In the late 1970s and early 1980s, China was a poor, agrarian society. Their GDP per capita stood at a mere $95.9 million. By 2015, their GDP had ballooned to $367 billion, and their economy had become the world s second-largest by purchasing power. President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China in February of that same year marked the beginning of China's transformation into an economic and military superpower.
00:00:57.140You know, back in the 1970s, there was a very famous Esquire magazine article by a famous writer entitled, Frank Sinatra had a cold.
00:01:07.000It's when old blue eyes, the chairman of the board, gave an interview, despite the fact that he had a little cold.
00:01:12.660Well, I've got a little cold and I'm recovering from it.
00:01:15.160So if you hear a cough tonight, just recognize the show must go on.
00:01:19.340You know, in foreign policy, timing, leverage, and national interest must guide the strategy of engagement with rising powers.
00:01:28.020President Richard Nixon grasped this principle as well as any chief executive during his groundbreaking 1972 opening to China.
00:01:35.820President Bill Clinton, on the other hand, failed his test when he championed China's entry into the World Trade Organization and the permanent normal trade relations.
00:01:45.440That's most favored nation trading status.0.68
00:01:49.340That's what made China the dangerous superpower they are today.
00:01:54.060President Donald Trump's recent state visit to Beijing revives the Nixonian tradition of pragmatic, interest-driven diplomacy0.94
00:02:01.480with a foreign policy adversary engaging from strength while delivering concrete American wins
00:02:08.240while actively correcting the structural imbalances and strategic vulnerabilities created by the failures of past policies.
00:02:16.660You see, when Nixon landed in Beijing, that was February 1972, China was still a desperately poor agrarian society, still recovering from the Cultural Revolution.
00:02:28.860Rural areas largely lacked indoor plumbing, and electricity was minimal, particularly in the rural areas.
00:02:35.940Rural electricity consumption was only about 10% of national totals in the 1960s and 70s.
00:02:42.540Its military was massive in manpower, but technologically extremely backwards, with limited projection capability.
00:02:50.980Their GDP per capita hovered around subsistence levels.
00:02:55.120Nixon, the consummate anti-communist, pursued classical realpolitik, exploiting the Sino-Soviet split in order to isolate Moscow, ease pressure in Vietnam, and create a triangular balance of power.
00:03:10.640You see, Nixon needed the help of both the Chinese and the Russians to end the war in Vietnam.
00:03:18.240The Shanghai communique was deliberately cautious, acknowledging differences, opposing hegemonia in Asia,
00:03:25.840and committing to gradual normalization and people-to-people contacts without massive technology transfers or one-sided economic concessions.
00:03:35.720Trade in 1972 stood at a mere $95.9 million.
00:03:40.900Nixon built a bridge across 22 years of hostility, famously declaring it the week that changed the world.
00:03:48.920But he did so without arming or enriching a future rival at America's expense.
00:03:55.120Clinton's policy, on the other hand, marked a sharp and consequential departure from Nixon's success,
00:04:00.820Convinced that economic liberalization would foster political openness, the Clinton administration granted the most favored nation trading status to China in 2000 and supported China's World Trade Organization ascension in 2001.
00:04:18.480U.S. officials projected modest trade growth and mutual benefits.
00:06:16.680Unlike Clinton's broad market opening that disproportionately benefited China, President Trump secured very specific wins for American exporters.
00:06:26.520China committed to an initial 200 Boeing aircraft purchase, with potential expansion to 750 planes, plus hundreds of GE jet engines, reopening a critical market for U.S. aviation and supporting thousands of American manufacturing jobs.
00:06:45.460Agricultural agreements promised double-digit billions in annual purchases of U.S. soybeans, beef, pork, and other farm programs.
00:06:55.320Expanded imports of American oil and natural gas further bolster U.S. energy producers.
00:07:02.020New bilateral mechanisms, including a U.S.-China Board of Trade under a reciprocal trade framework, aim to stabilize ties on a much more balanced basis.
00:07:13.640These outcomes contrast sharply with the post-Clinton imbalances.
00:07:18.820President Trump negotiates from strength, leveraging tariffs, export controls, and alliances,
00:07:25.380while delivering immediate benefits to U.S. farmers, manufacturers, and energy workers.
00:07:30.680The approach wisely manages competition without repeating that naive bet that economic integration alone would somehow moderate Beijing's behavior.
00:07:42.180Nixon engaged in a fragmented, impoverished China to encounter the Soviets.
00:07:47.580President Trump is engaging a powerful China to prevent dominance in key sectors,
00:07:52.940secure supply chain resilience, and protect critical infrastructure and technology.
00:07:58.300Trump is scored with a commitment from China not to provide weapons to Iran,
00:08:02.540and China will not support Iran's development of a nuclear weapon,
00:08:06.340at the same time getting commitments for the purchase of American agricultural products like soybean, beef, and pork.
00:08:14.780The Chinese have also agreed to purchase 200 Boeing aircraft, as I say.
00:08:18.960Trump deals from strength and has cut China's access to cheap oil from Venezuela and Iran.
00:08:26.000That's why he had the whip hand going into these negotiations.
00:08:30.680History underscores the difference in risk, engaging a weak China in 1972 carried manageable downsides.0.62
00:08:38.400But empowering it through unconditional access after 2000 gave a burgeoning rival everything it needed to obtain global hegemony.
00:08:49.720President Trump's bridge building seeks to restore reciprocity and leverage, honoring Nixon's realism while repairing decades of policy missteps.
00:08:58.460The test ahead is whether sustained pressure and a targeted engagement can produce a stable, interest-based relationship that prioritizes American workers' security and prosperity.
00:09:11.360Outcomes put on the back burner due to the neoliberal Clinton consensus.
00:09:17.100In an era of competing world powers, Nixon's prudence without wearing ideological rose-colored glasses serves the wiser path forward.
00:09:25.740and President Donald Trump recognizes it, coming back with solid wins.
00:09:31.800Meanwhile, the strength of the Trump endorsement is proven yet again.
00:09:36.480Senator Bill Cassidy, Dr. Bill Cassidy's political career,
00:09:40.860came to an abrupt halt in Saturday's Republican Louisiana primary.
00:09:46.340They rejected the U.S. Senate incumbent,
00:09:49.280pushing him into a third-place finish in the state's Republican primary.
00:09:52.980He actually got less than 25%, which is the low-water mark of all time for an incumbent senator running for re-election within the Republican Party.
00:10:03.480Republican-endorsed Congresswoman Julia Letlow led the field with about 45% of the vote, while State Treasurer John Fleming faced second with 28%, both of them, by the way, solid Trump supporters.
00:10:16.320The two will now advance to a June 27th runoff, leaving Cassidy on the outside looking in.
00:10:23.080Senator Cassidy's collapse was years in the making.
00:10:25.860He angered the Republican base by actually voting to convict President Trump after January 6th,
00:10:32.500repeatedly backing the bankrupt and failing Obamacare program,
00:10:36.520and, candidly, whoring himself out to the corrupt health care industry.
00:10:41.660Cassidy, unsurprisingly, also had deep ties to Big Pharma,
00:10:45.620including taking over $1.2 million in career contributions from the pharmaceutical and health products sector.
00:10:56.060Cassidy's opponents appointed donations from major pharma executives after Cassidy became the top Republican on the Senate Health Committee in 2023,
00:11:04.700as well as his opposition to drug pricing reforms that would have helped working families.
00:11:10.200Cassidy's defeat marks the first time since 2021 that a sitting U.S. senator has lost a regularly scheduled primary.
00:11:17.500That was when Indiana's Dick Lugar was beaten by Richard Murdoch.
00:11:22.000Letlow now enters the runoff as the Trump-aligned frontrunner.
00:11:26.660She has campaigned on border security, American energy, and fighting woke policies.
00:11:32.020She will be a reliable vote for President Trump in the U.S. Senate.0.75
00:11:35.540And the message will be sent to every other rhino that they need to vote consistently with the America first line.0.89
00:11:42.480Now, I've been in American politics for over 50 years.0.95
00:11:46.300I can tell you President Ronald Reagan was extraordinarily popular, perhaps one of the most popular presidents of my lifetime.
