| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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Band. | |
| Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
|
unidentified
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We are still at our core a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
| Joining us now is Roger Zakheim of the Ronald Reagan Institute. | ||
| He serves as their director here to talk about a new survey of theirs taking a look at American views on foreign policy. | ||
| Thank you for giving us your time. | ||
|
unidentified
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Wonderful to be here. | |
| It seems obvious, but the Ronald Reagan Institute, what is it and what's the purpose? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, the Institute is set up to advance Ronald Reagan's ideas, principles, and belief inside Washington, D.C. | |
| We are the D.C. office of the Reagan Presidential Library out in Simi Valley, California there. | ||
| It's a great place to learn about President Reagan, what he did while he was in office, his life. | ||
| Here, we're into taking those ideas and policies that he championed and seeing, all right, can we advance them today and tailoring them to make them relevant to America today? | ||
| And foreign policy is the purpose of the actual poll, but what was the idea? | ||
| Why take a look at this specifically? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, I'm a creature of Capitol Hill. | |
| That's where I grew up professionally, and there's no shortage of elected officials saying the American people believe X, Y, or Z. | ||
| And when it comes to national security, foreign policy, and defense issues, actually knowing where the American people stand is something that there isn't a tremendous amount of polling like you see on domestic policy issues. | ||
| So one of the things we sought to do was to actually see exactly where the American people are on many of these vital questions to our nation. | ||
| We've been doing that since 2018, and we do it twice a year now on these sorts of questions. | ||
| For this poll, what was the sample? | ||
| What was the size? | ||
| Who did you talk to? | ||
| What was their political affiliations? | ||
| Give us those details. | ||
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unidentified
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Cross-section across the board, over a thousand phone calls, half roughly, other half online. | |
| And so we make it in such a way, actually, the pollsters that we hire to do this do it in such a fashion to make sure we can confidently say this is representative of the entire country, whether it's Republican and Democrats, independents, regionally diverse, is also diverse across age as well. | ||
| The first thing out the gate that you talk with is this idea of international engagement and to the extent that the United States should be involved. | ||
| Wiltshire will show you the number of 64% saying that those polled more engaged and the U.S. should take a lead. | ||
| 23% saying less engage and reactor to that. | ||
| Fill in those blanks. | ||
| What does that tell you? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, in the national story, certainly inside the Beltway, there's been a lot of discussion even prior to Donald Trump, President Trump's strike on Iran's nuclear weapons program, that there is a sort of schism in the Republican Party in particular and that more broadly, the American people have become more isolationist in their outlook. | |
| And we've been looking at this year over year through our survey. | ||
| And this year, we've seen a high watermark in terms of where American people believe that America should be more engaged in the world. | ||
| In other words, we are less isolationist in orientation today than we were a year ago or even before that when we started this poll. | ||
| So as you mentioned, 64% of the survey believe that the United States should lead in the world. | ||
| A year ago, the number was 54%. | ||
| And one of the most interesting elements of this, colleague Mark Thiessen, who writes for the Washington Post of the American Enterprise Institute, has sort of pulled the thread on where MAGA voters are. | ||
| Those are the Republican voters who self-identify as MAGA voters. | ||
| They are even more into internationalist orientation than other non-MAGA Republicans. | ||
| And the number there is 73% of 22 points since the last survey. | ||
| So, both in terms of the overall American population being more internationalist in orientation, wanting America to lead in the world, and specifically, MAGA voters are very supportive of the U.S. leading the world. | ||
| Before we get too far, this poll, when was it taken in relation to the attacks that we saw in Iran by the United States? | ||
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unidentified
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Important question. | |
| It started at the end of May, and we're out of the field June 2nd. | ||
| So, prior to Israel's strike in the Iranian nuclear weapons program on June 13th, and certainly in advance of the American strike. | ||
| I don't know if they told you this, but in your mind, what does more engaged mean? | ||
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unidentified
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Well, we do get into this a little bit in terms of subsequent questions, the nature of that engagement, whether it's to advance U.S. trade and economic interests, whether it's to advance sort of the U.S. security interests in terms of peace through strength, or advance American values. | |
| And on here, it's actually somewhat also surprising that, again, for U.S. leading in terms of U.S. military being essential to our prosperity, 93% of Republicans, 85% overall are supportive of that. | ||
