their version of, like, Lollapalooza. Yeah. And he's up there being just basically mocking the UK itself. Right.

[Zach Nunn]

Mocking the uk Also calling for the elimination of the Israeli state.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Zach Nunn]

And mocking the complaints of anyone who thinks that they ought to have a border at this point. Right, Right. And this dude evidently wanted to come to the United States to do his thing. Trump administration said, no, thanks.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, good.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. It is fascinating how much this sort of, like, I guess you'd call it anti, like, neo colonialism has sort of become pervasive in our politics and media. You know, I mean, whether that is land acknowledgments in the United States about we live on stolen land, or the UK apparently lives on stolen land because they stole it from the Picts and The. The Saxons, you know, I loved.

[Zach Nunn]

Your point is, like, I'd love for somebody to just tell me when the point of history is that we stopped doing land acknowledgments, like, who was the appropriate owner of a personal sort of parcel.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Zach Nunn]

At any one time. And then we can.

[John Ashbrook]

When. When was the entire globe at homeostasis? What was that year and date? So we can go to that. So everyone's super happy.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Just so we understand ever existed.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

But might I suggest we read a couple more lyrics here from. From our friend Bob Villain, because it's not just this song, obviously. This is from another one of his jams. You don't know what I do to survive. Are you with them? Are you with us? Pick a side. Burn Britannia, Kill the queen. That's the vibe. Time to ride.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, apparently he's not aware the queen has passed.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Maybe he'll find out.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, it's incredible.

[Unknown Speaker]

Cool, dude.

[Zach Nunn]

It's incredible. But it's. It's this intersectionality that he has. I mean, look at the crowd, you know? I mean, you're talking about a whole bunch of people who are, like, flying Palestinian flags and jumping around and saying, yeah, hell yeah. Except you're the ones that he's talking about.

[Josh Holmes]

And also, like, you can afford glass and brief tickets. Like, you know, like, boy, my parents, they thank you for setting up this trust fund for me that I can go to Glastonbury right now. I'm here to fight the revolution.

[Zach Nunn]

Real struggle bus situation. You're, like, out at a concert, doing your thing. You know what they weren't doing there? Murdering everybody in the audience, sawing off heads, raping women, bringing them back to Gaza and holding them hostage for three years. That's what was not happening. It's an interesting dynamic. I wonder how he wraps his mind around the difference between concerts and celebrations for him versus the free world.

[Michael Duncan]

Great point.

[Zach Nunn]

Anyway, a couple other things. A Senate retirement that is going to make some waves. We take interest for a variety of reasons. We have some Senate background. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina. He's, of course, served since the. His election in 2014. He announced that he will not be seeking reelection in the great state of North Carolina, which led us to sort of ponder here on the Ruthless Variety program whether we know anybody in North Carolina that would be, you know, sufficient to hold up the Republican.

[John Ashbrook]

Who's saying that? Who's saying that?

[Zach Nunn]

Where's that coming from? Oh, dude, Smug.

[Josh Holmes]

The funniest online chatter was people who were like, when is smug? Running, not running, not happening.

[Zach Nunn]

You're ruling it out?

[John Ashbrook]

I thought you were a patriot.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, well, so here's the thing, is there are some far more highly qualified people who I would love, love to see represent the great state.

[Michael Duncan]

A reluctant servant. That's exactly what the people want.

[Josh Holmes]

We're talking about folks whose name was being thrown out there. I got multiple, multiple phone calls, text messages asking me my thoughts on Pat Harrigan, who we had on the show not too long ago from North Carolina. I think the guy is an absolute all star. I think he would be an awesome senator. Other names that have been tossed out there. Michael Watley.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah. RNC chair.

[Michael Duncan]

Great friend of the program.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Great friend of the program. He did an outstanding job making North Carolina Ruby red that the, like, super majority we have at the state level. Terrific. He's instrumental in that. And Lara Trump.

[Zach Nunn]

Yep. Yeah. Lara Trump is somebody that superstar last time around.

[John Ashbrook]

None of them are as good as smug. I'm not gonna let you wiggle out of this.

[Zach Nunn]

Well, I mean, look, this is gonna be an open situation, and our time for a Senate breakdown is another show at another time. We'll give you our views. But over 15 years, we played a large role in trying to figure out how to iron out differences and get alignment across the party for a candidate in a state like North Carolina, where it's a swing state, you gotta have your stuff in a midterm in order to win there. Not like you can just, like, button up a red flag.

[Josh Holmes]

You don't roll up and get a W there. We have learned many times at the.

[John Ashbrook]

Governor level, which is why we need a great candidate.

[Zach Nunn]

Like, you know, and I've heard widely that people want a suitable in them to vote for. Yeah, like, people are very interested in not knowing the real name.

[Josh Holmes]

I will tell folks, go back and watch, because it was only about a month ago we had Pat Harrigan on. I think that's one of the best interviews he has ever done.

[John Ashbrook]

It's great.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, the guy is quite literally an American hero. That title gets thrown around a lot. Pat Harrigan's an American hero. And if you have not yet watched that interview, I mean, look, then you'll get why so many people were texting me. They're like, what do you think about Pat Harrigan?

[Zach Nunn]

We're fortunate enough to have a pretty good bench with some pretty good success in North Carolina. People like Richard Hudson, who's the chairman of the nrcc, he's basically. I don't know if he's ruled it out. Publicly or not, but it sounds like it because he's got the responsibility of trying to elect a House majority. But again, that's somebody who ordinarily you would think of is kind of like the top tier of this discussion. They're going to have to work through this. But my suggestion, strong suggestion, is you work it out with some alignment sooner rather than later. If you let these things become an issue, bleed out over time where you don't have party alignment, you put yourself in a weaker position against maybe a Roy Cooper, maybe somebody else on the Democratic side who's had success in the.

[Josh Holmes]

It's probably going to be Roy Cooper who has been the governor of North Carolina, who's had, you know, he's been a thorn in the side. This Democrat keeps winning statewide. He's gonna be able to raise a ton of money. So, you know, like we've learned at the governor level, the gubernatorial level, we can't drop the ball.

[Zach Nunn]

You can't have around to find out when it comes to these high profile things. There's enough power out there. We know that's the only thing the Democrats are concerned about. We're gonna spend a lot of money, so you gotta get your ducks in order. The third one, Boot Pettigieg.

[Michael Duncan]

I love this dude.

[Zach Nunn]

It's just so good. He started following the ufc, of course. Can we put up this graphic?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Studying what they're interested in.

[Zach Nunn]

This is a dude who used to take a government G6 to his own like documentary movie.

[Josh Holmes]

The documentary about his run for president.

[Zach Nunn]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

And like ride a bike to the back of a suburban.

[Zach Nunn]

Anything. Yeah, but your UFC consumer. Right, right. But now he's trying to like rebrand and figure this out.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

Do we just find humor in this?

[John Ashbrook]

I do. I mean, when I think of Pete, I don't think about taking pre workout and pring on bench press. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's feels a little dissonant, but I appreciate him trying to go out and learn the culture.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

You know, I guess that's what's happening.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And I, I predict we were talking about this earlier, it's not going to stop with the ufc. You know, he's recently, recently moved to Michigan and so now he's pretending to be from Michigan. The Detroit Tigers are a very good team this year, so I predict that he is going to get way into baseball if the Tigers stay out and he is going to pretend like he is into the Detroit Tigers and that team from Michigan is needs to win.

[Zach Nunn]

Boots Trying to sell that he's like a couch potato sports fan is tough stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not going to happen.

[Zach Nunn]

It's tough stuff. He's reinvented himself, like, three or four times. But this one feels like a bridge too far.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't know.

[Zach Nunn]

We'll see. We're gonna come in. We'll keep up on, you know, we keep up on boot, so we'll keep up on all that. I saw this one over the weekend. I love this to death. A great place that we have visited an enormous amount of times over the years. Somerset, Kentucky. Salt of the earth, peeps. If you ever want to go, just have a good time and, like, run into nobody that you disagree with. Like, everybody's kind of got the same appreciation for country and family and all this stuff. Somerset, Kentucky's a good spot. So I took notice. When you've got, like, these protests happening all over America, not in Somerset. They have a gathering where. What do they do? Clip three, please.

[Josh Holmes]

Such a great show.

[Zach Nunn]

For your audio only, listen. They loaded up the old General Lee. That's, you know, the Dodge Charger, the old General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard, and they jumped it over the town fountain that they lit in a blue light with a big crowd and noticed there wasn't a ton of protection. Like, that cameraman nearly lost his life there.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, it was a good time.

[Zach Nunn]

That's how it's raw, right? I mean, we're like. We're flying cars. We don't know what's gonna happen, folks, but let's film it and find out.

[John Ashbrook]

But what a good. What a good cameraman. Good cameraman. Because he waited until the last second to get out of the way.

