The StoneZONE - Roger Stone - Troy Smith | 06-18-25
Aired: 2025-06-18
Duration: 22:50


=== Big Beautiful Bill (15:25) ===

[00:00:00]  Listen to this podcast now on the Red Apple Podcast Network, the Leadership Thread with Dr. Peggy Polonis.
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[00:00:31]  The Stone Zone.
[00:00:32]  Entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
[00:00:38]  Welcome back into the Stone Zone on the Red Apple Audio Networks.
[00:00:43]  We talk politics, news, history, style, fashion, food, you name it.
[00:00:49]  And joining me now is Troy Smith.
[00:00:51]  He is a media entrepreneur.
[00:00:53]  He's the editor and publisher of Slingshot News.
[00:00:57]  He has written an extraordinary new report regarding the issue of remittances.
[00:01:04]  Troy Smith, welcome to the Stone Zone.
[00:01:07]  Roger, it's always an honor to join you.
[00:01:09]  Congratulations on your great success here on WABC.
[00:01:12]  The shows can't miss really the best of the business.
[00:01:14]  All right, many, many thanks, Troy.
[00:01:16]  So you've uncovered that IRS records that there's a minimum of $150 billion transferred outside of the United States each year through remittances or payments sent by immigrants in the United States to people, mostly relatives, but El Roves and others outside the United States.
[00:01:40]  But you say that number is actually much higher.
[00:01:43]  What can you tell us?
[00:01:45]  Well, Roger, this is an issue that I think the American people are probably going to be astounded to learn about.
[00:01:51]  There is a total, Roger, of $300 billion that flows out of our economy here in the United States every single year through remittances.
[00:02:01]  And people probably wonder why they see these money order stations and businesses pop up all over the country.
[00:02:07]  Well, it's a $300 billion industry.
[00:02:10]  And just so people understand that level of money, we're talking about $65 billion, Roger, being the total amount that the U.S. actually issues in foreign aid, meaning that the amount of money that is sent out of this country each year in remittances more than triples the amount of foreign aid that the government hands out each year.
[00:02:30]  So we're not talking about a small figure.
[00:02:33]  And this is money that's being sent outside of the United States at a 0% tax rate.
[00:02:39]  Really unbelievable, Roger, that we don't tax this money being sent out at all.
[00:02:45]  Now, you mentioned $150 billion, $300 billion.
[00:02:47]  It boils down to this.
[00:02:49]  There's about $150 billion in remittances or money sent outside the country that we can track.
[00:02:55]  That the IRS is supposedly, although we're told the tracking is very poor and that these transfers are really rarely audited by the IRS.
[00:03:04]  We're told that $150 billion of it is accounted for and that at least 100% of that total is remitted each year without being tracked.
[00:03:14]  So $150 billion of this, Roger, is completely untracked.
[00:03:17]  $150 billion is totaling $300 billion leaving our shores with zero to show for the American people.
[00:03:24]  I see that many countries, including Mexico, create actually a significant amount of their own GDP through these monies transferred from the United States.
[00:03:34]  What percentage of Mexico's gross domestic product is purely through these remittances from the United States?
[00:03:42]  Well, Roger, a large percentage of the remittance that are remittances that are sent from the United States end up in Mexico to the tune in 2023 of $63 to $67 billion.
[00:03:54]  That's 4% to 5% of their entire GDP there.
[00:03:58]  And you'll be interested to find, Roger, you go to many third world countries, whether it's Jamaica or other countries around the world, you'll find that large percentage of their economies are made up of people in the United States sending money back, again, at 0% tax.
[00:04:16]  Considering that half of it is completely unaccounted for, Roger, you can see why people like the Mexican president are stepping up and saying it would be immoral to tax remittances because these countries are really making bank off of the people of the United States and our economy in an under-the-table foreign aid program.
[00:04:34]  That's what I would call this.
[00:04:35]  It's really like an under-the-table foreign aid program to the tune of $65 billion a year to Mexico.
[00:04:41]  Just unbelievable.
[00:04:42]  Now, are there plans to tax remittances in the upcoming Big Beautiful bill?
