LOOPcast 2025 Year in Review!

And we're not live. Wait, wait, wait. Are we good? Yeah, I just said that to get you. You dog, you dog. We're not live, but we are here. We are here. It's Josh, Erika, and Tom for the year-in-review episode of the LOOPcast 2025.

You should be hearing this. It should be New Year's Eve. And we have prepared a show to look back upon the crazy, crazy year we call 2025. What a ride. It's Tom, Erika, and Josh, and the LOOPcast, of course, is brought to you by The Loop, every American Catholic's favorite newsletter. Wow, what a year. What a year.

But before we get into it, I say I'm going to organize the show into three parts, okay? This is how I was thinking about the year, and I went back through all of our old shows, and... The three major events. Trump becoming president, obviously, and so we get the first part of the Trump presidency the second time around. The other one that we get is, I think undeniably, the assassination of Charlie Kirk. One of the biggest events of my lifetime, let alone the year, and maybe the year of political violence, so we are going to talk about that a little bit.

And finally, the church got a new pope. For Catholics, a pretty big deal. Pope, not just a new pope, a pope from Chicago, first American pope, Pope Leo, so we're going to talk about that. We all have personal experience with that. Our fearless leader went on to sip macchiatos and have gelato and hang out in Italy, so we've got to talk about that. But before we get into all of that, Charity Mobile, the reason we can do this show today, if you're still spending your hard-earned money with a folk company who doesn't value you and your beliefs, guess what?

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Thank you, Charity Mobile. Okay. Trump winning. Josh, you predicted this, right? Yeah. Absolutely. It wasn't a close call. You weren't looking at Polymarket, or I actually think Polymarket called it, but other places weren't calling it. Well, no. So, to be clear, all three of us predicted that if Trump was the Republican nominee, he would win. I went back, looked at 2023. We all predicted that. However...

The Oracle of Petoskey, the Josh Mercer, the Mercinator, was the only one to call that he would win the swing states. Oh, yeah, good call. Josh's particular contribution, and which- You're forgetting one more thing. Okay, one more. Tell me. Mansplain it to me.

No, it's not, but I did say to Brian, I said, not only is Trump going to win, he's going to win. The popular vote, too. And Brian, I was out of my mind. And I said, he's going to do it. It's true. And he did. Why did you say that, Josh? I just felt like the backlash to four years of absolute terrible governance by Biden, the voters were rejecting this.

It was clear. We had to do something on the border. We had to fix that. There was a lot of other problems, and I was surprised at just how many Latinos voted for him. I mean, that was good, but even better than I had expected.

But yeah, I thought it wouldn't be one of these, like 2016, where he ends up with enough swing states and he wins the electoral vote, but then Kamala would have like two or three or four, even six million more votes than him. I'm like, no, this is going to be a win.

And it was. And he hit the ground running. Yeah, in terms of energy and vibes, too, I think we all... I remember being surprised with how much energy and mojo we had with... Like, the podcast bro circuit, it seemed like people were lapping up the jokes, you know what I mean? Like, the TikToks. There was, like, kind of a fun. Well, that was the campaign side of things, but, like, in terms of, like, starting January 20th, the whistle blows, it's noon, he's sworn in.

It was all systems go. He had everything going. Well, if you remember, I was there, and they had to move the inauguration inside because it was too cold outside, which... I don't believe. I think it was more the potential assassination threat. I think it was safety, which makes sense, but it was in the rotunda, and I remember I was on the ground asking people how they were feeling, lots of energy, of course, and I ended up watching the literal swearing-in in a Hard Rock Cafe on Capitol Hill because people were just kind of piling into restaurants to figure out where they could actually see it because you couldn't see it.

People were trying to find which way the motorcade was going to go, and so they had it in the rotunda, and then he moved right to where the Capitals play. The hockey arena, Capital One, I believe, and then just immediately started signing executive orders. Immediately. Oh, it's incredible.

It's crazy. Including one of birthright citizenship right from the start. Yeah, what do we have on an executive order montage here? Yeah, it's not quite a montage, but I couldn't find a montage in the time I had, but this tweet, this is day one. These are the executive orders we got, and this is just in the hours after he was sworn in. We had the rescission of almost 80 Biden executive orders. He was just like, that's done, that one's done, that one's done, that one's done.

Freezing federal regulations, freeze on all federal hiring. This is like preparing the way for Doge. We had federal workers must return to full-time, in-person work immediately, directive to address the cost-of-living crisis. We withdrew from the Paris Climate Treaty. The very next day, we also withdrew from the World Health Organization, which I was so stoked about. Then we had the directive to restore free speech, eliminate government censorship, directive to end government weaponization against political opponents. Not that Trump would know anything about that, but it was...

It was a crazy day, and it just kept going. So, that was just day one, and for the next two weeks, he was signing like up to 20 orders every single day, and it just kept going and going.

And I just remember comparing that to the walking cadaver who had just left the White House, and his wife, and watching them fly away in the helicopter, and Trump's energy levels were... Like, you expected it to happen, because you'd watched the campaign, but I think all of us were just, like, slack-jawed a little bit at the rate at which he went. Yeah.

And most of them were actually promises that he had put on his website, his campaign website, and it was literally just... Putting in writing all the things that he promised on day one I'm going to do, and then ended up doing it. And then he pardoned the 23 pro-life activists persecuted under the Department of Justice FACE Act. Enforcement, February 3rd, executive order canceling taxpayer-funded abortion travel for service members. Signed an executive order banning men from women's sports. If you remember, they had that thing at the White House, February 5th.

February 6th, establish a task force to address anti-Christian weaponization of government. Unfortunately, February 18th, you get the... IVF expansion. Not great. You did miss one of the most important ones, day two. We changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to its rightful name, Gulf of America. Gulf of America, which still holds, I think, right? Yeah, the name change I like the best, actually, is that we call it the Secretary of War now, instead of Defense, because this is what it does.

It is about war making. Finding out, obviously, true. Of course, and then another one on that would be, remember when we were going to take over Greenland? Yes. This is how much things, how fast things are, but there was a real, so we're taking Greenland now? I remember Donald Trump Jr. was there, and he's handing out MAGA hats to people on there, and they're all fired up. Vance went there, too, I suppose. Yeah.

And, I mean, this is just like, we were talking last show, a couple shows ago, about the trolling of the mainstream media, and, like, The Greenland thing was actually headline material at CNN, MSNBC. Heather Cox Richardson was like, this is proof that Trump has empire in his heart. And they kept playing into it, I should say. And it's just been such a wild ride watching them troll, is the word that comes to mind.

The other thing that I almost forgot. Sorry, remember we liked the AI picture of Trump with the Canadian flag saying, oh, Canada? And then that was a whole other thing. That thing actually rolled out around the same time as we had the amazing, and they should do it again, they better do it again. Remember the NHL mid-year did that competition between America, Canada?

I think it was like Finland. Yeah, the four nations thing, which was awesome. That was one of my favorite things of the last year, sporting events last year, because you get the USA and Canada playing in the first round, and our guys immediately starting a fight. Like, immediately starting. I think it was like three, four fights, and you knew that this was kind of boiling over, like, all the trash talk between Canada and the United States, like our little brother, like, you should become the 51st state, and so awesome.

Like, that, oh, the energy in that. And we ended up losing, so shout out Canada. It still got hockey, but. Awesome. That was so cool. But yeah, the Canada thing, and then the other thing that still makes me laugh was, well, not laugh. So, Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a signal chat where we were going to strike a foreign country. Oh, gosh. From the Atlantic. Right. That was like Pete Heggsa's first week, was it?

The signal chat. I'd forgotten about that. No, dude, I have not forgotten about the signal chat. I could not believe it. And then we were getting screenshots of actual conversations about us. We were going to hit someone in Yemen.

And, look, the Houthis in Yemen, like, this guy Jeffrey Goldberg is like, I cannot, how is it possible that I am in this conversation? And then they ended up firing Mike Walsh, right? Yeah. So, I mean, rightfully so. He took the hit. He fell upon his sword. I mean, my boy, you can't be adding, that was nuts. Like, yeah, that's one that I would look back and laugh on for sure.

