Hour 3 - Buck Explains Mind Control

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Hour 3 – Buck Explains Mind Control
Date: February 18, 2026
Host: Buck Sexton (Clay Travis absent this hour)
Guest: Congressman Chip Roy (TX), brief segment with Kevin Hassett

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Overview

In this episode, Buck Sexton leads a discussion centered on current political battles over government funding, border security, and election integrity, while weaving in themes from his new book, Manufacturing Delusion. With Congressman Chip Roy as a guest, they break down the drama unfolding in Congress around the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) partial shutdown, sparring over ICE enforcement changes, and the push for the Save America Act. The latter half of the hour shifts to economic discussion—lauding Trump-era policies—and Buck’s reflections on technology’s impact on perception and mass mind control. The episode is marked by Buck’s blend of humor, urgency about civic engagement, and his characteristic deep dives into policy mechanics and cultural trends.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Congressional Funding Battles and the DHS Partial Shutdown

[00:21–06:14]

• Current Situation:

  • Congress passed a funding bill covering everything except DHS, funding which temporarily extended but has now expired.
  • Border Patrol and ICE funding are protected, but other agencies like TSA, Coast Guard, and FEMA are left unfunded due to political maneuvering.

• Republican Perspective (Chip Roy):

  • The GOP has tried to fund the government and provide for border security.
  • Democrats are accused of politicizing ICE enforcement and using critical agency funding as a bargaining chip.

  “The bad news is that leaves TSA and the Coast Guard and FEMA dangling while Democrats play politics.” — Chip Roy [01:56]

• Democratic Demands:

  • Additional constraints on ICE, such as extra warrant requirements and operational restrictions.
  • Proposals like body cameras are broadly supported by both sides, but opposition remains to restrictions seen as hampering ICE’s core mission.
  • Dispute over whether ICE agents should be allowed to wear masks for privacy and protection from threats.

  “There are 1.6 million people in the United States under a judge-ordered order of removal...Democrats want to put constraints on that.” — Chip Roy [04:17]

• Outlook:

  • The practical impact of agency shutdowns (like disrupted flights and delayed FEMA aid) could force a political resolution.

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2. The Save America Act and Senate Procedural Showdown

[06:14–13:13]

• Legislation Overview:

  • Save America Act = voter citizenship verification + nationwide voter ID for federal elections.
  • Originates from the SAVE Act and expanded to unify electoral safeguards.
  • Passed the House (with one Democrat, Henry Cuellar, voting for it) and awaits Senate action.

  “Only American citizens vote in American elections...checking state voter rolls against our national databases on citizens.” — Chip Roy [06:59]

• Senate Stalemate:

  • Debate centers on procedural tactics—Republicans want Democrats to actively filibuster (i.e., talk and defend their opposition) rather than allowing the so-called "zombie filibuster" (passive blockage requiring 60 votes).
  • Senator Thune and GOP leadership’s reluctance to “lock down” the Senate floor for a protracted battle is highlighted.
  • Roy argues this fight should be the priority once funding is resolved, as the core principle—ensuring only citizens vote—is overwhelmingly popular even among Democrat voters.

  “We are not asking for a single change to the rules. We’re asking the Senate...to use the rules to our advantage to make sure the American people know whose side we’re on.” — Chip Roy [12:28]

• Big Picture Stakes:

  • Roy frames the fight as critical for GOP morale and turnout in November, and for drawing stark lines between the parties.
  • Buck presses the question: What else will the Senate accomplish in an election year if not this?

  “What other big legislation is Thune gonna hold us up on? I don’t see it.” — Buck Sexton [11:40]

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3. Economic Optimism and Trump Policy Impact

[15:28–27:25]

• U.S. Economy Under Trump:

  • Buck lauds the performance of the Trump economy, noting that recent economic expansion and job creation has outpaced even his bullish expectations from a year prior.
  • Emphasizes wealth creation is not zero-sum—borrowing from Naval Ravikant—contrasting creation with redistribution, a philosophy Buck dubs “Marxism” when referring to Democrats’ outlook.

  “Wealth creation is something that humanity, and we, the American people, of course, benefit from within a society.” — Buck Sexton [18:04]

• Technology & Abundance:

  • Predicts a productivity revolution: AI, robotics (referencing Elon Musk’s upcoming “Optimus” robots), and access to superior goods/services for all.
  • Warns against “Marxist” climate and social-justice policies that stifle innovation and economic growth.

  “We stand on the precipice of a revolution in productivity that is going to make humanity even more wealthy.” — Buck Sexton [19:18]

• Sound Bite: Kevin Hassett

  • Argues real wages are up under Trump-era policies and jobs are being created for those “at the bottom.”

  “Almost without exception, when you go look at it, incomes are up way more than the cost of living. That’s the real wage gain that this silly Fed study neglects to mention.” — Kevin Hassett [26:42]

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4. Critique of Public Spending & Bureaucracy

[27:25–31:32]

• Buck contrasts New York City’s intended budget (especially a bloated education department) with states like Florida to illustrate alleged waste and bureaucratic failure in blue areas.

• Asserts that public spending is not translating to better outcomes—especially in education—harming prosperity.

  “You want to know how you prevent people from becoming more prosperous?... Shovel a whole lot of money into a black hole bureaucracy and just waste, waste it on, on nothingness.” — Buck Sexton [29:37]

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5. “Manufacturing Delusion,” Mind Control & The Power of Perception

[32:45–End]

• Book Excerpt:

  • Buck reads from his new book, focusing on the manipulation of perception by tech giants (e.g., Google Gemini’s AI “woke” image generation—black Founding Fathers, etc.)
  • Raises concerns about technology as a tool for mass “mind control,” misrepresentation of history, and managing public beliefs.

  “We are entering this world where perception management, perception control is going to become the most powerful currency of all.” — Buck Sexton [35:20]

  • Connects this to recent events: social media’s role in COVID discourse, Black Lives Matter, climate activism, and transgender debates— all framed as instances of mass delusion or manipulation.

  “The dream of authoritarians has always been total control of the mass mind, or the hive mind, if you will.” — Buck Sexton [36:38]

• Call to Action:

  • Urges listeners to read his book to better understand and resist these influences.
  • Presents the fight for factual reality as essential to the nation’s and humanity’s future.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Politicization of Agency Funding:

  “The bad news is that leaves TSA and the Coast Guard and FEMA dangling while Democrats play politics.”
  — Chip Roy [01:56]

• On Election Reforms:

  “Everybody supports voter ID. Everybody and citizens voting.”
  — Chip Roy [08:33]

• On Wealth Creation vs. Redistribution:

  “Wealth is not zero sum.”
  — Buck Sexton [18:04]

• On Technology’s Societal Impact:

  “This future of abundance. It is happening as long as the lunatic Marxist climate change cult...doesn’t hold us back.”
  — Buck Sexton [19:55]

• On Mass Delusion:

  “Perception management, perception control is going to become the most powerful currency of all.”
  — Buck Sexton [35:20]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00–06:14 | DHS shutdown, border funding drama, ICE mandates (with Congressman Chip Roy) | | 06:14–13:13 | The Save America Act, Senate strategy, and election integrity | | 15:28–27:25 | Economic policy, Trump era gains, and philosophy of wealth creation | | 27:25–31:32 | Critique of Democrat-led budgets, NYC vs. Florida example | | 32:45–End | Book excerpt: Manufacturing Delusion, technology, mind control, call to action|

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Tone & Style

Buck maintains an assertive, energetic, and slightly tongue-in-cheek style, balancing earnest policy discussion with humorous asides (such as why he’s not at Mar-a-Lago or references to TV/pop culture). Congressman Roy brings a policy-wonk energy, specifically on internal Congressional mechanics, and Kevin Hassett’s brief appearance underscores the economic theme.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode is essential listening for those tracking the intersection of political theater in Congress, ongoing fights about border security and election integrity, and the broader technological and cultural trends shaping American public life. Buck’s warnings about “mind control” and mass delusion frame both his book and the hour’s arc, weaving together policy, media criticism, and a call to civic alertness.

Transcript

[Buck Sexton]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Welcome in, everybody.

[Buck Sexton]

Third hour of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show kicks off right now. I need you to keep the pressure on my friends. I need you to keep buying your fantastic copies of Manufacturing Delusion, how the left uses Brainwashing, Indoctrination and Propaganda against you. It is a great book. I wrote it. I wrote every word of it. And it is rocketing up the Amazon charts because of all of you. That smug anti Trump lib Meachum, his book and my book are fighting it out right now for new book in the world of politics to be top dog. And I need your help manufacturing Delusion. Get a copy. If you already have a copy, buy a copy, give it to a friend. It's a great way to spread some freedom. And thank you. Thank you all for all the support up to this point. We're now joined by Congressman Chip Roy of Texas. Talk about some of the big stories of the day. Congressman, appreciate you being with us.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Great to be on. Hope you're well.

[Buck Sexton]

Thank you. Yeah, Clay sends his regards. I'm sure there's some smack about Texas football I'm supposed to throw in here, but just. We'll have to wait till next time on that one.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

In the meantime, I'd be diving into Texas baseball. To be clear, we're now college baseball season, Texas ranked number three. So you tell them I expect to come back on and talk about that.

[Buck Sexton]

Absolutely. And thank you for informing me about this because I actually didn't even know that baseball was what was going on. So nonetheless, let's talk about what's happening in the country right now. A partial shutdown, DHS funding. What the heck is going on in Congress? You're part of this August body.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Yeah, look, all these things are related, what you just said. Let me try to break it down right. Republicans passed funding bills, several that would have funded the government fully. Democrats obviously wanted to play politics with respect to ice. So what we ended up passing was a bill that funded all of government except for dhs. And we extended DHS funded for two weeks, but that that expired last week. Now, the good news is for conservatives or Americans generally who want their border and country to be secure, we put funding in the big beautiful bill in full prediction that Democrats would do this. That gives us the money we need for Border patrol and ice. That's the good news. The bad news is that leaves TSA and the Coast Guard and FEMA dangling while Democrats play politics. And all of this is related to the Save America Act. By the way, because they don't want to give any time on the Senate floor for us to be able to force the question on the Save America Act. So they're leaving this funding bill dangling while they try to play politics with ice. But we're doing our job. The President's using the money we put in the big beautiful bill to keep ICE and Border Patrol doing their thing. We'll see how long Democrats want to leave our ability to fly and TSA flapping in the wind as well as Coast Guard and fema.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, those tend to be important things. I think people think that when you're looking at what government should do, we want planes safe in the sky, we want our coast to be protected. You know, these are, these are real like essential services, you would call it at the local level. So Democrats playing politics with that is unsurprising, but definitely annoying. What are the, just so everyone's quite clear on this, what are the changes that Democrats in the House want or are demanding as this financial hostage taking is underway, if you will? What do they want to see differently about ICE and how it's enforcing the law?

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Well, I mean, look on the side, that's not as controversial. You know, we actually support potential additional use of body cameras. Like I think body cameras are pro law enforcement.

[Buck Sexton]

Absolutely.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Like that, that we're willing to change. But, but the truth is they want to put a whole bunch of obstacles in the way of ICE carrying out their job. So for example, they want some excessive warrant requirements. They want to put a bunch of hamstrings around ICE being able to go and find the individuals that are under orders of removal from an immigration judge, particularly the violent ones. But it doesn't really matter, right? There are 1.6 million people in the United States under a judge ordered order of removal. That's a big deal. And people don't know that ICE is going around trying to do their job. And Democrats want to put constraints on that. They also want to make them not wear masks. Our point is the reason for the mask is the doxing and the targeting of our men and women who are out there trying to do the job. And it's been real. They've gotten threats. And we don't want to be in the business of Congress constraining the executive branch, frankly, no matter who is president and telling them how our law enforcement personnel have to dress. That's an executive function.

[Buck Sexton]

Now, where do you see this partial shutdown going? Is there enough attention and focus on this that once again Democrats are going to have to bail out and accept reality or how long do you think this is going to go on? And where is the pressure here really?

[Congressman Chip Roy]

I think it ultimately will boil down to people and their flights. Right. This can last a little while. And again, we've got money set aside for border patrol and ice. But if, you know, the American people are unable to get on an airplane in a few weeks or flights start getting delayed or slowed down or look, fema, right. I mean, I know Tennessee, right, took a beating under the from the ice storms and the snow. And so you've got some issues there where we need to have FEMA freed up. So if those things start to be real for the American people, then you're going to see politicians, you know, scurrying to try to solve the problem. But right now we're doing our job. Democrats are obstructing. So we're going to play this out and keep, you know, we've got the legislation over in the Senate that they can use to fund government they're refusing to. We're going to make that message clear at the same time that we're making the message clear that the Senate should take up the Save America act and move it.

[Buck Sexton]

Absolutely. Let's talk about that. We're speaking to Congressman Chip Roy of the great state of Texas, where I will be in a couple of weeks, actually, which is always exciting. In fact, I will be at the Alamo at some point, which I've never been to before, and I will say I learned about from watching the Pee Wee Herman movie a very, very long time ago. So I'm glad to actually go to the real Alamo and spend some time there. Congressman, the Save America act, this is something that I think should be getting a lot more news coverage than it has recently for a whole range of reasons. Break down for us what is at the heart of this and what need. Why does this need to pass?

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Well, let's first talk substance. The Save America act is the combination of the SAVE act, which has existed for a couple of years. I was the author in the Mike Lee was the author in the Senate that focused on ensuring that only American citizens vote in American elections. It focused on citizenship. What you need to demonstrate when you register to vote that you are, in fact, a citizen. And importantly, checking state voter rolls against our national databases on citizens so that we can know that only citizens are voting. That was what that bill was for. We also had separate bills on voter identification. We merged voter identification, a requirement that when you go vote in a federal election, that you present a photo ID, by the way. 36 states already do that, but we wanted to make sure all 50 do, so we put it in one big bill President Trump wanted to call the Save America act, and we agreed with him. So I introduced the bill in the House and Mike Lee in the Senate. We ran that through and passed the Save America act on a bipartisan basis. Now, I will admit only one Democrat, Henry Cuellar, joined us, but we passed it out of the House and now it's over to the Senate. All right, that was the substance, and procedurally we passed it, and it's in the Senate. The question before us now is a procedural one. Will the Senate take it up? And there's a lot of misinformation floating around out there about the filibuster, nuking the filibuster. I'm kind of a nerd of the Senate. I worked there. I was Ted Cruz's chief of staff. So I know how it works. The bottom line is this. There's been something that I call a fake filibuster or that Mike Lee calls a zombie filibuster, where there's this just assumption that if you do not have 60 votes in the Senate to shut off debate on a bill, that you can't proceed. That's simply not true. You do not have to change the rules of the Senate to do what you might envision. If you remember the movie Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Right. Or, you know, you remember when Ted Cruz took the floor of the Senate, like, you actually have to go to the floor and talk and hold the floor. And that's the whole point. We're saying, look, put the bill on the floor. We have 50 Republicans who have already said they support the bill. Put it on the floor, force the question, and if Democrats want to delay it, make them go to the floor and explain why they oppose an 85% issue that 71% of Democrats nationwide support, 95% of Republicans, 75% of black Americans, Hispanic Americans, everybody supports voter ID. Everybody and citizens voting. So we want Democrats to explain why they're obstructing. Don't just have a vote at 60, have it fail and then say sorry and shrug it off. That's the debate going on right now. And that's all related to the spending bill as well.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, Senator, Senate Majority Leader Thune, what's his, you know what? Producer Ali, invite him on. He probably will duck us because I think he knows what we want to talk about and doesn't want to explain this to his constituents. As well as the rest of America. But why does he oppose this as far as, you know, Chip? And we'll invite him on to speak for himself, but it seems pretty straightforward to me. Yeah, make them actually filibuster. Let the American people see that on an 85. 15 issue, the Democrats are willing to grind the gears of government to a halt to get their way.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

So I suspect, and I don't want to speak for him, but I suspect that the majority leader, if I'm guessing, would say he doesn't want to lock the Senate floor down on legislative business for the multiple weeks, which is probably what would happen. Right. Because Democrats would go down, they would speak, they would hold the floor, they would try to offer amendments, they would try to delay. And Republicans would have to bring 50 down to the floor, they would have to table the amendments, they'd have to let the Democrats keep speaking, and you basically have to keep exhausting the time because if you put up another bill, you reset the clock. So basically it locks the Senate down on legislative business. Now they can flip over and they can do nominees, they can do judges, they can do executive branch nominations, but on legislative business, they can't bring anything else up. So I suspect right now Thune is going to say, look, we got to get government funded and we don't have DHS funded, so I can't put the bill on the floor till that's done. And that's a reasonable question. In point. Once the funding bill is done, then the debate is what else is your priority? We think this ought to be the priority. Put it on the floor. And if that takes two months, so be it. It's a win win. If Democrats obstructed, then they got the American people in elections, Congressman.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, once the government is funded. And so that's a very important point. And that's why a guy like you, who actually knows the ins and outs of this, is so it's. It's so necessary for everyone to understand the mechanics here. And I appreciate you walking us through that, but. Yeah, what else? Once the government's funded, we're in an election year, what else is the Senate really going to be doing? We'll be honest about this for a second.

[Kevin Hassett]

Right.

[Buck Sexton]

What other huge. As long as they can get judges and nominees through, what other big legislation is Thune gonna hold us up on? I don't see it.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Well, that is my view, and I believe that's what the American people's view. Certainly Republicans would be. I think there'll be some people in D.C. they'll be hung up on. Well, we've got this important sanctions bill. We've got this important issue that. And none of this is remotely close to the simple issue of whether only American citizens are voting on our elections. And you present a voter ID to stop the fraud that we know Democrats are trying to carry out to affect the elections and change the country. So we either reclaim our country right now and demonstrate to Republicans that we're going to fight so they show up this November to guarantee we have a majority and that President Trump is not facing impeachment and stuff, or we just walk away from the fight and depress our own voters. I think we should call it up. I think we should debate it and make the Democrats take the floor again. I want to repeat, this is important. We're not asking to change the rules. There's a lot of stupid stuff being thrown around out there by people that I think are smarter than that, that just don't understand it. We are not asking for a single change to the rules. We're asking the Senate, the majority leader, to use the rules to our advantage to make sure the American people know whose side we're on. Their team.

[Buck Sexton]

We're not on, it seems like, it seems like, makes a lot of sense to me. We're going to invite Leader Thune on, see if he'll talk to us about this one. Congressman Chip Roy, appreciate you, sir. Thanks for being here.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Hey, thanks.

[Buck Sexton]

Owning gold, my friends, is something that you should consider as a long term play. I want to be very clear about that and here's why. Look at the long term play that gold has had over the last 20 years. Up over 700% in 20 years. Now you might say, oh, a buck, that's a long time. Yeah. But if you're saving for the long time, for the long term, if your 401k, your IRA is something that you're thinking long term, Maybe even just 10, 15, 20 years out from now. But guess what? Gold is good, my friends. Gold makes sense. Gold is solid. It is a store of value. The thesis on gold remains strong. And Birch Gold Group wants to help you get gold in your IRA or 401k account. Think about what that can do to solidify your financial future. The price of gold increases when investors, countries and central banks purchase gold for stability. And when there's all this money printing going on, dollar goes up. I'm sorry, dollar goes down. Gold goes up. And guess what? That's one of the main reasons why gold's going to continue in My opinion to go up in the future. Text my name Buck to 98. 98. 98. Birch Gold Group will help you convert an existing IRA or 401K into an IRA in gold. Text Buck to 9898. 98. No obligation, just useful information. Text Buck to 9898.98.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Today you know them as conservative radio hosts.

[Buck Sexton]

Now just get to know them as.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Guys on the Sunday Hang podcast with Clay and Buck. Find it in their podcast feed on.

[Buck Sexton]

The iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back in here to Clay and Buck team. And Clay's out today. He is at Mar a Lago at a fancy event doing fancy things. I am here on the front lines of freedom, defending this republic of ours. And so this is my pitch to you to make sure you get your copy of Manufacturing Delusion. It's gotta be shameless plugs today, my friends. We gotta take this thing. We have to sell so many that the New York Times bestseller list can't ignore it. They like to ignore conservative books. But I'm telling you, this is, this is probably my one and done. This is the one time I'm going to ask you. I've been doing this for 15 years. I've never asked you. People say, what about your book in 20? That was an ebook, which was an essay that I wrote in two weekends. That's not this. This was an 18 month long writing research process. And then the, and then the editing and the CIA review and all these things. So this is it, my friends. This is a book. And I'm telling you, if you read the book, you'll find it really interesting. There's worthwhile stuff in Manufacturing Delusion. It's out now. If you order on Amazon, it can be at your house probably tomorrow, maybe the next day. Audio. A lot of you are enjoying the audiobook. I really appreciate that because that took a lot of time and I just spent a whole weekend right before Christmas, a whole weekend recording that thing. And it was, it was a labor of love. But if you enjoy audiobooks, please get the audiobook. You can even get the audiobook and get a hard copy for your bookshelf. Is a little cool, you know, the more the merrier. But I, as you know, tend not to be somebody who's big into self promotion. One of the great things, Clay is a, is a brilliant, really a genius marketer. Clay is an incredible marketer. It's one of the, one of the great pieces that he brings to this show when he'll point out that we're number one in, you know, 20 radio markets across the country right now or, you know, all these different things. He'll point out that, you know, we're, we're making this or that leap, leap or bound somewhere in the media marketplace. And I'm always just like, we're trying really hard to do the best show we can. That's usually the, that's usually our dynamic when it comes to the book. I need you to buy this book. Honestly, I don't even care if you. I don't even care if you're a reader. You'll read this one. Buy this book, Manufacturing Delusion by Buck Sexton. Go get yourself a copy of it by the audiobook if you like. And guys, and it's this week, too. This is the week to do it. Don't wait, because I want to make a big splash on the list this week. I also want to show other conservative authors. I'm going to tell you this. A lot of people are saying that conservatives aren't buying books anymore, and we can't have that. Our team is the team that has great current books coming out from authors that, you know, you know, are going to have something to add into the conversation. So that's where this is to write the book. You know what was really helpful? Chalk Choq. This week has been crazy. And thankfully, I've got chalk covering my back. And I've also got all kinds of fantastic supplements from chalk, including the Chalk Daily, which I take. I've also got glutathione, which I take. They've got amazing products at Chalk. Chalk's Mill, Vitality Stack, though, that's their best seller. If you need energy, you need a boost. You need to get through publication week of your own kind, whatever that may be. Chalk's mail Vitality Sack is there for you. Go to chalk.com, choq.com, use my name, Buck, as your promo code. Chalk will pack a free $99 bag of chalk lit powder with your first delivery. That's chalk choq.com use my name, Buck, as your promo code. Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck, my friends. And Clay will be back tomorrow. He is perhaps wearing an ascot while he plays croquet at Mar A Lago. And some of you will say, buck, why aren't you there? Because whoever's throwing the fancy, it wasn't, it's not Trump, whoever's throwing this fancy Mar A Lago party, I was not invited. I was I am not fancy. I do not have a pinky ring. I am not invited on Thurston Howl the Third's yacht, which perhaps would be a good thing because then I might get lost on a three hour tour. We can't have that. A three hour tour. When I was a kid, I watched the reruns of that show so many times. And let me just say, yes, my dog's name is Ginger. I was a Marianne guy. I was a Marianne Guy. I just, you know, guy. I was probably like 13 watching the show, but I was all Team Marianne. There were a lot of ginger people out there. Nonetheless, here we are talking about the economy, talking about jobs. Let's, let's dive into it. National Economic Council Director, Kevin Hassett. Look, I like to tell you guys, I feel like you're not going to get this from the general media ecosystem right now, because first of all, I feel like there's a lot of, just a lot of talk about things that don't really matter beyond the 24 hour news cycle. That they exist in the Trump economy is. I thought it was going to be strong. It is exceeding my expectations and I was very bullish on it. And you can go back, listen to the show a year ago, Listen to the show a year ago when the market was going down and Clay and I were saying, it's fine, it's just people getting skittish over the tariffs thing. I think we can trust Trump on tariffs. I think he knows what he's doing. Sure enough, here we are. So, yes, I am absolutely feeling like this is getting us to where we need to be, getting this economy up, up and running. And like I've always point out to you, the work is never done. Of course not. We can always be more efficient, always create. Wealth creation is not zero sum. You have to remember that. It's very important. Status is zero sum. Marxists think of the world as you lose, I gain, I gain, you lose. Wealth creation is something that humanity, and we, the American people, of course, benefit from within a society. And this is where I borrow from Naval Ravikant, who is a Silicon Valley guy who's gone to the right. I don't know if he's officially pro Trump. I think he is, but he's gone to the right and he is a very astute thinker and he points out this paradigm that wealth creation can be shared by all, make everyone's lives better. It's status that people get very hung up on. Well, this person has more than me. And so if I take from this person and give to me, that's Marxism, that's communism, that's what the statists, the authoritarians like to do. If anyone has any doubts about this, think about your life as you sit there hopefully listening to me on either, you know, in your car that is more comfortable than any car anyone could have bought by you know, orders of magnitude 30 or 40 years ago. Right. Your car right now has more whiz bangs and things. And your car is more comfortable if you're listening on the radio or, or maybe you're listening on streaming, listening on your smartphone, which is basically a supercomputer. It's in fact more advanced than the supercomputers that we would have had what, back in the 80s. My point here is this is wealth, this is, and you might say, well that's not. Well, okay, yeah, but you're also taking hot showers and you're perfectly air conditioned or perfectly climate controlled and heated home, which is larger and far more comfortable with far higher quality food. You notice something, this is true across all places within the economy. You know, upper lower middle income, whatever you want to call it. Wealth is not zero sum. And we stand on the precipice of, sorry for the cliche, but it's accurate. I think in this case we stand on the precipice of a revolution in productivity that is going to make humanity even more wealthy. And I mean in things that matter, right? There's, there's numbers on a screen which is wealth and then there's you having access to great, you know, great medical care, not health, not health insurance, great medical care, having access to delicious and, and healthy food, have, you know, in abundance without straining your budget, you know, having access to all the wealth, the accrued knowledge of the world on your laptop. I mean these are all things that is, that are, that are happening in very real ways. To be able to get into a car that is, you push a button and it drives you and now you can do whatever else you want to do in the car. These are all things that are going to be happening. Nevermind the robots, Optimus robots. Elon has said that. Optimus robots within three years. And as you know, I, I have invested more in any, you know, for me and I'm not giving anyone investment advice. Consult your investment advisor. But I have believed more in Elon for more years here in the companies that he has built than anyone else that I could have ever invested in or put my money in dollars behind. Right? You know, you put your money where your mouth is. I'm always talking about how brilliant I think Elon is because I believe in his companies and I believe in what he's doing, apart from his politics, apart from everything else. But he has said that within three years, optimus robots are going to be better at surgery. Probably within three years, he says definitely within five. Better at surgery than any surgeon alive today. Now you might say, oh, well, Buck, I mean, how is that even possible? Okay, how long has it been since we have had the technology? This seems very, very simple and maybe a strange comparison, but how long has it been since we've had the technology to defeat in chess, the greatest grand masters of chess of all time with a computer program? Right? We are getting to a place where for things that can be taught that do not require creativity, for things that are based on data and require precise repetition, like surgery, at least in some surgical procedures. Now, it may be that there's an optimus robot alongside a surgeon, that the surgeon is directing and the optimus robot is doing some of the very precise lasering and cutting and things like that that are, that are already pretty incredible with the technology. Why am I going on this rant right now? Because this is all available to all of us. This, this future of abundance. It is happening as long as the lunatic Marxist climate change cult, we're all going to die. Limit your CO2 footprint. Lock down AI innovation, make companies social welfare, social justice organizations, not product and service first. This is the fight right now because it's going to matter so much to your children and your children's children. You know, my son and hopefully other kids. You know, we're working on that. It's going to matter so much to their future. And this is why the Trump economic policies that we're seeing right now, the more they work, the better place we'll be in to perpetuate them after Trump is no longer president by having either Republican with a template. Or you can say, look at these results and look at these lunatic Democrats and maybe Democrats start to do a little bit of a Bill Clinton triangulation thing, or they want to take some credit for Republican policies that have worked. That. That may happen as well. But here is. Sorry, I know I've taken you in a. I've been weaving, I've been weaving, but I've taken you in a bit of a circle. But here is Kevin Hassett, the National Economic Council on the Status of the Economy right now. And I want you to hear this because it's important. Play 15.

[Kevin Hassett]

We're looking at how much more money people have to spend because they're buying the normal bundle of goods that they need to survive. And how much money people have gained in the last year because incomes have gone up because of all of our great policies, which are causing a business boom. And almost without exception, when you go look at it, incomes are up way more than the cost of living. And that's the real wage gain that this silly Fed study neglects to mention. And so the bottom line is that Trump policies are meant to onshore production and create jobs. And those jobs that we're creating are not for, you know, Jeff Bezos, for there, for the people who didn't have a job before. And so they're by definition, the people at the bottom. And our policies are working. They're very clearly working in the data.

[Buck Sexton]

You know, it's, it's interesting. I think it's worth noting that the opponents of these Trump policies, they have to speak in the broadest generality, generalities about them, because what they want to do just does not make sense. And we've seen this now. People are becoming more astute when you talk to them about government. Government intervention in markets, government employment, the enormous largesse of these bureaucracies that don't really do very much, if they do anything. It's true at the federal level, it's true at the state level. And of course, this ties in with what we see with Mamdani in New York. What is his plan? They're spending as, as, as I've discussed today, they, they are spending in New York City more than the entire budget of the state of Florida. New York has 8.5 million people. Florida has 21, close to 22 million people. New York City is going to spend that money, and they're going to take more from people that are doing things that create wealth, that create goods and services and things that people want and benefit from. And they're going to shovel it into a 40% of it is going to go into the Department of Education in New York City. Now, think about this. New York. I have family in New York City. As you know, I'm born and raised there. I know the city very well. I worked in city government. I worked for the nypd. So I am very familiar with the way New York City functions and what it's like there. They're going to spend more money in this Mamdani budget, or they want to spend more money in this momdani budget than the entire state of Florida will spend altogether. 40% of it's going to go to education and you talk to a lot of New Yorkers, they know they can't send their kid to public school because their local public school is failing and it's bad. So you're going to have this enormous, enormously expensive school bureaucracy that is 40% of a 120something billion dollars budget and it sucks. You want to know how you prevent people from becoming more prosperous? Having more. Again, when I say wealth, wealth, I don't mean wealth in terms of just like the numbers on the screen. Of course that's a, that's a metric for this stuff. But you want people to have better health, better schools, better homes, better food, better all this stuff. Shovel a whole lot of money into a black hole bureaucracy and just waste, waste it on, on nothingness. This is a way and take it away from the productive economy. This is what Democrats do, this is what they want to continue doing. And it's just, you know, this is the central fight over economics right now. I want, and the Republicans and Trump want to focus on wealth creation for the American people. America is the greatest wealth creation machine in the history of any country ever. And Democrats want to focus on taking more of the pie from you to give it to people that aren't making pie. That's just what it really comes down to. That is their maniacal focus. All right, your monthly cell phone bill. Speaking of saving your money, your monthly cell phone bill should be in the range of 25 to $40 a month. It certainly shouldn't be $100 a month. But if your current cell phone company is at and T T Mobile or Verizon, you're spending more money than needed. Pure Talk service is on the same cell phone towers and network. You get the same exact 5G nationwide service for $25 a month. Pure Talk gives you unlimited talk, text and plenty of data. Now compare that to your cell phone bill. PureTalk is an American wireless company with an all US only customer service team. When you call, you're talking to someone right here in the US well trained member of the team who can help you switch over in as little as 10 minutes. There's no contract, no concept, no cancellation fee either. Just dial £250, say the keywords Clay and Buck. You'll get 50% off your first month. Dial £250, say Clay and Buck to make the switch to Pure Talk. All right, team, before we close up today, I want to give you a little bit of a taste of what awaits you for in your copy of Manufacturing Delusion, my book out now, which I Want you to all go get a copy of all across this country. Guys, we got to hit number one of that New York Times bestsellers. We can do it. It's up to you though. I just need all of you listening to buy one copy of this. If all of you listening right now, buy one copy of this book, we're number one New York Times bestseller. In fact, many, many times over. In fact, if one in. Well, I don't want to give you the numbers, but it's much smaller than if all of you. But if all of you buy the book, please buy the book. Ok, all of you buy the book. It would be a huge, huge success and I will owe you. But this is from the concluding chapter, the Future of Mass Delusion. Of course, the book's about politics, about mass delusion, about mind control. It was the first time I'd ever seen a black George Washington. I typed founding fathers into the search engine and an image of George Washington came back. White powdered wig, colonial attire, except he was no longer Caucasian. The first president of the United States was suddenly Black. It was February 2024 and I was experimenting with Google's new Gemini artificial intelligence image generator. It's hard to believe that the stories about the new woke AI were true because it was so brazen. But sure enough, they were. Something or someone over at Google had made it possible that when anyone wants to see an image of the founding fathers, they were shown as black men. And that wasn't all. I tried to search for various historical figures, some of the most famous popes until Pope Francis, essentially all of whom were European, pretty much all famous historical figures coming up on the search results. As black, it caused quite an uproar. Gemini was off to a rough start. How could this have happened to one of the most technologically advanced companies in the world? End quote. My friends, we are entering this world where perception management, perception control is going to become the most powerful currency of all. And the tools of technology that are available to those who want to get into your mind and make you think certain things, in fact make you think things are true that are most clearly not true. Those tools are so much more powerful than they had ever been, have ever been before. And this is why I think the book is so important in this moment. This is why I think it's so necessary for people to understand this. There, there has been the dream of authoritarians has always been total control of the mass mind, or the hive mind, if you will. And we have seen how quickly we can fall into that ourselves. Here, we saw that with COVID but we've even seen it with the madness of Black Lives Matter and the belief that thousands and thousands of black men are murdered by cops in cold blood every year and no one says anything about it. We've seen this with the madness of climate change, with the madness of transgender kids and even transgender adults, which has now become a story that I think everybody has to focus in on because of the safety risks that come from this kind of indulging people in their delusions. It is making it impossible for those of us who want to live in a safe and free society to ignore what happens when you break down the most essential truths and you break down the barriers between reality and falsehood. And this is happening in a way that we all need to be very. You need to be very cognizant of this. I mean, the 2020 election, by the way, you think about how they tried to shut down. This is what I was talking about. Google, Gemini, AI. They tried to shut down discussion about the 2020 election. And people who believed that something was up, they tried to shut that down. And they were very effective at doing it for a time. And if they can do that, why can't they create the perception online that, you know, that the vote totals are different and that everyone knows that this is fine, and, you know, we are in a fight for not just the soul of our nation, but really the soul of humanity. And that is what my book fundamentally is about. Get your copy of Manufacturing Delusion Shields High. Talk to you tomorrow. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.