Donald Trump (10:43)

Members of the United States Congress, thank you very much. And to my fellow citizens, America is back. Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the Golden Age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years. And we are just getting started.

Ben Shapiro (11:34)

Again. You can see President Trump is in such a great mood, right? You can see it in the hand motions. I will say that it is a little tiring being in there for like an hour and 45 minutes during the speech. And, you know, you're standing up and sitting down and standing up and sitting down, you get your squats in. I will say that your hands get a little tired from, from all of the applauding. I've done more applauding last night than I think I've done probably in my entire life combined, mainly because I don't applaud for things all that often. But it was amazing. And again, the feeling in the room on the right side of the aisle was absolute enthusiasm. We're back, baby. We're going to do this thing. And on the left side of the aisle, it looked as though everyone had just taken a cyanide pill. I mean, really, it was that bad for the Democrats. And so it was in that moment that a hero for the Democrats arose. That hero's name is Representative Al Green. Representative Al Green from Houston, Texas, is an old man. I mean, he, he just. There's another way to put it. Representative Al green is a 77 year old man. He walks with a cane. And he decided that it would be a wise move to get up at the beginning of the speech and start yelling at the President of the United States and never stop yelling at the President of the United States. Now, we'd spoken with Speaker Johnson before. He had expected all sorts of antics from the Democrats. Some of those materialized, some of those did not. There are rumors Democrats were going to bring empty egg cartons and wave them at President Trump because the price of eggs is too high. A phenomenon that started, of course, under Joe Biden. Been too high for a while. There was some talk. The Democrats were going to chant, they were going to yell, they're going to bring props, all the rest of it. He did say that he thought there was a very good shot. He was going to have to Pay pound the gavel on the table and then invoke congressional rules of order to bring some sort of order back to the situation. Well, Al Green decided that he was going to be the man who stood up. He was going to be the guy who stood up in breach. Now, Al Green is also one of the people who, as we'll see, has been calling for president's impeachment from literally the first day that President Trump became president. Again. He is a leader of the resistance, but like the old guard of the resistance. And he started shouting at President Trump, bizarrely enough, about a topic that is really stupid. One of the things about Trump that befuddles Democrats is that many of the key issues that they have yelled at Republicans about are not Trump's issues. So, for example, last night, Democrats were holding up these little signs that save Medicaid. President Trump said he's not going to cut Medicaid or save Medicare or save Social Security. President Trump, to my chagrin, has said that he doesn't want to touch any of those large scale immigration entitlement programs. So this totally falls flat. So President Trump says, I have a mandate. I won the seven swing states. We have Congress, Democrats have been rejected across the board. And Al Green starts yelling at him that he does not have a mandate to change the entitlement programs. A thing that Trump himself has said he does not want to do. I mean, if that is your resistance playbook, I just don't understand. It doesn't make any sense. And by the way, the optic of the man who's going to lead the resistance is a 77 year old man waving his cane at the President of the United States. Not a great optic, my dude. If you didn't get somebody to do this, you know, get one of your, you know, hot, fresh face, new, new people to do it, go get yourself a, an Ilhan Omar or an AOC or Rashida Tlaib or an Ayanna Press. Get somebody who's got some Jews. Al Green, this was your move, guys. This is. And then he, he yelled long enough that he had to be taken out by the Sergeant at Arms. Here's, here's how it looked. Mr. Green, take your seat.

Donald Trump (14:59)

Take your seat, sir. Take your seat.

Ben Shapiro (15:06)

Finding that members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the Sergeant at Arms to restore order. Remove this gentleman from the chamber and look at the other evidence. The Democrats are sitting there and even they are like, there's nothing we can do about this now. You can imagine a scenario where Democrats had actually planned a quote, unquote act of resistance where Trump said something and they knew he was going to say it. And then one of them got up and shouted at the president, had to be removed and the rest of the Democrats walked out as a show of solidarity. Right. That at least would be like an interesting optical move. But Democrats move was Al Green was going to yell at the president from the outset about a dumb topic that President Trump is not even taking on. And then they were all going to sit there looking half depressed like, cheers to you guys. I mean, just optically genius. And then Al Green leaves the chamber and proceeds to say that he's initiating impeachment against President Trump. I'm sure it's going to go well, my dude, is that the only thing that you're protesting?

Donald Trump (16:09)

No, I have other things I'm protesting and I'm also working on my articles of impeachment. This president is unfit. He should not hold the office. 34 felony convictions, two times impeached.

Ben Shapiro (16:23)

Okay, so. So you're going for another. Congrats to you. This is the face of your Democratic Party. I can't imagine why you guys are doing so poorly. So back to the speech. President Trump announces correctly that he has been the most active president in the first month of his administration of any president in modern history. This, of course, is absolutely true.

Donald Trump (16:41)

Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions of record to restore common sense, safety, optimism and wealth all across our wonderful land. The people elected me to do the job and I'm doing it. In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency, it's our presidency, is the most successful in the history of our nation. And what makes it even more impressive is that do you know who number two is? George Washington. How about that? I don't know about that list, but. But we'll take it.

