The Erick Erickson Show

Erick returns from break with good scan news for his wife, then breaks down why Army Secretary Dan Driscoll walked into the White House, told President Trump how many generals and admirals Pete Hegseth had quietly purged, and resigned on the spot. He also takes on Laura Ingraham by name over her "never Trump" attack, walks through Harry Enten's numbers showing Republicans running ahead of Trump's own 37 percent approval, and explains why the first Secure America PAC ads are aimed at exactly the wrong voters. Dan Driscoll out at the Pentagon, the Washington Post readiness leak, and how many officers Pete Hegseth fired without telling the president Why the president's super PAC ads fail: Harry Enten's data on Trump's 37 percent approval, the generic ballot, and the Republicans who are not motivated Erick versus Laura Ingraham, the Dominion discovery text messages, and why he will never say privately what he will not say on air Ken Paxton, James Talarico, and the Texas Senate race: run on the opponent's own words, not on your own record Max Miller, Brian Poindexter, and the best campaign ad of 2026, plus Ann Richards' 1996 warning to Bill Clinton about campaigning on the past Post Labor Day polling shifts, summer's Democratic bias, and the case against leaving the mentally ill on the streets

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Erick Erickson breaks with much of the right on Flock cameras, taking apart Ron DeSantis and his move to pull every license plate reader off Florida's state highways, and laying out three fixes he says beat an outright ban: prohibit facial recognition in public rights of way, mandatory prison sentences for police who abuse the system, and a private right to sue Flock Safety when it shares data a city told it to keep local. Caller Troy asks what "papers" actually means in the Fourth Amendment, and Erick walks through persons, houses, papers and effects, the Supreme Court holding that a license plate carries no expectation of privacy, and how the FBI already used cell phone tower data to build the January 6 cases without a single camera. The hour then turns to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shutting down 110 driving schools over English proficiency violations, illegal aliens holding commercial driver's licenses in California and New York, Ken Paxton, Lake America, and a personal update on ten years of a drug keeping Erick's wife alive with stage four lung cancer. Ron DeSantis moves to strip Flock cameras from Florida rights of way, and Erick argues the license plate readers have solved hundreds of thousands of crimes and recovered kidnapped kids and wandering dementia patients, while wondering aloud whether DeSantis is grabbing a populist libertarian lane ahead of JD Vance and Marco Rubio for 2028 Three fixes instead of a ban: ban facial recognition in the public right of way, mandatory minimum prison sentences for officers who abuse Flock Safety data, and a private right of action against Flock when it shares data across jurisdictions that opted out Caller Troy on the Fourth Amendment and the word "papers," with Erick explaining persons, houses, papers and effects, the Ben Franklin liberty and security quote everyone misuses, and why anyone can legally photograph your license plate from the roadside Sean Duffy shuts down 110 driving schools tied to 5,000 English proficiency violations, and Erick credits the Transportation Secretary on air traffic controller hiring and FAA GPS upgrades that Pete Buttigieg never delivered, while calling the new FAA ban on pre flight drinks pure nanny state Erick on Ken Paxton, James Talarico and being handed crap sandwiches by both parties, on Lake America as bot bait, on his Swedish grandfather learning English in Coral Gables, and on his wife hitting ten years on a stage four lung cancer drug she was given two years to survive

Erick Erickson opens by explaining why the Iran war cannot be negotiated like a normal conflict: the Islamic Republic's Mahdiism means the Ayatollahs believe they must bring about the apocalypse. He then walks through Brett McGurk's argument that Iran is actually losing its leverage in the Strait of Hormuz, with oil flows back to two thirds of pre war levels and Iran's economy contracting more than 5 percent. The hour turns on the Washington Post leak of the Secretary of Defense orders book, in which Pete Hegseth was told by the Navy, European Command, Pacific Command and Southern Command that a prolonged Iran deployment cannot be sustained, and on why Erick believes the leak is a 2028 hit job aimed at Hegseth from inside JD Vance's orbit. Mahdiism explained: why Iran's rational belief in the apocalypse makes negotiation impossible Brett McGurk on the Strait of Hormuz blockade working, oil flows recovering, Iran's economy contracting more than 5 percent with 70 percent inflation The Washington Post orders book leak: Admiral Daryl Caudle says only one fourth of the Navy's destroyer fleet is ready to deploy Three leaks in a row (Patriot missiles, surface to surface missiles, the non concur) and how Iran reads American weakness Erick's 2028 read: JD Vance's team, Pete Hegseth eyeing a run, and a White House source insisting the leakers are civilians, not the military Scottie Scheffler wins at East Lake, and why Trump cannot remove a sitting vice president

Erick discusses the progressive dystopia that is America as the Handmaid's Tale even as progressives like Kathy Hochul are willing to cover their heads to go talk to muslim men who'd deny them rights. He also points out how the same standard the media is focused on between Hasan Piker and Abdul El-Sayed is playing out between Tucker Carson and J.D. Vance. Erick also discussed Milo Yiannopoulos's deportation and how independent voters say they support the President's deportation of all illegal aliens, but, when rubber meets the road, they do not.

