00:02:10.720President Trump's coalition includes working class and lower propensity voters
00:02:15.240who have not turned out strongly in non-presidential years,
00:02:19.400but have turned out in years in which Trump himself is on the ballot.
00:02:22.460So by putting President Trump at the center of this spectacle, Republicans are trying to gin up some presidential energy for an off-year contest.
00:02:31.620Despite the fact that some in the mainstream media may not provide the coverage that this event deserves,
00:02:37.740it will get a disproportionate amount of coverage in the crucial state of Texas.
00:02:43.360Texas, where a U.S. Senate seat and the governorship are both up for grabs.
00:02:47.820The governor's race is closer than expected, and the Senate seat, of course, being one of the most focused races in the country, where Ken Paxton, the sitting attorney general, who came from behind to win President Trump's endorsement over a rhino in that state's primary, faces James Tallarico, a far-left progressive, if not Islamic Marxist Democrat, who's now trying to pass for a moderate.
00:03:13.680Nationalizing the election around Trump's record will have the potential to energize voters who might otherwise stay home.
00:03:19.840The Republican brand is highly unpopular nationwide.
00:03:23.240There's still too many rhinos in the fold.
00:03:25.240Republican President Trump is the unquestioned leader and the crown jewel of the GOP.
00:03:30.160There are a subset of voters out there, most of them blue-collar, working families, middle-class voters who aren't Republicans but will vote for Trump.
00:03:40.500This is why Mitt Romney and John McCain did not win, and Donald Trump did.
00:03:45.480He should be, in my opinion, featured as much as possible to energize this MAGA base,
00:03:49.660because if they decide to stay home, well, we lose the midterms.
00:03:53.760With Republicans to fail to pass measures like the Common Sense Save America Act,
00:03:59.520President Trump has to bail out the feckless, weak Republican establishment yet again.
00:04:05.700He's very effective trying to place his agenda on every Republican line without listing himself.
00:04:09.960This is the key to getting as many Republicans elected as possible.
00:04:13.460And we have to do a better job, frankly, of communicating his record, whether it is the drop in violent crime, whether it is the sealing of our borders, whether it is the low inflation rate, whether it is the new jobs numbers.
00:04:26.780On so many fronts, the president is breaking through and keeping his promises.
00:04:35.000But just the fact that Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff are on a mission for peace, having just met with Putin in Russia and then with Zelensky in Ukraine, demonstrates that the volatility here in the political sphere is really extraordinary.
00:04:54.120Almost anything could happen, and any breakthrough, either here or less likely but possible, in Iran would have an extraordinary effect on the off-term elections.
00:05:05.480By the way, the new Harvard-Harris poll, no one's idea of a biased or Republican-leaning poll, shows that generically Republicans actually lead Democrats 51-49 on the ballot.0.92
00:05:16.440So for those panikins who are ready to throw in the towel in the midterm elections, I say right here in the Stone Zone, not so fast.0.90
00:05:26.020Meanwhile, President Trump has floated another geographic rebranding, this time suggesting that New Mexico could become New America.0.92
00:05:34.040He posted maps showing the state with Mexico crossed out, replaced by America, and the White House amplifies the image.
00:05:40.960President Trump called the proposed name prestigious and beautiful.
00:05:44.700Democrat New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is the son of the great Manuel Lujan, a longtime Republican congressman, rejected the idea immediately, noting that the name predates the United States.
00:05:57.380Spanish explorers were using Nuevo Mexico centuries before statehood.
00:06:02.020But unlike federal names for geographic features, the president actually doesn't possess unilateral authority to rename a state.
00:06:09.460And the White House has not announced a process to attempt it.
00:07:28.020on a roughly 250-foot structure planned near Memorial Circle across the Potomac from the Lincoln Memorial.
00:07:36.640Renderings show a monumental white arch topped with gilded statuary,
00:07:41.480including wing features and eagles with an observation deck incorporated into the design.
00:07:46.640The administration presents the project as a memorial to America's military service
00:07:51.260and part of a broader effort to reshape and beautify prominent federal spaces in Washington.
00:07:56.900Last time I was in the Oval Office, the president was lamenting the fact that the federal government has all of these statues of our founders, our forefathers, and other national heroes, and they're all crated up in warehouses.
00:08:09.740And he wants to beautify our nation's capital.
00:08:12.340He certainly is doing that because he is, at heart, of course, a builder and a developer.
00:08:17.180And he understands the majestic beauty of D.C. if it is kept up or even improved.
00:08:22.740This project arrives before all of its legal and planning disputes are settled.
00:08:26.900which are expected to be numerous from leftist obstructionists who live to impede President Trump's vision for the country and the Capitol.
00:08:35.160Final approvals remain outstanding, and opponents have challenged the administration's ability to proceed,
00:08:40.600of course, arguing that the arch could disrupt historic sight lines, inquire additional reviews.
00:08:47.380The planned height exceeds Washington's usual building limits, which could easily, of course, be exempted.
00:08:52.160The monument is a deliberate return to grand civic architecture at a time when much federal design is favored restraint and abstraction.
00:09:02.160Modern buildings are brutalist and erected to be eyesores, in my opinion.
00:09:06.700This is a way to demoralize the public and dull them down to the perception of true architectural beauty.
00:09:12.580President Trump is pushing back against this movement.
00:09:15.260The argument is about far more than stone and steel.
00:09:18.340America's monuments have always been statements about what the country chooses to honor and how
00:09:23.160power wants to be remembered. President Trump is proposing something unapologetically monumental.
00:09:29.200The courts and the planning agencies must stand aside and allow President Trump's vision to
00:09:34.080finally be realized. Put me down as being in favor of the Ark de Trump. Meanwhile, Secretary of State
00:09:41.000Marco Rubio begins a three-county Latin America tour Tuesday with a premise that Washington has
00:09:48.060neglected for far too long, competition with China, which starts much closer at home than
00:09:53.120South China Sea. Rubio opens up in Colombia, where nearly elected President Abadalardo Diaspralia
00:09:59.540has replaced Gustavo Petro, a leftist, and moved quickly towards closer security cooperation with
00:10:06.060the United States. Colombia has joined the U.S.-led Shield of the Americas initiative against
00:10:11.680drug trafficking and resumed joint military operations. Rubio will also then travel to
00:10:17.560Ecuador, and Peru, both led by conservative governments that are happy to work with the
00:10:21.980Trump administration. The State Department says counter-narcotics cooperation is one of the
00:10:26.820central purposes of the trip. No one has missed the fact, however, that this trip by the Secretary
00:10:32.140of State means he will not appear at the Republican National Convention in Dallas.
00:10:37.200So for those who say that Rubio was planning to run for president, this would argue against it.
00:10:41.980Of course, it doesn't mean that he couldn't run, but it is interesting that J.D. Vance
00:10:46.280and President Trump will headline the convention in Dallas
00:10:50.280while Secretary of State Marco Rubio is fighting narco-Marxism in this hemisphere.
00:10:56.860The broader context here is about influence, infrastructure,
00:11:00.100and political alignment across the Western Hemisphere.
00:11:02.640China has spent years expanding relationships through trade, telecommunications,
00:11:07.800ports, loans, and construction projects, dumping many yen into the region.
00:11:12.960The Trump administration is answering with security partnerships, anti-cartel operations, investment, and more explicit assertion that this hemisphere is strategically central to the United States.
00:11:25.180This is, of course, the core of the president's so-called Don Roe Doctrine, based on leverage rather than occupation.
00:11:33.460Rubio's advantage is that geography and shared security interests are real, and conservative governments are happy to receive the help.
00:11:40.620The administration has the opportunity to build durable partnerships to help influence the Latin American renaissance that's currently underway, and together we can make the Americas great again.
00:11:50.340It is not a coincidence that since the shutdown of USAID flooding millions of dollars into the region that was being used for politics, that pro-American, pro-nationalist, pro-freedom, anti-Marxist, anti-narco governments have won in Chile, in Peru, in Honduras, and again here in Colombia, as I said.
