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Unknown A
Well, folks, tonight Daily Wire backstage returns live for President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress. We are covering it all like never before with Matt Walsh and me live from D.C. do not miss the exclusive pre show at 8:30pm Eastern, followed by the full address completely uninterrupted. And when he's done, we're back with a breakdown of what it all means. Watch with us tonight, 8:30pm Eastern Time on Daily Wire. Speaking of which, the president of the United States tonight we'll be speaking to a joint session of Congress. It's not technically a State of the Union address, but it is in fact a State of the Union address. It's just that in your first year, you don't really do that. In any case, President Trump is going to be saying a lot of things according to his truth Social quote, all caps tomorrow night will be big.
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Unknown A
I will tell it like it is. Well, I mean, I think we're pretty used to that, so it'll be interesting to see what exactly that encompasses. But there's a lot happening, most of it good, some of it dicey, a lot of it risky. I think we are all invested in the success of the Trump administration. We should be as Americans, we should be invested in President Trump being a wild success in the economy going up and to the right, in immigration going down, illegal immigration going down, in world security getting stronger. We should be invested in all of these things because, after all, we are all invested in a better America for everyone. And again, on many of these things, President Trump's mere presence in the White House has changed things radically, most obviously with regard to legal immigration. So this was Trump's raison debt.
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This is the reason he entered politics in the first place in 2015, 2016, it is now a decade later, and President Trump is doing the thing that Democrats said was impossible. They said without a giant piece of legislation from Congress, there was in fact, no way to bring down the rates of illegal immigration. And then it turns out all it took was a president who says he's going to report illegal immigrants and the rates of illegal immigration drop effectively. According to Breitbart.com, a social media post by the chief of US Border Patrol, Michael Banks, shows February apprehensions to be a record low for the agency. Banks post reveals the startling impact of the Trump presidency on illegal migration to the United states. In the 42 days since issuing office, Banks posted, quote, february approves our combined efforts in securing the border work. U.S. border Patrol apprehended 8,326 illegal aliens at the U.S.
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mexico border, making it the lowest month in recorded history. That's an insanely low number. Insanely low. Remember that there were months during the Biden administration where in excess of 200,000 illegal immigrants were crossing the border every single month. There were days there were like 8,000, 10,000 illegal immigrants arriving at the border. That is a drop of 94%. 94% from the 140,000 encountered just one year ago. Even since December, that is a drop of 82%. And there's only one reason for that. And as the presence of President Trump in the White House, Tom Homan as his borders are Secretary of Ambulance Security Kristi Noem. This administration takes illegal immigration very seriously. And you know what? Illegal wins are not coming. It turns out all it took was a new president to fix this particular problem. Meanwhile, there are other percolating problems that President Trump is taking on.
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Unknown A
So there's a big announcement. Yesterday, President Trump announced that tsmc, which is the largest manufacturer of sophisticated microchips on planet Earth, located in Taiwan, and they're about 92% of all sophisticated semiconductors on planet Earth. President Trump announced yesterday that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Will be investing at least $100 billion more in chip manufacturing plants in the United States over the next several years. Tsmc, according to the Wall Street Journal, plans to use the funds to add to chip manufacturing it's already building in Arizona, will construct three new chip plants, two chip packaging plants, and a research and development center, according to Chief Executive CC Way. Here's President Trump at the White House announcements yesterday.
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Unknown B
Today, Taiwan Semiconductor is announcing that they will be investing at least $100 billion in new capital in the United States over the next short period of time to build state of the art semiconductor manufacturing facilities. I think mostly it's going to be in Arizona, which is what I understand, which is a great, a great state. I like it because I want it, but I won most of them, actually. But I did. We won it and we won it big. The most powerful AI chips in the world will be made right here in America.
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Unknown A
Again, this is a big win for President Trump. It follows on a commitment by TSMC to build a chip factory in Arizona for $12 billion back in 2020, President Trump said if they did the chips in Taiwan and send them here, they would have a 25% or 30% or 50% tariff. It'll only go up by doing here. There are no tariffs. So the company is now planning to spend a total of $165 billion on its U.S. factories. Now that is good for a couple of reasons. That is good, number one, obviously because it creates jobs in the United States. It is also good because it diversifies the sources of semiconductors. If, God forbid, the Chinese will blockade Taiwan and it's three years from now, presumably TSMC would set up chip manufacturing facilities in the United States sufficient to prevent the Chinese from essentially shutting down the world economy.
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Unknown A
That's a major issue. Semiconductors are the new oil. Lack of semiconductors can shut down entire massive industries in the United States. Everything from your phone to your car to your refrigerator runs on semiconductors. And so were trying to grab control of TSMC in Taiwan, it would be a world catastrophe. Diversifying that resource inside the United States is of course a good move for the United States. It also happens to be a good move for TSMC for a couple of reasons. One, it means that the United States is now invested in making sure that TSMC is not victimized by the Chinese in Taiwan. President Trump would love to see all this investment move from TSMC in Taiwan to the United States. But if TSMC in Taiwan stops existing, it's very hard for that money to make the move. And two, again, when it comes to US domestic production of resources that are actually crucial national security industries, it makes sense to subsidize that production in the United States to reshore it in the United States.
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Unknown A
Since the Biden administration, the United States has expressed concerns about TSMC's near nobody on advanced chip manufacturing has been urging the company to relocate more of its cutting edge production, including advanced chip packaging facilities, to the United States. The US supported TSMC's growth through the 2022 Chips Act. That was a giant subsidy act by the Biden administration. Now one of the problems is that it's going to take a while for these factories to come online. It is not as though the money comes in and magically TSMC is up and running in the United States in Arizona, the same way it is up and running in Taiwan. But looking down the road, the production of these semiconductors can be incredibly important. And again, domestic chip manufacturing capacity is a national security imperative. So that makes a lot of sense. Trump said on the campaign trail, quote, Taiwan pretty much has monopoly on the market.
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Unknown A
We must be able to build the chips and semiconductors we need right here in American factories with American skill and American labor. And that's exactly what we are doing. This of course follows very hard on the building of other gigantic AI based facilities by, for example, OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. Remember just last month, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Oracle and SoftBank pledge to invest as much as $500 billion into building AI infrastructure in the United States. Last week, Apple said it planned to spend more than $500 billion and had 20,000 jobs over the next four years domestically to expand its own manufacturing footprint in the United States. Now, the reality is Apple was already doing some of this. Apple was already building this domestic manufacturing base, but it gives one to President Trump, which is a smart piece of politicking by Apple. That's the good news. The bad news yesterday is the Dow Jones industrial average dropped massively on news that President Trump was interested in reinstating all these 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico.
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Unknown A
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped about 1.5%. At one point, 750 points, it closed down about 650 points. And there's a lot of angst, a lot of heartburn over President Trump's announcements about tariffs. According to the Associated Press, President Trump said the 20% tax on imports from Mexico and Canada would start Tuesday, sparking renewed fears in North American trade war that already showed signs of pushing inflation up and hindering growth. And this is why President Trump does have to walk very carefully. Inflation killed Joe Biden's presidency. If you wish to see President Trump be successful, he needs a booming economy. He cannot have a recessionary economy. If tariffs continue to drive up prices and if wages do not increase sufficient to meet those prices, you're going to be exactly the same predicament in which Joe Biden found himself. Now, again, I'm totally fine with using tariffs as leverage.
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Unknown A
If the goal of the tariffs is to get other countries to lower their own tariffs. If the idea is you have a 25% tariff on our lumber and now we have to put a 25% tariff on your oil products, and then we trade one for the other and all the tariffs go away, I'm perfectly fine with that. If the idea of a tariff is to threaten to the country of Colombia with a 50% tariff in order to get them to take deportees, great. That is a piece of leverage. I still am unclear as to what the actual demand is against Mexico or Canada, that would get rid of the tariffs. If the idea of the tariffs, that they are inherently a good for the United States, that is not true. Tariffs are, in fact, a tax on American consumers. They drive up the prices. President Trump is playing a bit of a risky game when it comes to tariffs.
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Unknown A
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Unknown A
They simply can't be produced in China or not. Any place that is subject to Chinese predation. I get that and I'm all for it. And there's another thing to say that Canada is some sort of deep dividing national security threat, requiring widespread 25% tariffs on Canadian products. Canada, by the way, is the number one trade partner with the United States here was President Trump yesterday saying there's no room left for negotiation? I don't know where there were negotiations going on on the tariffs. Is there any room left for Canada and Mexico to make a deal before midnight? And should we expect those Chinese tariffs.