[00:04:48]  Well, Roger, there were plans to tax remittances pushed by the Trump administration in what I think was a fantastic move, a smart move, but I think the figure was far too low.
[00:05:00]  The Trump administration in the original version of the Big Beautiful bill argued that there should be a 5% tax on remittances.
[00:05:10]  Now, I'm told that the GOP Senate has objected to this, and they have instead suggested a 3.5%, and that's the current figure that sits in the Big Beautiful bill.
[00:05:20]  But there is speculation, Roger, that it will be eliminated completely and that we will have a 0% tax on remittances stayed by rhino congressmen and people in the Senate that really don't stand for their own voters.
[00:05:35]  You know, this is a betrayal of these senators.
[00:05:38]  And I think, Roger, we have to highlight many of them are very wealthy individuals.
[00:05:42]  $10 to $20 billion of the total $300 billion, Roger, ended up in tax havens like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, places where wealthy individuals have been able to send out unlimited amounts of money at 0% tax.
[00:05:58]  I think that's playing a role here and why these people don't want to tax remittances.
[00:06:01]  That is an interesting aspect of it.
[00:06:04]  So this is not just immigrants in this country, say, working as a domestic or a gardener, sending money to their relatives back in their country of origin.
[00:06:14]  This is actually being used to move large amounts of money to avoid taxation.
[00:06:20]  Absolutely.
[00:06:21]  And I think that when we look at the, you have to ask, why would people within the Senate, within the House, within, say, even the White House, why would they want to lessen the amount of taxation?
[00:06:35]  We researched this for a piece, Roger.
[00:06:37]  The average American pays 33% of their annual earnings in taxes.
[00:06:42]  So can you explain to me why when we're talking about taxes on money that's sent out of our economy, this is money that's earned here in American jobs and then taken and sent directly out of our economy to the benefit of other countries?
[00:06:56]  And we're not saying that that's immoral or that's wrong.
[00:06:59]  We're saying it's wrong that we don't tax it at all.
[00:07:02]  And I think it's only fair that we should tax these kind of remittances exactly like how we tax the American people.
[00:07:09]  And there's arguments people say, oh, well, it's a double tax.
[00:07:12]  Well, I just told you that half of it is unaccounted for, $150 billion worth.
[00:07:17]  So no.
[00:07:18]  And not only that, but there's no IRS auditing of this.
[00:07:21]  We talked about this with several people, and the audits on remittances are at best poor.
[00:07:27]  I think we need to double down on monitoring the money that's being sent out shores, because who knows?
[00:07:32]  It could be even higher than $300 billion.
[00:07:35]  And we need to get serious about taxing and taxing highly.
[00:07:38]  Because it's my theory, Roger, that I don't think you would really have to have mass deportations if you ended the incentive for these people to come here, take money from our economy and send it back home.
[00:07:50]  If you end that, I think you really end the incentive for immigration on whole without having to do a single thing other than change your policy.
[00:07:57]  You certainly would remove some of the incentive.
[00:08:00]  Look, I think there's a huge amount of disinformation regarding the Big Beautiful Bill.
[00:08:05]  The most important thing for people to understand is that if the bill is not passed, the result will be a 68% across-the-board federal income tax increase on all Americans.
[00:08:16]  No, not just the wealthy, but on all Americans.
[00:08:20]  The Trump tax cuts of his first term, which are being extended in the Big Beautiful Bill beginning in January, are the largest tax cuts in American history.
[00:08:31]  And leftists like Robert Reich, who was the secretary, I think he was the Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton administration.
[00:08:40]  I went to high school with him.
[00:08:41]  He was wrong then.
[00:08:42]  He's wrong today.
[00:08:43]  They continue to falsely insist that our deficits and our inflation is caused by tax reduction.
[00:08:51]  Yet the lesson of history is the exact opposite.
[00:08:54]  Every president, whether it is Donald Trump in his first term, whether it is Ronald Reagan, whether it was John F. Kennedy who did an across-the-board federal income tax cut, experienced a spike in federal revenues caused by the increase in economic activity.
