Your government is out of control. It’s doing things it has no business doing.
It spends way too much money. It gets involved in way too many wars. It not only ...
Rod Dreher: Communist Dissidents Have a Message For the West
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was arrested on Feb. 12, 1974, for speaking out about the evils of Soviet communism. The next day, he was exiled to the West and would not touch Russian soil again for more than 15 years.
On the day of his arrest, Solzhenitsyn published an essay titled “Live Not by Lies.” The four-page essay was a call for civic courage: The end of Soviet totalitarianism would begin only when the Russian people refused to accept the regime’s lies.
Solzhenitsyn’s essay inspired the title of Rod Dreher’s 2020 book “Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents.” Almost five years later, Angel Studios has turned Dreher’s book into a four-part documentary series focusing on the stories of the brave souls that stood up to communist regimes. Dreher joined “The Signal Sitdown” to give a behind the scenes look at the Angel Studios project.
Dreher started working on “Live Not by Lies” when he received a shocking phone call.
Tune in to find out what happened next:
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This Republican Was on to USAID Corruption Before DOGE Even Existed | Rep. Eli Crane
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., is a fighter. The week after 9/11, he dropped out of the University of Arizona to join the Navy and accomplished his goal of becoming a Navy SEAL. In 2023, he brought that fighting spirit to Congress, where he’s been proven prescient on major issues such as America’s actual role in the Ukraine war and the need to reign in out-of-control government spending from agencies like USAID.
Crane joined this week’s episode of "The Signal Sitdown" on the heels of a bombshell report from The New York Times about the extent of U.S. involvement in Ukraine and in the midst of major negotiations between Republicans in the House and Senate on cuts to government spending.
The Arizona congressman was onto the U.S. Agency for International Development before DOGE drew attention to it this year.
“I tried to defund USAID last Congress by 50%,” Crane told "The Signal Sitdown."
After Crane co-sponsored a piece of legislation from former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz in August 2023 to abolish USAID, he brought an amendment to the House floor to slash USAID funding in half.
“Democrats stopped it and Republicans stopped it,” Crane recalled. The amendment failed, with 102 in favor to 326 opposed. A majority of House Republicans—114 of them to be exact—voted against Crane’s amendment.
Tune in to find out what happened next!
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Memer-in-Chief: How Donald Trump Took the Digital Town Square by Storm | Kaelan Dorr
President Donald Trump has made massive inroads with Gen Z voters through an alternative media strategy that took the president’s message directly to the digital town square.
As a deputy assistant to the president and White House deputy communications director, Kaelan Dorr is a key player in executing Trump's digital media strategy. He joined a special episode of The Signal Sitdown to discuss how Trump became “the Memer-in-Chief.”
Over the course of the 2024 campaign, Trump eschewed traditional media, opting for a media strategy that met voters where they were consuming content. The Trump team brought the president’s message to podcasts and social media platforms instead of op-eds and primetime cable news. The big secret, however, is that this strategy is actually “very simple,” Dorr said. “I think that's what makes it very effective at the end of the day.”
“The beauty of the digital strategy and of the movement we've kind of curated over the last decade is that anybody can do it,” Dorr told me. “It's truly valuable because it doesn't require an ad executive on Madison Avenue… to talk about ‘what's our message progression on this issue’ and ‘how do we do videos that tell a story over time?’”
“I like to tell everybody this is the easiest job I've ever had because the American people gave us a honey-do list and we're just checking things off.”
Trump’s infamous use of social media serves as the foundation for the rest of the administration’s digital strategy.
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Inside President Trump's Ambitious Policy Strategy | May Mailman, Senior Trump Policy Strategist
President Donald Trump’s pace since returning to the White House has surprised the president’s friends, perhaps even more than his enemies.
On the 66th day of his administration, Trump signed the 100th executive order of his second term, breaking FDR’s record of 99 executive orders in the first 100 days. While Trump plows ahead, the leftist lawfare complex that once sought to imprison the president is attempting to handcuff his second term by filing more than 130 lawsuits against the administration.
As a deputy assistant to the president and Trump senior policy strategist, May Mailman is one of those administration staffers tasked with executing President Trump’s game plan. She sat down for a special episode of "The Signal Sitdown" filmed at the White House.
“I think actually the president's speed has always been this fast,” Mailman said of the offensive posture of the administration. It has always been, ‘I need this, I need this, let's go, let's go, let's go.’”
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28:13
What It’s Really Like Working for President Trump | Karoline Leavitt
Karoline Leavitt made history when she became the youngest person ever to hold the title White House press secretary.
In a special episode of "The Signal Sitdown" filmed at the White House, Leavitt opens up about her relationship with President Donald Trump, her political upbringing, and how the president is garnering record support with young voters.
At just 27 years old, Leavitt is tasked with communicating Trump’s priorities to the American people, oftentimes through testy exchanges with the adversarial corporate media in the White House briefing room.
"I don't think anyone could anticipate having this job," Leavitt told The Daily Signal. "Certainly, one may hope for it, but you never really know if it will happen."
These days, Leavitt makes headlines sparring with journalists, but once upon a time, she thought she might become one. "I always was enthralled with the media and news growing up," Leavitt said. "Always thought I wanted to be a reporter, actually on your side of the table, and covering the news."
That started to change, however, when Trump burst on to the political scene. "2016 was the first election I was actually eligible to vote in, and I cast my ballot in the New Hampshire primary for Donald Trump," Leavitt recalled.
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Your government is out of control. It’s doing things it has no business doing.
It spends way too much money. It gets involved in way too many wars. It not only tells you what you can and can’t say—it actively censors you.
And the things your government should do, it can’t, or won’t, do at all.
It can’t keep your streets clean of crime and filth. It can’t keep your neighborhoods safe enough for kids to play outside. It can’t even prevent your country from being invaded by millions of illegal migrants.
Why is that?
Because your leaders no longer represent you. They represent themselves and their friends.
On each episode of "The Signal Sitdown," politics editor Bradley Devlin exposes how the sausage really gets made in Washington, D.C. with the help of guests who have experience on the inside.
"The Signal Sitdown" takes you inside the biggest battles in Washington, D.C., as they happen. We’ll analyze the policymaking process from an unabashedly and unapologetically conservative perspective and together reclaim government from the self-serving elites.
Fingers will be pointed.
Names will be named.
USA