Ep. 2419 - VP Vows Action On DW Investigation

Summary

The Ben Shapiro Show — Ep. 2419: VP Vows Action On DW Investigation

Date: May 5, 2026
Host: Ben Shapiro (The Daily Wire)
Guests: Luke Rosiak (Daily Wire Senior Investigative Reporter), Vivek Ramaswamy (Ohio Governor Candidate)

---

Episode Overview

This episode centers on new revelations about massive Medicaid fraud in Ohio, exposed by the Daily Wire’s investigative reporting team. The story has triggered national response, including a public vow by the Vice President to investigate and potentially prosecute offenders. Ben Shapiro interviews lead reporter Luke Rosiak about his on-the-ground findings and then speaks with Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on solutions and broader policy implications. The episode also covers topics like the cultural spectacle of the Met Gala, left-wing activism, and shifting global tensions with Iran.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Ohio Medicaid Fraud Investigation

• Main Theme:
  The Daily Wire, led by Luke Rosiak, uncovers alleged massive Medicaid fraud in Ohio, involving hundreds of shell companies and empty office buildings billing the government for home health services.

• Notable Findings:

  • Office complexes owned by Cordoba Real Estate in Columbus, Ohio, house nearly 288 Medicaid-registered businesses.
  • These businesses have collectively billed taxpayers more than $250 million between 2018-2024.
  • At one address, 80 companies received $23 million from the state after billing $73 million to Medicaid.
  • Many businesses are essentially pass-through entities for paying relatives to care for each other, with little oversight.
  • Dramatic footage of empty office suites ("It looks like aliens abducted people on some day at noon." — Luke Rosiak, 09:40)
  • Mohamed Jama, a politician and business owner, noted for receiving millions in public funding through various ventures—all while running for state office.

• VP Reaction:

  • The Vice President tweets a vow to direct a task force to investigate and take immediate action ([01:05]).

• Reporter’s Perspective:

  • Systemic issues: combination of outright fraud and legal, but arguably unethical, exploitation.
  • Difficulties in tracking: similar names, incomplete records, making enforcement hard ([13:07]).
  • Whack-a-mole effect—fraudsters pop up under new entities even after enforcement.

Memorable Quote:

“Are you, as a taxpayer, willing to subsidize people to take care of their own aging parents? This is crazy towns.” — Ben Shapiro (05:13)

Timestamps of Importance:

• [01:05] Ben presents the VP’s response and outlines the scandal.
• [02:44] Luke Rosiak’s undercover footage in empty office buildings.
• [03:59] Cordoba employee explains how relatives get paid via Medicaid.
• [06:23] Ben interviews Luke Rosiak about reactions and findings.
• [09:07] Luke details the data analysis and how he was led to these companies.
• [11:36] Teaser for coming parts of the investigation.

---

2. Interview: Luke Rosiak on the Investigation

• Details on Methods:

  • Relied on new federal and state Medicaid expenditure databases.
  • Data analysis pinpointed suspicious concentrations of Medicaid billing.
  • Combined fieldwork (visiting offices) with exhaustive public records research.
  • Challenges: identifying individuals with similar names, unverified birthdates, etc.

• Patterns Noted:

  • Politicians and community figures setting up multi-million dollar operations on the side ([11:36]).
  • Difficulty in government enforcement due to labor-intensive tracking and recurring new entities.

• Policy Debate:

  • Need for potential abolition of “personal services” waivers that let family members bill Medicaid for basic caregiving.

Notable Quote:

“If you have an aging parent and they need help cleaning their house once a week or cooking a dinner once a day…You chip in to your family because it’s the right thing to do. And you don’t insist on a government paycheck because it’s just too easily abused.” — Luke Rosiak ([13:44])

---

3. Interview: Vivek Ramaswamy (Ohio GOP Gubernatorial Candidate)

• Primary Focus:
  Ramaswamy discusses his expected primary win and responds to the Medicaid fraud investigation.

• On Medicaid Fraud:

  • Recognizes systemic government failures and misplaced incentives.
  • Stresses that existing laws need to be enforced before new ones are passed ([19:37]).
  • Sees prosecution as critical for punishment and deterrence.

Memorable Quote:

“In a modern era of AI, you have a toolkit that allows you to spot aberrant abnormalities even more quickly and more reliably than at prior points in human history. We have laws on the books in Ohio…this is doable, but it does require a leader at the top who's willing to act with a spine, decisively.” — Vivek Ramaswamy ([20:49])

• On Incentive Problems:

  • Flaws in the way states get reimbursed by the federal government for Medicaid.
  • If a state cuts fraud, it often loses federal money—no reward for efficiency ([23:27]).
  • Proposes changes so states share in savings when they reduce improper Medicaid spending.

• Broader Vision:

  • Frames fraud as part of a larger social problem: government overreach, loss of personal agency, incentive for dependency.
  • Calls for restoring the American dream through empowerment, job creation, reduced taxes.

• On Political Opposition:

  • Denounces both left-wing identity politics and grievance-driven populism on the right.
  • Stresses a campaign about truth, entrepreneurship, and personal responsibility ([30:07-35:31]).

---

4. Culture & Politics in America

• Met Gala as Cultural Symbol:

  • Critiques the ostentation and hypocrisy of the Met Gala—"obnoxious wealth from people who proclaim they hate their own wealth” ([00:54], [47:02]).
  • Notes left-wing protest targeting elites, such as Jeff Bezos, and incidents like placing bottles of urine in the museum as protest art ([46:08]).

• Left-Wing Political Rhetoric & Violence:

  • Blames the left for creating "permission structures" for violence through hyperbolic language ("fighting fascism").
  • Highlights Democratic politicians campaigning alongside controversial figures.
  • Cites increasingly alarmist rhetoric on the left, including conspiracy theories about Trump staging a coup ([41:08]).

Notable Quote:

“You see the Met Gala, which is a bunch of very rich Democrats, and you have everyone cosplaying the revolution on all sides.” — Ben Shapiro ([47:02])

---

5. International Affairs: Tensions with Iran

• US Policy Moves:

  • US Navy re-opens the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, blocking Iranian attempts to restrict the flow ([52:08], [52:38]).
  • Iran retaliates with missile and drone attacks; Secretary of Defense and President Trump vow continued resistance ([55:32]).

• Strategic Analysis:

  • Shapiro sees Iran boxed in economically and militarily, predicting regime pressure if its oil cannot reach markets.

Memorable Quote:

“They have a problem coming up because…oil…has a tendency…to literally explode and just destroy everything around it. And you can never get that oil again…It does tremendous damage to the oil system.” — Donald Trump ([55:32])

---

6. Christopher Nolan’s 'Odyssey' Trailer Reaction

• Cultural Segment:
  • Ben Shapiro reacts live to the new trailer, discusses casting choices and controversy over dialogue choices (“dad” vs “father”).
  • Expresses excitement for the film, dismissing internet outrage as unnecessary.

