Lessons from the plastic bag

The Brand Brief 10.30.25: Erika Kirk, Ole Miss students, Bill Gates, Etsy witches, Arctic Frost, and Xi Jinping

Actionable media intel to cut through the noise and keep you ahead: The Brand Brief delivers a daily snapshot of trending stories in the conservative media ecosystem - FOX News, podcasts, and more.

Vice President JD Vance takes questions from Students on Wednesday night during Ole Miss TPUSA event

Brought to you by On Brand Strategies | Written by Carly Moran and Nathan Brand

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📣 Driving the Conversation…

1,708 words | 7 minute read | Written to be skimmable (12+ hours of media covered in The Brand Brief)

1. What Matters: Plastic bags and tax cuts

2. New Media Voices: Bill Gates, Etsy witches, and AI

3. Leading FOX: Trump returns from Asia, Vance and Erika Kirk speak

4. Trending and Pouncing: JD Vance finds moment in the spotlight

5. What the Right is Writing: Trump, China, and anti-ICE forces

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✍️ WHAT MATTERS AND WHERE WE’RE GOING…

Nathan’s quick take on where we’re headed…

It’s culture. It’s plastic bags. It’s girls’ sports. It’s God on your college campus. The Republican nominee for governor of New Jersey summarized this nicely in The New York Times today:

“I can say, ‘I’m going to lower taxes,’ and I get a nice round of applause,” said Mr. Ciattarelli, the Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey. “But I say, ‘I’m bringing back the plastic bags,’ and it brings down the house, every time.”

One of the clearest takeaways from assembling The Brand Brief each week with Carly - and from a decade of advising politicians and organizations - is that the conservative media ecosystem runs on culture, faith, and plain-spoken common sense. It thrives when it meets its audience where they live, work, shop, and play. Organizations, communicators, and elected officials should take note. - NRB

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🎙️ NEW MEDIA VOICES

The Megyn Kelly Show - 10/29

• A recent interview with the parents of Adam Rain reveals the ChatGPT messages that encouraged him to commit suicide, gave methods

• Guest Rich Lowry, editor-in-chief of the National Review, talks about a UK dog walker stabbed by an Afghan National, compares to the Mexican border crisis

• The hosts talk about how radical Islam is present in both the UK and US with anti-British flag movements, calls to prayer in Minneapolis and Dearborn

• Polls show the majority of Illinois Democrats support blocking deportations, and 20% are fine with violence against ICE agents

• Liberals like Gavin Newsom and Jamie Lee Curtis showed sympathy for Charlie Kirk at first, but are now backtracking after facing backlash

The Ben Shapiro Show - 10/29

• Despite polls showing a minority of New Yorkers support his socialist policies, Mamdani has a clear lead of 61% in the mayoral race

• Shapiro says Gen Z’s 62% support of socialism can be attributed to mental health issues and delayed adulthood

• Mamdani attended Bowdoin College, where he majored in Africana Studies and founded a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter

• Guest Sen. Bill Hagerty explains how the FBI accessed his phone records during the Jack Smith probe, calls for Verizon to be punished

• Bill Gates admits that climate change won’t destroy humanity

• California’s SB 357, designed to assist sex workers, has enabled child sex trafficking in LA

The Michael Knowles Show - 10/29

• Knowles talks about testifying at the Senate Judiciary hearing about left-wing political violence, called for Antifa investigation

• Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace claim no Democrats compare Trump to Hitler, despite Joy Behar and Rachel Maddow saying so

• Bill Gates admits he was wrong about climate change being the death of humanity, after deadlines expired without disaster

• Mamdani lied about his aunt feeling unsafe wearing a hijab after 9/11 (she isn’t his aunt, doesn’t wear hijab, or live in New York)

“Relatable” with Allie Beth Stuckey - 10/29

• Stuckey highlights Charlie Kirk’s five controversial truths: feminism’s failure for women, porn’s harm to men, merit over DEI, America as a Christian nation, and Jesus as the only path to heaven

• Stuckey clarifies that she doesn’t consider herself the heir to Kirk, says she is called to disciple Christian women without comparison

• She thanks the WSJ for their bio of her, but criticizes certain rhetorical choices as portraying her as militant

• Christian influencer Jen Hatmaker is criticized for her Oprah Magazine article promoting bodily autonomy rather than the body as a temple

• Stuckey says her Instagram poll shows her audience’s top concern is the rise of Islam in the West, while she says she’s afraid of moral relativism

After Party with Emily Jashinsky - 10/30

• New documents reveal Jack Smith subpoenaed 430 Republican individuals and nonprofits, including bank records and geo data

• Guest Billy Hallowell talks about the rising interest in the supernatural alongside a Christian revival

• In a show of contrast, Etsy witches cast spells on Charlie Kirk before his death, while Bible sales surged afterward

• Jaskinsky and Hallowell agree that witchcraft has been normalized by pop culture with promotions of Ouija boards and tarot cards

• Hallowell says even AI can be hijacked by demonic forces, gives examples of spiritual confusion associated with technology

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📺 LEADING FOX NEWS

A look inside the FOX editorial decision-making…

The Five

• Trump concludes his Asia tour by meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping

• The South Korean president gives Trump a ceremonial crown, shows him his Trump merch collection

• Trump confirms he is “not allowed to run” for a third term after left-wing pundits have meltdowns over jokes

• As 42 million Americans are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calls Trump a “f—ing liar”

• Polling reveals the shutdown is harming the public’s view of Democrats more than Republicans

• Reversing his previous argument, Bill Gates now claims climate change won’t cause our extinction

• Former Biden Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s interview with The New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner is like “watching Mike Tyson fight a baby.”

