The Ben Shapiro Show - A China DEAL…PLUS A $400 Million Jet From Qatar?!

00:00:00.000 Already, folks, just a fire hose of news over the weekend.

00:00:02.000 President Trump cutting a brand new tariff deal with China, and it's turning the markets around.

00:00:08.000 Plus, Edan Alexander, the last remaining American hostage in Gaza, released by Hamas at the behest of the Trump administration.

00:00:14.000 Of course, I know the Alexander family.

00:00:16.000 We'll talk about that.

00:00:17.000 Plus, all about that Qatari jet, that $400 million Qatari plane that they want to give to President Trump and his presidential library.

00:00:25.000 First, the news moves fast.

00:00:27.000 Bad news moves fastest of all.

00:00:28.000 Every day, it gets harder to tell what's real, what's manufactured, to control and discourage us.

00:00:32.000 The world doesn't need more noise.

00:00:33.000 It needs more facts.

00:00:34.000 That's why starting today, we are giving you more of the Ben Shatton.

00:00:37.000 We're making the show longer.

00:00:42.000 Twice the analysis.

00:00:43.000 Twice the fact.

00:00:44.000 Join in at dailywire.com slash subscribe.

00:00:46.000 Lots and lots of news.

00:00:47.000 We begin.

00:00:48.000 With the biggest news, the most impactful news, which is, of course, that the U.S. and China have now apparently agreed to slash tariffs on one another.

00:00:55.000 This is a deal reached by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who's been looking for an off-ramp with regard to these extraordinarily high tariffs that he said just last week were unsustainable with regard to China.

00:01:06.000 Now, there will still be tariffs on China.

00:01:07.000 China will still have tariffs on American product.

00:01:09.000 But we are starting to move toward what looks like a significantly more rational trade policy with the rest of the world.

00:01:16.000 So yes, we have still significantly raised tariffs on the rest of the world.

00:01:19.000 That 10% flat rate tariff still exists on the rest of the world.

00:01:23.000 Now, the 125 to 145% tariffs that were placed on the Chinese, those have been lowered.

00:01:29.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, after weekend talks in Geneva, President Trump's reciprocal tariff on China will fall to 10% from 125%.

00:01:37.000 So essentially the same as the tariffs that we currently have on, say, England or any other country.

00:01:41.000 A separate 20% tariff the president imposed over what he described as China's role So presumably that means really it's not a 10% tariff, it's a 30% tariff, which again, looks more rational.

00:01:54.000 As I said from the beginning when it came to tariffing China, going after China as an actual geopolitical opponent is necessary. 0.97

00:02:01.000 This is the thing that President Trump did in term one.

00:02:03.000 That was absolutely necessary.

00:02:05.000 And everybody seemed to buy into on the right and left in the United States.

00:02:09.000 I've talked to many, many Democrats who have acknowledged that Trump was right to reset the table.

00:02:14.000 with regard to China.

00:02:15.000 So attempting to box China in with regard to trade, attempting to create a divide in the world such that third-party countries move toward the United States and away from China, that is a good thing. 0.99

00:02:27.000 Reshoring critical industries away from China toward third parties or toward the United States is a very good thing.

00:02:32.000 But if you're going to do this, you need to do it in rational fashion.

00:02:35.000 That means gradually escalating tariffs on China such that manufacturers actually have time to move out of China before the door is slammed shut on them.

00:02:42.000 You actually need To reshore critical supply chains like rare earth minerals in order to ensure that we aren't just deprived of the things that we need in the United States in order to compete with China.

00:02:53.000 You need to cut better trade deals with everybody around China so that they don't orient toward China and away from us. 0.82

00:02:58.000 And you need to build up the U.S. Navy.

00:02:59.000 We didn't do any of those things.

00:03:01.000 We just sort of ran into the room, threw a 145% tariff on the table, and ran out of the room while simultaneously slapping other countries with a rubber chicken. 0.56

00:03:08.000 It turns out that was not exactly a great trade policy.

00:03:10.000 The good news is, as I have said all along with President Trump, President Trump lives in the world of reality.

00:03:16.000 If the headlines are bad, he responds.

00:03:18.000 If the stock market doesn't seem to be doing what he wants it to do, he responds.

00:03:22.000 So long as good information penetrates whatever echo chamber is around him, he will, in fact, respond to incentives.

00:03:29.000 It's one of the things that made him a successful president in term one.

00:03:32.000 It's the thing that will make him a successful president in term two.

00:03:35.000 He might start off with a bad idea from, say, Peter Navarro.

00:03:37.000 But if it turns out that that bad idea has real world ramifications that damage his presidency, then he moves away from...

00:03:44.000 From that bad idea.

00:03:45.000 That's what's happening with regard to China.

00:03:46.000 So again, the tariffs aren't going away with regard to China, but they are being dramatically lowered with regard to China.

00:03:51.000 Beijing is going to cut its own retaliatory levies on U.S. goods to 10% from 125%.

00:03:57.000 The U.S. says that the reductions are going to last for 90 days while the talks continue, but let's be real about this.

00:04:02.000 They're not going away.

00:04:03.000 Whenever President Trump says that there's going to be a break in the tariff regime, the idea they're going to snap back in 90 days to 125, 145%.

00:04:11.000 Again, the Treasury Secretary said last week that was unsustainable, so it's not going to be sustained.

00:04:16.000 We're not going back to those tariff rates.

00:04:18.000 Now again, this is starting to look much more like a rational trade policy.

00:04:22.000 The markets, of course, spiked because everybody in the markets was looking for some sort of off-ramp here.

00:04:29.000 They're trying to figure out exactly what President Trump is doing on trade.

00:04:31.000 Now, I think the markets are spiking a little bit much.

00:04:34.000 What I mean there is that the markets are a momentum-driven instrument.

00:04:37.000 The markets are now trading higher than they were after Liberation Day.

00:04:41.000 So, Liberation Day, you recall, April 2nd, that is when President Trump announced this giant tariff regime on the rest of the globe combined, and the markets dropped dramatically.

00:04:50.000 The Dow was trading about 43,000.

00:04:52.000 Well, now, the markets are trading up around where they were before.

00:04:55.000 That seems to me a weird calibration based on momentum, and the reason I say that is because if you were to just look at the trade policy before Liberation Day and the trade policy after Liberation Day, The idea that those trade policies are identical and therefore the markets should be identical, obviously that's not true.

00:05:11.000 There are a bunch of 10% tariffs that now exist that didn't exist before.

00:05:14.000 There are still heavy levies against Chinese goods that didn't exist that now exist.

00:05:20.000 So the markets are going to recalibrate.

00:05:22.000 It'll probably end up lower, if I had to guess, than it is right now.

00:05:26.000 But, clearly, the markets are moving toward more sanguinity.

00:05:29.000 And they should be, because President Trump has been pushing deregulation at the same time he's pushing this.

00:05:33.000 He's been pushing forward that big, beautiful tax bill.

00:05:36.000 And we'll get to the tax bill a little bit later on in the show, where the negotiations stand.

00:05:40.000 He's floated some good ideas.

00:05:41.000 He's floated some bad ideas with regard to this tax bill.

00:05:45.000 However, this is also going to lead to the possibility of things like Fed rate cuts.

00:05:51.000 So the Federal Reserve has been holding off on cutting the interest rates because of fears of inflation.

00:05:59.000 If President Trump does not continue, With this massive tariff regime, the chances of inflation are going to drop.

00:06:05.000 If the chances of inflation drop, then you could see a lowering of the interest rates, which means more liquidity in the markets.

00:06:10.000 It means cheaper mortgages.

00:06:11.000 It means the economy continues to kind of truck along.

00:06:15.000 Right now, according to traders, there's a 57% chance the Federal Reserve holds rates steady through its next two meetings, which is up from 40% as of Friday.

00:06:24.000 However, as the markets adjust, I think that you will see that people are going to start betting on the idea that the Federal Reserve theoretically could, in fact.

00:06:31.000 Cut the rates.

00:06:32.000 If, again, there is more momentum in this direction.

00:06:36.000 I think, again, that what happened here is that reality set in.

00:06:39.000 President Trump understood the reality and he responded to the reality, which is good.

00:06:43.000 You want a president who actually responds to realities.

00:06:45.000 In this way, the president that President Trump actually most resembles in the recent past is actually Bill Clinton.

00:06:51.000 So Bill Clinton in 1993-94 pushed forward Hillary care, got absolutely shellacked, and then moved to the right and governed. 0.97

00:06:57.000 As a sort of centrist for the rest of his term.

00:07:00.000 He did welfare reform, for example.

00:07:01.000 He did criminal justice reform bills.

00:07:03.000 He had an actual surplus.

00:07:06.000 President Trump is much more pragmatic.

00:07:07.000 He's kind of Clintonian in the way that he is pragmatic in his politics as opposed to ideologically driven the way, say, Barack Obama or Joe Biden was.

00:07:16.000 And I think one of the reasons President Trump is looking for an off-ramp here is because he's starting to see the incoming wall of the hurricane.

00:07:23.000 As I said before, there was a hurricane headed for American shores, economically speaking.

00:07:26.000 That hurricane came in the form of a giant cascade of empty ships that were arriving at American ports.

00:07:32.000 And that was going to create serious supply chain problems.

00:07:35.000 President Trump doesn't like that.

00:07:36.000 And so he is now acting in order to prevent that from effectuating, from becoming a reality.

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00:09:52.000 Now again, as I say, does this mean that all the tariff wars are over?

00:09:55.000 Does this mean that we are moving toward a more free trade world?

00:09:58.000 No.

00:09:59.000 It means there's still going to be tariff barriers, which is why I think that the stock market's jump today is maybe a little overstated.

00:10:05.000 And as reality sets in, it's going to settle about back where it was, maybe a little bit lower than it was before Liberation Day, so-called Liberation Day.

00:10:13.000 Here's Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, saying 10% tariffs remain here.

