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Online outrage, violence in the streets, more conservative infighting, Border Patrol Barbie and mentally ill women taking their children to protests. What a freaking weekend. So you might have seen this little thing on social media, but a civil war is once again breaking out in the city of Minneapolis. Something obviously is in the water in that town. And then the situation within the Trump administration is not any less tense as they are dealing with the PR fallout of their deportation strategies and more specifically, the woman who, who drove those strategies. Meanwhile, around the country, American women are falling for social media propaganda once again showing us that social justice issues are, in fact, their religion. So maybe call up Pearl Davis for this one, because possibly women really are the problem here. Just kidding. Maybe not just kidding, but anyway, I'm also just sitting here trying to figure out my take on this huge situation without compromising my values and the things that I voted for while simultaneously not losing my humanity. And I think a lot of you guys have found yourself in the same sense situation. So let's talk about it. Before we do, though, for those of you in Nashville or the Middle Tennessee area, I will be back at Zany's doing more live shows on February 1st and on March 1st. Tickets for both of those shows can be found on my website, BrettCooper.com so check that out if you are in the area I'm sure you guys have seen again on social media. But the scene in Minneapolis is grim and it goes back to last month because after Nick Shirley's video, after the massive amounts of Medicaid fraud that was exposed, Trump decided to send in DHS through Operation Metro Surge. That is what he's calling it. And you know, much of the fraud, obviously, as we talked about, had been connected Somali immigrants. And so this Operation Metro Surge had the goal of rooting that out and deporting the illegal immigrants in the city. That is why Border Patrol DHS was sent in the first place. And DHS themselves have said that this is the largest immigration enforcement operation that they have tried to carry out. They have over 2,000 agents in the city right now. It is a huge, huge ordeal. Now, immediately, once boots hit the ground, protests started breaking out. And obviously, we have seen this across the country over the last 12 months, but those protests started directly obstructing the work and threatening the those DHS agents. One of those individuals was, unfortunately, Renee Goode, who attempted to drive her car through agents and then was shot. More protests broke out from there. In light of her death, they created another autonomous zone in Minneapolis, much like they had after George Floyd In 2020, the protests got even more violent. And this weekend, a man named Alex Preddy clashed with more border patrol agents and he was also shot and killed. So we have now had two incredibly tragic and unfortunate deaths in Minneapolis. It has set the city and the media ablaze. And while all of these stories and situations require nuance and cl, it seems like many on both sides have simply chosen tribalism. And I'm sure that many of you guys have encountered that if you have tried to be on social media over the last 72 hours. And this has been especially prevalent in the white liberal women community. Remember the girls on TikTok back in 2020 who like painted BLM on their faces and raised fists with dramatic music. They were crying over their white privilege. They were hosting these like high ticket dinner party book clubs to read and discuss the book white fragility. Well, we're back to that, except it's 2026 and it is over. ICE and deportations. The women in America are unwell and before you ask, they are in fact posting their mental breakdowns on TikTok. Just watch. Bring the lion out. Bring the. Bring the lion out. Good God. Her caption reads, soft girl era interrupted by the ice race. Lady, I don't really think you had a soft girl era to begin with. If you are screeching and grunting and growling on TikTok for the entire world to see. And yeah, there you have it. That is the left's strongest soldiers. Like, guys, some of this is so unserious. The over dramatized TikToks. The throngs of women making heated rivalry themed protest signs. And yes, you heard that correctly, that is the gay porn hockey show. Just take a look at this. The only ice we want is for gay hockey players. Born to be a fan girl forced to fight fascism. Ice reserved for gay hockey only. Like, what are we doing here? I mean, the women are unhinged. They're in their homes watching gay porn and then fighting in the streets to stop the deportations of murderers. But the thing is, it's even the women that you wouldn't necessarily expect. It's the women without the septum piercings this time as well. Just look, I'm literally trembling. My soul is trembling. A man got executed. My eyes in the middle of the sidewalk in the middle of the day. I'm trying not to be really offensive here, but I feel like as I'm watching this video, I'm watching an audition tape. An audition tape for the most virtuous, the most anti fascist woman possible like she's submitting this to win an award from her peers. And this is why it is so reminiscent of 2020. Because 2020 and BLM chaos, the COVID lockdowns, they were not just driven by radicals, they were driven by people like this. Women like this everyday Americans who were duped by propaganda. Women whose emotions and empathy clouded their discernment of current events, who then turned on family and friends and neighbors and bullied others into compliance on social media. That is what we saw every day of 2020 and 2021. It is what inspired Allie Beth Stuckey's book Toxic Empathy. And speaking of her, she has been on a crusade this week trying to down to earth who seem completely upended and radicalized by the media. Once again, she posted this and she said it is 2020 all over again. Well meaning Christian women are being duped by emotionally evocative messaging and images on Instagram. If you are not in this female demographic, you have