Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College All Things hillsdalet Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there, and of course I'll listen to the Hillsdale dialogues, all of them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple iTunes and Hillsdale Morning, Laurie and Evening Grace America. Welcome to the Big Weekend Pod, and indeed it is big.
At the end of it, I will include, just in case you haven't already listened to it, my interview with President Trump from Thursday's program. But to the Big Weekend Pod, we talk with Matt Continity, Ben Dominic, Eli Lake, John Ellis, and a little bit of football with Douglay Marie. To make sure that it's light, but it's not light. All eyes are on Iran this weekend. Whether or not the IRGC retreats in the face of hundreds of thousands of protesters or do they in fact risk the wrath of
the United States by firing on the protesters. We'll be watching all weekend long, and I'll talk about it with Matt and Ben and I Lie and John and I hope you enjoy today's big weekend pot Welcome back in America. I'm you hear it show A new audience is way up north in Michigan and down in Pensacola, Florida. Welcome to the Continetti half Hour, where Matt Conteneti of AEI and the Wall Street Journal joins me to explore the news of the week. Matt, I want to read to
you something Supreme Leader Iatola Jimeni said today. He dismissed President Trump's threats as quote, he has hands stained with the blood of Iranians and said that the protesters are ruining their own streets in order to please the President of the United States. He said, because he threatened he would come to the aid of their of them, he should pay attention to the state of his own country instead. Do you think that, I Hatola how many is going to shut down the protests with that?
No, And he's not shutting down the protests with the offer of seven dollars to each Iranian which came earlier in this week, which to me showed a panic on the side of the regime, a sense that the regime's not sure how to proceed. I think it's a very combustible situation in Iran right now, Hugh, you have another night, it seems of massive protests. It's hard to know exactly what's happening, of course, because the regime has shut down the internet, shut down most phones. It's hard to understand
what is happening on the ground. But what we can glean from social media is that there are mass protests throughout the country in response to the economic desolation that
this regime has perpetrated on the Iranian people. So you have economic humiliation, you have military humiliation with Operation Midnight Hammer in the Twelve Day War last year battering the Iranian regime, and you now have political humiliation where it's clear that the government no longer has any legitimacy whatsoever on the streets of Iran.
Matt the President of the United States, did threaten Iran in a conversation with me on Thursday. Then he doubled down on Thursday night with Sean Hannity. He made it very clear that if they opened fire on the protesters, he will hit them very hard. I don't know what that means, though, What do you think that means, and what would he hit.
Right well? It's hard to say.
I mean, the most important fact about that statement is President Trump said it, yep.
And that's unlike, as we.
Discussed on the program earlier, most American presidents when you've had similar demonstrations. Here, we have really quite impressive demonstrations and the part of the Iranian people, and President Trump, unlike Joe Biden, unlike Barack Obama, is saying that he's on the side of the protesters and warning the Ayatola and the IRGC against killing innocent civilians.
Now, what does that mean. Doesn't mean we're going to go to war with Iran? I somehow doubt it.
I think the most important thing we could do right now is work to restore internet connectivity to the Iranian people, and to allow the Iranian people who are rebelling against their government, this tyranny that's ruled them since nineteen seventy nine, to connect with one another and with the outside world, so we could get some explanation of what's happening, and that our pressure, our voices could also be heard within Iran saying that we are with insolidarity with the Iranian people.
I'd look to that as one step that the President could could take pretty quickly.
One of the things I asked him was would he meet with the Crown Prince raise up a labby and he said, I don't think that would be appropriate. Later in the day, news reports emerged that he plans on meeting with him. It wouldn't be the first time he did something that he didn't tip his hand. What do you think about that? I remember Ford refusing to meet with silvan Etsen to his everlasting regret. He should have done. So. Do you think the president should sit down with the Crown Prince?
He should. I think he will.
I think President Trump meets with a lot of people. You know, He's willing to meet with almost anybody and talk to them and hear what they have to say. So I expect a meeting with Pallavi would happen in the near future. I think what President Trump's caution is about is he doesn't want to see anarchy. He doesn't want to see some type of transition where you have the war of all against all, the state of nature.
Right.
That's why in Venezuela, for example, he took out Maduro, but he kept Maduro's lieutenants because, in his view, order is the precondition for a democratic transition. So I think that's why he's reluctant to jump the gun in pronouncing who the next leader of Iran be. He wants the Iranian people to take care of that question themselves.
I think that's a prudent move.
But it doesn't preclude him from speaking with Pallavi or speaking with the other Iranian dissidents, other factions who are in exile, and of course the most important actors will be the ones who are in Iran right now taking up the protests, doing what they can to resist the terrorists who have driven their country into the ground.
Matt Contenny will be back with me after the break. You can follow him on Exit. Continetti read him at The Wall Street Journal. During the break, I'm going to talk with Matt about Minnesota and we'll put that on the podcast. But of the biggest stories of the day, I think Iran and Venezuela and Kiba are more important. I'm putting them on the immediate podcast, but Matt on Minnesota. I'm back with Matt Continetti of AI and The Wall
Street Journal. Matt I was on This Morning with Dana Prino and Bill Hammer on Friday morning, being asked about Minnesota and Jacob Frye and I just threw up my hand. He's such a carnival bark her and he's in coherent. At one point he'll say, we want to be responsible participants in the investigation, and the next moment he says the ICE agent had a hop in his step after he shot her and wasn't injured at all. In the I think he's just a joker, and I think Tim
Wallas is a joker. And Minnesota, what a terrible situation for that state to be And what's your assessment of this?
Well, I think Minnesota is seeing the fruits of long term progressive dominance of politics at the municipal and at the state level.
Of Jacob fry and Tim Walls.
Of course, we're in charge of that city and that state during the George Floyd riots, where it was the chaos and a police precinct burned down and Walls waited far too long to bring in the National Guard. We don't want that situation repeated today. And so their rhetoric has been extremely irresponsible, only talking using expletives to refer to Ice, saying that ICE should leave the state of Minnesota,
saying that Minnesotans and the rest of the country. People of goodwill should stand with Tim Walls against the Trump administration, just like the Union soldiers stood against the Confederacy. And this is completely irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric. At precisely the moment you when we want to take a cautious, detached approach. We want the investigation to proceed. We don't want things to spiral out of control like they did five years ago.
We don't want this incident to lead to more damage, more lost lives, more damage to property and to civil order.
Do you think we can restore a proper understanding of federalism because brit Hume has made the argument this is horrible faubis like, you know, state officials telling in the federal government that they can enforce federal law. And of course you and I both use this war analogy, but it's a breakdown in constitutional literacy. There is a supremacy clause. Are people ignorant of this at the Jacob Fry level?
They may be, but it's also a convenient ignorance because what's really at work here is the desire of blue state political machines to protect illegal immigration, and illegal immigration is central to the Blue state model of governance, Hugh is in. What we see since the raids began in California last year is that the Blue state governors and mayors hang on to illegal immigration so tenaciously that they're openly defined to federal authority. ICE is a law enforcement body.
They are conducting legal operations to.
Enforce the law.
It is a crime to be in the United States illegally and your subject to deportation.
This should not be up for debate. It is. It's the case.
But I believe Blue states depend almost entirely on illegal immigration for economic purposes and for political purposes. And so you see the entire machine, just like a Tammany Hall, move into operation in order to protect illegal immigrants and to fight the federal government when it's actually trying to enforce federal law.
