The Ben Shapiro Show - February 25, 2025


The NSA’s Secret S** CHATS?!


Episode Stats


Length

51 minutes

Words per minute

187.2604

Word count

9,672

Sentence count

686

Harmful content

Misogyny

11

sentences flagged

Hate speech

21

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Why did Donald Trump win re-election? Is it because Americans are dumb or is it because the Democratic Party is dumb too? Or are they just idiots? And why is it so hard to have an intellectual debate about it?

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Ben Shapiro Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Well, folks, Democrats remain puzzled at why Donald Trump won re-election.
00:00:03.000 Now, the answer for those of us who've been watching politics for the last 20 years is pretty obvious.
00:00:07.000 You did it.
00:00:08.000 Democrats, you did it.
00:00:09.000 You decided to scorn the American people.
00:00:12.000 You decided to label all the people in America who disagree with you bitter clingers and deplorables.
00:00:17.000 You decided that going to church was a mark of your stupidity.
00:00:20.000 You decided that Americans were in the cockles of their heart.
00:00:23.000 Racist, sexist, bigot, homophobes.
00:00:25.000 You decided that all of the auspices of American government had to be brought to pressure Americans into your version of virtue, complete with signaling, like pronoun signaling and all the rest of this.
00:00:36.000 And yet you seem absolutely puzzled as to why Americans aren't buying what you're selling.
00:00:41.000 I'm not sure I've seen a better example of the sort of continued scorn that Democrats have for everyday Americans than what was exhibited last night on Mehdi Hassan's show.
00:00:49.000 Mehdi Hassan, for those who don't remember him, was...
00:00:52.000 An MSNBC host who was terrible there.
00:00:54.000 And then before that, he was an Al Jazeera host where he was a mouthpiece of Qatar.
00:00:58.000 And he was joined on the air by the execrable congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, terror sympathizer extraordinaire.
00:01:04.000 And there, she, with her vocal grind, decided to lay into the American people who have given her aid and sustenance.
00:01:13.000 And remember, she was originally a refugee to this country and was elected to Congress on the basis of yelling at Americans about how terrible they are. 1.00
00:01:20.000 Here she is explaining that Americans are just stupid.
00:01:23.000 That's the big problem.
00:01:24.000 That's why Trump was re-elected.
00:01:25.000 Not that she blew it.
00:01:25.000 Not that Mehdi Hassan blew it.
00:01:27.000 Not that the rest of the Democratic Party blew it.
00:01:29.000 It's that Americans writ large are just dumb. 0.64
00:01:33.000 These people are just idiots.
00:01:35.000 I really, you know, I'm at the point where it's become really hard to have an intellectual debate with any of these people because the level of stupidity that they are displaying every single day is frankly embarrassing.
00:01:48.000 not just in Congress, but as Americans.
00:01:52.000 And the fact that these people are allowed to say just the most ridiculous things tells you that the dumbing of the United States has arrived because how else do we get a Trump presidency again?
00:02:06.000 Yeah, it must be the stupidity.
00:02:08.000 It can't be that you guys chose every wrong position as possible to take in American politics, and now the American people have rejected you.
00:02:15.000 It can't be that at all.
00:02:17.000 Now, the perfect example of this came out yesterday courtesy of our friend Chris Ruffo, who's going to join the show in a moment and break some more news on this particular story.
00:02:25.000 So, the job of the National Security Agency is to collect, analyze, and share intelligence to protect the United States from foreign enemies.
00:02:33.000 That is the job of the intelligence community.
00:02:35.000 As it turns out, it, like many other institutions in American government and American public life, has been honeycombed with leftist nonsense.
00:02:43.000 Absolute tripe.
00:02:44.000 And in this case, perverse, disgusting, pornographic.
00:02:47.000 Leftist tripe.
00:02:48.000 According to Chris, quote, Well,
00:03:16.000 they're doing all these crazy things on taxpayer time.
00:03:20.000 This isn't them on their weird websites, you know, like in their off hours.
00:03:24.000 This is during their government employment using government networks.
00:03:28.000 They're talking about their particular fetishes.
00:03:30.000 And this is supposed to be part of the equity agenda, right?
00:03:33.000 The equity agenda is to make sure that people who are sexually diverse staff the NSA. That's the important thing. 0.74
00:03:38.000 Not stopping foreign threats. 0.98
00:03:39.000 Not monitoring terrorist groups.
00:03:41.000 The important thing.
00:03:42.000 is that weirdos who think that it's some sort of turn-on to cut off their genitals can talk to one another.
00:03:46.000 That is the biggest, that is the most important thing at our institutions.
00:03:50.000 Understand that, for the left, our institutions are about reshaping the human beings who go into them and then using those reshaped human beings to reshape the United States of America.
00:03:59.000 They are not about actually fulfilling the delegated functions of those institutions.
00:04:03.000 The Department of Education is not about educating children.
00:04:06.000 The Department of Education is about creating pipelines to left-wing interest groups that then reshape the nature of the American body politic.
00:04:13.000 And apparently the NSA is about providing a safe space for people to discuss having their buttholes zapped with lasers. 0.99
00:04:20.000 I'm not even kidding.
00:04:20.000 And then presumably being able to use their access to foreign intelligence and apparently domestic intelligence in order to target political enemies.
00:04:30.000 According to Chris, one popular chat topic is, was male-to-female transgender surgery, which involves surgically removing the penis and turning it into an artificial vagina. 0.65
00:04:39.000 Quote, Mine is everything, said one male who claimed to have had gender reconstruction surgery.
00:04:43.000 I found that I like being penetrated.
00:04:45.000 Never liked it before GRS, but all the rest is just as important as well.
00:04:48.000 Another intel official boasted that genital surgery allowed him to, quote, wear leggings or bikinis without having to wear a gaff under it.
00:04:55.000 These employees discussed hair removal, estrogen injections, and the experience of sexual pleasure post-castration.
00:05:00.000 Quote, getting my butthole zapped by a laser was shocking, said one trans-identifying intel employee who spent thousands on hair removal.
00:05:07.000 Look, I just enjoy helping other people experience boobs, said another about estrogen treatment.
00:05:12.000 One of the weirdest things that gives me euphoria is when I pee, I don't have to push anything down to make sure it aims right, said a defense intelligence agency employee.
00:05:19.000 Do you feel safer?
00:05:20.000 Do you feel that your synagogue, church, school, public arena, now you're protected from the terrorists?
00:05:27.000 Because, after all...
00:05:29.000 Defense intelligence employees are very, very happy that they can sit when they pee safely.
00:05:36.000 Very exciting stuff.
00:05:38.000 Apparently, according to the sources, the stats were legitimized as part of the NSA's commitment to, quote, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
00:05:44.000 Activists within the agency used LGBTQ plus minus divided by sign employee resource groups to turn their and pathologies into official work duties.
00:05:52.000 According to the current NSA employee, these groups, quote, spent all day recruiting activists and holding meetings with titles such as privilege, ally awareness, pride, and transgender community inclusion.
00:06:02.000 And the NSA leadership supported every aspect of this, declaring the DEI was, quote, not only mission critical, but mission imperative.
00:06:09.000 Yes, the mission of the NSA, monitoring foreign terror threats.
00:06:13.000 That mission would have been endangered if we did not have intel-linked chats between various agents discussing The pleasures of polyamory.
00:06:23.000 Quote, last January, chatroom members discussed their practice of polyamory or ethical non-monogamy.
00:06:28.000 One employee explained a polycule is a polyamorous group.
00:06:31.000 A is my girlfriend and BG are her partners.
00:06:34.000 And B and C are dating, but not C and D, nor E, F, or G with any of the others, though there are several MWB, metas with benefits, connections.
00:06:42.000 Another employee claimed to be part of a nine-member polycule, adding, quote, some of our friends are practically polymers with all the connected compounds.
00:06:49.000 Many of the conversations became particularly explicit.
00:06:53.000 One former NSA source recalled being disgusted by a particularly shocking thread discussing a weekend, quote, Very exciting stuff happening inside the federal government.
00:07:04.000 Really important and exciting stuff.
00:07:06.000 Alrighty, in just one second, we're going to get to my interview with Chris Ruffo himself.
00:07:09.000 He's giving our listeners an exclusive on this insane NSA story.
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00:09:24.000 Well, joining us on the line to discuss is Chris Rufo, the predominant activist journalist of our time, also senior fellow and director of the initiative on critical race theory at the Manhattan Institute for more breaking news.
00:09:35.000 So, Chris, you keep coming up with these scoops week after week, which suggests both you're very good at your job and also there's an enormous amount of trash happening at the federal governmental level.
00:09:44.000 We've been talking about the NSA and these horrifying secret chats in which they've been engaged, but we talked about that.
00:09:51.000 I want to talk about a couple of new things that you're uncovering today with regard to Talk at the NSA, which again is an agency designed specifically to target foreign enemies about apparently domestic enemies and yours truly comes up apparently.
00:10:05.000 That's absolutely right.
00:10:06.000 I mean, these are intelligence officials that should, in theory, be focused on foreign adversaries, but they are very concerned about domestic politics.
00:10:14.000 And so it's not just about their hormones, their genital surgeries.
00:10:18.000 They have vitriolic feelings towards conservatives in particular.
00:10:22.000 Two names that came up, of course, were Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok fame and the one and only Ben Shapiro.
00:10:29.000 And they were going ballistic.
00:10:31.000 I mean, they said at one point that you should be expelled for the tribe for constantly spouting hate speech.
00:10:37.000 I'm not a rabbi.
00:10:39.000 I don't know exactly how that works.
00:10:40.000 But my impression is that the NSA does not have that power.
00:10:43.000 That's something of an overreach.
00:10:45.000 And it's frankly quite absurd.
00:10:47.000 So the CIA has already come out and said that they're going to look into this.
00:10:53.000 What do you expect the outcome of this is going to be?
00:10:54.000 I mean, the NSA has incredible powers to look into all sorts of information, foreign as well as domestic.
00:11:00.000 We've had a bunch of scandals involving the NSA, actually targeting people domestically.
00:11:04.000 What do you think is going to be the outcome of all of this?
00:11:07.000 Well, the Trump administration is very concerned about this.
00:11:10.000 And just in the last few hours, I can tell you that I've had phone calls and signal messages from not only the NSA, but the CIA and the Director of National Intelligence staff.
00:11:21.000 And so they want to get to the bottom of this.
00:11:23.000 I'm told that they're going to be taking significant action.
00:11:27.000 And in my view, the standard should be quite simple.
00:11:30.000 If you were at any private corporation, if you worked at Microsoft or you worked at Boeing or ExxonMobil, If you were doing this in the work chat, you would be packed up and gone within hours.
00:11:41.000 The same standard should be applied here, and in fact, it should be even a more stringent standard, because revealing these personal details, these gory situations, not only is inappropriate at work, but it creates a counterintelligence vulnerability that we know China, Russia, Iran, and other countries would love to exploit.
00:12:04.000 So, Chris, one of the things that I think we need to focus in here on is the fact that this is, in fact, a reflection of bad policy.
00:12:11.000 It's easy to go, well, yes, bad apples who have gotten involved in various chats with their anger at various conservatives.
00:12:18.000 But there really is something else going on here, and that is that throughout our federal government, when Joe Biden said that equity was going to dictate all policy throughout these federal agencies, he was not joking.
00:12:27.000 And that is reflected in this kind of insanity at the staffing level.
00:12:31.000 That's exactly right.
00:12:33.000 And all of these chats that were extremely graphic in nature were legitimized and considered part of the DEI programs.
00:12:42.000 And so the left wants to play this Mott and Bailey game, this hard debate, easy debate game where they say, you know, you have to protect people's identity.
00:12:50.000 They just want to have trans people have the right to exist.
00:12:53.000 All of these euphemisms that they use.
00:12:56.000 But under the surface, this is what's happening in practice.
00:12:59.000 And the Biden administration officials were either complicit or they were too afraid to actually shut this down.
00:13:05.000 I'm told that under Tulsi Gabbard, these chats have been shut down.
00:13:09.000 They aren't going to occur moving forward.
00:13:12.000 But the problem is quite deep because between the Obama administration and then the Biden administration, you have a huge sweep of time in which left-wing gender activists seemingly have hijacked not just Department of Education or Department of Environmental Protection, But in fact, the core agencies of our national security apparatus, this should be a five alarm fire for policymakers.
00:13:37.000 It creates a huge vulnerability in addition to the simple ideological problems that are obvious to all.
