Daily Review With Clay and Buck - Jun 30 2025

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show - Daily Review with Clay and Buck (June 30, 2025)

Hosted by Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction

In the July 4th week edition of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton delve into significant legislative developments, political dynamics, and economic trends shaping the nation. The episode provides an insightful analysis of the "Big Beautiful Bill" nearing passage in the United States Senate, the evolving landscape of the Democratic Party, and the tangible impacts of President Trump's economic policies.

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The Big Beautiful Bill: Progress and Political Implications

Senator Ron Johnson's Update

The episode kicks off with Senator Ron Johnson providing a comprehensive update on the "Big Beautiful Bill" as it approaches passage in the Senate. Senator Johnson highlights his pivotal role as one of the last Republicans to support the bill, emphasizing its significance for the 2026 elections and the broader political landscape.

"We are building, hiring and winning in America because energy tax credits create jobs and put America first." ([02:37])

Key Components and Challenges

Senator Johnson outlines the primary components of the bill, focusing on deficit reduction measures and Medicaid reforms. He underscores the Senate's approach to ensuring that business expensing provisions remain permanent, setting it apart from the House's version.

"We are trying to end that because it's causing the outflow, hundreds of billions of dollars out of the federal government. We don't have the money." ([07:55])

The senator also discusses the challenges posed by the House's opposition, particularly the absence of Rick Scott's amendment, which addresses Medicaid enrollment changes. He emphasizes the need for Republican leadership and presidential support to navigate the bill through the Senate.

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Economic Policies and Tariffs: A Trump Administration Success Story

Gas Prices and Inflation

Clay Travis introduces a discussion on the significant drop in gas prices, attributing this trend to President Trump's administration. A clip from Good Morning America reporter Gio Benitez highlights the current national average gas price of $3.18 per gallon, a notable decrease from last year's $3.49.

"Most people traveling right now are traveling by road. Gas prices, $3.18 a gallon right now. That's the national average for regular unleaded." ([05:55])

Debunking Expert Predictions

Buck Sexton and Senator Johnson engage in a robust debate about the effectiveness of Trump's tariff policies. They challenge the prevailing expert consensus that tariffs would lead to inflation and higher consumer prices, presenting data that suggests otherwise.

"The tariffs have not caused the inflationary price pressure that the so-called expert economists predicted." ([12:29])

Senator Johnson reinforces this point by highlighting the lack of significant price increases despite the implementation of tariffs, suggesting that market competition has countered potential inflationary effects.

"They tried to make egg prices a big story. Egg prices are lower than when Trump came into office now." ([08:22])

Trump's Economic Leadership

The hosts praise Trump's decisive economic actions, including his stance on Iran and trade negotiations. Clay Travis remarks on Trump's ability to defy expert opinions and deliver tangible economic benefits.

"Trump is turning things around and kicking ass and taking names." ([62:01])

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Deficit Reduction and Medicaid Reforms

Breaking Down the Deficit

Senator Johnson provides an in-depth analysis of the bill's impact on the national deficit. He contrasts the current average deficit of $1.9 trillion with the pre-pandemic average of $660 billion, attributing the increase to Democratic spending.

"Four years afterwards under Biden and Democrats, our deficit averaged $1.9 trillion." ([28:23])

Medicaid Enrollment Adjustments

A significant portion of the discussion centers on Medicaid reforms aimed at reducing federal expenditure. Senator Johnson explains the proposed change from a $9 federal match for single, working-age adults under Obamacare to a $1 match, which he describes as ending a "financing scam."

"For every dollar the state puts in, the federal government kicks in nine. There's a huge incentive for states to gain the system. We're trying to end that because it's causing the outflow, hundreds of billions of dollars out of the federal government." ([09:23])

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Leadership and Economic Outlook

Trump's Decision-Making

Clay Travis and Senator Johnson laud President Trump's leadership, citing his ability to make tough decisions that have bolstered the economy. They discuss Trump's actions against Iranian bunkers and his successful renegotiation of trade deals with Canada.

"This is real decision making with real consequence. Where Trump has been right, he has been correct." ([14:38])

Future Economic Projections

The hosts forecast a strong economic future, driven by high stock market performance and potential reductions in interest rates. They express optimism about continued economic growth and stability under Trump's policies.

"We are looking at the possibility of an even stronger economy going forward." ([09:23])

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Democratic Party Dynamics and 2028 Elections

Challenges for Democrat Nominees

The conversation shifts to the Democratic Party's prospects in upcoming elections, with a particular focus on Mayor Pete as a potential 2028 presidential candidate. Clay Travis critiques Mayor Pete's lack of support among Black voters, questioning his viability as a nominee.

"Mayor Pete has moved to Traverse City. He gets zero percent of the black vote. I feel like we need to make a PSA to Mayor Pete." ([52:33])

Internal Party Struggles

Clay and Ron Johnson discuss the absence of strong, centrist Democratic leaders, noting that figures like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dominate the party's narrative. They argue that the lack of appealing candidates for moderate voters could hinder the party's performance in future elections.

"What the data shows you is that there is the fact that there is no leader of the Democrat Party for the nomination right now. It's totally an open field." ([57:33])

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Impact on Urban Economies: The Case of New York City

Taxation and Economic Flight

Senator Johnson and Clay Travis examine the economic repercussions of high taxation on billionaires in cities like New York. They argue that excessive taxation drives wealthy individuals and businesses to relocate to states with more favorable tax environments, such as Florida and Texas.

"The billionaires that Mamdani claims shouldn't exist...they are going to leave, and that will create a vicious cycle because you’re going to have to increase taxes to try to replicate the services." ([44:20])

Consequences of Economic Decline

The hosts warn of the negative outcomes of such policies, including increased crime, reduced public services, and overall economic decline in heavily taxed urban centers. They advocate for lower taxes to retain wealth and foster economic growth.

"If you make a million dollars, you're paying $150,000 extra for the privilege of living in New York City. There’s no city in America I would pay $150,000 extra of my tax dollars to live in compared to Florida, Tennessee or Texas." ([46:03])

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Conclusion: A Call for Continued Support and Vigilance

As the episode wraps up, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton reiterate their support for the current administration's policies, emphasizing the need for strong leadership to maintain economic momentum. They encourage listeners to stay informed, support deficit-reducing legislation, and be aware of the shifting political tides that could impact future elections.

