00:14:41.840But ultimately, their economy, because of the Chinese economy slowdown, because of the decoupling that President Trump is already working on in terms of tariffs,
00:14:51.520that has been a way to put the pressure further and further towards the Chinese Communist Party.
00:14:58.500by saying, look, if you don't have that full employment, and Xi Van Fleet, you know better
00:15:03.260than anyone, what is the ability of the United States to decouple? What would that do to undercut
00:15:09.720the leverage and the influence of CCP in their own country? Yeah, we already see it. And this
00:15:16.340is not being reported widely. China is in shambles. And the stories we hear from inside China
00:15:27.400is that economy is so bad and there's a lot of business closing and the people i know who were
00:15:35.280complained that you know just a few years ago they complained there's no more bonuses and today
00:15:40.860they'll complain they're worried about their jobs there are so many people losing their jobs and
00:15:46.340young graduates from college have no jobs and they all they wanted is a job that pays
00:15:53.1803,000 yuan a month, which is like $600. And they can't even get that. And everything is
00:16:04.100just really in disarray. And I really think there's a lot of problem with still a lot of
00:16:11.780elite here. They refuse to see the reality. They still see China as strong. And I just heard
00:16:18.560an interview with this political science professor of Chicago University named Robert Pape. I think
00:16:27.140that's his last name. And he was just yesterday. He said China is 20 years ahead of us. And he
00:16:34.420gave an example that in China, they apply AI, not just in the company, not just in the industry,
00:17:40.580it's not competitor it's not partner it's enemy
00:17:44.560and the idea is that they'd want to come in and they could by the way help out on so many of
00:17:56.380these things they could help out on iran they could help out on russia they could help out in
00:18:00.840so many places but they don't actually view themselves as peacemakers because they are the
00:18:06.240ones behind so many of these things. Isn't that true? Their enemy, the top enemy is the United
00:18:13.120States. And it's not just today. It's not just yesterday. It is in the DNA of CCP. It's in the
00:18:21.200day that it was founded in 1921 by the Russians. That was their goal. Their goal was to defeat
00:18:29.660capitalism, Christianity, and the United States. That is always there. When they are weak,
00:18:37.600they pretend that they're just like, you know, reformers. And as soon as Xi Jinping took over
00:18:46.080in 2012, he showed his teeth because he believed that now he's strong enough. And this is something
00:18:53.320And I really, really want American people to understand CCP view America always, always as their enemy.
00:19:05.980And I remember this from when I was there.
00:19:08.340I remember this from traveling there, from living there for two years, learning Mandarin, that they view America as with.
00:19:17.340And it's interesting because they have respect for what America's position was in the world as the number one.
00:19:25.420But I can remember them saying, we view you as number one.
00:19:29.500Our goal is to take you down and to put us in your place.
00:19:33.900Exactly. And this is something I think, of course, without the help of the mainstream media and people just don't know.
00:19:42.080People still view China as just a normal country. It is not.
00:19:46.880It is a communist country. It's not a capitalist country. And we don't have to argue. Look at that. Look at the sign. There's a hammer and a sickle. And also the other thing, as long as you see Chairman Mao's portrait hanging on the Tiananmen Square Tower, you know it is a communist country.
00:20:06.200And we have to regard it that way. And today, not only CCP is our primary threat, communism itself is our greatest threat. And communism is not over there. It is here, here in America, here in our institutions, and here in, you know, especially educational system.
00:20:29.840They're absolutely controlled by the American Marxists, American communists.
00:20:36.040So our enemy is both CCP and communism.
00:20:41.460Tell us again about your book, because you're talking about the power of economic leverage.
00:20:47.620That's really the best way to fight back here.
00:26:10.120What we've done is actually pivot so much of our military away from Asia, back to the Middle East.
00:26:17.060Yeah, but this is exactly what I mean.
00:26:20.440I'm kind of hoping that they were forced into it, Jack, because it doesn't look like naturally the blob is going to let this entire, this giant ship that we're on with foreign policy.
00:26:30.400It's not like they're going to let it change course in a second.
00:26:32.680This is going to be a huge correction.
00:26:34.220It would take a huge correction. But again, you said before, you know, what is it that they need?
00:26:39.060It's a misnomer that China's economy is doing great. It's not like they're hot on fire over there.
00:26:43.580We have economic things we can give them. And for those of us who were very reluctant to get into the Middle East and see this war kick off because of concerns like this.
00:26:53.640Again, I'll take it any way I can get it, brother. Give it to them. Let's move forward.
00:26:58.340yeah and i would say you know i would obviously say short of you know short of of course you know
00:27:05.580taiwan recognition or something like that but perhaps that's not a deal on that's not on the
00:27:11.360table right of course it's not on the table but you know some some sort of economic package where
00:27:16.680look and and this is the way that i've always seen it described is that you know the u.s and china
00:27:21.340are always going to have a relationship and it's probably better for the world that we do right
00:27:26.960It's probably in general better for the world if we do rather than try to, you know, isolate and cut everyone off like we did with Russia.
