Trump bets on himself, makes case for a big 2026

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From high atop Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sowing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. Hi, everyone.

So glad you're there this hour. We're going to be joined by Senator Steve Daines, Finance, Foreign Relations, Energy Committee. He's coming off the big speech last night by the president. Senator Tommy Tuberville, Armed Services Committee, wants to be the next governor. He's going to be here this hour.

And we also have another senator. What a show we have. It is packed. I think that's a record three senators in one show. We know today we just got some news that Cardinal Dolan, one of the most high-profile religious leaders in the world, will be giving way to another cardinal from Chicago, a bishop that's going to get elevated and take over New York.

Prestigious position, even if you're not a Catholic. He's one of the great personalities out there today, moral leader, a really fun guy. And at 75 years old, I guess they make you retire.

So let's get to the big three. Number three. Republicans are on the run right now. They're losing elections all across the country. The American people are rejecting their extremism and embracing the Democratic agenda to drive down the high cost of living, fix our broken health care system.

That is Hakeem Jeffries, the health care debacle. Bad plan, bad fix. We bring you inside the vote to extend subsidies on the disaster, which is Obamacare. Number two. It's unknown to us where this person works.

It's unknown to us if he was an affiliate of Brown. That's all unknown to us. All we have is the image that we've been releasing and informed you all about it. And so we're hoping to get those answers eventually who that person is or what the background is. That is one terrible police chief, Oscar Perez of Providence, Rhode Island.

Everything's unknown to him. He's an embarrassment. That's all I could say about the investigation into the investigation into the brown mass shooting. FBI has to take over, and they have Rhode Island cops look hapless and hopeless. Number one.

11 months ago, I inherited a mess, and I'm fixing it. When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans.

So the president had an 18-minute address last night to tell us where we're at and what we're going. One year into a second term, Trump bets on himself and lays out his case for a big 26. We look at the polls and the promises and very, very simple. You know, it is very similar to sports where you can go out and you say, I prepared well. I expect to have a big season.

And then we're just going to see how you play. Trump said, I prepared well. I passed this bill. The economic principles I put together, getting off this ridiculous new Green Deal stuff, doing the best to rein in some spending, reorganize trade around their country, rebuild our military. And where are we at right now?

If you look at the polls, America's not happy. They weren't happy before we took office, and they're not happy yet. 72% say the economy is only fair or poor. Personally, if I'm doing a poll, I'd separate those. If you say the country, it's a lot different, fair and poor.

But having said that, I didn't do the polling. Right now, 72% approve. 72% say the economy is fair or poor. In November of 25, that's last month, 76%.

So it's up four points, still way too high.

So it's been in the 70s every month except for June of 2025. Americans who are concerned about inflation and high prices, 90% of you. That number was 84% in June. In June of 2021, it was 83%. In May of 2023, it was at 90%, and now we'll back up that now.

So people are concerned about it, okay? President's approval on the economy is at 39%.

Now it was at 38% in November. In September, it was 39%. And when he first took over, it was at 43%. They had bigger hopes. The best I think he could hope for, and I think for Democrats, too, when they become president eventually at some point, is you can't even expect 50%.

So if you can get close to 50%, you're in. Extremely or very concerned about high inflation. Again, the number is really high. Extremely very concerned. Climate change, that sounded 58%.

Illegal immigration, 57%.

So that's actually lower. Concerned about ICE, 66%. Price of health care, 86%.

So those are the issues that matter.

So the president, knowing that, addressed it last night. He talked about buying 1600, building 1600 new electrical plants going online. The cost of mortgages. It was up $15,000 under Biden. It is down 3000 under him and going down.

He's going to get a new head of the Fed who's going to be more open to lowering rates. That's going to help your credit card and help you get into that house. Here's the president United States last night. And he was an extremely crisp, high energy speech. Cut one.

11 months ago, I inherited a mess and I'm fixing it. When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years. And some would say in the history of our country, which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans. And now he's in the process of doing that.

So we're going to see how we're going to do. He's got some big announcements to make. He says when it comes to aggressive, aggressive way for you to get mortgages. Hakeem Jeffries, not happy, never is. Cut 52.

It was an unhinged speech that was, of course, untethered from reality and truth. You know, Donald Trump has made things worse for the American people. He refuses to acknowledge that the tariffs that he is solely responsible for have actually increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year.

Now, that doesn't add up to what the Wall Street Journal reported. They said the tariffs are nearly as effective, excuse me, not nearly as devastating as the Wall Street Journal thought it was. Why the experts were wrong about tariffs. I suggest that Keem Jeffries take a moment, stop reacting on bullet points and TikTok postings and understand what's going on with tariffs. He's trying to bring back manufacturing here and it's beginning to happen.

You heard the CEO of Ford, Farley, Jim Farley come out and say they're building their first factory in decades and they're going to be doing it in South Carolina. And they're shelving all that green energy that you jam down everybody's throat for a country that wasn't ready for its subsidies to bait people into getting it.

So a lot of this spending had nothing to do with the Inflation Reduction Act. It had everything to do with an agenda. The obsession with Democrats was the president was speaking too loud. Listen to Van Jones. Cut five.

I am not scared of that guy. I'm not. This is the first time I've seen a Donald Trump I'm not afraid of. He is exaggerating how bad things were. That's okay.

He's exaggerating how good things are. That is great for us. That is fantastic. His big threat to Democrats is he was more in touch with ordinary people than everybody else. He had the Democratic elite sitting up here talking big fancy words and, you know, coming up with some new thing to be worried about every day.

And he was right there with the everyday people. This is not how everyday people are experiencing this economy or the country. You'll see. All I can say is the only thing you want is if you elect me, I'll do this. And then you keep your fingers crossed.

You elected him and he's doing it through executive orders, refiguring our foreign policy, our trade policy in real time, building up our military, trying to reclaim our Central and South America in real time. It's already happening with Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Panama. It's important. It's especially important to Republicans. I said, why are we so focused on the Middle East and not focused on our own backyard?

Now we're focusing on our own backyard. Lindsey Graham, believe it or not, feels differently than Van Jones. Cut it. The trend lines are all going in the right direction. In 2022, gas was almost $5 per gallon.

In December this year, it's the lowest it's been since 2021. The trend lines are going in the right direction in terms of gas prices.

So that's just it. I mean, if you're in March and you're in May and you're in April, no one's going to say, wow, things look bad in December. You'll see. And the best you could hope for, don't be dissuaded by these polls. The best you can hope for for Trump, popularity, the best probably could ever get is 48% while he's in office.

And probably the best economic numbers he'll get is probably 44%. That's where things majorly turn around. But he knows what he's doing on business. He's bringing this money back.

Now, we've got to make sure these pledges from these other countries come in. From Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Japan. You said you're going to build it. You better build it. I don't want to take too much time away from Senator Steve Daines.

We'll talk more about that. I just do want to talk about how disappointing it is to see a mass shooting at a university, at a school, and have such clueless people in charge. You've got a campus police chief that just shows up one day, seems disinterested. You at Brown? I mean, this school costs $80,000 a year.

They have $7.2 billion in the bank, and they can't even get a ring doorbell for the back of their building. And their excuse is it's really old. I mean, this is just crazy how the attorney general and the mayor and the police chief can't get on the same page. They're literally contradicting each other in real time. Senator, we're going to give you the latest on Australia.

They just thwarted another plot. They were going to aim at Jewish citizens. Senator Steve James is going to join us next on foreign relations. I want to get his take on what the closed-door meeting was like with the president explaining what he's doing in Venezuela. You're listening to The Brian Kilmeade Show.

Keeping you informed, engaged, and always a step ahead. It's The Brian Kilmeade Show. Every day, America's first responders stand ready. Firefighters, law enforcement, paramedics, doctors, dispatchers, and people who put themselves on the line for public safety. But keeping them connected in moments of crisis has not been easy.

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FirstNet, built with AT&T. Learn more on firstnet.com slash public safety first. a talk show that's real this is the brian kilmeade show we're putting america first and we are making america great again very simple we are making america great again tonight after 11 months, our border is secure. Inflation is stopped. Wages are up.

Prices are down. Our nation is strong. America is respected and our country is back stronger than ever before. We're poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen.

So the president cheering on his economy and knows if the economy turns around, they probably buck his history and become the third president to not lose seats during the midterm elections. One was Clinton in two, and it was Bush 43 in 2022.

So can he do that? If the president's promise from the big, beautiful bill produces, the answer is yes, as well as his view on all the above when it comes to natural gas, when it comes to coal, when it comes to oil, getting gas prices down and energy prices down. Senator Steve Daines joins us now. He's a key advisor to the president. The president really trust him on finance, foreign relations, and energy, where he's committee members there.

Senator, welcome back. Your thoughts about the 20-minute address last night? Brian, it was a home run, and I think it's very important that the president and all of us who serve the American people are able to communicate directly with the people and summarize exactly what's happened here as a result of President Trump's election and now promises made and importantly, promises kept. I mean, Brian, it just was a year ago, we had a wide open, out of control border, never before seen millions and millions floating across the southern border. Trump has shut that down.

We went from the highest number of illegals coming into our country to zero. And sometimes we take that for granted. But that was the result of one man and one man's leadership and that's donald j trump and when you look and when you see the polls uh senator and he's only got 46 approval on the border is it even possible in this polarized era that we're in to get 50 on anything and 50 is even low how could he not have 90 i'm not saying that he should have 90 on everything but clearly that's a win what what do people want what aren't they seeing well Well, I think it's just important, as the president did so well last night, to remind the American people of where we're at. Because the news cycles, Brian, we say they're 24-hour news cycles. They're 24-second news cycles anymore.

How quickly we forget where we were just a year ago. Just remember this, the images of Eagle Pass and what's going on in the Rio Grande Valley, the millions of illegals coming across, what it meant. in terms of the drugs pouring across our southern border. I mean, we should be talking more about how the president is seeing massive reductions now in illegal drugs coming out of Venezuela. Why?

Because he took the war to the narco-terrorists for just sitting back like Biden did and allowing the drugs and illegals to flood our country. Thank God for his leadership. But what do you think about, I want you to hear what Hakeem Jeffries said when it comes to health care, and then I want to get to what do you think is going to happen. Cut for it. he seems clueless about that the only thing they understand are tax breaks that are massive for the wealthy the well-off and the well-connected in order to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and shameless but when it comes to tax credits for everyday americans he claims to be clueless about the thing and he actually may be because perhaps there's no interest the reality is the affordable care act tax credits can be taken either on a monthly basis to lower your health insurance costs, which most Americans elect to do, or you can receive the tax credits when you file your taxes in April.

And so that already exists as an option under law. Donald Trump doesn't seem to understand that.

So what he's talking about is getting that money that was going to subsidies and putting him in health care savings accounts.

So I think that was totally insincere and misunderstood by Akeem Jeffries. Tell me where you think the president differs from Jeffries?