no idea how strong the strategic propaganda campaign is. The pressure to repost social justice talking points to signal that you are a good empathetic person, mindlessly repeating the narrative is rewarded while critical thinking, especially out loud, is punished venomously by friends, followers and family members who will shame you for lacking compassion. That's what they say. Even women who call themselves Conserv Christians are echoing the perspective of left wing outlets insisting that Trump is going too far in his immigration enforcement. It's like they don't remember that these are the very same outlets who lied to us about George Floyd Covid and pro life laws. And there's a common denominator here. It is the emotional propaganda. It is pulling at women's empathy and heartstrings, saying, you are a terrible person if you do not repost this. You are a terrible person if you don't get on board. It's not politics, it's human rights. This is just an objectively bad thing. You have to get on board, condemn this or else you are a terrible person regardless of politics. That is what is happening on TikTok and Instagram right now. And Ali Beth is completely spot on. And this outrage is so fierce right now that women are even choosing to use their children as shields and props and excuses as they go out into the streets to protest. That is how far this mental illness, that's what it is, has gone. I mean, just watch this video that went viral over the weekend. So she's putting on her baby carrier and the caption reads, what? Gearing up to go do ice patrol at my neighborhood school in sub zero weather looks like when you've got an 18 month old on your back. Because my babies aren't more important than than anyone else's. Hear that again. Because my babies aren't more important than anyone else's. So that is her rationale for taking her eight month old child into sub zero degree weather into a protesting environment where she might come face to face with ICE agents who in her mind based on her premise are like the second coming of Nazi. She is willing to put her child into that situation that she objectively already thinks will be dangerous and probably would be dangerous just due to the climate of our world right now. I mean this is insane. You are a mother. Your child and its safety should be the most important thing to you. And yes, it should be more important than the safety of anybody else's child because that is your child. Choosing to bring a child into a protest or a march even if you think it's safe is wrong no matter what side of the aisle you are on, I must say, because you are prioritizing your ability to virtue signal on a certain topic over your child's well being. There is nothing more important. No social justice cause, no political cause that will ever make me change my mind on that. And there is always another option. If you must go out and protest, you do not need to bring your child. And it is so insane to me that this is controversial or even more widespread, but it is. I mean like look at this Reddit thread that I found. This is in R Progressivemoms and this woman is talking about how her husband and she got into a heated disagreement last night as she plans to attend the protests organized in her city. She's attended many protests, but she's currently pregnant and her husband is saying no, you are not allowed to go. I am forbidding you from going. And all the moms in the comments are going. I feel like he's being a bit too much. You should go if it's safe. Whatever. Here's another post I found. This is from earlier this year and this is where most of the commenters were actually recommending this mom bring her kids, but just staying on the sidelines as long as it is quote unquote peaceful. But come on, we all know what these people deem as mostly peaceful protests and that's what these moms are bringing their children into. Now some moms are also straight up lying about being at these protests and they're actually using their kids as excuses when they were the ones who put them at risk. In the first place. I mean, take the story. This is such a perfect example of the propaganda that we are fighting against right now that is taking the hearts and minds of these American women. Look at this story. This is from cnn, obviously. Minneapolis family, six children tear gassed after they were caught in clash between ICE and protesters. The article reads, a family just trying to get home from their son's basketball game in Minneapolis on Wednesday found themselves in between protesters and federal agents before they were tear gassed in their car and the mother had to administer CPR to her infant. So the angle of this story is that now innocent people are getting hurt because of these ICE agents, because of their presence in the city. It's not because of the protesters or the instigators. It is because of ICE and obvious. You read this article objectively, just taking it at face value, that's awful. It is terrifying. And you would read this headline, you would be shocked at the violence and the innocent lives that are now caught in the middle of this chaos. And thousands of people fell for it. Probably amplified by, I'm sorry, but a lot of women posting infographics and screenshots on their Instagram stories. Now, from there, now that she had all of this energy behind her, that same mother made a GoFundMe that raised over $170,000 after one of her children was hospitalized after the incident. Now, I'm not diminishing the fact that the child was hurt. Obviously that is bad. But this really goes back to the mother because here's that mother did not tell the whole truth. And the mainstream media didn't ask, they didn't probe. Now, unfortunately for her though, we live in the age of the Internet and somebody always has a camera out recording. So turns out cnn, she was not just passing through. She had been at these protests for at least 45 minutes while she left her six children in the car. She got out of the car and left her children sitting there in the middle of a protest. And on camera while somebody was streaming, she yelled, we are going to kill these mother effers. Just watch.
