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David Rutherford
There's definitely a civil war in MAGA right now, but I'm here to tell you it's bigger than a civil war in maga. There's actually an insurgency in the Republican Party and it's coming from the top lobbying firm that controls the White House right now today on the David Rutherford Show. Welcome back to the show. It has been a pretty wild ride for the last, I don't know, couple weeks, huh shorty? Where we are seeing just an absolute show when it comes to the MAGA coalition. Obviously everybody's talking it, everybody's picking their sides. And you know, you've got the pro Israel side, you've got the, the, the Tucker Carlson side, you've got the Nick Fuentes side, you've got the Dan Holloway side, you've got, you know, the people who love Maha, the people who are libertarians, man. And it's all these factions that have split apart, which I believe is what those that are at the real core of power want to actually happen. And based on my recent exploration and support of Joe Kent and his resignation and I had the incredible opportunity a week ago Monday to spend most of the day with my best friend Sean Ryan, and much of the day with Joe Kent discussing his decision, how it's impacting his family, himself and what his real why he's doing this. And I'm, and I'm telling you based on, on what he shared with us, he's doing this because he does not want American young men and women to fight another endless war so that not only the Israelis, the, the current Israeli government can accomplish their t of, of destabilizing the Middle east, which in all fair fairness, that would be a great thing for them. Unfortunately, they don't, they're not big enough and they don't have enough military strength in order to accomplish that alone. So they, they need our help, which I don't think that's anti Semitic or anything in any ways it's just a tactical observation. On the flip side of that, there also, which I believe can be a much bigger reality taking place is there is a core group inside this government typically quantified as the unit party, the swamp, the blob, the deep state, whatever you want to call it. That group of people are pretty connected to all of the things that you're seeing going on now. Why would they do that? Well, because what they want is they want the old status quo to stay in place. Right? They want the ability to have a system that continuously makes them rich and richer and more powerful and more, you know, gain more clout in every capacity. And I had a, a good friend of mine that informed me as to where I should start paying attention and that is the K Street lobbying firm known as Ballard Partners. Now this one hit home for me because this is basically originated as a Florida based lobbying firm. I obviously, I live in Florida, I grew up in Florida. I've paid attention to Florida politics probably back from the time of the Reagan days, certainly since Bush senior days, obviously when the first Gulf War kicked off. But you know, this is what's taking place. I believe, I believe it's, it's not necessarily. Yes, there are ideological differences between people who believe taking Iran out is a necessity. And most certainly I agree that if they were to have nuclear weapons, they would definitely be an imminent threat. Also I agree that the recent missile attack towards Diego Garcia gave us a, a much more profound insight as to their long range capabilities. Do I believe they have the ability to reach Europe or would hit Europe with ballistic missiles that had nuclear payloads on them or the United States? No, I don't believe that at all. Based on, on what Joe Kent has said, based upon his reporting as the head of the National Counterterrorism Center. Also based on the recent testimony of Tulsi Gabbard in front of Congress saying that Iran is no imminent threat. Where we do have threats obviously is Russia which is still active in a war that we are still funding billions of dollars for Ukraine to fight this war. And also with China, obviously there is a continued presence around Taiwan and a lot of statements that are suggesting that the, whatever is going to happen maybe not imminent, but it's, it's on, on the table and most certainly will happen eventually. As is their stated observation that Taiwan has always been a part of China. And if you go back to the Biden administration, to Jake Sullivan as well as the Secretary of State, both said it is not America's interest to disrupt that unity. So Is there an insurgency going on in the Republican Party? And I believe it is. How do you think politicians get elected? Right. And I think the obvious answer is, well, you and I, we go to the ballot box, we, we get in there and, and for just one second, I'm going to suspend all my existing information that I understand about the 2020 election, which by the way, none of that has been righted. None of any of the shows that I've had with Garland Favorito, Dave Clements, Sean Smith, all these interviews I've done which have categorically proven that our justice systems. Ralph Pizzulu, who wrote the book Stolen Elections, I'm just gonna sit that over here for right now that our election systems are completely. If you ask me, and, and they have proven it. Put that over here. The idea is that you and I go to the polls and based on the information we receive through social media or through mainstream media, or we go to a big CPAC events or, or whatever events are watching Democrats and what they're putting forward, that we cultivate an understanding based on our belief systems of what we stand for. Which, you know, is. Is America remaining the preeminent power in the world, American justice system being functional and user. We've got a great capitalist system that doesn't get rid of the middle class. And is this, you know, is all about the working man and keeping taxes low and, and really, you know, no radical ideology in our educational system. Right. And basically people can do what you want to do, make a living, raise your kids and, and live a great life in the greatest country that's ever lived. That's essentially what we want to believe. But the unfortunate reality is the. There are people who get people elected, and those are lobbying firms. Right, because lobbying firms represent foreign governments, massive corporations, their own interests, and any other type of special interest out there. And how does it work? Well, they get behind certain candidates that will support their clientele's interest. They fund those interests through PACs and Super PACs and through your regular donations. Hell, if. If you remember the big piece that James o' Keefe did back in the day about Act Blue, Act Blue ended up appears, allegedly appears to be overseas funding hidden in all these teeny donors for ActBlue. You know, the, the millions and millions of old people and young people barely getting by who send $5, $10 through the organization. Well, guess what? His investigation alleges that you have massive foreign influence as well as influence from monster NGOs that are sponsored by foreign billionaires. Okay, we know that. And I'M sure if you're a conservative like I am, you would say, yeah, absolutely. George Soros is manipulating elections. What we realize is there are a lot of, of external influences that puts pressure on politicians. And then once they get in office, what happens? They, the politicians basically come in and say, all right, we're going to reward these lobbying firms and the clients they represent with massive government contracts as well as access to the different political offices they sought access to. And you know, and that, that's at the state level, that's at local levels, that's at the federal level. Hell, just here where I live. Recently there was a massive real estate developers that were lobbying our local city council in order for them to destroy a downtown recreational park area so they could build these monster condominium skyscrapers. Right. And this, the city fought back and got rid of them. Well, imagine that's a couple hundred million dollars. What we're dealing with is trillions and trillions of dollars. So who is the firm that has control? Or maybe that's a little extreme, maybe a huge influence in the White House right now. And that's Ballard Partners. All right, so, you know, the, the other thing that kind of caught me at my eye and why I've gone down this road is because as the war kicked off in the beginning, Poly Market posted, has been posting a sequence between Marco Rubio and J.D. vance. Right. And what it shows is the little lines like this.
Jordy
J.D.
David Rutherford
vance was, was tracking in the, you know, was dominating the future of the MAGA Republican Party. MAGA party. Well then it started shrinking after, especially after Venezuela and Marco Rubio's coming up, right? Doing great job as Secretary of State. And then all of a sudden, Iran war kicks off and JD Vance starts, Marco Rubio passes him, and then recent one, JD Vance has basically fallen off a cliff. Now why would J.D. vance's numbers be dropping profoundly? Well, some people seem to think that J.D. vance has, is being pushed out because of some. Many of his populist sentiments about America wanting to be more America first in his ideology. Whereas Marco Rubio, who many would say, and I'm going to kind of explain why I believe this, have, has been a traditional kind of, you know, Republican Party guy ever since he came into politics. And the donors, and many articles have shown that the donors absolutely think he's phenomenal. And if you listen to my recent show with Eric Schwalm, the former Green Beret CW4 Chief Warrant Officer 4, he described an actual insurgency taking place in the political movement that's going on right now. Now, I know that's a lot of information for you to digest right now. Let me break it down for you, okay? There's an insurgency taking place and the movement that we used to believe was a MAGA coalition, right? That is what has happened is many populous supporters of that influencers, from Tucker Carlson to Sean Ryan to Megan Kelly to. A lot of different people have begun to broke away, but most primarily as it relates to the Iran war. But they're also noticing a division internally as well too. Then you've got the other side of the House that says these people are anti Israel, they're anti Trump, they're traitors, they don't believe in the Republican Party anymore. And you can go back to the, you know, Pence, you can go back to all the anti Trumpers that have been out there. Ryan Pence, Kevin McCormick, right? All these people that have basically, you know, we've seen were not what it would come across as genuinely supportive of Trump. Now, there's another reason for that. It's not just the Iranian war, right? The other reason behind that I want you to get focused on is a lot of people believe, I included that a lot of the campaign promises that were made during the 24 cycle, no new wars, right? Close the border, which they've done, which is catastrophically dropped homicide, violence, high great rates of violence across the country because you're getting rid of all the violent criminals or they're being quiet right now and they're shutting things down. Shut down cartels, shot down human trafficking, shut down fentanyl across the border, right? Targeting cartels as international terrorist organizations. If I was in a cartel and I'm doing illegal stuff and I'm watching speed, random speedboats blow up, I'm gonna cease operations. And what we've seen, the result of that, Guadalajara broke out recently and, and, and you know, the, the cartels fighting back against the Mexican government, which we're putting an exorbitant amount of pressure on to, to dilute this. All right, so then the other aspect in the big ones, right, the Epstein files with all the, the millions of documents with directly correlated concepts that would provoke a, a significant investigation, right? With their names redacted, we have seen nothing taking place, not one follow up. I mean, maybe they're doing it, we just don't know nothing. The other big one we saw is Doge, right? Yes, Doge is still running a little bit and cleaning up here and there. But the huge impact, right, the usaid, which they came out of the gate, we're like yeah, more put them in the Department of Defense, all that, right? Nope. That all seems to be ending. Why? Because funding, because lobbying firms, because support. Right. That's all correlated. And then I think really the, the, the last one is the reality that we were going to address the election systems, that Trump was guaranteed that the election was stolen from him. So why if is that not the primary reality of what's taking place for the doj? Because if the election systems are stolen, then we're, we're screwed forever. Doesn't matter. The unit party will always get who it wants to be in office. Right? Who will continue the same old system, the same old reality. So that's a big part of why the split has taken place. Right. And that's what the the result of the insurgency that's taking place now. Why is this so critical to understand who Ballard Partner is and why? All right.
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David Rutherford
Who is Ballard Partners? All right. Ballard Partners is the number one lobbying firm in America right now, right. In 2025, they brought in $88.1 million with 350 clients. They have offices in three continent. On three continents, including, ready for this, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. All right, now I'll go down the international stuff here in a little bit. Now here's the other thing. Before Trump was elected in 2016, this firm had zero federal clients. It was a Florida state operation. Uh, and Trump's president presidency has turned it into the most powerful lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. now, the firm's FA founder, Brian Ballard, raised $50 million for Trump's 2024 campaign. Right. And he's been the Florida Finance Chair. Right, the Florida Finance Chair for every single GOP presidential nominee for since 2008. Right. Now here's the kicker to this. And then we'll get into more of a deep dive, right? The two most, one of two of the most powerful people in Trump's cabinet, the White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Attorney General Pam Bonnie. And think about what I just laid out before this. Attorney General Pam Bondi, both came from Ballard Partners. Now that's not a coincidence. That's a pipeline of influence. All right, let's get into the, the, the deep dive of this. All right? All right, who is Ballard Partners? So Ballard Partners was founded by Brian Ballard and Jim smith back in 1998. Now, Jim Smith was Brian's father in law, who was also the former Florida Secretary of State. Right? So they have been entrenched in Florida politics since prior to the 2000 election. Now, Florida, long time ago was a very Democratic state, right? And, and we've since flipped that. But it was always kind of a swing state for many, many, many years. In fact, you go back to the old Jim Crow days. Florida was pretty abysmal on its civil rights record. And at one time it had more civil rights bombings than anywhere else. Right. So the transition of Florida into a Republican state is only really a recent thing. All right? Now, Ballard entered into politics as the chief of staff for Florida Governor Bob Martinez at the age of 26. Now think about how young that is to become someone's chief of staff. That's a remarkable, remarkable accomplishment. And they used to call him the brat savant of Florida politics. In a 1990 profile, he also has collect connections to Lee Atwater. All right. He has co chaired gubernatorial inaugurations for Charlie, Chris, Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis. All right, all right. This is a guy who doesn't care what faction of the party he works with, Right. He just wants to be with whoever's going to win. Right. And that's why you talk about gubertorial inaugurations, Right. As soon as the winner comes out, he jumps in. I want to fund, I want to be a part it. We're botch. We got you. We're behind you. All right, now here are some other politicians, right? Just so you know. And again, every time I'm talking, think back to Susie Wiles and Pam Bondi. They have worked with the Florida. They were the Florida finance chair for John McCain in 2008, for Mitt Romney in, in 2012. They were a senior advisor to Jeb bush and gave $20,000 to his super, his pack in 2015. Right. That's for the 2016 elections, I. E. Not Trump. But hold on, it gets better. Mark Rubio, right? They switched from Jeb Bush after he got annihilated by Trump in the primaries, in the, in the main debate that they had where he basically, if you've forgotten, that's where Trump basically calls Jeb Bush out in the Bush family dynasty as warmongers and how it was the Bush family dynasty that got us into the Iraq war, which was the worst thing that we've ever done. That's the same guy wanting to go to war in Iran now. Or is it him? Or is it his influences? Right, right. Remember, right. Politicians, yes, they come across and tell you what you want to hear, but in many times they're telling you what you want to hear to get your vote. But it's the influencing, the money, the lobbying, the foreign countries, the foreign influence that's behind them when they actually go to governing in this domestic and international environment. All right, Marco Rubio. They switched from Bush to Rubio in November 2015, calling him a friend, quote and quote, a bright star of the party's future, end quote. That's critical to remember right now. Right? And then they went to Donald Trump and they were his Florida Finance Chair, 2016, 2020 and 2024. Let me repeat that. Jeb Bush, Senior Advisor in 2015, switched to Marco Rubio in November 2015, November 2015, and then were financial chair in Florida for Trump in 2016. Make that make sense. Right. Remember, you want it to be US Vers them. They want it for us to be US Vers Them, but them doesn't matter which side of the aisle you're on. They just want to gain more power and more wealth. And I'm going to prove that to you right now. All right, So when you think about the shift from Bush to Rubio to Trump, Ballard Partners, it wasn't. They didn't leave Rubio because they didn't believe in him. They left Rubio because Trump won. And that's what these people do. They seek out the center of power in order to gain access to the inner circle. Because in politics, access is everything, right? Because when you have access and then influence, then you can manipulate decisions that benefit you and your clients, I. E. You can become the number one lobbying firm in America with annual revenue last year of $88.1 million with 350 clients. Right? Think about how that works. All right, now here are some of the foreign governments that they've been registered with. All right, They've been registered with. They. And they have. They've been registered with Qatar, currently where they make $115,000 a month. They're registered with Turkey. It doesn't say monthly fee, but it says 1.5 million. The Dominican Republic at 900,000. Japan, Saudi Arabia, Albania, which is a socialist party Kosovo, Sudan, Nigeria, Libya, the Hfter warlord forces at $2 million and Uzbekistan, which is 1 million a year. Here's a list of some of their corporate clients. All right, Amazon, Tick Tock, Uber, Chevron, JP Morgan Chase, UnitedHealth, Novo Nordisk, Ozempic, Nippon Steel, BMW, Netflix, Paramount, the Geo Group, which is private prisons. Ripple Labs which is crypto. Reynolds America, Menthol cigarettes, Republic Services, which is waste deliverable and Swisher International which is flavored tobacco. Now just a couple key facts about some of those, right? Ballard's firm helped Reynolds America convince Trump to withdraw a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. And after BMW hired Ballard, their Import tariffs dropped 12.5 percentage points. And after Nippon Steel hired Ballard, they their blocked 15 billion dollar acquisition of u S Steel was finalized. This is what $88 million annually will buy you. All right, Again, it's not you and your neighbor, right? It's not you and your neighbor that you're fighting with over some social issues or some potential geostrategic relationships or what you think, right? You have to realize they want us fighting each other every single day. They want to quell populist movements because populous movements are directed towards serving you and I. That's what they want to do. They want to stop the service to us Fixing our infrastructure. Right. Improving our lives. Right. Improving job opportunities, making sure homes are available. Again, that's a little tough because it's a capitalistic society. But again, look at the overwhelming reality of, of massive asset management firms buying up single family homes. But what they want to do is they want to support, they want to actively inhibit our voice to the things that we really believe in order to fulfill what they want. All right, now some of the international, I want to get back to that international stuff because as you, if you're interested and I recommend go use, you know, some AI device, Grok or Claude or whatever it is and, and start to seek out the money connections internationally. All right. All right. And then. Or go to where these firms are located and see if any local news sources has written articles about what they're doing in their country or what they're advocating for. So again, they have offices in Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Turkey, Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria. Right. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Riyadh. Right. And then they also have operations in multiple cities all across the United States. Now here's another interesting thing that popped up in our research, right? They have their own offices and they have their global alliances in partnerships. Right. So you know, has its own Ballard Partners does not have its own privately staffed offices in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia. Instead, it operates through the Ballard Global alliance, the bga and has a network of exclusive partnerships with other firms that provide on the ground capabilities without directed Ballard branded offices. Right. So what do you do? You backdoor relationships with massive lobbying firms in these areas. So it covers whatever it is you're trying to lobby for those relationships. All right. In Europe, partnerships with Forward Global, Forward Global in Paris and Brussels and additional mentions of London and Abidjan in the same coverage, the United Kingdom SABI Strategic Group out of London, Japan, Kyoto PR in Tokyo, South Korea, the GR Company Latin America is Safetas Group, Espera in Brazil and Sao Paulo. Global Nexus in Mexico, Azerta in Chile and Peru. In Italy, the MAIM Group in Australia, TG Public Affairs. All right. Again, to imagine that this small little Florida firm who is the number one lobby firm in the world is not outside internationally trying to influence global influence on the inner workings of Trump's focus and what's coming across his desk. Right? Because it's not Trump sitting out there going, oh, I want in Turkey to help this or in, you know, in, I don't know, Yugoslavia I want to do this, or in Argentina I want to do this. No, he has a circle of people around him, right. His AIDS media aides, his inner working, Susie Wild staff. And what they do is they. They siphon or filter everything out that gets to the President's desk for his attention. That's why staff is so critical when you're in the White House, the White House staff, the Chief of staff is the gatekeeper to everything. And that's exactly, I think, what Joe Kent was assuming, as in some of the statements he said, but he just never said it. Right. I'm alleging that that's what I believe might have been happening. Right. There's a certain funnel. Not that she's actively going against Joe Kent, but just that there's a funnel of information that gets to the President. And, and why specifically, we don't know. But what we do know is we could extrapolate out of the influence of what Ballard Partners is integrating in what's getting what's being forced or what's being offered as to be relevant things that the President should focus on.
Jordy
All right,
David Rutherford
I know. I got. I, I hear you behind in your, in your mind right now. In my voice, you're like, God dang right? That's. What the heck. I mean, this is so much. This is so much information. It's so intense. What am I supposed to do with it? Well, just hold on. Let me blow your mind completely now. All right, I'm gonna drill down on these now, and specifically, I'm gonna talk about Susie Wiles, Pam Bondi, and Marco Rubio. All right, now, again, I just want to say there are some things that I think the Trump administration is doing. Well, I love that there is some doge going out. I dig that. I wish that would expand back to the level in size it was. I do love the buildup of the US Military. I'm not a fan of anything beyond these strategic strikes in Iran and decimating their nuclear program. I am an absolute fan of shutting the border down and removing violent criminals. I'm kind of on the fence where with the. The guy. ICE agents in the street coming down and, and hammering people. You know, that's one of the things that's always kind of challenging is that fine line between, you know, being a jackboot and working with the population to do it. Now, I do recognize the level of corruption in many of these areas and the protection of the existing governments to allow open borders. So that's a very complicated issue. I am a fan of, of, you know, re industrializing America. So external corporate donate or country donations, particularly from the Gulf states, sending us money so we can Build new chip plant manufacturers or new car manufacturers. You know, I. And I am absolutely a fan of designating any cartel as a terrorist organization and, and to minimizing or disrupting their ability to operate, so. Because I think that's one of the primary dangers of what we face on the street. And I'm also a fan of going after radicals that have come into our country through the Biden administration. Absolutely. You go head over tails and hunt those suckers down. Because, you know, as we just reported recently in our, one of our episodes, the New Threat Paradigm, there is a massive rise and radicalization of people and violence, political violence and social violence. So, yeah, go after them all day long. However, you cannot stop the political gamesmanship from taking place. That's politics. That's why it's such a dirty business. So let me just inform you, right? And you make the decision about the people that are closest to Trump. All right, so Susie Wiles, chief of staff, she was a Ballard lobbyist from 2011 to 2019. That's eight years. She represented over 40 clients. Ballard personally introduced her to Trump for the 2016 Florida campaign. I have some insight during that in terms of the Palm beach county campaign and some other things. And what I will tell you is that it seemed like that campaign was pretty poorly run, if you ask me. And there was not a lot of support on great ground game or really going after strategic initiatives in certain counties in the area, that is Palm Beach County, Broward, Miami Dade, which have staunchly been Democratic for many, many years, and creating a good ground game. She was in charge of that, and they just kind of let that go. So that was my first introduction of ever hearing that name. All right. She ran Trump's Florida campaign that defeated Rubio in 16 in his home state and then stayed at Ballard to help open the DC Office. So she was instrumental in taking Ballard from a Florida regional state lobbying firm into D.C. to becoming the number one lobbying firm in America. All right. Now, she was also a registered foreign agent. So she was a fair. She was registered with Farah. Right. For Nigeria. She also lobbered for Swisher International and Pebble Partnership. And there's some accusations that she was registered with Israel. Jordi, would you look that up right now and confirm whether she was or wasn't? I don't want to make a mistake and say that. All right. She was also credited For Glenn Youngkin's 2021 Virginia win by strategically distancing him from Trump. That's in quotations, Right? Right. Let me repeat that. Credited with Glenn Youngkin's 2021 Virginia win, by, quote, strategically distancing him from Trump, end quote. And Youngkin is on, if you remember Eric Schwam talking about the orl, which is our Republican Legion, which is an anti Trump return to the old Republican Party. That's who Youngkin is affiliated with. All right, so think about that. 2021, right? She's, she's working with Trump in 2020. She switches over with to help support Youngkin to win. Who's anti Trump. Distancing Trump. Right. To come in and win that election, which he did. But again, guess what happened just this last year with Youngkin. He got demolished by a former CIA officer who now has gone in and basically is denigrating the Second Amendment in Virginia as well as pretty much opening the doors for illegals again. Right. So, yeah, that's, that's also what's happening. All right, and then go ahead. Who is it?
Jordi
I have, I have a Susie Wiles.
David Rutherford
Yeah, let me hear it.
Jordi
So what's confirmed is that Susie Wiles, the current White House Chiefs of staff, worked briefly for Benjamin Netanyahu's 2020 campaign. She traveled to Jerusalem as part of a team dispatched by Trump to assist Netanyahu's Likud Party. On the Farah question, there's no public record of Susie Wiles registering under Farah for that work. So that's. So essentially, no. But she did briefly work with Netanyahu's campaign.
David Rutherford
All right, so that's a critical thing to understand. Right. So Susie Wild, who's been intimately involved with Trump from the beginning in 2020, flies over to support Netanyahu, who, by the way, you know, again, he, if, if you believe that Israel is perpetually in an existential threat, which there's a lot of information that supports that, that analysis. Right. Netanyahu is the guy, obviously. Now, there are some things. I haven't watched it, but I, I might. Tucker Carlson just came out with a program. There's a lot of other documentaries on Netanyahu. If you do remember, prior to October 7th, there was a lot of uprising in the street against Netanyahu because he took the power away from the Supreme Court. So he's a very controversial figure. Right. But if you believe that there's Israel needs saving, Netanyahu has certainly done a tremendous amount in order to protect Israel, the state, for sure. There's no denying that he is a, a wartime leader. But if Susie Weil, who worked for Ballard and flies over and supports Netanyahu in his campaign, and did not register that with Farah. How do you get away with that? I don't understand that. Right. But again, there's, there, there's more about that coming up here shortly. Okay. Since she became chief of staff to Donald Trump, Ballard Partners has signed 130 new clients. 130 new clients. And their revenue has quadrupled. All right, all right, now let's go to Pam Bondi. Ballard Partners, 2019-2025. Lobbied for 30 clients, including Amazon, Uber, Geo Group, private pensions, ISIS largest contractor for 30 clients. She registered as a Farah agent for Qatar at $115,000 per num. And named in quote, key personnel on the contract personally and substantially is. Personally and substantially is gay engaged. All right, left briefly to defend Trump during his first impeachment. By the way, which she did a fantastic job in that I thought her presence and her ability to do that. I also thought she was a pretty decent Attorney General at, in Florida. So she's definitely capable. Again, I just, I'm giving you the facts of what I learned going down this rabbit hole during the first. And she returned afterwards to resume for her Qatar lobbying. All right, on her first day as AG on February 5, 2025, get this, she gutted Farah enforcement. She limited criminal charges to only be evaluated as in quotes, traditional espionage only. So the only way you were going to get criminally charged if there was a case made by either intelligence agencies brought information to the doj. And it was traditional espionage, not criminal traditional espionage. So basically this disabled the Foreign Influence Task Force, right? Oh, no, I read that correctly. She disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force that had been set up. This directly benefits firms like her former employer. That's obvious. All right, lastly, she approved the $400 million luxury jet gift to Trump administration. Bondi was previously Qatar's registered lobbyist through the same firm that now benefits from reduced Farah oversight. All right, so you know, one of the interesting things about this whole thing with, with both Susie Wiles and Pam Bondi and, and again, in the game of politics, this is what you do. And the Democrats do it. All factions of the Democratic Party do it. You know, the old blue dog Clinton Democrats to the new AOC Bernie Sanders Democrats or the Mondavi old school Republicans do it. MAGA people do it. Everybody does it. That's my point. I'm not, I'm not pointing any one individual out. I'm just reading you what I found in the research I did because I wanted to know, just like you, this is how politics work. And in order for you to make good decisions, you have to understand the strategic nature of how these folks work. If you worked for a lobbying firm and made a million or $2 million a year, most likely you wouldn't care. With all this stuff, you would be representing your clients as best as possible. That's how you make money. And what you would want to do is you'd want to advocate at the highest level to the president for your clients in order to make your former friends or whatever more money. Because when you leave office, guess what? Is there a multi million dollar job waiting for you back at the firm once you go back 100%. And you can just go all the way down the line, both sides of the house. And I'm going to get to that here in just a minute after I talk about Mr. Marco Rubio. All right, Again, just as a reminder, and this, they're calling this the 2028 Rubio shift. All right? And to recall your memory, back in 2015, Ballard called Rubio, in quotations, a friend. And he also called him a bright star of the party's future. Right. And only switch to Trump when Rubio lost Florida. Again, only switch to Trump when Rubio lost Florida. 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Now, ABC News confirmed and again, when I quote sources from ABC News or CBS or Fox or CNN or Al Jazeera, I I know what you're thinking when you hear yes. Can they be trusted? Probably not. But it's, it's, it's a relevant fact that came out, right? ABC News confirm or it's not a fact. It's a relevant piece of information. Remember what Eric Schwalm said, a relevant piece of information. And we connect those in this puzzle. That's how you decipher between information which ultimately becomes intelligence for you to make better decisions. All right, so ABC News confirmed March 2026 a group of Republican donors is quietly building a in quote, draft Rubio effort for 2028. And longtime Trump fundraiser said it's 8020 towards Marco. 80% of the donors. Right. The donor class. And that's a whole group of people too. Everything that pops up, we always hear like, you know, the insurgency in the progressive radical pro. It's Soros and those other guys that Jordy just said. And over here you've got the Koch brothers and other billionaires, you've got Musk, you've got Zuckerberg and his $450 million for mail and balloting collection mus $250 million for Trump. So again, I don't want you to think like I'm picking a side. I'm just delivering you context for all of this. Right. Trump pulled 25 donors at Mar a Lago on February 28th. This is the Night of the Iranian strikes that they began. Right. The room broke overwhelmingly for Rubio over J.D. vance. And this included Robert Kraft, another billionaire, owns the Patriots, as well as all those, you know, the, the donors that were in the Mar A Lago room. And you could find a list of those people, I'm sure, as there was probably much wide reporting of it. Right. So a former Trump official, quote, the Mar A Lager Dono crew are not JD People, end quote. These are Ballard's people. Right. Same donors who lubber Trump to pick Rubio as VP 2024. Right now, if you remember. Right. Right after Butler. Right. The big thing was who was going to pick and Rubio was the leading candidate. And there was a firestorm internally and they say that that kind of came from either Trump, Donald Jr. Or maybe his son because he was pointing out how well JD Was doing on all the podcasts. Or, you know, is that Barron and maybe some other people in his ecosystem. Right. Maybe Charlie Kirk, maybe some other people were influencing Trump as to pick JD because he better represented who the America first populist movement. And that's who he needed in this election in order to win. He needed him for the coalition. And that's what J.D. was. Well, guess what? Now they want to can J.D. vance. There's no doubt about it. I guarantee it. Just look at it. And once you see it, you're never going to be able to unsee it. Now, Rubio is obviously making the attempts to rebrand America first more as this hawkish interventionalism, the classic neocon play, right? And all I can think about is going back to the Biden administration when certain Biden people like Victoria Newland was testifying in front of Marco Rubio and was asked directly, are there U.S. finance bioweapons, manufacturing laboratories in Ukraine? Because that was the big hub. Hub of where potentially Covid came from. And some other stuff. And remember, Hunter Biden was affiliated with these as well as some of the other stuff. And Victoria Newland said yes. And then Marco went on to the next question. All right, so again, it's not Democrat versus Republican. Stop thinking that way. It's. It's the donor class, the billionaires, corporations. It's whoever is going to keep that money and power flowing. That's who they're going to go for. It doesn't matter one side or the other. All right, now I'm going to explain that. The bipartisan machine, right? How it is both sides. It's not one side, it's both sides. All right, again, never forget if your sole job in life is to make as much money as you can and to stay in power as long as you can, then you don't care who's in office. You're going to lobby them either way, and you're going to work with both of them. Let me explain to you. Ballard Partners. All right? Ballard's D.C. office is run by who, Jordy, who you think, a Republican or Democrat?
Jordi
Let me say Republican.
David Rutherford
Come on. Is that really what you're gonna say right now after I did that great intro of this?
Jordi
Nah, dude, it's gonna be a Democrat because Republican would.
David Rutherford
Democrat.
Jordi
There's Republican would make sense because they're aligned. But that's not how this works, right?
David Rutherford
No, no, no. The Ballard's D.C. office is run by Robert Wexler, right? A former Florida Democratic congressman who advised Obama on Israel, addressed the Democratic National Convention, and one is most. One of the most influential leaders in the American Jewish community. He actually nominated Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. All right, wow. That's. Who's running the Democratic. Who's running the Ballard's office in D.C. now, why would you do that? Well, they put him at the helm during the Biden administration. So what? They wouldn't be run out of town. So what do you do? You bring in a senior Democratic influencer, and you put them at the helm and you keep lobbying. All right, Ballad's Tampa offices is run by Anna Cruz, the former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton's Florida campaign spokesman in 2008 and 2016, and the partner of Tampa's Democratic mayor. All right, so there you have it, right? Let's do one more. Former partner, Jamie Rubin, as senior foreign policy advisor to four. Not one, not two, not three, but four Democratic presidential campaigns. And was Clinton's assistant Secretary of state used by Ballard on the Turkey foreign agent account.
Jordi
Okay.
David Rutherford
All right, you got that? During Biden's presidency, the firm survives specifically because of its Democratic bench. Wexler was made D.C. managing partner in 2021 to maintain access to Biden, White House and Democratic car of Congress. All right, the same. Remember, they don't give a damn about which party's in charge. They just want access. The whole thing is access to political power and influence. And that's why the same firm that has direct access and. And was worked directly with Trump's chief of staff and Obama's Israeli advisers, Rolodex and Hillary Kim campaign spokesman. All right, this is. This is. This is a bipartisan approach, right?
Jordy
And.
David Rutherford
And what they do is they buy access on both sides, regard and don't care who wins the elections. That's how this thing works. And that's why they want you and I to keep fighting with people who are screaming at us on X. They want us to keep believing these grand narratives of hate and discontent and disloyalty. And you're a traitor. And you're this. Well, you're a, you're an LGBT fanatic. Oh, well, you're an Islamist or you're anti Semitic if you, if you haven't noticed. All they want us to do is stay focused on our own discrepancies, our own emotional discrepancies with one another other, instead of looking at the real problem, which is how our coffers are being rated at the highest, most insane levels. And then you look at all these Democratic states that are getting crushed by Nick Shirley and all those gangs. You don't think that corruption exists in, in blue, in red states as well too? You're insane. And you just wait. There's going to be a Nick Shirley that pops on the Democratic Party who's going to start exposing corruption in Florida and exposing corruption in Texas. We've already seen it popping out. Look at what was taking place with the, the impeachment of, of John, of, of Ken Paxton against the, the Democratic or the Republican Party led by one of George Bush's sons. Right? All right. Now we talked already a little bit about the foreign money pipeline. I don't need to talk about that anymore. And, and so what does this mean for you? And, and making the decision coming up here in 2026 midterms, and then more importantly in 2028. Right. These people, they don't care about MAGA. They don't care about America First. Right. All they care about is access, influence and the outcomes that increase their bank accounts. That's what it is. That's how this works. Right now. If they can break apart this populist coalition, which by the way is essentially what happened with the Democratic coalition, if you didn't notice that as well too. Like you had a bunch of old school Democrats who didn't like the radicals of the party. And so what, they started dismantling them, removing influence in them and letting other people come in, in back in at, to the forefront. That's the same thing that's going in. They break up coalitions of us, right? Which is the middle. They cannot have the middle of America joining together. They can't. Because then what we would do is we would peacefully revolt against their corruptive practices. And that's why they go so hard at keeping the old system protected and in place. All right, you know, this, this whole idea of Trump drained the swamp. You're not going to see it, you're not going to see it in particular after. And this is my prediction. I just, unless something radical happens in the next four or five months, six months, and Trump reverses course on a lot of these things and starts pounding hell, we haven't even seen, right. The, the, the Russia Gate people indicted yet. Right. Do you think Wexler is going to allow Susie Wiles to give the green light to Pan Bondi, to indict Brennan Clapper, Comey? Right. Absolutely not. Because they're part of that powerful influence on their end as well, too. And, and they believe potentially, if Trump loses in, in 28 to who? Whoever pops up. Right. That they'll be in the right position. And that's how it works. You wonder why nothing is getting done. Because nobody's going to shoot themselves in the foot by maintaining integrity and getting rid of corruption. Because the next group that comes in power, they're going to go after the former group, not, not the political group. They're going to go after you and me. They're going to go after the small businesses like they did in Covid. They're going to go after the people trying to call the politicians out for the that they're doing. They're going to imprison them or shut, debank them or shut them out. And the same thing is happening with, with conservative influencers as well, too. Hell, I was locked out in the lead up to the, the 2020 election, and guess what? Now there's Democrats that are being throttled in certain places as well, too. And if you don't believe that they're actively engaged on social media and media, guess what? Ballard Partners launched the Ballard Media Group, Right. I PR Strategic Community Communications Division, led by Raj Shah, Trump's former deputy press secretary, and Jamie Rubin, who was with the Clinton State Department. Make that make sense for me. The people that are working for Ballard Media Group is Raj Shah, Trump's former deputy press secretary, and Jamie Rubin, who was in the Clinton State Department.
Bethenny Frankel
But
David Rutherford
just mull that over for a little bit, if you would. Again, We are in a predicament, a substantial predicament, and I believe the predicament for us is going to get worse and worse and worse and worse, especially when AI is introduced in order to be able to corral, restrict, manipulate everything from what we see to what sees us and what we're doing to what we spend or what we can spend to where we can go or where we can't go, That's what's, that's what's building. And the same people that are doing it and have been doing it for pretty much since the beginning of politics anywhere, any place, at any time in history, that's what we're facing. And so what, what I want you all to understand is, and again, you, you can if you fully support Trump. God bless you. I, I support a ton of what President Trump thinks. I think he's been one of the most significant political leaders in human history. Right again. And I'm kind of a history, but there's certain areas I know more about than others. But history becomes a very important thing for us to learn because even our greatest leaders have flaws as well, too. And that's all I'm saying, is that we're seeing some flaws in, in the political machine that Trump and his populist ideas has built. And it's under attack right now. It's. There's an insurgency taking place to get rid of it. And that's the old guard, right, who's connected to the other side's old guard or the deep state, the blob or whatever you want to say, and the same firm that has given you Trump's chief of staff and the attorney general and the Secretary of State and supporting him, that's the same hat that took off their old GOP hats and are wearing the MAGA hats right now. So stand by to stand by, everybody. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out over the next few months. I will continue to drive and bring you as much context as possible in the tsunami of information that keeps washing over our consciousness. So I could be that flashbang of truth for you to get you to contextualize and think a little bit more critically on all these types of things and to hopefully continue bringing positive content to the next generation of American people who really care about this country, really true American patriots who want the best for all Americans. So if you enjoy what I'm doing, don't forget to, like, share, follow, leave comments. That's massive for us. We appreciate your support. Go on over and check out davidrudford.com if you want to look at some of our swag or some of the online motor motivational courses I offer, they're there for you. If you want to follow us online, we're on all social media at David Rutherford show or on X at D. Rutherford or you can follow me at Team Frog Logic on X or Instagram. Jordy thank you so much for the incredible support my brother. Thank you. We're. We are in some interesting times, huh?
Jordi
You said. You said it perfectly. We are in quite the predicament and I think that nails it quite the particular.
David Rutherford
But I will tell you this. I thank Christ every single day for the strength and the conviction to do the right thing, to follow His Word, and to be the best man I can be for all of you. Hoo ya.
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Air Date: April 1, 2026
Host: David Rutherford (with guest/producer Jordy)
Main Theme:
A deep investigative dive into Ballard Partners, the powerful lobbying firm with outsized influence over both the Trump White House and wider American politics. The episode explores how Ballard exploits and fuels Republican Party divisions, controls political pipelines, and cashes in on access regardless of administration—all while representing a global network of clients.
David Rutherford unpacks the growing internecine war within the MAGA movement and asserts this is being manipulated and exploited by entrenched, bipartisan special interests, namely Ballard Partners, "the number one lobbying firm in America right now." He details how Ballard went from a Florida-centric operation to wielding unprecedented influence, supplying key staff to Trump’s inner circle, simultaneously working with foreign governments, and steering political outcomes.
(03:00 - 11:00)
“There’s definitely a civil war in MAGA right now…but it’s bigger than a civil war in MAGA. There’s actually an insurgency in the Republican Party and it’s coming from the top lobbying firm that controls the White House right now." (03:00, Rutherford)
(10:00 - 15:00)
“There are people who get people elected, and those are lobbying firms... How does it work? They get behind candidates that will support their clientele's interests." (09:50, Rutherford)
(24:19 - 39:22)
Rutherford meticulously lists Ballard’s total shape-shifting political loyalty:
"Jeb Bush, Senior Advisor in 2015, switched to Marco Rubio in November 2015... then were financial chair in Florida for Trump in 2016. Make that make sense." (31:22)
Ballard’s international and corporate clients include: Amazon, TikTok, Uber, Chevron, BMW, Netflix, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and more.
Firm’s successes: Helped Reynolds American block a menthol cigarette ban; helped BMW secure tariff cuts; pushed through Nippon Steel’s U.S. Steel acquisition.
(39:25 - 57:43)
(63:01 - 65:49)
(70:20 - 71:35)
(71:38 - End)
“The predicament for us is going to get worse... What I want you all to understand, you can fully support Trump... but we’re seeing some flaws in the political machine... There’s an insurgency taking place to get rid of it.” (73:00, Rutherford)
“It’s not Democrat versus Republican. Stop thinking that way. It’s the donor class, the billionaires, corporations. It’s whoever is going to keep that money and power flowing.” (59:17, Rutherford)
“The same firm… worked directly with Trump’s chief of staff and Obama’s Israeli adviser’s Rolodex and Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman. This is a bipartisan approach.” (65:22, Rutherford)
“If they can break apart this populist coalition... they cannot have the middle of America joining together.” (67:10, Rutherford)
Rutherford uses a mix of impassioned, sometimes combative and skeptical rhetoric, seasoned with realpolitik observations, direct quotes, and anecdotal evidence. He stresses “context,” urges continual skepticism, and advocates for vigilance against manipulation.
For further context or fact-checks, listeners are encouraged to research Ballard Partners, their global lobbying, and recent appointments in the Trump administration, as well as to seek out opposing and critical sources for further perspective.