Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words
Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words

Victor Davis Hanson: The FBI’s Secret Trump Probe, Birthright Citizenship, and the WNBA’s Race War

August 11, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

“We don’t really weigh all of the discomfort to the average citizen because we’re so worried that we don’t want to identify a driver who did it,” Victor Davis Hanson says early in this episode, recounting a multi-hour highway shutdown near his California farm caused by a gasoline truck crash. The driver, he notes, was described only as having made an “improper lane change.” For Hanson, that moment is a microcosm of a deeper rot: a therapeutic culture that refuses to assign blame, a bureaucracy that shields wrongdoers, and a society that has lost the will to enforce basic norms. From that roadside scene, he fans out across a wide set of grievances—the FBI’s secret investigation of Donald Trump, birthright citizenship, the WNBA’s racial tensions, and the incoherence of a proposed third party—all tied together by a single diagnosis: the institutions that once held the country together have been hollowed out by bad ideas from the university, and no one is willing to call it what it is.

The FBI’s “Oxford Comma” Probe and the Logic of Projection

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **WNBA Race War Erupts** - Victor opens with the WNBA's racialized violence against white players like Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham, predicting it will become a profitable circus.
  • 2 (02:59) **California's Dysfunction and a Highway Inferno** - Victor describes a gas-tanker crash that shut down California's main north-south artery for 12 hours, highlighting the state's refusal to assign blame.
  • 3 (07:36) **The University as the Source of Social Chaos** - Victor traces the recent wave of violent crime and lawlessness back to the postmodern university and its DEI programs.
  • 4 (11:26) **The Claudine Gay Plagiarism Scandal** - Victor discusses the Harvard president's undisputed plagiarism and the university's refusal to police its own when DEI is involved.
  • 5 (14:00) **The FBI's Secret "Oxford Comma" Probe** - Victor breaks down the newly revealed classified FBI memo showing the bureau opened a probe on President Trump in May 2017, codenamed Oxford Comma, alleging he was a Russian asset for firing Comey.
  • 6 (17:58) **Psychological Projection from the Left** - Victor argues that every current outrage from the left about Trump weaponizing the FBI is actually projection of their own past abuses.
  • 7 (24:00) **Birthright Citizenship and the Executive Order** - Victor analyzes Trump's executive order ending birth tourism, arguing the 14th Amendment was never intended for this purpose.

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Guests on this episode

Victor Davis Hanson

Show Notes

The WNBA erupts into controversy after Sophie Cunningham is clotheslined during a game, with the incident quickly becoming a flashpoint over race, politics, and the culture war in the WNBA. 

On today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler examine the FBI’s “Oxford Comma” investigation, and the new questions it raises about the Trump-Russia probe and alleged political bias within federal law enforcement.

They examine the topic of birthright citizenship, and Trump’s executive order targeting birth tourism. 

They also discuss the WNBA, focusing Sophie Cunningham’s clotheslining incident, Caitlin Clark’s impact on the league, and the racial and political controversy surrounding both players. Hanson and Fowler discuss how Clark has transformed the WNBA’s popularity and financial prospects while criticizing the league’s ideological divisions.

The episode also tackles transgender athletes and Seth Moulton’s reversal on the issue before closing with Tucker Carlson’s proposed third party and the potential consequences for the Republican Party. 

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Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words

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