In a turn of events that has social media buzzing, President Trump was briefly interrupted by a vibrant press encounter involving a boom mic. We also explore the shifting allegiances within political camps, highlighted by Mark Kelly’s notable vehicle swap from Tesla to Tahoe. Adding to the political drama, a self-proclaimed MAGA leftist reveals the surprising overlaps between Trump’s and traditional leftist agendas. Finally, we pay tribute to Ken Zier, reflecting on the importance of making meaningful connections in our lives.
Welcome to the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast. It’s Friday, March 21st, 2025. I’m Eric Hansen. This week, Trump dumps Biden’s pardons, an NPR reporter bumps the president, and Senator Mark Kelly tosses his Tesla. We begin in Washington, D.C., where Democrats find themselves more unpopular than ever.
SPEAKER 09 :
You’re angry at Gang members from Tren de Aragua being shipped to El Salvador? That angers you? You’re worried about their rights? The gang members who have done monstrous things to this country and to the communities that they infiltrated? My gosh. I want to talk with those who are so angry. What are you so angry about? Why are you so unhinged? And maybe it’s just not that many people. Because, again, look at the polling data. First, let’s go to, and don’t just take my word for it. Let me take you to CNN. That is CNN reporting on the current state of the Democrat Party in the eyes of the American public.
SPEAKER 01 :
A brand new exclusive CNN poll that paints a brutal reality for Democrats as they struggle to mount a unified opposition to President Trump. Americans favorable views of the Democratic Party brand are at a record low, just 29 percent. That’s compared to 36% for Republicans. It is the lowest ever recorded for Democrats in CNN polling, going back more than 30 years. As you can see, the party’s number is dropping a staggering 20 points in just four years. The CNN SRSR’s poll also found 57% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters are more interested in seeing their party leaders stop the GOP agenda, compared to 42% who are more interested in cutting bipartisan deals. It is a big shift from where the party stood at the start of Trump’s first term in 2017.
SPEAKER 09 :
OK, so we can stipulate Democrats are in a complete shambles right now. This morning, one of the MSNBC stars with great bravado quit the Democrat Party because Chuck Schumer. On Friday. Relented. And. agreed to support the Republicans’ continuing resolution to keep the government open. And incidentally, I want to take 30 seconds to praise Chuck Schumer. I don’t do that very often, but we need to give credit where credit is due. I don’t know that Schumer’s intentions were all that honorable, frankly. I think he probably did the math and figured, boy, if we let the government shut down, there are going to be a whole ton of people that are never coming back to work. Trump and Doge are going to get their wish, and that’s probably why he voted for it. But whatever reason, it doesn’t matter. In fact, I probably shouldn’t have even said that. Thank you, Senator Schumer, for doing the right thing. And even his actions are leading to more rage within the Democrat Party. But I’ve always been a guy who believes in giving credit where credit is due. And Schumer deserves a lot of credit. I think it was Scott Jennings who said that on Friday, that it took courage. It took courage for Schumer to stand up to the screeching hyenas of today’s Democrat Party. And they are. They’re losing their marbles. You got the Simone Sanders cut? Let me play this. This is this morning on MSNBC, one of the big stars of MSNBC bidding adios to her membership to the Democrat Party.
SPEAKER 05 :
Page 22 is where they zero out the money for the COPS program. I didn’t write down which page it was on, but within this document, a billion dollars cut from Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m a D.C.
SPEAKER 05 :
resident, and I’m pissed. Okay, so, you know, there’s actually little that the Senate minority leader can say and the 10 Democrats that voted with the Republicans can say to appease somebody like me. I’m going to change my registration to independent.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s it. She’s out. She’s no longer a Democrat. We’ll miss you, they’ll say, perhaps. She’s going to be an independent. Maybe we all ought to be independents. I don’t know.
SPEAKER 08 :
President Trump took to social media this week to proclaim that President Biden’s last-minute pardons are all null and void. Let the freakout begin.
SPEAKER 09 :
So President Trump, at about 12 p.m., 35 in the morning this morning, posted on Truth Social, the pardons, quote unquote, that sleepy Joe Biden gave to the unselect committee of political thugs and many others are hereby declared void, vacant, and of no further force or effect because of the fact that they were done by auto pen. In other words, Joe Biden didn’t sign them, but more importantly, he didn’t know anything about them. The necessary pardoning documents were not explained to or approved by Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime. Therefore, those on the unselect committee who destroyed and deleted all evidence obtained during their two-year witch hunt of me and many other innocent people should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level. The fact is they were probably responsible for the documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the worst president in the history of our country, crooked Joe Biden. How do you like that? Trump said he’s voiding all of the last-minute pardons. Wow. Now, remember, Biden preemptively pardoned all nine members of the January 6th committee, including two leaders, Benny Thompson and Liz Cheney. And on the last day of his presidency, Biden issued a string of 11th hour pardons, including preemptive pardons to the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, and Tony Fauci. What do you think of Trump’s dictate? His declaration, his statement that those pardons are now declared void, vacant, and of no further force or effect. Can he do that? I don’t know. At this point, I have no idea. Maybe you do.
SPEAKER 08 :
This president loves to talk to the media, even if they don’t like him very much. Every day, reporters thrust microphones into his face. But this week, it went a little too far.
SPEAKER 09 :
When I first saw… President Trump get bopped in the face by a boom microphone, I thought, well, yikes, that poor guy or gal, whoever did that, that’s unfortunate. But then I started doing the deep dive on social media, which I probably shouldn’t do. Laura Loomer, the, you know, provocative… sharp-elbowed, explosive force of nature, she claims that the boom mic was held by a Trump-hating NPR reporter. The Trump-hating NPR reporter immediately locked down her social media accounts so the people couldn’t see her previous anti-Trump posts. And… I have to tell you something. I started looking at it with a whole different light. Now, no, no, no, no. Don’t play the AI version of Trump getting hit by a microphone. Christian, stop it. Stop it. You imp. You mischievous. Please don’t look at the… What we just played a moment ago was AI with a bunch of microphones hitting him in the face. Now, we can laugh at this. But on the other hand, there is a real serious side to remembering that He was nearly killed twice. He survived two assassination attempts. I don’t know what happens if you put a little bit of a foreign agent, some kind of a material on a boom mic and it touches the commander-in-chief. Look, if they’re celebrating the murder of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, what would they do for the NPR reporter if she managed to take out Trump? They’d give her a ticker tape parade. They would try to name a park after her. And my question to you is, was it an accident or was it intentional? Did you see it? You know, you see the wide shot of this wispy-looking woman holding this lengthy boom mic. First of all, she’s an actual reporter, so I don’t know what she’s even doing holding a boom mic. Is NPR in such dire straits economically that they don’t have engineers in the field with their reporters? I mean, just the mechanics of it don’t make a lot of sense. She’s holding a boom mic on a long telescopic What do you call that, Eric? A telescopic pole. It’s like a pole, a boom pole, and she bops the president in the face. And, you know, he handled it like a pro. I mean, he laughed it off. Do we have the moment what he said? It’s really good. I mean, he just kind of said, ah, it’s going to make the news. But you also notice he kind of… takes his tongue and he kind of, you know, flicks it inside his mouth like it really, like it hurt. It hit him pretty good. I think. All right, here’s what the president said. Here was the moment that the boom mic hits him in the face and he reacts to it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Mr. President, obviously you’re concerned about him. You’re concerned about the situation in Gaza. What are the hopes now to get the hospital back?
SPEAKER 01 :
She just became a big story tonight. Right? Yes, sir. Did you see that?