Ben Shapiro (17:28)

Again. Democrats freaked out about it. He mentioned George Washington. How could he? It's a self deprecating joke at the end, right? I don't know about that list, but we'll. Okay, come on. So President Trump then did something incredibly smart. So again, the entire speech I think was great. It's fascinating how the State of the Union has evolved over the course of time. So I'm old enough to remember when it was a big deal in 2009, when President Obama was trying to push Obamacare and a representative named Joe Wilson from South Carolina got up and shouted at the president and said, you lie. By the way, he was correct. Obama was in fact lying and this was a national scandal. How could you, this one guy, get up and yell at Barack Obama? Just absolutely awful. How could something like this happen? And then in 2010, there was another controversy because President Obama said something overtly false about the Supreme Court. And Justice Samuel Alito, who's in the audience, was caught on tape kind of shaking his head. How dare he? Oh, the decorum. The media apparently have no such qualms about Democrats acting like complete Jack, yelling, screaming, acting like just spoiled brat kids on a college campus in the middle of a Tuesday, blocking classes for the other students. They have no problem with that. I mean, the entire time, Democrats are just heckling Trump. So what Trump did, very smart. Right off the top, President Trump says, listen, I'm not going to play this game where the camera's cut back and you see one side of the chamber standing and one side of the chamber sitting and you figure the president is just too divisive. I'm just going to point out right now, nothing I do or say or can do or can say will ever get these people clapping. Now, this is a smart tactic. 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Edu Grand Canyon University GCU Edu so what Trump is doing here is he's saying, listen, I dare you not to clap. And in fact half the night was devoted to things that if you are a sentient, decent human being, you have to clap for. I don't care if you're a Democrat or if you're a Republican, if you don't clap, as we'll see for a 13 year old brain cancer survivor becoming an honorary member of the Secret Service. Like what? Really? You're not going to clap for that? But this is the whole setup. So Trump basically double dog dares Democrats not to clap for things that they're never going to clap for anything that I do. I'm going to say a bunch of super popular stuff right now and watch. Democrats won't even clap. And that's why you can't vote for them in the future. That's why they don't deserve power. Very smart move from the President of the United States right here.

Donald Trump (21:59)

This is my fifth such speech to Congress and once again I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud. Nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded. And these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won't do it no matter what. Five. Five times I've been up here. It's very sad, and it just shouldn't be this way. So Democrats sitting before me for just this one night. Why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America, for the good of our nation. Let's work together and let's truly make America great again.

Ben Shapiro (23:11)

And he was doing this all night, by the way, this sort of hand motion where he points out at the Democrats, he's like, you guys, you're not even. I see you. I see you not, you know, clapping for the obvious, obvious things. And then he says a bunch of obvious things is one of the themes. And so this was sort of a combination of Trump saying obvious, excellent things and also the Oprah Winfrey show, because he did something different. President Trump did, as we'll see during this address, than what other presidents do when they pick people out of the audience. So that's a. That's a mainstay of State of the Union address, really, since Ronald Reagan, who is also a performer, obviously. Reagan pioneered the use of people in the audience where he would say, and there's Barbara, and Barbara is a hairdresser who's had to overcome the problems of licensing in her state. Stand up, Barbara. And everybody cheers for Barbara. So President Trump did something different during the speech, which is he actually did things kind of like the Open Winfrey Show. They look under your seat. There's something awesome, right? There really was a sort of presenter vibe. He held up an executive order in the middle of the. In the middle of the speech handed him by the vice president, establishing and renaming a park in honor of a young girl who was killed by illegal immigrants. Or he called out somebody in the audience who had just received an acceptance to West Point. And all of these are sort of like nice, warm moments. It's President Trump taking it to the next level, which, of course, is what he's good at. President Trump originally was an extraordinarily successful TV personality. That's one of the big reasons he's president of the United States today. And Democrats couldn't even clap for stuff like that. So here's an example. So yesterday, President Trump says, there are only two genders. And this, of course, is an issue near and dear to our heart here at the Daily Wire. I'm not sure there's any company on earth that has fought harder on this particular issue. As I told you a couple of weeks ago, when President Trump signed an executive order on this matter, from literally the day that we launched this company, we made it a rule that we would never refer to people by false pronouns. They would only be referred to by their biological pronouns. Because there are only men and women, males and females. There is no such thing as a male who is a female. That is not a thing. It is a category error. And we fought that every step of the way. So obviously, Matt Walsh has been a lion on this issue. We were also sitting next to Riley Gaines. We've obviously worked with Riley in the past on this, and Riley herself has done amazing work on this. The three of us were sitting together, and so we were, like, out of our seats for a huge amount of this. There was a point in the speech where President Trump was talking about two genders, men being banned from women's sports. And then he paid tribute to a young woman named Peyton McNabb. Now, I don't care where you are on this particular issue, Peyton McNabb is a young woman, as we will see. President Trump's going to talk about it, who got hit in the face of the volleyball, hit by a very large male and sustained actual serious brain damage because of it. And Democrats could not clap in support of her because it was attached to the baseline logical notion that men should not hit volleyballs in the faces of women. Democrats could not get on board for that. So here we go.

