Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau joins the show to talk about what it's like to work at the White House with the press corps and why it's so important to have a Dad in the Oval Office. Plus, Schiff announces that gold will not be tariffed.
00:01:20.000And if you're in Florida, for it may be even the first week of school.
00:01:25.000I know my kids are probably not so thrilled about that right now.
00:01:28.000But speaking of class and being back in session, that's sort of what it feels like my father's doing every day in Washington, D.C. with the White House Press Corps.
00:01:37.000We'll play some clips from his major announcement earlier today, later on the show, plus some big breaking news we're learning about right now.
00:01:48.000And let's just say, it's not going to be a great day if you're Adam Schiff.
00:01:53.000And we're going to switch things up a little bit today.
00:01:56.000To start the show off, we'll have Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau joining the show, and then we'll do the news of the week.
00:02:04.000So a little bit of a reverse order from what we normally do with the news rundown coming second, but we got an opportunity to meet with someone who's on the forefront of some of the major things, things that are really happening around the world.
00:02:15.000There's so much going on all over the place, and we're just going to get right into it.
00:02:20.000Guys, make sure you're liking, sharing, subscribing so you never miss one of these major episodes.
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00:02:32.000For all of the top headlines that we cover on the show, go over, check out my news app, MXM News, where you can get the mainstream news without the mainstream bias.
00:02:42.000And of course, don't forget about our brave sponsors for having the guts to support this program, sponsors like the Birch Gold Group.
00:02:49.000So ask yourself, can the Fed take the right action at the right time?
00:02:54.000And what does that mean for your savings?
00:02:56.000Consider diversifying with gold through the Birch Gold Group.
00:02:59.000Just today, my father announced that gold will not be tariffed.
00:03:02.000So educate yourself and learn about the steps you can take to protect your family's future.
00:03:07.000If you have an IRA or old 401k, you can convert that into a tax-sheltered IRA in physical gold.
00:03:14.000So just text my name, Don Jr., D-O-N-J-R, to the number 989898 for your free info kit.
00:03:25.000Again, text Don Jr., D-O-N-J-R, to the number 989898.
00:03:32.000And guys, like I said, there's so much happening at home and abroad that we're going to jump right into our first guest who has been doing incredible work at the State Department in pretty much every corner of the globe.
00:03:46.000So joining me now to explain in much more and greater detail than I could possibly do, Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau.
00:04:26.000You know, your dad has given Us freedom to re-examine a lot of the premises of U.S. foreign policy in a way that hasn't been done in decades.
00:04:40.000You know, the Cold War ended in the early 90s.
00:04:43.000We had a clear foreign policy purpose through much of our young lives, those of us who are in our 40s or 50s, 60s.
00:04:52.000We grew up in a Cold War era, and it was pretty clear that around the world we were facing the communist bloc, the Soviet Union.
00:05:04.000So more than 30 years ago, basically, for the last three decades, U.S. foreign policy has just kind of been drifting along without a clear sense of what we're doing in the world.
00:05:14.000And as you've seen, all your viewers have seen, you know, we kind of bumbled into wars, you know, forever wars in very remote parts of the world without clearly defined objectives.
00:05:25.000And I think the American people are sick and tired of that.
00:05:28.000I think it's one of the reasons, one of the many reasons that your dad is sitting in the Oval Office now because he tapped into that.
00:05:33.000So it's very exciting to be in the State Department and actually saying, you know, the president has enunciated an America-first foreign policy.
00:05:42.000What that means is that everything we do in this building has to go to make our country great again.
00:05:48.000We're not here for the benefit of other countries.
00:05:57.000We were sort of a rudderless vessel for many years.
00:05:59.000It's like jumping from one war to the other because people around the DC Beltway made a lot of money doing that, despite what it did to the American middle class, what it did to inflation, what it did to our stockpiles and our morale.
00:06:12.000But even relative to the first term, this time around, it also feels different because it feels like everyone's on the same page.
00:06:19.000I mean, when I've watched, again, what you've done, what Secretary Rubio has done, everyone's on that page and they're looking to enact the things that he wants to do.
00:06:28.000They're not kicking the ball down the road, hoping for this time to pass and we can get back to business as usual.
00:06:37.000And in a lot of ways, I think having that four-year interregnum gave a lot of us who were in the first administration really time to think about what we did well, what we could do better.
00:06:50.000And, you know, frankly, having worked together in the first administration, we kind of figured out who was really on the program with your dad's policies.
00:06:59.000I mean, when he won in 2016, basically anybody on the Republican side with foreign policy experience had gained it during the Bush administration.
00:07:08.000That turned out to be the most internationalist of probably any since Woodrow Wilson's days.
00:07:14.000So, you know, it was a big problem that a lot of people with R's after their names, frankly, did not believe in a restrained foreign policy.
00:07:23.000They believed in kind of imposing our systems all over the world.
00:07:28.000And so, frankly, a lot of the struggles within the administration took up a lot of our time and energy.
00:07:36.000I mean, we kind of know, you know, from the first administration, you know, who really is a believer in America-first foreign policy.
00:07:46.000I was ambassador to Mexico during your dad's first administration.
00:07:50.000And, you know, I got a lot of experience on the ground there.
00:07:53.000I came into that job from the private sector.
00:07:55.000I was a lawyer in private practice for 25, 30 years.
