5. Fact Checking Trump's Speech

Summary

Summary of "The Tim & April Show" Episode 5: Fact Checking Trump's Speech

Podcast Information

• Title: The Tim & April Show
• Host/Author: The New Evangelicals
• Description: Where we unravel faith, politics, and culture.
• Episode: 5. Fact Checking Trump's Speech
• Release Date: March 7, 2025

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Introduction In Episode 5 of The Tim & April Show, hosts Tim and April delve deep into recent political happenings, focusing primarily on former President Donald Trump's speech to Congress. The episode intertwines personal anecdotes, fact-checking, and critical analysis of the intersection between faith, politics, and culture.

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Recap of Tuesday Night's Live Stream and Trump's Speech The episode opens with Tim and April recounting their live-streamed session from Tuesday night, where they reacted in real-time to Trump's unconventional speech—a blend of campaign rally rhetoric and chaotic delivery.

• Taco Bell Incident: Tim humorously shares his decision to order Taco Bell live on air, despite April's skepticism. This moment highlights the duo's attempt to connect with their audience through relatable, albeit humorous, experiences.

  Tim [05:12]: "I have a clip of this we actually pulled. ... but I'll not regret it this time."

• Personal Anecdotes: April shares a heartwarming story about receiving a custom "Guess Who" board from her spouse, showcasing the hosts' ability to balance serious discussions with personal touches.

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Trump's Speech Fact-Checking A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to dissecting and debunking false claims made by Trump during his speech. Using CNN's Fact Checker as a reference, Tim and April systematically address misinformation.

1. Social Security Claims:

   • Trump's Assertion: Millions of deceased individuals are still receiving Social Security benefits, inflating the system's costs.

     Trump's Claim [28:42]: "Millions of people listed as alive in a Social Security database, even though they're obviously dead."

   • Fact-Check Analysis:

     • CNN's Clarification: While there are discrepancies in Social Security records, only a fraction of these erroneous listings result in payments. An Inspector General's report highlighted 19 million unidentified deceased individuals, but only 44,000 incorrect payments were made, far below Trump's exaggerated figures.

       Tim [35:01]: "These numbers are not the numbers of dead people who are actually getting paid Social Security checks."

2. Ukraine Aid Funding:

   • Trump's Assertion: The U.S. has spent approximately $350 billion on Ukraine, overshadowing Europe's contributions of $100 billion.

     April [38:25]: "Trump keeps telling the story about how the US has sent Ukraine way more than Europe has collectively."

   • Fact-Check Analysis:

     • Reality: Research from a German think tank indicates the U.S. has allocated around $121 billion, while Europe has committed approximately $263 billion to Ukraine, contradicting Trump's narrative.

       Tim [38:43]: "Europe has committed and provided more aid to Ukraine during this war than the US has."

3. Transgender Mice Funding:

   • Trump's Assertion: The administration allocated $8 million for "making mice transgender."

     Tim [46:44]: "$8 million for making mice transgender. This is real."

   • Fact-Check Analysis:

     • Clarification: The funding was for transgenic mice, which are genetically modified for scientific research, not for altering their gender identity. These studies aim to understand disease interactions with hormone treatments.

       April [47:01]: "There are no such thing as transgender mice. There are no science labs that are transitioning mice at all."

4. Trans Women in Sports:

   • Trump's Assertion: A transgender woman won a cycling race by five hours, demonstrating an unfair advantage.

     April [53:07]: "She shaved nearly five and a half hours off of his time."

   • Fact-Check Analysis:

     • Contextual Correction: The actual achievement involved a transgender woman breaking a record in an 800-mile race, not unfairly defeating female participants by hours.

       Tim [53:54]: "The previous overall course record... she shaved nearly five and a half hours off of his time."

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Supreme Court Ruling and Amy Coney Barrett Tim and April discuss a pivotal Supreme Court decision where the Court ruled against Trump's attempt to freeze $2 billion in foreign aid reserved for completed work.

• Supreme Court Dynamics: The ruling saw conservative justices like Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts side with Democrat-appointed justices, infuriating Christian nationalists and MAGA supporters.

  April [66:20]: "It was 5-4. So both Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts voted with the Democrat appointed justices."

• Backlash Against Barrett: Christian nationalists accuse Barrett of being a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) hire, ignoring her legitimate judicial actions.

  Lance Wall Now [69:26]: "She's not one of us. ... she must be a DEI hire now."

• Misogyny and Christian Nationalism: The hosts highlight the misogynistic undertones in the backlash against Barrett, emphasizing the broader issue of Christian nationalism that mandates male leadership and discourages dissent.

  Tim [81:58]: "It is a weird misogynistic dynamic where certain women who align with Trump are celebrated, and others are condemned for stepping out of line."

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Fact-Checking Dave Ramsey In a segment addressing financial advice, Tim and April critique Dave Ramsey's stance on real estate investments.

• Ramsey's Position: Ramsey defends owning multiple rental properties as ethical and not contributing to housing shortages.

  April [86:11]: "Hedge funds are buying up houses... but there are no transgender mice."

• Hosts' Counterarguments: They argue that such investments exacerbate housing shortages and question Ramsey's claim that owning multiple properties isn't greedy.

  Tim [90:18]: "Dave's like, 'I'm managing money for God,' but having $200 million in assets is beyond just ethical management."

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Conclusion and Closing Thoughts The episode wraps up with Tim and April reflecting on the biblical teachings related to wealth and greed, contrasting them with the actions of political and religious figures they critique.

• Biblical Reference:

  Tim [100:25]: "Mark 10:17-27... 'If you want to be a Communist, classic. Just be a Communist.'"

• Final Remarks: The hosts call for listeners to critically assess the narratives presented by political figures and to remain steadfast in their faith and moral values.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Tim [05:12]: "I have a clip of this we actually pulled. ... but I'll not regret it this time."
• April [38:25]: "Trump keeps telling the story about how the US has sent Ukraine way more than Europe has collectively."
• Tim [33:53]: "Yep."
• April [47:01]: "There are no such thing as transgender mice. There are no science labs that are transitioning mice at all."
• Tim [81:58]: "It is a weird misogynistic dynamic where certain women who align with Trump are celebrated, and others are condemned for stepping out of line."
• Tim [100:25]: "Mark 10:17-27... 'If you want to be a Communist, classic. Just be a Communist.'"

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Key Takeaways

• Misinformation Analysis: The episode emphasizes the importance of fact-checking and provides detailed refutations of false claims made by Trump.
• Intersection of Faith and Politics: Tim and April explore how Christian nationalism fuels certain political agendas and the detrimental effects on marginalized groups.
• Personal Integrity: Through personal stories and critiques of public figures like Dave Ramsey, the hosts advocate for ethical behavior aligned with their faith values.

This comprehensive summary encapsulates the critical discussions, insights, and conclusions from Episode 5, offering listeners a thorough understanding without needing to tune into the full episode.

Transcript

[Tim]

This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. It's tax season and we're all a bit tired of numbers, but here's one you need to $16.5 billion.

[April]

That's how much the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year.

[Tim]

Now here's a good number. 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed. Save up to 40% your first [e-mail]. podcast terms apply.

[April]

You're listening to a new evangelicals production, the Tim and April show, where we unravel faith, politics and culture.

[Tim]

Hi.

[April]

Hi. Welcome to the Tim and April Show. We are Thursday.

[Tim]

Yes. Happy. Is it? Can we say happy? Anything at this point in life.

[April]

Hey, you know what? We're alive. Sure. I think there's still things to find joy in.

[Tim]

Well, then, in a good Thursday to you, April.

[April]

Top of the day to you, too, kind sir.

[Tim]

What is the morning?

[April]

Top of the morning.

[Tim]

I can't do accents to save my life. If I was being held hostage and they were like, all you have to do is impersonate an Englishman, I would die. They would kill me.

[April]

Really? Try. No, no, I want to hear it.

[Tim]

I, I, I, I don't even know how to do it. Like, it would sound terrible.

[April]

Interesting. Like, I've always been a bit of.

[Tim]

A good day mate. That's Australian, right?

[April]

I mean, not the way you said it.

[Tim]

That's. I know, it's. I'm insulting.

[April]

You know what I learned? Okay, say R. N, R, but say it fast. And when you say it fast, it sounds like you're saying oh, no in an Australian accent.

[Tim]

Are you trying to get me to say something like, you know, spell icuff? Ever done that?

[April]

No, no, no, no. It's not a trick. It really does sound like it. Okay, say R. N, R. R and R. See, R and R and R sounds like. Oh, no. An Australian accent. R and R. Oh. And if you say.

[Tim]

Yeah, yeah.

[April]

If you say rise up lights, it sounds like you're saying razor blades in an Australian accent.

[Tim]

Rise of lights. You're right. Riser. Lights.

[April]

Little things that will probably never come in handy.

[Tim]

But never, never. Friends, welcome to the show.

[April]

Everyone at home is just has. Is now in their car or at their desk, like R and R.

[Tim]

Friends, it's good to be here with you. Welcome. We have a very packed show as always today. Yes. We're going to recap what happened on Tuesday night, which, of course we live streamed as well. We'll recap Trump's speech and do a few fact check things. We'll get into, of course our Trump golf tracker and see what the price of eggs are. We're talking about Amy come Amy Coney Barrett today and how shocker alert, Shocker alert. Christian nationalists and MAGA are now churning on her, accusing her of being a Republican Republican DEI hire. So we'll get into that and so much more. We have some good news. We're going to cover Dave Ramsey. So I'm glad you're here. It's gonna be a great show. Should we start off with like maybe the most important topic of this entire.

[April]

Episode, which is what you regretting your Taco Bell?

[Tim]

I have not yet gotten there publicly, but yes, yes.

[April]

Oh, spoiler.

[Tim]

Spoiler alert. April. Yeah.

[April]

So you weren't with us on Tuesday night where we live streamed that speech, pep rally, whatever you want to call it. Tim was like, I'm going to get Taco Bell.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[April]

And I was like, I've never had Taco Bell and not regretted Taco Bell even though I won it. And Tim, you still went and got it. And you were like, no, it's not going to, it's going to be different this time.

[Tim]

I have a clip of this we actually pulled. So friends, by the way, if you were here on Tuesday night watching on either the TNA stream or, or this one, thank you here. It was a very unhinged night for all of us, April. I felt like we just evolved into, into chaos and at the end of the night you signed off and I, I had Taco Bell delivered to my house, which I have never done in my life. Well, I, I, I, I have a clip. Here's a little minute long clip. You will hear Trump's speech in the background because we, because we talked over him a lot. But here's how things started and how they ended on the live. Here you go. Check this out. Now the chat is telling me to go for a Taco Bell run, but I can't. You can't leave too late. I can't do that. Crunchwrap. Quesadillas don't do that to me, Justin. My go to is the is the cravings box though to be true. I haven't had Taco Bell in a minute. Ooh, it sounds so. Wouldn't that be not just Belgrade?

[April]

And I always regret it after I eat it.

[Tim]

But I won't this time. I will not. It's time to stop.

[April]

This time will be different.

[Tim]

It's a liar and ever go live this late. I've never ordered Taco Bell on the air before, but we're here, so since we are, and I gotta be honest, I'm so excited to eat this. I'm so excited to eat this. Wow. Wow. I mean, I feel like we all earn this. For those of you who also order Taco Bell, I just feel like we all earned this moment together. And I'm glad that we're doing that, we're sharing in this sacred moment, because whatever the hell we just watched with Trump was a disaster. There you go. There you go. There you go.