[00:09:13]  Our inflation and our $37 trillion deficit is caused by spending too much, not by taxing working Americans too little.
[00:09:25]  It is one of the great fallacies continued to be pushed by the far left.
[00:09:30]  Now, when you add to it the fact that the Big Beautiful Bill also does away with the tax on tips, which is a piece of policy genius thought up by Donald Trump himself after talking to a group of cocktail waitresses in Las Vegas when he was campaigning in the silver state.
[00:09:48]  It also does away with the tax on social security, provides a tax credit for those who buy a car or a truck that was made in America.
[00:10:01]  There's much good in the Big Beautiful Bill.
[00:10:04]  There's a few things in there I don't like.
[00:10:07]  This portion that says that the states cannot regulate artificial intelligence for 10 years, I'd like to see that disappear in the Senate version of the bill or in conference if it passes both houses.
[00:10:22]  I think AI is extraordinarily dangerous.
[00:10:25]  You can go on True Social right now or X or even Instagram, Facebook.
[00:10:32]  You'll see really incredible videos of me saying things that I never actually said.
[00:10:39]  You can see videos of Joe Biden and Barack Obama and Donald Trump saying things that they never actually said.
[00:10:47]  And without sophisticated AI detection software to the average person, they would actually believe what they see.
[00:10:57]  So I think there does need to be some regulation of artificial intelligence.
[00:11:02]  Troy, what do you think?
[00:11:04]  Well, Roger, artificial intelligence is quickly becoming the issue of our time.
[00:11:08]  And the issue is going to be that we're going to have a lot of jobs here that are going to be eliminated simply because they're going to be automated by AI.
[00:11:17]  And I think we have to make the decision as a society: do we prefer the comfort, the human experience over the advancement of, say, technology that we think might be detrimental to our success?
[00:11:30]  We have to be able to adapt these technologies to work for humankind and not against it.
[00:11:37]  I think that has a lot to do with the people in control of it.
[00:11:40]  People in big tech, Roger, they took your voice away.
[00:11:43]  They've taken a lot of people's voices away.
[00:11:45]  And I just don't happen to believe that a lot of them are suddenly good guys because they contributed to a certain political campaign or another.
[00:11:53]  I think that these people are malicious in a lot of ways.
[00:11:56]  And there has to be interference from the government as far as artificial intelligence is concerned because the technology is so dangerous and poises such a threat to our way of life.
[00:12:07]  It couldn't destroy the United States if not handled correctly.
[00:12:10]  I think there has to be intervention.
[00:12:12]  There has to be regulation.
[00:12:14]  They want to tell you you can't have a wood-burning stove.
[00:12:16]  Well, how about you stop the guys that are creating the doomsday machine that is AI?
[00:12:20]  Yeah, no, I could not agree more.
[00:12:22]  Back during the New Hampshire primary, somebody created an audio.
[00:12:27]  It was used in a robocall of Joe Biden urging people not to vote.
[00:12:32]  And to the untrained ear, you would have sworn it was really Joe, but it wasn't Joe at all.
[00:12:38]  It's a perfect example of the extreme dangers.
[00:12:42]  And what you say is true.
[00:12:44]  Every single day, somebody on X or on Truth Show Show points out to me yet another Roger Stone who pops up on those sites, who designs their page to look exactly like mine, but it is not me.
[00:13:02]  And as I've said on the show, I was in a restaurant one night and a guy came up to me and said, hey, Stone, where's that crypto I bought from you on Facebook?
[00:13:11]  I said, pardon me?
[00:13:12]  He said, that crypto I paid you for, I never got the crypto.
[00:13:15]  I said, friend, I don't, I'm not only not on Facebook, but I don't sell crypto.
[00:13:20]  So I have no idea what you're talking about.
[00:13:22]  And he was furious.
[00:13:24]  He flipped through his phone.
[00:13:25]  He showed me the messages between himself and somebody posing as Roger Stone on Facebook.
[00:13:32]  And I told him, look, you're out of luck, my friend.
[00:13:34]  I didn't sell you anything and I don't owe you anything.
