Ep. 2229 - The Scavenger Left and The Cuck Democrats

Summary

Summary of The Ben Shapiro Show Episode: Ep. 2229 - The Scavenger Left and The Cuck Democrats
Release Date: July 1, 2025
Host: Ben Shapiro
Produced by: The Daily Wire

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Introduction

In Episode 2229, Ben Shapiro delves into pressing political and social issues, focusing on the tumultuous state of the Democratic Party, recent acts of violence in Idaho, and the ongoing conflict involving Iran and Israel. Shapiro introduces his discussions by highlighting the end of Pride Month and the emergence of what he terms the "Scavenger Left," alongside critiques of Democratic nominee Zoran Mamdani.

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Idaho Firefighter Tragedy

The episode begins with a harrowing account of an ambush that resulted in the deaths of two Idaho firefighters and injuries to a third. Shapiro reports on the suspect's actions and the law enforcement response.

Notable Quote:

Robert Norris [01:59]: "At approximately 1:21pm this afternoon, we received reports of a fire on the east side of Canfield Mountain... We now have two deaths... This is an active situation."

Shapiro emphasizes the brutality of the attack, questioning potential motives and drawing connections to past incidents involving neo-Nazis, as reported by the New York Post. He condemns such acts unequivocally, asserting that regardless of the shooter's justification, there should be no defense for such violence.

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Scavenger Left and the Democratic Party Issues

Shapiro introduces his concept of the "Scavenger Left," individuals intent on dismantling societal structures. He references his upcoming book, Lines and Scavengers, which explores this phenomenon across the political spectrum.

He critiques recent Pride events, pointing out bizarre and contradictory displays, such as the fusion of LGBTQ+ symbols with Palestinian flags. Shapiro argues that these actions exemplify the chaotic and destructive intentions of the so-called Scavenger Left.

Notable Quote:

Ben Shapiro [04:26]: "Scavengers are people who wish to simply tear down the society in which they live... They just want to tear down everything."

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Zoran Mamdani’s Campaign and Democratic Responses

A significant portion of the episode centers on Zoran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York mayor. Shapiro portrays Mamdani as a radical figure embodying various extremist ideologies, including communism, Islamism, and anti-capitalism.

Shapiro criticizes Democratic commentators like Ezra Klein for failing to condemn Mamdani's controversial statements, particularly his use of the phrase "globalize the Intifada," which Shapiro interprets as a call for violent uprising against Western civilization.

Notable Quotes:

Ben Shapiro [15:50]: "Do you condemn that phrase, globalize the Intifada?"

Robert Norris [16:02]: "That's not language that I use... It is based on a belief in universal human rights."

Shapiro accuses the Democratic establishment of ceding control to Mamdani and similar figures, warning that this trend could lead to the party's downfall.

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Economy and the Big Beautiful Bill

Shapiro addresses the "Big Beautiful Bill," a significant legislative package aimed at cutting discretionary spending by 11%. He discusses its implications for the U.S. economy and Republican support for the bill.

Notable Quotes:

Robert Norris [46:59]: "It's an 11% cut in nondiscretionary spending... we're going to bend the curve, bring the debt levels down."

Ben Shapiro [47:34]: "The threat of the bill going under... is going to scare Republicans into compliance."

Shapiro highlights internal Republican debates, potential Senate challenges, and the broader economic strategies tied to the bill, emphasizing its importance for the party's prospects.

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Middle East Developments

The episode covers recent tensions between Iran and Israel, including missile strikes targeting civilian infrastructure in Israel. Shapiro discusses President Trump's policies and actions aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear capabilities.

He also touches on the Abraham Accords, mentioning Syria's potential interest in joining, contingent upon territorial concessions and U.S. support.

Notable Quotes:

Ben Shapiro [59:13]: "President Trump's threats remain extremely credible."

Ezra Klein [59:16]: "They did. It's at the bottom of a mountain... the bomb went through it like butter."

Shapiro reinforces the strength of U.S. defenses and intelligence in dismantling Iran's nuclear facilities, asserting that Iran's regime will continue its enrichment efforts despite setbacks.

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Separation of Church and State Debunked

In a segment aimed at debunking myths surrounding the separation of church and state, Shapiro clarifies misconceptions about the Founding Fathers' intentions and the historical context of religious influence in early American governance.

He emphasizes that while the federal government does not establish a state religion, many individual states historically maintained official religions or religious tests for officeholders.

Notable Quote:

Ben Shapiro [61:05]: "The Founding Fathers knew quite well... they did not want to disestablish religion."

Shapiro argues that religion was considered integral to moral and political stability, quoting John Adams and George Washington to support his assertion that early America valued religious influence without mandating a unified state religion.

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Conclusion

Ben Shapiro wraps up the episode by reiterating his concerns about the Democratic Party's trajectory, the influence of radical leftist ideologies, and the importance of maintaining traditional societal structures. He underscores the necessity for Republicans to stand firm against what he views as the destructive tendencies of the Scavenger Left to ensure the preservation of Western civilization.

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Disclaimer: The above summary is a condensation of the podcast episode content and is intended for informational purposes only. It reflects the viewpoints expressed by Ben Shapiro and his guests during the show.

Transcript

[Ben Shapiro]

Get some more on this in a moment. First, you're great at protecting your personal information. You might use things like two factor authentication, strong passwords, vpn. As much as you try to be in control of how your information is protected, there are lots of other places that also have that information. They might not be careful the way you are. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Members of my own team use it. Producer Phil and his wife use it. They feel more protected. You will too. Save up to 40% your very first year with promo code [e-mail] terms apply. Alrighty folks. Tons coming up on today's show. It was the end of Pride Month yesterday and over the weekend, which meant that you saw all the scavengers together again, including Zoran Mamdani will talk about the fallout from his New York mayoralty Democratic nomination and why the Democratic Party is in serious trouble. Plus the latest on the big beautiful bill and also Iran tons coming up. First, the Fourth of July is on Friday, but our Independence Day celebration is happening right now. Join DailyWire plus for a year we're we will cover half the cost. You'll get this show ad free and uncensored. Plus more podcasts from the most trusted voices in conservative media and full access to our entire library of hit films and documentaries including Am I Racist? Jordan B. Peterson's powerful new series Parenting, and my no holds barred late night show Ben After Dark. You're not just signing up to be a member, you're joining millions of people who share your values and your fight. Don't wait. Get six months free [e-mail] well folks, obviously we are keeping tabs on this horrifying situation out of Idaho during which at least two Idaho firefighters were murdered during an ambush on Sunday. The man suspected of killing those Idaho firefighters, of course, was found dead on Sunday with a gunshot wound. According to Daily Wire, the man was believed to have deliberately set a grass fire at Canfield Mountain in northern Idaho and then started shooting at firefighters when they responded. Two firefighters were killed. A third is fighting for his life after sustaining serious injuries. The Kootenai County Sheriff, Bob Norris, didn't release any identifying information on the suspect. He Here is what he had to say originally.

[Robert Norris]

Okay, my name is Robert Norris. I am the sheriff of Kootenay County. This information is very preliminary and is subject to change. We want to give you and the public as much information as quickly as possible. So at approximately 1:21pm this afternoon, we received reports of a fire on the east side of Canfield Mountain. Fire assets responded to the scene and at approximately 2pm this afternoon it was reported that firefighters were receiving shots fired at them. We now have two deaths. We have an unknown amount of casualties. We still have civilians that are coming off of that mountain. We might have civilians that are stuck or in shock on that mountain. So this is a very, very fresh situation. We are actively taking sniper fire as we speak. This is a, this is an active situation.

