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Clay Travis
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Clay Travis
Just go to PureTalk.com buck and save 50% off your first month. That's PureTalk.com buck to switch to PureTalk. Welcome in everybody to the Wednesday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show. I'm just gonna start with some good news today. Clay Trump's sharing this one out. S P500 just hit 7000 for the first time ever. Yeah, all caps. America is back. So it's, it's a good thing. Some of you might say, well, I don't have stocks that I'm invested in. You have a retirement account. You work for a company that has public shares. I mean, this, this actually is an indicator of pretty broad sentiment. And, and at least in some sectors, economic health, prices still too high. Yes, I know, but prices would be even worse if the stock market was down 20%, I can tell you that as well. Meaning you'd have a much harder time affording the prices if the economy was in a tailspin from a dropping market. So there's good news. I like to start with the good news, which is that we've got the first time ever, 7,000 on the S&P 500. We've got the White House weighing in. And now other places, as exactly promised to you on this show, other places starting to get involved and see the early stages of these anti ice operations, these sabotage operations. White House has spoken about this one. Uh, we shall get into that. Also, Trump talking pretty tough game about Iran and we've got some updates on that situation, plus Venezuela. So we will get into all, all of that. I've also got some great guests joining today. Mark Halpern, who's the editor in chief of two Way and he's a host in his own right. You guys all, I'm sure have seen his political analysis. What was his book, Clay? The most famous one that he did.
Buck Sexton
Was he the game change?
Clay Travis
He was game change. Really? Yeah. Wow.
Buck Sexton
I think. I'm not, I'm, I'm gonna make sure that that's correct because I don't want to. But by the time we have him on, we gotta make sure we get that right. But I believe that he was one of the co authors.
Clay Travis
Yeah, he was a co author with Heilman. Okay, that. Yes, yes. So that, that's right. And then we've got 2:30, Joe Lavornia, who is a counselor to the Treasury Secretary. Look, there's a big summit going on in D.C. clay and I were going to be there, but there's some travel issues with, you know, the snowpocalypse that is hitting Clay. It's even getting a little chilly down here in South Florida. Some of you will note I am wearing a sweatshirt. Not just because it is indeed Cozy Earth, one of our fabulous sponsors. And it is the most comfortable sweatshirt imaginable. But because it is a little chilly here and gonna get chillier. So I understand that places are going through a bit of a deep freeze right now. It is dropping into the 60s. It might even hit the 50s in South Florida. It's rough.
Buck Sexton
I will say this, by the way, on the weather thing. It is actually far worse than I realized in Nashville, all the way down to Mississippi. I don't know if you've seen the footage, Buck. They basically have shut down several interstates and they are impassable in Mississippi right now. And last night I went to the Kentucky Vanderbilt basketball game. Vanderbilt University is shut down, which never happens. And I was blown away by how awful. This was the first time I've left my house since the storm hit. I was blown away by how awful the roads are and how significant the damage is from this winter storm that came through the ice in particular. So Nashville is hammered all the way down into Mississippi. There's about a 200 mile stretch, I would say, Buck, where it is utterly devastating, um, in terms of the number of people without power, the number of trees down, the amount of significant damage. So we're thinking about all you guys out there that are in from Nashville, basically south in this stretch, dealing with a truly awful scenario. And yes, Buck pointed out we were going to be in Washington D.C. with the President and with the Treasury Secretary today at these Trump account announcements, but we couldn't get up there. And so we had all sorts of, of issues with, with travel. And so we're going to have, we'll talk about what was going to happen there. I'm sure we'll be up in D.C. again soon. But that is taking place right now. And Marco Rubio is testifying under oath on Capitol Hill about Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and everything else he's dealing with as Secretary of State.
Clay Travis
Now let's take things back into the center of the political storm and that is the situation in Minneapolis. Ice, what's going on there. And our friend Will Kain, who had Trump on yesterday, asked the President about this because what's happened now is there's been a switch up in some of the personnel. Tom Holman has been sent to Minnesota and Christy Noem is coming under a lot of criticism, a lot of pressure. As I said, she said the wrong stuff after the shooting of, of. Of pretty. So that was not a good, that was not a good moment in messaging. She just, she messed that up. President still says he has confidence in her, though, the any I won't get into more of that. For now, I'll just say Tom Holman, I think is the guy who should have been running this op and should be running all these ICE ops the whole time. And I don't know why anybody would think otherwise, but here we are. So Tom is going there and here is Trump speaking specifically about this. This is cut 12, hit it.
Mark Halperin
Yesterday was the first day of the.
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Federal messages out that Tom Homan is in. Commander Bovino is supposedly leaving Minneapolis along with some CBP agents. Is this a pullback?
Donald Trump
I don't think it's a pullback. It's a little bit of a change. Everybody in this room that has a business, you know, you make little changes. You know, Bavino is very good, but he's a pretty out there kind of a guy. And in some cases that's good. Maybe it wasn't good. But you have to understand, when I watch some of the people that I've been watching over the last few weeks, these are paid insurrectionists, these are paid agitators. These people are normal, like OG that, you know, they're incensed about anything. How do you get incensed when you go into a state and you're taking criminals out?
Clay Travis
Now, Clay, I am still, I am still hopeful and I think it is probably the case that this is a shift in tactics but not an abandonment of enforcement. But I will get into what we're already seeing, and I've been saying this ever since this incident happened. You're seeing more noise in New York, more of the organized sabotage operation stuff popping up. You're seeing other places like Philadelphia, their DA threatening to arrest ICE officers. The madness can spread if it is not contained in Minneapolis. What do you see?
