Rick Wilson's The Enemies List

Last week, Pete Hegseth argued that the real danger to our military lies in criticism from the press or skepticism about military campaigns. He’s wrong. The real danger to our military is leadership that rewards dishonesty, punishes accountability, and erodes the chain of trust that holds the armed forces together. Pete Hegseth is unqualified. Pete Hegseth is a liar. Pete Hegseth is a national security risk. And he’s found a forever-home on the Enemies List. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"This is the new free press—without corporate masters, without super PACs." Rick takes your questions on this episode of the Enemies List, and you had some doozies. Many of you wondered whether or not democracy's guardrails were holding, and what the current state of the protest movement tells us about the generational divide. Rick talks about all that and how outlets like Lincoln Square are the face of the new media. And then...he gives a bit of parenting advice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The B-2 strike on Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility was a show of unmatched precision and power—but the rush to celebrate masks a dangerous truth. Triumphalism, especially from Trump’s political base, treats the attack as an end rather than a beginning. But Iran has built its legacy on asymmetric warfare, and tonight’s strike may have opened a long, uncertain chapter rather than closed one. This isn’t just about a bomb dropped—it’s about what comes next. Iran doesn’t need nukes to retaliate; it needs patience and proxies. The enemy gets a vote, and Tehran is likely already planning its next move. Triumphalism isn’t victory—it’s the prelude to tragedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick takes your questions on everything from the economic outlook going into the midterms to the definition of neocon. A lot of you were curious about the possibility of a Musk redemption story arc, and about the right way to protest. Rick answers all and delivers this instant classic: It's too late to work inside the system, but too soon to start shooting motherf****. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Political violence doesn’t emerge in a vacuum — MAGA has built a system of terror out of manufactured rage and conspiracy. The assassinations and attempted assassinations in Minnesota over the weekend are the logical result of this effort. Fox News, Facebook, and Twitter are the hypodermic needles injecting the MAGA base with vile hatred, allowing them to see anyone who disagrees with them not as adversaries, but as existential threats—pedophiles, communists, invaders, subhumans. These stories aren't just fringe; they’re algorithmically amplified, monetized, and echoed by politicians and law enforcement alike. When this kind of rhetoric becomes normalized, stochastic terrorism becomes inevitable. The country is reaching a flashpoint — not because individuals snap, but because entire platforms profit from pushing them to the edge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump's invasion of Los Angeles isn’t about immigration—it’s about power, manipulation, and preparing you for a crackdown. WE are the real targets. The Trumps, the Millers, the Bondis, the Patels, they are praying for violence to legitimize a massive military escalation. Fox News, Twitter, and Facebook are deeply complicit. They may be pulling immigrants off the streets for the cameras, but they're really coming for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Miller is a familiar face on the Enemies List, but over the weekend, the stakes ramped up to a million. He isn’t just a policy advisor—he’s the mastermind behind the deliberately cruel strategy to provoke unrest and justify state violence. This incursion into the streets of Los Angeles with the ICE raids isn't LIKE a Nazi tacting. It IS on: provoke resistance, claim victimhood, then strike harder. It’s not about law enforcement—it’s about staging a spectacle of repression that delights the authoritarian base and erodes democratic norms. If that's not scary enough, the suspension of ABC’s Terry Moran under political pressure is proof that our media is buckling under this pressure. When cruelty becomes policy and dissent becomes criminalized, the danger isn’t just to immigrants—it’s to everyone. In other words...you're next. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick takes your questions this week, and there were plenty to choose from. You sent in hundreds. Sadly, we can't get to all of them, but it was clear that there were some trends. Ricks covers ground from Trump's recent pardons to his craven desire to stoke chaos in order to crush dissent with violence. And one of you, at least, wondered if Trump was actually a spy. Please, keep the questions coming! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This may get some blowback, but it has to be said: This week's entry to the Enemies List are those Democratic consultants who spend millions of dollars talking at men. The crisis facing the Democratic Party isn’t just about policy—it’s about perception, narrative, and emotional connection. MAGA gives disaffected men a sense of belonging, identity, and power. Democrats give them slide decks. The party's elite consultants are disastrously out of step with the people they absolutely must reach if they ever hope to regain power and save Democracy. This is a five-alarm fire. The Democrats' performative branding in place of raw, honest storytelling grounded in shared pain and promised purpose will lose an entire generation to cynicism and extremism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"These people thought Epstein was the Rosetta Stone for the globalist elite cannibal pedophile ring—but the truth hits too close to home." Pam Bondi, Dan Bongino, and Kash Patel are the Three Stooges of the Pizza-Gate-Qanon-Apocalypse. They've been pretty constant figures in and around the Enemies List. But, recently, they've become pariahs not just among those of us on the pro-Democracy side, but within MAGA ranks as well—largely because of their involvement in obscuring the contents of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Once the loudest human blowhorns spreading conspiracy theories about elite pedophile rings, they now appear to be actively protecting the very circles they once claimed to expose. Their sudden pivot, particularly in light of Donald Trump’s deep and well-documented ties to Epstein, has fueled backlash from the same extremist audiences they once courted. You won't believe it, but they are, in fact, hypocrites. But that hypocrisy is grim, as it's meant to protect Trump from being implicated in one of the darkest scandals of the last twenty years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Johnson’s push to gut Medicare and Medicaid isn’t just a budgetary decision—it’s a declaration of priorities. You, my friend, are not on the priority list. Stripping health care from tens of millions to fund tax breaks for a shrinking circle of billionaires lays bare a political ideology rooted in cruelty and indifference. It’s a familiar trade: short-term power for long-term damage, justified by performative piety and cloaked in procedural gamesmanship. Mike Johnson is the reigning Enemy on the Enemies List because his ploy is so cynical, so callous, and so catastrophic to our way of life that it can only be described as evil. This episode is a double-decker! Rick takes your questions in the back half on everything from Elon Musk’s public implosion and Trump’s ongoing submission to Putin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

House Speaker Mike Johnson is looking to blow a $4 trillion hole in the deficit, cut back on Medicare and Medicaid, and dole out billions in tax breaks to a handful of ultra-rich Americans. He’s an easy target, but that doesn’t mean we should let him off the hook. The chaos within the ranks belies a bitter truth: this budget, if enacted, would be a moral and economic calamity. It would reshape our society in ways that are hard to imagine. And Mike Johnson is the kind of guy who probably knows, but doesn’t care. He might be a mumbly little nerd, but he’s earned his spot on the Enemies List. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"All bets are off if they start snatching judges." Judges are being threatened, civic institutions are under assault, and authoritarian tactics are becoming normalized. The right’s strategy is relentless: show up, take over, and silence dissent. Meanwhile, apathy and disengagement from the left have created a vacuum that fascists are more than willing to fill. Fighting back won’t come from Washington—it starts with showing up at the most local levels and refusing to cede ground. The time is now, people. You are the heroes of this story...if you show up. Rick takes your questions on everything from Little Marco, the new Pope, the backslide of American Democracy, and the non-doctor, non-expert Trump wants for Surgeon General. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Normies—the wealthy, connected conservatives who always knew better—saw exactly what Trump was and supported him anyway. Obsessed with tax cuts and terrified of Kamala Harris, they cloaked their fears in talk of markets and freedom while enabling chaos, cruelty, and economic sabotage. Their silence wasn’t ignorance—it was complicity. While Trump’s base waved flags and spread conspiracies, the Normies offered respectability to a movement they knew was dangerous. Now, with recession looming, civil norms unraveling, and the moral cost mounting, the truth is unavoidable: they made this happen. They gambled with democracy to protect their comfort, and the bill is coming due. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick takes audience questions, and you sent some doozies. Rick answers questions about Elon, Hegseth, George Santos - MAGA's best and brightest. But you were also wondering if these tariffs might actually be working (spoiler: no), about the legality of arresting judges, where Rick might flee to in a pinch, and...well...how Rick's doing. This is a rebroadcast - keep sending in your questions! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steven Miller is a well-known weirdo, anti-immigration ideologue, and is quickly becoming one of the most dangerous men to walk the Earth. For years, he's lurked in the shadows, hovering over Trump, stoking his worst impulses. But he's having a bit of a coming-out-party, as he's poised to become the National Security Advisor. He's in line for this position not because he's qualified, mind you - he's dramatically unqualified - but because of his preternatural, deep-seated feelings of hatred for non-white, non-male Americans. This 2nd term is already catastrophic. But Steven Miller will bring us into a darkness Americans aren't prepared for. Buckle up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pam Bondi fits a certain MAGA mold. She's blonde. She's attractive. She's blindly obedient to Trump. And she's, well, not smart. Instead of making her someone to disregard as just another make-up-slathered clown, it makes her one of the most dangerous figures on the Enemies List. This is a rebroadcast. Make sure to catch up on all the episodes you missed. The Enemies List isn't getting any shorter, folks... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick takes audience questions, and you sent some doozies. Rick answers questions about Elon, Hegseth, George Santos - MAGA's best and brightest. But you were also wondering if these tariffs might actually be working (spoiler: no), about the legality of arresting judges, where Rick might flee to in a pinch, and...well...how Rick's doing. You're the best audience in the business, and curious, too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pete Hegseth went from being a tatted-up, Fox News weekend host with a frat-boy persona to being Secretary of Defense. It's going as well as any rational person might have expected. That is to say, according to insiders, reporting, and our own eyes and ears, it’s a disaster. His time at the Pentagon has been marked by leaked classified information, paranoia-driven purges of senior staff, and an obsession with dismantling diversity programs, even if it means erasing sacred military history. Hegseth, who has a history of alleged abuse and heavy drinking, threatens to lead the greatest military the world has ever seen over a cliff. Even MAGA allies and Republican officials can see the edge quickly approaching and are now scrambling to distance themselves from the fallout. But here's the thing: Trump is stuck with him. Find out why in this episode of the Enemies List. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pam Bondi fits a certain MAGA mold. She's blonde. She's attractive. She's blindly obedient to Trump. And she's, well, not smart. Instead of making her someone to disregard as just another make-up-slathered clown, it makes her one of the most dangerous figures on the Enemies List. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices