Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Apr 24 2026
4/24/202651 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Welcome in to the Clay and Buck Show Friday edition.
0:09I hope all of you are having fantastic early starts to your weekend.
0:15Hopefully you didn't stay up too late watching the NFL draft last night as a
0:20lot of people made tens of millions of dollars.
0:23Congratulations to all of them.
0:25And I hope your team made the stellar picks.
0:28I am in Washington, D .C.
0:31And as I was coming in this morning to the studio that we have here
0:36in Washington, D .C. By the way, Buck is out today.
0:39He's in New York City.
0:39He will be back with me on Monday.
0:41As I was coming into the studio here in Washington, D .C., our nation's capital
0:47in the 250th anniversary of our nation, I couldn't stop but think how much better
0:54everything looks. And I know that there are a ton of people out there that
1:00might say, well, why does it matter how Washington, D .C.
1:04looks? It's 95 % Democrat.
1:06We have all sorts of tax dollars being wasted all over the nation's capital.
1:12I hate Washington, D .C.
1:13I understand some of you are going to say that.
1:15I also understand that a lot of you, because you love America, are going to
1:19be taking family vacations to Washington, D .C.
1:22this year. Or you have been already this year.
1:25Maybe your kids went on spring break with a school trip.
1:29And I have to tell you something.
1:31I went to college in Washington, D .C.
1:33I don't think D .C.
1:35has ever been safer. I don't think D .C.
1:38has ever been more beautiful.
1:39I don't think D .C.
1:40has ever been in a better position than it is right now in the 250th
1:46anniversary of our nation's founding.
1:48And I think that's really important.
1:50And I think it's a story that we should be telling more.
1:53And so I wanted to start off today's program, since I'm in D .C., telling
1:57you a real tangible impact that we are seeing.
2:01You say, okay, Clay, what is different about what's going on in Washington, D .C.?
2:05Well, I have in front of me right now the overall crime rates in Washington,
2:11D .C. And I talk about this sometimes because I think data is important.
2:15And sometimes it's very easy to get lost in the day -to -day negativity associated
2:20with that. But let me take you back in time before I go into the
2:24crime details. I was up doing the show in 2024, I think it was, during
2:33the summer when campuses were taken over by all the protesters angry about the response
2:41of Israel to October 7th.
2:43And I walked through my alma mater campus, George Washington University.
2:47They gave me a scholarship.
2:49I went up to D .C., graduated in three years from GW.
2:53And while I was at GW, it was a relatively normal school.
2:59And then the entire campus went crazy.
3:02They decided, for instance, that the George Washington Colonials mascot and the George Washington Colonials
3:09moniker was actually offensive. You say, okay, well, what was offensive about it?
3:14Well, the fact that we were a colonial army for some people created too much
3:19of an evocation of the idea of colonialism.
3:24And so they changed the name of GW's mascot to the GW Revolutionaries.
3:29It's a small thing. Some of you will know that I made a decent -sized
3:33donation to Vanderbilt University Law School recently.
3:36I didn't give any money to GW.
3:37I gave money to Vanderbilt because their response to the October 7th, 2023, protesters on
3:45campus was that they immediately arrested every protester who tried to take over campus, and
3:51they kicked the protesters who were students out of school, did not give them credit
3:56for the semester work that they had done so far, and said, sayonara, find a
4:01new place to go to school.
4:02You violated our campus codes, and there is a consequence for that.
4:06No matter what speech you were advocating, and we're not going to stand for this.
4:09And I loved it. On the flip side, George Washington University, they allowed on -campus
4:16protests, the quad to be taken over, a cafe to be put on the George
4:20Washington statue. They allowed for months there to be protests taking over the center of
4:26the campus. It wasn't just the ugliness of allowing campus protests tense.
4:31It wasn't just that they said, globalize the intifada on the side of a campus
4:35building that was named after Holocaust survivors, the primary library on campus.
4:41It was that that was a reflection of the larger culture that took root in
4:45Washington, D .C. Everywhere you looked in parks, people had put up tents, and they
4:50were living in squalor in parks throughout Washington, D .C.
4:55When you walked through any area of Washington, D .C., it smelled like feces, it
5:03looked nasty, it looked dirty, the grass was overgrown.
5:08This was not a place that looked like it should be the front porch of
5:12our nation. And it was, frankly, to me, disgusting, degrading, decrepit, nasty at a level
5:21that I had never seen it before, and I went to school there in the
5:2490s. He's the early 2000s, and I've spent a lot of time in Washington, D
5:28.C. over the years. It is, I think, a city that should be a jewel
5:31of the nation. Trump got into office, and he saw all this, and he said,
5:36I'm fixing it. Now, you can say, well, Clay, how does this compare to Iran?
5:41How does this compare to inflation?
5:42How does this compare to the overall focus of the nation?
5:48You can certainly say that it shouldn't be something that matters, but it is something
5:54that matters. President Trump, living in Washington, D .C., said we've got to fix this
5:59squalor, and he did. He said, we're going to call in the National Guard.
6:04We're going to clean up all these homeless encampments.
6:06We are going to stop people defacing monuments, and we are going to return order,
6:14decency, beauty to our nation's capital, and he did it.
6:19And I've got the numbers.
6:21Last year at this time, President Trump said, I'm going to call out the National
6:26Guard after too many violent incidents were happening all over the city, and he said,
6:30we cannot have this in our nation's capital.
6:32We can't have it for the 250th anniversary of our nation's birth.
6:36We have to fix it.
6:37Here are the numbers in front of me right now.
6:41Everybody you will recall, because we talked about it quite a lot on this program,
6:44everybody you will recall said, oh, that's not going to work.
6:48Look, they said two things.
6:50That's not going to work, and crime isn't that bad here anyway.
6:58Both of those were arguments.
7:00One of them was a lie.
