J.D. Vance has a big leg up on Marco Rubio as a potential presidential candidate in 2028, according to a report in the UK Daily Mail. But is he a serious contender? And if so, who would he run against?
00:00:28.060We're about to dive into the deep end.
00:00:32.320This April 15th, you will be able to get your own U.S. Mint-issued $1 gold coin with the image of President Donald Trump.
00:00:43.300Later in the show, the treasurer of the United States of America, Brandon Beach, joins us to talk about plans to roll out this coin.
00:00:52.480This will be legal tender. Very excited about this.
00:00:57.140Today, a story in the UK Daily Mail says that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is moving up on Vice President J.D. Vance as a potential presidential candidate in 2028.
00:01:13.560Now, presidential politics is something I know a little bit about. I'm a veteran of 13 national presidential campaigns, serving on senior levels in the campaigns of President Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, serving in junior levels in the presidential campaigns of Richard Milhouse Nixon.
00:01:35.920The Republican Party is about hegemony.
00:01:38.940We believe in the natural order of things that J.D. Vance, just the fact that he's a very successful sitting vice president, has a big leg up in any future contest for the presidency.
00:01:53.480Now, it is true that Marco Rubio, who I have supported in all of his U.S. Senate campaigns, including the one in which he challenged Democrat, I should say Republican, turned independent, turned Democrat, Charlie Crist, has a job that, on the one hand, gets one more publicity.
00:02:16.980He's obviously in the forefront of our efforts in Venezuela, in Iran, and has, I think, done a spectacular job of implementing the policies of President Donald Trump, whereas the vice president of the United States, by nature, is in a position where he rarely gets the spotlight.
00:02:40.440J.D. Vance is incredibly effective, but he's effective behind the scenes.
00:02:46.100I can tell you that I don't think Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or Tulsi Gabbard, for example, would have been confirmed by the U.S. Senate for their important positions without the effective maneuvering backstage by J.D. Vance.
00:03:02.100He's also very articulate. Now, cutting against that claim is a new poll out from St. Alves Anselm's College in New Hampshire that showed J.D. Vance at 46 and Marco Rubio at 27.
00:03:24.240him. Interesting, but also reflecting all of the other polling to date. The St. Ameson
00:03:33.520poll, very respected in the Granite State, by the way, but this is not the first poll
00:03:40.880that shows J.D. Vance with almost a two-to-one lead over Marco Rubio. It also assumes, by
00:03:49.100the way, that there'll be no other candidates. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, whose
00:03:55.300multi-million dollar campaign was an ignominious failure when he challenged the man who made
00:04:02.200him governor, Donald Trump, in the last presidential campaign, says that he might run again. That's
00:04:11.080a little hard to understand. I'm not sure where he would raise the money to run, first
00:04:14.440of all, because no one gave money to Ron DeSantis because they liked him. People gave
00:04:18.600him money because he was the governor of Florida. He essentially extorted that money, and of course
00:04:25.340he will no longer be governor in 2028. And then secondarily, Iowa, the first contest, really puts
00:04:33.840a premium on retail politics. In other words, the voters of Iowa, in preparation for their caucuses,
00:04:40.620they want you to sit at their kitchen table and drink coffee. They want you to spend hours in
00:04:46.040endless forums in retail campaigning. Ron DeSantis is a man who never looks you in the eye,
00:04:53.040never gives you a firm handshake, never says thank you. He was famous for wearing earbuds,
00:04:59.220not because he was listening to anything, but because he could use them to avoid
00:05:02.880human contact. So I don't, and all the polls, by the way, show him, despite the fact that he spent
00:05:09.340millions of dollars just a year and some months ago running for president. Still in all of these
00:05:17.420polls, he's in single digits. Of course, Tulsi Gabbard is a wild card, Democrat-turned-Republican.
00:05:25.720I have said on many occasions, I think she will someday be president. Stand by that. It doesn't
00:05:31.720necessarily mean 2028, but sometimes you become vice president by running for president. That,
00:05:39.040of course, is the story of George H.W. Bush. So I tend to discount many of these early stories. I
00:05:48.860think J.D. Vance is still a heavy favorite. On the other hand, Republicans better focus on the
00:05:55.2402026 elections before getting all wrapped up about the 2028 elections. We could be in a situation
00:07:00.220So by 1984, I should say by 2028, I think there's a strong chance that we will have a boom economy, giving an advantage to any Republican candidate for president.
00:07:14.660Also yesterday, President Donald Trump announced that he will not be attending the Conservative Political Action Conference.
00:07:22.000I believe it's the first time since 2011 that that has been the case.
00:07:31.440I was the one who explained to him what CPAC was
00:07:34.620and engineered his invitation to the first CPAC conference in Washington, D.C.
00:07:40.980The president says he's not going because some of the speakers, he believes,
00:07:45.000have been compromised by the Chinese Communist Party.
00:07:49.100I believe he's talking about Steve Bannon.
00:07:51.380Steve Bannon, who has recently been exposed in the emails released by the Department of Justice as being an accomplice and advising Jeffrey Epstein on his public rehabilitations.
00:08:08.080It's the same Steve Bannon, by the way, who pled guilty in New York State to embezzling $15 million from the Build the Wall Foundation.
00:08:17.460Strangely enough, pled guilty but received no jail time.
00:08:21.280Also named in a $1 billion fraud case as an unindicted co-conspirator.
00:08:28.060It's interesting to me that when Bannon's latter-day financial patron, a Chinese national named Miles Guo, was sued in New York State on federal charges, federal fraud charges,
00:08:42.460He was asked multiple times whether his money came from the CCP, money that flowed through to Steve Bannon and his war room.
00:08:51.320And he pled the fifth, 55 times in that trial, specifically when he was asked about a man named William J.E., who is another Chinese national, who works very closely with both Bannon and Miles Guo.
00:09:10.120So the records from that trial show that Bannon and Xi spoke by phone over 194 times in a 12-month period.
00:09:22.440Xi is identified, both publicly and privately, as a member of the Communist Chinese Party, actually an official in the party.
00:09:32.040So I think this is what the president was talking about.
00:09:35.100So CPAC just doesn't have the punch it used to have.
00:09:39.020And now with the president not attending and Steve Bannon is your headliner, I predict they're going to have very serious problems with ticket sales.
00:09:49.340There's also a striking turnaround today at major U.S. airports, and it's raising eyebrows in Washington.
00:09:55.400After many days of chaos, the TSA lines, which were stretching for hours during the ongoing government shutdown, have suddenly improved at, for example, Hartsfield-Jackson-Atlanta International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world.
00:10:13.040wait times dropped dramatically almost overnight.
00:10:17.060The key difference is that ICE agents have stepped in to back up those TSA agents
00:10:26.080despite the fact that the Senate minority of Democrats refused to move legislation to finance ICE.
00:10:35.680All of those doomsday reports we heard from liberals,
00:10:39.520Hakeem Jeffries, the House Minority yesterday, saying ICE agents would kill travelers in airports.
00:10:47.460That's overheated rhetoric, if I've ever heard any.
00:10:50.720Federal officials deployed ICE agents to more than a dozen airports yesterday
00:10:54.620to assist with crowd control and ID checks as TSA staffing shortening started to worsen.
00:11:01.980The results were shorter lines, smoother operations, and far less in frustration for travelers.
00:11:09.260Over the weekend, some passengers waited for more than four hours to get through security.
00:11:14.540Now, I'm happy to say, lines are moving quickly and the contrast is hard to ignore.
00:11:20.100But, of course, not everyone is happy.
00:11:22.820Union leaders representing TSA workers are criticizing the move,
00:11:26.420claiming that ICE agents lack specialized training and shouldn't be involved in airport operations,
00:11:33.300as if TSA are brain surgeons or rocket scientists rather than glorified mall cops.
00:11:39.520They argue Congress should focus on funding the agency instead because they don't want their payola to run out.
00:11:47.380But Americans are seeing a real-world example of leadership taking action.
00:11:51.540President Donald Trump, a problem solver, used his executive power to solve a problem.
00:11:56.420By the way, Tom Homan, the head of ICE, made it very clear that ICE agents were still in a secondary role at the airport, that it was still TSA agents responsible for the principal screening.
00:12:11.820All of these government goons zapping us with radiation
00:12:16.440Patting down our private parts really needed to keep us safe
00:12:20.420This is what we should be asking ourselves about TSA
00:12:23.640All levels of government amidst the shutdown crisis
00:12:27.800If they're not absolutely necessary, well, I think they should go permanently
00:12:31.880Now, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, didn't accomplish much
00:12:39.120There will be multiple investigations into her relationship with one, Corey Lewandowski, who was technically not a government employee, but according to information that has now been widely published, was heavily involved in the contracting process at DHA.
00:12:59.540But the key thing to remember is if Kristi Noem accomplished nothing else, we no longer have to take off our shoes when we go through TSA.
00:13:27.860this is the stone zone with roger stone roger stone who's a very very one of the smartest
00:13:43.420political minds roger stone was persecuted people forget he's actually a brilliant brilliant
00:13:48.200political analyst now get in the zone it's the stone zone here's roger stone
00:13:54.840I can't tell you how much I appreciate those warm words from Vice President J.D. Vance.
00:14:02.440I wish everyone in the Republican Party had his level of courage.
00:14:05.980In a stunning act of political cowardice, the Senate Republicans are now acquiescing to a deal that would fund the Department of Homeland Security while abandoning key immigration enforcement in order to reopen the shutdown.
00:14:19.560After more than five weeks of a partial government shutdown, Republican lawmakers are floating a plan that would fund most DHS operations, but deliberately leave ICE enforcement and removal programs out of the deal.
00:14:35.320That means fewer deportations and weaker border enforcement.
00:14:39.560This is the exact strategy Democrats have pushed for years, creating a crisis in an attempt to protect their vaunted illegal alien voting demographic.
00:14:48.360demographic. And now, some Republicans, out of craven weakness, are actually embracing it.
00:14:55.520Behind closed doors, Republican leaders admit they're giving Democrats what they want in hopes
00:15:01.040of ending the shutdown. They claim it's a tactical move, but it's obviously surrender,
00:15:06.160and that fact will not be lost on prospective midterm voters. The proposal would still fund
00:15:11.720investigations into cartels, traffickers, and criminals. But without enforcement and removal,
00:15:17.360it guts the very backbone of immigration law.
00:15:21.860At a time when Americans are demanding secure borders,
00:15:25.600as every poll shows mass deportations are overwhelmingly popular with the public,
00:16:17.300until we get a Republican Party that is not more concerned with re-election
00:16:24.300and more concerned about making America great again, the country will not be saved.
00:16:30.640Meanwhile, more Russiagate treachery has been exposed, but my question is an obvious one.
00:16:37.180With the passing of Robert Mueller, a man who prosecuted me despite a paucity of evidence,
00:16:44.380a man who was forced to admit in his long-hidden, long-redacted final report
00:16:49.660that he'd actually found no evidence of Russian collusion, WikiLeaks collaboration,
00:16:54.640or any other crime on my part, something that was concealed to me and my defense lawyers for 18 months.
00:17:01.980Why has no one been brought to account?
00:17:05.340See, the Democrats say it's about retaliation and revenge,
00:17:08.880when in fact it's about accountability and justice.
00:17:12.200The Russian collusion hoax was the greatest single dirty trick, the greatest single abuse of government power in American history.
00:17:21.600And thanks to Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, we know exactly who was responsible, but none of them have yet been brought to account.
00:17:31.160None of them have yet been charged. It is an outrage.
00:17:34.540Don't go away. Coming up, the U.S. Treasurer of the United States, Brandon Beach, joins us to talk about the gold Trump coin that is moving forward and will be available to the American public from the U.S. Mint on April 15th.
00:17:51.200I want to get the back story behind that.
00:17:54.280I'm very excited to have my Trump coin.
00:17:57.340How limited they're going to be, I don't know.
00:17:59.420But the Commission on Fine Arts last week approved a 24-karat gold coin bearing President Trump's likeness to celebrate America's 250th birthday.
00:18:11.220We'll be right back to talk all about it.
00:18:21.200this is the stone zone now get in the zone it's the stone zone a man who's gone through hell
00:18:32.180but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people love him not everybody but
00:18:38.520people love him and respect him roger stone where's roger stone here's roger stone
00:18:48.260Joining me now is the Treasurer of the United States, Brandon Beach.
00:18:53.020Talked about an exciting story that I read in the New York Post,
00:18:56.940and that is that the U.S. Mint is moving forward with a gold commemorative coin
00:19:02.600featuring President Donald Trump's image,
00:19:05.820which I believe will be issued by the Mint in April, if I'm correct.
00:19:11.260Now, this is breaking with tradition. Traditionally, we have not featured sitting presidents on our money, but I can't think of a more deserving or emblematic symbol for America and liberty than President Donald Trump.
00:19:31.840So, Treasurer Brandon Beach, welcome into the Stone Zone.
00:19:35.480Well, Roger, thank you for having me on the Stone Zone.
00:19:38.620And before we talk about the dollar coin and President Trump's accomplishments,
00:19:42.580I first want to just thank you for your service to our country from the Nixon administration,
00:19:47.000Reagan administration, and now in the Trump administration,
00:19:50.420and for advancing President Trump's America First agenda.
00:19:53.620So thank you for what you've done and continue to do to make America great.
00:20:03.840we are doing this trump dollar coin and i want to tell you april 15th we will produce two million
00:20:09.520of them there'll be a and these will be legal tender this will be a dollar coin that you can
00:20:15.540go and spend at a convenience store or a a you know coffee shop and and buy a cup of coffee with
00:20:23.500uh it will be a dollar legal tender coin with president trump on it again we're going to
00:20:30.120produce it. It'll be gold, and it will be, like I said, done April 15th. We'll produce about two
00:20:37.380million of them first and get them out, and we're going to get them out to the public as soon as we
00:20:43.280can so that you can use them to spend money on and spend it and use it just like a dollar bill,
00:20:49.260but it'll be a dollar coin. The Circulating Coin Redesign Act of 2020 allowed us to do this,
00:20:57.200and you do not have to be deceased to be on a a coin now on paper currency you have to be deceased
00:21:05.420now there is a bill uh in chairman french hills committee to do i want to do a 250 bill with
00:21:12.800president trump on it but i have to get congress to approve that it's h.r 1761 and right now it got
00:21:20.060out of the andy bar subcommittee and now it's in french hills committee if we can get it out then
00:21:24.900to go to rules and then to the House floor and then over to the Senate. That's going to be a
00:21:29.000little heavier lift, but I think we're still going to get there on that. And I mentioned that to him
00:21:34.280when he appointed me to this job. I wanted to put him on a $250 bill for our 250-year birthday
00:21:39.820celebration. And at the time, I didn't know you had to be deceased to be on money. So we decided
00:21:45.340to go ahead and try to get a bill passed, and that's in the works. The other coin we're going
00:21:49.560to have is we're going to have another coin that's going to be 24 karat gold uh it's going
00:21:54.820to be three inches in diameter uh and it's going to have a the the dollar coin will have his his
00:22:01.440picture on it his head shot on the three inch coin that's going to be we're going to produce 47 of
00:22:09.240those and they may run in the 25 to 30 thousand dollar range and it's got him standing behind a
00:22:14.540desk. And it's going to be a really nice coin for coin collectors and for people that just love
00:22:21.260President Trump. And we'll do more of them if the demand exceeds 47. So we got some nice things
00:22:28.960happening for the president. And nobody's more deserving than than President Trump.
00:22:35.760Yeah, I can I can hear liberal heads exploding across the country at this very instant.
00:22:40.860But I salute you for your courage, and I completely agree with your conclusion.
00:22:47.520On the other hand, I thought you said how many of the initial coin will be issued?
00:22:53.460Well, on the 15th, we're going to produce $2 million, and then we will get those out and then come back and produce more.
00:23:00.220And they'll be being produced on an ongoing basis, just like we do nickels, dimes, and quarters.
00:23:05.880We will produce them as needed and getting them out to, you know, the retailers.
00:23:11.020And when they need more, we'll produce more.
00:23:13.940I would think that many Americans will buy it, will get that coin and hold on to it in perpetuity because we will never see a president again like this one.
00:23:24.500I've worked for four presidents, but there is no one like Donald Trump.
00:23:28.580One thing I did want to ask you about, because we talked about this previously, it was under this administration and your leadership at the Treasury Department that we did away with the penny.
00:23:44.580Tell us a little bit about the decision to end production of the penny.
00:23:49.760We did a great thing for the taxpayers with that very last penny, as I recall.
00:23:54.360This is part of President Trump's common sense agenda, Roger.
00:23:57.480he saw what was going on pre-COVID we did about 10 billion pennies a year we produced
00:24:04.900last year we produced less than two billion but the cost went from one penny to four and a half
00:24:10.180cents and that's just not common sense and that's not in um you know president trump's common sense
00:24:16.140agenda so we are going to save the taxpayers 56 million dollars annually by eliminating the penny
00:24:22.400Now, the good news is I was fortunate enough to strike the last penny in Philadelphia, and I held it up, and we struck it, and then held it up, and then I signed the authenticity papers, and for two weeks we auctioned it off, and we thought we were going to get $5 million for it.
00:24:37.340We ended up selling it for $16.7 million for that last penny, so that also goes into Treasury to help reduce the national debt, but it just made common sense to get rid of the penny.
00:24:52.380There are $300 billion in circulation, and so we hopefully won't run out of them immediately.
00:24:58.740But we are seeing some Walmart and McDonald's and some other retailers having trouble getting their hands on pennies.
00:25:05.100So I don't know if people are hoarding them or what, but it was something that needed to be done, and there's no need for a penny anymore.
00:25:11.540Again, sorry, Abe, but it was time to go.
00:25:13.660So going back to this 24-carat gold coin that's going to be issued to commemorate America's 250th anniversary, how was the image of President Trump that will appear on the coin selected?
00:25:29.880Well, we went through several proofs and prototypes, and he looked at them.
00:25:41.300I looked at them, and we came up with several, and then we picked what we thought looked best and what he would like.
00:25:48.320Listen, there's nobody more deserving to be on this coin than President Donald J. Trump.
00:25:54.160I can tell you, when you look at what he's done just this term, from day one, President Trump hit the ground running with executive orders, the tariffs that he and Secretary Bessent implemented to get more manufacturing jobs back and even the playing field.
00:26:10.880And then really the one thing that was really big that President Trump led on was the one big, beautiful bill.
00:26:17.100And he laid the foundation in 2025, and I think we're going to see the fruits of that labor in 2026.
00:26:23.120and I'm really bullish and optimistic about 2026, and here's why.
00:27:07.840The other thing we've got going, we've got the FIFA World Cup coming that's going to showcase our country to the world and really help from an economic development standpoint.
00:27:16.640And then, as I mentioned, the one big, beautiful bill.
00:27:18.780When you look at what's kicking in now, I was at a restaurant the other night up here in D.C., and I asked the waiter, I said, have you done your taxes yet?
00:27:25.940He said, yes, and I got $7,500 more cash back in my pockets because I didn't have to pay tax on tips.
00:27:32.640No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security.
00:27:36.440So I think you're going to see money flowing.
00:27:38.560The next thing I think that's going to really help is we have a new Fed chair, and I would see interest rates going down so that young people can afford to buy a house.
00:27:46.020And I know right now we're going through a tough time on oil prices, but I think once we conclude this Iran war and we not only become energy independent, we become energy dominant, I think you'll see $2 a gallon gas in the near future.
00:28:00.580Then you top that with GDPs at 4.4, I believe it'll go to 5.0.
