The Erick Erickson Show

On the seventh anniversary of his syndicated show, Erick Erickson tells the untold story of how Rush Limbaugh "lied through his teeth" to launch his radio career and later fought behind the scenes to let him talk faith on the air. He then turns to the "progressive madrasas": how Stanford University let Marxists write the capitalism entry in its Encyclopedia of Philosophy and butchered Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek. Along the way he unpacks critical theory, intersectionality, the "you can't be racist against white people" clip, and the "Yankee invasion of the SEC."

• Seven years in syndication: the Rush Limbaugh origin story, Bo Snerdley, the 2016 near-death from blood clots, and the faith that reshaped his voice
• The "progressive madrasas": critical theory, intersectionality, and the viral "you can't be racist against white people" clip explained through Tim Keller
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy lets Marxists define capitalism and misrepresents Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Friedrich Hayek
• Jonah Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism," Stanford's land acknowledgments before frat parties, and a call for parents to exercise real college discernment
• The "Yankee invasion of the SEC": surging Northern enrollment at Alabama, Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Tennessee, plus caller David on Trump fatigue and the Marxist war on a free press

Erick walks through a sobering Washington Post editorial on America's fiscal reckoning: with Social Security projected insolvent by 2032 and the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by 2033, demographics and mandatory spending are driving the country toward a debt cliff that no war or recession created. He revisits Mitch McConnell's "we will not fix it until we hit the cliff" prediction, George W. Bush's rejected 2005 Social Security privatization, cooling July inflation, and even floats Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce sparking a baby boom, before turning to John Larson's Connecticut primary loss, the Anthony Fauci diaries, and the AI resume filters auto-rejecting qualified applicants.

• The 2030s fiscal cliff: CBO projections, Social Security insolvency in 2032, the Medicare trust fund in 2033, and the collapsing worker-to-retiree ratio from six-to-one in 1952 to 2.7 today
• Why Washington will not act until crisis hits: Mitch McConnell's warning, George W. Bush's 2005 privatization plan, raising the retirement age, and the left's treatment of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Taylor Swift, and Travis Kelce
• July inflation and the Fed: cooling CPI, core prices at 2.5 percent, and whether a September rate hike is coming
• John Larson's Connecticut primary loss to former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin after his viral House-floor freeze, the seventh House Democrat ousted in a primary this year
• The Anthony Fauci diaries, the debunked mRNA vaccine miscarriage claim, Alex Berenson, AI job-application filters rejecting qualified candidates, and the case for reactive over proactive government

Erick opens on the Washington Post's exclusive that President Donald Trump secretly slipped out of Turkey after the NATO summit in Ankara, boarding the old Air Force One as a decoy and then being shuttled by catering truck onto a smaller Air Force jet, all because of a credible Iranian assassination threat. The White House press corps is melting down that it was left "expendable" on the decoy plane, and Erick unloads on that self-obsession while asking the bigger question: why has Trump still not taken out the Iranian regime that keeps trying to kill him. He then turns to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's boyfriend and his suspicious stock trades, Tucker Carlson interviewing Hunter Biden, and whether Trump even wants to win in November given his backing of scandal-plagued candidates Max Miller and Corey Mills.

• Washington Post exclusive: Trump's decoy Air Force One, the catering-truck switch to a C-32A, and the credible Iranian assassination threat leaving Turkey
• The press corps calling itself "expendable," Ned Price, and Erick's case that the president comes first, plus the missile shortage and the Ukraine angle
• AOC's unmarried boyfriend trading stocks tied to her committees (Washington Free Beacon), two-tiered justice, and Tucker Carlson's long friendship with Hunter Biden
• Does Trump want to win? How keeping Max Miller in Ohio and Corey Mills in Florida's 7th could cost the GOP a governor's race, a Senate seat, and House seats
• The Doggy Bear and Pink Bear monologue set against Max Miller withholding his daughter's blue bunny, and the Wall Street Journal chicken glut lowering grocery prices

Erick tears into Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed after CNN's Andrew Kaczynski and the KFile surface old clips of the democratic socialist calling football "toxically masculine" and tied to slavery, demanding an end to Fourth of July fireworks, floating a repeal of the Second Amendment, and promoting "feminist prison abolition," all now disowned as "cherry picked" comments from just two and three years ago. He then turns to Wisconsin, where on election day far-left gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong (one of only six votes against a bipartisan law making teacher grooming a felony, signed by Tony Evers) sits atop the Marquette poll and the Kalshi prediction markets, and to New York, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani is caught on a Turkish American podcast describing the red-green "validator" playbook. A caller pushes Erick on Temporary Protected Status for Ukrainians, and he makes the case for extending it while Russia bombs Kyiv.

