In this episode of Triggered, host Don Jr. ( ) is joined by Kelly Means ( ) and Philip Patrick ( ) from the Birch Gold Group to discuss the current economic and political climate and what we can do to make America healthy again.
00:06:21.000We'll be joined by Kelly Means, who you probably have seen on shows like Joe Rogan, etc.
00:06:27.000He's been one of the biggest proponents of the efforts to overhaul the way we think about healthy food in this entire country and to actually reform our agencies and reform how we conduct oversight of the food and drug industry.
00:06:42.000This is one of those episodes you're going to learn a lot from.
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00:07:10.000Let's get it out there once and for all.
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00:07:43.000And joining me now from the Birch Gold Group, Philip Patrick.
00:07:47.000Philip, great to have you back on the show.
00:07:51.000My father is telling the BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China, that they risk 100% tariffs if they proceed with the plans to create a new international currency.
00:08:05.000Do you think that that will make the BRICs abandon their de-dollarization projects?
00:08:10.000Look, it is very, at least we have an administration or an incumbent administration talking about what is the biggest economic problem.
00:08:18.000So we haven't had that for four years.
00:09:05.000Look, I think the key thing here is to try and curb the spending, and that's why the Doge department spending is a big priority for the incoming administration.
00:09:19.000What your father has inherited in terms of deficits is incredible.
00:09:24.000Outside of that, there's two ways out of a deficit issue.
00:09:29.000One is growth, And the other is austerity.
00:09:32.000You know, Donald Trump is a businessman.
00:09:34.000He's a growth guy, which is going to require spending.
00:09:37.000The key here is the Republicans and the administration will spend more productively than the Democrats.
00:09:44.000So the key here is that longer term GDP growth will outpace debt growth.
00:09:49.000But I think it's going to take a long time to do it.
00:09:52.000So the hope is the administration can lay the groundwork and sow the seeds so that we get there in the future.
00:09:59.000Yeah, I mean, I think growth is so critical, but in light of these economic tensions, how should everyday Americans position their savings?
00:10:06.000Look, I think we need to be looking at precious metals in this climate.
00:10:10.000Anybody who has their retirement entirely exposed to the US dollar needs some measure of a hedge.
00:10:17.000On top of that, inflation, although coming down, still very sticky.
00:10:22.000Many economic indicators are suggesting, you know, Trump maybe handed a recession On day one of the administration.
00:10:30.000So we've got a tough four years in front of us.
00:10:33.000There's no better man to lead the country.
00:10:35.000But I think precious metals will be a very useful hedge as we start to iron out the problems.
00:12:41.000My sister was in the medical system, Stanford Medical School, NIH research, you know, surgical residency.
00:12:47.000And she came to the conclusion after 12 years that, you know, everything we're doing hospital work on is interventions after people get sick.
00:12:55.00095% of all medical spending is actually just basically profiting hospitals and pharma once people already get sick.
00:13:01.000And she started asking, why are people getting sick?
00:13:03.000So it had a big impact on me as a former food and pharma lobbyist seeing these companies rig the system.
00:13:09.000And then for us, it was brought together with our mom, who abruptly gets cancer in 2021. Excuse me.
00:13:28.000So we had these personal experiences that brought us to really this political, I think, Realization we all have, which is that people are suffering out there.
00:13:57.000And my sister and I shared some talking points.
00:13:59.000So many people don't know this, but your dad spoke extremely eloquently about this issue, about why kids are getting so sick throughout the campaign.
00:14:09.000Actually, you know, worked with Vince and Susie, and they were really inspired by your dad's focus on this.
00:14:14.000But he was saying that since the beginning, that we've got to figure this out.
00:14:20.000Obviously, Bobby, to me, he was hitting on a ma-ha-maga message.
00:14:25.000I mean, to me, there were two candidates in this campaign that were talking about a much wider thing than partisan politics, but really just the corruption of our systems.
00:14:34.000And what Bobby did really well is talk about this incentive of kids to be sick and how that's actually representation of the swamp.
00:14:40.000So there was a moment after the Butler shooting I was actually talking with Tucker.
00:14:47.000And I've become really, Tucker, as you probably know, is really focused on this issue.
00:14:52.000And we had an idea of, you know, maybe Bobby and your dad, maybe that was the moment where they could talk.
00:14:57.000So I was able to facilitate that connection to talk about unity right after the Butler shooting.
00:15:01.000Had a small insight into those discussions.
00:15:04.000And Don, you know, you were much closer to this, but from my limited vantage point, it was pretty inspiring just seeing them connect on this emotional level about why so many kids have prediabetes, about Why we have the most obese country, particularly among kids in the world, about why we spend three times more on healthcare but have, you know, six years less life expectancy.
00:15:23.000They really talked about these issues.
00:15:25.000And then I think what you saw with this MAHA movement, I mean, when Bobby Kennedy came out there on the stage in Phoenix, it was the loudest cheer I ever heard.
00:15:33.000And the way the MAGA movement embraced Kennedy was not surprising to me, but certainly I think a shift in American politics.
00:15:41.000So, you know, one of my closest friends is, you know, very close friends with Bobby's son, who's like, you guys actually would get along great.
00:15:48.000You should actually meet, because you're actually talking about so much of the same thing.
00:15:51.000And it felt like, you know, the Democrats were trying to basically split that vote.
00:15:55.000I'm like, why don't we get them together?
00:15:56.000Trump's, you know, obviously would be great on XYZ. Bobby on the health stuff, just...
00:16:00.000It has gone so far down the rabbit hole in a positive way.
00:16:03.000I mean, you know, you guys, you and your sister especially, I mean, her coming from literally medicine, you coming from the lobbying side.
00:16:09.000I mean, you guys know how the sausage is made.
00:16:12.000You understand how bad it is that a country of America's prosperity and wealth could still have these terrible results.
00:16:18.000What are the values that drive your mission in the Maha movement to make America healthy again?
00:16:27.000You know, it really is the tie between Maha, MAGA, and frankly, DOGE. And let me explain that.
00:16:32.000So, to me, my read on why your dad is the seminal historical figure of our time is because he's tapped into, I think, the most important societal dynamic of our time, which is that Our institutions are really rigged against us.
00:16:45.000I mean, we have a military-industrial complex that's making us less secure.
00:16:48.000You know, education we spend more and more on, but teachers and unions make sure kids are less competitive.
00:16:52.000You could just go down the list, right?
00:16:54.000And I think what your dad, for me, has done and why, you know, I think this was the most important election in our lifetime is because he's put his finger on this frustration people feel.
00:17:03.000It's actually, I think, this unleashed dynamism of America.
00:17:06.000if we can kind of get this swamp out of the way.
00:17:08.000So the central premise of Maha to me is anti-corruption.
00:17:11.000It's really what your dad has been talking about for so long.
00:17:14.000And I think Americans want to be healthy.
00:17:17.000If we can just get these incentives out of the way, and the problem that Bobby and your dad have talked about is we have co-opted institutions, that every institution that touches our health profits when an American is sick.
00:17:29.000You go into our regulatory agencies – Why is the FDA 75% funded by pharma to approve drugs?
00:17:34.000We know bureaucracies are built to grow.
00:17:38.000They grow when the pharma industry grows.
00:17:39.000Why are NIH grants, you know, 80% of them go to someone with conflicts of interest.
00:17:44.000Why are we not studying why we're getting sick but just doing pharma R&D at the NIH? Why is the CDC, which has a mandate for all disease, only focused on infectious when 92% of deaths are on chronic?
00:17:54.000You know, the narrative that's being put together is that chronic disease, which is bankrupt in the country, which is the biggest part of the U.S. federal budget, is chronic disease management, right?
00:18:04.000Which is destroying human capital, where a kid in the United States is three times more likely to be pre-diabetic, obese, have cardiology issues than a kid in almost any other developed country.
00:18:13.000These are the things that are destroying our budget, destroying our soul, I think.
00:18:17.000Don, I mean, you see inside a child's classroom and what kids are dealing with, with both physical and mental health.
00:18:22.000But the reason that's taken hold is not because the American people want it, is because, you know, our fundamental institutions that regulate our health have been co-opted.
00:18:32.000The last thing I'll say, and this is something that Bobby's, you know, looking at, you know, with Dr. Oz at CMS. CMS is kind of this boring department.
00:18:39.000It's a bigger budget than the Defense Department, our Medicare and Medicaid services.
00:18:44.000And we bureaucratically have outsourced our medical codes.
00:18:57.000So we have outsourced, on a bureaucratic level, the biggest part of our economy to a pharmaceutical lobbying group that just demonstrably profits when people are sick.
00:19:07.000So that, to me, Don, is what the big promise of Maha is.
00:19:12.000Before we get into any bans or any type of real policy change, we don't need to talk about Obamacare.
00:19:18.000Let's just get the corruption out of our scientific, regulatory, and government bodies, you know, hopefully working close with Vivek and Elon.
00:19:26.000Yeah, I mean, it's interesting because I obviously talk a lot about corruption inside the FBI, inside the DOJ. You brought up the teachers unions, you know, the Department of Education, the Pentagon.
00:19:36.000But you could argue that perhaps the gravest sin is really inside the swamp is just that crime of chronic childhood disease.
00:19:44.000Could you put that, you know, more into perspective relative to perhaps the rest of the world, just so people understand sort of where we sit?
00:20:11.000And I think what woke a lot of people up.
00:20:13.000But the childhood obesity rate in Japan is 3%.
00:20:16.000In the United States, it's 50% of teens are overweight or obese.
00:20:21.000We've got 20% of our teens in this country have fatty liver disease.
00:20:24.000That was something that was unthinkable.
00:20:26.000The USDA, they actually hid this report until after the election.
00:20:29.000They just came out with the new numbers.
00:20:31.00038% of teens between 12 and 18, 38% have prediabetes.
00:20:37.000Prediabetes is our cells crying out for help.
