Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff

Jensen Huang is gone. Nvidia offered no reason. And in the two weeks before his resignation, a story broke that should concern every American who cares about what we sell, who we sell it to, and whether anyone is actually watching. A Singapore company called Megaspeed, previously the Singapore arm of a Chinese video game developer, imported at least $4.6 billion in Nvidia hardware and 136,000 of the most powerful AI processors American industry makes. When Nvidia inspected Megaspeed's data centers on behalf of the US government, they found about 86,000. Where are the other 50,000? Nobody with public authority has finished answering that question.

Paul walks through what's confirmed, what's alleged, and what's still blank space on the page: the alleged Chinese intelligence asset, the romantic relationship Huang admitted to his staff, the 193 servers sitting in a Shanghai data center pledged as collateral, the $510 million smuggling indictment in New York that shows what diversion looks like when prosecutors can prove it, and the four federal agencies that reportedly wanted Megaspeed blacklisted while Commerce stalled. This is national security, corporate accountability, and the rigged game of export controls colliding in real time — and Congress is finally moving. If you want to understand where America's AI edge is actually going, start here.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Check out the important work happening at  Independent Voter News at IVN.us.

-Let Vets Vote: Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code INDEPENDENT to get $25 when you trade $25.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

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

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-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:

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-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. 

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The Republican Party just took a beating it didn't see coming — and one of its sharpest young strategists is on the show to say the quiet part out loud. Shermichael Singleton joins Paul Rieckhoff for a candid, no-BS conversation about why the GOP's internal numbers missed the catastrophe, how the silent independent voter delivered the blow, and what it will actually take to rebuild a party that's lost the suburbs, the moral high ground, and any credible claim to being the party of Reagan, Bush, and McCain. Pete Hegseth's selfies at Arlington. Jim Jordan and Stephen Miller consolidating power. A Nvidia CEO shown the door. And nobody — according to Singleton himself — stepping up to lead what comes next.

Paul and Shermichael dig into economic populism as the only honest path forward for a right-of-center party, the widening wealth gap that no amount of tax-cut messaging can paper over, and why most Americans can't absorb a $1,000 emergency in the richest country on earth. They talk about Mississippi's Scott Colom, the Amherst-Williams rivalry, Indiana-USC, LSU-Texas, and whether Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer or a cautionary tale. It's a conversation about what a real opposition looks like when the two-party system is collapsing in real time — and why independents are the ones holding the future in their hands.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Join us for Veterans Day in New York City 11/11.

-Check out the important work happening at  Independent Voter News at IVN.us.

-Let Vets Vote: Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code INDEPENDENT to get $25 when you trade $25.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

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

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-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.

Veterans Day 2026 should have been a unifying moment. Instead, the Secretary of Defense was caught giggling and snapping selfies on the steps of the tomb of the unknown soldier while a Sentinel of the Old Guard held the line and reminded him not to confuse his rank with the sentinel's authority. Paul Rieckhoff — Army infantry officer, Iraq War veteran, and founder of Independent Veterans of America — reports live from the biggest Veterans Day parade in America in New York City, then goes on News Nation to say plainly what the whole country just watched: Pete Hegseth is unfit, and every day he stays in that office, America is less safe.

This quick response episode connects the dots the MAGA machine would rather you miss. Eleven House Democrats skipped the Hegseth impeachment vote and blew a chance to send a statement on Veterans Day. Jared Kushner is flying to Moscow to negotiate with Putin while Ukrainians die through another brutal winter and the Trump team keeps treating the aggressor and the victim as equals. The official U.S. death toll from the Iran war is 23 service members — not the 18 Hegseth and Trump keep repeating. And Trump is fighting in court to build a 250-foot "Golden Age of America" arch that would cast a 50-day-a-year shadow over JFK's grave and hundreds of thousands of fallen Americans. Nine members of the Kennedy family are suing to stop it. If you care about the military, the Constitution, and the truth, you can't wait until January.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Join us for Veterans Day in New York City 11/11.

-Check out the important work happening at  Independent Voter News at IVN.us.

-Let Vets Vote: Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code INDEPENDENT to get $25 when you trade $25.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

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

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-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.

The looming post-9/11 veteran showdown for president. Making every day Veterans Day.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore returns to Independent Americans for a Veterans Day conversation that refuses to let anyone spike the ball. Elon Musk's DOGE fired more than 31,000 federal workers in Maryland alone — one in four of them military veterans — and on January 1, up to 680,000 children could lose food assistance. Moore is blunt: the message from Tuesday's election wasn't that a party won, it was that the American people are losing. Trump still has two years, still has the power to deploy ICE into American cities, still has the power to start a new war. The job now is not to celebrate. The job is to get to work.

Paul and the Governor also look down the road at a looming post-9/11 veteran showdown for the presidency — Vance, Hegseth, DeSantis on one side; Moore, Buttigieg, Sherrill and others on the other — and what it means for the country when combat-tested independents and partisans finally face off for the top job. They close on what Veterans Day is actually supposed to mean: not a Hallmark holiday, not a day off, but a reminder that veterans are an investment, not a charity, and that the country still needs them in the fight. This is a conversation for every American who's done with cheerleaders in Congress and ready for leaders who remember who they're fighting for.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Join us for Veterans Day in New York City 11/11.

-Check out the important work happening at  Independent Voter News at IVN.us.

-Let Vets Vote: Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code INDEPENDENT to get $25 when you trade $25.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

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

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-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.

Netanyahu on the brink. Russia hits rescue workers.

The circle is closing fast. With Susie Wiles out and Stephen Miller installed as chief of staff, Pete Hegseth is doubling down — posting memes with Miller, blocking promotions of women and officers of color, and dragging the Pentagon deeper into a culture war that has our enemies celebrating. Paul Rieckhoff calls it plainly: Hegseth is the most destructive force on the American military since the Iraq War, maybe since Vietnam. And this Veterans Week, Thomas Massie is moving to impeach him on eight articles. Paul argues the vote should happen on Veterans Day itself.

But the MAGA machine never sticks to one story. Trump pulled UFC boss Dana White to the White House press room. Trump reportedly paid Laura Loomer to smear a Medal of Honor recipient. A tanker was hit near the Strait of Hormuz. Russia struck rescue workers waiting to deliver humanitarian aid in southern Ukraine. And in Israel, Netanyahu's rival Gadi Eisenkot is now tasked with forming the next government — one step closer to ending the longest-serving leader in Israeli history. Paul closes with a Veterans Week tribute to the Vietnam generation and the advocates still carrying the weight. No guest today — just the no-BS briefing independent Americans need to stay vigilant through the madness.

-WATCH full video of this episode here.

-Join us for Veterans Day in New York City 11/11.

-Check out the important work happening at  Independent Voter News at IVN.us.

-Let Vets Vote: Millions of American veterans are being locked out of primary elections in the country they served. See what we’re doing to change that.

-Visit Kalshi and trade on anything. Use code INDEPENDENT to get $25 when you trade $25.

-Head to cozyearth.com and use the code AMERICANS for an exclusive 20% off.

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

-Learn more about American Veterans for Ukraine here.

-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.