| That's why the U.S. should lead in the world. | ||
| Human rights and democracy, something you don't hear a lot emphasize from President Trump and his administration. | ||
| 83% overall says that should drive our engagement in the world, including 81% of Republicans. | ||
| So you see here that American values as well as American interests really are what drive U.S. support for engagement in the world. | ||
| When it comes to that engagement, is it a sense that if we drop bombs on the country, say Iran, as an example, that's fine. | ||
| But if we go to boots on the ground, would that change at least your opinion or at least perhaps those you surveyed? | ||
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unidentified
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So we didn't survey for that specific point, but I think it's intuitive here that Americans are seeking U.S. leadership in the world and demonstrating strength in the world in order to have a more peaceful and prosperous America. | |
| And that would generally not include elongated sort of forever war, as many politicians refer to it, that would cost lives and certainly treasure. | ||
| So the real debate in town, as we've seen it in Washington, in the Congress, in the White House, across the agencies, is to what extent can we exercise strength, demonstrate that we're going to be engaged in the world where that advances U.S. prosperity and U.S. security, but it doesn't lead to sort of these wars that we saw in Iraq and Afghanistan. | ||
| The isolationist orientation says, well, no, you lead with too much strength, you risk that. | ||
| What we've seen from President Trump in terms of his strike on the Iranian nuclear weapons program and from the survey is that Americans believe that actually strength delivers the peace they're seeking. | ||
| Our guest is with us until 10 o'clock. | ||
| And if you want to ask him questions about the survey or things related to that, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and 202-748-8002 for independents. | ||
| If you want to text us, questions, or comments, you can do that at 202-748-8003. | ||
| You would know it best. | ||
| What was Ronald Reagan's philosophy when it came to either interventionist or isolationist philosophy? | ||
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unidentified
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He was clearly not an isolationist. | |
| And that is something that is deep-seated in President Reagan from his record actually prior to him assuming the presidency. | ||
| And throughout his time in office, he was somebody who advanced freedom of the world. | ||
| He believed deeply that America had a unique role in the world to advance freedom, not in terms of intervention and elongated conflicts, but felt that if America was on the side of freedom and was supporting freedom seekers around the world, that accrued to our national interest. | ||
| That increased our peace and prosperity. | ||
| He also certainly advanced peace through strength. | ||
| That was sort of the formula for realizing American interests in the world. | ||
| And peace through strength, of course, is something that President Trump has emphasized. | ||
| He's actually the first president since President Reagan to run on a plank of peace through strength and certainly talked about it while he's been in office. | ||
| Well, what you did ask about Iran, and you asked the question about preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. | ||
| 61% of those respondents said that that mattered a great deal to them. | ||
| 23% saying it matters somewhat. | ||
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unidentified
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Yeah, I'm pulling up the numbers here. | |
| It's pretty remarkable. | ||
| We asked the respondents just that. | ||
| What are you most concerned about? | ||
| What matters most to you? | ||
| And again, we did this survey prior to Israel strike and the Iranian nuclear weapon program and preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon registered higher than any other concerns, outperforming concerns regarding China and Taiwan, outperforming concerns regarding Russia and Ukraine, or even concerns about illegal immigration. | ||
| On all those fronts, Americans are very concerned about those issues, but Iran registered the highest with 85% of those surveyed saying it would matter the most to them to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. | ||
| Getting Americans' degree, 85% Americans' degree on anything, is quite remarkable. | ||
| And it demonstrated that when President Trump made this decision, he had a wellspring of support, a strong foundation of support for American people, Republicans, and Democrats alike. | ||
| When he took the action, do you think it demonstrated a major shift in policy approach when it came to being an interventionist? | ||
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unidentified
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Well, I think the approach here is one that it's a limited intervention, right? | |
| So we have to sort of define the term or parse the term. | ||
| And I think that was a departure from many loud voices within the Republican Party. | ||
| There is no question that resides in an isolationist camp within the Republican Party. | ||
| But what this survey bears out is that it's really a minority, a very small slice of Republicans. | ||
| For the most part, Republicans, including MAGA voters, say, hey, the United States should lead in the world through strength. | ||
| I think the hesitation prior to is that voting bloc want to make sure they trusted and believed that the leadership in the White House could deliver it. | ||
| And I think what we've seen so far is President Trump has delivered it as it relates to Iran's nuclear weapons program. | ||