"Regardless, even if Thom Tillis was going to run North Carolina battleground state, Democrats are going to feel like they have a chance to win that Senate seat and try to make a run at the 53-47 margin that Republicans have right now." ([02:37])

"Trump is making decisions that are actually benefiting you in terms of the direction of the Nation." ([62:42])

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Notable Quotes

1. Senator Ron Johnson on Deficit Reduction:

   "We are trying to end that because it's causing the outflow, hundreds of billions of dollars out of the federal government. We don't have the money."
   – Ron Johnson ([09:23])

2. President Trump on Tariffs:

   "Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country. More production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers."
   – Donald Trump ([01:49])

3. Senator Ron Johnson on Medicaid Reform:

   "I have no problem taking a look and saying, okay, no, we can reduce the deficit by 650 billion."
   – Ron Johnson ([29:50])

4. Clay Travis on Leadership:

   "This is real decision making with real consequence. Where Trump has been right, he has been correct."
   – Clay Travis ([14:38])

5. Senator Ron Johnson on Economic Flight:

   "The billionaires that Mamdani claims shouldn't exist...they are going to leave, and that will create a vicious cycle because you’re going to have to increase taxes to try to replicate the services."
   – Ron Johnson ([44:20])

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Key Takeaways

• Legislative Progress: The "Big Beautiful Bill" is nearing passage in the Senate, with significant support from Republican senators like Ron Johnson, despite some opposition.

• Economic Success Under Trump: President Trump's policies, particularly on tariffs and energy tax credits, are credited with reducing gas prices, controlling inflation, and bolstering the stock market.

• Deficit Reduction: The bill focuses on substantial deficit reduction through measures like Medicaid reform, aiming to eliminate inefficient federal spending.

• Political Dynamics: The Democratic Party faces challenges in nominating strong candidates, with critiques pointing to the limited support for figures like Mayor Pete and the dominance of progressive voices within the party.

• Urban Economic Health: High taxation in cities like New York is driving economic flight, threatening the stability and growth of these urban centers.

• Future Outlook: The hosts remain optimistic about the nation's economic trajectory under current policies while urging listeners to support ongoing legislative efforts and remain politically engaged.

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This episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show provides a detailed exploration of the intersection between legislative actions, economic policies, and political strategies. Through incisive commentary and robust discussion, Travis and Sexton offer listeners a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing America's current and future landscape.

Transcript

[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Ron Johnson]

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[Clay Travis]

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[Karen Kilgariff]

Hey, it's Karen and Georgia from My favorite Murder. Thanks to Hyundai, we got to take a post show drive in the Ionic five.

[Georgia Hardstark]

We had snacks, laughs and we even recorded a special episode featuring some unforgettable car themed stories.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Take a listen. I'm going to tell you a story today, Karen. It's about a pivotal role that cars played in none other than the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay, well, yes, it's right there in the title. This episode is brought to you by the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 Trump country is booming.

[Buck Sexton]

We're building, hiring and winning in America.

[Clay Travis]

Because energy tax credits create jobs and put America first.

[Donald Trump]

Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country. More production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.

[Buck Sexton]

And America's comeback depends on American energy.

[Clay Travis]

President Trump Keep what works. Don't Repeal Energy Tax credits. Learn more at Built For America US.

[Ron Johnson]

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[Clay Travis]

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[Ron Johnson]

To today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show podcast welcome in July 4th edition of Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show July 4th week edition. I am down on the Gulf of America for what should be one heck of a celebratory experience surrounding the very first 4th of July on the Gulf of America. And all weekend long it just felt to me like everything continued to break in Donald Trump's direction. And we are living in a pretty phenomenal timeline right now. Updating you on the big stories over the weekend, the big beautiful bill nearing its passage in the United States Senate. We will talk with Senator Ron Johnson, who was one of the last to flip and support this big news in terms of the 2026 elections. One of the two individuals who voted against this bill, effectively Senator Rand Paul, one of the others. But Thom Tillis, who is going to face a very difficult race in the United States Senate in North Carolina, Republican Senator there is not going to run for reelection. So there will be a big primary probably. Although I would imagine whoever Trump endorses and there's some talk that Laura Trump, his daughter in law who was involved with the rnc, might decide to step forward in that race, which will be a big battleground and one of the top targets. Regardless. Even if Thom Tillis was going to run North Carolina battleground state Democrats are going to feel like they have a chance to win that Senate seat and try to make a run at the 53, 47 margin that Republicans have right now. So that is big news. The Mamdani fallout in New York City continues to build. But I would say overall, even CNN I saw had a Michael Smerconish big discussion about how Trump is winning on levels that we have not seen before. As we are speaking to all of you on Monday, stock market to another all time high buck. These are winning times and I gotta be honest, it feels pretty good.

[Clay Travis]

Clay, there's one thing I think we left out of the, of the winning parade there that I want to throw for everybody. Well, there's a few things we could talk about, but one important one because I know you're, you're somebody who follows us very closely and let's just say your trip to the Gulf of America more economical than it would have been a couple of years ago. Gas prices, my friend. Remember the first 30 days of the Trump administration. Why hasn't he brought prices down? Look at how expensive eggs are. Trump is lying. Remember all that?

[Ron Johnson]

Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

Well here we have. And that's how they sound, by the way. That's, that's how all the guys reporting on it sound, it's actually a perfect representation of their voice. Here is on Good Morning America reporter Gio Benitez on gas prices. Play it.

[Ron Johnson]

There is some good news and that's good news because most people traveling right now are traveling by Road. Gas prices, 318 a gallon right now. That's the national average for regular unleaded. Last year that was 349A gallon. So significantly lower.

[Clay Travis]

So some good news if you're hitting the road, Clay. It's the lowest that it has been in quite some time actually, the gas price. Isn't it fascinating? Donald Trump comes into office and gas prices drop down quite a bit. Lowest, I'm sorry, the lowest since I wanted to make sure 2021, lowest gas price in four years, everybody. I think that's just a marker here because, you know, if the gas price was the highest it had been in four years, Clay be the number one story going into Independence Day weekend, no doubt.

[Ron Johnson]

It's actually the four year low for summer because inevitably somebody's going to come out there and they're going to be like, well, actually they were low. Yes, gas prices, everybody knows for Independence.

[Clay Travis]

Day weekend, the lower summer years.