00:28:05.800And then since President Trump's been in office again in the second term, we've had over 53 record days on Wall Street, and the Dow hit 50,000 for the first time a month ago.
00:28:15.320So when you add all that together, I think we're going to have a booming economy.
00:28:20.480And this will be a stark contrast with what's going on in New York City, capitalism versus socialism.
00:28:27.840And I'll take capitalism all day, and that's what President Trump believes in, too.
00:28:31.540So I'm really looking forward to 2026.
00:28:35.440I think we're going to have a booming economy.
00:28:38.800and there's nobody that knows how to really take an economy and really get it going
00:34:14.260And you're back for the final segment of the Stone Zone.
00:34:18.760Somewhat ironic that in the same week that former FBI director and special counsel Robert Mueller passes,
00:34:26.260that newly classified documents are raising even more concerns about government treachery during the Russia gate investigation.
00:34:34.180According to recently released reports, former Trump campaign advisor Waleed Faris was secretly spied on by the FBI for nearly a year, despite the fact that investigators found no evidence whatsoever of wrongdoing.
00:34:48.860The surveillance conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, that's FISA, reportedly continued even after agents concluded that Faris was honest and had no ties to any criminal activity or any Russian collusion.
00:35:03.440An FBI agent involved in the case testified that nothing collected during these wiretaps advanced the investigation other than confirming that Ferris had lost, had told the truth, pardon me.
00:35:15.760Critically, the FBI is accused of withholding exculpatory evidence from the secret FISA court, information that would have prevented or halted this illegal spying.
00:35:25.780This mirrors exactly what happened to my colleague, Carter Page, and very sadly, what happened to me.
00:35:34.800During the investigation that the Mueller witch hunt focused on me, prosecutors told two federal judges that they had evidence of probable cause, I guess you'd say,
00:35:50.100charging me with treason, a conspiracy against the United States, counterfeiting, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, as well as numerous other crimes.
00:36:02.720Of course, after they got into my electronic records, my emails, my text messages, they found that they had no evidence whatsoever of any of those crimes.
00:36:12.980It was then that one of the prosecutors, Aaron Zielinski, by the way, all the prosecutors in my case previously worked for Hillary Clinton, tried to pressure a young field man who was working in the Trump campaign into visiting me in South Florida and wearing a wire in a ham-handed attempt to entrap me in some way.
00:36:36.600Fortunately for me, this individual refused.
00:36:39.360But it shows the depths to which they would go in order to destroy those who supported the president.
00:36:46.780In my case, I think most people understand.
00:36:48.520In order to violate the False Statements Act, in other words, to lie under oath before Congress, one has to have motive and it has to be material.
00:36:59.660There was no Russian collusion to lie about.
00:37:02.200So when the judge said to me a sentencing, you have been convicted of lying to cover up for Donald Trump, I say, cover up exactly what?
00:37:13.060Very clever the way that the Mueller prosecutors judge shopped to get Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
00:37:20.680They claimed and they brought a case against 17 Russians claiming that they had hacked the Democrat National Committee, a case that never went to discovery and never went to trial.
00:37:30.600They claim that my case was related to that case, yet in my trial, they wouldn't let me present forensic evidence or expert testimony to prove that there was no hack of the Democrat National Committee.
00:37:44.380The prosecutors promised that they would produce evidence against me that was gleaned from search warrants in that other case.
00:37:53.700Of course, they never did because it didn't exist.
00:37:58.800It is only through the grace of God that I'm with you here today.
00:38:01.680And the fact that Donald Trump saw very clearly that I was being prosecuted not because I did something wrong,
00:38:08.940but because I refused to testify falsely against him.
00:38:12.860I would not bear false witness against him.
00:38:16.380And that is the true story of the Mueller investigation.
00:38:20.820So when people say, oh, Trump was harsh when he said he was glad that Mueller was dead,
00:38:25.820How harsh was it when FBI agents raided my home, 29 of them at 6 o'clock in the morning, and perp walked my 73-year-old wife, who is virtually deaf, out into the street for the CNN cameras?