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Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
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Buck Sexton
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Buck Sexton
of Clay and Buck kicks off Right now we've got J.D. vance still talking. He's holding a presser and we'll bring you the highlights of that. That's live, that's happening right now as we talk to you. We're not going to join it in progress. We're going to have the team monitor as we are working through the rest of the news with you and bring you the highlights of it. Any news that breaks essentially on air, we will then break to you here in real time as we go. We also had Trump speaking this morning, which I wanted to get to on a whole range of topics and eventually I'll find my way to the left wing lunatic asylum that is the people outside of the Luigi Mangione trial, which is complete there, just completely what you would think and every bit as demonic and insane as you might expect. But Clay, a few things because we heard from JD Vance moments ago on Iran. Trump this morning spoke on this too. So JD I feel like at this point in the negotiations there's a little bit of a good cop, bad cop thing with Trump. And J.D. trump is kind of like, you know, you can get it the rough way, which is the Trump way. JD Is like, hey guys, why don't we figure out something here? Let's really get a deal done. And they know that J.D. from the beginning, based on all the reporting and what we know JD has said before, he is the least interventionist when it comes to military action in the Middle East. I think of anyone at that level in the administration and so he's a good messenger for the let's figure this out, let's make a deal side of the equation. Trump on the other side, this is cut 5 is saying I might have to go in there and kick some more ass and get them to understand that they have no choice in the matter. Play five.
Donald Trump
We have to make sure that Iran doesn't get a Nuclear weapon. All of the things that you see me fighting for so hard. And it's always tough. You know, we're negotiating with Iran. And then you have the Democrats, I call them the Democrats, putting in a bill that Trump should immediately stop. You know how it is to negotiate with a country where you're beating them badly. They come to the table, they're begging to make a deal. Because they're begging to make a deal. I hope we don't have to do the work, but we may have to give another big hit. We may have to give them another big hit. I'm not sure yet. You'll know very soon. But how do you feel when you're negotiating? You're winning every point. And they say, but in Washington, they want to stop you from negotiating. They want to stop you. And it's only political. It's the Democrats. They're dumb.
Buck Sexton
Okay, so a couple of things there, Clay. First of all, the noises you're hearing, we'll get to that. That is the construction of the East Wing modernization project that is underway. And the President also spoke, since you're hearing the hammering and the nails going in and all this stuff, the carpentry in the background. This is cut. Yes, continue.
Clay Travis
I just think it's funny. This is like Trump trolling his critics that he actually had a press conference so they could hear the ballroom being built behind him.
Buck Sexton
I think that is absolutely correct. I think this is Trump saying, yeah, this is still happening. This is cut three. He talks specifically about the project.
Donald Trump
Listen, hundreds of billions of dollars already on the ballroom, and it's coming out. I think, incredibly, we have some renderings of the finished product. It's all knit together. At the top of the ballroom is what they call it drone gallery. We have tremendous amounts of military able to be on the top.
Buck Sexton
It'll be the highest point.
Donald Trump
It will be something very special. So if you look up at top, you'll see some interesting things. And I'll show that to you in a second. You want to grab that, please? The facade of the building. There will never be another building like this built.
Clay Travis
That I could.
Donald Trump
I built a lot of great things. There will never be anything like this built.
Buck Sexton
Clay, he's proceeding here. And I truly believe that when the history of this is written, the Trump modernization of the White House will be considered. First of all, it's so on brand for him as a builder of 50 something years now, or 60 something years now. It's on brand for him to be doing this, but also needed a refresh makes A lot of sense. And you were at the White House Correspondents Dinner, being able to hold events that the White House can control the security situation very effectively.
