Donald Trump's alleged "ghosting" of Europe and withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany have sparked panic among leaders like Giorgia Meloni and Friedrich Merz over potential tariffs and base access denials. The host argues NATO is a liability, citing George Cannon's 1997 warning that expansion inflames Russian nationalism, while predicting the U.S. will dominate the global economy as Europe clings to hindering green policies. Simultaneously, Trump confronts Iranian duplicity in the Strait of Hormuz and addresses Ilhan Omar's fraud investigation regarding the "Feeding Our Future" scheme, asserting American energy supremacy will reshape OPEC dynamics. Ultimately, this shift signals a decisive end to post-WWII alliances and a new era of unilateral U.S. hegemony. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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NATO Ghosted by Trump00:14:58
Ooh, this is not good for NATO right now.
Germany, Italy, kind of in panic mode because they feel like they're being left completely in the dark.
They have no idea what's going on.
They don't know how these troops are being taken out of Europe right now.
And Donald Trump is kind of, oh, how do we say, ghosting them?
Yeah.
I mean, he has no interest in talking to any of these people in light of what they've been doing most recently.
And so now all of a sudden they're going on this like apology tour.
Maloney yesterday.
And now we get another sort of.
Quasi apology from one Friedrich Merz.
I mean, come on, people.
Maybe you just shouldn't get yourself in this position to begin with.
But then again, maybe we shouldn't have gotten ourselves in this position.
Maybe we never, ever should have gotten ourselves in this position so far long after the fact.
I mean, NATO served a purpose at one point in time, but let's face it, that ship has sailed.
These are fully developed economies that can stand on their own two feet and defend themselves.
Thank you very much.
Well, they're figuring that out, albeit the hard way.
Right now, it's lights out for NATO, guys.
Lights.
Donald Trump warned them repeatedly, like over and over and over and over again.
Apparently, nobody over there can take a hint.
Something gets lost in translation, perhaps.
5,000 troops coming out of Germany.
And guess what the president just said?
Huh, we got more where that came from.
You better believe it.
Why is the U.S. removing troops from Germany?
We're going to cut way down, and we're cutting a lot further than 5,000.
Thank you very much.
And he's off.
You see, Georgia Maloney over in Italy is hearing this kind of thing right now, and she used to be his friend, right, up until we decided to have an excursion in Iran, which actually is tremendously beneficial to all of those European countries who rely on the Strait of Hormuz for their energy needs.
And yet, what have we gotten but the shaft, the middle finger, call it what you want?
I mean, Maloney's come right out and said she's upset with Trump because of what he said about the Pope.
I mean, the Pope, the President has pointed out repeatedly, seems to have no understanding or recognition of the fact that 40,000 people have died this year in Iran at the hands of the regime.
And so they're playing like nothing happened, right?
Over there at the Vatican.
And perhaps Georgia Maloney feels like she needs to be supportive of the Vatican.
I don't know.
But a lot of you guys are saying, yeah, the Pope got to her.
The Pope got to her.
Somehow the Pope got to her.
She is talking her book, as we like to say, in the financial world, talking her book in that I guess she's got Rome.
She's got the Vatican that she has to deal with and consequently is not so willing to go out on that limb and say, gee, you know.
Trump is right with what he's doing.
Also, keep in mind, her constituents don't want this.
Well, who the heck wants it?
I mean, it's not like we want it either.
Look at what it's doing to MAGA, for goodness sakes.
You get both sides kind of very, very concerned on the left and on the right.
And then there's like, you know, you can drive a wedge right down that, as some podcasters have figured out how to do, right down the right, right down the middle of the right, because some people are like, oh, we should have nothing to do with this.
Other people are like, and myself included, feel very strongly that if you have this opportunity, you take this opportunity because ultimately once you have that under control, it's going to be a big win, not just for the United States, but for the world.
Now, for some reason, no one in Italy wants to hear this, or at least Georgia Maloney doesn't want to hear this, even though she used to sing a good tune.
So she's been criticizing the president up until, oh, I don't know, yesterday.
Yesterday, she was in Armenia, and she finally had to deal with the reality that Germany is dealing with, which is that they've got 5,000 troops that are going, bye-bye.
So Maloney now is singing, singing, and singing something else, a new tune from one Georgia Maloney.
Let's play it.
Look, I can't tell you what will happen.
As I've said many times before, we know that for some time now, the United States has, shall we say, been discussing a withdrawal from Europe, which is why I believe we must strengthen our security and, let's say, develop our capacity to respond in this regard.
That said, it is clearly a decision that does not depend on me, and one that I personally would not support.
But there is one thing I would like to make clear Italy has always honored its commitments.
Italy has honored every commitment it has undertaken.
It has always done so.
We have done so particularly within NATO.
We have done so even when our direct interests were not at stake.
We did so in Afghanistan.
We did so in Iraq.
And so, let's say, I do not consider some of the things that have been said about us to be fair, not least because within the Atlantic Alliance, no one has ever appeared in a formal setting to ask the Allies' support regarding the choices they were making.
Okay, here we go again.
They're all over that.
Allies' support.
By the way, if you agree with me that, for goodness sakes, it's about time these European countries stand on their own two feet, reminder subscribe, subscribe, subscribe, and hit the bell so you know every single time I'm live.
Anyway, I'm just saying.
She's sitting there saying, one, okay, we always honor our obligations.
Well, Georgia, I hate to tell you, as recently as last week, you were out there crying poor, trying to stiff us with the check, saying you're not going to be able to do the 5% of your GDP to defense spending because you're going to have a smaller GDP.
Okay, fine.
You're going to have a smaller GDP.
You're still supposed to do 5%, even of the smaller GDP.
Nope, nope, nope, nope.
She says, you know, we just can't do it because it looks like we could be going into a recession in Italy.
Really, you don't think?
I mean, all the more reason.
I suspect that you ought to be supporting us, one, because we put two to five billion dollars into your economy quite directly into the military efforts that we have there.
That's just like pay for personnel and upkeep for those bases.
Those bases that, by the way, we're not allowed to use, right?
Think about the Sigonella base there in Sicilia, in Sicily, and we couldn't even stop over on our way to the Middle East.
Nope, can't do it.
So, why don't we have these?
I mean, it really seems to me that these quote unquote allies that want to be consulted on everything, right?
rather than just like taking our word at it and saying, hey, you know, we're kind of like the biggest player here.
You kind of have relied on us for a long time.
Trust us on this one.
They wanted to be consulted.
I mean, imagine if they were consulted, well, then we would have lost all kind of, well, advantage, right?
You wouldn't have the surprise advantage anymore.
No, no, no.
That would have been out the window.
I mean, it's like Congress saying, well, we want to be consulted on this because, you know, Ilhan Omar has to get her say and Rashida Tlaib.
I mean, they're going to be calling up the Ayatollah the next thing, you know, saying, hey, guess what's coming?
I don't trust any of them.
And I don't trust Europe either.
And I think Europe would have been like, no, we're not doing this.
And hey, guess what?
We're doing it.
So you're either here along for the ride or you're not.
And if you're not, then you're not really our allies.
Why should we be spending billions and billions and billions of dollars there for your economy when, frankly, we could kind of use it right here at home?
Or we could actually just rethink our alliances, which is exactly what is happening in real time at this moment.
So Georgia Maloney's running a little bit scared.
She's like, oh, we've always paid our bills.
Like I said, she's already out threatening not to pay her NATO tab.
because of the quote unquote recession they may be looking at, a two tenths of a percent decline in GDP.
I mean, they're just a mess.
They're a fiscal mess.
They've got deficit spending that is up the wazoo and they can't handle it because you know what?
They make very poor decisions, strategically, economically poor decisions.
Think about what she's doing on migrants, right?
