Trump’s Flag Ban, Cracker Barrel’s Logo War & FBI Scandal Explode on The Unknown Podcast

The Current Events Segment Episode 53 of The Unknown Podcast delivered fireworks as Richard Luthmann and Michael Volpe clashed over President Trump’s latest moves and a bombshell FBI scandal.

The show opened with Trump’s executive order targeting flag burning. Luthmann hailed it as “four-D chess,” predicting the Supreme Court could overturn Texas v. Johnson and return the issue to the states. “They’ll show you where the communists in America really live,” he declared, insisting Trump’s real play was to provoke a First Amendment showdown. Volpe pushed back, calling the order “blatantly anti-First Amendment” and warning it criminalizes dissent. “The First Amendment protects speech you don’t like, not speech you do like,” he reminded.

The culture wars then took center stage with Cracker Barrel’s logo controversy. After a failed “clean” rebrand stripped away Uncle Herschel and the iconic barrel, the chain reversed course. Luthmann credited Trump-era pride: “Once again, Donald Trump has saved America… by saving Uncle Herschel.” He vowed he’d have boycotted if the new logo had stayed. Volpe dismissed the backlash as contrived outrage. “This was a rage outrage over nothing,” he argued, blasting conservatives for manufacturing the same culture war drama they mock liberals for.

The episode closed with an explosive discussion of FBI corruption. A Justice Department Inspector General report revealed a senior FBI official installed surveillance cameras without a warrant and covered it up — all summarized in just one page. “They were violating people’s rights… and the DOJ gives you one page,” Luthmann fumed. He compared the FBI’s mythmaking to marketing campaigns around “La Cosa Nostra” and the “Medellín Cartel,” claiming the Bureau has long fabricated narratives while hiding its own crimes. Volpe acknowledged the abuse was serious but rejected dismissing organized crime as fiction, noting “the cartel was real, and so was the mob.”

Together, the hosts painted a stark picture of today’s political and cultural battles: a president playing constitutional hardball, corporations bending under culture-war pressure, and a federal law enforcement agency accused of being more corrupt than the mobsters it chases.