The Erick Erickson Show

Erick connects lost American institutional knowledge (nobody can build an IMAX 70 millimeter projector anymore, and Plant Vogtle had to reteach the country how to build a nuclear power plant) to the bigger story: China is building 39 nuclear reactors and 100 coal plants while the United States builds zero. He argues Joe Biden wrecked the economy with modern monetary theory over Larry Summers's warnings, and Donald Trump wrecked it further by resurrecting failed 1950s tariff policy on aluminum, steel, and lumber. Plus Dan McLaughlin on Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass, Nate Silver's data on who the Democratic Socialists really are, and why China funds the AstroTurf groups fighting AI data centers.

TOPICS

• The largest IMAX screen in America is in Pooler, Georgia, and why only 25 IMAX theaters exist: the engineers who built the 70 millimeter projectors retired or died
• Plant Vogtle, Westinghouse's bankruptcy, and why Erick Erickson says the nation owes Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission a debt of gratitude
• Joe Biden, Larry Summers, modern monetary theory, and how the COVID bailout broke the economy
• Donald Trump's aluminum tariff proclamation, J.D. Vance, the isolationists, and the C.S. Lewis "Screwtape Letters" warning about idealizing the past
• China building 39 nuclear reactors and 100 coal plants while the United States builds none, plus the $1.65 trillion in hidden data center debt at Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle
• Base load power explained, the Texas ice storm failure, and why Georgia, Kansas, Idaho, and Wyoming are seeing rates fall
• Dan McLaughlin on Karl Marx versus Frederick Douglass, and Nate Silver's data on affluent, educated, resentful Democratic Socialists
• Callers Jim and John on policing our own side, Christine O'Donnell, Antifa, and the Patriot Front, plus Van Jones calling the far left regressive

Erick Erickson builds the hour around a theological indictment of socialism: the Democratic Socialists have taken the one commandment that lives entirely in the heart, thou shalt not covet, and organized it into a governing philosophy, citing Nate Silver's data showing the most liberal Americans are high education, low income kids from wealthy families. He walks through Abdul El-Sayed's defund the police reversal after Manu Raju confronted him with the audio, James Talarico's border flip, Zohran Mamdani's rent freeze war on New York landlords, and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's careers built on tearing down the rich. Then Mamdani's threat to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, Elie Honig's takedown of that claim on CNN, Mark Warner dodging on Israel, anti-Semitism festering on both the left and the online right including the vice president, plus new ICE deportation numbers, the New Jersey motor voter error, and a raw closing monologue on itching ears, the Charlie Kirk conspiracy theories, "The Odyssey" review wars, and why Erick believes we are in the end times.

TOPICS

• The tenth commandment as the seed of every other sin, and socialism as covetousness organized into a governing philosophy: "to lift up the poor is charity, to tear down the rich is covetousness with a press secretary"
• Nate Silver's data on the Democratic Socialists: wealthy families, expensive useless degrees, $30,000 to $60,000 incomes, and deep resentment, versus the successful non-college voters least likely to embrace socialism
• Abdul El-Sayed caught by Manu Raju on his defund the police record, James Talarico's border security reinvention, and El-Sayed's own top 1% Michigan tax returns
• Zohran Mamdani's rent freeze and war on New York landlords, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren's personal fortunes, and the progressive donor class (Alex Soros) exempted from the moral fury
• Mamdani's vow to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, Elie Honig on CNN explaining the ICC warrant has zero legal effect, and Mark Warner's non-answer on Bibi and the Hague
• Anti-Semitism on the right, the vice president's Joe Rogan comments, reported White House staff obstruction of a Netanyahu meeting, and Bernie Sanders's own former policy director accusing him of spreading anti-Semitism
• Bill Melugin's ICE data: 356,389 deportations in fiscal year 2026, 1,260 per day, 65,765 in detention, Tom Homan's record June arrests, plus 6,000 non-citizens on New Jersey voter rolls and the case against motor voter
• End times monologue: itching ears, earthquakes and the ring of fire, the Charlie Kirk cover-up conspiracy theory, Candace Owens and Bret Weinstein, "The Odyssey" and Rotten Tomatoes, right-wing progressives, and Erick's answer: seek the welfare of your community, love God, love your neighbor
• The lighter close: 29 straight years of losing the Masters lottery, and a plea to get Charlie back to Augusta