Yeah. And then where else are we at with Trump? Okay, other major events. I mean, how could you forget about Liberation Day? Yeah. The most chaotic rollout of tariffs that we're not sure if he could actually legally do. The poster board with all the countries listed with all their tariff rates. Yeah. And he was like tariffing countries that. It didn't make sense to tariff countries that didn't even do trade with us or something like that. It was a big board, and then I guess- Well, there's the islands that don't do any trade that we put a 10% tariff, 20% tariff, and people are like, why are you doing that?

And it's because otherwise, China would use it as a proxy and put their ships through that, and they get around it. So, people are like, I don't get that. I'm like, no, it's actually not dumb. So, Liberation Day was we're going to tariff everyone. We're going to tariff every country, and then that ended up getting rolled back pretty quickly to come to the negotiating table. Every country, come to the negotiating table. We'll negotiate with you individually to get a favorable deal, and then also, I think, through this was just like, Like, nuking China with tariffs.

Like, I think it was, like, 100, it was over 100% tariffs on China, and everyone's like, oh, we're going to really get China at one point, and then that didn't end up, I mean, so much of this just got kind of negotiated away in deals, especially the China one. I mean, China is really, the China hawks, I feel like, in the first term so far, would Trump have to be.

Kind of like, what's going on? I thought we were really going to be going after China, and now we're kind of giving them a break on a lot of different things. Selling them chips, lowering tariffs. We're not going to decouple in the way that I think we thought we did, so that was kind of surprising to me. Yeah, the whole arc of the tariff freakout has been interesting to watch, and I mean, we're still in the process of discovering what all the tariffs will mean, but if I think back to Liberation Day and the ensuing two months after that, all of the talk on the left and the mainstream was tariffs are going to sink the economy, we're all going to be destitute by November, all the prices are going to go up.

Jobs are going to go down. This is just going to be a total disaster, and of course, the worst predictions. Didn't come true. I don't know. Josh, maybe you could speak to where you think we're at right now. But, you know, Trump ended the year by getting up in the White House in front for his message that everyone was convinced he was going to announce war on Venezuela. And, no, he just got up there and talked about how great things are.

He toned down on the affordability, but he really made the case for, here's what the tariffs have done for us. We've actually made back so much money that I'm going to show you how much money we've made back.

Active military member, every U.S. soldier in the military is going to receive a check. It is in the mail for $1,776. How sweet was that? But he is sort of showing the tariffs have not done what it was predicted they would do. They are doing what I predicted they would do. We have all this money coming in, and we are actually going to spend it by giving it back to the American people. Oh, there is a Supreme Court ruling currently in process as to what we can do with this money, whether or not.

I will slightly push back on that. It probably worked because the promise of it got rolled back. So, you could argue that this was all a very Trumpian, you know, art of the deal, negotiation tactic. If they would have been enforced the way they were set out on that first day, the predictions for, you know, this being some kind of mass casualty event could have come true. But immediately, it was rolled back. On the tariffs, yeah. Yeah, I mean, if the tariffs had remained as high as they initially did, It would have caused a lot of problems in the economy, but a 10% rate, approximately, on a lot of these countries is not very punitive.

Obviously, the costs are either absorbed or passed on to the customer, so it involves more money to the Treasury. As I said before, I think Trump was like, how do I get rid of this as fast as I can?

The Supreme Court doesn't force me to return it to the people, you know, like, you know, in rebates, you know, to the businesses back to these other countries. So, I think that's a smart move by him. Overall, the GDP growth has been very good. Gas prices are lower than ever, you know, in the longest time. But there's still, you know, cost pressures, like I mentioned, you know, like. A lot of the policies that Biden had done, like, for example, we have a lower amount of beef than we had in the last 70 years.

So, there are still some things that are going to take some while to unwind. And, you know, we haven't yet seen it just yet enough. We've seen, you know, there's been 2 million people deported that were here illegally. And so, we're starting to see the cost of rent go down in lots of these major markets. So, that's one immediate aspect that's been helpful. I think the next turn over the next four to five months, we're hopefully, we'll see some wages go up because what's going to happen is you get You know, two, three, four, five million people deported or self-deporting.

Then there is going to be, you know, the demand for, you know, labor by citizens is going to go up, and the cost, the wages will go up, because the prices, you know, the hope is that the prices would eventually start coming down, and maybe that is just the new normal, and they are not going to go down necessarily, or it is going to be a slow, slow. Fade. And so, what needs to happen is we need to get wages higher, because people right now are feeling a major pinch.

So, that's the hope. And if you see wages grow up in the first half of this year, then the midterms are a wholly different picture than... I mean, right now, you look at the midterms coming up in November.

And you think, you know, Democrats have got a great chance of taking Congress and having Republicans suffer a big defeat, but again, the economy is going to loom large, and if wages are starting to go up and people feel better, that will be a different ballgame. We'll see. Yeah, and you kind of mentioned there, Josh, what we haven't talked about a lot yet, but the closing of the border. That was just this year, and Tom, I just threw this graphic in the...

Show notes, Doc, for you. These numbers were just incredible. You're looking at Southwest border encounters in the month of February over the years 2022 to 2025. Under Biden, we saw 166,000 plus in 22, 156,000 plus in 23, and almost 190,000 in 2024. And then flip forward a year. To when Trump takes office, February 2025, 8,326? Are you kidding me? And the whole argument all the time had been, well, we need Congress to pass a new law because we can't enforce the border, we need more money down there.

Nope. Trump gets into office, and within weeks, we are done. You're saying that's February of this year? That was February of this year. He had been president at the beginning of that month for a total of 10 days. It was two weeks. It was two weeks into his presidency was his number, yeah.

It's incredible. I mean, it was. That is astonishing. That is promises made, promises kept, and that alone buys a lot of grace for Trump from me. I mean, we can talk about the disappointments and like, where's MAGA going? We're going to talk about, you know, after Charlie Kirk, what's the state of the right? But this alone buys so much grace, in my estimation, of how this is going. Polls confirm that. It's his strongest metric. I actually, so here's what I want to do, because I'm not sure how much time we have.

I have one word, big things that happened in the first term, and I just want quick thoughts in review, how you thought it went. So, I'm going to start off with the earliest of these, Doge. I have a vulgar estimation of what happened with Donald Trump. I don't want to talk about it. If you need a quick recap, Elon Musk was wielding a chainsaw on the stage where Donald Trump was signing executive orders. I think like three months later, he accused Trump of being on the Epstein list and one of the biggest, messiest public blowups of all time.

They broke up in April, basically, yeah. Over the big, beautiful bill, which is going to be like a trillion dollars. And, they had even made like a website of all the things they were going to save. I think most people would say, largely failed to.

Cut the big bureaucracy in terms of cost savings. I think there's maybe some strategic wins with like USAID, what they exposed there. I think it's actually no question. But, you know, currently, Doge doesn't exist. I believe they've now interviewed people who are kind of in charge of it, and they're like, Doge as an entity doesn't exist, even if the spirit of it kind of lives on type of thing. So, that would be a quick sign. I'm so surprised that a Department of Government Efficiency wouldn't work, huh?

I think people in high hopes. The failure is in the title, yeah. People in high hopes. I mean, they brought in a lot of people from the outside, a lot of business leaders, like Elon himself, or like the CEO of Airbnb, whatever, and didn't they, they like retrofitted an Obama-era, like, department that was signed off on and just renamed it into Doge, so they kind of had approvals, and then there's the scandal about them getting information from the Treasury, and they're like, no, we're not going to give you information from the Treasury.

I mean. Like, the most uphill battle, probably, of all time, in terms of cutting stuff from the government. Yeah, I think, like, over-promised, for sure, but at the same time, I do appreciate that there was national attention brought to the problem, right, which is the administrative state. And there was a conversation about the deep state, even if, in the end, Doge couldn't hold it together. I think part of it, too, is just Elon and Trump's personalities, but more than anything, the resistance from this massive...

I had no hopes that it would get anything done, but the one thing I am happy to see different about Trump this year than he did in the first term was that instead of watching cities like Minneapolis burn in the George Floyd riots, this time he sent in National Guard troops to cities like Memphis.

And said, enough of this. You know, we're not going to just put up with our cities being completely overrun by a bunch of miscreants and vagrants and anarchists and psychos. We're going to establish some law and order here, and I think that was a welcome sight.

