Sec. of State Marco Rubio is delivering on all fronts for my father's America First mission, and has emerged as one of the best messengers and forces for good in the administration. He's held our adversaries accountable, refusing to yield when American security and prosperity are at stake. Under Secretary Rubio s leadership, our State Department is actually putting this country first, and the results are undeniable.
00:06:23.000Hey guys and welcome to another extra special edition of Triggered.
00:06:28.000I told you to keep those notifications on.
00:06:30.000There's a reason I tell you to subscribe.
00:06:32.000We want those notifications turned on because you'll never know when we're going to be going live.
00:06:37.000And today we have an exclusive interview with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
00:06:43.000Secretary Rubio is delivering on all fronts for my father's America First mission and has emerged as one of the best messengers and forces for good in the administration.
00:06:54.000And really, in my opinion, to have ever held this cabinet position.
00:06:59.000When you think about what he's able to do, when you think of the obstacles he's actually having to deal with abroad as well as at home, it's pretty incredible.
00:07:08.000So with clear vision and unwavering resolve, he's held our adversaries accountable, refusing to yield when American security and prosperity.
00:07:18.000Under Secretary Rubio's leadership, our State Department is actually putting this country first, and the results are undeniable.
00:07:28.000We're deporting illegal immigrant gang members out of the country, okay?
00:07:32.000And despite resistance from the radical left who would love murderous, raping, drug-dealing thugs to remain here, their resolve remains unwavering.
00:07:51.000You know, probably things we should be paying attention to.
00:07:53.000We're putting authoritarian dictatorial regimes on notice.
00:07:57.000He's dismantling USAID, getting rid of DEI performance evaluations for our Forest Service officers, you know, so that maybe you can actually recruit talent that does the job well, not that just checks boxes.
00:08:10.000And that's why they advance, and that's why you can't recruit good people, and so much more.
00:08:16.000Guys, it's a stark shift from the last four years under the Biden-Blinken atrocity, where appeasement took priority over accountability, where weakness led rather than strength.
00:08:31.000Now we'll get to our interview in just a few moments, but first, a quick word from some of our incredible sponsors.
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00:10:56.000Secretary Rubio recently wrapped a trip to Europe where he delivered a clear message to NATO that it's not just about talking, it's about action and every nation doing their part.
00:11:09.000Prior to that, he was in Central America and in the Caribbean.
00:11:13.000Part of a broader pivot to Latin America.
00:11:16.000Again, bringing things back to the Western Hemisphere, places that are right on our border, places that are a clear and present threat to America, our interests, our borders, our sovereignty, etc.
00:11:27.000And of course, when it comes to Ukraine and Russia, my father has made it clear that he wants to end the bloodshed and achieve peace.
00:11:36.000But as Secretary Rubio said, peace is not a noun.
00:12:43.000By the way, that young guy, I think he's the youngest coach maybe since they were saying last night on TV, since Valvano to win a national title.
00:13:46.000Luckily, my son wasn't the guy on the light post, but I saw that last night.
00:13:49.000I was like, somewhere there's a nervous mom.
00:13:51.000Well, thank you again, Mr. Secretary, for taking the time.
00:13:55.000I guess to start off, It was interesting to see the Supreme Court yesterday, in my opinion, smartly lifted the restraining order against the Trump administration as it relates to the ability to deport Trinidad and Tobago murderous drug dealing gang members to El Salvador.
00:14:11.000Can you talk about the significance of this?
00:14:13.000I know you've been dealing with this a lot on a daily basis.
00:14:17.000I know you were intimately involved, obviously, when they were trying to recall to make sure we couldn't deport murderous thugs.
00:14:23.000But can you talk about that historic work coordinating with President Bukele of El Salvador to get these criminals actually off of our streets?
00:14:32.000The most important thing about that court ruling is it says you have to file it.
00:14:35.000You have to go before the judge wherever those people are being held before they're sent abroad.
00:14:38.000Because right now what was happening is these activists were basically just finding a court.