[April]

So could you sleep at all? Because I noticed you did go with the Baja Blast, which is so much caffeine.

[Tim]

I went with the Baja Blast. I have so many takeaways on this. I'll rattle them off quickly. First off, other people also bought Taco bell. They were DMing me pictures of their Taco Bell delivery as I was eating Taco Bell. So I fel well, not so alone. I slept okay until, like, 5:00am and then I woke up with, like, that feeling of, like, oh, my stomach feels gross. Plus, I was out of my rhythm. I'm usually in bed between, like, 10:30 and 11. I didn't go to bed till, like, 12:30 because we had this crazy live stream. Then we ended the stream, and I was kind of wired, so, I mean, we were on. I was on air for three hours, the longest I think I've ever done. And I just can't, like, go to sleep from that. So I hung out for a little bit and it was just a. It was a weird night, a weird morning. My whole schedule was thrown off. So the question is, do I regret Taco Bell? And the answer is that I do regret getting it. I even texted you in the morning that you were right, April, and I was wrong. I regret Taco Bell. So it was a bad decision.

[April]

We live and we learn. Sometimes we don't learn because we also went and got Taco Bell when we were at Theology Beer Camp back in October. And you also regretted it then.

[Tim]

I know, and I'm sure I'll do it again. I'm sure I'll do it again. I'm sure I will. I'm absolutely sure I will. To be clear, though, people were sending us super chats to buy Taco Bell. I felt I'll be ethically.

[April]

You know, it was peer pressure. Just some quick banter on my end because I. I have to share this. I. My birthday was a couple weeks ago, and Beecher, my spouse, made me a custom birthday gift. So I'm gonna show it here. It's my own Guess who board.

[Tim]

Oh, my gosh. Game.

[April]

And if you look, it says. Well, it's really. Sorry, I don't say. It says April, a joy version. And so I think I have a.

[Tim]

Beach you gave me.

[April]

Yeah, I sent you a picture. That's the inside of it. Every single character is. One of. Is like a character I've played in a skit at some point, and then, like, Beecher is in it a couple times. You're even in it as a Christian nationalist missionary. We've got these cards, like, here's me as bachelor King David.

[Tim]

Oh, my gosh.

[April]

Christian influencer wife. Christian influencer husband played by Beecher. Anyway, Beecher and I played it, and. But, like, we played where you can't ask physical characteristics. So it was like, did your character get the COVID vaccine? You know, it's like, probably not. Where was your character at the Capitol on January 6th? So anyway, it was really. It's really funny, honestly. It kind of made me feel. Sometimes I have, like, imposter syndrome. Like, what am I doing with my life? You know, it's looking at all of these characters and, like, wow, I've done a lot.

[Tim]

You have done a lot. And I know that feeling.

[April]

By any means.

[Tim]

I know the feeling where you're like, am I doing anything productive or good here? And then you look back and you get a glimpse of like, oh, yeah, okay. I've done a lot of stuff. Okay. Yeah. It's worth it.

[April]

Yeah. Teacher said it was a little weird, like, going into the print shops to get this printed, and they were like, now, what is this for again?

[Tim]

I swear, it's not what you think. My wife, you see, she's like a personality online, and, you know.

[April]

Yeah. Anyway, I said Cher says it was very thoughtful, and, yeah, props to be sure. Literally could never have guessed getting this gift.

[Tim]

Nice. I see what you did there. I love that. I love that.

[April]

That's awesome. Guest.

[Tim]

Yeah. Shall we get into the update on the price of eggs and. And Trump's golf. Golfing expedites. Escapades. Escapades.

[April]

Escapades. Let's do it. We're gonna bring prices way down.

[Tim]

Yes, we are. Yes, we are, Trump. Let's see. All right, Boom. Now, we. We do have a change here. First off, the price of eggs are actually still very high. They're at $8.12 on average, which. Let's see. February 14th, less than a month ago, they were 774. So they're way up still. However, I Want to give credit where credit is due. I think last time we said that, Trump has golfed 28% of the time that he's been in office, and that has dropped by 2 percentage points because he has not golfed recently.

[April]

Right? He has not golfed since Monday when we did our show. So he did give a long speech, though.

[Tim]

He gave that very long winded speech. Very long winded. But Trump's percentage, Trump's percentage of time spent golfing is now 26. 0.67%. And you know, Trump, again, props to you. Wait, we're gonna bring prices way down. That you have, my friend. That you have. I mean, maybe by, by egg prices, he really meant like the, the Dow Jones, because he brought that way down. That, that's gone way down. But the price of eggs are still kind of high, buddy. And you did promise on day one, you're gonna make eggs affordable again. You're gonna make everything affordable again. And so far, not the case. Not the case.

[April]

Not the case.

[Tim]

That's the update.

[April]

Yeah. And, you know, and we wouldn't be giving him such a hard time except he campaigned that he, it would happen on day one.

[Tim]

Day one.

[April]

Day one. Day 1. He'd come in and solve all the problems. So anyway, let's move on, shall we? So Tuesday night, we obviously went live and we live reacted to Trump's speech to Congress, which was not an official State of the Union speech because most presidents don't give a speech within the first couple months of their inauguration. So. But, but Trump called it, and when we were watching it, it definitely felt very much like a campaign rally speech where he, I mean, he was just saying a bunch of stuff, as he always does, and, and, and rambling. And he had his own little posse of GOP hype men and women that, you know, stood up and down and applauded. Every single thing that he said was like Catholic service.

[Tim]

His little sick. And then Trump could have been like, I just took a dump in my pants. Yeah. Yay, America.

[April]

And then several times throughout the night, he looked at the Democrat side and was like, look at these losers over here. Like, they'll never, I could say anything. They would never applaud me no matter what I do. There's nothing I could say. But anyway, it was, it was very, very.

[Tim]

As he insults Biden over and over again, like he insulted Biden to their face. And then he called, oh, my gosh, what's her name? Not Nancy Pelosi. He called her Pocahontas who. She's Elizabeth Warren. Yeah. He calls her Pocahontas. And he's like, oh, they're so bitter, these Democrats. Oh, they're so. They're so childlike. Like you're calling people from the freaking podium.

[April]

He's literally campaigned the last several years demonizing all Democrats, calling them evil, literally trying to enemy from within an election, and then pardon all of those people. Like, of course they don't like you.

[Tim]

That's maybe one of my. Okay, that. That is really one of the things that I. And I find a lot of things. A lot of my flappers are gassed often these days, April. But it is something else watching Mike Johnson. We're going to cover this, telling Al Green, you know, we have to have decorum and respect during this process, as him and his crew have literally pardoned. All blanketly, by the way. And they said it wouldn't be blanket. And originally they said we're going to be strategic. They literally pardoned all the January 6th insurrectionists. Some of them have been. Have been rearrested. One for. High. For. For having child abuse material on him. Right. Literally. This is a real thing. They freed all those people who caused so much chaos and destruction trying to stop a certification of the 2020 election. But now, now we have to have decorum. Now you can't stand. You can't peacefully protest. Nope, that's a bridge too far. You're being childlike.

[April]

I remember the year, too, where Biden was giving his State of the Union and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lo and Lauren Boebert heckled him pretty much the entire time. And the Democrats never censured them or kicked them out because free speech. That was a point that was made.

[Tim]

Yeah. All right, so you want to get to the hot mic?

[April]

Yeah, let's get to the hot mic. So before the speech started, there was this hot mic moment, and it's not like super juicy or anything, but between Mike Johnson and J.D. vance. So obviously this is the first time J.D. vance is sitting through one of these speeches in the House as Vice president. And so him and Mike Johnson get caught on the hot mic a little bit before the speech.

[Tim]

This audio is a little hard to hear because it's very echoey, but we'll do our best. Here we go. But I don't know how you do this for 90 minutes. The hardest thing was doing it during Biden when the speech was a stupid campaign speech.

[April]

Well, we could have coordinated, I guess.

[Tim]

But this audio is really hard to hear, I gotta be honest with you. By the way, I think the speech is gonna be great. But I don't know how you do this 90 minutes.

[April]

The hardest thing was doing it during.

[Tim]

Biden when the speech was a stupid campaign speech.

[April]

Okay, so what you hear there is you. You have JD Van saying, I got to be honest with you. And then he leans in and whispers something to Mike Johnson, which we cannot hear. And then he comes back out and he says, I mean, I think the speech is going to be great. So who knows what he said before that? He goes, but I don't know how you sit through this for 90 minutes. And then Mike Johnson says, the hardest part was sitting through Joe Biden because it was a stupid campaign speech.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[April]

And that, to me, is. Is wild. Oh. Every confession, like Trump's was not a stupid campaign speech the entire time. I mean, and I remember watching Joe Biden, State of the Union, and Joe Biden, as well as any other previous president, including George Bush, Barack Obama. Trump is really the only one who does not fall into this category. I've always seen them try to include the other side and talk about partisan crossing the aisle, coming together to work together. There's always been this inclusion. And obviously the speech is partisan in the way where it's, you know, promoting one side of issues over the other. But it's always in this. Like, we can compromise. We could come together. Trump is never that. I have never heard Trump give a unity, unifying speech.

[Tim]

The only way it's unifying for them is if you fully capitulate and assimilate into everything that they believe and want to do. And the second you don't do it, you're a problem. This happened to Adam Kinzinger. This happened to Liz Cheney. Don't forget Liz Cheney. And Adam, I think, voted with Trump something like 90 something percent of the time, but because they held their ground on the fact that the election was not stolen and the fact that Trump and his cronies tried to overthrow our election process, they've been kicked out of the party. That's their. Their idea of unity is conformity. It is straight up conformity to the epistemology. Epistemology of whatever Donald Trump says and what that means for some people. Because this is a new word for me. A new word for me, too. As a former homeschooler. Don't come in the comments and tell me to stop making jokes about that. I was homeschooled. I'm just kidding, okay? But epistemology just means source of truth. And for so many people, especially maga, Trump is their source of truth. If Trump says it, it must be true. The data, the facts, the context, the reality does not matter at all. As long as Trump says it, it is true. And so that's what they're talking about here. When they say we're one America. First off, they don't mean all Americans are true Americans. We know this, right? Trans are. Trans Americans are not true Americans. Our immigrant neighbors are not true Americans. We know that. That is the case for sure. But when they, whenever they talk in the rare case about unity, they're talking about assimilation into how we see the world. And the second you push back or challenge us and challenge our power, we are going to kick you out and call you the enemy. That's how. That's how in our group dynamics work.

[April]

Yeah, no, totally. It's the second. And we're going to see it, too, later when we talk about it. How they're already turning on Amy Coney Barrett. It's the slightest disagreement because they just value ideology over any sort of morality whatsoever. As long as you are in line with the right ideology, that gives them the power. So Al Green, who's a Democrat from Texas, got kicked out of Trump's speech pretty early on, actually. And honestly, when he did that, I kind of was expecting more Democrats would do something like that because. And he. And I think it's important to note I've seen a lot of, obviously, condemnation from Republicans on, you know, decorum in this speech. But there is. There is nothing about Trump's presidency and campaign over the last, since 2016, nine years that has shown any sort of decorum. Like, we are not dealing with a, quote, unquote, regular president. You're also dealing with a president who has enacted more executive orders this quickly ever. You're dealing with a president who has given power to an unelected immigrant to cut and slash funds and programs that average everyday American people rely on.

