Ep. 2410 - Will AI End America?

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ben Shapiro Show

Episode: Ep. 2410 - Will AI End America?
Host: Ben Shapiro, The Daily Wire
Date: April 21, 2026

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Overview

This episode of The Ben Shapiro Show focuses on the contentious debate over artificial intelligence (AI) in America, exploring its implications for economic growth, job disruption, national security, and the rising tide of anti-technology populism. Shapiro warns of the dangers posed by both left-wing and right-wing grievance-driven movements seeking to curb or destroy technological advancement in the United States, arguing that the real existential threat is internal—Americans turning against the very systems and innovations that underpin national prosperity and global leadership, especially in competition with China.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The AI Revolution: Growth & Anxiety

(01:46–06:11)

• AI as a Double-edged Sword:
  Shapiro acknowledges widespread anxiety about AI, likening this technological revolution to past disruptions such as the advent of the automobile.

  “It is rare to find a new tech in the history of technology that does not make people feel uneasy.” — Ben Shapiro (04:47)

• Usage vs. Approval:
  Polls show more Americans are using AI (up to 51% in 2026 from 37% in 2025), yet approval is dropping and concerns about harm and job loss are rising.

  “The number of people who like AI is going down. The number of people using AI is going up.” — Ben Shapiro (03:47)

• Disquiet Across Generations:
  Gen Z is especially concerned, with 81% believing AI will decrease job opportunities.

2. AI & Economic Productivity

(06:16–12:11)

• AI-Driven Economy:
  Investment in AI infrastructure (like data centers) now fuels most U.S. GDP growth.

• Expert Voices:

  • Marc Andreessen:
    Argues AI’s timing is “miraculously well” for offsetting population decline and economic stagnation.

    “The only reason we’re not worried about [decline] is because we now have the technology that can substitute for the lack of population growth and also the lack of immigration.” (07:40)

  • Chenzhen Huang (Nvidia):
    Emphasizes that jobs are more likely to be lost to humans using AI, not to AI itself.

    “It is unlikely most people will lose a job to AI. It is most likely that most people lose their job to somebody who uses AI.” (09:08)

  • Jason Furman (Harvard):
    Notes that “everything technology touches gets cheaper,” highlighting the deflationary impact of AI on the economy. (10:33)

• Policy Implications:
  The Federal Reserve is betting on AI for lowering inflation through productivity.

3. Populism vs. Progress: The Symbolism of AI Data Centers

(12:48–19:21)

• Populist Rage:
  Shapiro discusses both left-wing and right-wing economic populist backlash against AI centers, presenting them as scapegoats for societal unease.

  • David Friedberg (All-In Podcast):

    “There’s no physical space that better represents the wealth in America, the wealth creation that’s happened that a lot of people feel left behind from than the data center. It is the temple of the wealthy.” (14:47)

• Radical Activism:
  Extremist activists are physically targeting data centers, framing destruction as progress.

  • Arianna Evans (D.C. activist):
    Calls to “keep this trend going. AI data centers next. White people, get on your job. ... dismantling the system of whiteness within the other white folks so they can continue to burn down.” (18:20)

• Shapiro’s Stance:
  “Burn this bleep down, right is always and forever the coalition of the supposedly dispossessed in the richest country in world history.” (19:21)

4. Attacks on the Foundations of Prosperity

(19:37–26:42)

• Wider Targeting:
  Tech CEOs and military technology (e.g., Palantir) are under attack from far-left and “horseshoe theory” activists, with international adversaries like Russia encouraging the internal chaos.

• National Security Threat:
  If anti-tech populism wins, the U.S. will lose economic and military dominance to China.

  • Alex Karp (Palantir):

    “We are going to be the dominant player, or China’s going to be the dominant player. And there will just be very different rules depending on who wins.” (24:13)

5. America vs. China: Existential Stakes

(24:53–26:42)

• Zero-Sum Contest:
  The race for AI dominance isn’t optional; if America falters, China wins, reshaping global norms and dependencies.

  • “It is not as though if the United States just foregoes AI magically, we continue to have a burgeoning wealthy economy and also China just goes weapons down.” (23:47)

• Possible Outcomes:
  Either the U.S. becomes protectionist and stagnant, or dependent on China for critical tech and economic prosperity.

6. Grievance Culture & Self-Destruction

(27:09–35:37)

• Domestic Movements:
  Shapiro draws parallels between left- and right-wing grievance-based movements attacking tech, capitalism, or institutions—arguing both exacerbate American decline.

• Victimhood Narrative:
  He cites specific examples:

  • Nick Fuentes’ white supremacist grift and his largely poor, disaffected donor base.

    “There’s a part of every human being...that wants to blame other people for your problems and not solve the problems.” (33:30)

  • Left-wing activists blaming “the system” for personal hardship.

• The Cure According to Shapiro:

  “The cure is self-starting. The cure is gratitude. The cure is an understanding that the vast majority of decisions in our life are up to us...[Burning] down the AI data center is not going to fix the problem. It’s going to make the United States markedly worse off.” (34:43)

7. Political Hypocrisy & Institutional Threats

(36:04–42:28)

• Shapiro sharply criticizes Democratic gerrymandering efforts, especially in Virginia, accusing the party of rank hypocrisy while positioning itself as defenders of ‘democracy.’
• Notable quotes:
  • “The essence of democracy is that a state split about 50, 50 should actually be 91% represented by Democrats.” (40:34)
  • “Democrats who have been lecturing Americans about the threats to democracy—very often the threat is coming from inside the House.” (41:36)

8. International Affairs: Iran, War, and Propaganda

(44:50–51:41)

• Shapiro covers the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict, embargoes, and political narratives spun by both parties.
• Criticizes Democrats for allegedly echoing Iranian propaganda out of anti-Trump sentiment.
• Notes media figures (e.g., Mehdi Hasan, Whoopi Goldberg) peddling panic about war and the draft; Shapiro rebuts these claims as exaggerations.

9. Additional News & Commentary

(52:56–59:45)

• Apple’s CEO transition: Tim Cook steps down; John Ternus takes over.
• Political and legal sagas: Resignation of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez Durmer, Cash Patel’s lawsuit against The Atlantic.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On AI Anxiety:
  “We don’t know enough about where things are going because we never know enough about where things are going.” (12:06 | Ben Shapiro)
• Marc Andreessen on AI’s Economic Impact:
  “We’re going to have AI and robots precisely when we actually need them to keep the economy from actually shrinking.” (08:42)
• Chenzhen Huang on Job Competition:
  “It is unlikely most people will lose a job to AI. It is most likely that most people lose their job to somebody who uses AI.” (09:08)
• David Friedberg on Data Centers:
  “It is the temple of the wealthy. It is the way that the rich...are taking from the poor, getting themselves ahead.” (14:47)
• Arianna Evans on Activism:
  “We should absolutely, absolutely keep this trend going. AI data centers next. White people, get on your job.” (18:20)
• Alex Karp on U.S.-China AI Race:
  “We are going to be the dominant player, or China’s going to be the dominant player. And there will just be very different rules depending on who wins.” (24:13)
• Shapiro on Grievance Culture:
  “If you blame the system and you tear down the system, you know who wins? Not you. America’s enemies win.” (35:29–35:37)
• Shapiro’s Warning:
  “A great power like the United States does not die by homicide. It dies by suicide.” (36:04)

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Segment Timestamps

• AI Angst & Economic Trends: 01:46–12:11
• Populism, Protest, & Tech as Scapegoat: 12:48–19:21
• Attacks on Tech, Palantir, and China Rivalry: 19:37–26:42
• Grievance Culture Dangers: 27:09–35:37
• Gerrymandering & Political Hypocrisy: 36:04–42:28
• Middle East, War Rhetoric, & Propaganda: 44:50–51:41
• Apple, Political Scandals, Legal Battles: 52:56–59:45

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Tone and Language

Ben Shapiro’s style is direct, combative, and rapid-fire, frequently interlaced with sarcasm and rhetorical questions aimed at exposing what he sees as inconsistencies or hypocrisies on the left and right. He uses memorable slogans and stark dichotomies (“America must win”) to underscore his warnings about complacency and internal division.

