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Clay Travis
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Clay Travis
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show podcast.
Buck Sexton
All right, our three Clay and Buck kicks off now and our friend Caroline Levitt, the White House Press Secretary is crushing lives, dreams and taking souls over at the West Wing. A lot of fun to watch. Making them very sad. Very sad indeed. Probably the saddest they've ever been. Some people are saying beautiful sadness from all the lib journos and a few things we mentioned the White House Correspondent Association. You know what, let's let's dive into this one first. We got a few very newsworthy this just breaking now. To be clear, she just was saying this recently. We wanted to bring this to you. Highlights from the press conference in the West Wing. Clay and I are going to go out there and we're going to go hang with our favorite people in the Trump White House and Pentagon and other places sometime in the next couple of months. So we're planning that. I do have a child coming so that is a thing that I have to be aware of in terms of our planning and scheduling.
Clay Travis
That's what we're trying to rush around and plan around. What if tax day is the due date? Right. In theory.
Buck Sexton
Whoa, whoa. I mean, no. The day after tax day, but it could come a little bit earlier than that. You know, you don't know.
Clay Travis
15Th ish. Is the baby's projected arrival.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, it's April 16th. Yeah, that's the one. Is tax day the 15th this year? Sometimes it's a little later, isn't it? Okay, well, it's the 15th. Another day that you know that Ron DeSantis is thinking about removing all property taxes in Florida. He's trying to get this done, which would be amazing. I don't know how we'd make room for all the people that will want to move to this place that. Book your game, Tennessee.
Clay Travis
Yeah, it would be amazing. I mean, my property taxes are pretty low, but any taxes being removed I would be very happy to. To be a part of.
Buck Sexton
So we'll get into taxes and where they're going, as in the federal bureaucracy and the bureaucrats who don't seem to do very much as part of this Caroline Levitt press conference. But first, let's dive into this. The I think that the Democrat media for a long time has actually been more important than the Democrat politicians. I think that the Democrat media has been calling the shots much more so and and have been able to give a tremendous amount of lift in the polls, lift election time to their side. And that's changing.
Clay Travis
They are.
Buck Sexton
They are on the decline and conservative MAGA and right wing media are all on the ascent. And now it's not just in terms of numbers and viewership that's been true for a long time now. It's also in some of these structures of I guess what we'd have to call journalism. And Caroline Levitt, who's the White House press secretary, announced this Clay mentioned it before the top of this hour, that the White House Correspondents association will not control who can gain access. Play24.
White House Press Secretary
As you all know, for decades a group of DC based journalists, the White House Correspondents association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the President of the United States in these most intimate spaces. Not anymore. I am proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch your television shows and who listen to your radio stations. Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join. Fear not. But we will also be offering the privilege to, well, deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.
Buck Sexton
So the hierarchy is being changed. Why shouldn't it, Clay? I love it.
Clay Travis
Well, audience changed in a big way. We have on this radio program more people who are consuming us every day than almost any show in the country. We talked about this earlier when Megan Kelly ran through the 25 to 54 year old age viewing audience for Joy Reid. She had 59,000 people. We have 59,000 of you listening in some individual cities right now. So the millions of people that we are fortunate enough to talk to every single day, we don't have somebody at the White House asking questions on a day to day basis. But a lot of news organizations that have a pin prick of our overall audience do. And so I think as the media environment evolves, it's actually incredibly necessary that the people who are asking questions have an audience worthy of being, asking, being able to ask questions. Right. I mean, to me, this is the essence of you don't have an unlimited number of seats. You've been in that White House press briefing room. It's actually very small. It looks bigger on television, but the number of people, I don't know. Can you fit 100 people in there? Probably not 75. It's a small room, relatively speaking. And so when you have a limited access point to something that a lot of people would have demand for, it seems rational to me, Buck, to look at the size of individual audiences of these news organizations and making a decision about how you reach the largest possible audience with your message. That seems eminently rational to me.
Buck Sexton
She spoke also about something that's getting a lot of attention from us and across the country, which is the Elon, I should say now, second email opportunity for federal workers to write five bullet points of what they had gotten done last week. This was. This whole concept was made famous when Elon wrote the CEO of Twitter in response to some like nonsense email, what have you gotten done this week? And that that CEO was not long for Twitter when he did not have a good answer when Elon took over. Because Twitter had become essentially a social justice organization that was just losing money hand over fist. Right. Twitter had become a very poorly run and very poorly operated entity unless the goal was to suppress conservative speech, elevate liberal idiots. And you know, that's what they were doing. Right. And you know, no more dead naming and use preferred pronouns. And that's that's what Twitter became. And now Elon has freed it from those shackles of lunacy. But for federal government employees, Clay, this is going to be interesting because a lot of them have not responded. Caroline Levitt spoke about this. This is cut25. This is in response to the second Elon email. He says if you don't respond to this one, you're actually going to get fired. Here's what White House Press Secretary Levitt says.
