The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen just completed another polling study—this one asking people how worried they are about AI and what should be done about it legislatively. To no one's surprise, people are worried and think the government has a responsibility to get ahead of it.
We’ll also cover the way people can fool even themselves with AI, how some are totally outsourcing their thinking to it, what effect that has (or seems to have), and what the mass expansion of AI is going to do to the economy—especially in terms of energy demand and white-collar jobs. The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, S.T. Karnick, and Donald Kendal will discuss all this and more on Episode #495 of the In the Tank Podcast.
The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports released a new poll showing that 71% of Democrats support Elon Musk being IMPRISONED for his DOGE work. This insane position is held by 80% of self-reported "liberals" from the polling. The poll results were released the same day as this episode.
This is sadly not very shocking, as we take a look at what leftist-dominated Reddit says about Elon in our Unhinged segment. We also discuss DOGE's work so far, including issues at the U.S. Treasury Department, and whether or not the pork uncovered by DOGE is actually being cut. It seems many representatives want the spending to keep on rolling along. The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick will discuss all of this and more on Episode 494 of the In the Tank Podcast.
Spend any time at all watching or reading the news, and you may notice an odd trend in the Democrat party-- they seem to be embracing policies more and more that totally alienate the "normies," people who hold generally average views on social and political issues. Democrats increasingly favor extreme positions, like defending gang members and embracing ideologies that would have been universally rejected just a few years ago. Where it may end is anyone's guess, we try to parse it out here.
We also cover anti-gun activist David Hogg's potential expulsion from the DNC, how Trump Derangement Syndrome apparently was the deciding factor for many baby boomers in Canada, and a look back on Trump's first hundred days as President, part deux. The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick will discuss all of this and more on Episode #492 of the In the Tank Podcast.
Tariffs are the subject of heated debate not just between Democrats and Republicans, but within the spectrum of right wing economic thought as well. Trump has announced reciprocal tariffs for every country on the planet, in an attempt to end unfair trade imbalances across the board. Some countries have already started falling in line, the question is, what will the end result for American citizens be?
The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick will discuss. Join us as we also discuss the staff purges at various U.S. health agencies, Tim Walz' weird Marxist comic book, the house arrest of Marine Le Pen, and more on Episode #490 of the In the Tank Podcast.
The 2024 election will go down in history as a radical and lasting political realignment in America on the right. The Republican Party of the 80s and 90s is gone, and with it the influence of past presidents and the thought leaders of the right. In their place is a new populism led by former Democrats who were driven out by radical leftists. But is this unusual coalition of former Democrats and populist writers and YouTube stars built to last?
The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick will discuss. Plus, we will cover the Supreme Court ruling on “ghost guns,” the defunding of American Pravda (NPR and PBS), and more on Episode #489 of the In the Tank Podcast.
SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://donate.heartland.org/campaign/594169/donate
Who actually runs this country? Voters asked for real change in November, and Donald Trump and his team are doing all they can to deliver it as quickly as possible. Yet federal judges use questionable authority to thwart it, keeping the Deep State status quo of unaccountable opposition to the people’s will — which includes shoveling YOUR MONEY to their connected leftist cronies.
Who is really in charge of the Executive Branch of the United States? The Constitution says it’s the president, who was elected by all the people to direct the administrative state. The legacy media and even some conservative legal scholars say: “It’s complicated.” Is it, really?
On episode #488 of The Heartland Institute’s In the Tank Podcast, host Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Chris Talgo, and S.T. Karnick discuss the escalating resistance to the restoration of a government that serves the people and its elected representatives, instead of the other way around.
The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 487 of the In The Tank Podcast. Former ITT host Donald Kendal returns after only a few months and the world has gone insane. Suddenly, the left is burning the most popular electric vehicles while a Republican President promotes them in front of the White House. No, the world did not go insane, it was driven to insanity by an incredibly corrupt media system - a media system that has lied to us about virtually everything. We cover some more examples of this on this week's episode.
Support the show! https://heartland.org/donate/
The Heartland Institute's Tim Benson wrote a paper analyzing the money funneled to green groups through the Inflation Reduction Act, where everything predictably cost way more than our government claimed. The Supreme Court decided that a district judge could tell the President when and how to pay USAID contractors, and Canada retaliates against Trump's tariffs. The President gave his first address to Congress, to the surprise of no one, the Democrats hated it.
The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, Sam Karnick, and Tim Benson will discuss all of this and more on this episode of the In The Tank podcast.
