Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Apr 29 2025

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show - Daily Review with Clay and Buck Episode: April 29, 2025

Hosts: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Featuring: Vice President J.D. Vance

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Overview

In this episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, Clay and Buck delve into the first 100 days of President Donald Trump's second term, dubbed "Trump 2.0." The discussion encompasses a wide array of topics, including economic investments, border security, judicial challenges, cultural issues, and trade policies. The episode also features an in-depth conversation with Vice President J.D. Vance, who provides insights into the administration's strategies and future plans.

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1. Trump's First 100 Days: An Overview

Buck Sexton opens the show by highlighting the significance of Trump's initial 100 days in his second term. He describes the period as "transformative" and "fast and furious," setting the stage for a comprehensive review of the administration's early accomplishments and ongoing challenges.

Buck Sexton [01:08]:
"100 days of Trump. Absolutely fantastic stuff to talk about here. We will dive into all of the latest with the Trump administration..."

2. Economic Investments and Job Creation

Clay Travis outlines the substantial economic investments spearheaded by the Trump administration, amounting to over $5 trillion. Key investments include:

• Apple: $500 billion in US-based manufacturing and training
• Nvidia: $500 billion in AI infrastructure
• TSMC: $100 billion in US-based chips manufacturing
• OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank: $500 billion in AI infrastructure

These commitments are projected to generate at least 451,000 new high-paying jobs, surpassing the investment achievements of the previous administration.

Clay Travis [04:47]:
"So far, total investment commitments under the Trump administration have reached more than $5 trillion including 500 billion from Apple in US based manufacturing and training..."

3. Border Security and Immigration Policies

Buck Sexton contrasts the administration's border policies with those of former President Biden, asserting that the border is now 95% secure.

Buck Sexton [05:31]:
"Trump is a dealmaker, as we know Clay, and we'll talk more about tariffs... in 100 days, totally."

Vice President J.D. Vance elaborates on the administration's efforts to strengthen border security and ramp up deportations, emphasizing the legal battles faced against far-left judges attempting to impede these measures.

J.D. Vance [20:14]:
"The administration recognizes that we're dealing with a massive bureaucracy that has decided that they are actually in charge of the United States of America... that's exactly what we're doing."

4. Judicial Resistance and Legal Battles

VP Vance discusses the ongoing conflicts with district courts, particularly those influenced by far-left ideologies, which seek to limit the president's executive authority. He underscores the administration's commitment to fighting these legal challenges through the courts and exploring alternative methods to achieve policy goals.

J.D. Vance [22:28]:
"The constitutional crisis is not Donald Trump refusing to allow the district courts to govern the country. The crisis is the district courts trying to govern the country."

5. Government Waste and the DOGE Mission

The administration's efforts to identify and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse within the government are highlighted through the DOGE initiative. VP Vance notes significant progress but acknowledges that the mission is ongoing, requiring collaboration with Congress for rescissions on identified wasteful spending.

J.D. Vance [25:10]:
"DOGE is making a lot of progress, but it's not done. And I don't think it's ever going to be truly done. This is one of these problems that we have to continually fight against."

6. Cultural Issues: Men in Women's Sports and Transgender Policies

Clay and Buck address the contentious issue of men competing in women's sports and broader transgender policies affecting athletics. VP Vance expresses strong opposition to these policies, advocating for the protection of young women in sports and critiquing corporate involvement in these cultural debates.

J.D. Vance [27:36]:
"People don’t want women competing against grown men in sports, especially in some of these contact sports where the women could get injured. This is basic common sense."

7. Tariffs and Trade Policies

The administration's tariffs and trade negotiations, particularly with China, are defended as necessary measures to enhance America's self-reliance and reduce dependency on hostile foreign powers. VP Vance emphasizes the importance of increasing domestic manufacturing to secure critical supplies.

J.D. Vance [30:04]:
"We don't have enough manufacturing in our own country. We're too reliant on sometimes hostile foreign powers to make the things that we need."

8. Poll Numbers and Public Perception

The hosts analyze Trump's current polling numbers, noting a 12-point gap below President Biden's approval rating. Clay argues that poll numbers are less pertinent since Trump is not eligible for re-election, suggesting that the focus should remain on policy achievements rather than public perception.

Clay Travis [11:13]:
"Trump is uniquely liberated to do what he thinks the right results are without having to worry about the day to day polling."

Buck concurs, highlighting the media's role in shaping negative perceptions despite economic and policy successes.

Buck Sexton [41:37]:
"The poll numbers don't matter. Why would they matter right now? No one's going to care what the polls were now in six months or even in six weeks."

9. Conclusion and Future Outlook

Clay and Buck conclude by reaffirming their support for the Trump administration's policies, emphasizing the importance of continued focus on economic issues such as inflation, tax cuts, and national debt. They also highlight the potential legacy of President Trump in paving the way for VP Vance's future political endeavors.

Clay Travis [50:46]:
"If you were going to be judged on something, what would you want to be judged on? Bringing inflation down and cost of goods being not a massive thing that everybody's obsessed with."

Buck wraps up by addressing ongoing economic concerns and the administration's commitment to resolving them.

Buck Sexton [52:13]:
"The main thing is you don't want overspending like we saw under Biden, because that is what creates inflation."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Buck Sexton [01:08]:
  "100 days of Trump. Absolutely fantastic stuff to talk about here."

• Clay Travis [04:47]:
  "Total investment commitments under the Trump administration have reached more than $5 trillion..."

• J.D. Vance [20:14]:
  "We're going to have to take some of this stuff all the way to the Supreme Court."

• J.D. Vance [27:36]:
  "People don’t want women competing against grown men in sports... It's basic common sense."

• Clay Travis [11:13]:
  "Trump is uniquely liberated to do what he thinks the right results are without having to worry about the day to day polling."

• Buck Sexton [41:37]:
  "The poll numbers don't matter. Why would they matter right now?"

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Final Thoughts

The first 100 days of the Trump administration's second term have been marked by significant policy actions and strategic initiatives aimed at bolstering the US economy, securing borders, and addressing cultural and judicial challenges. While facing opposition and unfavorable polling, the administration remains focused on its long-term goals, setting a robust foundation for continued influence and potential future leadership through Vice President J.D. Vance.

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For more insights and detailed discussions, tune into The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

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[Buck Sexton]

Welcome everybody. Tuesday edition of Clay and buck. And it's 100 days of Trump into this second term. 100 days of Trump. Absolutely fantastic stuff to talk about here. We will dive into all of the latest with the Trump administration, but also take a look at what has gone on so far. It has been transformative, it has been fast and furious and it is just the beginning. So we want to take a moment here to see how it has been and will be on Trump 2.0. And we'll take your calls on this obviously and have a free flowing conversation about the wins and the challenges left to be tackled. We've also got J.D. vance, Vice President Vance Clay and I both will have to try not to call him JD because we've known him as JD for years but now he is Vice President Vance. He will be with us. We did an interview with him second hour of the program, so definitely want to tune in. Talking about all the big stuff going on right now, everything from men and women's sports to tariffs to the border to Trump 2.0. So definitely second hour, diving into that. Looking forward to that conversation for all of you and we have more to look at here on the sports side of things. Clay, the Philadelphia Eagles went to the White House, which is very nice. They had a nice time. From what I understand, the Canadian election didn't exactly go the way we wanted it to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. We won't spend too much time on this because, well, very few of you live in Canada, so not really our problem. There are some, we have some Canadian.

[Clay Travis]

Listeners, but generally I don't know anything about Canadian politics. We talked some about Pierre Poliev because he had a couple of viral videos. But once Trump won, I gotta Be honest with you, my interest in what happened in America's top hat really kind of vanished. I feel bad for Canadians stuck behind enemy lines. But I, we're kind of rolling here, so it's hard for me to get too worked up about what happens in Canada. I think that's probably the general perspective. But we do have empathy for those of you a that are stuck above the border dealing with chaos and insane leadership.

[Buck Sexton]

They didn't learn the lessons of Trudeau painfully enough. This is what you see in microcosm in places. Well, actually I think California has more people than Canada. But this is what you see in places like California where even when there's tremendous mismanagement, you have Democrats who double and triple down on the madness. Well, the liberals, the leftists in Canada, doubling and tripling down on the madness. They want everything to be dysfunctional. They want you have sky high housing prices and a, an anemic economy and all these things. Okay, they want to have bad health care that they tell themselves is great because it's free, but actually it's not free at all. It's very expensive when you add the time and the cost and the inability to get care. But like I said, Canada, not our problem. Not going to be the 51st state either. So who cares? Well, we care a little bit, but we don't care that much. Now 100 days of Trump and some exciting things going on. Let's take it first to this cut to Caroline Levitt talking about what the some of the top line numbers are for this first 100 days of Trump 2.0. Play it.

[Clay Travis]

So far, total investment commitments under the Trump administration have reached more than $5 trillion including 500 billion from Apple in US based manufacturing and training, 500 billion from Nvidia and AI infrastructure, 100 billion from TSMC and US based chips manufacturing, and the $500 billion private investment by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank in AI infrastructure as well. All of these investment commitments are estimated to generate at least 451,000 new high paying jobs for American workers and families. At this point, President Trump has secured more investments in the United States of America in 100 days than Joe Biden did in four years.

[Buck Sexton]

Trump is a dealmaker, as we know Clay, and we'll talk more about tariffs. We'll ask JD Vance about that too. But in terms of the economy being open for business in this country, and particularly look at things like going to maximize, trying to maximize energy production, going after our own resources, a lot to be proud of so far. In 100 days, totally.

[Clay Travis]

And some people are going to say, because the negative, given that we're at 100 days, going to be, hey, let's look at the polling numbers. Here's what I would say about the polls. First of all, I don't really care. And you might say, okay, what do you mean by that? Trump is not going to be eligible to run for reelection. So I suspect that by the time Trump's term is coming near an end that he will be on a popularity upswing like we saw with Barack Obama and with Bill Clinton. By and large, as you sign onto this buck, that the only two two term presidents that could have been reelected if they had been able to run would have been Bill Clinton in 2000 and, and Barack Obama I think would have won in 2016. Now maybe not. I also think Ronald Reagan, if he had been able to run in 1988, even with his advanced age, would have likely won two. I think Trump will be at his peak popularity. Here's a three year in advance prediction. Trump in the fall of 2028 will be at peak popularity because the impact of his trade agreements and of his economic policies will be flourishing at a high level. I think we will have peace. And I think that if Trump were eligible to run for a third term that he would win again in 2028. So I think it's very, very early. Very early.

[Buck Sexton]

A lot of historically very early. A lot of we can't test the thesis one way or the other. I mean, I think Bill Clinton is incredibly lucky as a politician in the luck that that guy had on a whole range of things. But if he had been in office when 9, 11 actually happened, the straight line between him being an imbecile on foreign policy and missing every chance and us getting hit with the worst attack since Pearl harbor would have been irrefutable even for Democrats. Also the stock market crash, also a lot of things. This guy got out.

[Clay Travis]

But don't you disagree that he would have won? I think he would have beaten George W. Bush.

[Buck Sexton]

I don't know. I don't know.

[Clay Travis]

I think he would have won. I think Reagan would have won in 88. This is an argument in favor of Reagan.

[Buck Sexton]

Reagan would have been too. Reagan would have been too old at that point. That would have been a problem for him.