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Unknown B
The extra 10%, no room left for Mexico or for Canada? No, the tariffs, you know, they're all set. They go into effect tomorrow.
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Unknown A
Now, again, I just want to know why, like, what are we getting out of this as American consumers? What do we receive from the tariffs? I understand the theory, which is that there are going to be a lot of companies that reshort inside the United States and it's true there will be jobs in those industries. But the thing about tariffs is that they have a discrete beneficiary and they have diffuse victims. In other words, there's a group of people who benefit from the tariffs and everyone else pays it. Essentially a subsidy from every other consumer in the United States to people in those industries. They're now going to be making more money. That's what a tariff actually does, which is why yesterday Warren Buffett was criticizing tariffs as a general matter. How do you think tariffs will affect the economy? Tariffs are actually, we've had a lot of experience with them.
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Unknown A
They're an act of war to some degree. How do you think tariffs will impact inflation over time? There are tax on, on goods. I mean, the truth fairy doesn't pay up. Buffett knows of what he speaks. The Canadian foreign minister already said, quote, if Trump's imposing tariffs were ready, we're ready with $155 billion worth of tariffs and we're ready with first financial tariffs, which is $30 billion. Again, that would be the Canadian foreign minister, Melanie Jolie. She also said that Canada has a very strong border plan and explained that to Trump officials last week. He said diplomatic effort continue. So again, if this is again just another gambit, by President Trump to get a win out of Canada, that's fine with me. If, however, this goes back to President Trump's sort of general warmth for tariffs, that's not good policy. It just isn't the idea.
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Unknown A
By the way, the tariffs are going to pay off the national debt. That's, that's nonsense. The amount that tariffs paid last year is only $80 billion. The national debt in the United States, $37 trillion. So, yeah, that is not going to work. There will be some good headlines in the merge. So, for example, Honda is now going to produce an ex Civic in Indiana, not Mexico, apparently due to US Tariffs. This is according to Reuters. The change underscores how manufacturers are scrambling to adapt President Trump's proposed 25% tariffs on goods from both Mexico and Canada. This is the first concrete measure by a major Japanese car company. Now, again, that's going to be good for the people who are living in Indiana, who gets to work at the factories that are making the Honda Civic. It's not necessarily going to be good for all the American consumers who are now going to be paying more money for the Honda Civic, which is presumably what is going to happen here.
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Unknown A
The prices are going to go up. Mexico has long been a lower cost production hub for Japanese and other global automakers. So reshoring it does have costs. And we should recognize that those costs should be realistic about the prospects of the Trump economy. And again, we need a strong economy from President Trump. There are some blinking red lights here. I've been saying for several weeks at this point, really, since President Trump took office, that the number one focus of the Trump administration has to be to get the economy back on track. What does that mean? Means productivity increases, yes, for things like AI, but it also means. It also means radical deregulation. DOSHA's been focused up till now on getting rid of much of the personnel and a wide variety of government agencies. That's all fine, that's all great. I'm glad to get rid of those personnel.
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Unknown A
The Democrats will just rehire them as soon as they regain power. At some point, what really needs to change is the regulatory and tax structure of the United States, which is why it's very important that Trump's tax cuts become permanent. It's really important that the regulatory state get off the back of the American business person. Right now, the models that are being utilized by the Federal Reserve bank of Atlanta are showing economic contraction in the first quarter. The Atlanta Fed GDP now model had up until February 20th, they've been forecasting growth between 2 and 4% in line with other models. However, a graph on the GPN now page lists the blue chip consensus average of the top 10 and bottom 10. Forecasts have selected more than 2% US GDP growth for Q1 2025 but the February 28th update of GDP now so I plummeting forecast from roughly that same 2/plus percent to minus 1.5%.
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Unknown A
The model updated Monday with an even more pessimistic outlook negative 2.8% those are mathematical model now again that could be totally wrong. However, there are a lot of rumblings in the business community that things like tariffs, like the overvaluing of the stock market that has occurred due to the inflationary spiral brought since COVID that's destined to come down. I pointed this out before, but the magnificent seven top seven companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Those top seven companies have a price to earnings ratio almost of 60. That means the total price of the company compared to the earnings of the company on an annualized basis. 60. That's crazy. That's completely out of whack. The entire Dow Jones Industrial Average at this point has a PE ratio of about 26. It really needs to be down to about 16. It's too high. Meanwhile, real estate is also getting stuck because the interest rates remain relatively high by historical standards.
