The Erick Erickson Show

Erick Erickson breaks down why Republican strategists are in full meltdown mode two weeks before the midterms after the New York Times/Siena College poll showed Democrats up 11 on the generic ballot, and why he thinks the polling, including the fake Wedgwood numbers, overstates the Democrats in key Senate races from Texas and Ohio to Iowa and Alaska. Then he rips Vivek Ramaswamy for doubling down on an ad aimed at Ohio Democrat Amy Acton's family, and ties it all to Trump's $5,000 payout pitch, his Putin and Ukraine moves, and the TikTok problem he says the president created. New York Times/Siena College poll, Democrats +11 on the generic congressional ballot, and why Erick thinks Republicans are overreacting Wedgwood Polls admits posting fake data; why the RealClearPolitics average and swing-state polling matter more than national polls Senate races: Ken Paxton vs. James Talarico in Texas, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Roy Cooper, Jon Ossoff, Susan Collins, and Mary Peltola Vivek Ramaswamy doubles down on the Amy Acton ad in the Ohio governor race while JD Vance tells Republicans to stop whining Trump's $5,000 payout pitch, the Putin and Zelensky land-for-peace news, Christianity Today's Elisabeth Elliot article, and TikTok's grip on young voters

Erick Erickson reacts to Volodymyr Zelensky telling Fox News he will accept a ceasefire that freezes the lines in Ukraine, while the White House, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and Elon Musk each give a different story about why Starshield and Starlink service went down. Erick then takes calls on JD Vance's post-liberal worldview of American decline and spheres of influence with Russia and China, argues that decline is a choice, and previews the feds' DNA evidence hunt in the Ilhan Omar investigation. Zelensky tells Brian Kilmeade on Fox News he will freeze the front lines for a ceasefire and security guarantees, as Steve Witkoff meets Vladimir Putin in Moscow Starshield and Starlink Ukraine shutdown: conflicting explanations from Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, the White House, and Elon Musk, plus the European contract fallout JD Vance's Western Hemisphere, spheres of influence worldview versus the Trump and Marco Rubio view, with Ohio's Ukrainian immigrant vote, Max Miller, and Tucker Carlson in the mix Caller debates on Putin, Xi Jinping, and the global order, and why Erick says the dollar, the American banking system, and the rule of law make decline a choice, with Wired's Americans who fled to Europe story Elena Kagan's Catholic University remarks versus the New York Times coverage, Democrats like James Talarico backing Supreme Court expansion, and a teaser on the Ilhan Omar DNA evidence probe

Erick Erickson, broadcasting from Louisiana, digs into the FBI's dumpster dive for DNA evidence in the Ilhan Omar investigation, Senator Elissa Slotkin's walkback of her comments about prosecuting Trump allies, and why he says corruption must be prosecuted on both sides, including the Trump family, Steve Witkoff, and Howard Lutnick. He also pitches a constitutional fix that suspends the presidential pardon power every October of an election year. Then he explains why young men are getting black pilled, from the Bloomberg story and the Cornell case to Nick Fuentes, Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories, C.S. Lewis, and the church's failure to mentor. Ilhan Omar investigation: the FBI dumpster dive for DNA evidence, the long-running marriage and birth date allegations, and why Erick says Democrats can't circle the wagons and still demand corruption probes of Republicans Elissa Slotkin's walkback of her comments on prosecuting Trump allies, and Erick's call for evenhanded corruption prosecutions covering Trump family deals, Witkoff, Lutnick, the Biden crime family, Hunter Biden, and Anthony Fauci Erick's pardon reform proposal: suspend the presidential pardon and clemency power from October 1 to January 21 of an election year, or require two-thirds of Congress, to stop blanket pardons for friends and family Black pilled young men: the Bloomberg story, the Cornell case, Nick Fuentes, AIPAC and Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories, and why Erick says churches must mentor young men instead of going political Louisiana color: Rouses Market, Natchitoches meat pies, Community Coffee, and a campaign yard sign tip from the Felicianas, plus early voting data and the GOP midterm blame game ahead of Hegseth impeachment talk from Thomas Massie

Two weeks before the midterms, Erick Erickson sizes up the Senate map: Abdul El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood baggage and shrinking lead over Mike Rogers in Michigan, Angie Nixon's police abolitionist closing argument against Ashley Moody in Florida, and why early voting numbers in Georgia, Texas, and Florida cannot be read yet. Then Republicans from Ashley Hinson in Iowa to Mike Rogers break with Donald Trump over Ukraine, the Starlink cutoff, and withheld Patriot missiles, while Kevin Hassett and Steve Moore defend an economy where wages still trail inflation. Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan: Muslim Student Association ties, Muslim Brotherhood questions, his Israel and Iran answers, and Mike Rogers gaining with Black and Jewish voters Angie Nixon in the Florida Senate race: police and prison abolition, calls to jail Senator Ashley Moody, David Jolly, and Democrats shifting money to Texas Midterm outlook: Erick expects Republicans to lose the House but hold the Senate, with Roger Marshall, Darlene Graham, Ashley Hinson, Dan Sullivan, and Ken Paxton; why early voting data and Patrick Ruffini's polling warnings matter Trump and Ukraine: Starlink access cut, Patriot missile blueprints withheld, Marco Rubio and Zelensky, and GOP dissent from Hinson, Kevin Cramer, Max Miller, and Mike Rogers Affordability and the economy: Kevin Hassett and Steve Moore on real wages versus inflation, plus the Georgia ballot (Rick Jackson, constitutional amendments), the new voter guide, and campus deplatforming

Erick Erickson blasts Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign for an Ohio governor race ad that puts Amy Acton's estranged mother on camera, calls it a sign of a campaign in a bunker, and argues the White House paid for short-circuiting primaries in Ohio and North Carolina with Michael Whatley. Erick also takes on the Wired story of left-leaning Americans regretting their moves to the UK, Germany, and Poland, plus Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia and the Fox News look at who is really behind the French protests. Ohio governor race: Vivek Ramaswamy's ad featuring Amy Acton's mother, why Erick says someone on the campaign must be fired today, and what it means for John Husted and Sherrod Brown Primaries matter: Donald Trump's picks Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio and Michael Whatley in North Carolina, Roy Cooper's likely flip, and a defense of Ken Paxton in Texas Americans who fled Trump's America for the UK, Germany, and Poland come home with buyer's remorse, per Wired, and why the U.S. still beats Europe on income and opportunity Georgia: Jon Ossoff's life expectancy claim versus Lebanon, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Medicaid expansion, and Rick Jackson as the health care businessman in the governor's race France protests and the Omni Cause: Fox News counted 50 groups behind the movement, Abby Phillips and CNN's Struggle Session, plus the down ballot case for school boards, sheriffs, and district attorneys, and the midterm voter guide

Erick Erickson makes the case that district attorneys, sheriffs, school boards, and city councils shape your daily life more than Washington does, with Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner, referred to a grand jury, and George Soros backed progressive prosecutors as exhibit A. Erick also takes on the Cornell fraternity case, arguing that the Judeo-Christian moral ethic, chivalry, and self-control got tossed out long before anyone got hurt. He closes from his family's farm in Louisiana, with prayers for a family land sale. Larry Krasner and the Philadelphia grand jury referral, plus Descano in Northern Virginia and the Soros playbook of quietly flipping district attorney races Vote all the way down the ballot: DAs, sheriffs, school boards, county commissions, property taxes, and why skipping down ballot races is on the voter Georgia ballot advice: Erick votes yes on the constitutional amendments, votes straight Republican, still has reservations about Mike Collins, and says a blank vote is still a message; text DATA to 33777 for the voter guide The Cornell fraternity case: "her body, her choice" texts, ketamine and alcohol, an anti Greek life media bias, and the case for chivalry and a Judeo-Christian sexual ethic Home in Louisiana: selling his grandfather's 200 acre farm near Jackson, handling his parents' finances, live oaks, fried catfish, and gumbo in St. Francisville

Broadcasting live from St. Francisville, Louisiana, Erick Erickson opens with a CNN clash between Scott Jennings and Ashley Allison over Islamophobia and AIPAC, then connects Abdul El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood to the French riots, the Palestinian flag as the new "omni cause" banner, and the red-green alliance of the secular left and Islamists. Then he turns to the midterms: a nine point Democratic generic ballot, Trump underwater on inflation, diesel at a record October price, and Matthew McConaughey's pitch for independents, plus Erick's theory that the president may want Democrats to win so he has someone to run against. Scott Jennings vs. Ashley Allison on CNN: Islamophobia, AIPAC, and Erick on Abdul El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood ties The "omni cause": Palestinian flags across France, Italy and Brussels, Greta Thunberg, Michael Youssef's The Unholy Alliance, Khomeini, Andy Young and Qatar's money Midterm warning signs: Democrats up nine on the generic ballot, Trump's inflation approval, diesel at $6.20, and traditional Republicans overtaking MAGA Republicans Candidate quality problem: Ken Paxton over John Cornyn in Texas, Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio, Michael Whatley in North Carolina, and Max Miller breaking with Trump on Russia sanctions Matthew McConaughey's independent pitch, why 7% of voters decide most House seats in primaries, and a team retreat at Barnsley Resort

Erick Erickson says the Omni Cause has come for CBS News after Bari Weiss pushed reporters to dig into Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and his family's Muslim Brotherhood ties, and he plays Joy Reid and Hasan Piker as the perfect example of secular progressives and Islamists believing they are on the same team. He then breaks down the federal search of Ilhan Omar's home, the New York Times report on her sister's phone, and why an Obama-appointed judge signing off on the warrant matters in a possible immigration fraud and denaturalization case. Erick also shares a personal word on Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts going on injured reserve with a blood clot, and his own two scares with clots in his lungs. The Omni Cause and CBS News: Bari Weiss, David Ellison, Paramount, Warner Brothers, and the backlash against a heterodox editor-in-chief, plus Mark Zuckerberg and Meta and the left's grudge against any media it does not control Abdul El-Sayed and the Muslim Brotherhood: Michigan Senate race, his sister's tweet, the Islamic American Relief Agency, the 1991 Brotherhood memo, the Muslim Student Association at the University of Michigan, and Erick's "sleeper cell of one" warning Joy Reid and Hasan Piker on capitalism, white men, and Gaza, and Erick on why secular progressives are the useful idiots of the Islamists Ilhan Omar investigation: DNA from her trash, her sister Sara Noor's phone, Tom Homan on Fox News, Markwayne Mullin and denaturalization, and the vindictive prosecution argument from Elie Honig on CNN Jalen Hurts on injured reserve with a blood clot, Philadelphia Eagles, and Erick's own story as a blood clot survivor on blood thinners for life, plus a quick golf report from the Barnsley Resort retreat

Broadcasting from St. Francisville, Louisiana, Erick Erickson takes on President Trump's $27 billion in government equity stakes across 30 companies, including a nearly 10% stake in Intel, and warns that the precedent, plus a corruption problem that is now the number two issue for voters, opens the door to Zohran Mamdani style socialists and the next Democratic administration. He also breaks down Trump's sanctions waiver on Russian diesel, the Starshield cutoff for Ukraine, and the rumored Iran peace deal, with Republican pushback from Kevin Cramer and Mike Rogers. Then the Supreme Court takes up the 160-year-old federal ban on home distilling in Department of Justice v. McNutt. Government equity stakes and the corruption precedent: Trump's roughly $27 billion in stakes across 30 companies, Intel, the U.S. Steel golden share, the Qatar jet, Trump family crypto, and Erick's warning that Democrats will use the same playbook for ESG and DEI Russia, Ukraine and diesel: Trump's sanctions waiver on Russian diesel, Chris Wright and Scott Bessent defending it, Starshield and Patriot interceptors for Ukraine, and Senators Kevin Cramer and Dave McCormick plus Mike Rogers on Iran and Russia Midterm barnstorming: Trump rallies in Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa and Michigan, Barack Obama campaigning with Abdul El-Sayed and for Jon Ossoff in Atlanta, and Scott Jennings on corruption and Minnesota Democrats Supreme Court home distilling case: Department of Justice v. McNutt, the Fifth Circuit ruling against the 1868 ban, the Necessary and Proper Clause, and the federal excise tax on alcohol The viral Italian priest and falling crucifix video, why Erick is glad the president changed his mind on sharing it, plus bank debanking and Old Glory Bank

Breaking news out of the gate: President Trump cancels the livestream of Nidal Hasan's execution, and Erick explains why turning an execution into content and memes would have been a mistake. Then the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency releases a sweeping report finding that all nine of the largest U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, used vague reputational risk policies to debank conservatives, gun sellers, oil companies and some progressive groups. Plus Jake Tapper and CNN take the Ilhan Omar search warrant seriously, and Abdul El-Sayed gets combative with NBC over his family's Muslim Brotherhood ties. Trump cancels the Nidal Hasan execution livestream; families of the victims will be invited to watch in person The OCC debanking report: nine largest banks, reputational risk policies, JPMorgan Chase's WePay blacklisting MAGA merchants, and Jamie Dimon's response Debanking cuts both ways (Capital One and an abortion rights group), plus gun sellers and oil companies, and why Erick wants financial risk, not political risk, to decide who gets a bank account (shout-out to Old Glory Bank) Jake Tapper and Elie Honig on the Ilhan Omar search warrant, the Obama-appointed magistrate judge, and the statute of limitations questions Abdul El-Sayed's tense NBC interview over his mother, the Muslim Brotherhood, and what Erick says the record shows

It is Open Line Friday on the Erick Erickson Show, and the hour opens with a trucker named Lewis explaining diesel surcharges before CNN's Matt Egan delivers a sizzling Producer Price Index report: 1.3% monthly and 6.3% annual wholesale inflation, with the Iran war, Saudi and Houthi strikes on refineries, and Ukraine all in the mix. Erick breaks down why he still expects Republicans to hold the Senate, weighs in on James Talarico's CNN town hall with undecided Catholic voters, and reacts to the new federal lawsuit against Matt Gaetz. He then makes the case, through the late pastor Tim Keller, that politics has become an idol on both the left and the right. Open Line Friday: a trucker named Lewis on diesel prices, fuel surcharges and the 60 to 90 day pay cycle squeezing small trucking companies CNN's Matt Egan on the Producer Price Index report: 1.3% monthly, 6.3% annual, the biggest jump since 2022, plus Iran, the Saudi and Houthi fighting, Russia sanctions, Ukraine and Zelensky Midterm outlook: why Erick thinks Republicans keep the Senate, Ken Paxton in Texas, and James Talarico's CNN exchange with an undecided Catholic voter on abortion and the Bible The new federal lawsuit against Matt Gaetz, the House Ethics Committee report, and why you should judge people by their friends and not only their critics Tim Keller, Christian nationalists and Abdul El-Sayed: why the gospel is not a category error, why politics can become an idol, and Erick's case against Michigan's Senate Democrat Georgia wins at the 11th Circuit on the Protect Georgia's Children on Social Media Act, and Erick's take on parental responsibility and Snapchat

On the Erick Erickson Show, Erick takes a caller's question about why the U.S. military can no longer fight two wars at once and walks through the Pentagon procurement mess, the Navy's saltwater maintenance problem, cheap drones versus exquisite weapons, and the Trump administration's fortress Western Hemisphere thinking. He defends Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelensky against Russia and Vladimir Putin after the Starlink shutdown and Elon Musk's call for Zelensky to go, then holds up El Salvador and Nayib Bukele as proof that locking up repeat offenders works. Plus Georgia ballot advice, Angie Nixon and Chris Rabb wanting to lock up Republicans, and Abdul El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood ties in the Michigan Senate race against Mike Rogers. The two-war military shrinks to one: how Barack Obama's force planning, bloated Pentagon procurement, the defense contractor oligopoly, Navy corrosion on ships like the USS Abraham Lincoln, and drone production (Ukraine at 5 million, the U.S. under 100,000) left America struggling against Iran Zelensky, Putin and Starlink in Ukraine: why Erick says the Pentagon, not Elon Musk, shut off the system, why Ukraine's constitution bars wartime elections, and his warning that appeasing Putin invites a Neville Chamberlain moment What Nayib Bukele's El Salvador teaches about crime: a homicide rate now below France, repeat offenders, and Erick's case for bringing back three strikes laws Midterm races: Georgia down ballot picks including Rick Jackson over Keisha Lance Bottoms, Byron Donalds in Florida, and Angie Nixon and Congressman Chris Rabb saying they want to lock up Republicans while abolishing prisons Abdul El-Sayed and the Michigan Senate race: new video, Mike Rogers, Trump's Friday trips to Georgia and Michigan, and why Erick still thinks Republicans keep the Senate

Erick Erickson opens with a hot September CPI inflation report, a 3.7% annual rate, gas up 9.1% in a month and a 3.6% Social Security COLA for 2027, and argues the unfinished Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz tanker attacks are driving it. He then walks the global fire: Houthi strikes on Saudi Aramco, a drone attack off Bulgaria, protests shaking India's Modi, Ethiopia and Eritrea heading toward war, and the Starlink shutoff in Ukraine, all with midterm warnings for the White House and Republicans. CPI inflation report: 3.7% annual rate, core CPI at 2.6%, gasoline up 9.1%, real wages falling, and Erick's tariff "I told you so" on farmers and bankruptcies Social Security COLA 2027 of 3.6%, Fannie Mae mortgage rates near 7.5%, and talk of an October Federal Reserve interest rate hike Iran war fallout: six tankers hit in the Strait of Hormuz, Brent crude at $106, and why the Pentagon's 15 more days of bombing never happened Trump's Russian diesel deal, Argentine beef imports, and why Canada is the obvious supplier, plus farm country and midterm danger for Republicans World on fire: Houthi attack on Saudi Aramco, Bulgaria drone strikes, India protests against Modi, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the Starlink cutoff in Ukraine

Erick Erickson takes a furniture store owner's call on how tariffs and fuel costs are squeezing Main Street, then makes the case for Anduril and Palmer Luckey: Ukraine will build five million drones this year while America builds fewer than a hundred thousand, and Patriot missile output and the Houthi missile threat show why defense procurement needs a shake-up. He also reacts to Shane Gillis, Dan Levy, and The View, plus a Bill Gates farmland call and a warning about population decline. Tariffs and inflation on Main Street: Woodchuck's Furniture owner Doug in Jacksonville on tariffs, fuel costs, mortgage rates, and why bringing manufacturing back would take five years and a labor force America does not have Anduril and Palmer Luckey: Erick wishes he could buy Anduril stock, and explains how World War II style manufacturing, General Motors Patriot missile work, and cheap drones like the Roadrunner could fix defense procurement Ukraine drones versus American drones: Ukraine will build five million drones this year while the US builds under a hundred thousand, plus the Houthi effort to build Iranian style ballistic missiles with Chinese parts and AI help Population decline, socialism, and hope: why Trump administration equity stakes in companies look like socialism to Erick, and why neither party is selling a hopeful message Shane Gillis fallout: Dan Levy on The View, the Cornell Seven comments, and Erick's take on comedy, outrage, and victimization culture, plus a caller on Bill Gates and farmland

Erick Erickson opens by fact checking Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed after his Meet the Press denial of any Muslim Brotherhood ties, walking through his family history, his donors, and the Holy Land Foundation court record. Then a new White House press secretary debuts, Kimberly Guilfoyle is out as ambassador, and Erick makes the case against live streaming the Nidal Hasan execution after the fatal Goliath accident at Six Flags Over Georgia. Abdul El-Sayed on Meet the Press with Kristen Welker: the Muslim Brotherhood denial, his half sister's 2012 posts, and his mother's Islamic American Relief Agency ties El-Sayed's 2012 letter backing Mohamed Morsi, his donors tied to CAIR, and the Holy Land Foundation trial, plus the Michigan Senate race against Mike Rogers New White House press secretary's first briefing, and Kimberly Guilfoyle's resignation as ambassador Six Flags Over Georgia Goliath roller coaster death: Charles Cooke on how safe coasters really are, and the video spreading on social media Why Erick opposes live streaming the Nidal Hasan execution while still backing the death penalty, with a caller and a nod to Rick Jackson coming up in hour two

Erick Erickson sounds the alarm on the 2026 Senate map as Republican donors scramble to defend Nebraska, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina, and blames the Ken Paxton scandals in Texas for draining money from Mike Rogers in Michigan and handing James Talarico a path to the Senate. Georgia governor candidate Rick Jackson joins by phone to take on Keisha Lance Bottoms, with plans on affordability, data centers, mental health beds, and a Mississippi style push on third grade reading. Erick also plays Democratic candidates promising to abolish ICE, Vivek Ramaswamy's Ohio rally pitch against Sherrod Brown, and a pro-Trump Ohio voter, with Shane Gillis and the SNL monologue outrage teed up next. Senate panic: Republican outside groups spending in Nebraska for Pete Ricketts, plus Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina, and why Erick thinks the GOP internal polling must be bad Ken Paxton scandal in Texas: the Wall Street Journal report on Dubai, the Trump endorsement, James Talarico, and why Erick says saving the Senate matters more than saving Texas Democrats who "abolish ICE": Angie Nixon in Florida, Maxwell Frost, and a Hassan Piker interview, plus impeachment talk if Democrats win the House Rick Jackson interview: Georgia governor race against Keisha Lance Bottoms, affordability, data center rules for local counties, 500 new mental health beds, and reading by third grade Vivek Ramaswamy in Youngstown against Sherrod Brown in the Ohio governor's race, an Ohio voter on Iran, and the Shane Gillis SNL monologue backlash preview

Erick Erickson takes on the outrage over Shane Gillis and his Saturday Night Live monologue, explains the Streisand effect, and says the left cannot take a joke as Democrats close in on power. Then Erick breaks with President Trump over buying Russian diesel, arguing that Russia and China are helping Iran and that the money could get Americans killed, before a sober three week check on the midterms, the Senate map, Ken Paxton, James Talarico, and Ohio. Also: prayers for the Pope after lung surgery, the Greta Gerwig Magician's Nephew Narnia trailer, and golf with two NFL quarterbacks. Shane Gillis SNL monologue: the gym joke, the Streisand effect, the Hollywood Reporter and TikTok backlash, and why Erick says woke one was Lenin and woke two is Stalin Trump and Russian diesel: Scott Bessent, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, and John Ratcliffe say Russia and China help Iran, the Lindsey Graham sanctions bill, Canadian diesel, Argentine beef, and America First meets tariffs Midterm election warning three weeks out: GOP consultants in doomsday mode, Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas, Vivek Ramaswamy and Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Pete Ricketts in Nebraska JD Vance and the socialism debate, plus Democrats who still want to abolish ICE and impeach Trump if they win the House Pope has lung surgery, Greta Gerwig's Magician's Nephew Narnia trailer and Aslan casting, a golf round with two NFL quarterbacks, and a family knife forging trip to North Carolina

Erick Erickson opens a Columbus Day edition of the show with a told-you-so on Democratic midterm polling slipping after its Labor Day peak, then takes apart the viral rumor that Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was hiding in an Ohio mental hospital. He digs into Elon Musk's $276 million midterm push for Republicans, Speaker Mike Johnson's claim the GOP will hold the House, the federal search of Ilhan Omar's home, and the heated Fox News clash over Trump buying Russian diesel while Zelensky's drones hit Russian refineries. Midterm elections 2026: Democratic polling slides after its Labor Day peak, Brian Kilmeade and Kristen Soltis Anderson weigh in, and why the party in power usually struggles James Talarico, Ken Paxton, and the Texas Senate race: the Ohio mental hospital rumor falls apart on the timeline Elon Musk's $276 million Republican midterm rescue mission, Senate Leadership Fund, America PAC, and Speaker Mike Johnson's House prediction Federal agents search Ilhan Omar's home, the immigration form investigation, and why Erick says to let the evidence and due process decide Trump, Russian diesel, Zelensky, and Putin: Kilmeade vs. Rachel Campos-Duffy, the Lindsey Graham sanctions law, and Iran drone support from Russia and China

Erick Erickson spends the hour on the Muslim Brotherhood and what he calls the soft jihad strategy, starting with a Wall Street Journal report on the little-known donors powering the Democratic Socialists of America, Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan Senate bid, and Zohran Mamdani. He reads from Michael Youssef's book The Unholy Alliance, takes a caller who left Salafism, and argues the answer is exposure and not a strongman on the right. He also covers Kimberly Guilfoyle's shaky ambassadorship to Greece, Hasan Piker, a Ukrainian strike on a Russian data center and the drop in bot traffic, and warning signs under the surface of the stock market. Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan Senate race, and the Meet the Press exchange over his family's alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties, with Erick citing the Washington Free Beacon Wall Street Journal on the unknown donors behind the new left: Democratic Socialists of America, Alex Soros, Pramila Jayapal, Ilhan Omar, Chris Rabb, and the anti-AI super PAC American Priorities Muslim Brotherhood history from Hassan al-Banna to Egypt's Morsi and Sisi, Qatar and Al Jazeera, the 1987 Explanatory Memorandum, Tariq Ramadan, and EPIC City in Texas Caller who left Salafism on why Islamic countries reject the Brotherhood, plus Erick on Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Hasan Piker, and the Iranian revolution's lesson about communist allies Kimberly Guilfoyle's future as ambassador to Greece, a Ukrainian strike on a Russian data center and the collapse in bot traffic, and why most S&P 500 stocks are down despite a bull market

Erick Erickson starts with why he does not believe the Durupinar site in Turkey is Noah's Ark, then turns to the Federal Reserve numbers showing one in five families behind on loan payments, trucking bankruptcies, and the Trump tariffs backlash from Howard Miller clocks to Bombardier in Kansas, with callers pressing him on where the tariff money went. He also covers Trump's Friday rally in Dalton for Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins, why the Nidal Hasan execution should not be live streamed, and Keisha Lance Bottoms and her "this city literally was burning" line. Noah's Ark, the Durupinar formation in Turkey, Jeremiah Johnson, Scott Stripling, and Wes Huff: no released radar data, no peer review, $1,100 to $3,600 tours, and why Erick says to feed the homeless instead Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances: one in five American families behind on loans, trucking bankruptcies tied to diesel prices, and a Wall Street Journal look at even wealthy spenders pulling back Trump tariffs and the midterm elections: Howard Miller clocks, Bombardier jobs in Kansas, Canada losing 68,000 jobs, the New York Fed data, and the Supreme Court tariff refunds, with callers Cesar and Thomas Why the 1950s nostalgia pitch alienates women and Black voters, with C.S. Lewis and The Screwtape Letters on living in the past Trump rally in Dalton, Georgia for Mike Collins, Keisha Lance Bottoms and the burning of Atlanta, and Erick's case against live streaming the Nidal Hasan execution as Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia raise oil prices

Erick Erickson breaks down a brutal debate night in the 2026 midterms: Mike Rogers presses Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed on whether Israel or Iran is the bigger threat, his mother's ties, his Hasan Piker friendship and his Dubai property, while Susan Collins lands her sharpest blow yet on Maine's Troy Jackson. Erick also explains why Mike Collins is sinking in Georgia against Jon Ossoff, why you must vote all the way down the ballot, and remembers Chicago Bears legend Mike Ditka, who passed away today. Mike Rogers vs. Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate debate: Israel or Iran, Hasan Piker, the Muslim Brotherhood question and Leland Vittert's viral follow-up Susan Collins vs. Troy Jackson in Maine, plus the Vermont Lieutenant Governor race and the family farm migrant worker controversy Why Mike Collins is dragging down Georgia Republicans against Jon Ossoff, and Erick's struggle over leaving a line blank Vote down the ballot, become a poll watcher, and the Peruvian candidate named Hitler Mussolini who just won an election Coach Mike Ditka dies, a Gulf Coast hurricane heads for Mobile and Pensacola, and the Not Safe Radio Show at Gas South Theater

Erick Erickson welcomes State Department deputy spokesman Luke Ortega to unpack Secretary Marco Rubio's Acropolis speech defending Western civilization, the new Greenland deal with Denmark, and the 250,000 visas revoked under President Trump. Then Erick breaks down the New York ICE shooting of Oscar Bergall, Mayor Mamdani's attack on federal agents, and the Obama appointed federal judge who blocked his deportation. Plus Tommy Tuberville's 7 to 0 win at the Alabama Supreme Court, Iranian AI influence operations, a rant on "super intelligence," and the White Sox in the playoffs. State Department deputy spokesman Luke Ortega on Marco Rubio's Acropolis speech in Greece, the Iceland, Greece and Portugal trip, and the call for Europe to rebuild its industry and defense The Greenland deal with Denmark: two new US defense areas, a bar on adversary bases and critical minerals investment, and no expiration date Over 250,000 visas revoked, why tourist, work and student visas are pulled, and the new travel.state.gov visa fraud tip portal ICE agents shot Oscar Bergall after he rammed federal vehicles, Mayor Mamdani's response, and a federal judge's order blocking his removal Alabama Supreme Court rules 7 to 0 it cannot hear the Tommy Tuberville residency challenge in the governor's race, plus Iran's OpenAI fake journalist campaign and Erick's refusal to say "super intelligence"

Erick Erickson makes the case, as a Christian who supports the death penalty, against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's plan to stage a public, live-streamed execution of Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Hasan, citing Army regulations, Tertullian, Augustine, Ezekiel 33:11 and the risk of turning a paraplegic terrorist into a martyr for Islam. Erick also explains how his faith has changed his politics, takes on progressives who twist scripture and conservatives who ignore the refugee on immigration, and then turns to TV: Slow Horses, 24, Silo, Severance, Game of Thrones and how pornography and gratuitous language coarsen the soul. Plus the Cornell seven text message, the Not Safe Radio Show, Hurricane warnings for the Southeast and a Friday round of golf. Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon's plan to publicly live stream the execution of Nidal Hasan: why Erick Erickson supports the death penalty but opposes public execution, the Army regulation that bans it, and the martyrdom propaganda risk across the Middle East Faith and politics: Tertullian's De Spectaculis, Augustine and the Colosseum, Ezekiel 33:11, Proverbs 24:17, and progressive revelation versus progressives rewriting scripture on James Talarico, same-sex marriage and abortion Immigration and the Christian conscience: supporting deportation of illegal aliens without cruelty, care for the refugee, the widow and the orphan Family friendly TV: Slow Horses on Apple TV, 24 with Kiefer Sutherland, Silo, Severance, Shogun and Game of Thrones, and why gratuitous language and sex are coarsening culture Pornography, fathers talking to sons, the Cornell seven situation, plus tickets for the Not Safe Radio Show and a Southeast hurricane warning

Erick Erickson makes the case that the Republican midterm bloodbath is overstated, backing Ken Paxton over James Talarico in Texas and Mike Rogers over Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, with a look at Senate races in Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina. He then digs into the new CBS News report on the Iranian attack on Camp Buehring in Kuwait, the aircraft losses the Pentagon downplayed, and word that President Trump wants a plan to finish the Iranian regime before the midterms. Texas Senate race: Ken Paxton versus James Talarico, the new UMass poll putting Paxton ahead, Texas suburban voters, Greg Abbott, and why Erick still thinks Paxton can pull it off Michigan Senate race: Abdul El-Sayed's silence on October 7th, his refusal to say whether Israel or Iran is the bigger threat, Mike Rogers, and the eight point polling miss on Republicans in Michigan Midterm elections 2026: Alan Lichtman's 52 Senate seats prediction, Michelle Tafoya in Minnesota, Ashley Hinson in Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio, and Erick's call of a 50-50 Senate with JD Vance as the tiebreaker Iran war: CBS News video of the attack on Camp Buehring in Kuwait, more than 80 aircraft lost or damaged, Jack Keane on Hamas rebuilding in Gaza, three carrier groups, Marco Rubio's Acropolis speech, and Trump's push to finish Iran Lighter moments: the zigzag yellow line Orange County, Florida spent $150,000 on, the Atlanta Braves loss to the Dodgers and defending manager Walt Weiss, and Saturday's Not Safe Radio show at Gas South Theater

Erick Erickson opens with a Gulf Coast hurricane warning for Alabama and the Florida panhandle, then breaks down the New York Fed report showing tariffs raised prices on 67 categories of goods by 2.9 percentage points, plus Morgan Stanley data on the stock market slump and an AI boom holding up the economy. He defends Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent against a Wall Street Journal hit job, takes on the Kimberly Guilfoyle stories, and warns Republicans that corruption is now a top midterm issue. Gulf Coast hurricane: category two storm headed for Gulf Shores, Alabama and Pensacola, hurricane warning from Ocean Springs, Mississippi to Gulf County, Florida, flooding risk through Meridian, and the Georgia and Alabama game in Tuscaloosa Tariffs and prices: the New York Federal Reserve study of 67 categories of goods, the 2.9 point price hit, 26 percent pass-through to consumers, Erick's case that tariffs are 1950s protectionism, and the comparison to modern monetary theory under Biden Stock market and AI boom: Morgan Stanley data showing 89 percent of stocks down more than 10 percent since June 1, autos and semiconductors hit hardest, banks holding up, and Nvidia and data centers carrying GDP growth Iran sanctions and oil: Trump says no attack before the midterms, Treasury sanctions 17 shadow fleet tankers, West Texas crude near $90 and Brent at $103 Scott Bessent, Kimberly Guilfoyle and corruption: the Wall Street Journal hit job on Bessent, Howard Lutnick's orbit, the Guilfoyle Greece ambassador stories, why corruption is a top three midterm issue, and Erick's call for Republicans to clean house, plus the listener stress test of his new website