00:10:16.000 They're not going anywhere.

00:10:18.000 So we do expect a 10% baseline tariff to be in place for the foreseeable future.

00:10:24.000 But don't buy the silly arguments that the US consumer pays.

00:10:29.000 Businesses, their job is to try to sell to the American consumer.

00:10:34.000 And domestically produced products are not gonna have However, the reason that the markets are in fact optimistic is because as James McIntosh writes over at the Wall Street Journal, the grown-ups are in the room.

00:10:47.000 The reason for the giant bounce in the stock market is because Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is now in control of trade policy and presumably in control of regulatory policy and tax policy as well.

00:10:58.000 So, What exactly is Besant still looking for?

00:11:01.000 A deeper reform of the Chinese economy, turning it from a mercantilist exporter into a consumer and leading to more balanced trade.

00:11:07.000 Now, again, that is going to be hard, but the reality is we are now avoiding the hurricane that was approaching, and I think the economy is responding to that in very good ways.

00:11:15.000 So good for President Trump, good for Treasury Secretary Scott Besant.

00:11:18.000 Meanwhile, in other news, Idan Alexander, who is the last remaining alive American hostage who'd been taken by Hamas on October 7th, is set to be released today.

00:11:28.000 It was going to happen sometime between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

00:11:32.000 Israel time.

00:11:33.000 The Red Cross, which has been utterly derelict in its treatment of the hostages, meaning it had no contact with any of the hostages for well over a year, is going to be facilitating all of this. 0.53

00:11:44.000 Obviously, it's a deeply moving moment that Adon Alexander is coming out.

00:11:48.000 He's a 21-year-old Israeli-American dual citizen, and he was kidnapped on October 7th.

00:11:53.000 I, of course, know the Alexander family.

00:11:55.000 I know his parents, Yael and Adi.

00:11:57.000 I know his brother, Roy.

00:11:58.000 In fact, I brought them to the Ohel, to the grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in New York on October 7th.

00:12:04.000 And I had them meet with President Trump.

00:12:06.000 You can see here, that's his mom, that's his brother.

00:12:09.000 And they're showing President Trump a picture of Idan Alexander.

00:12:12.000 So Idan Alexander is coming out today.

00:12:15.000 The big question is, what did Hamas receive in return?

00:12:17.000 And it appears that Hamas actually received very little.

00:12:20.000 So this is a good deal by the Trump administration in that sense.

00:12:24.000 It is creating...

00:12:26.000 Again, whenever you have a hostage deal, there's no such thing as a good hostage deal because you are dealing with hostage takers.

00:12:33.000 However, the question is what concessions Hamas received on the other end.

00:12:36.000 There are a lot of rumors about what exactly Hamas received on the other end of releasing Edan Alexander.

00:12:42.000 Some rumors include the idea that perhaps the United States will now be more amenable to Hamas being a part of the future of governing the Gaza Strip. 0.86

00:12:49.000 That would be insane and ridiculous. 0.97

00:12:51.000 That would be ridiculous. 0.99

00:12:52.000 Hamas took Edan Alexander a hostage in the first place. 0.56

00:12:55.000 They took 250 people hostage.

00:12:58.000 A huge number of those people, including babies, were plain out murdered by Hamas.

00:13:03.000 Hamas can, of course, have no part in the governance of the Gaza Strip.

00:13:07.000 They need to be extirpated from the planet Earth.

00:13:09.000 And the release of Idon Alexander doesn't actually change any of that math.

00:13:13.000 There have also been rumors that this is going to lead to a sort of broader ceasefire deal.

00:13:17.000 Maybe, maybe not.

00:13:18.000 The Whitcoff plan, Steve Whitcoff, of course, is President Trump's special envoy to the Middle East.

00:13:22.000 Steve Whitcoff had proposed the possibility of a 45-day or 70-day ceasefire in exchange for 11 more hostages and 18 dead bodies.

00:13:30.000 That may come to fruition.

00:13:32.000 We'll have to see.

00:13:33.000 There's been talk about humanitarian aid flowing into the Gaza Strip.

00:13:36.000 The reason Hamas wants that is so they can steal all of it. 0.98

00:13:39.000 So the question becomes, how is that aid secured?

00:13:42.000 However, we can say it is an unabashed good that Edan Alexander is coming out again.

00:13:46.000 It's an amazing thing for his family.

00:13:48.000 I know the family.

00:13:49.000 I was texting with him yesterday.

00:13:50.000 It's an amazing thing.

00:13:52.000 So good for the Trump administration along that.

00:13:54.000 Along those lines.

00:13:55.000 Clearly what Hamas is attempting to do is basically settle all outstanding business with the United States so as to then create separation between the United States and Israel in Iran negotiations.

00:14:05.000 That is what is happening with the Houthis as well.

00:14:07.000 It is not a coincidence that as the Houthis are basically forswearing attacks on American shipping and the United States is saying that the United States is no longer going to worry about the Houthis essentially, that Hamas is now trying to do the same by releasing the sole living American hostage in the Gaza Strip.

00:14:23.000 Trying to basically say that the United States now has no part in that conflict.

00:14:26.000 Well, okay, fine.

00:14:28.000 I mean, if the United States has no part in that conflict, then Israel should just go and do what they need to do.

00:14:32.000 That seems to me a proper solution with regard to the Gaza Strip.

00:14:35.000 Now, the ugliest part, and there is an ugly part to this, is that there are widespread rumors and now news reports that Edan Alexander is going to be flown to Qatar to meet with the Emir of Qatar.

00:14:48.000 This is vile.

00:14:50.000 That's vile.

00:14:51.000 He should, of course, meet with President Trump.

00:14:53.000 He can do so in America.

00:14:53.000 He can do so in Israel.

00:14:54.000 There are plenty of places that Adon Alexander and his family can express their gratitude to President Trump as well they should.

00:15:00.000 Going to Qatar to meet the Emir of Qatar.

00:15:03.000 Qatar is a terror sponsor country. 0.97

00:15:05.000 Qatar is the number one funder of Hamas. 0.90

00:15:08.000 It is disgusting to have a hostage who was taken by a group funded by Qatar go to Qatar to thank the Emir of Qatar for his freedom.

00:15:19.000 That's an absurdity on its face if it were to happen.

00:15:23.000 It is wrong.

00:15:24.000 It should not be facilitated by the United States.

00:15:27.000 Qatar is the sponsor state of Hamas. 0.96

00:15:29.000 In fact, if the Trump administration seriously wanted all hostages out of Gaza, they could do so tomorrow simply by telling the Emir of Qatar that the airbase in Qatar is going away and that it'll move to the UAE, which the United States could do.

00:15:42.000 That should have been the approach of the Biden administration on October 8th.

00:15:45.000 They should have said all the hostages come out or the airbase goes away.

00:15:47.000 That's how closely tied together Qatar and Hamas are. 0.91

00:15:52.000 Leydan Alexander is now 21. Hamas captured him when he was 19 on October 7th, 2023, of course.

00:15:58.000 Now, all of this has some wider ramifications with regard to negotiations in the Middle East. 0.68

00:16:03.000 Again, Steve Whitcoff continues to say ridiculous things publicly.

00:16:07.000 So Steve Whitcoff, again, I do not think is a good negotiator.

00:16:11.000 I do not think that Steve Whitcoff has demonstrated his bona fides along any lines.

00:16:14.000 So far, all of the hostage deals have essentially been kind of mediocre in the sense that maximum pressure has not been exerted on the bad guys.

00:16:25.000 Yesterday, Whitcoff said, we want to bring the hostages home, but Israel is not willing to end the war.

00:16:29.000 Israel is prolonging it despite the fact that we don't see where else we can go and that an agreement must be reached.

00:16:33.000 There's currently an opportunity window we hope Israel and all the mediators will take advantage of.

00:16:37.000 We're putting pressure on all the mediators and doing everything we can to bring the hostages home.

00:16:40.000 It is not Israel's unwillingness to end the war.

00:16:43.000 That is leading to hostages being taken.

00:16:45.000 That's like blaming the police for the kidnappers not releasing the hostages.

00:16:50.000 No, actually, that's up to the kidnappers.

00:16:52.000 Kamas could end the war today. 0.96

00:16:53.000 They could have ended the war October 6th.

00:16:55.000 It never had to happen in the first place.

00:16:58.000 Meanwhile, all of this is part and parcel of broader negotiations happening over the Iranian nuclear program.

00:17:03.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, the United States said it was encouraged by talks with Iran on Sunday after a meeting.

00:17:08.000 But the two sides remain divided on key questions, including whether Tehran will be allowed to enrich its own uranium.

00:17:13.000 Well, I mean, that is the key question.

00:17:15.000 That is not one key question.

00:17:16.000 That is the key question.

00:17:18.000 The United States should have no interest in a deal with Iran where Iran continues to develop nuclear missiles. 0.88

00:17:23.000 That is ridiculous.

00:17:24.000 Anything that allows them the capacity to continue to develop nuclear materials, which can then be tied to their ballistic missile program, is insane. 0.53

00:17:31.000 The United States should not be party to that.

00:17:33.000 That is the JCPOA.

00:17:35.000 That Donald Trump labeled the worst deal in history.

00:17:38.000 The United States should not be conceding points to the Iranian government.

00:17:42.000 Again, Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arahi met for three hours in the Omani capital of Muscat in their fourth round of negotiations since April 12. After the meeting, the U.S. cast the latest talks mediated by Omani officials as positive and said the diplomacy would continue in the near future.

00:17:59.000 Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said talks were difficult but useful in better understanding the U.S. position.

00:18:03.000 Now, again, Iran has another goal in these talks.

00:18:06.000 If they can't get a bad deal from the Trump administration, and again, I have faith that President Trump is not going to cut JCPOA part two.

00:18:12.000 It would be a rejection of his own legacy.