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Unknown A
And that means that grandma wants her house because she sells her house. She's going to buy a new house with the worst interest rate. That means inventory is not actually matching demand. There are all sorts of problems with the economy. The administration needs to focus laser like on that because nothing kills an administration faster than a weak economy. Joe Biden learned this the hard way. Speaking of which, there's a lot of consternation rising over the looming government shutdown. According to the Washington Post, Congress has less than two weeks to extend federal spending laws and keep the government open. Republican negotiators walk away from talks over the weekend to reach a deal on a top line number on how much the federal government should spend for the rest of 2025. Democrats said the number is irrelevant if Trump refuses to spend the money in accordance with the law or if he allows Doge to basically go through with a red pen.
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Meanwhile, Trump and his advisors, including budget chief Russell Watt, have argued the president has the power withhold money Congress orders to spend. Democrats they want assurances from congressional Republicans in the White House the administration will actually spend any money included in any new law preventing a shutdown. Now Republicans theoretically could continue to pass a continuing resolution. They could have hurt a government shutdown on their own. But that's going to require Republicans to get together again. So once again, heavy burden falls on speaker of the House Mike Johnson on all this stuff because of the narrowness of his majority. And Democrats are already preparing the bad headlines. Democrats are eager for a bad headline. According to cnbc, Democrats are now claiming that because the Social Security administration is opening its doors to Doge, this means that presumably Social Security payments will be missed. That, of course, would be a killer for the Trump administration were it to be true.
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Former Commissioner and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley told CNBC, Ultimately, you're gonna see the system collapse and an insurrection of benefits. I believe you'll see that within the next 30 to 90 days. Now, it's worth noting here that Martin O'Malley is a wild Democrat who at one point, actually, I believe, ran for the head of the Democratic National Committee. So there's that. However, all it takes is one bad headline, truly one bad headline, to switch public opinion on a lot of things that are going on right now. So it's wonderful. The Trump administration is moving fast and breaking things and tearing down bad systems. What they're doing in immigration is fantastic. What Doge is doing, I think, is wonderful. However, the economy must continue to sail. It must. And the perception of American strength must continue. Which brings us to the situation in Ukraine. So I don't know what in the hell Vlad Vladimir as once he thinks he's doing this way, I honestly don't understand it.
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Unknown A
The president of Ukraine seems to believe that he continues to chide President Trump and then say rather untethered things about the war, that somehow this is going to earn him the support of America in some way. So President Trump has made very clear he wants a ceasefire. He wants this war ended as soon as possible. And meanwhile, Zelensky is out there preaching that the war is never going to end. At the end of the war is still very, very far away. What does he think Trump is going to do? Of course President Trump is going to see that as rebuke to him. Here's Zelensky yesterday. There's an agreement to end the war still very, very far away. And no one has started all these steps out. The peacefully foreseeing the future must be just, honest and most importantly, sustainable. Now, that, of course, was almost designed to earn President Trump's umbrage.
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Unknown A
President Trump immediately responded by saying he better not be right about the end of the war being far away. Here was a press conference yesterday.
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Unknown B
President Zelensky supposedly made a statement today in ap. I'm not a big fan of ap, so maybe it was an incorrect statement, but he said he thinks the war's going to go on for a long time and he better not be right about that.
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Unknown A
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Get 40% off your first box plus get a free item in every box for life. Go to hungryroot.com Ben use code Ben that's hungryroot.com Benpod Ben get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. Hungryroots.com Ben Code Ben okay Trump then put out a statement on truth social quote. This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky and America will not put up with it for much longer. It is what I was saying. This guy does not want there to be peace as long as he has America's backing. And Europe in the meeting they had with Zelensky stated flatly they cannot do the job without the United States. Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking? And he can't wrong about that. What are they thinking is in fact the question of the day.
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Unknown A
Trump went on to bang on Zelensky by suggesting that Zelensky really needs to switch his approach or he will be gone in short order.
