Joe Rogan's Trump Problem is Bigger Than You Think

And then there's more we got to dive into in just a minute. But first, let me thank a sponsor and say, you know, August is a great time for a reset before fall gets chaotic. And my closet, it could use some adult supervision. That's where today's sponsor, Quince, comes in. Quince makes fewer, better pieces from premium materials, the things you'll reach for constantly. And I really like their staples like organic cotton tees and Mongolian cashmere sweaters that work all day and into the evening. Or basically clothes that make you look put together without looking like you spent an hour planning it. Their denim and tailored chinos start at $60 with a fit structure and quality that you'd expect from a luxury designer brand. And then you've got things like the cotton silk short sleeve crew neck sweater. I've been wearing that thing everywhere. Though even that is when I'm not living in their performance tanks. 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Why Netflix is really bleeding money right now as you have grifters shouting about trans lions. This FEMA situation is a disaster in the making. And after being bought by the Saudis and Jared Kushner, EA is shutting down BioWare and firing. We're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news starting with this. MAGA now has a young men problem. Because while Trump, he loves to credit the young male vote for electing him, his favorability with that demographic has decreased significantly since he took office again. In fact, just this week, you had the Speaking with American Men project publishing data finding that when Trump was inaugurated in 2025, men believed by a plus 33 margin that he would make a positive difference in their lives. But what you saw is that by August of 2026, by a negative margin, by a negative 35 point margin, they say he is making a negative difference. This is actually a pattern that started just a few months after his term started, but it has gotten so much worse as time's gone on. And the key thing is it's not just Trump specifically that they're souring on. You've got many right-wing podcasters and figureheads losing steam as well. For example, in 2025, Joe Rogan's favorability with young men was at 53%, but that's gone down to just 42%. And he's not alone, Tucker Carlson's net favorability took a 12 point hit, Elon Musk's a 14 point hit, and Andrew Tate went down 18 points. In fact, not a single right-coated figure or party that the group polled about gained ground with young men. And even though now you have Rogan and Carlson more regularly criticizing Trump, I'd say that's definitely more Carlson, Rogan. He says a thing here or there, but then he's in the White House smiling ear to ear. Both of them were credited with giving Trump an edge during the 2024 election. And in that election, 56% of young men voted for Trump compared to just 41% in 2020. That is a world changing difference maker. And there are examples out there, like a guy telling reporters that he went for Trump because he went on Joe Rogan's podcast and Kamala Harris didn't. But now what you're seeing are the actual policies from Trump causing problems as young men are increasingly frustrated. Frustrated with the economy, cost of living, the war in Iran, and overall, you got people feeling like promises are just not being kept. And with this, you're seeing things like the director of a youth polling firm telling Puck News, there's a vibe shift unquestionably. All those people endorsed and basically kind of carried water for Trump and said, "Trust us." And a year later, I think not only will Trump and the Republican party pay the price for that in the midterms, but each of those figures has a little bit less influence among younger people. Now, all of that, that does not mean that these voices hold no power at all now. Nearly two thirds of Gen Z, they get their news from creators, and as of this summer, adults who consume podcasts or political articles will be on the news. And also, like, a big thing that people need to understand is that even as Republicans are lagging, it's not like the Democrats have been able to jump on this. Right? I make mentions to this all the time, but you have this report noting, "Assuming that anger at Trump will be sufficient to bring young men back to the Democratic coalition in large numbers is a mistake." And in 2026, the party only has a 37% approval rating from young men. And the only leaders within it to boost their standing since last year were Barack Obama and Zoran Mamdani. So literally, the two men who cannot run to be president. And they're the most likable ones in the party. But as far as the possibilities of, you know, how any party can try to build back the trust of young men, there, you're hearing a lot of things. You've got people like this one 23-year-old who was polled saying, "You have instability around health care, around housing and debt," saying, "I think younger people, and specifically men, want someone who can connect with that and realize those aren't bro grievances," saying, "Young men are working really hard to build a life, and they just want to be recognized for it." And you're seeing things like Bloomberg. They actually just did a major report highlighting this, speaking to this 34-year-old guy in South Carolina who makes $85,000 a year. But will still be a few hundred bucks shy of paying his monthly bills. And while he was a Trump voter going all the way back to 2016, he said that, "Now, when it comes to politics, I'm checked out." And