| 85% were very concerned about it. | ||
| It mattered most of them. | ||
| I'm sure if we surveyed today, they would say, well, that matters a little less to me because they feel the problem has been addressed, where they've delayed the program years or decades. | ||
| I think one of the reasons why illegal immigration didn't register as high as the Iranian nuclear weapons program is because at the time we took this survey, illegal immigration had gone down considerably since President Trump took office. | ||
| Republicans and Democrats of the survey are highly respondent to what has been happening and they're answering questions in terms of current events on their mind. | ||
| Roger Zachheim here for this conversation. | ||
| Let's go to Frank. | ||
| Frank joins us from San Francisco. | ||
| Democrats line you're on with our guest. | ||
| Good morning, Frank. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| I'd like to ask your guest if, because he spoke of the benefit of military exercise to the United States, but I would just like to ask if he's left out perhaps that the benefit is not universally distributed. | ||
| In fact, American people often pay the costs of wars which they didn't really have any individual interest in. | ||
| And I'd like to cite the 2014 Princeton study, which observed that American voters, unless they're in the top 5%, don't actually have a control over the government, even though we call ourselves a democracy. | ||
| Sorry to lay that on you, guest. | ||
| Have a good morning. | ||
| We'll let him respond. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, one of the reasons why we do this survey is to demonstrate where the American people are not a limited slice of the American people, whether it is a caller talking about 5% or some sort of other class of persons, those that are policymakers inside Washington or in elected office. | |
| Here, we actually have the views, statistically speaking, of the entire American population. | ||
| And as a result, I can confidently state that what is on or is not on the minds of the American people, what we see here is that the American people feel strongly that America should lead in the world. | ||
| And they believe the goals there are to advance U.S. security and also U.S. values, like we saw, human rights and freedom. | ||
| Illegal immigration, you had mentioned that, 49% saying it mattered a great deal to them. | ||
| 25% is saying it matters somewhat. | ||
| You go down to the security of Israel with the Israeli prime minister visiting today at the White House, 37% of those saying it matters a great deal when it comes to importance for U.S. security, 34% saying it matters somewhat. | ||
| What do those numbers tell you? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, I think you see that, one, Americans, the respondents here overwhelmingly support and care about the security of Israel. | |
| Perhaps doesn't register as high as the Iranian nuclear weapons program or concerns about China and Taiwan. | ||
| But we're still talking about, if you combine somewhat matters and matters a great deal, which is the fashion in which we normally speak about it, you're talking about over 71%. | ||
| I think what we see overwhelmingly when we do this in other surveys is that Americans generally look at Israel as one of its closest allies on par with what we see with Australia and the United Kingdom and Taiwan. | ||
| With Bibi Netanyahu, Prime Minister Netanyahu coming in today, there's going to be discussion around the future of the war in Gaza, as well as whether or not diplomacy will advance in the region to extend to places like Saudi Arabia. | ||
| And these sort of developments, I think, will have a material impact on how Americans view Israel and what they think can be accomplished in the region. | ||
| It's a great opportunity now for President Trump to sort of capitalize on the strike against Iran's nuclear weapons program to see if more peacemaking can come out of it. | ||
| Roger Zachim, you mentioned immigration. | ||
| The president's top guy on immigration, Tom Holman, is speaking to reporters. | ||
| I want to take a little listen in on that. | ||
|
unidentified
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And what do you think you can use it for? | |
| We're going to use it a lot of things. | ||
| As far as the border, it's going to continue the border barriers, border walls. | ||
| Border walls work. | ||
| Every place to build a wall, illegal immigration has decreased, illegal drug flows decrease. | ||
| And not just border wall, it's going to buy more river buoys. | ||
| River buoys are very effective. | ||
| And it's also going to give the technology we need on the southern border in the existing wall and the new wall. | ||
| When President Biden came in office, not only did he stop building the wall, he stopped putting the technology in the existing wall that does a lot of good things. | ||
| It gave border patrol agents the ability to talk to one another because a lot of dead zones on the border doesn't offer your safety issue. | ||
| I don't want to get into specifics, a law enforcement sensitive, but the technology on that wall helps us to realize when someone's approaching the wall, someone crimes a wall. | ||
| So we need that technology there. | ||
| It's a border wall system. | ||
| We're going to continue the wall building. | ||
| We're going to continue the technology within that wall. | ||
| And the technology also supports port of entries. | ||
| You know, we want fair, we want legal traffic, legal trade to come through the ports as quickly as possible, but we want to, of course, see as much contraband as we can. | ||
| So more technology will make that happen. | ||
| As far as ICE, it's a huge plus-up. | ||
| 10,000 more officers. | ||
| Look, I've been doing this since 1984. | ||