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Oh, I have good. I had guns on the way. I had people. Oh, oh, hey, hey. That was a warning. That was a one. That was a. This was a test. Somebody. No, no, you're not.
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But guys, apparently now that that video was come out, apparently that was just sarcasm. That's how she's describing it. She said, quote, I was like sarcastically asking him to do that. I wasn't saying we were going to like that. We were going to kill ice. No, she said. Now, about three minutes after Jackson's comments in the livestream, her husband is seen standing at a crowd of protesters who were chanting, pigs go home. He is not seen chanting with the protesters in the livestream. Now, he was not chanting, but he was there. He was in the middle of the protest while his wife was yelling, we're gonna kill these mother effers while their children, again were alone in the car. Now, a few minutes later, a tear gas canister goes off near their vehicle where her children were inside. And that is where the mainstream media picked up the story. Children trapped in a car, locked between protesters and ice. Tear gas explosives, explosions, a mother, innocent mother, just trying to get home. Bullshit. And these are the kinds of stories that are taking control of people's emotions. Now, the cherry on top here in this story is that this woman has a criminal record. She actually pled guilty to aiding an offender and she was even charged with murder at one point. This is only one story that has been completely misconstrued by the media. Another one that obviously took hold this week was the story of the five year old boy. Cannot even begin to count how many people I know were posting completely inaccurate information about that story saying, how could ICE have done this? This is why we need to stop. Trump has gone too far. They are separating. ICE was actually trying to do the exact opposite. That father left his five year old child, and when the agents brought back the child and tried to reunite him with his family, they said no. They refused to open the door. They did not want to take back their child. The agents did everything they could to try to reunite the family. They were not going after the child. They were going after the father, who was a criminal who left his child, abandoned him. Now, obviously, that is a heartbreaking story. It is horrific, but there are so many, many others like it, and people are falling for all of it. It is emotional manipulation. And this, and my point in showing you guys all of this and showing you the TikToks and these stories, it all comes back to one idea, that the people online, especially the women, are not okay. They are allowing themselves to be driven to madness and outrage to the point that they rationalize bringing their children into dangerous protests. And then the women online who are watching all of this fall for the propagandized, sad stories and they amplify it even. It is a completely insane, problematic cycle and I don't know how to fix it. I mean, maybe if they were taking their balance of nature supplements, they would be a little bit More stable. 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Just go to balanceofnature.com to get started. And speaking of supplement regimens, my friends over at Jevoty can help direct you. And Jevoti is how you can cut through the noise and start optimizing your lifestyle and your diet for your body. And obviously, everyone has got an agenda out there, even the doctors, but nobody is actually at what your specific body needs. And that's where Jevady is different. Because they are not pushing trends or cookie cutter protocols. They build plans tailored to you based on your lab work that they do 100 plus biomarkers showing you what is actually happening inside your body. And honestly, as somebody who lives in the middle of nowhere, I cannot tell you how much I love that Jevoty sends mobile phlebotomists to your house for the blood work. Because I am not driving an hour each way for appointments or sitting in waiting rooms with a newborn. They make it so simple. They came to me, they got my results, and the care team's been walking me through everything virtually. It has made prioritizing my health actually doable postpartum instead of just another. Another thing on my New Year's to do list. So if that sounds like something you could benefit from, head over to gojevity.com Brett Cooper and use code Brett for 20% off. That is G O G E V I T I.com Brett Cooper code Brett at checkout to start taking control of your health today. All right, now back to the story and back to all of this emotional manipulation. This is where the Trump administration can help and where, in my opinion, they should have been a bit more strategic and intentional because what we are seeing right now is a PR war and they are losing. And ironically, the strategy that is failing, that has driven a lot of this public chaos was created and put into action by another woman, Kristi