Trump's trip to the Middle East is the beginning of what I think is the Trump Doctrine, which is a new era of peace in the Mideast, not mind the Great Reset. President Trump is making his first visit of his second term, to Saudi Arabia, where he signed the largest defense sales agreement in U.S. history, worth nearly $142 billion.
00:00:57.420In recent years, far too many American presidents have been afflicted with the notion that it's our job to look into the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice for their sins.
00:01:11.780They loved using our very powerful military.
00:01:15.040And now it's really the most powerful it's ever been.
00:01:18.420We just are getting a budget approved.
00:01:40.960But hopefully we'll never have to use any of those weapons.
00:01:45.660Seems to be an awfully big waste of money if you're never going to use them.
00:01:49.060But hopefully we'll never have to use them because the destructive power of some of those weapons are like nobody's seen before.
00:01:56.080I believe it is God's job to sit in judgment, my job to defend America and to promote the fundamental interest of stability, prosperity and peace.
00:02:10.780President Donald Trump abandoning the relentless drive for war that has dominated both parties in America for the last several decades of American politics.
00:02:23.100And returning to the fundamental principle of peace through strength, first fostered by Dwight Eisenhower, then by Ronald Reagan, now by President Donald Trump.
00:02:33.620It doesn't get any more America first than that.
00:02:36.820This is the official birth of the Trump doctrine.
00:02:40.540President Trump has reaffirmed the borders of Israel and their right to defend themselves from outside attacks.
00:02:46.380America and Israel will never again, however, enjoy a special friendship in which Israel takes advantage of the United States.
00:02:55.140And for those who were concerned that Israel had a disproportionate influence on American foreign policy, I believe that was dispelled today.
00:03:05.060President Trump and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appear to be at an impasse over policy regarding a whole host of issues going forward.
00:03:15.100It's not just Gaza and the civilian deaths there, but also Syria's borders, the firefights with Turkey and U.S.-led negotiations with Iran.
00:03:27.340While Netanyahu opposed the hostage release of Edan Alexander, a U.S. citizen, Trump and his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who is doing a remarkable job, by the way, fought hard and received the American after more than 500 days of captivity.
00:03:47.240Netanyahu opposes direct talks between U.S. and Hamas, which Trump has insisted on using trusted patriots like Witkoff within the administration.
00:04:01.500President Trump has also tried to bring Netanyahu to the table to negotiate with Turkey and the two countries fighting over controls of Syrian airspace.
00:04:12.300With no meaningful movement on Netanyahu's end, Trump may authorize the sale of new jets to Turkey.
00:04:20.380This will infuriate Israel as it reduces some of their military dominance advantage.
00:04:27.340The president has appointed Tom Barrack, one of his closest friends and a very able executive, as our U.S. ambassador to Turkey.
00:04:36.560In Saudi Arabia today, President Trump signed the largest defense sales agreement in U.S. history, nearly $142 billion, providing Saudi Arabia with state-of-the-art warfighting equipment and services from over a dozen U.S. defense firms.
00:04:56.180Now, President Trump withdrew a prior requirement that obligated Saudi Arabia to fully normalize relations with Israel before proceeding with the arms sale.
00:05:06.540And President Trump also said that the Saudis could join the highly praised Abraham Accords, perhaps the greatest peacekeeping achievement of President Trump's first term, when they are ready and on their own timeline.
00:05:22.260Then, in a shocking announcement, President Trump said that it's time to give Syria a chance, and he shocked the audience by stating that he would lift all sanctions on Syria after discussing the matter with the crown prince.
00:05:38.480Let's listen to President Trump himself.
00:05:40.760President Trump, among others and friends of mine, people that I have a lot of respect for in the Middle East, I will be ordering the cessations against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.
00:06:10.760That was the standing ovation that President Trump received upon that announcement, yet another public rebuke of Netanyahu's demands on America.
00:06:38.320All of these policy decisions have been opposed by Netanyahu and his coalition wartime government.
00:06:45.280Internally, some are questioning if Israel might need to change course in order to find new advantages in this new world President Donald Trump is making.
00:06:54.480Frustrated by the lack of conclusion to the war in Gaza and Israel's inability to make nice with their U.S. partners in the Middle East,
00:07:02.540President Trump, like a lion, is forging a new path, an America-first path for his country, our country, and for himself.
00:07:12.140As I said earlier, I call it the Trump Doctrine.
00:07:15.560At the same time, the president has recognized the humanitarian crisis going on right now in Gaza and had this shocking announcement.
00:07:25.120When Gaza came up and I said, you know, we've got to be good to Gaza, those people are, those people are suffering, we've got to be good to Gaza, we'll, we're going to take care of that.
00:07:36.080There's a very big need for medicine, food and medicine, and we're taking care of it.
00:07:41.920In terms of, like, opening up more access points, or?
00:07:59.280So, there you have it, another bold move by the president.
00:08:03.640Clearly, we are going to be airlifting food and medicine to those trapped in Gaza.
00:08:09.740So, Israel will continue to be prioritized, but so will other partners, like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, when they stay on the same page as our country.
00:08:19.100And Trump is willing to allow countries like Iran, Qatar, and others demonstrate that they're ready to enter more constructive talks on the world stage.
00:08:28.420The president may, in fact, be turning the Middle East into what it was before the invasion of Iraq, a more multipolar region where several countries keep each other in check, less reliant on Israel's dominance, backed by American presence and American dollars.
00:08:45.180Instead, countries pay the United States and get to do business with us as long as they treat our ally Israel well.
00:08:52.640Now, there's much speculation that the president is going to recognize a Palestinian state.
00:08:59.480This is completely and totally unconfirmed.
00:09:02.700I, for one, do not believe these reports are accurate, but I'm only giving you my opinion.
00:09:11.180We've left the politics and rhetoric, and President Trump is now changing the actual material situation in the Middle East.
00:09:18.680And he's not asking for permission, not from the deep state, not from Israel, not from anyone else in the Middle East.
00:09:25.960We pray, along with all Americans, for peace and for President Trump's success as his mission is to put America first.
00:09:33.760I, for one, would not be shocked to see the president, who's already in Rida, jump over to Turkey, where the Russians and the Ukrainians are scheduled to meet on Thursday for the beginning of peace talks to end that conflict.
00:09:51.880The only thing predictable about Donald J. Trump is that he is completely and totally unpredictable.
00:09:59.500I watched an amazing exchange between Bill O'Reilly and Sean Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes after 60 Minutes had an incredible interview with Democrat lawyer Mark Elias.
00:10:16.060He showed up at my trial demanding that the judge not release to my defense attorneys the so-called crowd strikes memo,
00:10:24.660which would have proved definitively that the claim that the Russians hacked the DNC, one of the foundational elements of the Russian collusion hoax, was categorically untrue.
00:10:37.180Of course, the judge would not release that document.
00:10:40.140And we would learn it only later when the head of crowd strikes, a man by the name of Sean Henry, testified under oath for the House Intelligence Committee.
00:10:49.920But Elias actually made much of the fact that President Donald Trump, he claims, is persecuting him, that like New York Attorney General Letitia James says, he's out for revenge and retribution.
00:11:09.940In fact, if you look at it historically, President Trump's predecessors, particularly Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and his attorney brother, attorney general brother, Robert Kennedy and Barack Obama created an unprecedented use of federal power to be used to stifle their critics and to harass their opponents.
00:11:31.520Franklin Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, during his time in office, deployed the IRS against individuals and organizations who he saw as threats to his New Deal policies.
00:11:41.280FDR also used the IRS to attack free press.
00:11:45.280He reportedly directed the IRS to audit the tax returns of newspaper publishers who voiced criticism of his socialist expansion of government.
00:11:53.720This tactic was not only a means of retribution, but also used to create a chilling effect against his critics.
00:12:01.520FDR used his immense clout to attack controversial radio commentator, Father Charles Coughlin.
00:12:08.680Now, Coughlin has since been cast through the lens of history as a bigot and a demagogue.
00:12:13.460But in his case, Coughlin was one of the leading voices against U.S. involvement overseas, opposing involvement in World War II.
00:12:22.280He had been meeting with populist renegade, Huey Long, was levying attacks against FDR to a very, very large national radio audience.
00:12:32.940FDR even had his postmaster general spy on Father Coughlin.
00:12:37.220And then, of course, the Kennedy brothers, their regime is viewed through rose-tinted glasses today due to the assassination of both men.
00:12:45.640But he and his brother similarly defied following, they were deified following their murders.