Erick Erickson uses the Callaway Golf and Good Good Golf blowup, a bad driver ad, a public apology, and a canceled partnership, to make a much bigger point about a country with no adults in the room, and he tells his own story of the tweet that nearly cost him CNN and how Rush Limbaugh became the mentor nobody else gave him. Then caller Randy asks why data centers do not go into empty strip malls and factories, and Erick gives the zoning and contamination answer from his Macon City Council days, plus the Effingham County build that is actually pushing Georgia Power rates down. He closes with hard advice for Flock Safety on license plate readers, facial recognition, and the abuse stories piling up. Callaway Golf, Good Good Golf, Matt Kendrick, and the Obsession themed driver ad that blew up, with Dude Perfect as the counterexample of growing up right Where the adults went: Erick on his own infamous tweet, apologizing for years, and emailing Rush Limbaugh at three in the morning for advice Caller Randy from Macon on repurposing empty big box stores for data centers, and why blank slate land at three to four thousand an acre always wins The Effingham County, Georgia mega data center, reportedly for OpenAI, and Georgia Power cutting rates because the facility pays its own way Flock Safety under fire: the Texas town that voted the cameras out, license plates versus facial recognition, and the mandatory minimum Erick would write into law Personal: daughter Evelyn's 21st birthday, his parents' 62nd wedding anniversary, Leif Erickson, and the great kitchen hardware negotiation

CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise trip to Moscow to warn Vladimir Putin off any attack on NATO, and hours later Latvia declared a border emergency and sent troops to its frontier with Russia and Belarus. Erick Erickson walks through the Wall Street Journal exclusive, the near extinction of America's Patriot missile batteries, and why the Pentagon never told Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman to ramp up production. Then a blistering segment on Mike Collins, the Georgia Senate race, and a Republican campaign staffed by white nationalists and Holocaust deniers while John Ossoff cruises. John Ratcliffe in Moscow, the Wall Street Journal exclusive, Steve Witkoff, Dmitry Peskov, and the NATO warning to Vladimir Putin Latvia declares a border emergency as Russia probes the Baltics, with Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden all watching The missile shortfall: Patriot batteries nearly gone, the defense primes never told to ramp up, and Ukraine outproducing all of NATO on drones five million to under one hundred thousand Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea learning how to learn from each other, with Ukraine as the axis test bed Mike Collins, the Nazi twink consultant, the Holocaust denier group chat, and why Erick says the GOP handed John Ossoff a second term Ben Domenech on GOP infighting, plus Ken Paxton, James Talarico, Rick Jackson, and Keisha Lance Bottoms

Erick Erickson closes the show with the most personal monologue of the day, previewing his Atlanta Journal Constitution column on Johnathan Hamby, the psychotic man who stabbed a stranger to death on the Atlanta Beltline, and arguing that deinstitutionalization was cruelty dressed up as compassion. He walks listeners from his hometown of Jackson, Louisiana, where the state mental hospital's steam whistle set the town clock, to Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, once the largest mental institution in the world with 12,000 patients, and asks what is actually more humane: a bed, three meals, and enforced treatment, or a bridge in Atlanta. Callers Linda, Susan, Sharon, Pat, Lynn, Tony, and Kathleen close out the Lindsay Clancy conversation with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the timed errand entered into evidence, and the over medication of patients by non medical prescribers. Topics: Johnathan Hamby, the Atlanta Beltline stabbing, and Erick's Atlanta Journal Constitution piece on how we failed him, plus anosognosia and why you cannot force a schizophrenic man to accept treatment he does not believe he needs Growing up in Jackson, Louisiana, in the shadow of the state mental hospital, Dixon Correctional Institute, and the case for reopening Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia The death penalty, abortion on demand, and euthanasia: Erick's argument that a society that stopped punishing the willful taking of life has itself stopped valuing life, with Genesis and the fare gate jumpers in Los Angeles as evidence Lindsay Clancy callers: retired pediatric nurse Linda on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and DFCS calls, ABC News reporting that Clancy timed her husband Patrick's errand, and retired clinical psychologist Kathleen on non medical therapists stacking psychiatric medications Defending Patrick Clancy against the online mob, and Erick's mass psychosis thread: COVID isolation, doom scrolling, screens rotting brains, and why breaking bread with an actual human being is the fix Erick's cooking videos, touching grass, and why real world friends beat social media friends

