TRIGGERnometry - Live from the White House with Dr Sebastian Gorka

00:00:00.720 This is a historic moment. How do you feel it's going so far?

00:00:04.280 We have a lot of work to keep Americans and our allies and our friends safe from the scourge of global jihadism.

00:00:10.720 His demand, even more than eight years ago, is that if you share the threat assessment that jihadism is bad,

00:00:18.660 then you need to step up. You need to be more active partners, whether you're Arab nations in the Middle East

00:00:24.220 or whether you're Western nations that have terrorism occurring on your streets.

00:00:28.700 So can you reassure sensible people around the world that in attempting to do a deal quickly,

00:00:35.640 Ukraine isn't going to end up in a position that's bad for the world and bad for America?

00:00:39.980 He's truly horrified by what he's seeing. This isn't about a quick fix and move on. This is about stopping horror.

00:00:50.600 Broadway's smash hit, the Neil Diamond musical, A Beautiful Noise, is coming to Toronto.

00:00:56.080 The true story of a kid from Brooklyn destined for something more, featuring all the songs you love,

00:01:01.600 including America, Forever in Blue Jeans, and Sweet Caroline.

00:01:05.600 Like Jersey Boys and Beautiful, the next musical mega hit is here.

00:01:09.660 The Neil Diamond musical, A Beautiful Noise.

00:01:12.420 Now through June 7th, 2026 at the Princess of Wales Theatre.

00:01:16.640 Get tickets at mirbish.com.

00:01:18.460 Seb? 0.78

00:01:20.900 Yes.

00:01:21.320 Our good friend, Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the President, and you deal with counterterrorism above all.

00:01:27.640 We're sitting here with the coffee cups with the President of the United States on them in the room where the American government found out Pearl Harbor had happened.

00:01:35.080 So that was a historic moment. This is a historic moment. How do you feel it's going so far?

00:01:40.060 Absolutely incredible. I pinch myself every single day, not simply because of my personal reasons that I've been waiting about 25 years for this job.

00:01:49.060 But it feels like we've been here for seven months, not seven weeks, because of the pace, the alacrity of what the President has achieved from sealing the border to new deals.

00:01:59.280 As we are recording this, he just announced from the Oval Office with Secretary of Defense Hegseth next to him, the new F-47 fighter jet, big secret for the last five years.

00:02:09.540 So, I mean, it's just keeping up with him is one of the toughest things in life.

00:02:14.360 But it is, it's just an amazing time to be alive and it's an amazing time to be an American.

00:02:20.060 And what do you do day to day?

00:02:21.680 So, I'm the Senior Director for Counterterrorism in the National Security Council, working for the National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

00:02:28.180 And so my job is to coordinate all counterterrorism policies and activities for the President, for Mike Waltz, to make sure that we are, well, as my colleagues tell me, they ask me as I bump into them in the West Wing, have you killed more jihadis today?

00:02:41.180 So we have a lot of work to keep Americans and our allies and our friends safe from the scourge of global jihadism.

00:02:47.620 Well, you say that in a way that will sound kind of like political to a lot of people, but the President has come out and been very, very clear, and Tulsi Gabbard also, that you guys see jihadism as one of the big threats to America, which seems a bit of a pivot.

00:03:05.580 Well, look, it's not a univalent situation.

00:03:09.020 There's not one threat.

00:03:11.100 So I'll be completely, you know, open here.

00:03:13.940 When I came into this building eight years ago for the first Trump administration, my background was counterterrorism, was teaching the military, the intelligence community, how to deal with Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

00:03:24.180 And I thought I'd be doing that.

00:03:26.060 And once you get the clearances and once you read the President's daily intelligence briefing, you realize there's only one real strategic level threat to America, and that's China.

00:03:36.940 And the President understands that, and with people like Peter Nabarro back on board, people like Scott Besson to the Treasury, we are dealing with that strategic level nation-state threat.

00:03:48.180 But when it comes to counterterrorism, look, the last four years have been absolutely catastrophic.

00:03:53.460 Let's start with Biden's surrender of Afghanistan.

00:03:55.980 Afghanistan is the nation that gave aid and succor to Al-Qaeda, to bin Laden prior to 9-11. 0.56

00:04:01.880 The last administration, in ways that made the Saigon withdrawal look like a walk in the park, deserted Afghanistan, deserted the people who had fought with us against the Taliban, against Al-Qaeda.

00:04:14.920 Now the organization that helped the Al-Qaeda terrorists is back in control of that nation.

00:04:22.640 We've withdrawn all of our capabilities from that region to do counterterrorism as we did previously.

00:04:29.960 So when I came into the building, I was told that we have an increased threat of global jihadism on the Sunni side.

00:04:38.740 Iran is now stronger than ever because Biden released tens of billions of dollars.

00:04:43.940 So the president is very serious about the threat of jihadi terrorism.

00:04:50.200 And that's why you've seen one of the first actions, second week of the administration, is the strikes against ISIS in Somalia.

00:04:57.720 The Houthis, President Trump took action just last weekend.

00:05:01.580 So yeah, the president takes this threat very seriously.

00:05:04.440 And if you look at the events in Europe, the Christmas market attacks, you look at the events in the UK, the stabbings and so forth, those three little beautiful girls.

00:05:11.840 Yeah, he gets it and we are taking action.

00:05:14.980 And it is my honor to be part of that.

00:05:17.500 It's interesting because on the one hand, Trump is saying that he doesn't want to have this neocon attitude where he puts troops on the ground and he influences regime change.

00:05:28.760 But let's be brutally honest, Sepp, Iran.

00:05:31.240 Yeah.

00:05:31.840 Unless you've sought Iran, whatever that means, that is the source of the poison which causes much of the disruption in the Middle East. 0.99

00:05:38.960 So you're absolutely right.

00:05:40.200 The president is not a neoconservative interventionist.

00:05:43.920 He's not an isolationist.

00:05:45.280 There are people who say, oh, he's an isolationist. 1.00

00:05:46.780 Garbage. 0.99

00:05:47.260 America first does not mean America alone. 0.98

00:05:50.100 The fact that he strengthened NATO by getting two thirds of the NATO members to actually pay their dues, which was not the case when we came into the White House the first time around, demonstrates that.

00:06:00.520 But when it comes to Iran, he's not interested in regime change in terms of the 82nd Airborne going in and changing nations.

00:06:09.260 His first question is, whenever we brief him, why are we there?

00:06:13.760 Why do we have boots on the ground anywhere?

00:06:15.720 And his demand, even more than eight years ago, is that if you share the threat assessment that jihadism is bad, if your citizens are being killed on your streets, then you need to step up.

00:06:28.440 You need to be more active partners, whether you're Arab nations in the Middle East who are threatened by the Muslim Brotherhood, by al-Qaeda, by ISIS, by al-Nusra, or whether you're Western nations that have terrorism occurring on your streets.

00:06:41.300 So it's not up to us to change regimes.

00:06:44.980 We have to suppress the terrorist threat.

00:06:47.320 And as far as I'm concerned, I would love to see the nation of Persia, with all the ethnicities that are inside Iran today, take back their country. 1.00

00:06:56.200 And the saddest, the most cripplingly tragic thing is by the end of the first Trump administration, the Islamofascist regime of Tehran was on the brink of collapse. 0.57

00:07:07.320 I mean, the Iranian stock exchange, thanks to our sanctions, had lost more than 50% of its value in just over a year.

00:07:14.000 And now, for the last four years, it's been pumped full of cash by the Biden administration.

00:07:20.120 Now, the collapse of the regime in Syria has hurt them.

00:07:25.000 The reapplication of sanctions has also undermined them.

00:07:30.040 And what Israel has done, God bless Israel, since the horrific loss of Jewish life on October the 7th, has put Iran back on that teetering level. 0.87

00:07:39.280 But, yeah, we're not going to invade Iran, but we would like Iran to be free.

00:07:44.160 So what does that actually mean?

00:07:46.020 Are you going to ratchet up the sanctions?

00:07:48.740 Absolutely.

00:07:49.360 It's happening right now.

00:07:50.780 And what else?

00:07:51.680 Is it just that?

00:07:52.560 There's certain things I can't discuss, but when it comes to economic pressure, political pressure, working with our allies, we are following right now what's called the maximum pressure campaign.

00:08:06.280 So they use every element of national power, which is not kinetic in terms of finance, intelligence, economics, sanctions, to just squeeze that regime until it just loses control of this fascist system it's put in place since 1979.

00:08:27.360 Because that is not only the only challenge, obviously.

00:08:30.900 You also have the situation in Gaza.

00:08:32.640 The ceasefire has just been broken.

00:08:34.100 This is going to take a long time to sort out.

00:08:38.580 Yeah, look, with regards to Gaza, the people of Israel, the prime minister, the IDF, I think you've finally come to the realization that when a population has a majority, upwards of 80%, that agrees with the horrific attacks of October the 7th, you don't solve that overnight.

00:09:00.800 I mean, this is the shocking reality of Gaza. 0.82

00:09:04.180 That you have a population that thinks, and I've watched the unedited versions of what happened over the 7th.

00:09:10.280 I was allowed to see young girls being slaughtered, children being blown up.

00:09:15.160 When you have a population that says, that's good, and we agree with that, that's not going to be fixed with a piece of paper saying, you know, we have peace and things are normalized.

00:09:27.120 Right now, Israel, quite rightly, is making sure that that certain piece of territory cannot be used to affect mass casualty attacks against the peoples of its nation. 0.51

00:09:37.440 And I think that is a very reasonable approach.

00:09:40.180 You're not going to fix it overnight.

00:09:41.280 So do you think people don't understand this?

00:09:43.220 Like, I think even I feel like I probably didn't understand.

00:09:46.220 Like, before we start, I hope you don't mind me mentioning you were on the phone with an American hostage who'd just returned from the Middle East.

00:09:52.580 Right.

00:09:52.740 And you're literally there on the phone saying, you know, welcome back to America.

00:09:57.480 Most people are so, our lives are so far away from that.

00:10:00.420 That I think understanding any conflict, really, but Gaza in particular, it just feels like, I don't think people get it, really.

00:10:09.280 Do you know what I mean?

00:10:09.720 But how could they?

00:10:10.680 I mean, and I'm not making excuses.

00:10:12.240 Yeah.

00:10:12.940 If you come from where you come from, if you come from the former Soviet Union, if your family comes from Venezuela, if, like my father, you literally escaped a political prison,

00:10:24.580 we understand that there are things in life more important than the Wi-Fi signal strength at Starbucks.

00:10:32.840 This is what I always say.

00:10:34.080 What's the biggest problem somebody who grew up in the West has?

00:10:37.900 Well, I've only got two bars on my Wi-Fi when I'm at Starbucks, and I'm not being facetious.

00:10:43.200 Really, what is the biggest problem?

00:10:45.540 Is it the fact that you may be slaughtered this weekend, like the Alawites were, just a few days ago in Syria? 1.00

00:10:52.480 Literally a thousand unarmed civilians, families, you can watch the videos, mowed down because they belong to the wrong ethnic religious group. 0.99

00:11:03.540 But the West has had it very, very good for about 70 years.

00:11:09.060 And as such, can you relate to, you know, a man who you just heard me have a conversation with, who's been in a Taliban prison for more than two years?

00:11:19.440 How do you even compute that when your biggest problem is, you know, I've run out of things to binge watch on Netflix tonight?

00:11:27.860 Right?

00:11:28.820 It's hard to, you know, what do they say?

00:11:30.940 You know, easy times breed soft men.

00:11:34.580 That's where we are today.

00:11:35.800 It is where we are.

00:11:36.940 And one of the things, you know, we've, all the three of us have been friends for a long time.

00:11:40.880 One of the things I've always liked about you is you're very, very pro-President Trump.

00:11:44.760 Of course, you would be.

00:11:46.100 But you're not an ideologue.

00:11:47.220 You're a pragmatist.

00:11:48.000 And one of the things that I think you would concede is you can't focus on everything at once.

00:11:52.440 So one of the challenges is as you guys focus more on China and on the threat of Islamism, which are both big, serious threats. 0.99

00:12:00.440 Obviously, the Russia-Ukraine thing, you know, the president, I think, is quite keen to wrap that up.

00:12:07.020 Yeah.

00:12:07.320 But I don't have to be a critic of the president to observe that he promised they would be done on day one.

00:12:13.160 And right now, a lot of people, Seb, are saying, you know, it looks like Donald Trump may have met his match in terms of negotiations.

00:12:21.160 You know, how do you feel about that?

00:12:23.100 So first, and this isn't because my first degree was philosophy and theology.

00:12:27.420 I really do believe this.

00:12:28.480 Words matter.

00:12:29.380 You called me a pragmatist and not an ideologue.

00:12:33.580 I could take that.

00:12:34.840 I could take umbrage at that and consider that an insult because, you know, pragmatism has been used as a slur, as a pejority.

00:12:41.300 Oh, I meant as a compliment.

00:12:42.540 No, I know.

00:12:43.180 But let me unpack that comment.

00:12:45.060 Sure, sure, sure.

00:12:45.080 Yeah.

00:12:45.260 Because, and I came to this through an amazing friend of mine, Bob Riley, who wrote the book, The Closing of the Muslim Mind.

00:12:52.760 A claims program for harmed Canadians has begun as a result of a landmark tobacco settlement.

00:12:58.760 If you smoked regularly before November 20th, 1998, and were diagnosed with lung cancer, throat cancer, emphysema, or COPD, you may qualify for a significant payment.

00:13:12.540 To learn more, call 888-482-5852 or go to tobaccoclaimscanada.ca.

00:13:20.460 I don't have an ideology, and neither does President Trump.

00:13:28.100 This is really incredibly important to understanding who this man is.

00:13:31.020 Because I came to realize, thanks to Bob, that what an ideology is, is a distortion of reality.

00:13:39.040 An ideology is a lens through which you interpret objective truth.

00:13:44.940 I don't have a lens through which I interpret objective truth.

00:13:49.800 I have the truth.

00:13:51.640 And for me, that's what a conservative is, right?

00:13:54.560 Because you can say, okay, conserve, conserve what?

00:13:57.700 Conserve that which has been demonstrated to function over millennia, like families.

00:14:04.340 Like, you know, a man is a man, a woman is a woman. 0.99

00:14:06.800 It's good to have a father when you're a young child.

00:14:09.540 These aren't ideological statements.

00:14:11.920 They're not permutations of a reality.

00:14:14.260 They are a reality.

00:14:15.420 And the way to understand President Trump is he looks at the world as it is.

00:14:20.480 He doesn't put an overlay, neoliberal, neoconservative.

00:14:26.400 No.

00:14:26.800 What's the reality?

00:14:29.180 There's a moment in the first Trump administration where he was being briefed at the cabinet level.

00:14:35.400 And the then National Security Advisor, who was a former tank commander,

00:14:43.100 had this whole massive set of PowerPoint slides, as you do in the US military.

00:14:49.020 And each slide started with the same sentence.

00:14:53.460 The Islamic government of the Republic of Afghanistan will.

00:14:58.960 The Islamic government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will.

00:15:04.520 Every page.

00:15:05.960 And the president, before we start the briefing, he just looks at this and he says,

00:15:10.600 what government of Afghanistan?

00:15:14.540 And he's absolutely right.

00:15:15.640 There was no functioning government in a Westphalian sense.

00:15:19.320 They didn't exercise sovereignty over a nation with 36 languages and, you know, 24 disparate tribes.

00:15:26.640 That doesn't fit into the elite way of looking at the world.

00:15:30.280 Because you've got to have labels.

00:15:32.180 You've got to have IR theory, international relations theory.

00:15:34.900 You've got to have an ideological bent, a stamp on your forehead.

00:15:38.320 He doesn't have this.

00:15:39.000 You can't be one of the most successful men in business for 50 years if you have an ideological filter through which you see the world.

00:15:46.060 So that's important to understand about the president.

00:15:48.000 If you want to know him, read the book.

00:15:49.920 I tell people, you don't have to love my boss, but read The Art of the Deal if you want to understand how he functions and how reality is his metric,

00:15:57.840 not some kind of predefined ideological lens.

00:16:02.060 With regards to Ukraine, look, I'll be, you know, completely honest here.

00:16:08.080 There's nobody else in the world who's going to fix this.

00:16:09.680 It's only going to be President Trump.

00:16:11.000 And I look at the current deal from Moscow.

00:16:14.900 You know, as well as anyone else, what the ceasefire on energy targets really means.

00:16:21.140 It's a face-saving gesture.

00:16:24.300 The Kremlin cannot say, yes, we agreed to your terms and we're going to have a 30-day ceasefire as the Ukrainians agreed to.

00:16:31.620 They're going to give us a little bit of concession so they still look tough.

00:16:36.140 That's completely the standard operating procedure of a former KGB colonel who's now president.

00:16:42.020 At the end of the day, as I said to the BBC recently, name me one other political leader in the world who's going to bring peace to them.

00:16:49.900 Well, no one would deny that President Trump is the person who has to do this.

00:16:53.000 But he hasn't met his match.

00:16:54.400 He hasn't?

00:16:55.240 No.

00:16:55.560 Well, the Russians have rejected the ceasefire.

00:16:57.980 The deal isn't being done.

00:16:59.400 Right.

00:16:59.800 But let's go outside of negotiations.

00:17:04.740 At the beginning of the war three years ago, there's a thing that comes out of the UK from IISS called the military balance.

00:17:11.740 It's an artifact of the Cold War where you have all the militaries of the world listed in terms of their power, how many men, how many ships, how many nuclear weapons, whatever.

00:17:22.520 So it's a ranking of all the world's militaries.

00:17:24.760 When the war began three and a half years ago, Russia was ranked second in the world in terms of military might.

00:17:32.500 Ukraine was ranked 22nd.

00:17:36.740 22nd.

00:17:37.420 So who's met their match?

00:17:41.320 I think Moscow's met their match.

00:17:43.960 When somebody who's ranked 20 positions behind you basically fights you to a standstill, which they've done.

00:17:52.900 At the end of the day, look, you know better than anyone else.

00:17:55.980 Everybody talks about the Brandenburg Gate speech, tear down this wall, Mr. Gorbachev.

00:18:01.300 Talks about, you know, the pressures economically inside the Soviet Union.

00:18:07.460 What was one of the first chinks in the army? 0.94

00:18:09.240 Nobody talks about this now.

00:18:10.820 Nobody talks about this now.

00:18:12.540 When was the first sign the Soviet Union was heading towards collapse?

00:18:17.260 When after nine years of war in Afghanistan, Soviet grandmothers, Soviet mothers publicly protested at their 19-year-old children, their sons, their grandchildren, being shipped home from Afghanistan in cardboard boxes.

00:18:37.880 That's not very long in the memory of the siloviki nomenklatura of the Soviet system.

00:18:47.560 So there's a point at which the Kremlin has to say, OK, guys, let's sit down.

00:18:53.800 They're not going to do it fast, but they have to sit down.

00:18:56.080 Chaos comes in all shapes and sizes.

00:18:59.560 Last week, a guest showed up late because they couldn't find the studio and we had to juggle schedules on the fly.

00:19:05.760 Talk about stress.

00:19:07.160 But here's the thing.

00:19:08.340 While some chaos is unavoidable, your e-commerce business doesn't have to suffer.

00:19:13.700 That's where ShipStation comes in.

00:19:15.960 ShipStation simplifies order fulfillment by letting you manage all your shipping needs from one easy dashboard.

00:19:22.960 Whether it's automating repetitive tasks or finding the best carrier rates, ShipStation helps save time and money so you can focus on growing your business.

00:19:33.880 As someone who runs a business, I don't run it shut up.

00:19:37.160 I understand how critical it is to streamline operations and stay ahead of the game.

00:19:42.160 We endorse ShipStation because it's a powerful tool for any business owner.

00:19:46.600 It scales with you, no matter how large your business gets, and offers discounts of up to 88% off UPS, DHL Express, and USPS rates, and even 90% off FedEx.

00:20:00.500 Those savings add up fast.

00:20:02.840 Over 130,000 companies trust ShipStation to keep their fulfillment running smoothly.

00:20:09.480 And it's easy to see why.

00:20:11.240 Start simplifying your shipping today.

00:20:13.480 Go to ShipStation.com and use the code TRIGGER to sign up for your free trial.

00:20:19.220 At ShipStation.com, code TRIGGER, ShipStation, make ship happen.

00:20:25.660 Well, Seb, you know us.

00:20:27.980 We come at it from a very realistic perspective.

00:20:30.560 We're not trying to catch you out or anything.

00:20:32.020 But let me share my concerns, and perhaps you can address them, and the concerns a lot of people share.

00:20:37.380 What I'm saying is, I understand why America needs to focus on China.

00:20:42.580 I understand, absolutely I understand, particularly from the UK, why Islamist terrorism is a big problem.

00:20:48.320 But the concern is, in the desire to focus on those things, there may be a sense of unnecessary, like, how do you say, unnecessary urgency is not what I mean.

00:20:59.820 But like, let's just get this deal done, no matter what happens.

00:21:02.200 And then you get a deal for Ukraine that means that this invasion is repeated the next time. 0.84

00:21:08.120 Let me just finish this, because it's important.

00:21:09.560 There's two dimensions.

00:21:11.360 President Trump's no longer in office.

00:21:13.040 So whatever strength he has, you know, you've got to, let's say, Biden comes back out of the cardboard box and he's president, right?

00:21:20.020 And then Putin can invade again, because there's no permanent security, because we rushed the deal now, because we needed to focus on other things, number one.

00:21:27.420 Number two is, there are a lot of small countries, as you well know, with your Hungarian ancestry, in Eastern Europe, who are very concerned about Russia.

00:21:36.700 To them, this idea that Vladimir Putin is a scary guy is not theoretical, because they know history, right?

00:21:42.180 And a lot of places around the world elsewhere that have powerful enemies, smaller countries, are going to look at this and go, well, look, if there is no order in the world, if it's the strong against the weak, we need to get nuclear weapons and protect ourselves, right?

00:21:55.540 So can you reassure sensible people around the world that in attempting to do a deal quickly, Ukraine isn't going to end up in a position that's bad for the world and bad for America?

00:22:06.040 Absolutely. Absolutely. There's nothing about what the president is doing that is driven by a sense of haste.

00:22:13.920 What's driving the president, number one, and the left won't believe this and the mainstream won't believe this, but it's fine. I know the man better than they do.

00:22:23.700 He's truly horrified by what he's seeing.

00:22:25.940 That comes across.

00:22:27.200 Doesn't it?

00:22:27.560 A hundred percent. I said it on Question Time like a week ago.

00:22:31.140 Whatever you may say about him, the fact that he clearly wants the human suffering to end comes across completely authentically.

00:22:38.160 But that's the number one thing.

00:22:39.600 Yeah.

00:22:39.700 That's the number one thing.

00:22:40.980 And when my boss, the National Security Advisor, who's the first ever Green Beret Special Forces officer, former Green Beret to serve in that position, in Jeddah, or was it Riyadh, says,

00:22:52.560 we have to stop the meat grinder of Ukrainian men and Russian men, he means it. 1.00

00:22:59.520 Because this is a man who's fought the Taliban in Afghanistan.

00:23:01.920 He knows what a meat grinder looks like.

00:23:04.100 So number one, this isn't about a quick fix and move on.

00:23:07.700 This is about stopping horror.

00:23:10.960 And secondly, and I...

00:23:12.960 Julia, why did you do this?

00:23:14.860 Julia Hartley Brewer just didn't get it last week. 1.00

00:23:17.700 She was obsessed, as so many are, with, we need that piece of paper.

00:23:22.180 We need that security guarantee.

00:23:24.000 We need Western nations to, you know, NATO membership or something.

00:23:27.740 And I'm like, hang on a second.

00:23:29.720 First, read the NATO treaty.

00:23:31.700 The NATO treaty is explicit.

00:23:33.040 It's only 14 paragraphs long.

00:23:34.680 And it states you can only be a member of NATO if you are a functioning representative democracy who can contribute to the alliance.

00:23:42.700 Just two requirements.

00:23:43.480 You're not a functioning representative democracy when your territory is occupied, right?

00:23:48.760 Just like you're ruled out.

00:23:50.220 You've got to be in control of your territory.

00:23:52.440 And then you've got to be able to contribute to the alliance.

00:23:55.220 And then I said to Julia,

00:23:56.880 you know what's much more important than a piece of paper by the NATO alliance or the Budapest Memorandum?

00:24:01.420 Remember that?

00:24:02.740 What the president offered Zelensky.

00:24:06.420 This is the biggest mistake in terms of analyzing the whole peace process.

00:24:12.180 If you sign a trade deal, a rare earth minerals deal with America, you will have thousands of U.S. citizens on your soil.

00:24:23.060 Now that's a guarantee.

00:24:26.600 I've got a piece of paper.

00:24:28.880 Big U.S. companies, U.S. personnel.

00:24:33.760 That's when inimical nations think twice. 0.77

00:24:38.280 Okay, let me give you a counter example scenario.

00:24:42.040 The president of Russia, whether it's Vladimir Putin or whoever, five years down the line, says,

00:24:47.820 Mr. President, Mr. President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, whoever, right?

00:24:53.500 We're invading.

00:24:54.500 You've got a few thousand of your people digging stuff out of the ground.

00:24:57.360 Get them out now because we're invading tomorrow. 0.90

00:24:59.220 America is going to go to nuclear war with Russia over a few thousand contractors?

00:25:02.940 No, you're not.

00:25:03.660 Right.

00:25:04.020 You're going to pull them out.

00:25:05.120 So let's be clear.

00:25:08.360 The safety of Ukraine is a function of who's in the White House.

00:25:13.620 And to your hypothetical scenario, let's be clear.

00:25:19.340 When was it invaded on multiple occasions?

00:25:22.220 Agreed.

00:25:23.220 Under Obama?

00:25:24.280 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:25:24.780 Under Biden.

00:25:24.960 So I can't give you a foolproof guarantee of no well-run Europe if a Democrat is in this building.

00:25:33.120 If President Trump, as he is for the next four years, and then maybe J.D. Vance for the next eight years,

00:25:39.700 it changes the geopolitical calculus of the Kremlin.

00:25:44.340 But a Democrat will be in this building at some point.

00:25:47.680 But that's not something I can prevent.

00:25:49.880 I know, but I know.

00:25:51.300 But neither, neither will a piece of paper help if a Democrat's in the building.

00:25:58.560 That's why Europeans are talking about peacekeepers, because it's the only way to.

00:26:01.140 Yeah, but can we, again, stick to the real world?

00:26:05.080 Europe has been talking about military forces under the EU since I cut my teeth on NATO issues, 1997.

00:26:11.920 It's cloud cuckoo land, okay?

00:26:16.840 The idea that we have NATO with target force goals, with commands, and then suddenly you're

00:26:22.460 going to replicate stuff when you can't afford to actually run your healthcare services, when

00:26:28.320 you're having debates upon, you know, retirement benefits.

00:26:31.740 Let me have a cold shower effect on those who are thinking that Europe will suddenly duplicate

00:26:37.640 NATO and then deploy assets to parts of the continent that aren't members of the EU.

00:26:45.560 I've heard this story for 30 years, and it never amounts to anything.

00:26:51.180 If you want to look it up, look up CFSP, Common Foreign Security Policy from the 1990s.

00:26:57.140 Look up Common Defense Forces.

00:26:59.060 The EU's been talking about this for decades.

00:27:01.300 As far as I'm concerned, as somebody who's been doing this for a long time, it's all talk.

00:27:04.600 There's America, there's Article 5, and there's NATO.

00:27:07.800 And there's leaders who, unlike Biden, don't say, well, if Putin invades, it depends upon

00:27:14.980 the size of the invasion, which is what he said.

00:27:17.600 You're inviting trouble.

00:27:19.060 It's about American leadership and the systems that work, which at the moment and for the

00:27:23.020 last 70 years is NATO.

00:27:26.580 So what would you say to those people who are saying that the reason Trump is being quite

00:27:30.840 friendly to Putin and speaks about him in quite glowing terms in some instances is because

00:27:37.200 he is worried that if he alienates Russia to such an extent and they side with China, that

00:27:42.760 is going to cause major problems for the globe.

00:27:46.040 No, look, I'm not going to speak for the president.

00:27:49.180 But, you know, I know that any rapprochement between Beijing and Moscow is a tactical one.

00:27:56.440 These are nations that are in dire competition with each other.

00:28:00.940 And we can discuss, you know, the demographics and the economics of all that.

00:28:05.060 But no, let's be very honest.

00:28:07.100 When you want somebody to come to the negotiating table, do you call them a murderer?

00:28:13.340 Do you call them evil?

00:28:14.540 Or do you want to actually get them to the negotiating table? 0.92

00:28:16.740 This is the asinine request of the mainstream media during the first Trump administration.

00:28:21.520 Why are you talking to Putin? 0.93

00:28:22.840 Why are you talking to Xi?

00:28:23.660 I mean, it's far more important to look at what the president does when he's talking to them.

00:28:27.900 One of the most important things the president did in the first administration is when we

00:28:32.580 briefed him, and this is now declassified, that there are chemical weapons about to be

00:28:37.880 put on aircraft in Syria to target civilians in Syria.

00:28:42.120 When the president was briefed this, this is under Assad, he said, turn that aircraft base

00:28:46.780 into a sheet of glass.

00:28:47.700 We launched 52 cruise missiles, literally just obliterated this facility, as what was

00:28:53.960 happening at the same time.

00:28:54.940 Xi Jinping was in Mar-a-Lago having a state banquet.

00:28:58.840 And the president, you can see the footage right now, leans over Xi and through the interpreter,

00:29:05.080 she's eating the best chocolate cake in the world, says, I just thought you should know

00:29:09.400 I just dropped 52 cruise missiles on Syria.

00:29:11.500 He didn't invade Syria, he didn't do a regime change, but he sent a message to who?

00:29:17.660 Not just Assad, who's going to use chemical weapons again against his own citizens because

00:29:22.800 they're from the wrong ethnicity. 0.99

00:29:24.440 He sent a message to Xi, he sent a message to Kim in Pyongyang, and he sent a message to

00:29:30.860 Putin.

00:29:32.020 This is not a man to be trifled with.

00:29:33.840 The prior administration talked about red lines.

00:29:36.720 And then what happened?

00:29:38.420 The red lines were crossed again and again and again, and they said, well, mm, mm, uh,

00:29:43.200 mm, right?

00:29:44.460 We don't talk about red lines.

00:29:46.200 You do bad stuff, and we act, and we act decisively in ways that change the complete geopolitical

00:29:53.920 reality.

00:29:54.340 I mean, look at what happened with the Houthis last weekend.

00:29:56.680 The president was told that a US ship has not been allowed to traverse that waterway for the

00:30:02.620 last year without being fired upon, and at 147 times, US vessels have been shot at by

00:30:08.160 the Houthis.

00:30:08.980 And he said, uh, well, that ends now.

00:30:12.140 Sort it out, Secretary Hexer, CENTCOM, turn the Houthis into dust. 0.85

00:30:18.100 That's not red lines.

00:30:19.520 That's not empty promises.

00:30:20.540 That's not, well, it depends what kind of military invasion Putin's going to affect.

00:30:24.200 No, it's taking action to make sure maritime freedom of the sea lanes is affected.

00:30:31.200 That's Donald Trump.

00:30:32.020 And I think most bad men who run countries understand that language.

00:30:38.780 Well, we're talking about bad men who run countries, and I've been speaking to a lot

00:30:43.400 of Australians, particularly high-ranking Australians in government and so on and so forth, and they're

00:30:48.480 very concerned with China and its covetous eyes towards Taiwan.

00:30:53.240 How, I mean, let's be blunt here.

00:30:56.420 Do you think that's going to happen, the invasion of Taiwan, and how long do you think it's going

00:31:00.480 to take?

00:31:01.280 Um, the first thing I'd say with regards to the PRC and to the capabilities of the People's

00:31:08.240 Liberation Army, ironically named as it is, is that a lot of what China says about its military

00:31:14.580 capabilities is very good propaganda.

00:31:17.320 Yes, they are the number one strategic adversary for the United States.

00:31:20.680 Yes, for the 100th anniversary of the revolution in 2048, they wish to be the only hegemonic power

00:31:27.420 in the world, with every other nation a satrapy or a tributary state.

00:31:32.340 Nevertheless, don't believe the hype when it comes to all the things they say about their

00:31:36.480 capabilities.

00:31:37.620 For things like that to occur, you have to have very large-scale expeditionary forces.

00:31:44.560 Not just a lot of guys in uniform, but the capacity to project them like America can.

00:31:50.360 Nobody can touch us when it comes to protection of forces.

00:31:54.300 However, I'm not diminishing the level of threat.

00:31:56.800 Literally, uh, two days ago, I was with a very high-level Australian delegation here in the White

00:32:02.600 House, and they understand that the threat to their part of the world, the influence China 0.94

00:32:08.780 is exerting and buying amongst smaller, weaker nations of the region is very disturbing.

00:32:15.340 The president gets it.

00:32:18.160 But again, I would say, um, the bad men understand who the commander-in-chief is.

00:32:23.900 I cannot guarantee in the future how they will look at this building.

00:32:27.480 But for the next four years, and maybe for the next 12 years under J.D. Vance, they will

00:32:32.840 understand this is not a building to be trifled with.

00:32:35.600 Because the one thing that I don't think people understand is China's tentacles extend to South

00:32:41.240 America, and particularly Venezuela.

00:32:42.920 Correct.

00:32:43.260 A lot of my family in Venezuela tell me about Chinese investment.

00:32:46.120 And Africa.

00:32:46.900 Yeah.

00:32:47.420 But it's more pertinent for America, the fact that Venezuela is only a couple of hours away

00:32:52.320 to Miami.

00:32:53.140 And you've got Hezbollah training on the island of Margarita.

00:32:56.980 So you've got Iran.

00:32:57.920 This is a very serious problem.

00:32:59.920 You've, in quite literally, you have enemies stationed in the Caribbean.

00:33:03.680 No, and we're fully aware of that.

00:33:05.300 I mean, as I said, I'm a counterterrorism guy, but I'm fully cognizant of the fact that the

00:33:11.180 only peer level threat we face is China.

00:33:14.960 China that is, let's be honest, acting in a neo-colonialist fashion, not just in Venezuela,

00:33:22.120 not just in our hemisphere, but Africa.

00:33:23.700 Talk to the leaders of the African states where, you know, communist China goes in, promises 0.55

00:33:29.080 infrastructure investments, but at what cost?

00:33:31.460 Oh, we'll build that port for you, but we're going to own it for 50 years, and we're going

00:33:35.260 to put a military base next to it.

00:33:36.540 We are fully aware of this fact.

00:33:38.480 Seb, I thought you made a really good point earlier when you talked about the fact that

00:33:41.820 President Trump has got Europeans to start paying their way when it comes to NATO.

00:33:45.740 And as you well know, we've been talking about this for a very long time.

00:33:49.000 So I've got nothing against that and everything for that.

00:33:52.940 But also, I do think there is some truth to the charge that is being made, that you are

00:33:57.280 nicer to your enemies than you are to your friends, just in terms of the way that you

00:34:01.280 talk.

00:34:01.700 Not you personally, but this, you know, this building, let's say.

00:34:05.040 Yeah, but...

00:34:06.340 Do you think there's some truth to that?

00:34:08.060 As a man and as a father, let me ask you a question.

00:34:11.920 Do you judge a man by what he says or what he does?

00:34:14.520 You judge a man by what he does, absolutely.

00:34:17.000 Right.

00:34:17.300 So there's what he said, and then there's the reality of what he's done, right?

00:34:22.760 And I would say, it's like, who was it?

00:34:26.140 It was that great journalist who wrote the best description of, you know, Trump derangement

00:34:34.620 syndrome.

00:34:35.100 I think it was eight years ago, Selina Zito, who you should have on your show if you haven't.

00:34:40.300 Selina said, President Trump's supporters don't take him literally, but take him seriously.

00:34:46.980 And everybody says, oh my gosh, he said what?

00:34:49.580 They take him literally, but they don't take him seriously.

00:34:54.080 Look at Gaza. 0.86

00:34:55.120 Let's talk about, you know, Gaza.

00:34:57.360 When the President Trump said, we're taking over Gaza, what did he mean?

00:35:01.900 People say, oh my gosh, is it going to be, you know, Gaza Lago?

00:35:06.100 Is it going to be gold-plated hotel towers coming out of, you know, the Middle East?

00:35:10.720 No.

00:35:12.020 But analyze what happened.

00:35:14.620 He makes a comment.

00:35:16.560 Certain nations of the region have a fit.

00:35:19.420 Oh my gosh, how dare he say that?

00:35:22.740 For 24 hours.

00:35:23.700 And then the self-same nations, three days later, who've done nothing for the Gazans for

00:35:30.540 50 years, say, huh, maybe we should invest in the future of the Gazan people.

00:35:39.060 So again, this is the art of the deal.

00:35:42.400 Everybody likes to talk about the Overton window.

00:35:44.480 You've got to enlarge the Overton window.

00:35:46.400 President Trump does not enlargen the Overton window.

00:35:49.860 He takes a sledgehammer to the frame, the walls, the roof, and he blows it out of the

00:35:55.840 water.

00:35:56.380 And then he does what?

00:35:58.520 He engenders radical discussion.

00:36:02.420 Countries who've done nothing for that benighted region say, you know what?

00:36:06.680 Yeah, I don't like that Gaza comment, but maybe we should finally do something. 0.99

00:36:11.140 That's how President Trump should be judged.

00:36:13.320 Not by, you know, clips of things he said at a press conference, by what he's done.

00:36:20.840 That would be my recommendation.

00:36:22.260 No, no, and I get that.

00:36:23.800 And it's something that I think is a fair criticism that people freak out a little bit about the

00:36:30.000 language too much.

00:36:31.480 However, when you talk about, you know, annexing Greenland and making Canada part of your country

00:36:37.820 and breaking up NATO, as some people around President Trump are doing, I mean, if it's

00:36:44.380 said often enough, people are going to listen to it.

00:36:46.480 You said yourself earlier, words matter.

00:36:49.220 Data brokers collect and sell everything you do online.

00:36:53.380 Your browsing history, searches, even your location.

00:36:57.200 That's bad enough.

00:36:58.440 But did you know they also sell this data to government agencies like the IRS?

00:37:03.260 Express, I'd rather keep my digital life private, which is why I use ExpressVPN.

00:37:09.860 One of the easiest ways for data brokers to track you is through your device's unique IP

00:37:15.420 address, which also reveals information about your location.

00:37:20.040 With ExpressVPN, your IP address is hidden.

00:37:23.540 We've used ExpressVPN every day at trigonometry since 2019 because it's fast, super secure,

00:37:30.200 works on all devices, and most importantly, it's reliable.

00:37:34.440 Right now, you can take advantage of ExpressVPN's Black Friday, Cyber Monday offer to get the

00:37:40.020 absolute best VPN deal you'll find all year.

00:37:43.440 Use our special link, expressvpn.com slash trigger to get four extra months with the 12-month

00:37:50.960 plan or six extra months with the 24-month plan totally free.

00:37:56.980 That's expressvpn.com slash trigger to get an extra four or even six months of ExpressVPN

00:38:03.980 for free.

00:38:06.100 I think with regards to Greenland, I would ask anybody out there to have a look, you know,

00:38:10.500 I have a globe in my office.

00:38:12.240 I'm old school, right?

00:38:14.040 Have a look at Greenland and get out a rule or a tape measure and measure how close it

00:38:19.320 is to America and how far it is from Europe.

00:38:22.180 And then look at Greenland during World War II and look at the waterways, look at the

00:38:27.480 airways, and then get back to me about, oh my gosh, that language is so shocking, but

00:38:33.880 instead talk to me about geopolitics.

00:38:36.100 But hang on, Seb.

00:38:36.820 We can say there's something about Argentina and Las Malvinas.

00:38:40.540 Oh, yes, we can.

00:38:42.340 We can.

00:38:43.180 But is it of geopolitical importance like Greenland?

00:38:46.300 But this is the trick you're playing, though, because you're saying, well, don't take him

00:38:50.500 literally, but then when it comes to Greenland, oh, actually, we actually do need Greenland,

00:38:54.820 right?

00:38:55.160 No, no, but not necessarily as part of the United States.

00:39:00.840 Okay.

00:39:01.200 Right?

00:39:01.600 So it's the art of negotiating, right?

00:39:04.460 So it's, you do this, right?

00:39:07.400 Say, I want 150%.

00:39:08.900 People get horrified, and then you get 80%.

00:39:12.040 You're never going to get 80% if you start off negotiating for 80%.

00:39:17.120 You never get it.

00:39:19.980 Ever get it.

00:39:21.200 You can only get the 80% if you enlarge in the aperture to twice that size, and then

00:39:28.660 the elastic snaps back to something that otherwise would never have been deemed possible, but

00:39:36.340 because you blew past the Overton window, you create the space in which to...

00:39:42.140 Look, let me illustrate this another way.

00:39:44.140 One of the biggest ways to get in trouble with President Trump, I saw this in the first

00:39:46.860 administration, I saw this with three-star generals, right, is when he asked you, so why

00:39:50.900 are we doing it this way?

00:39:52.100 And if they said, and I've seen this, well, Mr. President, it's because we've been doing

00:39:59.540 it like that for 30 years.

00:40:03.160 The American people, 77 million of them, elected a man whose job it was to doge-ify America, 0.90

00:40:12.940 to shake the tree, to say, no, men are men, and they can't get changed with teenage girls 0.71

00:40:18.740 in bathrooms. 1.00

00:40:19.980 I'm sorry, you're insane. 0.87

00:40:21.380 The idea that we can't have borders is absolutely suicidal, and we're not going to be on the 0.69

00:40:27.220 side of the rapists, the muggers, the murderers, who right now, judges, are protecting because

00:40:32.320 reasons, right?

00:40:34.460 So this is, you have to understand, we have arrived at, and I think your book, An Immigrant's

00:40:40.740 Love Letter to the West, you know, supports that.

00:40:43.980 There's a point at which you have to shake the nation and the establishment by the throat

00:40:50.360 and say, guys, just because you've been doing it like this for 30 years is crazy, and that's

00:40:55.640 why you need language that actually has an effect to wake you out of that soporific state.

00:41:05.880 And in Europe, as I concede, that has happened as a result.

00:41:09.260 So I'm not coming at it from any kind of hater kind of place.

00:41:13.060 But I guess the worry for a lot of people is, and this isn't what President Trump has said,

00:41:17.580 but I hear Steve Bannon saying, we're going to have President Trump run again in 2028,

00:41:25.500 and we're working on it.

00:41:27.240 It's good for clicks.

00:41:28.220 But Steve Bannon isn't a homeless guy on the street, with all respect.

00:41:33.500 Neither is he inside this building.

00:41:36.280 So I would like not to be judged by what somebody else says.

00:41:42.460 Is that unreasonable?

00:41:43.880 Should you be judged by what...

00:41:45.600 What Francis says?

00:41:46.480 Absolutely not.

00:41:47.860 Carl Benjamin says.

00:41:48.920 Yeah.

00:41:49.140 Would you?

00:41:49.460 Yeah.

00:41:49.760 Right?

00:41:50.060 So really, I don't care.

00:41:52.500 He used to be inside this building and very close to the president.

00:41:55.520 Many people were.

00:41:56.160 People who were saboteurs were inside this building.

00:41:59.140 People like John Kelly, a former Marine four-star general, were inside this building.

00:42:03.000 Not anymore.

00:42:03.840 I mean, this is why the Second Administration is so very, very different.

00:42:07.700 You know, think of this.

00:42:08.500 The power you have to get things done when you're friends and you're all trusted by the president.

00:42:15.080 The director of the FBI is a friend of mine.

00:42:16.780 Kash Patel.

00:42:17.680 Pete Hexeth, Secretary of Defense, he's a friend of mine.

00:42:19.740 Pam Bondi, the director of the CIA.

00:42:22.180 We have people we'd never heard of before.

00:42:24.040 Rex Tillerson, CEO of X, Y, and Z.

00:42:27.220 This is a team that is defined by one thing.

00:42:29.600 The president trusts them and they love America.

00:42:32.800 And the people who aren't in the building are not in the building for a very specific reason.

00:42:37.080 And to go back, let me just...

00:42:38.820 You know, this is really important for all those who...

00:42:40.540 Would you get how scary that is to a lot of people, Seb?

00:42:43.340 A guy who used to work for the president, who's still part of the MAGA movement.

00:42:47.680 No one...

00:42:48.060 He's not been cast out, as far as I know, talking about ending the constitutional order of the United States of America.

00:42:55.200 Yeah.

00:42:55.740 I never thought you'd be a shrinking violet.

00:42:58.040 I'm not a shrinking violet, but I'm pro-democracy.

00:43:00.940 Yeah.

00:43:01.680 We all are.

00:43:02.780 That's why we want our borders back.

00:43:04.460 And that's why we want a government that isn't sending, you know, tens of millions of dollars.

00:43:08.500 We agree on all that.

00:43:08.980 Transvestite opera in Africa.

00:43:10.260 We agree on all that.

00:43:11.660 So, again, I can't do better than this.

00:43:17.520 Can we judge my boss on what he did for four years?

00:43:25.760 It's not difficult, right?

00:43:28.040 What he did for four years, we destroyed the caliphate of ISIS.

00:43:33.460 We strengthened NATO.

00:43:35.380 We sealed the border.

00:43:36.560 This is what he should be measured by, not by what Steve Bannon or anybody else says, not by clips of speeches.

00:43:46.760 What did he do for four years?

00:43:49.180 That's the metric, in my opinion.

00:43:51.620 I would agree with you.

00:43:54.360 But...

00:43:54.580 But...

00:43:55.360 When you call Zelensky a dictator, that has very real-world impact, Seb.

00:44:00.800 I was in Texas, and I was sitting around with a group of guys who were all MAGA, and we were having a conversation, and then the topic of Ukraine came up.

00:44:09.740 And they were very much anti-intervention when it came to Ukraine.

00:44:13.240 And let's be honest, they were pro-Putin.

00:44:15.000 And when I asked them why, they were like, well, President Trump says Zelensky's a dictator.

00:44:19.440 Words have impact.

00:44:20.580 Hang on, hang on.

00:44:21.400 Are you truly telling me that these grown-ups became pro-Putin because of that one line?

00:44:28.420 No, but I'm saying it reinforced their worldview.

00:44:30.980 Did it bring him to the table?

00:44:33.000 Oh, no doubt about that.

00:44:34.760 No doubt about that.

00:44:36.120 But my point is, is that has an impact on culture as well.

00:44:40.060 It does.

00:44:40.620 That does.

00:44:41.140 And it's, I found that, that kind of comment profoundly, look, if it was just on the geopolitical level, and if it's just mainstream media having a meltdown, I wouldn't care.

00:44:50.060 But it also, you know, people listen.

00:44:53.020 And that's their worldview, and that's what they take from Ukraine.

00:44:57.240 And it got into the table, and what's the president interested in?

00:45:00.740 Right at that moment in time, the only thing he cares about is to stop the meat grinder.

00:45:05.740 To stop the meat grinder.

00:45:08.120 And if you're being recalcitrant, if you're refusing to come to the table, and if you're not a nuclear power, maybe this is the language that gets to the table.

00:45:19.240 Did it?

00:45:19.760 I think it did.

00:45:21.000 And then he made the decision he made with regards to what he was going to say in the Oval.

00:45:24.740 Right?

00:45:27.120 Payroll payout from Boom 97.3 and Alpine Credits is your chance to get some much-needed cash back in your wallet.

00:45:33.920 What you need to do now is go to boom97.3.com to sign up so you can start making $100 an hour.

00:45:41.920 Kick off your workday on a good note and a few extra C notes.

00:45:45.680 Money!

00:45:46.140 Want some?

00:45:46.920 Sign up.

00:45:47.600 I love you, Boom!

00:45:49.220 Approved by Alpine Credits.

00:45:50.880 Own your own home and eat a loan.

00:45:52.220 Alpine Credits can help.

00:45:53.480 Visit alpinecredits.ca.

00:45:55.000 And we're looking and we're talking about things that are happening around the world.

00:46:00.660 And I'm looking at what's going on in the U.S.

00:46:02.920 And I come here and I love this country, Seth.

00:46:05.260 I think it's...

00:46:06.180 We're waiting for you to move here, dude.

00:46:08.080 San Antonio's calling, all right?

00:46:10.560 San Antonio.

00:46:12.060 Where do you run?

00:46:12.980 Austin.

00:46:13.640 Austin.

00:46:14.120 Sorry, Austin.

00:46:15.500 Austin.

00:46:17.980 We have higher ambitions.

00:46:19.440 Anyway, carry on.

00:46:20.180 But I'm looking at this country economically, and it's not in a good place.

00:46:26.200 The gap between rich and poor is growing day in, day out.

00:46:29.400 We went to a really lovely sandwich shop around the corner who said,

00:46:32.800 we're going to have to put up our sandwiches.

00:46:34.860 We contain eggs by a dollar because of the price of eggs.

00:46:38.000 Now, for everybody who's sitting around, that's not a major problem.

00:46:40.900 But there are a lot of people in this country who live paycheck to paycheck,

00:46:43.880 and that is a major problem.

00:46:45.640 Absolutely.

00:46:46.380 And that's why I tell everybody, if you want to understand

00:46:48.900 how 64 million Americans, a lot of them working-class, blue-collar Democrats,

00:46:55.780 voted for the billionaire from Manhattan,

00:46:59.020 you have got to read J.D. Vance's book.

00:47:01.980 I mean, this is the great, you know, the reshaping or the reorientation of politics.

00:47:08.880 There's no conservative, Republican, Democrat, left-wing anymore.

00:47:14.040 There's the metropolis, there's the Wi-Fi is too weak at Starbucks for me crowd,

00:47:19.920 I've got a gender studies degree, and then there's the people who Rich Minnett and my friend

00:47:23.840 call the accountables, people for whom the price of eggs and petrol actually makes a difference

00:47:29.600 on a day-to-day basis.

00:47:31.460 Most of the people in the metropolis have no idea what the price of, you know, a gallon of petrol is.

00:47:36.820 That's the problem.

00:47:38.520 And as a result, you have a billionaire who's broken through all of these barriers.

00:47:43.260 It's like the Brexit vote, right?

00:47:44.820 How many Labour voters voted to leave?

00:47:48.560 They broke through those red walls.

00:47:50.920 And the president, by the tariffs alone, demonstrate to you what?

00:47:56.380 He wants Americans to have good paying jobs in America,

00:48:00.880 and he will punish you as an American company if you think,

00:48:04.220 I'm just going to leverage slave labour wages in China or, you know, cheap labour in Mexico.

00:48:11.140 No, I want those jobs to be here.

00:48:12.920 And, you know, the hillbilly elegy is the best explication from a man who didn't like

00:48:17.820 President Trump back then of how both parties betrayed the working Americans.

00:48:24.800 The Democrats who said, we're here for the workers,

00:48:26.840 and the Chamber of Commerce GOP who said, well, you know, you can outsource jobs

00:48:32.120 and it's going to make products cheaper.

00:48:34.800 That's how Donald Trump became president the first time round.

00:48:37.600 And think of this, that was 64 million.

00:48:40.160 And then he gets 77 million.

00:48:42.040 It's pretty impressive.

00:48:43.180 So before we ask our last question, because we're running out of time,

00:48:45.640 you're a busy guy and we appreciate it.

00:48:47.480 Before we ask the last one,

00:48:49.320 what do you think is the biggest challenge for the Trump administration over the next four years?

00:48:53.800 Lawfare.

00:48:55.180 Lawfare.

00:48:55.620 We're witnessing it right now with judges who think they control the executive,

00:48:59.660 who say the president cannot use enacted powers as the commander-in-chief,

00:49:05.740 as the chief executive, to ship literal terrorists out of America, 0.81

00:49:11.380 rapists and murderers. 0.96

00:49:14.520 Judges who say you have to order the plane to come or turn around 0.99

00:49:18.680 and not go to Venezuela.

00:49:20.620 Lawfare, in my opinion.

00:49:22.380 And what's the one thing we're still not talking about that we should be?

00:49:25.100 And I say this as a great sinner myself when it comes to this sin. 1.00

00:49:36.440 Put your stinking phone down and switch it off and read a bloody book. 0.99

00:49:43.200 And preferably by a white guy who died over 400 years ago. 1.00

00:49:48.320 Shakespeare and beyond.

00:49:49.840 Right?

00:49:50.100 So from the ancients...

00:49:51.080 Shakespeare's cancelled, man.

00:49:52.240 I don't know if you've heard it.

00:49:53.300 Not in my library.

00:49:55.580 You know, just knowledge, knowledge, knowledge.

00:49:59.540 And AI again.

00:50:00.760 It's like I was talking to a friend of mine earlier today,

00:50:03.100 Alex Marlowe, the editor of Breitbart.

00:50:04.920 And he says, you know, you can write books without researchers now.

00:50:07.940 You put it in the grok and you'll get something that would have taken you a week to do.

00:50:11.300 Who's going to learn?

00:50:12.380 Who's going to actually learn how to read books and do research in the future?

00:50:15.580 Notes.

00:50:17.240 Yeah.

00:50:17.600 It's going to be a very small percentage.

00:50:19.320 Tiny amount of people.

00:50:20.420 A tiny amount of people.

00:50:20.980 I was being facetious, but it's actually true.

00:50:22.920 Right.

00:50:23.460 So, you know, switch the phone off, read a book.

00:50:25.980 Perfect. 0.98

00:50:26.200 By a dead white guy. 0.84

00:50:27.160 Seb, appreciate your time.

00:50:30.380 Thank you, guys.

00:50:31.040 Thank you for watching.

00:50:32.020 There is no sub-stack for this interview because Seb is a very busy guy.

00:50:34.740 We don't have time, but we incorporate as many of your questions as we could in the main interview.

00:50:39.020 Head on over there now and subscribe.

00:50:40.380 What are the biggest differences that you as an actual insider observe in the culture and functioning of the present White House staff as compared to the previous Trump White House?

00:50:57.160 We'll be right back.

00:51:27.160 The Neil Diamond Musical, A Beautiful Noise.

00:51:29.920 Now through June 7, 2026 at the Princess of Wales Theatre.

00:51:34.100 Get tickets at Mirbish.com.

00:51:35.900 See.

00:51:36.420 Thanks.

00:51:42.640 .

00:51:43.480 .

TRIGGERnometry - March 26, 2025

Live from the White House with Dr Sebastian Gorka

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript