Daily Review With Clay and Buck - Jul 01 2025

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show – Detailed Summary

Episode: Daily Review With Clay and Buck - Jul 01 2025
Release Date: July 1, 2025
Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
Description: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics, and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with engaging conversations and opinions.

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1. Passage of the "Big Beautiful Bill" in the Senate

Timestamp: 01:36

Clay Travis opens the episode by announcing a significant legislative milestone: the Senate has just passed the "Big Beautiful Bill." While the bill now awaits President Trump's signature, Travis emphasizes its importance and the momentum it brings to the Republican agenda.

Buck Sexton highlights the key details:

"The big beautiful bill has just moments ago passed in the United States Senate. Trump's going to sign his big beautiful bill. So the big beautiful bill has gone through. It will be on the President's desk. This is huge. It is huge." (02:53)

The bill encompasses a $5 trillion debt ceiling raise, with allocations for border security, national defense, and an increased budget deficit projected to reach $3.3 trillion through 2034.

2. House Freedom Caucus's Response and Deficit Concerns

Timestamp: 07:56

Buck Sexton brings attention to the House Freedom Caucus's criticism of the Senate's version of the bill, which adds $651 billion to the deficit before interest costs. The Freedom Caucus argues that this increase contradicts the House's budget framework, which emphasized no new deficit spending.

Buck Sexton questions the possibility of significant changes in the House:

"Are they really going to do this? I really going to do this?" (08:43)

Clay Travis responds by acknowledging potential drama but maintains optimism:

"I think they're going to be some drama associated with this... but the structural issues we have at play here... this is a challenge." (08:49 - 10:47)

3. National Debt and Entitlement Programs

Timestamp: 10:47

The hosts delve into the looming national debt of $37 trillion, attributing part of the problem to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. They discuss the unsustainable nature of these programs given current demographics, where older populations outnumber younger ones.

Clay Travis poses a critical question about economic growth:

"Can we get this economy moving at 3% growth? ... And so that is my biggest question." (06:09)

Buck Sexton echoes frustration over the inaction on debt reduction:

"This is why I find the whole thing frustrating... there's no willingness among the American people, even people who say they want to tackle the debt, to do it." (10:47)

4. Border Security and Immigration Policies

Timestamp: 32:08

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on border security and the impact of illegal immigration on political representation. The hosts propose that illegal immigrants, currently estimated at around 730,000, should not be counted for House seat allocations, arguing this would reduce Democratic advantages in redistricting.

Clay Travis emphasizes the structural change needed:

"If you said, hey, we're not counting illegal immigrants at all for purposes of House seats... this would mean that the House was not winnable for Democrats." (31:30)

Buck Sexton adds urgency to the issue:

"Immigration is the single issue that I think motivated more people to get behind Trump. ... The deportations that are happening... are not acceptable." (32:08 - 33:47)

5. Language and Communication on Spending and Cuts

Timestamp: 24:21

Travis and Sexton critique the media's portrayal of spending cuts, explaining that slowing the growth of government spending is often misconstrued as actual spending cuts. This miscommunication hampers public understanding and discourse on fiscal responsibility.

Clay Travis compares it to personal weight management:

"Put on 10 pounds of weight every year and then suddenly you only put on three, you're getting fat slower, but you're still getting fatter." (26:40)

Buck Sexton agrees, noting the left's effective use of language to obscure fiscal realities:

"The left does a better job with language, because defining a cut as something that actually leads to something being greater is." (27:30)

6. Economic Growth Strategies vs. Cuts

Timestamp: 15:44

The conversation shifts to economic strategies, with Travis advocating for robust economic growth as a solution to the national debt rather than relying solely on spending cuts. He proposes that achieving a 3-4% growth rate could offset the debt's impact.

Clay Travis states:

"The growth rate of the country is what can turn this into a net positive bill. So if you are optimistic on AI, if you want to unleash individual American meritocracy... 4% a year. We're growing at like 1.5% a year... The overall growth rate of the American economy is the key." (15:48 - 16:36)

Buck Sexton supports this optimism but remains cautious about political obstacles:

"You have two options... or you can do what you and I are talking about now... that bill is going to pass." (40:17)

7. International Implications: BRICS Conference and the Dollar

Timestamp: 16:36

The hosts briefly discuss the BRICS conference, where Brazil, Russia, India, and China are strategizing to move away from the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency. This shift could have profound implications for the U.S. economy, making traditional debt management strategies less effective.

Buck Sexton warns:

"If that happens, it means that we can't fund the things that we fund right now with money printing the same way because other countries aren't going to buy our debt." (20:00)

8. Donald Trump's Stance on Border Security

Timestamp: 35:30

A colorful segment covers Trump's visit to "Alligator Alcatraz" in Ochopee, Florida, a facility designed to house illegal migrants prior to deportation. Trump underscores the harsh measures at the border, including deterrents like alligators, to prevent illegal crossings.

Buck Sexton comments on Trump's strict policies:

"Trump is saying, if you try to run from the gators or swim from the gators, it's going to be a bad day for you." (37:48)

Clay Travis adds with humor:

"I am prepared to save anyone from an alligator attack. If you see me near a swamp, I've got your back." (37:59)

9. Audience Interaction and Talkbacks

Timestamp: 34:03

Throughout the episode, Travis and Sexton engage with listeners, addressing calls and talkbacks. Topics range from immigration policies to pop culture, such as the discussion of "The Lord of the Rings" and the best movies of the 21st century. This interaction adds a personable and engaging element to the show.

Listener Zeb from Texas shares his enthusiasm for accurate "Lord of the Rings" lore:

"Minas Tirith is the capital city of Gondor after Osgiliath was destroyed by the orcs in the Battle of Sauron." (64:29)

10. Conclusion and Upcoming Content

Timestamp: 50:05

As the show wraps up, Travis and Sexton preview upcoming episodes featuring guest hosts like Tutor Dixon and Brian Mudd. They emphasize the continuous stream of quality content available on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Podcast Network, encouraging listeners to subscribe and stay informed.

Buck Sexton concludes:

"We have great shows coming up your way... We're having a great time." (50:58)

Clay Travis reiterates the importance of economic growth and fiscal responsibility:

"This bill is going to pass... it's time to try to figure out how do we grow the economy as rapidly as we possibly can to help to lead to a surplus through growth as opposed to a surplus through cuts." (42:17)

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This episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show offers an in-depth analysis of recent legislative developments, economic strategies, and immigration policies, all framed within the hosts' characteristic blend of insight and humor. From celebrating the Senate's bill passage to critically examining the challenges of national debt and border security, Travis and Sexton provide listeners with a comprehensive overview of pressing political and economic issues.

Transcript

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

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[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show podcast.

