Hour 3 - The Best Military Maneuver of All-Time?

Summary

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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Hour 3 - The Best Military Maneuver of All-Time?
Date: May 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode blends political headlines with a lively, in-depth discussion about the greatest military maneuvers in history, sparked by a recent comment from President Trump. Hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton debate classic U.S. military actions, engage with listener talkbacks, and weave historical analysis with signature humor and banter. Key political events—ranging from redistricting fights to Midwestern primaries—frame the episode’s first half before the conversation tilts toward military history, inviting listeners to contribute their picks for 'best maneuver ever.'

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Political Headlines and Analysis (02:22–14:54)

• Weekly Roundup
  Clay recaps the day’s fast-news pace: press conferences by Pete Hegseth, General Kane, and President Trump; ongoing Indiana and Ohio primaries; and developments in Tennessee and Alabama redistricting.
• Trump’s Presidential Fitness Challenge & Cultural Moments
  Clay highlights President Trump’s playful relaunch of the Presidential Fitness Challenge, complete with a pushup contest between Gary Player and Bryson DeChambeau. (02:22–03:20)
• Middle East Tensions & Shipping Insurance
  Clay reiterates his idea for using confiscated Iranian funds as insurance for vessels threatened in the Strait of Hormuz. Listener Jeremy proposes using frozen Iranian assets to cover damages:

  "Use those funds to pay for damages caused by Iran...guaranteed funds for those affected will fix many issues." – Listener Jeremy (04:45)
  Buck likens Middle East shipping risks to WWII Soviet conscript tactics:
  "Is every tanker gonna make it through? Probably not, but a few will." (05:43)

• Redistricting Drama—Supreme Court and Real-World Stakes
  Clay details redistricting developments in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana, emphasizing the potential impact on party control of state and federal offices (06:20–14:45).
• Surprising Ohio Election Odds
  Clay notes that prediction markets currently favor Democrats in Ohio’s Senate and Governor races, despite the state’s Republican lean:

  "If Ohio is going to go Democrat for governor and Democrat for the Senate, we're in trouble." (09:16-10:19) Buck reacts to candidate Vivek’s missteps and the broader trend of weak Republican candidates:
  "We should smoke the Democrat by 10 points in Ohio...But we’re making this way closer than it should be." (10:22–11:20)

2. Listener Q&A and Economic Context (19:01–22:58)

• Oil Prices as a Global Commodity
  Listeners question why U.S. oil prices remain high despite domestic production. Clay explains market dynamics:

  "If we sold our oil and gas for cheaper in the United States than it was selling for globally...we’d be creating a market inefficiency." (19:19–20:41)

• Audience Feedback on Florida Leadership
  Callers praise Speaker Perez and Florida’s strong leadership, which Clay and Buck echo with personal anecdotes. (20:53–21:37)
• Risk & Crewless Tanker Ideas
  A listener proposes using remote control or skeleton crews to move tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, but Buck points out the persistent risks even with technology. (21:37–22:58)

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3. Main Segment: What is the Greatest Military Maneuver of All Time? (24:03–37:42)

• Trump’s Claim: Blocking Iranian Ships as Greatest Move
  Clay pokes fun at Trump’s recent boast:

  "I would submit that it's nowhere near the greatest military maneuver of all time. I appreciate President Trump’s enthusiasm for the blockade..." (24:03)

• Hosts' Picks for Greatest Maneuvers
  Clay: Stonewall Jackson’s flanking maneuver at Chancellorsville.
  Buck: Challenges Clay—shouldn’t Grant’s Vicksburg siege be higher?

  • Clay’s verdict: Siege techniques impressive, but rates maneuver and strategic movement higher than protracted sieges (25:12–26:07).
  • Both hosts touch on the significance of Sherman’s march on Atlanta and the wild context of the 1864 election in Lincoln v. McClellan (26:07–27:11).

• Listener Talkbacks—A Rapid-Fire History Tour

  • Patton as D-Day Decoy:

    "The greatest military action was when they placed Patton in eastern England as a decoy for the invasion of Europe." – Michael, Toledo (27:59)
    Buck: "That’s an intelligence, a deception and intelligence victory, not a tactical brilliant maneuver." (28:19)

  • D-Day & Normandy:

    "I think you gotta go D Day." – Clay (28:39)

  • Vicksburg Endorsements:
    Listener consensus—Vicksburg’s siege critical to Union victory.

    "It ensured that the Union would win the Civil War, and the rest is history." – Dave, Idaho (32:06)

  • Gettysburg—Little Round Top:

    "The greatest battlefield tactic ever was Chamberlain and the 20th Maine’s swinging door...kept the rebels from breaching the left flank, which had they failed, likely would have lost Gettysburg...the war." – Russ, Maine (32:44) Clay praises the significance and pop-culture portrayal of Chamberlain’s stand (33:12–33:56).

