President Donald Trump delivers a historic address to Congress, outlining his America First agenda on immigration, the economy, and national security—and for the first time ever, Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh will be in D.C. for the historic event. Join a special Backstage Live with Shapiro, Walsh, Knowles, Klavan, and Boreing, followed by unfiltered reaction on what it means for America’s future. - - - Today's Sponsors: Boll & Branch - Get 20% off, plus FREE shipping at https://BollAndBranch.com/backstage Balance of Nature - Go to https://balanceofnature.com and use promo code BACKSTAGE for 35% off your first order as a preferred customer, PLUS get a free bottle of Fiber and Spice.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and guests of this episode?
Hey folks, Ben Shapiro here. Do not miss our latest episode of Daily Wire Backstage. Join me and Matt Walsh from Washington, D.C. Jeremy Boring, Andrew Klavan, Michael Mullins, they were stuck at HQ. As we discuss everything State of the Union related, we'll give you a behind-the-scenes peek. We were joined by Tom Homan, our border czar. It's awesome stuff. Take a listen.
Welcome to Daily Wire Backstage's live coverage of Donald Trump's address to Congress. Some people will call it a State of the Union. Some people will get onto us if we do call it a State of the Union. It's very controversial. It will look exactly like a State of the Union, and I think that's really what matters. I'm joined here in Nashville by Andrew Klavan and Michael Moles.
Of course, I'm your host, Jeremy Boring. And joining us remotely from the Capitol itself, tonight we have Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, There's an empty chair, which we were saving for Elijah, but it has now been filled. And the man filling it is the former acting director of ICE and the current borders are in the second Trump administration, Tom Holman. Thank you for being with us.
Thanks for having me.
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And if you join now, you can take part in the live chat where you can ask us questions during the live show, dailywire.com slash subscribe. Obviously a really big night, the sort of triumphal return of Donald Trump to the Capitol as now the 47th president. What can we expect tonight, Ben?
Well, I mean, I think that you're going to expect a very enthusiastic Republican reception. We heard from the speaker that we are expecting a bunch of Democrats to show up with empty egg cartons and they're going to wave them at the president about egg prices. That'll show him. Noisemakers.
They're going to try and disrupt as many things as possible, but they've been unable to disrupt the agenda thus far. And so I think they're going to have a rough time of it tonight. But, you know, we'd be remiss. We don't get to sit with the borders are very often. So borders are on home. What are you expecting tonight?
I expect President Trump to educate American people on the facts of the border, that what he did in three weeks, Biden administration failed to do in four years. We had the lowest border numbers in the history of the United States border. And that's not an exaggeration. Last month, we had the fewest number of encounters in the history of this nation. And President Trump did that in four weeks.
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Chapter 2: What can we expect from Trump's address to Congress?
It is a beautiful stained glass window of George Washington kneeling in prayer, you know, the famous painting, and emblems from all 50 states. And George Washington was the last one to use it. Yes, exactly. Well, I mean, at least use it for prayer.
I mean, I'm hoping that none of the other Congress people discovered it because the one rule about Congress is you never want to blacklight anything here. It's just a huge mistake.
So, basically, this is going to be a giant pep rally for the right tonight. And to make it all the more glorious, we're going to be filling up with leftist tears, left, right, and center. Is there anything... Is there anything being bandied about that we think would be a surprise?
Is there anything that, is Donald Trump going to do anything here tonight that shocks his constituency, or is this pure fan fiction playing out right in front of us tonight?
Well, I think the big floating idea is that you could get an announcement of the Ukraine deal, which might surprise some people because President Trump picked that fellow up and flung him out the window the other day during the Oval Office meeting. But again, you know, these kinds of deals are bigger than just one shouting match in the Oval Office.
So you could see that that would be somewhat surprising. Obviously, President Trump last night implemented these tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which surprised some people because I think some people believed that the tariffs were merely a negotiating ploy to try to get concessions on fentanyl or border enforcement or whatever.
However, I think Trump campaigned on believing in tariffs in terms of economic theory, like in tariffs for the good of the American economy.
Well, not just tariffs themselves, though. Balance tariffs. In other words, why should we have tariffs on our goods going out and not put tariffs on people coming in? The whole ethos of Trump is we're not your daddy. You know, if we're going to help you, you're going to help us. We want to get paid for what we do. We want you to take part of your own defense.
I've been telling Europeans this for over a decade, that all their wonderful welfare programs that they have and their universal health care that they have is paid for by us because we protect them.
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Chapter 3: How are current immigration policies impacting the U.S.?
Based on Howard Letnick. RFK, I'm surprised he showed up because he has measles.
Oh yeah, hearts breaking all over the crunchesphere as he endorsed the mRNA vaccine. Except, did you read the column?
So the headline- Not mRNA. Oh, the measles, the MMR. So the headline from foxnews.com was, you know, the measles vaccine is really important and it's crucial to fighting the disease. If you read the column, so the editors write the headline. If you read the column, he never endorses the vaccine. Really? And in fact, he says, really, the best way to fight this is good nutrition.
And, you know, actually, 98% of deaths disappeared before the measles vaccine. So if you read the text of it, clearly, HHS and the White House want to hedge their bets a little bit in case there is a big outbreak. But what's funny is, if I'm reading the tea leaves, I'm looking to invest maybe in different big pharma companies. I think this health secretary still hates the vaccine.
If he hates the measles vaccines, he's a doofus. Because the measles vaccine cured the measles. It's like, whenever it appears, they're gone.
At the very least, he is the greatest Kennedy. You know, I don't know.
That's a cruel thing to say. I will say that the Make America Healthy Again movement, I think that... It has some very good foundations, and then it also has a little bit of kooky silliness to it. I get the sense, though, that RFK Jr. is one of the most genuinely decent dudes in American politics. Really? I just think that he's a... I think he actually likes people. Yeah.
I think he actually likes the country. Yeah. I think he's intelligent. I think he's intelligent.
Yeah, yeah. And I love that he drove a chainsawed off whale head from Kennebunkport to my hometown.
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Chapter 4: Why is the Biden administration's border policy controversial?
Your premiums and prescriptions will cost more because the math on his proposals doesn't work without going after your health care. Meanwhile, for those keeping score, the national debt is going up, not down. And if he's not careful, he could walk us right into a recession. And one more thing. In order to pay for his plan, he could very well come after your retirement.
The Social Security, Medicare... Come on.
They were talking about taking your savings.
The president claims he won't, but Elon Musk just called Social Security the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.
I mean, in fairness, it is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.
Is there anyone in America who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20-year-olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information, and your bank accounts? No oversight. They're actually using the U.S. Digital Service, which is a branch of the federal government. No card reels on what they do with your private data.
And 20-year-olds are the only people who know how to do this. If it's my private data, why does the government have it?
And all those people, what are there, like 100,000 people in the Treasury Department looking at you?
Mindless firing of people who work to protect our nuclear weapons, keep our planes from crashing, and conduct the research that finds... This is, by the way, what I mean by the press, right?
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