You get 500,000 migrants coming into Italy.
She pledged the next three years.
They get 165,000 this year and they get all kinds of benefits, you know?
Who's paying for it?
Us?
I don't think so.
We're not doing it anymore.
That's been really clear.
And, you know, one of the reasons it's been made so clear is because these guys, these Europeans, have been consistently giving us the middle finger.
They're the bratty teenagers that think they can run up the tab.
They got a huge allowance and they're just going to talk back to mom and dad all the time.
Well, mom and dad are like, no, you know what, kiddos?
You're on your own.
Go for it.
We gave you a good, stable foundation.
Now it's time.
We're kicking you out of the nest.
And they're like, oh, no, mom and dad, please, please, please.
This is what's happened now with Frederick.
Meretz, Friedrich Meretz, you know, the German chancellor.
He's in bad shape, all right?
He's losing 5,000 troops.
And now Trump, as you heard him in the beginning of the show, said, Hey, you might lose 5,000 more, buddy, or maybe even 10,000 more.
Maybe I'll take them all out because you can do it now yourself.
Hey, you just published your first little defense report, first one since 1945.
You know, I realize it's a little sus when we talk about Germany and the military, given the previous two world wars.
But again, They've been so woke-ified at this point.
A little bit of bravado might not hurt them so much.
You've got Meretz, who went on to the equivalent of NPR in Germany over the weekend and tried to take back everything that he had said days before while speaking, I believe it was at a school.
All right.
He went to a school and started talking about how the U.S. has humiliated itself.
Well, that didn't go over very well, as you well know, with President Trump.
And so now he's trying to do what we would call a cleanup job, going on to the equivalent of PBS and saying this watch.
I have to accept that the American president holds a different view on these issues than we do.
But that does not alter the fact that I remain convinced that the Americans are important partners for us, the most important ones in the North Atlantic Alliance, and that we have a shared interest in Europe and America working together to end this conflict and then, for example, to end the conflict, the war in Ukraine, to provide joint security guarantees for Ukraine.
We have already achieved a great deal together in this regard.
We have a different view of this war, that is no secret.
I am not alone in this.
We have a common aim, and that aim must be Iran must not be allowed to acquire the atomic bomb.
And that is what we are working together to achieve.
You could have fooled me.
Okay, a couple things there.
He's taking aim at us over Ukraine because apparently that's all we're good for.
Picking up the check on Saturday night, meaning paying everybody's bills so that they can have Ukraine fight Russia.
Yeah, except it doesn't work both ways.
Remember that.
We just want to use their airspace in France.
They tell us no can do.
When we want to stop at the base that we put up and support in Sicily, Georgia Maloney says no can do.
And then this guy, Friedrich, gets out there and says even worse stuff about us.
I mean, he's telling the world, well, a bunch of school kids, but this thing went viral that the US has humiliated itself in its negotiations with Iran.
I'm sorry.
Did anybody see the stock market today?
SP 500 at yet another high, okay?
SP 500 at another high.
How is that us humiliating ourselves?
No, guys, you got this all wrong.
Completely wrong.
And you know what?
You're the ones who are humiliating yourselves with stupid.
I saved myself.
You know where I'm going.
Comments like this from Mr. Friedrich Merz.
At the moment, I can't tell what the strategic exit for the Americans are that they are pursuing.
Especially since the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skillfully or perhaps very skillfully refusing to negotiate, he says, and they're letting the Americans travel to Islamabad only to send them back home empty-handed.
An entire nation is being humiliated, he said, by the Iranian leadership, he says, especially by these so-called revolutionary guards.
Oh, gosh, darn it, you've been reading those Democrat talking points now again, haven't you?
I was talking with a liberal friend recently who literally said the exact same thing.
Like the exact same thing, verbatim.
And I'm like, they must have put out their memo.
Did they translate it into German?
I guess so.
So Donald Trump heard that and he's like, you know what?
You think you're so smart, buddy.
You think you're so smart.
Well, guess what?
I kind of hold all the cards.
He actually put that on True Social, a little picture of him with the cards.
And he said, You think that's cool?
Well, I'm going to pull all our troops.
Well, at least 5,000 of them.
I'm going to maybe pull some more, as many as I want to.
And you know what else?
I'm going to slap 25% tariffs on your auto sector, which accounts for 6% of your GDP.
And now people are talking about the possibility of a recession.
Uh huh.
You heard it.
The R word in Germany this year because of what's going to happen with the automakers.
Woo.
Okay.
So here's Mr. Merch.
You heard him.
He said, I have to accept that the American president holds a different view on these issues than we.
But that does not change the fact that I remain convinced that the Americans are important partners for us, the most important partner for the North American.
Rather, the North Atlantic Alliance, meaning NATO.
Okay, so now they're trying to like butter them up.
Oh, you know, you really matter.
You're really important.
Well, I'm sorry, but you just showed your hand, okay?
You just showed it, Friedrich.
I mean, that wasn't the smart.
People, even in his home party now, are like, what was he doing?
And now you've got the alt right in Germany that's been rising up, rising up, rising up.
And now you get the possibility of an economic recession.
I'm just saying, Friedrich, it's not looking so good for you.
So maybe you should have thought this one through.
Even the New York Times is saying it.
Here's the headline in this morning's New York Times Germany has appeared not to believe President Trump's threats to pull troops from the country.
Once it was announced, Berlin offered a measured response, the response I just showed you.
And the title is How Germany May Have Misjudged Trump's Anger on Iran.
You better believe they completely misjudged it.
Total miscalculation.
You thought he wasn't serious.
You thought he would just kind of laugh at you saying, oh, The U.S. has been humiliated by the IRGC.
You thought that was funny, right?
Well, he didn't.
And the entire world is looking at you and laughing right now.
I mean, I showed you the New York Times.
That's a big deal for the New York Times to write something like that.
And now I got the FT right here.
FT saying how Germany's merits torpedoed his plan to contain Trump.
Germany Misjudges Trump's Anger00:15:25
Apparently, he thought he could, quote unquote, contain one Donald Trump and he had it all under control and that he was just going to flatter him, et cetera.
Here they write a few weeks ago Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Meretz warned Washington's war on Iran.
Must not become a quote stress test of transatlantic ties.
Some off the cuff remarks to a secondary school student body may have turned it into exactly that.
I mean, again, buddy, like, just not smart.
Like, why would you do that?
Why, whoa, Okay.
Not smart.
Over the first year in power, Mertz sought to build a working rapport with Donald Trump.
And actually, he did well with this, right?
Because we saw him in DC at various times, and the president even praised him.
They cite this saying Germany has been terrific.
He's an excellent leader.
And then all of a sudden he travels to his hometown.
Oh, you know, maybe it was the hometown pressure, right?
The hometown pressure.
He didn't want to look like anything other than a Trump critic because apparently they have TDS in Germany too.
So he goes over there.
And that's when he said that Tehran was humiliating.
Those were his words, humiliating the U.S.
And so everybody knows this was really dumb, really dumb.
And now he's in damage control mode as he tries to figure this out.
You've got the FT also writing here.
Mertz had tried this precarious tightrope act of not sucking up to Trump while trying to protect German and European interests.
Okay, so he's like, okay, I can't be too nice.
I can't be too nice, but I simultaneously have to look out for us.
And let's face it, I keep trying to look out for us, but it's not so easy because every time I turn around, the guy wants more money.
He doesn't want to have to foot the bill anymore.
Can you blame him for NATO?
And so it then goes on to say Mertz's strategy has been to buy as much time as possible to allow for the continent to rebuild its own defenses and avoid glaring security.
So, this is one of the concerns right now that there are these security gaps.
So, as you look at the title of this entire podcast, the point is NATO's in the dark, right?
