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Victor Davis Hanson: What the Democratic Midterm Sweep Means for Trump, MAGA, and 2028 — Transcript

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0:01What does a president do when he's lost
0:03the House and Senate by wide margins?
0:05And the answer is pretty much what he
0:08wants to do. A lot of the lame duck
0:10presidents feel they're unbound and they
0:13have nothing to lose and the imperial
0:16presidency operates as they wish. With
0:19Democrats sweeping both the House and
0:21Senate in the midterms last night, I'm
0:24sitting down with classicist and
0:25military historian Victor Davis Hansen
0:27to get his take on the results. We're
0:29going to see a lot of people jump in in
0:31the Democratic party and we're going to
0:33see whether the Vance Rubio Alliance
0:36holds up. He's the author of multiple
0:39books including most recently the
0:41counterrevolution, the fall and rise of
0:43Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.
0:45>> There's going to be a lot of fights
0:46ahead in the MAGA movement. There is no
0:49margin of error now. This is American
0:51Thought Leaders and I'm Yana Kellik.
0:58Victor Davis Hansen. So good to have you
1:00back on American Thought Leaders.
1:02>> Thank you for having me.
1:04>> So I have to confess I wasn't familiar
1:07with the term shellacking until last
1:11night and today. So Victor, what
1:14happened? That was an Obama term that he
1:17used in 2010
1:21when he lost 60
1:24uh excuse me n yeah 2010 he lost 63
1:27seats in the house and I think
1:31nine Senate seats. Bill Clinton said
1:35they kicked our blank when he in 90 94
1:39lost 53 seats and I think six Senate
1:43seats. George Bush in 2006
1:46used that term shellacking when he lost
1:49I think 30 seats. What happened
1:53uh as a historian I just kind of go by
1:55history. So in the last I had said this
1:59before I didn't want to believe it but
2:01in the last 126 years of the modern
2:04period since 1900 the party that has the
2:08white house loses 90% in 90% of the
2:11midterms
2:13um they lose seats in the house and they
2:1775% of the midterms they lose senate
2:19seats. So that was predictable that they
2:22were going to lose seats. The odds being
2:25what they are. The only time that was
2:26reduced say in the house was FDR and the
2:29exuberance still in 1934
2:32of the New Deal and then George Bush in
2:352002
2:37when he was hadn't gone into Iraq yet
2:39and he was really uniting the country
2:41after 9/11 and then Bill Clinton picked
2:44up um he picked up five seats in 1998
2:50and that was because they impeached him
2:51the month before the Republican
2:55supermajority. I mean, they had a really
2:56big majority and they impeached him, but
2:59the economy was growing at 4% with 2%
3:02inflation and he had balanced the budget
3:04for two years. And so that boomerang,
3:07but it's very rare uh otherwise for a
3:10president to pick up seats. What is
3:12unusual is the size of the tsunami. We
3:17don't know what we're speaking now the
3:18day morning
3:20I'm in the morning after here in the
3:22west coast and we don't have all the
3:23returns from the western states but it
3:26looks like somewhere around 45 seats or
3:29more and I think the
3:33the um Republicans will lose seven to
3:36nine seats depending on the ones that
3:38are out.
3:40So what does that mean and why did it
3:44happen?
3:45Well, the easiest answer is what does it
3:47mean? And that means
3:50Donald Trump, if he's going to appoint a
3:52district circuit or Supreme Court or
3:54fire a justice or fire a cabinet member
3:58and replace him, he better do it in the
4:00next uh 70 days before there the new
4:04Congress is sworn in in January cuz
4:06they're not going to approve anything
4:08that he puts up that requires a Senate
4:11nomination to be, you know, approved by
4:15the Democrats. That's number one.
4:18Number two, if it's down to 45 seats,
4:23he's got to make sure that he rides herd
4:25on that Republican 45 Senate because if
4:29he gets too many people like Lisa
4:31Marcowski or Renegades that join the
4:34Republicans, then they will have
4:36uncertain votes a veto proof Congress.
4:39>> Join the Democrats, you mean, Victor?
4:41>> Yes. So if the Democrats end up with 55
4:44or 57 seats, there are about three or
4:47four people who were not always with
4:49Trump. Some of them lost, you know,
4:51Cornin and Tillis, but there's still
4:53some there. And he's going to have to
4:54have party control otherwise they will
4:58not have what he has theoretically a
5:01veto proof Congress. And then history
5:04tells us, recent history, what does a
5:08president do when he's lost the House
5:10and Senate by wide margins? And the
5:12answer is pretty much what he wants to
5:14do. Uh Bill Clinton, he worked with
5:18Genrich. He got two more balanced
5:20budgets. He decided that he wanted to
5:24remove Malloich and he said to the
5:26Republican Congress, I'm not even going
5:28to ask you for the authorization. and he
5:30bombed for 77 days to fur from the
5:33Republicans and he was successful
5:37and he had a a summit. He tried to solve
5:39the Israeli Palestinian issue. It didn't
5:42work but he was kind of a virtuoso and
5:47Obama got emboldened. He was the one
5:49that gave us the term phone. I have a
5:51phone, a pen and phone and I can do what
5:54I want to do. He got heavily involved
5:57with the steel dossier and he had his
6:00intelligence heads
6:02pursuing this unicorn of Russian
6:05collusion on the domestic front. And
6:08then he he signed on even though he said
6:11he was a constitutional lawyer. He said,
6:13"Well, I'm going to have the treaty with
6:15the Iran deal. I'll have the treaty with
6:17the Paris climate accord and I don't
6:19even I don't need const I don't need
6:21congressional authority. It's not a
6:23treaty." So he just did it and he did it
6:26with recognizing Cuba. He said, "Well,
6:29it's time to make full diplomatic
6:32um relations, no more sanctions." So
6:35what I'm getting at, a lot of the lame
6:36duck presidents
6:39uh feel they're unbound and they have
6:41nothing to lose. They can no longer hurt
6:44their congressional majorities or
6:45minorities. uh they're going to be out
6:48in two years and they're going to
6:49executive order and veto their way
6:51domestically and the imperial presidency
6:54operates as they wish. So I think as it
6:58applies to Donald Trump, he will try to
7:00get the Iran war over as quickly as
7:02possible and denuclearize it. And part
7:05of the reasons he lost tangently here is
7:08he bombed for 38 days and it almost
7:12eliminate then they said well we have we
7:15have eight months we have seven months
7:17we have 6 months before the midterms we
7:19have five months we have four months we
7:20have three and they bomb talk talk talk
7:23with people you can't talk to. So he's
7:26going to have to denuclearize them hit
7:29pickaxe mountain if he wants to
7:30eliminate that threat. No ground troops,
7:33no nation building, but hit a lot of
7:36targets that will set them back eight or
7:3910 years and then leave skeleton force,
7:41keep the straight open and tighten those
7:44sanctions and go home and and gas will
7:48go down. And there's nothing the re the
7:51Republicans uh the Democrats can do to
7:53help or hurt him on that. They can't
7:55they don't have the votes to cut off
7:56funds and they won't. and he can do what
8:00he wants with Chi and Putin. He can do
8:03what he wants in the Ukraine sphere. He
8:05can do almost anything he wants. And
8:07that's just not because he's any
8:09different. He's just going to follow the
8:10president of presidents. Uh I the other
8:14thing that's very ironic is when
8:16presidents do this
8:18their their favorability doesn't go down
8:22it goes up because the these super
8:26majorities are not like
8:29uh moderate gains. They bring in
8:30bombthrowers. We have about 45
8:32socialists that are now going to be in
8:34Congress in the Democratic House and
8:37maybe one or two socialist Islamicist
8:41senators
8:43and they will do things that were are
8:45going to shock the oified leadership.
8:48Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren and
8:52all of those kind of calcified people
8:54are not young and energetic like like
8:57Elsa or Chevala Chevalier or any of
9:01those people. They are AOC the squad and
9:05they will they will try to singlepayer
9:08nationalized healthc care completely
9:11flip on foreign policy favoring
9:13Palestine as our friend and Israel as
9:16our enemy. try to open the border. They
9:20will try to mainland mainstream the
9:23trans, bring back the Green New Deal,
9:25defund ICE, maybe defund the police. And
9:28these are all 3070. They've all been
9:31they were all been adjudicated in the
9:322024 election and that's why Camela
9:35Harris lost. She was on the wrong side
9:37of all those issues until she tried to
9:39change her spot, so to speak. So that's
9:44that plays into the hands of the lame
9:47duck president. And that happened with
9:49Clinton and Obama. The Tea Party got way
9:52extreme in their candidates and their
9:54ideas and they were leaderless and they
9:57kind of petered out with Obama. And the
10:00impeachment zealots that wanted to
10:02crucify Clinton, he lied under oath. He
10:07had sexual relations with a employee who
10:10was a young woman. Power imbalance. all
10:12the hit all the feminist buttons and yet
10:16they did it in such a way they turned
10:17off the American people. And then that
10:19the final thing very quickly is the
10:21election starts. Donald Trump declared
10:24his candidacy in November 15th of 2022.
10:28That's two weeks from now basically. So,
10:31we're going to see a lot of people jump
10:33in in the Democratic party and we're
10:36going to see a pretty soon we'll see
10:39whether the Vance Rubio alliance uh
10:44holds up. There'll be a lot of pressure
10:46on from people to see Rubio at the top
10:49of the ticket. Vance can't be vice
10:52president again. That's going to be
10:54problematic if that were to happen.
10:56Dantis kind of withtood
10:59the blue wave. He had a Byron Donald's
11:02won. They won the Senate and so he may
11:05be revitalized. But what I'm getting at
11:08all this conundrum will happen in the
11:10next two years and Trump will be above
11:12the fray.
11:14And that's what happened to Obama and
11:16Clinton. Clinton just basically said Al
11:18Gore doesn't want me campaigning. That's
11:20fine. He fought it out with Bush the
11:22last year of his tenure. And Hillary and
11:25Trump really went at it in 2015 and 16.
11:28and Obama just kind of played golf. And
11:30the less we saw or heard of them, the
11:32more we liked them. And they, you know,
11:34the odd thing was both of them had low
11:37ratings at one point at 37 to 38% Obama
11:41and Clinton. They left with one of the
11:44highest ratings. Uh Clinton left with
11:47one of the highest ever. He was about
11:4966%.
11:51And Obama was about 59% approval rating.
11:54And that was because they the attention
11:57turned to acrimonious
11:59bombthrowers in the opposition. There
12:02was an election with contentious issues
12:04and personal invective and the president
12:08didn't have to worry about coddling his
12:11own party. He was unbound and he tried
12:14to be statesmanlike above the fray and
12:16it worked. And Trump, if he wants to
12:18follow that paradigm, it's there for
12:20him. You know, the one thing that's
12:22different, um, I suppose, is that
12:25there's this whole media ecosystem
12:28that's committed to his destruction and
12:30continues to be that. That certainly
12:32wasn't the case for the other two
12:33presidents you mentioned.
12:34>> No. And that's a very good point because
12:37uh, it really does explain in part the
12:41affordability issue. If we can go back
12:43in time to just four years ago, 2022,
12:48a very unpopular Joe Biden after
12:539.1% inflation in 2022 and the
12:57scadattlele from Afghanistan and the war
13:00in Ukraine given he he gave the wrong
13:02signals,
13:04lost deterrence. So he we were told a
13:07red we wave is going to sweep the
13:10country and it looked like it would and
13:13it didn't. They only picked up
13:15[clears throat] nine seats. They got the
13:16house back barely. They lost a seat in
13:19the senate and the red wave turned out
13:21to be a pathetic ripple. And so what was
13:25the reason and why did the blue wave
13:29turn out to be a tsunami? So, we compare
13:31the two situations
13:33and there you get to the heart of what
13:35you said about the media. In 2022, the
13:39inflation rate that year was 9.1.
13:43This year, it may go to 3.4.
13:46It's almost only a third. If you look at
13:49per family income, it's $14,000
13:53higher now under Trump than it was under
13:55Biden at that time. If you look at GDP,
13:58we have a much bigger third quarter GDP.
14:02If you look at the stock market, it's
14:0520,000 points higher than it was in
14:082022.
14:09If you look at job creation, it's much
14:12better. If you look at the poverty rate,
14:14it's almost two points lower. So, the
14:17economy actually is doing much better.
14:20But when you look when you go back and
14:21look at the media coverage, you had
14:23Janice Yell and said, "Oh, this this
14:24this is not our fault. This was supply
14:27chains and uh pent up consumer demands
14:32and it's it's only temporary." Well, it
14:34was actually 5.1 average for the four
14:37years, but the media portrayed that as
14:41no big deal, even though Joe Biden was
14:44polling at 40% pretty much where Trump
14:47is. But this one, it was all of a sudden
14:50affordability and gas. And I thought,
14:52well, I guess gas did trump in. It's
14:55It's now $4.32
14:57on election. It's 418 today. And then I
15:01went back and looked, it got to $5 in
15:03July of 2022. And he tried to drain the
15:06petroleum reserve. And on election day,
15:09it was about $410.
15:12So
15:14historically, things were much worse.
15:17And Biden was in the same place of being
15:20in the the end party when traditionally
15:22he loses seats and the economy was worse
15:26and his personal approval was as dismal
15:29as Trump and yet he survived it and
15:31Trump got wiped out.
15:34Now you can argue that the media biases
15:36a lot. You can also say that Trump
15:39inherited a 21%
15:42inflation over four years. So when he
15:45had a moderate 2.4 and this year a 3.5
15:50it came on top of 21%.