Well, first of all, if there's ever an example of in health care of a bunch of arsonists suddenly becoming firemen, that's the Democrats. You know, they burn down the health care system by having the government take it over with Obamacare. And what happens when the government takes something over, it becomes less efficient and costs go up. That's exactly what's happening. And the Democrat solution is to throw more money to insurance companies to find ways to lower the cost when the fundamental costs of health care keep going up.

The reason the insurance rates keep going up is because Obamacare is incentivizing healthy people to get off the exchange. It takes the risk pool and increases more sick people, older people, and rates keep going up. That's the fundamental problem right now on the Affordable Care Act. And so the solution we have is, you know, the quickest solution at the moment is to take those dollars and don't send it to the insurance companies. Send it into the pockets of the American people.

Let them choose how to spend the money versus insurance companies. I'll tell you, the folks who are making out like bandits right now are the insurance companies. You look at what their stock prices have done since Obamacare was passed is insurance rates have skyrocketed. And guess what? the stock prices of insurance companies have also skyrocketed.

But Senator, let me ask, what do you think could happen? We only have two minutes left, but what do you think could happen on this? Senator Thune says he's going to have to wait until early in the new year. Yeah, well, first of all, I don't think the Democrats want to solve the problem. I don't think they want a bipartisan solution because they want to keep this issue alive.

They think it's a political kryptonite coming into the 26th election.

So I'm not optimistic there's going to be a bipartisan solution because at the end of day, the Democrats don't want to solve this problem for the American people. They see this as political gold for them.

So we're going to have to try to find a way to do it on our own, but I don't see a bipartisan solution.

So in other words, you don't get 60 votes, nothing changes.

So then they just let the 24 million people not get the additional subsidies. You don't even rein in people that shouldn't be eligible for it because they're 400% in some cases above the poverty line. All that just stays. 20% of those dollars are fraud. We've seen that.

We've exposed that. It is absolutely a scam, Brian. The Democrats don't want to solve the problem. They might want to act like they're working with us, but I can tell you what, they're not going to solve it. You quietly hear what's really going on.

They want to keep this issue open because the 26th election is coming. Senator, lastly, on Venezuela, after the briefing, what do you now know that might make you feel better or worse about this would-be operation? conflict. Look, I could not have been more proud of Secretary of War Hegseth, Secretary of State Rubio, and the team. It was a fantastic briefing.

I wish all the American people could have heard what we got to hear in that classified setting. But let me just remind the American people of one important fact. More Americans have died from drug overdoses in the last seven years than the military casualties in World War I, World War II, and Vietnam combined. This is a war on drugs. Thank God President Trump is taking the war now to the narco-terrorists and to the cartels.

I hear you. Senator Steve Daines, have a fantastic holiday, and I look forward to talking to you in the new year and get a lot done this year, all right? Thanks, Brian. Merry Christmas. You got it.

Senator Tommy Tuberville will be next, Armed Services Committee. I also want to talk about the NIL with him and the raging anti-Semitism, especially in the city we're in. Real American Freestyle is the first ever unscripted pro wrestling league created by Hulk Hogan, Chad Bronstein, Israel Martinez, and Eric Bischoff to give elite wrestlers a real shot of professional career. Real American freestyle is where Olympians, world champions, and NCAA legends come to compete. Not in a cage, not in a script, but on the mat in front of fans around the world.

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Washington, D.C. It's at levels of safety that we've never seen before. And they decimated the bloodthirsty foreign drug cartels. We did that all by ourselves with our people. And we're so proud of it because they were poisoning and destroying our population.

Drugs brought in by ocean and by sea are now down 94 percent.

So the president feeling good about the cocaine that's coming out. We don't think fentanyl, but I think the experts say it's mostly cocaine coming out of Venezuela through Colombia and also intimidating other drug traffickers. We don't know how they're going to adjust, but we know this. They're not going through the Caribbean. We've had 27 strikes.

I think it was 11 in the Pacific and the rest were on the Caribbean. And the word is you, you, you, we catch you. You're dead. I mean, you're going to be dead.

So will that work? Senator Tommy Tuberville joins us now with armed services. He also knows how much, how much it cost to keep our armada there. Senator, welcome back. Your thoughts about the president's speech last night.

Merry Christmas, Brian. Good to be on with you. Yeah, I thought it was great. I saw the only problem. He had so many good things to say.

He tried to get 40 minutes speech into 20 minutes. And so he didn't have the humor that he normally would have. But he just tried to get it all in there because there's so many good things. You know, I was here for four years when Joe Biden took over and I've never seen like the destruction of, you know, mass immigration, The drugs coming in, the debt that we were piling on, and the DEI, all the nonsense that we're pushing our country. But President Trump has got so many good things going on.

Next year will be an outstanding year. The tariffs will take effect. The big, beautiful bill goes into effect in a little over a week. I'm excited for the American people. They deserve it because they have suffered severely over the last five, six years.

Right now, the Dow is raging because inflation dropped to 2.7%. It is up 290 points, 320 points. It's going up and down, but it's going through the roof.

So a good economic indicator because you guys were shut down. We got no economic numbers.

Now they're starting to come in. Yeah, you're exactly right. The Democrats shut down. And don't let anybody tell you any different. We tried to deal with them.

We tried to negotiate. They wanted nothing to do with it. What they want to do, they wanted to slow President Trump down to where you couldn't get the numbers. You couldn't get the facts out there from some of these agencies. They wanted to slow the economy down.

They know they're in trouble because of all the things that are getting ready to happen. But they're trying to put a gloom light on things that President Trump has done. But that's fine. Things will pay out. Like I said, next year is going to be a great year for the American people.

The people that really need help are farmers or small businesses, people that have really struggled in the last few years.

So listen to what Van Jones said on CNN, who oftentimes is a voice of reason. Not last night, in my view. Cut six. People are scared. They are worried.

They see a bunch of things that are happening that seem completely out of control. They're seeing shootings happening all over the place. This reverse migration is happening because rather than going after the cartels, these ICE agents are going after nannies and stuff.

So the Latin community is backing off.

So this is the first time you've seen a Donald Trump. He sounded a little scared. He sounded a little nervous. I don't know. Maybe he was just going too fast.

I don't want to read anything into that. But I think if you're a Democrat who's sitting here tonight biting your nails, is this guy going to kill us, crush us? I think this is a beatable guy next year. And I think he proved it tonight. Is that your read?

No, they're all about politics. You heard the end right there. It's all about the change and the power that they can regain. They know they're losing. And here's a guy that really sounds nervous about all the good things that are happening.

You know, the shootings are happening against Christians, against Republicans, against people that love America. And who's doing the shooting? It's the people on the other side.

Now, I'm not saying it's the Democrats, but Democrats are pumping these people up like they're great citizens. But at the end of the day, you know, this Van Jones, he's been a talking head for years for the mainstream media. They know they're getting killed. They're losing the game.

Next year will be a telling point. We will regain the House and the Senate, maybe even pick up more seats, because the success is going to show people that Donald Trump is doing exactly what the American people voted for.

So you're you got briefed Venezuela.

So did Democrats and Republicans. Congressman Seth Moulton had this to say about the president's message on that country where we have basically put a blockade into play. No tankers in or out. Cut 32. On the one hand, the administration is saying we are at war with these narco terrorists, a term that they have invented.

On the other hand, they say these are not enemy combatants, so they're not subject to the protections afforded to enemy combatants. You don't have to be a lawyer to understand that those two things are completely contradictory in their basic logic for conducting these operations in the first place. Do you think you're getting messages from the president? No, getting 100% messages. He ran to stop this nonsense.

Brian, you're in my lifetime. We've had the so-called war on drugs.

Well, we finally got a president. We'll go to war with him. And we all got to remember, let me put it simply. Venezuela is the capital of narco and terrorism across the Central America. And Maduro has taken over.

He's punishing his people. The Chinese run it. The cartels run Venezuela. He's trying to take it over. President Trump is putting pressure on Maduro.

We have to knock out this cancer down there. And it's not just about the drugs. It's about the laundering money. It's about Cuba. It's about the things that are going on.

Now, there hasn't been any boat, you know, action down in the Caribbean in a month. You know where it's happening? It's happening on the east side now or the west side of Mexico coming up towards California. That's where they're changing course. He's making progress.

Maduro would not be there much longer if President Trump is successful in the blockade and making sure that the drugs don't leave. The money flow will be shut off unless China gets in there and continues to help funnel money where they can have that Central America location.

So, yeah, Senator, I love that we're taking action in our own backyard. I think that's extremely popular, too. Republicans have talked about that for the longest time. Why are we worried about the Middle East? What about our region?

Remember, dating back to the war on terror. And now for the first time, we're focusing on it. And if Maduro is out, you realize Cuba gets destabilized almost immediately and the and Hezbollah, Iran, Russia and China have to go somewhere else. This this would be more than good news for America. Yeah.

And you got to remember, Sean, Hezbollah and Hamas, they're junior high leagues compared to ISIS. And ISIS is setting up shop in Venezuela. We cannot allow that. That's right off our southern border. We cannot take that chance.

And President Trump is doing the exact thing. But the Democrats look at the small picture. They don't look at the big picture because they worry about their power only, not the American people. President Trump's worried about all American people, Democrats and Republicans. And he trying to make our country safe And it becoming a war zone on our streets simply for the fact that Democrats let all these immigrants in We talking to Senator Tommy Tuberville who wants to be the next governor of Alabama And we see there going to be a big race for his spot over in whoever gets the Republican nomination is going to get through and get that seat But, Senator, if I can, while you're still a senator, I want to talk about what happened in Australia over the weekend.

And we're still trying to find out what's going on over there and the rise of anti-Semitism in New York City. Cover of the New York Post today. Another guy was just stabbed because he was Jewish. Have you ever in your lifetime seen anything like it? And is there any conversations going on how to get ahead of all this and rein it in?

Because there's some on the extreme right who are being extremely, in my view, anti-Semitic. And basically the Democratic Party has left Israel.

So where are we at right now? This is a crisis.

Well, we need to protect our allies, and Israel is one of them. But we also need to protect them from all these groups across the world. You know, Europe is almost gone because of the Muslim input in all these European countries. France, they canceled all their Christmas celebrations. Think about that.

France, because of the Muslim input, they didn't want any confrontation. We're not going to have that here, but we're going to fight it here. We're going to speak up about it. I'm all for Muslims if they come here and assimilate and don't go with the Koran and Sharia law and preach death to America. But those people need to speak up against the radicals, the Muslims and the good Muslims in this country, which there's a lot of them.

But the whole world's in trouble because these third world people are going to countries that don't want to assimilate, that want to bring their values to our country. And we're not going to allow that to happen. Yeah, let's talk about health care. Senator Thune basically said nothing's going to happen to the new year. Politically, I know how you feel about Obamacare.

I know how every Republican feels about it. But politically, what do you hope gets done? We've got to help the American people. You know, I keep saying up here, and I'm one that would bust a filibuster. I used to not be for it, but the problem is this is a different world now.

The Democrats are never going to vote for anything we do. We're going to have to do a reconciliation. If we can get a good reconciliation in with 51 votes and put Obamacare or put our health care back together, I'm good with that. But we've got to make sure that we get something done next year up here in Washington, D.C. for the American people.

The Democrats are going to block everything. But it's unaffordable. We have the worst health care that we've ever had. The Democrats know it, but they don't want to fix it. They want to blame us for everything that's gone wrong.

And guess what? The American people are starting to understand, wait a minute, Democrats put all this together, not the Republicans. They never voted for this. Exactly right. We've got to get a good health care plan for the American people.

But it will happen the first two weeks in January. where we have to come up with something. Because if we don't, we'll get the blame for it, just like you said. All right, I want another area of expertise in sports. There's two things that are happening.

One, college sports, college football, and basketball to a degree has got to be fixed. They're actually calling on Congress legislation to help them rein in themselves. I know you work with Joe Manchin on some of this. I know there's other people you can partner with. Everybody respects your knowledge of college sports.

It wasn't broken when you left, although a lot of people think the players were getting the short end of the stick. Where are we at right now? And what do you think you can do? I guess you only have a few months left, but what do you think can get done? We're still going to work on it.

I'm working with the president on this now because he's the one that can do it. He can do it in executive order. Problem we have, you know, I don't care if the players make money. Hey, that's good. But we had a player this past week sign up for his seventh transfer to a different school.

Think about that. Seven years of eligibility and his seventh transfer. There's no education left.

So I'm talking to the president about let's put education back into it and let's go to a one transfer in your entire five years of being at a school. If you want to transfer, fine, but you get one because education has got to be put back in it. And we've got to quit this bidding for all these players across the country every December. It's a bidding war. And again, we can't hope we can't keep this up.

And it's ruining the education and it's ruining Olympic and women's sports because they're not going to be funded.

Well, the other thing is coaches. Coaches decide they're going to go to a bigger school in the middle before the playoffs because they've got to get ahead of the portal so they can have a good recruiting year. I mean, don't you think coaches have to show loyalty or just leave them out of this? The problem is athletic directors. Athletic directors now, when they sign somebody up, they should say, listen, here's the deal.

You sign a new contract with us. You have to forfeit and repay all your money for that year if you leave before your team is through playing in that season. Athletic directors hide behind these coaches. They have to be accountable. Contracts have to be made to where these guys have to stay and cannot leave if you are in the playoffs.

Same thing with the players now. Players cannot leave if you're playing, if your season continues. You have to stay or you have to pay all your money back that you got for that year. But you know with the money they're throwing at Lane Kiffin, if they said, hey, you know, you got to pay your salary back, LSU would have stepped up and said, yeah, here's a check, Ole Miss.

Now leave us alone.

So I just think it's a bad example on all sides. In the NFL, it's really easy. You cannot recruit a coach. You might want Mike Tomlin from Pittsburgh. You might think he's going to get fired.

But if you approach Mike Tomlin, you get fined, you lose draft picks. How hard is it just to institute some type of control when the NCAA used to run this thing with an iron fist? I want you to hear what Troy Aikman said over the weekend, last weekend. Listen to this. I gave money to a kid.

I won't mention who. I've done it one time at UCLA. Never met the young man. He was there a year. He left after the year.

I wrote a sizable check. And he went to another school. I didn't even get so much as a thank you note. You know, so it's one of those deals to where I'm done with NIL. I mean, I want to see UCLA be successful, but I'm done with it.

I mean, can you imagine blowing off a Hall of Fame quarterback from UCLA who's the best broadcaster? And what kind of kid are you raising that at 19 you don't call up Troy Aikman and say thank you and then explain yourself when you move on? Yeah, and I'm going to tell you some other problems. You have these agents that are not certified. They're taking a lot of the money from these players.

You have players that come to a team bus. I heard this last year. Come to a team bus in the middle of the season and say, listen, I've spent all my money. I'm not going to play in this game unless you give me another $50,000. Yeah, yeah.

And then here's the last thing, Sean. A lot of them are not paying taxes. I know you're flattering me with Sean. You think, yeah. Brian, yeah.

It's a flatter. Yeah, Brian. Yeah, sorry, Brian. But at the end of the day, they're not paying taxes. And I'm not saying all of them, but a few of them.

And these 1099s these kids are getting, they got to understand that, hey, you got to pay a lot of money on this before you think you're going to spend it at the end of the day.

So sorry about calling you Sean, Brian. No, it's flattering. Are you kidding? Sean Hannity? That's who you think.

I mean, flattered that you put me in the same category. I consider it an honor. But lastly, Senator, that's so interesting because if I do a speech and you do a speech, they pay you on a 1099. And when I first did this, I forgot. And I had this huge tax bill at the end of the year.

Is there anybody in these families, a lot of them have never had money before, they're coming from working class and making their way in America, to say, hey, you just got $100,000. You got to put $45,000 minimum away or $655,000 because then they're going to get out of college and they're going to owe a ton of money and nobody's going to care about them. Yeah, well, I'm hearing this from coaches that are taking players from other schools and they're saying, okay, you paid this much taxes last year, right? Oh, no, we didn't pay taxes on that.

So they're having to take money from their next check to pay taxes on what they got from the previous school. It's comical. at the end of the day of how all this is playing out. Lastly, do you think there's a format for you to go with Nick Saban? I only have a minute left.

Nick Saban and maybe a mansion. And you put together a committee that gets something that is going to be maybe brought to the floor? Or am I dreaming? Yeah, I think you're dreaming on that, Sean. You can't get it passed because the Democrats, they want them to unionize every player.

We're not going to do that. It's just unfortunate. But the only way that we're getting things done is an executive order to see how to work, get the president to do it. And he's all in and trying to help because he understands how bad the situation is. And it's getting worse.

And so we've got, I don't know whether you can ever fix it. But again, I don't care if the players make money. I mean, that's the cat's out of the bag. But let's put some regulations where these kids are responsible for what they're doing, how they're doing. And they get an education.

Eight, seven years, this kid played for seven different schools this weekend. It's crazy, absolutely nuts. Senator, thanks so much. You made the right choice going into politics. It's more organized.

Senator Tommy Tumorville, the next governor of Alabama. Thank you, sir. Back in a moment. Politics, current events, and news that affects you. Brian's got a lot more to say.

Stay with Brian Kilmeade. Hi, everyone.

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That's promo code BRIAN. the more you listen the more you'll know it's brian kilmeade do you feel like that the biden joe biden and his people did everything they could to help you win the election i write about that as you know and um certainly i think we had we needed more time and from certain places in the administration. We need more support.

So she never answers any question. I mean, Kamala Harris is being treated like the returning queen. Listen, it's great news for Republicans if she is the front runner. I just saw a poll that she's the front runner. Are you kidding me?

She's talentless, not even a good lawyer, not a great legal mind, not a good communicator. She laughs inordinately. She's not clear on anything. She's not clear when she reads the prompter. Actually, she's better on the prompter, but she doesn't, she's not into it.

She doesn't know the issues, nothing passionate. That's the problem. I could tell you exactly what Trump is passionate about. I could tell you, right? Governor Shapiro, he could probably name four things he's passionate about right away.

I can't, I think if you asked her, give me four things that you're passionate about that's got to change. Got nothing because she wants to have the job, but she doesn't want to do the job. Other people would just be great at doing the job, like DeSantis, who'd be unbelievable at doing the job. Rick Scott, unbelievable at doing the job. Hard for them to get the job.

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Collaborate with Meta AI and more. Be one of the first to try Meta Ray-Ban Display. Visit meta.com slash Meta Ray-Ban Display to book a demo and find your pair. From the Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan, it's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade.

Hi, everyone.

So glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmeade Show. coming to you from 48th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan, where we have our own Christmas tree here in the famous Rockefeller Plaza. Christmas tree is directly across the street.

So it's a pretty exciting place to be this holiday season as we're closer and closer to Christmas Day. Mark Thiessen is going to be on this hour, Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institute of Health. And we did get some good economic news, and the market is responding. And that is inflation, core inflation was supposed to be 3.1%. It came in at 2.7%.

And the market's up 335 points.

So we'll keep you up, give an idea of what's happening, how they're responding. Senator John Corning on Judiciary, the Budget, Foreign Relations and Intelligence joins us now. Senator, your reaction to some good news on inflation?

Well, it is good news. The challenge has been, of course, Brian, that under the Biden administration, we saw 40-year high inflation.

So a lot of that is sort of baked in and people are experiencing all sorts of increased costs in this and or decrease in their standard of living. But this is good news. And and I think with the economy taking off, which I expect it to do next year as a result of the Working Family Tax Cuts Act and other other things, I'm I'm hopeful that we'll see some blue skies and start in January.

So the president had his 20 minute address, had a lot to get in. Cut to. We're putting America first and we are making America great again. Very simple. We are making America great again.

Tonight, after 11 months, our border is secure. Inflation is stopped. Wages are up. Prices are down. Our nation is strong.

America is respected and our country is back stronger than ever before. We're poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen So, I mean, he's cheerleading like every president should do But what concerns do you have going into the new year? Because right away, health care considered, I think, top three among most concerns for America It looks like everything's in limbo right now, right? Yeah, you know, we need more President Trump doing exactly what he did last night And particularly when it comes to explaining what we did legislatively in the Working Family Tax Cuts Act, which has got so much good stuff in it, it's a little hard to message. But nobody can do it better than the president.

But, yeah, health care is one of those issues that is a nagging problem. Democrats created Obamacare without any Republican votes. It's a disaster. Its premium is going up 18 percent in Texas next year. And we tried to come up with an alternative, but Democrats didn't have any interest.

I'm afraid they want the issue instead of solving the problem. And unfortunately, that means more people are going to be priced out of their out of their Obamacare exchanges. Senator, do you know for a fact that they are against your health care savings idea of taking the same money and giving it to the people instead of giving it to the health insurance companies? Have they come out and said that's a bad idea? Yes.

They, you know, basically what they want, Brian, and what Obamacare started to march toward a single payer system where the federal government runs health care. And we've seen this in other countries like the United Kingdom and Canada, where people have to wait months, if not years, for elective surgery and the like.

So nationalized health care is a bad idea, but that's exactly what Democrats want and why they don't like free market solutions like Senator Cassidy and Senator Crapo offered just just a few weeks ago.

So I want you to hear what Van Jones said last night about the speech on CNN. Cut five. I am not scared of that guy. I'm not. This is the first time I've seen a Donald Trump I'm not afraid of.

He is exaggerating how bad things were. That's OK. He's exaggerating how good things are. That is great for us. That is fantastic.