Erick Erickson turns a left lane road rage story, complete with his Claude voice assistant joking about driver stereotypes, into a sermon on America as a low trust society, from McDonald's free refills to razor blades locked behind glass, with Jeff Bezos on Fox News defending success. He also takes on the code enforcers threatening a San Jose pastor's food pantry with $20,000 a day fines, Delta's Wi-Fi meltdown and the Starlink feud with Elon Musk, and the Wall Street Journal report on rogue pilots and intentional airline crashes. Joe Rogan's new Spotify deal and Marco Rubio's warning to Europe round out the hour. Low trust society: left lane slowpokes, Claude AI's Australian accent joke about BMW and Florida drivers, McDonald's ending free refills, Target and CVS locking up razor blades, Jeff Bezos on Fox News saying success is not villainy, the vilification of the wealthy, and airline early boarding abuse San Jose food pantry: Pastor Ralph Olmos and Lighthouse Food Rescue and Distribution, the code enforcement citation threatening $20,000 a day in fines, the old liquor store and two meth labs, and Erick on the nanny state Delta Wi-Fi and Starlink: a Delta passenger steals an airplane tug at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Delta's Viasat Wi-Fi dropping out over the Rockies, United, American and Southwest moving to Starlink, and Elon Musk receiving the National Medal of Science Rogue pilots: the Wall Street Journal report, Germanwings, China Eastern, Malaysia Airlines, at least 800 deaths since 2005, Boeing's design concerns, why US airline pilots are considered the safest, and Marco Rubio's speech on Western values in Europe Media and culture: Joe Rogan's multi-year Spotify deal estimated at $250 million, Rush Limbaugh's advice on not listening to podcasts, Tim Keller sermons, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye doubting the moon landing, the Not Safe Radio Show on Saturday, and sponsors Old Glory Bank, Incogni and Vision Computers

On the third anniversary of the October 7th Hamas massacre, Erick Erickson takes on the genocide in Gaza propaganda campaign, the rise of antisemitism on Ivy League campuses and in the West, and the real history of Judea and the Jewish homeland. Former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren joins to discuss Hamas, Iron Dome, the Abraham Accords, Saudi Arabia, and why the Iran war and the Trump naval blockade have to be seen through. October 7th attack, three years later: Hamas paragliders, the hostages, Reuters running a photo of Gaza rubble, and Erick on why there was no genocide in Gaza Antisemitism in the West: Ivy League campuses, Boulder, the New York City mayor's remarks, Abdul El-Sayed, and Erick's warning that hatred of Jews is the canary in the coal mine Michael Oren interview: 365,000 Israeli reservists, Hamas's 450 miles of tunnels, Iron Dome, and the pager attack on Hezbollah Abraham Accords and the Gulf: Israeli Iron Dome crews in the UAE, Dubai and Tel Aviv flights, and the path to a Saudi Arabia deal Iran war and the Trump naval blockade: Iraqi airspace, gas prices, and Oren's case for finishing the job against the Iranian regime

Erick Erickson opens with Marco Rubio's Acropolis speech on the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto and October 7th, then covers breaking news from the Minnesota U.S. Attorney on an arrested ISIS-inspired plot to attack the Mall of America. He argues that a wave of parents killing their children is a sign of evil on the march, that pastors should preach repentance instead of partisan politics, and previews the midterm elections, Ken Paxton in Texas, and the polling unknowns. Battle of Lepanto and October 7th: Erick on why Hamas chose the anniversary of the 1571 Holy League victory over the Ottoman Empire, and Marco Rubio's speech at the Acropolis calling the West to unite against tyranny and the radical mullahs of Iran Mall of America ISIS plot: U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen announces charges against an American-born man of Somali descent, accused of buying an AK-47 and 200 rounds to attack Minnesota's Mall of America, and Erick on assimilation and Minnesota Somali gang violence Evil on the march: a grim run of headlines about mothers and fathers killing their children, Lindsay Clancy copycats, and Erick's case that violence against children is the hallmark of a society in spiritual crisis Church and politics: Erick on the Southern Baptist Convention, why pastors should preach repentance and the gospel instead of telling people how to vote, Catholic Charities, and Jewish voters and the Democratic Party Midterm elections preview: the known unknowns, Republicans refusing to talk to pollsters, whether the GOP bloodbath is overstated, Ken Paxton's chances in Texas, and the Maine and Georgia debates

Erick Erickson digs into the 2026 midterms and the CNN bloodbath polling, arguing that Republicans who refuse to talk to pollsters could leave the Democratic wave overstated, with Susan Collins, Troy Jackson, Abdul El-Sayed, Mike Rogers, Ohio and Georgia races in focus. He also covers the launch of Trump accounts for 70 million kids, the Michael Dell gift, and why the George W. Bush Social Security privatization plan still matters, then ends with a housekeeping note on ericerickson.com and the new text ERICK to 33777 landing page. Midterm elections 2026 polling: CNN's Harry Enten and John Berman on a Republican bloodbath, Trump voters slipping in Senate and House races, and Erick on why Republicans who skip pollsters make the polls unreliable (the known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns) Senate and governor races: Susan Collins versus Troy Jackson in Maine, Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers in Michigan, Vivek Ramaswamy and John Husted in Ohio, Rick Jackson versus Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, plus Elissa Slotkin's Saddam Hussein comparison and the Karen Bass and Anderson Cooper segment Trump accounts: the IRS chief, Ted Cruz and President Trump on investment accounts for 70 million children, the Michael and Susan Dell $250 gift, and Erick's case for dividend stocks, compound interest and teaching kids capitalism Social Security privatization: the 2005 George W. Bush plan Erick says would have made Americans far richer, and why Trump accounts begin to fix what both parties got wrong Housekeeping: ericerickson.com, the Substack merge, and text ERICK to 33777 for show notes, the 24/7 live stream and each hour's podcast

Broadcasting on location through a hotel hotspot, Erick Erickson defends President Trump's "let them take out Los Angeles" Nebraska remark in context, then warns that Democrats have 28 days of maximum outrage planned, from Karen Bass to the attack on Annie Andrews in South Carolina. Rick Scott on socialism and Abdul El-Sayed, the real story behind the France riots, Somali gang violence in Minnesota, and why America needs a melting pot, not a salad bowl. Trump in Nebraska, Los Angeles and San Diego, Iran, and Karen Bass calling the remarks irresponsible: Erick on context versus outrage season Annie Andrews, Lindsey Graham's South Carolina Senate race, and the Truth Social post that fed the 28-day Democratic outrage strategy Rick Scott on Fox: socialism, Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race, balancing the budget, and the GOP message for November France riots: school protests, the viral firefighter photo, population decline, and what overspending and failed assimilation could mean for America Immigration and assimilation: Somali gang violence in Minnesota, Michelle Tafoya's Senate race, Ilhan Omar, and the melting pot versus the salad bowl

Broadcasting from a secret location, Erick Erickson breaks down Russia's mysterious pneumonic plague outbreak at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia, from Marco Rubio's warning to the MIT bioweapon theory, and explains why panic is just herd mentality. He tells the foster care to 7-Eleven to postseason story of Atlanta Braves pitcher Ray Kerr, weighs in on the Cornell Seven fraternity case with Michelle Cottle, Letitia James and Byron York, and covers the diesel shortage with Energy Secretary Chris Wright. Topics: Russia pneumonic plague outbreak: Marco Rubio, the Irkutsk lab worker, Kevin Esvelt's MIT bioweapon theory, antibiotics going to the Ukraine front, and why Erick says do not panic Midterm elections 2026: polling overstating Democrats by about 3 points, House lost but Senate saved, Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas, and Mike Collins in Georgia Ray Kerr, Atlanta Braves lefty: foster care, 7-Eleven and community college to the Phillies and Dodgers postseason, plus Erick on foster parenting and adoption reform Cornell Seven fraternity case: Michelle Cottle at the New York Times, Letitia James reopening the investigation, consent law in New York, and Erick's time as chief justice of his university Diesel shortage: Energy Secretary Chris Wright on the Russia Ukraine conflict, China's diesel export ban, and why a US diesel export ban would backfire

Erick Erickson, broadcasting from a hotel on assignment, tells listeners the midterm polling is bad but not as bad as the headlines, breaking down Steve Kornacki's NBC News poll on Hispanic voters (a 24 point Democratic lead on the generic ballot versus 22 points in 2022) and the cost of living and corruption problems dragging down Republicans. He then reports that James Talarico is now favored over Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race and that Paxton's campaign is being run from Washington, and he explains the fight between President Trump and Senator Tom Cotton over permanent daylight saving time. Steve Kornacki and Meet the Press: the NBC News poll of Latino voters, the 24 point generic ballot lead for Democrats versus 22 points in 2022, Trump approval with Hispanic voters, and why Erick says the GOP has held a 10 to 15 point gain Midterm issues: cost of living, jobs and the economy, and corruption as the number two issue, plus a CBS News Battleground Tracker poll showing Democrats winning the House if the election were held today Texas Senate race: James Talarico leads Ken Paxton, leaked audio of Paxton complaining his campaign is run from Washington, billionaire donors who say they were never called, and Angela Paxton's vote Republican ad Trump, Tom Cotton, and permanent daylight saving time: the president posts Cotton's personal cell number on Truth Social, Cotton's school bus and standard time arguments, and Erick's text exchange with the senator Senate map and Erick's contrarian take: Republicans keep the Senate while losing the House, with Michigan, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas in play, plus the Not Safe for Radio Show at Gas South Theater this Saturday and an aborted takeoff story

Erick Erickson reacts to Southern Baptist Convention president Willy Rice telling Fox News that Christians need to step up in politics, and argues that believers cannot play team sport for the Republican Party while corruption is the number two issue for voters. Using the book of Lamentations, the Psalm 51 repentance of King David, and the 2000 Bush election and PEPFAR, he makes the case that Christians can be a prophetic voice to both parties, and that sitting out a race like Ken Paxton's Texas Senate contest can be a vote for better. A Braves upset of the Dodgers, a candidate quality warning for Mike Collins in Georgia and Max Miller in Ohio, and a Siberian plague rumor round out the hour. Willy Rice and the Southern Baptist Convention: the SBC president tells Fox News that abortion, gender identity, marriage, and immigration are theological issues, and Erick asks where the Southern Baptist voice is on corruption and on the humane treatment of illegal immigrants being deported Corruption and the Trump family: why corruption is the number two midterm issue, taxpayer funded ads recycled from 2024 campaign videos, a possible blanket pardon, and the administration asking DOJ and HHS to hold off on mifepristone restrictions until after the midterms Lamentations and King David: Erick teaches the book of Lamentations (steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, Jeremiah, Babylon, the fall of Jerusalem) and Psalm 51 to explain why Christians must hold their own side accountable as the prophet Nathan did Caller Steve and Ken Paxton: the lesser of two evils debate, the 2000 George W. Bush election decided by 537 votes, PEPFAR and adoption reform, why Paxton may lose Texas after paying restitution, and why loyalty to Trump in primaries is wiping out electability in Georgia (Mike Collins), Ohio (Max Miller), and Washington (Joe Kent) Braves upset the Dodgers behind a former 7-Eleven employee and a 21 year old rookie, a plague scare in Siberia after Russia lost a saint's bones, and ad reads for Rinnai tankless water heaters, Vision Computers, and American Financing

Erick Erickson opens with breaking news that the US has cleared Iraqi airspace for Israeli aircraft after pulling American troops out of Iraq, as armed skirmishes spread inside Iran, oil falls to $100 Brent, and B-1 bombers leave RAF Fairford after a foiled terror plot. He argues the carrier group and 10,000 Marines headed to the Middle East are there to contain a destabilization campaign, then pushes back on Nate Silver's call that Georgia's governor's mansion flips, with Rick Jackson, Keisha Lance Bottoms, and Jon Ossoff in the mix. The hour also covers the Supreme Court's new term, Justice Samuel Alito, a University Heights, Ohio prayer meeting case, birthright citizenship, and the Cornell fraternity case. Iraqi airspace, Israel, and Iran: the US withdrawal from Iraq, Israeli access to Iranian airspace, armed skirmishes across Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el Mandeb, Houthi positions, and Erick's theory that a destabilization campaign is underway RAF Fairford and the Pentagon: 12 B-1 bombers moved home to Ellsworth Air Force Base after a foiled terror attack, Marco Rubio's spin, a Washington Post report on Operation Rough Rider and munitions shortages, and officers leaking to reporters because they fear talking to Congress Georgia politics: Nate Silver's forecast that the governor's race flips for the first time since 2002, Rick Jackson versus Keisha Lance Bottoms, Jon Ossoff crushing Mike Collins, split ticket voting, and Raphael Warnock's absence from the campaign trail Supreme Court: Boulder, Colorado's climate case, Justice Samuel Alito's interviews on originalism and the leaked Dobbs draft, the University Heights, Ohio prayer meeting case, and why Clarence Thomas's birthright citizenship dissent matters for a birth tourism ban Culture and news: Michelle Goldberg at the New York Times tying the Cornell fraternity case to President Trump, the Gaza genocide claim, and ad reads for Cozy Earth, Perfectly Snug, and Vision Computers  

Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday with a sweeping history of social contagion, from the 1518 Strasbourg dancing plague and the Salem witch trials to the McMartin preschool panic, then connects it to new data showing LGBTQ identification among kids in free fall and J.K. Rowling's take on the trans fad. He also reports that oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz has topped pre-war levels for seven straight days and takes calls on sanctuary cities, the Arizona immigration case, and CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood. Social contagion history: Strasbourg dancing plague, tarantism, Salem, tulip mania, the Werther effect, Mattoon gas attacker, McMartin preschool, LeRoy Tourette's cluster New data on the collapse of kids identifying as trans, J.K. Rowling's post, detransitioners, and the rise and fall of transition surgeries Strait of Hormuz oil flow above pre-war levels, Brent crude near $100, Iran economy in free fall, and Erick's credit to President Trump Open Line Friday calls: why sanctuary cities and states are legal, the Arizona immigration ruling, the 1984 drinking age and Louisiana highway funds lesson CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Erick's view on Islam and the West, plus Not Safe for Radio Show tickets for October 10 in Duluth, Georgia, Hunga Tonga rain, and the Braves

Erick Erickson takes on a New York Times report that Anthropic quietly hosted religious scholars under nondisclosure agreements to discuss AI consciousness and Claude's moral status, and that the company reportedly considered pulling out of a Vatican launch event for Pope Leo XIV's encyclical on AI. Erick argues theologically that AI is a math equation that cannot have a soul, then takes Open Line Friday calls on the failed Tennessee execution of Christa Pike, the death penalty, and who funds American mosques, from the North American Islamic Trust to the Muslim Brotherhood. Anthropic and AI consciousness: the New York Times report on private meetings with religious thinkers, Chris Olah, Claude's alleged moral status, and Erick's case that a word generator and math equation cannot have a soul (the Genesis bara argument) Pope Leo XIV encyclical on AI: Anthropic's reported push to pull out of the Vatican event, why none of the participants lead a congregation, and caller Adam's view that AI is just a tool like a socket wrench, plus Mark Zuckerberg's far humbler AI pitch Christa Pike and the death penalty: Tennessee's failed lethal injection, her lawyers' torture claim, Erick's disagreement with the Pope on pro-life and capital punishment, Marsha Blackburn's electric chair push, and the Noah covenant Mosques, the Muslim Brotherhood, and intersectionality: the North American Islamic Trust, the Holy Land Foundation case, Qatar and Saudi funding, Michael Youssef's book The Unholy Alliance, and Erick's warning about the right-wing woke in JD Vance's orbit Open Line Friday fun: slow left lane drivers and Sheriff Tyler Hooks of Morgan County, Georgia, gas pump pet peeves, New Way Lunch chili dogs in Macon, and Erick's Pine Tree golf putt with Van Allen Golf

Erick Erickson wrestles with the Cornell Seven fraternity case, arguing that society cannot prosecute bad or immoral behavior, only crimes, and walks through New York consent law, the Duke lacrosse case, the University of Virginia fraternity hoax, and the Lindsay Clancy insanity verdict. He also reports that national Republicans are pulling money from Michael Whatley in North Carolina and Mike Collins against Jon Ossoff in Georgia to save Ken Paxton in Texas, then takes Open Line Friday calls on Mecca versus Medina Muslims, football season, and President Trump's Oklahoma stop with Kevin Hern. Cornell Seven fraternity lawsuit: the civil suit and reopened prosecution, the wrongly named Marine served in error, New York consent and revocation law, ex post facto limits, and Erick's case that you prosecute crimes, not bad things Cautionary history: the Duke lacrosse case, the University of Virginia fraternity allegations, Nancy Grace, and why social outrage and media mobs should not drive prosecutions Lindsay Clancy verdict: Massachusetts' unique burden on prosecutors to prove sanity and what jurors said afterward Georgia and North Carolina Senate races: national Republicans pull money from Michael Whatley against Roy Cooper and Mike Collins against Jon Ossoff to fund Ken Paxton in Texas, and Erick's I told you so Open Line Friday calls: Mecca versus Medina in the Quran, women and men bearing responsibility in the Cornell case, false allegations like the Dodgers player, Panthers hockey, football season, Trump and Kevin Hern in Oklahoma, and the car loan interest deduction

Erick Erickson opens with a blunt monologue on the Gaza genocide narrative and the violence it keeps inspiring, from a thwarted mass shooting plot at the Texas State Capitol in Austin to the Boulder attack and the Pennsylvania governor's mansion arson. Then he covers the botched Christa Pike execution in Tennessee and digs into the 2026 Senate midterms, with Harry Enten's polling data, James Talarico, Ken Paxton, Susan Collins, and why polls keep oversampling Democrats. The Gaza genocide claim, the foiled Texas Capitol shooting plot, and the media's refusal to push back Rising antisemitism on the left and the right, and the threats Erick still gets for calling out white nationalists Christa Pike's botched lethal injection in Tennessee, the all-female execution team, and the governor's pause on executions 2026 Senate midterms: Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Maine, and why Republicans likely hold the Senate while losing the House Harry Enten on polling misses, why polls oversample Democrats, and the Ken Paxton versus James Talarico race in Texas

Erick Erickson opens with a warning that progressive politics has become a religion, from the collapse of the United Methodist Church and other mainline denominations to Maine protesters harassing Chief Justice John Roberts, and why pastors who preach politics are hurting their churches. Then he weighs in on Steve Hilton versus Xavier Becerra in the California governor race, makes the case that Barack Obama pioneered the partisan division he now laments, defends his Hunga Tonga volcano climate call with a caller, and unloads on Delta for refusing Starlink Wi-Fi. Politics as the new religion: the progressive pulpit, the new right-wing pastors twisting their theology, and why the fastest dying churches (United Methodist, PCUSA, Episcopal, ELCA, UCC) are the political ones while the PCA and LCMS grow Chief Justice John Roberts and the Maine "chi-activists": the New York Times report on flotillas, protests, and a neighbor-versus-neighbor split on Humber Island, and why Erick says a politics that ends friendships is the real problem California governor race: Steve Hilton versus Xavier Becerra, the CNN debate clip on 479,000 missing unaccompanied migrant children, and whether a Republican can really win in California Barack Obama and the roots of American division: his 2024 remarks, the 2012 absentee ballot neighbor postcards, the IRS, Eric Holder, and a caller on MLK Day and Democratic Socialists Hunga Tonga volcano and the water vapor climate argument, plus Elon Musk's campaign against Delta Air Lines over Starlink Wi-Fi, Amazon Kuiper delays, and Delta's SkyMiles dial-up internet

Erick Erickson opens with Senate Democrats killing the Stop Insider Trading Act and the Ratepayer Protection Act after both passed the House, then explains why the prepaid absentee ballot request forms in your mailbox are not ballots and how progressive groups use data brokers to target voters. He covers the deadly I-95 fog pileup over Lake Marion in South Carolina, the Flydubai hijacking and the hero pilot who saved the plane, the RAF Fairford terror arrests in the UK, and the left's political religion, including Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. Senate Democrats kill the Stop Insider Trading Act and the Ratepayer Protection Act (passed the House 417 to 3), with Jon Ossoff voting to block, and why Congress campaigns on issues instead of solving them Absentee ballot request forms versus real absentee ballots: why prepaid return envelopes signal a request form, which states offer prepaid ballots, and how progressive groups track barcodes and ballot harvesting Mass casualty fog pileup on I-95 near Santee and Lake Marion, South Carolina, with Orangeburg County crews extracting victims by hand Flydubai hijacking: the Omani co-pilot's radical Islamist indoctrination, the stabbed pilot who opened the cockpit door, and Netanyahu and Modi praising a real hero RAF Fairford terror investigation: a UK and Iran dual national arrested in Westminster, radical Islam in US mosques, an imam facing deportation in Wisconsin, and Muslim missionaries harassing black churches in Michigan as Abdul El-Sayed runs  

The President deserves a lot of credit in the middle east, Elon Musk's Starlink is awesome and more business should embrace it plus the current state of Senate elections around the country.

The President brings the heads of AI to capital hill plus the great success the Trump administration has had in almost completely wiping out muslim immigration. Good.

Erick Erickson takes on the online right's outrage over Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' welfare to work ad, calling out the grievance politics and white victimhood peddled by click chasing influencers. He then argues Donald Trump's Iran sanctions and economic pressure are slowly collapsing the regime even as gas prices and diesel costs threaten Republicans ahead of the midterms, praises Brian Kemp's gas tax suspension, and mocks the rush to rebrand artificial intelligence as "superintelligence." The hour closes with Senator Eric Schmitt's embarrassing Jack Smith "Hawks game" gotcha that blew up on live television. Sarah Huckabee Sanders welfare ad: Arkansas welfare reform work requirements, the Brad in the basement ad, and why more white men than black women are on welfare in Arkansas, plus Erick's rebuke of the white right grievance crowd and Beau French's UT graduation comments. Iran collapsing under Trump sanctions: Economic isolation, hyperinflation, unpaid soldiers and teachers, reported skirmishes near the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's banking isolation, and the risk of an October surprise before the midterms. Gas prices, diesel and the midterms: Former Deputy Treasury Secretary on Fox Business tying gas prices to the generic ballot, Treasury bond buyback limits, mortgage rates above 7 percent, Brian Kemp's Georgia gas tax suspension, and California's gas tax. Trump's "superintelligence" rebrand: Erick pushes back on the fawning over renaming artificial intelligence, Laura Ingraham's praise, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta strategy, and Meta's Muse AI assistant. Eric Schmitt's Jack Smith gotcha backfires: The Hawks versus Hawkeyes mix-up, the Axios VP buzz for 2028, Scott Jennings on CNN, and Republican complaints about Jack Smith obtaining congressional and Molly Hemingway records.

Erick Erickson opens with the Speaker of the House's "common sense versus crazy" midterm pitch, then walks the 2026 Senate map from Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas to Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, and Georgia, warning that MAGA alone cannot win in November while farmers rage over tariffs and diesel prices. He defends Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders' welfare to work campaign ad against a white nationalist backlash and takes on the grievance politics spreading on the populist right, with Brian Kemp's Georgia gas tax suspension, Texas dyed diesel, and Marco Rubio on the Strait of Hormuz along the way. Common sense versus crazy: the Speaker of the House's midterm message, Scott Bessent's economy talk, and Erick's warning that Republicans cannot win with MAGA alone as independents break for Democrats and non-MAGA Republicans stay home Senate map breakdown: Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas, Mike Collins in Georgia, Michael Whatley in North Carolina, Mike Rogers in Michigan, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Susan Collins in Maine, and Josh Turek versus Ashley Hinson in Iowa Farm country fury: tariffs and diesel prices, weekly farm bankruptcies in South Georgia, Brian Kemp suspending the Georgia gas tax, and Texas allowing dyed diesel on its roads Sarah Huckabee Sanders' welfare to work ad: Erick backs the Arkansas governor against white nationalists, identity politics grifters, and the JD Vance loyalty crowd, and asks why Republicans keep attacking their most competent governors Also: Candace Owens rumors, vandalism at Susan Collins' Maine Senate office, New York Magazine's Elliot Page cover, and Marco Rubio on Iran, oil prices, and the Strait of Hormuz

Erick Erickson breaks down the Pentagon data breach that exposed nearly 3 million people and the FBI job site hack, asking whether Iran is probing American defenses while Pete Hegseth's future gets shakier heading into the midterms. He also warns that the 10-year Treasury yield at 5.29 percent is squeezing mortgages and credit cards, holds up Argentina's Javier Milei as a lesson in fiscal sanity, and digs into Derek Thompson's data on the collapse of hosting friends at home and what it means for loneliness, faith, and community. Pentagon and FBI data breaches: 2.76 million living people and 294,000 deceased exposed through the Defense Manpower Data Center, the FBI job application site under investigation, and Erick's suspicion that Iran or China is behind the probing Pete Hegseth's future: Republican senators whispering that the Defense Secretary will not survive the midterms, House Democrats eyeing impeachment, and the fired generals and admirals Congress liked Iran, Strait of Hormuz, and oil: Condoleezza Rice on Fox News, Abbas Araghchi's doomsday war warning on Meet the Press, and oil prices easing while Iranian crude stays bottled up Bond yields and Javier Milei: the 10-year Treasury at 5.29 percent, a national debt over 40 trillion dollars, stagflation fears, and Argentina cutting tariffs, freezing new currency, and taming inflation Americans stopped hosting: Derek Thompson at The Atlantic on monthly hosting falling from 42 percent to 12 percent, Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone, Rosaria Butterfield, Pew data on church community and mental health, and Erick's Sunday night porch tradition

Erick Erickson uses the UK Home Secretary's new refugee sponsorship plan to warn that America must not copy Europe's immigration failures, then argues the GOP can build a multiracial coalition by rejecting identity politics and grievance grifters, with Sarah Huckabee Sanders' welfare ad still fueling the fight. He also takes calls on assimilation and the melting pot, shares his taco soup recipe and cookbook plans after a Low Country barbecue caterer calls in, and breaks down the Protect College Sports Act from Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell as an Auburn employee is charged with stealing athletic trade secrets. Europe's immigration mess: the UK Home Secretary's new refugee sponsorship routes, free speech arrests in Britain, immigrant ghettos, terror suspects out on bail, and why Erick says the United States must avoid the European Union's path GOP identity politics and the multiracial coalition: Donald Trump's gains with Hispanic voters, young black men, and Indian American families, the backlash over Sarah Huckabee Sanders' Arkansas welfare ad, and Erick's warning that grievance politics loses elections Assimilation versus the salad bowl: a Jacksonville caller back from Alberta and British Columbia on Canadian immigration, and Erick on why America needs the melting pot Cooking, cookbooks, and hosting friends: a Low Country barbecue caterer calls in, Erick's 400 cookbook collection, Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond, his taco soup and corn flake chicken recipes, and Meta's Muse AI app finding subscription savings Protect College Sports Act and Auburn: the bipartisan Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell NCAA bill clears the Senate, the transfer portal and endorsement caps, and an Auburn employee charged with theft of trade secrets Also: Chuck Grassley's memo on Jack Smith seizing reporters' records, Tom Cruise's poorly reviewed movie, and streaming picks including Slow Horses and Lanterns

Erick opens with the good news: Iran's economy is collapsing under U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz, and President Trump all detailing the pressure campaign as gas and diesel prices start easing on returning refinery capacity. He also covers SpaceX's historic Starship launch of the new Starlink V3 satellite and Scottie Scheffler's class act at the President's Cup. Then comes the bad news hour: Erick makes his case for why predictions of a GOP Senate wipeout in the midterms, driven by weak Republican turnout, Trump Jr.'s wedding scandal, and flawed candidates like Ken Paxton and Mike Collins, are overblown. Iran's economy craters under U.S. sanctions and the Strait of Hormuz naval blockade; Chris Wright, Mike Waltz, and President Trump lay out the pressure campaign as gas and diesel prices ease SpaceX successfully launches Starship carrying the new V3 Starlink satellite; Elon Musk explains why it dwarfs Delta's in flight WiFi Scottie Scheffler's sportsmanship highlights Team USA's President's Cup comeback win over Nico Echavarria Erick argues against GOP midterm doom: Republican voter turnout, corruption anger over Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding gift, and weak candidates like Ken Paxton and Beau French in Texas and Mike Collins in Georgia Trump's economy approval rating and lingering tariff anger are dragging down Republican prospects even as his Iran policy succeeds

Erick Erickson breaks down agentic banking, the new Wall Street fear from Apollo Global economist Torsten Slock and Bank of America analysts, as Meta's Muse AI agent helps consumers cancel subscriptions and chase high yield savings account rates. He also reports on the Macon, Georgia park shooting that wounded 12 teens, three blocks from his studio, and on huge crowds of young people turning out for Pope Leo in France, arguing the real fight is between the sacred and the secular. Agentic banking and Meta Muse: Erick let Muse read his bank accounts, and it found three Spotify subscriptions and an unused Peacock plan, saving him a couple hundred dollars a month Apollo Global Management's Torsten Slock and Bank of America analyst Ibrahim Punwala warn that AI agents moving cash to high yield savings accounts could drain cheap bank deposits and squeeze net interest margins Macon, Georgia mass shooting: 12 teens wounded at a park after an Airbnb party in Jones County, with the sheriff vowing to charge the adults who knew the kids had guns Pope Leo draws massive crowds in Paris and Lourdes, and Erick argues young people in a secular France and America are hungry for tradition, liturgy, expository preaching, and belonging Las Vegas family trip: Adrenaline Mountain machine guns, sniper rifles, Tannerite, and flamethrowers for his daughter's 21st birthday, plus a jab at Delta's Wi-Fi and the Pope's White Sox fandom  

Erick Erickson makes the case that abortion is his red line and that voters have every right to sit out races like the Ken Paxton versus James Talarico Texas Senate fight, warning Republicans that holding your nose for corrupt or unworthy candidates guarantees worse ones, from Vivek Ramaswamy's struggles in the Ohio governor race to Trump's taxpayer funded campaign ad. He also defends Georgia governor candidate Rick Jackson against an AJC attack on the self-made man, plays the Saturday Night Live Dario Amodei parody, and shares a UK counterterrorism update on five men released on bail in a suspected foreign state operation. Lesser of two evils: Erick explains why abortion is a red line, why he will not vote for two pro-abortion candidates, and why more disaffected Republicans and independents are tapping out of the 2026 midterms Texas Senate race: Ken Paxton versus James Talarico, John Cornyn's role, and Beau French's Railroad Commission risk, with Erick reminding Republicans they told voters in 2016 they were electing a politician, not a preacher Ohio governor race: Vivek Ramaswamy slipping in the polls, and Erick's charge that some on the right will not vote for a brown-skinned Hindu candidate after demanding everyone hold their nose for Donald Trump Trump taxpayer funded campaign ad: the White House swapped the paid for by Trump for President tag for a government one, and Louisiana Senator John Kennedy is among those calling it out Rick Jackson and the self-made man: Erick answers an Atlanta Journal-Constitution column calling the self-made man a myth, and argues for helping the deserving poor while ending bailouts for repeated bad choices Also: Saturday Night Live's Dario Amodei and Anthropic parody, UK counterterrorism police releasing five arrested men on bail in a suspected foreign proxy operation, and the Laughing Cow's scowling new ad campaign

Erick Erickson opens as President Trump welcomes Xi Jinping to the White House and the administration caves on its ban of CNN, MS Now, and Politico, then explains why a declining China, not a rising one, is the real danger: purged generals, a stalled Chinese economy, Iran's oil squeeze, and Beijing's push to get Trump to abandon Taiwan. Then Erick celebrates Argentine President Javier Milei's blistering United Nations speech, the free market results of ending rent control in Buenos Aires, and why EU bureaucrats, Adrian Vermeule's common good constitutionalism, and Abdul El-Sayed's word salad on Iran all point the same direction. Trump and Xi Jinping at the White House: the CNN, MS Now, and Politico ban reversed, and the Tiananmen Square irony of barring CNN on the day China's dictator arrives China in decline: Peter Schweizer on Xi purging the Central Military Commission and 45 missing generals, Greg Ip and Rhodium Group on a Chinese economy that may be growing near zero, and Senator John Kennedy's "he learned to lie before he learned to talk" China, Iran, and Taiwan: Beijing helping Iran target Americans, U.S. missile batteries on Philippine islands in the Luzon Strait, and why Erick wants Reagan style confrontation instead of friendship Javier Milei at the UN: a "cast of fatally arrogant parasites," Argentina's economy rebounding after cutting tariffs, price controls, and rent control, and the free market lesson for Trump populists and JD Vance EU Digital Markets Act rules forcing Apple to rewrite its app tracking prompt, Britain's disinformation push, Adrian Vermeule's common good constitutionalism, and Abdul El-Sayed refusing to condemn Khamenei and the IRGC in Michigan

Erick Erickson reports from a Georgia fundraiser where Republicans finally felt some joy, as Rick Jackson's ad blitz on Keisha Lance Bottoms and the 2020 Atlanta riots moves the Georgia governor race while Democrats hold zero TV reservations for October. Then Erick sides with Judge Judy on retrying Lindsay Clancy, blasts The View for scolding Patrick Clancy for divorcing the woman who killed their three children, and argues true crime podcasts, Christian nationalism, and a Massachusetts mask bar are all symptoms of a society losing its mind. Georgia governor race: Rick Jackson's Keisha Lance Bottoms riot ad, $31.5 million in Republican October TV reservations versus zero for Democrats, and Mike Collins gaining ground against Jon Ossoff 2026 midterms: why September polling is shifting toward the GOP, reports the NRSC is eyeing New Hampshire, Michigan, and Minnesota over Georgia and North Carolina, Ken Paxton's ads falling flat against James Talarico in Texas, and Erick's call of a 50 50 Senate with JD Vance breaking ties if the election were today Lindsay Clancy retrial: Judge Judy on the danger of copycats, a defense attorney targeting the lone guilty juror, and why prosecutors must try the case again The View and Patrick Clancy: Alyssa Farah Griffin as the lone voice of reason, and how true crime podcasts and Candace Owens style conspiracy theories are rotting brains Christian nationalism: Andrew Walker's World magazine piece, pastors and marriage counselors on grievance driven young men in the church, and Erick's comparison to the masked holdouts at a Massachusetts lesbian bar; plus flamethrowers in Las Vegas and Erick's favorite mail order butchers