Notable Quote:

"Every single language has some sort of diminutive for father...What do you call your father? You call him father? Probably not. You probably call him dad." — Ben Shapiro ([60:03])

---

Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• Ben Shapiro on Medicaid fraud:
  “Are you, as a taxpayer, willing to subsidize people to take care of their own aging parents? This is crazy towns. It’s crazy.” ([05:13])

• Luke Rosiak on empty offices:
  “It looks like aliens abducted people on some day at noon, like months ago because a lot of them will have signs saying we're out to lunch.” ([09:40])

• Vivek Ramaswamy on prosecution as deterrence:
  “…it does require a leader at the top who's willing to act with a spine, decisively. And that's why I'm in this.” ([20:49])

• Ramaswamy on the American Dream:
  “…the number one factor that determines what you achieve in life is you…It is you. That’s what the American dream is built on. That’s what I’m running this campaign on.” ([34:13-34:36])

• Ben Shapiro on Met Gala hypocrisy:
  “The ostentatious display of obnoxious wealth from some of the world’s most useless people…is enough to turn anybody into a communist. Not because communism is good, but because this stuff is ridiculous.” ([47:02])

---

Major Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------------|-------------| | Medicaid Investigation Overview | 00:27–06:20 | | Interview: Luke Rosiak | 06:23–15:51 | | Interview: Vivek Ramaswamy | 17:50–35:37 | | Cultural Commentary (Met Gala/Activism) | 40:41–47:02 | | Iran/International Affairs | 51:37–56:25 | | Nolan’s Odyssey Trailer Reaction | 57:27–60:03 |

---

Summary for New Listeners

This episode is a deep dive into a nationwide Medicaid scandal, illustrating how investigative journalism can directly impact public policy and political action. The reporting exposes the mechanics and scope of fraudulent Medicaid claims rooted in vague policy and weak oversight. Both guests—reporter Luke Rosiak and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy—stress the need for both accountability and structural reform.

The second half shifts to America’s fractious political and cultural climate, skewering the hypocrisy of elite leftist activism (as seen at the Met Gala and among political figures) and examining how extremist rhetoric fuels real-world tensions. Shapiro closes with thoughts on global affairs (a tightening noose on Iran) and a lighter review of pop culture with Christopher Nolan’s new film.

Throughout, Shapiro’s fast-paced, combative style keeps the focus sharp, especially on how policy, culture, and media intersect.

---

Transcript

[Red Bull Announcer]

Ready to soundtrack your summer with Red Bull Summer All Day Play. You choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best. Are you a festival fanatic, a deep end dj, a road dog, or a trail mixer? Just add a song to your chosen playlist and put your summer on track. Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit Red Bull.com BrightSummerAhead to learn more. See you this summer.

[Ben Shapiro]

Today, more shocking reports of alleged fraud in Ohio. As you know, yesterday on this show we reported on the massive alleged fraud plaguing Ohio's Medicaid program. Our investigative team here at Daily Wire has uncovered shocking facts surrounding that alleged fraud. What appear to be hundreds of shell companies bilking taxpayers out of perhaps billions of dollars. And the vice president of the United States has already vowed to track it all down. We'll also be talking with Vikramaswamy, the likely next governor of Ohio, about what he can do to to stop all of that. We'll also get to the Met Gala, the nation's most annoying display of obnoxious wealth from people who proclaim that they hate their own wealth. Plus, the latest in Iran, where we could be just days away from more kinetic action. And Christopher Nolan has a new Odyssey trailer which I'm going to watch. Busy show coming up. This is the Ben Shapiro Show. So yesterday, based on our investigation in Ohio, the vice president of the United States put out a tweet pledging that he would look into what was going on. Quote, the shocking allegations, if true, show why the fraud's task force work is so important. I'm directing the task force to look into it and take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate. So we are already getting action here at Daily Wire. This is why we exist, not just to bring you things that entertain you, but obviously to change the world in better ways. Luke Rosiak, who is our senior investigative reporter over here, he has the second part of his large scale investigative senior series today talking about the extent of Medicaid fraud in Ohio. He points out that there are seven buildings along East Dublin Granville Road in Columbus, Ohio that are filled with hundreds of office suites all owned by a company called Cordoba Real Estate. Almost every tenant in the building bills Medicaid for the impoverished, obviously as a home health care business that provides low skills, usually non medical care to elderly or disabled people. So basically seems very much like what Nick Shirley was uncovering in Minnesota. Essentially, we have these gigantic buildings that are filled with home health care providers completely Empty of people. Because we actually have video of Luke walking through the halls here. Here is Luke walking through the halls in an empty office building in Ohio that presumably millions of dollars are flooding through.

[Luke Rosiak]

I noticed that you guys have gotten $10 million in Medicaid.

[Cordoba Road Employee]

What exactly goes into a home?

[Ben Shapiro]

Again, the accusations of racism. Him walking through full on empty buildings. Apparently one Cordoba Road employee said that the government actually pays people to take care of their own families. This of course, is the scam. According to Luke's reporting, the Cordoba owned buildings in Columbus House 288 businesses registered with Medicaid. Together, they charge taxpayers more than a quarter of a billion dollars between 2018 and 2024. In a city where there are only about 6,200 people who are 75 or older on Medicaid, apparently at one address, there are 80 companies that collectively billed at least $73 million to Medicaid and received $23 million from the state of Ohio. Again, shocking levels of what appear to be alleged fraud. And again, here is Luke talking to one of the employees at Cordoba Road who admits the government basically pays you to take care of your own family.

[Cordoba Road Employee]

In the Cordoba Office building at 1425 East Dublin Granville Road, we finally located a business suite with somebody in it. GC Home Healthcare llc. Asked how he recruits employees, he said employees and patients come as a package. 70% of the employees are just being paid to spend time with their own family members.

[Interviewer/Interlocutor with Cordoba Employee]

The patients, like they have someone in their family that has the qualifications to be an aide, CBR and everything. So they just come together and they say, yeah, well, I got approval from

[Cordoba Road Employee]

my doctor after getting a note from the doctor vouching for the elder's need for personal services. The family member of an elderly person isn't set up to bill Medicaid. So a company stands in the middle.

[Interviewer/Interlocutor with Cordoba Employee]

I mean, we're just taking a small cut because, you know, they pay us and then we pay them and their hours.

[Cordoba Road Employee]

He said the number of hours depends on a doctor's recommendation, but it's often an hour a day.

[Interviewer/Interlocutor with Cordoba Employee]

Like, do you expect them to take time off of work just to take care of the roads? I mean, there has to be some sort of benefit.

[Cordoba Road Employee]

I asked him why people wouldn't simply help their aging parents with basic tasks out of human decency.

[Interviewer/Interlocutor with Cordoba Employee]

Well, the government didn't pay you to do it. I mean, people see that as lucrative, so, you know, they jump on it.

[Ben Shapiro]

Again, Unbelievable stuff. Are you, as a taxpayer willing to subsidize people to take care of their own aging parents. This is crazy, Towns. It's crazy. Luke reports that there is one home health care service called Omega, which charged taxpayers $11 million between December 2017 and October 2024. Omega was incorporated in 2011 by a person named Mohammed Jama, a Democratic politician. Jama founds in a newspaper called the Somali Post, also a Somali coffee house, and has been affiliated with the Somali Education Resource center, which received $6 million in federal aid in 2023, all on top of raising nine kids and working as an engineer. When he ran for state senate as a Democrat in 2024, that home health care business was not even mentioned in his profile. So, you know, it's great. We also get to, as taxpayers, subsidize people running for the state legislature as they clear millions of dollars in cash. Joining us on the line, the man who broke this story, Luke Rosiak, is a senior investigative reporter at the Daily Wire. You can follow him on X at. Luke Roziak. He's great. Follow Luke. Thanks for taking the time. Really appreciate it.

[Luke Rosiak]

Thanks for having me, Ben.