00:20:40.00040% of teens are on a pharmaceutical product.
00:20:43.000And 40% of teens qualify as having a mental health disorder.
00:20:47.000The United States is 4% of the world's population.
00:20:51.000We produce 70% of the world's pharmaceutical profits and we're 60th in life expectancy.
00:20:58.000This is where I think that what Elon and Vivek are talking about really come in is that when you look at what's really a threat to America, I think it is nuclear war or the fact that we're letting our population get sicker, more depressed, warm, fertile, and fatter at an increasing rate, you know, to totally historically abnormal trends versus the rest of the world while bankrupting our country.
00:22:34.000This is where the medical standard of care comes in, in my opinion.
00:22:38.000So we are getting sick, and instead of just drugging people who are sick, right, statin rates, antidepressant rates, metformin for prediabetes, they've doubled in prescription rates among high schoolers in just the past five years.
00:22:51.000So basically, our medical system waits for people to get sick, takes that as a given, and then drugs them.
00:22:57.000What the NIH, what we need to be doing is asking why we're getting sick.
00:23:00.000And the key thing there, Don, we all know this.
00:23:04.000But nine of the tinkillers of Americans are chronic lifestyle conditions, diabetes, heart disease, many forms of cancer, Alzheimer's, which is now called type 3 diabetes.
00:23:12.000Alzheimer's is highly tied to blood sugar dysregulation.
00:23:17.000Yeah, so this is a Nobel Prize that might be won by this person.
00:23:20.000If you don't have prediabetes or diabetes, you have a very small chance of getting Alzheimer's, which is now exploding and bankrupting our country.
00:23:27.000Alzheimer's is downstream of diabetes.
00:24:03.000The USDA actually issued a report just a year ago saying that a child's diet, 93% of ultra-processed food could be healthy, and they recommend added sugar as a healthy part of a two-year-old's diet.
00:24:15.000So before we get into any questions of bans whatsoever, I think it's conservative, liberal, whatever, it's just common sense that we shouldn't be recommending or subsidizing.
00:24:25.000When you talk about the subsidies, I think the number is now 18% of SNAP, our food stamp programs, which is actually the fourth largest government program, entitlement program after Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.
00:24:43.000So we're basically subsidizing and recommending food that's made in a lab.
00:24:49.000And my big point there, Don, is this is by design.
00:24:52.000I mean, again, we're all free market people, but it's also incumbent to call this out.
00:24:57.000The food industry was created by the cigarette industry.
00:24:59.000In 1990, 40% of the US food supply came from two companies, Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds.
00:25:05.000As smoking rates declined, these cigarette companies bought up all the food companies, and they shifted very deliberately their tobacco scientists, their addiction specialists, to food.
00:25:16.000So literally, and I mean this, any brand you can find in the store right now that your kids are probably trying to get, That was originally owned by tobacco industry holding companies.
00:25:24.000And then in the 1990s, you saw just disease and chronic issues and ultra-processed food consumption spike because the tobacco industry made it more addictive.
00:25:34.000So that's what I'd say, Don, is there's a real co-option of our food system.
00:25:40.000When you look at the $4.5 trillion we spend, it's all going to drug the problem.
00:25:45.000We could be incentivizing American farmers to reverse prediabetes and get people on better food programs.
00:25:50.000It's not ideological to just ask, if people are sick, what's the best way to reverse why they're sick?
00:25:56.000Drugging everyone is not the answer, but that's what we do right now.
00:25:59.000I mean, can we grow enough crops, let's call it non-GMO stuff, to be able to feed our people?
00:26:05.000Can we do it healthy enough in a way that's actually affordable?
00:26:08.000Are the subsidies of one enough to sort of supplement the other so that we can actually get rid of the problem and not effectively starve?
00:26:16.000Because obviously, there's a corollary to some of this.
00:26:22.000So we've got the devil's bargain between the food industry making us sick and the healthcare industry profiting.
00:26:27.000I think, frankly, this could be a golden age for pharma and health innovation with deregulation, but there's going to have to be some conflicts attacking there.
00:26:34.000When it gets to the food side, when it gets to your question, I think this is my message, Don.
00:26:39.000We're on the verge of a golden age of American farming.
00:27:17.000So, you know, my personal vision with with Brooke Rollins and Bobby and various stakeholders in your dad's administration is is we can actually bring stakeholders together.
00:27:37.000And obviously the guys that can write the big checks to their lobbyists in D.C., you know, it's just different.
00:27:42.000So, you know, it's hard to get through that nuance.
00:27:44.000But, you know, the R.J. Reynolds sort of tobacco example is an interesting one.
00:27:48.000Obviously, you know, kind of, you know, before my time or before I was really paying attention to it, there were huge class action lawsuits to the tune of, you know, then billions of dollars when that was...
00:27:59.000These days, it feels like we blow that on an average weekend in Ukraine for no real reason.
00:28:05.000But could the same thing, the same types of class actions be brought if they took the same marketing plan that basically got people to be addicted to cigarettes?
00:28:14.000Could that be brought against sort of the food industry for utilizing those same practices and making our kids sick?
00:28:21.000Yeah, so here's my thought on it, Don.
00:28:24.000I think that definitely we should be letting the free market and the legal system work its magic.
00:28:29.000And I think there's been really bad faith actions from food companies.
00:28:31.000But my head goes to like, what's the optimistic message that we can have in the next year?
00:28:36.000And I think generally, I think it's actually industry coming together on the food side.
00:28:40.000It's food producers, it's farmers, it's big ag, it's small ag.
00:28:45.000I think we've all been complicit, all of the industries, especially government, and this really dysfunctional subsidy system that's happened with food.
00:28:53.000And frankly, a really dysfunctional FDA grass process where we've had misinterpretations of a law from the 1950s to have self-policing of the chemicals in our food.
00:29:02.000So you've seen those graphics probably from Food Babe, right?
00:29:05.000Where you have just demonstrably less healthy food with all of these, you know, crude oil-derived food colorings and stuff.
00:29:28.000I think there's been calls to maybe do a one-year extension of the farm bill and just think about how to change the incentive and regulatory system.
00:29:36.000The fact of the matter is we have a rigged market right now with hundreds of billions of dollars of agriculture incentives.
00:29:41.000You know, the Bobby Kennedy vision, what President Trump's talked about, is actually redefining healthcare to get to the root cause.
00:29:46.000I actually think more healthcare dollars could go to food.
00:29:49.000You know, we actually have to support American farmers.
00:29:51.000When you start peeling the onion, and Don, I talk to members of Congress, sinners, they don't even understand this.
00:29:55.000A lot of our meat processing is coming from China.
00:29:58.000Most of the pesticides we spread in our crop are coming from China.
00:30:01.000You know, there's really dark forces here that nobody's really that happy with.
00:30:06.000So as long as the message is let's support American farmers, the simple inescapable reality is that we've got to rethink about the subsidies.
00:30:14.000And my pitch there would be absolutely we should hold that actors accountable.
00:30:20.000But I think we need a forward-looking agenda where we kind of have some grace looking backwards on how we got here.
00:30:35.000You want the thing to be brighter, but do you need it?
00:30:39.000That's when you sort of lose the good faith argument.
00:30:41.000I understand that not everything's going to be...
00:30:44.000You know, whatever level of, you know, nothing's going to be perfect, but there does seem to be things that are there purely for a marketing element that we know you would make our kids sick.
00:30:54.000And, you know, again, I'm a total believer in the free markets, but like you think that there'd be a benefit in the market for people to actually do the right thing.
00:31:01.000And, you know, their cereal may not quite be as neon yellow.
00:31:06.000Yeah, and I think, again, when you get into tactics there, where my head goes, grass standards, I encourage everyone to look them up.
00:31:14.000It's not conservative or liberal or free market that we have self-policing of our chemicals and our food.
00:31:18.000I think I'm optimistic that actually a lot of stakeholders are going to come to the table and just self-police themselves and say we shouldn't be having some of these toxic ingredients.
00:31:26.000And then I know, Don, you're excited about Jay Bhattacharya.
00:31:28.000I think I cannot overstate how important having a fearless leader at the NIH is.
00:31:34.000Because before we get into bans, before we get into any policy discussion, let's just get a report on glyphosate, right?
00:31:42.000It's being phased out of other countries.
00:31:44.000If people want to continue it, but pretending that there's not an issue is sort of where I have my issue.
00:31:48.000If people want to do that, like, transparency.
00:31:51.000And this is where it ties into all the other areas.
00:31:54.000I think it's all this message you've been the warrior on and your dad.
00:31:58.000It's just like free speech is the first part.
00:32:01.000And when it comes to science, what I think some bad actors have learned is that when you control the NIH research and Harvard Medical School, there's nothing higher up in society.
00:32:25.000They're not even asking the questions.
00:32:27.000There's totally corrupted with DEI and various woke ideologies that's being used, I think, to just cover up real scientific inquiry.
00:32:36.000So having someone come in Just before any policies, just like, hey, can we figure out what's going on with the pesticides?
00:32:41.000Hey, can we figure out what these 10,000 chemicals are doing?
00:32:44.000Getting the truth then changes the policy options.
00:32:47.000So I think J and NIH is an absolutely transformative move that's going to impact policy in the years to come.
00:32:54.000So, Kelly, how do all of those elements, the elements of my father's political movement, his cabinet picks, the entire shebang in his next administration, they all intersect in some way, shape or form.
00:33:06.000But how does that work within all these different agencies?
00:33:10.000And how do you sort of streamline that so you don't just sort of get those roadblocks that you hit into so often in the political process?
00:33:20.000I think the biggest opportunity, and I think it's why there's, I think, record optimism in America, is that there's more things in the Overton window of what to discuss.
00:33:28.000I think, you know, we still talk to old healthcare hands.
00:33:44.000I think just being able to talk about it, just being able to talk about these things, being able to talk about the incentives, what are we talking about here?