Clay Travis
It's important 100%. And I also think this is the criticism you could give Trump, if you want to criticize him, and some people do, is he's looking so far into the future that he may not be focused on the present day as much as many would hope. And let me kind of just draw these connections from the different things that he's doing. The White House ballroom, best case scenario, Buck, the White House ballroom is finished just before he leaves the White House. A brand new Air Force One. Best case scenario, the Air Force One planes are done basically at the time that he is leaving the White House. This situation in Iran, best case scenario, it is making the next generation of life far better in the Middle east than today. Cuba, same exact thing. Venezuela, same exact thing. The criticism of Trump is, if you want to criticism, criticize him right now, that he has focused years into the future on projects that primarily will benefit the nation after he's gone. And I would just say to many of you out there, isn't that what you should want the President to do? I get that we all live in a world where every time you look at your phone, there's a new news story and we need the president to react. And certainly the president is active in reacting to a lot of things in the present moment. But the criticism I think that you could levy against Trump is he's trying to make generational decisions in a relatively short period of time, trying to solve issues in the Middle east, in Latin America, in the Caribbean, in, in the ballroom, all of these things, the primary beneficiary of most of what President Trump is doing right now, heck, even the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the new arch that he's trying to build, these are things that actually will benefit presidents long into the future. And if you want to criticize him, you could say, hey, right now, what I care about is not whether the ballroom is secure for presidents in 2040, it's how much does gas cost right now, right? We have this world. And the older I get, the more I think about it, where when you're a kid, four years feels like a long time. Eight years feels like a really long time. When Ronald Reagan was in office, if you were a kid eight years, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, even now, the Trump era, it feels like a long time. It's a pin prick. And Trump seems to me, and I think this is connected, Buck, if You want me to psychoanalyze him? I think this is connected to Butler, and I know people just want to forget that the guy came within a quarter inch of getting his head blown off on national television. I think that moment changed Trump where he said, screw it. I'm going to do exactly what I think is the best, and I'm not going to listen to other people and I'm not going to worry about what they think because I'm fortunate to be here. And when I get into office, I'm fixing everything. I'm building things that are going to endure. And I'm not going to worry about any of my critics because I'm lucky to be alive today. And I don't know how many people out there are listening to us right now. I don't know how many of you. I haven't. I don't know if you ever have, Buck, have had a truly near death experience where you thought, hey, I got. Maybe you got injured in a car accident and you survived. Maybe you got a cancer diagnosis and you didn't expect to survive it. And you're listening to us right now. That perspective of staring down death and not passing a lot for a lot of people, I think it's freeing because it makes you recognize that every day that you have gotten since then is in many ways a gift and you don't want to waste it. And I really do believe, and people can call me crazy on this. I think in the wake of Butler, Pennsylvania, President Trump, to the extent that he has thought about this on a perspective, I think he feels like he has a new lease on life and a new gift. And I think he decided, I'm going to solve everything that exists in America and I'm going to do it overnight. And that's extremely, extremely aggressive. But I think he feels like he has to fix everything. And let me give you an analogy. On the flip side. Historically, Buck, you know, I'm a history buff. You know, one reason, if you guys out there are history buffs, do you know why Robert E. Lee was so aggressive? You read the Killer Angels and they hint at this in Gettysburg. One reason, he knew he was having chest pains and he thought he might well have a heart attack and die. And he believed, I really do believe this. He believed that he was the only one who could win that war. And he decided to, I think, engage more aggressively to try to end that war because he was concerned that otherwise he might not survive it. He died in 1870, a few years after the war. But I think Trump feels like he uniquely is able to solve the problems that America has, and I think he's moving aggressively as a result. I think Lee did it at Gettysburg. I think there have been a lot of guys as they age and as they have health conditions, as they stare down death, that have felt like they have to do everything right now because nobody else can. I think that's where Trump is.
Buck Sexton
And then on the issue of the popularity of some of these things, specifically on Iran, because I think anyone who supports Trump, supports the ballroom, and even some Democrats have realized it makes perfect sense, Democrats will get to use it. We're not going to sit here and be like, they can't use the Trump ballroom in the next Democrat administration. Of course not. It's. This is for the occupant of the White House to use as they see fit. But here is Trump on Iran and its popularity. This is cut six. Listen to him.
Donald Trump
Everyone tells me it's unpopular, but I think it's very popular. When you, when they hear that it's having to do with nuclear weapons, weapons that could take out Los Angeles, could take out major cities very quick. When they hear that, you know, when they're explaining, I'll tell you what, when we explain it to people, I don't really have enough time to explain to people. I'm too busy getting it done. When they understand, I think it's a. I think it's frankly very popular. But whether it's popular or not popular, I have to do it because I'm not going to let the world be blown up on my watch. It's not going to happen.
Buck Sexton
That's his. I mean, that's really what this all comes down to. Clay, he thinks it's popular, but he also doesn't care if it's popular because he says that this was about the safety of the United States in a way that could not be ignored. I think that what is popular certainly among Republicans still is. And I get this sense people are willing to let Trump play this out. Like, let the man cook is, as the kids say. That's what I think the attitude is more so than, I love that we're in this ongoing back and forth with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz and its nuclear program. I think it's, let's see if Trump can get us to the other side of this. And people don't really want to hear much in the way of criticism of that until we know what the outcome is, right? Until we know did he get the deal or not. If he doesn't get the deal, then I think we all have to look at that honestly and assess it. But, or some kind of deal but people are willing to let him have the leeway to do that is the sense that I'm getting. And so I don't view this as, as there being a huge drop in support from this. We'll see. We'll see. We'll look at those polls. I think we'll actually have Ryan Graduski on later in the week. He's been crunching some of those numbers about how this looks to the GOP going into the midterms.
Clay Travis
Yes. And again, I mean, I think on your point on Iran, it all ties in. The easiest thing for President Trump to have done was just kick the can down the road. He could have just said we bombed in June. Everything is taken care of. The next president will have to decide what to do here. And some of you would say he should have done that. I think the goal is not to solve things for just his term. I think he's concerned if Kamala Harris ends up in office, that he has to fix things that they're inevitably going to break, including the border and everything else. We'll come back. We'll take some of your calls. J.D. vance still speaking. And Buck, I can't help but think this feels like JD Vance and Marco Rubio both auditioning for the role of President of the United States. By having expansive, long running press conferences in the White House where they take a variety of questions from press on every subject. It feels like an echo of what Marco just did a couple of weeks ago.
Buck Sexton
I my personal belief on this, I don't think that J.D. vance and Marco Rubio are going to run against each other. I think that they, by all reports, they have a very close relationship and their families are very close. I think they're going to have a man to man talk about, you know, how do we want to do this and they'll come to a decision. Meaning, you know, it's going to be either, I see there being a couple of ways here, Marco at Marco at the top of the ticket with the understanding maybe that JD Is Secretary of State or he gets to sort of pick his next role if he doesn't want to stay as vice president for another four or perhaps eight years, or if it's JD at the top of the ticket, obviously Marco goes in as vp. I don't see them fighting it out publicly, but I could. Again, I thought Kamala was going to see the handwriting on the wall and apparently what she's seen is she's brilliant and great and should run again.
Clay Travis
So here I will say this as we go to break. I just don't think J.D. vance wants to be. I mean, sorry, I don't think that Marco Rubio wants to be vice president. I think he has more sway now as Secretary of State.
Buck Sexton
Does anyone want to be vice president? Really? You know, that's what I'm saying.
Clay Travis
I likes the role that he has now. And I don't think J.D. wants to be VP again. So we'll see. We'll see how it shakes out.
Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
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Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
You'll be on the same tower, same 5G network and have the same coverage as one of the big guys, but for a few fraction of the price. And don't forget they have a 100% US customer service team. They're committed to delivering the best experience possible for their customers. Keep your phone, keep your number and switch in as little as 10 minutes. Go to PureTalk.com Clay to claim unlimited high speed data for just 34.99. Again, that's PureTalk.com Clay to switch to America's wireless company, Pure Talk. Welcome back in. Doug Brunt's gonna join us at the bottom of this hour. Brand new book from him. He is married to Megyn Kelly. We have had him on the show a couple times before. Should be a good conversation. Let me just mention this, by the way, J.D. vance still going on this press briefing that is occurring at the White House and we're continuing to monitor in the event that major news comes out of it, as if we need to say it, but we will say it. Don't shoot anybody. Uh, don't kill anybody. There was a shooting at a mosque in the San Diego area, Buck, and it's like it didn't occur. I've been watching televised news all day today. Not one mention of it that has occurred since we started this show today. MSNBC not talking about it. CNN not talking about it. The two alleged shooters, teenagers killed themselves in addition to I believe killing three people in the area of the mosque. I just am always alarm bells go off for me that something is not adding up when stories like these just vanish. Does that make sense to you? I don't know what the full story is. Obviously whether somebody's at a mosque, a synagogue or a church. Don't shoot anybody, don't kill anybody. But this story just vanishing as quickly as it did. Buck, if this were a guy who was a Trump supporter and running around in a MAGA hat killing people outside of a, outside of Islamic temple, it would be, I think a story that would not vanish. It's nowhere. Just putting a pin in this. Let's see what's going to end up happening.
Buck Sexton
Well, whenever you, you always have this huge clue whenever there's a horrific event, a shooting that gets a lot of media attention on CNN and from the New York Times, etc. And then it just disappears. Even though there was a, there are fatalities, right.
Clay Travis
When it's I believe, three innocent people dead in addition to, it's one thing
Buck Sexton
when no one's killed, which of course is what you want for all these situations. You never want an innocent person to be harmed. Then it dropping out of the news, you say, okay, well you know, it was a near miss. Thank heavens. Three people were killed here. And there's the coverage of it has dramatically changed.
Clay Travis
Now.
Buck Sexton
We won't get ahead of the facts, but it's just an indicator of there's something going on here with either not knowing or not wanting to know anything about these perpetrators. And that is what we will keep an eye on.
Clay Travis
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Buck Sexton
Welcome back in to Clay and Buck. We are joined by our friend, New York Times bestselling author Douglas Brunt. He has a book out today, the Lost Empire of Emmanuel Noble Romanov's Revolutionaries and the Forgotten Titan who Fueled the World. Doug, great to see you, my man. How are you? Great.
Douglas Brunt
Great to be with you guys.
Buck Sexton
So this is just a, you know, you got two guys here who have to stop constantly describing themselves as history nerds because people get it, you know, like. But we do love. We do love history. I'm sitting in a radio studio that's basically just all the bookshelves or history books, including the Curious Case of Rudolph Diesel, by the way, your New York Times bestseller, which I read and have on my shelf from before. But I've got to read this one. This one's brand new. I do know a bit about the story. Tell everybody this, this guy. People think Nobel. They think Nobel Prize. They think inventor of dynamite. They don't think of, like the Russian Rockefeller. Take us through the story here. Take us through the history.
Douglas Brunt
You know, it's. It's amazing, guys. The more Things change the more they stay the same because the, the quest to capture our sources of energy. It's the story of our times. You open up the newspaper today, it's on every page. This is the original war, the original oil war. As you mentioned, Alfred Nobel was an investor in this company, but it was run by his nephew, Emmanuel Nobel. He was the largest oil titan in the world. By the time World War I broke out, Emmanuel Nobel had the largest oil concern in the world, larger than Rockefeller's Standard Oil. He had bought land in southern Russia along the Caspian Sea in Baku, modern day Azerbaijan. And by the start of the war, he controlled more than half of Russia's oil. And what Stalin did as World War I is ongoing. Russia has the Bolshevik Revolution. They pull out of the war. What Stalin, Lenin and the communists did to Emmanuel Nobel was the inspiration for George Orwell's 1984. You know, there's the scene in that book where they say they rename the streets, they tore down the statues, they rewrote the history well, Stalin took it all over. And Nobel Brothers Petroleum Company became the Soviet Petroleum Company. His munitions and engine factory in the north by St. Petersburg became Russky Diesel. And the history of Emmanuel Nobel, the largest industrialist in the world at the time, was completely paved over and repainted by Stalin.