00:18:14.000 If Iran has another goal, it is delay. 0.89

00:18:17.000 And a delay for Iran is as good as a deal. 0.95

00:18:22.000 In October, the JCPOA period ends.

00:18:26.000 At that point, They can simply rush to a bomb.

00:18:28.000 Now, they could just rush to a bomb right now as well.

00:18:30.000 They can simply violate whatever is left of the JCPOA. 0.96

00:18:33.000 And they could rush to a bomb.

00:18:36.000 Herein lies the problem.

00:18:37.000 Right now, there is a window of opportunity for anyone who wishes to end the Iranian nuclear program.

00:18:42.000 That window of opportunity exists because Israel eviscerated a few months back Iran's entire air defense program. 0.94

00:18:48.000 So the skies over Iran are totally clear right now.

00:18:51.000 Not only that, but Iran still has not developed retaliatory capacity.

00:18:56.000 That would deter action by, say, Israel.

00:18:59.000 If Iran is capable of standing the Israelis down by negotiating with the United States for prolonged periods of time, that is their win. 0.98

00:19:06.000 Simply the negotiations being dragged out over a lengthy period of time is something the Iranians are going for pretty clearly. 0.95

00:19:13.000 The two sides are still very far apart on the question of whether Iran gets to retain its nuclear enrichment program.

00:19:20.000 Witkoff has sent mixed messages himself because, again, he has no expertise in any of these issues.

00:19:25.000 He set out what he called clear U.S. red lines, that Iran can't have an enrichment program under a deal, nor should it have any centrifuges, which enrich uranium.

00:19:32.000 And then Iran came back and said they would never accept any such terms.

00:19:37.000 President Masoud Pajekian, who, again, is a stand-in for the mullahs, said Iran has never sought and will never seek nuclear weapons, but it will not back down from its peaceful nuclear rights.

00:19:45.000 After Sunday's talk, Araki said Iran was open to adjusting the amount of enrichment it does and the purity of the material being produced for a limited period as a confidence-building measure.

00:19:53.000 But he said there is no room for discussion about Iran's continued domestic enrichment.

00:19:58.000 So what exactly is Iran giving away that makes Steve Witkoff and company optimistic in any way?

00:20:05.000 Again, this is just so Iran can delay. 0.88

00:20:08.000 And if President Trump doesn't want to bomb Iran, which again, he has set out as sort of binary, there's a third option here, by the way, which is that the United States maintains maximum pressure on Iran, and then Israel goes and attacks the Iranian nuclear facilities.

00:20:19.000 I think that is actually the most likely outcome here if I'm just gaming out the possibilities for the next several months.

00:20:26.000 With all of that said, all of this ties into broader Middle Eastern negotiations that are happening over everything from the Abraham Accords to the release of hostages to the future of the Gaza Strip to what's happening in Iran.

00:20:37.000 Now, all of this crosses paths, obviously, with President Trump's visit to the Middle East this week.

00:20:41.000 The biggest story in terms of the media coming out this week is a story reported by ABC News, among others.

00:20:48.000 That the Trump administration is now preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar.

00:20:56.000 It is a $400 million gift available for use by President Trump as new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time, according to the deal, the plane doesn't stay with the United States government.

00:21:08.000 It then moves to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation.

00:21:12.000 According to ABC News, the gift had been expected to be announced when President Trump was on his visit.

00:21:17.000 To Qatar, a senior White House official said it's not going to happen in Qatar anymore, presumably thanks to social media blowback.

00:21:25.000 President Trump put out a statement on Truth Social about the blowback saying, so the fact that the Defense Department is getting a gift free of charge with 747 aircraft to replace the 40-year-old Air Force One temporarily in a very public and transparent transaction so bothers the crooked Democrats.

00:21:39.000 They insist we pay top dollar for the plane.

00:21:41.000 Anybody can do that. 1.00

00:21:42.000 The Dems are world-class losers. 1.00

00:21:44.000 MAGA. 1.00

00:21:46.000 So.

00:21:46.000 Again, the arrangement itself is, shall we say, I believe the technical term, the legal term, is skeezy.

00:21:54.000 Sources told ABC News that lawyers for the White House Counsel's Office and the Department of Justice drafted an analysis for the Defense Department, concluding it's legal for the DOD to accept the aircraft as a gift, and then later turn it over to the Trump Library, and that somehow does not violate laws against bribery or the Constitution's prohibition on emoluments.

00:22:13.000 The Constitution literally says the U.S. government cannot accept official gifts from any king, prince, or foreign state.

00:22:18.000 Apparently, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the top White House lawyer, David Warrington, concluded it would be legally permissible for the donation of the aircraft to be conditioned on transferring its ownership to Trump's presidential library before the end of his term.

00:22:32.000 And apparently, Pam Bondi, who it should be mentioned at this point, was once an actual FARA registered agent acting on behalf of the government of Qatar, provided a legal memorandum addressed, to the White House Counsel's Office last week after Warrington asked her for advice on the legality of the Pentagon accepting such a donation.

00:22:49.000 We'll get to more on that in a second.

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00:25:08.000 Let's start off with this.

00:25:09.000 Qatar is not allegedly giving President Trump a $400 million jet out of the goodness of their sweet little hearts, no matter what Special Envoy Steve Woodcoff says.

00:25:18.000 They try to stuff money in pockets in totally bipartisan fashion.

00:25:21.000 Just rewind a few years.

00:25:23.000 While Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, Qatar gave a million dollars to the Clinton Foundation for Bill Clinton's birthday.

00:25:28.000 And didn't even bother to inform the State Department, as they promised they would do.

00:25:32.000 So, again, Qatar will court anyone it thinks will have power, Republican or Democrat. 0.77

00:25:36.000 It's an equal opportunity influencer.

00:25:38.000 As long as you can help whitewash their image or smooth over the fact that they are, in fact, the world's largest proponents of terrorism on an international scale in terms of PR and in terms of putting money in pockets.

00:25:49.000 Qatar likes to present a modern Western-friendly face while shoveling money to Islamic terrorists under the table. 0.98

00:25:55.000 This is a regime that has, for literally decades, funneled billions of dollars into the hands of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban.

00:26:02.000 We're talking about systematic, ongoing financial support that has strengthened Hamas' grip on Gaza, provided them with the resources, and yes, enabled terror attacks that killed innocent civilians.

00:26:12.000 Doha, which is the capital, their five-star hotels, are basically a retirement home for Hamas leaders. 0.99

00:26:16.000 Qatar has been incredibly accused.

00:26:18.000 By the Treasury Department, by international watchdogs, by regional allies, of allowing financiers of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and the Muslim Brotherhood to operate within its borders.

00:26:27.000 This is a country that has repeatedly failed to crack down on terrorist financing, even after being pressured by the United States and its neighbors.

00:26:33.000 In 2017, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, I don't know instances in which Qatar aggressively goes after networks of Hamas, Taliban, or al-Qaeda.

00:26:41.000 Qatar has, of course, transferred almost $2 billion to Hamas over the years, which, again, is one of the reasons it's so sick to send Idhan Alexander to meet with the Emir of Qatar, if that's a thing that ends up happening.

00:26:52.000 Here is the former Saudi foreign minister, again, not Westerner, Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, explaining the problems with Qatar.

00:27:00.000 are.

00:27:01.000 The Qataris, since the mid-90s, have been sponsoring radicals.

00:27:06.000 They have been inciting people.

00:27:09.000 They have become a base for the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

00:27:13.000 and the Muslim Brotherhood, you have to keep in mind, is what begot us Takfir al-Hijrah, which begot us al-Qa'idah, which begot us al-Nusrah.

00:27:22.000 The Qataris allow their senior religious clerics to go on television and justify suicide bombing. 0.96

00:27:31.000 Again, that's the Sauds. 1.00

00:27:39.000 So how does Qatar excuse all this?

00:27:41.000 Well, Qatar simply says, they don't actually consider terrorist groups to be, you know, terrorists.

00:27:45.000 Here is the emir of Qatar saying as much back in 2014.

00:27:49.000 No, no, we do recognize extremists.

00:27:51.000 We believe that they're extremists.

00:27:54.000 And we stop, we don't fund extremists.

00:27:57.000 But there are differences.

00:27:58.000 There are differences that some countries and some people, that any group which comes from Islamic background are terrorists.

00:28:05.000 And we don't accept that.

00:28:07.000 Okay, so some of the groups they don't consider to be terrorists would be, you know, like all the ones we mentioned.

00:28:11.000 Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban.

00:28:12.000 Qatar essentially plays both sides of the table.

00:28:15.000 They say they should be given leeway because they're the negotiation point for the West and terrorist groups.

00:28:19.000 But then Qatar helps fund and house those terrorist groups, as well as doing the bidding of Iran. 0.62

00:28:23.000 You know who says this, actually?

00:28:25.000 President Trump.

00:28:26.000 There was President Trump on Qatar in June 2017.

00:28:29.000 The nation of Qatar, unfortunately, has historically been a funder of terrorism.

00:28:36.000 At a very high level.

00:28:39.000 And in the wake of that conference, nations came together and spoke to me about confronting Qatar over its behavior.

00:28:52.000 So we had a decision to make.

00:28:55.000 Do we take the easy road or do we finally take a hard but necessary action?

00:29:01.000 We have to stop the funding of terrorism.

00:29:07.000 Okay, well, how does Qatar combat these allegations?

00:29:10.000 The answer is they spread the money everywhere.

00:29:13.000 Everywhere.

00:29:14.000 According to the Network Contagion Research Institute, Qatar is by far the single largest donor to American universities since 9-11.

00:29:20.000 By far, it's not close.

00:29:21.000 You want to talk about foreign influence operations?

00:29:23.000 This would be that.

00:29:24.000 They're not doing that because they're so sweet and nice.

00:29:26.000 Why exactly would they sign these giant checks unless they got something in return?

00:29:30.000 Here is the Prime Minister of Qatar this week.