[Buck Sexton]

Welcome everybody. Tuesday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show kicks off now. It is big, it is beautiful and it is now law. The big beautiful bill has just moments ago passed in the United States Senate. Okay, I know Trump has to sign it, but you know it's happening. Trump's going to sign his big beautiful bill. So the big beautiful bill has gone through. It will be on the President's desk. This is huge. It is huge. We will get into some of the final items that were in this. We will discuss some of the no votes. There were some no votes. We will also talk about how Elon Musk, formerly of Doge fame, pretty unhappy with the situation here of the $5 trillion debt ceiling raise.

[Clay Travis]

I think they're still potentially buck a little bit of drama because I think the House will now have to come back and agree to some.

[Buck Sexton]

Oh, they have to go on the reconciliation side. I got ahead of myself there. Too excited. Too excited.

[Clay Travis]

So there will, there will be some drama.

[Buck Sexton]

That's the reconciling. It's going to go through. The House is already past it. It's going to go through. But thank you. Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

So here we go for the nerdy edition where there will continue to be drama.

[Buck Sexton]

For how long is that going to take, though?

[Clay Travis]

I don't know. I, I, I just, we have not spent a ton of time on the minute by minute because we knew that this was going to pass and it will pass on some level, but they still have some maneuvering. I think Trump wants it by July 4th. Right. Is the ideal day that he would sign it, which is Friday. And so I imagine that they are hoping that the House will sign off on the changes made by the Senate at some point in time in the next several days. But that's the time frame. So that is the last drama to be had before this thing is officially signed and underway, which is not gonna.

[Buck Sexton]

Be, it's not gonna be any drama. I mean, they're gonna, you know what I mean? Like, come on, what's the drama gonna be, Clay? Someone's really. The Republicans aren't gonna actually do the thing that they've already said they were gonna do. I don't, I don't see it. But yes, procedurally speaking, they have to reconcile it. Right. So the House says the Senate. The Senate says the House. Okay, so let's get into what is in the big beautiful bill, which I do believe is its official, is its official name. I'm just seeing now, I think it happened so recently, Clay, that all the, the news sites, live and in real time here are still updating it legitimately.

[Clay Travis]

Passed as we came on the air like that. Yes, the second absolute latest breaking news.

[Buck Sexton]

That's why I got all excited. Ok, so it was happening in real time. We got to open the show with, ah, this Pastor said it 51:50. And J.D. vance had to step in to. Right. J.D. vance. I'm, I'm reading this in real time because it just happened. Just so you understand, this wasn't like an hour ago. It happened seconds or minutes ago. Three Republicans, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, not running next year. Susan Collins of Maine joined Democrats to vote against the bill. Paul opposed the legislation's $5 trillion debt limit, et cetera. OK, so Susan Collins, not a surprise. Rand Paul being Rand Paul, Trump's probably going to have some truths for him that are not very Nice. And Thom Tillis here. Lisa Murkowski was the final piece. She backed the bill after discussions with Thune. 24 hours of motions and amendments. Senate Republican leaders altered the bill right up to the final moments. So this was, this was down to the wire, everyone to get the things they wanted to get into in here. Hundreds of billions for border security, national defense, increased budget deficit by about 3.3 trillion through 20, 20, 2034. Yeah, look, it's, I'll tell you, the White House is very excited about this. I think the economy is going to look really good as a result of this. Or rather there's gonna be a lot of good things that happen. Clay. We, we knew it would get through. Yeah. Tie breaking vote from J.D. vance. So it was a, it was a close run thing here. We knew it would get through. It's getting through now. Okay. The House reconciles it on their end. What are your thoughts as we sit here and bask in the glow of maga? Another win up on the board.

[Clay Travis]

So I think the big question is going to be how fast can the economy grow? So now that this bill is done, the ability to grow the economy is how we end up keeping from having to massively increase the overall debt. And so that is my biggest question. Can we get this economy moving at 3% growth? Doesn't sound outrageous to me, but it is better than we have been growing the economy over the past decade or so, 15 years on average. And so to me the biggest question out there is how fast can we grow the economy? To me, the secondary question on this is can we get the Fed to lower interest rates? Our interest rates are about 2% above where the EU is right now, Tom, at 4.25, 4.5. You guys can correct me in the, in the studio if I get the percentages wrong. I think the numbers need to be around two and a half, frankly, where the EU is. If that were to happen, then mortgage rates in theory are going to come back. That would unlock the housing market, which is, I think, the most frozen aspect of the American economy right now. So many of you got the 2 and a half or 3%, 15 and 30 year mortgages. Congrats. But it's been several years and we accelerated those so rapidly that lots of people are unwilling to sell their homes or move despite changing life circumstances because the difference between a 2 and a half and a 3 and a 7% mortgage rate is so massively substantial. If that starts to get unfrozen, then I think a lot of the other aspects of the economy will start to fire on all cylinders.

[Buck Sexton]

So the House Freedom Caucus, I was asking who's going to cause drama here? All excited like, okay, this is finally happening. We're looking at a holiday coming up here. Great holiday weekend, countries kicking ass, things going really well. House Freedom Caucus says, and this is as of the last 24 hours, House Budget framework was clear. No new deficit spending in the one big beautiful bill. The Senate's version adds 651 billion to the deficit. And that's before interest costs, which nearly double the total. That's not fiscal responsibility. That's not what we agreed to. The Senate must make major changes and should at least be in the ballpark of compliance with the House budget framework. Are they really going to do this? I really going to do this?

[Clay Travis]

I think they're going to be some drama associated with this. And I think ultimately everybody, if the.

[Buck Sexton]

Drama is just so they get attention and then they let this go through, they're just being annoying. I'm just going to say this because we've already, we've already had this discussion.

[Clay Travis]

I get it. This is the best you're going to get. And there's people out there who are going to say, look, Rand Paul's right about the deficit. I think he is. Chip, Chip Roy is right about the deficit. I think he is. This is the best bill that's going to pass. And you just saw. I have yet to see anyone come up with a bill that could get passage in the Senate and the House and do as much of this bill does. Politics is the art of the possible. I get people out there that are upset about the debt, the deficit. I am. Look, the reality is nobody wants to address the fact that entitlement spending, Social Security and Medicare make it virtually impossible to largely restrict the size of the federal government. And as soon as you mentioned that we get flooded and every politician does with, hey, that money is mine, I want it back. And so the structural issues we have at play here, and this is a challenge, and I don't want to be the wah wah guy, but the structural issues we have in play is there are way more older people now than there are younger people in many advanced countries in the world. And entitlement programs are predicated on there being way more younger people than there are older people. And if you are around our age, the math doesn't add up for us to get the Social Security dollars back that we put in. And that's just the reality. Without adjusting based on retirement ages, based on just looking at Population tables. I presume that I'm going to get virtually nothing from Social Security. That's me. I'm 46. You know, people can start taking Social Security. I think it's 62, so I'm not that far away. Well, I don't think it's going to be there.

[Buck Sexton]

This is why I find the whole thing frustrating. And, and I appreciate that Rand Paul wants to, Senator Paul wants to have his voice heard on this. And mathematically he's right, but politically he's wrong because no one's going to do anything about this right now. And there's no willingness among the American people, even people who say they want to tackle the debt, to do it. It's like having a debt ceiling fight. It's a fake fight because we always raise the debt ceiling and we're. And then if they default, they don't really. Rather there's discussion about default. They're not really going to default. So it just becomes tiresome and you lose. It's the boy who cried wolf. You lose public interest. And I think that, yeah, until people want to talk about entitlements, just keep spending the money we have to spend to achieve the priorities of the Republican Party. If we don't have a secure border and we don't deal with the illegal immigration issue, Medicare and Social Security in 30 years going to be the least of our problems because we're not going to have a country anymore. So the hundreds of billions of dollars that are going toward border security and the deportation efforts of the illegals who piled in under Biden is absolutely essential. A lot of the things that are covered in the big beautiful bill are going to be, I believe, rocket fuel for the economy. Growth is also really important. Remember, nobody's factoring in the. Trump wasn't, I should say, factoring in Trump's tariffs into financial and fiscal matters for the country. It's already $120 billion and it's just getting going. So, you know, there are other pathways maybe that could be considered here that might make the situation better now. I mean, I, I did, I'll say. I know that Trump had to sign it, so I forgot that now the House has to reconcile on their side for a second. And I think they're just going to do what they did. We're going to get a bunch of windy speeches about the debt, the debt, the debt, and then they're going to, and then they're going to vote for it. I don't understand what's. We, we all get it. We all Understand, there's nothing else to be said. Until, until you want to deal with entitlements, everybody, you don't want to deal with the debt. End of story, Full, full stop, end of conversation. And nobody wants to deal with ent. Entitlement. So let's just do what we can to achieve the agenda we've got while Trump's running things.

[Clay Travis]

I think that there's going to be a recognition that entitlement spending is out of control and everybody's going to have to get their benefits cut. And we should have, we should have a real conversation about Social Security and the fact that it's actually not a very good deal and most Americans just don't really look into it because it's been established for a long time. The government takes your money, they give you a 3% return roughly on it. And if you die, this is all falling on ears. Never get it.

[Buck Sexton]

You know that. This is all falling on deaf ears. People love their. People love Social Security. And you know what the problem is, Clay? The lunatic communists who are certainly right now sitting around, a lot of them praising the Mamdani wing of the Democrat Party, they're not going to get into what you're talking about. They're just going to tell people they're taking your Social Security and then they lose, and then the communists are in charge and then they ruin everything. So this is, this is the political reality of America right now. And Trump sees it. And that's why I have my patience for this thing and my patience even for beyond. Yeah, of course. Hear it out, make the case, tell everybody the numbers. But standing in the way of the Trump agenda because you say that you're not getting the cuts you want, you're not getting the cuts, ok, it's not happening. You're not, you're not, you're not actually going to deal with the debt. It's $37 trillion not happening.

[Clay Travis]

How many people do you think even understand Social Security? What percentage of the American population?

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, they know that they get money when they're, when they're older and they need it. I mean, that's all they care to know.

[Clay Travis]

But the fact that it's an awful deal and if you got to keep your own money and you just put it in index funds, you would.

[Buck Sexton]

People don't trust themselves. People, though, they would spend it. People would spend it on a Jet Ski and then they'd say, oh, but I need help now. And, you know, this is, this is the problem, people. Everybody wants somebody else to pay for Their stuff, not realizing that they're the ones paying for the stuff they think is coming from other people.

[Clay Travis]

I think the biggest challenge is it's so embedded now that most people don't even examine the underlying concept, which is basically a big pyramid scheme. And it's predicated on there always being way more young people than there are old people. And we're not in that era anymore, Clay.

[Buck Sexton]

The average person pays in to Medicare less than half of what they take out of Medicare in terms of the actual cost of their care. But if you tell anybody that you're going to change Medicare, you know what they say? I paid for that. It's not welfare. It's an entitlement. I've paid for it. I deserve it. Okay, well, if I give you money for one ice cream cone, but you keep giving me two ice cream cones, you're going to run out of ice cream cones. Nobody wants to hear it. And honestly, that's how I'm excited about the border. I'm excited about saving the country. I'm excited about the Trump agenda being funded. You know, I'm with Stephen Miller on this stuff, man. Like, we got to save the country now and we'll figure out the debt later. When people want to have big boy conversations about it, they don't actually. The American people do not want to have the conversation.

[Clay Travis]

The answer then becomes the growth rate is everything.

[Buck Sexton]

Yep.

[Clay Travis]

Because the growth rate of the country is what can turn this into a net positive bill. So if you are optimistic on AI, if you want to unleash individual American meritocracy, if we ever got the country growing at 4% again, all of these issues vanish, basically, right? 4% a year. 4% a year. 4% A year. We're growing at like 1.5% a year, 1.8% a year. The overall growth rate of the American economy is the key. If overall spending is not going to be addressed and there doesn't seem to be a political will, unfortunately, as you and I believe believe there should be. If you look at just the basic books, the political will isn't there to address, well, the spending. And so we live in a magic.

[Buck Sexton]

We have to understand it's not convincing Republicans to tackle the debt. It's dealing with the fact that Democrats will call you heartless, you know, ruthless, throwing old ladies off their Medicare and taking away Social Security from hardworking Americans so they can seize power and act like communist maniacs. That's the problem. So this is. It's not just like we're having a Talk on our side.

[Clay Travis]

And also the concept of cut, which the media I think does a poor job of slowing the rate of growth, is not a cut. It's still a growth. But they have managed to create this idea. Well, we're going to dial back the growth of the, of the, of the overall spending and that is seen as a cut. Oh, you're cutting spending? No, spending still growing. It's just not growing at the same rate. And honestly, I think a lot of this is just communication failure. I don't think people know the details. I think a lot of people don't care to know the details.

[Buck Sexton]

Spoiler alert. It's going to pass and Trump's going to end up signing it. And everyone who's chirping about this from the Congress in the meantime is going to go along with what's basically there, just throwing it out there for everybody. But the debt is not being dealt with, that is for sure. And that is why the BRICS conference is so interesting. It's going on next week right around this time. Brazil, Russia, India, China. You know what they're trying to do? Get off the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Why does that matter? Well, that would be a huge lifestyle change for all Americans if that happens. And as it happens over time, it means that we can't fund the things that we fund right now with money printing the same way because other countries aren't going to buy our debt and we can't just print our way out of whatever our problems are. This is why you need to take action now. And not everything can be solved by this Trump administration. The debt is not going to go away in the next four years. Try gold, my friends. Protect your IRA or 401k from the fallout of the money printing reality from the inflation that's going to continue. With the Birch Gold Group's help, you can diversify into gold. I mean actual physical gold. You could Also transition an IRA or 401k into a gold IRA. Birchgold is the best at this. This is who you should go with. Text my name. Buck to 9898. 98. Text buck to 98. 98. 98. That's right. Text my name. Buck to 98. 98. 98. Today with Birch Gold Group.