Or That is a very good point that hasn't been made very often. Matt Continetty well said, we'll be right back on air. Welcome back in America. Matt Cottenetty is back with me. Matt, of course rights for the Wall Street Journal as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Matt I was recalling more than twenty years Ago, I visited Camp Pendleton and the then Chief of Staff to the then three star General, James Mattis, told me, I wish you civilians would think about second order consequences of military action. And I've always kept that in mind since that. What do you think the second order consequences of Operation Absolute Resolve are? We've got Maduro? What do we else? And we've got five votes, including another one on Friday,
that's five now full of oil. What do you think are the consequences maybe that are not right in front of our face.
Well, first and foremost is a strategic question. You know Venezuela, there's a lot that intersects in Venezuela. You there's immigration, there's narco trafficking. You know, some people have described Marduro's government as a transshipment organization. I believe that's Secretary of State Rubio who's called it that. And then you have energy, but you also have the access the axis of autocrats
active in Venezuela. You have China, you have Russia, you have Iran, And I think one of the first secondary consequences of Operation Absolute Resolve is all those powers have taken notice and they realize that they are not going to have a free hand in the Western hemisphere any longer. I mean this started with Panama last year, where President Trump essentially muscled out the Chinese from Panama and the
Panama Canal. But here we have an instance where Maduro's extraction and arrest took place just after his meeting with Chinese officials in the Chinese delegation. They're not going to be party, They're not going to be at that table any longer. You have these ships, including the ships that we've just caught in the past.
Twenty four hours. One was going under a Russian flag.
It reflagged as Russian, thinking that it would protect it. Trump took it anyway, So now the Russians are noticing. And then finally Iran. Iran has had a presence in Venezuela for some time, including Hesbealah, the terrorist militia, they're going to have to leave as well. So I think there are huge strategic secondary consequences to Operation Absolute Resolve and done at no cost in American life.
I remarkable now yesterday, or when I talked to the President on Thursday, he put me on the spot because people were coming into the oval.
He was on the phone with me. So here comes Marco Rubio. How's the job he's doing, Hugh, what do you think? Am? That's kind of an odd thing to ask me, But I quickly said, it's the equal of any Secretary of State of my lifetime. That puts him up there with Kissinger and Mike Pompeo, both of whom I know and knew, and Mike's a friend. How would you have answered that, because I think he is the equal of those guys.
Well, I think it's just an incredible job that Secretary Ruby is doing. He's already Kissinger's equal because he's the first Secretary of State since Kissinger to also be the National Security Advisor.
Yes, plus he's the National Archivist.
And he very cleverly put out, Hugh as you saw that he Secretary Rubio will not accept the job as the next coach of the Miami Dolphins.
You know, that's meme in America.
Too much on his plate already, that's the best.
You know in America.
Yeah, he's a real standout in this administration, and I think President Trump knows it because you see how much President Trump loves talking about Marco Rubio. And I think that's because the President recognizes that Marco Rubio has been an extremely effective Secretary of State in pursuing the Trump doctrine, whether it's in the Western Hemisphere, whether it's in the Middle East, whether it's this ongoing diplomatic process happening in Europe.
And he's also an extremely effective communicator for the President what the President is trying to do. So absolutely he I mean, just one year on the job, he's already up there with Kissinger and Schultz and Pompeo.
Well, let me ask you about this. The President also said to me he's got some Cuban blood in him. I wanted to say, yeah, like one hundred percent. And the follow on though, is we've never had a Secretary of State who's had this kind of personal investment in Cuba being free. Do you think that matters? Oh?
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, someone who's followed Secretary of Rubio's career since he first launched that kind of almost winsome campaign for the Republican Senate nomination back in twenty ten, this issue, the issue of Cuba, is extremely important to him. Freedom for the Cuban people, an end to the castro tyranny, and the Castro regime, and I think it's very revealing that Maduro was being guarded by a cadre of Cuban security officials, showing that Venezuela and Cuba are intricately connected.
It's hard to say is Venezuela running Cuba or is Cuba really running Venezuela. We know that Cuba is dependent on Venezuela, dependent on Venezuela's energy and economic aid.
You remove that from the table.
Like I believe the President Secretary of Rubio is going to force the Rodriguez government to do, and that puts the Cuban communist regime in a really tight spot, the worst spot it's been since the revolution back in nineteen fifty nine. I agree that another incredible accomplishment. If that government were to fall next in the next three years.
I think they're out of food, medicine, electricity, They're like Iran. Basic services have failed in Cuba like they have failed in Iran. But I don't know that we have any way. Israel's got ways. Obviously they built a drone plan inside of Iran. They've got ways of helping the Iranian resistance. Do we have any ways of helping the Cuban resistance or is there even a Cuban resistance to your knowledge, Matt Conney.
Well, you know, the Castros and their successors have been very good at destroying civil society in Cuba and destroying any political dissidence there. So it's very hard to say. I do know if they're out there. Secretary of Rubio is probably where. But I think what we have to do here is apply as much pressure as possible, which is happening, and you're driving the Cuban government into a
position where it may be desperate for a negotiation. There was an article in the New York Times, The New York Times of all places which for decades ran covered for Castros, you know, you quoting from a Cuban citizen talking about how when he and his wife had to go to the hospital, they had to bring their own catheter. That's how bad things have gotten there. And if the New York Times is acknowledging it, it means it must be really bad.
Oh.
You know, for decades, puppets of Castro and fellow travelers in the United States to hold up the Cuban healthcare system to us, to the United States as being Oh, they have such wonderful healthcare. I don't think so, and we will find out soon. Matt Cottonhoody, thank you for joining me as always, read him at the Wall Street Journal, read his work when it's published at the American Enterprise Institute, and stay tuned. I'll be right back America. This weekend
gets underway on Huge It on You hew It. It's always a good weekend when I get to review it the Week in Review with Ben Dominic. Yes, so many titles though, Ben, Good, Happy New Year to you. But I have some new affiliates from way up north in Michigan at Triple Talk one oh two point three one oh three point three twelve seventy AM and shar Levoy Potowsky, Michigan to way down in Pensacola, the home of Naval Aviation News Radio Pensacola ninety two point three WNRP. That
I have to give out all of your titles. So not only are you a Fox News contributor, the host of the wonderful Big Ben Podcast, you are the editor of the Transom on Substack. You're the editor at large for The Spectator. Am I missing something, Ben? No?
But I did have a new kid since last time.
Oh Bra.
So I'm not Jewish, but mazel to agree. Father of three means sleepless in the Beltway.
I'm actually I'm okay, I'm okay. It's a trick baby, because it's the first two were girls. This is our first boy. And you know that the danger is that when you get older, as I am now, that third baby can sometimes trick you into thinking that you could do one more. And that is definitely the current stage that we are in, and so I need to guard against that. I thank you.
My daughter has four and Israel the four is the new three. And my daughter has four and the fourth is a delight as the other ones are. And I just want to remind you of what you were like when you were sixteen. That's what you got to remember because they try and get out of the you know everything we.
Did, Yes, exactly, Ben.
I want to talk about a lot with you, but I want to actually start with the American news media, and I don't I'm a little bit beside myself. I think it's an important story of what happened in Minnesota. It's a tragedy. Jacob Fry is a carnival barker. Tim Walls is a moron, and they will get to the bottom the investigation and whether or not the shooting was justified. It appears to me to be. But the biggest story in the world is an Iran, and I don't see
American media anywhere. Fox is doing some But what do you make of the almost obliviousness to this world history changing possible event.
Well, what I want to suggest to you, Hugh, is that this is in large part driven by the know what these stations understand their current viewers of resistance media consumers to be all about. And nothing activates them more than I think this particular issue and the kind of fomented education that you're seeing, you know, on American streets, the protests that you see that are in New York City, et cetera. Those are all things that I think go
to that idea. They're catering to those people, and they don't. They are not, I think, fulfilling their obligation to actually be talking about what's going on in Iran at the moment, because it is momentous and it is significant. We'll see obviously where things will go there. But I'm glad that you brought this up because to me, it's an indictment of the way that our media used to work and the way that the media works now. In the old days,
we had the assumption that when international events would happen. Certainly, this was the assumption when I was younger, that you flip on CNN, that you turn to sort of these major cable news outlets that have bureaus around the world, that have people who are on the ground, who are reporting what's going on on a regular basis, updating you
with what's happening. Instead, that's just not true anymore. Instead, what they cater to is whatever is going to inflame the folks on Blue Sky and across social media here, regardless of the fact that there's some that there are momentous things happening around them in the world that certainly, you know, is look, whatever happened in Minnesota. I think it's I think it's tragic one way or the other, no matter, no matter, you know, the ultimate sort of
responsibility for it. It's tragic that someone was convinced to you know, sort of you know, try to behave in the way that this, uh, you know, played out. But it's also I think, you know, tragic that we aren't allowing ice agents to enforce the law that is written that they are doing, I think the best job that they possibly can to enforce. But as to your point, there is no longer that obligation among American media that
and they have pulled back from having those bureaus. They have pulled back from having those intelligent people on the ground who risk their lives to be on the front lines and to report difficult stories. Instead they have people who write clickbait, and now they're outsourcing that clickbait to keep chat, GPT and everybody else.
Yeah, and Ben, I want to really say the contrast. You're not old enough to remember this. But as I said to the President when I interviewed them on Thursday, I watched the Iranian revolution unfold in seventy eight to seventy nine on a coach with Ray Price and Richard Nick's. On a daily basis, the networks would cover the marches, they covered the Shaw leaving, they covered Harmony returning from France.
They covered it every single day, and then of course, when the hostage crisis occurred a year later, they covered Nightline came into being. Is there no sense of responsibility? Maybe, Barry, there is a Fox. I'm very proud of the fact that Trey and Lucas and other people are abroad in doing this, and that Brett covers it almost every night, and it was it's covered in America's newsroom. But do
you think Barry will bring it back? And that's one of the reasons why I urged the president yesterday sit down with Tony Dekoppel and see if he's serious, because I wanted it. Wouldn't it be great to have a second serious anchor?
You know, this is first off, I think complete and I'm in complete agreement. I would love for there to have competent, for there to be competition. Iron sharpens iron. We'll get this and Fox will get better. I mean, look, I'm a I'm a diehard Fox team member, as you know. But Fox will get better if we have more competitions, you know, And I think that that's the kind of thing that can be helpful and useful. And so look, you know, more power to you. The problem is, and
this is I think a significant problem. They brought They brought in some people you know there who are going to have new ideas, But how willing are the people who actually control that ship to turn it and how quickly can they do it, because this would be exactly the kind of moment that would be career making in terms of of you know, news reporting, people on the ground, the old ways of doing things, the you know approach that has been you know, time honored from CBS in
the past. Instead, you know, of course, we have clickbaity articles. And you know the whole reason that Tony uh you know, to to his to his credit, you know, went viral because of a conflict over and you know interview with this throw a book by by Tanny easy Coats that just you know, argues that everybody's racist, particularly Israel. And so it's one of these things where like, can we get back to actually having news reporting and people who
are on the ground. I certainly hope so. But the idea that those markets forces are going to be in place instead, you're going to be forced to do the same thing that so many other Americans do and turn the substack to find out you know what that.
It's going to be very tough to build an audience. Brett's people are not going to move. Are people at Fox. They're not going to move, So they're going to have to get the audience from ABC and NBC that is remaining to move to CBS. But to do that, there are any American networks allowed in Iran. But they could partner with the French who are They could partner with the BBC, who are to at least get some pictures, some drama. And we've got Karam saw Jupoor. We've got
Aaron Austabar, There's Michael Durant. There are a lot of people who know Iran. They could be on there telling us what's going on there. And I'm afraid that what happens is going to happen in the dark if the regime in fact opens up completely.
I completely agree, and I think that, I mean, it's kind of ridiculous in this day and age, people have the impression that everything that they see is just this flood of information that we get the best access to it from social media and X and just everyone having a phone. That we're talking about this, you know, in the you know, any moment in any place where that is prevented and prevented deliberately so that people cannot see what is going on, so people cannot see how momentous
it is. And look, I think you're completely right. We need to have more of these voices out there, and to a certain extent, my attitude towards the viewer side of things is I don't care. This is too important. You know. It's like, we can take we can take a hit for a segment if you flipped it over
because you're interested in what's happening. It's too important and you've got to put it in front of them, and look, let's take the hit for the next eight minutes, and then then we'll come back and have some cat videos, you know, make the other folks come back.
Well, let me talk to you about cat videos for a moment. Jacob Fry, the mayor of Minneapolis, is a cunnibal barker. And I was on this morning with Dana and Bill and he was he was so idiotic. In the course of ten minutes, he said completely oppositional things. We've got to be involved in the investigation because you need fairness. And then he said the ice agent had to hop in his step as he walked away, and
he was not injured. He couldn't have been holding so in the same two minutes I was watching, he's such an idiot.
I had not seen that. Cliff, You and I just have to admit this is the area that you fall behind when you are changing diapers. But this is the thing that I think is But this is the thing that I think is true about him. He's been a carnival barker for a long time. We've seen his act before.
It's absolutely ridiculous. But it's I mean, I hate to bring this into it, but I think that the reason that he acts the way that he does is because there's this feeling that if you're a white guy in the Democratic Party, you have to cowtow.
To everything that's true you.
I think it's true. I think it's one of these things where that's and that's, by the way, one of the reasons why I think Gavin Knewsome I have a slightly harder time than he thinks he's going to have getting that nomination, because you just have to bend over backward to make every different interest group happy, to never
ruffle any feathers. And you know, I still remember the BLM, you know, images of him, you know, masked up and apologizing for everything, and it's I don't know about you, Hugh, but it seems very Canadian to me.
Very very Canadian. I'm going to talk with Ben Dominic during the break about the Big Ben podcast. He covered Venezeuela, and he'll be back on the other side as well as we talk about Cuba. Don't go anywhere America. I'm cute Cube. I am back with Ben Dominic. Ben is, of course the host of the Big Ben podcast, of which I want two episodes a week, but he had just had a baby, so I guess we're all going
to get one. Ben. I have saved this week's episode about Venezuela for tomorrow morning when I'm trundling because I need a lot of time because I'm going a little bit longer than I normally. Do you covered Venezuela? I know that what do you think the second order impacts are? Six days out from the over three of Maduro.
