Howie Carr: Mar-a-Lago memories light up Christmas

I have a weekday radio show – four hours daily.

So I’m always booking any number of guests, who are pushing their books, causes, campaigns or whatever.

I must have interviewed thousands of celebs and semi-celebs over the years. But until last month, there was never a time when I would read over and over about the latest appointments to a new presidential administration and immediately realize:

“I’ve had that person on my show!”

I understand that I’m tooting my own horn here. But if I don’t do it, who will?

My Trump 47 guest list starts with POTUS himself. I’ve been interviewing him on the air since 2015. Multiple times. I’ve also had Donald Jr. on (campaign and book), as well as his late mother Ivana. (She was likewise promoting a book; Ivana called the second Mrs. Trump, Marla Maples, a “showgirl.”)

I’ve had on POTUS’ daughter-in-law Lara, Eric’s wife. She was vice chair of the Republican National Committee and this year helped stop the steal, made the landslide too big to rig.

The RNC chairman is Michael Whatley, like Lara a North Carolinian.

Whatley came on my show too. He said he was on good terms with the president, but didn’t know if he still would be on Nov. 6. I think it worked out okay – I spotted him at Mar-a-Lago Wednesday night.

I’ve had my problems with the FBI over the years. They investigated me in 1975 after I broke a story about their scandalous illegal COINTELPRO program in Winston-Salem against the Black Panther Party.

Later, a crooked G-man in Boston gave Democrat serial killer Whitey Bulger some C-4 explosives to blow me up with because… Democrats.

But now, I feel like a new day is dawning at the FBI. There’s a new FBI director named Kash Patel.

I’ve had him on my show five times. I’ll bet if Kash had been the head G-man earlier, I wouldn’t have to wait 30 years to get the 302 report on the feds’ visit to my newsroom in 1975. (The local agents lied to the superiors and said they’d never tried to intimidate me in front of my bosses, but they did).

The new attorney general is Pam Bondi. I had her on my show on Dec. 6, 2019. I can’t even remember the topic.

Last week, Bondi was sitting at the next table over from me at Mar-a-Lago. I thought about asking her for a personal favor – that the DOJ again allow U.S. attorneys to identify criminals by immigration status in their press releases. But I figured that reform is going to happen anyway.

So I decided to get a selfie with the guy Pam Bondi was sitting with – Kid Rock.

He hasn’t been on my show. Yet.

That night at Mar-a-Lago I was with Karoline Leavitt, the new press secretary, and her husband. Karoline is going to do a great job. She worked on my radio network last year. That night, after dinner, I gave her a belated Employee of the Month award – one of my new tee shirts that says, “Proud to Be Garbage.”

The new assistant attorney general for civil rights is Harmeet Dhillon. You guessed it. She’s been a guest three times.

Two days after the election, I told my producer to get Tom Homan. He’s been on the show more times than I can remember to talk about the illegal-alien invasion. Oddly, Homan was unavailable. That night, Trump announced he would be the new border czar.

Beautiful!

On Wednesday, Homan went on failing CNN and was asked when the deportations will begin.

“Day One,” he said. “We want to arrest as many people as we can that are in the country illegally. If you’re here illegally, you’re not off the table.”

Can you see why he was such a great guest? But guess what – the country needs him more than the Howie Carr Show does.

Another of our regulars is Todd Lyons, now the field office director of Boston ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). He’s a great guy, and he’s done a remarkable job swimming against the tide these last few years. The rumor is he’s getting a big promotion. I surely hope so.

Speaking of mass deportations (and the more mass, the better), Stephen Miller is the new deputy chief of staff for policy. He was a guest in 2020.

I have Democrats on my show too, at least some of the ones who are going to be in the new GOP administration.  Like future DNI Tulsi Gabbard – she came on last March to promote an appearance in New Hampshire.

A month later Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stopped by my studio in Boca Raton. It was like having a rock star in the house. People were following him through the halls. Of course, he had no real security – thanks, Joe Biden!

I’ve never had Elon Musk on, but I have interviewed his fellow DOGE boss, Vivek Ramaswamy, four times. He was running for president.

During the Panic, I liked to talk to “COVID skeptics.” It used to get me tossed off YouTube. One of my guests was Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins. He was a great guest, five times. Now he’ll be an even better commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

I always like having Peter Navarro on the show. He’s a local guy, born in Cambridge, went to Tufts, hung out at the Jumbo Lounge. That’s my connection to him – the Jumbo, back in the day.

It could be a tough place, but not as gritty, I’m sure, as the federal prison in Miami where the Democrats locked him up as a political prisoner after Jan. 6.

During his brief bid, Navarro was visited by Donald Trump Jr. I wondered if they discussed their respective appearances on the Howie Carr Show. Now Navarro will be back at the White House, as trade counselor.

These last four years, sometimes it seemed like we were all down and out. Now we’re not. I’ll tell you what, this Christmas, if the Jumbo Lounge were still open on Broadway, I’d buy Navarro a drink to celebrate. As it is, I guess I’ll have to spring for a round at Mar-a-Lago.

God bless us, one and all!

(Buy Howie’s new tee shirt, “Proud to Be Garbage,” at howiecarrshow.com.)