Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Trump's Art of the Peace Deal , Charlie Kirk Honored plus Eric Trump & the cost of Political Warfare Week In Review

Transcript

Trump's Art of the Peace Deal , Charlie Kirk Honored plus Eric Trump & the cost of Political Warfare Week In Review · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome.
0:01
Speaker 2: It is Verdic with Ted Cruz Weekend Review Ben Ferguson
0:04
Speaker 2: with you, and here are some of the big stories
0:06
Speaker 2: that you may have missed that we talked about this
0:08
Speaker 2: past week. First up, Donald Trump's message to the world
0:12
Speaker 2: on the peace Agreement, What was behind it, how did
0:14
Speaker 2: it get done, and how big could this be for
0:17
Speaker 2: peace in the Middle East. We break it down for you. Also,
0:20
Speaker 2: Charlie Kirk's widow receives the Medal of Freedom award for
0:25
Speaker 2: her husband. This was a touching moment the White House
0:28
Speaker 2: and Senator Cruz was there for it. And finally Eric
0:32
Speaker 2: Trump joins us the present son to talk about how
0:35
Speaker 2: much it costs the Trump family to fight all of
0:38
Speaker 2: the legal warfare. It's the weekend Review and it starts
0:42
Speaker 2: right now. So so many people that are listening to Verdict.
0:45
Speaker 2: They're going to get to not only I think here,
0:47
Speaker 2: from probably leadership in Israel in the next several hours.
0:50
Speaker 2: It's certainly going to happen in the morning or midday.
0:52
Speaker 2: You're also going to be able to hear from the
0:53
Speaker 2: President United States of America. What do you expect his
0:56
Speaker 2: message to be? And this is by the way, all
1:00
Speaker 2: happening right now while the federal government is still shut
1:03
Speaker 2: down in the US. And I want to get your
1:06
Speaker 2: take on that in a moment. But what do you
1:07
Speaker 2: expect to hear from the president today?
1:10
Speaker 1: Look, I think the President is going to say, this
1:12
Speaker 1: is an historic day. This peace agreement is a moment
1:18
Speaker 1: of history that ended a war that has extended for
1:21
Speaker 1: two years, that freed people who have been in captivity
1:24
Speaker 1: for two years subject to horrific treatment. And I think
1:29
Speaker 1: he's going to say, I expect the parties to stick
1:31
Speaker 1: to the terms of the agreement. I think he is
1:33
Speaker 1: going to continue with peace through strength. He's going to
1:38
Speaker 1: continue with the opposite of weakness and appeasement because we
1:42
Speaker 1: don't get to this peace agreement without President Trump's strength.
1:47
Speaker 1: And then this is one thing to remember that there
1:51
Speaker 1: are some observers who want to say that Donald Trump
1:54
Speaker 1: is an isolationist. He has never been an isolationist. He
1:58
Speaker 1: is Look the first term that Trump was in office,
2:03
Speaker 1: when when he came into office, he inherited an Isis
2:06
Speaker 1: caliphate that had grown under Barack Obama that was the
2:09
Speaker 1: size of the state of Indiana. They had an entire
2:12
Speaker 1: nation state to wage terror against America. And Donald Trump
2:16
Speaker 1: utterly decimated and destroyed it. Within months, the caliphate was gone.
2:20
Speaker 1: He completely defeated them. He also took out General Solomoni,
2:24
Speaker 1: who took out Al bag Daddy. Those are not the
2:27
Speaker 1: actions of an isolationist. You look at the second term
2:31
Speaker 1: uh where he's been bombing the living daylights out of
2:33
Speaker 1: the Huthis who are attacking ships going through the Suez Canal.
2:37
Speaker 1: He is bombing the heck out of narco terrorist off
2:40
Speaker 1: the coast of Venezuela. And by the way, Machada was
2:42
Speaker 1: smart to to say he deserved it, because look, her
2:46
Speaker 1: efforts fighting Maduro are very important, and they're and they're
2:49
Speaker 1: they're courageous. But President Trump's strength is the single factor
2:54
Speaker 1: that makes it most likely that the Maduro regime will
2:57
Speaker 1: be toppled and and so it in Trump taking out
3:01
Speaker 1: those narcert terrorists is another example of peace through strength.
3:04
Speaker 1: And finally, the the Iran bombing run taking out their
3:08
Speaker 1: nuclear facilities. None of those are the acts of an isolationists. Now,
3:12
Speaker 1: to be clear, President Trump is also not an interventionist.
3:16
Speaker 1: He's not invading foreign countries. I don't expect to see
3:21
Speaker 1: the Marines engaged in invading other countries other than to
3:26
Speaker 1: protect the vital security interest of America, to keep America safe.
3:30
Speaker 1: The only instance in which we would see a ground
3:33
Speaker 1: war is is where there was a direct danger to
3:38
Speaker 1: the lives of Americans. And in those instances, President Trump
3:42
Speaker 1: is willing to use military force, but he's not engaged
3:47
Speaker 1: in this broader endeavor to send in our military to
3:52
Speaker 1: try to turn every country in the world into some
3:55
Speaker 1: utopian democracy. That's not the job of the military. Donald
3:59
Speaker 1: Trump doesn't think it's the job of the military. And
4:02
Speaker 1: the result, strength is the best way to avoid war.
4:10
Speaker 1: Our enemies are afraid of Donald Trump. That is a
4:13
Speaker 1: very good thing. Hamas is afraid of Donald Trump. Hesbla
4:17
Speaker 1: is afraid of Donald Trump. Iran is afraid of Donald Trump.
