Trump's Failure of Empathy & What Knives Out Gets Right About Christianity
The Esau McCaulley Podcast
Esau McCaulley
5.0 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the wake of the tragic murder of Rob and Michele Reiner, Trump's response on Truth Social reveals a striking lack of empathy. Esau, Mike, and Justin Giboney reflect on how his reaction once again exposes a failure of compassion at the highest level of leadership.
Then the conversation turns to Wake Up Dead Man, the latest film in the Knives Out franchise, which unexpectedly offers a sharp and thoughtful portrayal of Christianity in America. What does the movie get right about sin, confession, and grace, and could it be one of the most theologically insightful secular films in years?
0:00 - Theme Song
3:33 - Christmas Movie Character Equivalents
10:05 - Wake Up Dead Man
22:48 - Sponsor - Exclusive $45-off Carver Mat at https://www.AuraFrames.com. Use code ESAU at checkout to save!
23:50 - Sponsor - Tyndale - The Life Application Study Bible is here to give you resources to help you understand why scripture matters and how it applies today! Check it out now at:
24:48 - Trump on the Reiner Murder
34:30 - Australia and Gun Laws
Esau Article on School Shootings:
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone, welcome to the Esau McCauley podcast. |
| 0:09.1 | I'm your host, Esau McCauley. |
| 0:10.9 | We're joined this week by another one of our regulars. |
| 0:13.5 | We love to have Justin on the podcast. |
| 0:15.0 | Thank you, Justin Gibney, president of the end campaign. |
| 0:17.9 | Thanks for joining us. |
| 0:19.5 | Always glad to be here. |
| 0:20.6 | Thanks for having me, bro. And we're also joined by producer Mike. It's great to have you here, please Mike. It's great to be here, Esau. You know, we're talking before we recorded that this might be one of the last episodes that we have before Christmas, a live episode. There'll be other episodes, but this might be the last time me and you are in the room before Christmas. And that means that if we were going to give me a Christmas present, you would have one. So I'm going to ask you, do you have anything for me? Other than just my joyful presents of producing all these episodes for you. I don't want to make it clear because people always say that I'm the one who mistreats you, but I have a Christmas |
| 0:54.4 | present for you. |
| 0:55.0 | It is December 15th. I still have 10 days to get you a Christmas present. But you can't perform it online. Online, there we go. So I have a Christmas present for you. And it's tied to the theme of the show. I don't know if you know this. Okay. So a few weeks ago, we had Malcolm Foley on the podcast. And that day, I was wearing a jersey for the New Zealand football team. |
| 1:14.7 | What was it? New Zealand, what do you call it? The rugby team. The all blacks. Yes. And you asked the question. What did you say? Is it appropriate for them to be called the all blacks? And I wore it and everybody seemed to be okay. Yeah. We got a nice note, Justin. I don't know if you know this from a new a, a listener from New Zealand. |
| 1:30.9 | Mm-hmm. award and everybody's seen it'll be okay yeah we got a nice note justy i don't know if you know this |
| 1:27.8 | from a new a a listener from new zealand and he said that they also have a soccer team in |
| 1:34.8 | new zealand did you know this do they have a professional soccer or the national soccer team |
| 1:38.3 | yes do you know this i didn't not know that jason do you know do you know the name or the soccer |
| 1:43.3 | team for um the for the national team for new ze, do you know the name or the soccer team for the national team for New Zealand? |
| 1:46.8 | Do you know what their name is? |
| 1:48.3 | The all blacks? |
| 1:49.2 | No, no, no, no. |
| 1:50.8 | Hold on. |
| 1:51.9 | For those of you who are listening, I'm getting something out of my book bag to give to Mike for Christmas. |
| 1:58.2 | Hold on for a second. |
... |
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