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How Trump Can Win the ICE Showdown And the Midterms

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Who is going to win the midterms, and more importantly, why will it matter? Two different perspectives come onto the show. Patriotic historian Larry Schweikart explains why Democrat retirements and voter registration numbers make him confident the GOP will hold onto Congress. Political reporter Mark Halperin dissects Donald Trump's attempt to deescalate in Minnesota, and predicts how the nationwide ICE showdown is likely to be resolved.

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How Trump Can Win the ICE Showdown And the Midterms

The Charlie Kirk Show

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The Charlie Kirk ShowHow Trump Can Win the ICE Showdown And the Midterms. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

My name is Charlie Kirk. I run the largest pro-American student organization in the country fighting for the future of our republic. My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth. If the most important thing for you is just feeling good, you're going to end up miserable. But if the most important thing is doing good, you will end up purposeful. College is a scam everybody. You've got to stop sending your kids to college. You should get married as young as possible and have as many kids as possible. Go start a turning point USA college chapter. Go start a turning point USA high school chapter. Go find out how your church can get involved. Sign up and become an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in fifth grade. Most important decision I ever made in my life. And I encourage you to do the same. Here I am. Lord, use me. Buckle up everybody. Here we go. The Charlie Kirk show is proudly sponsored by Preserve Gold, the leading gold and silver experts,

and the only precious metals company I recommend to my family, friends, and viewers. All right, welcome back. Our two of the Charlie Kirk show is underway. Excited about this next guest. He's a contrarian. He's a filmmaker. He's an author. He's a historian. We had him on when I think in the campaign season quite a bit with Charlie had a 2024. And he had a way of looking at things that will make you think. And if you are prepared or willing to black pill right now. Don't because there's actually things you need to be looking at that will give you hope optimism. Whether that's the midterms had an end to 2028 about deportation. That's Larry Schweiker. The real Larry Schweiker. Again, he's an author, historian, PhD, New York Times, number one best-selling author, filmmaker, rock drummer, America's history teacher. Larry, welcome back to the show. Yeah, don't forget the rock drummer part. That's really important. A study came out today showing that bison are returning to the Illinois prairie to drumming.

I thought, okay, about time. Bison? I need to go. Yep, bison for the first time in 200 years. Where are they coming? Wild bison. Yeah. I don't know. Probably leaving Minnesota because it's so crazy. Yeah, right. They're avoiding. I'm just thinking of driving. I don't want to. Man, hitting a bison would probably really. Yeah, I think about that sometimes as well. You know, like I sort of bemoan the loss of the real west, the frontier. But then I think, you know, I'm, you know, contending with grizzly bears in actual wolves and bison. I'm a German by heritage. So I feel that like deep, deepness in my soul. If you fly over like Europe and you see everything subdivided into little plots of like developed land. So we conquered the west. I like going to South Dakota and just seen agriculture as far as I can see. I'm a conservation. Especially because it keeps lives from moving there. Well, that's true. Well, open carry keeps lives from moving there too. Larry, I, I love the way your mind works. You and I spoke briefly on the phone last, last week.

So I mean, there's a lot of doom or isn't happening. There's a lot of blackpilling, especially with, you know, you look at Minneapolis. It's basically a war zone. You have a different way of seeing what's happening right now in the country. Give us your 30,000 foot view. Are you optimistic? Are you pessimistic? What are you thinking? What are you seeing? Well, I think a lot of concern is over the 2026 midterms. And I'm not concerned. Today, Ellen, our home's Norton of DC announced her retirement. She is Democrat number 25 to do so. Now, last year, a whole bunch of Republicans announced their retirements. And I'm not sure why a lot of more older, a lot of more anti-Trumpers. And I said, just wait. The Democrats will catch up and so far the number is 30 ours. And now 25 Ds. And I think some of those arts have already been replaced or are being replaced like Marjorie Taylor Green. So I think when all the redistricting is done, the Republicans are going to have a four or five seat lock on the house.

Because there are just not enough toss-up states to make a difference. The Republicans are already sitting around two 10 to two 12 solid safe seats. And so when you look at all the redistricting and so forth, you're probably already over to 18. In terms of voter registration, this has been moving toward Republicans for almost 18 straight months and Democrats have no answer for this. So they kept saying, well, wait till 2026 and the numbers start to come out. Well, we had Arizona's number. Arizona's first advocate for 2026. And guess what? Every single county in Arizona moved to the right. Including Pima, which is lost almost one full percent of its Democrat lead in the last year and a half. So these are staggering numbers. You can't find one state where Democrats are consistently putting up any winning numbers.

They're all moving to Republicans to the point that in North Carolina, that state became a red state last month. It's astounding. It was Democrat plus 175,000 in 2025, 2024. Florida obviously is now off the charts. It's 1.4 million Republicans' advantage. But every state where we can measure it is moving right. And I think that's a terrifying omen for Democrats. So you go up to Minnesota. And I've harped on this. I think Minnesota is ground zero for breaking the entire Democrat party, the voter fraud and the obviously the illegal immigration fraud up there. I think that it's tentacles stretch to every other state, but particularly to California, which is the big enchilada. That'll be the one to be targeted after Minnesota falls.

And nobody's giving up. Nobody's backing down. I love to see it despite all the hand-ringing rhinos and all the Democrats calling for a government shutdown. Nobody is backing up. I see this is why you need to always take a step back. When everybody else is losing their minds, you got to stay confident. You got to stay confident and you got to stay calm. You got to focus on these things because this is what turning point action is doing. So, you know, yeah, there's all this hand-ringing. There's people that are freaking out about Minneapolis. You've got Governor Stitt. You've got Lady Graham. These people are blinking. They're bending the knee. Meanwhile, turning point action is building a standing army of ballot chasers in what we're calling the Red Wall. New Hampshire, where we have an advantage. More conservatives than liberals. It's the independent vote that'll swing that state. Still, it's a really good sign that you have more registered Republicans. We're going to keep doing that work, by the way, New Hampshire. Nevada. We're making gains in Nevada.

Arizona. We're all over this state. We're making gains every single day. So while everybody else is losing their minds and they're getting weak in the knees, we're putting up wins. We're registering voters in all of these states. And then you talk about the redistricting. We've spent a lot of time on this. We're actually going to be primaring a lot of these state senators in Indiana that, you know, that refused to play hardball now. And apparently they made some handshake deal, Larry, with Maryland. Now, Maryland's going to redistrict anyways. They lie. Of course they lie. Yes. So give us a new Hampshire. These are two of the states that Seth Keshell and I follow a lot. New Hampshire has moved almost more than a half point redder than it was in 2024. November. Nevada has now flipped to a red state, not by a lot, by about 3000. But it was 18,000 Democrat lead in 2024.

And it was 88,000 in 2020. So everywhere you look, these, these numbers are marching steadily toward the Republicans. Now you mentioned indies. And the independence, of course, are, are important everywhere. But one thing that I think these numbers are telling us is that people do not want to be associated in any way, shape or form with the Democrat party. It is as toxic as any party in American history has ever been. And it's a two-step process. They leave the Democrats in step one and step two they become Republicans. So I think we're in phenomenal shape as far as that goes. Where do you, what's your vibe on the independence when it comes specifically to this topic of immigration? If anybody's going to get weak on it, if they're going to be given to the sob stories, I think the conservative base has developed antibodies and immunities from the same old tactics of the, you know, the left wing ink that gets spilled. Oh, you know, this is terrible.

Obama comes out with this statement talking about masked agents and they're rightly upset. And we need to our values are under assault more than ever before. Republicans don't hear that stuff. They look at that and they, and they, they rightly are skeptical. They rightly push back independence. Where are they at on immigration? They are probably far more susceptible to these kinds of heart string messages. But the good news is that independence are all over the map in terms of what is the most important issue to them. Because usually it almost always comes down to the economy. And, and so if the economy as it has already done continues to pick up, you start to see more and more jobs, prices continue to fall. And by, say, mid-summer, everything is looking really good in terms of the economy. Believe me, the number one issue for independence is not going to be immigration or what's happening in Minnesota. It's going to be the, the economy is pretty good. I'm not going to mess that up. Yeah. The good news about Indies is they are not wedded to a single issue the way either the left or the right is.

