Team USA Hockey Heroes Praise Trump's Support After Gold | Episode 232

Summary

---

VINCE Podcast – Episode 232

Team USA Hockey Heroes Praise Trump's Support After Gold
Host: Vince Coglianese
Date: February 24, 2026

---

Episode Overview

On this State of the Union preview episode, Vince Coglianese delivers his signature sharp and impassioned take on President Trump’s second-term leadership. The episode celebrates the Team USA Men’s Hockey gold medal win over Canada, discusses the administration’s major moves on border security, economic rebounds, and foreign policy achievements, and features emotional testimonials from “angel families.” Notably, Vince is joined by in-house economist E.J. Antoni for a data-driven analysis of the Trump economy. The episode wraps with commentary on media bias and political theater, punctuated by the controversy surrounding Gavin Newsom’s comments and the political responses to the State of the Union invites.

---

Key Segments & Insights

1. Setting the Stage: Trump’s Second State of the Union & The Mood of the Nation

• [00:00-02:00] Vince lays out the episode’s focus: previewing Trump’s State of the Union, the invitation of men’s hockey gold medalists, and emphasizing national resurgence.
• “The State of our Union is strong. That’s what every president says... But this year, it’s true. I mean, just think about how far we’ve come.” — Vince [02:00]

Points Covered

• Reflection on Trump’s perceived turnaround of U.S. border security, economy, and foreign policy.
• Introduction of the “angel families” ceremony honoring victims of crimes by illegal immigrants.
• Preview of Team USA Men’s Hockey attending the State of the Union.

---

2. Border Security & Angel Families: Emotional Testimony

[04:00 - 08:30]

• Vince details Trump’s policies and new “National Angel Family Day.”
• Two “angel moms” give stirring tributes to Trump’s commitment.

Notable Quotes:

• “You have fought a fight that most people would not want to have to fight...” — Allison Phillips, mother of Laken Riley, [05:28]
• “He never, ever looked away from my pain. He looked me straight in the eye and he said, ‘I will never forget the story of your sweet son, and I will never give up fighting for the American family.’” — Laura Wilkerson [06:43]
• “Does President Trump move on from this? No. He’s made it mission one for his administration.” — Vince [08:27]

Memorable Moments:

• The U.S. Army chorus sings “Amazing Grace” at the White House event, bringing emotional resonance to the ceremony. Vince critiques alterations to the lyrics but praises the gesture. [09:00]

---

3. Media Reaction & Analysis of Border Policy Coverage

[10:00 - 14:00]

• Vince dissects a New York Times headline’s portrayal of the angel family event.
• Strong denunciation of media “framing” and misrepresentation of immigration data.

Key Quotes:

• “The New York Times is saying...these families are providing cover for Trump’s aggressive policies...” — Vince [10:45]
• “We’re not talking about immigrants, you buffoons. We’re talking about illegal aliens. This whole move...is to lump together people who arrive legally versus those who arrive illegally who have a crime rate of 100%.” — Vince [12:43]

---

4. The State of the Economy: Conversation with E.J. Antoni

[22:23 - 34:23]

Guest: E.J. Antoni, Chief Economist at the Heritage Foundation
Discussion Points:

• Trump’s economic “course correction” after the Biden years; partial recovery in Americans' real earnings.
• Private sector is adding jobs; government bureaucracy shrinking.
• Notable efficiency gain: “Trump has succeeded in axing something like 10% of the federal workforce. Over 300,000 bureaucrats are gone...you have to go back to 1966 to find so few.” — E.J. Antoni [24:18]
• “Every time you get rid of one of these federal bureaucrats, there’s a tremendous relief in terms of the strain you have on the private sector...” — E.J. Antoni [26:53]
• Trump’s tariff policies did not lead to economic catastrophe as opponents warned.
• Investment is flowing into U.S. manufacturing and construction, driving high-paying jobs and strategic advantage, especially over China.

Notable Quote:

• “Trump just took that burden off 24 million Americans...” — Vince [27:49]
• “I’m happy to report, Vince, that the Hunger Games have not yet started in the United States of America.” — E.J. Antoni [30:21]

Fun Exchange:

• Vince proposes a debate between E.J. and AOC: “Are you prepared to debate AOC? Would you need some prep time?”
• E.J.: “We were both bartenders, so I’d be happy to debate a fellow bartender.” [34:07]

---

5. Stock Market Boom & Economic Recognition

[38:30 – 42:20]

• Vince highlights Peter Navarro’s accurate prediction: Dow Jones hits 50,000 well before term end.
• “We just hit $50,000 now. Peter Navarro said this wasn’t going to happen...that prediction came true even quicker than he could have possibly anticipated.” — Vince [40:00]
• USA Today piece concedes: “Trump’s economy is resilient and he deserves more credit for it.”

---

6. Foreign Policy: Hard Power, Mexico, and Cartel Takedowns

[42:20 - 53:00]

• Trump orders mission to capture Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, signaling U.S. seriousness.
• U.S. intelligence and Navy SEALs support Mexican Special Forces in taking down "El Mencho", leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
• “This is only the kind of progress that can be made with President Trump as President of the United States. Not with a Joe Biden, not with anybody else.” — Vince [46:00]
• Evidence that the SEAL mission and U.S. pressure have resulted in major cartel leadership being removed for the first time.

---

7. Team USA Men’s Hockey: Patriotism & Presidential Praise

[53:00 - 55:00]

• Team USA arrives stateside, celebrates at Miami club, and prepares for State of the Union.
• Debate on allowing players onto the House floor for State of the Union, as many Democrats boycott.
• Matthew Tkachuk: “It was an honor...hearing [the president] supporting us and all the other athletes...We’re definitely honored to represent him and the millions, hundreds of millions, across the country.” [53:02]
• Jack Hughes: “It’s for all the guys that came before us and the young kids that are going to come after us...We want to leave USA Hockey in a better place than when we first got there.” [53:33]

Vince’s Commentary:

• Praises athletes for patriotism and maturity.
• Decries online efforts to politicize their words or past statements.

Note on Team USA Women:

• The women’s team politely declined the invite due to scheduling conflicts but expressed gratitude for the presidential invitation. Vince urges against using this as a political “dunk.”

---

8. Media & Political Rhetoric: The Gavin Newsom Controversy

[57:53 - 61:27]

• Vince plays Gavin Newsom’s recent comments: “You’ve never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech. Maybe the wrong business to be in.”
• Nicki Minaj’s viral reaction: “His way of bonding with black people is to tell them how stupid he is and that he can't read... He's literally slowing his speech down... as if they're children.”
• Vince cites a Washington Post study on how white liberals “dumb down” language in front of black audiences [59:30].
• Audio flashback: Newsom previously bragged about flying through a book, revealing the inconsistency.