They have these potential security gaps and they've kind of done this to themselves.
I mean, Germany could have, should have increased its military presence years ago, but it chose not to.
And the same with Italy, the same with UK, the same with France, the same with Spain.
They've all been relying on mom and dad.
And mom and dad have kind of said, okay, we've had enough because you know what?
We got other bills to pay.
You know, maybe we're thinking about getting that vacation home.
All right.
We don't want to have to deal with you dragging us down.
And, you know, maybe we want to go out to dinner now and then.
We're sick of paying.
My kids are still little.
So, but I have a feeling like if you don't push them out of the nest eventually, you know, those are the kind of requests that you're going to be getting.
So, Germany is now in a bad situation.
And Meretz himself, Friedrich Freddy, let's go with Freddy.
Why not?
That's cute.
Freddy is fearing that the far right alternative for Germany is going to take over because they've been polling quite strongly.
They had a good showing there in the eastern states back in September.
And so now he's thinking, okay, you know, you got the far right here, you got the reality of higher energy prices.
And now.
Tariffs, a 25% tariff on our biggest industry, our German car industry.
So, you know, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, he's going to hit them where it hurts.
Porsche, woo.
And this is going to cost them.
Donald Trump raising tariffs, effective this week.
Effective this week on Germany.
This is like the worst thing ever for Germany right now.
Carl, President Trump says he's going to raise tariffs on European cars and trucks in a social media post just a couple of moments ago.
Here's what the president says.
He says, I'm pleased to announce that based on the fact that the European Union.
Is not complying with our fully agreed to trade deal.
Next week, I will be increasing tariffs charged to the European Union for cars and trucks coming into the United States.
The tariff will be increased to 25%.
It is fully understood and agreed that if they produce cars and trucks in the USA plants, there will be no tariffs.
So the president here suggesting that he's going to raise those tariffs.
Not clear, Carl, what authority the president is using here.
Remember, the Supreme Court struck down his authority to do a unilateral.
Tariffs that he had claimed last year.
Now he'll have to use some other authorities if he wants to move tariffs up and down like this, you know, a 301 investigation or other authorities that are possible to use.
We'll ask about that.
Okay, but he's going to be able to figure this out.
And yes, maybe he has to use some different strategy given the Supreme Court's ruling.
But I have a feeling they'll get there.
And they may say that this is temporary.
But look, a 25% hit to German car manufacturers is not good right about now.
No, Freddie Mertz, and you guys are funny, Davy Lorenzo.
Reminding me that that was the neighbor in I Love Lucy, Fred Mertz.
Anyway, you're looking at a big problem because they're all talking about you get a German think tank guy telling the FT today that German cars in the U.S. will become prohibitive.
The price is going to be too much.
So I hope you already bought your Mercedes or your BMW because these cars are going to go up in price.
Transatlantic relations are developing into a major stress test for the German automotive industry.
Industry, he said.
And then you get the Kiel Institute for the World Economy estimating that higher car tariffs from Germany in Germany would shave about three tenths of a percent off of GDP for Germany in the next year.
And that it makes the prospect of an economic downturn far more plausible.
So Mr. Meretz, like, really should have thought this one through before he decided to go on the attack and say that the U.S. was being humiliated.
Because if you want to just, you know, you want to play that humiliation game, I have a feeling that we're going to win that one all day long.
And we are.
In effect, not only humiliating Iran, which we have done.
They have no military, they have no navy, they have nothing.
Okay, they have literally nothing.
They'd have got a couple little fishing boats that they're trying to take down our tankers, with.
Good luck with that guys.
But you know what?
We're humiliating Europe as well.
We're humiliating Germany and and frankly, Italy.
Italy that I love, I mean, I really love it.
Don't forget, I studied Italian opera forever.
I studied German opera too.
I didn't love it as much.
You know, it's all that.
It's not fun to sing in, Just saying.
Okay, so criticism is coming now from Mertz's own party.
You've got senior members of his party saying, We should not give Trump an incentive for rash actions through public statements like, duh, buddy.
Like, just don't go shooting your mouth off in your hometown where you're trying to be like the big, you know what?
You're trying to walk in like you're king of the place.
And this is going to get you exactly what it got you 25% tariffs on your automakers.
5,000 troops out, plus the promise of more troops coming home.
You got Italy panicking.
France, if it knows what's good for it, will start panicking.
And Donald Trump is saying this Hey, Italy, Spain, you guys are next.
The amazing thing is they use the Strait of Hormuz.
We don't.
We don't use it.
We don't need it.
We have a lot of oil.
We don't need it.
Well, wait a minute.
And they use it.
We don't.
And you would have thought they would have said, We would love to help you.
But they didn't, which I think was averse.
And Germany, I mean, he's doing a terrible job.
He's got immigration problems, he's got energy problems, he's got problems of all kinds, and he's got a big problem with Ukraine because they're in that mess.
And he criticized me for doing the whole thing with Iran, but I said, Would you like to have a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran?
He said, No, I don't.
I said, Well, then I guess I'm right.
He didn't have any answer to that.
You know, again, it's like they expect us to do it all.
and they're trying to preserve their own political capital.
Let's just think about the president right now.
He's risking his political capital.
I mean, you've seen all the polls.
I don't know as I fully trust them, but I do think that polls sometimes are correlated with gas prices, and gas prices have gone up a little bit, all right?
Let's admit it.
They're worse in California than they are anywhere else, but gas prices have gone up.
And so he's risking his own political capital, his own equity right now with his own party to try to do the right thing for the world.
And Georgia Maloney and Macron and Keir Starmer and Fred, Freddy, Mertz.
They don't want to take any risks whatsoever.
So they want to have their cake and eat it to typical Europeans for you, Marie Antoinette style.
Okay?
Let them eat cake.
Let them eat cake and they want to eat it all.
They want every single last crumb and they want us to foot the bill.
Enough, right?
Like enough, guys.
I mean, we can't keep going down this path because we've got our own obligations that we got to think about.
Georgia Maloney freaking out right now.
Somehow she's seemingly getting the message.
Speaking in Armenia, less than 24 hours ago, she's trying to say, well, you know, Italy, we always pay our bills.
We always pay our bills.
Actually, you don't really.
You know, up until quite recently, you weren't paying your NATO bills.
And you've already made it clear you don't know if you can pay them this year again because you're equivalent of Scott Besant over there and you're equivalent of Treasury.
I guess it would be their central bank in Italy.
They don't really have a central bank, let's be honest, only because everything runs through Brussels now.
But, you know, their economic guru is out there saying, hey, you know, we're going to get hit and we may not have as much money.
We may see a recession this year.
And so they're already warning that NATO is going to have to, you know, take a cut, take a hit.
So she's trying to tell us, oh, no, we always pay our debts.
I don't like the way he's doing this.
I really think that we need to do this together, but I just wish he had consulted us first.
Again, lady, I'm sorry.
Georgia, Senora, we can't.
No es posible.
Not possible.
Because if we had told you, you would have told everyone else.
And then it would have been a giant world debate.
And the next thing you know, you know, we would have been going to Davos to have this debate.
I mean, it would have been a year out.
That's not how it works, okay?
We needed to act quickly.
And so I get a kick out of her right now because I'm hearing a lot of different things out of one, Georgia Maloney.
I've played this sound for you guys before, but it's worth hearing because she was just.
Going on and on and on, like last week, about how we need immigrazione, right?
Like they need all the immigration, all bisogno.
She's saying, like, it's not possible for us to have these growing economies without immigration.
And we need all these immigrants.
She has talked about the need for nannies and, I guess, cleaners and workers for the Italian economy.
I'm just going to remind you, I was there last summer and I spoke with a young woman in a beautiful hotel in northern Italy who told me the jobs are awful.