00:13:43.000 I mean, it also includes the fact that when you have all of these radicals who are motivated to actually go after their enemies and they have the tools to go after their enemies, the possibility of actual malfeasance using the tools of law enforcement starts to grow pretty exponentially.
00:13:57.000 Yeah, that's right.
00:13:58.000 I mean, look, in theory, the NSA could listen to every phone call you make, could read every text message or email that you write.
00:14:05.000 And in theory, this could be deployed by bad actors within the agency against domestic enemies.
00:14:10.000 We know for a fact, because of these chat logs, that they have very clear enemies who are in American politics.
00:14:17.000 They're unanimously conservative.
00:14:19.000 And so I think that it is not beyond concern to fear that some of these tools could be deployed against domestic enemies.
00:14:29.000 This is something that we should be on guard for.
00:14:32.000 And certainly the new director of national intelligence has a lot of work ahead to clean up the agencies, to focus them back on mission, and frankly, to terminate the employment of people who are not advancing the national security, but seek to really use government resources to advance partisan politics.
00:14:50.000 Well, folks, Chris Rufo doing amazing work each and every week.
00:14:54.000 He You can check him out over at ChristopherRuffo.com or you can follow him over at RealChrisRuffo at X.com as well.
00:15:00.000 Chris, really appreciate the time as well as the breaking news.
00:15:03.000 Thank you.
00:15:04.000 Okay, so what does all of this mean in practical terms?
00:15:06.000 Well, what it means is that Americans are not fond.
00:15:10.000 They believe their institutions are fundamentally broken.
00:15:12.000 This is where the popularity of Doge comes in.
00:15:15.000 It's not that Doge, as we discussed yesterday, is taking an actual chainsaw to government spending.
00:15:19.000 They're not.
00:15:20.000 The numbers are not all that high.
00:15:23.000 The numbers are in the low billions, maybe the tens of billions, certainly not enough to transform the trajectory of American spending.
00:15:31.000 But what Doge is doing is uncovering The rot at the center of so many of these institutions.
00:15:36.000 That's why it's employee-based.
00:15:37.000 That is why it is a targeting of particular employees in particular sectors.
00:15:41.000 Because the idea is that personnel make policy.
00:15:44.000 If you don't like the policy, the best thing to do is to clean out the personnel.
00:15:48.000 Here's President Trump explaining the popularity of Doge.
00:15:51.000 I think everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea.
00:15:54.000 We have to find out where these people are.
00:15:56.000 Who are they?
00:15:57.000 And we said if you don't respond, we assume you're not around.
00:16:02.000 And you're not getting paid anymore, too.
00:16:04.000 So, you know, we're doing a real job.
00:16:06.000 And we just had a poll come out, I guess the Harvard poll, saying that it's massively popular what we're doing.
00:16:13.000 And of course it is massively popular because Americans do not like this sort of crap.
00:16:18.000 They understand that their taxpayer dollars, the things that they work hard all day to earn, are now being used to subsidize trans discussions at the NSA. They are not into this. 0.72
00:16:27.000 They don't want this.
00:16:28.000 They think that it is bad.
00:16:29.000 And the Democrats are puzzled.
00:16:31.000 Why would people think that's bad?
00:16:32.000 That's just part and parcel of what government is for.
00:16:34.000 Government is part of a transformative process directed at Americans' values.
00:16:38.000 That is what government is.
00:16:39.000 Government drives how Americans think about life.
00:16:42.000 That is what the left believes.
00:16:43.000 And they cannot believe that Americans are rejecting their entire worldview.
00:16:47.000 That is what lies at the root of all of this.
00:16:49.000 Not even differences on spending or government programs themselves.
00:16:52.000 What lies behind all of this is a belief by Americans correctly. 0.57
00:16:57.000 That the value system of the left, which is defined by Los Angeles and San Francisco and New York, that that value system is at odds with the value system held by most Americans, the vast majority of Americans.
00:17:08.000 In fact, it's why so much of what President Trump is doing right now sounds simply commonsensical, and yet he's being opposed every step of the way by radicals on the left.
00:17:18.000 Perfect example is what's happening up in Maine.
00:17:21.000 So up in Maine, the governor, Janet Mills, 77 years old.
00:17:27.000 She has challenged President Trump's executive order relating to keeping men out of women's sports.
00:17:35.000 Maine's Principal Association Executive Director Mike Burnham declared on February 7th that they would not comply in any way, shape, or form with the executive order from the White House that said men are not allowed in female sports.
00:17:46.000 Instead, he said Maine would follow the Maine Human Rights Act when it comes to gender identity.
00:17:52.000 And then, President Trump On February 20th, he was speaking to the Republican Governors Association meeting, and he said, Maine, I hate to tell you this, they're not going to get any federal money.
00:18:01.000 If they want men in women's sports, they're just not going to get the cash. 1.00
00:18:04.000 On February 21st, he had a gathering of all the governors, and he directly tore into Governor Mills in Maine.
00:18:12.000 The NCAA has complied immediately, by the way.
00:18:15.000 That's good.
00:18:16.000 But I understand Maine.
00:18:18.000 Is Maine here, the governor of Maine?
00:18:22.000 Are you not going to comply with it?
00:18:24.000 I'm complying with state and federal laws.
00:18:26.000 Well, we are the federal law.
00:18:28.000 Well, you better do it.
00:18:30.000 You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't.
00:18:33.000 And by the way, your population, even though it's somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn't want men playing in women's sports.
00:18:41.000 So you better comply because otherwise you're not getting any federal funding.
00:18:47.000 Every state.
00:18:48.000 Good.
00:18:48.000 I'll see you in court.
00:18:49.000 I look forward to that.
00:18:50.000 That should be a real easy one.
00:18:53.000 And enjoy your life after governor because I don't think you'll be in elected politics.
00:18:59.000 He's right about this.
00:19:00.000 He's right about this.
00:19:01.000 This is an 80-20 issue.
00:19:02.000 Americans do not believe that men should be competing in women's sports.
00:19:06.000 But again, government is a tool of social transformation, according to the left.
00:19:10.000 That's what it is for.
00:19:11.000 It is an elite tool of social transformation.
00:19:13.000 And if Americans don't like that...
00:19:15.000 Well, then Ilhan Omar will label Americans stupid.
00:19:17.000 Well, President Trump is not going along with this, so the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has now launched a Title IX investigation in Maine.
00:19:25.000 And again, there are a bunch of these other investigations that are currently going on.
00:19:28.000 And the governor of Maine refuses to back down.
00:19:31.000 Quote, I've spent my career standing up for the rule of law in Maine and America.
