Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 23, 2025


BONUS POD： A Battleship Bombshell-Trump’s Navy Goes YUGE!


Episode Stats

Length

12 minutes

Words per Minute

170.2367

Word Count

2,069

Sentence Count

166


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.840 That innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago,
00:00:09.760 and they're, you know, highly respected bankers and lawyers and others.
00:00:14.180 What this whole thing is with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect
00:00:17.540 from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has.
00:00:20.640 Like, for instance, today we're building the biggest ships in the world,
00:00:23.280 most powerful ships in the world,
00:00:24.800 and they're asking me questions about Jeffrey Epstein.
00:00:27.360 I thought that was finished.
00:00:28.800 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:32.980 Good Tuesday morning.
00:00:34.160 So nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.
00:00:37.300 Donald Trump comes out with a big announcement,
00:00:40.240 a new golden fleet of battleships,
00:00:43.140 saying these will be the best in the world,
00:00:45.560 and they will bring jobs back to America.
00:00:48.580 That's not all the president covered.
00:00:50.400 He also covered narco-terrorism Venezuela,
00:00:53.100 and what country could be our next target.
00:00:55.860 I have the full breakdown for you.
00:00:58.000 It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
00:01:01.540 Story number one.
00:01:02.680 President Donald Trump speaking from Mar-a-Lago,
00:01:05.980 talking about building our military,
00:01:08.340 new ships that our military desperately needs,
00:01:11.420 and not just talking about that,
00:01:13.540 but clearly being the most transparent president in modern political history.
00:01:18.660 At a more than 50-minute press conference,
00:01:22.340 the president took questions about building the new golden fleet,
00:01:26.140 about the golden fleet counters with China,
00:01:29.960 intercepting drugs on land,
00:01:31.880 and what could happen with possible attacks on land,
00:01:35.120 what he was going to do with the seized oil of oil tankers coming out of Venezuela,
00:01:39.220 and the black fleet of oil tankers that also deal with Iran.
00:01:43.500 He also was asked about Venezuela and U.S. oil companies working together.
00:01:48.840 And he was asked about Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein,
00:01:52.720 a workforce to build the golden fleet that will help American workers.
00:01:56.760 The end game with Maduro was also covered.
00:02:00.080 He was asked about Colombia and the president there,
00:02:02.820 and could that be next after Venezuela?
00:02:05.820 And a new envoy to Greenland.
00:02:08.100 He was asked about the war with Ukraine and Russia.
00:02:10.700 Had he spoken with Vladimir Putin or Zelensky recently?
00:02:14.780 And what did they say?
00:02:16.420 And then the pursuit of other oil tankers came up.
00:02:19.300 Would America continue to push forward with that?
00:02:22.340 And is the goal to force Maduro from power?
00:02:26.320 He also talked about health care insurers meetings
00:02:29.060 and exactly what had happened there.
00:02:31.620 Now, the president making it clear,
00:02:33.680 there is nothing he is unwilling to discuss.
00:02:36.940 There's no question that he is saying,
00:02:39.140 no, I'm not going to answer that.
00:02:41.660 This is part of the president being the most transparent president
00:02:44.940 in modern political history.
00:02:47.060 One of the big questions was about the Epstein files.
00:02:50.460 And there was an awful lot of pictures that came out of
00:02:53.440 a former president by the name of Bill Clinton with Jeffrey Epstein.
00:02:57.640 The president's response may be one that will surprise you.
00:03:01.340 I want you to hear what he had to say.
00:03:03.500 Thank you, Mr. President.
00:03:04.580 Were you surprised by the number of photos of Bill Clinton in the Epstein files?
00:03:08.840 And can you commit to their full...
00:03:10.380 By what?
00:03:11.400 And were you surprised by the number of photos of Bill Clinton in the Epstein files?
00:03:15.400 And can you commit to their full release by the end of the year?
00:03:18.100 Some of the victims were protesting that too many of them were redacted.
00:03:21.260 I know there are a lot of people that are angry about all of the pictures of other people,
00:03:26.420 you know, but I think it's terrible.
00:03:28.020 Look, I don't like the...
00:03:30.260 I like Bill Clinton.
00:03:31.100 I've always gotten along with Bill Clinton.
00:03:32.720 I've been nice to him.
00:03:33.480 He's been nice to me.
00:03:34.360 We've always gotten along.
00:03:35.360 Respect him.
00:03:35.940 I hate to see photos come out of him, but this is what the Democrats, mostly Democrats,