She was making six euros an hour, so a little bit more than $6 an hour.
She still lived at home.
She was in her early 30s.
She said, nobody's dating, nobody's getting married because nobody can afford to.
So I just ask, why is Georgia Maloney then out there saying, hey, we need immigrants, and then she's got 500,000 more?
that she's bringing in and she's given them all the same benefits that you get everywhere else in Europe, right?
Why?
And Donald Trump has started criticizing her in her own papers in Italian.
You know, they do the translation thing.
He said he was shocked, absolutely shocked at her.
I mean, she's doing a complete 180, and he said it's not really smart on immigration because you can't swing it, you can't afford it.
And then here's the latest and greatest from one Georgia Maloney.
She's now singing a different tune in English, by the way.
So I'm wondering if this is for like two different audiences.
She's got the home base, the Europeans that she's trying to get along with, and then she's got the guy that really matters, right?
Who basically can pull two to five billion dollars right out of her pocket tomorrow.
Obviously, we know that uncontrolled migration flows put citizens' security under pressure, and when exploited as a hybrid threat, even the stability of the states.
But it's not all.
It also affects the economy, straining public resources and impacting on the labor market.
It weakens competitiveness.
This weakens competitiveness.
by increasing uncertainty and social tensions.
It has also linked to energy, for we have also to face the fact that many flows come from unstable regions that are key to our energy supplies.
Ultimately, all of this affects the quality of our democracies.
For when citizens feel that important challenges are not governed, they lose faith in institutions.
And when trust erodes, People become more vulnerable to manipulation, including the malicious use of artificial intelligence.
Okay.
So it's not migration.
Who are you?
Why do I feel like I got whiplash?
She sounds smart there.
Not so smart last week.
So again, I think that it may have something to do with the President of the United States having sent a really big warning.
And listen, I guess it is, you know, whatever.
Whatever it takes.
However, I don't think that we can get back to a position where we are bankrolling these countries.
I really don't.
They have to be able to stand on their own two feet.
They have to be a partner with us.
If you're our ally, you must be a partner.
And if we're paying the majority of your tab, and then you don't even have the decency to allow us the use of your airspace, France, or our own base in Sigonella in Sicily, then I don't know what to tell you, but like this is not working out.
You have become a liability, Europe.
You are no longer an asset.
We don't need to be there.
And then you treat us like dirt.
Europe Must Stand Alone00:07:55
I mean, it's not happening, okay?
So, Georgia, maybe you're getting the picture.
Is this why she's singing a different tune on immigration this week?
But, you know, who knows what she'll sing in two days from now because it just seems to be whichever way the wind blows with this lady.
Here's the president.
Italy has not been of any help to us.
And Spain has been horrible.
For sure.
Spain has been like awful.
They are the worst.
But of course, they don't really like the US.
And if you go back, you know, they have been conquered by the Moors before, right?
They've been conquered by Islam before.
You look at the architecture, it's heavily influenced by the Middle East.
And so you'd think that maybe they'd have some memories of that, but they don't, apparently.
And they actually love Iran.
And they just love.
Everyone in Palestine, they're all about the Palestinian movement and they got a super duper lib.
I mean, like lib on steroids who's running the show.
He's so liberal that he's inviting Timmy Walsover to do a speech in Barcelona.
Barcelona, kind of an armpit of a place.
I used to live there actually, going back quite a few years.
That's actually where I learned to speak Espanol.
Porque yo estudiaba en España, en Barcelona.
I got a little bit of what we call a Spanish accent, right?
The TH, which creeps in now and there then.
But it was what it was back then.
I mean, I was a teenager actually.
And I would tell you that Barcelona today is nothing like it was then.
I mean, we are going back a few decades.
It has just been completely, you know, I don't know how else to say it, but like it's not the Spanish living there anymore, right?
You've got a lot of people that have come in from Africa, from the Middle East that are dominating Spain now.
And Barcelona, as a result, is not as safe as it once was and is not a place where you would feel as comfortable as you might have been when, like, say, I was 14 years old.
It has become the most resistant member of NATO.
Again, you wonder about their plane to their base.
I don't know.
Like, at some point, I would think the people of Spain would say, gee, this is really not working out for us either.
Similar to what I think you're seeing some of in Italy, right?
Don't forget, Georgia Maloney was elected for a reason because she was fighting back against this nonstop immigration where you're going to have to pay for everyone.
And don't forget, like, if they come into Spain, they can go to Italy.
Uh huh.
If they come into France, they can go to Spain or they can go to Italy because, you know, it's one big happy EU.
I mean, I've never thought that would work.
Frankly, never, ever thought it would work.
So they've refused us the use of our jointly operated bases.
You have one in Rota, you've got one in Moron, and we're not allowed to go there, even though we're the ones, like, we say it's jointly operated.
You want to know again who's footing the bill?
I mean, we spent 200 million recently on one of those, like Rota and Moron.
I was just near one of them, actually, in my travels recently as I was reporting from Europe, and it's a vital.
Part of the economy, just a vital, vital part of the economy.
But so is the same deal in Sigolella, right?
You've got a vital part of the economy there in Sicily, and yet they think it's absolutely fine to tell us off and to not allow our usage of this at a time of, well, it's kind of like a time of war, right?
So again, I go back to I don't know how this is an ally.
We spend all this money.
I mean, billions of dollars a year in all of these countries, Italy specifically.
We get a ton of bases there.
We only have two that really matter in Spain, but one of them is kind of important in Spain because it does control, rather, or is positioned across a very vital passageway there, linking our oceans together.
So, you know, look, we have reasons for wanting to be there, but if we can't actually be there, then I don't know what all this money is about.
So let me go to the full soundbite where Donald Trump is.
Sticking it to these guys.
Hey, Spain, the little liberal guy there who's inviting Timmy Walson.
I'm sure Bernie Sanders was over there too.
And I wouldn't have any doubt if China had a hand in actually bankrolling the entire little festival that they had recently, a couple of weeks ago in Spain.
He too is bringing tons of people over.
I should remind you that they have announced massive plans for immigration, 500,000 actually this year, huge lines outside the Moroccan embassy there in Madrid.
As people are invited in, and I just don't know how they're paying for any of it.
I really, really don't.
Because if we're not there to foot the bill, guys, you're going to kind of be up a creek without a paddle, as they say.
You talked about possibly pulling out some troops of Germany.
Would you be considering the same thing for Spain and Italy?
I mean, they haven't been exactly on board.
Yeah, probably.
I probably will.
Why should I?
You know, look, why shouldn't I?
Italy has not been of any help to us.
And Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible.
You know, it's NATO.
It's not even the fact that they've been, it's one thing they said nicely.
Or if they said, okay, we'll help, but the help's a little slow.
But the level, and we helped them with Ukraine.
You know, they made a mess out of Ukraine, a total mess.
And we helped them with Ukraine.
Ukraine has nothing to do, you know, we're an ocean apart.
It has to do with them.
It's like for them, it's their front door.
We helped them.
And Biden gave them $350 billion, which was insane.
It's one of the reasons the war went on.
When we needed them, they were not there.
We have to remember that.
And so, if we ever have a big one, because we didn't need any help with Iran, we had Iran right from the first day it was over.
It was over.
And now it's even more so.
We're so locked and loaded if we want to do it.
But we didn't need the help.
And to a certain extent, I asked them, I didn't need the help, but I said, Yeah, we'd love to have your help because I wanted to see if they'd do it.
And they, in all cases, they said, We don't want to get involved.
And you know, the amazing thing is they use the straight of hormones.
We don't.
We don't use it.
We don't need it.
We have a lot of oil.
We do.
Well, wait a minute.
And they use it.
We don't.
And you would have thought they would have said, we would love to help you.
But they didn't.
