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Trump Goes Saul Alinsky on Hugh Hewitt

February 26, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

Donald Trump isn't shy about discussing money. He frequently boasts that his net worth is more than $10 billion. However, Mitt Romney has thrown Trump's net worth into question with his recent demand to see Trump's tax returns.

“I think we have good reason to believe that there’s a bombshell in Donald Trump’s taxes," Mitt Romney said on national television. "Either he’s not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is, or he hasn’t been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay."

Naturally, the question of tax returns came up during last night's CNN GOP debate when each candidate quickly agreed they would release their tax returns --- except for Trump. No, the self-proclaimed billionaire used several tried and true Saul Alinsky tactics, attacking Hugh Hewitt.

HUGH: Mr. Trump, a year ago, you told me on my radio show, the audio and the transcript are out there on YouTube, that you would release your tax returns.

DONALD: True.

HUGH: Are you going back on your . . .

DONALD: No. First of all, very few people listen to your radio show. That's the good news. (booing) Which happens to be true. Check out the ratings.

Rather than answer the question, Trump attacked Hewitt's ratings, employing classic Alinsky tactics:

RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.

RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new.

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

"We've been seeing rookies with Saul Alinsky tactics with the White House. Those guys are rookies compared to this guy. You might as well be listening to Saul Alinsky himself," Glenn said. "He's been on [the Hugh Hewitt show] several times. ...If he was that bad, why are you on the Hugh Hewitt show?"

Not a fan of Trump's Alinsky tactics? Now you can show it to the world. Get your 'Gotta call Saul!' T-shirt today!

SaulAlinskyWordpress (1)

 

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: Last night, did you guys notice what he said about Hugh Hewitt?

PAT: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: For no reason. What did he say to Hugh Hewitt last night?

STU: About his ratings.

GLENN: About his ratings. Why? Because he was asking him a question, and he asked all of them: I want to be fair, I want to ask, when are you going to release? When are you going to release? When are you going to release? When he got to Donald Trump, he asked him, and Donald Trump said, "You know, Hugh, nobody listens to you, anyway. You have low, low ratings."

Okay. Well, if he has such low ratings, Don, why were you on his show on February 2nd? He was his show on February 2nd. And it's not that he was just on his show. What did he say on that show. Do you guys know?

STU: I did not catch that one, no.

GLENN: Do you know, Jeffy?

JEFFY: No, I missed that episode of the Hugh Hewitt Show. I'm sorry.

GLENN: Pat, do you happen to have that audio or not? Did you put that in the machine or not?

PAT: I did. I got to find it here. What was he saying?

GLENN: On the Hugh Hewitt Show?

PAT: Yeah. Yeah.

GLENN: He was saying who he would have as vice president.

PAT: Oh, right.

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: Who would he pick as vice president.

JEFFY: While Pat is looking at that, don't forget, Donald slams down Hugh at the debate. Slams down Telemundo at the debate. Then a little bit later, "You know, my lawsuit with Univision is over. So they're great now. We're good friends again." I mean, it doesn't compute. We're just slam you right in front of everybody.

STU: Yeah. By the way, before we go to Hewitt clip here. Hugh Hewitt has done a really good job at coming up with actual substantive questions for Donald Trump.

PAT: He has.

STU: And he's been stumped over and over again. It's nothing to do with his ratings. It's the fact that he's caught him in moment after moment of being uninformed.

GLENN: I thought Hugh was totally fine last night.

PAT: He was absolutely fine. And here's what Trump said on his show. And you said, again, this is ancient history. Three weeks ago.

GLENN: Ancient. February 2nd.

PAT: Wow.

HUGH: But can we rule out Ted Cruz as your vice presidential pick?

DONALD: Well, I don't know. Look, I have nothing against Ted. It was sort of a sad thing that happened. But I've always liked him. I've always gotten along well with him.

GLENN: I've always liked him. I've always gotten along well with him.

PAT: And will not rule him out --

GLENN: He's the liar. He's the worst person ever born.

STU: He's never met a bigger liar in his entire life.

GLENN: He's a sociopath. He's not just a liar. He's a sociopath. It's incredible. It's incredible.

Okay. So now, where do we go from here? Well, I think we have to go to some of the things that Rubio caught him on. Because it was extraordinarily satisfying. I'd like to welcome Marco Rubio to the party. I'd like to welcome, everybody to the party who was on the party last night. I don't know if you saw the CNN reporters before, but they were all like, "How is this happening?" Because you guys have let all this happen. You didn't listen -- what did we say when the Tea Party was going on? All people want to do is feel like someone is listening to them. And if you don't listen to them now, it will get worse and worse. And it will fester. So you got to listen to them. They're still not listening to them.

GLENN: Here's Donald Trump last night about with Hugh Hewitt.

DONALD: Every single question comes to me. I know I'm here for the ratings. But it's a little ridiculous.

HUGH: Mr. Trump, a year ago, you told me on my radio show, the audio and the transcript are out there on YouTube, that you would release your tax returns.

DONALD: True.

HUGH: Are you going back on your --

DONALD: No. First of all, very few people listen to your radio show. That's the good news.

(booing)

DONALD: Which happens to be true. Check out the ratings.

GLENN: So what does he do? What is his pattern? What is his pattern? Check out the ratings. Check out the ratings. Deflect. Attack. Deflect. Attack.

PAT: His pattern is Saul Alinsky.

GLENN: Saul Alinsky. You might as well be listening to a pro -- you might as well be listening -- I was going to say a pro at Saul Alinsky's -- we've been seeing rookies with Saul Alinsky tactics with the White House. Those guys are rookies compared to this guy. You might as well be listening to Saul Alinsky himself. This guy is employing every Saul Alinsky tactic. Now, he was on the Hugh Hewitt show a year ago. He's been on several times. Here he is again on just four weeks ago, three weeks ago. If he was that bad, why are you on the Hugh Hewitt show?

HUGH: Well, can we rule out Ted Cruz as your vice presidential pick?

DONALD: Well, I don't know. Look, I have nothing against Ted. It was sort of a sad thing that happened. But I've always liked him. I've always gotten along well with him.

PAT: I mean, there's a lot going on there, first of all. He just insulted Hugh for having ratings. Then what are you doing on the show? That's pathetic. Secondly, he says nothing about Ted Cruz but nasty things now, except when he's on Hugh Hewitt's Show. And then he says he's a good guy, he's got nothing against him, he's kind of sad what's happened with him.

GLENN: It's incredible.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: Absolutely incredible.

Why the White House restoration sent the left Into panic mode

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

Presidents have altered the White House for decades, yet only Donald Trump is treated as a vandal for privately funding the East Wing’s restoration.

Every time a president so much as changes the color of the White House drapes, the press clutches its pearls. Unless the name on the stationery is Barack Obama’s, even routine restoration becomes a national outrage.

President Donald Trump’s decision to privately fund upgrades to the White House — including a new state ballroom — has been met with the usual chorus of gasps and sneers. You’d think he bulldozed Monticello.

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s ‘visionary.’

The irony is that presidents have altered and expanded the White House for more than a century. President Franklin D. Roosevelt added the East and West Wings in the middle of the Great Depression. Newspapers accused him of building a palace while Americans stood in breadlines. History now calls it “vision.”

First lady Nancy Reagan faced the same hysteria. Headlines accused her of spending taxpayer money on new china “while Americans starved.” In truth, she raised private funds after learning that the White House didn’t have enough matching plates for state dinners. She took the ridicule and refused to pass blame.

“I’m a big girl,” she told her staff. “This comes with the job.” That was dignity — something the press no longer recognizes.

A restoration, not a renovation

Trump’s project is different in every way that should matter. It costs taxpayers nothing. Not a cent. The president and a few friends privately fund the work. There’s no private pool or tennis court, no personal perks. The additions won’t even be completed until after he leaves office.

What’s being built is not indulgence — it’s stewardship. A restoration of aging rooms, worn fixtures, and century-old bathrooms that no longer function properly in the people’s house. Trump has paid for cast brass doorknobs engraved with the presidential seal, restored the carpets and moldings, and ensured that the architecture remains faithful to history.

The media’s response was mockery and accusations of vanity. They call it “grotesque excess,” while celebrating billion-dollar “climate art” projects and funneling hundreds of millions into activist causes like the No Kings movement. They lecture America on restraint while living off the largesse of billionaires.

The selective guardians of history

Where was this sudden reverence for history when rioters torched St. John’s Church — the same church where every president since James Madison has worshipped? The press called it an “expression of grief.”

Where was that reverence when mobs toppled statues of Washington, Jefferson, and Grant? Or when first lady Melania Trump replaced the Rose Garden’s lawn with a patio but otherwise followed Jackie Kennedy’s original 1962 plans in the garden’s restoration? They called that “desecration.”

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s “visionary.”

The real desecration

The people shrieking about “historic preservation” care nothing for history. They hate the idea that something lasting and beautiful might be built by hands they despise. They mock craftsmanship because it exposes their own cultural decay.

The White House ballroom is not a scandal — it’s a mirror. And what it reflects is the media’s own pettiness. The ruling class that ridicules restoration is the same class that cheered as America’s monuments fell. Its members sneer at permanence because permanence condemns them.

Julia Beverly / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump’s improvements are an act of faith — in the nation’s symbols, its endurance, and its worth. The outrage over a privately funded renovation says less about him than it does about the journalists who mistake destruction for progress.

The real desecration isn’t happening in the East Wing. It’s happening in the newsrooms that long ago tore up their own foundation — truth — and never bothered to rebuild it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Trump’s secret war in the Caribbean EXPOSED — It’s not about drugs

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The president’s moves in Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia aren’t about drugs. They’re about re-establishing America’s sovereignty across the Western Hemisphere.

For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.

The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.

While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.

Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.

Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

Beyond Venezuela

Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.

Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.

PEDRO MATTEY / Contributor | Getty Images

All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.

It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.

Trump’s Monroe Doctrine

Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.

Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Antifa isn’t “leaderless” — It’s an organized machine of violence

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty

Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images

The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.

This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.

The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.

The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.

Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?

One‑sided freedom

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.

Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.

Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?

If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.

Censored belief

I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.

I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.

I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.

And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.

Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.

Faith on trial

In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.

That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The real test

No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.

Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?

If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.

The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.