Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - The Swamp Cares More About Ukraine’s Border Than Our Own: Why? Interviews with Sen Marsha Blackburn and Gov Doug Burgum | TRIGGERED Ep.112

00:00:00.000 you you

00:05:55.000 guys welcome to another huge episode of trigger tips Tonight's episode is going to be a fun one.

00:06:16.000 We have two great guests.

00:06:19.000 Both are really important with perspectives on how to restore American prosperity, to gain back voters, and to take back power in November.

00:06:30.000 We'll be speaking with Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

00:06:37.000 Two different perspectives, one from the federal level representing the states, the other being

00:06:42.000 the CEO of a state with what's going on, people who understand at the highest levels.

00:06:48.000 We're going to cover a lot of strategy, a lot of policy, and most importantly, a lot

00:06:53.000 of solutions.

00:06:54.000 So I need you guys to like, share, and subscribe so you don't miss any of these episodes.

00:07:00.000 I'm only on two days a week.

00:07:02.000 We're working on maybe doing some more with Rumble, but because it's not regularly scheduled,

00:07:07.000 you know, subscribe so that you get a notification when we go on.

00:07:11.000 Remember that you can also find these episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

00:07:15.000 So if you know people who get their podcasts that way, send it to them.

00:07:19.000 Share it to them. Maybe if you're going to be traveling or whatever and that's an easier way for you to do it.

00:07:24.000 It's there. Need you to subscribe.

00:07:26.000 That's how we push back.

00:07:28.000 That's how we get together. And that's how we take on the world.

00:07:31.000 You can also find more coverage of this show and all of my top stories on my news app, MXM News.

00:07:38.000 You can get that, you know, on the Apple iTunes store.

00:07:42.000 You can get it on Google store, the usual places.

00:07:46.000 It's where you get the mainstream news without the mainstream bias.

00:07:50.000 The other side's always telling us to build our own.

00:07:53.000 We've done that.

00:07:54.000 We're trying to get you the stuff that's not curated by Google,

00:07:57.000 but actually curated by me, where you're actually going to see the things that matter.

00:08:02.000 So, together, we are getting the message out, because it's all of you who make the show possible,

00:08:08.000 along with some of our incredible sponsors.

00:08:11.000 We have really some great people who have the guts to support programming like this.

00:08:16.000 And that includes several new sponsors, including the 1775 Coffee Company, which is brewed to perfection, crafted with precision, and built on patriotism.

00:08:27.000 1775's coffee is a farm-to-cup process.

00:08:30.000 That means there's quality, authenticity, and sustainability from start to finish.

00:08:34.000 All the beans are ethically and exclusively single sourced from the finest farms in Bolivia.

00:08:41.000 And guys, we talk about it all the time.

00:08:43.000 You don't want to give your money to some woke coffee chain that hates your guts 1.00

00:08:47.000 and is actually taking your hard-earned money and funding it against you.

00:08:50.000 Give it to companies that actually share your values.

00:08:53.000 It's why 1775 Coffee is joining forces with Rumble to support the causes that matter most.

00:08:59.000 Your purchase helps support veteran causes, groups fighting to protect the First Amendment, the right

00:09:04.000 to keep and bear arms, and so much more.

00:09:06.000 So go to 1775coffee.com slash Don Jr.

00:09:11.000 1775 1775coffee.com slash D-O-N-J-R for 10% off your first order.

00:09:19.000 Now, with that, joining me...

00:09:23.000 Incredible Senator from the great state of Tennessee, Senator Marsha Blackburn.

00:09:28.000 Senator, there's so much to get into with everything that's going on right now.

00:09:33.000 I feel like we're oftentimes living a simulation.

00:09:36.000 The discord between Washington and sort of the people that they're elected to represent seems perhaps bigger than we've ever seen it before.

00:09:44.000 But I want to start by getting your big picture view On the trajectory of the country as a whole under Joe Biden, how confident are you that we can actually get this country back on track, given how far we've gone off the rails?

00:10:00.000 Well, Don, I'm delighted to join you.

00:10:02.000 Thank you for inviting me to be on your podcast.

00:10:06.000 And the good thing about getting this country back on track is that the American people are waking up.

00:10:12.000 And whether I'm in Tennessee or out campaigning for some of our Republican Senate candidates, I meet people every single day.

00:10:24.000 Who grab my arm and they say, Marsha, I never in my life thought I would be witnessing what I'm witnessing right now.

00:10:33.000 What can we do about it?

00:10:35.000 How are we going to do this?

00:10:37.000 And of course, my instruction to them is to, first of all, get registered to vote if they're not.

00:10:44.000 Be sure all their families registered to vote.

00:10:47.000 Get their friends to the polls to vote early and be sure that they vote for President Donald Trump.

00:10:55.000 And that is a way that we're going to get this country back on track.

00:10:59.000 And thank goodness that people are paying attention.

00:11:03.000 Yeah, and I think, you know, obviously the president's a big one.

00:11:05.000 You've seen sort of what sort of the stroke of the pen on some of these insane executive orders from Joe Biden can be.

00:11:11.000 But I think it's important for people to also get involved all the way down the line.

00:11:15.000 I mean, I think we've given up so much as a country by, you know, not being involved in, let's call it, you know, the school board races.

00:11:21.000 I mean, at this point, I think we have to get involved in the dog catcher races because, candidly, the left will and they'll figure out a weapon, a way to weaponize all that.

00:11:31.000 Of course they will.

00:11:32.000 And I like to say from the courthouse to the statehouse to the White House, Republicans in 2024 are going to have to come together.

00:11:43.000 They're going to need to unite and say, we are in a fight for survival of this nation.

00:11:50.000 And it is imperative that we make certain that we elect good, solid conservatives, elect Republicans to office.

00:12:01.000 I think without question.

00:12:03.000 I guess these days, there's been a lot of pushback from the America First base on this recent foreign aid package.

00:12:09.000 Obviously, we're talking about $60 billion more for Ukraine, more for Taiwan, more for Israel.

00:12:17.000 And you're one of the few people that pushed back on this in the United States Senate.

00:12:22.000 One of the few Republicans, actually, that pushed back.

00:12:24.000 It would put you in the minority there a lot.

00:12:27.000 Do you see the misplaced priorities in Washington?

00:12:30.000 I think many Americans feel like Washington's just literally putting foreign borders above our own and it's sort of hard to disagree with them at this point.

00:12:40.000 People are so frustrated about it.

00:12:42.000 Don, what I think is happening here, the American people see the impact of illegal immigration in their communities every single day.

00:12:53.000 They see it because they have friends and relatives that are dying from fentanyl poisoning.

00:12:58.000 It is the biggest impact A killer of kids 18 to 45 years old.

00:13:05.000 Now think about that when they see the impact of human trafficking and sex trafficking.

00:13:12.000 They see what is happening with illegal immigration and illegal immigrants being bussed into their communities.

00:13:20.000 And then with our veterans, they're going, wait a minute.

00:13:25.000 Why will we not secure our border?

00:13:28.000 And then we go talk about other borders.

00:13:32.000 And, of course, we don't want Putin to win.

00:13:36.000 We don't want Xi Jinping to win.

00:13:38.000 But we have to have a strong America in order to make sure they don't win.

00:13:45.000 When you have terrorists, when you have people that are from countries of interest coming into our border, you know you have to make certain we tend to our border first so that we never have another 9-11.

00:14:02.000 Yeah, I mean, there's no question some of that's happening right now.

00:14:05.000 I mean, you know, everyone, the Democrats sound, but they're going to make our country better.

00:14:09.000 It's like, I'm not, you know, I'm not sure.

00:14:10.000 It doesn't seem like what I'm seeing coming across, the people beating up cops in New York.

00:14:14.000 They weren't making their country better.

00:14:16.000 I don't know that they're going to make our country better.

00:14:19.000 And that seems pretty apparent.

00:14:20.000 I mean, this reminds me sort of, you know, what happened in Cuba, you know, where they just sort of, hey, you know what?

00:14:27.000 Take all the criminals, just get them out of our system.

00:14:31.000 Yeah. And send them to America, because there's almost no other way to interpret a lot of what's going on, especially when you see the video of all these sort of fighting age males at the border. 0.81

00:14:39.000 This is not a sort of a cross-section of the countries that they're fleeing.

00:14:43.000 It's very specific. Yes, and in a three-month period of time when you have 24,000 Chinese, mostly young men of military age that are coming to that border, we know there's a better way to address this. 0.99

00:14:58.000 Let me take you back in history, recent history a little bit.

00:15:01.000 When Barack Obama was president in Crimea, The issue with Russia going into Crimea.