Yeah, I think that's a smart analysis there, Larry. Folks, let me tell you something straight up. I'm extremely picky about what I put in my body and what companies we support here. Blackout Coffee checks every single box. This is a family-run American company roasting fresh coffee in the USA, built by people who believe in hard work, freedom, and America. No global corporations, no fake activism, no lectures, just darn good coffee, made by Americans for Americans. This is coffee that actually stands for something, and I drink it every day right here on the show. For morning reaper and brutal awakening to 1776 dark roasts and their 2A medium roasts, they've got something for everyone. They even have instant coffee, real blackout coffee with no machine, no mess. Just add water, stir, and you're ready to roll. Go to blackoutcoffee.com slash Charlie and use code Charlie for 20% off your first order. That's blackoutcoffee.com slash Charlie, blackoutcoffee.com slash Charlie.

And for an even better deal, sign up for blackout coffee subscription, save money, get free shipping, and earn free coffee through their rewards program, just for drinking what you already love. Your coffee shows up fresh, on schedule, and you never run out. That's blackoutcoffee.com slash Charlie. Check it out promo code Charlie. Larry, I got two questions for you. You mentioned the economy, and that that is a huge piece of the pie here, especially for Indies. The problem is, if you just look at historical precedent, you're a historian, you know, the, you look at HW Bush. The recession ended in the spring of 91. He lost the election in 92. You've got inflation from Joe Biden, that is, I mean, you still go to the store. It's obscene when you try and feed a family. Those prices are not going to drop all the way back to their pre, you know, 2020 levels. Emotionally, or is the electorate, do we have enough time to sort of see those gains in that growth in the GDP and real wages catch up with inflation to the point where

we get electorally rewarded? Yeah, I think, I think so. Not all prices are falling, but I can look at my gas price on the corner. It's already dropped by 50 or 60 cents since the last year. And we have gas from California, which is always 20 or 30 cents higher. The stickiest part of all prices is not the grocery store, although that's still a little bit high, but it's in housing. And we have this disconnect in the housing market that isn't partially due to having illegals involved in the entire housing market, all that kind of stuff. The tariffs are going to kick in. All those investments that the foreigners made last year and promised to Trump are starting to break ground. So yeah, I think enough is going to change that it will affect the independent voters. And we don't need a lot. We don't need to win them by five or six points. We need to win them by one point, because as I say, the Republicans are winning the voter registration game almost everywhere.

So yeah, and I'm looking at some numbers here, 275 if you want to throw it up. But it looks like, you know, we're getting good numbers on transportation, utilities, but education, housing, healthcare, having a family, those are all tricky, right? And those are not, those are not numbers that you can move quickly. But I hope you're right. Listen, if we put up a few more numbers of 4.5% GDP growth, 5%, I mean, that would be amazing. I can't remember the last time we saw numbers that high. I do believe that's going to have a psychological impact. Second question for you, Larry, though, is this redistricting? If you would, we got four minutes left in the segment, go through a couple of the states that you're watching. Obviously, we gained some in Florida, Texas, we lost some in California, that's getting challenged in the courts. You think we're going to be at 210 to 12 safe Republican districts. And are those really safe? Because I hope those models aren't looking at, like, you know, Hispanic votes from 2024, because we're losing, we've lost a little bit of ground off those numbers.

Well, the, the constantly shifting redistricting numbers show that North Carolina's added two red Ohio's added two red Texas's added five red Missouri's added one red Kansas supposedly is going to redistricle add one red Florida will redistrict. They will add between two to three red. You've then seen one lawsuit in Utah due to the court decision there, so that's one blue. You have arguably five in California, but as you mentioned, that's being challenged. And California is a little tricky because in order to get those districts, they've had to cannibalize some very, very close Democrat district. So I don't think it's a given that all five of those end up in Republican in Democrat hands, or I don't think it's, they may get all five of those and lose one or two others. So I don't think it's necessarily a net gain of five in California for Democrats.

Indiana was a disappointment. These people are just idiots. I don't know what else you can say about them. When I go through all the numbers, and again, they keep shifting, I look at the GOP gaining between two and four more seats in redistricting, which would put us up in the neighborhood of 216 to 17. But then you have the elephant in the room, which is the racial redistricting decision coming from the Supreme Court. And what no one can answer me, and I've asked this to my court gurus in master, I've asked it to other people who deal with the court, how many of the racial redistricting seats are going to be covered in the seats that have already been redistricted in many of these days. And nobody can give me an answer on that. Louisiana does plan to redistrict. That'll be another red seat. So let's assume we pick up two or three from the racial redistricting. You're over to 18 right there. Now, how many are safe, safe, safe? I'm just going by cook.

