Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - Interview with CIA Deputy Director, Plus FBI's Major Maduro-TDA Discovery | Triggered Ep236

00:06:24.000 Welcome to another huge episode of Triggered.

00:06:28.000 I'm on the road traveling, but wanted to make sure I hopped on to delve into all of the latest headlines.

00:06:35.000 So we'll get into all of the latest news, everything that's going on in the world, and we'll be joined today by Deputy Director of the CIA, Michael Ellis.

00:06:46.000 Deputy Director Ellis previously served in the White House Counsel's Office.

00:06:50.000 And before that, he was actually the General Counsel over here at Rumble.

00:06:56.000 So definitely someone who loves free speech, believes in it, has fought for it, and probably under John Ratcliffe, some of the exact kind of leadership that we need to change so much of what's going

00:07:09.000 Under the leadership of CIA Director Ratcliffe and Deputy Director Ellis, the CIA is taking major steps to restore credibility to the agency to get the CIA back to its true mission.

00:07:22.000 of taking on our adversaries.

00:07:24.000 Okay, that's a big one.

00:07:26.000 And obviously protecting the American people.

00:07:29.000 So this is a special episode where you'll learn a lot and hopefully will inspire a lot of confidence on the direction our country is headed.

00:07:38.000 Guys, make sure you're liking, make sure you're sharing, subscribing, downloading the Rumble app on your smart TV so that we can keep getting the message out.

00:07:49.000 Also, don't forget that you can go to Apple or Spotify Podcasts if you missed the show here in Rumble.

00:07:55.000 If you know your friends get their podcasts that way, make sure they know.

00:07:58.000 Make sure they subscribe.

00:08:00.000 Make sure they download.

00:08:01.000 Make sure they share.

00:08:02.000 Let's get it all out there.

00:08:04.000 For all of the headlines that we spotlight here on the show, go over to my news app, MXM News, where you can get the mainstream news without the mainstream bias.

00:08:14.000 And don't forget about some of our incredible and brave sponsors who have the guts to support programming like this and very specifically this show.

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00:10:13.000 So guys, with that, let's get into all of the top headlines.

00:10:21.000 We begin with debunking the latest round of fake news.

00:10:26.000 From the failing propaganda regime media.

00:10:30.000 Because they still can't let go of their Russia, Russia, Russia obsession.

00:10:35.000 As someone who did countless hours of congressional testimony based on this line, I take it personally.

00:10:42.000 I don't want to have to deal with that one again, although I'm sure they'll be starting that next nonsense over.

00:10:48.000 But the latest culprit is Politico.

00:10:52.000 Not surprisingly, leftist propaganda regime Politico, who put out a fake story claiming the Trump administration is considering lifting sanctions again.

00:11:02.000 Now, that obviously doesn't stop them from writing because fake news is going to fake.

00:11:24.000 But the story raises a few questions.

00:11:27.000 How do they get away with continuing to run these fake stories?

00:11:32.000 They quote these anonymous sources, people who aren't willing to put their names on it, even if they had direct on-the-record quotes from the people in the room saying that it's a lie.

00:11:45.000 And why are so many in the swamp and the press hysterical over the prospect of peace?

00:11:52.000 Why do they not want peace?

00:11:54.000 I don't understand it myself.

00:11:55.000 I've been watching that food for a long time.

00:11:58.000 Starting with my father's CNN town hall during the primaries when he just said he wanted to stop this death.

00:12:04.000 I mean, it seemed pretty reasonable to me.

00:12:05.000 But the notion that these guys are hysterical over the prospect of peace is pretty insane.

00:12:11.000 Why do they continue to pretend like Ukraine is winning this war?

00:12:15.000 We should at least be honest about the facts.

00:12:18.000 And the circumstances.

00:12:19.000 That's the problem.

00:12:21.000 Regime media has made it seem like Ukraine is winning.

00:12:24.000 Zelensky put out this statement this week that he really wants to get Crimea back on the table as part of Ukraine, just so we're clear.

00:12:31.000 And they lost that 10 years ago.

00:12:33.000 A bullet wasn't even fired.

00:12:35.000 The people who lived are ethnic Russians and were totally fine with all of it, and now they want more?

00:12:40.000 I mean, no one's had this bad of a losing hand.

00:12:43.000 No one continues to be in constant retreat, losing thousands of people a day.

00:12:48.000 And they want more than even the start of the war?

00:12:50.000 It's not reasonable.

00:12:51.000 It doesn't seem like Zelensky even wants to entertain peace because he knows peace means elections.

00:12:58.000 Elections means he's out of office and he's no longer the darling of Hollywood elites for their obligatory Zelensky selfies.

00:13:05.000 Again, guys, the irony here is that my father has been tougher on Russia than Obama or Biden ever were.

00:13:13.000 Remember, it was Biden.

00:13:15.000 Biden. Who openly defended lifting sanctions and allowing the construction of Russian pipelines.

00:13:23.000 But the left and their endless war allies never, ever let the facts get in the way of a good story.

00:13:31.000 And we're seeing the same thing play out at the Defense Department, where the D.C. foreign policy establishment is getting desperate.

00:13:40.000 But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is doing exactly what he was appointed to do.

00:13:46.000 Putting the warfighters first, not the warmongers. 0.65

00:13:50.000 Peace through strength.