[Clay Travis]

I think he would have won because the only reason that George Bush senior one was because Reagan was so beloved and obviously Dukakis was not a candidate. You don't think Ronald Reagan would have beaten Dukakis in 88 even old Reagan.

[Buck Sexton]

He would have won. You, I mean, if you're throwing in the mix, like, who he's going up against, you know, Barack Obama, though, running. Barack Obama running against Donald Trump. I actually don't think Barack Obama would have won. I think Trump, I think.

[Clay Travis]

I think.

[Buck Sexton]

I think he would have won that election.

[Clay Travis]

I think that Obama would have beaten Trump in 16.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, remember, you. And I disagree vociferously on that.

[Clay Travis]

Remember Hillary, first of all, I don't think Trump would have been the nominee necessarily, but Hillary came within whatever it was, 80,000. Hillary was an awful candidate, right? Awful candidate. She was. I mean, even Democrats, looking back, they're like, man, you know, she just. I don't know who she would have been able to beat. I think Trump was a great candidate against her, ran a phenomenal campaign. But I actually think the best campaign Trump ran was 24 of his three election campaigns. Sixteen was phenomenal. I think he was so well schooled by 24. 16 was more haphazard. I think that this one was great. Again, we're 100 days.

[Buck Sexton]

16 was. Was insurgency. He was the insurgency against the machine. And just like happens sometimes in real life, the insurgency overcame the superior force in terms of battlefield operations. And then in 24, it was the comeback campaign. So the great American comeback, which. So the narratives, I think were pretty clear in both of those. And then 2020 was the COVID you know, freak show, what the hell is going on? Campaign for everybody. And, and I know all the other stuff, quote, unquote, shenanigans. We won't talk about it right now, but anyway, Clay, I think that Trump's first 100 days, here's the. Here's what we have to remember about it. We wanted him to do the things. We want him to do the things that he promised to do. And some of those things are disruptive. And disruptive things can be a little bit off putting sometimes to the markets. It can feel a little bit. They can create a little bit of anxiety among people because, oh, wait, it's not exactly status quo, is comfortable. This is why so often, and particularly in politics, I think people get into inertia. Well, this is the way it is, so this is the way it will be. This is the way we've done things. So let's keep doing it that way. Trump isn't running again. I know he jokes about the third term. That's the troll, Libs. It's like the 51st state, Canada. That's the troll. You know, know Canada and Trudeau and the Rest of them. Clay, he's not running again. We need him to do the things that a politician who's obsessed with his next election won't do. Yes, and this is what is so key.

[Clay Travis]

That's why I'm saying the polling I'm not focused on if he were trying to run for reelection. I think you'll look at polling and you think about how that's going to play out. He is uniquely liberated to do what he thinks the right results are without having to worry about the day to day polling. And, and by the way, that is potentially going to run out in 2026 when they're likely going to impeach Trump again. If Democrats take back control of the House, they don't have anything new to hit him with. So expect for them to go back to the tried and true failed methods of the past. We've already seen it with them trying to broadcast and attack him by saying he's Hitler. I think where we are likely headed is Trump has got to get everything done between now and the summer of 2026 and then we will see the House come down to five or six different really close races and Democrats are either going to have a tiny minority or Republicans are going to have a tiny, tiny majority. Right. Tiny leadership I think that we're going to see in the Senate. Good stuff. Republicans are going to maintain control of the Senate. So for judges, things like that, Trump is going to have four years to get his, get his view of the judiciary through, get as many different judges confirmed. But in order to have both control of the House and the Senate, he's got to be fast, he's got to be decisive. And I think that's what you're seeing right now. And sometimes that's going to make people a little bit upset. So that's why I'm not concerned about any of the polling to the extent it's accurate as we sit here at 100 days. Because he's making decisions that are multi years in nature.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, yes, and this is why I want Trump to not care about the polls right now because the polls in a year as they pertain to the midterms and the Republican Party in its future will matter. The polls right now do not matter at all. In fact, all the polls really do is give a talking point to anti Trump media and the Democrat Party that want to create a perception of oh, this isn't working. Oh, oh, this is failing. Trump should not be doing the things that he's doing. He's doing what he promised to do. When he ran, he said he would take on the tariff issue. He said he would get a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. He said he'd secure the border. You know, I could go down the whole list. He's doing the things he said he would do. Some of these things are, as we've said, a departure from the status quo. They are disruptive. And so clay, by their very nature, they're going to create a little bit of friction and a little bit of uncertainty. If you, if you don't want that, you don't want change, you don't want someone to fix anything. You just want more of the same. I think we all need to remember that the first 100 days has been a plus overall. It's not perfect. Nothing ever will be. And there's no certainties, there's no guarantees in life. But he's doing what he said he would do and he, I think he should have our full support as he continues to, to pursue that mandate. If he had veered off into nonsense, I'd be saying, why did he veer off into nonsense? That's not what has happened.