00:33:51.000We're talking about the foundation of how medicine is practiced.
00:33:53.000We're talking about how it's actually just wrong that we silo 42 different medical departments.
00:33:59.000If you have diabetes, heart disease, depression, there's separate doctors, separate drugs for life.
00:34:04.000We're actually talking about a real, real new revolution in science and understanding interconnectivity.
00:34:10.000I mean, Don, I know, you know, you think it's so important for health and mental health to go outside to be in the sun, you know, to be curious about these things.
00:34:18.000It's like that could be more part of our scientific kind of inquiry and our disease reversal strategy.
00:34:23.000So there's this spiritual vein, I call it spiritual, that I think your dad hit.
00:34:28.000And I think Maha ties to the Justice Department and just getting truth there.
00:34:34.000It ties to getting our border in control and getting our country under control.
00:34:37.000I think there's just like honestly almost this spiritual vein that was hit of like, we've lost our way a bit.
00:34:43.000We're going to get these broken institutions instead of out of our way.
00:34:47.000So what my hope, and I think is really happening, and as Bobby said, your dad has kept every single promise he's made, and he is so committed to this issue.
00:34:53.000It's just having his light on the issue, having him say the words childhood chronic disease crisis, it gives an ability.
00:35:01.000We've heard from senators who are really excited.
00:35:03.000It's just like almost like they can blame him for like maybe going its farm a little bit and maybe changing the paradigm a little bit.
00:35:09.000His focus on these macro big issues is paradigm shifting.
00:35:13.000So that's where I think the opportunity is.
00:35:17.000The long-term goal is we have a healthcare industry that's not incentivized for Americans to be sick.
00:35:22.000That doctors are talking more when a child's depressed about going outside and exercising and eating healthy.
00:35:28.000That we're working closer with small and large farmers to make American food the most nutritious in the world and change our subsidy system.
00:35:36.000People criticized and made this comment that I think was the biggest lie of the campaign for me, which is that your dad's not talking about big ideas.
00:35:43.000I don't think there's been a campaign in my life where big ideas were more front and center.
00:35:49.000I mean, the big, big, big concepts here.
00:35:52.000So, Don, I think that's the key thing.
00:35:54.000We just have an opportunity to, I think, change paradigms.
00:35:57.000Yeah, no, I mean, I was actually with Bobby earlier today, briefly, and it's great to actually see that, because I was one of those guys, again, behind the scenes, like you were, and then Tucker and I got together to, you know, really try to solidify that relationship and make it happen, and they got along great, and then I'm sitting there like, okay, now I made a promise.
00:36:11.000I made a handshake, like, you're going to be, like, in this thing, and, like, and he is.
00:36:15.000So it's not like one of these, you know, like we see in politics, you know, so much where you make a promise and then you have no intention of delivering, right?
00:36:23.000Of course you're not, before an election and then two weeks after the election.
00:36:25.000It's like, well, now it's not, you know, going to affect the election, so I'm going to do what I was going to do and everyone knew it anyway.
00:36:31.000You know, the long-term vision I love, what can Maha, Kayleigh, look like in the first hundred days?
00:36:37.000And, you know, how do you expect the big, you know, whether it's big pharma, big ag, you know, big food, you know, to engage in this new administration?
00:36:45.000I think there's a way that everyone can win if we just sort of align the incentives correctly.
00:36:52.000You know, will they try to make nice or are they going to resort to sort of the usual unimaginable dirty tricks?
00:37:00.000There's certainly going to be dirty tricks.
00:37:02.000But again, I'll tell you, there's conversations happening with all stakeholders.
00:37:07.000And although there's going to be a lot of dirty tricks, a lot of fighting, I think everyone in their heart understands the trajectory we're on where we're bankrupting ourselves from healthcare costs that are leading to the sickest country in modern history is really a problem.
00:37:46.000really can't go back to this sick care system, but really have a health care system and incentives that prioritize health will be in a victory.
00:37:54.000I think it starts with getting the research right and getting the conflicts out.
00:37:59.000And those are two principles we're talking about that were talked about a lot in the campaign.
00:38:03.000So I'm just going to Obviously, Bobby and his team and President Trump's team are working on the specifics, but I'll just give a couple ideas.
00:38:11.000Like, why does the CDC have a nonprofit that allows pharma to bribe that agency hundreds of millions of dollars that can be cut immediately?
00:38:20.000Why does the FDA and NIH have the same nonprofit that you can bribe it?
00:38:24.000Why does the USDA, as I said, allow their Nutrition Guideline Committee members to receive money from food and pharma companies?
00:38:30.000Why does the FDA guidance panels that approve our drugs have no conflicts of interest rules to speak of at all?
00:38:36.000Why is there no revolving door where a lot of people from the first term, you know, who are telling your dad probably that they're going to fight the good fight and fight the MAGA way, they go straight to industry.
00:38:44.000You can actually just close some of these loopholes.
00:39:01.000The second I'll just reiterate is the NIH. Before talk of major – people are like, oh, is Bobby going to be doing some bans?