00:07:59.000And let me tell you, I learned a lot about the way the bureaucracy works and kind of how you actually can get the bureaucracy to come along.
00:08:10.000And, you know, it's all a question of incentives, but you can't just parachute into some of these government agencies and expect people to click their heels and start following orders.
00:08:21.000I mean, especially when you're kind of a disruptor and you're not just following business as usual.
00:08:26.000Yeah, I remember, I mean, we had a conversation during the transition period.
00:08:30.000You know, I haven't been involved since then, but since my father took office, but you could have a directive.
00:08:36.000You could know what he wanted to do as the president of the United States.
00:08:39.000But it almost didn't matter because the bureaucracy could prevent that from actually happening.
00:08:44.000Even things that were common sense, even things that were America first, even things that the voters clearly voted for, it didn't matter because they knew better and they knew how to foil whatever plans you guys may have wanted to actually have.
00:08:56.000That seems to be a lot different this time around.
00:09:00.000And look, I think that's one of the reasons why the president is such a grand figure in American political history, that I think we were losing our democracy because essentially, no matter who people voted for, they'd wind up with the same old darn policies, even if you were voting against that policy.
00:09:19.000Because frankly, the bureaucracy stayed in place.
00:09:23.000And unless you learn how to actually keep the bureaucracy responsive to your agenda, your agenda is going to be thwarted.
00:09:34.000And I think the president now is exerting his chief executive constitutional function with more vigor, probably than any president, maybe since Franklin Roosevelt.
00:09:48.000It's a beautiful thing to see for those of us who come from a constitutional law background, because I think our system of separated powers had gotten perverted over the years because the executive branch was no longer really accountable to the people who voted for the chief executive because the executive branch was controlled by this permanent bureaucracy.
00:10:06.000Yeah, no, I mean, I think every, you know, we talk about it on the show a lot, obviously, you know, the problems of the past, but, you know, again, so many good things going on towards the future.
00:10:14.000Obviously, there's just so much going on around the world.
00:10:17.000But I do want to start with perhaps your comments earlier today after we learned that Colombian opposition leader Miguel Urebe died after being shot at a campaign event back in June.
00:10:29.000This was a political assassination against a rising star who was a voice for freedom and liberty and democracy.
00:10:37.000What else can you tell us about what's going on there right now?
00:10:40.000First, let me say one thing I think is really important.
00:10:42.000In American foreign policy, we are returning to basics and some of our long-standing traditions.
00:10:49.000One of those is a focus on our own hemisphere, on this neighborhood.
00:10:54.000I mean, American foreign policy for way too long has been focused almost exclusively with Europe and the Middle East, and we have ignored our own backyard.
00:11:04.000Again, I saw that firsthand when I was ambassador to Mexico during the first Trump term, that there had been very little attention paid to the Western Hemisphere.
00:11:13.000So I think it is very exciting to work with Secretary Rubio.
00:11:17.000He's very interested in the Western hemisphere.
00:11:20.000I'm very interested in the Western Hemisphere.
00:11:21.000My father was a career foreign service officer, and I actually grew up in South America.
00:11:26.000So I was born in Spain when he was working at the U.S. Embassy there.
00:11:30.000And so I think both of us have a very strong belief that reflects your father's priorities that we need to do more and engage in the Western hemisphere.
00:11:40.000So, you know, we're very interested, you know, what happens in places like Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico.
00:11:46.000This impacts us directly, obviously for migration reasons, but for many others.
00:11:50.000And, you know, it is very disturbing that, you know, conservative right-of-center candidates in many countries, frankly, including our own country, have been the subject of assassination attempts or outright assassinations.
00:12:46.000Like 30 potential presidential candidates were killed, I guess, because they weren't on the cartel payroll or weren't going to get all the cartel payrolls.
00:12:53.000So rather than just have elections, they just decided it's easier to kill them all.
00:12:57.000It's a real danger when you don't have strong rule of law and law enforcement capabilities in a country.
00:13:05.000And again, this is absolutely vital to democracy.
00:13:08.000In a way, you can't have a functioning democracy unless you have those institutions.
00:13:13.000Frankly, having institutions is no guarantee either, as we saw in Butler, Pennsylvania.
00:13:17.000Yeah, we have them here and they didn't do much over the last five, six, seven years between Russia, Russia, Russia, all the nonsense impeachments, all the other lawfare.
00:13:26.000But I mean, in Colombia, we're seeing it, and it's perhaps even more drastic because I guess There's not even a pretense of objectivity there, but there we're seeing Colombian President Petro and his enablers using lawfare to go after other top political opponents like former President Urebe.
00:13:41.000And he's been continuing to lash out and attack my father over his mission to destroy the cartels.
00:13:47.000I guess, you know, I guess he's on the payroll and he understands where his bread is buttered, so he's going to defend the cartels.
00:13:52.000But we have similar hostilities from the Mexican president.
00:13:58.000How can we see them as reliable partners in anti-narcotic efforts at this point, given either their capitulation to the cartels or them seemingly almost acting like a sounding board for them?
00:14:11.000I think you have to have very clear lines in terms of what we expect on cooperation.
00:14:19.000And we have been very clear with Mexico what we expect them to do.
00:14:26.000And frankly, what we do on our side of the border as well.