4:21
Speaker 1: Maduro is afraid of Donald Trump. China and Russia are
4:25
Speaker 1: afraid of Donald Trump. All of that is good because
4:28
Speaker 1: America is safer and we are much likely more likely
4:32
Speaker 1: to avoid military conflict when our enemies are afraid of
4:36
Speaker 1: the commander in chief than when our enemies. You look
4:39
Speaker 1: at Joe Biden, when they look and say, the commander
4:41
Speaker 1: in chief is weak and completely incapacitated. And that is
4:49
Speaker 1: why we went from no wars across the globe to
4:53
Speaker 1: two wars Ukraine and Gaza, both raging under Joe Biden.
4:58
Speaker 1: That's what happens when you you have a week and
5:01
Speaker 1: appeasing president.
5:02
Speaker 2: An update for everyone on the government shutdown here in
5:05
Speaker 2: the US. We are into two weeks now of this
5:08
Speaker 2: government's shutdown. We are starting to see it affect people's
5:11
Speaker 2: lives or seeing healthcare issues with those for example in
5:14
Speaker 2: San Antonio, I was there today talking about there's a
5:18
Speaker 2: lot of people there that are saying that the providers
5:20
Speaker 2: are not able to get the money and the funding
5:22
Speaker 2: they need. Doctors are frustrated. The Schumer shutdown is really
5:25
Speaker 2: starting to hurt people in our military, their kids, those
5:28
Speaker 2: with special needs as well. Your reaction, how much longer
5:32
Speaker 2: this is going to continue? And do you see any
5:34
Speaker 2: movement this week?
5:35
Speaker 1: Well, we're right now in day twelve of the Schumer
5:38
Speaker 1: shutdown and the government is shut down because over and
5:41
Speaker 1: over and over again the Democrats are voting to shut
5:45
Speaker 1: the government down. And I will say, you know, it's
5:47
Speaker 1: actually interesting today on Twitter, fifty three Republicans was trending,
5:54
Speaker 1: and the reason it was trending was an exchange back
5:57
Speaker 1: and forth that I had with Gavin Newsom on the shutdown.
6:00
Speaker 1: So Gavin Newsom tweeted out, Wow, that is wild. I
6:04
Speaker 1: wonder who has control of the White House, Senate and
6:06
Speaker 1: the House. And this is one of the Democrat talking
6:09
Speaker 1: points as well. This is the Republican's fault because the
6:13
Speaker 1: President and the Senate and the House are all in
6:15
Speaker 1: Republican control. Here's what I responded on ax. I said,
6:20
Speaker 1: Gavin is deliberately lying. To fund the government takes sixty
6:24
Speaker 1: votes in the Senate. There are only fifty three Republicans.
6:30
Speaker 1: We need at least seven Democrats. We keep voting to
6:35
Speaker 1: open the government, Dems keep voting to shut it down.
6:40
Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom knows this, and he's lying to you. And
6:44
Speaker 1: as of right now, that's had one point seven million views.
6:47
Speaker 1: It was trending on Twitter. And it's the simple fact
6:50
Speaker 1: we cannot pass funding for the government without sixty votes
6:54
Speaker 1: in the Senate. That means there is nothing Republicans can
6:57
Speaker 1: do to fund this on our own. The Democrats all
7:00
Speaker 1: know this. We have voted, I think eight times now
7:04
Speaker 1: the Republicans have voted to open the government to fund
7:08
Speaker 1: the government, and every Democrat but I think three, have
7:12
Speaker 1: voted no. And that's why we have a shutdown. Now.
7:17
Speaker 1: We're all expected to go back to d C on
7:19
Speaker 1: Tuesday of this week and we'll vote again to fund
7:22
Speaker 1: the government. I voted to fund the government now, over
7:25
Speaker 1: and over and over again. I'll vote again on Tuesday
7:27
Speaker 1: to fund the government. And I think it is very
7:30
Speaker 1: likely right now the Democrats will continue the Schumer shutdown.
7:33
Speaker 2: Wow.
7:34
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what I think is one of
7:37
Speaker 1: the major reasons is coming up on October seventeenth. There
7:41
Speaker 1: is this big rally in d C, No King's Rally,
7:45
Speaker 1: where a bunch of the left wing radicals are coming
7:48
Speaker 1: to d C. And what most of my colleagues believe
7:53
Speaker 1: is that the Democrat senators are terrified of opening the
7:57
Speaker 1: government before that rally because they don't want their crazy base,
8:01
Speaker 1: the same base that almost cost Schumer the job his
8:04
Speaker 1: job last time. They don't want their crazy base to
8:08
Speaker 1: get angry. And so I think most of us.
8:11
Speaker 2: So you're telling me the American people right now that
8:14
Speaker 2: there's a very good chance that the government shutdown will
8:17
Speaker 2: continue because of a rally date.
8:19
Speaker 1: Yep. And that date again is what October seventeenth.
8:22
Speaker 2: Okay, so the thirteenth fourteenthifte Okay, so we got another
8:27
Speaker 2: five six days of this just to get to the rally,
8:30
Speaker 2: and then maybe we'll actually do their job and like
8:32
Speaker 2: fund the government.
8:33
Speaker 1: Look, at some point they're going to do their job
8:35
Speaker 1: and fund the government. But you know, a bunch of
8:38
Speaker 1: federal federal employees are about to miss their first paycheck.
