The Pentagon is in open chaos and the man in charge is the reason. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll — a Ukraine hawk, a drone-defense innovator, and a close ally of JD Vance — just walked into the Oval Office, resigned to President Trump personally, and told him exactly why. Pete Hegseth has frozen flag officer promotions, is reportedly paying people inside the Pentagon to troll Americans on X, and is dragging senior leaders back to Washington for another culture war TED Talk while the Iran war goes sideways. Paul Rieckhoff has been warning about this since the confirmation fight, and on News Nation with Connell McShane he lays out why Hegseth is on thinner ice than anyone else in the cabinet.

Then the map. Massachusetts just handed Ed Markey another term over Marine veteran Seth Moulton in a primary where more than 60% of the state's independents were shut out entirely. That's the rigged two-party system in miniature — a general election decided by a closed primary, and moderates left homeless while both parties race to their poles. But there's a counter-current worth watching: independent veteran Senate candidates Todd Achilles in Idaho, Brian Bengs in South Dakota, and Seth Bodnar in Montana are all looking more competitive by the week. This one is a fast, sharp read on what's collapsing at the Pentagon and what's rising in the Senate map.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code INDEPENDENT to get $25 when you trade $25.

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-Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

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Iran was supposed to be over. It isn't. The ceasefire is going nowhere, 40% of the Navy is parked in the region, the tab is past $29 billion and climbing, and new reporting suggests as much as 70% of Iran's missile capacity is still standing. Meanwhile Ukraine just took the largest drone and missile barrage of the entire war and corporate media couldn't be bothered to lead with it. Paul sits down with Preston Stewart — West Point 2009, field artillery officer, two tours in Afghanistan, and one of the fastest-growing independent national security voices on YouTube — to get the no-BS read on where we actually are.

They get into the Strait of Hormuz, the exaggerations coming out of both the Iranian regime and the Trump regime, why drones matter more than ballistic missiles right now, and how Ukraine's "kinetic sanctions" are quietly bleeding the Russian economy dry. They dig into Trump's weak hand in Beijing, Taiwan's window of vulnerability, the terrorism threat we've stopped paying attention to, and the dangerous partisan politicization of the National Guard on American streets. If you're tired of cable-news noise and want a briefing that sounds like it came from someone who's actually been on the ground, this is the conversation.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

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The waters are rough and Americans deserve a pathfinder who can actually read the map. Admiral James Stavridis — former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, former SOUTHCOM commander, and author of 2084: A Novel of Future War — returns to Independent Americans to cut through the noise on Trump's Iran roller coaster, the redirection of masked ICE agents into airport terminals, and the looming cyber threat almost no one in Washington is talking about. Paul and the Admiral trade a candid strategic assessment on the Strait of Hormuz, the thousand pounds of enriched uranium still unaccounted for, and the three specific things any serious observer should be watching right now.

They also get real about the culture problem inside ICE, the checks that could still hold a rogue executive accountable — the courts, Congress, NATO, and the American people at the ballot box in November — and why the executive branch always wins the sprint but rarely the race. The Admiral makes the case for a centrist party that doesn't yet exist, names the cyber tower nobody's watching, and closes with a reminder about the young Americans in harm's way tonight. This is exactly the kind of rigorous, non-partisan, veteran-led analysis the rigged two-party system doesn't want you to hear.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

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Plus: The Last Us Troops Leave Iraq. “Who Talks Like That?” The Four-Star General on Trump’s Greenland Threats, Davos Humiliation, and ICE Moving Like It’s Mosul. 

General Barry McCaffrey has seen more war and more national security decision-making than almost anyone alive. A retired four-star, four combat tours, three Purple Hearts, veteran of the National Security Council under three administrations. In this replay, he sits down with Paul Rieckhoff for a no-BS conversation about a moment most Americans still haven't fully absorbed: the U.S. is no longer trusted by its closest allies, our institutions have been hollowed out, and the most trusted institution in American life — the armed forces — is being dragged into domestic politics in ways that should alarm every citizen, regardless of party.

McCaffrey walks through the politicization of the military and federal law enforcement, ICE units operating like infantry in Los Angeles, the 11th Airborne on standby for Minneapolis, and what the Insurrection Act would actually mean if Trump pulls that lever. He unpacks Davos, Greenland, the humiliation of our closest allies, and why "NATO is dead" is not hyperbole. He reflects on the quiet exit of the last U.S. troops from Iraq, the political failures that defined the forever wars, and the 60,000 Americans killed and wounded in the war on terror. This is the kind of intelligence-grade analysis independents are starving for — grounded in decades of service, delivered straight.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

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Paul Rieckhoff sounded the alarm on Pete Hegseth before he was confirmed, and everything he warned about is now playing out in real time. The acting secretary of culture war is purging leaders, driving out women and Democrats, extending deployments without honor, and turning the U.S. military into a loyalty test for MAGA. The USS Lincoln has been stranded at sea for nine months. Two more destroyers aren't coming home. Families are being gutted. Recruiting and retention are cratering. And when the Army Chief of Staff wanted to follow protocol on an unauthorized helicopter flyby of Kid Rock's Tennessee estate, he was fired without explanation.

In this Media Blitz episode, Paul joins Jacob Soboroff on MS Now for a no-BS breakdown of what Hegseth's culture war is doing to national security from the inside out. He connects the reporting from PRIA and the Washington Post to a bigger structural rot: a military built on trust that no longer trusts its leadership, a chain of command being reshaped around fealty instead of competence, and a generation of service academy graduates so morally alienated they're filing as conscientious objectors. If you care about who gets sent where, why, and whether they come home — this one is for you.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

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-And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year. 

Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media. 

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Five years after the bombing at Abbey Gate, 13 Gold Star families are still waiting for a real, bipartisan accounting of what happened during the withdrawal from Afghanistan — and of the two decades of war that led to it. Paul Rieckhoff sits down with Connell McShane on News Nation for the weekly Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Wednesday hit and refuses to let the anniversary pass as another partisan food fight. He walks through what he calls the great American betrayal of Afghanistan, the Afghan allies still hung out to dry at home and abroad, and why an honest after-action review matters more than another round of finger-pointing.

From there, the conversation pivots to the story the legacy media keeps missing: independents are now the plurality in sixteen states, roughly 48% of the country, while Republicans and Democrats sit at 27% each. Ten thousand Americans leave the two parties every single week. Paul breaks down the new farm team of independent veteran candidates — Todd Achilles up 5 on Jim Risch in Idaho, Seth Bodnar in Montana, competitive races in Nebraska and South Dakota — and explains why a single independent win in November could break the logjam the way Joe Manchin, Angus King, and Jesse Ventura have shown is possible. This is the map of the movement the MAGA machine and the DNC both want you to ignore.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

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-And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year. 

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The Cold War is over. The weapons are not. The United States and Russia still hold roughly 6,000 nuclear warheads each — most on hair-trigger alert — and one person, the president, can launch them inside seven minutes with no vice president, no secretary of defense, no Congress, no court. Paul Rieckhoff opens with the news of the moment — Trump's escalating economic war on Canada and the passing of the great Dolly Parton — before diving into a replay conversation with Joe Cirincione, one of the most respected nuclear policy voices in the world, on why this existential threat has been buried under partisan noise while a bipartisan defense-contractor machine keeps the arsenal fat and the debate quiet.

Cirincione walks through the full landscape: the seven nuclear states, the nightmare India-Pakistan scenario that could kill a billion people through nuclear winter, the atomic veterans and downwinders America poisoned and abandoned, and the new arms race unfolding in space, cyber, and hypersonics. He explains why Joe Biden — if allowed to be Biden — would cut the arsenal by a third, and why the Pentagon bureaucracy and contractor lobby make that nearly impossible. This is intelligence-grade analysis about the one threat that can end human civilization in an afternoon — and why staying vigilant on nukes is a truly independent American issue.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

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Rosie Perez has spent her whole life getting back up. From a brutal childhood to an Oscar nomination, from Do the Right Thing to Birds of Prey, from AIDS activism in the Giuliani years to the front row of every big fight, she has refused to be anyone but herself. In this replay conversation, Paul sits down with the queen of boxing to talk about the Weinstein verdict as a historic reckoning, the mental game that decides heavyweight fights and presidential elections, and why so many Latino voters — Cubans, Venezuelans, Mexicans, Central and South Americans who fled dictators — refuse to embrace a candidate who won't stop flirting with the word socialist.

Along the way, Rosie breaks down Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder like the fight analyst she actually is, tells the story of the first car she bought off a college crackhead for two hundred bucks, and gets real about her own mental health, her PTSD, and why she still refuses to shame anyone who voted the other way. She and Paul dig into how we raise our boys, what real integrity looks like when nobody's watching, and why fighting the good fight requires knowing when to rest. It's a conversation about class, courage, and the American project — from one of the sharpest, funniest, most fearless voices we've got.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

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Trump is not hiding the ball. He is telegraphing, in plain sight, that his number one strategic priority is dismantling the next election — because free and fair voting is the one circuit breaker his power can't survive. This episode drills into the emerging steal-the-midterms playbook aimed squarely at Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, the hypocrisy of a president attacking mail-in voting while mailing in his own Florida ballot, and why Ossoff and Kelly punching back hard is the template every serious candidate needs to copy.

From there the conversation widens out to the crypto-bro press conference at a White House that is quite literally open for business, the tapered flagpoles and bomb-bunker cocktail bar while Americans get crushed on gas, groceries, and rent, the nepotism spectacle in South Carolina and a genuine call for Stephen Colbert to come home and run, and the AOC-Markey-Moulton fight in Massachusetts that will test whether progressives can still out-organize the establishment. It's a no-BS scan of a rigged two-party system where one side is stealing the country in broad daylight and the other keeps eating its own.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

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A Secretary of Defense stumping at a congressional campaign event in Iowa. A carrier crew stretched past the breaking point with no embedded reporters to tell the story. A crypto press conference from the White House on the same day primary voters were talking about gas prices, housing, and the Iran war. Paul Rieckhoff pulls together a week of his MSNBC, CNN, and NewsNation hits to connect the dots the cable segments only got to touch — and to name what the two-party conversation keeps missing.

He lays out why the USS Lincoln is becoming a political problem that cuts across every partisan line, why data centers and AI have quietly become the new third rail in 2026 races up and down the ballot, and why three million Florida independents sitting out a primary is a bigger story than any single candidate. Along the way: Mark Kelly finding his range, military families going around the Pentagon to reach the American people, and a reminder that when the guardrails between politics and the troops come down, the country gets less safe — not more.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code [INDEPENDENT] to get ten dollars when you trade ten.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you use code PAUL and stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and help us get independent veterans elected to office.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

-Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power. 

-And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year. 

Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media. 

And now part of the BLEAV network! 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.