[Tim]

Yep.

[April]

And you have a president who is currently siding with dictators and starting trade wars with. With allies for no reason, for truly no reason. So literally, democracy is hanging by the fringes. And you and I have talked about that. We wish we were seeing more from Democrats, not less, because I do not think this is the time for decorum, personally.

[Tim]

There has to be a line, right? I mean, there has to be a moment where, like, we don't capitulate to the reality or the faux reality that Trump and MAGA has been trying to create now for almost a decade. I mean, don't forget, this goes back to 2016. Right. Well, that's what they call it fake news. Those are alternative facts. Like, who is creating these little lines to push this, to make people normal, to normalize what is clearly not the truth.

[April]

Let's not forget the calls for decorum are coming from the party that did an insurrection.

[Tim]

Right, Right. Yes.

[April]

For way less. For literally nothing, for no reason, just because their guy lost.

[Tim]

So 100%. Do you want to get to Al Green's clip then, and show what actually happen? Yeah.

[April]

Yeah.

[Tim]

So this is actually a pretty powerful moment. You know, Al Green is there, and he's protesting. I mean, he really protested. So I trimmed down this clip. Here's kind of what happened in a nutshell. And then we'll give some thoughts, and then we'll share his post. His post. Getting kicked out reaction. That's your warning. He's yelling that there's no mandate back to the president as he's speaking. Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of the quorum. And the chair is prepared to direct the Sergeant at Arms to restore order to the joint session. Mr. Green, take your seat. Take your seat, sir. Take your seat.

[April]

We still standing.

[Tim]

The members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum. The chair now directs the Sergeant at arms to restore order. Remove this gentleman from the chamber. Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House. There you go, President, you continue. There you go. So that's that. That's a very quick snapshot of what actually happened there.

[April]

Al Green standing up. Yeah. And it was hard to hear, but what he was saying was that Trump does not have a mandate to cut Medicaid. He does not have a mandate to get rid of Medicaid, which Al Green, whether regular, everyday Republicans realize it or not, was standing up for them. Because these cuts to Medicaid are going to impact a lot of Americans, regardless of political affiliation.

[Tim]

Absolutely. And it does make you think. And someone brought this up in the chat. So much for free speech. Yeah, free speech absolutists. Well, unless we're in power and you defy us, then we got to kick you out.

[April]

Right. And ironically, Trump said free speech is back in his speech.

[Tim]

It's packed, baby. Get out of here, Al.

[April]

Yeah, he brought it back.

[Tim]

So Al Green comes back out, and he is talking to reporters. Here's what he said right after he got kicked out of the congressional meeting for Trump to speak to them. I don't know. Whatever you call it. So what were you shouting to the president? The president said he had a mandate, and I was making it clear to the president that he has no mandate to cut Medicaid. I have people who are very fearful. These are poor people and they have only Medicaid in their lives when it comes to their health care. And I want him to know that his budget calls for deep cuts in Medicaid.

[April]

He needs to save Medicaid, protect it.

[Tim]

We need to raise the cap on Social Security. There's a possibility that it's going to be hurt. And we got to protect Medicare. These are the safety net programs that.

[April]

People in my congressional district depend on.

[Tim]

And this president seems to care less about them and more about the number of people that he can remove from the various programs that have been so.

[April]

Helpful to so many people.

[Tim]

There you go. I mean, he's right. He's absolutely right. I'm not sure if you saw the headline, but Republicans admitted that for them to pass the budget and the cuts that they are suggesting, the only way to do it is to cut Medicaid. It's an actual thing. Like the Republicans agree that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

[April]

Which is what Democrats and, and, you know, those in opposition to that bill were saying. This budget is going to harm Americans.

[Tim]

Yes, exactly. Exactly. So it's amazing that we live in a. In a world where it is tax cuts for the rich, benefit cuts for the poor. And Elon Musk, the world's greediest man, gets to wreak havoc throughout all of the governmental systems that would give him any checks and balances when it comes to either regulations, contracts, conflicts of interest, etc. And people, average Americans, and a lot of them Christians, think that somehow Trump is draining the swamp. Yeah. Somehow they think that Trump is doing a good thing. It's unreal that we are here at this moment in American history.

[April]

Yeah. I do want to also say just today. So just shortly before we went live, House members did vote to censure Al Green, and that included 10 Democrats joined Republicans to vote yes in censuring him, and two voted present.

[Tim]

Okay. Yeah. What is a censure? It looks like I'm not a pro here. It's just a public, you know, bad. Don't do that. Is that. Are there any real consequences to this or is it just like shame on you?

[April]

Yeah, I do. It accuses Green of a breach of proper conduct. I do think it's kind of more of a public reprimand, so to speak.

[Tim]

Like, we're not going to take this. Yeah. I'm just curious. I mean, I don't know.

[April]

Yeah. It expresses severe disapproval in a formal statement.

[Tim]

I'm no, Sean, man, so I gotta Google this stuff. That wasn't. I mean, okay, hold on. As an aside, this is, this is not. There's no real, there's no full story here. But I think people should know that Mike Johnson, you know, the speaker of the House, the Christian man who compares himself to Moses being chosen by God to have this position. His. His chief of staff was arrested for a DUI after Trump's speech. So there's some more family values, some more, you know, biblical values. Right there, right there.

[April]

Rules for thee and not for me. The official definition, a cincher, is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism.

[Tim]

Okay, fair, fair, fair. Fair enough.

[April]

I don't think. Yeah, it's just more a public.

[Tim]

The, the other thing about the speech that. And again, April, you and I streamed the whole thing. If people want to go and hear our commentary in its entirety, they can go back an episode and do that. But there were a lot of lies. Trump lied so many lies. A lot. I mean, countless, countless lies. Some of them absurd, some of them just complete and deliberate misinformation. We have a clip from CNN's Fact Checker. I tend to like him kind of taking a few minutes to go through some of the big ones. I think we should watch that and then discuss because especially around Social, Social Security, there's this narrative going around that Social Security has, you know, millions of people who are maybe either dead or. Or not eligible being paid money, and that that's an. Of government waste. Like everything that either Elon Musk or Trump or the MAGA world says, any kind of talking point, it's really not fully the case and not fully true. And maybe that's like just a broad warning to anyone listening to this. Do not. Whenever you hear something that sounds ridiculous from Trump or Musk or some kind of MAGA talking head, assume that it's probably not true or that there's some kind of context that would actually make it sound much more reasonable. I mean, one example of this, April, right. Is a few weeks ago we talked about Doge's tweet and like one of the. Of how they, of how they, they were finding, like, waste and fraud. And one of the examples was they said something to the effect of like a toilet that. That can recognize. That can recognize a user's like anal fingerprint or something. It's something really crazy. But it turns out that was a study working on trying to detect colon cancer and certain types of cancer by being able to scan someone's rectum. Like, it's Actually, it was a mental health. Not mental health. It was a physical health initiative trying to research if there's technology here that can help us detect cancer early. Right. So, like, they present it as, this is crazy. What are we doing? But there's actually a method or a reason to why we're researching some of these things. So just as a fair warning going forward, whenever you hear people say this stuff, just write it off and find the actual facts.

[April]

This is also the same party that has regularly touted, and I've seen Republicans in real life say this, that schools now have cat litters in their classrooms because kids are identifying as cats. And literally that's not happening anywhere. Not a thing whatsoever.

[Tim]

But, you know, you know one. And I don't. Let me just preface. I don't know if this is necessarily, necessarily true. But to. Just to demonstrate how. How litter in a classroom might actually make sense, someone or an article that I read said one of the reasons they found that was in case of a school shooting and their students couldn't use the bathroom, they could go in the litter box because it's designed to clump when urine or feces hit it. So that makes a little more sense, doesn't it? Because we do live in a society where we're terrified of the next mass school shooting because we can't get gun legislation taken care of in this country. And so, again, that's like fact versus fiction. Like, maybe it's true, maybe that there was a litter box in someone's classroom. It could also be true that the reason that was there was because of something like that. So I'm just saying. Anyway.

[April]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tim]

All right. So fact check. Let's hear. What's this guy's name? I don't know. It's just CNN. It's CNN's fact checker. Let's listen to what he had to say. Talking about Trump's unifying beautiful presidential speech from Tuesday night. That was still an extremely dishonest speech. I counted at least 13 flat false claims, and that is a preliminary count that doesn't include a whole bunch of additional misleading or uncorroborated claims. He, for example, repeated his false claim that foreign countries like China pay his tariffs, though Americans make those tariff payments. He wildly exaggerated figures on inflation and immigration under President Biden. He claimed to have terminated something called the Green New Scam, even though the Green New Deal congressional resolution was never actually passed. And Trump has not repealed the big environmental law that President Biden did pass. There's a lot more as you said you can read our full list on CNN.com but now I want to go into detail on an important and eye catching claim that was highly misleading. The President talked at length about millions of people being listed as alive in a Social Security database, even though they're obviously dead. This is real important. Listen. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 140 now. And money is being paid to many of them because it just keeps getting paid and paid and nobody does. And it really hurts Social Security and hurts our country. And one person is listed at 360 years of age, more than 100 years older than our country. I've spoken to conservative experts about this claim and they've noted, Jake, that the President is leaving out something absolutely critical to understanding this issue. Here's what he failed to explain. These numbers are not the numbers of dead people who are actually getting paid Social Security checks. Trump was referring to a legitimate problem with some deaths not being marked in the Social Security database. But that doesn't mean people at listed as being 150, 200, 300 are actually getting money. And that's because Social Security already has a system in place to automatically cut off people who are listed as being 115 or older. Pause right there. Wow. It's almost like someone in the government thought about this problem a long, long time ago and has a fix to reduce fraud and waste already in place. But you wouldn't know that from the propaganda and the nonsense of Trump and Elon and the right wing media ecosystem. Right? You just think that, that, that this government blob, terrible, vile people who just want to exploit your taxpayers, your taxpayer money, as if there's no checks and balances or as if there's no regulations or as if people aren't thinking about ways to minimize any kind of waste that might be happening. It's, it's, it's. People think about this stuff already.

[April]

Right? And the biggest problem with Trump? I. Oh, I mean there's some. I don't know if this is the biggest problem. There's a lot of. One of the biggest problems is that typically Trump supporters, like really deep MAGA people do not fact check. They listen to Trump and they take whatever Trump says as fact. They don't fact check. I mean, when I was deeply Republican too, I rarely fact checked if someone told me this statistic about this thing and it, and it helped my narrative, I just ran with it. I never fact checked it, they just, they don't fact check it, they don't go and look at another perspective of things. Whereas, like now you and I, when we, and I'm sure we miss things every once in a while, but we are always fact checking. Like, before I post anything, I make sure, like I will go to several different sources to make sure that I am, I am giving out the correct information. Because in the world of misinformation and in the Internet, it is important to fact check. But Donald Trump supporters do not fact check. So he can literally go up there and just riff and say the most asinine things.

[Tim]

Yep.

[April]

And people just believe him.