according to Bloomberg, this is part of a larger trend among men considering themselves blackpilled, or just opting out of politics as they feel economic freedom and the traditional image of success, it's just out of reach now. And you've got people like the chairman of Michigan's Federation of College Republicans explaining, "Taking the black pill is to say that you don't believe that the problems in society can be fixed, and no matter what, it's over." So it ends up translating not just to politics, but to dating and other everyday parts of life. And you've got this happening even as the Trump administration is trying to appeal to this demo. They focus on things like whether it be J.D. Vance or Erica Kirk talking about things like the plight of the white man. They held a cage match on the White House lawn, they're chill with gambling, and they shitpost memes and edgelord content on a daily basis. But for many, it's often separate from reality, or it's just tone deaf, and it ends up not being enough for a lot of these people. And some think that it's also not that surprising we found ourselves here, with, for example, financial podcaster Ed Elson saying, "The reason it's such an important moment is because economic access for young men. and economic mobility is lower than it's been in a very long time," saying, "There are a lot of young men who are living in their parents' basements and are spending a lot of money and a lot of time on DraftKings and FanDuel, playing video games, vaping, and watching porn." And adding, "Young people feel disillusioned with everything," which I think explains a lot of the behaviors. Also with this, you know, young men, they're already not very likely voters traditionally, like looking at the historical data, they're behind both the electorate in general and women their age. To have even more bowing out, that's a very bad sign, and it also actually might not just be young men that Trump's losing, right, the New York Times just last week reported that young people in general who supported him in 2024 are starting to crack. For example, a 22-year-old college student who cast her first presidential ballot for him saying that she's now upset by how he treats our allies, how he treats the press, and how he's dismissed the Epstein files. And adding, "I'm sure you know who Andrew Tate is. The administration is pushing for that kind of man right now, hyper-masculine," saying, "I'm a Catholic conservative, not a Christian nationalist. We have respect for women." And so in some cases, the way that the administration's playing things out, the way that they have certain affiliations before and after the election, it's hurting the Republican vote. So what I'll say is, one, of course, I'd love to know your thoughts on this, but especially, two, if you are someone that is a part of this group, what are your thoughts right now? What are your experiences? What are your frustrations? What are you observing in your peers and their political opinions, whether they shift or not? But then from that, let's jump to this news around Netflix, which is actually to a certain degree kind of connected, because while Netflix, at first glance, they seem to be doing pretty well, they've actually been struggling big time, and there are a lot of opinions out there about why. They just put out a third quarter earnings report, and if you really knew nothing about business, you might think, "Hey, looks pretty good. Revenue grew 12%. They've gone over the year to $13 billion, and even their net income grew by 44% over the same period." Also, their subscription cancellation rate's just around 2% as of September, flat from August, the lowest in the industry. But in capitalism, it's not enough to be growing. You have to be growing faster than you were before, and that revenue growth that I mentioned is actually the slowest for Netflix in three years. Also, I'll say the subscription thing's misleading, because while people are staying subscribed, they're not watching as much content as Netflix needs them to be, and so you've got investors out there like, "Okay, you are actually falling short of our expectations. You are losing ground. Come to the competition. We're not happy." And so you had Netflix stock dip in 6% after this report was released, and it is down 40% over the past year. It's the lowest it's been in two years. Meanwhile, Netflix has laid off about 1,000 people, or roughly 6% of its workforce, in their largest cut since 2022. And then they kicked out their chief content officer in a move that's been interpreted as a signal that they're looking to overhaul their programming. And so you have all of that, and what do we see in the political space but some conservative voices saying, "Hey, I think I know why." What went wrong? Well, I mean, short story, the woke go broke. We're seemingly Ben Shapiro's big theory on the troubles at Netflix. They're simple. They're saying they're making too much left-wing junk and not enough media tailored for real Americans like himself. It's not even that they're super-duper woke, although they are. The truth is that Netflix, like a lot of these places, they do not speak conservative at all. They don't even speak traditional values at all. Now, personally, I'll say I never viewed Netflix one way or the other. I don't view them as a left-wing thing or a right-wing thing. I've just seen them as a capitalist company. That's just me personally. There's content on there that you'd say, "Okay, that's left-wing stuff." But also, Netflix was the unofficial home for every comedian. That people said was canceled for the longest time. Though, also, I'll say it makes sense for Ben Shapiro to be talking on this because his company, Daily Wire, they have this whole media business where they're putting out what some people have called right-wing slop movies. But also, regarding Netflix right now, if you're plugged into the space, you might know about what he's talking about with the new Narnia film that's written and directed by Greta Gerwig. She's the person behind Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie, and she is a feminist, so her name immediately tipped off alarm bells for a number of conservatives, especially since the Narnia books were written by the Christian author C.S. Lewis and are deliberately imbued with a lot of religious allegory. She actually describes herself as a church-going Unitarian Universalist, and she claims to be deeply indebted to the original books. I would not be who I am without these books. I reread or read for the first time, but I tried to read everything C.S. Lewis wrote. Then I tried to read the things he read and that he loved and that inspired him. But Gerwig also made a couple of artistic choices that haven't been received so super well by more conservative Christian fans of the franchise. Right, so for example, her movie is set in the 1950s, half a century later than the book is based on, and she's said that she envisions her adaptation as a rock opera, which is why it led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heavens in the trailer. But one of the main things that have a lot of people heated is her choice of casting Meryl Streep as the voice of Aslan the lion, who's widely understood to represent a Christ-like figure in the books. Now, to be clear, just because the voice actor is female, that doesn't necessarily mean that the character is female. In fact, while we don't know for sure yet, some signs point to the lion remaining male, with Gerwig using he/him pronouns in reference to it, and Relevant Magazine reporting that it's clearly male after a sneak peek at the film. But that hasn't stopped. a lot of conservatives from declaring that the line and the whole film is a deliberate mockery of Christian faith. Or with, for example, one column for the Christian Post reading, "This is a well-known ploy of the enemies of God "to subvert and destroy symbols of Christianity "in an effort to win a war of attrition "for the heart of the culture." And you have the National Catholic Register raising the question, artistic liberty or blasphemy? You even have a petition out there to get a different director for any future Narnia films, though it's only got like 6,000 signatures right now. And with this, while Ben Shapiro himself is not Christian, he is not a fan. - I watch Barbie, I know what its value system is, I know what Greta Gerwig thinks, this is stupid. Greta Gerwig is kind of Christian curious, but that does not make her a Christian. She transed Aslan and she put eyeliner on the lion and she turned the whole thing into a rock David Bowie knockoff. - Right, but it's not just Narnia. He points to numerous other media as proof of Netflix's supposed wokery, such as his adaptation of John Steinbeck's "East of Eden." Because according to Ben, Kathy's character in the book is meant to represent utterly inexplicable metaphysical evil, but in the series, they give her a backstory that explains why she is the way she is. Therefore, woke. - And so my wife and I, who are like core audience of "East of Eden," we were out by episode two. - And then you also have him pointing to a series called "Below," which is about a giant squid that's terrorizing a town. But there's a plot point about climate change being the cause of it. And so for Ben, that is, yep, woke column. - That's stupid, and it makes the show bad. - And now you've also had the likes of Megyn Kelly jumping on the go woke, go broke train as well. With her blaming even more Netflix shows for the company's financial troubles. - The animated series "Cocomelon," featuring an episode in which a young boy dresses in a tutu and tiara, encouraged by his two fathers to explore different activities and interests. Another animated series directed toward children, "Dead End: Paranormal Park," featuring a gender confused teenage protagonist who discusses his gender identity with another character. - But in reality here, right, there are way more factors than just the supposed wokeness that serious people are pointing to for an explanation regarding Netflix's problems. First of all, the streaming industry as a whole is kind of struggling right now in no small part because of competition from social media. There's only 24 hours in a day, and what's the point of that? You're sleeping, you're eating, you're cooking, you're eating, you're pooping, you're driving places. So there are only a few hours to do your duty as a late capitalist subject and consume content. And then if we take for granted that you're gonna spend half of that time browsing the Netflix catalog for something that's actually half decent, which is a reasonable assumption it feels like these days, in the end, you've got time for maybe one movie. And it needs to be a good one, 'cause if not, then maybe you say fuck it and you just start scrolling on TikTok or Reels or whatever the hell. Plus with affordability how it is right now, inflation the way it is right now, how the world, is right now a lot of people just don't see the logic in paying a hundred bucks a month for three different streaming services when you have all this