The Tom Sullivan Show

Katie, we hardly knew you. Katie Zacharia is out as press secretary after five days, a modern record, following a shaky first briefing and questions about her legal credentials. No replacement has been named. The Starlink scandal isn’t going away, and Reuters reports, citing officials, that the slowdown instruction came from the White House. Trump denies it, and bipartisan senators want the Pentagon Inspector General to find out who ordered it. And in Bend, Oregon, a father named Kaylub Giamanco, who has two daughters at Silver Rail Elementary, grabbed a pistol from his car and shot the gunman who ha...

Did we purposely cut off Ukraine’s Starlink? Speed limits hit the military version overnight, and Ukraine says it disrupted drone missions and that it got no warning of Russian missile strikes for two nights. Musk says Starshield is controlled by the U.S. government and that limits are decided by the military “and ultimately POTUS.” The White House says it wasn’t involved. No deaths are confirmed as caused by the limits, but Ukraine warns lives are at risk. With 19 days to Election Day, the new Fox News Poll shows Trump at a record-low 36% approval, 77% disapproving on inflation, and Democrat...

Why is the President so friendly with Putin and Xi when reports say both are helping Iran and the Houthis? Bloomberg says Russia is sending Iran missiles, and the WSJ says Chinese intelligence helped plan an attack that killed three Americans in Jordan. The New York Times reports a Lukoil asset sale tied to investors connected to Witkoff and Kushner’s families is part of the Russia talks, and that the envoys warned Kyiv about cutting intel over refinery strikes. Ukraine says Starlink was throttled and it got no missile warning for two nights, though the link isn’t proven. And...

Congress banned Russian oil imports in 2022 and added new sanctions just weeks ago, yet Trump is buying Russian diesel, and prices still haven’t come down. Lawmakers of both parties say it may be illegal. Should we join Saudi Arabia’s war against the Houthis after the deadly Riyadh airport attacks? Trump says “we may.” Kimberly Guilfoyle has resigned as ambassador to Greece after a donor accused her of seeking access-for-money, which she denies. Expect investigators to take a hard look if Democrats win the House. And good news from Rome: Pope Leo XIV’s lung surgery went well, though doctors co...

I always said sanctions don’t work, but I never expected the President to break them. Trump announced a deal with Putin for 300,000 tons of Russian diesel and is waiving sanctions to let it flow, all to lower fuel prices before the midterms. Prices are still climbing, and senators from both parties say the deal may violate the law. Trump is furious at Zelensky for hitting Russian refineries, while Russia keeps hitting Ukraine. The DOJ is now investigating whether the networks’ pool boycott broke antitrust law. And will you watch the livestream of Nidal Hasan’s firing squad execution on Decemb...

The Michigan Senate debate was the nastiest of the night. El-Sayed and Rogers traded insults, and El-Sayed was repeatedly asked whether Iran or Israel is the bigger threat and called it a “ridiculous question.” Another ICE shooting, this time in the Bronx. DHS says the man is in the country illegally with a long rap sheet and alleged gang ties. Mamdani is demanding his release, and the shooting is under investigation. And the DOJ is reportedly seeking a grand jury indictment of Cassidy Hutchinson, the January 6 star witness, for allegedly lying to Congress. No indictment yet, so will a grand jury...

Lone-wolf threats are out there, so keep calm but stay alert. The FBI arrested an 18-year-old Minnesota man accused of planning an ISIS-inspired mass shooting at the Mall of America. Prosecutors say he bought an AK-47 and 200 rounds from an undercover agent for $600, and that agents tried to speak with his parents last year and were turned away. Trump Accounts are a great benefit for kids, but the rules are changing, so we ask why the government can’t stick to the deal. The Cornell case gets thornier with questions about the accuser’s early sworn statement versus her later acco...

Today is the third anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel. We remember the 1,200 killed and the 251 taken hostage. NYC Mayor Mamdani acknowledged the "horrific war crimes" that day but also called Israel's response in Gaza "genocide," and the ADL, AIPAC, and Israel's U.N. ambassador all accused him of turning a day of mourning into a political statement. Cornell has hired former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to review how it handled its Jane Doe rape case, and the choice is already drawing partisan fire. Media outlets like CNN are calling the midterms a potential "bloodbath," and we ask...

Four weeks until Election Day, and Michigan's Senate race may decide who controls the chamber — Democratic nominee El-Sayed is struggling with Black and Jewish voters, and a Detroit focus group was a real eye-opener. We break down why. President Trump told a Nebraska rally crowd "let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego" while talking about a nuclear Iran, sparking fierce backlash from Newsom and both cities' mayors. We give you the fuller context of what he was actually arguing and why the phrasing still landed so badly. A military firing squad has been approved for Ni...

Christa Pike remains unconscious on a ventilator, four days after surviving two full doses of lethal injection in what experts are calling unprecedented in American death penalty history. Her lawyers say her arms were left burned and blistered, and they're formally asking Tennessee's governor to commute her sentence to life in prison. We examine what happens legally from here. Then at Cornell, a woman alleges she was drugged and gang-raped by seven fraternity brothers in 2024 — but prosecutors initially refused to file any criminal charges because of New York's "voluntary intoxication loophole," a law that says if you choose to get dr...

A new taxpayer-funded ad called "God Made Trump" is airing with a messianic three-minute riff on "So God Made a Farmer" — part of at least 13 campaign-style ads costing $20 million in DHS and Customs and Border Protection money, funds that were supposed to go to border security. Democrats are calling it a corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars, and Trump's own officials reportedly called it "obviously illegal" privately. Why not just use his own campaign war chest? And better yet, why is a president who's not even on the ballot this year running self-promotional ads at all? Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal re...

Both pilots from this week's terrifying FlyDubai incident — the stabbed captain and the accused first officer — are reportedly being moved from Saudi Arabia to the UAE for Dubai's legal system to take over. We ask what that actually means, since Emirati justice moves very differently, and often faster but harsher, than what we're used to in the West. It's officially October, which means we've entered the ugliest stretch of election season — we talk through what to watch for. And a genuinely shocking story out of Tennessee — Christa Pike, who would have been the first woman executed there in over 200 years, survived...

A genuinely terrifying scene today — a FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv saw its first officer allegedly stab the captain and try to crash the plane, according to Israel's Prime Minister, who called it an attempted terror attack. The aircraft lost 17,000 feet of altitude before passengers and crew stormed the cockpit, subdued him, and landed safely in Saudi Arabia. Both pilots are hospitalized; the first officer is under arrest. Real echoes of Flight 93, even with different specifics. Then RFK Jr. told a Washington summit that AI is now "better informed" than your doctor and can "free us from medical ty...

America.gov officially launched today — an AI-powered one-stop shop consolidating 29,000 federal websites into a single chatbot-style portal for things like Medicare, passports, and federal job postings. First impressions are genuinely positive, and unlike the infamous Obamacare website disaster, this one seems to actually work — though it's worth noting the site doesn't disclose which AI model it runs on, and at launch it correctly contradicted some of Trump's own political claims before later declining to answer political questions. The launch coincided with a big White House lunch for major tech CEOs, tied to plans for a broader AI safety framework. Meanwhile, a ne...

Five young British men were arrested near RAF Fairford — the UK airbase America uses to bomb Iran — after a farmer spotted suspicious vans and masked men scrambling into the woods. Iran's IRGC had already called that base a "legitimate target." All five were released on bail Monday, and while police reportedly haven't found viable explosives, they're still investigating whether this was state-backed activity tied to Iran or Russia. Iran flatly denies any connection. We ask honestly — genuine foiled plot, or overcautious response to a suspicious but innocent situation? Then a new White House ad called "Final Battle" started airing during NFL ga...

Xi's leaving Washington largely empty-handed — no Taiwan talk, no real deals, and most Americans never even saw the ceremony live thanks to the ongoing press ban. But here's what deserves attention — while Trump's been pushing American companies to bring business home, he hosted a state dinner Thursday night where Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, Pichai, Huang, Altman, and Tim Cook all sat down with Xi so Trump could "secure business deals." That's a genuinely mixed message. Meanwhile, good news for homebuyers — mortgage rates are above 7%, sellers now outnumber buyers by the widest margin on record, and sellers are finally cutting prices and offeri...

