💬 A peek behind the scenes at Rubin Report HQ, and a crazy woman blames (who else?) Trump

I’m typing up this email as I’m riding on a plane headed from NYC back to Miami. It’s been a whirlwind week — L.A. for a couple of days to promote the “Florida Man” edition of The Rubin Report, which is now less than a month away, and then New York — where I just happened to run into an NBA legend — to make an appearance on The Bottom Line over at Fox News.

This week, I thought, was a great time to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a while — give you all a few glimpses behind the scenes at what goes on when I’m getting ready to do a show — mine or someone else’s — and give you a sense of what goes on when the cameras aren’t rolling.

That photo above was snapped by young Joseph, my associate producer who you’ve probably seen during his occasional appearances on the show. That’s Christie, my assistant, giving me a quick glowup before we started an episode last week.

Last Tuesday, I mentioned I was taking the staff out for Cinco de Mayo, and we all went to one of the places in Miami where they serve Copal. We had margaritas, decompressed from making the show — and I let Joey know I was gonna need him to come with me to L.A. the following week.

Most of the rest of these photos were all shot by Joey during our tour through L.A. and into New York. Here’s a view from behind the scenes while appearing on Dr. Drew’s show.

Then, I did this wild show called Surrounded. It’s a crazy debate format in which one person sits at a table — in this case me — literally surrounded by people, as you can seen in the pic below, who disagree with me. Somebody probably should’ve stopped me from doing it, but I think I held my own there. Ro Khanna did a Surrounded episode about a month ago and got absolutely annihilated. Happy to report I fared better than Khanna in that lion’s den. Not even sure when it will be out, but I’ll keep you posted here with details.

Then I did an episode of Hot Mics with Billy Bush. Solid name for a show, given the whole leaked Access Hollywood tape brouhaha 10 years ago. Also, possibly a little crazy to go on a show with Billy given his history with literal hot mics. Joey and Phoenix, my executive producer, are praying the mics were really turned off when the on-air light went off.

From there it was on to NYC for an appearance on Fox News. And just outside the studio on Sixth Ave, who do I run into? An NBA legend. Former NBA Rookie of the Year and three-time All-Star Buck Williams. The man looks great for 66. Will he travel down to Florida for a little 1-on-1 game at Rubin HQ? That remains to be seen.

Finally, a little politics — a quick note about a story I read in The Washington Post this week about one-quarter of Americans believing the latest assassination attempt against Trump was “staged.” That number alone is mind-boggling, but what’s even more mind-boggling is that one of the nation’s leading newspapers published comments by some lunatic leftist who blames Trump for the fact that so many people believe the assassination attempt was staged. And it’s not just that most recent assassination attempt. Many Americans believe all three were faked.

According to the “misinformation expert” quoted by The Washington Post, “It just seems incredibly Hollywood to imagine that this is staged. The entire apparatus of the government has been turned into a reality TV show,” the misinformation expert said. By misinformation expert, they must mean an expert at spreading misinformation, because that’s exactly what she and the Post were doing.

Now, I want to do a little exercise — we’ve tried something similar on the show. I want you to close your eyes and imagine what this woman looks like. I’ll give you a few hints: She’s a college professor at a university in the Northeast. Used to work at Harvard but was fired. Claims to be a “misinformation expert.” OK, close eyes and picture what she looks like.

All done? Now, click this link and scroll down to the middle of the story. I’ll wait.

Is that not exactly the person you conjured? OK, OK — maybe some of you pictured her with blue hair, but otherwise … amazing how you were able to do that 😂

I can’t believe the audacity of The Washington Post to print those preposterous claims, or that no one else is calling them out for behaving so irresponsibly.

Getting close to Miami and will be landing soon, so onto the poll and a few other things to know this week.

Overwhelming support for Iran war among Rubin Recap readers

Last week, I highlighted a poll showing 74% of Americans believe the U.S. is winning the war with Iran, so I put the question to all of you with the war about 10 weeks in. When I asked you the same question after the first three weeks, 83% of  readers responded that they strongly supported the war. And that number has gone up with a whopping 87% replying that they strongly support the war in Iran. Reading through the comments, I did notice many of you support the war, but are also looking for a swift end to the conflict. Thought these two comments succinctly encapsulated what many of you said.

I don’t mean to get too out in front of the 2028 conjecture, but a new poll out at the beginning of the week showed Rubio with a double-digit lead over JD as the likely nominee for Republicans in 2028. You know Rubio has been dominating out Trump administration power rankings, so this week, we return to that vote. Keep in mind, JD announced the federal government is freezing $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments to California amid major concerns of healthcare fraud in the state. Fraud czar is getting it done, people. Who ya got below? ⬇️

• In case you missed it, you can check out my appearances this week that were done live. The interviews with Howie Mandel and Billy Bush probably won’t be out until next week, but you can see:

→ My appearance on Ask Dr. Drew here.

→ My appearance on The Adam Carolla show here.

→ A clip from my appearance on The Bottom Line here.

• And of course during those appearances we talked about the big live “Florida Man” edition of The Rubin Report that you can attend in-person at the Fillmore theater in Miami Beach on June 11 with Gov. Ron DeSantis. Tickets are on sale now. There will be meet-and-greets, tequila, some giveaways. Ben Shapiro and Jillian Michaels will also be appearing, and Adam Corolla will be doing standup. Seating is limited and tickets are already selling fast, so don’t wait to get your seats.

• The new “Normal” T-shirt is available now in the merch store. It comes in seven colors and nine sizes, so there’s something for everyone. Go to the merch store and pick one up before they sell out. Father’s Day is coming — great gift for all the normal dads out there.

• Make sure you’re listening to First Look, my new morning news roundup. It’s a short news briefing in podcast form that gives you an overview of the headlines as you start your day. You can find it on Spotify, Rumble, and YouTube. And visit the news portion of my website daily. I’ve got the Rubin Report staff keeping tabs on the news I think you should be paying attention to.

• You did it! You’ve reached the end of the newsletter. That’s all for now, but I’ll be back on Sunday with a new edition of The Return to Normalcy, and talking about a normal guy who’s running for mayor in an abnormal place.

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Until Sunday … — Dave