Erick opens with the good news: Iran's economy is collapsing under U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, U.N. Ambassador Mike Waltz, and President Trump all detailing the pressure campaign as gas and diesel prices start easing on returning refinery capacity. He also covers SpaceX's historic Starship launch of the new Starlink V3 satellite and Scottie Scheffler's class act at the President's Cup. Then comes the bad news hour: Erick makes his case for why predictions of a GOP Senate wipeout in the midterms, driven by weak Republican turnout, Trump Jr.'s wedding scandal, and flawed candidates like Ken Paxton and Mike Collins, are overblown.

• Iran's economy craters under U.S. sanctions and the Strait of Hormuz naval blockade; Chris Wright, Mike Waltz, and President Trump lay out the pressure campaign as gas and diesel prices ease
• SpaceX successfully launches Starship carrying the new V3 Starlink satellite; Elon Musk explains why it dwarfs Delta's in flight WiFi
• Scottie Scheffler's sportsmanship highlights Team USA's President's Cup comeback win over Nico Echavarria
• Erick argues against GOP midterm doom: Republican voter turnout, corruption anger over Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding gift, and weak candidates like Ken Paxton and Beau French in Texas and Mike Collins in Georgia
• Trump's economy approval rating and lingering tariff anger are dragging down Republican prospects even as his Iran policy succeeds

Erick Erickson breaks down agentic banking, the new Wall Street fear from Apollo Global economist Torsten Slock and Bank of America analysts, as Meta's Muse AI agent helps consumers cancel subscriptions and chase high yield savings account rates. He also reports on the Macon, Georgia park shooting that wounded 12 teens, three blocks from his studio, and on huge crowds of young people turning out for Pope Leo in France, arguing the real fight is between the sacred and the secular.

• Agentic banking and Meta Muse: Erick let Muse read his bank accounts, and it found three Spotify subscriptions and an unused Peacock plan, saving him a couple hundred dollars a month
• Apollo Global Management's Torsten Slock and Bank of America analyst Ibrahim Punwala warn that AI agents moving cash to high yield savings accounts could drain cheap bank deposits and squeeze net interest margins
• Macon, Georgia mass shooting: 12 teens wounded at a park after an Airbnb party in Jones County, with the sheriff vowing to charge the adults who knew the kids had guns
• Pope Leo draws massive crowds in Paris and Lourdes, and Erick argues young people in a secular France and America are hungry for tradition, liturgy, expository preaching, and belonging
• Las Vegas family trip: Adrenaline Mountain machine guns, sniper rifles, Tannerite, and flamethrowers for his daughter's 21st birthday, plus a jab at Delta's Wi-Fi and the Pope's White Sox fandom

Erick Erickson makes the case that abortion is his red line and that voters have every right to sit out races like the Ken Paxton versus James Talarico Texas Senate fight, warning Republicans that holding your nose for corrupt or unworthy candidates guarantees worse ones, from Vivek Ramaswamy's struggles in the Ohio governor race to Trump's taxpayer funded campaign ad. He also defends Georgia governor candidate Rick Jackson against an AJC attack on the self-made man, plays the Saturday Night Live Dario Amodei parody, and shares a UK counterterrorism update on five men released on bail in a suspected foreign state operation.

• Lesser of two evils: Erick explains why abortion is a red line, why he will not vote for two pro-abortion candidates, and why more disaffected Republicans and independents are tapping out of the 2026 midterms
• Texas Senate race: Ken Paxton versus James Talarico, John Cornyn's role, and Beau French's Railroad Commission risk, with Erick reminding Republicans they told voters in 2016 they were electing a politician, not a preacher
• Ohio governor race: Vivek Ramaswamy slipping in the polls, and Erick's charge that some on the right will not vote for a brown-skinned Hindu candidate after demanding everyone hold their nose for Donald Trump
• Trump taxpayer funded campaign ad: the White House swapped the paid for by Trump for President tag for a government one, and Louisiana Senator John Kennedy is among those calling it out
• Rick Jackson and the self-made man: Erick answers an Atlanta Journal-Constitution column calling the self-made man a myth, and argues for helping the deserving poor while ending bailouts for repeated bad choices
• Also: Saturday Night Live's Dario Amodei and Anthropic parody, UK counterterrorism police releasing five arrested men on bail in a suspected foreign proxy operation, and the Laughing Cow's scowling new ad campaign

Erick Erickson opens as President Trump welcomes Xi Jinping to the White House and the administration caves on its ban of CNN, MS Now, and Politico, then explains why a declining China, not a rising one, is the real danger: purged generals, a stalled Chinese economy, Iran's oil squeeze, and Beijing's push to get Trump to abandon Taiwan. Then Erick celebrates Argentine President Javier Milei's blistering United Nations speech, the free market results of ending rent control in Buenos Aires, and why EU bureaucrats, Adrian Vermeule's common good constitutionalism, and Abdul El-Sayed's word salad on Iran all point the same direction.

