The Tony Michaels Podcast

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America Was Supposed to Hate These Strangers | TMP #1077 Jun 23, 2026

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There’s a story America keeps telling itself.
That we’re angry.
That we’re divided.
That we’ve forgotten how to welcome people who come from somewhere else.
Then a soccer team from Algeria arrived in Lawrence, Kansas.
And ruined the whole story.
In this Opening Argument, Tony Michaels tells the remarkable true story of how a Midwestern college town embraced visitors from North Africa during the 2026 World Cup. From marching bands learning a foreign national anthem to strangers exchanging jerseys and hugs, Lawrence reminded the country what community looks like.
This isn’t a story about politics.
It’s a story about people.
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Who's Really Raising Your Grocery Bill? | TMP #1076 Jun 22, 2026

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A retired electrician and a 24-year-old grocery clerk have something in common.
Neither one of them started a war.
Yet both of them are paying for one.
In today's Opening Argument, Tony Michaels tells the story of two Americans standing on opposite sides of a checkout lane who discover they're living inside the same economic squeeze. One can't afford the groceries. The other can't afford the groceries she sells.
Meanwhile, grocery prices keep rising, wages struggle to keep up, and the people making the biggest decisions rarely stand in the checkout line with the rest of us.
Who really benefits when working people blame each other instead of asking who holds the power?
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Trump DOJ Just Crossed a Constitutional Line | TMP #1075 Jun 19, 2026

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Trump’s DOJ Just Tested the First Amendment
Donald Trump says this is about law and order.
History says we've heard that before.
In today's Opening Argument, I tell the story of a 25-year-old man named John Lewis walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965. The government told him not to march. The government told him to go home. The government used force to silence dissent.
For a few terrible minutes, government power looked unstoppable.
But the Constitution plays the long game.
Now, sixty years later, the Department of Justice has indicted 15 people in Minnesota under an initiative tied to Trump's executive order targeting what his administration calls "antifa."
If someone commits a crime, charge the crime.
But what happens when government starts attaching political labels to dissent?
What happens when criticism begins to look suspicious to the people holding power?
What happens when Americans exercising constitutional rights start being described as enemies instead of citizens?
We've seen this story before.
And history has a lesson for people who underestimate liberty.
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Trump's Team Wants This Dangerous Power | TMP #1074 Jun 18, 2026

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Stephen Miller said it out loud.
The Trump administration openly discussed suspending habeas corpus—the constitutional protection that forces the government to explain why it is detaining someone.
Most Americans have never heard the term.
But they've seen what happens when governments decide some people don't deserve constitutional protections.
In today's Opening Argument, I tell the story of a father who lost his freedom, his home, and his rights because America was afraid.
The twist?
It didn't happen under Donald Trump.
It happened under Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
This isn't a story about Republicans or Democrats.
It's a story about power.
Because every generation convinces itself that constitutional exceptions will only be used against the "right" people.
Every generation is wrong.
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Mike Johnson's MOST PATHETIC Trump Favor Yet | TMP #1073 Jun 17, 2026

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Donald Trump wants Congress to do something the Constitution never assigned it to do: clean up his mess.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is reportedly under pressure to support an effort to "expunge" Trump's impeachments from the House record. But Congress wasn't created to protect presidents from accountability. It was created to hold them accountable.
In today's Opening Argument, I tell the story of a teenager with a messy bedroom, a frustrated mother, and why responsibility cannot be outsourced—not in a family and not in a constitutional republic.
https://www.thecoffmanchronicle.com/p/trump-knows-congress-has-power-he?r=iea5a

The question isn't whether Congress can pass a resolution.
The question is why Congress is spending its time trying to rewrite history instead of doing the job Article I assigned it.
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Should Congress be trying to erase Trump's impeachments?

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Trump Got EMBARRASSED... So He Covered It Up | TMP #1072 Jun 16, 2026

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Trump Got Embarrassed... So He Covered It Up
The President is embarrassed because he lost to the Constitution.
That's not a metaphor.
A federal judge ruled that Donald Trump's name could not remain on the Kennedy Center because Congress—not the President—controls the institution. The name came down. The appeals failed. And then a giant tarp appeared over the spot where Trump's name used to be.
The tarp became the story.
Because embarrassment is a powerful thing.
In today's Opening Argument, Tony Michaels tells the story of report cards hidden in backpacks, dents hidden in driveways, and stains hidden under pillows—and what happens when powerful people discover that reality doesn't disappear just because you cover it up.
This isn't really a story about a sign.
It's a story about a republic.
It's a story about the Constitution.
And it's a story about why the most important word a free people can say to a powerful man is sometimes the simplest word in the English language:
No.
https://www.thecoffmanchronicle.com/p/the-tarp-is-the-tell

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I Didn't Expect This From Elon Musk — Here's Why | TMP #1071 Jun 15, 2026

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Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire.
But here's the question nobody seems to be asking:
Did some of the workers get rich too?
In today's Opening Argument, I tell the story of a former Walmart employee who remembers when Sam Walton walked the aisles, knew workers by name, and gave employees a chance to own a piece of the company they helped build.
That story led me to a surprising question about SpaceX.
Not whether Elon Musk is a hero.
Not whether billionaires should exist.
But whether workers deserve a chance to share in the prosperity they help create.
If SpaceX workers received ownership in the company they helped build, that's worth talking about. Not because Elon Musk deserves praise, but because it proves something important:
Shared prosperity is possible.
The bigger question is whether it should depend on the goodwill of the billionaire at the top.
This is a story about workers, ownership, dignity, and what a square deal should look like in America.
☕ Today's Opening Argument is brought to you by Squawk Boss Coffee.
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https://www.thecoffmanchronicle.com/p/spacex-may-share-some-wealth-elon

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Tucker Carlson CALLED Big Banks Drug Dealers | TMP #1070 Jun 12, 2026

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Tucker Carlson just called America's biggest banks "drug dealers."
And whether you agree with Tucker or not, he stumbled onto a question nobody in Washington seems willing to ask:
If borrowers have responsibilities, don't lenders have responsibilities too?
In today's show, Tony Michaels explores how Theodore Roosevelt's Square Deal still speaks to the modern credit card crisis, why millions of Americans are using debt to maintain a standard of living their parents achieved with a paycheck, and how responsibility is supposed to run both ways.
This isn't really a story about credit cards.
It's a story about wages.
It's a story about affordability.
It's a story about whether the deal is still square for working people.
Featuring analysis from General Coffman's latest Coffman Chronicle article, "The Credit Card Crisis Is the Affordability Crisis."
https://www.thecoffmanchronicle.com/p/the-credit-card-crisis-is-the-affordability

If you love your country but don't trust concentrated power, you're in the right place.

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A Bag Of Groceries Costs $50 — Trump Says He Loves It | TMP #1069 Jun 11, 2026

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Donald Trump said he “loves inflation.”
Working people heard that while staring at a fifty-dollar bag of groceries.
Inflation is not a chart to regular people. It is dinner. It is gas. It is rent. It is the paycheck that shows up already spent.
Trump can argue context all day long.
Bills do not get paid with context.
They get paid with our paychecks.
Watch the opening argument, then get the full ad-free episode and second-half analysis at The Coffman Chronicle.
Read The Coffman Chronicle:
Trump Said He Loves Inflation. Americans Are Paying for It.
https://www.thecoffmanchronicle.com/p/trump-said-he-loves-inflation-americans
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We Already Know How to Beat Trump | TMP #1068 Jun 10, 2026

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Everybody keeps asking the same question:
How do we beat Donald Trump?
Today, I argue that we already know the answer.
The Constitution already has Trump in a straight jacket. The problem isn't the jacket. The problem is whether the people responsible for enforcing the limits of power are willing to tighten the straps.
In this episode, I break down a recent federal court decision blocking Trump administration efforts to attach new conditions to federal nutrition assistance and explain why that ruling matters. More importantly, I show how the Constitution isn't failing—it's working when judges, states, Congress, and citizens actually use the authority they already have.
Trump's political strategy depends on convincing people that he's unstoppable. But if he's so unstoppable, why is he constantly testing limits, searching for loopholes, and daring institutions to stop him?
Because a man who's free doesn't fight the straight jacket.
A man in a straight jacket fights the buckles.
Let's talk about the buckles.
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