No, they didn't.
So you see where this is going.
In other words, you get a bunch of thankless kids that want you to pay for dinner when you come to town, and not even when.
You come to town.
They want you to pay for dinner every single night.
And we're saying, okay, enough is enough.
So, as I said, they don't look that promising.
You've got Georgia Maloney and her team there in Italy saying, hey, you know, we've got an energy crisis here.
We're going to possibly see a two tenths of a percent decline in GDP.
We may not be able to meet our NATO obligations.
We're going to have to cut our defense spending.
And again, they're all looking at us.
They're all looking at us just as they bring more and more migrants into Europe.
It doesn't make economic sense.
You know, if somebody keeps coming to you for a handout, At some point, you got to say, guys, you got to say, sorry, you know what?
There's just no more where this came from.
And you're not going to get blood from a stone at this point.
No way.
They're trying, though.
And they've enlisted the media for support.
I mean, you wouldn't believe what they were saying on Morning Joe about Ukraine.
Energy Crisis Hits NATO Goals00:02:32
Yeah, Ukraine back for a visit.
We're going to talk about that.
But first, quick shout out to my other company, 76 Research.
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What a nice thing to see.
I see some of you guys talking about it in the chat.
Too, because I just look at it and say gee Germany, you think you're humiliating us, really.
You think you're humiliating us because I just want to point out that the S?
P is once again at an all-time high, up today, nearly an entire percent.
You get the Dow Jones industrial average ending up again almost a percent, 356 points.
You get the Nasdaq up just over a percent, 258 points.
I mean, if that's humiliation, i'll take it all day because i'll laugh all the way to the bank.
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Quick shout out before we get to Ukraine from our friends over at Balance and Nature, one of our terrific sponsors on the show.
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Project Freedom Saves Shipping00:15:18
MSNBC just can't believe we're not fighting the battle in Ukraine in a bigger way.
I mean, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine.
I think they're just in.
full-on meltdown mode, a kind of panic, because as the president says, hey, you know, you guys weren't there for me.
I'm not really thinking I need to be there for you.
I'm taking 5,000 at least from Germany, Italy, Spain.
I'm thinking about pulling troops from your bases as well.
Do we really need all these bases?
I mean, we can't even use them when push comes to shove.
So this is there for you, but it's not there for us.
And then you turn around and you get your hand out and you want more money for Ukraine?
I don't think so, says the president of the United States.
We got bigger fish to fry.
We want to actually develop some strategic alliances in the Persian Gulf.
Some strategic alliances in Indo Pacific areas.
I mean, we're looking at the future.
We got a plan for the next 250 years.
Europe, hey, you know what?
You're all big boys.
You can kind of do it on your own.
Well, that's the president.
And then I look at MSNBC and I'm like, why are they so invested in this?
They care deeply, deeply about Ukraine.
I mean, they were losing it this morning.
Watch.
You've had the administration lying, constantly lying about Ukraine.
Ukraine's losing the war.
Ukraine's holding no cards.
Ukraine's about to lose the Donbass.
Ukraine better go to the negotiating table because this war is almost over.
I can't tell you how many times people in the administration have told me that over the past year.
And every time I've laughed at them.
Said, no, no, they're not losing.
I don't know what your thing is with Ukraine.
Money.
But Russia is not winning this war and Ukraine is not losing.
And they're not only.
And yet they continue that.
So now you have Europe.
along with our other allies, along with Canada, coming together.
And this is something I know people have heard me say this time and again, Willie, but there's a reason why I've said it.
You've got people in the administration like JD Vance who hates Europe, Donald Trump who hates Europe.
So many other people hate I actually beg to differ.
I don't think Donald Trump hates Europe at all.
I've spoken to him on the phone.
He's like, hey, I just got up with some of my friends in France, blah, blah, blah.
I'm like, is that Macron?
It's a bigger deal to actually be talking to the president of the United States and the president of France.
But nonetheless, he really actually doesn't hate Europe the way this MSNBC anchor is trying to portray it.
I think he just kind of thinks Europe can do it.
Like they should do it.
They're big boys.
Sort of.
Europe.
Oh, they're weak.
Oh, they're woke.
Oh, they're this or that.
They also have the second largest economy in the world.
Europe's, the EU'S economy, their GDP.
Along with Great Britain, is larger than China's.
And so when the United States teams up with our natural allies that took down the Soviet Union and Hitler pretty strong, but Europe can go it alone if they need to go it alone, why wouldn't the United States want to be shoulder to shoulder with such powerful allies?
Well, that's a question for Donald Trump and historians to answer because, for the life of me Willie, I cannot figure out why he continues to try to save Vladimir Putin, the guy who's invaded Ukraine, who invaded Georgia, who wants to invade other European countries as well.
Donald Trump is on the wrong side of history.
Oh, he's on the wrong side of history.
Really?
I actually think that he's planning for the next 100 years on the right side of history.
I mean, in terms of the size of the economy, I realize that Joe Scarborough likes to try and sound smart now and then, but, you know.
He's still Joe Scarborough.
Very nice guy in person, actually.
Very nice guy, you know, a typical politician.
Says hi to everyone, but, you know, he's not that smart.
And what he doesn't understand is that the future economy is actually not going to be Europe.
I mean, and their economy all in.
Like, if you look at the EU as a whole, you get a bunch of little teeny tiny economies, and then they add up to one that's maybe around 17 trillion if they're lucky.
And we are somewhere around 30 trillion, probably a lot more than that this year.
So, you know, Europe is still kind of small potatoes.
Relatively speaking, I think as we plan out for the future, we want partners.
We want people that are going to help us.
We don't want people that are going to weight us down like a freaking ball and chain, which is what Europe has been with all their green energy and their windmills and their Davos World Economic Forum junk, right?
That has become a ball and chain.
As we speed forward into the future, we want to be the United States of America and the creme de la creme, the top, the hegemonic power of the world forever.
Well, if we've got Europe telling us you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do this, you can't do that.
Are we really going to make it?
Look, we didn't get here by anybody telling us we can't do anything.
We go guns blazing, charging forward, and we do it, right?
That is what the U.S. has always done.
So when Europe says, well, really, there are all these climate rules that you got to sign on to with the Paris Accord, and Donald Trump says, no way, no way, Jose, and they all flip out, it's about leading us forward.
Because, you know, I'll tell you, if Kamala had been elected and we shut down all the U.S. drilling here, And we went to windmills like Europe once, and then Iran got the nuclear weapon.
What do you think we'd be looking at right about now?
We'd be looking at China dominating the energy supply for the world.
And whoever dominates the energy supply for the world is dominating the future.
Because did I tell you about AI, which just needs tons and tons and tons of energy?
Listen, NATO played a role.
At a particular point in history when it mattered.
Coming out of World War II, those countries were decimated.
I get it.
And you certainly didn't want Germany doing anything militarily speaking.
So we kind of had to rebuild.
And we did.
And we helped them rebuild.
All right?
All fine.
But, you know, you think about the expansion of NATO in that time and what have we gotten for it?
Not a lot.
I mean, I'm shocked.
I mean, you started with what?
12 members, 12 founding members in NATO following World War II.
And then we have expanded to, wait for it, 32, 32 and still growing today.
So, what is it?
What is it, really?
I mean, other than, I guess, a way to have this wedge with Russia.
And let's just say that this might not be the best, smartest way to go about it.
George Cannon on NATO expansion.
This is the guy who was the ambassador during the Cold War years, all right, during some pretty difficult, tumultuous times with the USSR.
And he wrote in 1997 a really important New York Times op ed saying, and I quote, Expanding NATO would be the most fatal error of American policy in the entire post Cold War era.
Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti Western, and militaristic tendencies in Russia's opinion to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy to restore the atmosphere of the Cold War to East West relations.