entertainment out there that's for free. And I'm not just talking about user generated stuff on TikTok and Instagram and YouTube and Spotify. I mean, there's also Tubi and the Roku chat. But between the big streamers themselves, Netflix is starting to fall behind. I mean, just think a lot of the biggest shows over the last few years, they've come from services that are not Netflix. And yes, they took home 16 Primetime Emmy Awards this year, but that is their worst showing since 2016. And it seems like they're trying to make moves, but they also just lost their bidding war against Paramount Skydance for that huge Warner Brothers deal. And their expansion into live sports, podcasts, and gaming, it appears to have had mixed results so far. And while I understand the power of a slogan, right? "Go woke, go broke." That's a banger, especially for people that are willing to pay a monthly fee for Ben Shapiro's slop. - That's stupid. - The situation is actually a lot more complicated and it's gonna be very interesting to see how this whole space continues to move forward. Though I do have a hope that thanks to all the consolidation that we're seeing right now and the job cuts that are gonna come from it in this space, that maybe it creates the perfect scenario for a lot of new upstarts to come out. Especially in a world where it feels like business wise, people are rewarded more for quantity rather than quality. And then there's even more we gotta dive into in just a minute after a quick break with our sponsor. You know, I have to say getting into bed is one of the best parts of my day. And since switching to today's sponsor, Lisa Mattress, I lie down and immediately think, yeah, I'm done. My first thing I noticed was how comfortable it is. Not too soft, not too firm. It just kind of gets out of the way and lets me sleep. You know, I've had mattresses where I spent half the night trying to find one position that my body's gonna accept. With Lisa though, I settle in and feel comfortable. And Lisa designs mattresses around how you sleep, your preferred feel and the kind of support you want. Their new are green flex foam. It uses renewable plant-based materials and it's designed to stay breathable while giving you pressure relieving support. And so you can get that cozy feeling without feeling the mattress is trying to swallow you whole. And if you have no idea which mattress is right for you, do what I did and take Lisa's quick sleep quiz to help match you. Also, their mattresses are designed and assembled in the United States and you get a 365 night trial. So you have real time to sleep on that decision. So hey, head to lisa.com or scan that code right now for up to 30% off mattresses plus an extra 50 bucks off with promo code DeFranco. That's L-E-E-S-A.com, promo code DeFranco. You're back, they might even send me a thank you note. But then, Devin, right back into the news. In the latest edition of what shady bullshit are Republican politicians up to today? It turns out that a PAC that originally used the name Democrats for Mike Rogers is primarily funded by Republicans. And while posing as a group of Democrats, they were leaning into racist and Islamophobic tactics to help Rogers beat Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race. Because 2026 politics just continues to be literal hell. Okay, here's the thing. This group launched as Democrats for Mike Rogers after El-Sayed won the primary. But you then had the PAC later rebranding as Together for Michigan, changing its official name at the Federal Election Commission's request. So their Twitter account is still Democrats for Mike Rogers. And you have the truth about their bank account coming out through their latest FEC file. Because their two biggest donations apparently came from the Great Lakes Conservatives Fund, which donated $50,000 to the American Unity PAC, which donated $25,000. And also the American Unity name, it's a bit vague, but their stated mission is focused exclusively on protecting and promoting Republican candidates for US Congress. So I wouldn't call them Democrats making an exception for this one Republican candidate. And there are only a few individual donors that are listed, most of whom have donated to Republicans in the past. You have William Orgel, who donated $2,500 to Together for Michigan. He previously gave thousands to Republican Senator Bill Hagerty's campaign, as well as Nikki Haley's 2024 presidential campaign. Michael Sandler, who donated $1,000, has donated to Democrats, but he also contributed to Representative Marianette Miller Meeks, one of the most in trouble Republican House candidates this election. And so with all this, you have people asking, well, why are there only a handful of donors listed? Well, the best thing Together for Michigan made with the FEC probably doesn't include the money transfers that happened during their Democrats for Mike Rogers era. And this whole operation is this huge deal because Together for Michigan has reportedly spent nearly $5 million trying to boost Rogers and take down El-Sayed. And in one of their shadiest moves, it appears they paid a former Pontiac Michigan council member, Melanie Rutherford, $30,000 to diss El-Sayed and glaze Rogers on Fox News. Because two weeks after Rutherford received that money for grassroots consulting services, here's what she had to say. - I started to look at who they made the choice for to be our representative. I started to look at who they made the choice for to be our representative in the Democratic Party. And his ideologies, his ideas, me not understanding his plan, me not feeling that our voices were being heard, 'cause I am a conservative Democrat. I couldn't, in my right mind, vote for this guy. I said, for the first time in my life, I have to do what's best for, not only for myself and my family, but for my community. And we needed someone who has the background, who has the experience, and someone who actually is going to have these conversations, even if they're tough, about how to move the state of Michigan forward. And that's what made me go towards working for, excuse me, towards working with and voting for Mike Rogers. - What a lovely little slip up there at the end. I mean, working for, oh, excuse me, whoopsie daisy. And conveniently, it was never disclosed that she had received $30,000. And you had that clip then amplified by a bunch of MAGA accounts. Also, if you look at the Democrats for Mike Rogers Twitter account, you'll also find it as a very MAGA vibe, because the majority of their content is essentially El-Sayed's a liar, an anti-Semite, and a terrorist. But also, why not? He hates black people. You had one tweet from the Democrats for Rogers account reading, "If Abdul won, he would be a senator for U.S. designated terrorist groups." Saying, "Those are his own words, not mine." You had another post trying to present Rogers' interactions with black people as more natural than El-Sayed's. - Don't forget to tip your card today. - Man, y'all ever have this frame up before? - Nah, keep it out here. - It's the go-to, you want some? - No, no, no. - You sure you want some? - Nah, I don't like the red. - And as insane as all this is, it is not the first time we've heard about schemes like this in this campaign, because this report about Democrats for Mike Rogers comes just a few days after that guy, Tommy, showed up at El-Sayed's town hall and demanded that he disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. You had El-Sayed's response being so good that that moment went viral. And Tommy, he turned out to be Thomas Teeple, a former Josh Hawley staffer and the son of a political operator who has just paid $250,000 for influencer marketing against El-Sayed. Do you see what many are calling this really sinister, widespread effort from the right to trick people into voting for Rogers? Well, there's always a ridiculous amount of money that's going into these political campaigns, and it's supposed to go towards ads, staff salaries, travel, all that kind of stuff. Paying people to show up to disrupt town halls and organizing a Republican-funded Democrats for Mike Rogers group is, I mean, that's like straight out of "Scandal." As far as why are they doing it, it's because, you know, this is expected to be a rough midterm season. People aren't the biggest fans of Democrats, but they really do not like Republicans right now, and they really, really do not like Trump right now. Which on that note, guess who got the president's endorsement back in July? Rogers. And that's as it recently came to light that Rogers spent $100,000 in private jets and luxury travel last quarter. And you also have this alleged leaked audio of him talking about how it's important to be cautious about releasing the Epstein files to make sure that Epstein's friends are protected. - You also have to protect somebody who got on an airplane and rode with him, didn't go to, was not a participant in any other activities. A court of public opinion would ruin their life for no reason. You don't want to hurt that person's career or reputation or family either. - When you don't really have the ability to make a positive case for Rogers, of course, the next best thing to do is try to paint the other guy as scary. As far as if it'll work, we'll wait to see. Polls have been very tight, though, of course, like we always say, disregard the polls. If you're gonna go vote, go vote. That's the only poll that actually matters. Right, but then jumping from that to other news, states need to figure their own shit out when it comes to disasters and stop making it the federal government's problem. Right, that, that's essentially what the Trump administration said yesterday. Because this is Cameron Hamilton, and he's the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA. And yesterday, you had him at a conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he told state officials that they are going to have to increase their financial reserves and emergency capabilities to handle most disasters without federal intervention. And you had Hamilton, at this conference, framing it as the best way to make sure that victims are not caught up in a bunch of red tape. saying, "Every state must have the appropriate financial to ensure that recovery efforts can start immediately and not necessarily be held up simply because of the federal disaster declaration process. And you had him promising a new national mutual aid program where states will help each other recover from storms, floods, wildfires, and the like. And then you had Hamilton adding, "You will also see us asking for greater alleviation and waiving of federal environmental and historical preservation requirements, things that add layers of bureaucracy." So essentially you have the Trump administration pushing the responsibility off onto the states and setting it up to limit their involvement in future disasters as much as possible. One of the big things here is we actually knew this was coming. We're reporting on an internal memo from last week revealed that FEMA is trying to quote, "Strengthen state and local emergency management