America First Flip Flopping Trump Vows More Weapons To Ukraine
In a bizarre day in which we learned that there actually is no Epstein client list after being promised its release, Trump one-upped his hapless administration and announced that he was turning his back on one of the most important planks in his platform: Ukraine. With Netanyahu at his side, he announced that he would be sending weapons to Ukraine after all and that he is ending sanctions on al-Qaeda-ruled Syria at the request of the Israeli prime minister. Also today, the US to spend $1.5 billion building military bases...in Israel!
Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today, we have Daniel McAdams, our co-host.
Daniel, good to see you this morning.
Good morning, Dr. Paul.
How are you this morning?
Good well.
Good.
Good well.
All right.
Of course, today it's likely that we'll talk about foreign policy.
There are things going on with Ukraine.
I thought we won that war a long time ago.
Ukraine is still around, and the American people are still not off the hook.
And we want to talk about Israel.
That's a perpetual war that we finance.
There'd be no war without our money.
We know that.
And then also Syria is coming back up again.
I thought we won that war a long time ago.
But now we had a coup.
We went a war, so to speak.
Now we have a coup.
Now we have new leaders there.
So we have a little bit to talk about foreign policy.
But before that, there was an item that caught my attention dealing with economic policy.
And that has to do with tariffs.
I don't like tariffs.
I think tariffs are designed to tell the people how they're allowed to spend their money.
I figure if you have earned your money and you want to buy something from China or Japan or Switzerland or wherever, you have a right to, unless maybe there's a declared war or something like that.
But basically, it's people's money and they ought to be able to decide what they can pick and choose.
But the one that got my attention is sort of personal because one of my hobbies over the years has been raising tomatoes.
I think tomatoes are homegrown tomatoes.
They're just fantastic.
And yet, this winter, it seemed to me that they were a lot better than usual.
They were ripe, middle winter, and big and red and delicious.
And they just couldn't leave it alone.
There were some people in Arizona someplace and they raised too many and they weren't selling as well as those big red ones.
And they said, look at all these tomatoes we're rotting.
What was the government going to do?
Oh, it's Mexico's fault.
Mexico, they were sending these neat tomatoes over here.
You know, we complain a lot of Mexico and they have their problem.
But one problem was they weren't sending us bad tomatoes.
But we had to put tariffs on them.
And now, of course, Mr. Trump, I think he believes in the tariffs.
So he said some positive things.
So he said, oh, I can take care of that.
He says, we'll just put a 20% tariff, 21% tariff on tomatoes and keep those good tomatoes out.
And then people will buy those rotten tomatoes that nobody's been buying.
So that's planning to come up.
It's not been done.
Who knows what will happen?
Yes.
You know, there's some vacillation on all the things that we're hearing from the leadership in this country right now.
But anyway, why this has caught my attention is years ago, and there's still a little bit of it, but it's so mixed up now with illegal immigration and all.
But there was a time when people complained about workers' programs.
You know, Mexicans would come up here and they'd pick all the crops and they'd make money.
And they took their money.
They took their money back home and gave it to their families.
And some Americans say, hey, that's not good.
They shouldn't have a right to take their money back.
It's not their money.
Oh, it's our money.
They have to spend it here.
So they wanted to crack down on that.
So they did that and that didn't work.
But right now, this is sort of the same principle.
They don't want the individuals to make the decisions.
So, the people who want control said, We'll just keep in mind.
But, you know, if right now, if we put tariffs on, that means that, well, the people who are the purchasers here is going to be cheated.
They're going to have to pay more for tomatoes that aren't as good.
And the whole thing is, it just doesn't make any sense.
And mainly, it's the problem is they gave up on a principle of liberty and free choices.
And it had nothing to do with true outright wars or anything like that.
So that's coming up.
It may be that they may change their mind.
The administration has been known to change their mind now and then.
So maybe the tariffs won't go up.
But this to me makes no sense because people keep worrying, well, you know, if we buy their tomatoes, then they're going to have the money.
And they never realize that's sort of like you can't buy anything from Arizona and sell it to somebody in New York because, oh, they're out of our money.
They just don't have any understanding of how the market works or how liberty works because liberty sorts all this stuff out rather than saying, well, there is a problem.
We won't wait and let the market work.
We'll do it for us because we're bureaucrats and we know everything.
So there's a war against tomatoes, and I'm on the size of good tomatoes voluntarily sold to us.
But anyway, that's maybe, maybe I could say that's minor, but it's a big issue.
But we do want to talk about what's going on overseas because, you know, our empire has to be dealt with.
And, you know, they should change that.
You know, America first.
Sometimes I think it's empire first.