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[J.R. Martinez]

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves.

[Buck Sexton]

This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it.

[J.R. Martinez]

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[Clay Travis]

Hey Buck, one of my kids called me an unk the other day.

[Buck Sexton]

An Unk?

[Clay Travis]

Yep. Slaying, evidently. For not being hip, being an old dude.

[Buck Sexton]

So how do we un unk you?

[Clay Travis]

Get more people to subscribe to our YouTube channel. At least that's what my kids tell me.

[Buck Sexton]

That's simple enough. Just search the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show and hit the subscribe button.

[Clay Travis]

Takes less than five seconds to help. Un unk me.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

YouTube channel the Senate has passed the big, beautiful bill that happened right at the start of the first hour of today's program. It will now go back to the House End result is going to be passage seems to be, I would say, general happiness over this passing, but also a. I don't know that I've picked up on this before, a demand for perfection in bills the likes of which I have not seen in the past. All bills passed by Congress are imperfect. Many of them are unfortunately awful. Which is why, in many ways, I would just like less government. I think most of you out there would like less government. Just get out of the way and let individual excellence triumph, which is how you get the economy growing. But this bill, I think, will aid substantially in getting the economy growing. It will provide certainty on tax rates. It will further shut down the southern border. It is imperfect, as all acts of Congress are, but I believe the net benefits are very much in a positive direction. Now, for those of you out there that are concerned about government spending, you're right, the government spending is out of control. There is not, however, the political will to address government spending, either on the Democrat or the Republican side. It doesn't exist. Uh, if you argue for it in cutting government spending, cutting entitlements, all these things, you don't get elected. And to buck's point, eventually Communists take power and they spend more money and they tax you at a higher rate. So I, I don't know who the great communicator is going to be that can actually sit down. I feel like in many ways, back in the day, some of you will remember this. Ross Perot used to just buy commercial time in 1992, and he had a lectern.

[Buck Sexton]

Can it finish?

[Clay Travis]

He had his lectern and he had his, like, pointer, and he would stand there and just make the case, as a executive would, about how government spending was out of control. I think Ron Johnson is right on this. I think Rand Paul is right on this. We have allowed embedded spending excess to be continued. From COVID I agree with all of it. The political will to address it isn't there. And Democrats, this is where they win a lot of these arguments because they have established the definition of a cut is actually slowing the rate of growth. I've never heard of this being applied anywhere else. This is really.

[Buck Sexton]

This was true of Republicans in the Tea Party era trying with. There was that there was a huge fight and it was about slowing the rate of the increase of spending. It was about spending less of a, of a, you know, bringing the trajectory of increased spending down just a little bit and a decrease in the. A decrease in the increase.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

And this was a huge political fight back in the Tea Party days a decade ago. So, yeah, I, you know, I don't want to be, I don't want to be dismissive or cynical about it, but usually when I say that it's because I'm about to be. We just haven't suffered enough. People haven't spent enough. They haven't seen enough of their grandchildren not living up to the, you know, the quality of life that they themselves had. Or we haven't seen enough money going to, paying interest and having that crowd out private spending. We haven't seen enough of the tax raises that eventually are going to be a part of trying to stabilize this. Like, you know, that's, or, or, or happiness because we're going into a holiday weekend and I already have holiday brain going on here a little bit or clay. We find ways that AI and productivity and growth are so profound that it's, it's a, something of a fiscal miracle. Right. I mean we, we become so productive and so efficient as an economy that we're able to grow our way, if not out of it, grow our way to, to continued stability with it. That's a possibility as well. I don't think that that's. There are people who believe that AI is going to be more transformational than even the Internet has been. Yeah, that for a second. So no one really knows what that means in terms of how much wealth. You know, people think of wealth as zero sum and it's not. Now I'm borrowing from Naval Ravikant, he's a very smart guy. Status is zero sum. Wealth can actually be something that is real and that is broadly shared. We are all a lot richer than the richest people were in the 1500s. Why is that? Right. The world has gotten a lot wealthier year, not just individuals. Status is a different thing. That's zero sum. So I just don't know if we've, we've reached the point. I don't think we have reached the point as a country where we want to tackle the problem. Maybe we want to see if we can grow our way out of it, and that's where we are. So any, any noise to the contrary right now is unfortunately just that noise.

[Clay Travis]

I think the argument that might cut through from a communication perspective is if you put on 10 pounds of weight every year and then suddenly you only put on three, you're getting fat slower, but you're still getting fatter. And the whole idea that slowing the rate of an increase or slowing the rate of growth as a cut is one of the most pernicious I Think realities that has been allowed to exist in the way we even have conversation. This is where the left does a better job with language, because defining a cut as something that actually leads to something being greater is. Is really what they do, in essence. Because what it means is once they get the money spent, they never dial back from the money that has been spent. They embed it.

[Buck Sexton]

It's also. It's like revenue versus taxes. They don't use the word tax, really. If they can avoid it, they'll say revenue. Because revenue is just money the government has, which is good and goes to investing. That's what they'll also say. We need to invest more in the following programs because investing sounds good. What they mean is take your money under the threat of fines and. Or imprisonment and put it into things that the government decides are payoffs for the constituents that they need to pay off. That's what. That's what it actually is. But they play games with the language. I said this to Clay offline. I mean off, off air. I'll say it to all of you. It's the same thing when you talk about minimum wage. Minimum wage is economically a flawed concept. It does not work the way it is intended to work. It never has, it never will. Doesn't matter. People like it. And if you say, don't pay minimum wage, you know what happens? You lose. So it's very hard. And you could say, well, I'll just convince people, make a better argument. You can convince some people. Can you convince enough people that the communists who are just going to shout, you're a fat cat. They play the politics of envy, the Mom Donnie routine. Look, this Mom Donnie stuff is. None of this is new. And same thing with Bernie Sanders. Did you see Bernie Sanders sitting down with Joe Rogan recently, I might add, talking about the. The lawsuits that Trump is filing? You know what Bernie Sanders does whenever he's cornered with a stupid argument? He pretends he doesn't know the details. This is what he does. He does this with economics, too, I might add. Well, you know what? I don't have the facts and the figures on that, so I can't get into it. And no, it's because his arguments are trash, Clay. But Bernie Sanders, Mamdani aoc They're all doing the same thing, which is ignoring history, ignoring math, and telling people they have a secret sauce, a secret formula that's going to make everybody feel like they're getting enough and they're good enough and everything is fine. It is always a lie. But it's a very appealing lie.

[Clay Travis]

Something that Trump is going to focus on. Buck that I'm starting to see attention on that I think could be transformative. Ok, we've talked now. The big beautiful bill is eventually going to pass in some fashions, pass the Senate, pass the House. They have to reconcile them. But I don't think it's going to suddenly blow up. There's going to be some form of a bill that passes. Okay, so that is now moving forward in the agenda. There is now, and I think this is going to be potentially transformative momentum to not count illegal immigrants for purposes of the House seats. Have you seen this? This could be hugely important. And, and it's structural and it's massive. First of all, we need a new census, because I think they screwed it up. And it would change the way that the 2028 election map is set up, because it would mean that even if Democrats won Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, the electoral votes are not there to allow them to be able to win. 270 to 268. Unfortunately, the, the Electoral College not going to be shifted. It doesn't appear until after 2030. But what no one talks about that I think Trump could get behind, and this could be really important too, is they count illegal immigrants for purposes of House seats, and the number is roughly 730 or 740,000. Congressmen represent individuals. If you said, hey, we're not counting illegal immigrants at all for purposes of House seats, this would mean that the House was not winnable for Democrats. They may win the house back in 2026. But structurally, if, if I were now the Trump team and I were giving them advice on something that I think would be transformative in the illegal immigrant space. It would be, let's make it clear that you cannot count illegal immigrants for purposes of redistricting House seats and districting House seats, and this would probably knock at least 10 Democrat seats out of control. Why in the world should these people be counted? And it be the case that Democrats benefit overwhelmingly off of people that are not citizens, not them voting, but just them being counted for census purposes. This means that big cities and, and blue states that have encouraged illegal immigrants to come into their locations would be dialed back in their impact, and this would have a substantial impact going forward. I think it's one of the big things that I would say, hey, now that we got this done, let's focus on that.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, it also goes to the perception people have, which I think is, is in this case correct, which is that the system is rigged because if You're a political party that is benefiting from violations of law. You are benefiting in terms of, you know, cold hard facts of power when it comes to leveraging something. That is the mass violation, the serial violation of American law. That's not the way the game is supposed to be played. All right? The refs have been paid off. This is a problem. And it's, as you point out, a substantial one, a big one by the numbers. So, yeah, this is why I keep saying, though, with the big beautiful bill, the illegals situation. This is why Trump, this is the number one reason in my mind that Trump won the election as convincingly as he did. I know there's other stuff. There's a million things, ok? It's always. You're taking a snapshot of the way that 150 million people decided to click one box or the other. But immigration is the single issue that I think motivated more people to get behind Trump. And this has to start getting fixed right now because what we saw under Joe Biden, that is truly unsustainable. If you want to consider this to be America going forward, not in 50 years, in five years, you can't have another 10 million illegals pile into this country on top of the illegals that are already here and think that this is still going to be what we've thought it is. And Clay, it's already having a huge political effect. As we see you have all these cities that are trying to thwart federal law enforcement. Well, that's because the political power of the illegal constituents in those cities is huge.

[Clay Travis]

And they know that they have to try and preserve it. We'll take some calls on this and we'll take some of your calls. We don't have any guests scheduled today. 800-282-2882. You can always talk back. Lots of emails rolling in. We'll dive into some of those because a lot of you have big takes on all of that as well.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay wants to cut your Social Security. So calling and yell at him.

[Clay Travis]

Decision. This is why. I get. This is why I don't have to run for elective office. I can actually tell you the truth as opposed to having to lie to everybody and be like, hey, it's a magical world. Everybody's gonna get more money than you ever put in, and there's not gonna be any consequences. Hey, yay. Everybody gets ice cream every day for meals. Let's eat birthday cake every day for breakfast, and you're not gonna get fat. Decisions about healthcare coverage and which plans right for you don't come easy in most cases, like ch. Best of the worst. On something as important as your healthcare insurance, you want to feel good about the decisions you make. Why settle for a government plan like the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare when there's a better option out there? It's called Ease for Everyone. It offers affordable health care for as low as $262 a month. You can keep your doctor, never pay a deductible, access over 400 prescription drugs for free. Go online to the website, see what plan is right for you and your family. Ease for Everyone developed by forward thinking experts located in Nashville, Tennessee. Visit ease for everyone.com clay join today. That's ease for everyone.com clay 262 bucks. Check it out. Ease for everyone.com clay.

[Buck Sexton]

The big news today at the top of the show. Just to recap right as we came on air, I mean, within moments the Senate had passed on a 5150 vote the big beautiful bill. JD Vance had to be the tie break on that one. Thom Tillis, Rand Paul, who's the third? Somebody else didn't get. Oh, Collins didn't vote for it. So, yep, that was what happened there. Now, thank you, Clay, for the catch. It goes back to the House side before it goes to the president's desk for signature. The House is going to there's going to be some squawking from the Freedom Caucus about it. I don't think they're going to sabotage the Trump agenda at this late moment on the big beautiful bill, but they're going to. They're going to, you know, look, they're allowed to have their say on it and they will. So that will be a thing that occurs in the next few days and we're probably going to get to a signature before the holiday. Hopefully that is how this will go. So that's the big news. And then we had the most interesting visit of the day. Was Donald Trump going down to Alligator Alcatraz, which is in Ochopee, Ochopee, Florida, which is near Everglades City, which I can tell you is not really much of a city. It is really middle of nowhere's ville. I think Ochapi is has a hundred people something like that lives in lives in the, in the it is unincorporated territory. So it's not even, I think a township per se. It's quite small. But that was the one. If you were wondering, it wasn't Lake Okeechobee. I know Lake Okeechobee. Ochapi was The. The new place. So that's where they have this airstrip that is a place to put illegal migrants, illegal aliens before they are deported. And Trump is saying, if you try to run from the gators or swim from the gators, it's going to be a bad day for you. So there's all that going on. And then he got into Kami Mumdani. Do you have anything in the alligator Alcatraz? The team is saying that all you have to do is be able to not zigzag, but outrun the nearest person.

[Clay Travis]

To you, which that is always true.

[Buck Sexton]

And that is mean. That's very mean. Clay would. Clay would not leave me behind to get eaten by gators. Right, Clay?

[Clay Travis]

Probably correct. I would be. Again, I've said on this program before, I am prepared to save anyone from an alligator attack. If you see me near a swamp, I've got your back. So just don't go in the water. But if they come out of the water, like in Crocodile Dundee, I know that's crocodile versus an alligator, then I'll be like Mick Dundee right there to. To protect you. By the way, that movie also still a lot of fun if you've got kids and you want to watch some movies during the July 4th holiday. Weather's not great. Maybe you're sitting around. We've been watching all the Harry Potter movies in the Travis household, and they're still really good. So props J.K. rowling. I think she may have a future in this creative industry space, but that alligator Alcatraz thing, and I think. I know we said it last hour, but I do think it's so important. Trump and DeSantis are a whale of a team. And I know Ron DeSantis only has, whatever it is, a year and a half left, basically, as the governor of Florida, but I would not be surprised if DeSantis ends up in some form or fashion, as a part of Trump 2.0 cabinet. And what I mean by that is there's constant. Doing these jobs takes a lot. So so far, we have had pretty great stability in Trump 2.0 cabinet universe. But at some point, some of these guys, probably after ngals, after the midterms, are gonna start to say, hey, I wanna do something different. I'm burned out. Two years of going full speed doing X, Y or Z. There's something else that I wanna do. It wouldn't shock me if Trump comes back to DeSantis. Remember, there was some talk about DeSantis potentially being the Secretary of Defense when it was uncertain about whether Hagseth was gonna be confirmed. And that's another example of J.D. vance breaking a tie. 50, 50 in the Senate, J.D. vance gets the vote to get Hegseth in. And Pete has done a very, very good job. Since this is also an example, on the big, beautiful Bill, you've got J.D. vance breaking the tie. This is why, having a little bit of a buffer in the Senate, 53, 47, man, it would be great to be up to 54 or 55 or 56 as it pertains to where we're headed on next. But the Trump DeSantis relationship, very strong. And I think it's important to point out that by and large, most of you out there who voted Trump, I really can't hardly point to anything in the first six months and say, hey, I think Trump could have done a better job on this politics, the art of the possible. So I understand that people are saying, oh, this is my number one issue. And this hasn't been addressed completely to the, to the ability that I would like. You can't make people do what there is, not the political will for them to do. So you and I, buck, we talked about this some earlier. We're very troubled by the national debt. When the Tea Party got its start, national debt was $10 trillion. National debt is soon going to be $40 trillion. That's untenable. But until there is a political will to address it and you can't solve it by increasing tax rates, that doesn't work. Ultimately, I think you're going to have to dial back spending. This is inevitable. But that political will is not there yet. So in the meantime, you have two options. You can either whine and complain. And some people are choosing that because it's not kick your legs, scream like a child, have a temper tantrum, or you can do what you and I are talking about now. Hey, this bill is going to pass. And now it's time to try to figure out how do we grow the economy as rapidly as we possibly can to help to lead to a surplus through growth as opposed to a surplus through cuts. That is the new hope. And to me, if we can get it to 3, 4% growth, everything changes.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes. So that's the, that's the case for optimism. And I agree with you on that. The case for optimism is not that everyone's going to see the wisdom of Ron, of Ron, sorry, Rand Paul's math, and, and make massive changes to the biggest spending programs and priorities of the United States government now and for the last. Well, all of our lifetimes. So, yeah, that's not going to happen. So hopefully Trump just has the economy so juiced and so en fuego that some very good things can happen. What will make things a lot worse is if the commie Mamdani is able to take control. Trump spoke about this. There's some Marine One noise in the background, but he wanted you to hear this. This is cut seven. This is. Look, even President Trump's win. And we all see this. This is concerning. When somebody gets the wind at his back in some place as important as New York City, play it. I think he's terrible. He's a communist. The last thing we need is a communist. I said there will never be socialism in the United States. So we have a communist. I think he's bad news. And I think I'm gonna have a lot of fun with him watching him, because he has to come right to this building to get his money. And don't worry, he's not going to run away with anything. I think he's, frankly, I've heard he's a total nut job. I think the people of New York are crazy. If they go this route, I think they're crazy. We will have a communist in the for the first time. Really? A pure, true communist. He wants to operate the grocery stores, the department stores. What about the people that. I think it's crazy. Yeah, Clay, it is crazy. And I understand that there's this sense that it's limited to New York, but AOC and Bernie Sanders, they co sign really all of this stuff. And they're the Democrats that have the most currency with the base. And it is a Democrat Party that came within a few hundred thousand votes of Trump, even after lying about Biden's dementia and putting forward the worst candidate in our lifetime in Kamala Harris. So, I mean, I would argue even worse than dementia guy, which tells you a lot. So we have to take this seriously. People ask, how does the Democratic Party come back? It's not hard. They were close. Even in this election, in aggregate numbers, when you really look at it, there are a lot of people who are voting Democrat, no matter who they put forward, no matter how crazy the idea is. And Momdani, I think, is just a symptom of that larger malady.

[Clay Travis]

And again, I'm going to keep hammering it. If there is not a coalition that arises to all come together to oppose Mamdani. If you have Eric Adams running as an independent, Andrew Cuomo running as an independent, and you have a situation where Curtis Sliwa is the Republican. That trio is going to assure that Mamdani wins. So the only way New York City rejects Mamdani and has some form of sanity in terms of who it's selecting as its next mayor is if there's a understanding that they cannot all run and there is a coalition of opposition that comes together to try and defeat Mamdani. My concern is everybody's going to look out for their best interest, meaning we're going to get more attention if you stay in the race and everybody else loses and there isn't a coalition brought together to come against him. And I think what Trump is talking about in general is the opposition that he sees from all these sanctuary cities as the process is underway. To deport so many different people is a direct opposition to the federal government and should not be acceptable. And at some point, I think there's going to have to be a test case of someone, probably a mayor that is one of the sanctuary cities that is directly defying federal law. And we're going to have to have the courts rule about whether or not that is permissible or appropriate, because I don't understand. We made this argument and the Supreme Court has said it quite clearly. The president of the United States is in charge of border related policies, immigration, all of those things. How can we allow all of these individual cities and certainly governors of states, but it's really being driven more by mayors of cities that have decided that they are sanctuaries. How can we allow them to directly defy federal law? At some point, that conflict is going to have to be resolved in some way by the larger court system. It feels inevitable to me.

[Buck Sexton]

We'll get some calls and some talk backs coming up here in a second. Want to hear from all of you before Clay and I sign off for the holiday. Like I said, Tudor, Dixon and tomorrow, Brian Mudd in the next day. Got great guest hosts. We got live shows coming up for you with fantastic content. But Clay is going to be on the beach. I might even get to the beach. And it's funny, I live.

[Clay Travis]

You don't do the beach.

[Buck Sexton]

I don't really get to the beach very often, which is weird considering I live next to one of the nicest beaches in America. Some would argue for an urban beach. For an urban beach. Okay, don't be like, well, what about Tahiti? Or what about, you know, the Seychelles, one of the nicest urban beaches anywhere in the world. Uh, so, yeah, I should get to the beach, too. We'll talk about it. Take some calls. 800-282-2882 dedicated first responders and service members like US Army Major Scott Smiley have paid a high price serving our nation and communities. Friends like you have shown your gratitude for Scott's service and sacrifice not only through words but through actions. This brace brave service member was in Iraq leading his platoon when a car bomb detonated in front of him. The blast left him blind and temporarily paralyzed, but he refused to let his injuries stop his military career. Scott became the first blind active duty officer in military history before medically retiring years later. Thanks to friends like you, the Tunnel to Towers foundation gave Scott and his family a mortgage free specially adapted smart home to help him live more independently. Please show that you appreciate the profound sacrifices made by America's heroes, the men and women who have served our country or our local communities so unselfishly. Donate $11 a month to tunnel the towers at t2t.org that's tthenumber2t.org.