[Ron Johnson]

And a lot of you will remember down 2022, summer was the absolute apex of Biden inflation and gas prices were out of control in the summer of 2022. I noticed this in a big way because I just drove, I just drove from Nashville down to the lovely Gulf of America here. And along the way, I take note of what the price of gas looks like. And you mentioned that clip which includes the crazy prices that people have to pay for gas in states like California where they are taxing you like crazy on gas everywhere. I drove Tennessee, Alabama and Florida, all the gas prices unleaded are under $3 a gallon, sometimes as low as like 260, 250 even with the summer hike. That always happens because so many of you are going to be on the road. So yes, you're 100% right. They tried to make egg prices a big story. Egg prices are lower than when Trump came into office now. And, and people are recognizing and by the way, the reason that egg prices went up so much was because the Biden team decided to kill over the bird flu fears. So many different, so many different of the of the animals out that are laying there.

[Clay Travis]

Killed a lot of chickens.

[Ron Johnson]

They killed a lot of chickens. And now, now the gas prices are down. What is, we talked about this a little bit, but maybe we can get the clip from Trump's press conference. On Friday where he was directly asked about this, as one so called expert economist is now saying, actually the impact of the tariffs on overall inflation seems to not have emerged. They keep saying, oh, you're going to see this in a month or you're going to see this in two months. And we're sitting here, when was Liberation Day, so called early April, if I remember. We have not seen any increase in prices by and large associated with the tariffs. And now people are starting to say, wait a minute, this is going to be a 400 or $500 billion net proceeds to the government and the overall prices are not increasing. To your point, the average price that people are paying for groceries, the average price, eggs, specifically gas, all of it is down compared to in the Biden era.

[Clay Travis]

And we have to also remember that while there's no inflation from the tariffs, according to Secretary of the Treasury Besant, we also have very high rates right now. And the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, they're starting to say out loud in the Trump administration, time for a successor to Powell. If you get a start to get a substantial drop in rates, that'll add some rocket fuel to the economy, which will also help. But so we're already at all time high in the stock market. Your 401ks are, are absolutely cruising your pension plans because remember the pension plan that you have that also requires a return in the market based on the capital pool. So if you've got retirement anything, the market being really high is what you want to see. And so we're looking at the possibility of, I think, an even stronger economy going forward. You know, Canada said it was going to have a digital services tax on tech firms in the US Getting a little, a little frisky with us over the trade negotiations. Trump said, you know what, no more negotiations with you guys and you're going to get hit with some big time tariffs. Guess what, Clay, their tough talk from Canada on the digital tax lasted about 72 hours.

[Ron Johnson]

Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

And now here they are backing off of that one, saying, you know what, we should talk, we should talk on the tariff thing specifically, I just want to add, it's one thing when everyone who hates Trump opposes something because they'll oppose anything, right? Trump can say, hey guys, I want to put $100 billion toward curing, you know, all forms of terminal cancer. And there'll be lunatic Democrats who are like, they won't really spend the money on this. It's all going to go to Trump's family member. You know, they'll just, they'll find Some way to hate whatever it is he says on tariffs. There was a lot of, dare I say the conservative orthodoxy on this was opposed to Trump. You know, the old school National Review. Oh, what about Milton Friedman and William F. Buckley, etc. They were opposed to him on this. And it turns out it looks like Trump was right, even in the face of a lot of people on his own team who are rooting for him, saying that this was going to cause problems.

[Ron Johnson]

Yeah. And here's a cut from the Friday news conference proving that there is starting to be a reassessment. And I would say in general that in the wake of COVID and I think you're probably the same as me, Buck, my willingness to blindly accept expert opinion is basically at zero.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Ron Johnson]

Because they're wrong on so many things that they're supposed to be experts on. And here is that that question, as one of the top economists has now said, looking at the data, hey, and I give them credit for being willing to acknowledge, hey, maybe I was wrong. There has not been any inflationary price pressure based on the tariffs. And here is that question from Friday's news conference with Trump. Cut 25, I believe. Let's play it. Mr. President, a leading global economist just.

[Clay Travis]

Did a 180 and says your tariff plan, you may have outsmarted everybody with it. What is your message?

[Donald Trump]

I love this. I love this question. Just a favorite. This is the best question I've ever been asked because I've been going through abuse for years, years on this because as you know, we're taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, no inflation.

[Ron Johnson]

And he continued there. But I mean, this is the reality. When you look at what the data has shown so far, it is that, and it makes some sense that price competition is so intense in the United States that many of these businesses don't have the capability to raise prices right now. And, and frankly, as many of you know, they used the Biden era inflation as an opportunity to massively raise prices because everything was going up and they also shrunk the amount of product that you're often getting in the, in the prices in the process. Go look. And right now, because the economy is rolling and, and there is massive price pressure, in fact contraction in many different things that you buy. They have not been able to, to actually do what everybody told you they would do, which is raise prices on a substantial level to make the consumer cover the inflation costs. So far, that is nonexistent.

[Clay Travis]

If you're Trump, would you listen to any of these so called experts ever again who are all shouting at you that their econ models show that he's wrong. You know, really, like, you know, if I'm Trump, I'm just gonna say, you guys, shut up. I'm doing what I'm doing for the next few years. You know, Trump's gonna be 80 years old soon. He's been to the mountaintop. He knows what's going on here. He does not need the chirping in his ears from the economists. Economists in quotes. What does that even mean? It's like when people refer to consensus opinion on anything without actually telling you who the consensus is. So I think Trump is once, remember we talked about this on China and how everybody said he's going to start a trade war with China and then he was so successful actually with China that Biden didn't even mess with the China stuff that he did because everyone realized he was right. This looks like another one of those moments which is a big win for Trump. That's why he, he was, he was strutting his stuff in that sound bite you played because he knows, no doubt.

[Ron Johnson]

And also, I mean, I think it speaks to the fear of challenging conventional wisdom in the so called expert class. Nobody wants to step outside and be noticed by doing something outside of the herd. It's human nature in many respects, but what you see is a herd of opinion. And, and it can't be the case that everyone uniformly agrees on a dynamic situation that is very difficult to predict. But being wrong, the fear of being wrong is actually more prevalent in most of these people than the risk of being right.