15:52And they did not articulate the
15:54difference between prices and inflation
15:57rate. So they kept saying well we have
16:00the Biden inflation rate. But the people
16:02were saying yes but prices are 21%
16:07higher than when you left office last
16:08time. So what are you going to do about
16:09it? Well, they couldn't do anything
16:11about it if unless you wanted a
16:13recession or a deflationary depression
16:16because we never go into a deflation and
16:18lose that 21%.
16:20The answer is what Trump did was to
16:23lower the inflation rate and increase
16:27the per family median income, which he
16:30did spectacularly, but they never
16:32communicated that. In in contrast, Biden
16:37inherited a 1.9% inflation from Trump
16:40and it only had gone up seven over four
16:42years. And so when he went up to nine,
16:47that was only, if you think about it, it
16:50was only about a 16% increase, whereas
16:53Trump went up three, it was 24%.
16:56And people noticed that. And uh the the
17:00administration didn't really explain
17:01that when they said we're going to lower
17:04the rate inflation. We're going to grow
17:05the economy. We're going to increase
17:07personal and family income. And that is
17:10the way that this affordability crisis
17:13will be handled. Prices will continue to
17:16go up moderately, one or two or 3% at
17:20most, but wages will go up 3% and family
17:23income will go up three or four. And
17:25finally the that will make prices
17:28stabilize at the level when I left
17:31office in 200 um
17:3421 in January but that was never
17:37communicated. [snorts]
17:39>> So Victor I've been looking at various
17:42takes. One of the sets of takes by
17:45people that I think had offered an
17:46interesting one, Spencer Pratt being one
17:48example, was just that the Republicans
17:52are very poor at storytelling, but also
17:55I I suppose this whole media complex
17:58thing, you know, figures into this
18:00dramatically as well. So that's one
18:02side, but the other side is actually the
18:03vice president. And I'll just comment.
18:05You mentioned the war. He said the
18:07reason we lost is the war. the president
18:09himself said so last night. But he also
18:11pointed to kind of to four separate
18:13things, right, that were that the
18:15pollster he he he g gave validity to the
18:18pollster. He said the number one issue
18:20was ending the war. Number two, the
18:22focus on cost of living. Number third is
18:24putting America first. And the four is
18:27changing the relationship with Israel.
18:29So these are actually quite different
18:32viewpoints of what happened. I'm finding
18:34where do you land here? Well, when he
18:37says the war when the war broke out, he
18:39had over 50% approval and they had a
18:44spectacular success for the two first 38
18:47days. They did the impossible. But they
18:49didn't explain it. They didn't say to
18:51the American people, seven presidents
18:53said you can't let them get a nuclear
18:55weapon. They're closer than ever before.
18:58They have 93 million people. They have
19:00over 200,000 rockets. This is an
19:03existential threat. It is a very big
19:05danger to Europe and to us. But I'm
19:08going to denuclearize them. It's going
19:10to be a long hall. It's going to be
19:12dangerous. But I have two
19:16two guidelines. There will be no ground
19:18troops and I will not go in there and
19:20try to nation build as we did in
19:22Afghanistan. He pretty he that was
19:24assumed, but he never was explicit just
19:27how difficult it was. So then you go in
19:30there and he I mean it was tragic. We
19:31lost 23 soldiers, but compared to 7,500
19:35in the Afghanistan
19:38Iraq or we've spent 45 billion, that's
19:41about what we left in infrastructure,
19:43weaponry, and embassies and stuff in
19:46Afghanistan to the Taliban. But they
19:48never really they never really
19:50accentuated that. And then once they
19:53stopped and 38, they were not quite done
19:55yet.
19:57They hadn't prepared for the hormuz.
19:59They were talking about the denominator
20:01of uh missiles they had destroyed and
20:04drones but not the u excuse me the
20:06numerator but then not the denominator
20:08was how many existed. They didn't know.
20:11You can destroy 95% of what you think,
20:13but if you don't know what you think it
20:15is, you don't know. It's it could be 95%
20:18of what? So, there were mistakes, but
20:21the biggest problem was we had almost
20:24won. And if we had continued and done
20:26what Bill Clinton did and Barack Obama
20:29did, and let's be honest, they hit dual
20:32targets in Serbia. Clinton did. He hit
20:35the bridges on the approaches into
20:37Belgrade. He t knocked out the power
20:40grid.
20:42Um Obama bombed the ports of Kafi's
20:45ports. He hit their t TV and radio
20:48communication. They neither one of them
20:50got congressional authority. But we said
20:53that we're on the side of the Iranian
20:54people. They came out. I think they sort
20:56of gave the impression to Trump that
20:58they were going to overthrow the
20:59government and he would do what Maduro
21:01did. He would just it would be short
21:04what he did with Maduro. And and Iran is
21:07not Venezuela. So it was very difficult
21:09which we weren't apprised of but we we
21:12stopped and then we this is what h it'll
21:15be over pretty soon but we still have 8
21:19months before the midterm. It'll be
21:20over. We're talking we're on the edge of
21:22the deal but we have 7 months. We're
21:24talking we had to hit a target but
21:26otherwise we're talking. We're six
21:28months. We're five months. We're four
21:29months. We're three months. and they got
21:31into a haggling with people who don't
21:34tell the truth and have no intention to
21:36negotiate.
21:38And now they think they're going to
21:39negotiate when these people are
21:41skyhighing
21:42themselves that they stop Trump with the
21:45midterms. The Iranians think that and
21:48they're not going to negotiate. So
21:50you're going to have to hit them very
21:51very hard pickaxe mountain for two or
21:53three weeks. then you're going to have
21:55to just leave and then you're going to
21:58have to fund the opposition and arm them
22:02and forget what Turkey says and clamp
22:05down on these sanctions and keep the
22:07straight up open and let Saudi Arabia
22:12and the Gulf states finish their
22:14pipelines and we've already got as much
22:16oil going out as we did before the war
22:18and he'll be okay. But not if he
22:20continues to negotiate
22:22add infant item. So that's the problem.
22:25It's not the war per se. If he were
22:28successful and they are denuclearized
22:30for many years and in a year or two this
22:34they're stewing in their own juice
22:36because of the sanctions and you have a
22:37rebellion and he flips the Middle East
22:40like he did the Western Hemisphere where
22:42we only have four communist
22:45anti-American states left then that
22:47would be something like the fall of the
22:49Berlin Wall. So it's a lot more um
22:52involved in that. I don't know what JD
22:54means by America first,
22:57but uh
22:59I think we've heard that non-stop and
23:03that's what Trump is trying to do with
23:06the massive 11 trillion foreign
23:08investment, the big Audi plant, Audi
23:10plant that came in. He's trying to
23:12create jobs, jobs. The tariffs are very
23:15controversial, but they are part of the
23:18America first agenda that anybody who
23:23wants to invest in America is
23:24tariff-free and anybody who doesn't gets
23:27slapped with a tariff that is at least
23:29as much as they tariff us and sometimes
23:31even more. [snorts] So, I don't quite
23:34understand that. I don't know what
23:36Israel has to do with it. I saw the SE
23:40commercial
23:44Israel receives about $3 billion a year,
23:48a little over. That's 1% of all foreign
23:50aid. It re we have a $7 trillion budget.
23:56Israel's the amount that we give Israel,
23:58the only democratic consensual society
24:01in the Middle East, the only Western
24:03society,
24:05the amount we give them is 15th of 1% of
24:10the budget. And we were told in Michigan
24:14that the price of bananas and eggs is
24:17because we give 1 of 1% of our 7
24:22trillion to this democracy that's
24:24belleaguered and surrounded by 500
24:26million enemies in the Middle East. And
24:29if JD believes that, I'm afraid I'll
24:30have to disagree with him.
24:33The other thing is
24:35um so I don't I don't think that he's
24:40putting into context the historicity
24:42that we usually lose. The being the end
24:45party usually loses and [snorts]
24:50um they had a congress also that didn't
24:53do it was a do nothing Congress. He had
24:56the majority in the house and senate. He
24:59had a lot of apostates. They did not
25:00pass the voter ID Save America Act. They
25:05couldn't really uh repeal Obamacare and
25:08come up with I don't know anything they
25:10did in the in the first this first two
25:13years the Republican Congress and they
25:16didn't they really didn't do anything
25:18and yet they had the majorities
25:20and they made some good nominations but
25:24even the judicial nominations were
25:26pretty slow the confirmations. So they
25:28just and then when they had they won the
25:30house
25:32uh even during the Biden administration
25:36when they won uh the house all they did
25:38was fight. Remember the speakers it went
25:41on for months. So the Democrats don't do
25:44that. They have absolute authoritarian
25:48control and party line you know as
25:50socialists do. Once they get the prime
25:54directive from on high they all step to
25:56it. We'll see if that goes with the
25:58Islamicist socialist nexus now. But I
26:02don't get that. One thing I think I do
26:04get is that
26:07there's going to be a
26:10fight in the Republican and the
26:12Democratic, but also in the Republican.
26:14So who is the winner of this disaster?
26:18Is it the Marco Rubio people? Is it the
26:21JD Vance people? Is it the Dantis people
26:24say, "Well, Florida is the exception. We
26:26we won the Senate and the governorship.
26:28So that's going to be looming. I will
26:30say that the prime directive of a vice
26:33president besides going to funerals and
26:36rhetorically battling on behalf of the
26:39president, which which JD proved in the
26:422024 he was a master at, but it's also
26:46to protect the president from personal
26:48invective and attack. So when you have
26:51people on the right claiming that he's a
26:55pedophile like Marjorie Taylor Green did
26:58or that he's satanic and should be
27:00impeached and he's a crazy nuclear
27:02bomber like Tucker Carlson did and the
27:05vice president does not stand up and
27:08say, "Wait a minute. This is the my
27:11president. This is the people we
27:13elected. We in the Republican party.
27:15He's not Satan. He's not going to be
27:17impeached. He's not going to bomb
27:19somebody with a new What are you talking
27:20about? He didn't do that for reasons
27:24unknown, especially in the Tucker case,
27:26but I think he's going to have to at
27:28some point.
27:29>> So, I want to talk about your book, The
27:32Counterrevolution, and the subtitle, The
27:35Fall and Rise of Donald Trump. So, we'll
27:36have to kind of expand this a little
27:38bit. So, it's the fall and rise. Is it
27:40the fall or is it the imperial
27:44presidency? And what about how does the
27:46MAGA movement fit in too? Is it the fall
27:49and rise and fall or is it a rise again?
27:52Well, the fall was that those wilderness
27:55years after January 6 and then the rise
27:58started during the campaign and his
28:00election
28:02and
28:04I don't think it's yet a fall as I just
28:06explained at
28:08probably ad nauseium that presidents
28:11like Obama or Clinton or Trump can
28:14really improve their their ratings and
28:16do a lot of good things or a lot of bad
28:18things they can do but the point is they
28:21do things, foreign policy, they get
28:23above the fray, they get empowered, they
28:25they renew their attention, they don't
28:26have to deal with Congress, and he can
28:29do a lot of things.
28:30>> Victor, if I may jump in, right, I think
28:32like the thesis of your book, I I if I
28:35may, right, I think is that
28:37>> Trump's approach has been to try to go
28:40after the sources of this progressive
28:42power, if you will, this time around.
28:45>> Right. Right. Exactly. And the question
28:47is, you know, is he may be able to do
28:50what he wants, but can he actually do
28:51that, right? Is that
28:53>> Well, he can do it. Yes, he's done it,
28:55but he didn't do it, remember, he didn't
28:57do it with congressional approval. Uh,
29:00he went, he defunded PBS and NPR with
29:03all, you know, it was an executive
29:05order. He got rid of USAID with
29:08executive budgetary prerogatives.
29:11He is suing the universities for
29:14anti-semitism and racism and racial
29:18essentialism
29:19as his prerogative in a budgeting
29:21matter. They're not going to get federal
29:23funds if they don't do this. He shut the
29:25border by executive order. He built the
29:27wall by executive order. Continued it.
29:31ICE is operating as part of its normal
29:33function. They all address the sources.
29:36So he said the second time I think
29:38during the wilderness years he said I I
29:40I had never been to Washington much and
29:43I had people in my cabinet the first
29:45time. They were nice people Steve
29:47Minutuchin,
29:49Jim Mattis, Rex Tillerson, John Bolton,
29:52um John Kell, but they weren't MAGA
29:54people. So they saw their duty as to
29:57reinterpret my American first agenda and
30:00that meant often obstructing it with
30:02bureaucrat's expertise.
30:05This time loyalty was the prime
30:07directive. They're all loyal. They're
30:09all on the same page and they're
30:11addressing the symptoms. The symptoms,
30:14as I wrote in the book,
30:17answer the question, how does the left
30:19exercise political power and influence
30:22when they do not have the Supreme Court,
30:23the Congress or the White House as they
30:25didn't as they do not as we speak? And
30:28the answer is kind of a GSKY
30:32socialist communist directive, a march
30:34through the institutions. And they
30:36understood that if you control K through
30:3812 and the schools of education, the
30:41universities where half the population
30:43goes, the media, uh, the public and
30:47private media, NPR, PBS, CBS, ABC, etc.,
30:51Hollywood,
30:53uh, professional sports, the corporate
30:56boardrooms, the foundations,
30:58uh, and of course the administrative
31:00state, then you can exercise enormous
31:03power without being elected. And so
31:06that's what he had tried to address for
31:08all of the controversies of over Doge.
31:10He cut 270,000 federal employees and
31:14probably another 100,000 have left
31:17that nobody thought that would be
31:19possible. He defunded NPR and PBS.
31:22He stopped all immigration. And he went
31:25a step further and he said, "No more
31:27catch and release and I'm going to
31:29deport people and I'm going to round up
31:31500 criminal." And and I thought to
31:32myself, how are you going to deport
31:35people when they were let in at 10,000 a
31:37day and they scattered through 50 states
31:40among 600 sanctuary jurisdictions? So
31:43that was an existential challenge. But
31:46again, he was addressing the symptoms I
31:48don't want in me. I'm going to tax 1% on
31:50remittances sent to Mexico. I'm going to
31:53tax in some cases 1% of the endowment of
31:56universities. So he's trying to tell
31:59tell these countries
32:03uh abroad and interest at home that
32:05there had been existential to use that
32:08word again
32:10uh problems that he had only addressed
32:12the manifestations or the symptoms but
32:15not the causes. And now he's he's going
32:18right after the causes. And so how do
32:21you why is NATO the way it is? Well,
32:25they don't meet their 2%. Why don't they
32:27meet their 2%? Because they've adopted a
32:30green agenda, shut down their fossil
32:32fuels, low fertility, open borders,
32:35illegal immigration, censorship, and
32:38they discourage entrepreneurialism. So
32:40let's scream and yell at them and shake
32:43them up and see if we can get
32:45conservative movements all over Europe
32:48so that they can be a partner rather
32:50than a [clears throat] subordinate and
32:51they can rearm themselves kind of like
32:54Eastern Europe or the Baltic states or
32:56Norway or some Sweden and Denmark,
32:58Finland especially.
33:00And he's trying to do that across the
33:02board. And I think that explains a level
33:04of fur because the left has said to
33:07themselves, this is not George W. Bush.
33:11It's not George HW Bush. It's not Bob
33:13Dole. It's not John McCain. It's not
33:16Mitt Romney. This is a
33:17counterrevolutionary and he wants to
33:19undo our sources of power.
33:23>> So we have a situation I think from what
33:26I'm seeing that there's like a split in
33:28terms of trying to impeach. I'm talking
33:29about this furer, right? Um, in a sense,
33:33if I heard you correctly earlier, the
33:35smartest thing you think the Democrats
33:37could do is actually just have restraint
33:39and govern without the giving strength
33:42to the bombthrowers, so to speak, and so
33:44forth. And but what does governance look
33:48like with uh this from the perspective
33:52of Congress? Like there's, you know,
33:53I've signed notes about subpoenas. Get
33:56ready for the subpoenas. Apparently,
33:58there's going to be uh tech bros called
34:00in in significant numbers. I mean, this
34:02is of course I'm just reading what's on
34:05mostly,
34:05>> right? Right.
34:06>> So all if they would read the first half
34:09of the counterrevolution they would see
34:11that each time they entered upon a civil
34:16or criminal suit five of them Eene
34:19Carol's diabol diabol diabolical effort
34:24Alvin Bragg Leticia Leticia James Fanny
34:27Willis Jack Smith his Trump's polls went
34:30up and they all collapsed. Even Alvin
34:33Braggs will eventually collapse. And
34:36then when they tried to get him off the
34:37ballot 25, that was a collapse. When
34:40they raided Marlago, they found I I
34:42guess
34:44101 classified documents. They said
34:46there was a whole trove out of 11,000.
34:49That was a mess. Uh when they impeached
34:51him twice and tried to uh convict him as
34:54a private citizen, it only helped him.
34:58When Joe Biden said he was garbage, he
35:00got in a garbage truck and that
35:02backfired. So they should, they should
35:04go back and say, "Did the Russian
35:06collusion get Donald Trump elected?"
35:08Maybe it did. Did the laptop lies that
35:11it was Russian collusion? We got Biden
35:13maybe elected by it, but did that hurt
35:15us? Yes. And so if they want to continue
35:19to do that, they will have Trump's mugsh
35:23shot everywhere and he will rebound from
35:26it. It's counterproductive if they go
35:28back to the 3070 issues that put them in
35:32the wilderness and put Camela Harris,
35:36you know, made her inert. And that we
35:39know what they are. They're the trans
35:40issue. They're the open border issue.
35:42They're the 10,000 a day illegal
35:44immigrants. They're the defund the
35:46police, defund ICE, new green deal, stop
35:49fossil fuels,
35:51uh neutral uh in the world, uh
35:54globalism. it's not going to work. But
35:57what I meant if they were sober, they
36:00would get together and say, "What
36:03what is our problem right now? Can we
36:06have a nonpartisan
36:08effort with
36:11congressmen and senators from both sides
36:12to address the
36:15um $3 billion a day interest on the
36:19national debt? The national debt is
36:22unsustainable. Can we both work at this
36:24the way Clinton and Genrich did? It
36:27helped both of them. That was that would
36:30be something they can do. Can they get
36:32together and say the world is changing
36:35and Ukraine is producing a million
36:38drones a a year? Tiny little Ukraine.
36:42We're only doing 300. We're doing
36:44something wrong with these $180 million
36:47airplanes and 14 billion carriers. Can
36:50we have decentralized suppliers that can
36:54do things in mass like we did in World
36:56War II? There's a lot of things they
36:57could do together. Are they going to do
36:59it? I don't think so because they're
37:01ideologues and they're socialist and
37:05they have an agenda that they feel
37:08they're morally superior and their ends
37:11justify any means necessary to get
37:13there. And anybody, the way that
37:15socialist revolutions work is that
37:17anybody who objects becomes a
37:21counterrevolutionary or a traitor. So
37:23they always get further and further to
37:24the left. Whether in 1848 or the French
37:27Revolution or the Boleviks, they devour
37:29their own. They create a system and then
37:31it implodes because it doesn't work. But
37:33it does a lot of damage, a lot of damage
37:37until it implodes.
37:39and they're capable of doing a lot of
37:41damage if
37:43it's they're not going to the
37:44Republicans are not going to get back
37:46the House and Senate in the next
37:48election with these huge leads. It's
37:50going to take them two or three
37:51elections. They did last time
37:54and the next president will be I think
37:57from the left of the Democratic party
37:59their nominee. If that president should
38:02win with this Congress
38:05and you can see what 2029 is going to be
38:07like. It's going to be packed the court,
38:10let in new two new states. The
38:14filibuster will be gone in January, I
38:16imagine, 200 years old. They'll get rid
38:18of that. They'll pack the court with 15
38:21liberal judges. They'll probably defund
38:24ICE. They'll restore US aid on steroids
38:28and make sure it's bulletproof this time
38:31around and giving left-wing governments
38:34abroad help. It'll be it'll be pretty
38:37bad. and they'll have the power to do it
38:39unless the Republicans can get their act
38:42together and Trump can really have a
38:45some big foreign policy successes and
38:48use his executive orders and veto to to
38:51styy them and work with them on
38:53bipartisan issues that Americans care
38:55about.