---

Notable Quotes & Soundbites (with Timestamps)

• [05:25] “You have fought a fight that most people would not want to have to fight. President Trump has...you are doing a thankless job that most people just wouldn't do.” — Allison Phillips, Angel Mom

• [06:43] “He never, ever looked away from my pain...I will never give up fighting for the American family.” — Laura Wilkerson

• [24:18] “Trump has succeeded in axing something like 10% of the federal workforce. Over 300,000 bureaucrats are gone. You have to go all the way back...to 1966 to find a time when there were fewer federal bureaucrats than we have today.” — E.J. Antoni

• [30:21] “I’m happy to report, Vince, that the Hunger Games have not yet started in the United States of America.” — E.J. Antoni

• [53:02] “It was super cool. It was an honor...We’re definitely honored to represent him and the millions, hundreds of millions across the country bringing a gold medal back.” — Matthew Tkachuk, Team USA Hockey Gold Medalist

• [53:33] “It’s for all the guys that are coming before us. And, you know, all the young kids are going to come after us...That’s why we play and we want to...leave USA Hockey in a better place than it was when we first got there.” — Jack Hughes, Team USA Hockey Gold Medalist

• [59:30] “White liberals dumb themselves down when they speak to black people, a new study contends...If you're a white conservative, your diction won't depend on the presumed race of your interlocutor.” — Vince (citing Washington Post study)

• [60:56] “You've written a hell of a book...I went through it in a quick hour and a half...it reads at an unbelievable pace...” — Gavin Newsom

---

Other Memorable Moments

• Vince sharply critiques media coverage of immigration and border security, calling out "dishonest, heaping pile of bullshit" reporting. [12:43]
• Extended riff on the significance of reducing the federal workforce ("80 private sector workers for each federal worker").
• Fun, familial tone revealed as E.J. Antoni is outed as Vince’s first cousin. [34:25]
• Analysis of Peter Navarro’s Dow prediction as a rebuke to mainstream economic skepticism. [40:00]
• Passionate, humorous, and sarcastic engagement with current events, listener questions, and left-wing trolling.

---

Segment Timestamps

• 00:00-04:00 – Introduction, border & “angel families” preview
• 04:00-09:00 – Angel Family testimonials, “Amazing Grace” at the White House
• 10:00-14:00 – Media analysis, NYT coverage of border events
• 22:23-34:23 – Economist E.J. Antoni on jobs, inflation, tariffs [interview]
• 38:30-42:20 – Stock market boom; Peter Navarro's prediction
• 42:20-53:00 – Foreign policy: Venezuela & cartel crackdown
• 53:00-55:00 – Team USA Men’s Hockey: patriotism, presidential call
• 55:00-57:53 – Team USA Women’s Hockey & their SOTU response
• 57:53-61:27 – Gavin Newsom controversy, Minaj reaction, prior statements

---

Tone & Style

• Direct, highly opinionated, and at times confrontational — Vince’s delivery is unwaveringly conservative, skeptical of mainstream media, and warm toward guests and “real” Americans.
• The tone vacillates between analytical (during economic segments), emotional (angel moms, patriotic athletes), and playful (banter about family ties, lefty critics, and pop culture).

---

For Those Who Missed It

This episode is a must-listen for those invested in conservative perspectives on U.S. policy, media critique, and the potent intersection of sports, patriotism, and politics. Vince offers plenty of red meat for his base, but also moments of real empathy with the families affected by national policy. Guest economist E.J. Antoni’s data-heavy breakdowns make the economic conversation accessible and actionable, while the sports angle offers a unifying narrative not often found in daily political talk.

---

Listen for:

• Real-life testimonials from “angel families” [05:00-08:30]
• Economic breakdown with E.J. Antoni [22:23-34:23]
• Patriotic celebrations with Team USA [53:00+]
• Inside-baseball on foreign policy and border security [42:20-53:00]
• Candid call-outs of media bias and political hypocrisy throughout

---

Note: All timestamps are approximate and rounded to the nearest minute for practical navigation.

---

Transcript

[Vince]

Hey, everybody. Welcome to Vince on a Tuesday, the very first State of the Union address for President Trump's second term in office. It's going to be great. We'll have a preview coming up for you of what we might expect from the president of the United States tonight. And remember, as always, it's a Trump State of the Union, so expect the unexpected. Really looking forward to that. We've, we'll dive into all of the details. Also, among the guests who are going to be in attendance, that includes the men's U.S. team hockey winners, the gold medalists who just had that epic victory over Canada this weekend. Hell, yeah. Love that. And so much more, all ahead on this edition of. Vince. Great to have you with us. Best audience anywhere. Want to thank our great sponsors who make the show possible each and every day. That includes American Financing. You worried about upcoming credit card debt at all bills that are arriving? If you're a homeowner, there's really no better time than right now to call American Financing and wipe out that debt, eliminate the stress and set yourself up for a very strong 2026. The Fed dropped rates for the fourth time in December. And American Financing can help you access the equity that's right there in your home at an interest rate in the low fives. Now, you heard me correctly, the low fives. Now compare that to the credit card debt rates. What is that, 20%, 30%? It's crazy. American Financing is saving customers an average of $800 per a month. That's like a $10,000 raise for the rest of the year. That's crazy. It's great. There are no upfront fees, no obligation. You can see how much you can save. They're closing for some people in as fast as 10 days and they're even delaying two mortgage payments. American Financing is America's home. For home loans, call today 888-879-6460. That's 888-87964. 60. American financing. Well, the State of our Union is strong. That's what every president says when they stand up there in front of Congress for their State of the Union address. But this year, it's true. I mean, just think about how far we've come. We had a world where the border was wide open, where the economy was in a free fall, where foreign policy was out of control. New wars were being started with each passing day. Even our attempts to get out of a war in Afghanistan led to suffering for both Americans and the people in the region. That, that was an awful, awful period. In our history to live under President Auto pen. What a difference a president has made. Suddenly our borders are secure. Suddenly our economy is on the way back. And suddenly we have peace deals breaking out all around the planet. How does that happen? Well, because of you. You made the last election too big to rig. You put Donald Trump in a position where he could do something about all of this, and he's having success. Does it mean the work is over? Hardly. There's a lot more to do, and the president is probably the most keenly aware of that out of anybody on the planet. But tonight, he's got a great opportunity to present a very positive message about the direction our country's heading in, thanks to his leadership. And it's also obviously a rationale tonight for why voters should continue to back him and his agenda going into the midterms. I want to start with the border. Today, the border is as sealed up as it's ever been in the course of our lives. Nobody's getting across it. In fact, very little is getting across it at all. Drugs aren't. People aren't. And as a result, fewer Americans are dying and our border is restored. So, in other words, our sovereignty has been restored. That's a really positive thing. And yesterday the president was able to dwell on that a bit because he welcomed some of the angel families to the White House. The president honored angel families yesterday, as the White House describes remembering American lives lost to illegal immigration. And that ceremony was dedicated to not only honor them, but but to proclaim that February 22nd of each year will now be considered National Angel Family Day, a day of remembrance for victims and their grieving loved ones devastated by the consequences of open border policies. The border, the White House says, is now the most secure in history, and that's obviously borne out by reality. The Trump administration remains unwavering in its commitment to remove dangerous criminal illegals from our communities and ensure accountability and make sure not one American family has to endure this pain. Nobody knows that pain better than those angel families. And those angel families are very grateful that President Trump has taken the lesson from their devastating loss and has turned around to prevent that same fate from befalling any other American families. Here, for example, is Laken Riley's mother, Allison, yesterday praising President Trump for his support for our country. Take a look.