[Zach Nunn]

Oh, he wanted the grill in his face before he pulled out.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

I mean, look, this is. This is. This is how, you know, like, if you're sitting somewhere in the Middle east and you're thinking about, look at that.

[John Ashbrook]

Look at that cameraman.

[Zach Nunn]

Oh, he's still got the camera down.

[Michael Duncan]

By the way, like Saquon Barkley.

[Zach Nunn]

Just wild juking.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

Then he pulls it away at the last minute. But, you know, if you're in Tehran or if you're somewhere in the Middle east and you're like, wow, I wonder if America has the resolve to actually win these things. Take a look at Somerset, Kentucky. You don't stand a chance.

[Josh Holmes]

And trivia, deep lore for the audience.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, my gosh, we got another angle.

[Zach Nunn]

Oh, it's another angle. It's a rooftop angle where you can see the Whole run up and they just bounce this sucker up. Boom. Right through the thing in the streets.

[Michael Duncan]

And the building tops are packed.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Everybody's filming. Everybody's cheering.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, and, you know, every single bar on Main street was packed after that.

[Zach Nunn]

People were just celebrating America.

[John Ashbrook]

Hell, yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Growing up, I actually. The power wheels I had was a General Lee and it played Dixie when he honked the horn. Really wonderful childhood. Yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

You know, I think you're probably. I think I probably have one of those, too.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, they were the best. You can't get them anymore because, you know, the world we live in. Bring them back.

[Zach Nunn]

I had a couple of, like, my first couple of birthday cakes for old dukes ahead.

[Josh Holmes]

Were they. I mean, what a great show.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, I know. It's great. Uncle Jesse Leland giving us the narration. Jeez. Okay, last bit of in the lightning round. The Bezos wedding was last weekend. A lot of commentary about all of that. But what caught our eye with some wedding invitations. Let's take a look at graphic four, please. Okay, fellas, far be it for me to be a critic or a judge of what wedding invitations look like. It looks a little bit like clip art.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Zach Nunn]

To me. I know we've all had our sort of experiences with wives and larger families on selecting what it is that wedding invitations look like. Would this have passed your wives?

[Michael Duncan]

Probably not. But I do remember a conversation that we had some years ago about how you're supposed to handle yourself in the planning of a wedding. Something that your wife thinks about the way you dreamt about being Rudy someday. And she has all these ideas, and you can't show disinterest, even though you don't have the same level of interest in all the details. So you have to pick something.

[Zach Nunn]

There's a strategy.

[Michael Duncan]

You have to pick something to weigh in on.

[John Ashbrook]

Mine was the bar and the band.

[Michael Duncan]

The bar and the band. That's a pretty good thing to weigh in on.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Another thing you could weigh in on is the invitations. I think this one looks nice. I think that one doesn't look nice. Let's use a different font. And my guess is that Jeff Bezos did not weigh in on this invitation. Just judging by the beauty of his Amazon website and how well organized that is. My guess is he didn't choose smog.

[Zach Nunn]

You're the most recent amongst us to go through this operation. Give me some of that.

[Josh Holmes]

I'll probably have unpopular opinion. So it says on here, like, you know, please, no gifts. I love that. I love that. I hate wedding registries.

[Zach Nunn]

Are you Gonna give a billionaire gifts.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, that and also it's like, why would anyone. There's no need for anyone ever to have a registry, right? Like, come on. Speaking like a registry, you're already demanding.

[Zach Nunn]

Financially independent, before he got married.

[Josh Holmes]

You're already demanding people like call to wherever you're having your wedding, on whatever date they gotta get dressed up, they gotta attend. And you're like, and on top of that, here's a list of stuff I want you to buy me. It's like, come on, tell me, are you.

[Zach Nunn]

My kitchen's still stocked with our wedding registry.

[John Ashbrook]

I have a panini we've pressed, we've never used, still in the box.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, someday, someday, someday I'll work up the courage.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, you're entirely right though. If you pick one thing and you act as though it is the most important thing and then you kind of become a little bit of a pain in the ass about it. They're like, geez, I don't know if we want him involved in everything. So they kind of like casually brush the other thing, you good with this. And then you say like, I don't care. They're like good and they move on. Whereas like if you show disinterest in everything, they're like, you don't even care.

[Michael Duncan]

You don't even care.

[Zach Nunn]

And you catch, you catch the boots from your wife.

[Michael Duncan]

Can I get psychology?

[Josh Holmes]

I want to give some advice too for, you know, the younger gentleman who might be thinking about getting married and situations like that.