[Tim]

Yep. 100. April and I are not in the business of trying to feed you propaganda. We're trying to have sources. We're trying to give you other people's content, giving you whatever we can. I mean, even in the show notes of this episode, I put my friend Kassam Rashid's full debunking of like all the fact checking from, from Trump's speech. It's, it's a, it's a long one. He goes through all of them with sources and receipts and everything to try and give you guys more, more credible sources than some blowhard on the Internet or someone who thinks that, you know, Trump is super brilliant and truth telling, just saying ridiculous stuff that then gets eaten up by the base. This is, and this is my critique by the way, with right wing media is there's this whole ecosystem now to amplify the regime's talking points, further pushing propaganda on the American people. But as we're seeing, when you actually look at what's going on, look at the details, look at, at how the system actually works, it's not nearly as problematic as you're led to believe listening to Trump or Elon or whoever else it might be.

[April]

Yeah, cool.

[Tim]

Let's keep going. Now, two years ago, an inspector general looked into this. She found There were about 19 million people 100 or older who were not marked as deceased. But critically, she also found that only 44,000 of these people were actually receiving payments. And one conservative expert told me even those 44k are likely legit payments, since at the time there were about 86,000 living Americans age 100 or older. Now, let's listen to something the President said. Okay, so just to clarify what he's saying, he's saying that, that, that when, by the way, Trump fired the inspector generals. That's the whole point of having inspector generals is to have a third party governing body checking into this stuff. And Trump got rid of them immediately and by the way, illegally. But here we have an. Again, what he's saying is, okay, so they found that there were 19 million people that weren't marked as deceased. But out of those 19 million, only 44,000 were receiving payments that were over 100 years of age. And that makes sense given that in America we estimate there's about 86,000 people that live over the age of 100. So again, that's not fraud. That is people getting back what they paid into a system. But you would not know that listening to Trump's ridiculous speech being applauded by his sycophants that, oh yes, no, look at all this fraud and waste and abuse. It's just not true. It's just not true.

[April]

Yeah.

[Tim]

Now the next piece we're going to go to is Ukraine. Right. Is that, is that where he. Yes.

[April]

So, yeah. And I was just going to say too, another big problem with propaganda is sometimes there is truth in it.

[Tim]

Totally.

[April]

They take something that is somewhat true, like there are people in the Social Security system listed at those ages.

[Tim]

Yep.

[April]

But then they completely take it out of its context and give it a new meaning and then it becomes this whole other thing that it actually is.

[Tim]

Not 100%.

[April]

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[Tim]

Name is Katie and I live in.

[April]

St. Paul, Minnesota and I am a proud supporter of TNE. Like many of you, I have spent my entire life in evangelical Christianity. But my life took a turn when.

[Tim]

My best friend came out to me as a lesbian.

[April]

Long story short, I went to therapy, I came out as queer and realized.

[Tim]

I was in love with my best friend and we are now engaged and.

[April]

Soon to be married. However, this journey has been full of painful moments and coming out to my religious family has been the most dehumanizing experience. In addition, my fiance and I both worked at a non affirming Christian university. So when we came out, we were fired.

[Tim]

Through all of these difficult moments, tne.

[April]

Has been there with compassionate ideas and.

[Tim]

Language that I could use in hard conversations.

[April]

This work has been a lifeline for.

[Tim]

Me in my faith journey, and it must continue.

[April]

And that is why I am so proud to support the work of the new evangelicals.

[Tim]

All right, let's get into the second part of this. Around Ukraine. Here's what the fact checker had to say about the war in Ukraine. Europe has, sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have.

[April]

Spent on defending Ukraine.

[Tim]

By far. Think of that. They've spent more buying Russian oil and gas than they have defending. And we've spent perhaps $350 billion. Like taking candy from a baby. That's what happened. And they've spent $100 billion. Those are fictional numbers, and this is a fictional narrative. President Trump keeps telling the story about how the US has sent Ukraine way more than Europe has collectively. In fact, Europe has committed and provided more aid to Ukraine during this war than the US has. So Trump said the US has spent maybe 350 billion and Europe 100 billion. Well, a German think tank that closely tracks this issue found the US has committed about 126 billion. Actually allocated about 121 billion. So way less than 350 billion. He said Europe has spent 100 billion, while the think tank found Europe had committed 263 billion. So way more. Actually allocated about 140 billion. Now, you can get different numbers with different counting methodologies, but nobody legitimate, even the US government itself has gotten anywhere close to that 350 billion figure that President Trump keeps using. Jake, can you believe that?

[April]

I can believe it because of who Trump is, who just lies. I mean, he made up the whole thing that they were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, when they were not doing that.

[Tim]

Yep.

[April]

Like, he just makes stuff up to push his own narrative. And when you have followers that do not push back on you ever, you can do that. I mean, and this time around, which is why we were so warning people against a second Trump presidency, is that he has surrounded himself with yes people, with yes men. He has no one that will call him out, that will check him, no one to hold him accountable except for the Democrats who they are censuring, who do that. You know, and you did hear in that clip where he's talking about Social Security, a few Democrats were shouting lies.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[April]

But, yeah, it's. It's. Which is why I think what Al Green did was great, because the majority of people watching Trump's speech were Republicans. Most Democrats did not tune in to that show. You. And I didn't even want to.

[Tim]

We didn't want to. We were forced into it by our. By our audience. They literally held our arms and went, no, go live monkey. And we had to. So it's all their fault.

[April]

Which, I mean, I guess you could make an argument because, you know, we were going to talk about this, too. The Trump. The way that Democrats respond to Trump in some ways just furthers the narrative that Democrats just refuse to work with Donald Trump because, I mean, he's doing that intentionally. And he, he pointed to them several times. There's nothing I can do that'll get them to stand, you know, and then he brought in the kid that had cancer, that brain cancer, and made him an honorary Secret Service member, which. That's great. That's sweet.

[Tim]

Super great, super great.

[April]

I'm happy for that kid.

[Tim]

I'm never going to dunk on a kid, especially when that has cancer. Like, I'm happy for that kid. He has no clue what's going on. I'm happy for him.

[April]

Right. But the way Trump brought that kid in and a lot of the guests that he had were clearly used as a prop, were clearly used to manipulate a situation. And the headlines the next day were, Democrats can't even stand for a kid with cancer. Democrats are so evil that they can't even stand for a kid who has cancer, who's given this thing, which, to be fair, the Democrats never stood for anything throughout the entire whatever. But these same people who are outraged over Democrats for not performatively, physically standing during a Trump speech have said nothing about Trump cutting funds to cancer research that will actually lead to more kids with cancer dying. Because it's, it's all theatrics and it's performative. But Trump knows if I bring in this kid with cancer, I know Democrats aren't going to stand for me. And it's going to be, it's going to be this whole thing. Like, it's so, like, I don't know, like, on the one hand, I'm like, no, we need more people like Al Green protesting. Which actually, that's where I, that's what I think, truly. Because at this point, MAGA is not going to think Democrats are good for anything. Like, it doesn't matter what they do, but 100%. But we're also kind of feeding into, like, the Republicans playbook a little bit by, by doing that.

[Tim]

I think it's worth noting that you're completely spot on the Trump administration and team, like, don't forget, he just took power. What's one of his top priorities? Is it lowering grocery prices? No, it's trying to dismantle efforts to Find a cure for cancer. And we talked about that a second ago with Elon Musk and Doge. Right? Oh, toilet. A toilet that can read someone's anal fingerprint. No, it's for cancer research, you fool. Like that. That's what this is. Now, luckily, a federal judge, thank God for the judges, blocked the drastic funding cuts to medical research. And that makes sense because what we, what people fail to remember or recognize, and I, by the way, to be clear, I didn't know this until recently, is that Congress sets the budget, okay? So that, so money's been appropriated, money's been put aside, money's been directed by Congress legally to fund certain projects. A megalomaniac billionaire does not have the authority, even if he's the president, to, to bring in another mega, megalomaniac billionaire to start randomly cutting stuff that Congress has said, no, legally, this stuff is being spent on this. Now, if you don't like something or where it's being spent, if you don't like where. Where the money's being spent, that's fine, we can debate what the government should spend its money on. Like, fine, we can talk about that. But you have to go through the proper channels to then stop getting it funded. That's how law and order works. That's how our government works. And so thankfully, this federal judge is like, actually, what you're doing is totally illegal. You absolutely cannot do this. I'm gonna stop this from happening because not only is are you. You're funding cuts to. You're trying to stop medical research. Like, honestly, what is wrong with you? Don't we wanna find a cure to cancer? Isn't this the Make America Healthy Again initiative? You know, oh, Big Pharma wants to keep you sick all the time. They have the cure, they're just not giving it to you. So then fund it with the government, find the cure, put Big Pharma out of business and let's solve cancer. But instead, here we are. Here we are. Right?

[April]

Here we are.

[Tim]

Here we are. So I think it's worth. I. I just think it's really worth highlighting the absurdity of what's actually happening. Can I mention one more thing briefly? Just one more thing while we're here?

[April]

Yeah.

[Tim]

Because, April, you and I are Christians, right? We are followers of Jesus. And I know that a lot of MAGA folks also claim to be Christian, and many of them take the Bible as God's inspired and infallible word. So I just want to read a little passage from the Bible that many white evangelicals who love Trump claim is, you know, the authority for their life. And that all people, even non Christians, should be held to Proverbs 6, 16, 19. There are six things the Lord hates. Seven that are detestable to him. Haughty eyes, Check. A lying tongue, check. Hands that shed innocent blood, check. Hello, Gaza. A heart that devises wicked schemes, double check. Feet that are quick to rush into evil, triple check. A false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

[April]

Who does that sound like?

[Tim]

The Bible is clear, people. The Bible is clear. I mean, I don't know how you would, I don't know a better way to describe the Persona of Trump. And here we are.

[April]

So that's a great description of him, actually. Yeah. We were going to fact check a couple other things and I think we can get through these quickly. Before we go to an ad break and move to our next topic, let's talk about.

[Tim]

There are two, right?

[April]

Yeah, there are two. Both related to trans issues. Donald Trumper, one thing that he brought up was that, I don't know, I don't remember the amount of money that he said, but there was a enormous amount of money that was allocated towards transgender mice.

[Tim]

I had that clip. This clip right here. Let's play this short eight second clip. Here we go. $8 million for making mice transgender. This is real. There you go.

[April]

So fact check. That is not real.

[Tim]

No.

[April]

What really is happening? Yeah, so this was immediately fact check that there are transgenic mice, which is when you, it's like a type of mice that uses that you use to test out human, like different medicines and how they would react in humans that you test on mice. There are no such thing as transgender mice. There are no science labs that are transitioning mice at all. But Donald Trump, they doubled down on it. They literally left an official WhiteHouse.gov article and the headline reads, yes, Biden spent millions on transgender animal experiments. And if you go down and you read what they're saying, yeah, none of this is about transgender. Like, even their proof is not transgender mice. What they're like, they see gender affirming hormone therapy that is just the use of testosterone on estrogen on just mice. Because what is missing in this conversation that a lot of conservatives just are, are ignorant on? And I, I don't mean that in a demeaning way. I mean like, they are just truly ignorant on this issue. Gender affirming care does not just include trans people. Gender affirming care is any male that has low testosterone levels that Needs testosterone levels. Any male, any woman who's going through menopause, who needs estrogen. Like, there is gender affirming care, has a wide range of medical procedures and supplements and medicines that are included in that. That, and just a small percentage of that is about trans people. So these tests that might, that are about gender affirming treatments are not about transgender mice. So this is another example of where you take something that sounds true because there is some truth to it. It is gender affirming research, but it's not about trans people. And a lot of these other things that were listed in here were in regard to cancer research and asthma research and a bunch of other studies on how diseases interact with different hormone treatments. Yes, that is, there's no transgender mice. That is just fact check false.

[Tim]

I do want to be clear just for the sake of us, you know, having our own, like, you know, clarity and integrity. So, you know, so, for example, this is what they cite, right? This is one of the studies. And by the way, this was, this was half a million dollars. So this isn't even. This is such like a, a molecule drop in the, in the federal budget. But so there's this one that, that they cite is a mouse model to test the effects of gender affirming hormone therapy on HIV vaccine induced immune responses. And part of the thesis is that, hey, we don't know how vaccines might interact with certain people, including trans people. So we propose doing a certain test to mice, not transing them, quote, unquote, or making them transgender, but using hormones to see how using hormones and using other therapies to see how they interact with different types of mice based on being male or female. So again, you're right, there is a hint of truth of like, yes, the government has researched different gender things that could apply to either heteronormative or transgender people. But we're not just like randomly sex changing or, you know, making mice transgender. There's actually a method to the madness because again, when it comes, oh, my God, the way that science works, right, is that you, you have these hypotheses in these experiments and for medical research, you start with mice, you want to know how certain things interact with certain things before you would present it as data to the public. So, yes, there's a hint of truth to the idea that there has been research on different things regarding vaccines and other things that could apply to transgender people. But that doesn't mean that we are making mice transgender. That's not what's happening. It's actually for the Sake of public health, which we all want to happen.

[April]

Right. The actual definition of transgenic, for everyone who would like to know, it's relating to or denoting an organism that contains genetic material. Genetic material into which DNA from an unrelated organism. So a different organism has been artificially introduced.

[Tim]

Yeah, there you go. So that, that was one that was almost like a cough, like, I'm sorry, what? Okay. But the other one, that was ridiculous. I don't think I have a clip of this. I don't think I was able to pull it. Do you want to kind of go through Trump's claim about the cyclist who, who won by five hours or something like that?

[April]

Because this fact check is, this fact.

[Tim]

Check is such egg on the face.

[April]

I want to get the exact quote that he said. Um, let's see.

[Tim]

Do I get to do I have to do do do, do, do do.

[April]

Right back. Let's see. I'm stall for you.

[Tim]

I'm just kidding.

[April]

Well, you gotta sing a song just like me.

[Tim]

Oh, you don't want me to sing? Maybe I'll try some of my accents.

[April]

Okay, so, so Trump says that trans women are hurting other sports and then referred to a case in which a trans woman finished a long distance cycling race. And I'm pretty sure he said beat the next woman by five hours. Yeah, yeah, was, was how it came across in the speech. I'm trying. Of course, this article doesn't have the specific quote, but basically what people took away from that was that there was a trans woman who was in a race with other trans women and beat the second place woman by five hours. And we fact checked that and the race that this trans woman was in. So originally I fact checked it on Tuesday night and I said it wasn't five hours, it was five minutes. Which was a different case. That was a completely different case. The one Trump was talking about.

[Tim]

At least we think, because when you're so, when you're so broad, you could just say, well, I didn't mean that one. But the best example we could find is this, if that makes sense.

[April]

Right. So the, the story in which Trump was talking about where he tried to make it seem like this was these are trans women just beating up on cisgender women. Her name was. What's her name? Come back to me.

[Tim]

Austin Killips.

[April]

Yes, Austin Killips race in an 800 mile Arizona trail bike race. So 800 miles. So these, that means people are, are one racing for days. So the five hour, you know, beating someone by five hours makes a little more Sense when it's like days long race. But also the race that she was competing in was open to everyone. It was not a women's race. It was a race where there were men involved. And the record that she beat. So she didn't beat someone by five hours. She beat the record. And the record had been previously held by a cisgender man, Alex Schultz. Yes. And her record has since been beaten.

[Tim]

Wait, wait, no, April, I, I hear the new narrative. Trans women are superhumans and now they're able to beat men too. No, no, no. Now it's still, they still have an unfair advantage somehow because, I mean, how else do you make sense of this? It can't be that, that Austin Killups as a competitive athlete. Right? It has to be something else. Like there's something demonic going on that, that gives her the super strength to beat a man. I mean, I'll read the article here. The previous overall course record, remember 800 miles, was set by Alex Schultz at the 2023 Arizona Trail Race, who completed the grueling 800 mile course in nine days, five hours and 43 minutes. Austin shaved nearly five and a half hours off of his time. Yeah, think about that. A trans woman, she beat a man. And Trump's like, these trans women are just destroying women's sports. Are you kidding me, man? Like, are. You cannot be this ridiculous. But you are. And people believe it, and people believe it.

[April]

And even the whole idea of how men have this biologic and biological advantage over all women, there's some truth to that, but it's not black and white like the way that they make it out to be, because there is unfairness across all of the genders. Like Michael Phelps has, has a specific way that his, that he is built that make gives him an advantage to be a faster swimmer, a biological advantage.

[Tim]

He has a huge wingspan, et cetera.

[April]

So there are biological advantages happening all over the place that have nothing to do with someone's house, who, who someone identify as or how they're born and what parts that they have. Like there are men that I could easily beat in sports, and then there are women that would absolutely crush a lot of men in sports. Because not every man is God's gift to sports.

[Tim]

Are you sure though, April?

[April]

Sports.

[Tim]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not true. We're all great.

[April]

I don't know who this dude is in the comment who's like, who would April get into a boxing ring with a man? No, I wouldn't, because I'm Not a boxer. I also would not get into a boxing ring with a woman.

[Tim]

Right.

[April]

Like, this is just, like, stupid stuff.

[Tim]

I want to get into a boxing ring. If it was me versus an MMA fighter who was a female, I would not win. I mean, I'm big. I'm six foot four. Okay. I'd be destroyed. I would be destroyed.

[April]

It's so stupid. Like, I, like, I think. Here's the thing.

[Tim]

I'm going to.

[April]

Republicans are coming from this, are approaching a very complex, like, issue, which I do think the idea of fairness in sports, that is a topic that is worth talking about for sure.

[Tim]

Of course.

[April]

But I don't think it should be based on gender. It should be based on, like, if you look at, like, boxing, for example, going back to that they have weight categories.

[Tim]

Right.

[April]

Not based on gender. Like, they're. It's just a weight class. And that makes sense. I don't know. There's. There's just. There are ways to think about it, but because we are fighting such a black and white dogmatic approach that is just based in bigotry and hatred for people that conservatives do not understand.

[Tim]

Yep.

[April]

We can't have these conversations. Like, there is a way that we could come together and say what it would. What would be a fair way to make sure that sports are fair.

[Tim]

But.

[April]

That's right. But here's the thing. Sports has never been fair. Everyone, everyone, like you have people in the NBA who are over 7ft tall have a biological advantage when it comes to blocking shots or dunking than someone who is five foot seven.

[Tim]

Right. Shaquille O'Neal dominated because of his size. He was bigger than most of the men out there. He was biologically at an advantage compared to most people on the court. Before we go to a break, can I just tie this to Christian nationalism? Because I think it's just really important, especially for us. Right. Like, you know, this is not just a matter of these are bigots or they're fascists. I mean, that. That or that they. They are entertaining fascist ideals. That can all be true, but especially for Trump in the MAGA crowd, that. That supports so much of this rhetoric. There's a Christian nationalist bent to this. There's a theological view that these folks hold that says God has ordered creation a certain way, and whenever we go outside of that order, we are violating the commands in the will of God, and therefore we're bringing judgment onto the nation. So this is not just a sociological or economic or, you know, gender issue for people. It is a matter of how God Created things. And Andrew Whitehead wrote a great book, American Idolatry. I recommend checking it out. He defines white Christian nationalism. Here's what he says in his definition. White Christian nationalism combines a number of elements. The first element is a strong moral traditionalism based on creating and sustaining social hierarchies. Who's on top, who's on bottom. The second. Oh, sorry. Oftentimes these revolve around gender and sexuality. Okay. And then second party says is the second element is a comfort with authoritarian and social control. The world is a chaotic place, and at times, society. Society needs strong rules and rulers to make use of violence, or at least the threat of violence to maintain order. And that's exactly how Trump operates. Right. Trump is threatening to put protesters in prison at colleges. And this idea of gender. The trans folks break the gender norms. Therefore they are to be feared, and they are breaking the order that God has created people. Which for most Christian nationalists, is God at the top. The man is number two. The woman or his wife is number. Is number three, then the kids. That's kind of how the order works. If you're someone who breaks that norm, whether it's a. It's a marriage where maybe the gender roles are reversed or not are not that equal, or it's a trans person or a queer person, they're going to be seen as someone who's like a freak of nature, someone who. Who's breaking what is normative and therefore must be shamed as the out group that we in on the inside must be afraid of. This is exactly why. This is exactly why you are more terrified of a trans person than you are of Trump. An actual rapist. Right. There's a reason why you're more. You're. You're taught that pastors are really trustworthy and trans people are not. Are not. Even though the data shows that you're more likely to be sexually assaulted by a pastor than you are a trans person. Because the rhetoric is so powerful, focusing on little minority groups that break the status quo, break the social hierarchies, and then become the enemy. That's how this works.

[April]

Well, and it's not just trans people, too. It's. It's any type of queer person. That.

[Tim]

Or bipoc person.

[April]

Patriarchy.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[April]

Yeah. Well, because the patriarchy is so rooted in white Christian nationalism, just as you said. So any. Any person that goes against the umbrella, the wi, the wife, obey the husband, Smith to the husband, and the man is the head of the household. Like queer people, by default, do not fit into that system. Even if you have. If you have a gay couple who's submitting to whom, suddenly their entire ideology falls apart when you come, when you are dealing with queer people. And so by, like, by default, they have to demonize that.

[Tim]

That's right. This is what the. For some people might not know about the umbrella metaphor. Here's what. And this is very. This is a very classic, like, understanding of the order of creation.

[April]

Jesus Christ originated from Bill Gothard in iblp. And there's like a whole documentary called Shiny Happy People if you want more information on that cult specifically.

[Tim]

Exactly. So the order of society looks like this Christian. Then the husband, and the husband's called to protect the family and provide for the family, then the wife and then the children underneath of that. See how there's no room for queer people? There's no room in this umbrella for a trans person or a queer person, because they're not part of the natural order of how God created the world. And this theology is deeply embedded in the Trump administration, which is why you saw him sign a law. I'm sorry, it was executive order, Right. To protect women in women's sports. Right. There's a. That's why this was a high priority for them, because this doesn't fit. Those people don't fit into this kind of society.

[April]

And. And in some good news, the Senate recently did fail to pass the bill that was going to ban trans. Really, that's focusing on trans women, but trans people in sports. And honestly, it's a good thing because I. Here's the thing. We need to move on. But I'm just gonna say this real quick.

[Tim]

Go ahead.

[April]

Republicans get so caught up in these culture wars, and they're like, no men in women's sports. Which, obviously they're talking about trans women, which is already just a very derogatory thing to say about them. But they're talking about young girls, like, in school, not wanting, you know what. Who they would call boys or whatever. But what they don't pay into account is if you start with these rules where, like, you, your package, your genitals have to match the certain genitals for the sport that you're playing, that opens up the door for women, for girls to just be violated. Like, just imagine, like, how are you going to fact check that you have birth certificates, but birth certificates can be changed, right? And. And then you have, like, Lauren Boebert, who falsely accused a cisgender woman in the bathroom of being trans. Like, where's your. What's your end game? You're going to start checking people's private parts right before they have to go to a bathroom.

[Tim]

Right. Hi, 13 year old girl. Can I inspect you, please, to make sure that you're actual. That you're actually a woman? Because that's what defines you as your woman is if you have certain genitalia or not. Sounds kind of sexualizing. Sounds kind of groomer.

[April]

Like they have. It gives no regard for trans men. And many trans. Like, a lot of trans people, you would never know that they were trans.

[Tim]

Yep.

[April]

Like, and if you. There are trans men who, like, I mean, you would never know. They've got full beards, they've got deep voices with these bathroom bills. They would want trans men, grizzly bearded men going to the women's restroom. That's way more uncomfortable than having trans women in there who look like. Who are women? Like, and no trans. The idea of protecting women. No man is going to go through the effort of transitioning to become a woman, to assault women. They can just assault women. They do it all of the time. They don't need to go through a.

[Tim]

Performance to do so or hormone therapy or whatever.

[April]

It's so. It's stupid and it's hateful and it's bigoted and it's. Oh, I just. It's so annoying. Like, you can't have a conversation with these people because it's like, no, we are the moral high ground. We're saving and protecting women. I'm like, you. Do you even watch women's sports? These are the same people that are like, you throw like a girl and degrade women all of the time.

[Tim]

Yep.

[April]

I don't need your protection.

[Tim]

Yep. Yep. And maybe tell your president to stop bringing back human traffickers to the country who beat women on camera.

[April]

Hey, he's Louise.

[Tim]

All right, why don't we go to a break? Because when we come back, we're gonna. We're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about speaking of, of the. We love women. Psych. No, we don't. We're gonna get into the hatred of Amy Coney Barrett at the hands of Christian nationalists. I mean, there's so much to say here. So let's take a break and we'll come back in about two minutes.

[April]

Foreign.

[Tim]

We'Re back.

[April]

Welcome back to the Tim and April Show.

[Tim]

Welcome back. See, that's why I don't sing. It's terrible. I have no voice.

[April]

America say Jesus. I'm gonna be stuck in my head forever. Okay, moving on. Speaking of women and degrading them.

[Tim]

No, no, MAGA loves them. They are here to protect women.

[April]

Yes, certain, certain women. As long as they fall in line. Okay, so actually this is actually some good news. So the Supreme Court a couple of days ago.

[Tim]

Yep.

[April]

Basically ruled against Trump for, I think the first time since Trump stacked SCOTUS for that I can remember.

[Tim]

It's one of the bigger rulings. I mean, there's been a few things that I think that they've shot down. I mean, they, they didn't shoot down. Giving him unlimited, you know, power with immunity. That sucks.

[April]

But, yeah, but I do think it's, it's one of the first times that's gone to the Supreme Court and then they, they voted against him. So it was 5, 4. So both Amy come. Amy Coney Barrett and John Roberts voted with the Democrat appointed justices. And basically what this is. So if you watch Fox News, they're probably, they'll probably frame this differently. But basically it was, they rejected Trump's bid to basically not pay $2 billion in foreign aid that he froze. But this was. This money was for work that had already been done.

[Tim]

Yeah, key keys.

[April]

Yeah, this is key. This was like people. Yeah. This was not future work. This was work that had already been done. And so the Supreme Court went 5, 4 and said they need to pay for the work that they agreed to and had already been done.

[Tim]

Can I just say that for being a so called great businessman, Trump should know that this is how business works. Right. Like you solicit a vendor or a contractor or maybe a customer solicits you. You get the job, you do the work, then they pay you money. This is like, this is business 101. This is capitalism 101. And Trump's like, actually, let's just not pay these people what the government said. We're going to pay them. Are we cool with that? Supreme Court and the Supreme Court in a five to four decision is like, no.

[April]

Right. Which to be fair, four of the justices were like, oh yeah, they did the work they don't need. That's cool.

[Tim]

America Mag. America. America first.

[April]

Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, so to, to Amy Coney Barrett's props, you know, to her, she did vote against Trump here along with John Roberts. And Christian nationalists online and MAGA online are very mad.

[Tim]

They are not happy about this. Right?

[April]

It is, it is interesting though I have yet to see someone specifically call out John Roberts. They're only calling out Amy Coney Barrett.

[Tim]

Oh, April, you're exact. You're. You're reading into things we don't See gender or color in America. Okay. It's just. It just. It's happenstance that people like Lance Wall now, you know, the architect of the Seven Mountain Mandate, one of the most ardent Christian nationalists out there, is targeting Amy Coney Barrett and not saying anything about Chief Justice John Roberts. It's. It's. You're just making it up. Exaggeration. Yeah.

[April]

Let's pull up some of those tweets, shall we?

[Tim]

Yes. Oh, do I have it? No, I know I have it. There it is. It was labeled wrong.

[April]

Yeah. Here's Lance Wall now, who. Who is a Seven Mountain Mandate person, very much a Christian nationalist. Believe we are, you know, called by God Christians to have dominion over.

[Tim]

He. He is the architect of the Seven Mountain Mandate, Lance Wall now. And he spoke at Turning Point America Fest in December, which I recapped and will be coming out this Monday. But, yes, this is a pretty big player in the Christian nationalist space, mostly in the charismatic New Apostolic Reformation space. That's who Lance Wall now is.

[April]

Yes. Yeah, he wrote a book with Bill Johnson on the Seven Mountain Mandate.

[Tim]

Yes, he did.

[April]

So, anyway, so he tweeted. Can you make it a little bit bigger so I can read it?

[Tim]

My bad. Yeah, we got a 500 program for this. Is that better?

[April]

Yeah, sort of rough. Yeah, I can read it now. So he. So he's, quote, tweeting someone, and it's a video clip. Oh, we didn't bring the video clip, but it's a video of the night of Trump's speech, and he goes down and shakes the hands of all the Supreme Court justices, and they claim that Amy Coney Barrett glares at Trump.

[Tim]

I can pull the video up. Give me one second.

[April]

Yeah, pull the video up, because I want. I want to get your. I want to know if you think she glared at him.

[Tim]

This guy pinned it, so it's really easy to find. Let me just zoom. Way in here.

[April]

Yeah, way in.

[Tim]

I'm working on it.

[April]

Here we go.

[Tim]

So here's the video. Let's see. They've showed the president, okay?

[April]

So he's. Brother, you've done this for a long time.

[Tim]

Have you ever seen a response right there?

[April]

Is that a glare the Democratic Party.

[Tim]

Had tonight of just absolute rudeness that they showed in the uncivility they showed the president. I state. There you go.

[April]

That is the brother you've done. That's the weakest glare I've ever seen. Let's call that a. Okay, so there we go.

[Tim]

She's shaking his hand. She's looking.

[April]

She does his little smile. She looks down, she looks at him right there.

[Tim]

Where's the Gl.

[April]

I don't even know if she was looking at him.

[Tim]

That's, that's the glare. I, I, I have it on repeat here just so we can keep watching this. She, she's looking right at him. She just has a she, she has a neutral face, which, by the way, part of the Supreme Court, like part of their decorum is they don't stand or applaud whenever any president speaks as a way to show impartiality, which, by the way, is a joke with this court. But, like, she's just being, I mean, look at, look at Kavanaugh. Yeah, look at Kavanaugh.

[April]

More of a smile than Kavanaugh did.

[Tim]

Yeah, I'm looking. I mean, Kavanaugh gives him a glare too.

[April]

I mean, if, I mean, if hers is a glare, then his is the glare. But I don't think either are glares. I think those are just human beings trying to look neutral.

[Tim]

So, so like, like how it look, like how it tends to be in these spaces. One little thing gets picked up and goes mega viral for absolutely no stinking reason. So what did Lance say in this tweet, April?

[April]

Okay, so he's quote tweeting the video where someone says she knows she's a Judas, referring to Amy Coney Barrett. And so then Lance quote, tweets this and says she's not one of us. Notice her glaring at Trump. No more female university professors. They're overwhelmingly liberal. I'm serious. I may be jet lagged, but I think she's a Democrat. We always go with Catholics, but never evangelicals. Next one, a strong male evangelical.

[Tim]

Come on.

[April]

So we've got the anti Catholic sentiment and the anti women system sentiment and the anti professor and anti education all wrapped up in one tweet.

[Tim]

I don't even know what to say. I, this is actually a good example of how, of how the litmus test for this space is total unwavering allegiance to Trump. Right. She sides with, by the way, the Chief justice on a very clear case of we owe people money, we have to pay them. You can't not pay them. And Lance's response is, oh, now it matters that she's Catholic and now she's probably a Democrat. And we need also a male one, not a female one. So, like, really, the hood comes off and yes, it turns out that you are misogynistic. Yes, you absolutely are a religious zealot because you actually don't like Catholics. We know, Lance. We knew all this. We knew all of this. And now you finally said the quiet parts out loud. You don't want women in leadership. Of course. Of course you don't.

[April]

Also, the Supreme Court justices are supposed to be nonpartisan. Like, obviously, they are appointed bipartisan presidents, but they like their job. They're not supposed to be partisan in any way.

[Tim]

Yeah, 100%.

[April]

They just want their little yes men.

[Tim]

And then we have. This is another one. So, okay. Jack Posobic is really not a great human being. I mean, there's a long legacy of his. Of him cozying up to, like, just blatant white supremacists. He tweets out, amy Coney Barrett shows the danger of Republican dei. And here we go. Here we go. Here is. Here's when the gun gets aimed on their own, right. Dei, we need meritocracy, not qualified. Oh, she's not voting. She's not ruling how we want her to rule. She must be a DEI hire now. Wow. Wow. Yes. Yes.

[April]

It reminds me of Francesca Ramsey. She's on TikTok. She's the girl. The woman who became well known for the Leopard song. Do you know the Leopard song?

[Tim]

I think I do.

[April]

Where she basically takes Republicans when someone turns on them and she sings a song like, never thought the leopards would eat my face. And basically it's. So here's Amy Coney Barrett. And that's, like, the thing that is really frustrating with the women that are in these spaces that are super patriarchal and very anti dei.

[Tim]

Yep.

[April]

Like, DEI includes you. Like, when we are fighting for diversity, equity, and inclusion, that includes women. That includes white women, too. And when they're like, they are fighting against their own interests, it's like when.

[Tim]

You hear Ali Stuckey rail against feminism, and you're like, you know that feminism carved the path for you to make a lot of money doing what you do, Ali. Right. Like, without the early feminist movement, which, by the way, many of them were early Christians and even evangelicals, without the early feminist movement of the 20th century. 19th and 20th century, you would not be able to do what you're doing. You wouldn't be able to vote, Ali. You wouldn't be able to make any money the way that you're making it, you wouldn't be able to speak in public. The way that you're speaking, you wouldn't be able to. And for these women to essentially shit on their. Their own tradition that gave them this access is. It's unbelievable. And so, yes, to your point, why are. You know, it's Just kind of. I guess it's a warning to MAGA women out there that you're one of the. You're on the chopping block, too. Like, the second something goes wrong, the second you push back, the second you gain your own voice and have your own brains, is the second that you be called. That you're called a Republican DEI hire, is the second you're told you can't really lead. This is how it is. And we have quotes. I mean, Joel Webbin, another raging Christian nationalist who's off his rocker, says it very clearly that women should not be able to lead in government under Christian nationalism. Stephen Wolf, the author of the Case for Christian Nationalism, says on a podcast. We have the clip, we shared the clip that under Christian nationalism, women should not be able to hold positions of leadership, especially in government, because they're too empathetic, they're too soft, and that atheism is crushed. That's why whenever I see an atheist or a woman or even a gay person advocating for these MAGA ideals, I'm like, are you trying to push yourself off the. Off the cliff? Are you trying to push yourself off the ledge? You're. You're participating in your own. You're against. You're participating against your own interests in every single way, because they will absolutely come for you. Not even a question.

[April]

Yeah. Joel Webbing. Like, literally, just earlier today, I saw a video of his going around where he says he does not want to see women in the public sphere at all. He does not want to see women with podcasts. Like, we're talking.

[Tim]

She doesn't.

[April]

And these people, these men who want these things are in. Are getting positions of power, and these. And you had people like Laura Loomer. She also tweeted that Amy Coney Barrett is a DEI appoint. Um, Meg Basham went against Amy Comey Barrett, too. Yeah. Amy Coney, she said. Yeah. She says that Trump's probably regretting thinking that Amy was a mistake.

[Tim]

The tweet reads, trump has to be thinking that Amy Coney Barrett was a mistake. You will not find many women like Thatcher who are not for turning again, like, Meghan, what are you doing? Like, what are you doing here? All. All Amy did was remember the whole point in theory of the Supreme Court is to uphold the law. Right. And how do we interpret the Constitution like that. That that's the big two things that they got to do. And they have to rely on the Constitution and be as constitutional as possible. That's the whole point of their role. Before it got real weaponized like real weaponized. Right. And so Amy is probably reading the Constitution, reading the law, and saying, yes, under the law and under our Constitution, I side with these justices saying that we have to pay people what we said we're going to pay them.

[April]

And Megan, they've already done.

[Tim]

Yes, the work is complete, and now they want to get paid. That's fair. That's just. That's biblical, for crying out loud. It's capitalism. It's all the things that Megan claims to be for. And her response to this is maybe it's a mistake to have her on the court because she's a woman, for one thing.

[April]

And how many times has she voted in favor of Trump? That I have vehemently disagreed with, too. And she does one thing that's the most annoying. Okay, I need to stop saying the most annoying, because there's a lot of annoying things. One of the annoying things about it is you can have a whole lifetime track record of doing the most evangelical, the most conservative things. And the second that you go away from the pack or just even if it's one issue, if you go slightly off track, you're suddenly out. You're a D appointee. You are never one of us. It's immediately dismissed for everything they've ever done. I mean, it's the same thing that happens to us. And that happened to me, like, when I. The first time I didn't vote for Donald Trump in 2016, which was the only time I never. I did not vote for a Republican for President. Was 2016 the first time around?

[Tim]

Same.

[April]

I was immediately ousted. My Christianity was immediately suspicious. Despite the fact that my entire life up to that point was, like, working in ministry and volunteering at church and, like, giving my entire life to spread the gospel. But because I couldn't vote for Donald Trump, which was one thing, everything else was completely discounted.

[Tim]

Same. Same. And as you know, for many people out there listening, same for them, it was like a litmus test. And of course you're thinking, wait, why is it a litmus test? Why is this a sign of my faith when I won't vote for the sexual abuser and the liar? Like we just read from Proverbs a second ago, Trump embodies, like, seven out of seven of the things that the Lord absolutely hates. And somehow we were the unchristian ones. We were the ones who were giving up the moral high ground here. Like what? I'm sorry.

[April]

Yeah.

[Tim]

Excuse me. How. What? No, I don't think so. And I just think it's really worth Pointing this out that, you know, ultimately this space is incredibly misogynistic. They're very xenophobic. They want to take over and they want men at the top. They absolutely do. I mean, I even think about, like, going back to your loyalty test. Look at Liz Cheney. Liz Cheney voted with Donald Trump like something like 95% of the time. Something like that. Right. And she was, she's absolutely lambasted. Kicked out of the party just because she stood on the truth that Donald Trump lost the election and that he should never have tried to overthrow it. And now she's like, you know, seen as just a ridiculous rhino to everyone else. So it's just, it's absolutely absurd. And we had to cover this. We had to cover the blatant misogyny of the same people who go protect women. Protect women.

[April]

Yeah.

[Tim]

Now say, well, she's a woman. She should never, she should have never been on the court. And also in Lance's case, she's also a Catholic, and that can't happen either. Again, we want Christians like us, who are male, to largely be in power. That's how the system works.

[April]

Right. Liz Cheney voted in support of Trump's position. 92.9%.

[Tim]

Yep.

[April]

Of the time. Oh, yeah. And the misogyny is obviously clear as day because they are now going out of their way to demonize Amy for voting against Trump. But I have not said anything about John Roberts, who's also a conservative appointed justice who also voted against it.

[Tim]

That's right.

[April]

But Amy's a DEI hire.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[April]

For that vote John Roberts, we'll just ignore him. You know, and maybe it's because he's not a Trump appointed one. To be fair, he's still conservative appointed.

[Tim]

That's exactly right. No, I'm with you 100%.

[April]

Go ahead.

[Tim]

Okay. No, you're good. So two things, I think. Let's do this. We're going to do something new today. We're going to tee up, we're going to tease what's coming on Monday. We are doing a deep dive on Doge because Doge is ridiculous. And I think I want to share. Can we just share the one clip that we pulled of Rachel Maddow talking about the Doge thing and just how ridiculous they are to kind of tease what's coming on Monday? Are you cool with that, April?

[April]

Yeah.

[Tim]

And then we'll. We'll play our weird Christian. I'm sorry, we'll play our we Christian right after that. So. Okay, let's tease this. I do want to tease this. This Little clip. Because I really. I just think it's important for us to realize how upside down this Trump administration is and how everything they say is actually the opposite. Right. We're cutting fraud and abuse. You're actually not. I've appointed Elon Musk to be in charge of Doge. You actually haven't. Here's a short clip that I think will tease up what's coming on Monday about Doge. Check this clip out. I just think it's really telling.

[April]

The Trump administration recently told the federal court that Elon Musk is not the head of this Doge service that seems to only answer to him and that the president has repeatedly said Elon Musk is running. They told the judge, no, no, no, don't pay attention to any of that. He's not running anything. That led to an especially awkward moment at the White House press briefing today in which the White House press secretary insisted that Elon Musk, per that attestation to the court, Elon Musk is not running Doge and somebody else is. But she said she couldn't say who it was. She said, quote, I'm not going to reveal the name of that individual from this podium. A few hours later, the White House announced that somebody nobody ever heard of is the real head of Doge, not Elon Musk. There is a person running this government agency. It's not Musk.

[Tim]

It's a person.

[April]

Her name is Amy Gleason, who reportedly works from Nashville, who was reportedly on. Who was reportedly, quote, scheduled to be on vacation in Mexico today, and who, according to the New York Times, quote, told associates that she was not aware ahead of time that the White House.

[Tim]

Planned to make public her role today.

[April]

Before the White House announced her. So random Tennessee resident on vacation in Mexico. Phone starts blowing up. They're saying, I have what job?

[Tim]

I love that. I love that. I'll pause it there. I love that. They have no clue what they're doing. They are lying through their teeth, literally. Elon's not in charge. It's some random. Yeah, she's in Nashville, but on video vacation in Mexico right now. And, yeah, she is working remotely, even though we want all federal workers to report to the office. And she's definitely in charge of Doge, even though she had no idea and was not aware that the White House was going to expose her role today. But it's definitely not Elon, the guy doing press conferences with Donald Trump and showing up at the congressional speech. He's definitely not in charge at all. It's this Other person. Okay.

[April]

Yeah.

[Tim]

Okay.

[April]

We honestly haven't even really talked about Carolyn Levitt as press secretary yet.

[Tim]

Oh, my gosh. We could do a deep dive on all these people.

[April]

She is a. She's something. All right, let's get to our. Our little segment. We Christian. So Dave Ramsey Ramsay. Oh, my gosh, he is going viral. I mean, Davis said some pretty wild things before. This one might take the cake.

[Tim]

This is unreal. Should we just play it and kind of.

[April]

Yeah, let's just play. So here we show a podcast where people call in and ask him financial questions. He does a. A program called Financial Peace University that is in churches everywhere.

[Tim]

Every white church. Every white church everywhere does.

[April]

Every white church. Yeah. Where they pay with the little envelopes. And anyway, it doesn't.

[Tim]

If your church is non denominational Assemblies of God or sbc, chances are you've done this class at some point.

[April]

Yeah. All right, let's just play the clip.

[Tim]

Here we go. This is him talking, answering questions. Here we go.

[April]

How is it considered ethical for people to own so many houses? I'm just wondering how, as a Christian, this isn't seen as greed. Don't you know that buying up all these homes is what's causing the housing shortage? Let's just start with not the spiritual.

[Tim]

Part, but your economic understanding. That's not what's causing the housing shortage.

[April]

Investors buying up houses is not causing the housing shortage. Can we, can we stay on that for just a second? Because that is a thing going around that these massive hedge funds or Blackstone, like all these. They're coming in.

[Tim]

They are. But that's.

[April]

They don't have a soul. That's right. Okay. So.

[Tim]

So hedge funds don't have a soul.

[April]

So. So it. So because an individual investor. Right. For the average person out there who has maybe two or three rental homes, right. They've got baby steps and they're doing it.

[Tim]

Oh, no, you're contributing to it for sure. Like when there's. When there's thousands of people buying up houses and renting them out, you're absolutely contributing to the housing shortage. And I think that the initial way I read the question was talking about some of the bigger companies like Blackstone that are doing this. So this person is asking a very valid question. And Dave's like, no, no, no, that's not the case. They don't understand stuff and they kind of backtrack.

[April]

I love how he, how he was like, well, let's not do the spiritual part first. Let's just talk about economics.

[Tim]

Yeah, right.

[April]

She's like, well, they say hedge funds. She's like, oh, why does that matter? They don't have souls.

[Tim]

Oh, no souls?

[April]

What? I thought you weren't talking about spiritual.

[Tim]

All right, Dave. Got it, Stone. Yeah.

[April]

Those guys are buying up houses.

[Tim]

That's true.

[April]

Is that. And is that affecting the housing market at all? Because that is.

[Tim]

It probably is to some extent, but.

[April]

Not as much as Tick Tock says it is.

[Tim]

Yeah, so, I mean, you really don't want your economic lessons on Tick Tock. I'll just help you with it.

[April]

Or Dave Ramsey. But anyway, you're on Tick Tock, though.

[Tim]

I know, but that. That just proves that I'm lacking in judgment. Okay, so it's just kind of funny, though, how he can explain away why he's on TikTok, but why you also shouldn't be on Tik Tok. Right? Like, well, I'm the. I'm the exception to the rule. Like, you know, all this bad advice on Tick Tock. Don't get your. Your information from there. Except our stuff, of course, because we're the exception. Just interesting. I don't even know 15, 20 houses among 15 to 20 real estate as well. How is that not. Not greed? Because I don't own anything. I'm a Christian, and that means God.

[April]

Owns it, and I'm managing it for you.

[Tim]

Oh, my gosh. So I guess you're calling God greedy now.

[April]

Okay, so devil's advocate. What would you say if Greg was like, well, Dave, why do you need so many houses? Why don't you just give all that extra money away?

[Tim]

Managing money for God, that's my job. I'm sorry.

[April]

This is the same.

[Tim]

I'm managing money for God, so it's okay. Has Dave read his own Bible that he claims is so clear? Has he read when Jesus is like, hey, to be born again, rich man. Sell all of your stuff. What Jesus doesn't say is, can you manage all of your stuff for me until I come back? That's not the passage, Dave. That's not what it says, Dave.

[April]

Well, then maybe you should share and make other people managers for.

[Tim]

Right, yeah. Why don't you share the wealth, Dave? I mean, just read acts like, like the early church model they gave so no one had anything in need. And Dave's like, well, the reason why I. Listen, guys. The reason why I own 15 to 20 houses because I'm just managing it for God. Wait, I'm sorry, doesn't the Bible say that, like, you know, don't store up your treasure here on Earth, where. Where moth and rust corrupts. But store up your treasure in heaven. You can't take the houses with you, Dave. They don't. They don't get beamed up during the rapture, buddy. Like.

[April]

Like, think of how many ways you could stretch this argument, too. It's like Jesus said, lay down your weapons. Why do you have so many guns? Oh, they're not my guns, right? They're God's guns. I'm managing my weapons for God. Or, like, if you have an affair on your wife, like, why would you cheat on your wife? Well, she's not my wife. She's God's wife.

[Tim]

She's God's wife.

[April]

And really, we're all the bride of Christ, right? So we're all just. I'm just managing the relationships that God already has.

[Tim]

I'm just managing all these different connections for God. It's. It's not my thing. It's. It's God's thing. Like, dude, talk about, like, blatant justification for your own greed. This is called a legitimizing narrative. By the way, the book Ministers of Propaganda, Scott Coley talks about this like you tell yourself a story to justify your greed or whatever. Whatever behavior it is that hurts other people. And this is perfect. Oh, well, it's just. I'm managing for God. Where. Who is God? Where is God? How. When did God ask you to manage such money? Whose signatures on the paperwork? Is it you, Dave, or is it God? Like, I'm sorry, is God like, like, like, like the second person on the mortgage in case you sell the house? Like, how do you split the profits with God? Walk me through this, Dave Wild. Just walk me through. Is there more to this? Oh, there's more. We're only halfway through. My bad. All right, let's. Let's keep listening.

[April]

Well, that's the. That's the bigger. That's the clip that's really going viral, actually. I don't know if I've seen the rest of it. Let's see. Let's see if he digs himself out of his little hole.

[Tim]

Let's find out.

[April]

Logic of. Well, is it greedy to have more in your retirement than maybe you may not need?

[Tim]

Right?

[April]

Like, listen, if you got three bath, if you got three bathrooms, you have.

[Tim]

Three more than most people in the world. Why are you not greedy? If you have two cars, you have two cars more than most people in the world.

[April]

If you make $38,000 a year, you're.

[Tim]

In the top 1% of income earners in the world. I'm really surprised because I'm surprised that Dave is going with this talking point because Obviously context matters. $38,000 in America can't get you a roof over your head enough to feed your family without getting government assistance, right? So yes, maybe in the scope of the world, you're in the top 1%, but what that buys you as far as economic power or social safety or health, it buys you almost nothing in New Jersey that buys you would be under the poverty rate by far. So like it's not greedy for a person to need money or want money to pay for like their well being. Right? What happens is when you get to a point, when you become a millionaire, really even a billionaire, you have so much wealth at the expense of others, you couldn't spend it in your lifetime if you wanted to. I mean, people like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, they're making like $12,000 a second. Okay, Whole different level, whole different league than someone trying to make even 100 grand in America because that's just enough to get by thanks to inflation, you know, the price of eggs being so high, etc. So. And like it's, it's just unbelievable that, that he goes, my 15 to 20 houses that I own and probably make a lot of money on is the, is equivalent to an average family in America having two cars so mom and dad can get to work.

[April]

And just for full transparency, celebrity net worth has Dave Ramsey's net worth as of earlier 2025 to be around $200 million.

[Tim]

Must be nice, Dave. It's a lot, a lot of money, A lot, a lot of things you could do with that. And again, like I asked, listen, the whole point, what makes someone greedy is when you take or when you have more than you need. $38,000 in America is, is the opposite. It's the opposite. You don't have enough to survive in this country. $200 million is way over and above having what you need. And so what you're doing is you're hoarding wealth. That's what you're doing in the Bible, whether Dave likes it or not. There are clear themes from the Hebrew Bible through the New Testament of what happens or how God thinks about people who hoard wealth at the expense of others. Because usually that kind of wealth is only accumulated when you exploit other people or systems that have people inside of it that are under the boot of that kind of framework, whether it's predatory loans or whatever else it could be, credit systems, et cetera. It's just unbelievable to watch him justify this as a Christian. Shall we continue?

[April]

Yeah. See what else he says.

[Tim]

Thank you.

[April]

How are you not greedy? Because amounts don't create greed.

[Tim]

There it is. Greed is a spirit.

[April]

It is not an amount.

[Tim]

And if you want to be a communist. Classic. Just be a communist. Don't try to blame Christianity for it.

[April]

It.

[Tim]

Okay. If you want to be a socialist.

[April]

Just be a socialist. Don't try to blame Christianity for it.

[Tim]

That's a form of heresy called Gnosticism that believes that the material bad and anyone that has the material, their soul is in jeopardy.

[April]

The Gnostics taught that in the first.

[Tim]

Century they were heretics.

[April]

So if you want to do a.

[Tim]

Little theological rabbit hole, we can do that.

[April]

But I love the rabbit holes, Dave. No, that's good.

[Tim]

Okay, that's good. That's it. So. So Dave's point is that it's Gnosticism to point out that greed is bad. Hmm, interesting. Because we're not talking about the material being inherently bad. In fact. In fact, if you want to play that game, it is the evangelicals who believe that the world is inherently wicked and bad, that the material is inherently bad. Right. That we're under the domain of Satan. So if you're going to play that game, Dave, of Gnostics and what they believe, you can make a much stronger case for that in evangelicalism than a poor person saying, hey, I'm working my ass off 40, 60 hours a week, so is my partner. We're just trying to survive. And there are people in this country who are profiting unfairly off of the backs of others. And I think that's unjust. And Dave's like, well, if you want to be a communist. No, no, that's not, that's not. That's not communism, buddy. That's just fair and equitable. Right? Because it was April. Now tell me if I'm wrong here. Wasn't the American guarantee. Wasn't. Isn't the American dream that if you work hard, you can make it in this country? Isn't that what we're taught? Hey, if you find a full time job, if you work hard, you can make it. That dream is not a reality for the average American who works a full time job. It's just not. And then people say, well, if you don't work, you don't eat. They're working. The poor are working. It is expensive to be poor in this country because the systems are set up to continue to exploit as much wealth and resource from the poor as much as possible, keeping them in debt. And entrapment, all kinds of loopholes and fees. I mean, you can do whole. There's Guys just go on YouTube, Dave. There's whole deep dives on the predatory loan system that. That prays off of the bottom percent payday loans, you know, guaranteed instant loans. Now that stuff intentionally hurts the poor and working class. And Dave's just like, Well, I got 15 to 20 homes and how dare you even challenge me on this? Because it's. It's God's. It's. I'm banging for God. Get out of here, bro. Like, just get out of here. Read your freaking Bible. Jesus says it is harder for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. What's the. What's the change? The repentance of going in the other way. Looking at yourself and your greed and how you hoard up wealth at the expense of others. And turning. Going the other way, that's how you get into the kingdom. According to Jesus.

[April]

Yeah, I don't think his.

[Tim]

Right.

[April]

His numbers on the 38,000 puts you in the top 1% is right.

[Tim]

Exactly. I was wondering what you were doing. I was like, wow, you're real quiet over there, April. I'll keep reading.

[April]

I was like, what is that number? Okay, well, if he's talking about the world, maybe he was talking about the world. I'm seeing what it is. The United States. In the United States, according to Investopedia, you have to be making at least six figures with an average income of over 160,000 to be in the top 10%.

[Tim]

That's.

[April]

That's in America, though, so I don't. I'm sure the global. Global numbers would be lower than that. But I. Anyway, I'm sure these numbers are not right.

[Tim]

Why don't we just end. Why don't we end this? By the way, friends, thank you so much for being here. Truly give this stream a like it means the world. We're here Mondays and Thursdays, 12:00 Eastern. If you're liking this stuff, make sure you show up. Of course, we save all these lives as well. They'll be on the podcast, et cetera. Why don't we end April just on. Well, what. What's up?

[April]

I found the world number. This is according to Vox. I just want to say it. If you earn $60,000 a year after tax and you do not have 60,000 a year after taxes. So after taxes and you don't have kids, then you're in the top 1%. If you have a partner and one kid and you have a household income of $130,000, then you're in the 1%.

[Tim]

Oh, but I'm way under. What. What is it for two kids?

[April]

Let's see. Okay, here it is. If you have a household income of $160,000. After taxes. After taxes, and you have a partner and two kids, then you're in the top 1% after.

[Tim]

So you're making. I mean, what. The tax rate's like, 25, essentially effective. You get some money back. So you have to make, like, close to 200 grand. 180,000 to be in the top 1% if you have two kids, right?

[April]

Correct.

[Tim]

Because taxes. Yeah. Well, you know, April, I. Maybe I should come clean. I did deconstruct to get rich and famous. That was why I deconstructed my faith, and that's why we do these lives. And So I make $400,000 a year after taxes. Yeah. So don't tell anyone.

[April]

Yeah.

[Tim]

It's a secret.

[April]

I know. Well, I think most of us just learned we are not in the one top 1%.

[Tim]

Let's end on a good note. Are you cool with this? Why don't I. I just quote Jesus here? And then. And then we'll. We'll let. We'll let Dave read the Bible because again, the Bible's clear, right? Everyone. Everyone knows the Bible. So clear.

[April]

So let's.

[Tim]

Let's get some clarity. Mark 10, verse starting at verse 17. As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. Good teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit life? Why do you call me good? Jesus answered, no one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony. You shouldn't. You shout out to fraud. Honor your father and mother. By the way, P.S. like Trump fails. Almost all of these. Just putting that out there, Teacher, he declared, all these I have kept since I was a boy. Jesus looked at him and loved him. One thing you lack, he said, go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. At this, the man's face fell and he said, but God, I am managing my 20 homes for you. Just kidding. He went away, sad because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, how hard is it for the rich to enter the kingdom of God? And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, children. How hard is it to enter the kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

[April]

Amen.

[Tim]

Is that it?

[April]

And the root of all. And money is the root of all evil.

[Tim]

True that. Can't serve God in mammon. Again, the Bible, like, that's. Guys, like, where are we? The progressive postmodernist, you know, crazies. I'm just quoting your own scripture at you, so. Just kidding. I like the Bible too. It's authoritative in my life. Yada, yada, yada. So.

[April]

Yeah. Well, everyone, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. And it was so much fun. Monday, we should clarify. We will be talking about Doge as long as something drastic does not happen between now and then that we need to go instead.

[Tim]

Good point. Yes, yes. There are terms and conditions apply to our teasing of Doge. So. All right, friends. Hey, thanks so much for being here. Talk to y'all later. See ya. Bye.

[April]

Sa.