[Allison Phillips]

I just can't thank you enough. You have said from the beginning, literally the day after this happened, that you would not forget about Lakin. You weren't president at that time, and you have not forgotten.

[Laura Wilkerson]

You have

[Allison Phillips]

fought a fight that most people would not want to have to fight. Most people wouldn't. They would just say it's just easier not to do this. And President Trump has, you are doing a thankless job that most people just wouldn't do. And I just can't thank you enough. There are just not enough words to

[Vince]

say

[Allison Phillips]

because if you live the nightmare that we have lived, you understand the importance of the job that he's doing and securing our nation and fighting for our families. Because this could be any family. This happened to my family. This could be any one of your families.

[Vince]

It could be anyone of yours. She lost Lakin that horrific attack by an illegal alien, and she's staying in the fight on behalf of her daughter and her legacy and to make sure that that doesn't fate, that fate doesn't befall anybody else. Another angel mother by the name of Laura Wilkerson talked about how she met President Trump Now 11 years ago. 11 years ago. And he made a promise to her and she says he kept it.

[Laura Wilkerson]

Listen, cut to I met a man about 11 years ago who was running for office, and he sat with us a couple of days and he watched as the tears rolled down my face as I told him the story of how our youngest son, Joshua, was brutally beaten, tortured, strangled to death and his body set on fire. The man next to me was President Trump. He never, ever looked away from my pain. He looked me straight in the eye and he said, I will never forget the story of your sweet son, and I will never give up fighting for the American family. I looked at him and I believed him. And here we are these years later, and you can tell all of the work he's done. He's never missed a day of fighting for the American family. I don't know if I've ever met a man who is more interested in this country and running this country and getting it back in shape. And I'm so grateful for what he does every single day.

[Vince]

The president does deserve a lot of credit here, credit that will not be rapidly coming from the American news media who could practically care less about this subject. I'll get to that in a moment. But hear what she said there. I don't know if I've ever met a man who was more interested in this country and running this country and getting it back in shape, ever. He's never stopped working on this from the moment that I met him. And the evidence for that is crystal clear. I mean, there's a lot of politicians who will pay lip service to an issue and Then move on the second the news cycle Does.

[E.J. Antonio]

Does.

[Vince]

But has President Trump ever moved on from this? No. He's made it mission one for his administration. Secure that border, protect American families and don't let there be more Lake and Riley's in our country. By the way, remember, it was like pulling teeth to get Democrats to even say her name. Remember that? Remember ended up being. That ended up being a big dramatic moment at a State of the Union just to get Joe Biden to say Lake and Riley's name. And remember what the fallout from that was? That Biden apologized for using the word illegal to describe her killer. We've lived through some garbage. It's good to see a restoration now with President Trump. Very good. Also, it was a touching event yesterday for a bunch of reasons, not just hearing from the angel families. But boy, if anybody knows how to put an event on it is President Trump. Which is why I'm actually very excited for the State of the Union for a million different reasons. But for instance, this moment occurred yesterday when the US army chorus sang Amazing Grace. I would recommend you maybe keep a box of tissues nearby. It might might behoove you for this particular particular bit of audio. Take a listen. Grace how swee. The saint. Sa. Random. Unbelievable. Beautiful. Beautiful. What a beautiful gesture to those families. Impressive singers. I noticed somebody, some people in the chat noticed. I agree, I agree. Bad dad asked about this. Wait, they didn't say save a wretch like me. They changed the word. I totally agree. Somebody at the White House needs to intervene. Secretary Hegseth, please intervene on that particular thing. Can we get the lyrics changed back to it? I don't know what the deal is with trying to woke a fy hymns and. And all these other things are just, just preserve it in the beautiful way that it was delivered in the first place. But I. God bless them. Holy cow. They have talent. Holy cow. What a nice. What a nice thing. So, yeah, there you go. There's the. The President of the United States honoring the angel families. Now, I mentioned that the media really don't care about this subject. They are not at all interested in it. And in fact, they're a little grumpy that President Trump did this. Look at this. This is the New York Times headline after the event yesterday. That beautiful event. Angel family returned to Washington to back up Trump ahead of the State of the Union to back him up for backup. It's backup for Trump. And in case you're wondering if I'm being overly judgmental about this, like, oh, well, they do Back up, Trump. No, no, no. What the New York Times is framing this as. Is, President Trump is awful and he's exploiting these families and these families are awful for supporting him. That's the, that's the presentation here by the New York Times, because if you go deeper in the piece, they say for over a decade, for over a decade, those families have provided powerful political cover for some of Mr. Trump's most aggressive policies, which are predicated on the idea that. On you. I'm sorry, I'm going to take you through this, but it is so painful to read this horse crap from the New York Times predicated on the idea that undocumented immigrants are responsible for violence. What are you. So what of Rachel Morin? Did she. Was she not brutalized and murdered? What if Jocelyn Nungare. Was she not brutalized and murdered? What of Lake and Riley? Was she not brutalized and murdered by illegal aliens? So the New York Times is saying it's predicated on the idea, the notion that undocumented immigrants are responsible for. They are responsible for that violence. And the Times goes on, this is. And they're misleading their idiotic readers. Mr. Trump and his supporters often point to high profile crimes as evidence. But data, I hate this lie. But data shows that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people who are born in the United States. You dishonest, heaping pile of bullshit. Data shows that immigrants are less. We're not talking about immigrants, you buffoons. We're talking about illegal aliens. This whole move, this has been the same way for years, to lump together people who arrive legally. In other words, follow our nation's laws versus those who arrive illegally who have a crime rate. To be clear of 100%. If you break our laws to get into our country, you have committed a crime. I know Don Lemon has trouble understanding this. If you come in illegally, why is it illegal? Because you broke the law. You committed a crime. It's a 100% crime rate. There's no statistical analysis that will ever conclude that natural born Americans are somehow committing crimes at a higher rate than illegal aliens because illegals are committing it at a 100% percent. 100%. Just how disgraceful can you possibly. Who is the moron? Katie Rogers. Katie Rogers, the author on this piece, and the New York Times publishes this to look down upon the angel families, to act as if they're just being used and they're providing cover. And Trump is awful and he's going after immigrants who don't commit all that many crimes to begin with. What are you saying to me? What do you say? These types of attacks on Americans really, really sicken me. I'm so fed up with this garbage. So, have you noticed that the left does this? This is the posture they take. First of all, they lie to you about the data. Illegal aliens commit 100%. 100% crime rate among illegal aliens. But. But they lie to you about the data, and then they always back up into this position. Americans are worse. Whatever you think of any of this, of this kind of law enforcement, Americans are worse. You're worse. You're actually worse. That's their excuse. Let's pretend for a moment it was true that Americans are worse. Let's just pretend for a moment that it was true. In other words, we've got our own problems to deal with. Why are we going to import more? This is nonsensical. I'm sorry, I'm getting too animated about a New York Times piece, because this is predictable as the sunrise. But it is their behavior, and this is why so many of our elites in particular are totally misled and they buy into these ridiculous talking points. What does this idiot know? She knows nothing. She's regurgitating some press release that was sent to her by Adam Schiff or whatever. The whole thing is crazy. As Americans remain torn over the administration's aggressive and sometimes violent methods of immigration enforcement, these families are continuing to back up Mr. Trump. On Monday, they stepped up to the microphone to praise the president, elevate his unfounded claims, or serve as character witnesses. Oh, man, my heart breaks for these angel families. I mean, chances are they're so used to it, though. They're like, you know, the second you put your head up, including somebody like Allison Phillips, Lake and Riley's mother. Look, here's a picture of her. There she is standing alongside the president, supporting him. Imagine she loses her daughter. Killed. She was jogging. University of Georgia nursing student killed by an illegal alien. 2024. Didn't have to happen that way. You know, the guy was in custody in New York, remember that? And then, you know, released, flown at taxpayer expense to Georgia. And there he is, brutalizing, killing Lake and Riley. And now she decides, you know what? I'm going to support the guy who's going to fix this problem in the United States of America. That's what she decided. Because I'm going to honor my daughter. I have to fight for her in her memory. She does that. And President Trump works very hard to remember Lake and Riley and to honor her and to seal our borders. And what thanks does she get from the media? Is she get sympathy from the press? Is she getting honest coverage? Is it. Maybe she has a point. No, nothing. They're just crapping all over her. They're treating her like garbage. They're treating her like garbage. And all these angel families. You're suckers. All you're doing is playing up, playing into Trump's lies. You're. What is it? Elevating his unfounded claims. Screw all of you. Just screw all of you. There's a reason you have less trust than. What's the phrase this week? Gas station sushi. That's why. Because of horse crap like that. It's absolutely disgraceful. The state of our Union when it comes to our border is strong. You can thank President Trump for that. That's what the angel families are doing. And those angel families we're hearing are going to be present tonight at the State of the Union, which is great news. I like that they were invited. I like that they'll be there and I like that they're there to support the President of the United States. And the agenda that he's on, it tells me he's doing the right thing. You think an angel family would lie about that? You think they would just like, pretend like President Trump was succeeding? No, no. They know in their heart of hearts that President Trump is working for them. They lost loved ones. They don't have any reason to pretend. No, they're, they're authentic, unlike the New York Times. All right, in a moment, I want to talk about the economy with you. We've got a lot to get to in terms of the state of our union because there's a lot going on in the world. Let's talk about the economy in just a moment. And for backup, I've brought my backup. I've brought in my great in house economist. We're going to talk to EJ and Tony in just a moment, get a summary on how things are going and how much things have changed. But first, did you know that Fast Growing Trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery with thousands of trees and plants? Over 2 million happy customers, including yours truly. They've got all the plants your yard or home needs, including fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, houseplants, all grown with care and guaranteed to arrive healthy. You just click, order and grow and get healthy, thriving plants delivered right to your door. Pretty cool. Fast Growing Trees is an amazing website. They have all sorts of options, like just any plant you can possibly think of, see if they have it. They probably Do I don't need any more Yoshino cherry blossoms because I've planted a bunch of them. In fact, E.J. antonio, my next guest, gave me one which, which we love. And so they're growing, they're very healthy in the yard. Last year, Fast Growing Trees, for those of you who have been with me over the last year, you know, Fast Growing Trees sent me a red bud tree, an eastern redbud tree. And when it arrived, it arrived in this beautifully packaged cardboard box. It was well contained and it was already in bloom and we planted it in the front yard. And now I can't wait for spring. I really am excited for the red bud to blossom and I can look forward to that thanks to Fast Growing Trees. Super healthy tree. It's amazing. Right now they've got a great deal on spring planting essentials. Up to half off on select plants. And listeners to this show get 20% off their first purchase when using the code Vince at checkout. That's an additional 20% off. Better plants, better growing, fast growing trees.com use the code Vince at checkout. Fast growingtrees.com code Vince now's the perfect time to plant. So let's grow together. Use Vince to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions apply. See fast growingtrees.com for details. Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. Petula the pug says the red bud needs some shade, not full sun. Yeah, it luckily for me, that side of the house actually is pretty shady where we planted it. This got at least it has morning shade. So we'll say it look, it looks great though. It's been growing really nicely. I can't wait for those blossoms. It's going to be amazing. All right. Also amazing. My next guest, the in house economist for the Vince show for Vince, EJ And Tony, also the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation. EJ it is great to see you, sir. Thanks for being here this morning, Vince.

