00:02:12.400As of the latest federal filings available, that's as of August of this month, Republicans have a huge institutional financial advantage.
00:02:19.960The important distinction, though, is that this advantage is concentrated in the National Party, Trump-aligned PACs, and Congressional Super PACs.
00:02:29.760Trump, first of all, has a political action committee, MAGA, Inc.
00:02:34.840There is no comparable Democrat presidential candidates PAC on the other side.
00:02:41.820MAGA, Inc. finished June with $400 million cash on hand.
00:02:49.960The underlying filings from the most recent FEC report showed they began 2025 with only about $23.8 million, and they accumulated roughly $398 million for their war chest through this most recent August.
00:03:08.100And, of course, the president is expected to raise more.
00:03:11.600That means Trump has something unusual for a midterm president, a $400 million plus political war chest outside the parties that can potentially be used to help Republican candidates who are aligned with him.
00:03:24.860It was also noticed that the reserve at MAGA Inc. was larger than all four principal Democrat congressional campaign funds combined.
00:03:36.140And MAGA Inc., the President's Political Action Committee, has deliberately conserved much of their money so far.
00:03:43.740That matters because we're approaching the period when advertising, turnout operations, and late money becomes particularly important.
00:03:51.860But then when you look at the two parties themselves, that comparison is startling.
00:03:56.180The Republican National Committee has $120 million cash on hand versus the Democrat National Committee, which has $16 million cash on hand, but a more than $18 million debt from the disastrous election involving Kamala Harris.
00:04:14.700So simply comparing gross cash, the Republican National Committee has roughly $8 for every dollar held by the Democrats.
00:04:22.720If you consider the Democrats' debt burn, the difference in net financial position is even larger.
00:04:29.380This isn't just an accounting curiosity.
00:04:32.200Party money is particularly valuable because the National Committee provides voter data, field organization, legal operations, advertising, candidate support, and turnout infrastructure across dozens of races simultaneously.
00:04:47.700Trump is actually returning to Texas on August 27th, a birthday that I share with one Lyndon Baines Johnson for another Republican National Committee fundraiser, suggesting that Trump and the Republicans are going to continue to build their reserve rather than just spending it down.
00:05:04.860Republicans also have a significant major advantage when it comes to the U.S. Senate.
00:05:08.960The Senate Leadership Fund, aligned with the Senate Majority Leader John Thune, reported $253 million raised with $238 million cash on hand as of June 30th.
00:05:22.160That's more than double the cash that the Senate Leadership Fund had at the same stage in the 2024 elections.
00:05:29.620Earlier in this cycle, Axios calculated that the Republican Senate Super PAC had nearly three times as much cash as its Democrat counterpart.
00:05:38.000Democrats have since begun making large reservations.
00:05:42.020The Senate Majority Pack recently announced some $54 million in Senate spending,
00:05:46.820but the Senate Leadership Fund remains financially stronger overall.
00:05:54.360This comparison is especially useful when it removes Trump himself
00:05:57.940as it looks at just the organizations privately responsible for Congress.
00:06:02.160The four major Republican organizations, those would be the Senate Leadership Fund,
00:06:06.240The Congressional Leadership Fund, the National Public Congressional Committee, and the National Public Senate Committee had roughly $529 million cash on hand.
00:06:16.760Their Democratic counterparts, that would be the Senate Majority Pact, the House Majority Pact, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee had about $336 million cash on hand.
00:06:30.040So that's approximately $193 million Republican advantage or about a 57% cash advantage.
00:06:38.120And as I say, the Republican parties, the actual party functions through June had collectively raised $633 million compared with about $546 million for the DNC.
00:06:50.900So if they say money can't solve all problems, that's true, but in a tough election, money could make a real difference.
00:06:58.360In my view, this financial advantage takes the place of network television.
00:07:04.320In other words, ABC, NBC, CBS, I think they should actually file as in-kind contributions to the Democrats in the way that they report.
00:07:14.380But Trump and the Republicans will have a huge financial advantage going into this election.
00:07:19.740Then there's additional outside money from all kinds of independent PACs.