[John Ashbrook]

I can't wait for this.

[Zach Nunn]

It's going to be good.

[Josh Holmes]

Find a bride who understands the difference between appreciating and depreciating assets. It's the most important decision you make is who you marry. And so if you can find one who understands that, who thinks and you mutually come to the conclusion that maybe a down payment on a house is a better idea than a one day party that we are too wrapped up and going place to place to actually enjoy for ourselves.

[Michael Duncan]

Sweetheart, I've bought you this ring and I have a very important question for you. But before you answer, I want you to take this series seven example.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean here's think about that is like, you know, if you are committed to spending the rest of your life with someone, do you want to have a future or is this person concerned with a one day party? I think that's a very important question.

[Michael Duncan]

Very important.

[Zach Nunn]

And then most of us will deal with the woman that we've chosen to be our wife. Important question, one in which is not Terribly.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, especially today, you know, when you're talking about, like, oh, is it unaffordable to buy houses? Weddings are always unaffordable.

[Zach Nunn]

Well, with a test tube like that, how can you go, we want to get to this interview. It's a very good one. Zach Nunn, you've heard him here before. Got a lot to say. In Iran and the big beautiful bill, we always like to have an old friend back to the variety program. This guy's been with us almost since day one. Incredibly important interview for this particular moment in time. Turns out he's got some experience in Iran, and the whole big beautiful bill is going to land on his plate here soon. Representative Zach Nunn. How are you, sir?

[Unknown Speaker]

Boys, I should actually call you. The Iowa fan club out to the fair. You love this. You've got Governor Reynolds shouted out loud and clear. For those who are still listening like I do on the audio podcast, you can see the coffee, coffee mug right there. And I just want to say I'm privileged to be back in here. You guys have gone legit here. I feel like I'm on an ESPN corner about ready to fire off. This feels pretty solid.

[Zach Nunn]

Your shade's a little different from the conference room table.

[Unknown Speaker]

I feel like it felt like before we were kind of at a poker table in my neighbor's garage. And all of a sudden there's like legitimacy behind you now worthy of all 700 or at least five fans in Iowa listen to right now.

[Zach Nunn]

It's very funny that you mentioned you're the audio guy. Most of your colleagues are the audio variety. And we've fielded some complaints that they want a little bit more description of the audio pieces that we put here. The pieces that we put here. But it sounds like your colleagues are, you know, they're, they're audio guys.

[Unknown Speaker]

They're audio guys. In fairness, there's a lot of light coming at us right now. So I, I feel like there's two things I got to bring. I have, I have the gift bag. First off, a little Revelton, Iowa single barrel bourbon whiskey. This is for my colonel's promotion last week. I thought I should share it with a good friend. But like all good things with this bright light, brought some aviator shades, self branded top none action out here. This is, this is our big fundraiser event for the year. And future is so bright. But also after a good Iranian strike, what better they kick back with than a little bit of single batch bourbon and some aviator shades?

[Zach Nunn]

Listen, you, you, if anybody knows this, it's. You can we stop start with the Iran piece because obviously this has been a big development over the last week and a half, one of which I think the variety program has concluded unbelievably necessary, incredibly important for the future of, of not only this country, but the free world in a lot of different ways. But look, you've had a pretty substantial experience as a colonel in the Air Force. I mean, you flew some of the missions during the Soleimani strike.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right. Well, hey, yeah, you know, my career started off as a military guy. I'm one of the last still serving colonels in the Air Reserve. Now it's both. Myself, Pfluger Timmons serves in the Air National Guard. And it's great to have members like this who are in Congress who are actually serving. But I remember back in Trump 1, when Syria was launching barrel bombs against kids and chemical weapons were all over the battlefield here that looked like it was going to bleed into Israel. And he said, take the strike, eliminate these guys. It was our unit, I was the commander of the targeting unit that went in and put what we call the dimpy, or the actual target impact point on where we were going to hit, how we were going to hit this chemical weapons facility in Syria. We did it in the dead night, minimum loss of life, but obliterated the Assad regime's ability to kill kids. And this is, you got to remember Trump's. At the end of the day, he is a peacemaker, but he's also a dad and a grandfather. When he saw these pictures of kids dying for no reason and the Assad regime showing no end in sight, he just said, eliminate the threat. We did the same. So I'm an airborne recon guy. We fly RC135s, big flat fat recon planes. But they have the ability to really change the dynamics on a battlefield space. And so we did the overwatch prep for what was the Soleimani strike. And this is a textbook example of being able to have proof of life of an individual. He was the head of Iran's irgc, their Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. These are the really nasty guys, as you guys know, helpless cudsports, the worst of all times, funding Hezbollah, managing Hamas, and supporting the Houthis, who are taking potshots right now at carrier strike groups.

[Zach Nunn]

I mean, this guy killed more Americans than anybody on the face of the planet.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's exactly right. And he was the mastermind behind a number of strikes, including our Marines that we lost. You know, we lost friends at the air base that he targeted in Saudi Arabia and is a permanent threat, not just to the folks in the Middle east, but around the globe. And so being able to do this type of overwatch, we had proof of life. And it was the perfect strike that from the time he left the tarmac in Baghdad to the time he got in his car and drove in an area where there are no other Iraqis or US Forces around and schwacked the guy. And I love smug when he used to say, you know, soleimani into salsa. It scrambled the entire leadership here. And it was the first real glimpse by the ayatollahs to know that President Trump was not messing around on this stuff. I mean, he would take lethal action in a very surgical strike to eliminate a threat. And, guys, I was in the Middle east the week when bombs are falling on Israel. I talked with Saudi Arabia, our Crown Prince allies in the Gulf states, and the foreign minister in Israel, as we aim to get into that country. And every one of them, every one of them said, we cannot have a nuclear Iran. Yeah, it's bad for the region, it's bad for the country, it's bad for the Iranian people. And so for the president to offer a friendship or a approach towards diplomacy in Turkey and say, hey, I'd like to be able to bring the Ayatollahs to the table. Let's find a way to peace. And the Ayatollah, probably because he's more scared of the IRGC killing him than President Trump at this point, ignores it. It's only right and appropriate that we send B2s all the way around the world and we eliminate their ability to have a nuclear weapon. But the moment after that strike, despite what Dimms and others on the left are going to say here, that there was no nuclear program, and then over the course of 12 hours, it's the worst nuclear program we've ever seen.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Unknown Speaker]

We were able to get to a point where the President eliminated the threat and then immediately opened the door to negotiation again. I'm leading the Iran maximum sanction campaign with colleagues from the RSC like Pfluger, so that we have the ability to really give the President the full arsenal of weaponry, both kinetic economic sanctions wise, to be able to bring some stability back to the region. And we've got a great model that Trump put in place at the beginning called the Abrams Accords. And this was how Saudi Arabia and Israel started working together. The same can be true for the Iranian people.

[Zach Nunn]

Let me ask you, just from a execution standpoint, having somebody who flew Overwatch for the Soleimani. When you have a look at what happened last week, the bravery of our men and women in uniform that were executing all of this. And amazingly, from the middle of Missouri all the way from the heart of.

[Unknown Speaker]

The heartland to the death of the Ayatollah, I'll take it. Yeah, right.

[Zach Nunn]

I mean, your initial reactions to that, I mean, I'm sure knowing what's going into all of that, you've got to be just thrilled.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, I mean, Kennedalee, this is a master's class on what 21st century warfare looks like. I had the opportunity to speak to General Raisin Cain at the White House after his brief, and we just highlighted, I mean, the amount of planning that has to go in both the faint to make everybody, particularly in the news media, think, hey, this is happening in some other direction. And then to be able to fly retrograde around the planet. These B2 pilots, incredible stamina on their end. I mean, we've all been in the cattle car of a United flight trying to fly to Europe. These guys are in steerage. Two people flying.

[Zach Nunn]

Not a lot of legroom.

[Unknown Speaker]

Not a lot of legroom. The 31,000 GBU 57s take up a lot of space on this thing.

[Zach Nunn]

Tough to get a bourbon on the rise.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

It wasn't just the B2s.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

McCain said there were 125 planes who were involved in this, and there's guys refueling and just everybody working together.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's exactly right. And so we saw the initial tells here in the fact that we had our forward deployment of both recon aircraft, kind of like the ones we flew, but then also the refuelers, because getting around the world here with never touching ground, you got to have multiple refuelings. And I'll tell you from refueling experience ourselves, those things don't always go off without.

[Zach Nunn]

Well, it's not the easiest looking thing in the world.

[Unknown Speaker]

Absolutely right. And you're doing this in the dead of night over the ocean. You know, we've all had turbulence before. These guys are flying at 600 miles an hour plus, aiming to get bombs on target on something. As a president highlighted, as small as half a refrigerator door to be able to get a, you know, 31,000.

[Zach Nunn]

I mean, you're trying to get a golf ball in a garden hose at 30,000 pages.