[E.J. Antonio]

Pleasure is mine as always. Thanks for having me.

[Vince]

Okay, so look anybody, if you're not following EJ and Tony right now, go find his ex account and start following it because you will become the single smartest human being alive. Actually, no second smartest, right behind E.J. so E.J. let's talk about the state of this economy when President Trump gets up there tonight. Of course, every president has a positive spin on how things are going. But does the president have a good case to make tonight that the economy is strong?

[E.J. Antonio]

I think so, Vince. Absolutely. Especially when you consider where we're coming from right now. It is the case, I think he's going to have to probably try to thread the needle a little bit here. What, what I mean by that is he needs to acknowledge two things that some people think are contradictory, but they're really not. And here's what they are. Number one, we have course corrected. Under Biden, you were heading in the wrong direction. Now we're heading in the right direction. In other words, things are getting better. But on the other hand, I think it's worthwhile acknowledging the fact that we're not quote, unquote, there yet. In other words, we still have not yet undone all of the damage from the Biden years. A couple of stats, I think, make that very clear. First is that if you look at what the average American can actually buy with his or her weekly paycheck, that shrunk about 4% under Biden over four years now, under Trump, in just one year, it's grown about 2%. Quick math tells you you've only regained half of the lost ground. Now, it's great that you've made so much progress in just a year, but again, it's also, I think, worth acknowledging the fact that people are still hurting, people are still suffering. Even though you have course corrected, you were getting worse, now you're getting better.

[Vince]

Okay, that's a positive indicator for sure that definitely, when it comes to the state of jobs and the economy, how are we looking right now?

[E.J. Antonio]

Very, very good. And again, this is where it's such a stark contrast. Vince from Biden. You know, job growth coming out of the pandemic in the private sector peaks in the summer of 2021 and then begins trending down. If you look at the monthly change from one month to the next on a seasonally adjusted basis. And by the time you get to January 2025, that kind of handoff month between the Biden and the Trump administration's private sector, job growth on a monthly basis, the trend had actually gone below zero. In other words, you were losing jobs from month to month within the private sector. So what was growing in January of 2025? Just the government. The government. The public sector was adding jobs. The private sector was losing them. Now, fast forward a year to today. What's going on in the labor market? Exactly the opposite. In short, the government is losing jobs. Trump has succeeded in axing something like 10% of the federal workforce. Over 300,000 bureaucrats are gone. You have to go all the way back, Vince, to 1966, a full six decades ago, to find a time when there were fewer federal bureaucrats than we have today. So phenomenal progress there. That means all the net job growth we have had over the last year is in the productive private sector, not the unproductive public sector. And on top of not only where the jobs being created, but who are getting the jobs in Biden's last year in office, which I think is very telling, because at that point all of his policies were really having a strong effect. The annual change in job growth was going almost exclusively, no matter which month you look at, to foreign born workers, not native born Americans. Again, fast forward one year and Trump has flipped the script. And now the annual change in terms of employment among foreign born workers is actually negative. And it is exclusively on net Americans, native born Americans who are getting jobs. Their employment level has gone up over 800,000 since Trump took office.

