The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - June 18, 2025


Troy Smith ｜ 06-18-25

Topics
remittances and taxation artificial intelligence regulation Iranian mullahs intentions stunning immigration report China and Iranian missile funding to Israel
Hosted by
Roger Stone Troy Smith Jake Novak
Mentioned
Roger J. Stone Jr. Donald Trump Joe Biden John F. Kennedy Ronald Reagan Robert Reich Barack Obama Steve Bannon Desjardins Godspeed Clinton Meta
Col. Douglas McGregor ｜ 06-16-25 The Stone Zone ｜ 06-19-25

Episode Stats


Length

21 minutes

Words per minute

162.22

Word count

3,542

Sentence count

252

Harmful content

Hate speech

10

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The amount of money that flows out of the United States each year through remittances to third-world countries more than triples the amount of foreign aid that the government hands out each year. But how much is being sent at a 0% tax rate?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:00:30.000 The Stone Zone.
00:00:32.480 Entertaining and informative.
00:00:34.660 On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
00:00:37.680 Welcome back into the Stone Zone on the Red Apple Audio Networks.
00:00:42.620 We talk politics, news, history, style, fashion, food, you name it.
00:00:48.980 And joining me now is Troy Smith.
00:00:51.480 He is a media entrepreneur.
00:00:53.500 He's the editor and publisher of Slingshot News.
00:00:56.400 He has written an extraordinary new report regarding the issue of remittances.
00:01:04.100 Troy Smith, welcome to the Stone Zone.
00:01:07.400 Roger, it's always an honor to join you.
00:01:09.560 Congratulations on your great success here on WABC.
00:01:12.520 The shows can't miss.
00:01:13.460 Really the best in the business.
00:01:14.700 All right.
00:01:14.980 Many, many thanks, Troy.
00:01:15.900 So you've uncovered that IRS records that there's a minimum of $150 billion transferred outside of the United States each year through remittances or payments sent by immigrants in the United States to people, mostly relatives, but relatives and others outside the United States.
00:01:39.600 But you say that number is actually much higher.
00:01:43.380 What can you tell us?
00:01:45.420 Well, Roger, this is an issue that I think the American people are probably going to be astounded to learn about.
00:01:51.060 There is a total, Roger, of $300 billion that flows out of our economy here in the United States every single year through remittances.
00:02:00.720 And people probably wonder why they see these money order stations and businesses pop up all over the country.
00:02:07.480 Well, it's a $300 billion industry.
00:02:10.180 And just so people understand that level of money, we're talking about $65 billion, Roger, being the total amount that the U.S. actually issues in foreign aid, meaning that the amount of money that is sent out of this country each year in remittances more than triples the amount of foreign aid that the government hands out each year.
00:02:30.120 So we're not talking about a small figure.
00:02:32.840 And this is money that's being sent outside of the United States at a 0% tax rate.
00:02:39.280 Really unbelievable, Roger, that we don't tax this money being sent out at all.
00:02:44.800 Now, you mentioned $150 billion, $300 billion.
00:02:47.560 It boils down to this.
00:02:48.780 There's about $150 billion in remittances or money sent outside the country that we can track,
00:02:55.080 that the IRS is supposedly, although we're told the tracking is very poor and that these transfers are really rarely audited by the IRS.
00:03:04.340 We're told that $150 billion of it is accounted for and that at least 100% of that total is remitted each year without being tracked.
00:03:14.280 So $150 billion of this, Roger, is completely untracked.
00:03:17.140 $150 billion is totaling $300 billion, leaving our shores with zero to show for the American people.
00:03:23.140 I see that many countries, including Mexico, create actually a significant amount of their own GDP through these monies transferred from the United States.
00:03:34.180 What percentage of Mexico's gross domestic product is purely through these remittances from the United States?
00:03:40.900 Well, Roger, a large percentage of the remittances that are sent from the United States end up in Mexico to the tune in 2023 of $63 to $67 billion.
00:03:54.180 That's 4% to 5% of their entire GDP there.