SPEAKER 09 :
And so that was it. He just laughed it off and said, that’s going to be a big story tonight. She made television tonight. But you can see him take his tongue. And you know how you get like a cut inside your mouth or a bump or something? You kind of put your tongue. It’s like it kind of hurt. Doesn’t have to hurt if there was just a little bit of a foreign deadly substance on the edge of that microphone. Now, I know I’m into crazy conspiratorial territory here. But can we be real for a moment? Can we be honest here? Would that surprise you if a Trump-hating NPR reporter attempted to do him harm? I mean, what are people on the left saying about her? Good for her? She should have hit him harder?
SPEAKER 08 :
We had a chance this week to talk to Kyle Olson of The Midwesterner about illegal immigration, the Trump administration, and more.
SPEAKER 09 :
Kyle Olson, great to have you here on The Mike Gallagher Show. How are you, sir? I’m doing great. Thanks for having me. I’m sitting here wondering, and I don’t want to just drag you into the political realm, but just the idea of right-wrong rule of law versus anarchy. There have got to be normal Democrats who are walking around saying, wait a minute, we can’t look like we’re defending Trendy Aragua. And yet, Kyle, they are. Can you walk through the drama here of Trump’s deportation of this violent, violent, terroristic gang and how the Democrats wound up sort of sounding supportive of them?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, there’s lots of things going on related to that. President Trump, he was one of those candidates that was very clear during the election. There’s a lot of candidates that they sort of waffle or they’re vague. Trump was very clear about deportations, getting bad people out of the country, specifically naming the gangs that are a problem in our country. And the reality is there are problems everywhere. There are problems in Michigan, everywhere. And so we are seeing this in Michigan, where there’s individuals that are being arrested, either intentionally or during traffic stops or whatever it is, He wants to get them out of the country. This should not be a controversial issue. And yet you’ve got judges and you’ve got Democrats who are wringing their hands and saying, whether it’s like a Columbia, well, he has free speech rights, or it’s the gangs in Michigan. They don’t know what to do. And so you’ve got, like you said, I mean, you would think that there’s some reasonable, sensible Democrats who are saying, look, if there are criminals in our country, we should get them out. But then you’ve got other individuals who are saying, well, they just want to be in our country and we should let them be here.
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, Scott Jennings last night on CNN pointed out the Democrats like to conflate legal citizens with illegal immigrants. They do this all the time. Well, it could be us next. They’re going to be rounding us. Whoopi Goldberg said, they’re going to round me up next. I mean, and this is a nationwide crisis. President Trump has rightfully declared this a war. We are under siege. And look, it happens everywhere. I mean, I think I was reading over at the Midwesterner about a guy arrested in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a Venezuelan illegal, wanted for kidnapping and torture in Colorado.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right. And we’ll have a story today about five illegal aliens from El Salvador and Mexico that were arrested in Sault Ste. Marie, which is in the northern part right across from Canada. And so this is happening all over the state. And what’s happening is you’ve got individuals like Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan secretary of state, who’s running for governor. She’s saying, well, we need migrants because who is going to pick the crops? Who is going to work on the farms? And she’s implying that farmers are supporting illegal immigration. But if you talk to farmers, they’re saying we need migrants. We have worked with migrants for decades, but we have a legal process that we go through where they get a work visa. And they are in the country legally. That’s entirely different than people coming across the border, breaking our laws, then ending up in our communities. There was another story in Clare County where an individual was driving well over 100 miles an hour trying to evade the police, obviously putting individuals in the community at risk. And so this is happening across the state. But not only do you have people like Jocelyn Benson who are sort of justifying and excusing what’s going on, but you have sheriffs as well. The new sheriff of Washtenaw County, which is where Ann Arbor is, is saying, we’re not going to work for ICE or work with ICE. And so if we have an illegal alien in our jail and ICE attempts to work with a judge to issue a detainer, we’re not going to honor that. So we have this real divide where even members of the law enforcement community are not believing that we should be deporting criminal illegal aliens.
SPEAKER 09 :
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SPEAKER 08 :
This is the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast. I’m Eric Hansen. Once upon a time, the left loved Elon Musk. They told us they drove Teslas to save the environment and go green. Now they hate Elon Musk. And I guess their principles are out the window.
SPEAKER 09 :
Speaking of President Trump, you know, his superpower is continuing to expose. Or maybe the better word is show Democrats or push them into a position that I can’t believe they want to be in. For example, wasn’t all that long ago that Democrats were all about EVs and saving the planet. Biden had electric vehicle mandates that Trump is certainly going to dismantle. Now, one of the biggest electric vehicle companies in the world, arguably the most popular, is under siege. Every night on social media, I see videos of people keying Teslas and damaging Teslas and defacing Tesla dealerships and superchargers. And Trump managed to get a prominent… Senate Democrat Mark Kelly to brag about turning in his Tesla, which he already paid for, so Elon got the money, but he’s so performative, this former astronaut, that he turned in his Tesla and traded it in for a big gas-guzzling SUV, this monster SUV, which can’t possibly be good for the planet, right, Senator Kelly? Check this out.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, here I am with my new ride, Chevy, good old Chevy Tahoe, here in Washington, D.C. Got one of these in Tucson as well. This one was made by Union Labor, United Auto Workers in Arlington, Texas. Always good to buy Union cars, incredibly reliable. And I’m looking forward to driving this for many, many years.
SPEAKER 09 :
He’s so hell-bent on getting back at Elon, apparently he did it in both places. back in his district in Arizona and in Washington, D.C. So I guess he had two Teslas. And he traded both of them in for giant gas-guzzling SUVs. You ever been in a Chevy Tahoe? It’s like climbing into a battleship. Thing is huge. Probably gets about six miles to the gallon. Instead of saving the planet. And virtue signaling about it. The most amazing, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. I’ve never in my life seen anything like this.
SPEAKER 08 :
White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller appeared on CNN this week where he conducted a master class in the law for one unsuspecting anchor.
SPEAKER 09 :
I know that there are Democrats sitting around saying, gosh, this is not a good look for us. We shouldn’t be on the side of Trendy Aragua. We shouldn’t be worried about monstrous, awful killers getting their due process. I know we are a nation of laws. Guess what? You think the illegal immigrants, the gang members followed our laws when they came to Michigan or Colorado or Florida or Texas to rape, to maim, to torture, to murder? Yesterday, Stephen Miller said, the president’s deportation sort of brains or mastermind or architect, I guess, it would be fair to say, battled CNN’s Casey Hunt. Listen to this exchange where Stephen very accurately wonders, where was the Democrat outrage when little Jocelyn Nungere was tortured and killed?
SPEAKER 12 :
Under a proper reading of the Constitution… District court judges provide relief to individual plaintiffs seeking relief. District court judges do not have the authority as a general matter to enjoin the functioning of the executive branch. But their authority is at its lowest point when the president is exercising his powers as commander-in-chief. And I asked you a question and you never answered it. Can a judge enjoin troop movements overseas? Can a district court judge enjoin troop movements overseas?
SPEAKER 04 :
Stephen, I am not going to get into the… Just say no, and then you’ll know that I’m right. This is a separate question, Stephen. Okay, we’re not talking about other truth services. I need to ask you about something else.
SPEAKER 12 :
The president issued a proclamation. delineating in detail how the Venezuelan regime sent this gang, this terrorist organization, to our shores. And by the way, and I love being here, but all the outrage that we are seeing from the Democrat Party and from the corporate media, none of that outrage was expressed when little Jocelyn Nongere was tortured and beaten to death.
SPEAKER 04 :
None of that outreach was expressed when our nation was flooded by a legal alien. I have just been simply trying to get a simple answer to a simple question.
SPEAKER 03 :
No outreach necessary. But I am. But I need to ask you one more question. I’m going to have to let you go.
SPEAKER 12 :
Democrats defending trained air wagwa. instead of celebrating President Trump expelling these terrorists from our midst. And I’m glad for the opportunity to explain how the separation of powers does work. If the president has to litigate every national security action with 700 district court judges, then we don’t have a functioning democracy.
SPEAKER 09 :
He’s so right, and I can’t get over, I can’t get the concept out of my brain at how Democrats are willing to celebrate democracy Or defend, rather. That’s not fair. They’re not celebrating Tren de Aragua, but they’re defending them. Oh, they’re worried about their due process. Due process to illegal immigrants who illegally entered this country with the express intent of terrorizing, harming, killing American citizens.
SPEAKER 08 :
We learned this week that MAGA is not restricted to Republicans only. A Newsweek journalist shocked comedian Bill Maher when she proclaimed herself a MAGA leftist.
SPEAKER 09 :
Bill Maher. thought he kind of smugly believed that he had a Trump supporter who was going to resent being a Trump supporter. Now, this is before the polling came out. NBC News reporting that a higher percentage of Americans think the country is headed in the right direction right now since we’ve seen since 2012. It’s been decades since America feels this good about the direction of the country. You would think a smart guy like Bill Maher, would take stock. Instead, he set this lady up. Again, her name is Batya Ungar Sargon. I don’t know much about her. Bill believes she was a conservative. She disputed that because she gave a stunning response. She’s not a MAGA conservative. She said she’s a MAGA leftist.
SPEAKER 11 :
I’m going to go right at you because, you know, I’ve known you for a while. And when I first read you, you were a conservative Republican, but not crazy like I read you in where? Newsweek, Time magazine. And I’m not saying you’re crazy now. But you went from just a conservative leaning right to a Trump supporter. OK, someplace I would never go. I mean, the night is young, Bill. It is not ever going to be that young. And I’m just wondering what you think now. We’re approaching two months in. I mean, you must have a feeling in your gut, look me in the eye and tell me you don’t, that this is really going badly and I shouldn’t have thrown my lot in with this team.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, no, I feel the opposite.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right. Tell me why. I’m so sorry, Bill. No, no. Tell me why.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, I feel so proud of I mean, I was never a Republican or a conservative. I was a leftist and I am still a leftist. I’m just a MAGA leftist now because that makes no sense.
SPEAKER 11 :
Would you like me to explain? Please do. Yes, please.
SPEAKER 07 :
When I look at what President Trump ran on and the agenda that he’s enacting right now, he took a Republican Party that was built on social conservatism, foreign interventions and wars and free trade and free markets. And he basically took an ax to all of those. During the campaign, he said, look, I mean, he’s pretty pro-gay. That’s pretty obvious. He appointed the highest-ranking out gay person, Scott Besant, our Secretary of Treasury, which is incredible. And he sidelined the pro-life wing of his party. He has changed the party, for sure. Okay, so he believes abortion should be legal for 12 weeks. But free trade, you mentioned. On foreign intervention, he’s anti-war. He’s trying to bring an end to all of these wars, okay?
SPEAKER 10 :
Bison.
SPEAKER 07 :
surrendering but yes okay he’s on the other side of another party that is quite pro-war and wants to keep the war going right so okay so let’s get to the third point and the third point is and he’s not free trade he does not believe in free trade he looked at our destroyed manufacturing base and He looked at the downwardly mobile working class. He looked at the fact that working class Americans can no longer afford the American dream. And he looked at why that was, which was there was a handshake agreement between both parties that we should somehow have free trade, which resulted in shipping five million good manufacturing jobs overseas to build up China and Mexico.
SPEAKER 11 :
And some came here.
SPEAKER 07 :
No, what they did was they brought in millions and millions of illegal migrants to compete with the jobs that remained here. And what Donald Trump said was, we have to stop selling out the working class. That agenda that he laid out, socially moderate, anti-war and anti-free trade protectionist, that is a leftist agenda. Sam, I will bring you in, I swear to God.
SPEAKER 09 :
I mean, a leftist agenda, she said. A MAGA leftist. And Tracy just pointed out, couldn’t you describe Joe Rogan that way? MAGA leftist? Matt Taibbi? Michael Schellenberger? I mean, there’s a lot of people who’ve seemingly… Elon Musk! You think Elon Musk is a movement conservative? They didn’t used to think so about him. And now they hate him because he joined Trump to try to… eradicate government fraud, waste, and corruption to help the taxpayer, the American taxpayer.
SPEAKER 08 :
And finally, we remember a friend in our little world who passed away suddenly over the weekend.
SPEAKER 09 :
So yesterday, I awoke to the very, very sad news shared by one of our folks here at Salem, Tampa. that Ken Zier, who was an on-air studio engineer, had unexpectedly passed away over the weekend. Apparently he had a heart attack. And they tried to save him at the hospital, and they were unsuccessful. And Ken leaves behind a wonderful wife and two daughters. And when somebody, and I know Tracy, my producer, had a lot of interactions with Ken because they both kind of worked the same shift and they would chat. And everybody, it’s the same story. When somebody dies like this, you always hear everybody loved him. I always think that won’t be the case when it’s my turn. They’ll be like, oh, I’m glad he’s gone. About time. What took so long? But with Ken, everybody loved him. big, rich pipes. I mean, he was, as an on-air studio engineer, he also did a lot of on-air stuff. Of course, Tampa Bay listeners recognize the name Ken Zier because he often did reports with Roger P. Shulman, our newsman. And, you know, we’re all just grieving. We’re just all kind of in a state of shock. And as is often the case, when somebody dies… You kind of internalize it, and you bring it back to your own interaction. And I’m kicking myself for not getting to have known Ken better than I did. He had a really fascinating career. I mean, he worked in big market radio. He was in Chicago at WLS, and he did radio reporting and traffic reports. He just seemed like a very interesting guy. And, you know, I would see Ken every day. greet him in the parking lot. We’d exchange pleasantries, but it didn’t go beyond that. And now I’m mad at myself for not having gotten to know him a little better. And shame on me. And I was thinking driving into work today, what a life lesson that is for every one of us. When you see somebody in the hallway, maybe you work with, maybe somebody who is in a department you’re not even associated with, which is kind of the case with me. That’s why I didn’t really have a lot of interactions with him. Go above and beyond. Get to know that person a little bit. Ask them about their life. Ask them how they’re doing. Share a little bit of your life with them. Make that connection. We are so siphoned off from one another. We’re all in bubbles. We’re all in our silos. We’ve got our phone up to our nose, and we don’t care about anybody else. You see people everywhere in public space. Nobody cares about anybody else. You want to block somebody standing in the doorway because you’re on the phone texting? You’ll stand there in the doorway and block everybody. You’re not paying attention to anybody because you’re in your bubble. You want to talk out loud in the movie theater, you don’t care. You don’t even act like you know anybody else is around because you’re in your bubble. And we’re not connecting, and I’m not connecting. I am sort of a loner, a bit of a private person. I don’t have a whole big, huge network of friends, quite frankly. And that’s kind of the way I like it. But there’s a downside to that, and that’s detrimental. And I should do better, and I will. So if Ken Zier’s passing has inspired anything in me, it’s to get more engaged, connect more with people around me, and try to embrace people in your life in a way that you normally wouldn’t do. Because you never know. Any day could be our last day. Any day. Could be the final day or the start of a journey where, like my wife, you get a cancer diagnosis and you have a year and a half. You never know. So embrace life, live and love life, and connect with the people around you.
SPEAKER 08 :
And that wraps up the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast for Friday, March 21st, 2025. Be sure to subscribe to all of the podcasts and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like the show, be sure to share it with a friend. I’m Eric Hansen. We’ll see you back here next week on the Mike Gallagher Show Week in Review podcast.
