Episode 1049: The Exhausted Majority — Who Independents Really Are and Why They'll Decide 2026

Nearly half of American voters now call themselves independents, but Adam Brandon argues they are far more than a mushy middle ground between the two parties. In his new book, The Exhausted Majority: Building a Home for the Politically Homeless, Brandon profiles a coherent, center-right bloc of Americans tired of hyper-partisanship who simply want to see Washington get things done. Brandon served as president of FreedomWorks for over a decade and helped lead the Tea Party movement. Now he has co-founded the Independent Leadership Council with former Senator Joe Manchin, backing independent candidates in the 2026 midterms. Newt talks with Brandon to discuss why both parties keep losing ground, who the exhausted majority really is, and whether independents can become the force that finally changes how Washington works.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ukraine has become the most innovative military power in the world, building drones by the millions, fielding ground robots, and wiring the battlefield together with software. Russia is racing to match it. Iran has used $35,000 drones to force the United States to fire interceptors costing millions. And yet, only 8% of Americans are aware that AI is being used in modern warfare. Newt sits down with Jonathan Guyer, program director at the Institute for Global Affairs at the Eurasia Group, to discuss how drones and artificial intelligence are remaking warfare in real time. Drawing on his new report, War President: The Iran Trap, Guyer breaks down what the technology revolution on today's battlefields means for American strategy, public oversight, and whether Washington is paying close enough attention.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before Trace Gallagher became one of Fox News's most recognizable faces, he was a professional water skier at Six Flags Marine World, where he once taught Jimmy Buffett to ski. A knee injury ended that career and sent him on an unexpected path through announcing, local television, and eventually Fox News, where he has been a fixture since the network's launch in 1996. In his new memoir, Turns Out They Were Right All Along: Life Lessons I Learned Eventually, Gallagher reflects on the detours, setbacks, and unlikely breaks that shaped his life and career. Newt sits down with Gallagher to explore the wisdom that only comes from living it, the moments that tested him, and what three decades in breaking news have taught him about perseverance, purpose, and getting it right.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In January 2025, Tyler Hassen was running a diversified energy business in Houston. Weeks later, he was inside the West Wing as a DOGE senior insider, named Acting Assistant Secretary of Policy, Management, and Budget at the Department of the Interior with authority over $35 billion in spending and 8,000 federal employees. Now he's written the first book-length account of DOGE from someone who actually executed the work. Hassen joins Newt to discuss Inside DOGE: The Real Story from a Senior Insider — part memoir, part management autopsy. He describes late-night West Wing meetings, an $830 million contract request he says he could have designed in high school, a California water crisis that became an international media firestorm, and the personal cost his family paid. His verdict: the waste was real, the resistance was fierce, and the work is far from finished.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last month, a bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general announced what may be the largest consumer protection settlement in American history: a $17 billion dollar agreement with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. California Attorney General Rob Bonta led the fight, accusing Meta of deliberately designing features to drive compulsive use among children and teens while lying to the public about the harm. AG Bonta joins Newt to explain how the coalition built its case, why Meta settled less than two weeks into trial, and what the agreement actually changes: two-hour default time limits for minors, overnight and school-hour blocks, a ban on cosmetic surgery filters, removal of “like” counts on children's posts, and an independent auditor to enforce it all. He also explains why this settlement is just the beginning, with TikTok, YouTube, and Snap still in his sights.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One year after Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University, his friend and longtime confidant Christy Edwards Lawton joins Newt to discuss her new memorial photo book, Charlie Kirk: In His Own Words. Built entirely from Charlie's own posts on X, never-before-seen photographs, and tributes written the day he died by Melania Trump, Elon Musk, Ivanka Trump, and others, the book is organized around the causes Charlie cared about most: faith, free speech, family, immigration, and Gen Z. Christy shares intimate memories from eleven years of friendship — from the lanky 22-year-old she met at a Trump fundraiser to the husband, father, and movement leader he became. She reflects on what it means to "live like Charlie," and why every net dollar from the book goes to Carry the Torch, a nonprofit dedicated to finding and funding the next generation of young conservative leaders.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than seven million Americans live with Alzheimer's disease today, a number projected to nearly double by 2060. It already consumes 20% of all Medicare spending and costs the economy close to half a trillion dollars annually. But the science is finally catching up. Newt is joined by former CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield and Dr. Brent Beasley, a retired internist who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 57, for a conversation about new blood tests that detect the disease early and what treatments are being developed. Dr. Redfield draws on his decades leading America's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic to argue that Alzheimer's disease demands the same sense of urgency. Dr. Beasley shares his remarkable personal journey: how an early blood test and a new monoclonal antibody treatment reversed his decline. Together, they lay out the five policy changes needed now, from routine blood testing for everyone over 50 to removing CMS barriers blocking access to approved treatments, including passage of the bipartisan ASAP Act, which would create a Medicare pathway for FDA-cleared blood-based Alzheimer's biomarker tests.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most political analysts say Generation Z is quietly turning conservative. Rich Baris says the data tells a completely different story. The director of Big Data Poll and the most accurate national pollster of both 2016 and 2024 joins Newt to discuss his new book, Burn It Down: What the Polls Say Young Americans Really Want. Baris argues that young Americans aren't becoming more conservative; they're becoming more radical and revolutionary, convinced the system can't be reformed, only replaced. He and Newt dig into the staggering affordability numbers driving that anger (home prices up 230% since 2000, real wages up just 13%), the rise of "ledger politics" and left-wing populism, why two-thirds of Democratic primary voters now identify as socialists, and the urgent warning Baris has for Republicans heading into 2026: you can't out-resent the left. You have to out-deliver them.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The federal debt just crossed $40 trillion, months ahead of schedule and less than a decade after hitting $20 trillion. Net interest payments now exceed what America spends on defense or Medicare. Thomas Hoenig spent 38 years at the Federal Reserve, including two decades as president of the Kansas City Fed, and was one of the earliest voices warning that the Fed's own quantitative easing policies were enabling Congress to borrow without consequence. He joins Newt for a frank diagnosis: how cheap money created a decade of fiscal irresponsibility, why abandoning the gold standard in 1971 removed the last external discipline on spending, what the slow decline of the British pound tells us about the dollar's future, and whether Washington can bend the curve before the debt hits $50 trillion. Hoenig's conclusion: it's possible, but only if Congress chooses to act.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most people think they're investing. David Bahnsen thinks they're speculating — and there's a profound difference. The founder and chief investment officer of the Bahnsen Group, which manages over $10 billion in client assets, joins Newt to discuss his new book, Profit from the Profit: The Past, Present, and Future of Dividend Growth Investing. Bahnsen argues that dividend growth investing isn't merely a smart income strategy — it's the only coherent investment philosophy for people who want to own something real rather than gamble on price. He and Newt explore why the "grow now, dividends later" advice most young investors receive is historically flawed, what the dot-com bubble and the Cisco paradox reveal about today's AI boom, how the Hollywood consolidation mess perfectly illustrates CEO ego destroying shareholder value, and why Charlie Munger was right: the big money is in the waiting.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.