Hour 1 - Trump's Economic Victory Lap

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Hour 1 - Trump's Economic Victory Lap

Date: February 13, 2026
Hosts: Clay Travis & Buck Sexton
Notable Guest: Scott Bessant (Treasury Secretary)

Overview

This episode spotlights what the hosts call an "economic victory lap" for President Trump’s administration, arguing that the latest economic indicators—low inflation, high GDP growth, wage gains, and a strong job market—demonstrate the effectiveness of Republican policies and the sharp contrast with the Biden years. The segment mixes data analysis with calls from listeners, a powerful viral message from actor James Van Der Beek, and both hosts’ trademark humor and political commentary.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Economic Indicators & "Trump's Victory Lap"

[00:04–03:18] Clay Travis, Buck Sexton

• Latest core inflation for January: 2.4%—lowest since March 2021.
  • “It means that the Fed’s target inflation rate of 2% is easily within target.” – Clay Travis [00:45]
• GDP growth rate: 4.4%.
• Wages now outpace inflation; rental prices down due to border enforcement.
  • “Rents have begun to come down. That is the basic law of supply and demand...when 2 million plus illegals leave the country, overall demand for rental properties...declines.” – Clay Travis [01:31]
• Murder rates at their lowest since 1900; stock market at record highs.

2. Private Sector Job Creation vs Government Jobs

[03:18–05:25] Buck Sexton, Scott Bessant, Clay Travis

• Emphasis on growth in private sector jobs, decrease in government jobs (“low-show” jobs).
  • “Private sector numbers were more than 170,000 and government jobs were reduced by more than 40,000... lowest ratio of government jobs to total jobs since 1966.” – Scott Bessant [04:28]
• Under Trump, 10% (~350,000) of federal government jobs eliminated.
  • “Ideally, what appears to be happening is those people are actually going into the private sector and getting jobs that don’t require the federal government to be paying their salaries.” – Clay Travis [05:25]
• Gas and rent prices both declining—a transformative shift.

3. Real Wage Growth & Life Affordability

[07:55–09:14] Buck Sexton, Scott Bessant, Clay Travis

• Real income is rising as energy costs fall.
  • “We saw real wage growth in 2025. I think it could be very strong in 2026.” – Scott Bessant [08:40]
• Hosts stress the importance of Americans “feeling” the positive change, not just seeing the data.

4. Historical Perspective & Political Implications

[09:14–10:59] Clay Travis, Buck Sexton

• Comparison to “Reagan economy” after Carter’s inflation; recognition that perception lags reality.
  • “The big challenge of 2026...are the average voters going to recognize that the trajectory of the economy is very positive or is it still going to feel bad because of the Biden hangover?” – Clay Travis [09:16]
• Trump’s inability to personally reap the electoral benefits (“setting the table” for the next Republican candidate).

5. Political Messaging, Media Narrative, and Skepticism

[10:59–14:35] Buck Sexton, Clay Travis

• Hosts criticize financial media pessimism from a year ago, emphasize that catastrophic predictions haven’t come true.
• Reference to possible government shutdown, blaming Democratic “obstruction” on border issues and suggesting it’s a political ploy.

6. Lingering Cost Concerns (Caller & Personal Stories)

[15:32–17:43] Clay Travis, Buck Sexton, Callers

• Complaints about high costs for fast food and groceries linger—“Biden hangover.”
  • “Every time you go through the drive thru at a fast food restaurant...things cost too much.” – Clay Travis [16:17]
  • “Inflation doesn’t ever go negative. The best you can do is go back to where you were before Joe Biden came into office.” – Clay Travis [16:30]
• Memorable anecdote: Clay’s $84 Dairy Queen order for a group of kids.
• Cultural reference: “Men in Black” neuralyzer as a metaphor for collectively “forgetting” the Biden inflation spike.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Economic Data Summary:
  “I’m starting to think things are pretty great now...” – Clay Travis [01:58]
• Private Sector Emphasis:
  “Part of President Trump’s plan to re-privatize our economy... 2026 is going to be a banquet for the American people.” – Scott Bessant [04:41]
• Scalding Take on Democratic Job Creation:
  “Low-show jobs...where you have no actual productivity, no real metrics, and you’re just a drain on the actual productive economy.” – Buck Sexton [03:47]
• Catchy Critique:
  “It would shake my sense of economics to its foundation if things weren’t going much better now than they were under Joe Biden.” – Buck Sexton [13:22]
• Humorous Aside:
  “They don’t have caviar on bellinis though—this seems a little excessive.” – Buck Sexton, about Clay’s Dairy Queen outing [16:13]