[Ben Shapiro]

So the story has already had a gigantic impact locally, federally. The VP is committing to an investigation. What are the reactions that you've got your eye on to your explosive expose here?

[Luke Rosiak]

Yeah, it's funny. I mean, we just kind of laid out the bare bones of what we had. Part two just dropped, and we've got a number of actual details going. But JD Vance, right from the beginning, said that the task force that he's helming with Andrew Ferguson, who's a very competent lawyer, is going to be descending upon Ohio. There's been a number of other reactions in the Senate, including from the chairman of the Aging Committee and so on. Um, but, you know, at the center of this is the Medicaid waiver program for home health care and in particular, what they call personal services, which is what I'm calling butlers for Somalis. Medicaid is supposed to be for medical stuff. And personal services is just like butlers. It's people that go there to help you with whatever you need. You could cook, you can clean, even just conversation and companionship. And so, you know, I just got back from Columbus, and you. You can walk through these buildings, and there's a whole street of them, and you go inside these buildings, and there's like, hundreds of the small businesses. Nobody's in almost any of them. And they'll have signs that just say that that's the service they provide, is companionship and conversation. And so that's kind of the question that's for fraud investigators. I think there's a lot of leads that, that we're going to be providing to them and people are going to see in the stories we have rolling out, including today. But there's also the question of low fraud, which is some of this may well be legal and it may well be very poor policy decisions that our leaders have made that allow people to bill for hanging out with their family members or hanging out going to somebody's house to provide them with this, this companionship or cleaning their house in a way that's totally unverifiable. And so I think they're all both fraud questions. And I think if J.D. vance's task force finds that they can't prove with the standard that would be required in a court of law, then you get to the question of do we just have to get rid of these programs? Because maybe we had programs that used to work in a time when Americans could be relied on to be honest. That kind of break down in situations where you import people from low trust societies.

[Ben Shapiro]

So, Luke, take us back to the beginning of the story. How did you first uncover this level of fraud and what was it like, you know, walking through these empty buildings that supposedly hundreds of millions of dollars are being funneled through for home health care?

[Luke Rosiak]

Yeah. So DOGE back in February released doge, working with hhs, a database of Medicaid spending to what companies are getting paid by Medicaid. And I've been trying to get that for many years because when you look at that pie chart of the federal budget, so much of it is in Medicaid to the point where a lot of liberals kind of mocked Doge, saying there's nothing to even cut unless you're going to go for the non discretionary stuff. And so when we can actually see what Medicaid is going to and then we find out that it's actually not just all like untouchable, like doctor's visits, it's like very much fair game for those that want to make the government more efficient. I think that's a huge potential for kind of saving our country. And it's a huge win for transparency that they did that. So I did my computer thing. I've been doing data analysis for a long time and I had my computer run queries that told me where the really sketchy stuff was. And it took me right to a red state, Ohio, Columbus, and the northeast sector of Columbus, which turns out to be where all the Somalis live. But it's funny because I didn't Go say I want to go find Somalis. I didn't really tell it anything except tell me where some really sketchy money stuff is going on. And the data took me right there. And so I went and I had, you know, a guy from the Capital Research center is great researcher. We both did our thing, we poured through all the records and then we did the kind of what Nick Shirley made famous we saw similar to what he did with the daycares. Nobody's there. And it was very creepy to walk down these long hallways. It looks like aliens abducted people on some day at noon, like months ago because a lot of them will have signs saying we're out to lunch. And it's like you can tell they've been out to lunch for a long time. There's like mail piling up like postmarked from months prior. So at the end of the day, you know, we kind of did the Nick Shirley thing and found the same results in Ohio. But then we coupled that with really rigorous database research and we went through all these individuals in public records and you know, for those that implied that somehow Nick Shirley got the story wrong or didn't do a rigorous enough job. I can tell you when you take two months and you look up hundreds of these people and you tell the full story, it actually makes it worse for the, for the Medicaid people in the small is not better.

[Ben Shapiro]

So this is a five part expose. Obviously today was just part two. Do you have any clues as to what's coming?

[Luke Rosiak]

So you know, we'll have person, you'll, you'll hear an interview with me talking to a guy who's been charged 30 times in court, all kinds of multiple fraud arrests, violence arrests. And he's arguing me with me that it's totally fine to run a Medicaid company. You know, he says I was just too dumb to know what the law is. And so this is what we're dealing with here. I mean that's the excuse of these people is I'm, I'm really dumb. I just didn't even know it was wrong to, to steal and lie constantly. But there's a lot to go through in, in part two, there's a, tons of different examples from what just dropped. That's going to take I think people a while to, to go through. For example, a Democrat politician by the name of Muhammad Jama who ran for state senate with the, with the Democrat endorsement in, in Ohio. He founded an 11 million dollar home health care company. While he was doing other stuff, he did it As a side business. He didn't even mention it when he ran for office. And that's a pattern that we keep seeing here is like these people have these businesses on the side. I mean, can you imagine making multiple millions of dollars? And it's not even what you do full time. It's just kind of your. Just like a little side gig.

[Ben Shapiro]

Well, Luke, you know, obviously the vice President has responded. The state of Ohio, I'd imagine, is going to respond at some level. What are you expecting from. From Congress? What do you think are the next steps going forward?

[Luke Rosiak]

What I'm really interested to see is whether they will rescind these Medicaid waivers. I spent a great deal of time investigating all these people and keeping track of, well, Ahmed Muhammad and how does he relate to Muhammad Ahmed and is Abdul Razak Ahmed the brother? You know, it goes on and on. It's very difficult to track these people because they don't even have birthday. A lot of them don't even know when they were born. So our system is designed to keep track of people based on the idea that family members have the same names and you have birth dates and stuff. It's very difficult. And I put the time in and I was able to find some really good stuff. But I'm certain that the government is not able to do this at scale because it's just too laborious. And I get the sense that there's whack a mole going on. And I get into this in some of the stories where somebody goes to jail for fraud, but pretty soon all of his associates are like, popping up with like, similar assets. And it's like, are they just moving money around? Is it really just a game of whack a mole to be trying to stop fraud when it's going to be really hard to prove? At the end of the day, they may not even be punished that severely and somebody else is just going to do it. So I'm interested to see whether they rescind these waivers. I think the states are spending this money pretty freely because it's the federal money, it's other people's money. And it's a little unfair, I think, for certain states to have waivers like Minnesota and Ohio that let them bill federal taxpayers for services that people in. In. In other states don't get to do. And I think personal services is one that maybe there's a policy solution here rather than. Than you get at the root of the fraud and you just cut it off, you know, at the root and say, no more personal Services. No more butlers for Somalis. If you're, if you have an aging parent and they need help cleaning their house once a week or cooking a dinner once a day, I think this is what people have done for all of human history. You chip in to your family because it's the right thing to do. And you don't, you don't insist on a government paycheck because it's just too easily abused. And even when it is abused, it's hard to prove fraud because this kind of thing happens behind closed doors in private residences. And I think we can no longer afford to have programs where proving fraud to the standard that's required in court is, is, is so hard. If there's going to be blatant what seems like fraud, what seems super sketchy, I don't think if anybody was in those buildings that I was in, in Columbus, they'd be like, oh, yeah, this is totally normal, totally normal that this person got $10 million. It doesn't pass the sniff test. I don't think anybody who saw it any taxp. We may have to look at a policy solution rather than just fraud enforcement and just eliminating some of these programs.