00:14:42.000They would find, you know, they forum shop.
00:14:44.000They find, where can I find a friendly federal judge that gives me the highest probability of victory in court?
00:14:50.000So you have over 600-something district court judges, and so you have a guy in New Jersey or a guy in New York or a guy in D.C. basically enjoying the entire country.
00:14:58.000I mean, one of these federal judges has the power to stop the entire federal government in all 50 states and every one of our territories.
00:15:04.000And so I think the most important thing the court said is, number one, if you want to fight these things, you have to fight it in the jurisdiction where they're being sent from or being held, in this case, Texas, which clearly, for whatever reason, these lawyers didn't want to go to Texas to file it, right?
00:15:16.000And then the other is just the power of the federal government to conduct foreign policy.
00:15:20.000We have a judge right now that is basically trying to order the federal government, the executive branch, to...
00:16:39.000But you look at the roster of people, the next, I think it was nine or ten that we sent.
00:16:43.000You see the rap sheet on some of these people.
00:16:45.000It's one of the worst collections of human beings I've ever seen in my life.
00:16:49.000And I'm glad they're no longer in the United States.
00:16:52.000Well, watching the leftists try to defend these people, have them released, I mean, it's sort of wild.
00:16:58.000I can't imagine a civilization that could survive by releasing arguably some of the most violent people in history back into our streets.
00:17:07.000Have they just lost the plot so badly that this is their hill to die on?
00:17:11.000Yeah, I think they're so triggered by everything that happens in terms of any sort of removal of people from the country.
00:17:17.000It's almost automatically assumed that if you are somehow removed from this country, you are a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize or you are some sort of, you know, it's amazing.
00:17:24.000You read these articles, these are the greatest people I've ever lived.
00:17:27.000So just somehow all happen to be illegally in our country.
00:17:30.000But it's a very simple and basic point.
00:17:32.000What country in the world would assume millions of people in a mass migration, not to mention thousands and thousands of people that you know are members of dangerous gangs and either have criminal records in their home country or here or are part of groups that commit crimes?
00:17:47.000Who would It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard that some country would want to keep them there.
00:17:51.000It would make all this, for a real everyday person in America, if you went to them and said, should we kick out people that are in here illegally and are dangerous criminals, that's like a no-brainer.
00:18:00.000That's got to be like a 90-10 issue in the United States.
00:18:03.000The fact that there's even a 10 is shocking to me.
00:18:07.000But these guys consistently fall on the other side of it.
00:18:10.000They consistently fall on the other side of it.
00:18:13.000And what they're basically telling the American people is, these people that are in our country illegally, and by the way, are dangerous, somehow have the same rights, if not more rights, than...
00:18:23.000Everyday citizens in our country who are law-abiding, were born here, are naturalized here, are legal citizens of the United States, they basically have the same rights that you have.
00:18:31.000It's the same issue with the student visas.
00:18:32.000We have this concept that's been built up that this is somehow a right, that people are entitled to a visa.
00:18:38.000No one's entitled to come into the U.S. illegally, much less remain here.
00:18:52.000So it's time, in addition to doing what's good for our country, it's an important opportunity to sort of reset.
00:18:57.000Yeah, I'd argue the Biden administration canceled plenty of visas of people that actually could be the next astronaut, the next nuclear physicist, the next...
00:19:09.000because they probably weren't reliable Democrat voters.
00:19:12.000But I think more importantly, as you and my father have...
00:19:16.000Gangs like Trendel Aragua, part of Maduro's narco-terrorist regime who've influenced violence on American citizens, murder, as well as the Venezuelan people.
00:20:09.000You know, in 1980, Fidel Castro opened up his mental institutions, he opened up his jails, and he basically flooded the United States with criminals from Cuba.
00:20:19.000And we paid an extraordinary price for it.
00:20:22.000In the case of Tren del Agua, that was a prison gang inside of Venezuela.
00:20:25.000The Venezuelan regime pushed them out of the country, knowing that many of them, first of all, they destabilized all kinds of countries neighboring in the region, but ultimately wound their way up here.