00:03:57.960 And you'll be interested to find, Roger, you go to many third world countries, whether it's Jamaica or other countries around the world,
00:04:06.940 you'll find that large percentage of their economies are made up of people in the United States sending money back, again, at 0% tax.
00:04:16.320 Considering that half of it is completely unaccounted for, Roger, you can see why people like the Mexican president are stepping up and saying it would be immoral to tax remittances
00:04:26.100 because these countries are really making bank off of the people of the United States and our economy in an under-the-table foreign aid program.
00:04:34.180 That's what I would call this.
00:04:35.260 It's really like an under-the-table foreign aid program to the tune of $65 billion a year to Mexico.
00:04:41.120 Just unbelievable.
00:04:41.820 Now, are there plans to tax remittances in the upcoming Big Beautiful Bill?
00:04:48.600 Well, Roger, there were plans to tax remittances pushed by the Trump administration in what I think was a fantastic move, a smart move.
00:04:58.040 But I think the figure was far too low.
00:05:00.340 The Trump administration in the original version of the Big Beautiful Bill argued that there should be a 5% tax on remittances.
00:05:09.320 Now, I'm told that the GOP Senate has objected to this, and they have instead suggested a 3.5%, and that's the current figure that sits in the Big Beautiful Bill.
00:05:19.840 But there is speculation, Roger, that it will be eliminated completely and that we will have a 0% tax on remittances stayed by rhino congressmen and people in the Senate that really don't stand for their own voters. 0.94
00:05:35.080 You know, this is a betrayal of these senators, and I think, Roger, we have to highlight many of them are very wealthy individuals.
00:05:42.400 $10 to $20 billion of the total $300 billion, Roger, ended up in tax havens like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, places where wealthy individuals have been able to send out unlimited amounts of money at 0% tax.
00:05:57.080 I think that's playing a role here in why these people don't want to tax remittances.
00:06:01.240 That is an interesting aspect of it.
00:06:03.860 So this is not just immigrants in this country, say, working as a domestic or a gardener, sending money to their relatives back in their country of origin.
00:06:14.200 This is actually being used to move large amounts of money to avoid taxation.
00:06:19.320 Absolutely. And I think that when we look at the you have to ask, why would people within the Senate, within the House, within, say, even the White House, why would they want to to lessen the amount of taxation?
00:06:34.800 We research this for a piece, Roger. The average American pays 33 percent of their annual earnings in taxes.
00:06:41.800 So can you explain to me why, when we're talking about taxes on money that's sent out of our economy, this is money that's earned here in American jobs and then taken and sent directly out of our economy to the benefit of other countries?
00:06:56.000 And we're not saying that that's immoral or that's wrong. We're saying it's wrong that we don't tax it at all.
00:07:02.360 And I think it's only fair that we should tax these kind of remittances exactly like how we tax the American people.
00:07:09.100 And there's arguments who say, oh, well, it's a double tax. Well, I just told you that half of it is unaccounted for, $150 billion worth.
00:07:17.380 So, no. And not only that, but there's there's no IRS auditing of this. We talked about this with several people.
00:07:22.960 And the audits on remittances are at best poor. I think we need to double down on monitoring the money that's being sent out, because who knows, it could be even higher than $300 billion.
00:07:33.880 And we need to get serious about taxing and taxing highly, because it's my theory, Roger, that I don't think you would really have to have mass deportations if you ended the incentive for these people to come here, take money from our economy and send it back home. 0.98
00:07:50.360 If you end that, I think you really end the incentive for immigration on hold without having to do a single thing other than change your policy.
00:07:56.780 You certainly would remove some of the incentive. Look, I think there's a huge amount of disinformation regarding the big, beautiful bill.
00:08:04.860 The most important thing for people to understand is that if the bill is not passed, the result will be a 68 percent across the board federal income tax increase on all Americans.
00:08:16.560 No, not just the wealthy, but on all Americans. The Trump tax cuts of his first term, which are being extended in the big, beautiful bill beginning in January, are the largest tax cuts in American history.
00:08:30.600 And leftists like Robert Reich, who was the secretary, I think he was the secretary of commerce in the Clinton administration.
00:08:39.700 I went to high school with him. He was wrong then. He's wrong today.
00:08:42.980 They continue to falsely insist that our deficits and our inflation is caused by tax reduction.
00:08:51.280 Yet the lesson of history is the exact opposite.
00:08:54.100 Every president, whether it is Donald Trump in his first term, whether it is Ronald Reagan, whether it was John F. Kennedy,
00:09:01.020 who did an across the board federal income tax cut, experienced a spike in federal revenues caused by the increase in economic activity, our inflation and our thirty seven trillion dollar deficit is caused by spending too much, not by taxing working Americans too little.
00:09:24.860 It is one of the great fallacies continues to be pushed by the far left.
00:09:30.460 Now, when you add to it the fact that the big, beautiful bill also does away with the tax on tips, which is a which is a piece of policy genius thought up by Donald Trump himself after talking to a group of cocktail waitresses in Las Vegas when he was campaigning in the silver state.
00:09:48.140 It also does away with the tax on Social Security, provides a tax credit for those who buy a car or a truck that was made in America.
00:10:00.660 There's much good in the big, beautiful bill.
00:10:04.340 There's a few things in there I don't like.
00:10:05.980 This this this this portion that says that the states cannot regulate artificial intelligence for 10 years.
00:10:13.240 I'd like to see that disappear in the Senate version of the bill or in conference if it passes both houses.
00:10:21.380 I think AI is extraordinarily dangerous.
00:10:24.860 You can go on true social right now or or X or even Instagram, Facebook.
00:10:31.540 You'll see really incredible videos of me saying things that I never actually said.
00:10:38.940 You can see videos of Joe Biden and Barack Obama and Donald Trump saying things that they never actually said.
00:10:47.380 And without sophisticated AI detection software to the average person, they would actually believe what they see.
00:10:57.140 So I think there does need to be some regulation of artificial intelligence.
00:11:02.040 Troy, what do you think?
00:11:04.060 Well, Roger, artificial intelligence is being quickly becoming the issue of our time.
00:11:08.660 And the issue is going to be that we're going to have a lot of jobs here that are going to be eliminated simply because they're going to be automated by AI.
00:11:17.260 And I think we have to make the decision as a society.
00:11:20.480 Do we prefer the comfort, the human experience over the advancement of, say, technology that we think might be detrimental to our success?
00:11:30.420 We have to be able to adapt these technologies to work for humankind and not against it.
00:11:37.180 I think that has a lot to do with the people in control of it.
00:11:40.440 People in big tech, Roger, they took your voice away.
00:11:43.160 They've taken a lot of people's voices away.
00:11:44.820 And I just don't happen to believe that a lot of them are suddenly good guys because they contributed to a certain political campaign or another.
00:11:52.980 I think that these people are malicious in a lot of ways.
00:11:55.900 And there has to be interference from the government as far as artificial intelligence is concerned because the technology is so dangerous and poises such a threat to our way of life.
00:12:07.120 It could destroy the United States if not handled correctly.
00:12:10.000 I think there has to be intervention.
00:12:11.900 There has to be regulation.
00:12:13.040 They want to tell you you can't have a wood-burning stove.
00:12:16.560 Well, how about you stop the guys that are creating the doomsday machine that is AI?
00:12:20.760 Yeah, no, I could not agree more.
00:12:22.200 Back during the New Hampshire primary, somebody created an audio that was used in a robocall of Joe Biden urging people not to vote.
00:12:32.480 And to the untrained ear, you would have sworn it was really Joe, but it wasn't Joe at all.
00:12:38.420 It's a perfect example of the extreme dangers.
00:12:41.660 And what you say is true.
00:12:44.440 Every single day, somebody on X or on True Social points out to me yet another Roger Stone who pops up on those sites, who designs their page to look exactly like mine.
00:12:59.260 And as I said on the show, I was in a restaurant one night and a guy came up to me and said, hey, Stone, where's that crypto I bought from you on Facebook?
00:13:11.520 I said, pardon me?
00:13:12.540 He said, that crypto I paid you for, I never got the crypto.
00:13:15.200 I said, friend, I'm not only not on Facebook, but I don't sell crypto.
00:13:20.300 So I have no idea what you're talking about.
00:13:22.340 And he was furious.
00:13:24.180 He flipped through his phone.
00:13:25.200 He showed me the messages between himself and somebody posing as Roger Stone on Facebook.
00:13:32.020 And I told him, look, you're out of luck, my friend.
00:13:34.340 I didn't sell you anything and I don't owe you anything.
00:13:37.300 When my lawyers contact Facebook or Meta, when they contact even X or Instagram, they're very slow to respond.
00:13:46.540 And then even when they do order the offenders to take down the faux Roger Stones, they pop up three days later with a slightly different iteration on my name.
00:13:57.600 So instead of being Roger J. Stone Jr., which is what I am on X, I'm now suddenly Roger J.J. Stone Jr., to give you an example.
00:14:06.960 So always be aware, look for the validated profile if you're following me on social media.
00:14:14.760 I think social media is a great thing, but it cannot substitute for real life.
00:14:21.360 It cannot substitute for spending time outdoors, spending time with your family, reading a book, the human experience.
00:14:29.980 I think some people go into the world of social media and the Internet and they just never come out the other side.
00:14:37.500 They begin to believe it is real life in itself.
00:14:41.120 It is it is a great danger.
00:14:44.220 We talked about it yesterday on the show with Boone Cutler.
00:14:46.740 If you're just tuning in, we're talking to Troy Smith, the editor and publisher at Slingshot News.
00:14:53.120 I think you find them at slingshotnews.com.
00:14:57.060 We'll be back.
00:14:58.100 I want to get your take on the situation in Iran.
00:15:01.620 I do not believe that the president's legacy will be destroyed or that his governing coalition will be disrupted.
00:15:08.060 As long as America does not get into a prolonged quagmire like we did in Afghanistan.
00:15:14.380 And I also recognize the inherent evil and the actual intentions of the Iranian mullahs who chant death to America, death to Israel. 0.99
00:15:25.380 You're in the Stone Zone.
00:15:26.920 I'm Roger Stone.
00:15:27.820 We're talking to Troy Smith.
00:15:29.160 Whatever you do, please don't touch that dial because we'll be right back with more after these commercial messages.
00:15:35.500 The Stone Zone, entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
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00:16:17.300 The Stone Zone.
00:16:19.280 Entertaining and informative.
00:16:21.320 On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
00:16:24.340 Welcome back.
00:16:25.420 We're in the Stone Zone.
00:16:26.700 We're talking to Troy Smith, a media entrepreneur.
00:16:30.100 He is the editor and publisher of Slingshot News.
00:16:34.940 And we just talked about his stunning report that indicates that almost $300 billion is shipped out of the country by immigrants living here to other countries, to individuals and institutions in other countries.
00:16:51.120 Yet there's no benefit to the American people.
00:16:54.980 It's a stunning report.
00:16:56.840 Troy, where can people go see this report?
00:16:58.600 I want people to go to slingshot.news.
00:17:02.740 And when this airs, we'll have that right on the front page where I can check.
00:17:06.080 And be free to share the links on any kind of social media or send to your friends, family, whoever.
00:17:10.620 We need to get the word out about this.
00:17:12.120 It's a hell of a story.
00:17:13.720 It is a stunning story.
00:17:15.520 And we appreciate your breaking it here in the Stone Zone.
00:17:19.080 So the real question, we've only got about two and a half minutes, but the real question on the table, of course, is what will President Trump decide?
00:17:27.520 I've already said that I will support his decision regardless of what it is.