[Ben Shapiro]

Well, the investigation is a massive win. It's the reason why the Daily Wire exists because we don't just deliver stories, we deliver actual, real investigations that actually change the way the United States is run. Luke Rosiak, thanks for your amazing work here. Give Luke a follow again on exit. Luke Rosiak, he's one of the best investigative reporters in the country. Obviously, we're very glad that he's on our side. Luke, thanks for the time.

[Luke Rosiak]

Thanks so much, Ben already.

[Ben Shapiro]

Coming up, we'll be joined by Vivek Ramaswamy. His primary for Ohio governor is today. What would he do to stop all of this fraud? Plus, later on in the show, we're going to review the new trailer for Christopher Nolan's the Odyssey. And we'll get to the latest in Iran. First, here's the thing. If you own a business, you probably have no idea how many brokers it actually takes to insure that business. That is a major problem. You've got policies scattered everywhere. Applications that keep asking for the same information. No real picture of how it all fits together when something goes wrong. Our sponsor, super sure, is built to blow all of that up. It's one brokerage for your business coverage with a licensed super agent and account team that actually works your account year round, not just at renewal. Instead of wondering who to call, you have one place, one team One platform to keep your policies organized in a single insurance vault. If you've ever stared a policy and thought, no, I speak English, this is not English. Super Shore's Fine Print Facts tool translates the legal le into plain language so you can finally see what you have, what it covers and what it does not. Right now, head on over to super sure.com get a full report on your current policies. No obligation. Find out if you are overinsured, underinsured or somewhere in between. Go to super sure.com Shapiro One super agency. One powerful platform. All your policies in one place. Go to super sure.comshapiro that's super sure.comshapiro paid for by Super Short Insurance Agency, LLC, a licensed insurance agency. Obviously a shocking story, but we need people who are actually going to correct it. Joining me on the line to discuss what comes next is Vivek Ramaswamy. He has his Republican primary today in the state of Ohio. The likely next governor of Ohio. He is an entrepreneur, political commentator and author. And of course, he ran for president in 2024 in the Republican primaries. Vic, great to talk to you.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

Good to see you, man.

[Ben Shapiro]

So why don't we talk about, first of all, the state of the primary. So obviously the primary is today. You are widely expected to win. What are the expectations for you in terms of sort of percentage? Because obviously there's been a large scale movement to suggest that, that you're not doing as well as you should. But the reality is that competitive primaries in Republican Party areas in Ohio have been quite common for a very long time. So what are you expecting today?

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

Yeah, look, I mean, the primaries are usually quite competitive. I would say we're cautiously optimistic that we will shatter recent norms for what those primary outcomes are. If you look at the 2024, 2022 governor and Senate primaries, you had competitive primaries where Bernie Moreno and J.D. vance and Mike DeWine were elected. You're looking at 40, at most, 50% of the vote that went for the Republican. Even if you go back to 2018, when Mike DeWine was first elected, when someone else was elected to the you see the same thing, it's been a ceiling of 40 to 50%. So we'll see where the results come in. I don't want to count the chickens before they hatch, Ben, but take a look at it tomorrow and, or even late tonight. And I'm cautiously optimistic that we're going to significantly, significantly beat that ceiling. But let's see.

[Ben Shapiro]

So obviously we here at Daily Wire have been covering extensively the investigative reporting of Luke Rosiak and the rest of our investigative team about what appears to be alleged fraud in Ohio. Medicaid fraud. Again, we've seen this in a wide variety of states. The extent of it in Ohio appears to be quite shocking. Again, what you're looking at is buildings that look largely empty with tons of registered businesses that are receiving Medicaid monies. What do you make of that? And what would you do as governor of Ohio to crack down on that?

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

So, look, I think that the reality is all states, including Ohio, I think, have turned a blind eye to this level of rampant fraud of the welfare system, broadly, including Medicaid. And it starts, Ben, with enforcing the laws that are already on the books. So you could talk about passing new laws. I think that's a reasonable conversation to have. But that requires the legislature. That takes time. And furthermore, you get asked the question of what's the point of passing new laws if the ones that are already on the books aren't being sufficiently enforced? So one of my top priorities is to take the egregious cases here of fraud that, you know, frankly, your reporting was really intriguing, or, you know, daily wires reporting was really intriguing to me. I wish I could say that it was a shock compared to what I hear on the ground. Unfortunately, it was not a shock. But I appreciate you putting a national spotlight on it in my own home state. And I think what that does is it forces those who are in power to be able to pay attention to an issue that may have been swept under the rug for too long before. When I am in power, hopefully, if we're elected, we're not gonna sweep it under the rug. We gotta prosecute aggressively. And what's the purpose of prosecuting? Two purposes. First is, when someone does something wrong, you have to actually punish the person who does the wrong thing. But the second purpose, of course, is deterrence. The idea that you're just gonna get away with bilking the government. And it's not really even bilking the government so much as bilking the taxpayer. The ordinary law abiding American, the ordinary law abiding Ohioan. That's not okay. And we have to send that deterrent signal. So in the end, Ben, it's, as often happens in these things, it's not as complicated as it sounds. Right. This isn't fancy stuff. Okay. In a modern era of AI, you have a toolkit that allows you to spot aberrant abnormalities even more quickly and more reliably than at prior points in human history. We have laws on the books in Ohio, we have a Republican state that controls all three branches of government. This is doable, but it does require a leader at the top who's willing to act with a spine, decisively. And that's why I'm in this. I mean, you think about why. Sometimes I get the question of why am I doing this? Which politics can be frustrating at times, I have to admit. Sometimes I have to remind myself why I'm doing this. And the reality is, I mean, it's not for fame or fortune. There's better ways of acquiring those things. And I've been blessed in my life. I'm doing this because I know we can get this done. This is not complex stuff, fixing the waste, fraud and abuse, particularly in the Medicaid system. And you think about the analogy to that, to every other system that's over bureaucratized, which we're not talking about today with the public education system, how broken that is with the bureaucracy that suppresses the students and their achievement and their ability to report that to the public, to in a different sense, keep legally bilking the public without standing for results. You look at the overgrowth of government in every sector from Medicaid to the welfare state to even public education, K through 12 higher education, it's a mess. And I think what we need now more than ever in Ohio, and frankly in states like Ohio across the country, are real entrepreneurs who aren't willing to tolerate nonsense, who are willing to cut through the nonsense when needed. And that's why I'm doing this job, because I know I can get it done.