00:20:35.000to the united states and we saw that trend begin probably you know in january of 2023, we started to see uptick and people arriving.
00:20:42.000It was actually Venezuelans that were telling me this.
00:20:44.000People here in the country, they were saying, look, these people that are coming now, they're members of gangs.
00:20:48.000You know, and at first you kind of think, well, you know, how do you really know?
00:21:06.000So there's no doubt that this was a concerted effort by the Maduro regime, not just to drive these gang members out of their country, but to drive them towards the United States and to inflict a price on this country.
00:21:16.000And it's not, it's right out of the Fidel Castro playbook.
00:21:20.000Yeah, well, Maria Corriana Machado won 92% of the vote there in an open primary despite Brutal, you know, repression, censorship.
00:21:30.000I mean, I had her on the show two or three weeks ago.
00:21:32.000She was talking about, I mean, if she went to a restaurant, you know, because she couldn't even fly, you know, driving to a campaign stop, they'd shut down the restaurant for even serving her.
00:21:41.000I mean, she's clearly the choice of the Venezuelan people.
00:21:56.000In that regime, would you say the Venezuelan opposition today is more unified and credible than perhaps we've seen in the past, and that can actually effectuate real change going forward?
00:22:07.000Well, they're as brave as they've ever been, and she in particular, Maria Corina Machado, is an incredibly brave woman.
00:22:12.000And I'm not criticizing anybody when I say this, but if you look at the Venezuelan opposition, a large percentage of the well-known figures in it are now living abroad.
00:22:20.000Because there comes a time where your family's life is threatened or they force you out of the country or you leave.
00:22:24.000You travel overseas to go give a speech and they don't let you back in.
00:22:55.000The Maduro regime is not a government.
00:22:57.000They govern territory because they have the guns and they have the security forces.
00:23:01.000But it basically is a narco-terrorist organization.
00:23:11.000They don't even control all of Venezuela, because the border regions with Colombia are openly controlled by narco-guerrilla terrorists.
00:23:21.000So, yeah, I mean, if they had a real election in Venezuela, Maduro would lose, like he did, by a lot.
00:23:27.000But obviously, the way they stay in power is they kill and jail the people who don't agree with them.
00:23:33.000Well, you know, I know the Biden administration, I mean, these were regimes that were largely on the ropes until we shut down our own energy production, the Keystone Pipeline, and, you know, allowed Chevron to make a deal with the Maduro regime, which gave them the cash that I'm sure was siphoned off and or, you know, funneled through back to the regime to keep them in power.
00:23:51.000I can't think of a more glaring example of basically giving a lifeline to literally a terrorist dictator than what we saw in the past.
00:23:59.000You know, how do we reconcile that that even happened in America, you know, despite sort of party differences?
00:24:05.000flagrant and that the fact that the media won't even talk about that, won't even talk about this.
00:24:10.000But if we do anything here, they're so vocal about any kind of change in what was ultimately a failed policy that boosted up a dictator.
00:24:18.000Look, in foreign policy, we want to be mature and realistic about it.
00:24:22.000You're going to have to deal with some bad people, right?
00:24:23.000You're going to have to deal with people that you don't like, people that you don't agree with, but for the purposes of foreign policy, peace, and all that kind of thing, you have to deal with them.
00:24:30.000The problem is you can't do it in a stupid way.
00:24:34.000They went to Maduro and they said, okay, we're going to do a deal.
00:24:37.000You promise to hold elections, free and fair elections, in like nine months or whatever, and we will immediately lift sanctions and allow you to start producing oil and getting paid for it.
00:24:46.000It was a side deal, by the way, because they only announced that they did this deal with Chevron.
00:24:50.000What they didn't announce was that Chevron, with a side secret deal, was allowed to pay the Maduro regime royalties.
00:24:56.000It accounted for over 25% of all the revenue going into that regime.
00:25:06.000And after that, they left the deal in place.