00:15:08.000 Obama sent them blankets and meals ready to eat.

00:15:12.000 Donald Trump comes in.

00:15:14.000 And what does President Trump send Ukraine?

00:15:17.000 Weapons and armor.

00:15:19.000 So they could defend themselves.

00:15:22.000 And before Putin invaded Ukraine, I sent a letter to the White House and I said, look, You can look at the satellite imagery.

00:15:31.000 You can see he is amassing his troops.

00:15:35.000 You can see what they are doing.

00:15:38.000 Please, let's begin selling them what they need to protect themselves. 0.88

00:15:44.000 And you know, there are programs we can do like the Lend-Lease program that I did with

00:15:49.000 Taiwan that would allow them to get what they need and pay us back at some point in the

00:15:57.000 future.

00:15:58.000 But what we have to make certain is that there is a strategy that they can define a win and

00:16:07.000 that there is accountability.

00:16:10.000 And Don, at this point, we don't have any of those three.

00:16:14.000 And we have a weak president and we have Vladimir Putin who does not fear him.

00:16:21.000 What does, you know, again, I've done this sort of around the country.

00:16:24.000 As you know, I speak to a lot of groups.

00:16:26.000 I've been with you at these places, you know, around America.

00:16:29.000 And I've done sort of the survey.

00:16:31.000 You know, is Ukraine funding a top three priority, a top ten priority for...

00:16:35.000 I got one guy one time, except for a recent one, one guy one time said it was a top ten.

00:16:41.000 And this is in front of like 35,000 people that I've now done this each time I speak in front of a group of 500 to 5,000 people.

00:16:48.000 One guy, you know, he happened to be from Ukraine, so I gave up a pass.

00:16:50.000 I spoke, I guess it was last weekend at Washington and Lee University, a little bit closer to the Beltway.

00:16:56.000 And maybe like 2-3% of the room of about 1,000 said it was a top 10 priority.

00:17:03.000 Almost no one said it was a top 3 priority.

00:17:05.000 Mitch McConnell, you know, I give that to the Beltway.

00:17:08.000 Obviously, that's going to be a little closer.

00:17:09.000 But in real America, one person who happened to be from Kiev.

00:17:13.000 Yeah. Mitch McConnell continues to tell us it's a number one priority for Republicans.

00:17:17.000 That's not the case.

00:17:18.000 It's not accurate.

00:17:20.000 But he has yet to articulate what actual victory looks like.

00:17:25.000 Other than just spending our grandchildren's future...

00:17:30.000 You know, to enrich a couple of his buddies in the military-industrial complex.

00:17:34.000 What does that look like?

00:17:35.000 You're in these meetings. You're in these closed-door meetings.

00:17:37.000 Have they articulated what victory means?

00:17:40.000 Other than, you know, what I see is, which is like the elimination of every, you know, man, woman, and child in Russia, which it seems like, you know, that's what they're going for. 0.98

00:17:48.000 And the problem is all you're getting is a lot of that into Ukraine.

00:17:51.000 None of it makes any sense to me.

00:17:53.000 It's just death. With no real articulated goals.

00:17:57.000 Has that been made more clear to you or are you still unclear?

00:18:01.000 It has not and I have asked specifically when we're dealing with Ukraine, tell me what your strategy is and tell me how

00:18:09.000 you classify a win.

00:18:10.000 What does a win look like? You know Don, you've had a fabulous business career, still do.

00:18:17.000 And generally, when you're looking at something, you will begin with the end in mind.

00:18:23.000 You think about what is an exit strategy.

00:18:27.000 I want to know what that is when we're talking about Ukraine.

00:18:31.000 What does a win look like?

00:18:34.000 And under President Trump, we could define what our relationship was with countries.

00:18:40.000 Our friends knew they were our friends.

00:18:42.000 Our enemies knew to fear us under Joe Biden.

00:18:46.000 They do not fear him.

00:18:50.000 So, therefore, they see us as being weak and they feel like they can take advantage of us.

00:18:57.000 This is why some of us are saying, look, we want some accountability.

00:19:02.000 Where is the money in Ukraine being used?

00:19:06.000 How are we using it?

00:19:08.000 What are the accountabilities on that?

00:19:11.000 What is going for humanitarian aid?

00:19:14.000 What is going for What is going for military aid?

00:19:20.000 The American people deserve to know because this is not government's money, it's the people's money.

00:19:27.000 Yeah, and the fact that, I mean, they seem so just wanton waste with it.

00:19:31.000 You know, there has been no accountability.

00:19:33.000 You say, oh, well, we lost, you know, the Pentagon lost another $220 billion or $250 billion.

00:19:37.000 I mean, like if we, you know, the same government that wants to audit our bank accounts if we have a $601 Venmo account is fine losing $220 billion.

00:19:48.000 Billion with a B. Like, it's unfathomable.

00:19:51.000 Now, of course, I'm sure that's more money that's getting sent to Ukraine in other roundabout ways, but we're creating an oligarchic class of billionaire that's just pilfering from it, and our even Republican senators seem, you know, with perhaps yourself, I know Bill Haggerty was against it, obviously, you know, J.D. Vance, but...

00:20:11.000 That's maybe it.

00:20:14.000 There may be two or three others, but it's shocking to me that no one else wants to even know where this kind of money is.

00:20:21.000 This is money that could build schools, that could do so much to take care of our veterans at home, and those people aren't even considered anymore.

00:20:30.000 The American people that I speak to literally feel like they're second-class citizens in their own country oftentimes, and again, it's also hard to argue with that.

00:20:38.000 Well, and you're exactly right, because when you look at the federal government budget, it should be about priorities.

00:20:45.000 And it seems many times that our veterans, that people right here at home, are not the priority.

00:20:54.000 And what we would like to do is change this.

00:20:58.000 You know there is a concept I've been working on which would initiate government reform system-wide because we're $34 trillion in debt.

00:21:09.000 And what we need to do is freeze federal spending, federal hiring, and federal salaries.

00:21:18.000 And then we need to move these agencies out of Washington, D.C. and begin to drain the swamp

00:21:27.000 and turn this government back to being a representative government and a government of, by, and for the people.

00:21:37.000 Because right now, the people are not trusting what they're hearing and seeing from this administration.

00:21:44.000 And they see every day there's two tiers of access, two tiers of treatment, and definitely two tiers of justice.

00:21:55.000 And they're tired of it because they're the ones footing the bill.

00:22:01.000 And this is not what they expect from their government.

00:22:06.000 Well, I mean, I think a lot of this really raises the larger questions about, you know, what role do we want our government to have in our lives?

00:22:13.000 I mean, it seems some, you know, just an all-encompassing role.

00:22:16.000 They will, you know, govern me harder.

00:22:19.000 It's sort of crazy.

00:22:21.000 And it seems like on the issues that matter most, like protecting our border and protecting public safety, the drug trafficking and human trafficking crisis, We see Democrats, and again, even some of these Republicans, especially in the Senate, where there's just so many few fighters, they're literally failing to meet the moment.

00:22:38.000 They are not in tune, even remotely, with the people that they're there to represent.

00:22:44.000 Why is that?

00:22:45.000 Why is it that the House...

00:22:48.000 You have some of the same problem, but not nearly as much.

00:22:51.000 But in the Senate, the disunion between the people they're there to represent and the desires of the Washington, D.C., whether it's the swamp, the beltway, the deep state, it's so crazy that it can be that far off, and yet people still keep getting elected.

00:23:09.000 It's really kind of astounding to me.

00:23:13.000 I'm one of those.

00:23:14.000 I come home every single weekend.

00:23:17.000 My family is all in Tennessee.

00:23:20.000 We don't live in D.C. And when you're out and about, and I visit with every one of our 95 counties every single year, and you're hearing firsthand from people, about the impact of the border, the impact of inflation, their concerns over national security, their concerns about our young men and women who are in the military, their concerns about a lack of a defined strategy to protect the sovereignty of this nation,

00:23:55.000 and their concerns about economic security, job security, access to healthcare, These are real live issues that people are dealing with every single day.

00:24:09.000 And I find it so interesting that there are people that are not home and talking to people every weekend.

00:24:22.000 And that there's There is that divide between the way some people, not all, but some people that vote, and what you hear when you look at polling are issues that are prevalent in their states and districts, And you wonder how there can be such a separation.

00:24:48.000 But I think it's one of the reasons it makes 2024 so vitally important that we elect people that are going to represent

00:24:59.000 our views, like I said, from the courthouse to the statehouse to the White House, because they are.