00:11:53.140But his endorsement never packed the kind of wallop that Donald Trump's endorsement does.
00:11:57.980He has, as he's proud to say, a 95 percent win rate in those races where he has endorsed a candidate.
00:12:05.580And that certainly continued in Louisiana.
00:12:09.500Woe be it to those U.S. senators or congressmen who oppose the Trump agenda, because you may very well be next.
00:12:17.080Incumbents don't lose. 98% of incumbents win re-election.
00:12:21.040Senator Cassidy is that rare exception.
00:12:23.780That's because he fooled around and found out.
00:12:27.240I'm Roger Stone. You're listening to The Stone Zone, and we'll be right back with more politics.
00:12:35.740The Stone Zone, entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
00:12:46.360Well, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has announced that the Justice Department is actively investigating evidence that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
00:12:56.780And he's promising the American people will be seeing the results of this investigation very soon.
00:13:02.580Appearing on Fox News' Sunday morning Futures show, Blanche was asked by Maria Bartiromo
00:13:08.860about President Trump's long-standing claim that the 2020 election was stolen
00:13:13.620and about White House Chief of Staff Susie Weil's suggestion that Americans may learn
00:13:19.100President Trump actually won certain states.
00:13:22.800Blanche responded that there is a ton of evidence the election was rigged,
00:13:26.880saying that the issue has been discussed for years.
00:13:29.040He said the Justice Department has multiple investigations underway, including in Arizona, Georgia, and specifically Fulton County, Georgia.
00:13:38.160According to Blanche, investigators are examining whether the right people voted, whether eligible voters were cast, and whether each vote cast only one vote.
00:13:47.720Blanche acknowledged that the process is difficult, saying that those involved are very good at hiding misconduct.
00:13:53.260It's not the first time I've heard this.
00:13:55.300The Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, once told me that those who may have been involved in election fraud were very careful to erase the evidence.
00:14:06.480Blanche said uncovering what happened in 2020 requires serious law enforcement work, prosecutors, and old-fashioned police investigation.
00:14:15.360He also said Americans will be told what the Department of Justice uncovers, whether that comes through charges, a report, or other investigative findings.
00:14:24.080To me, this is long overdue. The idea that 81 million people voted for Joe Biden, who was basically campaigning from his basement, defies all reality. The idea that Joe Biden, on average, got 20% more in the African-American-dominated precincts in the urban areas of America, 20% more than Barack Obama, is just not credible.
00:14:51.800Those who were on the ground in places like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan watched grotesque fraud happen right before their very eyes.
00:15:01.960And in the aftermath, they were mocked, censored, smeared for telling the truth about what happened.
00:15:07.420Some places, for example, with former mayor Rudy Giuliani, they were disbarred just for zealously defending President Donald Trump and his legal claims.
00:15:18.280Those who fought back against this massive election fraud faced repercussions, including the Trump electors getting charged with multiple felonies for refusing to go along with the sham.
00:15:29.820Just to be very clear, having an alternative elector is not illegal.
00:15:35.380John Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, filed an alternative elector slate in Hawaii because on election night it appeared that Vice President Richard Nixon had carried the state.
00:15:45.320But the Kennedy forces were confident that once all the absentee ballots were counted, that Kennedy would have carried Hawaii.
00:15:52.720Therefore, he filed an alternative electorate slate.
00:15:55.760They were ultimately seated, and therefore there was no legal action against them.
00:16:01.520The formation of an alternative electorate slate pending the outcome of litigation over the outcome of the election is not in any way illegal.
00:16:11.900If you actually read the minutes of the meeting of the alternative electors in Georgia, they make it very clear that they were forming this slate of electors to protect their legal rights in the event that they were successful in their legal challenge to the outcome of the election.
00:16:30.280Somehow the folks over at MSNBC and the Biden Justice Department made this a crime when it's not a crime.
00:16:37.660Kudos to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for digging into this.
00:16:42.420Also to Tulsi Gabbard, who's been working on it for some time.
00:21:23.300And there's a little question at this point that Barack Obama
00:21:27.120and Vice President Joe Biden and the National Security Advisor Susan Rice
00:21:32.260and the Director of National Intelligence General James Clapper
00:21:36.480and the odious CIA Director John O. Brennan,0.99
00:21:42.420one of the most pompous jerks I've ever seen.0.99
00:21:45.240Last week he was bragging about the fact that, quote-unquote,0.99
00:21:47.880they were professionals still in the intelligence agencies
00:21:50.540who were resisting the efforts by President Trump
00:21:54.180to investigate exactly what happened and hold those responsible accountable.
00:21:59.640This guy never knows when to shut up, to be quite honest with you.
00:22:02.260you. I really hope this does, as the acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has said, end up
00:22:08.920in indictments. There is clearly a path. You don't have to go to trial in Washington, D.C. You can go
00:22:17.880to trial in South Florida. It's one continuing seditious conspiracy. You see, it began in 2016
00:22:25.100in an Oval Office meeting chaired by Obama himself, in which they openly discussed the Clinton plan,
00:22:31.500which was the false narrative that Donald Trump was assisted to the presidency through Russian interference and assistance
00:22:40.200that never had any basis whatsoever, in fact.
00:22:44.140They used two completely fraudulent pieces of evidence, the so-called Steele dossier.
00:22:50.360That was a secret report that claimed that Donald Trump had had inappropriate interactions with Russian prostitutes
00:22:58.700while visiting Moscow as a private citizen.
00:23:01.500That turned out to be completely contrived, paid for by Hillary Clinton, by the way, whose campaign actually paid a fine for trying to disguise that expenditure as legal expenses.
00:23:12.880And the completely fake claim that the Democrat National Committee had been hacked by Russian intelligence.
00:23:21.880Once again, this was a claim invented by John Brennan for which there is no evidence whatsoever.
00:23:28.820Prosecutors in my case asserted this to be a fact over and over again.
00:23:32.120In fact, one of them, Jonathan Kravis, whose real name is Kravis,
00:23:53.960There was evidence that information was stolen from the Democrat National Committee,
00:23:57.960The judge would not let me bring expert testimony nor forensic evidence.
00:24:03.720I wanted to call Bill Binney, the former CIA counterintelligence IT expert,
00:24:09.560who could have proved based on the download times of those documents that they were stolen by transporting them to a portable drive of some kind and taken out the back door.
00:24:22.920So it's time for transparency and accountability.
00:24:26.400The Democrats, of course, say that this is all about revenge and retaliation.
00:24:33.980No, it's about accountability and justice.
00:24:37.720Those who violated the law, those who violated the Constitution in their manic efforts to
00:24:42.400destroy Donald Trump and his family, their efforts to keep him off the ballot, their
00:24:47.960efforts to break him financially, their efforts to destroy him and imprison him, they really
00:24:55.320must be exposed. And I think that's going to happen. So I applaud the president in a selfless
00:25:01.480act. He could have won this lawsuit. He could have pocketed $10 billion. Instead, those people
00:25:10.520were victimized on January 6th. Those people like Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort,
00:25:17.120General Michael Flynn, and others who were victimized by the Russian collusion hoaxers,
00:25:22.760they will all be eligible. I'm not sure what my prospects are but my lawyers are following it
00:25:29.120very closely and perhaps we can get some small modicum of what we lost back. In the meanwhile
00:25:36.360President Donald Trump's taking a well-earned victory lap after a major climate panel backed
00:25:42.220away from one of the most extreme doomsday warning scenarios which has been used for years to justify
00:25:47.760radical energy policy, essentially meant to stifle economic growth and development.
00:25:52.940The United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has announced
00:25:57.500that it is adjusting its modeling framework, moving away from the high-end RCP 8.5-style
00:26:04.900projection that envisioned a 4 to 5 degree Celsius of warming by 2100.
00:26:11.120That scenario helped fuel predictions of catastrophic sea level rises, crop failures, melting glaciers, and global disaster
00:26:20.800Isn't that what Al Gore has been predicting for years but never happened?
00:26:25.480President Trump blasted Democrats on his social media, Truth Social,
00:26:31.500noting that the climate establishment had finally admitted its projections were completely wrong
00:26:35.760Many years after the public had already figured that out
00:26:39.140President Trump argued that climate alarmism has been used to scare Americans, attack reliable energy, and funnel billions of dollars into these politically driven research and green subsidies.
00:26:51.660Scientists now say the most extreme forecasts have become less plausible due to renewable energy trends, climate policy, and recent emissions data.
00:27:01.500Instead, research are calling for a broader range of scenarios rather than relying on the most frightening assumptions.
00:27:09.140So in other words, they are defaulting to what the sketchbooks have been saying from the very beginning.
00:27:14.720Americans were told for years that catastrophe was unavoidable
00:27:17.920unless they accepted higher energy prices, government mandates, and the so-called Green New Deal agenda.
00:27:25.420Anyone who did not believe this was considered to be a Neanderthal at best
00:27:32.480Now even the climate establishment is wisely making energy independence central to their failures.
00:27:40.640Now even, pardon me, President Trump has wisely made energy independence central to his agenda,
00:27:45.840rolling back the Biden and Obama era restrictions, defending oil, gas, and American workers.
00:27:52.500Nobody is doubting that the climate change and the climate warms and cools.
00:27:55.920We have climate change. It's called four times a year, summer, winter, fall, etc.
00:28:03.380But acting like it's our duty to change the weather is the height of liberal hubris.
00:28:07.900We can't play God. The sooner we accept that, the less likely man-made catastrophe will occur.
00:28:14.780Meanwhile, Cuba's communist regime is accusing the United States of building a fraudulent case for economic war and possible military action
00:28:22.900after reports accurately claimed that Havana had obtained more than 300 military drones
00:28:29.020and was discussing using them against the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay.
00:28:34.060Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez blasted the report,
00:28:38.220saying that Washington was using media leaks to justify aggression.
00:28:42.140However, you notice he didn't directly deny that Cuba possesses these drones.
00:28:47.300The Trump State Department responded very sharply,
00:28:49.640calling Cuba a failed communist state that has long hosted hostile military, intelligence, and terror groups.
00:28:57.840Officials say that President Trump will protect America's and U.S. interests and the homeland from any threat.
00:29:03.940Cuba's rhetoric comes as the regime faces a deepening internal crisis.
00:29:09.020Its energy minister recently admitted that the country has run out of diesel and heavy fuel oil,
00:29:14.900leaving the power grid in critical condition.
00:29:17.040Cuba has not received regular oil supplies since December, relying recently on a shipment from Russia.
00:29:23.960In other words, no more oil from Venezuela, no more oil from Iran.
00:29:28.880The United States has also renewed an offer to provide direct humanitarian aid to the Cuban people,
00:29:34.920aid that would have to bypass regime control by working through the Catholic Church.
00:29:39.580The Cuban government has resisted these efforts because they don't want the generosity of the United States to be seen.
00:29:45.200They want to keep demonizing America as part of their continuous communist propaganda drive.
00:29:50.580Washington says the Cuban regime must choose.
00:29:52.740They can either play ball or they can face the Venezuela treatment.
00:30:07.360President Trump is right to treat hostile regimes in America's backyard as national security threats.
00:30:12.700The Don Roe Doctrine is nothing to fool around with. I say the time to liberate Cuba is now.
00:30:20.040For many, many years, there has been a cottage industry of those in Miami who have gotten millions of dollars from USAID and collected millions of dollars of campaign contributions complaining about the brutal regime in Havana.
00:30:35.040Now, finally, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio may be prepared to bring liberty back to Cuba.
00:30:43.800I'm Roger Stone. You're listening to The Stone Zone right here on the Red Apple Audio Networks.
00:30:47.900And don't go away because we'll be right back.
00:30:54.420The Stone Zone. Entertaining and informative.
00:31:04.380I'm glad to be back with you after a little bout of laryngitis, which is an occupational hazard for a talk show host.
00:31:12.520A key figure in Minnesota's massive pandemic-era fraud scandal is now raising questions about what Congresswoman Ilhan Omar knew and when she knew it.
00:31:23.620Amy Bach, founder of the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, was convicted in March of 2025 on conspiracy, bribery, and wire fraud charges tied to an alleged $250 million scheme involving federal child nutrition programs.
00:31:40.060Prosecutors said that participants submitted fake or inflated claims for meals supposedly served to low-income children, collecting millions in taxpayers' dollars for meals that never really existed.
00:31:51.820Speaking with the New York Post while awaiting sentencing, Bach said she struggles to believe that Omar did not know about the fraud.
00:31:58.600Bach denies knowingly participating in criminal conduct and says she tried to warn state officials.
00:32:05.580Scandal has already led to dozens of convictions and has placed new scrutiny on Minnesota's pandemic-era oversight failures.
00:32:13.660Omar played a key role in expanding the meal program flexibility during COVID-19 through her 2020 Meals Act,
00:32:21.100which was pushed to broader USDA waiver authority as Washington rushed to loosen rules in the name of emergency relief.
00:32:30.160Those waivers reduced oversight requirements and they helped create the environment that allowed fraudsters to exploit U.S. taxpayers on a massive scale.0.99
00:32:39.080Bach also claimed that when waivers were set to expire, Omar herself would eventually step in to keep the system moving.
00:32:46.180Ilhan Omar has not been charged in the case, but Bach's comments indicate the obvious.0.99
00:32:51.140Ilhan Omar is another Somali swindler who's hooking up with her fellow ethnic invaders throughout Minnesota with her crooked behavior in Congress.0.89
00:33:01.020COVID emergency powers open the door to reckless spending, weak oversight, and massive abuse.1.00
00:33:07.380abuse, and the invaders took full advantage of that. Now is the time for them to be held
00:33:11.700accountable and sent back home where they belong. But Omar can stay only if she's locked behind
00:33:17.200bars, as far as I'm concerned, made an example of what happens when foreigners abuse the generosity0.99
00:33:22.020and charity of good, decent Americans. To me, there is a fundamental question here. There is0.66
00:33:28.080no question, as has been established, that Ilhan Omar fraudulently married her own cousin
00:33:34.320in order to gain entry into the United States.0.89
00:33:37.920On that basis alone, she should be deported.
00:33:41.260And to this day, I do not understand why she has not been deported.
00:34:24.680How likely is it that some U.S. officials were involved in a cover-up of China's role in the COVID-19 pandemic?
00:34:31.520The poll shows that public distrust remains deep despite years of mainstream media propaganda about the safety and the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccinations.
00:34:42.500The numbers show that lockdowns, mandates, censorship, school closures, and official attacks on anyone to question the approved narrative have not changed public attitudes.
00:34:54.840The public hasn't forgotten about the way their public health officials lied and deceived them.
00:34:58.460The survey also found that a plurality of voters, 43%, do not believe that Dr. Anthony Fauci has told the truth about U.S. government funding of the gain-of-function research.
00:35:10.86036% say they believe Fauci was truthful, while 21% are unsure.
00:35:16.840This is exactly why accountability matters.
00:35:19.040Unfortunately, the U.S. Justice Department let the time frame under which Fauci had to be charged for lying under oath to Congress, the very charge that I was falsely attacked, he was done, expire.
00:35:32.920I'm not sure that you could convict him on the larger crime of crimes against humanity,
00:35:37.640but on the narrow claim that he did not know that the gain of functions at the Wihon lab were paid for by U.S. taxpayers is a fairly easy case to prove.0.71
00:35:51.600This is exactly why accountability matters.
00:35:53.580Americans were told to obey, told to stay quiet, trust the experts, and dismiss the lab leak theory as some kind of crazy conspiracy theory.
00:36:02.980People who came out day one and cried foul were attacked mercilessly while the cover-up was initiated.
00:36:08.260Now many voters, many Americans understand the cover-up as many in our government were compelled to protect our foreign adversary.
00:36:16.300This, in my view, is treason. It's clear that many were guilty. It's time to bring them up on charges.
00:36:20.320We can't wait any longer for justice, particularly justice for the Mengele of our times, Dr. Anthony Fauci.1.00
00:36:28.220Thanks for joining us today on The Stone Zone.1.00