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Unknown B
I think everybody has to get into a room, so to speak. And we have to make a deal. And the deal can be made very fast. It should not be that hard a deal to make. It could be made very, very fast. Now maybe somebody doesn't want to make a deal. And if somebody doesn't want to make a deal, I think that person won't be around very long. That person will not be listened to very long. I gave Russia nothing except grief. I gave him nothing. I gave him sanctions and javelins. That's what I gave him. Obama gave him sheets. And you heard that statement before. It's a very famous Trump gave him javelins and Obama gave him sheets. And then they say how close I am to Russia.
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Unknown A
Again, President Trump does not want to be perceived as a, as a sort of stand in for Vladimir Putin in all of this. Trump was ready to do the thing earlier last week. He was ready to do the thing he wanted to sign. I said over and over that rare earth's mineral deal. Why? Because the goal was to do with Zelensky what he's currently doing with Taiwan. Again, TSMC is the company in Taiwan that makes the semiconductors the semiconductors are now going to be made partially in the United States. Taiwan is going to invest via TSMC. TSMC, the company is going to be investing $100 billion in American domestic manufacturing of semiconductors that serves a dual purpose. One, it re shores some key items that America wants and needs. And two, it also means that the United States is now invested in the continued success, health and prosperity of tsmc, which means more invested in Taiwan.
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Unknown A
Trump was trying to do that exact same thing with Ukraine. He didn't want to issue an open security guarantee because the situation is too volatile. He just wanted the rare earth minerals deal as a way a wedge to get in. He openly said this during the press conference. He said it. He kept this close to just saying he was gonna give a security guarantee. That was effectively a caveat to the rare earth's minerals deal. And top Republicans are still hoping that Zelensky comes back to the table on that thing. I don't know what the hell Zelensky is doing. Seriously, as someone who would like to see Ukraine capable of standing up to Russian predictions, I do not know what Zelensky is thinking here. According to Politico, congressional Republicans are signaling they want President Trump and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to patch things up after testy Olav's meeting cast significant doubt about the future of the U.S.
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ukraine relationship. GOP lawmakers on Mondays sought to lower the temperature just days after the clash between the leaders sent shockwaves through Washington and Europe, with members of Trump's party expressing optimism the nations could still clinch a mineral steel to bolster goes back for Ukraine, Senator leader John Thune said, I just hope they get things back on track and then everybody will redouble their efforts. He said. This historic opportunity, a potentially historic agreement, obviously last week was a missed opportunity. I think people are operating in good faith. I think we can get things back on the rails. Meanwhile, we'll see what President Trump has to say about all of this. In his speech for joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Lindsey Graham, who had blasted Zelensky on Friday, said, quote, I told President Zelensky, do the minerals deal, see if we get an arms package, we'll talk about good ending the war.
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Unknown A
That's the sequence. The more he talks about security guarantees and the war gonna be a long time away from mending, the harder his case will be. Speaker Johnson also defended Trump on Monday. But I quote, I encourage, as I did over the weekend, President Zelensky to come back to the table and accept the deal that was proposed because that is the solution you gotta satisfy. Again, that's totally correct. That's totally correct. As I said yesterday on the show, there is a wide ranging belief that, that President Trump is attempting to rewrite America's power in the world by granting spheres of influence to China or to Russia. That's not, I think, what he's doing. It's not what he was doing. President Trump has had a long standing belief that when America intervenes in places around the world, America gets repaid. He believed this about Kuwait and Iraq.
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Unknown A
And by the way, this is not a rare belief in American foreign policy history. When America supported Great Britain During World War II, the initial move towards supporting Great Britain was a program called Lend Lease, in which the United States ended up with control of a huge number of very important British military bases. So the idea that America always gets nothing out of its former relations is just not true. What President Trump is attempting to do here makes perfect sense, which, by the way, is why his perspective remains popular. So Harry Anton in CNN actually did some polling on this and he said, you know, shockingly to Democrats at least, Joe Biden was wildly unpopular on Ukraine, and Trump is pretty popular on Ukraine.
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Unknown C
You look at Joe Biden back in 2024, he was 22 points underwater. Holy cow. You look at Donald Trump, it's just a different planet entirely. I mean, the gulf between these two is wider than the Gulf of America or Mexico, depending on which side of the Ayahuascana he's at. Plus two. So look at this particular point, Americans are giving Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt. He's doing considerably better than Joe Biden was doing on the handling of the Russia, Ukraine conflict. And so on the simple question, I.
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Unknown A
Think Americans are saying, okay, Donald Trump's doing all right on this, okay? Now, why do Americans feel that way? Because what Americans want is the rational thing. They know the war isn't going anywhere. They want an off ramp. Now Americans want an off ramp. Americans like foreign policy off ramps. There's one thing Americans really like a lot worse than foreign policy. Off France. It's not even endless war. Americans don't like endless war. In order of things Americans hate, they hate endless war. And then even more than endless war, they hate ignominious surrender. They really don't like ignominious surrender. Americans were humiliated by Joe Biden's collapse in Afghanistan. They hated Joe Biden for it. Look at his approval ratings. They sank into the mire. What does that mean? It means that while Americans do not want to continue to Fund the Ukrainian war indefinitely. They also do not want to see pictures of Russian soldiers strolling through Kyiv.
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Unknown A
That is not something they want. They do not want Vladimir Putin standing on Vladimir's lens, his body in the middle of the street. That's not something they want. Which is why the Trump administration move, I think, is a pressure tactic to get Zelensky come back to the table and sign the merit of minerals deal. So I think Zelensky really should do it. But the administration announced yesterday that they would pause all military aid to Kyiv until President Trump determines that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is making a good faith effort toward peace negotiations with Russia. Now, this I do think, is not a particularly good move. And the reason I'm not sure this is a particularly good move is because if you're Vladimir Putin, what would drive you to the table? It takes two tango here. What moves has Putin affirmatively made? It's worth a deal.
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Unknown A
Now, again, I can say all day long that I think I know what deal looks like. It looks like Europeans give security guarantee to the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians feel some level of security. They're not being invaded by Russia. Again, Donbass and Crimea go to Russia. Right. That's been the deal since 2022. But is Russia willing to accept that deal? Or do they believe that the United States is going to pull out and the Europeans will pull out and that Vladimir Putin will eventually scroll through Kiev? So if this is a short term tactic, a pause, which it seems to be fine, if it's a pause that's designed to get Zelensky back to table, sign the Ritz Memorial deal, we all move forward hand in hand, Great. But how Russia reads it is going to make quite a large difference here. If Russia reads a pause in military aid to Ukraine as new impetus to relaunch a mass offensive, that will lengthen the war.
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Unknown A
It will not shorten the war, it will lengthen the war Again, usually when you're making this sort of negotiation, yeah, you're pressuring Zelensky come to the table by telling him we're not going to be here forever. But at the same time, you're saying to Putin, you also need to come to the table with some concessions in hand or we're going to increase the amount of military aid that we are giving to Ukraine. Putin's whole game here is he thinks he can outlast the lesson. So far, he hasn't been wrong. A White House official said a statement, quote, the president has been clear, he's focused on peace. We need our partners to be commitments that go as well. We're pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution. Well, again, I get it as a temporary pause to push Lenski, I will also say that one thing that does not necessarily contribute to a solution is if Russia perceives massive weakness and then goes for it.
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Unknown A
The White House did not say under what conditions the United States would resume or whether it be at the same pace. While there isn't a clear understanding of what Washington Washington key the decision was the most monster of US Shifts from Ukraine's top ally. And again, this seems all quite easy to fix by Zelensky. If Zelenskyy simply wants to fix this, all he has to do is sign the deal he said he was going to sign back on Friday. What a historic, catastrophic boo boo. By Vladimir Zelenskyy. Seriously. Mark Cansina, retired Marine Corps Colonel, former U.S. special at the center for Strategic International Studies Ukraine wouldn't surrender tomorrow, next week, but they lose military capability gradually. At some point they'll face defeat. So again, do I think that it's like a massive deal that the Trump administration is doing this? No, because I don't. I think once again, this is a negotiation tactic by Trump to get Zelensky back to the table to sign the things Lenski needs to sign.
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Unknown A
The Europeans, for their part, are freaking out. They believe that this is somehow a repudiation of NATO. President Trump in that press conference said he was not repudiating NATO. I understand that Elon said we should get out of NATO. That's stupid. I'm sorry, it's dumb. The United States should not knock it out of NATO. There's no purpose to get out of NATO unless you actually wish the Russians to walk into the Baltics. If you wish them to enlarge their sphere of influence, get out of NATO. But President Trump doesn't want to get out of NATO. He said he doesn't. He wants them paying their fair share. He wants them paying their 3%. He said he wants to defend Poland. He wants Poland to be able to defend itself. And the sort of rush to Trump is an isolationist seems unjustifiable even in the face of the argument he's currently having with Vladimir Zelensky.
