Hour 3 - Understanding Trump
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
iHeartPodcasts
4.5 • 11.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Hour 3 of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, the hosts deliver a compelling and wide-ranging discussion centered on U.S. energy policy, the future of nuclear power, and the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence. The hour features an in-depth interview with U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, who outlines the Trump administration’s “Make Energy Great Again” (MEGA) strategy. This includes ending half a trillion dollars in federal subsidies for wind, solar, and electric vehicles, which Wright argues have destabilized the power grid and driven up electricity costs. He emphasizes a return to fossil fuel production on federal lands, streamlined permitting, and targeted tax credits for next-generation nuclear, geothermal, and hydroelectric technologies.
The conversation shifts to the affordability of gasoline, with Wright noting a 25–30 cent per gallon drop in prices over the past year despite global instability. He attributes this to increased domestic production and a shift in Middle East dynamics, particularly regarding Iran. The hosts and Wright also explore the urgent need for massive energy infrastructure expansion to meet the exponential power demands of AI technologies, warning of a looming 200-gigawatt shortfall if current coal plant closures proceed without adequate replacement.
Later in the hour, journalist Selena Zito joins the show to discuss her new book, Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland. Zito recounts her firsthand experience at the rally where Trump was shot in the ear, describing the chaos, the president’s resolve, and the symbolic power of his raised fist. She reflects on how the event transformed Trump’s sense of purpose and galvanized support across the political spectrum. The hosts predict that Trump’s reaction in Butler will become an iconic moment in American history, likening it to Lincoln at Gettysburg.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:04.6 | Secretary, appreciate you being with us. |
| 0:06.5 | We know you were just in a marathon cabinet meeting as a member of the cabinet, a lot covered there. |
| 0:12.9 | Wanted to just jump into what is in the big, beautiful bill that affects directly U.S. National energy policy. Like, what do we need to know |
| 0:24.2 | about what's coming? Actually, quite a bit. But let me start out with maybe the biggest thing |
| 0:31.2 | is it's the ending of about a half a trillion dollars of subsidies that would be paid out in the next 10 years. |
| 0:39.8 | So, you know, roughly 50 billion a year. |
| 0:42.7 | We've been paying these for many years. |
| 0:45.6 | And the biggest component to them is to pay people to put wind and solar on our electricity |
| 0:52.0 | grid and subsidies to help rich people buy EVs. And so the problem of |
| 0:58.7 | these subsidies is they not only cost the taxpayers a half a trillion dollars, but at the end, |
| 1:04.7 | they make our electricity grids more expensive and less stable. So we have to pay twice. So I think reducing the pressure of the cost |
| 1:13.1 | of these subsidies and the pressure on the cost and stability of our grid is going to be a big win |
| 1:18.1 | for Americans. When you look at the price of gas, I think this is a big story that isn't being |
| 1:24.5 | talked in the price of gasoline in affordability terms. So it's just tremendous. That's a big story that doesn't mean talking. In the price of gasoline, in affordability terms. |
| 1:28.4 | So it's just tremendous. |
| 1:29.6 | That's a significant expense that all Americans, all of us pay every week to get to our jobs, to go on vacations, to visit our grandmothers and travel with our kids. |
| 1:40.9 | If you make gasoline prices expensive, you just shrink the life off ministrations record. |
| 1:46.6 | We have gasoline 25 to 30 cents a gallon cheaper today than it was 12 months ago, and that's |
| 1:53.3 | going through a period of major conflict in the Middle East, but major productive conflict in the |
| 2:00.2 | Middle East, hopefully ending the 46 |
| 2:02.5 | years of Iran at the troublemaker in the Middle East, and really the threat to global peace, |
... |
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