7:02Crime was really bad. Crime in D .C.
7:05exploded after 2020. It was nasty, it was decrepit, it was run down, it was
7:12violent, and it was unsafe.
7:14All of these things are true.
7:16So crime was a major issue, so that was a lie.
7:19But the other part maybe was even more troubling.
7:22It was, this is not going to work.
7:25Well, how do you know?
7:27We've never really tried it before.
7:30It was defeatism, writ large, which unfortunately is a common refrain on the left in
7:37this country. Anytime somebody tries to fix anything, they just say, well, that's not going
7:42to work. Well, it's better to do something and be wrong, in my opinion, than
7:48do nothing and 100 % be wrong.
7:50Because you can fix wrong decisions.
7:53I would say this is one of the things that President Trump's critics really haven't
7:58gotten. If President Trump makes a decision and he sees it going bad, he changes
8:03it. That's how business executives work.
8:07Any of you who have ever run anything, the way you fail is by failing
8:11to make decisions. You have to make tons of decisions every day, all of us
8:15do in our personal lives.
8:16If we just freeze and we don't do anything, then everything eventually falls apart.
8:22So you have to make choices.
8:24And you hope that if you make 100 choices, 70 of them are correct.
8:28Maybe 30 of them are wrong.
8:29But a wrong choice is not a really awful situation.
8:32Because if you make a wrong choice and you're rational and you're reasonable, you look
8:36at the wrong choice and you said, boy, we got that wrong.
8:38Let's fix it. So President Trump does things.
8:42Most people in Washington, they don't want to do anything.
8:44They just want to keep getting the job.
8:46They just want to keep being able to be paid, matter, go to significant events.
8:52They feel like the job will exist in perpetuity.
8:55That's why so many politicians try to avoid taking stands on anything.
8:59They hide. Because you can just keep getting elected oftentimes if you aren't really noticed
9:05for anything. Once you get in office, that's a power of incumbency.
9:09So President Trump wasn't trying to do this forever.
9:11He had a lot of other jobs.
9:13He said, hey, I want to fix things.
9:14And I think you look everywhere in Washington, D .C.
9:17He's talking about building a beautiful arch.
9:18He's trying to remake the ballroom.
9:20Most of these things he's not going to benefit from personally, but he just thinks
9:24it makes sense to fix things that are broken.
9:27That's what builders do. And so the data was, oh, it's not going to work.
9:32The lie was, the attempt was, let's see if we can fix this.
9:35The criticism was this is not going to work.
9:38The other criticism was this is a lie.
9:40Well, it's working. And it's working on an incredible level.
9:44And you know it's working on an incredible level.
9:46Because as I sit here in Washington, D .C., almost nobody's talking about this.
9:50And I'm up here because the White House Correspondents Dinner is going on.
9:53President Trump is going to be speaking there.
9:54I'm going to be going to the event.
9:56I hope President Trump comes out and actually tells all of the media in this
10:01room the data that I'm about to share with you.
10:03I hope he puts it up on a PowerPoint.
10:05I hope he makes everybody look at it.
10:08Murders, since last year in Washington, D .C., are down 51%.
10:13Think about that for a minute.
10:15Oh, it's not going to work to 51 % decline in murder so far this
10:21year compared to last year.
10:23We are on track for Washington, D .C.
10:26to potentially, as we come up on the end of the month of April, a
10:31third of the way through the calendar.
10:34So not an insignificant period of time.
10:38We are on track for Washington, D .C.
10:40to have, on a per capita basis, the lowest murder rate in any of our
10:44lives. That seems pretty significant to me.
10:4851 % decline overall in murder.
10:52and people out there i get it you can say well they're rigging the numbers
10:57they're lying they're not telling us this is why i like to start with murder
11:00if a body's dead and it appears to have occurred in a violent matter we
11:05probably have an idea that a murder occurred so yes you can finesse other different
11:10aspects of crime rates which is unfortunately what we have seen happening in many left
11:14-wing cities murder is pretty reliable down 51 it's not just that sex abuse charges
11:22down 36 percent um arrest for assault with a deadly weapon guess what they're actually
11:30up meaning we are going out and getting people who are engaging in violent behavior
11:36and we're arresting them which makes everybody out on the street safer motor vehicle theft
11:41down 57 percent theft from auto 42 percent now there's not a huge number of
11:51them but arson is down 100 percent according to this there has not been a
11:55single act of arson in the entirety of the city of uh of washington dc
12:00robbery down 22 percent burglary down 19 percent all of these things are plummeting it
12:09worked washington dc as i speak to you today is probably safer on this day
12:16than it has ever been in the life of anyone that is out there listening
12:20to this right now that is a profound accomplishment and it's also this data is
12:26writ large across the station as we have told you last year was the lowest
12:30overall murder rate in the nation all over the country this is happening but it
12:36could happen so much more it's happening in memphis happening in washington dc imagine how
12:43many lives would be saved from murder if what trump has done in dc was
12:49applied in chicago was applied in atlanta was applied in new york city was applied
12:56all over this nation particularly in the places that have the highest rates of violent
13:01crime memphis used to be the place it works we did something and the results
13:07were very positive we should do more of it this is the entire purpose of
13:12federalism in general is the state should be laboratories when we find something that works
13:19we should extrapolate that across the entirety of the nation and using washington dc as
13:25a test case as the front porch of the nation really in the 250th anniversary
13:32of the nation i think is an incredibly symbolic moment that we should all be
13:38celebrating and that everyone should be talking about but almost no one is you however
13:46are aware of it think about all the media activity in washington dc that's going
13:51to happen this weekend surrounding the white house correspondence dinner how many media are actually
13:56going to cover the true story of what's going on in washington dc i hope
14:00president trump shows up puts this data on a jumbotron behind him and makes every
14:05single media member in washington dc see what real tangible results look like as president
14:11trump has made washington dc not just great again greater than it's ever been in
14:17the history of our nation all right when we come back uh continue to break
14:21this down for you uh i'm in dc for the day we got a great
14:24show coming your way uh but i want to tell you one thing that makes
14:27every home more beautiful how about trees fast growing trees there's a lot you can
14:31buy online these days and have delivered to your home books groceries clothing have you
14:36thought about healthy beautiful trees plants and shrubs delivered right to your door thanks to
14:41fast growing trees look this doesn't have to be uh just a home uh a
14:47house it can be a condo it can be a apartment it can be a
14:51townhome wherever you live they have beautiful plants that can be inside of your home
14:55or if you live in a house with a yard as i do uh you
14:59can have a ton of beautiful trees all over your yard beautiful trees like we
15:05got all over washington dc cherry blossoms just bloomed here they were extraordinary you can
15:10get cherry trees i imagine it fast growing trees they have a live and thrive
15:13guarantee that's how well they've nurtured your new trees and plants they specially prepare them
15:18for the trip to your home before shipping them with care go online to fastgrowingtrees
15:22.com you're gonna love it they're blown away by how many of you are coming
15:25they'll let you know what makes sense for your home as spring has sprung all
15:30over the nation fastgrowingtrees .com my name clay as a promo code for 20 off
15:36your first purchase that's fastgrowingtrees .com promo code clay c -l -a -y to get
15:4220 off your first order laugh learn and hang with the guys clay and buck
15:50preset on the iheart app welcome back in clay travis buck sexton show economist steven
15:57moore in with us right now we're going to get to a bunch of things
16:01a lot of you asking questions but i want to ask you this question right
16:04off the top you came here you were just telling me in 1983 to work
16:08with ronald reagan you've now worked with president trump how are they alike how are
16:13they dissimilar what was it like with reagan what for people out there who never
16:17got to meet him and i would imagine that's almost every in this audience, and
16:21also with Trump, who a large number of people would never get to meet, they
16:25are economic heavyweights in terms of unleashing American opportunism and exceptionalism.
16:33How are they similar? How are they different in your experience?
16:35So let me just say one thing about what you were talking about a few
16:37minutes earlier about the plane you were on with all the kids coming into Washington.
16:41It just flashed back to when I was in eighth grade growing up in Chicago
16:45at Faith, Hope and Charity Grade School.
16:47And in our eighth grade, we flew into D .C.
16:50to, you know, we spent four days here, as so many of you did.
16:54And every, you know, now I've lived in D .C.
16:56for 40 years. I've probably flown into that airport a thousand times.
16:59I always remember the first time I looked out, you know, we're looking out the
17:03window. Oh, my God, there's the washroom.
17:04The kids cheered when we landed.
17:06It was super cool. It was so cool.
17:07It really is. And I still feel, so every kid in seventh and eighth grade
17:11should come to to to explore this wonderful, wonderful city.
17:15Look, I didn't I only met Reagan once or twice.
17:18So I was a little I was 24 year old snot nose kid back then.
17:21But I'll say this about Reagan just meeting with a couple of times.
17:24The guy really did have a twinkle in his eye and he was just such
17:28a warm person. And so in terms of how Reagan and Trump are different, and
17:33I love both of them, I think they're two of our greatest presidents.
17:37Reagan was a an ideological conservative.
17:40He was a Bill Buckley, Milton Friedman.
17:42He was steeped in the conservative.
17:44Trump is not ideological. You know, he's a businessman, which is good.
17:48He's a businessman. So he doesn't look in the world in a kind of ideological
17:51way. He looks at the world in a common sense way.
17:55But luckily, we as conservatives look at the world in the conservative and common sense
18:00way. And so the point I was making you off the air is when I
18:03just this amazing statistic. When I came to Washington in late 83, you want to
18:08take a guess at what the Dow Jones Industrial Average was?
18:11Late 83, 600? Well, it hit a low at 800.
18:16Okay. And but for the year, let's say it was 1000.
18:19Okay. Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, it was fluctuating.
18:21So think about that. I mean, think about that.
18:23So in 40 some years, 45 years, the Dow went from 1000 to 50 ,000.
18:29This is the greatest period of wealth.
18:32Capitalism is pretty good. It turns out works pretty well.
18:34We blew away the rest of the world.
18:36And it's because, for the most part, we made, you know, very good economic decisions.
18:40And I was saying, you know, the two that really bookended this were Reagan, who
18:44really did rebuild the economy from the tragic 1970s.
18:49I mean, I remember when I was a kid, you know, we would pack up
18:53in our like station wagon.
18:54You probably don't even know what a station wagon was.
18:56No, no, we had a station wagon when I was a little kid.
18:59The wood paneled station wagon.
19:00Yeah, we have one of those.
19:01And we pack in at 630 in the morning on these frigid February mornings in
19:05Chicago, and it was 10 degrees below zero.
19:07And we drive to the gas station, and we'd be 10th in line to get
19:10gas. That's how bad it was under Jimmy Carter.
19:13And I remember thinking, you know, it's only 13 years old, what the hell is
19:17wrong with our country? Yeah, things could be this bad.
19:19And Reagan just through his policies, but just through his optimism, really helped rebuild the
19:25economy. And so here we are with Trump.
19:27And look, the Biden, what's happening with Iran is a bump in the road on
19:32the economy. But we're going to see continued prosperity throughout the rest of his...
19:37How concerned are you about the situation in the street?
19:40I am concerned because I think it's been much tougher.
19:42And I'm not a foreign policy guy.
19:44I'm an economist. But we thought that we could get this done in a matter
19:49of weeks. And it's taken a lot longer, partly because you're dealing with a rogue
19:52regime. These are evil people.
19:54They're hard to negotiate with.
19:55So Trump is obviously frustrated.