00:14:29.000I mean, I think these are issues that, again, have kind of been going on autopilot for a long time.
00:14:38.000And I think now, you know, we are starting to take firm, aggressive action or affirmative action on these issues for the first time in many years.
00:14:48.000I mean, we just designated a whole bunch of these cartels as terrorist groups, which opens up a new toolbox for us to work with.
00:14:57.000We're stopping the flow of money and weapons to the cartels.
00:15:03.000And we're making sure that the governments in the region understand that we're not kidding around.
00:15:08.000And I think we have just made it clear that there is a diplomatic dimension here, but there's also a law enforcement dimension.
00:15:16.000And I don't know if your viewers might have seen, but we just doubled the reward for information leading to the arrest of the president of Venezuela, or the guy who claims to be the president of Venezuela.
00:15:29.000We don't recognize his government as legitimate because there was a brazenly stolen election last year.
00:15:37.000And so, you know, this is the problem.
00:15:40.000You can't really pretend to have a diplomatic relationship with somebody who basically is the leader of a criminal cartel who occupies the presidential chair, right?
00:15:52.000Well, Maduro is clearly cozying up to Petro right next door.
00:15:56.000I know last week you guys announced a record $50 million bounty on Maduro for his drug trafficking and terror crimes.
00:16:04.000I mean, clearly, this is a situation of high urgency.
00:16:16.000I always say that for perspective, because when you think about over a decade that we are in the Vietnam conflict and we lost 50,000 Americans plus 54,000 approximately, that happens every year times two due to fentanyl.
00:16:29.000And that's coming from our neighbors right next door.
00:16:32.000So clearly, that is a situation of high urgency that we have neglected for far too long.
00:16:37.000What do the next steps there look like in your mind?
00:16:40.000Because I think on a day-to-day basis, that affects a lot more Americans than a lot of the other stuff that we've focused a lot more time, energy, capital, et cetera, on over the last few decades.
00:16:51.000Well, I think this is becoming one of the key challenges for our foreign policy.
00:16:54.000And frankly, that issue is not limited to our hemisphere.
00:16:58.000I mean, a lot of the precursor chemicals from fentanyl actually come from Asia, particularly from China.
00:17:04.000And so this is becoming a major topic on our relationship with China.
00:17:09.000And, you know, the president put tariffs in place early in his administration based in part on fentanyl imports to our country.
00:17:18.000I mean, both on China, also on Mexico and Canada.
00:17:22.000I mean, this is an incredibly difficult problem, but part of the challenge is we can't just go around saying it's difficult.
00:17:32.000We got to start doing something about it.
00:17:34.000And I think we have to make sure that these very dangerous chemicals that can make a drug into however potent you want to make it.
00:17:45.000I mean, look, for whatever, 50 years, we had a hard time combating drugs that were grown out in the open organically in fields.
00:17:54.000I mean, now this is something that with a few chemicals in a lab, you can do it in a basement.
00:17:58.000And I think about five pounds of pure fentanyl can produce, I don't know, 1.4 million tablets.
00:18:07.000The numbers are staggering because basically the amount of fentanyl that's the equivalent of a grain of salt or grain of sand is probably enough to kill an ordinary sized adult human.
00:18:17.000So the challenge is overwhelming here.
00:18:20.000But I mean, this is why we have to say, we're past the talking phase, right?
00:18:28.000And that's why I think the tariffs definitely help get people's attention and they have our attention.
00:18:34.000I mean, I think we're in a better place, frankly, now with the whole world that people understand that we mean business.
00:18:42.000And this administration wants results, not just high-level gatherings for people to jawbone about problems.
00:18:51.000But the president was elected to actually make life better for the American people.
00:18:57.000And that's what we are dedicated to doing.
00:18:59.000And we're using all the tools in our toolkit.
00:19:03.000Well, I mean, you said in a statement that Venezuela's been hijacked by a criminal gang and it's fundamentally a law enforcement matter, not a diplomatic one.
00:19:11.000There was an election in Venezuela last July.
00:19:14.000Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Carina Machado, who's been on the show, won in a dominating fashion.
00:19:21.000So, you know, what is the path to a prompt restoration of constitutional government there?
00:19:27.000And do you see Venezuelan opposition as stronger than they've ever been before?
00:19:31.000Is that realistic or is this just controlled by a despot dictator at this point?
00:19:36.000Well, I think people are going to be seeing some action in this.
00:19:39.000I mean, I think, again, the increasing the reward on Maduro's head to $50 million, I think, sent an unequivocal message.
00:19:49.000I think the designation of his cartel as a foreign terrorist organization sent an unequivocal message.
00:19:56.000I think people will be seeing some more actions in the coming days and weeks that we'll be sending messages.
00:20:03.000But ultimately, look, I mean, the Venezuelan people have to rise up and claim their own freedom, right?
00:20:10.000I mean, I think one of the problems we've seen in the world is that, you know, if people don't earn their own freedom, they don't appreciate it, right?
00:20:18.000We can't go around the world changing governments at our whim.
00:20:22.000We can certainly try to take actions to defend our interests and try to create conditions for the people in various countries to take appropriate actions.
00:20:35.000But ultimately, I think we have realized that this is one of the follies of Iraq and Afghanistan, that you can't necessarily have the United States jump into another country and sit in the driver's seat, right?
00:20:52.000Yeah, regime change hasn't exactly been one of the more successful aspects of our foreign policy for the last few decades.
00:21:22.000And I think part of our creation that makes our country so great is that we knew we want our freedom.
00:21:27.000Yes, we had some help from France and other countries.
00:21:30.000And again, I think we want to be helpful to the cause of freedom around the world, but I think that is different than coming in like Lady Bountiful and saying, oh, here, foreign country, here's your freedom.
00:21:41.000Then they don't know what to do with it because they didn't earn it.
00:21:43.000So again, I think that's the challenge.
00:21:46.000That's the line we're walking now of working with forces of democracy and free market forces.
00:21:56.000And again, recognizing which countries around the world are really critical to U.S. interests.
00:22:02.000I mean, we've been talking about Venezuela.
00:22:05.000The migration crisis out of Venezuela has been very destabilizing for the whole Western hemisphere.
00:22:10.000I mean, I think there's hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in our country, Pendaragua.
00:22:15.000I mean, we have suffered a lot of consequences.
00:22:18.000And frankly, other countries have it worse.
00:22:20.000I mean, Peru, I think Colombia have many, many millions of Venezuelans.
00:22:26.000That country, I think, a third of their population has had to flee these horrible left-wing policies that have destroyed what was once the richest country in South America.
00:22:36.000So, again, I think hopefully, I think it was so great that you had Maria Carina Machado on your show.
00:22:43.000I mean, she's somebody that I admire tremendously.
00:22:47.000And clearly, she won the election last year.
00:22:51.000I mean, it was just embarrassing, actually, that they tried to put up a pretense that the government, you know, the people who now sit in the presidential chair, the person who sits there, everybody knows, including him, that he has no basis being there.
00:23:08.000So, you know, I very much look forward to a day very soon when we have constitutional order restored in Venezuela.
00:23:17.000Yeah, because I guess, you know, then you could also head over to Brazil, and we're seeing the same types of lawfare and corruption on full display in the attacks against Yayer Bolsonaro, where a single Supreme Court justice has completely usurped authority and destroyed the separation of powers there.
00:23:33.000Recently, the State Department and Treasury imposed sanctions there.
00:23:39.000Because it feels like Latin America is more of a mess than perhaps it's ever been, or at least certainly in recent memory.
00:23:45.000Well, I mean, in part, that's thanks to the previous administration here in the United States that frankly put a thumb on the scales to try to help some of these far-left governments come to power in the last few years.
00:23:57.000I mean, we saw far-left governments come to power in Chile, Colombia, Brazil.
00:24:04.000I mean, these are countries, you know, particularly Chile and Colombia, had, you know, traditionally had very mainstream or, you know, even more conservative governments.
00:24:14.000And, you know, they, you know, the Biden administration and USAID and NGO, the whole NGO network, I think, really tilted the playing field.
00:24:27.000And, you know, I think the case of Brazil is particularly anomalous because there you have a Supreme Court justice who is really taking a leading role in basically running that country.
00:24:41.000Yeah, I mean, it feels like he's got more power and authority than the duly elected president of the nation.
00:24:47.000Again, it actually kind of shows almost like, you know, if you had some of these district court judges who are issuing these crazy rulings in our country actually running the show, you know, what our country would look like.
00:25:00.000I mean, I actually think that this is something important for your viewers to think about.
00:25:04.000I mean, I think this whole lawfare issue is not just a passing fad.
00:25:09.000I think this is going to be one of the big challenges of the 21st century, that a lot of the elites who I think are going to be driven from power in any country with any kind of democratic system are going to try to avoid that by basically censoring the opposition, precluding candidates from running.
00:25:32.000And then if candidates are elected, they will try to thwart it, all from the judicial branch saying that they're just upholding the rule of law when they're doing things that are completely beyond the bounds of what any law has ever done before.
00:25:48.000They're trying to thwart the will of the people.
00:25:52.000And yet when you look at what's happened in America over the last few years, you say, maybe they're just taking our lead.
00:25:57.000I mean, that's banana republic stuff that we're seeing, but honestly, it's not that different than what's going on over here for the last little while.
00:26:04.000I mean, I think, you know, frankly, this, what happened, particularly to your father and you, frankly, I mean, you have been the recipient of this, Don.
00:26:14.000I don't tell you of all people, but, you know, this is something that we're seeing here too.
00:26:20.000And frankly, we're seeing it since your father's election.
00:26:23.000I mean, the Supreme Court has had to step in, you know, in scores of cases to stop the rulings of really lawless district judges.
00:26:38.000It pains me to see the kind of stuff that's going on that people here, some of these judges seem to think that it is their job to thwart the policy of the Trump administration.
00:26:49.000So any crazy complaint is thrown in front of them.
00:26:52.000The next thing you know, within 10 minutes, there's a preliminary injunction.
00:26:57.000And again, but this is something I think In Europe, in South America, all over the world, we're seeing this lawfare arising, I think, as a very serious threat to democracy.
00:27:10.000And what's most insidious, again, is that they cloak themselves in the rule of law and they purport to be defending democracy.
00:27:17.000Yeah, we got to run roughshod over democracy to protect democracy.
00:27:21.000I mean, it's a little bit wild, but I mean, you grew up as the son of a diplomat.
00:27:25.000You've been a diplomat yourself in my father's first administration, still now.