00:12:12.400Meanwhile, Huawei, the Chinese internet giant, is going to trial in New York City on criminal charges
00:12:18.460and shadowed the Chinese telecommunications giant for a number of years.
00:12:22.520Jury selection is beginning in a federal case accusing Huawei and several subsidiaries of racketeering,
00:12:27.960theft of trade secrets, bank and wire fraud, sanctions violations, and other misconduct.
00:12:33.800Prosecutors allege the company stole American technology, conducted prohibited business involving Iran and North Korea,
00:12:40.540and helped install surveillance technology used by Iranian authorities during the anti-government demonstrations.
00:12:47.760Huawei, of course, denies wrongdoing, has argued that the prosecution is vague, politically motivated, and beyond proper U.S. jurisdiction.
00:12:55.640But what would you expect a Chinese communist-affiliated company to ever admit is touchwary? Not by a long shot.
00:13:00.880The significance here reaches beyond Huawei, this one Chinese company.
00:13:04.760Huawei has become a symbol of the wider U.S.-China technology conflict because telecommunications equipment sits at the intersection of commerce, data, and national security.
00:13:16.460The Trump administration began pressing allies to exclude Huawei equipment earlier, while U.S. sanctions restricted the company's access to advanced technology.
00:13:25.300China responded by accelerating domestic chip development and reducing reliance on U.S. suppliers.
00:13:31.520The trial now puts a narrow proposition before jurors, whether prosecutors can prove that Huawei, a Chinese company's rise, specifically included criminal conduct.0.66
00:13:41.840If a Chinese firm can be punished for theft, fraud, and sanctions evasions, this will give China a resounding message to stay out of our country and stop this effort to infiltrate every strata of American society.0.93
00:13:53.700This is their opportunity to shut the door on the Chinese menace and their infiltration efforts of our country once and for all.0.98
00:14:01.520I'm Roger Stone. You're listening to The Stone Zone. We'll be right back with more politics on1.00
00:14:05.540the other side, so please don't go away. This is The Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
00:14:11.740He likes politics and he's a professional at the highest level. Roger Stone.
00:14:31.520This is The Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
00:14:38.160Roger Stone, who's a very, very, one of the smartest political minds.
00:14:53.320Welcome back into The Stone Zone, where we talk politics five days a week.
00:14:58.860The state of Texas has decided that students should learn about who carried out the 9-11 attacks, as well as the ideology that motivated them.
00:15:07.180The State Board of Education approved revised high school social studies standards requiring students to describe 9-11 as motivated by a radical Islam, while also expanding instructions on early Islamic military campaigns, slavery, and jihad.
00:15:24.120The standards, approved by an 8-4 margin, are scheduled to take effect in 2030.
00:15:28.860Supporters say the language is an effort to teach history directly rather than soften difficult and thorny subjects.
00:15:35.820Muslim advocates and some historians object that the standards risk presenting Islam disproportionately, but the truth hurts.
00:15:43.520And if they want to change perceptions, perhaps they can start by rooting out terrorism within their own communities.
00:15:49.500Islam is a global religion practiced by about 2 billion people, and it is just a fact that the 9-11 hijackers should be a part of that religion.
00:15:57.840Explaining al-Qaeda without mentioning radical Islam is whitewashing the record and the truth.
00:16:02.820That will only make us more vulnerable to threats in the future.
00:16:06.100Texas is choosing explicit language where other school systems dominated by liberals would prefer broader terms such as terrorism or violent extremism,
00:16:14.980while not really mentioning the ideology behind the attacks.
00:16:19.180The choice will shape textbooks, classroom materials, and how students understand the attacks.
00:16:24.080The left has dominated the school systems for too long, and using the classroom as a proving ground for ideology has to stop.
