The Great America Show - THIS IS THE NEW AMERICA

00:00:00.000 Hello, everybody, and welcome to The Great America Show.

00:00:05.080 It's great to have you with us today.

00:00:06.300 Thanks so much for joining us.

00:00:08.080 As is every day under a Trump administration, another busy day in America.

00:00:13.100 Deportations across America of these violent criminals continue to happen.

00:00:17.760 We're still waiting on some answers out of D.C. as to what caused that horrific plane

00:00:23.320 accident between that military aircraft and that American Airlines civilian plane.

00:00:27.440 As I've been saying, we pray for the lives of those loved ones who lost their family members

00:00:33.620 and their loved ones.

00:00:35.040 Our prayers are deeply with you as we await some answers.

00:00:39.200 Folks, on today's show, we're going to be joined in just a moment by Rich Valdez, radio

00:00:42.640 host, America at Night.

00:00:44.360 Catch him each and every night where you get your radio.

00:00:47.340 We're going to take up a plethora of issues from the southern border to President Trump's

00:00:51.940 cabinet picks, to this horrific accident, to DEI going bye-bye in America.

00:00:58.020 Like I said, Rich Valdez is our guest today here on The Great America Show.

00:01:02.220 Rich, it's great to have you back with us here on The Great America Show.

00:01:04.580 Thanks for joining us.

00:01:05.640 You bet.

00:01:06.000 One of the hardest working men in media.

00:01:08.040 If you're not on TV, you're doing your radio show, Late Night Edition.

00:01:10.860 I want to start with first the Trump administration and the first, we'll call it 14 days to make

00:01:16.260 it easy in the numbers.

00:01:18.280 Give me your reaction so far on the job that I often say on the show daily, promises made,

00:01:23.900 promises kept will be the mantra for the next four years because we're, like I said, two

00:01:28.680 weeks in and this man is doing more than he said he was going to do.

00:01:32.500 Well, listen, John, first I want to say thanks for inviting me on the show.

00:01:35.260 And I'm also grateful to ICE for not deporting me because I've driven through Newark, New

00:01:40.120 Jersey.

00:01:40.640 I've driven all over the place where they're saying they're getting everybody and they

00:01:43.140 haven't gotten me yet, so I'm safe.

00:01:44.940 But I say that in jest because there's so much propaganda out there and it has to do

00:01:49.600 with exactly what you're talking about.

00:01:50.980 All the action that has been taken in the first 10, 11, 12 days of this administration,

00:01:55.460 that is really just a barrage of things, right?

00:01:57.760 Last night I had Congressman Byron Donalds on the show and he was saying that it was no accident

00:02:03.040 that this stuff came out lightning speed, you know, all these executive orders at the same

00:02:07.140 time, all these actions and every step that they took happened at the same time so that

00:02:12.000 the deep state wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace that El Trompito and the team

00:02:16.000 are going at.

00:02:16.940 And I think that was brilliant.

00:02:17.960 And I think he only could have done that having served before and having dealt with the deep

00:02:22.460 state.

00:02:23.000 So I think that's a big part of it.

00:02:25.180 Now, absolutely.

00:02:25.960 There's a lot being done on the front of immigration, on the front of dismantling DEI in terms of

00:02:32.360 pulling no punches with the media, reconstructing how they're doing the White House press briefings.

00:02:39.460 I think it's all good news.

00:02:42.520 Yeah.

00:02:42.720 And, you know, the cabinet picks.

00:02:44.100 A lot of people ask me what's going on.

00:02:46.000 Why are they not all confirmed?

00:02:47.160 I'm not through it.

00:02:47.740 It's, you know, the Democrats want to play their games and they want to hold back.

00:02:50.940 But we've got through some of the most important ones we need.

00:02:54.100 Pete Hegseth, Cash Patel, we expect to be put through this week as well.

00:02:58.560 And then we'll begin the dismantling of the FBI because that's what Cash promised to do.

00:03:02.960 And I know Cash personally.

00:03:04.020 I know him to be a truth teller.

00:03:06.620 Trump telling some of these top brass FBI guys, get out now before Cash gets you.

00:03:12.120 What do you think is going to happen with the FBI and this deep state operation that they ran

00:03:16.360 against President Trump?

00:03:17.680 It's not the last four years.

00:03:19.060 It's not the last eight years.

00:03:19.940 It's really the last 10 years when they spied on his campaign.

00:03:23.800 You know, John, I think that that's going to continue no matter where they are.

00:03:26.620 There's people that are out there to get Trump.

00:03:28.320 Some of them, I think, are going to say, all right, I think I'm all right.

00:03:32.120 This is we've had enough.

00:03:33.380 But I think there's a lot of them are going to say, no, no, I'm going I'm giving this guy

00:03:36.440 everything I got, like John Brennan, for example.

00:03:38.360 Right. Former CIA director.

00:03:39.620 He's not riding off on his pony into the sunset.

00:03:43.000 This guy's added as much as he can, whether he wants to be a thorn in your side or not.

00:03:46.700 He has influence.

00:03:47.500 He's going to use this influence however he can.

00:03:49.600 I think some of the FBI guys, Strzok and McCabe, anybody's guess.

00:03:56.360 But will they be out of the FBI?

00:03:57.900 For sure.

00:03:58.380 I think cash is going to clean house if the ones that don't voluntarily walk away.

00:04:02.080 I think Trump was smart to telegraph that and say, hey, look, you got a chance to go now.

00:04:05.920 Just letting you know, Monday's your last day.

00:04:07.760 And I think that was a wise decision.

00:04:09.600 I think everybody expects the president to deliver on these things.

00:04:12.300 And that's why, again, just to circle back to what I said before, there's a lot of propaganda

00:04:15.840 circulating out there about a lot of things.

00:04:18.160 Right.

00:04:18.300 Oh, he's trying to.

00:04:19.080 It's 20 project 2025 all over again.

00:04:21.280 He's deporting Puerto Ricans.

00:04:23.020 Right.

00:04:23.400 And that seems to be in my feed.

00:04:25.000 I guess since I'm Puerto Rican, I get the feed that says, you know, I see these guys

00:04:28.460 out on the island saying, you know, the ICE people came in here and they asked us to talk

00:04:32.640 to our kitchen staff.

00:04:34.480 I got to tell you, I believe it's a pseudo event.

00:04:36.640 I believe it's fake.

00:04:37.320 It's phony.

00:04:37.700 It's fraud.

00:04:38.120 The whole thing is contrived and it's made up.

00:04:39.740 This family that says that they were approached by ICE in a mall because they were speaking Spanish.

00:04:45.580 Again, fake and phony and fraud.

00:04:47.160 I've invited them to come on the show.

00:04:48.800 We've got six million listeners in 250 markets across the country and no takers.

00:04:53.740 Why?

00:04:54.280 Because it doesn't exist.

00:04:55.540 They're making these stories up to put them on social media, to try and get a blip in the

00:04:59.500 media.

00:05:00.040 And I don't think it's going to work.

00:05:01.460 And it's working with some people, but mainly to the base that wasn't with Trump anyway.

00:05:05.920 You're absolutely right.

00:05:06.960 I spoke to Victor Avila the other day, who was a former supervisory special agent with ICE.

00:05:11.660 And he had explained to me very easily, very simply, if you are a non-criminal illegal alien

00:05:20.420 and you're hanging around with people who have committed crimes, who are the people who are

00:05:27.000 being deported right now, they're starting with the people who have committed crimes and

00:05:29.760 felonies and misdemeanors.

00:05:31.000 They have every right to question you because you're with this person who is a known criminal

00:05:35.520 who is on the list to be deported.

00:05:37.840 So I'm not really entirely sure where the disconnect is.

00:05:42.300 But President Trump taking it a step further, Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay and Alcatraz were not

00:05:47.200 two names on my bingo card before President Trump took office on January 20th.

00:05:52.540 We now find out he wants to open up Guantanamo Bay, which I had mentioned years ago, which

00:05:56.540 I think is an absolutely brilliant idea.

00:05:58.620 You want to come to America, you want to commit crimes. 1.00

00:06:00.460 You're not going back to where you came from, where it's a lot better off than Guantanamo

00:06:03.980 Bay.