Donald Trump (26:04)

We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools. And I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women's sports. Three years ago, Peyton McNabb was an all star high school athlete, one of the best, preparing for a future in college sports. But when her girls volleyball match was invaded by a male, he smashed the ball so hard in Peyton's face, causing traumatic brain injury, partially paralyzing her right side and ending her athletic career. It was a shot like she's never seen before. She's never seen anything like it. Peyton is here tonight in the gallery. And Peyton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls team or they will lose all federal funding.

Ben Shapiro (27:20)

Now, Democrats didn't stand for this. Democrats didn't even cheer for this. Why? Because they want men to play in women's Sports. These are 80, 20 issues Trump takes the right side of, and then Democrats don't know what to do with it. President Trump also bragged on Doge, talked about the creation of Doge. Doge is highly popular with the American people, despite all attempts to turn Doge into some sort of wedge issue for Americans. Americans want an investigation to waste, fraud and abuse the governmental level. Democrats have focused their ire on Elon. But the brilliance of what Trump has done with Elon is that Elon can take it. What does Elon care? He's the richest man on earth. What does he care? Okay, so he's a little more unpopular with the people. Good news, he's not actually an elected official. Elon Musk. And it was really funny. There was a point here where Trump was saying, we are putting the hands. Power back in the hands of the people, taking it away from the unelected bureaucracy. And Democrats started pointing up at Musk. Well, he's unelected. He's. He's literally trying to cut the bureaucracy. You understand you're making an argument he shouldn't cut the bureaucracy because he's a bureaucrat cutting the bureaucracy. No, that is not going to wash. Here's President Trump on Doge.

Donald Trump (28:25)

To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but will be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayers. And to that end, I have created the brand new Department of government efficiency. GoJ. Perhaps you've heard of it. Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight. Thank you. Elon Musk. He's working very hard. He didn't need this. He didn't need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it. I believe they just don't want to admit that. Just listen to some of the appalling waste we have already identified. $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens. $45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. $8 million to promote LGBTQI plus in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. $60 million for indigenous peoples and Afro Colombian empowerment in Central America. $60 million. $8 million for making mice transgender. This is real.

Ben Shapiro (30:16)

Okay. By the way, this is my favorite part of the speech by far. It was just a comedy routine. It was just a comedy routine. I mean, just listing off this stuff. And by the way those asides are, for sure, not in the teleprompter, those little asides was like Lesotho. And no one even knows what that is. It's true. Now Democrats say, I know where Lesotho is. The President should know where Lesotho is. And President's like, no one knows. And America's like, I don't know. That's true. By the way, the way that he does. He's such a comedian. Okay, I think it is worth noting here, Donald Trump is an amazing performer. Like an amazing performer, he has two special gifts as a politician. I've seen both of these in action, in person. One is he's amazing in a room. Like, truly incredible in a room. This is an underrated skill. Many politicians don't have it. He talks to people. He actually likes people. He is a people person. And so working a room, he's amazing. His other skill is that he's funny as hell. He really is funny. And so he has comedic timing. And you can't teach comedic timing. It's either a thing you got or a thing you don't. And so the way that he even reads off these inanities is hilarious. Right? He says, you know, we're paying for, we're paying for voter. For voter transparency in Botswana. Right? Like, he pauses and then the pause, right? The ellipses is before in Botswana. He's saying, we're paying $60 million for voter transparency in Botswana. Right? So you have a moment where you're like, okay, that doesn't sound that bad. And they say in Botswana, oh, my God, that's ridiculous. Right? That's great comedic timing. And he did this for a long time in the speech and it was really funny. And what's smart about this is that the total sort of bottom line cuts that he's talking about are not a gigantic percentage of the American budget. I mean, let's be clear about this. I've said this a thousand times, I will say it a thousand more. In order to get America's debt problem under control, you're going to have to touch the third rail of American politics. No one wants to do that. But what President Trump was doing last night was incredibly smart politically, because Americans have two simultaneous positions. One, they don't want cuts to any of these major welfare programs, and two, they want cuts. So what he's doing is he's identifying cuts, but not touching the things that Americans actually don't want touched, which is smart. And just as a political matter, it's incredibly smart. And by the way, extraordinarily funny. And Democrats are sitting there all sour face, like, how do you not laugh at this? Like, are you in favor of teaching guinea pigs how to transgender themselves in Romania? Like, is that, is that a thing that you're like huge on, is super duper important or what? And then President Trump got into a litany of talk about waste and fraud in Social Security. Now, at this point, I'll point out it was very funny. I do wanna point out that we are not actually paying 360 year olds their Social Security benefits. That's not actually what's going on. Basically, we have an incredibly stupid system for processing Social Security payments in which all the listings are really, really old. And there's like a default date that you list somebody's age at. If you don't actually know their age, that goes back to 1875 or something. There's actually been an audit of Social Security. There are people who are fraudulently obtaining Social Security, but it is not tens of millions of people who are obtaining fraudulent Social Security. It was, however, a reminder that America's government is filled with kind of inanities and stupidity. So here was President Trump talking about waste and fraud in Social Security.