[Ben Shapiro]

So, Vivek, obviously you were involved at the beginning with doge. Our reporting was largely based on some of the revelations that came via Doge, because a lot of the information that Dosha uncovered served as sort of the basis for our investigation. Why do you think it is that so many members of government at the state and the federal level have brushed all of this under the rug? Because you would assume that, you know, good hearted people in government who would like for these programs to work efficiently would be unhappy with the fraud. But it seems as though they have more of an incentive to pretend the fraud isn't happening, thus to claim that the programs are working better than they are or something.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

Yeah, so a couple of things there, Ben, and it's worth. I mean, I'm not going to just give you the standard talking points you can read about anywhere. Okay. I want to give you some specifics from where I sit. I think there's an incentive failure in the way that states Deal with the federal government as it relates to Medicaid. And this is important to understand, okay? As you said, it's well intentioned people producing outcomes that are not well and that are not really doing well by the people who are supposed to serve. Why is the question. So this incentive failure is important where if a given state today cracks down on this waste, fraud and abuse, okay, cracks down on Medicaid over expenditures. And you could talk about uppercase F fraud and there's also lowercase F fraud, which is to say maybe technically legal, but doesn't comport with anyone's sense of who should be getting these dollars. The problem is the state that does that heavy lifting, okay, the equivalent of a doge at a state. Say, if you did that, you as a state don't really get to keep most of those dollars. What instead happens is you get fewer pass through payments from the federal government. So that is a broken incentive system. So for people who aren't familiar how this works, it's like you get reimbursed for your expenses, almost all of them from the federal government. So if you cut those expenses but you're losing the reimbursement, then you as a state, let's say you're a governor of a state, say, okay, well, I got other competing priorities because I would rather look after some other priority in my state. This is gonna make me less popular giving free government money away to people who could be voting for me. But in return, the federal government is still the backstop anyway. Why bother? So I think that incentive failure needs to change. And one of the things that I intend to do when I'm governor, my first two years, remember, will be President Trump's last two years as president. I have great relationships with many members of the cabinet, with President Trump, of course. And you know, Dr. Oz and I have had great conversations, including in potential visits we've talked about to Ohio, to think about how we're able to change that game, to be able to say, I mean, having a lot of these insights came to me from the two and a half months that I did co head doge. We need to fix those incentive structures just like you would in a business where somebody who's running a given division of a business generates greater profitability, you want that person to be rewarded for it. I'd say the same thing with respect to the states that from the federal government. If you're saving the federal government the money, you also, as a state should participate in a greater portion of those savings. So that'll be Something that I'm definitely gonna work on when I'm governor. And I'm confident that with a friendly administration we'll be able to deliver common sense solutions. The other issue, Ben, is just human nature. I mean, at the end of the day, if someone's grown dependent on the federal welfare state, most politicians are afraid to touch that. And the reality is that goes for if we're calling a spade a spade, Republicans and Democrats alike, Democrats have been worse in this respect, but a lot of Republicans prefer to talk about or change the subject to other issues. And at some point, as a country, we're gonna have to reckon with this. We've got a $37 trillion national debt and growing our children. Their generation are not gonna be able to sustain the brunt of this level of federal spending. And you look at how the creep scope, the scope creep of these programs from welfare to SNAP to Medicaid, often now finding their way to individuals who were never intended to be the beneficiaries of those programs. That's not only bad for the federal budget, not only bad for state budgets, it's in the long run also bad for the very people who are supposedly the recipients of those dollars. That's what's driving an epidemic of purposelessness, of depression, anxiety, a loss of meaning when you ultimately aren't working and are permanently dependent on Uncle Sam. That actually reduces your own sense of agency too. And this should be something that conservatives are concerned with. Conservatives are talking about. And I think it's really important that we restore a direction in the Republican Party and in the conservative movement that confronts these issues head on, rather than changing the topic to pandering about how we're gonna create a different kind of nanny state. I don't want that. And so I'm hoping that this is a message that will not only help save Ohio from a lot of this waste, fraud and abuse, but we use the waste, fraud and abuse as a jumping off point to say that we're also gonna focus on empowerment. How do we put that money back in your pocket in the form of lower property taxes, lower income taxes, lower capital gains taxes that attract higher paying jobs to our state, that ensure more of our young people graduating from high schools and from universities then can get those high paying jobs so they don't have to be dependent on SNAP or welfare or Medicaid. That's the way we should be building our country back. And I think we will be in Ohio. We're gonna set an example. And that is why I'm in this. I know, we can get this done. It does take somebody who understands how this stuff works, understands how incentives work, understand how to manage a bureaucracy. One of the things I learned while running a business, Ben, is oftentimes if the right person is not a good fit for the job, you gotta make that decision and remove them from that job. And a lot of people who run these government bureaucracies are reluctant to do that. President Trump's pretty good at it. I like that about him. And it's the way I'm gonna lead Ohio is if you have people who are running these massive bureaucracies underneath them who are not willing to take action, we're gonna remove them from their jobs and put in place people who are willing to do the job that the public hires them to do. And most basic step to the point of what we're talking about today starts with prosecuting the obvious waste, fraud and abuse that belongs. The dollars that are being built belong in the pockets of actual law abiding Ohioans. And that's what I'm going to deliver.

[Ben Shapiro]

Well, that is Vivek Ramaswamy. He, of course, is running for governor of Ohio. The Primary is today, May 5, to make sure that if you're voting in Ohio, you go out and vote for him. He's running a very brave race, by the way. He's taking on a lot of these sort of grievance party politics that we've talked about a lot on the show. Vivek wanted to ask you about that. You know, the fact is that you have delved into areas that a lot of politicians have feared to delve into. You have called out the sort of horseshoe right and the. And the left for undercutting Americanism, for undercutting American exceptionalism. That, that's a risky business. I mean, because the fact is that obviously you're running in a competitive primary. You're also running in a very competitive state. I mean, the Ohio governor's race is not a runaway race for Republicans in this election cycle. You know, what effect do you think that the sort of grievance party is gonna have on our politics going forward if it isn't. If it isn't stopped?

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

Well, look, I'd encourage you to take a look at the Ohio primary results tonight or tomorrow morning, Ben, and tell your audience about it when they're out. I'm actually really curious as well, because if you look at the person who's running against me in this race, it's a guy who put up a YouTube video saying that he was worried that AI was not highlighting enough of the good qualities of Hitler. He claims that I can't be the governor of Ohio because I'm an Indian, not an American, despite the fact that I'm born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I'm raising my kids in Ohio. It's an embodiment of what the Twitter lab creates in the real world. And it's frankly disappointing. A lot of the policies sound socialist, just like my other opponent. And the Democrat race is also a socialist opponent I'm gonna face. And so I oppose that form of grievance driven identitarian socialism, whether it emerges on the left, for example, in the candidate who I'm running against in the general election, or whether it emerges on the so called right. And I can't even call it the right because it's not really conservative at all, but the so called right, which is what my primary election has been defined by. So to your question about what impact is this going to have on the politics of the future? I think that's where my primary will be pretty telling to be able to say, okay, I told you, historically, the Republican front runner, the person who wins the primary, gets between 35 and 50% of the vote in competitive Republican primaries in Ohio. You know, let's see how I do. And I think that that will be a leading indicator of where the future direction of the actual voter base is for the Republican Party, which may or may not be. I think it probably is gonna be very different from the loudest voices you hear on some, you know, sick corner of the Internet. So we'll see. But for me, I think that the reason I'm doing it is if I was entering politics as a career, right, my way of collecting a paycheck and securing a comfortable life for my family, I wouldn't be doing any of that. Of course, it's not exactly what a standard political playbook would tell you is the talking points you're supposed to bring to a campaign these days. If it were, you'd see other Republicans doing it, and they're not. So that's the reality. But I'm not in this for that reason. I would rather, I really am committed to winning this election, but if I had to choose, I would rather speak the truth and convey my beliefs and lose an election rather than to win by saying some fake can talking point. And I think we're gonna win by actually speaking the truth. But that's what I'm committed to. My parents came to this country half a century ago with nothing to their name. My dad worked for a five figure salary at GE in Evendale, Ohio for almost his entire career. My mom took care of nursing home patients and worked at the VA in Cincinnati as a psychiatrist. They couldn't afford private schools. I went to public schools through eighth grade. They saved up. I was able to go to a Catholic private high school. Now I've founded multi billion dollar companies. I mean two different. One is Royvind. It's a 20 plus billion dollar business. Listed on the NASDAQ chapter is a multi billion dollar fast growing company, both of which I founded. One I led as a CEO, several others as well. My opponent, my Democratic opponent daily accuses me of being a billionaire. It's probably one of the few true things that she says, but I wasn't born a billionaire. I wasn't born a millionaire. I wasn't born in anything heir. I was born an heir to nothing, actually, literally. But what I love and what I'm so grateful to is a country that allowed me to achieve those things. And God willing, being in a position to lead the state where I was born and raised, that story is only possible in the United States of America. And I am so grateful to this state and to this country for giving me those opportunities that I feel a moral duty to revive that American dream where we teach our kids that number one factor that determines what you achieve in life is you. That was the lesson of my upbringing. It's not the billionaires, it's not the white people, it's not the black people, it's not the patriarchy, it's not the Jews, it's not the foreigners. It's none of those things. It is you. That's what the American dream is built on. That's what I'm running this campaign on. It's a tough message at times to deliver. It's not one that lands well on everyone's ears. But at a certain level, I don't care. That's the truth. And that's what I'm gonna give you. And I'm gonna give it to you because I'm grateful to this country. And I think that is what is gonna be required to save this country. And you know, I think the red team, blue team stuff, it's fine. You know, it's the way partisan politics works. But I think that there's a deeper project we're gonna have to undertake in this country to revive the spirit of that American dream from a culture of victimhood, from the popularity of socialism in the many avatars in which it shows up today. That's hard work ahead and I believe biased, obviously. But I believe that my winning this election in Ohio will help us take a step forward as a country, as the former Rust Belt, as a state in the direction of economic empowerment, in the direction of educational achievement, in the direction of, dare I say, reviving that American dream that people like you and me have lived in this country. And if we do that in one little state in the heart of the country, happens to be the sixth or seventh largest state in our economy, I think it'll be a good step for our country. And I'm working on it every day.

[Ben Shapiro]

You can go check out Vivek's campaign. Vivek4ohio.com Vivek Ramaswamy, thanks so much for taking the time. Really appreciate it.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

Good to see you, man.

[Ben Shapiro]

And again, that is a very fraught seat, the governor's seat in Ohio. That's a very close election. The Kalshee odds over there Again, Kalshee is one of our sponsors in the Ohio governor's race. It's basically 50, 50. That is a toss up seat, seat for the Ohio governor's race. And so backing Vivek would be a strong move in favor of Republican governance, obviously in a state that has gone red but used to be a lot more purple. And meanwhile, the permission structures for violence that have been fomented by the left continue apace. According to Politico on Monday, an episode unfolded in the late afternoon when plainclothes officers determined that a person had a gun apparently near the White House. The man exchanged fire with officers while trying to flee the area. According to the deputy director of the Secret Service, a weapon was recovered from the man. Unclear what the intentions were. Apparently the vice president's motorcade drove through the area not long before the shooting occurred. This is obviously scary stuff. We are seeing increasing threats to politicians. And again, the glorification of acts of violence is a huge part of the problem. We talked about permission structures for violence that have been created, ideologies that suggest you must do violence in order to save the country from fascism. Well, now it turns out that those gigantic fires in Los Angeles, the catastrophic Palisades fire, were allegedly set by one person named Jonathan Rinderknecht, who was apparently obsessed, according to the New York Post, with the accused healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione. He had routinely searched free Luigi, and let's take down all the billionaires online. So he did. Billions of dollars in damage, destroyed people's lives, all based on the idea that violence against people who are rich is Somehow good. Apparently this person, the alleged arsonist, was an Uber driver, and he ranted to customers about Luigi Mangione's arrest. According to prosecutors, many of the defendant's Uber passengers on December 31, 2024 and January 1, 2025 described the defendant as angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being pissed off at the world and Luigi Mangione. Capitalism and vigilantism, anti capitalism, anti institutionalism. These have consequences. And when you celebrate people who do violence, this is what you end up with. Incredibly enough, the left refuses to stop doing this. Like, legitimately refuses to stop doing this. So Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, he was campaigning with Bernie Sanders, and he's out there once again claiming that they're fighting fascism. If you keep saying that your opponents are fascists without evidence, you are contributing to a permission structure for violence. That's what this is. Here is the Minnesota Attorney General.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

Is anybody. Is anybody here to fight fascism? I'm here to fight fascism. I am here to fight. Write me some fascism with you. All right? Because fascism, I ain't got no use for it at all. It's really, really getting on my nerves right up in here.

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, obviously the way that you fight fascism in a fascist country is that you have free speech to go and call it fascism. That's obviously what's going on. But again, this is part and parcel of a left wing permission structure that says that political opposition is somehow an aspect of evil. And the beautiful thing about this is that once you decide that your generalized political opposition is in fact the fonthead of all evil, well, then that excuses pretty much anything. It excuses anything. So the Minnesota. The Michigan Senate candidate for the Democratic Party. The likely Senate candidate is a man named Abdul El Sayed. We've talked about him before. He is a terrorist supporter. He's a person who said that he would not come out in favor of the killing of Ayatollah Khomeini because too many of his constituents liked Ayatollah Khomeini. Well, he's out there, of course. Of course. He had campaigned with Hasan biker, and he says that it's totally fine to campaign with Hasan Piker because his opponents support genocide, which is a total lie. Again, it's actually a double lie. First of all, Israel did not commit a genocide in Gaza. The population of Gaza has increased since the beginning of the war, which is the most unsuccessful genocide in human history, if that is the case. And second of all, it is a lie that anyone has called for a genocide. But of course, it's all a permission structure to support people who are truly terrible, like the Hasan pikers of the world.

[Abdul El Sayed]

If you are more frustrated by the idea that I would campaign with Hasan piker than you are frustrated by the idea that we have backstopped a genocide or that we continue to rob people of getting basic health care in their. In their country, I think you don't understand morals. To me, morals are about big things. People should have healthcare. We shouldn't kill children. Those are, to me, morals. And you need to be able to figure out how to do those things in the world. Sometimes working with people who don't share your morals and, like, that's what makes politics hard. But it's not complicated.

[Ben Shapiro]

What, again, anything can be justified through this matrix. Anything. And of course, so can every conspiracy. So. So Midas Touch is a newly popular left wing show, and one of the hosts is now suggesting that President Trump is constructing a ballroom in order to stage a military coup. What in the world? What in what? In the end, what?

[Luke Rosiak]

Huh?

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay.

[Midas Touch Host]

There is a fear that he ain't leaving. And that is something to be taken very seriously because it, you know, it almost sounds humorous that he wouldn't, but he will. And he's. He said in a rally speech, I'll never forget it, that his greatest regret was leaving the White House in 2021. And he should have just, you know, hunkered down. He's building an additional 100,000 square feet to give him the opportunity to hunker down, this time with a military installation below this giant ballroom that will clearly never be used for balls. Do you worry, as some of us do, that there is a coup that is on its way?

[Ben Shapiro]

The ballroom will be Hitler's bunker. Is that. That's the basic idea here, But. But of course, then they decry all violence. You say that the President is a fascist. You say that you're willing to campaign with people who openly support terrorism because the Republicans are so terrible. And all the rest of this truly amazing stuff, amazing stuff from the left, which is, of course, another justificatory structure for how they can back people like Graham Platner, the main Senate candidate. So Platner, of course, is the guy with the Totenkopf tattoo, meaning, like an SS tattoo on his chest, which doesn't happen by accident. You don't just wake up one morning with a death's head tattoo on your chest, a giant one, by the way. People generally know why they get the tattoos they got. Also, he has appeared on the podcast of neo Nazis like Stu Peters and all the rest. So, you know, he's kind of a bad person, Graham Platner. But the entire Democratic Party is, is now mobilizing behind him because obviously, if you want to beat the evil, evil Republicans, you have to side with people like Graham Platner. Jon Favreau at the POD Save America crew, he put out a tweet saying, Graham Platner isn't just our best and only chance to beat Susan Collins. He's a good, decent man who struggled and grown and is always trying to do better. He has struggled. You might call all of this my struggle. You might. You might in fact suggest that he's suffering through main Kampf. But again, this is just insane. I'm sorry. The. The fact that the left is willing to side with legitimately, anyone, anyone, for any purpose, to quote, unquote, stop the fascist right. This is how you end up where we are right now. And the temperature is really, really high. I mean, so high that even ridiculous things are now becoming significantly more serious. So let's talk about a ridiculous thing. The Met Gala is one of the most ridiculous things in America. It's truly ridiculous. The Met Gala is a charity event for the Metropolitan Museum, particularly. They have a costume museum. Jeff Bezos sponsored it this year, dropped out $10 million so that he could be a co host of, of the Met Gala. And it's always ridiculous and stupid. It is very, very wealthy people who dress up in absurd outfits while decrying their own wealth. So it really is incredibly, incredibly dumb. But now, in the last few years, we've had people keep trying to invade the Met Gala as though they're storming the Bastille in 1789, as though if they tackle Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala or something, they're overthrowing the system. So we're now cosplaying the revolution on pretty much all sides. So one of the things that happened over at the Met Gala last night was a protester attempting to enter the Met Gala. The cops had to tackle him. Here's what that looked like. You see somebody trying to. To get in and the cops charging the guy. Well, things are going well over in New York. Meanwhile, apparently, some Met Gala protesters decided to place hundreds of bottles of pee inside the museum in order to protest. Jeff Bezos. The good news is that the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they probably consider that a form of art. So you could just stack those bottles of pee and call it an art display, probably, and it would do fine. But the fact that they are very, very Angry at Jeff Bezos for dropping $10 million to sponsor the thing is pretty astonishing. In a statement accompanying the latest stunt, the activist collective, it's called Everyone Hates Elon, an anti billionaire group funded by roughly a thousand donors worldwide, they said, quote, Amazon founder and oligarch Jeff Bezos just finished his Met Gala pre party at his penthouse and is getting ready for the big night. We couldn't let him get away with using celebrity and fashion to hide his crimes. We're exposing them instead. What are Jeff Bezos's crimes? Other than being able to bring people products and services at an incredibly cheap price in extraordinarily mobile fashion? What are. What are the crimes? Well, the crime is being rich. That is the crime. Again, cosplaying the Marxist revolution in New York City. So commie messages were actually projected onto Bezos's New York City apartment. Here's what that looked like.

[Met Gala Protester]

Shame on you, Jeff Bezos. The people that need to be being celebrated at the Met Gala, other workers, people like me. We deserve that celebration. We deserve so much more than we're getting. There's power in numbers, and there's more of us than there are of you. Remember, Jeff, ordinary people like myself that help make you billionaires. If we built it, we can tear it down. Think about that tonight, okay? After that bottle of champagne when you go to bed. We're going to keep growing and we're going to keep building and we're going to keep processing, and we're going to keep marching and we're going to keep fighting this dystopian culture. We're not stopping. We're just getting cranked up. Enjoy your damn gala.

[Ben Shapiro]

Again, protesting the Met Gala, which, again, is a bunch of very rich Democrats. That's really what it is, is like Bezos may have voted Republican in the last election, I don't know. But I will say that disproportionately. Met Gala is a bunch of Hollywood Democrats with a gigantic wad of cash. It is kind of amazing that you have everyone cosplaying the revolution on all sides. My favorite outfit from the Met Gala, by the way, was there's an actress named Sarah Paulson who's worth, I believe, $12 million. And she showed up wearing this monstrosity. She was wearing a bizarre dress, but she was wearing dollar bills over her eyes because money is blinding her while wearing an expensive dress to the Met Gala. Again, these are all Democrats. These are all Democrats who are pretending that they hate the system, that they have benefited from. It really is incredible. Now, again, I do have to make fun of the cultural aspect of this because every year the outfits of the Met gala are increasingly bizarre and stupid. Sam Smith, who used to be just a gay man and has now decided that he is a non binary fat gay man. I guess he showed up dressed as fat gay maleficent. So that was exciting. Here. That's an outfit. Listen, I'll admit, I'll admit the ostentatious display of obnoxious wealth from some of the world's most useless people here is enough to turn anybody into a communist. Not because communism is good, but because this stuff is ridiculous. It is ridiculous, but it is also not an aspect of capitalism per se. It's an aspect of decadence. That's a different thing. Meanwhile, a trans Tony Award winning producer named Jordan Roth showed up wearing a creepy sculpture, wearing like a creepy mannequin over his shoulder while he was dressed as a woman. So, oh, man, I don't even know what's going on. Lena Dunham showed up as a character from Stranger Things who has apparently flayed from the inside out by the Mind Flayer. I don't know what happened to this dress. That's, that's, that's, that's some scary stuff happening right there. Yeah, kind of gruesome. I think my favorite outfit, honestly, was Katy Perry. Katy Perry showed up wearing an outfit that was basically a peekaboo mask. When I say that, I mean she is literally wearing a door on her face that opens and shuts. I just can imagine how excited Justin Trudeau is about that, because any two year old would find that amusing. So Justin Trudeau, probably every time she closes that door, Justin Trudeau's like, where did she go? Where did she go? And then she opens, oh, my God, Katy Perry's back. Which is really. That must be exciting for him. Or maybe when she gets annoying, he just closes the door. He just slowly closes the door on her face. Beyonce showed up wearing an outfit from the Day of the Dead celebration in Coco. That's an interesting outfit there from Beyonce. Yeah, that's a lot. Teyana Taylor showed up dressed as a common door dog. I'm not sure what this was here. She looks as though she's straight from 101 Dalmatians. And Cardi B, I think, had probably the worst outfit. She apparently has been plagued by massive tumors on her feet and on her shoulders, which is. That's what that dress looks like. Sad stuff happening. Bad Bunny showed up dressed as Joe Biden. I wish. I mean, he aged himself like 40 years and showed up dressed as an old man. Yeah. Again, ostentatious displays of wealth are not likely to make capitalism popular. But let's just remember, every single person who is doing this is preaching on behalf of anti capitalism. They preach about the decadence of capitalism as they participate in it and foment it. Okay. Meanwhile, in more serious news, obviously it appears that some sort of action may be imminent in Iran. President Trump announced yesterday that the United States will guide non sanctioned ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Is an amazing move by the President. He says countries from all over the world, almost all of which are not involved in the Middle Eastern dispute going on so visibly and violently for all to see, have asked the United States if we could help free up their ships, which are locked up in the Strait of Hormuz on something which they have absolutely nothing to do with. They're merely neutral and innocent bystanders. For the good of Iran, the Middle east, and the United States. We've told these countries we'll guide their ships safely out of these restricted waterways so they can freely and ably get on with their business. So what does that mean? Well, Pete Hexath, the Secretary of Defense, he announced today, this morning that Iran cannot block international waterways indiscriminately. Here is what the Secretary of Defense had to say.

[Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth]

American forces won't need to enter Iranian waters or airspace. It's not necessary. We're not looking for a fight. But Iran also cannot be allowed to block innocent countries and their goods from an international waterway. Iran is the clear aggressor, harassing civilian vessels, threatening mariners from every nation indiscriminately and weaponizing a critical choke point for its own financial benefit, or at least trying to.

[Ben Shapiro]

Well, over the course of the last 24 hours, the United States did help guide a tanker through the strait, a very large Maersk tanker through the strait. They're also trying to change the incentive structure so that more tankers are willing to go get insurance and then ship through the strait. Hegseth announced that Iran had been embarrassed by the fact that we are now opening up some lanes. Basically, if you think of the Strait of Hormuz is a freeway, there are certain lanes that are further from Iran. Those lanes are now open, and the United States is making sure that they remain open.

[Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth]

Two US Commercial ships, along with American destroyers have already safely transited the strait, showing the lane is clear. We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact. They said they control the strait. They do not.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

Lot.

[Ben Shapiro]

Well, this is a major problem For Iran, their number one piece of leverage here was closing the Strait of Hormuz. They basically have two pieces of leverage left. One is to try and blow up all the oil supplies in surrounding countries, and the other is the Strait of Hormuz. And if the Strait of Hormuz is reopened and the only stuff that can't get in or out is Iranian, they have a massive, massive problem. They can't project power. They don't have a. A working economy. President Trump announced yesterday that Iran was taking shots at ships. It is a desperation play at this point that they are taking shots at ships. The President says Iran has taken some shots at unrelated nations with respect to ship movement, Project Freedom, including a South Korean cargo ship. Perhaps it's time for South Korea to come and join the mission. We've shot down seven small boats, or as they like to call them, fast boats. It's all they have left other than the South Korean ship. There has been, at this moment, no damage going through the strait. The CENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper detailed the nature of the Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. Here's what it sounded like.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

The cruise missiles were going after both US Navy ships, but mostly after commercial shipping. We defended both ourselves and consistent with our commitment, we defended all the commercial ships. We've had drone launches against commercial ships, all of which were defended against, consistent with our commitment. And then the small boats were all going against commercial ships and all were sunk by Apaches and Seahawk helicopters.

[Ben Shapiro]

So, again, this is a massive move, the United States reopening the strait and ensuring that shipping can move through at the same time that Iran cannot get its stuff out is disastrous for the economy of Iran. This is why Iran has now been attacking uae. I mean, this ceasefire is not a ceasefire from the Iranian side. They have not ceased fire. According to the Wall street journal, the UAE's defense ministry said late on Monday it intercepted 12 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones launched from Iran. Again, sort of a warning shot. What Iran is mostly worried about at this point is that the United States permanently degrades its capacity for economic recovery. The easiest move for the United States to make right now would be to just blow up Harg Island. Harg Island. You could do an amphibious operation there. It's a lot riskier. Or you could just blow it up. And that means that Iran has no refinery capacity, and that means their economy is basically sunk junk for the foreseeable future, which means the regime has no money to pay its own people. Now, it seems that the Trump administration would like to give Iran one final opportunity before that happens. That's what this chokehold is on Iranian resources moving in and out. President Trump says it's only a matter of time before their resources run dry before they have to turn off their wells. Here's President Trump talking to Hugh Hewitt.

[President Donald Trump]

They have a problem coming up because they have. It's a very explosive situation in a lot of different ways. You know, their oil, when you turn off the oil underground and the mechanical, too, but underground has a tendency in like, almost 100% of the cases to literally explode and just destroy everything around it. And you can never get that oil again. In other words, you can get back 30 to 40%, but it could never be like it is right now. It does tremendous damage to the oil system. System in a country if that happens.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

Now, Mr. President, last time you were

[President Donald Trump]

on, they've run out of areas for storage.

[Met Gala Protester]

Oh, yeah.

[President Donald Trump]

They say that in two weeks. You know, when they talk about time, in two weeks, they're going to have a natural explosion of their oil that's going to make it impossible for them to really recover from.

[Ben Shapiro]

The president is not wrong about any of this. And Ron knows the time is running short for them, and that is why they are getting increasingly aggressive. Now, again, the United States has a lot of steps that we can take. We're a lot of things that we can do. We could blow up Harg Island. We could hit other energy resources inside the country. We could take down another layer of the irgc. We'll probably have to do at some point another kinetic action against missile facilities that have been uncovered over the course of the last few weeks. Iran has been digging out these missile launchers from underground, which actually is not very good for them. But anybody who believes at this point that Iran is winning this war is missing the boat. I mean, totally missing the boat vote. By the way, about three quarters of Americans, according to a Harvard Harris poll that just came out, believe that Iran is losing the war. So despite all of the bad information coming out online, Americans are not stupid and they are not missing the story. Alrighty, folks, time for a thing that I like or maybe don't like. I haven't seen this yet. So my. My producers have brought out the new trailer for the Odyssey. As you all know, I'm a massive fanboy of Christopher Nolan. So let's watch this together and we'll see what I think.

[Interviewer/Interlocutor with Cordoba Employee]

Tell me what you remember.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

A wife, A son. And then what? We won the war. Help me go home.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, so far, so good.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

This is a household waiting for master. I want you to choose.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah, the cast is great. It is. King is coming back.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

No, he's not.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, there's the Cyclops.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

What would he do? He came back here to find all these suitors in his house. You're pining for a daddy you didn't even know. Like some sniffling bastard who's looking after your wife and son.

[Ben Shapiro]

Do you see Daddy, David and Robert pat me and your friend. I guess people were pissed a bit that he said Dan had there, right? Yeah. So I know a lot of people are upset about the casting of Helen of Troy. I'm not upset about this. These are all mythical characters.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

I need everyone in this party dead also.

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, let's be clear. Everybody would have looked very, very Greek. Nobody would have looked like a. Like a Nordic person. That's a. Not a Greek extraction. You cannot control this, okay?

[Met Gala Protester]

That world is gone.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

No one could stand between me.

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, I'm gonna watch the hell out of this. I don't understand the problem. He used the word dad. That's what we're supposed to be pissed about.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

I don't even have the guy.

[Ben Shapiro]

I mean, this looks great. I don't understand. Again, maybe, again, I. I'm. I will admit Tenet is not a good movie. That is the only Christopher Nolan movie. I Will Admit is not a good movie. All the other ones are range from great to some of the best movies ever made. And so I'm watching this and I understand that there are some people again, like, wow, it's too colloquial. He said daddy and dad in the trailer. That's terrible. Okay, can I just be clear about this? Every single language has some sort of diminutive for father.

[Vivek Ramaswamy]

Okay?

[Ben Shapiro]

Every single one. What do you call your father? You call him father? Probably not. You probably call him dad. And so I promise you that way back when, people were using a diminutive when they were talking about their fathers also because that's normal. Okay, so, yeah, that looks great. Everybody is whiny. Stop complaining. You have an original filmmaker making one of the greatest stories in human history with a huge budget. You should just be happy that it's going to hit your screens this year. I am. Alrighty. Coming up, we're going to jump into the mailbag and take some of your questions. Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member. If you are not one, become a member. Use code Shapiro. Check out for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.