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Caroline Sunshine
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Buck Sexton
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Caroline Sunshine
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Buck Sexton
Is there a tactical retreat underway in Minneapolis for the Trump White House? What happens now to the immigration enforcement agenda? Caroline Sunshine is with us to talk about this. She was formerly working in the Trump White House in the first administration in communications. And she's also a former Disney star and now a commentator on all things Good going on there. We'll get to the Disney stuff later. Caroline, tell me, first of all, thank you for being, being here. Nice to, Nice to have you on for the first time. What, what should they be doing now for. The messaging was bad by Noam after this whole thing went down. I think that's pretty clear. And there's now the finger pointing about. Someone told me to say it or I whatever. What do they do now? How do they fix this mess to get it focused back on the policy of enforcing immigration law?
Caroline Sunshine
Yeah, thanks for having me. First of all, you don't play into the narrative trap that Democrats and the media are very clearly laying. You know, Alex Preddy's death was a tragedy, but it was no more of a tragedy than any of the thousands of Americans who have lost their life to excessive use of force by an illegal immigrant. And a lot of them, you've never heard their names because the media intentionally keeps their names out of of the media. I thought my first reaction, or one of my first reactions to the news coming out of Minneapolis was, wow, I can't remember the last time the mainstream media cared this much about a white guy dying. They never care about white men dying. You know, I mean, opioid deaths in this country for the longest time were the leading cause of death for men ages, you know, 18 to 45. We have an epidemic where the lifespan of American men is being shorted by, on average, you know, a decade. Never cared, never cared about that. Always looked to demonize white men, whether it was Daniel Penney standing up and saving the passenger on that train in New York, whether it was Kyle Rittenhouse using his right to self defense. So it's just interesting because Alex, you know, his death happens to fit. While it is tragic, it fits a particular narrative. And I said this going all the way back to when Kilmar Abrego Garcia was getting deported and the left worked so hard to try and stop that. And I said, you know, this is, this is tactical because you have to look at it from a comms and messaging standpoint, right? If they're able to stop one deportation, then they can stop them all. You know, if they can get public sentiment on their side where they can just stop one, make you just have one moment of, you know, emotional blackmail over something tragic that's happened, they can stop it all. And so the first thing is to not play into that narrative. And the second, I think is the tone that the president where he said, I want to see a full investigation done. I think his tone has been very appropriate. And I'll tell you, when I look at what happened with Renee Goode and Alex Preddy in Minneapolis, my reaction is I wish they were still alive. My reaction is not what I watched the left do after Charlie Kirk's death was go, oh, yippee. I'm so glad he's dead. I hope people that believe the same thing as him die too. I'm really excited about it. Look, I think that impeding law enforcement operations is a dumb way to die, really do. But I'm not excited about it. And I don't want to see more liberals that I, I don't think I probably agreed with Renee Goode or Alex pretty on much if I met him in person. But they're my fellow American, they're my fellow countrymen. And I don't want to see more liberals die dumb deaths because they are buying in to the media narrative that ICE is bad. ICE are murderers, you know, whatever it is. And I know the president doesn't want to. Doesn't want to see that either. And the fact is this. It wasn't a protest that was going on in Minnesota. When you really look at it, Alex was not at a protest. Alex was in the street. He was directing traffic of moving vehicles. Okay, well, is he a traffic cop? No. Is he a crossing guard? No. Then why are you in the street directing traffic? That's not your job. And that's also not what peacefully protesting your government looks like. First of all, if you want to peacefully protest your government, write a letter to your senator. ICE is a enforcement agency. They are a law enforcement agency. They are enforcing the law, which is as current stands on the books. 8 US code 1325 been the same law since President Obama was in office. That law has not changed. They're enforcing the law. And what Alex was doing because there's been this, this deliberate use of the word protest, that he was a protester that was killed. He was protesting. I don't believe that. I believe what Alex did would be the same thing if. If you didn't like the Iraq war and you didn't support the political reasons for the United States engaging in the Middle East. Fair. That's your First Amendment right to disagree with your government to protest that. You know what you don't have the right to do? You don't have the right to fly to Baghdad and get in the middle of A Marine convoy, or get in the middle of Marines going door to door, kicking down doors, trying to find terrorists and exercise your right to protest and say, oh, I don't like this, let me get my iPhone out and film you. That's not the right to protest. You're now impeding military operations. That is a soldier's order workplace, just like that was ice's workplace. And when you interact with soldiers in a combat zone or law enforcement officers, the way that they're being dealt with in Minneapolis, you put all of those soldiers and all of those officers on edge way more than they already are. And their goal is to survive. Their goal is to do their jobs. And you people, people really take for granted. I think I haven't served in the military. A lot of admiration for those who have same in law enforcement. The average American can't comprehend, I think, what it feels like to be in an environment where 24, 7, you have to keep your head on an absolute swivel because you're aware that a three second delay or not catching something or not reacting quick enough can result in losing your life or the life of your best friend who's serving beside you. And that often gets lost in these narratives intentionally.