| Border Patrol has been plussed up many times, and I appreciate that, and I'm supportive of that. | ||
| But when Border Patrol arrests somebody, they go in detention. | ||
| Then they go into immigration hearing. | ||
| Then if they get order removed, they get removed. | ||
| That's all ISIS shot. | ||
| So Border Patrol got plussed up over decades. | ||
| ICE didn't. | ||
| So now ICE finally is getting the resources they need. | ||
| And, you know, it's going to put more boots on the ground, which we need right now. | ||
| I just did an interview. | ||
| There's over 600,000 illegal aliens in this nation with criminal histories walking the streets. | ||
| We need to find them quickly. | ||
| And for those that say 3,000 a day is too much, I want to remind them, do the math. | ||
| We'd have to arrest 7,000 every single day for the remainder of this administration just to catch the once Biden released in the nation, right? | ||
| We talked about 12 million. | ||
| That's Tom Holman, border security, immigration. | ||
| You talk about it in your survey. | ||
| Can you relate the two to what things he's saying as far as the administration's approach to what you're finding, what people that you surveyed want to see? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, we just mentioned this a moment ago that when we asked what was important to the respondents, so what's important to American people, what matters most to them, illegal immigration across the southern border ranks really high. | |
| It's sort of top five. | ||
| It's 74% say this matters a great deal or matters somewhat. | ||
| So that number goes up when you look at sort of Republican respondents, certainly those who identify as MAGA voters, but overwhelmingly, Americans care deeply about it. | ||
| And I was kind of sort of parsing how that is different than the 85% who wanted to make sure that we prevented Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. | ||
| But it's clearly something that's on the top of mind of American voters. | ||
| And there's a variety of reasons for that. | ||
| One that comes out in the poll that perhaps is less intuitive, but we saw is that when we asked respondents about China and the threat posed to China, we had a battery of questions dealing with sort of the Chinese impact and concerns about security in the United States, purchasing farmland near U.S. military bases, spying on U.S. with satellites and air reconnaissance, as well as Chinese military-aged men illegally entering U.S. via the southern border. | ||
| That was one of the options. | ||
| And we saw that 74% were concerned about it. | ||
| And you just heard Tom Holman saying, relating not specifically to China, but people, countries exploiting the southern border to pose a security risk to the United States, whether it's sleeper cells or other sorts of nefarious activities. | ||
| That is top of mind for Republicans, Democrats, Americans across the board. | ||
| Let's hear from Adam in Maryland, Republican line. | ||
| Thanks for holding, Adam. | ||
| Go ahead, please. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hey, I just wanted to highlight the idea of peace through strength. | |
| You know, something President Reagan championed so effectively. | ||
| You know, he wasn't an isolationist like Trump per se, but Reagan understood that American leadership on the world stage brings stability, and that stability benefits everyone, including us. | ||
| And then through strength abroad and security at home, we can enjoy the real fruits of an American-first approach and one rooted in global trust, strong economic ties, and respect for our sovereignty. | ||
| That really includes enforcing immigration laws and securing our borders, not out of fear, but out of a commitment of law and order and the protection of American opportunity. | ||
|
unidentified
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And I guess the last thing I'll say is when the world sees a strong and steady America, everyone benefits, and we do most of all. | |
| Thanks. | ||
| Adam, from there. | ||
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unidentified
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I think Adam has a great articulation of what the Reagan Institute seeks to do in Washington. | |
| And come visit us. | ||
| We're at 850 16th Street Northwest. | ||
| I know I heard you're in Maryland, but it was very well articulated. | ||
| And it plays out in our poll. | ||
| And it's certainly not something that is Reaganite-only perspective or a Republican perspective. | ||
| This is something I think Americans believe overwhelmingly, regardless of their partisan affiliation. | ||
| I referenced this a moment ago. | ||
| But when we asked the question about the nature of U.S. leadership in the world, strong U.S. military essentials, peace and prosperity, which is the sort of the essence of a peace-through-strength set of policies, peace-through-strength mindset, it's 85% of Americans get behind that. | ||
| And not just 93% of Republicans, but 80% of Democrats. | ||
| He sees sort of the bipartisan spirit behind it. | ||
| Of course, a challenge for any elected official, for any president, is to come up with a formula to realize that peace through strength. | ||
| Sometimes it requires using military force, perhaps as we saw President Trump use it in Iran recently. | ||
| And sometimes it requires other sorts of policies. | ||
| One element of that we've seen in many of our surveys, we didn't ask it in the most recent one, but we do it in December annually, is support for U.S. military presence overseas. | ||
| It's a great example of peace through strength. | ||
| They're overseas to get at what Adam was talking about, your Carla was talking about, right? | ||
| Ensure that trade routes remain stable and open, as well as to deter adversaries from any sort of form of aggression before it comes home. | ||
| And we've seen in our survey year after year after year, going back to 2018, that a super majority of Americans support U.S. military presence overseas. | ||
| The director of the Ronald Reagan Institute, Roger Zakheim, joining us for this conversation. | ||
| Steve joins us next. | ||
| Steve from New Jersey, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi, good morning. | ||
| You know, we're talking about what Americans are concerned about. | ||
| I mean, I'm concerned about the same thing. | ||
| Karen Diamond, Yaron Lushinsky, Sarah Milgren, Benjamin Harouni, and Paul Kessler were concerned about. | ||
| These were Jews that literally were assassinated for being Jewish. | ||
| I'm concerned about New York City right now, the number one city outside of Israel with the most Jews. | ||
| We have a Nazi hipster running for mayor and probably will win. | ||
| I'm concerned about this concept of globalizing into father. | ||
| It's really happening, and no one seems to be concerned about. | ||
| If you speak to a Jew, many of them are afraid of being Jewish. | ||
| They're taking their mezuzahs off the doors. | ||
| They're closing their businesses. | ||
| They have armed guards at synagogues, at daycare centers. | ||
| And it seems like no one in the media is even reporting on this. | ||
| One person was killed in 2020, George Floyd, and the whole country was in an uproar, which it should have been. | ||
| But yet we have Jews being terrorized and killed throughout this country, Jewish businesses, Jewish censors, Jewish synagogues, Jewish people being killed. | ||
| And no one seems to be concerned about it. | ||
| Okay, Steve, we'll let our guest answer. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, this survey doesn't get at domestic policy questions and the issue, as Steve, you raised with respect to anti-Semitism and hate crimes against Jews in the United States, which, of course, I'm an observant Jew and it disturbs me greatly. | |
| And you reference a couple of incidents. | ||
| There's really in the nation's capital, we had a terrible killing recently as well. | ||
| But I think what comes out of the survey is that Americans care deeply about values too. | ||
| Want freedom in our country here in the United States, but they care deeply about freedom being advanced in the world. | ||
| Those values, I think, ultimately are the values that protect any minority class, including the Jewish community in America. | ||
| That has been the case, and I think the United States is one of the only countries in the world outside of Israel where Jews have lived, that there hasn't been anti-Semitism coming out of government entities. | ||
| In other words, state-sponsored anti-Semitism, and that is important. | ||
| We're seeing governments, both federal and local, address this issue, perhaps not adequately. | ||
| I would say one other thing, because there's so much of a connection between our policy that is U.S. policy with Israel and, of course, anti-Semitism that we've seen since October 7th in the United States. | ||
| Americans overwhelmingly support the state of Israel. | ||
| This comes out very clearly, and I think that is something that should assure Jews in the United States, too. | ||
| Independent Lyon from Illinois Valdez. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I must be one of the 15% because I don't support Israel at all. | ||
| Former soldier enlisted, not drafted. | ||
| And you talk about peace through strength. | ||
| That's one issue. | ||
| Most people don't even join the military. | ||
| I don't know what your military background is, but I've never had much use for people who talk tough and never have actually walked the walk. | ||
| So in terms of Israel, they're an aggressor state like the Americans have been since we were founded. | ||
| I did my time in the military. | ||
| I support the United States. | ||
| I'm of Mexican descent. | ||
| We treat Mexico like they're dogs. | ||
| I have family there. | ||
| But you bring up anything about what Israel's doing. | ||
| I guess the Palestinians are getting in the way of their bombs. | ||
| I'm not sure about that. | ||
| But we're supporting that. | ||
| And I won't. | ||
| I don't stand for any of that, of any kind of aggression. | ||
| And so my words to you would be have somebody on there who disagrees with Israel's policy and not call it anti-Semitism. | ||
| I don't know any Jewish people. | ||
| I don't know any Palestinian people. | ||
| But I know what genocide looks like. | ||
| I know what murder looks like. | ||
| And so one suggestion, Pedro, would be if you perhaps thought about having Dr. Michael Scheuer on your show and see what he thinks about Israel as an ally of ours. | ||
| Thank you for your time. | ||
| Okay, Aldous in Illinois. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the views that I've been expressing here are, for the most part, reflecting the views of the survey, which are not my personal views. | |
| That's the views of the American people, given the sample size we have here. | ||
| My own personal view is that Israel is not carrying out genocide. | ||
| This was a war that began on October 7th, over 1,200. | ||
| Israelis were murdered in the most tragic and brutal form of death. | ||
| And we have seen since then this war expand, not just from Gaza, but of course when Lebanon and Iran participated in that armed conflict too. | ||
| Prime Minister Netanyahu was in town meeting with President Trump. | ||
| There's a lot of speculation that the Gaza war will be discussed, perhaps come to an end. | ||
| It might be a deal on hostages, which, of course, there are over about 50 hostages remaining in Gaza and whether or not peace in the Middle East can expand. | ||
| The Abraham Accords, which of course was President Trump's signature diplomatic act in the Middle East, in the Persian Gulf, might extend to Saudi Arabia. | ||