Buck Sexton
That's the concern. And I, you know this. But I think everybody out there is becoming aware. If resistance works in Minneapolis, then they will copy it everywhere else. And the ultimate challenge that we're going to get into here, and it is a challenge of wills to a large extent, is it's very easy to start as the Trump administration did, with the deporting people who have violent criminal records and people who have broken our law, it's a no brainer that they should be out of the country. But at some point, if there are 20 million illegals, there are not 20 million people who have committed violent crimes. So if you want to try to return the nation to some semblance of lawfulness when it comes to our immigration policy, then you're going to have to start to deport people and who are not necessarily violent criminals. And that becomes a political challenge. Now, I think, Buck, in general, the number of people that have decided to leave is fairly substantial. And it may well be the case that the best part of the ICE deportation policies is just letting people know, hey, the salad days are over. You can't rely on the American taxpayer to be giving you free hotel rooms in New York City or free wi fi free meals. Like that is utterly absurd and ridiculous. And I like to think that we've turned a page at least a little bit on that. And the data reflects that as many people as we have been able to deport that there are millions more that are voluntarily leaving because they're recognizing that the situations back home are not necessarily better or getting better relative to what they have here. The challenge is, I think Democrats are playing the long game here. And this is what we told you. Once you let the 20 million in, it becomes almost impossible to get the 20 million out. And it would take sustained multi, multi numbers of presidential Republican administration for years and years to come. And I think they know it's not going to happen.
Clay Travis
They're there is some precedent for this. The Eisenhower administration got over a million illegals deported back in, I forget what year of Eisenhower's term, but you're going back 70 years, okay, and you have massive deportation operation that occurred. Then there's also clay the self deportations that occurs. A big part of this needs to become workplace enforcement too, which that's then you get all of a sudden Republicans get a little, a little weak in the knees or a lot of Republican leadership starts to go, well, you know, we don't want to punish the job creators like, well, you are if you're employing a large number of illegals who are going to be reliant on welfare and social services provided by the taxpayer. And also there is something about being American and Americanness that should not just be conferred upon people by virtue of a physical status that is illegal in the first place. There is a principle at work here, but you need to do workplace enforcement. Trump also, though, I wanted to note this because we do, we do get your calls and emails about this or your talkbacks on how this seems to be detracting or distracting from the fraud in Minneapolis. Trump is saying, I promise you we're still on that. If this is the game they're playing at some level, it's not going to work. This is from that Will Kane interview on fox. Again, this is 14 hit it.
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This whole Minnesota thing, it started because of a focus on fraud. It started because of illegal immigration and welfare fraud. The question is, will there be accountability in Minnesota and beyond?
Donald Trump
There's got to be other states.
Buck Sexton
California.
Donald Trump
Minnesota is one state. If you look at California. California, but so in Minnesota, they think it's $19 billion. If they think it's 19 billion, triple it or quadruple it. And if we catch a lot of this fraud, and I felt it for a long time, but now we've. We know what's happening, and the answer is, yeah, there will be accountability.
Clay Travis
Clay. There will be accountability. I hope that is, in fact, the case.
Buck Sexton
The best tweet I've seen on this is, have you heard anybody complaining that their kids have lost childcare since the money was frozen for Minneapolis child care? I mean, all of you out there that are parents and have your kids in daycare in any way, And I bet that's a huge percentage of people that listen to us on a regular basis. If your childcare was interrupted, it would be a major issue. Isn't it really interesting that none of these Somali parents have been up in arms over the fact that their kids. They're not able to get their kids into childcare, and these subsidies are not working for them. It shows you how much fraud was going on. These people were never enrolled in schools. They were all getting kickbacks. They created one of the largest frauds related to childcare that we've ever seen. And when it's actually stopped, there is zero pushback from people saying, wait a minute, my kids were legitimately enrolled. I've got jobs. I need help with the kids in the child care. Now we can get into what the role of the federal government or state government should be when it comes to child care in general. That is, I think, a really significant situation there, Buck, because people don't get to count if you're a mom or you're a dad or you're a grandma or you're a grandpa and you're providing childcare for your family, you don't get to huge, massive discounts in. In. In earnings. Right? Like, you don't get to count that as a $50,000 a year job. I think there's a lot of different ways the tax code could support parents and grandparents and family members actually providing child care for family, which happens all over the country and is a huge part of the safety net for families. But yeah, again, just. Have you seen anybody complaining in Minneapolis about this? It's just indicative of. To what extent it is a fraud. And by the Way this event that's going on right now, which we'll get into these so called Trump accounts. I actually think this is a great idea, Buck. And we talk a lot about financial literacy on this program and we can get into this somewhat during the course of the program. So few kids out there have financial knowledge or understand the concept of compound interest. That is if you start with a thousand dollars invested when you're really young and you just allow that money to continue to grow, it is transformative by the time you get to 20 or 30 years old.
Clay Travis
I'm glad you're admitting this because I believe you were giving me bah humbug and making fun of me for being the uncle who gives his nieces and nephews who are toddlers or babies instead of useless, you know, like butterfly socks or something, I give them money in long term, either you know, stock accounts or for the purposes of college. Because that is Clay, that is.
Buck Sexton
That is a very, very good of you. I would suggest maybe Uncle Buck could also give a toy to a kid in addition to a. I don't think it's one or the other. I think.
Clay Travis
Let's not get crazy.
Buck Sexton
You probably could get a, you know, Tonka truck for a kid and also give him some, some help on his future college. But I do think this compound interest idea is one of the least understood aspects and what it does is. And we'll have some fun with this because I do think it's important, but it's teaches you the values and power of individual responsibility from a financial perspective and playing the long game as opposed to constantly trying to scramble in the short game. We'll get into that. In the meantime, two gifts are better than one when it comes to Valentine's Day. And it's going to be here before you know it. So don't mess this up right now. Cozy Earth has a buy one, get one free deal on their bamboo fabric pajama set. This pajama set. Classic Cozy Earth favorite. Lightweight, unbelievably soft. You won't see the deer the deal any other time of year from Cozy Earth. Purchase totally risk free 100 night sleep trial. It's a great one for your spouse, for your girlfriend, for your mom. Get hooked up now. If you are out there right now and you want to give a great gift, go to cozyearth.com use my name and BOGO to get these PJs for someone you love. That is Clay Bogo. And if you get a post purchase survey you can say you heard about Cozy earth here again cozyearth.com Clay Bogo that is Clay Bogo get hooked up right now for a phenomenal offer. Buy one, get one free deal on the Pajama Set Clay Bogo Clay Travis and Buck Sexton mic drops that never sounded so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member finra SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available@public.comDisclosures Do you like free money?
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Clay Travis
Welcome back into Clay and Buck. And we are joined now by a very special guest, Joe Lavornia, Counselor to the U.S. treasury Secretary Scott Besant. A lot of you will know him from his time as a senior economist for a big Wall street bank on CNBC and other places. Joe, welcome to the program.
Joe Lavornia
Thank you. Very happy to be on with you.
Clay Travis
All right, we're talking Trump accounts. Big event today in D.C. lot of talk about economy stuff from the president and from Secretary Besant. Let's start with Trump accounts though. What's the idea here? Why does it matter so much to this administration and to the American people?
Joe Lavornia
Well, it is a down payment on the future. It is a way to encourage newborns and those children that will be born over the next several years under the Trump administration to be able to partake in the capitalist system where the US has been an engine of growth and prosperity. And this is a way, a very novel approach to get families in the game of investing, building a nest egg, creating wealth, creating financial stability. And the Trump administration is going to start that with seed capital of $1,000, which then can go upwards of another 5,000. That could come through a combination of either an employer, a family member, a guardian, to really build wealth and to get over time, young boys and girls understanding the powers of compound interest and how an investment today can pay huge dividends longer term.
Buck Sexton
Okay, this is so important. I think compound interest, basic financial literacy. And this is Clay. Appreciate you coming on the program is something that kids really desperately need to understand. And by the way, I think also a lot of adults when you talk about compound interest. So let's say that someone has an account starting at birth and they basically are just, let's say It's S&P 500 index funds on average, what does the compound value of that look like? And over time, what kind of dollars are we discussing for people out there who don't really comprehend this?
Joe Lavornia
And Clay, I want to also, I should add that Secretary Bessens highlighted that nearly 40% of U.S. households have no direct equity exposure.
Mark Halperin
Right.
Joe Lavornia
This is a way really to make Americans part of the capitalist system. It's an inclusive way to build wealth and to create financial security. Regarding the compound question, if you put the government gives $1,000 in 2026, then let's say that through a combination of either employment or somebody making the maximum contribution after the, you contribute 5,000 additional every year for the next 18 years. Based on historical equity returns of roughly 10%, that money, when you do the math, could be worth slightly more than $300,000. Leave it. In another 10 years, the historical returns again with a maximum contribution of 5,000 per year, that money could be worth almost 1.1 million. So the power of compounding is remarkable. And people are going to intuitively, innately understand financial literacy when they go to their Trump account and they see, wow, look at how this thing is increasing in value. And I add more, I could make more. I mean, it's savings in real time. And I think it's going to be a great tool that people are going to realize we need to invest in the future and they're going to probably leave their money in there and they're going to then reap the benefits from being invested in all these wonderful companies that create a lot of high paying jobs and investing and helping make the US Economy and continue to keep the US Economy the best and brightest in the world.
Buck Sexton
The easiest way to understand this that I always try to explain to my kids and everybody out there, I would encourage to do your research on this. Basically, if you just buy S&P 500 index funds historically and leave them in there, every 10 years your money doubles. So you start thinking about every 10 years a doubling and you start looking at 20, 30, 40, 50 years of that. That's not even talking about putting more money in as you are, which obviously makes it even better, but every 10 years doubling. I just don't think most Americans really understand the value of starting early and continuing to pile in.
Joe Lavornia
Yes, that's right. In fact, Clay, I'd say it's even better than that. It's the simple rule. This to your listeners is the rule of 70. You know, if essentially if you have 10% equity return, your money actually doubles every, every, every seven years. If it's a 7% return, then it's 10 years. So the numbers are even better if you have historical returns approaching 10% than what you even suggest. But you're exactly right. That's with just an initial investment, you get those wonders of compounding. But that's why we're hopeful. Clay, we know today President Trump announced all these wonderful US Companies across all different sorts of industries now are going to partake in the Trump accounts. And because the thing is that employers can contribute up to 2,500 per annum into a Trump account and that's not going to count as employee income. So the ability to actually, to add to it, to get those big, big returns is there. I think that's just a great way the program was designed.
Clay Travis
Speaking to Joe lavornia, counselor to U.S. treasury Secretary Scott Besant, a guy with decades as a very well known Wall street economist. And Joe, to that end, I want to ask you about something that's gonna matter a lot to everybody listening day to day. It's also gonna matter a lot to this administration and in the upcoming midterm elections has to do with affordability. Trump spoke about this recently in Iowa. This is cut eight. I wanted to have you dive into this, but first wanted to hear from the president play eight guys.
Donald Trump
They came up, you know, it's a word that they came up with, affordability. Every time you hear the word, remember they're the ones that caused the problem. And first time you heard about it was like a few months ago. This election's all about affordability. Well, they're the ones that caused a problem, but nobody knows that. You know, people forget.
Clay Travis
So now, Joe, how can this administration, Clay and I have talked many times about, yes, you look at inflation, previous administration, worst inflation in 40 years that's established. How do we bring this situation to a best possible outcome this year for the American people and certainly for the administration, for the purposes of the referendum that's coming up in the midterm elections.
Joe Lavornia
Much of it, Clay, has been done through the one big beautiful bill or the Working Families Tax act, which it's also known as. And what I mean by that is that bill is encouraging significant business investment and building factories and expensing capex. We've already seen the capex come back in full force. This is helping lift productivity growth, which is output per hour. And that has also been galvanized through a lot of business friendly deregulation where companies can operate more efficiently. So you're seeing these big productivity gains. Why does that matter? Productivity gains matter because rising productivity is the lifeblood of rising living standards. When companies can produce more with their existing workforce, they can pay those workers more. So what the Trump administration's policies are going to do is they are going to allow people to take home more pay after tax. Take home pay will be going up. And because the economy is investing in the future, it could produce more, which means prices could come down. So you have is a disinflationary boom, strong growth led by productivity and prices falling because the economy's productive capacity is increasing. Think of it this way. Energy, the drill baby, drill. The opening of federal lands, the easing of permitting and things of that sort to invest in energy production. What's that doing? It's increasing output, but at the same time it's lowering the energy cost. Take that and multiply it across the economy. That's how you basically get affordability to massively improve, is you're allowing people to keep more of what they have and you're giving them the tools to produce more so they get paid more and that's higher living standards.
Buck Sexton
This is a big picture question for you. You've been involved in finance for a very long time and we're talking to Joe Lavornia. When you look, I was reading recently, Amazon went public with an initial market capitalization of around $500 million. And then it has risen up to multiple trillions of dollars, which meant if you bought, you know, $1,000 in Amazon stock when it hit public markets, you've made millions and millions of dollars. Now there's talk about SpaceX. I'm sure you've seen potentially going public at a valuation of $1.5 trillion, which means a lot of the value created in that company will never have been accessible to so called average investors. The number of public companies is declining overall. Are you concerned at all about the way that the public markets are kind of being skipped and all of the value is being created now in private marketplaces, which doesn't give the average Joe investor the same access to roaring growth marketplace companies as might have existed back in the 90s or before?
Joe Lavornia
I understand your point about, about public versus private markets and I think that reflects the fact that, you know, under unfortunately many Democrat administrations, you had significant over regulation. So capital immediately went the private market instead of the public market. But what we know is over the past year we've had tremendous growth in the stock market. The returns have beat most money managers because US Companies, many of which, I don't need to name the names, but you know, them, have done phenomenally well. They'll continue to do well. And as the administration tries to encourage private capital to come in and to innovate and create, I'm pretty confident, Clay, that we're going to see the, the US Stock market continue perform well. It's is what we call the high beta on the US Economy. And President Trump knows how to get growth moving. And you know, I'm an optimist, so I'm not particularly worried about that. But as we have less regulation, you might see these public markets, and I think rightly so, improve. You're going to see more merger activity, you know, businesses back. As the President says, there's tremendous investment coming in the US and the US is indeed the hottest economy in the world. I mean, we've been growing almost 5% the last three quarters. I mean, that's incredible. And therefore the public markets are going to benefit from that. And by default, the people who are investing in these Trump accounts are going to benefit as well.
Clay Travis
Hey Joe, it's Buck. One more for you here, putting on your macro economist hat for a second and maybe your forecaster Nostradamus side of things. The AI boom that we're in right now in terms of all the money that's going toward this stuff, are you a believer in sort of the Elon model of this stuff is all real? It's going to change the world we live in and the productivity gains are going to be stratospheric? Or do you have concerns about a pullback? Because we might be a little cart before the horse on this stuff.
Joe Lavornia
I mean, look, you have, you, you have a huge equity boom. I mean, you've had a 45% or 40 something percent increase off of the April lows. It's one of the biggest recoveries post Liberation Day we've ever had following a 15% stock drawdown. And the markets are understandably optimistic about the future that the President has laid forth. That's not to say there won't be corrections along the way, but I think we have to look at the long term picture and the fact that the US Market is so innovative, so dynamic and US Companies are set to thrive, the President has set the field for those companies to thrive and he's got people in leadership positions such as the Secretary, they're going to make sure that private capital is accessed in the most efficient way. And the AI story is for real. I think it's very important. We're certainly seeing the productivity data and you know, is there, could there be, you know, some spending that needs to be cut back here and there? Of course, but that's, you know, that's the nature of the cycle. But I think generally speaking, you know, the optimism that we're seeing in markets is well placed Buck, because you're seeing it in the GDP data, you're seeing in strong capex, you're going to see it more on the investment side, especially for factories because that expensing is only going to last three years. So that's going to see, you're going to see a big boom there. And I do think you are, because inflation will continue, continue to move down. You will see interest rates come down. The Fed should be lowering rates further. That's going to use affordability. It's going to make home buying more accessible to folks. And it's all, to me, it's all good news. Maybe I'm too optimistic, but President Trump has had a, perhaps a powerful influence on that. I never want to sell the US economy short.
Buck Sexton
Oh, I think the economy is going to be flying and firing on all cylinders. And like you just said, we're over 5% for the fourth quarter and man, if we could get 5% growth in 2026 it would be transformative on so many different levels. Joe, we appreciate the time. Thanks for coming on with us.
Joe Lavornia
Thanks guys. Appreciate being on.
Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
Welcome in third hour of play and Buck kicks off right now. We got a lot to dive into.
Buck Sexton
With all of you.
Clay Travis
Want to get some of your talkbacks and calls this hour for sure. So line them up, light them up, get them going. You all know the phone number. The talkback is on the iHeart app. Go to the Clay and Buck page, which you should subscribe to for the Playing Buck podcast network. And also you can press the little microphone, send us those talkbacks. Play something interesting, some breaking news that you have responded to or do you have brought up here. We can get into a little bit more, but it looks like there's some action going on in Fulton County.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, let's get into that here in a sec, Buck. But first, Fed no change on interest rates. That just happened in the last two minutes or so. For those of you out there, stock market not moving very much. You mentioned the s and P500. It hit a new high today and it did. It's down a little bit, but just.
Clay Travis
Kind of a no news breaking news situation with that one. Like, yeah, status quo, nothing changed.
Buck Sexton
That's the expectation. But yes, I just wanted to put that out there. To the extent somebody's sitting around, they're like, what's going to happen with the Fed rates? Why didn't Clay and Buck tell us? Well, there you go. All right now, Atlanta.
Clay Travis
Yeah, Clay, believe it or not, not, not everyone on this in this audience is at a Bloomberg terminal good doing the buy sell thing like Gordon Gekko.
Buck Sexton
Back in the 80s with what the interest rates are. Because I think it's actually the most important thing when it comes to unfreezing our housing market. And until we get back down to reasonable 5% rates on mortgages, I don't think things are going to change a lot. But we do have this major FBI raid going on right now and you've.
Clay Travis
Got to think some of you will find this more exciting news. But that depends. Depends on whether or not you're making magic happen on Wall Street. Here we have FBI agents seen carrying out a search warrant at an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia. And this is obviously related based on the reporting to 2020. It is now 2026 and we're doing some going to look into the 2020 situation. It is not immediately clear for sure what they're looking at, but Fox News and others are reporting that it's probably having to do with the 2020 election. I think that's a safe bet. I don't think they're just going into a Fulton County. Of all the possible election places to be sending the FBI right now, the one that was more at the center of the 2020 Stop the Steel conversations than any other. Oh, wow. I guess we're. You're allowed to say these things now. Remember when you were actually banned from even talking? I truly mean this. You were banned on YouTube. I can't even remember all the rules. Facebook, too. If you talked about stolen election, you could get kicked off of social media. And that's very interesting because they did that for Covid stuff, and we found out they were wrong. So people like me were getting booted and shut down by YouTube and others for saying things like masks don't work to stop the spread, which of course they don't, and all this stuff. Now we may have an interesting situation where more facts will come out about 2020 based on the investigation, and we will once again have to revisit what is disinformation and just what is the powerful using their power to shut down dissent, conversation, questions, all of that. Clay, we don't have anything on this right now. The DOJ did not comment on it directly, but stuff's going to heat up in Fulton County, Georgia. I don't think they'd send the FBI in there unless they were. At least they had some idea of what they were looking for.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, look, I think that increasingly, even for people that wanted to pretend nothing happened, the 2020 election is like a steroids in baseball era, where you look at the number and 81 million votes for Joe Biden makes a lot of people say, hmm. Because you go look at what happened with Trump in 2016. 2020, 2024. Every one of those elections, his support grew. And then you go back and you look and you say, wait a minute, Joe Biden got way more votes than Hillary in 2016 and Kamala in 2024. What's actually going on here? Now? Here is the challenge, Buck. We are sitting at, what is it, over five years since the 2020 election. And I understand a lot of people out there want there to be some consequences for this. The statutes of limitation are becoming huge barriers to bringing charges in cases such as these. And I think as we go forward, that's going to become even more and more the case and So I don't know what they're looking at in particular here. I would love to know. Maybe there's some involvement relating to the Fanny Willis investigation. Remember the charges that were brought in Georgia? Trump won Georgia in 2016. Trump won Georgia in 2024. And I think a lot of people look at 2020 and say, what happened in that election? And so we'll see if anything comes out of this. All we know is again, reports that the FBI is conducting a raid in Fulton county. And we don't know anything beyond that.
Clay Travis
I get you the following voter fraud, five year statute, campaign finance violations, five year statute. You know, there's a mail fraud. I think there's a whole bunch of these things that, that would not be eligible based on being time barred. But maybe there's, you know, by the way, there's a whole lot of stuff and we saw this used against Trump. Maybe there's, you know, conspiracy to deprive rights. And you get into some civil rights thing. And there's a lot of ways, there's a lot of ways that if the people making the decisions about charging want to get you, they can get you. So we'll see where this goes. I honestly, I have low, I'm just going to tell you, I have low expectations and this is also where I get into trouble. But I'm right, because just like in other things like this, where I've said, oh, the JFK files, they're going to release the JFK files and we're going to find out all the truth, all the, it's like, guys, I was in the CIA, ok? Trust me, if there was really cool stuff in the JFK files, someone would have left the CIA and written a.
Buck Sexton
Book about it and gotten rich.
Clay Travis
Ok, we don't, there's nothing, there's nothing that fascinating. There might be a little thing here, a little thing there, but if it's that juicy a secret, it doesn't stay secret that long.
Buck Sexton
It's really hard to do.
Clay Travis
And especially when you got all these different people that are like, have all.
Buck Sexton
These theories and conspiracies.
Clay Travis
I know people are going to yell at me for this. I like it. Yell at me. Clay's not the only one who likes when you yell at him. I like it, too. But on this one, Clay. Oh, what, they just kept the, they kept the, the microfilm or they kept the videotape? Microfilm, spy stuff. They kept the videotape that has the poll workers, like stuffing the ballots in some. Come on, it's been six years. They've had plenty of time to clean this up. This is my concern. This is always my concern about the Epstein stuff too, by the way. It doesn't just stick around. They don't just keep the smoking gun list listed and bagged up as smoking gun.
Buck Sexton
I do think on Atlanta in particular, something something is, look, we've got a big election that's coming up, a Senate race that's going to happen in Georgia, and Atlanta is, it seems to me, a place where a lot of untoward aspects of elections have been allowed to take place. I think that's fair to say. And again, I just come back to poor Brady Anderson. Maybe he's out there listening. Buck Brady Anderson was a guy who hit 50 home runs out of nowhere and suddenly, you know, he looked like Popeye when he was in the batter's box. And everybody said, yeah, you know, maybe something's going on here. I think the 81 million is increasingly difficult to justify, even for reasonable, rational people. Will there be consequences, though? This is where you and I agree. I think we're over five years from that election. I think the consequences, frankly, were Trump came back in, won the popular vote, swept to a commanding victory in 2024. I think you have to accept that as the ultimate consequence because everything that he's been able to implement since is, is far more impactful. And I will say Trump in 2024, winning that election is more powerful than Trump would have been. If Trump had won in 2020 now, the border wouldn't have been wide open, they wouldn't have gotten 10 million illegals. I don't think we ever would have hit 9%, inflation, all those things. But I think Trump this term is far more powerful than he would have been if he had won in 2020. And so ultimately, that's the revenge that I think is the most satisfying, is that victory. And, and we'll see how that goes.
Clay Travis
I mean, to me, the, the biggest thing when you're talking about elections and election integrity is making sure that they're secure going forward. And I haven't seen a lot of action on that. One of the challenges, of course, is that in Democrat controlled states, they, they don't want voter ID and they don't want any accountability and they want to make it as wide open and easy as, you know, they want to treat voting like they treated the border. A total mess of lawlessness where there's no accountability and no one can know what's going on or except they know what's going on, which is the destruction of the whole system. So I think on this one, like I said, I wouldn't. I wouldn't hold your. Hold your hopes. Hold your hopes out or up? Do you hold them out or up?
Buck Sexton
I want your hopes. Hopes up.
Clay Travis
Up. I don't.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, I think.
Clay Travis
Hold out your hopes.
Buck Sexton
What do you do with your hopes?