00:06:04.340 Now they're going to send you to Guantanamo Bay because President Trump's not sure your

00:06:08.440 own country will be able to detain you.

00:06:11.400 Like what was that drug lord's name from Mexico that they've got?

00:06:14.560 And Chapo.

00:06:15.260 El Chapo Guzman wasn't able to contain him over there.

00:06:18.920 So guys like that, you know, we're going to hold because they can't be trusted.

00:06:22.820 Your thoughts on Guantanamo Bay and now maybe Alcatraz.

00:06:25.780 Sure.

00:06:25.960 Well, I mean, the QAnon people are going, you know, they're wetting their pants.

00:06:28.940 It's a wet dream for them.

00:06:29.860 They love Gitmo.

00:06:30.640 But I'll tell you this, I do think it's a good move, but it wasn't, this wasn't just

00:06:34.320 Trump being Trumpian and playing 4D chess and all that other stuff.

00:06:37.820 This was really them forcing his hand.

00:06:39.820 He literally said, look, I'm here, I'm repatriating you with your people. 1.00

00:06:43.480 Hello, Colombia, here are your people.

00:06:45.280 Hello, Venezuela, here are your people.

00:06:47.000 And they said, F you, we don't want them back.

00:06:49.500 So what happens when you have a plane full of people that these people won't take back? 0.98

00:06:53.060 You got to put them somewhere and it can't be here because clearly they're raping little 0.99

00:06:56.620 girls and doing whatever. 0.99

00:06:57.440 And again, we're talking about the worst of the worst.

00:07:00.400 So I think Trump had no choice but to say, well, guess what?

00:07:03.160 The Coast Guard uses Guantanamo Bay to hold on to, for, what's the word I'm using?

00:07:08.420 To detain illegal immigrants that they encounter on the seas. 1.00

00:07:13.100 We could use it for that as well.

00:07:14.860 So I think that was a good move and one that likely won't happen.

00:07:17.900 Just a little while ago on Friday, I saw a breaking news story in the afternoon from

00:07:23.420 President Petro from Colombia putting out a statement saying to all Colombians in America

00:07:29.240 illegally, please come home, asking them to come home. 1.00

00:07:33.400 A different tune than he was singing six or seven days ago when he was saying, ah, you

00:07:37.760 keep them.

00:07:38.500 So I think people are realizing that Trump is not bluffing.

00:07:41.800 There's a lot of bark, bite behind the bark.

00:07:44.400 And I think we're going to get this problem under control sooner rather than later.

00:07:48.360 Yeah.

00:07:49.240 The Los Angeles Chief Recovery Officer, Steve Sarabroff, says, well, you're going to take

00:07:54.020 half of our kitchen staffs and labor force out of L.A.

00:07:58.300 Well, that's too bad.

00:07:59.360 They shouldn't have broke the law.

00:08:00.720 Number one, Rich.

00:08:01.540 And number two, it's not just these illegals who are responsible for being in this country 1.00

00:08:06.540 illegal.

00:08:06.940 It's every person who employs one of them.

00:08:09.480 Sure.

00:08:09.660 You and I both live in New York and New Jersey, respectively.

00:08:12.540 Every restaurant you go into, I'd say probably 99% of them, there's some sort of illegal in

00:08:17.800 the kitchen with a fake Social Security number, whether it be a construction company or whatever.

00:08:24.640 You go down the list, everyone is using cheap, illegal labor force.

00:08:28.900 Are we supposed to feel bad for these people for knowingly harboring illegals contributing 1.00

00:08:33.880 to this problem?

00:08:34.720 They come to this country, Rich.

00:08:35.800 It used to be these guys would make, I have a lot of friends who are guilty of this as

00:08:40.280 well.

00:08:40.700 They come to this country, they used to get paid $100 a day.

00:08:43.540 Now, they want $200 a day.

00:08:45.380 They want $250 a day.

00:08:46.640 It's more than Americans are making to go work in an office somewhere, Rich.

00:08:49.460 So, John, I got two things for you there.

00:08:50.900 Number one, it's not lost on me that we should have compassion on people, irrespective of anything.

00:08:55.620 I get that.

00:08:56.400 But we have to do the right thing, right?

00:08:57.800 We do have to protect America first.

00:08:59.880 I agree with that.

00:09:01.220 Number two, they're getting $350 a day.

00:09:03.560 And I know that because I had this conversation with somebody the other day, and he was telling

00:09:07.620 me, he's like, I needed some help in my house.

00:09:09.560 I know where they're at.

00:09:10.420 So, I stopped by, and I was like, yo, I just need some help in a project in my house.

00:09:13.240 And he said, 10 of them came to the car, and they all wanted $350 for the day.

00:09:16.600 And he was like, bro, I don't get $350 in a day, so you're not getting $350 a day.

00:09:20.360 And I just thought it was funny.

00:09:21.800 And this is the economy that we have.

00:09:24.660 And now, what I'll say in that particular example, and I'm talking about Broad Avenue

00:09:29.000 in whatever town that is, Ridgefield or whatever, in Jersey, there's hundreds of day laborers

00:09:37.220 there at any given time.

00:09:38.120 And there's a number of places like that.

00:09:40.320 Clearly, to me, this is economics 101.

00:09:43.620 The supply is now outnumbering the demand.

00:09:47.800 There's way more men that are available to work as day laborers than there is demand for 0.97

00:09:52.320 those jobs.

00:09:52.800 So, for anybody saying they're doing the work Americans won't do, A, I don't believe

00:09:56.180 it.

00:09:56.320 I think they're undercutting Americans. 0.87

00:09:58.040 And even that, they can't even undercut them.

00:10:00.000 They're undercutting each other because there's too many of them.

00:10:02.880 So, I think the smart thing to do would be to get the free ride home and say, hey, look,

00:10:07.780 the gold rush is over here, at least for now.

00:10:11.220 Figure out how to do it a better way and come back home.

00:10:13.460 Now, I think the bigger picture, right?

00:10:15.540 And this is where I talk about the compassion part.

00:10:17.020 I don't believe – the reason we have mass immigration and a desire for people to risk 1.00

00:10:23.200 life and limb and put their kids at risk of getting raped to come to this country is 0.98

00:10:28.360 because they believe not in the America that you and I know because they don't know that

00:10:32.600 America.

00:10:33.340 They just know about the almighty dollar.

00:10:35.120 They just know that things can happen here that can't happen anywhere else.

00:10:38.120 You could say things here you can't say anywhere else.

00:10:40.060 But guess what?

00:10:40.980 In El Salvador, and Trump talks about this all the time, saying that things are better

00:10:45.080 there because we don't have so many – they don't have the MS-13 people we do and same 0.99

00:10:50.360 thing with Venezuela.

00:10:51.860 They do have a good president in El Salvador, Bukele, and he's cleaned things up incredibly.

00:10:56.680 Guess what?

00:10:57.040 People don't want to leave El Salvador as much as they wanted to leave before.

00:11:00.640 Once you can handle crime and you can manage poverty and you can work on your economy, people

00:11:05.020 don't want to leave the country anymore.

00:11:06.620 There's a lot of Colombians I'm sure are happy to go back home. 1.00

00:11:08.880 I was in Colombia last year.

00:11:09.940 For this time, beautiful, right?

00:11:11.480 I love Colombia.

00:11:12.540 So I think as economies begin to scale in these countries through trade or working with the

00:11:18.920 Trump administration for whatever export they have, I think it puts them in a position

00:11:23.160 to be actually more advantageous to their citizenry when they say, hey, look, we're doing things

00:11:29.200 here that we didn't do before.

00:11:31.160 Look at Argentina.

00:11:31.880 It's another one.

00:11:32.420 We're not going to see a lot of Argentinian immigrants with Millet in office.

00:11:35.380 So I think as we see those changes happening, we're going to see less of a demand for illegal

00:11:39.520 immigration to want to come to the U.S.

00:11:41.160 I think it's all going to work out in the end.

00:11:43.620 Yeah.

00:11:43.760 And you mentioned the demand surplus, the supply surplus outpacing the demand.

00:11:51.500 Then you wonder what those folks do.

00:11:53.120 They come to America. 1.00

00:11:53.820 They have no job.

00:11:54.520 But the only thing I could think of is you start resorting to crime.

00:11:57.780 You start resorting to stealing.

