Obama’s Spooks and ‘Russian Collusion’

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Obama’s Spooks and ‘Russian Collusion’" – The Victor Davis Hanson Show

Release Date: July 22, 2025

In this compelling episode of The Victor Davis Hanson Show, host Victor Davis Hanson, alongside co-host Jack Fowler, delves into a series of pressing political, economic, and cultural issues shaping the United States. The discussion spans from international economic maneuvers to deep-seated political controversies, providing listeners with a comprehensive analysis rooted in historical context.

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1. China’s Reduction of U.S. Treasury Holdings

At the outset ([00:00]), Victor highlights a significant economic development: China’s recent divestment of $8.2 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds, marking its position as the third-largest holder of these assets for the first time since 2008. Victor draws historical parallels, stating:

"When the Athenian empire debased its silver, when Rome clipped its coins, when Weimar Germany printed endlessly, the pattern remained consistent." ([00:00])

He warns that the U.S. faces similar risks with its burgeoning $38 trillion debt, suggesting that "the coming battle between Trump and Fed Chairman Powell represents more than politics. It's about whether America can escape the historical trajectory of great powers who spent beyond their means." ([00:00])

2. Tulsi Gabbard’s Allegations of Obama’s ‘Russian Collusion’

The conversation shifts to recent political turmoil surrounding Tulsi Gabbard ([06:32]). Gabbard has declassified documents alleging that the Obama administration engaged in a "treasonous conspiracy" post the 2016 election to undermine Donald Trump. Victor scrutinizes these claims, focusing on the integrity of intelligence reports and the motivations behind Gabbard’s actions:

"They set the precedent that you could go after an ex president with 93 endowments... they set the president, you could take a presidential candidate ex president off the ballot." ([08:14])

He emphasizes the potential misuse of intelligence agencies under Obama to target Trump, suggesting that this could be a continuation of a "years long coup" against the former president.

3. John Durham’s Investigation and Judicial Bias

Jack Fowler brings up comments made by John Durham, the former special prosecutor, questioning why certain issues weren't addressed during his tenure ([13:47]). Victor responds by highlighting systemic biases within the judicial system:

"Kevin Kleinsmith... doctored a FISA affidavit... destroy the life of Carter Page." ([14:09])

Victor argues that the current climate prevents fair judicial processes, asserting that Durham’s efforts are undermined by a biased legal framework, making convictions unlikely against left-leaning officials.

4. Jeffrey Epstein Controversy

The Epstein saga is another focal point ([25:27]). Victor breaks down the two main controversies: the alleged existence of a comprehensive list of individuals involved in criminal activities with Epstein, and the dubious nature of Donald Trump’s purported interactions with Epstein. He criticizes the selective release of information and the failure to substantiate claims linking prominent figures to Epstein’s crimes:

"The $64,000 question is, how did an ex teacher without formal financial training... become the financial advisor to all of these billionaires?" ([26:09])

Victor urges for complete transparency, suggesting that only by releasing all available documents can the truth emerge.

5. Passing of Ed Fulner and Legacy of the Heritage Foundation

In a heartfelt segment ([33:03]), Jack informs of the passing of Ed Fulner, a foundational figure of the Heritage Foundation. Victor reminisces about Fulner’s contributions, characterizing him as a "gentleman" and a pivotal player in shaping modern conservatism:

"They were center right. They were not angry, mean people." ([36:37])

Victor praises Fulner’s leadership and personal demeanor, contrasting him with the current generation of political operatives.

6. Decline of Late-Night Television and Stephen Colbert’s Show

The evolution and perceived decline of late-night TV is critiqued ([38:37]). Victor laments the shift from the gentlemanly humor of past hosts like Johnny Carson to what he perceives as the angrier, less substantive content of modern shows, particularly targeting Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show:

"He wasn't funny. The other thing is, what is Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, does anybody believe that Barack Obama was ever the object of any of these people's jokes?" ([39:55])

He underscores the loss of balanced political satire, attributing it to the changing dynamics of media consumption and political polarization.

7. Funding Cuts for NPR and PBS

Jack raises concerns about potential defunding of public broadcasters NPR and PBS ([62:23]). Victor contends that these institutions have become overly partisan and no longer serve a non-biased informational purpose:

"They are very partisan, highly partisan... they have extensions of the Democratic or left wing project." ([71:16])

He argues that the dependency on government funding compromises their objectivity, advocating for their reduction or restructuring.

8. California’s High-Speed Rail Project and Gavin Newsom’s Policies

The discussion turns to California’s ambitious high-speed rail project and Governor Gavin Newsom's recent decision to halt federal funding ([51:13]). Victor critiques the project's feasibility and the economic mismanagement behind it:

"When you spend nearly $30 billion, it's going to be 150 billion if you ever finish it. It will never be finished." ([52:01])

He attributes the failure to excessive spending and political interference, emphasizing the detrimental impact on California’s infrastructure and economy.

9. Reduction of Federal Workers in the D.C. Area

Jack mentions a report indicating a reduction of 22,000 federal workers in the D.C. metropolitan area ([62:23]). Victor views this as a move towards governmental streamlining, believing that cutting non-essential positions will enhance efficiency:

"We're losing all these federal jobs that I think were nonessential. But I think we're going to be much more productive..." ([63:02])

However, he also touches on broader economic uncertainties, including foreign investments and the impact of tariffs on the U.S. market.

10. Cultural Commentary and Media Bias

Victor offers a broad analysis of contemporary cultural and media biases, highlighting the increasing polarization and hostility towards conservative voices:

"The majority of questions that are hostile are all from the left... they don't have to be reasoned." ([73:28])

He reflects on personal experiences with hostile encounters, attributing them to widespread resentment towards conservative perspectives and the societal shift towards ideological conformity.

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Conclusion

Throughout the episode, Victor Davis Hanson provides a historically informed perspective on current events, drawing connections between past and present challenges. From economic strategies and political conspiracies to media evolution and infrastructure debates, the discussion underscores the complexities facing the United States. By weaving in direct quotes and timestamps, the podcast ensures that listeners receive a nuanced and detailed understanding of each topic, even if they haven’t tuned in to the full episode.

Notable Quotes:

• Victor on China’s Treasury reduction: “When the Athenian empire debased its silver... the pattern remained consistent.” ([00:00])
• On Tulsi Gabbard’s allegations: “They set the precedent that you could go after an ex president...” ([08:14])
• Regarding judicial biases: “Kevin Kleinsmith... doctored a FISA affidavit...” ([14:09])
• On Ed Fulner’s legacy: “They were center right. They were not angry, mean people.” ([36:37])
• Critique of modern late-night TV: “He wasn’t funny...” ([39:55])
• On public broadcasting’s partisanship: “They are very partisan...” ([71:16])
• On California’s high-speed rail: “When you spend nearly $30 billion...” ([52:01])

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This summary captures the essence of the episode, addressing the myriad issues discussed by Victor and Jack while maintaining a clear and organized structure for readers unfamiliar with the original podcast.

Transcript

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Before we dive into today's show, there's a new development that's caught my attention. China just dumped another $8.2 billion in US treasury bonds, dropping to third place amongst foreign holders for the first time since 2008. This isn't merely economic policy. It's a signal that repeats throughout history. When the Athenian empire debased its silver, when Rome clipped its coins, when Weimar Germany printed endlessly, the pattern remained, remained consistent. Foreign powers abandoned the currency first, recognizing mathematical realities before domestic populations. Today's $38 trillion debt creates the same impossible arithmetic that destroyed previous monetary systems. The coming battle between Trump and Fed Chairman Powell represents more than politics. It's about whether America can escape the historical trajectory of of great powers who spent beyond their means. Our friends at American Alternative Assets understand these historical parallels. Their new guide, Fed vs. The Coming Battle for America's Financial Future, connects these dots for concerned Americans. To download your free guide, call 8332-USA-YOLD or visit victorlovesgold.com that's 833-287-24651 or victorlovesgold.com.