The "experts" are still trying to rewrite the narrative on the government response to COVID, and one of President Trump's picks supports the questionable PRO Act. Meanwhile, VP Vance had strong words for the Orwellian language controls in Germany, and DOGE continues to uncover corrupt and wasteful government spending.
The Heartland Institute's Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo will discuss all of this and more on this episode of the In The Tank podcast.
Carefully constructed narratives and funding related to public health are being re-evaluated by this new administration, bringing sunlight to disinfect a contaminated NIH. Critics of President Trump and DOGE claim that Trump's actions represent a Constitutional crisis, Politico finally admits that Democrats were wrong to claim the economy was great under Biden, and RFK's confirmation process continues amid significant pushback.
The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and special guest Bonner Cohen, senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, will cover all of this and more on this episode of the In The Tank podcast.
Join us LIVE at 1 p.m. ET and enjoy the live chat!
The Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the status quo continue, causing the right people to worry about their next paychecks. Nations around the world are coming to the negotiation table on subjects no one thought they would, while some very unstable individuals are attempting to incite violence in retaliation against Trump's efforts.
The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and H. Sterling Burnett dig into these subjects, with a special focus on Elon Musk's DOGE and how a simple funding freeze and a small audit are making the entire deep state panic—while awakening average Americans to the true extent of wasteful government spending through groups like USAID.
It’s an understatement to say that Donald Trump hit the ground running to start his interrupted second term. The speed and precision with which he has canceled nearly every achievement of the Biden nothing this country has ever seen before. It is simply breathtaking, and happening at such a frenetic pace it is difficult to keep up.
The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo will do their best, though. Trump has issued hundreds of executive orders on all sorts of policy areas. On immigration, he closed the border, sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across America to round up and deport criminal illegal aliens, and even suggested he’ll use Gitmo to house them until flights back to their country of origin can be arranged. And he also declared that the federal government will no longer put up with “sanctuary” cities and states harboring illegals.
Trump froze all federal grants to assess whether they are worth continuing or canceling because they are wasteful or harmful to America. He demanded the federal workforce actually show up in the office again, or be fired or resign with severance. He’s frozen all foreign aid to determine its wisdom. Trump has allowed America’s energy sector to go full ahead again, and even fired the alarmist scientific advisory board at the EPA. What have we left out? Who can keep up? We will talk about what is nothing less than the most-transformative first 10 days a president has had in American history.
The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 480 of the In The Tank Podcast. At the beginning of his inaugural address, President Donald Trump declared "The golden age of America begins right now." And within hours of this statement, Donald Trump began signing a series of executive orders, taking the first steps toward fulfilling this promise. On this week's episode, the ITT crew is taking a look at these executive orders and the promises made by Trump to help determine if we are back on track to once again achieve greatness in the United States of America.
SHOW NOTES:
TRUMP'S INAUGURATION
White House - The Inaugural Address
https://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/
DAY 1 EXECUTIVE ORDERS
NYT - Trump's Executive Orders: Reversing Biden's Policies and Attacking the 'Deep State'
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/us/politics/trump-executive-orders-list.html
NYT - Trump Signs Orders to Promote Fossil Fuels and End Climate Policies
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/20/climate/trump-emergency-oil-gas.html
A TIME OF UNITY OR DIVISION?
NBC News - Trump says his inaugural will be about unity. It might be a tough sell
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-inaugural-will-unity-going-tough-sell-rcna183484
PROJECT STARGATE
The Federalist - Trump Announces $500B AI Infrastructure Plan That Could Help Cure Cancer
OpenAI - Announcing The Stargate Project
The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken and Jim Lakely are joined by writer and commentator Jon Gabriel for episode 479 of the In The Tank Podcast.
With the certification of Trump’s election victory, the ousting of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada, and other progressive defeats around the world in recent years, could this spell the beginning of the end for global progressives? Are big companies and big tech finally shifting away from a focus on DEI and ESG, and will it stick? The team talks about all of this and more.
Jon Gabriel (@exjon on X) is the author of Sink the Rising Sun, his first novel.
The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 477 of the In The Tank Podcast. 2024 was an incredibly important year, filled to the brim with massive stories and events. The ITT crew recaps the year, giving their takes on what was the biggest news of the past 12 months. Also, the ITT crew talks about Heartland's biggest impactful moments of 2024. And last, they will make some bold predictions for what is in store for 2025.