00:16:31.540Now it's time for common sense to take over and start promoting the truth as well as the greatness of America and the values that will move our civilization forward.0.95
00:16:42.480I say calling out radical Islam is what happened on 9-11.0.96
00:16:45.940It is an excellent start, and I'm among those, along with Governor George Pataki, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the former president of the Port Authority Policemen's Association, John McDivitt, and others, calling on Mayor Zoran Miamdami to skip the 9-11 Memorial Services celebration, or I should say dedication, this coming September 11th.1.00
00:17:15.220The mayor has ignored this and has, after handing a pen for which he signed the declaration over to a radical Muslim lawyer who represented people connected to the 9-11 attack, has announced that he's going to attend.
00:17:30.500I think that is a mistake. And I predict to you right here in the Stone Zone that there will be peaceful protests if the mayor shows up at the 9-11 ceremonies at the end of the week.
00:17:41.740I'm Roger Stone. You're listening to The Stone Zone. We'll be right back with more. When we come back, we'll talk about what's going on in the Ukraine-Russia situation where the president has just sent his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his longtime friend, Steve Witkoff, who have been successful in the past. Jared Kushner deserves credit for the Abraham Accords in the first Trump administration. Perhaps he can bring us peace in this war, too. Roger Stone on The Stone Zone. Be right back.
00:22:25.320It demonstrated that a substantial alternative audience exists
00:22:29.460for entertainment built around patriotism, country music,
00:22:32.860and themes that leftists would rather bury.
00:22:35.740In a fair and just world, of course, it is the all-American half-time show that would have won all these awards.
00:22:42.920But just by competing and fighting back against the NFL, they show that there is a market for wholesome programming.
00:22:48.660We have to continue to fight back and can never accept that we will be replaced by, in our country, no matter how many awards they give to bad money or any other vulgar cultural trash merchants out there.
00:23:00.740Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center's federal criminal case will stay tied to the case of former senior official Heidi Barich
00:23:09.240after a judge rejected the organization's attempt to split the two trials.
00:23:13.820A federal jury has charged at the Southern Poverty Law Center with fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy offenses,
00:23:20.340while a later superseding indictment added Barich as a defendant on conspiracy counts.
00:23:25.480If I have to remind you, the Southern Poverty Law Center is the operation that would essentially fund neo-Nazi and Klan activities so that they could go out and then raise money to oppose them.
00:23:37.160It was a massive financial political scam.
00:23:40.980Prosecutors alleged the organization actually used fictitious entities and financial arrangements connected to payments involving extremists involved with groups like, oh, the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan.
00:23:53.580Reminds me of something a retired FBI agent once told me.
00:23:56.620He said if you went to a Klan meeting and there were 10 people,
00:23:59.180eight of them would be federal FBI informants.
00:24:02.280The Southern Poverty Law Center says those payments were legitimate
00:24:05.160informant activity intended to combat extremism,
00:24:09.020but very few, including me, are buying that rationale.
00:24:12.260Both the organization and the former CEO, Bayrich,
00:24:15.800have pledged not guilty to the charges.
00:24:17.660U.S. District Judge Emily Marks ruled that a joint trial
00:24:21.000would reduce the risk of inconsistent verdicts and move that trial to February 1st so that
00:24:26.180Beavich's lawyers would have adequate preparation time, in my opinion, just delaying the inevitable.
00:24:31.580The Southern Poverty Law Center spent decades influencing public debate by labeling organizations
00:24:36.860and individuals they disagree with as extremists or hateful. I know I ended up on their list.
00:24:42.480So did Charlie Kirk. So did many patriots. They said that Christian conservative groups
00:25:31.980Nearly a four-hour documentary about Elon Musk has premiered at the Venice Film Festival,
00:25:36.800and its framing leaves little doubt that director Alex Gibney is yielding a hatchet
00:25:41.800and wants to bring Musk down a few pegs.
00:25:43.740The film, titled Musk, examines Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter X, government contracts, and Musk's political evolution, including his support for President Donald Trump.
00:25:55.620Gibney has described Musk as an extraordinarily powerful figure, argues in the film that much of his influence comes from his ability to sell ambitious visions of the future.
00:26:05.100The documentary includes sharply critical commentary, of course, including descriptions of Musk as a man who has, quote-unquote, lost his mind.