00:25:10.000They left it in place, even though they violated their word on holding free and fair elections.
00:25:14.000I think the way they were going to do it, and I don't think at this point you can do it, you say, first you have free and fair elections, then we'll lift the sanctions.
00:25:22.000And even if you do it the way that the Biden people did, at least, if they break their word, Undo the thing.
00:25:33.000So I think it's one more example of stupidity in our foreign policy, which other countries look at and say, well, hell, they got away with that.
00:25:39.000We should be able to get away with whatever we want as well.
00:25:42.000It's really both weakness and stupidity.
00:25:44.000Yeah, I mean, I'm not a foreign policy wonk by any stretch, but I know enough about negotiation to say you don't give up all your leverage.
00:25:51.000You don't give the other side everything that they want before you get to the table to figure out what it is that you want.
00:25:58.000You keep maximum pressure on them so you can actually effectuate real policy changes.
00:26:02.000Yeah, well, if I want to put it in real estate terms, you don't get to say, okay, pay me for the building and I get to keep the building anyways.
00:26:08.000And that's, you know, and that's pretty much the deal they made.
00:26:11.000It's like, here's all this money for your, we want to buy your hotel or your property.
00:26:15.000We're going to send you all this money for it.
00:26:17.000But by the way, you get to keep the hotel and the property.
00:26:30.000Mr. Secretary, can you talk about the impact of your successful leadership and what appears to be a broader pivot into the Western Hemisphere?
00:26:39.000We've seen comparisons to the Monroe Doctrine.
00:26:42.000Can you talk about the opportunities to shake up the foundations of communism in the Western Hemisphere and build communism?
00:26:48.000Yeah. Well, the baseline is the United States wants to be friends with our friends, right?
00:27:07.000So for a long time, if you were a U.S. or pro-American ally in the region, we kind of ignored you and in some cases actually treated you bad.
00:27:13.000But if you were an irritant like Nicaragua or Cuba or Venezuela, then we made all these deals with you to make you happy, right?
00:27:19.000So we made deals with the people that hated us and we either neglected or sometimes were outright hostile towards the countries that were pro-American.
00:27:28.000And look, maybe I'll miss a country here, but you talk about places like Guyana, Argentina, Paraguay, Costa Rica.
00:27:35.000You know, the president of Panama is very pro-American, meaning he wants to be our ally and our partner, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic.
00:27:44.000So we've made a concerted effort to reach out to these countries that have governments and leaders that want to be aligned with the United States, not just in regional issues, but international issues and figure out a way we want those Democratic.
00:27:54.000to go back to their people and say, "Hey, there's benefits to being friends of America.
00:27:58.000Here are the benefits." At the same time, it allows us to clearly define the countries that have governments that are enemies of the United States.
00:28:05.000Unfortunately, in Cuba, in Nicaragua, in Cuba, And obviously the regime in Venezuela.
00:28:13.000And then others, we've got some tough issues to work through, like with Mexico.
00:28:17.000In fairness, I think the Mexicans are doing more today against the cartels and against migration than they have ever, ever done ever before.
00:28:25.000And obviously the credit goes to President Trump for being very strong about that.
00:28:28.000But that's an example of how positive engagement has allowed us to get things, has allowed us to reach a level of cooperation with the Mexican government.
00:28:49.000But, I mean, the Mexican border, whether it's, honestly, a lot of the stuff I'm sure you're probably dealing with on trade, as well as the cartels with, you know, the fentanyl trade coming across and then human trafficking and child sex trafficking.
00:29:01.000You know, I love seeing Mexico do that.
00:29:04.000What more can we do to help bolster those efforts?
00:29:07.000Because, I mean, I think if we look at it objectively, I imagine, you know, there's probably plenty of cartel infiltration into the Mexican military.
00:29:13.000You see about, you know, X number of presidential candidates in Mexico killed likely by the cartel.
00:29:40.000Indiscriminately, across the board with fentanyl, that seems to me like the most obvious clear and present danger to the United States of any foreign issue that we deal with, any war and any conflict.