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Notable Segment: James Van Der Beek’s Viral Message

[21:05–22:37] James Van Der Beek & Hosts

• Reflection on mortality, identity, and self-worth as he faced terminal cancer.
  • “If I am just a too skinny, weak guy alone in an apartment with cancer, what am I?...I am worthy of God’s love simply because I exist. And if I’m worthy of God’s love, shouldn’t I also be worthy of my own? And the same is true for you.” – James Van Der Beek [21:44]
• Deeply resonated with both hosts and listeners, leading to emotional call-ins.

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Listener Calls: Real Life Resonance

[30:52–32:18]

• Tim from Minneapolis shares his own loss and the lesson that “if you don’t have your health, nothing else matters.” [31:00–32:10]
• Amy in Greenville and others echo ongoing frustrations with high consumer prices despite positive macro trends.
• Mark in Wisconsin offers an alternative local view: “I can get eggs for a buck a dozen...prices now are cheaper than they were three years ago.” [35:56–36:26]

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Pop Culture & Personalities

[19:03–27:24] Clay Travis, Buck Sexton, Callers

• Segment on the passing of actor James Van Der Beek (Varsity Blues, Dawson’s Creek), reflections on his message and its impact.
• Nostalgic and humorous cultural detours (Dawson’s Creek, Sucker Punch, Björk, Iceland’s popularity).

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Trump “victory lap” and main economic indicators: [00:04–03:18]
• Private sector vs. government jobs (Scott Bessant remarks): [04:28–05:09]
• Real wage growth & affordability: [07:55–09:14]
• Historical comparisons, Reagan/Trump, policy lag: [09:14–10:59]
• “Biden inflation hangover” and personal anecdotes: [15:32–17:43]
• James Van Der Beek’s message: [21:05–22:37]
• Emotional call from Tim, resonance of health/loss: [30:52–32:18]
• Callers on prices and cost-of-living: [32:41–36:26]

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Conclusion

The episode delivers a comprehensive, data-driven celebration of Trump-era economic policy, balancing macroeconomic victories with honest acknowledgment of ongoing cost-of-living frustrations. It’s peppered with personal stories, pop culture, and listener engagement, aiming to solidify confidence among their audience while reflecting on deeper life issues sparked by Van Der Beek’s words.

Tone: Upbeat, politically charged, conversational, occasionally sentimental.
Recommended for: Listeners looking for optimistic coverage of Republican economic policy, real-life perspectives, and cultural reflection.

Transcript

[Buck Sexton]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[Clay Travis]

Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show podcast. Welcome in Friday edition. Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show. We appreciate all of you hanging out with us as we are taking you into the weekend. We have got a ton to discuss with all of you. Most importantly that the economic information and indicators that are out there continue to be quite strong. Friday a morning just about two hours ago, the latest inflation read for January came in at 2.4% inflation. That is the lowest core inflation number that has existed since March, I believe, of 2021. That is the very beginning of the Joe Biden administration before the Disastrous rise to 9.1% Inflation began, which I believe peaked in around June of 2022. If I remember off the top of my head, some of you out there might be saying, okay, well what does that mean in a real terms? It means that the Fed's target inflation rate of 2% is easily within target. It means that all of the histrionics surrounding Trump's decision to implement tariffs have not led to to soaring inflation. And it means that overall the economy is moving in a very, very good direction. And as we sit here midway through February, Buck, what jumps out to me is the most recent GDP rating that we got, the most recent reading that we got on the GDP was 4.4% growth. Wages have now begun to outpace the growth of inflation in a fairly substantial way. What you're seeing as all of this kind of works together is the secured southern border is helping to result in significant declines in rent. And I know many of you may be starting to see this as your rent bills come up, as your leases come up, and you're looking around and whereas in the past the landlords have been able to just jack rates up at a really rapid pace and that is no longer occurring. In fact, rents have begun to come down. That is the basic law of supply and demand. Buck, what happens when 2 million plus illegals leave the country is the overall demand for rental properties in general begins to decline. So if you pair 2.4% inflation, again, the lowest since March of 2021, at the core number, and you pair it with a 4.4% GDP growth rate, and you add in that we were at the lowest murder rates since 1900, that we have the most secure border in any of our lives, and that the stock market is at record highs, starting to think that things are pretty great now. Again, I understand it might take a little while for all of this to start to pull in a direction. Everybody feels it across the nation. But the metrics, they are really, really good.