00:26:12.800Musk wisely declined to participate and has called the project a hit piece.
00:26:17.040I have some experience with Mr. Gibney, who once tried to do a documentary extolling the virtues of Elliot Spitzer, the governor of New York, who was later disgraced in a prostitution scandal.
00:26:30.860So my view, Musk was probably wise not to cooperate because this was a hit piece.
00:26:36.720This conflict is built into the film's marketing.
00:26:39.940Musk is one of the most consequential entrepreneurs of the century,
00:26:43.100with companies that have transformed electronic vehicles,
00:26:46.240commercial spaceflight, and satellite communications.
00:27:34.760He has announced that his America PAC will spend at least $100 million on the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
00:27:44.220And because he is the richest man on the planet, it could end up being substantially more.
00:27:49.120He's already poured a substantial amount of money into the Texas Senate race between Ken Paxton and James Tallarico.
00:27:55.640That was just this week. I think there's more where that came from.
00:27:58.640So, if you don't have to go see this documentary on Elon Musk, frankly, I wouldn't recommend it.
00:28:07.220Nearly one year after Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University, his widow, Erica Kirk, has written about it and how it has impacted her family life.
00:28:15.660In an essay for the New York Times, she recounts returning to their children, avoiding parts of the home she shared with her husband and learning to endure grief in small increments.
00:28:24.640One piece of advice came from Usha Vance, wife of our vice president,
00:28:29.340who told her to focus on getting through the next 15 minutes
00:28:32.700rather than imagining the rest of her life at once.
00:30:44.180and how they'll be rooted through the palace.
00:30:46.780Harry and Meghan are reportedly surprised how little advance note they received, given this note from the king.
00:30:53.380Perhaps they thought they would be brought back in and could just take up where they left off.
00:30:57.960Unfortunately for them, it appears that King Charles holds a grudge.
00:31:01.760The modern monarchy survives by drawing a bright line between the crown as a public institution and relatives of the monarch who pursue private lives.
00:31:11.280Harry and Meghan chose financial independence, commercial freedom, and they distanced themselves from their official duties in 2020 when they thought that was going to help their rise to stardom.
00:31:23.940Turns out those calculations were wrong.
00:31:26.240Now they're learning that independence does not preserve the privilege of representational authority attached to being a working royal.
00:31:32.620The principle underneath the royal soap opera is kind of old-fashioned.
00:31:37.160Public status comes with obligations, restrictions, and accountability.
00:31:41.840Once somebody steps away from those obligations,
00:31:44.080the institution has an interest in preventing private celebrity
00:31:47.560from being confused with official authority.
00:31:50.180And considering how quickly that celebrity has waned,
00:31:53.640Harry and Meghan Markle in recent years,
00:31:56.220they might be willing to cut their losses
00:31:58.020and be living their lives in less privileged obscurity.
00:32:02.880Meanwhile, President Trump has signed out Bombardier
00:32:05.520in the escalating chide fight with Canada, saying that the Canadian aircraft maker
00:32:09.420could lose access to American markets unless it builds more of its planes here in the United States.
00:32:14.800His message is a reminder to all foreign companies that access to 340 million American consumers
00:32:21.000is itself a national asset and that Washington can and should use that access to influence
00:32:26.860where factories, supply chains, and skilled workers are located.
00:32:30.840Bombardier says it already employs thousands of workers in the United States
00:32:33.940and it spends heavily with American suppliers.
00:32:36.940But any actual sales ban will require legal and regulatory implementation
00:32:40.760beyond just a social media declaration.
00:32:44.060But President Trump's strong words are kind of putting them on notice.
00:32:47.620Like Theodore Roosevelt, Trump knows how to use the media to send a message.
00:32:52.280Bombardier aircraft are embedded in American regional aviation,
00:32:55.760and the company uses U.S.-made engines and a large American supplier network.
00:32:59.840So a sudden ban would hit U.S. airlines, workers, and suppliers along with Canada.
00:34:19.520Well, self-described Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders.