00:25:07.000 You've got elected officials that are out of touch at each of these areas and people with their hard earned tax

00:25:18.000 dollars, hardworking people are the ones that are paying for government to be in place in their communities, in

00:25:28.000 their state and in this country.

00:25:31.000 Yeah, I mean, I guess I always say it feels like it's an easy existence to be a Republican in Washington, D.C. if

00:25:38.000 you sort of cave when it actually matters to the constituency.

00:25:42.000 I mean, you've dealt with some of this.

00:25:44.000 I mean, I guess last cycle for you, Taylor Swift, only because it's relevant to the news today, came out against you.

00:25:51.000 But guess what? It didn't matter.

00:25:53.000 Because the people knew you, and you knew the people.

00:25:56.000 You actually spent that time in the state that they understood exactly what it is.

00:26:00.000 So the biggest pop star or whatever can do their nonsense and make it political, and yet it didn't actually matter because you're out there actually talking and listening to the people.

00:26:11.000 Too many others in Washington, D.C., they moved to Washington, D.C. They represent X, Y, Z state, but they don't even go back to visit anymore.

00:26:22.000 Well, and that is why I think it's not a great idea for people that are in the House and the Senate to live in Washington, D.C., because you lose that proximity.

00:26:34.000 You know, yesterday at church, I had a woman come to me and she said, I am more worried than I have ever been, and I worry every single day.

00:26:47.000 And she has kids that are in college and are just finishing college.

00:26:54.000 And she's worried for them about the potential for their careers.

00:26:58.000 She's worried about safety.

00:27:01.000 She's worried about another terrorist attack here on U.S. soil.

00:27:06.000 And I really appreciate when people walk up and have those conversations with me.

00:27:12.000 You know, a lot of times they agree with me.

00:27:15.000 There are times that they don't agree with me on issues, but the point is, I am hearing firsthand from them.

00:27:26.000 Well, some of that fear, I mean, it seems to obviously be justified.

00:27:30.000 You see the random attacks.

00:27:31.000 You see where it's coming from.

00:27:33.000 You see so many illegals being involved in all of these crimes that you're seeing reported.

00:27:38.000 And I guess the Biden administration recently, or in the last week, issued an order that will shield Palestinians in the United States from deportation for 18 months via a program called, I guess, Deferred Enforcement Departure.

00:27:53.000 This comes amid major concerns about Hamas-linked extremists that are already here in the country.

00:28:01.000 You saw some of the lunacy after the October attacks happening on college campuses and in major cities across the country.

00:28:11.000 What level of concern do you have about this order and how it seems to protect...

00:28:17.000 A class of people that could, some I'm sure are great and others could be absolutely terrible.

00:28:23.000 We're just going to give them blanket immunity for 18 months?

00:28:25.000 It seems lunacy.

00:28:27.000 Again, the second class citizen in your own country concept seems to ring a bell each and every time I see one of these orders coming out of Biden's White House.

00:28:38.000 Well, you're right about that.

00:28:39.000 And I look at it this way.

00:28:42.000 When I heard about Biden's order of protection that was there for Palestinians, it caused me to think back through his entire administration.

00:28:54.000 What has Joe Biden done?

00:28:57.000 He has done everything he possibly can do to make illegal immigration legal.

00:29:04.000 Now, when President Trump left the White House, we had the securest border that we had had.

00:29:10.000 We didn't have large numbers of terrorists coming to our border or people of interest,

00:29:16.000 nor did we have hundreds of thousands of people coming in a month.

00:29:20.000 We had what was considered to be a secure border, a wall going up.

00:29:29.000 Joe Biden comes in on day one, and he begins to execute executive memos, executive actions, executive orders that are going to weaken not only border security but immigration law.

00:29:46.000 In his first 100 days, he took 94 actions.

00:29:53.000 Ninety-four. To make the border more open and to weaken immigration law. 0.85

00:30:01.000 Now, we have seen what that has done.

00:30:04.000 Last year, Border Patrol told us we had people from 170 different countries come to the border.

00:30:13.000 If you look at the month of December alone, December 2023, When you had people from China, from Russia, Iran, you had people from Syria, from Pakistan, you had people that were coming in from countries of interest, and they were coming in not just in ones or twos or threes.

00:30:41.000 Don, they're coming in the hundreds and thousands.

00:30:45.000 Now, this should be alarming to each and every one of us.

00:30:50.000 The fact that on Joe Biden's watch, you have had north of 300 known terrorists on that watch list that have come to that southern border.

00:31:01.000 Now, all of these numbers that I've just used, they're in the ones that Border Patrol intercepted.

00:31:10.000 Think about the gotaways and the numbers that are in those known and unknown gotaways.

00:31:18.000 That's where the really bad guys are because they're smuggling in the drugs. 0.70

00:31:25.000 They're smuggling in people that have criminal backgrounds.

00:31:31.000 And you referenced earlier the criminals that were being cleared out of the jails in Cuba and sent across into the U.S., These are not people that are coming here for economic activity.

00:31:46.000 We have seen that in New York with the beating up of police by the Venezuelan gangs.

00:31:52.000 So, of course, people are right to be concerned and they're right to question what this administration is doing about that issue of border security because it is where our foreign policy Yeah, the fact that that one, you know, we all understand what they're doing.

00:32:19.000 They're importing a voter base because they're losing the base here that would vote for these ridiculous Democrat policies. 0.92

00:32:25.000 And if they create dependence, you know, I guess that's a win for them, you know, playing the long game if you're a Democrat.

00:32:31.000 The fact that there's literally no concern as it relates to the terrorism side of things.

00:32:36.000 You know, again, the terrorists are going to be well-funded.

00:32:39.000 If they've caught 300, imagine how many thousands got across because they are a little bit better funded.

00:32:43.000 They're more tactically able.

00:32:45.000 They're coming in through different ways with a lot more support structure than, you know, the average person coming across the border.

00:32:50.000 The fact that that's not a concern to them, I mean, you do have to wonder.

00:32:54.000 I always say, you know, if You were trying to destroy a country from within.

00:32:58.000 What would you do differently than today's Democrat policy?

00:33:01.000 And the fact that that isn't somehow even looked at as different.

00:33:05.000 It's open, well, it doesn't matter.

00:33:06.000 I mean, they're putting their own children into harm's way, and they couldn't care less, which tells you really everything about their thoughts and views of our country as a whole, and that should scare everyone a lot.

00:33:18.000 Well, it should scare everyone alive because when you look at the way this administration tries to encourage lawlessness, you can look at the defund the police agenda.

00:33:33.000 You can look at the disrespect and so many other issues that are there that affect our culture and affect society.

00:33:43.000 And this push to make illegal legal, finding ways for illegal immigration.

00:33:52.000 I think that it, and all of that leads into that two tiers of treatment, two tiers of access, two tiers of justice in our country.

00:34:03.000 And there again, this is what people are growing really tired of.

00:34:08.000 So, legislatively, you've also, speaking of sort of safety, our kids are, you know, first and foremost in my mind, you've recently co-sponsored a bill called the Kids' Online Safety Act.

00:34:17.000 I guess that would place new restrictions on big tech platforms and the content that they can show to children.

00:34:23.000 That's a really big deal.

00:34:24.000 We see some of the stuff in its lunacy.

00:34:26.000 You know, I know you're not allowed to use the word groomers anymore, but you see a lot of very nefarious groups doing something that could...

00:34:34.000 Could be described as nothing other than grooming.

00:34:37.000 But there's been a lot of pushback on the legislation that could be used as a tool for censorship and stuff like that.

00:34:45.000 But I see that coming out from some rather odd groups.

00:34:49.000 Can you explain the law and what it would actually mean in practice?

00:34:53.000 Because there's, I'm sure, a very big discord between the law that you helped write and the way it's being spun by, let's call it the...

00:35:02.000 You know, trans mafia, you know, and others out there that are doing their thing, but with the full assistance probably of big tech and the mainstream media.

00:35:12.000 Well, the Kids Online Safety Act is a piece of legislation Senator Blumenthal and I have worked on in a bipartisan manner for the last three years.

00:35:23.000 We are so pleased that we've been able to work through this process to the point we now have 60 Senate members who are co-sponsors that join us on this legislation.

00:35:38.000 This is not a censorship bill.

00:35:42.000 This is a safety by design and puts the responsibility on big tech to make certain that the virtual space is going to be a safe space for our children.

00:35:58.000 It establishes a duty of care.

00:36:01.000 It requires that these social media platforms go through An audit every single year to make certain they're complying with the law it requires them to open their algorithms and to give parents and kids the ability to set those settings in a manner That they're not going to be constantly fed all of this about eating disorders and videos on how to commit suicide or self-harm, or they're not going to be meeting pedophiles and drug dealers in the virtual space.

00:36:44.000 And Don, there is a mental health crisis with our nation's teens and young people, and You can go talk to all sorts of pediatricians, psychiatrists, school principals, teachers, parents, and they will tell you much of it

00:37:05.000 is because of what kids are exposed to online.

00:37:10.000 And- Oh, 100%, like you didn't see these things.

00:37:12.000 There was no, all of, you know, you mentioned, whether it was teen suicide,

00:37:17.000 whether it was sort of the, you know, I decided to be trans at five, you know,

00:37:21.000 all of these things, they never existed until we just sort of started force-feeding it.

00:37:27.000 And the algorithms, frankly, have been so favorable to that.

00:37:30.000 I mean, I always say that today, the radical trans movement in America

00:37:34.000 is by far the most privileged class in society.

00:37:37.000 They can do literally nothing wrong in the eyes of the mainstream media and big tech,

00:37:41.000 and therefore, you know, the world more broadly.

00:37:45.000 But where's the pushback coming from on something like this?

00:37:49.000 I mean, this feels like, again, the perfect sort of Chinese PSYOP 1.00

00:37:53.000 if you're trying to destroy a country, attack the youth, make them confused,

00:37:57.000 give them all sorts of, just literally create out of thin air

00:38:01.000 all these disorders that wouldn't otherwise exist.

00:38:05.000 Where's the pushback coming from?

00:38:07.000 Because it feels like this is something that should be 100% of the United States Senate on board, not just 60%.

00:38:13.000 And let me say, this is not a censorship bill.

00:38:17.000 There is nothing in this bill that is about censorship.

00:38:22.000 This is a bill to protect children in the virtual space and give them the tools that they need so that they can control what is coming in on their feeds.

00:38:36.000 But, you know, Senator Blumenthal and I have said time and again, The big tech companies have had an army of lawyers and lobbyists that have fought having the Kids Online Safety Act.

00:38:53.000 The reason they have done it is this.

00:38:56.000 When kids are online, they are the product.

00:39:01.000 And what they have to do is keep them online longer because when they're online longer, the data is richer and they get those eyeballs and the valuation of these tech companies is set on how long they can keep your eyeballs glued to the screen.

00:39:24.000 So, the longer kids are watching, the more money they are making.

00:39:29.000 And I think this is why in our hearing a couple of weeks ago when I confronted Mark Zuckerberg about all the pornography and the sex trafficking issues And he said, Didn't want to answer that.

00:40:00.000 But what he did was to push back because I told him, I said, it seems as if you're developing the premier sex trafficking platform for teens. 0.95

00:40:11.000 He said, well, that's ridiculous. 0.98

00:40:13.000 But you know what, Don? 0.83

00:40:14.000 It is not ridiculous.

00:40:17.000 Because in real life, That is what is happening to these kids.

00:40:24.000 They meet someone online.

00:40:27.000 They think that is a 16 year old guy.

00:40:31.000 They send pictures of themselves that are inappropriate.

00:40:36.000 Then they get into a sextortion scheme.

00:40:41.000 Or they go meet what they think is a 16-year-old, and it turns out to be a 40-year-old.

00:40:48.000 And then they're given some kind of drug.

00:40:51.000 And then they end up in a very bad situation.

00:40:55.000 Some of these kids don't make it out.

00:40:58.000 We have met with hundreds of parents.

00:41:02.000 Hundreds. That their child has lost their life or has committed suicide or ended up meeting a drug dealer online.

00:41:13.000 And to me, as a mother and a grandmother, this is crazy.

00:41:19.000 Heartbreaking. It is gut-wrenching.

00:41:22.000 Because this is something that did not have to happen.

00:41:25.000 If you owned a liquor store and you sold liquor, or let kids in your liquor store, they would padlock you and haul you to jail.

00:41:37.000 If you were a market and you sold tobacco to kids, they would lock your doors.

00:41:43.000 If you had pornographic magazines at the checkout counter, they would come in and they would shut you down and fine you.

00:41:52.000 If you had a strip club, you couldn't let kids in that. 1.00

00:41:58.000 But online, our precious children are exposed to this.

00:42:03.000 It has been the Wild West.

00:42:06.000 And we are saying enough is enough.

00:42:10.000 Let's give parents and kids a toolbox.

00:42:13.000 Let's open up these algorithms.

00:42:15.000 Let's make certain that there is enough.

00:42:21.000 Safety by design, a duty of care, and that our children will be able to use these online platforms in a safe manner.

00:42:33.000 Listen, it seems reasonable in some of the pushback I'm seeing.

00:42:37.000 It's almost like... 0.98

00:42:40.000 Honestly, the pushback is so ridiculous. 0.67

00:42:42.000 It's as though they're acknowledging what you're saying is 100% right, but it doesn't matter because the money's worth it and they couldn't care less. 0.71

00:42:48.000 And I'm not just saying even from the tech platforms.

00:42:50.000 I'm saying from some of the affected communities who seem to have weaponized a lot of this to create from your children what they'd love in the world.

00:43:02.000 And it's absolutely sad to see it going on right now.

00:43:06.000 It really is. And we're just determined.

00:43:09.000 We're so grateful for the 60 senators that have joined us.

00:43:13.000 We're grateful for the 200-plus organizations that have come out in support of the legislation.

00:43:21.000 And we know that the parents who have been so effective are, they are working Capitol Hill to try to get this passed

00:43:33.000 and to get it signed into law.

00:43:37.000 So that parents and teens will be able to protect themselves in the virtual space.

00:43:46.000 It's the right thing to do, but like I said, you've got that army of lawyers and lobbyists from big tech

00:43:53.000 and they're hitting at us every single day.

00:43:57.000 Well, listen, I just see it in my own algorithms when I look at what I'm posting on some of the platforms

00:44:02.000 that we're talking about and, hey, it's election season, so I'm getting about 10% of what I'd normally get.

00:44:07.000 And if it's a political, I'm getting almost nothing.

00:44:09.000 And they very much have their thumb on the scale of these things.

00:44:15.000 And while they pretend not to and it's across the board, it's just not the reality of how it works.

00:44:20.000 I've been sort of, I've borne witness to that over the last eight years and it's absolutely disgusting,

00:44:25.000 but they've been very effective doing their part.

00:44:27.000 So I hope we can certainly shut this down because I can't think of something really more important.

00:44:33.000 So thank you for your work on that.

00:44:35.000 And I guess lastly, really more broadly, I'd love you to talk about sort of the state of the 2024 race, the momentum you see from not just my father's campaign, but from other conservatives that need to get in there.

00:44:48.000 I think we thought we had a lot more of it in 22, and that wasn't the case.

00:44:54.000 You didn't get sort of the red wave that based on The data, based on common sense, should have been.

00:45:01.000 What issues do you think are going to decide this election in November?

00:45:07.000 The border is item number one.

00:45:10.000 As I said, this is the impact people feel in their lives and in their communities every day.

00:45:15.000 And every sheriff, every police officer I meet with says, Marsha, we cannot handle the drug issues, the human trafficking, the sex trafficking, until you secure that southern border.

00:45:31.000 And they want to see this administration, and they certainly want I want to see the Trump administration that will begin in 2025 secure that southern border.

00:45:45.000 The second thing is inflation.

00:45:46.000 And the amount that you are paying at the grocery store and what you're paying at the pump to fill up the car, that is just People can't make ends meet.

00:46:01.000 And when you see the price of groceries, the price of clothing, and then you hear the White House say, oh, inflation's only 3.5%.

00:46:15.000 Sure it is. I'm the son of a billionaire, Senator, you know, from Manhattan.

00:46:21.000 And like, honestly, I'm pissed off when I go to the supermarket.

00:46:25.000 You know, if I feel it, I promise you, it's much more tangible to real Americans.

00:46:31.000 I'm self-aware enough to realize that and that the fact that our White House is not probably tells us all we need to know.

00:46:37.000 Yeah, great story on that.

00:46:39.000 I was out in one of my counties.

00:46:41.000 County Commissioner drives nearly 30 miles to work each day.

00:46:47.000 She has three high school kids.

00:46:51.000 She said they were boom, boom, boom, one right behind another.

00:46:55.000 And she said, Marcia, I cannot fill up the car anymore.

00:47:01.000 And the grocery cart in the same week.

00:47:04.000 She said, I have to do the pick and choose.

00:47:08.000 And I think that that's the way so many people feel.

00:47:13.000 The cost of fuel.

00:47:14.000 And you know, then they look at these EV mandates.

00:47:19.000 And they say, how do they expect us to buy an electric vehicle?

00:47:24.000 And all the problems that come with the EV mandate.

