Trump Is Your King Because Protests Don’t Work

0:00Today's top trending headlines at Newsweek.com. Links are in the descriptions depending on where you're listening or watching us on YouTube at Newsweekradio. That's YouTube at Newsweek Radio. Map and list of No Kings protests against Trump on October 18th. And I was getting all fired up this morning on our daily show prep calls with Josh Hammer now that we've partnered with the Salem Podcast Network over there. Josh had mentioned the No Kings protests coming up as a topic to discuss. So I decided to toss in my alternative take on the situation because it's something that I've been talking about a lot lately.

0:31That these protests accomplish absolutely nothing. It's political masturbation theater at best. And at worst, it makes the left look even more ridiculous than they really need to be right now, when they should be circling the wagons and trying to appear like the safe, insane alternative to Trump, but they're not. No, they're out there in the streets dressed up in inflatable frog costumes or riding their bicycles butt naked in Portland. Which, I mean, I get it, it's hilarious, and I'm sure you're having a great time. And I appreciate the spectacle, but that's really all it is. That's all they've got is spectacle.

1:01Because there's no clear and definitive leader on the left. And there wouldn't be one on the right right now, for that matter, if it weren't for Trump. No, the protests accomplish absolutely nothing. They might make you feel important, like you did your American duty by screaming your thoughts into a bullhorn on the street corner and having rubber bullets bouncing off of your skull. So you might want to keep this in mind while that's happening. Protests only matter to leaders who consider themselves accountable to the people. I'll say that again. Protests only matter to leaders who consider themselves accountable to the people.

1:33And clearly, Trump does not see himself as accountable to anybody. And your words are falling largely on deaf ears. It's not even a footnote in history. It's nothing. And your energy would be better spent protesting your idiotic Democratic Party leadership for producing a never-ending parade of boring socialist policy wonks to represent you. People like Hakeem Jeffries. I'm sure he's a nice guy. I've got nothing against him politically or personally because I believe in liberals being liberals and conservatives being conservatives. He just quite frankly has the personality of an NPR tote bag. And that's completely unacceptable today if you want to compete.

2:10AOC has the voice of a church mouse. Bernie Sanders is like crazy old Doc Brown from Back to the Future. Hillary is about as warm as Kathy Bates in Misery. And Chuck Schumer is basically a vampire. The list goes on. And it's not like the right wing is doing any better, I might add. I mean, J.D. Vance is a joke within his own party. Nobody has ever taken anything Marco Rubio has to say seriously. Ron DeSantis is a closet never-Trumper who only shows his true colors during intra-party primary debates. I mean, the same could be said about the GOP or any other politician for that matter. Ted Cruz is the vampiric equivalent to Chuck Schumer on the right, but the difference is that the right at least has a leader that they can hide behind with Trump.

2:50Who does the left have? Gavin Newsom? You really think that guy's gonna do well with Midwestern voters with that slicked-back used car salesman schtick? And on top of all of this, the left is openly doubling down on their religion of DEI, CRT, and ESG when they don't seem to realize that this kind of crap is precisely why we're stuck with a goon like Donald Trump in the first place. Because regular folks don't want the religious dogma of DEI, CRT, and ESG in their lives. I'm not even saying that there's anything inherently wrong with DEI, CRT, or ESG as theory, personal worldview, whatever you want to call it.

3:25What I'm saying is that you're never going to get the average American to accept it as gospel, and you need to stop because the toxicity it produces is an equal and opposite reaction that elects people like Donald Trump twice. And then what happens? Trump overreacts because he's a giant dumbass, and the left just sits there in total bewilderment as to why he defeats them despite his never-ending list of what should be seen by everyone as detrimental flaws. And in comparison, they still see Trump as the safe, insane alternative to liberalism, and that should tell us everything. It should, but it doesn't.