His big threat to Democrats is he was more in touch with ordinary people than everybody else. You had the Democratic elite sitting up here talking big, fancy words and, you know, coming up with some new thing to be worried about every day. And he was right there with the everyday people. This is not how everyday people are experiencing this economy or the country. So your thoughts about that analysis, which I know you didn't see because you watch Fox all the time.

Absolutely. I'm not sure Van Jones is in tune with everyday working families in Texas and elsewhere. And look, the president, I think, is proud of what he's been able to accomplish in the year he's been back in office, and he should be. And this is despite almost universal resistance by Senator Schumer and Senate and House Democrats.

So, but look, you can't fool the American people, and they're going to be the one to judge whether their life is better and whether these kitchen table issues are going to be addressed and whether he has made their life more affordable in the new buzzwords since Mayor Mondani got elected in New York.

So I like where we are, and I'm really glad to see the president using the bully pulpit to greatest effect.

So, Senator, you've got some challengers this year. You have Wesley Hunt as well as Ken Paxton who want the nomination. And then you've got to deal with Jasmine Crockett in the general.

So you're basically slightly ahead in the last poll, 30.3 to 30 over Paxton, and Wesley Hunt with 20%. And one thing Wesley Hunt told me last week on One Nation, he says, well, it's time for a new generation. What do you say to people who say it's time for a new generation?

Well, I say that I work with a guy who's 79 years old at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, who seems to be doing just fine, too. Look, Wesley is, I admire the fact he went to West Point and he served our country in the military, but he hasn't shown up for work about for one out of every five votes in the House. How do you claim to be a supporter of President Trump and his policies when you don't show up for work?

So he's very ambitious, which is fine. I understand that. But he can't win. And he will lose in the primary on March the 3rd. And then I anticipate being in a runoff with the attorney general on May the 2026th.

And the attorney general, who is, I guess he's him and the president get along well. Your thoughts about going against Ken Paxton. Yeah, the president has called us both friends and he's chosen so far not to make any endorsement, which would be enormously helpful. But I talk to him frequently. Ken Paxson has got tremendous baggage, including an impeachment by Republican House, a lawsuit for $6.6 million from whistleblowers who turned him into the FBI for interfering with a federal criminal investigation of one of his donors.

And then, unfortunately, he's blown up his family life because he's proven to be untrustworthy. untrustworthy.

So we'll take care of Ken on May the 26th, but we're going according to plan. And then you got to deal with Congresswoman Crockett. Can you beat her? Yeah, that'd be great. I'm looking forward to that one.

Yeah, AOC doesn't sell in Texas, and Jasmine Crockett is essentially the AOC of Texas. Understood. Senator Leslie, did you go behind closed doors with Jack Smith yesterday? I did not. He was in the House.

We are going to be doing an investigation of our own in the Senate Judiciary Committee. But first, we want some of the documentation that so far has not been produced because we don't want to necessarily give Jack Smith a forum. And we're unprepared to ask him the hard questions that he needs to be asked. What's your thought about the fact that the FBI pushed back and said they shouldn't have done the Mar-a-Lago raid? They found communications that there was a lot of questions about it, but they were pushed by the DOJ to do it anyway.

Yeah, well, we we're all familiar with the weaponization of the Department of Justice and the FBI under President Biden. And the fact that they would use this against their opponent in a presidential election is beyond the pale. And so I think it's really important for us to expose that and including exposing Jack Smith, who subpoenaed senators phone records and then got a court order saying that the senators were likely to destroy evidence so they couldn't be notified that their very phone records have been subpoenaed. subpoenaed. I mean, this is a serious problem when you have the executive branch through a special counsel investigating the legislative branch of government.

I mean, there's a serious separation of powers problem. And if they can do that to us, they can do it to anybody. And that ought to cause people a lot of concern. Senator John Cornyn, running for re-election again. Senator, thanks so much.

Have a fantastic holiday. Great to be with you, Brian. You got it. Coming up next, we go to the director of the NIH, Jay Bhattacharya, and then Mark Thiessen on the latest in Venezuela and what we learned yesterday. Don't move.

Giving you everything you need to know. You're with Brian Kilmeade. if you're interested in it brian's talking about it you're with brian kilmeade hey welcome back everyone joining us now the director of the national institute of health jay bodichara uh jay it's been almost a year since you got the job let's say eight months since you got confirmed your thoughts one year in. I mean, we've made a lot of big changes to the NIH for the better, Brian.

So, for instance, we got rid of DEI. The institute I inherited had DEI put into the middle of almost everything we were doing. We've ended that and returned our focus on real excellent science to advance the health of the American people. I mean, that's a big, enormous change. We streamlined our operations.

We've made sure that the universities that we fund are focused on actually advancing health and not fighting for ideological things.

So it's been a tumultuous year, but we've accomplished a lot. And what has been the hardest thing about what you've done or the biggest surprise now that you're in there? Yeah. I mean, it's funny because some of the things that I thought would be very, very difficult have turned out to be a little easier than I thought, in part because of the president's help.

So, for instance, I think we have an obligation at the NIH to make sure that we never fund research that is dangerous, that might cause a pandemic or cause catastrophic harm to everybody. And I thought it would be a big challenge to, like, get that change in place. But in May, the president issued an executive order essentially ordering the whole government, not just the NIH, to never fund that kind of research. And we've been working with the White House to put together a framework for that, and we've ended all danger of getting to functional work at the NIH. That turned out to be much easier than I thought.

Then I've not been in government for a while, and it's kind of funny because I've heard about bureaucracy but never felt it front and center.

So there's a rule. We have all these scientific reviewers who review scientific proposals. It turns out there's a rule that we can't serve them, serve coffee or anything to them, even though they come in at like 8 in the morning or 7 in the morning, they'll go review, you know, long scientific proposals. There's some GAO rule. Apparently it's going to take an act of Congress to serve coffee to scientific reviewers.

Well, that's the only way. Yeah. I know you made progress when it comes to food dyes and things of that nature. But when it comes to vaccines, You've run into some headwinds with Senator Bill Cassidy and other Democrats. That necessarily isn't your call.

It's RFK Jr.'s call.

So your thoughts about where we stand with that? I think the scheduling, the way the number of vaccines infants get when they're first born, things like that you're addressing.

Well, I mean, those are, of course, complicated scientific and public health issues. There has been some progress on this.

So, for instance, this is not in my court. This is not the NIH. This is the CDC, but the CDC just had a meeting where they considered whether the hepatitis B vaccine should be given at birth or later. And they decided that they're going to align with what the whole rest of the world really does or much of the rest of the world does, which is that at birth, you can check if the mom is hepatitis B negative. If she's hepatitis B negative, then the recommended dose should come at two months, not immediately after birth.

If the mom's not negative, then you give the dose at birth. That aligns with what the scientific evidence says. It aligns with the – and the other thing is the big thing is it's a shift towards shared decision-making.

So it's not just we, the scientists and doctors, tell you you must do this. It's you talk with your doctor, figure out what's right for you and your child together so that the real principle informed consent sits at the center. There's a committee at the CDC that just decided this. It drew all kinds of crazy attention and criticism, but I don't really understand why, since it aligns with the science and also puts decision-making in the hands of parents talking to their doctor where it belongs.

So what is your relationship like with WHO? We're withdrawing from WHO.

So the president signed an executive order in January, I think, last year, almost immediately when he came into office. And so what we've been working hard at at Health and Human Services is as we pull out of WHO, there are a lot of functions that WHO is doing sort of poorly that we want to help do, like disease monitoring around the world, collaboration on sharing tissue samples and all that. I know the State Department's been busy getting bilateral relationships and agreements with countries that will, in some sense, replace some of the structures of WHO. And at the same time, we are encouraging other international organizations to reform so that they can become better, including the WHO reform, so that they can become better at what they do. The United States still is a tremendously important player on the world stage in health.

a withdrawal from the WHO essentially sends a signal that the WHO has failed at its job. And, you know, we're working to help get structures together so that, you know, we can continue to be the world's leader in health. Yeah, I know you were at the MIT about a week ago. Do you have any reaction to the assassination, it seems, the murder of that nuclear scientist there? Oh, my gosh.

I mean, I watched what happened at Brown University where there was a couple of students got killed. The violence on campus is just heartbreaking. You know, the assassination of nuclear scientists is shocking. But to me, even more shocking was the killing of two young students at Brown while they were studying for final exams. Like I was a professor for 20-some years at Stanford or 25 years almost at Stanford University.

I've given 50 final exams over the course of my time at Stanford. I've had students come to my office. The university is supposed to be a sacred place where people can learn and grow and become sort of the leaders of society. And if you have a kind of culture where that kind of violence can happen it really shocking I would talk to Dr Jay Bhattacharya Doctor can you give me an idea of what you learned now You were critical of the way we handled the pandemic the vaccine Now we find out that the myoconditis and also the negative effects on children was much greater than anyone thought that you've always suspected. Yeah, I mean, I think we never should have recommended the vaccine or even, of course, I mean, in many cases, required the COVID vaccine for children and for young adults.

The balance of benefits and harms never made sense. It was a different story, I think, for older people. But for young adults, it really never – and the evidence of myocarditis, I mean, I saw evidence of that starting as early as March of 2021. I saw evidence of that. I think the main lesson I hope that I've learned, and I certainly hope public health more broadly has learned, is you have to make decisions that engage people.

You can't just force, just because you think that scientific, as we that's in public health think that scientific evidence points in a direction, we can't act in an authoritarian way. We can't get ahead of what the science, we can't wish or cast what the science should be. We have to pay attention to the scientific evidence and then work with people. It's a matter of shared decision-making where people work together. And I know you got in this business to make an impact, and you are making an impact.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, thanks so much. Radio that makes you think. This is the Brian Kilmeade Show. It was an unhinged speech that was, of course, untethered from reality and truth.

You know, Donald Trump has made things worse for the American people. He refuses to acknowledge that the tariffs that he is solely responsible for have actually increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year.

At the same time, when it comes to this health care crisis, it's one that Republicans have created. Is there anything more inaccurate any Democrat has ever said than that? The health care crisis the Republicans created? Keem Jeffries, of course. What's he talking about?

If you want to be critical of Republicans, you want to jot this down? Say, where's their health care plan? They never came up with their version of Obamacare, you know, which would be more free market based and give people health care savings accounts, something like that. You know, some of their principles wrapped up in one. But the health care crisis, you know, Obamacare should be on the like should be sailing right now, like Social Security.

You'd be like, well, it's built into the system. We never liked it. Republicans didn't love Social Security or some of the work programs that FDR put out famously. But they were in the system. You know, the WPA and things dissipated, but Social Security stuck around.

But you can't come out and say Republicans created this. Are you crazy? These are pandemic subsidies, pandemic subsidies put into law by a Democratic president to go away now because the Obama. And I don't even know why it lasted so long this year. And now you say, well, Republicans got to step up and subsidize.