Whatever we can do for the empire, we have to do it.
So Trump admits he's changed his mind on this.
Pentagon's Arms Dilemma00:13:37
Trump confirms arms for Ukraine U-turn days after Pentagon halted the delivery.
So what will they do next week?
I'm expecting you to give a proper prediction for next week.
Are they going to get their arms and will the American people have to pay for it?
Well, you know, Dr. Paul, it was not a good day for Trump's base yesterday.
Let's just put it that way.
Because after having been promised the Epstein files for a long time, Attorney General Pam Bondi said they're sitting right here on my desk.
I just have to review it.
Excuse me.
So I just have to review it.
Then we're going to release it.
She also said she had seen tens of thousands of videos out there of the most horrific things that happened.
Well, after all of this leading up to it, there was the announcement yesterday that there was no list.
It didn't exist.
There's no such thing as the Epstein list.
So people are asking, so why is Jelaine Maxwell in jail for trafficking people if no people were trafficked, if there were no clients?
So that was a real blow.
And I wasn't super invested in that because I sort of figured from the beginning that it was all an intelligence operation to entrap American politicians.
Nevertheless, for the base that wanted to know this, it was very, very disappointing.
And then you had Netanyahu come to town.
The clown show came to town.
They were sitting down to dinner.
President Trump was asked a question.
In fact, let's listen to the question, that first audio clip, that first video clip.
If we can cue that up, he's asked the question about Ukraine.
Let's put it on our, you might want to put in your earpiece, Dr. Paul, and listen in right over your earpiece over there in just a second here.
And well, he was asked a question about arming Ukraine.
Let's listen when he says.
Mr. President, are you planning to send more weapons to Ukraine?
We're going to send some more weapons.
They have to be able to defend themselves.
They're getting hit very hard now.
They're getting hit very hard.
We're going to have to send more weapons.
You have defensive weapons, primarily, but they're getting hit very, very hard.
So many people are dying in that mess.
So many people are dying, so we have to send more weapons to kill more people.
That makes zero sense, number one.
And number two, and we talked about this before: that the United States cannot be a co-belligerent and a mediator.
Trump has this idea that he's going to mediate a peace between Russia and Ukraine.
You can't do that when you're arming one side.
It's completely illogical.
It just completely seems to escape his consciousness that you can't do that, you know.
So the idea that you're going to send more weapons because too many people are dying, I don't know.
I don't know.
That's a new one, I guess.
Yeah, and I don't know how that's going to work out.
I don't think it'll work out good for the American taxpayer.
I don't think it'll work very well for world peace.
And yet, I think the American people, they might ask us, well, where do you think the American people are?
Well, there's somebody out there leading the charge, and it's not leading the charge for our views.
And he's very effective in it.
And so people listen to that.
And the bully pulpit is there.
And maybe there's a bully who'll hold that bully pulpit.
So they can do that and get away with it.
But you know what they can't conquer are economic laws that sometimes stay alive for longer than anybody will dream of.
And sometimes nobody realizes how much wealth has to be to consume before they have to admit the truth.
But this kind of stuff, whether the bankruptcy of the foreign policy or economic policy, eventually, you know, debts run out of steam.
You can't do it.
There's a rejection of it.
In the same way with this nonsense on our foreign policy, on again, off again.
And, you know, during the epidemic, the one thing that people were interested in is people who were inconsistent that say one thing and do something else.
And they themselves violated all the regulations they were writing.
Well, this should be, we should spend more time on that.
We spend a lot of time on it.
And that is the policies of what they do.
Who's, you know, you're saying, yeah, yes, peace, peace, peace.
Take care of the American people first.
Balance the budget.
And then they don't do it.
Well, why don't we hear more about who the real victims are?
And as far as I'm concerned, the greatest victimhood group of people are the middle class and the poor who suffers, whether it's the economic problems we have or whether it's these wars that we fight.
Yeah.
Well, I want to thank Conrell 2020 for chipping in 20 bucks and talking about how we need to end the warfare welfare state.
Let's go to that first clip.
This is what you had introduced the topic.
This is from Hedge, but it's all over.
We heard the video.
Trump confirms arms for Ukraine.
U-turn, days after Pentagon halts delivery, the halting of delivery, I think, was a little bit of theater in some degree.
But our old friend Michael Tracy, who is a cynic of the highest level, and I mean that as a compliment, he noticed the statement from the White House.
And I would just say it really adds insult to injury.
If you go to that next clip, this is what the White House said, the chief Pentagon spokesman.
At President Trump's direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.
Our framework for POTUS to evaluate military shipments across the globe reflects, remains in effect, and is integral to our America First defense priorities, to which Michael Tracy accurately quips.
