Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff

Clayton as DNI, DOJ/Trump’s $1.8B slush fund lives, Trump vs Platner, and Iran and inflation.

It has been a wild, weird, harrowing week — Iran, ICE in Minneapolis, a UFC fight at the White House, the Knicks in the playoffs, and a president who keeps telling you out loud what he plans to do next. In this special Friday pop-media episode, Paul Rieckhoff brings you his weekly conversation from MS Now and breaks down what he's calling Trump's Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C: weaponize the National Guard, weaponize ICE, and weaponize the ballot box. It's not speculation. Trump has said it. Steve Bannon has said it. The reporting backs it up. And Congress — by Paul's read — has stopped exactly nothing.

This is a no-BS briefing for the angry middle. Paul connects the dots between the resurrected payout scheme for January 6th defendants, the ICE escalation in blue cities, the Iran war driving gas prices through the roof, and the coming primary fights from Maine to Nebraska to Montana where independent veterans are stepping up where Democrats can't. He's blunt about the Democratic brand problem, blunt about the Republican capitulation, and clear about where the circuit breaker actually lives: election integrity, the courts, Congress, and an angry middle that refuses to check out for the summer.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and stand up to Trump’s Forever Wars.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms

Read more at Substack

Support ad-free episodes at Patreon 

Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook 

Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky
 

-Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power. 

-And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year. 

Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media. 

And now part of the BLEAV network! 

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Iran Hits Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan. Trump vs Gov Wes Moore in Golf. World Cup Begins and Team USA Plays Tomorrow! 

Trump told a room full of Americans he "loves inflation" — while working families are getting strangled at the grocery store and the gas pump. Meanwhile, DHS Director Markwayne Mullin is openly fantasizing about siccing ICE on New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, treating federal immigration enforcement like a personal political weapon. This is what the rigged two-party system looks like when the masks slip: a billionaire class that profits from your pain and a MAGA machine that uses federal agencies as enforcers. Paul Rieckhoff cuts through it with a no-BS solo briefing built for the 90 million independent voters who are sick of being lied to by both sides.

This episode moves fast — from the economic gaslighting coming out of the White House, to the constitutional alarm bells ringing over ICE being deployed as a political cudgel, to a genuine moment of American unity courtesy of the New York Knicks. Paul connects the dots between cultural touchstones and political rot, lays out what the angry middle should actually be watching, and points to where righteous anger can be translated into real-world impact. If you want intelligence-grade analysis instead of cable-news theater, this is your morning briefing.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Join Noble Mobile today and get a $100 bonus when you stay a member for 2 months!

-Join IVA and stand up to Trump’s Forever Wars.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms

Read more at Substack

Support ad-free episodes at Patreon 

Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook 

Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky
-Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power. 

-And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year. 

Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media. 

And now part of the BLEAV network! 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Far Left & Right Dominate Another Rigged Primary Day. Knicks/Spurs Back at MSG. Hilton Beats Steyer in CA. Jimi Hendrix Gets His Way.

It's a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Wednesday and Paul is sounding the alarm. Game four of the NBA Finals tips off tonight at Madison Square Garden, but the real story is bigger than basketball. A Spurs fan got jumped in New York. Young men across America are jobless, hopeless, and furious. Trump has already named New York and Chicago as cities he wants to send troops into. Steve Bannon is calling ICE airport operations a dress rehearsal for the fall elections. And Pete Hegseth just flew to Gitmo with conspiracy-pusher Laura Loomer in tow — not the Washington Post, not even Fox — because Cuba is next and they aren't even hiding it.

Paul connects the dots between a potentially violent summer at home, CENTCOM's ongoing strikes inside Iran, the rigged primary system that just disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of independents in California and Maine, and the open primaries fight quietly unfolding in Lower Manhattan under Mamdani's new charter commission. This is a no-BS warning to the angry middle: stay out of the fistfights, stay out of the extremist groups, look out for the young men in your life, and refuse to give Trump the excuse he's desperate for. Righteous anger, channeled into real impact. Stay vigilant.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Make the switch to Noble mobile and save money the easy way.

-Join IVA and stand up to Trump’s Forever Wars.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms

Read more at Substack

Support ad-free episodes at Patreon 

Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook 

Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky
-Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power. 

-And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year. 

Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media. 

And now part of the BLEAV network! 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

900K Independents Blocked Out. Spencer Pratt is Out in LA. Trump Cries Foul. America 250 is Bigger Than Trump. 

Trump showed up at Game 3 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden and got booed loud enough that he had to lie about it on the tarmac. Hours later, news broke that an Iranian drone shot down a US Army Apache gunship off the coast of Oman — the pilots rescued, in a first-of-its-kind operation, by an American sea drone. And while the MAGA machine drags the NBA, the UFC, and America 250 into its political circus, four states are running primaries today that disenfranchise nearly a million independent voters, including roughly 450,000 independent veterans in Nevada alone. Paul Rieckhoff is solo on the mic for episode 545, delivering the kind of no-BS morning briefing the cable nets won't.

This one moves fast and hits hard: drone warfare as the new normal in Iran and Ukraine, the difference between a closed primary, an open party primary, and the all-candidate open primary that actually respects independents, the Graham Plattner problem in Maine, Trump previewing his attack on November's election results, and a French flyover at the Statue of Liberty that's a reminder America 250 doesn't belong to Trump. If you're tired of partisans weaponizing every NBA scuffle and every foreign policy crisis, this is the briefing that meets the moment — righteous anger, rigorous analysis, and a path forward.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Make the switch to Noble mobile and save money the easy way.

-Join IVA and stand up to Trump’s Forever Wars.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms

Read more at Substack

Support ad-free episodes at Patreon 

Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook 

Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky
 

-Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power. 

-And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year. 

Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media. 

And now part of the BLEAV network! 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Big Trump Immigration Bill Funded. Remembering D-Day. As Hegseth Contaminates That Too. Iran and Israel Back at It. Achilles Strong in Idaho. 7’4 Mayor Greg Ostertag (I). The Bears are Leaving Chicago?!? 

New York City is buzzing. For the first time since 1999, the NBA finals are back at Madison Square Garden, and Fat Joe says it's the greatest unification the city has seen since 9/11. Then Trump announced he's coming — and everything he touches suffers. No sitting president has ever crashed an NBA finals game, for good reason: the security footprint swallows the event, the watch parties outside the Garden get shut down, and the working-class fans who can't afford an $8,000 nosebleed seat get pushed out of their own city's celebration. Paul Rieckhoff opens Manosphere Monday solo with a no-BS breakdown of why this is the new normal — UFC at the White House, the World Cup, the 2028 Olympics — and why the last island of American culture just got contaminated.

From there, the briefing widens: Pete Hegseth turning the 82nd anniversary of D-Day into an anti-immigration grievance speech, Kristen Welker revealing Trump for who he is on Meet the Press, the Iran-Israel ceasefire that isn't a ceasefire, a direct Iranian missile hit on the main US air command center in Qatar that the government still won't talk about, $70 billion in new ICE funding rolling toward the House, and the independent veteran candidates — Achilles, Bodnar, Osborn — quietly running the most underreported political story in America. Plus a closing note on Greg Ostertag, the seven-foot NBA legend who just won a mayor's race in Mount Vernon, Texas — as an independent. Joy is resistance. So is vigilance.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Join IVA and stand up to Trump’s Forever Wars.

-Learn more about Paul’s work to elect a new generation of independent leaders with Independent Veterans of America.

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-Remember Independent is an Attitude.

-Learn more about The Headstrong Project for Veterans, Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), and Department of Veterans Affairs resources in your area. Seeking support is not a sign of weakness. It’s a show of strength. If you or a loved one are in immediate crisis, dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

Connect with Independent Americans:

Subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all podcast platforms

Read more at Substack

Support ad-free episodes at Patreon 

Connect: Instagram  • X/Twitter • BlueSky • Facebook 

Follow on social: @PaulRieckhoff on X, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky
-Join the movement. Hook into our exclusive Patreon community of Independent Americans. Get extra content, connect with guests, meet other Independent Americans, attend events, get merch discounts, and support this show that speaks truth to power. 

-And get cool IA and Righteous hats, t-shirts and other merch now in time for the new year. 

Independent Americans is powered by veteran-owned and led Righteous Media. 

And now part of the BLEAV network! 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.