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Conclusion

Shapiro’s core thesis is that America’s greatest risk with AI (and more broadly, with economic and national security) is not technological failure but social and political self-sabotage—whether through populist agitation, anti-market radicalism, or grievance-based nihilism. He urges listeners to reject blame-based narratives, adapt to technological change, and remain vigilant against internal movements that would undermine the systems responsible for the nation’s prosperity and security, especially as geopolitical rivals like China stand to benefit from American self-destruction.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Ben Shapiro]

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America must win. We have to win economically, we have to win militarily. And that means that we do have to win technologically.

But there's a movement afoot in our

country that will destroy all of that.

That will let China win economically, militarily, technologically.

And that will, if it wins, sink

America into poverty and dependence.

That movement's fringes are pretty violent. But the problem isn't just the violent fringes. The philosophical moorings for that movement are pretty broad and pretty popular. And if that movement wins, that spells

catastrophe for the country.

I'll explain in a moment.

This is the Ben Shapiro Show.

All right, folks, so I understand all

the questions about artificial intelligence. I understand there are serious questions to

be asked about AI that it's scary, that it's uncertain. We know all of that, right? I mean, we understand that we are in not just a transition economically, but a revolution economically. And revolutions are typically not Staid and steady. They happen suddenly and they're disquieting and they create unintended consequences and all the rest. And that's very real. So, three things about AI. First, one, we understand that it's scary and uncertain that we don't know exactly

what's going to happen next.

Two, artificial intelligence is generating an outsized portion of economic growth. And that is happening not because there are some tech bros who are sitting in a room somewhere magically generating economic growth. It's because there is a market for AI. Because AI makes things significantly more productive, because AI makes things more efficient. Because AI is going to be the

future of everything from robotics to military tech.

In other words, AI is generating an outsized portion of economic growth because we want it. Not necessarily we intellectually want AI. Everyone who is currently yelling about AI and the dangers of AI, and I don't just mean people who are asking questions, I mean people who are anti AI. A huge number of those people use AI whether they are searching on Google or whether they're on ChatGPT, which is why it's generating this huge outsized economic growth AI because as it turns out, free markets reward people for creating things that generally people want. And three, finally, if we choose to let our fear and uncertainty destroy our

technological future in the country, and the only way to do that really is

to destroy free markets, we won't save our civilization, we will lose to China. Okay, so why am I bringing all of this up? Because there's a brand new Quinnipiac poll and it talks about Americans use of AI, which is increasing while the viewers of AI sour. The number of people who like AI is going down. The number of people using AI is going up. So many of the people using it are saying they simultaneously don't like it.

Which by the way, is very often common with the free market. Pretty much everybody who complains about the free market is a beneficiary of the free market in the United States.

So according to this new poll, 51% of Americans say that they use AI

to research topics they are curious about. That is up from 37% in April 2025.

By the way, a huge number of

people who say they're not using AI to research topics probably are. Because every time you go to Google

and you put in a question, the answer that comes up on Google is

being driven by Gemini.

Same poll, whether people are using it

to analyze data, 27% say yes.

That is up from 17% in April 2025. And people are using AI in increasingly thorough ways. The advent of cloud has been extraordinary

for a huge number of people that

I know who are in business. They're using AI in pretty much every task, every day. Now, at the same time that a huge number of people are using AI,

people are very, very disquieted about AI,

which again I understand it's a new tech.

It is rare to find a new tech in the history of technology that

does not make people feel uneasy. If you go all the way back to the invention of the automobile, people

were very, very upset about the automobile.

It wasn't as safe and as thorough

as for example, a horse drawn carriage.

So when asked whether AI will do more harm than good in your day to day life, in March 2026, 55% said more harm versus 34% said more good.

That is up significantly from last year

when only 44% said that it would do more harm than good. How about whether AI is going to lead to a decrease in job opportunities?

As of March 2026, 70% of Americans

think advancements in AI are likely to lead to a decrease in the number

of job opportunities for people. That is up from 56% of Americans in April 2025.

And again, that is because people's awareness

of AI is becoming increasingly clear. People understand that AI is making its way through the market and that there

will be some fairly significant short term

disruptions in the job market.

And by the way, there is a massive difference between age groups in their

perception of AI and job opportunity.

81% of Gen Zers believe that AI

is going to decrease job opportunities versus only 4% who believe it will increase jobs.

Boomers, 66% believe that it will decrease jobs. So you can see the disquiet, right? It's scary, it's uncertain.

We're not sure what's going to happen next.

Now, at the same exact time that it's happening, the reality is that economic

growth in the United States is being

disproportionately driven by by AI. According to Forbes, in August of last year, Renaissance Macro Research estimated that to date in 2025, the dollar value contributed to GDP growth by AI data center buildout. So that's just a data center buildout had surpassed U.S. consumer spending for the

first time ever,

apparently, according to Jason Furman, who we've had on the show professor of economics at Harvard, investment in information processing equipment and software with only

4% of US GDP for the first

half of 2025, but it accounted for 92% of all GDP growth over that period. So these companies are investing heavily in data centers because that is the basis

for all of the compute that is necessary for AI. They're building these giant data centers everywhere. And as we'll talk about, this is becoming the target for people who are not just upset over AI, but seemingly upset about the economic future of the United States more generally.

According to Boston Consulting Group, over the next two to three years, 50 to

55% of all jobs in the United

States will be reshaped by AI. Not replaced, reshaped. They say, quote, for many employees, this will mean they retain the same or similar role, but face radically new expectations

for how they work and what they produce. Marc Andreessen, who is of course a major investor in this area, was on

a podcast a couple of months ago explaining how AI growth is going to impact the economy.

[Marc Andreessen]

Well, look, if we didn't have AI, we'd be in a panic right now about what's going to happen to the economy, right? Because what we'd be staring at is the future of depopulation. And like, depopulation without new technology would just mean that the economy shrinks, right? So it would mean that the economy kind of itself kind of shrinks over time. You know, opportunity diminishes. There are no new. There are no new jobs, there are no new fields, there's no new. There's no new source of consumer demand for spending on things. And so you would be very worried about going into a period of severe decline in stagnation. And essentially you'd be looking at these very dystopian scenarios of an economy kind of self euthanizing itself over time. So you'd be very worried about the opposite of what everybody thinks that they're worried about. The only reason we're not worried about that is because we now know that we have the technology that can substitute for the lack of population growth and then also for the lack of immigration. That's likely. And so I would say the timing has worked out miraculously well in the sense that we're going to have AI and robots precisely when we actually need them to keep the economy from actually shrinking.

[Ben Shapiro]

So the point that Andreessen is making here is that we have a shrinking population.

That means that we have fewer workers.

And so if you're going to increase productivity, how do you do that?

AI is.

What does that. Chenzhen Huang over at Nvidia, he makes

the case at the Stanford School of Business that the question is not your

job being replaced by AI. It is your job being replaced by someone who uses AI.

So that person could be you. If you learn to use AI, there's

[Chenzhen Huang]

no question that bringing everybody along is really the single most important thing to do. And the fact of the matter is, it is unlikely most people will lose a job to AI. It is most likely that most people lose their job to somebody who uses AI. And so we have to make sure that everybody use AI. It is also the case, you hear many examples of this, where somebody used to be a carpenter, but because of AI, they're now an architect. You know, you could describe things into AI and it comes out with an incredible design, incredible draft, and they can be interior designers. And so they elevate their craft, they elevate their service and elevate their business to a level to be able to offer more.

[Ben Shapiro]

And again, one of the reasons why

we are betting on American economic growth is because of AI productivity. So, for example, people who are worried about inflation, one of the things that

makes things cheaper is more productivity, is more productivity means more supply. More supply, same demand means lower prices.

So Kevin Warsh, who's being nominated for Fed Chair and who's having his hearings Today, back in December 2025, he says that a large part of his mandate, if he becomes Fed Chair, is going

to be about bringing inflation down. But one of the ways to bring inflation down is to bet on AI

productivity, meaning investment in the private sector.

[Jason Furman]

I think the difficulty of this for policymakers, let's say central bankers, let's say fiscal authorities, is the economy is going to be growing, but they will not show up in the productivity statistics. So they're going to have to make a bet. Is the economy becoming much more productive? Is the technology hitting more sectors and what should they do about it? As a first approximation, my simple version of this is everything technology touches gets cheaper.

[Ben Shapiro]

That is exactly right. And of course, Warsh is also saying that it's very important that America lead AI development.

Like we need to win that race.

[Jason Furman]

Question economics is, is it an 18 month head start and everyone catches up or can they permanently build a moat? So I think it's super exciting for the United States. And my bet would be that we're the early innings, but the relative growth of the United States at the cutting edge of this productivity wave relative to the rest of the world will gap out even further in the next five years than it has in the past. So it's an incredibly exciting opportunity, and it's one where the US Plays its cards right, but we'll end up with a stronger workforce, more important companies and that prosperity will have in economics will find its way into national security so the rest of the world can look at the US again as a shining city on the hill.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, so again, three things that are

important here about AI.

One, it's scary, it's uncertain.

We don't know enough about where things are going because we never know enough about where things are going.

And again, the sort of, the less intelligent take on economics is that whenever there's a technological transition, people believe there will be mass and permanent job loss. And that is not what happens.

People find jobs in other arenas or they find jobs in other ways. There is a transition, and pretending that transition doesn't exist is stupid.

Second, AI is part of our future,

whether we like it or whether we

don't, is where the economy is going. And it is going there because AI is an extraordinary tool, truly an extraordinary tool. And that doesn't mean it doesn't have downsides. The Internet's an extraordinary tool as well.

And that obviously has had some pretty significant downsides.

But this leads us to the third

important point about AI. If we let our fear govern us,

if we at the violent fringes attack the places that are generating our prosperity,

if we go full Luddite and try

to break the machines, if we turn

against free markets be because we're afraid

of what's gonna come next, then the

answer is not going to be American prosperity. It's going to be American poverty and loss to China. Are you coming up? Let's get into the free markets and why people are blaming them and why they should stop that first. Here is the thing.

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So David Friedberg over at the all in podcast, he made what I thought

was a really good point on all

in the other day, where he was talking about the tendency to blame free markets and blame technology for dyspepsia with the economy. The suggestion being that it's this group of nefarious people who are destroying your way of life. And he says the data center has

become the symbol of that.

And he's saying that because people are

literally attempting to attack data centers now,

[David Friedberg]

most people in America really are starting to really hate rich people. And there's no physical space that better represents the wealth in America, the wealth creation that's happened that a lot of people feel left behind from than the data center. What other physical space is there to go to? It is the temple of the wealthy. It is the mechanism, the tool, the machinery of the wealthy. It is the way that the rich, elite, tech, kind of political connected billionaires that we're obviously all attached to are taking from the poor, getting themselves ahead, shooting themselves to space, leaving everyone else behind.

[Ben Shapiro]

David Fribourg's explanation there is exactly right. This is the way that economic populists have been pushing.

Now again, I wanna separate here between

moral populism and economic populism. Moral populism is the basic idea put

forward by, say, William F. Buckley back

in the 1960s, that that he would trust the first 100 names in the

Harvard phone book on matters of public policy more than he would trust a hundred professors at Harvard.

The idea being that the common man in the United States, shaped as he

or she is by the institutions of church and family and community, has a

better moral compass on average than the elites. That I totally agree with because elites very often believe that they have been

freed from the systems of morality.

However, when it comes to the economy, economic populism is almost the inverse. Economic populism assumes that there should be some sort of centralized control placed into the hands of that central power by quote unquote, the people, and that that centralized control should overwhelm the disseminated knowledge that is implicit in free markets and capital markets. Again, the basic principle of capitalism is that disparate views on things lead to better outcomes, that differential knowledge and the diffusion of knowledge is actually significantly more effective than one guy at the top with a stick beating people into submission. Economic populism says that free markets are bad if the product of the free

market is something I don't like, therefore

we should take power away from the free market to destroy it. And right now, again, whenever there is economic unease, people tend to attack free market capitalism or what they see as the symbols of free market capitalism. And they tend to blame people who are wealthy. And again, the great lie about that

is that people in the United States are wealthy because they're stealing from poor people.

It is a lie. It is a full scale lie. It is not true. The only place in the world in which people are rich because they steal from the poor are communist countries and

other forms of tyranny. In a free market economy, the reason

that people are rich is because they are providing products and services at a price that someone wants. And it turns out lots of people

want that product or service. And that's how they make their money in a free market economy.

But if you can somehow recast the

economy of the United States and as

quote unquote rigged on behalf of the wealthy and then you can go after the means of production, in this case

AI data centers, for example, then what

you are going to end up doing in this view is overthrowing the capitalist system. Of course the outcome of that will be quite dire. So here for example is D.C. activist named Arianna Evans telling people they should

destroy AI data centers. And I understand that there is a

sort of horseshoe theory, grievance based economic right that also is, is wildly upset

about AI data centers because they're big and ugly.

You know what else is big and ugly? Walmart Kind of big, kind of ugly,

kind of wonderful for the vast majority of consumers. In any case, here is D.C. activist Ariana Evans.

