- 20 minutes 47 secondsPlans A, B & C: Is Trump Planning to Weaponize the National Guard, ICE, and the Ballot Box This Fall? And This Summer?
Clayton as DNI, DOJ/Trump’s $1.8B slush fund lives, Trump vs Platner, and Iran and inflation.
It has been a wild, weird, harrowing week — Iran, ICE in Minneapolis, a UFC fight at the White House, the Knicks in the playoffs, and a president who keeps telling you out loud what he plans to do next. In this special Friday pop-media episode, Paul Rieckhoff brings you his weekly conversation from MS Now and breaks down what he's calling Trump's Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C: weaponize the National Guard, weaponize ICE, and weaponize the ballot box. It's not speculation. Trump has said it. Steve Bannon has said it. The reporting backs it up. And Congress — by Paul's read — has stopped exactly nothing.
This is a no-BS briefing for the angry middle. Paul connects the dots between the resurrected payout scheme for January 6th defendants, the ICE escalation in blue cities, the Iran war driving gas prices through the roof, and the coming primary fights from Maine to Nebraska to Montana where independent veterans are stepping up where Democrats can't. He's blunt about the Democratic brand problem, blunt about the Republican capitulation, and clear about where the circuit breaker actually lives: election integrity, the courts, Congress, and an angry middle that refuses to check out for the summer.
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12 June 2026, 10:16 pm - 32 minutes 50 secondsHoly Sh*T, Knicks! Trump: “I Love Inflation.” Markwayne Mullins and Ice Vs Mamdani.
Iran Hits Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan. Trump vs Gov Wes Moore in Golf. World Cup Begins and Team USA Plays Tomorrow!
Trump told a room full of Americans he "loves inflation" — while working families are getting strangled at the grocery store and the gas pump. Meanwhile, DHS Director Markwayne Mullin is openly fantasizing about siccing ICE on New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, treating federal immigration enforcement like a personal political weapon. This is what the rigged two-party system looks like when the masks slip: a billionaire class that profits from your pain and a MAGA machine that uses federal agencies as enforcers. Paul Rieckhoff cuts through it with a no-BS solo briefing built for the 90 million independent voters who are sick of being lied to by both sides.
This episode moves fast — from the economic gaslighting coming out of the White House, to the constitutional alarm bells ringing over ICE being deployed as a political cudgel, to a genuine moment of American unity courtesy of the New York Knicks. Paul connects the dots between cultural touchstones and political rot, lays out what the angry middle should actually be watching, and points to where righteous anger can be translated into real-world impact. If you want intelligence-grade analysis instead of cable-news theater, this is your morning briefing.
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12 June 2026, 2:15 am - 30 minutes 22 secondsIs NYC’s Knicks Violence a Harbinger of What’s to Come This Summer? Hegseth Visits GitMo Because Cuba is Next. Trump Launches More Strikes on Iran.
Far Left & Right Dominate Another Rigged Primary Day. Knicks/Spurs Back at MSG. Hilton Beats Steyer in CA. Jimi Hendrix Gets His Way.
It's a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Wednesday and Paul is sounding the alarm. Game four of the NBA Finals tips off tonight at Madison Square Garden, but the real story is bigger than basketball. A Spurs fan got jumped in New York. Young men across America are jobless, hopeless, and furious. Trump has already named New York and Chicago as cities he wants to send troops into. Steve Bannon is calling ICE airport operations a dress rehearsal for the fall elections. And Pete Hegseth just flew to Gitmo with conspiracy-pusher Laura Loomer in tow — not the Washington Post, not even Fox — because Cuba is next and they aren't even hiding it.
Paul connects the dots between a potentially violent summer at home, CENTCOM's ongoing strikes inside Iran, the rigged primary system that just disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of independents in California and Maine, and the open primaries fight quietly unfolding in Lower Manhattan under Mamdani's new charter commission. This is a no-BS warning to the angry middle: stay out of the fistfights, stay out of the extremist groups, look out for the young men in your life, and refuse to give Trump the excuse he's desperate for. Righteous anger, channeled into real impact. Stay vigilant.
