Ep. 2431 - Billionaires Aren't The Problem

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ben Shapiro Show – Ep. 2431 "Billionaires Aren't the Problem"

Host: Ben Shapiro (The Daily Wire)
Date: May 21, 2026

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Overview

This episode centers on the defense of free markets, private property, and the social role of billionaires in America. Ben Shapiro responds to recent cultural and political narratives targeting wealth, big tech, and economic success, using Jeff Bezos's recent CNBC interview as a springboard to discuss broader economic misconceptions, populist attacks on billionaires, and the potential harms of anti-innovation rhetoric from both the left and the so-called ‘woke right.’ Shapiro also addresses related issues like AI, progressive tax policy, and escalating extremism in the Democratic Party, culminating in brief commentary on foreign policy news.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Defending Billionaires & Free Markets

• Opening Statement: Shapiro makes it clear he’s about to challenge prevailing anti-billionaire, anti-capitalist sentiments and isn’t concerned about the backlash.

  “It is good to make more money by providing people better goods and services. It is good to be fiscally responsible... But a lot of Americans are being lied to these days.” (00:20)

• On Common Sense Economics: He urges listeners to focus on increasing income, lowering expenses, and supporting systems that incentivize innovation rather than narratives of victimhood.

  “All three of those things rely on free markets and common sense.” (02:23)

• Polling Data: Shapiro references a New York Times/Siena poll showing that only 11% of Americans see the system as “fair.” He argues this reveals emotional dissatisfaction is being mischaracterized as systemic injustice.

  “Unfair is just a substitute for ‘I don't feel good about things’ because this is human nature.” (03:50)

2. Highlighting Jeff Bezos’s CNBC Interview

• Bezos’s Defense of Billionaires: Bezos claims politicians deliberately vilify the wealthy for political gain rather than addressing root causes of economic struggle.

  “You have to figure out real root causes and solutions. And that takes skill.” – Jeff Bezos (06:33)

• Shapiro Analysis: Shapiro agrees, adding that attacking billionaires is a political shortcut that ignores how wealth is actually produced and distributed.

  “Poverty is the natural state of all mankind. The question is not why there are poor people and rich people. The question is why even the poor people in the United States are, by any historical marker, very, very rich.” (07:31)

• On Taxes:

  “You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not going to help that teacher in Queens, I promise you.” – Jeff Bezos (08:19)
  Shapiro underscores that redistribution alone doesn't address systemic problems.

• Business vs. Charity:

  “If I do my job right, right. The value to society and civilization from my for-profit companies will be much, much larger than the, than the good that I do with my charitable giving.” – Jeff Bezos (09:37)
  Shapiro: “Amazon employs 1.5 million people ... companies contributing via commerce often have far greater impact than any charity.”

3. Economic Growth: Fixed Pie Fallacy

• Bezos’s Explanation:

  “They think ... there are eight slices. Who's going to get two slices? That is not how economies work. So it isn't a fixed pie. It grows.” – Jeff Bezos (10:27)

• Shapiro: Basic economics confirms that innovation grows the pie, countering the “zero-sum” thinking of many redistributionist arguments. (10:54)

4. Technology, AI, and Luddite Fears

• AI Panic: Both Bezos and Shapiro push back against apocalyptic claims that AI will destroy jobs, arguing that innovation reshapes but doesn’t eliminate prosperity.

  “What's really going to happen is that it's going to elevate all of these people.” – Jeff Bezos on AI and jobs (12:57) “Every time you mentioned AI, they were booing because I think they're deeply fearful...” (12:45)

• Tech Investment Cycles: Bezos discusses normal tech bubbles and their positive effects.

  “So from a point of view of civilization, of society, these kind of industrial cycles ... can actually be very healthy because they drive the technology forward.” – Jeff Bezos (13:47)

5. Populist Attacks on Economic Advice & Financial Literacy

• Kevin O’Leary Controversy:

  “If you earn $70,000 a year, you should not be having lunch for 28 bucks a day. That's just stupid.” – Recap of Kevin O’Leary (16:20)

• Shapiro highlights how even basic financial advice invites public outrage in the current environment; he relates this to his own past statements about financial prudence and geographic mobility.

6. Misleading Billionaire Criticism (Fran Leibowitz, “Robber Barons” Argument)

• Leibowitz Claim: Modern finance billionaires “employ no one.”
• Shapiro’s Counter: Tech magnates currently employ millions directly and indirectly via platforms and investments.

  “Amazon directly employs 1.6 million people globally ... Elon Musk’s global workforce is 150,000 people.” (18:28)

7. Progressive Taxation and Reality Checks

• Shapiro dissects the reality of US tax policy, noting that most federal tax is paid by the wealthy. He argues that calls for “EU-style” social benefits ignore the burden such systems place on every income bracket.

  “If you want a Denmark style social welfare system, we need to tax like Denmark.” (36:23)

8. Democratic Party, Left Populism, and Extremism

• Democratic Drift Left: Shapiro cites polling showing that most voters want more centrist policies, but the party is embracing its more radical elements (Graham Platner, Maureen Galindo, etc.).
• Highlighting Extremist Rhetoric: Shapiro condemns anti-Israel, anti-billionaire, and anti-Semitic messaging from Democratic figures, warning of a mainstreaming of radicalism.

  “Your new Democratic party is the AOCs of the world. The supposed moderate Democratic Party is being wiped out in real time.” (52:37)

9. Foreign Policy: Cuba and Venezuela

• Brief mention of the indictment of Raul Castro and debates about the efficacy and morality of US-led regime change.

  “My great fear is that the United States keeps on bringing countries to the brink of regime change and then leaving them there.” (55:02)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Envy as Political Platform:

“It turns out that violation of the 10th Commandment is a very popular political agenda, that envy is a popular political agenda.” – Ben Shapiro (41:35)

On the Futility of Surrender & Appeasement:

“Surrendering to people who hate free markets and hate capitalism is not going to save you. ... Trying to feed the alligator in the hope that it eats you last is stupid policy.” – Ben Shapiro (32:40)

On Attacks Against Innovation:

“Are we supposed to pay more money to subsidize industries being technologically advanced? ... The best way to attack that is to attack the people who get rich off of doing those things.” – Ben Shapiro (25:02)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Opening Rant—Defending Free Markets: 00:00–03:50
• NYT Poll on Economic Fairness: 03:50–05:20
• Jeff Bezos on Politicians Vilifying the Wealthy: 05:27–06:58
• Bezos on Taxes & Housing Costs: 08:02–08:58
• Bezos on Business vs. Charity: 09:37–10:27
• Zero-Sum Fallacy Explained: 10:27–10:54
• AI, Technology, Job Loss Debate: 12:57–14:41
• Kevin O’Leary Lunch Advice Backlash: 16:20–17:30
• Fran Leibowitz & Robber Barons Critique: 18:28–19:55
• Bernie Sanders—Automation & AI Criticisms: 24:07–27:16
• Tax Progressivity Comparison (US vs. Europe): 36:23–38:30
• Democratic Party Drift Left; Polling Data: 42:58–44:35
• Foreign Policy: Raul Castro Indictment: 53:20–56:37

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Conclusion & Flow

Shapiro’s tone is direct, combative, and fast-paced, blending sarcasm with rapid-fire economic data and historical analogies. He repeatedly insists that attacking wealthy innovators harms the country’s prosperity, while capitulating to anti-market rhetoric fails. The episode is a spirited defense of capitalist principles, a critique of economic populism on both left and right, and a warning about rising political extremism.

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Summary Note:
This episode is rich in citation, counter-argument, and cultural critique, making the case that vilifying billionaires and undermining private enterprise will hinder, not help, American progress. For those not listening, it offers a clear window into contemporary conservative economic arguments and anxieties about America’s political and cultural direction.

Transcript

[Ben Shapiro]

Alrighty folks, it's time to say a bunch of stuff that's going to get me in trouble in the two online sphere right now. People on the left who live in mansions who hate capitalism, and also people on the woke, right, the new left, who also live in mansions who also hate capitalism, but like to pretend that they like capitalism. They're going to be ticked. So screw it. Here we go. Today I'm going to defend private property and free markets and basic common sense because these are the things that that allow you to succeed economically in life. It is good to make more money by providing people better goods and services. It is good to be fiscally responsible. It is good to make smart decisions about your money. And most Americans know all that stuff. But a lot of Americans are being lied to these days. They're being told a bunch of junk that makes their lives actively, worse and increasingly, particularly if they are young and too online Americans believe those things. So get ready to Today I'm gonna say a bunch of stuff that's gonna off the left and the woke right as per our usual arrangement. They're gonna get pissed when I say you shouldn't spend too much money eating at a restaurant if you're unable to pay your rent. They'll say that I'm saying that because I don't care about people. You see, it's better to be poorer and also keep eating at Wolfgang Steakhouse. And they will get pissed when I say that Amazon makes your life better and cheaper. They'll say it's better to yell at Amazon and try to shut down their business and tax them more because Jeff Bezos is bald and rich and has a yacht or some such. And they'll get pissed when I say that billionaires aren't inherently bad because they're billionaires. That actually immoral people are bad and that moral people are good and that your tax returns have nothing at all to do with any of that. That billionaires are typically billionaires, not because they are stealing from the poor. Spoiler alert. The poor don't have much money. That's why they're poor. But actually they're billionaires because they make a lot of people's lives better. Better products, better services for cheaper, which is good for you. So get ready. Here comes the blowback. It comes every time I talk about this stuff. Remember that time I said people who can't afford to live in New York City, young people might think about moving if policies don't change because it's more productive to search outside of New York city and find some success than to sit there in your expensive apartment with your two roommates in pizza rat. And people got super duper mad. Remember that time I said that Social Security needs to kick in later in life, especially for people who are 40 and under today because people are now living 20 years longer than Social Security kicks in and that's really expensive and it's bankrupting the country. And also that when you hit retirement age, sure you can retire, especially if you're working a back breaking job, but also you should continue to do productive things in your community because it's good for you on both a mental and spiritual level. And people also got super mad. Well, here's the thing. I don't really give a crap about how people feel about reality. And here is the reality. The only way your life gets more affordable is one, if you make more money, two, your expenses get lower and three, generally products and services get more plentiful and better and cheaper. All three of those things rely on free markets and common sense. Why am I talking about that stuff? Well, because Jeff Bezos is making the rounds. Now listen, I disagree with a lot of stuff that Jeff Bezos believes and says, but he's getting ripped up today because he had the temerity to defend billionaires. Well, he's right. We'll get into all of it in just a moment. This is the Ben Shapiro Show. So when Americans don't feel good about the economy in general, they tend to think that things are unfair. Unfair is just a substitute for I don't feel good about things because this is human nature. It applies to our children. It applies to us. Whenever something happens that my kids don't like, it was unfair. Right? They deserved a thing and it didn't happen. Okay, it's possible for two things, as always to be true. The economy is not doing what it should be doing right now. And there are problems in the economy, regulatory problems, subsidy problems, market distortions and all the rest. But generally speaking, the economic system in this country is mostly fair. It is fair because you have property rights in this country. You have the equal rule of law in this country as opposed to the vast majority of other countries around the earth and in all of human history. Nonetheless, a new New York Times Sienna poll shows, quote, the economic system in this country is generally either unfair to most Americans or fair to most Americans. Only 11% say fair to most Americans. 88% say unfair to most Americans. And the political and economic system in America. Here are the options. Need to be torn down completely, need major Changes. Need minor changes or need no changes. 20% say need to be torn down completely. Another 63% say need major changes. Now, what kind of major changes are we talking about here? Are we talking about less government regulation? I doubt it. I really doubt it. Because again, politicians love lying to you. It is their favorite thing to do. Because the way that you win votes is by appealing to the lizard part of the brain, the part that says a bad thing happened, it's unfair, it's the systems, as opposed to a bad thing happened. Life is full of bad things. What can we do to fix it? And maybe the government is the chief obstacle to, to fixing it. And this brings us to Jeff Bezos and the campaign against Bezos and billionaires more generally and all the rest. So Bezos yesterday appeared on CNBC for a very long interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin. He said a bunch of stuff in this interview. One of the clips that is now making the rounds that people are upset about is that Bezos is now warm toward Trump 2. And the reason why he is warmer toward Trump 2 than Trump 1 is because Trump 2 is very pro tech. So here is Bezos talking with Andrew Ross Sorkin over at cnbc.

[Jeff Bezos]

I think he has, I mean, I'm comparing him to his first term and I think he is a more mature, more disciplined version of himself than he was in his first term. And you know, so he's again, I've, I've worked with all the presidents, I will work with all the presidents, you know, and I hope to do that going forward if they'll have me. But it's we, we need our business leaders to provide input into the administration regardless of who the president is.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay. Bezos then went on to point out that a lot of politicians use an age old technique which is pick a villain and the villain is typically people who earn.