[Clay Travis]

You know, you're also getting, we're all getting a real vision here, real view of what does leadership look like when you're the leader of the free world, which is what the President is, what does leadership look like? It's deciding that you're going to hit the Iranian bunkers, even though people are shrieking about how it's going to cause World War Three and being right. It didn't cause World War three. It set back the Iranian program. It backed up our Israeli allies. It means starting tariff negotiations despite the so called consensus of economists out there shouting about how it's going to cause inflation and price rises and everything else. This is real decision making with real consequence. Where Trump has been right, he has been correct. And I just don't think he gets enough credit. Everyone realizes, Clay, you know, he's a, he's a political and cultural phenomenon and, but he is making calls against what the so called experts and certainly what the, what the general momentum on these issues has been and he's already showing huge results. So I think that going into this weekend we all have to remember that this is not easy stuff he's doing and we are all benefiting from it. And we need to keep encouraging this sort of leadership and supporting this kind of leadership, including with the big beautiful bill which we're going to get to here in just a second with Senator Ron Johnson. And I was at the range this weekend, Clay. I'm now also a range safety officer certified. So really I can take you lar the boys down. I mean I'm, I'm trained, I'm insured, I'm all those things coming up this fall. So it's going to be good times. But I was talking to the guys out there, so many different law enforcement officers who are there as well because they want to be able to either for training purposes themselves with their team or on their own, they want to be an RSO range safety officer. And one thing we talked about was non lethals. Do you know what the favorite by far pepper spray brand of the officers I talked to is? Because a lot of them carry the pepper spray sabre. So if these guys who have to rely on this day in and day out trust Sabre more than anything else, you should trust Saber 2. It is the number one pepper spray brand trusted by law enforcement and I've got people telling me exactly that face to face. S A B R E is how you spell it. Their pepper gel projectile launcher shaped like a pistol or a rifle depending on the model, fires off a pepper gel projectile targeted, goes a longer distance than you'd think. Very effective stopping an intruder. Sabre spelled Sabre. Their website is Saber Radio. S A B r e.saber radio.com this is not about getting away from two way or guns. This is about additional options. Non lethal force escalation, just like cops have. You can have this too. I've got a lot of guns. I've also got a lot of saber carry. Like Saber Laura. Like Sabre. Get yourself some today. S A b r e radio.com that's s a b r e radio.com or call 844-824 safe, 844-824 safe.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Ron Johnson]

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Hannah Jewell]

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[Georgia Hardstark]

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[Ron Johnson]

Up to Washington D.C. now where Senator Ron Johnson I imagine a lot of people are heading to the lakes up north in Wisconsin for this time of year when it is spectacular. But you are working Senator, and we had you in studio a couple of weeks ago breaking down the big beautiful bill and you changed your vote at the last minute or signed on with the bill at the last minute. What is the latest? What can you tell us about where we are compared to when we talked about talked with you on air last.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Okay, yeah, I should be trolling for walleye right now, but we're here working on the big beautiful bill. Ian, as far as the primary components of this bill I'm fully supportive of. Right. We're going to make sure that we don't have a massive automatic tax increase. That's about that's about $4 trillion of the score by the way. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to default on our debt. Unfortunately Democrats left these enormous messes the open border so we have to provide funding for border the wars. We had to provide funding for the defense massive four year average deficit of 1.9 trillion. The seven years before the pandemic our deficit averaged 660 billion. Four years afterwards under Biden and Democrats 1.9 trillion. So again it is true the House provided us with the spending reduction about historic spending reduction about 1.4 trillion tend to actually has about 1.6. Our difference in our scores is we make sure the business expensing provisions are permanent versus short term. So that's the main difference between the House and the Senate. Now we're hearing from the House they're not real happy and we're short from their math somewhere around $600 billion. Rick Scott has an excellent amendment which was not included in the base bill and that was really the sticking point on the motion. Proceed. We got the commitment of the leadership to not only offer amendment vote, but whip it and try and make sure this thing gets passed. I'm hoping President Trump helps us get this thing passed because that depending on the date. So here's what the amendment does. It doesn't kick anybody off of Medicaid. What it does is it stops enrollment into the Obamacare addition to Medicaid, which threatens traditional Medicaid for disabled children, for example. So at some point in time in the future, we're debating that you just don't allow states to enroll them under the $9 to $1 match. I think you guys realize that right. For a disabled child, for every dollar the state puts into Medicaid, the federal government matches it for $1.33. But for the Obamacare, single, working age, able bodied, childless adults. For every dollar the state puts in, federal government kicks in nine. There's a huge incentive for states to gain the system. Provider taxes, provider fees, which aren't health care by the way, but they get reimbursed $9 for every dollar the state kicks in there. So again, it's a financing scam. We're trying to end that because it's causing the outflow, hundreds of billions of dollars out of the federal government. We don't have the money. So that alone could fill about $500 billion of that gap if we give states until the first part of 2029 and the scam, very reasonable proposal most Republicans support. In the Senate, we've got some holdouts and that's where we need leadership to pressure people. There are other things in the bill, some extraneous tax credits that, you know, when we're $37 trillion in debt, do we really have to add tax credits for this, that and the other thing? So again, I think this is entirely doable. It's going to take the President to weigh in. It's going to take Republican leadership to make sure that we can satisfy the House requirements. And then when all said and done, this would be a huge achievement, repealing at least the most damaging part of Obamacare, which was the addition to Medicaid, which puts at risk the Medicaid for disabled children. Do you think it's fair for a disabled child? The federal government kicks in a Dallas 33. But for a working age person that should be working, getting healthcare from their employer. We provide nine Dallas for everyone. It's just out of whack.

[Clay Travis]

Senator Johnson, people are reading about, I think many of them, if not for the first time. It's certainly a helpful reminder about the senate's parliamentarian, Elizabeth McDonough, who has been in this role since 2012. This is not an elected office. This is a, it's pretty fascinating actually. Right? The, the, this started sometime around what, the 1920s, 1930s, so it's about 100 years ago. There's somebody who helps with administrative procedures, rules within the Senate, I guess like when you guys are allowed to have bathroom breaks or I don't know, whatever it is. And now there's somebody who is stripping out parts of the bill like the NFA National Firearms act and silencers no longer being an NFA item because the parliamentarian, what is going on here? And by the way, talk to me about that NFA silencers or suppressors issue.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Well, I believe that was included. So this is incredibly complex. I mean this all has to do with the Budget act sets up this reconciliation process where we can reduce mandatory spending or cut taxes or increase taxes with a simple majority vote. Because of that process, Senator Robert Byrd had rules in terms of what would qualify for that, what wouldn't qualify. From my standpoint, the parliamentarian has been pretty even handed. When Democrats wanted to include things or more policy than budget, she didn't allow it. She's done the same thing here, by the way. We've modified things that she was going to kick out. We listened to her instructions, we got it back in. So I realize that ends up being kind of a bone of contention. What we don't want to do is eliminate the filibuster. I know a lot of people want us to, but the filibuster has protected us from all kinds of massive Democrat spending programs because in the minority, Republicans fed the right to block some of that stuff. So I realize at the moment it's like get rid of that so we can get everything we want. That would be pretty short sighted thinking. But again, we've got a way to do this. You know, Rick Scott knows healthcare like nobody else. Okay, brilliant proposal, doesn't kick anybody off. Medicaid just ends the Medicaid scam a few years in the future gives states, gives providers a chance to readjust how they're budgeting. Basically, states and providers are basing their budget off of this financing scam that has to end. We simply can't afford it.