No, they don't. Because you mocked them for years saying that they've tried hundreds, dozens of times to get rid of Obamacare and every time it's failed. OK, you know, Paul Ryan, go dating back to Paul Ryan. John McCain, thumbs down. It's all fail.

So now you can't blame them for the program that you passed, that Joe Biden famously on camera, on microphone, said this is a big effing deal.

So I do think something's got to come like a lot of the moderates like Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Lawler, very smart guys. but live in purple districts, want to do something where you extend subsidies for a year. I love the Gottheimer, the Brian Fitzpatrick one. You extend subsidies for a year, at which time it ends, and they have to come up with some type of compromise alternative because clear-thinking Democrats who are worried about their seats understand that if you pass anything, health care is always a top-three issue. And if you pass anything without any type of buy-in from the other side, It's just going to get reversed when that other side becomes.

Put goes into power yesterday, Mike Johnson kind of lost control of his caucus a little bit as Fitzpatrick and others and Lawler left to maybe vote with Democrats.

So he took some heat, cut 18. Have you lost control of the House? I have not lost control. Because there are there are. We have the smallest majority in U.S.

history. OK, these are not normal times. There are processes, processes and procedures in the house that are less frequently used when there are larger majorities. And when you have the luxury of having 10 or 15 people who disagree on something, you know, you don't have to deal with it. But when you have a razor thin margin, as we do, then all the procedures in the book people think are on the table.

Well, Speaker Johnson speaking out yesterday on why so many to fail a handful defected from him and his caucus. Mark Thiessen, he has not defected from the show. He's a vital cog in a show every single week. Fox News contributor, Washington Post columnist. Mark, your reaction to what's going on with health care.

Have you made them to make a heads or tails of what they're trying to do? Look, there's a handful of Republicans who are in districts that are lean blue, right, that are very purple, for whom this is an important issue and they need to vote this way. And so they're trying to force a vote. And if they do, it's not going to get passed in the Senate.

So, you know, they're not there. We're not the Republicans are not going to vote to extend Obamacare in the in the form that it is now. But they they want to force a vote and do it and show that they're fighting for for this. And so, you know, they're they're doing it.

So I guess what do you think the right thing is? Chip Roy made it clear how he stands. Cut 24. President Trump is exactly right. His instincts are exactly right.

When he said we should not be subsidizing insurance companies, We should not be doing these supersized subsidies, to use your phrasing, to insurance companies whose stocks have been through the roof while we're all taking it on the chin with health care costs. And he says, look, let's focus on the people. The bill that we have on the floor today is a good start. Association health plans, dealing with CSRs, the cost sharing reductions, and then some reforms on PBMs, on transparency. That's good.

We should do those things. But it's not transformational. And you're not going to do anything transformational leading up to this new year or right after.

So for Hakeem Jeffries to come out and say Republicans have caused a health care crisis is one of the most inaccurate statements ever said. Yeah. So first of all, not a single Republican voted for Obamacare to begin with. And they told us they promised us that premiums would go down under Obamacare and said they skyrocketed. None of this is touching Obamacare.

All of this are the subsidies during the COVID subsidies that were passed when people were losing their health care, their employer health care, because people were millions of Americans were losing their jobs. And so they increased the ability of people at higher incomes to get subsidies for Obamacare so they could buy health insurance and not be uncovered during the pandemic. That was passed in the American Rescue Plan with zero Republican votes, and then it was extended in the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act with zero Republican votes.

So why would any Republican vote now to do what they never voted to do in the first place? It makes no sense. What President Trump proposed and the solution, I think, is to give people checks, return some of the tariff revenue that he's brought in, and give people checks so they can go out and subsidize their own health insurance or use it for something else that they need. Give people a tax rebate, a tariff rebate. But we should not be giving money to insurance companies who are skyrocketing, jacking up premiums, because then it will just do what all the subsidies have done, for example, to college education, which is why is tuition so high?

Because of the government subsidies.

So if you like your college tuition rates going up, you're going to love your health care premiums going up if we keep going down this path. Speaking of going up, because core inflation was supposed to be 3.1 and ended up being 2.7, the market's up 437 points. It's really important for those indicators to go up for the president. If he gets those numbers going up, like he said last night, he will he'll buck tradition, don't you think? And he'll find a way to hold the House and Senate if the numbers start flying, if people start feeling it.

Do you think people will be open to do something that's only been done twice in 100 years? And that's keep the party in power in power?

Well, I mean, first of all, people need to calm down about the affordability thing, right?

So the affordability crisis was unleashed by the Democrats, who unleashed highest inflation in four decades. Interest rates were raised in order to tamp that down. And people elected President Trump to deal with that problem, and they're going to hold him accountable on whether he deals with it. When Ronald Reagan came in after Jimmy Carter destroyed the economy, it wasn't mourning in America in 11 months. Right.

It took it takes a while for these policies to take effect and have an impact. It doesn't it doesn't snap overnight. And we're starting to see positive impact. The president has done a lot of good things. The one big, beautiful bill is going to have a lot of positive impact.

The trade deals that he's got are going to have a lot of positive impact. The big problem he has, quite frankly, is the tariffs are a double edged sword because they bring in more revenue. Yes. And he's used them to get some trade deals. Yes.

But most economists agree that they're going to reduce economic growth by about half a percentage point. And that seems like a lot, but that's almost $100 billion in economic output. That's about 400,000 to 600,000 jobs that are not created. And so the tariffs are a wet blanket on the Trump recovery and are slowing things down. And so that's the big problem he has, and that's the big difference between the first term and the second term, where people were really happy with the economy that Trump unleashed because he was following growth-oriented, traditional Reaganite growth-oriented economics.

And now the tariffs are throwing a wrench into that. And I think he could back out for two reasons. Number one, I'm doing this to get leverage on a trade deal. Understand it. He got South Korea.

He got the EU. Those were big. He's got a few other. Japan. Understood.

And the other one would be to bring manufacturing back here. And that's going to take time.

So maybe you could pick and choose and not have to backtrack on something that's so fundamental to what you believe, Mr. President, but in the obituary, more practical. You're not going to be able to do a lot if you lose the House and Senate if you don't do something to keep the – to fully goose the economy. By the way, this is how good the core inflation came out. It is a four-and-a-half-year low.

That's what's raging the market.

So for those people who don't understand the direction of the economy, I mean, that's hardcore – literally, pun intended. Hardcore proof. Yeah, absolutely. Look, I think I think we're going to be it again. It took Ronald Reagan more than 11 months.

It's going to take Donald Trump more than 11 months. And, you know, I mean, if we had we are going from a country that had the highest inflation in four decades to trying to turn that around and it'll take a little time. But it also takes time. You know, he's unleashing American energy. It takes time.

You know, you do drilling permits. You permit people to drill in an ANWR, you lift all the wet blanket that Biden has put on the energy, it takes time for all those things to take effect. You can't expect an overnight turnaround on all these things. But it'll happen, and I guarantee you by next fall, unless the tariffs have a worse dampening effect on the economy than most economists believe, all the other positive things will goose it in the right direction. I got two more things to talk about.

Let's talk about Ukraine. Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly and explicitly outlined his continued commitment to his maximalist war aims in Ukraine, which means new regime, basically a colony for a country. He's against robust security guarantees for Ukraine. He's against any Rule 5-like support for Ukraine, Rule 5 as in NATO.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces recently advanced in three separate towns, and they now have an underwater drone that targets Russian subs and already hit one in port.

So this is where we end up. We watch Ukraine give and give, give and give and agree. And now it's going to be in Russia's court. What do you predict?

Well, first of all, we've had to go through this process because the president is trying to end the war and he wanted to. And, you know, if we look at that Vanity Fair interview, Susie Wilde basically said he understands that Putin doesn't want peace, but he has to say that he wants peace because he's trying to get him to come around and he's trying to pressure him into it. And I think we're now seeing Putin demonstrate that he's the obstacle to peace. The Ukrainians have agreed to give up territory. They've agreed to all sorts of concessions in order to get peace.

They've worked with the administration. They've said yes repeatedly to everything that the president has asked for. And Putin is the one saying no. And so, you know, I know that President Trump has said if Ukraine says yes to peace and Putin says no, he's going to side with Ukraine. And so Putin better be careful because the president is not going to this president is not doesn't do well when people stiff arm him.

Susie Wiles came out in one of the stories about Putin. He goes, he seems to like Putin. He goes, well, he talks to him and some of the conversations go good and some go bad on Zelensky. She said, yeah, that was going to happen. He blew off Scott Besson, who flew over to Ukraine.

He wouldn't even meet with him. And there were going to be some tensions. She said my mistake was allowing cameras to be in there, not the fight itself. Yeah. I mean, I think the conversation would have been fine behind closed doors.

It was doing it in front of the cameras. Before that meeting, Donald Trump loved Zelensky, and after that meeting, he doesn't. But he's also not letting his personal likes or dislikes affect the fact that what he cares about is he cares about the Ukrainian people. And he cares about – he has always been committed to protecting Ukraine, protecting its sovereignty, ensuring that it survives as an independent nation. And that is directly at odds with what Vladimir Putin wants.

And so I think now he's put a lot of pressure on Ukraine, and they've agreed to pretty much what he's asked for and come to a deal.

Now it's time to put the pressure on Russia. And if Putin says no to this and sticks with his maximalist demands, then then he's got to bring the hammer down on Putin. Here is Senator Rick Scott last night on Venezuela and what the president's doing now that he's implemented a blockade on oil tankers in and out. Cut 31. If you look at Maria Karim Machado, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize, you look at her organization, they're ready for a transition.

They won the election. Armando Gonzalez won the election. They're ready to come in and run the election.

Now, remember, Maduro is not being actually being protected by the Venezuelan military. He's being protected by the Cuban police. Right. So they're going to get out of Dodge. Right.

This is going to go back to freedom loving, liberty loving people in Venezuela to rebuild their country.

So your thoughts about what Senator Rick Scott predicts? He is 100 percent correct. And I will tell you also that if Maduro falls, the Cuban regime is going to fall, too, because the only thing keeping them afloat is Venezuelan oil right now. The Cuban economy, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Cuban economy went into a crisis because the Soviet subsidies disappeared. And who turned around to bail them out?

Venezuela. Providing them with oil and providing them with subsidies. And if the Venezuelan regime isn't there to be their protector, then the Cuban regime is going to fall as well. And I think Marco Rubio would be really happy about that. What's the timeline where the president would feel the pressure and Maduro looks perceived to be gaining strength?

What do you think, Mark? I mean, there's no time pressure on what the president is doing. He can take all his sweet time. He's squeezing them. It's Maduro who's in trouble.

And look, the reality is Venezuela is a socialist country in terms of its economy for its people. But for the top elites of the regime, they're narco-capitalists. They are down with capitalism when it comes to drugs. And every single one of those elites is involved in the drug trade in some way. They enrich themselves.