[Arianna Evans]

Because property damage is not violent protest, because property is not people. Okay? We should absolutely, absolutely keep this trend going. AI data centers next. White people, get on your job. Okay? All right. Now all the white leftists need to learn from the folks that burn Kimberly Clark. The people that are burning the logging, the people that are burning the the Amazon warehouses, all the white leftists who be having a whole lot of this through on the Internet. Y' all need to take notes because not only is it your time to step up, it is your time to organize your people. Hey, you know, some folks don't want to do the the past MAGA three time Trump voters. It is your job actually to deprogram those people. I don't give a about how you feel because you're not directly impacted. You're not black, you're not indigenous, you're not you are white. So the white folks should be organizing the other white folks, deprogramming the other white folks, dismantling the system of whiteness within the other white folks so they can continue to burn down.

[Ben Shapiro]

Right?

Burn this bleep down, right is always and forever the coalition of the supposedly

dispossessed in the richest country in world history. You can see by the way that her hat in this particular clip says immigrants forever. ICE agents never. So it's all part of the uni clause.

Well, all of this is part and

parcel of why, for example, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's home has allegedly been targeted

in the second attack in just two days. According to the New York Post, Daniel

Alejandro Morena Gama, 20, was arrested after allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at Altman's home, which caused a fire.

He then fled the scene before heading to open AI offices, allegedly threatening to burn down the building.

According to San Francisco cops, in a

separate incident last week, a Honda car

had been near Altman's $27 million Russian

Hill mansion early Sunday morning before pulling

up outside and a shot was fired

from the vehicle's passenger window. And two people, one Amanda Tom and one Mohammed Tariq Hussein, were arrested at the property. Again, this is, this is part and parcel of a, of a broader movement, and that broader movement is targeting technology more generally, including technologies that are required for the United States to win wars. So Stu Smith writes over at City

Journal, a project of Manhattan Institute, over

the weekend, that there is a campaign against Palantir. Palantir is a military contractor that generates extraordinary technologies in terms of intelligence gathering, in terms of capacity to target, and

in terms of much of the actual

technology that goes into the machines that we actually use. And there's a charge being led against Palantir. According to Sue Smith, while the Anti War Action Network presents itself as a broad, generic coalition, it operates as an umbrella organization that overlaps significantly with the

Freedom Road socialist organization ecosystem.

Many of its affiliated groups, often branded as local anti war committees, have been

linked to more confrontational forms of activism.

Clearly, the word is spreading. Palantir is the new bet noir of far left activists. Jewish Voice for Peace, which of course

is neither Jewish nor a voice for peace, recently mobilized in the lobby of

Palantir's New York City office alongside the

Sunrise Movement and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice.

Again, whenever you hear these groups that

are led by quote unquote Jews.

Those Jews are not people who keep

kosher, who keep Shabbat, who care about Judaism at all.

They're people who slap the name Jews on themselves so they can pretend that

they're an aggrieved minority. That's, that's what's happening.

The militant AIDS activist group Act Up

New York even staged a die in outside Palantir's office.

And of course, this crossed paths with all of America's enemies. America's enemies are happy to watch us destroy ourselves by taking down the technologies that allow us to win. This is why Alexander Dugin again, Alexander Dugin is a Russian philosopher slash agent of Vladimir Putin who spreads anti American trash on podcasts.

Like for example, Tucker Carlson's podcast.

He put out a word salad attacking Palantir. Palantir manifesto, illiberal, anti humanist, post globalist, the techno state of the global west as hegemonic pole, unipolarity, technological racism, individualism, Epstein style, quite compatible with Israelism.

Tucker Carlson definition, of course, Alexander Dugan

always name checks his buddy.

Absolutely disgusting Antichrist.

So Palantir is the Antichrist. And now if you buy into this entire shtick, if you buy into the idea that AI as a technology must be destroyed, it won't be destroyed. We'll just lose. If you think that China is going

to forego AI, you're a fool. They're not.

If the United States were to heavily restrict AI, not just in terms of preventing its gravest harms, but restricting the

development of AI, or if there were

to be a political party that attempts to prevent the building of data centers, not for any sort of understandable economic reason, like, for example, make the data

centers pay their fair share of electricity production, which I think is a fair

argument if really there is a broad scale movement to destroy the AI industry overall out of either some sort of misplaced agrarianism, the idea that we must all live in, in villages free of

AI, which of course is not how things work in the modern world. Everybody in a village in the United

States is still using ChatGPT or out of a deep and abiding hatred for

capitalism, or the generalized belief that capitalism

rots the human soul as opposed to, you know, lack of traditional institutions preventing

the rot of the human soul.

If we lose, China wins. This is not a, this is not a vacuum.

It is not as though if the

United States just foregoes AI magically, we continue to have a burgeoning wealthy economy and also China just goes weapons down. Alex Karp of Palantir pointed out in June 2025, AI is dangerous, and either we win or China wins.

[Alex Karp]

If we didn't have the adversaries we'd have, I would be very in favor of pausing this technology completely.

[Chenzhen Huang]

But we do.

[Alex Karp]

And that's why pausing is just. You can't pause it because it's a structural advantage. We're not doing this in a vacuum. We are going to be the dominant player, or China's going to be the dominant player. And there will just be very different rules depending on who wins. And we cannot rely on anyone else to do this in our network of allies because Europe has given up on technology.

[Ben Shapiro]

And he is right about all of this.

Again, when it comes to AI, yes,

there are problems, there are dangers, but. And we should all recognize those dangers and not whistle past the graveyard on all of that. At the same time, it is a tremendous opportunity.

And again, the reality is that we are pursuing it because if we do

not pursue it, then China will pursue it.

And let's say that China were to run ahead of us in terms of AI development. So what would that mean?

It would mean economic and military ruin for the United States.

A China in dominant AI position means a China in dominant military position. The amount of AI that is being

used right now, for example, by the

United States military in the.

In the conflict in Iran, the amount

of AI that is used in, say,

an operation in Venezuela is tremendous and growing and growing. If China outdevelops us, that means their military is now superior to ours. If their military is superior to ours,

that means that they can not only effectuate change in their region, it means they can spread that technology throughout the world and make other countries dependent on the receipt of that technology. It means that many, many other countries all over planet Earth suddenly become China's dependents. That is a huge problem. And it also leaves China in dominant economic position because AI means more productivity.

If productivity goes up for China but

remains stagnant for the United States, they out compete us. And then if they out compete us,

one of two things happens. Either we block off our economy and become backwards and protectionist, meaning we don't have any of the best goods and products and services at the best price. And so we're all poorer and we slide into poverty and stagnation, or we

have to be dependent on Chinese product and our kids work for Chinese companies, and China's able to spread its influence that way.

When it comes to the game of

economics, you must win.

When it comes to the game of

military dominance, you must win. And when it comes to the technological game, you must win. Now, again, it may be, and it should be, that we have serious conversations with people who actually know enough about AI to know what they're talking about, about what are the real relevant dangers of AI and how do we curb those. But the kind of broad scale economic

populism that's been rising, that says that

we ought to tear off our way

out of all problems, that we ought

to attack technological development, that wouldn't be great if we were making T shirts. An economy based on T shirts.