00:03:41.620 and a couple of bad Republicans are asking for.
00:03:43.980 So they're giving their photos of me too.
00:03:46.040 Everybody was friendly with this guy, either friendly or not friendly, but they were, you
00:03:49.940 know, he was around.
00:03:50.620 He was all over Palm Beach and other places.
00:03:52.600 The head of Harvard was his best friend, Larry Summers.
00:03:56.200 And Bill Clinton was a friend of his, but everybody was.
00:03:59.160 I actually threw him out of Mar-a-Lago.
00:04:00.780 You know, and as a person that was in Mar-a-Lago, I threw him out of Mar-a-Lago.
00:04:06.660 This is Mar-a-Lago.
00:04:07.620 It's the hottest place in...
00:04:09.280 I think it's the hottest place in the world, but it's the hottest place in Florida.
00:04:13.540 And everybody would come here.
00:04:14.740 He'd come here.
00:04:15.360 We actually threw him out.
00:04:17.200 But no, I don't like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown.
00:04:20.440 I don't like the pictures of other people being shown.
00:04:22.500 I think it's a terrible thing.
00:04:24.280 I think Bill Clinton's a big boy.
00:04:27.440 He can handle it.
00:04:28.100 But you probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey
00:04:34.020 Epstein years ago, many years ago.
00:04:36.740 And they're, you know, highly respected bankers and lawyers and others.
00:04:41.300 And they'll end up, because of guys like Massey, who's a real lowlife, whose polls are down
00:04:46.740 to about 9%, by the way, in the great state of Kentucky.
00:04:50.080 If you look at Kentucky, Kentucky is such a great place.
00:04:54.640 But I don't know, they've got a couple of people on there that are very strange in terms
00:04:59.220 of leadership.
00:05:00.560 But Massey's a loser.
00:05:02.560 And he likes it.
00:05:03.620 And he works with the Democrats.
00:05:05.120 He's just being used by the Democrats.
00:05:07.580 Because what this whole thing is with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous
00:05:12.600 success that the Republican Party has.
00:05:15.440 Like, for instance, today we're building the biggest ships in the world, most powerful
00:05:18.660 ships in the world.
00:05:19.540 And they're asking me questions about Jeffrey Epstein.
00:05:22.820 I thought that was finished.
00:05:24.540 I believe they gave over 100,000 pages of documents.
00:05:28.520 And there is tremendous backlash.
00:05:30.840 It's an interesting question, because a lot of people are very angry that pictures are being
00:05:35.820 released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein.
00:05:38.460 But they're in a picture with him because he was at a party.
00:05:40.540 And you ruin the reputation of somebody.
00:05:44.120 So a lot of people are very angry that this continues.
00:05:47.980 A lot of Republicans are angry because of the fact that it's just used to deflect against
00:05:52.760 a tremendous success.
00:05:53.880 Look, we have eight.
00:05:54.780 The president talking about those tremendous successes and yet again, having to deal with
00:05:59.740 the Epstein files that have been released.
00:06:02.100 The president wanting to talk about other issues as well.
00:06:05.680 One of the things he talked about is about American investment.
00:06:10.700 This is one of the things he says is really important that he's working on.
00:06:15.400 We're doing a great job and we enjoy doing it.
00:06:18.980 Our border is secure.
00:06:20.600 Our country is strong.
00:06:22.260 Trillions of dollars is coming into our country from other countries and companies.
00:06:26.760 They're building factories and plants, including auto plants, all over the United States of
00:06:31.620 America.
00:06:32.720 Without tariffs, they wouldn't be doing anything.
00:06:34.600 Although they were very happy with the November 5th election, but it's only because they want
00:06:39.300 to avoid paying tariffs that they're all coming in.
00:06:41.620 And again, the biggest number was $3 trillion in history.
00:06:45.000 That was China many years ago.
00:06:47.380 Now it's $18 trillion.
00:06:50.340 And that's just in 10 months.
00:06:51.620 We think we could hit $20 trillion.
00:06:53.900 That's investment in the United States, including plant and equipment.
00:06:58.140 So you listen to the president talk about the investment.
00:07:02.180 He also talked about protecting Americans when it comes to drugs, something else that he
00:07:07.440 says is a very important point of his administration.
00:07:11.000 And it's something that we must stand firm on.
00:07:14.620 Part of that is dealing with the cocaine coming out of Colombia.
00:07:18.720 The president asked about Colombia, and here's what he said.
00:07:23.420 Yeah, go ahead, please.
00:07:24.420 So in response to the United States taking sanctioned oil from Venezuela, Colombian President Gustavo
00:07:30.460 Petro criticized the United States by saying, well, the Southwest has stolen land and that
00:07:35.460 it should be returned to Latin America.
00:07:37.000 I just wanted to know what your response to that is.
00:07:38.760 He has to watch because, you know, he's got drug factors.
00:07:42.020 They make cocaine in Colombia.
00:07:44.680 And he's no friend of the United States.
00:07:47.660 He's very bad, very bad guy.
00:07:49.160 And he's got to watch his ass because he makes cocaine and they send it into the United States
00:07:54.940 of America from Colombia.
00:07:56.740 We love the Colombian people.
00:07:59.700 I love the Colombian people.
00:08:01.200 They're great people.
00:08:02.060 Energetic, smart, great.
00:08:03.840 But their new leader is a troublemaker.
00:08:07.520 And he better watch it.
00:08:08.760 He better close up those cocaine factories.
00:08:11.000 They have at least three major cocaine factories.
00:08:14.020 We know where they are.
00:08:15.280 He better close them up fast.
00:08:16.620 He better close them up fast.
00:08:21.280 The president also wasn't done there as he talked about this major, important announcement
00:08:26.180 that deals with the Golden Fleet of battleships, saying these are the best in the world and
00:08:33.260 long overdue.
00:08:34.460 So I want to wish everybody a big hello and Merry Christmas and welcome to Mar-a-Lago for
00:08:40.840 this exciting announcement of the new Golden Fleet.
00:08:44.520 We're calling it the Golden Fleet.
00:08:46.620 And we're building for the United States Navy.
00:08:49.140 As you know, we're desperately in need of ships.
00:08:51.060 Our ships are some of them have gotten old and tired and obsolete.
00:08:55.700 And we're going to go the exact opposite direction.
00:08:59.480 We're delighted to be joined by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who's doing a fantastic
00:09:03.980 job, and Secretary of the Navy John Phelan.
00:09:08.060 Marco Rubio is here, who gave a great few words toward the end of last week.
00:09:13.900 He spoke for a couple of hours on what a good job we're doing, which is true.
00:09:19.300 And as Commander-in-Chief, it's my great honor to announce that I have approved a plan for
00:09:25.420 the Navy to begin the construction of two brand new, very large, largest we've ever built
00:09:31.180 battleships.
00:09:32.860 You know, you used to build the Iowa, the Missouri, the Wisconsin, the Alabama, and many others.
00:09:40.820 We had big battleships.
00:09:42.820 These are bigger.
00:09:44.280 But they will have 100 times the – there'll be 100 times the force, the power.
00:09:50.440 And there's never been anything like these ships.
00:09:56.480 These have been under design consideration for a long time.
00:10:01.200 And it started with me in my first term because I said, why aren't we doing battleships like
00:10:06.200 we used to?
00:10:07.780 And the – these are the best in the world.
00:10:11.280 They'll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship
00:10:17.900 ever built.
00:10:18.420 So if you look at the Iowa, the Missouri, Wisconsin, Alabama, and others, but they were similar
00:10:24.700 in size, some a little bit bigger than the others.
00:10:27.580 But if you take the biggest one, it's 100 times more powerful.
00:10:33.180 They're longer by a little bit.
00:10:37.500 But the – and they're bigger.
00:10:39.200 They're bigger ships, but they hold much more – they use the word lethality.
00:10:43.100 They – battleships are the largest, sturdiest, and most heavily armed vessel built specifically
00:10:49.040 for naval combat.
00:10:51.380 While America has built many new warships over the years, they've been – they've tended
00:10:56.440 to be smaller and much smaller.
00:10:58.580 And not conducive to where we are and where we're going and peace through strength.
00:11:07.440 President Trump, yet again, saying, A, I'll talk about anything.
00:11:12.020 B, I'm going to keep you safe.
00:11:14.400 C, I'm going to make sure that we bring jobs back to this country.
00:11:18.160 Making this fleet be built in America, something we stopped doing, and we're far too reliant
00:11:25.320 on foreign countries for our ship making.
00:11:28.820 This is all part of his plan to put America first and from a national security standpoint.
00:11:34.960 And the president's saying, I'll stand here and answer as many questions as I need to.
00:11:39.280 It's important that you have a president that's transparent.
00:11:42.320 And that is exactly what Donald Trump did yet again on a multitude of issues.
00:11:47.840 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:11:52.180 Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.
00:11:57.460 And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast,
00:12:01.920 and we will see you back here tomorrow.
00:12:05.500 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:12:08.400 Guaranteed Human.