Transcript of Trump Gets a Texas Wake-Up Call as Gina Hinojosa Fights Back

Donald Trump is getting a rude awakening in Texas as his approval is plummeting, folks. The latest YouGov Economist poll has Donald Trump at net negative 21 in Texas. Let me repeat that, net negative 21. And Donald Trump's buddy, Mr. Data Center himself, Governor Abbott, his disapprovals are getting higher and higher by the day. And it's a nightmare scenario for Abbott, Trump, and these MAGA sycophants who have caused such grievous harm to Texas, because not only is there a Senate race that people are paying attention to with James Talarico surging ahead of Ken Paxton, the utterly corrupt buffoon, but also there's a governor's race folks, and it is neck and neck. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate within 1 point of Greg Abbott. And Gina Hinojosa's favorability is through the roof. It's like +18. She is beloved in the state. She is traveling around from city to city. She's going into red cities, purple cities, blue cities. And one of the things you're seeing in Texas is a break-rank movement of people just saying, Greg Abbott wants data centers in our backyard. He's ripping away our healthcare with Donald Trump. These Trump MAGA sycophants are out to hurt us.

They've betrayed us. Take a look at these two polls in the past 2 weeks in Texas, in the governor's race, the Texas poll, uh, Texas Pulse Recon poll has the race at a 1-point race. Abbott only up 1. The Fox poll, regime media, has Abbott only up 1. And you just take a look at what Abbott and Trump are doing in Texas. Bulldozers have begun tearing up the beloved Big Bend National Park there, just a stone's throw from Santa Elena Canyon, as, uh, Uh, Lincoln Jordal is explaining. So DHS, yeah, Trump's Border Patrol and ICE Gestapo DHS waving every environmental and cultural resource protection. No surveys have been done. People don't even know what the heck is really going on, but bulldozers and heavy equipment arriving in Big Bend, and it is getting pummeled right now as Trump is doing a border wall there where I think there's only like less than 1% of crossings even taking place there, and they're not even explaining what the heck is going on. Meanwhile, Donald Trump giving an interview on Friday saying he really wants to see Texas having data centers everywhere. And you should know this about Greg Abbott.

So Greg Abbott invited all the data center hyperscalers into Texas and said, we won't force you to pay any taxes at all on your energy costs from your data center. If you come into Texas and suck up all of our resources, you don't gotta pay taxes on it. So all the data data centers, those hyperscalers showed up putting their data centers in everyone's backyard there. And then Greg Abbott's like, oh, what?

People don't want this. People don't want this.

But me and, but Donald told me to do it. Here's what Donald Trump said on Friday. Now that Greg Abbott's pretending, uh, maybe we should do like an audit. What are you gonna audit yourself, Abbott? You're the one who invited them and waived their taxes on energy costs, you idiot.

Here, play this clip.

I saw Texas the other day sort of is against data centers. I think it's a mistake. And I'm not taking positions here. I just think it's a mistake because there are other communities that want it. When a community wants it, it means a lot of money is going to come into that community.

Unsightly, potentially.

Well, I don't think they're unsightly. I mean, I'm looking at some of these data centers, the most incredible buildings I've ever seen. They go for 2.5, 3 miles.

Now, Congressmember Greg Casar, a Texas congressmember, also points out You got the following too, right? The cost of living right now in the US and Texas, it's impossible. It's a struggle. And Trump said he was gonna make everything more affordable on day one, right? No new wars, no more never-ending wars. Everything would be affordable. The Ukraine, Russia, Russia's invasion of Ukraine would be over in 24 hours. Electricity prices would be in half. Uh, gas prices would be under $2. Remember all of those promises from the con artist and thief? Rotting in the Oval Office and trying to rot our country like the rot he has done to the White House. Well, remember Trump's tariffs against the world? Where's your tariff rebate? Well, I'll tell you, big corporations are getting tariff refunds, but not you who had to pay them. Cuz this was all passed on to the consumer. It's a tax on consumer. Trump's tariffs, Apple got $2.2 billion. Amazon got $600 million. Uh, go company by company. They got huge refunds. They got huge amounts of money. What about you? Nope. Trump screwed you over. That's for sure. Let's take a look at Gina Hinojosa's travel.

She went to Hood County right here, and she talked to people who were part of this Break Ranks movement, which is big in Texas right now. Former MAGAs, former Trump voters, former Republican voters saying, nah, y'all put data centers in our backyards. Y'all, y'all have lied to us and betrayed us. You're a bunch of frauds. You're a bunch of Trumper frauds. We know what you did now in Atlantic City and New York. We know how you bankrupted all of your companies.

Take a look at Gina Hinojosa traveling to Hood County and speaking with some of these voters. Let's play this clip.

Did you vote for Abbott? Did y'all vote for Abbott before?

I did. I'm not an ass kisser. Uh, you're the first person to verbalize our problem at this level. That's why we're wearing The Break Rank shirts.

Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Tell me, break rank. What does that mean?

All of the Republicans in the state of Texas that are being hit by data centers and gas power plants and AI, we will break rank. This is not about being red. This is not about being blue. This is not about you being purple with pink polka dots. This is about human rights. When you see somebody like me, I'm like, we'll break rank. I said, everybody in this area is going to break rank.

And my deal is, where the hell have you been the last 3 years? Yeah, you won't even come talk to us within your same county. You won't even come listen to the problem, right? You know, so why the hell should I vote for you? I'm so happy that you came, and, and I will tell you that this morning listening to you won me over.

What about over here? This 75-year-old businessman from Texas saying he deeply regrets his decision to vote for Trump after ICE arrested his 45-year-old Venezuelan wife.

Here, play this clip.

How do I feel? I feel totally betrayed. I mean, you never think, or I never thought a guy like me would ever be involved in anything like this. 8 officers, ICE agents swarmed Jasmine. Detained her, didn't tell us why, and rustled her off into a car. No explanation was given. I was just in total disbelief. Nothing like this has ever happened to me. You know, I have several businesses, I'm law-abiding, and I pay a lot of tax.

What would you say to somebody watching at home who may think, well, John, he's criticizing the president or the administration on this issue of immigration because of political reasons.

Oh, I'm definitely not. I voted for Trump. They are picking up law-abiding citizens. They're destroying families, jobs.

You underscored, Don, that you voted for the president in the most recent election, I assume.

Yeah, I wouldn't do that again. Not after this fiasco. This is like the Gestapo. I would never have thought the United States would act this way. Go after the criminals. We're all for that. But leave the mom and pops and the kids alone. Love, Jasmine. That's it.

Now, why don't we bring in Gina Hinojosa, who is running an incredible campaign right now? This is the conversation I had with Gina moments ago.

Let's bring it in.

This is a great one.

And now I wanna bring on Gina Hinojosa, who's running for governor of Texas, the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas. This race is neck and neck. There have been two polls in the past 2 weeks, one from Fox, one from Texas A&M, that has this as a one-point race between you and Governor Abbott. Everybody knows Governor Abbott, MAGA Republican extremist. He's endorsed the disastrous bill that has hurt so many people in Texas. He's endorsed attacking people for just wanting healthcare and education and a better life. You know, and he just seems to just be so disconnected from just the daily needs of what people are experiencing in Texas as he wants to figure out what can I do to help you with golden ballrooms, Donald, and Mar-a-Lago upgrades and help you with your 21,000 stock trades. And you want tax immunity? Can we help you here in Texas, Donald, with you and your family's tax immunity? Gina, people, you know, see videos like this and they're like, Ben, don't get our hopes up in Texas by saying it's a close. We don't want you to inject opium. Give us the real. So Gina, what do you tell people though about this governor's race?

Yes, well, just the facts. The facts are that Democrats are winning all across Texas this year where we haven't won in a long, long time and sometimes ever. And this is because people want change. It's not that people are like, yay, Team Democrat. People are like, whatever this is, We don't want it. And it creates this great opportunity. And that's what you're seeing in the polling. It is what we are seeing on the ground. Even Republicans, even MAGA Republicans are tired of Greg Abbott and people are struggling a lot in Texas. So to give you more facts, in 2018, Beto ran against Ted Cruz. That's the closest we came to flipping Texas, right? That was last time we had a midterm election with Trump in the White House. This year for my primary, I got twice as many votes as Beto got in 2018, even though I had 8 opponents, because there's just more energy. We have Democrats running in every race, working it all across the state. Young people are back. Latinos have swung back in a big way. So this is our year and our best chance in 25-plus years to win. And it is not hyperbole.

It is facts.

Well, and this is why the Abbotts and the kind of MAGAs of the world in that vein, although I should say lots of MAGAs are leaving MAGA and they don't consider themselves MAGA anymore. But this is why they and Fox and others want to throw on labels and figure out how do we divide people and put people into camps. Because if you just look at what Trump and Abbott have done, to the state of Texas and you take a step back and you say objectively, this is what it's looked like when they've run all levers of government. Are you happy about this? They were in charge for a very long time. Objectively, on probably a 70 to 30, 80 to 20 basis, I think it should be more than that. But people will say, no, we don't like this. So then what do they want to do? Let's blame this group or that group or this person. Or fearmonger you. Well, it could have been much worse if we had this. And it's like, no, take responsibility. You know, when I think this moment in Texas, people are saying, we gave you your shot, Abbott, we gave you your shot, all the people that you brought, and you screwed us and you hurt us.

And this is going to be different this time. I think there's some of that going on also.

Yeah, absolutely. Just like you said, everybody knows who Greg Abbott is. He's been in office 12 years. Actually, he's been in statewide office 30 years since I graduated from college. And people want change. They know it's harder to make it in Texas today than it used to be. And this is Greg Abbott's record. We have the most uninsured of any state. We have the most uninsured children. We have the most people being disconnected from their electricity because they cannot afford to pay their bills in Texas. That is a powerhouse in energy, right? We have the most bankruptcies. Of any state, and it is mostly our small businesses that are struggling. We have over 150 whole school districts operating at 4 days a week because they cannot afford to operate at 5 days a week. That is Greg Abbott's record. He owns it. People know it, and people want change. It is unacceptable. We know our worth in Texas. We know we deserve better. In fact, we know we deserve the best, and this is not that.

You know, Donald Trump gave an interview on Friday with something called Punchbowl, where he repeated a line that he goes around the country and says, and Trump says, data centers are liquid gold and data centers should be in everybody's backyard. And, you know, he's very close with Abbott. And part of the planning is they want— they want data centers in everybody's backyard. That's what Abbott was pushing. Every community liquid. This is what they sold to people. You want to get rich, you want lower taxes, you want a better life. Data centers, data centers, data centers. And what you saw on a bipartisan basis is people saying, no, that's not actually what we want in our backyards. We don't want that. And you've been calling out this just proliferation and really just, you know, demolition of communities, you know, with Abbott and putting these data centers everywhere. I've seen all these videos that you put out where you walk with people in the communities. I don't even know what their political views are. I just know they don't like those things right there. In their backyards. And it's just interesting because now all of a sudden you've kind of got Abbott seeing this as like, oh my gosh, maybe people don't like this.

And now he wants to change the position. It just looks so phony because the damage is— I mean, dude, you opened it. You did this. Like, this is on your hands already. So now you want to say after the fact because you're worried about losing a race?

That's what the—

I think people see is like, dude, you're just a— you're a phony. You're a phony. You're a fraud.

Yeah, yes. In fact, Abbott invited the vampires into the house, and now he's claiming he doesn't know how they got here. So people know it. They know he's to blame. He was having press conferences with CEOs of data centers saying, we're going to have more data centers in Texas than anyone. That was just at the end of last year. And so for him to reverse course, everybody sees it and everybody is calling him out on it. We have just this avalanche of data centers in Texas because Greg Abbott signed the most rich tax break of any state for these data centers. They pay no electricity— I'm sorry, they pay no tax on their electricity. And so they're coming here, they're guzzling all the electricity, they're guzzling all the water. No consequences, no protections in these rural areas where they're unincorporated, right? They don't have city councils that can pass ordinances. No, they're unincorporated. So the people are absolutely protected from the power of these data centers. Greg Abbott put them there, and now people are calling him out, and they're, and they're mad. And you see it in the polling.

Yeah, I mean, no taxes on electricity is crazy. I mean, it reminds me of— it's like, okay, we know Abbott and Trump are locked at the hip right now, and it's like, what are, what are you pushing in the White House? Tax immunity for yourself too? So you and your family don't have to pay taxes. And then, you know, you have the Republicans like, yep, we just wanted them to narrow the scope. So we made sure that it was just about Trump and his family and his corporations and his trusts. And like, what are we even doing here?

And there's like, there's another way.

It doesn't have to actually be putting these people in, these billionaires or protectors of the billionaires out there who are literally out there to screw us and to cover up Epstein files.

And like, it's like, that's not what government is, people.

Like, you can have people like you who are like, yeah, maybe we help people with health care, we help people with education, we help people get good-paying jobs. We, you know, are transparent.