Noem, also known as ICE Barbie. So let me just break this down for you because this has been really helpful for me to kind of try to muddle through. So we have ICE and we have cbp, which is our border patrol, and both of those fall under dhs, which is run by Christy Noem, that is the Department of Homeland Security. Then separately, we have Tom Homan, AKA our border czar. And what a lot of people don't realize is that those two really aren't connected. Tom Homan's job, it is essentially an advisory post. He is public facing. He goes on tv, he helps determine policy, he advises the president. But Kristi Noem, head of dhs, is the one calling the shots. And it looks like now all of this is creative. Massive friction within the Trump administration, within the dhs, because to a lot of people, it feels like Kristi Noem has turned this whole mass deportations endeavor into a huge photo op for herself. Basically where she is, you know, riding horses at the southern border and taking influencers like, like Benny Johnson and Libs of TikTok on ride alongs, doing photo shoots with huge rifles, all in full glam. Of course. Meanwhile, while she is doing that, she has her comms team making these incredibly edgy and aggressively mocking videos as they arrest and deport people. I'm sure that you have seen them, but the ones where they have, you know, riding dirty on top of a woman that is being, like, wheeled away, they're making jokes about Pokemon and trying to catch them all. It's just like, I don't know. We'll talk more about them later. I know some people love them. Personally, they're not my cup of tea. But moving on from that point, it's also not just her style of presenting herself and her, but it is the actual way the DHS has gone about these mass deportations, like raiding Home Depots, which just seems like it was designed for clicks, like it was a media opportunity that they were doing that. Just watch. So my point in saying all of this and bringing it up is to show you who is in charge and to point out that they have intentionally made this into a spectacle that people on both sides have not been appreciating. I mean, like, even back in April, people like Megyn Kelly were Saying things like this.
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Stop trying to glamorize the mission and put yourself in the middle of it as you cosplay ICE agent, which you're not. I can't stand these photo ops, you guys. I think they diminish ice. They diminish, diminish dhs, cpb. She's not an agent. She is an administrative policy person appointed by Trump because she was very loyal to him. Fine.
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Now, I agree with everything that Meghan said there. And the thing is, she was actually kind of ahead of her time because when she posted this back in April, a lot of people thought that Meghan was being too harsh. Like, her comment section was not kind to her. Way back then. They appreciated Christy, you know, being boots on the ground, even if they thought the glam was a bit too much. They were like, no, she is actually doing what needs to be done. This is working. But eight months later, people are looking around and they're going, but, you know, it worked. You know, approval ratings have tanked. People are uncomfortable with the glamorization of it. They're not really seeing the deportation numbers that they were expecting. And a lot of people are pointing the finger at that spectacle, including within the admin, Erik Erikson, who I think has had some very good nuanced takes on this entire situation. He posted about this and he said a lot of what is happening now is Kristi Noem marginalized Tom Homan and the head of Border Patrol because those two prioritized the deportations of criminals and gang members. Noem and Corey Lewandowski, which allegedly, allegedly was an old boyfriend of hers. Affair, something like that. Just putting that out there. They wanted broad public without prioritizing the illegal aliens. They have bypassed Tom Homan and the head of Border Patrol and elevated Greg Bevino because they want the public confrontations and displays. That is not the progressive press reporting this. That is conservative Fox News, New York Post and Washington Examiner. And then underneath that Post, he shared this article from Fox. ICE Leadership Shakeup exposes the growing NHS friction over deportation tactics and priorities. This is not new, guys. This was actually back in October and this article covered the replacement of dust dozens of ICE chiefs with Border Patrol agents. They were doing an entire swap because ICE was not willing to do what Kristi Noem wanted. So she replaced them with Border Patrol and all of that. And I know that this is getting convoluted and maybe kind of confusing, but all of that is important because ICE and its agents have been taking the public hit for this strategy. They are the ones that are being blamed. But as it turns out, as you can see on their vest, most of the people who are out in states like Minnesota, in cities like Minneapolis are actually Border Patrol agents. And it is because I ICE was allegedly not in favor of NOME strategy, so she is using Border Patrol instead. And this shakeup and that friction seems relevant as we are trying to understand what is actually happening at the federal level. Now Eric Erickson also posted this and he said side note on these stories the headline references ice, but typically it is Bavino and Border Patrol, not ICE doing these arrests because ICE officials objected to Kristi Noem's insistence that they go into Home Depot, Target, et cetera, and do general arrests. So Noem elevated Border Patrol. And again, I am bringing all of this up to try to say that even within the admin things are not honky dory. It is not going the way they intended. And the latest and the responses in Minneapolis have only amplified this because it seems like the messaging that the admin has employed is just, you know, chaos. You have these fresh untrained Border Patrol agents who are roaming the streets, obviously nervous and on high alert because of the violence that has been aimed at them and at ICE for the last year. You have people like freaking Kash Patel going on the news and saying don't bring guns to protest. That's asking for trouble. Which is incredibly hypocritical and irresponsible and completely unamerican. Meanwhile, on social media, the left and the right are are screaming at each other online in their very tribal ways. This is not effective. It's not effective and something needs to change. And this social media heavy strategy of storming into cities and businesses with cameras pointed at you is not only gross and vain in my opinion, but it also objectively isn't even working. I would be more in favor of it. Not maybe not even in favor, but more comfortable with it if it actually felt effective. But it's not because yes, millions of illegal immigrants have self deported, but through this, you know, smash and capture and deport strategy, the estimated number of actual physical deportations ranges from like 300 to 600k in the last year. Like that's not mass deportations and it is only giving the left fuel that they are now taking to the streets violently. Now as part of her crusade this week, Ali Beth talked about this and posted about it. And what's so interesting is the conservatives immediately responded to her and jumped into her comment section saying that she was being too soft. You know, this is why women shouldn't be involved and Trump needs to keep the course and not back off. But the thing is, Ellie, Beth was not arguing that he pull back or stop what he was doing. She was arguing, rightfully so, in my opinion, that the strategy needs to shift. She said. I posted about losing the PR war and the importance of good messaging when it comes to ice. Progressives freaked out because they want to gaslight us into thinking that they're not waging an active propaganda battle and that their outrage is totally organic and fair. And some conservatives freaked out, completely misconstruing what I said to somehow mean that I want a softening of immigration enforcement. This was the more annoying response. But I am right. They are wrong. Messaging drives public opinion, and public opinion drives policy. Trump can double down on immigration enforcement while we continue to try to persuade those in the mushy middle who need to be pulled forward. And it seems like it or not like this is what Trump has decided to do. Reports are swirling that he is not happy with Noam. I don't think she's gonna get fired yet, at least, but he's not happy. Greg Bovino, who she promoted to run all of these operations, who was in Minneapolis, has been sent back to his post in California, and Tom Homan has been sent into Minneapolis. And I think that that is the biggest sign that something is amiss. And Trump is trying to get everything straightened out because Tom Homan is the man who was given the presidential rank award by Obama for his work on Obama's deportations. He was the, the man who was able to carry out Obama's millions of deportations without civil war breaking out in cities across America. Now, I do wanna say, before everybody jumps down my throat, was some of that the lack of response due to the lack of Obama derangement syndrome in 2009? You know, is the blind hatred of everything Trump tries to do an exception? Yes. Obviously those two things are important to note. But what I'm getting at here is Homan's strategy. It is drastically different than what we have seen play out under Kristi Noem. It is calculated. It is intentional. It is. It is serious. It is not gamified for social media clips that backfire in the hearts and minds of people who even voted for this. I mean, like, call me a soft woman again. I just, I hate the TikToks. I love and I want the deportations, but I hate the comms that are driving this entire operation. Like, I don't want to see Kristi Noam Ice Barbie outside with a Rifle storming into Home Depot with a camera on her, joking about pulling people out of their homes. It