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[J.R. Martinez]

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves.

[Buck Sexton]

This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it.

[J.R. Martinez]

I'm J.R. martinez. I'm a U.S. army veteran myself and I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries And I Heart Podcast from Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal. To Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Buck Sexton]

We're having a great time. We appreciate you being with us. Want to remind you to please subscribe to the Clay and Buck Podcast network because you're going to want to have stuff to listen to as you are cleaning the grill in preparation for cooking on the grill, which is the thing you should all do. You don't want to get too much, too much of that kind of carbon gristle buildup on the metal grate of your grill. But if you want something to listen to or if you're going to be out there, I don't know, on the boat, in the yard, whatever it is, listen to Clay and Buck Podcast Network. Fantastic people there. David Rutherford, Tutor Dixon, Carol Markowitz, lots and lots of great people to listen to. And like we said, Tutor Dixon will be in for us tomorrow and our friend Brian Mud will be in force the next day after that. So you got great shows coming up your way. We have. Wow. A lot of talk backs and a lot of calls. A lot of good things going on here. Joe from let's take hh. Joe from Mesa, Arizona. Hey, Joe and Mesa. I was trying to explain to my friend just like, why most of America doesn't even care about the deportations that are happening. And he flipped out on me and was saying that I needed to admit that I hate every other race other than my own anyways, so in the end, they're just totally brainwashed and there's nothing you can do. The law either matters or it doesn't. Has nothing to do with race, has to do with being a rule of law society, Clay.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. And look, I think that a lot of people are dialed out and just randomly buy into all of the histrionics. I mean, I think a perfect example of this is, you know, we're going to hit right now. The stock market is up again today for another high. It was only two months ago that they were telling you that everything was going to collapse and that you needed to make sure that you sold all your stocks and that we were headed for basically a nuclear winter. And from an economic perspective, and it just hasn't happened. And so I think the total fear there is. It works on a lot of people. And they are aware that emotionally they can play on people's failings as it pertains to that.

[Buck Sexton]

Basically, we have next up here a lot of Lord of the Rings nerds in this audience. Oh, we didn't get. We said we were going to do the movie thing.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, that's what I thought. I was doing my research here.

[Buck Sexton]

New York Times best. Now, I. This is a little bit of a frustration because people don't pay. It's like when you had a teacher that said, make sure you read the instructions for the exam before you take the exam. It's the best movies of the 21st century. So anybody who's jumping in with Braveheart or, you know, which I love and would be my overall choice, overall favorite movie all time. That's 1998, I think, or 6 or I forget when. 9. I don't know. But it was. It was definitely in the 20th. 22. 0. 20th century. 21st century. Best movies of the 21st century. This is. This is the New York Times list that came out. We got a. Wait, Producer. I got all of you to tell me your. Your picks, and I thought they were pretty solid. I'm gonna say all of you. I mean, our team in New York. New York team. Let's start with you, Ali. Producer Ali, what was your best movie of the 21st century? You had time to think about this. So you're on the hot seat now. If you forgot. What is it?

[Clay Travis]

Oh, no, I'm totally on the hot seat. I. I had gone with Gladiator, but I had the years all wrong. Yeah, hold on. Get Lady 2000. Yes, it counts in the New York Times list.

[Buck Sexton]

It does. Because that's. That's technically the 20th century.

[Clay Travis]

They have it down at 92. So they are counting anything that's 2000 and beyond.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, that's an outrage. First of all, the fact that they're counting it and they're Putting it at 92 is an outrage because Ali, I'd be. It would be a top fiver for me. Top fiver for sure. They put parasite at number one. A foreign film as the best movie of the 21st century. Which. Which I think is mad. Producer. Producer Mike, what was yours? You had a good one. Dark Knight. Were you Dark Knight or was that Greg? What is producer Mike? Producer. Dark Knight. Dark Knight. Yeah, he was Dark Knight. Solid. I can't. I can't quibble. With that. I have watched that movie probably a hundred times. I enjoy the Dark Knight. He really brought back. People think now all the Batman franchise, huge franchise that was. It was on the ropes after a couple of really bad Batman movies that bombed big time, including one with I think the girl from Clueless was in it. Alicia Silverstone. There was a George Clooney. No one even remembers George Clooney played Batman. And it was such a bad movie that people don't even remember that he was Batman. So there were. So the. The Dark Knight was. Came back from the Batman Begins and the Dark Knight both great, great options. Remember 21st century, we're looking at clay. What was yours?

[Clay Travis]

I broke it down. Trio. Meaning. Because to me there is. There's a difference between a kid movie. There's a difference between a comedy and there's a difference between a dramedy drama. So I went with. I agree. The whole Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, the Dark Knight, that. That is really phenomenal well done. Up, I think was the best of the Pixar movies Up if you up is so well done. And then I think the funniest movie of the 21st century, I think is Old School. I just think it is absolutely hysterical funny.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, that's not even a category now you're making up categories.

[Clay Travis]

Funniest.

[Buck Sexton]

I think Old School is the funniest movie of the 21st century.

[Clay Travis]

What's bet? What's funnier than old school?

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, I think 40 year old virgin's funnier than old school.

[Clay Travis]

40 year old virgin is very funny. Superbad is very funny. Like there's a series of four or five movies, I think that you could argue. I think the combination of Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn is tough to beat. Wedding Crashers also really, really funny and well done. But I think you have to consider what, again, best doesn't mean Citizen Kane is a phenomenal movie. We talked about yesterday. Schindler's List is a phenomenal movie. It's hard to sit down and just be like, hey, let's have some popcorn and watch Schindler's List.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, this is, this is like how I feel about the Pianist. P I A N I S T. To be clear, the Pianist is a. Or the Pianist, maybe some people say it that way, is I think a perfect movie. Meaning it is incredibly well done. And every aspect of it, from the acting to the writing to the. To the sound, you know, to the soundtrack to the. I think it's a perfect movie. But it's intense. It's World War II yeah, it's, you know, it's a Jewish guy who's trying to flee the. You know, the. Well, at one point, it's his neighbors and the Nazis. The Pianist is an incredible movie, but I can't say it's my favorite movie because if the Dark Knight trilogy or the Lord of the Rings movies are on, I'm watching those instead of the Pianist. I'm just. I'm not gonna lie and be that guy. Which brings me to, I think, their private producer. Greg, what was your pick? You didn't give us. You didn't give us your. We're trying to help you, by the way, for the holiday weekend, everybody. If you haven't seen any of these, we're giving you great recommendations for. I would argue the Lives of Other is a pretty perfect movie. Although it is German language and that is 21st century, but again, it's not a. You still haven't even watched it, have you? You, Laura, haven't watched the Lives of Others, and you have. Okay, maybe that one because it's foreign language. I could see Lara being like Clay. Don't. Don't, you know, don't torture us. You guys haven't watched Hacksaw Ridge, which is insane, because that was. I gave you that assignment a long time ago, that movie, to be fair.

