Ep. 13 - Cancel Your Enthusiasm w/ Rick Wilson
The flamethrower behind The Lincoln Project joins The Ground Game to talk beating lawsuit attacks, fighting dirty with dirty and playing on the field you're on
There are few people who have made quite a living out of trolling president-elect Donald Trump and the now dominant MAGA wing of the Republican Party as Lincoln Project co-founder
. This probably has something to do with him understanding the world of trolling, because he cut his teeth as a Republican trolling Democrats, before breaking hard with the party in 2016.(Patrick did not join for this one as he and his wife just welcomed their second child! Congrats, Patrick, Katie and family! I’m sure there is sleep sometime in your future!)
The author of multiple books, including “Everything Trump Touches Dies”, host of multiple podcasts, including “The Lincoln Project Podcast” has some advice on battling people who don’t play by any rules.
Wilson rips away in this latest episode of The Ground Game Podcast, from cuts on “Tiny D” and “Party Boy Pete” to advice for Disney execs on understanding that alligators are still coming for them no matter how many lawsuits they settle.
But he also offers some key insights on the current shape of politics, and a bit of news — like The Lincoln Project’s plans for sinking the Tulsi Gabbard nomination for Director of National Intelligence.
Parents, earmuffs. Wilson is famously salty online, this one is filled with more than a few cuss words.
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Show notes:
“We're gearing up to fight some of these policy decisions that we think are profoundly un-conservative. They're statist and authoritarian and kleptocratic, and they look a lot more like Russia during the Yeltsin years than they do like America on our 250th anniversary.”
Are aliens the new “aliens”?
“It’s dickheads with drones”
How Rick Wilson fought and won a defamation lawsuit filed by former Military intelligence chief Michael Flynn.
Disney execs “were worried about their idea that Donald Trump was the alligator that would eat them last. And the alligator always comes to eat you no matter what. You can feed it all day. But once you're out of chicken wings or whatever you're throwing off the end of the dock, it's going to crawl on the dock and eat you.”
Wilson on knowing Flynn’s mailing list is worth millions and getting his money back
“They would like to shut people like me up. The thing they want most is capitulation.”
You have to play the game you’re in, not the one you want to be in
A lot of Trump’s people don’t believe there is a limit, but there is a limit. Every second term sucks
Trump’s image as the guy who always wins
Rick Wilson’s hard lessons for Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on cutting spending
“The DOGE is a prank, it’s a stunt, its … Its a layover to catch meddlers. All of it is performative bullsh**”
“It’s not to cut the spending, it’s to move the spending”
Why does Rep. Jared Moskowitz understand their bullsh** better than anyone
“Trump's greatest joy is f***ing with people, right? His greatest joy by far, he loves f***ing with people. And there are only a handful of people in the world who can actually f*** back, and Jared is one of them.”
If you’re worried about looking bad you will pull your punches
Issues don’t have salience like they used to … Now it’s like, “Will you kill my opponent for me”
Mike Madrid has been warning for years now, Republicans are going to pick up Hispanic men. (Watch his sage interview on the second episode of The Ground Game Pod here.)
YouTube starts placing advertising on The Ground Game Channel … by generating an ad of a portly gentleman who looks an awful lot like Tom.
The old world of major broadcast political advertising is dead and gone
You saw the Trump trans ad get 1 billion views
Rick Wilson and Lincoln Project prepping some highly targeted ads to sink the Tulsi Gabbard nomination
Wilson only shows up on Twitter to drop a turd in the punchbowl these days.
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