• Trump and Xi Jinping at the White House: the CNN, MS Now, and Politico ban reversed, and the Tiananmen Square irony of barring CNN on the day China's dictator arrives
• China in decline: Peter Schweizer on Xi purging the Central Military Commission and 45 missing generals, Greg Ip and Rhodium Group on a Chinese economy that may be growing near zero, and Senator John Kennedy's "he learned to lie before he learned to talk"
• China, Iran, and Taiwan: Beijing helping Iran target Americans, U.S. missile batteries on Philippine islands in the Luzon Strait, and why Erick wants Reagan style confrontation instead of friendship
• Javier Milei at the UN: a "cast of fatally arrogant parasites," Argentina's economy rebounding after cutting tariffs, price controls, and rent control, and the free market lesson for Trump populists and JD Vance
• EU Digital Markets Act rules forcing Apple to rewrite its app tracking prompt, Britain's disinformation push, Adrian Vermeule's common good constitutionalism, and Abdul El-Sayed refusing to condemn Khamenei and the IRGC in Michigan

Erick Erickson reports from a Georgia fundraiser where Republicans finally felt some joy, as Rick Jackson's ad blitz on Keisha Lance Bottoms and the 2020 Atlanta riots moves the Georgia governor race while Democrats hold zero TV reservations for October. Then Erick sides with Judge Judy on retrying Lindsay Clancy, blasts The View for scolding Patrick Clancy for divorcing the woman who killed their three children, and argues true crime podcasts, Christian nationalism, and a Massachusetts mask bar are all symptoms of a society losing its mind.

• Georgia governor race: Rick Jackson's Keisha Lance Bottoms riot ad, $31.5 million in Republican October TV reservations versus zero for Democrats, and Mike Collins gaining ground against Jon Ossoff
• 2026 midterms: why September polling is shifting toward the GOP, reports the NRSC is eyeing New Hampshire, Michigan, and Minnesota over Georgia and North Carolina, Ken Paxton's ads falling flat against James Talarico in Texas, and Erick's call of a 50 50 Senate with JD Vance breaking ties if the election were today
• Lindsay Clancy retrial: Judge Judy on the danger of copycats, a defense attorney targeting the lone guilty juror, and why prosecutors must try the case again
• The View and Patrick Clancy: Alyssa Farah Griffin as the lone voice of reason, and how true crime podcasts and Candace Owens style conspiracy theories are rotting brains
• Christian nationalism: Andrew Walker's World magazine piece, pastors and marriage counselors on grievance driven young men in the church, and Erick's comparison to the masked holdouts at a Massachusetts lesbian bar; plus flamethrowers in Las Vegas and Erick's favorite mail order butchers

Erick Erickson opens on Stanford University admitting its dining department used AI to turn a Hispanic male student into a Black woman in marketing photos, calling it DEI and identity politics run amok, and draws on his late friend Tim Keller's teaching that every person is made in the image of God. Then Erick turns to the farm crisis: Mike Rogers and Roger Marshall breaking with the White House on the Iran war as diesel prices top six dollars at harvest, why a diesel export ban would backfire, China reneging on soybean purchases, and farm bankruptcies piling up in Georgia.

• Stanford University AI photo scandal: a Hispanic student digitally turned into a Black woman, Stanford faulting only its AI policy, and Erick on DEI, identity politics, and why "woke" is alive and well on college campuses
• Tim Keller and the image of God: Erick's private conversations with Keller, why his critics twisted theology to fit politics, lessons from CNN friendships with Paul Begala and Donna Brazile, and Ketanji Brown Jackson as the stigma of hiring by race
• Iran war and diesel prices: Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers and Kansas Senator Roger Marshall urging a wind down, John Kennedy's "colony of reptiles" line on China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea, and $6.53 diesel hitting the harvest
• Diesel export ban: $100 billion a month in goods arriving by cargo ship, Russia's export ban, and the American Petroleum Institute's warning that refiners would cut gasoline and jet fuel too
• Farm bankruptcies and soybean prices: China buying from Brazil instead of American farmers, falling Chinese hog demand, Brooke Rollins telling families to eat lentils, weekly farm bankruptcies in Macon, and population decline

1. 10-year yield reaches a 19-year high. Persistent inflation concerns and expectations of a possible Fed rate increase are putting borrowing costs in focus. Higher yields point to more expensive mortgages, car loans, and credit card debt, while potentially increasing returns on CDs and savings accounts.

2. China farm purchases fall short. Unfulfilled Chinese agricultural purchases and declining exports are straining U.S. farmers, with farm bankruptcies highlighted in Georgia. Another taxpayer-funded farmer bailout is under discussion as Republicans approach the midterms.

3. Zelensky warns of a cold winter at war. Ukraine's president tells the United Nations that Russia must also face the consequences of a harsh winter if the war continues. Forecasts of severe cold in Central and Eastern Europe add to concerns as Zelensky seeks peace while rejecting surrender.

4. White House press ban faces a court challenge. CNN, MS NOW, and Politico are seeking restored White House access. Shared press-pool costs and the administration's ability to exclude particular outlets are central issues in the episode's account of the dispute.

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Broadcasting from the home bunker on a day of runaway mattress deliveries, Erick Erickson breaks down President Trump's United Nations remarks: the Shield of the Americas alliance with Marco Rubio and Scott Bessent, renaming artificial intelligence "super intelligence," rejecting global AI restrictions, and a call for the complete economic isolation of Iran as Xi Jinping arrives at Joint Base Andrews. Then Erick explains why capping diesel prices or banning diesel exports would raise costs on everything shipped into America, how tariffs and the Canada trade war wiped out Vermont's Jasper Hill Farm, and why Kamala Harris may sit out 2028 while she campaigns for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

• Trump at the UN: Shield of the Americas, "super intelligence" replacing AI, 18 new munitions plants, and isolating Iran until it stops attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz
• Xi Jinping's visit, his purge of generals, and fears he thinks he can play Trump on Taiwan; Brent crude over $100 and a 19 year high in Treasury yields
• Why a diesel export ban and price caps backfire: global diesel prices, cargo ships, import costs, the aluminum tariff lesson, and the Canada tariffs that gutted a Vermont cheesemaker
• Kamala Harris says she has not decided on 2028, Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, and Andy Beshear circle, and Abdul El-Sayed's "cars are modern day cigarettes" and uncommitted past in the Michigan Senate race against Mike Rogers
• Macro versus pocketbook economics, JD Vance's "give us more time" message, and Democrats attacking George W. Bush for campaigning for Susan Collins, Dan Sullivan, and Mike Rogers

Erick Erickson says America needs litmus tests for crazy, starting with the Last Ditch lesbian bar in Greenfield, Massachusetts, where critics cried ableism and eugenics when the struggling bar dropped its N95 mask mandate one night a week, and moving to Bill Burr's defense of Luigi Mangione, Tyler Robinson and Charlie Kirk, and transgender athletes in girls sports. Then Erick explains why Xi Jinping is a real totalitarian, unlike Donald Trump, as the Chinese dictator arrives at Joint Base Andrews believing he can make Trump cave on Taiwan, plus the Paramount Warner Bros merger meltdown at CNN and the AI bubble coming for online retail.

• The Last Ditch lesbian bar mask mandate fight in Greenfield, Massachusetts, the "intersectional" backlash, and the Boston Globe's record breaking story
• Litmus tests for crazy: Luigi Mangione and Brian Thompson, Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle, Tyler Robinson and Charlie Kirk, Lindsay Clancy, masks in 2026, and kids transitioning
• Xi Jinping's visit, his purge of Chinese generals, Uyghur concentration camps, a declining Chinese economy and birth rate, and the fight over Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines, and Japan
• Trump versus a true totalitarian: court losses on tariffs, birthright citizenship, and banning CNN and Politico from the White House pool
• The Paramount Warner Bros deal, Bari Weiss, Kara Swisher, a 90 day diesel export ban, and Amazon blocking Meta's AI shopping agent as Wall Street sees an AI bubble