Buck Sexton
You see all the celebrities now, like Natalie Portman is crying about this. It's like the most evil thing ever. Tim Walls, the governor, he's not a, he's not a, like, actor, celebrity type, but he's unfortunately, somebody we know, he says that they're gonna write a, a story about what's going on in Minneapolis, just like Anne Frank wrote the story of what happened to her in the Netherlands. Are these people, are they deranged? Are they delusional? Is it just dishonest? Like, how do you make sense of the people that are crying for what happened in Minneapolis who don't cry about terrible things happening in this country day in and day out that are the result of policies that they are just fine with.
Caroline Sunshine
Oh, well, and here you go, right? All these Hollywood celebrities, like you said, Natalie Portman, you know, all the, like, where were they and why weren't they this upset when President Obama, their Hollywood icon, the guy they all love rubbing shoulders with, the guy they all want to get a Netflix deal with, why weren't they upset when President Obama was deporting illegal immigrants? Why wasn't it a problem then? Oh, it's a problem. It's a problem now. I'd love to say that they're delusional and they are, but it's intentional. Again, they know what they're doing, they are performers. They are actors, and what they are doing is acting. And, you know, for all these women in Hollywood who were part of the MeToo movement, we have to, you know, protect all women. Give me a freaking break. Where have you been? Totally silent. As young women in our country have been murdered, raped. Lake and Riley was on a run in Georgia. She was bludgeoned over the head with a rock, sexually assaulted, and then killed by an illegal immigrant. Jocelyn Nungare was 12 years old. She died at 12 years old under a bridge after being raped by two different men who should have never been in our country. They came in illegally. Why was Natalie Portman and all of her tears and all of her humanity then? Oh, that's right. Those lives didn't matter to her. Those lives weren't part of the performance because those lives didn't fit the political narrative.
Buck Sexton
That's all true. We'll come back here in a second with the Way Forward and also want to ask you if you would just tell us a little bit more about your. Your interesting background and how you got into politics. Caroline. But our sponsor here is Birch Gold. Look at the price of gold, everybody. It's up over $5,000 all time high. And it keeps going up and up and up. If you look at the trend, the trend is your friend gold is up 700% in the last 20 years. There's good reason for this. The money printing is not going to stop. And bitcoin is also not the safe haven store of wealth that so many seem to think it would be. Look at the price of bitcoin in the last year. So gold makes sense. And Birch Gold Group can help you roll an existing IRA or 401k, for example, into an IRA in gold. Or you can do what I just did. I just got Birch Gold to deliver more gold to my house a couple of days ago. Meaning just actual physical gold bullion gold coins. Birch Gold can make it happen for you. Text my name. Buck to 9898. 98 to claim your eligibility today. Gold makes sense. I'm a gold guy. Text buck to 98. 98. 98. Birch Gold Group. Caroline, if you were to see what's going on with particularly young white women in this country who are showing up at these protests, and they're screaming in the faces of these officers. It seems like something's really wrong with them. And they're the demographic that specifically voted more heavily for Kamala the last time around than even they did when they were voting for Biden in 2020. What's happened? Like, what's happened is, I'm not talking about the conservative women who are watching this because obviously they're not in this category. What has happened to these liberal white women who have completely lost their minds? Where did this come from?