[Jeff Bezos]

I think what's going on is that it's kind of a tale of two economies. So you have a bunch of people in this country who are doing really well, but you also have a bunch of people in this country who are struggling to pay rent, groceries. And so what's happening here is politicians are using the kind of age old technique. So there's this tale of two economies and they're using this age old technique of picking a villain and pointing fingers. But the problem is that doesn't solve anything. And so like if you want to help the group of people who are struggling, you have to figure out real root causes and solutions. And that takes skill.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, obviously he is right about that. Now, when he says that we are living in a tale of two economies, even there he is using left wing language that we're living in two economies. The reality is obviously the economy is interconnected. And it is also true that in the United States, until the war in Iran, wages were rising faster than costs in the United States. That's a reality. It is also true that Americans overall are richer than any human beings who have ever walked the earth in all of human history. That is also the reality. But he is right that if you are looking at the problem of poverty, for example, how do you solve poverty? The answer for most politicians is yell at the rich people and pretend the rich people got rich by causing poverty, which. Which is untrue. Poverty is the natural state of all mankind. For all of human history, everyone was poor. The question is not why there are poor people and rich people. The question is why even the poor people in the United States are, by any historical marker, very, very rich. That is the real question. Okay, so of course Bezos is getting ripped up. The idea is that Bezos somehow doesn't pay taxes. That, of course, is silly. He pays a lot of money in taxes.

[Jeff Bezos]

These people sometimes say that, you know, I don't pay taxes. So true. I pay billions of dollars in taxes. And it's a perfect. Again, if people want me to pay more billions. Right, then let's have that debate. But don't pretend, you know, that this, that that's going to solve the problem. You could. You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not going to help that teacher in Queens, I promise you. This is. So you can't connect those two things, not logically. You know, there, there are more examples. Why is rent expensive? Why is rent so expensive? I recently saw somebody blamed it on Airbnb. Okay, Airbnb is not the cost of expensive rent. In fact, it's been almost finished here. One sec. It's already been outlawed, right, In New York City, and rents are still very high. So we know Airbnb isn't causing high rents. What's really causing high rent is government intervention.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, that's the point. That's the point is government intervention is causing the unaffordability problem. It is not free markets that cause things to be less affordable. Free markets, things make that. They make things. All things that the free market engages in become cheaper and better over time because of competition. That is a reality. And companies that engage in those businesses ends up contributing more to society than charity. And one of the big lies that's told is that if Jeff Bezos gives a billion dollars to charity, that is somehow better than what Amazon does. That is not true. It is not true. Amazon employs 1.5 million people. Here is Bezos talking about the realities of business.

[Jeff Bezos]

If I do my job right, right. The value to society and civilization from my for profit companies will be much, much larger than the, than the good that I do with my charitable giving.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, again, he is right about that. And Bezos points out very obviously the economy is also not a fixed pie. The basic premise of all socialist economics is that the economy is a fixed pie. You have basically a certain number of dollars that are made every year and they need to be divided somehow and the government should decide the fairest distribution of those dollars. That is not true. As he points out, when you have economic growth, when you have productivity increases, when you have innovation, the economy gets bigger over time.

[Jeff Bezos]

There are a lot of people who don't understand this kind of zero sum fallacy, right? So you know, they think that if, if there's a bunch of wealth over here that there's a fit spy, right? You know, we've got one pizza and there are seven people and there are eight slices. Who's going to get two slices? That is not how economies work. So it isn't a fixed pie. It grows.

[Ben Shapiro]

And of course he is right about that as well. Again, basic economics. This is just reality. The fact that people rebel against reality doesn't mean they're being smart. It means they are being manipulative. Are you coming up more of Jeff Bezos talking about AI and we'll get to the left wing attacks on success. And that's what they are. They're, they are not attacks on useful things, they are attacks on actual success. First. One of the stranger financial habits people have is spending hours comparison shopping for a plane ticket that might save them 12 bucks. But then continue paying 80 to 90 bucks a month for wireless service without any question. At a certain point you have to ask why, Especially now that companies like PureTalk exist. PureTalk, which is veteran led, backed by 100% US based customer service, now offers unlimited high speed data for just 34.99amonth. That's a pretty major shift because unlimited high speed data at PureTalk used to start around 55 bucks a month. But PureTalk has continued pushing to offer more value at lower prices. So if you looked at PureTalk before and you didn't switch, it's probably worth taking another look right now. One thing people always ask is whether the service actually holds up compared to those massively overpriced major carriers. The answer is try it yourself. Pure Talk lets you test the service for 30 days with no contract and no cancellation fees. There's really very little downside to seeing whether it works out for you. And a lot of customer service now is not based in the United States and stinks. That's not true for Pure Talk. The switch itself can happen in as little as 10 minutes. And again, Pure Talks US based customer service team is standing by. Go to PureTalk.com/Shapiro claim unlimited high speed data for just 3,499. Again, that's PureTalk.com/ShapIRO to switch to my wireless company, America's wireless company. PureTalk Basis also talked about AI and how people keep saying AI is going to destroy jobs. And he says, like, stop that. It's not going to destroy jobs. It is going to be like any other technology. There will be dislocations, people will find new jobs and it will make the job that you are doing different. That's right. But the idea that AI overall is going to destroy every job, and if so, it would be different than literally every other technological innovation in all of human history. Every time you mentioned AI, they were booing because I think they're deeply fearful and worried about whether they're going to have a job.

[Jeff Bezos]

Yeah, well, and the reason they're afraid of that is because all these smart people keep saying that. So there are so many smart people and they are smart and they are saying, oh my God, you know, there are going to be no more radiologists because, you know, AI can read X rays better than a radiologist can, and there are going to be no more software engineers because AI can program better than a software engineer can. These people are wrong. So what's really going to happen is that it's going to elevate all of these people.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, so again, he is not wrong about that either. And he points out that even if there is an AI bubble in terms of investment, that's normal. When there's a new tech, a lot of people pour into the area of the tech and then the worst companies get cleaned out. This happened with cars, it happened with computers, it happens with pretty much everything.

[Jeff Bezos]

We're in a phase where every experiment is getting funded. So what that means is like the good ideas are getting funded and the bad ideas are getting funded. And it's because investors in this at this moment haven't learned yet how to discriminate between good ideas and bad ideas. And that's okay. Because the good ideas will pay for all of the losers. So from a point of. Point of view, of civilization, of society, these kind of industrial, you know, cycles, you know, are. Can actually be very healthy because they drive the technology forward.

[Ben Rhodes]

We shouldn't worry about being in a bubble.

[Jeff Bezos]

No, even if it does turn out to be a bubble, you shouldn't worry about it because the bubble is driving investment, and a lot of the investment is going to turn out to be very healthy.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, so everything that he is saying here is right. Just on a classical economics level, it happens to be right. But saying right things comes with severe consequences these days. Zoran Mamdani, who of course doesn't know his ass from his elbow on economics. He calls himself a democratic socialist, which means he's never produced a useful thing in his entire life and somehow became mayor of New York, apparently because New Yorkers have suicidal tendencies when it comes to their economic program. When he said, when Bezos said, you could double the taxes I pay, it's not going to help that teacher in Queens, I promise you. Mamdani said, I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ. On what basis would they differ? Seriously, on what basis would they differ? They would have to explain why Taxing Bezos, who takes that money and he puts it in the bank or he invests it, and then the bank now has more money to lend out at interest, which lowers the interest rates, which makes for more liquidity. And if he spends it, other people are getting jobs from his spending, and if he invests it, other people are getting jobs from the companies in which he is investing. They're going to have to explain why that is. Again, Arthur Laffer, the famous economist, he points out that if it were really true that government redistributionism created jobs, then why is it that when the government confiscation rates of wealth are 100%, there are no jobs? And the answer is, because if you kill innovation and you kill investment, you kill the jobs. But it's a very easy pitch for Zoram Hamdani to sit there being a completely useless leech on society, talking about how he's some sort of great hero. By the way, he thinks of himself as, you know, truly a great. He literally put out a picture of himself on Twitter behind a bunch of microphones next to a picture of FDR behind a bunch of microphones. Why? Because he's going to do a Twitch podcast called Talk with the People. The series will be available pretty much everywhere. Again, he's going to stream like Hasan Piker or something. Because this is what we now expect from our dumb ass politicians, not fireside chats with fdr. Dumb ass streaming with Zoran Mamdani. Well, we all look forward to his transformative take on economics. But again, what we have right now is not a rebellion truly against the malefactors of great wealth, as FDR would have put it. What we have right now is rebellion against reality. We have a rebellion against basic economics, and it's going to make everybody poorer and dumber. Another symptom of this, Kevin o', Leary, again, is an investor who you know from Shark Tank. Well, he was doing an interview and he made the critical mistake of saying that if you earn $70,000 a year, you should not be having lunch for 28 bucks a day. He said this on Diary of a CEO Stephen Bartlett. I can't stand it when I see kids that are making 70 grand a year spending $28 for lunch. I mean, that's just stupid. It's just. Think about that in the context of that being put into an index and making 8 to 10% a year for the next 50 years. Now he's getting ripped up on this. Ripped up on this. How could Kevin O' Leary say this? We need our $28 launches, okay? So you can do it. It's a free country. But he's giving basic financial advice. And we now live in the world where if you give basic financial advice, like if you can't afford to live in New York City, perhaps you should take a job elsewhere that allows you to have an upward mobility, allows you an upward economic trajectory. I got. I'm still getting ripped up by that. By the online folks, particularly on the woke. Right. Well, o' Leary said this and suddenly he was the bad guy. Can I just point out that let's say you live in New York City and let's say you make like 70 grand a year, the chances are that you are paying about 20 grand of that in taxes to the federal, state and local governments. So you have maybe 50 grand left over. If you spend $28 a day on lunch, you will be paying over 10 grand a year just for lunch. Hey, that's the point that o' Leary is making. But again, if you say things that are in line with basic, people don't like reality and they get mad at reality, especially if there are a group of people telling them they don't need to live in the world of reality. One of those people is Fran Leibowitz. I have no clue why she thinks she knows anything about economics. But she is comparing all of these billionaires to the robber barons of old. Now, first of all, the idea that the robber barons of old did not provide extraordinary wealth to the country, that in and of itself is a lie. That was a propagandistic talking point in the late 19th century, early 20th century, which is that Rockefeller and Vanderbilt were robber barons. It's the same. Nothing changes over human history really at root. And there's tremendous anger at the titans of industry who actually created modern America. But she says at least those people were great, as though she would have liked John Jay Rockefeller or something. But the people in modern finance don't employ people. They do. Here is Fran Leibowitz. Every time someone suggests this, they say, I'm moving. Go. You know, they add nothing to New York. You know, in the olden days in the 19th century, those robber barons, they employed people at least, okay? They employed thousands, hundreds of thousands of people. All this money magic employs no one. It is in no product. It has no goodbye, Go, we're moving to Florida, go. You know, we don't need you. God, she's an idiot. She's an author. She's a moron. First of all, who do you think provides all the investment capital that gets companies started? Who do you think actually is investing in all of these startups that generate the employment is Jeff Bezos, the bad guy. Amazon directly employs 1.6 million people globally. People who are using Amazon as a way of selling product. That's another 2 million jobs. Elon Musk, the big baddie here, his global workforce is 150,000 people. Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook, his meta has 70,000 employees. The notion that you kill private property and modern finance and somehow the economy gets better is absolute stupidity. But it is part and parcel of a lie that is being sold to you. That if only you hand more power to centralized government. If you hand more power to Bernie Sanders or hand more power to Tucker Carlson, or if you hand more power to people who want control over the economy, they'll bring you back to some placid agrarian past in which you can fish in the evening times and write poetry in the morning. It's just trash. It's stupid. All right, coming up, Bernie Sanders rips into Jeff Bezos and also self driving cars. Plus the United States targeting Raul Castro and much more. First. Now, time really starts to move quickly when you become a parent. Like it moves really, really fast. My three year old just became three. I mean, it feels like just yesterday he was born with another One coming. And as time moves faster, you start thinking about darker things like mortality. But this is why financial planning actually matters. Not because anybody enjoys thinking about insurance, but because once you have people who depend on you, creating a real safety net becomes part of the job. 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Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com Shapiro go to shopify.com Shapiro again shopify.com Shapiro so Bernie Sanders of course has been attacking Jeff Bezos for years and years and years. Here he was on May 1st ripping into Jeff Bezos for using robots. Because you see, robots are inherently bad. I don't understand what robots are. Are they alive? What do they do? Why are the robots moving and doing things? Where I come from we used to use marionettes. I don't know why the robots are moving all by themselves. What's happening?

[Bernie Sanders]

Mr. Bezos himself just recently is now working on creating a hundred billion dollar fund to quote unquote automate factories in America and abroad. Do you all know what automating factories means? It means ending working class people making a living in manufacturing. That's over if Bezos gets his way. So this is a revolution coming which happens to be the most consequential transformation of society in world history. We are not prepared for it. We're looking at a moment where there are driverless vehicles all over the country. And if we don't figure this one out, we're going to lose millions of decent paying jobs. Jobs in transportation.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, again, the Luddite anti tech nonsense that he is spouting. The idea that all the jobs go away. This is the same crap that was being promoted by literal Luddites back in the 19th century. People who wrecked machines because they were afraid the industrial revolution would impoverish the workers and destroy jobs. It turns out it did precisely the opposite. If Bernie Sanders had been an adult, he was around when we made the transition from the horse to the horseless carriage. But, but if he had been an adult then he would have been railing on behalf of the wheel rights. This is nonsense. It is nonsense. And this idea that we all as consumers are supposed to pay more money to subsidize industries that are being technologically advanced. Or by the way, that tens of thousands of Americans should die every year in car crashes which could be prevented by automated vehicles. I know there's this big push against automated vehicles right now. Again, it's the left. It's also the woke right. It's, it's an absurdity. Automated vehicles will make sure your parents don't die in a car crash or you, that is what they're going to do. They're going to save time and they're going to save money, and that will be a good thing. Think about the tech that you use in your life. Think about the tech that you use every single day. What was do you think your parents life was better off when they couldn't use a computer to do research, when they didn't have connections to the Internet? And what you actually had to do was go down so like a filing cabinet in the New York City Public Library to look up a basic fact and take five hours from your day to do it. It's all ridiculous. But again, this is the push. The push is that markets are bad, innovation is bad, tech is bad. And certainly the easiest way to attack innovation and tech because most people think they're good. The best way to attack that is to attack the people who get rich off of doing those things. So Bernie, here he was in March attacking the billionaires who he says are pushing AI to become richer and more powerful.