19:58I'm, by the way, Clay, I'm frustrated as Trump is with our supposed, quote, allies
20:03in Europe and the UK, who have not lifted one finger to help get the
20:09straight open. And do you know what two countries are most reliant on that Middle
20:14Eastern oil? We were talking about China.
20:17China is number one, and India is number two.
20:19Yeah. Why isn't China helping?
20:21You know, it's more in their interest than in ours.
20:24I mean, my God, thanks to Trump's drill baby drill policy, we're actually energy independent.
20:29Did you know that? Oh, we talk about it on the show all the time,
20:31that it's changed the culture compared to the 80s and the 90s.
20:34It sure has. And not only that, but we are now producing more oil and
20:39gas, ladies and gentlemen, any other time in American history.
20:42So this is so critical.
20:43We have to no longer be, because I talked about the 70s, for 50 years,
20:47we've been reliant on the Middle East.
20:50No longer. That's why drill for oil, we should use our oil, our gas, our
20:54coal, our nuclear power, our hydropower, everything, maybe even a little bit of solar wind.
20:58We're never going to be able to power this country with solar mill power, but
21:01we can use it all.
21:03And then we don't have to be dependent on the Middle East.
21:05We've got people weighing in, and I'm going to get to their questions in a
21:09sec, but I want to first ask you the question, because we talked all about
21:14Spirit Airlines. Yeah. And so many people are interested in that conversation.
21:18And I'm still furious that the judge got the ruling wrong in the first place.
21:23But you pointed out, of course, that the Biden administration said JetBlue and Spirit can't
21:28merge because it'll be anti -competitive.
21:30And that was the wrong opinion.
21:32Mayor Pete Buttigieg was in charge of that.
21:35And then the judge said, you can't do it.
21:37They've gone bankrupt. That's the background.
21:39Yep. What should happen now?
21:42And, and should the government in your mind get involved?
21:45I imagine traditionally you would say no, partly.
21:47Because we blew it when we didn't allow the merger between JetBlue and Spirit, which
21:53would have been beneficial, certainly, to Spirit's shareholders.
21:56It would have been beneficial to everyone.
21:58It would have been beneficial to the shareholders, clearly, of both airlines, of JetBlue and
22:03Spirit. And, like, 80 % of Americans are invested in America, so it would have
22:07helped us all. It would have saved thousands of good blue -collar jobs.
22:13Yes. And it would have made the – that's why it's so idiotic that Pete
22:18Buttigieg and Joe Biden, I call them the killer bees, because they are the ones
22:22who really, truly blocked this deal.
22:25If we had done this – right now, we have four major airlines.
22:28We have United, American, Delta, and Southwest.
22:32Yes. Those are the big four.
22:33And so what we were saying, because we were on the side of the merger
22:36back then, and I don't believe in any trust, so I think it's just always
22:40reckless behavior. All this would have done was created a fifth big airline to compete.
22:46Yeah. So it would have had – what I'm saying, Clay, is we would have
22:48had more competition in the air and not less.
22:50And now what's happened, this – because they blocked this deal – and we predicted
22:55this. If they block this deal, it's going to go bankrupt.
22:58That's exactly what's happened. Everybody loses here, all the shareholders, airline traffic, and so on.
23:04And so now Trump is saying, well, let's have the government buy it and run
23:07it. I'm opposed to that.
23:08I'm a free market guy.
23:09I don't want – look, tell me whenever the government has run something efficiently.
23:13Look at Amtrak. Look at the Postal Service.
23:16Look at solar power. None of it ever works.
23:18So I respectfully disagree with President Trump.
23:22But again, he looks at it as a businessman.
23:24He's like, well, we can make this thing work, but that's not the role of
23:26government, in my opinion. So you would agree.
23:29Rudy, you've got 30 seconds to lay it out here for Stephen.
23:34You're driving a truck en route to Alaska, so he's one of the guys out
23:37there working. And what's your question?
23:39I think you just heard from Stephen Moore that he probably agrees with you.
23:43No, I agree totally with him.
23:45I think we are propping up and subsidizing mediocrity when we try to subsidize a
23:52failing company. Let the assets go in bankruptcy and let better -run companies employ those
23:59assets more profitably. Rudy, you're driving a truck and you've got more economic understanding than
24:0695%, probably, of the congressmen and women up here in D .C.
24:11It's just my two cents.
24:12What are you paying for diesel?
24:14How would you like to be a shareholder in Ford and GM when the country
24:22bailed out Chrysler? Or how would you like to be a Ford or Chrysler shareholder
24:27when the company bailed out GM?
24:32Thank you for the call.
24:34We've got another talk back here.
24:36We've been talking about the cost of oil and gas.
24:38We've gone from average gallon for the average driver.
24:41It's gone from about $3 to $4.
24:43And you just talked about the fact that we're a net energy exporting country now.
24:48And John up in Cape Cod, Mass., not a bad place, starting to be pretty
24:51nice this time of year.
24:53He's got a question for you.
24:54Cut E. What I want to know is, can't we charge an export tariff for
24:59our oil and use that money to reduce energy prices for Americans?
25:09Hey, it's called America First Energy Policy.
25:13Why can't we do that, though?
25:15Why can't we charge our allies an export tariff on our oil?
25:21I'll let you answer. So we tried that.
25:24That was back in the 70s when Jimmy Carter, one of our worst presidents ever,
25:28was president. We imposed something called the Windfall Profits Tax when the price of oil
25:32went up. And what do you think happened to production?
25:34It went down. So it didn't work.
25:37Look, this is a global commodity.
25:39I know you've heard this a thousand times before.
25:41It's like saying, well, if the price of gold goes up, why don't we sell
25:45gold? No. By the way, it's sort of a rainy day.
25:50Hey, these oil companies, incidentally, they lose a lot of money when the price of
25:54oil goes down. I remember just three or four months ago, remember when we were
25:57paying $2 .50 a gallon for gas?
