Chapter 1: What are the expectations for President Trump's State of the Union address?
We are now part of the endless Friendly Fire broadcast live coverage of the State of the Union. That's right. By the time this is over, Andrew Klavan will be dead and Matt Walsh, his beard will be gray and he will have no hair. So, you know, a lot's going to happen in the next few years because that's how long we are slated to be together.
Basically, we are now doing the extended director's cut of all three versions of all three movies of Lord of the Rings, because that's what tonight is going to be. So we have with me, of course, Matt Walsh, who is suffering, and Andrew Klavan, who is likely to suffer with me even more. Somehow Matt begged out of part of the show, which I got to say, that's a smooth move. Yeah, I know.
I'm also confused as to how Matt is able to pull rank, and I'm stuck here all night with you, Klavan. as we go wall to wall on this coverage. It's a full-scale disaster. Folks, this is why you should subscribe for this kind of sparkling commentary. So I'll begin with Walsh because I'm going to get my money's worth out of Walsh. He usually speaks in these Friendly Fire episodes.
I actually got like, I don't know, 15 words. out of Walsh in a typical Friendly Fire episode, so we have to get all 15 of them in before the actual State of the Union address, which is to begin at 9 p.m. So, Matt Walsh, how pumped are you to be here for yet another State of the Union address?
And can we expect your excitement levels to achieve the highest form of excitement, or will your soul leave your body in excitement? How excited are you here? Well, I don't have a soul to begin with, so it can't leave my body. What I'm excited about is that when you guys come back to talk about and analyze the State Union, I'm going to be fast asleep in bed.
I don't know what story I gave them, but I'm just going to actually be asleep. That's the truth of it. Let's just be honest about it. Look, I mean, I feel the same way you do, Ben, about the State of the Union addresses, that obviously they're mostly pointless, and if there's any kind of movement in the polls, it will last for five seconds and it won't matter anymore.
So that's generally the case. I do think that... If there's any, you know, if I were to predict that anything out of this or if anything, you know, makes an impact out of this speech, I would guess it's likely to be less what Trump says in the speech and more the antics of the Democrats. And I guess there's going to be fewer of them in the room now because a lot of them are boycotting.
They're doing competing events. They've got their own competing State of the Union. I saw someone mention on Twitter, it's like, it's literally the office. I mean, it's like something Michael Scott would do. And that's what they're doing now. But I expect that we heard about some of the illegal immigrants that are going to be attending, you know, Ilhan Omar and others along with her.
And so, but I expect that the Democrats in the room, they're probably going to get a lot of antics out of that. And so if there's any, if anything really makes an impact, it's going to be them embarrassing themselves. And I think we're kind of at a point, like, I mean, the State of the Union has always been pointless. I think we're all on the same page.
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Chapter 2: How do the guests feel about the significance of the State of the Union?
You have not tasted any fish this good. It's 100% wild-caught, never farmed. And this means there are no antibiotics, GMOs, or additives. Just clean, real fish that support healthy oceans and fishing communities. I mean, you're allowed to eat fish, right, Ben? Yes, I am allowed to eat fish. That is the thing that I'm allowed to eat.
But honestly, the person in my office, because of kosher reasons, who has been enjoying the fish is producer Phil, who's looking fit as a fiddle and ready for love, as they say. Well, apparently it is sustainably sourced, wild caught from Alaska. Every order supports sustainable harvesting practices, and your membership delivers flexible shipments, expert tips, and truly feel-good seafood.
Matt, I believe that you also are a fisherman. I'm surrounded by men of the wilderness. Matt, talk about how good this seafood is. Yes, Ben. That's correct. I also enjoy fishing. It's one of my favorite things to do. And when I like to catch fish, but I can catch fish, but I prefer to have them sent to me. It's a lot easier that way. And I don't have to prepare it either.
Well, thank you for that sterling endorsement, Matt Walsh. Not all fish are the same. Get seafood you can trust. Head on over to wildalaskan.com slash friendlyfire for $35 off your first box of premium wild-caught seafood. That's wildalaskan.com slash friendlyfire for $35 off your first order. Thanks to Wild Alaskan Company for sponsoring this episode of Friendly Fire.
Okay, so, Andrew, I was calling on you, and then I immediately shifted into the way that we make money, of course, which is our ads.
So I'm going to throw it back to you because as the hours tick down on your life and you realize that you're going to have to spend the next several hours with me listening to an interminable address interrupted 1,273 times by applause, what are your last thoughts on this earth? I had barreling into infinity.
You know, what I like about the Democrats is the last time there was a State of the Union, they behaved so badly that even they must have felt if they have the capacity for shame, they must have felt a little bit of shame. I mean, you know, Trump was praising a child with cancer and they sat on their hands. I mean, they just could not they couldn't applaud for anything at all.
So the question was, they must have gathered together and thought, can we act like adults who respect our country and respect our fellow countrymen, taken a vote and said, no, we can't. So it's not gonna show up at all. They're gonna sit at the children's table where you can throw food until mommy finds out. You can just play around and pretend that you're not part of the government.
And I think that that's actually the state we're in. I think it is an amazing thing that we have reached a place where we have two major parties One of them is kind of incompetent, the Republicans, but the other one is actually out to destroy the country.
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Chapter 3: What controversial moments occurred during the speech?
You're advising the president for a moment. You're writing his speech. What do you tell him to do? Well, first I would tell them, get a better advisor, because I'm the worst person you could probably ask this question to. And I will say that I do enjoy that this is the most cynical and depressing intro to a State of the Union. And we've given some bad ones. It just gets worse every year.
But for good reason. No, the thing is, and it's kind of funny because although we feel this way about the State of the Union, I mean, Trump does have actually things to celebrate. He has real achievements. I mean, let's start with the fact that closing down the southern border is a real significant historic achievement that has made America a better place. Doesn't solve all of our problems.
But it's something that no president was able to do before him. And that's not his only achievement. So he's got real things to talk about, real things that he can kind of brag about. And so if I'm advising him, it's real simple. Just focus on those things. I mean, yeah, the great patriotic moments, talking about the Olympics, going to the hockey team, that's all great.
But talk about the things that you've achieved, the real things. Yeah, we want to talk about the future also. What do you want to do in the future? But one of the... Part of the point of the State Union is supposed to be here. This is where we are right now. This is the state of things right now.
So it's kind of also a review of the past year and being able to highlight those things and also, again, being able to contrast that with how the Democrats react to it. I mean, politically, that's going to be very powerful because I think that As you mentioned, we saw this last year in the room, that they refused to applaud anything. It didn't matter what he said.
And so I would guess, I mean, this is one prediction I'll make, is that when he has the line about political violence, condemning political violence, and he mentions Erica, I'm gonna guess that a lot of Democrats are not gonna applaud that because they're gonna perceive that- I agree.
correctly in a lot of ways as a repudiation of them because all the political violence is coming from the left and these are the people that have explicitly or implicitly encouraged it. So I think even something like that, we're not gonna get a unified response and that will tell the American people a lot, I think. So Drew, I'm gonna ask you the same question.
You're now advising the president, and aside from telling him that he probably should not say that the Supreme Court is in the pay of a foreign power, and that also he's amazing at reading legal opinions, what else would you tell the president to highlight? I think a key thing here, you know, the polls are really bad for the president.
People are actually saying that they were better off a year ago. And it's hard for me to see how that could possibly be true. I mean, not only is the border closed, crime is down, drug use is down, imports of drugs are down. All of these things have actually improved, but it's got to be about the economy and I think the affordability question.
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Chapter 4: How did the Democrats respond to Trump's remarks?
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OK, so to take it away from the State of the Union for just a second and to take it toward what I think everybody really has their eye on, which is the midterm elections. So, Matt, I want to get your take on where you think we are with the midterms, what to expect. And again, more broadly, how can the president kind of shift the momentum and turn things around?
Well, I think it's everything we've been covering. People, there's a perception in America that, as we've talked about in the polls, that we're sort of worse off than we were a year ago. I think that that is objectively just not actually true. But that's the perception people have. And elections are all perception. Politics is all perception. It's all that matters.
And so you need to change that perception. And, you know... highlighting all the wins is one way to do it. I think the messaging on that, it's not all about messaging, but the messaging on that obviously has not been clear enough.
I mean, if we can agree that things are, by almost every metric, things actually are not worse now than they were under Biden, if we can agree on that, and yet there's this perception that it is, then it's hard for me to see that as anything but a messaging failure. What else can we call that? And-
So I think that's gonna be the key, not just in the State of the Union, but going forward into the midterm elections is a kind of clear, coherent, unified message addressing that. Yeah, I think one of the things, Drew, and I wanna get your take on this, were it to be I advising the administration, the thing I've been saying forever All Americans want is normalcy. That's all they want.
They just want things to be quiet and normal. That's all. And so if you are able for five seconds to deploy people in your administration who are effective at making things be quiet and normal, this means Tom Homan and not, for example, Kristi Noem at DHS. This means, for example, Scott Besant at Treasury and not Howard Lutnick over at Commerce. It means that if you deploy people
who are pros, Marco Rubio in the State Department, who's doing a fabulous job. If you deploy the pros and you tell the American people, listen, we're taking mainstream normie positions that 65%, 70% of the American public agrees with, like deport criminal illegal immigrants. And Democrats are out there unified, ice out. That, to me, has always been the Trump pitch.
