Best of the Program | Guests: Russell Vought & Douglas Murray | 5/9/25

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Glenn Beck Program
Episode: Best of the Program | Guests: Russell Vought & Douglas Murray
Release Date: May 9, 2025
Host: Glenn Beck
Network: Blaze Podcast Network

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Introduction

In this special compilation episode of The Glenn Beck Program, host Glenn Beck engages in insightful and provocative discussions with distinguished guests Russell Vought and Douglas Murray. Released on May 9, 2025, the episode delves into pivotal topics ranging from the unprecedented selection of an American Pope to the intricacies of U.S. fiscal policy and the role of expertise in public discourse. This summary captures the essence of these conversations, highlighting key points, notable quotes, and the overarching themes addressed.

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1. The American Pope: An Unexpected Turn in the Catholic Church

Guest: John Henry Weston, Co-founder and CEO of LifeSiteNews.com
Timestamp: [03:11] – [17:07]

Key Discussions:

• Announcement of the American Pope: John Henry Weston provides a firsthand account of witnessing the election of an American-born Pope during the conclave in Rome. He describes the crowd's reaction and the surprise surrounding the Pope's American identity.

• Background on Pope Francis and Bishop Strickland: Weston contrasts the new Pope with the recently ousted Bishop Strickland, highlighting internal conflicts within the Catholic Church. Bishop Strickland's removal is attributed to his opposition to Pope Francis's progressive stances on issues like abortion, contraception, and divorce.

• Hope for Change: Despite initial apprehensions, there is an undercurrent of optimism that the American Pope may steer the Catholic Church towards a more orthodox and unified stance. Weston emphasizes the potential for the Pope's role to influence and restore traditional values within the church.

Notable Quotes:

• Weston on Bishop Strickland's Removal:
  "He was the holiest bishop in the whole church in America... he went up against the machine. Francis was going anti-Catholic in his teaching, and so Strickland was one of the only ones who spoke up."
  [07:03]

• Weston on the New Pope's Blessing:
  "He goes to give his first blessing as Pope... he starts to tear up as he gives the blessing. I thought no signs of hope and hopefully signs of conversion, whatnot."
  [13:38]

• Weston on the Role of the Pope:
  "The Pope is not about making his own rules. He can't change anything to do with the religion at all. He's just there to enforce it, to bring unity in the faith and that there's only unity in the truth."
  [09:51]

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2. The Value of Expertise in Public Discourse

Guest: Douglas Murray, Author and Political Commentator
Timestamp: [18:22] – [29:10]

Key Discussions:

• Controversy Clarified: Douglas Murray addresses recent accusations claiming he stated, "don't listen to anybody unless they have an Oxford degree." He refutes these claims, emphasizing his stance that while everyone has the right to voice opinions, not all opinions hold equal weight, especially those lacking firsthand experience or expertise.

• Critique of Social Media Expertise: Murray criticizes the proliferation of uninformed opinions on social media platforms. He argues that expertise should be earned through substantial knowledge and experience, rather than self-proclaimed authority without substantive backing.

• Middle East Conflict Insights: Drawing from his time embedded with the Israeli Defense Forces, Murray contrasts the democratic values of Israel and the United States with the destructive nature of groups like Hamas, which he describes as a "death cult." He underscores the importance of understanding complex geopolitical issues beyond surface-level narratives.

• Humility and Confidence: The conversation touches on the balance between having confidence in one's knowledge while acknowledging the limits of that understanding. Both Murray and Beck reflect on the necessity of humility in discourse without undermining the assertion of informed viewpoints.

Notable Quotes:

• Murray on Equal Weight of Opinions:
  "Everybody has the right to say anything they like about anything. But that doesn't mean that all opinions should be regarded as being equal."
  [18:43]

• Murray on Social Media Ignorance:
  "The ignorance that social media in particular is able to push on people is extraordinary, not least because of the lack of humility."
  [23:05]

• Murray on Hamas vs. Democracies:
  "Having seen war up close, I know the difference between a death cult like Hamas and a democracy like Israel or the United States of America."
  [28:01]

• Glenn Beck's Reflection:
  "The only thing I'm certain of is that I'm not certain of anything... I need to understand more of the situation."
  [26:30]

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3. U.S. Fiscal Policy and the Presidential Budget Strategy

Guest: Russell Vought, Director at the Office of Management and Budget
Timestamp: [29:18] – [43:51]

Key Discussions:

• The Big Beautiful Bill: Vought outlines the administration's ambitious budget proposal aimed at achieving significant savings and tax relief. The plan includes a $1.5 trillion in savings and approximately $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, targeting both mandatory and discretionary spending.

• House Budget Process: Discussions revolve around the House of Representatives' efforts to pass the budget through key committees (Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce) with the hope of a floor vote the following week. Vought emphasizes the necessity of swift action to prevent fiscal paralysis.

