Clay Travis (17:20)
Well, yeah, and also, thank you, a good point here. A lot of them would actually get a tax benefit, believe it or not. They basically be paid by the federal government when they file their taxes. But the problem for their employer is now the employer has to pay them properly. And that means they have to abide by wage laws in that state. They have to pay, you know, Social Security, Medicare, tax, all this different stuff. You know, there's a lot that goes into it. The reason that illegal labor is so they'll tell you, oh, it's because they work so hard. No, just like with the H1B visa scam, when you look into this, there's a lot of exploitation going on, both sides of the equation. A lot of big numbers being thrown around Washington, D.C. this week as the big beautiful bill is being contemplated by the Senate. But there's a bigger number that's being contemplated by Jim Rickards. Look, Jim Rickards is a guy who thinks that our country has an asset that could be worth as much as $150 trillion. This asset has been buried under American soil and may well be the basis for creating such a fund. Jim Rickards, as I said, he's a former advisor to the White House and Federal Reserve, tells everybody that if you're over 50, this could be your best chance to build lasting wealth from a once in a century event, which could be great news for people in this audience. And there could be some really fantastic investment opportunities that Jim wants to talk to you about. But go hear his thinking@birthright2025.com A lot of this conversation is a result of President Trump's recent moves. And if he's right, it could be huge for you and your Retirement. Go to birthright2025.com to get the details free of charge. That's birthright2025.com paid for by Paradigm Press. So we should always remember that some of the things that we see going on right now that are even a bit in the background of what Trump is doing, what this administration is making a reality, are things that those of us who have been in the conservative movement or just ideologically conservative for quite some time, in my case, working in conservative media. 14 years. I sorry, I told you. I saw my friend Glenn Beck, friend and mentor Glenn Beck yesterday and he pointed out it was 14 years ago that we linked up at the Blaze. He hired me and so 14 years of that. But I've been a conservative for as long as I could remember. It would seem like the stuff of dreams to be in the place we are in on some of these issues. And I do not believe that's an exaggeration. We've been waiting a very long time, very long time for someone who would essentially dismember the CNN propaganda organization or which is what Trump has done. There was a time when cnn, and especially I think because I lived in New York City, it really was able to wield unfortunately this gravitas and credibility among a lot of well intentioned and good and well informed people. They said, well, cnn, I would know people who I would even describe as right of center who would say things like, you know, CNN is, is pretty neutral. And I would look at them like, no, it's not, it's not now they wouldn't say that anymore. Everyone's realized CNN's completely insane. But if you're going back 15 or 20 years, people would have said, a lot of people, you know, I mean, think about it. I mean Tucker Carlson started his career at CNN on TV with Crossfire, right? They, it used to be less insane is what I'm saying. They used to have actual conservatives on, but that somebody could come along as CNN and MSNBC and the New York Times and these, the, the premier propaganda outlets of the Democrat Party as they reached their, the pinnacle of their power, which I would really say was the second Obama term. And then you get into Trump and they, they basically went too far against Trump and then Trump has brought them to heel and essentially and brought them low. But that's a dream come true for those of us who are on the right. That there is a, there are a number of social media platforms now where you can share your thoughts and not have it be explicitly centered. One of my great frustrations during COVID was, I mean I YouTube, I had multiple YouTube channels banned just for talking about COVID stuff. I, you know, you know me. I'm not. I'm not some provocateur on the right. I just like this mask stuff in the lockdowns. This is moronic. There's no basis for it. I was completely right. People who disagree with me were wrong. Not as smart as they thought they were. Including, you know, Google, one of the most powerful companies on earth. But now we have X and now we have Truth, Social and Rumble and, you know, other things. Other places too. So that. And it's easy for us to have these wins that we don't necessarily take a moment to appreciate and to continue and to. To push for more of them. Right. Or push more in these areas. I'm speaking about this because we're seeing a. People call it a vibe shift. I know that's a little bit of the contemporary lingo with the kids these days, but it is something of a vibe shift right now from corporate America, actually. It's, I would argue, a powerful vibe shift. It's not a little bit, it's a lot. And we're entering a new period here where oppress half the country's ideas and they'll still come back and shop with you. They'll still come back and buy your product. That's a much dicier proposition than it was before Trump won this last election. We are not in 2020 anymore where you would just have the most blatant, I mean, the most just thuggish suppression of conservative ideas by companies, by platforms. I'm not saying the pendulum has swung totally in the other direction. It is beginning to swing in the other direction, and that is a win. And we are starting to see these changes. I give you, for example, Citigroup, which is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, has reversed its policy on restricting banking services for gun companies and firearms clients. Now, in a statement on June 3, the bank said a decision had been made over fair access to banking services. Citigroup will no longer have a specific policy as it results to firearms. This is a step back from the debanking that was going on for years and is one of the most pernicious and undermining and really aggressive things that the left was doing in the private sector to suppress ideas it didn't like and to just politically bludgeon the other side. So in 2018, they implemented a firearms policy that basically meant they wouldn't. Well, the policy is they wouldn't work with people that sold guns. They had all these rules and they were restricted. They had to restrict firearms on all these different bases. If you don't do it, they won't work with you. So that I think is just one of many things that we're going to see here. Where these companies are, are no longer confident enough even if they, I don't think that they like conservatives. I want to be clear. I don't think that the people in charge have changed their mind about a lot of this. Maybe some have, some haven't. It's, it's too, too, too large of an issue and too many people involved to, to say that definitively. But what I do know is that they recognize there could be consequences to discriminating against the right with their business. Now things have changed. And this is also after a dozen, In April of 2024, a dozen Republican state attorney generals, state attorneys general rather wrote a letter to bank of America with regard to their debanking policies and the systemic biases that they have and that. Think about this, banks, which we do think of, I know they're private, but you think of banking services as being non, should be non political in nature, right? So if you went into bank of America or you went into, you know, any of these financial institutions and they, and you said, hey, I'd like to open a checking account with you. And they said, who'd you vote for in the last election? And you said well I not a communist, so I voted for Trump. And they said I'm sorry, we can't take your business. We would all recognize that's a, that's a, that's a big deal. That's a big problem. Right. And that this kind of political discrimination, discrimination was going on for as many years as it did without any meaningful pushback from the judiciary or for cop from Congress is appalling. Absolutely appalling. Trump Organization sued Capital One accusing the bank of closing hundreds of accounts belonging to the company. Trump Organization said that Capital One's unilateral decision came about as a result of political and social motivations and woke beliefs. Banks, banks are now left wing, WOKE enforcers. Well, they have been for years and now it's finally turning around. Now it is finally changing. Where they don't feel comfortable doing this. This is really meaningful. And note the next, the next phase of this needs to be, we need to demand if there is an ad that runs on msnbc, ok, I want to know why that company isn't running ads on Fox News. And we need to start to hold these companies to account. If Mercedes and BMW and I don't Know, I mean, you know, who are some of those? Well, star, we've got our own coffee company here, thank you very much. And to talk about Starbucks, but if some of these major international brands, you know, Apple, if they're willing to put money in advertising to reach an audience that will watch msnbc, I want to know on what basis they're not putting money with, with, with Fox News, with Newsmax, with talk radio. Why, why is it that left wing podcasters who are wrong about everything and who are lunatics can count on corporate dollars? And on the right, it's always, there's always this concern about brand safety. Why are they safe? But we're not safe. Our people just won the election. We're in charge. We run the country. Brand safety, you know, I mean, look, I understand free market, private market, people can do what they want, but we can also do what we want and say to any company that's out there that's putting real money on left wing programming, hey, what's going on here? And force them to answer the question. Force some of these companies, you know, for force, like Ford Motors or, you know, whoever it is, I'm just coming up with big, big companies, but force them to say, you know what? Half the country can go, you know, can go take a long walk off a short pier with their politics and we think they'll just buy our stuff anyway, you jerks. Let's hear them say that now. Let's, let's force them out a little bit because this matters. This matters. The left. One of the great things about this Trump administration has been disassembling the forever regime of the universities and the, you know, corporate HR woke DEI apparatus and the way that the, the NGOs that suckle at the teat of places like USAID and npr. This, this needed to be done. And I've talked about being a conservative for a long time. We've dreamt of this fight finally happening for decades and now it's finally here. And Trump is doing so many things, this administration is moving on so many fronts that I think it's easy to have some of this stuff get a little bit lost. It's easy for us not to put enough focus on all of these different things because there are so many of them. But forcing companies to end as a matter of policy, and I mean, the biggest companies in America, the biggest companies in the world, forcing them to end political discrimination, write down in their company bylaws, we will not, as a company, deny services, deny product to people because of lawful political belief which, whether they want to accept it or not, voting for Trump is a lawful political belief. The right to bear arms, the Second Amendment, being a gun owner and wanting to have a constitutional right that is a lawful belief. And any institution that is going to discriminate on a political basis, the Trump administration should immediately take whatever legal actions are possible, sue them and let the courts figure it out. Oh, but Buck, isn't that, you know, that's what they do. Let's see. Let's see how it shakes out. Sue them. And also the public should start to demand accountability and openness about what's going on here. So Citigroup no longer says that we're going to have these weird policies when it comes to guns because the idiot leftists who are busy, I'm sure counting their huge bonuses who run that place realize this is not going to be a good look for us. We need this to extend to all companies and any. I'm just going to say it to you. Any company that will put money. Ok. On Rachel Maddow show And not, not talk radio, not conservative. Conservative content is not your friend. And they're getting away with not being your friend. They're getting away with spitting in your face. And I think we put an end to that. This is a different moment now. This is a changed moment. They don't have the same control they used to. Now is the time to push. Now is the time to make demands. Sell your stuff to everybody or there will be consequences. Treat all Americans who want access to your goods and services like the customers they are, irrespective of their own political beliefs, or there will be bad things happening to your share price. All right. The Tunnel of the Towers foundation is so critical and there and the support you give them makes such a lasting difference in real lives like the lives of the Clark family. U.S. air Force Sergeant Jesse Clark's military service came to an end after a chemical exposure caused a large tumor to form in his brain. As a result, he is paralyzed on the left side of his body, legally blind, prone to memory loss, and in a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. Friends like you helped Tunnels of Towers build this hero a new smart home to help him live a more independent life. So many more families like the Clarks need your help now. Since Tunnel to Towers founding after the horrific events of 9 11, we must not forget and must not forget those who have sacrificed so much. America's heroes have given their all together. We can say thank you in a lasting and meaningful way. Please show your Support now. Donate $11 a month to tunnel the towers. @t2t.org that's tthenumber2t.org so much more to get to the next hour, including Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. Sure, a lot of you are going to be flying this summer, traveling, you know, summertime, right? People go places. And if you have been paying attention in recent months, the air traffic control situation has been a mess. Yes, it is what was inherited by this administration from the Biden disaster. I know they're trying to fix it. So we'll talk to Sean Duffy, Secretary Duffy, about that. And I certainly want to know. I. There is just. My perception is that flying somehow just keeps getting worse, that there's more delays, that there's less efficiency, that customer service is getting worse. I think it's the only area that I'm trying to think what else just keeps getting worse every year while technology gets better and everything should be streamlining and improving? How is it possible that flying is more stressful than I can ever remember it being? Maybe that's just a perception thing, but I do know that there's so much time. You know what the. The one that really drives me in some ways the most insane is the when you land and you think you're about to get off the plane and then you sit there for 45 minutes because there's no ground crew to let you out of the plane. Well, let's be honest, you start to have little thoughts in your head about, like, what if I just, like, hit that slide and, you know, just sort of hopped out? You know, I mean, you start to have some crazy thoughts because you want to get off that plane because it landed and everyone's safe and you want to get off and. But, you know, there we are sitting there waiting, waiting. It really tests your patience so that I want to get some answers. And I know Sean's gonna have updates for us. Sorry, keep plums. I've known Sean, Secretary Duffy, for years now, and this is a thing for me. A lot of these guys who run the country now or cabinet level secretaries I've had beers with in the past, sometimes many times. And so it's after. I have to remember the formal title. But yes, Secretary Duffy will be with us. We'll talk to him about this. I think that's going to be important. If you're on hold and. And. Or you want to send in a talk back. We'll get to a lot of that in the next hour. After you take some coming up here in the top. I'll just give you kind of a rundown of the top news stories. Then we'll get some calls. So stay with us on hold there. Want to hear from you. And if you want to call in 800-282-2882. And word is from from Clay, you'll have to get full update from him on Friday. But I'm hearing that maybe he was at par today on that golf course. I can neither confirm nor deny. But is Clay a scratch golfer? There are rumors that I am starting so we'll have to see if those rumors are correct. And he had a great time today and he's doing important things for the show out there on the links. We'll be back here, talk to Secretary Duffy. We'll get into some more news stories. I basically we have a fantastic show in the third hour coming your way. So get some Crockett coffee, come back, sit down, be right with you. This is an I Heart podcast.