I think that the really interesting question coming out of this is what the Mexican government takes away from this experience? Oh interesting now, So so let me the the argument that I've made in the past is that as much as Venezuela was about obviously achieving the goals that they've been very public about, and you know, it's not like they've been subtle, you know, the president saying, hey, they knew we were coming, you know, has been basically true
for you know, a month plus. But I think that the real message that this sort of sends is the ability of the Americans when confronting you know, an American might, when confronting a military that is not built to handle the kind of of challenges that we can represent, are capable of incredible things, especially when it comes to exful trading individuals who you know, have you know, live large in palaces, claimed to be presidents, aren't and essentially you know,
established rule over over you know, as many resources as Maduro did. That's also something that you can do when it comes to the leaders of cartels. It's also the thing you can do when it comes to I believe many of the key Mexican figures who quite frankly, you know, should I believe, be behaving quite differently in their attitude towards the Americans right now. Shinbaum and her leadership is
not really the target here. It's more about what America is willing to do when it comes to fighting this broader drug war. And the President has clearly, you know, basically taken on the attitude that this border situation that
he has, which is so incredible. Of course, we've seen the statistics that that's temporary, that that's something that the Mexican cartels are deciding to do because he's in office, and that they're just biding their time and waiting to open the floodgates again, send as many people north as they want to, you know, profit from them along the way, and then use them, frankly here to continue their indentured service. Effectively, that's something that he doesn't want to be a legacy
that happened after he leaves office. And that's what I think is kind of an underlying element of this one more thing though, I also think this is a message to his administration and to a lot of people within his coalition about the way that the President views his
role when it comes to the Western hemisphere. There was a lot of nice talk, or a lot of I would say bold talk about you know, the President shifting his priorities to that in his second term from a lot of different supporters, including some people who had, you know, some issues with how bold he's been in a number of different moves. But I think he's sending the message, Yeah, I'm serious about that. I really do mean that. In
terms of my approach. And people can laugh about the toun Road doctor or what have you, but I think he's sending the message internally as well. No I decide what America first means about policy. You know. MTG doesn't get to decide that anymore. Piece upon her and instead, you know, you have to listen to the commander in chief when it.
Comes to these things, and when he makes a threat, and I think the molas are well advised when he makes a threat, pay attention. I'll be right back with Ben dominic Don't go anywhere, America. Welcome back in America. I'm here with Ben Dominich, Fox News contributor, hosts of the Big Ben podcast, and of course contributing editor at large to The Spectator. We were talking doing the break, Ben and I about Mexico and the cartels, and before I get back to President Trump, then a quick question.
If he strikes at the cartels, do you think he will do it visibly and so everyone knows he's done it, or will he go like John Clark and the Tom Clancy novel so memorably played by Willem Dafoe. Will we do it?
Sub Rosa, Yeah, I mean I first off clear in
Present Danger a great movie. Great movie. But anyway, the thing that I think is very interesting about this, and I have written this before, is that I think that anything that would be done in terms of a move against the cartels would be branded and put forward by the United States and by the State Department, being done with the full and friendly cooperation of the Mexican government, that it would be that that is the way it is going to be presented, regardless of if there's any
truth to that at all, and this likelihood is there is not going to be any truth to that, but that is the way it will be presented. And a lot of people are going to have to smile and grin and go along with it because of just the nature of things. One more point about that, Hugh, I mean Marco Rubio, Man, it's just like he's everywhere. He's you know, and I'm not just talking about the memes. You know, he's currently up for about ten different NFL jobs. Yeah.
But here's the thing that I think is interesting about this. You know, again, the President is saying, I define what my foreign policy is going to be. I'm not going to be defined by people who are outside who claim to be close to me and who feel like they influence me. Donald Trump listens to a lot of people, but then he makes his own decisions. And I think that's what we've in this past week, and I think it's going to be what we continue to see in this administration.
About Marco Rubya, Ben, you're one of the few young concertoves who sat down and interviewed the president, so you know what it's like. You got to be on your toes on Thursday and talking to him, and Secretary Rubia walks into the oval. I'm on the phone, so oh, mark A. Rubia walked in. How's he doing you? He's got a little Cuban blood in him. You've got to
be willing to be ready to answer a question. And I said, you know, the equal of any Secretary State in my lifetime, because he's done the Kissinger thing, n SC and that. But do you think his being Cuban makes it more or less likely that we goll in on Cuba quickly?
I think it may actually slow the role slightly, because I think that there's going to be a feeling that, you know, how how quickly do we really want to lean into so many different things at once? And is this something that the American people really want at this particular moment. The only reason that I feel that way, beyond beyond the fact that he's Cuban or not, is you know, the president's bitten off so much and he's
taken on so much. We're starting to see some real silver linings when it comes to the economy, things you know, are hopeful for among Republicans for the first time and I think a while, because they really do believe that once these tax refunds start going out that you're going to see people's attitudes change on that number. And of course that number includes a lot of the President's Hispanic supporters,
not just Cubans, but others as well. And so do you want to you know, sort of potentially inject something into this that would lean into that even more heavily, or do you want to sort of say, well, let's let this play out a little bit more, whether regardless of rolling the dice in a midterm yere all right.
Now, last question for you, Ben, as I said you've shut down with the president in the conversation on Thursday, I asked him, we got a bunch of young conservatives who are forty five and younger who you know, he spent two hours with The New York Times. Why aren't you talking to Guy Benson and Spencer Brown and Mary Catherine Hann So they have an ass and you know, they've got the best comms team that I've ever worked with, between Caroline and Steven and Margo and Natalie. I mean,
it's great. Do you think our side just doesn't know to ask?
Well, Hugh, I'll tell you this. I always ask. I always ask. Now you have to pick the right timing to ask, and you have to, you know, have the right route and the right you know, sort of angle to get in. Sometimes with this president I have, you know, I've interviewed him a couple of times, you know, the last time was about a year ago. I hope to be interviewing again soon. And I think it's always important to ask. It's just as important as asking. It's a
politician who forgets to ask you to vote for them. Yes, you actually have to ask at the end. And that's a big difference in terms of in terms of opening up doors and having the opportunity to talk to this younger generation. Look, the President's clearly willing to talk to the people who are who are you know in that subsisty range because he's hired a bunch of them to be in his cabinet. Yeah, it's definitely something that I think.
I hope more people lean into it, in part because I think we'll get a lot of interesting answers to interesting questions.
Yeah.
Just bring your a game and the question set will be so different from the one I come with, and that would be good for everyone. Ben Dominicch The Big Ben Podcast. I look forward to listening to it on the Long Trundle tomorrow and I appreciate your spending time with me. Welcome to the Weekend. I'm Hewett and many of my new audience in Pensacola, Florida my new affiliate up in Michigan. They will not know my next guest,
John Ellis. John is the founder and principal editor of News Items, but everybody else who listens to the program knows John is here every weekend to go over the big news of the week. I've been talking a lot about Iran, John, and I are going to start, interestingly enough with Cuba. John, you sent me the news today that Cuba has touched bottom. Let's start there. What does bottom mean. I talked about Cuba with President Trump on Thursday, But what do you think the bottom means for Cuba?
The bottom means there's no electricity, there is no gas for petrol for your car, and the social safety net that Cuba has prided itself on since the Castro Revolution has completely collapsed. What follows the collapse of a social safety net and the inability to turn on a light bulb we do not know, but we can certainly guess that it isn't going to be easy.
Well, the second order impact of the Venezuelan operation is, as you pointed out to me, there's no friend left for Cuba. I suppose China and Russia might send them some stuff, but weren't they basically a venezuhale in dependency until this.
Week they were basically you know, Cuba up until the collapse of the Soviet Union was essentially a dependent of the Soviet Union, and that was their last major crisis. When the Soviet Union went under, they lost that support. It was, you know, it wasn't quite clear that the regime stand it. Did things went along, Venezuela became a major you know, patronage or a patron of the of the Cuban arts, so to speak. And they have been
propping up Cuba for a long time. And the Russians and the Chinese have a lot of business with Venezuela, so they're sort of, you know, active in the same job of keeping Cuba afloat and lo and behold. Trump comes along and changes, you know, tips over the entire chess board. Russia doesn't want to help Cuba now because Russia doesn't want to get in the donosphere. If you will, China same thing. They don't want to get in Trump's way in the Western hemisphere. They'll worry about their scope
of influence. So you don't have China, you don't have Russia, and now you don't have Venezuela.
You know, you're thinking.
Nineteen seventy nine, there was something called the Mariel boat lift, which was Cuban refugees that essentially Castro threw out of the country and they came to Florida and you know, delivered Florida for Ronald Reagan in nineteen eighty this Mario both left. It's not going to be like that, but there's going to be something like it. Because if the social safety net has collapsed and you can't turn the lights on.
You have to go somewhere where.
There's some kind of service, and if it's not Havana, it's I don't know that the Ministrd in Republic or some other Caribbean island or the US.
Yeah. When I were talking about this and Trump on Thursday, he professed to say he didn't know what more could be done to put pressure on the dictatorship down there, because they're short of invasion and bombing, which we're not in the about to do. And John, you just mentioned nineteen seventy nine. We're doing a lot of nineteen seventy nine again, that's when the Shaw had to leave Iran
and the people were in the streets. I wanted to ask you, as the old NBC nukes guy and for the benefit of the new listeners in Michigan and Pensacola. John's news items is the sub stack I begin with every day and what you might want to subscribe to. If you want a new summary every morning, just look up news Items by John Ellison. You'll be able to subscribe when you're at NBC. It seemed to me that
the networks covered every day the Iranian revolution. I would sit in the office with Richard Nixon and Ray Price and we would watch every day the mobs that the crowds chant for the downfall, the show where are the networks right now? Are they not going to cover Iran? It's a funny thing.
One's difficult to get in, right, It's difficult to get accredited. So the British and French and a lot of the European journalists are in there, but US networks are.
Forbidden to go there. But you're right.
In nineteen seventy nine, actually the overthrow of the Shah and the rise of Viatola Homini led to a hostage crisis, as everybody remembers, and that hostage crisis became the show called Nightline, hosted by Ted Koppol who every single night, you know, day one sixty seven of the hostage crisis, Day one seventy of the hostage crisis. It carried through all the way to the presidential election and had a significant role in the regular landslide in nineteen eighty There's no doubt about that.
Well, I hope Starlink is up and running. Let's go from bad news to great news. You sent me the news about Rice. Rice rice and educate our audience because I think this is fabulous.
Well, there's a there's a report in the South China Morning Post that says that Chinese research have developed quote a form of hybrid rice that can replicate itself through seeds that are clones, preserving high yield traits generation after generation according to the development team, which means that the cost of seeds are collapse essentially, and the yield and
the ability to fight us increases exponentially. And so the theory is that you can with this technology drow twice as much rice as you have been able to grow in the past, and therefore feed twice as many people, which, given that roughly two and a quarter billion people are said to experience moderate or severe food insecurity, doubling the food supply of rice is an enormous, enormously good news.
All glory too. I think I've got the name right. Norman Borlock was the University of Minnesota researcher Iowa likes to always say he came from US who invented these kind of drought resistance seeds and genetically altered seeds. That's great news. Now from bad news to great news, let's go to weird News because you're weirded me out. When you told me about the Meta ray bands, I'm not sure I like this, but you tell us about them.
Well, Meta, which is Facebook, the parent company Facebook, has developed a smart glass, smart glasses. I'm wearing glasses and these would be if I had them meta eyes, they would be smart glasses, and they've partnered with ray band, try to be cool. But what the smart glasses enables is let's say that I go into a restaurant and you're over in the corner. I don't know who you are, but I see you over in the corner. I think I know who you are. I wonder who you are.
So I turn on my smart glasses, and my smart glasses look at you and they do a photo id rapidly as fast as the Internet can go, and up pop Set's Hugh Hewitt, and so you know, oh, Hugh Hewett. That's great. And then I say, well, I need to see his page. And so Wikipedia page comes down and there is everything there is about Hugh Hewitt. And then I say, well, let me let me see what his last three shows have been about, and that comes down
right in front of you. So that by the time I get to your table, I say, I say Hugh in a familiar sort of way, and I say, Hugh, I really enjoyed the show you did with President Trump the other day.
It was great. Yeah, that's so weird, John.
They're looking at me like, who is this guy?
Is so weird? I hope it doesn't work, but I think what you say that they it works. Yeah.
No.
The reason they stop shipping it overseas is because demand in the US is so high.
Well, every politician is going to everyone who looked for votes is going to demand that their staff have this on too. It'll be like the whisper behind the Pope. All right, I got to get the sleep FM because this is also great news. And I think it's great news. At least it's news that you can use.
Right.
So there's a there's a Stanford Medical School did this huge research project on people's sleep and they did so to figure if you could predict a person's risk of developing more than one hundred health conditions just by looking at the sleep data. And so they did this enormous AI undertaking. They analyzed more than a thousand disease categories in the health records and found one hundred and thirty could be predicted with reasonable accuracy by a patient's sleep data.
The model's predictions were particularly strong for cancers, pregnancy complications, circulatory conditions, and mental disorders. So you know, you can your wife can sneak in and put them put the helmet on you, and she can say you you're not at at risk for cancer.
That's good news. But we also have to sneak in before we're done with time. Don't buy Russian air defense systems, right, they're not worrying if that was the story.
I mean, the whole Russian military story is just an astonishing, you know, example of incompetence and just breaking down. I mean, the war that they were going to win in three days in Ukraine is now in year four. And the air defense system that they had in Ukraine, I mean in Venezuela didn't work.
Like it didn't work in Iran. John Ellis always good to talk. You followed John on x at Ellis items and subscribe to news items if you want to be informed in about fifteen minutes every morning. It's a substact. Just googled John Ellison the news items. You'll go there. It's fabulous. Thank you, John, I'll be right back in America's pictures. Welcome back in America on you, Hewett. And we are all lucky to have Eli Lake in the house. Eli Lake is with the Free Press. He's also the
host of the Breaking History podcast, which is fabulous. But when I say there may be a dozen Americans upon whom you can rely when the news turns to Iran, and Elia is one of them, just trust me on this. He's been covering Iran in a way that very few people careem sad you pour over Carnegie. I think af Sean Austavar, who wrote The Vanguard, or the m Mom, Michael Duran. There are a number of people who cover but I don't know anyone Eli, who's covered Iran as
long as you that I talked to. So just give us your assessment of what is happening and what this weekend might bring.
Well, I wouldn't start off by saying that there's a lot that we don't know, and we have to accept that there are dynamics that we can't possibly know. And even I don't think you know, the CIA and the Massade would know. And that is what is the mentality of the mid level officers in the BASIG which is their militia, the MOIS which is their intelligence services, and
the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Because I think that at a certain point, the way that revolutions are successful is when there is an understanding that the commanding officer in the street will not follow the orders to fire on the crowds. And the fact that Donald Trump has credibly threatened the regime if they fire on the crowds, and they have there has been I think, you know, some say as many of forty have been killed. That might give people pause because I mean, look at what just
happened to Nicholas Medora. So that's the first thing. We don't know what that dynamic is. By way of historical president, it wasn't just the big crowds that came out against the Shah Rezapalavi in nineteen seventy eight that forced the Shah to leave. It was the fact that there was a kind of amnesty that was communicated from Iatola Komani when he was in Paris to the military that said, if you do not fire on the on the crowds, if you do not make the arrests, then things will
be okay for you now. Very important to note I Toolakomany as soon as he came into power, violated his promise. He was lying, and he did target the military leadership in incredibly cruel show trials that lasted in some cases maybe twenty minutes and then led immediately to a horrific kind of executions. They were covered all over the newspapers. It was absolutely terrifying, kind of real jacub in moment. But that is in some ways the kind of communications
that we have to see right now. I think the local police in the big cities we've already seen reports are basically with the protesters. I wouldn't be surprised if the kind of very neutered and not as powerful Iranian army, not the IRGC, was with the protesters, but those key institutions. Now here's where I would say it's different than before.