[Jack Fowler]

Hello, ladies. Hello, gentlemen. Welcome to the Victor Davis Hanson Show. Victor is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marsha Busky Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. He's the man with a website. The Blade of Perseus. Its address is Victor Hansen dot com. You should go there regularly. You should subscribe, even. I'll tell you why later in today's episode. Last time Victor and I were talking, he was at some safe house. Who knows where the heck it was. That's why they call them safe houses. He's departed from there. Victor, how long was your trip back to the People's Republic of Selma?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I just pulled into Selma, capital of the world. Five and a half hours. It should have been shorter, but I had trouble leaving where I was. It was hard to get out.

[Jack Fowler]

Only there was a high speed train to take.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes, there was off. If we just had high speed rail, I would have been here in 10 hours.

[Jack Fowler]

Okay, well, we are recording on Sunday the 20th and this particular episode will be up on Tuesday the 22nd. Victor's been away for weeks, so there are a lot of big issues people care about. And one of them, of course, is Tulsi Gabbard's release of documents with the Obama administration's conspiracy post election 2016 to kneecap Donald Trump. Same cast of characters we've heard for years. But Victor's going to give his take on that we have the Jeffrey Epstein endless. I don't even know what the hell to call it. Victor. Excuse me, Enemy Hellman. Heck, Stephen Colbert fired plenty more things. Oh, Ed Fulner. The great Ed Fulner, one of the founders of the Heritage foundation, just one of the heroes of conservatism, passed away. We'll get Victor's thoughts on that and some other topics and we'll do all that when we come back from these important messages.

[Unknown]

This is unconstitutional. Have you heard some biased journalists, maybe on a podcast or a YouTube show say this?

[Jack Fowler]

Probably.

[Unknown]

Do you just take their word for it?

[Jack Fowler]

Which begs another question.

[Unknown]

Have you ever taken the time to read and understand for yourself the meaning.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Of the United States Constitution?

[Unknown]

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[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

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[Jack Fowler]

We are back with the Victor Davis Hansen show. Victor, here's the head from Just the news. DNI Gabbard sends declassified evidence to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution of quote, treasonous conspiracy, end quote. Tulsi Gabbard declassified a boatload of documents and related to the Russia collusion in the 2016 election. Here's from the article the office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday, this would have been a few days ago from when we're talking issued a press release stating that Gabbard had, quote, revealed overwhelming evidence that demonstrates how after President Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, President Obama and his national security cabinet members manufactured and politicized intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years long coup against President Trump. And Gabbard said her evidence had unearthed. She had unearthed had been forwarded to the Department of Justice for review. Earlier this month, CIA Director John Ratcliffe also sent a criminal referral to FBI Director Kash Patel related to possible alleged criminality by Obama. CIA Director John Brennan, A source previously told Just the News Victor, Donald Trump lasting puts out something on truth social hinting at prosecution of Barack Obama mastermind of this intrigue. Your thoughts, Victor?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, I mean this is this issue of justice versus revenge. Everybody said Donald Trump said his revenge will be his success. But at first gasp you say oh my God, you couldn't go after an ex president. Well, it's in line with what we've been talking about for years that they set all these precedents. They set the precedent that you can go for no reason but to mar a lago and raid an ex president's home. They set the precedent that you could go after an ex president with 93 endowments. They set the president, you could take a presidential candidate ex president off the ballot and remember the Mueller investigation. So everything thanks to the left is now under discussion. There's no taboos, there's no prohibitions. And then we get to the heart of the matter. Why would Tulsi Gabbard when she found these intelligence reports, why would she send a criminal referral to Pam Bondi? And she did for, I think, two reasons. One, there was a Dutch intelligence report that they had tapped into Russian intelligence. And Russian intelligence was kind of baffled because they had tapped in, as we remember, to Hillary's emails or her correspondence that were not secure, and they had found out that she was funding an effort to blame the Russians upon Donald Trump on Donald Trump, that they were colluding Russian collusion. Russia, Russia, Russia. But what was interesting about it is the Russians didn't know that the Dutch had tapped, and the Dutch were just kind of mystified. Wow. The Russians are mystified. We found out that the Russians are mystified because they didn't try to work with Trump to throw the election. But Hillary Clinton is apparently going to use that charge against Russia and Trump. That was the first thing. And they knew that. They knew that. That was clear. There's documents about that. And yet they went ahead and presented Obama with an intelligence report that did not mention that. Second thing is the lower, the next level under Brennan and the CIA and Clapper in the Director of National Intelligence, I don't know why, he oversees 17 or 18 intelligence agencies. That second group, when asked to expand on Russian collusion, couldn't find anything. And yet when Brennan and Clapper, to a lesser extent, reported to Obama, it's under dispute whether they said on one occasion they couldn't find anything or they reported ACRI or they didn't. But in any case, Obama said that before he left office, he wanted this to be actionable. And that set the precedent for Russia, Russia, Russia, that really ate up or consumed the entire transition period of Donald Trump, remember Mike Flynn, etcetera, destroyed his career. We had all of November of 2016, all of December, all of January of 2017, and then we went right in three months later into Russia, Russia, 22 months of Robert Mueller. So if you just take out the name Barack Obama, you can say that somebody tried to destroy a presidential candidate and not succeeding in that effort. They tried to undermine and overthrow a presidency. That's what they did. And the question is, to what degree is it actionable? To what degree did John Brennan have in these handwritten notes that they're going to release, did he say, I'm not going to report this? This is. But what Tulsi Gabbard has been saying is it was clear to Brennan especially, but also to Clapper, that their own agencies did not think there was Russian collusion and that There had been a report that a foreign agency was reporting that the Russians themselves, among themselves, not for public consumption, were baffled why Hillary was blaming them when they had not colluded with Donald Trump. And that was available to these intelligence heads. And they may or may not, but they probably did report that to Barack Obama and he decided to order, as a lame duck president after the election, that they go after Donald Trump and investigate that. And that, I mean, the election was over, so he was trying to destroy an incoming presidency. So they destroyed all the precedents. We would never have even talked about Barack Obama being the subject of a criminal referral if he is going to be one, had they not said to us, a state, local, federal prosecutor can go after an ex president. Our ex president, as I said, can be removed from a ballot. An ex president Holmes can be rated with impunity. An ex president can be sued for $400 million settlements with Eugene Carroll and Letitia James. They set the rules and now they may be subject to their own precedents. We'll see.

[Jack Fowler]

Victor, I saw some. The dots don't easily connect for me, given my general ignorance, but I saw some X post about John Durham, the former special prosecutor, saying, why wasn't this caught on his watch? Do you have any thoughts about that? If not, we can move on.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I just don't think that in that climate he was going to get a fair judge or a grand jury. I mean, he had Kevin Kleinsmith, remember? And was it the same judge that. I mean, Kevin Kleinsmith was a lawyer, an FBI lawyer, and he doctored a FISA affidavit and he really destroyed the life of Carter Page because they knew in the affidavit that Carter Page had not been involved with the Russians and they knew that he was actually a source working with the FBI. And yet he changed an email to get an affidavit from a search warrant from the judge to go after him. And of course, the judge that sentenced him to a slap on the wrist was none other than Judge Brodsburg, I think. Wasn't that his name? Same judge who is now the lower district judge trying to impede Donald Trump's executive orders, many of them. So I think. But the answer is, I think Durham, at that time, when he was supposed to be, he tried to be very exhaustive. But I think the judicial system, the grand jury system and the people in his own investigation, there was nobody. You can really see it with the DOJ now. I mean, they just got rid of James Comey's daughter. She's the one that, what, botched the Diddy case and she left office and called Donald Trump a tyrant. She's been involved in a lot of politicized. But the left is just shrieking. But think about it, everybody. If your father was the FBI director and he ran a 22 month investigation about the incumbent president, Donald Trump, whom you work for now, and he tried to destroy him, and he took private notes of a classified conversation with Donald Trump, recorded them, memorialized them on an FBI device, and then took a third party to leak it, and then went to the president and lied to him and said, you are not the subject of Crossfire Hurricane, a federal investigation. And he knew that was a lie. And he has been very vocal for the last four years attacking the president. And most recently in this weird, surreal incident where he rearranged those rocks or seashells, basically. 86, 40, is it? 86, 47, he said. So he's basically calling for him to be either forcibly removed or some people interpret 86 as killed. Why would you be in the. Why would you be there? You're a politicized family. You've been on record. You don't like Donald Trump. You go out of office and confirm that you're biased and call him a tyrant. So good riddance is my point. And when Obama came in and Biden came in, they were notorious for firing federal attorneys that were not left wing. So they set the precedent. What we're watching, everybody in the next three and a half years is Joe Biden and Barack Obama set unusual parameters and they weaponized and politicized the IRS, the FBI, the CIA, the Director of National Intelligence, etc. Pentagon. And they set a framework which they thought would be only advantageous to themselves. Never in their right mind did they think it was going to boomerang. Now Donald Trump inherited that apparatus and is going to use it. And they are crying bloody murder. And as they always do.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, Victor, I have another thing to raise on this. But first, students of history recognize the pattern unfolding before us. China just offloaded another $8.2 billion in U.S. treasuries, falling to third place among foreign holders for the first time since the financial crisis. This mirrors the inevitable decline that follows when great powers debase their currency and accumulate unsolved sustainable debt. Rome faced the same mathematical impossibility we face today with our $36 trillion debt burden. I think now it might even be 37. The coming collusion between Trump, Donald Trump and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell represents more than political theater. It's a fundamental struggle over America's monetary future. While Washington fiddles, foreign central banks are quietly positioning themselves, buying gold at record levels. They understand what history teaches about currency transitions. Our friends at American Alternative Assets have created an essential guide, Fed versus the Coming Battle for America's Financial Future. This guide reveals how this historic confrontation could impact your retirement and what prudent Americans are doing to prepare. The parallels to past civilizational shifts are unmistakable. Get out your pencil and a piece of paper, folks. Call 8332-USAGOLD or visit victorlovesgold.com to download your guide. Now that's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com Learn from history before it repeats. And we thank the very good people from American Alternative Assets for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hanson Show. Victor thinking about John Durham and what he could achieve in Washington. I guess if you are a leftist or a member of the deep state or whatever in D.C. given some of the judges, given the potential jury pool, the reality of you getting convicted is not going to happen. It kind of maybe like the south in the 19th century, you know, 40s, 50s. I mean convicting a white man of doing something to a black person is just not going to happen. Given, given the the how the stars.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I think we're down to what's going to characterize the last three and a half years. I'm not sure that the Democrats can break, I'm not sure the Republicans can break historical traditions and win the House. I hope they can. I think they have a 5050 shot. But for now, the left has no Congress, it has no Senate, no House, it has no Supreme Court power, it has no presidential power. It's on the wrong side of these 70, 30 issues and it's clinging to, I guess you'd call it relevancy with district court judges. And not just there's 750 or so, about 300 are conservative or I should say traditionalists. So they're counting on 400 or so judges in key blue states and blue state grand juries, blue city grand juries, blue city prosecutors, blue city juries. And so that's all they have. And it makes, I'm not going to belittle it. It's a lot. I think in some ways the most powerful people in America right now are these district low level judges because their attitude is I'm not a serious judge anymore, I don't care about my reputation as far as a jurist that I will be reversed. In the old days, if you were a district judge or a circuit Judge on the federal bench, you were worried that to be reversed because it was a slap in your face, it was not good for your reputation. The more you got. They have the opposite view. The more that I can be reversed by the Trump court, the Supreme Court, the more I'm going to be an iconic hero to the left. So they're going to try to be as edgy and out there as possible and they look as a badge of honor to be reversed, especially by conservative circuit or especially Supreme Court justices. So we're going to watch this for three and a half years and we'll see what it's not. A positive use of power. They can't create anything. All they can do is destroy and delay and that's what they're going to do.

[Jack Fowler]

Chaos is there.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

You know what? It's so much like chemo. I don't want to be light about chemotherapy. I've had so many people, my family, I've watched take it. But it is a toxic drug and it's designed to kill fast growing cells and it does kill good cells. But the logic is it will kill the cancer before it'll kill the host, the patient. It's a corrective and that's what Donald Trump is doing. It's much easier just to say, you know, 10 million people come in. You might be good constituencies, especially voters under early and mail invaliding. I don't know where they are. We flew them in at night, they're bussed everywhere. Ha ha, ha. They're criminals. 500,000 that was even to do chemotherapy is the correct. It's hard to find 10 million of them. You've got to go house to house. You've got to go into cities and fight with sanctuary jurisdictions. You get attacked by, you know, leftists like Karen Bass or Gavin Newsom. It's the same thing with Di. It's easy to say, oh, we're just going to let this person go in by race because we're going to address historical racism and we're going to bring back justice. It's very hard to say, no, no, no, we're going to honor the constitution in the 2023 court decision and incur all that hate. Oh, you're a racist. Oh, you're trying to set the clock back. Same thing with the military. It's easy to say, you know what, white privilege, white rage, white supremacy. I don't care if you have natural immunity from COVID and Prior, you didn't get the MRNA back. You're out, you're out, you're Out. And then it's very hard to say to people, look, there was an investigation. There was no cabal. There was no organized white supremacy. We do not discriminate by race or gender. All of those ads you saw about pregnant flight suits and trans. We're going to get back to what we're supposed to be doing. Efficacy. Your grandfather fought in Vietnam. Maybe your father fought in Gulf War I. You or you're a veteran of Afghanistan. We want you back. You are the people who died, as I keep saying, double your numbers in the demographic in Iraq and Africa. We need you. That's a hard sell. So what I'm getting at is the corrective for whether it's restoring deterrence after Afghanistan or trying to fight, fix di or fix the border is really hard. It was easy to destroy stuff. It's easy to light a match and blow something up. It's hard to rebuild it. So Donald Trump is trying to rebuild it and correct the Biden cancer with chemotherapy and chemotherapy. It's tough and it's easily caricatured, but it's necessary.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. Well, Victor, before we take a break, let me throw out another big topic, and that's Jeffrey Epstein. And I personally, Victor, always kept not arm's length from it. It just, I always thought nothing much was going to come from this, you know, terrible what happened to young women and all that. I don't mean to make light of it, but I don't know, we live in an age where we think Kraken are going to be released and then they never get released. So I have low experience, expectations, but that's just me. What are your thoughts about the dynamics of this? I don't even know what to call it. Controversy.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

There's two controversies now. There is the one, the big one, and that is some people, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, Pam Bondi and others said that they had files that the Democrats had not released and they were going to release them. And they used words like list. There was never, I think, a list of 100 people who committed an act of pedophilia. There were in various surveillances and various indictments and various convictions and various court hearings involving Jeffrey Epstein. Names and testimonies came up from the women themselves, from people. And there was an array of very prominent people. But the prominent people range from the minority who actually had sexual relations in an asymmetrical fashion with girls under 18, 16. We don't know quite what you could call pedophilia. And those that were schmoozing with him to get political donations that had nothing to do with that. And those who thought he would be cool to know because he was flamboyant, multi, maybe a half a billionaire, and those who were in the financial business and then the $64,000 question is, how did an ex teacher without formal financial training, how did he become the financial advisor to all of these billionaires? That's where he made his money. He made his money saying, I will manage your money. But his prerequisites weren't impressive. And this is, suggestions have been that here and there he entrapped people either with embarrassing communications or with videos and he had something on people and he said to them, I will be your financial advisor. You're not going to pay me a bribe or blackmail, just hire me. And you know, he got, he got several billion dollars of money to manage and the cut for him made him worth, I think when he died he was worth 400 million. So it seemed like an open and shut case. And then when people heard that Donald Trump, unlike the Democrats, and I don't know why the Democrats are making this an issue since they had all they had the right to release it and they obviously didn't release it, if it had been damning about Donald Trump, they would have released it, everything. You know that. So they, they thought there were too many Democrats, that it would be collateral damage. They were probably right. So I don't know what the anger is. I guess the real thing is how do you separate the people who are actually engaged in a felony, having sexual relations with an underage girl versus the people who were watching it, consorting with it, flirting about and, or had nothing to do with it? Attorneys, business people. There were names in there. I mean, there was George Mitchell, remember him? The Senate Democratic Majority Leader, he was mentioned. There was Alan Dershowitz, all these people were mentioned. But we don't know to what degree they did anything wrong. So Trump comes in and hears all this and he's obviously got calls from people, da, da, da, da, da. Don't do this, don't do, I'm a donor, I'm a politician, I'm a politician. And he's probably said, we don't know how to wade into this and separate the wheat from the chaff. And then after he said he was going to release it, then the MAGA base revolted. Oh, you're covered. It would be, at this point, just release it all. Whatever you do, if it's redacted, you can't release it because of a court order. Let people Have a freedom of information out and challenge that. But just everything you have release and then let the chips fall where they may and everybody in the public will sort it out. So that's the big issue. The second issue is that there was a letter. I guess it was an 2003, on the birthday of Jeffrey Epstein. Alan Dershowitz wrote him a letter. I think it was 2003. So it was at least three or four years before he was indicted. And the first timing. So you could argue that these people saw him as a randy provocateur, kind of edgy guy everywhere. He was kind of ubiquitous in the New York social, social scene, flashing a lot of money. So they came in contact with him, always had a beautiful new woman on his arm. Ha ha. And they made a joke. So Donald Trump reportedly did two things. He sent a typewritten letter and it was an imaginary conversation between Jeffrey Epstein and himself. I just don't think Donald Trump would type out a conversation. And we use vocabulary like enigma. You're an enigma. Enigma. And then he signed a picture of a naked woman and his signature corresponded with the pelvic area. And the suggestion was that his signature might have been a facsimile of pubic hair. So there's two things. Can you show that Donald Trump actually typed this? And can you find any example where he sent an imaginary dialogue type dialogue to anybody? Or did he just draw a picture and they typed. Ms. Maxwell typed it up and made the folder she's not talking. Or. And the third consideration is after they access Hollywood 10 years early. Does anybody really care that at a time when Jeffrey Epstein was not charged with anything much and nobody knew that the depth of his pedophilia and he had not been a subject of a criminal investigation, apparently that Donald Trump, if it were true, signed a Randy picture. I mean, that's all been aired. That laundry about Donald Trump, whether it was Stormy Daniels or Access Hollywood or E. Jean Carroll, you could have not got more graphic than the testimonies and the interrogatories and the Stormy Daniels, Access Hollywood and E. Jean Carroll, it's all been out there and Donald Trump has said locker room or he's denied things. So it's a nothing. And we'll see who turns up. If the Democrats really want everything released, we'll see who turns up. I think they should just release it all and just move on.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, Victor, we have a couple of people to get your take on. One is the. The late Ed Fullner. The other is the fired or about to be fired. Well, the show's coming to an end. Stephen Colbert and maybe we'll have some time to talk about some federal defunding of PBS and the aforementioned California Trains. So we'll get to all these things when we come back from these important messages.

[Unknown]

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[Jack Fowler]

We're back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Do check out Victor's website folks. Lots of new viewers and listeners here. So go to VictorHansen.com and you will arrive at the Blade of Perseus. And that's a treasure trove of everything Victor writes, his appearances, links to these archives of these podcasts, the weekly essay he writes for American Greatness, weekly syndicated columns, and a ton of other things. There's also twice a week articles, There's a Little Black Boxes Ultra. Those are articles Victor writes exclusively for the Blade of Perseus you can't read them unless you subscribe. Nor can you see the weekly 10 minute video Victor does again, exclusively for the blade of Perseus. $65 a year. Is the subscription cost fixed? $6.50 a month. Do check it out, Victor. Let's start off nice, nicely. Let's talk about Ed Fullner. Ed came to D.C. he worked for Phil Crane. He was chief of staff of the Illinois Congressman. And then he went on with Paul Weyrich to found the Heritage Foundation. And Ed took it over within about a year of its founding. And it is a. It is a tremendous organization and institution, has done great things. I think it's the center of conservatism. And it's due to Ed Fullner. He passed away last week. I knew Ed. I know you knew Ed. I just thought he was an awfully nice guy and an awfully consequential man. What are your thoughts about Ed Fulner?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I mean, he was from a different generation now that he reminded me a lot of John Racian at the Hoover Institution or maybe somebody like James Pearson, you know, who was the Olin foundation and Chris DeMuth at AI.

[Jack Fowler]

Absolutely.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They were from a different generation. They were gentlemen, they were soft spoken and people had a lot of respect. And although they ran so called, they were philanthropic organizations, think tanks. But they were center right. They were not angry, mean people. And they were very. I don't know, they were. I don't see the next generation on either left or right like those people. And I don't even see people on the left that were like those three or four people. So Ed was a very sweet guy and he helped create what is now the modern Heritage Foundation. And I should say I had a conflict of interest in even talking about the Heritage because I do a daily five to six minute Daily Signal video for Rob Bluey at the Daily Signal. And that has an affiliation, although it's an independent and separate from Heritage. It started as an offshoot or was in the Heritage Communications umbrella. But Ed was. Fullner was responsible for a lot of the success of the Heritage, a lot of it. And every time I saw him, he was blunt. I mean, he could be blunt. He wasn't wishy washy. But he wanted to make sure everybody felt comfortable. And he set an example of how you treat people.

[Jack Fowler]

He didn't look past you to see was there somebody better to talk, which could very easily have been the case with me. He was truly a Christian gentleman, engaging guy.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Every time I had a correspondence, I had maybe in the last 10 years, seven or eight correspondence. It was never can you do something for me? Can you do the. It was always, Victor, there's this person who needs help, you know what I mean? And he said a bunch of us are trying to write on his or her behalf. It was always about somebody else and it was always somebody that needed some support.

[Jack Fowler]

Victor, I don't think you would have too many good words to speak, but we just want truthful words that would be good or bad about the next subject. And that's Stephen Colbert, whose show, the Late show is being canceled some point next year to the great outcry of the left which seizes CBS canceling the show as some sort of genuflection to Donald Trump and fear of Donald Trump. But the show itself seems to be losing 40 or 50 million dollars a year and has its numbers are just terrible relative to ye olde days of late night television. Maybe that whole genre is going to down the tubes. Anyway, Victor, your thoughts about Stephen Colbert?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't understand Jimmy Kimmel, Jim Lee Fallon and especially Colbert because the success even of a leftist like Dick Cavett was that they had an appeal, a wit, that people that were conservative watched Dick Cabot. But Johnny Carson, you got the impression he might be center left maybe, but he never knew. Was like what Michael Jordan said once, why don't you speak up about controversial racial issues? He said Republicans buy sneakers too. And you just cut and lose half your audience when you do what he does. And when he talks, the left says, well, he's the highest rated late night talk show. But it's really not a talk show. It's more like Nocturnal View with one person. And he had this shtick. Remember when he made fun of Bill O'Reilly and he was supposed to be a facsimile or he was acting in character as a Republican pundit newscaster. But it's so old because it was always. It was like that Saturday night skit when they made fun of MAGA people as racist. Remember that? It was just so old. Now we're nine years into Donald Trump and can't you come up with a new idea you're still emulating or acting as if you're a Bill O'Reilly like figure and you're going to be racist and sexist and right wing and greedy and ha ha ha. He wasn't funny. The other thing is, what is Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, does anybody believe that Barack Obama was ever the object of any of these people's jokes? No, they were all partisan. That was the whole point. They were force multiplier of Biden. They never made fun of Biden's cognitive ability. So now they're saying, well, they have these lawsuits and CBS and they're. And they're afraid. They had to settle. And now Colbert was making fun of the settlement. So this was. It's so what? It's a private business. They can do whatever they want. They can fire them. And they said, well, he was the top rated. He was the top rated person of 4 non entities of a failing industry that had no audience. Johnny Carson on one night had more than all of them put together by a magnitude. And so Greg Gutfeld came out of nowhere. He didn't have the budget they did. He didn't have the experience they did. And he's the number one late night talk show. Is that because he's, he's not. I mean he's center. Right, you can tell that. But he's funny. They weren't funny. They were angry and bitter. And Greg Gutfeld has all different guests. They would never put a conservative comedian as a guest on any of those shows. The other thing is, does Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who criticize this, do they think that the government has a right to force CBS to lose money on this guy? His budget was a hundred million dollars. I mean we have a. If you look at all of our downloads, we reach millions of people. But our overhead is this laptop, you and Sammy and myself.

[Jack Fowler]

Bedroom.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. I mean some studio. I apologize. I don't have somebody, you know, with a big neon background or I don't have a booker. I don't have. They either talk to me or Sammy and we have a couple guys that help with the engineering. But why does he need a hundred million dollars? He was losing $40 million a year. So CBS said, this guy's making fun of cbs. He's hard left. People are sick of him. He's out of date. He's a smart boy. Blank, blank. I don't want to subsidize him for $40 million anymore. He's not worth it. And that's a business decision. And Bernie Sanders, he said, well, this makes. This seems to me like it might be politically motivated. Yeah, it probably is. As in losing money. Losing money. CBS might not. I don't want to get sued by Trump. I do not want to be an object of half the country hating my guts. Who anymore. I went through that with Dan Rather and fake but accurate. We don't want to do that anymore. We just want to do it. We want to Go over to liberal, liberal leftists. We want to be like Walter Cronkite where we're mildly, unpleasantly biased. We're never going to be non biased. That's who we are. But we don't want to be insane. And this guy is insane. And that's what they're saying.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. You know, occasionally on YouTube while I'm watching this or that, the side will have some Johnny Carson clips will pop up. So I check them out. Actually today, coincidentally, I checked one out. Not because we were going to talk about late night television, but it was Johnny Carson with Art Carney and Sid Caesar and they all played instruments and it was just fun and funny. And having watched any number of these over the last year or two, you know, it has never happened. No one ever said anything to try to make the viewer or anyone in the audience feel like a dope or be attacked. It just never happened. And you turn on ABC and Jimmy Kimmel, you know, within 10 seconds he's gonna be saying something that you are gonna find personally offensive.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I mean, I used to, in graduate school, I'd stay up, you know, two in the morning because it was read, read Greek, read, read Latin, da da da da. And you'd stay up and you'd take a break and you'd watch. We would flip between Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett. A couple of guys in our apartment we shared and Dick Cavett even would interview people like Buckley, Orson Welles, he interviewed everybody. And he was witty, he kind of wanted to go repartee. But he was not mean spirited and Carson was not mean spirited and Jay Leno was not mean spirited. He was on the left, but he was not mean spirited. These people are different, this new generation and this mediocre generation. So they were appendages of the progressive project. Just imagine if you believe that he went after them in the sense that Donald Trump is fighting lawsuits and successfully settling with the media corporate. You can see that he is not, as I said again, beating that dead horse. He is not in the second term addressing symptoms. He is saying to himself, they have no political power right now. They are not on the right side of the end, but they are exercising influence. And that's because of the universities, the institutions, usaid, the media, popular culture. I'm going to address those and bring them back to the center. That's what he's doing.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. Hey, Victor. I want to take a moment to welcome a new sponsor to the Victor Davis Hansen show, zipa. We all know how important a restful night's Sleep is for our health. And if you snore now, you're at a heightened risk of requiring a CPAP machine later. Now is the time to stop snore snoring. One of the smartest, fastest, easiest ways to stop snoring is zpa. ZIPA is the comfortable doctor designed mouthpiece that can stop snoring as fast as the first night. ZIPA is the stop snoring device I trust. No more being nudged awake for snoring. No more sleeping in separate rooms. No more feeling tired and foggy all day due to lack of sleep. Look, this may be your last best chance to solve your snoring problem now or face having to wear a CPAP mask later. Zipa. That's happy Z spelled backwards. I want you to try it with our special discount. Get 20% off and free shipping. Visit Zypa. I'm going to spell it Z, Y, p p a h.com and use the promo code snore again. That's the promo code [e-mail] and we thank the good people from Zipa for sponsoring the Victor Davis Hansen show. Boy oh boy, have I been nudged by Mrs. Fowler. Knock it off. Stop it. Victor. One other thing about. What was it about the late night stuff? It's passed.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

How about it's a dying industry, people. It's not just sports. People can stream or they have 500 channels on subscriptions. It's just, it's nine years of this. Trump is an ogre. Trump is at this Trump. And then people just said, you know what? The guy that you tried to kill him twice, you being the climate that created, that lowered the bar of what was imaginable, they tried to kill him twice. They tried to take him off the ballot, they tried to raid his home. And we'll never know really what they were looking for. There was, you know, 14,000 documents and they only found what, 102 that were classified. So they were doing something and they impeached him twice. They tried him as a just were sick of it. Just get a life and go after Joe Biden. I mean if it came that Donald Trump had pardoned people with an auto pin, all these people and then all of his people that were called to took the fifth like these people are doing. It's just.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, I know what I wanted to say now and then we'll get on to NPR and pbs, but it was that Bill Buckley you talked about, Dick Cabot and Bill Buckley was on that show. Well, Bill Buckley's firing line was an Ideal platform for the left. And there was a book written about Firing Line a couple of years ago where some folks from the left said. Said that was the show that gave us the best forum, even though we were debating and we may have lost the debate with Buckley. It was a forum. There's no way anyone on the left would ever give anyone on the right a platform.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I saw that one, that famous one he did remember with Eldridge Cleaver. I think the only difference was he wanted to make sure that he didn't pay Eldridge Cleaver for appearing until he actually appeared because he was afraid he would get shorted, as I remember. But yeah, he had everybody on there and it was. They don't. They don't. What's happened now is that you have this polarization, but you don't have the polarized cross examination. I mean, Fox does a much better job than CNN or msnbc. There are people on Fox that disagree and there's host. I mean after January 6th and everything, it got kind of really polarized. But there's nobody that comes on and then there's a pleasant. You can't go on the View if you were on the right and go on there without having them scream and yell and call your name. That's all it is.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, Those days, Norm MacDonald went on there once and he shocked them. But yeah, there's no conservatives, no non liberals need apply. Hey, Victor, we're going to take a break, but before we do that, let's hold off on funding for PBS and npr, but let's just talk about funding for. For trains and we've talked so much about trains and you live it. It's right down the block from you. These monstrous Easter island kind of bridges to nowhere. But the federal government has. Donald Trump has said no more funding. $4 billion that state of California was expecting is not coming. Any thoughts about that?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, I mean, Gavin Newsom is all angry, but he can't explain to us it's an act of commission and omission. The act of omission is if you spend nearly $30 billion, it's going to be 150 billion if you ever finish it. It will never be finished. And you have three north south laterals in California. It's a north south state. You would want to get the 101, the i5 and the 99. Six lanes three and each direction. I drove five and a half hours today. I was on the 101. It goes down to two north of San Francisco two and it's full of construction site. I got on the i5, the i5 and for most of the part it's only two in each direction. Then I got on the third, north, south, all in one trip today in the 99. And there are parts of the 99 that are only. They haven't changed. When we had a population of 19 or 20 million, the same infrastructure, we have twice that, 40 million. We have 39 million cars. This was built for 4 or 5 million. So Donald, what I'm getting at is that by building this monstrosity they sucked out so much of funding for freeways. And if you go in all of these weird places, you can't get from the coast of California to Nevada, you just can't do it. You can only go from the 80 up by Sacramento. And there were plans to go in here, where we are to go, let's say from Fresno to Mammoth Lakes or there were plans to go further south. But the Sierras are kind of like 1849. It's an impenetrable barrier, especially in the winter. There's only really one major all weather highway that goes across it. And the laterals are not safe. I saw that. You know when you're going down the 101 and it goes from three to two and you see a truck in the left lane and he's swaying like he's a hula hoop. And then you swore, go around him on the right and you see him texting, but he's got a double trailer. It's pretty scary. That's California and that's part of the heart. The blame goes to high speed rail. In part, Gavin Newsom. All he has to say is he says, donald Trump cut off 4 million. Okay, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to publish a white paper and the white paper is going to do this. 2025, September 1st, here's where we're going to be. Here's what we spent, here's what we need. January 2026, here's what we, how much we progressed, here's what we're going to do, do. But they don't do that because they have no intention of doing that. As I said last time, if you gave them the Bakersfield to Merced 172 mile corridor and you laid the tracks, you did all the infrastructure, you went, you paid for all the imminent domain lawsuits and you just said, there it is, it's all finished, you run it, they would lose money. Nobody wants to go 50 miles faster from Bakersfield to Merced than the Amtrak. Nobody wants to do that. And the other thing about these people is they all talk about ecology, ecology, ecology. You go down to Kings Canyon and you look Kings county about five miles south of me, and you see some of the most beautiful farmland in the world. They just plowed right through ancestral oaks, you name it. So they're not, you look at some old ancestral legacy businesses in downtown Fresno that they had to go over and tear up. And not that I'm not opposed to progress, but I am opposed to a boondoggle that destroys people's property and lives that has no chance of success. So what's going to happen to it is going to be the 64. What's Gavin going to do with it? Because he can't raise taxes. That's 13.2%. He can't raise more energy because he's already got a gas tax. He's already. He can't, you know, have a surcharge on top of the tax because gases. I just filled up, Jack. You know what it was $5.94. That's what I filled up.

[Jack Fowler]

Has that 65 cent thing come into effect yet?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes, it started. I think it's first. It comes in increments. I think the first cent and a half or two cents has already happened, but with the fuel formulas, $6. And you say, well, Victor, you live in the San Joaquin Valley where it's very cheap. No, it's $5.10. And so that's what we're dealing with. And he can't answer any of these questions. He goes to South Carolina, he tries to campaign. He gets into a verbal joust with Donald Trump, always an unwise thing to do. He tries to mimic Karen Bass, but he never says, I am Gavin Newsom. This is a timetable to finish this project. This is the number of illegal aliens here. This is how much it cost per person who's not a US citizen in California. Tax money and services. Here's how I'm going to get the revenue. Here's why we have 21% below the poverty line. Here's what I'm going to do. About over 700,000 homeless people. This is what I'm going to do about falling test scores where we went from the top 10 schools to the bottom five in test scores. This is what I'm going to do. So I'm going to do about the power grid so we don't have these brown outs. I was here sitting at this desk right before I took my little trip and everything went out I was on a zoom interview. It just. And it was five second brown out. I had to. Had to wait. The Internet went out, the whole thing. That's happened two or three times this summer. And how could it happen, Victor? They've got these huge solar farms, square miles of them on Manning Avenue on I5. I passed them. They look very impressive. Yeah, but they are very expensive. They have to be subsidized. They do nothing at night. Now we're going to be down to two refineries for the entire state. And they're going. They're talking about seven or eight dollars a gallon. Are importing gas. The weird thing about Newsom is he won't produce the natural gas that California consumes. He will not produce the oil that they consume through gasoline. He will not produce the electricity. Electricity that they need, especially for Silicon Valley. And so he says, we're too good to do that. You know, we're 21st century utopians. We're soft energy, soft everything. We're green. Oh, Utah, Oregon, Nevada, we want that stuff. Saudi Arabia send it to us. Alaska, we're too good to cut trees down. We don't believe, so we drove out. All the timber companies accept, too. But we need that timber. You send it here. Just don't tell us what you did to get it. We don't want to know. We don't know how many owls you. You split apart when the tree fell.

[Jack Fowler]

As long as you use electric chainsaws, right?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Saudis, we do not want to know what the ecological impact is of your wells in Saudi Arabia on fragile ecosystems in the desert. That's not our concern. You just get it here and then we can say that we're green and we didn't have to lower ourselves to what you do. You get your hands dirty. We don't. That's his whole attitude. And it's destroyed the state. Then all he can do when he gets on tv, he goes kind of like this. Okay, Gavin, you can. That's it. That's the explanation. He is the most unimpressive governor we've ever had. He makes, as I said earlier, he makes Jerry Brown look like Pericles. He really does. In comparison.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. Well, Victor, we're going to take a break, the final break, and when we come back, we'll get your thoughts on funding cuts for NPR and PBS and maybe something about federal workers when we come back. Did you know you can get the photos on your phone printed for free and delivered straight to your door? Do it with freeprints, the world's favorite.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

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[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

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[Victor Davis Hanson]

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[Jack Fowler]

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[Victor Davis Hanson]

The Free Prints app directly from Google Play or the App Store. We'll return to our discussion in just a moment, but I want to address something that's important for every American. China has been systematically reducing its Treasury holdings, selling 8.2 billion just last month. For students of history, this represents a familiar warning signal. The Roman Senate continued debating while barbarian tribes accumulated gold. Today, while Washington argues foreign central banks are stockpiling precious metals at unprecedented rates. The mathematical reality we face, $36 trillion in debt with no feasible repayment plan, mirrors the fiscal impossibilities that preceded every major currency collapse in recorded history. The approaching confrontation between Trump and Jerome Powell isn't just politics. It's the latest chapter in the eternal struggle between sound money and monetary manipulation that has played out from ancient Athens to modern America. Our friends at American Alternative Assets have prepared a guide explaining these historical parallels. Fed versus The Coming Battle for America's Financial Future. To download your free guide, call 833-2-USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com that's 833-287-2465. Now back to our discussion.

[Jack Fowler]

We're back with the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Victor, let me just ring the federal worker thing up first. There was a report out this week that 22,000 in the D.C. area, so D.C. itself, Maryland, Virginia, federal worker metropolis, 22,000 less workers. And that seems to be, I don't want to say a drop in the bucket, but with these court rulings about allowing, say, the Department of Education to cut staff, et cetera, this is the beginning, only the beginning. Any thoughts on that?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It's amazing that the we were kept being told by the Wall Street Journal news division that we were at this point. They told us in March we would be in a near recession. The stock market would have stayed collapsed, so to speak. Inflation, you look at the producers index of inflation in June, it didn't go up at all. And that suggests that a lot of stuff's going on. We're losing all these federal jobs that I think were nonessential. But I think we're going to be much more productive and create more capital by Streamlining the operation of government just by not hiring people and then or laying them off. But more importantly, I went to a lecture on a government official said he believed there's 15 trillion, $15 trillion in foreign investment. So what I'm getting at, we are on a new frontier. We've never been in the this situation before. We don't know the effect of tariffs because we don't know what the Chinese, the Germans, the South Koreans, the Japanese were making on this market, this huge American consumer market. By that I mean when they sold us steel, when they sold us cars, when they sold us penicillin, were they making 25% profit? 30, 10. So we level tariffs. I think it's on average about 10 to 15% across the board. And they still want to be in the market and they haven't raised their prices, at least raised their prices. That's evident in the producers Consumer Index. So it tells me they were making a lot of money and they can afford to do two things. Pay a moderate tariff and still be price competitive with American domestic industries. We don't know what 10 or $15 trillion that's already starting to happen. When they open these AI big plants, when they open, they have new energy. It's got to create jobs. Doug Burgum has been very public that he thinks we have a hundred to two hundred trillion dollars of assets. Now people say, oh, he's just going to, you know, plunder the earth. No, he, what he's talking about is using natural gas, using petroleum, using clean coal, using rare earth minerals, using timber. We have a lot of assets. We only look at our income, but we have actual assets that can be developed. And then I don't know what the effect. It's a little here, a little there. But you add up taxing the remittances sent to foreign nationals. You talk about the remittances, the endowment tax on universities. I think Stanford might be forced to pay 170 million. You look at the difference between 15% and 50% on federal grants, that's another. These universities might have to pay a couple billion more. There's all sorts of things that are going on. And that's not talking about the AI revolution or robotics that are going to increase productivity. So what I'm getting at is I think everybody's going to be is starting to get very upbeat. And you can tell it by the Democrats, the more everything goes well, the more Hykom Jeffreys poses with a baseball bat, the more that Spartacus talks for 25 hours, the more Jasmine Crockett just screams, barks at the moon about white privilege. And Donald Trump, I think she said is a Hitler like figure. Jasmine, if I ask you to tell me what year that Hitler came into office, if I ask you who was the Chancellor of Germany when he was the Vice Chancellor, if I ask you to show a map of the Third Reich, if I ask you to tell me the people around Hitler, who was Heinrich Himmler, who was Goering? I don't. Who was Goebbel? I don't think you could name any. You don't know anything about that evil man or the evil he did. It's just a junk word for you. Hitler. So that's what.

[Jack Fowler]

That's a great phrase, a junk word. That is.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That's trash. Donald Trump's Hitler. That's why I met an officer, a very high ranking officer. I won't mention where or how, but I think he was very displeased with me because when we got Back to Article 88 of the Uniformed Covenant Military justice, it says uniformed officers shall not disparage in public the commander in chief. And so when you had all of those four star generals saying, ah, he's Mussolini, no, he's on the wrong side. The DD Beach Hitler or he's like Auschwitz in the cages. I'm quoting directly, by the way. He's a pathological liar. He's got to be removed. These were our best and brightest. And as I said to this person, would you please tell me how he was Mussolini? Because you were arguing these people were attacking him at a time when he was the subject of what I think will be proved a vendetta by Robert Mueller's group, the Dream Team. And there was nothing to the first impeachment and then subsequent law firm. I haven't heard any of those people say this. These people, Letita James and Michael Colangelo, who worked for Alvin Bragg and Jack Bee, were coordinated. This is Hitler. Like, no, they don't. So it's all they said was junk, junk, junk. When Rosa Brooks wrote that article in 2000, if you remember 1711 days after Donald Trump assumed office. There's three ways to get rid of Donald Trump. Impeach him. Nope, too long. 25th Amendment. Too long. Cool, loyal, patriotic, brilliant officers forced to act out a crazy order by a crazy madman. Maybe they'll just say no, not advocating the military coup. No, no, no. But you got to keep it out there. That's what we were dealing with. And so, you know, everybody's sick of all that.

[Jack Fowler]

Amen, brother. Sick of npr, which I never listened to, pbs, which I rarely watch, they're being defunded. Victor, any thought as we ride off into the sunset here, any thoughts on, on this great cultural moment?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, remember what the head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting said the other day. Our biggest challenge is the First Amendment and the misuse of the First Amendment. And as I said, they just did a documentary on Donald Trump and there's a write up about it. This is after PBS is under scrutiny and it's very biased. Remember everybody, the NPR poll taken 48 hours before Donald Trump was elected by 1.5%, had Kamala Harris beyond the margin of error winning the election by 4%. If that wasn't a way to get people to the polls and gin up the vote. So, you know, they do a few things, but do they need our money anymore? No, they're very partisan, highly partisan. There are extensions of the Democratic or left wing project. And as I said earlier, when I first heard of Channel 18 in Fresno, you had three stations, CBS, ABC, NBC. You had a weird little local station everybody couldn't get. It was fuzzy. VHF or whatever it is had wrestling on it. Remember UHF versus vhf?

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And then you, and, and then you had public television and there was no commercials. And you got stuff. You have all that now you can go on any subscription and get all the non commercial you want.

[Jack Fowler]

So if it did not exist, there would be no reason to create it either. The npr?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

No, it was an emulation of European Socialist Television, BBC and all that. That was the idea that we're going to have a government megaphone. And so, you know, I've had some people lately say, oh, you should. How can you approve of the decline or the cuts in Voice of America? We need that. Well, yeah, we do, but I think this administration's attitude was sort of, I don't know, resigned to the fact that they can cut Voice of America in three and a half years, but it will re emerge the same way it is is as a government institution staffed by leftists. That's who wants to control it.

[Jack Fowler]

It'd be nice if the Voice of America was the voice of America as opposed to the Voice of ideologues.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

You remember the journalist, he was a man of the left. Ira Berliner. He was fired and he said, I think that was his name. Correct me if I'm wrong, but he said that in the newsroom at NPR There was 87 people and every single one was a Democrat. So what was hard about having diversity? It's not hard. They say Diversity all the time, that they don't believe in it. They believe that they're morally superior to everybody and therefore any means necessary to achieve their utopian goals are justified post facto. And every time, you know, when you go across the country for 20 years and you give lectures at university's corporate foundation, community groups, lecture series, and you start to see a pattern. And I can say, I've done this for 40 years. And I can tell you that there are, with a few exceptions of really, you know, kind of the John Birch guy is really angry and he starts yelling about, you know, fluoride or something. But the majority of questions that are hostile are all from the left. And they're not reasoned. They're not saying, you know, I have a disagreement or would you please expand on this or could I offer it? It's.