Erick Erickson opens on Stanford University admitting its dining department used AI to turn a Hispanic male student into a Black woman in marketing photos, calling it DEI and identity politics run amok, and draws on his late friend Tim Keller's teaching that every person is made in the image of God. Then Erick turns to the farm crisis: Mike Rogers and Roger Marshall breaking with the White House on the Iran war as diesel prices top six dollars at harvest, why a diesel export ban would backfire, China reneging on soybean purchases, and farm bankruptcies piling up in Georgia. Stanford University AI photo scandal: a Hispanic student digitally turned into a Black woman, Stanford faulting only its AI policy, and Erick on DEI, identity politics, and why "woke" is alive and well on college campuses Tim Keller and the image of God: Erick's private conversations with Keller, why his critics twisted theology to fit politics, lessons from CNN friendships with Paul Begala and Donna Brazile, and Ketanji Brown Jackson as the stigma of hiring by race Iran war and diesel prices: Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers and Kansas Senator Roger Marshall urging a wind down, John Kennedy's "colony of reptiles" line on China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea, and $6.53 diesel hitting the harvest Diesel export ban: $100 billion a month in goods arriving by cargo ship, Russia's export ban, and the American Petroleum Institute's warning that refiners would cut gasoline and jet fuel too Farm bankruptcies and soybean prices: China buying from Brazil instead of American farmers, falling Chinese hog demand, Brooke Rollins telling families to eat lentils, weekly farm bankruptcies in Macon, and population decline

Broadcasting from the home bunker on a day of runaway mattress deliveries, Erick Erickson breaks down President Trump's United Nations remarks: the Shield of the Americas alliance with Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent, renaming artificial intelligence "super intelligence," rejecting global AI restrictions, and a call for the complete economic isolation of Iran as Xi Jinping arrives at Joint Base Andrews. Then Erick explains why capping diesel prices or banning diesel exports would raise costs on everything shipped into America, how tariffs and the Canada trade war wiped out Vermont's Jasper Hill Farm, and why Kamala Harris may sit out 2028 while she campaigns for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. Trump at the UN: Shield of the Americas, "super intelligence" replacing AI, 18 new munitions plants, and isolating Iran until it stops attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz Xi Jinping's visit, his purge of generals, and fears he thinks he can play Trump on Taiwan; Brent crude over $100 and a 19 year high in Treasury yields Why a diesel export ban and price caps backfire: global diesel prices, cargo ships, import costs, the aluminum tariff lesson, and the Canada tariffs that gutted a Vermont cheesemaker Kamala Harris says she has not decided on 2028, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, and Andy Beshear circle, and Abdul El-Sayed's "cars are modern day cigarettes" and uncommitted past in the Michigan Senate race against Mike Rogers Macro versus pocketbook economics, JD Vance's "give us more time" message, and Democrats attacking George W. Bush for campaigning for Susan Collins, Dan Sullivan, and Mike Rogers

Erick Erickson says America needs litmus tests for crazy, starting with the Last Ditch lesbian bar in Greenfield, Massachusetts, where critics cried ableism and eugenics when the struggling bar dropped its N95 mask mandate one night a week, and moving to Bill Burr's defense of Luigi Mangione, Tyler Robinson and Charlie Kirk, and transgender athletes in girls sports. Then Erick explains why Xi Jinping is a real totalitarian, unlike Donald Trump, as the Chinese dictator arrives at Joint Base Andrews believing he can make Trump cave on Taiwan, plus the Paramount Warner Bros merger meltdown at CNN and the AI bubble coming for online retail. The Last Ditch lesbian bar mask mandate fight in Greenfield, Massachusetts, the "intersectional" backlash, and the Boston Globe's record breaking story Litmus tests for crazy: Luigi Mangione and Brian Thompson, Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle, Tyler Robinson and Charlie Kirk, Lindsay Clancy, masks in 2026, and kids transitioning Xi Jinping's visit, his purge of Chinese generals, Uyghur concentration camps, a declining Chinese economy and birth rate, and the fight over Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, and Japan Trump versus a true totalitarian: court losses on tariffs, birthright citizenship, and banning CNN and Politico from the White House pool The Paramount Warner Bros deal, Bari Weiss, Kara Swisher, a 90 day diesel export ban, and Amazon blocking Meta's AI shopping agent as Wall Street sees an AI bubble

Erick Erickson explains why Meta's new AI agent Muse, the number one app in the Apple App Store, has Amazon blocking it and Wall Street dumping bank, insurer, telecom, and travel stocks, and why he is fine with AI agents canceling unused subscriptions and hunting down better deals even as a Financial Times study finds ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and Grok get financial questions wrong most of the time. Then, with the 10 year Treasury yield at a 19 year high, Erick plays Rand Paul on CNBC blaming both parties for the national debt, warns of stagflation and a bipartisan fiscal cliff Mitch McConnell predicted, and asks listeners to pray for Ben Sasse after his liver surgery. Meta's Muse AI agent: Amazon blocks it from shopping, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Allstate, and Charles Schwab shares slide, and Goldman Sachs flags telecom, insurance, and utilities as "consumer inertia" stocks at risk AI agents versus Main Street retail: Amazon's ad business, Walmart, Barnes and Noble, Blick, and why Erick misses browsing a real store, plus Apple's new Siri agent on the iPhone Financial Times study: AI chatbots give wrong answers to money and tax questions 57 percent of the time, with Claude Opus 5 the best performer at about 60 percent Rand Paul on CNBC: warfare and welfare spending, deficits causing inflation and the affordability crisis, tariffs, the 10 year Treasury yield, entitlement reform, Social Security and Medicare, and Mitch McConnell's warning that both parties will go off the cliff together The White House denies a diesel export ban as Chris Wright seeks voluntary help from the oil industry, and Erick shares an update on former Senator Ben Sasse's surgery and fight with pancreatic cancer

Erick breaks down President Trump's speech to the United Nations General Assembly, from calling the International Criminal Court a rogue institution and an evil group of people, to the Iran ultimatum (a deal or annihilation, with no thought given to the midterms), to the moment the Cuban delegation walked out. Then a searing hour on Canada's MAID program and the death of 83 year old Brigitte Stegman, a Christian grandmother who told her family she had made a mistake two days before doctors killed her. Plus Marco Rubio made permanent as national security advisor, Zelensky laying white roses at the 9/11 memorial, and why deregulating natural gas in 1993 proved the free market right. Trump at the United Nations: the International Criminal Court, UNESCO, a 15 percent UN budget cut, and no global carbon tax on his watch Iran ultimatum from the UN podium, plus Marco Rubio on diesel prices, the Black Sea, and the Houthis The Cuban delegation walks out as Trump ties Havana to the Communist Party USA, Antifa, and the DSA, and celebrates the capture of Nicolas Maduro Canada's MAID program: Brigitte Stegman's family speaks out, one in every 20 Canadian deaths is now physician assisted, and Erick's theological case against a culture that has stopped respecting life Marco Rubio commissioned permanently as national security advisor, and the 1993 natural gas deregulation that liberals like Mario Cuomo admitted they got wrong

Erick takes apart the online outrage machine after Converse pulled a Chuck 70 ad over absurd claims that a K-pop star's photo evoked a KKK hood and a lynching, and explains why Nike's habit of apologizing to the white wokes helped drop it out of the S&P 100 for the first time since 1998. Then the mob turns on Taylor Swift for cheering her husband Travis Kelce during the Chiefs' 33 to 30 win over the Colts, Rick Jackson's brutal 2020 riot ad flatlines Keisha Lance Bottoms in the Georgia governor's race, and General Motors delivers Patriot missile housings to Lockheed Martin just 22 days after signing the contract. His thesis all hour: the only way to play the outrage game is to refuse to play it. Converse pulls the Karina Chuck 70 ad instead of saying "we did nothing wrong," and Nike falls out of the S&P 100 for the first time since 1998 Taylor Swift cheers Travis Kelce and gets attacked for it, plus Brad Wilcox and the Institute for Family Studies data on masculine husbands and happy marriages Rick Jackson's ad guts the Keisha Lance Bottoms campaign in the Georgia governor's race, and why Ken Paxton and Mike Collins should stop running AI drivel General Motors retools a car plant and delivers Patriot missile housings for Lockheed Martin in 22 days, beating subsidized General Dynamics without a dime of industrial policy Trump at Gracie Mansion with Zohran Mamdani, GM walking back the Apple CarPlay decision, and Nikole Hannah-Jones on standardized tests

Erick Erickson walks through the economic war on Iran, with Brent and West Texas crude back below $100, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC detailing five new sanctions authorities that shut down Iranian airlines worldwide and closed branches of Egyptian, Turkish and Russian banks, and Wall Street Journal reporting on the US Navy blockade, stranded truckers at the Pakistani and Afghan borders, and Iran's paranoia after the Hezbollah pager operation. He covers record diesel at $6.31 a gallon, JP Morgan admitting it has no model for the endgame, Steve Moore's deregulation case, and the breaking news that the Trump administration is weighing a diesel export ban. Then former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin joins to explain the Education Freedom Tax Credit and why 20 governors still have not opted in, and Erick closes on the Associated Press tying a Mississippi killing to lynchings and on Senator John Curtis demanding an investigation of the Don Jr. wedding. Iran under blockade: Scott Bessent on CNBC, aviation and maritime and crypto and gold sanctions, three sanctioned banks, and the September 23 shutdown of Iranian airlines worldwide Oil below $100, diesel at an all time high of $6.31, gasoline at $4.37, JP Morgan saying it has no baseline view, and the Trump administration studying a diesel export ban that failed for Jimmy Carter Iran's self sabotage at the Pakistani, Afghan, Turkmen and Turkish borders, the Hezbollah pager operation behind the paranoia, new long range Iranian missiles, and Chinese help replenishing them Glenn Youngkin on Empowering America's Parents, the $1,700 dollar for dollar federal tax credit, 30 states in and 20 out, Kathy Hochul and Jared Polis opting in, Josh Shapiro holding out, and Rick Jackson versus Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia The Associated Press tying the murder of Tasia Fortune to Southern lynchings after a black suspect was arrested, plus Senator John Curtis pushing an investigation of the Russian oligarch who funded the Don Jr. wedding

Erick opens on the Nikole Hannah-Jones piece in the New York Times Magazine, where the 1619 Project author admits she sent her own daughter into a failing New York City public school as an act of collective good, then watched the girl move to a better high school and discover she had never actually learned algebra. Fresh off his debut on ABC's This Week, Erick lays out the three things Donald Trump must do before the midterms: go quiet, kill every tariff, and finish Iran. Plus the networks suspending the White House pool, a $35,000 per pupil system that cannot teach long division, and why Republicans on the ground are in all hands on deck panic. Nikole Hannah-Jones, the 1619 Project, and the New York Times Magazine confession that her daughter's school failed her The case against public schools: teachers unions, no homework, Algebra for All, and New York City at $35,000 per pupil losing to Mississippi at $10,000 Erick's three-step plan for President Trump: disappear from social media, take all tariffs to zero, and arm the rebels inside Iran Midterm panic: Democrats up 8.1 on the generic congressional ballot, Republican consultants predicting a House and Senate sweep, and why Erick still thinks the polling overstates it ABC This Week debut with John Karl, Frank Luntz, Donna Brazile and George Will, plus the networks suspending White House pool coverage over the CNN ban

Oil slips under $100 a barrel on talk of negotiations, but Erick Erickson argues the Iran story is Groundhog Day: the extremist faction now running Tehran has no interest in talking, is rebuilding its missile shield with Chinese technology, and is betting it can outlast Donald Trump until Democratic socialists gut the war. He walks the map of the world's great choke points, the Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandeb, the Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal, explains how the Houthi seizure of Perim Island closes the Red Sea, and makes a blunt proposal: buy drones from Ukraine, which will build over 5 million this year while America builds fewer than 100,000, and finish the job. Then a Cobb County mother named Harper calls with the story of a straight-A middle schooler who drowned in honors classes, and Erick returns to his most radical idea, abolishing public schools altogether. Iran's extremist faction consolidates power, pushes out its own president, and rebuilds its missile shield with Chinese help while Marco Rubio's warning looks prescient The choke point map: Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandeb, Perim Island, the Strait of Malacca, the Singapore Strait and the Suez Canal, plus Brad Thor's new book Choke Point Why the Saudis and Emiratis cannot fight the Houthi themselves, and the Cold War era security guarantee that keeps Gulf militaries small Buy Ukrainian drones: Ukraine builds over 5 million, all of NATO under 500,000, the United States fewer than 100,000, and the Flamingo missile strikes on Moscow Harper in East Cobb, the honors class gap, Mississippi outperforming California and New York, and Erick's case for one room schoolhouses, classical Christian education and abolishing public schools

Erick Erickson plays a new Great Lakes PAC ad in which David Beamer, father of Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer, confronts Abdul El-Sayed over his refusal to disavow Hassan Piker's claim that America deserved 9/11, and calls it one of the most powerful spots of the cycle. Before that, a full teach-in on vertical and horizontal federalism and the case every American should be watching, Suncor Energy v. Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County, where Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers is fighting a Colorado theory that would let one county regulate emissions produced anywhere on earth. Then Lincoln Public Schools, where the district quietly hired an LGBTQ+ advocate with a Luigi Mangione shirt while only 55 percent of its third graders read at grade level. Vertical and horizontal federalism explained: Article I Section 8, the plenary police power of the states, why Washington could not lock down your state during COVID, and Erick's case for repealing the Seventeenth Amendment Suncor Energy v. Boulder County at the Supreme Court: Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, Exxon Mobil, more than 30 climate liability suits from California, Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota and New York, and a Colorado dissent warning that Boulder now acts as its own republic The Michael Bloomberg funded State Energy and Environmental Impact Center at NYU Law shuts down under congressional scrutiny after placing climate fellows inside Democratic attorneys general offices David Beamer, Todd Beamer and Flight 93 versus Abdul El-Sayed and Hassan Piker in the Great Lakes PAC ad, plus Erick on the week's critics who answered his column with insults instead of rebuttals Lincoln Public Schools hires an LGBTQ+ advocate alongside a Latinx student advocate while third grade proficiency sits at 55 percent, and Erick's case that indoctrination has replaced instruction

Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday with the Democratic pivot nobody expected: Lindsay James running ads on girls sports in Iowa's second district, James Talarico backing off in Texas, and Democrats all over the map fleeing open borders and defund the police with forty days left before the midterms. Then a caller on the Lindsay Clancy mistrial sets Erick off, and he makes the case that the lone Haitian American juror who refused to be browbeaten is the hero of the whole story. Plus the real driver behind gas prices at the pump, why Ken Paxton still has a path in Texas while Republicans quietly pull money out of Georgia, and Erick's Sunday debut on ABC's This Week with Donna Brazile and Frank Luntz. The Democratic pivot on 80/20 issues: Lindsay James in Iowa, James Talarico in Texas, and the sleight of hand hiding inside "boys should not be in girls sports" Why the polling may be wrong again: the "who do you think will win" metric, Sean Trende, and the 2014 Pat Roberts lesson in Kansas The Lindsay Clancy mistrial: juror anonymity, the harassment of the lone holdout, and jurors who wanted to send a message about postpartum instead of reaching a verdict Diesel, not crude, is driving gas prices: the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi supply, Brent at 103, and the coming hit to groceries and Northeast heating oil Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas, Mike Collins versus Jon Ossoff in Georgia, and where the national money is quietly going

Erick Erickson spends the back half of Open Line Friday on two collapses. Nike, the company named for the Greek goddess of victory, has been dropped from the S&P 100 after almost 18 years, having wiped out more than 200 billion dollars in market value since its 2021 peak, and Kylian Mbappe just walked away to On, the Swiss brand that hired Thierry Henry to run its entry into soccer. Erick argues the Colin Kaepernick lectures and the direct to consumer gamble did the damage the business press will not name, then turns to a New York Times guest essay arguing the University of California should stay away from the SAT, which sets up his case that poor black kids in Mississippi are out reading and out scoring rich kids in California. TOPICS Nike drops out of the S&P 100 after 18 years: more than 200 billion dollars in market cap gone since November 2021, Greater China sales down 17 percent, and CEO Elliott Hill trying to rebuild the wholesale relationships the company burned Kylian Mbappe leaves Nike for On, the Swiss sportswear brand that brought in Thierry Henry as director of football, and what Colin Kaepernick, the ad strategy and the direct to consumer pivot cost the brand The New York Times guest essay by Miriam Pawel on why the University of California should not bring back the SAT, and the sentence Erick cannot get past: students who struggle with basic math but graduate at record rates Why Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana are beating California on reading and math scores: phonics, accountability, and the teachers unions that pushed whole word curriculum instead Open Line Friday callers on oil and impeachment: why America pumps more crude than anybody on earth but refines heavy crude instead of sweet crude, and why we cannot decouple from the global price

Erick Erickson closes Open Line Friday with the fight that earned him death threats this week. He plays Hassan Piker telling Axios the Middle East would be more stable with an Iranian nuclear weapon, watches Jake Tapper and Abby Phillip try to make Tucker Carlson the right wing mirror image of a man Tucker just endorsed in Michigan, and then walks through Charles Haywood, the shampoo millionaire whose foundationalist manifesto, praise for Francisco Franco and whites only Society of American Civic Renewal are quietly buying their way into conservative boards and church bodies. Then breaking news from the Department of Justice: the federal ban on handgun sales to 18 to 20 year olds is unconstitutional and will no longer be enforced. Plus F-35 stealth components that disappeared into Hong Kong, and callers on assimilation, refineries and six dollar diesel. Hassan Piker on Axios saying Iran has a right to nuclear weapons and citing John Mearsheimer, why Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers make Michigan the test case, and Jason Crow refusing to say whether he would campaign with him Abby Phillip and Scott Jennings on CNN, and why calling Tucker Carlson the right wing Hassan Piker misses that Carlson has endorsed El-Sayed and wants Donald Trump impeached Charles Haywood, American Reformer, the Center for Baptist Leadership and the Society of American Civic Renewal: the foundationalist manifesto, the praise for Thomas Rousseau and the Patriot Front, and Chris Rufo's "no enemies to the right" debate Breaking: the Office of Legal Counsel finds 18 U.S.C. 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) inconsistent with Heller and New York State Rifle and Pistol Association versus Bruen, so DOJ will stop enforcing the handgun ban on 18 to 20 year olds F-35 canopy and stealth components bound for repair were rerouted from Australia to Hong Kong, Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon briefed Capitol Hill in June, and the parts have never been found Callers on the melting pot versus the salad bowl, Lee Zeldin at EPA unwinding refinery regulations, sweet crude versus sour crude, and diesel at $6.25 against an inflation adjusted $3.59 at the peak of the 1979 crisis

Erick Erickson opens on the Axios interview in which Twitch streamer Hasan Piker says the United States is worse than Al Qaeda pound for pound, and traces how Democrats built Piker into their answer to Joe Rogan before trying to walk it back. He ties Piker to Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who deflects criticism of Sharia law as white supremacy and argues breast cancer research is overfunded because of white privilege, and to Michigan congressional nominee William Lawrence, who wants to abolish single family homes and heterosexual marriage. Then Erick turns the same spotlight on his own side, calling for the Republican Party to purge the white nationalists and Nazi sympathizers before independent voters decide both parties are crazy. Hasan Piker tells Axios that America has caused more terror than Al Qaeda, while the Democrats who elevated him into fawning New York Times and Vanity Fair profiles now claim he is just a live streamer Abdul El-Sayed on Sharia law, white privilege and breast cancer research, with Senator John Kennedy calling him a socialist and Mark Short pushing back on Karen Finney's racism defense William Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in Michigan 7, wants to abolish single family homes and heterosexual marriage to break what he calls the heteronormative patriarchy Maria Elvira Salazar runs a Spanish language ad in a Trump plus 15 Florida district breaking with the president on immigration enforcement, the real red flag for the GOP midterms Harry Enten's polling math on a two to four point Republican polling miss, JD Vance's "the other party is consumed by craziness" message, and Erick's call to purge the Charles Haywood white nationalists from the right

Erick Erickson devotes the hour to Greta Gerwig's new Chronicles of Narnia, beginning with The Magician's Nephew, and the decision to have Meryl Streep voice Aslan. He walks through why Aslan is C.S. Lewis's Christ figure, from the stone table in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, and argues that one small change guts the entire Christian allegory even if the movie sells tickets. He also defends Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey against critics on the right, and closes with a personal tribute to Dauvey Eisner. Greta Gerwig's Chronicles of Narnia reboot starts with The Magician's Nephew, and Meryl Streep voices a female Aslan, which Erick calls missing the point out of the gate Why Aslan cannot be female: the stone table, the resurrection at sunrise, the torn temple curtain parallel, and the line where Aslan tells the Pevensie children he has another name in their world C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, the Oxford pub, Mere Christianity, and how Tolkien brought Lewis to Christianity but only as far as Anglicanism Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey defended: not a feminist translation, not an immigration parable, but Christian allegory about the West abandoning the golden rule A tribute to Dauvey Eisner, the Jewish convert to Catholicism who championed the poor, the disabled and the pressured to accept euthanasia, and who encouraged Erick for years before Erick ever knew he used a wheelchair and a ventilator

Erick Erickson turns his equal opportunity offending on the left, taking apart Congressman Thomas Massie's House floor claim that Israel committed a genocide in Gaza, and arguing that what happened was a war Hamas started on October 7th, not a genocide. He walks through the New York Times piece on Israel viewing itself as a victim, the Macklemore antisemitism fight that got the rapper booted from Robert Kraft's Gillette Stadium and left Ed Sheeran's tour in limbo, and the Ms. Rachel YouTube backlash, then makes the theological argument that antisemitism comes from the devil and that no Christian can hate the Jews. He closes the hour on Constitution Day with a defense of compromise, federalism and gridlock, plus breaking news on a proposed U.S. Army base in Poland and Marco Rubio's new round of Cuba sanctions. Thomas Massie's genocide claim on the House floor, and Erick's argument that Massie let his critics radicalize him into contrarianism and antisemitism after 2016 Why there was no genocide in Gaza: October 7th, the murder and torture of Israelis, Israel's warnings before entering Hamas strongholds, and the Hamas leadership that stole food from its own people Macklemore dropped by Gillette Stadium and Robert Kraft over antisemitic stage material, performers walking out on Ed Sheeran, and the Ms. Rachel indoctrination backlash Antisemitism as sin: Christ was a Jew, not a Palestinian, and Erick's Calvinist framing that to hate any race is to be of the world and not of God, aimed at the Nazis on the right as much as the progressives on the left Constitution Day, September 17, 1787: the three fifths compromise, the great compromise, Article I and the power of the purse, Yuval Levin's American Covenant and Casey Mattox on Federalist 10, the Lindsey Graham Russia sanctions bill, the Loper Bright ruling on Chevron, and why gridlock is a feature and not a bug Breaking news: a forward operating U.S. Army base in Poland with President Karol Nawrocki, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio sanctioning 11 more Cuban entities over nickel and military capability under Executive Order 14404  

Erick names the names. He walks through his newsletter on Charles Haywood, the shampoo magnate turned self described would be warlord whose money runs through the Claremont Institute, the Society for American Civic Renewal, American Reformer, New Founding and American Moment, and who is funding a push into the Southern Baptist Convention, the PCA and the Global Methodist Church. Then the economy turns ugly: oil over $100 a barrel, diesel near $6.22 a gallon, and a Federal Reserve under Kevin Warsh widely expected to raise interest rates. Charles Haywood, the "foundationalist manifesto," and the call for an American Caesar Claremont Institute money, the Society for American Civic Renewal, Nate Fisher, American Reformer, William Wolfe and the Center for Baptist Leadership Carl Schmitt's friend and enemy politics, the twisting of "love your enemies," and the "no enemies to the right" doctrine Bo French, Jack Posobiec and Benny Johnson attacking Indian American kids in Texas, and why it is racism Oil over $100, diesel near $6.22, the Strait of Hormuz, Patriot and THAAD interceptor burn rates, and an expected Fed rate hike A caller on energy independence: why America exports record oil but cannot refine its own sweet crude

Erick breaks down the numbers in the Georgia governor race, where Republican Rick Jackson has reserved $40.5 million in ad time against Keisha Lance Bottoms and her $42,000, and calls Jackson's foster care and Atlanta riot spots the best political ads of the cycle. Then to Michigan, where Mike Rogers is sitting on opposition research that has Abdul El-Sayed in his own words saying the government overfunds breast cancer research, and to Texas and Florida, where James Talarico and Angie Nixon are handing Republicans the tape. Plus callers on Iran's enriched uranium buried under Pickaxe Mountain, why America cannot refine its own sweet crude, and Saudi Arabia firing a Chinese made Dongfeng missile in Yemen. Rick Jackson's $40.5 million ad reservation versus Keisha Lance Bottoms' $42,000, and why the Georgia governor race is not close on money Why Jackson's positive foster care ads let his negative Atlanta riot ads land without raising his own negatives Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed, and the coming breast cancer research attack aimed at Michigan's white women voters James Talarico's AI generated attack ads in Texas versus Florida Republicans simply rolling tape on Angie Nixon and David Jolly's money problem Iran's enriched uranium under Pickaxe Mountain, Kharg Island, the Bab al-Mandab choke point, and Brad Thor's "Choke Point" Sports betting's spread through ESPN and golf, the 59 percent checking account gap, and Sydney Sweeney's newest ad controversy

Breaking news opens the hour: the Federal Reserve under Chairman Kevin Warsh votes 12 to 0 to raise interest rates a quarter point, the first hike in more than three years, with the dot plot signaling another to come and the inflation target pushed out to 2029. Erick Erickson then turns to the horseshoe theory tying together the Nazi curious weirdos on the right and the effective altruism crowd at Anthropic who want you to worry about the wellbeing of AI chatbots, and why both groups are really just asking to be put in charge of your life. Plus Xi Jinping appearing to fall ill at the BRICS summit in India, the purge of his own generals, Mitch McConnell's decline, and Susie Wiles announcing she is cancer free. The Federal Reserve's unanimous 12 to 0 quarter point rate hike, the 3.75 to 4 percent target range, Kevin Warsh declining to submit a dot, and PCE inflation now projected at 3.7 percent Horseshoe theory in action: Charles Haywood and the American Reformer and Claremont Institute crowd on the right, the effective altruism movement and Dario Amodei's Anthropic on the left, and why both want to decide for your family Why Erick Erickson opposes AI regulation, how incumbents use regulation to kill competition, Mark Zuckerberg and Meta's quiet safety review, and why free market competition beats Chinese one party rule Xi Jinping's apparent health scare at the BRICS summit as Narendra Modi pauses his remarks, Gordon Chang's stroke speculation, the purge of Xi's own generals, and China's real estate and debt crisis Events, dear boy, events: Harold Macmillan's line applied to Vladimir Putin, Mohammed bin Salman, Iran, Mitch McConnell, Brian Johnson's quest to beat the clock, and Susie Wiles announcing she is cancer free

Erick makes the case that the AI safety panic is regulatory capture dressed up as the apocalypse: Anthropic, racing toward an IPO and burning cash on GPUs and data centers, wants Washington to freeze its competitors in place before open source models from Meta catch up. He plays Kara Swisher's nuclear nonproliferation analogy on CNN and dismantles it with the history of the China Syndrome, Three Mile Island, and the 100 nuclear plants America never built, then plays David Sacks calling Dario Amodei's bluff. The back half is a full teardown of effective altruism, the Sam Bankman Fried utilitarian cult now running AI safety, complete with shrimp welfare and a Beth Barnes TED talk. AI as a math equation, not a god: why the doomers keep building what they claim will kill us Anthropic's IPO, GPU costs, closed models versus Meta's open source, and regulation as a moat Kara Swisher's nuclear analogy, the China Syndrome, Three Mile Island, and the Soviet funded anti nuclear pivot to climate change David Sacks and JD Vance on the AI Trojan horse: if you believe it ends humanity, why are you running the company Effective altruism, Sam Bankman Fried, William MacAskill, Beth Barnes, and shrimp welfare as moral math, plus a preview of tomorrow's newsletter naming names on the right

Erick returns to Beau French and the Indian American Longhorns fans in Stetsons to argue that a legitimate grievance about H-1B visa abuse is being allowed to rot into racism, and he warns that America is walking the same road that produced the AfD and Europe's far right. Then a hard look at the numbers: the New York Times and Siena College poll has Democrats up 51 to 43 on the generic ballot, President Trump at 38 percent approval, 31 percent on the war in Iran and 28 percent on cost of living, with Nate Cohn drawing the 2006 comparison. The bond market is doing its own voting, with the 10 year Treasury yield at a 19 year high, the Dow off more than 400 points, and crude at 106 dollars a barrel. Beau French, the University of Texas, and why assimilated American kids became a target for the anti DEI right Europe's far right, no go zones, the British rape gangs, and what happens when elites refuse to fix immigration Real H-1B visa abuse: the Disney layoffs, universities importing cheap labor, the "unique skills" dodge, and Erick's own immigration law practice stories The New York Times and Siena poll, Nate Cohn's 2006 parallel, JD Vance campaigning in Kansas, and why Erick still says do not panic James Talarico on parents and gender transition, Ken Paxton, Susan Collins, John Sununu, and the redistricting red wall The bond market rejecting Washington, the 10 year Treasury at a 19 year high, and Anduril's drone challenge to Lockheed Martin and Raytheon

Erick opens on a religious liberty case the Supreme Court has just agreed to hear, and it is one he says he could not believe was real: University Heights, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, threatened Daniel Grand with jail, sent police to monitor his house, and encouraged neighbors to report "unauthorized prayer activity" after he tried to gather ten Orthodox Jews for a minyan on the Sabbath, with neighbors telling him "we don't want your kind here" because they feared the neighborhood would be labeled Jewish. He walks it back through Kelvin Cochran, the Atlanta fire chief fired over his Sunday school book, Jack Phillips and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and RLUIPA. The second half is the Supreme Court blocking the Trump administration's Postal Service ballot mail rule, with Erick taking the side of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett against Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, and asking Republicans a simple question: do you want Barack Obama's Postal Service holding a barcode that says this ballot belongs to this Republican? Daniel Grand, University Heights, Ohio, and a city using its police force to watch an Orthodox Jewish family for unauthorized prayer, now headed to the Supreme Court Kelvin Cochran, Jack Phillips, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Charlie Hebdo, and the argument from "You Will Be Made to Care" that the difference between the two persecutions is the sword The Postal Service ballot rule struck down: Alito and Thomas in dissent, four conservatives in the majority, and Erick's Lois Lerner and IRS warning about who controls the machinery next time A preview of tomorrow's newsletter naming the money behind the anti-Semitic turn on the right, the Franco admirers, and the effort to capture the Southern Baptist Convention and the Presbyterian Church in America John Kennedy grilling FBI Director Kash Patel over a hiring rule change on bestiality, plus breaking news: a Kansas man charged over threats to kill Ben Shapiro, a Russian murder for hire indictment in the Southern District of New York, and a disrupted ISIS plot in Philadelphia

Erick walks through regulatory capture in real time: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's "We Must Pace the Frontier" essay, the coordinated Jacob Coxson resignation rollout in the Wall Street Journal, and the Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar bill to create a cabinet level AI agency. He traces the money from Dustin Moskovitz, Open Philanthropy, and the Survival and Flourishing Fund back to the same people who own Anthropic, then explains why Meta and Mark Zuckerberg's open source models are the real competitive threat and why nobody is asking for strict liability. In the second half he takes apart Texas Railroad Commission candidate Beau French for a racist tweet about Indian American students at the University of Texas, and argues the right is repeating the identity politics mistake that cost the left two elections. Regulatory capture explained through AT&T and the FCC, the railroads and the Interstate Commerce Commission, the airlines and the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the insurance industry writing the Affordable Care Act The Jacob Coxson resignation, the Hugging Face incident, Anthropic, OpenAI, METR, and the donor network funding both the doomers and the companies demanding regulation Why Meta and Mark Zuckerberg's open models are the actual target, the Anthropic IPO, and why Anthropic and OpenAI want regulation instead of Hammurabi style strict liability Beau French, the Texas Railroad Commission, and the University of Texas photo: the real UT Austin demographic numbers, Greg Abbott's response, and the H-1B visa abuse that has a kernel of truth inside the race baiting Tropic Thunder, Kirk Lazarus, and the warning to Republicans chasing algorithm revenue, plus Tom Tiffany's plane crash landing in Lake Wausau and the Cowboys losing to the Giants

Erick opens with a progressive tech writer's essay about neighbors named Bob and Van, men whose politics never came up because politics was not the whole of life, and turns it into an argument that social media has catechized both parties out of normalcy. He plays Bill Maher's Real Time monologue on radical Islamism, Osama bin Laden's polling among young Americans, and the parallel between 2020 stolen election claims and Gaza genocide claims as tribal loyalty tests, then walks the Senate Leadership Fund's $25 million ad buy across seven states and explains what the missing Georgia money says about Mike Collins, Jon Ossoff, and the AI generated attack ad nobody asked for. He closes on Ken Paxton's AI generated James Talarico ad, Abdul El-Sayed's refusal to answer for Hasan Piker in Michigan, and President Trump lifting tariffs on Irish whiskey as a favor. TOPICS Where have all the normal people gone: the Bob and Van essay, Lindsay Clancy defenders on TikTok, Beau French and the University of Texas photo, and why normal people who work, watch football, and skip conventions still decide elections Bill Maher on Real Time: radical Islamism versus Western liberalism, one in five young Americans with a favorable view of Osama bin Laden, Luigi Mangione, and the stolen election and Gaza genocide as matching tribal loyalty tests Senate Leadership Fund drops $25 million across Ohio, North Carolina, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Alaska, with nothing for Mike Collins in Georgia and the Trump super PAC covering Texas instead The AI generated ad problem: the Ossoff ad calling him too pretty for office, Ken Paxton's AI James Talarico bible spot, and why using fake video when real video exists is political malpractice Abdul El-Sayed dodges on Hasan Piker in Michigan, John Sununu versus Chris Pappas puts New Hampshire in play, plus Irish whiskey tariff favors, the 10 year Treasury yield at 5%, Speaker Mike Johnson and David Sacks on AI regulation, and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson's step by step progress on crime

