Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff

JD Vance Really Sucks. War Powers Act on Iran Finally Advances. Senator Redneck Will Be Governor Redneck. Zelensky Promises More Strikes in Russia—GOOD. Knicks Miracle Comeback. 

Congressman Tom Massie lost in Kentucky last night — sort of. Trump and the MAGA machine spent tens of millions to take out the GOP Congressman who crossed him, and in the process made Massie a household name with a ready-made presidential-grade platform: no war in Iran, no tariffs, no Trump, and no stopping the release of the Epstein files. Paul Rieckhoff opens Episode 528 with a no-BS solo briefing on what last night's primaries really mean, why JD Vance is lying about Ukraine, why January 6 rioters may now go from prisons to pardons to payouts, why James Murdoch buying Vox Media's podcast network should put every independent voice on alert, and why the NY Knicks comeback and leadership is bigger than basketball. 

Then Paul sits down with Dr. Karen Matthews (https://www.matthewsforcongress.com/) — Navy veteran, radiologist, small business owner, and independent candidate in California's 23rd district. CA-23 isn't Gavin Newsom's California. It's Reagan's California: working class, libertarian-leaning, a third independent, with one of the best VAs in the country and a slice of Fort Irwin inside its lines. Matthews lays out why the incumbent doesn't show up, why the Democrats have given up, and why California's open primary on June 2nd may be the single biggest day for the independent movement in years. This is what the angry middle sounds like when it stops complaining and starts running. It’ll leave you inspired. 

-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:

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Massie vs Trump. San Diego Mosque Attackers Murder 3. LIRR Strike Deal. Another Buffalo Heartbreaker. Wemby Dazzles. 

It's Tuesday, May 19th — a huge primary day in Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Alabama — and 3,557,000 independent Americans are being locked out of the elections deciding their representation. Paul Rieckhoff runs a solo briefing on the closed-primary problem nobody in the rigged two-party system wants to talk about: taxpayer-funded elections, run in public schools by public poll workers, that exclude anyone who refuses to put on a jersey. With 93% of House races and 80% of Senate races already decided by primaries, this isn't a procedural quirk — it's a structural assault on representative democracy.

Paul also unpacks the Trump-versus-Tom Massie proxy war in Kentucky, including the Secretary of Defense leaving his post to campaign against a sitting Republican congressman, the Georgia governor's race chaos between Burt Jones and Brad Raffensperger, and Trump's ever-expanding billion-dollar White House construction project that's quietly morphed from a ballroom into something that sounds a lot more like a bunker. He closes with the heroism of Amin Abdullah at the San Diego mosque shooting, a Long Island Railroad strike resolved in workers' favor, and the young helpers showing up across America when it counts. Righteous anger, patriotic hope, and a clear-eyed look at why the independent movement is the only path forward.

-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! 

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Trump’s Approval Drops to 37%. Reporting Isn’t Treason. Ebola Outbreak Global Health Emergency. Ukraine Hits Moscow. LIRR Goes on Strike. Trump Wins Again: Takes Out Cassidy. 

It's Manosphere Monday and Paul Rieckhoff is broadcasting from high above New York City with a solo briefing built for the angry middle. The New York Times has confirmed that Navy SEALs escorted Cash Patel and nine others on what the Pentagon itself called a 'VIP snorkel event' next to the underwater tomb of the USS Arizona — one week before Memorial Day. Paul says if anything is impeachable, this is. Meanwhile the administration has quietly stood up a $1.8 billion fund to pay off allies of the president, Pete Hegseth is openly campaigning for House Republicans in Kentucky, ICE is banging on doors without warrants, and Trump's approval has cratered to 37%.

From there the briefing widens out: U.S. combat operations in Nigeria most Americans will never hear about, an Ebola outbreak the WHO is tracking while we sit outside the organization, classified intelligence about Cuban drones being shaped into a pretext for war, Ukraine hitting a Moscow oil refinery, and a Senate purge that just took out Bill Cassidy. Paul closes with a Memorial Day call to action, a tribute to Wells Crowther — the man in the red bandana — and a reminder that 45% of this country is now independent. We're not politically homeless. We're free.

-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.

The pigs are at the trough. Trump's expected overseas real estate income has tripled to $430 million in his second term. Eric Trump is doing deals in China while Taiwan goes unmentioned and Iran keeps arming the people killing Ukrainians and Americans. Nvidia's CEO is being paraded around as the administration floats opening AI chip markets to Beijing. Don Jr. is tied to a drone company that just landed a Pentagon contract — inside a defense budget heading toward $1.5 trillion, a 40% spike with no apparent guardrails on family conflicts of interest. This isn't politics. It's a national security fire sale, and the Angry Middle smells it.

This solo briefing connects the dots the legacy press keeps siloed: the foreign income filings, the Saudi-linked licensing deals, the Pentagon trough, Kash Patel's reality-TV FBI tour, and the lesson from Hungary — that corruption, not ideology, is what finally moved Orban's voters. With 45% of Americans now independent and 60% of young people unaffiliated, the rigged two-party system is on notice. The question isn't whether people are furious. It's whether that fury gets channeled into November, into independent veteran candidates, and into the structural reforms — the Raskin list and beyond — that should already be law.

-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.

Truth is the first casualty of war, and this week we're watching it die in real time. Paul Rieckhoff delivers a no-BS briefing on Trump's second swing at Iran — a strike that his own intelligence community is signaling fell short of the objectives Marco Rubio publicly laid out. Where is the enriched uranium? Where are the missile sites? If the administration can't show us, we can't believe them. And while the spin machine ramps up to attack the press and call dissenters traitors, Iran can become a sucking chest wound for the United States — with 41% of the Navy in the Gulf, the Army forced to cut training, and Hegseth on the Hill asking for a $1.5 trillion blank check Congress never authorized.

The real winner this week isn't in Tehran or Washington — it's in Beijing. Rieckhoff lays out why China holds the strong hand as America gets sucked deeper into a fight with no off-ramp, why NATO and Israel are quietly recalculating, and why Trump's collapse with independent voters — barely 24% approval — is a down-ballot disaster for Republicans heading into 2026. He also unpacks the rise of independent veteran candidates like Dan Osborn in Nebraska, where Democrats are now dropping out to clear the field. If you're in the angry middle and exhausted by the rigged two-party system, this is the briefing you need.

-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.