Verdict with Ted Cruz

Bonus: Daily Review with Clay and Buck – December 11, 2025
Host: Buck Sexton (solo, Clay Travis out)
Guest Voices: Rick Santelli (CNBC), Jay Clayton (former SEC chair), Stephen Miller (former Trump advisor), Judge Paula Zinnis (case coverage), Donald J. Trump (clip), Abby Phillip (CNN)

Episode Overview

In this bonus crossover episode, Buck Sexton (on solo duty due to Clay’s travel) offers an in-depth analysis of the day’s top political and policy stories. The focus is on the state of the economy under Trump’s second term, the enduring political and practical challenges around affordability, and a critical immigration court ruling on a high-profile deportation case. Buck emphasizes the stakes for the GOP ahead of the next midterms, dissecting how Democrats may leverage dissatisfaction over persistent high costs, and shifts to unpack the complex debate over U.S. immigration enforcement, assimilation, and the historical legacy of America’s melting pot ideal amid record demographic change.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The State of the Economy and Affordability Concerns

• Persistent High Prices: Buck highlights that despite a booming stock market and improving trade balances, everyday Americans continue to feel the squeeze from high prices—especially for housing, healthcare, groceries, and education. This, he argues, is the legacy of COVID-era policy and subsequent spending splurges by both parties.

• Trade and Tariffs: Using positive trade deficit numbers (per Rick Santelli, CNBC), Buck asserts that Trump’s tariffs are achieving rebalancing without crashing the economy, contrary to elite predictions.

• Midterm Stakes: Buck is adamant that Republicans must focus relentlessly on “affordability” and “immigration” as the twin pillars that will shape the next election, cautioning that relying on “blame Biden” isn’t enough to win over swing voters.

  “If you lose the House and you're Donald Trump, then it just turns into, all right, we gotta wait for the next election ... because the Democrats will just tilt—they will, what's the phrase, cut off their nose to spite their face. I mean, they will just make everything stink and then blame it all on Trump. And you know that.”
  — Buck Sexton (29:55)

• Inflation’s Political Message: Referencing Jay Clayton, Buck distills the core economic frustration under Biden:

  “The affordability issue is from the 22% increase in prices and inflation under Biden. There's just full stop right there. That's the affordability issue. And you ought to be able to explain that. Right?"
  — Jay Clayton (11:12, replayed by Buck)

• Christmas Spending as a Barometer: Lower holiday spending signals consumer pessimism, with Buck tying this to economic policy and perceptions of Trump’s outlook.

2. Healthcare and the “Food Fight” in the GOP

• Obamacare’s Legacy: Buck critiques the ongoing ramifications of the Affordable Care Act, arguing it set the U.S. irreversibly closer to single-payer and made premiums “100, 150%” higher.

• Senate’s Dueling Health Bills: Simultaneous proposals from both parties are in play, with Democrats aiming to expand subsidies and Republicans failing to land effective counterproposals.

• Populist Frustration with D.C.: Buck avoids intra-GOP drama (“the food fight”) and urges focus on substantive policy issues instead of partisan squabbles.

  “We've got to fix health care, we've got to fix costs. We’ve got to fix inflation... Now is not the time to get into intramural squabbles and lose sight of what really matters.”
  — Buck Sexton (44:30)

3. Immigration: Enforcement, Assimilation, and Demographic Change

3.1 The Abrego Garcia Case & Broader Enforcement Debate (60:34+)

• Federal Judge Orders Release: Judge Paula Zinnis orders accused MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from ICE detention after extensive legal battles and a Supreme Court rebuke of the administration’s deportation gambit.

• Systemic Dysfunction: Buck frames the case as emblematic of “third world invasion” and bipartisan failure over decades, noting that even the Trump administration faces transformational challenges in fixing “a massive scam.”

  “Our whole immigration system has been turned into a massive scam and a third world invasion of this country as a result of the misleading of the American people, the taking advantage of the American people...”
  — Buck Sexton (61:10)

• Magnitude of Illegal Immigration: Buck cites estimates between 20 and 35 million illegal immigrants, echoing Stephen Miller’s argument that mass immigration distorts public policy outcomes in schools, health care, and public safety.

  “We mask the impact of immigration. Every public policy issue we discuss... If you subtract immigration out of health care, all of a sudden we don't have nearly the size of the health care challenges our country faces... These are a result of social policy choices that we made through immigration.”
  — Stephen Miller (65:25, via Buck)

• Democrats and Deportation: Buck claims Democrats (and half of past Republicans) have “no interest in enforcing the law” and that mass amnesty or de facto tolerance is the real agenda.

3.2 Trump’s Immigration Rhetoric & Merit Preferences (68:00+)

• Trump, in a cited clip, revives blunt calls for more immigrants from prosperous, orderly nations (“send us some nice people”) and fewer from “disaster” states.

  “Why is it we only take people from s***hole countries, right? Why can't we have some people from Norway?”
  — Donald J. Trump (69:00, replayed by Buck)

• Buck unpacks the policy implications, stating that the U.S. system is not designed to prioritize highly skilled, assimilable immigrants and is instead driven by DEI and “globalist” goals.

3.3 Integration, Assimilation, and American Identity (80:00+)

• Historical Lessons: Buck draws historical parallels, noting that in previous eras, the U.S. alternated between waves of high immigration and periods of enforced assimilation.

• Assimilation or Fragmentation? He warns that if assimilation breaks down—citing Europe’s parallel societies—core American identity and social trust are eroded:

  “A nation at some level is a people who come together around ideas… and you can't just say all of you go over here to some other place and we're going to replace all of you at once and it's the same country. That's just not true.”
  — Buck Sexton (93:56)

• Pushback to Mainstream Criticism: Responding to CNN’s Abby Phillip’s defense of assimilation, Buck claims reality under current mass migration belies the ideal, citing regions where English is not spoken and welfare dependency is high.

  “There are people here who speak no English, who live here, who are here forever ... That's a problem. Everybody who's here should be able to speak English. ... You have to have shared law, shared language, shared culture, shared history.”
  — Buck Sexton (96:40)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Policy Focus Over Intra-Party Drama:
  “We're trying to save the country here... You give us the latitude and the leeway to continue to focus on what matters.”
  — Buck Sexton (36:40)

• On Immigrant Grievance Politics:
  “Do you get the sense that ... the illegals that have come into America who go to these protests ... ever speak of the gratitude they have for this country? No, they think, they just, they think that it's owed to them.”
  — Buck Sexton (89:05)

• On Demographic Change and Identity:
  “[If] you change the people in a country enough, it is a different country. That's obvious... Would it still be Sweden if they brought in 5 million Syrians, Iraqis and Somalis? ... Maybe you would call it that. Is it the same country?”
  — Buck Sexton (92:30)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:00: Buck introduces the solo show, outlines main current events
• 07:30: Economic update; COVID-era policies’ impact
• 11:12: Jay Clayton quote on inflation and affordability
• 16:30: Housing market/rents and political consequences
• 21:00: On the need for GOP policy focus, not just blaming Biden
• 36:40: “Food fight” in conservative media and policy priorities
• 43:55: Critique of Obamacare and healthcare legislation in Congress
• 60:34: Immigration segment begins with Abrego Garcia case
• 65:25: Stephen Miller audio; immigration’s impact on public policy
• 69:00: Trump on merit immigration (Norway, “s***hole countries”)
• 80:00: Buck’s lesson on U.S. immigration waves and assimilation
• 89:05: On entitlement and protest culture among some recent immigrants
• 92:30: “Would it still be Sweden?” – demographic change analogy
• 96:40: Example from South Florida on failed assimilation

Language and Tone

Through Buck Sexton’s solo hosting, the episode maintains a conversational yet urgent tone—frank, ideological, and built for clarity for a conservative audience. Statements are delivered with occasional humor and personal anecdotes, but consistently circle back to the show’s core concern of broad policy stakes over partisan infighting. Frequent reference is made to statistics, historical analogy, and lived experience, foregrounded by a belief in American exceptionalism and skepticism toward globalist or progressive arguments.

Summary for Non-Listeners

If you missed this episode, Buck Sexton deftly lays out the core issues defining the current conservative political moment: persistent economic anxiety despite an ostensible recovery, the threat of voter backlash if affordability isn’t solved, and an unsparing critique of the present immigration system—both in legal challenges exemplified by high-profile cases like Kilmar Abrego Garcia and in everyday realities around assimilation and demographic change. The episode succinctly charts midterm stakes for the GOP, asks hard questions about American identity and the costs of failed integration, and calls for unified focus over internal squabbles. Buck’s mix of data, direct talk, and memorable metaphors (including a “Sweden” analogy and Christmas spending insights) makes for an engaging and forceful listen.