  • Yorktown & French Role:

    "I think without the General Lafayette, I don’t think Yorktown happens the way we want it to." – Buck (30:11–30:28) Clay chimes in on the French fleet's crucial role.

  • WWII, Korea, Modern Era:
    Buck: MacArthur's Inchon landing as a pivotal, underappreciated maneuver, and Battle of the Bulge as a complex logistical and tactical feat (34:13–35:14).
  • Atomic Bomb on Japan:

    "The greatest military maneuver was the use of the atom bomb on Nagasaki, Japan...maximum effect for minimal effort." – Alex, West Palm Beach (36:25) Clay: "The Manhattan Project was maximum effort, maybe not minimum effort..." (36:53)

• Memorable Exchanges and Humor

  • Buck and Clay gently rib each other over historical focus.

    "Not getting siege the love here...Clay’s a cavalry guy, you can tell..." – Buck (25:53) “You skip the 400 years in between.” – Clay (34:11)

  • Lively analogies: comparing the oil market to WWII “one rifle per two men” (05:43), and imagining Miami rescuing soldiers in "Dunkirk-style" bikinis (31:44).

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4. Surprise Military Picks & Wrapping Up (41:41–44:16)

• VIP Email: Midway in the Pacific Theater
  • Jeff highlights the Battle of Midway as a war-turning event.

    “The battle of Midway changed the war in the Pacific.” – Jeff (42:16)

  • Buck questions the luck factor:

    “We kind of got lucky at Midway...Better lucky than good.” (42:39–42:54)

• Historical Serendipity
  • Buck and Clay poke fun at historical outcomes contingent on weather and luck (Napoleon’s frozen lake, Hannibal’s fog at Lake Trasimene). (42:54–43:21)

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Notable Quotes

• On Oil Markets:
  "If we sold our oil and gas for cheaper in the United States than it was selling for globally...we’d be creating a market inefficiency." — Clay Travis (20:19)
• On Republican Prospects:
  "If Ohio is going to go Democrat for governor and Democrat for the Senate, we're in trouble." — Clay Travis (09:16)
• On Vivek’s Unforced Error:
  "He did make that argument publicly on X during the H1B visa situation...one of the great political own goals of all time." — Buck Sexton (10:22)
• On Historical Luck:
  "Much of military history is not only the story of sometimes brilliance, but often just the other side being totally oh, better lucky than good." — Clay Travis and Buck Sexton (42:39–42:54)
• On Military Innovation:
  "The Manhattan Project was maximum effort, maybe not minimum effort." — Clay Travis (36:53)

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Important Timestamps

• News & Political Rundown: 02:22–14:54
• Oil Market Listener Q&A: 19:01–20:44
• Military Maneuvers Main Segment Begins: 24:03
• Listener War History Call-ins: 27:59–37:42
• Midway, Serendipity, Final Wrap: 41:41–44:16

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Tone & Takeaways

The show moves briskly from topical politics to an engaged, often witty discussion of military history, with Clay and Buck inviting the audience’s inner “history nerd” to the table. They offer balanced, irreverent takes, fielding both serious analysis and light-hearted analogies—never shying away from calling out "own goals" in modern politics or playful digs at each other's historical preferences. The episode stands out for its blend of sharp news commentary and an accessible, communal debate on American (and global) military milestones.

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End of Summary.

Transcript

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

Go to PureTalk.com Clay that's PureTalk.com Clay PureTalk America's wireless company. Welcome back in hour number three Clay Travis, Buck Sexton show a lot of different emails, calls rolling in as we are rolling into the third hour. Where have we gone so far today? Pete Hegseth and General Kane had a press conference early this morning. President Trump had a press conference, took questions inside of the Oval Office just a bit ago. He has a bunch of elementary school kids doing a presidential fitness challenge as he is bringing back that challenge that so many of you, not including block caliber, might have remembered doing when you were in elementary school. And right now they are on the South Lawn and I just saw a video posted of legendary golfer Gary Player competing in a push up contest against current top golfer Bryson DeChambeau. So that is what is going on right now there. Indiana and Ohio primaries occurring as we speak. Tennessee having a hearing on redistricting as Alabama also prepares to redistrict. Pete Hegseth talking about kamikaze dolphins. We have talked about that. I have floated my insurance idea on the Strait of Hormuz as a way to get ships moving and potentially bring down rapidly the price of oil and gas. And you just heard from Daniel Perez who is the speaker of the Florida House about the new map that Florida has put in place. All of those stories moving Buck, I wanted to get into you mentioned a little bit earlier the redistricting battle and the I would say hard to describe it as anything other than a shot across the bow that came from the in the Supreme Court having to do with the Louisiana redistricting case that they just heard. Katanji Brown Jackson versus Justice Alito. I'll play, I'll read a bit of that for you. But this is actually a great email from a VIP just shared by producer Ali. This is from Jer Jeremy, I think the insurance issue for shipping can be fixed pretty easily. There is roughly a hundred billion dollars in Iranian money that has been confiscated, held around the world by sanctions. If they break it, they buy it. Use those funds to pay for damages caused by Iran, not just for shipping for the uae, Saudis, Israelis, guaranteed funds for those affected will fix many issues. Love that idea. And right now those are frozen funds. It's a great idea from Jeremy say the United States will provide the insurance and the backing in the event that there are any ships attacked. Effectively Iran would pay for any issues that might arise for the ships through confiscated funds that we already have and if Iran makes the decision to take that direction. So that is, that's out there. I like that suggestion from VIP emailer Jeremy.