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Unknown A
I say once more, he was trying to get to an agreement on Friday. It's so irritating he was trying to get there. Nonetheless, the worry is out. The retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis, he served as native Supreme Allied Commander, said, quote, I worry we may be in the last days of NATO. He said the transatlantic alliance may not be about to collapse, but I can sure hear a creaking louder than at any time in my long career in the military. Now, President Trump did write on Sunday and his Truth Social Platform quote, we should spend less time worrying about Putin, more time worrying about migrant gangs, drug lords, murders and people from mental institutions entering our country so we don't end up like Europe now. Sure, sounds great. Also, the United States can in fact walk in, chew gum. Trump's done a magnificent job of shutting down the border thus far.
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Unknown A
And actually the United States does not have to pull out of NATO in order to actually do this is one of my sort of bugaboos. You hear this very often from actual realizations. They'll say, oh, you know, we simply can't afford, we can't afford to support, say, NATO. We can't afford, for example, to continue funding war in Ukraine. We can't afford it. Well, that's not true. We can afford it. It's just that we would actually have to look more seriously at, you know, the gigantic spending problem that is actually driving America's national debt, namely the vast entitlement and mean sensitive welfare programs that are destroying our fiscal standing in the world. You make a case we shouldn't spend the money there, that's fine, but make that case overtly. Don't fib about the case. Don't make the case that you're doing this because you're a fiscal conservative.
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Unknown A
Well, at the same time, you're arguing that America should never touch Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security or any means tested welfare program. If you make the argument openly, then we can actually have an open discussion about this sort of stuff. In the end, I think some lenski will come to the table and then I think Europeans will come to the table and I think this will resolve itself again. I also think that President Trump is not interested in a less powerful America on the world stage. He just really has promised he gets the end of this war and he would like to do so. Meanwhile, Pam Bondi has now suggested that they are still going to release an Epstein list. I'm not aware that there's an Epstein list that hasn't been released at this point. I'm a little bit confused as to what exactly the goal is here.
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Unknown A
So Pambani was on with Mark Levin over the weekend and here she was suggesting that the sort of Epstein screw up last week in which the Justice Department at least a binder filled with nothing that that actually is going to be solved. In the near future.
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Unknown D
Here she was, a source told me, New York, sdny, they're sitting on thousands of pages of documents regarding Epstein. Thousands, thousands. And of course, you've seen the very strong letter. We will get everything. We will have it in our possession. We will redact it, of course, to protect grand jury information and confidential witnesses. But the American people have a right to know. And Donald Trump is the most transparent president in our nation's history. So not only will America get the full Epstein files, they will get jfk, they will get Martin Luther King.
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Unknown A
Okay, listen, I would love to see all of that. Also. I don't think there's gonna be a lot there. And I think this grew up last week. I know there's an intensive sort of backfill that screw up. We'll find out in very short order whether or not there is anything more happening here. Now, there are some accusations that the head of the FBI's New York field office was forced out of the bureau on Monday. That is according to NBC New York. Two of the sources who spoke with NBC News said assistant director in charge of James Dennehy was given a choice to either resign or be fired. And he was eligible for retirement. Has officially retired. He said he was forced out. I've been told many times in my life when you find yourself in a hole, sometimes it's best to quit digging. Screw that.
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Unknown A
I will never stop defending this joint. He said he was not giving a reason for the decision. Immediately, rumors started circulating that the real reason that Dennehy was fired had to do with some sort of COVID up with regard to Epstein. I've seen no evidence at this point that suggests that that is in fact the case. It may be a sort of convenient way of finding somebody to blame for the screw up that the DOJ ushered out last week. They of course said there's a low level person at SCNY who's basically covering up files, deleting files. But why would he be allowed to retire with his pay if that were the case? He should be legally prosecuted if in fact that was the case. So we'll have to see how that emerges, whether this is sort of a misreact or whether it actually is real, whether somebody's actually committing the crime of destroying relevant documents rather than publicizing all of that.
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Unknown A
Meanwhile, speaking of legal matters, President Trump announced a little bit earlier this week that he wants to posthumously pardon baseball legend Pete Rose. He wrote on a Saturday True social post. Major League Baseball didn't have the courage of decency to put the Late great Pete Rose, also known as Charlie Hussle, into Baseball hall of Fame. Now he's dead, will never experience the thrill of being selected. Even though he was a far better player than most of those who made it. He can only be named posthumously. What a shame. And he said that he will be signing a complete pardon of Pete Rose, who should have been gambling on baseball, but only bet on his team winning. He never bet against himself or the other team. He had the most dispatch by far in baseball history in one more games than anyone in sports history, said Trump.
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Unknown A
Now it's not really clear what he'd be pardoned for Pete Rose, because he was never convicted of betting as a sort of criminal matter. He pled guilty to filing a faulty tax return in 1990 and did five months in prison. So it's not sure what exactly the pardon would be. And whether Pete Rose should be in the hall of Fame I think is sort of an open question at this point, given the fact that there are so many terrible people in the hall of Fame. However, there was an ironclad rule in Major League Baseball that should not bet on baseball. He did in fact bet on baseball. And so the ban seems largely justified to me, despite the fact that I'm actually kind of a Pete Rose fan. If we are issuing pardons, however, there is one person that President Trump should pardon from federal charges forthwith.
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Unknown A
It would be incredibly controversial, but I think that it's absolutely necessary. That person is Derek Chauvin. President Trump should in fact pardon Derek Chauvin. He should he pardon his federal charges. If we're talking about reversing the evils of the last several years American life, obviously Covid and his handling was a massive evil, destroyed the economy, set us on a path to fiscal insanity, destroyed children, led to massive health related cover ups. Just horrifying all the way around. And President Trump has taken on a lot of those things. But when it came to BLM, the inciting event for the BLM riots that caused $2 billion in property damage in the United States and set America's race relations on their worst footing in my lifetime was in fact railroading of Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd. The evidence demonstrates that Derek Chauvin did not in fact commit murder of George Floyd.
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Unknown A
George Floyd was high on. He had a significant pre existing heart condition. George Floyd was saying he could not breathe. Before he was even out of the car. He was in the car saying he could not breathe. Derek Chauvin for large segments of even the tape that was shown had his knee on George Floyd's shoulder or back, not on his neck. The autopsy of George Floyd showed that he had no damage to trachea, that probably George Floyd died of excited delirium. There were no accusations even at trial Derek Chauvin had committed a hate crime against George Floyd or they targeted George Floyd because of his race. Nonetheless, on the basis of extraordinarily scanty evidence and despite the fact there was massive pressure on the jury, that the mayor of Minneapolis paid a settlement to the George Floyd family immediately, that the President of the United States suggested that Derek Chauvin was guilty right off the bat, that the jurors were being openly threatened and admitted as much.
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Unknown A
Despite all that, Derek Chauvin was convicted on federal charges and played guilty to federal charges. Derek Chauvin should, in fact, be pardoned on that. We'll be covering that a lot more in coming weeks because I think it is worthwhile to remember that there is a man who was rotting in prison because the media decided in the middle of 2020 that they were going to turn a tragic law enforcement stop that ended with the death of a man, but a significant problem with drugs and pre existing health problems into the raison debt of the entire 2020 election. And it led to vast chaos. It led to again, the destruction of racial comedy in the United States. $2 billion in property damage to a guy rotting in prison who the evidence demonstrates certainly was not guilty beyond reasonable doubt. In that case. If we're going to talk about delivering pardons, President Trump, I think, should really seriously consider pardoning on federal charges.
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Unknown A
He can't pardon on state charges. Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of the murder of George Floyd, as I said, we will be covering this pretty extensively in the coming weeks. Right now should have pardoned Derek.com and sign our petition asking President Trump to grant justice to officer Derek Chauvin. That is pardon. P-A R--O N Derek.com P A R D O N-E R E K.com we're gonna be digging into this topic on the show in the very, very near future. All right, guys, coming up, we are going to delve into the Ben Shapiro show mailbag. Now remember, you have to be a subscriber to actually have your questions answered. And I will give you the greatest advice you've ever had in your entire life. You will tell your grandchildren about the moment that your question was answered on the Ben Shapiro Show. You'll be on your tombstone if it's.
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