Erick Erickson takes a caller's tale of two Georgia ad campaigns, Rick Jackson's brutal and effective spots against Keisha Lance Bottoms versus the One Nation tax ads carrying Mike Collins against Jon Ossoff, and turns it into the central question of the 2026 midterms: a blue wave is coming, but is the red wall the GOP built taller than the wave? He stakes out his own call of a 10 to 15 seat Democratic House pickup with the Senate holding, walks through New Hampshire, Michigan, North Carolina, Maine, Texas, Iowa, and Kansas, and plays the Roger Marshall town hall where Republicans in the crowd, not just the progressive hecklers, start booing the moment he defends tariffs. In the back half he digs into the ProPublica report that a Russian oligarch quietly bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding, then explains in plain language why a $5,000 tariff dividend check would pour fuel on inflation right as the Federal Reserve decides whether to raise interest rates. The Georgia ad war: Rick Jackson defining Keisha Lance Bottoms on crime while she has no money to answer, the One Nation $2,100 tax increase ad against Jon Ossoff, why the Mike Collins makeup attack is political malpractice, and the Trafalgar poll showing Ossoff up 49 to 43 Blue wave versus red wall: Erick's 10 to 15 seat House call against Mark Halperin's 25, why the Senate map still favors Republicans in New Hampshire, Michigan, Iowa, Alaska, Nebraska, and Florida, and what a Democratic Senate would mean for JD Vance in 2028 Roger Marshall gets booed in Kansas by his own voters over tariffs, JD Vance campaigning in a state Republicans should not have to defend, the Real Clear Politics average showing a 50-50 Senate, and the 6.7 point Democratic generic ballot lead ProPublica reports Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev secretly bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding, Eric Trump says he has no idea who the man is, and why Erick still rejects the Russian stooge theory while calling this an unforced gift to Democrats Affordability is the number one issue: data center construction propping up the economy while driving concrete, aluminum, and chip prices up, the 50% tariff on Canadian lumber, nine straight months of wages trailing inflation, and why Erick says the $5,000 check is a Diocletian style mistake the Federal Reserve will have to clean up

On the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, Erick Erickson opens not with the news but with Welles Crowther, the 24 year old equities trader on the 104th floor of the South Tower who tied a red bandana around his face, carried an injured woman down 17 floors, and went back up the stairs again and again until he died alongside firefighters in the lobby. Prompted by a question from his daughter Evelyn about whether Americans have turned misery into a way of honoring the day, Erick draws a hard line between grieving and honoring, reads the names of the 2,977 dead, and argues that the unity of September 12 was cheap unity because fear is free. He revisits Todd Beamer and Flight 93, the 343 firefighters and 71 police officers, Article 5 of NATO, Cantor Fitzgerald's 658 employees, President Trump's posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for Crowther, and the algorithmic outrage industry that now profits from keeping Americans sorted into factions. Welles Crowther, the red bandana, the 78th floor sky lobby, and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation touring the South Tower stairwell as Trump awards him the Presidential Medal of Freedom Erick's answer to his daughter Evelyn: grief fades with time and is private, honor is public and chosen, and a country that only knows how to grieve on September 11 has made an idol of the day Why the post 9/11 unity was cheap: Gettysburg 1913, British poppies, the 2000 Florida recount, Jim Jeffords, and unity that only shows up when a building falls on your neighbors Todd Beamer, Flight 93, "let's roll," the Pentagon, Article 5 of NATO, and the 2,977 names Erick challenges listeners to scroll through Caller Mark in Jacksonville on why America came together after 9/11 and tore itself apart over COVID, plus Erick on Albany Georgia, the conspiracy theorists who still claim controlled demolition, and the algorithm that pays people to divide us Erick's own September 11 memory in a middle Georgia law office, the out of town lawyer who insisted the deposition go forward, Adam Milani and Oklahoma City, and the moment he stopped wanting to be a lawyer

Erick Erickson takes apart the Politico story out of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas claiming panic over the Senate map, siding with Chris LaCivita and walking through why a five point Democratic polling bias in September means Republicans in Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Maine, Alaska, and Texas are actually ahead, not drowning. Then the August consumer price index lands at 3.4 percent, Mark Zandi and Thomas Ryan warn the Federal Reserve may raise rates next week, the 30 year mortgage hits 6.76 percent, and Erick issues a direct challenge to President Trump: take every tariff to zero between now and Election Day and run the experiment. TOPICS The Politico "doom in Dallas" story, Meredith Lee Hill and Aaron Daugherty, and why Erick sides with Chris LaCivita over the anonymous Republican strategists The 2020 comparison: Lindsey Graham, Joni Ernst, Roger Marshall, and John Cornyn were all "toss ups" at this exact point and all won comfortably Erick's forecast: the GOP loses the House, loses Georgia and North Carolina, but holds the Senate, with Ken Paxton surviving in Texas and Susan Collins preferable to the unvetted alternative August CPI at 3.4 percent, gas up 27.4 percent, airline fares up 23 percent, and the Iran war as the energy shock economists including Joe Siedel at JP Morgan blame for it The tariff challenge to President Trump, wages running beneath inflation, the 10 year Treasury pushing mortgages to 6.76 percent, and why used car and auto insurance prices are the only things falling Caller Alan on broken trust, forty trillion in debt, and a country that has not felt this pulled apart since the Civil War

Erick Erickson closes the 25th anniversary of September 11 by playing the sound a camera crew heard at the World Trade Center that afternoon, more than 300 firefighter PASS device alarms sounding under the rubble, then turns the overwhelming weight of the news into practical advice out of Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Babylon: seek the welfare of the city in which you live, because Washington is not coming to help you. From there it is an Open Line Friday run through the Lindsay Clancy trial twist, where juror Paula Devlin told Gayle King on CBS that the lone holdout who wanted a guilty verdict was the only black man on the panel, plus Ted Cruz and Dave McCormick warning about a red green alliance of communists and Islamists at the Republican convention, President Trump's wardrobe jab at Ken Paxton, and the $5,000 Trump dividend that landed like a lead balloon with congressional Republicans. Erick ends where he began, with Welles Crowther, the red bandana, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The PASS device audio from Ground Zero, the 300 plus firefighters lost, and Erick's answer to feeling overwhelmed by inflation, China, Russia, Iran, the Sahel, and fentanyl all at once Jeremiah 29 and the Babylonian exile as practical living rather than theology: volunteer at the food bank, read to kids at the elementary school, spend money locally, know your city councilman, because Washington did not storm the towers and is not coming for you The Lindsay Clancy jury twist: juror Paula Devlin, Gayle King saying she has to sit with that, the white jurors who wanted not guilty by reason of insanity, and Erick's shot at the online racists who assumed the opposite Ted Cruz on the red green alliance, Dave McCormick on socialism returning from the dustbin of history, Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez laughing during the reading of the names, and the al Qaeda volunteer headed to Congress from New Jersey Why Israel has not finished the job in Iran: Erdogan, the Turks, the Kurds in northern Iraq, and a president who took his friend's phone call over the war plan President Trump on Ken Paxton's wardrobe, the $5,000 Trump dividend Congress does not want, caller Jim at 80 on his schizophrenic brother-in-law and the case for reopening Milledgeville and the mental institutions, and Welles Crowther climbing back up the stairs

Erick opens on President Trump's Dallas convention promise of a $5,000 "Trump dividend" to every adult citizen if Republicans hold the House and Senate, and calls it what it is: a bribe funded by the tariffs listeners are already paying, with JD Vance out on Fox News defending it. His counteroffer is zero income tax for married couples with kids earning under $200,000, money people keep instead of money the government prints and hands back. Then the real story of the hour, the Republican midterm message of common sense versus crazy, as James Talarico scrambles to walk back six genders and a non-binary God, Abdul El-Sayed runs from his 9/11 problem, John Fetterman cuts an ad for Dave McCormick, and a new Tony Fabrizio poll shows Talarico beating Ken Paxton in Texas by four. Trump's $5,000 dividend pitch in Dallas, the never-delivered $5,000 DOGE check, and why Erick calls it bribery and "unicorn farts" JD Vance on Brett Baier defending tariffs as the funding source, and Erick's rebuttal that American workers pay tariffs through flat wages and higher prices on beef, coffee and bananas The better plan: zero income tax on married couples with children under $200,000 instead of a Biden-style $2,000 COVID check that reignites inflation Common sense versus crazy: James Talarico backpedaling on SB 14, transgender surgeries for minors and "God is non-binary," plus his Charlie Kirk dodge Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed and the 9/11 attack line in Michigan, John Fetterman's ad for Dave McCormick, Jake Tapper on tied Senate races, and the Fabrizio poll red flag with Talarico up four on Ken Paxton

Erick opens with the hard economic numbers Republicans keep trying to spin past: the Atlanta Fed says a household now needs $124,674 a year to afford a median priced home against a median income just over $80,000, wholesale prices rose 0.4 percent in August with the producer price index running 5.4 percent annually, diesel surged 24.1 percent, and West Texas crude sits above $101 a barrel with Brent at $106. His argument is that President Trump should stop spinning and level with people, because Iran is deliberately wrecking the American economy to elect weak Democrats and win a nuclear weapon. Then the story of the hour: Erick walks through the case that Jacob Coxon's dramatic resignation from Anthropic after six weeks is not organic at all, but a funded operation to regulate American AI into oblivion. The Atlanta Fed housing math, the August producer price index, 24.1 percent diesel, oil over $100 a barrel, and why the Federal Reserve interest rate decision next week still points to a hike Trump's claim that the war ends immediately after the election, and Erick's case that Iran is holding the American economy hostage to install Democrats who will let them go nuclear Erick's frustration with the tariffs and the Canada trade war, and his pitch to blame Joe Biden's economy while running on common sense versus crazy The Jacob Coxon story: six weeks at Anthropic, a Wall Street Journal exclusive, a Twitter post 18 minutes later with 149 million views, and Anderson Cooper and Brett Baier interviews demanding an international body to control AI Following the money, from Extinction Rebellion and Newspeak to Jan Tallinn, the Survival and Flourishing Fund, Encode AI, the AI Policy Network, the AI Futures Project, Dustin Moskovitz and Bernie Sanders' bill to ban artificial superintelligence, with Elon Musk, Dylan Loomis and Parker Thayer questioning whether any of it is organic

Erick opens the final hour on Eva Moskowitz's Washington Post op-ed and the Success Academy lawsuit against New York education commissioner Betty Rosa, filed after the state blocked US News and World Report from reporting aggregate AP exam results, dropping one Success Academy high school from 11th in New York to 196th overnight. Then the news of the hour: the United Kingdom has formally requested the extradition of Andrew and Tristan Tate on 59 charges, including 15 counts of rape, and Erick names the right wing influencers who elevated them anyway. He closes on the eve of the 25th anniversary of September 11 with George W. Bush at Ground Zero, the 537 votes in Florida, the USA Today recount that would have cost Bush the presidency under his own hanging chad standard, and a hard argument about Islam, Charlie Hebdo, and the post liberal right. Eva Moskowitz, Success Academy charter schools and the federal lawsuit against Betty Rosa over New York hiding AP exam data, plus regents exams curved down to 29 of 82 raw points Teachers unions, whole word reading versus phonics as a revenue play, Mississippi outperforming California and New York, and the Georgia speaker pushing the Mississippi plan School choice, Bibb County school closings decided by race instead of academics, and Erick's defense of good teachers stuck babysitting kids the state forces through the door The United Kingdom's extradition request for Andrew and Tristan Tate, 42 charges against Andrew and 17 against Tristan, and the Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson wing that promoted them The 25th anniversary of September 11, George W. Bush's bullhorn moment and Yankee Stadium pitch, Bush versus Al Gore and the 537 votes, Saxby Chambliss beating Max Cleland, and why Erick says Islam as practiced is incompatible with Western free speech The post liberal right, Patrick Deneen, JD Vance's advisers, and Erick's case that attacking classical liberalism is socialism with a church pew

Erick opens the midterm stretch run by dismantling the Republican panic over Senate polling, using Patrick Ruffini's study of 3,312 polls showing Democrats are overstated by an average of 3.7 points, with the high water mark landing right at Labor Day. Then, as the Republican convention opens on the week of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, he argues the GOP should embrace the nationalized election and run on it, pointing to the Great Lakes PAC ad hitting Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race. Plus Trump's Presidential Medal of Freedom for the Man in the Red Bandana, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declaring "I am the house now." Patrick Ruffini's polling error data: Democrats overstated 3.7 points on average, 73 percent of polls, peaking at 5.9 in late July The 2020 echo: Lindsey Graham, Steve Bullock, Cal Cunningham, Roger Marshall, John Cornyn, Joni Ernst, Cindy Hyde-Smith, and every panic that fizzled Race by race averages in Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, with Ken Paxton and Michael Whatley the real trouble spots 9/11 at 25: Erick's daughter Evelyn on remembrance versus a macabre idol, TSA opening gate access again, and the Man in the Red Bandana Medal of Freedom Mike Rogers versus Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, the Great Lakes PAC ad, and Erick's case for nationalizing the election on 9/11 Scott Bessent at SMU: "I am the house now," the yen intervention, and the tripled Treasury buyback of 10 and 20 year notes

Erick opens hour two with survivors calling in on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, including Robert, who was on the 101st floor of the South Tower, and Greg, who listened over a squawk box as Cantor Fitzgerald went silent. Then he tears into the Trump administration's trade war of choice with Canada and the move to ban Bombardier jets, warning it puts Roger Marshall in Kansas, Susan Collins in Maine and Mike Rogers in Michigan at real risk two months before the election. He closes with a nuanced defense of Flock cameras paired with a hard line on facial recognition, and a blistering take on Anthropic researchers publicly claiming AI could kill humanity. Callers Robert and Greg on surviving 9/11, Aon's 176 dead, Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and a generation of kids with no memory of the world before Zohran-style progressives who say America deserved 9/11: Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, the "hurt people hurt people" line, and Erick's case for nationalizing the midterms on 9/11 The Canada trade war: the Bombardier ban, 2,000 Kansas jobs, Howard Lutnick sabotaging a done deal, Jamieson Greer, oil over $100 a barrel and the Dow down 300 Flock cameras defended and limited: no right to privacy in your license plate, but ban facial recognition in the public right of way and ban proactive alerts, with WSB TV's Brookhaven case of a family ticketed over stale insurance data Anthropic's Evan Hubinger and a departing researcher saying AI could kill all humans, and why Erick is not buying it: "I read the end of the book"

Erick opens hour three with the Wall Street Journal story on why returning online orders got hard, Lane Bryant restocking fees, shortened Macy's and Home Depot return windows, McDonald's killing free refills, and argues none of it is corporate penny pinching. It is what a low trust society looks like when a post Christian America abandons the ethics that made cheap trust possible. He then takes a caller on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, and delivers his sharpest attack yet on the JD Vance welfare proposal, calling it a plan to turn stay at home moms into welfare queens, before objecting to the Attorney General speaking at the Republican convention in Dallas. The Wall Street Journal on return fees: Lane Bryant, Zara, H&M, Uniqlo, TJ Maxx, Macy's cut from a year to 30 days, Home Depot's seven day window, and 68 percent of retailers now charging Why the low trust society explains it all: shoplifting, locked up razor blades at Target, dashcams, drivers in the left lane, Roman lawsuits as spectator sport, and Ross Douthat's post Christian right Caller Kathleen in Jacksonville on the 9/11 25th anniversary, never forget, and Erick on his daughter's question about where remembering ends and idolatry begins JD Vance and the Trump administration draft rule extending child care welfare to married couples: the $9,000 per child benefit, the $75,000 benefit cliff, and why dad cannot take the promotion and mom cannot take the part time job The Republican convention in Dallas: Erick's objection to the Attorney General and cabinet secretaries speaking at a partisan convention, plus LIV Golf filing Chapter 11

The post Labor Day panic has arrived, and Erick Erickson says the bad news is actually good news. He walks through the Real Clear Politics generic ballot average, Donald Trump's 36 to 39 percent approval, the two point Democratic polling bias, and the Senate map from Ken Paxton in Texas to Susan Collins in Maine, Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Mike Collins in Georgia. His verdict: Republicans probably lose seats, but there is no blue tsunami coming, and the billion dollars Trump is finally spending changes the math. Why Democrats always peak in summer polling, and why the averages settle after Labor Day Trump approval at 36 percent, the Iran war drag, and the AI worry numbers from Steve Kornacki Ken Paxton, the $10 million Texas rescue ad, and the Republican convention nobody may watch Susan Collins in Maine, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Michael Whatley in North Carolina, and national money pulling out of Georgia over Mike Collins The DSA conference, "the Democrats must be destroyed," and the GOP's 9/11 twenty fifth anniversary messaging opportunity

Erick Erickson takes apart the Trump administration's draft rule, championed by JD Vance, that would let married couples with a stay at home spouse collect roughly $9,000 per child from a Health and Human Services child care fund built in the 1990s to move single working mothers off welfare. His verdict: it is the Diet Coke of socialism, and you cannot beat the real thing. He walks the $75,000 income cliff, the promotions dad will never take, the marketable skills mom will never rebuild, and offers his own alternative: a $15,000 per child tax deduction with no cap, plus deducting local school property taxes for homeschool and private school families. The New York Times report on the JD Vance child care subsidy, the 870,000 families now on the program, and why redirecting money from single working mothers guts the whole point of 1996 welfare reform Congress never voted on it: Article I Section 8, the Necessary and Proper Clause, US v. Butler, and why judges will probably stop the end run around the legislature The $75,000 hard cap trap: two kids, $18,000 a year, a 10 percent raise dad cannot accept, and a couple stranded at 50 with no promotions and no marketable skills Erick's alternative to turning parents into welfare queens: a $15,000 per child tax deduction through age 18 (21 in college), no cap, plus deducting school property taxes for private and homeschool families Kevin Roberts and the post liberal Heritage Foundation, Lawrence Jones on Fox and Friends, the EBT card nanny state hypocrisy, and Reagan's "a choice, not an echo" Plus the Rams and 49ers flying 15,000 miles for a 10:35 a.m. Friday game in Melbourne, and the NFL's bet on supersonic travel  

Erick Erickson walks through the Wall Street Journal report that Iran's oil dollars are drying up, with no Iranian crude crossing the US Navy blockade since mid July and offshore stockpiles feeding China down from 90 million barrels to 29 million. His tell that the regime itself is cracking: the Ayatollah has had two London houses foreclosed on for missed mortgage payments, and the Iranian army is going unpaid and hungry. He also unpacks the new OECD PISA study showing a worldwide learning recession, and keeps taking apart the JD Vance stay at home parent child care subsidy. Wall Street Journal on the Strait of Hormuz blockade, Kpler tanker tracking, the collapsing Iranian rial, and the Ayatollah's two foreclosed London houses Victoria Coates on Fox, Scott Bessent on Operation Economic Outcast, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright on nine million barrels a day still transiting the Strait Why the IRGC and the regular Iranian army are different animals, and why hungry, armed, unpaid soldiers are how the Shah fell to Khomeini The OECD PISA study: reading down 28 points, math down 22 points since 2015, kids using AI to cheat rather than learn, and a Dark Ages comparison from Rome to the monasteries to the Renaissance More on the JD Vance child care plan turning stay at home moms into welfare queens while punishing married moms who work, plus callers on property tax exemptions for modest homes and whether Vance or Marco Rubio gets 2028 China's deflation, mortgage and real estate crisis, the sanctioned Turkish bank, and Canada helping on Iran even in the middle of a trade war

Erick Erickson defends the Lindsay Clancy jury against the online mob, walking through the one quirk of Massachusetts law that almost nobody on social media understands: Massachusetts is the only state where the prosecution must prove a defendant was sane beyond a reasonable doubt. Then the August jobs report lands at 162,000 new jobs, roughly three times what economists expected, and Erick explains why the good news may force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates instead of cutting them. Plus the Politico scoop on Republicans who do not want Donald Trump campaigning in their districts, and the CNN KFile dig on democratic socialist candidate Will Lawrence. Lindsay Clancy verdict: why the Massachusetts insanity standard, not jury solidarity, drove the outcome, and why Erick expects a mistrial and a retrial on manslaughter alone The exact Massachusetts model jury instruction on criminal responsibility, read on air, and why Erick says the Commonwealth could not meet it August jobs report: 162,000 jobs against expectations of 53,000, unemployment steady at 4.1 percent, upward revisions to June and July, and Kevin Hassett calling it four standard deviations above the mean The catch nobody is touting: wage growth still trails inflation, gas and diesel prices keep climbing, and tariffs are eating the raises Why maximum employment frees the Federal Reserve to fight inflation, and why the Dow, NASDAQ and S&P all fell on good news Politico beats the Journal, Post, Axios and Fox to the story: battleground Republicans telling Trump's team to stay out of their districts, and Erick's fix, run against the Democratic socialists instead

Erick Erickson opens football season with Ben Sasse's Wall Street Journal case for high school football as one of the last institutions still forming young men, then makes his own argument for keeping politics out of sports, out of movies, and out of your hamburger. He plays the viral supercut of the words Candace Owens cannot pronounce, takes a caller on Reza Pahlavi and whether the exiled Shah's son can actually lead a post-theocratic Iran, and reads new intelligence reporting that a more confident Iran is preparing to escalate around the Strait of Hormuz. Plus the Rick Jackson ad out of Georgia that Erick says shows Republicans exactly how to win this year. Ben Sasse in the Wall Street Journal: family, religion, work and war have faded, and why football is the character forming institution boys have left Why the NFL recovered from the Colin Kaepernick years and the NBA and WNBA did not, plus Steak n Shake MAGA meals and the politicization of the Odyssey movie, restaurants and food The Candace Owens mispronunciation account: bureaucracy, monstrosity, caricature, statute of limitations, price gouging, and the cream of the crop Caller question on Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Shah's son, his coalition of Iranian democratic parties, and why he still needs Washington and Israel to destabilize the regime first New York Times and Politico intelligence reporting on a more confident Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, 30 to 40 boats a night, 300 percent inflation, Patriot missile shortages, and unconfirmed reports of new launches Rick Jackson's Georgia governor ad: 800 foster kids whose college tuition he paid, why Erick was told not to raise it in the primary, and why running on your own record beats running on an endorsement

Erick Erickson tells the online right the hard truth about the SAVE Act: most Americans have no idea what it is, and no election bill is what stands between Republicans and November. He argues gas prices, wages trailing inflation and grocery bills are the real problem, then plays James Talarico on white privilege and blinders, Abdul El-Sayed telling Stephen A. Smith he wants a secure border while he abolishes ICE, and Michigan's Will Lawrence on ending heterosexual households. Plus the Missouri Supreme Court blowing up the state's congressional map 60 days out, Paul Ryan and Andrew Ross Sorkin on the debt, Social Security and the retirement age, and Mark Thiessen's plan to let Ukraine build its own Patriot interceptors. Why the SAVE Act is not a silver bullet: Erick's blunt case that voters have never heard of it, and that the midterm damage is about gas prices, wages beneath inflation and groceries, not election law The mitigation strategy for November: play the Democrats' own words back at them, James Talarico on blinders and white privilege, Abdul El-Sayed refusing to disavow Hassan Piker, and the "he's for you, they're for they/them" ad Erick wants resurrected Abolish ICE, explained: El-Sayed says ICE did not exist before this century, and Erick's answer that ICE is INS with a new name and a Homeland Security address Missouri Supreme Court redistricting mess: primaries already run on a 7 to 1 map, the general ordered back to the old 6 to 2 map, and Erick's equal protection argument for taking it to the US Supreme Court Entitlement reform as a second term legacy: Paul Ryan and Andrew Ross Sorkin on populism killing debt reduction, the automatic cuts coming by 2032, raising the retirement age, and a lame duck window after the midterms Ukraine, Iran and one privacy warning: Mark Thiessen's PAC-2 and PAC-3 co-production plan for Ukraine, "go finish Iran," and the Krebs on Security report that scans of 153 million driver's licenses are for sale on a Russian forum

Erick opens with a hot dog stand anecdote from New Way Weiners in Macon that matches the polling data: a Trump voter who is not angry, just disappointed, with diesel over six dollars a gallon. He walks through Karl Rove's Wall Street Journal warning that a Trump rally a day in October and an ad blitz built on the president himself will sink Republicans at 39.6 percent approval, then takes apart Joe Rogan's claim that ending poverty would end crime. Also: Sam Altman and Howard Lutnick at the G20 Asheville summit, the vitamin K shot panic, and the death of Gloria Steinem. Karl Rove's midterm warning: make 2026 about the Democrats, not Donald Trump Trump at 39.6 percent approval, the "they/them" ad, Troy Jackson in Maine and James Talarico in Texas Joe Rogan's poverty and crime take, and why the data does not back it Sam Altman and Howard Lutnick at the G20 Asheville statement on light touch AI regulation The algorithm versus AI: vitamin K shots, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and Gloria Steinem's death

Erick tracks the Iran war as Brent hits 95 dollars and West Texas crude hits 91, with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claiming the Strait of Hormuz is flowing and the regime is finished, while Iranian missiles hit Kuwait and possibly a hotel in Jordan. He then reports the growing revolt inside the Pentagon against Pete Hegseth after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's resignation, and lays out his full theory of why the Republican Party keeps nominating the runner up, which points to Ted Cruz in 2028 if JD Vance stumbles. Breaking at the end of the hour: Maria Bartiromo is out at Fox Business after 12 years. Iran escalation, the Strait of Hormuz, Chris Wright on 17 million barrels a day, Scott Bessent on the iron wall blockade Brent at 95 dollars, West Texas crude at 91, diesel over 6 dollars a gallon, and Howard Lutnick on tariffs and GDP Pete Hegseth losing the officer corps: Dan Driscoll resigns, Sean Parnell responds, House and Senate Republicans prepare tough questions Erick's theory of everything on the GOP: Dick Cheney, Reagan, Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and why Ted Cruz should be the 2028 nominee JD Vance, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and the anti-Semitism problem with southern evangelicals and the donor class Breaking: Maria Bartiromo out at Fox Business, speculation about White House Press Secretary  

Erick knocks down the viral photos of the rusted USS Abraham Lincoln as left wing propaganda, pointing to the HMS Hermes coming back from the Falklands in 1982 in worse shape, then takes a call from Tom, a Navy pilot's father who says the fleet is simply broken and that 62 percent of jet pilots and 58 percent of helicopter pilots will not re-up under Pete Hegseth. The hour turns to Tom Homan on Fox laying out three straight record breaking months of ICE arrests and the national security case against birth tourism from Russia and China, Marco Rubio sanctioning Raul Castro's grandson and Banco Exterior de Cuba, and Erick's question about why the ICE protests vanished exactly when Cuban money in American shell accounts got frozen. USS Abraham Lincoln rust photos debunked: HMS Hermes, the Falklands, and why every ship at sea corrodes Caller Tom on the broken Navy: General Dynamics maintenance contracts, MH-60 helicopters, and pilot attrition under Pete Hegseth Dan Driscoll out, General Randy George purged, and the Army drone program Hegseth sidelined without telling Donald Trump Tom Homan on record ICE deportation arrests in June, July and August, plus 25,000 to 30,000 birth tourism cases a year from Russia and China Marco Rubio sanctions the Castro financial network as the ICE protests quietly disappear Ayanna Pressley calls birth tourism enforcement great replacement theory, and the Michigan land acknowledgement that set Erick off

Erick returns from break with good scan news for his wife, then breaks down why Army Secretary Dan Driscoll walked into the White House, told President Trump how many generals and admirals Pete Hegseth had quietly purged, and resigned on the spot. He also takes on Laura Ingraham by name over her "never Trump" attack, walks through Harry Enten's numbers showing Republicans running ahead of Trump's own 37 percent approval, and explains why the first Secure America PAC ads are aimed at exactly the wrong voters. Dan Driscoll out at the Pentagon, the Washington Post readiness leak, and how many officers Pete Hegseth fired without telling the president Why the president's super PAC ads fail: Harry Enten's data on Trump's 37 percent approval, the generic ballot, and the Republicans who are not motivated Erick versus Laura Ingraham, the Dominion discovery text messages, and why he will never say privately what he will not say on air Ken Paxton, James Talarico, and the Texas Senate race: run on the opponent's own words, not on your own record Max Miller, Brian Poindexter, and the best campaign ad of 2026, plus Ann Richards' 1996 warning to Bill Clinton about campaigning on the past Post Labor Day polling shifts, summer's Democratic bias, and the case against leaving the mentally ill on the streets

Erick Erickson opens by answering Laura Ingraham's Twitter attack over his Ken Paxton column, then defends Amy Coney Barrett for siding with Clarence Thomas and Donald Trump in the 5 to 4 White House ballroom ruling while tearing apart John Roberts and his "aesthetic injury" dissent. The hour closes on the deadlocked Lindsay Clancy jury in Massachusetts, with Erick and attorney Chad from Montgomery arguing the prosecution overcharged the case and that jurors, not social media, should decide it. Ken Paxton trails James Talarico in Texas, outraised 10 to 1, and Erick answers Laura Ingraham's "never Trumper" attack with the 2020 Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani text messages Amy Coney Barrett sides with Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to let White House ballroom construction continue in National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation John Roberts dissents on "aesthetic injury" standing, and Erick argues the Chief Justice keeps making the Supreme Court more political every time he tries to keep it out of politics Every president since World War II wanted a ballroom: Erick calls it overbuilt and gaudy, but says it is the president's house and the historic preservation crowd has no standing to stop it Lindsay Clancy jury deadlocks after 80 witnesses and 300 exhibits, and Erick refuses to attack the nine women and three men, defending American juries and the insanity and manslaughter questions in play

Erick Erickson breaks with much of the right on Flock cameras, taking apart Ron DeSantis and his move to pull every license plate reader off Florida's state highways, and laying out three fixes he says beat an outright ban: prohibit facial recognition in public rights of way, mandatory prison sentences for police who abuse the system, and a private right to sue Flock Safety when it shares data a city told it to keep local. Caller Troy asks what "papers" actually means in the Fourth Amendment, and Erick walks through persons, houses, papers and effects, the Supreme Court holding that a license plate carries no expectation of privacy, and how the FBI already used cell phone tower data to build the January 6 cases without a single camera. The hour then turns to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shutting down 110 driving schools over English proficiency violations, illegal aliens holding commercial driver's licenses in California and New York, Ken Paxton, Lake America, and a personal update on ten years of a drug keeping Erick's wife alive with stage four lung cancer. Ron DeSantis moves to strip Flock cameras from Florida rights of way, and Erick argues the license plate readers have solved hundreds of thousands of crimes and recovered kidnapped kids and wandering dementia patients, while wondering aloud whether DeSantis is grabbing a populist libertarian lane ahead of JD Vance and Marco Rubio for 2028 Three fixes instead of a ban: ban facial recognition in the public right of way, mandatory minimum prison sentences for officers who abuse Flock Safety data, and a private right of action against Flock when it shares data across jurisdictions that opted out Caller Troy on the Fourth Amendment and the word "papers," with Erick explaining persons, houses, papers and effects, the Ben Franklin liberty and security quote everyone misuses, and why anyone can legally photograph your license plate from the roadside Sean Duffy shuts down 110 driving schools tied to 5,000 English proficiency violations, and Erick credits the Transportation Secretary on air traffic controller hiring and FAA GPS upgrades that Pete Buttigieg never delivered, while calling the new FAA ban on pre flight drinks pure nanny state Erick on Ken Paxton, James Talarico and being handed crap sandwiches by both parties, on Lake America as bot bait, on his Swedish grandfather learning English in Coral Gables, and on his wife hitting ten years on a stage four lung cancer drug she was given two years to survive

Erick Erickson walks the whole 2026 Senate map, refusing to back off his warning that Ken Paxton is a bad general election candidate against James Talarico in Texas, then breaks live news that Donald Trump has launched new strikes on Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz after Iran tried to mine the strait and fired eight missiles at an American base in Jordan. He takes apart Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan campaign, the Hasan Piker problem, the Charlamagne tha God appearance and the fireworks and asthma clip, and closes the hour explaining why he has changed his mind on whether Islam as it is being imported by groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR is compatible with the Western world. Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas: Erick says he called this race months ago, that independent voters decide Texas, and that Republicans should not drain the national budget saving Paxton when Michigan, New Hampshire, Maine, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska and Alaska are all in play Breaking during the hour: Trump announces strikes near the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for Iranian sea mines and eight missiles fired at a base in Jordan, with a warning that a much larger attack is waiting in the wings and "very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran" Abdul El-Sayed's campaign in trouble: Mike Rogers on offense, Debbie Wasserman Schultz refusing to clear him, the Hasan Piker campaign appearance he now calls "a streamer in California," a Jewish consultant hired for damage control, and his claim that fireworks cause asthma attacks and heart attacks Scott Jennings versus Abby Phillip on CNN over Laura Loomer, and Erick's answer: draw Jesus and nothing happens, draw Muhammad and people lose their heads, plus MEMRI clips of imams saying "Islam is the solution for the whole world" and "we will build America on Islam" Why Erick changed his mind, credited to Muslim friends who fled the Middle East and to Dr. Michael Youssef's book on the unholy alliance between progressivism and Islamism, with Hamtramck, Dearborn, the British rape gangs and El-Sayed's Muslim Brotherhood ties as the evidence, and a Jimmy Carr bit and a Jewish necktie joke as the illustration

Erick Erickson opens by explaining why the Iran war cannot be negotiated like a normal conflict: the Islamic Republic's Mahdiism means the Ayatollahs believe they must bring about the apocalypse. He then walks through Brett McGurk's argument that Iran is actually losing its leverage in the Strait of Hormuz, with oil flows back to two thirds of pre war levels and Iran's economy contracting more than 5 percent. The hour turns on the Washington Post leak of the Secretary of Defense orders book, in which Pete Hegseth was told by the Navy, European Command, Pacific Command and Southern Command that a prolonged Iran deployment cannot be sustained, and on why Erick believes the leak is a 2028 hit job aimed at Hegseth from inside JD Vance's orbit. Mahdiism explained: why Iran's rational belief in the apocalypse makes negotiation impossible Brett McGurk on the Strait of Hormuz blockade working, oil flows recovering, Iran's economy contracting more than 5 percent with 70 percent inflation The Washington Post orders book leak: Admiral Daryl Caudle says only one fourth of the Navy's destroyer fleet is ready to deploy Three leaks in a row (Patriot missiles, surface to surface missiles, the non concur) and how Iran reads American weakness Erick's 2028 read: JD Vance's team, Pete Hegseth eyeing a run, and a White House source insisting the leakers are civilians, not the military Scottie Scheffler wins at East Lake, and why Trump cannot remove a sitting vice president

Erick Erickson reads President Trump's Truth Social post warning that communities rejecting data centers will end up "backwards and poor," then explains why that is the wrong message and why JD Vance's more nuanced version is the right one. He walks through the history of populist movements from Huey Long to Zell Miller to argue that MAGA likely does not survive Trump intact, and he points out the irony that TikTok, which Trump still refuses to shut down, is the original vector for nearly every viral anti data center complaint about water usage, land use, and noise. In the second half he breaks down Trump's Venezuela oil deal in full, giving the President real credit for removing Nicolas Maduro and reopening the fields to Chevron and Halliburton while calling the Pentagon equity structure exactly what it is: socialism. Trump's Truth Social data centers post, "let data rain," and why "backwards and poor" is the wrong pitch to a skeptical country Populism's arc from Huey Long and Rose Long to Zell Miller, and why JD Vance may not hold the MAGA coalition together TikTok as the vector: how data center water usage, noise, and land use fears went viral, and why Trump could shut it down tomorrow Caller Mark in Jacksonville on Eisenhower's interstate highway system as the model for embracing data centers, plus Georgia power bills going down The Venezuela oil deal: 17 fields, 65 billion barrels, Delcy Rodriguez, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and a Pentagon 35 percent equity stake Erick calls rotten Why Hugo Chavez taking Exxon and ConocoPhillips fields at gunpoint in 2007 makes the colonialism complaint absurd, and why paperwork beats rifles

Erick discusses the progressive dystopia that is America as the Handmaid's Tale even as progressives like Kathy Hochul are willing to cover their heads to go talk to muslim men who'd deny them rights.  He also points out how the same standard the media is focused on between Hasan Piker and Abdul El-Sayed is playing out between Tucker Carson and J.D. Vance.  Erick also discussed Milo Yiannopoulos's deportation and how independent voters say they support the President's deportation of all illegal aliens, but, when rubber meets the road, they do not.

Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday on President Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America" and asks the obvious question: who exactly is switching their midterm vote over a lake? He then reports the real story behind the Canada trade war, that Jamieson Greer negotiated a deal both sides liked before Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sabotaged it over French language packaging, and warns it could cost Susan Collins in Maine and Mike Rogers in Michigan. Plus Trump's Arthur Schlesinger presidential rankings blunder, the data center backlash to the backlash, and 200,000 Chinese accounts shut down on Twitter. Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario, why no president should have that power, and the Iroquoian history of the name Jamieson Greer's Canada deal, Howard Lutnick's last minute sabotage, and the House and Senate races the trade war could sink Inside the White House: worry about a lame duck president, a Congress with no reconciliation message, and life after the midterms Trump's Truth Social presidential rankings, actually a 1940s Arthur Schlesinger Sr. list, with Woodrow Wilson "great" and Ulysses S. Grant a "failure" Data centers, unions like Steamfitters Local 602 breaking with Democrats over jobs, Greg Abbott's new ad, and China's 200,000 fake Twitter accounts Personal: Erick's daughter Evelyn turns 21, born the night Hurricane Katrina hit, and his AJC column on bringing back mental institutions

Erick Erickson uses the Callaway Golf and Good Good Golf blowup, a bad driver ad, a public apology, and a canceled partnership, to make a much bigger point about a country with no adults in the room, and he tells his own story of the tweet that nearly cost him CNN and how Rush Limbaugh became the mentor nobody else gave him. Then caller Randy asks why data centers do not go into empty strip malls and factories, and Erick gives the zoning and contamination answer from his Macon City Council days, plus the Effingham County build that is actually pushing Georgia Power rates down. He closes with hard advice for Flock Safety on license plate readers, facial recognition, and the abuse stories piling up. Callaway Golf, Good Good Golf, Matt Kendrick, and the Obsession themed driver ad that blew up, with Dude Perfect as the counterexample of growing up right Where the adults went: Erick on his own infamous tweet, apologizing for years, and emailing Rush Limbaugh at three in the morning for advice Caller Randy from Macon on repurposing empty big box stores for data centers, and why blank slate land at three to four thousand an acre always wins The Effingham County, Georgia mega data center, reportedly for OpenAI, and Georgia Power cutting rates because the facility pays its own way Flock Safety under fire: the Texas town that voted the cameras out, license plates versus facial recognition, and the mandatory minimum Erick would write into law Personal: daughter Evelyn's 21st birthday, his parents' 62nd wedding anniversary, Leif Erickson, and the great kitchen hardware negotiation

Erick Erickson closes Open Line Friday with major Iran news, reporting from Axios and Barak Ravid that the United States has broken Iran's grip on the Strait of Hormuz, plus the full CENTCOM update from Admiral Brad Cooper on the minesweeping operation, the naval blockade, and the 750 million barrels of crude the Navy has escorted through. He breaks news live that Chevron and Halliburton are investing billions in Venezuela's oil fields and directing that flow to the United States, a huge win he credits to President Trump, then covers Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh at Jackson Hole warning that rates could go up in September. The hour ends with a long, moving tribute to Dolly Parton, the only American with 80 percent approval from both Republicans and Democrats, and a hard word for the Christians online claiming she is in hell. Topics: Iran and the Strait of Hormuz: Alireza Tangsiri's mine order, the US and UAE reopening the shipping lanes, and only 11 real mines out of 200 objects swept Admiral Brad Cooper's CENTCOM update in full: 50,000 troops, 20 warships, 1,500 commercial vessels escorted, zero Iranian oil exported since the July blockade resumed Why Erick does not believe Xi Jinping or the Russians will cut Iran loose, and the theology of why secular communists and radical Islamists ally against America Breaking: Chevron, Halliburton, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips circling Venezuela's oil fields, with all flows directed to the United States Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh at Jackson Hole, inflation still above target, and markets falling on the odds of a September rate increase The Dolly Parton tribute: Appalachia, the literacy programs, turning down the Presidential Medal of Freedom from both Trump and Biden, Tressie McMillan Cottom and Peggy Noonan on her legacy, and the Hitler exception Callers Al in Oklahoma on pulling data center water out of the air, and Jim in Orlando telling the president to stop acting like an idiot before November

CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise trip to Moscow to warn Vladimir Putin off any attack on NATO, and hours later Latvia declared a border emergency and sent troops to its frontier with Russia and Belarus. Erick Erickson walks through the Wall Street Journal exclusive, the near extinction of America's Patriot missile batteries, and why the Pentagon never told Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman to ramp up production. Then a blistering segment on Mike Collins, the Georgia Senate race, and a Republican campaign staffed by white nationalists and Holocaust deniers while John Ossoff cruises. John Ratcliffe in Moscow, the Wall Street Journal exclusive, Steve Witkoff, Dmitry Peskov, and the NATO warning to Vladimir Putin Latvia declares a border emergency as Russia probes the Baltics, with Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden all watching The missile shortfall: Patriot batteries nearly gone, the defense primes never told to ramp up, and Ukraine outproducing all of NATO on drones five million to under one hundred thousand Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea learning how to learn from each other, with Ukraine as the axis test bed Mike Collins, the Nazi twink consultant, the Holocaust denier group chat, and why Erick says the GOP handed John Ossoff a second term Ben Domenech on GOP infighting, plus Ken Paxton, James Talarico, Rick Jackson, and Keisha Lance Bottoms

Erick Erickson maps the midterm Senate landscape after President Trump tells voters to "pretend I'm on the ballot," with Karoline Leavitt's last day as press secretary, a $400,000 a head Houston fundraiser for Ken Paxton, Abdul El-Sayed scrambling to distance himself from Hassan Piker in Michigan, and a democratic socialist surging against Chris Pappas in the New Hampshire primary while the GOP sleeps through it. Then a raw, emotional hour on the Lindsay Clancy trial, where Erick refuses both the men who deny postpartum depression is real and the women online insisting a mother could never strangle her three children. Callers Carol, Dwayne, Liz, and Krista weigh in on Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, and where mitigation ends and responsibility begins. Trump's "pretend I'm on the ballot" plea to Trey Gowdy, Karoline Leavitt's exit, and the Houston money chase for Ken Paxton The Senate map: Republicans confident on Michigan, Iowa, Susan Collins in Maine, and Florida against Angie Nixon, worried about Ken Paxton, Michael Whatley in North Carolina, and Mike Collins in Georgia Abdul El-Sayed versus Hassan Piker, Mike Rogers, and why Democratic strategists are telling donors to stop funding Florida and Texas New Hampshire's overlooked opening: Chris Pappas collapsing against John E. Sununu as a democratic socialist rises, plus Mark Short on Trump's absence from the trail and the Dallas midterm convention The Lindsay Clancy verdict, postpartum psychosis as mitigation and not excuse, Matt Walsh, Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, and Jonathan Hamby in Atlanta as the case for reopening mental health institutions CNN's rough week, from misspelling Erick's name on air to apologizing for running a Vegas impersonator's photo as Dolly Parton, plus Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America"

Erick Erickson closes the show with the most personal monologue of the day, previewing his Atlanta Journal Constitution column on Johnathan Hamby, the psychotic man who stabbed a stranger to death on the Atlanta Beltline, and arguing that deinstitutionalization was cruelty dressed up as compassion. He walks listeners from his hometown of Jackson, Louisiana, where the state mental hospital's steam whistle set the town clock, to Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, once the largest mental institution in the world with 12,000 patients, and asks what is actually more humane: a bed, three meals, and enforced treatment, or a bridge in Atlanta. Callers Linda, Susan, Sharon, Pat, Lynn, Tony, and Kathleen close out the Lindsay Clancy conversation with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the timed errand entered into evidence, and the over medication of patients by non medical prescribers. Topics: Johnathan Hamby, the Atlanta Beltline stabbing, and Erick's Atlanta Journal Constitution piece on how we failed him, plus anosognosia and why you cannot force a schizophrenic man to accept treatment he does not believe he needs Growing up in Jackson, Louisiana, in the shadow of the state mental hospital, Dixon Correctional Institute, and the case for reopening Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia The death penalty, abortion on demand, and euthanasia: Erick's argument that a society that stopped punishing the willful taking of life has itself stopped valuing life, with Genesis and the fare gate jumpers in Los Angeles as evidence Lindsay Clancy callers: retired pediatric nurse Linda on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and DFCS calls, ABC News reporting that Clancy timed her husband Patrick's errand, and retired clinical psychologist Kathleen on non medical therapists stacking psychiatric medications Defending Patrick Clancy against the online mob, and Erick's mass psychosis thread: COVID isolation, doom scrolling, screens rotting brains, and why breaking bread with an actual human being is the fix Erick's cooking videos, touching grass, and why real world friends beat social media friends

Erick Erickson opens with the Coldstream Guards playing "9 to 5" at Buckingham Palace and turns the death of Dolly Parton into a sermon on the second great commandment: she died with $650 million after giving away $600 million, refused the Presidential Medal of Freedom from both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and told Tennessee to feed the poor instead of building her a statue. Then Erick breaks down Meta's $18 billion settlement with 48 state attorneys general, calling it a shakedown that makes Mark Zuckerberg your child's mommy and daddy. Also, the death of Tim Curry, and a night at the Braves and Dodgers game at Truist Park. Dolly Parton dies at 80, the Buckingham Palace tribute, and loving your neighbor without carve outs or caveats The River Phoenix photographer Dolly Parton flew to Nashville, the anonymous band uniforms, and the Helene rebuilds in Western North Carolina Tim Curry, Clue, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Muppet Treasure Island Meta's $18 billion settlement with 48 attorneys general: night mode, school mode, and real age verification on Facebook and Instagram Why TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat are next, and how the tobacco settlement playbook hands Meta a competitive advantage Erick on parenting, screen time, and the parental override that guts the whole deal

Erick Erickson reads the extraordinary public apology from the family of Jonathan Hamby, the mentally ill man with more than thirty arrests who stabbed a stranger to death on the Atlanta Beltline, and turns it into a hard argument that closing the mental institutions was never compassion. Then billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller goes to the Wall Street Journal to tell his own protege, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, that doubling long dated bond buybacks is price management, not liquidity management, with the national debt crossing $40 trillion and net interest passing $1.1 trillion. Plus the SEC follows the Big Ten on NFL players returning to college, and Apple sets September 9, which sends Erick into Rush Limbaugh memories. The Jonathan Hamby family statement, anosognosia, the three foot samurai sword in a Chamblee elementary school, and why thirty arrest cycles ended in a killing on the Atlanta Beltline Milledgeville, Jackson, Louisiana, and the case for reopening long term mental health facilities: homelessness as a drug and mental illness problem, not a housing problem Dolly Parton, loving your neighbor, and Erick on how society perverted love into leaving the sick on the street Stanley Druckenmiller versus Scott Bessent in the Wall Street Journal: $4 billion buybacks, the 30 year yield at a 19 year high, $40 trillion in debt, and letting the bond market speak Entitlement reform, means testing, and the two bucket argument for why a growing government bucket strangles the private sector The SPLC prosecution and Todd Blanche, the SEC and Big Ten barring NFL returns, and Apple's September 9 event

Charles Barkley goes on Michael Smerconish and says he supports his gay and transgender friends but that men have no business competing against women, and Erick Erickson explains why an 80/20 issue still gets covered as though the girls defending girls sports are the villains, with Sophie Cunningham, Enes Kanter Freedom, Adam Silver, and Cathy Engelbert all in the mix. Then Darline Graham beats Ralph Norman by roughly thirteen to one in spending to win the South Carolina Senate nomination, and Heather Long of Navy Federal Credit Union flags a 3 percent personal savings rate even as Bloomberg reports hobby spending at a record share of American consumption. Plus a caller on free enterprise versus capitalism, Calvin Coolidge, the Meta settlement, tariff carve outs, and the cinnamon roll recipe finally getting filmed. TOPICS The 3 percent savings rate, the Bloomberg hobby spending boom, and Erick's argument that Americans have quietly gone fatalistic about tomorrow A Monchhichi doll, Penang, and the older sister who shaved it bald and threw it in the Persian Gulf Darline Graham defeats Ralph Norman in the South Carolina Senate runoff, why both parties keep nominating kooks in states they have written off, and the Colorado governor's race Charles Barkley, Michael Smerconish, Adam Silver, Cathy Engelbert, Sophie Cunningham, and Enes Kanter Freedom exposing the logic trap in gender identity Free enterprise versus capitalism with caller Steve, Calvin Coolidge as the level playing field president, corporatism, lobbyists, tariff carve outs, and the Meta settlement with 52 attorneys general Small business as the third largest GDP on earth, NFIB, and why the cinnamon roll recipe is finally being filmed for YouTube

Erick Erickson takes apart Abdul El-Sayed's disastrous Jesse Watters interview on Fox News, the Hassan Piker problem now swallowing his Michigan Senate campaign, and why the overwhelmingly white Democratic Socialists of America keep recruiting non-white candidates who cannot stop talking. Then the breaking story of the day: CIA Director John Ratcliffe lands unannounced in Moscow after flying in from Riga, and Erick explains why the most pro-Ukraine official in the Trump administration was the one sent to tell Vladimir Putin that NATO is not going anywhere. Plus Target's Halloween costume apology and the Big Ten shutting the door on NFL washouts. Abdul El-Sayed vs. Jesse Watters: circumcision, reparations, ICE, and a Democratic strategist admitting the party likes its odds in Texas better than Michigan The Hassan Piker problem: Politico's playbook lead, El-Sayed's statement on Jewish safety, and his refusal to condemn Piker by name Inside the Democratic Socialists of America: college educated, white, downwardly mobile, and coveting, with intersectionality and allyship as the recruiting tool John Ratcliffe's unannounced Moscow trip, the pause in Ukrainian strikes, and Russia touching the wires like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park across Poland, the Baltics, and Scandinavia Why Putin covets Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, plus Target's blackface-looking Halloween costume apology and the Big Ten banning NFL players from returning to college

Erick Erickson confesses he has been an original, card-carrying Canada hater since a French teacher at his school in Dubai told the class that real Americans should call themselves "United Statesians," then turns hard on President Trump for launching a trade war with America's largest trading partner 70 days before the midterms, explaining that the entire trade deficit with Canada is heavy crude oil and lumber and that Howard Lutnick reportedly blew up a finished deal from trade representative Jamieson Greer. Then Erick, an elections lawyer by trade, cuts through the panic over the Supreme Court and Trump's mail-in ballot executive order, showing that all the Court allowed was Homeland Security and the Postal Service to build citizenship lists while the lower court injunction blocking enforcement stays fully in place. The hour ends with breaking news from Variety that Dolly Parton has died at 80. Topics: Why the U.S. trade deficit with Canada is really about oil: American fracking produces light sweet crude our heavy crude refineries cannot process, so we import Canadian oil and now gas prices go up Howard Lutnick blows up the Jamieson Greer trade deal per the New York Times, Steve Moore concedes on Fox that the pain is not worth the gain, and Trump spends the day trying to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America" Canadian lumber, electricity, and the housing affordability crisis, plus the political cost to Mike Rogers in Michigan and Susan Collins in Maine 70 days before the midterms What the Supreme Court actually ruled on the mail-in ballot executive order: DHS and USPS may compile lists, but the injunction barring the Postal Service from blocking absentee ballots was never touched Erick's elections-lawyer verdict: Article 1, Section 4 gives the president no role whatsoever in election law, and why American federalism is exactly why China's much-hyped election-shaping AI got the swing states wrong

Erick Erickson plays the Parton family's official video announcement from Brian Seaver, Dolly's longtime head of security and the son of Cassie Parton, and then spends the hour on the life of Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean, dead at 80, reunited with her husband Carl Dean, the woman who wrote "I Will Always Love You," "Jolene," and "Coat of Many Colors," sold more than 100 million records, played nine instruments, and quietly gave away books and money for decades. Erick calls her the last American icon everyone loved regardless of politics, and warns that the demons Jesus cast into the pigs eventually invented social media, so the haters are coming. Then a rare guest: National Federation of Independent Business president Brad Close joins Erick to explain why Obamacare made it nearly impossible for small employers to insure their people, and a caller from Jacksonville gets an elections-lawyer answer on mail-in ballots and non-citizen voting. Brian Seaver's family announcement, the plush cotton bed Dolly asked for, and Erick's favorite story: Dolly Parton entering a drag queen Dolly Parton look-alike contest and losing The staggering resume: 26 number one Billboard country singles, 110 charted singles, 3,000 songs written, 11 Grammys, 55 Grammy nominations, an asteroid, "9 to 5," "Steel Magnolias," the Imagination Library, and the Dolly Parton travel stops built to take on Buc-ee's Wikipedia crashes as Dolly's entry becomes the most read page in the world, plus the Trio cut of "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow Tree" with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris NFIB president Brad Close on small business health care: coverage fell from half of small employers to about a third after Obamacare, why multi-employer pools are strangled by regulation, and the case for HSAs and buying insurance across state lines The beneficial ownership reporting rule killed by the Trump administration, the $120 billion in compliance costs saved, and why Congress still has to repeal the law, plus caller Dave in Jacksonville on whether the Postal Service can be charged with mail fraud for delivering ballots to non-citizens

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent takes to the Financial Times to declare an "economic D-Day" against Iran, promising secondary sanctions on every nation, bank, and shadow fleet propping up Tehran, with China the name he pointedly never writes. Erick Erickson explains why none of it is possible without the dollar as the world's reserve currency, and why Vice President JD Vance's push to abandon that status would hand the world to China, Russia, and Iran. Then the story swallowing the news cycle instead: Donald Trump's 50% tariff threat against Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney refusing to wait and firing back the day after Labor Day, Jamieson Greer's version of the collapse, and Argentine beef versus furious American ranchers. Scott Bessent's Financial Times op-ed, the Tehran conference framing, Pascal's wager, and the 1 p.m. Treasury announcement broadening secondary sanctions Why the reserve currency is the whole weapon, and why JD Vance's worldview would leave America helpless against Iran and its allies Trump's Canada tariff post, the January 1, 2027 delay, and why Mark Carney is retaliating on $20 billion of US goods right before the midterms The Alberta secession myth, Canadian median income versus Mississippi, and the lumber and steel squeeze on American homebuilding Argentine beef imports, the smallest US cattle herd since World War II, and Jamieson Greer on CNBC blaming Canada for a fight Trump's tariffs started

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent goes live to open the sanctions campaign against Iran, with OFAC hitting more than 60 entities, individuals, and vessels, new sectoral determinations on digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping, a promise that every branch of Bank Melli goes dark, and a hint that a major financial institution gets sanctioned by the end of the week. Erick Erickson translates it (the UAE and Dubai have already cut Iran off, and China will tell us to pound sand), then laughs at the San Diego City Council opening its meeting with a Kumeyaay Nation land acknowledgment and takes a caller from Dayton, Ohio on Canada, Ohio HR 194, and a Charter of Rights whose freedoms are subject to "reasonable limits." The hour's centerpiece is a full accounting of why Americans no longer trust the people asking them to accept Flock cameras and data centers, told through sand dumped in skate parks, an arrested paddle boarder, and five years of experts who lied. Scott Bessent's live Treasury press conference: secondary sanctions, OFAC sanctioning more than 60 entities, individuals, and vessels, Bank Melli shuttered, a deliberate cure period rather than an immediate hammer, and a hint at a big bank by week's end Why the UAE and Dubai closing the Iranian crypto and oil laundering route matters, why Erick Erickson expects China to refuse, and Bessent's swipe at Mark Carney when a reporter asked about Canada The San Diego City Council's Kumeyaay Nation land acknowledgment, plus Amanda in Dayton, Ohio on Ohio HR 194, the push to add Canada to the Religious Freedom Special Watch List, and pastors jailed under the Charter's "reasonable limits" clause The trust monologue: San Clemente's sand filled skate park, the arrested paddle boarder, unbolted basketball rims, Gavin Newsom at the French Laundry, Brian Kemp and The Atlantic's "experiment in human sacrifice," Chris and Andrew Cuomo, Daniel Uhlfelder's grim reaper, Rachel Maddow's vaccine promise, the Wuhan lab emails, and the Hunter Biden laptop Why Erick still backs Flock cameras and data centers with restrictions and a facial recognition ban, why the 2000 Mules retraction and the Mark Andrews settlement prove character is not a partisan issue, and why Delta, Coca-Cola, Amazon, and JP Morgan taught Americans to fear AI  

Erick Erickson opens on the Georgia governor's race, where Keisha Lance Bottoms, running against his friend Rick Jackson, told a C-SPAN audience she was proud to end Atlanta's multimillion dollar agreement with ICE because "all money ain't good money," and Erick answers with Laken Riley and with a 29 year old named Ramon Harris stabbed to death on the Atlanta Beltline by Jonathan Hamby, a man arrested more than thirty times since 2011 and turned loose every time. That becomes the hour's argument: three strikes laws, reopened mental institutions, and a hard rewriting of what loving your neighbor actually requires. Then the Iran block, with Scott Bessent's economic D-Day, the Strait of Hormuz dark fleet data, and the Straits of Malacca chokepoint the United States and Indonesia are now closing on China. Keisha Lance Bottoms on C-SPAN bragging about ending Atlanta's ICE agreement, Rick Jackson, the 2020 sacking of Atlanta, Laken Riley, and Athens, Georgia operating as a sanctuary city while denying it The Atlanta Beltline murder of Ramon Harris by Jonathan Hamby, thirty plus arrests since 2011, charges dismissed, suspended, and reduced to time served, and Erick Erickson's case for three strikes laws, no parole, no pardon, and reviving forced mental health commitment Why 2 percent of the population commits almost all the crime, and why turning a mentally ill man loose thirty times was not loving to Jonathan Hamby, to Ramon Harris, or to anyone else Flock cameras under fire in Bloomingdale, Illinois and Kenosha County, Wisconsin, a million crimes solved against seventy breaches of trust, the real meaning of the Ben Franklin quote, and Erick's terms: keep the cameras, ban facial recognition, jail the cops who abuse them Iran's ghost fleet mapped: tankers stacked off Singapore and Mumbai, the new United States and Indonesia deal over the Straits of Malacca and Timor, Kpler data showing more than 80 percent of Hormuz oil traffic going dark, Trey Yingst on Fox, Scott Bessent promising China is not exempt, the UAE and Dubai closing the dirham and crypto backdoor, and whether Tehran shoots first Abdul El-Sayed telling an interviewer that American collateral damage and rule breaking help explain terrorism, and Erick Erickson's blunt verdict on it

Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday with Isaac Newton's laws of motion and argues that American politics now runs on the third one: every action produces an equal and opposite reaction, and nothing is left to slow either side down. He reads The Economist's warning that superintelligent AI with legal rights could turn humans into "labradors for the machines," calls it nonsense from Silicon Valley weirdos who do not believe in God and think they can build one, and tells the story of ChatGPT refusing to help him cut a lock off his own office door while Claude just told him where to saw. Then the backlash roll call: the Toronto Tempo's non-binary she/they snapping turtle mascot, Seattle Times columnist Matt Calkins resigning after 11 years over spiked columns featuring female athletes, the European hunt for everyone who exposed Jason Arday, Flock cameras being chopped down, and the data center revolt. The hour closes with the fiscal argument of the day: with a guaranteed five to six percent return in the government bucket, nobody has a reason to put a dollar in the private sector bucket, which is exactly why Scott Bessent is wrong that we can grow our way out of the debt. Topics: Newton's three laws applied to politics: the AI backlash, the transgender backlash, and why no intervening force exists when both parties profit from the crisis The Economist on giving AI legal rights, humans as pets, and Erick's rebuttal that a large language model is a random probability machine, not a sentient one The Toronto Tempo's Des and Dot, a Borealis blue non-binary she/they snapping turtle mascot for a women's league that cannot define a woman Matt Calkins quits the Seattle Times over female student athletes, and the European campaign to fire everyone who exposed Cambridge plagiarist Jason Arday The government bucket versus the private sector bucket: guaranteed returns, bond issuance crowding out private investment, and why Scott Bessent's growth answer does not work Confiscating every American billionaire's $8.3 trillion would fund one year of a $7.4 trillion government, and San Francisco Democrats now oppose California's wealth tax The Republican turn to "the common good," Rush Limbaugh on why you cannot beat the real thing, and the case for shrinking Washington instead Trump's Education Department moves to strip the American Bar Association of law school accreditation power Congress still forces the Federal Reserve to file an annual report on a presidential dollar coin that stopped being minted in 2011

Erick Erickson turns the second law of thermodynamics into an economics lesson and lands it on Seattle: Starbucks is cutting 224 corporate jobs, including 120 employees who refused to move to Nashville, and between Brian Niccol's restructuring and Amazon's exodus, Washington State's progressives have taxed and regulated their own economy cold while Nashville takes 1,500 to 2,000 new residents a week. Then he refuses to let the tariff argument go, noting that President Trump just suspended the 25 percent tariff on imported beef and guaranteed the beef will now sell 25 percent below market, which is exactly the number his own listeners insisted had nothing to do with prices. The hour ends with Oreo Gate, the viral elementary school mom group chat that another mother ran through AI and turned into gospel music, and Erick is fully emotionally invested. Starbucks lays off 224 in Seattle, 120 of them for refusing Nashville, as Brian Niccol chases $2 billion in cuts and the "Back to Starbucks" plan while Amazon and The Daily Wire also head for Tennessee Economic thermodynamics: heat moves to cold, but capital moves cold to hot, and Erick's warning to the Tennessee legislature that Nashville is becoming Austin Trump drops the 25 percent beef tariff on 300,000 metric tons for 90 days and promises 25 percent lower prices, and Erick collects on being right about tariffs, mercantilism, and lobbyist carve outs for electronics while grocery stores got none Caller Marty on who actually holds the $40 trillion national debt, why it is Americans and not foreign governments, the 2032 Social Security cliff, and George W. Bush's 2005 reform that everyone scoffed at Oreo Gate: Michelle, Ava, Charlotte, Isla, and the mom who searched a five year old's lunchbox for contraband Oreos, plus Erick's own four Oreo lunchroom scandal Caller Dave on the Strait of Hormuz, the vetoed Security Council resolutions, and why Erick would walk away from the United Nations and sell the real estate

Erick Erickson closes Open Line Friday with the cleanest explanation yet of why Americans hate data centers: it is not the water, the power bills, or the fake claim that vibrations cause miscarriages, it is that the arguments against fracking failed while the arguments against data centers are landing, and the only difference is the messengers. The oil men who fracked lived in the community, went to the local church, sent kids to the local schools, and fixed what their neighbors complained about. The AI CEOs are coastal creeps who tell you on camera that the machines will take your job and you will love it, with Dario Amodei's wife and Jeffrey Epstein and The Economist's "labradors for the machines" piece as exhibits. He also takes callers on seniors getting crushed on fixed incomes, Social Security reform and the George W. Bush plan Republicans were too scared to pass, and the Justice Department's new rule restoring gun rights to rehabilitated nonviolent felons. Topics: Fracking versus data centers: the same earthquake and flaming tap water playbook, why the fracking industry beat it, and why Meta is the only AI company that understands communities Dario Amodei of Anthropic, the reported Jeffrey Epstein investment pitch, The Economist arguing humans could become pets to superintelligent AI, and Erick's answer that AI is iterative, not creative, because it has no soul Nuclear power in the 1970s as the cautionary tale: engineers made terrible spokesmen, the fear won, and other countries passed us Caller Ron in Tulsa on the senior squeeze: 2.5 and 2.8 percent Social Security increases, gutted Medicare dental, a $5,000 dental bill, and why Erick cannot insure three full time employees after Obamacare Caller David in Jacksonville on the Social Security trust fund's 2.6 percent return, and Erick on George W. Bush's 2001 and 2005 reform plans that would have doubled benefits if Republicans had not lost their nerve Angie Nixon says for profit prisons are modern day slavery, and Simone Sanders tries to hand her an exit ramp on the Democratic Socialists of America that she refuses to take The GOP wipeout warning: Patrick Ruffini on the five point Democratic bias in pre Labor Day polling, Ken Paxton losing the money race to James Talarico, and why the DSCC abandoning Florida is bad news for Texas Republicans Caller George on the Justice Department final rule restoring Second Amendment rights to nonviolent felons, and why the left wants your vote restored but not your rifle Scott Bessent on 6.5 percent nominal growth, Atlanta Fed GDPNow at 4 percent, tankers running dark through the Strait of Hormuz, and tariffs coming off beef and probably Canada Penn State's fraternity cocaine ring, the pledges assigned to bag it, the ringleader they call Pablo Pledgescobar, and what the whiteout is going to look like this year

The national debt just crossed $40 trillion, and it took only 95 days to add the last trillion, so Erick Erickson opens with the math nobody in Washington wants: our debt now exceeds our GDP, Social Security and Medicare are the engine, and neither party will touch it. He plays Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC defending the bond buybacks, promising fiscal consolidation with Russ Vought, and laying out what he calls the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world against Iran, with the strait under American control and Iranian oil exports at zero for 72 hours straight. Then a blunt message to President Trump: get off the White House lawn, stop showing off the new helicopter pad and the gold leaf, kill every tariff today, and go make the case against Abdul El-Sayed and the Democratic Socialists before the midterms. The $40 trillion debt, 95 days per trillion, and why JD Vance's "common good conservatives" want to stop talking about GDP Scott Bessent on CNBC: Treasury buybacks, the 10 year yield and your mortgage rate, poor liquidity at the 30 year, and the fiscal consolidation plan coming with Russ Vought Bessent on Iran: maximum economic pressure, the blockade, the toughest sanctions in history, the Venezuela precedent, and zero Iranian oil exported in 72 hours squeezing China Mandatory spending, the 2032 Social Security trust fund cliff, and why confiscating every American billionaire's wealth would not fund the government for a year Tariffs are a tax: Trump waiving steel, aluminum and car tariffs, Walmart's billions in tariff refunds, and Erick's pitch to drop all of them right now and put them back after the election Trump's Sikorsky Marine One helicopter pad, the gold leaf renovations, and Republicans begging him to get back on message while people cannot afford groceries Federal agents seize Eric Swalwell's devices, Max Miller stays in the race, and the DNC snubs Atlanta for Boston, Philadelphia or Denver in 2028 Charitable giving maps to church attendance: the South and Utah give the most, DeKalb County and the coasts give the least Abdul El-Sayed says he is African too, plus American oil production now beating the rest of the world combined and new evidence China is lying about its economy