00:34:23.980Notice how Bernie used to criticize millionaires and billionaires, but he no longer criticizes billionaires and millionaires.
00:34:32.120He just criticizes billionaires. That's because Bernie Sanders and his wife became millionaires by skimming media placement fees off his two presidential campaigns, which, by the way, is not illegal.
00:34:44.140The fact that he did not disclose it to his donors, I think, is immoral or at a minimum dishonest.
00:34:50.640But Comrade Bernie, who talks constantly about wealth and oligarchs, attacks Elon Musk for being successful and wealthy, well, he's driving a top-of-the-line Mercedes, and he's got at least three homes, including one vacation home in Vail, Colorado.
00:35:06.200He now has announced a new legislation that would ban artificial superintelligence.
00:35:11.680It's called the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, legislation to permanently ban the development and deployment of artificial superintelligence.
00:35:20.640The measure would also pause advanced AI until a cabinet-level regulator writes new rules
00:35:26.040and threatens companies with so-called corporate death penalty and individuals with up to 20 years in prison.
00:35:32.900The full text of Senator Sanders' bill has not yet been released.
00:35:37.000This goes well beyond the AI oversight path already taking shape inside the Trump White House,
00:35:42.700which includes voluntary pre-release federal reviews and talks about a government-supervised independent organization to conduct these reviews.
00:35:50.640President Trump actually discussed this idea last month with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
00:35:55.920That was widely reported at the time in Politico.
00:35:59.120Trump administration's stated goals to keep the United States ahead of China, not to freeze the field while America invents a new bureaucracy.
00:36:07.500Private American companies already poured enormous sums into advanced chips, computing and frontier models.
00:36:13.240This administration's stated game is to keep that lead, not freeze it.
00:36:17.600Sanders is reaching for a familiar play from the socialist playbook.
00:36:21.060Take an emerging technology, declare the private sector too dangerous to be trusted, and hand power over some new federal agency.
00:36:30.420His Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act would outlaw systems said to surpass human intelligence, threaten government overthrow, or resist a shutdown command.
00:36:39.940Terms that are eased still fiercely consistent, even among some researchers.
00:36:43.500The office summary also covers systems that match human-level performance across a broad range of tasks, and that can easily be modified to get there, not only systems, but already surpass humans.
00:36:55.740Politico has noted that obvious political problems, defining superintelligence, getting ambitious legislation through a Congress that is barely in session, and the near-certain opposition of the labs whose models now drive their valuations.
00:37:08.820Actually, Daniel Castro, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation,
00:37:14.700slammed Sanders' proposal as a profound mistake that would only benefit communist China.
00:37:21.260Advanced AI presents real questions that policymakers should continue to take seriously,
00:37:25.440but its benefits are already tangible, while many of the most dire risks remain.
00:37:31.820Totally speculative, he said in a statement.
00:37:34.060America should lead in advanced AI instead of trying to ban it.
00:37:37.160This is not Sanders' first attempt to hit the brakes. He was one of the first members of Congress to call for a national moratorium on data center construction, an idea later written into legislation along with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. That idea has stirred bipartisan friction.
00:37:56.060Here's the point about data centers. People oppose data centers for two reasons. One, they think that they will utilize local water causing a water shortage or that they will tap into the grid and therefore cause an increase in utility prices.
00:38:12.040Here's what they don't understand, and that is any data center can be run with a closed-loop die-cut cooling generator
00:38:24.400that does not utilize any incoming local water, and also a closed-loop to provide the electronic energy.
00:38:31.760There are at least three technologies that are completely closed-loop,
00:38:35.660meaning that a data center would not have to tap into the grid and would not cause an increase in the local utility rates for consumers.
00:38:46.640Therefore, data centers need to be looked at in terms of both these two closed loop systems and then the jobs and the benefits are obvious.
00:38:55.300I'm Roger Stone. Listen to the Stone Zone. I hope I cleared up data centers for you.
00:38:59.820We'll be back tomorrow. Until then, God bless you and Godspeed.