And I think cook is probably a little pessimistic for Republicans. So if cook is saying 210 to 212 safe, I think that's a pretty good starting point. I mean, it, you know, one of the things that I just continue raging against is this botched census in 2020. You know, we should not be counting illegals on a census. There is no, no reality in which that makes any sense to the founders vision. Blake, sorry. Well, I mean, we struggle with the fact that there's like court rulings to that effect and everything. What's outrageous to me is just the way they will sometimes like estimate things and also just that the census happened in 2020. And so it happened absolute bizarre moment for the country in so many ways. I think Larry or Lutnik should just call a new census and let it get challenged in court. Fight it. If we lose. It would be cool. The challenge is you'd have to fund it. But we'll find the funding. We'll pull it from somewhere. I'm going to do a, you know, a TikTok fundraiser and raise that money in 30 seconds.

I would donate to it. But we would do, we would do promotions on the show to raise for it. Larry asked the important thing about Minnesota. I want to make this point. Staff Keshall has said twice that Minnesota would have voted for Trump had not had it not been for all the fraudulent votes there. That's something else to keep in mind. A reason to win in Minnesota. Yeah. Well, certainly the demographic replacement immigration with all the Somalis is certainly playing a role there too. Larry Schweikert. Thank you for the white pill. Well, now we're going to have Mark Halperon on for the black pill. So little yin and yang, little two and fro. Every day Americans make choices that shape our country's future. Write down to which cell phone provider we support. Here's what most people don't realize. Patriot mobile isn't just a wireless provider. They're an activist organization funded by selling top tier cell phone service. They've been on the front lines defending our freedoms long before it was cool to do so. Standing in the gap when others wouldn't the best part is they deliver prioritized premium service on all three major US networks giving you the same or even better coverage backed by 100% US based customer support.

Get unlimited data plans, mobile hotspots, international roaming and more. And when you switch to Patriot mobile, you'll help grow a movement that fuels the Christian conservative cause. Every bill you pay helps advance the values of family, faith and freedom. Switching is easier than ever. Activate minutes. Keep your number. Keep your phone or upgrade. Take a stand today. Call 972 Patriot today or go to Patriot mobile dot com size Charlie use promo code Charlie for a free month of service. That's Patriot mobile dot com size Charlie or call 972 Patriot and make the switch today. Mark Halperon joins us now. Mark, welcome back to the show. Editor in chief of two way TV and host of next up on the Megan Kelly network. Mark, you have a very you are one of the most I would say plugged in commentators thinkers about this space. I I'm fully expecting you to give me bad news about the politics of deportation that we're losing the information battle, especially with what's going on with this recent shooting.

Am I right? Is that where your head is at? Well, it was true four hours ago. It's clear that the White House after getting a lot of input, including directly the president this weekend. Are shifting and it's happening in real time with Caroline's briefing. It's a it's a three pronged process. One is to make a homins the face of this as opposed to secretary know. And he's headed to Minnesota and I'll be curious to see how much TV he's doing is compared to secretary know and Stephen Miller. Two is to acknowledge that there need to be changes and how this goes to minimize the chances that there are images that. Are damaging to the president's agenda and to this mission. And there's no doubt they've been damaging you you can cite all sorts of mitigating factors and concerns about signal chats or whether someone should show up to protest with the concealed weapon. There's all sorts of things people can raise, but the reality is there's no ambiguity. The president suffered political damage over this. And then lastly as Caroline's doing right now is to emphasize the portions of the president's immigration agenda that are not just somewhat popular, but that are exceedingly popular.

And to try to get more of the conversation to back on that terrain as opposed to what has been a view of many Republicans who are super supportive of the president. A failed mission not entirely, but in many respects in Minneapolis. Yeah, Mark, so we can see that there's some of that effort to pivot. You've been an observer of politics for a long time. What's your sense on how successful that's likely to be? Because I think about there's sort of two competing impulses, which is people will remember the most resonant emotional visual moment, which could be this. But also the Trump administration news cycle has moved so fast. We could be on a completely new thing two weeks from now. I think about the Greenland drama, which already feels a century ago. Two weeks from now, two segments from now could already be on something new. Look, the president sending home and taking a call from governor Waltz and having read out from the president treats social, saying it's a positive call.