00:13:52.000 We gotta be ready.

00:13:53.000 We gotta be fit.

00:13:54.000 But we don't have to fight every possible war imaginable.

00:13:58.000 We can actually have peace as a deterrent.

00:14:01.000 Strength, really, as the deterrent and peace as the outcome.

00:14:05.000 But again, there's no money in peace.

00:14:07.000 There's only money in war.

00:14:08.000 And that's why the D.C. Beltway wants to keep fighting, have people dying.

00:14:14.000 As long as it's not their kids, they couldn't care less.

00:14:16.000 And that includes, guys, righting so many of Biden's wrongs that weakened our military, like kicking some of our best soldiers out of the service for refusing to take the vaccine.

00:14:29.000 But now, Pete Hexeth is welcoming back over 8,700 service members.

00:14:36.000 Check this out.

00:14:38.000 We're also welcoming back former service members who were wrongly forced to leave the military.

00:14:44.000 More than 8,700 service members.

00:14:47.000 We're not taking an experimental COVID-19 vaccine.

00:14:56.000 Others were more informally pushed out or decided to get out.

00:15:00.000 We are welcoming actively back those warriors of conscience.

00:15:04.000 We've sent letters out.

00:15:05.000 We're seeking them out.

00:15:07.000 We want them back.

00:15:08.000 They never should have been forced.

00:15:10.000 Come back.

00:15:11.000 Quickly. Personnel and Readiness Department is working in real time to make that process more and more efficient, more and more direct every single day.

00:15:21.000 And remember, guys, Biden and the Democrats made our country less safe and less secure in some of the worst ways imaginable.

00:15:31.000 And that includes welcoming into our country foreign narco terrorists like Trinidad and Cartel de los Soles into a nation that takes the lives of innocent Americans each and 1.00

00:15:46.000 every day.

00:15:47.000 And the FBI is now confirming just how destructive all the people are.

00:15:53.000 In a groundbreaking intelligence assessment, the FBI concluded that Maduro, the leader of the Venezuelan government, that Maduro government officials facilitated the migration.

00:16:07.000 of Trindle-Aragua gang members from Venezuela to the United States to advance the Maduro regime's objective of undermining public safety in the United States, which, as we've all seen play out, included killing American citizens like Lincoln Riley.

00:16:25.000 And Biden and his auto pen enablers allowed this to happen.

00:16:30.000 Remember, guys, they were the ones that ended the sanctions on Maduro.

00:16:35.000 They cut a secret deal with Chevron, the gas company, and emboldened evil in the worst ways imaginable.

00:16:44.000 And it continues to get worse.

00:16:46.000 According to the assessment and multiple reports, the FBM believes the Venezuelan government will likely attempt to leverage these cartels and narco-terrorists in the United States as proxy actors to threaten...

00:17:00.000 And kill Americans and Venezuelans alike who are critical of the regime.

00:17:06.000 I guess I could be in a lot of trouble here. 0.72

00:17:08.000 But thankfully, we have my father in office.

00:17:11.000 And it's a new era for American strength and an end to the cobbling of evil dictators in our backyard.

00:17:20.000 Just yesterday, guys, the FBI announced terrorism charges against an alleged high-ranking member of TDA, Trendlerawa.

00:17:28.000 The case sparks the first instance of a Trendel-Naragua member being charged under terrorism-related crimes.

00:17:34.000 And as President Bukele of El Salvador recently said, and my father and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have also said, we're not tolerating this narco-terrorism oppression and destruction any longer, guys. 0.92

00:17:49.000 We're locking up these criminals one by one.

00:17:52.000 Under my father's leadership, it's a bad day to be a bad guy.

00:17:57.000 Democrat judges?

00:17:59.000 Democrats in general?

00:18:00.000 They'd rather make these bad hombres the face of their new resistance. 1.00

00:18:05.000 They're saying they're great people, they're family men. 0.83

00:18:08.000 Who cares if they're murdering innocent Americans? 0.90

00:18:10.000 It doesn't matter.

00:18:11.000 Because we're also learning that the Maryland man, you know, the guy who's a Maryland man, he's a super good guy, great father, great guy, great husband, you know, he only beat his wife a few times.

00:18:24.000 This 13 gang member who Democrats are in love with was also previously pulled over by Highway Patrol officer back in 2022.

00:18:32.000 Huh. How is he driving a car tied to a confessed human smuggler?

00:18:53.000 Add to that the revelation that Abrego Garcia was accused of domestic violence, has MS-13 tattoos all over his hand that he paraded around while meeting with Democrat senators.

00:19:04.000 Okay, minor details.

00:19:10.000 This is who Democrat and activist judges care about.

00:19:14.000 They don't care about innocent Americans.

00:19:16.000 They don't care about you.

00:19:17.000 They don't care about your children, your family, your friends, and your loved ones.

00:19:21.000 This is their resistance.

00:19:23.000 This is their hill to die on. 1.00

00:19:25.000 Defending, violent, life-beating, murderous, drug-dealing thugs. 0.99

00:19:31.000 It's beyond disgraceful. 0.69

00:19:34.000 Here's Vice President J.D. Vance laying it all out very clearly.

00:19:40.000 Omar Abrego Garcia's wife has been very vocal about how she doesn't think he's getting due process, and she now also fears for her safety.

00:19:48.000 Do you have a message to her specifically?

00:19:50.000 Well, I don't have a message to his wife.

00:19:52.000 I mean, look, I just disagree with the idea that he hasn't been offered due process.

00:19:56.000 He had a couple of immigration hearings.

00:19:57.000 He had a valid deportation order.

00:20:00.000 I think this idea that somehow that we couldn't deport an MS-13 gang member, and he was an MS-13 gang member, is preposterous.

00:20:08.000 And I think there's actually a deeper issue going on, which is that you see some radical judges at the district court level who are trying to layer so much quote-unquote process on top of the immigration.

00:20:20.000 system that it makes it impossible to function.

00:20:22.000 We have over 20 million illegal aliens in the United States of America.

00:20:26.000 Are we not allowed to deport them?

00:20:28.000 Because if we're not allowed to deport them, then what these district courts are saying is fundamentally they reject the will of the Americans.

00:20:34.000 We just reject that.

00:20:39.000 I believe the American people elected President Trump to do many jobs, but perhaps the most important job was to bring down the number of illegal immigration in this country.

00:20:47.000 That's what he's trying to do.

00:20:49.000 We're gonna keep on doing it.

00:20:50.000 And guys, we're also gonna get into all of this with Deputy Director of the CIA, Michael Ellis, in just moments.

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00:23:23.000 Well, guys, joining me now, Deputy Director of the CIA, Michael Ellis.

00:23:29.000 Michael, how are you?

00:23:33.000 Hi, Don.

00:23:34.000 Thanks for having me.

00:23:36.000 Doing well.

00:23:38.000 It is a busy day here, as always, but there are no shortage of issues to dig into as we work to ensure the CIA is serving President Trump's agenda.

00:23:49.000 Well, we really appreciate that.

00:23:51.000 And for those of you watching, if you notice a little bit of a delay, there's a reason for that.

00:23:54.000 Everything through the CIA has to be sort of scrubbed and checked.

00:23:58.000 So I'm hearing myself about five seconds after I say it.

00:24:01.000 So we're not incompetent.

00:24:03.000 It's just procedure, which, you know, at the CIA, I probably totally understand.

00:24:07.000 You know, at the CIA, I probably totally understand.

00:24:11.000 Yeah, security comes first for everything we do and for good reason.

00:24:17.000 Well, no, totally, and I get that.

00:24:20.000 Deputy Director Ellis, thanks first and foremost for joining.

00:24:25.000 Deputy Director, what are your core responsibilities inside the CIA right now?

00:24:33.000 Well, you know, it's really the honor of a lifetime to be here as part of President Trump's administration.

00:24:42.000 And my role is to help Director Ratcliffe ensure that this agency is helping the president achieve his foreign policy goals.

00:24:53.000 We want to make sure that when your dad is going face-to-face with any other foreign leader in any negotiation, that he has a decisive intelligence advantage over America's adversaries.

00:25:06.000 And our priorities for that, it starts with, I think, the greatest national security threat and one that President Trump deserves a huge amount of credit for, for realizing before the rest of Washington did, is China. 0.59

00:25:19.000 China is the top... 0.98

00:25:21.000 Our top priority.

00:25:23.000 And realizing that that competition with China is fundamentally a technological competition.

00:25:28.000 And we have to be better positioned to take on China in artificial intelligence, in quantum computing, in robotics, in a whole host of areas.

00:25:37.000 So China and technology are where we start.

00:25:40.000 And another emphasis area, all tracking from the president's policy priorities, is the total elimination of the cartels.

00:25:50.000 And that's another area where we are turning CIA, along with the rest of the intel community, as part of a whole government effort to take on and destroy these cartels.

00:26:00.000 Yeah, I mean, I'm sort of amazed that that hadn't been a priority really prior to this, because I can't think of much more of sort of a clear and present danger, so to speak, to the United States.

00:26:09.000 When you think of 100,000 Americans dying of fentanyl traffic, most of that coming across the southern border, but also through China, working with the cartels, etc.

00:26:18.000 It seems like you can kind of, you know, proverbially kill two birds with one stone, taking those on directly.

00:26:27.000 Now, you're absolutely right that it's a little shocking this wasn't a bigger priority historically.

00:26:36.000 You know, I think for too long the intelligence community viewed the counter-narcotics mission, viewed the fight against drugs.

00:26:46.000 As really more of a law enforcement problem, we said, oh, that's what FBI and DEA, that's what DHS, that's what these other parts of governments are doing.

00:26:55.000 The intelligence community is worried about China and Russia.

00:26:58.000 We weren't worried about these threats closer to home.

00:27:02.000 But we're changing that now.

00:27:03.000 Again, under President Trump's leadership, starting with that goal of total elimination of the cartels, this is a whole of government fight.

00:27:10.000 And the intelligence community has an important role to play.

00:27:13.000 As you noted, You know, these fentanyl precursors, they start in China.

00:27:18.000 And so there is an important intelligence mission of identifying where they're coming from and helping to disrupt and stop those flows of the chemicals.

00:27:26.000 And then, you know, you move to south of the border, you know, in Latin America.

00:27:31.000 That's where these chemicals are being synthesized into the deadly drugs that are killing Americans.

00:27:37.000 So, you know, working with our law enforcement counterparts, but also working with...

00:27:43.000 With our partners overseas, working with the Mexicans. 0.95

00:27:45.000 You know, they don't want the cartels dominating their country either.

00:27:50.000 And that's where, you know, for too long, the intelligence community neglected that mission.

00:27:56.000 But we're changing that now.

00:27:58.000 I mean, one of the funny things I noticed when I got here is our counter-narcotics folks, I went for a meeting with them, and their conference room, you have to go through a kitchen to get to their conference room.

00:28:09.000 I said, wow, like, is this some sort of, like, high security?

00:28:13.000 Like, super secret room?

00:28:15.000 Like, we hid it behind the kitchen?

00:28:16.000 Like, no.

00:28:16.000 It's just because they got the worst conference room because this was not a mission that was prioritized by the IC.

00:28:22.000 And that's what's changing.

00:28:24.000 That's what's changing now under President Trump's leadership.

00:28:26.000 I mean, that's wild.

00:28:27.000 I mean, obviously, China's the biggest long-term threat to us. 0.99

00:28:31.000 But when you think of 100,000 Americans dead a year because of fentanyl, I mean, that's two Vietnams, basically, a year. 0.89

00:28:38.000 It's hard to believe, you know, that wasn't a priority.

00:28:41.000 So, like...

00:28:41.000 I guess, without discussing specific operations, under the leader of yourself, Director Ratcliffe, has the CIA restructured those priorities pretty significantly?

00:28:51.000 And what kind of organizational shifts are really necessary to effectively balance the need to maintain institutional credibility while also enacting probably some much-needed reform?

00:29:03.000 Yeah. So, you know, CIA.

00:29:12.000 CIA has been very successfully prosecuting the counterterrorism mission since 9 /11, really, right?

00:29:19.000 We have built a finely tuned machine for identifying and then disrupting and destroying terrorist networks.

00:29:27.000 We are taking that same tradecraft, those same tactics that we have really, I think, honed and perfected

00:29:37.000 terrorist networks, and we are turning them against the cartels, right?

00:29:41.000 We can apply that same playbook.

00:29:44.000 Now, you know, there are obviously some key differences between terrorist networks and drug trafficking networks.

00:29:50.000 You know, the motivations are different.

00:29:51.000 The geography, you know, where this is all happening is different.

00:29:55.000 But many of those same techniques we can use to disrupt the drug traffickers' networks as well.

00:30:03.000 And one structural change...

00:30:04.000 You know, I mentioned the counter-narcotics folks were hidden behind the kitchen.

00:30:09.000 We recently merged our counter-narcotics mission center into our western hemisphere.

00:30:15.000 We merged them together to make a new America's and counter-narcotics mission center, bringing that regional expertise together with the experience of fighting narcotics traffickers and empowering them to really take the fight to the cartels.

00:30:32.000 It's good to hear.

00:30:34.000 So, you know, I guess, obviously, over the last, let's call it eight years or so, we've heard so much about, you know, the dangers of weaponized intelligence.

00:30:43.000 What does that mean to you?

00:30:44.000 And how does it relate to how you approach this position inside the CIA?

00:30:52.000 Yeah, well, you know, we saw firsthand in President Trump's first administration, the dangers.

00:31:01.000 Of a politicized intelligence community, the dangers of the weaponization of intelligence against political opponents.

00:31:08.000 It's something that I saw when I was at the NSC.

00:31:12.000 And I know my old boss, Chairman Devin Nunes of the House Intelligence Committee, saw when he was investigating what went on with the Russia collusion hoax.

00:31:23.000 And it really shows the importance of keeping politics and that kind of political bias out of the intelligence community, because there are very powerful authorities that CIA and other intelligence agencies have.

00:31:38.000 We have to ensure that those authorities are turned outwards towards our foreign adversaries and not inwards towards the American people.

00:31:46.000 So that's, you know, that's the

00:31:48.000 We want to make sure that we lean forward and identify that many of the bad actors have left.

00:32:00.000 I think there have been a lot of reports on some of those folks.

00:32:06.000 But that if there are still folks that need to be accountable, that we make sure there's accountability for that.

00:32:13.000 And we make sure that these things can never happen again.

00:32:16.000 That there are forms that have been put into place, forms around the FISA process, that all of this ensures that intelligence community cannot be politicized in the future.

00:32:24.000 So the people watching understand, I mean, you work for Devin Nunes.

00:32:30.000 Devin was the first guy when he was a congressman to really go after Russia, Russia, Russia.

00:32:35.000 Turns out he was right about all of it being a hoax and a setup.

00:32:38.000 You then went on to work in the public sector.

00:32:40.000 You worked at Rumble, so sort of a free speech absolutist.

00:32:44.000 How do you sort of calm some of the natural fears that so many people, at least on my side of the political spectrum, feel?

00:32:52.000 Because that political weight, that weaponized intelligence was definitely...

00:32:59.000 Really only used against one side of the country and not the other.

00:33:03.000 You hear about the high-profile guys either losing their clearance or losing jobs.

00:33:09.000 I imagine there's quite a bit of skepticism still about some of the lower levels and just how entrenched all of that is.

00:33:15.000 How do you combat that so that people actually have the faith that these institutions do what they say they're going to be able to do?

00:33:25.000 No, it's a great question and something that we are thinking about every day of how we can make sure we change the culture here and, again, ensure that the abuses of the past don't happen again.

00:33:40.000 You know, part of it, again, starts with strong leadership at the top.

00:33:46.000 You talk about, you know, the president's executive orders.

00:33:48.000 We are faithfully complying with those and ensuring that, you know, whether it's...

00:33:53.000 Turning off security clearances or investigating past bad acts that we hold people accountable for what has happened in the past.

00:34:03.000 But, you know, there's also just a broader cultural point of we have to make sure that everyone at CIA knows that, again, we have to keep the work free of politics, free of bias.

00:34:15.000 One thing, you know, it's a small little thing, but one thing that I ask for is that every CIA officer, when they come on duty, when a new employee joins CIA, they get a copy of the Constitution.

00:34:27.000 Because that is the lodestar for our work here.

00:34:31.000 And, you know, violations of Americans' constitutional rights, that is just, you know, absolutely something that we can't have.

00:34:39.000 And if we discover that any abuses happen, that there will be accountability for those individuals.

00:34:45.000 And they won't be here anymore.

00:34:47.000 So, I know you can't speak to anything classified, but how would you describe this job in these first few months?

00:34:54.000 What stands out, sort of, you know, given the inherent secrecy of intelligence work and historical controversies that, again, sort of fuel that public skepticism I just sort of talked about, how do you navigate your duties to the agency along with the duties to the American people more broadly?

00:35:13.000 Yeah. Well, You know, I mentioned that there were some bad actors here in the past, and that's certainly the case, right?

00:35:22.000 Like, there's no denying that.

00:35:23.000 But there's also a lot of phenomenal people here.

00:35:26.000 There are some true patriots working at the CIA.

00:35:30.000 And, you know, of all the parts of the government, I think the CIA actually can be the most responsive.

00:35:42.000 I like to say, the CIA is a powerful sword, and one approach to the passive uses could be to beat that sword into a plowshare, but we don't want to neuter that weapon for the president.

00:35:57.000 We want to give it to him and let him pick it up and use it to carry out his foreign policy agenda, because there are great people here who can do amazing things.

00:36:06.000 They just have to Michael, can you talk a little bit more about the threat of cyber warfare?

00:36:29.000 Obviously, that's something that's sort of really in people's minds right now.

00:36:33.000 You see China in the AI race. 0.87

00:36:36.000 How are our adversaries using AI and what can you tell us about how the CIA itself is integrating AI and machine learning into its analytical processes?

00:36:48.000 Yeah, I mean, you're right.

00:36:50.000 The threat is real.

00:36:52.000 China has been attacking us on the cyber front for decades.

00:36:56.000 And, you know, again, it's amazing to me that really until President Trump entered office in 2017, The U.S. government was largely asleep at the switch on this, right?

00:37:07.000 Every national security strategy prior to President Trump's, whether it was Republican or Democratic administration, Bush or Obama, our stated national security strategy was to enable the peaceful rise of China.

00:37:20.000 Well, that changed the Trump administration, and cyber is one of those areas where I think we made some significant strides in the first administration, but there's a lot more work to do.

00:37:31.000 It starts with having better defenses, in part, right?

00:37:36.000 Making sure that our networks are hardened, that we counter the threats in as near real time as possible.

00:37:45.000 But it is also an offensive component here.

00:37:48.000 We have to create deterrence.

00:37:50.000 And I think that's something that President Trump saw that his predecessors did not.

00:37:55.000 If you continue to let foreign adversaries carry out cyber attacks with impunity, They will just continue to do so, right?

00:38:02.000 If there's no cost to them.

00:38:04.000 So that is where things are changing.

00:38:07.000 And you're right that artificial intelligence tools, these advanced technologies are critical to that fight.

00:38:15.000 And really, the American private sector is critical.

00:38:17.000 Most of the innovation in this space is not happening inside of the government.

00:38:21.000 It's happening out with the genius of American enterprise.

00:38:25.000 And we want to harness that and use it to give the United States a decisive advantage against China.

00:38:30.000 Yeah, I mean, you know, I've been reading about that for, you know, decades at this point.

00:38:34.000 You know, China and the theft of, you know, American corporate IP.

00:38:38.000 How does the CIA sort of work with corporate America to shore up those systems?

00:38:42.000 Because, you know, they spend probably trillions of dollars innovating, coming up with stuff.

00:38:47.000 China just goes in, steals it. 1.00

00:38:49.000 They've put, you know, zero basis.

00:38:51.000 They get, you know, a trillion dollars worth of information for free, and then they just work to improve it a little bit, you know, rather than actually create it.

00:38:59.000 Is there some sort of public-private partnership that can do that?

00:39:06.000 Yeah, so there is.

00:39:10.000 You're absolutely right when you talk about the Chinese have been stealing intellectual property for decades. 1.00

00:39:16.000 When you see the Chinese fifth-generation fighter jet that looks an awful lot like the F-35, right?

00:39:22.000 It's like, yeah, I wonder where they got that idea from.

00:39:26.000 You know, the public-private partnership, you know, most of that, it's not within the IC.

00:39:32.000 You know, DHS has a big role to play there.

00:39:35.000 But the role we can and do play is in collecting the information about Chinese and other foreign adversaries.

00:39:43.000 The Iranians are, the Russians, North Koreans, you know, they're bad actors in this space as well. 1.00

00:39:50.000 And sometimes even just, you know, criminal gangs and ransomware hackers.

00:39:55.000 We can collect information, and then even if it's collected in the classified form, the goal is to produce versions of that intelligence that can be shared with the private sector in, again, as near real-time as possible, whether it's through DHS or through other mechanisms,

00:40:13.000 to give the private sector that defensive information it needs to protect itself.

00:40:20.000 You know, if Chinese bombers or missiles were,

00:40:25.000 You know, blowing up American factories.

00:40:28.000 No one would say, well, gosh, like, you know, the factory owners should build air defenses, right?

00:40:33.000 No, the government has a role to stop this.

00:40:35.000 The government has a role to play here in helping the private sector defend itself from nation-state threats.

00:40:42.000 And that's what we need to do.

00:40:44.000 You know, I love that you sort of brought up bringing up also sort of the offensive capabilities, not just playing defense and trying to shield them, and then they figure out a way around that, and we're constantly...

00:40:54.000 You know, just on the defense.

00:40:56.000 I'd sort of always, in my heart, hope that, hey, maybe I just don't know about what we're doing back, but hopefully there's, you know, the offensive capability as well to, again, as a deterrent from them stopping doing that.

00:41:07.000 Meaning if they do something bad, there's going to be something back.

00:41:09.000 There's a repercussion, you know, and, you know, people learn.

00:41:13.000 Let's call it, you know, education through pain.

00:41:15.000 You know, how do you build up those kinds of systems?

00:41:19.000 And get them implemented.

00:41:20.000 Because, again, I don't know anything about it.

00:41:22.000 I'm probably not allowed to know anything about it.

00:41:24.000 But it does not seem like we've ever taken that offensive approach like the other side.

00:41:28.000 We've been on defense.

00:41:29.000 They've been on offense.

00:41:30.000 And even if they get 10% of what they could, it's still a significant net loss to us.

00:41:38.000 Yeah. Yeah.

00:41:39.000 And, again, it starts with building credible deterrence.

00:41:43.000 And that starts with strong leadership from the top.

00:41:46.000 Because if you just...

00:41:48.000 Talk about responses, but never actually carry them out.

00:41:53.000 The adversaries, they noticed that, right?

00:41:56.000 So, you know, to take an example outside the cybersphere, right, the strike that took out Qasem Soleimani in 2020, right, that President Trump ordered, that established deterrence, right?

00:42:06.000 Iran knew that he meant business, and that if they continued, you know, attacking Americans, that they would pay a price. 0.61

00:42:14.000 It's the same in the cyber realm.

00:42:16.000 You have to establish credible deterrence, and that means imposing costs on your adversaries.

00:42:21.000 Again, there's clearly a defensive side.

00:42:24.000 The defensive side is important, but it's not sufficient because the adversaries, again, these are highly capable adversaries that will always be looking to stay one step ahead of the defensive protections you can put in place.

00:42:38.000 So, Michael, you referenced it a little bit earlier, but can you talk more about what really seems to be a very deliberate and powerful effort?

00:42:46.000 into the Western Hemisphere to combat that cartel violence.

00:42:50.000 What can you tell us about that?

00:42:52.000 Because, again, that's on our border.

00:42:54.000 That's really the immediate threat.

00:42:56.000 The others are very real threats, probably larger threats, but certainly longer term.

00:43:01.000 I understand there's been a merger of the Western Hemisphere Mission Center and the Counter-Narcotic Center.

00:43:07.000 I think that was great, rather than having them in a break room past the kitchen into a singular unit.

00:43:12.000 What is the significance of all of that?

00:43:17.000 Well, you know, I think the significance is that we're finally going to be giving this problem, this, you know, again, one you mentioned is killing tens of thousands of Americans.

00:43:27.000 We're finally giving it the attention, the resources, the expertise it deserves.

00:43:33.000 Again, CIA has some great patriots who want to take on this fight, who want to stop the deaths we're seeing on our streets.

00:43:42.000 And, you know, we are opening up the aperture.

00:43:45.000 For them to be able to help dismantle and destroy those drug trafficking networks.

00:43:53.000 You know, again, it's part of a broader government effort.

00:43:56.000 It's not solely CIA.

00:43:58.000 It's not solely the intelligence community.

00:44:00.000 There's a role here for law enforcement.

00:44:02.000 There's a role here for the military.

00:44:04.000 You know, we're talking about the 10,000 troops along the southern border.

00:44:08.000 You know, this is a broad government effort.

00:44:11.000 And it's one where, again, you know...

00:44:13.000 The people of these countries in Latin America, the people of Mexico, the people of El Salvador and Colombia and Panama, they don't want these drug traffickers in their countries either.

00:44:27.000 They don't want the violence and the corruption that comes with this drug trade.

00:44:34.000 So it's helping them rid their countries of it, but doing so, and again, in a way that... 0.99

00:44:39.000 I think the U.S. government just really, really hasn't prioritized the issue in the past.

00:44:44.000 And it wasn't until we got that direction from President Trump that the total elimination of the cartels is the priority, that we really, you know, turn this machine, right?

00:44:59.000 Again, the well-oiled machine that has dismantled terrorist networks onto the narcotics traffickers.

00:45:04.000 So, you know, I think we've always sort of looked at, you know, some of the bad actors, authoritative dictatorships around the world as sort of, you know, one-offs.

00:45:12.000 But can you connect the dots for us between those authoritarian dictatorships in Latin America to China and to the Iran threat directly?

00:45:25.000 Yeah. Well, you know, we talked a little bit before about the fentanyl networks.

00:45:30.000 They start in China with the precursor chemicals.

00:45:33.000 We've seen that before.

00:45:35.000 Venezuela, there's a long history of them also collaborating with other bad actors, with Iran, with Russia, with Cuba.

00:45:46.000 I mean, this is all well documented.

00:45:50.000 But again, I think what we're already seeing is a response to strong leadership from the White House that just wasn't present in the past.

00:46:00.000 Our adversaries notice when When there's a change of administration and there's a different tone and a different aggressiveness that wasn't present in the past.

00:46:12.000 And I think, again, whether it's on China and not accepting the unfair competition that they've practiced for so long, or on Venezuela on not accepting the migration streams, the criminal gangs that they have been sending to our borders.

00:46:33.000 You know, you start to see it in the adversary behavior once they get that very clear message from Washington.

00:46:40.000 So, you know, obviously the CIA's job is, you know, functioning, you know, prevention and or perhaps now offense against, you know, our foreign enemies.

00:46:50.000 How do you coordinate those efforts?

00:46:52.000 Obviously there's an incredible brain trust there.

00:46:54.000 You have incredible information.

00:46:56.000 How does that work with some of the, you know, you mentioned DHS, perhaps on the drug side of things.

00:47:01.000 How do you work with sort of the US-based counterparts to be able to attack this fully so that, you know, two groups sort of aren't functioning in a vacuum without then sort of negating sort of some of those protections that the CIA isn't supposed to be functioning in the United States,

00:47:17.000 you know, proper?

00:47:22.000 Yeah. Well, you know, it starts with the White House giving the same strong direction that the president has given to all departments and agencies that, you know, they need to take on this problem.

00:47:33.000 So, you know, we've got DOJ.

00:47:34.000 Attorney General Bondi is highly engaged on this issue.

00:47:39.000 Director Cash Patel at FBI, you know, he is turning FBI's agents toward border security, towards counter-narcotics.

00:47:46.000 And with the assistance of my counterpart there, Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who...

00:47:51.000 It's a real delight to have a chance to work with him now with our past working together at Rumble.

00:48:00.000 But recently, to your point about the other parts of the government, I recently went out to the southwest border.

00:48:06.000 I went down to San Diego to visit with Customs and Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations.

00:48:12.000 And I also stopped at the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs, which, again, they've got 10,000 troops now along the border, making sure that we secure that border and stop the flow of deadly drugs

00:48:27.000 into our country.

00:48:28.000 So, you know, it's a whole of government effort and one where we stay very, very closely aligned with our counterparts in law enforcement and the military.

00:48:38.000 So what specific role could the CIA have in that border security?

00:48:43.000 Is that giving them the information about the cartels?

00:48:45.000 How does that exactly work?

00:48:46.000 Again, within the confines of...

00:48:51.000 Yeah, you know, again, I analogize it a little bit to the counterterrorism mission, which starts, you know, the terrorist threats, historically, they start abroad, right?

00:49:04.000 But then you're worried about when the terrorists come into the United States to carry out an attack, right?

00:49:08.000 So you have to have, you know, intelligence sharing.

00:49:13.000 You have to have strong relationships between the foreign intelligence side and the domestic side.

00:49:17.000 And some of these are reforms from after 9 /11 to make sure that there's no gap, there's no wall between the foreign and domestic side here.

00:49:27.000 So it's a similar dynamic, I think, for drug trafficking networks, right?

00:49:31.000 These are cartels that are located overseas, right?

00:49:34.000 So there's information that we can collect.

00:49:37.000 There are authorities that the CIA and other parts of the intelligence community can use to take on those cartels overseas.

00:49:46.000 But then we have to share it.

00:49:47.000 We have to have close working relationships with our domestic counterparts so they can make use of that information in their mission.

00:49:56.000 All obviously following the appropriate legal protections to make sure that American civil liberties and privacy are protected at all times.

00:50:07.000 But it's making sure that we have that fusion of intelligence between the foreign and the domestic side.

00:50:12.000 We've got the foreign part of that mission.

00:50:15.000 But we need to make sure that we stay very closely aligned with DHS and FBI, the agencies and domestic authorities as well.

00:50:23.000 Does the same apply for some of the fairly common sense concerns that so many Americans have about the porous border over the last four years, where allegedly, and not even allegedly, we know they arrested people on terror watch lists.

00:50:36.000 We know, I'm sure, plenty got through.

00:50:39.000 As it relates to the terror threat beyond, again, the cartel, drug trafficking side of things?

00:50:45.000 For people who are currently in America right now?

00:50:51.000 Yeah, I mean, that's...

00:50:53.000 Obviously, it's related to the border threat, right?

00:50:56.000 Because that's how we know some of these terrorist networks were able to enter the country was through a porous southwest border.

00:51:05.000 When you look at some of the threats that were disrupted over the past year, I believe there's...

00:51:14.000 Others have talked about how there was a bombing that was disrupted in Oklahoma City on Election Day of 2024, last year, where there was a foreign nexus to that threat and was disrupted thanks to intelligence community working together with domestic law enforcement to save American lives.

00:51:35.000 So that threat is still there, and it's one that Director Ratcliffe and I are very closely attuned to.

00:51:44.000 We can't take our eye off the ball when it comes to terrorism because while the threat may be different than it was 20 years ago, ISIS, al-Qaeda, they are still out there and they still want to send people into or inspire people inside of this country to kill Americans.

00:52:01.000 Yeah, so for those tuning in a little bit late, like I said earlier, you sort of have this incredible background.

00:52:06.000 You were at the White House Counsel's Office.

00:52:08.000 You were with Devin Nunes then when he was in Congress.

00:52:12.000 You went into the public sector at Rumble, obviously, a champion of free speech, sort of absolutism, working directly with Chris Pawlowski.

00:52:20.000 You were even a Jeopardy champion, so kind of a big one.

00:52:27.000 What have you learned in each step of the way, and how does it apply to that work at the CIA?

00:52:32.000 What did you glean from each of those things, whether it was public sector, private sector, government work, or Jeopardy?

00:52:43.000 Well, you know, at least on the professional front, you know, working with good teams, good people has really been the most important thing.

00:52:52.000 You know, you can have the best job in the world, and if the people around you that we're working with are lousy, then, you know, you'll be miserable.

00:53:01.000 But, you know, having a good team, and I think, again, with Director Ratcliffe, we have one here at CIA.

00:53:09.000 Having good people around you.

00:53:11.000 You know, having the opportunity to work with people like Devin Nunes and Chris Pavlosky, you know, that's really a special thing.

00:53:19.000 And small teams that are highly motivated by mission, whether it's at Rumble or in Congress or at the White House or here, can do an amazing amount.

00:53:28.000 And that, I think, is something that I've always tried to seek out.

00:53:32.000 On the Jeopardy side, you know, that was a great experience.

00:53:39.000 I was lucky enough to win one show and then went down in flames on the second one.

00:53:43.000 So, you know, I had to go big and give it a shot.

00:53:48.000 Ran out of random knowledge?

00:53:50.000 Well, it just went all in on Final Jeopardy and got it wrong.

00:53:55.000 Actually, on a question about how many states there were in Mexico, believe it or not.

00:54:01.000 Well, hopefully you're learning that one now.

00:54:03.000 In hindsight, you could go back and win that thing.

00:54:10.000 31 states and Mexico.

00:54:12.000 I'm not going to forget that one.

00:54:13.000 That's funny.

00:54:15.000 I imagine that one's now ingrained in perpetuity into your head right now.

00:54:25.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:54:27.000 But no, again, really phenomenal experiences.

00:54:32.000 I'm lucky to have had them.

00:54:33.000 And I can't thank the president enough and Director Ratcliffe for...

00:54:39.000 Give me the opportunity to serve once again.

00:54:41.000 Well, we appreciate that.

00:54:42.000 I got one last question.

00:54:43.000 I want to see, you know, since you understand what the actual threat, you know, of these gang members, whether it's Trendel Aragua, whether it's MS-13, you know, what do you think of some of the lawfare being waged with some of these district judges that seem to have the ultimate authority in America these days?

00:55:00.000 They have more power than the president of the United States.

00:55:02.000 They're able to...

00:55:04.000 On a whim, and they're always seemingly cherry-picked with the most radical leftist appointees, but they're seemingly able to overrule not just the President of the United States, but the will of the people who certainly elected my father in part because of what he was going to do in terms of eliminating that domestic threat of criminal illegal aliens.

00:55:29.000 Some of these rulings have really been outrageous, and I'm glad that the Department of Justice has been vigorously litigating them and appealing.

00:55:37.000 I think, you know, one of the things that I've seen in Congress to deal with this is these nationwide injunctions.

00:55:44.000 I think they have to stop.

00:55:45.000 They were abused in your father's first administration as well.

00:55:50.000 You know, the second executive order is issued that the left-wing groups run to.

00:55:57.000 You know, a particular judge in San Francisco, a particular judge in Seattle.

00:56:02.000 And, you know, litigants shouldn't choose their judge, I think, as a fair principle.

00:56:08.000 And, you know, a single district court judge should not be able to enjoin a policy nationwide.

00:56:13.000 It's not our system of government.

00:56:15.000 It deprives the president of his constitutional authority to conduct the foreign relations and serve as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

00:56:24.000 And I think it has to end.

00:56:28.000 Well, I'm glad you feel that way.

00:56:29.000 So, Deputy Director Ellis, thank you so much for joining us.

00:56:33.000 Keep up the good work.

00:56:34.000 Make sure we turn this machine around and we start going after those adversaries that perhaps we've been a little too asleep at the wheel for a little bit too long.

00:56:46.000 Thank you so much for having me.

00:56:48.000 Enjoy the conversation and look forward to delivering the results.

00:56:52.000 We look forward to seeing you, man.

00:56:54.000 Thanks a lot.

00:56:54.000 Talk to you soon.

00:56:57.000 Thanks so much for tuning in.

00:56:58.000 Remember to hit that like button.

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Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - April 24, 2025

Interview with CIA Deputy Director, Plus FBI's Major Maduro-TDA Discovery | Triggered Ep236

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