8:42
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. Ordinarily, soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines would
8:46
Speaker 1: lose their first paycheck as well. The Trump Department of
8:50
Speaker 1: Wars said they're going to move some funds around and
8:52
Speaker 1: pay our servicemen and women, and Democrats are furious. How
8:56
Speaker 1: dare you find a way? Look, I don't know if
8:59
Speaker 1: they can do it because it is not easy with
9:01
Speaker 1: the funding paused, but the Democrats don't care. And I'll
9:04
Speaker 1: tell you one of the great acts of hypocrisy is
9:09
Speaker 1: the Democrat congressmen are all paying themselves, or most of them,
9:12
Speaker 1: maybe I don't know about all, but so under the
9:16
Speaker 1: twenty eighth Amendment to the Constitution, the compensation of a
9:21
Speaker 1: member of Congress cannot be reduced during your term of office,
9:23
Speaker 1: which means during a shutdown, House members and senators get
9:27
Speaker 1: paid no matter what, even though everyone else their paycheck.
9:30
Speaker 3: Stop.
9:31
Speaker 1: Elected members of Congress get their paycheck. Now you can
9:35
Speaker 1: say no. So I sent a letter to the Secretary
9:38
Speaker 1: of the Senate saying, please hold my paycheck, do not
9:41
Speaker 1: pay me. I do not want that money deposited my
9:43
Speaker 1: account until the government shutdown ends, until our service members
9:48
Speaker 1: are being paid. I'm not going to pay myself. But
9:51
Speaker 1: you look at these Democrats who are happily shutting the
9:53
Speaker 1: government down. They're also taking their own paycheck and saying, gosh,
9:57
Speaker 1: I like being paid. And you know they are not
10:01
Speaker 1: troubled at all if some young corporal serving overseas suddenly
10:07
Speaker 1: doesn't get his paycheck and can't pay his bills this week.
10:10
Speaker 2: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
10:13
Speaker 2: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
10:16
Speaker 2: from earlier this week.
10:18
Speaker 1: Now onto story number two.
10:20
Speaker 2: Speaking of the White House, as you just mentioned, you
10:22
Speaker 2: were there with many Cabinet members that were in attendance
10:25
Speaker 2: for a really, I think special moment. You and I
10:29
Speaker 2: had the honor and the privilege to go to the
10:32
Speaker 2: memorial service for Charlie Kirk. What we witnessed today was
10:36
Speaker 2: something incredible. Donald Trump awarded Charlie Kirk the Medal of
10:40
Speaker 2: Freedom on what would have been his thirty second birthday
10:45
Speaker 2: at the White House and his wife, his widow, Erica,
10:49
Speaker 2: was there to accept this. It was a moving moment
10:52
Speaker 2: and you were there for all of it.
10:54
Speaker 1: So it was truly a beautiful It was a beautiful day.
10:57
Speaker 1: It was a beautiful fall day at October at Washington, DC. See,
11:00
Speaker 1: the sun was out. We were in the Rose Garden,
11:04
Speaker 1: and in the Rose garden you had you had a
11:06
Speaker 1: lot of members of Congress, you had virtually the entire
11:09
Speaker 1: cabinet came out for it, and Erica Kirk, Charlie's widow,
11:13
Speaker 1: was there. The President really, i think did a very
11:15
Speaker 1: good job remembering Charlie, speaking speaking from the heart, honoring
11:20
Speaker 1: Charlie's legacy, and presenting him with the highest civilian honor
11:24
Speaker 1: we have in this country, and in the military context,
11:28
Speaker 1: the Medal of Honor is the highest recipient that can
11:32
Speaker 1: be awarded an individual. In the civilian context, the Medal
11:35
Speaker 1: of Freedom, it is the highest honor that can be
11:38
Speaker 1: awarded an individual. And to give it to Charlie, it
11:44
Speaker 1: was bittersweet because Charlie would have been thirty two, He
11:46
Speaker 1: was a young man, He had an incredibly bright future.
11:49
Speaker 1: As you and I have talked about. We both have
11:51
Speaker 1: known Charlie a long time. I considered Charlie a very
11:55
Speaker 1: close friend. Heidie and I met Charlie when he was
11:58
Speaker 1: just eighteen years old, when he was a kid, you know,
12:02
Speaker 1: at the ceremony at the White House, I met Charlie's parents.
12:06
Speaker 1: I had not met his parents before, and I had
12:09
Speaker 1: an opportunity to just just tell both his mom and
12:12
Speaker 1: dad say, look, look, Hidie and I we love Charlie.
12:15
Speaker 1: And when we got to know him fourteen years ago,
12:23
Speaker 1: his vision then was as clear as it was the
12:28
Speaker 1: day he died. His vision of creating a movement to energize,
12:33
Speaker 1: to mobilize young people, to mobilize young people to love freedom,
12:38
Speaker 1: to love free enterprise, to love the Constitution, to love America.
12:44
Speaker 1: That vision, you could see it. What I met at
12:47
Speaker 1: me was this tall, lanky, eighteen year old kid. He
12:49
Speaker 1: was freshouted high school, had not gone to college. And
12:53
Speaker 1: you gotta remember the context. This is twenty twelve, beginning
12:56
Speaker 1: of twenty thirteen. Barack Obama had just been reelect The
13:00
Speaker 1: Democrats were resurgent at that point. Young people being a
13:05
Speaker 1: Democrat at an Obama Democrat was hip and cool. The
13:09
Speaker 1: idea of energizing a lot of young people to be conservatives, frankly,
13:13
Speaker 1: sounded looney. It did not sound like an easy task
13:16
Speaker 1: at all. A lot of people in the Republican Party
13:18
Speaker 1: said this will never work. But Charlie had a vision.