[Ron Johnson]

Where do we stand Now, I know that Chuck Schumer made the entire bill be read aloud in the Senate chamber, and that took a long time. There's talk that Trump wants to get this thing signed on July 4th. You're in the Senate right now. What is the timeframe look like for everybody out there? And where do we go from here in the voterama?

[Senator Ron Johnson]

So it's unlimited amendments. So I don't, I can't predict how long it'll go. Again, we're in very close conversation with conservatives in the House. They're telling us this product right now is dead on arrival. I actually take them seriously. You know, we, we kind of ignored their formula, their math. They looked at this differently than we did. We're, I think about $650 billion short. Now, from my standpoint, I'm, I'm fine at satisfying their requirement again. Use Rick Scott's amendment and enroll enrollment for new Obamacare 9$9 to 1 match. Those guys can go under standard Medicaid, get reimbursed, same things as disabled child. Okay, do that start of 2029, that saves us about $500 billion. Get rid of some of these extraneous measures, some of these new tax credits that just some Republican senator thought, oh, this is an important thing. You know, just get, we're $37 trillion in debt. This is not a time for additional tax credits for jumping up our tax code further. So I would have no problem taking a look this going, look at this and say, okay, no, we can reduce the deficit by 650 billion.

[Clay Travis]

Not a problem.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Again, politically, you've got constituencies, you got people that apparently like to spend money, like to offer new tax credits, refuse to do what they promise to do. You know, repeal Obamacare, rip it out by the root and branch. This is just one root that is probably the most damaging aspect of Obamacare. And we've got Republicans now that aren't willing to do it. This is where we need presidential leadership to say, honor your promise. Get that additional deficit relief, get this passed to the Senate, get this passed in the House, and then we really will end up with one big, beautiful bill.

[Ron Johnson]

Outstanding stuff. Senator Ron Johnson, we appreciate all the work you're doing and keep us updated. You can hop on anytime.

[Senator Ron Johnson]

Have a great day.

[Ron Johnson]

You too.

[Clay Travis]

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[Ron Johnson]

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

[Clay Travis]

An unk?

[Ron Johnson]

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

[Clay Travis]

So how do we un unk you?

[Ron Johnson]

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

[Clay Travis]

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

[Ron Johnson]

Takes less than five seconds to help un unk me.

[Clay Travis]

Do it for Clay, do it for freedom. And get great content while you're there. The Clay Travis and buck Sexton Show YouTube channel.

[Ron Johnson]

As I know many of you are likely to be on the road, I would encourage you, as always, go download the podcast. You can search out my name, Clay Travis, you can search out Buck Sexton and you will be well on your way to being able to take us with you anywhere. We also have a fabulous podcast network with voices that range the spectrum from moms like Carol Markowitz and Mary Catherine Ham who have a great show to badass former special forces like David Rutherford. You will be able to find as much as you would like from that perspective and beyond. And you'll be able to take us with you wherever you may be. If you're on the road and you need something good to listen to. I was listening to some podcasts on my drive down to the Gulf of America on Saturday. I was in the car for about nine hours, lots of traffic, and got through a lot of different cool podcasts. So I know a lot of you gonna be on the road and buck. As we went to break at the end of that first hour, we were talking about some of the situation that's going on in New York City where Mamdani, this crazy left wing, effective communist, has won the nomination for the Democrat side of the mayoralty. There has not yet been a decision by Andrew Cuomo about whether he's going to run as an independent or dropout. To me, and, and I'm just kind of assessing this from afar. The decision has to be Eric Adams versus Mom Donnie. I think that's the only way Mom Donnie loses. If there's multiple independence. If you have a Republican nominee like Curtis Lewa running aggressively, I just don't. The more opposition there is to Mom Donnie, the better it is for his likelihood. But I bet you were like me. Over the weekend, a lot of deep dives into his videos started to go public. And these are, I would say, truly outrageous perspectives that he has adopted publicly. And I know you've been following it. You've got some you want to kind of shine a spotlight on shame.

[Clay Travis]

Because I keep hoping that New York is going to wake up and go through a Giuliani Bloomberg golden era again. But you have a lot of people that know nothing about that era. That's part of the problem. The people like me who grew up in very dangerous New York City. And people always say, oh, no, it was very dangerous in the 70s. The most dangerous was the late 80s, early 90s, by the numbers, no question. Go check it out for yourself. Over 2000 murders in New York City when I was in grammar school in 1990, 1991, 2000 plus murders. Think about that. All right? New York City has gotten down as low as, I think below 300 at one point in the last decade. So massive. Massive. And people say, well, that's just murders. Yeah, but murders are a very, very solid proxy for overall, particularly violent crime. But crime in general, it's tough to hide dead bodies and people are upset about them. Right. Burglaries don't necessarily get reported or investigated. I mean, there's other things, ways you can mess with the stats. Murders are murders. So the. A lot of people, Clay who voted for Mamdani are either too young, you Know he got, because he was huge with Gen Z or they came here in the last 15 or 20 years. They don't know. They're, they're, they're foreigners who have become, you know, green card holders or they maybe become citizens. And now they're saying oh yeah, I like this guy, I like what he's saying. He's going to make, you know, he's going to make food cheaper in the kebab stands, he's going to make groceries cheaper and the, he's talking about all this stuff. Let's get into some of the things that this guy has actually said. The commie momdani here he is. I mean we got so many of these. I'll start with, with this one. He talked about increasing. Well here, let's do this one first. Billionaires we shouldn't even have. This is cut 7 we shouldn't even have billionaires. Play 7 you7 are a self described democratic socialist.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Do you think that billionaires have a right to exist?

[Clay Travis]

I don't think that we should have billionaires because frankly it is so much money in a moment of such inequality and ultimately what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country. And I look forward to work with everyone, including billionaires, to make a city.

[Verizon Representative]

That is fairer for all of them.

[Clay Travis]

I hate this so much because we can sit here, Clay, and we will and make all the arguments about how you could take all the money from the, I don't know, 100, 200 billionaires, whatever it is, in New York City or a few hundred billionaires, maybe maximum. You could take all the money they have and try to redistribute it. You wouldn't solve poverty in New York City for a year, OK? It wouldn't change. They're spending 14 billion a year just on the illegals in New York City. 14 billion a year on special care for illegals. You think you're going to seize a few hundred billion dollars from New York's billionaires? You're going to fix the problems. But even beside that, clear the whole argument here is just one about envy. It's one about emotion. It does. This is why it's so pernicious and why communism keeps creeping up wherever, you know, wherever there's prosperity in the West. And it's because it just makes people who are upset feel better about themselves to think that there's some other person who's their problem.

[Ron Johnson]

Look, I really do think it sums up the flaw of capitalism is it creates wealth and leisure, which leads to the illusion that capitalism is unnecessary and the reason we have the wealth and the leisure that exists in this country. And by leisure, I mean you don't have to constantly be in a mad scramble to have water or food or the ability to. You know, the poor people in the United States are not actually poor relative to the standards for what poverty looks like in the rest of the world. Our poor people. I think one of the great stats that kind of brings this home, even in a country like India. The poorest people in the United States would be in the top 20% richest in India. That's true for almost every country that is, that is in the world. The poorest people here would be among the wealthiest anywhere else. And if you wonder why people are risking their lives to come through the Darien gap during the Biden era or come across the Rio Grande, it's because even being poor in the United States makes you wealthy in many other countries. And that's an incredible degree that we have.

[Clay Travis]

But the poverty comes along with obesity in this country, which is in excess, for example, of food. There's a correlation between poverty and obesity. There were times actually, like all of human history, the last hundred or so years, where poverty and starvation were actually what were correlated.

[Ron Johnson]

And actually being fat was a sign of tremendous wealth because it meant that you had to your point, like all the.

[Clay Travis]

Tried to tell my wife, but she wanted me to get in shape anyway. You know, it's kind of sad if.

[Ron Johnson]

You go back and look at all the kings, you know, in England back in the day, for instance, when they became super wealthy, they were often very fat because that meant that you had the ability to have too much to eat, which was a rarity. But the billionaire thing to me is, it's, it's, it's so important for everybody to focus on. First of all, I want there to be way more billionaires. I want there to be way more millionaires. I want the overall pie of economic wealth in the United States to grow massively. And I want everybody to be able to feast on economic success, whatever your current status of life is. But this is so important, and I think you're a perfect example of this, because what this happens is, and you're going to start to see this in earnest. I think I would even argue this is a generational story that you need to put a pin in and pay attention to. People who have success in life, who have wealth, are far more mobile in general than people who do not have success in life and do not have great opportunity, right? With wealth comes the ability to go to different places, to relocate your life. And what a lot of people found out during COVID is they could move to different parts of the United States or even the world, and they would have never tested it but for Covid. And they found out, hey, I can be running Wall street from Miami just as well as I can from Greenwich, Connecticut, or a super luxury pad somewhere in a high rise building overlooking Central Park. And what you are going to see. And I want all of you to kind of think about this because it's going to happen. La, Chicago, New York City. They are going to increasingly tax the successful people in these communities. And mom, Donnie is reflective of this. And the successful people, the most successful people in this, in those communities. You just saw Ken Griffin Citadel. He just up and said, screw it, Chicago's not safe. I'm moving all my people to Miami. You are going to see. I just mentioned Buck, born and raised New York City kid who probably would love to have stayed in New York City. But you start to have success and you look at other parts of the country and they're. They're grabbing so much of your money that at some point you just say, enough, I can't deal with this anymore. Even in a city that you may have grown up in and loved.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. And it's frustrating because you can also see the recent history of cities that have gone down this pathway. And it is universally a bad idea. It universally creates more negative things, whether it's crime, disorder, filth on the streets, economic flight from the city. We go through this over and over again. But this brings me back, Clay. The reason I'm concerned about Mamdani is that he is good. He is slick. He is adept at appealing to people's emotions who are frustrated and who don't want to even get into the merits of the argument. They want an excuse. It is the politics of envy. Somebody else has it better than me, by the way. You don't even know. I mean, there's some of the happiest people I know lead some of the most humble and basic lives. And truly some of the most miserable people I know have the most money and the most influence and the most power and they just can't escape their daily misery. But put that aside for a second. And I know that sounds like a cliche, I swear it is true. Ok? I mean, I could go through chapter and verse. People who have, you know, having a very sort of, you know, not moderate is not the word I'm looking For what do you call modest, very modest life in America. And they're very, very happy and people who have incredible lives of extravagance and they're truly miserable. But again, aside, Clay, this is the politics of somebody is excusing all of my choices and says they're going to make my problems go away. And it never works. It never works. It's not going to work this time. It has never worked before. But people like to believe this is why socialism is actually a religion. I mean, communism is a religion. This is not an economic system. This, because the economics can't work. We just went through it. You can take all the money from the rich people in New York. It's not going to pay for all the poor people stuff forever. It's not going to make the poor people not poor. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. They want this. They feel this. And Mamdani feeds it to them. He gives it to them. He makes it seem like none of this is anyone's fault. No one's station in life is the result of choices. No one's. It's the system.

[Ron Johnson]

And what's going to happen is the system is going to have a lot less money. Because when you go dive into the actual revenue produced by taxation, the billionaires that Mamdani claims shouldn't exist. In fact, if New York wants to have the best quality of life, they should have way more billionaires. They're going to leave, and then that's going to create a vicious cycle because you're going to have to increase taxes in order to try to replicate the services that the taxes are creating now. The tax dollars are going to leave. They're going to go to states like Florida, Tennessee, Texas, where there's zero state income tax. I mean, again, this is a generational flaw of Democrats that I think is going to be exposed in a big way. And again, if you make a million dollars, let's say you make a million dollars a year. Not that many people would make a million dollars a year, but let's say you do. You're paying $150,000 extra for the privilege of living in New York City. Okay? If you make 10 million, you're paying $1.5 million for the privilege of living in New York. You're getting up to the high levels above $10 million. Think about even at a million dollars, you can pay an entire mortgage living in Tennessee or Texas or Florida. That increases your assets compared to what you're paying. And people would say, okay, well, there's a benefit to living in New York City, right? Or Chicago or la. I'm here to tell y' all I've spent a lot of time in all these places. It's fun to visit. There's no city in America I would pay $150,000 extra of my tax dollars to live in compared to Florida, Tennessee or Texas.

[Clay Travis]

I know you guys have, you guys have good food in Nashville too. I can't even, I can't even throw shade at some of these other cities. Thirty years ago, New Yorkers, I'm just telling you guys the truth. New Yorkers could be like, honestly, we just have better food than you guys. And that was true of most cities in America 30 years ago, maybe even 20 years ago. Nashville, Charleston, you know, Atlanta, I mean, you just look, you know, Phoenix, these places, places all have great food now. I mean there's, it's great food.

[Ron Johnson]

I'm not even cool enough to know good restaurant stuff. I've never even noticed that. But I am told that the foodie scene for people who love restaurants in a city like where I live, Nashville is out of control. You can't even keep up.

[Clay Travis]

Well, Nashville, Nashville punches way above it's weight. But every decent mid sized city and above in America has great food now. So I'm saying some of the advantages that New York used to have as a place. New York, Chicago and L A used to just have better job opportunities and better food than most of the rest of the country. And it just, you can say you want to live in a rural area, that's great, that's fine. But if you're looking to work at a top law firm and you want to go to a Michelin three star restaurant, those were really. And San Francisco too, those are really the choices that you had. Just not true anymore. To your point, you can do these jobs from wherever, everywhere has got great food. You can buy anything anywhere you want now thanks to the Internet. But Clay, I mean, we can make these arguments all day. Here's a, Here's a stat. 1% of New Yorkers pay 50% of New York City's tax rate. 1%. 1 in 100 people are paying for 50 people. And Mamdani is like, that's not enough. It's unequal. How much more does it have to be? How much more is there going to be? Look, this is the problem, friends, is these budgets can get out of control and the Democrats want to keep spending us into oblivion. You need to take action. Next week. The US dollar is going to be at the center of a debate among nations gathering in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the BRIC nations are meeting. Ok, now these nations want to move away from the US Dollar as the reserve currency. They're trying to do this slowly but surely. If that happens, our quality of life takes a huge hit and the dollar takes a bath. It's going to be rough. You should prepare for this possibility today and also just diversify because inflation is going to continue slowly but surely. I know Trump's doing a great job with it, but in the next 10, 15 years going to chip away at that dollar. How can you protect your IRA or 401k? It's on you to take action. By the way, you can't rely on the government to protect you here. How can you protect your IRA or 401k gold with the Birch Gold Group? Diversify with Birch Gold. Gold has been a safe haven in times of economic uncertainty all throughout history. Birch Gold is who I buy my gold from and they will treat you well. Get a free info kit on tax shelter Gold IRAs by texting my name. Buck to 989-898 Arm yourself with info to diversify your retirement savings. Text Buck to 98, 9898 and go with Birch Gold.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Hannah Jewell]

To get caught up on a lot of news. It's called the seven from the Washington Post. It's a newsletter and podcast. Whether you're reading or hit play, you get seven stories you need to know and you can consume it all in just a few minutes. The 7 is out every weekday morning by 7:00am Eastern. I'm Hannah Jewell. I'm one of the writers and I host the show Find the seven Podcast wherever you're listening. The newsletter link is waiting for you in the show notes.

[Georgia Hardstark]

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[Ron Johnson]

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[Verizon Representative]

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[Ron Johnson]

From Visa USA Inc. Buck I saw over the Weekend. As you look ahead to 2028, the data on who people would support, and I just feel like I should make a public announcement here. Mayor Pete was the leader. Okay. I just came back from Traverse City, Michigan. I think Mayor Pete has moved to Traverse City. Had a good choice there. I saw that people are saying, oh, look, he started following the ufc. Our buddy Jesse Kelly had a tweet about that. Here's the deal. Mayor Pete is the leading Democrat, projected favorite in 2028. Right now, he gets zero percent of the black vote. Zero percent. I feel like we need to make a PSA to Mayor Pete. Maybe in 20 years, you can be the Democrat nominee. Black dudes are not voting for a white guy who is gay. You have a zero percent chance of actually being the nominee. Remember when nobody would talk about this? He was having a great campaign. He did well in Iowa. He did well in New Hampshire. White Democrats love Mayor Pete. The fact that he's gay might even help him. Black people, black men in particular, they're not voting for a gay white dude. He cannot. We went to South Carolina. His entire campaign collapsed. He went across the South. All the black people in the south voting in the Democrat primary. A gay white dude. I don't think a gay black dude would do well. I don't think a gay Hispanic guy would do well. I don't think gay people are going to be supported by most black voters. But a gay white dude is definitely not. So what does Mayor Pete do? He's got all these aspirations to be the next President of the United States. And nobody else will even address this on the left because that would require you to acknowledge that the most prominent bits of homophobia are actually from black voters in the Democrat Party. And nobody will even address it because that requires them to honestly assess what's going on here. Should we just tell Mayor Pete he has no chance of being president? Maybe he could be vice president, but he's not gonna get. He's not gonna win Democrat primary because the black base will not vote for a white dude who is gay. I don't think they would vote for a gay guy, period. Um, but I do think that this is a funny thing to get.00% of the black vote is really, really funny to me. And yet he was still the leader.

[Clay Travis]

Although there also won't be any effort to push on this, push back on this from the Democrat powers that be. I mean, they're not going to say, they're not going to try to strong arm, if you will, the members of the Black community into voting for Mayor Pete. You know, you're not going to see, you're not going to see pushy lectures on MSNBC about this, which I think is also interesting. So just, just put that, put that aside for a moment. Notice how quickly the whole Kamala situation has faded too as a possibility for the Democrats going forward. As I've said all along, she's going to be a provost at a second tier UC school. Just give it time. She cannot win. They know she cannot win. She's a horrible politician. And that will become more apparent as time passes. I think that that's why the Mamdani situation, Clay, is interesting because it's an indicator of Democrat base sentiment right now, which is very strongly with AOC and Bernie Sanders. You do not see anybody who is a more centrist Democrat catching fire again with the Democrat base. I'm not talking about how they would even do nationally, but you have to win a primary before you'd get further. And you also want to know who the biggest voices are in the Democrat Party going into the midterms and they're leftists. And the ones that still get attention are Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, aoc, what centrist Democrat. And I say centrist in quotes, but you know, more mainstream Democrat is getting. That's not even the right way to say it. I'm not even sure, you know, purple state Democrat, maybe you could say, you know, somebody who operates, someone like a Gretchen Whitmer who operates as a, as a governor in a purple state. They don't get any attention right now. The base is not excited about them and I think that that's likely to, likely to continue. So yeah, Mayor Pete is not going to become President of the United States. It's to me that what the data shows you is that there is the fact that he is the leader of the Democrat Party in terms of choice right now for nominee is actually just proof positive that there is no leader of the Democrat Party for the nomination right now. It's totally an open field.