It's just—

it's this wild thing because, you know, you get into this election season and it becomes very gamified and you see it, you know, the way that me this person, that person, that it's like, step back. What are we even like? What are we doing here? Like, what's the point of government? It ain't about giving tax breaks to data centers to like kill the people in your state.

It's crazy.

It's just, it's just the crazy thing. Crazy.

That's right. It's why nobody trusts government. I don't trust government right now. Government is working for the billionaires. Just like you said, we're paying into a system that is working against us right now. So I've proposed $1,500 to every Texas household. It comes out of what we call a rainy day fund that is like overflowing. It's billions. It used to be at $10 billion. We'll take it back to $10 billion and use the rest to give back to the people of Texas because we have to prove that government can do something good for people. This is not a normal position, but these are not normal times. I just went through how Texans are struggling. I will tell you, weekly I am running into Texans who are donating plasma plasma as a second job. They are working Texans, teachers, crane operators, and they stand in line at the plasma center before they open 2 to 3 times a week to earn enough money to pay their bills. This is unacceptable. It is tragic. It is Greg Abbott's Texas.

And when you're traveling the state, tell me about what you're hearing from independents, Republicans, Trump voters, anything that is kind of noteworthy there.

Yeah, so we were just in the Panhandle. We were in Lubbock, Amarillo, and we went to find out what was happening with data centers. And there is this organic movement. People showed up in shirts that said "Break Ranks," and they have always voted Republican, but "Break Ranks" means don't vote for the Republicans who did this to us. So it is a time that is crazy politics, and it's just like all of us suddenly realize we're in the same boat. And it is this populist sentiment that people understand they deserve more and that it is these billionaires, these data centers, Elon Musk, who are taking what we worked for, what we— what is our inheritance, our land, our water, our money, because Greg Abbott lets them. He's given Elon Musk the keys to the castle. He gives him anything he wants. People see it. They're disgusted by it. They're disgusted by the corruption they see in Texas. Greg Abbott's given $1 billion in no-bid contracts to his donors. I mean, this just goes on and on. And it's what happens after 30 years of one-party control. There's just no accountability. And people are done. People see it and they're done.

Right.

And now Trump and Abbott say affordability is a made-up word. They say we don't even know what that word even means. And so it's just all a fabrication. Then they say we're living in the golden age right now already. I think Trump said on Friday that from a scale of 0 to 100, he would give himself a 150. That would be his grade on how the economy is doing right now.. And so they're not even saying, well, in the future, we're almost there. You have some advisors who are like, just wait, next quarter is our quarter. Just wait, next quarter is our quarter. Just wait. And they kind of drag people along. But the message from Trump and Abbott is this is it. This is the golden age and everybody is rich. And it's like, nah, you just— you just enriched yourself. Which is why, though, I think their pivot is, all right, let's make the biggest issue stopping people from voting. Because, you know, that's our only shot. And I know you gave an important speech on this and you made voting rights a pillar of your campaign. Talk to us about that.

What we know is after the Voting Rights Act was gutted about 4 months ago, now there are no rules. And so Republicans in Austin have said they're coming back to redraw maps. When that happens, they will eliminate 5 Democrats from Congress. 2 years later, Texas will gain another 5 congressional seats from the census because we're growing faster than all the other states. We will take seats away from mostly blue states, and that's another 5 seats where these same Austin Republicans control. They will draw those maps for themselves. That's 10 Democratic seats off the table in our U.S. Congress. There is not a path to Democratic control of Congress when that happens. The math no longer works. Texas becomes too big. And that is what is at stake in this governor's race. We need a governor who will veto rigged maps. I will be that governor. And that's why we need every American to care about this race, because no matter what party you belong to, when an election is decided before the first ballot is cast, then we all lose. We no longer are America when that happens.

Gina, we have 7 million subscribers here on the Midas Touch network and a broader network across channels outside of our YouTube. What's your final message to people, whether they're in Texas or outside of Texas? What's your message in this moment? And where could people learn more about the campaign if they want to learn more about it?

Thanks, Ben. I invite every American to join this effort, join this fight. You can go to Gina fourtexas.com and do what you can. But please do everything you can because we are in a moment in history and this might be our last best chance. That's why I'm running for governor. That's why all across this state Texans are working so hard to win for themselves, for their families, for our country. And I invite you to be a part of it.

Gina Hinojosa, thanks for joining us. And we're going to follow the race. Come back on in in a few weeks. We'd love to have you back on.

Thanks, Ben.

Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for preorder now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To preorder, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.