13:22
Speaker 1: And I was telling his mom and dad, I said, look,
13:26
Speaker 1: his vision was extraordinary. One of the things I said
13:28
Speaker 1: to them is I said, look, I'm queer grieving the
13:31
Speaker 1: loss of your son. He was extraordinarm So sorry, so
13:34
Speaker 1: sorry for your loss. But I said, you know what
13:38
Speaker 1: I think, in the last month, it may well be
13:42
Speaker 1: possible that more people have heard the Gospel than in
13:48
Speaker 1: any comparable period of our lifetimes. That that memorial service
13:53
Speaker 1: in Arizona for Charlie was a global event where people
13:57
Speaker 1: heard the gospel. And I got to say at at
14:00
Speaker 1: Charlie's funeral service when Erica stood up and she talked
14:04
Speaker 1: about how when Jesus was hanging on the cross and
14:08
Speaker 1: he was looking down at the Roman soldiers who had
14:11
Speaker 1: nailed him to the cross, who were in the process
14:13
Speaker 1: of killing him, and Jesus said, from the cross, Father,
14:18
Speaker 1: forgive them, for they know not what they do. And
14:21
Speaker 1: she talked about how how Charlie really had a mission
14:25
Speaker 1: for young people, particularly young men, young men who were
14:28
Speaker 1: often disaffected, disillusion to help them find find their way
14:33
Speaker 1: and find find a purpose in life, a meaningful purpose
14:38
Speaker 1: that provides real, real satisfaction and real reason uh for living.
14:46
Speaker 1: And she talked about that young man who shot Charlie,
14:50
Speaker 1: that young man, and then she said, and I got
14:54
Speaker 1: to say, she was doing this wind up. I knew you,
14:57
Speaker 1: knew where she was going. And I to tell you understand,
15:01
Speaker 1: you and I were standing next to each other. I
15:03
Speaker 1: literally held my breath. I'm like, is she going to
15:06
Speaker 1: be able to say this? And she stood up with
15:11
Speaker 1: the eyes of the world upon him and said, that
15:14
Speaker 1: young man, the young man who pulled the trigger and
15:16
Speaker 1: murdered her husband, murdered the father of her children. She said,
15:21
Speaker 1: I forgive him. I don't know that There was a
15:26
Speaker 1: dry eye in the house. And one of the things
15:30
Speaker 1: that is so incredible is millions of people were watching that,
15:35
Speaker 1: and listen. If you're a Christian, you understand, just like
15:42
Speaker 1: Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
15:46
Speaker 1: they do, even as they were killing him. But if
15:49
Speaker 1: you're not a Christian, I believe thousands, if not millions
15:56
Speaker 1: of people looked at each other and said, how can
15:58
Speaker 1: she say that? Where does that come from? Where does
16:02
Speaker 1: that forgiveness come from? Where does that love come from?
16:05
Speaker 1: And I think it was as powerful a testament of
16:09
Speaker 1: the Gospel as as as as we have seen in
16:12
Speaker 1: a long long time, and and and and it and
16:16
Speaker 1: I got to say today the President spoke beautifully. And
16:20
Speaker 1: by the way, when Erica said I forgive him Ben,
16:27
Speaker 1: I hope and pray you or I are never in
16:30
Speaker 1: that situation. I don't know that those words could come
16:33
Speaker 1: out of my mouth. I would want them to, I
16:35
Speaker 1: would desperately want them to. But I that the strength
16:39
Speaker 1: it took for her to say those words I find
16:46
Speaker 1: utterly astonishing. And I just I told Charlie's parents, I said, listen,
16:50
Speaker 1: I so wish Charlie were with us today. But millions
16:56
Speaker 1: have heard the Gospel in the last seven weeks because
17:00
Speaker 1: of Charlie. And that is one hell of a legacy,
17:06
Speaker 1: you know.
17:06
Speaker 2: I think one of the most incredible things that you
17:08
Speaker 2: just mentioned is the legacy. And one of the things
17:11
Speaker 2: that the present said today at the White House for
17:13
Speaker 2: people that didn't hear it, was talking about Charlie Kirk
17:16
Speaker 2: being a martyr, and this is what the President said
17:19
Speaker 2: about that.
17:20
Speaker 4: He said on the day that he was assassinated. Charlie
17:23
Speaker 4: Kirk was a martyr for truth and for freedom, and
17:28
Speaker 4: from Socrates to Think and to Saint Peter, from Abraham
17:33
Speaker 4: Lincoln to Martin Luther King, those who change history the most,
17:38
Speaker 4: and he really did have always risked their lives for
17:42
Speaker 4: causes they were put on earth to defend. He was
17:46
Speaker 4: put on earth to do exactly what he was doing.
17:48
Speaker 4: He didn't want to waste time. He would have been
17:49
Speaker 4: a top student at any college in the country I know,
17:53
Speaker 4: to college as well. He was smarter than the guys.
17:56
Speaker 4: He was so smart. But he almost I guess, didn't
17:59
Speaker 4: have the time. He knew what he wanted to do.
18:01
Speaker 4: It wasn't like Jae, I want to sit in this
18:03
Speaker 4: classroom for four years listening to people teach me liberal
18:06
Speaker 4: principles because they were never going to teach him that anyway.
18:10
Speaker 4: But he didn't have the time. He really didn't have
18:12
Speaker 4: the time. But every time the enemies of goodness and
18:15
Speaker 4: virtue tried to silence the voice of righteous and noble
18:18
Speaker 4: leaders like Charlie, they failed. They seem to fail. Ultimately,
18:22
Speaker 4: they look like they're doing well and then they end
18:24
Speaker 4: up failing because the truth has been unrelenting over the years,
18:29
Speaker 4: over history, and people like Charlie, it's just they've got
18:33
Speaker 4: a power that others don't have, and very few people
18:37
Speaker 4: will ever have. So today, like those martyrs before him,
18:41
Speaker 4: Charlie's voice, his message, and his legacy are stronger and
18:45
Speaker 4: greater than ever before. They are greater than ever before.
18:50
Speaker 2: You know him saying as I said on the day
18:52
Speaker 2: he was assassinated, Charlie Kirk was a martyr for truth
18:55
Speaker 2: and for freedom. Yep. And I couldn't agree more. To
18:59
Speaker 2: compare him as he did to Saint Peter, to Abraham Lincoln,
19:03
Speaker 2: to Martin Luther King Junior. These are people that change history.
19:08
Speaker 2: Charlie will be remembered in the same breath with those
19:11
Speaker 2: types of leaders, and I think that's part of the legacy.
19:14
Speaker 2: And as you mentioned, not only did Charlie and his
19:17
Speaker 2: legacy now it is one hundred percent setting I think
19:20
Speaker 2: young men and young women on fire to be bolder
19:23
Speaker 2: in their faith, to be better Christians and to seek
19:26
Speaker 2: the truth of the Bible and the Gospel, and just
19:30
Speaker 2: what he was able to do in his death is phenomenal.
19:35
Speaker 2: But also what he was doing to fight for this
19:37
Speaker 2: country at the same time, that is going to be
19:39
Speaker 2: a legacy that's going to live on because so many
19:41
Speaker 2: people they are going to do it for Charlie. I
19:44
Speaker 2: think you and I would include ourselves in that as well.
19:46
Speaker 1: Well. Listen, he was very much. He was a martyr
19:49
Speaker 1: for freedom and a martyr for truth. I also told
19:54
Speaker 1: Charlie's parents, I think more people heard Charlie's words of
19:57
Speaker 1: the last four weeks that then her them in the
20:00
Speaker 1: entire thirty one nearly thirty two years of his life.
20:05
Speaker 1: That the number of people who went and said, who
20:08
Speaker 1: was this Charlie Kirk guy? What did he have to say?
20:10
Speaker 1: Who listened to exchanges as he was on college campuses,
20:14
Speaker 1: as he was engaging with people who disagreed with him,
20:16
Speaker 1: as he treated them with respect, with dignity. That is
20:20
Speaker 1: a powerful legacy. I will tell you. One of the
20:23
Speaker 1: things that was also striking about the Metal of Freedom
20:26
Speaker 1: ceremony is it was a continuation of a conversation that
20:28
Speaker 1: happened at Charlie's funeral ceremony. So at the funeral, Erica
20:33
Speaker 1: Kirk spoke and I mentioned how she said that that
20:37
Speaker 1: she forgives the murderer who murdered her husband, and she
20:42
Speaker 1: talks about how Jesus teaches us to love our enemies.
20:46
Speaker 1: And and you know, Trump spoke at the funeral, and
20:50
Speaker 1: he gave, I think, very strong remarks. But one of
20:52
Speaker 1: the things he said is he said that's something he
20:54
Speaker 1: had a great deal of difficulty doing. That he did
20:57
Speaker 1: not love his enemies, that he hated his enemy, and
21:00
Speaker 1: he liked to fight his enemies. And he kind of
21:02
Speaker 1: laughed about it, but he said that, and and and
21:05
Speaker 1: it was that was a back and forth from Arizona.
21:09
Speaker 1: Well in the Rose Garden, Trump brought it up again
21:14
Speaker 1: and and and look, President Trump knew Charlie very well.
21:17
Speaker 1: And he said, you know, I know Erica talked about
21:20
Speaker 1: how he loved his enemies. But he said, you know,
21:21
Speaker 1: when I talked to Charlie, he said, I'm not sure
21:23
Speaker 1: I saw that. I think he like when he was
21:26
Speaker 1: in a battle, he would fight fight his enemies. Uh
21:29
Speaker 1: and and fight them vigorously. And listen, Charlie was a
21:32
Speaker 1: strong man and a passionate man who knew what he believed.
21:37
Speaker 1: But it was very interesting. Erica spoke after the President
21:40
Speaker 1: in the Rose Garden, and she gave beautiful remarks. But
21:44
Speaker 1: one of the things she said that I think was
21:46
Speaker 1: directly responding to the President. She said, look, I can
21:49
Speaker 1: tell you from having been married to him, Charlie prayed
21:54
Speaker 1: for his enemies. And she said, I saw that. She said,
21:57
Speaker 1: I don't know that anyone else saw that, but she said,
22:00
Speaker 1: I saw him, and he prayed for his enemies. And
22:02
Speaker 1: and President Trump was standing behind her right shoulder, and
22:06
Speaker 1: she said it it was it was lighthearted, but she
22:07
Speaker 1: was kind of she was in many ways responding to
22:10
Speaker 1: the President. And he he like laughed, He was good natured,
22:13
Speaker 1: but he was genuinely laughing, and it was a look.
22:15
Speaker 1: I think it was a good back and forth that
22:17
Speaker 1: that that we should be vigorous in what we believe.
22:21
Speaker 1: We should not not give in uh to to to
22:26
Speaker 1: those who who argue for positions that are harmful to America.
22:29
Speaker 1: We should be full throated in our argument. But but
22:32
Speaker 1: I also think that the message that Erica was carrying
22:36
Speaker 1: forward about it's possible to disagree, and and look, you
22:40
Speaker 1: go watch the exchanges Charlie had on college campus after
22:44
Speaker 1: college campus, when when you would have someone come in
22:47
Speaker 1: and argue for open borders, when you would have someone
22:49
Speaker 1: come in and argue for socialism, when you have someone
22:53
Speaker 1: come in and argue for transgenderism, when you'd have someone
22:55
Speaker 1: come in and argue for for hamas terrorists. Charlie was
23:01
Speaker 1: vigorous and full throated in disputing them, but he was
23:05
Speaker 1: not mean spirited about it. He was not I hate you,
23:09
Speaker 1: he was not you're the enemy, but he would engage
23:13
Speaker 1: in a way that said, look, I understand why you're
23:15
Speaker 1: saying that. Here's why I believe you're mistaken. And I
23:22
Speaker 1: think Erica was right that he was able to do
23:25
Speaker 1: so from a position of love. Love does not mean agreement.
23:29
Speaker 1: Love does not mean saying, I accept the position you're advocating,
23:33
Speaker 1: even though I believe it is harmful to our country.
23:36
Speaker 1: But love means not treating your political adversary as the
23:44
Speaker 1: enemy to be destroyed, but instead trying to respond with reason,
23:52
Speaker 1: with compassion, trying to move and even if you don't move,
23:55
Speaker 1: your immediate interlocutor, those who are observing it. Charlie was
24:00
Speaker 1: very good at responding in a way that persuaded a
24:02
Speaker 1: lot of other people, And I thought that back and
24:04
Speaker 1: forth Tuesday between the president, and Erica was really powerful
24:08
Speaker 1: as before.
24:09
Speaker 2: If you want to hear the rest of this conversation
24:11
Speaker 2: on this topic, you can go back and dow the
24:14
Speaker 2: podcasts from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.
24:18
Speaker 2: I want to get back to the big story number
24:20
Speaker 2: three of the week you may have missed. So all right,
24:22
Speaker 2: So our guest with us is Eric Trump, Senator. You
24:25
Speaker 2: and I were just talking with him about this really
24:28
Speaker 2: his family being under siege. You talked about these big
24:31
Speaker 2: boy subpoenas part of that is to financially hurt you.
24:37
Speaker 2: What did you, guys spend just doing the fighting of
24:41
Speaker 2: all the lawsuits against you during that four year period.
24:45
Speaker 2: How much did it cost you?
24:46
Speaker 3: Roughly four hundred million guys.
24:50
Speaker 5: I laugh when people I, oh, Trump is profiting off
24:52
Speaker 5: of government.
24:53
Speaker 3: I go, wha wait, excuse me.
24:54
Speaker 5: If you want to come in, I'll break down the
24:56
Speaker 5: finances you want to Trump's profit. We spent four one hundred
25:01
Speaker 5: million dollars to defend ourselves against nonsense, the fact that
25:04
Speaker 5: we did not have secret servers communicating with the Kremlin,
25:07
Speaker 5: the fact that Don wasn't a Russian agent.
25:11
Speaker 3: Remember you had Adam Schiff.
25:12
Speaker 5: Out there every single day Donald Trump Junior is a
25:15
Speaker 5: Russian agent.
25:16
Speaker 3: Guys.
25:16
Speaker 5: If he wasn't, if he wasn't protected by the speech
25:19
Speaker 5: and debate laws, you would have, honestly, the guy would
25:22
Speaker 5: have been worth a zero. He would have been living
25:24
Speaker 5: in a shoe box based on the fact that you
25:26
Speaker 5: would have sued him for slander and taken everything that
25:28
Speaker 5: he ever had. It was all made up lies. They
25:32
Speaker 5: did everything they possibly could to take us down. We
25:34
Speaker 5: spent over four hundred million dollars between that. You know, Letitia,
25:38
Speaker 5: you know Alvin braggsy Vance, you know Fanny. I mean,
25:42
Speaker 5: I could go on and on the raids the Mara alive.
25:44
Speaker 1: What was the worst to deal with? Between Alvin braggs,
25:46
Speaker 1: Sye Vance, Leticia, James Jack Smith, who was the worst?
25:50
Speaker 3: Probably Letitia? Have you want to know the truth?
25:52
Speaker 5: I mean, it was so corrupt and I don't know
25:56
Speaker 5: Alvin Braggby's you had Brshawn, I mean Judge Barshawn's daughter
25:59
Speaker 5: is like that, the digital fundraiser for the Democratic Party.
26:03
Speaker 5: And the guy wouldn't recuse himself and literally you'd be
26:05
Speaker 5: sitting in these courtrooms guys, and I would not leave
26:07
Speaker 5: my father's side. I sat next to him every single day.