00:29:32.000 Explaining to the Georgetown Doha campus, yes, Georgetown has a campus in Qatar, that the service of Qatar had to be their guiding light as part of a greater national project on behalf of Qatar.

00:29:43.000 Today, he said in Arabic, I urge you to fear God in your conscience and let the service of the nation and its people be your guiding light and maintain your faith in yourselves.

00:29:56.000 In a time where transformations are accelerating and crises are deepening, From the Gaza tragedy to regional tensions, Qatar reaffirms its commitment to mediation and diplomacy as a means to protect civilians.

00:30:12.000 And credibility is built through continuous action.

00:30:15.000 Okay, so what exactly is he saying?

00:30:19.000 He says they represent, they're churning out people who work for Qatar.

00:30:22.000 The greater national project doesn't end at Qatar's borders.

00:30:25.000 Their influence matters.

00:30:26.000 That is why Georgetown University, which has a branch in Doha, just gave a medal.

00:30:30.000 So, for example, in August 2023,

00:30:58.000 the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund Bought the Park Lane Hotel in New York for $623 million.

00:31:03.000 Okay.

00:31:04.000 The company was owned by Steve Whitcoff's company.

00:31:08.000 The company had been in limbo.

00:31:10.000 The Park Lane Hotel was in limbo for six years following the attempted seizure of the hotel by the DOJ thanks to corruption charges against one of the original owners, a guy named Lo Takejo.

00:31:19.000 So, when Steve Whitcoff says that he really, really likes the Qataris, well, I mean, he does have some warm relations with the Qataris.

00:31:28.000 I think in the case of the Qataris, they're criticized for not being well-motivated.

00:31:34.000 It's preposterous.

00:31:35.000 They are well-motivated.

00:31:36.000 They're good, decent people.

00:31:38.000 What they want is a mediation that's effective, that gets to a peace goal.

00:31:42.000 And why?

00:31:43.000 Because they're a small nation and they want to be acknowledged as a peacemaker.

00:31:47.000 Taking sacks of goodies from people who support Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Jazeera, all the rest.

00:31:51.000 That's not America first.

00:31:53.000 Like, please define America first in a way that says you should take sacks of cash.

00:31:56.000 From the Qatari royals who are behind Al Jazeera.

00:31:59.000 It just isn't America first in any conceivable way.

00:32:02.000 So, back to the original question.

00:32:04.000 Is this good for President Trump?

00:32:06.000 Is it good for his agenda?

00:32:07.000 Is it good for draining the swamp and getting things done?

00:32:09.000 The answer is, no, it isn't.

00:32:11.000 It isn't.

00:32:12.000 If you want President Trump to succeed, this kind of skeezy stuff needs to stop.

00:32:16.000 And here's the thing.

00:32:17.000 It's already having an impact.

00:32:19.000 It's already having an impact.

00:32:20.000 Quick example.

00:32:21.000 Last week, the Senate considered a procedural vote on the so-called Genius Act.

00:32:25.000 This is an act that should have had wide bipartisan support.

00:32:28.000 The Genius Act helps deregulate the crypto industry, an area that's vital for America's economic development.

00:32:33.000 As you all know, I'm a big fan of crypto.

00:32:35.000 I own Bitcoins and Ethereum.

00:32:36.000 If you want to watch me explain why crypto is fascinating and useful, check out my YouTube video on the subject.

00:32:42.000 And I know a ton of people in the crypto industry who've been ecstatic about President Trump's deregulatory approach to the subject, which is awesome.

00:32:48.000 But the bill was shot down last week because, at least in part, Democrats said they wouldn't vote for the thing because of President Trump's use of crypto himself.

00:32:56.000 You all remember President Trump launching dollar sign Trump crypto three days before taking office as president.

00:33:01.000 Trump himself announced the Trump crypto on X and Truth Social.

00:33:05.000 He described it as a meme coin, meaning it had no inherent value.

00:33:08.000 It was just there for the kind of bleeps and giggles. 0.66

00:33:10.000 The price spiked to a trading value of nearly $13 billion, making it the 19th most valuable cryptocurrency on planet Earth.

00:33:17.000 And then it proceeded to plummet, like really, really dive.

00:33:20.000 The project allegedly netted people associated with it, meaning the Trump organizations associated with the Trump crypto, some $350 million.

00:33:29.000 80% of the outstanding supply of that meme coin is still held by insiders, presumably members of the Trump organization.

00:33:37.000 Overall, according to data shared with CNBC, there were 2 million wallets that bought that Trump meme coin.

00:33:43.000 764,000 of them lost money.

00:33:46.000 58 wallets made more than 10 million bucks.

00:33:48.000 And then in April, That Trump meme coin announced that the top 220 holders of the meme coin would be invited to an intimate private dinner with President Trump at his golf club.

00:33:57.000 The top 25 were invited to a VIP White House tour.

00:34:00.000 According to Bloomberg News, 19 of the top 25 holders of that Trump meme coin that have registered on the website's leaderboard have bought the coins using foreign exchanges that claim to exclude U.S. customers, which means that foreigners are buying a lot of the meme coin and then getting meetings with President Trump on VIP White House tours and all the rest.

00:34:16.000 This raises the question of influence peddling.

00:34:19.000 If you basically buy a bunch of Trump meme coin and then funnel money to organizations associated with President Trump so that you can have dinner with Trump, that doesn't look great.

00:34:27.000 Democratic senators, of course, immediately announced that they wanted an ethics probe.

00:34:31.000 They sent a letter saying, quote, It might be overstated, but let's be clear, some people do seem to be investing in the Trump meme coin for the access.

00:34:54.000 I mean, there was literally a CEO of a company called Freight Technologies that just bought $20 million worth of Trump meme coin, which I gotta say is not like the most solid investment.

00:35:02.000 What was the explanation quote?

00:35:04.000 We believe the addition of the official Trump tokens are an excellent way to diversify our crypto treasury and also an effective way to advocate for fair, balanced, and free trade between Mexico and the United States.

00:35:15.000 It's like to impact policy.

00:35:16.000 Again, not the least skeezy thing I've ever heard.

00:35:19.000 Now, listen, maybe all of this is overblown.

00:35:22.000 Maybe it's all nonsense.

00:35:23.000 Maybe some of it's not true.

00:35:24.000 And I understand some of it's being reported by legacy media outlets.

00:35:27.000 But again, here is the question.

00:35:30.000 Does any of this help advance the president's agenda?

00:35:33.000 You know the agenda that we all voted for, the agenda we want to see implemented.

00:35:37.000 Does this make his presidency stronger or weaker?

00:35:40.000 Now I'm going to repeat again.

00:35:41.000 I don't know whether this activity is criminal in any way, but things do not have to be criminal to hurt the agenda.

00:35:48.000 If you want President Trump's agenda to succeed, taking jets from Qatar is not the way.

00:35:53.000 Taking real estate deals from Qatar is not the way.

00:35:56.000 The largest obstacle to any administration is scandal.

00:35:59.000 From Watergate to Whitewater, scandal-plagued administrations.

00:36:02.000 Have a really tough time gathering the political capital necessary to actually effectuate their agenda.

00:36:07.000 And that's why it's unbelievably important that the Trump administration avoid scandal.

00:36:11.000 That is the reason I am worried about this stuff.

00:36:13.000 Yes, I think inherently it is bad.

00:36:15.000 I do not think this is good.

00:36:16.000 I think if we switch the names to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, we'd all be freaking out on the right.

00:36:21.000 Let's say if Qatar was giving Joe a $400 million jet for his use at his presidential library after his presidency, or if Hunter launched a crypto firm with the son of Antony Blinken.

00:36:29.000 And then launched a series of crypto products in which mysterious strangers, including foreigners, were investing all while that crypto firm was being regulated by Joe's administration.

00:36:37.000 We'd all have been pretty upset on the right.

00:36:39.000 We might have said that it was worthy of some coverage.

00:36:41.000 Now, as I say again, it could be all of these reports are all of them.

00:36:45.000 Maybe it's all just a misreading of perfectly innocent business.

00:36:48.000 Sure, it's possible.

00:36:50.000 But the point is this.

00:36:51.000 President Trump has enemies all over the place.

00:36:54.000 He has people seeking to take advantage of their proximity to his power.

00:36:57.000 He has media outlets that would love nothing better than to set him up for another impeachment.

00:37:01.000 And I promise you, I promise you, if these issues begin to dog his administration, Republicans will lose Congress.

00:37:06.000 It's that simple.

00:37:07.000 Republicans are this close to losing Congress anyway.

00:37:09.000 And then, whatever President Trump hopes to do, whatever agenda we all voted for, will be DOA.

00:37:14.000 The investigations will never end.

00:37:16.000 There will be more impeachments.

00:37:18.000 All of that will happen.

00:37:19.000 The administration's policy is too important for this sort of activity.

00:37:23.000 President Trump promised to drain the swamp.

00:37:25.000 This is not, in fact, draining the swamp.

00:37:27.000 President Trump was elected based on the American people being sick and tired of the swamp.

00:37:32.000 Tired of Hunter.

00:37:33.000 Tired of the Clintons.

00:37:34.000 Tired of the Biden crime family.

00:37:36.000 Why in the world would President Trump be well served by this sort of vulnerability?

00:37:40.000 Again, more importantly, why would those of us who voted for him, who gave to his campaign, who stumped for him, campaigned for him, be well served by this?

00:37:47.000 The answer is, we aren't.

00:37:49.000 And that's why it needs to stop.

00:37:51.000 Get some more on this in a moment.

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00:39:03.000 All right, another big economic news.

00:39:05.000 President Trump had announced last week that he had a huge announcement coming.

00:39:08.000 And again, there was a lot that happened over the weekend.

00:39:10.000 There was the China trade deal, and there was the Adan Alexander release, and then there was this whole story about the Qatari jet and all that.

00:39:16.000 But...

00:39:16.000 The big story that he was talking about was an executive order designed to lower the price of pharmaceuticals.