• Abdul El-Sayed's resurfaced clips (CNN, Andrew Kaczynski, the KFile): football as "toxically masculine" and linked to slavery, banning Fourth of July fireworks, replacing the Second Amendment, over 100 deleted YouTube videos from 2022 to 2024, and "feminist prison abolition" on his America Dissected podcast
• Francesca Hong on Wisconsin election day: her lone-dissent vote against the bipartisan teacher-grooming felony law, the Marquette poll (Hong 38, Crowley 7, Barnes 16), Mandela Barnes dropping out, David Crowley, and a 94.9% Kalshi win probability
• Zohran Mamdani's Turkish American podcast interview on the identity-versus-ideology "validator" strategy, Cynthia Nixon, Tiffany Caban, Hassan Piker, and Erick's red-green alliance and Iran ayatollah playbook warning
• President Donald Trump on jihadists and communists winning elections and third-worldism, plus a Democratic Socialists of America leader dodging on police and prison abolition
• Caller James on TPS for Ukrainians, the August 19 deadline, Pete Hegseth's "temporary means temporary," the Patriot missile shortage, and Russian strikes destroying 17 buildings in Kyiv

Erick pivots from Zohran Mamdani to the Flock camera fight, using the Manhattan Institute's Stu Smith to trace the organized opposition to license plate readers back not to civil libertarians but to the Democratic Socialists of America, the Communist Party USA, and the defund the police and abolish prisons movements. He walks through Columbus, Ohio police chief Elaine Bryant's real case files where Flock helped solve double homicides, arrest a 15 year old murder suspect within 18 hours, recover a kidnapped three year old, and locate missing elderly people with dementia, while conceding the genuine privacy concerns raised by a listener in Jacksonville and callers from Oklahoma City and Forsyth County. He closes by dismantling Mamdani's slick anti Amazon ad as an attack on the small delivery businesses Amazon created, framing it as the politics of envy and covetousness.

• Flock license plate readers on trial: Stu Smith and the Manhattan Institute tie the anti Flock push to the DSA, the Communist Party USA, and the abolish police and prisons left, not to civil libertarians
• Columbus police chief Elaine Bryant's Flock case files: a double homicide solved, a 15 year old murder suspect charged within 18 hours, a kidnapped three year old recovered, an armed robbery tracked to Chicago, and two dementia patients with silver alerts found safe
• The privacy versus safety balance: Flock is a private company, the Supreme Court's no expectation of privacy on a public roadway, the built in audit tool that flags misuse, and the reality that police already pull cell phone data and gas station and bank security footage
• Callers Linda from Oklahoma City, Andrew on his stolen Forsyth County minivan found in 30 seconds, and Bart on the Shanghai and Great Britain surveillance state
• Zohran Mamdani's anti Amazon delivery ad, the Delivery Protection Act, and Erick's case that it targets small subcontractor businesses, plus a Silo and Slow Horses dystopia tangent and Trump's dubious Strait of Hormuz claim

Erick Erickson opens on the fight to let Ukraine build its own Patriot missiles and the Lockheed and Raytheon protectionism blocking it, as Ukraine out-produces all of NATO with five million drones this year while America makes fewer than 100,000. He ties a "sclerotic" defense industry and a stumbling Boeing to why the United States cannot reopen the Strait of Hormuz or finish the job in Iran, where Tehran keeps raising its price and the promised Bessent and Rubio deal never came. Then a Milton Friedman defense of the free market against tariffs, the imaginary $20 burrito, populism as covetousness, and a surprising rethink on the Flock camera backlash.

Topics:

• Patriot missile production, Ukraine's five million drones versus America's under 100,000, and the Lockheed and Raytheon IP fight reported by The Atlantic
• Iran on edge: Trey Yingst on Fox, the questioned Mostafa Khamenei "proof of life" video, unpaid IRGC soldiers, and why Tehran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz despite the collapsed deal
• Boeing versus Airbus, bean counters over engineers, and how government protectionism kills innovation
• Milton Friedman, tariffs as a tax on working families, the phony $20 burrito, and populism as "covetousness organized as a governing principle" (JD Vance, Patrick Deneen, American Compass)
• The Flock camera backlash: license plate readers that solve murders and find missing kids, weighed against police abuse and left and right fears of a surveillance state

Erick Erickson breaks down Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's first big TV interview in two years, a soft sit-down with ABC's Jonathan Karl, and argues "Woke 2.0" is just the old defund-the-police, abolish-ICE agenda with the honesty stripped out. He contrasts Brian Kemp's early COVID reopening of Georgia, and the "human sacrifice" smear from The Atlantic and Anthony Fauci, with the credit Ron DeSantis got for running for president, then turns to Todd Blanche's narrow 50-vote confirmation as Attorney General. He closes on the new FIRE college free speech rankings, where 166 of 257 schools earn an F and Barnard finishes dead last.

• AOC's Jonathan Karl interview: "Woke 2.0," the dodged defund-the-police question, abolish ICE, open borders, and boys in girls' sports and locker rooms
• Brian Kemp reopened Georgia first: The Atlantic's "human sacrifice" story, Anthony Fauci, Ron DeSantis, Stacey Abrams, and Georgia's fast economic recovery
• Todd Blanche confirmed Attorney General on a 50-vote margin with Bill Cassidy's swing vote, and why Erick rates him over Pam Bondi at running the Justice Department
• Francesca Hong, Graham Platner, and Abdul El-Sayed: the Republican super PAC secretly boosting the far-left in Wisconsin, plus Scott Jennings and Ben Domenech on Hassan Piker, inflation, and moral hazard
• FIRE's 2026 college free speech rankings: Claremont McKenna, Purdue, and the University of Chicago on top, Barnard last, Hassan Piker canceled at the University of Washington, and Samford, Mercer, and the coming enrollment cliff

Erick Erickson takes apart the left's redefinition of violence, playing James Talarico's claim that poverty, pollution, and prison are all "violence," then walks through a Savannah, Georgia case where a man arrested 27 times attempted to rape a homeless woman in a public restroom while Judge Claire Williams kept releasing him. He argues prisons exist to punish, not to rehabilitate, and that homelessness is really a drug addiction and mental health crisis the left refuses to treat. Then Zohran Mamdani's FDR and LaGuardia nostalgia, CNN's Harry Enten on Trump's underwater jobs approval, a DSA co-chair's word salad to David Remnick of The New Yorker, and a long monologue on why AI, Common Core, and the algorithm are making Americans less imaginative.

• James Talarico's "poverty is violence, pollution is violence, prison is violence" clip, and Erick's case that prisons exist to punish, not to rehabilitate
• The Savannah, Georgia restroom attack: a repeat offender arrested 27 times, Judge Claire Williams, Alderman Nick Palumbo, Daffin Park, and homelessness reframed as a drug and mental health crisis
• Zohran Mamdani's FDR and LaGuardia pitch, rising New York costs and vacant apartments, and CNN's Harry Enten on Trump's jobs approval sinking 22 points underwater
• The DSA co-chair's interview with David Remnick of The New Yorker: word salad on taxing millionaires, blaming NATO for Ukraine, calling Putin a capitalist, and defending October 7 as "inevitable"
• Erick on AI and data centers: supportive but worried, Grammarly versus Claude, JD Vance's toaster line, the $20 burrito, Elon Musk's "woke" Odyssey claim, Common Core, and his kids' classical Christian school

Erick opens Open Line Friday on the ugly July jobs report: the economy lost 23,000 jobs, average wages rose just two cents while inflation outran them, and labor force participation fell to a five-year low, with middle-aged men and young workers struggling most to get hired. He argues the sectors government controls most (housing, healthcare, education, and food) are the ones driving prices up, then turns to Donald Trump endorsing Charlie Hatcher over Andy Ogles in Tennessee, Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan Senate win, David Hogg's war on moderate Democrats, and Patrick Ruffini's data on the Democrats' summer polling mirage.

• The July jobs report: 23,000 jobs lost, wages up two pennies against a five-penny inflation bite, and why middle-aged white men and young workers cannot get hired
• Copper, aluminum, and steel prices spiking from data center demand and tariffs, plus why government-run housing, healthcare, and education lead inflation while clothing and cars fall
• Trump endorses former Ag Commissioner Charlie Hatcher after Andy Ogles runs a terrible campaign, and how clean energy money picked off Andy Ogles and Chip Roy
• Trump's "communist" framing, Abdul El-Sayed, David Hogg on CNN, Hassan Piker, and the anti-westernism Erick says is breaking the Democratic Party
• Patrick Ruffini's summer polling bias data, Mike Rogers versus El-Sayed in Michigan, Sherrod Brown, James Talarico, and why Max Miller and Corey Mills could cost the GOP seats

Erick breaks down Donald Trump's Punchbowl News interview with Jake Sherman, where the president insists voters are angry at other Republicans and not at him, defends tariffs and the Save America Act, wants to terminate the filibuster, and warns he could be "the last Republican president." Erick lays out the Axios warning from Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen that Trump is trapped by a war, tariffs, and monuments he never should have chased, plus a Quinnipiac record-low approval and a sub-40 percent polling average, then offers his own Labor Day fix: scrap the tariffs, finish the war with Iran, and drop the gaudy gold-leaf White House makeover. Then Open Line Friday callers on New York's $30 minimum wage, the restaurant tip credit, Milton Friedman and the free market, and why Cory Mills and Max Miller have to go.

• Trump's Punchbowl News interview with Jake Sherman: "they're not angry at me, they're angry at Republicans," terminating the filibuster, the Save America Act, and the "last Republican president" line
• Axios (Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen) on Trump trapped by the Iran war, tariffs, and monuments, Quinnipiac's all-time-low approval, and why summer polling still inflates the Democrats before Labor Day
• Erick's turnaround plan: scrap the tariffs to lower prices and lift wages, pour resources into finishing the Iran war for a quick military win, and stop the gaudy gold White House and paved-over Rose Garden remodel
• Caller David in Oklahoma City, a 38-year restaurant veteran, on New York's $30 minimum wage, the tip credit fight, union wage scales, fast-food automation, and young workers priced out of starter jobs
• Free markets versus "socialist light": Milton Friedman, the government taking ownership stakes in 30 companies, a Woodstock Georgia listener's housing squeeze, and why Cory Mills (Florida 7th, back Ryan Elijah) and Max Miller (Ohio 7th) must exit