It's only been 3 weeks of Donald Trump's second presidency and A LOT has changed! Glenn reviews some of the biggest wins that we've seen in the past few days: RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard were confirmed as members of Trump's cabinet, Kash Patel is one step closer to being FBI Director, Trump has called for “fair and reciprocal” tariffs on US trade partners, DOGE is preparing to audit the IRS, and the list goes on!
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Let's see what the president has been up to in the last 24 hours.
Does this guy sleep? What's Melania doing for Valentine's Day today?
STU: One thing. When he's the president of the United States, is he thinking about that type of thing?
GLENN: No. He has people think about it. People who have people.
STU: Uh-huh.
GLENN: Yeah, people who have people. Usually, maybe like, maybe his son. Like, Dad. Maybe you should carve out a couple of hours tonight.
Oh, crap. I didn't even. You're president. I think I can make a few calls.
STU: I feel like, it's interesting that we just have a president that is awake, like every day. He seems to wake up. We see him places. Have you noticed this? I don't know if you've noticed this at all. But current president of the United States, we see him out doing things. Isn't that weird?
I feel like it's weird.
I don't know about this system we have, where the president is awake every day. It's changing our traditions, Glenn. I'm concerned about it.
GLENN: It is. It is. Well, Barack knows. We have to change our --
STU: That's true. Trump has kind of dropped the hammer on the rest of the world with tariffs. And I kind of like this tariff. Whatever they charge us, we're going to charge them.
STU: Reciprocal tariffs.
GLENN: Reciprocal tariffs. That's fair. We're not going to charge you -- I mean, maybe China would.
But we will not charge you more than you charge us. You charge us something. We'll charge you.
I think that's good!
STU: Yeah, it's interesting. It certainly seems fair. Right? Like, don't fire up.
Because the rest of the world loves tariffs. They love tariffs more than we love tariffs, even though we --
GLENN: I don't love tariffs.
STU: I don't love them at all.
Trump does love them. We've talked to him even in private conversations. By the way, in case you're wondering, is he just saying this just for the cameras? No. He really loves them. He loves tariffs. I don't agree with him on that policy. Though, he's used it to great effect recently.
That being said, I mean, if someone started charging you 100 percent tariff on a particular item, picking that same item and putting a tariff, 175 percent, certainly is fair. Now, of course, the reason we import things typically is because we don't have them here.
GLENN: Right! But not necessarily, like cars. Cars. Europe charges us a 10 percent tariff to send a Ford over.
And they charge -- we charge them 2 percent to send a Mercedes. I mean, what's fair about that?
STU: Now, again, one of the things that's fair about that. Is it's not paying an extra 8 percent on a car. We get a benefit of that, as a consumer.
That if we want to buy a European car, we will pay a little bit less and now we'll pay a little bit more. So there is a penalty to that.
However, it is certainly fair. The word "fair," I think applies when it comes to nation-to-nation relation.
And one of the things we've liked about having these lower tariffs on our side is getting lower prices for our consumers.
GLENN: Correct.
STU: And so they're -- and as Trump has discussed, he's been very up front with us. There will be pain with these policies. But long-term, we think it's worth it.
And that's really where the rubber meets the road.
GLENN: Okay. So now, everybody is very, very upset about Donald Trump signing off on DOGE and the audit of the IRS.
Now, I do have to question your sanity when you're against the audit of the IRS.
STU: You seem to be for audits. You can't audit them?
GLENN: Yeah. Who do you have to be, to be against an audit of the IRS, and bring every single receipt you have! I want to see every receipt. Oh, I want to help them.
STU: By the way, Glenn, I work with you.
GLENN: Uh-huh.
STU: My job is -- and for multiple decades now, has to be -- become closely associated with Glenn Beck.
GLENN: Yeah, it's good.
STU: Oh, the perks. The benefits. Oh, gosh, I can't even count them!
GLENN: Yeah. Hmm.
STU: Yet, somehow, I made it through the entire Barack Obama administration. And the entire Joe Biden administration.
GLENN: Yeah!
STU: Without getting audited.
GLENN: Yeah. Not me.
STU: No. I know. I remember. And yet what about happens two weeks ago? I get a letter with the IRS, with Trump in office. That I'm getting audited.
And I don't know if this is just a parting gift from the Biden administration. How is that happening?
GLENN: That's what I'm saying. Thank God somebody noticed your shadiness. Somebody finally noticed. He's very shady. He's very shady.
You know, the good thing is, both of us stay -- to our accountants, we always say the same thing. Anybody who is preparing our taxes. Stay way away from the line.
STU: Yes. 100 percent.
GLENN: When in doubt, leave it out.
STU: Still, it's incredibly frustrating. We were talking to Alan Dershowitz, I have every single book -- everything -- yeah. Sure. Somewhere, I have every receipt from 2022. I'm sure.
But, I mean, the -- this is this relationship that we have with the government, that is this adversarial torture fest, that we pay for every year. Oh, gosh. I can't wait to pay by taxes.
Maybe I'll get a refund. Maybe they'll give me some of the money that is mine, back to me, multiple months later.
GLENN: I believe that's actually what happened to me.
I believe they owed me money.
STU: After the audit. Yeah.
GLENN: I stayed away from the line.
STU: That's what you have to be.
GLENN: You know, jail time does not sound good to me. In any way, shape or form.
STU: The wrong IRS agent, that doesn't like your show, happens to be doing it, well, guess what happens? They push it beyond the limits of normalcy. So the good senator and common sense-filled senator from Oregon, Ron Wyden said, this means Musk's henchmen are in a position to dig through a trove of data about every taxpayer in America.
Wait. What? You mean like the IRS does?
(laughter)
STU: What core of government function are you guys talking about?
GLENN: No, what's up with that? And it could be the very reason behind possible delays, in people receiving their tax refunds for 2024.
What a scare tactic.
STU: Hmm.
GLENN: These guys are so freaked out about Donald Trump. I mean, you know, the one thing that happened yesterday, that everybody should recognize. Mitch McConnell was alone. He was alone.
STU: That's huge.
GLENN: That's gigantic.
STU: On two votes. Tulsi and RFK!
GLENN: I know. I know.
STU: And before this, if McConnell said, hey, this is where I'm going, he would always have a bunch of buddies that would come with him. His closest friends. It would always do that.
GLENN: It's weird, you cut off the money, and things change.
STU: Yeah, he no longer has the leadership. He no longer has control of that cash. All of a sudden, he's a lonesome dove.
GLENN: Yeah!
So let me just ask -- I want to ask, are you tired of winning? Let me just give you the winning streak so far number Congress. Marco Rubio, voted to be confirmed, 99 to zero. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, confirmed, 68 to 29.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, seventy-nine to 18. Brook Rollins, Secretary of Agriculture, 72 to 28.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, seventy-seven to 22. Pam Bondi, 54 to 46. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner, 55 to 44.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, 59 to 38. Doug Collins Veterans Affairs, seventy-seven to 23. Kristi Noem.
Secretary of Homeland Security, 59 to 34. Lee Zeldin became the EPA administrator 56 by 42.
I have to tell you, Lee Zeldin, there's some stuff he did yesterday, that you're like, holy cow.
STU: Yeah, I have high hopes for the him. He's off to a very good start.
GLENN: Yeah, Russ Vought, who I just absolutely love. Director Office Management and Budget. He's done a lot of incredible things this week. 53 to 47.
John Ratcliff, confirmed as CIA director, 74 to 25. Tulsi Gabbard and RFK were confirmed yesterday. You have Kash Patel who got out of the committee and is going to be voted on early next week. And, of course, you have Pete Hegseth. I mean, and Mitch McConnell, standing there alone, all day yesterday.
This is good. Now, the president did a couple of other things yesterday, that are ground-breaking. But we need to make sure Congress passes all of these things as laws.
And they're not just executive order.
And that's going to require us to keep the heat on Congress. And they're working on the budget.
Congress just put together their budget for next year.
The Senate is squealing like stuck little pigs.
But we need to get them to pass in one bill. And you're going to get some crap in that one bill, I'm sure. But you have -- you really have a hard time, going to get two bills through on reconciliation.
So we need it in one bill.