00:47:29.000 And they're just, they can't believe that food costs are up about 20%.

00:47:36.000 Gas costs are up about 35%.

00:47:41.000 And cooling is up 38%.

00:47:44.000 But you've got these chuckleheads sitting in Washington, D.C. in the Biden administration that want to say, oh, inflation's not that bad.

00:47:55.000 We're getting it down.

00:47:57.000 Oh, no, you're not.

00:47:58.000 You've got a long way to go to get it to where it was in 2020.

00:48:03.000 The day Donald Trump walked out of the Oval Office, inflation was It was at 1.4%.

00:48:14.000 1.4%.

00:48:17.000 And people know.

00:48:20.000 People are smart.

00:48:21.000 They know what they're paying when they check out at the grocery store and what they were paying a few years ago or even last year or the year before.

00:48:31.000 They know what's happening.

00:48:34.000 Yeah, they also realize that if you have a hard time spending $75 to fill up your tank, you're probably not buying a $75,000 electric vehicle.

00:48:43.000 You know, just minor details like that.

00:48:46.000 But, Senator, thank you so much.

00:48:48.000 Really appreciate your time.

00:48:50.000 Really appreciate you fighting back, really, in the United States, especially.

00:48:55.000 We need more warriors out there, so I'm glad you're doing some of that bidding.

00:49:00.000 Great to have you. So Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, folks, check her out, follow her, and support those who are actually fighting back.

00:49:07.000 So we really appreciate you.

00:49:09.000 You got it. MarshaBlackburn.com.

00:49:12.000 Thanks. Thank you.

00:49:14.000 And guys, coming up, we're gonna be speaking with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

00:49:17.000 He actually ran for president.

00:49:19.000 The press wouldn't give him too much attention because he actually agreed with Trump and really liked him.

00:49:24.000 So he has some great ideas.

00:49:26.000 He's run a great state.

00:49:28.000 He's one of the most entrepreneurial governors that are out there, so don't go anywhere.

00:49:32.000 And in the meantime, guys, be sure to go check out The Wellness Company,

00:49:36.000 a leader in providing emergency medical kits.

00:49:39.000 Like we saw with COVID, supply chain chaos, lockdowns, Fauci failures,

00:49:44.000 all of it can make it harder to get the medicine you and your family need in a time of crisis.

00:49:49.000 With The Wellness Company's medical emergency kit, you're empowered to take control of your health.

00:49:54.000 The kit includes eight life-saving medications, including amoxicillin, the Z-Pak, ivermectin,

00:49:59.000 to keep on hand, along with a guidebook for safe and easy use.

00:50:05.000 So, whether you're talking about tick bites, to COVID, to extreme public health outbreaks, every scenario is covered.

00:50:13.000 You avoid the high costs, the hospital wait times, and take control of your family's health needs.

00:50:19.000 Go to twc.health slash triggered, like the wellness company, T-W-C dot health slash triggered, like the name of the show, for a 15% discount on the emergency medical kit.

00:50:31.000 That's T-W-C dot health slash triggered.

00:50:35.000 And joining me now, folks, North Dakota governor, former presidential candidate, great all-around guy, tech entrepreneur, all of the things we probably actually could use some more from our politicians.

00:50:49.000 Governor Doug Burgum.

00:50:51.000 Governor, great to have you here.

00:50:53.000 Appreciate you doing this.

00:50:55.000 And I'd like to start by giving you a chance to introduce yourself to the audience.

00:50:59.000 Obviously, you ran for president, but because you didn't just take pot shots at Trump, they weren't going to give you a lot of the attention.

00:51:06.000 I actually said, hey, after the first debate, I said, you know what?

00:51:10.000 That guy actually is speaking common sense.

00:51:13.000 And he's got an interesting story because you actually come from the business world that so few of our politicians actually come from.

00:51:20.000 So you have an interesting story about a career in tech and a business and then getting into politics.

00:51:27.000 But you were born and raised in North Dakota, went to Stanford Business School, built an incredible business.

00:51:32.000 Can you give a little bit of a rundown of your story, how you went from that to politics?

00:51:37.000 Because I think it's pretty fascinating.

00:51:39.000 Well, thank you, Don, and great to be with you, and thanks for all you do for the country and your family.

00:51:45.000 Appreciate it so much.

00:51:47.000 But yes, I grew up in this town, Arthur, North Dakota, 300 people.

00:51:51.000 I know you've hunted in North Dakota.

00:51:53.000 You know what the Great Plains is like, but what a fantastic place to grow up.

00:51:58.000 From there, a North Dakota State undergrad.

00:52:00.000 I got into a Stanford Business School on a fluke.

00:52:03.000 I had a chimney sweeping business where literally I was the chimney sweep.

00:52:07.000 And so there was an AP article that went out nationwide with me on top of a chimney wearing top hat tucks and tails in 10 below zero.

00:52:15.000 And that caught the eye of the admissions director.

00:52:17.000 So into Stanford.

00:52:19.000 I came out of there and was working in Chicago.

00:52:23.000 North Dakota was on the decline.

00:52:25.000 All the young people were leaving.

00:52:27.000 The economy was in the tank.

00:52:29.000 And here we go.

00:52:31.000 I saw my first Apple II computer with VisiCalc and I was like, wow, that's going to change the world.

00:52:37.000 So my dad had passed away when I was a freshman in high school.

00:52:41.000 He was a World War II Navy vet.

00:52:44.000 I had 160 acres of farm ground.

00:52:46.000 I literally mortgaged that.

00:52:48.000 I literally bet the farm To become the seed capital for a startup called Great Plane Software.

00:52:54.000 And then we worked the next 15 years, turned it into an overnight success story.

00:53:01.000 After 15 years, lots of ups and downs, went public, had a great run as a public company, got acquired by Microsoft.

00:53:07.000 I stayed there for seven years and helped build Microsoft and their business solution side of that business.

00:53:13.000 And then after I left there, I never left North Dakota.

00:53:17.000 I was commuting from Fargo.

00:53:18.000 We had built a company with 2000 team members before we got acquired.

00:53:23.000 We had 1200 in Fargo, 400 rest of North America, 400 rest of world.

00:53:27.000 I had an opportunity to see the world, see how China was stealing software from us 30 years ago. 0.96

00:53:33.000 I had a lot of great experiences, but then I moved back to North Dakota.

00:53:37.000 I didn't move back, but I stopped commuting to Seattle.

00:53:41.000 Then I started two more companies in North Dakota.

00:53:44.000 The tech business was involved in a lot of other software startups.

00:53:48.000 I did that right up to 2016.

00:53:52.000 Like your dad, the former president, he and I were both outsiders running in 2016.

00:53:57.000 I was the long shot in North Dakota.

00:54:00.000 He was the long shot for America.

00:54:01.000 We got elected at the same time.

00:54:02.000 And I tell you, as a governor, having a chance to be a governor under President Trump or now being a governor under Joe Biden, it's a world of difference.

00:54:11.000 It's win at your back versus win at your face.

00:54:14.000 Well, I want to, you know, unpackage the, you know, sort of, you know, bet the farm, because you quite literally bet the farm on this thing, which is sort of, you know, maybe the American dream.

00:54:24.000 You still have the farm, but...

00:54:28.000 Do you still have that? Did you keep that in the family, or did it get a little too hard to manage the farm?

00:54:33.000 Nope. It's the original farmland still in the family.

00:54:37.000 It always will be. That's something we'll treasure.

00:54:39.000 I had grandparents that had immigrated and homesteaded in America, and that's something we'll always hang on to.

00:54:47.000 That's great. So talk about that a little bit.

00:54:50.000 Maybe the four years under Trump and now you have, let's call it, three and a half years under Biden.

00:54:56.000 What have the differences been in terms of being a governor?

00:54:59.000 I think throughout COVID we saw just how important governors are.

00:55:03.000 Frankly, in many cases, probably far more important than a lot of our other federally elected officials from our own states.

00:55:12.000 You know, the governorships matter.

00:55:13.000 And as a business guy, you could probably also discern the difference.

00:55:17.000 Can you talk about some of those differences?

00:55:20.000 Well, it's so stark and such a contrast that America needs to understand this.

00:55:25.000 But when you're a governor, you're leading a business.

00:55:28.000 It's an operating role. This isn't a legislative role.

00:55:31.000 It's not, you know, you don't put on a jersey and, you know, pick sides and just throw words at each other.

00:55:36.000 You actually have to deliver services.

00:55:38.000 You've got to, you know, plow roads.

00:55:39.000 You've got to You know, education, healthcare, all these things that you have to do, water projects, infrastructure.