38:57That's the way to to handle it. But I
39:00mean they hadn't even the the
39:02[clears throat] polls weren't even
39:03closed and Robert Garcia was saying
39:06subpoenas and Jeremy Rascin was saying
39:10Lawfair and they're already talking
39:13about bringing CEOs in. [sighs]
39:16And Slotkin was saying they're going to
39:18go after young any young person that
39:20works for Trump and uh if they do that
39:24they're going to divide the country like
39:25you've never seen it. And the country
39:28for all of these back and forth midterms
39:30is still 55% conservative.
39:34And you you can see that even in these
39:38states that voted for to not allow
39:40biological males to go compete in
39:43women's sports. Some of them were
39:44left-wing states. So
39:48um
39:50that's what we're looking at. And I
39:52think history is a pretty good guide to
39:54what we can expect.
39:55One thing that I noticed looking at
39:59how people voted, right, and looking at
40:01the age differentials was that young
40:04people basically overwhelmingly voted
40:08blue. I mean, it's I forget the number
40:10right now, but a very significant
40:11number. You were mentioning, you know,
40:13how powerful it is when you have so much
40:16influence on the educational system, for
40:18example, and how people are taught. And
40:20so, that's not something that's going to
40:23change election to election. I at least
40:25that's what I'm thinking when I see that
40:28>> it's not and this is the first
40:32administration that realize the problem
40:34that half the country is going to
40:38college and there's a matrix operating
40:41that insurers are leftwing not just
40:43leftwing but downwardly mobile and angry
40:47and that is a $1.7 trillion
40:52student loan 33% of it is in their ears
40:56coupled with therapeutic education where
40:59these kids are not I mean we have a
41:01whole generation now for four years that
41:03went it was admitted without a SAT score
41:07these students are not wellprepared
41:09they're not well trained they're
41:11indoctrinated
41:12and they leave with debt and they leave
41:15with non-marketable
41:17in many cases majors a sociology degree
41:20a psych degree a studies degree ethnic
41:22studies black studies environmental
41:24studies, peace studies,
41:27and then they move and gravitate as they
41:30from these universities into urban
41:32left-wing enclaves, you know, Boulder,
41:35Austin, Washington, New York, Boston,
41:40uh, San Francisco, LA, Seattle,
41:43Portland, and they're very expensive
41:45blue cities, blue places. They don't
41:47work.
41:48and they rub shoulders with wealthy
41:50people, you know, Wall Street doctors,
41:52and they say, "You know what? I've got a
41:54BA from Williams. Oh, I I've got a a BA
41:58from Grenell, and I owe $200,000, and
42:01I'm working for an NGO or I'm a uh an um
42:06a beginning editor at Alfred Canop in
42:08New York, and I'm making $60,000 and
42:10rents $60,000."
42:12So, the whole system is rotten. Nobody
42:14appreciates my genius, my effort, my
42:17degree. And that's the 85% of white
42:20college degree socialists, the official
42:22membership of the DSA.
42:25And so I think people on the right
42:28understood that and they said,
42:31um, you universities are not going to
42:34segregate by what you call adjacent
42:37graduations or what you call theme
42:39houses. You're not going to overcharge
42:43us 40% on federal grants. It's going to
42:46go back to 15. We're looking very
42:49seriously at taxing your endowments or
42:51making your endowments guarantee the
42:53student loans so you have moral hazard.
42:56We're thinking of getting out of the
42:58student loan business. But more
43:00importantly, we're telling people that
43:03the college degree is no longer
43:05prestigious if it doesn't produce the
43:08results that it had once ensured was
43:10worth the effort and expense and time.
43:12So half the country we need electricians
43:16and sheetrockers and carpenters and
43:19plumbers and carpent all these people
43:23and they're noble professions and the
43:25result of that it's been quite
43:26spectacular in its infancy even that you
43:28look at the polls 65% 5 years ago said
43:32they had a high reputation they had a
43:34high regard for the reputation of higher
43:37education that's down to 33%
43:41people said, "Do you think that a
43:43college degree is essential for upward
43:46mobility?" That's down to about 45%.
43:49So, the public is starting to get the
43:51message that these universities turn out
43:53people who are not analytical. They're
43:56not uh equipped orally or in writing to
44:01express themselves clearly. They have no
44:03mathematical skills. And these brands
44:06don't mean anything. I have a BA from
44:09Cal State Northridge. I have a a degree
44:12in psychology from Stanford. 80% of the
44:15grades at Stanford are A. There hasn't
44:17been an SAT for four years until last
44:20year. 8% of 9% of the incoming class
44:23were white males. 9% of a demographic
44:26that's 33 to 40% 35% of the population.
44:31And then Victor, on the other side of
44:34that, you have what you describe to be
44:36one of the big dangers from what I can
44:39tell in the counter revolution, which is
44:41this lost generation, the disillusioned
44:44young white males, so to speak. And
44:47you're describing this scenario where
44:49you could even have further
44:51polarization. And I've been arguing that
44:53the technology, the social media juiced
44:56up by AI lends itself to that anyway.
44:59But now you have these political forces
45:02at play that are creating that. It just
45:04creates a
45:06something very volatile that looks to me
45:09very forboding.
45:11>> It does. The
45:14when globalization came upon us at the
45:17millennium,
45:19there was a $6 billion
45:22uh 6 billion person clientele for the
45:25first time and there was six billion
45:29uh consumer class and the people who
45:32could take advantage of that were
45:35largely on the west and east coast.
45:37That's where the banks were. That's
45:38where the big corporate CEOs were.
45:41That's where for the most part the
45:43universities were
45:45and certain people that were in the
45:47media, in sports, entertainment,
45:51law, but especially in investment
45:54stocks, they made a killing.
45:57And I, you know, I tech espe I I had
46:00people that I knew very well at Stanford
46:03as students five years ago and they're
46:04making four or $500,000 in Silicon
46:07Valley.
46:09And the people in the middle, the
46:11so-called irredeemables, deplorables,
46:14chumps, drags, um hobbits, crazies,
46:17garbage, these are all terms that um
46:20Obama, Clinton, clingers, um for Obama
46:25and Biden used. They were outsourced or
46:28offshored. So they they missed out on
46:30that. That was what the MAGA movement
46:32grew up out of that that anger and it
46:36was very successful in addressing it for
46:38four years and for the first two years.
46:41But and I think that's what JD means
46:44when he says we didn't put America
46:46first. what he's talking about is the
46:48lost generation that you mentioned in
46:50the middle of the country or in you know
46:52upstate or New York or the Sanwalkian
46:55Valley of California or eastern
46:57Washington and Oregon
46:59and uh
47:02it's they've been lost out. They they
47:05grew up in an era where they were 60 50
47:11years from the civil rights movement.