White House Press Secretary
All the Office of Personnel Management is asking, all this administration is asking, President is asking, is for federal workers who live off of the American taxpayers dime to send five bullet points of what they have done in the previous week. That is all we are asking for. And so the Office of Personnel and Management sent out additional guidance last night. Those responses should be directed to agency leadership. And the President defers to his cabinet secretaries who he's obviously entrusted to pursue the guidance relative to their plan specific workforce. And for some of the agencies that you've seen who have said, please don't send these emails, it's in their best interest for that specific agency. And the President supports that. And let me be very clear, the President and Elon is, his entire cabinet are working as one unified team and they are implementing these very common sense solutions.
Buck Sexton
What's unfair about this, Clay, You've, you've run, you've run your own company and you've had employees. Would you be okay with people getting an email from you like, hey, what have you done this week? And they're like, I don't have to respond to you, sir.
Clay Travis
No, I would fire him. And I actually think that having a job at a place is a privilege and that your job, when you work at a place that is designed to make money, you should be thinking at every moment of every day, how do I make my boss more money? How do I make the company more money? That's your job. This is not a charity. There are plenty of charities out there. I encourage all of you to donate to them to do great things. The purpose of any business is to make money. And if you're not aiding and abetting that, then you should be fired, in my opinion. I think a big part of this that Elon has figured out is that a lot of these people who are cashing government checks aren't even willing to check their email because they're working from home. They aren't doing anything. Some of them may have side gigs, side hustles where they're doing other things when they claim to be being paid by the taxpayer, we're funding this. Why should the gov. Why should we. We're paying all of these people salaries. Why should we not expect a high quality of work in exchange for our taxpayer dollars? I don't know about you, Buck. I would much rather figure out how to invest my own money and pay a lot lower tax rate. I think I could create a lot more jobs, all these things. But if I'm having to pay the rate that I am, nearly 40%, I want to know that the people that I am paying for are doing a bare minimum to justify their salaries.
Buck Sexton
Well, they see that's. I think what the second thing you said there is really the framework that we're working within. You said a moment ago, I think we can expect high quality work. We should be able to. But what we're looking at, my standard.
Clay Travis
Is if I'm paying for you, I should get high quality work.
Buck Sexton
Right, You're. But see that's the private sector mentality. That's like startup running a company mentality. What Elon is dealing with is what is the second thing you said, which is can, can we expect you to do anything? I am telling you, this is the truth. There are a lot, because I saw it myself, there are a lot of people within the federal government who don't do anything. They show up, they sit at a computer, they go on a 30 minute coffee break. They sit back at their computer, they read the New York Times, they then go hang out in the break room for another, you know, 45 minutes. They sit down, they see if there's any emails. They then go for a walk outside. I mean, and I don't mean they're like, I knew one guy, this is common in a lot of these places.
Clay Travis
There are people in an office. Imagine what these people are doing from home.
Buck Sexton
Right, Right. Well, that's. We at least had to show up when we were.
Clay Travis
That's what I'm saying. Like at least you had to put forth the effort to pretend a lot of these guys are eating Cheetos and watching Netflix while they're claiming that they're doing taxpayer jobs.
Buck Sexton
Well, I bet a lot of people, and this will be. If there were, if they were reasonably smart about their con. I bet there are a lot of federal employees who were working off book somewhere. Think about this. You get to, you get to have your job working remote at the Department of Commerce or Agriculture or whatever. You know, think of an even less important agency and you get to keep, you get to get your federal salary and maybe you can go and you can take a shift as a, as a bartender or you could go, you know, you start to double dip, right? I mean, this is.
Clay Travis
Yes, you have a side hustle. That's what I'm saying. Like you're an Uber driver, right? I mean, you're like, hey, you know what? I'm going to do something else.
Buck Sexton
Well, what I'm saying is if you're smart, you're doing it in cash. Because if they find out that you're doing this on company, the one thing that this, they always told me this. And in the CIA. True. Across the federal government, the one thing that will nail you is time and attendance fraud. Now, that's a lot harder when you have work from home, right? But if you have to be in a facility for your job and you're out somewhere else doing something else, that is, you can be turned.
Clay Travis
Why they don't want to come in to the office anymore. Right.
Buck Sexton
Because it makes it easier to track what's going on.
Clay Travis
Right.
Buck Sexton
And this is for all these different agencies. So. But look at the pushback on this. I, I mean, look at the, And I will tell you to my point about the 20% in my CIA office, in the Iraq office, people were staying till 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. People are coming back from their, you know, fifth deployment overseas to a war zone. Like, there are people doing real stuff in some of these places. I want to be very clear about that. There are people that, you know, people I had friends who got very grievously wounded. I mean, you know, this is real stuff, okay? But there are a lot of people at these agencies who aren't doing squat. And that's where you really got to figure out what's going on.
Clay Travis
I don't have an objection to work from home. If you are incredibly productive, if you are able to do a lot of what you're doing, and a lot of people are working from home and doing a great job. Now you have to go out for meetings, all these different stuff, like you just stay at home. But the idea that it's the default that basically everybody gets to work from home is no way you can run a business. And I don't think it's any way you can run a government. Look, we told you yesterday, great news out of Israel. Over the weekend, six hostages returned. And when I was in Israel last December, our partner, the ifcj, that's the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, they arranged a meeting with one of the fathers. And as a dad myself, heartbreaking to hear his story. And that's why I was so elated that his son was released after 500 days. Two birthdays in control by Hamas. But many other families unfortunately aren't going to get to have that kind of amazing reunion. It looks like a lot of the remaining hostages are going to be returning in coffins. That's why it's important we keep standing with our brothers and sisters in Israel. You can do that as well by visiting supportifcj.org did you see the story about the babies? Basically the two young Jewish children taken from near Oz, one of whom was 10 months old. Saw a video of the 4 year old loved Batman running on the ground in near Oz, a place that we visited in the kibbutz where they were kidnapped from. That's what evil is. That's what evil does. And your ongoing monthly gift of $45 will help provide critically needed aid to communities in the north and the south devastated by the horrors of war. Provide hope during a time of great uncertainty with your gift@supportifcj.org that's one word. Supportifcj.org you can also call 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888488 IFC. Hello, it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacasino.com I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing. They were also playing Chumba Casino. Everybody's loving having fun with it. Chumba Casino is home to hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere. So sign up now@chumbacasino.com to claim your free welcome bonus. That's chumbacasino.com and live the Chumbalife sponsored by Chumba Casino.
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Clay Travis
Couple of news stories buck that I wanted to hit you with that are good news. And then we got some talkbacks. Philadelphia Eagles Remember we talked about this yesterday. The mega viral story about how the Eagles were going to turn down an invitation to the White House. I told you I talked to somebody at the White House. They said no invitation had been extended. They now the Eagles have said they cannot wait. I'm paraphrasing. They are super excited to go to the White House. I think in many ways the era of oh, we're not going to go to the White House because we don't believe in the person who's There. I think that era in sports is collapsing. So that news out yesterday, I wanted to follow up with it. One other bit of news did you see, because I just came back from Chicago, so I may be more fascinated by this than most. Did you see, Buck, what the approval rating is for Brandon Johnson, the mayor of Chicago who has replaced Lori Lightfoot? Did you see what his approval rating was, Buck?
Buck Sexton
Oh, I did, I did.
Clay Travis
For those of you out there about.
Buck Sexton
What the Rotten Tomatoes should be for Axel F on Beverly Hills, copy that is.
Clay Travis
That is an assault upon the excellent cinematic genius of Eddie Murphy and the most recent Beverly Hills Cop. 6% approval. I've never seen a politician ever have a 6% approval rating. Chicago managed to do the impossible. They picked someone worse than Lori Lightfoot to be their new, to be their absolute new mayor here. A couple of talk backs. We've got a guy out there who wants to weigh in on me saying steak is fairly healthy. He wasn't happy with me. I think that's CC.
Buck Sexton
I, a 10 ounce steak has 650 calories. That's a lot of calories. Okay, hold on, hold on. Let, now, let me, let me say.
Clay Travis
Let me explain something voice, by the way, Buck, that sounded like, like he just stepped right out of the, the MMA ring, just choked somebody out.
Buck Sexton
Maybe he's got a sour ear.
Clay Travis
I wouldn't have expected a guy who sounds like that to be calling in complaining about the amount of calories that a steak would have.
Buck Sexton
So I would say this. It's important to note that different steaks have very different calorie counts per ounce. So your, for example, your sirloin is going to be low calorie, your filet mignon a little more than the sirloin, but still pretty low calorie all the way up to when you get to like a New York strip, which is honestly one of my favorites, that's higher because of the marbleization of the fat. And then you get to ribeye. That's, that's, that's usually going to be the highest calorie count for most of the standard cuts of, of red meat you'd get. And if you get into the wagyu, I mean true wagyu stuff, you're basically eating meat butter, so you don't need much of that stuff. But are you, are you a Japanese wagyu, a five guy.
Clay Travis
I got to tell you much I love steak. I absolutely love it. It's usually not steak that makes you fat. It's all of the things you eat.
Buck Sexton
With the Steak, it's the quick sides, it's the mashed potatoes and all that stuff.
Clay Travis
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Buck Sexton
We're talking here about the situation of Ukraine. Let's dive into it. First off, TR Trump is taking his own approach to foreign policy. And one thing that I think we should all keep in mind, whether it's talking about Gaza or Ukraine or anything else, is he has gotten better results. And I'm talking about his first term. You can add in a lot of stuff that's been going on now. He has gotten better results from foreign policy than the people who are constantly criticizing everything he says about foreign policy. So this is when you, when you look at his record versus the opposition, and that isn't just Democrats, that's more of the DC Swamp, Foreign policy consensus, think tank, foreign affairs subscriber set, right? They think they know better. Meanwhile, Trump's gotten better results. I mean, compare him to Biden, for example, and it's, it's preposterous. But compare him to any reason the Obama administration foreign policy was abominable. It was awful. Ok? It was awful in Libya, it was awful in Syria, it was awful in Afghanistan. I mean, just disaster everywhere. So keep that in mind. And that's eight years of it. So here's what Trump. This is Trump laying out what the vision's supposed to be. This is cut 18. Play it.
Donald Trump
I've been elected by the American people to restore common sense to Washington and indeed to the world. And I believe strongly that it's in the best interest of the United States, the best interest in Europe, the best interest of Ukraine, and indeed the best interest of Russia to stop the killing now and bring the world to peace. My administration is making a decisive break with the foreign policy failures of the past administration and frankly, the past. I ran against a very foolish foreign policy establishment and their record recklessness has led to the death of many, many people under our administration. We're forging a new path that promotes peace around the world.
Buck Sexton
The promotion of peace, ending a conflict where hundreds of thousands of people are being chewed up by artillery fire and IEDs and drones and all. And people want to undermine him in this. Why isn't everyone, at least right now, Clay, rooting for success here. I'm even seeing some Republicans saying that he's selling out Ukraine because the meat grinder should continue forever.
Clay Travis
I don't think people understand how negotiation works still with Trump. He comes out and he is sometimes outrageous, outlandish in his proposals and his public commentaries and it creates a jumble of uncertainty. And then he comes back in oftentimes and ends up with a proposal that is not where he floated but is actually a very reasonable outcome. And I just don't understand how people still don't see this, that this is sort of, for lack of a better way, the art of the public deal that Trump has in some ways perfected. And just right now, Buck, breaking news. Ukraine has agreed to sign a mineral rights agreement to give 50% of future profits for Ukrainian materials minerals to the United States taxpayer. And this was their people were saying as recently as the earlier this week, oh, look at Trump turn his back on Zelensky. Sometimes in order to get peace, you have to move a little bit towards the other side and then you come back towards the other side and, and you're constantly almost a seesaw. And you can't just say one side is bad and the other side is good and find your way to a negotiated settlement. It doesn't work that way. And so you have to give some things to Russia, some things to Ukraine. And I just, every time they say that it's going to be calamity and it's going to be a disaster. It feels to me like Trump actually upsets the prevailing sentiment, disrupts it and gets us to a better place that the so called professionals would not have been capable of getting us to. Does that make sense? It feels like this happens all the time.
Buck Sexton
Well, you look at the first Trump administration again, I think the foreign policy record speaks resoundingly here. What Is what is the huge disaster? What is the blunder of Trump foreign policy? And over. Over the course of four years now, you could say it's really over the course of three years, because with COVID foreign relations kind of shut down, at least in the traditional way. Right. I mean, all of a sudden everyone was just hunkering down. Although there was, you know, the China virus. I mean, there's a lot of foreign policy that you could speak of, but there wasn't really a lot of deal making and stuff going on in the traditional sense during COVID But in Trump's first term, what were the big. What were the big negatives? What were the big losses? I could sit here and I could do a three hour show on the disasters of the Obama Biden foreign policy axis. Remember, Biden was brought in to be Obama's foreign policy brain. True, true stuff. Everybody, people forget that now. Biden's place on the Obama ticket was he's the foreign policy genius and he's a moron. All right? Everybody in foreign policy knows that Biden's been wrong more and more egregiously over the last 50 years than probably anyone else in American public life. So we could sit here and go through all those losses. I think Trump has shown that his, to your point, Clay, breaking the old molds approach has been successful enough already in this term in some ways, but I will give it a little more time. But certainly successful enough in his first four years that the guy deserves the space to try to get it done. He's not saying, let's, you know, start a nuclear war with Russia. He's not saying crazy things. He's trying to achieve goals that we should all want, all want. Even Democrats should want the war in Ukraine to end. And the fact that he does it through non traditional means only makes sense when you realize the traditional foreign policy axis, Clay, and consensus got us to this point. Three years of carnage, no end in sight, hundreds of billions of dollars. And what, putting Ukraine flags in your bio? You know, that's the big achievement of the foreign policy apparatus.