26:00I was talking to Harold Hamm and others who were leading oil.
26:02They said they had to shut down their rigs.
26:04So if they can't make money when the price is high, you're not going to
26:08have oil companies. That's the answer.
26:09I think people get frustrated, and the easy way to answer this is, in a
26:13global economy, let's say that we decided that we were going to charge $120 for
26:18our oil and gas barrels, and they're selling for $100.
26:22To your point, people wouldn't buy it.
26:24Right. And if we sell them for under that amount, then people would come in,
26:27they would buy them, and they would resell them on the global marketplace for higher.
26:31Very well put. Simply put, it is a global marketplace, and there is a price
26:35that exists everywhere. It's also sort of like the old story of you're stranded in
26:40a desert, and you come up to somebody who has a water stand, and he's
26:45going to charge you $8 for a glass of water.
26:47He's like, I'm not going to pay $8.
26:49Well, that's why he's out there, because he can make money.
26:52It's the same thing with oil.
26:53They'll produce oil if they can make money at it.
26:56One other quick thing. Thank God we have a president who's drill baby drill, because
27:00if we had not done that and stuck with Biden's policy with windmills and switchgrass
27:05and solar powers, we'd be paying $8 a gallon.
27:08No, it's totally true. We've been hammering that.
27:10Here's another question for you.
27:12This is podcast listener Randy in Austin, Texas.
27:15let's listen to him cut g i'm just wondering with china needing 11 million barrels
27:20of oil a day for their economy and we are essentially controlling venezuelan and iranian
27:26oil and that's about 20 percent of china's oil needs how long do you think
27:31it's going to take before china orders iran to agree to surrender and the surrender
27:38terms this is what we were talking about earlier fabulous question it is a great
27:42question you have smart listeners uh i don't know the answer to it i mean
27:46it's a great it's a question that defies a good answer why are the china
27:50but here's my suspicion and i'm not a foreign policy they want to they're sort
27:54of trying to destroy the american economy by not opening because they know that it
27:59puts pressure on on trump because look trump is very tough on china right and
28:03that's good i want him to be tough on china and so they're trying to
28:07embarrass him by not helping in the middle east so that's that's the situation with
28:11china but my god italy spain germany france uk nothing from them when we spend
28:17a half a trillion dollars on nato yeah where's our friends when we need them
28:21you're preaching the choir do you want to stick with us answer a few more
28:24questions okay we're going to bring back uh these comments and questions are great steven
28:29moore uh will answer more he's in studio with me here in dc i want
28:32to tell you if you're trying to make sure and come up with a fantastic
28:36gift for mom maybe as mother's day gets closer and closer how about giving her
28:40the gift of digitizing all those great family memories that so many of you have
28:44spent making with her over so much of the time out there you are going
28:50to be glad i've been to their facility in chattanooga tennessee which ironically happens to
28:54be my mom's hometown and i know what a difference digitizing so many of these
28:59pictures can make we've relied on legacy box to do it for our families they
29:03do quality work old pictures old vhs old film reels whatever form of media you
29:09have if you would like it to be digitized so you can text your sons
29:13and daughters your grandkids your uh everybody in your family get hooked up right now
29:18at legacybox .com slash clay best mother's day sale ever 60 off their regular prices
29:26that's a legacybox .com slash clay for 60 off legacybox .com slash clay last learn
29:35hang with the guys right there when you need them most clay and buck just
29:40preset them on the iHeart app welcome back in clay travis buck sexton show i'm
29:45in dc stephen moore sitting with me economist who served under ronald reagan and president
29:51trump you said you had a great reagan story as we were going to break
29:55that you wanted to share with the audience you get a little bit closer to
29:57the mic first of all how cool i mean really truly i feel so blessed
30:01that i worked for two of our greatest presidents in the last picture but this
30:03is actually a trump story so you may recall clay that back in 2017 trump
30:08nominated me to be on the federal reserve board yes and so from i thought
30:13okay sure by the way i wasn't that excited about being in that job because
30:17you know sitting around with a bunch of economists all day is not my cup
30:20tea but anyway you know you never say no to the president so right so
30:24anyway to make a long story short i thought you know there might be a
30:27little article in the wall street journal that just had said you know i was
30:30nominated to be there were six full -time uh investigators going after me and just
30:36everything that i had done and digging up stuff i'd written 25 i mean anyway
30:40if you believed all this stuff you'd think you know i belong in jail it
30:43was just this craziness and so i was getting the crap beat out of me
30:46so i called president trump and i say mr president you know i don't want
30:49to embarrass you i should probably withdraw from this and you can choose someone else
30:5499 out of 100 other people would have said yeah it's time for you to
30:58resign you know what trump said no stay in the fight stay in the fight
31:01and it even got worse a week later go back say same thing no go
31:07stay in the fight he stuck with me the whole time and even when i
31:10had to withdraw he called me that night this is donald trump this is a
31:14side of double donald trump and i'm just this one day i just felt terrible
31:17about the whole thing and he called me he said steve it almost brings it
31:20to him he says steve you enhanced your reputation i'm so proud of you that's
31:24the donald trump a lot of people don't see that's awesome uh we know him
31:27quite well on this program we've had him on a lot over the years let
31:31me ask you this uh they've got the investigation going on into the fed into
31:35the building and how much it costs first of all what do you think of
31:40that secondly interest rates what do you anticipate this year and i know every economist
31:45can tell you what's going to happen after it already happened you're really good at
31:49that um but what is your forecast where do you think we're headed um as
31:53we come into the spring and summer here well first of all let's talk for
31:56just a little a minute for about jerome paul uh every time i see president
32:00trump he says steve i really made a big mistake with jerome paul didn't i
32:03say yes sir you made a big mistake that was one of his worst mistakes
32:06jerome paul was the most political um fed chairman we've ever had which is ironic
32:11because he keeps saying trump is trying to politicize the fed no the person who
32:15politicized the fed was jerome paul yes and then by the way he cut interest
32:19rates when the democrats were in and then he raised him when trump was in
32:22and that was personal then he builds this taj mahal right down the street billions
32:27of dollars billions of dollars and as trump said i could have built this for
32:3010 percent of the money that they spent because trump's a builder right he knows
32:34the construction industry so that was mal financial malfeasance by the guy who is in
32:38charge of our money supply the good news is he's going to drop that case
32:42kevin one Bush will be an awesome Fed chairman.
32:45He will be, he's the most qualified since probably, you know, probably since gold, what's
32:52his name, the chairman under Bush.
32:58And so he's an excellent choice.
33:01And here's what he will do.
33:03Greenspan, sorry. I had a brain fart there.
33:05Greenspan was a fantastic Fed chairman.
33:07What do we want from the Fed and our monetary policy?
33:10A stable dollar, a dollar that is good as gold.
33:13We have to retain the dollar as the world reserve currency.
33:17That's the most important thing.
33:18And that's exactly what Kevin Worsh will do.
33:21Outstanding. We could talk all day probably.
33:24This is awesome. We'll get you on again soon.
33:26I know you said as we were talking off air, you've always been a big
33:28fan of Rush. I told you the reason Rush saw what was going on politically
33:33before anyone else did is because he was talking to real people every single day.
33:37The politicians in Washington don't do that.
33:38You do it. So thank you, Clay.
33:40It's an honor, privilege to be able to do it every single day.
33:43Thank you for the time you spent with us.
33:44Final hour of the week coming up next.
33:50Welcome back in. Final hour of the week.
33:53Clay Travis hanging out with all of you.
33:55Buck Sexton with his family for the weekend.
33:57He'll be back with me on Monday.
34:00I am up in Washington, D .C.
34:02I'll be gearing up for I'll be at the White House Correspondents' Dinner tomorrow with
34:07Fox News as President Trump will make, I believe it's his first appearance at the
34:11White House Correspondents' Dinner since Obama was in office.
34:15I believe that I am correct about that.
34:18We bring in now the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Scott Turner.
34:23And many of you last night were like me, sitting and watching the first round
34:28of the NFL draft. I watched all three hours.
34:31So did my kids. The Travis boys were all watching with me as well.
34:35And I believe you were at the NFL draft last night, Mr.
34:40Secretary. And before I get into what happened last night, you were drafted, I believe,
34:45in the seventh round back in 1995 by the Washington at the time Redskins.
34:52What was draft night and the draft experience that weekend like for you?
34:57What do you remember from that time back in 1995?
35:00Well, Clay, thank you so much, man.
35:02It's great to be with you.
35:03You know, back then in 1995, the draft experience was a lot different.
35:07I was sitting in my apartment with my then fiancé, Robin, who's my wife of
35:1330 years now. And, you know, we watched the first round of the draft on
35:18TV. And then after that, everything was really on the radio.
35:22And so when I got drafted, man, in the seventh round, I didn't even know
35:26it until my phone rang.
35:28And it was North Turner from the Washington Redskins that said, Hey, Scott, we have
35:32picked you, you know, in the seventh round of the NFL draft pick number 226.
35:37And, you know, it really was a dream come true.
35:39You know, you work hard, you know, all your life since playing peewee football and
35:44having a testimony of your life going through, you know, a lot of difficult times.
35:48And then to get that phone call, really, man, is a great blessing from the
35:52Lord. And so to see these kids last night just overcome with emotion, you know,
35:57when they get their names called, no matter what round it is, it's really a
36:01great encouragement for me. What was your signing bonus back in 95?
36:04Do you remember as a seventh round pick?
36:06Oh, yes, sir. It was a whopping $33 ,000.
36:10I cleared $19 ,600 out to tax it.
36:13You know, there's a great story.
36:15I don't remember who the guy was.
36:16He was an undrafted free agent, and a team called him, and they said, hey,
36:21I've got, you know, you're going to get $5 ,000, and the signing bonus or
36:25whatever it was. And the guy ended up playing for many years.
36:28He made a team. Right.
36:29And he thought he had to pay the team.
36:31And so his response was, well, I don't have it right now, but I think
36:34I could get it. But, and so $19 ,000, because a lot of people think,
36:39hey, you got drafted into the NFL, even today, when you're going in the fifth,
36:43sixth, seventh round. I mean, yeah, first round pick, you make $50 million guaranteed.
36:47That's a big difference. But you got $19 ,000 after taxes.
36:51What did you do? Did you buy anything?
36:53No, sir. Listen, I had some great mentors, but I did have a $700 phone
36:58bill from the University of Illinois because my fiance, she did, my wife, Robin, she
37:03lived in Iowa. And so I had a big phone bill that I had to
37:07pay. And I had a tremendous agent who was a great steward of financial resources.
37:12And so I gave my, paid my phone bill off, and I paid ties to
37:18my home church, and then I put the rest in the bank to save.
37:21I had a 1987 Nissan Maximum back then, and I kept it for my first
37:26three years in the NFL because my salaries were $119 ,000, $164 ,000, and $197
37:33,000. And I had a new wife that I was getting ready to get married
37:35to, so I had to save all my money.
37:37But I really am grateful because I had great mentors that helped me.
37:42But that $19 ,000 to me, Clay, was a windfall.
37:46Yeah. Now, so what do you tell, there's so many guys out there, and you
37:52have undoubtedly met many of them over the years, and I've coached a lot of
37:56kids. And what I try to tell them all is no matter when you're at
38:01some point a relatively young man, pretty much, your athletic career is going to be
38:06over. And it might end when you're in high school.
38:08It might end before you're in high school.
38:10It might end. you know when you're in college and for a very small number
38:14it's going to end in uh in the pros but man make sure you use
38:18the ball that the ball doesn't use you and i just see so many young
38:23men in particular young women are smarter because they haven't traditionally made as much money
38:27but i bet you've seen so many guys that just thought that gravy train was
38:31always going to be there and they have no backup plan and the average nfl
38:36career as you well know is two and a half three years and then you're
38:3924 25 26 years old and you're in the real world what advice would you
38:43give anybody out there who's got the kids the grandkids it's great to pursue sports
38:48but you better be thinking about something bigger exactly you know i always have said
38:53you know for kids that are playing sports boys and girls that are playing sports
38:58of any kind you know learn as much as you can because those skills that
39:03you learn on a team in a sport are transferable life skills the discipline uh
39:09the teamwork hard work knowing how to be humble and victory and how to be
39:14steadfast you know and failure knowing how to you know to go through hardship you
39:18know and to overcome hardship knowing how to develop relationships with with your superiors be
39:24it your coaches uh with those that are on your team learning how to serve
39:28and help others you know to be great while you're trying to achieve your dream
39:32to be great and those principles are for kids from peewee all the way through
39:37the pros and then when you get into the pros what i learned from daryl
39:41green my rookie year it was the second day of mini camp when i was
39:44at the redskins now i didn't even have a contract yet clay and this guy
39:4812 year veteran all pro comes up to me he said i'm gonna tell you
39:52two things and i said yes sir he said number one prepare every year to
39:56retire because the nfl stands for not for loans so figure out what are the
40:01gifts god has given you and hone those skills and gifts and do that and
40:05then he said number two create relationships outside of the locker room because the whole
40:10world your whole world does not exist just in football you have to create relationships
40:14in the faith community you know the business community the community at large and so
40:19those two things really were transferable and transformation in my life what was it like
40:24last night in pittsburgh i believe over 300 000 people in person tens of millions
40:29will have watched different parts of the draft last night fernando mendoza great story goes
40:35number one overall and a lot of new millionaires minted last night what was the
40:40experience like for you well you know it's i am one i like to be
40:46with the players you know former players and we watched you know together uh on
40:53tv as legends and to see these young kids and their families uh get their
40:58names called and and come out of the green room and go on stage and
41:02put that hat on and take that picture with the commissioner it's electric you know
41:06and then when you see them come back with their families you know and all
41:10smiles and just you know it's almost like this weight off your shoulders in the
41:14sense of you know i haven't arrived yet but that first step you know has
41:18been accomplished and being drafted and that never gets old you know because i know
41:23the work that goes into it you know what the families go through the kids
41:27go through the universities do and so to see them to be able to achieve
41:32that first step man it's just a there's really no words to explain that we're
41:37talking to scott turner okay one of the things that's a big step for everybody
41:41out there that you're trying to work on is getting an opportunity to potentially to
41:46buy that first home uh where you can start to build wealth and i know
41:49there's executive orders that president trump has put in place a couple of things that
41:53are significant making more home construction a possible for affordable levels and also then mortgage
42:01credit for people out there that haven't gone through the process maybe people listening to
42:05us right now some of them have never bought their first home before and that
42:09is an aspirational goal uh for them what are you trying to do to make
42:13that process more effective more efficient and get more people able to do it well
42:19clay thank you for bringing up you know here's the thing we want to make
42:22it easier for builders to build and easier for buyers to buy here's why why
42:26i say that we're taking down the regulatory environment around the country from a federal
42:30and really a whole of government standpoint federal state and local because regulations have really
42:36crippled building and development around our country and so we're starting at the federal level
42:41we're taking down onerous and bureaucratic rules and also encouraging those localities to do the
42:45same to help builders and developers to be able to build and be innovative and
42:50use their creativity uh we need about seven to ten million units of homes in
42:55our country and so uh we're doing that also these two executive orders that you
42:59alluded to one is to reduce the barriers to build affordable housing and the other
43:04one is to bring really the hometown lenders or community banks back to the table
43:08to get into the mortgage lending game that increases competition and it also brings down
43:13the cost for people to borrow just in the first year at hud man we
43:18helped about a over a million people to afford to buy a home and a
43:23half a million of those are first -time homebuyers through our fha program and here
43:28recently director bill pulte from fhfa and myself just announced uh make a big big
43:34announcement at hud at fha we're now going to accept that you you Vantage score
43:39and FICO 10T credit scores to expand the credit market for help people that, you
43:46know, they're paying their rent on time, paying their utilities on time to be able
43:50to qualify to have a mortgage.
43:52And that's what credit worthy, trustworthy people.
43:54And so taking these regulations down, the two EOs from the president, and now this
43:59announcement to expand the credit market, I really believe is going to help our people
44:03to achieve the American dream.
44:04Scott Turner, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
44:07I'll close it out here.
44:09We appreciate the time. Who are you most optimistic in based on the first round
44:15draft picks? Who would you like to buy stock in?
44:18Let's pretend that you got to be, you know, you got 10 % of somebody's
44:21earnings for the next 10 years.
44:23Who do you like? Who has impressed you that you met?
44:26You know, I love Sonny Stiles.
44:30I love Jeremiah Love. I like the receiver, the kid Tyson out of Arizona State
44:37that went to the Santa.
44:38He was just... Yeah, he's my son's favorite wide receiver in the draft.
44:42He absolutely loves his take.
44:44Yeah, and Caleb Downs that went to the Cowboys.
44:47He's a true... He might be one of the talent -wise, one of the best
44:50players. Him and Jeremiah Love, probably the top two, top three players in the draft.
44:56This class right here, man, and we haven't even seen them all yet.
45:00There are some gems that are coming, but the ones that I've seen thus far,
45:04obviously, I'm proud of all 32 of them, but those guys really stand out to
45:09me. Hey, it looked like an awesome scene there in Pittsburgh.
45:12Thanks for coming on with us.
45:13We know how busy you are, and for anybody out there, let's say that we
45:17got guys out there and gals out there that have never bought their first home,
45:21but they're really aspiring. They're working hard to try and do that.
45:25What advice would you give them?
45:27Here's what I would say, Clay.
45:29One, continue to be great stewards over your finances.
45:32Continue to save. Continue to be faithful with your earnings and buy what you need,
45:38not just what you want.
45:39That's just from a stewardship principle standpoint, but also be encouraged to know that the
45:43president, myself, and others in this administration are taking bold steps to make sure that
45:49we're bringing down the cost of buying a home and raising the supply so that
45:55Americans, first -time homebuyers, and others will be able to afford a home in our
46:00great United States of America.
46:02So be encouraged, be great stewards, stay faithful, and understand that the policies that we're
46:08enacting will open the door for those first -time homebuyers.
46:12Outstanding stuff. He is Scott Turner, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
46:18Scott, we appreciate the time.
46:20Hey, thank you, Clay. I appreciate you.
46:22Man, that was a fun scene yesterday.
46:24I know, I sometimes wonder.
46:26I know Buck didn't watch because I was joking with him yesterday.
46:28He had a great book event.
46:30Manufacturing Delusion is the book.
46:31You should go buy a copy if you haven't already.
46:33He had a great event.
46:34All the podcast network came out in New York City.
46:37Producer Allie was there, our boss Julie Talbot.
46:40It was great. I'm sorry to miss it.
46:41But I was kidding with him because I said, hey, are you watching the NFL
46:46draft? I knew he wasn't going to watch.
46:47I bet over half of this audience watched at least some portion of the NFL
46:51draft last night. I know that Producer Allie would tell me that Rush, the audience
46:56way over indexed because Rush was a massive sports fan.
46:59He almost bought an NFL team back in the day.
47:02That would have been a pretty good investment, by the way, if it had happened,
47:04if the St. Louis Rams back then, if I remember correctly.
47:07And it was an awesome event.
47:09I just, I love the draft because I'd like to see the meritocracy work.
47:16Guys who have been working and their families that have been supporting them so hard
47:21and boom, overnight you become a millionaire.
47:25People say overnight, but really it's not overnight because you've been busting your butt for
47:31so long to get to that point.
47:33And I just love that writ large.
47:36The concept of people, most of whom didn't have a lot, suddenly having success based
47:43on the meritocracy and being rewarded for it.
47:45It never gets old to me.
47:47And I feel the same way about people building companies and selling them, buying your
47:50homes. I really think ultimately much of the culture surrounding the Republican and Democrat parties
47:58is about, do you believe in a fixed pie?
48:04Right? We had pizza, uh, last night, uh, pizza last night, Travis boys, everybody got
48:09together. We want to watch the NFL draft.
48:11Do you believe in a fixed pie?
48:13Right? There's one pizza and there are 12 slices.
48:16And if you got three boys like I do, uh, and you got a dad
48:20who still likes to eat quite a bit, there's not a lot to go around.
48:23Or do you believe in the idea of, we want to grow pies?
48:28If you believe in a fixed pie, then all you're ever going to do is
48:31fight and you're going to be bitter and you're going to be arguing over why
48:34somebody got something because that means you don't get it.
48:38That's really one way to look at the world.
48:40There's a limited amount of resources and I'm going to get mine.
48:44And if I don't, if I get mine, I got to knock you out of
48:48the way to get it.
48:49And I don't care. That's really to me what the Democrat party is.
48:53There's 12 pieces of pizza.
48:54That's all there's ever going to be.
48:56And if somebody got six, that means that somebody else didn't get any and I'm
49:00going to get mine. I'm not going to concern.
49:02That's one way to look at the world.
49:03The way that I've always looked at the world is let's make more pop.
49:06eyes. Let's actually create more for everyone and not fight over a limited resource.
49:13Let's make more for everybody.
49:15And that to me is the Republican Party.
49:17I think it really simplifies things when you think about it that way.
49:20Explains everything. Mom, Donnie, and what's going on in New York City right now?
49:24Oh, we got to go after the billionaires because they're taking too much.
49:28Well, what if they're creating way more and you're just not recognizing it?
49:32I think it's so significant.
49:33It's a way to think about the world.
49:35And once you see it, I believe that you will start to see that everywhere.
49:39There's limited resources or we're going to build more resources.
49:43Which way do you want to look at the world?
49:45You want to build more or do you want to worry about not building anything
49:50and try to shepherd who gets what?
49:53Democrats don't want to build.
49:54They just want to shepherd what exists.
49:56Republicans want to build new things.
49:57And I think President Trump is the ultimate builder in chief.
50:01Roof manufacturer. Speaking of building things, you might need a new roof.
50:04So many different damages can occur to a roof and they have a 25 point
50:08inspection they've developed over the years.
50:10And they'll let you know if your roof needs a replacement.
50:12They offer all kinds of options, including newer metal materials made to mimic the look
50:17of your current roof, whether that's dimensional shingles, wood shake, barrel tiles.
50:22Your new roof will look great, last up to two or three times longer than
50:26traditional shingle roofs with proper care and maintenance.
50:29Your new roof from Erie Home comes with a 50 year transferable warranty.
50:33So if you sell your home, you're providing even more value in the sales process.
50:37Schedule your free inspection at eriehome .com slash clay today and get a discount off
50:43the installation price. That's E -R -I -E home .com slash clay discount up to
50:49$1 ,200. Get hooked up today at eriehome .com slash clay.
50:55When hanging, you're not just learning, you're also laughing, playing buck.
51:00Just preset them on the iHeart app.
51:02This is an iHeart podcast.
51:04Guaranteed human.