[Clay Travis]

I also think, and we'll talk about this more, the next hundred days or so are set up to be incredibly consequential. Hopefully we get some form of resolution in Ukraine, more resolution in Gaza, and again, inflation, which to me, I'll hit you when we come back Buck with what the American public from an economic perspective is most focused on. And inflation is at four year lows. To me, that is the number one laser focus. After Biden took us over 9%, people still feel like things cost more than they should. Tomorrow evening, Israel begins celebrating their own Independence Day 77th anniversary as a nation. And like our Independence Day, it should be a celebration. But this year, once again, it's going to be tense for the majority of people living in Israel. Freedom nothing more than a daily struggle just to survive. There's no real peace, only hesitation and fear of when another missile attack might arrive. It's difficult to find moments of joy when there is so much danger and suffering out there. The Israeli government appreciates the international fellowship of Christians and Jews because they're helping to make sure the elderly, the sick, the wounded, soldiers and impoverished families, they don't fall through the cracks. I, I saw all the work that the Fellowship does when I was in Israel during December. We can provide, thanks to you guys, life saving aid, medicine, hearty meals, safety and comfort. When we bless the people of Israel, we unlock God's blessing in our lives as well, you can join us and show your support for Israel by making a life saving gift today. Call to make your gift at 888-488 IFC. That's 888-488-4325. You can also go online at supportifcj.org One word supportifcj.org Saving America One thought at a Time Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Clay Travis]

Play and buck here 100 days of the Trump Vance administration and we are joined now by Vice President J.D. vance. And we're going to get into all the successes, the border and more. But JD I don't know if you've answered this question, but on the first day of your administration, Ohio State won the national championship against Notre Dame, but you had a ton of obligations as the newly inaugurated vice president. Do you have like an official Buckeye guy who was following you around that day, giving you updates during the course of the game? I know you're a big fan. I've actually I wondered about it that night. I don't know if you've answered it. I would have. If my University of Tennessee ever gets back in the in the title game, I would be terrified to miss any of it. What was your play there for national title game day as a Buckeye?

[J.D. Vance]

Yes. There are a couple different things going on. So first I actually talked to my team about whether it would be possible to skip the inaugural balls so that I would be able to go to the game. And actually, you know, I guess we'd get inaugurated, we'd go to a few parties, and then I'd be able to watch the game while the President took care of the inaugural Balls. The team was not a huge fan of that. Apparently it would have been unprecedented for the vice president to skip the inaugural balls the night of the inauguration. What we were able to do, though, is before the first ball, I actually had all of my friends and family. We got, basically we turned the big hotel room into a sports bar. And so I was able to watch the first quarter before the first ball. And I think it was either right after the second or the third ball. Notre Dame started to come back a little bit. And so I sat in a room with like a 19 inch TV and just sort of watched the Buckeyes put it away. So I got to see a little bit of it, man. But yeah, it's, it's, it's. On the one hand, like, what a cool day for an Ohio State fan to be inaugurated as a vice president and have your team win the national championship. On the other hand, was sad to miss most of the game, but, you know, official duties come first.

[Buck Sexton]

JD I was also happy to see a Vice President Vance, very happy to see my beloved Buckeyes do so well. I want to ask you, I want to ask you about the, about the border, if I can, and what's going on with the administration on. Well, let's, let's get into the next steps. The good news is you can sit here and tell us, but Clay and I have been telling everybody about this. So far, the border is secure, 95% drop. The stats speak for themselves. Biden kicked the border wide open. It was a choice. Trump has actually secured the border. Fantastic. We still have millions and millions of illegals who came in under Biden. What should we expect from the perspective of building on the border successes so far in the next six to 12 months?

[J.D. Vance]

Yeah, well, obviously we know we have to ramp up deportations and the president talks about this all the time, both in public and private. It's something that I'm very focused on. And a lot of this comes down to, I mean, it turns out we've got to do some battle with some really crazy far left judges in order to allow the administration to do what it actually needs to do. And I will say to great credit, the president expected this. When we came in, he said, you know, we're going to start deporting people and a lot of these far left judges are going to stop us and there's no way out of it, but through it. And we're just going to have to battle. We're going to have to win the court cases. We're going to have to take some of this stuff all the way to the Supreme Court. And we're going to have to find alternative ways to deport people. When the judges say, you can't do this method, we're going to have to find another method. So we recognize that we're dealing battle here, or doing battle with basically a massive bureaucracy that has decided that it rules the country rather than the American people. And I think one of the biggest takeaways of the 100 days is, yes, we've got a lot of successes. We've also revealed ways in which this deeply entrenched bureaucracy tries to fight the will of the American people. And thank God we've got a vice president and a president who are pushing back against it. And that's exactly what we told the American people we would do. That's exactly what we're doing. But I think that is really the biggest focal point of immigration policy over the next six to 12 months is to empower all of the people in the administration, from Tom Homan and Kristi Noem to the Border Patrol agents on the ground, to do their job and to get a lot of these people out of our country. Now, that said, we have had great success, but we're not resting on our laurels here. We're shutting down the border traffic coming into the country, and we're dealing with what Biden left us simultaneously. That's exactly what we have to do.

[Clay Travis]

You're not only an Ohio State grad, you're also a Yale Law grad. And you just talked about where the Resistance 2.0, I would say, is coming from largely the 600 some odd district court judges who are regularly putting in place nationwide injunctions. What's a fix to that? And are even you surprised by how aggressive the judiciary has been to try to strip the president's executive authority?

[J.D. Vance]

You know, I'm not surprised by it because, again, the president actually expected this. He told us this would happen. You know, he felt, and I think he was right about this, that, you know, the left felt defeated in a certain way, that there were a lot of, you know, grassroots activists that just weren't nearly as fired up in 2024 as they were in 2016. And he's talking about people on the far left, but he said that, look, the courts are going to try to stop everything that we do. And it's actually not just immigration. I mean, the courts have tried to stop Pete Hegseth from not allowing, you know, transgender military personnel to continue serving. They've done a lot. I mean, which goes to the heart of military readiness. Right? The Secretary of Defense saying that, you know, if you're dealing with a serious mental health issue, our compassion goes with you, but you can't be deployed to the battlefield. Like that is the heart of the President and the Secretary of Defense's authorities. And so you have these district courts who really want to run the country and have decided that they are actually in charge of the United States of America. There's this very funny, I think, headline from the Babylon Bee that was, you know, something like, donald Trump considers resigning to become a very powerful district court judge. But it's one of these jokes with a colonel of truth, which is that the district courts in this country have tried to take upon themselves powers that belong to the President, United States. And it's funny, guys. You know, you hear the media and they'll say, well, this is a constitutional crisis. And the constitutional crisis is not Donald Trump refusing to allow the district courts to govern the country. The crisis is the district courts trying to govern the country. And our approach is we're fighting it legally, of course, we're taking some of these cases to the Supreme Court, and we think we're going to get success there. We're finding alternative methods to do what we need to do in compliance with the law. And we're just going to have to keep on fighting this, you know, day by day, figuring out where the district courts. And it's to be clear, it's not all district courts, it's the far left crazies. But when these far left crazies stop in and try to prevent the President from doing his job, we've got to do it through alternative means. And that's what we're trying to do.

[Buck Sexton]

We're speaking to Vice President Vance. And Mr. Vice President, let me ask you about how things are going at this stage with not just identifying the waste, fraud and abuse within the government, a big mission that Doge has taken upon itself, but what we can expect. Now, how much of this do you think has been completed? When, when you look at Elon and Doge's mission, does Congress have to play a major role with rescissions, essentially? We know there's a lot of shenanigans going on, but how do we actually get the shenanigans in government spending to stop? Where are we on that?

[J.D. Vance]

Yeah, I think we're making a lot of progress. I wouldn't say that it's done by any means. And yes, Congress has a role, because here's what happens if Doge and Elon find $10 billion of spending. That's just ridiculous. That's not consistent with the law or with the administration's policy priorities. That money just kind of sits there. And so it's still been taxed from the American people. And if we want to use it to pay down debt or to give it back to the American people through tax relief, then that does require an act of Congress. And I think Congress is very willing to do it. But I don't know if you saw, I think it was today or maybe yesterday, a report came out that treasury actually is borrowing less money than they expected to borrow. And I think that's because of the success of doge. You're seeing them make meaningful cuts in some of these crazy foreign aid programs. But I also think they're finding a lot of fraud in programs that are meant for American citizens that are going either to illegal aliens or to complete fraudsters. And so I think DOGE is making a lot of progress, but it's not done. And I don't think it's ever going to be truly done. Right. This is one of these problems that we have to continually fight against. And the reason why it was such a shock to the system is we had allowed the waste and the fraud to become so endemic in the way that we did government in this country. And I don't think we should ever go back. And I actually do think, and maybe this is too optimistic, that when all the political controversy is cleared, we look back on this a few years from now, we're going to realize that Doge saved the American people a lot of money, that cut a lot of fraud out of our government, and that even some Democrats are going to say, well, we have to keep doing this because we can't just let hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud every single year become part of how the U.S. government functions.

[Clay Travis]

We're talking to Vice President J.D. vance. You guys have made tremendous strides with young men. The data continues to reflect that young men are breaking for both you and Donald Trump in big numbers. I think a big part of that is because young men are over this idea of men being able to play women's sports. I can't believe this is even a thing. Nike, you may have seen, recently paid for a study on minors to study trans drugs and how it might impact athletics. How did the world get so broken here? What are companies like Nike even trying to accomplish? And this feels like an 80, 20, 90, 10 issue for Americans. Do you feel that when you're out and about, I Do feel that.

[J.D. Vance]

I definitely think it's a winning political issue for the Republican Party because it's, it's just basic common sense, right? I mean, people don't want women competing against grown men in sports, especially in some of these contact sports where the women could get injured. You know, I'm the father of a three year old daughter. I'd like her to play sports. I think it teaches valuable life lessons, but I don't want her competing against grown men when she does it. This is just, again, it's basic common sense. I think it's the basic masculine instinct to protect young women. And one of the ways you do that is to not let, you know, a male boxer in the room with a female boxer. Just things like that I think have turned it into a 9010 issue. That basic common sense. But man, I think that so many of these companies, Nike or otherwise, they got caught up in this cultural zeitgeist of 2020, 2021. And it's like, I don't know, maybe they just thought the progressives were going to win and so they decided to fund this stuff to the hilt, not realizing that the American people would have a rebellion against the craziness. I think that rebellion on the trans issue in particular, I mean, think about this. Giving hormonal therapies to 12 year old kids, causing irreversible damage to their bodies, forcing young girls to compete against boys in sports, sometimes causing serious injury in the process. I think this issue is such a bad loser among the American people that even some of the true believers have dropped it as a political issue. But I think it's our job to remind the American people this is what they've tried to do, this is what they're promising to do. The trans issue hasn't gone away. You just had some Democrats who are smart enough to recognize it's a political loser. But yeah, they're gonna try to force 12 year olds to take cross sex hormones and they're gonna try to force young girls to compete against young boys. If we give these guys power. The craziness, in other words, hasn't gotten away. They've just gotten a little bit better at hiding it.

[Buck Sexton]

Mr. Vice President, one more for you. Appreciate you making the time for us today. The tariffs issue is something that has gotten a lot of attention on this show across the country for obvious reasons. People are very attuned to what the Trump negotiations with these countries and his approach to China is doing to the economy, the market, prices, everything. Wall Street Journal being a little salty about it today on their front page. What do you say to anyone who is trying to steer Donald Trump away from this course because they're a little nervous about the tariff situation?

[J.D. Vance]

So I've had so many conversations, guys, in private with the President about this and I think his public statements, I mean, going Back to the 1980s, this is an issue that he feels very deeply about. I happen to think that he's right. He campaigned on it. The American people elected him on it. And there's a lot of misinformation out there. There's a lot of people saying, well, Donald Trump doesn't know what he's actually doing. Look, I promise I've spent many hours discussing these issues with Donald Trump. You can disagree with him, but he knows exactly what he's doing. And here's the fundamental problem. America doesn't produce enough of its own stuff. That is the issue. We don't have enough manufacturing in our own country. We're too reliant on sometimes hostile foreign powers to make the things that we need. And that's true in electronics, it's true in technology. It's true. And God forbid, you know, we've had shortages of critical pharmaceuticals in this country over the last few years. We cannot have a real successful, prosperous country if we're dependent on the communist Chinese for the drugs that we put into the bodies of our children. And so what the President has said here is, yes, this is going to be disruptive, yes, this is going to require some transition. But he's fundamentally committed to the basic process of manufacturing more in the United States, creating good paying jobs in the process, but more fundamentally making America more self reliant. And I think the problem is that we had a bipartisan consensus in this country for 40 years that we could just ship all of our heavy industry overseas, that we could ship a lot of our good jobs overseas, a lot of our factories, and that somehow that would make the United States more prosperous. I think the reality is that it's made us weaker. It's made us more dependent on the communist Chinese. And when you see, for example, the Chinese respond to the President's trade policy by saying, well, we're going to cut off the United States from critical supplies that are necessary for the American people, doesn't that just prove that Donald Trump was right? How did we ever get into the position where the People's Republic of China could threaten the American people with the loss of critical supplies? And given that we are in that position, Donald Trump is exactly right that we have to get out of it. I'm not going to tell you it's going to be easy because it's not. But it's necessary and I think the President recognizes he is a once in a generation opportunity to do it.

[Clay Travis]

J.D. vance, Vice President of the United States, congratulations on the first hundred days and your Ohio State Buckeyes being the National Champs. We hope to talk to you again soon. Keep up the good work.

[J.D. Vance]

Thanks guys. Take care.

[Clay Travis]

It's Vice President J.D. vance talking about so many different issues associated with the economy and one thing out there that many of you are focused on is President Trump was right when he said Obamacare sucks. There are better health care plan choices then the so called Affordable Care act which is anything but affordable. You can replace your overpriced plan with Ease for Everyone, the only group plan that any adult in the US Is now eligible to join. Compare Ease for Everyone to Obamacare with a cost as low as 262 bucks per month. You get free unlimited prescriptions, 93% of all drugs covered available at no extra cost, including insulin. Huge savings on brand names as well. Free unlimited virtual primary care urgent care. With just a $30 copay, you get generous cash back reimbursements for doctor office visits, emergency room visits and ambulance transportation. You can have affordable health care for as low as $262 a month. Today visit ease for everyone.com clay that's ease e a s e 4 f o r everyone.com clay you can find the [e-mail] on the sponsors page too. Ease for everyone.com clay paid for by Affordable Benefit Choices. Want to be in the know when you're on the go the Team 47 podcast. Drop highlights from the week, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. He is the most consequential American leader of the 21st century.

[Buck Sexton]

And that's an understatement President Trump has. Here's a list. Removed men from women's sports, ended DEI in the federal government and the US Military, expanded oil and gas extraction to lower prices, taken steps to end unfair trade practices, secured trillions of dollars in.

[Clay Travis]

New investments in American manufacturing, deported criminal.

[Buck Sexton]

Illegal aliens, stood up for religious liberty and rooted out anti Christian bias, combated virulent anti Semitism on college campuses. The list goes on and on and on. That's just barely scratching the surface. That's in 100 days.

[Clay Travis]

We're just getting started.

[Buck Sexton]

Just getting started. That was speaker Mike Johnson Talking about Trump's first hundred days. We are at that mark right now. The time is flying by, but certainly a lot already for the Trump administration to tout in terms of accomplishments and a lot more on the way. And Clay, I don't know if you saw this, but our friend Senator Tommy Tuberville, he went full A plus in his grading here, so I scaled mine down to an A because I think you can't really give an A plus. But Senator Tuberville, he thinks you can play 600 days. What do you think? A plus, what else can he do? Larry, they left it in a total mess. I was up here for four years of Joe Biden. They did not do one thing for the American people or for this country. They actually tried to destroy it and everything went down. Now President Trump has got, got foreign wars, he's got deportations, you know, the border, the tax cuts, trying to save the economy. What a total disaster the Democrats created. And they're on the steps of the cap of the Capitol, you know, Kumbaya and all this kind of stuff going on. And they make absolutely no sense of what's, what's happened. And they don't know how, they don't have a clue how to fix anything. So they're just trying to create problems. I think that's certainly the case. Democrats are just an opposition party or party of no. Now that when you're out of power is always somewhat true. But you can also say, I don't like what he's doing. Here's what should be done. Democrats just still chant about Hitler and all kinds of exaggerated crazy nonsense to oppose Trump. But Clay, here's one area where they're going after him using numbers. This is cut 16. CNN's Harry Entin yesterday on the 100 day mark saying, or just before the 100 day mark saying that the poll numbers aren't in his favor. Play that one. These numbers are just horrible. There's no way to sugarcoat it. And the first way we'll sort of point that out is we'll look at where Donald Trump is now versus where he was 100 days into his first presidency. And you see it here. You don't have to be a mathematical genius. 41% approve of him. Now, it was 44% back in 2017, around the 100 day mark. And what's so notable here is that throughout his second term as president, he tended to be running ahead of where he was in his first term. No longer is that the case. He has fallen below where he was at this point in his first term, of course, this is just Trump. Let's compare him to other presidents. And I really think this kind of puts a bow on it. And you can see it here. You see the 41%. That is 12 points below Joe Biden. That's three points below where he was in his first term. Shouldn't that tell us, Clay, that it doesn't matter If Biden was 12 points ahead of where Trump is now? He had a failed presidency, he was a disaster, and he was hiding dementia from the American people. That's just one example of. Or one data point toward. I don't care what Trump's poll numbers are right now. I care that Trump is pursuing the agenda. That's what he's supposed to do. And people who are getting weak knees over tariffs need to stiffen their spines a little bit.

[Clay Travis]

I also think that poll numbers for presidents only matter if they can run for reelection. We talked to J.D. vance at the top of the last hour. J.D. vance, I imagine, would like to be the successor of Trump. He is the person who would be running in some way more than anyone on what the legacy of Trump is. If Trump has, as I think he will, a very popular legacy in 2028, then I think JD Vance will win the presidency, because I would expect that JD will be the favorite in 2028. And as the vice president, he will be running on the legacy of the president. To some extent. Obviously, you try to also put your own spin forward on things. But look, I mean, this is the challenge that Kamala Harris had. Whatever you think of Kamala Harris, and I think she was a very weak candidate. The reason she lost, in addition to being a weak candidate herself, was because she said there wasn't anything that she would do that was different than what Joe Biden had done. And when you have a profoundly unpopular sitting president and your answer is, hey, more of the same, it's unlikely that the American public is going to respond favorably to you. But Buck, here is what I think from the poll perspective to the point you said weak need. I think that Trump came in and said, we have major, huge, systemic issues that need to be solved. The border, I would argue Buck is pretty much solved now. Deportation is a challenge, but in terms of allowing things to get worse, he solved it in the first hundred days. The global trade imbalances, this is a major battle that's going to continue for a long time, but he took it on. And then the other one is the fact that we have a $36 trillion national debt. He tried to take that on. Where do you think the negativity is coming from? Not the border where overwhelmingly people agree with him. It's taking big swings and big cuts at global trade and at the overall economic basis of our budget. He's taken some lumps there because he's trying to fix two really substantial issues.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, this is where the psychology of propaganda also is so important because they were talking about a Trump recession or even a Trump depression just a couple of weeks ago when there was a choppy week in the markets up, down, up, down. And you could say, well, Buck, clearly we're not in markets up today. We're not, you know, doing backflips over it. But the point is they can make people feel negatively about things even when their reporting is premature or just flatly untrue. Right. So if you tell people enough things are bad, you know, they've done interesting, interesting studies about this. If you're a person who is just positive about other people in general, people view you more positively, which makes sense. Right? And if you're somebody who's always talking smack, who's always saying that, you know, Sally from accounting needs to, you know, work harder or, you know, Joe from Accounts Receivable needs to put in more time, whatever, if you're always the negative person, people tend to view you more negatively. Well, this is true of news reporting as well. If you're just talking negative stories endlessly, even if those stories are exaggerated or turn out not to be what you initially reported, you can make people think things are worse than they are. And this is why Democrats also rush with the, and the Democrat aligned media rushes with the negative narrative as fast as they can. They don't want to wait for things to play out because they want to turn the perception against the administration. Because this is politics, right? That's how they view it. They just want people to think things are bad. Remember when the Biden, they had this in the opposite direction when for a while, Biden's strategy, I think, going into the midterms and then afterwards for a while, Clay, was the economy is great. People just don't know how great it is. Right? That was the.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, that was their argument.

[Buck Sexton]

That was their argument. You don't even know how great things are for you right now. You just need to pay attention to how great they are. It's like, well, that did not exactly resonate. They're trying a different version of, sure, you think things are pretty much okay and actually going pretty well. They're actually terrible, though. And that's what they've been doing certainly for the last month on the economy. So the long story short, I think the poll numbers don't matter. Why would they matter right now? No one's going to care what the polls were now in six months or even in six weeks. So it's just an effort to try to create negative perception.

[Clay Travis]

I think they would matter maybe if there were a more popular politician in America and there isn't one. Right. So, I mean, if Democrats, the, the Biden poll numbers always occurred with the shadow of a Trump poll presidency and a Trump reelection bid hanging out there. I know we talked about Wes Moore in the last hour and who the Democrat, J.B. pritzker, Peter, Mayor Pete, that are trying to kind of set the agenda to try to be the nominee in 2028. Who's a more popular politician right now than Trump? Is there any Democrat? I mean, the Democrat approval ratings in Congress make the Trump approval ratings look phenomenal. So I, I think you have to look at it in the context of is anyone else doing better? You also hit on something that I always thought was super fascinating. Do you know what the number one likelihood of who was going to get sued as a doctor was? You talked about how people are seen. Do you know what they've studied from.

[Buck Sexton]

A, if the doc, if you don't like, if you don't like the doctor, the chance of the doctor of you suing the doctor goes up like 10x or something.

[Clay Travis]

Bedside manner, it's not, does the doctor screw up a lot? The, the, if the doctor has a likable comportment, the odds of him being sued or her being sued much lower the bedside manner aspect there. And so I think that factors in on some level. Trump is now a known quantity. And the thing that Trump got right back in 2016 when he said it is, hey, I could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue. And, and my base is not leaving me. And I'm paraphrasing him on that quote, but that was basically the quote. The Trump base is not leaving. Now we've all, we've talked about this for some time. What is the Trump base? I think 40% of America is dyed in the wool Trump team. And so he's going to have that 40% no matter what. He got a big percentage growth, I think, in the 2024 election. And now the question is, I think this is going to ultimately determine everything. What's the economy like? This is what I told you, Buck. I think I said that I was going to tease this and I'll. I told you inflation was number one. I'll hit you with the other things. But it's inflation. Overwhelmingly. If the price of gas keeps coming down and if the price of groceries does not go up, the average American is going to consider Trump to have done a decent job. I'll also layer on foreign affairs. Doesn't feel like we're very close to a war now. I hope I'm not jinxing it, but it feels like for Americans, in terms of our stability and safety around the world, I feel pretty good about that.

[Buck Sexton]

As we speak, Canada decides to just get it together and invade us. I am going to blame you for this. Now, just.