00:11:59.300 You start resorting to robbing places.

00:12:01.760 If you can't get a job, how are you going to make ends meet to live here in America?

00:12:05.480 Then people don't talk about in those rich suburban areas where they have the three million

00:12:10.740 dollar houses where they're all in favor of this illegal immigration until you move them

00:12:14.920 into your backyard.

00:12:15.660 And then, you know, all bets are off.

00:12:17.960 They don't want to see them.

00:12:18.820 Get them the hell out of here.

00:12:19.920 Then it's Martha's Vineyard.

00:12:21.460 Exactly. 0.58

00:12:22.040 It's sort of hypocritical for these folks, you know, who don't want them.

00:12:26.180 The other thing that was so surprising to me, Rich, was during the 2024 election cycle,

00:12:30.360 President Trump probably got more union support than he's ever gotten in his life.

00:12:34.740 But some of them came up short of endorsing him.

00:12:37.040 And the craziest thing to me is these illegal immigrants, excuse me, hurt these unions more 1.00

00:12:43.360 than anybody by undercutting labor costs in Manhattan and of all places, building projects

00:12:50.240 across the country where it's, you know, union laborers are getting double the cost, but

00:12:54.420 some guys coming in and undercutting them.

00:12:56.660 But these unions were silent.

00:12:58.060 The union bosses didn't say a word.

00:13:00.520 Was that as surprising to you?

00:13:02.160 Yeah.

00:13:02.360 Well, you know, unions are very wishy-washy that way, in my opinion.

00:13:06.380 They've always been in it for the political purpose, not for even for their industry, which

00:13:10.440 is shameful, but that's the case.

00:13:12.120 Ultimately, union bosses want power.

00:13:13.920 They get their power through the politicians.

00:13:15.520 The politicians, you know, reciprocate that power.

00:13:17.840 And this is how they work.

00:13:18.720 So, I mean, it's not like, yes, the teachers union takes care of teachers, but are they

00:13:22.700 really about teachers or are they about the power that they wield in Washington, right?

00:13:26.180 It's a massive union.

00:13:27.300 So I think that happens in every labor union.

00:13:29.380 You get these guys that miss the mark, but it doesn't change the fact that you're right.

00:13:33.560 And again, I've never met an illegal immigrant that was giving themselves a job, right?

00:13:37.300 They're not, right?

00:13:38.000 It's always some guy that looks like you or me that's giving them a job.

00:13:41.220 And this is where we, this has always been a problem, a bipartisan problem, right?

00:13:46.000 This was the country club, Republicans always wanting good relationship with Mexico to have

00:13:50.000 people coming in.

00:13:51.140 I don't think we're ever going to get rid of immigrants.

00:13:54.300 We're never going to get rid of even illegal immigration. 1.00

00:13:57.740 What I think the focus on right now is to kind of stop this massive flow of people emptying

00:14:03.280 out their prisons and their mental hospitals saying, go to the US and we're going to have 0.92

00:14:07.300 a good country here so that they can deal with the problem.

00:14:09.600 I think those days are over.

00:14:10.760 Trump is putting the kibosh on that and doing it quickly.

00:14:13.500 I want to take a quick break here.

00:14:15.500 We're talking about Rich Valdez, radio host, 6 million listeners.

00:14:19.500 Pretty impressive in my opinion.

00:14:21.400 When we come back, Rich, I want to talk about a little bit of a long-term issue with the

00:14:25.200 border, how we're going to finally secure this thing up once and for all, stop this massive

00:14:29.460 leak that's coming in and sure it up for whoever's the next president in four years.

00:14:33.480 I also want to take up that horrific plane crash in Washington, D.C.

00:14:37.540 We saw last week, we pray for the souls and lives and family members of those folks who

00:14:43.700 it shouldn't have happened.

00:14:45.160 It's the bottom line.

00:14:45.860 It shouldn't have happened.

00:14:46.460 We're coming right back with Rich Valdez.

00:14:47.700 Stay with us.

00:14:49.760 I'm excited to announce that we're having our first ever mega sale on overstock clearance

00:14:54.700 and brand new products.

00:14:56.260 For example, save over 50% on this season's flannel sheets.

00:15:00.580 Queen size, only $59.98.

00:15:02.660 King's only $69.98.

00:15:04.580 They sell out fast every year, so order now.

00:15:07.920 Save 20% on our brand new MyCrosses.

00:15:11.120 They're designed in the likeness of the one I've worn every day for over 20 years.

00:15:15.180 They come in men's and women's and they're made right here in the USA. 0.69

00:15:19.120 Get our 2025 six-piece MyTowel sets for only $29.98.

00:15:24.740 Our initial quantities are extremely low, so get them now before they go.

00:15:29.600 And our best-selling standard MyPillows, just $14.98.

00:15:33.160 So go to MyPillow.com or call the number on your screen.

00:15:36.720 Use this promo code to take advantage of our first ever mega sale.

00:15:40.840 But wait, remember that $75 free shipping rule?

00:15:44.460 Well, that ship is sale because right now, every order ship's absolutely free.

00:15:49.540 We're back with Rich Valdez.

00:15:53.420 Rich, we were talking about the border last segment.

00:15:56.400 Just in President Trump's first week, we saw a 55% drop in migrant encounters at the southern border.

00:16:03.700 You stopped the flow at the border by putting up this wall that President Trump promised his first term.

00:16:08.200 We've got to finish this wall.

00:16:09.240 What do you think the long-term plan is to finally sure this thing up once we finish these deportation raids and start moving on to the less violent criminals to get them out of this country?

00:16:19.180 Because they're here illegally, too. 0.97

00:16:20.500 They broke the law at the end of the day as well.

00:16:22.760 Maybe they didn't commit a crime where they hurt somebody or got a DUI or something like that.

00:16:29.140 But being in this country is a crime in itself that's punishable.

00:16:32.820 How do we sure this thing up once and for all so that when J.D. Vance comes into office in four years, this thing is foolproof and we don't need politicians running on fixing the border anymore?

00:16:42.500 Yeah.

00:16:42.700 Well, I don't know that that's really an option, and I'll tell you why.

00:16:46.380 I'll give you my thoughts.

00:16:47.460 I think if you look at past this prologue, Donald Trump served as president for four years.

00:16:52.480 He was incredibly tough on immigration, in particular border security, right?

00:16:57.100 He was never – he's still not known as the deporter-in-chief.

00:17:00.580 Maybe after this term he might, but he's got to give Obama a run for his money.

00:17:05.080 And this is really Trump's issue, is securing the border.

00:17:09.240 It's making sure you don't come in.

00:17:10.820 It was never really on getting you out until Biden came in, ruined everything, and now he's saying, all right, I've got to clean up Biden's mess and we're going to clean up what's going on.

00:17:18.800 But if you remember, Trump was all on board with DACA.

00:17:21.940 Most Republicans weren't, and Trump was.

00:17:24.480 So I don't see him doing a reversal on those things.

00:17:27.420 I think Trump is very serious when he says we are going to get rid of the criminal element, these aliens that are committing felonies in this country or that came here wanted with felonies from other countries.

00:17:37.260 I think – and it seems like they know exactly where everybody is, interestingly.

00:17:40.860 I mean there's no shortage of raids going on, targeted raids.

00:17:45.060 So I think once that happens and there's no longer a transnational criminal threat in the United States like Tren de Aragua or MS-13 actively doing their dirt in our backyard, I think this stuff will slow down.

00:17:58.640 So it will be back to the regular pace of the occasional, oh, wow, there's a warehouse that's filled with illegal aliens.

00:18:05.460 Maybe ICE will go there and do what they do with an enforcement operation.

00:18:08.500 But I don't think it's going to be what we're seeing today where you're seeing 1,000 people arrested per day.

00:18:12.480 That will continue for a while.

00:18:13.740 But eventually I think we run out of bad guys, and that's a good thing for us.

00:18:16.980 The other thing is there is an enormous cost of doing this, and you can't do this every day for four years.

00:18:22.300 I don't believe.

00:18:23.260 I don't think that we sustain that.

00:18:25.720 My opinion.

00:18:26.660 I could be wrong.

00:18:28.640 Ultimately, it becomes an unpopular opinion, and Trump's himself.