00:07:23.140The Never Surrender Incorporated PAC had about $60 million.
00:07:27.460That's a pro-Republican, pro-Trump pact.
00:07:31.700The Club for Growth had about $87 million cash on hand.
00:07:37.720So those side committees, independent, but pro-Republican committees also importantly count.
00:07:45.120The other thing you have to look at right now is polling.
00:07:47.720It's very important that people understand polling.
00:08:09.820Or a poll can be taken to take an unvarnished, unbiased, snapshot examination of public attitudes within a certain electorate.
00:08:20.160But in order for a poll to be on the up and up, to be legitimate, the sample size has to be large enough and has to be scientifically balanced to reflect the electorate that you're trying to measure.
00:08:32.620In other words, the correct number of men, women, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, young, old, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and so on.
00:08:43.760Secondarily is the order of the questions.
00:08:48.160In other words, if you test a negative message against a candidate and then test the head-to-head ballot after you test a potential negative message or positive message, you're going to skew your poll.
00:09:01.100And then lastly is the actual wording of the questions.
00:09:05.020The wording of the questions has to be completely unbiased and completely neutral.
00:09:10.940I saw this weekend a perfect example of what I think was a rigged poll.
00:09:16.700Unfortunately, the New York Post and the Albany Times Union, as well as Channel 13 in Albany, took a poll by an organization called SurveyUSA, measuring the race for Congress in New York's 21st district.
00:09:32.680That's the seat that is being vacated by Elise Stefanik, where Anthony Constantino, you remember him?
00:09:39.060He's the guy who put the giant vote for Trump sign on the top of his factory in Amsterdam, New York,
00:09:45.440and the local Democrats actually threatened to throw him in jail.
00:09:49.120They came out with a poll this week that is as fraudulent as they come.
00:10:40.360It's in order to engender greater fundraising for the Democrat candidate
00:10:44.400and to give an impression that in this reliably Republican district,
00:10:48.080where Republicans hold a substantial registration edge,
00:10:51.880that this race is more competitive than it is.
00:10:54.280It's really irresponsible for media organizations not to look at the internal numbers.
00:10:59.460If you look in the internal numbers poll, this poll would have you believe that Kathy Hochul is more popular, has a higher approval rating than the local congresswoman, Elise Stefanik, who has, I must tell you, based on all the polling I've studied, has one of the highest favorability ratings I have ever seen by a congresswoman.
00:11:19.300She's even more popular than President Trump in the district.
00:11:22.540So the other place you can look online and you see a lot of this is websites like Koushi and Polymarket.
00:11:31.520They have what appears to be polls, but that's completely voluntary.
00:11:35.500So while they're interesting and while they may be a measure of the intensity of support of people who are online, let's try to remember that not everybody's online.
00:11:46.680In fact, younger voters are online, where in a Republican primary, where the average voter is probably 65 plus in most states, many of the voters are not online.
00:12:03.920In other words, to look at a poll in the summer for an election that is months away and try to declare who's going to win, well, that's a fool's errand.
00:12:13.280and it's why many of these polls right now should be discounted.
00:12:19.400Yes, Democrats are ahead in a number of key Senate races,
00:12:22.420but in many cases they're ahead by a margin that's within the margin of error.
00:12:27.800No poll is going to be exactly on the money depending on the sample size.
00:12:32.300So a word of caution for those who want to rush to judgment about this November's election.
00:12:38.660Are the Republicans at a disadvantage?
00:13:03.060The Republican primary for governor of Florida is tomorrow, where I am based.
00:13:08.320And I get six or seven of these huge floppy mailings in my mailbox every day.
00:13:13.880You know, the self-mailers, political consultants love these because the markup is very substantial.
00:13:21.140But if you think about it, when you go to your mailbox, the first thing you do is divide the mail you have received into two piles.
00:13:28.000There's a pile that you're going to throw away.
00:13:30.860There's a pile that you are going to open and read.
00:13:34.500So the political mailings, along with the advertisement from Sam's Club or the local car wash or a nearby restaurant, those go in the circular file, the waste paper basket.