Donald Trump (33:30)

1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159 and over 130,000 people according to the Social Security databases. Our age over 160 years old. We have a healthier country than I thought. Bobby.

Ben Shapiro (33:55)

That was a funny line. It was a funny line. Well, meanwhile, there were some actual controversial sections of the speech. The most controversial section of President Trump's speech was not anything about illegal immigration. It was nothing about foreign policy. It was, it was none of those sort of hot buttons. It was the economy. So as I've been saying for a while, I am concerned that the stock market right now is overvalued. The stock market is currently running at an outrageous PE ratio. It's the price to earnings ratio. Typically when you're evaluating a company, when you're trying to determine how valuable a company is, the earnings, unless it has some sort of tremendous growth potential, has to have to be demonstrated in the stock price. And a sort of typical metric that that's been used for decades is a metric first put forth by Benjamin Graham, who's a sort of mentor to Warren Buffett, that suggested that the price to earnings ratio on a company should be somewhere at the upper end in the 16 to 18 ratio. Right now, the entire Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading at a 28 ratio as way too high. The so called Magnificent Seven stocks that be stocks like Nvidia and Amazon and Apple, they are trading at a PE ratio that exceeds 55. Certain stocks like Tesla are trading at a PE ratio that is almost 200. Now, it may be that Tesla justifies that stock valuation by suddenly leaping forward in AI in new and unbelievable ways and totally revolutionizing the way, for example, shipping is done in the United States. I think that's one of the promises that Elon is trying to make with Tesla. However, it seems that the stock market is currently inflated. Inflation itself remains stubbornly high. In other words, there are vulnerabilities in the American economy. For sure. For sure. And we've been talking about this for, at this point, several months. And if you go back to the Biden administration longer than that, I think there's some. Some systemic vulnerabilities in the American economy. So President Trump is trying to do some stuff about that. One of the things he's been trying to do, which is radically revise how regulations are done. Excellent. Unleash Doge to get rid of the waste, fraud and abuse. Great. Increase productivity by, for example, unleashing America's energy resources, which you talked about last night. Fantastic. And then there are tariffs. President Trump has talked a lot about tariffs, and last night he talks a lot about tariffs, and he's using the phrase retaliatory tariffs. And there are sort of two sets of tariffs that he's talked about. One is the set of tariffs that went into place this week on Canada and Mexico. And already there is some sound that those tariffs are going to be revised pretty quickly because Canada and Mexico are going to make concessions with regard to, say, fentanyl or with regard to border security that will allow the United States to then lower our tariffs. The other thing that President Trump has talked about are reciprocal tariffs. Reciprocal tariffs are the idea, as President Trump explained last night, that if a country is tariffing our goods at 20%, we should retaliate by tariffing their goods at 20%. We are a far larger market than they are now. If the goal of that is to leverage their tariffs down totally in favor, that's great. We should, in fact, use our market power in order to flex on those countries and force them to lower their tariffs. If, however, the idea is that tariffs are in and of themselves an economic good for the United States, that is generally untrue. Tariffs are very good for the industries that are protected, at least for a moment, and then when those tariffs are removed, those industries tend to be bloated and problematic. This is what happened to the American auto industry. In the 1950s and 60s, we had high tariffs on foreign autos. We signed incredibly lucrative union contracts within our auto companies. Our cars became too expensive and not good enough. And then when we opened up any of those tariffs and we allowed, for example, Japanese cars like Toyota into the market, suddenly the American auto manufacturing sector just took a nosedive. Tariffs tend to protect bloated industries. And so the only purpose for tariffs that I think is legitimate is in order to get other people to lower their tariffs, or as a matter of national security, that you're trying to protect industries that even if they're bloated, you need them shored. In the United States, President Trump has sort of a different take on tariffs. He seems to suggest over and over and over, the tariffs are actually a net benefit to the American economy overall. It's just good for the American economy. Tariffs, the evidence suggests that that is not, in fact, the case because Americans are both producers and consumers. So, again, what that means is that if you are in an industry protected by a tariff because other countries now have to, the American consumer now has to pay an inflated rate for, say, a Japanese car as opposed to an American car that's good for an American car manufacturer. For the domestic market, it is very bad for the American consumer who now has to pay a higher price. And every American is both a producer and a consumer. And so if you're not in the industry that is positively affected by the tariff, then you're just getting hurt as a consumer. And overall, if there are lots of tariffs and everybody gets hurt more as a consumer, you end up with a restricted supply of a product while the demand remains similar, and that is a recipe for actual inflation. But President Trump was talking about tariffs last night. He laid out a very commonsensical case for reciprocal tariffs. Again, the question for me, on a going forward basis, and we'll get more into this, is whether the emphasis in the phrase reciprocal tariffs is on the word reciprocal, meaning you lower yours and we'll lower ours. You raise yours and we'll raise ours, which, again, that's a great way to leverage other countries. Or if the emphasis is on tariffs like tariffs are in and of themselves a positive, beneficial good. As I've said before, I think President Trump likes to make the case that tariffs are a positive, beneficial good. But he also could be doing that as leverage. He does this all the time. He could be saying, listen, I love. I love tariffs so much. I love them. They're unbelievable. I'm totally willing to do it because I love them anyway. You're going to have to convince me not to do it. That's a good piece of leverage. Here's President Trump last night on tariffs, by the way.

Donald Trump (39:12)

We're going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody's ever seen. Plants are opening up all over the place. Deals are being made. Never seen. That's a combination of the election win and tariffs. It's a beautiful word, isn't it? That, along with our other policies, will allow our auto industry to absolutely boom. It's going to boom.

Ben Shapiro (39:34)

So, you know, again, that may be true in the short term. I don't think that's true in the long term. In the short term, it's good politics. Most, most presidents do engage in some sort of protective trade barriers around key industries in which they are seeking to win votes. It's a long standing policy going all the way back to Ronald Reagan and before. However, it remains to be seen whether that is going to have a large negative impact on the economy, if in fact, a durable set of high tariffs are to become a regular part of the American political landscape. This is the thing that I fear most. President Trump requires a strong economy. Now, the thing I know about President Trump also is he doesn't like a weak economy. So if it turns out that the stock market takes a dump, I don't think he's going to keep sticking with the thing that is negatively affecting his presidency. He's not stubborn when it comes to actual results. He lives in the world of reality. So he is not the kind of person who just keeps banging his head against a wall, seeking to achieve a different result from the same action over and over and over. Okay, back to the other portions of the speech. And one of the key messages of the speech is Democrats can't clap for anything. Right? He said it right at the top. So, for example, President Trump announced that we had captured an ISIS terrorist who was responsible for the Abbey Gate massacre. It is worth noting at this point that Joe Biden's complete unwillingness to even reach out to and meet the families of those murdered at Abbey Gate is one of the signal blots on a not only unremarkable but insultingly terrible political career for the former President of the United States. President Trump announced at the at the State of the Union the capture of one of the terrorists responsible and Democrats sat on their hands.

Donald Trump (41:04)

America is once again standing strong against the forces of radical Islamic terrorism. Three and a half years ago, ISIS terrorists killed 13American servicemembers and countless others in The Abbey Gate bombing during the disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan. Not that they were withdrawing, it was the way they withdrew. Perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Tonight I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity. And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.

Ben Shapiro (41:50)

That's a great thing, right? Well, not for the Democrats. Again, I was sitting right above the Democratic side. The Speaker's box is on the Democratic side of the aisle. And so I'm looking right down at Democrats who are all on their phones, texting, taking selfies, exploring X, you know, maybe doing some illicit. In any case, they can't, they wouldn't get up and cheer for that. I mean, that's just a win for America. I don't understand. If a terrorist gets captured, that is good for America, is it not? Or how about if I were to tell you that President Trump brought home a man who was essentially held hostage by the Russians for 14 years and that he was in attendance, would they clap then?

Donald Trump (42:24)

If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides. Nearly four years ago, amid rising tensions, a history teacher named Mark Fogel was detained in Russia and sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony. Rough stuff. The previous administration barely lifted a finger to help him. They knew he was innocent, but they had no idea where to begin. But last summer I promised his 95 year old mother, Malfean that we would bring her boy safely back home after 22 days in office. I did just that. And they are here tonight.

Ben Shapiro (43:12)

So again, Democrats, where were they? They're sitting on their hands. Hey, how about if I told you that the President of the United States called out a young man who wants to go to West Point and told him in the room that he had been admitted to West Point. Again, Trump took it to the next level. As I say, most of the call outs are typically not anything beyond. We're going to call you out and give you a hand. President Trump actually sort of handed out prizes in the room. This is a great moment. Democrats couldn't cheer for it.

Donald Trump (43:40)

Jason is a senior in high school, a six letter varsity athlete, a really good athlete, they say, a brilliant student with a 4.46. That's good GPA. And his greatest dream is to attend the US Military Academy at West Point. And Jason, that's a very big deal. Getting in, that's a hard one to get into. But I'm pleased to inform you that Your application has been accepted. You will soon be joining the Corps of Cadets.