00:27:31.000You know the world well, and specifically the Western hemisphere.
00:27:34.000Can you give us a broad look at your mission in this critical moment in history right now at state?
00:27:41.000Look, I think globally, we are kind of changing the, you know, a lot of the traditional, you know, what the State Department has been up to in a lot of countries.
00:27:51.000And, you know, in particular, you know, in the early months of the administration, we cast a spotlight on this whole kind of USAID NGO network that was pushing a lot of left-wing ideology out in the world as the foreign policy of the United States.
00:28:13.000It had nothing to do with actually promoting American interests.
00:28:18.000We had this whole organization called United States Agency for International Development that wasn't doing anything involving international development, was doing kind of nakedly.
00:28:29.000And was also completely at odds with our foreign policy.
00:28:32.000So what we have done now is that we have brought most of the functions of that agency into the State Department so they're synced up with our foreign policy goals.
00:28:42.000And, you know, I think it's very important, again, to just go back to basics.
00:29:08.000And I always feel, and I ask this question in every meeting, like, why do we care about this?
00:29:14.000I mean, there's a lot of crazy stuff that goes on all over the world.
00:29:17.000I think the first question is, why is this, right?
00:29:21.000I mean, we need to define, as a United States, I think we've gone through a period now where everything in the world is our business, right?
00:29:28.000If all of a sudden everything is critical, if the situation in Burundi is absolutely critical, well, if everything is critical, then nothing is critical, right?
00:29:36.000We have to learn to prioritize what are our interests in the world and what does actually make our people safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
00:29:48.000And particularly, I think the commercial element of diplomacy, which was what the founders cared about.
00:29:54.000The founders said we want intercourse with foreign nations in order to bring prosperity to our country so we can engage in trade.
00:30:01.000That has been taking the back seat for decades now to political and military imperatives.
00:30:07.000And meanwhile, as you mentioned earlier, our industrial base was hollowed out and sent abroad.
00:30:13.000And countries have been ripping us off left and right.
00:30:18.000I was just talking to some ambassador, one of our ambassadors, who said, we have a fisheries treaty in the Atlantic that I think allows the Europeans to take in maybe 15 times more fish than we do.
00:30:32.000But I mean, I think for a long time, people have just been missing that basic sense that our foreign policy, again, exists for our country.
00:30:42.000We are part of the executive branch of government, right?
00:30:44.000There's no State Department foreign policy.
00:30:46.000There's one person that the Constitution names in the field of foreign affairs.
00:30:52.000We are part of the executive branch of foreign federal government, right?
00:30:58.000And the Constitution gives the president very broad control over foreign affairs.
00:31:04.000So our job in the State Department is to enact the president's agenda.
00:31:10.000Yeah, and I think you guys are getting that done.
00:31:12.000I mean, you got peace deals between Thailand and Cambodia.
00:31:16.000Two weeks ago, I got to sort of be a fly on the wall as some of that was going on when I was with my father in Scotland.
00:31:22.000You have multiple that have been going on.
00:31:25.000I mean, you had Azerbaijan and Armenia this week.
00:31:29.000And Later this week, I know the president, my father, is scheduled to hold a meeting in Alaska with Putin.
00:31:37.000What can you tell us about what path towards ending this insane war in Ukraine looks like?
00:31:43.000And does that path, what does it look like at the State Department?
00:31:48.000Look, I think that you've just hit the nail on the head on a very important point.
00:31:53.000I mean, for the last many administrations, no matter who people voted for, we wound up getting involved in more foreign wars.
00:32:00.000And I think the president now has the stature and has the willingness to provide the good offices of the United States to actually resolve these conflicts.
00:32:11.000Countries around the world are so happy that finally there's somebody who's actually trying to bring about peace.
00:32:20.000And the president of the United States, that's a big responsibility.
00:32:25.000And finally, after four years of the auto pen, we actually have a human being who actually is exercising the full authority of that office.
00:32:48.000I've heard your father talk about this on many occasions.
00:32:51.000I think he is really distraught by just the human suffering that tens of thousands of people are dying there daily and weekly.
00:33:01.000And nobody really seems to have a great idea about how to end this thing.
00:33:07.000And I think somebody has got to say, folks, come on, there's got to be a way to make a deal here that you are better off instead of just continuing to kill each other, just coming up with a deal.
00:33:21.000And it is shocking to me that so many people are attacking him for wanting to be a peacemaker.
00:33:29.000I mean, since when is the great irony is he's created more peace than anyone, and he was the guy that was going to bring on World War III, according to the morons.
00:33:38.000But I mean, and there's people in, you know, frankly, in the deep state, I think, who are just used to an eternal state of conflict because that kind of justifies the existence of a massive American diplomatic and military footprint all around the world.
00:33:55.000I don't think American people want that.
00:33:58.000I think people want to get around their own business.
00:34:00.000People are not interested in what is happening in countries that they literally have never heard of.
00:34:05.000And frankly, it's our job to make sure they never have to hear those countries.
00:34:10.000I mean, I grew up at the tail end of the Vietnam War.
00:34:13.000I still remember news broadcasts when I was a boy of the terrible things happening.
00:34:21.000I was like, what the heck are we doing in that part of the world?
00:34:24.000And I remember my brother was of draft age and they had the lottery where they're taking bingo numbers out of the ball, whether or not you're going to have to go to Vietnam.
00:34:36.000And we should not be in a situation again where young American men or women, they should know that if they're going to be called up to go into action, it's because critical interests of our country, our national security, are at stake and the homeland is threatened, right?
00:34:52.000We are not going to go around the world having young Americans die when somebody in my shoes can't explain to them in one or two simple sentences why they are being sent to die.
00:35:04.000If it's something that's very complicated, then you can probably tell then that's not something that we should be involved in, sending our own children to die.
00:35:12.000And that's frankly what we've done for 30 years.
00:35:14.000So I am very proud to be a part of a peace administration.
00:35:19.000And I hope we can convince Russia and Ukraine.
00:35:22.000As your dad said, with Israel and Iran, sometimes people are so used to fighting, they just can't, it's like a dog that can't let go of a bone.
00:35:31.000I believe the quote was, they don't even know what the F they're talking about anymore.
00:35:35.000I mean, there's a lot of truth to that.
00:35:37.000And, you know, I think, again, frankly, that's even true on our side.
00:35:41.000Sometimes people are so used to kind of conventional thinking about something.
00:35:47.000What I try to do in my job is bring a fresh perspective to these issues that, frankly, again, people are kind of already thinking inside The box.
00:36:00.000And I think it is such a blessing to have a president who says, you know, something, thinking inside the box has brought our country to terrible situations when we have had so many people, you know, die overseas.
00:36:13.000Meanwhile, our own factories are being emptied out.
00:36:16.000Our streets are being flooded with fentanyl and illegal immigrants.
00:36:19.000What the heck are the people running this country doing?
00:36:22.000And it's clearly not for the good of the American people.
00:36:25.000So, you know, honestly, people are not used to seeing people in my job at the State Department talking about these kind of things.
00:36:34.000But, you know, I think this is one of the things that is such a blessing that Secretary Rubio and I, I think, are bringing, you know, we're kind of flinging open the windows of this building to bring some common sense in here and some fresh thinking.
00:36:46.000And frankly, I have to say, I think a lot of people in the State Department come up to me and says, like, this is very exciting that actually, you know, we've just been doing the same thing for the last, you know, 30, 40 years.
00:37:01.000Yeah, no, it's Einstein's definition of insanity, right?
00:37:04.000Do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.
00:37:06.000But I mean, I guess speaking of which, can you talk about some of the other major reforms at the State Department in terms of making sure we are making decisions based on merit and bringing in the right people for the right job and at the right time?
00:37:19.000I mean, I know that was a big focus for some of the things that you and Secretary Rubio hit right off of the bat.
00:37:27.000The deep state and/or the media went nuts, but like the American people were like, no, that actually makes total sense.
00:37:33.000Why are we spending $50 million on transgender surgeries in Burundi or wherever the hell it was?
00:37:39.000I don't even remember at this point, but we were certainly spending the money there and no one knew why.
00:38:18.000And that's one of the reasons why I was so honored and pleased to have this job when I can say, look, structurally, as ambassador to one country, I couldn't really turn that ship around.
00:38:29.000Now, your father has empowered us and the secretary on down, all of us at the State Department are focused on making sure in everything we're doing, like what is in it for the United States?
00:38:41.000How can we defend to the American taxpayer that this is a good use of taxpayer funds?
00:38:48.000And I hope it's good for me to be on the show that we are being held accountable by people.
00:38:53.000Like, you know, we are doing our best to find all this stuff in the cracks and crevices here.
00:38:58.000But what we're trying to do is we're trying to streamline the State Department, make our missions very clear.
00:39:03.000I mean, over the years, you know, the organizational chart of the State Department has become this kind of bizarre Rube Goldberg machine where, you know, different lines of authority reported.
00:39:16.000We have just done a major reorganization here that the Secretary led and kind of restored the primacy of our regional bureaus that kind of focus on our relationships with particular parts of the world, the primacy of our economic diplomacy.
00:39:33.000And we have folded into that a lot of the assistance programs that used to be complete on their own.
00:39:40.000A lot of single issue constituencies were given offices in the State Department, which is kind of crazy because when you have a relationship with a country, you don't have a single issue, right?
00:39:52.000You can't just say, well, this whole relationship is governed by human rights.
00:39:56.000I mean, human rights is one issue in a spectrum of issues.
00:40:02.000And it may be for one reason or other, we want to make that a bigger issue with a particular country or not.
00:40:07.000But I mean, to say that we have people over here in the State Department that are looking at our bilateral relationship with the country and people over here who are saying we're looking at the human rights with that country, well, you have to have somebody's got to make the hard decisions and the trade-offs, like we're going to focus on this or that.
00:40:23.000But you can't do that when those are kind of put on two separate tracks.
00:40:26.000And so the Secretary streamlined The whole organization of the State Department and particularly those foreign aid programs to make sure that there aren't things that are run-amok programs.
00:40:40.000Again, I think this is all very common sense.
00:40:42.000We're kind of going back to the way the State Department was when my father, again, who was a career foreign service officer here from the 50s through the 80s, we're trying to kind of go back to the way the org chart was during his day.
00:40:56.000I think it started to get crazy in the 90s after the fall of the Soviet Union when we no longer had a clear set of priorities that everybody started just throwing in kind of a Christmas present with a bow to some domestic constituent group.
00:41:13.000And let me tell you one thing, Don, I think the American people need to know.
00:41:15.000We now provide to Congress over 670 reports every year from the State Department because Congress has now taken to legislating.
00:41:25.000Well, we just want to show our interest in this particular issue.
00:41:27.000So we're going to demand a report from the State Department.
00:41:30.000Well, basically, it's very hard for us to perform our role as part of the executive branch if we have to spend so much energy actually not enforcing the president's foreign policy, but just writing reports for Congress on various issues.
00:41:45.000So we want to work with the congressional leadership to try to slim that down to a more reasonable number.
00:41:52.000I just think that situation has grown out of control.
00:41:55.000And, you know, every marginal increase hasn't necessarily caused the pain.
00:42:01.000But at some point, you have the straw that breaks the camel's back.
00:42:03.000You just look and say, this whole system makes no sense.
00:42:06.000And Congress, you know, we got to stop this before the whole machine just kind of breaks down.
00:42:13.000Of course, as we wrap up, what's the job been like for you on a personal note?
00:42:17.000What's been the biggest surprises and some of the biggest challenges that we still face?
00:42:21.000Listen, this has been a wonderful job.
00:42:23.000I mean, again, I am so grateful to the president for giving me this opportunity to represent our country.
00:42:32.000I mean, it's demanding, but days go by quickly when you're enjoying your work.
00:42:40.000I mean, I think one of the things that we've been working on, frankly, I didn't really touch on this, but again, making the process more efficient within our government.
00:42:51.000I mean, we've only been talking about the State Department, but on top of the whole State Department, then there was the whole National Security Council.
00:42:58.000And a lot of those folks were, you know, kind of conducting their own foreign policy.
00:43:03.000So we have all these Senate-confirmed people like the Secretary and me here in the State Department, but then you had unconfirmed staffers at the NSC who were, in a sense, conducting a separate foreign policy.
00:43:14.000I think it was very important for your father to recognize that that had grown out of control.
00:43:27.000I mean, our government is just so big, Don, that, you know, for instance, you could have one of our domestic departments that might have something to do with foreign relations, like, you know, with airplane travel or with agricultural imports.
00:43:44.000And, you know, a real challenge, and I'm sure your dad, you know, can talk about this for days.
00:43:50.000Our government is so vast that we have to learn a coordinated way that we can work together as an administration.
00:43:58.000And I've always said I view my job horizontally, not vertically.
00:44:03.000I view my job as part of a team of people in the Trump administration to accomplish the president's objectives, right?
00:44:09.000I don't view my job in a silo vertically as I represent the State Department, right?
00:44:14.000I want to reach out and work with people in the White House and the other cabinet departments so that we can have a coherent foreign policy.
00:44:22.000We don't have random departments kind of throwing a bomb into our relations with a particular country because they have a B in their bonnet on some issue.
00:44:30.000Like I think the challenge of coordinating the bureaucracy and make everybody march in the same direction is not to be understated.
00:44:39.000But I'll say, you know, there is just such a pleasure in feeling that we now have the freedom to kind of think back to kind of first principles, like what are our interests in this country?
00:44:53.000And, you know, that is something I think very few people in my shoes have had that experience In recent decades.
00:45:04.000I clerked on the Supreme Court for Justice Thomas and Justice Scalia.
00:45:07.000One of the joys of working for them is they would think legal issues back to the text of the Constitution and kind of cut through a lot of the barnacles that had grown up over legal doctrines.
00:45:21.000I'm trying to do the same thing along with the Secretary in the realm of foreign policy.
00:45:25.000And just let's get back to basics here.
00:45:27.000And I think your dad, the president, has set a very kind of clear, you know, common sense vision of what are the basics.
00:45:36.000Like, let's make sure that our people are getting, you know, treated fairly in terms of economics and commerce, that we leverage our power for the advantage of our country and our friends, that our friends are rewarded and those who would cross us are appropriately dealt with.
00:45:57.000I mean, these are things that are pretty obvious.
00:45:59.000And again, it's just shocking that we have not really had that kind of foreign policy for a long time.
00:46:04.000Well, you guys have done a great job with that.
00:46:06.000I really appreciate all of your efforts.
00:46:08.000Deputy Secretary of State Chris Lando, thank you for all your work.
00:46:12.000We'll continue to follow all of the latest developments.
00:46:14.000And I'm sure as more stuff goes on around the world, we'll have to have you back on to talk about it in great detail.
00:46:27.000But first, another word from one of our incredible sponsors.
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00:47:12.000Had the opportunity to talk to the Deputy Secretary of State.
00:47:16.000So we're a little bit off track, but all good.
00:47:20.000We're told more information is soon coming on Adam Schiff's mortgage fraud scam and maybe other deep state schemes to leak classified information during the height of the Russia hoax, which, frankly, as someone who was targeted, probably the number two target of that whole thing, and accused of actual treason, I don't know.
00:47:43.000I think it's time for Schiff to face the music.
00:47:47.000Adam Schiff is a liar and a leaker, and he's got nowhere to hide anymore, whether it's in Maryland at his primary residence or in California at his other primary residence.
00:47:57.000I'm confident there will be much more to come on this.
00:48:01.000And recently, Vice President Vance was asked about what's next for all this deep state bad actors.
00:48:12.000I think the only thing the far left really responds to is power, Jim, if I'm being honest.
00:48:16.000I wish that wasn't the case, but it actually is.
00:48:18.000And so, excuse me, the thing that they're actually going to be responsive to is the recognition that there are consequences on the other side.
00:48:26.000And this is why it's so important and why the president is so insistent that we actually take legal action against those who broke the law in the Biden administration.
00:48:35.000If they get off scot-free, if they're never investigated, if they're never prosecuted when they violated the law, then they're just going to come back and do the exact same thing again.
00:48:43.000And there are a few different ways, of course.
00:48:45.000So it's the big tech companies that were censoring conservatives.
00:48:48.000They've got to know that's not going to be allowed and there are going to be consequences for it.
00:48:51.000The banks, the president is really preoccupied with this and rightfully so.
00:48:56.000So many conservatives, so many conservative nonprofits who are debanked, they actually had their money stolen from them by these big Wall Street institutions.
00:49:03.000You've got to make sure that doesn't happen.
00:49:05.000And of course, you've got to pay the lawfare back in kind.
00:49:08.000You've got to say to the Comeys and the Brennans of the world, of course, you've got to follow the law.
00:49:12.000You can only prosecute people when they actually broke the law.
00:49:15.000But we know that a lot of people broke the law in the last administration and they've got to face real justice, not just words, not just getting hauled before a committee in Capitol Hill.
00:49:25.000If people broke the law, they have to actually be prosecuted for it.
00:49:28.000Because I think that if they do that, if they know that the consequence for breaking the law is going to jail, then the next generation of Democrats, they're not going to try the same thing.
00:49:38.000They're not going to try to throw Donald Trump in prison.
00:49:42.000Now, on the subject of law and order, today my father declared Liberation Day and is activating approximately 800 National Guard troops and is taking over the Metropolitan Police Department to tackle out-of-control crime in our nation's capital, as well as utilizing FBI federal agents to get violent criminals off the streets.
00:50:25.000In June, a 21-year-old congressional intern was tragically killed after being hit by a stray bullet in a drive-by shooting.
00:50:33.000A former Trump administration official named Mike Gill, fantastic person, was murdered last year in cold blood in a carjacking blocks away from the White House.
00:50:50.000Waiting for his wife as she was walking to the car.
00:50:55.000A Democrat congressman was also carjacked at gunpoint not far from the Capitol.
00:51:00.000And in 2023, an aide to Senator Rand Paul was stabbed in the chest and head by a demented lunatic as he walked down the street just absolutely for no reason.
00:51:14.000Horrifically, last July 4th weekend, a three-year-old girl was shot in the head and killed while sitting in a car near the Capitol.
00:51:24.000It's becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness.
00:51:28.000And we're getting rid of the slums too.
00:52:10.000Caught in the middle of what police say is an ongoing dispute between two rival groups.
00:52:15.000Around 10:30 at night, suspects got out of a car near 7th and M Street, according to police, and shot into a group of people, hitting a 16-year-old boy, a woman, and the 21-year-old Massachusetts native.
00:52:27.000Eric Tarpinian Yakim died not long after.
00:52:29.000Now, police say investigators found the vehicle used in the shooting in Prince George's County, and they say they're tracking down the suspects.
00:52:36.000I was fanning coming back in October, but I'm really going to need to do some soul searching on that.
00:52:44.000Following his friend's death, Peterson says the shooting has left him shocked and angry.
00:52:48.000Washington, D.C., the shining city on the hill, the place that is where all the laws for the most powerful country in the world that has set forth the path forward that many countries have taken to become great through has really become a failure.
00:53:04.000And the fact is that the numbers don't lie, even if the media does.
00:53:09.000D.C. had the fourth highest homicide rate in the United States in 2024.
00:53:15.000It's six times higher than New York City.
00:53:18.000It's double that of Newark, New Jersey, and even comparable to places like Mexico City and Bogota, Columbia.
00:53:50.000The most violent moment in recent history in D.C. was January 6th.
00:53:56.000And it was an attack on the United States Capitol by a lot of People who were doing it in the name of Donald Trump, and it included the people who were hurt, included members of law enforcement.
00:54:07.000As Charlie Kirk wrote in response, these CNN propagandists have so mythologized January 6th as worse than Pearl Harbor and 9-11, you know, the story, that they're going to fight against Trump saving lives.
00:54:41.000Why would they support it unless they too realized they were in danger and something needed to be done?
00:54:47.000President, that crime in the District of Columbia is out of control and something needs to be done with it.
00:54:52.000We have to go back to how we got here, though.
00:54:53.000In 2020, the D.C. City Council passed an enormous amount of legislation that handcuffed police officers, exposes them to administrative, civil, and even criminal liability, even when they do their jobs properly.
00:55:05.000And now, five years later, our authorized sworn strength is 4,000 sworn police officers.
00:55:29.000I think one of the issues here, though, is that we all know that's going to be temporary.
00:55:33.000So in order to fix this problem and make sure that it doesn't ebb and flow and that the feds come in and we lower crime and then they leave and we're left holding the bag, it's very important that people know that there is underlying legislation that needs to be corrected so that we can actually properly staff this police department in order to properly.
00:55:51.000Guys, it's a new day in our country and in our nation's capital.
00:55:57.000So hope for the change that you all voted for.