00:39:22.000 So here is what he said.

00:39:23.000 He put out a statement on Truth Social, says, For many years, the world has wondered why prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals in the United States of America were so much higher in price than they were in any other nation, sometimes being five to ten times more expensive than the same drug manufactured in the exact same laboratory or plant by the same company.

00:39:38.000 It was always difficult to explain and very embarrassing because, in fact, there was no correct or right answer.

00:39:42.000 The pharmaceutical drug companies would say for years it was research and development costs and that all of these costs were and would be for no reason whatsoever borne by the suckers of America alone.

00:39:50.000 Campaign contributions can do wonders, but not with me and not with the Republican Party.

00:39:53.000 We are going to do the right thing, something the Democrats have fought for many years.

00:39:56.000 Therefore, I am pleased to announce that tomorrow morning in the White House at 9 a.m., I will be signing one of the most consequential executive orders in our country's history.

00:40:03.000 Prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices will be reduced almost immediately by 30 to 80 percent.

00:40:07.000 We will rise throughout the world in order to equalize and for the first time in many years bring fairness to America.

00:40:12.000 I will be instituting a most favored nation's policy whereby the United States will pay the same price as the nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the world.

00:40:18.000 Our country will finally be treated fairly.

00:40:20.000 Our citizens' health care costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before.

00:40:23.000 Additionally, on top of everything else, the United States will save trillions of dollars.

00:40:26.000 Thank you for your attention to this matter.

00:40:28.000 Make America great again.

00:40:29.000 Okay, so there are a few things he's trying to do here.

00:40:32.000 One is he's trying to find savings.

00:40:35.000 In the Big Beautiful Tax Bill that do not require cuts to Medicaid.

00:40:39.000 And one of the big issues with the quote-unquote Big Beautiful Tax Bill is the question of where cuts are coming from that Republican Congress people want to make the tax cuts quote-unquote deficit neutral.

00:40:51.000 And so some of the questions have been, are they coming from Medicaid?

00:40:53.000 And so what he's saying is we're going to lower the price of Medicaid without cuts because we are going to allow Medicaid to basically tie the price that it pays to the pharmaceutical companies for pharmaceuticals.

00:41:02.000 To the lowest possible price, like whatever price Sierra Leone is paying, or whatever.

00:41:07.000 Make no mistake, this is a backdoor price control.

00:41:10.000 It is not in any way a free market policy.

00:41:13.000 What we actually should be doing, and this is something that President Trump should be doing with regards to his tariff policy, is forcing other countries to pay a higher price for the medications that are produced in the United States.

00:41:24.000 The way that things currently work is that foreign countries negotiate on behalf of their nationalized healthcare systems with the pharma companies.

00:41:31.000 And they basically say, we're not going to buy any of these drugs unless we're paying X number of dollars.

00:41:35.000 And that X number of dollars is like 30-20% of what the actual price in a free market system would be.

00:41:42.000 And so, American consumers essentially pay the other end of that.

00:41:46.000 American consumers are overpaying because all these other countries are underpaying.

00:41:49.000 And President Trump is totally right that that is absolutely unfair.

00:41:52.000 But the thing to do is to get other countries to pay more.

00:41:55.000 Other countries should be absorbing more of the cost.

00:41:57.000 We could be using the tariff war that he has...

00:41:59.000 Waged on pretty much every country in order to get them to more fairly allocate resources for drug purchase from the United States.

00:42:07.000 Because the problem is this.

00:42:08.000 If you artificially destroy whatever profit margins exist for the pharma companies, you just won't get drugs developed.

00:42:15.000 It's that simple.

00:42:16.000 R&D costs a fortune.

00:42:17.000 The vast majority of drugs that are developed in R&D never make it to market.

00:42:21.000 They fail out in phase two, phase three of the FDA trials.

00:42:25.000 Most never even make phase three.

00:42:26.000 There are billions, literally tens to hundreds of billions of dollars that get spent every year by pharmaceutical companies and other companies in order to develop things that never come to fruition.

00:42:37.000 It's a very high-risk investment product, biotech and pharma.

00:42:44.000 And that means it needs to be high reward on the other end because otherwise, why would you sink that much money into the development of these new pharmaceuticals, for example?

00:42:51.000 If you destroy the profit margin, you just won't get R&D.

00:42:54.000 There's a reason.

00:42:55.000 That over 50% of all pharma patents are filed in the United States.

00:42:59.000 We're the home of that stuff because they can generate profit in the United States in a way they cannot in the UK or in France, Germany or Canada.

00:43:07.000 It also means that American consumers bear the brunt of these brand new drugs.

00:43:11.000 Now, over time, as these patents expire, as generics come on the market, the markets move toward the generics.

00:43:18.000 That is a reality.

00:43:20.000 And so, for example, the idea that Americans wildly overpay for drugs, just generally speaking, Americans wildly overpay for brand new drugs that are cutting edge.

00:43:27.000 That's true.

00:43:29.000 But the truth is, the vast majority of medication that we actually consume is not cutting edge brand new R&D drugs.

00:43:34.000 Here, for example, is a chart about what Americans pay for drugs.

00:43:39.000 And what this chart shows is that 91% of drug purchases in the United States are not for brand name drugs.

00:43:47.000 We pay 422% higher prices for brand name drugs.

00:43:52.000 than do other members of the OECD, the other developed countries.

00:43:56.000 However, when it comes to generic drugs, we pay 67% of what gets paid in the OECD.

00:44:04.000 So when you actually weight the average, what you find is that the United States overall actually pays less for drugs than comparable countries do.

00:44:11.000 We pay more for the cutting-edge drugs because those are being produced in the United States, and other countries are basically free-riding off the back of that.

00:44:18.000 Generic drugs, because we have a free market system, generic drugs are really cheap here.

00:44:22.000 Compared to generic drugs in, say, Canada or the UK, France or Germany.

00:44:26.000 And so, because the vast majority of drugs we consume are generic drugs and not brand-name drugs, that means overall we actually pay less for drugs.

00:44:32.000 So why is it that the United States pharma spending is out of control?

00:44:35.000 The answer is we consume an awful lot of medicine in this country.

00:44:38.000 We consume an enormous amount of medicine.

00:44:40.000 We are fat.

00:44:42.000 This is something that, obviously, the Make America Healthy, again, movement has focused in on. 0.97

00:44:46.000 We're fat. 1.00

00:44:47.000 We eat crap. 1.00

00:44:47.000 We don't exercise. 1.00

00:44:48.000 And then we try to heal ourselves on the back end.

00:44:51.000 So we take many, many more drugs than people who are living in Canada, France, UK, Germany.

00:44:56.000 Now, what do you do about that 422% overage when it comes to brand name pharmaceuticals?

00:45:02.000 The answer is, you force other countries to pay their fair share.

00:45:06.000 This is where a tariff war and pressure really should be exerted, is getting the UK not to lowball American pharma.

00:45:12.000 Make the UK tie its prices to America's free market prices.

00:45:17.000 Why should they get to free ride off the back of the American consumer?

00:45:20.000 So what is President Trump doing instead?

00:45:21.000 He's saying that Medicaid should tie its price to what the UK is paying.

00:45:24.000 What is that actually going to do?

00:45:26.000 Well, number one, it means many cutting-edge pharmaceuticals simply will just not be available through Medicaid because Medicaid can't pay for it.

00:45:33.000 You see this, by the way, all the time in Medicaid.

00:45:34.000 You see that many doctors, for example, don't take Medicaid because the reimbursement rates are too low.

00:45:40.000 Specialists, very many of them will take cash only or private only because the Medicaid reimbursement rates are too low.

00:45:46.000 So you can see that happening with pharma.

00:45:47.000 That you need a cutting-edge drug, and Medicaid just won't provide it because the price is too low, and Big Pharma's like, no, you know what?

00:45:53.000 We can't afford to give it to you at that price.

00:45:56.000 Even if Medicaid does, in fact, provide for that drug, and they get that drug from Big Pharma, all that means is that the now higher prices to compensate for the lower prices for Medicaid get squeezed into the private sector.

00:46:09.000 So it's not that the pharmaceutical companies are going to, quote-unquote, make less profit, that they're greedy pharmaceutical companies, and they're just...

00:46:15.000 Stashing away cash in the back room and all this.

00:46:17.000 That's not true.

00:46:19.000 It's not true.

00:46:19.000 That's not how big pharma works at all.

00:46:21.000 What will actually happen is that people who have private insurance will pay more for their insurance premiums.

00:46:26.000 And insurance companies will pay significantly more on the other end.

00:46:31.000 So this attempt to quote-unquote lower prices in the aggregate, it's not going to lower prices.

00:46:36.000 In the aggregate, it may lower prices on the available drugs for Medicaid, but it will increase prices for everybody in the private sector.

00:46:42.000 And with regards to sort of the overall reduction of prices, there's no way to do that without also destroying the R&D.

00:46:49.000 This is a point that the Wall Street Journal actually made last week.

00:46:53.000 They pointed out that drugs accounted for less than 4% of Medicaid spending, $1.2 billion in 2023.

00:46:59.000 The feds spent 10 times more on hospital payments.

00:47:01.000 Even if Republicans required drug makers to give away medicines to Medicaid, savings would not actually amount to what Republicans need in terms of this tax bill.

00:47:09.000 They need $880 billion in savings.

00:47:13.000 Trying to wring more money out of drug makers might cause some companies to stop participating in Medicaid, as we've discussed.

00:47:17.000 This is the Wall Street Journal.

00:47:19.000 Patients would then suffer from less access to novel treatments as they do in countries with socialized health systems that impose price controls.

00:47:24.000 Some drug makers already lose money on medicines they sell to Medicaid.

00:47:27.000 They compensate by raising those prices in the commercial market.

00:47:31.000 And that is likely to be what the future looks like.

00:47:35.000 And the notion that free market economies, that they don't adjust and move with regard to regulation, it's not true.