[Clay Travis]

This will be on me. If Canada or Mexico. Canada or Mexico, Costa Rica decides to finally get an army and decides to try to invade. This will be on me because I just said I feel very safe. But in general, I feel like we're a long way from any wars.

[Buck Sexton]

Also, I would just say, what would people want Trump to be working on right now? Who voted for him?

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

That he's not doing. I think that's an important question to ask at this age. What is the thing that Trump said? I will, in the first hundred days, do the following. Start to do the following. Right. I'm not saying the results are all in or that everything has been accomplished. Far from it. But what is the area of focus where Trump has not focused and we were told he would. I cannot think of it because I don't think it exists. I think he has come out and started going after everything he said he would go after. Deportations are in the early phase, but it is happening. The border is secure. It happened even faster than I anticipated that it would. He's getting the negotiations going on tariffs. He has the negotiations going on Russia, Ukraine. He is looking at Iran and Israel and, you know, Midi's peace, etc. What is he not doing that he said he would do? That's. I think in a lot of ways, the real test of the first hundred days is that, you know, promises made, promises kept, goes a little bit too far because, well, have we gotten the results yet that we need? No, but focus is important, and the focus has been on what he said it would be. And I think in the first hundred days of an administration, that's about the best you can ask for is you're actually doing this stuff, Right. You're trying to do this stuff actively. You're not delaying, you're not prevaricating, you're not saying, oh, I don't want to go as hard in this direction as I said I would. That was just a fool, you idiots, to vote for me. He said, no, okay, let's go. And so I think that there's a lot of credit that should be given to him on that. And the other stuff, Clay, that we're talking about, with the loss of some support in the polls, a lot of that's media perception. A lot of that is people freak out quickly. Okay? You know, they. They hear that there's a recession coming, they go, oh, my gosh, the recession, it's going to be fine. All right, let's talk about preborn for a second here. The preborn network of clinics has a team of people who have a critical mission saving the lives of unborn babies. They see the access and widespread availability of abortions for pregnant women who are debating such a decision. And preborn steps in and does all they can to help convince that pregnant mom that there's a better option for her than abortion life for her baby. And one way that preborn achieves this is by giving the gift of an ultrasound, because that ultrasound allows that mom to meet her unborn child, to hear the heartbeat and see the movements of the child within her. They accomplished this goal with just $28 in expense. Okay, that is fantastic because it allows them to put so much time and effort toward actually the mission helping moms in this process. Preborn operates its clinics in communities across the country where abortion rates are tragically high. They do this on purpose because preborn gives resources and services to women, including that ultrasound, to help save lives every day. In 20 years, the preborn clinics have saved 300,000 plus babies. To donate securely to preborn, they need your help. The pro life community. They don't get a dollar from the government. Dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250. Say baby or go to preborn.com buck preborn.com buck Sponsored by Preborn Clay, Travis and Buck Sexton.

[Clay Travis]

Mic drops.

[Buck Sexton]

That never sounded so good.

[Clay Travis]

Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton SHOW. I mentioned this poll earlier and I do think it's interesting. This is from, from NBC News. They say they surveyed nearly 20,000 adults and asked top economic issue for you and your family, 44%. Buck said inflation. So if I were giving advice to anyone in the Trump team over the next hundred days, I would say maniacally focus on bringing the cost of goods down, because I think that's the number one way that people tend to react right now to the economy. Second is taxes. We know, Buck, that the bill is rolling through, the big, beautiful bill that will enshrine the tax cuts. We'll take some of your calls on that. Third is the national debt. Again, these are big, major systemic issues. And then you get into housing, the stock market, which is in many ways a snapshot of whatever the economy is at any given time. Uh, those are things that I think Trump gets. But if I were saying if you could focus on one thing and solve one thing, inflation is down. But I think if you could change the idea that Biden built in, that things are going to cost far too much, that would be the most helpful in the next hundred days. It's what I would say to Trump. Hey, if you were going to be judged on something, what would you want to be judged on? Bringing inflation down and cost of goods being not a massive thing that everybody's obsessed with.

[Buck Sexton]

It would be nice, though, at some point to get a reduction in rates here. That could be. I know Trump has been very vocal about that.

[Clay Travis]

I think he's right about that, too.

[Buck Sexton]

Free up a little bit of liquidity in our economy would be a good thing. I think people are waiting to make moves based upon this. That could be very helpful overall. So we shall see. But, yeah, the main thing is you don't want overspending like we saw under Biden, because that is what creates inflation. And it really is a tax on the working class and those who are trying to pay bills and maybe even get ahead of bills. That is what ends up happening. This is your dollars are worth less. You have to pay more for the things that you need. Asset holders do fine. People that have big stock accounts, multiple homes, own businesses, et cetera, they generally do much better when inflation is high. Or rather, they can weather the inflation much better. But you know, the Treasury Department is going to borrow $514 billion this quarter, according to Bloomberg. Clay, this is a 320% increase from its previous estimate. We're still spending too much money, everybody. But I guess this is the problem is the biggest challenge I think for Doge all along has been so we can't touch 70% of spending. Let's see, we can do to make the other 30% of spending not so crazy. That's not good enough. But nobody wants to hear it. Nobody wants to hear it.

[Clay Travis]

Oh, I mean this is the thing that we're speeding at rapidly is frankly, if you don't address the $36 trillion in debt, sooner or later the bill is going to get paid, maybe by your grandkids. But economic reality doesn't disappear. We can't continue to live on borrowed money.

[Buck Sexton]

And yet we're going to try. Yes, this is unfortunately this is what we're doing.

[Clay Travis]

So. Yeah, no doubt.

[Buck Sexton]

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[J.D. Vance]

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[Buck Sexton]

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