[Vince]

There's a, there's an effect to government workers that people don't appreciate, but that you, you drilled home for me many years ago that I constantly dwell upon, which is, in order to afford a single government worker, it takes a lot of Americans to pay for their salary, benefits and retirement. Can you walk us through that? So when we lose, when we lose, when we get rid of 300,000 federal workers, that actually relieves the American taxpayer a massive burden, doesn't it?

[E.J. Antonio]

Oh, absolutely, Vince, you're 100% right. And you know, the dynamic here is essentially that if you have a private sector worker paying taxes, they're not paying taxes on their full salary. Right. It's only a portion, although sometimes it feels like a lot more. It's a portion of their salary that goes to the federal government in taxes, that. But of that portion, there are a lot of other demands on the taxpayer dollar. And so only a small sliver of the portion of federal dollars is actually going to federal employment. What I'm getting at here, Vince, is that you're going to need about 80 or so private sector employees on average, at least, in order to finance a single worker in the federal bureaucracy. And so again, as you said, every time you get rid of one of these federal bureaucrats, there's a tremendous relief in terms of the strain that you have on the private sector to support all of those public sector workers.

[Vince]

It's a really big deal. Let me do my, let me do my quick math here. Ready? I put this 300,000, let's say 300,000 workers times 80 private sector workers. We just relieved 24 million Americans of, of the burden of paying for federal workers. That, it just seems like a massive victory to me.

[E.J. Antonio]

BJ 100%. It absolutely is. And you know, Vince, this is part of the reason why when we look at, you know, trends in government spending, or if we look at government purchases, as it's called within the GDP report, we've seen really, really good progress in Trump's first term because you are reducing the overall amount of expenditure by the federal government simply by reducing the size of, of that federal bureaucracy. So again, it's great, great progress. In fact, if you look at, in this last GDP report that we just got, I know people were disappointed by the headline number, but I actually wasn't. Part of the reason for that is if you look at how GDP is calculated, it includes government purchases and that's going to include all of these, you know, all of this spending at the federal level. Well, what happened at the federal level, if you just look at non defense spending specifically, it fell by the fastest pace since 1972. Now some of that was because of the shutdown. So there were certain, there were certain purchases that are going to get pushed forward into the first quarter of this year. But it's also because this administration has made such great progress in terms of reducing federal expenditure.

[Vince]

So I do that. I do think it's interesting that the only thing that really got in the way of non stop GDP success was the Schumer shutdown. I mean, so, so President Trump has us on this course of success after success after success. Then you look at quarter four and that data that just came out Friday, you're like, well, what got in the way there? Chuck Schumer. Chuck Schumer got in the way there. Which goes to show that everything Democrats touch turns to crap. Okay, so let me talk to you about tariffs. So big, big fight in the Supreme Court comes out, decision comes out Friday and says the President can't use ipa, this emergency power in order to apply tariffs. But the President says, no problem, I'll do a Brett Kavanaugh recommended, I'll just apply tariffs and under other means. What is the report card on tariffs? Did tariffs destroy the economy? Ej Are we all suffering now and you know, struggling, killing for our next meals? What's happening?

[E.J. Antonio]

No, I'm happy to report, Vince, that the Hunger Games have not yet started in the United States of America.

[Vince]

The.

[E.J. Antonio]

No, look, all of the doom and gloom, it turns out, of course it was all wrong. If you look at inflation, it has not been exploding as the Democrats all said it would. In fact, even though a lot of our headline inflation indicators, like the PCE price index, as it's called that ticked up in the month of January. But interestingly, if you look at the versions of that that remove outliers, like trimmed mean and median pce. And same thing when you look at the Consumer Price Index, you look at the trimmed mean and the median. Again, these are ways of removing the fastest and the slowest growing or decreasing parts of the index. And what we find there is that inflation is actually falling to the lowest level in about five years. So really, really good news there. Good progress on the inflation front. In other words, it's one or two outliers that are causing the big increases. And that's driven by things like what's happening with the beef supply right now in terms of the overall size of the cattle herd in the United States. So, again, getting rid of the extreme shows that inflation is actually doing better, not worse. It's still not where we want it to be, but again, doing better, not worse. And same thing when we look at, when we look at the labor market, when you look at manufacturing specifically, all of the things that we were told are going to fall off a cliff because of Trump's tariff policies, none of that came to pass.

[Vince]

And also, you know, people like, I know you are into the dollars and sense of it, just look at you kind of, you just look at all this and say, okay, you know, is this going to make sense for us? But there's also a, there's a negotiating element to tariffs, which is Trump uses them as leverage. Trump applies tariffs to countries in the expectation that they're going to come to the table and promise to invest in the United States. And invariably he's right. I mean, it's just, it just keeps happening. We have more and more countries. So that's the final piece for you today, EJ which is how meaningful is it that the president, he keeps telling us that he secured tens of trillions of dollars of new investment in the United States. How big of a deal is that for the state of our economy?

[E.J. Antonio]

I think it's huge, Vince. It's a great point. I'm glad you raised it. Because if we look at the GDP reports that we were just talking about earlier, we are seeing that investment boost which is lifting overall economic growth. And then if you want to talk about individual sectors of the economy, in this last jobs report, we saw a surge in construction jobs of 30,000. And if you drill down within construction, where are the jobs being created? It's in factory construction. So even though those factories aren't yet employing, let's say, manufacturing workers, just Their construction is employing workers already. So you're creating high quality, high paying, blue collar jobs in areas of the countries that, that desperately need that relief on the labor market. So, yes, the investment numbers are already paying dividends and it's giving us a strategic advantage that a lot of people aren't talking about, you know, AI as much as we talk about it as it's a new productivity boom, it's going to increase wages and provide more jobs, et cetera. That's all true, but I think there are also strategic implications here. In a certain, to a certain extent, it might be the new arms race. And so it's imperative that we get ahead of hostile nations, of bad actors like China. And this is helping us to do exactly that.

[Vince]

All right, I saw somebody in the chat say that you should debate aoc. And given that AOC is also an economist, people might not realize she's an undergraduate degree in the economy. Are you prepared to debate aoc? Would you need some prep time? You know, can we host a debate between you and the congresswoman?

[E.J. Antonio]

You know, not only, not only are we both economists, Vince, we were both bartenders, so I'd be happy to debate a fellow bartender.

[Vince]

I can't wait for that debate. I volunteer as moderator. Hey, thank you, EJ and Tony. Good to have you with us today, brother.

[E.J. Antonio]

Thank you, Vince, Always a pleasure.

[Vince]

There he is, E.J. and Tony. And like I said, he's the in house economist. He's at times the in house bartender, of course. And the other thing is, some people in the chat know this. He's also, this guy's also my first cousin. People don't realize that. I just have. Yeah, no, it's, you know, it's, it's genetic. It's genetic. You're like, wow, how did you get such an amazing guy on the show? Well, we're, we're just genetically awesome. That's why, that's why that's the greatest. Anyway, there's ej. Thanks, ej. Good to, good to have you on the show. And I really do. You know, the great thing about having E.J. is my economist. I'm constantly texting and calling him. What do I make of this? What do you think about this? In fact, Friday, when the tariff decision came down, the first guy I called was ej. I was like, hey, what do you make of this? And he walked me through it. It was great. It was really great. It's always nice to have somebody like that in the corner. Yeah. 80 to 1. Isn't that amazing? Red waving Red waving points it out. 80 to 1. 80 private sector workers to fund one federal worker. Trump just took that burden off of 24 million Americans. It's an amazing. An amazing piece of data. An amazing piece of data. All right, a lot more ahead on the program before we get there. I want to thank the great sponsors who keep it ticking, and that includes Birch Gold Group. Birch Gold, you know, international disputes, inflation, rising national debt, digital currency. There's a never ending list of reasons gold has risen over 700% in the last 20 years. And a never ending list of reasons smart Americans diversify a portion of their savings and into precious metals with Birch Gold Group. More than any other commodity on earth, gold thrives during uncertainty, which is why it's a crucial part of a balanced strategy. It gives you peace of mind, given all of the events that could impact the US Economy. See if holding gold in a tax shelter retirement account is right for you too. Burch Gold can help you convert an existing IRA or a 401k into an IRA in gold. Just text my name, Vince, to the number 9,898 98 to receive your free info kit on Gold. There's no obligations, just useful information with an A plus rating with the Better Business Bureau and tens of thousands of happy customers. Let Birch Gold Group help you diversify with Gold so you too can have peace of mind regardless of any uncertainty. Text Vince to 989-898. Again, text my name, Vince, to the number 989-898. Do it today. Message and data rates may apply. Thank you to Birch Gold and thank you to the fellas over at Blackout Coffee. Look at this. I got the blackout coffee shirt on today. I was, I didn't even know we were going to talk about blackout coffee today. I just grabbed this, I saw the shirt in my drawer and I said, you know what? Today's a blackout day. You know, in fact, every day is a blackout day. If you want your coffee strong, smooth, and roasted for maximum flavor, Blackout Coffee is for you. Blackout Coffee is an America first company. They roast their beans right in the United States and they ship them fresh to your door. Their blends are bold, full bodied, and crafted for people who take their coffee seriously. Their medium dark roast delivers a strong flavor without bitterness. It's smooth, it's powerful, and it gives you that extra boost that you need to stay focused all day. What I also love is their subscribe and save option. They don't want you to run out of coffee. I don't want you to run out of coffee. This is how you handle it. Swap flavors, pause, cancel anytime, get deep discounts plus free shipping, all while earning reward points on every purchase that you can redeem for future orders. It's great. It's convenient, saves you money. They've got whole bean ground flavored coffees, espresso single serve options. There's something for everybody today. You, because you're watching this program or listening to this program, you can get 20% off your first order. blackout coffee.com use the code Vince at checkout. That's blackout coffee.com promo code Vince get 20% off your first order. Blackout coffee.com okay, so and people in the chat all drinking their blackout this morning except for DM Richardi says not a coffee drinker here. That's okay. That's okay. Different cups for different folks. Let's see, I've got, I've got one more thing for you on the economy. Peter Navarro, remember Peter Navarro, He's a great American. Last year in April, he made a prediction. He went on television. He made a prediction about how the economy we would be doing by the end of this Trump term. The end of the Trump term. He said by the end of the Trump term the Dow is going to hit 50,000 by the end of the term. Here's what Peter Navarro said. Come for watch. Let's talk about the markets, the uncertainty out there and the volatility. Do you expect it to continue? Because everybody keeps asking me if I think the market, where I think the market's going to open on Monday. Sure. The first rule, particularly for the smaller investors out there, you can't lose money unless you sell. And right now the smart strategy is not to panic. Just stay in because we are going to have the biggest boom in the stock market we've ever seen. Under the Trump policies, we will find a bottom in this market quickly. We will hit 50,000 on the Dow easily by the end of this term. By the end of this term. That's a heck of a prediction. Now, just to be clear, so you have some sense of where things were when he said this. In April of last year, the dow was at 38,000. We just hit 50K. About a week or so ago, we hit 50,000 on the Dow. It hasn't even been a year. We hit 50,000 now. Today it's down a little bit. It's down to 49,000. But we're now playing in the 50,000 territory. Peter Navarro said this wasn't going to happen, but. Well, he said it was going to happen at Some point before the end of the term, that prediction came true even quicker than he could have possibly anticipated. And that's what, you know. That example leads a fascinating piece that was published this week. Out of all places in the USA Today where they say that Trump's economy is resilient and he deserves more credit for it. Why doesn't he get more credit? Tim Swearin's writing at USA Today saying that he heard Peter Navarro make that prediction on television. He goes, I resisted the urge to roll my eyes like a 12 year old. Instead I muttered, yeah, right. It turns out I was happily wrong. And Navarro was right. Much to the relief of the 62% of American adults who own stocks. 62%. Lots of people have, you know, whether it's a 401K, a little bit of money on the market, a lot of people have exposure to the stock market. They're the beneficiaries of President Trump's work. And even if you don't have exposure to the stock market, the fact is when American companies have more capital, they can spend it. And that energizes the American economy. They can hire more people, they can do more things. It's a very, it's a very good thing. So they say, he says in this piece, that for the companies in our economy, the s and P500 companies, more than 75% of them recorded year over year earnings growth. In the fourth quarter of last year, more than 75% had earnings growth. That's the highest percentage in over four years. Let me put that differently. That's the highest percentage since the last time Donald Trump was President of the United States. Joe Biden didn't have years like this. Trump does. Just to be clear, that's a reflection of strength and resiliency, not only in those companies, but also in the broader economy, recession fears be damned. All right, so we'll keep, we'll keep focusing on how the economy is doing. Every time Paul Krugman and all these other idiots tell us that Trump's going to collapse it, I mean, they're really wishcasting. They really want you to suffer economically. How many I, how often have you heard that people who hate Trump, who want the economy to suffer just so Donald Trump somehow loses politically, it's gross stuff.

[E.J. Antonio]

Super gross.

[Vince]

All right, one more thing for you today on the State of the Union. So we talked about the border, we talked about the economy. Let's for a quick moment talk about foreign policy. Earlier this year, we saw something really big. The President of the United States ordered A mission to take out Nicolas Maduro, the phony leader of Venezuela. And, man, that thing was a huge success. They go in there, they grab Maduro and his wife, they pull him out of the country. Now in the United States facing prosecution. And the United States has successfully kept Venezuela running and is now moving oil revenue there so that the people can benefit from it. That's not a situation that was happening before. So what has that mission shown to the rest of the world? Well, it's definitely proven that President Trump, once again, is serious when he says that he wants to deal with these problems all around the planet. And he's not just paying lip service to it. He'll take action when necessary. Whether that's going in and grabbing Maduro or whether it's Operation Midnight Hammer, blowing up the Iranian nuclear regime's capabilities, it's pretty amazing what he's been able to do. And everybody else is getting the message. Which led to a gigantic event that took place this weekend in Mexico. That event was Mexican Special Forces killing a cartel leader called El Mencho, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. When we think of the cartels, we often think of the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco cartel, and in this case, this is the head of the Jalisco cartel who was killed off. I had an extensive conversation on the radio show yesterday with Brandon Darby. He's a cartel expert reporter who works for Breitbart. And he said, vince, this is just the biggest possible guy you could take down ever. It's the most powerful drug kingpin in Mexico. And the Mexican special forces finally took him out. Now, that was a very challenging task for a number of reasons, and not just because this El Mencho character was very well protected by his own cartel military forces. It's also because the Mexican government itself is deeply corrupt. That efforts to go after El Mencho in the past would have constantly been suffocated by corrupt officials within the government. In fact, so far this year and during this Trump presidency, Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, has been sending a lot of cartel members, drug traffickers, to the United States because President Trump has demanded to take them into custody. But the reality of that is most of those people have been Sinaloa. They have not been from the Jalisco cartel. They've been Sinaloa. And that's for a reason, as Brandon described to me yesterday. The reason is because Claudia Sheinbaum's administration is corrupt and in bed with Jalisco. And as a result, taking Sinaloa cartel members off the board benefited the Jalisco cartel. So they took advantage of President Trump's efforts to crack down on the flow of drugs into the United States. By the way, that fentanyl, killing over 100,000Americans a year, both of those cartels responsible for sending that deadly poison into the United States, well, that's not good enough for President Trump. It can't just be Sinaloa. And so what has happened is finally, they took out El Mencho. Now it's led to dramatic chaos in the streets of Mexico, warnings for Americans who are traveling within the country. Uh, it's. It's a chaotic moment right now, but this is the only. Only the kind of progress that can be made with President Trump as President of the United States. Not with a Joe Biden, not with anybody else. It's with President Trump. In fact, it's not a secret at this point that American intelligence and advice was essential to the role here. Caroline Levitt at the White House said the United States did provide intelligence to the Mexican government in order to assist with the operation in Taupalpa, Jalisco, Mexico. Taupa is kind of a getaway town in the mountains where. Think of it almost like an Airbnb cabin area, where El Mencho decided to go meet one of his girlfriends for a romantic cabin getaway that proved to be ill fated because Mexican Special Forces tracked the girlfriend going into the building, and then they knew where El Mencho would be. They got him. They got. They. They chased him down through the woods, eventually killing him, which is a kind of a wild story, which I imagine at some point will be made into a movie. Now, how did Mexican Special Forces get ready for this? Interesting. There are reports that it was the Navy SEALs who prepared them. In fact, there's a website here called Border Report. Border Report that reported back on February 12th of this. This. This year. February 12th, not about. About two weeks ago, that Mexican lawmakers. Excuse me. Yes. Mexican lawmakers approved the arrival of Seal Team 2 in Mexico on a training mission. So this is not a secret. This was done by the Mexican legislature. This approval. Lawmakers in Mexico have authorized the entry into their country of 19 members of US Navy Seal Team 2 for the purpose of. Of training Mexican Special Forces. Then they go on to say that they're authorized to be there through April 16th. They're coming at the invitation of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has publicly expressed desire to better prepare her military and law enforcement to stop drug cartel violence. Well, not really sure. Not really sure what, you know, what role they played in particular. But I can't believe that it's some sort of massive coincidence that SEAL Team 2 arrived just in time to work with Mexican special forces before Mexican special forces took down one of the biggest cartel leaders on the planet. Doesn't exactly seem like a coincidence, but I just, I just, I just tell you what the breadcrumbs tell me. And it sure looks like the President of the United States has done something really big here. Now, finally, I mentioned to you that that decision to go after Maduro has, has paid off internationally. That's just the reality of the situation in, in this, in fact, this piece. Let me see if it's in this piece. Yes, here it is. Check this out. This is in the piece. The, the Border Report piece they write. Wednesday's Senate vote to allow SEAL Team 2 into the country was nearly unanimous, but not without debate. Many, including Sheinbaum, are still reeling from the lightning fast American incursion into Caracas to arrest former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro on drug and other charges. It's another way of saying, holy shit, he's serious. We've seen this before. Trump's not playing. Trump. Trump's not playing. That's the conclusion in Mexico, which is why a major cartel leader was just taken out. Very, very big deal. Very big deal. Remarkable tonight, in attendance at that State of the Union, the men's hockey team, the Team USA men's hockey team has just arrived back in America. They spent the day yesterday, they arrived in Miami yesterday, and then they were partying last night at a Miami club en route to the Capitol today to join the President at the State of the Union. I have seen some things about. Speaker Johnson is trying to figure out a way to accommodate the team. There's limited seating in the room. Here's, here's the thing. I don't know why you can't just make a special rule to let these guys sit on the floor. If Democrats are all going to be boycotting the State of the Union, a lot of them are. They've all announced, I'm not going, I'm not going. I'm not going to dignify this. Okay, good. Get the hell out. Leave your empty seat available, and then let's put members of Team USA inside of those seats. I know Speaker Johnson said something yesterday to the press like, well, there are rules. These are for. Only for members. You know, this is an official congressional event. Well, then change the rules. The speaker of the House just put forward a rule change for today, a temporary rule change that allows those Seats to be used in. In this way, you know, that be. It'd be great. Let the. Let the. The gold medalists who just. Who actually love our country, who. Tell me something. Don't you think Jack Hughes represents our country better than Ilhan Omar? Speaking of a representative, why don't we put Jack Hughes in one of the seats on the floor, put him near the Supreme Court justices, and let's have a great State of the Union. I think it'll be phenomenal. Anyway, something to think about, but those guys came back yesterday to Miami and they were super happy. They were super happy to be home, and they were super happy that President Trump asked them to come and called them to congratulate them. Here's Team USA hockey player Matthew Tkachuk. Great name. He says he loves that President Trump called Watch Cup 5. It was super cool. It was an honor. It really is apparent for the President of the United States, hearing that he was supporting us and supporting us and all the other athletes and wanting us all to bring home as many gold medals we can. So we're definitely honored to represent him and the millions, hundreds of millions across the country bringing a gold medal back. You know what, what an appropriate and upstanding way to handle a question like that. Now, I don't know if this guy is a big Trump supporter or not, but he just did the mature thing, which is like, it's a total honor for the President of the United States to call and to congratulate the team on behalf of the United States and then extend an invitation for us to come to the State of the Union. It's a total honor for that to happen. And that's just true. That's just flatly true. It is an honor. And good for him for saying it out loud. Why does that have to be a courageous thing in 2026? And yet it is, because the left has so demonized Donald Trump, they make it seem ridiculous that you would appreciate presidential generosity in that way. Here's another one. Here's Jack Hughes. Toothless Jack. Jack's great. He's. He says he's gonna get the teeth fixed because he's got to get that great smile back. But here he is saying that, look, we won this gold for all the guys that came before us and all the young kids that are coming next. Watch.

[Matthew Tkachuk]

The best part is, it's for, like I was saying this the day of the gold medal. It's for all the guys that are coming before us. And, you know, all the young kids are going to come after us. So just like, you know, when I was a kid, I was growing up dreaming of being where I'm at now. And in 10 years, there's going to be another Austin Matthews, there's going to be another Matthew Tkachuk and another Quinn Hughes. So that's why we play and we want to, you know, leave USA Hockey in a, in a better place than it was when we first got there.