[Unknown Speaker]

Bernie, for the course. That's right. That's right.

[Zach Nunn]

It's incredible. I wonder just from a mentality standpoint, because I don't think we've examined this Enough. You had the Democratic criticism. I thought the White House did an incredible job of putting a human face with his press conference that General Kaine did last week. But having lived this. Yeah, like what's the mentality of getting a call Saturday saying Sunday morning, get in your flight suit up and you're, and you're ready to go and you can't tell anybody what it is they're about to do.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right. That's right. You know, first of all, huge salute to all these folks who put it in there. It's not just the pilots, as you noted here. It's everybody from the ground crew who had complete mission silence, who knew what they were doing. You don't pull these things out of the bunker unless you're actually going to put them on a plane and you know it's going somewhere. Down to the security forces guy and particularly everybody else who was prepped to do the follow up if this didn't go well. There was an entire operation plan behind this to make this successful.

[Zach Nunn]

Well, that's what the funniest part about everybody saying, well, they didn't get the job done was. Like, do you really think there wasn't a contingency plan in case they didn't?

[Unknown Speaker]

Exactly, exactly. You know, and then for the guys who stay behind in country, look, I flew out of Aloud Air Base multiple combat tours in the Middle East. It's a target rich environment and it is within spitting distance of Iran.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, you're the, you're the first area of retaliation.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right.

[Zach Nunn]

When it.

[Unknown Speaker]

So, so even after the successful strike, we still know that, you know, Iran and its proxies have more missiles than anybody else in the region. If they can find a launcher, they can be pretty deadly. And so these folks being able to defend themselves across the area we've got, I just sent off 2,000 Iowa National Guard guys to go serve in CENTCOM. I mean, they're standing post in places across Iraq that are directly in the firing line. This isn't downtown Tel Aviv, which has an entire Iron Dome over it. These are guys who are literally in Ford operating bases that have a concrete bunker, but they've got a job to do the other 23 hours out of the day. And they're making sure that this can be successful and importantly that Iran's other proxies don't take root in this.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, I can't tell you how comforting it is to have folks like this who actually understand how this whole thing works out. I mean, look, we'll see Time will tell. Give me your best estimation about sort of what it is that we're seeing here. You've seen a peace, you know, that's like a temporary ceasefire which is held, but then you see Iran over the weekend making noise about things. But then you see Arab countries, as you suggested, starting maybe Abraham accords 2.0, expanding the, which would be a huge, I mean, that would be different level success for the Trump administration. What's your sense of about where it.

[Unknown Speaker]

Thinks, well, first let's not minimize the fact that the Trump team was able to pull this off. This is revolutionary. It's more than has been done since I've been a kid when Reagan actually stood up to the Ayatollahs. Nobody has really put these guys on their heels the way that this has. And importantly, nobody has put their proxy elements on their heels the way both the US and the Israelis have. So this is a massive win and it resets the entire environment. Every crown prince, foreign minister, you know, defense minister that we spoke to in the Arab world said this is an inflection point for us. This is a real opportunity not only to buy more American made missile defense systems because they know they need it, but also say we get to be a partner here in defining what the future of the Middle east is going to look like. And even when the ayatollahs and the mullahs and the IRGC threatened to close, you know, the Strait of Hormuz, which would have crippled 25% of world Gasol, guess who was the one that came forward and said, knock it off. It was Beijing, it was the Chinese who said, we need that oil. Don't even think about it. We'll sell you some components and everything. But this axis of evil that we've all been so scared about, I mean, it looks a lot like a Russian tank column coming into Kyiv. It fell apart day one. And so I think, you know, we see some real division now because we have American leadership that's been absent for the last four years, totally being able to stand up, not just kinetically, but again with an entire arsenal of what we've got to be able to bring to the table. We've got Marco Rubio, who we talked to at the White House, also leading the diplomatic effort. We've got a treasury secretary leading the economic sanctions piece of this. We have an information operation that is clearly speaking directly to the people of Iran and saying, hey, there's a much better life for you guys out here. This is an opportunity. And equally then we have the Military capability, which at this point I'm so proud of. You know, hegseth President Trump and our team to be able to say NATO, you guys spend 5%. You've got to help take care of your own backyard, because candidly, we've got to take care of the real threat, which is China. And we deliver the same message in a bipartisan way. Republicans and Democrats to the Arab states saying, you guys have to stand up and be on the front line of this. You can't just live under the shield of security the United States has provided for the last 20 years. Time's on you to help defend yourself.