00:47:43.000 Pharmaceutical companies cannot just quote-unquote charge whatever they want because eventually the patents expire, number one.

00:47:49.000 Number two, there's competition in the marketplace.

00:47:52.000 And so other big pharma companies are trying to encroach on the territory of you discover a new drug and within five minutes somebody else is trying to discover a new pathway for the new drugs.

00:48:01.000 You can see this with Ozempic.

00:48:03.000 Ozempic was really, really expensive and very, very quickly you're seeing people fill the marketplace for Ozempic with knockoffs, other semi-glutides.

00:48:11.000 People who are attempting now to create oral versions of Ozempic so you don't actually have to take a shot.

00:48:17.000 Like the market does an amazing job of taking what were luxury products and making them available to the common man.

00:48:23.000 This is true everywhere.

00:48:24.000 It's true in medicine too.

00:48:25.000 Things that you now consider to be absolutely baseline medical care, say chemotherapy if you have cancer, that stuff was considered a luxury item way back when.

00:48:35.000 Because when you first develop this stuff, it's expensive.

00:48:38.000 This is what...

00:48:39.000 Capitalism does.

00:48:39.000 Capitalism takes luxuries and it makes them available to the common man.

00:48:42.000 I mean, look at your cell phone.

00:48:43.000 Go back and watch Wall Street.

00:48:45.000 A movie made in 1987 by Oliver Stone.

00:48:48.000 It's about one of the richest people on earth, Gordon Gekko.

00:48:51.000 Gordon Gekko, there's a scene where he's walking around with an unthinkable device on the beach.

00:48:55.000 An absolutely unthinkably technologically advanced product.

00:48:59.000 He's holding basically a radio to his head.

00:49:01.000 He's walking around on the beach with a cell phone.

00:49:04.000 And at the time, people must have watched, whoa, that dude is loaded.

00:49:07.000 Look at that.

00:49:08.000 Look at it.

00:49:08.000 He's walking around on a beach, not connected to no wire, just with a cell phone that looks like a shoebox.

00:49:13.000 Wow, look at that.

00:49:14.000 And now, of course, every single person, including the poorest Americans, has a cell phone.

00:49:18.000 Everyone.

00:49:19.000 How did that happen?

00:49:20.000 Didn't happen through government subsidization of cell phones.

00:49:22.000 It happened through free market economics.

00:49:25.000 If you want better drugs, if you want better treatment, if you want all that, all the people who rip on Big Pharma are perfectly happy to use products developed by Big Pharma the minute they get sick.

00:49:34.000 R&D is an absolutely necessary component to lengthening the lifespans and bettering the health of people who really are sick.

00:49:42.000 And any sort of executive action, first of all, I don't know where in the Constitution it just says that the president gets to randomly do the kinds of things that presidents of both parties are doing right now.

00:49:52.000 I don't.

00:49:52.000 There used to be this thing.

00:49:54.000 It's now a vestigial organ of American government.

00:49:56.000 It used to be called the legislature.

00:49:57.000 You know, you would elect people to Congress and the Senate, and they would make specific policies that were directed at specific outcomes.

00:50:03.000 And then you could vote on them and you could throw them out of office if you didn't like what they were doing.

00:50:08.000 Now, apparently, the President of the United States has the power to unilaterally increase prices in the United States with gigantic tariff regimes at the drop of a hat, price control pharmaceuticals, declare national emergencies on everything available.

00:50:21.000 And again, this didn't start with President Trump.

00:50:23.000 I know there are people out there, oh, Trump is breaking the Constitution.

00:50:26.000 As almost always, President Trump is rarely the murderer, he is often the coroner.

00:50:30.000 The system was broken and Trump simply points to the system and says it's broken and then does the same thing Democrats were doing and everybody goes nuts.

00:50:38.000 We should have been going nuts about this, you know, a hundred years ago with the rise of the administrative state under Woodrow Wilson.

00:50:43.000 But now we're feeling the effects of all of that.

00:50:46.000 When the President of the United States can with a signature put the R&D part of Big Pharma on the bankruptcy line, that is a problem.

00:50:55.000 Forget whether you like the policy or not.

00:50:57.000 I don't.

00:50:58.000 The president should not have the unilateral power to do this.

00:51:00.000 By the way, the same thing holds true with regard to things like the Federal Reserve.

00:51:03.000 The fact that we all sit here waiting day after day for Jerome Powell, one guy, to tell us what the interest rates are going to be is psychotic.

00:51:12.000 None of that is how a market ought to work.

00:51:14.000 It is centralized government economics.

00:51:15.000 And it is bad.

00:51:16.000 It is not good.

00:51:17.000 And it does not bear, by the way, the same sort of fruit that people want it to bear.

00:51:21.000 People think that that means everything is hunky-dory because the president can solve things with one signature.

00:51:28.000 Checks and balances are actually quite a good thing.

00:51:30.000 As a general rule, they are a very good thing.

00:51:33.000 Alright, meanwhile, in other news, there are developments with regard to Ukraine and Russia.

00:51:38.000 So, Vladimir Zelensky now says that he is willing to meet with Vladimir Putin.

00:51:43.000 According to the Wall Street Journal, Ukrainian President Zelensky challenged Putin to meet him in Istanbul this week in Turkey after President Trump swung behind the Russian president's offer of talks before a ceasefire.

00:51:53.000 So, Putin has not declared a ceasefire.

00:51:55.000 Zelensky said, I'm willing to accept a 30-day ceasefire.

00:51:57.000 He's said this for weeks and weeks and weeks at this point.

00:52:00.000 Putin has never accepted like a five-minute ceasefire.

00:52:03.000 He pretends to, but it's not real.

00:52:05.000 So now Putin said, I'm willing to do face-to-face negotiations with Zelensky, presumably while the war continues.

00:52:11.000 And Zelensky had said, how about this?

00:52:13.000 How about you declare a 30-day ceasefire?

00:52:14.000 And then we start talking.

00:52:17.000 And President Trump said, you know what?

00:52:19.000 I just want you at the table.

00:52:20.000 Don't care whether it's a ceasefire or not, even though the ceasefire was originally President Trump's idea.

00:52:25.000 But is it good that Zelensky and Putin are talking?

00:52:29.000 Sure.

00:52:30.000 I mean, the real question is going to be what comes out of the talks.

00:52:33.000 So Zelensky said that he would be waiting for Putin in Turkey on Thursday, raising the stakes amid a flurry of diplomatic exchanges and brinkmanship over the weekend, where both sides sought to balance not making any significant concessions with placating President Trump, who's demanding an end to the three-year war.

00:52:46.000 Now, Putin originally didn't respond to Zelensky's offer.

00:52:49.000 Again, it goes beyond the scope of Putin's suggestion of reviving peace talks.

00:52:55.000 Trump's support of the Russian president's proposal of switching his position initially upended European efforts to bring pressure to bear on Russia to halt the war.

00:53:05.000 Trump then over the weekend, he said, Ukraine should agree to this immediately.

00:53:08.000 This is after Putin said, let's just get together and talk face to face without any ceasefire.

00:53:12.000 And Trump said on social media that Ukraine should agree to this immediately.

00:53:16.000 At least they'll be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible.

00:53:19.000 If it's not, European leaders in the U.S. will know where everything stands and can proceed accordingly.

00:53:24.000 Zelensky.

00:53:25.000 Who earlier had wanted a truce, a 30-day ceasefire as a condition of the talks, responded immediately.

00:53:31.000 So again, Zelensky is doing the stuff that Trump wants him to do.

00:53:34.000 Let's be clear.

00:53:35.000 Who is doing what Trump wants him to do when it comes to Putin-Zelensky?

00:53:37.000 The answer is Vladimir Zelensky is doing the stuff Trump wants him to do.

00:53:41.000 There's no other way to read this.

00:53:42.000 Trump is calling for things and Zelensky is doing them.

00:53:45.000 Trump wants a rare earths minerals deal?

00:53:46.000 Zelensky says sure.

00:53:48.000 President Trump wants a 30-day ceasefire.

00:53:50.000 Zelensky says sure.

00:53:51.000 President Trump wants a 30-day ceasefire out the window so they can negotiate.

00:53:55.000 Zelensky says sure.

00:53:56.000 And every step of the way, Putin is delaying.

00:53:58.000 Because Putin is basically gambling that at a certain point, President Trump gets bored and walks away.

00:54:02.000 That's the gamble.

00:54:03.000 And it takes 18 months to two years for European weaponry to actually ship into Ukraine and adjust so that Ukraine can defend itself without American input.

00:54:12.000 Here's one of the big problems people don't want to talk about.

00:54:15.000 Again, policy has a long tail.

00:54:17.000 Because we watch politics in real time, we think a policy happens and then immediately it's implemented.

00:54:22.000 That is not how it works.

00:54:23.000 If the United States...

00:54:24.000 Cuts off aid to Ukraine?

00:54:26.000 It is not as though European arms immediately flow in.

00:54:29.000 Much of the aid that has been provided to Ukraine militarily is only compatible with American ammo, for example.

00:54:34.000 You can't just ship in European ammo to use an American armament.

00:54:38.000 You can't do it.

00:54:39.000 It takes a while to replace all of that stuff.

00:54:41.000 There needs to be at least a sort of runway for things to change over there. 0.98

00:54:46.000 Putin's assuming the United States will precipitously pull out and it'll look like Afghanistan. 0.62

00:54:50.000 That is what happened in Afghanistan, by the way.

00:54:52.000 The United States was providing Aerial oversight for the Afghan government in opposition to the Taliban.

00:54:59.000 The United States pulled all of its air support and the Taliban immediately took over and the Afghan government immediately collapsed.

00:55:04.000 That is what Putin is hoping right now.

00:55:06.000 He's hoping whatever support the United States is providing in terms of intelligence, in terms of ammo, that goes away.