The president's one of the best politicians any of us have ever seen. And if he wants to turn the page and send this in a different direction or take it off the front pages, he's got a pretty good chance to do that. And that's what we're in the midst of doing. So if you're asking me what the chances are, I'd say better than 50%. As usual, he's up against the liberal dominant media. As usual, he's he's got to, you know, do many other things. This isn't his only focus. But the president has a lot of power to change the narrative. And I think I think we're seeing that happen right now in real time. And I think chances are better than 50% to put this back on more favorable terrain without disappointing those who say can't give the liberals a win or those who say the immigration mission must continue. I think he can do both those things. He was responsible. Take the last thing I'll say. Take the politics out of it. Some people think that's naive. Well, he's not that he's not the campaigner in chief. He's not the president of the Republican Party or the mega movement. He's the president of the United States.

And doing something with ice and border patrol in an American city is better done more effectively done with the cooperation of the mayor and the governor. And I think they're going to try to secure that now. So the flip side of this is the president can make the moves he wants. But there's also the Democrats. We've heard Senator Schiff and others talk about, let's make a giant defund the government showdown over whether ice gets any more funding, whether the border patrol gets any more funding. Do you think Democrats will want this battle where they'll escalate to massive war over the border patrol in ice? Or do you think they're likely to back down if the president is giving them a bit of an off route? Well, last night they wanted to fight. Let's see with the changes the president's making if they still want to. And remember, as you know, ice is funded. Ice was funded by the big beautiful bill. So this budget showdown that the Democrats say they're willing to precipitate even if it leads to shutting down the government is not going to actually get them what they want.

But, but the president should want some cooperation for the symbolism and the optics and the politics, but also the substance. If Republicans have to give something to make the mission work more effectively, they may well, they may want to do that. And if that gets the Democrats to the table to keep there from being shut down, that seems like a win and win. So I don't think it's impossible to avoid a shutdown. In part, because as I said, the Democrats don't have the leverage they might because of ice is already funded. So, Mark, I know you're reacting to this readout from the Tim Walts call that President Trump put out. I still, you know, I'm incredulous that this would actually happen the way that you're suggesting that there would be actual cooperation like we experienced in the Obama years, right? Obama, I think is, you know, listen, it's a good talking point for us. Deportor and chief, what was really happening there was that blue districts were immune, blue municipalities were coordinating with immigration enforcement.

They were handing over criminals in jails and prisons when there was a detainer request. Is that what you're suggesting is going to happen in Minneapolis that this could be the compromise that's reached? Well, cooperation between Governor Walts and Donald Trump is as far-fest, far-fetched and outlandish as a friendly oval office meeting between Mayor Mamdani and the President. You know, that happened, dudes, right? Now, the level of cooperation between them remains to be seen, but apparently they took that meeting and made themselves texting buddies. One of the things that Caroline said at the briefing and that the President talked about over the weekend is they want to have Congress outlaw sanctuary cities. That's not going to happen, but there is a middle ground between Walts' capitulation completely and Walts cooperating. And I think one of the big measures, two big measures that I've heard both sides talk about as possibilities. One is the local police should be helping here. They shouldn't be just, you know, turning their heads the other way and not showing up when there's, you know, activity on the streets that they could help diffuse.

And then number two, you know, it's a sanctuary city, but they can find a way to make the process of deporting people who leave local law enforcement control and then can be deported. They can make that easier. They don't have to completely turn their heads away from that. And I think if those two things are done, that would allow ICE and border patrol to make their footprint in the city smaller. And this is a, this is the joint George Floyd city. This is a very blue city. The people who are protesting have not quite become professionals yet, but they're semi pro. But I think if those two things happen in the footprint decreased, people could go back to being Minnesotans rather than warriors for protesting a lawful and prove federal law enforcement activity. And Mark, I love where your heads at. I mean, all this makes sense, but nothing makes sense when you're dealing with these radical leftists. I mean, they feel very amped up to me. I just, I can't help but wonder if they Democrats might want to back off, but I see.

I see the people on TikTok on you can see the people on TikTok on blue sky. They're, they're saying like, we need to shoot ice officers. Yeah. So let's, let's game this out here, Mark. So they're winning currently as of four hours ago, the information war, right? I saw it on Twitter X all weekend. I mean, they, the shooting unleashes them. They win when bad things happen because ice are getting confronted in the streets. Somebody gets shot, somebody gets killed. That's actually a win for them. So why would they want to back down when this tactic is seemingly working? Why would governor Walts hand any cooperation or any sort of political win to President Trump? There's some who wouldn't want to, but I believe having spent a lot of time in the Twin Cities. I believe that the majority of those people would like normalcy. The norm, the majority of the city, regardless of their of an individual's politics and the suburbs, would like the chaos to end. And like I said, this is, this is a harder city to calm down. That's why this has happened.

Post-George, George Floyd mentality, the liberals there don't like the president. But if the footprint gets reduced, you just, you have to realize what it's like for them now to have a federal force on the ground larger than their police force by a lot. So will all the people on that signal chat want to stand down? No. But I believe that the most of the elected will, including the governor and the mayor. And I believe they'll have a story to tell, which is the president can say we won because we got local cooperation and we've already arrested a lot of people. And the Democrats can say we won because they've really reduced the federal footprint here. And I think that's the recipe to calm this down and to get all but the most professional protesters to stand down. Yeah, well, and again, we talk about where this started. Yeah, it started with Joe Biden letting in millions of illegals. That's obviously the starting point originally. But also there's this fraud story. And you've got these Somali fraud rings that are building taxpayers and sending the money who knows where,

you know, millions of millions of dollars going through MSP, right? So I don't know, I'm sitting here going like, yeah, I would like to win the information war. I think the base is completely committed to this. I think we're building up immunities to the, to the sob stories and this information war. But I don't know that about Indies. And I don't know about that about sympathetic, you know, middle of the line moderate dems if there are any. So I do want to win the information war, but I also want to get rid of these fraud rings. I also want to get people in our country that shouldn't be here out. So I'm sitting here. I'm hearing you, but I'm also feeling conflicted. I got to be honest. So where can people follow you? A two way dot TV. And at Mark Halperen or at Mark next up Halperen all those places to see, see, see and listen to my shows. Hi folks, Andrew Colvet here. I'd like to tell you about my friends over at YRIFI. You've probably been hearing me talk about YRIFI for some time now. We are all in with these guys. If you or someone you know is struggling with private student loan debt, take my advice and give them a call.

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You can feel that. This is why we always encourage, have courage during the off cycle years. That's when you need to be aggressive because you're going to get a lot of these weak need Republicans. You're going to get these moderates. We're seeing Lisa Murkowski. You're seeing Governor Stitt already sort of blink on this Minneapolis. Maybe we're going to see a messaging pivot from the White House. But there are larger themes happening, right? You've got economic news. You've got President Trump at Davos. You've got foreign policy disputes. You've got Greenland. You've got Venezuela. What does the president need to do in your opinion? You said, you said, take this off the front page and kind of pivot to the next thing. What do you, if you were in the room, what would you recommend the president do next? Well, a couple of things. First of all, I think Governor Stitt would laugh if he said he was a moderate, governor of Oklahoma. I've met Governor Stitt, by the way. You think he's a moderate? When he goes on CNN and says, what are we really doing here?

Yeah. By the way, I never will trust, Mark. Call me a cynic. I will never trust a governor or a senator that's already said, I'm, you know, I'm not running again or, you know, listen, you never know what kind of, and I'm not accusing Governor Stitt of this, but I've seen it too many times. You know, what gig are they angling for next? What rubber chicken dinner do they want to get invited to next? It's all safe. For all you know, he wants to be Abby Philips main substitute host. Okay. So again, I say this with respect. I'm not a political analyst or a political reporter. I'm an American analyst or American reporter. And I think to just relentlessly focus on the midterms again, I say with respect is not the right thing for the country, even in an election year. The president's job is to do is to do well in the midterms by doing good things for the American people, same with Congress, same with Governor Walts. So the focus should not be, I think, on sort of the tactics and the fundraising, at least not yet. This is hurting the president's poll numbers, and it's hurting the brand of the Republican party, and it's hurting MAGA, because people don't like what they're seeing.

And they don't like what they're seeing because it, it, it, it, it rubs up against their sense of what American government should be, what America should be. People don't want to see government officials telling ball face lies that are contradicted by what they can see with their own eyes. They don't want to see American citizen shot on the street by government officials. And they don't want to see an enforcement operation that creates chaos when the whole point of this is to create more, more order and less chaos. Okay. So those are all things that I think the president can be behind and before and, and help him in the party politically by working on them. If he does that, if he gets the focus on the extraordinary achievement of shutting down the border, and the achievement of going into these cities with federal officials and taking out the bad ombre, taking out the people who are dangerous to the community, and then deporting others as, as bandwidth allows. Then I think one of the great promises made promises kept will be the focus of a lot of voters in the midterms.

This is not just mag Democrats, and this is not just moderate Democrats. I talked to Republicans for the last 72 hours, including some major supporters of the president who don't want to see this continue the way it's been going. Again, they support the president's immigration agenda. They just don't want to see this. And I think if the president can work that out to emphasize the parts of this that have worked and can continue to work and mitigate the prospect of American citizens being shot by federal officers. I think that's that people give him the party credit for making a mid course correction. So Mark, there's obviously, despite your advice, there is a lot of fixation on the midterms. And there's definitely on the right, I've seen this sort of all or nothing attitude that if the midterms are bad, it's, it's all over for the administration or something. But it strikes me, as you noted, they already funded ICE, for example, for a long time with a big beautiful bill. The president has obviously a lot of power to do things, even if he doesn't control Congress.

How much do you think it actually matters for president Trump's agenda that he control Congress? And what do you think is likely to happen if he loses it? Are we actually likely to see, for example, the impeachment every week that some people have talked about? And if they do impeach Trump every week, does that actually matter? Well, it's not just impeach him, right? It's investigate him. There's a hundred things they'd like to have subpoena power to investigate and to call members of the administration up to Capitol Hill to testify. All those things are not just a distraction and a bandwidth suck, but they, they can create a lot of news because the media would love to see a 14 day investigation into, you know, the Trump family's crypto holdings or an investigation into, into policy making around, around ICE. So it matters for that. It also matters if the president wants to pass anything. The president can do a lot by executive action, but it's there's some things like the budget that Congress has to do. And I'm a big believer that the president does lose the house. He can turn that into a virtue by starting to pass some things in a bipartisan way that the current balance of power would let him do. Now that won't be popular with everyone in aggregate, because it'll mean the president making deal with I keep Jeffries.

But the alternative is perhaps getting nothing done because they don't have 60 votes in the Senate. I think that that that right now the president's chances of keeping the house are underrated. It's not the most likely outcome, but it's underrated. And the Senate is still better than even stays to stay Republican. So he needs to again, the best thing he can do to, to make sure that he's got the best possible chance to keep the majority is to do things the American people like to do things that are positive. And to let Republicans talk about those things. And if he does that, you know, we'll take care of itself, but it will be the biggest down payment he could make on success in the midterms. Yeah, and I think you're right, Mark. I, you know, I'm willing to concede the fact something we've talked about on this show is that, you know, the whole masking of ice agents. It strikes, I guess the majority of Americans is un-American, but they are getting doxed and we do have the sanctuary city issues where they're not, you know, willing to cooperate. Like they did with Obama, like they did with Clinton. And it's, it's TDS on the local level. I mean, if we, if there is some sort of detent that's possible where they actually, you know, L.A. Portland, Minneapolis, New York are willing to say, hey, smaller footprint, but we'll cooperate at the local level will hand over detention requests of illegals.

I think that would be a huge one for the country. And by the way, it would be safer for agents and cities and illegals. If you care about the immigrants, it would be safer. I agree. I agree. You need, you need, I totally agree. You need rational policies. And you know, we haven't talked about this. You guys may have talked about it earlier in the show. I was doing other stuff, so I wasn't able to listen. You know, to be so twisted to have every administration official out on Sunday, saying, if you show up with a gun, you're a threat. That is, that is a twisting of the second amendment. It's a twisting of the mega attitude towards the second amendment. And so you've got to get policies that you can defend. And they can defend the mission here. They can defend what they want to do with deportations. They can't defend saying a guy who shows up with a gun is, is a threat automatically. They can't defend claiming the guys at domestic terrorists without any evidence. I agree. That's why you're seeing Tom Hommens, who says, let's have an investigation going in. Tom Hommens isn't going to say, I'm quite sure anyone who shows up with a gun is a threat. No, I think we bungled the messaging right at the jump. I think that's fair. And we can do better. And we will. Mark Alpren, thank you so much. Thank you guys. Good to see you.

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