00:12:52.500But both men used and abused their authority to punish their critics.
00:12:58.100During the Kennedy administration, the FBI committed some of the most famous surveillance abuses.
00:13:04.260As you might recall, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover authorized extensive wiretaps on civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King.
00:13:14.480In fact, Dr. King was wiretapped by the Kennedy Justice Department upon the strict and explicit approval of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
00:13:26.120So retribution has a long history in American politics, but in all honesty, it was the Obama and Biden administrations who engaged in the abuse of power that was known as the Russian collusion hoax.
00:13:41.920And Donald Trump has been restrained in this regard.
00:14:55.980To The Stone Zone, we were talking about the abuse of power by various presidents against their political opponents and critics.
00:15:05.420Let me point out that it is no coincidence that after losing the presidency by an eyelash in 1960, Richard Nixon was subjected to a random IRS audit of his personal income taxes in 1961,
00:15:22.3201962, and 1963, until President Kennedy felt the unfortunate cold touch of the magic bullet in Dallas.
00:15:33.280In the meantime, breaking news today, the Biden administration claims to have added almost 400,000 jobs from July through September of last year.
00:15:43.520But new data released this week suggests that actually none of those jobs ever really existed.
00:15:50.680If you'd listened to the economic guru Barry Habib here in The Stone Zone, he told you this in numerous interviews.
00:15:58.800Despite constantly gaslighting by the mainstream media, Americans knew the economy was in poor shape.
00:16:04.560And these latest numbers released today prove it.
00:16:08.920Month after month, the government bean counters under former President Biden published overly optimistic estimates for everything from job growth to the size of the economy,
00:16:19.000only to then have those numbers routinely and quietly revised down later.
00:16:25.760So every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics produces estimates for the number of non-farm payrolls in the country,
00:16:33.420as well as revisions for the last two months' estimates.
00:16:36.900Under Biden, these revisions were abnormal in magnitude and direction, being revised down with unusual frequency.
00:16:44.400You see, it was all about creating a narrative and optics for politics for re-election.
00:16:50.340While the monthly job reports were compiled from a survey of over 600,000 businesses, of which fewer than 200,000 were actually surveyed,
00:17:00.460the Bureau of Labor Statistics fudged the numbers month after month to create that narrative for Joe Biden's re-election,
00:18:53.680Gordon Chang has lived and worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong for almost two decades.
00:18:58.920He is a columnist who has written regularly for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Review, Barron's, and many other publications.
00:19:08.700He's the author of several books, his most recent book, a must read, Play and Read, America's Project to Destroy America, which is now available on Amazon.
00:19:24.800I saw a great interview that you gave with my friend Grant Stritchfield last night at Real America's Voice, which is why I reached out to you.
00:19:33.200You have been an articulate critic of the trade deal that President Trump and Secretary Besson announced the framework for yesterday, writing, let's see.
00:19:46.960You say the Chinese let the president have a temporary win in order to pave the way for a more comprehensive deal.
00:19:55.020You point out that this is Trump the optimist at work, but you think ultimately cooperation with an arrogant Xi Jinping is not possible.
00:21:38.700I don't think that Xi Jinping is as strong politically as everybody thinks.
00:21:44.100We know that there is turbulence in the Chinese military.
00:21:47.360For instance, Xi Jinping's number one loyalist in the People's Liberation Army, a guy named General He Weidong, has not been seen in public since March 11.
00:21:58.740Now, most people say that Xi Jinping sacked his own guy.
00:22:02.320But it's more likely, from what we know, that Xi Jinping's adversaries sacked General He.
00:22:08.120And really, what we're talking about is the most important political faction in the Chinese military.
00:22:14.700We've also seen a lot of signs of instability among China's civilians.
00:22:20.540And, of course, Chinese people are protesting in the streets because they've lost jobs, because they're not getting their back pay, and because they're not being able to get money out of banks.
00:22:30.140So this is not a good situation for the Communist Party.
00:22:33.700And although it's able to maintain control through most periods, if the situation gets worse in the Chinese economy, the Communist Party is going to have a real problem hanging on.
00:22:56.020I read your previous books, China's Going to War, The Great U.S.-China Tech War, Losing South Carolina, Nuclear Showdown, North Korea, all great works by Gordon Chang.