In other words, if you just keep growing and growing and growing everything outside of Russia, Russia's going to look over and say, I don't really feel that great about this now.
Do you?
I mean, it's natural.
If China had continued expanding, expanding, expanding in Latin America.
Fortunately, we're getting them out.
I mean, they were having a field day down there in Venezuela until Donald Trump came back in and said, enough is enough is enough.
Maduro, bye.
Delcy, Delcy, Delcy, my sources tell me is doing a tremendous job, a really, really good job.
And she's kind of getting the place in shape and he's very happy with her.
So again, like Monroe Doctrine, you don't want all of these countries encroaching on you.
It's kind of funny.
Canada's out saying, oh, you know, we're going to talk to the Chinese right now.
Yeah, that'll go over really well.
Donald Trump's already threatened Canada with a 100% tariff if they start importing all these goods and doing free trade deals with China, this, that, and the other, in order to stick it to us.
Not happening, okay?
Because we don't want all of that encroaching right here in our yard.
Same kind of thing kind of went for Russia.
Now, you know, Russia, I get it.
It's a little bit difficult given what we've seen over the years.
And I know there's this fear that they're going to keep expanding, but.
Haven't we expanded too?
I mean, look at this.
I found this great little chart of NATO membership over time from 1950 until today.
So, again, remember, you know, it had 12 members originally and now has 32.
I mean, that's a big increase.
I'd be kind of nervous if there was an alliance right next to my border that hadn't, you know, growth that was that tremendous.
And again, I would just say, hey, you guys ought to be able to work it out diplomatically.
And if you need to actually fight this militaristically, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Don't look at us, okay?
You're big boys.
You got big economies.
Heck, Joe Scarborough was just talking about how big your economy is, all 17 trillion of it.
So, hey, you know what?
Put on your big boy pants and start earning your keep.
Hey, reminder.
And by the way, if you agree with me, please make sure you subscribe to this show.
It's really important.
We're growing, growing, growing.
I want to keep growing.
So, thank you for all you guys do for that.
I want to get to the update on the war today.
Pete Heggseth is coming out with a whole lot.
He had a press conference this morning.
The president of the United States also weighing in.
You see, we're trying to redefine this Iran strategy.
Here's the good news, and this is one of the reasons the market went up.
It doesn't look like this conflict is getting blown up into anything bigger just yet.
We are managing it in the Strait of Hormuz.
That's important, okay?
That's important.
Here he is talking about Iran's strategy, and he's getting a little annoyed.
This is the president of the United States on how Iran is so duplicitous, and they tell him one thing, and then they tell the media another.
And apparently, our media is so stupid, they buy it all.
Like CNN's like, oh, Iran said this.
Well, do you trust anything Iran said under the circumstances?
Here we go, the president.
I think it's working out very well.
We're going to see.
I can say this.
Iran wants to make a deal.
What I don't like about Iran is they'll talk to me with such great respect, and then they'll go on television and they'll say, We did not speak to the president.
We did not.
I just spoke to.
We did not speak to the president.
So they play games, but let me just tell you, they want to make a deal.
And who wouldn't when your military is totally gone?
We could do anything we want to them.
Who wouldn't?
Please.
Of course they want to make a deal.
I mean, I don't know if we're going to get there.
I'm going to be honest.
I think that we kind of have the upper hand at this point.
And we can't trust them.
I mean, we just can't.
So, you know, we took out what we needed to take out.
All they need to do is open the straight.
We've been opening the straight, but they're still presenting the security risk.
So as long as that's there, yes, it's going to be an overhang.
But how long is this going to be there?
At some point, push comes to shove and they got oil stocking up.
If they can't get that oil out, China, one, is going to be mad at them.
And two, they're going to be mad at themselves because they get a lot of money that's going to be just burnt through, right?
You're talking about a lot, a lot of money.
I was looking at Iran and if you look at it by the numbers, how much money, and we're going to talk about OPEC in just a moment because they're imploding in real time, but $435 million a day.
It's almost half a billion dollars a day, right, that they're losing.
Every day we keep this blockade on because they can't get their oil out.
So it's smart strategy.
So, yes, they want to negotiate.
But again, they're singing different tunes for different people all at the same time.
And the president has had it up to here.
Really, it's like all of a sudden you get dad coming in and just saying, okay, enough is enough is enough.
Today, despite that, we're in a little skirmish military.
I call it a skirmish because Iran has no chance.
They never did.
They know it.
They express it to me when I talk to them.
Then they get on television and they say how well they're doing.
And they have no Navy totally wiped out.
They have no Air Force totally wiped out.
They have no anti aircraft capability totally wiped out, no radar.
They have no leaders.
The leaders are wiped out.
The whole thing.
And then I read the papers and they say how well they're doing.
They're not doing well.
That's why you have no credibility.
No credibility.
The news, the fake news, has no credibility.
So, his frustration there obviously being with the fake news reporting whatever Iran tells him and treating that like gospel while questioning everything he says.
Come on, come on, come on.
He put this one out yesterday on True Social where he was saying, Look, the Navy's destroyed.
The Air Force is destroyed.
The air defense is destroyed.
It's all destroyed.
Their leaders are dead.
They are destroyed.
And he's announced Operation Project Freedom, which is very interesting because he's framing this as a new kind of project.
Like, this is not the excursion.
This is what did he call it?
He had another word for it that he just mentioned.
It's no longer an excursion.
We're taking another tactic here.
And this is one he doesn't believe he's going to need any kind of congressional approval for because we are just at this point right now with Operation Project Freedom.
We are just maintaining the normalcy of the shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz, which no one owns, by the way.
Iran does not own it.
Nobody owns it.
There are global international rules about this as far as waterways are concerned.
And it's fair game for everyone.
So he has had it.
So they are announcing now Operation Freedom.
Pete Hegseth stating the importance of this mission earlier today.
I want to go to Hegseth, who spoke out in a news conference.
Did U.S. Central Command restart the free flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz under the umbrella of Project Freedom?
To be clear, this operation is separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury.
Project Freedom is defensive in nature, focused in scope, and temporary in duration, with one mission protecting innocent commercial shipping from.
Iran Loses Half a Billion Daily00:07:44
Iranian aggression.
American forces won't need to enter Iranian waters or airspace.
It's not necessary.
We're not looking for a fight, but Iran also cannot be allowed to block innocent countries and their goods from an international waterway.
Iran is the clear aggressor, harassing civilian vessels, threatening mariners from every nation indiscriminately, and weaponizing a critical choke point for its own financial benefit, or at least trying to.
For too long, Iran has been harassing ships, shooting at civilian tankers from all.
Wow.
So, this is the new plan.
And they've made it pretty darn clear.
Iran, if you interfere, we're going to take you out.
Just like we took out those little shipping boats, those little, forgive me, fishing boats.
You know, it's like what they were doing in Venezuela earlier.
Those little fishing boats that come along, poof, poof, gone.
If you try to interfere with these waterways in any way, you are going to be, well, the president said it yesterday.
Destroyed in a pretty epic way.
Pete emphasizing this, the Secretary of War, I call him Pete because we used to work together.
Anyway, good guy, good guy.
Here we go.
Two U.S. commercial ships, along with American destroyers, have already safely transited the strait, showing the lane is clear.
We know the Iranians are embarrassed by this fact.
They said they control the strait, they do not.
Nope.
Don't control it.
We control it.
Hey, reminder subscribe, share, like, subscribe.
Don't forget, if you agree with what we're talking about here, that we need to be in charge, right?
This is important for the global world order that we are in charge of the straight.
By the way, if you haven't noticed, Donald Trump broke OPEC.
We've been talking about how he's breaking NATO, and now he's breaking OPEC.