distracts, in my opinion, from the seriousness and the imperative nature of what, what Trump is trying to pull off. And yes, what I voted for, what I believe is best for the country, it gives emotional, unstable people who already hate us, who are not taking the time to get clarity on the stories and the people being deported, outrage ammunition. It gives the media the ability to run with those stories because obviously they hate us. They hate Trump as well. There is no clarity. And obviously, I wanna be clear here. The blame does not completely rest on Noem and Bavino and her whole team. But she dangled bait by doing all of this and the leftist agitators took that bait and they riled up their base, which has gotten us to where we are now. That, in my opin opinion, is the timeline of events. And that is why I laid all of this out for you. And I truly mean riled up the base. Independent reporter Cam Higby. He infiltrated and then exposed a massive signal group that has been allegedly behind the planning and the orchestration of all of this chaos in Minnesota. And this has not been confirmed yet, but it's looking like Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan is one of the admins and organizers who goes by the name Flan Flan in this group chat. So let's make that very clear. That is allegedly a leader in Minnesota's government conspiring against Trump and planning violence against people who are just trying to do their jobs. These border patrol agents, the Lieutenant governor allegedly of Minnesota, she didn't just allegedly do that privately. She also posted things like this publicly.
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If you are sick and tired of your government being ransacked by Donald Trump and his minions, literally taking away health care from your neighbors, stealing food off of the table from, from seniors and children, and generally being uncool with the fact that our neighbors are being disappeared. P.S. without due process, it is just called kidnapping. Then show up and use your voice. Put your body on the line and use non violent direct action.
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Put your body on the line. That is what Peggy Flanagan said to Minnesotans. Put your body on the line. Because of the uncool things that Donald Trump is doing. It is truly insane. Like on every level, this entire situation, it is so awful, it is so convoluted from what is happen in Minnesota to what is happening in the Trump administration. And lives are being lost because of this instigation and because of this chaos. And you might be thinking, Brett, this episode was all over the place. And it certainly felt like that to me. I was kind of ping ponging around here. But I laid all of this out for you intentionally to hopefully give you some of the tools and information to muddle through all of this and to maybe make you feel better if you haven't known exactly how to feel or what to think without me telling you exactly what you should think. Because I never want to do that. Yesterday on, on my Instagram story, I posted one of those question polls and I asked you guys how you're doing and what you're thinking about, and the most common answer from you guys was, I'm struggling with ice. I'm struggling with the deportations of what I'm seeing online. I don't know what I believe, and I feel bad for questioning things, but I'm really confused. And I know the people online on both the left and the right are demanding that everybody have an opinion and speak out, because silence is violence. I mean, even people on the right are fighting over who is tougher and what needs to be done. It is insane. But I want to tell you, you can, you can opt out. Like, obviously that does not mean being apathetic and turn your brain off, but you can press pause and try to figure out what the hell is going on and what you think about it. And just like, no, it is okay to be confused and not immediately have a black and white answer. That is more than okay. Because, yes, I'm sitting here. I voted for Trump. I voted for mass deportations. I still believe our country very much needs them. And unfortunately, that isn't what we've gotten. I don't know if we will get them after this weekend because of the PR war. That, again, I think religious. And it is okay to acknowledge that. That does not make you a traitor. It is okay to be uncomfortable and maybe disappointed with the strategies that have been employed and the people who are in charge. It is also right and good to just naturally hurt over loss of life, no matter who it is or what they thought of people like you and me. That doesn't make you weak. That doesn't make you a bad person. It actually just makes you a human being. So I hope we can retain some of that humanity as we move through the situation. And it feels urgent and the outrage is only getting louder and louder. So I think, I hope you guys are able to take a step back, think through all of this, and at least find some peace and clarity. That's all we can really hope for.