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10 June 2026, 9:22 pm - 34 minutes 4 secondsTrump Booed Loudly at NBA Finals at MSG. US Apache Shot Down By Iran. ME, NV, SC, ND Primaries.
900K Independents Blocked Out. Spencer Pratt is Out in LA. Trump Cries Foul. America 250 is Bigger Than Trump.
Trump showed up at Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden and got booed loud enough that he had to lie about it on the tarmac. Hours later, news broke that an Iranian drone shot down a US Army Apache gunship off the coast of Oman — the pilots rescued, in a first-of-its-kind operation, by an American sea drone. And while the MAGA machine drags the NBA, the UFC, and America 250 into its political circus, four states are running primaries today that disenfranchise nearly a million independent voters, including roughly 450,000 independent veterans in Nevada alone. Paul Rieckhoff is solo on the mic for episode 545, delivering the kind of no-BS morning briefing the cable nets won't.
This one moves fast and hits hard: drone warfare as the new normal in Iran and Ukraine, the difference between a closed primary, an open party primary, and the all-candidate open primary that actually respects independents, the Graham Plattner problem in Maine, Trump previewing his attack on November's election results, and a French flyover at the Statue of Liberty that's a reminder America 250 doesn't belong to Trump. If you're tired of partisans weaponizing every NBA scuffle and every foreign policy crisis, this is the briefing that meets the moment — righteous anger, rigorous analysis, and a path forward.
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10 June 2026, 12:16 am - 30 minutes 35 secondsTrump Invades The The NBA Finals. Politics and Sports: It’s Only Gonna Get Worse.
Big Trump Immigration Bill Funded. Remembering D-Day. As Hegseth Contaminates That Too. Iran and Israel Back at It. Achilles Strong in Idaho. 7’4 Mayor Greg Ostertag (I). The Bears are Leaving Chicago?!?
New York City is buzzing. For the first time since 1999, the NBA finals are back at Madison Square Garden, and Fat Joe says it's the greatest unification the city has seen since 9/11. Then Trump announced he's coming — and everything he touches suffers. No sitting president has ever crashed an NBA finals game, for good reason: the security footprint swallows the event, the watch parties outside the Garden get shut down, and the working-class fans who can't afford an $8,000 nosebleed seat get pushed out of their own city's celebration. Paul Rieckhoff opens Manosphere Monday solo with a no-BS breakdown of why this is the new normal — UFC at the White House, the World Cup, the 2028 Olympics — and why the last island of American culture just got contaminated.
From there, the briefing widens: Pete Hegseth turning the 82nd anniversary of D-Day into an anti-immigration grievance speech, Kristen Welker revealing Trump for who he is on Meet the Press, the Iran-Israel ceasefire that isn't a ceasefire, a direct Iranian missile hit on the main US air command center in Qatar that the government still won't talk about, $70 billion in new ICE funding rolling toward the House, and the independent veteran candidates — Achilles, Bodnar, Osborn — quietly running the most underreported political story in America. Plus a closing note on Greg Ostertag, the seven-foot NBA legend who just won a mayor's race in Mount Vernon, Texas — as an independent. Joy is resistance. So is vigilance.
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8 June 2026, 10:52 pm - 7 minutes 38 seconds“He Has No Intelligence.” Congress Finally Pushes Back On Trump’s Forever War. The Unsafe Summer Continues — Ebola, Iran, And An Unqualified DNI.
Congress is finally showing a spine. After months of all gas and no brakes, the unauthorized Iran war has become the breaking point — and for the first time in this administration, Republicans, Democrats, and the Angry Middle in between are unified in opposition. The country does not want another regime-change war. The country does not want a new forever war. And the politicians, as usual, are behind the people they claim to lead. Paul Rieckhoff lays out why this moment matters and why the pushback can't stop at Iran when Cuba, Greenland, and Mexico are already in the rhetorical crosshairs.
Then there's the deeper rot. The nominee to run the DNI — the traffic cop for every piece of intelligence flowing from our allies and our own agencies — has no experience and, in Paul's read, no intelligence. Scott Bessent is brawling with Bill Pulte on Capitol Hill. Ebola is spreading in Africa. Putin is slamming into Ukraine. Iran is hitting Kuwait. The World Cup is coming to American soil with a national security apparatus staffed by wannabe tough guys and unqualified loyalists. Americans feel less safe because they are less safe — and this briefing connects every dot.
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8 June 2026, 10:07 am - 11 minutes 12 secondsThe Most Dangerous Summer. Iran, Ukraine, Ebola, And The World Cup.
The Most Dangerous Summer. Iran, Ukraine, Ebola, And The World Cup.
Rubio Says The War Is Over - Who Won? Bessent’s “Short-Term Blip” Is Bs.
The lid is blown off. Secretary of State Marco Rubio went up to Capitol Hill to declare victory over Iran — defense industrial base destroyed, missile launchers gutted, conventional navy wiped out — and within 24 hours Tehran hit the Kuwaiti airport. That's the summer we're walking into. Paul Rieckhoff breaks it all down from the MSNBC desk: the war that supposedly isn't a war, the war powers vote that may or may not matter, and a White House that has stopped pretending Congress exists. This is exactly the moment the rigged two-party system was built to obscure — and exactly the moment the Angry Middle needs the no-BS briefing.
From there the conversation widens into the full threat picture: Putin slamming Ukraine, an Ebola outbreak in Africa, the World Cup and America 250 about to flood the homeland with soft targets, and a Treasury Secretary telling working families that grocery prices are a "short-term blip." Paul names the Republicans who are finally breaking from Trump now that the $1.8 billion insurrectionist slush fund got killed, the independent veterans like Dan Osborn making real ground in Nebraska and Montana, and the LA mayor's race where running against the entire system is suddenly the winning play. If you've been waiting for someone to connect Iran, gas prices, and a lame-duck presidency in one rigorous briefing — this is it.
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5 June 2026, 7:01 pm - 43 minutes 21 secondsHouse Finally Votes No on Iran. And Yes on Ukraine. Democrats Have a Graham Platner Problem.
Pentagon Hires Jan 6 Insurrectionist. A Soldier Died in Iraq and Nobody Noticed. CBS Fires Scott Pelley. Trump’s UFC Event is Off The Rails. Knicks Win!!
The House finally did its job. By a 215-208 vote on the War Powers Act and a 218-204 vote authorizing $8 billion in military financing for Ukraine, Congress this week told Trump no on Iran and yes on Kyiv. It's shamefully overdue, it's mostly symbolic on Iran, and it took a handful of Republicans with actual integrity — Fitzpatrick, Massie, Barrett, Davidson, and Don Bacon among them — to make it happen. But on day 1559 of Russia's full-scale invasion, with more than 700 Ukrainian children dead and an American sergeant just killed in a training accident in Iraq that almost nobody noticed, this is the closest thing to good news Washington has produced in months.
In this solo briefing, Paul walks through the votes, the cost, and the rot underneath them: a convicted January 6th rioter now assigned to the Pentagon's irregular warfare and counterterrorism section, the firing of Scott Pelley and the slow death of 60 Minutes, the disappearance of Tulsi Gabbard, the UFC turning into a political circus, and the Maine Senate race where Graham Platner's Totenkopf tattoo and a damning New York Times report have Democrats doing their best Biden 2.0 impression. He closes with Karen Lee Matthews' honorable independent run in California's 23rd, a reminder of where TAPS and the 988 crisis line fit in, and why the Knicks winning Game One actually matters for a country that desperately needs something to root for together.
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5 June 2026, 1:06 am - 40 minutes 39 secondsIs Montana Ground Zero for Independents? From Baghdad to the Ballot: Army Doc Runs for Congress. Independent Veteran for US House in Montana’s 2nd - Michael Eisenhauer.
90 Days In - Is The Iran War Illegal? RFK & Hegseth Unfit for Office? Elk Camps & the Rural Health Care Crisis.
The day after Montana's 2026 primary, Paul sits down with Colonel Mike Eisenhauer — a 25-year Army veteran, Bronze Star recipient, and practicing interventional cardiologist who is now running as an independent for Congress (https://eisenhauerforcongress.com/) in Montana's massive 2nd District. While the Republican incumbent ran unopposed and three Democrats fought over a primary their party hasn't won statewide in decades, Eisenhauer was outside the rigged two-party system entirely, gathering nearly 13,000 verified signatures to earn his spot on the November ballot. This is what it actually takes to break through when the machine is designed to keep you out.
The conversation covers the affordability crisis crushing Montana families, the gutting of rural healthcare under the so-called big beautiful bill, the illegal and unauthorized war in Iran, congressional abdication under the War Powers Act, and why Eisenhauer — alongside Green Beret Seth Bodnar's Senate run — may be proof that Montana is ground zero for the independent movement. Paul and Mike also get into RFK Jr., right-to-repair, Trump accountability, the day after a huge primary day, the NBA Finals and why a doctor's diagnostic framework might be exactly what a broken Congress needs.
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3 June 2026, 8:21 pm - 29 minutes 58 secondsA Massive Primary Day. 2.5 Million Independents Shut Out. Trump Drops Plan to Payout Insurrectionists.
Brutal Russian Attack Hits Kyiv. Tulsi Gabbard’s Replacement Has No Experience. Mamdani Cancels Bedtime.
It's primary day in California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota — and depending on your zip code, you either get a real vote or you get told to sit down and shut up. Paul Rieckhoff cuts through the noise on the biggest primary day of the cycle so far, breaking down why California's open primary is what real democracy looks like, why closed primaries in places like New Jersey and New York are a rigged scam dressed up in public money, and why 17 million independents across 16 states are once again being locked out of the elections their taxes fund. He names names: Karen Matthews in CA-23, Seth Bodnar going independent in Montana, Rebecca Bennett taking on the missing-in-action Tom Kean Jr., Deb Haaland in New Mexico, and the partisan hacks — Brad Lander chief among them — who say they love democracy but fight open primaries every step of the way.
Then the briefing goes wider. Trump just lost a Senate fight over an outrageous $1.8 billion slush fund to pay out January 6th insurrectionists and Oath Keepers — proof that pressure works when even moderate Republicans break ranks. But he's already nominated Bill Pulte, a home-building heir with zero intelligence experience, to replace Tulsi Gabbard at DNI. Overnight, Russia killed a three-year-old boy in Dnipro after the U.S. delayed air defense missiles to Ukraine. Paul closes with the culture beat — Mamdani, the NBA Finals, a Cruz-Gillibrand bet — and a reminder that the independent movement isn't moving the needle, it is the needle. Country over party. People over politics. Light over heat.
-WATCH full video of this episode here.
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2 June 2026, 11:17 pm - 31 minutes 30 secondsTrump News Fatigue is Real. Platner Shows How Dumb and Desperate the Democrats Are.
Trump news fatigue is real. That's not an accident — it's the playbook. Exhaust the public, contaminate every institution, and the most radical agenda in modern American history slides through while we're too tired to notice. On episode 538, Paul Rieckhoff delivers a solo Manosphere Monday briefing for the angry middle: the people who are done with the rigged two-party system but refuse to check out of the fight.
Paul breaks down acting Secretary of Culture War Pete Hegseth blocking the promotions of at least seven Navy women and minority officers, leaving a one-star admiral slate with zero women. He unpacks Graham Platner's escalating problems in Maine and what the Democrats' all-in posture says about a party that keeps doing Democrat things. He gets into Jaxon Dart introducing Trump at a partisan campaign event and why Trump contaminates everything he touches — including the New York Giants. Plus Scott Pelley calling out the murder of 60 Minutes, Iran suspending talks, the Bab al-Mandab threat, and a mailbag from a DoD civilian combat vet getting the shaft on pay. There's a war going on outside. Stay vigilant.
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