I mean, nobody thought this one could be done, right?
OPEC was like the big bad bully that was.
Holding the world hostage whenever they wanted to by reducing supply, therefore hiking oil prices.
And now those days are over.
Imagine that.
Like he's not getting any credit for this.
And I think this is a pretty, pretty darn big deal because, you know, these original founders, gosh, look at the list.
You got Venezuela in there, Iran, Iraq.
Yeah.
And now it's like a whole new deal.
I mean, UAE, they're defecting.
They're like the third largest producer of oil, period.
And then you've got, uh, Well, the Saudis, who are now friends with us, and well, we managed to deal with Iraq previously.
So this is looking up.
Like things are looking better and better.
This little cartel is increasingly little, and they're not going to have the same kind of effect thanks to one Donald Trump.
I mean, this is the kind of stuff that builds a legacy.
Here's the headline in the Wall Street Journal The UAE's OPEC bombshell signals a new Middle East order.
You better believe it because you got one of the biggest producers over there saying, you know, we're not going to go along with OPEC anymore.
We're going to be in charge of our own output and our own destiny.
And if the world needs more oil, we're willing to fill that gap.
We're not going to set these quotas that.
Prohibit us from succeeding, especially in a world where we're going to need more and more and more and more energy.
So that sets a very, very different tone.
Now, I think the Saudis are a little bit worried about it, of course.
And, you know, we're getting along with the Saudis.
So it's not all bad.
But the UAE was OPEC's third largest producer.
You heard me say that.
And in recent years, it wanted to boost its output beyond what they were actually allowed to do vis a vis the cartel's quota system.
So they're like, hey, we got more.
We want to make more.
And OPEC said, no.
No, can do.
You know, you have to limit it to this because we want to keep prices here.
So, over the weekend, OPEC had this big meeting.
They met virtually and they decided that they'd actually allow for more oil production.
I think it's 188,000 barrels a day that they're allowing for, which is the right move, like honestly, in a time like this.
But still, it's got to hurt.
UAE is like, bye-bye.
See you later.
Oh, and by the way, did we tell you they're getting a credit swap facility through Scott Besant?
Yeah.
So, basically, anytime they need dollars, We are willing to effectively be that lender of last resort.
So I wouldn't be surprised if, I'm just saying, like there may have been some strings attached to that arrangement.
And thus, this was the intention all along.
Let's break OPEC because you know Venezuela's going next.
I mean, I can't imagine Venezuela's going to stay very long, given that we are effectively the ones calling the shots in Venezuela.
So if we need more oil, we want them to produce more oil.
We're not going to say, hey, you know, wait around for everybody else to okay it and take a big vote.
Anyway, they are allowing for $188,000.
Barrels of oil to be pushed out a day.
But I'll just tell you this I mean, Trump, whoo, he's breaking OPEC in real time.
And you know what?
He's got a partner in crime on this one, and that would be Scott Besant, Treasury Secretary, who's thinking through all the implications of everything we're doing from a financial and international standpoint right now.
And he promised just yesterday, hey, hang on, stay with us, hang tight.
Oil prices, gas prices are coming down, and here's why.
Watch.
Would you say to the American consumer that help is on the way?
You have it in mind.
Help is on the way as of today.
The way to think about it is the market, because of the conflict around the Strait, is in deficit about 10 million barrels a day, between 8 and 10 million barrels a day right now.
So every crude carrier that goes through has about 2 million barrels.
So four or five crude carriers a day coming through of the pent up demand.
We think there are more than 150, 200 crude carriers.
That can come out.
So I think the market is going to be very well supplied.
The other thing, too, is I am confident on the other side of this, the world's going to be awash in oil.
The UAE has come out of OPEC.
They're going to be pumping more.
OPEC just announced they're going to be pumping more.
And the U.S. has record crude deliveries.
We are the number one energy superpower in the world, and we have never delivered so much crude.
Wow.
Okay.
So, you know, We're kind of like OPEC now.
We got so much crude and the world's looking at us.
I mean, we got oil coming up the wazoo and we got it all down there in the Orinoco region in Venezuela, which actually rivals Saudi Arabia.
There were more proven reserves.
And we got to get them out of the ground and it's thick tar like stuff, but we can do it.
We can do it.
And we've got great American companies down there that are working aggressively to get all that stuff out of the ground.
And so, you know, who needs OPEC?
OPEC's becoming irrelevant.
I mean, it doesn't matter.
They can say, oh, we're not going to pump oil.
We're not going to allow for it.
And we'll say, okay, it doesn't matter.
We got Venezuela, who's about to leave OPEC, if you ask me.
And we got ourselves, numero uno, okay?
We've got ourselves and we've got All of these energy resources right here in the US of A.
So we're sitting pretty.
And that's important.
And this is going to be, I'm telling you, incredible, incredible for our future as we look forward to the next couple of decades.
And Iran, if they know what's good for them, they will make a deal, as the president said, because they're losing nearly half a billion dollars a day.
You can't survive that way.
You just can't.
IRS Agents Investigate Fraud00:08:20
No way, no how.
Reminder, reminder 76research.com.
We called all this, by the way, we've called it.
Which is one of the reasons why we're seeing our energy portfolio.
They're up 60% in the last month.
Utilities up 40%.
Real estate up 27%.
Industrials up 78%.
Financials up 65%.
You get the picture.
I want you to go there.
Use my code word dollar, D O L L A R. Use code word dollar at 76research.com.
But really, guys, if you can do it, try to get the three different portfolios.
We give you all the names and all the stocks that we like right now.
Okay, Ilhan Omar.
Ilhan Omar, the clock is ticking, lady.
That's today that you got a deadline you're supposed to meet in Minnesota with all of those forms because they're investigating your financial standing, whatever it may be.
For Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to turn over documents to Minnesota's House Fraud Prevention Committee, the state is seeking communications tied to defendants in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme.
The nonprofit falsely claimed to serve millions of meals to children while pocketing.
Federal funds.
Omar's name appeared six times in court documents from the case as she reportedly communicated with the founder of Feeding Our Future.
Omar's office has not responded to Fox News' multiple requests for comment.
No.
Ilhan Omar's office isn't really responding to anyone, not even James Comer's Essex office there in the House of Representatives.
And I think we all know the real reason why.
I think she's terrified right about now.
You know, I.
I did some digging on this, and one of the challenges we have with Ilhan Omar is that she actually doesn't have to respond to anyone, believe it or not.
She can skip all the document deadlines she wants, and yes, it looks bad politically, but it doesn't actually have any teeth, which is super frustrating.
I know.
I thought that Comer at least would have some teeth.
Nope, she's just ignoring all his requests for documentation, and she's doing the same thing with Minnesota.
I guess she could even do the same thing with the White House, but here's where it gets tricky for her.
The IRS, if they have a criminal investigation, could be a problem.
A standard IRS audit would also be a problem.
We wouldn't even know about it, believe it or not, because by law, they're not able to tell us.
So if they're in fact doing this, and she would know about it in theory, possibly not if it's criminal in nature, but they can't tell us at this point.
So we kind of have to go on a hope and a prayer that they're doing the right thing.
There are reasons why they may not tell us, of course, because it could possibly compromise this investigation.
And I want to explain some of that.
It's worth understanding.
Basically, laws protect one from it being explicitly reported that you are the subject of an IRS investigation.
And so it is entirely possible that there are IRS criminal agents behind the scenes right now looking for some of this information.
Don't forget, anybody who was part of feeding our future, and Scott Besant said this, they were looking into all of their financial records and they were looking to cross reference things.
One can only assume they're trying to cross reference with one Ilhan Omar.
You know, the investigation itself is a big deal for the IRS.
And that is what they're looking into with all of the people.
And there's like, what, 79 of them?