00:17:31.760 He has more information than I do.
00:17:33.780 I think that he ran as a peace candidate.
00:17:36.120 I think it is highly unlikely that he will mire America down in a prolonged foreign war, as we experienced in Afghanistan.
00:17:44.620 But he will always act to protect the interests of the United States as he perceives them.
00:17:50.080 And there can be no doubt about the malign intentions of the Iranian regime. 0.97
00:17:57.000 It's nice to say you're going to negotiate to keep nuclear power for the purposes of generating electricity.
00:18:03.600 But I think we both realize they have every intention of developing a bomb.
00:18:08.160 And whether they get it tomorrow or two years from now, we know who their target is.
00:18:13.560 At the same time, the Iranians are a client state of China.
00:18:18.780 China gets a huge amount of their oil from Iran.
00:18:22.940 They don't have oil production capabilities of their own.
00:18:26.460 I think it would be naive to think that the Chinese will do nothing if we end up attacking their client state. 0.95
00:18:35.300 And then, as you pointed out to me this morning, for some reason, Israel allows the Chinese to operate their largest port.
00:18:44.320 How or why could that be?
00:18:46.120 Well, Roger, it's just dumbfounding.
00:18:50.120 I mean, China has dumped billions of dollars into the Iranian economy.
00:18:54.240 They're the exact reason that missiles are flying.
00:18:56.800 If you want to know who's funding the missiles flying into Israel right now, it's the Chinese. 0.56
00:19:01.280 I mean, that's cut plain dry.
00:19:03.280 It's oil money that the Iranians have gotten from the Chinese. 0.80
00:19:06.560 And yet, when you look at Israel, there is China all over the place. 0.65
00:19:11.720 They operate their largest port.
00:19:13.260 And not only that, Roger, just this year, in March, it was announced that the Chinese are expanding their operations in Haifa.
00:19:19.460 And the Israelis have allowed that. 0.98
00:19:20.920 So I think from the United States perspective, in order for I and millions of other Americans to be supportive of some kind of support for Israel, I think we need to see the Israelis take legitimate action to end their allegiance with the Chinese, the people funding the missiles flying into their country. 0.90
00:19:39.160 And that would be a much more serious argument that I think a lot more people would listen to.
00:19:43.840 Yeah, I still don't believe some of the more draconian voices like Steve Bannon and others who say that will be the end of the Trump presidency, will be the end of his legacy.
00:19:54.200 I think that would be true if he got us mired down in a long-term foreign war where our interests are not clear.
00:20:02.460 Our interests are abundantly clear here.
00:20:06.380 And the president is way too smart for that.
00:20:09.420 I'm going to wait for the president.
00:20:11.220 The signals are mixed.
00:20:13.100 You read many, many, many things on social media.
00:20:17.060 But until the president announces what he's going to do, I stand by the president.
00:20:22.240 I will support whatever decision he makes.
00:20:24.880 After all, I owe my life to him.
00:20:27.380 And I trust him.
00:20:28.680 He has information that neither you nor I have, Troy, or the American people.
00:20:34.500 I was encouraged to hear that he was going to do a televised address.
00:20:38.480 But now I see that they have not scheduled a specific time for that.
00:20:43.320 But when he does, when he makes his decision, I have every confidence that he will go before the American people and explain exactly why we are doing what we're doing.
00:20:53.740 He said 15 times during the campaign and multiple times since he was elected president that Iran cannot be and will not be allowed to have a nuclear bomb.
00:21:05.740 Donald Trump is a man who believes, says what he means and means what he says.
00:21:10.700 Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone.
00:21:13.060 Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.
00:21:16.180 Thanks for listening to the Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
00:21:20.400 You can hear the Stone Zone with Roger Stone weeknights at 8 on 77 WABC.
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00:21:44.440 See you next time for a new episode so you never have to wonder.
00:21:48.280 What the heck is going on here?