The Erick Erickson Show

Erick Erickson reads the coordinated Wall Street Journal and New York Times stories from Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, Josh Dawsey, and Meredith McGraw and explains why the knives are coming from inside the White House: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is being set up as the fall guy for the Jensen Huang and Nvidia China spy scandal to insulate President Trump. He plays Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on CNBC saying "Commerce has the pen," predicts Elizabeth Warren will devour Lutnick in the Senate come January, and takes a call from a retired federal agent who investigated technology transfers to China in the 1990s. The Jensen Huang Nvidia scandal: Peggy Noonan calls it Teapot Dome and Watergate sized, the Chinese spy relationship, Marco Rubio warning President Trump before the Beijing summit, and Erick buying Nvidia stock after the crash Howard Lutnick on the hot seat: Scott Bessent, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and Jamieson Greer pushed to put Megaspeed on the entity list for months, but the Commerce Department and BIS held the pen and Lutnick never acted How to read Washington reporting: why Mark Caputo, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, and Josh Dawsey all hitting Lutnick on the same day means the White House is doing damage control, plus the Bessent and Lutnick feud and the tariff refund bets Erick's prediction: Lutnick keeps his job until Democrats take the Senate, then Elizabeth Warren replaces Tim Scott as the committee chair and grills him on live television Caller Mark, a retired federal agent, on the 1999 House report on technology transfers to China, satellite launch failures, and Ron Brown's Commerce Department, plus Erick on Chinese influence behind the Maryland data center fight, TikTok psyops, the daylight saving time "30 minute compromise," and the Hungry for a Day Thanksgiving meal drive

On Open Line Friday, Erick Erickson explains why President Trump is done negotiating with Iran and is betting on economic pressure to collapse the regime, from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent telling CNBC the death threats prove the squeeze is working to Marco Rubio tightening the oil screws on Cuba. Then Erick delivers a blistering monologue on candidate quality, arguing that Ken Paxton, Beau French, mid-decade redistricting, and a purity-test Republican Party handed Texas and Georgia to the Democrats, and that Christian voters will not be shamed into voting for bad candidates. Iran and the blockade: Trump tells Hugh Hewitt the regime is collapsing, Scott Bessent moves to a military base after Iranian death threats and blasts the Wall Street Journal for publishing his house, and JD Vance gets reassigned to fraud after his memorandum of understanding soured with Republicans JD Vance and 2028: Senator John Kennedy on CNN, Mark Halperin's room of 150 Dallas Republicans with only three hands for Vance, and why vice presidents who become the nominee so often lose Cuba and the Houthis: Marco Rubio forces the Cuban regime to buy American oil out of its own military fund, Trump floats limited military force, Russia arms the Houthis, and an Israeli task force helps Saudi Arabia shoot down drones aimed at Mecca Candidate quality and the Texas wipeout: Ken Paxton, Beau French, Mike Collins, and Vivek Ramaswamy's Amy Acton ad, how George W. Bush and Karl Rove turned Texas red, and why Johnny Isakson style Republicans kept winning Georgia Erick's "I told you so" on redistricting: mid-decade redistricting lit a fire under Black voters, plus callers named Mark on the Cuba embargo and why Minnesota Democrats never hold their own accountable

On Open Line Friday, Erick Erickson warns that both parties, from JD Vance and new White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller to the podcast bros and the Democrats, are courting young men by telling them they are victims, and he makes the Jordan Peterson case for responsibility, engaged fathers, and church mentoring instead. Then he takes calls on permitting reform for pipelines, expanding the House of Representatives, and NATO under a future Democratic president, and reads the Politico Europe report on Russia jailing people for photographing the graves of soldiers killed in the war in Ukraine. Young men and victimhood: Stephen Miller's White House lobbyist ban and his play for young men, JD Vance, Jordan Peterson's "clean your room," Jeremy Boring on young men radicalizing in broken homes, the average age of first exposure to pornography, and why fathers and church mentors matter Feral outside versus feral online: Erick's boyhood in the UAE dodging the school's football field sprinklers, the North Georgia mom arrested after her son walked to town for ice cream, and parents who will not let kids out of sight but hand them an unsupervised phone Energy and representation: caller Josh on the bipartisan permitting reform bill to stop presidents from killing approved pipelines and wind projects, tribal transmission concerns, South Dakota bucking the midterm shift, and Erick's case for expanding the House of Representatives to 1,000 or more members Russia, NATO, and China: why European allies would welcome a Democratic administration, the Vance view of a world split among the US, China, and Russia, an estimated 750,000 Russian war dead and treason charges for photographing military graves, and the Jensen Huang Nvidia story as a chip smuggling operation for China Character, deportations, and the Senate: caller Bob on why character must count again in the GOP after Ken Paxton and Mike Collins lost, DHS keeping Trump's deportation policy unchanged, John Thune and the 60 hour rule on judicial confirmations, the Microsoft 365 outage, and breaking reports of an elevated alert at US military sites in the UK