[Jack Fowler]

There were accusations at the outset, right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He was asking me about a week ago, do you get a lot of people that show up at your house or are very angry? And I said, not a lot, but when I'm in a public place, I'd say, say it's 1 out of 10 or 15, and I can tell you if I was going to stereotype or generalize, I can see the person coming and it is a white male, excuse me, white female between the ages of 55 and 75. She's got a very angry look at her. She starts to see you in the airport or see you on a campus or see you in a store, and she starts to look at you from a distance and she gets like jaws closer, closer. And her mouth starts to go. And then she comes up. She doesn't say hello, she doesn't say, I'm. So are you. This, you say you're doing a lot of damage. Do you know what you do to people? You know, those kind of people? Like you, the trap maggot. You're doing a lot of damage. And now I just say, thank you, Karen, thank you. That's all. That's all I say. I just say thank you. I had it happen not too long ago. And that's the type of person that's very angry. And their attitude is, well, I'm very wealthy and I'm very cultured. I have a beautiful home. I don't drive a Tesla anymore. I go back to my Prius and I don't want a development. I do not want my children in a public school school. I want a private, but it has to be a tony, prestigious left wing school with a name. I want my kids to go to Yale Or Harvard and get a cattle brand on the rear end that says Stanford. That's how they think. And everybody else is messy and garbage people and, you know, clingers, irredeemables. And why do they have to have all this new housing? Why do they have to build these power plants? And why do they have to build these freeways? You know, my. My Woodside home, my Atherton abode, my Menlo park estate, it's. It's all paid for. It's beautiful. But they just clog up everything. They just make everything messy, these grubby people and. But I feel kind of bad about that, so I'll say that I'm a leftist and I'm for the people and I'm one of the people.

[Jack Fowler]

I'll put a lawn sign in, but that says, in this house we do this or that. But please don't come to my house if you're one of those people.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I have people come to my house and I'm very polite, although I'm momentarily surprised.

[Jack Fowler]

All right, you've. Victor, you've earned a nap, my friend, because you just, as you said, you've come back from this very long journey.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

California Road Warrior. I felt like I was Mel Gibson.

[Jack Fowler]

Well, I've been on your street, so. Yeah, I get that too. You're still battling the battle of.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't think my operation worked out like it, as I have a bad pain in the sinus where they cut the bone, I guess a person came up to me where I was not too long ago, a stranger. He was an ent. And he just said, you're very anxious, aren't you, to get your. I want to feel normal again, you know, I haven't felt normal since the infection started March 1. But he said, when you cut bone, it's a different story than you cut tissue. End of story. So he said, don't think you're going to get better after two opera. I had a little procedure operation last week besides the main one and drainage. And anyway, he said. What did he say? He said, one day you're going to wake up in two and three months and you're going to get up and you're going to say, wow, I'm so happy. I'm waiting for that day.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, wow. Eeyore will be.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I'm spraying to. I'm praying to the non existence Sanctus nozzle.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. I told you the saint is Saint Blaise. So that is the. Is the correct. Yeah. Saint Blaise Martyr. All right, I have two comments I want to read. They're off of YouTube. We thank anyone, everyone who takes the time to write comments. They do it on Victor's website. Again, that's the Blade of Perseus. Some people write me notes Rumble apple. But here are two. Tilts at Windmills. Writes, I like the professor's plain way of speaking. No word salad, obscure jargon or emotionally manipulative rhetoric. Just names, dates, events. Thank you. Tilts at windmills.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Nice. Yeah, that's very nice. He's a Cervantes character.

[Jack Fowler]

Yes, Windmills. That I wanted to get into windmills. When you're talking about environmental stuff, I.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Thought he was going to say wind turbine.

[Jack Fowler]

Right, then. Crows are murder. Writes I love Victor Davis Hansen's old school way of never all caps using vulgar language. It's so wholesome and gentlemanly. That's true. Thank you for our murder.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, we try not to do that. I'm on a lot. You know what's weird is I try to do one or two other podcasts or interviews each day. And I'm surprised that the number of people across the political spectrum where the F word and the shi, they have been regularized. I mean, they're just. The politicians use them. I just heard a politician in a lecture and he was using the word shi. I can't believe that that was.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah. What gets me is God D. Because that's explicitly banned by God himself in the Ten Commandments. But you hear it at the drop of a hat.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

No, it's very funny. They used to have a bunch of farmers down here on the pipe, this communal ditch. And there was one who was sneaking in at night. And my poor grandfather was so honest. And he would open up the gate, nobody could see him. So he would drain to secretly water four or five of his vine rows. And he would do it every night so he could do the whole 40 acres. And my grandfather's. He would get. He'd work so hard. He'd get there at 8 o' clock at night in the summer. He had all the water set. So he'd go to bed. So the pressure. And then he'd wake up and the water had only gone down half the furrow, you know, the furrows. Because this guy had taken all the pressure. So they all met. They used to meet 10 or 12. My grandfather was Welsh, my maternal. And he was all red. And he said, now you be fair with me, mister, I won't say who he is because there are families around and I'll be fair with you. And he said, I didn't you know, you're doing this. And then he said something I'll never forget. I'd never heard him say the D A M N Dam.

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

He never. He always said, dickens. That's darn. Or what? Heck. Oh, what the heck. He wouldn't say hell. And nobody did. And my mother never said that. And anyway, everybody, he said, damn, Damn it, I'm so mad at what you're doing. Everybody stop. And they said, now, Mr. Davis just used that word.

[Jack Fowler]

Dropped a bunker buster.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

So then I went. I was there. And I walked back with him to the house where I'm living now. And he says, victor, I never want you to use that word. I don't know what came over it. I'm going to get on the party line and call people up in a party. I did not mean that word. I was just so angry that that man is stealing from me. I said, well, you could have asked me and I would have said it. Everybody says it at school, so. And then he's going, we didn't have party lines, by the way. I don't want you ever. I don't want you ever having one of those ugly cigarettes hanging out of your mouth, just dangling on the corner. Don't, please, don't do that. And don't go to town and do that. Don't go to town. So that was. I look back on that. I feel like he's watching me every day, you know?

[Jack Fowler]

Yeah, well, he is probably from a sweet, eternal place. Hey. I want to thank the people who subscribe to Civil Thoughts. That's what I do. One of the things I do for the center for Civil Society. Civil Thoughts is a weekly email newsletter comes to you every Friday I Write, give you 14 recommended readings. Important, good, interesting articles I've come across the previous week. Civil Thoughts is free. We're not selling your name, so go to civilthoughts.com sign up. It's easy and I know you're going to like it. Thanks for those folks who write me and say such, Victor, you've been terrific. Thanks folks for watching, listening. However you consume this and we will be back soon with another episode of the Victor Davis Hansen Show. Bye bye.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Thank you everybody for watching and listening.

As we conclude today's program, there are some important events unfolding in real time that could have a massive impact on your retirement. China recently unloaded over $8.2 billion in U.S. treasuries. This is a recognition of mathematical inevitabilities that have destroyed currencies throughout history. When foreign powers begin systematic abandonment of a reserve currency. The end game has already begun. The classical world understood what modernity has forgotten. Sound money forms the foundation of lasting civilization. Today's collision course between Trump and Fed Chairman Powell will determine whether America thrives or joins the graveyard of monetary empires. History suggests the outcome is far from certain. What is certain is that smart individuals have always prepared for these transitions by holding assets that survive political chaos. Our friends at American Alternative Assets have created an essential guide for these unprecedented times Fed versus Trump the Coming Battle for America's Financial Future. This guide connects historical patterns to contemporary realities and shows how Americans can protect themselves. To download your free guide, call 833-2-USA Gold or visit victorlovesgold.com that's 833-287-2465 or victorlovesgold.com. until next time. Remember, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.