Clay Travis
Point is, I wouldn't get too excited about this one. Based on what we've seen so far, they have some reason for this. They're going to look and see what they might find, some interesting information. But I'll tell you, this doesn't matter what they find. They could have a video that they find of Democrat operatives sitting around laughing as they twirl their mustaches about how they stole the election in Georgia for Joe Biden. Not a single Democrat will believe it as it happens under this administration. Not one. So just, just get ready for that. Doesn't matter what you want to talk. Smoking gun. They could find an actual smoking gun and they could find video that says like, this is exactly what happened. And they still. Clay, do you disagree? The Democrats would say 40% of Democrats thought that Trump actually hacked voting machines.
Buck Sexton
With Russia's help in 2016.
Clay Travis
Yeah.
Buck Sexton
I actually think what it might create is maybe we'll get more honest reporting from a variety of sources, because in order to get the warrant, you have to have provided some form of probable cause that a crime might have occurred. I would like to. Everything gets leaked all the time, Buck. I would like to know what the warrant says and what they're searching for. Let me give you a positive news story that doesn't have anything to do with the Fed. Pam Bondi just posted that we have arrested 16 Minnesota rioters for allegedly assaulting federal law enforcement. They're posting all the photos of those arrests, and she says there's more to come. I mean, I think a lot of you are with me and saying it seems like there's a lot more than 16 people that have been rioting, but that is at least a positive story. And she says we expect more riot, more riot arrests to come. And they are posting all of the mug shots of people in Minneapolis. Maybe possibly this is part of the compromise that was put in place since Tom Holman is there, that they are able to now go and arrest people who are violating and rioting surrounding these incidents.
Clay Travis
It is. It is a step in the right direction. Do you want me to hit the wampum button or you want me to hold off?
Buck Sexton
Oh, poor wamp wampus.
Clay Travis
I mean, the womp womp. That Happens, my friends, is they're going to be prosecuted. Guess where in Minnesota.
Buck Sexton
They're going to be released and there's not going to be any serious consequences for them. I feel confident that you are correct there.
Clay Travis
But still the right move. Still the right move. Got to do what you got to do. All right, look, speaking of right moves, owning gold is the right move. That's a smart one. It's no longer reserved for wealthy bankers twirling their mustaches, business owners, foreign governments. It's available to you and me. I just got some gold last few days. It arrived courtesy of my friends at the Birch Gold Group. I mean, I bought it, but they sent it to me. And I'm a big believer in gold. I'm a big believer in having gold. I have had it for many years. And guess what? The money that I spent on gold was well spent because it's a whole lot more valuable now than when I bought it. And that continues to be true for the long term. Gold over the last 20 years up 700%. So that's a 7x return for just taking some cash and converting it into gold. You can also take, by the way, an old 401k or IRA and transition that into a gold IRA or 401k and birch gold can help you roll that IRA or 401k and you'll be eligible for a rebate of up to $10,000. So it's your turn to buy some gold until February 1st. This Sunday, if you're a first time gold buyer, Birch Gold is offering that rebate of up to $10,000 on qualifying purchases. To claim eligibility and start the process, text my name Buck Do 9898 98. Make right now your time to buy gold. Take advantage of that rebate. Text my Name Buck to 9898 98. Text Buck to 9898 98.
Buck Sexton
You know them as conservative radio hosts. Now just get to know them as guys on the Sunday Hang podcast with Clay and Buck. Find it in their podcast feed on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Buck Sexton
Beauty.Com we are joined now by Mark Halperin, who's got a great show two way that he debates a lot of different issues on. And we were on Buck and I were with him earlier this week. And we'll get into Buck's knowledge of sports or lack thereof in a bit. But Mark, you've covered politics for a long time. You wrote the bestselling book Game Change, which turned into an entire movie and sold, I don't know, probably hundreds of thousands, if not a million copies or more. How would you assess the first year of Trump 2.0 and what do you see as the challenges as we move into Trump 2026, the second year?
Mark Halperin
Well, that's like a doctoral dissertation.
Buck Sexton
Yeah.
Mark Halperin
But I'll do my best. I think that, you know, there's no denying would like the president or not. He's been very active and I think history is going to record and no one's really captured this. If I had time, I'd do a book on it. The four years off was extraordinary blessing for the president to get stuff done. He was a little busy being indicted, but he had time to put a team together. He named his cabinet much earlier than most presidents do. Think about what he wanted to do, think about the mistakes from the first term and to be rested and to have people around him rested. Most second term presidents have a bunch of people who stay on after the election, but they're exhausted. This is a refreshed, energetic group. We Talked yesterday on NextUp. If you guys met Scott Bessett and the view you guys have shared universally that he's just a rock star of this administration. He didn't serve in the last term. He's not tired after four years as treasury secretary. He's revved up. So I think the energy and the thoughtfulness and the planning, not all words you'd always associate with a Trump operation are right there as a main driver of how much he's gotten done. I think there's three big challenges in 2026 for them to continue to try to get things done separate from whether he makes the real lives of real people better. The biggest challenge is particularly on the economy. Number one is how's he going to pass anything? How's he going to get 60 votes in the Senate for anything because he's so alienated to Democrats. And the way the Senate rules work that's got to happen too, is China and the trouble of getting leverage over China. It is just a perennial problem for every President, and I don't think they figured that out yet. And then lastly, the midterms, they just loom over everything. As much as they don't want to have to spend every day thinking about that, they do. So those are, I think, sort of the orientation of, as you think about how's the president going to continue to try to get stuff on his to do list done.
Buck Sexton
When you actually break down everything that is going forward, you laid out the challenges there. Trump basically decided that he didn't want to, you know, fire anybody, largely in 2.0, because I think he thought that he overdid it in 1.0. How does that play going forward with Kristi Noem? Do you think he's gonna make any moves? How would you assess when the pressure gets ratcheted up? We've kind of seen the media bounce from one to another in the year so far. What happens going forward?
Mark Halperin
I mean, I reported last night that he's not gonna. She's. That she's gonna stay. The first lady likes her. Ira was told the dynamic. You said the president's just not inclined to get rid of people. But he publicly also said, you know, she was staying on. Now, he could fire her during this conversation because it's Donald Trump, so anything could happen. But my inclination is to say that she's going to be less visible as far at this hour as we speak. I don't believe she's done any TV since the Homan announcement that he was going to kind of take over, be the face of this, and go to Minneapolis. And I think, you know, she's got a big job. She's got all of the dhs, that's more than just Border Patrol and ice. So I think she'll primarily focus elsewhere. I don't think she'll be out front on this stuff. But she has said now, and I reported last night, she was told to say all these things, all these things that members of Congress are pissed about her saying over the weekend. The White House told her to say, not just approved it, but told her to say it and told her afterwards. She did a great job. So I don't think she's interested in being a fall guy or gal for this stuff. And, and if I were betting, I'd bet she'll be around for a while. She likes her job and, and it's a big job, and there's plenty to do besides be the. Be the spokesperson.
Clay Travis
Mark. Mark, I gotta say, I think it's. It's definitely telling that her defense involves. I said the not true things that have caused a huge problem because I was told to say them as if there's not the option for. I'm just not going to say them right.
Mark Halperin
Like that's hundred percent and one hundred percent. If there's a lesson they need to learn, it's that there's just no mileage in going out and trying to win the momentary fight on X about to define what happened. Just, just say what Homan said. We need an investigation. This is unfortunate. Let's have an investigation and the suspension of the officers who were involved. Putting them on leave is the right thing to do. It's a standard and that's how they should have handled it. So she needs to learn that lesson for sure. But so, so plenty. So did Stephen Miller in the White House. So does the President.
Clay Travis
It was, it was pretty remarkable that they messed this one up in that way. But I gotta say, I'm still very much of the mind that they can't. We haven't even gotten into this really yet on the show. We'll get into the third hour. But Mark, this is an opportunity to bring up that you've got in New York City a bunch of these maniacs. 65 anti ICE protesters were arrested. They were occupying the lobby of a Hilton hotel reportedly housing ICE agents. So I mean, this madness in Minneapolis I think is possibly going to spread if there's a sense that Trump has backed off. How do you think the administration should or will balance the optics of Minneapolis with. They're going into a midterm election cycle and if Trump doesn't continue to deliver on the deportations that in a large part I think help get him elected, the base is going to be pretty unhappy, 100%.
Mark Halperin
And I know the President's political advisors are talking about this. You can't win the election in the midterms if the base is unhappy and the independents are turned off. Your immigration policy. Right. They've got to solve both of those simultaneously. There are many pieces to how to fix it. One is you've seen this. Even if the President has de. Escalated in his word, they're still emphasizing the fundamentals of the immigration policies that are popular that help the President win. I think there's one thing, and Stephen Miller highlighted this yesterday, and I think anybody who's ever covered a protest as a reporter or been to one or more than protest activists who want to interfere, they need some combination of federal force and state and local to create free speech zones and to keep people who want to interfere with their investigations. And their act and their operations from interfering. Every time I watch these videos of the two people who died, same thing comes into my head from the very first time. Why are they allowed to get so close? They shouldn't be allowed to get so close. But the men and women who are doing the actual operations of seizing people for purposes of deportation, they can't also do crowd control. That's what's caused this.
Joe Lavornia
Right?
Mark Halperin
They're trying to both be operators and crowd controllers. And so they either need to get the governor and the mayor and the county to do these things, whether it's in Minneapolis or anyplace else, or as Stephen Miller says was the policy. Some of these colleagues need to be broken off and just say, you're crowd control, you're creating the perimeter. If I go as a journalist to cover something like that, I can't walk right up to the ICE officers who are interdicting some or border patrol. Somebody's going to stop me. Somebody's going to set up a perimeter. They just need to do that. I think that'll go a long way towards not only keeping bad things from happening both to agents and to civilians, but also. Great. Less of a copycat, right? Because why are there copycats? Because all this stuff's getting on the news and they want to be part of that.
Buck Sexton
All right, let's play. You asked us famous duos and we had a fun discussion and we don't need to play the full discussion of this, but I just want to play. Guys, we can cut it off. We've got it.
Mark Halperin
It.
Buck Sexton
Mark Halperin asked Buck a question about which is the better duo. Listen, Madden and Summerall or salt and Pepper?
Clay Travis
I don't even know who Madden and Summer all are. I've never.
Buck Sexton
No, be serious. No, be serious. Dude. You really don't know who Madden and Summerall is?
Clay Travis
I have no idea.
Buck Sexton
You know the Madden video game?
Clay Travis
Oh, John Madden, the coach? Oh my goodness.
Mark Halperin
Him I've heard of.
Clay Travis
I have no idea.
Mark Halperin
How do you host a show with someone who's culturally literate for, for, for our age?
Buck Sexton
I actually. So first of all, Buck, to put it in your contest.
Mark Halperin
The whole this.
Buck Sexton
Has gone by the way. A lot of people are reacting to it. So Mark, I'll let you react and then I'll let Buck defend himself here. But.
Mark Halperin
Well, we did a serious conversation. We talked about the future of Taiwan, we talked about Treasury Secretary Bessant high minded topics. But all anybody's talking to me about is the question of what has happened to America's youth. What do we do as a nation? How do we compete with the Chinese if our people have never heard of Pat Summerall? Now, I am sympathetic to this because there's things that young people know that I don't know about. But for people our age and who grew up, it's like saying, well, I don't know who Thomas Jefferson is cause I'm young and I wasn't alive.
Clay Travis
I mean, I think that's a little extreme. Look, we got into this yesterday on the show on Mark's show, which you should all go check out. It was clear that we have a little bit of A Gen X vs Young and Spry millennial, which would be me issue here.
Mark Halperin
Sorry to interrupt, but have you googled today, Summer all in Madden. Have you gone on YouTube?
Clay Travis
He's not even letting me get through the sentence.
Buck Sexton
I want to know.
Clay Travis
Let me explain. Let me explain this for a second. Hold on. I know John Madden is. I split the Madden video game. But when you said Madden and Summerall and then I think the other. The others was like a musician, I immediately. Salt and pepper. Yeah. I just didn't know. I don't know who Summerall is. So I'm thinking, is this some kind of weird like easy listening jazz band that you old timers like I just did. Because I don't know Summer all. But then I got Madden. So the Madden part of it, obviously. Oh, John Madden. Like I know who John Madden is from the video game. Not that I actually watch much football, but the Summerall thing, I'm not gonna lie, that flew way over. I had no idea you could have offered me me a million dollars on the spot to tell you who Summerall was. I would have gone home wanting.
Joe Lavornia
Right, But.
Mark Halperin
But it's like saying, who Sonny and Sharon. You'd say Sonny and Cher. Never heard of him. Oh, Sonny. Sonny Bono. Heard of him. Cher.
Clay Travis
Never heard of her.
Mark Halperin
I don't know about the Cher.
Clay Travis
First of all, everyone's heard of Cher and not Sonny. If we're going to play that game, Cher is way more.
Mark Halperin
My point is, my point is again, please spend some time on YouTube. Go look at the body of their work. These are not fringe players. These are key cultural icons.
Buck Sexton
And as we eventually got to Pat Summerall, this is something that I bet a lot of people don't necessarily know is Susie Wiles, President Trump's chief of staff's dad, which is pretty crazy. Mark, last question for you. You've been in media a long time. The media universe, I would argue is evolving and changing more rapidly than maybe ever in history. Where would you want to buy stock in media right now? How do you see it going forward? And I know it's a broad question, but I'm just kind of curious how you would assess where we are and where we're headed.
Mark Halperin
Number one choice would be if you guys take the show public. Number two would be my company. Two way. Number three would be Megyn Kelly's company. I think it's about trusted brands. And in the olden days, trusted brands were corporate brands. Now trusted brands are individual brands like YouTube. Right. People, people listen to your show, they don't really care what the company is. They care about you too. And I think it's pretty clear when people have a connection to their, to their fans, to their community. So if you guys go to a diner in Charleston, South Carolina, people will know you, they'll see you, they'll like you, they want to talk to you. That's, that's what I'd invest in. I'd invest in folks like you guys, folks who have connection to their community where it's a daily habit. Appointment listing, appointment viewing. I think those will be the companies that thrive across all platforms. It doesn't matter what the corporate brand is or how it's distributed. I think those, those are the places where I'd invest and, and that's what I'm building my career career right now as well.
Buck Sexton
Well, we appreciate the time. We encourage people to go check out the interview that we did with Mark. You can find him. Where's the easiest place to find you, Mark?
Mark Halperin
I do basically do two things. I do Two Way, which is my own company. I did two shows a day. You can go to Two Way TV or on YouTube. And then, and then next up, the show you guys were on on the Megyn Kelly network. Find that on YouTube or as a podcast. And grateful to you guys for making so much time this week and can't wait to get you on two Way.
Buck Sexton
For sure. We appreciate the time with you, encourage people to go check it out. And hopefully Buck's doing research on Pat Summerall and the greatest calls of his career for sure. Thank you. That's Mark Halperin. Look back in the day, Madden and Summerall had a lot of testosterone. That's one reason they might have been so popular. In fact, I. Aren't they making a Madden movie that's supposed to be out this year with Nicholas Cage playing John Madden? I think they are. And I'm sure that Summerall will have somebody famous playing him as well. Buck can do his research, but testosterone is the engine that fuels the male body. If you are out there and you're feeling tired or you don't have the energy that you used to get hooked up today with Chalk.com C-H O Q.com you got kids, grandkids that you're out there chasing around. It can make a tremendous difference for you and you will be glad that you tried it out for your New Year's resolution. Putting some more energy back into your life can make a tremendous difference and right now you will get a great offer. In the meantime, the Male Vitality Stack this month only when you subscribe with My Name Clay that's C L A Y as the promo code, Chalk will pass back a free 99 bag of chalk lit powder with your first delivery. You will be glad that you did it. That's chalk.com My name Clay C-H O Q.com My name C L-A Y News and politics, but also a little comic relief Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
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Clay Travis
Shipt since I signed up for Target Circle 360. No price markups when I order same day delivery from tons of local stores, only a handful of alcohol retailers and items don't count. I won't lie, I've had too much fun being like markups on groceries not in my fridge. Markups on pet food not for my dog. Markups on tools, electronics, home goods, meds, not in my house anyway. It's awesome. Order now@shipt.com 360 terms apply.
Buck Sexton
Well, the holidays have come and gone once again, but if you've forgotten to get that special someone in your life a gift, well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday offer of half off unlimited wireless.
Clay Travis
So here's the idea.
Mark Halperin
You get it now.
Buck Sexton
You call it an early present for next year.
Clay Travis
What do you have to lose?
Buck Sexton
Give it a try@mintmobile.com com switch limited.
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Clay Travis
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Daily Review with Clay and Buck – January 28, 2026
iHeartPodcasts
In this episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the latest developments in politics, economics, and public affairs, with a particular focus on Trump policy developments, immigration enforcement, election investigations, and financial literacy initiatives. Featuring guest interviews (notably Joe Lavornia, Counselor to the U.S. Treasury Secretary, and political analyst Mark Halperin), the conversation blends breaking news analysis, commentary on current events—including the aftermath of winter storms, market highs, ICE operations in Minneapolis, the Fulton County FBI raid—and some comic relief about cultural knowledge gaps. Throughout, the hosts stress the significance of restoring economic and institutional health, and scrutinize the responses of both the Trump administration and Democratic policymakers.
Timestamp: 02:19 – 04:19
Timestamp: 06:58 – 16:13
Timestamp: 13:05 – 16:13
Segments: 22:14 – 30:26 (with Joe Lavornia)
Timestamp: 37:21 – 47:47
Timestamp: 47:48 – 49:24
Timestamp: 53:57 – 66:48 (Mark Halperin interview)
Timestamp: 62:05–67:15
The show blends serious, multi-front political discussion with some signature irreverence and humor, offering a mix of substantive policy dialogue (especially around finance, immigration, and law enforcement) and cultural asides typical of the Clay and Buck style.