And right on cue, arming Ukraine is America First, which is exactly what they're trying to tell us.
They're trying to tell us that something before our eyes is something different.
Now, I can tell you that the Kia I drive is a Maserati, but you're going to walk outside and see it and you're going to say, that's not a Maserati.
I hate to break the news to you.
You know, sometimes the people on television will make fun of some of these events and just mock it all.
And it's a better way than yelling and screaming and trying to appeal to reason.
But, you know, but you don't hear too much making fun of this activity.
People seem to not have care or they don't understand.
Or they are so propagandized that they don't feel like they can take them on on the silliness.
I mean, there's a couple programs that still will do that, but that's what I think is catchy sometimes and will convert people.
Yeah, I just, yeah, I wonder how the base feels about.
But here's the somewhat more serious part, and we have talked about this a lot, and a lot of people write about it.
It's the fact that we are running out of weapons.
Now, this next piece is from The Guardian, and it's very important beyond the theatrics of President Trump announcing they're getting clobbered, we got to send them more weapons.
Put on that next clip here.
Now, this is where the rubber meets the road, Dr. Paul.
The U.S. only has 25% of all Patriot missile interceptors needed for the Pentagon's military plans.
Low stockpiles for the crucial Patriot missile interceptors led to Trump administration pausing transfers.
Now, that main headline is important.
The Pentagon has a plan.
I don't know what exactly it is, but they have a strategic plan.
And it turns out they only have 25% of what is needed in Patriot missiles because they gave them away.
Now, go next.
Now, this is a great analysis of that article in The Guardian from poster Olga Bazova.
Very much worth looking at.
The U.S. has almost no Patriot missiles left due to Ukraine and Israel, says The Guardian.
According to The Guardian, the Pentagon has only a quarter of the necessary number of Patriot interceptors.
The reason is the massive consumption in the Middle East and the constant supply to Ukraine.
Because of this, U.S. Deputy Secretary, Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg, ordered the suspension of sending missiles to Ukraine.
Monitoring has shown that there has been a shortage of critical ammunition in the U.S. for several years, especially since the start of military aid to Ukraine.
And according to sources, Trump told Zelensky that he did not give the order to free supplies, but only initiated a stockpile inspection that began in February.
So it's a long way of saying, Dr. Paul, and I don't want to be too dramatic about this, but this administration is literally emptying out our defensive weapons coffers to the advantage of foreign countries.
We are giving all of the weapons that were designed to defend the United States to other countries to fight wars that are unrelated to the United States.
That seems to me the opposite of patriotism.
But, you know, the bad news, you're delivering the bad news, spending all this money, and we end up with nothing.
But there's somebody out there, you know, rubbing their hands.
Aha, there's room to get another order.
We need to replace this kind of stuff.
So, somebody's going to benefit from this.
And, you know, the first, one of the early campaigns I watched closely was in 1960.
And the biggest issue there on foreign policy was the missile gap.
Even though there was trouble in Vietnam and different places, it was the missile gap.
There were no weapons at all.
But, you know, measured by whom?
This sort of thing.
But I think the figures are real, what you just quoted.
But the big question is: who cares if you didn't have any, would we all of a sudden be invaded by tanks and airplanes and bombs on us?
And if it's true that you need it, why wouldn't we quit spending the money the way we spend it instead of having, we could list six countries that are way ahead of us being America first.
We're America last when it comes to spending money on a good foreign policy.
Yeah.
Well, it's even worse than that, Dr. Paul, because on the one hand, we've given all of our missiles to Ukraine.
We can't afford it.
We can't make any missiles.
But go to that next clip.
Now, this is an article that appeared in Haretz yesterday, the Israeli newspaper.
New documents reveal U.S. pouring hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid into building IDF air bases and facilities in Israel.
So hang on a minute.
We're giving a bunch of weapons to Ukraine and we're building military bases for Israel.
Put that next one on.
Here's the design.
It looks snazzy.
It is to accommodate the Israeli Air Force's new refueling aircraft and helicopters.
This is what we're paying to build.
A new headquarters for the Israeli Army's Naval Command Unit and numerous other projects costing billions of shekels.
Go to the next one.
A call for contractors to a conference originally scheduled for June but postponed due to the war with Iran revealed that the U.S. military aid construction program for Israel includes ongoing projects valued at more than 250 million with future projects expected to exceed a billion military bases,
clinics, naval piers, headquarters for different units, ammunition storage sites, upgrades to existing infrastructure, runway renovations, and aircraft painting facilities.
According to documents, if you go to the next one and presentations from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the initiative comprises roughly, and I highlight this, 20 separate projects with a combined price tab of $1.5 billion.