00:13:45.320But when you get a close face envelope that appears to have been addressed by hand and in the other left hand corner is just a return address and there's a bulk stamp which is put on slightly crooked.
00:13:58.580Well, you're going to open that because you wonder if it's a bill or some other important communication.
00:14:04.420See, that's effective voter mail, something that few candidates go to the expense or trouble to do anymore because it is expensive, particularly with the increasing cost of postage.
00:14:15.040But to me, that is effective political communications.
00:14:18.020When we come back, I talk about the fact that I just saw the testimony of Mike Donilon, who is a political consultant for Joe Biden, and his fees in the 2020 presidential election, which were really extraordinary.
00:14:32.540I've never seen a political consultant make $12 million on a race, regardless of the outcome.
00:14:38.980It is outlandish based on the way political consultants charge.
00:14:42.860We'll talk about that on the other side.
00:14:44.400You're in the Stone Zone. We're talking about the hard realities of American politics.
00:15:31.740There's a lot of political combat that goes on in social media that is not necessarily a reflection of what actual voters think.
00:15:39.200You can get too wrapped up into that and start to believe that is a reflection of the real world.
00:15:44.220I think this is going to be true in the Florida primary for governor tomorrow,
00:15:48.480where Byron Donalds, I think, holds a substantial lead based on legitimate polling,
00:15:54.700challenging him as Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins and a very idiosyncratic candidate by the name of James Fishback,
00:16:02.260also a former House Speaker, Paul Renner.
00:16:05.040If you were online today, you would think that some of those minor candidates have a shot, but if you're looking at real legitimate polling, I'm prepared to predict that Byron Donalds will win.
00:16:15.920The other interesting race is the embattled campaign of Corey Mills, the candidate from Florida's 7th District.
00:16:25.140He has been embroiled in a number of controversies, including a restraining order placed on him by a federal judge after he threatened one girlfriend,
00:16:35.060political, also police, coming to his apartment when he allegedly roughed up or threatened another girlfriend.
00:16:43.360No charges were filed in that case. Also some questions about stolen valor, whether his bronze star is legitimate. The general who allegedly signed that certificate says he has no memory of doing so.
00:16:55.800A new poll there, a legitimate poll, shows him trailing, 44-27.
00:17:04.040But remember, you have early voting, and many of the votes have already been cast here in Florida.
00:17:11.360I think Corey Mills would be a very weak general election candidate in a year in which the Republicans can't afford to drop any House races.
00:17:20.680Both of those races need to be watched extraordinarily carefully.
00:17:24.620Florida used to be a purple state, but now Republicans have almost a $1.3 million Republican voter registration advantage.
00:17:35.600That doesn't mean that this won't be a competitive race because it is, after all, an off year.
00:17:42.100Donald Trump is not on the ballot, and that's a key factor.
00:17:44.980There are a number of voters who are pro-Trump but not necessarily Republicans who come out when he's on the ballot but don't come out when he isn't.
00:17:53.900one of the real challenges for Republicans across the country is going to be identifying
00:17:58.560those pro-Trump voters and getting them out. I'm Roger Stone. We're talking about the mechanics
00:18:04.240of American politics right here in the Stone Zone, and we'll be right back.
00:18:23.900the stone zone entertaining and informative on the red apple podcast network it's the stone zone
00:18:35.560a man who's gone through hell but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people
00:18:42.100love him not everybody but people love him and respect him roger stone where's roger stone
00:18:54.040As I said earlier, I was startled by the stunning testimony under oath by Mike Donilon, a Democrat political consultant.
00:19:03.080I don't know Mike, but I know his brother Tom, who's a very capable operative.
00:19:06.980He was working for Walter Mondale when I was working for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 campaign.
00:19:12.000But it was shocking when he said under oath after much hemming and hawing that his fees from Joe Biden's campaign were guaranteed 16 million dollars.
00:19:23.060Normally speaking, political consultants are paid a flat monthly fee, and then some political consultants also negotiate a percentage of the commission for the placement of electronic media like cable television, broadcast television, or radio, usually far below the standard 15% commission, which gets mostly rebated back to the campaign.
00:19:48.880In the 700-plus campaigns I've worked, I've very rarely done that,
00:19:53.020largely because you don't want the candidate to think that your recommendation that they use broadcast television or terrestrial radio,
00:20:00.960like the one you're listening to, because it puts money in your pocket, but you're recommending it for its strategic strength.
00:20:08.440So that number really blows my mind. I've never heard of anything like that.
00:20:12.860My good friend Greg Kelly speculated maybe some of that money ended up back in the pockets of the Bidens themselves since Joe Biden had to approve the deal.
00:20:21.400But there is no evidence of that. But it does stand out like a sore thumb. I think it's very, very strange.
00:20:27.600Meanwhile, a Nevada judge has finally dismissed the case of six Republican alternative presidential electoral college electors who signed a 2020 certificate asserting that Donald Trump won the state.
00:20:42.100Judge Mary Kay Holtis found that there was no fraudulent intent.
00:20:46.980The group openly publicized their actions as an effort to preserve legal challenges over election regularities in the midst of a disputed election, not to deceive anyone.
00:20:59.440Alternative electors have a rich tradition in the United States.
00:21:03.340In 1960, for example, it was thought on election night that Vice President Richard Nixon had carried the state of Hawaii.
00:21:11.420John F. Kennedy's campaign didn't believe so.
00:21:14.340They formed a slate of alternative electors, confident about the fact that once the absentee ballots were counted,
00:21:22.180that JFK would win Hawaii, which he did, and they preserved their rights, and therefore, ultimately, their electors were seated.
00:21:30.140The whole idea that alternative electors, as were filed in Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada, as well as Michigan, was somehow illicit or illegal, that's largely an invention of MSNBC and the special prosecutor, Jack Smith.
00:21:48.720In the case of Georgia's electors, if you read the minutes of their meeting, they specifically state that they're forming the electorate to protect their rights, depending on the outcome of litigation, challenging the outcome of that state's election.
00:22:05.440So this decision in Nevada is long past due.
00:22:11.140Two of my friends were electors, Mike McDonald, the Republican state chairman, and Jesse Law, the former Clark County Republican chairman.
00:22:18.720I know there's been enormous stress on them and their families.
00:22:22.000I'm glad that the courts have finally reached the correct decision.
00:22:25.980This entire matter, whether it is Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, or Nevada, is a well-deserved collapse of a coordinated far-left overreach effort.
00:22:36.180Similar witch hunts were thrown out across the country.
00:22:39.020In Michigan, a judge dismissed charges against 15 Republicans ruling that prosecutors failed to prove any intent to defraud Georgia's sprawling case under Fannie Mae.
00:22:48.720Willis collapsed amid ethical scandals and was ultimately dropped, and Arizona's prosecution
00:22:54.260has been repeatedly delayed and sent back after numerous constitutional violations.
00:22:59.580These instances were never about justice. They were about political lawfare and intimidation
00:23:04.180designed to criminalize dissent and intimidate anyone who might question the outcome of the
00:23:10.2802020 election, which, of course, under the First Amendment, every American has the right to do.
00:23:16.680Those in power wanted to send a message to all of those who insist on election integrity
00:23:20.980that their advocacy against voter fraud may very well land them up in the pokey.
00:23:25.920In Nevada, the Democrat Attorney General Aaron Ford, who's now running for governor,
00:23:30.580vows to appeal, still clinging to this fake elector narrative, but courts keep rejecting it.
00:23:37.200These shameful prosecutions just waste taxpayers' dollars, ruin reputations, and erode trust in the system.
00:23:43.420But again, if you look at the election of 1877 or the election of 1960, two perfect examples where there are multiple totally legal uses of alternative elector slates.
00:23:57.480Now, these pro-Trump electors should be filing lawsuits, in my opinion, to rectify the hellish ordeal they've been forced to endure, the legal fees, the pressure, the stress.
00:24:09.360Trump supporters who signed contingent certificates for exercising free speech
00:24:15.020and their legal and political rights, not committing any crimes.
00:24:18.800Democrat attorney generals weaponized the justice system against the Republicans0.53
00:24:22.980while covering up legitimate concerns about election fraud.
00:24:26.660When the mainstream media tells you there's no evidence whatsoever of irregularities
00:24:30.860or anomalies or outright fraud in the 2020 elections, that is simply not true.
00:24:36.420It's there. The mainstream media has just, generally speaking, refused to cover it or gone out of their way to try to discredit it.
00:24:44.040Justice is prevailing as these alternative elector cases crumble.
00:24:50.060Every prosecutor and official involved in these cases should be run from their positions and wear a scarlet letter as far as I am concerned.
00:24:57.060The Supreme Court now has refused yet again to consider President Donald Trump's challenge to the $5 million civil verdict won by E. Jean Carroll, leaving intact a case that raises serious questions about fairness and evidentiary standards in the courts.
00:25:13.840The justices denied President Trump's rehearing quest this past Monday without explanation and with no noted dissents.
00:25:21.300The court had already declined in June to hear his appeal.
00:25:25.040One issue for appeal was the fact that the jury was never allowed to hear that Trump had actually been cleared of the charge of rape.
00:25:31.820A 2023 jury found Trump civilly liable for defaming Carroll.
00:25:36.760Democrats in the New York State Legislature actually amended the law to extend the statute of limitations to allow Carroll to bring this lawsuit that would have otherwise been laughed out of the courts.
00:25:49.320Little did the Democrats know that they would inadvertently snag both former Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo
00:25:54.920and former Mayor Eric Adams in similar sexual assault cases.
00:25:59.680President Trump has consistently and rightly denied these absurd allegations1.00
00:26:03.680from a woman whose own unhinged and bizarre behavior have made her a nationwide laughingstock.0.82
00:26:12.800It is President Trump's attorney's challenge to the trial court's decision amid highly prejudicial evidence
00:26:17.980including allegations by other women concerning events decades earlier
00:26:21.840and the infamous Access Hollywood recording, which had nothing to do with the case
00:26:26.460but was allowed to be presented at trial.
00:26:30.000It was meant to humiliate President Trump and to impoverish him
00:26:32.960in conjunction with all of the other lawfare efforts that were launched against the president in New York State.
00:26:38.920Who can forget in the interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN0.56
00:26:42.440when E. Jean Carroll said that she thought many women found the idea of rape sexy.
00:26:49.300I've never seen Anderson Cooper cut to a break so fast in my life.
00:26:53.420The president's Supreme Court petition argued that lower courts improperly loosened normal protections
00:26:58.600against federal evidence rules, governing prejudice, propensity evidence, and alleged prior misconduct.
00:27:05.460Those are not, in my view, trivial technicalities.
00:27:09.820Rule 403, for example, exists specifically, so inflammatory evidence doesn't overwhelm a jury's consideration of the actual allegation before it.
00:27:19.400President Trump's petition also pointed to disagreements among federal courts over how these evidentiary protections should operate in sexual assault cases.
00:27:28.640The Supreme Court's job is to ensure federal law is applied consistently, even to deep defendants who are hated by entrenched power structure.
00:27:37.320By refusing review without explanation, the court left those, I think, legitimate and significant questions unresolved.
00:27:43.580Shame on them for abdicating their responsibility in this instance.
00:27:46.520In the end, it appears President Trump will have to pay this woman, who I think is a little unhinged, about five million bucks.
00:27:54.300Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci is in full retreat.
00:27:57.180The man who once dictated pandemic policy from the highest perch of government power, believing he was above the law,
00:28:03.260is now dodging questions, refusing interviews, and hiding behind lawyers as a damaging revelation
00:28:09.180exposes how he personally helped censor the lab leak COVID origin theory. Former ABC News
00:28:15.600correspondent Terry Moran, a liberal reporter with a modicum of integrity, just admitted
00:28:20.540on the fifth column podcast that his 2021 nightline investigation into the Wuhan lab origin
00:28:28.280of COVID was gutted hours before airtime.
00:28:31.680Moran and his team had produced a serious examination
00:28:34.940of evidence pointing to a lab accident,
00:28:57.140Lawyers, standards, editors, and the nation's top infectious disease officials had intervened to spike that story.
00:29:04.260Moran was legitimately, says he was absolutely livid cursing at the time.
00:29:09.160The segment that aired was not his work at the fact that his important work was being censored and repressed.
00:29:15.900While Fauci and his allies dismissed the lab leak hypothesis as conspiracy theory and somehow racist,
00:29:21.680and he was quietly ensuring that mainstream audiences never heard a coherent case for it.
00:29:27.400The pattern continues to this very day.
00:29:29.460Senator Ron Johnson's subcommittee requested a private transcribed interview with Dr. Fauci.
00:29:34.960Dr. Fauci's attorney refused, claiming it would impermissibly harass him for political purposes.
00:29:41.060Now, this is the same Fauci who once claimed he had nothing to hide.
00:29:44.420I do not criticize him for invoking his Fifth Amendment rights under oath.
00:29:48.260He has the right to do that. That does not mean that he's guilty.
00:29:50.760However, the fact that he has a premeditated presidential pardon, even though it was signed by an auto pen, closes off that Fifth Amendment option.
00:30:04.660In other words, he can, in my view, be charged with contempt of Congress over his refusal to answer because he had no legal jeopardy.
00:30:14.060This tells me the walls are closing in, and now Dr. Fauci and his lawyers probably fear prosecution at the state level.
00:30:22.780The attorney general in Florida has begun an investigation, and I think that this could be a problem for Dr. Fauci.
00:30:29.620There is now a public mandate to charge Fauci in crimes against humanity.0.59
00:30:33.440The Trump administration must make the most of this opportunity, but not over his refusal to answer questions under the Fifth Amendment, despite his preeminent pardon signed by an auto PEM.0.66
00:30:49.640In the meantime, President Trump has signaled fewer military exercises with South Korea.
00:30:54.900President Trump is signaling a reduction in U.S.-South Korean military exercises
00:30:59.380while pointing to his personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
00:31:04.160President Trump said Sunday that he ordered the Pentagon to substantially reduce the exercises,
00:31:09.700arguing that the massive drills are expensive and send an unnecessarily hostile signal to the North Koreans.
00:31:16.720The 10-day Ochi Freedom Shield exercise began today involves tens of thousands of Americans,
00:31:23.060South Koreans, and allied military personnel.
00:31:26.640The president said North Korea had been unthreatening and respectful during his current administration
00:31:30.940and specifically credited his very good relationship with Kim.
00:31:34.840It's another example of President Trump rejecting the Washington foreign policy establishment's conventional playbook.
00:31:40.840But it also may have something to do with the fact that South Korea declined to support us
00:31:45.420in our efforts against Iran and the regime there.
00:31:50.260Critics mocked Trump during his first term for meeting directly with Kim
00:31:53.520and treating personal diplomacy as a tool of statecraft.
00:31:57.240Yet, Trump told me when he became president,
00:31:59.540both former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama
00:32:02.380told him that North Korea was his single largest problem.
00:32:05.980And when Trump said to them, well, what are they saying?
00:32:07.940Both men said, well, we don't know what they're saying.
00:32:11.900So I think President Trump deserves credit for opening a dialogue
00:32:14.840with the man that he once called Little Rocket Man
00:32:17.920And they did at least temporarily put aside their nuclear weapons development program only to gear it back up when Joe Biden became president.
00:32:28.140It also showed that fear mongering from the neocons say diplomacy is off limits.
00:32:32.520It's just designed to preserve threats as a pretense to facilitate this global empire.
00:32:38.060North Korea has issued harsh warnings ahead of the exercises, calling them preparations for war.
00:32:42.440President Trump's decision instead sends a message that America can remain strong without provoking confrontation simply for confrontation's sake.
00:32:51.980See, that's the difference between America first diplomacy and endless foreign war thinking.
00:32:57.960President Trump isn't by any means trusting Kim blindly.
00:33:01.600He's using leverage, communication and unpredictability to keep tensions under control while leaving America's military power firmly in reserve.
00:34:05.440Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone.
00:34:09.860President Donald Trump is praising a major new Middle East defense agreement
00:34:14.380as a sign that America's allies are finally taking greater responsibility for their own security.
00:34:20.300Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan have signed what's called the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement.
00:34:25.860This is a pact modeled in part on NATO's collective defense principle,
00:34:30.720meaning an attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all.
00:34:34.860President Trump welcomed the deal Sunday, calling it a big, bold, important first step
00:34:39.480and saying that it shows Middle Eastern nations are coming together
00:34:42.840and becoming more capable of defending themselves.
00:34:46.200That kind of fits squarely with Trump's America First foreign policy
00:34:49.380as our allies are building their own military strength
00:34:52.580instead of expecting Uncle Sam to foot the bill
00:34:55.560and send troops to carry the burden in perpetuity.
00:34:59.720The agreement could significantly reshape the region,0.95
00:35:03.240Pakistan is, of course, a nuclear power.0.83
00:35:06.680Turkey fields NATO's second largest military, and Saudi Arabia has, of course, enormous financial resources.
00:35:13.680Pakistan and Saudi Arabia already maintain extensive military cooperation,
00:35:18.400with thousands of Pakistani troops reportedly deployed to the kingdom.
00:35:23.160Critics are warning that the pact could weaken America's influence and complicate Washington's relationship with Israel,
00:35:29.300particularly because Turkey remains a fierce Israeli rival.
00:35:33.240But President Trump was elected to put America first, and this shows that those who believe that our foreign policies controlled by Israel are wrong.
00:35:42.020It will also show, without a shadow of a doubt, the U.S. will protect Israel as our most reliable ally in the region.
00:35:49.000Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated he understands that he is a junior partner, and President Trump ultimately calls the shots.
00:35:57.920Don't expect too much Israeli pushback regarding this particular deal.
00:36:01.840For decades, Washington's foreign policy establishment treated American military dominance as the answer to every regional crisis.
00:36:09.920President Trump's message is different.
00:36:14.200America should protect its own interests, and the U.S. troops should not automatically be the world's first line of defense.
00:36:21.260That's a real America first foreign policy in action.
00:36:24.840That said, we'll never abandon our strongest ally in the region, and that is indeed Israel.
00:36:31.540Meanwhile, Elon Musk just delivered another blow to the global censorship regime.
00:36:36.020The ex-owner announced that the platform will now make every government demand for content removal or account restriction fully visible to users,
00:36:45.300namely the agency and government involved in the legal justification it claims.
00:36:50.280Musk said that any censorship required by governments will now be visible.
00:36:53.720So, for example, in Brazil, where X is no longer available because of the autocratic government of President Lula, this will now be a public fact that can be found online.
00:37:06.540Under the new system, users will know exactly when a post disappears or an account is limited because a foreign minister, regulator, or intelligence service ordered it.
00:37:16.580Now, I was banned from Facebook and from Instagram back in 2017.
00:37:21.500I'm grateful to be back on X, but I have noticed in recent days that the algorithms seem to be working against me.
00:37:28.640I'm there, by the way, as Roger J. Stone Jr., Roger J. Stone Jr.
00:37:34.220But I notice that I'm not getting as much traction as I used to, even though I follow all of the rules.
00:37:41.060Censorship is pernicious, and it is the first step of tyrants.
00:37:45.220And I have to wonder why suddenly, after getting thousands of follows and likes on my humble postings, this has kind of come to a much slower pace.
00:37:56.820When you ask Grok, which is the artificial intelligence connected to X, you get some kind of double talk about legacy and history and so on.
00:38:06.160But I invite you to follow me and you'll see what I mean.
00:38:09.360In the meantime, thanks for joining us today in The Stone Zone, where we talk politics five days a week.
00:38:14.820Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.
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00:38:47.180time for a new episode so you never have to wonder what the heck is going on here