[Buck Sexton]

This is like the scene from Enemy at the Gates where the Soviet officers are sending men into battle against the very well armed and trained Nazis and the Soviets are given one rifle per two men. With the idea, Clay, that, well, when the guy with the rifle gets killed, you pick up his rifle and fight. So you're just saying, look, is every tanker gonna make it through? Probably not, but a few will. So I, I see where your head's at on this one.

[Clay Travis]

All right, let me go into this redistricting, which is real quick.

[Buck Sexton]

You've seen that movie, right?

[Clay Travis]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I, I love the Stalingrad. Great movie analogy. Let me hit you with this, Buck. So Indiana and Ohio were voting in the primaries. Right now the big story in Indiana, as we have covered, is that the Indiana legislature chose not to redistrict because they said they didn't want to violate norms. I'm paraphrasing their argument. And then we saw Virginia go ahead and violate all norms. And so there is a. In the Senate in particular, where the Indiana redistricting did not occur, there is a battle over whether those Indiana state senators who refuse to redistrict are going to be elected or whether the president is going to knock them out of the, out of the Indiana Senate. So that is a story to follow. Here's an ominous sign. Okay, Ohio, Ohio has become in many ways a, I think it's fair to say, very Republican state. Trump has won it by double digits. We have two Republican senators right now from Ohio. Let me share this with you, Buck. Right now, in the prediction markets, Democrats are favored to flip the Ohio Senate seat back to the Democrat side. And, and this one stunned me. Ohio Governor. Right now, Ohio is forecast to also go to the Democrats. These are live odds. Right now, the Democrat Party find out the nominee. Republican Party, it's going to be Vivek. Right now, Democrats are favored to win both statewide elections in the gambling markets, not citing polling. This is. You go on Polymarket right now. You go on Cowshi, you put down real money. Right now, Democrats are favored to win both statewide elections in Ohio. If you're wondering about how the midterms are looking as we sit here in early May. And again, money can come in, they can flip, they can change the trajectory of where those races are going to go. Right now, Democrats are favored to win both statewide races in Ohio. Let me tell you this too, Buck. And this is the primaries going on today. J.D. vance traveled to vote there. So that is why Ohio's top of mind, why I was looking at the data on Ohio coming into today's Show. Let me also add this to it, Buck. If Ohio is going to go Democrat for governor and Democrat for the Senate, we're in trouble. Having said that, if Ohio does not flip, Sherrod Brown is trying to win back the seat that he just lost to, Bernie Marino. If Ohio doesn't flip, Buck, there's almost no math by which the Senate could be in danger. So Ohio, a lot of you listen in Ohio, Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Cleveland, we got big audiences in all three of those major markets. If Ohio shows up and puts a Republican in the Senate again, keeps the Republican in the Senate, John Husted, then there's basically no pathway for Democrats to win back the House, win back the Senate. So I do think this story is kind of a little bit under the radar. But the fact that this isn't a kind of locked and loaded win for the Republican Party in both races is a sign of a challenging midterm environment.

[Buck Sexton]

We'll see how Vivek does. Hopefully he won't tell the people of Ohio that he thinks that we need more foreigners to do jobs because Americans are kind of lazy and don't have

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a culture of winning.

[Clay Travis]

That wasn't good, not a good argument.

[Buck Sexton]

That was not helpful to Vivek's political brand. For those who don't know, he did make that argument publicly on x during the H1B visa situation where he said, we don't elevate nerds, we elevate the jocks in this country, which would be news to Elon and Zuckerberg and Bezos and etc. Etc. It was one of the great political own goals of all time. And he was like, why are you talking about this? Because I want to let you know why he's. Why it's competitive. It shouldn't be competitive. We should smoke the Democrat by 10 points in Ohio for the governor's mansion. But it's competitive because you've got a guy in there that the Democrats are going to be able to hammer. And okay, now, you know, this is the, this is reality. Anybody you know, I hope the Republican wins, but we're making this way closer than it should be. And anyone who says, oh, but look what's happened in Georgia, we've run the wrong people a few times. We've lost three win, we've lost three winnable Senate seats in Georgia because we had the wrong candidate running three times. Unfortunately, all of that is true.