00:19:34.000 To me, that is fundamentally what is at stake here, the rule of law in our country.
00:19:37.000 No president can withhold federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by main taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will.
00:19:45.000 It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws, which it took an oath to uphold.
00:19:50.000 Okay, so this is going to go to court, presumably.
00:19:52.000 But the idea that strings are attached to federal funding, that has a long, storied record in American politics going all the way back to federal dollars being attached with strings to, for example, raising the driving age in particular states.
00:20:07.000 We're getting rid of drunk driving in particular states.
00:20:10.000 So we'll see how that plays out.
00:20:11.000 But again, all this is just commonsensical, and the left opposes every bit of it.
00:20:15.000 The same thing is true when it comes to illegal immigration.
00:20:18.000 The truth is that there is, in the United States, a sort of wide consensus on illegal immigration.
00:20:25.000 It's a consensus that I have been preaching for my entire political career, as far as I'm aware, which is, shut the border, figure out what to do with the people here. 1.00
00:20:33.000 That's pretty much what it is.
00:20:35.000 Shut the border, figure out what to do with the people here. 1.00
00:20:36.000 And that means a lot of people are going to have to go.
00:20:39.000 Most Americans are on board with that and always have been.
00:20:41.000 Right, left, and center.
00:20:42.000 I'm old enough to remember a time when even Bernie Sanders was an immigration restrictionist.
00:20:46.000 Because he understood well enough that actually you can't have an endless welfare state piled atop the back of an open border.
00:20:53.000 Those two things do not go along with one another.
00:20:55.000 In fact, actually smart leftists all over the globe understand this.
00:20:58.000 Perhaps the only reigning left-wing party in Europe right now is in Denmark.
00:21:03.000 Very successful left-wing party.
00:21:04.000 Why?
00:21:04.000 Because they've maintained all of their socialist stances, except that they've gone hard right on immigration.
00:21:09.000 They say we can't have a social welfare state with an open border.
00:21:12.000 It's like saying free donuts and leaving the door wide open at the front of the store.
00:21:16.000 Everyone's going to come in for a free donut.
00:21:18.000 But the left in the United States has decided that they want both open borders and endless welfare.
00:21:23.000 Well, now all of that is coming to a crashing halt.
00:21:26.000 So, yesterday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced That there would be a raid near Houston at a place called Colony Ridge.
00:21:35.000 And we've been reporting on this here at Daily Wire extensively for months, if not years, at this point.
00:21:42.000 Governor Abbott tweeted out, Colony Ridge is being targeted today.
00:21:45.000 Texas DPS troopers and special agents are assisting Homeland Security investigations with an operation in Colony Ridge this morning.
00:21:51.000 They are targeting criminals and illegal immigrants. 1.00
00:21:53.000 I've worked with Tom Homan on this for months.
00:21:56.000 Again, that is an unincorporated subdivision northeast of Houston that has basically become a haven for illegal immigration.
00:22:04.000 Joining us on the line to discuss is Daily Wire investigative reporter Spencer Lindquist.
00:22:08.000 So, Spencer, why don't you give us the background on Colony Ridge?
00:22:11.000 Why is this a big issue?
00:22:12.000 So, Colony Ridge is a 60-square-mile development that is set to reach a population of a quarter million people.
00:22:18.000 That's larger than Scottsdale, Arizona, Knoxville, Tennessee, or Boise, Idaho.
00:22:23.000 And the marketing and financial schemes at Colony Ridge are specifically designed to attract illegal aliens.
00:22:29.000 We've seen illegal alien drug runners, suspected murderers, and cartel members.
00:22:33.000 Just last night, there were these raids at Colony Ridge, and it resulted in a manhunt for a confirmed MS-13 member who'd been deported from the United States on seven different occasions.
00:22:43.000 He's connected to a fatal stabbing.
00:22:45.000 These are the types of criminal illegal aliens that this financial and marketing scheme from Colony Ridge has rolled out the red carpet for.
00:22:53.000 And it's forced an American community to deal with the consequences of higher crime, a flood of drugs, and an unrecognizable community, while the developers John and Trey Harris have pocketed millions upon millions of dollars.
00:23:06.000 So, Spencer, as the Daily Wire has reported, the Colony Ridge website is called Terrenos Houston, which advertises no credit needed, various payment options, access to water, electricity, and sewage.
00:23:18.000 And it's been financed with legal loans where the homebuyer doesn't actually need a social security number.
00:23:22.000 So when we're talking about means that are used in order to attract illegal immigrants, I mean, this was all ready to go, basically. 0.97
00:23:28.000 Absolutely.
00:23:29.000 There's a reason why so many of the illegal aliens caught at Colony Ridge have been previously deported.
00:23:33.000 It's because they don't want to be deported again, and they've come under the understanding that Colony Ridge is a place where they can evade law enforcement.
00:23:41.000 It's a place where illegal aliens have the red carpet rolled out for them again. 0.97
00:23:45.000 And what we've seen, actually, is that we had a recent Daily Wire investigation where a different Texas developer in a leaked email that we obtained defended Colony Ridge and said that these businesses...
00:23:56.000 Colony Ridge and others like it would go under.
00:23:58.000 They'd go out of business if they were forced to examine the creditworthiness of buyers and if they had to check for social security numbers of these buyers.
00:24:06.000 So this is a business model that is built on selling out American land parcel by parcel, plat by plat, property by property, to illegal aliens. 0.93
00:24:16.000 So, Spencer, what exactly changed here?
00:24:18.000 Because obviously we've been covering this for a year and a half over at Daily Wire, and the state of Texas really didn't do a whole hell of a lot about it.
00:24:25.000 At one point, the Texas state attorney general, Ken Paxton, sued Colony Ridge, but there certainly weren't anything like the kinds of raids that we're now seeing under Governor Abbott.
00:24:32.000 So what exactly changed?
00:24:34.000 Absolutely.
00:24:35.000 You're right.
00:24:36.000 We reported on this beginning in September of 2023. I was actually in a helicopter surveying this development and its rapid growth.
00:24:43.000 And we've been reporting on it since.
00:24:45.000 And a couple things changed.
00:24:46.000 First off, there's been completely, it's impossible to ignore the level of crime and the level of disorder in this area.
00:24:54.000 And the Daily Wire has continuously put a spotlight on it.
00:24:57.000 There's also one very simple change.
00:24:59.000 The Trump administration entered office and just seven days afterwards...
00:25:03.000 There were some deportation raids in Colony Ridge and then of course we've seen what we saw yesterday where these deportation raids have been ramped up.
00:25:11.000 to become significantly larger.
00:25:13.000 So there is finally some action taken on this, but the reality is that for far too long there has been an unholy alliance between the corporate interests that profit off of mass immigration and politicians that, when they don't have the spotlight on them, have been willing to look the other way.
00:25:27.000 That consensus is over.
00:25:28.000 We have brought a ton of light and transparency to this issue, and action is finally being taken.
00:25:37.000 Well, thank you, Spencer, for your...
00:25:39.000 Hard work reporting on Collin Ridge.
00:25:40.000 I'm glad to see that it's finally bearing some actual policy fruit, and we'll keep checking in with you as this progresses.
00:25:45.000 Thank you very much, Ben.
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00:27:02.000 Also, what does the future hold for business?
00:27:05.000 If you ask nine experts, you will get 10 opinions.
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00:28:13.000 Meanwhile, chaos continues to reign in the media.
00:28:18.000 Hilarious to watch MSNBC have a full-scale meltdown over Joy Reid's departure. 0.74
00:28:22.000 So MSNBC announced that Joy Reid, the least joyful person ever to be named Joy, would be ousted at MSNBC because her show was terrible and had no ratings. 1.00
00:28:29.000 The readout had like two viewers and probably one of them was just from our show.
00:28:34.000 Meaning that the right used the readout as more of a source than the American people used the readout.
00:28:40.000 It was great.
00:28:41.000 I enjoyed the readout because anytime I wanted...
00:28:44.000 Sort of the apotheosis of the nutjob left-wing perspective, Joy Reid was there.
00:28:48.000 Well, Joy Reid has now been ousted.
00:28:50.000 Joy Reid was weeping openly on the social medias over her own heroism after having been fired from MSNBC. Okay, lady, I'm sorry.
00:28:57.000 MSNBC is the most left-wing network in America.
00:28:59.000 If they fired you, it's because of ratings.
00:29:00.000 It's not because they disagreed with your bizarro world left-wing principles.
00:29:04.000 It's because you stink on air.
00:29:05.000 But according to her, it's because she's been targeted.
00:29:08.000 She's been targeted by, wait, wait for it, wait for it, racism and sexism and all the rest.
00:29:14.000 In the end, where I really land and where I've landed on today is just gratitude.
00:29:22.000 Just pure gratitude.
00:29:26.000 And gratitude not just because people would take the time to get on a call like this or to take care of me, but also that my show had value.
00:29:44.000 I'm sorry.
00:29:46.000 That what I was doing had value.
00:29:56.000 Indeed.
00:29:57.000 Indeed.
00:29:58.000 My cup overfloweth.
00:30:00.000 It is a wonderful moment because she, of course, was a terrible host and a terrible person who believes terrible things and foments the ideas and actions of other terrible people.
00:30:10.000 But what's hilarious about this is it has now led to a full-scale insurrection.
00:30:14.000 Over at MSNBC, where the other DEI-aiming left-wing hosts came out from the woodwork to explain that they were very sad that Joy Reid was going.
00:30:23.000 This included, of course, Rachel Maddow, who isn't sad enough to give up her $30 million a year salary at MSNBC or anything, but a little sad, you know?
00:30:31.000 In all of the jobs I have had, in all of the years I have been alive, there is no colleague for whom I have had more affection and more respect than Joy Reid.
00:30:41.000 I love everything about her.
00:30:43.000 I have learned so much from her.
00:30:45.000 I have so much more to learn from her.
00:30:47.000 I do not want to lose her as a colleague here at MSNBC, and personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door.
00:30:54.000 It is not my call, and I understand that, but that's what I think.
00:30:59.000 I will tell you, it is also unnerving to see that on a network where we've got two, count them, two non-white hosts in primetime, Both of our non-white hosts in primetime are losing their shows, as is Katie Fang on the weekend.
00:31:15.000 And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them.
00:31:19.000 That feels indefensible.
00:31:21.000 Yes!
00:31:21.000 And I do not defend it.
00:31:23.000 Get them, Rachel! 1.00
00:31:24.000 Do it!
00:31:25.000 Do it!
00:31:26.000 Yes!
00:31:27.000 I'm here for it.
00:31:28.000 Taking a brick bat to management while drawing a $30 million a year salary to now go back to a once-a-week Monday night spot.
00:31:36.000 Rachel Maddow.
00:31:37.000 Love it.
00:31:38.000 Love it.
00:31:38.000 Just call them all racists.
00:31:39.000 That's going to work out amazing for you.
00:31:41.000 Left wing.
00:31:42.000 You guys broke it and you bought it.
00:31:44.000 And this is what happens.
00:31:45.000 You wonder why Americans think that you are a bleep show?
00:31:47.000 The reason they think you're a bleep show is because of this.
00:31:49.000 It's because they look at how you run institutions, including your own.
00:31:53.000 And they say, are you insane?
00:31:55.000 So you run the NSA so the transgender identified people can talk about getting their buttholes zapped. 1.00
00:32:01.000 And then you actually run a network called MSNBC. And at MSNBC, you can't hold it together.
00:32:07.000 Between all of your extraordinarily left-wing communist bordering hosts.
00:32:12.000 You can't even hold it together there.
00:32:13.000 So you fire Joy Reid for having no ratings. 1.00
00:32:15.000 And then you fire a couple of other hosts.
00:32:17.000 And now you've got Rachel Maddow, the face of your stupid organization, out there calling you racist.
00:32:23.000 Love it.
00:32:24.000 Enjoying it.
00:32:24.000 By the way, anytime she wants, she can give up her show again for Joy Reid, presumably.
00:32:28.000 I mean, she's a white lady. 1.00
00:32:30.000 Sure, she's a lesbian, which gives her some, you know, added affirmative action points. 1.00
00:32:33.000 But she also is white, I noticed. 0.74
00:32:36.000 Again, seems very happy to draw down that salary.
00:32:40.000 This is why you guys lose.
00:32:43.000 So you want to keep going down this path?
00:32:44.000 Really, I encourage you to.
00:32:46.000 I'm enjoying it.
00:32:47.000 I think that it's really, really good.
00:32:49.000 And meanwhile, the Trump administration is going up against the Associated Press.
00:32:54.000 So the Associated Press has now sued the Trump administration because the administration said that they can't come on Air Force One.
00:33:01.000 And the reason for that is because the Trump administration is mad at the AP. For not renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America.
00:33:08.000 So they've barred AP reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other official White House events.
00:33:12.000 And now the AP is filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Trump administration officials, including the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Taylor Budowich, the White House Press Secretary, Caroline Levitt, and the White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles.
00:33:26.000 The complaint objects to the White House ordering the wire service to use specific words in its reporting.