[Bernie Sanders]

A technology which in many respects will be able to do anything that a human being can do and do it better. And what people have got to ask themselves is who is pushing this revolution? And the answer is, not surprisingly, the wealthiest people in the world. Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, Mr. Ellison, Mr. Zuckerberg, why are they doing it? You think they're doing it to improve life for working people? I don't think so. They're doing it to become even richer and more powerful.

[Ben Shapiro]

It's always hilarious to me how it's as though two people like Bernie Sanders, people who are rich and powerful, they develop products and services that have no consumers. They must be forcing it on the American people, like by force. Now, what's always astonishing to me from people like Bernie or people like Azor Mandani, the only one with the gun is the government. That's the only party in this entire transaction that has the gun. The only people who can force a policy on you using actual force, that would be the government. It is Bernie who holds the gun. Not Jeff Bezos, not Elon Musk. You want to know who's driving the AI transition? People who want to use AI, business people who want to make their businesses more productive, and consumers who want their products to be more affordable. All the same, kids going to Bernie rallies are using ChatGPT to write their essays. That's the reality. Now we can ask questions about how AI is deployed. What are the best uses of AI? It's a brand new tech. We should ask Those questions. But this notion that unheeded capitalism, that it's just the evil billionaires who are somehow foisting through free market choice through you making choices, products on you, is stupid. It's also catastrophism of the highest order. And as I say, it embraces the anti capitalist left and the anti capitalist right. There's a right that also longs for an agrarian past. Senator Josh Alley of Missouri. He tends to dip into these waters from time to time. He's now claiming that 30 to 40% of college graduates may be unemployed because of AI. College graduates have been booing AI at their ceremonies this week. Whether it's reading it out or they're just booing every mention of AI.

[Jeff Bezos]

What do you make of that?

[Carlos Jimenez]

Well, I make of a. The fact that a lot of these college grads don't have jobs. You know, I was talking to a group of college grads recently, college seniors actually, and they were giving me very similar sentiments about AI. They were saying that they can't find jobs, that, you know, like 30, 40% of them are unemployed. And they blame AI for this. And, you know, I mean, they may well be right. We've got to make some choices about AI to make sure it actually is good for the American workforce. And I think a lot of these college grads don't think it will be.

[Ben Shapiro]

Who is the we? Who is the we? The politicians. The government is supposed to make choices about what's good for the economy and the workforce. Typically that doesn't end particularly well. By the way, the actual unemployment rate for recent college graduates, people aged 22 to 27, approximately 5.6%, according to Washington Post analysis of New York Federal Reserve data. Now, again, none of this means that there are no problems in the economy. It does mean that when you attack the very mechanisms for creating wealth, when you attack the tech industry, which is the future of America's economy, when you attack innovation and productivity, and when you attack the people who earn from those things, you are destroying the very fundamental basis for economic growth as a country and the pathway to prosperity for individuals in the United States. There is a reason why a lot of the sentiment is being fostered by Russians and Chinese and Iranian. They would love nothing better than to watch America cut our own Achilles tendon, economically speaking, they would love it. Love it. And now there's one thing that many of the billionaires are doing that is truly stupid, and that is. I've seen them play this game before. They basically try to surrender by parts. This is really dumb. So There is a group chat that I am in that has a bunch of billionaires in it, like a bunch of tech people, people who invest in innovation and tech. I remember a few months back they were having a conversation about a year and a half back they're having a conversation about tax rates. And they're all having conversations about what tax rates could we pay that would get people to stop criticizing us? And the answer is 100%. That is the tax rate you could pay that would get people to stop criticizing you. That's the reality. But let's just be clear. Surrendering to people who hate free markets and who hate capitalism is not going to save you. It is not going to save you. Again. There's this tendency to try to feed the anti free market alligator and hope that it eats you last. So in that interview that Bezos did with Andrew Ross Sorkin over at cnbc, he had to go out and pretend that bad economic policy is sometimes good economic policy because maybe that will buy him some love, which is dumb. It's not going to buy off anybody. And there's a reason for that. First, bad policy is bad policy. And if the bad policy you recommend doesn't work, people will be mad at you for recommending a bad policy. It's not going to alleviate people's problems, generally speaking. So to take an example, Bezos put out a statement. He said, yes, the United States has the most progressive tax system in the world. The top 1% pay 40% of taxes. The bottom 50% pay 3% of taxes. We can make it even more progressive by zeroing out taxes on the bottom half. It's a small amount of the total tax revenue, but very meaningful to people in this group. Well, I mean, we could lower taxes for everyone and that would actually increase economic growth. But let us be very clear, G doing the thing that he is talking about. I have no problem with nobody paying income tax. I think there are other ways to tax people. But if he thinks that that is going to buy him the love of people in the bottom 50%, he's totally wrong. First of all, people don't like it when people like Jeff Bezos appear to be giving them charity. They don't like it. It makes them feel bad about themselves. That's number one. Number two, when you are Jeff Bezos and you recommend lowering taxes for people in the bottom 50%, people who are, shall we say, vulnerable to the class warfare tactics that are pushed by the Zoram Hamdanis and the Bernie Sanders, they say that's just you paying us off. What we really want is your money. It's about the punishment. And bad policy sets up bad incentive structures that actually make political problems worse. See, here is again the thing right now in terms of the tax burden in the United states, the bottom 50% cover virtually none of the tax burden in the United States. That is just the statistical reality. And if you have a political problem in which people are voting in order to take money from other people, that first group of people who are voting to take money from you, legitimizing that point of view that they are somehow being screwed by the system does not alleviate the problem, it exacerbates the problem. Admitting stuff, admitting guilt for stuff that you are not guilty for is both immoral and stupid and it makes people resentful. So for example, Bezos came out and he came out in favor of the New York City catera tax, which is the tax on the second home that people are not inhabiting full time. Which again is truly stupid. And one of the reasons it's truly stupid is because the expenses for the city on a second home are lower than they are if you actually live in the home. But again, he says this, he says, yeah, the pieter tax is fine. He thinks that's going to buy him love. He is wrong. It is not going to buy him love in any way, shape or form. Because the pied a terror tax is morally wrong. Okay? Just because you own two houses does not mean your second house should be taxed more than if you own one house. There's nothing morally wrong with owning a second house in New York City. In fact, it drives the profit margins for the developers that allow them to build less expensive housing in New York City. But here is Bezos again trying to stop trying to cater to people who hate you. It's a bad move.