3:58Because instead, the Democrats insist on sticking to the same old tired playbook that's done absolutely nothing but bring them to the same pathetic place that they're in now. In the gutter, leaderless, and seemingly incapable of eking out a single message that could possibly convince someone who's already on the fence to abandon MAGA, which is just pathetic. What, you want some other Democrats that are like living in PR tote bags? How about Pete Buttigieg? Talk about somebody who should have chosen a stage name before he tossed his Buttigieg into politics. Yeah, thanks a lot, Mr. Unpronounceable.

4:33Never mind that his personality is as bland as unbuttered toast. This walking spreadsheet of a person is not going to cut it in today's world either. Not as a leader, if that's what you're looking for, which it, you know, should be. Now, of course, all of these relatively new parameters should go away once Trump is finally out of the picture with any hope. And just because Trump has written the current playbook does not mean that his party or anybody else in the GOP is going to be able to get away with such dastardly disregard for precedent and the law. It is going to be entertaining to watch J.D.

5:05Vance try to stonewall the American people like Trump does when he can't even break through with George Stephanopoulos. You know, I bet J.D. Vance thinks that he has a shot at the White House and he might, but nobody in Trump's inner circle believes that for a second. Because the only way that J.D. Vance ever becomes president is if he publicly and dramatically turns on Trump sometime after the 26 midterms. Don't act like it's not possible. Because we all know that a not-so-much-younger J.D. Vance called Trump Hitler at one point, and even told NPR that he would rather vote for Hillary Clinton or his dog over Trump.

5:36Now, I wouldn't put it past J.D. Vance for a second if he thought it would get him elected into the highest office in the world. Just like professional wrestling, J.D. Vance turns into a Democrat, repents for his sins for being a Trump stooge, promises to fix what Trump destroyed. He could win over the left and probably a lot of moderates like myself if he played his cards right. I mean, even Trump used to be a Democrat. Yes, I understand that it's a long shot at best, but if J.D. Vance actually turned on Trump with the promise of being a president that actually represented all Americans again, I'd probably fall for it.

6:05That, and you know, the enemy of my enemy is my friend for the most part. I'm daydreaming here, of course. But that kind of ultimate betrayal and redemption story would go a long way for people. Because Americans love a good story, and you've got to admit that would be an epic story. I've always been a little suspicious of J.D. Vance and the way that Hollywood and Ron Howard embraced this guy and told his story, and they did it pretty well. And I admired J.D. Vance for being anti-Trump in the beginning, and I was ultimately disgusted when he eventually bowed his head, kissed Don's ring, and has otherwise been a total Trump lackey ever since.

6:37There's just a bunch of losers with questionable motives in every direction in Washington. Tell me why exactly, again, we should believe anything that any of these clowns have to say when roughly every 27 years the dollar gets cut in half as they tax the middle class to death? I think about this a lot, like I'm sure a lot of you do. And I'll try not to get too dark here, but it starts to feel like slavery after a while. Because even with a good job, if you were making$75k a year right out of college in the year 1998, and assuming you worked really hard for 30 years and climbed the corporate ladder and now you're making around 150 or 160 in 2025, that all looks great on paper until you realize you haven't moved an inch from where you started 30 years ago because the value of the dollar has been cut in half by inflation over that time.

7:23Taxes went up, but the dollar went down and you didn't grow an inch. I'd say that's more than enough to get people to quit believing in the system. I mean, not that there are any other better human systems out there. This one was the best until it was Hinesight's 2020 and in 2025 it's probably a good time for a system update. We're using the same operating system that they used in the time of Horse and Buggy, where you actually needed a representative to physically take your ideas to Washington just to be heard. Not only that, but we keep trying to balance this hybrid capitalist socialist system that's constantly at odds with itself into looting clear results.

7:58Piss or get off the pot already, and let the people rise to demand that we represent ourselves for a change. I realize this is pure fantasy, but why don't we just cut out the middleman? Abolish the legislative branch of government and replace it with the direct voice of qualified individuals. I mean, we shouldn't just let anybody vote. You should probably be able to prove that you can comprehend the rules and dynamics to our new system of government before you're allowed to participate in it. But then we could use our technology for its originally intended purpose, which was to bring forth a new era of information, representation, and enlightenment instead of trolls, porn, and rage bait.

8:34Yes, these are the rantings of a madman a little bit here, but I know I'm not the only one who feels scammed by everyone right now. What happened at the price of groceries and out-of-control cost of living? Leadership on the left and the right is either silent or ineffective at addressing that issue right now, apparently. While the left seems more interested in the indoctrination of their DEICRTESG religion, and the right is hell-bent on tossing wrenches into the machine itself in retaliation. Because when the left was in charge, they let the far left fringe steer the ship. And in return, the right put its own fringe element at the helm.

9:08And now all we have to live with are the repercussions for at least another three and a half years. You know, that's assuming that Trump doesn't declare martial law and bypass elections indefinitely. That should seem like a stretch, but we all know that Trump has floated this idea personally on more than one occasion. The only shred of hope that I hold in this direction is the fact that time is on our side and not his. The problem becomes that if Trump declares martial law due to some phony war that he starts, maybe in Venezuela, for example, whomever is in the line of succession could, in theory, assume power indefinitely after Trump either, I don't know, dies or becomes otherwise unable to perform the duties of the commander in chief.

9:45Interesting times, to say the least, because it's not just the left who is suffering from an acute identity crisis. The right is grappling with its own right now, too. In this contemptuous civil war between Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuente, has conspiracy theorists and the more relatively based influencers like Ben Shapiro, Megyn Kelly, and even Jordan Peterson, who for all their quirks at least still believe in objective reality. Currently, with Trump removed from the situation, the movement seems like it can't decide whether it wants to win elections or sell vitamin supplements, reverse mortgages, and gold coins.

10:18I thought we were better than this. I know we're better than this. Because I'm assuming a lot like you, everywhere I go, I meet the kindest and most intelligent people with a seemingly firm grasp on how everything kind of works, and none of them want anything to do with being a politician, and I can't blame them. But it's a big part of our problem, because the people we reward with power in Washington are the people who want it the most. And then we act surprised when our representatives and our president turn out to be complete sociopaths. Look at Mark Cuban. He doesn't want to be president. That's fine.

10:47I get it. But the left sure could use somebody like Mark Cuban to pull them out of this rut. And I know he happens to be a proud member of the First Church of DEICRT and ESG of Our Lady Justice. And I'll never agree with him on that, but at least he's got gravitas. At least he has a track record with receipts. At least he's the kind of guy who has the integrity to represent all Americans, not just his tribe. And to be perfectly honest with you, that's what I actually liked about President Obama. I couldn't stand his politics. I couldn't stand his policies. But I always respected his office. I always respected Obama the person, the man, the father, the husband.

11:21You can't convince me that Barack Hussein Obama, is somehow a bad person, just like he can't convince me that Trump is a good one. Because Trump isn't even a good American, let alone a good president or a good person. He represents quite the opposite to a growing number of us. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of all people, seems to understand this quicker than other people. And you can bet if a harebrain like that gets it, you've got to know that there are going to be handfuls of others on the right just dying to burn their Trump membership cards so that they can get out from under the weight and shadow of this contemptuous fraud of a human being once and for all.

11:55Don't forget the things that J.D. Vance said about Trump when Trump didn't have power. Don't forget what Ted Cruz said about Trump when Trump didn't have the authority. And don't forget what people like Nikki Haley and Chris Christie and Ron DeSantis had to say about a low life like Donald Trump when Donald Trump wasn't in the Oval Office. Oh, and can you please pass those Epstein files when you get a minute there, Donnie? You know we're still going to be here when the lights get turned back on in Washington, don't you? Until we can do it again, it's Newsweek Radio. I'm Jesse Edwards. Catch you next time.

12:21Bye. And we say bye-bye. This week radio is a member of the Trust Project.