00:33:32.000 Now, the reality is that if the White House said the reason that you're ousted is because you won't say the things we want you to say, probably the White House loses in court on that because that would presumably be a First Amendment violation.
00:33:49.000 What they actually should just say is, listen, we're not even going to give you a reason.
00:33:53.000 Right?
00:33:54.000 The White House under Joe Biden didn't include any of the alternative media at all.
00:33:59.000 And we're going to treat all media equally, which means the AP does not get a leg up on, say, the Daily Wire or Breitbart or Daily Caller or anybody else in the online media.
00:34:09.000 However, if you want to lose the sort of momentum that Trump has, and this is, again, I'm concerned with this because I want to see President Trump victorious.
00:34:17.000 Distractions are the enemy.
00:34:19.000 Yesterday, Edward Martin was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
00:34:22.000 He put that out as like a full-on graphic statement.
00:34:33.000 That is just conceding the actual legal case.
00:34:36.000 Because if the case that you are making is that the media have to reflect the perspective of the President of the United States to be given access, you're going to lose in court.
00:34:43.000 Also, it sounds rather tyrannical and stupid.
00:34:45.000 There is no reason to do that sort of stuff.
00:34:48.000 The important thing is to continue pushing forward where common sense This is the mandate.
00:34:54.000 The mandate is common sense.
00:34:56.000 The mandate is to stand against the Ilhan Omars and the insane employees at the NSA and the nut job, whack jobs over at MSNBC. That's the mandate. 0.59
00:35:05.000 And any time the Trump administration strays from that mandate, they will get less popular.
00:35:09.000 And any time they fulfill that mandate, they will get more popular.
00:35:11.000 It is, in fact, that simple.
00:35:13.000 In just a moment, I'm going to get to the economic risks facing the United States.
00:35:16.000 Plus, the French President Emmanuel Macron visited the White House yesterday.
00:35:21.000 First, this is one you don't want to miss.
00:35:23.000 Tuesday, March 4th, President Trump is addressing a joint session of Congress at 9 p.m.
00:35:27.000 Eastern, laying out his America First vision, tackling immigration reform, economic revival, and national security.
00:35:32.000 You know we're not going to sit this one out.
00:35:34.000 Join us for Backstage Live at 8.30 p.m.
00:35:36.000 Eastern, our pre-show breakdown with me, Matt, Knowles, Klavan, Jeremy.
00:35:39.000 Then, we'll watch the entire speech together live at Daily Wire Plus.
00:35:42.000 And when Trump is done, we're back with unfiltered, no BS reactions you're not going to get anywhere else.
00:35:47.000 This is the event shaping America's future, so...
00:35:49.000 Be there or be square.
00:35:50.000 Watch it all live on Daily Wire Plus next Tuesday night.
00:35:52.000 night.
00:35:53.000 Subscribe right now at dailywire.com.
00:35:54.000 Meanwhile, if we're talking about threats to the Trump administration, obviously the economy ranks at the top of the list.
00:36:00.000 The economy right now is chugging along.
00:36:01.000 As we discussed yesterday, the inflation rate is too high.
00:36:04.000 And disproportionately, the economy is consumer-based.
00:36:07.000 It needs to be investment-based.
00:36:08.000 The question is, what are the awesome new inventions that are going to drive prices down and drive productivity up?
00:36:13.000 Those are the things we ought to be focused on.
00:36:15.000 It is also worthwhile noting that America's national debt is reliant on the continued usage of the American dollar as the currency for nearly all foreign trade and used in international denomination.
00:36:26.000 That is the thing that allows us to continue selling our debt into the markets that people want the U.S. dollar and use the U.S. dollar.
00:36:33.000 One way to drive that down is, for example, giant trade wars.
00:36:36.000 Giant trade wars lead people to invest away from the American dollar and instead try to form their own trade coalitions.
00:36:42.000 This is why the economic policy of the United States right now must be focused on deregulation, It must be focused on cutting taxes, and it must be focused on actually exacerbating and increasing trade with our allies.
00:36:52.000 I'm very much in favor of tariffing China. 1.00
00:36:55.000 I think China's an enemy. 0.62
00:36:57.000 That is going to have an economic impact on the United States, and that's going to have to be offset by increased trade with other parts of the globe.
00:37:05.000 President Trump right now seems to be pursuing more tariff policy.
00:37:08.000 Again, if Trump is using tariff policy as a lever, I'm totally fine with it.
00:37:11.000 If he's using it to force other countries to make concessions in particular areas that then leads us to re-lower our tariffs, that's good.
00:37:19.000 If the idea is that tariffs are in and of themselves of benefit to the United States consumers and investors, that isn't true.
00:37:25.000 Here's President Trump yesterday on tariffs.
00:37:27.000 We're on time with the tariffs, and it seems like that's moving along very rapidly.
00:37:33.000 We've been mistreated very badly by many countries, not just Canada and Mexico.
00:37:39.000 We've been taken advantage of.
00:37:41.000 We were led by, in some cases, fools, because anybody that would sign documents like they signed, where they were able to take advantage of the American people, like has happened over the last long period of time, except for a little four-year period that took place four years ago.
00:37:57.000 But anybody that would agree to allow this to happen to our country should be ashamed of themselves.
00:38:04.000 No, the tariffs are going forward.
00:38:08.000 On time, on schedule.
00:38:11.000 Okay, well, I mean, again, I'm hoping that this is a leverage play rather than a principled play in favor of tariff policy.
00:38:17.000 Tariff policy is an excellent way of undermining the credibility of the American dollar on foreign markets, and it is also an excellent way of increasing prices in the middle of an inflationary spiral that has been several years long at this point.
00:38:30.000 President Trump's number one threat, the threat to Trump right now, is some sort of economic recession.
00:38:36.000 It is to every president.
00:38:37.000 It's not just unique to President Trump.
00:38:38.000 And the truth is that President Biden left Trump with a rather hard hand to play.
00:38:43.000 He left him with an inflationary economy that, as we discussed yesterday, is inflationary in the stock market.
00:38:47.000 It's inflationary in real estate.
00:38:49.000 There's a reason Warren Buffett is holding out his cash right now.
00:38:52.000 So that is a hard hand to play.
00:38:54.000 And President Trump does need to play that well.
00:38:55.000 And meanwhile, on the foreign front, lots of controversy yesterday over the war in Ukraine.
00:39:00.000 So a couple of things happened with regards to Ukraine.
00:39:05.000 Yet another resolution condemning Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.
00:39:09.000 Now, number one, that was always going to get vetoed by Russia in the Security Council.
00:39:14.000 Obviously.
00:39:15.000 Because when it comes to the Security Council, Russia's on it.
00:39:18.000 They're going to veto it.
00:39:19.000 So this was not a Security Council resolution.
00:39:21.000 Those are the only binding resolutions from the United Nations.
00:39:24.000 Instead, it was a general resolution that was designed to demonstrate worldwide condemnation of Russia invading Ukraine.
00:39:32.000 The question is, what's the purpose of that?
00:39:33.000 Like, seriously, what's the goal?
00:39:36.000 The UN General Assembly puts out a wide variety of such condemnatory measures, and none of them ever have any impact because the UN is a terrible organization that should be burned down and the ground salted.
00:39:46.000 The UN, the United States should just withdraw from the UN. It's trash.
00:39:49.000 The UN has always been trash.
00:39:50.000 It is trash today.
00:39:51.000 It is a waste of money.
00:39:52.000 It invests the international community with a moral credibility it has never had.
00:39:57.000 But it is leading a lot of people to be very upset with the Trump administration because the Trump administration The U.S. sided against this resolution, instead siding with Moscow and other non-democratic countries like North Korea, Belarus, and Sudan.
00:40:20.000 Now, to be real, the actual breakdown is that 65 member states, including both China and Iran, abstained from the vote.
00:40:27.000 93 member states voted in favor, including much of the EU. 18 countries voted against the resolution.
00:40:35.000 This also controversially included Israel.
00:40:37.000 And people are like, why is Israel voting against a resolution condemning Russia?
00:40:41.000 Again, there are a couple of reasons.
00:40:42.000 One, Ukraine has voted in favor of every single General Assembly resolution condemning Israel.
00:40:46.000 So Israel's like, you want us to stay? 0.52
00:40:47.000 No.
00:40:48.000 That's one.
00:40:49.000 And two, it turns out that Israel actually has to deal with Russian presence in the Middle East.
00:40:54.000 And this is the thing about the UN. It's all virtue signaling crap.
00:40:57.000 The UN is constantly passing resolutions that virtue signal, and very often virtue signal in the wrong direction, condemning the United States or condemning Israel or condemning European allies, condemning whatever a majority of the General Assembly wishes to condemn.
00:41:11.000 Does any of this foment actual peace in Ukraine?
00:41:13.000 Does a UN General Assembly resolution where the United States votes in favor of the idea that Russia was bad, does that make peace more likely?
00:41:20.000 I'm just struggling to see how.
00:41:22.000 Even if I agree with the general principle, I'm struggling to see how this is useful.
00:41:25.000 It's the equivalent of Michael Scott.
00:41:27.000 Wandering into the middle of the office and shouting that he's declaring bankruptcy.
00:41:30.000 Who cares what the UN General Assembly says, that useless, terrible organization?
00:41:35.000 But it's leading to all sorts of consternation.
00:41:37.000 How could the United States not vote in favor?
00:41:40.000 If you want to burn the midnight oil freaking out about that, go for it.
00:41:45.000 But it's not going to change any of the underlying facts on the ground in Ukraine.
00:41:49.000 So President Trump had a joint press conference with Emmanuel Macron, the president of France.
00:41:53.000 Yesterday was a bit awkward, obviously.
00:41:55.000 President Trump talked about his policy in Ukraine.
00:41:57.000 He says, I ran against the foreign policy establishment.
00:42:01.000 My administration is making a decisive break with the foreign policy values of the past administration, and frankly, the past.
00:42:10.000 I ran against a very foolish foreign policy establishment, and their recklessness has led to the death of many, many people.
00:42:18.000 He's not wrong about that.
00:42:20.000 And then Trump was asked whether Vladimir Putin was a dictator.
00:42:23.000 This, of course, came in the aftermath of Trump suggesting that Vladimir Zelensky was a dictator.
00:42:28.000 Here was President Trump's answer.
00:42:29.000 If you called Zelensky a dictator, would you use the same words regarding Putin?
00:42:33.000 I don't use those words lightly.
00:42:38.000 I think that we're going to see how it all works out.
00:42:40.000 Let's see what happens.
00:42:41.000 I think we have a chance of a really good settlement between various countries.
00:42:46.000 And, you know, you're talking about Europe.
00:42:49.000 And you're talking about Ukraine as part of that whole situation.
00:42:54.000 The other side has a lot of support also.
00:42:57.000 So let's see how it all works out.
00:42:59.000 It might work out.
00:43:00.000 Look, you can never make up lives.
00:43:02.000 The one thing you can't, you can make up the money, but you can't make up the lives.
00:43:05.000 A lot of lives lost.
00:43:07.000 I think probably a lot more lives than people are talking about.
00:43:09.000 It's been a rough war, but I think we're close to getting it solved.
00:43:15.000 So there's Trump basically saying, I'm not going to rhetorically get into a fight over...
00:43:18.000 Labeling Vladimir Putin a dictator or anything like that because what's the point of that?
00:43:22.000 Now, again, I wish you'd not label Vladimir Zelensky a dictator because it's hard to say I take these terms very seriously after labeling Zelensky a dictator but not Putin.
00:43:29.000 That removes all meaning from the word dictator, obviously.
00:43:33.000 But Trump's entire approach here is I'm not really going to get into these sort of rhetorical games calling Russia names because it doesn't actually drive forward the process.
00:43:41.000 Trump said he would be meeting with Vladimir Zelensky in the near future.
00:43:44.000 Here he was.
00:43:45.000 I will be meeting with President Zelensky.
00:43:47.000 In fact, he may come in this week or next week to sign the agreement, which would be nice.
00:43:53.000 I'd love to meet him, who would meet at the Oval Office.
00:43:56.000 So the agreement's being worked on now.
00:43:59.000 They're very close to a final deal.
00:44:01.000 It'll be a deal with rare earths and various other things.
00:44:06.000 He would like to come, as I understand it, here to sign it, and that would be great with me.
00:44:10.000 I think they then have to get it approved by their council or whoever might approve it, but I'm sure that will happen.
00:44:18.000 Okay, President Trump also talked up his partnership with France.
00:44:21.000 Macron was sitting here kind of awkwardly during the entire process.
00:44:23.000 'cause there's one picture that went rather viral in Europe actually of Trump sitting at the Resolute Desk and JD Vance was sitting to one side, Trump was sitting in the center and Macron was kind of like bunched up in the corner of the Resolute Desk.
00:44:33.000 And this is something President Trump likes to do imagistically.
00:44:36.000 But here he was talking of the partnership with France. - France is America's oldest ally, Our cherished partnership has been a force for freedom, prosperity, and peace from the very beginning.
00:44:47.000 We're now working on some very interesting developments.
00:44:51.000 One in particular, as you know, the war between Russia and Ukraine.
00:44:55.000 In the American Revolution, French support helped us to seize our destiny as an independent nation.
00:45:01.000 In the First and Second World Wars, our citizens shed blood together on the battlefields of Europe.
00:45:08.000 And I'll never forget joining President Macron six years ago on the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
00:45:15.000 That was someday.
00:45:16.000 The purpose of our meeting today is to end another battle, a really horrible one, a war.
00:45:23.000 Okay, so then Macron took center stage.
00:45:26.000 And here's the thing about what Macron was saying.
00:45:28.000 And here's, I think, one of the central pieces of Trump's actual strategy with regard to Ukraine.
00:45:31.000 He's saying to the Europeans, listen, you want more done there?
00:45:35.000 Great, do it.
00:45:36.000 The combined EU economy is 10 times the size of the Russian economy.
00:45:40.000 So if you want to do it, then cool.
00:45:43.000 Do it.
00:45:44.000 Like, step up and do the thing.
00:45:45.000 Your words of condemnation are much less useful than actual activity.
00:45:50.000 And so Macron is now coming to the table and he's saying we know we need to do more.
00:45:54.000 We are also well aware that Europeans need to do more for security in Europe, for defense in Europe, and to more fairly share the security burden that your country's been carrying for so many years.
00:46:11.000 Mr. President, you know how much friendship I show towards you and I have towards you since your first term.
00:46:21.000 Europe is very clear eyed about this.
00:46:23.000 We know what we need to do as Europeans, given the threats surrounding us and the responsibilities that we must shoulder.
00:46:31.000 Macron reiterated that Ukraine is not going to come to the table unless they get some sort of serious security guarantees, which, of course, is absolutely true. 1.00
00:46:40.000 Now, the Russians are taking the absolutely untenable position. 0.90
00:46:43.000 There can be no European peacekeepers on the border, and so they want like Brazilians or Chinese. 1.00
00:46:47.000 That's not going to happen.
00:46:48.000 Ukraine won't sign on to anything that basically ensures that Russia three years from now decides to reinvade.
00:46:53.000 Here's Macron making this clear.
00:46:55.000 We had lengthy discussions with the president, and we spoke about our desire – To bring an end to conflicts, to have a truce that is measurable, verifiable, and that enables negotiation of a lasting peace, what we will discuss not only Ukraine's reconstruction, its territories, but also the security guarantees, meaning maintaining peace over the long term.
00:47:24.000 As I said to the president, we've experienced peace accords that were only ceasefires without ensuring security guarantees, Minsk 1 and 2.
00:47:34.000 And we want to make sure this doesn't happen again.
00:47:37.000 Macron also had a bit of a tete-a-tete moment with President Trump Trump.
00:47:43.000 Trump was claiming, falsely, that the EU is being reimbursed for all of its spending in Ukraine while the United States is somehow not being reimbursed for all of its spending in Ukraine.
00:47:52.000 Macron stepped in and corrected him.
00:47:58.000 Is loaning the money to Ukraine?
00:48:00.000 They get their money back.
00:48:01.000 No, in fact, to be frank, we paid.
00:48:04.000 We paid 60% of the total effort.
00:48:07.000 And it was through, like the US, loans, guarantee, grants, and we provided real money, to be clear.
00:48:14.000 We have 230 billion frozen assets in Europe, Russian assets, but this is not as a collateral of a loan because this is not our belonging.
00:48:24.000 So they are frozen.
00:48:25.000 If at the end of the day, in the negotiation we will have with Russia, they're ready to give it to us, super. 0.59
00:48:32.000 It will be loan at the end of the day and Russia will have paid for that.
00:48:34.000 If you believe that, it's okay with me.
00:48:39.000 Isn't that Trump?
00:48:41.000 Okay, well, here's the thing.
00:48:43.000 Despite all of the talk and the loose talk and many things that are said that I disagree with, obviously, from the Trump administration.
00:48:49.000 Things are moving toward an actual settlement in Ukraine.
00:48:52.000 According to the New York Times, Ukraine and the United States are closing in on an agreement that would grant Washington a share of accused revenues from natural resources, according to both President Trump and a Ukrainian government official.
00:49:01.000 Trump said Zelensky would come to the White House to sign the agreement.
00:49:05.000 Earlier in the day, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, a person named Oha Stefanyshia, Now, of course, this is something that President Trump is very big on, is the idea that if we spend in another country, we ought to get something back.
00:49:20.000 It would always so be good for Ukraine, for the United States, to actually be involved in the raw minerals deal with Ukraine, the rare earths minerals that we're talking about here.
00:49:30.000 According to a draft obtained by Axios, The US and Ukraine are closing in on a minerals agreement worth hundreds of billions of dollars, under which the United States would express its desire to keep Ukraine free, sovereign, and secure, according to a draft obtained by Axios.
00:49:44.000 So, again, it appears that Trump's approach is going to actually bear fruit here.
00:49:50.000 And meanwhile, Europe is going to stand up on its own two feet.
00:49:53.000 In fact, in Germany, the future German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, who just won the last election in Germany, He came in first place with about 29% of the vote.
00:50:01.000 The AFD, which is the so-called far-right party, came in with about 21% of the vote.
00:50:06.000 And the Social Democrats dropped down to like 14% of the vote.
00:50:09.000 Mares said that his goal was to do, quote, everything in my power to conserve this good transatlantic relationship with the United States.
00:50:17.000 But he says signals make clear that Washington's interest in engaging with Europe is dwindling and suggested that it was time for Germany to take a front row seat with regard to steering policy in Europe.
00:50:28.000 Which, of course, is something that President Trump agrees with.
00:50:31.000 So it seems that President Trump's goals are, in fact, coming to pass.
00:50:36.000 These are all things that are happening that President Trump is pushing.
00:50:38.000 And so whether you like his rhetorical approach, whether you don't like his rhetorical approach, the proof is going to be in the pudding.
00:50:44.000 And if the actual endgame here is a Rare Earths Minerals deal with the United States, in which the United States is basically providing security guarantees to Ukraine, along with our European partners, who are the ones actually putting soldiers on the ground, In just a moment,
00:51:09.000 we're going to get to other news, including Vivek Ramaswamy announcing for Ohio Governor Kathleen Kennedy is going to be out, apparently, in the Star Wars universe.
00:51:17.000 It's only, like, years and years and years beyond time.
00:51:21.000 First, you actually have to become a member over at DW, and, of course, we have all sorts of our own.
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