[00:13:37]  When my lawyers contact Facebook or Meta, when they contact even X or Instagram, they're very slow to respond.
[00:13:46]  And then even when they do order the offenders to take down the faux Roger Stones, they pop up three days later with a slightly different iteration on my name.
[00:13:58]  So instead of being Roger J. Stone Jr., which is what I am on X, I'm now suddenly Roger J.J. Stone Jr., to give you an example.
[00:14:07]  So always be aware.
[00:14:09]  Look for the validated profile if you're following me on social media.
[00:14:15]  I think social media is a great thing, but it cannot substitute for real life.
[00:14:21]  It cannot substitute for spending time outdoors, spending time with your family, reading a book.
[00:14:28]  The human experience, I think some people go into the world of social media and the internet, and they just never come out the other side.
[00:14:37]  They begin to believe it is real life in itself.
[00:14:42]  It is a great danger.
[00:14:44]  We talked about it yesterday on the show with Boone Cutler.
[00:14:47]  If you're just tuning in, we're talking to Troy Smith, the editor and publisher at Slingshot News.
[00:14:53]  I think you find them at slingshotnews.com.
[00:14:57]  We'll be back.
[00:14:58]  I want to get your take on the situation in Iran.
[00:15:01]  I do not believe that the president's legacy will be destroyed or that his governing coalition will be disrupted as long as America does not get into a prolonged quagmire like we did in Afghanistan.
[00:15:15]  And I also recognize the inherent evil and the actual intentions of the Iranian mullahs who chant death to America, death to Israel.

=== Protecting Patient Care (02:15) ===

[00:15:25]  You're in the Stone Zone.
[00:15:27]  I'm Roger Stone.
[00:15:28]  We're talking to Troy Smith.
[00:15:29]  Whatever you do, please don't touch that dial because we'll be right back with more after these commercial messages.
[00:15:37]  The Stone Zone.
[00:15:38]  Entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
[00:15:45]  Rural Americans deserve access to the best of what our nation has to offer, especially health care.
[00:15:51]  Across every state and every community, America's rural hospitals are the first line of defense, protecting our families, neighbors, and loved ones.
[00:16:00]  No matter where you live, hospital care doesn't clock out.
[00:16:03]  They're there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
[00:16:08]  Each year, America's over 5,000 hospitals care for millions of patients, providing 24-7 emergency care, delivering babies, cancer treatments, and other life-saving care that patients rely on.
[00:16:21]  Behind every one of those patients are doctors, nurses, and caregivers working tirelessly to keep people healthy and safe.
[00:16:29]  Hospitals are our community's lifelines.
[00:16:31]  They employ our neighbors and keep our families healthy.
[00:16:34]  But now, some in Congress are threatening access to care.
[00:16:38]  Tell Congress, protect patient care to keep America strong.
[00:16:42]  Don't cut rural health care.
[00:16:48]  The Stone Zone.
[00:16:49]  Entertaining and informative.
[00:16:51]  On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
[00:16:54]  Welcome back.
[00:16:55]  We're in the Stone Zone.
[00:16:57]  We're talking to Troy Smith, a media entrepreneur.
[00:17:00]  He is the editor and publisher of Slingshot News.
[00:17:05]  And we just talked about his stunning report that indicates that almost $300 billion is shipped out of the country by immigrants living here to other countries, to individuals and institutions in other countries.
[00:17:21]  Yet there's no benefit to the American people.
[00:17:25]  It's a stunning report.
[00:17:27]  Troy, where can people go see this report?
[00:17:30]  I want people to go to slingshot.news.
[00:17:33]  And when this airs, we'll have that right on the front page so everybody can check and free to share the links on any kind of social media or send to your friends, family, whoever.

=== Chinese Influence Exposed (04:40) ===

[00:17:41]  We need to get the word out about this.
[00:17:42]  It's a hell of a story.
[00:17:44]  It is a stunning story.
[00:17:46]  We appreciate your breaking it here in the Stone Zone.
[00:17:50]  So the real question, we only got about two and a half minutes, but the real question on the table, of course, is what will President Trump decide?