They've got offshore bank accounts. And so it's not just Maduro that has to go. It's his cronies around him as well. And they're also very bad dancers. They keep dancing their way through this crisis, which is a very interesting reaction.

AOC is one of the frontrunners on the Democratic side, and she knows who she'll be facing. And she's confident. Cut 43. Do you think that you'll beat, that you could beat J.D. Vance in a head-to-head race for president, as polling suggests in 2028?

Listen, these polls, like three years out, are, you know, they are what they are. But let the record show, I would stomp him. I would stomp him. Thank you. Do you agree with her?

Well, first of all, I'm not sure that that's necessarily going to be the matchup on either side. I think there's going to be a lot of people contending for the nomination in both parties. But, you know, I would tell you that if the election were held today, the voters would be very surprised. Because the election is going to take it. That's so funny.

That's a great line, Mark. You are so smart. Why do we pay you to be a contributor? You're supposed to just put it out there, and then I can use it the next day. Mark Thiessen, thanks so much.

Have a great weekend. Take care, Mike. Back in a moment. Real talk. Real guests.

Real insight. Where curiosity meets conversation. It's the Brian Kilmeade Show. With the holidays coming, that means more gift buying and more deliveries to the front door. It made me think about how I should upgrade my security to keep away the porch pirates and keep my delivery safe.

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Again, that's SimpliSafe.com slash Brian. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. breaking news unique opinions hear it all on the brian kilmeade show they let you wear that shirt yes why are you taking my picture why are you wearing that shirt you're working it's not a red shirt i can wear red skinny red shirt are you stupid no why the would you wear that you're at work at target you support a racist i mean it's not racist you support a racist he's not a racist yes he is yes he is i'm sorry but i'm not gonna sit here and argue you're not you should go get your manager you should not be allowed to wear the at work unacceptable unacceptable that's your opinion the opinion is he's a racist and you support him this is going to be taken above your head so that's a customer yelling at an employee yeah sort of target yeah like there's like left-wing karen essentially her shirt yeah the employee of target just needs to wear a red shirt and it said in the red freedom shirt that had an american flag on the back and the woman videoed this thinking she was going to be great and it was the opposite reaction how she was just so nasty the target employee was so sweet i think can look so professionally. They set up a gold fund me for the Target woman now. I think it's close to like $200,000.

Did the person come back and apologize? I haven't seen. I think he did. I think she did.

Okay, she should have. Absolutely. See, I had it wrong. Originally when I saw that, because I was doing the sound off, I thought it was a Target employee worked up to a customer, which I thought was crazy. This is actually crazier.

It is. It's perfect. Happy holidays. This is Ainsley Earhart. Thank you for joining me for the 52-episode podcast series, The Life of Jesus.

A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort, and understanding of the greatest story ever told. Listen and follow now at foxnewspodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. From Hyatt Town, Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sowing division. it's brian kilmeade hi everyone so glad you're there it's the brian kilmeade show moving your way uh through another hour in this busy week getting up to the holidays i know everyone's overwhelmed they're also looking at everything going on in the world last weekend was absolutely crazy we're looking at all three investigations whether it's a rob reiner things whether it's happening over in australia what we're seeing and the questions we still have uh about what happened at brown This hour, I'm going to be joined by Wyatt Hendrickson.

He's RAF Heavyweight Champion. RAF, the real American freestyle, is one of the fastest growing sports in the country. It's professional. It's on Fox Nation. They have another event coming up this Saturday night at 7 o'clock.

And then they're going to be in Miami in January naming champions. It's a great story, but Wyatt's a fantastic wrestler. He'll be joining us too. Julian Epstein doesn't wrestle, but he's got a lot of experience in politics.

So let's get to the big three. Number three. Well, Republicans are on the run right now. They're losing elections all across the country. The American people are rejecting their extremism and embracing the Democratic agenda to drive down the high cost of living, fix our broken health care system.

That is Keem Jeffries. All he knows is politics, not truth saying, truth telling. Health care debacle, bad plan, bad fix. We bring you inside the vote to extend subsidies on the disaster, which we call Obamacare. Number two.

But it's unknown to us where this person works. It's unknown to us if he was an affiliate of Brown. That's all unknown to us. All we have is the image that we've been releasing and informed you all about it. And so we're hoping to get those answers eventually who that person is or what the background is.

That is a police chief who's way over his head, not just because he's short. He's an embarrassment. That's all I can say about the investigation into the investigation. As the Brown mass shooter is at large, FBI should take over as Rhode Island cops and the campus cops look hapless and hopeless. Number one.

11 months ago, I inherited a mess and I'm fixing it. When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans.

President Trump, last night, 18-minute address full of facts. One year into his second term and President pivets on himself. He lays out his case for a big 26. And if it's as strong as he says, he could buck history and keep the power in the midterms. Joining us now is Julian Epstein.

He served as chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee and staff director to the House Oversight Committee for Democrats from 96 to 2001.

So Hakeem Jeffries, a big critic. What about you, Julian, on the not only the way it was delivered, according to CNN and others, it was too fast and too loud. And Hakeem Jeffries says it was fact free. Your thoughts?

Well, it was anything but fact-free. I think the president was quite specific. And I think he's right on the economic truth that the economy under Trump is much, much better than it was under Biden. You can look at inflation, you can look at interest rates, you can look at GDP growth, you can look at wage growth. I think there's just no question that the economy is worlds better under Trump than it was under Biden.

It's sort of hard to argue the opposite when wages were going down under Biden, real wages, inflation, cumulative inflation was 21.5 percent under Biden. I just think there's no argument there. Where I think Trump is, what I think Trump and the White House might be missing is that just because it is true that the economy is so much better. We had the inflation report this morning on 2.7 percent. And by the way, the market is up 460 points right now.

It was supposed to be 3.1, ended up 2.7. And I think it changes the calculation for lowering inflation the next time the Fed – lowering interest rates the next time the Fed meets.

So I think these are true. But I think what Trump wants to be sure not to do is to make the same mistake that Biden made, which is to tell people that things are OK when they're feeling economic anxiety.

So two things can be true. It can be completely true that the economy is so much better under Trump than it was under Biden. But people are still feeling anxiety. And that's certainly being fed by the left. It's hyped up by the left.

And I think the two things that Trump has got to consider in the next year is going after housing affordability and health care affordability. There are great proposals that are coming out of conservative think tanks on both of those issues that are free market proposals on health care, for example, limited duration. Short term plans introduce a whole bunch of competition into the market that doesn't exist right now. Obamacare is all about regulation and government subsidies and and sort of stomping out competition. There are a lot of great ideas that are coming from conservative quarters that I think Trump could be much more aggressive on.

And same with housing. There are a lot of sort of free market ideas. What we need is to increase housing stock, not to regulate housing stock. I think the Republicans are situated very well to say, hey, look, we have solved 80 percent of the economic problem. We still understand people have anxiety about this issue or that issue.

And we have a plan and we're going to march forward with that through legislation. And I think they would be in a I think they could paint a very good contrast to the Democrats, given the Democrats are still about the big welfare state and more regulation, which are the things that created the affordability crisis in the first place. They're sort of doubling down on dumb by going back to the very things that created the affordability crisis.

So I think it was a good speech. I think it was effective. I think it moved the ball forward. But I think that they want to be careful not to rest on their laurels because that's not where the voters are right now. I'm just looking at the polls.

I think it's just the opposite. I think the polls are not being kind to them. It's really not, you know, it's not what I hear. But, for example, voters who rate the condition of the economy fair or poor, 72 percent say it's fair or poor. That number was as high as 77% in December under Biden, but still it's too high if you're Trump.

President's approval on the economy at 39%. You know, in 2025 in March, it was at 43%.

So I think that's the area it can really improve. My analogy is if you have a big offense and off to a slow start, don't worry about it. You know the offense is going to turn around. Worry about your defense. And my sense is there's room to grow there.

We're saying the same thing. I completely agree with that. I think the facts are, whether voters realize this or not, the facts are the economy is doing very well. I think we're probably going to have a good 2026 economy. I do worry about the economy resting on four to seven companies right now and sort of the stock market.

But I think the economy has gotten much, much better. Whether voters believe that is another question. And I think the data that you just pointed shows that Trump can't just simply say I'm much better than Biden. That's sort of not the test. He's got to meet the voters where they are, which is they still have anxieties on health care and housing.

And I think there are free market plans on that, that the White House should be very aggressive in using as a contrast against the Democrats. And if I was advising the White House, that's exactly what I'd be telling them to do. Go on the offensive with legislation, with plans. You know, cite Reagan. Government is not the solution.

Government is the problem. And I think they've got some great contrast on both housing and health care. But I don't hear that coming through as much as I hear sort of the self-congratulatory stuff about how the economy has improved, which is true. But it's just, again, it's not enough. Yeah I think the president got to do a lot going out into factories something but not the Solyndras which are speculative but the companies that have really invested Like for example Ford opens up a new plant in South Carolina I'd meet the guy down there.

And I go, what are you going to do? What's it going to look like? You're going to build a new data center in Arizona. Actually, it got rejected.

So let's say a new data center in Ohio. Show up. What's going to be? How many people do you need? What plumbers do you need?

What pipe fitters do you need? What electricians do you need?

So I think going out to those things will get people talking. How do you feel about this whole movement now of giving the next generation $1,000? In the beginning, it was just Trump. And now that Michael and Susan Dell, and yesterday, Ray and Barbara Dalio, 300,000 children. And then it's going to be these other companies, Uber, BNY, Charter Communications, BlackRock, MasterCard, Visa, and Block, all jumping in and saying $100,000, $100,000, $100,000.

Trying to get the next generation feeling like they're investing in the economy. I think this could work on so many different levels. I think it could work on a lot of levels. I think it's brilliant. I think it is a great initiative from people like Dell and others.

I think it gets the next generation vested in the future of the economy. It gives them a stake. I think it gives them, you know, you think about how that numbers, how those numbers will increase through compound interest. I think it's a wonderful thing. And it's much better than sort of the government welfare approach, which is where the left is.

Let's just keep spending money on the welfare state, money that we don't have by borrowing and mortgaging our children's future. Again, I think it's a great contrast that conservatives have against progressives, which is, hey, we're going to invest in people by giving them money to be their own agents rather than making them supplicants of the welfare state and wards of the welfare state.

So it's very exciting. I really applaud what the White House and what people like Dell have done. There's two things I like to see. And you've heard me say this before. Got to go back to American history.

Not cheerleading. Say the facts. It's an unfathomable journey to being the world's economic and military superpower. Year 250. I think it's got to be comprehensive across the country.

Number two is financial literacy. I think it's got to be starting in maybe seventh and eighth grade. What does that stock market mean? What does it mean the Dow went up 434 points? every 12th grader should graduate knowing, well, I don't want to do finance for a living, but I got fundamentals down.

When you give every kid $1,000 and they say, mom, what do I have in the account? And they go, what account is that? And that's the money you got when you were born. You can't touch it until you're 18 or 22. And then they ask themselves, is it earning interest?

Wow, it was 1,000.

Now it's 1,900. Why? Next thing you know, you have a generation of financial competent people. And I don't think I got that in school at all. No, I think you're absolutely right.

I think the biggest cultural problem that the country faces is in education, not just in K through 12, but higher ed as well. And I think it's true. It's true that our historical literacy is very poor. Our financial literacy is very poor. Our basic literacy, our ability to read books and sort of understand and appreciate the greatness of Western civilization, which has lifted more people out of poverty, not just in the West, but throughout the world through free markets than any system ever.

I mean, in the last hundred years, what Western democratic free markets have done for mankind is unprecedented in the history of human existence. And I think we have to get people more vested in the system. And we have to get more people vested in the brilliance of the free market and what the West has done for humanity. And learning about things, how markets work, how compound interest rates work, it gets people interested in being their agents, their own agents for the future rather than depending on government handouts. And again, I think it's a it's it's not just a political moment.

It's a cultural moment where conservatives can really sort of win the argument against the welfare state, the bloated welfare state that is sinking Europe right now and will sink us if we don't get away from it. Absolutely. And this is a it's a cultural moment more than a political moment. And I think conservatives should be leaning into it. And Europe is can't afford it anymore.

They realize they have to spend in their own defense. Germany's getting a wake-up call, divorcing from China, starting to put 70 percent more into their military budget and increase. And if they don't get an increase in recruiting, they've got to do a draft.

So I think they're getting a wake-up call, too. My hope is on immigration as well. Lastly, Kamala Harris, on with Jimmy Kimmel. She's clearly running again. He went asked about Trump.

Cut 41. I'm not saying that he's impolite. it's it's a whole other thing when you have taken to engaging in a pattern that is about belittling and demeaning people for no sake i saw your intro with the plaques which you know i spent so much time in the white house the idea that those plaques would have been placed by a president of the united states to talk about former presidents of the united states the american people deserve better.

So she's doing the tour. She's selling her book. She's doing speeches. Your thoughts. To me, she feels like a Republican plant the way Jasmine Cockett feels like a Republican plant.

It's exactly who Republicans want as the face of the Democratic Party. I mean, all we've heard from so many Democrats like her is the ad hominem attacks on Trump for 10 years. They've gotten the Democrats nowhere. The Democratic ratings right now, approval ratings are in the low 30s. You know, she made this other comment that we have to be much more about change.

We're not listening to voters. We're stuck in the past. This is the candidate who couldn't identify one thing she would change from the Biden administration.

So again, I think it's sort of just, you know, these talking points, these ad hominem attacks on the opponents without offering any ideas that are meaningful to voters. It's exactly the kind of candidate that Republicans want to see showcased by Democrats. And I think Democrats need some really new blood. I would love to see a business leader that's in the political center running for Democrats. That's the kind of person I think we need, somebody who's not a politician.

But I think the problem with the Democrats, as you and I have discussed, is the far left controls the party. The progressives control the party. It's where all the energy is. It's where the fundraising is. And that ideological frame is completely out of touch with where voters are.

So you don't want to see 20 percent.

So you'd rather see a business person than a successful governor. 100 percent. Pennsylvania and Kentucky are perceived to have successful governors. You'd rather see someone like Jamie Dimon come from J.P. Morgan or something like that.

If they could win in the primary, which I think is tough. But yes, I mean, I look, I like Shapiro. I like the governor of Kentucky as well. I think they're good. But I think they also they their their knees buckle when progressives criticize them.

Look at what Shapiro did when he was criticized by the left on the essay he wrote about the Palestinians in 93 when he was a student at Georgetown. I think they buckle. I think they are just too captured by the ecosystem that is controlled by the left. I think what you need is kind of a businessman that is an anti-politician that can talk common sense and make the case for going back to pro-business, pro-growth, economic centrism, getting away from the postmodern identity trap, getting away from the welfare state. That's where the voters are.

70 percent of voters, Brian, are moderate or conservative. Julian, I just hope that we can do two things. Get out of the green, the green mania, the green fever. Break it. Be responsible, but break it and get out of DEI and then go back to where it used to be.

Center left, center right. I think that's that's a much better story for America. You know, Clinton against Bush 41. It wasn't it wasn't a head snapping difference who no matter who won, you know, so. Right.

That would be great. I'm with you. Julian, thanks so much. I'm with you. Have a fantastic holiday.

Thanks, Brian. Same to you. Back in a moment. It's Brian Kilmeade. the fastest three hours in radio you're with brian kilmeade do you think that you'll beat that you could beat jd vance in a head-to-head race for president as polling suggests in 2028 listen these polls like three years out are you know they are what they are but let the record show I would stop him.

I would stop him.

So she's having fun with that. When I first read the headline, I thought she's predicting, but she said she would stop J.D. Vance looking to be the front runner on the right right now. And Marco Rubio in that Vanity Fair article, which has been so criticized by Republicans, one thing that Rubio said when asked, he goes, I'm not running. If J.D.

Vance runs, everyone thinks he's running. He's running right now. Then I'm not running.

So I think that puts that to bed. And I always thought logically, why would you do that? I mean, they're working hand in hand right now. I never I couldn't possibly see that happening. But the people that what I think who run on the left, it's going to be Bashir.

It's going to be Bashir. It's going to be Bashir. It's going to be Shapiro for sure. It is going to be. I think AOC is absolutely going to run.

There's no question about it. Unless something happens where the polling is so horrific, she's afraid of being totally out of it. And of course, she would run for the Senate because Schumer, I think, is just going to retire.

so that could be one thing maybe she'll she'll wait a little bit but if she's smart she would run for senate and then she would spend a lot of time being center left getting closer to the center dissing herself from the squad because you can't win as an extreme leftist you can you could try just like steve bannon running for uh running for the presidency you know people on the conservative oh he's great but the country wouldn't so i think uh they are absolutely running. It's going to be Gavin Newsom is absolutely running. I think Elizabeth Warren thinks she's young enough to run. Probably didn't get the message. Mayor Pete will jump into there.

And I think it'll be wide open. And ultimately, the most extreme candidate wins on the left, especially. I think J.D. Vance will run against Youngkin for sure. The talk show that's getting you talking.

You're with Brian Kilmeade. I started wrestling when I was five years old. My very first year of wrestling, I only won one match. I went one in 20.

So I won my very last match. And it's a funny story whenever I talk to my dad about it because, I mean, we're all kids at one point, and I was not the sharpest knife on the shelf. I remember that last match before I walked out there. My dad was like, man, son, I don't even know what to tell you anymore. Like, it's the last match of the year, and he's like, man, like, I don't understand what's so hard about going out there and putting a guy on his back.

And I look at him, I'm like, I'm supposed to put them on their back? And my dad was like, oh, my gosh. But I won that last match.

So that's pretty funny, right? That is Wyatt Hendrickson having some fun getting set to defend his heavyweight title because he is part of, he's an RAF champion. And if you say, what is real American freestyle? Don't worry about it. Don't blame yourself if you're not in the wrestling community because you don't know.

It's probably the hottest, fastest growing professional sport in the country. If you think about combat sports, you think about UFC. UFC came out of nowhere. I did the first four. They told me, don't put it on your resume.

Because at that point in America, they said, boxing's too brutal. UFC will never fly. And then UFC ends up being this juggernaut, this global phenom. And they're very supportive of the RAF. And no one can believe how successful it's been.

Wyatt Hendrickson has a lot to do with that. And he joins us now. Wyatt, welcome. Hey, Ryan. Good morning.

Glad to be here.

So what has it been like? You know, from wrestling and the wrestling community, you're a huge star. But now you're broughting it out now at RAF. What did you think going in? Because we've heard some of this before.

And now what do you think now that you're coming up for another event? Just as you said, when I first heard someone reach out to me and said, hey, we want you to be a part of Real American Freestyle. I was like, what are you talking about? Like, I don't know. I don't know what's going on here.

And I'm, you know, they bring me in on it. They show me what the events are going to be like. They say, hey, this is we want to model it after. We want to make this more of an experience for the fans, because generally speaking, wrestling is a super awesome sport. The wrestling fans we have all over the world are so amazing.

but to bring that to just the common person it might not be something they understand because they look out there they see two people you know they say in the leotards which they're singlets but i just see two people messing around so real american freestyle was able to do is bring in some of those top matchups on a better platform i would say and it's so unique because the ufc we have a couple ufc fighters coming in to actually still compete because a lot of ufc fighters actually started in wrestling and so really everything they're doing it's it's more for the fans so the fans can be more involved and understand the behind the scenes and really um you know what it takes to be one of the best wrestlers in the world so give us an idea of your back what was your journey here Wyatt so I've been wrestling since I was five years old it's been a it's been a very long journey for me and competing at the highest level so after college there is really only a couple events we have per year we have a couple ranking events then we have the world championships every single year which is pretty much like the equivalent to the NCAA tournament or you know the word um you go against all the best countries but one one problem is you don't really see a lot of great wrestlers besides those tournaments later on in the season real american freestyle we have these matches i mean it's december and we're already wrestling i'm wrestling mason paris which who is the 2024 um olympian representative for united states that's a super big matchup that i wouldn't be able to see until you know later on in march so the fact that we're being able to compete with some of these guys at the highest level so early on is just it's awesome it's a great experience for us and of course the fans so tell me about mason paris this is a titanic matchup correct yes he's a great wrestler yes it's free he's coming from my belt i've wrestled him a couple times in the past but i think the the person i was in the past when i've just there was a couple years ago and i really think i figured it out and this last year i had my breakthrough year where um you know i was finally an ncaa champion and i'm not the same person i used to be and I think Mason's expecting to wrestle the person I used to be who wasn't that good and I've evolved I've gotten a lot better and um I've lost him three times and he's defeated me three times but it's been about two years since we've competed and this is uh you know it's going to be an absolute brawl out on Saturday night now this is heavyweight which means what you're 285 the weight yes so it's actually unlimited heavyweight oh unlimited okay I mean Mason and I were both around probably 260.

So I remember in the 70s they used to do wide world of sports right before cable yes and just growing up really young and then watching chris taylor and he was in the unlimited side so like you would watch those heavyweights those super and they'll be unlimited so you could be wrestling a guy 320 right correct they brought it back so i'm kind of like man they might go and because we we're we're having people come in from all over the world to come wrestle these events so if there's some big old sumo wrestler they bring in like dude he's in my weight bracket so i'm gonna have to figure something out oh it's gonna be great so i'm just so happy for you guys because i just like i was when i when i started with uh ufc you saw these muay thai guys and you saw all the traditional karate guys and they don't get paid a lot they got to teach classes during the day you probably have to coach and then in order to keep wrestling but you do it because you love it and then for the first time you saw jujitsu go against karate against all these different disciplines and they had their chance to shine and that's where i think you guys are at now right at the beginning, but your key would be converting non-wrestling families. Have you gotten people come up to you and said, I never even watched wrestling. I haven't seen it since seventh grade and be converted from what they see because you got that WWE quality to this presentation. I have had many people come up to me and say, dude, I'm so excited for what's coming. And I think some back and back story information, the NCAAs, I wrestled Olympian, Olympic gold medalist, Gable Steveson.

And I defeated him in the NCAA championship finals. And that match really sent off, I'd say, another jumpstart in wrestling. Because that, you know, it was all over the place. And people were like, wow. Like, dude, I've never watched wrestling.

But now, like, I'm really excited. Like, that looked awesome. Like, now I'm more involved. And so that was the first piece of it. Hey, can we bring that back?

We actually have that cut of you winning, beating Gable Steveson. Was he named after Dan Gable? Yes, he was. That's scary. Cut 50.

You just can't spend much time on your knees with Gable Steveson. 30 seconds left. Oh, he's to the left this side. He's sliding off. Oh, he's going to get big here.

On a high cross. A double. He's right on the top. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Can you believe this? Oh, my God. Henderson with the three. Gable now has to. The Olympic champ is about to lose.

It's 13 seconds. This could be it. Oh, my goodness. The biggest upset in the history of NCAA. Could this be it?

Yes, he has done it. This is the craziest moment in NCAA history. He's more excited than you. I know his voice. I was like, yo, D.C., chill, man.

So what was that like? Was Trump at this one? He was, yeah. And did you shake his hand after? I did.

I was very excited. I gave him a little side hug, too. I was just so happy. I was like, because I mean, I'm in the Air Force.

So that's my commander in chief. That's my big boss.

So having him be there, I was like, man, that was something special.

So I was obviously glad he was there. But that was a that was that was a memory I'll never forget for sure.

Well, that's who that.

So how much time do you need off between matches? I know boxers need six months off.

So you got to you got to you had a match coming up and then you got another one. They're going to be another RAF in Miami in January. Can you go? Can you go one a month? Absolutely.

So actually, the college season is the most brutal wrestling season there is because you wrestle almost every week. And if you have a tournament, which we only do maybe a couple tournaments before the NCAA tournament, you might wrestle four or five matches in between two days.

So the longest the match can be is seven minutes, but I mean, that's a hard seven minutes. Like, it's not like football where you're there for three hours and you're barely working.

So Wyatt Hendrickson's here.

So and we have a big event coming up. It's coming up Saturday night. It's 7 o'clock. It's streaming on Fox Nation. And you've got to see it.

It's really an event.

So if you really want to see it, if you love sports, you're going to love this competition.

So, Wyatt, what have they done? Because you've got to watch yourself. Because if you want to make things more exciting, you've got to make sure the NCAA doesn't get offended and it doesn't bend the sport too much.

So what have they done at RAF to make it more exciting for the general fan? I love that. It's a great question.

so the biggest difference is folk style is what we wrestle in the ncaa in college and this is something completely different which is freestyle so it's obviously real american free so that's like the olympic style so um it's just like it's a whole different the whole rule set is different so and it's a common transition to move into freestyle after you're done with folk style after college so honestly if anything they like it because it gives those college athletes something to like look forward to like hey my career's not over after college i can continue to go wrestle on RAF where I can continue to go compete at the highest level.

So right now it's going to be RAF 4, 7 o'clock, streaming on Fox Nation. But if you want to go in person, Fisher's Event Center in Indiana, the Midwest loves wrestling, right? Oh, my gosh. So how is it? That's just within the culture.

Now, I'm on Long Island, and where I'm from, Massapequa, is huge in wrestling. There's different enclaves here, and a lot of times you know you're serious if you can get yourself to Penn State or Iowa. You know that they're for real if they'll come out and do it. but it was always a big deal by us. What do you think is, how do you think it's got so ingrained in the Midwest?

I think it's just, it's kind of just how, it's almost part of the culture. It's almost the way of life. It's part of the culture. Like growing up, there's many schools, like you just mentioned, Iowa, Penn State, and even Oklahoma. Yeah.

Let me just talk about Stillwater, where I've been at. Like that is just part of the culture for you to grow up watching wrestling, going to Gallagher. Like if you don't do that, it's like, I don't know. Like they're like, what do you mean you don't know what wrestling is like it's just it's like a common sense thing it's like a class you take in school almost so i think that's just stemmed from obviously when the wrestling started a while back those are the schools that took it seriously because i mean it's a controlled fight it's a complete battle and i know it's done i mean i real quick my dad wrestled one year in high school one year and just that one year had such a big impact on the rest of his life that he knew he wanted me to be a wrestler and i think a lot of other people across the country have that same impact from wrestling. And they know it'll change the type of man you are.

And it obviously, it stems to more things than just wrestling and it helps you in more ways than just wrestling down the, down the road. Heavyweight RAF heavyweight champ, Wyatt Hendrickson's with us now. And why before you go, you realize how hot this is. I mean, everybody's talking about RAF that right now in the general sports world. I mean, ESPN, UFC, they've all taken notice.

What has it been like three events in for you guys? You know, outside the you mentioned that people are coming up to you but now are people you got huge ratings too on fox nation what's that been like it's been really cool to see the growth of it mainly because there were a lot of people that were saying hey i don't know if this is going to work or oh like you're doing the raf thing well best of luck to you and just from the first event until now looking at social media looking at the fan base looking how much it's grown it's like i kind of like it it's like hey you know like i told you we could do this and we're here and we're proving it right now and earlier we talked about like those fans that um like hey those new fans that are coming up to me that's been happening but also it's been wrestling fans that are like a new recommitment like hey man wrestling was it's really cool but this raf stuff's really awesome like i'm really going to try to make it to one of these events in person because seeing it on tv they're getting jealous because it's like a whole it's a whole show it's awesome they're like man like i got like it's like i gotta make it to an raf event like that's a new bucket list for people so it's really exciting to see how much it's growing and affecting the fan base absolutely lastly what about your air force commitment absolutely so i am in wcap that's the world-class athlete program they're they're the people who are allowing me to compete in raf and i will be wrestling for four years so it's a special program within the air force where i said hey i'm proficient at wrestling i want you to allow me to do this for the next four years to the next Olympic cycle. And they said, yes, we're giving you the green light.

So right now I'm just a full-time athlete and I'm training for the 2028 Olympics. And it's events like this that give me the best competition, like Mason Paris, Mustafa. These are all Olympians I've been able to wrestle in RAF that are going to help prepare and get me ready for the 2028 Olympics. Are you predicting victory? Absolutely.

For this match and Olympics, both of them, the answer is yes. All right. Wyatt Hendrickson, you got to watch 7 o'clock Eastern time. 7 o'clock Eastern time, but then go in person at the Fishers Event Center over in Indiana. Wyatt, best of luck.

Thanks so much for joining us. I'll talk to you after the match.

Sounds great, Brian. Thank you so much. All right. Back in a moment. Don't go anywhere.

Brian Kilmeade will be right back. He's so busy, he'll make your head spin. It's Brian Kilmeade. Sponsored by Prevagen. Prevagen, made for your brain.

Republicans have mercilessly attacked President Biden for his age and his mental faculty. And yet now we see the current president falling asleep at meetings and drooling on paperwork. And they seem to have no problem with that. Does that seem hypocritical to you? Do you think?

So that was fine. And there's no doubt about it. The president has nodded off a couple of times. after a three-hour meeting in the middle? No problem.

Does anybody think? This is the same guy from four years ago. The biggest joke is by trying to link Biden and Trump on this. If you don't like the plaques underneath Obama, George Bush, the auto pen for Joe Biden, go ahead. You don't like the way President Trump reacted to Rob Reiner's death and his wife, go ahead.

That's open season. You don't like the tariffs? Fantastic. All right? Go debate it.

If you find that late night comedy, great, a goldmine, go ahead. But when you talk about the president's energy or he talks too loud or talks too fast, are you crazy or that was a bad speech? What are you talking about?

Well, the president make things up. No, he's selling. He's marketing. That's what he does. He kind of cheerleads.

That's what happens. But there's so much that you could be critical. The same with Reagan. Every president, you know, you can, you know, you look at George Bush and and you say, well, you know, he screws up words and syntaxes and suffix and prefixes. And OK, that's legitimate.

But if you go up and say the guy's not not not a good guy that cares about other people, they chose great compassion and others. But you don't go up to him and and say that he didn't surround himself with great people. You don't pick the person's strength and pretend it's a weakness. That's the problem. When people go after like Jake Tapper the other day, I don't know if we still have that from yesterday, from earlier in this week, Eric.

But Jake Tapper is doing a podcast dressed in a sweatshirt. And he says, yeah, I didn't do a good job asking the right questions with Joe Biden.

So rather than go back and fix that or acknowledge that and and link it to the debate only, I'm going to be very hard on Donald Trump. Listen, the problems you had with Trump, you had the same problems in 2015. Here's Jake Tapper doing the same thing that Jimmy Kimmel's doing. I mean, we cover it all the time on my show, all the time. And I think that is that is to a large degree because we saw what happened with Biden.

And while we covered it, we didn't cover it. Maybe we didn't ask as many questions as we should have at the time. And I think it is a legitimate question for any president of any age, but particular anybody who is like in the range of being an octogenarian. Right. We cover it all the time.

Now, I didn't write a book about Joe Biden's missteps. Alex and I wrote a book about an unprecedented event happening, which was Joe Biden having such a horrible performance at a presidential debate where his only job was to convince people he was up to the task of being president for another four years. His performance being so bad that people thought, oh, my God, should he drop out of the race?

so this is what drives me crazy and please look for this they keep going back to joe biden's debate and saying well after that i knew we got to really start questioning you know on this show you've been listening to it and you know in your own life you watch him trip up the stairs you drop him trip down the stairs you watch he just disappears for periods of time he can't go past 10 minutes you have to you put him in sneakers in order not to fall on his face on the lawn He's got to use the baby stairs instead of the grown-up stairs. He can't do a press conference until all hell broke loose, and then he screwed up time after time. He's bringing up leaders like Helmut Kohl, who hasn't led Germany, and bringing up West Germany instead of Germany. Talking about Francois Mitterrand instead of Macron. You heard all those things, and you never said a word.

You say, well, that debate is what I found out.

Now I learned I should have asked tougher questions. No, you should have asked tougher questions for four years, And you should have said, why is it that I am giving my questions ahead of time at the few press conferences he has? Why does he have to walk with name cards for his own cabinet where it gives him instructions on where to sit in a room with only one open chair? Brian Kilmey. Go to briankilmey.com.

See me in person in Fort Myers, February 14th.