Erick opens on a detained suspect and an incendiary device outside New York's 26 Federal Plaza, then builds his signature monologue on "the outrage machine" breaking brains on the left and the right. He defends theologian John Piper over a misread automated Leviticus 19:34 tweet, dismantles the woke-right meltdown over Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" (a Black actress as Helen of Troy and Elliot Page as the deceiver Sinon), and blasts the left for tearing down Flock cameras and ShotSpotter as a Cambridge park attendant bleeds out. He closes on socialist Senate hopefuls Abdul El-Sayed, Troy Jackson, and Graham Platner, plus fresh Iran danger.

• Incendiary device and a detained suspect at 26 Federal Plaza as the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigates
• John Piper preaches Erick's church's 200th anniversary, and the automated Leviticus 19:34 tweet the right wrongly attacked
• The "Odyssey" defense: Christopher Nolan, a Black Helen of Troy, and Elliot Page cast as Sinon the deceiver
• The left's outrage: Flock cameras and ShotSpotter scrapped as a Cambridge, Massachusetts park attendant dies waiting for help
• Iran heats up (US service members killed in Jordan, rumors of a ground incursion into Kuwait) and socialists Abdul El-Sayed, Bernie Sanders, Troy Jackson, and the DSA

Erick races through the day's biggest headlines: an anti-ICE activist who poured gasoline and set a fire outside New York's 26 Federal Plaza immigration court, and the Justice Department confirming acting Attorney General Todd Blanche personally approved the arrest of the Tate brothers, contradicting their lawyer Joseph McBride. He turns to Iran, where the Pentagon named fallen soldiers First Lieutenant Tyler James Frean and Private Isabella Gonzalez while the New York Times alleges the Pentagon hid earlier casualties, and he argues America needs a real strategy (letting Israel back in for regime change) instead of an endless tit for tat. Then a full-throated defense of Flock license-plate cameras and an unforgettable Taco Bell and Taylor Farms cyclospora segment that doubles as his infamous Mercer law school "fungible elephant" tale.

• Anti-ICE activist sets a gasoline fire outside 26 Federal Plaza as New York's mayor responds and a suspect is taken into custody
• Tate brothers arrested: DOJ confirms acting Attorney General Todd Blanche approved it, contradicting lawyer Joseph McBride
• Iran escalation: Pentagon names Lt. Tyler James Frean and Pvt. Isabella Gonzalez, the NYT alleges hidden casualties, John Kirby warns on the Strait of Hormuz, and Erick makes the case for letting Israel pursue regime change
• Flock cameras and ShotSpotter defended as crime-solving, kidnapping-recovery, and dementia-rescue tools the left wrongly panics over
• Taco Bell and Taylor Farms cyclospora outbreak, the FDA's false-positive lettuce walk-back, and Erick's legendary law school "fungible elephant" projectile-vomit story

Erick closes the day with his capstone thesis that America already knows what works and the left, joined by part of the right, is choosing decline: Photo ID for election integrity, phonics and memorized multiplication tables for education, the free market over "capitalism," and the two-parent household for stability. He contrasts Mississippi's back-to-basics reading and math turnaround (rejecting Common Core and Singapore math) with California's "gender unicorn" classrooms, plays Mark Warner dodging Jonathan Karl on Virginia Photo ID and the California Federation of Teachers president calling teachers into the streets, then pivots to Abdul El-Sayed's "abolish ICE" clip with Bernie Sanders, Tom Homan defending ICE on Face the Nation, and a new State Department report tying a 60-plus group Cuba protest network to Havana.

Topics:

• "We know what works" monologue: Photo ID and Georgia's law, phonics, memorized multiplication tables, Mississippi's reading gains, and rejecting Common Core and Singapore math
• Free market versus "capitalism," Norway's oil-funded sovereign wealth fund, Iceland's geothermal energy, two-parent households, and Chesterton's "democracy of the dead" against a new Dark Ages
• Mark Warner spars with Jonathan Karl over Virginia Photo ID while the California Federation of Teachers president wants protests instead of teaching
• Abdul El-Sayed's "abolish ICE" rally with Bernie Sanders, Tom Homan on Face the Nation, the secured border, and the "creedal nation" versus colonizer debate over Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Zohran Mamdani
• School choice and "zip code discrimination," a candid local charter school decline story, plus a State Department report linking the National Network on Cuba and ICAP to the Cuban regime

Erick opens Open Line Friday by dissecting President Donald Trump's prime-time address on election interference, including the DHS claim that roughly 278,000 non-citizens are registered to vote and that China accessed the voter rolls of 270 million Americans. Drawing on his years as an election lawyer and political consultant, Erick argues China does not need to hack anything because voter files are public and resold by data brokers, and he keeps pressing the real question: where are the indictments? He then delivers a two-sided monologue on the scolds of left and right, the progressive meltdown over the Blue Angels beach flyover in Pensacola and the "woke right" outrage over Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey."

Topics:

• Trump's prime-time speech: 278,000 non-citizens on the voter rolls, China, DHS cyber-vulnerability claims, and the missing indictments
• Why data brokers, motor-voter registration, and publicly available voter files undercut the "China hacked us" panic, with the Incogni angle
• California's broken, slow-count elections and Trump's more measured tone that avoided relitigating 2020 and the Warnock and Ossoff seats
• The Blue Angels low-pass flyover in Pensacola: progressive online outrage vs. a beloved annual beach tradition, and Pete Hegseth
• The "woke right" vs. Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey": Elliot Page's casting, a Black Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and the two-million-feet Kodak film shoot

On Open Line Friday, Erick Erickson breaks down why China's Kimi K3 model just seized the number one spot on the front-end code arena, shoving Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT, and Elon Musk's Grok down the leaderboard, and he reads David Sacks's warning that permitting delays and over-regulation are how America loses the AI race. Erick unloads on Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and the AI leaders who "creep people out" with talk of mass job losses and doom instead of selling the promise of the technology, then connects the fight to data centers, six-figure trades like welding and plumbing, and the moral foundation of the free market versus private equity. He opens the hour skewering the Maine Democratic Senate primary debate, from trans candidate Ashley Webb to a climate activist and a candidate tied to Graham Platner, before a two-sided monologue on how the left and the right both let the other side control their emotions.

Topics:

• China's Kimi K3 tops the front-end code arena, David Sacks on permissionless innovation, and why U.S. regulation is stalling Claude, ChatGPT, and Grok
• Erick's blistering critique of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and AI executives who scare the public about job losses, enslavement, and doom
• The AI economy: data centers, six-figure blue-collar trades (welders, electricians, plumbers), free market morality, and the problem with private equity
• Maine Democratic Senate debate breakdown: Ashley Webb, Dan Kleban, a climate-focused candidate, the Graham Platner connection, and moderate Susan Collins
• Living free of outrage: the DJT airport boycott, Greta Thunberg's pivot to Palestinians, Elliot Page and Nolan's "Odyssey," and Colin Kaepernick and the NFL

On Open Line Friday, Erick Erickson opens with a personal Rush Limbaugh memory: how Rush secretly went to bat for him as the only guest host allowed to talk about guns and religion on the EIB Network, the black microphone Rush bought him, and the rare phone calls asking for prayer. He turns that into a hard look at gun rights and the debanking fight, reading CNBC anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin's own past columns urging Visa, Mastercard, JP Morgan Chase, and Lloyds of London to choke off firearms sales, then explaining why the House-passed Protecting Privacy and Purchases Act and Old Glory Bank exist to stop it. The hour's centerpiece is a warm interview with Kelly Paul, wife of Senator Rand Paul, on her Irish immigrant grandmother and her patriotic children's books "Good Night Little American" and "Good Night Young American."

• Rush Limbaugh behind the scenes: the guns and faith rule for guest hosts, Kit Carson, Bo Snerdley, the microphone Rush bought Erick, and Catherine Limbaugh
• The debanking war: Andrew Ross Sorkin's CNBC and New York Times DealBook columns pushing Visa, Mastercard, JP Morgan Chase, PayPal, Square, and Lloyds of London to cut off gun sales
• The Protecting Privacy and Purchases Act, firearms merchant category codes, the backdoor gun registry fear, Old Glory Bank, True Precision, and Van Allen Golf
• Josh Hawley versus a former Biden lawyer over clemency for Dylann Roof, plus a caller on the Communist Control Act of 1954 and its First Amendment problems
• Kelly Paul, wife of Senator Rand Paul, on grandmother Julia Fitzpatrick O'Toole, America's 250th, and her books "Good Night Little American" and "Good Night Young American," with the Mexico 7.3 earthquake and dead daylight saving time bill

Erick argues candidate quality will decide 2026 and spares no one, ripping GOP picks like Mike Lindell in Minnesota (against Amy Klobuchar), Colorado's fabulist nominee Marx, and Georgia's Mike Collins, whose white nationalist son-in-law Alan Shear and huge cash gap against Jon Ossoff keep growing. He then turns on the Democrats' own wreckage: Michigan socialist Abdul El-Sayed and his Medicare-refusing wife Sharra Jakaku, Arizona's Joanna Mendoza against Juan Ciscomani, plus a New Jersey Al Qaeda volunteer and a Texas nominee tied to a sex offender. The hour closes with a blistering monologue on White House corruption, from Trump's teleprompter operator betting on his speeches to World Liberty crypto profits and Kalshi and Polymarket insider trading.

Topics:

• Mike Lindell in the Minnesota governor's race, Amy Klobuchar, and Colorado's fabulist GOP nominee Marx
• Georgia's Mike Collins, son-in-law Alan Shear, the Patriot Front, and Jon Ossoff's $40 million to $2 million cash edge
• Abdul El-Sayed, Medicare for All, and wife Sharra Jakaku refusing Medicare patients in Michigan
• Joanna Mendoza versus Juan Ciscomani in Arizona, plus New Jersey and Bobby Pulido Texas Democrat scandals
• White House corruption: the teleprompter bettor, Kalshi, Polymarket, Trump World Liberty crypto, and Erick's Cassandra warning

Erick strings together breaking audio into a single alarm about rising left-wing political violence: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealing he survived an assassination attempt by a left-wing activist two hours after being sworn in, Justice Amy Coney Barrett's harrowing House Judiciary testimony about the bulletproof vest her 12 year old son found after Dobbs, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio naming the counterterrorism blind spot toward far-left extremism. He then turns the Democratic Socialists of America's own words against them, playing Ash Siddiqui and a leaked group chat pledging to abolish the Senate, the Supreme Court, and capitalism itself, before closing with Hunter Biden's collapsing 1.7 million dollar payday.

Topics:

• Scott Bessent's assassination-attempt reveal, plus threats against Russ Vought, Brett Kavanaugh, Pete Hegseth, and Marco Rubio
• Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court security testimony, Clarence Thomas, and the post-Dobbs bulletproof vest her son found
• Marco Rubio on the counterterrorism blind spot, Antifa denial, the 2020 George Floyd riots, and the "mostly peaceful" chyron
• Democratic Socialists of America exposed: Ash Siddiqui, abolishing the Senate, ranked choice voting, and replacing capitalism with socialism
• John Adams, David McCullough, and the founders on fallen human nature, plus Hunter Biden's 1.7 million dollar judgment against Patrick Byrne