00:23:10.740Gordon, what should the president's ultimate aim be in regard to tariffs on China?
00:23:17.300I'd like to see a decoupling of the U.S. and China.
00:23:21.060We heard the Treasury Secretary, Scott, dissent yesterday, talk about this on CNBC, where he said we need a strategic decoupling, in other words, for strategic goods.
00:23:34.320I'd like to see a broader decoupling because we shouldn't be putting money into the hands of the Chinese regime, which just uses that money to assault and attack us.
00:23:44.080But clearly, the Trump administration does not want to be reliant on China for important things like medicines, computer chips, and all the rest of it.
00:23:55.180And that's one of the reasons why President Trump has gotten a lot of foreign investment for plants in the United States.
00:24:02.460So, for instance, TSMC, the Taiwan chipmaker, is building something like six fabs in Arizona, near Phoenix.
00:24:11.700That's a great story for the U.S., and we need to continue to do that because we can't rely on China for anything that we absolutely need.
00:24:20.200I was watching your ex-feed and saw you hailing the developments in the Middle East, specifically dropping the outdated sanctions on Syria.
00:24:32.240Indeed, as I said earlier on this show, this is the beginning of the Trump doctrine, a complete reset in the Middle East.
00:24:40.000Given China's relationship with Iran, Iran is essentially a client state of the Communist Chinese, how do the Chinese react to these developments in the Middle East?
00:24:51.600Yeah, President Trump just announced the lifting of sanctions on Syria a few hours ago.
00:24:57.000So we haven't seen any official Chinese reaction, but I'm sure they're not happy at all because what China has been trying to do is to take over the new Syrian government by flooding it with money.
00:25:08.460But the new president of Syria, Ahmed al-Shara, who, by the way, is a former militant, wants the United States to become the most influential country in Syria.
00:25:22.540He wants American money. He wants American investment, wants trade.
00:25:28.220He doesn't want the American military, by the way. He doesn't want aid.
00:25:32.220And what he really wants is for the United States, he wants to replicate the American system in Syria.
00:25:40.480If he's as good as his word and there are indications that he is, then this means the United States can stabilize a very critical part of the world.
00:25:50.740And it means that American business will follow.
00:25:52.960We had Colonel Douglas McGregor on the show the other day, and he expressed a view that that Chairman Xi is uneasy about the capabilities of the Chinese military, that he is not anxious to test them.
00:28:37.140So one of the major issues that I see in this country, of course, is the Chinese buying up hundreds of thousands of acres of prime ranch land, farmland,
00:28:49.940but also public utilities like toll roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, harbors.
00:28:59.140In Florida, for example, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that he would pass state law that would prohibit the Chinese or anybody fronting for them from buying land in the Sunshine State.
00:29:12.440But when you read the small print, what the law actually did was prohibit the Chinese from buying any land that was contiguous to a, quote unquote, national security site, whatever that means.
00:29:25.140You have written quite a bit about the infiltration into all strata of U.S. society, including owning huge swaths of valuable real estate.
00:29:38.440How deep is the Chinese infiltration in the United States?
00:29:47.900You know, the first time that the Ministry of State Security contacted Eric Swalwell was not when he was on the House Intelligence Committee, where, of course, he'd be of great benefit for China.
00:29:58.880But it was when he was on the city council of Dublin City, California.
00:30:03.640And I'm not saying Swalwell did anything wrong.
00:30:05.880But what I'm saying is that the Chinese, if they identified somebody so young in his career, there must be dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of Swalwells.
00:30:16.020In other words, people who have been contacted by the Ministry of State Security.
00:30:23.940And that's why it's so important for you to talk about these things, because we've got to get the Chinese out of our society, because they're here to do us no good.
00:30:32.520But this is a mortal threat to the security and even the existence of the United States.
00:30:39.320You cover this extremely well in your most recent book, Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America, which I note again, is available right now on Amazon.
00:30:49.800That's by Gordon Chang, our guest here today.
00:30:53.360Gordon, the Chinese have these police stations across the country in which they are monitoring, theoretically at least, their own Chinese citizens who are in the United States.
00:31:06.220I'm not certain why we continue to allow this.
00:31:10.560The singer, Jimmy Levy, the gospel singer, who's a friend, because of some contacts he said, told me that he learned he was under extensive surveillance, that he was literally being followed.
00:31:22.500He believed that his phone was also tapped.
00:31:25.780Why do we put up with this and what should we do about it?
00:31:29.240Well, I don't know the why, but we certainly should not put up with it.
00:31:33.500You know, the FBI a couple of years ago closed the Chinese police station in Chinatown, New York.
00:31:39.360But according to the Daily Caller and New York Post reporting, there are seven to nine remaining Chinese police stations on our soil.
00:31:49.480What we're seeing are Ministry of State Security agents and Chinese diplomats engaging in acts which are inimicable to our security.
00:31:58.820We can turf these people out or we can imprison them.
00:32:02.840And we absolutely have to do that because they're not only monitored, but they coerce not only Chinese nationals, but American citizens of Chinese descent.
00:32:11.940So we know that, for instance, in the state of New York, especially the city of New York, a lot of Chinese American organizations have very close contact with the Chinese consulate, but also with the Communist Party's United Front Work Department, which is the part of the party that subverts foreign governments.
00:32:29.580So, yes, we got to get them out of our country, because if we don't, we will have a very large fifth column here and we have got to get them out.
00:32:39.220If you're just tuning in, we're talking to Gordon Chang.
00:32:43.420He's an old China hand, author of the new book, Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America.
00:32:50.200When we come back, I'm going to ask Gordon Chang about the prospects for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, something the Chinese have been rattling the saber about for some time, something I thought was highly likely under Joe Biden.
00:33:03.920I want to see if he agrees with me that it is now far less likely under President Donald Trump.
00:34:11.000He has a very lively and informative Twitter feed, X feed.
00:34:15.740Urge you to follow him and to check it out.
00:34:18.500The question I asked before we went to break, I thought it was highly likely, given the defensive policies of the Biden administration, that the Chinese would invade Taiwan, would take Taiwan, because I think they probably knew all they would have gotten from the Biden administration was probably a strong letter of protest.
00:34:40.500Now, under Donald Trump, Gordon, what are the chances, in your opinion, that the Chinese will make a move to invade and take Taiwan, which, of course, they continue to insist is rightfully theirs?
00:34:53.720Yeah, I don't think that the Chinese will start hostilities with an invasion of the main island of Taiwan.
00:35:01.440And the reason is for what we talked about before, and that is the Chinese military is not ready.
00:35:17.540And the reason is, we know that in the last month, China has been engaged in some very provocative activities against South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Australia.
00:35:29.080If one of these incidents goes wrong, I think there will be a general war in East Asia.
00:35:34.960And if there's a general war in East Asia, China will move on Taiwan.
00:35:38.660So the point is, we've got to prevent an incident from flaring up.
00:35:44.680And the way to do that is to be strong, as President Trump is, to say that we will protect our friends and allies, and to scare the Chinese off.
00:35:55.420If we do that, we have a chance of peace.
00:35:58.240And by the way, I think that essentially, you know, the Chinese did not invade Taiwan during the previous administration.
00:36:45.500A lot of people say, well, what can I do to stop China?
00:36:49.560Well, there's things that we all can do.
00:36:52.540One of them is that when we have a choice not to buy Chinese goods, buy American made or buy someplace else, but not China.
00:37:00.380And the other thing is, of course, to talk to our brokers and say, look, we don't want to hold any Chinese stocks.
00:37:06.500Most people will say, I don't hold any Chinese stocks, but they do hold mutual funds in many cases.
00:37:13.180And many mutual funds are international in scope.
00:37:16.460And the international mutual funds almost always have Chinese and Hong Kong stocks.
00:37:22.920There are funds which are ex-China, ex-Hong Kong.
00:37:26.580And those are the ones that you tell your broker, those are the ones you want.
00:37:30.360As a matter of fact, the Chinese equities don't perform very well anyway, so you're doing yourself a favor from a point of view of making money.
00:37:39.660But the point is, making money or not, it's not good to fund the Chinese regime.
00:37:48.040I want to thank our guest, Gordon G. Chang.
00:37:51.300Again, he is the author of Plan Red, China's Project to Destroy America, which is available now at Amazon.
00:37:58.460You can also follow Gordon Chang at Gordon G. Chang on X, formerly known as Twitter, where he has a very, very lively and informative feed.
00:38:08.860Gordon, thank you so much for making the time for us today and for entering the Stone Zone.