The Wrap Up Year-in-Review: The 5 Top Stories of 2023 | The Wrap Up

This is the final wrap up of the year, and we're counting down the top five stories of 2023. We'll cover the multiple indictments of President Trump, Elon Cleaning House and Twitter, the collapse of the U.S. southern border, the horrific October 7th attack on Israel and the biggest mistake made by a woke brand all year. Your wrap up year in review starts right now. What's up, guys? I'm CJ Pearson. Welcome to the wrap up. We break down the biggest stories of the week that you might have missed and definitely need to know. There is perhaps no bigger story than the multiple indictments of President Trump at the state and federal level. It's the first time in American history that a former president has been indicted. Trump's first indictment was in New York state in March, with two more federal indictments following in Florida in June and Washington, D.C. in July. And in August, a Georgia grand jury indicted Trump for questioning the 2020 election. In total, these criminal charges could see the former president and current leader of the Republican Party facing as many as 700 years behind bars if convicted. Many, including podcast host Joe Rogan, have called the multiple indictments against Trump the, quote, actions of a banana republic and election interference. And the people that love Trump, they feel like this is a witch hunt and they feel like all the things he's getting indicted for are bullshit anyway. Not only does it not work, but it kind of hardens their position that he's being targeted and that this is these are like the actions of a banana republic. You take your political rival and you arrest him. And specifically, you charge him with things that you're guilty of. All opponents inside and outside of Washington have called Trump a threat to democracy and said any action taken to keep him from returning to the White House is justified. Any action, they said in October of 2022, was it out that Elon Musk finalized the purchase of Twitter for 44 billion dollars. And over the course of 2023, Musk has been hard at work cleaning house the social media giant. Twitter underwent a massive rebranding, emerging as simply X, marked by the replacement of the platform's iconic Bluebird logo with a stark white X against a black backdrop. Musk also appointed NBCUniversal executive Linda Yacerino to be CEO of X starting in June. In addition to several management and policy changes, Musk also continued to champion free speech on X throughout 2023. The commitment to free speech on the platform resulted in major brands such as Apple, Disney and IBM pausing their ad spending on the platform. When asked at a tech conference in November to respond to the advertisers that have cut off their relationship with X, Musk put it pretty plainly. If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f*** yourself. Go f*** yourself. Is that clear? It's pretty hard to intimidate the wealthiest man in the world. In 2023, more than three million illegal aliens enter the U.S. through a completely open U.S. southern border. Trust me, when I say open, I went. On May 11, Title 42, which was a COVID-19 public health restriction put in place during the Trump administration to keep illegal migrants from passing into the U.S., expired. Prior to the expiration of Title 42, I traveled to Texas to visit the southern border and speak with residents, politicians, law enforcement and border patrol about the illegal immigration crisis. We have that video right here. We shouldn't have to worry about anybody coming onto our property and knocking on our door in the middle of the night or surrounding the house and looking in my daughter's window in the middle of the day. You know, I've had them come to my doors, knock on my windows. It might be one, it might be two. And one particular night, I had probably about 15 surround my house, banging on my windows and banging on my door. I've got on camera where they have literally the drugs are being transported with guys holding pistols, guys holding ARs. I've gotten in the middle of the night and our cameras hit. That ain't the ones that just want a better life over here. In the months since that investigative report, things have only gotten worse with human trafficking, drug smuggling and violence in border towns at the highest levels in the history of the country. The question remains, why are elected officials allowing this broken border? On October 7th, the world was horrified when thousands of Hamas terrorists crossed from the Gaza Strip into Israel and massacred over 1200 women, children and men, most of them civilians, and took about 240 back to Gaza as hostages. Hamas also fired thousands of rockets into Israel, some of them reaching as far as Tel Aviv. Israel declared a state of war within hours, sealed its border with Gaza and responded with overwhelming force. Airstrikes were launched against targets in the Strip and Israel Defense Forces units were sent to defend civilians in the south and confront remaining Hamas fighters. After three weeks of day and night airstrikes and artillery bombardment, the Israeli military launched a ground offensive into northern Gaza. In late November, a seven day ceasefire was negotiated, during which 105 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinians freed from Israeli jails and hundreds of trucks loaded with aid crossed into Gaza from Egypt. Israel has since widened its offensive into the south of the Strip, leading to some of the fiercest fighting of the war thus far as it vows to destroy Hamas. Hamas terrorists told Lebanese television that the group intends to repeat its October 7th style terrorist attacks until Israel is annihilated. In March, Jill Mulvaney, a gay man who was pretending to be a woman, was picked to be the spokesman for Bud Light. The illogical decision to make a fake woman the face of beer, murdered predominantly straight men, was made in part by an executive at Anheuser-Busch, who slammed her own customers as, quote, fratty and uncool. As a former retired frat guy, I think that she's uncool. Here, once again for an encore, is the cringiest video of 2023. Hi. Impressive carrying skills, right? I got some Bud Lights for us. So I kept hearing about this thing called March Madness, and I thought we were all just having a hectic month. But it turns out it has something to do with sports. And I'm not sure exactly which sport. But either way, it's a cause to celebrate. This month, I celebrated my Day 365 of womanhood and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever, a can with my face on it. At the time, many who predicted the executive's decision to pick Mulvaney could be a commercial disaster for the company were quickly proven right. Country music stars Travis Tritt and John Rich told fans that they were parting ways with Anheuser-Busch. Kid Rock responded in a very, well, Kid Rock way. In the months following a boycott of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch's market value plummeted by billions, while competitors like Modelo and Coors Light saw sales skyrocket. In fact, Modelo, a special has since replaced Bud Light as the best selling beer in all America. Executives who made the decision to hire Mulvaney were fired, and Anheuser-Busch laid off hundreds of U.S. workers, and Bud Light is desperately trying to repair its image with a hundred million dollar sponsorship deal with the UFC. God bless you guys. This is it for the wrap up this week. I'll be back here next Friday, right here in studio. But in the meantime, be sure to like, comment, share, subscribe, and I'll see you guys soon. Have a happy and safe weekend. Thank you so much for watching Wrap Up. If you like this video, help us keep it free by going to PragerU.com and making a tax deductible contribution today. I'll see you there.