00:55:12.000 And then the gap is not filled quickly enough by the European Union.

00:55:15.000 That's the gamble that Putin is playing right now.

00:55:17.000 I don't think that President Trump falls for that trap, by the way.

00:55:20.000 Zelensky put out a statement on social media.

00:55:22.000 He said there is no point in prolonging the killings.

00:55:25.000 And then he said, I hope this time Putin won't be looking for excuses as to why he can't make it.

00:55:29.000 So he's showing up in Turkey, basically saying, I dare you to show up so we can talk.

00:55:34.000 One day earlier, Putin rebuffed a ceasefire ultimatum from Kiev and its Western allies, instead calling for direct talks.

00:55:41.000 Ukraine and Russia's positions remain far apart.

00:55:43.000 Russia basically wants land ceded to it.

00:55:45.000 It hasn't even won in this battle.

00:55:48.000 Meanwhile, Putin also would like for Ukraine to unilaterally disarm no military support, no membership in NATO, all of which are not going to be a starter on the conversation.

00:55:56.000 Russia has been ramping up its offensives, according to Deep State, which is an independent Ukrainian battlefield monitoring group.

00:56:02.000 They said Russia conducted more attacks during the recent three day ceasefire called by Putin in early May and in the same period the prior month.

00:56:09.000 Thank you.

00:56:10.000 So, we'll see what shakes out in Turkey.

00:56:15.000 Putin is speaking with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is the dictatorial Islamist leader of Turkey, who's very much aligned with Russia, about his proposed talks in Istanbul starting May 15th.

00:56:26.000 President Erdogan said a comprehensive ceasefire would create the necessary environment for peace talks, but Russia just denied it.

00:56:32.000 So once again, Russia appears to be stalling for time in all of this.

00:56:36.000 Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, said, you know, it's pretty clear here Russia's not making a lot of concessions.

00:56:41.000 You know, there was a 30-day ceasefire called for.

00:56:44.000 Mr. Putin decided to bomb Ukraine on Palm Sunday.

00:56:49.000 He's not making any concessions at all, while Zelensky seems to be making all the concessions.

00:56:56.000 So the bottom line is Putin has to agree to a 30-day ceasefire for any peace talks to go forward.

00:57:03.000 And the land that he is asking for is, you know, even J.D. Vance talked about this and the president, you know, land that...

00:57:13.000 That Russia has not even occupied in Ukraine.

00:57:15.000 So he has to operate in good faith.

00:57:18.000 We want peace, but not peace at any price.

00:57:23.000 So that's going to be the question.

00:57:24.000 And we'll find out in short order what exactly Putin is willing to do.

00:57:28.000 My guess is not particularly a lot.

00:57:31.000 Meanwhile, it is amazing to watch as the media and the Democrats ramp up their attacks on John Fetterman.

00:57:36.000 Fetterman, of course, is the very heterodox Democratic senator from Pennsylvania.

00:57:41.000 He's been heterodox with regard to President Trump.

00:57:43.000 He kind of grumpily rejects media attacks that he thinks are unfair against President Trump.

00:57:47.000 He's, of course, been incredibly pro-Israel, shocking everybody who happens to be pro-Israel.

00:57:52.000 Because, of course, Fetterman was aligned with the sort of far left wing of the Democratic Party when he was running against Mehmet Oz, who is now part of the Trump administration. 0.93

00:58:00.000 Well, now Democrats are trying to claim he has mental problems.

00:58:03.000 So the way this works is if you're Joe Biden and you clearly have mental problems and mental disabilities, but you're willing to provide a face. 1.00

00:58:10.000 For crap Democratic policy, you're totally fine. 1.00

00:58:12.000 You're fine. 0.99

00:58:13.000 Everything is good.

00:58:14.000 No problems whatsoever.

00:58:15.000 But if you're John Fetterman and you have a stroke in the middle of a race with Mehmet Oz and everybody's like, whoa, that seems bad.

00:58:22.000 Democrats are like, he's fine.

00:58:24.000 It's all good. 1.00

00:58:24.000 Until the point at which he starts disagreeing with them, at which point it turns out he has a mental problem. 1.00

00:58:30.000 Amazing how the politics just seem to dictate whether people think that others have a mental problem or not. 0.80

00:58:36.000 It's pretty astonishing, actually.

00:58:38.000 According to Axios, Senator Fetterman has unnerved aides with his performance in office, with both current and former staff telling Axios he seems uninterested in the day-to-day duties of a senator.

00:58:48.000 First of all, welcome to the Senate, where half the Senate is uninterested in the day-to-day duties of a senator.

00:58:52.000 Have you ever met senators?

00:58:52.000 I've met many senators.

00:58:54.000 Many, many, many senators.

00:58:55.000 The number of them who are deeply dedicated to their jobs?

00:58:59.000 Limited, shall we say.

00:59:01.000 Capitol Hill's private concerns over Fetterman exploded into public view over the past week.

00:59:05.000 As longtime critics and former allies piled on with concerns about the senator.

00:59:09.000 Adam Jentleson, his former chief of staff, said, quote, part of the tragedy here is this is a man who could be leading Democrats out of the wilderness.

00:59:15.000 But I think he's struggling in a way that shouldn't be hidden from the public.

00:59:19.000 What exactly happened?

00:59:21.000 Well, apparently, there was an outburst during a meeting with teachers union officials in Washington last week with one of the members of the teachers union crying.

00:59:31.000 And that is, hmm.

00:59:34.000 That's weird.

00:59:36.000 Apparently, according to the Associated Press, Fetterman began repeating himself and shouting and demanding, why is everybody mad at me?

00:59:43.000 Why does everybody hate me?

00:59:44.000 What did I do?

00:59:45.000 Before slamming his hands on a desk, according to a person briefed on what happened.

00:59:49.000 The staffer was comforted by teachers who themselves were rattled by Fetterman's behavior.

00:59:54.000 Fetterman, for his part, said, basically, there's a hit piece.

00:59:59.000 Asked about the meeting with the Teachers Union representative, Fetterman said in a statement, they had a spirited conversation about our collective frustration with the Trump administration's cuts to our education system.

01:00:09.000 So, again, the building momentum is reliant on the fact that he has moved to the right.

01:00:17.000 So, there are people in the Democratic Party who are now suggesting that there's something deeply wrong with Fetterman.

01:00:23.000 Again, if there was something wrong with Fetterman before, presumably there is something wrong with Fetterman now.

01:00:27.000 However...

01:00:27.000 That is not what changed.

01:00:29.000 What actually changed is not, presumably, his mental status.

01:00:31.000 He was hospitalized for depression after the stroke.

01:00:34.000 You know that.

01:00:35.000 The real question is, what changed where Democrats are suddenly panicking?

01:00:39.000 And the answer is that he disagrees with them on some pretty key issues.

01:00:43.000 A Fetterman spokesperson said John expects his staff to disagree with him on things.

01:00:46.000 That's normal.

01:00:47.000 Airing out grievances publicly hurts the entire office and puts staff and their work in jeopardy.

01:00:53.000 So, again.

01:00:54.000 Interesting to watch what Democrats now consider to be a health problem worth monitoring and what they consider to be not a health problem worth monitoring.

01:01:02.000 The answer is completely dependent, apparently, on the politics of the person that they are concerned about.

01:01:08.000 Meanwhile, controversy brewing over the possible arrest of Democratic members of Congress.

01:01:14.000 So, apparently, according to the New York Post, two Democratic representatives from New Jersey were caught on video storming a Newark immigration detention site last week.

01:01:22.000 One was seen elbowing her way past ICE agents in an alleged bizarre political stunt. 0.99

01:01:27.000 North Jersey representatives Robert Menendez Jr. and LaMonica McIvor were among the protesters who turned up demanding the closure of the Delaney Hall Detention Center.

01:01:34.000 It houses criminal illegal migrants with alleged MS-13 gang affiliation who are wanted for crimes ranging from rape to murder.

01:01:40.000 Democrats simply picked the best friends.

01:01:42.000 Here is some of the video provided Fox News by DHS.

01:01:45.000 And it shows these two Congress people yelling at ICE agents and then assaulting them, essentially.

01:01:50.000 Get off of her! 1.00

01:01:57.000 You can see it's a scrum, and you can see some of the protesters moving around, and you can see members of Congress yelling at the ICE agents, trying to shove their way past the ICE agents.

01:02:11.000 I don't know where they think they're going to.

01:02:13.000 I'm not sure what they think they're attempting to achieve here.

01:02:18.000 But they got to make some headlines.

01:02:19.000 That's exciting for them.

01:02:20.000 Meanwhile...

01:02:21.000 The DHS Assistant Secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, wrote in a statement, Members of Congress storming into a detention facility goes beyond a bizarre political stunt and puts the safety of our law enforcement agents and detainees at risk.

01:02:32.000 Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities.

01:02:36.000 Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour.

01:02:39.000 This is an evolving situation.

01:02:41.000 This led, of course, to Tricia McLaughlin explaining that the possibility of arrest is actually still on the table.

01:02:49.000 There were multiple people arrested.

01:02:51.000 And, Victor, I think that we should let viewers know there will likely be more arrests coming.

01:02:55.000 We actually have body camera footage of some of these members of Congress assaulting our ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer.

01:03:07.000 So we will be showing that to viewers very shortly.

01:03:10.000 You see a video of members of Congress body slamming ICE officials?

01:03:16.000 That's correct, sir. 0.84

01:03:17.000 It's disgusting.

01:03:19.000 Okay, and so if you have that video, are you suggesting that members of Congress will be arrested who were there yesterday?

01:03:26.000 This is an ongoing investigation, and that is definitely on the table.

01:03:31.000 Okay, so we'll find out what happens here.

01:03:34.000 Again, Democrats are picking exactly the wrong angle here.

01:03:37.000 It's truly amazing that the Democrats continue to pick the worst allies in the entire world.

01:03:43.000 All they have to do is just be calm and say, listen, The people who are being arrested, they probably should be deported.

01:03:49.000 They require a due process.

01:03:50.000 That's all they have to say.

01:03:51.000 That's it.

01:03:52.000 But they can't help themselves.

01:03:53.000 Instead, they're showing up at detention facilities. 0.99

01:03:55.000 The race for headlines in the social media age drives some of the dumbest behavior humanly possible. 0.51

01:03:59.000 It's truly an amazing thing. 0.92

01:04:01.000 They really seem to have no clue about how to handle themselves.

01:04:05.000 Whether it's traveling down to El Salvador to visit Kilmer Abrego Garcia, an accused wife-beater, or whether they are talking about showing up at detention facilities for...

01:04:15.000 Actual criminal illegal aliens accused of...

01:04:17.000 And then shoving around ICE agents.

01:04:20.000 Like, what are they doing?

01:04:21.000 What in the world are they doing? 1.00

01:04:23.000 But we do, in fact, live in the stupidest timeline. 1.00

01:04:25.000 Speaking of which, because we live in the stupidest possible timeline, Kanye West has a new music video. 0.99

01:04:31.000 And I feel that we should probably comment on it. 1.00

01:04:34.000 So, Kanye West, as we all know, has mental issues. 0.98

01:04:38.000 I'm not saying this because of his politics. 0.99

01:04:40.000 I've been saying that Kanye West has mental issues for years and years and years and years and years.

01:04:43.000 There's nothing new here. 1.00

01:04:44.000 Years and years ago, when Kanye West was making inroads with the first Trump administration, I tweeted famously, live by the Kanye, die by the Kanye, because he's nuts. 0.99

01:04:54.000 And Kanye's mental issues continue to contribute, I assume, to his bizarre fixation with the Jews. 0.97

01:05:03.000 So he now has a new song titled Heil Hitler. 0.99

01:05:08.000 So just in case you are still pretending that Kanye West doesn't hate Jews, I'm pretty sure he hates the Jews. 0.97

01:05:14.000 I mean, two things can be true at once. 0.99

01:05:16.000 One, mental illness. 1.00

01:05:17.000 Two, hates the Jews. 1.00

01:05:18.000 Both can be true. 0.81

01:05:19.000 And in fact, Kanye West are true.

01:05:22.000 So he's now cut an entire music video.

01:05:23.000 Again, this is all about transgressiveness.

01:05:25.000 It's all about transgressivism.

01:05:27.000 That's all it is.

01:05:28.000 So many of the people who are parroting the Heil Hitler-Kanye West song are doing so because they think it's fun to be transgressive.

01:05:35.000 And all rules must be broken because if you're standing up to the narrative, you're doing something brave and amazing. 1.00

01:05:40.000 Or maybe you're just being a piece of shit. 1.00

01:05:42.000 That's also possible. 1.00

01:05:44.000 It turns out that some rules exist for a reason.

01:05:46.000 And like, being against Hitler seems to be a...

01:05:49.000 I don't know.

01:05:50.000 Call me controversial. 0.82

01:05:51.000 Call me crazy. 0.97

01:05:52.000 Hitler seems bad. 0.97

01:05:53.000 I don't know.

01:05:54.000 I feel like Hitler was not a good person.

01:05:57.000 And I feel like the things he did were bad.

01:05:59.000 If that makes me controversial, if it makes me a censor of some sort...

01:06:04.000 I guess, you know, sure.

01:06:06.000 All right, fine.

01:06:07.000 Now, again, I've not called for Kanye West to be platformed from anything.

01:06:10.000 I'm just pointing out that many of the people who are very enthusiastic about Kanye West making common cause with people on the right are utterly silent when it comes to his absolutely open shift into Nazism.

01:06:21.000 Many of the people who call him friends and acquaintances and people, like, where are they?

01:06:26.000 Do they have anything to say about this or no?

01:06:28.000 It's still about the Jews. 0.99

01:06:29.000 Pretty amazing stuff.

01:06:31.000 So here is Kanye West's song, Heil Hitler.

01:06:33.000 See my Twitter, but they don't see how I be feeling.

01:06:38.000 So I became a nasty, yeah.

01:06:39.000 I'm the villain. 0.96

01:06:41.000 Heil Hitler. 0.96

01:06:47.000 Heil Hitler. 0.96

01:06:50.000 Right.

01:06:51.000 They don't understand the things I say on Twitter.

01:06:56.000 Great.

01:06:58.000 So the actual line is...

01:07:01.000 N-word, Heil Hitler. 0.52

01:07:03.000 Okay, but it's a hard R with Hitler and it's a no R with the N-word, is the way this works.

01:07:07.000 If, by the way, you say the reverse, that means you're a racist and you're banned from polite society.

01:07:11.000 If you say the N-word, that ends with an A, but you say Heil Hitler with the hard R, then that means that you're good, transgressive, and interesting to a wide variety of people, apparently, on both right and left.

01:07:21.000 So that's exciting stuff.

01:07:22.000 I'm glad that we've decided to do this as a society.

01:07:24.000 And social media, of course, has exacerbated all of this because transgressive behavior gets clicks, it gets attention.

01:07:30.000 That, of course, is why Andrew Tate, one of the most vile people in social media, decided that, you know, he's constantly piggybacking on the social media attention whoredom of others. 0.76

01:07:41.000 So here he was, jumping in a fancy car in UAE, I believe this is, while playing the Kanye West song.

01:07:49.000 Because all the best people are of a piece.

01:07:53.000 The next one.

01:07:58.000 He's smoking a cigar and getting into a fancy car paid for by the people that he is allegedly ripping off with Tate University.

01:08:03.000 So that's exciting for all of you.

01:08:09.000 And he puts on the song and then he starts driving down the street.

01:08:11.000 What a rebel he is.

01:08:13.000 Truly, truly a rebel.

01:08:14.000 This is the kind of...

01:08:15.000 The social media scene has made the world so much better.

01:08:19.000 By the way, if you think this has no bleed over, why are we paying attention to this?

01:08:22.000 Because social media popularity now translates into mainstream breakthrough.

01:08:27.000 We have seen this.

01:08:28.000 We've seen people who were completely anonymous two years ago, who because of the bizarre algorithmic boosts provided by X and TikTok, have now become kind of internet famous.

01:08:37.000 And then they make a breakthrough into actual famous podcasts, for example.

01:08:40.000 And suddenly they're showing up and you're like, who is this person?

01:08:42.000 Why is this person here?

01:08:43.000 And the answer is they got a lot of clicks.

01:08:45.000 So clicks can translate into some sort of appeal.

01:08:49.000 And we do live in a time where because the left was so censorious, because the left shut the Overton windows so unbelievably tight.

01:08:55.000 That basically, if you didn't agree with Hillary Clinton, you were out there in the wilderness.

01:08:59.000 Because of that, many people on the right, their response was, no Overton window at all, meaning all discourse must be treated as equally acceptable and valuable. 1.00

01:09:07.000 Which, of course, is stupidity. 0.99

01:09:09.000 It's just moral relativism. 0.99

01:09:11.000 Edward Heil Hitler is not of the same caliber of discussion as, say, should we raise or lower pharmaceutical prices based on government mandate?

01:09:21.000 What is valuable?

01:09:22.000 The answer is, there's not a lot of value.

01:09:24.000 Again, it doesn't mean it should be banned.

01:09:25.000 It doesn't mean it should be censored. 0.88

01:09:26.000 It does mean that a rational, decent people would not be spending an awful lot of time with those sorts of folks promoting that sort of trash.

01:09:35.000 But once it starts mainstreaming via social media, then all the bad ideas of the past get to come back.

01:09:40.000 So that's exciting.

01:09:42.000 According to a brand new poll out of JL Partners, this is from October of last year, so it's not brand new.

01:09:48.000 According to a poll from October 7th of 2024, people who say Hitler had some good ideas, people who are 18 to 29 years old, 21%.

01:09:57.000 People who are 65 plus 5%. 0.61

01:09:59.000 Why?

01:10:01.000 Well, a few reasons.

01:10:02.000 One, older people are not spending nearly as much time on social media.

01:10:05.000 Two, older people actually do have some wisdom. 0.99

01:10:07.000 They're not as stupid as people who are 18 to 29 years old very often. 0.98

01:10:11.000 There is an interesting racial breakdown. 1.00

01:10:14.000 Black Americans, over a fifth of them, say Hitler had some good ideas.

01:10:17.000 Presumably Kanye is in that category.

01:10:18.000 19% of Hispanic Americans said the same.

01:10:21.000 Just 9% of white Americans said the same.

01:10:24.000 So, I don't know.

01:10:24.000 Put me on the side of people who say Hitler actually did not have good ideas.

01:10:28.000 His ideas were trash. 1.00

01:10:29.000 And the people who support them today are trash. 1.00

01:10:31.000 And the people who invoke them today as some sort of progressive strike against the leftist machine. 0.99

01:10:36.000 There are so many ways to oppose leftist censorship.

01:10:40.000 Valuable ways to oppose leftist censorship.

01:10:42.000 There are so many things that can be said that the left doesn't want you to say that actually have inherent, real value.

01:10:47.000 And then there are mentally ill people warbling into a microphone using autotune. 0.65

01:10:51.000 By the way, I hope that whatever Kanye is making off his songs, he's paying a percentage to autotune.

01:10:57.000 Because my goodness, autotune is basically writing his songs for him at this point.

01:11:02.000 I'm so glad that our pop culture has moved in this wonderful, wonderful direction.

01:11:05.000 Exciting stuff.

01:11:06.000 All right, folks, the show continues.

01:11:07.000 For our members right now, we'll be jumping into that vaunted Ben Shapiro Show mailbag.

01:11:11.000 Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

01:11:12.000 If you're not a member, become a member.

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The Ben Shapiro Show - May 12, 2025

A China DEAL…PLUS A $400 Million Jet From Qatar?!

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