Erick Erickson reads the extraordinary public apology from the family of Jonathan Hamby, the mentally ill man with more than thirty arrests who stabbed a stranger to death on the Atlanta Beltline, and turns it into a hard argument that closing the mental institutions was never compassion. Then billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller goes to the Wall Street Journal to tell his own protege, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, that doubling long dated bond buybacks is price management, not liquidity management, with the national debt crossing $40 trillion and net interest passing $1.1 trillion. Plus the SEC follows the Big Ten on NFL players returning to college, and Apple sets September 9, which sends Erick into Rush Limbaugh memories. The Jonathan Hamby family statement, anosognosia, the three foot samurai sword in a Chamblee elementary school, and why thirty arrest cycles ended in a killing on the Atlanta Beltline Milledgeville, Jackson, Louisiana, and the case for reopening long term mental health facilities: homelessness as a drug and mental illness problem, not a housing problem Dolly Parton, loving your neighbor, and Erick on how society perverted love into leaving the sick on the street Stanley Druckenmiller versus Scott Bessent in the Wall Street Journal: $4 billion buybacks, the 30 year yield at a 19 year high, $40 trillion in debt, and letting the bond market speak Entitlement reform, means testing, and the two bucket argument for why a growing government bucket strangles the private sector The SPLC prosecution and Todd Blanche, the SEC and Big Ten barring NFL returns, and Apple's September 9 event

Erick Erickson takes apart Abdul El-Sayed's disastrous Jesse Watters interview on Fox News, the Hassan Piker problem now swallowing his Michigan Senate campaign, and why the overwhelmingly white Democratic Socialists of America keep recruiting non-white candidates who cannot stop talking. Then the breaking story of the day: CIA Director John Ratcliffe lands unannounced in Moscow after flying in from Riga, and Erick explains why the most pro-Ukraine official in the Trump administration was the one sent to tell Vladimir Putin that NATO is not going anywhere. Plus Target's Halloween costume apology and the Big Ten shutting the door on NFL washouts. Abdul El-Sayed vs. Jesse Watters: circumcision, reparations, ICE, and a Democratic strategist admitting the party likes its odds in Texas better than Michigan The Hassan Piker problem: Politico's playbook lead, El-Sayed's statement on Jewish safety, and his refusal to condemn Piker by name Inside the Democratic Socialists of America: college educated, white, downwardly mobile, and coveting, with intersectionality and allyship as the recruiting tool John Ratcliffe's unannounced Moscow trip, the pause in Ukrainian strikes, and Russia touching the wires like the velociraptors in Jurassic Park across Poland, the Baltics, and Scandinavia Why Putin covets Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, plus Target's blackface-looking Halloween costume apology and the Big Ten banning NFL players from returning to college

Erick Erickson plays the Parton family's official video announcement from Brian Seaver, Dolly's longtime head of security and the son of Cassie Parton, and then spends the hour on the life of Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean, dead at 80, reunited with her husband Carl Dean, the woman who wrote "I Will Always Love You," "Jolene," and "Coat of Many Colors," sold more than 100 million records, played nine instruments, and quietly gave away books and money for decades. Erick calls her the last American icon everyone loved regardless of politics, and warns that the demons Jesus cast into the pigs eventually invented social media, so the haters are coming. Then a rare guest: National Federation of Independent Business president Brad Close joins Erick to explain why Obamacare made it nearly impossible for small employers to insure their people, and a caller from Jacksonville gets an elections-lawyer answer on mail-in ballots and non-citizen voting. Brian Seaver's family announcement, the plush cotton bed Dolly asked for, and Erick's favorite story: Dolly Parton entering a drag queen Dolly Parton look-alike contest and losing The staggering resume: 26 number one Billboard country singles, 110 charted singles, 3,000 songs written, 11 Grammys, 55 Grammy nominations, an asteroid, "9 to 5," "Steel Magnolias," the Imagination Library, and the Dolly Parton travel stops built to take on Buc-ee's Wikipedia crashes as Dolly's entry becomes the most read page in the world, plus the Trio cut of "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow Tree" with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris NFIB president Brad Close on small business health care: coverage fell from half of small employers to about a third after Obamacare, why multi-employer pools are strangled by regulation, and the case for HSAs and buying insurance across state lines The beneficial ownership reporting rule killed by the Trump administration, the $120 billion in compliance costs saved, and why Congress still has to repeal the law, plus caller Dave in Jacksonville on whether the Postal Service can be charged with mail fraud for delivering ballots to non-citizens

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent goes live to open the sanctions campaign against Iran, with OFAC hitting more than 60 entities, individuals, and vessels, new sectoral determinations on digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping, a promise that every branch of Bank Melli goes dark, and a hint that a major financial institution gets sanctioned by the end of the week. Erick Erickson translates it (the UAE and Dubai have already cut Iran off, and China will tell us to pound sand), then laughs at the San Diego City Council opening its meeting with a Kumeyaay Nation land acknowledgment and takes a caller from Dayton, Ohio on Canada, Ohio HR 194, and a Charter of Rights whose freedoms are subject to "reasonable limits." The hour's centerpiece is a full accounting of why Americans no longer trust the people asking them to accept Flock cameras and data centers, told through sand dumped in skate parks, an arrested paddle boarder, and five years of experts who lied. Scott Bessent's live Treasury press conference: secondary sanctions, OFAC sanctioning more than 60 entities, individuals, and vessels, Bank Melli shuttered, a deliberate cure period rather than an immediate hammer, and a hint at a big bank by week's end Why the UAE and Dubai closing the Iranian crypto and oil laundering route matters, why Erick Erickson expects China to refuse, and Bessent's swipe at Mark Carney when a reporter asked about Canada The San Diego City Council's Kumeyaay Nation land acknowledgment, plus Amanda in Dayton, Ohio on Ohio HR 194, the push to add Canada to the Religious Freedom Special Watch List, and pastors jailed under the Charter's "reasonable limits" clause The trust monologue: San Clemente's sand filled skate park, the arrested paddle boarder, unbolted basketball rims, Gavin Newsom at the French Laundry, Brian Kemp and The Atlantic's "experiment in human sacrifice," Chris and Andrew Cuomo, Daniel Uhlfelder's grim reaper, Rachel Maddow's vaccine promise, the Wuhan lab emails, and the Hunter Biden laptop Why Erick still backs Flock cameras and data centers with restrictions and a facial recognition ban, why the 2000 Mules retraction and the Mark Andrews settlement prove character is not a partisan issue, and why Delta, Coca-Cola, Amazon, and JP Morgan taught Americans to fear AI

Erick Erickson opens Open Line Friday with Isaac Newton's laws of motion and argues that American politics now runs on the third one: every action produces an equal and opposite reaction, and nothing is left to slow either side down. He reads The Economist's warning that superintelligent AI with legal rights could turn humans into "labradors for the machines," calls it nonsense from Silicon Valley weirdos who do not believe in God and think they can build one, and tells the story of ChatGPT refusing to help him cut a lock off his own office door while Claude just told him where to saw. Then the backlash roll call: the Toronto Tempo's non-binary she/they snapping turtle mascot, Seattle Times columnist Matt Calkins resigning after 11 years over spiked columns featuring female athletes, the European hunt for everyone who exposed Jason Arday, Flock cameras being chopped down, and the data center revolt. The hour closes with the fiscal argument of the day: with a guaranteed five to six percent return in the government bucket, nobody has a reason to put a dollar in the private sector bucket, which is exactly why Scott Bessent is wrong that we can grow our way out of the debt. Topics: Newton's three laws applied to politics: the AI backlash, the transgender backlash, and why no intervening force exists when both parties profit from the crisis The Economist on giving AI legal rights, humans as pets, and Erick's rebuttal that a large language model is a random probability machine, not a sentient one The Toronto Tempo's Des and Dot, a Borealis blue non-binary she/they snapping turtle mascot for a women's league that cannot define a woman Matt Calkins quits the Seattle Times over female student athletes, and the European campaign to fire everyone who exposed Cambridge plagiarist Jason Arday The government bucket versus the private sector bucket: guaranteed returns, bond issuance crowding out private investment, and why Scott Bessent's growth answer does not work Confiscating every American billionaire's $8.3 trillion would fund one year of a $7.4 trillion government, and San Francisco Democrats now oppose California's wealth tax The Republican turn to "the common good," Rush Limbaugh on why you cannot beat the real thing, and the case for shrinking Washington instead Trump's Education Department moves to strip the American Bar Association of law school accreditation power Congress still forces the Federal Reserve to file an annual report on a presidential dollar coin that stopped being minted in 2011