The Xi-Trump summit wrapped with basically nothing to show for it — trade, AI, and rare earths got discussed, no real breakthroughs happened, and none of the five major networks even aired it live thanks to Trump's press ban standoff. Still, this was Xi's first Washington visit in 11 years, and three more meetings are already reportedly planned over the next year at different locations. Netanyahu gave a defiant UN speech today thanking Trump for "bold leadership" against Iran — but delegations from 77 countries walked out or skipped it entirely, leaving him basically speaking to an empty room. And a federal judge ordered the...

Xi Jinping is in Washington for his first visit in over a decade, and Trump is rolling out rare pageantry — greeting his plane personally, a full state dinner with Silicon Valley's biggest names Thursday night. But it's drawing real criticism, including from Republican Senator Roger Wicker, who said on the Senate floor he would have advised against inviting Xi for "such a lavish welcome" given troubling issues with China. Foreign policy experts worry it makes Xi look strong back home. Meanwhile Iran's president gave his own tough UN speech today, saying Iran "will not bend the knee," echoing Trump's own co...

Something a little different today. Instead of our usual format, this episode is a full live broadcast — I filled in today for vacationing host Sam Shane on my old flagship radio station, so what you're hearing is essentially a live talk radio show rather than a tightly produced podcast segment. Expect a longer, looser, more conversational format with listener calls and real-time reactions to the news of the day. If you've ever wondered what the show sounds like in its original live radio form, this is your chance to hear it. Hope you enjoy the change of pace.

Be...

After Trump banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House, all five major networks — even Fox News — banded together and completely suspended pooled TV coverage of the President in protest. That means no video coverage of his UN General Assembly speech this week, and no cameras when he hosts Xi Jinping at the White House for a state dinner, unless this standoff ends first. CNN, MSNOW, and Politico have already filed a First Amendment lawsuit. Who blinks first — the administration facing an uncovered diplomatic week, or the networks worried about losing access? Meanwhile diesel just hit another record, $6.51 a gall...

Trump announced Friday he's banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House "effective immediately" over what he calls fake news, warning more outlets could follow. Presidents have always complained about the media and vice versa, but this is different, and it's already headed to court — Schumer compared it to what dictators do, and even the White House isn't clear on whether journalists were actually removed from the grounds. Convenient timing, given both outlets have been reporting on his underwater poll numbers right as midterm voting begins. Meanwhile diesel hit a record $6.45 a gallon and keeps climbing, adding more fu...

People — including members of Congress actively writing AI regulation — are expressing incredibly confident opinions for or against AI without actually understanding what it is or how it works. That's a real problem when these are the people who might end up writing the rules. We call it out directly today. Meanwhile, Trump said it again — we're close to ending the war with Iran and they really want a deal. He's said versions of this for eight months now. At some point you have to invoke the boy who cried wolf. We ask whether there's any credibility left in these statements. And ga...

The Fed raised interest rates today for the first time since 2023 — a unanimous quarter-point hike to 3.75-4%, directly against Trump's public demands for cuts. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, who Trump himself appointed just months ago, said plainly that inflation is the problem, and the Fed doesn't expect it back to target until after 2028. Iran war-driven oil prices and record $6 diesel are the main culprits. Markets already expect another hike in December. We ask — is this the start of a real multi-meeting hiking cycle? Then the AI debate rages on — will it save us or end us? I'm firmly in the camp t...

The Supreme Court just handed President Trump a 7-2 defeat, ruling that his executive order did NOT give the USPS enough time to implement new mail-in ballot rules before the 2026 midterm elections. We break down the ruling, Justice Kavanaugh's key concurrence on the compressed timeline, the Thomas-Alito dissent, and why Trump says this legal fight is far from over. Plus: FBI Director Kash Patel faced an awkward and heated Senate Judiciary Committee showdown with Senator John Kennedy over the bureau's decision to loosen hiring standards tied to bestiality — a moment that quickly became one of the strangest exchanges of this ye...

Most Americans say they're anxious about AI — but is some of that anxiety being fed by Chinese messaging designed to slow us down in the AI race? Same question for data center backlash. And do you actually want Congress writing the technical rules for AI companies? We dig into all of it. Meanwhile gas and diesel keep climbing and here's why — Houthi rebels just seized Yemen's entire Red Sea coastline and a critical Saudi pipeline just got knocked offline for weeks, cutting off one of Saudi Arabia's last safe export routes. Brent crude is now over $107 a barrel. And President Trum...

Twenty-five years ago today, everything changed. Those of us who were adults that morning will never forget — but a new generation is growing up knowing 9/11 only as history, not memory. Today we set the news aside and share firsthand stories from survivors, first responders, and families who lived through that day, so the memory of what we lost — and who we lost — stays alive for the people who weren't there to see it themselves.

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Trump promised a $5,000 "Trump Dividend" to every adult American if Republicans hold both the House and Senate in November — but here's the problem. The President has no unilateral authority to issue this; Congress would have to pass a roughly $1.3 trillion bill, on top of $40 trillion in existing national debt. Vance already started walking it back within hours. And dumping that much money into the economy right now would almost certainly be wildly inflationary — just like it was under Biden's big spending, which helped push inflation to 9 percent. Speaking of inflation, PPI jumped 5.4 percent last month, driven largely by oil prices tied...

Someone scheduled the GOP's first-ever midterm convention the same night as the NFL season opener — Seahawks vs. Patriots, a Super Bowl rematch on NBC. Vance's keynote goes head to head with kickoff. Bad planning or just bad luck? Trump said today the Iran war will end shortly after the midterms — a specific promise after six months of "almost over." Same day, oil spiked hard — Brent crude hit $101 after U.S. forces struck five Iranian tankers. And Treasury Secretary Bessent tripled a bond buyback to $6 billion specifically to push interest rates down. It backfired completely — yields hit their highest level since 2023, and even...

This Friday is the 25th anniversary of September 11th, and there's a real controversy in New York this year. Mayor Mamdani says he'll attend the Ground Zero ceremony despite nearly 100,000 people signing a petition asking him to stay away, retired Port Authority officers directly asking him not to come, and pushback from George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani — all centered on his appointment of a lawyer with a controversial past client and his own history with a Brooklyn imam named in the 1993 WTC bombing case. We walk through both sides fairly, but more than anything we want to take today to ho...

Trump posted "LOWER THE RATE OR I'LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT," floating a total trade embargo with Canada, Mexico, and others as leverage against the Fed. A Wharton professor called the idea crazy, and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh just told Jackson Hole the Fed still has work to do on inflation, not room to cut. We explain why publicly attacking an independent Fed usually backfires. The August jobs report beat expectations at 162,000 added — good news, but after a year of downward revisions, don't get too attached to that number yet. And Mayor Mamdani just ba...

Millions are hitting the road for Labor Day despite high gas prices, but the real inflation threat is diesel, which is climbing fast. Everything you own arrived on a diesel truck, and your food was grown with diesel-powered equipment — so diesel inflation quietly hits everything. Part of the problem is structural — America hasn't built a new major refinery since one went up in Louisiana in 1977, nearly 50 years ago. Refining capacity, not just crude supply, is the real bottleneck. The Clippers just got hammered by the NBA — a $30 million fine, five forfeited first-round draft picks through 2033, and owner Steve Ballmer suspended a full...

Why does it take nearly a year just to decide if there's enough evidence to hold a trial for the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk? We ask directly. The Lindsay Clancy jury is deadlocked, and honestly, we'd be stuck too — prosecutors threw 80 expert witnesses and 300 pieces of evidence at them. That's overload, not clarity. Tiger Woods just had a DUI-related charge reduced to reckless driving again, avoiding jail after refusing a sobriety test with pills in his pocket. If courts keep doing this for people with money and lawyers, why should anyone take drunk driving laws seriously? And in Ma...

The on-off-on-off war with Iran is on again, and right on schedule, oil prices are climbing and inflation is set to follow. Trump wants the Fed to cut rates, insisting "other things" besides his own policies are driving prices up — he never says what those things are, and we call that out directly. Meanwhile, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has resigned after 18 months, following months of clashes with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has now fired or forced out more than a dozen senior military leaders across every branch since taking office. When an organization keeps losing its best people one af...

Trump announced a massive oil deal with Venezuela, claiming U.S. control over 65 billion barrels and promising lower gas prices. Reality check — it's a 25-year deal, not 100 years, the legal authority behind it is genuinely unclear since the full terms have never been published, and Chevron is the only major U.S. oil company actually willing to expand there. Aging ports and power outages mean production won't ramp up fast either. Still, strategically, reducing dependence on Canada and Mexico while locking down Western Hemisphere oil looks like a smart long-term bet even with the near-term hype overblown. Meanwhile Iran's economy is...

Trump says "we won" and Iran is "close to over" — he's been saying versions of this since March. Does he believe it, or is it just managing the narrative? Meanwhile, shifting to economic pressure instead of more strikes actually looks like the smarter play at this point. A federal judge blocked the Postal Service's new mail-in ballot rules for the midterms, ruling compliance is basically impossible this close to November. More rulings are coming, but time has essentially run out to change how we vote. And remember — states run elections, Congress has a say over federal races, the President has none...

Tomorrow is six months since the Iran war began, and it's not the anniversary anyone planned for. The current strategy is economic pressure alone — no more active strikes. We ask honestly whether sanctions can actually win this on their own. In Nepal, a glacier collapse triggered catastrophic flooding that has killed over 360 people with more than 1,300 still missing, many buried under feet of mud. A dangerous barrier lake is now forming and threatens a second flood before rescue crews can even finish. Nature remains more powerful than us. And the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has revealed she was given more th...

Darline Graham just won the South Carolina Senate runoff, beating Ralph Norman with Trump's full backing, to take her late brother Lindsey Graham's old seat. Washington pundits said her honest "I don't know" answer on a Taiwan debate question would end her campaign. We said it would help her, and it did. Authenticity beat polish. She now faces Democrat Annie Andrews in November. Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle a lawsuit over designing addictive platforms for kids, with new guardrails like daily time limits for teens. Good headline number — but who actually gets that money, and does it...

Dolly Parton has died at 80. We don't usually dwell on celebrity news, but she was never just a celebrity — singer, songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and somehow always genuinely happy in a way that made everyone around her feel it too. Born in a one-room cabin with eleven siblings, she never forgot where she came from and gave back on an extraordinary scale her whole life. We take today to properly honor her. Then California's Attorney General has canceled settlement talks and stands nearly alone trying to block the $110 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. merger. And Treasury Secretary Bessent is getting pushback on his bo...

Bessent launched "Operation Economic Outcast" against Iran, promising to cut off every economic lifeline the regime has. Big talk — but will we actually sanction Chinese, Russian, and North Korean banks? When CBS asked directly, Bessent wouldn't give a straight yes. I don't believe it's coming, and history says most sanctions programs like this don't achieve their stated goal, even when I hope this one does. Meanwhile the Canada trade war just escalated — 50 percent tariffs are live, Canada's hitting back dollar for dollar, and it's an odd time to drive up consumer prices when affordability is the biggest political issue in the...

A 35-year-old Albany woman pledged allegiance to ISIS and plotted to bomb the New York State Capitol and kill state senators — the FBI caught her buying bomb supplies and arrested her this week. Investigators used surveillance including Flock license plate cameras to help build the case — the same technology cities keep canceling contracts for over privacy concerns. We ask if this changes that debate. Then Treasury Secretary Bessent says the U.S. will unveil "the toughest sanctions in history" against Iran at a press conference Monday, calling it an "Economic D-Day." Shouldn't a plan meant to crush an enemy's economy stay...