00:30:10.000And they spent 10 years in this process.
00:30:12.000And then you've got, you know, some people in that government that have been very, that want to get rid of those people that want to take those on.
00:30:17.000And we just have to understand that in Mexico for those.
00:30:20.000people to stand up and say, I'm going to take on a drug cartel.
00:30:22.000It's not like you might lose the next election or be removed from office.
00:30:29.000Your kids might and your family might be killed.
00:30:31.000Same with journalists that reveal all that.
00:30:33.000So I think part of it is capacity building, meaning working with them.
00:30:36.000You know, the Mexicans have capabilities.
00:30:38.000I mean, they're not it's not a third world country.
00:30:40.000I mean, they've got, you know, institutions there that we partner with.
00:30:43.000It's intelligence sharing, whether it's them alerting us.
00:30:46.000Hey, these guys we think have crossed your border and they're operating in Tucson or us letting them know, hey, there's a drug shipment or there's a human trafficking network moving across.
00:31:29.000So that has stopped, and I think Mexicans deserve some credit for helping us on that front because they've actually sent more National Guard troops to the border than they ever have before.
00:32:10.000Meanwhile, I guess the State Department, we talked about visas a little bit earlier, but you guys have been sort of aggressively confronting visa holders.
00:32:20.000It's sort of shocking to me that that was never done before.
00:32:22.000You would think that would be a pretty serious red flag, but apparently it wasn't.
00:32:27.000Only people who buy MAGA hats and or Bibles would be targeted by the Biden administration.
00:32:32.000Can you lay out perhaps your mission and priorities as it relates to foreign national here on visas who are acting against America's interests?
00:32:42.000Yeah, so if you go right now to a window somewhere in an embassy and apply for a United States visa, there's all kinds of reasons I won't allow you to come in, because we think you might overstay your visa, because we don't like or have questions about some of your political activities and your views.
00:32:53.000We just won't give you a visa, proactively, on the front end.
00:32:56.000My argument is, if we identify people like that, who we would not have given a visa to, had we known information, but now they got a visa, and now they're here, and we know the information.
00:33:07.000Shouldn't we ask him to leave as a result of it?
00:33:09.000In essence, if there are things about you that had we known, we would not have given you a visa, we should be taking away your visa.
00:33:25.000We're not taking more people from that country or whatever it may be.
00:33:28.000So I think at the end of the day, that's what we're trying to do right now, is we're trying to go and identify people who we have information about, who had we known that information, we never would have given them a visa.
00:33:38.000And we're revoking those visas and they have to leave.
00:33:41.000Now, I think everyone would tell you this.
00:33:43.000If you told me, I am applying for a student visa so I can attend a university, and while I'm at your university, I'm going to become a member and supportive or even participate in groups that are going to take over libraries, spray paint monuments, you know, start riots, bang drums all day and night, harass Jewish students.
00:34:00.000If you told me you were going to be linked to any of that stuff, we never should have given you the visa.
00:34:04.000Now that you're doing it, we should take away your visa.
00:34:06.000And that's what we're trying to do, and that's what we are doing.
00:34:08.000I know it's a lot of work, but it's something I wanted to do when I was a U.S. Senator.
00:34:13.000I've been talking about this for two and a half years.
00:34:15.000I think it's the craziest thing I've ever seen.
00:34:17.000How stupid, how ridiculous is it for some country to say, yes, bring more people to our country that are going to disrupt and create riots in our streets and on our campuses?
00:34:29.000We're not doing idiotic things anymore.
00:34:31.000Yeah, you would think that one of the major disqualifications would be on the application.
00:34:35.000If you withheld your true intentions for being there, that in and of itself would be disqualifying, and that's clearly what so many of these people are doing.
00:34:42.000They're coming in under a guise of being a student, but they're far more active in their role as activists for hate than they are actually trying to be students.
00:34:53.000And look, I mean, at the end of the day, one thing is, you know, you're a U.S. citizen, you go on campus, you know, you get wrapped up in these movements.