[Clay Travis]

To be fair to me, I barely see anything. I watch stuff with my kids, which is why I've been watching Harry Potter.

[Buck Sexton]

Watch hundreds of hours of college football. Hundreds, I was gonna say.

[Clay Travis]

And I watch a lot of sports. Let me give you an underrated movie that I think seems even more contemporary than it was when it came out. Minority Report. So, no, I'm telling you, go back and watch it now. In an age of AI, it seems eerily prescient in terms of its foreshadowing of where we are.

[Buck Sexton]

Producer Greg is going to weigh in. He was a He. He wanted to get on this. Producer Greg, best movie of the 21st century. If you were making this New York Times list, what's number one? Dark Knight. I'm with. I'm with. Oh, you're Dark Knight. Got you. I thought. I thought we had double Dark Knight. That's a. Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is the best bad guy performance. That. That I think you. It's. That it's the no country for Old Men with what's his name, you know, Javier Bardem. Javier Bardem. And Hans Gruber in Die Hard, which was the first time that guy was ever in a movie, which is still amazing.

[Clay Travis]

Just watching the Dark Knight, knowing that Heath Ledger was going to in some way kill himself. Like, I watch it now, and you're right, the performance is incredible. But when I watch it in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, in order to become this good, he had to go to such a dark place that it felt to me like a lot of people who are actors and actresses, it's not actually that talented. You know what I mean? Like, there are lots of people who are. Whatever. Heath Ledger, that was actually an artistic performance as the Joker. But I think it led him into a world where his brain, like, almost broke.

[Buck Sexton]

You know, he went into the darkness. Went to the darkness too much that. That. That has happened with, with people that get too into a role. A lot of people very high. And look, because I saw a lot of comments about this, because I. I was on. I was on with Will Kane and Carol Markowitz on Will show on Fox Clay, and that's where this got some attention. A lot of people have as their top movies, I would say the ones that I saw the most for all of you, all of you out there, I say the one that, that I saw the most as a number one choice was either There Will Be Blood or no country for Old Men for best movie the 21st century. I view those as both excellent movies. But it also goes in that category of There Will Be Blood for me is like watching a masterclass of acting. Like, obviously, Daniel Day Lewis is phenomenal and. And the performances are. But do I care about anybody in this story, really? No. Do I like anybody, really? No. And then I think that unfortunately, no country for Old Men, again, very well made. And I'm not saying it's not a good movie. I'm just saying, you know, if it's on, am I going to watch it? I don't. It's so bleak and kind of nihilistic for me. I. So I can't get too excited about either one of those as a top 10 of the 21st century. They're both excellent movies, to be clear, but they're not movies. I've only watched each of those maybe twice, which for me is not very many.

[Clay Travis]

I also, to me, it. When it's a book being made into a movie, I think the excellence of the movie in many ways reflects the book. And Cormac McCarthy is probably the greatest author. Now I'm really going to get people fired up. Probably the greatest author of the last 30 years. And I know he died a couple of years ago, but if you look at his production in terms of his talent. And you go all the way back. He moved eventually his fiction to basically the border with Texas and Mexico, but he started off as a Tennessee based writer and I think he's probably the most talented writer in America in the last 30 years. And so no country for Old Men is a novel by him. And I think it just reflects the world that he created on the screen and is actually an illustration of his excellence as a writer more than it is as a film. Does that make sense? Like if you said, hey, the Great Gatsby, which it isn't, and it's been made multiple times, most recently with Leonardo DiCaprio, if you said the Great Gatsby is the best movie that's ever been made, I would be like, well, it's a phenomenal novel. And so to me, I strip out anything that isn't an original movie as a great movie. Does that make sense? Because it's a reflection of, of the, of the book.

[Buck Sexton]

More than one talk back here. Before we get into more talkbacks and calls to close this out, a a podcast listener. Zeb from Texas. Play it, Clay and Buck, this is Zeb from Texas. Love your show. Listen to you every day since y' all took over for Rush. Ditto, baby. Hey, listen, I'm so disappointed that y' all would question producer Greg after he's led you right so many times. Minas Tirith is the capital city of Gondor after Osgiliath was destroyed by the orcs in the Battle of Sauron. Trust your man.

[Clay Travis]

I just, this is the nerdiest thing that has ever been said on the show, which is, I just love, I.

[Buck Sexton]

Love that we have listeners who clearly, clearly have a 12 gauge across the backseat of the car, have a Stetson on and cowboy boots, and they're lecturing us about Minas Tirith as the city of Gondor, as the capital of Gondor after Osilius, of course, was destroyed by the orcs in the Battle of Sauron. That is, that is our, that is our Texas audience rolling around in a pickup, ready for any javelinas they have to take out. But you get Lord of the Rings wrong and they're dropping knowledge on you.

[Clay Travis]

The, the, the correction yesterday that I read is the nerdiest thing that's ever been said on the show. That talk back and Buck's analysis of it is the second nerdiest thing that's ever been said on the show. In the meantime, I want to tell you about what you want to make sure you do. It's take care of your family. With our friends at Sabre we have every single product. I think this is true that Sabre produces. Whether it's pepper spray, whether it's the projectile pepper launcher, whether it is door protections. Everything that Saber offers we have in the Travis household. Trust me on this, they are phenomenal. Just go look at the website saberradio.coms a b r e radio.com they are phenomenal. They've been doing this for 50 years. Family owned products are reliable and trusted. The pepper gel projectile launcher, shaped like a pistol or rifle depending on the model you choose, fires off a pepper. Pepper gel projectile targeted, goes a longer distance. Non lethal, but it'll protect you decide what you need and what you want for your family. Again we have everything. Right now you'll get 15% off at Sabre. Radio.com that's S A B R E radio.com if you don't want to go online, you can also call them. 844-824 safe. These are non lethal, but they'll help protect your family. 844-824 safe.

[J.R. Martinez]

The medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves.

[Buck Sexton]

This medal is for the men who went down that day.

[J.R. Martinez]

On Medal of Honor Stories of Courage. You'll hear about these heroes and what their stories tell us about their the nature of bravery. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Buck Sexton]

This is an iHeart podcast.