• Three potentially diseased, violent monkeys are still on the loose in Mississippi after escaping a crashed truck

FOX & Friends

• Government shutdown drags on, Thune fired up and Rep. Tom Emmer interviewed, air traffic controllers working without pay

• Highlights from JD Vance and Erika Kirk speaking and taking questions at Ole Miss University

• Trump strikes deal with China’s Xi during South Korea meeting, agreements on tariffs, fentanyl, soy beans, minerals, and tech; Trump to order resumed testing of nuclear weapons

• Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom have brutal interviews in effort to defend Biden legacy and frail state

• At least 36 dead as Hurricane Melissa rolled through the Caribbean

• Fmr National Security Advisor Steve Yates discusses losing his daughter to fentanyl, Trump’s agreement with China, and the epidemic

• Seven now arrested in Louvre heist, but the jewels have not been retrieved

• Country singer Drake Milligan performs on set and talks about his rise as an artist

FOX Newsroom

• Trump wraps up Asia trip, touts deal with China on minerals, soybeans, energy, and tariffs; pledges to restart nuclear weapon testing

• Erika Kirk speaks at Ole Miss, encourages Gen Z to be the “courageous generation”; Will Cain discusses how unique it was that JD Vance took student questions

• ICE officers face an 8,000% increase in death threats, latest in Chicago ICE enforcement and protests

• New details revealed in Arctic Frost documents, Republican Senators call out Biden DOJ targeting of GOP individuals, Jonathan Turley interviewed

• Hegseth announces new strike on suspected drug traffickers

• New York City mayoral race and NJ gov race enters home stretch, recap of recent polling with Karl Rove who has a new WSJ Column on the races

• Five more arrested made in Louvre jewel heist, jewels not retrieved

• Thune blames Democrats for government shutdown, Speaker Johnson holds press conference on day 30

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🍿 TRENDING AND POUNCING

Tomorrow’s news today: highlights from the conversation on the right and what conservatives are “pouncing” on…

• VP Vance: “I believe that I’ve been placed in this position for a brief period of time to do the most amount of good for God and for the country that I love so much.” [X, TPUSA]

• Erika Kirk: “If you’re worried about losing a friend, I lost my best friend…Comfort doesn’t change the world, and you can’t influence the world when you look like it.” [X, Ingraham]

• Karine Jean-Pierre’s book tour is non-stop cringe. Her former colleagues can’t look away. [X, Politico]

• Nancy Pelosi mocks Southern Christians [X, Jason Cohen]

• WTF. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is claiming that Trump is zip-tying black babies and throwing them in the back of vans at night. [X, LibsofTikTok]

• VP Vance: “The fruits of the Christian faith are the most moral, the most just.” [X, Rugg]

• Whoopi Goldberg conveniently forgot that Democrats investigated then-former President Trump while Biden was in office. [X, TVNewsNow]

• Graham Platner, Who Attended Elite Prep School Thanks to Lawyer Father and Renowned Architect Grandfather, Says He’s ‘Never Been Close to Money and Power’ [Free Beacon]

• Minneapolis mayoral candidate waves Somalia flag during rally [X, EndWokeness]

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🗞️ WHAT THE RIGHT IS WRITING

Leading FOX News Digital

• ‘We have a deal’: Trump secures fentanyl crackdown, farm purchases from China [FOX News]

• Trump secures China agreement to buy millions of tons of US soybeans [FOX News]

• DHS official exposes truth about arrested illegal immigrant NBC ‘refused’ to report [FOX News]

Top of Breitbart

• Newsom’s Gerrymander Polling 56% to 43%: CA Voters Say ‘Threats to Democracy’ Biggest Problem [Breitbart]

• Bill Gates Flips and Says ‘Climate Change’ No Threat to Humanity [Breitbart]

• WATCH: Chicago’s Pro-Migrant Mobs Throw Rocks, Shoot Fireworks, Harass Law Enforcement Officers [Breitbart]

• Himes: MAGA Cheering Trump Illegal Killings Won’t Like Who President AOC Kills [Breitbart]

Wall Street Journal Editorials

• The Federal Reserve Is ‘Driving in a Fog’ [WSJ Ed]

• The Senate Stirs Against Tariffs [WSJ Ed]

• Ken Paxton Bellies Up to the Trial Bar [WSJ Ed]

• How China Enables Russia’s Military [WSJ Ed]

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SAY HELLO

Nathan (@NathanBrandWA on X or Nathan@OnBrandStrategies.com) and Carly (@realCarlyMoran on X or Carly@OnBrandStrategies.com).

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