26:11
Speaker 5: If he was there, I was gonna be there as
26:13
Speaker 5: a son to support him, you know. And most of
26:15
Speaker 5: the time, some of these cases I wasn't gagged in
26:17
Speaker 5: so normally I was the guy in the courthouse steps,
26:19
Speaker 5: you know, shouting and yelling at the cameras as to
26:21
Speaker 5: what the hell was actually going on, because that's the
26:22
Speaker 5: only way you could communicate a message. But guys, I mean,
26:25
Speaker 5: you had liberal and I mean liberal reporters who was
26:28
Speaker 5: in that courtroom shaking their head saying none of this
26:31
Speaker 5: makes any sense. I mean, they shut down all of Manhattan,
26:35
Speaker 5: Lower Manhattan for a hundred thousand dollars payment that my
26:38
Speaker 5: father didn't even make, made by a lawyer. They indicted
26:42
Speaker 5: him thirty four times. I mean, you know, al Capone
26:45
Speaker 5: had had one fell in the indictment. They indicted my
26:48
Speaker 5: father thirty four times for one hundred thousand dollars payment,
26:51
Speaker 5: by the way, by a district attorney who ran on
26:53
Speaker 5: the premise, you know, of reducing what you know, just
26:57
Speaker 5: decriminalizing just about anything. You know, you could shoot away
27:00
Speaker 5: the face in Times Square and it was decriminalized, and
27:02
Speaker 5: you're gonna let them out, and you know, you're gonna
27:04
Speaker 5: have community policing and all sorts of nonsense. I mean,
27:07
Speaker 5: he ran on the premise of literally emptying Rikers Island,
27:10
Speaker 5: so you had no criminals in there. Yet you know,
27:12
Speaker 5: thirty four felonies in six month period of time is
27:14
Speaker 5: shutting down New York in the FDR drive every day
27:16
Speaker 5: over one hundred thousand dollars.
27:17
Speaker 3: I mean, it wasn't believable.
27:19
Speaker 1: If only your father were mugging people in Times Square,
27:23
Speaker 1: then Alvin Bragg would never have prosecuted him. But instead
27:26
Speaker 1: he committed the unspeakable sin of not only being president
27:30
Speaker 1: of the United States, but being an extraordinarily successful and
27:33
Speaker 1: bold president of the United States, which is an unpardonable sin.
27:37
Speaker 1: All right, we don't have much much time left, but
27:40
Speaker 1: I want to take it a little bit lighter and
27:42
Speaker 1: ask what was it like? Like? Your father is unique.
27:47
Speaker 1: I've never in my life have I met anyone remotely
27:51
Speaker 1: like your father. He and I have spent a lot
27:53
Speaker 1: of time together. He has extraordinary courage. But before he
27:57
Speaker 1: was president, what was it like growing up as a
27:59
Speaker 1: kid with Donald Trump as your father? Like? Like, like,
28:03
Speaker 1: how what was he like as a dad when you
28:04
Speaker 1: were ten?
28:06
Speaker 5: Honestly, the greatest dad you could ever imagine expected big
28:09
Speaker 5: things from us, right, I mean every day I go
28:11
Speaker 5: give him kiss before I went to school. Honey, no
28:13
Speaker 5: drink drinking, no drugs, no smoking, and you better get
28:15
Speaker 5: good grades. And by the way, never trust anybody. Right
28:17
Speaker 5: he did once in a while I had that he
28:18
Speaker 5: never never trust anyone. Hey, that's probably going to be
28:22
Speaker 5: I said, I probably benefited us pretty well, So amazing guy.
28:26
Speaker 3: You know, listen, we're spoiled as hell.
28:27
Speaker 5: And that we lived in you know, Trump Tower, We
28:29
Speaker 5: had a beautiful roof over our head. We were always
28:31
Speaker 5: well fed. We we had the best education, but we
28:33
Speaker 5: were never handed money. We're never handy cash. If we
28:36
Speaker 5: wanted something. If I wanted a fishing road, congratulations, you're
28:39
Speaker 5: working for it. I got on our construction sites when
28:41
Speaker 5: I was eleven years old, doing demo, doing electrical HVAC
28:44
Speaker 5: you know, running back hose excavators. You know, I grew
28:48
Speaker 5: up working with my hands on our construction sites with
28:50
Speaker 5: many of the guys that work for me today. And
28:52
Speaker 5: and you know what, he wanted us to learn a trait.
28:54
Speaker 5: He wanted us to learn the value of a dollar.
28:57
Speaker 5: And by the way, he wanted us to be tired
28:58
Speaker 5: as hell at the end of the day, you know,
29:00
Speaker 5: because listen, don't give type A kids or any kid,
29:03
Speaker 5: but don't give type A kids money or free time,
29:06
Speaker 5: because bad things happen. And he was an amazing father.
29:09
Speaker 5: He is an amazing father. And everything we've ever done,
29:12
Speaker 5: we fought together, whether it's real estate, whether it was
29:13
Speaker 5: The Apprentice.
29:14
Speaker 3: I was on that for seven seasons. And then in politics.
29:17
Speaker 5: I mean when he decided to run, he said to us,
29:20
Speaker 5: he goes, you know, kids, let's do this. You know,
29:21
Speaker 5: I was on Megan Kelly. I didn't know what the
29:23
Speaker 5: hell immigration was. I mean, Senator, this was not my world.
29:26
Speaker 5: I built, you know, hotels, and all of a sudden,
29:29
Speaker 5: I'm in.
29:29
Speaker 3: The middle of box I a wall, and now you're
29:31
Speaker 3: on TV.
29:32
Speaker 5: I've got ninety illegal immigrants around me, and I'm battling
29:35
Speaker 5: all of them, and I don't know the first damn
29:36
Speaker 5: thing about illegal immigration, right. I mean, like, this is
29:39
Speaker 5: not the world that we came from. But my father's
29:41
Speaker 5: a remarkable guy. My mother was an amazing powerhouse and strict,
29:46
Speaker 5: demanded manners, demanded respect, demanded work ethic and either the
29:50
Speaker 5: greatest parents you can ever imagine. I spent a lot
29:52
Speaker 5: of time in underseage talking about you know, being raised
29:54
Speaker 5: by them, and you know it was unique in so
29:56
Speaker 5: many ways. But they they did everything they could in
29:59
Speaker 5: this strange world that we lived in, uh, to ground
30:02
Speaker 5: us and make sure we turned out to be hard workers,
30:04
Speaker 5: normal uh, you know, and didn't have any of these
30:06
Speaker 5: kind of Hunter Biden esque problems. I don't have a
30:09
Speaker 5: laptop from hell, you know, I don't do finger paintings
30:12
Speaker 5: selling it to you know, foreign nationals.
30:13
Speaker 3: All over the world.
30:15
Speaker 5: You know, never married my you know, my brother's ex wife, like,
30:18
Speaker 5: never did that kind of stuff.
30:19
Speaker 3: No drugs, no, you know, no perversion.
30:22
Speaker 5: I was always a good kid who believed in God
30:23
Speaker 5: and believed in hard work and you know, lived in honestly.
30:27
Speaker 1: Eric, I can't tell you how many times, dozens, if
30:30
Speaker 1: not hundreds of times, people have commented that one of
30:33
Speaker 1: the things they admire most about your dad is is
30:37
Speaker 1: you and your brothers and sisters. And listen, it is
30:40
Speaker 1: hard for for any successful person to to raise good kids.
30:45
Speaker 1: It's challenging. There's a lot of pressure and and you know, I,
30:49
Speaker 1: I know know your entire family, and I will say
30:53
Speaker 1: literally people early on throughout the process. They'll comment, well,
30:56
Speaker 1: you know, somehow his kids are like like not messed
31:00
Speaker 1: up and incredibly successful and put together and and I
31:03
Speaker 1: mean it's all right. Let me ask you. Let's let
31:05
Speaker 1: let's say we have some young parents that are listening
31:08
Speaker 1: to this podcast. Are there any lessons a young parent
31:12
Speaker 1: by the way, uh, you know Ben, Ben has young kids,
31:15
Speaker 1: I have teenage Are there any lessons any lessons from
31:18
Speaker 1: your dad that that young parents should know or lessons
31:21
Speaker 1: that you've tried to apply.
31:22
Speaker 5: Yeah, keep them poor and make them start working early. Honestly,
31:27
Speaker 5: I mean that's what it is. Keep them poor. Don't
31:29
Speaker 5: don't give type A kids money and don't give them
31:32
Speaker 5: endless time. That's just a bad recipe, right, And and
31:36
Speaker 5: you know, I can't tell you, guys how many friends
31:37
Speaker 5: I had, you know, who were who were peers who
31:39
Speaker 5: went to school with me, and you know, three quarters
31:41
Speaker 5: of them ended up in rehab and and a lot
31:44
Speaker 5: of them went down bad roads. And guess what they
31:45
Speaker 5: were getting ferraris you know when they're you know, sixteen
31:48
Speaker 5: years old, Like, what what do you ever want to
31:49
Speaker 5: aspire to to get? If if that's if that's how
31:53
Speaker 5: you're being raised? I mean, does it surprise you that
31:55
Speaker 5: those people don't have work ethic? Does it surprise you
31:57
Speaker 5: that they go down bad roads? And my father would
32:00
Speaker 5: never let that happen to us. And you know, he
32:01
Speaker 5: made us work our butts off. And believe me, if
32:04
Speaker 5: I wasn't good at what I did real estate wise,
32:07
Speaker 5: I would not be in this chair.
32:08
Speaker 3: I mean, forget about bapotism for a second. It.
32:11
Speaker 5: You know, if we weren't incredibly capable, Believe me, I
32:13
Speaker 5: wouldn't be running one of the largest real estate empires
32:15
Speaker 5: anywhere in the world. And he made us work, and
32:18
Speaker 5: he made us prove that we were good at what
32:19
Speaker 5: we do, and we fought every single day, and we're
32:21
Speaker 5: an incredibly tight family. And he's a remarkable person who's
32:24
Speaker 5: my best friend. I love him to death, and I'm
32:27
Speaker 5: so proud of him, especially in a week where he's
32:29
Speaker 5: accomplished as much as he had. I am so damn
32:31
Speaker 5: proud of of what he did and what he's accomplished.
32:35
Speaker 5: And the hell of a journey, guys, it's all worth it.
32:37
Speaker 1: As always.
32:38
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to Verdict with Center, Ted Cruz,
32:41
Speaker 2: Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to down with my
32:44
Speaker 2: podcast and you can listen to my podcasts every other
32:46
Speaker 2: day you're not listening to Verdict, or each day when you.
32:48
Speaker 1: Listen to Verdict.
32:49
Speaker 2: Afterwards, I'd love to have you as a listener to
32:52
Speaker 2: again the Ben Ferguson podcasts, and we will see you
32:54
Speaker 2: back here on Monday morning.