00:39:08.000Well, some of this stuff frankly probably – it's not the free market that this stuff is even in our food.
00:39:12.000I mean I think correcting a broken market is an anti-free market.
00:39:17.000But like before even any talk of that … Let's have Jay Bhattacharya shift the NIH budget to answer the simple question your dad asked during the campaign, why are we getting sick?
00:39:33.000Now, that's a simple question, but the NIH, 90% of their budget right now goes to pharmaceutical, basically, R&D. It's basically saying everyone's getting sick, but we're going to figure out this Band-Aid for Alzheimer's.
00:39:45.000We're going to figure out this Band-Aid for diabetes.
00:40:14.000It's all these people that have already made the dietary guidelines, they've already made the pharmaceutical guidelines.
00:40:19.000So I think one thing Bobby and Trevor are saying is like, listen, we're not trying to take any drug away, we're not trying to take any, but we should get to the truth.
00:40:24.000Like, that's a principle we should have unbiased.
00:40:29.000When a government bureaucrat or a deep state agency has already made a recommendation, There's huge institutional pressure to not embarrass them.
00:40:38.000It could even open them up to liability, right?
00:40:41.000Well, and half these guys then, it's no different than the military, right?
00:40:43.000Half these guys vote on a budget, then they go serve on the board of Raytheon.
00:40:46.000It's like, I'm sure they're going to try to save money.
00:40:48.000I'm sure they're going to try to do it right.
00:40:50.000I'm sure they're going to try to prevent war.
00:40:53.000I'd love to stop all of these people serving in government from then going to work at these agencies that they were funding for so long, because it just seems like a recipe that's ripe for corruption.
00:41:04.000And it's just basic conflicts of interest.
00:41:06.000And then with the science, it's just basic insistence that we're going to do foundational science on why people are going to get sick.
00:41:11.000The other thing, Jay, and this is getting into weeds, but I think it's very important and it can happen day one, is establish a center at the NIH to just do replicability studies.
00:41:20.00050% of studies that underlie drug approvals in this country can't be replicated.
00:41:26.000This is Jay and others who talked about this, a fraudulent science.
00:41:28.000So, you know, your dad is attacked, and I'm sure in many cases, for being anti-science.
00:41:34.000And I'll tell you, Don, from my limited vantage point behind closed doors, I have never heard an ideological statement ever uttered in a Kennedy meeting or a meeting with the Trump staff.
00:41:42.000It is literally People trying to figure out how to get back to foundational science.
00:41:48.000It is literally trying to figure out with the NIH budget how to arm the best scientists in the world and unburden them from any restrictions on academic freedom to get to core questions.
00:41:59.000There's so much bureaucracy right now preventing that from happening.
00:42:29.000And that's the biggest part of the federal budget, that department.
00:42:32.000So just figuring out how to basically change the standard of care to where your kid, if you have a kid in high school, you probably see this, right?
00:42:39.000That doctor's going quick to the prescription pad, right?
00:42:42.000You probably see with your high school, right?
00:42:45.000It's just like SSRIs prescribed like candy, statins.
00:42:50.000You know, it's just like that's because of CMS. That's because of Medicare, Medicaid, which then goes to private insurance.
00:42:57.000And It all comes from the standard of care.
00:43:00.000So when you have the right research, I don't know, maybe that kids are getting obese because they're eating too much ultra-processed food, and then you have more standards of care.
00:43:07.000Okay, instead of jamming a Zimpik into a kid's arm who's obese, maybe we can put them on a dietary intervention.
00:43:12.000Maybe we can put them on an incentivized exercise.
00:43:15.000You can start then changing the standards of care.
00:43:29.000They have a mandate on chronic disease.
00:43:31.000The chronic disease, and their mandate is infectious and chronic disease.
00:43:34.000So, of course, having the best standards on infectious disease and being prepared for future pandemics is important, but steering the overall posture of the CDC and our overall health authorities to reversing the chronic disease crisis as a general policy emphasis, that will have a big impact as well.
00:43:51.000So, you know, on this show, we talk a lot about sort of, you know, we look deeply at the VA hospitals.
00:43:55.000Is the model you're talking about something that you can use to improve quality of care there as well?
00:44:00.000I mean, it seems like in all these departments, there's just huge opportunities to really just improve people's quality of life.
00:44:07.000But they're siloed, and they're bureaucratized, and it just creates something that just feels like wasteful and inefficient.
00:44:14.000Yeah, you've hit on this a couple of times.
00:44:16.000I think there's a great – from my limited vantage point, Bobby, there's great discussion happening with this incredible reformer cabinet slate.
00:44:24.000And I think a lot of evil and a lot of corruption hides in this disaggregation of all the different departments.
00:44:30.000So I know Bobby's team is talking to the VA. Frankly, there's better regulations inside baseball.
00:44:35.000There's more you can test there more quickly.
00:44:37.000But we're totally letting down our veterans.
00:44:39.000I mean, rates of chronic disease are much higher for them than the general population.