The details of some projects listed only under code names remain undisclosed.
So not only, Dr. Paul, are we spending more than the next nine countries on our own military, not only are we then giving that stuff away to other countries, but we are also, the American taxpayer, underwriting the military of Israel, building their bases, building their facilities, all of these things, upgraded to the facilities.
I can imagine a lot of our service members are living on bases where they're very much sub-par, sub-par living quarters.
And you can imagine telling, sorry, guys, we got to spend money building some fancy ones for a foreign country, how it might go over.
You have to, somebody has to ask the question.
The question gets asked, but it never gets answered.
What is the motivation for this?
What does the average person think about?
Well, the average person out on the street, when you see these interviews of beach goers, that group of people don't seem to know very much what they're even thinking to the president.
Why We Help Wealthy Enemies00:03:59
But what was the motivation behind it?
They justify it.
The justification doesn't make any sense.
Well, you know, we give away the weapons if they're important.
Why don't we have them?
Why are we spending all this money?
And what really motivates the people to do it?
Well, we talk about the military-industrial complex.
That's one thing.
But there's other things that just seem to be overwhelming.
Some countries, you know, we flip-flop or we ignore, but other countries we go excessively.
And I think if you're trying to have a sensible foreign policy, you should treat all countries the same way.
You know, peace and trade.
Peace and trade.
And be able to, you know, anticipate any need for defense.
But the motivation is just astounding to see that the American people just wake up and say, this is crazy.
Why are we doing it?
We're going broke.
But the propaganda, you know, we talk about the Democrats doing all these evil things, but just I think the propaganda is bipartisan.
I think they argue the same cases, and the votes are the same.
The words are different.
You know, we're doing all this.
We're sending all this money overseas and playing footsies with our enemies that used to be our enemies.
And we do that and we never blink an eye.
But there are some rules and economic laws and principles that cannot be canceled.
And I think that's why we're in trouble right now.
Is these laws are starting to appear very strong.
And there's a natural tendency for them to be canceled because we can't afford them anymore.
But we have a ways to go because we are a very wealthy country and we have a great deal of power and we have ability to intimidate others.
And this allows it to go on and on.
But my prediction is it's going to stop.
But you say, yeah, when, when, when?
I don't know when, but we do know that this cannot continue.
Yeah.
Well, you know, who else is a wealthy country?
Is actually Israel.
It's a very high-income country.
I was on an interview last week and I was just doing a little bit of research.
They have a higher GDP per capita than Japan.
So we're not helping a poor country.
We're helping a very rich country.
And I think a lot of Americans don't understand, especially Americans who are struggling, who don't understand really how much we do send.
And I'll clarify that in a second, but if you put that next clip up, Israel receives $3.8 billion annually in U.S. foreign aid under a memorandum of understanding signed with the Obama administration covering the period from 2019 to 2028.
The war in Gaza has triggered an unprecedented surge in supplemental assistance.
And according to Brown University's cost of war project, the U.S. has provided Israel with an additional $18 billion in arms by September 24.
Now, it gets even worse.
In January of this year, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a special military aid package worth $26 billion, which included approximately $4 billion for interceptors for Israel's missile defense system.
Now, lest it sound like Dr. Paul, I'm just picking on Israel here.
They do get a lot of money for a wealthy country, but let's take a good look at what it really is, because a lot of it is the U.S. government stealing from the American taxpayer, giving it to Israel, wink-wink.
Now, you've got to spend it on our own military-industrial complex, propping up the warfare state, the welfare for the rich.
And I guess the direction is it comes out of the pockets of the American taxpayer.
It never leaves this country.
Yeah, it goes to the rich people in the beltway.
Revoking Terror Designation?00:04:13
You know, that's a fact.
I'm sure the Israelis skim off a little bit.
That's the name of the game.
And they start a lot of wars.
But when Israel starts a war, the people in the military-industrial complex are thrilled.
They love it.
Some of our people say, What's so bad about that?
If the money's staying here, then we could somebody's going to make profit and they're going to benefit.
And there's going to be a lot of workers making more than they would earn in a free market.
So they would justify this.
But that's a narrow group who, again, gets the gravy.
Yeah, they don't understand the broken window fallacy either.
Yeah.
Instead of what?
We're building a bomb instead of what.
But this will be Michael Tracy Day because he also has another good quip.
Because while Netanyahu was sitting down having dinner with Trump, he handed him a sheet of paper saying, Mr. President Trump, I have nominated you for a Nobel Peace Prize.
And if you put that next clip up, it's very comical.
It shows this sort of fake obsequiousness that's hilarious.