47:13All they knew was affirmative action and
47:16racial set aides. They had no role in
47:19Jim Crow, much less six generations of
47:21slavery. They didn't really understand
47:25uh the civil rights movement because it
47:27was so ancient. All they knew is that
47:29when they applied to school or they went
47:32to college or they were out in the
47:34public space, they were told they had
47:36toxic masculinity
47:39um by feminist, that they were racist,
47:41sexist, xenophobes, etc., etc.
47:45And um the irony was if you look at
47:49where they ended up as per capita income
47:52and opportunities, they would be
47:55classified as
47:57as um underprivileged. And
48:01there was no such thing in this leftist
48:04collective as a as whites. These people
48:07had less common commonality with white
48:09elites on the coast than they did with a
48:13Mexican truck driver or a black
48:15electrician that worked alongside them.
48:18And that's what Trump tried to do. I
48:19don't know if it's going to succeed or
48:20not. He tried to create a class
48:24solidarity rather than a racial
48:26solidarity. And it worked in 2024. It
48:28apparently fell apart in this latest
48:31election.
48:32But um this class was also despised. If
48:38you want to get a left-wing DEI person
48:41or liberal person infuriated,
48:44then mention the lower white working
48:46class. They are despised by those
48:48people. They lack the romance of the
48:50poor and the culture of the aristocracy.
48:53So,
48:55um, that's what the left, that's really
48:57the enemy. When we had that toxic flume
49:01in East Palestine, you could see that no
49:03one from the administration wanted to
49:05set foot there. Finally, Pete Budd
49:07looked like he was in outer space alien
49:09when he came there. He was so out of
49:11place and so was all of them. But the
49:14these were people they had written off.
49:15If that had been any other community, it
49:17would have been on the front page of the
49:19New York Times as a as a environmental
49:23catastrophe aimed at a poor
49:25underprivileged community.
49:28And I'm kind of afraid of the midterms
49:29because I thought we were over that DEI,
49:33racial essentialism. And all I all I
49:35heard on every station last night was
49:40first Indian uh Native American, first
49:42gay person, first woman governor, first
49:45this, first this. Not what their ideas
49:47were or anything. They were all part of
49:49a collective, not an individual with
49:51unique characteristics.
49:54So
49:55winter has come or as [laughter] they
49:57said winter is coming and it's going to
49:59be a rough two years but it's survivable
50:02if the Republicans can stick together
50:05and prevent a veto I mean a veto proof
50:08Congress and Trump can keep his eye on
50:12the ball and foreign policy and follow
50:14the model of the earlier presidents that
50:16were very successful after losing the
50:19Congress
50:21and but there is no margin of error Wow.
50:24You know, you can't
50:26you can't get in a spat with Bill Maher.
50:29It's not worth it. You can't do things
50:30like that. It's just too too many people
50:34depend on you.
50:37And we're going to there's going to be a
50:38lot of fights ahead in the MAGA
50:40movement. I think the one thing that
50:42people a agree on, we're not going to go
50:44back to we've got to cut the privatize
50:48social security or cut the capital
50:50gains. the Bush, you know, do McCain
50:54Romney uh agenda. I don't think we're
50:57going to go back to that. It's just that
51:00the mega movement is going to have to
51:01refine some of its positions, but I
51:04think it still represents the majority
51:06of middle class conservatives.
51:10And so, Victor, as we finish up, right,
51:13this is the thing that I don't know the
51:16answer to at all or I don't have a sense
51:18and I want to just start that
51:20conversation maybe in a final moment
51:22here, but but this the the the
51:25polarization seems to be a feature of
51:28how this political system functions
51:30increasingly
51:32and the outcome logical outcome of that
51:36is something really bad I think. So
51:41where is there a way out?
51:43>> There is, but it has to be kind of a
51:45moral way out. So
51:48because the country is really in danger.
51:51Everybody according to a station has to
51:54step up. I know I do four podcasts a
51:57week
51:59and from the very outset I said there's
52:01not going to be any guest or any host
52:03that says the f word or the shiit word
52:06or go after somebody. That's all I hear
52:08on podcasts now. And we're not going to
52:11do that. And we're going to treat people
52:14that we interview and disagree with with
52:17dignity. And we're not going to, you
52:19know, we're going to be tough and
52:20critical as I have been right now. But
52:23I'm not going to
52:25say that Tucker Carlson is insane and
52:28he's a crazy race white national. I
52:30don't know that. I think he's said and
52:32done things that are very disturbing,
52:34but I'm not going to go after him
52:36personally. I will say though that when
52:40I look at the most egregious examples,
52:43who are the people out on the street
52:46attacking
52:48officers,
52:50who are wearing Charlie Kirk t-shirts
52:53with blood on it, who was giving a talk
52:55about we're going to celebrate the
52:57Kirkversary.
52:59um who
53:02is engaging in violence on campus
53:04against Jews.
53:06It's coming from the left. And
53:10um I don't see people on the left
53:14encouraging them to stop. I don't.
53:18And I think a lot of people on the right
53:21have said that
53:26um a Candace Owens or someone like that
53:28or
53:30a Nick Fuentes is over has gone out of
53:33bound and they have been criticized and
53:35they said that's not that's not helpful
53:37what you're doing and that's not that's
53:40not part of the mega movement. But I
53:42don't see that self-correction on the
53:44left. And it you can't fight it by go
53:46using their methods. You have to elevate
53:49it. Elevate it and not be like them to
53:51appeal to the better angels of the
53:53American people's natures. But it
53:56doesn't do any good either to say we've
53:58got to tone it down. We've got to tone
54:00it down. Are there people on the right
54:02that are too loud and too vulgar? Yes.
54:05But is the hate, the real hate,
54:09the idolizing a murder like Manioni
54:14or glorifying in the wound of Charlie K?
54:17Is that have a comp a comparable side?
54:19Are there has there been four
54:21assassination attempts against the
54:23majority the Hikim Jeff or
54:28Camela Harris as there had by Trump? I
54:31don't think it's symmetric. I really
54:32don't. It doesn't serve any purpose to
54:34pretend that it is. And the only way
54:37that that's going to be refle reflected
54:39is you have to defeat them at the polls.
54:42And you have to have better ideas and
54:44galvanize and get your the traditional
54:48make the argument that America was good
54:50at its founding. It got better in its
54:52maturity and it's got a great future and
54:55it's far better than the alternative.
54:58Doesn't have to be perfect to be good.
55:00and then say, "We on this side have
55:02certain rules of decorum
55:05and tradition that we're not going to
55:07violate for expedient purposes." And
55:11then win that argument and vote them
55:12out. And it can happen, but we're seeing
55:17something that is historical. We have
55:20never seen this before, this radicalism.
55:23And I think part of it is we have 55
55:27million people who were not born in the
55:28United States which can be very good
55:31talent diversity. I am all for it and
55:3417% of the population. But if you have a
55:38salad bowl environment or you say the
55:40melting pot is p or you don't really
55:44think that everybody should be
55:46essentially their ethnic tribe and not
55:48American which the left says and you're
55:51going to be dei di and you're going to
55:54bring back a pre-ivilizational tribalism
55:58and fragment this then it's not going to
56:00work. It's not going to work. you're
56:03going to have too many people who are
56:05not on the same page and you know
56:09they're going when you have people at
56:10Colombia and they're waving Hezbollah
56:12flags and they're saying to Jewish
56:14student go back to Poland which they
56:17mean Trebinka the German camps that were
56:20stationed in Poland during World War II
56:22then and nobody's speaking about it and
56:25the college president is terrified of
56:26her own students
56:29as we see in Colombia and Harvard
56:33then it's not symmetrical, but it
56:36doesn't mean that you have to adopt
56:38those tactics. You have to be better
56:39than they are in your discourse and your
56:41analysis. And I understand sometimes
56:44Trump can be crude. And I in the book I
56:48I said things like
56:50not saying speaking ill of Rob Reiner's
56:53death, who was kind of obnoxious at
56:55times and personally unfair to Trump and
56:58called him names. But nevertheless, you
57:00don't you don't attack somebody who's
57:02just dead, just died tragically by his
57:05own son's hand. So
57:09I I uh I think everybody's got it. I
57:12think people on the right are are seeing
57:14that much more and they're they are
57:16policing the people who are conspiracy
57:19theorists and really out there much
57:21better than um than the left is. The
57:25left is being carried along by those
57:27people.
57:29And um and we saw that in the campaign
57:33when Mandami says, "I'm going to go
57:34after richer, whiter neighborhoods."
57:36What did that mean? Was that empirical?
57:39The most affluent ethnic minority in the
57:42United States are Indian-American
57:44immigrants. He's an Indian-American
57:46immigrant. Did he say, "I'm going to go
57:47after Indian-American immigrant
57:49communities because they're the
57:50wealthiest?" No. He said, "I'm going to
57:52go after richer and whiter." Does that
57:54mean some plumber that works in the
57:56Bronx? I don't know. it. And when you
58:00have a synagogue attacked by a brother,
58:04a terrorist whose two brothers were in
58:06Hezbollah, a designated terrorist
58:08organization in Michigan, and you have
58:10the next senator saying, "Hurt people,
58:13hurt people,
58:15justifying that.
58:18Who hurt that man? He came from Lebanon.
58:20We gave him the most magnanimous
58:22reception. He became a US citizen with
58:25all the the bounty and privileges of
58:29being American and he pays back us the
58:31host by driving a car and trying to kill
58:33innocent Jews. And then the next US
58:36senator says, "Hurt people. Hurt
58:38people." Hurt people meaning he had two
58:41brothers that were working for Hezbollah
58:43on a high level organizing rocket
58:45attacks at civilians and the Israelis
58:48retaliated and killed them. Therefore,
58:50he has legitimate hurts cuz his brothers
58:52were in a war were warriors in a war and
58:55lost. And therefore, he has a right to
58:58go in there and kill Jews. That's what
59:00it boils down to. Nobody said a word
59:03about it much.
59:05So, I think it's coming from the left. I
59:08agree. People have to be more
59:10considerate. And it won't do any good to
59:12tell the left to be more considerate
59:14because they won't. You have to be
59:16considerate on our side and temperant in
59:20what we say and do. And then you have to
59:23win a a decisive vote to show the
59:26country that that model is not
59:28acceptable. That's how our system works.
59:32>> I mean, essentially, you're doubling
59:34down on America. That's what I'm
59:36hearing.
59:36>> I am. I uh Ronald Reagan was written off
59:41when I was in California as a young man
59:43here at this house as a complete nut.
59:46They made fun of him at Woodstock and
59:47everything.
59:49And when he ran for president, they said
59:51he was an extremist, but he was smiling.
59:53He was kind to people. He reached out to
59:55Tip O'Neal and he basically stopped the
59:5960s7s cultural revolution himself for 15
1:00:0420 years. He did that and
1:00:08Donald Trump had a very different
1:00:10approach. It was much more
1:00:11confrontational. But this he did stop
1:00:16what would have been uh I think eight
1:00:19more years of that and that I don't know
1:00:21what we would have done. And uh I'm very
1:00:25optimistic because I'll just finish by
1:00:28saying
1:00:30when I look at I don't listen to people.
1:00:32I just ask myself what is the inflation
1:00:35rate? What is the GDP? What is the
1:00:37foreign investment? What's the poverty
1:00:39rate? What is the median income? What's
1:00:42the stock market? What's the job growth?
1:00:46Unemployment, labor. It's all good. It's
1:00:49getting really good.
1:00:52Gas is the only real that's the tessera
1:00:54that's missing out of this mosaic. And I
1:00:56think there's a really good chance with
1:00:58this record foreign investment and the
1:01:00new technologies like AI and stuff,
1:01:02you're going to have a real boom in the
1:01:05first and second quarter next year. And
1:01:07it's I think we're almost on the verge
1:01:08of it now. And that's going to really
1:01:11change things. I think it'll give people
1:01:13a lot more economic opportunity. And if
1:01:16the president can work with the Congress
1:01:17about affordability of housing, maybe
1:01:20gets rid of some of the regulations and
1:01:22zoning restrictions and let people build
1:01:24homes for that are affordable. I think
1:01:27it it could really work out well.
1:01:30So, I'm I'm optimistic, but I'm I'm also
1:01:33worried that this is not Bill Clinton's
1:01:35Democratic party. This is not Mark Penn
1:01:39and um Doug Shoen, you know,
1:01:42[clears throat] writing the Democratic
1:01:43convention agenda for 1992 and 96. I
1:01:48went and read it the other day. It
1:01:49sounded [gasps]
1:01:51like a fossil. You know, we're going to
1:01:53balance the budget. We're going to try
1:01:54violent offenders who are 17 as adults.
1:01:57We're going to close the border. We're
1:01:58going to deport people that are here
1:02:00illegally and taking advantage of our
1:02:02system. We're going to put 100,000 cops
1:02:04on the beat. That's what it was.
1:02:08And the the right thought that was
1:02:10leftwing.
1:02:12Today the left wing would say that was
1:02:14rightwing.
1:02:16Don't you think?
1:02:17>> Yeah.
1:02:19Well, Victor Davis Hansen, it's such a
1:02:22pleasure to have had you on.
1:02:24>> Well, thank you for having me. I
1:02:25appreciate it.
1:02:27>> Thank you all for joining Victor Davis
1:02:28Hansen and me on this episode of
1:02:30American Thought Leaders. I'm your host,
1:02:31Ya Kellik.

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