Amen. That would get me to my next, would be immigration crackdown and ICE. I think the big one would be making Kristi Noem the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Tom Holman, and who is the guy? Yeah, Tom Holman is just a pretty face, and Kristi Noem is the enforcer.

Who's the guy that's always scapegoated? Miller, Stephen Miller. Oh, Stephen Miller. Would be like the big pillars of that. I think... The big scandals that I remember from the last year would be the Kilmar, Abrego Garcia, sending him to the El Salvador prison, even just using El Salvador as a place for deportations. Oh, it's not just that. I mean, yeah, it's that a judge told our federal government that we had to use taxpayer funds to fly him back to the United States, and then he had to be released out of custody.

All this stuff about how we're supposed to pretend in the rule of law and the Constitution and all this stuff is absolute hogwash. There is no rule of law. There's no principles. There's no Constitution. You are forcing a duly elected government to use taxpayer money to fly him back. You release him into custody. Democrats bring him into their rallies and cheer him on like he's a hero. This guy beat the hell out of his wife. They flew down. They flew down to El Salvador.

This is just an abomination. Maybe one thing that I think you brought up here that's kind of the whole Trump 2.0 project is running into judicial interference, potentially on purpose. It seems to me a strategy of, we're going to weaponize as much executive authority as possible to stress test the control that these federal judges across the country have over what's supposed to be... You know, federal, like, executive authority. So, that would be one that I certainly think of, was a lot of the deportation stuff.

It just required it. Like, it required, and then immediately, just about everything you did was met with an injunction here, an injunction there. He doesn't get to do anything. Right, exactly. All these judges will overturn everything. That's what I think of with ICE, and then the other big one is, I think there is a strategy. I think everyone would acknowledge we have a tough challenge here. We had Biden that released. You know, estimate 10 to 20 million people into the country that are just brand new, either just completely illegally over the border or through temporary protective status or different hoops to try to protect.

If you remember the Haiti situation in Ohio or Somalis in Minnesota, and so the strategy for removing was, well, we're going to go after the worst of the worst, and then there's the other strategy of, no, everyone that's here illegally, we're going to get rid of. If you remember, there was a big raid on that California farm. And they found out that they had children working there, and that was a big showdown between Gavin Newsom and Trump over, you know, what are we doing here?

I remember there's a lot of showdowns over the masks worn by ICE agents and people trying to pass laws to make sure they're unmasked. There's a lot of... And this is controversial. I'm not even sure how I feel about it. Like, hype edits on Twitter of, like, deportation using popular celebrities or artists, and then kind of bringing them into it, and they didn't like that, and it was just, it was a big show to show to the public, hey, this is what we're doing, we're getting rid of these people, in a way that was very, like, Gen Z kind of meme-ified, which was an interesting strategy choice.

As it stands right now, a year in, How do you feel about those strategic choices, and then where we are in terms of progress? Well, the last one I am not too hip on, except for there are some hype videos that are just like very patriotic and pro-America stuff, as opposed to like the deportation stuff. So, I do like those, the ones that are more patriotic and just celebrating our heritage, and that is nice to see.

In terms of the deportation, I mean… You know, rhetorically, they talked about it, especially in the first quarter, about how we are getting rid of the worst of the worst and focusing on them first, which is good, but like, ultimately, I think it was brilliant on the aim of, I mean, the Biden administration had used the phones to create an app to help people come into our country illegally, or, well, get to, you know.

TPS, temporary protected status, or get, you know, all this stuff, but it's like, wait a minute now, and so I just love that the Trump administration is like, well, why don't we just use the same app to help people self-deport, and if they self-deport, we'll give them $1,000 for their trouble, and they can leave, and then if they want to apply for citizenship, go for it, but that was a good use of technology, and a lot of people are self-deporting, and frankly, it is good.

Like, this idea that, again, We have been a very generous country, allowing 1 million people to come into our country legally each year since 1965. If you say, oh, yeah, well, you know what? So what? We're going to also allow 10 million other people to come into the country illegally, and we're going to call you racist, bigot, xenophobe if you object to this. Then, after a while, the words mean nothing, and I just tell you to go to hell. I don't give a crap because you're obviously an enemy of the country at this point.

And that's what a lot of Americans are just like. More and more Americans are realizing that this kind of bullying isn't going to work anymore. That, in fact, there's nothing wrong with saying the first most basic duty of the state is to its own citizens.

And so, I think this policy is very good. I've had a lot of my friends Who said, gosh, you know, it's going to start to get unpopular, and Trump's going to keep doing this, and the American people are going to get really sour on this. People on the left, people on the right, and I got to tell you something. I don't think so. I think the American people are still very strongly in support of this, because this has been something that has stood the test of time.

You ask voters. Democrat, moderate, independent, conservative, all across the board, the idea that, you know, illegal immigration, like, we can be in favor of legal, but illegal immigration, no, they got to go home. Wide, bipartisan support. I think it might be the only thing holding the right together right now. Yeah. That is one thing I think everyone in tandem agrees on. In terms of tactics, there might be disagreement, but in principle, I don't think anyone would say this is a massive problem.

It's an unquestionable success that they've had in this year. I mean, the border crossings have gone down, and like I said, we mentioned before, just because you look at the statistics of children that are born to... Foreign-born people in this country, that has plummeted, and so people are deporting, you know, and then the articles are coming out now about, like, these Chinese businessmen that. Oh, yeah, you missed that show. 100 Anchor Babies, yeah. Genius. IVF and the surrogacy. Yes, let us talk about this.

I mean, this is absolutely asinine that we have this. And again, it was not like we ever passed a law assigning birthright citizenship. It was a Supreme Court case in the 19th century that was sympathetic about a Chinese immigrant. It was like, I was born of Chinese immigrants. I wanted to visit China to come back, and now they are not letting me in.

So, from that, because we wanted to right that wrong for that one person, we're going to forever allow every single person who comes into this country illegally and gives birth to a child to grant that kid citizenship automatically? That is so stupid. And you get these people online like, I can't believe how evil and fascist our government is. We need to be more enlightened like Europe. Brother, do you have any idea what other countries do when you're here illegally? I mean, with the exception of Germany and Sweden.

Completely folded like a cheap tent. That would put you in jail. Yeah, I'd be in jail for months. All right, so in the interest of time, because a lot happened this last year, I'm going to give Erika a real alley-oop softball Jeffrey Epstein.

Thanks, Tom. Appreciate it. My favorite story of the year, the Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, that was, we had so much like flubbing there. Pam Bondi should never have gone on national TV and said, yep, the files are sitting on my desk. I have the list. It's on my desk, and I'll be getting it to you. And then the whole binders to the influencers stunt, that was, that was, that was, I want to say a rookie mistake, but the woman is like 65 years old.

Like, she should. That was just... Also, the binders didn't include anything new. Overall, let's just say, Pam Bondi, major disappointment. Yeah. I had high hopes, but... The hate speech stuff was terrible, too. Yeah. Oh, that was much... Yeah, I mean, that was dumb. But prosecute these people. I mean, I'm sorry. The previous administration had done a lot of harm against the body politic, and a lot of these people deserve to be in handcuffs. For some of the stuff that they pulled.

You know, I mean, arrest Barack Obama for what he did. I am sorry. Like, on the whole Russia collusion thing. He was a traitor. Biden, all these guys, they are all crooks. Well, I guess a real baller move would be for Trump to pardon both of them. Yeah. For their crime. For them to be arrested, convicted, and pardoned by Donald Trump. I mean, that would just be Jeff's kiss.

There's a lot to this Epstein story, Erika, if you want to continue. I mean, well, so we had the binders. This was like way back in March and the rattling of the sabers and like nothing was happening. Nothing was happening. Was it June? We had people. We are starting to demand more on the Epstein files, and so then we had this weird, like, we are going to release the tape, and the whole, from the jail cell outside where he died, and they cut out a whole minute from, they thought no one would notice, and like, people, this is people's job, this is Benny Johnson's job, is to just sit there and watch stuff like this, and find the missing piece, and, I mean, Candace Owens had a field day, a lot of people got a lot of subscribers over the Epstein files.

This summer. And we ended up with a few more flight logs, and then just in the last few weeks, we actually had Democrats demanding the release of the Epstein files, which was so ironic. And Republicans. Because they've controlled the White House and Congress for, what, percent of the last 20 years? Nothing. And now they're like, whoa, there must be Trump on the files. So, we get these disgusting photographs starting to be released from the island. Yeah, by House Oversight Dems. Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, and every two or three weeks, it seems like there's another slew of this, like, the Epstein files, we're finally going to get them. I feel vindicated in all this stuff. From all your, my position on this has been the same. I don't expect much of anything to happen from it.

Yeah, there's no list. If there was ever a list, it was destroyed years ago. You're wrong on that. Okay. What has changed? They released the files? What has changed? It has destroyed the entire MAGA Coalition's trust. I think Donald Trump himself grossly underestimated people's true connection to the Epstein story, which is there are a...

Outside of government, shadowy class of billionaires, people in influence. We are talking about Bill Gates. We are talking about the richest people in the world, heads of government, people within our own government that are pulling strings, even if it is not just the sordid sexual stuff, that they are being influenced, blackmailed to the point where we have representatives getting texted by Jeffrey Epstein on how to question people in there.

The thought was that Donald Trump was going to come in and expose the deep state, destroy the deep state, bring transparency, and the way that he handled that destroyed a lot of his base's trust in... How he would handle it. Yeah, project. And so, it is not that nothing happened. I feel like many people are completely blackmailed about that, that had a lot of hope, whether it was naive hope in that, but had a lot of hope that there would be a new era of transparency, especially with names like Cash and Dan Bongino, who basically made their careers on saying that he didn't kill himself, that there was a list, and everything like that.

A lot of the land had high hopes at the beginning of this year, and then they have been disappointed because it didn't get as much information. Come to light as they thought would have happened, and they're disappointed in Trump because of this. It's not about the information. It's about the way that I was treated. None of this is a surprise to me.

It's not about the information. It's about how I was treated. It was then called the Democrat hoax. There were people who were very optimistic that we'd get to the bottom of it. Now we've got Kash Patel in there. We've got Bongino. We're going to get all this stuff.

Hambani promised things were happening, and I'm just like, eh. Prepare to be disappointed. Yeah. It could have been handled better, though. I mean, if there's nothing there, the best thing they could have done is still publish what's there and say, there's nothing here. It was all destroyed. The evidence was destroyed. Like, it's just not there. And so, the Trump administration and the DOJ's ham-fisted approach on opposing, making promises, tripping over themselves.

Blocking it, and then finally agreeing to release it. That had the effect of angering a lot of people who trusted Donald Trump to make a difference and drain the swamp. I am not disagreeing with you on any of that stuff. My point is, at the end of the day, What can be said for it, other than a lot of MAGA people, as you say, are very frustrated with it. Andrew Monbotten is now no longer a prince, and that is about it.

I mean, this is my point. It just did not amount to much. The royal family shrank again. I think it also just affirmed many people's thoughts that we do not have a representative government, and that the people that we put in office do not matter, and that people like Jeffrey Epstein, and Bill Gates, and all these rich billionaires on the island, or whatever. They pull the strings, and that we don't. I think that is the bigger effect. I would like to make a...

Maybe that has always been true, but I think there is a hope that Trump is different. Are there very powerful people who will use a lot of money and influence to protect themselves? Yes, of course. Does that mean the response we should get out of that is that politics is totally broken, and you cannot do anything to change anything or make anything better? I would say...

Absolutely not to that. I mean, we elected Donald Trump, and there's two things, consequentially, that he has done this year that are great for the country and our culture. Number one, as we already mentioned, is securing the border in a way that previously people were like, it can never be done. We need a new law. He did it, and it's a success.

Number two would be breaking the fever on the trans stuff. You know, by getting elected and immediately cutting off all the taxpayer funds for all that kind of garbage, we did break the dam on this, and that has been a consequential good thing. So, those are two very good things. Now, maybe if social conservatives, Republicans, whatever, had been more on the ball with regards to abortion back in the 70s, like we were now on trans, Maybe we could have taken care of Ro within a few years instead of having to wait 50 years.

Thank God we're able to kind of deal with trans within like a decade. I mean, not that it's perfectly over, but you start looking at the numbers, and it's going down, way down, way down. The number of kids who are thinking that they're trans is down. It does really feel like we have turned a major corner. We have broken the fever on this.

And that is an incalculable success, because just think of the ripple effects, you know, for decades, for all these children that would have gone through this kind of stuff. I am extremely grateful and glad for that. Now, on the Epstein thing, like I say, you know, maybe I'm just too cynical. Like, I'm like, yeah, I just.

If there really was some sort of file that had somebody dead to rights, whether it was a senator, or Trump, or Bill Gates, or Bill Clinton, or whatever, that file was going to get destroyed. That is just my point. There is just too much writing on it. You are telling me there might be a smoking gun file that would implicate a very influential president, or politician, or billionaire? They are going to find a way to destroy that file. I don't know.

Am I crazy? No, but I think you're speaking around the real issue, and then also, we're getting more and more emails now from the oversight Dems, which is a huge embarrassment for Trump about Jeffrey Epstein's involvement with various leaders of government, Russia, Israel, and it's just like, you could have given these to us. Clearly, someone's giving them to us. It's not you, and so it makes you look bad. It makes you look untrustworthy.

That, to me, is the problem. It's not that anyone thought that there would be one smoking gun. Maybe some people did, but I'd speak for the majority of people that are frustrated with the handling. That's why they're frustrated. You could have done it.

And we don't need to make the whole episode on— I don't share that frustration as much, but I do feel like I— We don't need to spend the whole episode on that. Other things to— Briefly touch on it, because we've got to move to Charlie Kirk now, and I think war is going to come up there, but of course, war really continued. That was one promise to end on day one. That maybe was an over-promise, but we're still engaged in some wars across the world.

Government shutdown, longest government shutdown in U.S. history. We had that. That was long. 43 days. That was long. It really was like, okay, this is going to be a week, and then... It reminded me of the Tea Party government shutdown in 2010 or 11 or whatever it was.

Or 13, I forget. It just felt just as ineffectual. Yeah, and nothing really... Yeah, totally. And we ended up losing. And then AI would be the other really big piece. I mean, it is a cultural piece. It is also a government piece.

AI. It was just like the word of the year. The Pope chose his name because of AI. AI is now slowly becoming into, in part... It's my twilight zone. Right, yeah. It's real. I mean, the rise of AI is a huge part of our economy now. Yeah, I told him to do it. Yeah, like AI has just entered, entered, forcefully entered everyone's lexicon, and many people use it in their daily life. That kind of AI stuff, that's scary. Okay, so let's go.

Yeah, I mean, now I'd say the event of the year. No, there's any way around it. The really tragic... A public execution of Charlie Kirk at UVU, Utah Valley University, at a Turning Point USA event. Tragically, his life was taken while he was engaging with students, as he always did. Hallmark of his career, leading voice in the MAGA movement. Many said that he was the voice of the youth to President Trump, probably one of the youngest people in his years.

Charlie had done so many, I've heard from so many other people. That Charlie had done so many good things behind the scenes that he couldn't brag about. You know, like, there's something that Trump was about to do, and he'd get to Trump, and he just, like, was able to stop it cold.

And some of these things we're only going to have to, I just tell you, some of these things we're only going to find out years and years from now. Like, oh yeah, by the way, you know what, Charlie Kirk was the one that was able to convince Trump to stop this or that. And you're like, wow, really?

But he was actually, in terms of an ego, a lot less ego than a lot of these other guys. He was a true believer, and he was phenomenal, and that just shows you how effective he was. Not only did someone take him out and kill him, murder him, cold blood, but that others celebrated it, because they were celebrating the death of somebody. It is not like he died of old age. You know what I mean? Or after a long illness. He was murdered in broad daylight in front of thousands of people.

Yeah. Yeah, I think a couple of thoughts on Charlie Kirk. In the days that followed, obviously, the shock of watching so many Americans celebrate and refuse to condemn or somehow blame him because he put himself out there, I think that was just such a gut check for a lot of us.

Yeah, in talking about it, that, but also in the days that followed, seeing the outpouring of grief and support and people coming together, there was so much hope that, okay, it's going to be a Charlie Kirk revival. Like, you killed Charlie, you created a thousand more Charlie, 10,000 Charlies, you know, and I think as the months played out, and that initial reaction, the Charlie Kirk effect, was very real, and I think that we will continue. To see the fruits of what he started to build, and almost the martyrdom, really, that he suffered.

We will see the fruits of that play out over time. After that initial period, then you started to see this sort of like falling apart and self-tearing apart of the right around him. So, you think of like all the people who appeared at the memorial service, the big one with like the whole cabinet was there, and Trump, and all these other leading figures on the right. And then how people just started to... And you start to devolve into these conspiracy theories, or we're mad about this.

And you start to realize the role that Charlie played, there really was only one Charlie Kirk. And the role that he played was also as a unifier among the entire right, that he wasn't just that he had Trump's ear, but that he was able to hold together the Trump coalition and sort of be a unifier in that way behind the screen, in addition to just being someone who could go talk to anyone.

Before we get into the broader coalition things, I mean, I, like many people, probably will never forget where I was when I heard the news, and I think before we even get to what happened after. What I'm so grateful for is that typically, when something like this happens, you get a surge of interest in the person and their life, and he had so much of his life on camera, and he engaged personally with college students all over the country, to the point where I don't think many people on earth had engaged that much on camera with college students, and I know that the reaction of a lot of people were really like, Kind of, oh, he was hateful, he was a bigot, and then I started to go through a lot of his stuff, and I was aware of him, but I wasn't consuming his stuff regularly.

And, I mean, this was actually an interview he did right before he died, and it kind of puts everything into perspective. Here's the video. How do you want to be remembered? If I die? Everything just goes away. If you could be associated with one thing, how would you want to be remembered?

I want to be remembered for courage, for my faith. That would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith and my life. And, Josh, as you said, behind the scenes, very important, but... I saw a progression, even in his own life, of, I think he started out as a very typical, you know, rabble-rouser, more libertarian bent, not that there's anything wrong with it, there's a great principle. Yeah, right, like, individual freedom, free markets, socialism sucks, that kind of thing.

Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that, but I think he realized as he was going along. That there was a real spiritual component to his arguments that he needed to make more for the soul, the individual soul of the people that he was talking to. Yes, yep. And it was so obvious in the patience and the kindness and the message, and it was just at the right, it just felt like it was at the perfect time when so many people are now starting to question their purpose.

And, I mean, everyone kind of goes through this, but I think especially now with... AI and everything, rapid changing. People are kind of like finding what to hold on to, and I went through back so much of his advice. It was just the most beautiful. I have no question it is leading people towards a better life, potentially a better afterlife. The amount of people that he brought to Jesus Christ is truly an inspiration.

I don't think there's a better legacy. Even if he was a great political operator, people aren't going to remember that. People are going to remember him for exactly how he wanted to be remembered, and I really admire that about a man where he has that much moral clarity about how I want to be remembered, what am I doing here, why am I doing it, and then to just see the tape on that and him to progress in that was inspiring to me as a young man, not too much younger, how much he accomplished.

That he wanted to accomplish at that age. Beautiful family, two young kids, beautiful wife. That was immediately what I took away, before anything else. The thing for me to just think about with Charlie, you know, I was living in Washington, D.C., you know, the turn of the century. What a weird way to say it. True, though.

And the big discussion in the first few years of the 21st century is what to do about marriage. And I would talk about this, you know, because the left was on the prowl. They wanted to completely gut marriage laws and redefine it to end the coupling of two humans.

The uniqueness of marriage, you know, like just forgetting about all that, like the whole point of the institution of marriage is to try to Create a partnership between a man and a woman, and for the children that they bring into the world, and to dole out the responsibilities for each of them.

And so many conservatives, I met so-called conservatives or Republicans I would talk to when I was living and working in the Beltway. Just like, they went out of their way to tell me how much they didn't care about the issue.

As if it was virtuous for them to be like, oh, I don't care. I'm not bothered by it. You're not a hero. Shut the hell up. You're the problem. And I just felt like for so long, the conservative movement was like, and Republicans or whatever, asleep at the wheel as the left was on the march with the next phase of the sexual revolution. And the Republicans, they put up the white flag immediately, and they surrendered without even really much of a fight.

So, I have to tell you, like, with the trans stuff, that the conservatives and Republicans, that the GOP is, like, talking about, you know, the trans stuff in a way that's, like, beneficial, instead of just ignoring it. Like, they're engaged in this fight. Like, this, for me, it's like, thank goodness, because for so long on anything socially conservative.

Between marriage or abortion, you know, anything, it was all individual Christians, you know, like evangelicals, Catholics, CatholicVote, you know, whatever, Family Research Council, fighting it alone, and the Republican Party is like, whatever, dude, we're just going to try to bomb other countries and cut taxes. So, we're not going to oppose you, but they wouldn't lift a finger. They wouldn't do anything. And so, You know, Charlie, as you mentioned, realizing that we're in a spiritual battle and helping other people to understand that and to open up their eyes was one further development in a major way, which is helpful.

I think a lot of people, their eyes started to open up when the left went after Kavanaugh during the confirmation hearings in 2018 in a way that was just outrageous. And, like, no... Lie, no matter how completely untied from reality, they're willing to deploy, to politically murder, you know, Kavanaugh, to politically assassinate. And it almost came true, like someone went to go assassinate. It almost did. They almost succeeded. And so, like, if you're willing to tarnish a man's character like that, how much different is it to actually pull the trigger and kill him?

It is obviously different, but like, you know, the catechism talks about, like, You know, it is a sin against the commandment, thou shalt not kill, to smear somebody's name. It is like a death, and that is what they did with Kavanaugh, and they actually did with Charlie Kirk, you know, and so like the point, the frustration of wanting other people on my side to wake up to understand what time it is, as more and more people are like, oh my gosh.

I can't believe this. You know, the other side is actually dastardly, and they want ill will of us, and they're cheering when Charlie Kirk gets murdered, when Charlie Kirk seems like a total normal guy. And people start realizing it, if they had said what Charlie Kirk had said, which they believe. We are all Charlie Kirk. They would have cheered if you died. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I was going through the list of high-profile political violence was like the word of the year. Like, Luigi Mangione, of course, comes up, assassinated the CEO. Oh my gosh, that was just this year. Yeah, that was this year. The Brown students that just got killed still, as of this recording, don't have a person in custody. The MIT professor was just murdered, the nuclear scientist, a Catholic church in Minnesota attack. On the children in school, the LDS church in Michigan that was burned.

There is the murder of the Minnesota state legislators, Melissa Hortman and her husband. Still not a ton on that at this point. And then there is that attack on the Ice Prairie Land Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas. There is a couple, actually. The murder of the National Guardsman from West Virginia in D.C. at the end of the year.

Yeah, all of this. It was crazy in all of these to see the cheering on of people like Luigi Mangione and the cheering of the deaths, but Josh, like you said, I think Charlie, that moment did wake up a lot of people to what time it is in the United States, and as sobering as it is to think about, it's also...

Salutory, right? Salubrious, to use the big word, to see the truth of where you're at and to understand the times in which you're called to live. And I think Charlie did that not only in his death, but also in his life and how he lived. And we're better for having had him.

And I pray for Erika every day, every time I see her face. Certainly didn't live in fear, no question about that. No. And then briefly, I think there's this much ink now has been spilled over the splintering of the right after winning this triumphant election with Donald Trump in 2025. It seemed like we had all this momentum, and then Charlie Kirk gets assassinated, and then it seems like everyone now is at each other's throats. One thing that I will say I've noticed is...

I can't even remember the last time we've talked about, like, any Democrat or anyone on the left has really become, like, a main conversation right now. It feels like all the main conversations are happening on the right. And I think the one thing, at least to me, was that Charlie Kirk was facilitating conversations based on what young Americans actually wanted to debate. And in this case, foreign policy in terms of Israel, their handling of Gaza, our relationship to them financially, and then as an ally.

And he facilitated debates like Dave Smith and Josh Hammer. He had Tucker Carlson and AmFest, you know, to much pressure. It was a conversation that especially young Americans wanted to have, and it felt like he was kind of the bridge between the groups at play, like the young Americans or maybe the side that is not in favor of our foreign policy regarding there, and then people that were in favor of that were supporting that. And it feels like after he left, it was like everyone is just at each other's throats.

Well... Well, and like, I mean, you know, Kevin Roberts, a friend of mine at Heritage, and I think he was trying to keep that same kind of thing going, but he kind of fumbled the football a little bit there, and the backlash there was kind of... He got burned at the stake. I mean, what do you mean unfortunate? I think that was one of the most embarrassing moments for Heritage, period. I can understand the tone deafness, but to think and treat Kevin Roberts like he was an anti-Semite or something like that was so unbelievable, especially knowing Kevin Roberts and then listening to the speech.

Nothing he said in that speech was even close to anti-Semitic, so I was really frustrated with that because I know the guy that helped write the speech, and he's like a good guy about my age. Yeah. Patriotic American, and I think maybe what frustrates me about this whole splintering is I actually think we agree on 90 to 95%, and to think that anyone in this fight can go partner with, say, like, the left that hates your guts and wants to kill you, or, say, like, the international community, say, like, Muslim countries or something, like, there's no future for either part of this if they can't get along and work together, and I don't know what it is.

I don't know if it's, like, weird bot activity or, like, this just feels like a perfect recipe. If you wanted to... Splinter the coalition, do exactly what you did, and then foment this decision. Well, some part of the coalition that we shedded has been beneficial because the neocons that came into the Republican Party for the global war on terror. Like the Bill Crystals of the world. Happy to see you go, brother. Yeah. You know, the dispatch and all those guys. That was removing a cancer.

And, of course, Bill Crystal endorses Mamdami for mayor. I mean, that was... That was another thing that happened in 2025, man. Mamdami happened. You know, we got a communist elected mayor of our larger city. Insane. So, I mean, again, there is a lot of these things that have happened this last year, which are terrible, but again, if more and more people's eyes are being awakened, like give credit to Christopher Ruffo and getting the information out about the fraud with the Somalians that were in my native state of Minnesota, where 80 plus percent of people are, 80 percent of the Somali homes.

are on some form of welfare or assistance and it turns out they created this big ponzi you know fraud scheme where they claim you know super high percentages of their kids were autistic and they're getting tons of money and they're just sending that funneling that money back to somalia they were fleecing you know the people i grew up with yeah scandinavians who have you know big hearts and they want let's have a generous welfare state and somalians took them for suckers And they are like, oh, what are you going to do?

We will call you racist if you object. It is just, to me, just… Yeah, I think that kind of gets back to the immigration thing that we maybe all agree on, but Eric, I want to give you a chance to, because you are probably the most level-headed about all of this in terms of the splintering, the angry young right going forward.

I don't know if this is like a predictions element or just a diagnosis element, or like, how do you feel about all of it? Yeah, I think, I mean, there's a sadness watching it happen. There's no surprise. I do think, you know, in order to win the election, Trump did the impossible, and he created such a large tent that coming into power after those first few, like, halcyon days of, I'm going to sign all this, we're going to fix all these problems, which he fixed so many problems, and is in the process of undoing so much of the damage that we suffered.

I think it is inevitable, just in the human way of things, that a large coalition like that is then going to have to spend a lot of time deciding what actually unites us, and as concrete decisions are being made and priorities are being set and reset, that forces different minorities within the coalition to have these conversations. So, that is like the 60,000-foot view. It is no surprise, not shocked.

I mean, we will see. On the other hand, drilling down... The Kevin Roberts with the heritage thing, like you said, I am convinced that there was a spiritual aspect to that. I don't want to get all crazy Candace Owens on anyone, but I really do believe that there are evil forces in the world, and the thing that Satan loves to use the most.

Is the fog of war, and when you're in a cultural war like this, whenever there's ambiguity, deception, there's jockeying for power. Satan just inserts himself, and these things tend to happen, but we have to be clear-eyed about it and realize when we're going down these paths of like, oh my gosh, this person said this about Israel, or this person said this about Candace Owens, or XYZ, to take a second pause and step back and take a deep breath. I think several things can be true at once.

Like Josh was saying, well, no, it was you, Tom. You were saying how Epstein, that did so much damage to the Trump coalition. The Charlie Kirk fallout did so much damage. There were so many ups and downs. The whole Israel peace plan, Hamas, Gaza, so much. But we have to keep in our mind that two things can be true at once. One, yes, we are governed by elites, and yes, there is still an elite class in power in Washington that does not always care for those balloons.

But at the same time, it does matter who is in power. It does matter that we elected Trump and not Harris. League's better where we are now, that we can be having these conversations and dissensions and fights on the right, freely, instead of being arrested. Thank you, Josh. And yeah, I would much rather be where we are now on the right than what could have been where we were 18 months ago, thinking that Joe Biden very well could defeat Trump. Okay, and just as a snapshot in time, like, obviously, there's a lot of...

Fissures and infighting on the right right now, as you are pointing out, Tom, but just to give a picture of what it is like on the other side. Harry Enten at CNN just said that Congressional Democrats have a negative 55 net approval rating.

It is an all-time low, lower, as he said, than the Dead Sea. Two causes. Democrats gave the, Democrats, Democratic voters gave the Democrats in Congress a negative six-point net approval rating, and they're at negative 61 points amongst independents.

So, the effect of this is that Democrats, their lead on the generic congressional ballot, which is a test of who might win next November, especially the House, the Democrats' lead on the generic battle is less than half. Of what it was at this point in the 2018 and 2006 cycles, which were both very bad. Midterms for, yeah. Bad for the Republican Party.

06 was particularly a bloodbath. Painful. Yeah, I appreciate your perspective, Josh, because one of the... I know there's tons of mudslinging right now, but one of the worst things that I saw was someone was like, oh, you shouldn't care about that because it's going to be bad for the midterms.

I just don't think it's ever a good strategy to tell people what they should and shouldn't care about, and I think in the spirit of Charlie Kirk, hopefully the idea, well, first, it's already out of the bag. The American right, Americans in general, need to be able to have open and honest public debate about whatever issue they choose to. In this case, foreign policy, in terms of our relationship to Israel, should be on the table. Whether or not you prefer it not to be, it has to be.

It is going to be a question for 2028, no question. And the hope would be you can have a respectful, honest, open conversation as an American. Without the same kind of hysterics that you see on the left over canceling people for having the wrong opinion, or smearing them with names such as anti-Semite. Now, I'm sympathetic to the fact that there probably are some people that are really anti-Semitic, and that that's bad. That's okay. You can call it out. You can say that's bad.

But there's people that hold really standard views, especially... Like, in my position as a young man, I just know this is the case. You're going to need to answer it, and if you answer it disingenuously, like people like Ted Cruz, like people like Lindsey Graham, it's not going to end well for you, and the more that you try to censor that out of current discussion, say with, like, labeling Miss Rachel as anti-Semite of the year, it's just, it's so embarrassing and an own goal to the point where, like, why are you doing it?

Like, what happened to Heritage? Jonathan Greenblatt from the ADL, the ADL, sorry, the ADL, for those that are wondering, is like a left-wing Organization is giving orders to Kevin Roberts with Heritage about what he should and shouldn't say, and Heritage is insane. No one should accept that framing. So, the new right, I guess you could call it, is emerging. My hope that moving forward is that we can have sensible, honest, and moving forward type conversations in 2026, because the reality is the coalitions need to work together.

There is no future where you split it down the middle. And then, like, the left isn't going to take you, certainly. We saw how they reacted after Charlie Kirk got killed. And then, the new immigrant, you know, come in for the votes from third world countries, they're not going to help you either. So, I'm telling you, like, I just really want people to make up, get together, and start being honest. I hope that's possible, because I just feel like that's what sensible people really think, regardless of the extremes on both sides.

So, that's my hope for 2025. I feel like I have to say it, because we dance around it a lot, but hopefully that's good enough. All right. I don't even know if we have... This episode is long, because I guess 2025 is long. It was a very long year. Finally, we have a new pope.

Yes. Wow. What a story. We get a new president, a new pope. And a new president of CatholicVote, because we have... No, sir. You have been waiting for this year the entire lifetime of the LOOPcast. I believe we had three years in a row where you predicted that we would get a new vote. So, let us actually fully rewind to the beginning. So, Pope Francis passing away. I will say for myself, I was doing a lot of reflecting towards the end of his life, and I even kind of noticed somewhat of a change in his own.

Speaking, someone much more in touch than me was like, it was that he was thinking about the end of his life, and for all of the debates and the considered bad policy or whatever, I just kind of was coming to terms with like, okay, this man's at the end of his life, the leader of the global church at the end of his life, and this is a huge... It is a moment of mourning. I pray for Pope Francis, I pray for the Church, and I remember being really nervous and uncertain about what was to come.

I mean, there is no guarantee that what was going to come after would be good or bad or anything. It was just like, it kind of felt like, oh my gosh, we have no leadership right now. I remember just being really, that is how I felt in the moment. I am not sure how you guys felt about the conclave and everything going on.

Well, I mean, go ahead. America should go. You know, it is difficult. You know, I think he had such a vitriol towards traditionalists and conservatives, you know, but, you know, when he died and I went to Rome for the conclave, I went to St. Mary Major and Where he was entombed, and I prayed for him. You know, I wish everyone to join our Lord, our Heavenly Father in Paradise, obviously. But his record as Pope on a lot of policy matters was Terrible.

Theological stuff, though, was also terrible. And then just in general, like, the way he, you know, Ross Douthat talked about that a lot. Like, you know, the, yeah, okay, so sometimes conservatives can tend to be the older brother, you know, in the...

A prodigal son story, but like the dad in the prodigal son story is like, dude, I love you. What are you talking about? Whereas Francis is like, shut up. I hate you. And so, that was kind of tough for a lot of people. You know, you got that feeling that he really detested you. So, I don't know.

Erika? I, yeah, I, yeah, just like Josh said, I hope that he goes to heaven. I was, it was a very mixed feeling. I think that at the time, we were talking about his passing, and it felt like sort of like the dad you didn't really get along with passing along, you know, or maybe the dad you were a little estranged from passing on. Still your dad. Still your dad. Yeah. Still the head of the family.

Still going to feel his absence, but I think looking forward and going through the conclave, it is always, let us see, this is the third one I was really tuned into, and it is always amazing to just be part of the Catholic Church at moments like this, because we are so deep in U.S. politics, and America is a baby little country. Third? Well, because I wasn't really paying attention. Well, so I had Pope John Paul II. That was the first one.

Hey, you never ask a woman that. Come on, bro. You never ask a woman, and I'm gay. Josh, you're not even alive. You never ask a woman that. You're not even alive. Josh, you already know my salary. I mean, this is getting really personal at this point.

There's only been three conclaves in your life. That's my point. You are correct. Okay. Yeah, you can be vague. That means you're young. I mean, you're younger than me. I have two more conclaves than you. There you go.

So, yeah, but it gives you so much perspective on where we are and what really matters in life, and I kind of entered into that and prayed for Pope Francis' soul. Also, Mercer, if you've got a dip, I understand. We can just round out, and whenever you've got to go, you've got to go. I understand.

Okay, so the one thing, you brought this up, and that was immediately obvious to me. I wasn't really paying attention for when Pope Francis had the conclave. I think it was in high school. I had other things on my mind.

And then, for this one, though, you said, okay, this is a cool moment to be Catholic America's young. There's so much tradition and history there. I remember the whole world kind of stopping. Like, I always know that the world kind of shifts to coverage, but then the images are coming out of the pictures with the robes and the architecture and the secrecy and the... People are like, Catholicism is based. This is awesome. This happens every time, though. Yes, yeah. Every time.

78, 2005. You know, 2013, 2025, the world stops. Like, I mean, the funeral of Pope John Paul II was so epic. You know, they had the book, and the pages of the gospel were just, like, flipping over, and it's like, just everything about it was just chills.

Like, you know. We do everything so impressively, you know, and all the different, you know, secrets, and this is why, you know, they tap him on the head to make sure he's dead, and then they lock the doors for the conclave, and then, you know, all this stuff, and they have two doctors inside, and you're like, wow. And the smoke. And the smoke. Yes. Who could forget the seagulls? I have the seagulls. Oh, yeah. Well, also, Josh, you were there. I was right up there.

Yeah, he was there. They don't really, not only do they do the smoke. As soon as the white smoke goes off, every single bell in the city of Rome goes. So, I was recording something with you, wasn't I? And we get done, and then 10 minutes later, I hear the bell go off, and I'm like, that boy's got to run.

Well, yeah, you were a hot commodity because you were over there, so we were trying to, like, the Italian Wi-Fi is bad, so we're trying to set you up and make sure that the audio is fine. You're like, oh, I just had McDonald's over here.

And then, I remember, this is so dumb, so I don't know what I was thinking. I thought there was going to be a longer conclave, so I usually will kind of wear something appropriate to be on camera. Not that I would, I was wearing an appropriate, I was wearing like a graphic tee, like an Indianapolis 500 graphic tee. He is always fully dressed. Yeah, yeah, right. And like a, what do you call that? A flannel. And we're all watching it in the CatholicVote office, and...

I didn't think much of it. Like, we were doing these updates, and then all of a sudden, just people started screaming. I'm like, oh my gosh, like, I'm so stupid. Today's the day, because how many, um, it wasn't only four? Like, it wasn't, how many ballots were there? It was pretty quick. It was pretty fast. I'm not even the fifth ballot, but it was quick, yeah. Really quick. And I was like, oh, this is going to last like a week, dude.

They're going to be in there debating. I thought it was going to be at least another day, maybe even a day and a half afterwards, so it was sooner than I had anticipated. It was very quick. And then, of course, the most surprising part, it was an American.

I couldn't believe it. I don't think anyone could. We're not going to go back and play that episode of LOOPcast. Not our shining moment, I have to say. Well, first off, I thought the guy that came out to announce was the Pope, which I was like, I'm stupid. That was immediately like, this is bad. That was just a rookie mistake, Pogo. That's okay. You're young. Yeah. You're red. Anyway, so then we get Pope Leo, and whoa. Oh, man. I have to say, it has been pretty fun having an American pope.

Oh, my gosh. Are you kidding me? It has been great. It has been kind of fun having a pope that does not hate me. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, so, on a serious, on a genuine note, when I was talking about Pope Francis, like, Josh, obviously, it feels, you know, similar to Adam, especially young formative years. And then also, of course, Traditionis Custodis, like, I've been kind of trad-adjacent Latin mass circles. Brutal, right? Like, brutal. Everyone there felt like they were being targeted.

Well, and the whole, like, gay, same-sex couple blessing. Oh, my gosh, yeah. It's just like one... Like, Morris, Letizia, there was not... Yeah, one battle after another. We were stuck. One battle after another. But yeah, again, like, the complicated feelings of, like, this is still your dad, even if he's, like, far away. Like, he is the head of the church. He's your father, even if you have a weird relationship with him.

And then with Pope Leo, the one moment that, so I was at the Pope Leo Mass, where he gave the address to the youth in Chicago at White Sox Stadium, which of course, like, I mean, how great is that? Like, American Pope, we're at White Sox Stadium, he's giving an address on the Jumbotron, and I remember Cardinal Cupich gave, like, he gave a homily that was politically charged, in which he didn't choose his words very well, in my opinion, and it was just like, ugh, like...

Roll your eyes. I expected it, but I was like, this is, it was so different than the rest of the vibe of the day. Even like I was doing, I did a video, like I went around and asked people how they were feeling. Everyone was so positive. Everyone was so uplifting. And of course, then he does that, and you're like, and then Pope Leo gives an address. And I immediately felt the difference between their tone. Like, Pope Leo could have taken that opportunity to make it political, to say something about immigration, whatever.

And I think kind of as we've gotten accustomed to his style, his style is not off-the-cuff, you know, charged, you know, interviews on airplanes. It was very thoughtful, and it was timeless, and it just felt like a breath, like you could just almost breathe, like you didn't need to be on your guard, ready to fight, ready to, you know, pick it apart.

It just kind of felt like he was speaking to you in a very calm, pastoral way, and I'd say the one thing that's really marked his tenure so far that I've felt in that moment and continue to feel is he's very thoughtful and intentional about his words.

Praise God. It feels like we kind of need that right now. I think even how he's handled the various conflicts with Gaza, certainly. He's been a leading humanitarian voice for that conflict, for Russia-Ukraine, for AI, for immigration. Even his words on immigration, very measured, very thoughtful. He's not tossing things out on airplanes, and that's what's really stuck away from me, and I feel like... Public opinion polls show this. He's super popular with the world, not just Catholics, and I think that's kind of part of the recipe.

He won me over when he named John Henry Newman a doctor of the church. I'm sold. I was just so, so sold. That was later in the year this year, but close to my heart. I was so happy. Well, he did appoint a really good man to the Archbishop of New York, so that's good. We'll see.

Yeah, young, too. And Pope Leo's really young, too. That was the other thing a lot of people were surprised about. We're probably going to have him as Pope for a long haul here. It's nice to have some youth, and then, I mean, when he comes to America, is he scheduled to come in 2026?

I think it's 27. 27? Okay. If he comes back to Chicago. I think he'll be here in 2026 for America's 250th. That's my guess. Dude. Oh, dude. So cool. And he'll come through Chicago. Oh, my gosh. If I were him, I would go to Philadelphia and Chicago. Those are the two cities he has the closest connection with. He spent four years or so at Villanova.

And, yeah, obviously, Chicago, where he's from, you know. Constitution was written there. He spent time in Michigan, too, Josh. Well, Philadelphia, not just because he lived there for many years going to school there, but because, yeah, as Eric is alluding, it's the cradle of American freedom with the Declaration of Independence being signed there. So, it would be, like, totally perfect. Pope Leo running up the rocky steps.

That is where his brain went. I was thinking more like ringing the Liberty Bell, but, you know, we could do Rocky too. No, the Liberty Bell is broken. I bet Pope Leo could fix it. Bam. That would be amazing. Miraculously fix the Liberty Bell. Oh, my gosh.

Oh, and then, of course, I mean, how could we forget Brian Birch is the ambassador to... I didn't forget. I mentioned it at the top. I know you mentioned it at the top, but, of course, this is part of the story. Two men from Chicago, one a White Sox fan, one a Cubs fan, the president of our organization.

Josh, you had to have thought, like, Brian is never going to leave. I never thought Brian would leave. Like, this is a perfect job. I mean, it is still a perfect job for him. Um, it's his baby. You guys worked on it forever. Uh, it was going to take a, you know, a miracle for him to leave. And of course, uh, well, when Brian was named, it would have been for Pope Francis, but then.

He passes away, and then another man from Chicago. I mean, just the story of it is, it's like, there's going to be a doctor around. Yeah, and frustrating, too, for, you know, Democrats had to delay that, and it's like, you know, there's the death of a pope. Why don't we have our ambassador there when, you know, as we're going to have a conclave? Because it's not like they get a new pope the next day. You know, it's like weeks. It's like, confirm him so he can go.

Democrats are like, no, no, no, no. Yeah, that was really embarrassing, Patty. It's spiteful. In my opinion. So, he finally got it confirmed in August. How do you feel about all that? I mean, you can't share anything. I don't know if you can share anything that's not confidential, but maybe a cool story of Brian there so far?

I mean, it's been pretty interesting. It was kind of funny, too, because, you know, Clay Travis is a conservative talk show host, and he came by the Vatican. With, I think, some of the owners of the Chicago White Sox, and so they brought like a White Sox jersey, and they showed Brian it, and Brian's with Clay and all these other guys holding up the jersey, and he's smiling because he's a diplomat. And, of course, I had to give him a little grief.

I'm like, dude, you're a total Cubs fan. What the heck is with this? And so he sends me another photo just to me of him holding the jersey alone, just going like. Yeah. The nastiest look on his face, you know. He can just say it is AI now.

Exactly. So, I mean, and he has had some other stories, but, you know, some stories will have to wait. Some stories will have to wait. Okay, they will come out in the documentary one day. I want to be the biographer. Can you give me that job, Josh? Can I be the biographer? He must have the most children living in the Ambassador estate probably ever, right? Well, so when he was initially nominated, the Department of State was totally freaked out about this.

The diplomatic corps, they're like, nine children. What are we going to do? And it's like, actually, okay, hold on a second. You know, some of them have already graduated from college, and they are married, and they have children. I mean, this is not like, you know, they're not like, you know, age one to like, you know. It's not like cheaper by the dozen. Yeah, right.

Kids grow up. Oh, okay. So, only four. Okay, well, that, okay. We can do that. We can do that. That we could probably manage, so. Yeah, those great pics of them arriving, of like all the kids running on the lawn, like they play games and different parts of the. Stay so cool. And then, didn't Ross do, it was at the embassy, he did that interview with J.D.? Yeah, that was pretty cool. Which was pretty sick. The cinematography team at the New York Times, you've got to give them credit.

I know what they're doing. I mean, they have the equipment, that's for sure. That's for sure. Yeah. So, okay, any... Any final thoughts going into 2026? Okay, guys, I always have to ask you both this, because you are my window into the sports world. So, Super Bowl 2026 predictions, bold predictions. Be bold. Come on, don't be boring. Don't be like rooms. Bold prediction, the Bears are moving their stadium to Indiana. They will be known as the Hammond Bears.

Not happening at all. That was some cold water you just dumped on me. You're going to already hear about that, because when I do the show, the last show before the break, I am hammering that, because they're in a tense negotiation right now with Chicago, because Illinois can't get their act together, and Indiana's like, come on in, we'll take the Bears, come on in.

Hilarious. Predictions for the Super Bowl? I'm pretty sure I said Lions, and we should have. I can't believe we lost. Oh, I'm sorry, Tom. Oh, he's a pain. No, because I'm like, this year, I don't even know if we're going to make the playoffs. It's really tight. But if I've got to be honest, this was the first year with Noma Holmes, too.

Vikings definitely not winning the Super Bowl. Yeah, they were eliminated. Well, I'll say first, I mean, I think the Eagles will actually surprise the Rams, you know, and sneak into the Super Bowl. The Eagles just... Oh, yeah, they're going to make... Or do you think they're going to make the Super Bowl? That is bold. I mean, the Eagles, they just find ways to win. I don't know. I'm not a fan, obviously, but... No.

Well, this went over like a little bit. No, no, no. I got it. I got it. Okay. I got Broncos. Oh, okay. Broncos, Rams. And then I have the Broncos winning. Okay. You heard it right here. You heard it here first. Josh? Sean Payton, good coach. Bo Nix, up-and-coming quarterback. Lots of talent in that Broncos defense.

That's my call. Rams are awesome. I mean, we just ran into the Rams buzzsaw. Yeah, I'll just say Eagles over Broncos. All right. We'll check back in in February, guys. Are Patriots, Erika? I think they have a shot at making it. I think they might make the championship, but... I don't know. They're really young. This is like their first really good year back, so I feel like they need another year to ramp up. But I am excited about them for the first time in forever.

Yeah. Actually, I did a lot of maybe useless research on how stadiums are financed, and Foxborough is one of the only ones that are privately financed 100%. So, they don't do any private-public partnership. They just pay for the whole thing. Same with SoFi out in L.A.

Because part of the problem with the Bears is that they require a lot of public, a lot of places are publicly financed, they have a partnership, and of course, like, the Bears did their end, so the McCaskies paid their end, and Illinois is in so much debt, and then J.B. Pritzker is trying to run for president, that they don't want to be seen capitulating to a private company, the Bears, by holding up their end of the bargain. And so, and then the Bears...

So, McCaskey, the ownership owns that Arlington Heights track. It actually used to be a dog track, and I know because they got family in Illinois now, and people are excited about that, but they can't build the infrastructure. They just want Illinois to build the infrastructure around it, and they're still refusing to do so. So, that's why the guy's just like, we'll move to Indiana. We'll go to India, and then all of a sudden, what's his name? Todd Young.

The senator from Indiana is like, come on over. Governor Mike Brown was like, let us go. I am ready. Yeah, Mike Brown is like, the Indiana Bears sound pretty good. And they do have much more sound financials as a state. It is not even close. And lots of Illinois people bleed over to Indiana, so that would be interesting.

I mean, nothing is impossible. I mean, of course, as one commentator once said, you know, you got three teams from New York, but only one actually plays in New York, you know? Yeah, true. So true. True. Yeah, they can still keep the name. One famous commentator, do you believe in miracles?

What about El Michaels? What about him? I just wanted to say it. Okay. Good year of LOOPcast, gang. It's going to be an even better 2026. Yeah. And we'll see you guys after the ball drops. I believe we've got a Friday show coming, and yeah, we'll be back in the saddle. So, Happy New Year's to everyone. Merry Christmas, and we will see you guys then. Peace.