The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 476 of the In The Tank Podcast. As Donald Trump prepares to take office in 2025, President Joe Biden is riding out his last days in the Oval Office. But instead of just focusing on the orderly transfer of power, Biden seems like he may be trying to sabotage Trump's upcoming term before it can even start. Peculiar foreign policy decisions and increased spending that is contributing to increasing inflation rates is making us wonder if Biden is striving to make life under Trump as hard as possible. Also, the ITT crew talks about Biden's creepy misinformation programs and more.
Is Biden Trying to Sabotage Trump?
Fox News - Biden admin extends $10B Iran sanctions waiver 2 days after Trump election win
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-extends-10b-iran-sanctions-waiver-2-days-after-trump-election-win
Reuters - US Treasury transfers $20 billion in Ukraine loan funds to World Bank facility
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-treasury-disburses-20-billion-ukraine-loan-funds-world-bank-facility-2024-12-10/
AP News - Biden authorizes Ukraine to use US-supplied longer range missiles for deeper strikes inside Russia
https://apnews.com/article/biden-ukraine-long-range-weapons-russia-52d424158182de2044ecc8bfcf011f9c
Inflation is Up Again
CNBC - Annual inflation rate accelerates to 2.7% in November, as expected
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/11/cpi-inflation-november-2024-annual-inflation-rate-accelerates-to-2point7percent-in-november-as-expected.html
Forbes - Rise In November Consumer Inflation Is Not Going To Stop Fed Rate Cuts
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonschenker/2024/12/11/rise-in-november-consumer-inflation-is-not-going-to-stop-fed-rate-cuts/
Biden's Creepy Misinformation Programs
Open The Books - Taxpayer Funded Censorship: How Government is Using Your Tax Dollars to Silence Your Voice
https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/taxpayer-funded-censorship-how-government
Fox News - Biden spent millions on ‘misinformation’ research. The details are even more disturbing than you think
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/biden-white-house-spent-267-million-misinformation-research-details-even-more-disturbing
Zero Hedge - State Department Scrambles To Scuttle $100M Censorship Network Before Trump Takes Office
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/state-department-scrambles-scuttle-100m-censorship-network-trump-takes-office
The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 475 of the In The Tank Podcast. There is a lot to talk about this week! Joe Biden pardoned Hunter, President-elect Trump continues to fill his cabinet, and a new analysis of the 2024 election shows that socialist candidates won a vast majority of their races. The ITT crew talks about these topics, the current state of socialism, and speculates whether the Democratic Party will lurch toward "democratic" socialism in the upcoming election cycles.
Hunter Biden Pardon
National Review - Judge on Hunter Biden Tax Case Slams President over Pardon, Says Selective-Prosecution Claim ‘Rewrites History’
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/judge-on-hunter-biden-tax-case-slams-president-over-pardon-says-selective-prosecution-claim-rewrites-history/
POLITICO - Biden White House Is Discussing Preemptive Pardons for Those in Trump’s Crosshairs
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/12/04/biden-white-house-pardons-00192610
NYT - Broad Pardon for Hunter Biden Troubles Experts
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/02/us/politics/hunter-biden-pardon-president.html
Washington Post - The extraordinary breadth of Hunter Biden's pardon
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/12/02/hunter-biden-presidential-pardon-comparisons/
Trump Cabinet Kash's In
The Federalist - Media Meltdowns Over Trump’s FBI Pick Prove Kash Patel Is The Perfect Man For The Job
https://thefederalist.com/2024/12/03/media-meltdowns-over-trumps-fbi-pick-prove-kash-patel-is-the-perfect-man-for-the-job/
AP News - Trump’s FBI pick has plans to reshape the bureau. This is what Kash Patel has said he wants to do
https://apnews.com/article/fbi-trump-patel-fisa-russia-2d215ded96ad8a08689b6f7f0b2d49ec
Socialism Watch 2024 Report
Heartland - PRESS RELEASE: Nearly Every Openly Socialist Candidate Won in 2024
https://heartland.org/opinion/press-release-nearly-every-openly-socialist-candidate-won-in-2024/
American Thinker - How did socialists perform in the 2024 election?
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/11/how_did_socialists_perform_in_the_2024_election.html
A Resurgence of "Democratic" Socialism?
The Hill - Cenk Uygur signals optimism after Trump win: MAGA ‘not my mortal enemy’
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5015727-cenk-uygur-donald-trump-optimism-2024-election/
NYT - Would Bernie Have Won?
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-faiz-shakir.html
The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 474 of the In The Tank Podcast. As the dust of the election settles, President-elect Donald J. Trump is busy constructing his cabinet. Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio, and many others have been nominated by Trump to fill some of the most important positions in the upcoming administration. How is the ITT crew reacting to some of these picks? Also, Thanksgiving is next week. Will families unite over good food, or will arguments break out while we pass the mashed potatoes?
Legislative Conference
PFLN - Pro-Family Legislative Conference
https://profamily.com/conference/
Everything Has Changed
(video) Jon Jones Trump Dance
https://x.com/robbystarbuck/status/1858108282390343833
(video) Trump Dance montage
https://x.com/browneyegirl400/status/1858822652292395135
Trump's Cabinet: A Dream Team?
CBS News - See the list of Trump Cabinet picks and more White House appointments so far
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-might-be-in-donald-trump-cabinet/
The Federalist - Pete Hegseth Is The Perfect Candidate To Gut The Pentagon’s Bureaucratic Rot
Forbes - What We Know About Elon Musk’s ‘Department Of Government Efficiency’—As Musk Reveals Spending Targets
The Federalist - John Bolton Asks Deep State To Deep-Six Trump Nominees Before They Fix Corrupt Intel Agencies
Thanksgiving Conversations
HuffPost - My Husband And His Family Voted For Trump — So I'm Canceling Thanksgiving And Christmas
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-voter-family-marriage-holidays_n_67321c1ce4b0231a203b1b80
The Independent - Yale psychiatrist urges LGBTQ+ community to shun Trump-voting family members over the holidays
Fox News - 'Sounds like a cult:' Sociologist rips leftist calls to cut off Trump family members during the holidays
Since Election Night, doesn’t everything feel different now? Not just our politics. but the whole mood of the country. Yes, some of our fellow Americans are in a very sad state. Clips of people filming their misery and sharing it with the world are everywhere. But for the majority of the country, is feels like a major societal and cultural shift has occurred. And there are a lot of people walking around with a new spring in their step.
Our media has changed, with the legacy media’s corruption being its undoing. Our pop culture feels about to change, too, moving away from leftist moralizing and back to producing entertainment with broad appeal. It just feels like the politicization of everything is over, and we’re waking up in a new era in which leftism is no longer going to be the dominant force in American life.
In a special Episode #473 of the In the Tank Podcast, guest host Jim Lakely welcomes The Heartland Institute’s Linnea Lueken and CFACT’s Chris Martz to discuss whether they share Jim's feeling that everything has changed. And if it has, what a more “normal” future will look like.
SUPPORT THE SHOW: https://heartland.org/donate/
SHOW NOTES
CNN 'will axe top stars in layoffs that'll see hundreds fired as ratings continue to tank'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...
“Fair & Balanced”: Trump 2.0 Era Brings New Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, Owner Promises With Fox News Motto Echo
https://deadline.com/2024/11/trump-la...
MSNBC and CNN Ratings Tank After Trump Steamrolls Kamala Harris
https://www.outkick.com/analysis/msnb...
MSNBC Ratings Crater As Viewers Tune Out Trump Victory Coverage
https://www.mediaite.com/news/just-in...
Hollywood Braces for a Woke Backlash in the Wake of Trump's Election
https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news...
SEMAFOR: The old media grapples with its new limits
https://www.semafor.com/article/11/10...
The rejection of the ruling class was global.
https://x.com/jburnmurdoch/status/185...
The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 472 of the In The Tank Podcast. Donald J. Trump has been elected as the 47th President of the United States. Trump's victory comes after a years long campaign by the media to paint the President-elect as a racist, sexist, fascist, second-coming of Hitler. The media's narrative failed as Trump looks to lock up the popular vote. The In The Tank crew talks about the evaporating influence of the mainstream media and speculates on what the first 100 days of the next administration will look like.
Election Outcome and Exit Polls
NYT - Election Live Updates
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/11/06/us/trump-election-harris-news
NBC News - Exit Polls
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls
Reckoning of the Media's Influence
Business Insider - Trump's victory shows the flagging influence of mainstream media
The Left's Narrative and Spin
The Atlantic - TRUMP WON. NOW WHAT?
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/trump-wins-second-term-presidency/680546/
Trump's First 100 Days
The Hill - GOP maps out agenda for Trump’s first 100 days
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4950270-republicans-agenda-trump-tax-cuts/
NPR - What Trump's first 100 days in office could look like
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/06/nx-s1-5181800/2024-election-trump-first-100-days-agenda