Ben Shapiro (44:27)

The Democrats stand for that one. Nope. And then he has a high five from this next person. It was actually a little bit earlier in the speech that the moment of the night came. So President Trump called out a young 13 year old boy. And this 13 year old boy had brain cancer several years ago, he said. Scars on his head from where he had surgery. And this boy is want to join nypd. So they made him sort of an honorary member of nypd. And then President Trump called in the new head of the Secret Service, Sean Curran. And Curran, of course, is one of the agents who is protecting Trump on that terrible day in Butler, Pennsylvania last year when the President nearly had his head blown off on live television. And the President makes this kid an honorary member of Secret Service. It was great. It's like a wonderful moment. I don't care who you are, it's just fun and wonderful and charming and delightful. And there was literally one Democrat, one who stood up and clapped. If you can't clap for the cancer kid, I don't know what's wrong with you people. I honest to God don't know what's wrong with you people. You have a screw loose. I mean, just on a pragmatic level, put aside this sort of moral and empathetic level. On a pragmatic level, a politically pragmatic level. What are you thinking? What in the world are you thinking? Do you like the split screen of you guys sitting on your hands? Well, a young black kid who has survived brain cancer is given a Secret Service membership and gives a hug to the head of the Secret Service like this. I'm sorry, this is like American as apple pie. It's like one of most American things I've ever seen in my life. All it required was a yellow glow put on by a sepia light and an upswelling of music and a giant American flag unfurled in the background. It's like all that, all that it needed, right? This is like Americana times a million. And you guys are sitting there on your hands looking like you're sucking on lemons. It's unbelievable. Here was the President last night.

Donald Trump (46:11)

Joining us in the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our police. His name is DJ Daniel. He is 13 years old and he has always dreamed of becoming a police officer. But in 2018, D.J. was diagnosed with brain cancer. The doctors gave him five months at most to live. That was more than six years ago. Since that time, D.J. and his dad have been On a quest to make his dream come true. And DJ has been sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer actually a number of times. Peace. The police love him. The police departments love him. And tonight dj we're going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran to officially make you the an agent of the United States Secret Service.

Ben Shapiro (47:28)

And then his dad holds him up, right? And. And then he ended up giving Shankarna a hug. And one Democrat applauded. The hell is wrong with you people? Are you insane? Have you lost your ever loving minds? You're so unlikable. You're so terrible. Like an aggregation of all the most annoying human beings on literally planet Earth. That's who you are. And you made that absolutely clear last night. Over and over and over again, over and over and over again in the President of the United States called out the family of Lake and Riley. Of course we all know Lake and Riley's name. She was University of Georgia student who was murdered by illegal immigrants. He called out her family in the crowd again, Democrats sitting on their hands. No applause, just unreal.

Donald Trump (48:10)

Lakin was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien gang member who was arrested while trespassing across Biden's open southern border and then set loose into the United States under the heartless policies of that failed administration. It was indeed a failed administration. He had then been arrested and released in a Democrat run sanctuary city, a disaster before ending the life of this beautiful young angel. With us this evening are Lakin's beloved mother Allison and her sister Lauren. Last year I told Lakin's grieving parents that we would ensure their daughter would not have died in vain. That's why the very first bill I signed into law as your 47th president mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety. It's a very strong, powerful act. It's called the Lakin Riley Act. So Allison and Lauren, America will never ever forget our beautiful, wonderful Lakin Hope Riley.

Ben Shapiro (49:25)

And again, big applause in the chamber. Except from the Democrats. It was amazing. Are high interest debt on credit cards, personal loans, collections or medical bills keeping you up at night? PDS Debt can help. Start saving you money immediately. PDS Debt's platform can analyze your unique situation and create the perfect personalized plan to get you out of debt. There's no minimum credit score required and it takes just 30 seconds to get your results. With PDS Debt, you'll save more, pay off your debt faster and take back control of your finances. Learn more and Get a free debt analysis in just 30 seconds@pdsdebt.com wire President Trump again. There's so many great moments last night, truly. And it was an amazing pleasure to be in the chamber. A real honor because it was a historic moment. It really feels like America is on the upswing. When President Trump speaks in tones of optimism. There's a reason for that. I will say it was very funny in the room when President Trump was talking about the Panama Canal and Greenland. Like, highly enjoyable. First of all, Secretary Rubio has already gone down and visited Panama and Panama has already pledged they are going to get rid of Chinese ownership at both ends of the Panama Canal. We've talked about this on the show. There are several problems with the Panama Canal. The biggest problem is that you have two Chinese owned companies that basically have stations at the end of each side of the Panama Canal. And should they decide to, for example, just obstruct the canal in either direction, that is a massive threat to America's naval might on both sides of, of the north and South American continent. Like, it's a real problem. And so Rubio had already, Marco Rubio Secretary of State, he'd already negotiated an end to that. He also already negotiated a win for the United States in lowering fees for the transit of American naval military ships through the Panama Canal. President Trump then says in front of Rubio and the entire crap, we're taking the entire canal. And you can see that, shall we say. The Secretary of State seems a little surprised. He too had a surprise under his seat.

Donald Trump (51:14)

As it turned out, the Panama Canal was built by Americans for Americans, not for others, but others could use it. But it was built at tremendous cost of American blood and treasure. 38,000 workers died building the Panama Canal. They died of malaria, they died of snake bites and mosquitoes. Not a nice place to work. They paid them very highly to go there, knowing there was a 25% chance that they would die. The most expensive project also that was ever built in our country's history. If you bring it up to modern day costs, it was given away by the Carter administration for $1. But that agreement has been violated very severely. We didn't give it to China, we gave it to Panama and we're taking it back.

Ben Shapiro (52:09)

And then President Trump would go on to also claim Greenland. And it was very funny at one point he says, we're gonna, they'll have the ability to join us if they want become a state, but we'll get it one way or another. The invasion of Greenland is imminent. There were two really actually important moments last night. Two quite important moments. I think that the single most important moment came when he was talking about illegal immigration, because this is where President Trump. I talked about this yesterday on the show. This is where President Trump has experienced his biggest success. He has lowered the illegal immigration rate to the United States by 97%. 97%. That's an astonishing number. And again, we spoke with the border czar, Tom Homan, who is straight from central casting as a law enforcement bulldog, and we talked about that with him yesterday on the backstage Live. You should. You should give it a listen. Here is the President saying the obvious. Joe Biden left the border open. He left. It was Joe Biden. It was not Congress. It was not anybody else. It was Joe. Joseph R. Biden. I thought this was the takeaway of the night. Here is the President of the United States.

Donald Trump (53:12)

Last night, the media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president. Joe Biden didn't just open our borders. He flew illegal aliens over them to overwhelm our schools, hospitals, and communities throughout the country. Entire towns like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, buckled under the weight of the migrant occupation and corruption like nobody's ever seen before. Beautiful towns destroyed. Now, just as I promised in my inaugural address, we are achieving the great liberation of America again.

Ben Shapiro (54:01)

This is like his moment when he said we didn't need a new piece of legislation, we need a new president. That's the whole ballgame, gang. It's the whole ball game when people look back on this historical era and they wonder how President Trump was reelected. There are many reasons why President Trump was reelected. Obviously, he's a unique political figure. He is sort of a colossus be striding the American political scene. There's just no other way to see it. What he's done is historic here. But Joe Biden's signal failures on two particular issues led to his. His party being out of power. Those two issues were illegal immigration. He left the border wide open. Wide open. And inflation. Those were the two big issues. And then there was a third issue lurking in the background of everybody's mind that was really sort of the. The ghost in the machine of American politics. And that was the just patent insanity of saying that boys can be girls. Those were the issues. And Trump is on the right side of those issues. He is. And now there was one moment where Democrats actually applauded. What was that? One moment when Trump talked about how the United States has spent the last few years funding Ukraine in its war with Russia to defend against Russian predation. Now, I will say I think it was very smart of Vladimir Zelensky to finally back off the idiotic line that he took on Friday trying to force President Trump to say things he didn't want to say. Zelensky issued a letter yesterday before the State of the Union address in which he essentially said thanks to the United States for all of the aid that he wanted to sign, the minerals deal that he's looking forward to moving toward peace. These are all things Zelensky could have said on Friday and should have said on Friday. But I'm glad that he said them yesterday because again, the off ramp is clear here. The question is not really whether Ukraine will get there, it's really whether Russia will get there. President Trump is trying his hardest to get Russia there. President Trump talked about funding Ukraine and the Democrats, the only time they applauded all night. Not for the cancer kid, not for the, the young woman with brain injury, traumatic brain injury from being pulverized by a volleyball hit by a man. Not for the man who got into West Point. Not, not for the family of the 12 year old girl who was murdered by illegal immigrants and now a national park is going to be named after. Not, not for any of those people. They cheered for Ukraine. Now the only reason they're cheering on Ukraine is because they believe that President Trump is a Russian tool. That's the only reason they care. Because I'm old enough to remember in 2012 when one mitt Romney was running against Barack Obama and said that our largest geopolitical opponent was Russia. And Barack Obama said to him in open debate, the 1980s called and they want their foreign policy back. So you guys are just liars. I don't believe you at all, at all. But they actually unfurled Ukraine flags they shared for Ukraine. And again, I want Ukraine to beat Russia. I would love for that to happen. I'm also realistic about what a final settlement looks like here. This led to perhaps the funniest moment of the night. We got a big laugh in the room where President Trump is talking about the war and Elizabeth Warren decides to clap very loudly. And she was in the front row. I mean, she was in the front row of the Democratic side of the aisle. And here's how it went.

Donald Trump (56:54)

A lot of things are happening in the Middle East. People have been talking about that so much lately with everything going on with Ukraine and Russia. But a Lot of things are happening in the Middle East. Rough neighborhood, actually. I'm also working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict with no end in sight. The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine's defense. With no security, with no energy. Do you want to keep it going for another five years? Yeah. Yeah, you would say. Pocahontas says yes.

Ben Shapiro (58:09)

Oh, my gosh. Just wrong footing them from beginning to end. An amazing performance by the President of the United States last night. He closed with some pretty inspirational talk, you know, talk that I've been. I've been saying for a while, the United States is a country of pioneers. And President Trump, I thought that the closing of the speech is one of the best closings of any of his speeches I've heard.

Donald Trump (58:28)

We stand on the shoulders of these pioneers who won and built the modern age, these workers who poured their sweat into the skylines of our cities, these warriors who shed their blood on fields of battle and gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom. Now it is our time to take up the righteous cause of American liberty. And it is our turn to take America's destiny into our own hands and begin the most thrilling days in the history of our country. This will be our greatest era. With God's help, over the next four years, we are going to lead this nation even higher. And we are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this earth.

Ben Shapiro (59:24)

Again. This is all just great stuff. And the entire night was just Trump, wrong footing. Democrats, and even Democrats kind of recognize this. So in the aftermath, not only was there great polling data suggesting that the American people really liked the speech overall, but even Democrats on the cable news channels were freaking out about the lackluster Democratic response. So Jake Tapper properly pointed out, the Democrats just seemed absolutely demoralized the whole night. They did. I was in the room, I was watching them the whole night. They looked as though they just wanted to crawl in a hole. They looked like they couldn't believe they had to be there, and they had no unified point of opposition. Truly amazing stuff. You can really sense John King, you can really sense Republicans with a pep.

Donald Trump (60:08)

In their step and Democrats rather demoralized the Democrats, not to be cliche about.

Ben Shapiro (60:15)

It, but they are in disarray. They do not know how to. How to be the opposition force. I mean, that is right. That is totally right. By Jake Tapper right there. And by the way, neither do some of the hosts. So last night, in one of the more disgusting moments, actually MSNBC host Nicole Wallace, she was talking about TJ Daniel, who's a 13 year old cancer survivor. And after expressing her warm feelings for him, she then somehow turned it into a referendum on January 6.

Donald Trump (60:46)

I hope he lives and the life he wants to live. He wants to be a cop. He knows what he wants to do. And maybe when you have childhood cancer, that crystallizes for you. And I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer, but I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump supporters. And if he does, I hope he isn't one of the six who loses his life to suicide. And I hope he isn't one who has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then live to see Donald Trump pardon those people.

Ben Shapiro (61:18)

Unbelievable. That's your take? That's it? Really? That's where you went with that? That was really. You guys, you're doing an amazing job. Rachel Maddow flipped out, which, you know, is her usual mode. All right. You never know whether she's going to laugh, whether she's going to cry. Rachel Maddow, I think that's kind of her, her resting, confused face. Here we go.

Donald Trump (61:36)

For the record, and this is disgusting. The President made a spectacle out of praising a young man who thus far survived pediatric cancer. As if the President had something to do with that. This was in the midst of him praising Doge. Doge cuts, among other things, have cut off funding for ongoing research into pediatric cancer.

Ben Shapiro (62:01)

Really, calm down. It's fine. He wanted to be there. The kid got to become a Secret Service agent. Like it was good. It'll be all right, guys. You'll survive. Even Stephen Colbert was mocking the Democrats for their feeble response. He was celebrating Al Green because Stephen Colbert is such an idiot. But here was Stephen Colbert basically being, why can't you all be Al Green? Okay, all right. It's a take. The man barked out one appalling claim after another. But don't you worry, the Democrats came ready to fight back with their little paddles. Okay? That is how you save democracy. By quietly dissenting or bidding on an antique tea set. It was hard to tell what was going on. I'm just kidding. That was very clear Democrats. In fact, I made my own sign. And there's Stephen Colbert holding up a sign that says, try doing something. And to cheers. Well, they can't do anything because they lose. Apparently, President Trump's strategy here is I win, you lose, and Democrats buying right into it. So slow clap for the genius Democrats. Really an amazing job already. Coming up, we're going to get into the Democratic response, the official response to President Trump's State of the Union address. First, a couple of reminders. One, please go to pardon Derek.com that's P A R D O N D e r e k.com pardon derek.com to join our campaign to get a federal pardon for Derek Chauvin, the man who is clearly railroaded in the George Floyd death. A federal pardon won't free him from jail, but it will reset the table on his conviction in state court. And of course, it will rectify a grievous judicial wrong. Whether you believe that he was responsible for George Floyd's death or not, there's no question he did not get a fair trial. There's just no question about any of this. By the way, he is not responsible for George Floyd's death, in my opinion. Make sure that you go to pardonderek.com right now and sign up, because we are going to be putting some pressure inside the administration for precisely this. Also, before we discuss anything with regard to Elise Slotkin's response to President Trump last night, you have to become a Daily Wire member. I mean, it's just required. And we have so much great content there. Not only are you going to get to hang out with me behind the paywall for all access live or in the mailbag, you're also going to get all of Matt Walsh's amazing content, ranging from his show to what is a woman? To Am I racist? You can check out Run, Hide, Fight and other amazing entertainment content. Check out our kids programing over at Banky. So much good stuff. If you're not a member, become member. Use code Shapiro. Check out for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.