None of this is going to solve the bigger problem.

And it plays into right now what

is a part of a broader grievance culture. Again, there is a reason why you

saw that activist complaining about black and indigenous voices and illegal immigration being curbed

by the Trump administration.

In the same sentence, she's trying to

burn down data centers.

There's a reason for that. Because it turns out that attacking tech CEOs or healthcare CEOs the way Luigi Mangione did, or burning up Teslas and attacking Tesla showrooms, or, say, shooting Charlie

Kirk or attempting to shoot President Trump,

all of these are the most extreme manifestations of an ideology that says that

you are a victim of American society

and therefore you get to do bad things. And on a broader political level, you are a victim of American society and therefore you ought to get together with the other victims, take over the government and used centralized tyrannical power in order to cram down your view of the world.

This is where Mamdaniism comes from.

On a political level, it's where grievance culture left comes from, and grievance culture right.

Mamdani is the avatar of this entire grievance culture.

So he's not making life better for

anyone in New York City.

Instead, he's going around posturing as though he is already coming up.

Zormadani is making all the problems worse,

but at least he is making individuals

feel better by getting them to show him violations of fire code and such. I'll explain in a moment.

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Chavez come to New York City.

So Hugo Chavez, the former dictator of Venezuela, before Maduro, he was famous for

doing this routine where he would, he would do a TV show that was hours long on Venezuelan TV where he would basically have people come and bring him specific problems in front of the

camera and then he would, quote, unquote, solve the problem.

Now the overall system of Venezuela meant

impoverishment of the population.

It meant tyrannical control of every part

of Venezuelan life up to and including the economy.

It meant people eating dog in the street. But as long as Hugo Chavez was on the TV telling people that he was solving their specific housing problem, he

felt this would make him popular.

Well, Zormadani is doing the same thing. Zormadani is doing the same thing.

So one of the things that Mamdani

has been pushing is this idea that developers in New York City are, are rampantly cheating their tenants. And number one, there is a lot

of law on this. There's a lot of law, including in New York City about the requirement for,

for hospitable tenements that you have to

habitable tenements rather that you must have

habitability as a condition to paying rent. So you can't just leave the place crappy. Additional regulation, additional cost means less building. That means higher cost.

But what is Mamdani gonna do? He's gonna ignore the bigger problem and in fact exacerbate the bigger problem a lot.

But he will go conduct housing inspections

himself, thus define violations, and then claim

that he is some sort of hero

while simultaneously making Housing significantly more expensive in the city.

[Housing Inspector]

How you doing, sir?

[J.D. Vance]

Hey, how you doing?

[Housing Inspector]

How are you?

[Ben Shapiro]

I'm all right.

[Housing Inspector]

Pleasure to meet you.

[Kevin Warsh]

Yeah.

[Housing Inspector]

Mayor Mamdani, we're here to inspect the home to make sure everything's up to code.

You're in charge now.

[James Carville]

Now.

[Housing Inspector]

All right.

Ready?

[Marc Andreessen]

Space.

[Housing Inspector]

Tell me where to go.

You want to check the window guard?

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay.

[Housing Inspector]

Okay. 11 is a negative.

It's broken. We're also going to hit him with the window guard violation. And then we have here the one violation for the Local Law 86, which

is the incomplete information on the side.

No, that's another one. That's another one. That's a different one. So that's two.

Another one?

Yes, that's two.

It was a pleasure to be here at this building. Building with a number of inspectors from HPD to ensure that these conditions are up to code.

[Ben Shapiro]

They didn't put up their acquired information on the side of the building. And therefore, the mayor of New York will show up in order to, of course, make the broader point that all over New York renters are the victims of the people they are renting from.

What developer in their right mind would

build the New York right now? What developer in their. But again, it's never about a better life for the people you pretend to represent. It's it is all about tearing down the system.

That is the entire goal of all of this. The same thing happens on the right.

Fascinating article in the Washington Post about Nick Fuentes.

Fuentes, as you know, is a white

supremacist, Nazi loving piece of dreck. He's also making a lot of money, so a lot of his fans are donating money to him. He will go on kickstream, I guess, for long periods of time and then. Or rumble. He'll go on there for long periods

of time and people will just give him money.

And how much money did he make? Well, apparently since the start of 2025, about $900,000. People just donating.

Now, again, it's a free country. If you wish to donate money to Nick Fuentes, that is your prerogative.

I think that that is a foolish move, but okay.

But the fascinating part of this story is not how much money Fuentes is

making from his super chatters and how

many of those people are actually poor

and are giving him money in order to promote an ideology that actually is less likely to lead them to success.

The story is the people who are doing it.

So this Washington Post story centers on

a person named Ryan Kasabianski. And here is what his Story is, quote, living in Ohio on full time disability. Ryan, now 36, spent so many hours

at home immersed in the streamer show

that he said he began thinking of Fuentes as a little brother.

The heart of Fuentes message was that

young men in the United States have

gotten a raw deal.

In his telling a nation of entitled

baby boomers like those leading the Republican

Party had poisoned American society with bad

jobs, unbearable women, and a racially diverse

population intent on depriving white people of what they're owed. Now why do you think, why do

you think that people are watching that stuff?

Well, because as it turns out, always and forever, there's a part of every

human being, this is essentially the premise of my book, Lions and Scavengers, that wants to blame other people for your problems and not solve the problems. Again, you gotta feel terrible for this

person who is donating serious amounts of money to Fuentes. This guy lives in Ohio on full

time disability, which means that you, the taxpayer, are supporting him. Now maybe he has an actual real disability.

That's possible. I will say that the disability system

of the United States is widely abused.

A huge number of young people who

do not have full scale disability are on disability in the United States. It is one of the most abused and wasteful programs in the United States.

So this person is living at home on full time disability and he's being told that that's the reason why he

can't get a good job and why women are unbearable. And it must be racially diverse populations that are really creating all of this

Grievance culture is the source of pretty

much all the existential threats to the United States.

This grievance based culture that suggests again that the problems that people experience in their daily life, that is the fault

of these broader systems.

And those systems just happen to be

very often the systems that actually create the preconditions for prosperity and flourishing in the United States that is the danger.

What's the cure? The cure is self starting. The cure is gratitude. The cure is an understanding that the vast majority of decisions in our life are up to us and that you

are not being victimized by an AI data center and that you burning down the AI data center is not going

to fix the problem.

It's going to make the United States markedly worse off.

The answer is, as always, adjusting to the circumstances of life and also recognizing that the great prosperity that we enjoy,

this is the other side.

The great prosperity that we enjoy. The fact that you have any fact in human history at your disposal, the fact that you can push a button and magically a car or a drone

will arrive carrying the product you ordered

for cheaper than any human being has

ever been able to buy.

That product will arrive at your door. All of that is the result of the very systems that a lot of

folks are blaming for their individual problems.

And if you blame the system and you tear down the system, you know who wins? Not you. Not you.

America's enemies win. That is the danger here. That is the broader danger to the United States. It manifests in domestic policy.

It manifests in a view on foreign policy that says that. That America exercising her strength to protect our interests abroad is somehow a great

evil and that we're better off if we surrender the world to China and Russia. A perspective of, again, Tucker Carlson on the right and people like Hasan Piker on the left. That is the danger existentially to the United States.

A great power like the United States

does not die by homicide. It dies by suicide. And that suicide is generally the result of a population deciding that the systems that made America great in the first place are the problem themselves and must be torn to the ground. Okay. Meanwhile, Democrats being wildly hypocritical. It is pretty amazing how Democrats have decided that they are the ones who stand for democracy and then meanwhile they

apply as much anti institutional power as

they can in order to enshrine themselves permanently in power. Cory Booker, who wants to run for president for some godforsaken reason no one understands why. He was speaking to a Michigan Democratic

women's group over the weekend and he popped in the crazy eyes.

Cory Booker, Mr. Potato Head went crazy eyes.

And he will you stand for our democracy? I mean, he stood for 27 hours

without going pee pee. And that means that he's a special dude. So here he was again. Why Cory Booker thinks he's a presidential candidate remains a mystery beyond reckoning.

[Cory Booker]

Ladies and gentlemen, there is a storm in our nation. There is darkness and wind. People are getting hurt. What we need is, is not from on high. We need foot soldiers of our democracy who in times of trial are willing to stand up. Will you stand for our democracy? Will you stand to get out the vote? Will you stand for our children? Will you stand up for our elders? And will you stand together, unified, strong Be the hope that people need. We are Democrats. It's time for a new deal. It's time to redeem the dream of America. Thank you. God bless you.

[Ben Shapiro]

The wheels of history will be greased.

Going full Dwight Truth there, Cory Booker, strong stuff. Well, of course he loves Democracy. Democrats love democracy, which is why they're

putting on the ballot in Virginia a ballot proposition that would give 91% of all house seats in Virginia to the

Democrats in a state where Kamala Harris won 52%.

So Virginia is a fairly purple state.

The new Virginia Congressional district map would

turn a state that is fairly evenly divided in terms of its, in terms

of its districting right now into a full on Democratic state. There would be one giant Republican district and all the rest would be Democratic districts.

Right Now Democrats have 55% of the

current House seats and they own 52% of the Democratic vote. So that's pretty proportional. And so now Democrats are trying apparently

to enshrine in the law cuz they love democracy. You see that essentially 45% of the population of Virginia should go completely without

any sort of of representation, which is astonishing. Here is a chart of the popular

House vote versus the House seat disparity by state. As you can see, Virginia will be a wild outlier. So Democrats of course are pointing to Texas. Texas redistricting means that that state is split 60, 40, somewhere in the neighborhood. Republican, Democrat. Texas is moving more heavily in the

direction of Republican redistricting.

And that of course created a counter

movement in California and now a vast counter movement in Virginia.

Yeah, again, all of this is within play. I mean, this is all legal.

You're allowed to do it. But don't complain about redistricting on the right if you're then going to turn around and say that redistricting on the left is totally appropriate, which is what's hilarious.

Senator Tim Kaine, who you may recall

from that time he ran for Vice President. I know you don't recall it, no one remembers, but he was actually Hillary Clinton's VP candidate.

Great quiz questions of history.

Well, he was on Fox News Sunday

trying to explain why it was the

most democratic thing in the world to disenfranchise half your population.

[Tim Kaine]

90% of Virginians are not Democrats. That's true. But about 100% of Virginians want election results to be respected. We're deeply worried that Donald Trump will try to interfere with the election results this November or in 2028, because we saw him do it before and we have to have a Congress that will stand up to it. In 2021, all five Republicans in Virginia went along with Donald Trump in his effort to overturn election results. And so we're giving Virginians a chance to vote, which Republican states have not done about whether they want to have a congressional delegation that will stand up against Donald Trump's tyranny.

[Ben Shapiro]

The essence of democracy is that a state split about 50, 50 should actually be 91% represented by Democrats.

Again, all of this is well within

boundaries with regard to gerrymandering and all the rest. I just can't deal with the hypocrisy of Democrats who are whining about it. Eric Holder, who, again, threat to democracy.

Remember Eric Holder, actually launched a group

in 2017 to combat Republican gerrymandering. So now he's standing in favor of Democratic gerrymandering. Again, what's good for the goose is never good for the gander.

[Democratic Strategist]

The Democrats can certainly win if it's a fair fight. And the question I have, it wasn't

[Ben Shapiro]

going to be a fair fight in Virginia.

[Democratic Strategist]

No, it wasn't going to be a fair fight nationally if you try to steal seats in Texas, in North Carolina and in Missouri. And so the question I have for people who are critical of that which we're doing is what were we supposed to do? Nothing. Just allow them to try to stack the deck to try to steal seats. And all we're trying to do is meet them and try to make the system as fair as it possibly can be.

[Ben Shapiro]

That is not what they are trying to do. Let's be very, very clear. Democrats who have been lecturing Americans about

the threats to democracy.

Very often the threat is coming from inside the House. James Carville is pretty open about this. He says that if Democrats were to win the House and the Senate and then they would win the presidency, the

very first thing they would do is

add states like Puerto rico and Washington D.C. thus to stack the Senate against Republicans and to pack the Supreme Court, thus breaking the institution.

[James Carville]

The Democrats win the presidency in both houses of Congress. I think on day one, this should make Puerto Rico, D.C. a state and it should expand the Supreme Court to 30, 13. Eat our dust. They've done everything they could that they held up to 22,000 election. They stole it. They've stolen Supreme Court seats, they've gerrymandered everything that you can. And the only way to fight this is don't run on it, don't talk about it, just do it.

[Ben Shapiro]

Amazing.

Amazing.

The Democratic Party is wildly radical, not only in their actual methodologies for retaining power, but increasingly in their very bones. The Michigan Democratic Party convention is pandering to radical Islam. Of course they are. That, of course, is not a shock at all considering it's very, very likely that the Michigan Senate candidate is going to be a pro terrorist candidate named Abdul El sayed Here is a clip from the Michigan Democratic Party convent. Good times at the Michigan Democratic Party convention. And here was Abdul Al Syed who is criticizing J.D. vance, suggesting that J.D. vance is anti brown kid. Which is weird since he has a few of them.

[J.D. Vance]

That's the thing. J.D. vance is not a dumbass.

[Ben Shapiro]

J.D.

[J.D. Vance]

vance is graduated from Yale. No, he graduated from Yale Law. He's a smart guy. The thing about it is he's like soul corrupt. So you got Donald Trump who's just in ego with no brain, then you've got a brain like, with this like soul corruption for power.

[Ben Shapiro]

Right?

[J.D. Vance]

And I don't know what's worse. Part of me is like, it must suck to live inside your head to know that your entire politics is incoherent with the way you live your life. How do you deal with that every day? Like, there's a cognitive dissonance that comes out and like maybe just sucks out his charisma.

[Ben Shapiro]

I don't like huge cognitive dissonance. Just. Just absolutely.

[J.D. Vance]

He's got to look at his kids and be like, yeah, those are brown kids. They're mine.

[Ben Shapiro]

You know what I mean?

[J.D. Vance]

And I had brown kids. I have brown kids. I love my brown kids. And I think my brown kids are just as American as everyone else. JD Vance has brown kids who thinks he thinks are less American than everyone else. Like, that's wild to look at your own kids and be like, you don't actually belong as much in this country that I brought you into.

[Ben Shapiro]

This is the guy the Democrats are gonna run for the Senate. He also happens to be a sympathizer with his terrorist supporters in Dearborn, Michigan. Speaking of which, apparently he is not the only one in Michigan who has such feelings. According to the Free Beacon, Dearborn, Michigan attorney Amir Makled, who shared since deleted social media posts praising Hezbollah terrorists as martyrs and urging Iran to show no laxity in the sacred war against the enemy, just won the Michigan Democratic Party's nomination for the University of Michigan Board of Regents during the party's convention on Sunday. Well, you can see why that happened. So the Democratic Party full in line

more and more with fairly open terror supporters.

And meanwhile, speaking of international terrorism, Iran continues to play around with the President of the United States. Over the weekend, the President put out a statement on truth Social, quote, the Democrats are doing everything possible to hurt the very strong position we are in with respect to Iran during despite World War I lasting four years, three months

and 14 days, World War II lasting

six years and one day in. And the Korean War lasting three years, one month, and two days.

The Vietnam War lasting 19 years, five

months, and 29 days. And Iraq lasting eight years, eight months, and 28 days.

They like to say that I promised six weeks to defeat Iran, and actually,

from the military standpoint, it was far faster than that. But I'm not gonna let them rush the United States into making a deal

that is not as good as it could have been. I read the fake news saying I'm

under pressure to make a deal.

This is not true.

I am under no pressure whatsoever.

Although it will happen relatively quickly.

Time is not my adversary. The only thing that matters is that we finally, after 47 years, straighten out the mess that other presidents let happen

because they didn't have the courage or

foresight to do what had to be done with respect to Iran. We're in it, and it will be done right. We won't let the weak and pathetic Democrats, traitors all, who for years have been talking about the dangers of Iran and that something has to be done. But now, since I'm the one doing it, belittle the accomplishments of our military and the Trump administration.

This is being perfectly executed on the

scale of Venezuela, just a bigger, more

complex operation, and the result will be

the same, which may in fact be a hint, because obviously the way that things have gone in Venezuela is we ended up in control of their oil supply and we are dictating terms to the regime. Perhaps that is a hint at a move against Kharga island or against the oil supplies of Iran more directly. He says, in my first term, I built the greatest military our country has

ever seen, including adding space force.

In my second term, I am properly and judiciously using our military to solve problems left to us by others of far less understanding or competence. Make America great again. And of course, that is exactly right.

Now, the UAE has been asking for

a financial lifeline from the United States because obviously the Persian Gulf has been shut down by Iran. And so the UAE's government has been suffering. They are very much allied with the United States. They're also allied with Israel in this fight against Iran. The UAE Central bank governor, according to the Wall Street Journal, Khaled Mohammed Balama raised the idea of a currency swap line with Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and Treasury and Federal Reserve officials in meetings in Washington last week. Usually, those swap lines are reserved for relieving severe funding market pressures that could spill back into the United States economy. We have arrangements with banks in the

uk, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, the eu.

Basically, during periods of acute stress, we Extend swap lines to other central banks to sort of prop them up.

So, you know, that's not a terrible

ask by the Emiratis. And again, this thing is going to be over sooner rather than later either way. Now, Iran continues to violate the ceasefire. On Tuesday, he put forward a post, the President saying Iran has violated the ceasefire numerous times. And then he appeared on Squawk Box and he explained that either they will

make a deal and be and be

rational, or they will not.

[Kevin Warsh]

Iran can get themself on a very good footing if they make a deal. They can make themselves into a strong nation again, a wonderful nation again. They have incredible people, but they seem to be, you know, bloodthirsty. They're led by some very, very unfortunately tough people. And I don't mean tough in a good way. I think it's very negative for the country because we're much tougher than they are. Like, not even close. But they have to use reason and they have to use common sense and they can get themselves into a great position to make themselves into a great country.

[Ben Shapiro]

Now, again, what appears to be happening here is that there are more moderate factions. I say moderate sort of in scare quotes here, because they ain't that moderate. Mahmoud Pizzashkin, the President of Iran, or Mohammad Khaliba, the Speaker of Parliament. And they're not in control of the country right now. The IRGC is in control of the country. Possesskin put out a statement via Twitter, quote, honoring commitments is the basis of meaningful dialogue, which is hilarious from the Iranian government, which has yet to ever honor a serious commitment. Deep historical mistrust in Iran toward US Government conduct remains. And then Abbas Arahi, the Foreign minister, also said the exact same thing. Essentially, they seek Iran's surrender. Iranians do not submit to force. Well, I mean, we'll find out if this continues for a very long. I mean, let's be clear right now, the embargo on Iranian oil supplies, which is what is happening, is depriving the government of Iran of some $400 million a day that is crippling their economy.

And that includes CENTCOM footage that has been released of Marines rappelling onto an

Iranian flagged ship called the Tuska. Here is some of that footage you can see here. American helicopter taking off and then hovering over the Tuska as American Marines rappel down onto this Iranian ship. That ship had already been essentially disabled by one shot through the engine room. It turns out, by the way, that that ship was carrying propellants and materials from China. The President of the United States said

that that was happening here.

And honestly, we should very seriously. He's letting China get away with it for now, presumably because there are negotiations that will happen with China in the near future and because he doesn't wish for our sort of anti China arrangement to go hot in the middle of trying to finish the war with Iran. Meanwhile, Mohammed Khaliba put out a statement saying, we are prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield. Well, first of all, I don't know why you would reveal new cards on the battlefield. It's a weird thing to like. Like an ace of spades. Like, what are we talking about here? They keep threatening this. They've been threatening this for a long time. I find that highly, highly doubtful. But the President, in going after Democrats over all this, saying they're undermining the war, he is right about that. There's no question.

They're just repeating propaganda that is.

That is being put out there by the Iranian government itself, like literally doing that. Chris Murphy, for example, the Senate Democrat

from Connecticut, there's a piece of fake

news, it was not true about Iranian tankers continuing to transit the Strait of Hormuz. And he literally tweeted back, awesome.

Okay?

I mean, that's literal Iranian propaganda, and he's tweeting awesome to it. So when I say they're mirroring Iranian propaganda, I. I literally mean they are mirroring Iranian propaganda. Meanwhile, Representative Adam Smith of Washington says that Iran is somehow more truthful than the White House, which is a weird take.

It's a weird take to say about

the leading terror sponsor on planet Earth.

But Democrats hate Trump so much, and they believe so much in a grievance

about the United States that they're willing to even make common cause of the Iranians.

[Iranian Official]

I would think it quite likely that Iran will not show up and negotiate because what they've said about where negotiations are at has turned out to be a lot closer to the truth than anything coming out of the White House.

[Interviewer]

So you believe Iran over the White House?

[Iranian Official]

Well, I wouldn't put it that way. I would put it exactly the way I just put it.