| Republican line from Sacramento. | ||
| Kim, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, yes. | |
| I just want to let you know that, first of all, something that you just said was so disturbing to me. | ||
| When you call the war that's happening started on October 7th, the oppression of Palestinian people and occupation has been happening for years, if not centuries. | ||
| And so it's not exactly true that it started on that day. | ||
| And also, when you talk about the, it was horrible what happened on October 7th. | ||
| It's horrible when anybody is killed in a violent way. | ||
| But it is also extremely violent what is happening in Gaza. | ||
| When people are trying to being starved out, and it is a genocide, no matter how you want to talk about it. | ||
| And when people are worried about Jewish people, do you know the number one people that are protesting out everywhere in this country that has been major is the Jewish religion itself for peace in Palestine. | ||
| They are the number one. | ||
| They're on every single campus. | ||
| They're mostly the children that have been protesting. | ||
| And most of the people that have been killed in synagogue have been white supremacists in this country, not related to Palestinians and other deaths like that. | ||
| And there is as many people that have killed Middle Eastern people claiming to be that have been white supremacist going after them as well. | ||
| Okay, that's Kim there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the notion that there's been occupation for centuries is just historically inaccurate. | |
| Israel only became a state in 1948. | ||
| They occupied the territories in the West Bank and Gaza beginning in 1967. | ||
| The rights of Arabs in Israel are known. | ||
| They have political and economic rights. | ||
| There are rights for Palestinians in the West Bank, including some political rights and economic rights as well. | ||
| Security is what's shared between the Israeli Defense Forces and the Palestinian Authority. | ||
| And Israel in 2006, around that timeline, pulled out of Gaza entirely, leaving it to the Palestinians to govern themselves. | ||
| The result was a Hamas terrorist state, which fired on Israel shortly after Hamas assumed political control. | ||
| And we've had a tragic situation since for Israelis and for Gazans. | ||
| Hopefully, out of this conflict will emerge some sort of framework where Gazans won't have to be subject to the neo-fascist rule of a terrorist organization named Hamas. | ||
| One of the intersections of your poll and current events, deals with trade. | ||
| We're going to see the president up the Andes, so to speak, when he gets trade deals done. | ||
| Your poll takes a look at this idea of promoting trade and boosting the economy, and almost equal amount of people supportive of that. | ||
| But talk about the results there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the questions on trade, of course, this week, the deadlines President Trump has put in place for July 9th, the 90-day deadline is coming to an end, and we'll see whether or not reciprocal tariffs will go into effect. | |
| We asked Americans kind of what they felt about trade policy. | ||
| And the one that kind of took my eye was whether or not they supported a free market approach or a protectionist approach. | ||
| And specifically, that's getting at, do you look at tariffs? | ||
| Do you support tariffs because it's sort of a means towards realizing some sort of free trade because it's sort of a temporary measure? | ||
| Or are you kind of a tariff purist? | ||
| And is that something that you would support protectionism? | ||
| And on that, we see 66% of those surveyed say, hey, we view this as sort of a temporary measure so we can get a better deal for the United States, reduce those trade barriers. | ||
| 20% favor a protectionist approach. | ||
| And interesting, as we've been kind of pulling the thread on MAGA voters, those who identify at MAGA, it's 61% who take the view that short-term tariffs are okay as a means of realizing free markets and sort of reducing trade barriers. | ||
| So what that tells me is that the deals that President Trump and the Secretary of Treasury Besson was talking about over the weekend are sort of what the majority, almost the supermajority of MAGA voters, and certainly a supermajority of Americans want to see. | ||
| They want to see these tariffs yield kind of reduce trade barriers and increase free trade opportunities for Americans. | ||
| What do you think about the administration's execution of trade policy to date? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's been up in the air, highly volatile. | |
| We see that in terms of the market reactions. | ||
| But it's the sort of thing we got to see how it all shakes out in the end, right? | ||
| I mean, is this going to result where trade barriers are reduced? | ||
| The reciprocal trade tariffs are sort of net net result in Americans seeing cheaper goods and reduced barriers for the goods they export. | ||
| You know, that would be a fantastic outcome. | ||
| But those are facts not yet in evidence, and we're going to really learn a lot in the next 48 hours. | ||
| Again, the Secretary of Treasury promised that we're going to see a number of deals, and President Trump is pushing, particularly BRICS states, members of the BRICS, to say, hey, you got to reduce those barriers. | ||
| You're working against us here. | ||
| While we're talking about foreign policy, how do those respondents in your survey feel about the NATO alliance? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's kind of mixed. | |
| It's quite interesting here. | ||
| Overall, respondents, Republican and Democratic, overwhelmingly support NATO. | ||
| And when you ask them, would you support a NATO country who was attacked, the so-called Article 5 obligation of being a NATO member, there's real good support there, Democrats and Republicans alike. | ||
| But then when you ask about would you support pulling out of NATO, and this is one that sort of surprised me, you see there's support for pulling out of NATO, particularly amongst Republicans. | ||
| So it's sort of a mixed bag, and I think in that respect, it reflects the point of view that President Trump has advanced overall. | ||
| Now, President Trump came back recently from a NATO summit. | ||
| It was a great outcome for his set of policies. | ||
| He had long advocated that NATO allies should take on more of the burden, the so-called burden sharing. | ||
| They signed up for 5% GDP to committing to their national defense. | ||
| That's sort of thing that had made President Trump a big fan of NATO leaving that summit. | ||
| And I would expect the survey to sort of reflect that if we did it again. | ||
| We've seen a lot of those NATO countries and alliances still give strong support to Ukraine and their efforts against Russia. | ||
| Does your survey tackle that topic? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We do ask questions about Ukraine. | |
| And what we've seen overall, it's been kind of roughly half-half, right? | ||
| It's a 50-50 split in terms of continuing to give support, that is, security assistance to Ukraine. | ||
| What we saw also in the survey, and we asked, who do you want to win, the war between Russia and Ukraine? | ||
| 58% said, hey, we want Ukraine to win. | ||
| That was roughly the same a year ago when we asked this question in May of 2024. | ||
| So you have a particular sort of division over the nature of U.S. support. | ||
| How much security assistance, if any, should the United States give Ukraine? | ||
| On that front, Donald Trump ran to say, we're not going to give American treasure to Ukraine. | ||
| But who do we want to win on it, which is a separate question and an important question. | ||
| It's quite clear. | ||
| Americans want Ukraine to win. | ||
| Roger Zachheim of the Ronald Reagan Institute joining us. | ||
| Steve in Ohio Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| I have a comment and a question concerning the recent attack or hit on Ford in Iran and their centrifuges. | ||
| We had an agreement in 2015, the JCPOA. | ||
|
unidentified
|
President Trump removed us from that agreement in 2018. | |
| My concern is that we, well, we knew that and believed that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. | ||
| There's 12,241 nuclear weapons in the world. | ||
| 90% of them are controlled by the United States and Russia. | ||
| Anyways, we can't have them to have one. | ||
| Their centrifuges and their enrichment, it wasn't supposed to go above maybe 4% or 5%. | ||
| My concern is now the IAEA is going to be kicked out of there. | ||
| We won't have any eyes on it. | ||
| And maybe we set them back a year. | ||
| And also my second concern is the President is not believing his Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. | ||
| She gave an assessment 90 days ago that Iran wasn't trying to build a nuclear weapon. | ||
| So I just want, I never heard Reagan ever disparage this national security agency in front of the general public. | ||
| So could you address that, please? | ||
| Steve, thanks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Steve. | |
| Well, there's a very different style between President Reagan and President Trump. | ||
| And I think you're right in recalling that President Reagan did not in any way sort of attack members of his cabinet or his intelligence community. | ||
| But I do know that in this respect, as it relates to Iran's nuclear weapons program, this is where President Trump sort of, in my view, outperformed President Reagan. | ||
| Famously, Israel carried out a unilateral strike against the Iraqi nuclear weapons program in Osurik, and the Reagan administration sanctioned Israel for taking that action. | ||
| And here we know, based on reporting, that President Trump supported, backed Bibi Netanyahu, Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision for Israel to attack Iran's nuclear weapons program. | ||
| We know that matters a lot to the American people based on our survey, and I think it's advantage U.S. national security as a result of that strike. | ||
| How long the United States sort of can rest at ease that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program, the debate within the U.S. intelligence community and the broader debate across the world, whether that's measured in months, years, or decades. | ||
| I think we're still doing the battle damage assessment. | ||
| Consensus seems to be at least a couple of years. | ||
| IAEA being kicked out is a huge problem. | ||
| But what I expect to happen here, particularly with what President Trump has says and his administrations, are seeking sort of diplomatic engagement to get the Iranians to the negotiating table, which if they do, almost certainly would result in the IAEA returning to their inspections within Iran. | ||
| Let's hear from Ken on our independent line, and Ken joins us from Washington, D.C. Good morning, gentlemen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Happy Monday to you. | |
| I just have a question, a few, if I can get a quick. | ||
| Do you know, are you aware of what apartheid is? | ||
| Hello? | ||
| Oh, yeah, I'm aware of it, yes. | ||
| Okay, so, and as you just recently stated just a few moments ago, was that they have some rights, sort of like African Americans after enslavement in Jim Crow, you sort of have rights, which means you don't have full citizenship. | ||
| You don't have full rights. | ||
| Based on what you just said, that is the definition of apartheid. | ||
| Nevertheless, I have a question. | ||
| So Iran in 1958, I believe it was. | ||