[Zach Nunn]

I know the fellows want to get to the BBB and everything else after, but doesn't this kind of feel like what it the restoration of America back to the leader of the free world?

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right.

[Zach Nunn]

That's what it feels like from my perspective. It's like this is hard to conceptualize during the Biden years. But you take a look around, you see the press conferences in NATO where people have a fundamentally different view of both President Trump and the United States role. You see what's executed in the Middle East. You see all these components that you just mentioned. It feels like we're back.

[Unknown Speaker]

This is Reagan era in the modern day. It's exciting for us. This is where we grew up. I mean, I did an exchange tour with the German Air Force, and for the first time ever, these guys feel like we get to be on offense again. Right. And we're not going to have Russians intercept us and we just have to turn tail and run as NATO anymore. There's a major investment coming out of the German government to make Germany the largest military in Europe. I think that's a good thing for their own defense, but also cutting edge ability. And where are these guys going to buy their equipment from? Well, God bless. They're going to come to Iowa and they're going to buy a lot of the equipment that we're making right here in the United States and across the world. We get to be a leader in the arsenal of national defense, global defense, because we're the ones who help drive this, and we've got good allies who want to be part of this.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, it's really important, boys. Big, beautiful.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, so, okay, so big, beautiful Bill. You know, we don't know the exact outcome yet in the United States Senate. We're confident they're going to get it done. And obviously the House had previously passed its own reconciliation package. There's going to be some differences here in these Two bills. From your perspective, how do we come together on what we can agree on and get something done here? Yeah, soon.

[Unknown Speaker]

Look, I think first and foremost, we all agree on a couple of things. One, we all want border security. That's 10,000 new CBP agents out. It's $150 billion going to national defense and border security. Everybody's on board with that. Two, it's energy independence. We're no longer beholden to Russia or others. And we get to move really forward in ways that help domestic production, drive down costs, and candidly, help a state like Iowa with some BioFuels.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

And three, I think this is probably the most impactful, largest tax cut in US History that goes directly to working class families. And for a guy from a rural state, getting $5,000 for a adoption credit, we've got two adopted kids. Would have helped us immensely. It helps families who want to be families. Real money, $2,200 for a child tax credit. You know, a 44% decrease for a Main street business, a 20% tax cut for working class families. Those are the things that people are going to say, if I got money in my pocket, I'm going to invest in my hometown and I'm actually going to grow the economy. I hope that those really important things don't get blinded out by some of the, you know, tactical differences between the House and the Senate. And candidly, the best whip in the room has been the president. Just ask Senator Tillis. He'll tell you.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, no question, Johnny.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, well, so you mentioned the tactical differences. Obviously, the Senate has made some changes to what you sent their direction. And, you know, the Senate's ideas on things is not always just received perfectly by the House of Representatives.

[Unknown Speaker]

No, if only that upper house would listen to it.

[Michael Duncan]

But there are a whole host of issues dealing with rural hospitals and everything else. I know you represent a very rural part of the country, and I just wonder if there's anything in the Senate bill that gives you concern that some of the moderates, some of the concerns, conservatives may not be on board at the end of the day.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

And I think specifically when we talk about bright lines of difference, obviously I'm biased. I thought the House had a pretty good bill. We worked on this for, you know, over 100 days and we move something forward. I wish the Senate would have been a little more engaged in that conversation. Many of them were. But at the end of the day, I want to highlight a couple of things. Under Medicaid enrollment under the Biden administration, it ballooned to 93 million. The cost surged by over 200 billion. And that was largely driven by loose eligibility standards. The Biden administration tried to force more and more of these folks on here. It hurts vulnerable Iowans back home. The seniors, the families with disabilities, the kids, the pregnant mothers. Let's get those folks taken care of. It helps our rural hospitals. And that's one of the areas where I want the Senate, as they're currently doing Votorama right now, to consider moving forward. A couple of the other things. You know, we also, I sit on the Ag Committee, the Financial Services Committee, the China Select Committee. The one area that I keep hearing about is snap. We want to make sure the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is there to help the people that need it. And too many states, candidly blue states, have just blown through the safety parameters of this total, putting everybody on here. I mean, California's got an error rate of 13%. New Jersey, 35%. There's other states out there, 60% error rates. That means that folks who actually need this stuff, the single mom, the kids who are trying to live over the summer, they're not getting any of this. It's being bled out by, as The President said, 29 year olds sitting on their couch playing Xbox and getting a lot of rebates from other people's hard work. That should not happen. And it starts with holding both the states and the providers accountable, first and foremost.

[Zach Nunn]

Look, it's well said. We've talked about this a lot on the Variety program about how Democrats basically have one plan when it comes to all of our nation's finances. You create entitlement programs and then you just gradually expand eligibility over time until you get to your stated goal of just being a socialist, communist country.

[Unknown Speaker]

Say hello to New York City.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, but it makes it tough from a political standpoint of people representing areas where Democrats are just like, hey, have a couple of million here, a couple of million there, you can balance your budgets with otherwise shitty decisions, and it all kind of works out because we're $36 trillion in debt and none of us have been able to articulate at this point why it is that that matters to you.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right.

[Zach Nunn]

Right. And what you guys have done is taken a look at all of these things to say you're gonna have to turn this thing around because it does have real consequences.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, and let me give you a real world example. I mean, take the state of Iowa. When I first became a state legislature, I ran one of the most competitive districts. It was a blue district we turned it red. We had millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars in debt from our then Democratic governor, Sweaty Chetty Culver. Sweaty CHETTY laughs Sweaty Chetty. So yeah, he abandoned the state. Plus, what did we do? We were able to come in with Branson and Reynolds and immediately pass one of the largest tax cut packages. And I'll say this, you know, when a farmer gets a little bit more money, what do they do? They go out there and reinvest in the farm.

[Zach Nunn]

Exactly.

[Unknown Speaker]

Same for the main street dentist, hair salon. And over the course of four years, we had more revenue coming in because there was more economic growth. This is a great way not only to grow the economy, pay down debt. Now Iowa has passed the balanced budget amendment and we have no debt whatsoever. You know, we're 10 plus years on from that now and we have a budget surplus. We've got a rainy day fund of a billion. And this is a small state. We're talking like $10 billion in total spending. A tenth of that isn't a reserve fund just for that horrible day. And we're still being able to grow. I think these are really important examples we should be bringing from heartland communities right to Washington dc.

[Zach Nunn]

Now listen, you guys have a hell of a delegation. We've witnessed it firsthand in our multiple trips to Iowa. And now you all work hand in glove to make sure not only Iowa is fiscally sound and growing, that Republican majority's, but just like sort of leading a lot of the conversation throughout the country. It's gotta be, you know, I mean, for us Midwesterners.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's right.

[Zach Nunn]

Anytime you get a state in the middle, it's sort of like, hey, you should do it our way. And other states are like, they might be right about that.

[Michael Duncan]

The Midwest is the best. It really leads the country in so many ways. The Midwest is probably the most important region in the entire country for America.

[Unknown Speaker]

No truth. No truth. We got some proven examples. It's one of the reasons we're gonna have, you know, the commander in chief himself is coming out to the heart of the heartland to kick off the 250th birthday of America right in my district, Des Moines, Iowa, Iowa State Fair. We're gonna give him some fried food, some pork chop on a stick. We're also gonna give a little to every hard working American who stands to benefit from this great tax cut bill. And they can have, you know, a little more Schlitz in their fourth of July as it was.

[Zach Nunn]

I love it. Listen, a guy you'd love to have a cocktail with at any point ever, because he's just world class, but he also knows exactly what it is that he's talking about. Zach Nunn, thanks so much for joining us.

[Unknown Speaker]

Thanks, team. Appreciate it, guys.

[Zach Nunn]

You got it.

[Unknown Speaker]

Thanks. Ruthless.

[Michael Duncan]

Just an outstanding guy. And I mean, I love Iowa so much and that dude was such a good friend to us so many times when we were in Iowa. And it's just wonderful to have him back here in the spot that he's in.

[Zach Nunn]

Yeah, yeah, no question. And good information. I love the, like, the texture to the Iran stuff, for example, having worn those shoes not long ago. Fascinating stuff. Anyway, follow along with him and what it is that he's doing, because if you want to know a smart member of Congress and their take, you know, you're not going to get it through the mainstream news all the time. You're probably going to have to follow him directly or hear it here on the the ruthless variety program. Great, dude. Remember our question of the day, which is, is Congress going to make President Trump's July 4 deadline for the big beautiful bill, and what does that celebration look like? You tell us when you do and you like and subscribe. We're going to cultivate all of that and read it for you on Thursday for that episode. Look, folks, I think we did it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much, Congressman Nunn, and thank you so much. The minions, like Holmes said, go to the YouTube like and subscribe. It's more fun and video. So until next time, Minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the lives. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.