capacity" and quote, "Reduce unnecessary centralization in Washington, DC." And this is absolutely in line with Trump's goal for FEMA. He's had his eyes on kind of overhauling and even dismantling the agency as much as he can since he came back into office. I mean, literally just days after he was sworn in, he said that FEMA was going to go away and that it had turned out to be a big disappointment and a disaster. And since then, he's just been coming in with blow after blow seeing things like cutting billions and grands, huge chunks of the workforce. And he's even mentioned sharply politicizing the whole disaster recovery process, making it way harder for blue states and red states to get funds when they need them. In fact, a Politico report from earlier this year found that Trump approved just 23% of disaster relief funding requests from states with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators. But that as he approved 89% of requests from Republican controlled states. You haven't had a disparity like that in approval of federal fund dispersal since FEMA was founded in 1979. But also even if this does line up with what Trump wants, there are definitely some glaring holes in this plan that need addressing. Or with a big one being that even according to FEMA's own reporting, state disaster agencies are drastically understaffed and underfunded and they need federal intervention. And even a long time emergency management official and former director responding to Hamilton's memo online and saying, "There are many states with minuscule emergency management offices and budgets." Saying, "There are states with slim rainy day funds and no capacity to make up for a lack of federal disaster recovery funds without raising taxes." And saying, "Reducing the number of federal disaster declarations will be difficult and its implementation will be impossible." Saying, "All presidents, not just the one we have today, will ignore such a policy when it becomes politically expedient to do so." And there's also some concern that all of the Trump administration's selling points about reducing unnecessary steps and cutting the bureaucracy, it makes it seem like they care more about efficiency than the welfare of communities. For example, Shana Advarti of the Union of Concerned Scientists saying, "When you have a lot of focus on accountability and efficiency, you're going to have staff losing focus on the bigger picture of resiliency. It's really hard to know what this is going to look like in practice." And it's worth noting that this is coming while FEMA is dealing with the impact of Hurricane Isaias on the Gulf Coast. And for FEMA, the question wasn't whether they were going to respond. They knew they were going to be there, but they were definitely going in handicapped. They've lost some serious depth and experience in their staff since Trump came in with an ax. Right, among 4,300 employees who have left the agency in the 2025 fiscal year, 58 were senior executive service employees. And that includes the administrator who oversaw the region that included Florida and Alabama. And even the person who led FEMA under the Biden administration saying, "My biggest concerns are always the loss of institutional knowledge. You lose that knowledge. You lose the people who had been through these big disasters in the past." And it's likely we're going to see this problem persist, if not grow, because this new state powered FEMA plan takes a firmer hold. With Hamilton saying that changes could be seen in as little as six months. But that is he also promised that as federal FEMA time and money is freed up, their focus will shift to reducing risk and building capacity across the nation so that disasters cause less damage and states are better equipped. Saying federal dollars should be building greater capability and not creating greater dependency. But of course, like in all things, but especially here, words are words and actions are actions. And so we're gonna have to wait to see how this plays out. And unfortunately with things like FEMA, unfortunately with things like infrastructure, it's usually not till it's too late that you realize, oh, fuck. A bad decision or 20 were made. And then we've three more things we gotta dive into in just a minute after a quick break from our sponsor. So somebody decided watching a mystery movie, it wasn't stressful enough. So they turned one into a $25,000 competition. It's really interesting, right? Today's sponsor is the team behind "The Man with the Silver Case." It's a black and white noir thriller and not a sit back and watch sort of movie. Where the first clue is actually hidden in the film. And so is everything that you'll need for a real world hunt through Los Angeles. You can watch free on Kapang or watch on Prime Video. And either way, there's no purchase necessary. 