00:34:59.000It's very unfortunate, and I think that's a societal problem we have to confront as a country.
00:35:03.000Like, why are the citizens of the most prosperous and freest country in the history of the world raising kids that are turning out to hate the country that made all this possible?
00:35:11.000But another thing is to say, and by the way, we're also going to invite people into our country as guests who are going to join and foment these movements.
00:36:57.000They may be outraged because they want to get rid of their less-than-desirables, but I don't think we can be the world's dumping grounds for criminals and murderers.
00:37:05.000I always talk about the statistics under the Biden administration.
00:37:38.000But it just tells you we just completely, the policymaking in America became completely detached from common sense, completely detached from reality.
00:37:46.000We sort of adopted this mentality that we're welcoming everyone who wants to come in, come in.
00:37:52.000A bunch of countries in Western Europe that now deeply, deeply regret it.
00:37:55.000You know, the Germans made the decision, let everybody in, let everybody in.
00:37:58.000And now, you know, everybody in Germany is like, you know, and all over Europe is like, OK, we made a big mistake here.
00:38:03.000Obviously, we're a bigger country, but we've made similar mistakes.
00:38:06.000Right. And we can't let that continue to happen.
00:38:09.000Well, I mean, Europe feels like it's over and it feels like they're actually recognized that they can't really do much about it.
00:38:16.000But we've had our own issues here as well.
00:38:17.000I mean, I know under the previous administration, the State Department made DEI.
00:38:21.00020% of Foreign Service Officer performance.
00:38:24.000I mean, DEI, I don't know what that has to do with Foreign Service Officer performance, but what did you find out as you got in there, and what are you doing to fix the issue of that?
00:38:35.000Because none of that seems accretive to anything that the State Department would actually need to be doing.
00:38:40.000Yeah, I think what you find is that you end up sort of losing focus on promoting people on the basis of merit.
00:38:45.000And we have very good, talented people here that never got promoted or got stuck in mid-level ranks.
00:38:49.000I mean, they have to wait 25 years to be an ambassador somewhere, or 30 years.
00:38:53.000And then it's all because of how some supervisor judged you based on some scorecard.
00:39:19.000We want to promote people within the State Department on the basis of how good they are at their job.
00:39:24.000And there are different jobs people do here.
00:39:25.000Some people are in consular affairs, which are the ones that review visas.
00:39:28.000Some people are diplomats or economic officers, whatever it may be.
00:39:31.000But we want people rewarded on how competent they are, how good they are at their job.
00:39:35.000And frankly, what I think that opens the door to is the ability to promote people that maybe have been here 10 years instead of 25, but really are better than the people that have been here 25 years.
00:40:19.000It's like people who have no business being on the most prestigious committees end up on these committees because they've been there longer.
00:40:26.000And therefore have some sort of tenure, but they're making trillion-dollar decisions about something that they don't understand, whereas a freshman congressman, senator may end up there, but their life's work was exactly that.
00:40:36.000So they actually know what they're talking about, but they have no chance of ending up in these places.
00:40:40.000So it's really hard to recruit talent if they know that they may be more qualified than the people that are going to get that job, and they've got to sit there for 25 years, not because they don't deserve it, but because they just haven't been there long enough.
00:40:53.000Nobody goes into the Foreign Service thinking they're going to become millionaires working for the U.S. government.
00:40:57.000They do it because they want to be involved in foreign policy.
00:40:59.000They want to get around the world or what have you.
00:41:01.000But I think we're going to have trouble attracting people to that career.
00:41:04.000And I think we're going to have trouble retaining people in that career, given all the other opportunities that now exist out there, if they don't see a pathway to fulfillment.
00:41:13.000And so I think that's going to help us do that, but I also think it's going to help us place the right people in the right places because we're going to be judging them on the basis of how good they are at their job, which really should be how we make decisions about everything.
00:41:34.000And that is your performance in practice and in games that determine ultimately who you put on the field or on the court or whatever it may be.
00:41:41.000And that's how we need to do it at all levels, including here in government.
00:41:45.000Well, you know, I'm glad that you're making that change.
00:41:47.000But how do you see all of that, whether it's the DEI stuff, etc.?
00:41:50.000How does all of that tie into the scandal surrounding USAID?
00:42:02.000You know, a tough and courageous team, including top deputy Chris Landau, acting undersecretary Darren Beatty, who's been on this show many times, and others.
00:42:11.000What's it all mean, and how do we combat that years of just insanity, actually?
00:42:18.000Well, I think that foreign aid is something that we need to do and we're going to continue to do.
00:42:23.000But every dollar we spend in foreign aid has to achieve at least one of three objectives.
00:42:32.000If the program doesn't do one of those three things, it may be a great cause.
00:42:36.000And I encourage the Gates Foundation or charities all over the world to take it up.
00:42:40.000But it has to be one of those three things.
00:42:42.000I think the other big mistake that happened with foreign aid is we turned it into a tool to export our domestic Policies of the far left, right?
00:42:51.000So the far left decided these are things that we think are good and also became cultural imperialism We began to use foreign aid not as a way to make America stronger safe for more prosperous But as a way to impose impose the domestic political agenda of the left on to foreign countries And it became a vehicle for that.
00:43:10.000I think the third thing that developed over time is what I call the foreign aid industrial complex.
00:43:14.000And I'm talking about dozens and dozens of these non-governmental organizations, these NGOs, that were raking in hundreds of millions of dollars to run these programs on behalf of the U.S. government.
00:43:26.000And it came out, and this is my, maybe Samantha Powers would have said this, you have to spend, in order to get $12 million to people directly, you have to spend $100 million.
00:43:35.000You have to spend $100 million to get $12 million out directly because you have to pay the NGO and then the subcontractor and then the sub-sub and then the sub-sub-sub.
00:43:44.000And before you know it, you're paying Hamas, you know, to hand out food or whatever.
00:43:48.000And that has to stop and that has to end.
00:43:50.000So we conducted a review of 6,000 programs, almost 6,000 programs at USAID.
00:43:54.000we identified close to 900, We canceled 5,000-some of those contracts.
00:44:03.000And now the goal is to bring all of those programs under the State Department so that we can directly review.
00:44:09.000Remember, USAID was separate from the State Department.
00:44:11.000Well, it feels like that was on purpose, right?
00:44:13.000Once it's at the NGO level, all of a sudden there's no oversight.
00:44:16.000So who knows where that money is going?
00:44:20.000That stuff gets discovered by Doge, and within three days, the top seven people at ActBlue, the big Democrat fundraising apparatus, all of a sudden magically disappear.
00:44:30.000And I've always wondered for years, how is it that they're raising 5x for every congressional seat that we can run?
00:44:38.000How is it that they're raising 10x on some of them?
00:44:40.000Do you think there's any ties there to this money basically just being kicked back to Democrat, the fundraising apparatus and or other shady things?
00:44:49.000Because I just don't believe in enough coincidence anymore to believe that was just magically happened at the same time.
00:44:55.000Well, some of that's been referred to the Justice Department to look at, but what I can tell you most definitely is that there are people that have made a lot of money by being part of the foreign aid industrial complex, by being part of this network of NGOs who do things.
00:45:06.000And then some of it, frankly, just doesn't make any sense, right?
00:45:09.000Like, I just came back from a trip to the Caribbean where I went to Jamaica, I went to Guyana, and I went to Suriname, the Caribbean basis.
00:45:24.000By the way, this is not really well understood.
00:45:26.000There's always been tension between State Department and USAID because there's some ambassador that's like, okay, I'm trying to get, you know, we're trying to get good relations.
00:45:33.000The foreign policy of the U.S. is to have good relations with the leader of this country.
00:45:36.000And then USAID operating out of their embassy is like funding the political opposition.
00:45:41.000Yeah, or like Trans Elmo in places where let's just say that's not as popular as it is in California.
00:46:10.000Which is to get into these rural schools where now you start indoctrinating people on the social priorities of the far left in the United States.
00:46:19.000So we're going to realign foreign aid.
00:46:21.000So we're actually going to be helping countries with what they generally need.
00:46:24.000In a lot of these countries, it's security assistance.
00:46:26.000What they want to do is they want to be able to build up police departments and security forces so they can become self-sufficient at taking on these gangs and not require foreign aid in the future.
00:46:35.000The best foreign aid is foreign aid that ultimately ends because it's successful.
00:46:39.000Because you go in, you help somebody, they build up their capacity, and now they can handle it themselves and they don't need foreign aid anymore.
00:46:46.000That's what 4N8 should be geared towards.
00:46:48.000Not perpetual, you know, these programs exist for 25 years.
00:46:51.000If a 4N8 program has been going on for 25 years, it has not achieved its purpose because it hasn't solved the problem.
00:46:59.000Unfortunately, that machine wants to keep those people employed in whatever else they're doing.
00:47:04.000It felt like one big grift, kickback apparatus.
00:47:10.000Perhaps it's incompetence, but I don't believe that either.
00:47:13.000I think these people have been very well entrenched.
00:47:15.000I'm really glad to see you taking all of that on.
00:47:18.000As we wrap, because I know your time is a little limited today, I do want to say what an incredible job I think you're doing with this.
00:47:24.000It's been so great to see this cabinet, People just getting together and not sort of taking on the positions that they would have otherwise.
00:47:33.000And I think even your worldview, JD's worldview, so many of these guys probably has really evolved over the last 10 years.
00:47:39.000I'd love to hear how you see that happening, but also how you'd like to sort of assess the almost first 100 days and what do you see in store for the next 100?
00:47:49.000Yeah, first of all, our worldview should always be under examination because the world is constantly changing.
00:47:54.000Like, anyone who has the same worldview today that they had 15 years ago is lost because the world looks nothing like it did 15 years ago.
00:48:01.000So, as circumstances change, the way you approach the world has to change.
00:48:06.00015, 20 years ago, we were the sole unipower force in the world.
00:48:10.000We took on a lot of causes because nobody else could.
00:48:12.000The world looks a little different right now for a lot of different reasons.
00:48:15.000So I think it's been a very busy, you know, clearly, like I was just saying before we went on the air here with this, that, you know, every day here feels like six months worth of work on every front.
00:48:24.000As you know, the president is pushing very hard on every front to get everything done.
00:48:55.000These are people you've worked with before, and they're all aligned with the president's vision.
00:48:59.000I think the first time, in the first term, not to be critical of anybody, but I think the president, you know, he wins the election, and then he sort of said, they sort of bring in people and say, look, these are the people in the Republican Party that do this kind of stuff.
00:49:09.000I think now, having the advantage, you know, of having been there before and so forth, he had the ability to put together a team of people who are responsive to the president's tasking.
00:49:18.000To the extent that it's not even a problem.
00:49:20.000To the extent that I would say, well, what have been the challenges?
00:49:22.000The challenges is we're moving so fast.
00:49:27.000Everyone is so eager to deliver that, you know, you need 26 or 27 hours in the day because we work for someone that apparently has found a way to fit 27 hours in a 24 hour day in terms of how he works.
00:49:38.000And so but it's exciting to be a part of you.
00:49:41.000We truly feel like we are making changes and decisions today in the positions we're in that are going to dramatically improve our country and life in America.
00:49:53.000Like, we feel like we're about on achieving that, not just here in the State Department, but on matters of trade, international relations, domestic economics, rebuilding our industrial capacity.
00:50:02.000And I think the president's assembled a great team to do it.
00:50:05.000And obviously, you know, he's always pushing hard, you know, better than anyone.
00:50:11.000It doesn't matter how many wins you rack up.
00:50:17.000If you get that call at 6 a.m., what have you done for me lately, Mark?