Maybe it's up to 83 at this point that have been convicted of feeding our future fraud.
There are all these emails between Ilhan, apparently, and the feeding our future head.
So they've got to get to the bottom of all of that.
And I suspect that's actually what's.
Going on.
I mean the president.
Well, he doesn't mince words when it comes to Ilhan Omar in his belief that she is involved in fraud, not just on the immigration front, which he has alleged, but also on the financial fraud.
Remember, here he is, down at the villages on friday in Florida, run around shooting each other.
It's filthy dirty, disgusting dirty.
It's a horrible place.
They come here and Ilhan Omar you ever hear of her, she heads it And think of it.
They have nothing but crime, poverty, pollution.
Everything is horrible over there.
Nothing good.
They say it's the worst country anywhere in the world, and we got some beauties out there, but it's the worst.
And then she comes here from Somalia, and she tells us how to run the United States of America.
She says, she says, the Constitution gives me certain rights.
Gives me certain rights.
And I demand that I be given these rights.
Get the hell out.
What a phony.
And then she married a brother to come in.
I don't know, you know, you're not.
But I think, I would imagine they're looking at her.
I have nothing to do with it.
I would imagine.
Of course I have nothing to do.
I have nothing.
But I believe she married her brother, which is totally illegal.
Although it's a lovely couple, actually, but it's a little bit on the illegal side.
Darling, I love you very much.
Good night, brother.
Let's go to bed.
Isn't she despicable?
I can't stand watching.
I can't stand.
Did you see last month she accidentally checked the wrong box that said she was worth $38 million?
And law enforcement came after her for that.
And then all of a sudden she was worth less than $80,000.
And she said it was accounting.
It was an accounting error.
That was not a very good accountant, was it?
No.
Their whole life is based on fraud and a scam.
The whole thing is a scam, and we ought to get those people the hell out of our country.
Okay, big applause for that one.
So he said something in that little clip that I think is pretty interesting.
He said, you know, I imagine they're on to her for that.
He also said that law enforcement came asking some questions regarding her filing.
That's interesting, too, to me, because I know that Comer was asking questions, but if law enforcement is asking questions, well, that's exactly what we want, okay?
Exactly what we want, guys, because basically she may not know if she's the subject of a criminal investigation right now by the IRS or any special agents because by the time they get to her directly, one would anticipate that they have started to kind of circle the wagons and connect the dots and have the money trail all out there in the open.
They don't necessarily want this known because people might start hiding records and you don't want them hiding records any more than they already have.
There are also, in fairness, strict confidentiality laws, something that called the Section 6103, which makes tax returns and return information, including the existence of an audit, investigation, or examination, absolutely confidential.
So IRS employees are not allowed to say this, and she might have a case possibly against him, or against the government, I should say, should this get released publicly.
But don't forget, they did that raid in Minnesota last week.
Remember?
Breaking just moments ago now large scale raids targeting federal fraud currently underway.
Federal agents seen leaving the Quality Learning Center.
And Brooke Taylor has more on that and what they're looking for.
Brooke, good morning.
Hi, Bill.
Good morning.
Yeah, we have had a photographer there at the daycare since this morning, capturing video of those federal agents just going in and out of the building, collecting evidence as part of the DOJ's fraud investigation in Minnesota.
Federal Agents Raid Daycare00:06:25
Take a look at this video here.
Sources tell Fox that federal agents are raiding about 22 businesses across.
Minneapolis this morning.
And sources say many of them are tied to Somali owned operations.
All of this comes after that viral YouTube video from Nick Shirley.
It was back in December.
In that video, he visited different child care centers.
And you'll remember they were either closed or there were just no children inside despite receiving state child care funding.
Now, the location that you're looking at right now, it's the quality learning center.
This is the daycare.
It went viral.
It blew up on social media.
Because of a sign outside with learning that was literally misspelled.
The education secretary at the time claimed that the daycare received $1.9 million while, quote, masquerading as a daycare.
I mean, it's unbelievable, right?
Just absolutely unbelievable.
And congrats to Nick Shirley for all his great reporting.
Hey, by the way, if you agree with me that Ilhan Omar needs to be held accountable, make sure you subscribe and hit the bell so you know every single time I'm here, especially when I'm live.
But I've done a lot of reporting on this and none of it adds up, okay, guys?
None of it.
Exclusive partnerships for global operators.
That's the hubby's business, a venture capital firm.
What was that?
And then he claimed that he had, wow, I mean, $60 billion in assets under management experience.
That makes literally no sense.
It would make him like the biggest, largest venture capital firm around.
I mean, that didn't make any sense.
They had 11 free trade agreements that they signed, countries that they've worked in, 80 some odd countries they've worked in.
They have five diplomats working for them.
What was this other than some kind of, well, I don't know, money laundering operation?
I'll just say it.
That's what it looks like to me.
I have no proof at this point.
I'd love to get in there and see those financial records.
Absolutely, positively love it because here's what I would be looking for.
I'll just tell you, okay?
I would be looking to see if any of those daycares or any of those Feeding Our Future things, or by the way, she was as recently, I think, as a month ago, trying to get more Feeding Our Future stuff all the way through.
I mean, she's just relentless, right?
She doesn't stop.
So here's the thing.
If any of those bank accounts have any association to any of the companies related to Timmy Minot, that's the Husby's, Hubby's venture capital firm, then you got real questions to ask.
He's taken down his website.
He doesn't have it anymore, but, you know.
I'm lucky I actually clipped those back when it still existed.
He put the winery right out of business.
It doesn't exist anymore.
This is as of earlier in April, they decided to wind that thing down.
This is a guy, let me remind you, who has had multiple accusations of fraud.
I mean, and he was getting paid nearly $3 million to run her campaign.
Numbers that don't make any sense, any sense at all, like no sense at all, because guess what?
You don't make that much money.
When you run a congressional campaign, you don't make that much money when you run, believe it or not, a campaign for the presidency.
I mean, that's why everybody was freaking out.
Oh my gosh, could you believe it?
Joe Biden's campaign manager was going to get $4 million if he won.
I think he deserved eight.
Honestly, if you get Joe elected, you're like a miracle worker, right?
Oh my gosh.
So, you know, we were talking about scammers right now in relation to one Ilhan Omar.
It gives me a good opportunity to mention one of our other sponsors.
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Again, actually, you know what?
It's action.aarp.
I'm going to put this in the show notes as well so that you can see this.
I mean, you do not ever want to be a victim of this at all, ever, ever, ever, ever.
But let me just put this up so that we can see this.
We have the exact right address, and it is Action, if you would, action.aarp.org slash fraud pledge.
I feel like this is a public service announcement.
I really do, especially in light of the movie I saw the other day and some of the things we've been talking about.
So go check that out when you have a moment paid for by AARP.
We thank them for their patronage here on the show, and this is important.
But I'll just say, I'll be interested to see what happens there.
I think that Ilhan should be really nervous.
And again, the government can't tell you everything that's going on for reasons I explained, but I'm pretty darn sure that they are going through all of these financial records right now and they are trying to piece it together.
And again, don't mess with Besant.
That's like should be a new expression.
I mean, Besant is, I think, you know, I know everybody talks about JD and I know everybody talks about Marco Rubio, but don't count Besant out.
He's the real deal.
He's super smart.
He gets it.
I really, I'm really, he's really growing on me.
I've always known he was smart, but he's really setting us up for a bright American future, in my estimation.
So could he be in line for the presidency?
I don't want to get that rumor out there too soon, though, because, you know, you know what happens.
Politics is a vicious, vicious business.
Oh, that's my other company, 76 Research.
Guys, make sure that you subscribe, that you subscribe to the show if you haven't.
And I'll see you right back here live again tomorrow.