Podcast: The Brett Cooper Show
Episode: 125 – Trump Is Losing The PR War on Deportations
Date: January 28, 2026
Host: Brett Cooper
Main Theme:
This episode delves into the public relations (PR) crisis unfolding as the Trump administration’s mass deportation strategy faces both internal dissent and fierce public backlash. Brett Cooper explores how emotionally charged social media content—particularly among American women—amplifies outrage and complicates the national conversation. She also scrutinizes the roles of key political figures, the impact of generational dynamics, and the fluctuations in public opinion.
[00:00–02:30]
“So you might have seen this little thing on social media, but a civil war is once again breaking out in the city of Minneapolis. Something obviously is in the water in that town.” — Brett Cooper [00:18]
[02:30–07:00]
“The women in America are unwell and before you ask, they are in fact posting their mental breakdowns on TikTok... That is the left’s strongest soldiers. Like, guys, some of this is so unserious.” — Brett Cooper [03:37]
“I feel like as I'm watching this video, I'm watching an audition tape. An audition tape for the most virtuous, the most anti-fascist woman possible.” — Brett Cooper [05:01]
[07:00–09:00]
“Choosing to bring a child into a protest... you are prioritizing your ability to virtue signal on a certain topic over your child's well-being.” — Brett Cooper [08:33]
[09:00–12:30]
“Turns out CNN, she was not just passing through. She had been at these protests for at least 45 minutes while she left her six children in the car... she yelled, 'We are going to kill these mother effers.'” — Brett Cooper [10:00]
[12:30–13:00]
[13:00–18:00]
“Stop trying to glamorize the mission and put yourself in the middle of it as you cosplay ICE agent, which you're not. I can't stand these photo ops, you guys. I think they diminish ICE.”
— Megyn Kelly [16:28, replayed by Brett]
[18:00–19:30]
[19:30–21:45]
“Homan’s strategy... is calculated. It is intentional. It is serious. It is not gamified for social media clips that backfire in the hearts and minds of people who even voted for this.” — Brett Cooper [21:19]
[22:00–24:18]
“Put your body on the line. That is what Peggy Flanagan said to Minnesotans. Because of the uncool things that Donald Trump is doing. It is truly insane.” — Brett Cooper [24:18]
[24:18–end]
“It is okay to be uncomfortable and maybe disappointed with the strategies that have been employed and the people who are in charge. It is also right and good to just naturally hurt over loss of life, no matter who it is... That doesn't make you weak... It actually just makes you a human being.” — Brett Cooper [26:40]
“Online outrage, violence in the streets, more conservative infighting, Border Patrol Barbie and mentally ill women taking their children to protests. What a freaking weekend.”
— Brett Cooper [00:01]
“Remember the girls on TikTok back in 2020... Well, we're back to that, except it's 2026 and it is over. ICE and deportations.”
— Brett Cooper [03:24]
“If you are not in this female demographic, you have no idea how strong the strategic propaganda campaign is... Mindlessly repeating the narrative is rewarded while critical thinking... is punished venomously.”
— quoting Allie Beth Stuckey’s commentary [06:09]
“I don't want to see Kristi Noem ICE Barbie outside with a rifle storming into Home Depot with a camera on her, joking about pulling people out of their homes. It distracts... from the seriousness and the imperative nature of what Trump is trying to pull off.”
— Brett Cooper [22:19]
“[The PR spectacle] gives emotional, unstable people who already hate us... outrage ammunition. It gives the media the ability to run with those stories.”
— Brett Cooper [22:50]
Episode 125 tackles the messy intersection of political spectacle, social media-fueled outrage, and genuine crisis amid Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Brett Cooper spotlights how women, particularly via social platforms, have become both targets and amplifiers of emotional propaganda—often to the detriment of healthy, nuanced debate. She calls out both the administration’s failures (for valuing virality over effectiveness) and the media’s role in distorting and inflaming narratives. The episode closes on a philosophical note: it’s acceptable—and even necessary—to step back, think independently, and retain empathy, even in chaotic and polarized times.