[00:17:58]  I've already said that I will support his decision regardless of what it is.
[00:18:02]  He has more information than I do.
[00:18:04]  I think that he ran as a peace candidate.
[00:18:06]  I think it is highly unlikely that he will mire America down in a prolonged foreign war as we experienced in Afghanistan, but he will always act to protect the interests of the United States as he perceives them.
[00:18:21]  And there can be no doubt about the malign intentions of the Iranian regime.
[00:18:27]  It's nice to say you're going to negotiate to keep nuclear power for the purposes of generating electricity, but I think we both realize they have every intention of developing a bomb.
[00:18:38]  And whether they get it tomorrow or two years from now, we know who their target is.
[00:18:44]  At the same time, the Iranians are a client state of China.
[00:18:49]  China gets a huge amount of their oil from Iran.
[00:18:53]  They don't have oil production capabilities of their own.
[00:18:57]  I think it would be naive to think that the Chinese will do nothing if we end up attacking their client state.
[00:19:05]  And then as you pointed out to me this morning, for some reason, Israel allows the Chinese to operate their largest port.
[00:19:15]  How or why could that be?
[00:19:17]  Well, Roger, it's just dumbfounding.
[00:19:20]  I mean, China has dumped billions of dollars into the Iranian economy.
[00:19:24]  They're the exact reason that missiles are flying.
[00:19:27]  If you want to know who's funding the missiles flying into Israel right now, it's the Chinese.
[00:19:31]  I mean, that's cut plain dry.
[00:19:33]  It's oil money that the Iranians have gotten from the Chinese.
[00:19:37]  And yet, when you look at Israel, there is China all over the place.
[00:19:42]  They operate their largest port.
[00:19:43]  And not only that, Roger, just this year, in March, it was announced that the Chinese are expanding their operations in Haifa.
[00:19:49]  And the Israelis have allowed that.
[00:19:51]  So I think from the United States perspective, in order for I and millions of other Americans to be supportive of some kind of support for Israel, I think we need to see the Israelis take legitimate action to end their allegiance with the Chinese, the people funding the missiles flying into their country.
[00:20:10]  And that would be a much more serious argument that I think a lot more people would listen to.
[00:20:14]  Yeah, I still don't believe some of the more draconian voices like Steve Bannon and others who say that it will be the end of the Trump presidency, it will be the end of his legacy.
[00:20:24]  I think that would be true if he got us mired down in a long-term foreign war where our interests are not clear.
[00:20:33]  Our interests are abundantly clear here.
[00:20:37]  And the president is way too smart for that.
[00:20:39]  I'm going to wait for the president.
[00:20:41]  The signals are mixed.
[00:20:43]  You read many, many, many things on social media.
[00:20:47]  But until the president announces what he's going to do, I stand by the president.
[00:20:52]  I will support whatever decision he makes.
[00:20:55]  After all, I owe my life to him, and I trust him.
[00:20:59]  He has information that neither you nor I have, Troy, or the American people.
[00:21:04]  I was encouraged to hear that he was going to do a televised address, but now I see that they have not scheduled a specific time for that.
[00:21:13]  But when he does, when he makes his decision, I have every confidence that he will go before the American people and explain exactly why we are doing what we're doing.
[00:21:24]  Recognize this.
[00:21:26]  He said 15 times during the campaign and multiple times since he was elected president that Iran cannot be and will not be allowed to have a nuclear bomb.
[00:21:36]  Donald Trump is a man who believes, says what he means, and means what he says.
[00:21:41]  Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone.
[00:21:43]  Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.
[00:21:47]  Thanks for listening to the Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
[00:21:50]  You can hear the Stone Zone with Roger Stone weeknights at 8 on 77 WABC.
[00:21:57]  If you like the podcast, share it with your friends and listen anytime at WABCRadio.com and download the WABC Radio app.
[00:22:05]  Hit that subscribe button on all major podcast platforms.
[00:22:09]  Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X. See you next time for a new episode.
[00:22:17]  So you never have to wonder what the heck is going on here.

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