Caroline Sunshine
Yeah, they're being completely emotionally manipulated to the point that they're risking their lives. That's why I say, when you look at the death of Renee Goode, I take no pleasure in that death. I don't agree with liberal women, but I don't want to see more of them die because their own side has no regard for their life and brainwashes them to risk their life in ways that. That are completely inappropriate and ultimately can result in death. I mean, I'm sure you've seen the same video I've seen of Renee Goode. The look in her eyes as she is behind the wheel of that vehicle and then ramming it into a federal officer. It's almost like. It's almost like it wasn't real life to her. Like she was detached from it or something, or she thought she was the hero in the story. You know, these women are being emotionally manipulated by culture. Alex Earle is one of the biggest female content influencers in the world, and she just posted about the death of Alex Preddy in Minneapolis to her millions of young female followers, of course, with zero context for what actually happened. So all they see is these. These fragments. All they see are these images deliberately placed in the media, you know, showing ICE looking. Looking like the bad guys that they aren't. And the media never focuses on the fact that ICE is actually really the core backbone force that are handling deporting, again, the rapists, the criminals, the wife beaters who have. Who have killed and abused one too many American women. But that doesn't even enter the information ecosystem of these liberal women. And then what it does is it drives the genders further away. Okay, right. Because you have these women who are now so liberal that they don't want to date the men. The men are so conservative, they don't want to date the women. And so these women, these liberal women, are kind of living in this bubble where they're not getting any other kind of perspective. And most importantly, they don't have anything in their lives, I believe, that grounds them. Because for Renee Goode to be impeding law enforcement operations on, what was it, a Wednesday at 2pm She's a mother of young children. No disrespect to the dead, but you have to be mentally ill to do something like that. And I say that out of a place of, like I said, genuine concern. It's a dumb way to die to block ice operations, just like it would be a dumb way to die to show up to a combat zone and say, I'd like to use my First Amendment right right now. It's dumb, but I take no pleasure in it. And I hope that the liberal media ecosystem realizes what they are doing to their own listeners and to their own.
Buck Sexton
Followers before we wrap up today, because we've actually covered a lot of ground here and, you know, move through this very quickly. But tell us how you got into politics. I've seen you on Fox. That's how we got you here. You did a great job on Fox. So I know you work in the Trump White House, but how'd you end up in the Trump White House?
Caroline Sunshine
I worked on the Disney Channel on a television series called Shake It Up. I that everybody has their American dream, Everybody has their childhood dream, and I got to live mine, which was to perform on the Disney Channel. I played a character on the series that was a Russian foreign exchange student. So I always joke that then when I went to work for President Trump, you know, I'm the closest thing there ever was to Russian collusion. But I left Hollywood. I was an intern in President Trump's White House. His message when he came down the escalator in 2015 really resonated with me. I was mad at the political class in this country that I had felt had failed us through their own selfish and stupid leadership. And I love my country, and I wanted to do something about it. And so I come from very liberal Hollywood, and I left to serve in President Trump's White House. I was canceled, experienced the full, full brunt of that for being canceled for my political opinions. And I learned so much going through that that made me want to speak up more rather than stay. Stay silent. And I love that. One of the great things about having President Trump back in the White House now is it finally feels like some of the tide of cancel culture has. Has turned. And you watch certain brands feel like they can't get away with what they got away with before. And so President Trump's, you know, win wasn't just a political win. It was. It was a cultural win, too. And I really want to make sure that as conservatives, again, I came from the cultural space where it's a very liberal industry. The left has held that ground for a long time. I'd love to see conservatives keep making grounds and Gains in culture. We're half the country, you know, and it's time that that's reflected in our culture.
Buck Sexton
What is your favorite Disney cartoon of all time?