[Ron Johnson]

Also, has there ever been a leader of a party that has done less in his life than Mayor Pete? I mean, he was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He was a disaster of a transportation secretary. I'm not sure that we've ever had a less accomplished person than Mayor Pete as, I mean, he's still only like 42 or 43 years old. I think he's a young guy, but yeah, he has zero chance of actually being the nominee. You mentioned Gretchen Whitmer. I'm actually reading the Original Sin book. I know, I know, I know.

[Donald Trump]

Clay.

[Ron Johnson]

I am reading the Original Sin book. I did find this interesting. The book, they say that Kamala, you know, the public reporting was that it was that Biden decided he was going to pick a black woman. And so there was a lot of discussion about who the black woman he would pick would be. They actually say in the book that Gretchen Whitmer was the runner up for Joe Biden in the 2020 decision making. If he had picked her, she would have run as a much better contender when they had to bump up the vp that was. Kamala did. Right.

[Clay Travis]

Huge mistake.

[Ron Johnson]

I mean, she would have won Michigan, unfortunately, because I think she's been a bad governor, but she is very popular there.

[Clay Travis]

And look at what. And Wisconsin. So go with Michigan, probably. So go. So go with Wisconsin, I think so. It would have been very tough. Would have been very tough if she had been. Kamala was. It would be hard to find a worse choice than Kamala Harris, given the way that it all played out with Joe Biden. That's what I mean. It really was. What did she bring to the table? I mean, California machine, party machine, politicians. I know a lot of all she.

[Ron Johnson]

Brought was black women, which theoretically were going to vote Biden anyway. But that's the calculus. I mean, it was the ultimate identity politics calculus. The same reason, sadly, Ketanji Brown Jackson is on the Supreme Court court. They eliminated 97% of all lawyers, basically. I think black women are 3% of the overall 3 or 4% of the overall legal profession, and they picked her. And so she is nowhere near the most qualified Supreme Court justice. I think, similarly, Kamala was nowhere near the best choice that Joe Biden could have made. Even when he said, I'm going to pick a woman, which I think was a. Was a poor choice to say, like, hey, I'm eliminating half of all the contenders. Because whenever you give the criteria, you delegitimize whoever you pick. Because you're not saying, I'm picking the best person. You're saying, I'm picking the best woman or I'm picking the best black woman. You're automatically making it clear that they're not the best contender by delegitimizing them publicly in playing that identity politics game. But I think Gretchen Whitmer, if you go back in time, if Biden makes that pick, then when he steps down, she's a far better candidate than Kamala would have been.

[Clay Travis]

Well, I do like that. And this, I'm sure, comes across in the book that you're reading as unfortunate it is that you are helping to pay the Tapper industrial. Industrial propaganda complex. But that's fine. That's fine. I'm glad one of us is reading it. At least one of us can reference it from having actually read it. I'm sure this comes across. There's an assumption, I think, that a lot of people have, that the other side, meaning the Democrats are. They're always a step ahead and they're so smart and they're so crafty. Joe Biden was a dementia patient and he was dumb before he had dementia and he's making a lot of these decisions. Sometimes they just make dumb moves.

[Ron Johnson]

Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

And with Joe Biden, they made a lot of dumb moves. And Biden himself, I should say, made a lot of dumb moves. There were things that he did that were not. It was not for D chess. It was a blunder and they paid the price for it in this last election in a big way, as they should have.

[Ron Johnson]

Totally. And, and I do think it's interesting because I, Gretchen Whitmer is going to think of herself as a contender in 28. Wes Moore is going to think of himself as a contender in 28. A lot of these governors, Josh Shapiro are going to try to stay away from the Washington mess and, and run as outsiders in 2028.

[Clay Travis]

And meanwhile, Trump's walking around right now. This is cut to saying it's only taking me six, six months, but I'm turning things around and kicking ass and taking names.

[Ron Johnson]

Play to.

[Buck Sexton]

Have you been able to digest what.

[Donald Trump]

Has occurred in the last seven days? Not really. It was pretty wild period of time and I really think in six months we've taken the country and turned it around. It's, I was told by the king of Saudi Arabia, by the leader of Qatar and the leader of UAE when we went over there, we brought back $5.1 trillion investment into the United States. They said, said, you know, you're presiding now over the hottest country in the world and a year ago we thought your country was dead. It could never come back. It was so incompetently run by a very bad president. And I said, you're right, this country is hot.

[Clay Travis]

This country's hot. Clay. It's doing great. It's very exciting, no doubt.

[Ron Johnson]

And I think that's one reason why everybody should be excited as we get ready for this celebration of July 4th. Everything, even if you're a crazy left wing Democrat, Trump's making decisions that are actually benefiting you in terms of the direction of the Nation.

[Clay Travis]

Close out with some of your calls, your thoughts, your talk back. So throw them in now. Get in the mix. 800-282-2882. Since 9 11, the Tunnel the Towers foundation has been supporting America's greatest heroes and their families. Heroes who protect our communities and our countries. Hero like firefighter James Dickman. He was passionate about fire safety and aspired to do everything in his power to keep his community and his fellow firefighters safe. While responding to an apartment fire, James and his crew tried to save people who were thought to be trapped inside. When the situation escalated, James was not able to escape. He perished in the blazing inferno. The cause of the fire was arson. James leaves behind his loving wife Jamie and his children Paige and Grant. Tunnel the Towers gave the Dickman family the gift of a mortgage free home. Jamie is grateful to Tunnel the Towers and to caring friends like you for lifting the financial burden of a mortgage off her shoulders. Join us in donating $11 a month to taunt the towers at t2t.org that's tthenumber2t.org.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Karen Kilgariff]

Georgia from my favorite murder. Thanks to Hyundai, we got to take a Post show drive in the Ionic five.

[Georgia Hardstark]

We had snacks, laughs and we even recorded a special episode episode featuring some unforgettable car themed stories.

[Karen Kilgariff]

Take a listen. I'm gonna tell you a story today, Karen. It's about a pivotal role that cars played in none other than the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

[Georgia Hardstark]

Okay, well, yes, it's right there in the title, right? This episode is brought to you by the 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5.

[Karen Kilgariff]

We've all done it. You see a headline but don't have time to read the whole story or there's so much news you're not sure what is worth your time. I'm Colby Ekowitz, co host of Post Reports, the weekday afternoon podcast from the Washington Post. Post Reports brings you what's relevant and revealing. Breaking stories, politics, wellness, culture. Each episode goes beyond a headline for the context you need. Find Post reports now wherever you're listening.

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[Ron Johnson]

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