[Buck Sexton]

It's looking fantastic. Some people are saying the greatest economy of all economies. And I think it's only going to get better from here, quite honestly. One of the really important data points here, one of the indicators that you're not going to hear enough about, because it's not only good for the economy, but it very much goes to the ideological differences between Democrat and Republican governance. And that has to do with job creation. That is actual jobs in the economy versus just creating more slots for bureaucrats in the government. And that's something that Democrats, Democrats did this and there was a huge surge of this during COVID These, what I call low show jobs where you don't really do anything. You've just got to be there, but you don't do anything. There's no show jobs, which those are generally illegal or you know, those are. If you're in the government, those are illegal. There's low show jobs, though, where you have no actual productivity, no real metrics, and you're just a drain on the actual productive economy. Scott Bessant spoke about this. Clay, this is cut to where he's just saying we're not just creating jobs in general. These are private sector jobs. While government jobs are going down.

[Scott Bessant]

Play to what was even more impressive about the numbers is the private sector numbers were more than 170,000 and government jobs were reduced by more than 40,000. More than 30, 30,000 of that was federal jobs were at the lowest ratio of government jobs to total jobs since 1966. And this is part of President Trump's plan to re privatize our economy. And I think, as I've said many times, 2025 is about setting the table. 2026 is going to be a banquet for the American people. The economy is taking off.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay, this is so critical. This is the midterm election, really. This is run up the scoreboard. So it's clear if you want a strong economy, forget about every Trump tweet that you were told was so mean or whatever, you want a strong US Economy, you got to keep the Republicans in charge.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. Look, and I building on what Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessant said there, and I think we mentioned this earlier in the week, but I want to hammer it home again. We added 130,000 private sector jobs. That's after we take away the fact that we declined government government jobs substantially. In fact, Buck, the number of government employees is down over 10% since Donald Trump came into office, we have eliminated roughly 350,000 jobs from people who are funded by taxpayers. So it's not, I think this is really important because people look at the overall jobs and the growth for everybody out there that's paying taxes that we have eliminated 10% of the people that we are required to pay for on the federal government's dole. And ideally, what appears to be happening is those people are actually going into the private sector and getting jobs that don't require the federal government to be paying their salaries. So this is a huge net positive for everyone out there. And again, I, I know it takes a little while for all of the larger macro, big picture economic issues to translate all the way through the entire economy. One thing I would say that a lot of people notice every single day is the price of gas is down substantially. And overall, again, gas and rent are actually declining, which is a pretty transformative change. And one other thing we should mention is a lot of times January inflation comes in hot. It comes in higher than people expected because during the holidays, spending is sometimes tough to measure. In January, it sometimes comes in hot. We're actually set up for, as we move into the spring, I think, inflation to be back down to 2%, which is the Fed's target. And when that happens, then you're going to get more interest rate cuts, which means your mortgages, which means your car payments, which means everything out there, your credit cards, in theory, everything is going to get cheaper because the economy is starting to fire on all cylinders again. And that will free up the housing market, which has been essentially frozen because so many people got 3% mortgages and are just not going to move, even if it would make sense to move because rates are so much higher than.

[Buck Sexton]

What they got here is on that point, Clay, because there's the numbers and then there's what people feel. Yeah. And in politics, you got to make them both line up. There's the good data, which we were just talking about the jobs, but then it's how expensive does gas feel? How's your rent? How are the things that matter to you day to day? The paycheck, kitchen table issues that are really at the heart of American politics and always will be. Because this is something that people feel and they know and no matter what the TV tells them, their reality is their reality. Scott Bessens pointing out that, that we saw real wage growth last year, but it could be great. And this will really go to this point if you get really substantial wage growth and low inflation in 26 people are going to feel it. This is cut three, play it.

[Scott Bessant]

There are two ways to fix affordability. There is bringing down prices and things like energy. Energy is coming down. Energy is a core component of everything for consumers. So as that comes down, we will see the inflation levels come down. But on the other side, it's real income increases. And we've seen real, we saw real wage growth in 2025. I think it could be very strong in 2026. And I think the American people are going to start feeling it.

[Buck Sexton]

There we go, Clay.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, look. And again, I think the big challenge of 2026 is going to be is, and are the average voters going to recognize that the trajectory of the economy is very positive or is it still going to feel bad because of the Biden hangover? I think that is the number one question for 2026. And in fact, if you go back and you look, and I like to go back and look at modern recent history, Presidential it took a while for Reagan's economic bona fides to start to hit. 1984, we've talked about it was an all time landslide. 1982 wasn't great. And so the beneficiary, ironically, of the policies that Trump has put in place because Trump can't run again is not going to be Donald Trump. It's going to be J.D. vance or whomever the presumptive Republican candidate is going to be. Because I think it's going to be impossible to argue that by 2028 that everyone can't see that the economy is firing on all cylinders. The tough thing for Trump is he doesn't get to run on that. And we talked about this earlier in the week. Everybody forgets we had the best economy in the history of the country in February of 2020. And then Covid happened. If Covid doesn't exist, then Trump wins, I think a very comfortable election win over Joe Biden. And, and he's already out of office. I don't know who would be in office right now. And, and I think our economy would be in a much better place. Obviously now Trump is having to rebuild the mess that is Biden. He's going to fix it again and then somebody else is going to be benefiting going forward.

[Buck Sexton]

Take your calls, take your talk backs, get into all of it. But I got to say, another good week in the books for this Trump administration and still staying the course right now with a lot of these policies is the smart move. And it is amazing. We'll start to go back 12 months in time to pull what was being said a year ago by the so called financial intelligentsia, reporters and you know, the CNBC commentariat, the economists, quote. Economists like which economists? The ones that hate Trump. Those are the only ones that find their way into most major newspapers and all the rest, they said that this was going to crash out the economy and the economy is kicking ass. That's the truth. Now I understand that doesn't mean that it's perfect. That doesn't mean that there aren't still high prices or, you know, this is, we have to level set expectations here. But I think you're going to see more and more really strong indicators and things are going to start to align even more this year. And so the Democrats, I don't know, maybe they'll have to like fake another, you know, mass pandemic or something. They'll, they'll, they'll do something, they'll come up with some way to explain why things aren't as great as they are. Um, but we'll continue to follow this one very closely, my friends. The world's softest, most luxury sheets come from Cozy Earth. When you sleep on them, you feel like you're at a five star hotel. They're available online at cozy earth.com these bamboo sheets are made with fabric that allows you to sleep cooler at night while feeling like you're sleeping on the softest sheets you've ever experienced. This purchase is totally risk free. You get a 100 day money back guarantee and a 10 year warranty because they want you totally satisfied. Go online to cozyearth.com, use my name Buck to get a 20% discount. And if you got a post purchase survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here. One more time. Cozyearth.com is the website. Use promo code Buck. Get your discount on this purchase today. Cozyearth.com promo code Buck. It is Friday, friend. So let us all hear from you and let's talk about all the things that are on your mind today. And we're talking about a victory lap here for President Trump on the economy so far. It has been a very strong first year in this Trump administration and it really makes sense too. How could anyone be surprised by this? First of all, look at the broad 30,000 foot view data points that you could bring to bear. Clay, for example. Ok, Trump's first term. How did the economy look then? Oh, it was really good, wasn't it? All right, cool. Who's been in charge the last four years? A bunch of lightweights pretending to be Joe Biden and like, move his flaccid wrist around or use the auto pen so that they can get policies through. And it's not even really the guy that, quote, won the 20 election. 2020 election. That's, that's not even who's in charge. Of course things are going to be better now. Like, it would actually be bizarre. It would shake my economic foundation or shake my sense of economics to its foundation if things weren't going much better now than they were under Joe Biden. So this is as we expected it would be. But with all this going on, you still have the nonsense on Capitol Hill. Here's White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt. Clay, we're heading to a partial government shutdown now. Place six.

[Clay Travis]

President Trump has been and always will be on the side of the American people. He wants our government to remain open. And unfortunately, it appears that Democrats are barreling our government towards another shutdown for political and partisan reasons. The White House has been very much engaged with Democrats in serious discussions and negotiations over immigration enforcement policy. In fact, we have not only sent counter proposals, but actual legislative text to Capitol Hill in the hopes of coming to an agreement to avoid this shutdown. But Democrats have left Washington.

[Buck Sexton]

This is where they are making their stand. Clay. This economy, this all ties together. This economy is too good for it to be the centerpiece of Democrats attack on the Republicans right now. So it's all the pretty shooting and ice and, you know, the, the three agitators of the Democrat Party, they are.

[Clay Travis]

Distracting and they're relying on the fact, again, that a lot of people haven't felt the work that has been done yet. And trust me, I get it. I was having a conversation with friends the other day about just how frustrating cost of goods is. And I went through the Dairy Queen line recently and I was buying food for, I think it was like six kids. We had a bunch of kids over at the house. Everybody's getting ice cream. Everything else, $84. I spent 84 at the dairy Queen. At the Dairy Queen. Now again, Dairy Queen now has like, they have hamburgers. So it was not just ice cream.

[Buck Sexton]

They don't have caviar on Bellinis, though. I mean, this seems a little excessive.

[Clay Travis]

This is, this is what I'm saying. Every time you go through the drive thru at a fast food restaurant, if you're a mom or you're a dad or you're a grandma or your grandpa and you're buying for multiple people, things cost too much. And this is the Nasty part of Joe Biden's inflation. Inflation doesn't ever go negative. It the best you can do is go back to where you were before Joe Biden came into office. Think about this Buck. When Joe Biden came into office, inflation was 1.9%. Inflation is now back down to 2.4%. If we just eliminated the Joe Biden and the Joe Biden era, right, and we never went to 9.1%, my $84 or whatever the heck it was that I just spent at Dairy Queen wouldn't have happened because the difference between 1.9% inflation and 2.4% inflation is largely negligible. And your average person is not going to notice on a year to year basis that change. But you notice when it went to nine and the multi years that it has taken to get back to where we were when Joe Biden came into office. Remember back in Men in Black, Buck? Remember the memory stick that they had where they could just erase? For those of you out there that remember the movie, they basically had a stick so that you didn't know that aliens existed. They would hit you with the memory stick and your brain memory of all of it would be washed.

[Buck Sexton]

It's like a form of technological brainwashing. The kind of thing that's addressed in my book Manufacturing Delusion, how the Left uses Brainwashing, Indoctrination and Propaganda against you, which comes out on Tuesday.

[Clay Travis]

Everybody buy the book. We need it for the entire Biden era. We need it all erased. Everything would be infinitely better.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

Has got cuz trust me on hour three is going to be fun. Hour three is going to be fun. We got some great audio. I, I, I don't know about you Buck, but this is actually a, a not that this is a, a bit of a sad aspect. We mentioned that James Vanderbeek, 48 years old, star of Dawson's Creek and Varsity Blues died and somebody shared with me it was you. And then I shared it and so many people were reacting to it. Varsity Blues was a all time teen and football movie and I bet a lot of you saw it. It had a large number of at that time people in their late teens or early twenties that were stars in that era.

[Buck Sexton]

It's for people who grew up in the 90s was a big movie. I don't think our par saw it.

[Clay Travis]

But yeah, but that three of the icons of that movie are all now dead. Paul. What? Paul Walker, that's the guy from Fast and the Furious. But he was in this movie, he.

[Buck Sexton]

Fast the Furious movies who died in a high speed car accident and then.

[Clay Travis]

The Billy Bob character. All three of them have passed. And James Vanderbeek had six young kids, 48 years old. And this was his final message. And this has gone viral and I don't know how many people have heard this, but James Vanderbeek, as you mentioned, Buck was on Team Sanity. It would not stun me if he sometimes listened to this show. And again he had six kids and he, I think it was colon cancer which has become very deadly. It seems like for a lot of younger men that you wouldn't anticipate. Chadwick Boseman, who played the Black Panther among other other roles also I believe died of colon cancer. But here was James Vanderbeek's final message. I, I thought maybe it would resonate with some of you like it resonated with me when I heard this yesterday. Cut 21.

[James Vanderbeek]

When I was younger I used to define myself as an actor, right. Which was never really all that fulfilling. And then I became a husband and that was much better. And then I became a father and that was the ultimate. I could define myself then as a loving, capable, strong, supportive husband, father, provider, steward of the land that we're so lucky to live on. And for a long time that felt like a really good definition to the question who am I? What am I? And then this year I had to look my own mortality in the eye. I had to come nose to nose with death in all of those definitions that I cared so deeply about were stripped from Me, I was away for treatment. So I could no longer be a husband that was helpful to my wife. I could no longer be a father who could pick up his kids and put them to bed and be there for them. I could not be a provider because I wasn't working. I couldn't even be a steward of the land because at times I was too weak to prune all the trees during the window that you're supposed to prune them. And so I was faced with the question, if I am just a too skinny, weak guy alone in an apartment with cancer, what am I? And I meditated. And the answer came through. I am worthy of God's love simply because I exist. And if I'm worthy of God's love, shouldn't I also be worthy of my own? And the same is true for you.

[Clay Travis]

I just thought that was really very well said for a 48 year old. And again, he has left behind six very young children. They're, they're the lovely family, but just a, I think for a lot of people out there, because he's relatively young, you don't expect people in their 40s to pass with young families that they're taking care of. And I, I think a lot of people have been sharing that because it did feel like a very profound revelation from him. And I think a lot of people find purpose, particularly men. I think this is one of the biggest challenges that exists in our society today, Buck, is when you tell men that they shouldn't be providers and that they shouldn't be fathers and they don't have people that rely on them. Most men are not at their best, I think that's fair to say. When men act entirely in their own self interest and they do not have people to provide for protecting and, and, and basically be the, the strong backbone of a household, I think most men are at their worst and, and I thought that evolution in James Vanderbeek's perspective on. A lot of people say, oh, I'd love to be in a movie. I don't know, I've done a couple of, of of things in film. It's, it's honestly seems really boring to me. Buck, you do the same scene over and over again like this.

[Buck Sexton]

You're going back for your, your IMDb here, Clay.

[Clay Travis]

I, well, I mean I just, I, I think a lot of people think oh, being an actor would be cool. And if you've ever been in one of those trailers and you've ever done a scene in a movie or you've ever filmed anything I like live television. I like live radio, because I imagine I probably would like live theater because there is no safety net. But the idea of doing the same scene 40 different times from every angle, it's miserable. Like, I did not enjoy it at all. And I think a lot of people, you know, he had a great deal of success there, but I think what he's recognizing is something much more profound than personal success.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes, I just. Clay. Clay, drawing upon his time as a thespian, straight in on this one is. Is very clay, and I appreciate that. His. His speech here or his. His message here, which I even shared it with my own. With my family. I just thought it was really worth hearing, worth watching and listening to. I'm very glad you played it on. Reminds me of a memoir that was written by Paul Kalanithi, which you can get. It's short. It's called When Breath Becomes Air. And it's about this absolute top neurosurgeon who finds out right when he's about to sort of hit his peak of saving lives and, you know, operating on tumors that are the hardest to operate on, all this kind of stuff, that he has terminal cancer. And then the book is really a meditation on being. Being a dad, being a, you know, a man, be everything, you know, father. And it's just really beautifully written. And I think that if you're ever looking for something that's. I mean, you will read it in a weekend for sure. Get Manufacturing Delusion first, which comes out on Tuesday, but can't be selling other people's books right now. But, no, it's a really. If you haven't read When Breath Becomes Air, it's a really beautiful memoir, and it goes into a lot of these things, but he was. He was a man of faith, Paul Kalanithi. So I think a lot of you would, you know, love being a dad, love being a husband, but it's very honest. He's also wildly brilliant. That comes across from, you know, he was just. He was like the clay. He was like the Stanford neurosurgeon guy. You know, that was the up and coming in California at his. At the hospital and everything else. You know, he's like. He's the guy that you would make the doctor, like, soap opera or, you know, Grey's Anatomy around as, like, the super doctor. He was that guy. And so I think it's. It's really powerful to sort of go through his thoughts. He knew he had a year to live, and he wrote this book, and that's. That's what he did for the year. So I would, I would recommend that to you. You can get it bundled with Manufacturing Delusion, which is out on Tuesday. So. Okay, there we have that. But I'm glad you played James Vanderbie. I'm going to tell you something. People used to say all the time when I was in high school that I look like Pacey. Ah, constantly I was told that I look like Joshua Jackson. And right now I might look more like Senor Joshua Jackson. My hair cut is a little Miami, but Joshua Jackson and I, Pacey from Dawson's. People would see me at parties like, yo, it's Pacey. So Dawson's Creek had a, had a really profound effect on my, on my youth.

[Clay Travis]

That was a great show. Entertaining show back in the day. All right, we will take your calls. It is the Friday edition of the program. 800-282-2882. Our friend Senator Ron Johnson will join us again. A lot of different news stories out there that we will continue to track, including, and it doesn't seem like there has been very much of an update at all as, as it pertains to this, but we are continuing to monitor and that is the Nancy Guthrie case. So we will keep you updated on that. But I want to let you know, self protection inside of your home can make a tremendous difference, especially if you've got kids around and you want to have non lethal ways to protect yourself. That's what Saber Home defense is all about. They've got a Saber home defense launcher that will deliver seven powerful pepper projectiles on impact, two more than most competitors. When fear hits and you have to defend yourself, Having extra stopping power can change everything. But protection doesn't stop at your front door when you're on the move. Saber pepper sprays, pepper gels and stun guns give you compact, reliable protection. Again, if you've got kids or grandkids around your house and you want non lethal protection, that's what Saber is made for. Saber radio.coms a b radio.com sabrina844-824s a f e that's saberradio.com 844-824s a f E.

[Buck Sexton]

Crash as the DJ is faster than Crash. What was this music that you were just playing a second ago? Because it sounded a bit like music from, from the movie Sucker Punch, which I don't know who else has seen that movie. Yeah, whatever. I think that actually is from the movie Sucker Punch. Clay, have you not seen Sucker Punch?

[Clay Travis]

No, I don't know anything about Sucker. It is a weird movie.

[Buck Sexton]

It is a weird movie with some memorable scenes and sequences in it. I would actually go so far as to say, I think you would enjoy the movie. Perhaps I'll send you a clip. But that's. I think it is in that movie. What's the name of that band again? Crash. You're educating us here. Bjork Clay.

[Clay Travis]

Did you. Had you ever heard of Bjork?

[Buck Sexton]

I think she's from Iceland.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, I've heard it. I've heard of Bjork before. I mean, I think she was popular in, like, 1998 or something. Am I right about that? Like in when. When the world basically peaked, when everything was perfect. I think that was. That was probably the time when I remember her being super popular back in the day.

[Buck Sexton]

I'm learning something. Learning something new about this.

[Clay Travis]

She was pop. She was popular and from Iceland. Before Iceland was a popular place to go. Now people want to take vacations all the time to Iceland and. And it's super interesting to. To see how that place has exploded. But. But yeah, she was popular back in the day.

[Caller]

And.

[Buck Sexton]

Do we have anybody up on the. On the call screen or the vip, Clay, because my call screen just disappeared for some reason. I'm. I'm not seeing it. What do you have? Or do you just want to talk? We can just have a conversation.

[Clay Travis]

We can just. We can just talk. We'll open up the phone lines, by the way. 802A2. 282. I'm in Florida, so I don't have.

[Buck Sexton]

Oh, yeah, you don't have the call screen either. Okay, Tim. Tim, you're yelling at us. Tim, you're on.

[Caller]

Hey, you guys. Hey, Tim from Minneapolis. Say, can you guys hear me okay?

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Caller]

Yeah. So I was driving down the road. I've never. I listen to you guys periodically. But the actor you had on who made a comment about, you know, he had. He got diagnosed with cancer and obviously passed away. But that hit home with me. And I just gotta say that what it really sums up or comes down to is the fact that if you don't have your health, none of it matters. So he came to this revelation. I've been through it. I lost a wife to cancer. I raised two kids on my own. So I just get choked up hearing about stuff like that. So it really hit home with me.

[Scott Bessant]

When I heard that.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, it was powerful. It was powerful.

[Clay Travis]

Well, we're glad you're here. How are the kids?

[Caller]

The kids are good. They're grown now, so they lost their mom about 1011 years ago. So last one's just graduating from college, so that's good. But, yeah, that just like hit home so. Well, like I say, I tell people it's all the time. If you don't have health, you don't have, you don't have anything. Nothing else matters then.

[Clay Travis]

Thank you, Cancer and congrats to getting those kids through college.

[Buck Sexton]

Thank you so much. I was going to say there's a saying that the healthy person has a thousand wants, the sick person has one. And I think it is very true. It's a very tough thing to deal with when you have really serious illness. And our thoughts and prayers go to anybody out there right now who's dealing with an illness of any kind. Amy in Greenville, North Carolina.

[Caller]

Hey, guys, I just wanted to mention that I'm a mom, I have two kids. I'm in the grocery store two, three times a week, and the prices keep going up and up and up. They're up over where they were two years ago. And Clay, you're 100% right. When you go to the fast food restaurants, it's just crazy. And I just wanted to say I'm really, really concerned that if we don't do something, I know Trump can't work miracles, but if we don't address this in a state in a significant way before November, I am very, very concerned.

[Clay Travis]

Thank you for the call. This is, this is the challenge. I understand it because I feel it and I know everybody out there feels it. You're angry when you see what things cost. The challenge. And this is why, you know, we talked about this historically and I think we took some calls on it back in the day. For those of you who are old enough to remember what the Jimmy Carter era was like, this is why I go to Reagan and I use it as somewhat of a proxy for what's going on with Trump right now. If you go back in time and you, and I've had to study it because obviously I don't remember it, but inflation went to, I think it was 15, 16, 17% in Jimmy Carter in the one term that he got. And then Reagan gets elected in 80 and everything starts to get better. But if you go look at, and guys, pull up the, the data on this because I do think it's interesting, you go look to what happened to Reagan In 82, people didn't feel yet in their lives the changes that Reagan had put in place to resolve the problems of Jimmy Carter. And if we accept Biden as a echo of the Jimmy Carter era, which I think is a fair approximation. It unfortunately took until 1984 for everybody to realize, oh, my goodness, Ronald Reagan has put the right economic policies in place and I'm benefiting. And he won a landslide election then. But in 1982, if I'm remembering correctly, I think Democrats punch back and won races. And so, again, that's my concern about 2026, is it's so soon. The anger is still there of Biden, and Trump is getting tarred with some of that anger we had.

[Buck Sexton]

Courtney was on the line and she dropped. And I just wanted to note that what she was apparently going to say is she's excited for Trump's lower interest rates to kick in. Slash. She absolutely loves the show and listens every day. Thank you. So, Courtney, I'm going to share that message with America. Where'd you go, Courtney? I should probably have, like, kids or a job or something she had to do. But we appreciated the sentiment and we, we will, we will take compliments all day here. Never too many compliments. So thank you.

[Clay Travis]

And now. But I do think that what they are saying, in essence, Reagan administration in 82 suffered from high interest rates, and as a result, the outcomes were not good.

[Caller]

And.

[Clay Travis]

Mark in Shawano, Wisconsin, really fast. Mark.

[Caller]

Yeah, I just want to talk about the economy a little bit. Everybody's complaining about prices. Grocery stores. And like you went out to fast food, you're gonna pay pretty good price because you gotta realize these kids are getting 17, 18, 19, 20 bucks an hour now.

[Clay Travis]

But if you go to the grocery.

[Caller]

Store, I'm just talking about my little Midwest town. I can get eggs for a buck a dozen. I can get a ham for 99 cents a pound. I can get butter for 250 a pound. I mean, prices now are cheaper than they were, you know, three years ago.

[Clay Travis]

Thank you for the call. Look, prices are down. They're starting to go around 2% a year. People are going to get used to it. The impact of Biden, thankfully, is being wiped out. We'll talk about that and more when we come back. Thanks for hanging on, Clay and Buck.

[Buck Sexton]

This is an Iheart podcast. Guaranteed human.