[Clay Travis]

And so I do think this is an early indicator. You know, if you're, if you're watching and you're driving the car and the one of the lights starts blinking on your monitor, that's maybe a sign that you're headed for a challenging environment. Now it's May. If you Remember May of 2024 in the last cycle, everybody was still saying Biden's going to be the guy. Biden was, was the nominee. We hadn't even had the Butler, Pa. Shooting with President Trump. Biden was still in office. Kamala's 107 days hadn't even started. A lot of people are just not paying that much attention. To me, it always really gets rolling right around Labor Day. But if oil and gas going to be $4 and 30 cents in Labor Day, I think a lot of people out there are going to be going to be filled with trepidation. Here's the other part. We're six months out basically from that election. I think one of the big challenges and one of the big questions we're going to be asking for the next several years is without Trump on the ballot ever again, how many traditional Trump voters are going to show up and continue to vote Republican? I don't know how that's going to go. 2018 was not great the last midterm. So again, just kind of as we come into these primary seasons, I do think it's worthy of trying to take a pulse. And Ohio, with a big Senate and a governor's race right now, according to the odds market, the, the prediction markets, Republicans are underdogs. And I think that's a sign of, of not greatness on the good side,

[Buck Sexton]

on the good side of things, to be fair. Vivek is obviously very well spoken, very well capitalized, very good on his feet. But you know, they, they've the thing that I mentioned, that's the, that all of the momentum for the Democrat has come from Vivek weighing in on that issue publicly and just getting absolutely hammered, as he should have, by the way. It was a really incredibly stupid thing to say. And they're just the ads they're running against him, Clay. I mean, that's what it's going to be. Americans are lazy and don't have a culture of excellence, which is interesting because where's the culture of excellence that we're supposed to import into America? I'm pretty sure we have a culture of excellence.

[Clay Travis]

Here is the other part of this. He's running against a Covid crazy person in Ohio. So the Democrat nominee has got, as often is the case, pretty significant vulnerabilities on her side as well. And so again, this is going to be a big battle as we go forward. I will say on the positive side, it appears, Buck, that both Tennessee, Alabama and Louisiana are going to all redistrict based on the decision that came down in the Calais, Louisiana Supreme Court decision on whether gerrymandering based on race is allowed. That could potentially swing four or five seats in the direction of the Republican Party. And we're continuing to wait to hear what the Virginia Supreme Court is going to rule on the big move that Virginia made.

[Buck Sexton]

You know what could really affect the big swing of seats, Clay? Price of gas.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. So that's why I'm trying to solve it.

[Buck Sexton]

Let's hope that that whole situation gets better. We're all hoping that it just gets better because it's up 50, 60% since we started this whole Iran situation. And. Yeah, just saying. All right. You might notice if you're watching us on the YouTube that I'm drinking this liquid that is blue. You're like, what is that? It's from chalk and it's Chad mode, which is the pre workout that I drink pretty much every day. I'm going to do this show, then I'm going to go work out. Might even play a little paddle afterwards. That's right. Got a busy day ahead of me. Then I got to take care of speed. Feed him. He's throwing food everywhere. How do I have the energy for all of this? Chalk is certainly a big part of it. Chalks Chad mode is fabulous. Also the male vitality stack for the guys out there. If you want a boost that's a bit holistic top to bottom, the male vitality stack makes a whole lot of sense. Proven to restore 20% of your body's T levels within three months. You'll feel the increases long before that. 90 days though. There's also Chalk Daily Chalk's pre workout formula, Chad mode. Both are products I've relied on. Sign up today with [e-mail] choq.com these products will have game changing effects on your energy and focus when you subscribe for a monthly delivery, use my name buck. You'll get their 99 bag of chalk lit powder with your first delivery. That's C H O Q.com code buck chalk.com code buck. You can cancel your subscription at any time, but of course you're going to love these products. I don't think that's going to happen. Go to chalk.com code buck level up

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[Buck Sexton]

welcome back into Clay and Buck. So we've got a lot of talkbacks, a lot of calls. Let's get to we got a quick one here. Harry from San Diego, a Cogo listener. This is Talkback l hit it.

[Caller/Listener]

He was to that last caller, I guess he was saying that if we're producing more and we're making more and we're Getting more and we're selling more.

[Buck Sexton]

Why are we still paying more, Clay? Why are prices going up? If we're the superpower that can make all the oil we need and we have it here at home domestically, this

[Clay Travis]

is the number one question we get. Oil is a global commodity. So there is much like with gold, right? If you like, take away the question on oil, gold is what, $5,000 roughly an ounce, something like that, I think, or 4,000. It's gone up a lot. So let's just say it's $5,000 right now. And that might be high. If you were selling oil. Sorry, if you were selling gold for $4,000 in the United States, because it's a global market, people would flood in and buy all of our four thousand dollars, all of our four thousand dollar gold, because they'd be able to make a thousand dollars selling it in a different country. And before there was a global marketplace, sometimes you could identify inefficiencies in the marketplace and you could buy a product for less one place and sell it for more another. If we sold our oil and gas for cheaper in the United States than it was selling for globally, then to a large extent we would be creating a market inefficiency and people would be able to take advantage of that and it would. Again, there's a global price of oil and gas. Can it vary somewhat? Yes. But if you create a substantial difference, then the marketplace will exploit it in either direction. That would be my easy answer.

[Buck Sexton]

David in Michigan wants to chat with us. What's up, David? David going once.

[Caller/Listener]

Articulate. And Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State. Another Cuban. I love the family story. Smart people are moving to Florida and they're changing the demographics, you know, and that's why we need common sense like that.

[Buck Sexton]

So you were impressed by Speaker Perez?

[Caller/Listener]

He was amazing, I'm telling you. So articulate, so vibrant, you know.

[Buck Sexton]

All right, thank you, David. I'm glad you enjoyed that. Enjoyed that.

[Clay Travis]

We, we met him, Buck. He seems like a really good guy. And Florida, I think, has a abundance of great leadership right now. National, local. It's just a very well run state. I think you can fairly say Drew,

[Buck Sexton]

in Roanoke, Virginia, no longer the Lost Colony. What's going on, Drew?

[Caller/Listener]

Hey, guys. I like Clay's idea, but I want to address Buck's concerns. And I can think of three ways right off the top of my head. First off, first thing, if we can do it technically, excuse me, why not remove the crew from the tanker where it sits currently, transport them to the other side of the strait radio control the tanker, you know, autonomously through the strait. If we could set it up that way, or that doesn't work, same thing. Remove the crew, put a skeleton crew of naval navigators on the tanker, have them drive it through. If that's putting our troops in way, why not use tugs front and back like they do with cruise ships and just pull it through the straight?

[Buck Sexton]

I just don't think. And thank you, Drew. I don't think anybody really wants to be on these ships going through. I think that's the problem. I don't think anybody's psyched. And also, even if you had it remote controlled, which would take some time to retrofit and do all of that, by the way, Clay, you'd still be risking the ship and the cargo, which Clay thinks is the bigger issue. Clay's like, yeah, we might lose some crew.

[Clay Travis]

I believe the biggest issue is that the owners don't want to put their shoe their ships through, which is why solving that risk factor would, I think, lubricate the overall transit.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

Yesterday, you may have heard us having a conversation. President Trump said that the blockade of Iranian ships was the greatest military maneuver of all time. And he's a humble guy.

[Buck Sexton]

He's a humble guy.

[Clay Travis]

I would submit that it's nowhere near the greatest military maneuver of all time. I appreciate President Trump's enthusiasm for the blockade, and I tossed out that I thought Chancellorsville Lee splitting his troops, for those of you that are military historians, and sending Stonewall Jackson on a flank march to completely obliterate the right flank of Joseph Hooker's army and nearly nearly obliterate the entirety of the Union army in Chancellorsville. Buck. This was the final major battle before Lee embarked on his invasion that led to the battle of Gettysburg. For those of you that are military history nerds like me and I also

[Buck Sexton]

I gotta ask you something, buddy.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean I know you're from Tennessee, so you know you're General Lee, amazing tactician. All this stuff. Grant's Vicksburg campaign. I got someone reach out to me via email and said I can't believe he would just skip over Grant's textbook war changing victory at Vicksburg in 1863.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. So this is again interesting buck. July 4th, 1863, if I'm remembering correctly, Vicksburg surrendered to Grant which severed the Confederacy's ability to transit the Mississippi river with men and materiel, thereby helping to further strangle the Confederacies with the blockade that was in place on the eastern seaboard and the gulf to completely give control of the Mississippi river to the United States. Huge win. Brilliant tactical victory. It's a siege.

[Buck Sexton]

Oh wow. Not getting siege the love here not he. Clay's a cavalry guy. You could tell here he likes the a land. He likes the, the. The display of the cavalry coming into smart moves.

[Clay Travis]

But if I'm remembering correctly, Grant was going up against Pemberton. Pemberton was a weak strategic opponent. I actually am more impressed with Sherman and his attack on Atlanta which took far longer to put in place than and really one Lincoln the 1864 election. Because if he hadn't taken Atlanta. Possibility that McClellan's crazy story. McClellan who Lincoln picked as his initial general ran against him on the, on the 1864 campaign, ending the war.

[Caller/Listener]

Right?

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. But think about how crazy. You know we always talk about how there's read up on the 1864 presidential campaign. There's a great book on it. Think about how crazy it is that that Lincoln's chosen initial head of the army ran against him as a Democrat on the platform of I'm going to end the war.

[Dr. Charles Stanley (InTouch.org Advertiser)]

Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

I also respect that Sherman on his way. I know it was very rough. He was very rough, Mr. Sherman. But he got outside of Savannah and they were like, he's like well this is a really pretty town. I'm gonna, I'm gonna not take. Take this place to task. Kind of left Savannah and there's a big monument or a plaque to him in downtown Savannah that basically attest to this where they were like hey, hey, Savannah is a nice town. Let's not get crazy. So.

[Clay Travis]

Also didn't burn it down. Which, which there was a thought that was going to be completely destroyed because they started the Civil War in Charleston by firing on Fort Sumner.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay, let's, let's, let's get this. Because we have all these people that. Yeah, yeah, let's get to these talk backs here. We. You want to do for list here from a Michael in Toledo, Ohio, I

[Caller/Listener]

would say that the greatest military action was when they placed Patton in eastern England as a decoy for the invasion of Europe. Units were not committed to Normandy because they were still expecting the real invasion to be Patton in Holland.

[Buck Sexton]

I'm going to throw a flag on this. That's an intelligence. That's a deception and intelligence victory, not a, like, tactical brilliant maneuver, which is what we're really talking about.

[Clay Travis]

That's 100% right. Also, even if that were not the case, and I agree with you, D Day happened like D Day is kind of a big maneuver that was.

[Buck Sexton]

I think you got to go D Day. Not. Not putting Patton as a decoy.

[Clay Travis]

That's a part of decoy. The decoy was more successful than D Day itself. Come on, Michael, you can do better. Chris in Nashville.

[Buck Sexton]

Hey, Clay. Stonewall Jackson's flanking maneuver at Chancellorsville was a brilliant tactician move.

[Dr. Charles Stanley (InTouch.org Advertiser)]

But if you want to talk about

[Buck Sexton]

strategies and strategies in Civil War, Vicksburg campaign by Grant would be the best one ever done in that era.

[Clay Travis]

A few people reached out.

[Buck Sexton]

You're. Now you're putting that in the siege category. This is almost like, is it an action movie or a war movie? Like, you start to split hairs a bit.

[Clay Travis]

And some people are going to say, well, they had to get to the siege by the maneuvers that Grant made to get to the siege.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, didn't he? Like, he floated the gunboats at night through. And, you know, there was some. There was some serious skill that Grant displayed to win at Vicksburg.

[Clay Travis]

Grant, to me, the most impressive move of Grant was actually at Shiloh when he wasn't in charge. He may have saved the entire Union army when they were basically in the mix, midst of a dead panic. Grant at Shiloh, I think, is maybe his most impressive. It wasn't the commander of the entire army, but. But that's when he started to get the attention of Lincoln to realize this guy could be a difference maker.

[Buck Sexton]

Eric. Eric from New Jersey. Listen. On W O R of nyc hit

[Caller/Listener]

C. All right, Clay and Buck, this is Eric from New Jersey. The siege at Yorktown because without that, then the United States never would have been born.

[Buck Sexton]

I'm going to get a little trouble here. I'm going to get a little trouble here. I think. I think Yorktown. I think the French take the bow on that one. I'm just going to say it. I think without friends, too.

[Clay Travis]

250th year, Buck Sexton gives credit to France for the victory.

[Buck Sexton]

I think without the General Lafayette, I don't think Yorktown happens the way we want it to.

[Clay Travis]

Well, I will have to sign off a little bit here. For Buck was the French fleet off the coast of Yorktown that marooned Cornwallis and kept him from being able to evacuate.

[Buck Sexton]

Without that French fleet, it does not. A full stop does not happen the way that it happened.

[Clay Travis]

And we're talking about the greatest American maneuver but Dunkirk, because it's making me think about rescuing a.

[Buck Sexton]

To me, that's. That's. That's like saving your ass from the fire. I don't know about that. Like, that's. That's a goal line stand.

[Clay Travis]

You and I were. The America were not involved in Dunkirk. But that is maybe one of the most incredible saves of forgetting.

[Buck Sexton]

Think of how. What. You know, I think of how dumb the. The British had no. No backup plan for this. They had their entire. Almost lost their entire army in one fell swoop. I mean, that was not, by the way, not the first time this had happened to them. It was like a replay of World War I. They can't figure this out.

[Clay Travis]

Think about how incredible. I think it's a story that doesn't get told enough. They just got on the basic radio and said, hey, if you have a fishing boat, you got to go save the British Army. You're talking about guys risking everything. Just random guys in fishing boats went and got as many soldiers as.

[Buck Sexton]

Let me tell you, if that. If that call went out of Miami, those troops would be like, I've never seen so many beautiful, scantily clad women in my life.

[Clay Travis]

I will be a bunch of bikini

[Buck Sexton]

babes on those boats.

[Clay Travis]

But right now, I would say people won't get on those boats. There's risk they'll. They'll mutiny.

[Buck Sexton]

Dave and Dave in Idaho.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Caller/Listener]

I think the greatest victory for the United States was the siege of Vicksburg. It ensured that the Union would win the Civil War, and the rest is history.

[Buck Sexton]

Confederacy not getting. Not getting love here, Clay. Not getting love.

[Clay Travis]

War message board where they were like, we're gonna flood Clay and Buck. Vicksburg's not getting enough attention.

[Buck Sexton]

People were just Lighting me up. They're like, how dare you let Clay not throw. I'm just telling you, people are all about Vicksburg, General Grant, Russ in Northern Maine.

[Clay Travis]

By the way, that was Dave in Idaho, because I think I talked over the first time Buck tried to give him credit. This is Russ in Northern Maine podcast

[Caller/Listener]

E. Hey, Clay and Buck, this is Russ in Northern Maine. The greatest battlefield tactic ever was performed by Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine during the Battle of Gettysburg when they were defending the left flank on Little Round Top, ran out of ammunition and performed a maneuver that Joshua Chamberlain would later call the swinging door, where they pivoted, swept down the mountain and kept the rebels from breaching the left flank, which had they failed, likely would have lost Gettysburg, which likely would have lost the war.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay, the floor is yours. What do you make of it?

[Clay Travis]

Oh, it's a great. I mean, for those of you who have not seen the Battle of Gettysburg movie, if you want to watch a movie, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, played by Jeff Daniels in a wide range from Dumb and Dumber to the future governor of Maine leading a regiment in the Civil War. Phenomenal movie based on Buck. I told people to read this great book, great book which also takes you into this individual charge. It's a great one. I guess when I'm thinking of military maneuvers, I'm thinking when I gave the Chancellorsville example, I said bigger than a regiment, bigger than a brigade, like an army style movement as the sort of test for this.

[Buck Sexton]

My honest. The two that came to mind for me. But I'm. I'm not as. I'm not as much of a Civil War guy as Clay is. Obviously I'm. I tend to be the 20th century focused on battles or 16th century Mediterranean, but that's a whole other conversation.

[Clay Travis]

You skip the 400 years in between.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, I just, I just, I pick them as I pick them. You know, I'm like. I like this like that. But I would say MacArthur's landing at Inchon to effectively cap. Recapture Seoul 1950, turn that war around. People forget we were. There was a real consideration of using nukes against China then because the Chinese came across the Yalu River.

[Clay Travis]

I know nothing about the Korean. I know nothing about that at all.

[Buck Sexton]

It's a completely. It's almost like a forgotten war, which of course the echoes of it still haunt us today because of the separation between north and South Korea, but would have all been North Korea, would have all been this Chinese sort of, you know, mutant regime fiefdom that they, that they have now of the of the Kim regime. But the landing at Inchon was an incredible maneuver to pull off and change the whole trajectory of that war. The other one would be, what is it, Bastone? The Battle of the Bulge to turn that around.

[Clay Travis]

I think we've got one of those here.

[Buck Sexton]

Hit us with that one.

[Clay Travis]

Pierre in I love these. I'm curious how many of you are also history nerds on different levels like Buck and ir, different parts of history. I love these talk backs because a lot of people in the audience are. Pierre in New Berlin with New Berlin, Wisconsin, talking about just what Buck said with Patton during World War II.

[Caller/Listener]

G. Yeah, a lot of people missed the Battle of the Bulge where Patton did 180 degree turn to rescue the troops at Bastogne. But the other part of that battle that was so cool was, you know, we couldn't kill the German tanks, we couldn't use our air power. So we just blew up all the fuel and conquered the fuel at Stavo fuel dumps. Basically, the Germans walked home and left their tanks. Brilliant.

[Clay Travis]

That's the great response when they tried to get the American. Was it, Matt Anthony Wayne to surrender. And he said, nuts. That was his official response when the Germans demanded surrender. Great story there. One more and then we'll go to break and there's tons of these. We'll keep playing them off and on. Podcast listener Alex in West Palm Beach

[Caller/Listener]

F. This is Alex in West Palm Beach. The greatest military maneuver was the use of the atom bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. It proved that we could do it again. Additionally, it brought the Japanese to the surrender table. It caused the emperor of Japan to go on the radio and tell all of his people to lay down your arms. It was maximum effect for minimal effort.

[Buck Sexton]

That's a very interesting take, but, like, damn, Adam's rough. Also, like, nuke them.

[Clay Travis]

I would say the Manhattan Project was maximum effort, maybe not minimum effort. I mean, coming up with the atomic bomb, kind of a big undertaking. So the actual dropping of it from the American perspective, I would say was. Was a product of a maximum effort, Not a minimum one, but it was

[Buck Sexton]

maximum casualties for minimum on our side. You certainly say that part of it. See, look at how much. Look at how much fun this stuff, by the way. You guys are all lighting up our inbo boxes and stuff with this. We got to do like, also favorite war book day or something on the show.

[Clay Travis]

This is great, by the way, all these different. All these different discussions and we've got tons more. But I wanted to give some flavor for everybody who got into the talk back and you were talking about yesterday, Buck, that you have ordered some trees, shrubs, plants from fast growing trees.

[Buck Sexton]

We actually just got a whole bunch of bamboo plants. They're amazing.

[Clay Travis]

So many of you have been reaching out. You absolutely love this company and I am blown away by how great they are. As we come into spring, it's early May all over the country, a lot of people deciding what sort of trees plant shrubs do you need to make your homes more beautiful, to make your yards more beautiful? That's what fast growing trees does. And they have told us that you guys are signing up like crazy whether you live in an apartment, a condo, or whether you've got a yard somewhere. Maybe you've moved to a new state, maybe you've moved to a new region and you don't know really what plants make the most sense. Give them a five digit zip code and watch how quickly they will tell you the trees and plants that make the most sense where you live. It's awesome. This is super cool. We love super cool company. We love this. Every plant comes with an alive and thrive guarantee. That's how well they've nurtured new trees and plants. They specially prepare them for the trip to your home before shipping them with care. Go online to fastgrowingtrees.com find the trees and plants you want. Use my name Clay as the promo code for 20 off your first purchase. Fast growing trees.com code clay for 20 off the first order. That's fast growing trees.com code clay. Level up your brain and balance out your day with the right amount of information and entertainment. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dr. Charles Stanley (InTouch.org Advertiser)]

Life can be tough. Every one of us faces seasons of uncertainty, doubt and challenges that can feel overwhelming. And in those moments, we all need real encouragement, something solid to hold on to. That's why you want to know about InTouch.org it's the online home of Dr. Charles Stanley's ministry, and it's filled with resources created to strengthen your faith and help you grow spiritually. When you visit, you'll find powerful sermons that speak directly to the heart, daily devotionals that offer practical wisdom, and tools designed to help you walk more closely with God in your everyday life. Whether you're searching for guidance, peace, clarity, or simply a reminder that you're not walking through life alone, InTouch.org is there to support you. So don't wait. Take a moment to explore everything it offers and discover biblical truth that speaks to your life and encourages your spirit and helps you move forward with renewed hope.

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[Buck Sexton]

Closing up shop today on Play and Bach. Hope you enjoyed our conversation there about all things military. If you want to weigh in on that at the end, we'll put that as a separate little podcast for you guys to listen to over the weekend if you missed it or you want to re listen and send us more of your thoughts. Clay and I could do this all day. We could do a three hour show just talking about old battles. It'd be fun. But we have Here we go. VIP email from of course this is funny. All everyone's like talk about gas prices and politics and then every email and every talk back is best American military maneuvers. VIP email from Jeff hey guys, the battle of Midway changed the war in the Pacific.

[Clay Travis]

Jeff Very true.

[Buck Sexton]

What we take Clay three Japanese carriers down I think and but here's my thing about Midway. First of all, the movie kind of sucked which is a shame. It should have been good. It's not a good movie. Wait, how do you make a bad movie about such a critical battle with planes and battleships and you know, carry or carriers at least. Anyway, we kind of got lucky at Midway.

[Clay Travis]

Like we almost to be fair. Much of military history is not only the story of sometimes brilliance, but often just the other side being totally oh,

[Buck Sexton]

better lucky than good.

[Clay Travis]

Is a big is a big part of it.

[Buck Sexton]

You know, some of I think it was Lake Trasimene where Hannibal managed to ambush Roman legions in an annihilation that he only surpassed with Cannae, which 60,000 people with spears and swords and, you know, killed in one day. But the double envelopment. But at Trasimane, there was a thick fog. Clay well, if you're going to ambush people, having a thick fog by the lake helps a lot.

[Clay Travis]

What about. Yeah, speaking of thick fog, what about Napoleon setting the trap of all of the soldiers walking out onto the frozen lake and not being aware that they were walking onto a frozen lake? And so when the bombardment started, they all just completely fell through the ice and got utterly routed again. It was a trap that was an incredible trap to have set, but also kind of a big failure on the other side to put yourself in that position. Awesome show. Fill us up with talkbacks. We'll continue to play them out. And Rubio is going to be speaking here momentarily. We certainly will be talking about that. Go vote in Ohio and Indiana and big debate on the California governor tonight on cnn. We'll break all that down for you tomorrow. Speaking Truth and having Fun Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.

[Dr. Charles Stanley (InTouch.org Advertiser)]

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.

[Joybox.com Advertiser]

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[Okta Advertiser]

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 agents identities, 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 the wait is almost over.

[NFL Schedule Advertiser]

Get ready for the NFL season with a highly anticipated 2026 NFL schedule release. Every rivalry, every rematch, and every rookie debut with matchups locked and kickoffs confirmed. Be there for every can't miss moment. The full NFL Schedule release coming in May. Get all the [e-mail] schedule release.