The first thing is this that ring of fire meant that the Iranians had the proxy network in the region, meant they could call up non Iranians, they could call up Lebanese Hesbalah other Arabs forces that were part of their broader kind of regional strategy to do violence against their own citizens. I don't think they have that option good option anymore. Number Two, the economic crisis is worse than it's been compounded by a potable drinking water crisis.
A few months ago, we started seeing messages from the president saying we're gonna have to start rationeting drinking water. That is an extraordinary statement in a country with as many natural resources as Iran. And then add to all of that the humiliation of the Twelve Day war. That was when you know, the Israelis and the US knew where Kamena was and he was in an undisclosed location and they made it clear that they could kill him, and he was hiding from the public for the whole
duration of the war. That kind of humiliation also has an effect on everybody else, all of the other henchmen and goons around him. That is the kind of thing that the Iranian people see, and you know, we're already seeing like the energy of the regime, the ideology. This is an Islamic republic. They believed that they had a mandate.
They never did, but they believe they had a mandate from the Iranian people to create this kind of Islamic fascist regime that relied on things like women dressing modestly and having go.
The ware of the Hajjab.
They were unable to enforce the Hjjab mandate only a few years after the original women life freedom protests after the killing of Masa Alani Ashad. That is very important because it means like the kind of reason to exist if you're the Islamic Republic no longer has purchased from most of the Iranian people.
All of those are very important. Let me bring up finally a detail that I read yesterday. I read this more. There was a bank run yesterday and Tehran and whatever small worth the weal has, people are trying to get as much as they can out of the banks beforehand. As President Trump told me on Thursday and then he told Sean Henity on Thursday night, he'll hit them very hard. He gave them a little bit of an out for the deaths that have occurred today, blaming it on stampede.
But where would he hit them, Eli, from your perspective, that would hit them very hard.
Well, certainly he can target you know, the sort of symbol the buildings of Regima pressions, the irgy headquarters, things like that, those kinds of things ev in prison where there were so many political prisoners that would be good, and then I think there's an implicit threat that he'll
kill comedy. I mean, we remember the Israelis were able to pinpoint the entire military leadership right and get them to go to a meeting which was a pretext, which was kind of a because they'd hack their communitys and then blew them up in a meeting they thought was supposed to be, you know, the plan the response to the Israeli war. So that's you know, I would if I was in the leadership class, I'd be very worried
about that. And then I'd say the final thing is that we've seen enough slogans calling for the restoration of the Polavi dynasty. That is an extraordinary thing as a fan of history.
Hugh Hewett.
I'm not saying it's going to happen.
I don't think we necessarily know, but what an amazing moment if that we really saw the Islamic Revolution as only like a kind of you know, forty seven year interregnum between what has been the traditional form of governing, which is a kind of you know, I would hope it to be a constitutional monarchy, but Iran has had kings going back to the chemended Persian Empire. And the thing was that Colmene was saying, this is the end of
Iranian kings. What it wouldn't it be interesting if his regime fell, only to see the restoration the son of the Shah that was exiled and the.
Great Persia of old, the Cyrus of old, comeback eli very quickly. I watched this on television with Ray Price on one side and Richard Nixon on the other side. When I was a young editorial Assisiant to RN and Exile and San Clementy. It was twenty four to seven on the three networks, and I think CNN and seventy eight and seventy nine. Where are the networks? Where's the American media? This is the biggest story in the world.
Well, I mean, like, I don't know what to say. In my view, there's enough video that there's no excuse for it at this point. I mean, I don't have any insight into CBS, even though we're now part of the same company, but I know that CBS has done some work on it. I probably expect more, But I agree with you, it's a huge story at this point.
It's not hype.
And even if this doesn't work this time, it's the beginning of the end. It changes. I mean at this point, I think the regime has been exposed. It's illegitimate, and I think that that changes the calculus. I don't think there are any more deals. Even if there's a democratic president and they're still kind of limping along. There's no way you can get back to the kind of Obama diplomacy. What business, what bank, what oil company would want to do business with this regime given what we're seeing.
Right now, well said, and if they massacre people, I hope it's not just the United States who respond. Eli Lake can be followed on x at Eli Lake at the Free Press, Way Rights frequently so of course breaking history. One of you are muck listening to podcasts, maybe you'll be telling you about from the show to the Crown Prince Since thank you, Eli Lake. Good morning, Gloria and Amy Grace America. I'm Hugh Hewett, proud to welcome back to the UUs Show President Donald Trump. Happy new year,
mister Trump. Good to have you back.
Well, thank you very much, you.
Thank you very much. I don't want to waste your time, so I'm going to dive right in and begin with Iran. Michael Durant at the Hudson Institute says, the regime there is failing. They have fuel shortages, electricity shortages, water shortage. Reem Sajiport. Carnegie is posting the videos of the spreading protests.
Mark Dubovitz. So this is a quote. If President Trump brings down the Islamic Republic of Iran, he will cement his place as the greatest foreign policy presidents in Toronald Reagan, I think it would.
Actually I already did that.
I thought I was just about that with Midnight Hammer. You did that?
How much?
Well can I do?
You know? We just had Venezuela, which has had Midnight Hammer. We settled eight wars, eight in the quarter. But I'm willing to accept that. I'm willing to accept it.
What about Iran? Is the aim with Iran the collapse of that awful forty seven year tyranny.
Well, I don't want to say it, but I will tell you they're not doing well. As you know, probably better than anybody. They're doing very poorly. And I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots, they have lots of riots. If they do it, we're going to hit them very hard.
Now, dozens have been killed. I know you don't do red lines, but if you communicated to them what that limit of your patience is.
Well, some have been killed by problems of crowd control and other things. We're watching it very closely. The crowds are so large. There's been a stampede. There's been three stampedes, and people have been killed in that. And I'm not sure I can necessarily hold somebody responsible for that. But they know, and they've been told very strongly, even more strongly than I'm speaking to you right now, that if they do that, they're going to have to pay. Hell.
Do you have a message for the people of Iran, President Trunk?
All I can say is you should. You should feel strongly about freedom. There's nothing like freedom, your brave people. It's a shame what's happened to your country. Your country was a great country. I remember years ago when I was a young real estate developer. Friends of mine went to Iran and they did great. They built buildings in Iran. They're still up, barely by the way, but they're still up. I see pictures of the apartment houses and they did
very well in Iran. They've passed away. They were very successful developers. They were great people, mostly New York developments, but they went to Iran and they built some pretty good jobs in Iran. And I remember they were saying that people are great. The whole place was great. It was a tremendous market. And now you look at it, Look what's happened.
I sat in the office of former President Nixon with Great Price on a couch with our end watching the fall of the shot, and he just kept shaking his head. He couldn't believe Jimmy Carter was letting it happen. Would you meet with Crown Prince Poblby Poblai, who is the heir to the constitutional monarchy. He doesn't want to rule. He would be a symbolic ruler like King Charles Well.
I've watched him and he seemed like a nice person. But I'm not sure that it would be appropriate at this point to do that. As president. I think that we should let everybody go out there and we see who emerges. I'm not sure necessarily that I it would be an appropriate thing to do.
Let me switch to China, mister President, last time we talked, and now he's ask you this. I asked you about Jimmy Lai, who was dying in real time. He's been convicted. Have you talked to Jijenping? I know you get along with it.
I have. I have. I talked to him, and I mentioned Jimmy Lae. I don't know Jimmy Lai. I know of Jimmy Lai, and he was an activist, to put it mildly by a positive activist. But if you're Presidency, he wasn't a positive activist. I spoke to Presidency when I was in South Korea and we had a great talk about it, and I left it with him. He didn't give me an answer one way or the other. But obviously so far it hasn't been I got a
lot of other answers that turned out positive. I haven't heard back on that one.
If Jimmy Lai was free, would you consider that to be a very significant gesture by China?
I would. I think it would be a great thing. I think I told Presidency that he's an old man who's very sick. I met his son, who was a very nice young man who loves his father a lot. His son is the primary person that's working very hard to get him out, and I felt I owed it to the son. I like the son. I mean, look, I don't know him, but I met him fairly briefly. But I love that he was fighting hard for his father.
I thought that was I'd like to see sons that fight hard for fathers, and he was certainly doing that. And I mentioned it during my meeting early on in my meeting as a list of things that I'd like to talk about, but we have not heard back on that one.
All right, let me turn to Cuba, mister president. For sixty seven years, that police state dictatorship has sucked the life blood out of the people of that island. Is it time to increase the pressure there, maybe even quarantine it as you have Venezuela.
Well, I don't think you could have much more pressure other than going in and blasting the hell out of the place. Look, they are their whole life blood, their whole life was Venezuela. They got their oil, they got their money from Venezuela. And as you know, our great soldiers when and we had nobody killed, they lost many Cuban fighters during that battle. Many amazing job that the American soldiers had led by a man who happens to be sitting right next to me. General Caine a job.
What a job he did, and Pete Hegseth did, and the whole group, what a job they all did. It's amazing. Actually, John Ratcliffe is walking in, Marco Rubio is walking in. We have a whole group of people here. They're all fans of yours. They're not walking in to listen to this call. They just happened to be walking in for the next meeting.
I got a little advice for you, mister President. Don't play golf and give strokes to Director Ratcliffe. Don't do that. Don't give many strokes.
He's a good golfer and a very he's a very good guy too.
Back to Cuba, Miguel Diaz Canal, do you think he could fall like Haminy and Iran might fall?
Yeah? I think I Look, I think that Cuba is hanging by a thread. Cuba's in big trouble. Look, Cuba got all of its money for protecting. They were like a protector. They're tough, strong people, they're great people. Marco has a little Cuban blood in him. I think Marco's not doing a bad job, right? What do you think? Can I ask you one question? How is Marco Rubio doing?
Is the equal of any secretary of State of my lifetime. And I'm glad he's not taking the Dolphins job. He should work for the Browns. If he leaves your administration, that's right, all right.
He goes will be successful. But no, I think that I think that Cuba is really in a lot of trouble. But you know, people have been saying that for many years, in all fairness about Cuban. Cuba has been in trouble for the last forty five years, and you know they haven't quite gone down, but I think they're pretty close of their own volition.
I want to try and define the Trump doctrine, mister President. I've been trying to do it on the air. It's down to that, don't kill or threaten Americans or our property or American security in general, or we will hit you very very hard.
Is that the and included in theirs don't send drugs and don't send things that are going to kill our people. But you can you can sort of make the savement that you've indirectly said that, but it's a pretty direct staatement, don't send drugs into our country.
It's a great doctrine. Now the next question. I'm a Salem host of Fox Contributors. This is a bit unusual. Brett Bair does the best interviews with you. I'm exempting myself from consideration, but I think you got to give Tony Dokapohl a chance over at CBS to see if they've really changed their ways. Is that on the agenda.
Well, it hasn't been on the agenda, but if you recommend it, I would do it. I have a lot of respect for you, as you know, and I think you're doing a great job. And you've done a great job. You went a little bit liberal on us for a while when you were at NBC Indy. I can't believe. I couldn't believe you sitting on NBC trying to answer questions that you didn't believe in. You only gave them partial answers. You were never fully there, but you couldn't
get out fast enough. It was very fun to watch it.
I'm happy with sailing.
I hear good things about Tony, and I can tell you that David Ellison is a fantastic guy, and his father, Larry is one of the great been good friends of mine, both of them, but David's doing a fantastic job, and they feel very strongly about Tony.
Yeah, I don't want Barry Weiss and Tony to overtake Fox and Salem, but I would like you to give him a shot to see if he's got the chop.
Well, it's been important to you, I do it. No are your good things about Tony?
Now? You gave two hours of The New York Times yesterday. I appreciate you. The most successful president to the media in history, actually, but I would like to see you sit down with Matt Contnetty, Guy Benson, Spencer Brown, Mary Catherine Ham, the Mandels, Philip Wegaman. All of our superstar youngster people are under forty forty five? Is that on the agenda Sometimes to sit down with.
Arthur would be I mean, they have to ask, and it would be I certainly like all the names that you mentioned, And I will say that I think the Times treated me pretty fairly yesterday.
Well interesting, I haven't read it yet, the trans skeptis and outs.
I'm waiting for the shock and it's a little hard not to. We have the greatest potential economy in history. We have eighteen trillion dollars coming in. The record is three and that was from many, many years ago. We have something that just took place with Venezuela that everybody considered as one of the most brilliant attacks they've ever seen. And you know we had we lost no people in the middle of a fort. Don't forget that house was built in the middle of a fort with thousands of soldiers.
They lost quite a few people. I hate to say that.
I talked to an active duty naval officer yesterday who's very jealous that they were not there because it was such an extraordinary mission.
You know what, we had an extraordinary attack a few months ago in a place called Iran. We knocked out the Iran nuclear threat and it was obliterated. And we also took out Solomoni and we took out Al Bagdaddy. So we've had some good attacks so far. We haven't had the Afghanistan disaster. That was the lowest point I think in the history of our country, Biden. But if you look also the Jimmy Carter disaster, that was a disaster with the hostages, and you know, when we.
Were very democratic, President A disaster.
Two planes. I said, I hope it's not a Jimmy Carter deal, Carter.
Clinton, Obama, Biden. They've all been disasters in national security. Let me ask you about it.
I haven't had I haven't had any disaster.
Yet, and I hope it stays that way.
I hope the word yet is going to disappear.
Yeah, well, we got to talk about the Golden Fleet, because this is important. I want to take my hat off to you. On the Golden Fleet. We need guided missile frigates and attack submarines and the Columbia class. And the worst way is there going to be enough money in the budget to get everything built that we need, including new shipyards.
Well, we are going to have plenty of money. And if you notice what I did yesterday, I told all defence companies there's going to be no more buybacks. You're going to put the money into building new plant and equipment, and there's going to be no more stock options, and there's going to be no more salaries of fifty million dollars a year. You're going to put the money in.
We're going to have a capped at five million dollars and that's effective immediately and all that money that they're sending out is going to have to be and you know what, the stock prices went up. The reason is I also put out a statement, a secondary statement, saying that next year we expect to have one point five trillion in defense budget. And we're also building battleships. You know,
we're building great battleships. We have twenty five on schedule, but we're going to start with ten and then we'll see how that all goes. But we're going to build battleships. And you know, I thought, you remember from Victory at sea. You take a look at those great gorgeous ships, the Iowa, the Alabama, the Missouri, those great ships and if you see you know what I'm talking.
Oh yeah, provided they've got lots of missile tubes on it. I'm all for them. The more missile tubes that see, the better.
I said, why don't we take some of them out of bathballs. The new ships will be one hundred times more powerful than the those battleships that we so admired.
Now, I know you're up up upping the construction at Philadelphia Shipyard and enhancing its capacity.
And numerous others. Yeah, I was wondering are you gonna build walk into the shipbuilding business?
That is that's the best news. Do people understand how important that is to the economy.
I think they know. But the Philadelphia yard is one of the yards that's going to be opened up. But we have numerous yards that are opened up. Some of those yards have been built up by housing projects. You know, they're all in the water, so they tended to be in nice locations. But we have many yards opening up, and we're going to be very much back in the
shipbuilding business. And in some cases we're partnering with South Korea and others initially because we have to get you know, we used to make almost the ship a day during World War Two and then we just totally got out of that business stupidly. But we're back in the shipbuilding business.
We have to be all right now. I want to switch to one of my other favorite topics with image President of the Supreme Court. I know you don't expect a retirement in the spring, but if one happens, you've appointed sixty Appeals Court judges. Would you expect to take either a runner up from last time I Judge Catlidge or one of your appointees. Judge row is fifty three on the DC Circuit. Judge Rushing on the fourth is forty three. Judge strass On the eighth is fifty one.
A MultiPar is fifty six. Don Willet's sixty. Then you got Senator Cruz is fifty five, and he got District Court Judge Eileen Cannon. I think she did a good job in the Florida case. She's forty five. Yeps.
She did a great job. She's a great judge.
Yes she did, and she came to the right constitutional conclusion about the illegality of the appointment.
Highly respected. Yeah, So those are all great names. Every one of those names is a great name. Now, Ted Cruz. The nice one about him is we'd get a one hundred percent approval. Every Democrat would vote yes, and every Republican would vote yes because they would love to get him the hell out of the Senate, all of them, so that he's the only one that would be a guaranteed confirmation. And he's a smart guy, he's a good guy. And I say that joke, but I always say Ted
would get a one hundred percent approval. The Democrats want him out, the Republicans want him out, and he'd do great, and he's smart. But all of the names that you mentioned are great names, every one of them.
I know who is advising you on judges this term as Leonard is not and the Federal Society is not.
Well. I'm using some people actually that you know, i'd rather tell you on a personal prisis not on a phone call. But I have some very good people that are advising me, people that you know in respect.
I am the legislative agenda for this year. I know I watched your talk to the Republicans at the Trump County Center, and I know you talked about healthcare. That would be great, but it would be easier to get done if you have bundled it with, for example, the Dreamers Act, the AM Radio in Every Car Act, both of those have got super majority. Do you think that's the strategy, Bundle healthcare with very popular laws, get them to the floor and move them.
Well. I think healthcare is so big and so important that it probably supersedes some slightly less you know, a very popular thing, but less important. I like the AM in every car, the AM radio in every car. I like that. I'm in favor of it. It's interesting. A lot of people don't know about that, but it's actually a very big subject.
So it's a huge deal.
It's a hugee We're going to be doing something on that. All of the things you mentioned I like, but I think healthcare is so big and so powerful it's going to really going to have to stand in his own way, all right, So I want, you know, with healthcare, it's pretty simple. I want because if you take a look, I don't know if you study insurance companies, but these
guys have made literally trillions of dollars. I want the money to go directly to the people and let the people buy their own healthcare, and everybody loves it.
I do too. I think that would be a genius. I just think to get Democratic vote you might have to put the Dreamers Act in or the Radio Act in along with.
The Democrats is they're totally in bed with the insurance companies. And what you know, what I'm doing is the exact opposite. I'm giving the money to the people. They've given the money to the insurance companies. It's hard for them to vote against the insurance companies who have made a fortune because of the Democrats.
Now, miss President, when we have that sit down that privately talk about judges. I would like to talk to you about Richard Nixon because I believe your understanding of American power projection is very similar to his. And I think he also liked to keep people guessing. Some people call it the Madman theory. I just thought it was a strategic sense. Do you think that comparison is apt?
Well, look, I don't know. We're just respected. We're respected again as a country, and I'm respected, but we're respected. We had a president who shouldn't have been there. First of all, it was a rigged election, and that's now coming out loud and clear. But we knew that. I knew that four years ago. But it was just a rigged, horrible election, and that's where we got. We got a man that allowed millions of people into our country from jails and mental institutions and drug dealers and shame that
what Biden was just a horrible president. And you know, if she would have won, which is the equivalent, if she would have won, our country would have been right now Venezuela on steria a disaster.
A disaster, and Tim Walls would have been the vice president instead of vice president vance, I can't believe it. Let me turn to politics in my last couple of minutes, mister President, I want to honor your time. You crush the debates in twenty fifteen sixteen, The last one was just Secretary Rubio, Senator Cruzer. We've talked about Governor Khenu, and then there were no more. You skip the debates
in twenty five, twenty three, twenty four. You will control, you will whether or not the GOP has debates in twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight. Do you think they are a good thing for the party or a bad thing? Do you want to have them or do you not want to have them?
Well, I always liked them. For me, I love debating. But I think I did the right thing. I had, you know, ten people, they're all smart people, they're you know, governors and senators, and I figured, why should I allow myself to be whacked by all ten people. At the same time, I think I did a very fun A lot of people said you have to be in the debate. I said, I don't think I do, and then I had the debate with Biden, which turned out to be a good debate. I don't think I got enough credit
for that debate because I made him choke. But he didn't do well in that debate. And the interesting thing is, without that debate, would he have been allowed to continue running. Uh?
Yes, he would have been. And that would have been a disaster for the party, even worse than Kamala Harris, because you can't hide the fact he was infirm. He was infirm, he wasn't there.
Well, he didn't do too well, I would say that.
So let's talk about the Democrats to wrap.
Up, is not the greatest go ahead?
Who is the strongest Democrat in twenty twenty eight? Gavin Newsom, AOC, Jasmine Crockett, Jared Poulos in Colorado, Chris van Holland, Wes Moore, Andy Bisher. Who's their best choice?
You know, as you rattle off those names, I'm just seeing in't and amazing. With three hundred and fifty people, of course, we have no idea that Biden let him so many nobody knows. But with let's say three hundred and fifty people, that that's the best they can do, it's pretty sad. I think Newsom's hurt because he's done so badly in California. He has he's done so so badly. I just you know, look, he's a sort of a
good politician, but he doesn't get the job done. I think people are going to people aren't going to stand for that. There's nobody. I do have a couple of people that I think would be really tough candidates, but I don't want to name him because not chosen.
Well, that does make some sense to me. Okay, let's close with mister mayor, Mom Donnie, and you decide when to conclude the interview. Mister President, I know you love New York City. It's going to be a nightmare. I've only lived there once. I've only lived there in nineteen eighty. It's going to be worse than nineteen eighty, which was damn bad and I left and went to law school because it was so bad. Will the city be able to recover after Mom, Donnie.
Well, it's going to be interesting. You know, I've met him. He came to the Oval offices and we've had some nice conversations, are very good. And then he hit me a little bit on the tremendous victory. And you would say it was a tremendous victory on Venezuela and I said, gee, I thought he would have at least waited a month. I was surprised that he hit me on that, but he did. You know, so what are you going to do? Kid?
I expected it. I just thought it would be maybe three or four weeks instead of immediately, because I do get along with him. He's got a great personality, is a nice guy. His policies are not good, but maybe he changes, you know. That's what I would view because I want to do everything I can to help New York. So I don't know. I hope you're wrong. I hope New York is thrive, will thrive. But typically those policies, maybe you say not only typically in history, those policies have never worked.
They did never work. The last thing I'll say to him, this, President, Golden Dome is the most important legacy you're going to leave if it gets built. I've read some studies that say Ravenna, Ohio is where the hubb out would be for space force to control that because of the polar ice cap. Have you decided where the central location of Golden Dome will be yet? No?
But I love Ohio. I can tell you that, and I've worn Ohio big every sing every time, and everybody I've endorsed from Ohio is one, and you know, it's been great. But I've heard that's one of the people, one of the places very much being considered.
All Right, mister President, thank you for the time. I appreciate it. Come back again soon and I look forward to talking to you again. Congratulations on a great first year in your second term.
Thank you very much. You take care of yourself. Thank you. Bye.