| It was a coup d'etat that was started by Theodore Roosevelt's grandson, who was a CIA agent. | ||
| I believe his name was Kermit Roosevelt, which led to essentially the overthrow of the legally elected Iranian government. | ||
| And I believe British Petroleum and the United States, well, British Petroleum was funded essentially, but came about because of that overthrow, of that overthrow. | ||
| Excuse me. | ||
| So, but I ask you this: in 1967, you may have been alive. | ||
| I'm not sure. | ||
| History says itself. | ||
| A nation attacked us in the USS Liberty, and many sailors were killed. | ||
| And I think we're aware, I would prefer you to answer it. | ||
| Well, Color, first, for sake of time, what's the question? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The question was the apartheid. | |
| And the question is, is genocide okay? | ||
| Do you think that there's a time when there's been enough killing? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| We'll have to leave it there. | ||
| We'll have to leave it there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| So what the caller seems to be suggesting is that there's apartheid within Israel. | ||
| I just think it's important for callers to understand and viewers that within the sovereign territory of the state of Israel, there are political rights for Arab Israelis. | ||
| They vote, they have political rights, economic rights within the occupied territories of the West Bank. | ||
| That is a military occupation. | ||
| They have their political rights there. | ||
| That is Palestinians voting for the Palestinian Authority. | ||
| They have their president, Mahmoud Abbas. | ||
| And on security, it's a shared responsibility between the Israeli Defense Forces and the Palestinian Authority as they figure out a peace framework and whether or not that results in a Palestinian state or some other form of governors for Palestinians. | ||
| And I've already addressed Gaza's history in terms of Israel pulling out of Gaza and them being ruled under the terrorist regime of Hamas. | ||
| We all see what that yielded. | ||
| So I just think that the analogy to apartheid is factually inaccurate, and I've already addressed how this is not genocide. | ||
| This is armed conflict and what's been playing out. | ||
| And hopefully we'll get to a diplomatic agreement and end this war. | ||
| Nebraska Congressman, Don Bacon, said to retire from Congress. | ||
| He did an interview with NBC, and he said part they were asked about future ambitions. | ||
| And he said this. | ||
| He said that he acknowledged it'd be difficult to run for the White House as a current or former House member. | ||
| But he said this. | ||
| Bacon said he's not sure his brand of republicanism, Reaganism, and a muscular view of foreign policy can ever make a full comeback in the party, though he said he would continue the case of it. | ||
| What do you think about that sentiment? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm a big fan of Don Bacon. | |
| I count him as a friend, Congressman Bacon, and I'd love to send him our survey. | ||
| I think after that question, I need to call him up and come over and brief him. | ||
| I think he'll be emboldened and empowered by it. | ||
| And, you know, there's precedent for this, actually. | ||
| In 1976, Gerald Ford was running for election. | ||
| He was the incumbent serving as president of the United States. | ||
| And Ronald Reagan challenged him in the Republican primary. | ||
| And that's just relevant here because when Ronald Reagan challenged President Ford, he did so on a morality and foreign policy plank. | ||
| In other words, it was a set of views that we've been discussing around what Reaganism means that President Ford had the Reagan challenge. | ||
| Course, Ford won that nominee in contest, lost to Carter in the general election, and Reagan was ultimately elected in 1980 with this Reaganite platform. | ||
| Do you think, as far as a comeback is going, do you think it's suffered, it's gone and proceeded into the background, so to speak, if he says it can't make in the forefront as a muscular view of foreign policy? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'd love to discuss that with him. | |
| Certainly, what we've seen of late from President Trump in terms of his explanation of what MAGA means certainly lines up with the peace restraint set of policies that President Reagan advanced. | ||
| So I think in that respect, in terms of muscular foreign policy, we're at a moment here where I think there's alignment between President Trump, what he's doing in his administration, and what President Reagan advanced. | ||
| There's more to the survey, and if people are interested in finding out more, where can they find it? | ||
|
unidentified
|
ReaganFoundation.org, or just throw in the browser, Reagan Institute Summer Survey. | |
| Now, before we let you go, what was the most surprising thing amongst the things we talked about or other, or aside from it, what was the most exciting or surprising thing you found? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have to go back to sort of where we started: that 85% of Americans, those surveyed, felt that their Iranian nuclear weapons program mattered most to them. | |
| In other words, they wanted to prevent Iran from taking that nuclear weapon. | ||
| I wouldn't have said that kind of prior to going to the field. | ||
| And again, events have played out in such a dramatic fashion that it's just, it's all sort of surprised me that was the mindset of Americans prior to the strike. | ||
| Roger Zachheim is the director of the Ronald Reagan Institute. | ||
| You can find a survey online at their website, Mr. Zachheim. | ||
| Thanks for your time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Great to be here. | |
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