Clay Travis
Yeah, so this is super fascinating to me. Thanks for coming on with us. Douglas Brunt. The book, as Buck just said, is the Lost empire of Emmanuel Nobel, Romanov's revolutionaries, Forgotten titan who fueled the world. When you do research on this, I, I feel like Russia is so fascinating in many ways. This, the, the fact that they had a czar and the way that that entire collapse happened of the ruling family there. The, the, the, the, the family that was in a position the czars for so long. How much of a historical relic is the, is the royal family being executed like they were? Is there a different world where Russia could still have a ruling family that was royal and everything has been different there? I mean, I think it's a really kind of interesting pivot point in history.
Douglas Brunt
Exactly. It's the craziest sliding doors moment in history. And there were repeated efforts at reform and then repress, even with the early czars. Tsar Alexander II in 1861, he was the one who freed the serfs. You know, famously, 20 million serfs are liberated. And that was two years before Lincoln freed the slaves in America. And Alexander ii, who was the grandfather of Alassar Nicholas ii, he tried many liberalizing reforms at increasing, you know, the economy to be more Western and more business friendly, allowing freedom of assembly, freedom of the press. And then the Russian people would. They started to sort of organize in these subversive groups following Marxist doctrine, then attempted to assassinate him. You know, it's one of these crazy things. There was advice that Nicholas the First, the czar in the 1830s, 40s, gave to his son Alexander II. And he was describing Napoleon and he said, look, Napoleon, he's this sort of versatile leader. He's. He knows when to be soft and. And then he also knows when to be only the lion. And he said, but in Russia, you can be only the lion. And you get these cycles when they have tried to liberalize and reform it. Like Gorbachev, you know, made all these reforms and then it blows up and then you get Putin and it's repressive again. They've been through that cycle throughout history, and while they were moving toward more of a constitutional monarchy and a more Western style of government, it shattered with the Bolshevik revolution and went into yet another repressive cycle.
Buck Sexton
We're speaking to Douglas Brunt, the Lost Empire of Emmanuel Nobel. I've got my copy right here, which you guys should all go get out today. It's going to be another huge bestseller, I can assure you. Doug, talk to me about something I find really interesting and I'm a big fan of. Not to bring up a different book, but, you know, I'm sure you like it too. Daniel Jurgen's the Prize, about the history of oil. It's just sort of a good overview history of the oil, you know, the discovery of it, the use of it, and then. And then where it. People don't really get much about, or rather I should say we don't hear much about the early days of Russia figuring out that it's a. Call it a hydrocarbon.
Donald Trump
Right.
Buck Sexton
An oil and natural gas superpower, which it is just because it's. It's absolutely huge and it has very considerable reserves of those two things. What were the early days like? You know, what was the equivalent of the Saudi sheikhs who had almost no paved roads but were buying up Rolls Royces as fast as possible in the early days of the Saudi kingdom? Like, what were the early days of the Russian oil boom?
Douglas Brunt
Like, it's amazing. The Nobel family was mostly in the north and they were building rifles and bombs and engines, building diesel engines, which is actually how I found the Nobel story. Withel, they had an order from the Tsar for 100,000 rifles and they need wood for the shoulder stocks of the rifles. So they go down to the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus where there are these walnut trees where they're going to get the wood. And while they're down there, it's this ancient land of the eternal flame. You know, natural gas seeping from rocks that ignites and has the eternal flame. And there was also so much petroleum in the ground, it was bubbling to the surface. They go down there and they see pools of oil on the surface, but there's no technology. It still looks like an ancient land. And people are just skimming it from the surface and using it as a lubricant and other things.
Clay Travis
No drilling.
Douglas Brunt
The most they do is use shovels. So the Nobels are down there to buy wood. The one guy says, I'm not using these 20,000 rubles on wood. I'm buying land. And so they buy a bunch of land and they set up a refining facility, and they use all their technology, expertise and capital to build an oil company. And they're with the sort of Nobel expertise and background in manufacturing. They're very quickly one of the larger oil companies in the world. And by 1888, the czar has, has decided, like, wow, you know, we've been, we've been over. We've been shipping grain around the world all these years, but now oil is becoming one of our main commodities that we have in the Russian Empire. And they recognize it's yet another major natural resource that Russia possesses.
Clay Travis
When you did your research, I'm curious, and this book sounds fascinating. There's a lot of talk about the Ukraine war and the desire of Vladimir Putin to reclaim the lost glory of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Empire. You get a sense for what his ambition is or where it comes from and how it connects to the era that you were studying.
Douglas Brunt
Yeah, it's, it's from the earliest days. You know, Peter the Great in the early 1700s was trying to get down to the Black Sea, where they have warm water ports, and the Black Sea can connect through the strait right by Constantinople or Istanbul, Turkey, and out to the Mediterranean, and you can reach the rest of the world that way. They're obsessed with Crimea, which is the northern part of the Black Sea, for 300 years of Romanovs into Soviet Russia and the present day. And we see that now in the early parts of this book. Joseph Stalin is born in the country of Georgia, which is between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. And so he had a front row seat to this oil empire taking root. The Nobels were the leading oil magnets, but also the Rothschild family had a large presence in southern Russia, refining, drilling and refining oil. And Stalin as a young boy actually worked in the oil fields of the Rothschilds and the Nobels. So as he's got his sights on the quote, unquote, capitalist pigs that he wants to take it out, the Nobels are front and center.
Buck Sexton
Well, guys, go get your copy. Douglas Brunson, the Lost Empire of Emmanuel Nobel. It's really cool. It's really well written narrative history. You're going to love it and you'll learn a lot of really interesting things. So we highly recommend it. Doug, congrats on the book. You got two authors, fellow authors here along with you. So we know the Blood, Sweat and Tears and I know it's going to be a big bestseller. And Clay is demanding your next book be about the Civil War. But we'll get to that another time.
Douglas Brunt
We'll get to, you know the Daniel Jurgenberg blurb that you mentioned, Megan, my wife, was, was mocking me for that because I turned, I'm like, I'm so excited. You know, I studied this book in, in college and, and I got this great blurb from Jurgen. Like all the oil historian guys are gonna, she's like, oh, all the oil historian guys, all the nerds are gonna be really excited for you. That's great news.
Buck Sexton
Doug, you're definitely the coolest guy at the oil historian party. Let's be honest,
Clay Travis
this is like my wife, Doug, saying she can't believe that she married a guy who went to Civil War sleepaway camp. Which is maybe the nerdiest thing that anyone could have ever done when they were in high school. But by the way, was awesome.
Douglas Brunt
Totally. We're simpatico on that.
Buck Sexton
Congrats, Doug. Guys, go get the book. Lost Empire Emmanuel Nobel. Doug, we'll talk to you soon.
Douglas Brunt
Thank you. Thanks.
Clay Travis
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Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on the iHearts radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
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Clay Travis
Oh, buck. Running for cover. Michael Jackson bringing us back. It's a good movie. I took the kids to go see it. Really appreciate. I think it's been number one movie a bunch of weeks. Michael Jackson movie. Very well done. We've got a bunch of talkbacks, variety of different subjects. Let's see. Let's start with a. They'll try to get into as many of these as we possibly can. Mike and Hoboken Clay.
Buck Sexton
Come on. Pizza Hut pizza. Come on. That pizza sucks. You want real pizza? Come to New York and you'll get pizza. There's plenty of it and it's good and it's made by real Italians.
Clay Travis
Pizza is great in New York. I'm not taking a shot at it.
Buck Sexton
You don't want to. You don't want to argue with Mike from Hoboken. You might end up sleeping with the fishes.
Clay Travis
That's true. But I will say Old school Pizza Hut. All the plastic sodas and in. In the. In the old red cups.
Buck Sexton
The.
Clay Travis
The. I'm just telling you Old school Pizza Hut coming back. We played that audio for people yesterday at the end of the show. I love it. Heather in Wilsonville, Oregon.
Buck Sexton
Clay and Buck. I'm so disappointed.
Clay Travis
We need more masculine men and you
Buck Sexton
admitting that you could not or do not like being outdoors, kind of sad. Testosterone checked. All right, all right, all right, Heather, hold, hold on. I'm throwing a flag. Settle down here for a second. Ok, first of all, we didn't say neither I nor Clay said we don't like being outside. I, I explicitly said I'll go hike the mountains, I'll go be in nature. I love all that. I just want to sleep on a bed at night. Not one of those little things you blow up that you put on the ground where you can still feel the rocks in your back and you have a sleeping bag and you hope that a grizzly bear doesn't pee on you in the middle of the night. Like that. I don't like. That's not my thing with.
Clay Travis
This all started with neither one of us would do well on Survivor. And I am all in favor of hikes outdoors, everything associated with it, but I just want to sleep indoors. That's what separate separates us from the savages. Indoor sleeping.
Buck Sexton
I don't know who was. There's a comedian did a whole thing about why would you want to go camping? You want to pretend like you're homeless? Like, explain this to me.
Douglas Brunt
This makes.
Buck Sexton
This makes no sense. I would give credit, but I forget who did that bit. I'd also say, you know, when you're like, we need more masculine men. All right, you got two radio hosts here, married, children, like to lift weights. Clay likes boxing. I like guns. He loves football. You know, like, what else, what else do you want from us here? I don't really understand. I mean, I'm not, I'm not saying we're elite in any of those things, but we like all those things.
Clay Travis
It sounds to me like we're perfect. Like my mom says. Kyle from Fulshear, Texas, cut C. Regardless
Buck Sexton
who President Trump endorses, I'll be voting for Paxton. And come November, if Cornyn wins, I'll hold my nose and vote for Cornyn. And I'll vote for Greg Abbott. And if Paxton wins in November, I'll enthusiastically vote for Ken Paxton and Dan Patrick.
Clay Travis
Yeah, look, I think, I think that's the mature approach. Yeah, we always say this. People love calling in and saying, if this person wins the primary, I'll never vote. We got so many of that during the Desantis Trump battle. And people will say, oh, there's no way President Trump vote for Kamala and said, no, you won'.
Buck Sexton
I think 100. I would wager not that we could ever prove this. I would wager that 100% of our Florida based pro DeSantis in the primary against Trump. Voices, voters, listeners, all voted for Trump in the general election. 100%, not 92%. I think it was 100%. Even though we got the calls. I will never do, I will never vote for Trump again. Please, come on, come on. You want to vote for the race. Communists.
Clay Travis
If they didn't, the best or most they would do is not vote. I don't think a single DeSantis supporter voted for Kamala. I don't think in the whole country. Mike from upstate New York, Fire away. D. Clay Buck Mike from Salt Point, New York.
Douglas Brunt
As far as women in the south
Clay Travis
being prettier, my little sister moved from
Douglas Brunt
Pennsylvania down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Clay Travis
And one of the things years later she stated was you have to be healthy because you can't hide under sweatshirts and sweatpants. So that's part of the equation.
Douglas Brunt
Carry on.
Buck Sexton
So this is 100% true. And I'm just gonna throw Amherst College back under the bus here along with all the other Nescac schools. A lot of these young women graduate from high school. They show up and they're lovely and they're athletic and they're, you know, they're, they're 19 years old. They're in their absolute prime and of, of athletics. Of athletics. Hold on. I'm not trying to pull it out. Not try to pull a Don Lemon there. They're their absolute prime. Athletically. Athletically. Because a lot of them are playing sports and, and you know what happens? It's freezing cold all the time. Everyone's drinking all the time. Everyone's ordering giant tubs of fried chicken wings at 2 o' clock in the morning. And calzones, it's like. Calzone is like a food developed to make you as fat as fast as possible. I'm just going to speak the truth. It's just a giant thing of melted cheese wrapped with dough around it. It's not even really a food. It's like something you would come up with at 3am as a drunk college kid. And then they get pasty and they get doughy because, Clay, they can hide under all those layers of sweats. And that is what it happened to me. It happened to me.
Douglas Brunt
It happens.
Buck Sexton
So I'm just the truth. Clay, you got, you got, you got. This is important. I just want to go to F real quick. This is the cause. Cause this is an important, important take here from F. Tracy in. Go ahead, play it.
Donald Trump
Clay, this is Tracy in Texas.
Buck Sexton
I just wanted to remind you that your wife is from Michigan, so you might want to pull that back a little bit. You're going to have a rough night tonight. I think Tracy's looking, looking out for your best interest here, Clay.
Clay Travis
Yeah, it's good. Here's what I point out. My wife is an SEC grad. She's been in Nashville for 25 years and she's more beautiful today than she was when we met in 2001. Gentlemen, walk off just like the husband's out there.
Buck Sexton
Did you guys hear that? Did you. You should. You should clip that, put that on your phone and keep it. That was well, that was well done.
Clay Travis
Quarter century later, better looking now than when I met her in 2001.
Buck Sexton
A lot of good silent sunshine. This is like in old school when James Carville has to debate. Yes, we're ending up the show. That was perfect. Perfect. I got nothing. I got nothing better than that one. Although I'll just say I feel the same way about Mike Carey.
Clay Travis
Although she hasn't been an SEC grad
Buck Sexton
for 25 years or whatever, but yeah, that's the same.
Clay Travis
She is an SEC grad, though.
Buck Sexton
Oh, my God, she is an SEC grad. U of F. I forgot sec. I learned things. Life is full of challenges, but you don't have to face them alone. At InTouch.org you'll find powerful sermons from Dr. Charles Stanley, Daily devotionals, and resources designed to strengthen your faith and bring hope into your everyday life. Whether you're searching for encouragement, biblical wisdom, or practical guidance, InTouch.org is here to help you grow closer to God. Discover truth that speaks to your heart. Visit intouch.org today. These days it seems like AI agents are just about everywhere you turn, every field and every function. But without identity, you can't trust they'll serve your business instead of jeopardizing it. Fortunately, Okta helps you get identity right by securing your AI agent's identity, giving you a single layer of control, a single standard of trust. So whether an AI agent supports a single user or your entire enterprise, with Okta you'll turn risk into opportunity. Secure every agent, secure any agent. Okta secures AI. PureTalk used to charge 55 for unlimited high speed data, but now it's just 34.99, giving you more for less.
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Date: May 19, 2026
Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Host: iHeartPodcasts
In this hour, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton discuss how near-death experiences can profoundly change individuals—using Donald Trump’s recent survival of an assassination attempt as a central example. The show covers current political headlines, especially U.S.-Iran tensions, Trump’s long-term vision as president, and how surviving a life-threatening event can catalyze urgent and legacy-minded action. The hosts then chat with author Douglas Brunt about his new book on the forgotten titan Emmanuel Nobel and the lost Russian oil empire. The hour closes with listener calls on lighter topics, such as pizza and college lifestyle, with trademark humor.
This hour delivers an engaging blend of serious political discussion and personal, humorous dialogue. At its center is the question: How does surviving a near-death experience reshape a leader’s priorities and urgency? Using Trump’s recent survival as a jumping-off point, the hosts explore long-term leadership, legacy, and political maneuvering both at home and abroad. The segment with Douglas Brunt adds a historical dimension, tying past empires and energy politics to present challenges. The episode finishes with relatable, laugh-filled listener exchanges, always keeping the tone lively and accessible.