[Ben Shapiro]

So again, apparently what happened here is that there was a report of a fire. Once that fire was set, firefighters began arriving. And then this shooter started murdering the fire department officials and shooting at the rest of law enforcement. As they were arriving, Nora said, this is a total ambush. These firefighters did not have a chance. At one point there were more than 300 law enforcement officers on the scene Sunday afternoon, including FBI agents. Law enforcement exchanged gunfire with the suspect. It was not known at that point whether he was killed by law enforcement or if he shot himself. The New York Post now has more information on the identity of the shooter. Again, we don't mention the names of mass shooters on the program because people who engage in mass shootings love nothing better than the publicity. However, what we do know is we have an eerie photos of white guy, eerie photo showing him aiming a sinister stare into the, into the camera. And again, unclear at this point if he was killed by the cops or whether he shot himself. Obviously the tragedy for the, for the state of Idaho, for the country is quite real and quite shocking. Here's footage of a procession of law enforcement vehicles for the slain firefighters.

[Robert Norris]

Foreign.

[Ben Shapiro]

Apparently firefighters were calling 9111 firefighter said in a frantic call. I'm pinned down. It's clear to me this fire was set intentionally to draw us in when law enforcement up here immediately. We have another Cordelina firefighter down. We've got two unresponsive battalion chiefs down. Multiple gunshot wounds. Two Cor Dillene are down. And then the fire was eventually left to burn as reinforcements battled to root out the unseen gunman. And then the body was tracked down using cell phone information. Again, unclear what the motive is here. There is some coincidence suggesting at the very least that there may be an association between this particular shooting and it's a terrorist attack and a decades old incident. According to the New York Post, involving the fire department and neo Nazis. Sunday's incident happened 24 years to the day after the 2001 burning of an Aryan nations compound, Hayden Lake, just seven miles north of Coeur d' Alene during a fire training operation. That's because the cabin in the compound had been sold to the department after the Aryan nations national leader, Richard Butler, filed for bankruptcy over a settlement involving the shooting of a Native American woman and her son. And then the site was torched by the fire department during a training exercise. So could these two things be associated? We don't know at this point. We'll continue to bring you information as it emerges. Obviously, acts of evil are acts of evil. This is a tremendous act of evil. And we do live in a, in a sick time when depending on the justification of the shooter, some people will celebrate it. We know this. We know that if the fire department officials were murdered because someone had a complaint about systemic racism in America, there'd be a cadre of Americans who had rise behind that. We know that because Luigi Mangion is now a household name. If they're a complaint about capitalism. If, however, this was a person who was either psychotic or white supremacist, you're not going to find anybody coming out in their defense. Now the rule should be no one comes out in defense of this sort of activity, no matter the supposed justification or excuse making by the shooter and, or any sympathizers. All right, meanwhile, we need to talk about the fact that the scavengers are on the move. So I've talked to you about this fact. I have this book, Lines and Scavengers. It's coming out very shortly. You can pre order that over at the daily wire shop right now. Get a signed copy. Scavengers are people who wish to simply tear down the society in which they live. And they have very little in common with one another other than that simple fact. They just want to tear down everything. And it explains the bizarre agglomeration of radicals from across the political spectrum who seem to gather together to rally against our civilization. And we saw a lot of that this weekend. So, for example, here is a march that took place to end Pride month in Ireland. A drag queen with flags of Arab countries and children marching in Ireland. That is a Palestinian flag being waved by a drag queen in Ireland. And now again, how do you put all that together? And there are children in the crowd and all the rest. How do you put all that together? I mean, obviously there are no queers in Palestine, so queers for Palestine is a very weird look. Or how about Toronto Pride? So Toronto Pride had a parade in which they were flying Iranian flags. Remember Iran is a place that hangs gay people from cranes. And yet here were people running around with flags reading Free Iran, presumably from American and Israeli intervention against their nuclear program. I assume that these Freedom Fort Ron stands are not actually calling for the fall of the Ayatollahs. It'd be rather a shock if they were at this point. Okay. Or maybe this particular omnicause flag. So this one has been making the rounds. So you remember the rainbow pride flag, the one that we used to recognize 10, 15 years ago. She's a rainbow flag. And then there was the Pride Progress flag in which you had sort of from the side arrows coming in in the form of the trans flag, the white, pink and blue. And then added to that were black and brown, because of course there are trans people who are black and brown. And then you had intersex people who are added as a yellow. And now they've added on top of that a heart containing the Palestinian flag. Because all the causes are 1. The omni causes finally come together. And that Omni cause is just the scavenger mentality. It's all the people from the Jean Paul Sartre Hateford of Western civilization left to the queer pride left who have decided that they are going to band together to destroy the civilization that we all share. And you could see it in action a little bit earlier over the weekend during the so called Glastonbury Festival when a member of the British rap punk duo Bob Villain got up and started chanting, as we talked about on yesterday's show, death, death to the idf. And suggesting you want your country back. Well, basically f off, you don't get to get your country back. So the State Department of the United States has now taken a measure with regard to this. And the measure is that visas for Bob Villain have been revoked in light of their hateful tirade at Glastonbury, including leading the crowd in death chance. US Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau said that foreigners who glorify violence in Hijra not welcome visitors to our country. Now again, that makes perfect sense. There's no reason why we should be importing these people to our country, especially when they may end up as mayor of New York. Which brings us to Zoran Mamdani. So for all of those who keep pretending that Zoram Donny is sort of a normie Democrat who just has some progressive leanings, no, he is not. He's the apex predator of the intersectional scavenger coalition. He is a person who's perfectly comfortable Talking about spending $65 million in New York City to trans the kids, but also talking about free, free Palestine and globalize the Intifada, but also talking about how it is deeply important and deeply necessary to seize the means of production. He's not hiding the ball at all here. He is a representative of a left that has lost touch with reality and is now running specifically and solely in order to denigrate and destroy the civilization in in which it lives. That is the goal of this thing. Here is Zoramdani marching in New York City Pride with Letitia James again. Letitia James is the extraordinarily corrupt Attorney General of the State of New York who decided before even investigating Donald Trump that he needed to be prosecuted. Areas walking the Pride Parade, your next mayor of New York, a person who also says that quote unquote, Palestine must be free, by which he means ruled, presumably by Hamas, for whom he has sympathy. And none of these pieces fit together unless you understand that they are all directed toward destroying a thing, not actually building a thing. We'll get to Zoran Mamdani and the radicalization of the Democratic Party in a moment. First, you know how we've all heard that you catch cold from being out in the cold? Or that we only use 10% of our brains? Well, here's another myth that's been fooling shoppers for years. That higher thread count automatically means better sheets. This is one of those marketing tricks that sounds logical, but it makes no sense at all. Actually, thread count is just fabric density. It doesn't tell you about whether those sheets will actually feel good or last a long time. What really matters is the quality of the threads themselves. 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Get 20% off plus free shipping on your first set of [e-mail] Ben that's Boland branch B O L L a n d branch.com men save 20% unlock free shipping limited time only exclusions apply Also, Iran, a nation that has vowed to wipe Israel and the United States off the map, made calculated strikes at Israel. The onslaught of missiles targeting hospitals, schools, nursing homes actually caused significant damage. Day after day, night after night, Israelis faced relentless, unprecedented attacks that killed dozens of innocent civilians. Thousands fled bombed out homes. Many required immediate medical care. These attacks were only the start of something that could be much, much worse. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews was on the ground throughout that crisis to help provide wide scale food distribution along with critical first aid and emergency supplies, especially to Israel's most vulnerable, the sick, the elderly, children, families. There's still a need to help place new bomb shelters across Israel along with first responder flak jackets and armored emergency vehicles. FCJ is doing amazing work. They're protecting the population on the ground. They've even been protecting Druze in southern Syria. That's how far afield they will go to help people. Now is your time to save and heal Israel's innocent and most vulnerable. To learn more about IFCJ's life saving work, visit BenForTheFellowship.org that's one word. Ben for the Fellowship.org Again Ben for the Fellowship.org so over the weekend he was on NBC with Kristen Welker and he was asked about the phrase globalize the intifada, which he continues to seize upon and use. Now understand the term intifada means violent uprising. That is how the term was coined. It is a term for a violent uprising, particularly against Israel. Globalizing the intifada means that you want an extension of a violent uprising all across the West. That is what you want. Intifada means what it means. And this sort of retconning that you're seeing now where intifada just means, you know, some sort of nice gentle struggle in the same way the jihad. You remember this if you're old enough, that in the early 2000s when jihadis were calling for jihad, there are a whole group of moron Westerners who are suggesting that jihad just meant internal struggle. There are some people who are trying to recast globalizing the intifada as a nonviolent event as well. Mamdani was asked, why don't you just stop saying globalize the intifada? And he said he's not going to because free speech now, by the way, I'm just going to point out no one is saying he can't say globalize the Intifada. He can say whatever he wants. It's a free country. And. And shame on us. He's a citizen of the country. He didn't have to be, but he is. He's a citizen of the country. So that's not the question. The question is not whether he ought to be allowed to say globalize the Intifada as an American citizen. He is allowed to say globalize the Intifada as an American citizen. The question is, is it a good or moral thing to say? And one of the last refuges of cowards these days is to pretend that your free speech is being violated when you are criticized for saying something bad. In any case, here's Mamdani trying to defend himself again and again, three separate times in this interview, he says that he's not going to walk away from globalizing the Intifada, a call for violent uprising against Western civilization. So I want to give you an opportunity to respond here and now. Do you condemn that phrase, globalize the Intifada?