[Ben Shapiro]

So that is ridiculous. But Democrats are increasingly ridiculous and hysterical here. This, of course, includes people like Mehdi Hasan, who was for many years at Qatari mouthpiece at Al Jazeera. He says that we are on the verge of nuclear Armageddon.

No, we're not.

No, we're not. He doesn't believe that. If he were, he'd be in a bunker. It's not true, but here we are.

[Mehdi Hasan]

I didn't think that we would be, you know, on the verge of a nuclear Armageddon in the Middle East. As much as I didn't buy this, that he was a dove and I knew he was a warmonger, but this Iran war, I think, is even beyond what I thought we'd be at 14, 15 months in. So it's. Everything is worse. I can't think of a single area of public life where things are not as bad as we thought they would be and are, in fact, worse than they would be. And I think that's also partly to do with the fact that he surrounded himself with the worst people.

[Ben Shapiro]

Right.

[Mehdi Hasan]

We are in a truly cachistocratic age, governed by the worst people. Worst people morally worst people intellectually, worst people politically.

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, when you sympathize with the other side of every war that America has fought in the Middle east, that tends to be how it goes. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris. I still can't believe she's trying to make a comeback. It is insane. It is insane. Now, again, she's doing pretty well in

the Democratic primary polls, mainly because people

still remember her kind of. She's not gonna win the nomination, though. I mean, if she did. I mean, listen my mouth to God's ears. If she were to win the nomination, that is the best thing that could happen for Republicans. Here is Kamala Harris speaking at the Michigan Women's Democratic Group. And the utter charmlessness. I can't imagine why she lost.

[Whoopi Goldberg]

We are dealing with the most corrupt, callous, and incompetent presidential administration in the history of the United States, period.

[Ben Shapiro]

I really like the faux seriousness where she kind of stares into the camera when she says that. Sort of stares out at the crowd.

You were in the Biden administration. Your boss pardoned his entire family on his way out of office after running a scam with his son to go pick up the bags of cash abroad. And in terms of incompetence, dude left the entire southern border open for four

years and brought us 40 year highs in inflation. So, yeah, sure. Meanwhile, Whoopi Goldberg out there claiming that you will be drafted for the Iran

war again, if you believe this, I'm

sorry, but you really, really, really require

some sort of checkup or you're just a dummy. No one is getting drafted.

We're not going to nuclear war, and no one's getting drafted.

Can we start there? Here's Whoopi Goldberg.

[Interviewer]

Keep in mind the Iranian regime is the biggest state sponsor of terrorism. Ten years from now, 20 years from now, they may try to Strike the homeland. They may try to strike troops in the region. This doesn't go away just because you signed up.

[Whoopi Goldberg]

No, none of it goes away. And that's why they are planning on a draft. They're planning on a draft and you're bitching and moaning that there are women who are part of the Army, Navy, all the. And you're getting rid of people and you talk about who shouldn't be. What the hell are you people doing?

[Interviewer]

And what it is, is they're changing that. You no longer. You have to opt. You used to have to opt into the draft. Now it makes it automatic.

[Whoopi Goldberg]

It's a draft. Yeah, I'm sorry. It's a draft because if you're 18 to 25, they're looking at you.

[Interviewer]

Well, they're increasing that age, too. It's.

[Ben Shapiro]

You are obligated by law to register.

This is so stupid. You are obligated by law to register

for the draft, and if you don't, you're in violation of law. Now, the rule is you're automatically registered

for the draft because if you didn't,

you would be in violation of the law.

But now it's just automatic.

This is an administrative issue and they're trying to turn. It's just. It's also stupid. It's also stupid. But the stupidity extends to all sides of the aisle. Over the weekend, Tucker Carlson head on his insipid brother Buckley, a bizarro world version of Tucker. He's like the bad Superman, like kryptonite Superman, except that in this case, both Supermans are bad. One is just significantly more, say, impaired than the other. Buckley and Tucker sat there and talked about how they are sorry that they helped get Trump elected. Presumably they would like Kamala Harris as President of the United States. That's how much they are upset about the war in Iran and Israelism, because Tucker is too cowardly to say what he actually wants to say.

[Buckley]

You and I and everyone else who supported him, you wrote speeches for him. I campaigned for him. I mean, we're implicated in this for sure. Yes. It's not enough to say, well, I changed my mind, or like, oh, this is bad, I'm out. It's like in very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now.

[Kevin Warsh]

Yes.

[Buckley]

So I do think it's like a moment to wrestle with our own consciences. You know, we'll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be. And I want to say I'm sorry for Misleading people was not intentional. That's all I'll say.

[Ben Shapiro]

What a good hearted person he is. So you're all suckers and you were suckered by Tucker Carlson, but he apologizes for suckering you. Or alternatively, something else is going on. Alternatively, he has bought into a widely now apparent view that the United States is bad, that President Trump standing up for American interests is bad. It's also gut churningly ugly. Truthfully. Truthfully, he's such a propagandist for terrible things at this point. Okay. Meanwhile, in other news around the United States, Tim Cook has now stepped down as the Apple CEO. John Ternus is the head of the hardware division. He's gonna take over as chief executive.

Now, there's been a lot of critique of Tim Cook's tenure at Apple because

he wasn't as transformative in some ways as Steve Jobs.

I will say that he radically increased

the market cap of the company and the reason is because he focused in on the hardware.

And while the company is not focusing

in tremendously on AI, there's a reason for that. They're basically letting all other companies compete on the AI front. And they're developing all the hardware on which the AI will live inside phones, which frankly is pretty smart. They're zigging while everybody else is zagging the company's App Store.

AI revenue is set to top $1

billion this year simply by collecting subscription fees from companies like OpenAI. So again, Tim Cook is out. Meanwhile, in other sort of political news, Lori Chavez Durmer is out. She was the labor secretary who never should have been selected in the first place for the Trump administration. She's a left wing, anti markets person who's basically selected for her temporary support for President Trump. And it turns out that she was, she quit amid a bunch of investigations into her activity. According to cnn, for months, the Labor Department's Inspector General's office has been investigating a complaint that Chavez Durmer was having a sexual relationship with a member of her security team, as well as other allegations of inappropriate behavior so. Such as sending staff to pick up liquor and attempting to use business trips as an excuse for personal travel, according to a Department of labor source with knowledge of the situation. So that's, that's great. Well, maybe she'll start a business with Christine. Oh, you never know. I mean, everyone has a future. In other administration news, Cash Patel is now suing the Atlantic for $250 million. The reason being there is an article from the Atlantic suggesting that he was, quote, unquote, MIA that Atlantic piece suggested

that Patel is a drunk, essentially, that

he has been known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication in many cases at the private club Neds in Washington, D.C. and he's also known to drink to excess at the Poodle Room in Las Vegas where he goes for the weekends. And so basically they're calling him an alcoholic. So Patel is suing them for $250 million. He accused the defendants of publishing an article replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel's reputation and to drive him from office. And they were warned, he says, that the central allegations were categorically false. It'll be interesting to see how all of that plays out as well.

Alrighty, folks.

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[Sam]

Sam.