[Jeff Bezos]

On the one hand, it's perfectly fine to have a policy debate about whether you want to have a Pierre terror attacks, right? The second piece, which is not so good is to go stand in front of Ken Griffin's house and act like he's some kind of villain. Ken Griffin isn't a villain. He hasn't hurt anybody. He's not hurting New York. In fact, quite the opposite. And so that piece of it isn't, isn't right. And there was no reason to do that. A peer to tear tax is a, you know, there's a very. Taxes on out of towners are very popular taxes. That's why there are hotel taxes. And you know, hotels always have very high tax rates because why not tax the tourists? And there are limits. If you raise the hotel taxes too much, tourists stop coming. Right. So you have to be judicious. But I think that the Pierre terror tax is a fine thing for New York to do and you know, they have to figure out. But it's a policy debate.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, but it isn't a policy debate. Understanding that for the left, it is never a policy debate. It is never about bringing in the most revenue to the government. It is always about forever and always demonizing the people who earn. That is what the whole game is. So you can try to disconnect those two things. You can try to say, well, the Peter terror attacks is just a question, but of what's best policy. And you know, you might drive people out, you might be able to get more tax. That's not what it's about. They're indistinguishable. The point of Zoran Mandani's pirate tear tax is not to raise revenue. The point is to stand outside Ken Griffin's house and yell at him. That is the exact point. Bezos should know this better than anybody. He gave 10 million bucks to the Met Gala and he got dragged for it. That was a charitable donation and he got dragged. Trying to feed the alligator in the hope that it eats you last is stupid policy. It is bad policy and people should not do it. They should not. Free markets work, innovations work. People making smart economic decisions with their own money, that works. And people who are preaching you the opposite, they're selling you short. They are making your life actively worse. And by the way, all of the talk about how in the United States people at the top end are under tax, let us be very, very clear. People in Europe are overtaxed at the bottom rates. That's the reality. If the idea is the billionaires are not sufficiently burdened in the United States, and if we want a Denmark style social welfare system, we need to tax like Denmark. I'm just going to point out to you how taxation actually works in the United States versus in Denmark. In the United States, if you are in the bottom quintile of income earners, you are receiving almost $70 from the federal government in benefits. For every dollar paid in federal income tax, you're getting a lot more back from the government than you paid in. If you're in the second lowest quintile, meaning you earn somewhere between probably 30 and $50,000, it's $6 for every dollar paid in. For people in the middle quintile, it's 2 bucks and 35 cents. And for people in the top 1%, people like Bezos, for every dollar they get, they pay in in taxes, they get 4 cents in benefits. So pretty much all net taxes in the United States are paid for by the rich. Do you want a European style democratic socialist state again? What you keep hearing from Bernie and from Zoron and from all of these morons is that if you just tax Bezos more magically, European welfare benefits will appear wrong. You want European socialist benefits, you have to pay European socialist taxes. Norway's top personal income tax rate of about 40%. It applies to all income over 1.8 times the average Norwegian income. Sweden's top personal tax rate of 52.4% applies to all income over 1.1 times the average national income in the United States. That top tax rate, it kicks in at nine times the average national income. So what does that mean? Well, if the average annual income in the United States about $90,000, something like that, at this point, 80, 85, $90,000 per household, that means that if you were living in Sweden, you'd be paying 50% of that to the government. That is not the rate you are paying. If you were in Denmark, you would be kicking in the highest tax rate at $125,000 per year per family. Even if you're in the lowest tax bracket in Denmark, by the way, you're not paying 3%. You're paying one third of your money to taxes. So economic lies, they, they do not become us. We should not fall for this nonsense. And if you do fall for this nonsense, you are going to make things worse. So where does this end up? Well, first of all, we need to stop vilifying success. Let's be clear. Zormandani does not want a better life for the poor. He wants a worse life for the rich. That's what he wants. It is the thing he is begging for, is the thing he wants more than anything. Bernie is not concerned about people who are impoverished. Bernie is concerned about rich people he wants to tear to the ground while living in his vacation home. Hasan Piker is not interested in what happens to poor people. He's fine with them frying out in Cuba while he's in the air conditioning inside. Hasan Piker is happy to shop at Cartier while living in a mansion and bitching about the American economic system. Stop vilifying the people who make money in this country again. There's a whole effort happening right now, mostly on the left, but also on the right, to vilify Success. And again, it is not about fairness. It's not about fairness. I understand that poll data saying people think that things are not fair. But. But understand the attacks on Bezos and Zuckerberg and Musk. It's not about fairness. You don't have to like those guys. You don't have to like how they use their wealth. You can think they're being conspicuous in their consumption. That's all fine, but let's be clear about this. The attacks on them right now, not about fairness. And it's not about decency and it's certainly not about regular people living better lives. It's about politicians who think that if they brown nose you by telling you the system is unfair and that it's fine and actually morally good to rob the rich guys, they will win your vote. And that is a sexy pitch. It's always been a sexy pitch that actually you're justified in robbing people who have more than you. It turns out that violation of the 10th Commandment is a very popular political agenda, that envy is a popular political agenda. If you tell people that the guy next door is rich because he's bad and he stole it, you're going to be more popular than if you say that the guy next door is rich because he provided a good in service at a price that people wanted to pay. So who's making the case for envy? Democrats, pretty much all of them. Our enemies abroad who again would love nothing better than to cede class conflict in the United States in order to get us to destroy our economically dominant position. And increasingly some members of the public. People who are being lied to and being told stuff that makes you feel good but makes your life actively worse. You want a better life, then try to imitate the things that the billionaires did to become billionaires. That's how you get a better life, economically speaking. You should make money the way most billionaires do. And again, I know a lot of billionaires and I have lived in the United States as a person who was like middle middle class as a child, maybe borderline lower to middle middle class, middle class, upper middle class and rich. I've paid an enormous amount of money to the government at various tax brackets. The reality is the vast majority of true wealth in the United States is created, not inherited. Most billionaires in the United States started a business and that business meant that they made better products. They out competed their competitors, they innovated something new. Now again, this is not making the case that all rich people are good and honest people who want to babysit their kids. All rich people are not that in fact all anything people are not good and honest. There's literally no category of humans entirely good and honest. It doesn't work that way. Maybe the Mormons come close, but human beings are human beings. They private property and free markets and your capacity to earn to make your economic life better that of your kids. That is a good thing. That is a good thing. And people who preach the opposite are happy to make your life worse for their own political and financial gain. Okay, now look at the Democratic Party. The Democratic party is steering directly into all of this. They are steering more and more into deep and abiding socialism and racism and anti Semitism. It really is amazing. So there's a brand new poll out that New York Times Sienna pollution and it shows that voters actually would like the Democrats to move more to the center. According to that same poll, in order to win the next presidential election, do you think the Democratic candidate needs to move the party to the left? Move the party to the center or not move it in either direction. In general, 52% say move to the center. On crime, 50% say move to the center. On immigration, 46% say move to the center. ON economic issues, 42% say move to the center. Only 36% say move further to the left. On trans issues, 38% have moved to the center. The only area where Americans think the Democrats should move to the left is on health care. And the reason for that is because the government has so heavily regulated and subsidized health care that no one knows what the hell is going on. And people prefer simplicity to confusion. It really is about that. So naturally what does that mean? Well it means that Democrats are doing the same routine as the woke, right? They are completely captured. Democrats have decided to move left on all these issues by embracing some of the worst people in America as their candidates. This includes Graham Platner, the Senate main Democratic candidate. An awful human being, truly an awful person who's being touted as some sort of possible presidential candidate by the Democrats. They cannot disconnect from the heroine of left wing politics. It's crazy. This is a clip of Graham Platner a couple of years ago saying that the murdered Navy Seal Chris Kyle of American Sniper rank racked up kills by shooting civilians.

