🔵 The Rubin Recap, Issue 4 | 6.6.25

THE RUBIN REPORT ROAD TRIP GOES TO ISRAEL FOR SOME SPECIAL EPISODES ...

Welcome back to The Rubin Recap! It's my new revamped newsletter and I hope you're enjoying it. This week, we shot episodes in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, which won the title for best Rubin Report background ever. So, did I miss anything big while I was out of the country? Haha — nope, so let’s dive right into things ...

MONDAY: A THROWBACK WALK AND TALK AND AN OLIVE BRANCH FOR JAKE TAPPER

After taking the Don't Burn This World Tour to Hungary last week, I moved on to Israel for two tour dates this week -- and, while I had live shows in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, we still put together episodes of The Rubin Report for you all, on location from a few different and memorable places. For Monday's show, we did a walk-and-talk, old-school Rubin Report style, along the boardwalk bordering the beautiful Tel Aviv beaches along the Mediterranean Sea -- yeah, the same sea you hear the crazy extremists mention when they chant, "From the river to the sea."

It was a gorgeous day and I was in a particularly charitable mood toward someone whom I've admittedly been tough on. That person is two-time Rubin Report “Douchebag of the Week” winner Jake Tapper. As tough as I've been on him, I've also said many times that I think he's a decent human and is not a bad actor, as many in the mainstream media are. So I formally invited Jake to come on the show, and promised to extend him every bit of grace and respect I extend to any guest who comes on The Rubin Report. No douchebag jokes if you come on the show, Jake -- I promise.

All kidding aside, it's been obvious Tapper has been going through some sort of an awakening as he's been touring the talk show circuit discussing his book about the cover-up of Biden's mental decline. That was evident during Tapper's appearance last week on Real Time with Bill Maher. As you know, I went through a political journey of my own, and I'm sensitive to people being red-pilled. I would apologize to his face for anything I've said over the years that may have offended him. I'm all about building bridges, and I hope he can see that and we can sit down and hash it out.

Also, I reacted to the horrific anti-Semitic terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday by a Muslim extremist who used a makeshift flamethrower to set people on fire while screaming, "Free Palestine," and connected that with why Israel is ground zero for the worldwide jihad that we're starting to see pop up in all sorts of places -- like Boulder. Watch the full episode here. I went way further in depth on the Colorado terror attack on Tuesday's show, so, moving right along ...

TUESDAY: WHAT HAPPENS IN THE MIDDLE EAST DOESN’T JUST STAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, people: What happens in the Middle East doesn’t just stay in the Middle East. There's a reason I pay close attention to what's going on in Israel and elsewhere in the region, and that reason came into sharp focus in Boulder, Colorado, with the terror attack against some pro-Israel demonstrators who were advocating for the remaining living hostages still being held in Gaza by Hamas.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the man accused of carrying out the savage attack was in the country illegally. No surprise here -- he overstayed his visa during the Biden administration and applied for asylum. And was never shown the door.

You heard the college kids yelling, "Globalize the intifada," last year during the campus protests, and now you're getting to see what that looks like when it graduates from college and goes into the real world. It's jihad in the streets. When they tell you they want to globalize the intifada, they mean they really want to globalize the intifada, and what happened in Colorado -- 15 people burned in the attack, one of them an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor — is more evidence in the wake of the two staff members who were murdered in Washington, D.C. last month. And in the wake of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home being firebombed. And in the wake of the terror attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day.

A direct line from these attacks can be drawn to Biden's complacency toward the border crisis as well his tacit approval of the chaos at college across the country last year in which Muslim extremists, in many cases violently, took over parts of campuses and screamed slogans like, "From the river to the sea," and, "Globalize the intifada." There was a total leadership vacuum while Biden was in office.

Fortunately, Biden is no longer in the White House, and President Trump has restored leadership on this critical issue. Just look at his response to the terror attack in Boulder.

The "horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America. He came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly. He must go out under 'TRUMP' Policy. Acts of Terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law," the president posted on Truth Social.

Amazingly, but not surprisingly, after the Department of Homeland Security detained Soliman's wife and four children, who were also in the country illegally and were being processed for expedited deportation, a judge blocked the federal government from sending the suspect's relatives back to their home country. The judge, Gordon P. Gallagher, was appointed by Biden -- or whoever had control of the autopen at that point -- in 2023. I'm telling you, these judges who were appointed by Biden are for they/them. They are not for everyday Americans.

Now, contrast the border situation in the U.S. under Biden with Hungary's approach to the borders. Hungary has worked hard to keep its borders shut and pays a high price to do so. Literally. Hungary pays the European Union more than 300 million euros a year to keep the borders shut. Think about that for a minute.

And when you're done thinking about that, think about how the mainstream media largely covered the Colorado terror attack story. There were numerous problems with the coverage. Did you catch them all? I did and I put three examples together for you that you can see right here.

WEDNESDAY: BALLZ TO THE WALZ, AND JAMIE DIMON GETS BRUTALLY HONEST

With the ancient city of Jerusalem as my backdrop, we delved into some issues surrounding classic masculinity -- in particular why the Democrats are losing so badly with men, and then a CEO who strapped on a set and gave some honest talk about what Democrats' policies have done to the country.

Two of my good friends had an interesting conversation about masculinity and why the Democrats have lost all appeal with men -- particularly young, white men, in recent years, as was so dramatically on display during the 2024 election. As I've said many times, if you keep telling people: "You're bad because of the type of genitals you have, you're bad because you're white, you're bad because you're young," eventually those people are going to stop liking you. It's a pretty simple concept, actually. But the Democrats still went down this road at 100 mph and tried to prop up Tim Walz as some avatar of masculinity during the presidential race.

Jordan Peterson appeared on Megyn Kelly's show this week and he made precisely that point, saying Democrats tried to "ape respect for masculinity" by trotting out Walz in some harebrained attempt to win over young men. “If you're looking for an archetype of admirable masculinity, I wouldn't start with him," Peterson said. Then, Megyn talked about how on election night, when the race was called for Trump, a wave of relief washed over her teenage son and his friends.

That relief Megyn talked about is the same feeling I had on election night when Trump was declared the winner. It wasn't joy and fistpumps. It was in an instinctive sense of relief that came over me with my first thought being: "Thank God." Which was really a reaction to how close we came to not having Trump elected -- whether it was the assassination attempt that nearly killed him or the soft coup to replace Biden with Harris at the last minute without a vote, and the media totally getting behind her campaign. The specter of a four-year Harris-Walz term? Watch:

Later in the episode, I connected that to some remarks made by Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorganChase. Dimon went off on what the autopen administration's failed policies did to the country and, on a local level, how the Democrat mayors' policies have ruined blue cities in America. "The Biden administration is giving all this money to EVs and cars and wasting a lot of money on green stuff, which isn't going to work," Dimon said of Biden's Green New Deal. "Do you think people in rural cities, do you think people in inner cities thought they were getting anything" from that legislation?

Dimon then went on to list off the many ways in which mayors of blue cities are basically punishing success. He made the comments at the Reagan National Economic Forum in California, and they were brutally honest. A remarkable thing to see -- the question is, will Democrats bother to pay attention? I'm not holding my breath. Watch Dimon's breakdown here. You could say it takes a real man to say these things.

THURSDAY: KJP NO LONGER IDENTIFIES AS A DEMOCRAT

She certainly still identifies as a black lesbian -- the qualities on which she was hired to be Biden's White House press secretary -- but Karine Jean-Pierre this week took identity politics to a whole new level when she announced she's leaving the Democrat party. She made the revelation while also announcing a new book she wrote that's coming out in October about her time working in a "broken White House."

We haven't talked much about Karine since the autopen administration left the White House in January, but what makes this development hit so hard is that, outside of Jill Biden, there is perhaps no one in the country who did more to hide Joe Biden's decline in mental acuity than Karine Jean-Pierre. She's the person the White House trotted in front of the media day in and day out to obfuscate and spin about everything from why Biden was wandering around like a lost toddler at events with other world leaders to the chaos at the open southern border. She is the one who went on CNN in 2022, when she was 47 years old, and told Don Lemon that President Biden (79 at the time!) was so spry and energetic that “I can’t even keep up with him!”

She is the avatar of ineptitude, and as she tries to rebrand herself when she goes on her book tour later this year, make sure not to forget that. Her forthcoming book is called Independent: A look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines. Well, as much as it pains me, I do have to give KJP a little credit here -- I guess she finally realized the only thing more broken than the White House she worked for was her lame talking points.

On Thursday’s show, I also covered Republicans fighting in public about the 'big beautiful' bill and what Mike Johnson said he told Elon Musk in a private conversation. Yeah, the fighting among Republicans may be getting a little tense, but at least it's happening out in the open -- much of it right on X -- unlike how Democrats handled the soft coup to replace Biden at the top of the presidential ticket last year. And, yeah, things got real chippy between Trump and Elon Musk. More on that next week.

FRIDAY: CHECK OUT MY SPEECH AT CPAC HUNGARY

Last week I was in Budapest at CPAC Hungary for the “Age of Patriots” event. Couldn’t be there, too? You’re in luck! My speech and interview with Balázs Orbán, a member of parliament and the political director for Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, just came out.

I delivered about a -10-minute address at the event, and then sat down for a conversation with Balázs Orbán about defending national sovereignty and culture, free speech, media honesty, and much more. Watch it below.

CONGRATULATIONS TO GRETA THUNBERG FOR WINNING D-BAG OF THE WEEK!

Greta Thunberg has retired from her exciting career as a climate activist and climbed aboard the jihad bandwagon. This week, she was on a “Freedom Flotilla” boat headed for Gaza in what — like her climate activism when she was doing that — was a largely performative act. For her wanton grifting and what she had to say this week, Greta Thunberg wins the Rubin Report’s “Douchebag of the Week” award. Congrats, Greta! And, oh, by the way — we heard that boat you’ve been riding on is diesel-powered. What does that do for your carbon footprint?

TWEET OF THE WEEK

WHAT TO KNOW

• The first leg of the Don’t Burn This World Tour is complete! I was in Budapest, Hungary, last week and, this week in Israel, I held events in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. If you missed it in-person, the tour continues later this year. Get all the details here.

• The latest episode of Actual Friends dropped on Friday at 3 p.m., check it out here — and subscribe here and tap that notification bell so you don’t miss any episodes.

• This week during a Community Q&A, a viewer named Francis asked me if there was any other state outside of Florida that I would live in. I gave him two states — both of them red, of course.

• Have a question that you want featured in a Community Q&A? Get in touch here.

• Hope you’re enjoying the newly relaunched newsletter. In case you missed it, here are a few words about what I’m trying to do with it.

• Don’t forget — my new tequila finally has a release date. The tequila goes on sale later this month, on my 49th birthday. More details, including the name, to come as the date gets closer.

• Get all your Rubin Report merch at our online store here.

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Until next week … — Dave