Clay Travis
He was gonna sneeze. Yeah, I had to sneeze there for a sec. Here's the other thing that's gonna happen, Buck. We're now gonna have 50% of Ukrainian materials, their natural resources going forward. But for Russia, for Russia, we're going to get, I think, Buck, as a part of this deal, a huge amount of American assets that were left behind in Russia during the boycott in the wake of the Ukraine invasion. I think we're going to end up getting back hundreds of billions of dollars in American company assets as a part of a peace deal with Russia, too. In other words, people say, ok, yes, the primary goal is we want to end young men, almost exclusively young men dying in a stalemated war where nothing is really changing. Now, basically, you have two sides dug in, and there isn't much ground being gained in either direction. And that is where we're going to be for years and years to come appears to be the reality. Okay, now Trump is coming in. The American taxpayer is potentially going to get back all of the money that we spent on Ukraine and more through this mineral rights agreement. And the American business entity, all of those, many of those that had assets in Russia, are going to get back hundreds of billions of dollars in assets that they were forced to give away as a part of our boycott of Russia. So we're going to gain resources from both sides, and we're going to have far fewer people dying violently in a war again. In an honest world, Trump would get the Nobel Peace Prize for this. Everybody says we can't have any solution to Ukraine, Russia. Trump comes into office. And right now, Buck, I would bet by May 1, if you asked me, we will have peace in Ukraine. Based on what I am seeing, and everybody told us that Trump's coming into office, they said, oh, it's not going to change anything. Oh, there's no way to end this war. I hope the ceasefire holds in the Middle East. That wouldn't have happened without Trump. And now we may be close to a ceasefire and a form of peace in Ukraine, and that wouldn't have happened without Trump. And let me just say this. People may say, okay, what's the negative? Here's something that I do think could be a negative. Once we take 50% of Ukraine's mineral rights, it actually becomes potentially a major issue if Russia decides to invade again. Because then not only are they invading, Buck, but they're invading and trying to take away an American asset. And we may not have boots on the ground, but if those assets of minerals are worth potentially, which seems to be the report, trillions of dollars into the future, certainly hundreds of billions of dollars into the future, then our economic interest could actually create an issue with Russia in the future. Now, the argument against that would be, well, without having to put boots on the ground, the United States is providing some form of security for Ukraine through our commoditized interest in their mineral rights. I do think if you want to spin out something into the future, what would happen if Russia tried to take away those mineral rights. Would the United States allow that to happen? Could that create conflict? Those are concerns because Russia has invaded multiple times into Ukraine. But in the meantime, this feels to me like a pretty rational compromise that's designed to try and just get us to a place where less people are dying.
Buck Sexton
Well, it's also a recognition that people and nation states are really guided by interests. I mean, we can talk about principle, and principle is a nice thing to have, but ultimately we're guided by our interests and our decisions should be made along what are in U.S. interest. We saw this even with USAID or USAID. It was, for a lot of people, some kind of revelation that it's not a global charity, it's supposed to pursue, and this is why it got way off its mission. It's supposed to pursue programs that advance U.S. interests that also provide, you know, funding and a service to some foreign external entity. Yeah, but those things are. It's not a global charity. It's not the, you know, $40 billion soup kitchen fund for the rest of the world. That's not what it's supposed to be. And for foreign policy to be run along interests instead of, you know, ephemeral and vague. I mean, I think ephemeral and vague principle in the context of war and peace gets you to endless war. Oh, you know, we can't stop this because if we do, then, you know, the terrorists have won or whatever, then Putin, the evil. The evil guy has won. Well, what will get us to an end in this conflict? A. A negotiated settlement and a settlement that brings European peacekeepers perhaps into the mix so that they've got skin in the game. And also that brings us strategic interests in mineral rights and, you know, let's be honest, the financial interest in this, I think this is the way that we actually should run our foreign policy, which is to say, yeah, we're getting something out of this. And if Russia wants to cause problems, they're causing problems for us. They're not just making us sad because they're being mean to somebody that's not us.
Clay Travis
We also get many of the benefits that Ukraine wanted from Naito without the guarantee that we're going to go to war with Russia. So it feels like a very reasonable compromise to me and something that we were told was impossible. And yet to me, if I were setting a over under deadline on when I think a ceasefire might take effect, I would say May 1. And the reason some of you may say, why would you say May 1? Because in the spring, when all of this starts to thaw. Maybe April 1st is even a better example. That's when the fighting tends to get ratcheted up. Which is why solving it now while it's still very cold, muddy, snowy, hard to move men in material. Now is the time to get this deal in place and take care of it. Look, I want to tell you. Maybe you're out there and you're a history wannabe nerd. Maybe you haven't read as much history as both Buck and I have read over the years. Maybe you wanna know more about what caused World War I. Maybe you've been paying attention to Ukraine, Russia, and you're cognizant of the fact this is the biggest war in Europe since World War II and you want to know more about what happened in World War II. Heck, maybe you're out there right now and you're a little bit like me and you sometimes think, hey, I wish I knew more about the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans and the foundations of our government. You can dive into those histories. You can also dive into the history of the Constitution, Federalist Papers, Mark Twain. Whatever you are interested in, by and large there is a course that you will love at Clay and buck for hillsdale.com let me give you that website. Just go check it out for yourself. 40 courses, no time limits, no grades. Just learning for learning steak. You will absolutely love it to be able to just increase your overall knowledge. Clay and buck4hillsdale.com no cost at all. It's learning for learning sake. How much fun would that be for you? Go check it out. See what you're most interested in on your own time at clay&buck4hillsdale.com Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, believes we're endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. GCU believes in equal opportunity and the American Dream. Starts with purpose. GCU equips you to serve others in ways that promote human flourishing and create a ripple effect of transformation for generations to come. By honoring your career, calling you impact your family, your friends and your community. You can change the world for good by putting others before yourself to glorify God. Whether your pursuit involves a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree, GCU's online, on campus and hybrid learning environments are designed to help you achieve your unique academic, personal and professional goals. With over 340 academic programs as of September 2024, GCU meets you where you are and provides a path to help you fulfill your dreams. The pursuit to serve others is yours. Let it flourish. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University Private christian affordable visit gcu.edu if you.
Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
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Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
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Caroline Levitt
Com the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl Champions.
Clay Travis
It's over. Fly Eagles, fly.
Caroline Levitt
Celebrate the big win with the official licensed Super Bowl Champions gear, available now@nflshop.com.
Clay Travis
The Eagles win at Super Bowl 59.
Caroline Levitt
From jerseys to hats to must have collectibles, we've got everything you need to rep your team with pride. Don't wait. These styles won't last. Shop now@nflshop.com and gear up like a champion.
Junior
On January 27, it is international Holocaust Remembrance Day. We remember the great horrors, the evil of the Holocaust. Millions and millions, millions of Jews were slaughtered during the Nazi reign of terror. Now today we are witnessing the rise of global anti Semitism, the constant attacks on Israel, showing us that it is more important than ever to remember the atrocities of the Holocaust and to ensure it never happens again. We have proudly partnered with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Now they provide food, shelter, safety to so many Israelis in Israel as they fight against radical Islamic terrorism in our time, including those remaining Holocaust survivors. Your donation today will help provide food, water, medicine and other bare necessities to Jewish communities. Go to their website. It's supportifcj.org that supportifcj.org or call toll free 888-488ifcj 888-488ifcj today, closing up shop.
Clay Travis
Here with all of you as you've been tracking a lot of different moving parts. Let me story here. Buck, I don't know, you like Star wars, right? Like you grew up watching all the Star War movies, Star wars movies and everything else.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, I would say I like it. I'm not a die hard fan. Like, I don't wear, I don't dress up like Obi Wan and have a lightsaber at the premiere kind of a thing.
Clay Travis
But yeah, well, I liked it. But then also my boys, my three kids were all in. So I went through it as both kid who grew up a fan of Star wars and then dad whose kids were. This is for many of you out there, a story that's very positive. They have fired Kathleen Kennedy. She is the woman who has been blamed for destroying the Star wars franchise. As they've had to put a pause in making these movies, the revenues collapsed. They basically went super woke. As many of you know out there who were fans of Star Wars. She's out. So dei, this sort of woke Disney universe continues to give up the ghost a bit more every single day. And I give credit to Donald Trump, by the way. Cool video out there. They opened back up the White House for tours. I didn't know that it had been closed for years. First group walking through, Donald Trump surprised them. Really, really cool. Can you imagine getting to go on a White House tour? How exciting that is? I did it as a kid and then the president just comes by and shakes hands with everybody. Really kind of awesome. I thought moment. And we have that cut 26 that happened a little bit earlier today. Listen, but I want to thank you.
Donald Trump
Very much for coming. The tour is so great. Such a good job. First lady worked very hard at making it perfect and I think you're going.
Clay Travis
To really love it.
Donald Trump
And I heard you were here and I said let's stop by and say hello. Very smart looking people, I must say.
Clay Travis
Very smart.
Donald Trump
Maybe someday you'll be here as a president. Right? Somebody in this group has a chance. Have a good time, have a great tour and you're going to give them a special tour.
Junior
Okay?
Donald Trump
You're going to get a special tour. Have fun, everybody.
Clay Travis
Mark, you know this. I think a lot of our audience, audience has, oh, they started chanting, usa. That is just awesome. A lot of our audience has come to get this. Trump's retail politicking skills are off the charts. Good. I mean, just interacting with people like.
Buck Sexton
That, there is honestly no person on earth that would be more fun and entertaining to get a White House tour from than Donald Trump, actually. Really? Like, really a Donald Trump? I mean, think about what that could go for. A charity auction. Donald Trump giving you a White House tour would be incredible because he would tell you, you know, slightly off color and hilarious stories about different, you know.
Clay Travis
People that frankly may or may not be true would be wildly entertaining. Not sure. By the way, Buck, praise for you as we finish here. The show Junior in Hicksville, New York. Hey, Buck. This here's Junior living up in Hicksville, New York. That's Long island to the rest of you. So it's good to see you eating steak, buddy. Instead of that pistachio business you've been eating. It means that you eat a steak. You're being a man now. You go on, eat that steak.
Buck Sexton
I was always eating steak and pistachio creme brulee. I could have both Clay Travis and.
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton on the front lines of truth.
Caroline Levitt
The Philadelphia Eagles are Super bowl champions.
Clay Travis
It's over. Fly, Eagles, fly.
Caroline Levitt
Celebrate the big win with the official licensed super bowl champions gear, available now@nflshop.com.
Clay Travis
The Eagles win at Super Bowl 59.
Caroline Levitt
From jerseys to hats to must have collectibles, we've got everything you need to rep your team with pride. Don't wait. These styles won't last. Shop now@nflshop.com and gear up like a champion.
Summary of "Hour 3 - Trump's Foreign Policy"
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Release Date: February 25, 2025
In the third hour of their February 25, 2025 episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton delve into a comprehensive analysis of former President Donald Trump's foreign policy. The discussion weaves through recent developments in the White House press protocols, federal employee accountability, and an in-depth examination of Trump's strategies and their implications on international relations, particularly focusing on Ukraine and Russia.
Timestamp: [03:56] - [05:19]
The episode begins with Buck Sexton addressing changes announced by White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt regarding the restructuring of the White House press pool. Buck asserts, “the Democrat media for a long time has actually been more important than the Democrat politicians,” highlighting the significant influence media has wielded over political narratives and outcomes.
Clay Travis concurs, emphasizing the evolving media landscape: “...making a decision about how you reach the largest possible audience with your message.” The hosts interpret Levitt’s statement as a move to democratize press access based on audience size rather than traditional media hierarchies.
Levitt's announcement is pivotal as she states, “we are going to give the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch your television shows and who listen to your radio stations.” This shift is perceived by Travis and Sexton as an effort to empower a broader range of media outlets, potentially balancing the longstanding dominance of established Democratic-leaning media organizations.
Timestamp: [07:05] - [14:05]
Buck Sexton shifts the conversation to recent directives requiring federal employees to submit five bullet points detailing their weekly accomplishments. Referencing what he terms “Elon’s second email opportunity,” Buck critiques the administration’s approach to federal workforce accountability.
Clay Travis responds fervently, stating, “I would fire him... the purpose of any business is to make money. And if you're not aiding and abetting that, then you should be fired, in my opinion.” This underscores their belief in stringent accountability measures within the federal government, aligning with private sector standards.
The discussion progresses to the inefficiencies observed in remote federal work setups. Buck highlights, “There are a lot of people within the federal government who aren't doing squat,” pointing to widespread time and attendance fraud. Clay adds, “Imagine what these people are doing from home,” suggesting that remote work environments have exacerbated productivity issues among federal employees.
They further debate the feasibility of maintaining high productivity standards in government roles, contrasting it with the private sector's expectations. Buck emphasizes the need for immediate accountability to ensure taxpayer dollars are effectively utilized.
Timestamp: [24:06] - [35:48]
The core of the episode centers on evaluating Donald Trump's foreign policy initiatives. Buck Sexton posits, “Trump has gotten better results from foreign policy than the people who are constantly criticizing everything he says,” positioning Trump's strategies as more effective compared to previous administrations, particularly those of Obama and Biden.
Clay Travis supports this assertion by reflecting on Trump's negotiation tactics: “Trump is coming in. The American taxpayer is potentially going to get back all of the money that we spent on Ukraine and more through this mineral rights agreement.” They argue that Trump's unconventional methods lead to pragmatic and economically beneficial outcomes.
A pivotal moment in the discussion is Clinton's examination of Trump's recent statements aimed at mitigating ongoing conflicts. Buck references Trump’s declaration: “I've been elected by the American people to restore common sense to Washington and indeed to the world... we are forging a new path that promotes peace around the world,” noting it as a stark departure from traditional foreign policy approaches.
The hosts compare Trump's foreign policy favorably against that of Obama and Biden, criticizing the latter for their "abominable" records in regions like Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan. They argue that Trump's decisive and interest-driven strategies are more aligned with national and global stability.
Timestamp: [03:36] - [35:48]
A significant highlight of the episode is the discussion on the Ukraine Mineral Rights Agreement. Clay Travis elaborates, “Ukraine agrees to grant 50% of future profits from its mineral rights to American taxpayers,” suggesting that this deal not only bolsters U.S. economic interests but also serves as a catalyst for peace in the region.
Buck Sexton adds, “This aligns U.S. interests with global stability and economic gains,” interpreting the agreement as a strategic move to incentivize Ukraine towards peace negotiations with Russia. They foresee this agreement leading to the reclamation of American assets from Russia, thereby strengthening the U.S. economic position while contributing to the cessation of hostilities.
Clay forecasts optimism about peace prospects: “I would bet by May 1, if you asked me, we will have peace in Ukraine,” citing Trump’s negotiation style as the key factor that could bring an end to the prolonged conflict.
However, they also acknowledge potential future challenges, such as Russia’s response to the U.S. holding significant mineral rights interests in Ukraine. Clay speculates, “if Russia decides to invade again,” this economic stake could deter further aggression, though it raises questions about long-term peace sustainability.
Timestamp: [20:24] - [22:31]
The episode features listener interaction, notably a call from Junior in Hicksville, New York, who critiques Buck Sexton’s dietary choices. The hosts engage humorously, discussing the caloric content of steaks versus other food items. Buck provides a detailed breakdown of different steak cuts and their calorie counts, emphasizing moderation and informed choices.
Clay shares his passion for steak, countering misconceptions about its role in weight gain: “It's usually not steak that makes you fat. It's all of the things you eat.” This lighter segment serves to humanize the hosts and provide relatable content amidst the heavier political discussions.
Timestamp: [42:02] - [44:30]
Transitioning to lighter news, Clay and Buck discuss the reopening of White House tours under Donald Trump's interaction with visitors. They recount a video featuring Trump greeting touring guests, praising his ability to connect with the public: “...the tour is so great. Such a good job. First lady worked very hard at making it perfect.”
Buck Sexton highlights Trump’s “retail politicking skills,” suggesting that his personable demeanor and entertaining interactions bolster his public image. Clay adds, “Donald Trump giving you a White House tour would be incredible because he would tell you, you know, slightly off color and hilarious stories,” underscoring Trump’s unique approach to public engagements.
Timestamp: [28:06] - [39:42]
Throughout the episode, Clay and Buck promote educational initiatives, notably Hillsdale College courses available at clay&buck4hillsdale.com. They encourage listeners to engage in self-education on historical and governmental topics, aligning with their advocacy for informed citizenship.
Additionally, they mention partnerships with organizations like Grand Canyon University and support initiatives with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, integrating these promotions seamlessly into their discussions.
Timestamp: [45:04] - [45:31]
As the episode concludes, Clay and Buck reiterate their support for Trump's foreign policy achievements, particularly the Ukraine Mineral Rights Agreement. They express confidence in Trump's ability to secure lasting peace agreements, positioning his strategies as both economically sound and conflict-resolving.
Clay wraps up with enthusiasm for upcoming peace prospects: “... we're going to have peace in Ukraine,” reinforcing the episode's central thesis on the effectiveness of Trump’s foreign policy maneuvers.
Buck Sexton [25:00]: “I've been elected by the American people to restore common sense to Washington and indeed to the world... we are forging a new path that promotes peace around the world.”
Clay Travis [28:06]: “I would bet by May 1, if you asked me, we will have peace in Ukraine.”
Buck Sexton [25:45]: “Trump has gotten better results from foreign policy than the people who are constantly criticizing everything he says.”
Clay Travis [09:28]: “I would fire him... the purpose of any business is to make money. And if you're not aiding and abetting that, then you should be fired, in my opinion.”
In this episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton provide a robust defense of Donald Trump's foreign policy, contrasting it sharply with previous administrations. They argue that Trump's unconventional and interest-driven strategies have yielded more effective and practical outcomes, particularly in the context of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. The hosts blend serious political analysis with relatable commentary and listener interactions, offering a comprehensive perspective aimed at informing and persuading their audience about the merits of Trump's approach to international relations.