Caroline Sunshine
Cartoon. So like, not. Not live action.
Buck Sexton
No, no, no, no. Yeah, because that's like, there's so much there. I'm trying to narrow it down a little bit for you here because, you know, we got obviously Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and then everything, you know, since. And in between.
Caroline Sunshine
Yeah, and like. Okay, so no live action movies. And like, do you count Pixar or do you want to be like the.
Buck Sexton
You can do. You can do Pixar. Just no live action. We'll just limit it to no live action.
Caroline Sunshine
Okay. Oh, that's tough because I also don't.
Buck Sexton
Even remember all the Disney movies that are Disney. Whereas, like the Disney cartoons. I always know it's a Disney cartoon.
Caroline Sunshine
What's your favorite one? I'm trying to think of mine just.
Buck Sexton
Because mine is a little bit off the beaten path. I mean, the. I do think the Lion King. The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin were kind of like peak Disney cultural influence for the cartoon stuff. But I always loved the Sword in the Stone and Archimedes the Owl. When I was a kid, I watched that a million times. I know every scene in that movie. And who. What? What? Like, I can do all. Like, I know all of it. So. So yeah, I actually. I actually want a pet owl so I can name him Archimedes. Like, I'm. I'm a weird guy, but that's. That's where I am.
Caroline Sunshine
You should get. What's stopping you? You should. That's really cool.
Buck Sexton
Actually. Technically, it's illegal. The problem is you're not allowed to have a pet owl. But yeah, you can't have an owl there. It's a bird of. They're considered a bird of prey. I've looked into this. Obviously considered a bird of prey. The problem is, imagine this. If you had a pet owl, you would have to feed it what it. And they eat essentially like mice and things like that. And then you have like mice bones and carcasses that pile up under wherever the owl. So it's like messy. It's not. It's not. Not a good thing to have in your house. You'd have like little mouse skeletons piling up in the corner. It's not good.
Caroline Sunshine
And now I feel stupid. I'm like. I feel like that's like saying like, why don't you have a pet bald eagle? It's like, well, Caroline. Because that's a No.
Buck Sexton
I mean, there is. So in Florida, since you're. Since we're on this topic in Florida, you can get a exotic animal license again, because I've looked into this, and I believe that an owl would be covered under a Class 3. Yeah, you can get a whole bunch of different stuff. There's like, three different classes. Class one is like a. Like a lion. And, like, you need a special. You know, you need to have, like, a preserve for that. And they can't just, like, get a pet lion, but you can get, like, sort of different kinds of snakes and things like that. I think you can get a skunk with a Class 3. You might be able to get. There's a small owl. I forget. I think it's a tawny owl. It might be a tawny owl, something like that that you might be able to get. But yeah, they have big talons. They're not as cute as Archimedes and Sword in the Stone. That's the problem, you know, and they don't talk, which Archimedes does, which I remember very well. So now that I've given you a lot of time to think this one through, your best Disney as a. As a Disney alumna yourself, your favorite Disney cartoon.
Caroline Sunshine
Growing up, I loved the Little Mermaid. And then I also loved. Because I love the ocean, but, I mean, I would watch the Little Mermaid to the point that I thought I could become a mermaid. And that's also one of the biggest reasons I'm against children having any right to decide if they're, like, a boy or a girl or need to transition is because, like, at 8 years old, I genuinely believed that I could be a mermaid. Because your faculties just aren't developed at, like, 8 years old, you know? So I genuinely thought, well, if I play the pool enough, like, I'll grow. Grow a tail, you know, Because I loved watching Little Mermaid doesn't really work like that, so you got to be more protective of kids. But Disney used to make so much great content. I loved growing up on that content. I hate a lot of what it's become because I think when it was at its best, like, even your reference was so niche. I love that. I think when it was at its best, before a lot of the woke content completely infiltrated it. It was so pure. Like, it was like childhood, you know, I grew up.
Buck Sexton
I grew up watching Disney cartoons as a kid, so I really was. And even movies like Old Yeller, which I think no one remembers Old Yeller, that. That I still. I still get, like, choked up.