[Robert Norris]

That's not language that I use. The language that I use and the language that I will continue to use to lead this city is that which speaks clearly to my intent, which is an intent that grounded in a belief in universal human rights.

[Ben Shapiro]

Do you condemn that phase, Globalize the Intifada, which a lot of people hear is a call to violence against Jews.

[Robert Norris]

I've heard from many Jewish New Yorkers who have shared their concerns with me, especially in light of the horrific attacks that we saw in Washington, D.C. and in Boulder, Colorado, about this moment of anti Semitism in our country and in our city.

[Ben Shapiro]

Why not just condemn it?

[Robert Norris]

My concern is to start to walk down the line of language and making clear what language I believe is permissible or impermissible takes me into a place similar to that of the President who is looking to do those very kinds of things. Putting people in jail for writing an op ed, putting them in jail for protesting. Ultimately, it's not language that I use, it's language I understand there are concerns about. And what I will do is showcase my vision for the city through my words of my actions.

[Ben Shapiro]

Utter nonsense. Utter nonsense. It's not language that he uses. But he won't condemn that language because then he would be in the same. He'd be in the same universe as, God forbid, Donald Trump, who says that actually it's bad to use that kind of language. By the way, his own father has suggested 2021, quote, the resistance this time began in Jerusalem and spread to Gaza, now the west bank and Palestinian communities beyond. This is not a conflict between Israel and Hamas. We are witnessing something far more meaningful. Birth of the third intifada against settler colonialism. And this guy's a professor at Columbia University. So you see exactly where Zoran Mamdani came from. But in what is he? He is a merger of pro jihadi leftism, a, a sort of cultural Maoism, a communist vision of economics, and an anti traditional virtue version of social politics. All of those things combined together in a sort of witch's brew of nastiness, designed again against the civilization that has made him now a famous person and made his parents very wealthy, famous left wingers. Zoramdani believes, for example, that the Third world is essentially our guy, that he grew up in the Third World, so he has a different vision of what things like free Palestine mean.

[Robert Norris]

So the third holy grail of taboos in American politics. You have socialism, you have Islam, and then you have Palestinian Palestine, and you are really going for the trifecta.

[Ezra Klein]

Let's go, baby, let's go.

[Robert Norris]

Tell me, why is Palestine a part of your politics? When you grow up as someone, especially in the Third World, you have a very different understanding of the Palestinian struggle.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, first of all, he moved to the United States when he was either 7 or 8 years old. Second of all, the. The kind of pathetic attempt to reach out to fellow Third Worlders, as he puts it, by eating rice with his hands, as though this is a necessity in American politics, because he is from a. I mean, he is claiming essentially membership in a foreign vision. That's what he's doing. And he's embracing Islam, socialism, and free, free Palestine. But by the way, he's marching in pride parades in the same way that Ilhan Omar will do that. You think that Ilhan Omar is very fond of pride parades? Why? Or, Or. Or Zor Momdani, if he really is a religious Muslim in any serious way, because religious Muslims typically not so hot as it turns out on the pride progress flags. What it really is about in the end, as always, as always, is scavengers seek to tear things down. This is what they want to do. Again, Mamdani isn't hiding the ball here. He says that people ought to be unapologetic about their socialism and bds and seizing the means of production. So for all those who keep saying he's not a communist, seizing the means of production is literal communism. That is literal Marxism.

[Robert Norris]

And we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism. There are also other issues that we firmly believe in. Whether it's bds, right? Or whether it's the end goal of seizing the means of production where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment. And what I want to say is that it is critical that in the way that we organize, the way that we set up our, you know, set up our work and our priorities, that we do not leave any one issue for the other, right?

[Ben Shapiro]

All the issues have to be brought together, all of them. Bds, meaning boycott, divesting and sanctioning Israel, seizing the means of production, full scale communism, socialism, all those things have to be advanced together. According to Zoran Mamdani. He appeared again on NBC with Christian Welker and he said, I don't think that New York City should have billionaires. Should not have billionaires. Well, that's weird because I think the New York City shouldn't have socialists. In fact, I think America shouldn't have socialists. I think that socialism is an evil philosophy, a philosophy that is rooted in jealousy, envy, hatred for people who earn a bizarre belief that the good things in life naturally occur in the world and are not made by human hands and human innovation. But Zoram Hamzani believes that you have sinned by dint of being too successful in your business and therefore you need to be punished. Do you think that billionaires have a right to exist?

[Robert Norris]

I don't think that we should have billionaires because frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality. And ultimately what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country. And I look forward to work with everyone, including billionaires, to make a city that is fairer for all of them.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay? He is so vicious. And I got to say, with the kind of smarmy smile that he pastes on his face when he is saying some of the most evil things in human history. When you say there shouldn't be billionaires, what you are saying is that you have the right, Zoram Hamdani, to steal the money of people who have worked hard for that money and built businesses that have helped presumably millions of other people. And you get to steal it and take it for yourself so that you can then distribute it as you see fit. Now listen, everybody can be equal. We can have no billionaires if you know there are lots of places on earth that have no billionaires cuz everyone's poor. Okay? If you're not talking about an oligarchy like Russia where actual resources were physically distributed from the government to specific friends of the government. If you're talking about just a free market system where certain people earn more than other people, yeah, you're going to have some billionaires and those billionaires are going to create jobs for millions of other people and products and services that lots of other people want to buy. They're going to create new innovations, they're going to bring costs down, they're going to bring wages up through competition. That is the history of capitalism. But according to Zoran Mamdani, he needs to personally seize the means of production and destroy the billionaires. Destroy them. And that sits very comfortably along the same kinds of people who wish to destroy traditional morality, destroy churches, because again, it's all about the destruction the same kinds of people who wish to destroy successful countries because those countries are doing too well in other parts of the world. And that's why Israel has to be stopped, because it's too successful. It's all part of that same ugly mosaic of anti Westernism and it's hideous. And I'm not sure what's more pathetic, frankly. Zoran Mamdani winning a New York City primary by winning a bunch of college educated white dolts or the very highly educated and intelligent Democrats, moderate Democrats, or who are being cucked by Zoran Mamdani. And I mean that in the, in the most colloquial sense that are being cuckolded by him because they're watching their party stolen from them by Zoran Momdani and they are cheering it. They're sitting there and they're watching it and they are cheering it. Because God forbid they should have to stand up against Zoran Mamdani and his vicious agenda for even a smidgen of a moment and lose the support of the passionate advocates for social justice like the Zoran Mamdanis. And here I'm calling out Ezra Klein. So Ezra Klein's been a guest on this program. He was recently a guest for his book Abundance. His book Abundance is all about the idea that if Democrats wish to win, what they should be talking about is getting rid of things like overregulation. They should be ensuring that people can develop more freely and easily to bring down housing costs, for example. They should get rid of the bureaucracy. And sounding very much like a Republican. But Ezra Klein is declining to criticize Zoran Mamdani. Why? Well, because Zoran Mamdani, after all, has stood up against the powers that be. He was. Ezra Klein was very upset because Andrew Cuomo in the primary debate called out the fact that Zoram Hamdani is anti Israel. And Ezra Klein says, how dare you polarize the Democratic Party on this issue? Okay, Andrew Cuomo would not have any ground to stand on, quote unquote, polarizing the party. He if there were not a gigantic anti Semitic wing of the Democratic Party that has now emerged and is seeking to take control. And Ezra Klein is angry that Andrew Cuomo even brought that up. What absolute moral cowardice. Truly true moral cowardice. And I'm disappointed to say that because again, I think Andrew's a smart guy. But this is, this is really quite. It's not only vacuous, it's morally imbecilic.

[Robert Norris]

But the other thing that like actually closed it, that made for me that I would not rank him was the way he used Israel in the campaign. Like, I am a Jewish person. I have very, very deep feelings about what is happening in Israel and Gaza. And I found it so cynical, so repulsive, just such a vicious way to weaponize. I thought both sort of Mamdani's ethnicity, but also, I don't know. What's happening in Gaza is a horror. People should be horrified. Like the whole thing just struck me as grotesque. And I knew a lot of people for whom it read that way.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, let me explain. Ezra Klein does not get to play the As a Jew card for the first time. Only when he is talking about defending a person who's wildly anti Israel and uses phrases that talk about the destruction of the State of Israel, which is to say the murder of. Of millions of Jews. That's not when Ezra Klein gets to bring out the As a Jew card. Ridiculous. He's offended by that. I'm more offended by the fact that Zoram Hamdani sides with people who wish to murder Jews. That seems more offensive to me. And Andrew Cuomo pointing that out is significantly less offensive to me than Zoram Hamdani being in favor of those people. The guy literally did a rap in favor of the Holy Land. Five members of the Holy Land foundation who fundraised for Hamas. This is a person who on October 8th condemned Israel. But Ezra Klein's very upset that Andrew Cuomo called out Zoran Mamdani because, you know, it read as an attack on his ethnicity. That's what it read as. You know what? You guys deserve the party that you are building right now already coming up, it is amazing to see how many supposedly moderate Democrats are now making the case for Mamdani. Mainly cuz they're cowards. First, let's Talk about gut health. Probably something you should be thinking about, but you're just ignoring. If you think post meal bloating is just how your body works, well, you're wrong. Turns out you you shouldn't be suffering after you eat. Enter Peaks Pure Tea. Now, fermented tea might sound like health store nonsense. I get it. But my producer Justin has been using this for a while and can attest to the fact that this stuff actually works. He starts his mornings with black pure for metabolism support and reaches for green pure after meals. It keeps him feeling light, not like he just swallowed a brick. It's smooth, earthy, doesn't taste like a garden hose. Here's the science. Pure is fermented. 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Well, if you're in any profession that involves a lot of mailing and shipping, stamps.com takes at least one of those tasks off your list. Stamps.com lets you focus on what you do best by handling all the logistics for you. You can print stamps, shipping labels or certified mail forms in seconds and schedule free package pickups all from one convenient place and save up to 89% off USPS, UPS and other carriers while you're at it. For over 28 years, more than 4 million customers have trusted Stamps.com to simplify their shipping and mailing needs. Whether you're running a small business or selling online through major marketplaces, Stamps.com gives you access to all the USPS and UPS services you need right from your computer or phone. No more waiting in lines. No more Dealing with post office traffic. What makes it really convenient is the flexibility it offers as your all in one solution. All you need is a computer and printer. They'll even send you a free scale to get started. You can take care of everything on the go with their mobile app. Easily schedule package pickups automatically. See your cheapest and fastest shipping options. Plus their rate advisor takes the guesswork out of shipping costs, helping you find the best rates fast, including exclusive discounts you won't find anywhere else. Don't waste your time worrying about being a postage expert or standing in line to drop off letters and packages. Let stamps.com do what they do best so you can do what you do better. Go to stamps.com Shapiro Sign up for a special offer. No contract. Cancel Anytime. That's stamps.comshapiro and there's something else happening inside the Democratic Party here and it's a generational thing. So Ezra Klein used to be the young hot thing inside the Democratic Party. Ezra Klein and I are the same age. We're both 41 years old. 41 is middle aged. 41. I'm married. I'm married for almost 20 years. I've got four kids. Ezra's exactly my age. We grew up same generation. And now he's looking at people like Zoran Mamdani, who's legitimately almost a decade younger than we are. And he's looking at the Young Democrats and he's really looking at 20 year old Democrats and he's saying I don't want to be on the outs with these people. I need, I need their love. I need them to think I'm one of the cool kids. I don't want to be one of these Institutional Democrats who looks down their nose at the, at the hot new socialist thing. I don't want to be one of those people who says no to the cool kids. I want to be, you know, kind of like the cool to brother figure who massages them and says no. You know, sure he's got a little excessive from time to time, but you know what's wrong with that? He's young and he's full of pep and vinegar. And what I'm really offended by is people like Andrew Cuomo using these tropes, using saying things like why are you so anti Israel to Zoran Mamdani knowing he's a Muslim? Like so. So I mean New York City happens to be one of the more Jewish cities in the country just by demographics, obviously. Is that of no consequence when you're talking about the person who's Going to run the city, which has a huge problem with hate crimes against Jews in it right now. Absolutely pathetic. But he's not the only one. Molly Jong Fast is doing the same thing. She's out there claiming that Mamdani's messaging on economic populism is just great. It's just great. Again, she's supposed to be the voice of. Of what the moderates. Molly Jong Vest. And what I've been really surprised by is how Democrats have had so much trouble messaging on economic populism, when in fact most of their proposals are actual economic populism. And we're watching this votorama right now, which will give, I mean, by the way, the numbers in this, in this bill, 150 billion boost to military spending. Okay.

[Robert Norris]

Cutting food stamps and Medicaid, closing rural hospitals.

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, so like, Republicans are not doing economic populism? No. Well, I mean, she writes for the Bulwer, so we should take her seriously as a sort of moderate voice for Democrats. They're the moderate voice of Democrats are running for the hills. They're running for the hills. Instead, the hot new thing on MSNBC and CNN is people openly embracing the radicalism of Zoran Mamzani. Because if you don't embrace the scavenger movement, then that means you have to oppose it. You have to actually oppose the scavengers. And opposing the scavengers means defending your civilization. And too many on the left are unwilling to do this. Pablo Torre. I have no idea again why Pablo Tor is now being asked about his politics. Pablo Torre, last I checked, is some sort of sports commentator. But here he was on MSNBC praising the incredibly savvy Mamdani for refusing to condemn globalize the intifada.

[Robert Norris]

I found it to be incredibly savvy, actually, in how he answered that caddy.

[Ben Shapiro]

Both for the reasons you said, but.

[Robert Norris]

Also because of clearly who he's talking to. He's trying to build a coalition, to use that word, a cohesiveness on the left. And he knows that the people he's trying to persuade that, look, I'm not your typical candidate, is in fact a population of people that do not see the ideological, or in this case, the verbal, the rhetorical purity test in the same way that I think people who understandably, by the way, just wanted to condemn it.

[Ben Shapiro]

Right.

[Robert Norris]

I understand that completely. But, Molly, he is playing a bit of chess here.

[Ben Shapiro]

It's chess now. He's sophisticated by being a complete garbage heap. It's just sophistication. Over at the New Yorker, John Cassidy has a piece about the magic of the economics of Zoranomics. Do you mean like the Cuban style socialism that he is now proposing? Well, apparently, according to the New Yorker, again, this is the voice of mainstream Democrats. The answer is that he's doing an amazing job. Isabella Weber is quoted. A professor of economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst, who signed a public letter endorsing Mom Donnie's campaign proposals, said that Mamdani is right. In an open letter which the Nation published a few days before the primary, more than two dozen progressive economists from the United States and other countries described Mamdani's policy platform as a, quote, bold yet practical blueprint to tackle some of New York City's most urgent challenges. Above all, the cost of living. Again, the idea here is that if you provide a bold socialist critique of capitalism, somehow socialism becomes better. So what are mainstream Democrats doing? Well, either they're doing the Ezra Klein thing and saying, well, you know, they. They're anti, anti Momdani, even if they're not pro Mamdani, they're anti anti Momdani and people attacking Mom Donnie are the real problem, not Mom Donnie, or they're simply dodging. So MSNBC's Katty K. Notes that Democrat, Democrat is giving a sort of generic dodge when asked about Zormandani.

[Robert Norris]

Okay.

[Ben Shapiro]

Similar to what we just heard from Congresswoman Stevens, we spoke with a pair of Democrats last week, both of whom gave a strikingly similar answer when asked about Zoram Mamdani. There is a pattern emerging here. Okay, well, yes, there is a pattern, and the pattern is they're going to avoid because they don't actually have the stones to stand up against this thing. Okay, fine. Well, you will be eaten by that thing, and you deserve to be eaten by that thing you do. And by the way, the Republicans are going to continue to gain ground if you guys decide to follow Zoram Hamdani and AOC down this rabbit hole. President Trump isn't missing a beat. President Trump says, listen, if Zormandani becomes mayor of New York, and if he decides, for example, that he's going to obstruct ICE agents in their. In their pursuing the enforcement of the law, well, then I'll just withhold federal funds from New York City. And by the way, I'm in favor. Good. Good. Because I'm not sure why my taxpayer money should go to fund a city that chose Zoran Mandani. Precisely. What did you make of the New York Democrat primary?

[Ezra Klein]

I'm Donnie, he's a communist. I Think it's very bad for New York. I don't know that he's going to get in. It's inconceivable that he's. But he's a Communist, and he's a pure communist. He. I think he admits it, but I can't imagine it. But let's say this. If he does get in, I'm going to be president and he's going to have to do the right thing or they're not getting any money. He's got to do the right thing. It's shocking that I would have assumed that. I never. I used to say, we will never have a socialist in this country. No, but we'll have a Communist. I mean, he's a Communist and going to be mayor of New York. So I was very surprised when I said I never heard of him. I don't know who he is.

[Ben Shapiro]

Well, he said he's going to fight ice. He's not going to allow ICE to.

[Ezra Klein]

He'll be very unsuccessful.

[Ben Shapiro]

And he said if Benjamin Netanyahu comes to New York, he's going to have him arrested.

[Ezra Klein]

He's a radical left lunatic.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yes. Yes, he is. And if Democrats want to do this, well, they're going to get exactly what they are, what they're paying for. They break it, they bought it. And by the way, it is worthwhile noting, this is just another reason why the Trump administration is cracking down on the world of education, because the left has taken over the institutions of both higher education as well as public education. And this is how you end up with Zoran Mamdanis all over the political landscape. It's how you end up with young people who don't understand how capitalism works, who believe that somehow Free Palestine is a slogan that is morally worthwhile as it calls for the rule of an entire group of people by terrorists, who believe that somehow it's better for the American people for drag queens to read to children. It takes a group of very highly educated idiots, as my friend Dennis Prager used to say, in order to believe this sort of stuff. It's also why these teachers unions, which promote this sort of stuff, are deeply ensconced in the belief that they own your children. Here, for example, is teachers union president in Chicago, Stacey Davis Gates, saying that teachers own your kids.

[Robert Norris]

Baldwin says, the children are always ours.

[Ben Shapiro]

Always, always.

[Robert Norris]

Every single one of them, all over the globe. And what comes next is ct. You.

[Ben Shapiro]

Think your children are its children?

[Robert Norris]

Yes, we do.

[Ben Shapiro]

They just say it right out loud. They think that your children are their children. And they're going to indoctrinate your children in the same kind of crap that Zoram Hamzani has been educated by, by both his parents and by his educational institutions. That is why I I'm so very much on board with the Trump administration using the tools of the Civil Rights act to slap down these institutions of higher education that have become propaganda factories on behalf of the radical left. So yesterday, the Trump administration DOJ notified Harvard that they were still in violation of the Civil Rights Act. In a letter sent by the doj, particularly Harmony Dillon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, who's terrific, of course. Full disclosure. Harmony has acted as our lawyer in the past here at Daily Wire, particularly in the case in which we actually sued the Biden administration for violation of the law by using OSHA to try to cram down a vax mandate on 80 million people. In that letter, Harmeet wrote, harvard holds the regrettable distinction of being among the most prominent and visible breeding grounds for race discrimination. That legacy of discrimination persists with Harvard's continued anti Semitism. Any institution that refuses to meet its duties under federal law may not receive a wide range of federal privileges. Today, the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti Semitism is notifying you that the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services has concluded its Title VI investigation regarding anti Semitism at Harvard University. After a thorough investigation, HHS OCR finds that Harvard University is in violent violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin. The enclosed notice of violation details the findings of facts supporting that conclusion. For example, the majority of Jewish students reported experiencing negative bias or discrimination on campus. A quarter felt physically unsafe. Jewish and Israeli students were assaulted and spit on. They hid their kippas for fear of being harassed and concealed their Jewish identity from classmates for fear of ostracization. Images were widely circulated among the Harvard community, trafficking in obvious various anti Semitic tropes, including one showing a dollar sign inside a Star of David and all the rest. Harvard did not dispute our findings of fact, by the way, says the doj, nor could it. Har's inaction in the face of these civil rights violations is a clear example of the demographic hierarchy that has taken hold of the university. And this is exactly right. Assistant Attorney General of Civil Rights Harmy Dylan also said that University of Virginia is acting in violation of the Civil Rights Act. Here she was. I haven't gotten anything in writing from uva.

[Robert Norris]

Unlike many of the other institutions of.

[Ben Shapiro]

Higher learning I've had chancellors come meet me. I've had lawyers come meet me. They've given us reams and reams of documents.

[Robert Norris]

Not uva. They just didn't respond at all.

[Ben Shapiro]

They've asked for extensions and extensions and extensions.

[Robert Norris]

So that's one of the troubling aspects here.

[Ben Shapiro]

And I think the concern, and we began to hear from people we're negotiating.

[Robert Norris]

With that UVA was unable to certify.

[Ben Shapiro]

That it was in compliance with these laws.

[Robert Norris]

And so. But to your point, they actually did.

[Ben Shapiro]

I would call it, using a series of euphemisms to simply rebrand and repackage the. The exact same discriminatory programs that are illegal under federal law. And my job is the top federal.

[Robert Norris]

Civil rights law enforcer in the country.

[Ben Shapiro]

Is to make sure that every school that receives federal funding is compliant with federal law. Now, all of this, of course, has international connotations. We mentioned that punk duo Bob Villain and the Glastonbury Festival, in which, again, they were chanting death, death to the IDF and yelling at people, saying, so you say you want to keep your country and we say fu, essentially. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who grew up with Islamist, has a fabulous piece over at the Free Press pointing out what is happening worldwide. She says what happened at Glastonbury over the weekend is part of a coordinated ideological insurgency against the Jewish people. Not just against the Israeli military, not just against Israel, not just against Zionism, against Jews. Jews are no strangers to, to accusations of secret plots, banking plots, media plots, world domination. They're always scheming according to the people who can't stop obsessing over them. What's unfolding now is a real plot, not being orchestrated by Jews, but against them. And it's happening in broad daylight. Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes. She says what makes this moment uniquely dangerous is the merging of two ideologies that historically have operated in very different arenas, Islamism and Maoism. The former is fueled by absolutist theocracy and tribal vengeance. The latter by class war and ideological conformity. One invokes the divine, the other pretends to be secular. Both demand submission. Islamism seeks to restore a 7th century caliphate through bombs, blood and barbarity. Maoism seeks to flatten all hierarchies under the boot of equity enforced through surveillance, humiliation and fear. One dreams of paradise after death. The other promises utopia after sufficient political and social purges. But both share a core instinct. Crush the infidel, purge the impure, seize control of the narrative. Islamism brings the fire holy rage of fixation on martyrdom, a visceral hatred for Jews that predates the state of Israel by centuries. Maoism brings the strategy, the long march through institutions, the cultural struggle sessions, the rewriting of history, the reframing of reality through social media and sound bites. And she's right about this. She says Maoist frameworks like decolonization and privilege provide the ideological cover. Abstract enough to sound academic, blunt enough to justify destruction. And again, this is why the sort of Free Palestine movement is the tip of the spear here. It is the consolidation point for all of these things. Because in the hatred of Israel, in that hatred is hatred of what so many people on the left see as the point of the spear of Western civilization in a non western part of the world. That's what Israel is, the so called anti colonialists. That is why you are seeing the scavengers marching together. It's why Zoran Mamdani is their candidate of choice. And it's why a Democratic left that can't stand up to it has no business retaining power even inside its own party. And so it won't. It will fall apart and the scavengers will take complete control of the Democratic party because there are no lions left inside the Democratic Party to stand up against them. Alrighty. Coming up, you can see that all of these nuts are being generated somewhere. And the answer is that our universities, which is why President Trump is is continuing to go after those colleges and universities first. There's a great 4th of July sale happening right now at Brick House Nutrition where you can save 25% on everything with the code FIREWORKS. 25. Pretty solid deal if you've been thinking about trying their stuff or you just need to restock. Their Lean supplement has been really popular. You've heard me talk about it before. It's their top seller for weight management with no injections. Nice thing. 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If you've been on the fence about any of those supplements, now's a great time to give them a shot. You can still get 25% off everything@brickhouse nutrition.com with code FIREWORKS25 before products sell out visit brickhouse nutrition.com code FIREWORKS25 also, you know, most kids vitamins out there are basically just candy with a vitamin label loaded with the two teaspoons of sugar artificial ingredients kids don't actually need. This is where Haya comes in. They've created an amazing chewable vitamin that kids actually love. The best part zero sugar. Still totally delicious. Even the pickiest eaters would approve. What really impresses me is learning about their ingredient list. They packed in 12 organic fruits and veggies plus 15 essential vitamins and minerals. We're talking vitamin D, B, 12C, zinc and more. All the good stuff kids actually need for healthy growth. And they've thought of everything. It's non gmo, vegan, allergen free, thoroughly tested for safety. 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Meanwhile, sometime this week Republicans are going to pass the big beautiful bill. I understand there's a lot of heartburn over voteramas and negotiations. It's going to pass. The reason it's going to pass is because if it doesn't pass, Republicans are in Serious, serious trouble. That's just the reality. So there's going to be a lot of swapping, a lot of bargaining in the Senate. It'll go to the House. And House Speaker Johnson is going to find a way to ram that through. Because if that doesn't happen, then President Trump's presidency is in serious, serious trouble. The Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessant, makes the point that the big beautiful bill represents an 11% cut in discretionary spending. Here he was defending the bill.

[Robert Norris]

I think everyone believes that this is a start. So it's an 11% cut in nondiscretionary spending and we're going to go from there. So we didn't get here all at once. We've gotten here 20 or 40 years and we are going to bend the curve, bring the debt levels down. I'm a fiscal hawk. I have had a lot of very good meetings with the that group. And I think we're all on the same page on how to grow the economy while controlling and bringing down expenses.

[Ben Shapiro]

And so again, he's right about this. And I will say it again. The reality is there is not support inside the United States Senate sufficient to radically reduce spending in terms of reshaping Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, which is where the real spending is going on in the American budget. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett is also of course, touting the so called big beautiful bill. Here he was explaining.

[Robert Norris]

What America gets for the big beautiful bill is border security, national security, an extra $10,000 in the pocket of the typical American family. No tax on overtime, no tax on tips. We've got 90 million American workers that are hourly workers that are going to see that extra overtime that they're getting paid go straight into their pockets. And all of this is going to happen if we pass the bill. If we don't pass the bill, the Council of Economic Advisers here at the White House has said that it's going to cause GDP to drop 4%, one of the biggest recessions in history because of a massive tax hike. And honestly, that's why this bill is going to pass.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay? And again, he's not wrong about this. The threat of the bill going under, meaning a radical increase in taxes on Americans and American business, that enough is going to scare Republicans into compliance. Senator Ron Johnson, who of course is a longtime holdout on this bill, he has now switched his vote. He's in favor here he was explaining that to Fox News. My biggest problem is that we really.

[Robert Norris]

Weren'T returning spending to a reasonable pre pandemic level. And but through multiple meetings with President.

[Ben Shapiro]

His economic advisers, I'm convinced that they are committed to returning to a reasonable pre pandemic level spending. And I'll be highly involved in a.

[Robert Norris]

Process to achieve and maintain it. So that's at the crux.

[Ben Shapiro]

But specifically on Saturday night, Rick Scott.

[Robert Norris]

Who is an expert at health care, I don't think anybody knows more about it than he has an amendment that wasn't included in the base bill and.

[Ben Shapiro]

We were fighting to get it in there to remove the most damaging part.

[Robert Norris]

Of Obamacare on a Medicaid. Nobody in the Republican Party is trying to impact Medicaid for the disabled children. We're concerned about the Obamacare addition to it.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay. So again, there are plenty of good reasons for him to switch his vote. I'll just point out that Senator Johnson has not radically restructured the spending. We're not back at 2019 levels, which is what he wanted because again, that was never going to happen. That is not the direction in which this is going to move. There were not the votes sufficient for that. Now Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina has announced that he will be stepping down, which means he's no longer interested in being leveraged by President Trump or by the vice president. J.D. vance. So he's out against the so called big beautiful bill here he was slamming. Is inescapable that this bill in its current form will betray the very promise that Donald J. Trump made in the Oval Office or in the Cabinet Room when I was there with finance where he said we can go after waste, fraud and abuse on any programs. Now those amateurs that are advising him, not Dr. Oz, I'm talking about White House healthcare experts refused to tell him that those instructions that were to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse all of a sudden eliminates a government program that's called the provider tax. We have morphed a legal construct that admittedly has been abused and should be eliminated into waste, fraud and abuse. Okay, so he went on a long tirade. Did Tom Tillis against the so called big beautiful bill, is that gonna kill the bill? In all likelihood, no. The President can afford to lose three votes. He will lose Tillis, he may lose rand Paul. That's two. Now the question is Murkowski, McConnell, a couple of the senators who are on the fence now, Tillis stepping down. He stepped out largely because of pressure from President Trump that could have some long term effect. North Carolina is of course a purple state. It has a Democratic governor in Josh Stein. And recently a North Carolina Senate seat was lost because Republicans decided to run somebody with a really, really checkered pass in Mark Robinson, Thom Tillis stepping down means that is a very competitive seat suddenly. So if we ask our friends and sponsors at Perplexity which are the most competitive seats in the 2026 race for the Senate and what are the likely outcomes going to be? So as Perplexity answers, the most competitive Senate racers for 2026 are in Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Maine and North Carolina. Now, those battlegrounds again favor Republicans because the Senate races in Georgia, for example, that's a Democrat held seat. The race in Michigan was a Democrat held seat. New Hampshire was a Democrat held seat. However, Maine is a Republican health seat. Susan Collins is running there. That could be very competitive. Again, that state has been trending blue. Collins has been holding onto her seat relatively narrowly for the past couple of election cycles in which she was involved. So that is one seat that could switch over to the Democrats. And North Carolina is now a rare open seat in a purple seat. There's some other states that are up Ohio, Alaska, Texas, Iowa, South Carolina. But those are states that President Trump won by double digits. As Perplexity points out, they are considered long shots. So let's assume for a second the Democrats maintain Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, Minnesota. Let's say they win Maine and North Carolina. Republicans still retain control of of the Senate because again, they need to flip four Republican held Senate seats. It's possible in a sort of wild world that Democrats could challenge in maybe Ohio or Alaska or Texas or something, but that would be a pretty wild world. However, it does leave the Senate in a lot dicier situation because again, every vote counts. And so if that vote margin comes down to 52, now you are looking, for example, at a cadre of three Republicans who can kill any bill. If Republicans lose a couple of seats and now they're down to 51, well, now they're in real trouble because you lose two seats and you can't pass anything. And that's assuming Republicans hold the House, which they very, which they may very well not. So again, herein lies one of the big problems. However, as far as the big beautiful bill is concerned, again, if it does not pass, it is going to be a serious, serious problem for President Trump. For sure. For sure. Speaking of which, again, it looks like the economy is still holding up because most investors seem to be betting that President Trump's tariff regime is coming to an end that is moving in the right direction. According to Axios, The S&P 500 was on track to hit a new record On Friday, it sank when President Trump announced the termination of trade talks with Canada over a controversial digital services tax. But within an hour, investors decided not to care and stocks closed at an all time high for the first time since February. Why? Well, because the market is looking at President Trump's tariff record and saying it's probably likely that he's going to move away from those sorts of tariffs anyway. According to Axios, headline driven volatility is a given under this administration, so don't let it impact your portfolio, advisors say. And on Sunday night, Canada did indeed scrap the tax that caused President Trump to withdraw from the negotiations. Jay Polaski of TPW Advisors says he pays no attention to tariff policy anymore. Torsten Slok, the chief economist at Apollo, indicated President Trump might even be outsmarting everyone in a recent note arguing any extension of the 90 day tariff pause, which Trump has signaled would decrease uncertainty. So again, there was a lot of uncertainty that set in when President Trump announced Liberation Day. But it appears that the direction is all toward free trade and away from tariffs at this point, from those gigantic announced tariffs. And so the markets seem a lot more sanguine. All of which is leading the White House to press Jerome Powell over at the Federal Reserve to lower the interest rates again. So Caroline Levitt went after Jay Powell again today.

[Robert Norris]

And if you look at this chart, this is a chart of all of the interest rates of many countries throughout the world. At the top is Switzerland. They're only paying a quarter for interest rates. Cambodia, Japan, Denmark, Thailand, Botswana, Barbados, Taiwan, Bulgaria, Cuba, Sweden, Morocco, Cabo Verde, South Korea, Algeria, Canada, Albania, Libya, Malaysia, China, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Czechia, Bolivia, Australia, Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Kuwait, Papua New Guinea, Bosnia, United Kingdom and the UAE are all paying lower interest rates than the United States of America, which has one of the hottest and strongest economies in the world. The President sent this note to the Fed chair. It says, jerome, you are, as usual, too late. You have cost the USA a fortune and continue to do so. You should lower the rate by a lot. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being lost and there is no inflation. And the President is right. There is historically low inflation thanks to his policies.

[Ben Shapiro]

Now again, the President of the United States, he's calling for those lower interest rates. Powell is saying, listen, those may come, but I want to be a little cautious because I don't want to actually open the monetary floodgates here. While tariffs may in fact kick in, all the President has to do to end all of this and get the lower, the lower interest rates is Actually just negotiate those off ramps. That's it. And I assume that Scott Besant is hard at work doing that right now. That plus the big beautiful bill, meaning the maintenance of current tax rates means solidity in the economy, a belief by investors that they are not going to be regulated out of existence, taxed out of existence or inflated out of existence. And you will in fact see serious economic growth as a result. And meanwhile, the President of the United States continues to push forward with his immigration agenda. He is heading down to so called Alligator Alcatraz in Florida to tour this controversial new detention facility in the Everglades. So according to Axios, the $450 million 1,000 bed facility of trailers and tents is the largest of its kind of, and solidifies Florida's position as the top state cooperating with President Trump's immigration crackdown. Of course, Governor DeSantis has been wanting to do that. The name and idea for Alligator Alcatraz is the brainchild of the Florida AG James Uthmeyer, who was appointed by DeSantis after serving as his chief of staff. He hashed the plan for Alligator Alcatraz in near secret and worked with DeSantis office and DHS to avoid any opposition before it was too late for significant opposition to actually materialize. It's surrounded by the wetlands of the Big Cypress National Preserve next to Everglades National Park. It's basically dead center between the east and west coast of Florida. It's a one Runway airplane facility called the Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport. It's not actually just like in the middle of the wetlands, for example. Environmentalists are upset because they say that it's going to affect the Florida panther or whatever. But the federal and state governments say the environmental impacts will be minimal and somewhere has to be the place for these folks. So President Trump is going to head down and visit again, campaigning strong on the idea that he closed the border and now he's going to be deporting criminal illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, the President of the United States continues to stand strong with regard to Iran and what happens next in the Middle East. So yesterday the President reiterated. You guys keep saying over and over and over that we didn't really destroy those Iranian nuclear facilities over at Fordo. Wrong you are. The bomb went through it like butter, says the President of the United States. Do you think that the Iran regime hid some of the enriched uranium before the strikes?

[Ezra Klein]

No, you mean did they take it out of the deep one?

[Ben Shapiro]

Because you were pretty clear you can't have a weapon. You're going to have to come to the talk. Something's going to happen.

[Ezra Klein]

I don't think that. No. I think, first of all, it's very hard to do. It's very dangerous to do. It's very heavy. Very, very heavy. It's a very hard thing to do. Plus, we didn't give much notice because they didn't know we were coming until just, you know, then. And nobody thought we'd go after that site because everybody said that site is impenetrable. You can't, you know, you're not going to be this way. They did. It's at the bottom of a mountain and. And it's granite. You know, granite's the hardest stone. And it's granted. So, no, they didn't. But I do believe they had people there because you had cars. You know, they were saying cars, and those were masons. Those were people working with concrete. They were trying to seal up the entrance to where the bomb would most likely go in. And they did that. They were working on that. And the bomb went through it like it was butter.

[Ben Shapiro]

He's not wrong about that. He then adds that the new Middle east, wherein Iran's nuclear program has been defenestrated, means that there are a lot of countries that want to join the Abraham Accords. Actually, the country that is being mentioned most often at this point is Syria. Syria is now negotiating, apparently with the Israelis and the Americans to join the Abraham Accords. The provisos being that Israel will give up some of the territory that it's currently holding in southern Syria as a bulwark against hts and other terrorist groups in Syria, and that the United States will essentially guarantee any deal. Here's President Trump. Has any other country suggested to you recently as a result of this that they want to join the Abraham Accords? Yes.

[Ezra Klein]

So we have some really great countries in there right now, and I think we're going to start loading them up because Iran was the primary problem. I actually thought Iran would. I actually thought we had a period of time where I thought Iran would join the Abraham Accords along with everybody else. And frankly, they would have been better off than where they are right now.

[Ben Shapiro]

And what about the Abraham Accords? Would Syria enter?

[Ezra Klein]

Well, I don't know, but, you know, I did take off the sanctions at the request of some of the other countries in the area that are friends of ours. I took off the sanctions on Syria to give them. Them a chance that, you know, the sanctions are biting. They're very strong.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay. So again, President Trump transforming the Middle East Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador to the UN says that Iran's nuclear enrichment will never stop. So Iran's going to continue talking about all this, but as President Trump has made clear, as the Israelis have made clear, listen, if they get wind this is happening, there are more bombs coming. So the enrichment is our right. And in Alaba.

[Robert Norris]

Right.

[Ben Shapiro]

And we want to implement this.

[Robert Norris]

Right.

[Ben Shapiro]

So you do plan to restart enrichment.

[Robert Norris]

That sounds like.

[Ben Shapiro]

I think that enrichment will not never stop. Okay, so again, claiming that they're never gonna stop. Okay, well, good luck to you. But the reality is that Mossad is quite active inside Iran. President Trump's threats remain extremely credible. And as the IAEA chief, Rafael Mariano Grossi pointed out, Iran's capabilities have been destroyed to an important degree. It is clear that what happened in.

[Ezra Klein]

Particular in Fordo, Natanz, Isfahan, where Iran.

[Ben Shapiro]

Used to have and still has to.

[Ezra Klein]

Some degree, capabilities in terms of treatment, conversion and enrichment of uranium have been destroyed to an important degree.

[Ben Shapiro]

Some is still standing.

[Robert Norris]

So there is, of course, an important.

[Ben Shapiro]

Setback in terms of those of those capabilities. So, again, the President of the United States has transformed the Middle East. Next on the list, he's going to have to find a way for an off ramp to be found between Russia and Ukraine. Of course, that was a pledge of the president. In order for that to happen, Europe is going to have to step up in terms of its funding of Ukraine. The United States is going to have to make clear that Ukraine will be funded sufficient to deter further Russian aggression or Russia will continue to be aggressive. According to the Wall Street Journal, Russian forces are now 12 miles from Sumy, Ukraine, a northern Ukrainian regional capital and a new target for Moscow as the Kremlin presses its manpower advantage at a growing number of places along the front. Having almost entirely ejected Ukrainian forces from the Russian Kursk region earlier this year, Russian forces have now poured over the border in the opposite direction towards Sumy. With 50,000 troops in the area, they now outnumbered the Ukrainians roughly 3 to 1, according to the soldiers fighting there. Their main strategy, says General Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine's top military commander, is to wear us down with their numbers. The Russian advance towards Sumi comes as President Trump has begun voicing growing frustration with the Kremlin's unwillingness to broker a ceasefire through meetings between Ukrainian and Russian officials have continued in Turkey throughout recent weeks. Moscow is stepping up its missile and drone attacks overnight. On Sunday, Ukraine actually lost an F16 jet fighter and its pilot during an aerial bombardment, the largest since the start of the war in terms of the number of munitions launched. So the front line has now grown by more than 100 miles. It now stretches more than 750 miles in an arc from the northeast all the way down to the south. And so again, the Russians have sort of been stopped for the moment in sumy, but now they're pouring in tens of thousands of more troops. And this is going to continue up until the point where Russia figures that they're not going to be able to dissuade the west from fighting back against Russia's aggression in, in Ukraine. President Trump has been moving in that direction. More movement would be absolutely salutary for the United States. That'd be a good thing. All right, folks, as July 4th is coming up. And so one of the things that we've been doing is analyzing some of the myths about July 4, about the early state of America. Today's myth we're going to debunk is the so called separation of church and state. So first of all, you hear this all the time from people who are big advocates of radical left wing secularism. America was designed with separation of church and state. Okay? So first of all, we should point out that the separation of church and state is not a phrase that appears anywhere in the United States Constitution or in the Declaration of Independence. It appears in a private letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802. The First Amendment bars the establishment of a national religion. So the the Constitution of the United States says that essentially you can't be a Catholic doctrinal country. That is not what the Constitution of the United States stands for. At the same time, you are supposed to be able to rely on your religious faith to inform your values, which then informs your vote. Of course. Of course. And this is the thing the left has said. They've said, well, you know, if you believe, for example, in the Ten Commandments, then the Ten Commandments being a part of schooling, is bad in and of itself. It's a violation of the separation of church and state. No, it isn't. Not unless I'm telling you that you have to keep Jewish Sabbath or Christian Sabbath. Otherwise that is not a violation of church and state. Okay? When it comes to church and state, the First Amendment governs. Here is the language of the First Amendment. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. A Now there are people who have tried to separate those two clauses. Clause number one, Congress shouldn't make a law that establishes religion. And two, Congress shouldn't prohibit people from performing their religion, but they're actually part of the same overall clause. The idea is the reason you are not establishing a religion like say Catholicism or Protestantism or whatever, the reason you don't have a state church at the national level is because if you did, it would prohibit the free exercise of religion by people who are not members of that religion. That is why. But it was not meant to disestablish religion in general under American law. That's ridiculously silly. In fact, a huge number of states at the time of the Founding had official religions. Remember, the federal government didn't have an official religion because the First Amendment was only supposed to apply to the federal government. Congress shall make no law abridging right that that is about the federal government. There were many state governments at the time of the Founding that actually did have official religions. So as Perplexity points out, 9 out of 13 had some form of religious tests for officeholders in their constitutions during the Revolutionary period. Typically, that meant that office holders had to affirm belief in Christianity, in many cases specifically Protestant Christianity. So in Delaware, for example, office holders had to profess faith in the Trinity and the divine inspiration of both the Old and the New Testament. Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina and Vermont all limited office holding to Protestants. Virginia and New York did not require religious oaths in their new Constitution, but New York maintained a Protestant test oath by statute until the early 1800s. And there are several states that had officially established churches or provided government support directly to particular denominations, including Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire, in which the Congregational Church was established. Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New Jersey and New York, where the Church of England or Protestantism was established. In general, South Carolina explicitly declared the Christian Protestant religion as the state's established religion and required Christian confessions of faith for church incorporation. So again, the idea of disestablishment entirely at the state level, the idea that, that none of this could be part of American law. It's not true. It's not true. And that why? Because it turns out that the Founding Fathers knew quite well that while they didn't want the federal government to establish a gigantic federal state religion, because there were states that actually disagreed with each other on these matters, they did not want to disestablish religion. Generally speaking, they understood the importance of religion. John Adams, 1798. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. One of my favorite quotes, George Washington Farewell's address in 1796 quote of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable support. So this idea the founders were just wildly anti religion, that the early America was wildly anti religion. Obviously untrue on the basis of all verifiable fact already Coming up, we're going to jump into that vaunted Ben Shapiro show Mailbag. That's for our members. Remember, in order to watch or to have your question answered, you have to be a member. If you're not a member, become a member. Use code Shapiro at checkout for two months free on all annual plans for click that link in the description and join us. Welcome to Ben After Dark, the show where I say all the things I probably shouldn't, welcome celebrity guests to play games and answer weird questions sent to us by weird people. I hate hot chicken. It's sarcasm. It's chaos.

[Robert Norris]

It's not that big of a deal.

[Ben Shapiro]

It's the only show where I can destroy something, not because it's wrong, but just because it mildly annoys me. It's everything I've always, always wanted. Show airs on Friday night, 7:30pm Eastern. I know, not exactly late night, unless you're Joe Biden, in which case it's three hours past mandatory pudding. Only on Dailywire. Plus only for members. Ben After Dark.