• Debt and Interest Costs: With the national debt at $36 trillion and interest costs surpassing defense spending, Vought underscores the urgency of addressing the fiscal crisis. The proposed budget aims to reduce these burdens through strategic spending cuts and reforms.

• Tax Cuts and Reforms: The conversation touches on the extension of the first-term tax cuts, removal of taxes on overtime and tips, and the complexities of implementing deeper tax reforms amidst constrained fiscal space.

• Defense and Homeland Security Funding: Vought explains the decision to increase defense and homeland security budgets within the reconciliation bill to avoid partisan gridlock and ensure support for essential services without necessitating reciprocal spending increases.

• Administrative Reforms: The administration's efforts to streamline bureaucracy, reduce federal employee numbers, and implement executive tools like rescissions are highlighted as pivotal to achieving the budgetary goals.

Notable Quotes:

• Vought on Budget Goals:
  "The budget represents an effort to go back... it's a 35% cut for most programs when we account for maintaining infrastructure and veteran spending."
  [36:05]

• Vought on Debt and Interest:
  "We have $36 trillion in debt... the interest costs are above the defense spending at $1.9 billion."
  [32:31] – [32:46]

• Vought on Congressional Collaboration:
  "It's more like the early 1980s when Reagan first came in... Congress is saying, instead of we were going to ignore your budget, they said we want to hit your number."
  [39:48] – [41:01]

• Beck on Fiscal Urgency:
  "America... no country has ever survived this... we have to, and it just requires some really big boy pants to do it."
  [35:09]

• Vought on Budget Passage Optimism:
  "We're working through it right now... my hope is next week that they pass it out of committee."
  [31:18] – [31:41]

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Conclusion

This episode of The Glenn Beck Program encapsulates critical conversations on religious leadership within the Catholic Church, the importance of genuine expertise in public debates, and the pressing need for comprehensive fiscal reforms in the United States. Through engaging dialogues with John Henry Weston, Douglas Murray, and Russell Vought, Glenn Beck navigates complex subjects with candor and depth, providing listeners with a multifaceted understanding of contemporary issues shaping American society and politics.

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Notable Resources Mentioned:

• LifeSiteNews.com: [Domain Reference]
• PreBorn Ministry: [Promotion Skipped as per Instructions]
• Jase's Parasite Use Case Kit: [Promotion Skipped as per Instructions]
• Douglas Murray's Book: Israel and the Future of Civilization

For more in-depth discussions and full interviews, listeners are encouraged to download the complete episode from their preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[Glenn Beck]

Today is a podcast. You need to hear all of it. You can get the full podcast wherever you get your podcast. This is the best of and the best of. Today we talk about the Pope. John Henry Weston is with us. He is a Catholic over in Rome who knows the ins and outs of this current Pope. Tell me about him, the American Pope. Also, Russ Vogt from Washington, D.C. as they're preparing the new bill, the big beautiful bill for Congress. When is that going through? What is the status on it? What is the status of our debt and the cuts and this talk about raising the taxes on the rich? And one of the most important voices, I believe, of our time, Douglas Murray, joins me on today's podcast. All right, let me tell you about preborn. It is completely safe. The safest option, really. That's what countless women in crisis are told every day, often by strangers on screens or on the phone, sometimes by people they trust. But data tells a very different story. A recent study from the foundation for the Restoration of America involved 150,000 women. They found over 11% who took the abortion pill, which is totally safe, totally fine. You're never gonna even know. It's just no big deal. 11% experienced serious complications. That is a health crisis. And the fact that no one is talking about it in the media, well, that's a moral crisis. Preborn is working to change that. They're America's largest pro life ministry and, and they are offering ultrasounds, counseling and ongoing support for women who deserve to know the full truth. They need your voice alongside of theirs. If you're a business owner, could you consider writing a larger donation for a write off this year? A donation of 1,000, 2,000, even 10,000 will make such a difference. 15,000 will sponsor an ultrasound machine for a needy clinic, helping save countless babies lives for years to come. All gifts are tax deductible. Just dial £250, say the keyword baby. That's £250 keyword baby. Or find out all about it and [e-mail] Beck that's preborn.com Beck sponsored by Preborn. Hello America. You know we've been fighting every single day. We push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you. We work tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it. But to keep this fight going, we need you right now. Would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast? Give us five stars and leave a comment because every single review helps Us break through Big Tech's algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth. This isn't a podcast. This is a movement. And you're part of it, a big part of it. So if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up, help us push this podcast to the top rate, review, share together, we'll make a difference. And thanks for standing with us. Now, let's get to work.

[Stu Burguiere]

You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck Program.

[Glenn Beck]

Welcome to the. Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. We're so glad that you're here. We have John Henry Weston on with us. He is the co founder and CEO of LifeSiteNews.com he is over in Rome right now. He was there when they announced the new Pope, an American Pope. I don't know why that scares me just a little bit, you know? You know, would you like fries with that? I. Anyway, maybe it's because I know all the elites in the United States. Not so good, not so good. But anyway, I. I don't know anything about this. This guy. But the guy who does know is John Henry Weston and he is here with us now. Hi, John, how are you?

[John Henry Weston]

Very good to be with you, Glenn. I am literally standing in front of St. Peter's Basilica. We're sunny day and it is unbelievable what's just happened. We were walking around while the announcement was being made in the crush. Like, to walk around, you had to like, excuse yourself through people. You were in a crush of a crowd, kind of like a rock concert, but it was everywhere. All the streets filled and no one knew he was American because he didn't speak a word of English during the announcement from the logi on nothing.

[Glenn Beck]

I know.

[John Henry Weston]

And he speaks perfect English. He's American born. He's a Chicago boy.

[Glenn Beck]

So how you feeling about that one? Is it just me that's like. I don't know. I mean, you know, Bishop Strickland would be good. I'd go for that one. But what do we know about this guy?

[John Henry Weston]

Okay, so this is where it gets scary. So in the Catholic world, Bishop Strickland was the bishop, the holiest bishop in the whole church in America. Everybody knew it. The guy spent three hours of prayer a day in church. That was apart from his mass, in other words, the service that he himself says. So everybody knew he was the holiest. He got removed though, because he was. Well, he went up against the machine. Francis was going anti Catholic in his teaching on all sorts of issues, including, you know, fooling around with abortion, contraception, homosexuality, divorce. So all of it was going offline. And Strickland was one of the only ones who spoke up. You know, he is a, you know, a guy from Tyler, Texas, like, middle of nowhere, even. Even if you're in America. Have you heard of Tyler? And so, you know, the poor guy, he gets removed. Now, the problem is, when you're holy bishop like that, you attract people. There's a story about the cure of ours you guys can look up, and it's wonderful. You know, ho. Dunk town, middle of nowhere. And they built trains to it because they sent this holy priest there. Bishop is the same 700 families moved to Tyler, Texas, if you can believe it. And they, you know, and there was all sorts of priests, all sorts of religious orders moved there, and then he was yanked from them. So super sad story. But unfortunately, and much more so even now, it was done with the cooperation of our current pope. The reason being is our current pope was then the head of the Congregation for Bishops and was involved in doing an investigation on Strickland and in removing him. And you might think, oh, is there anything really wrong with Strickland? No. He had the best numbers in terms of per capita seminarians. His financial situation was in great shape, like the rest of them aren't. And, you know, there was just great things going on in the diocese. Unlike most places, they don't have any sexual abuse scandal or anything like that. What they had was a great bishop, so he was a holy one. And those holy ones are used to making noise sometimes.

[Glenn Beck]

So my podcast tomorrow that comes out everywhere is with Bishop Strickland. And we were talking during. When the smoke started, and we were recording this podcast, and. And so he asked when we. We get the name, he's like, what was the name? What's the name? What's the name? And I told him, and he said, oh, he's. He was the head of the Council of Bishops. And I said, what do you know about him? And he said, well, you know, there's some things that he's done that I don't necessarily agree with, but. But he did not. I mean, he. Honestly, I got the impression he really didn't know much about him. There's no way he didn't know about this guy, right?

[John Henry Weston]

Well, yeah, he also knew.

[Glenn Beck]

He's just being kind.

[John Henry Weston]

He would regard it true and he would regard it as worse than him. He wouldn't even think of himself in the scenario. But what's much worse. Well, from his perspective, is that he elevated that Francis elevated Cardinal McCarrick. Excuse me, that's a slip. That's a Freudian slip. Honestly. McElroy to Washington. And this is the thing that also had to be done with the current Pope. So now there's gonna be excuse, because the excuse, right away, look, that is. Pope Francis Will. What? Could you do it? You're the underling.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah.

[John Henry Weston]

If you object, you're just gonna get turfed anyway. Okay, that makes your lives kind of weak anyway. But let's, let's just say that's it. That's why the number one sign all of America, in fact, all the world, should be looking for is the restoration of Bishop Strickland. Bishop Strickland is still young for a bishop. There's no way he can be retired. He's a young man and he, like, he's. For a bishop, he's like 65. And so he has to be restored. If you want the true signal, the one sign that will indicate where Pope Leo XIV is coming from, watch Tyler, Texas, or wherever he's put, because if that man is not reinstated, there's something really wrong.

[Glenn Beck]

Wow. What else do you know about him? I mean, are there any good signs that maybe he's going to be different?

[John Henry Weston]

Well, there's this. Okay, so when, if you look up in history, there is a Pope called Pius the Ninth. He came in actually as kind of a liberal. Once he got elected, he. And, and, and there was a bit of kerfuffle in the world, especially in Italy. He converted, he had, he became Orthodox. He became, in fact, he became one of the most orthodox popes. He, he, he worked against all heresies.

[Glenn Beck]

Wait, wait, is that Pius? Is that, is that the Pope Pius? Was that the one in the 20th century?

[John Henry Weston]

No, that was before that one. Before that. That was Pius X you're thinking of. All right, but what, what, what that tells us is the grace of the office can change the man because literally all the world's Catholics pray for the Pope. So, you know, he gets bestowed on him this huge responsibility in office and position, if you will. And it's unlike a political position. It's a position established by Jesus. And he said. Jesus said to the first pope, to Peter, you know, I will pray for you. So it's a very, very specific kind of a role. So there's a great hope when it comes to the Pope and the possibility of change, even for weak men, because all men are weak. And yet he's called to fulfill almost a supernatural task, you know, to be the vicar of Christ on Earth, the representative of Jesus, for Jesus Church. He's not some kind of altered Jesus. He is just the representative of Jesus Church. And so he's. That's why the Pope is not about making his own rules. He can't change anything to do with the religion at all. He's just there to enforce it, to bring unity in the faith and that there's only unity in the truth. So he's there to basically uphold the truth of the faith.

[Glenn Beck]

Well, but you do know. I mean, you know this. You're Catholic, and so you know this. But I mean, look at the change that John Paul made in the world. I mean, it was. It was Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Pope John Paul that ended communism. And we just don't have those kinds of leaders. And this particular now Pope has been railing against Donald Trump. So it's. It's not exactly like he's friendly to Donald Trump or what Donald Trump is doing.

[John Henry Weston]

Yeah. And it's funny because he's a registered Republican in Chicago.

[Glenn Beck]

Is he really?

[John Henry Weston]

Which. That's. Yeah. So that's kind of odd. But at the same time, he's anti Trump. So what does that mean? It didn't strike me as healthy, particularly because, hey, if you look at his last tweet before he became Pope, it was from, like, April 15, you'll see it's bashing Trump's immigration policy. It's a retweet of somebody else bashing Trump's immigration policy. So that's pretty bad. He's real bad on immigration. And, you know, most of the bishops in the US Are, they either don't get it or choose not to get it, or they want to show favor with Francis, you know, but he seems to be on the same page also when it comes to things like Covid. There was very few people, honestly, Glenn, though, who were on the right side of the COVID thing, which is now plain and clear. But back then wasn't. So, you know, he was fully masked, talking to the media. He was back and forth about how you should receive Holy Communion at hand, which actually should be disastrous for Catholics. I don't know how that went down. He wanted confession by phone call, which doesn't even work. So those are oddities as well. But, you know, there were some signs of hope. Yes. About anything. Hopeful. There was. So when he got out there on the Loggia for the first time, Francis was, like, in his liturgical underwear. Relative, like this guy did. This guy went back to the traditional vestments of a pope. When you get out there, because these are thousand Year old traditions. Francis basically threw them out and just said, now I'm going to do my own thing. He went back to it. So that was interesting. He said lots of it in Latin and then he did something really neat. So you know how in the Bible it says at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every head shall bend?

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah.

[John Henry Weston]

Well, he did that. He was praying and at the name of Jesus, you could see, if you look at the camera close, you'll see he just, he slightly bows. And I thought, wow, that's a highest practice of many, many Catholics and Christians, scriptural understanding, where they literally do what the Scriptures say, bow their head in the name of Jesus. And then he did something else that I thought was really neat. He went to give his first blessing as Pope. And you know, it's in Latin because there's every country in the world standing out here and Latin's the one language that everybody understands. And he gives me this blessing and he starts to tear up as he gives me the blessing. I thought no signs of hope and hopefully signs of conversion, whatnot. And so we'll see there. There is hope that way. And there's other things that you could say. He was not nearly as far left as Francisco. So yes, there's hope and, you know, that's where we're at.

[Glenn Beck]

Well, the mood in Rome, what was it like when everybody realized, oh, crap, he's an American, I mean, that, that nobody expected that.

[John Henry Weston]

I don't think that happened till today when everybody went home and realized, because the guy's Italian's perfect, his Spanish is perfect. He was in Peru for the longest time. He. And on the Loggia, not a single word of English. The first time English came out was today, today in his first Mass as Pope. All the way through, they're going through the Mass and that's a bit Latin and very chant. And so it's for, for your, your American audience, for most of the audiences that'll look like Aladdin masks. It. It was, it was an Italian mask with a lot of Latin in it, which was kind of cool. But at the start of the homily, out comes perfect English. And you're like, oh, my gosh. Because this is the first time we have an American Pope, so we've never had this kind of an English that we could all inherently not only understand, but it's so clear. And you're like, whoa. So that's going to be something new because the American church is going to be reached in a way that it never has been because you're going to have absolute clarity of language, and we'll find out for good or for ill what that's going to mean. But, you know, despite all of what I know, and I know a lot, unfortunately, that's. It's not great. I'm still hopeful. We're called to be a people of hope. And I believe in conversions. I believe in miracles, and I'm looking forward to it. And if it's. You know, what if it's another Francis, if It's a Francis 2.0. The one great thing is our Lord said, I will be with you to the end of time. The gates of hell shall not prevail, and I will never give you a cross to heaven for you to bear.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah.

[John Henry Weston]

So.

[Glenn Beck]

And it always works out. It always works out to his advantage, you know, and. And which is always our advantage as well. So I'm. I am. I am hopeful and I pray for not only this new Pope, but also for all of the leadership from every religion in the world. We need them to stand up. They are critical.

[John Henry Weston]

Well, against. There's no other force against the wolf mob that has a chance.

[Glenn Beck]

John Henry Weston.

[John Henry Weston]

You know what?

[Glenn Beck]

Go ahead, real quick.

[John Henry Weston]

Yeah, you were made for this time. You, Glenn, and your listeners. Trust in that. Trust in the Lord. Pray, pray, pray, and remember, God loves you.

[Glenn Beck]

John Henry Weston. Thank you so much from lifesitenews.com lifesitenews.com you know, we've gotten used to thinking of parasites as a third world problem. I mean, I don't know. I mean, something that happens over there. I mean, really, I mean, I don't want to think that there are things living inside of us, but there are. It's actually more common than anybody realized, and they're often misdiagnosed or ignored and kind of gives me the heebie jeebies. I've been taking Ivermectin now once a month. See your doctor about that. But Jase has a parasite use case now, which is an emergency kit specifically designed to help you with fast taking care of parasites, okay? It contains Ivermectin and other powerful medicines that I can't name because I'm not a doc. Oh, my gosh. I am a doctor. Why can't I say those names? Anyway, go to jace.com. enter the promo code BECK at checkout for a discount on your order. That's promo code beckase.com jace.com now back to the podcast. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. Douglas Murray. Welcome to the program, sir. How are you?

[Stu Burguiere]

Very Good to be back with you.

[Glenn Beck]

Thank you. So, I mean, I hate to get into this because it's been talked about for so long, but I just. I think I agree with you, Douglas, and I just want to make sure that we're saying the same thing. Can you lay out the controversy that you've been embroiled in here recently?

[Stu Burguiere]

You mean? Sorry, because I tend to be embroiled in quite a lot of controversy. Which one are you talking about?

[Glenn Beck]

The one where you're accused of saying, don't listen to anybody unless they have an Oxford degree.

[Stu Burguiere]

Something which, of course, I never said.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, I know.

[Stu Burguiere]

Never would say. I think this is the controversy that came up from my recent appearance on Joe Rogan podcast. The simple thing I said, which has been, I think, misrepresented by a very large number of people deliberately, is that everybody has the right to say anything they like about anything. But that doesn't mean that all opinions should be regarded as being equal. And when I was brought on to debate, and it's not often in Joe Rogan's podcast he ever does that, he normally has people on. You just give their opinion and you can take it or leave it. But he felt that clearly that a pro Israel voice like mine had to be countered on air. And when I was talking about my recent book, recent bestseller on democracies and death cults, Israel and the Future of Civilization, I got into the weeds of what has been happening in the last two years in the Middle East. I got into it because, not just because I've written about it, but because I've seen it all up close. I spent the last couple of years mainly living and being embedded with the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza and in Lebanon and elsewhere. I've seen this war up close. And I discovered that the person I was being pitched against, who was wildly, wildly uninformed on issue after issue, was just spouting and spouting and spouting. Turned out never to have even been to the region. And I said, this is like if we were to discover the Chinese state media had somebody on all the time talking about America, claiming that America is a racist country, claiming that black Americans are currently being lynched and sold into slavery. If we discover that that person was rampaging across the Chinese media, but he had never been to America, didn't speak English, and obviously, so he's so wildly misinformed, we would regard that person as being almost comical in their ignorance, certainly malevolent. So why should it be that when there are people at home here in America, who are also just not informed, just as many British people are not informed about big situations in the world that they're talking about. Why should their opinion be regarded as being somehow sacrosanct? I don't think it is. And yes, I believe in standards. I believe that elites have let us down badly, experts have let us down badly, but it doesn't mean there is no such thing as expertise or comparative expertise in matters. And if people don't understand that and don't understand that, for instance, a journalist who goes and reports firsthand may well get things wrong, but it's a darn sight better than somebody who's never left their bedroom and thinks they know the world.

[Glenn Beck]

You know, I just read a quote. I think it was from Jefferson, and I've adapted it to modern times. The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but social media. He said newspapers. But I think that's. I think that's the kind of expert we have now that are running around. And I'm. I don't believe in. You have to be credentialed or. Or anything like that. I don't think you have to have a formal education. I don't think that hurts. But I think serious people can do serious study on their own, especially in today's world, and become an expert in a field. But, you know, you also have to have enough humility to go, look, I'm not an expert in this. I don't know. I've just done a lot of homework, and I'm open to different opinions, but here's what I found.

[Stu Burguiere]

Right. Absolutely. And there's a lot of good that can come from that. And we all do that to some extent. But that is, as you say, the ignorance that social media in particular is able to push on people.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah.

[Stu Burguiere]

Is extraordinary, not least because of the lack of humility. And one of the things in that debate, it was really me against Joe and the comedian he put me on with. One of the things that was startling about it was the sheer lack of humility of the guy I was debating. I mean, he seemed to think that he knew everything about Israel and the idf, despite never having been there or met anyone or spoken with anyone on the ground in the idf. And he seemed to think that he knew better than the Israeli Defense Forces how they should protect their people from another massacre like October 7th. Maybe the generals in the Israeli army and the politicians and others who have been losing family for the last 18 months fighting in Gaza, maybe they do know something. More than you have gleaned from social media, sitting in Austin, Texas. Maybe it's my view. I mean, people quite often say to me, you know, what would you, what do you, what would you tell this politician? Or what would you tell this general when you meet them? And I always say, I don't tell them anything. I listen. I listen because that's much, much more important, because they know more about the proximate causes of the conflict and what they're doing to prevent it. And when I hear and see these people. There was a guy, one of Joe Rogan's friends, who'd been cropping up on social media recently, and he accepted this challenge that I put out, which was if, you know, if you have a plan for how you would get 250 hostages back from the densely built up and booby trapped area of Gaza, and if you know how to get 250 hostages back and how to kill or capture all the leadership of Hamas, if you have a better plan than what the Israelis have been doing for the last 18 months, let me know and I will pass it it on to anyone I know in Jerusalem, okay? And one of these comedians decided to take up this challenge. And you know what he said? He said, among other things, he said, why don't they fight like men? Why? And you say, I'm sorry, I've been to the funerals of young men who had no desire to have to ever be in Gaza again, who lost their lives because they were fighting house to house with terrorists embedded in mosques and in hospitals and in civilian homes and cropping up from tunnels all over the place. And if the IDF and the Israeli Air force had wanted to level the place, they could have done, but they didn't because they wanted to minimize casualties on their opponent's side and minimize casualties on their own. And you have to put up with some doofus claiming that he's the real man and he knows because he's sitting in a podcast studio somewhere two continents away. And I think that is just objectionable on every level and displays a lack of humility and understanding that is almost pathological.

[Glenn Beck]

I tell you, Douglas, I mean, I think I struggled from this a little bit. I mean, I've done this job for almost 50 years now. But when I got into television, everything changes so rapidly. I was, I was pretty assured that I was right. I think we had a big, you know, I spent a lot of money on research and everything else had really good, you know, we were buttoned up. But when I left there and I was Reflecting on what I had done, I. I came to the understanding, and I think this just comes from maturity and experience. And that is the only thing I'm certain of, is that I'm not certain of anything. I don't. I don't know. I'm like you. I will ask questions, I will voice my opinion, I will voice what I do know. But that doesn't necessarily make it the absolute truth. I need to understand more of the situation.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yes, and you do do that. And, you know, one of the things, Glenn, is that all of us who I hope are curious and want to learn more and know more and understand things better, we have that instinct. But it also doesn't mean that on the things we know about, including the things we've seen with our own eyes, that we should be lacking in confidence to say what we know and what we see.

[Glenn Beck]

It's a really tough place to have, to have the confidence in what you do know, but you also have to have the humility to say, but I don't know everything.

[Stu Burguiere]

Right. And one of the things that I do know is that having seen war up close, not just in this conflict, but in others as well, I know what the difference is between a death cult, as I call Hamas, like a death cult like Hamas that fights for death, fights to bring death to its enemies, fights to bring death to its own side, even to its own children. I know the difference between the death cult like that and a democracy like Israel or the United States of America and our armies who fight for life, who fight to minimize casualties on our own side and fight to minimize casualties on the enemy side. And there is all the difference in the world between these two things.

[Glenn Beck]

Okay?

[Stu Burguiere]

So when I see people finding it complicated to tell the difference between a democracy and a death cop, I think they are lost.

[Glenn Beck]

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[John Henry Weston]

To hear more of this interview and others. Download the full show podcasts, wherever you get podcasts.

[Glenn Beck]

Russell Vogt, Office of Management and Budget. He is the director and. And one of my personal heroes, and I think yours too, Stu. Welcome to the program, Russell.

[Russ Vogt]

Thanks, Glenn. Appreciate having me on.

[Glenn Beck]

You bet. Okay, so I want to talk to you about the. The Republicans, because I believe they're kind of a waste of space. They are not doing the things that I think the President promised, and that is cut the budget and cut regulation in dramatic ways. And President Trump has been playing very, very nice with them, trying to get them to do what I think is something by passing the big, beautiful bill. Can you tell me where we stand on this and what's in it.

[Russ Vogt]

We're working through it right now. The House is. Has a. They're trying to meet their instructions. They basically passed a budget that would have a hundred or 1.5 trillion in savings and about four and a half trillion in tax relief. And they are working through to get a bill that can pass, and we're right there with them trying to get it done. And I think it would be, you know, big savings. We could go north of that. And I think that's the, that is the goal is to try to figure out how to make this a historic opportunity to both extend the tax cuts, do the tax cuts the President wanted to do on the, on the campaign, no tax on overtime, some other things, no tax on Social Security benefits, and then to really make sure that this is an opportunity to have some of the highest reforms to mandatory spending since the 1990s. And there's a lot that we can do in this area. And I think that the House right now is trying to put these bills together. You know, we spent so much time debating whether you have a couple bills or one bill. We lost some time in that, and we're trying to catch up. And I think they're hard at work, and we just got to be right there by them to help them get it done.

[Glenn Beck]

So when are we expecting this to be voted on and possibly go through?

[Russ Vogt]

My hope is next week that they pass it out of committee, the two big committees of Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce, and then go to Budget and set up a vote thereafter on the House floor. That's our hope. That's what we're working towards. I don't think they've noticed yet, the committees, but that's what we're.

[Glenn Beck]

Russ, can you do me a favor? I mean, I'm sure you've done this to Congress, but I don't know the American people really understand how dire this situation is. I mean, I got a letter from a family member who I just love dearly a couple of weeks ago, and he said, glenn, you know what the President is doing? And I said, well, what the President is doing is trying to save the country from the great reset, because a reset is coming. And you want it to be towards shareholder capitalism, not stakeholder capitalism. But with our debt the way it is, the interest rates that we're now paying bigger than the defense budget, no country has ever survived this. Can you give us some idea on how serious. I mean, Congress needs to move a little quicker.

[Russ Vogt]

That's the, you know, look, we have $36 trillion in debt. As you, you know, when I left office the first time under President Trump, we had about $300 billion per year in interest costs. And now it's above the defense spending at $1.9 billion, actually.

[Glenn Beck]

1.1.

[Russ Vogt]

So, so we've got this enormous interest cost as a result. And it's one of the reasons why, you know, we've heard an emphasis from the administration, on balance, on taking dramatic actions through Doge. Our budget that you referenced in the lead up is the lowest non defense spending since 2000, adjusted for inflation. And so, and I think what we would try to do to deal with kind of the paralysis on Capitol Hill is to change the reality on the ground. I mean, I think that's what Doge has done in a fundamental way. And we're going to try to make those savings permanent through a couple of different ways. But it's to force Congress to, if they want to be a part of the process, you know, come alongside of us. But we're going to move in as much as we can within the parameters of the law and the Constitution. We're going to move as fast and aggressively as possible to change the reality on the ground with reductions in force, with reorganizations, with doing a programmatic review of spending that doesn't have to go out through the use of rescissions. There's a whole set of tools in our box that we're going to use aggressively to get Congress moving in our direction because we can't, we cannot be in a normal situation as an administration where we just kind of send bills up and wait on them.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Russ Vogt]

You know, we have one big bill that needs to occur. We've tried to put everything as we possibly can on that because it has procedural protection in the Senate. But, but even in that, it was, you know, part of our thinking was to make sure we limit the number of things that we have to go.

[Glenn Beck]

To Congress for the taxes. I mean, I was hoping that we were going to get new tax cuts and not just the, not just the renewal of the Trump tax cuts, but I was hoping Congress would be at serious and we'd go even deeper than that. And now the White House last night, the President last night tweeted, you know, I know that Congress, you know, they're going to be wishy washy on, you know, they're going to get blamed if they raise any taxes on the, on the very rich, but I'll, I'll go along with it if, if they want to do that. That's a little scary. We should be going the other way, shouldn't we?

[Russ Vogt]

Well, I think the president ran on a set of task proposals that he's been very excited about, committed, out, designed towards the working class that we, from an economic standpoint, also believe are really critical to getting more and more of labor force participation out of this part of the economy. And we think it would be a huge boon to the impetus on the economy to growth. And so we are living in a world where, you know, we don't, we don't have the ability to have unlimited tax cuts.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Russ Vogt]

And I think, is it. You're seeing a lot of different navigation on that.

[Glenn Beck]

Is it impossible to go back to the 2019 budget? I mean, why can't we just reset and say we're going back to that budget? It was fine then, it's fine now.

[Russ Vogt]

We are trying to do that with what you saw in the budget that we sent up. That is essentially what that budget represents. It's an effort to go back, you know, non. Adjusted for inflation, it goes back to 2017. It's a 35% cut for most programs when we account for maintaining infrastructure and veteran spending. But that's what we're trying to do. Do the entitlements, the mandatory spending, the interest, do those have an impact on our ability to go back overnight to 2019? Yes, they do. And so that's really what we're trying to say. And I do think that there's a newfound desire to cut spending even in the context of a tax cut. On the Hill, you have a ton of members that are really trying to make sure this is either deficit neutral or you have a, you know, this is a moment that can be used for significant mandatory reform.

[Glenn Beck]

So to get. There are tax hikes on the rich part of that plan.

[Russ Vogt]

Look, the president, you know, put out a truth this morning. You know, he said, look, I think he's of a couple different minds. He has always been very focused on the things he ran on. This was not something that he ran on. He ran on the no tax on overtime.

[Glenn Beck]

Right, right. No tax on tips, no tax on.

[Russ Vogt]

Tips, all that kind of things. And so that's, that's really what we've been trying to fit into the amount that Congress is ready to reduce. At the same time, we have to, you know, extend the tax cuts from his first term.

[Glenn Beck]

I saw in the budget that we are increasing defense and homeland security. Is that border? Is that why this is happening on the border?

[Russ Vogt]

Is like we want to increase and really Buy out all of our increases over the next three to four years in one bill. And we're doing that. This is the paradigm shift, and I'm really glad you asked. We no longer want to be in a situation where we have to get Democrat votes for defense increases that then they put us in a situation where they have to lever up and demand that not only do our cuts not happen, but that we actually increase non defense spending because we need their votes in the Senate. Secondly, they flat out oppose any border spending. They put us on the precipice of a shutdown every single time we wanted to increase spend for ICE or the wall. And so our view is to actually look to how they did it under Joe Biden administration and put those increases on the mandatory one big dutiful reconciliation bill. And then it puts us in a situation where we have united the Republican Party. So your defense hawks are not working against us in the appropriations process to actually get non defense cuts. That's what we're trying to do. And then we've got Doge working overtime with Pete Hegseth to get reforms within DoD because obviously there's waste there as well. And at least in this first year to make sure we reinvest those and let the new leaders there get a sense of where the reforms need to be.

[Glenn Beck]

So with all the Doge stuff, I mean, a, this has nothing to do with Doge, but I was glad to see Cash Patel yesterday come back out and say, no, no, I'll go with the budget on the FBI because he was saying, no, we can't live on that. We need more and you know, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. And I was glad to see that he kind of changed his position on that yesterday. But you know, with, with Doge, I'm seeing that Congress is like, well, we're not going to take all of the Doge recommendations. Why?

[Russ Vogt]

Yeah, I mean, I think that's the question that Congress needs to ask. And we've, you know, they've been on two minds. Number one, they say send us all these rescission bills, precision bills, and I'm willing to send rescissions bills. Our administration is, the Trump administration is. But man, we, they have to pass. And so if they don't pass, it impacts our ability to use some of the tools that we would have executively to spend less of that money. And so we are working with them. That's why I haven't formally sent up the 9.3 first round of rescissions from Doge. I am having great conversations surprisingly, with the Appropriations Committee kind of historic in of its itself, and they're trying to think through, okay, what's the version that we could do this a little bit different, but hit the same amount of savings? And so that's a healthy back and forth. I think that in and of itself is a sign of. This is a little bit different, Glenn. I mean, this is, this is more like the early 1980s when Reagan first came in, than anything we've seen recently. Congress is saying, instead of we were going to ignore your budget, said we want to hit your number. So it's early. I don't know if that, that will materialize, but I am optimistic about it.

[Glenn Beck]

How, how optimistic are you that. I mean, because, you know, I've talked to the President about this just a couple of weeks ago, and I said, we are playing such a dangerous game because we have to. I mean, I think America, no country's ever turned around from this point, and we have to, and it just requires some really big boy pants to do it. But I'm, I'm, I'm just so concerned about it, and I'm, you know, I'm hoping that we can get the, the reduction on the staff. I know that you're, you know, you're doing a fantastic job on reducing the number of federal employees. You believe we're going to be able to get these things actually codified. So if things don't go well, or even if they do go well, but it's not President Trump, the next time that this remains, this path, remains this direction.

[Russ Vogt]

I do. So I think if you zoom out for a second, I think we're going to come away from this year in particular. We've had no wins on spending in like two or three decades. You know, Paul Ryan kind of put us in this cul de sac forever. I think we're going to come away this year with probably the largest mandatory savings ever, or adjusted for inflation, since the 1997 Balanced Budget Agreement. That's going to happen. I think we're going to see the appropriations process fixed for the first time because of our talking about executive tools like rescissions and impoundment. It's going to cause the appropriations process, a return to separation of powers, that Congress actually listens to our cuts, and we may not get all of them, but we'll get some of them. And I think we're going to see something that is material progress on that front. Third, I think I remember coming on your show in the first term and you just like this, the extent to which the career bureaucracy is just impregnable. It's just totally unacceptable and you pushed us on that and I think you know many of us the President Elon have spent a ton of time thinking about this and I think that will be the one of the biggest stories the extent to which the things that have been done the you know the fork in the road has fundamentally changed the reality on the ground and so we have a much small we will have a much smaller bureaucracy as a result of it notwithstanding the laws that are on the books that that have been a barrier thus far.

[Glenn Beck]

I have to tell you I stay away from Washington D.C. you know as much as I try to stay away from the plague. But next time I'm up Russ I'd love to sit down with you and do a long form interview with you because I you're really one of the good guys and thank you for everything you're doing.

[Russ Vogt]

You got.