[Graham Platner]

His stories about how many people he was shooting certainly tracked with the behavior we I witnessed and people I knew witnessed down at the gov center which is, it's relatively easy to get high numbers like that if you're, if you're A little less discriminating you're fire than say a more professional unit would be. I almost felt like there was like a, like a weird practical joke being played on me by the war that like all the, all these years later I'm like having to like people are telling me like, oh look how great this, this guy is. These guys are amazing heroes. This whole incredible thing, the, the paragon of leadership and I'm just sitting there like am I living in like an alternate reality?

[Ben Shapiro]

What a, what a wonderful person. This is. The person they decided to nominate for the Senate. He called himself P Hustle online and he complained about closing a tax loophole that allowed people to bang hookers in Thailand. What a delight he is. He said, spend your leave banging hookers in Thailand instead of getting bitched at by the wife back home and you could sell it as avoiding federal income tax. And he was enjoying that. We will not ask what he was doing in Thailand or what sort of people he was engaging in prostitution with. Allegedly he also reacted to footage of a US soldier taking machine gun fire. Quote, this video never gets old. Dumb mother effort didn't deserve to live. At least his stupidity and fat ass wheezing are available for all future infantrymen to witness and hold in contempt. Poor marksmanship on the Taliban's part is the only reason this mouth breather made it home. He managed to make every possible bleep decision possible when it comes to small unit combat. What a delight. He also wrote in another post, all cops are bastards. And back in 2014, he praised a full scale Hamas raid as audacious. Looks like a pretty audacious plan that worked. I'll certainly give credit where credit is due. I'm glad that the Democratic Party has decided to embrace the most extreme aspect of itself, which apparently means now defending the Southern Poverty Law Center. So you'll remember a few weeks ago we reported on the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Southern Poverty Law center, it turns out, was donating money to white supremacist organizations and then raising money off the presence of these white supremacist organizations. You remember, that's the allegation. Well, here was the SPLC attorney defending paying that donated money to white supremacists. Jim Jordan was questioning him.

[Jim Jordan]

Is that appropriate to tell your donors this is the extremist of the month. This hateful racist guy is really bad. Send us money, but not tell those donors who you're taking their money from that we're paying this guy $140,000. Is that appropriate?

[SPLC Attorney]

Well, we have public Reporting that over a dozen donors actually, says field source.

[Jim Jordan]

Field source, 42 got 140 grand from the Southern Poverty Law center, was featured on their webpage as extremist of the year or month or whatever they call these bad guys. And they were paying him and they were gating money.

[Ben Shapiro]

Money.

[Jim Jordan]

Is that appropriate? Simple question.

[SPLC Attorney]

And donors have supported it, and they keep trying to send more money to the Southern Poverty lawsuit.

[Jim Jordan]

No, no, no. Is that technique appropriate? That's what I'm asking.

[SPLC Attorney]

That is not unlawful to say that people have done.

[Jim Jordan]

I didn't ask if it was lawful or unlawful. As you said earlier in your testimony. The court's going to determine that when they go to. When they. When they go to trial.

[Ben Shapiro]

Representative Pramila Jayapal, of course, Congressional Progressive Caucus. She says that the SPLC is wonderful. They're doing a great job.

[SPLC Attorney]

For decades, the Southern Poverty Law center has sued and won jury verdicts against hate groups who conspire and facilitate violence against black and brown people. The center secured a verdict against the planners of the 2017 Charlottesville rally, the same rally that drew participants whom Donald Trump called very fine people on both sides. And yes, I know what he said after that to try and defend it. But the entire rally was organized by white nationalists. And even after images and videos revealed that these participants put up their arms in Nazi salutes and violently injured counter protesters and cheered on the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, he stuck by that. SBLC has been winning. That's why Donald Trump wants to target them.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay. Hilariously, the progressives are now defending the people who literally funded white supremacists while continuing to lie about the good people on both sides argument that Trump was making, which, by the way, was not about the white supremacists, it was about people who are for and against tearing down a statue of Robert E. Lee. That's what those statements were actually about. But the Democrats get more and more extreme every single day. So a new House Democratic probable nominee, a woman named Maureen Galindo, she is now in favor of imprisoning what she calls billionaire Zionists. She's a nut job. But again, being a nut job seems to be a prerequisite for running for higher office in the Democratic Party these days.

[Maureen Galindo]

When I say that I want billionaire Zionists in prison, that does not mean I want Jews in internment camps. So why am I getting a whole bunch of death threats and MAGA insult? Which actually makes sense, I realize, like MAGA and Jewish Zionist apparently are the exact same people. They talk the exact Same way. And that's because MAGA is developing Christian Zionism. That's how they want to create a religion state in the United States of America is through maga, which that's the goal of Zionism is to create these white supremacist religion states.

[Ben Shapiro]

The goal of Zionism is to create white supremacism religion state. Says the psychotic House Democrat. Great job, guys. Really solid job. But you know, of course it is not just people like her. It is also Ilhan Omar and she is reaching around and hugging Thomas Massie. Of course, of course the horseshoe is quite real. Here's Ilhan Omar talking about the magic of Thomas Massie and how everyone's being victimized by the nefarious Jews and their nefarious Benjamins.

[Jeff Bezos]

Do you think that Massey was defeated last night because of his support for transparency in the Epstein files Transparency Act?

[SPLC Attorney]

Yes. And his anti war stances, his advocacy in trying to make sure our tax dollars don't count, continue to fund a genocide in Gaza. You know, though those $30 million did not come from thin air. We know who paid for that money.

[Jeff Bezos]

Yeah, I mean he said that, you know, Israel is the only country that is allowed to buy elections here other than our own.

[SPLC Attorney]

Well, certainly in his case, in Cory Bush's case and in Jamal Bowman's case, that statement seems to to be accurate.

[Ben Shapiro]

That statement is in no way accurate. Israeli money is like Chinese money or Russian money or British money or French money banned in American elections. Again, the idea that Jewish Americans and Christian Americans who did not like Thomas Massie's stance on Israel and conspiratorial anti Jewish nonsense, that those people are somehow the Israelis is just another aspect of the stupidity being pushed by people like Ilhan Omar. Bernie Sanders also doing strange new respect. Now again, I'm going to point out here that for the left, it is not that they have strange new respect for people who oppose Trump. It is not true. Bill Cassidy lost his Senate seat because Trump didn't like him. Cassidy voted for Trump's impeachment in 2021. 00. Strange new respect for Bill Cassidy from Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar. The one issue that they all unite on is hatred of Israel and greenlighting hatred of Jews. That is the one thing that they are all on the same page about. Here's Bernie Sanders again, as Jewish as a ham sandwich.

[Bernie Sanders]

Here is the political reality of today, a reality that we just saw yesterday in the election in Kentucky when Congressman Thomas Massie, somebody who I have very little in common with politically, was defeated by $9 million in contributions from APAC and $7 million from Trump megadonors. And what was the great crime that Massie committed that gendered so much super PAC money in opposition to him? Well, he opposed the war in Iran and so do the vast majority of the American people. He demanded that the Epstein files be open, which is what the American people have wanted, and he refused. What a crime. What an outrage to be a rubber stamp for Donald Trump.

[Ben Shapiro]

Wow. So much strange respect from the elderly, socialist and useless derelict who's been a homeless person occupying a Senate office for longer than I've been alive. Really strong stuff right there. But this is. Your new Democratic party is the AOCs of the world. The supposed moderate Democratic Party is being wiped out in real time. I mean, truly wiped out in real time. And they will defend extremism at every possible turn. Every single possible turn. All right, in foreign policy news, yesterday, the acting Attorney General of the United States, Tad Blanche, announced the indictment of Raul Castro. Is that the predicate to a possible move to capture Raul Castro in the same way we did Nicolas Maduro? Perhaps. Here was the announcement yesterday.

[Jeff Bezos]

Today we are announcing an indictment charging Raul Castro and several others with conspiracy to kill US Nationals. Just.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, big standing ovation. Obviously, a lot of people very enthusiastic about that. Now, should we go and get Raul Castro? If we can do it the same way we did Maduro, why the hell not? It seems to. There seems to be a belief that all these countries are sort of one moment away from some sort of, you know, uprising by the people. President Trump says there will not be escalation with Cuba. They're basically cut off from oil. They don't have the ability to. To really have a functioning economy at this point. He says we're not going to, you know, raise the ante here.

[SPLC Attorney]

Should we expect any escalation here or should they expect. Yes.

[Jeff Bezos]

No.

[Ben Shapiro]

No, you won't.

[Jeff Bezos]

There won't be escalation.

[Ben Shapiro]

I don't think there needs to be.

[Jeff Bezos]

Look, the place is falling apart. It's a mess, and they've sort of lost control.

[Ben Shapiro]

Representative Carlos Jimenez of Florida, he says that the Cubans are going to rise up at some point here.

[Jeff Bezos]

Should the United States attack Cuba? I don't think it's going to be necessary. I think the Cuban people themselves are going to do something about the regime. There's been a lot of. A lot of protests happen every day. Careful.

[Carlos Jimenez]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ben Shapiro]

Thank you.

[Jeff Bezos]

And so, you know, the pressure, I think, is. Is working. That's. The regime is in the weakest condition it's ever been.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay.

[Jeff Bezos]

And so, you know, so you say just let it play out, but not. No, no US Intervention is necessary.

[Ben Shapiro]

Okay, thank you, sir. Okay. So again, I hope that's true. My great fear is that the United States keeps on bringing countries to the brink of regime change and then leaving them there. And that all of the faith that's been placed in people to rise up themselves will either they get shot in the streets en masse like in Iran, or it turns out that the regime that we are basically propping up in places like Venezuela that is just gonna hang on to power by any means necessary, or in Cuba, just indefinitely, the impoverishment and starvation continues because people will not give up power. I hope that all of this is right. I hope that the Castro regime falls and that the communist regime falls and people actually launch an uprising. I will say that historically speaking, internal uprisings that end up cooing out the state in the absence of some sort of organized opposition in the country. That's pretty difficult. That is a pretty difficult road. Typically speaking, I'll leave it to the left. Like Ben Rhodes. Again, unbelievable. This guy was a former deputy national security advisor to Barack Obama. Literally named Hamas in the White House. Unbelievably enough, he compared Castro to Trump, which is just insane. One of those people is an elected leader twice in a robust democracy with constitutional checks and balances. And one of those people is an evil dictator who has. Who has forced people to leave his country on floating Chevys for the last 60, 70 years. Not the same thing, actually, as it turns out. But Ben Rhodes is a moron. So here we go.

[Ben Rhodes]

The absurdity of him talking about the corruption of billions of dollars being stolen at the same time that Donald Trump, his family and his cronies had been looting, literally the American treasury or leveraging American power to get billions of dollars in crypto companies. Nobody believes that this is some earnest anti corruption agenda. And then lastly, do we really think these people are credible in delivering messages about human rights and democracy as they dismantle human rights and democracy at home?

[Ben Shapiro]

No.

[Ben Rhodes]

So this is about power. This is about treating the Western hemisphere like our empire. And it's about something that no Americans other than that small political base of Rubio's is interested in, which is yet another regime change operation.

[Ben Shapiro]

Again, what a pathetic human being Ben Rhodes is. The Obama administration literally sent Barack Obama to Castro to hug him. You remember this? He visited Cuba and basically paid homage to the Castro regime. Difference in kind from the Trump administration. Alrighty. Coming up. We'll jump into the latest on Iran, the latest on Europe. You have to become a member to hear all of that. However, go check us out right now. Become a Member Use code Shapiro Checkout for two months free on all annual plans. Click that link in the description and join us.

[Jeff Bezos]

Sa.