[Vince]

You know, I saw online some lefties sharing a video of him, I think, from 2024 4, I believe, where he paid lip service to some stupid question the interviewer is asking about pride flags or whatever. And he gave like some sort of, you know, reflexive, like, I'm going to survive the interview answer to it. That sort of genuflected to whatever the left wing talking point was at the time. Can I just remind everybody of something before you try and use it, use that as some big own lefties. He's 20. That guy's 24 years old. Jack Hughes. He's 24. He's a kid. He's a kid. With all due respect to those of you in your 20s, but he's 24. He was 22, 21 years old when he did an interview where some lefty psychopath was like, what are you thinking? A pride flag? And he's just trying to figure out how to keep his career alive at the time. I'm not getting harshly judged him for saying stupid things. And guess what? We all say stupid things when we're young. We, we tend to learn through the passage of time and hopefully we get better. I can't say the same for Democrats, but hopefully the rest of us, we've learned from our mistakes, but, man, that guy has just been phenomenal. I just love, I love every word that's come out of his toothless mouth ever since that victory. It's been great. Just loves our country, really appreciates it, and is super proud that he can represent it. And on his way, on his way to the State of the Union tonight. I can't wait for that. I love how angry. I love how angry the left is about it. It only adds to the joy. Speaking of videos that are getting a lot of attention right now, let me move to actually before I do that, before I do that. Sorry, Broken segue. One more thing on attendees tonight. The U.S. women's team has declined to go to the State of the Union despite the fact that President Trump sent them an invitation. Now this, right now is being used as some sort of dunk by the left. See, the women don't want to go and see that psycho Trump and all this nonsense. If that is what you conclude from this. You didn't actually read the statements from the women's team. The women's hockey team declined the State of the Union invitation, but they said they were very grateful that President Trump extended it. They said, quote, we are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal winning U.S. women's hockey team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement. Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and grateful for the acknowledgment. This. This is. That's a perfectly fine statement. It's not, it's not cause for, you know, negative judgment towards anybody. Look, if they've got a conflict, they've got a conflict. It is too bad. I agree, cowboy mom. I really wanted them to be there. And actually, the one caveat I'll add is, like, I do think it's. It's a little odd for some team representative for, like a USA Hockey person to represent all of the women. Are there any of the women who might want to go? I kind of feel like they could do that on an individual basis if they wanted to. But the answer right now out of the Team USA women is that they're not going to be there. But they're very grateful to the President for extending the invitation and they're very appreciative of the recognition. Fair enough. Fair enough. That's a perfectly nice statement and not. Not cause for lefty dunking or whatever. So there you go. Finally today. Finally today with you. I wanted to tell you, give you an update on Gavin Newsom's horse crap. President Trump posted to Truth Social that his presidential run is over. Hilarious. The reason for that is because everybody's paying attention to the fact that Gavin Newsom, speaking in Georgia this past weekend, told an audience that the original report says that they were an all black crowd. It turns out it's a racially diverse crowd with a black moderator. But that doesn't really improve the situation. He told this entire crowd to include the black moderator, that he's as stupid as they are. He can't read. Remember this? Watch this. Cut seven.

[Gavin Newsom]

I'm not, you know, I'm not trying to impress you. I'm just trying to impress upon you. I'm like you. I'm no better than you. You know, I'm a 960sat guy. And, you know, and I'm not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying to act all there if you got 9:40, but literally a 960 SAT guy.

[Vince]

I cannot.

[Gavin Newsom]

You've never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech. Maybe the wrong business to be.

[Vince]

Yeah. Nicki Minaj reacted to this. Did you see Nicki's reaction? Oh, yeah, Craig did. Craig saw it. Nicki Minaj said this. His way of bonding with black people is to tell them how stupid he is and that he can't read. This means my first read on him was correct. He's been handed so many things and put in high positions he never earned or deserved. You want to know the craziest part of this footage that will haunt him forever? He's literally slowing his speech down and talking in a sporadic cadence. He's not just telling them that they're all probably stupid and probably can't read. He's literally slowing down his speech to make them understand the words that are coming out of his mouth as if they're children. That means he really believes they're slow. He's not just saying it. He didn't misspeak. He believes it. Do you love it? Do you just love it? Black people? You know, this reminds me. The Washington Post had a piece a couple years ago about this that liberals would dumb down their. Their language in order to speak to black people. Do you guys remember this? This is a Washington Post piece. White liberals dumb themselves down when they speak to black people, a new study contends they talk about. They start with, like a book club or something. They said that when it comes to white libs, they will dumb down their language if they're talking to a black person. So they might not use words like melancholy and euphoric. If they're talking to a black person, they might use sad or happy with a woman, a fictional woman called lakeisha. But if you're a white conservative, your diction won't depend on the presumed race of your interlocutor. In other words, you're not going to change your language based on somebody's skin color. It's a racial and political disparity that was discovered by social psychologists. Yeah, I don't know. I don't really know how much scientific research you needed to conclude that. I think I could have told you that's the way it happens. But isn't that wild? That was. Yeah. That Washington Post piece, when was that published? That was years ago. 2018. That was 2018. Very long time ago. Still true today. But here's the update on this story. Gavin Newsom. It turns out we just got a flashback of Gavin Newsom just a couple months ago. He was sitting down with a couple of white authors and he told them not only that he could read but that he sprinted through their excellent new book. Cut 8. Watch.

[Gavin Newsom]

You've written a hell of a book and I don't say that lightly. I went through it in a quick hour and a half, almost two hours and trust me, I don't read very fast. But it reads at an unbelievable pace. It's so well written and of course it's so familiar because I felt a little bit adjacent so much of the subject matter. But it's 18 chapters. It's an impressive piece of work, 263 or so pages, two.

[Vince]

I sprinted through it. It was one of the fastest reads of my life. I was like, you know, not a super fast reader, but man, I flew through that book. That's, that's wild. That guy, that guy lies like he breathes easily. Very easily. Great to have you with us today. We got the big national radio show today. You can check out your local listings, get your favorite radio affiliate at the VIN show or join us on rumble. Rumble.com Vince. We do that show live from 1 to 3pm you can watch me on video. It's like a panda cam with a radio host. It's a lot of fun. And then today coming up on, on Silverlock programming, you know Silverlock, great operation. You've got Dan Bongino's excellent show that's coming up at 10 o' clock this morning. Love, Dan. Dan's gonna be on rumble.combongino. you can watch his show live. Join, join the millions who do. And then of course, you've got the great Haley Caranilla coming up at noon Eastern on Rumble. Rumble.com Haley. Haley with two why's why? Because she's awesome. She is fantastic. You're going to love her show, too. We got so many things to offer you. We're so grateful you're here. You really are the best audience anywhere. I will be back with you on this program tomorrow. Thanks for being here. Have a great State of the Union. It's going to be super exciting. The C.J. pearson Show. Every week we'll take on the biggest cultural, political and moral battles in America. Head on. CJ Presents the most passionate voices in the black community. When you're going around and talking to people in actual communities, you get to know what people actually care about. As a black man, why can't I be the first one in my family to graduate from college. Why can't it be me? Yeah. Shift the way that I think about the world. Bold truth, real conviction, zero permission. This is the CJ Pearson Show. The CJ Pearson Show. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.