But Michael Tracy nails it.
He says, Netanyahu announces that he's nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for enabling Israel to start a war with Iran and then bombing Iran himself.
And with that, we are officially through the looking glass.
You know, at times, the president will express some glee when he sees American bombs dropping someplace and doing a lot of damage.
That's what they ought to do: show those pictures when he's making these statements, you know, because it just seems like, you know, there have been people in the past that have been involved in war.
It's good that war is so horrible because it's so exciting.
Yeah.
You know, and there's some people that see it for the excitement.
Well, the last thing is, I guess people may see it's a relatively minor thing.
I think all those other things we covered are important.
But in a way, to me, I think this is probably the most important topic of the day.
And it kind of flew under the radar because yesterday was a busy day.
We did not get the Epstein list.
We decided to give more money to Ukraine.
But if you go to that next clip, this is from the State Department.
I think this is extremely important.
And this, by the way, was a request of Netanyahu when he was in town.
So they put out a statement, Secretary Rubio, revoking the foreign terrorist organization designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
And if you go to the next one, in line with President Trump's May 13 promise to deliver sanctions relief to Syria, I'm announcing my intent to revoke the foreign terrorist organization designation of Al-Nusra Front, also known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
What he doesn't mention is, yeah, they were known as Al-Nusra Front.
They were known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
But before that, the OG name was Al-Qaeda.
That's essentially who the U.S. is taking off the terrorist list in Syria.
And that's because the leader of Syria, if you put the next one up, wait for it.
This is from the U.S. Embassy Twitter page is a terrorist wanted by the U.S. government for a $10 million reward, i.e., the head of al-Qaeda.
So if you go to the next one, now this is a journalist who makes a great comment on it.
The history of the global war on terror began in 2001 with the U.S. invading Afghanistan to dig out al-Qaeda.
It ends 24 years later with the U.S. recognizing an al-Qaeda affiliate as the new ruler of Syria.
That is the global war on terror.
That looks to me like the empire just grew.
We have to put them in our empire, and somebody might attack Syria one of these days.
And there's people who would like to attack Syria.
Whose side are they going to be on?
But think of the cynicism of fighting a 24-year war on terror and then designated the terrorist wins.
Terror wins.
We replaced the Taliban with the Taliban, and we put into power in Syria the Al-Qaeda.
Well, you just don't have a forgiving spirit.
That's right.
I'm not America first.
Well, I'm going to close out if you think you're ready.
And I'm going to close out with a big announcement, huge announcement, in fact.
And I'm super thrilled about this.
Now, go to that last clip.
Closing Arguments00:02:42
You may wonder why I'm putting this up.
If you put that last clip up.
Well, this is our good friend and journalist, Max Blumenthal, in Iran, back at the end of May.
Prominent American journalist Max Blumenthal attended morning prayer with Iranian Jews in a synagogue in Iran.
He took a trip with his wife, another good friend of ours, Anya Parampil, and he toured through Iran and he did some terrific journalism.
Well, here's the announcement, Dr. Paul.
Max and his wonderful wife, Anya, will be with us at our conference as speakers, and they are going to tell us what they saw in Iran.
First person, right directly from their trip from Iran, they're going to tell us what they noticed, how it's different than the propaganda.
So you're going to want to get your tickets to the Ron Paul Institute's August 16th conference blueprint for peace.
There is a link in the description.
Max Blumenthal, Anya Parrampil, direct from Iran, direct coming back from Iran with their impressions of the country.
It's going to be terrific, Dr. Paul.
Wonderful.
I'm going to close by making mention of the subject you opened the program with, and that had to do with Epstein, because that's some scandal.
And they estimate there might have been a thousand victims.
That's hard for me to believe, but I guess it's believable.
But all of a sudden, there's no evidence of anything.
And the more you read about that, the more scandalous this gets.
Well, why don't we change political party and clean up the mess?
Well, you know, I tell people the system is bipartisan.
So if exposure was dangerous to some powerful Republicans and Democrats, maybe there's a coalition of the bipartisanship to cover this kind of stuff.
Maybe the scandals are in the military industrial complex and the pharmaceutical industry on and on, which it is.
And to me, we just witnessed what happened on the budget bill.
You know, the House passes a bill which wasn't worth much, and they send it to the Senate.
The Senate makes it that much worse.
And then the House yells and screams.
What a mess, horrible.
Then they vote for it.
So that is a bipartisanship, which is locked in because there's a philosophic control of the media to brainwash the people.
But all I can tell you, if you're looking for an optimism, is more people are waking up all the time.
And I hope we're contributing to the individuals that we can wake up.
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report.