Erick Erickson reacts to Jensen Huang stepping down as Nvidia CEO after an affair with a direct report suspected of being a Chinese spy, explains why the right needs to stop cheering philanderers and celebrity CEOs, and admits he bought Nvidia stock on the dip. Then he makes the case that Republicans, after losing the House and Senate in an election where 90 percent of voters called corruption a major problem, should push Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick out over Cantor Fitzgerald conflicts, the Canada trade war, and three separate times stalling President Trump's crackdown on Nvidia chips flowing to China. Plus Pete Hegseth honors the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier guard who called out his group. Jensen Huang out at Nvidia: the affair with an employee U.S. intelligence suspects of spying for China, no prenup, Colette Kress stepping in, Jim Cramer's reaction, Nvidia stock sliding, and AI chips sold to Singapore that ended up in China Celebrity worship on the right: why Erick says never put your trust in men who cheat on their wives, the Elon Musk "hire Jensen" crowd, and Apple under Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, and new CEO John Ternus as the model of a company bigger than its founder, plus his "texting buddy" story about a former boss and Marco Rubio Pete Hegseth and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier: the viral Veterans Day rebuke from the Old Guard sentinel at Arlington National Cemetery and the commendation Hegseth gave that soldier the next day The case against Howard Lutnick: Cantor Fitzgerald and Tether, his sons' tariff refund bets, the Liberation Day tariff chart, and the collapsed Canada trade deal that hurt Susan Collins in Maine and helped Abdul El-Sayed win in Michigan Scott Bessent confronts Lutnick in the Situation Room with Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and Jamieson Greer on his side, the Megaspeed chip probe, John Moolenaar's House China Committee, and the Hungry for a Day Thanksgiving meal drive  

Erick Erickson says the Republican Party has a cancer of character, starting with Vivek Ramaswamy's closing ad in the Ohio governor race that used Amy Acton's own mother against her, an ad Congressman Mike Turner now blames for his loss. He ties it to Ken Paxton's collapse in Texas, Beau French, Tucker Carlson, and Vice President JD Vance's refusal to condemn any of them, then takes calls on Abdul El-Sayed's win in Michigan, illegal immigration, ICE stops of Hispanic American citizens, and why the GOP can still win in 2028 with the right candidate. Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton: the late attack ad featuring the mother who abandoned Acton to protect her abuser, Mike Turner's "lightning strike" quote to CNN, JD Vance and President Trump doubling down, and Ramaswamy leaving Ohio and shutting down his Twitter account Ken Paxton and the Texas wipeout: Democrats sweeping the governor, Senate, and lieutenant governor races plus four Texas Supreme Court seats, the new chief justice's push on judges and gay marriage, and talk radio hosts who vouched for Paxton's character JD Vance and 2028: Mark Halperin's survey of 68 Republican strategists souring on the vice president, Tucker Carlson, Beau French, the Iran memorandum of understanding, tariffs, and why voters still prefer traditional Republican policies like Colorado and Washington's girls sports votes and California rejecting a wealth tax The grievance industry: Erick on evangelical voters tired of being told to vote for the lesser bad guy, and how consultants and white nationalist and Christian nationalist influencers make more money when Republicans lose Abdul El-Sayed, illegal immigration, and ICE: Senate committee worries, Chris Van Hollen eyeing Chuck Schumer's job, Hispanic voters who want illegal aliens deported but resent being asked for papers, the constitutional right to travel, and a guest worker pathway that is not amnesty