Caroline Sunshine
I mean, when Lion King makes me choke up. When, like, I've just recently watched the live action version of the Lion King, and, like, there's something about Mufasa, you know.
Buck Sexton
Oh, yeah.
Caroline Sunshine
Giving his life for his son that I think, like, will always get you. It makes me tear up. Yeah.
Buck Sexton
Yeah. Great, great content. When they're not doing the, like, woke trying to tranny your kids stuff, which unfortunately, in recent years, they've done a lot of that.
Caroline Sunshine
That's what I mean.
Buck Sexton
Right.
Caroline Sunshine
It's like, I miss all of the. They had such a good way back during that generation of content of figuring out how to, like, kind of impart values and lessons to you and the kind of sneaky, like, put the spinach in the spaghetti sauce kind of way. And it's a. It's a shame for the company and for our culture that they've. They've moved away from that. We got to get that back or make it better.
Buck Sexton
Absolutely. Where can people go to follow your content? Check things out.
Caroline Sunshine
Yeah. Thank you for watching and for having me. You can follow me on x, which is CSunshine, and then you can follow me on Instagram, Caroline Sunshine. And I'm experimenting with TikTok, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes.
Buck Sexton
All right. Thanks for being here. Good to see you.
Caroline Sunshine
Thanks for having me. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Episode: Buck Brief - We Can't Lose the Battle for Minneapolis
Date: January 29, 2026
Host: Buck Sexton
Guest: Caroline Sunshine (Former Trump White House Communications, Disney Channel alum, conservative commentator)
In this episode, Buck Sexton sits down with Caroline Sunshine to discuss the recent high-profile deaths during ICE enforcement operations in Minneapolis, the media and political narrative surrounding these events, and the broader implications for immigration enforcement and conservative messaging. The conversation also touches on the manipulation of liberal activists, cancel culture, and ends with a lighthearted reflection on Disney movies and culture.
“You don’t have the right to fly to Baghdad and get in the middle of a Marine convoy… That is a soldier's workplace, just like that was ICE's workplace.” (04:43)
“They know what they're doing, they are performers… acting.” (09:11)
She contrasts their performative grief with their ignoring tragic deaths of American women and children by illegal immigrants.
“They're being completely emotionally manipulated to the point that they're risking their lives… It's a dumb way to die to block ICE operations…”
“I take no pleasure in that death… I don't want to see more of them die because their own side has no regard for their life and brainwashes them…” (13:20)
“I left Hollywood…to serve in President Trump’s White House. I was canceled, experienced the full brunt of that for being canceled for my political opinions.”
“We're half the country… and it’s time that’s reflected in our culture.” (16:36)
“At 8 years old, I genuinely believed that I could be a mermaid… because your faculties just aren't developed at, like, 8 years old.” (20:16)
“It's a shame for the company and our culture that they've moved away from that. We got to get that back or make it better.” (21:49)
“You don’t have the right to fly to Baghdad and get in the middle of a Marine convoy… That is a soldier's workplace, just like that was ICE's workplace.”
— Caroline Sunshine (04:43)
"They know what they're doing, they are performers… acting."
— Caroline Sunshine (09:11)
“They're being completely emotionally manipulated… It's almost like it wasn't real life to her. Like she was detached from it or something, or she thought she was the hero in the story.”
— Caroline Sunshine (12:28)
“I take no pleasure in that death… I don't want to see more of them die because their own side has no regard for their life and brainwashes them…”
— Caroline Sunshine (13:20)
“At 8 years old, I genuinely believed that I could be a mermaid… because your faculties just aren't developed at, like, 8 years old.”
— Caroline Sunshine (20:16)
"We're half the country… and it’s time that’s reflected in our culture."
— Caroline Sunshine (16:36)
Overall Tone:
Candid, intense, blending irreverent critique with personal anecdotes and occasional humor. The speakers maintain a conversational approach while wrestling with contentious cultural and political subjects.