Erick Erickson plays the moment CNN's Boris Sanchez confronts Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Ashik Siddiqui over the DSA celebrating Fidel Castro, telling him on live television that his own grandfather fought in the Cuban revolution and was then locked up by Castro for 20 years for speaking his mind. He stacks it with Abdul El-Sayed answering black voters by saying he is African too, Hasan Piker promising to be Angie Nixon's loyal soldier while she insists she has no idea who he is, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee quietly writing off Florida to move money into Texas, where Republicans are panicking that Ken Paxton is a lazy, corrupt candidate who could hand the seat to James Talarico. Then the heart of the hour: a Ben Domenech speech on the earned collapse of trust in American elites, and Erick's argument that the Flock camera fight, the data center backlash, and local governments signing secret non disclosure agreements are all the same trust problem. Boris Sanchez versus DSA co-chair Ashik Siddiqui on Cuba, Fidel Castro, Fulgencio Batista, and the grandfather Castro jailed for 20 years for wanting democracy Abdul El-Sayed's "I am African too" answer to black voters, and the Democratic Socialists of America as pampered rich kids, including the Brooklyn co-chair in a $1.5 million townhome who owes his union money Angie Nixon, Hasan Piker's "loyal soldiers" pledge, his threatened lawsuit against Scott Jennings, and the DSCC telling donors Florida is gone Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas: Republican alarm over a lazy, corrupt nominee, Talarico's Karmelo Anthony jury pander, and why Erick Erickson is rooting for injuries in that race Ben Domenech on Donald Trump as a beta test for a cure, single digit trust in Congress, the media and big business, and Erick's fix for Flock cameras and data centers: transparency, mandatory minimums for officers who abuse the data, and the ShotSpotter repeal that cost Xavier Batista his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Breaking news lands mid hour: Jessica Bowie, 35, arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS after plotting to blow up the New York State Capitol in Albany, and Erick Erickson walks through the federal complaint, the FBI confidential source posing as an ISIS facilitator, and why progressives who instantly guessed MAGA guessed wrong. The heart of the hour is Erick's argument that everyone quoting George Orwell has the wrong book: we are not living in 1984, we are living in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, sedated by soma and screens and manufactured anxiety, which is why he changed his mind on Flock cameras once he noticed the Communist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists of America are their loudest opponents. Then Iran, with David Rohde on MS Now conceding Trump's economic pressure campaign could actually work, Trey Yingst on the UAE cutting off all trade with Iran, and satellite evidence that the Iranians are dumping oil into the desert because their tanks are full. Topics: Breaking: Jessica Bowie, 35, charged over an ISIS inspired plot to bomb the New York State Capitol in Albany, the FBI confidential source, her conversion five years ago, and the standing Islamist threat Erick ties to Abdul El-Sayed's bookshelf and family connections Brave New World versus 1984: Aldous Huxley, soma, Henry Ford and the alpha to epsilon caste system, and why the phone in your pocket tracks you better than any Flock camera ever could Tucker Carlson claiming nuclear weapons were made by entities rather than men, the demon that supposedly attacked him, and Erick's Dorian Gray line about how fast he has aged Callers Jim and Craig on Ozzie Guillen praising Fidel Castro in Miami in 2012, the Cuban and Venezuelan communities pushing Florida right, and the grandfather's rule to vote for the guy who angers both sides The postpartum depression case: women in pink rallying outside a courthouse for a mother who strangled her three children, Erick's break with Matt Walsh on whether postpartum depression is real, and his position that it is real and she still deserves the death penalty Iran under economic siege: David Rohde on MS Now, Trey Yingst on Iranian missiles hitting the UAE, the Emirates cutting off trade and closing the dirham and Dubai crypto laundering route, China rationing gasoline and diesel, and Kharg Island backing up Tomahawk production, Raytheon in Tucson and 3,000 new jobs, the Pentagon acquisitions push to rebuild the defense industrial base, and the $40 trillion debt problem Erick illustrates with a Butts County speed trap Median Strategies and the fake poll: Karen Bass and Fox 11 Los Angeles took the bait, the New York Times, RealClearPolitics and 50 plus one all refused it, and why RealClearPolitics averages are still the ones to trust

Florida's primary blew up both parties overnight: Democratic Socialist Angie Nixon beat impeachment hero Alexander Vindman for the Senate nomination while spending 13 times less, and Republicans took out the trash, dumping Cory Mills in Florida 7 and burying anti-Israel candidates James Fishback and Dan Bilzerian in single digits. Erick Erickson breaks down what the DSA surge means for Texas, Ohio and Alaska money, plays Darlene Graham telling a South Carolina debate audience she is "not that informed on national security," and exposes the trust fund hypocrisy of Democratic Socialist leaders in New York and the terror ties trailing Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. Angie Nixon, the Democratic Socialists of America, and how Alexander Vindman lost Florida's Senate primary 13 to 1 on money Republicans purge their own: Cory Mills loses Florida 7, James Fishback and Dan Bilzerian rejected, Jared Moskowitz and Randy Fine hold on South Carolina Senate runoff: Ralph Norman versus Darlene Graham on Taiwan, China, and peace through strength, with Greta Van Susteren asking Harry Enten's CNN map of DSA primary wins from New York and Michigan to Colorado, Pennsylvania and now Florida Trust fund commies exposed: Grace Ryan's noblesse oblige tweet, Gustavo Gordillo's $1.5 million Brooklyn row home, and Abdul El-Sayed's family ties to the Islamic American Relief Agency David Jolly rejects socialism, Vernon Jones forces a Georgia runoff against Tim Fleming, and the demons of Mark 5 explain Twitter

The AI data center revolt is now a live midterm threat, and Erick Erickson argues the real problem is not the data centers, it is that Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and the rest of the AI CEOs are their own worst salesmen, the charming movie villains you were warned about, while Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are the only ones who figured out how to sell a community on jobs, tax relief, and skills training. He reads the Axios scoop on the NRSC's private memo warning that Senator Jon Husted is losing Ohio to Sherrod Brown over data centers, walks through Vivek Ramaswamy's property tax plan and Jason Kelce's Garage Beer ad, then turns to Ukraine, where drone crews are burning Wildberries distribution centers outside Moscow to make the Russian public finally feel the war while JD Vance begs Kyiv to pull its punches. He closes on the fuel crisis behind it all: a record diesel crack spread, 40 percent of Russian refining offline, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright on why American fracking is the only thing keeping this from being a catastrophe. TOPICS Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and why Erick Erickson says the AI CEOs are the evil villains from the movies, with Mark Zuckerberg and Meta as the lone exception that knows how to work with a community The Axios and NRSC memo: data centers polling as popular as nuclear waste, Jon Husted versus Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Josh Shapiro and other Democrats racing to crack down Vivek Ramaswamy's plan to make data centers pay the community's property taxes, Jason Kelce's Garage Beer water ad, and the Google data center near Erick that is lowering local property taxes Ukraine's 413th unmanned systems regiment, 600 drones, and the Wildberries warehouse fires meant to make Moscow feel the war, plus JD Vance asking Ukraine to hold its fire and the Middle East allies who took Kyiv's help Record diesel crack spreads over $100, 40 percent of Russian refining offline, Chris Wright on the Permian Basin, and the fracking fights that look exactly like today's data center fights Notus on Cory Mills' downfall: Mike Haridopolos quietly recruiting Ryan Elijah while House Republican leadership backed Mills in public

Moderna and Merck just posted the first successful late stage trial of a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran paired with Keytruda, cutting the return and spread of high risk melanoma, and Erick Erickson spends the hour singing the praises of Big Pharma and taking apart the conspiracy that drug companies are hiding the cure for cancer. He talks about his wife's stage 4 lung cancer, why a lung transplant was never an option for her, and why the people most certain a cure is being suppressed are the loneliest and most isolated people in America. Then a full turn to the loneliness data: Brad Wilcox on unmarried young men outnumbering married men two to one, Rosaria Butterfield on why your messy house is an excuse and not a reason, and why going to church is the cheapest mental health treatment in the country even if you do not believe. Moderna, Merck, intismeran and Keytruda: the first late stage win for a personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, a $50 billion market cap swing, and Merck's Jane Healy on a whole new field of medicine Why the "Big Pharma is hiding the cure" conspiracy is really about envy, covetousness and isolation, with Erick's account of his wife's incurable lung cancer and the genetic protein behind it Caller Allen, an oncology pharmacist who worked with Emory, on why cures do not sit on a shelf, how small companies and private equity bring niche drugs to market, and the new mRNA flu vaccine approved under RFK's FDA Modern monetary theory, grocery prices, Publix milk and beef, and why the answer to a bad economy is not the vice president's plan to dump the dollar as the world's reserve currency Brad Wilcox, the Institute for Family Studies and "Get Married": unmarried men 20 to 39 up 47 percent, Gen Z and Gen Alpha social trust at record lows, and the COVID isolation hangover Rosaria Butterfield on hospitality, what Christians could learn from their gay and lesbian neighbors, and the atheist who goes to church every Sunday for the friends Personal color: Alan Ritchson and season four of Reacher, a kitchen renovation, Sunday nights on the porch, a camera crew coming to film the cinnamon roll recipe, and two hours in the orthodontist chair

Florida goes to the polls and Erick Erickson makes the case that Republicans should fire Cory Mills in Florida's 7th, where former Orlando news anchor Ryan Elijah is polling ahead of a congressman under investigation for steering contracts plus revenge porn and abuse allegations. He coins "Podcastistan" for the circle of podcasters (Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens, Thomas Massie, James Fishback) who interview each other about hating the Jews, and asks whether Dan Bilzerian's anti Israel campaign against Randy Fine gets any traction. Then the story almost nobody is covering: the diesel crack has hit a record $102 as Iran hammers refineries and the Strait of Hormuz, Russia is shipping TNT and drone parts across the Caspian, and NBC News, the Wall Street Journal, and Al Jazeera all report Iran now believes war is inevitable and is weighing a first strike. Cory Mills versus Ryan Elijah in Florida 7, and why Erick Erickson says the GOP loses the seat in November if Mills survives the primary Podcastistan: Dan Bilzerian versus Randy Fine, James Fishback for governor, Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene's Jewish space lasers and her claim Trump will nuke Iran, plus Byron Donalds cruising The double standard: Democrats forced out Eric Swalwell (the Fang Fang confession) and Graham Platner, while Trump wrapped his arms around Max Miller in Ohio Troy Jackson's Maine problem, Donna Brazile calling it salacious gossip, and the fake Dan Sullivan ballot trick in Alaska The Atlanta Dream, the national anthem, and a mother and daughter in XX XY shirts forced to change while a trans fan got the jumbotron, plus Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and the WNBA subsidy The diesel crack at a record $102, distillate stockpiles at 1996 lows, Russia rearming Iran across the Caspian, the UAE missile alert, Dana Perino on a communications reset, and Erick's case for striking Iran first and fomenting a civil war there

Jon Ossoff dragged Natalie Harp, a bone cancer survivor who lives because Donald Trump signed the Right to Try Act, into a campaign speech to imply an affair with the president, and Erick Erickson takes apart the smear and the hyper online staff behind it. He also answers Matt Walsh's claim that postpartum depression is not real, celebrates the Mississippi Miracle that has Mississippi fourth graders number one in the nation in reading and math, and defends Flock license plate cameras while calling for hard prison time for cops who abuse them. Jon Ossoff, Natalie Harp, the Right to Try Act, and the damage control interview with Jen Psaki on MS Now Matt Walsh, postpartum depression, Carl Schmitt, JD Vance, and how social media works like the portrait of Dorian Gray The Mississippi Miracle: phonics, retention, and why Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee are copying it Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed, and a campaign manager comparing a 1947 Ford F100 at the Woodward Dream Cruise to a Klan rally Fake polls from Median Strategies on Karen Bass, Bill de Blasio on Medicare for All, and why the Affordable Care Act priced out small business Flock cameras, the Conyers hit and run arrest, and mandatory minimums for police who abuse the data

Erick Erickson closes out the Flock camera fight with three callers, including a Metro Atlanta police officer, a listener whose cousin was killed by a hit and run driver the cameras identified, and a caller who wants a warrant requirement, and lands on a middle ground: keep the cameras, and give police who abuse the data mandatory prison time, like the Haines City, Florida officer charged with tracking his estranged wife's car 717 times in 21 months. Then Abdul El-Sayed and Florida DSA candidate Oliver Larkin make the Democratic Socialist case for abolishing private insurance, and Erick answers with the story of a healthy sole proprietor whose post Obamacare plan only works if he goes to the emergency room. The heart of the hour is debt and deficit: the 30 year treasury hit 5.323 percent, a 19 year high, the diesel crack is over $100 for the first time ever, and American families are now taking out buy now pay later loans to cover rent, power bills, and tax bills. TOPICS Flock cameras and civil liberties: callers David, Tom, and Jeremy, the City Journal numbers (24 homicides, 17 hit and runs, 31 shootings, and more than 50 children recovered this year), Haines City officer Christopher Anthony Goodson charged after 717 searches on his estranged wife, and why the Democratic Socialists of America started the campaign against the cameras Abdul El-Sayed on single payer, DSA candidate Oliver Larkin versus Jared Moskowitz in Florida's new District 25 from Boca Raton to Miami Beach, and the friend whose Obamacare plan covers only the emergency room Debt versus deficit explained: the 30 year treasury at 5.323 percent, the 10 year above 4.7 percent, July CPI at 3.4 percent against a 2.4 percent rate before the Iran war, and the record diesel crack that is about to raise your grocery bill Buy now pay later comes for the middle class: Affirm financing monthly rent, Intuit pitching file now pay later to TurboTax users, and Erick's beans and rice answer to the Washington think tank class that calls him an elitist California Energy Commission votes to phase out cheap replacement tires, eliminating 70 percent of tires sold in the state by 2033, with Goodyear's Brett Gladfelty warning about cost, plus the DeKalb County "tag applied for" loophole and the Atlanta man with a street legal pink Barbie Jeep

Erick Erickson explains what the media is getting wrong about President Trump cutting back joint military exercises with South Korea: the real driver is a Seoul government drifting toward China, not an attempt to woo Kim Jong-un, and Trump keeps undermining a defensible decision with his own social media. He walks through Peggy Noonan's Wall Street Journal column on Trump's collapsing approval numbers and lame duck status, the JD Vance camp's "America in decline" argument against Marco Rubio's case for American strength, and why Ronald Reagan beat Henry Kissinger and Jimmy Carter's politics of managed decline. Then the story he refused to chase until now: Admiral Brad Cooper's Wall Street Journal piece on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the fake videos seeded by Iranian propaganda, and the planned rotation of the USS George Washington that the press recast as a crisis. Trump, Kim Jong-un, and the South Korea drills: the China concerns inside the US military and intelligence community that nobody is reporting Peggy Noonan on Trump's 39 percent approval, The Economist's 34 to 61 poll, and a president who is now a lame duck JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and the fight over whether America is in decline or should lead again, with Reagan versus Kissinger, Carter, and Brzezinski Terry McAuliffe and Rahm Emanuel tell Democrats to stop fighting the socialists as the DSA wears the party like a skin suit USS Abraham Lincoln: Admiral Brad Cooper's report, Iranian propaganda videos, the crippled Bahrain base, and Erick's childhood hosting the Fifth Fleet in Dubai

Erick Erickson makes his sharpest case yet against Vice President JD Vance, arguing that Vance is to economics what Candace Owens is to the Charlie Kirk assassination: a professional contrarian who lands on the fringe answer and calls it heterodoxy. Erick plays three separate Vance clips (a think tank, the Senate floor, and Fox News) in which the vice president calls America's reserve currency status a "resource curse" that lets American consumers buy things too cheaply, then walks through the Heritage Foundation research on what the dollar actually buys you: cheaper mortgages, cheaper car loans, cheaper groceries, lower inflation and lower interest rates than anywhere else on earth. He notes that China, Russia, the Democratic Socialists of America, Tucker Carlson, and Vladimir Putin's favorite philosopher Alexander Dugin all want the dollar dethroned, and plays President Trump saying flatly that losing it means third world status. Then a Wall Street Journal scoop that should terrify Republicans: Iran is preparing to widen the war on purpose to spike gas prices and cost the GOP the midterms. TOPICS JD Vance, the "resource curse," and why Erick Erickson says abandoning reserve currency status would turn America into a third world country Candace Owens, Hasan Piker, and the "it was the Jews" conspiracy that erased Tyler Robinson's confession in the Charlie Kirk murder Heritage Foundation research on the dollar: Charles de Gaulle, the BRICS nations, seigniorage, cheap borrowing, and exports up tenfold in 50 years The resource curse Vance misunderstands: Nigeria, Venezuela, and Botswana versus Norway's two trillion dollar sovereign wealth fund Iran's plan to escalate before the midterms: the IRGC, the Houthis, Bab al-Mandeb, Masoud Pezeshkian, and the Pentagon's missing demand signal to Raytheon and Lockheed Dianne Feinstein's pseudoephedrine ban as the perfect parable, plus Mark Thiessen, the $20 burrito, and cheap toasters

Erick Erickson devotes the first half of the hour to a story he says you should know even if you do not want to: Jason Arday, the Cambridge University sociology professor and serial fabulist who took his own life after the Guardian, the Times Higher Education, and the Daily Telegraph unraveled a biography that was almost entirely invented. Erick walks the whole record, the plagiarized Liverpool John Moores thesis, the harassment complaints filed against the academics who caught him, the masked knifeman and the pig's head that closed circuit television and the Metropolitan Police could never find, the visiting professorships that Glasgow and Ohio State say never happened, and argues the real culprits are the white progressive elites who elevated an unqualified man to prove their own allyship, then blamed his critics when it collapsed. He runs the same pattern through Elizabeth Warren at Harvard, Ibram Kendi, Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Duke lacrosse case, and the Rolling Stone hoax at the University of Virginia. The back half turns to a Democratic Party in a panic, with Hakeem Jeffries, Ro Khanna, and Rahm Emanuel all scrambling to put distance between themselves and the Democratic Socialists of America. Jason Arday, Cambridge, and Liverpool John Moores: the plagiarism, the fabricated marathons and charity millions, and the police reports filed against the professors who exposed him Why Erick Erickson says the villains are the white academic elites who graded a man on a curve, from Elizabeth Warren and Ibram Kendi to Nikole Hannah-Jones, with Thomas Sowell as the counterexample Harry Enten on CNN: Donald Trump at 79 percent disapproval on gas prices, worse than Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush, with gas still above $4 Hakeem Jeffries, Ro Khanna, and Rahm Emanuel run from the DSA, plus why the Democratic Socialists really want the flock cameras gone The 2026 map: Mike Rogers up in Michigan, Ken Paxton in trouble in Texas, Susan Collins tied in Maine, and Republican sore spots in Ohio, North Carolina, and Georgia Cory Mills in Florida's 7th and Max Miller in Ohio's 7th: two scandal plagued incumbents who could cost Republicans Vivek Ramaswamy, Jon Husted, and the House Trump's slipping grip on his own party in the Axios polling, the lame duck problem, and why the courts are what Republicans are really fighting for

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promises unprecedented economic measures and a blockade of Iranian ports as $4 gas and $80 oil collide with the midterms, and Erick Erickson says the hard part out loud: we are losing a war against a country we could beat because there was never a plan. Then the case Republicans do not want to hear, that Ken Paxton is lazy, corrupt, and putting Texas in play for James Talarico, with Mark Halperin agreeing on tape. Plus Max Miller in Ohio, Cory Mills and Ron DeSantis in Florida, Mike Collins in Georgia, and Abdul El-Sayed's Detroit animal shelter record in Michigan. Scott Bessent's Iranian port blockade and sanctions, the Strait of Hormuz, and the highest pre-election August gas prices on record Why the Pentagon never sent the demand signal for missile production, Admiral Cooper's stop and start problem, and the drones and F-5s Iran actually got through Ken Paxton versus James Talarico in Texas, the donor class walking away, and Mark Halperin's warning that Paxton loses if nothing changes Herschel Walker, Mike Collins, Max Miller, and Cory Mills: how the GOP keeps nominating its weakest links while Democrats force theirs out Abdul El-Sayed, Sharia and dogs, and the 74 percent kill rate at Detroit's animal shelter, plus Luigi Mangione's admission in the Brian Thompson murder

Erick Erickson wades into the fight between Ben Shapiro and the Federalist's John Daniel Davidson over whether the American dream still works, and answers with a date: ten years ago his wife would be dead, because the lung cancer treatment that saved her did not exist yet. Using C.S. Lewis and the fifteenth Screwtape letter, he takes apart the professional pessimism spreading across the online right and makes the case for contentment. Then CNN's Harry Enten says he is running scared for Republicans as Democratic primary turnout blows past 25 million, and Erick argues over whether culture or the economy decides November, from Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota and Ken Paxton in Texas. Ben Shapiro versus John Daniel Davidson on whether hard work and virtue still pay off, and Erick's precise rebuttal: his wife's lung cancer drug, next day delivery, the end of Roe v. Wade, and the Supreme Court on trans care for minors C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, and the fifteenth letter: why idealizing the past or fearing the future makes idols, why misery is increasingly a choice, and why contentment is the answer Harry Enten's CNN data: over 25 million Democratic primary votes so far, ahead of 2018, against a Michigan Senate poll that is the weakest Democratic showing of the century Culture versus the economy in November: Mike Rogers versus Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Peggy Flanagan's ICE answer in Minnesota, Ken Paxton's character problem in Texas, and why Erick thinks the GOP is making a bad gamble Callers on populism versus conservatism, a Star Trek fan page turning on Noa Tishby while a barbecue board showed nothing but love, and a gearhead's case against letting Washington design Detroit's cars

Stacey Abrams sits down with Kamala Harris and declares that the South has lived under soft authoritarianism since 1776 and that America has backdoored its way to a new Jim Crow, and Erick Erickson, who served on the city council in Macon, Georgia, answers with the Jim Crow signage still hanging in his city's terminal station and the people who actually want it kept up. From there he reads his "trust fund commies" piece in full, the argument that from Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx to Fidel Castro, Xi Jinping, Zohran Mamdani and Graham Platner, socialism has always been the insurance policy of the well born against the creative destruction of a free market. Plus a caller on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, and why Luigi Mangione's zealous defense and life sentence prove the system worked. Stacey Abrams and Kamala Harris on "soft authoritarianism" in the South, Georgia's voter ID law she called Jim Crow 2.0, and the black voter turnout that went up instead of down Macon's terminal station and its whites only water fountains: why northern transplants want the signs torn down and native black residents want them kept Luxury beliefs and the harm they do: defunding the police, blocking school choice, decriminalized drug use, and a near wreck with a driver high on marijuana on Erick's morning commute The trust fund commies essay: Friedrich Engels' textile mill, Karl Marx, Fidel Castro, Xi Jinping's princelings, Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction, Zohran Mamdani, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, and Graham Platner's oysterman cosplay Roy in Jacksonville on the USS Abraham Lincoln, a Pentagon that has not been candid about Iran, and George on Luigi Mangione's guilty plea, the border wall, and why defense lawyers deserve respect

Erick opens on the Wall Street Journal's tariff refund story (over 40 S&P 500 companies reporting some $9.6 billion, with Apple near $2.2 billion, Nike at $986 million, FedEx at $800 million, Amazon at $640 million, and GM at $500 million after the Supreme Court struck the tariffs) and skewers the populists who swore tariffs would not raise prices yet now demand a cut of the refunds. He then turns to the Tyler Robinson trial in the Charlie Kirk assassination, the Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson conspiracy theories, and the debunked Anthony Fauci mRNA miscarriage claim, arguing that information overload is pulling Americans away from reality itself and undermining the truth claims, most of all the resurrection, that society needs to survive. Tariff refunds pour into Apple, Nike, FedEx, Amazon, and GM; Erick's warning to the Fortune 500 to raise wages and reinvest or face bipartisan backlash Why prices rose less than feared because companies held back wages and investment, and how populist economics runs on emotion, not coherent policy (the $20 burrito, the cheaper Chipotle, "expensive toasters") Data centers and AI: Mark Zuckerberg, Mike Rowe, and a saved Washington State town versus Anthropic's Dario Amodei doom messaging, plus Flock camera CEO Garrett's new data limits The Tyler Robinson trial, Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, and the "it was the Jews" conspiracy, alongside the transgender-shooter pattern the theorists ignore Anthony Fauci and the debunked COVID vaccine miscarriage claim, the DSA and PSL socialism clip on canceling mortgages, and Erick's faith close on truth, reality, and not fearing tomorrow

Erick argues that precedent matters, tracing how Democrats spent decades using lawsuits and court settlements (California's Proposition 8, the state's refusal to defend it, Bill Clinton's illegal immigration consent decree, and Anthony Kennedy's Obergefell ruling) to bind future governments, and how the Trump Justice Department has now learned the same trick by declining to appeal Judge James Wesley Hendricks' Northern District of Texas ruling that struck down the National Firearms Act permit and $200 tax on suppressors and short barreled rifles. From Palmetto State Armory buyers skipping the paperwork to the Fifth Circuit tossing Biden's gas stove limits, Erick says "we learned it by watching you." He then celebrates the V8's comeback (the Wall Street Journal on Ram scrapping the Hurricane six for the Hemi, Stellantis, and GM), skewers the Cybertruck and Ford Lightning, and warns Republicans that Ken Paxton could actually lose to Democrat James Talarico, citing Mark Halperin's blunt on air alarm. The National Firearms Act ruled unconstitutional in North Texas: Judge Hendricks, the Trump DOJ declining to appeal, suppressors and short barreled rifles going permit free, and Palmetto State Armory buyers lining up in South Carolina "We learned it by watching you": Proposition 8, the unenforced California marriage law, Bill Clinton's immigration settlement, Obergefell, and Republicans now winning settlements on gas stoves and dishwashers Suppressor myths versus reality, the James Bond pillow trick debunked, and Erick's own range day at Bullets and Burgers near Las Vegas Cliff calls from southwest Georgia on data centers and water, the DSA's misleading El Paso video, fracking water recycling, and a Washington State town funded 57 percent by one data center Americans and the V8: the Wall Street Journal on Ram's Hemi comeback, Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, GM expanding V8 output, the Cybertruck and Ford Lightning as cautionary tales, plus Ken Paxton versus James Talarico with Mark Halperin sounding the alarm

Erick digs into a troubling defense story: in the Combined Resolve war games in Germany, Ukrainian drone operators wiped out a US armored brigade every single time, exposing how far behind America has fallen even as Reaper drones run low and Iran picks off the rest. He ties it to a missile production problem (the Pentagon never sent Lockheed Martin and Raytheon the demand signal, dating back to the 1993 "last supper" consolidation dinner) and to a Trump class battleship the Navy openly says it does not need, calling it a jobs program instead of a warfighting force. Then he pivots to Luigi Mangione's expected federal guilty plea in the Brian Thompson murder, Abdul El-Sayed and Sharia's view of dogs behind Detroit's 74 percent shelter kill rate, and a full throated case for tort reform built around the dismissed Hershey Reese's peanut butter pumpkin lawsuit. Topics: US drone vulnerability: the Combined Resolve exercise in Germany, Ukraine's 412th unmanned systems regiment routing the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, dwindling Reaper drones, and Iran's F-5s slipping into Kuwait Missile and shipbuilding dysfunction: the missing Pentagon demand signal, the 1993 "last supper," Lockheed Martin's thin 8 to 9 percent margins, continuing resolutions since Obama, and the Trump class battleship the Navy says it does not want Luigi Mangione expected to plead guilty to federal charges in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and Tyler Robinson's lawyers fighting the death penalty in the Charlie Kirk assassination case Abdul El-Sayed, Sharia law and dogs, and Detroit's 74 percent animal shelter kill rate, plus Erick's own dog Max and the South Georgia dog whisperer Tort and lawsuit reform: the trial lawyer billboard economy (Morgan and Morgan, Morris Bart, Ken Nugent), the dismissed Hershey Reese's pumpkin lawsuit, and Scott Bessent scrapping the Biden small business registration rule

Erick breaks down a wild primary night: Democratic socialist Francesca Hong loses Wisconsin after Governor Tony Evers talked David Crowley back into the race, the polls badly oversampled white progressives, and Mike Lindell gets crushed in Minnesota's GOP governor primary. Then he warns Republicans that college-educated suburban voters are the new turnout machine, that Ken Paxton is dragging down Texas against James Talarico, and delivers a signature monologue arguing progressivism is a religion, complete with a viral clip of a reporter insisting you "can't be racist against white people." Wisconsin fallout: Francesca Hong's loss, David Crowley, Tony Evers, and why polling oversampled white progressives The GOP's midterm problem: college degrees as the new turnout predictor, and suburban Republicans running behind in Georgia and Texas Ken Paxton dragging down the Texas ticket against James Talarico, plus Trump's losing streak of endorsed candidates and lame-duck status Minnesota primary: Lisa DeMuth wins as Mike Lindell flops, with Michelle Tafoya and Peggy Flanagan setting up the Senate race The big monologue: intersectionality, allyship, and DEI as religion, illustrated by a reporter's "you can't be racist against white people" meltdown

On the seventh anniversary of his syndicated show, Erick Erickson tells the untold story of how Rush Limbaugh "lied through his teeth" to launch his radio career and later fought behind the scenes to let him talk faith on the air. He then turns to the "progressive madrasas": how Stanford University let Marxists write the capitalism entry in its Encyclopedia of Philosophy and butchered Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek. Along the way he unpacks critical theory, intersectionality, the "you can't be racist against white people" clip, and the "Yankee invasion of the SEC." Seven years in syndication: the Rush Limbaugh origin story, Bo Snerdley, the 2016 near-death from blood clots, and the faith that reshaped his voice The "progressive madrasas": critical theory, intersectionality, and the viral "you can't be racist against white people" clip explained through Tim Keller Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy lets Marxists define capitalism and misrepresents Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism," Stanford's land acknowledgments before frat parties, and a call for parents to exercise real college discernment The "Yankee invasion of the SEC": surging Northern enrollment at Alabama, Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Tennessee, plus caller David on Trump fatigue and the Marxist war on a free press

Erick walks through a sobering Washington Post editorial on America's fiscal reckoning: with Social Security projected insolvent by 2032 and the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by 2033, demographics and mandatory spending are driving the country toward a debt cliff that no war or recession created. He revisits Mitch McConnell's "we will not fix it until we hit the cliff" prediction, George W. Bush's rejected 2005 Social Security privatization, cooling July inflation, and even floats Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce sparking a baby boom, before turning to John Larson's Connecticut primary loss, the Anthony Fauci diaries, and the AI resume filters auto-rejecting qualified applicants. The 2030s fiscal cliff: CBO projections, Social Security insolvency in 2032, the Medicare trust fund in 2033, and the collapsing worker-to-retiree ratio from six-to-one in 1952 to 2.7 today Why Washington will not act until crisis hits: Mitch McConnell's warning, George W. Bush's 2005 privatization plan, raising the retirement age, and the left's treatment of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, and Travis Kelce July inflation and the Fed: cooling CPI, core prices at 2.5 percent, and whether a September rate hike is coming John Larson's Connecticut primary loss to former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin after his viral House-floor freeze, the seventh House Democrat ousted in a primary this year The Anthony Fauci diaries, the debunked mRNA vaccine miscarriage claim, Alex Berenson, AI job-application filters rejecting qualified candidates, and the case for reactive over proactive government

Erick opens on the Washington Post's exclusive that President Donald Trump secretly slipped out of Turkey after the NATO summit in Ankara, boarding the old Air Force One as a decoy and then being shuttled by catering truck onto a smaller Air Force jet, all because of a credible Iranian assassination threat. The White House press corps is melting down that it was left "expendable" on the decoy plane, and Erick unloads on that self-obsession while asking the bigger question: why has Trump still not taken out the Iranian regime that keeps trying to kill him. He then turns to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's boyfriend and his suspicious stock trades, Tucker Carlson interviewing Hunter Biden, and whether Trump even wants to win in November given his backing of scandal-plagued candidates Max Miller and Corey Mills. Washington Post exclusive: Trump's decoy Air Force One, the catering-truck switch to a C-32A, and the credible Iranian assassination threat leaving Turkey The press corps calling itself "expendable," Ned Price, and Erick's case that the president comes first, plus the missile shortage and the Ukraine angle AOC's unmarried boyfriend trading stocks tied to her committees (Washington Free Beacon), two-tiered justice, and Tucker Carlson's long friendship with Hunter Biden Does Trump want to win? How keeping Max Miller in Ohio and Corey Mills in Florida's 7th could cost the GOP a governor's race, a Senate seat, and House seats The Doggy Bear and Pink Bear monologue set against Max Miller withholding his daughter's blue bunny, and the Wall Street Journal chicken glut lowering grocery prices

Erick tears into Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed after CNN's Andrew Kaczynski and the KFile surface old clips of the democratic socialist calling football "toxically masculine" and tied to slavery, demanding an end to Fourth of July fireworks, floating a repeal of the Second Amendment, and promoting "feminist prison abolition," all now disowned as "cherry picked" comments from just two and three years ago. He then turns to Wisconsin, where on election day far-left gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong (one of only six votes against a bipartisan law making teacher grooming a felony, signed by Tony Evers) sits atop the Marquette poll and the Kalshi prediction markets, and to New York, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani is caught on a Turkish American podcast describing the red-green "validator" playbook. A caller pushes Erick on Temporary Protected Status for Ukrainians, and he makes the case for extending it while Russia bombs Kyiv. Abdul El-Sayed's resurfaced clips (CNN, Andrew Kaczynski, the KFile): football as "toxically masculine" and linked to slavery, banning Fourth of July fireworks, replacing the Second Amendment, over 100 deleted YouTube videos from 2022 to 2024, and "feminist prison abolition" on his America Dissected podcast Francesca Hong on Wisconsin election day: her lone-dissent vote against the bipartisan teacher-grooming felony law, the Marquette poll (Hong 38, Crowley 7, Barnes 16), Mandela Barnes dropping out, David Crowley, and a 94.9% Kalshi win probability Zohran Mamdani's Turkish American podcast interview on the identity-versus-ideology "validator" strategy, Cynthia Nixon, Tiffany Caban, Hassan Piker, and Erick's red-green alliance and Iran ayatollah playbook warning President Donald Trump on jihadists and communists winning elections and third-worldism, plus a Democratic Socialists of America leader dodging on police and prison abolition Caller James on TPS for Ukrainians, the August 19 deadline, Pete Hegseth's "temporary means temporary," the Patriot missile shortage, and Russian strikes destroying 17 buildings in Kyiv

Erick pivots from Zohran Mamdani to the Flock camera fight, using the Manhattan Institute's Stu Smith to trace the organized opposition to license plate readers back not to civil libertarians but to the Democratic Socialists of America, the Communist Party USA, and the defund the police and abolish prisons movements. He walks through Columbus, Ohio police chief Elaine Bryant's real case files where Flock helped solve double homicides, arrest a 15 year old murder suspect within 18 hours, recover a kidnapped three year old, and locate missing elderly people with dementia, while conceding the genuine privacy concerns raised by a listener in Jacksonville and callers from Oklahoma City and Forsyth County. He closes by dismantling Mamdani's slick anti Amazon ad as an attack on the small delivery businesses Amazon created, framing it as the politics of envy and covetousness. Flock license plate readers on trial: Stu Smith and the Manhattan Institute tie the anti Flock push to the DSA, the Communist Party USA, and the abolish police and prisons left, not to civil libertarians Columbus police chief Elaine Bryant's Flock case files: a double homicide solved, a 15 year old murder suspect charged within 18 hours, a kidnapped three year old recovered, an armed robbery tracked to Chicago, and two dementia patients with silver alerts found safe The privacy versus safety balance: Flock is a private company, the Supreme Court's no expectation of privacy on a public roadway, the built in audit tool that flags misuse, and the reality that police already pull cell phone data and gas station and bank security footage Callers Linda from Oklahoma City, Andrew on his stolen Forsyth County minivan found in 30 seconds, and Bart on the Shanghai and Great Britain surveillance state Zohran Mamdani's anti Amazon delivery ad, the Delivery Protection Act, and Erick's case that it targets small subcontractor businesses, plus a Silo and Slow Horses dystopia tangent and Trump's dubious Strait of Hormuz claim

Erick Erickson opens on the fight to let Ukraine build its own Patriot missiles and the Lockheed and Raytheon protectionism blocking it, as Ukraine out-produces all of NATO with five million drones this year while America makes fewer than 100,000. He ties a "sclerotic" defense industry and a stumbling Boeing to why the United States cannot reopen the Strait of Hormuz or finish the job in Iran, where Tehran keeps raising its price and the promised Bessent and Rubio deal never came. Then a Milton Friedman defense of the free market against tariffs, the imaginary $20 burrito, populism as covetousness, and a surprising rethink on the Flock camera backlash. Topics: Patriot missile production, Ukraine's five million drones versus America's under 100,000, and the Lockheed and Raytheon IP fight reported by The Atlantic Iran on edge: Trey Yingst on Fox, the questioned Mostafa Khamenei "proof of life" video, unpaid IRGC soldiers, and why Tehran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz despite the collapsed deal Boeing versus Airbus, bean counters over engineers, and how government protectionism kills innovation Milton Friedman, tariffs as a tax on working families, the phony $20 burrito, and populism as "covetousness organized as a governing principle" (JD Vance, Patrick Deneen, American Compass) The Flock camera backlash: license plate readers that solve murders and find missing kids, weighed against police abuse and left and right fears of a surveillance state

Erick Erickson breaks down Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's first big TV interview in two years, a soft sit-down with ABC's Jonathan Karl, and argues "Woke 2.0" is just the old defund-the-police, abolish-ICE agenda with the honesty stripped out. He contrasts Brian Kemp's early COVID reopening of Georgia, and the "human sacrifice" smear from The Atlantic and Anthony Fauci, with the credit Ron DeSantis got for running for president, then turns to Todd Blanche's narrow 50-vote confirmation as Attorney General. He closes on the new FIRE college free speech rankings, where 166 of 257 schools earn an F and Barnard finishes dead last. AOC's Jonathan Karl interview: "Woke 2.0," the dodged defund-the-police question, abolish ICE, open borders, and boys in girls' sports and locker rooms Brian Kemp reopened Georgia first: The Atlantic's "human sacrifice" story, Anthony Fauci, Ron DeSantis, Stacey Abrams, and Georgia's fast economic recovery Todd Blanche confirmed Attorney General on a 50-vote margin with Bill Cassidy's swing vote, and why Erick rates him over Pam Bondi at running the Justice Department Francesca Hong, Graham Platner, and Abdul El-Sayed: the Republican super PAC secretly boosting the far-left in Wisconsin, plus Scott Jennings and Ben Domenech on Hassan Piker, inflation, and moral hazard FIRE's 2026 college free speech rankings: Claremont McKenna, Purdue, and the University of Chicago on top, Barnard last, Hassan Piker canceled at the University of Washington, and Samford, Mercer, and the coming enrollment cliff

Erick Erickson takes apart the left's redefinition of violence, playing James Talarico's claim that poverty, pollution, and prison are all "violence," then walks through a Savannah, Georgia case where a man arrested 27 times attempted to rape a homeless woman in a public restroom while Judge Claire Williams kept releasing him. He argues prisons exist to punish, not to rehabilitate, and that homelessness is really a drug addiction and mental health crisis the left refuses to treat. Then Zohran Mamdani's FDR and LaGuardia nostalgia, CNN's Harry Enten on Trump's underwater jobs approval, a DSA co-chair's word salad to David Remnick of The New Yorker, and a long monologue on why AI, Common Core, and the algorithm are making Americans less imaginative. James Talarico's "poverty is violence, pollution is violence, prison is violence" clip, and Erick's case that prisons exist to punish, not to rehabilitate The Savannah, Georgia restroom attack: a repeat offender arrested 27 times, Judge Claire Williams, Alderman Nick Palumbo, Daffin Park, and homelessness reframed as a drug and mental health crisis Zohran Mamdani's FDR and LaGuardia pitch, rising New York costs and vacant apartments, and CNN's Harry Enten on Trump's jobs approval sinking 22 points underwater The DSA co-chair's interview with David Remnick of The New Yorker: word salad on taxing millionaires, blaming NATO for Ukraine, calling Putin a capitalist, and defending October 7 as "inevitable" Erick on AI and data centers: supportive but worried, Grammarly versus Claude, JD Vance's toaster line, the $20 burrito, Elon Musk's "woke" Odyssey claim, Common Core, and his kids' classical Christian school

Erick opens Open Line Friday on the ugly July jobs report: the economy lost 23,000 jobs, average wages rose just two cents while inflation outran them, and labor force participation fell to a five-year low, with middle-aged men and young workers struggling most to get hired. He argues the sectors government controls most (housing, healthcare, education, and food) are the ones driving prices up, then turns to Donald Trump endorsing Charlie Hatcher over Andy Ogles in Tennessee, Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan Senate win, David Hogg's war on moderate Democrats, and Patrick Ruffini's data on the Democrats' summer polling mirage. The July jobs report: 23,000 jobs lost, wages up two pennies against a five-penny inflation bite, and why middle-aged white men and young workers cannot get hired Copper, aluminum, and steel prices spiking from data center demand and tariffs, plus why government-run housing, healthcare, and education lead inflation while clothing and cars fall Trump endorses former Ag Commissioner Charlie Hatcher after Andy Ogles runs a terrible campaign, and how clean energy money picked off Andy Ogles and Chip Roy Trump's "communist" framing, Abdul El-Sayed, David Hogg on CNN, Hassan Piker, and the anti-westernism Erick says is breaking the Democratic Party Patrick Ruffini's summer polling bias data, Mike Rogers versus El-Sayed in Michigan, Sherrod Brown, James Talarico, and why Max Miller and Corey Mills could cost the GOP seats

Erick breaks down Donald Trump's Punchbowl News interview with Jake Sherman, where the president insists voters are angry at other Republicans and not at him, defends tariffs and the Save America Act, wants to terminate the filibuster, and warns he could be "the last Republican president." Erick lays out the Axios warning from Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen that Trump is trapped by a war, tariffs, and monuments he never should have chased, plus a Quinnipiac record-low approval and a sub-40 percent polling average, then offers his own Labor Day fix: scrap the tariffs, finish the war with Iran, and drop the gaudy gold-leaf White House makeover. Then Open Line Friday callers on New York's $30 minimum wage, the restaurant tip credit, Milton Friedman and the free market, and why Cory Mills and Max Miller have to go. Trump's Punchbowl News interview with Jake Sherman: "they're not angry at me, they're angry at Republicans," terminating the filibuster, the Save America Act, and the "last Republican president" line Axios (Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen) on Trump trapped by the Iran war, tariffs, and monuments, Quinnipiac's all-time-low approval, and why summer polling still inflates the Democrats before Labor Day Erick's turnaround plan: scrap the tariffs to lower prices and lift wages, pour resources into finishing the Iran war for a quick military win, and stop the gaudy gold White House and paved-over Rose Garden remodel Caller David in Oklahoma City, a 38-year restaurant veteran, on New York's $30 minimum wage, the tip credit fight, union wage scales, fast-food automation, and young workers priced out of starter jobs Free markets versus "socialist light": Milton Friedman, the government taking ownership stakes in 30 companies, a Woodstock Georgia listener's housing squeeze, and why Cory Mills (Florida 7th, back Ryan Elijah) and Max Miller (Ohio 7th) must exit

Erick makes the case for Florida voters to throw scandal-plagued Congressman Cory Mills out of Florida's 7th District, walking through the House Ethics investigation into Mills' federal weapons contracts, the assault allegations, and the restraining order, then urging support for challenger Ryan Elijah, who trails Mills by just three points in the primary. He warns Republicans that if they will not clean up their own side, the voters will do it for them, invoking the 2006 wave that swept out Tom DeLay and Denny Hastert. Then a pair of Open Line Friday standouts: Enes Kanter Freedom declaring himself a WNBA prospect under the league's own self-identification rules, and a long free-market debate with caller Alan on why the government taking equity stakes in Intel, U.S. Steel, and IBM cannot beat China. Cory Mills (Florida 7th) under House Ethics investigation for steered weapons contracts, assault allegations, and a restraining order, and why Ryan Elijah, three points back in the primary, is the clean alternative in a perfect three-way swing district once held by John Mica and Stephanie Murphy The 2006 lesson for Republicans: Tom DeLay, Denny Hastert, and how refusing to police your own side hands seats to the Democrats Enes Kanter Freedom declares for the WNBA under the league's self-identification standard, Clay Travis and his "Nashville Balls" bit, and Sophie Cunningham on boys in girls' sports Caller Alan and the government's equity stakes in 30 companies: Intel's 10 percent CHIPS Act stake, U.S. Steel and Nippon golden shares, IBM and Watson, Kelly Loeffler, moral hazard, and Erick's "you cannot out-China China" argument Caller Michael on international law and the Iran strikes (the Geneva Convention on civilian versus military infrastructure), caller Emily on Zohran Mamdani's New York grocery stores versus food stamps, and the United Auto Workers now counting more academics than autoworkers

Erick takes on the viral "$20 burrito" affordability debate that lit up the right after a Turning Point USA student's tweet, arguing that tariffs, Fannie and Freddie loan guarantees, and the Jones Act (not lazy consumers) are what really drive prices up. He walks through Trump scrapping tariffs on coffee, bananas, beef, and eggs, and tells the story of his Rev Coffee habit and Jura machine to show tariffs in real life. Then he pivots to the Georgia governor's race, contrasting Keisha Lance Bottoms' "we don't have the facts" dodge on data centers with Rick Jackson's local-control answer, and points to Meta's El Paso project and the Hyundai plant in Bryan County as proof of the economic upside. Topics: The "$20 burrito" affordability firestorm, Turning Point USA, and why tariffs undercut the right's own complaints Trump reversing tariffs on coffee, bananas, beef, and eggs, plus Erick's Rev Coffee, Community Coffee, and Jura machine story Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, student loan guarantees, and the Jones Act waiver that lowered prices after the Iran war Keisha Lance Bottoms versus Rick Jackson on data centers in the Georgia governor's race Meta's El Paso data center, Hyundai in Bryan County, and the case for local control, property tax relief, and rural jobs

Erick catches the Democratic Socialists contradicting themselves in their own words: Bernie Sanders on Pod Save America swears no serious Democrat wants to defund the police, abolish ICE, or open the borders, while Ro Khanna openly calls to abolish ICE, pack the Supreme Court from 9 to 13, and tax billionaires. He plays Wisconsin governor candidate Francesca Hong refusing on CNN to disavow her deleted 2021 "cancel Thanksgiving" tweet, then a Politico jump-cut interview where she suddenly calls Thanksgiving her favorite holiday. Add a Mike Bloomberg and Jones Act tariff callback, BMW hijacking customers' screens for a Spider-Man promo, and a caller-fueled deep dive on data center cooling and immigration. Bernie Sanders (Pod Save America) versus Ro Khanna: the Democratic Socialist lie on defunding police, abolishing ICE, and open borders Francesca Hong's deleted "cancel Thanksgiving" and "original super spreader" tweet, her CNN dodge with Kaitlan Collins, and the scripted Politico jump-cut Mike Bloomberg, the Jones Act waiver, and a one-year tariff callback: why prices fell in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and California BMW calls its Spider-Man screen takeover a "special surprise," not an advertisement, and Erick calls it what it is Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan map (0 of 15 lowest-degree counties, 13 of 15 highest), colleges as "progressive madrasas," killing the student loan system, plus caller talk on closed-loop data center cooling and comprehensive immigration reform

Erick tracks the fast-collapsing Max Miller scandal as both Ohio Republican senators, his father-in-law Bernie Moreno and John Husted, now publicly call on the OH-7 congressman to quit over domestic violence and child-abuse allegations, including the bizarre "bunny" standoff and a daughter's untreated broken collarbone. He lays out the brutal math: an R+5 district against a D+8 generic ballot, where Miller staying on the ballot could sink Vivek Ramaswamy's run for governor and cost John Husted his Senate seat against Sherrod Brown, and he demands Trump push Miller out the way Democrats forced Graham Platner out in Maine. Then the blockbuster: Erick confirms a CNBC report that the Army has burned through nearly all of its ATACMS and precision-strike missiles in the five-month Iran war, walks back a false Washington Post claim of a Camp David blowup between Trump and Pete Hegseth, and warns that a China-Taiwan war is coming while Congress and the defense industrial base stall. Max Miller's OH-7 meltdown: Bernie Moreno and John Husted both say quit, the "bunny" story, the broken collarbone, and Scott Jennings and Katie Britt on CNN with Jake Tapper The electoral math: R+5 district, D+8 generic ballot, and how Miller could cost Vivek Ramaswamy the governor's mansion and John Husted his Senate seat versus Sherrod Brown Moderate Democrats launch a $15 million effort to stop the Democratic Socialists, compared to the 2012 GOP autopsy report, the Trump takeover, and the left writing off Elon Musk The missile shortage: CNBC reports the Army is nearly out of ATACMS and precision-strike missiles after the Iran war, the false Washington Post Trump versus Pete Hegseth and Steven Feinberg story, and Trump crying "treason" on the leakers China, Xi Jinping, and Taiwan readiness, plus closing headlines on the stalled Iran deal, James Talarico's chief-of-staff scandal, and Ken Paxton slipping in Texas

Erick breaks down Abdul El-Sayed's Democratic Socialist win in the Michigan Senate primary over Haley Stevens, his Morning Joe damage control on Israel, foreign aid, and abolishing ICE, and why the polls oversampled urban white voters and nearly blew the call. Then a blistering hour on Ohio Republican Max Miller, the abuse and drug allegations, father-in-law Senator Bernie Moreno calling him unfit, and how Democrats force their damaged candidates out while Republicans will not. Erick's warning: if Max Miller stays on the ballot, the GOP could lose the Ohio Senate and governor's races too. Abdul El-Sayed beats Haley Stevens for the Michigan Democratic Senate nomination and will face Republican Mike Rogers, with Erick warning the GOP not to get cocky El-Sayed on Morning Joe: calling Israel's conduct "genocide" and "apartheid," cutting military aid, abolishing ICE, and saying America's founding was flawed The polling failure: low rated and Democratic pollsters oversampled urban white voters in Michigan (and the same risk for Francesca Hong in Wisconsin), so trust the averages, not individual polls Ohio's Max Miller: three women allege abuse and violence, he admits past illegal drug use to Jake Tapper, and Senator Bernie Moreno calls him damaged goods who needs help The double standard: Democrats forced out Graham Platner, Eric Swalwell, Joe Biden, and Mandela Barnes, while Trump, Mike Johnson, and Richard Hudson refuse to move Max Miller, risking Vivek Ramaswamy and John Husted in Ohio

Erick makes the case that the United States simply does not have the electrical capacity to repatriate manufacturing or feed the AI boom, walking through Scott Lincicum's Cato piece on the 1886 Hall-Heroult aluminum cell and why a single smelter needs a permanent, enormous block of base load power that nuclear, coal, and natural gas provide and solar and wind cannot. He then turns to Ross Douthat's interview with Yale Law professor Samuel Moyn, who floats overweighting young voters and handing children's proxy votes to random 20-somethings instead of their own parents, and builds it into a sweeping monologue on college educated white progressives, the 1619 Project, and universities as "progressive madrasas." Plus the Max Miller "permission structure" play and a caller on the coming generational wealth transfer. The power crisis: Scott Lincicum (Cato Institute), the 1886 Hall-Heroult smelting cell, why aluminum smelters can never power down, and Erick's call for nuclear, coal, and natural gas base load plus small modular reactors How Trump's aluminum tariffs backfired by raising the cost of homes, cars, and electronics, and the case for ally-shoring to Javier Milei's Argentina and to Vietnam instead of China The natural gas pipeline in Erick's own backyard, Sierra Club opposition, and degrowth activists using blue-state regulators to sabotage pipelines and power plants Ross Douthat interviews Yale Law's Samuel Moyn on stripping parents of proxy votes for their children, answered with the Phil Gramm "what are my kids' names" story The college monologue: Nikole Hannah-Jones and the 1619 Project, self-loathing white progressives, and the four schools a prominent theologian recommends (Samford, Auburn, Texas A&M, Clemson) versus Erick's alma mater Mercer

Erick tears into the right's $20 burrito panic and the affordability fight between Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, and the Turning Point USA crowd, calling out the writers in JD Vance's orbit who blame corporate greed while refusing to admit Trump's tariffs and the Iran war (not just Joe Biden) drove up grocery, beef, and gas prices, with a Reuters poll now showing Americans blame Republicans. A caller pitches a Pacific Ocean to Lake Mead desalination mega-project with nuclear-powered AI hubs, reviving Erick's Ukraine drones and precision-missile shortage capacity argument. The hour closes with a monologue on democratic socialism as a secular religion, built on Lansing socialist William Lawrence saying non-white voters "defang the white left" and Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan coalition, and Erick's answer: churchgoers should go be their isolated neighbors' friend and bring them Jesus. The $20 burrito debate: Matt Walsh, Ben Shapiro, Mark Thiessen, and the Turning Point USA affordability fight, Erick's "learn to cook" pushback, his coming cookbook, and his own story of food assistance, formula, and the power getting shut off Why the right keeps circling the wagons around JD Vance, and Erick's charge that tariffs and Trump's half-baked Iran war (not just Biden) raised grocery, beef, and gas prices while a Reuters poll blames Republicans Caller Paul in Pinehurst: a Pacific Ocean to Lake Mead desalination mega-project with five nuclear-powered AI hubs run by Google, Amazon, and X, tied to Ukraine building 5 million drones and America running low on precision-strike missiles Caller Walter in Ponca City on Saul Alinsky, the book "After the Ball," and the Marxist language war over statues and history The secular-religion monologue: William Lawrence's "defang the white left" comment and Meet the Press apology, Abdul El-Sayed losing black, Hispanic, and non-college white voters, and Erick's call for believers to befriend isolated progressives who worship politics instead of God

Back early from vacation, Erick pulls back the curtain on what Republican pollsters, focus groupers, strategists, donors, and corporate money men are all telling him: James Talarico is leading Ken Paxton in Texas right now, and the fortune the GOP must spend to rescue Paxton could cost them Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed, Haley Stevens, and Mike Rogers set up a nervous primary night. He argues the one thing saving Republicans is a Democratic Party that has lost its mind, from Wisconsin governor hopeful Francesca Hong wanting to cancel Thanksgiving as colonialism to the socialist surge terrifying the party's own establishment. Then a signature comic monologue on the Washington Post dragging JD Vance for raising backyard chickens, complete with a they/them source in Utah and a hen named Karen. Texas Senate reality check: James Talarico leading Ken Paxton, three nonpartisan pollsters, the Ted Cruz versus Beto O'Rourke comparison, and the "suicide plot" that could hand Democrats the Senate Michigan primary night: Abdul El-Sayed versus Haley Stevens, Bernie Sanders and AOC versus Gretchen Whitmer, Gary Peters retiring, and Mike Rogers hunting a rematch after nearly beating Elissa Slotkin The corruption problem on the right: Democrats now trusted more on the economy, anger at the Trump family getting rich, tariffs, and why Erick says "I told you so" Francesca Hong, Zohran Mamdani, and the socialist meltdown: the deleted "cancel Thanksgiving" tweet, her "proximity to whiteness" CNN interview, and why the far left keeps rescuing Republicans The Washington Post versus JD Vance's chicken coop: Tim Carman, Carolina Coops, a $100,000 donated hen house, a they/them named Danny Bowers in Utah, a chicken named Karen, plus 86 percent of new jobs going to women

Erick argues the United States is losing to Iran by choice, driven by an isolationist wing embedded around President Trump and Vice President JD Vance that wants a "tripartite" world carved up with Russia and China, even as war torn Ukraine out builds all of NATO with 5 million drones a year while America cannot manufacture a single Patriot missile. He then hammers Ohio Republican Max Miller to drop out over the Daily Mail's syringe and marijuana gummy photos (with Senator Bernie Moreno calling it a "seventh level of hell") and calls on Florida to primary Cory Mills. The centerpiece is a deep dive into a $5 billion foreign dark money machine: Hansjorg Wyss, Christopher Hohn, the Oak and Hewlett Foundations, Indivisible, and Oren Cass funneling left wing cash into groups on both the left and a co opted "right." Iran "losing by choice": the isolationist right around Trump and JD Vance, Pat Buchanan's multipolarity, Catherine the Great and Putin's Soviet nostalgia, the China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba axis learning to coordinate, and Turkey, Pakistan, and Qatar quietly backing Tehran The manufacturing collapse: war torn Ukraine building 5 million drones this year (more than all of NATO combined) versus a U.S. arsenal under 100,000, plus Erick's new piece on handing the profit motive back to the private sector to build missiles, refine oil, and desalinate water Max Miller's scandal and Ohio's 7th District: Daily Mail syringe and 150mg gummy photos, Bernie Moreno's "seventh level of hell," the Graham Platner contrast, Trump defending Miller as "a good guy," and a call to primary Florida's Cory Mills The $5 billion foreign back door: Hansjorg Wyss, Christopher Hohn, the Oak Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, Indivisible and the No Kings protests, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, Code Pink and China, and 19 state attorneys general pushing a FARA investigation The captured "right": how Hewlett Foundation and American Compass money reaches Oren Cass, Sohrab Ahmari, and Compact to sell social conservatism with socialist economics, plus Ireland's anti Israel jet that can no longer land in fog  

Erick makes a full throated defense of America's data center boom, playing a Mike Rowe clip about Plano, Texas electricians under 30 making north of $240,000 debt free, debunking the Erin Brockovich water panic from Bill Maher's show, and explaining why Caterpillar is suddenly the hottest stock in the Dow. Callers Keith, Max, Chet the Jet, and Ed dig into the skilled trades gold rush, canteen empanada six figure incomes, and the non-disclosure agreements that are breeding data center conspiracy theories. He closes with breaking Iran news as Trump, Scott Bessent, and Marco Rubio claim progress on reopening the Strait of Hormuz while Tehran denies any talks and a cargo ship is struck off the coast of Oman. Mike Rowe's viral clip: Plano, Texas data center electricians under 30 earning $240,000, debt free, poached three times in 18 months Erin Brockovich, Bill Maher, and the data center water myth: golf courses, Permian Basin water recycling, and West Texas selling cleaned water to data centers The degrowth movement, Chinese funded left wing groups, solar panels on farmland, cobalt mining in Africa, and the case for nuclear base load power Caterpillar's Dow surge on gas turbine generators, plus callers Keith, Max, Chet the Jet, and Ed on the skilled trades boom, antifreeze cooling, and data center NDAs Breaking Iran news: Trump, Scott Bessent, and Marco Rubio claim progress reopening the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran denies talks and a ship is hit off Oman

Erick returns from a week at Lake Burton to a world still in chaos: Iran spurns peace as Trump halts strikes, the democratic socialists surge with Texas suddenly in play (James Talarico leading Ken Paxton), and New York's Zohran Mamdani demands a photo ID to buy subsidized groceries but not to vote. He connects the dots to JD Vance's post-liberal advisor Patrick Deneen, a Wall Street Journal corporate shakedown story, and a signature monologue framing socialism as a violation of the Tenth Commandment. Iran refuses peace as Trump halts strikes: the Strait of Hormuz leverage, Ukraine's runaway drone production, and the U.S. Patriot missile and munitions shortage Democratic socialists surging: Texas in play with James Talarico leading Ken Paxton, Sherrod Brown rising in Ohio, Jon Ossoff, Mike Collins, and Ben Domenech's Texas alarm Zohran Mamdani's government grocery store and the photo ID double standard, Cory Booker on New Jersey noncitizen voters, and the SAVE Act JD Vance, Patrick Deneen, and post-liberalism: socialism on the right, the Hewlett Foundation, American Compass, and tariff corruption Socialism as coveting: the Tenth Commandment, mandated self-checkout discounts, plastic bag bans, Scott Bessent buying Japanese yen, and Colorado's Mila Kiro dodging the communist label

Back from Lake Burton, Erick breaks down Marco Rubio's Fox News interview on the funded, organized protest network tied to Cuba, China, Neville Roy Singham, and a Cox Enterprises heir, then makes the grown-up case that the left is both astroturf and real grassroots, just as the Tea Party was in 2010. He hammers Ohio's Max Miller and Florida's Cory Mills over abuse and revenge-porn allegations and demands the GOP force them out, then turns to Mike Turner on Patriot missiles for Ukraine, America's broken missile production, and a big-ideas argument for desalinating Pacific water to save Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. Marco Rubio on Fox News: the funded and organized protest machine, Cuba, China, Neville Roy Singham, the Cox Enterprises heir, Antifa, Code Pink, and the 2020-riots-to-pro-Hamas-to-anti-ICE pipeline the national media refuses to cover Astroturf versus grassroots: the 2010 Tea Party wipeout, the Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity, Russia and Alexander Dugin funding both the left and the post-liberal right, plus Laura Loomer's Ukraine reversal and Mike Flynn's attack Caller Paula on the language war: gender-affirming care versus child castration, reproductive rights versus abortion, unhoused versus homeless, and the Marxist strategy of controlling the vocabulary to control the country Get them out: Max Miller in Ohio and Cory Mills in Florida, the police report, Ed Martin's blocked arrest warrant, and how Democrats pushed damaged candidates like Graham Platner out while Republicans shrug Mike Turner on Patriots and Tomahawks for Ukraine, why our military industrial complex cannot build enough missiles to protect Israel from Iran, Ukraine's drone output, and the case for desalination, aqueducts, and big ideas to refill Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam

Back from vacation, Erick sounds the alarm on a confirmed Wall Street Journal story about a Trump fundraiser pressing corporations like Apple for cash and doling out tariff carve-outs, warning his own side is now perceived like the Biden crime family while wages slip behind inflation and independents may just stay home in November. He then walks through his friend Josh Trevino's National Review essay on why we abandon the lessons of World War II at our peril, taking on Tucker Carlson, Darryl Cooper, R.R. Reno, and the post-liberalism of Patrick Deneen and JD Vance, and closes with the RedState origin story, an Apple lockout vacation saga, and a Tomahawk steak cookout. The Wall Street Journal corruption story: a Trump fundraiser soliciting Apple and other corporations for donations and library money, insane tariff carve-outs for lobbyists, the "Trump crime family" perception versus Hunter Biden's paintings, and why a stay-home electorate hands the democratic socialists November The economy people actually feel: wages slipping behind inflation, a 600-point market pop after Trump called off strikes on Iran, high beef and grocery and gas prices, and the 1992 George H.W. Bush versus Bill Clinton "good man out of touch" warning Ron Fournier, James Carville, and Doug Jones in Alabama: why the DSA malignancy and the corruption issue could flip even Texas Josh Trevino's National Review essay on World War II: Alec Ryrie, R.R. Reno at First Things, Tucker Carlson and Darryl Cooper's Third Reich revisionism, Winston Churchill, and who owns the memory of the war Post-liberalism and American leadership: Patrick Deneen whispering to JD Vance, the liberal world order, China laying roots in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Brazil, Russia near collapse, and why our military industrial complex cannot build a Patriot missile while Ukraine floods the field with drones Personal color: the RedState origin story with Josh Trevino, Ben Domenech, and Mike Krempasky, an Apple account lockout after a Gainesville login, the wrong-theater Odyssey IMAX dad moment, and a Tomahawk steak and front-porch bourbon cookout

Erick opens with a raw, personal plea for his annual childhood cancer Care-a-thon benefiting Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, sharing his wife's stage four lung cancer and the reality that some of the kids he will interview over the next 48 hours may not survive the year. He then unloads on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the progressive squad for falsely claiming the National Defense Authorization Act merges the U.S. and Israeli militaries, mounts a long defense of Sophie Cunningham and Caitlin Clark against a hostile WNBA press, and closes by branding "post-liberalism" as socialism made cute, tracing it to Harvard's Adrian Vermeule and Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt. Topics: Childhood cancer Care-a-thon for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta: Erick's wife's stage four lung cancer, the emotional toll of interviewing sick kids, and a heartfelt donor plea (text donate to 33777) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the progressive squad lie about the National Defense Authorization Act, claiming a U.S. and Israel "military merger" that is really a joint technology fund modeled on Ukraine's drone program Sophie Cunningham defends girls' sports against biological men, Caitlin Clark gets ganged up on, and the hyper-progressive WNBA press pile-on Nancy Armour's USA Today column, the Caitlin Clark race narrative, the Emmett Till geography error, ESPN layoffs, Pat McAfee's $60 million show, and Clay Travis Post-liberalism as "communism made cute": Adrian Vermeule, Carl Schmitt, J.D. Vance, and the push for one-man executive government

Erick builds a full monologue on Nate Silver's Cooperative Election Study data showing the Democratic Socialists of America are not the poor but downwardly mobile rich kids with prestige degrees, invoking Peter Turchin's elite overproduction, Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction, Graham Platner's fake oyster fisherman act, and Dan McLaughlin's Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass contrast. His free market fix for Republicans is blunt: scrap the Trump and Peter Navarro tariffs, stop the government from taking ownership stakes in companies, expand school choice to gut the "progressive madrasas," and defund victimization degrees. He then pivots to the Colorado River crisis at Lake Mead and Lake Powell, arguing for water pipelines and desalination the way America builds oil and gas pipelines, before mocking the left's new conspiracy theory that Mitch McConnell is secretly dead. Nate Silver, the Cooperative Election Study, and the DSA as highly educated, downwardly mobile "rich kids": 80 percent with bachelor's degrees, 45 percent under 60,000 dollars, 85 percent white, clustered in teaching, nonprofits, and public sector work Peter Turchin's elite overproduction, Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction, Graham Platner's oyster fisherman pose, and Dan McLaughlin's Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass framing The free market prescription: kill the Trump and Peter Navarro tariffs, end government ownership stakes in tech companies, expand school choice in Georgia and beyond, and defund gender studies and queer theory degrees Lake Mead, Lake Powell, and the Colorado River crisis: build water pipelines and desalination plants, harness the Permian Basin's billion gallons of daily produced water, and stop the "de-growth" left from blocking energy and water infrastructure (Energy Transfer, Western Midstream, Enterprise Products) The Mitch McConnell "death hoax": why the left now attacks Kentucky Governor Andy Beshir over a conspiracy theory, and Erick's warning that the internet is rotting brains on both sides

Erick argues Iran is deliberately holding the American economy hostage as Brent crude tops 100 dollars after the Houthi strike Saudi ships in the Red Sea, warning that high gas prices could sink Republicans in midterms now barely 100 days out and calling on President Trump to unleash Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israelis to end the Iranian regime and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He then turns to longevity guru Brian Johnson, who announced he is cloning himself to harvest organs while battling autoimmune gastritis, a plan Erick calls demonic and answers with "God is not mocked" and a nod to Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige." He closes the hour backing Scott Perry's No Kill Switches in Cars Act against Joe Biden era mandates, then makes one more emotional plea for the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta childhood cancer Care-a-thon. Topics: Oil prices skyrocket: Brent crude over 100 dollars after Houthi strikes on Saudi ships in the Red Sea, Iran holding the economy hostage, and Erick's demand that Trump unleash Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel to end the regime and free the Strait of Hormuz The economy is the midterm issue: Albertsons stock sinks nearly 15 percent, CEO Susan Morris cites a cautious consumer, and Erick ties food, beef, and grocery inflation straight back to gas prices with a culinary school cost breakdown Brian Johnson, the longevity guru, clones himself to grow organs while fighting autoimmune gastritis: "God is not mocked," a demonic vanity project, and echoes of Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige" Scott Perry's No Kill Switches in Cars Act: repealing the Joe Biden infrastructure mandate for drunk driving detection, and nanny state safety features (backup cameras, pedestrian braking, GM Super Cruise) that price the poor and middle class out of cars Closing childhood cancer plea for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (text donate to 33777), the nation's second largest childhood cancer research facility after St. Jude

Erick opens the week's big theme, a full diagnosis of the Democratic Socialists of America, arguing the movement is not the poor but downwardly mobile rich kids using Nate Silver's Cooperative Election Study data on elite overproduction. He hands Republicans a free market battle plan (kill the tariffs, expand school choice, end the nonsense college degrees), then turns to Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on arresting Benjamin Netanyahu and now admits he has no legal power to do it, with a hard monologue on October 7th, Hamas, and the Gaza "genocide" claim. Topics: The DSA diagnosis: highly educated, downwardly mobile, 85% white, earning $30,000 to $60,000, and resentful, with Graham Platner "cosplaying" as an oyster farmer Erick's Republican playbook: drop the Trump and Peter Navarro tariffs on Canada and Mexico, expand school choice against the "progressive madrasas," and cut gender studies, queer theory, and puppetry arts degrees Why Trump taking government stakes in tech companies is "diet coke socialism," and the anti-tariff case for lower prices and higher wages Zohran Mamdani's sinister campaign video walking back his promise to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, the ICC warrant, and why the U.S. never joined the ICC The October 7th case: Hamas atrocities, Mamdani's refusal to condemn them, and Erick's "daddy issues" analogy for socialists who distrust leaders who overpromise A personal appeal for the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Carathon, fighting childhood cancer and sickle cell anemia (text donate to 33777)

Erick breaks down New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill's admission that a motor vehicle software glitch registered roughly 6,600 noncitizens to vote (about 400 actually cast ballots) under former Governor Phil Murphy, using it to indict the 1990s motor voter law that the late Georgia Senator Paul Coverdell warned against, while pushing back on both Michael Steele's spin and the conspiracy theorists who cry mass fraud. He plays Congressman David Schweikert's warning that Washington now borrows $93,000 every second and ties fiscal recklessness to the rise of socialism, then wonders aloud, prompted by a retired Air Force caller, whether America's reluctance to unleash on Iran signals a real munitions shortage. In the hour's most personal stretch, Erick shares his wife's stage four lung cancer battle and a gut wrenching story of a young cancer patient to make the case for the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta fight against childhood cancer. Topics: New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill: 6,600 noncitizens registered to vote by an MVC software error under Phil Murphy, roughly 400 actually voted, and why the margins cannot overturn an election The motor voter fight: Michael Steele's MS Now spin, the late Senator Paul Coverdell's 1990s warnings, prosecuting the ineligible voters, and Erick's call for bipartisan election integrity reform Congressman David Schweikert on the fiscal calamity: borrowing $93,000 every second, the 10 year yield, the SAVE Act, and how deficits and inflation feed socialism The Iran question: a retired Air Force officer caller on hazard pay versus housing duty pay, missile and drone costs, and Erick's growing suspicion of a U.S. munitions shortage A father's appeal: his wife's stage four lung cancer, the Tagrisso chemo pill, and the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta fight against childhood cancer and sickle cell anemia (text donate to 33777) Caller wisdom on work ethic, entitlement, and marriage: Erick's own story of struggle, student loans, RedState, and why married people earn more than single people

Erick makes the case for letting Israel off the chain against Iran, reporting that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a face to face with Donald Trump at Lindsey Graham's funeral but is being blocked by isolationists in Vice President JD Vance's office, and that America's slow, tit for tat response to Iran may be hiding a real Patriot and Tomahawk munitions shortage. He weighs the new US Saudi Arabia civilian nuclear deal with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (reported by the New York Times from Riyadh), warning that letting an Arab nation enrich uranium will only push Iran to double down, while defending MBS as a pro Western ally and delivering a fiery Pinochet versus the communists monologue. Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine warns the Senate that the character of war is changing, Senator John Kennedy doubts the Pentagon is being straight with Congress about Pickaxe Mountain, and President Trump lands in Atlanta to tout Trump accounts at Wheeler High School in Cobb County. Iran strategy: Netanyahu blocked from meeting Trump by Vice President JD Vance's isolationist staff, a suspected US munitions shortage on Patriots and Tomahawks, and Erick's demand to let Israel and the armed Kurds finish the job without American boots on the ground The US Saudi Arabia nuclear deal with Mohammed bin Salman, the uranium enrichment danger, tying any deal to Saudi recognition of Israel, and Erick's defense of MBS as a pro Western partner over China The Pinochet, Ortega, and Castro communism monologue, plus Erick's AIPAC donation and a shot at Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and antisemitic conspiracy theorists; Laura Loomer's apology after seeing Ukraine firsthand Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine's Senate testimony on funding, the NDAA, Article I Section 8, AI and drone warfare, and lessons from Ukraine; Senator John Kennedy's doubts about the Secretary of Defense and Pickaxe Mountain President Trump in Atlanta at Wheeler High School promoting Trump accounts with Mike Collins and Rick Jackson, threats to hit Iranian civilian infrastructure and the Houthi Red Sea blockade

Erick opens with Van Jones breaking ranks and calling the far left's ideas "insane, nutty, moronic, dangerous, bigoted," then walks through the Tim Walz pardon of an illegal alien child rapist in Minnesota, DSA nominee Darlisa Chevalier's Gaza "genocide" claims, and Hassan Piker praising Mao Zedong to the College Democrats of America. He argues the Democratic Socialists are running an internal coup of the Democratic Party while elected Democrats applaud politely, and he refuses to give the racists on the right a pass either, naming the Patriot Front and Georgia Senate candidate Mike Collins. Plus the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Carathon, and the Smithsonian calling politeness a feature of white supremacy culture. Topics Van Jones on CNN with Erin Burnett: governors and senators from both parties thanking him for saying the far left has gone too far Tim Walz pardons an illegal alien convicted of raping a child to try to block his deportation, and the Bluesky reaction that stunned Erick Erickson Darlisa Chevalier, the Block the Bombs Act, and why Erick Erickson says the Gaza "genocide" claim is living by lies Hassan Piker calling Mao Zedong "one of the great leaders of this world," plus Milit Kiroz on electing more Global South immigrants Al Green, James Talarico, and Keisha Lance Bottoms playing the race card as black and Hispanic voters drift right Erick Erickson polices his own side: the Patriot Front, "Christian nationalists," and Mike Collins's anti-Semitic son-in-law Peter Drucker, Robert Heinlein, Brandon Gill, and the Smithsonian toolkit calling politeness white supremacy culture Bernie Sanders helped elect Daniel Ortega, who has now canceled all future elections in Nicaragua

Erick connects lost American institutional knowledge (nobody can build an IMAX 70 millimeter projector anymore, and Plant Vogtle had to reteach the country how to build a nuclear power plant) to the bigger story: China is building 39 nuclear reactors and 100 coal plants while the United States builds zero. He argues Joe Biden wrecked the economy with modern monetary theory over Larry Summers's warnings, and Donald Trump wrecked it further by resurrecting failed 1950s tariff policy on aluminum, steel, and lumber. Plus Dan McLaughlin on Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass, Nate Silver's data on who the Democratic Socialists really are, and why China funds the AstroTurf groups fighting AI data centers. TOPICS The largest IMAX screen in America is in Pooler, Georgia, and why only 25 IMAX theaters exist: the engineers who built the 70 millimeter projectors retired or died Plant Vogtle, Westinghouse's bankruptcy, and why Erick Erickson says the nation owes Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission a debt of gratitude Joe Biden, Larry Summers, modern monetary theory, and how the COVID bailout broke the economy Donald Trump's aluminum tariff proclamation, J.D. Vance, the isolationists, and the C.S. Lewis "Screwtape Letters" warning about idealizing the past China building 39 nuclear reactors and 100 coal plants while the United States builds none, plus the $1.65 trillion in hidden data center debt at Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle Base load power explained, the Texas ice storm failure, and why Georgia, Kansas, Idaho, and Wyoming are seeing rates fall Dan McLaughlin on Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass, and Nate Silver's data on affluent, educated, resentful Democratic Socialists Callers Jim and John on policing our own side, Christine O'Donnell, Antifa, and the Patriot Front, plus Van Jones calling the far left regressive

Erick Erickson builds the hour around a theological indictment of socialism: the Democratic Socialists have taken the one commandment that lives entirely in the heart, thou shalt not covet, and organized it into a governing philosophy, citing Nate Silver's data showing the most liberal Americans are high education, low income kids from wealthy families. He walks through Abdul El-Sayed's defund the police reversal after Manu Raju confronted him with the audio, James Talarico's border flip, Zohran Mamdani's rent freeze war on New York landlords, and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's careers built on tearing down the rich. Then Mamdani's threat to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, Elie Honig's takedown of that claim on CNN, Mark Warner dodging on Israel, anti-Semitism festering on both the left and the online right including the vice president, plus new ICE deportation numbers, the New Jersey motor voter error, and a raw closing monologue on itching ears, the Charlie Kirk conspiracy theories, "The Odyssey" review wars, and why Erick believes we are in the end times. TOPICS The tenth commandment as the seed of every other sin, and socialism as covetousness organized into a governing philosophy: "to lift up the poor is charity, to tear down the rich is covetousness with a press secretary" Nate Silver's data on the Democratic Socialists: wealthy families, expensive useless degrees, $30,000 to $60,000 incomes, and deep resentment, versus the successful non-college voters least likely to embrace socialism Abdul El-Sayed caught by Manu Raju on his defund the police record, James Talarico's border security reinvention, and El-Sayed's own top 1% Michigan tax returns Zohran Mamdani's rent freeze and war on New York landlords, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's personal fortunes, and the progressive donor class (Alex Soros) exempted from the moral fury Mamdani's vow to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, Elie Honig on CNN explaining the ICC warrant has zero legal effect, and Mark Warner's non-answer on Bibi and the Hague Anti-Semitism on the right, the vice president's Joe Rogan comments, reported White House staff obstruction of a Netanyahu meeting, and Bernie Sanders's own former policy director accusing him of spreading anti-Semitism Bill Melugin's ICE data: 356,389 deportations in fiscal year 2026, 1,260 per day, 65,765 in detention, Tom Homan's record June arrests, plus 6,000 non-citizens on New Jersey voter rolls and the case against motor voter End times monologue: itching ears, earthquakes and the ring of fire, the Charlie Kirk cover-up conspiracy theory, Candace Owens and Bret Weinstein, "The Odyssey" and Rotten Tomatoes, right-wing progressives, and Erick's answer: seek the welfare of your community, love God, love your neighbor The lighter close: 29 straight years of losing the Masters lottery, and a plea to get Charlie back to Augusta

Erick opens on a detained suspect and an incendiary device outside New York's 26 Federal Plaza, then builds his signature monologue on "the outrage machine" breaking brains on the left and the right. He defends theologian John Piper over a misread automated Leviticus 19:34 tweet, dismantles the woke-right meltdown over Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" (a Black actress as Helen of Troy and Elliot Page as the deceiver Sinon), and blasts the left for tearing down Flock cameras and ShotSpotter as a Cambridge park attendant bleeds out. He closes on socialist Senate hopefuls Abdul El-Sayed, Troy Jackson, and Graham Platner, plus fresh Iran danger. Incendiary device and a detained suspect at 26 Federal Plaza as the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigates John Piper preaches Erick's church's 200th anniversary, and the automated Leviticus 19:34 tweet the right wrongly attacked The "Odyssey" defense: Christopher Nolan, a Black Helen of Troy, and Elliot Page cast as Sinon the deceiver The left's outrage: Flock cameras and ShotSpotter scrapped as a Cambridge, Massachusetts park attendant dies waiting for help Iran heats up (US service members killed in Jordan, rumors of a ground incursion into Kuwait) and socialists Abdul El-Sayed, Bernie Sanders, Troy Jackson, and the DSA

Erick races through the day's biggest headlines: an anti-ICE activist who poured gasoline and set a fire outside New York's 26 Federal Plaza immigration court, and the Justice Department confirming acting Attorney General Todd Blanche personally approved the arrest of the Tate brothers, contradicting their lawyer Joseph McBride. He turns to Iran, where the Pentagon named fallen soldiers First Lieutenant Tyler James Frean and Private Isabella Gonzalez while the New York Times alleges the Pentagon hid earlier casualties, and he argues America needs a real strategy (letting Israel back in for regime change) instead of an endless tit for tat. Then a full-throated defense of Flock license-plate cameras and an unforgettable Taco Bell and Taylor Farms cyclospora segment that doubles as his infamous Mercer law school "fungible elephant" tale. Anti-ICE activist sets a gasoline fire outside 26 Federal Plaza as New York's mayor responds and a suspect is taken into custody Tate brothers arrested: DOJ confirms acting Attorney General Todd Blanche approved it, contradicting lawyer Joseph McBride Iran escalation: Pentagon names Lt. Tyler James Frean and Pvt. Isabella Gonzalez, the NYT alleges hidden casualties, John Kirby warns on the Strait of Hormuz, and Erick makes the case for letting Israel pursue regime change Flock cameras and ShotSpotter defended as crime-solving, kidnapping-recovery, and dementia-rescue tools the left wrongly panics over Taco Bell and Taylor Farms cyclospora outbreak, the FDA's false-positive lettuce walk-back, and Erick's legendary law school "fungible elephant" projectile-vomit story

Erick closes the day with his capstone thesis that America already knows what works and the left, joined by part of the right, is choosing decline: Photo ID for election integrity, phonics and memorized multiplication tables for education, the free market over "capitalism," and the two-parent household for stability. He contrasts Mississippi's back-to-basics reading and math turnaround (rejecting Common Core and Singapore math) with California's "gender unicorn" classrooms, plays Mark Warner dodging Jonathan Karl on Virginia Photo ID and the California Federation of Teachers president calling teachers into the streets, then pivots to Abdul El-Sayed's "abolish ICE" clip with Bernie Sanders, Tom Homan defending ICE on Face the Nation, and a new State Department report tying a 60-plus group Cuba protest network to Havana. Topics: "We know what works" monologue: Photo ID and Georgia's law, phonics, memorized multiplication tables, Mississippi's reading gains, and rejecting Common Core and Singapore math Free market versus "capitalism," Norway's oil-funded sovereign wealth fund, Iceland's geothermal energy, two-parent households, and Chesterton's "democracy of the dead" against a new Dark Ages Mark Warner spars with Jonathan Karl over Virginia Photo ID while the California Federation of Teachers president wants protests instead of teaching Abdul El-Sayed's "abolish ICE" rally with Bernie Sanders, Tom Homan on Face the Nation, the secured border, and the "creedal nation" versus colonizer debate over Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Zohran Mamdani School choice and "zip code discrimination," a candid local charter school decline story, plus a State Department report linking the National Network on Cuba and ICAP to the Cuban regime

Erick opens Open Line Friday by dissecting President Donald Trump's prime-time address on election interference, including the DHS claim that roughly 278,000 non-citizens are registered to vote and that China accessed the voter rolls of 270 million Americans. Drawing on his years as an election lawyer and political consultant, Erick argues China does not need to hack anything because voter files are public and resold by data brokers, and he keeps pressing the real question: where are the indictments? He then delivers a two-sided monologue on the scolds of left and right, the progressive meltdown over the Blue Angels beach flyover in Pensacola and the "woke right" outrage over Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey." Topics: Trump's prime-time speech: 278,000 non-citizens on the voter rolls, China, DHS cyber-vulnerability claims, and the missing indictments Why data brokers, motor-voter registration, and publicly available voter files undercut the "China hacked us" panic, with the Incogni angle California's broken, slow-count elections and Trump's more measured tone that avoided relitigating 2020 and the Warnock and Ossoff seats The Blue Angels low-pass flyover in Pensacola: progressive online outrage vs. a beloved annual beach tradition, and Pete Hegseth The "woke right" vs. Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey": Elliot Page's casting, a Black Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and the two-million-feet Kodak film shoot

On Open Line Friday, Erick Erickson breaks down why China's Kimi K3 model just seized the number one spot on the front-end code arena, shoving Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Elon Musk's Grok down the leaderboard, and he reads David Sacks's warning that permitting delays and over-regulation are how America loses the AI race. Erick unloads on Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and the AI leaders who "creep people out" with talk of mass job losses and doom instead of selling the promise of the technology, then connects the fight to data centers, six-figure trades like welding and plumbing, and the moral foundation of the free market versus private equity. He opens the hour skewering the Maine Democratic Senate primary debate, from trans candidate Ashley Webb to a climate activist and a candidate tied to Graham Platner, before a two-sided monologue on how the left and the right both let the other side control their emotions. Topics: China's Kimi K3 tops the front-end code arena, David Sacks on permissionless innovation, and why U.S. regulation is stalling Claude, ChatGPT, and Grok Erick's blistering critique of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and AI executives who scare the public about job losses, enslavement, and doom The AI economy: data centers, six-figure blue-collar trades (welders, electricians, plumbers), free market morality, and the problem with private equity Maine Democratic Senate debate breakdown: Ashley Webb, Dan Kleban, a climate-focused candidate, the Graham Platner connection, and moderate Susan Collins Living free of outrage: the DJT airport boycott, Greta Thunberg's pivot to Palestinians, Elliot Page and Nolan's "Odyssey," and Colin Kaepernick and the NFL

On Open Line Friday, Erick Erickson opens with a personal Rush Limbaugh memory: how Rush secretly went to bat for him as the only guest host allowed to talk about guns and religion on the EIB Network, the black microphone Rush bought him, and the rare phone calls asking for prayer. He turns that into a hard look at gun rights and the debanking fight, reading CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin's own past columns urging Visa, Mastercard, JP Morgan Chase, and Lloyds of London to choke off firearms sales, then explaining why the House-passed Protecting Privacy and Purchases Act and Old Glory Bank exist to stop it. The hour's centerpiece is a warm interview with Kelly Paul, wife of Senator Rand Paul, on her Irish immigrant grandmother and her patriotic children's books "Good Night Little American" and "Good Night Young American." Rush Limbaugh behind the scenes: the guns and faith rule for guest hosts, Kit Carson, Bo Snerdley, the microphone Rush bought Erick, and Catherine Limbaugh The debanking war: Andrew Ross Sorkin's CNBC and New York Times DealBook columns pushing Visa, Mastercard, JP Morgan Chase, PayPal, Square, and Lloyds of London to cut off gun sales The Protecting Privacy and Purchases Act, firearms merchant category codes, the backdoor gun registry fear, Old Glory Bank, True Precision, and Van Allen Golf Josh Hawley versus a former Biden lawyer over clemency for Dylann Roof, plus a caller on the Communist Control Act of 1954 and its First Amendment problems Kelly Paul, wife of Senator Rand Paul, on grandmother Julia Fitzpatrick O'Toole, America's 250th, and her books "Good Night Little American" and "Good Night Young American," with the Mexico 7.3 earthquake and dead daylight saving time bill

Erick argues candidate quality will decide 2026 and spares no one, ripping GOP picks like Mike Lindell in Minnesota (against Amy Klobuchar), Colorado's fabulist nominee Marx, and Georgia's Mike Collins, whose white nationalist son-in-law Alan Shear and huge cash gap against Jon Ossoff keep growing. He then turns on the Democrats' own wreckage: Michigan socialist Abdul El-Sayed and his Medicare-refusing wife Sharra Jakaku, Arizona's Joanna Mendoza against Juan Ciscomani, plus a New Jersey Al Qaeda volunteer and a Texas nominee tied to a sex offender. The hour closes with a blistering monologue on White House corruption, from Trump's teleprompter operator betting on his speeches to World Liberty crypto profits and Kalshi and Polymarket insider trading. Topics: Mike Lindell in the Minnesota governor's race, Amy Klobuchar, and Colorado's fabulist GOP nominee Marx Georgia's Mike Collins, son-in-law Alan Shear, the Patriot Front, and Jon Ossoff's $40 million to $2 million cash edge Abdul El-Sayed, Medicare for All, and wife Sharra Jakaku refusing Medicare patients in Michigan Joanna Mendoza versus Juan Ciscomani in Arizona, plus New Jersey and Bobby Pulido Texas Democrat scandals White House corruption: the teleprompter bettor, Kalshi, Polymarket, Trump World Liberty crypto, and Erick's Cassandra warning

Erick strings together breaking audio into a single alarm about rising left-wing political violence: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealing he survived an assassination attempt by a left-wing activist two hours after being sworn in, Justice Amy Coney Barrett's harrowing House Judiciary testimony about the bulletproof vest her 12 year old son found after Dobbs, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio naming the counterterrorism blind spot toward far-left extremism. He then turns the Democratic Socialists of America's own words against them, playing Ash Siddiqui and a leaked group chat pledging to abolish the Senate, the Supreme Court, and capitalism itself, before closing with Hunter Biden's collapsing 1.7 million dollar payday. Topics: Scott Bessent's assassination-attempt reveal, plus threats against Russ Vought, Brett Kavanaugh, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court security testimony, Clarence Thomas, and the post-Dobbs bulletproof vest her son found Marco Rubio on the counterterrorism blind spot, Antifa denial, the 2020 George Floyd riots, and the "mostly peaceful" chyron Democratic Socialists of America exposed: Ash Siddiqui, abolishing the Senate, ranked choice voting, and replacing capitalism with socialism John Adams, David McCullough, and the founders on fallen human nature, plus Hunter Biden's 1.7 million dollar judgment against Patrick Byrne

Erick makes the case that democratic socialism always ends the same way, opening with Zohran Mamdani's plan to bar New York landlords from checking creditworthiness or evicting non-paying tenants (the "violence of evictions" activist clip) and Ro Khanna dropping his wealth-tax threshold from $1 billion to $50 million. He walks through Mike Solana's Pirate Wires history of Detroit's collapse, the UAW, and the failed electric vehicle mandate as proof that attacks on private property destroy cities, then pivots to the left's ongoing war on history: Netflix and John Ridley branding Gone with the Wind racist even as Hattie McDaniel became the first black Oscar winner. He closes on Ruben Gallego's staffer sex scandal, JD Vance blaming Israel for the Iran deal fallout, and a warning against Trump relitigating 2020 instead of stopping the socialists in 2026. Zohran Mamdani's landlord and eviction ban, the "violence of evictions" clip, Kathy Hochul, and the New York City housing shortage Ro Khanna's $50 million wealth tax, private property rights, and Mike Solana's Pirate Wires case study on Detroit, the UAW, and the electric vehicle collapse Gone with the Wind, Netflix's "known for its racism" label, John Ridley, Hattie McDaniel's historic Oscar, and the left's war on history Ruben Gallego's sex scandal with two House staffers, Eric Swalwell, Graham Platner, and Democratic deviancy JD Vance blaming Israel on Joe Rogan, Trump's prime-time address, and why 2026 matters more than relitigating 2020

Erick unloads on the online right for attacking Justice Amy Coney Barrett after her House testimony about death threats, a bulletproof vest, and a swatting incident, reminding listeners the Supreme Court's security request is unanimous and backed by Clarence Thomas. Then he takes apart New York Governor Kathy Hochul's AI data center moratorium with hard numbers on power rates in Virginia, Texas, and Georgia, corrects a viral Georgia Power eminent domain claim, and defends Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" against the social media mob. Topics: Amy Coney Barrett's testimony on threats, the bulletproof vest, the swatting, and Judge Salas, plus why attacking her makes the right "the left" The unanimous Supreme Court security request, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and the Candace Owens comparison Kathy Hochul's data center moratorium debunked: Virginia, Texas, and Georgia rates falling while New York pays double Water, aquifers, the jobs myth, the SALT deduction, and China funded propaganda behind the data center panic Georgia Power corrects the viral eminent domain video, and Erick defends Nolan's 99 percent "The Odyssey"

Erick breaks down the House's bipartisan vote to make daylight saving time permanent and why Senator Tom Cotton and a bipartisan bloc from Alaska to the Dakotas are quietly killing it over dark 9 a.m. winter sunrises, floating a 30 minute split the difference compromise. Then he turns to Abdul El-Sayed collapsing against Haley Stevens in Michigan, plays a Democratic Socialists of America leader's C-SPAN clip calling to abolish the U.S. Senate, and delivers a sweeping Constitution lesson on Article 5, states as semi sovereign nations, and how Brian Kemp's COVID reopening proved the states, not Washington, hold the police power. Daylight saving time made permanent: Tom Cotton, John Thune, Roger Wicker, Amy Klobuchar, Tammy Duckworth, and the geographic North versus South divide, with a 30 minute compromise idea Winter sunrise data from Anchorage, Kalispell, and New York City, plus Burgess Everett's reporting on Senate opposition Abdul El-Sayed trailing Haley Stevens in Michigan, losing black voters by 46 points and working class voters by 22 points as voters reject socialism DSA leader Ash Siddiqui on C-SPAN wanting to abolish the Senate and replace capitalism, and why Article 5 makes equal Senate suffrage unamendable Brian Kemp, Keisha Lance Bottoms, and Stacey Abrams: how Georgia's COVID reopening proved states hold the police power, not the president

Erick Erickson delivers a candid monologue on the dangers of self-dealing in the Trump administration, warning that failing to police corruption risks handing Democrats ammunition and alienating independents ahead of the midterms. He contrasts the "drain the swamp" promise with reported foreign deals, crypto gains, and influence concerns. He also explores countercultural living in modern America: going to church, reading books, genuine socializing, and moderate drinking as antidotes to isolation, declining literacy, and AI cheating. Additional topics include Costco's employee model, free markets vs. profit-over-people pitfalls, the International Criminal Court, ranked-choice voting, and more.

War is back on the menu. Erick opens on the restart of the Iran conflict: a five hour U.S. bombing campaign, a full blockade of Iranian ports, and President Trump scrapping the 20% Strait of Hormuz toll in favor of Gulf state trade and investment deals. He presses the case that Trump should stop settling for simply keeping the strait open and finally back regime change, citing Iran's plots against Ivanka Trump and Air Force One. Then he pivots to a full-throated defense of AI data centers against what he calls a China-funded fear campaign, as New York becomes the first state to declare a data center moratorium. Iran war reignites: a five hour bombing campaign, a Strait of Hormuz blockade, and the killing of the IRGC chief with a bunker buster bomb Trump drops the 20% Hormuz ship fee for Gulf trade deals, while Saudi Arabia bombs the Houthis at Bab al-Mandeb with Trump's blessing and Israel waits on the sidelines The regime change debate: Iran's 47 year war on Americans, plots to kill Ivanka Trump and shoot down Air Force One, and reports of Iranian drones in Cuba June inflation cools to 2.6%: core CPI and headline CPI fall, the Dow dips while NASDAQ and the S&P climb, and oil ticks up (Brent near $84, West Texas near $78) Data centers defended: New York's moratorium, debunking the power and water panic, blue collar jobs for welders and electricians, property tax relief, and the race to beat China

Erick unloads on Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page of Juno) for calling the gender binary a myth, using it to argue that while the left's wokeism is fading, its mental health crisis and DSA violence keep growing. He then delivers an extended investigation of the Patriot Front, arguing it is not an FBI or Southern Poverty Law Center front but a real movement of online radicalized young men and white nationalist pastors tied to groups like American Reformer, and he warns conservatives to purge them before they infect the Republican Party. Plus the chip driven inflation behind the data center fight, a China funded lawsuit campaign against Micron and Arizona data centers, and a Taco Bell linked outbreak. Topics: The chip inflation problem: Brad's call on the Samsung and Micron memory lawsuit, RAM prices up 30%, and why Erick says the fix is deregulation and killing chip tariffs, not banning data centers (Georgia's rate cut vs. states that restricted power supply) Elliot Page (Ellen Page) calls the gender binary a myth: Juno's accidental pro-life legacy, her attacks on Chris Pratt, transgenderism as untreated mental illness, and Gertrude Himmelfarb on defining deviancy down Nicole Wallace, Jim Acosta, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders: the "high income progressive neurotic white woman" driving the Democratic Party off the cliff, and Erick's case for contentedness over rage The Patriot Front unmasked: not SPLC or FBI funded, the "Hitler Hated Christ" account, young men radicalized online (Evola, Mein Kampf, the Daily Stormer, QAnon), white nationalist pastors, American Reformer, the Baptist Leadership Institute, and Michael Spengler China's data center war: front "concerned citizen" groups suing Micron in New York and a data center in Arizona over water, the TikTok data stack fight, and a warning to build so China cannot control the stack

Erick pushes back hard on rumors that President Trump will use a Thursday national address to declare the 2020 Georgia election stolen and delegitimize Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, warning that branding Ossoff illegitimate would only elevate him against Mike Collins and drive independents his way. He lays out a smarter playbook for Trump: make the case against Iran and its regime, present real evidence of any foreign election interference, and quote the Democratic Socialists' own words rather than calling them communists. He then turns to Justice Amy Coney Barrett's raw House testimony about death threats, a bulletproof vest, and a swatting incident, sharing his own long history of being swatted, stalked, and harassed, before closing on Lindsey Graham's Atlantic quote, "there is no they, there is only we," and a call to save your own community. Trump's rumored Thursday address: claims of a stolen 2020 Georgia election, foreign interference, and an effort to delegitimize Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, with Erick's warning that the attack only boosts Ossoff against Mike Collins in 2026 The 2021 runoff reality check: roughly 524,000 Georgia Republicans who skipped the Ossoff and Warnock runoff after Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene told them it would be stolen, plus the Herschel Walker misfire and why re-litigating 2020 is a losing move Erick's alternative message for Trump: build the national case to dismantle the Iranian regime, name names and present real evidence on election threats, and hoist the Democratic Socialists (Abdul El-Sayed, the "bomb Los Angeles and New York" video) on their own words Amy Coney Barrett's testimony on threats, the bulletproof vest, and a swatting incident, alongside Erick's own swatting, pizza harassment, and family stalking stories, plus the Atlanta police training facility Antifa siege A theology of hope versus secular rage: why a loss of Christian hope fuels violence on the left and the Patriot Front right (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot), and Lindsey Graham's "there is no they, only we" charge to seek the welfare of your own community

In this powerful opening hour of The Erick Erickson Show, Erick pays tribute to the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who passed away at 71 from a tear in his aorta. Reflect on Graham's remarkable life — from raising his sister after losing both parents at 20, to his legendary defense of Brett Kavanaugh, tireless support for a strong American foreign policy, and his unmatched constituent service in South Carolina. Erick shares personal stories, Graham's famous humor, heartfelt reactions from President Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Senator Tim Scott, and addresses the wave of conspiracy theories following his sudden death. Plus, updates on Governor Henry McMaster appointing Darlene Graham to finish his Senate term. A must-listen tribute to a legendary senator and statesman.

Erick breaks down the escalating crisis with Iran as the U.S. conducts strikes and President Trump announces America will guard the Strait of Hormuz — and get paid for it. Erick also discusses Lindsey Graham's final days pushing for strong action on Iran and Ukraine, plus the imminent appointment of Graham's sister, Darlene Graham-Norden, to the U.S. Senate. Plus, a deep dive into radical left funding: the arrest and extradition of Fergie Chambers (Cox media heir), his feud with Neville Roy Singham, and how millionaire & billionaire donors are fueling militant communism within the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Erick explores the shift from democratic socialism to Marxist direct action and what it means for 2026 politics.

Erick discusses the appointment of Darlene Graham-Norden (Lindsey Graham's sister) to the U.S. Senate and reflects on Graham's legacy. He dives deep into the growing radical left influence in the Democratic Party, from Rashida Tlaib and Ro Khanna to the funding of militant groups by figures like Fergie Chambers and Neville Roy Singham. Erick explores President Trump's "communist or patriot" message, the incompatibility of communism and Christianity, rising antisemitism, and the ActBlue foreign donor scandal. Plus, listener calls on Israel, foreign policy, and why conspiracy theories about Mitch McConnell persist. A thought-provoking hour blending politics, faith, and current events.

Erick Erickson broadcasts live from Las Vegas and dives deep into the dramatic collapse of Graham Platner's Senate campaign in Maine. Platner officially drops out amid a flood of sexual misconduct allegations, unhinged rants, and media fallout — exposing the Democratic Party's poor vetting and desperate search for anti-establishment fighters. Erick discusses the broader anti-establishment wave on both sides of the aisle, why character still matters in politics, the disconnect between party elites and voters, and the dangers of the far-left's influence on the Democratic base. Plus, listener calls on an Open Line Thursday. Topics include: - Platner's pattern of behavior and media complicity - Democratic Socialists vs. establishment Democrats - Why good candidates sit on the sidelines - Lessons from Trump's 2016 rise and current party fractures

Erick Erickson takes listener calls on an Open Line Thursday, discussing the realities of immigration enforcement, ICE operations, and why Hispanic Americans strongly oppose illegal immigration. He defends law enforcement against left-wing attacks and contrasts postmodern emotional appeals with facts on the ground. Additional topics include: - Escalating U.S. actions against Iran, including strikes on infrastructure and economic pressure - Why Democrats keep elevating flawed, extreme candidates - James Talarico's "all paths to truth" religious pluralism and its disconnect with voters - Tax reform challenges and the limits of replacing the income tax

Erick Erickson makes the case that true counterculture today looks very different from the 1960s: going to church, reading physical books, socializing in person, and enjoying moderate drinking with friends. He ties this to rising social isolation, declining literacy, AI cheating in schools, and the health of American culture. Additional topics include: - Costco's employee-first model and why treating workers well drives long-term success - Free markets, morality, and the dangers of profit-over-people private equity - Update on Graham Platner's campaign - The Tyler Robinson case and wild conspiracy theories - Bonnie Tyler tribute A thoughtful hour on faith, culture, business, and rejecting modern isolation.

Erick Erickson breaks down the latest US strikes on Iranian coastal targets, the suspension of Iran's oil sales, and ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. He critiques the fragile ceasefire, JD Vance's comments, and Iran's rearmament efforts. He also delivers a strong defense of capitalism through the inspiring story of Driscoll's — the family company that made premium strawberries, blueberries, and berries available year-round worldwide through innovation. Erickson contrasts this with socialist resentment toward successful entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and highlights how working-class voters are rejecting candidates like Graham Plattner.

Erick Erickson breaks down the latest US strikes on Iranian coastal targets, the suspension of Iran's oil sales, and ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. He critiques the fragile ceasefire, JD Vance's comments, and Iran's rearmament efforts. He also delivers a strong defense of capitalism through the inspiring story of Driscoll's — the family company that made premium strawberries, blueberries, and berries available year-round worldwide through innovation. Erickson contrasts this with socialist resentment toward successful entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and highlights how working-class voters are rejecting candidates like Graham Plattner.

Erick Erickson exposes the Democratic Party's Biden-style cover-up of Graham Plattner's scandals in the Maine Senate race. From the Nazi death's head tattoo and Reddit rape fantasies to multiple sexual assault and rape allegations, Democrats and the media (including the New York Times' "catch and kill") defended him until polling shifted against Susan Collins. Erickson draws parallels to Biden's decline, party elites overriding voters, and selective belief in women based on politics. A must-listen breakdown of hypocrisy, media complicity, and threats to democracy from within the Democratic Party.

Graham Platner has finally gotten too problematic and now begins the Joe Biden treatment.

Government subsidies make everything more expensive and slow innovation.