John Rich Just Showed America the Truck They Took Away and Everyone Wants It Back

Ford recalled the F-150 Lightning for the tenth time last year.

Now John Rich is driving a matte black military monster that hasn't needed a software update since Vietnam.

The man who won Celebrity Apprentice for St. Jude and took the 2025 Bob Hope Military Award just posted a video of his customized M35 "Deuce and a Half" – and 91,000 people watched it in one day.

What John Rich Is Actually Driving

The M35 isn't a truck. It's a statement.

Built to haul ammunition through Korea and supply ground troops pushing east after Normandy, the Deuce and a Half stayed in production from 1950 to 1999 – nearly half a century, across Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm.

More than 30,000 were built. Many are still running in militaries around the world.

The cab is all business: gauges, bench seat, zero lumbar support.

There is no infotainment system to go unresponsive. There is no key fob to lock you out of your own vehicle.

https://x.com/johnrich/status/2066275033010581776“>https://x.com/johnrich/status/2066275033010581776

Rich's version gets the American flag decal on the door, matte black paint, a front-mounted winch, and an LED light bar across the grille.

The caption says it all: "I wish they'd make a new version of this old monster right here."

The replies filled up with owners of old Broncos, '70s Blazers, and pre-computer Silverados saying the same thing – they'd take a ditch-puller over a touch screen any day of the week.

The EV Truck Disaster Biden Built

While Rich was showing America what real engineering looks like, Biden's EPA was busy strangling the trucks that could replace it.

Ford's F-150 Lightning earned a bottom-tier reliability score from Consumer Reports – battery problems, charging failures, in-car electronics dying within the first two years of ownership.

The Rivian R1T – the truck Biden's green energy crowd held up as the future of American hauling – earned the distinction of highest owner satisfaction paired with the lowest predicted reliability in its class.

Consumer Reports data shows battery-electric vehicles report 40 to 50 percent more problems than gas-powered cars in real-world surveys.

That's not a statistical footnote. That's the entire premise of the federal EV mandate collapsing under its own weight.

Biden's EPA spent four years writing regulations designed to make diesel trucks like the M35 impossible to manufacture for the civilian market, while shoveling subsidies toward Rivians and Lightnings that strand owners in their own driveways.

John Rich spent those same four years collecting a Bob Hope Military Award and driving a truck that has pulled soldiers out of ditches in three different wars.

America Doesn't Have a Truck Problem

The collectors market figured this out before Washington did.

A clean 1995 AM General M35A3 sold at auction for $107,800 in 2023 – not because it's rare, but because people will pay a premium for something that actually works.

The M35 was built by engineers answering one question: will this work when we need it?

Modern truck design answers a different question: what features can we add to justify a higher sticker price?

That's not an accident. That's what happens when the federal government decides it knows better than the market what Americans should drive.

Biden's regulators made their choice. Ninety-one thousand people watched John Rich's video in a single day and made theirs.

America doesn't have a truck problem. It has a priorities problem – and Rich just put 13,000 pounds of iron in the driveway to prove it.

Sources:

• Staff, "Deuce and a Half M35 Military Truck," Coleman's Surplus Guide, 2017.
• Staff, "Monthly Military: M35A2 Deuce and a Half," Diesel Army, September 2025.
• Staff, "AM General M35 Market," CLASSIC.COM, accessed June 2026.
• Staff, "4 of the Most Unreliable EVs on the Market Right Now, According to Consumer Reports," BGR, December 2025.
• Staff, "Least Reliable Electric Cars 2026: Models to Approach Carefully," Recharged, April 2026.
• Staff, "Country Star Receiving Prestigious Bob Hope Military Honor," Parade, October 2025.