And the problem for, I think, President Trump has always been that the actual policy that he effectuates is at war with his rhetoric. Because the policy has always, this kind of 65% policy, and he has a really good finger on the pulse of what that feels like, which is why he shifts and he moves when he feels like he doesn't have the pulse.
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Chapter 5: What were the key highlights of Trump's speech?
So there's always a new normal. And so if there's always a new normal, it means that there's never a normal at all. And so Democrats are just not... just not capable of it. I mean, they literally march under a banner that says, dismantle. They are the party. They are the side that uses a word like dismantle in a positive way. Conservatives almost never do that.
And what are they always trying to dismantle? It's always like fundamental aspects of human society, nuclear family, and so on. Human nature, too. Right, exactly. So they can't do that. They can talk about it, but they can't actually do it. It's totally against their political project. And Republicans can, and so that's an advantage, and that's maybe something that Trump could try to highlight.
We do have some people arriving at the State of the Union address. Again, many Democrats are not showing up tonight. I wish I had not showed up tonight, but here we are all together suffering through this together. There are some old people. You can see them. I'm not talking about Clavin again. Those are some old people who people elected. I don't know why.
You know, it's just the way this thing works. This elected government of ours is going so well. And I believe that's Senators McCormick and Tim Sheehy. McCormick, of course, from Pennsylvania. Tim Sheehy from Montana. And then there are a bunch of people I don't recognize. So, you know, I'm doing a great job. You know, my color commentary here. Wait until I do tennis.
He hits the ball and then he also hits the ball. Well, you know, I know that Kalshi, our sponsor, also has a rundown on what Trump is going to say during the State of the Union. If you are feeling lucky and inspired, you can get into the action yourself with the help of our sponsors over at Kalshi. You can head on over to Kalshi.com slash Friendly Fire.
Prediction markets are forecasting the odds of President Trump saying words like Somalis, ballroom, fake news, and hoax. Man, of those, I feel like there's also some odds on surprise guests. I feel like of those words, I'm going to go like, I'm going to go...
hoax i feel like hoaxes is always a good standby a prediction bonanza unseen since the super bowl so definitely check it out right now some of the markets what will trump say during the state of the union So as I say, some of those words will undoubtedly come up. I believe that there is, yeah, ballroom is at 50-some percent. Hoax is at 50-some percent.
People are very optimistic about him saying words. So that's exciting news from our friends over at Geology. That might improve the state of the union. Yeah, exactly. There's also a market, a prediction market, on who is going to attend the state of the union. No points for Macho Man Randy Savage. I don't know, guys. I'm punch drunk already. We haven't even begun this thing yet.
If you have any idea where to go from here, you let me know. This is why Knowles usually runs Friendly Fire, because believe it or not, it's the only thing he is more professional at than I. But the reason Knowles is not with us is because Knowles is actually at the State of the Union address, so is Isabel Brown. Oh, they have sunk in the State of the Union.
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Chapter 6: How does the speech impact the upcoming midterm elections?
I know, I know. You got to work for your hatred. Well, we are awaiting the president entering the chamber for the State of the Union when that happens. We are going to obviously go to the State of the Union. You can watch it live here and stick with us.
And then afterward, stick around because Matt is going to go to sleep, but the rest of us are going to stay here and suffer through this interminable evening with you. There will be drinks. There won't be hard drugs because I know that there are law enforcement authorities watching. We will be here back with you on the other end for all of our hot takes.
Michael Knowles will somehow make his way to a place where we can talk to him. God love us all and others. A wild cast of luminaries will be joining us post the State of the Union after the president speaks, which may or may not end anytime in the future. So we still have people who are entering the chamber. This is happening slowly. Matt and I were there last year.
Matt, it was like 20 minutes late, right? It was 15, 20 minutes late, something like that, 10 minutes late. It took a while.
yeah and the speech was very very long it was you can't you can't get up to use the bathroom yes at any point which i start i started to worry about that a little bit about about two-thirds of the way through i'm just like uh it's not but that's even rougher for the president i've always wondered what what do you do if you're the president given the speech and you gotta use the bathroom these are these are the questions that are never asked
The Mike Mulligan and the steam shovel questions. And obviously the president has tremendous stamina. He loves going on stem winders at these things. And yeah, I mean, I think that that caffing is not an inappropriate solution for some people are in that room pretty obviously. This is the worst commentator. You know what, Drew? You take the lead, all right? It's all you.
Let's see you do better, Drew. Hypercritical. Let's talk. Picayune. Let's talk about movies. Nitpicking over here. What movies are we going to talk about? Wuthering Heights? Wuthering Heights? Oh, my God. By the way, totally good. It was horrific. You know, the book isn't that good. I mean, I've always... Oh, my God. That's where you're going to? I've always been a big Jane Eyre fan.
I've never thought that Wuthering Heights was that good a book. Okay, well, that was a really interesting conversation. By the way, we're building something bigger than just another news outlet. Daily Wire Plus gives you live uncensored shows every day. You can see why normally we'd like to censor them because of this.
Breaking news in real time and investigative journalism that gives you the real story. No algorithms deciding what you get. No outside pressure telling us what to say. And if you believe in that mission, head on over to dailywire.com. Become a member today. I can't believe that your take on Wuthering Heights, Drew, is that you don't like the book. I haven't seen the movie.
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Chapter 7: What reactions did the guests have to the President's performance?
He's he's shaking the hands of the Supreme Court justices. He likes playing duck duck goose with the Supreme Court justices, basically. And now he is greeting the general of the the chiefs of staff or the armed forces of the military, and making his way up onto the podium. Democrats are standing there, not clapping.
You can see Elizabeth Warren in the background as non-moving as the statue we have of her in our studios. And the president is making his way up to the podium right now. He is getting a big ovation from the Republican side of the aisle, of course. J.D. Vance behind him, the vice president, the Speaker of the House behind him as well. The president is approaching the microphone.
He's going to wave to the room a little bit. I assume that in a couple of moments, he will begin to speak. Everyone on the Republican side of the aisle, on their feet, up to and including the rafters, the Trump family, which of course is very large, is up in the rafters cheering. You can see
There's tremendous enthusiasm from the Republican side of the aisle and the President pointing to members of the crowd, clapping as he prepares to walk forward to the speech. Again, one of the benefits of having Mike Johnson behind the President is that he won't be ripping up the President's speech in the immediate aftermath of the State of the Union address.
The President turning to the Vice President as well as the Speaker. In just a moment, he will be approaching the microphone to begin speaking. In just a moment, we're going to go live to the President of the United States in the room. Pretty long ovation here for the President. It's good color commentary, Ben. Thank you. I've got a lot of respect.
I have more respect now for the cable news people that they can just kind of wing it and say nothing. Wing it over these moments. Listen, dude, you know what? I have a pathological aversion to saying nothing, and they put me on the air here, and they're like, you know what, Phil? 20 minutes while he walks down a hall. I do not have that. I don't have that aversion at all. I noticed.
Somebody's got to fill the time, my dude. And someone, one of the three of us, will just sit there for long periods of time saying nothing quite comfortably. And somebody's got to say something. All right, finally. Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the President of the United States. Well, thank you very much, everybody. It's really an honor.
Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance. Today, our border is secure. Our spirit is restored. Inflation is plummeting. Incomes are rising fast. The roaring economy is roaring like never before. and our enemies are scared, our military and police are stacked, and America is respected again, perhaps like never before. The stock market has set 53 all-time record highs since the election.
Think of that. One year. boosting pensions, 401 s, and retirement accounts for the millions and millions of Americans. They're all gaining. Everybody is up, way up. In four long years, the last administration got less than $1 trillion in new investment in the United States. And when I say less, substantially less.
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the speech for the future of American politics?
Members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information. They stood up for that. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she's here? Doubt it. Pass the Stop Insider Trading Act without delay. But when it comes to the corruption that is plundering, really, it's plundering America, there's been no more stunning example than Minnesota.
where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American taxpayer. Oh, we have all the information. And in actuality, the number is much higher than that. And California, Massachusetts, Maine, and many other states are even worse. This is the kind of corruption that shreds the fabric of a nation, and we are working on it like you wouldn't believe.
So tonight, although... Started four months ago, I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President J.D. Vance. The only thing standing between Americans and a wide-open border right now is President Donald J. Trump and our great Republican patriots in Congress. Thank you. Thank you. The American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.
Isn't that a shame? You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself. That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens.
In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country, they're blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of yourselves. And no more crooked mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military, or travel. None. And even the new communist mayor of New York City. I think he's a nice guy, actually. I speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy.
Just said they want people to shovel snow. They got hit hard. Wants them to shovel snow. But if you apply for that job, you need to show two original forms of ID and a Social Security card. Yet they don't want identification for the greatest privilege of them all, voting in America. No, it's no good. And here is one more opportunity to show common sense in government.
In the gallery tonight are Sage Blair and her mother, Michelle. In 2021, Sage was 14 when school officials in Virginia sought to socially transition her to a new gender, treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents. These people are crazy, I'm telling you. They're crazy. My great friend, Charlie Kirk, a great guy, great man.
So, last year, Charlie was violently murdered by an assassin and martyred, really, martyred for his beliefs. His wonderful wife, Erica, is with us tonight. Erica, please stand. Thank you, Erica. Been through a lot. In Charlie's memory, we must all come together to reaffirm that America is one nation under God, and we must totally reject political violence of any kind.
Last summer, 23-year-old Irina was riding home on the train when a deranged monster who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no cash bail, stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body. No one will ever forget. There were people on that train.
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