00:55:46.000 And the framework that you set in terms of tax and regulatory can either attract talent and capital to your state and your economy thrives, you know, or you can have a regulatory approach and drive capital away.

00:56:00.000 And so in North Dakota, we just say innovation, not regulation.

00:56:03.000 And that matched so much with the Trump administration.

00:56:07.000 You know, with President Trump, What we had was someone who actually understood that the states created the federal government, not the other way around.

00:56:16.000 We were treated as operating leaders that were leading states.

00:56:20.000 Under the Biden administration, it's nonstop.

00:56:23.000 One size fits all.

00:56:24.000 We know better than you. We've got a regulation.

00:56:26.000 We're going to jam it down on the states. 0.83

00:56:28.000 And we're going to do it our way when their way, of course, is anti-energy, anti-US energy, anti-liquid fuels, anti-agriculture.

00:56:37.000 You know, we're a border state.

00:56:39.000 I mean, they're about open borders.

00:56:40.000 I mean, everything about it, economy, energy, national security, which includes border security, 180 degrees in the wrong direction under Joe Biden.

00:56:47.000 And we were going in the right direction.

00:56:49.000 Under President Trump.

00:56:50.000 And so it is one of the reasons that I'm supporting President Trump is because it's so important for the country for us to get going in the right direction again.

00:56:59.000 Yeah, how is the impact on the energy sector?

00:57:01.000 Obviously, that's a big one in North Dakota.

00:57:04.000 It's a big deal for our country, but I also feel it's not just the business side of that.

00:57:09.000 It's also security, not taking oil and gas from Iran, the world's leading state sponsor of terror, or Venezuela, a regime even this administration didn't recognize before they basically made it impossible for us to do these things. 0.58

00:57:24.000 How has that affected the state, and are the people feeling it and understanding what's going on?

00:57:29.000 Well, you're spot on, Don, on these issues because you cannot separate energy from national security and from global stability.

00:57:37.000 And the Biden administration, it's unbelievable what they're doing with Russia.

00:57:42.000 Our Swiss cheese sanctions on Russia has turned Russia into one of the largest exporters of oil and gas.

00:57:50.000 And of course, who are they selling to?

00:57:52.000 China, Iran. They're selling half of their production now.

00:57:56.000 their sanctions are off, it's going to China.

00:57:58.000 China's refilling their strategic petroleum reserve at discount prices at a time when Joe Biden

00:58:04.000 drained our strategic petroleum reserve in half ahead of the midterms just to get price down at the pump.

00:58:09.000 He turned a strategic, meaning like when World War III comes strategic,

00:58:13.000 he turned a strategic petroleum reserve into a political tool to help gain votes.

00:58:18.000 And you mentioned Venezuela. Six and a half million people have fled this corrupt country, many of them piling into our southern border.

00:58:25.000 I was just down at the border on Friday, one of the top three countries where people are coming from, Venezuela.

00:58:31.000 And then we're helping them.

00:58:32.000 So our energy policies, I feel like Russia, China, Iran wrote the Biden Energy Policy.

00:58:39.000 And under President Trump, it made sense.

00:58:41.000 We're going to sell energy to our friends and allies, stop buying it from our enemies.

00:58:45.000 Doesn't seem like it should be rocket science, but it is.

00:58:48.000 I mean, do you feel that you, you know, obviously North Dakota is going to be a very red state, very conservative.

00:58:54.000 You're a conservative governor.

00:58:55.000 Do you think this administration looks at you differently because of that as well?

00:58:59.000 Or is this sort of, you know, artificially trying to help the blue states and the crazy policies associated therewith while sort of disproportionately affecting your states?

00:59:09.000 Yeah. Well, it's absolutely blatant.

00:59:13.000 Under President Trump, when we had the global pandemic, if there was resources being distributed to the states, it was being distributed on a per capita basis.

00:59:22.000 I mean, everybody's got people, count the number of people, give them their percentage share of support.

00:59:28.000 When Joe Biden immediately got in, they changed the formulas and said, no, we're going to give money to the places that had the highest unemployment.

00:59:35.000 Well, that meant that it was going to blue metros, you know, that were all on lockdown.

00:59:40.000 All these sanctuary cities got way more money per capita than a place like North Dakota that was open.

00:59:45.000 Our economy was still going.

00:59:46.000 And right now, today, we've got among the lowest unemployment and the highest workforce participation in the nation.

00:59:51.000 So we got less. So the bad policies that hurt our students and hurt America got more money, and the people that were doing it right got less.

00:59:59.000 It's just blatant. And then take the student loan stuff.

01:00:04.000 I mean, the forgiveness for student loans.

01:00:05.000 In North Dakota, we've got a student loan program at the state level where every kid that's got a student loan is actually paying their loans.

01:00:12.000 So when he's doing student loan forgiveness, it doesn't help anybody in North Dakota.

01:00:16.000 It helps the people that voted for him.

01:00:18.000 So these are the largest political payoffs in the history of the country that the Biden administration is driving, and they're driving it back to the places that voted for them.

01:00:28.000 Well, I think without question, when I think of the oil workers, guys that are making really good salaries, didn't go spend $300,000 to get a degree in underwater basket weaving that could never possibly pay itself back.

01:00:43.000 You don't need a master's degree to realize that many of these degrees and doctorals that are being pursued in academia today, there's no value to them.

01:00:53.000 If you want to educate yourself, that's great, but You're sticking that burden on a roughneck who's working his ass off in an oil field but making a good living. 0.98

01:01:04.000 I mean, that's a tax on that guy who made intelligent decisions, who made the right decision for himself, who decided to work, who's making a six-figure living without the burden of debt, and now you're asking that guy to To pay for some rainbow-haired kid that spent 15 years in school and still has no marketable skills. 0.72

01:01:28.000 That's disgusting.

01:01:29.000 And honestly, that should outrage everyone who made those sort of responsible decisions. 0.97

01:01:36.000 And honestly, even if you're the one that did the other things, they should understand just how pathetic they are asking for those people to pay off their loans.

01:01:44.000 They think of themselves as so much better and they're the elite.

01:01:46.000 But the reality is in this world, they can't even take care of themselves.

01:01:51.000 Well, it's so right and people should be outraged.

01:01:55.000 And people in North Dakota are outraged because our country was built on a simple principle.

01:01:59.000 If you borrow money, you pay it back.

01:02:01.000 You don't borrow money and then have your neighbor or somebody who's working hard pay it back for you.

01:02:07.000 It erodes the very nature of what our country was built on.

01:02:10.000 And it's all in the pursuit of, again, pre-election votes.

01:02:14.000 It started under Obama. He was the first to try it.

01:02:16.000 The Biden administration keeps trying multiple ways.

01:02:18.000 But It is the definition of unfairness, and it erodes the whole core of our country.

01:02:25.000 So, I guess you have an interesting story with what you talked about.

01:02:27.000 At Stanford, you ended up making friends with Steve Ballemer, who became the CEO of Microsoft.

01:02:33.000 I mean, you're a farm guy from North Dakota that made it big in Silicon Valley and in big tech.

01:02:42.000 You know, how, what was that like, right?

01:02:45.000 I mean, you see Silicon Valley today is maybe different than Silicon Valley in the 80s.

01:02:49.000 I mean, sort of the heart of liberal extremism.

01:02:52.000 And I'm not even sure the smart guys believe it, but the problem is, at this point, you know, the inmates are running the asylum over there.

01:02:59.000 What was that like?

01:03:01.000 How did those relationships start?

01:03:05.000 How did they persist? What would they be like today, being a conservative governor with businesses that started off in tech and perhaps the antithesis of what you started off as?

01:03:18.000 Well, at the beginning, there wasn't much politics in Silicon Valley.

01:03:22.000 You want to call that as sort of, even though we were never there, we were always based in North Dakota building this global company.

01:03:28.000 But it was all about innovation.

01:03:29.000 It was innovation, not regulation.

01:03:31.000 And that American technology industry, the advances that we made helped keep America at the forefront of the global economy.

01:03:39.000 It helped us retain our status as the number one economy in the world.

01:03:43.000 And free markets and technology took a billion people out of poverty worldwide over a period of 20 years.

01:03:49.000 That's never happened before in history.

01:03:51.000 America should be proud of that.

01:03:53.000 And then somewhere along the line in the last 10 years, things have got twisted and you've got a group I feel like Silicon Valley's split.

01:04:02.000 There's people that are literally splitting.

01:04:04.000 They're moving to Nevada, Texas, Florida.

01:04:07.000 They're getting out of there because of the high taxes and because of the whole idea that somehow there's a set of ideals that are opposed to the whole capitalism which created the wealth in the first place.

01:04:19.000 Nothing is crazier than You know, billionaires that are supporting Biden.

01:04:24.000 I don't get what it is that they're trying to achieve when they made their money, they achieved their success, they created these jobs because of free markets, because of competition, and not because of some Some ideology that's coming out of the liberal elite coast.

01:04:41.000 So right now, I think there's a big split.

01:04:45.000 But still, there's an opportunity going forward.

01:04:47.000 I'm very optimistic that we have an opportunity with what's coming with AI. We have an opportunity to shrink government.

01:04:53.000 We all want to shrink government.

01:04:55.000 Government's too big. Government is so overloaded.

01:04:57.000 In North Dakota, we've been able to reduce the size of government.

01:05:00.000 We're applying technology everywhere we can in a common sense way.

01:05:04.000 I mean, why would you have someone...

01:05:06.000 You know, drive for three hours to a DMV motor vehicle site to get a number to wait in line to get a driver's license when they've got a job and they're working when we could just have them renew their driver's license online on their phone and never have to drive anywhere and we don't need the building we don't need The person behind the glass that's dealing with all of the paperwork.

01:05:28.000 I mean, there's so much waste in government and coming in as a tech guy and a business guy, watching how we've been able to automate and drive costs out.

01:05:37.000 I mean, I think that That even every single federal employee, 20% of their job is some mind-numbing, soul-sucking work that they don't want to do.

01:05:47.000 And if you come in with the right ideas, you could take out, you know, 20% out of every agency without changing one thing and you'd have better services.

01:05:55.000 Then you could say, well, maybe we don't even need these agencies.

01:05:58.000 Let's move it all back to the States.

01:05:59.000 But just right off the bat, I mean...

01:06:02.000 Government is 20 years behind the private sector in just applying basic common business principles that would serve the taxpayers like the customers that they are.

01:06:12.000 So it's an interesting thing, I mean, with AI, I mean, obviously you see the government bureaucracy growing, you know, as AI, you know, I remember when it sort of started, all the journalists were like, oh, you farmers better learn to code, but it seems like they're the ones that are being displaced, you know, the guys that kind of sit behind a desk, ultimately, you know, sort of, you know, lawyers, some of the white collar jobs, you know, a journeyman lawyer can be replaced with AI, probably in the not too distant future.

01:06:38.000 As it relates to those government bureaucracies, though, do you think AI, What are those people going to do?

01:06:44.000 I mean, if you're a bureaucrat, you're not really good at much.

01:06:47.000 You're pushing a little bit of paper back and forth.

01:06:49.000 When they're displaced by AI, what happens to those people?

01:06:52.000 Again, you're not displacing a roughneck in an oil field anytime soon, a farmer, a job, a carpenter, something that needs to be there, those blue-collar jobs you're actually not getting rid of. 0.99

01:07:04.000 A lot of the white-collar jobs are probably...

01:07:07.000 They can be dispensed with like that with the rate that the technology is improving.

01:07:11.000 What do you think happens there both good and bad?

01:07:15.000 Well, I think that displacement would be great for America because when you've got government jobs, it's producing cost, not value.

01:07:24.000 And if we can move those jobs out of a place where they're costing taxpayers and get them back in the private sector, maybe they've got to be re-skilled to find those jobs.

01:07:34.000 We have 10 million jobs open in America.

01:07:36.000 There's never been a better time to reduce the size of government than right now.

01:07:40.000 And we can increase the productivity of the country, which increases our GDP, lowers the burden of taxes on everybody.

01:07:46.000 But part of that is, you know, if we could get, you know, hundreds of thousands, if not a million, you know, workers out of government at the state and federal level and get them back in the private sector, that would be fantastic right now.

01:07:58.000 And there's a window to do it.

01:08:00.000 And Don, as you understand it, it's these white collar, middle level jobs that are just pushing paper.

01:08:06.000 Those are the ones that are going to be displaced very rapidly.

01:08:08.000 Yeah. Yeah, the people that were all about the learn to code when it first came out, they're finding out very quickly that they may have to learn to code.

01:08:16.000 I think that's sort of one of the great cell phones of all time.

01:08:20.000 When they were talking about, again, the guys working on the oil pipeline, well, they should just learn to code.

01:08:24.000 It's like, I'm watching the journalists just be displaced.

01:08:26.000 I'm seeing all these, you know...

01:08:29.000 Kind of average, but long legacy publishing type companies just go totally out of business.

01:08:35.000 It's really interesting.

01:08:37.000 It's sort of the reverse of what they thought was going to happen.

01:08:39.000 They're the ones that are actually easily replaced.

01:08:42.000 Yeah, and I can tell you right now for both the big push we're making in North Dakota with career and technical education starting at the K-12 level and going up through our two-year and our four-year universities that we have, you know, if you want to go into, you know, ag equipment repair today, You're a computer scientist.

01:09:03.000 I mean, a combine, a tractor, these things, it's software and computers on wheels.

01:09:07.000 The level of sophistication, the GPS, the autonomy.

01:09:10.000 I mean, the one thing the liberal elite completely underestimates, you know, you put North Dakota farmers up against anyway, the ones that are still in business are so sophisticated in their use of technology.

01:09:20.000 And we've got a number of things going on at the state level right now.

01:09:23.000 Driving towards autonomous farming.

01:09:25.000 We've got one of the largest autonomous efforts going on on an unmanned aerial system.

01:09:30.000 We got the only place in the nation where we've got beyond visual line of flight capability.

01:09:36.000 And now we got 42 unmanned aerial system startups that are here in a cluster around this test site.

01:09:41.000 And we're building out the software system that the whole nation will end up using for air traffic control for detect and avoid when we end up because there's going to be 10 times as many unmanned aerial systems in the air as there are manned.

01:09:53.000 So we're on the leading edge of technology here across a number of things.

01:09:57.000 And those jobs, we need people to fill those jobs, people that understand this technology.

01:10:04.000 We don't need people that are pushing paper and raising costs for Americans.

01:10:08.000 So, yeah, without question.

01:10:10.000 I mean, I guess, you know, I want to ask a little bit more about that entrepreneurial spirit because, I mean, you've quite literally been called America's best entrepreneurial governor.

01:10:18.000 You know, how does business experience help you navigating in politics?

01:10:22.000 You know, it was interesting for me sort of entering this world eight years ago, and I know we had some fun back in 16 up in North Dakota getting you elected, but...

01:10:31.000 In business, I knew what people's motivations were.

01:10:34.000 In politics, it's very different.

01:10:37.000 Everyone's looking to jump on that next campaign or figuring out their next grift or some other leak that gets them a favor somewhere else.

01:10:43.000 It is very different.

01:10:45.000 What did you find the biggest difference between running a company and ultimately running a state, running a government, and being in politics?

01:10:54.000 Well, I think it's simple.

01:10:56.000 It's outputs and outcomes versus inputs.

01:11:00.000 I got into the first budgeting cycle in North Dakota and I realized very quickly that if you had an agency or a group or a university or anybody, if their budget went up, they thought they were winners.

01:11:11.000 And if their budget went down, they were losers.

01:11:13.000 When in fact, no one was looking at the outcomes.

01:11:15.000 I mean, you know this from a business standpoint.

01:11:17.000 If you were in a group with a bunch of business leaders at a convention, no one would be bragging about, hey, I spent more to build that building than you did, or I spent more on marketing than you did.

01:11:27.000 No, you'd be talking about customer acquisitions.

01:11:29.000 You'd be talking about profits.

01:11:30.000 You'd be talking about customer satisfaction.

01:11:32.000 And so those are all outcomes of your work.

01:11:35.000 So we're trying to reorient the whole state of North Dakota.

01:11:37.000 We do A strategic planning process ahead of the budgeting process where strategy drives budget instead of budget driving strategy.

01:11:45.000 And we got all of our agencies focusing on outcomes and publishing what those outcomes are that they're chasing.

01:11:51.000 And with that, then we say, wow, there's a bunch of rules we don't need.

01:11:54.000 Who created these rules? So we passed 51 out of 52 red tape reduction bills last year in North Dakota.

01:12:01.000 I mean, we are trying to have this be the easiest, best place For people to do business because it's not the first place people think of.

01:12:08.000 And so we need capital and we need talent.

01:12:11.000 And now we have like over $40 billion of capital that's lined up trying to come to our state because we're a state where you can actually be supported in an environment where we want people to invest.

01:12:21.000 We want people to create jobs.

01:12:23.000 We want to do things that are innovative as opposed to right now we're facing over 20 rulemaking efforts from the Biden administration.