00:18:32.860 He's just – I've never seen him be in favor of getting rid of every last person.

00:18:37.720 It just hasn't been what he showed while he was in office before.

00:18:40.840 So I don't think we're going to empty kitchens across the country.

00:18:43.480 I could be wrong, but I don't think that's what's in store for us.

00:18:46.560 I think there's going to be a pathway like he insinuated last time.

00:18:50.460 He was happy to have the conversation about making the DACA people full citizens.

00:18:56.400 I think we'll probably see something like that.

00:18:58.520 I think Trump's a dealmaker, and he's always looking to make a deal, but he demands the law and order, and that's appropriate.

00:19:04.040 I maybe would have agreed with you if you told me this two weeks ago before he took office, but from everything I see right now, he's taking the hardest line of stance we've ever seen.

00:19:12.640 Guantanamo Bay, like I said, that wasn't on my bingo card.

00:19:15.540 He's all in favor of helping this thing up to put the –

00:19:18.300 But Guantanamo Bay, John, I think is going to be for, again, the people that their home countries don't want them back, right? 0.99

00:19:24.220 I think most people – I think we're going to see a big push for self-deportation.

00:19:28.460 That's going to happen.

00:19:29.160 Nobody wants to live in fear.

00:19:30.540 I was just at lunch a little while ago with a friend of mine.

00:19:32.640 His girl works in a public school on the Jersey side of the Hudson, not far from me.

00:19:37.620 And she was saying to him that they're getting calls from parents all over the place saying, should I send my kids to school?

00:19:44.380 Is ICE coming to the school to arrest the kids, right?

00:19:46.840 People are in fear.

00:19:47.980 This is not, I think, ideal.

00:19:49.780 You don't want that.

00:19:50.560 But ultimately, this is going to transcend into people saying, I'm out.

00:19:54.960 I'm out of here.

00:19:55.760 I'm not going to stick around and be here.

00:19:57.480 This isn't the free ride that it was while Biden was here.

00:20:00.080 And I think those types of things are what – that's going to get people to take action.

00:20:04.060 It's also going to get people to slow down.

00:20:06.340 The wall, great idea.

00:20:08.020 The tunnels, we've got to work on those, right?

00:20:09.640 I think there's not enough of a focus down there.

00:20:11.320 Who knows what's going on with these tunnels?

00:20:13.160 So I think once we control the security of the border and we don't have this influx, it'll be easier to work out what's inside.

00:20:20.080 I just – I'm not sold on the idea that there's going to be massive enforcement against every last person that's been in this country for 20 years and paying tax on a fake Social Security number.

00:20:30.480 Perhaps it will be, but I just don't think so.

00:20:32.140 I think ultimately the – it's like a pressure pot.

00:20:36.680 And right now there's a lot of pressure.

00:20:38.580 But as we let off some of that pressure and we see more deportations of these horrible, vile criminals that are child rapists and whatnot, that stuff I think will begin to dissipate.

00:20:48.200 And people are going to go back to saying, all right, now eggs are still nine bucks.

00:20:51.100 What's going on with that?

00:20:52.120 And they're going to move on to other issues.

00:20:54.540 What – in your opinion, what can we do to these folks who are hiring?

00:20:57.680 So the way I look at it –

00:20:59.240 Throw the book at them.

00:20:59.940 We could fix – right.

00:21:01.100 We could fix this problem very easily, Rich.

00:21:03.440 If you start holding these people criminally liable for hiring illegals, they're not going to come here. 1.00

00:21:08.320 They're going to go home back to their own country. 1.00

00:21:09.920 And listen, I've said this often on the show too.

00:21:12.360 It's not really in a popular opinion.

00:21:13.600 But we've had no problem going into the Middle East and raiding countries and turning them upside down, Iraq, Afghanistan. 1.00

00:21:18.440 You could throw a dart over at the Middle East and it'll land on a country that we as America had something to do with screwing up their country, Syria. 0.91

00:21:29.500 Saddam Hussein, I mean, go down the list, right?

00:21:32.100 Throw a dart at the board.

00:21:33.780 What can we do to hold these guys accountable?

00:21:37.360 I'm all in favor of figuring out a way to get the corruption out of Mexico. 1.00

00:21:40.960 If we can get Mexico under control, we spend far too much money in the Middle East, what is it to spend an extra little bit of money to get Mexico to be a habitable country, to be a legitimate country to live in, where people can live and not live in fear and not live in fear of the cartels coming and banging down their doors?

00:21:57.120 If we can help Mexico fix their own country, we can fix a massive, massive problem. 1.00

00:22:02.820 And like I said, we've spent money, rich places.

00:22:05.380 Go look at how much money we spent spending, sending over to Gaza for what did Caroline Levitt say?

00:22:10.140 $50 million in condoms just the other day.

00:22:12.820 Right.

00:22:13.020 $50 million in Mexico can go a long, long way.

00:22:16.080 It doesn't have to be a gift.

00:22:17.100 It can be a loan.

00:22:18.000 But there's got to be someone in Mexico who's in favor of fixing their country. 0.89

00:22:21.840 It's clearly not Scheinbaum and it wasn't Manuel Lopez Ovidor.

00:22:25.680 But, you know, why can't we do something like that?

00:22:28.140 Start penalizing these business owners who are hiring these illegals, number one. 1.00

00:22:31.900 And number two, help fix Mexico. 0.95

00:22:34.380 Help fix the corruption so that these people, Rich, at the end of the day, they don't want to come to America.

00:22:39.560 The Mexicans, the Hondurians, they don't want to come here. 1.00

00:22:42.740 They leave their family.

00:22:43.840 They leave their kids behind.

00:22:44.800 They send the money back to their country.

00:22:46.300 They want to be with their families, but they can't.

00:22:48.420 You said the humanitarian aspect of it.

00:22:50.220 I have a heart, too.

00:22:51.140 I understand that.

00:22:52.500 If we can help these people fix their countries, Rich, if we can pull some business out of China.

00:22:57.760 Gordon Chang says this all the time.

00:22:59.300 We have so much space down in the Caribbean and South America where we can send facilities to print T-shirts or, you know, whatever, textiles, anything you want to name that we can take out of China.

00:23:11.300 It's a double win.

00:23:12.420 You're employing people who need money, who want to stay in their country, they don't have to come to America, and you're taking business away from China.

00:23:18.100 Why can't we move towards something like that?

00:23:20.920 Well, I'll tell you this.

00:23:21.720 I don't think that's a Trumpian position, right?

00:23:24.840 If you look at how Trump rolls, he's very anti-intervention.

00:23:28.340 He doesn't like war.

00:23:29.340 He's a dealmaker.

00:23:30.280 I don't think it's off the table, though, and I think that's the first thing he said, and he said it last time, too.

00:23:34.560 He said, you know, if you don't do this, we're going to label you a narco-terrorist organization, and we're coming after you.

00:23:40.080 And it worked then, and it worked again this time.

00:23:42.000 So I think that they're willing to play ball because they don't want that smoke, right?

00:23:45.800 And neither does the cartel.

00:23:47.080 They're there to make money.

00:23:48.880 I don't think they want a war.

00:23:49.960 Whether they have the ability to engage in the war or not, they don't want it.

00:23:53.880 Nobody should want it, right?

00:23:55.060 The United States is a war machine, and why get into a – this is a country that can do a 20-year war.

00:24:00.760 Why do that, right?

00:24:01.600 So I think they don't want to.

00:24:03.120 And Trump hates the war machine.

00:24:05.280 So I think that's the challenge that we have in an approach like that.

00:24:07.940 I think we're probably going to see Trump cut a deal, cutting a deal where everybody's making money.

00:24:13.300 We're making money.

00:24:14.000 They're making money.

00:24:14.680 Maybe a tariff deal, maybe some sort of manufacturing deal, something like the USMCA, maybe USMCA 2.0, something like that, where we offer help and maybe they accept.

00:24:24.900 But I don't know.

00:24:25.600 Short of a regime change, how will you get – Scheinbaum just got there, and she does not seem to be – I can't say she's incredibly obstacular, but she doesn't seem to be on board either.

00:24:36.560 And when she ran, Mexicans were telling me, this woman is not Mexican. 1.00

00:24:42.000 So we have a person that is not even representing the people running the country.

00:24:47.420 So she, I think, is the epitome of the deep state in Mexico doing what they do there. 0.94

00:24:52.500 So I think she's just being a politician playing lip service, and I think Trump can utilize the option you're talking about.

00:24:59.020 And I think he will if push comes to shove.

00:25:00.780 I just don't know if it gets that far.

00:25:02.200 We'll see.

00:25:02.520 Yeah, the thing is, is there's not been, like I said, a Mexican president who hasn't been in the pocket of the cartels.

00:25:08.080 And it's to no fault of their own.

00:25:09.860 They have no choice, and they know that when they're running.

00:25:12.060 So I guess they do have a choice.

00:25:13.760 It's either you get on board and you get on the payroll or you get killed, and your family gets killed and tortured.

00:25:18.760 It shouldn't be like that.

00:25:19.860 Like I said, we went in and toppled so many different countries in the Middle East for absolutely no reason. 0.99

00:25:24.220 But they weren't really any better, were they, John?

00:25:26.180 No, but we have a reason here, Rich.

00:25:27.920 This is directly – Trump, I was listening to him on Friday.

00:25:30.680 He had said about giving money to NATO, and he said very simply, the countries in Europe have a lot bigger problem and a lot bigger issue because we have a massive ocean in between us.

00:25:39.440 We don't have any ocean in between us and Mexico.

00:25:42.120 It's a walk or a jump or a climb or a dig right under that border wall.

00:25:47.520 This is a country where I think it's worth investing the money into figuring out how to help them help themselves because it's a long-term effect.

00:25:55.980 Like I said, it would be so nice, Rich, in four years, in eight years, we've got a lot more time to live, you and I.

00:26:01.700 It would be nice in our lifetime to never have to hear a politician talk about securing the border.

00:26:06.620 We heard George Bush talk about it, did absolutely nothing.

00:26:09.480 Obama, absolutely nothing.

00:26:11.360 These people have done absolutely nothing.

00:26:12.880 It would be a godsend to never hear a politician say, we're going to secure this border.

00:26:17.420 And I think it starts with helping them fix their own country, whether it be, like I said, moving factories, having these companies' incentives to move factories.

00:26:27.480 And it helps us with China.

00:26:29.280 We need to get the hell out of China, Rich. 0.72

00:26:31.340 We definitely have to get out of China, John.

00:26:34.020 And China needs to get out of Mexico is better said, right? 1.00

00:26:37.240 I think China has been making moves all over the world, right?

00:26:41.760 There's factories in India that are Chinese factories, so they can say made in India instead of made in China because people are hip to that.

00:26:47.540 There's now made in Mexico, which is really made in China.

00:26:50.340 So I think we have to keep our eye on China and make sure we can control that threat because I think that's probably the most active threat. 0.99

00:26:58.260 They're death by a thousand cuts every time, every scenario, you name it, manufacturing, intellectual property, security.

00:27:06.000 They wanted to take Puerto Rico a couple of years ago and build a port.

00:27:10.620 I mean, the things that they do are just so, in my opinion, egregious.

00:27:14.460 And I think a lot of Democrats turn a blind eye to that.

00:27:17.060 So I think Trump is hip to it and he's on it.

00:27:19.900 Mexico, I think, big deal.

00:27:21.960 Canada, another big deal.

00:27:23.320 We have to make sure they're OK, too, because we're sandwiched in between.

00:27:26.860 And all you need is for them to become further to the left and make friends with another enemy of ours.

00:27:32.860 So I think you're juggling here.

00:27:34.520 And Trump's got plenty on his plate.

00:27:36.480 But I do think Canada, I think he's got that part under control.

00:27:39.820 They're going in the right direction with Mexico. 0.77

00:27:42.680 I think they can go in the right direction with the right coaxing.

00:27:47.240 What that looks like, I don't know yet.

00:27:49.760 Well, you know, he's used tariffs.

00:27:51.820 We saw the threat in them with Colombia in his first week in office on Saturday. 1.00

00:27:57.000 They went into effect on Canada and Mexico at 25 percent.

00:28:00.380 25 percent may seem like a little bit on paper, but from a nation like Canada or Mexico, it's going to hit them hard.

00:28:07.560 Maybe China wouldn't be hit by 25 percent, as we saw in the first term, but it's going to hurt them.

00:28:12.620 And, you know, I said this with Victor Avila the other day.

00:28:15.520 Trump's not asking for much, Rich.

00:28:16.980 He's not asking them for money.

00:28:18.620 He's not extorting them.

00:28:20.420 He's just saying shut down your borders, control your borders and keep your drugs on your side of the country. 0.91

00:28:26.040 Is that too much to ask for?

00:28:27.740 Well, for them, they look at it like this.

00:28:30.640 They say, well, you know what?

00:28:31.500 Guess what?

00:28:31.800 Our people don't consume drugs like the Americans do. 1.00

00:28:34.200 Right.

00:28:34.420 So, you know, if you guys would stop using our drugs, we'd stop selling them to you.

00:28:38.100 And I get that.

00:28:39.020 And all of it, it is a catch 22.

00:28:41.180 Right.

00:28:41.380 And I think this is the reason why so many previous administrations, Biden et al, have been complicit in this, because, A, maybe they got a cut of it.

00:28:49.060 But, B, they're like, oh, we can't fix this problem.

00:28:51.240 There's no real solution here.

00:28:53.160 This is where I think Trump is different, where he does believe, yeah, there's a solution here.

00:28:56.420 You make money and keep your BS over there.

00:28:58.980 We'll make money and keep our mess over here.

00:29:00.600 And if we're all making money, then we're all good.

00:29:02.040 And this is why I always echo back with Trump being a businessman.

00:29:06.460 That is the only way.

00:29:08.080 You know, New York City real estate, tough, tough crowd.

00:29:10.960 Right.

00:29:11.100 You've got to grease a lot of palms.

00:29:12.380 You've got to know a lot of people.

00:29:13.600 And that you have to get to a deal.

00:29:15.920 Right.

00:29:16.160 Somebody, the mob's involved in everything.

00:29:18.240 The landowners are involved in everything.

00:29:20.160 The regulators are involved in everything.

00:29:22.020 So, you know, I think he's probably one of the most skilled politicians we've had as president, despite never having served in public office.

00:29:28.580 And I think we're seeing it right now when he makes these moves.

00:29:30.960 Just imagine you're on a call with Petro and you're Trump and he's like, hello, Petro.

00:29:34.680 How are you?

00:29:35.180 It's Trump.

00:29:36.080 Listen, check it out.

00:29:37.300 I know John Foss and Rich Valdez.

00:29:39.040 They love to go to Medellin.

00:29:40.640 How about I do a travel ban?

00:29:42.500 No more Medellin for these guys.

00:29:44.420 Right.

00:29:44.600 And then guess what?

00:29:45.860 Wow.

00:29:46.500 Think of the impact on tourism when Colombia becomes an enemy of the United States.

00:29:51.780 So I think they don't want that.

00:29:53.540 Everybody wants the dollar.

00:29:54.840 So as long as you can keep getting the dollar, Trump's all about that dollar and strengthening the dollar.

00:30:00.320 So I think there's a lot of work to be done, but we're headed in the right direction.

00:30:04.460 And I think we're going to see, honestly, I think we're going to see the Americas being made it great again.

00:30:09.560 To your point earlier, I think when you see a Colombia that's thriving, Argentina that's thriving.

00:30:14.200 I don't know if it happens in Venezuela, but Brazil perhaps that starts thriving.

00:30:18.540 Less people coming here, more people going there. 1.00

00:30:21.300 Everybody wins.

00:30:22.740 Yeah, I kind of agree with you on the Colombian ban.

00:30:25.520 My hairline's not moving any further towards my nose.

00:30:28.280 It's going the other way.

00:30:29.080 So eventually I'm going to need to head over there and get some hair.

00:30:31.620 It's too expensive here in America.

00:30:33.340 Maybe some new teeth.

00:30:34.680 And they got everything.

00:30:36.440 Maybe some Botox.

00:30:37.480 Who knows?

00:30:37.940 I'm kind of against it now, but maybe one day I'll be for it.

00:30:40.820 But, no, you're absolutely right.

00:30:42.840 He is the commander in peace.

00:30:44.860 He really is.

00:30:45.520 He doesn't want war.

00:30:47.220 And we've seen that, which is so crazy to me why the mainstream media, and we're going to talk about this on the other side of this break, the mainstream media and the left hates him so much.

00:30:54.600 It's so mind-boggling to me because we haven't had such a gentle president in, you know, I can't even think of the last time.

00:31:01.600 And yet so effective.

00:31:03.040 Exactly.

00:31:03.820 We're talking about Rich Valdez, America at Night is the show, right, Rich?

00:31:07.540 Yes, sir.

00:31:08.640 Where can they catch you?

00:31:10.640 Anywhere.

00:31:11.160 We're on 250 different radio stations and markets all across America.

00:31:15.000 We're on all top 10 of the top 10 markets in the country.

00:31:18.320 And you can always get it at richvaldez.com.

00:31:21.840 That's Valdez with an S.

00:31:23.180 You heard the man.

00:31:23.700 We're coming right back with Rich, folks.

00:31:24.920 Stay with us.

00:31:27.040 I'm excited to announce that we're having our first ever mega sale on overstock clearance and brand new products.

00:31:33.220 For example, save over 50% on this season's flannel sheets.

00:31:37.860 Queen size, only $59.98.

00:31:39.880 King's only $69.98.

00:31:42.300 They sell out fast every year, so order now.

00:31:45.220 Save 20% on our brand new My Crosses.

00:31:48.380 They're designed in the likeness of the one I've worn every day for over 20 years.

00:31:52.480 They come in men's and women's, and they're made right here in the USA. 0.97

00:31:55.680 Get our 2025 six-piece MyTowl sets for only $29.98.

00:32:02.040 Our initial quantities are extremely low, so get them now before they go.

00:32:06.900 And our best-selling standard MyPillow's just $14.98.

00:32:10.860 So go to MyPillow.com or call the number on your screen.

00:32:14.020 Use this promo code to take advantage of our first ever mega sale.

00:32:18.160 But wait.

00:32:18.640 Remember that $75 free shipping rule?

00:32:21.760 Well, that ship is sale, because right now, every order ship's absolutely free.

00:32:29.380 Folks, we're back.

00:32:30.300 We're talking with Rich Valdez.

00:32:31.300 The show is America at Night.

00:32:32.360 You catch him each and every night, late nights here in America on the East Coast, the West Coast.

00:32:37.860 You catch him on your drive home from work.

00:32:40.060 Rich, the media has played such a role in this hatred towards Trump.

00:32:44.280 We're seeing something now I didn't think we would ever see.

00:32:46.800 A sleepy eye, Chuck Todd, as Trump likes to call him, out at NBC.

00:32:51.900 You've got CBS.

00:32:53.640 They're in talks with Trump now to settle a $10 billion defamation lawsuit from that edited Kamala Harris interview she did when she was running for office.

00:33:03.340 Massive deception in the media, Rich.

00:33:05.160 But it seems now these guys are either Jim Acosta, either calling it quits or being forced out.

00:33:10.840 But I don't see the narrative shifting with these people.

00:33:13.760 Caitlin Collins in the White House briefing room the other day, you know, still with her hateful questions.

00:33:20.600 The American people disavow this, Rich.

00:33:22.720 The overwhelming majority of American people voted for Donald Trump, whether Jessica Tarlov on Fox News wants to acknowledge that or not.

00:33:30.140 Donald Trump was elected overwhelmingly.

00:33:33.200 When will the media wake up?

00:33:34.640 Are we finally starting to see maybe some accountability between these sick people and the American person?

00:33:40.740 I'll tell you this.

00:33:41.600 I think the media is not a monolith.

00:33:44.000 So I think you've got people in the media that are bean counters and they know how to count.

00:33:47.340 And I'll tell you, I first saw this with Chris Ruddy, who's ahead of the game on everything, the owner of Newsmax.

00:33:53.360 He said, you know what?

00:33:54.380 We're going to blow out our programming when there's a Trump rally and carry the three hours of the Trump rally.

00:33:58.480 And his ratings started to skyrocket where he started to rival CNN.

00:34:01.960 Next thing you know, they start beating CNN in some of their primetime shows.

00:34:05.080 And he was ahead of the game on that.

00:34:07.300 Then they're rivaling Fox with some of that.

00:34:10.220 And what does Fox do?

00:34:11.480 Fox says we're going to carry the Trump stuff.

00:34:13.180 After a year ago saying we're not covering Trump anymore, right?

00:34:17.020 So Fox is back covering Trump.

00:34:18.520 They're carrying rallies.

00:34:19.440 They're carrying speeches.

00:34:20.160 They're doing whatever they can because they realize this is what the people want to see.

00:34:23.800 So when the bean counters figure out, OK, we can make money covering Trump.

00:34:28.720 Guess what CNN and MSNBC do? 0.78

00:34:31.160 MSNBC goes to Joe Scarborough and says, hey, you and Mika, go to Mar-a-Lago and interview Trump.

00:34:35.300 We want you to cover Trump.

00:34:37.220 CNN says, hey, look, Jim, we love you.

00:34:39.680 But you got to go on, you know, after Valdez, right?

00:34:41.880 You got to go on after him, the extreme late night.

00:34:44.120 And he says, F you, I'll do my own thing like Don Limon.

00:34:47.300 And now they're both probably going to have a Twitter show.

00:34:49.540 So ultimately, what I think happens here is these networks are realizing we got it wrong.

00:34:55.720 We got it wrong.

00:34:56.720 We pushed as much as we could.

00:34:58.300 And some of them are not as complicit as we think, right?

00:35:00.620 They are indeed, but not in their hearts, if you will, right?

00:35:04.740 I think a lot of them were like, we were under pressure.

00:35:06.580 We were to see it like Zuckerberg.

00:35:08.000 I think there's some truth.

00:35:08.840 And when he says, I'm just trying to be a social media guy and Biden and the FBI were

00:35:12.560 like, hey, do this, do this, censor this, censor that, right?

00:35:15.500 So I think when you have all of that going on, people succumb to the people that are in

00:35:19.740 power.

00:35:20.120 That happens.

00:35:20.900 That's not there anymore.

00:35:22.100 So now they're like, OK, I can take a breather.

00:35:23.780 Maybe we can have some Trump.

00:35:24.900 Maybe we can make some money, actually have ratings.

00:35:27.200 The writing is on the wall for all of them.

00:35:28.640 Trump has created a media ecosystem that includes Real America's Voice, Newsmax TV, One America

00:35:38.460 News, and a million different content creators that are independent that all get lots of views,

00:35:43.580 including Tucker Carlson, right?

00:35:45.380 Look at him with that interview he did with Trump the day of the debate that Trump said,

00:35:48.620 I'm not going.

00:35:49.460 And they got 350 million views in a day or a day and a half.

00:35:53.540 If that doesn't speak volumes saying the whole world is watching Trump, I don't know what

00:35:57.500 does.

00:35:57.980 So it's clear to me that they're saying, all right, look, whether we like this guy or not,

00:36:01.880 we got to cover him a little more fairly.

00:36:03.620 We're surrounded by these whack jobs called maggots, and we got to work with them. 1.00

00:36:08.180 Rich, these folks don't realize who are going independent media.

00:36:11.560 They don't realize how hard it really is.

00:36:13.500 You and I have grinded and grinded.

00:36:15.120 I was fortunate enough to be left to show by the great Lou Dobbs, who built a terrific

00:36:18.740 audience.

00:36:19.200 But if I had to build this myself, there's not a ton of money in it that it's worth living,

00:36:23.520 that you can make a living off of unless you really hustle, hustle and grind.

00:36:27.280 So these guys are going to wake up and learn the hard way that it ain't so easy.

00:36:31.740 If they weren't watching them on CNN and MSNBC, they ain't tuned into them on this, Rich.

00:36:37.420 Yeah, especially guys like Don Lemon and where these guys were making millions of dollars

00:36:41.140 and have big platforms.

00:36:43.520 But their platform begins to dissipate, obviously, I think, when they're not doing what Tucker

00:36:48.300 did, right?

00:36:48.940 I think Tucker Carlson leaves Fox and becomes bigger than he was, right?

00:36:52.880 And has his own network now.

00:36:53.960 But he's a character that can do that.

00:36:56.420 I don't know that Don Lemon can do that.

00:36:58.220 I think Don Lemon could probably be an amazing talk show host with Dr. Phil's network, you

00:37:02.360 know, maybe be a little bit to the left.

00:37:04.080 You know, there's space for him, but he has to be able to be flexible and do his thing.

00:37:08.140 I don't think he can continue to be this attack dog for the left.

00:37:11.000 Nobody's looking for that.

00:37:12.180 Look at how News Nation came out of nowhere, right?

00:37:14.540 And they're doing their well.

00:37:16.880 They're competitive in a very short amount of time because they've decided to go kind

00:37:21.300 of center down the middle and say, you know, we're going to go this way and we're going

00:37:24.520 to hear both sides of the story.

00:37:25.980 I think that's what the American people want because they ultimately, in the palm of their

00:37:29.420 hand, they have the ability to figure out whatever they want to figure out.

00:37:32.740 I could watch this.

00:37:33.700 I could watch that.

00:37:34.320 I could watch whatever I want.

00:37:35.140 I'll watch John Fawcett and Rich Valdez.

00:37:36.960 People tune in to us because they want to hear the truth and they want to hear their

00:37:40.260 opinions and get the, you know, the lowdown on things.

00:37:44.040 You know, you'd like to tune into CNN and MSNBC to get the news.

00:37:47.740 There's really no outlet anymore, Rich, where you can tune in.

00:37:51.060 I'm listening on Thursday, on Wednesday night as I'm flying on a plane back from the West

00:37:56.040 Coast as that plane, which we're going to turn to in just a moment here, crashed in Washington.

00:38:01.500 And I'm scrolling through the stations to try to get, you know, the news on what's going

00:38:05.140 on and I can't get a straight answer on what's happening.

00:38:08.200 It's all political.

00:38:09.040 Everything's positive.

00:38:09.880 I had to go on Twitter to figure out what exactly was going on because nobody can just

00:38:13.880 report the news.

00:38:14.740 You turn to CNN, they're blaming Trump.

00:38:16.620 You turn to MSNBC, this is because Trump did a hiring freeze and, you know, X, Y, and

00:38:21.840 Z.

00:38:22.040 And I'm like, I just want to know what's going on.

00:38:24.420 I want to know how many people died, if anyone's dead or how, and you couldn't get the straight

00:38:28.280 answer.

00:38:28.600 And I think people are tired of it and they tune to us to, you know, to get opinions and the

00:38:33.460 truth, whereas you can't get it, which brings me to that crash.

00:38:37.740 You know, like I said, we pray for those, the lives of those all students.

00:38:40.520 We're looking at it now, Rich, three, four days, five days later, they, it took them

00:38:44.720 three, four, five days to get bodies out from underneath the plane.

00:38:48.100 This is America.

00:38:49.380 It's in seven feet of water.

00:38:50.820 This isn't the tight.

00:38:51.880 They got the people out, Rich, faster in that.

00:38:54.740 What was that thing that went down to the Titanic ocean gate?

00:38:57.200 They got the people down from the sea floor, the height of the empire state building faster

00:39:02.300 than our own government was able to pull out these loved ones of family members who are

00:39:07.200 trying to figure out, you know, if they're family members on that plane or who died.

00:39:11.600 Then we find out there's two pilots on the plane, both male.

00:39:14.760 There's a third female. 1.00

00:39:15.660 They don't want to release the name.

00:39:16.780 What's going on with this country?

00:39:18.920 Yeah.

00:39:19.040 Listen, John, I don't know a ton about all that stuff because it really is crazy.

00:39:22.940 But I will tell you when it comes to accidents and things like that, it's very difficult

00:39:27.040 to tell where bodies land, how much of the body is landing.

00:39:29.920 I hate to be graphic that way, but in these types of accidents, I mean, I got a description

00:39:34.200 from a former Northwest executive who was explaining what it was like when this plane kind of split

00:39:39.760 in two because it was a smaller plane.

00:39:41.700 And he said, you know, you have no idea where everything lands.

00:39:45.500 You know, the plane might be in seven feet of water, but you don't know where everything

00:39:48.320 else might land.

00:39:49.440 And these are very, very difficult things.

00:39:51.840 He did assure me that there is no better airline investigation team than the ones out of

00:39:59.120 Washington, the NTSB.

00:40:00.900 He said that they actually use globally.

00:40:03.320 They're like constantly drawn upon by every country on the planet because they're so good

00:40:08.100 at this.

00:40:08.580 And mainly because we do it so little because we have very few accidents.

00:40:13.100 So for whatever that's worth.

00:40:14.540 But I'll tell you, yeah, there was a lot of talk.

00:40:16.540 I think Trump was right in saying that DEI may have played a role in this, but then the

00:40:20.300 media has a mind of its own and goes after this trans pilot that had nothing to do with

00:40:23.980 it coming out saying, look, yeah, I'm the trans pilot.

00:40:27.520 I had nothing to do with it.

00:40:28.360 And it was, you know, fake news.

00:40:29.760 And fake news is just abounding. 0.98

00:40:31.440 And it sucks that it does. 0.83

00:40:32.520 But it's a part of life.

00:40:33.500 You have to just be, I guess, a little bit.

00:40:35.860 You can't just be a bystander anymore.

00:40:38.260 You have to become very media savvy just to get by in life.

00:40:41.820 Otherwise, you're going to get had.

00:40:43.580 And that's a reality.

00:40:44.820 But I do think that this is going to get managed well.

00:40:47.700 And I think it's just it wasn't something we saw coming.

00:40:51.900 And there are questions that haven't been answered that I think are going to help us

00:40:55.320 understand more.

00:40:56.380 One of the questions was, why was the Blackhawk so high? 1.00

00:40:59.540 We don't know the answer to that.

00:41:02.280 That's all I can tell you.

00:41:03.600 This guy explained to me that that Blackhawk should never have gone higher than 200 feet,

00:41:07.520 but it was at 400 feet when it had the impact.

00:41:09.300 Like, this this is a big question of why that happened, because apparently the American

00:41:14.160 flight was on the trajectory that it always takes.

00:41:17.980 So I think once we get those answers, we'll figure out exactly what happened.

00:41:22.660 And something he left me with, which I thought, man, imagine that.

00:41:28.200 Ultimately, this may be a situation where they literally didn't see it.

00:41:34.000 Because it was that close.

00:41:35.680 And I thought, wow, that's kind of crazy.

00:41:37.540 But, you know, think of a car accident.

00:41:38.920 And those things happen that way all the time.

00:41:40.680 And, you know, I guess there would be some comfort in knowing this really was an accident

00:41:44.940 as opposed to somebody being negligent or somebody being incompetent.

00:41:50.200 Yeah, I mean, I'm a pilot by trade.

00:41:52.520 I still go flying every now and then out of Morristown, New Jersey.

00:41:56.140 It's not easy to see a plane in the air.

00:41:57.820 I mean, there's times where I've luckily never been that close to a call.

00:42:02.400 But, you know, there's times you see you really got to look, especially at nighttime,

00:42:05.960 you know, because you have no horizon.

00:42:08.080 That's what we're taught as pilots.

00:42:08.960 You have no horizon.

00:42:10.160 So you're trained to look out there.

00:42:12.260 Sometimes you'll see a star and you think it's a plane or a bright light.

00:42:15.260 You think it's a plane.

00:42:16.160 Sometimes you mistake.

00:42:17.500 I can't tell you how many times I've done this.

00:42:19.280 You know, I've called in to land at a runway.

00:42:20.740 And I said, I got the runway in sight.

00:42:22.780 And it turns out it's the New Jersey Turnpike Highway.

00:42:25.380 Yeah, I've heard that.

00:42:26.060 Other pilots have told me all the time.

00:42:27.600 The lights.

00:42:28.240 So, you know, you have different differentiators, but, you know, you figure it out.

00:42:31.200 This should have never happened, Rich.

00:42:32.640 I mean, I don't understand as a pilot why you have a helicopter, even going at 50 feet

00:42:38.680 above the approach path of like one of the busiest airports in that area.

00:42:43.600 I've flown in there dozens of times.

00:42:45.200 It's not exactly easy to land.

00:42:47.960 Then they come in, they chop down, they make these left and right turns down by the river.

00:42:51.940 It's not safe to begin with.

00:42:53.720 But you had said you didn't see this coming.

00:42:56.260 I had been saying for probably two years now to friends of mine that I had this bad feeling

00:43:02.100 something was going to happen.

00:43:03.820 There was far too many near misses, Rich, that we've seen in the last two, three years.

00:43:08.060 A few weeks ago, the whole Gonzaga men's basketball team playing almost collided with the Jet Blue 0.98

00:43:14.120 playing.

00:43:14.820 A few months ago, JFK, a runway incursion.

00:43:16.960 I mean, these are things that are completely avoidable.

00:43:20.080 And, you know, I tell the story now a lot on the show when I was in college.

00:43:24.160 It was during the Obama times in aviation school.

00:43:27.100 Obama got rid of the college mandate for ATC controllers, meaning he could pull people

00:43:30.620 off the street and they were actually encouraging it.

00:43:32.660 If you worked at McDonald's, they were encouraging you to come apply to be an air traffic controller,

00:43:36.520 you know, make a nice six figure salary.

00:43:38.700 No experience necessary.

00:43:40.580 That's not where we need to be in America, Rich.

00:43:42.580 These air traffic controllers and pilots, in most cases, are more important than lawyers

00:43:47.360 and doctors.

00:43:49.120 You know, the whole DEI thing.

00:43:50.740 Especially in that moment.

00:43:51.780 Right.

00:43:52.080 The whole, you know what they teach you, Rich?

00:43:53.780 The first thing in pilot school, there's no such thing as a good pilot.

00:43:57.200 You know when you're a good pilot, when an emergency happens.

00:43:59.920 Obviously, these guys on this PSA, American Airlines flight, didn't have the chance to

00:44:03.880 be good pilots because they were blindsided and hit by this Blackhawk.

00:44:06.800 But we expect, Rich, our military.

00:44:08.920 It used to be back in the day, military pilots went right into the airlines.

00:44:12.720 No interviews.

00:44:13.700 You went right in because you were the best of the best.

00:44:16.000 Yeah.

00:44:16.400 Something like that, Rich, a head-on accident.

00:44:19.220 When you're looking right outside your front window, that does not need to happen in America,

00:44:23.940 Rich.

00:44:24.640 I agree with that 100%.

00:44:26.060 And that's why I said I think President Trump's comments were appropriate.

00:44:29.620 And not necessarily about the trans part of DEI, but really about what you're talking

00:44:35.840 about, right?

00:44:36.520 Lowering standards with the hope that you're going to diversify your workforce.

00:44:41.200 Yeah. 1.00

00:44:41.640 That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. 1.00

00:44:43.360 And it always will be. 1.00

00:44:44.800 If you're good at something, you're good at something.

00:44:46.940 And that should be the standard.

00:44:48.480 You can't take somebody just because they look better and you're decorating your company. 0.95

00:44:52.240 I need a Black guy. 0.87

00:44:53.280 I need an Asian. 0.96

00:44:53.900 I need a blonde white guy. 1.00

00:44:56.380 You really can't do that in real life.

00:44:58.340 This isn't Hollywood.

00:44:59.480 You need people that know how to do their jobs because obviously we're seeing the repercussions

00:45:03.200 of what happens when you put people that don't know how to do their job.

00:45:06.140 And the military is probably one of the worst examples of this as we continue to see this

00:45:10.260 happening.

00:45:11.360 A little bit of an aside.

00:45:12.460 I was on Facebook one day and a friend of mine, a sergeant in the army, was having a back

00:45:18.640 and forth about trans in the military with her actual lieutenant from her platoon or whatever.

00:45:26.200 And this guy, to end the argument, says, listen, I am a gay black man. 0.98

00:45:32.540 And I don't want any transgenders in our unit. 1.00

00:45:36.260 And he explained why. 0.97

00:45:38.140 And it was because they all go on this extended medical leave and it's difficult to backfill

00:45:43.120 their positions and it makes the unit that much smaller.

00:45:46.560 To me, this sounds like a security concern.

00:45:48.500 And if people during the Obama years were joining the military just to get free transition

00:45:53.440 surgery, this is how you weaken the American military from the inside.

00:45:58.100 You hollow it out.

00:45:59.080 And I think that's what we saw.

00:46:00.380 So I'm grateful that Pete Hegseth is there and he seems like he has his work cut out for

00:46:05.080 him.

00:46:05.680 Yeah, I think all these guys, before we wrap up here, I want to get your take on that.

00:46:10.740 Trump's cabinet picks and everyone who are still waiting to be confirmed.

00:46:16.160 Are you confident everybody gets through?

00:46:18.500 Nobody's left behind.

00:46:20.180 Yeah.

00:46:20.620 Prices need to be paid, Rich, if these rhinos think they're going to go against the America 1.00

00:46:24.640 First agenda.

00:46:25.340 And that's you, Lady G, Lindsey Graham, who's up for reelection in 2026. 0.99

00:46:30.160 It's unacceptable.

00:46:31.640 You know, I watch Sean Hannity.

00:46:33.560 He has him on two, three times a week.

00:46:35.800 This man has no right to be going against President Trump's agenda.

00:46:39.480 Listen, I think I think everybody's going to get through and I'll take Lindsey Graham any

00:46:45.000 day over Mitch McConnell.

00:46:46.060 That's for sure.

00:46:46.700 And that's saying a lot.

00:46:48.280 Right.

00:46:49.000 But we do have a rhino problem.

00:46:51.120 And I think we we found the cure to the rhino problem and we're working on it, I would hope

00:46:56.620 similar to legal immigration.

00:46:57.900 Right.

00:46:58.180 Some of these guys are going to be like and we've seen it.

00:47:00.260 There's a bunch of rhinos that said, I'm out.

00:47:01.860 I'm not coming back to Congress and good for them.

00:47:05.280 And we need to continue to fill that with the right people to continue to put these things

00:47:08.880 through, because no tax on tips has to become a thing that gets signed into law.

00:47:13.900 You have to.

00:47:14.720 The no tax on Social Security would be fantastic.

00:47:17.100 The third part was no tax on overtime.

00:47:20.940 Big part.

00:47:21.980 Right.

00:47:22.200 This is what's going to continue the the populist support for for the America First movement.

00:47:27.380 And and we have to continue to do that.

00:47:29.360 And I think, like you said, something that's synonymous with this administration thus far

00:47:33.260 as promises made promises kept.

00:47:34.800 I think we need to keep up with that.

00:47:36.560 And I think we will.

00:47:38.380 For me, all systems are go on on going forward.

00:47:42.760 And if the rhinos get in the way, it's at their own peril.

00:47:46.120 Yeah.

00:47:46.400 And you're hearing a lot of people.

00:47:48.480 Scott Pressler, who was among one of the big saviors this election with the RFK's running

00:47:54.120 mate, Nicole, what is it, Shannon, Shanahan, Shanahan, yeah, vowing to go after every single

00:47:59.920 person who wants to throw off this agenda.

00:48:02.260 And that's exactly what we need.

00:48:03.440 These people need to fear, you know, you can't let them keep getting away with this.

00:48:07.560 We dealt with Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney for far, far too long.

00:48:11.500 Those days are over, Rich.

00:48:13.040 There was an American mandate in November and we need to stick with it. 0.92

00:48:18.080 Rich Valdez, the show is America at Night.

00:48:20.020 You teach him each and every weeknight, wherever you get your radio or richvaldez.com.

00:48:25.160 Rich, thanks so much for joining us today.

00:48:27.000 Thanks, John.

00:48:27.580 Appreciate it.

00:48:28.460 Thanks so much for joining us today, folks.

00:48:30.460 We hope to see you back here tomorrow for The Great America Show.

00:48:32.460 As our quest for truth, justice, and the American way continues, see you back here tomorrow.

00:48:37.420 Same time, same place.

00:48:38.820 Until then, may God bless you.

00:48:40.540 May God bless America.

00:48:41.640 And may God bless the great Lou Dobbs.

00:48:43.760 See you tomorrow.

00:48:44.280 All right.

00:48:44.720 All right.

00:48:49.500 Thank you.

The Great America Show - February 03, 2025

THIS IS THE NEW AMERICA

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript