Ann Coulter

Pundit, author, political commentator.

Across nearly 30 years of political commentary, Ann Coulter’s name has become synonymous with ‘conservative firebrand’. Her brazen and incendiary style, captured across her various bestsellers from Demonic: How The Liberal Mob Is Endangering America, to Adios, America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country Into A Third World Hellhole, to Never Trust A Liberal Over 3, has drawn scorn from critics, but also won her a legion of adoring fan. In 2015, she came forward as one of the first major pundits in America to predict a Trump victory, even going as far as to publish the best-selling In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome!, three months before the election.

Today, she continues to write in her signature style of provoctive polemic on her Substack: Unsafe.

Why did we invite her on?

There is no set template for who makes a great guest for our show. We welcome thinkers from different fields and across the political spectrum. But all the best guests have one thing in common: they speak their mind.

Nobody can accuse Ann Coulter of anything less than that.

With the MAGA coalition fracturing more and more by the day, we wanted to speak to someone who still has hope for Trump. Ann has been on and off the train, but today she places herself firmly behind the troubled leader. Not only does she have hope, but as you’ll hear, she thinks this is a once-in-a-century moment for her country.

What did we talk about?

Before we get to why Trump’s second tenure has Ann so excited, it’s worth establishing one thing: Ann is no “cultist” [her term]. The first 30 minutes of our conversation made that clear, as she slalomed from one criticism of the President to another - first, his gun-shy approach to cuts.

“Elon was right! I loved DOGE, and these stupid Republicans are never going to cut taxes or spending … You could cut 90% of spending in Washington, and Americans would not notice.”

Ann argues that Trump’s change of heart is his lifelong habit of “sucking up to rich people”. The ‘rich people’ just changed. Before he was elected, it was those who the tax cuts favoured. Now that he’s back in, its the rich people he sees day in and day out - his fellow politicians. They have no incentive to cut spending and taxes; in some ways, they benefit more than anyone.

“Everyone who benefits from one of these stupid programmes… it’s their world! It’s everything, they’re single-issue voters. It’s ‘Are you going to keep my stupid job going?’ rather than ‘How are you going to gin up the American people?’”

Francis sees the parallels between America and the UK, and describes the danger as “existential.” If no leader is brave enough to face the scrutiny that inevitably comes with cutting government, this is only going to get worse. Where does that lead? Is America going to go bankrupt?

”Yes, and there’s so much cockiness in America … DOGE is the model for how to do it, and you need someone with a personality like Trump. It needs to be a national movement. Reagan got a Democratic congress to cut taxes, and he did it by giving a fireside address from the Oval Office and winning in a landslide. You can’t just count on each senator to be brave and vote against the people in his district. You need to make it a national cause.”

Trump’s failure to cut spending might trouble his supporters, but likely only those who are curious enough to look into it. In the last few weeks, Trump has faced a few scandals that have crossed over into pop culture broadly, and signalled an unwillingness to meet his promises not just to his die-hard supporters, but to those with the most passing interest in politics.

To Ann, this is the difference between a MAGA supporter and a cultist - those who will hold him to his promises, and those who won’t.

”Nobody’s voting for the guy for his personality. They’re voting for his policies, and it was his policies that I was waiting my whole life for a Republican to run on: bring back manufacturing, no more stupid wars, and send back illegals. But there are some cultists who, for them, it’s just enough that he annoys the left.”

So, who are these cultists? At first, Ann “not naming names”, but quickly reveals who she’s talking about. You’ll have to watch the interview to find out who.

But what set these groups apart?