00:27:34.640And what did that do? That just pushed Russia into a corner and it didn't end the Ukraine war.
00:27:39.060It prolonged it. And it continues today for, you know, what, four and a half years almost now that it's been going.
00:27:45.760And so that was a complete failure. If you wanted to, quote unquote, change Russia's behavior, you back them into the corner.
00:27:53.400That being said, when it comes to China, you have to recalibrate.
00:28:00.800You have to to shake the relationship up there.
00:28:04.160But at the same time, say, look, we need this thing with Iran.
00:28:08.060We know that China came in with Syria in the past when there were chemical weapons concerns.
00:28:12.820China was someone who came in that was seen as a neutral party, in a sense, and was able to come in there.
00:28:18.840I think they could play the same role with Tehran or with Tehran.
00:28:23.720We would just have to make it worth their while.
00:28:25.820Let me just clarify, too, by saying the piggybacking off of what you just said, what you just described was a giant balancing coalition that our policy in Eastern Europe and elsewhere led to balancing against us now.
00:28:38.820You know, so the Russia, China, even India, you know, kind of anti U.S. or anti NATO balancing coalition cannot be allowed to form.
00:28:45.760But that when I said give it to them, just to clarify, not the, you know, the factories on foreign soil, Jack, that is an absolute political catastrophe in the making.
00:28:57.040So don't do it. I see those things as I'm going to tell you right now.
00:28:59.860I see the factories on foreign soil and the EV licenses. That is a wish list.
00:29:04.840That's wish casting from the U.S. chamber. I said that a war room this morning.
00:29:08.640They're the ones trying to put that out there. That's what they want.
00:29:11.480That is not what President Trump is putting on the table.
00:29:15.080Yeah, I mean, look, that's not going to fly with not only his base.
00:29:20.360I think that wouldn't fly beyond even his base.
00:29:23.300But again, I cannot see him doing that.
00:29:27.180And look, there are these exemptions for the oil embargo,
00:29:31.920which once upon a time in Trump's first administration,
00:29:34.400he would slap them with those and it hurt their revenue, Iran's revenue.
00:43:44.400Well, I couldn't agree more. This recalibration, and I really hope that that's what comes out of this summit.
00:43:51.240Obviously, it's hope for, you know, some mediation perhaps or leverage over Iran, shut down that.
00:43:57.700because this Iran situation that we're also looking at, I know that's been one of the big
00:44:03.020overhanging questions of the summit with Beijing, is the price of fuel as it's bottled up out of
00:44:11.000the Strait of Hormuz, as those tankers still haven't just begun flowing the way that the way
00:44:16.540they normally do. That has risen or caused the price of gas to rise so much here at home. And
00:44:23.140a lot of people have looked at that and saying, OK, well, it's a bottleneck situation. What are
00:44:27.160we going to do? We need a deal. The deal hasn't come. Iranians were countering, et cetera, et
00:44:31.600cetera. You, though, have perhaps a way to help Americans directly find relief while the
00:44:38.480geopolitics play out on the world stage. Yeah, let's suspend the gas tax. Easy. Federal gas tax
00:44:44.200is about 20 cents a gallon. Diesel, it's even a little bit higher. Let's suspend them both.
00:44:48.980I mean, let's just cut taxes right now. I thought that's what Republicans were good for. So let's
00:44:52.780do it. Let's cut taxes for the American people on gas and diesel. Let's do it immediately.
00:44:57.960The president endorsed this yesterday. He talked it up big in the Oval Office. I was
00:45:01.940delighted when he did, and I hope that Republicans will take his leadership on this. This is
00:45:05.980the right thing to do. We need to give the American people relief. You know, you just
00:45:10.300mentioned China and the straight. I hope the president will make this straight issue China's
00:45:13.980problem. They get most of their oil out of the straight. We don't, but the bottleneck
00:45:18.100in the straight is driving up prices for the American people. Let's give them a tax cut.
00:45:22.780So how does that work going forward? This is obviously different from, of course, you remember when when Biden was draining our strategic petroleum reserves during the, you know, during the onset of the Ukraine war when that was going on, which wasn't, by the way, wasn't even something that we were involved in, except that Biden wanted us to be in.
00:45:42.520Now, that was something, though, that the president could do by himself when it comes to suspending the gas tax. What's the procedure there?
00:45:49.240Congress has to pass it. Congress has got to do it by statute. That's why I've introduced
00:45:52.660legislation that would do it immediately. It would suspend that tax for 90 days,
00:45:56.860and then it would give the president the authority to suspend it for another 90 days
00:46:01.500without having to come back to Congress if he deems that it's necessary for our economic
00:46:05.760well-being and national security. So, you know, we're looking at half a year at least
00:46:09.700of cutting that tax. And, you know, that's real money. I mean, that's 20 cents right
00:46:14.480off the top. In my state, that would make a huge difference. It's huge for farmers who
00:46:18.820are paying diesel, who are using diesel. They would take a little more than 20 off the top
00:46:22.480for them. And my view is, why not do it? Why not give the American people that relief?
00:46:26.940I also think it strengthens our hands, frankly, in negotiations with Iran. Iran is counting
00:46:31.140on the fact that the pain that we're paying at the pump, that we're feeling at the pump,
00:46:35.980the prices that we're paying will ultimately squeeze the president. Well, we can relieve
00:46:39.820some of that pressure. You know, Iran has the pressure here. We ought to keep up the
00:46:43.120pressure on them. Let's take the pressure off the American people. Well, it's certainly something.
00:46:48.900And by the way, last time I checked, not exactly a partisan issue, is it? Well, it shouldn't be.
00:46:54.060I mean, this is going to be a real test now because the Democrats have been saying for the
00:46:57.180last two months, well, hey, let's cut the gas tax. Okay. President Trump comes out and says,
00:47:01.820yeah, let's do, let's do that. Okay. Well, I'm going to, let's see how many Democrats now are
00:47:05.460for it. I want to give them the opportunity to vote on this. They thought it's such a good idea.
00:47:09.440And by the way, Democrats have voted for this in the past under Democrat presidents. So
00:47:13.000let's have a vote let's just see who is actually for helping the american people and who just
00:47:17.380wants to score political points but make no mistake cutting that tax right now huge help
00:47:21.920to every single american so pass the legislation it gets done by statute that of course means it's
00:47:29.580got to come up to a vote is this something walk us through just you know the senate procedure on this
00:47:34.060because we had the save act situation save america act and a lot of people saying wait a minute that
00:47:40.160didn't happen, that seemed to run into all these procedural hurdles here. How do we get around that?
00:47:46.660Well, this could go on the Senate floor tomorrow if the majority leader wanted to put it on the
00:47:50.600floor. Here's how the Senate rules work. The majority leader, Senator Thune, controls the
00:47:54.360floor. It's one of the big privileges of being majority leader. It is a very powerful privilege.
00:47:58.740He controls the floor. He could put the gas tax cut on the floor today, tomorrow, whenever he wants.
00:48:04.680He could set it for a vote. You know, under the Senate rules, it would need 60 votes. So you'd
00:48:08.480need to get all the Republicans, seven Democrats. But that's what I say. Let's put these people
00:48:12.380on the record. I mean, let's see who is for higher taxes on the American worker in a time
00:48:17.160of war. Let's find out. Let's just find out. I predict it would pass. It goes over to the
00:48:20.780House, pass that thing through. Jack, this whole thing could be done in a couple of days
00:48:24.880if there was the will to do it. There needs to be the will to do it because the American
00:48:29.540people need the relief. We need to put the pressure back on Iran. This is a great way
00:48:33.280to do both things at one time. Well, I think it would be excellent, Senator. I couldn't
00:48:38.460agree more. We saw the president talking about that. I do have you for one more minute. If you'd
00:48:43.480permit me, I did also see the president tweeting about another piece or posting, true thing about
00:48:48.600another piece of legislation in the Senate, the Housing Act, the Road to Housing Act.
00:48:53.720Wanted to ask your views on that. I know that the big push is try to get these big institutional
00:48:59.140buyers out of the housing market, make it more available for single payer. Do you think this
00:49:05.360is the right bill for it. You know, I'm all for anything we can do to get the big Wall Street guys
00:49:10.400out of buying single-family homes. This is happening in Missouri. It's happening everywhere.
00:49:14.720These Wall Street banks and investment funds are coming in, and they're buying up single-family
00:49:18.200homes, taking them off the market, turning them into rental properties. That drives up the cost
00:49:22.700for folks who are trying to get their first house. We're talking about working people. This is the
00:49:27.160backbone of the Trump-Republican coalition. Folks want to be able to buy their own homes. Young men
00:49:33.180starting their families. They need to be able to get a home. To have these Wall Street banks
00:49:37.120and investment companies, hedge funds coming in and buying them all up is ridiculous. It
00:49:41.480is ridiculous. We ought to say, listen, you want to go build homes on your own, Wall Street? Go
00:49:45.720ahead. Fine. You want to build condos? Whatever. But you should not be able to come in and buy up
00:49:51.180single-family homes and take that stock away from the American people, especially those first-time
00:49:57.260homebuyers. I'm for anything that can get that done. I would be honest with you, I'd go stronger