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Then diving right back into the news, we've got to start with this retired school teacher who's been released after being locked up in Russia for more than four years. Right, 'cause you had Russian officials taking Stephen Hubbard into custody not long after they invaded Ukraine in 2022. And you had them accusing him, a 70-year-old man at the time, of being a mercenary for Ukraine. And he was sentenced to almost seven years back in 2024. And while he was eventually designated as wrongfully detained and the U.S. was able to start negotiating for his release, while he was still in custody, he was being tossed between different detention centers and prisoners who were being held with him said that he was repeatedly tortured because he was an American. They said he was beaten, forced to stand all day, only given a little bit of food and poor healthcare. Reports say there were even times when the U.S. embassy lost access to him and his family had no idea where he was. And after years of that kind of treatment, we got the news of his release during talks between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin, with Trump going online to say that Putin let him go at his request with no swap necessary. But he also said that it wouldn't have happened if he didn't ease the sanctions on Russia last week. Right, and those sanctions were gonna be put in place to undercut the financial resources that they were getting from things like oil that were helping them in the war. Now, Trump's claiming that numerous people who were against lifting those have called to apologize, saying they didn't realize it was all a part of the negotiations to get Hubbard out. But there, you have a lot of people calling BS, saying that framing's ridiculous. Right, because many see this as Trump trying to do some sort of damage control, thanks to all the backlash that he's gotten for what people see as him leaning closer to Russia. Or it's claiming that for years, people like Hubbard were part of a push from the Russian government to take American prisoners as leverage for post-war talks. But they say he then became more valuable to Putin as a symbol of the renewed relationship with the U.S. president than as a pawn in negotiations. And regarding what Trump did with the sanctions, you have Ukrainian President Zelensky taking this as kind of a slap in the face, saying a U.S. sanctions blackout, easing pressure on the aggressor, financial rewards for Putin, all of this only encourages him to keep attacking. And then also in the news, we need to take a look at how one in five Americans are literally choosing between keeping the lights on or putting food on their table. And you've got that coming from a brand new Consumer Reports survey. And it'd be easy to just blame the Iran war and inflation, but there's actually been increases across the board over the past year. People having to do more than just cut how much food they're buying. You've got about a quarter of people intentionally putting their heat or their cold at uncomfortable temperatures to try and save money. And while about 25% had to resort to being uncomfortable, upwards of one-third saw their bills spike as much as 49%. 80% of Americans had increases, but by how much, slowly decreases. Consumers are also aware that it's not just Trump's dumb war. You've got them pointing to power companies trying to maximize their profits and the massive build-out of AI data centers across the state. And things will not get better if stuff doesn't change. You've got electricity demand expected to surge 16% by 2029, largely because of these projects. And while Trump and Republicans initially ignored this back and still pushed for the AI data centers, it became apparent that it is a losing stance as voting polls show that voters really care about this. And it's even gotten to the point where Trump's having to act like he cares about it, with him issuing a so-called mandate on Truth Social today, even though he doesn't have the power, saying that data centers need to provide their own power. Also saying they should be giving back any excess power to the community grid. And even going further, saying that they should have to pay a dividend to locals, which no company would seriously do. So given this kind of out of nowhere 180 of many people calling BS, saying he's trying to trick his voters, lure them back in, and then he's gonna go back to business as usual after the midterms. And then last up in the news today, it's bad gaming news. Electronic Arts is laying off hundreds of people and shutting down BioWare, the studio behind Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Reportedly, it's around 400 jobs, including around 50 people at BioWare, which is about 3% of its staff. With that, they're apparently putting a game that they had planned for the Sims franchise on hold while they focus on another project. And they'll be downsizing the team that's working on a skateboarding game that they're developing as well. And a key thing is you have all of this happening after they went private in August with a $55 billion buyout from Saudi Arabia's investment fund, Silverlake, and Jared Kushner's affinity partners. And you would have company officials telling investors that they'd save as much as $700 million by cutting research and development costs. And so now they're saying across our portfolio, we're making deliberate choices to align talent and investments where we see the greatest opportunities for players and long-term growth. Apparently they were on the chopping block because BioWare's most recent drop didn't bring in the numbers that they thought it would. At least for now, it looks like they're still gonna invest in their sports games along with games like Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi. And they also plan to keep the Battlefield franchise going, and they mentioned that there's a new collaboration project coming from its Respawn and DICE studios, for which people are speculating is another Star Wars game. But that, my friends, you beautiful bastards, is the end of your Wednesday show. Thank you for watching, liking, and subscribing to these daily dives into the news. I love yo faces. And hey, I'll see you right back here tomorrow.