00:44:44.000It's still part of the sick care system.
00:44:46.000So yeah, I mean, I can't stress this enough.
00:44:48.000If you can get the science right and then do innovative things with CMS codes, that's jointly collaborated with the VA. Potentially due to some regulations, you can test it more quickly.
00:44:57.000I mean an example I'm particularly passionate about, and I don't know whether this is right or wrong, but there's a mental health epidemic among veterans.
00:45:17.000You know, again, we need to see the data and let the science run its course.
00:45:21.000But, you know, by all accounts that I'm hearing, that's been a real transformative intervention for Navy SEALs who are on the verge of suicide.
00:45:29.000I'm doing a podcast with one in a couple weeks.
00:45:31.000I mean, this is a transformative intervention.
00:45:35.000That was shot down by the FDA. So I think this idea of deregulation, this idea of, frankly, a more libertarian mindset, a less corrupt mindset, letting people experiment more, we have a mandated one-size-fits-all medical system where if you're a depressed soldier, you're getting that SSRI. So that's just an example of how we can all kind of work together.
00:46:00.000So, you know, speaking of sort of mindsets, I guess in the past, things like, you know, organic foods have been more linked to the left as sort of a, you know, hippie living, but on a more philosophical level, like how is organic food, you know, And dealing with all of that, it's sort of become a big part of the conservative movement now.
00:46:20.000You look at sort of the food pyramid, turned out it was upside down.
00:46:23.000And, you know, it's sort of interesting that this has changed.
00:46:28.000And, you know, what do you see going on there?
00:46:31.000You know, I'm curious your thoughts after this, Don, because I know you're doing things that were, you know, I know you're outdoors a lot and talking a lot about nature and even environmentalism, I consider it.
00:46:48.000I consider myself a conservative, and the foundation of that is the individual autonomy and human flourishing.
00:46:56.000And through corruption and through corporate capture, we're systematically poisoning our kids.
00:47:01.000We talk about this in our book, but it's multifaceted.
00:47:04.000But force-feeding kids basically alter processed food, having the American Academy of Pediatrics accept 90% of their funding from pharmaceutical and food companies, and then in some cases say formula is better than breastfeeding.
00:47:18.000Say that ultra-processed food is the first food that they should be eating, right?
00:47:23.000Basically say ultra-processed food diet's fine.
00:47:25.000You know, you basically just have all of these affronts to a child's cell.
00:47:30.000I mean, I was just with a friend who has chickens, and they turn the lights on in the chicken house.
00:47:37.000They lay two times more eggs just with the light on.
00:47:41.000This isn't ideological, but what's happening to our sleep, our circadian rhythm, light, movement, chronic stress, which is a huge issue, every kid having a cell phone.
00:47:51.000These are basic things every parent's worried about, but these are changing our hormones.
00:48:41.000And I think before any kind of policy argument Man, if kids are going to die younger than their parents, if we have a mass infertility crisis where we're having trouble reproducing as a species, where truly I think we have a societally catastrophic mental health crisis among kids, it's like this is kind of the base of the pyramid, honestly.
00:49:03.000And again, Don, I'm curious how you see it, but I think The political win, which is vital, we need to get called.
00:49:14.000To provide that to the MAGA. I think it falls very well under the core thesis your dad's been making, which is the American people want to thrive, but it's this corruption in the way.
00:49:26.000It's another proof point of exactly what your dad's been saying, is I think the argument that was really made well during the campaign.
00:49:32.000Yeah, you know, I mean, you bring up some good points.
00:50:49.000I don't know if you saw this, but Biden gave a nice Christmas present to Pharma on his way out the door and said that on Medicare, we need to cover – the taxpayers need to foot the bill for Ozempic.
00:51:00.000Now, we're not an anti—it's not an anti-drug, you know, kind of Luddite, head-in-the-sand thing.
00:51:06.000But what this ruling does is it says anybody that's obese or overweight—it's indicated for overweight as well—so that's 80% of people on Medicare immediately get government-funded Ozymbic $1,600, okay, a month.
00:51:20.000And the key thing is it wasn't like wait and see after dietary.
00:51:32.000So you're going to have government-funded obesity jabs, lifetime.
00:51:38.000And it's like, just as a thought experiment, what could you do with that $1,600 more effectively?
00:51:44.000Your dad and the Republican platform talks about benefit flexibility, this idea of giving people choice.
00:51:50.000I think that's a core to the Maha message.
00:51:51.000It's like maybe the drugs are good for some people, but I guarantee if you give a family that $600 for their obese child, they're probably going to be going other directions first.
00:52:01.000And I think that's kind of a core – we're kind of mandating – Yeah.
00:52:06.000Put the kid in jujitsu and let's see what happens first.
00:52:09.000By the way, I know guys that were 400 pounds that lost 200 pounds on Ozempic.
00:52:14.000I'm sure it was actually beneficial to them if they couldn't do it a different way.
00:52:17.000I'm not going to be a purist on the subject.
00:52:19.000I think it's probably the cost-benefit analysis.
00:52:22.000I'm sure there's side effects, but the side effect of being 400 pounds is probably worse than whatever the other side effect is.
00:52:31.000You know, just arbitrarily sending it to anyone who's gained three pounds, probably not, you know, and it probably not a great lesson for life where just, you know, sort of discard all discipline, discard all accountability.
00:52:41.000Just, you know, there's a shot or a pill for that, you know, probably not a great example.
00:52:45.000But there is confusion sort of with what's out there for so much.
00:52:48.000I mean, I guess, you know, we talked a little bit about sort of, you know, the interesting notion of You know, sort of, you know, healthy food actually being commandeered the switch to sort of, you know, conservatism where, you know, we took over sort of healthy foods and, you know, a protein-based diet.
00:53:03.000And I guess we was always probably there, but it wasn't really a political issue.
00:53:06.000But when you talk about, you know, organic or non-GMO, whatever other, you know, else the label might say, what should people be on the lookout for in our everyday lives?
00:53:15.000You know, I see it with, you know, there's salmon, then there's, you know, Wild salmon, and then there's a different kind of salmon, and then there's this, and you're like, half the labels sound like it's the right choice, but when you look at what they're actually feeding, this is the garbage that they're shoveling off a boat into a net.
00:53:29.000It has to be wild-caught, not just wild, because wild is like, it's in the wild.
00:54:42.000And then there's lobbying after World War II and it's cheap, but it's engine lubricant.
00:54:48.000And now what we're hearing as it's become the top source of American calories, a disgusting process that involves bleach and all these chemicals to even make it edible.
00:54:57.000I mean, then we're told and we're jammed over our head.
00:55:01.000That we need human randomized control studies and it's anti-science to even question these things.
00:55:07.000So it's kind of you jam these things into our food supply through a totally corrupt lens.
00:55:12.000The American Heart Association, their biggest donor decades ago when these oils were recommended was Crisco, was Procter& Gamble.
00:55:56.000I believe that seed oils, if you can actually just not eat those, You're actually doing 67% of the work because the processed food that contains seed oils is the worst processed food.
00:56:09.000So if I could give one tip to a family and experiment, actually look at the labels.
00:56:14.000And even if you're eating food out of a box, don't eat seed oils.
00:56:18.000Do olive oil, do coconut oil, do butter, do avocado oil, fats like that, but avoid canola, safflower, cottonseed, you know, Oils like that, seed oils.
00:56:50.000And then highly processed grains, wheat.
00:56:53.000This gets another thing where we're hit over the head with the research, but you talk about going to Europe and eating a bunch of pasta and losing weight.
00:56:58.000I think there's something really problematic with how we do grains in this country.
00:57:46.000And if you can get those five biomarkers for you and your kids in line, you almost by definition don't get nine of the ten killers of Americans, almost by definition.
00:57:57.000So I think we go over this in the book, but like those five biomarkers, really study what those mean.
00:58:03.000Those are signs of metabolic dysfunction.
00:58:06.000And I think the national kind of health policy for the country should actually be getting those biomarkers under control because if Those are basically the biomarkers for chronic disease, and we should all be playing a game to get those under control.
00:58:19.000And that's interesting because, again, as an outsider who doesn't spend his life studying this, tries to do reasonably well, but maybe have a little high cholesterol, but reasonably good shape for an old man.
00:58:31.000It feels like it's so much more complicated than what you just broke it down.
00:58:35.000I mean, these are things you can look for fairly easily.
00:58:37.000I mean, there's obviously sort of the no-brainer things that you can enjoy, and you can probably, you know, I jokingly put that Picture that got Bobby in a little bit of trouble of all of us eating McDonald's at 3 o'clock in the morning coming back from UFC. I was like, gotta do it, man.
00:58:51.000I love how that just made all the people we don't like.
00:58:54.000I think it's like my most liked Instagram post ever.
00:58:56.000It was like, you know, it was like the guy got his hand caught in the cookie jar and it was like, you know, yeah, we're judging you, Bobby.
01:00:23.000So I can't emphasize it enough with Jay and with Marty at the FDA and with this day one Um, initiative your, your, uh, uh, dad's talked about with the chronic disease reversal panel, just bringing attention to this issue and actually just giving the right guidance.
01:00:41.000I'm telling you, if Dr. Fauci or ever, you know, people like that stood up during COVID with the head of the NIH and Harvard medical school, and they said, we're dying at 16%.
01:00:52.000Well, Kelly, give us the name of the book so everyone can check it out for those who want it.
01:01:04.000I mean, obviously, you know, it's a big deal with our people, and I'm glad it's a big deal with our people, finally.
01:01:21.000I just ask everyone to keep up the good vibes for Bobby and your dad.
01:01:25.000I think we have this positive, just incredibly optimistic vision on health and just so grateful to be a small part of knowing Bobby and the Trump team and seeing them just absolutely crank on this issue.
01:01:37.000Well, hopefully you and your sister become a big part of that team.