01:12:31.000 Every one of those rulemaking efforts might at a minimum be 800 pages long.

01:12:35.000 And those 800 pages are filled with stuff that's come from people that have never set foot in our state, and it will choke and kill the U.S. oil and gas industry.

01:12:44.000 It'll choke U.S. agriculture. 0.97

01:12:46.000 It is unbelievable what they're trying to get done.

01:12:49.000 I know they're afraid they might lose in the fall, so they're trying to shove as much regulation as they can.

01:12:54.000 It never even makes it on the front page, doesn't even make it on page 18.

01:12:57.000 But we're suing the federal government across multiple fronts right now to try to stop this madness because none of it's based on science.

01:13:05.000 None of it's based on the law. It's based on an ideology that one party is trying to drive.

01:13:09.000 These aren't laws that have come from Congress.

01:13:11.000 These are rules that are being driven by these three-digit agencies that are driving Biden's thing.

01:13:18.000 And again, when specifically on energy, their job is kill U.S. liquid fuels.

01:13:23.000 We're going to go all EV. And if you're on EV, Team EV, you're on Team China because they control 85% of the rare earth minerals.

01:13:29.000 If you're on Team Liquid Fuels, then you're on Team Farmer, you're on Team Oil Worker, you're on Team USA. I know you announced you're not going to seek another term as governor.

01:13:40.000 How do you see some of that through to make sure it doesn't happen?

01:13:44.000 Because I think they would be crippling to, not just North Dakota, frankly, all of these states.

01:13:49.000 These are regulations designed to give the regulator a job.

01:13:54.000 It'll do nothing positive for the businesses.

01:13:57.000 It's just a job that only this person can fix, and you've got to take care of them.

01:14:00.000 They're literally just creating busy work.

01:14:03.000 What role do you see for yourself in the future as it relates to politics, making sure some of this stuff doesn't happen, and combating it still?

01:14:11.000 Because I know you care deeply about it.

01:14:13.000 Well, we've got 300 days left in our term here, and we're going to work hard every day to make sure we cement all these changes.

01:14:19.000 Happy that last Thursday, Lieutenant Governor Tammy Miller announced that she's jumping in the race. 0.99

01:14:24.000 Like me, she was a CEO, private sector, CEO of border states.

01:14:28.000 In 27 states, 3,500 employees.

01:14:31.000 She's been fantastic.

01:14:32.000 She was our Chief Operating Officer, new role recreated in North Dakota before she became Lieutenant Governor a couple years ago when I appointed her.

01:14:39.000 She's gonna keep things rolling for us.

01:14:41.000 So looking forward to her, you know, carrying that baton forward. 0.98

01:14:46.000 And then we've also, you know, I think my most important job right now is help President Trump get elected.

01:14:53.000 I mean, it doesn't matter who's the governor of a red state.

01:14:56.000 If you have another four years of the Biden administration, It's just wind at your face like you can't believe in terms of them trying to attack U.S. energy.

01:15:05.000 And as you said earlier, like literally the rules we have right now are empowering places like Iran.

01:15:10.000 Iran was broke when President Trump was in office.

01:15:14.000 And now we gave them a lifeline.

01:15:16.000 You know, Russia made $160 billion extra on oil the first year of that war.

01:15:22.000 They're paying for their war with basically with our funds.

01:15:25.000 With our energy policy, which is trying to kill U.S. And a couple weeks ago, when the Biden administration said, we're going to put a pause on LNG exports, I mean, they had to be jumping up and down inside the Kremlin going, wow, I mean, do they have like a Manchurian policy person working in the White House?

01:15:44.000 I mean, that had to be the biggest celebration of the year.

01:15:46.000 That's bigger than a victory in the Ukraine for them, because it's where all the money comes from.

01:15:50.000 How in the world we should be exporting LNG exports?

01:15:53.000 To Japan, to the Philippines, to Korea.

01:15:55.000 We should be exporting from Alaska. 0.99

01:15:57.000 We should be exporting from the Gulf. 1.00

01:15:59.000 And they're putting a pause on it for environmental reasons.

01:16:01.000 And I'll tell you, that's the biggest lie of all.

01:16:03.000 Because if you actually care about the environment, you would want to have every drop of energy and every electron produced in the United States.

01:16:09.000 Because we produce it cleaner, safer, and smarter here than Venezuela, than Russia, than Iran. 0.67

01:16:15.000 Any of these places don't even have an EPA. We do it better here.

01:16:19.000 So if you cared about the global environment, you should try to shut down everybody else and have the U.S. deliver all the energy.

01:16:25.000 Yeah, instead, we borrow money from China to give to Ukraine while Russia's funding their wars with the Delta. 1.00

01:16:31.000 It's so stupid, it's mind-blowing. 1.00

01:16:34.000 But, Governor, thank you so much for what you're doing. 1.00

01:16:36.000 Thank you for being out there on the trail with us in this mission.

01:16:40.000 It's absolutely critical, and I look forward to seeing you out there sometime in the not-too-distant future.

01:16:46.000 Well, it was great being together in Iowa, New Hampshire, and great to be with the President of Nevada.

01:16:52.000 And whatever we're called on to do, we're going to do it.

01:16:55.000 The First Lady and I are fully committed to driving this thing through.

01:16:59.000 And again, it's so important to America.

01:17:02.000 And I'm telling you, Even if you're a Democrat governor in some state, I bet you some of those folks are quietly cheering for President Trump because governors actually were respected and treated as an essential part of this thing as opposed to this crazy Biden regulatory one-size-fits-all ideology that's going on.

01:17:20.000 So it's really essential for the future of this country that President Trump get elected in November.

01:17:25.000 So thanks, Don, for everything you're doing.

01:17:27.000 And it's great having someone like you that loves the outdoors, loves hunting, loves your children, all the things that you do helping in this cause.

01:17:35.000 You've put so much energy in 16, 20, and in 24.

01:17:39.000 And I just, on behalf of North Dakota, want to say thank you to you for your leadership and the difference you've made.

01:17:44.000 Well, I really appreciate it.

01:17:45.000 Thanks again. And I look forward to seeing you out there soon because I'm sure we got a lot to do in the next 10 months.

01:17:51.000 So we got plenty of time.

01:17:52.000 But thank you very much, Governor.

01:17:54.000 It's great to have you on.

01:17:55.000 Thank you, Don.

01:17:56.000 Guys, thanks so much for tuning in.

01:18:00.000 Glad you could check that out.

01:18:01.000 Make sure to go check out our great sponsors right after you share, right after you like,

01:18:09.000 right after you subscribe, right after you send all your friends

01:18:13.000 the links on Spotify and iTunes podcast so we can get it out there.

01:18:16.000 We need you guys.

01:18:17.000 I see the number of likes.

01:18:19.000 It's not lining up with how many people are watching live right now, so fix that problem.

01:18:24.000 Hit the button.

01:18:24.000 It doesn't take much.

01:18:26.000 And guys, make sure that you're supporting our great sponsors.

01:18:30.000 We talk about it all the time.

01:18:32.000 Give your money to the guys that share your values, not the people that hate your guts.

01:18:37.000 It's why 1775 Coffee is joining forces with Rumble to support causes that matter most.

01:18:43.000 Your purchase literally helps support veterans' causes, groups fighting to protect the First Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, and so much more.

01:18:51.000 Go to 1775coffee.com slash Don Jr.

01:18:55.000 That's 1775coffee.com slash Don Jr.

01:18:59.000 Get 10% off your order.

01:19:02.000 And support companies that support you.

01:19:05.000 Also, check out The Wellness Company and their emergency medical kit.

01:19:09.000 Take care of not just your caffeine needs, not just your financial needs with some of our sponsors, but take care of your health and your family's health needs.

01:19:18.000 Go to twc.health.triggered, like the name of the show, TWC, like The Wellness Co., twc.health.

01:19:28.000 For a 15% discount off the emergency medical kit.

01:19:32.000 You can see the links below.

01:19:33.000 Go check them out.

01:19:35.000 Support the causes that are pushing back against the insanity.

01:19:38.000 Take control of your health, your financial well-being, etc.

01:19:42.000 That's what a lot of this show is about.

01:19:43.000 And us also introducing you to those sponsors who share our values and have the guts to have programming like this.

01:19:50.000 So TWC.com.

01:19:53.000 Get 15% off the emergency medical kit and take control of your family's health.

01:19:59.000 Guys, thanks so much for being here.

Triggered - Donald Trump Jr - February 23, 2024

The Swamp Cares More About Ukraine’s Border Than Our Own: Why? Interviews with Sen Marsha Blackburn and Gov Doug Burgum | TRIGGERED Ep.112

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript