Trump pausing Iran strikes….for now

Instagram teen accounts default teens into automatic protections for who can contact them and the content they can see. Explore teen accounts and all of our ongoing work to protect teens online at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. Fox News headquarters in New York City. Always seeking solutions, never sewing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. I'm so glad you there. It's the Brian Kilmeade. We have a busy hour coming your way. Heavily Texas-oriented. Call Rove is in studio and Lieutenant Colonel Alan West over in Dallas. So we have a lot to discuss, including a lot of moving parts. This is a primary day. The president really wants to make sure Thomas Massie is out. He also has to make a big decision about Iran. When do we go back in? And are we indeed ready to finish the job this time? There's three objectives. Get the Iranian out, open up the straight, and then finish off this leadership. And my hope is to give the Iranian people the first time they have a say in their government since 1979. That would be great. Ideally, but I think open up the straight would relieve the pressure. The bigger question is, who's got the more pressure? Who's more oriented towards time? Is it? us knowing that the World Cup is here and America 250 is next and the midterms are in November? Or is it the Iranians with long gas lines with them being suffocated out of their straight? And knowing that their army, even the IRGC is not getting paid. And we'll see where the pressure is and who breaks first. Call Rove. This is an interesting time. I mean, you can't say this to remind you of any other period. Yeah, no. It seems in a wild, yeah. I mean, your thoughts about the president's decision to delay. Well, I think it was wise. He needs to go the extra mile, I think, he believes, in giving the Iranians a chance to come to the table with reasonable suggestions. The latest version is essentially the last version with a couple of extra commas. But I think he wants them to think long and hard about what's coming. And they know the ability of the U.S. military to strike them. And so let's hope it works. But if it doesn't, the president, I believe, is good for his word. He'll come back at him and hit him hard. Don't these heavy soon?

Well, look, that's going to be what it's going to, there are three groups of people that are going to tell him when the right time is. One of them are going to be the Pakistanis and the others who are having direct conversations with the Iranians. Are the Iranians, do they realize that what they've now laid on the table is not essentially different from what the president has already rejected and which is ridiculous. We're going to pay them reparations, no. We're going to, we're going to let them blah, blah, blah, no. Can't relieve all the sanctions? Yeah, yeah, exactly. The second group are. going to be the leadership in the region, you know, the leadership in Saudi Arabia, you know, the Emirates, the Qatar, you know, uh, They're going to have a, and then the president's own advisors. I mean, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of war, the national security council staff, the key advisors in the West Wing, all of them are going to be obviously having counsel to the president on this. And my suspicion is, is that when he acts, he will act with the unanimity of at least two of those three, the people, the leaders of our allies in the region. and the White House staff. It's unclear how, you know, our interlocutor is primarily Pakistan. It's unclear how much they're willing to, you know, tilt one way or the other or to shoot straight with them. I think they like to be the lubricant in there, but I'm not certain that they're going to be pressuring or have been pressuring the Iranians. Well, let's factor this end. They just send, they sent 8,000 troops over to Saudi Arabia for a defense. pact that they have. So there are Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia protecting different sensitive areas in that country. Now think about this. They're the mediators working with us in Iran. Saudi Arabia and Iran had Iran unsolicited. Bomb Saudi Arabia has hit some key spots, desalinization plant, as well as energy centers. They haven't trying to stop them from rerouting their oil towards the Red Sea. And yet the Pakistanis send 8,000 troops to back them up. Well, I think the Pakistanis are trying to signal to the Iranians. Do not take on the big local power of Saudi Arabia. who are important to the Pakistanis. You know, Pakistan is a very large population, but it's not a very strong economy, and they depend upon the relationship with the nations in the region, primarily Saudi Arabia, for financial sustenance. So this was a signal to the Iranians, don't do anything. Here's where our troops are. We're making a public scene of it. You know exactly where they are. If you attack those installations, you're attacking us. So how about Saudi Arabia and the UAE have quietly done their own hits on Iran? What does that tell you? Well, look, by accident, I happened to be in the region two weeks before the balloon went up. And let me tell you, what I took away from the conversations I had with the leadership in the region was privately, this is before it all goes up, they are scared to death of a resurgence in Iran.

I mean, it's not only that they're Sunni and the Iranians are Shia, but they recognize them for what they are, which is a radical, hegemonic power, regional power. And they do not want to live under their boot. And so I'm not surprised that the UAE and Saudi Arabia took action. We know about it in part because they wanted us to know. They wanted the world to know about it. So I took that as that was the surprise to me. I was not surprised that they took action to defend themselves, particularly when it was so egregious on the part of the Iranians. Wait a minute. You're drowning. And rather than launching those missiles at, you know, yes, they launched missiles at U.S. facilities. But now they're launching them on the infrastructure in these countries who are their neighbors. And it was like. But is it working, Carl? Because it's gotten them, because they picked up the phone and called the president and said. Mr. President, give the talks a few more days. Well, but you know what? That's good counsel. If their view is that they're close to a breaking point, you know, let them lay out on the table what they have. Let it lie for a couple of days and reject it. But, you know, no, at least I walked away believing that this, again, this was two weeks before the balloon went up, that they recognize that the current regime now gone, replaced by even more radical people, is a threat to them and their regional prosperity and peace. So here's... Here's an Iranian resident talking about how bad things are in that country. Cut four. Honestly, we do not see a good future with this situation because the internet has also been completely shut down and half of our work depended on the internet. So it's hard for them to talk out. This guy actually showed his face. And they said things are getting worse and worse. So the question is, can we open up the internet? That would be a boom too, because then people can communicate. Obviously, the answer to that is no. So I was talking to a high ranking official. I said, what do you think of the plans and your military options? He goes, they think they're really good. But not everybody around me thinks they're really good. But it's up to me to make that decision. So you know what that's like because you were there during the whole Afghanistan and Iraq. Right. Good times and bad. Right. Let me go back to what you talked about. The resident. The Iranian talking about it. I recommend your listeners go to the Bush Presidential Library, Bush 43 Presidential Library, which has made a special effort to engage with dissidents inside Iran and to get. Obviously, they're hiding the nature of who they specifically are and where they live and so forth. But I've been able to connect via the Internet. There is intermittent connectivity and to get an inside view of what's happening inside Iran and how people feel.

It is amazingly, first of all, you cannot help but be inspired by these people who are suffering deprivation. I mean, we're talking about a lack of food, a lack of water. They're not getting paid. They're losing their jobs. The economy is slowing down. And yet they thirst for to live in a nation of liberty and prosperity. And it is amazing what is going on, at least in the part of the Iranian population that has been able to be tapped by these efforts through the Internet. So what you get is a sense of people who are thirsting to live under something better and different. And this cannot be good for the regime over the long haul. They're not blaming us and our allies in the region. They are blaming their government for making them live in deprivation. This was once, not too long ago, one of the most prosperous modern economies in the region. And now they're living in despair because of their government. Right. And they live in an ocean of oil. Right. So they could be living like the Saudis and the Emirates. Robert Bill Gates, a guy you're very familiar with. I think Margaret Brandon went down to get to really interview him in order to find out how bad Trump was doing. He wouldn't play. No. Listen, cut ten. Is it possible for the president of the United States to walk away and leave this for the Israelis to settle? No, I don't think he can walk away. And no, I don't think the Israelis can settle it. I don't think as powerful as they are. They don't have the kind of power the United States has. And I think the president seems to have been very consistent and very clear that under no circumstances can Iran ever have a nuclear bomb. Well, the only way you get to that objective is resolving this issue of the enriched uranium and any future plans for enrichment. I mean, I think, I don't think that the nuclear program in Iran poses an imminent threat after all. We bombed it twice. Yeah. And he went on to say, look, I think he's made it clear and let you see what happens from here because he's looked at the problem Iran has been for 40 years. And he sent comp commander. They have trouble, even on CNN and MSNBC, ripping the move because they know what Iran has done. And they sat down there and they said, well, I kind of wanted to do that too. Right. No, look, Bill Gates has been, so has Condi Rice been supportive of the president's actions. And look, let's be clear, there are no easy decisions that this White House faces on this issue. No president in this situation would be able to say, oh, there's a simple, quick and easy answer. What I wish, and it's a fervent wish, but it's not going to, it's going to go unfulfilled, is that the politics would be taken out of this. And there are too many people who in their hearts know it is in our interest. for denuclearize Iran, who are nonetheless jumping on this for crass political purposes. And you've known, and how frustrating that was, member Harry Reid, everybody knows the war is lost. Yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you, Mr. Reid, thank you. Yeah, thank you. And imagine you're a soldier in the field, you're in Ramadi, you're hearing that. So listen to right up your alley. This is exactly what you're talking about. Senator Chris Van Hollen, cut 12.

The president got dragged into this war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he'd been waiting 40 years for somebody to go to war with him in Iran. He found a president stupid enough to do it. I blame Donald Trump for that decision, but here we are. So that's what you're talking about. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, please, Senator Chris Van Hollen, you, you're smart enough to know that the intimation that we were dragged in by the Israeli smacks of, you know, old, old anti-Semitic tropes. And also to be, you know, please, do we really need to call each other stupid? Does that add anything? It may help you in Maryland, which is a deep blue state. But, you know, you're not even on the ballot this year. But please. You know, do not, this is not worthy of our country. It just is not. So just to build on that, somebody that might be the next center in Maine, I certainly hope not, Graham Platner, he with the Nazi tattoo who says, I'm a communist. Cut 13. I don't know anybody who thinks the war in Iran's a good idea. Republicans, independents, Democrats, friends of mine who just don't even care about politics because they're so jaded. Everybody knows that this is stupid. They know it's stupid because they see it for exactly what it is. It's a war that has started because Donald Trump is in the Epstein files and he doesn't want us reading them. Come on. Yeah, well, look, with all due respect to Mr. Graham Platner, who is a liar, incidentally? Oh, I've only got a home because I have a VA loan. Really, your dad lent you the money. Are you paying him interest on that? Why don't you be revealing? Oh, I am, you know, I'm a disabled veteran, and here are all my problems, and I'm not allowed to get a salary because of that. Well, your wife is getting paid money for, you know, labor on your behalf. And you will not be forthcoming about the diagnosis that you claim you have, that you will not provide any proof of evidence. PTSD and all these other things that he says, I'm suffering from that caused me to be, get, get, I'm living on. $4,800 a month in VA benefits. And you're right, he, you know, communists, he walked around for 13 years with a neo-Nazi tattoo on his chest, Tutankouf, and, you know, deathhead, and said, oh, I just, I didn't know it was a Nazi symbol from World War II. I mean, This guy is a far left agitator. His election to the United States Senate would be a stain on the state of Maine and a stain on the United States Senate. He gets big crowds, and Susan Collins is the only lawmaker in the Northeast Republican. Yeah. So your thoughts about her chance. She's always defied the odds. Yeah. Look, last time around, she never led in a single poll and won by eight points against a far better candidate than Mr. Graham Platner. uh the speaker of the main house who was a you know young vibrant woman leader of the democratic party but she was a lot more saying than this guy this guy is so far out there i mean you're right he's a nazi and the things that he has said on the record he now says well i you know that was you know that was several years that was a couple of years ago and and

But really, you were showing us who you were. And what caused you to, if those are no longer your beliefs, share with this what caused you to say I'm no longer a communist. Call Rov, stay right there because I want to talk to you about the midterms. Oh, well, we have one segment? Okay, then we're going to stick with it then. But her shot, what about over in Michigan? Do you like Mike Rogers? I like Mike Rogers. A lot. Personal friend of mine, a really good man came very close two years ago. Democrats have a very awkward primary, three-way primary with, you know, one milk toast. traditional Democrats and two progressives of varying degrees, I feel good about Mike. When Thomas Massie today is a flat-footed tie with the Navy SEAL that Pete Hegseth went to bat for yesterday. Thomas Massie, a libertarian who won vehemently anti-Trump, Trump wants him out. What do you think? Well, 21 counties that stretch along the Ohio River, the president's popular in Kentucky. Thomas Massie, however, has been this congressman for a long time and has done something unusual. He's built up an organization, particularly in the three big counties that are south of Cincinnati Boone, Kenton, and Campbell. He's gotten his allies elected, you know, county commissioners and... state legislators. And so there, and look, we got Rand Paul from Kentucky, too, who's a libertarian and on the other side of the president on many things. Thomas Massie's gone out of his way to be on the opposite side of the president. And it's done something that Republicans, you know, Republican or Democrat, you can break with your leadership, but you're not supposed to vote against a rule, the thing that guarantees on the House floor, how things are going to be voted upon and so forth. And he consistently votes against the Republicans majority on that. So we'll see. President, this, think about it, one congressional district, two media markets, Cincinnati and Louisville, and $30 million plus has been spent in this primary. It's amazing. Yeah. We'll see, do you have prediction? I think I think Trump's candidate wins. All right, Carl Rove, always great. We're going to be winning him in TV. Immediately from here, we're going to run to the elevator, hope that it's there and rush down to the three floors. Go get him, Carl Rowe. Thanks so much. Always great to have you in studio. It's an honor to be here in the sanctum, the inner sanctum. Yes, back in a moment. Big guests, bold opinions, better information. This is the Brian Kilmeade. Instagram teen accounts, automatic protections for teens. Instagram teen accounts have built-in content settings and limits for who can contact teens. Plus, teens under 16 can't change these default safety settings without parental approval. So parents can help teens connect safely. Instagram teen accounts, automatic protections for who can contact teens and the content they can see. Learn more at Instagram.com slash teen accounts.

If you're interested in it, Brian's talking about it. You're with Brian Kilmeade. You know, they brought up with the Bush Library. And the Bush Library is interesting because he's the most humble guy you ever going to meet. And he will never say triumphant. He would be triumphant and say, look at all I accomplished or it didn't accomplish. He puts you in the decision room. He said, these are my cards. This is my information. This is what's at stake. This is what I did. What would you do? Hi, this is the challenge I had after 9-11. This is what's at stake. This is my decision. This is the information I had. What would you do? Iraq with the 2008 collapse of the economy? What led to that? You know, what role did we play? This is the decision I made with TARP. What would you do? And that's what Bush says. If you think you could have made a better decision with the information that I had, maybe you're right. But that's just it. That's why I think that Bush right now, I think maybe 65% of the public has a, or 60% of the public has a positive view of George W. Bush. And one of the reasons is, is because as people pulled away and they saw everything that was on his plate and then they see what happened subsequent years. And compared to that, they go, all right, I get it. And plus, they love the way he holds himself. You know, as somebody who, yeah, I was president and I won for eight years. That wasn't perfect. I never claimed to be. But you've got to know how prepared I was to be successful for that. Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.com with code FM Radio 20. 20% discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31st, 2026. Must be 21 order to order. Please drink responsibly.

makes you think. This is the Brian Kilmeade. I think we've seen no evidence whatsoever that Iran is willing to come to the negotiating table and do so in good faith about their nuclear program, the highly enriched uranium, roughly 1,000 pounds that we'd like to get access to and remove from the country, what's left of their ballistic missile and drone programs, and of course, their decades-long support, material support for proxy terrorists. Those are the things that the JCPOA never really addressed. There were sunset clauses for the nuclear program and nothing whatsoever about the ballistic missile program or Iran's terrorism. Exactly. And the terrorism is the funding and the proxies. And the ballistic missiles, as the president even mentioned to me, he's like, look, they need, they got to be able to defend themselves, a tough neighborhood. But you don't need long-range rockets. And we could figure out where those manufacturing facilities are. But they're just not coming to the table. You know, that's not Delci Rodriguez, the former vice president now president of Venezuela, at least for now. I mean, these people are maniacs. They really are. And I just don't, I think Saudi Arabia and UAE just need more time personally to further defend themselves. And they are concerned. They're worried about the desalconization plants. They worry about their natural gas facilities. I think from the damage done from the first round, UAE is going to need about another year and a half to reopen them up. So that's fine. But you have to know who your enemies are. And I think we're doing it with the Iron Dome there and other Ukrainian anti-tron. devices, I think we could be okay. And I also just trust that we've gone to school on what we did wrong last. Not necessarily did wrong, but they say one of the reasons why our jet was shot down, the F-35, and we had to do that incredible rescue, was because... our flight route to become very predictable because we knew they didn't have any air defenses. Well, they got lucky because they were predictable. And we don't know if the Russians, we assume the Russians would give them help with their satellite knowledge to say, this is where they come from, this is where they'll be, be ready. And that's why they hit a couple at the end before. the secession of violence. So that was, that was the Dan Hoffman of the CIA. So nosy area has let very little faith they're ever going to come to the table. So Victoria Coates, who used to be DNI, said this, cut three. I think the president does have time on his side. Now, we all realize there's economic pressure on the United States. They're sensitive to the pinch the American people, rather, are feeling. And so, you know, that has to be top of mind. But at the same time, as Ashley was just reporting, it's nothing compared to what is happening in Iran. And the systemic economic failure there, they're enduring. They've lost somewhere between one and three million jobs, the Rial, which was trading at 30,000 against Iran.

the dollar, which is a lot. Ten years ago is now trading it two million against the dollar. It has no value. And they have no internet. So if they are looking into the abyss, they may be ready to actually make the deal the president wants. So I just, you know, if you hear all those things, there's nothing she said to was hyperbole, it was just facts. So if they are on long gas lines in a country that lives on an ocean of oil. You know how bad things are. Evidently, they're also dumping oil into this pristine Persian into the Gulf. Why? Because they have nowhere to store the other oil. And if they stop pumping, the word is that they stop pumping and have to cap, they'll never have the same propulsion coming out of that. So they don't want to have to cap, but that's what's happening. So Carg Island is really not producing much because we have a blockade on their blockade. So we'll keep you up to date on what's happening. I think in the next couple of days we could see some action. The other action that's taking place politically is what's happening with DHS. What's going on? Well, the DHS needs to fully fund its department. They have not fully funded ICE and they're not fully funded Border Patrol. Why? Because it's pure politics. They want to see reforms. They actually was reforms. But it was not enough and they were getting gains out of it. So they said, fund it on your own. With the president also says, yeah, fund it. And I also need the ballroom done. Why? Well, we got private funding for it, but federal funding has to do the security. That's just the way it is. You don't want private funds handling. something of international interest, and that is securing the base of it, making it drone proof, making it almost nuclear attack proof, because the ballroom has to be protected like the White House. So it was 220 million. Then they got in a screening room, which is another 100 million. When it's all said and done, they rounded off at a billion. And there's certain Republicans like Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis and Susan Collins that don't want to sign off on it. But there is a lot at stake here. Especially if you consider what's going on with the constant terror threat. We just stop one by arresting in Iraqi who was hooked up with a Qatab-Hesbullah guy that had 20 tax planned here in America. Here's with Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Last night on the need to get this bill, it's called the reconciliation bill and the need to get it funded. The problem right now is that John Thune does not have the Republicans cut 24. Remember, reconciliation can only deal with budget, not policy. So when you're trying to fund two agencies like custom and border protection and immigration custom enforcement, which is ICE, They're not intended to be funded through reconciliation, but because you have representatives like Benny Thompson, who's a ranking member, Democrat ranking member on homeland in Mississippi, says that he's willing to shut down DHS again in September, which puts our mission to protecting the homeland at risk. President Trump and I had long conversations with leadership saying, how can we take ICE and CBP off the table and keep them from threatening the homeland and put.

What vanity project? You add something that everybody knows. Listen to David Axelrod. He said when businessman Donald Trump called and volunteered to raise the money and build a ballroom. Well, he said for free, Trump would probably raise the money from other sources as well as his own contribution. I should have said yes, because you need it. People that go to the East Room and go to these events like when we saw a King coming last week. I didn't go to it. But they say the room is absolutely packed. And there's people that deserve to be in that room. They just couldn't. Other countries have it. We're the superpower. We don't have it. Everybody knows we needed it. You might not like the design. You might love the design. That's debatable. I'm fine with that. You might think it's too big. Okay. But no one says it's a vanity project unless someone's trying to make political hay of it. I wish there could be people to understand. When it comes to putting the West Wing in the White House, no one really pushed back on it because it was a need for it. Teddy Roosevelt had a big family. He wanted to be able to have an office off the house and let the kids pay in the main part of the house. It definitely benefited the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s years later. I understand that. So to me, I understand this politics. But one time I would love for Chuck Schumer's just to say, I understand that the president's not going to get a chance to use the ballroom. But the ballroom, I believe, I guess the White House should not be apropos at the time. I don't know what you want to see. You might say it's too much money. Okay, you could say that. The other thing is, have you just called in an event center? The ballroom makes it seem like something extravagant or elite. It's just a phrase to talk about how it's going to be labeled. But I do think messaging matters. President Trump knows that more than anything else. And you could have put it in there and just taught additional security because they've been doing additional security in the White House. And I mean, you ever watch us toss out to reporters in the White House? And there's always construction going on, especially prior to Trump taking office. They've been bulking that up for years. And lastly, before we go to break, I want to talk about Los Angeles and the mayor's race. Fascinated by this, Karen Bass is scared to death that she's going to lose to Spencer Pratt. Spencer Pratt is not a mega guy. They're trying to say he's a mega guy. They're saying he's a Republican. He's not a Republican. Did he vote for Trump? Yes. Why? Because he knows Kamala Harris is awful. I never met him. But who would have voted for Kamala Harris? Do you blame him? So if you talk about inventive ads and messaging, this guy is off the charts. Great. Here is what he did making a, and just got, I know it's very visual. Picture him going through LA. The fires, the homelessness, the streets are a mess, the gangs, cut 28. Now this is a story all about how my life got turned upside down. How to take a minute to run for a mayor. I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air. It's fantastic. How long are we allowed to play? We're not, that's it? Okay, okay. But, yeah, if you're supposed to only play it a certain amount of time, but it's still, it's fantastic. Cut 29. When a couple politicians, the world are no good started making trouble in my neighborhood. I got it one little fire. My mom got.

11 in Bel Air. You can't play anymore? That's all we have for now. But I mean, if you want to sing the rest of the song, you're more than welcome to. It's more visual. Oh, that's your excuse. If I was, if this was on TV. If you could dance. Right. If I could dance and I was in LA. And I had a green screen at least to show the crime and pestilence. You really just threw you were in LA so we can't make it happen immediately. Yes. When we go cover the World Cup. We'll do that. It'll be a lot of dancing and singing. Can't wait. Yes. A lot of gaiety, right? A lot of that means celebration. So the Karen Bass doesn't know what hit her. She's supposed to do a press conference. She used me a debate last week. She said, I had to go to Sacramento and raise money for Los Angeles. Scared to death. Cup 30. I think that he is tapping into a general sense of anger that people have, not just in Los Angeles, but in many other places around our country. But, you know, I think what's important is the fact that in my time, for the first time, we have had a reduction in street homelessness by 17.5% while homelessness has gone up 18%. So I want you to know that that resonates with Angelinos very much as well because homelessness is one of our... major, major problems. And you still got more homeless than anybody else in the country. And you put more money into it than anyone else in the country. And it's not effective. That's his whole point. Everything you're doing is throwing money to illegal immigrants because you think if you don't, they'll end up in the emergency room and cost you more money. But instead, you don't understand it's a magnet for everybody else. If I'm stuck in Ecuador and I find out if I get to Los Angeles, I get free health care, not only am I coming, so is my family coming because you left the border open. And they're not going to even chase me down if I do get in. And if there is an ice agent, nobody's going to cooperate. So I like my odds. Here's more from our cut 31. I can tell you, and I talk to Palisadians all the time, a lot of Palisadians are not excited about Spencer Pratt and do not feel that he represents their neighborhood very well. Los Angeles is a very, very big city, and the wildfires had a big impact, that is for sure. But people do recognize that there are other issues. Yeah, that's why he does no other issues too. You know, giving needles to drug addicts, not great. The homelessness, stop trying to make more homes for people that don't want to live there. They actually need some intervention. And a lot of them have to be arrested because they're criminals and they don't want to be helped. but you keep pouring money into it. The school system run by the unions. You have a guy in there that's not going to be a Republican. It's going to look to get stuff done and hopefully be surrounded by people that want to do the same thing. The people of Los Angeles.

have a real shot, a real shot with Rick Caruso. And they looked elsewhere. And now you see Rick Caruso is one of the two few towns that he was in control over that totally survived because they had their own private fire department, the fires. It was all possible. Now, there were wildfires the other day in Ventura County. And guess what? The fires were put out. They were controlled. And you know who pointed that out? Spencer Pratt said if they responded like this earlier, we wouldn't have had a problem, but they were organized. but they still had two reservoirs that were virtually empty. We'll come back in just a moment to finish up this hour. You'll listen to the Brian Kilmeade. Diving deep into today's top stories. It's Brian Kilmeade. Breaking news, unique opinions. Hear it all on the Brian Kilmeade. Thank you. Your leadership are much further than sisters of the pod from how long? You have to listen to them, pods. Just like you did tonight. It's Trump! It's true! Bold in science propaganda! And you'll kick doing it as long as it lines your fucking pockets, won't it? Show something! Worse approval rating than a fascist dictator with shit. That's obviously a lot of anger yesterday after the shooting in San Diego at a mosque. Now this is the same mosque where two hijackers went, got a lot of support, but there's nothing to do or justify the killing of... Three innocent people. Three adults shot and killed, including the security guard who actually had a bulletproof vest on by a 17 and 18 year old suspect. They died from self-inflicted gunshot wounds a few blocks away. Looks like their mom knew this guy was dangerous. Kane Clark, a former standout high school wrestler at Madison's high school. A tip from a suspect's mom about her runaway suicidal son and her missing car and firearms allowed police to track the vehicle almost instantly and the license plate readers picked it up. The attack is being investigated as a hate crime by San Diego police, you think? A hate crime when you shoot up a mosque? Of course. Meanwhile, I'd say it's terrorism, too. Just think about how bad this is getting. There's been a rise in attacks on the House of Worships, of all religions. It was three incidents in 2000. In 2025, 19 incidents, it's already up on a further pace, a faster pace than that in 2026. So it's more and more dangerous. It's much more. I mean, when it comes to targeting, nobody gets more targets than the Jewish community and countries around the world, especially in the city I'm in in New York City. So it's just unacceptable and just horrific scene yesterday. All right, and that, of course, is somebody who's speaking out in San Diego about a mayor that says totally ineffective. Oh, an ineffective mayor. Where have I heard that before? In almost every city in the country, usually left-wing Democrats. Brian Kilmeade.

Traditional home security only alerts you after a break-in, and that's too late. SimpleSafe is changing that. Stop. This is SimplySafe. Police are on the way. We don't just alert. We stop crime before it starts. SimplySafe, plans starting around a dollar a day. Save 50% on your new system with professional monitoring at Simplysafe.com slash Spotify or with promo code Spotify. Outdoor deterrence requires a simply safe active guard outdoor protection plan starting at 4999 a month. Visit simplysafe.com slash licenses for alarm license information, Tennessee 2012. Fox News Radio Studios in Midtown Manhattan. It's the fastest growing radio talk show. Brian Kilmeade. Did you... I'm Brian Kilmeade here from 40th and 6 in Midtown Manhattan. Heard around the country, around the world. A big hour coming away. A lot of things going on in Capitol Hill. Number one, Todd Blanche has a hearing now about he is the acting attorney general, about a bunch of legal cases, about a new ruling the IRS is having and doing a settlement with the president for outing his personal records. Also, Todd Blanche is going to defend a lot of what... Christine Ome did and didn't do, or maybe I assume she'll defend. Teresa Payton standing by, former White House chief information officer from 2006 to 2008. Alex Martin's going to be here too, Marine Force Recon Combat Commander, turning CEO of a tech company. We'll be talking to him about what's going on over the Middle East. And we'll do a simulcast with Stuart Varnie all this hour. And keep in mind, highlights from every show, go to YouTube.com slash at the Brian Kilmeade Show. Let's get to the big three. Number three. Mark endorsed Kamala Harris back in 2020. Well, he made a mistake. It was a big mistake. We're going to get drugs out, and Mark wanted to be a part of it. And I think Mark was very gracious. He said, this is something that really works, the first time you've seen it. Working together, the shark and the apprentice, Cuban combines with President Trump to get the nation's cheaper drug prescription drugs, which is a winner for everyone and shows Trump doesn't hold a grudge with everyone. Number two. I had long conversations with leadership saying, how can we take ICE and CBP off the table and keep them from threatening the homeland and putting our American constituents at risk? Well, our idea was, is let's do it through reconciliation. Yep, politics are plenty with impactful primaries and a last-ditch effort to fund DHS and the ballroom one way or another. Number one. He needs to induce Iran to come to the negotiating table. He's giving Iran one more day, but I don't see any evidence that we're going to be able to avoid additional military strikes. on hold for now, but can't be for much longer. I'm referring to the war with Iran. The president was convinced writing a few days ago, we'll bring Iran to the table. Meanwhile, they got to give the uranium up. They have to give up on the nuclear program and stop funding proxies. I am not convinced that they are convinced they have to do that. And that's where we stand. But one thing that struck me that when these commencement addresses are taking place, you're talking about people's future and even the White House.

There's a sense out there that AI, although intriguing, is also worrying. And that's pretty clear, Theresa Payton, as you try to dominate this area like you did with cryptocurrency and cyber technology and cyber attacks, AI is a whole new animal, right? It is. And, you know, the technology's been around for a long time in different forms and fashion. But as soon as in 2022, open AI, put out chat chbt and now you can text with the computer program and actually speak with the computer program. It just changed everything. And people are worried about jobs. They're worried about their future. And they're worried about maybe artificial intelligence being smarter than us. And people say mythos is a game changer. What is it and why are people worried about it? Yeah. So mythos, the company is anthropic. And basically what they learned in their labs is that mythos is the strongest, most powerful vulnerability finder. ever created. And this vulnerability finder, and by vulnerability, I mean in digital systems, it doesn't just find the vulnerabilities. It doesn't fix them. It exploits them. So they got very concerned because this tool wielded by bad people. could really impact all of our critical infrastructure and be a danger to national security. We would like to know, for example, the positive side, can I find out my weaknesses? Where are we vulnerable? Mythos and ideally would be able to do that. Yes, ideally. The problem is the cybersecurity industry and the tech industry hasn't spent enough time on machine speed fixes. So that's the dilemma that we have is now we can actually in the write people's hands, finer vulnerabilities at machine speed. But we don't know how to fix everything at machine speed. Machine speed is basically faster than a human can think of a computer program, type it in, and run it. So machine speed is the machine figured it out. The machine created the program. The machine fixed it. But we're not quite there yet, which is why there's a concern. And then we think about medical breakthroughs, man, put AI on cancer. If I stopped that tumor, where does it come from? What are the environmental causes? I mean, stuff like that. Everyone understands that that's just a big plus. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and we've got quantum computing right around the corner, which will allow us to solve mathematical problems at a speed and pace we've never seen before. which back to your point about finding a cure for cancer that is individualized, you'll be able to take, you know, all the cases that you have, take your genetic DNA, take your diagnosis and what's going on in your labs, and then say this is exactly what you need to be well again. But people are worried they're going to lose their jobs. Absolutely. I was watching Ken Griffin, who was always arm's length from, who's one of the most successful CEO of Citadel, one of the most successful financiers in the country.

And he said, I was not concerned about it. I think it's overstated. And then he got briefed. And he said a lot of things that they're doing, some of my highest paid white collar guys take months to do. This guy did it. They did it all in eight minutes. So it makes you wonder, do I still need the white collar? Men and women getting these huge incomes if AI can take that. Over. Yeah, I have mixed emotions about the whole thing because I love technology. But as you know, Brian, I love mankind even more than I love technology. And so, you know, human flourishing has to be at the center of these conversations around the technology. He's not wrong that it is doing things at a speed and scale and accuracy. But... Who's checking the work? So I do believe that people's jobs will change and we still need humans to check the work to make sure it's working correctly. And maybe what it'll be is we'll just be, like if you're a coder today, you would be managing lots of different coding agents that you would be training. So maybe we need. Maybe it's more that we need the same amount of people. They're just going to be doing something different. But in the meantime, there's big disruption. So, Teresa, you know, when the computers came out and the iPhone is out, famously, you know, the next generation gets impatient with their parents or their grandparents. And they say, you know, give me that phone. You don't know how to work it. A lot of they do it intuitively. And everyone thought as technology got better. generations would be better at it and be embracing it. And it would be the older people that would say, wait a second, this is changing too quick. I can't adapt. And that really was the case with the Blackberry and the iPhone. But with AI, this pushback from younger people, they did a survey, 14 to 29. They say only 18% of Americans feel hopeful that AI is going to make their lives better. 18%. where they say disdain is everywhere. In economics, UGov poll, released that shows this week shows over 70% of Americans think AI is advancing too quickly. 69% of Republicans, 77% of Democrats. Is it? Are they right to be worried about this? They are right to be worried because we know the last 20 years of social media. What happened there? We never put the governance and guardrails in place. And although social media has brought about a lot of good, it's brought about a lot of bad. But this one's different because social media actually created new jobs. It created influencers. It allows people to see snippets of your show and things that you couldn't do for them before. But we saw what went wrong because our lawmakers just sat on the sides, brought people in for hearings, but nothing really changed. Data centers that need to power this, they need energy, they need clean water.

They're ugly looking. They're very noisy. So there's a lot here. It's not just the jobs. It's an environmental impact. And they're just not seeing elected officials talking about this enough and doing enough. Yeah. So just for young people who are pushing back. And a lot of them are frustrated because they don't have the job opportunities. It seems that they thought coming out of college. And if you don't believe me or this survey, will me bring you to the University of Central Florida where Gloria Caulfield was the commencement address speaker, the vice president of Strategic Alliance at Orlando-based. a development company, AI development of country. She was giving a speech, and I imagine it was going well until this, cut 51. The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution. Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives. That was not an applause line, and that was a surprise boo line. But Teresa, you were nodding. You would have expected that. Yes. So I gave a commencement speech this time last year at Immaculity University. And it was the exact opposite of her conversation with the students, as well as Eric Schmidt at Google. And I actually had people clapping and people thanking me and lots of hugs after it was done. And my speech was about technology. is creating a situation where we need to focus on critical thinking skills and choosing to live our lives more analog and to not fall for kind of the lie that technology can sell us sometimes because it wants us to be on the platform or because that's how they make money. And so I These people are very out of touch. They don't really understand Gen Z. I'm raising three. I'm in the colleges and universities all the time. And they don't mind AI, but here's what they do mind. The non-disclosure. So for example, I was with college students. Ad came on. It was completely generated by AI. They completely called it immediately. They didn't need a tool. And they said, I will not buy from companies that don't use real people in their ads. Okay, how do you feel about that? I thought that was really interesting to hear that from Gen Z. They want authenticity. Good. Remember, we lock them up during COVID. They want real, in real life experience as an authenticity. But do you do that? I'm going to let you hear Eric Schmidt in a second because you refer to it because he was a commencement speaker to, the founder of Google, CEO, Google, former. But would you think there was the same apprehension when I would not know. Nobody was alive then when we were riding a horse, in comes the Model T. And then all of a sudden, we're riding a Model T. If you can afford it, it was for every man. Then it was affordable for everybody. And then all of a sudden, if I'm in the blacksmith, if I'm a blacksmith or I'm selling horses, I'm out of luck. And maybe there was a reluctant send. I'm staying with a horse. I don't want to, I don't want the horse industry to go down. How do you feel about that analogy? Yeah, I think it's a great analogy. The one thing I would caution people who are driving this movement is this is moving at a pace and scale that we haven't seen before. So the disruption is immediate versus the last technology revolutions, the last industrial revolution. The transition was not immediate. It was maybe years. 90s? With the internet. Yeah. 90s with the internet. You think that took years? You think that took years?

For a lot of people to sort of get on board with that, but it also created jobs. Oh, yeah. There weren't a lot of, you know, there were job losses, of course, because of the economy and different things happening in the economy globally and locally. But the internet actually created new opportunities. So I want you to hear the former Google CEO. He was giving a speech at the University of Arizona. The commencement address got 52. In the years that after I graduated, no one sat down. and resolved to build a technology that would polarize democracies and unsettle a generation of young people. That was not our plan, but it happened. There is a fear in your generation if that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating. So you hear that unrest? I mean, that's not what he's used to hearing. No, he's not. And so I would just ask our nation's leaders and big tech, you know, AI, like you said, Brian, is going to bring about so many good things. But we must acknowledge. The impact that it is having on people and find a bet. This is America, the land of opportunity. We need to create pathways for people. Like email destroyed the post office, help destroy the post office, right? And I imagine if I want to address a bunch of postal workers in 1993, they might have booed me too. But it helps society to have email. The question is we're not, we never created something smarter than us. We're creating something, especially with mythos, is really smarter than us trying to out. outfox us in many ways. We hear about these stories about going, okay, I want to shut you down to an AI program. And then the AI device goes to someone's email and finds out they're having an affair and they publish that affair in order to survive. I mean, that's insane. Last one I want to bring to is Scott Borchetta. He was booed by graduates in May this year at Tennessee State University. Listen to this. Cut 53. AI is rewriting production as we sit here. Deal with it. Like I said, it's a tool. So they're no on it. They did a survey. 18 to 29, 64% said it's moving too fast. 30 to 44, 67% says it's moving too fast. 45 to 64, 72%. 65 and up 79%. Okay, we got it. We all agree on that. But you know who doesn't agree? China. And as long as we're racing another country that happens to be communist and wants it to destroy us in many ways, don't we have almost no choice but to race forward? I mean, so we race forward. What if we're going right off a cliff? I mean, that's the challenge here. And what does winning look like when we're done? If we have, you know, data centers taking up people's energy and clean water, if we have massive unemployment with no pathway to the new place. Right. So it really, it's an incredible time. I am.

I'm an optimist, and I see incredible potential for everybody to be able to participate in the labor market, but we have to give people that pathway, and we're not doing that. A lot of blue states are pushing back in the data centers, even though the president has an executive order that says, if you build a data center, you've got to have a power center. So whether it's nuclear or anything else, you have to do that. But a lot of blue states say, no, thank you. Yeah, I think the hard part is, is... Citizens are not sure what questions to ask. I'm going to be working on a blog post. And Brian, I'll make sure that your team gets it. So if you guys want to post it on the questions you should ask your local elected officials. about the data centers and ask for things. There's some really great examples around the world about how you can have a data center that's actually a good neighbor. Sweden is one. So I'll make sure I put all of these different examples and the questions to ask for and I'll get it to your team. That'll be great, Theresa Peyton. And the other thing would be great too is to do it. But understand, too, there's a lot of jobs there in building that data center and building the energy source too. where those are blue collar jobs that people would benefit from. So AI wouldn't build the data center. Human beings had to build the data center, unless we have a robot in a few years, an AI-driven robot to do that. Teresa, thanks so much. Oh, it's always great to be with you, Brian. Thank you. And if people want to follow you and your blogs, what do you? Yeah, so you can go to Teresa Payton. You can go to forliss Solutions.com. That's my company. I'm on X and Instagram as Tracker Peyton. All right. Fort Elise Solutions. Got it. Back in a moment. From breaking news to big name guests, Brian brings you insight you won't hear anywhere else. You're listening to the Brian Kilmeade. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills. But it turns out. That's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up from payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12-1 plan required, $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes, may slow when network is busy. See terms. The fastest three hours in radio. You're with Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back, and I'm watching the President of the United States. We have a lot going on today. Todd Blanche is on Capitol Hill, and he's defending a lot of his work. He has acting, and if he does well today, he could go a long way to get him that nomination. I did hear they were leaning towards Lee Zeldin. Lee Zeldin's doing a great job at EPA. Todd Blanche is embracing it, opening up the opportunities. And now the President of the United States is doing something interesting. He is making it an active working zone, the ballroom, which, by the way, I was able to go to the White House twice in the last. Two months. And the ballroom is like, well, that's on the other side. I wanted to see it. They wouldn't let you see it. Now he's as a press conference in front of the ballroom that they're debating on funding this week. And it's an active construction zone while they're doing it. Things are going up and down. But he's got pictures. And he's laying out exactly to the press what it would look like. And then he's going to take questions, talk about security. So he's got almost all of it funded. He just needs a billion dollars. Who doesn't? But just for the security aspect of him.

show that's getting you talking. You're with Brian Kilmeade. The Trump administration will be judged ultimately on whether we get a better deal than the JCPOA. And I think the president understands that he needs to induce Iran to come to the negotiating table. He's giving Iran one more day. But I don't see any evidence that we're going to be able to avoid additional military strikes. Now, what those strikes entail are they just further decapitation strikes? So we remove the leaders who don't want to come to the negotiating table and the hope that maybe the next batch would, or whether there are more extensive strikes on Iran's security facilities or their weapons facilities. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm sure the president's being briefed by his national security team and asking the CIA. about our intelligence and what might induce Iran to change their behavior. That, of course, is Dan Hoffman from the CIA talking about what could be the next step. And the president said, look, I was going to start bombing. And then I got a call from Saudi Arabia and the UAE separately. And they say, look, can you wait? Because we know we're going to be targeted. We're not sure we have defenses in place. Then Pakistan dedicated 8,000 troops and fighter jets flew them into Saudi Arabia. Keep in mind. They're also mediating what would be profitable talks. Joining us now is Alex Martin. Alex, very experienced in battle and in military. He's a Marine Force recon combat veteran turned CEO of a tech company, ClearSpeed. Alex, welcome. Thanks for having me, Brian. All right, Alex, first off, your thoughts about the president's delay and for the reasons given. Makes total sense. I mean, he's dealing with the cards as they fold on the table, but I think it's important to know that ultimately this is a sign of weakness. Iran's trying to weaponize geography, you know, prolonging this as long as they can. You know, we could flip the strategy at a point, and I think the president's being wise in his judgment here. Right. So you mean it's perceived as weakness by Iran? Right. I think the weakness is inherent in Iran's current situation. I mean, they've been defeated militarily. politically, economically, you know, ultimately it comes down to this moral component, right? Which is this is a, you know, terrible regime. They just don't have the cards. And I think this was a wise move for the president to take a pause. Yeah, I mean, the thing is they're going after the Gulf states. They've totally alienated the Gulf states. But the good news for them from Iran's perspective is, They did damage to the Gulf states. And it was the Gulf states who asked the president to hold off. If they were just hitting us, we'd be our decision. It is our decision. But because others are affected, that's how they're doing it. But at the same time, we hear that the Saudis want us to finish the job, don't go halfway. And Alex, they can't have it both ways, can they? No, they can. I think they're going to need to make some tough decisions here. You know, militarily, we're always seeking, you know, restraint, but ultimately the power that we have there is, you know, is robust. And they're testing our resolve and ultimately the Saudis. You know, this isn't, they cannot, you know, go for total war here. But every major, you know, disruption, Gulf producers, all the Asian importers, the West, all of this that ties into the Hormuz, it's their ace, but it's weakening.

And the Saudis have to make some decisions here. I think the president's team are pushing them to make a decision one way or another. So tell me about your service for basically 10 years in the Middle East. What was your service like? Was Marine deployed to Iraq in 05-06, 07, 08, 2009, 2010 spent a lot of time in the Gulf of Aden off the tour of Africa all over North Africa and the Middle East? So predominantly in that central command's area of responsibility, exactly where all these things are unfolding today was where I cut my teeth as a young Marine. So your response is to you know exactly the topography, you know exactly the mindset are we dealing with. When you were fighting over there, how much of a problem was Iran? I mean, terrible. They killed 3,000 Marines with IDs. We have a kind of a short memory sometimes in this great country. We've got to remember that Marines and soldiers on that battlefield were being killed on a daily basis with the IEDs and the munitions that were flowing in through Iran and their proxies. This is to say nothing of what happened in Beirut, of course, and on all the embassies and the 40 years of terror they waged. But for us, on the battlefield, it was enhanced and made more kinetic and lethal. by the Iranian regime. So the only, we tried negotiating with him, had that go. You know, I think you can't negotiate with people you don't trust. There's just, there's no way to these people across the other side of the table. They're buying time. They're using, you know, politics. This is not a military problem. You know, our military is the most robust and powerful on the planet in human history. And so we're talking about, you know, political cards that are being exchanged with an untrustworthy, you know, actor, where the game has no, has no, you know, there's no rational actors on the other side of the table. So this is complex. So we want to weaken their armed forces. We want to reopen the straight and we're going to get the uranium. It's talking to military people in charge. And they essentially said, we can't do all three at the same time. It's got to be phased. What would your priority be, Alex? Yeah, I think ultimately it's increasing the naval pressure. You know, I think we have this, you know, best Navy on the planet. We're able to totally flip the strategy. They're trying to weaponize this geography. I think the U.S. Navy has the ultimate escalation dominance in the Gulf. You know, we're looking at this centrally through flipping this strategy around the patrolling and controlling the shipping access. You know, this is. Iran cannot sustain their blockade, right? So I think that they'll use intermittent drone attacks, you know, submarine deployments, these shipping harassments, just to buy time. But ultimately, we can flip the strategy on any moment with our naval dominance. And then you look in Israel and their intelligence and the Mossad and what they know about all these higher ups, where they eliminated close to 80 and I think 35, including the Grand Diatoa in one shot.

I know they've been going to school over the last month about what they did and what they were able to accomplish what they weren't. How prepared are they to take down this next wave of Iraq-Iranian leaders? Yeah, you know, I don't, I think they're one of the most preeminent fighting forces on the planet. We are calling our own shots and our own best interests, of course. But as an ally and our, you know, strongest ally in the region, you know, we can be absolutely certain that they're already preparing for second, third order phase of their own internal conflict. It's happening today. They're in constant readiness and preparation and activity, as they should be. and they'll fight according to their own policies and best interests as we should ours. But I think it's very important to maintain the great alliance we have there with them. So over the last few weeks, well, we had a ceasefire. What do you think has been going on in Central Command? Look, Central Command is, you know, we talk about the Pacific so important with what's going on in China. Central Command is, you know, is the heart and soul of all of the co-coms, all of the combat commands. So every single day they're preparing for the absolute worst, the branches and sequels to any operation. They're doing it with the combined arms mindset. They're thinking about undersea, subsurface, air, all levels of kinetic effects, but also just having the posturing. I mean, you cannot. you know, say anything other than, you know, if things need to get escalated, then we're going to be ready to do it. You know, we used to say that we're the firefighters, right, as Marines. We don't question why the fire was started, but if it needs to be put out, men and women over there are going to be able to do their job and do it effectively. So tell me about clear speed. What prompted you to create this company? In 2008, I lost one of my dear friends to an insider attack in Iraq. He was working with the Iraqi forces. They were patrolling out in Anbar province. I actually saw him the day before he was killed by one of those soldiers that had gone unvetted by anyone. Not to the discredit of the counterintelligence folks. They're amazing. They just didn't have the technology to reach the manpower to be able to screen and vet as we were surging those partnering forces. And so when I looked at this problem, I thought this is incredibly You know, this is a disaster, right, that we cannot have a technology to help augment a human to screen our partner forces. So ClearSpeed was created on the battlefield a few years later, right combination of technology investors and the partnership with Special Operations Command to go to Afghanistan to validate and test the core technology all around vetting foreign personnel. That's where this started. So what kind of success have you had? Well, it's been a long journey. It took 10 years to get where we are today. And now we have a dual-use tech company. We're the only voice-veting technology company in the world that with just a few automated yes or no questions on a phone or a tablet can tell you who's trustworthy and who you need to take a closer look at. So you can imagine how something like this, creating a new category for voice-based risk assessment and then allowing your technology to be used by some of the most dominant insurance companies on the planet to fight fraud.

and also some of the most incredible organizations tied to our government, fighting fraud and keeping our troops safe overseas. So it's interesting, Alex. So in other words, it's like a lie detector test, that, you know, instead of looking at your heart rate, it's picking it up in your voice. Well, actually, what we want to do is create something better than a light detector. So light detectors do what you just say. It's point to point. It creates a moment for a human to make a decision on if you're lying or not. What we want to do is create something that could illuminate risk on a spectrum. So imagine being able to tell tens of thousands of people instantaneously. These people are trustworthy. You move them faster. This is a triage tool to pay them to accelerate them through a security process. Here's your folks where there's an anomaly. And we're not saying they're lying. We're saying there's risk that we detected in speech. Now you pull it down to that human claims expert, fraud expert, you know, HR component, counterintelligence expert, and they're able to use that data point to make a decision. So we think of kind of this as a metal detector in the airport, you know, push people through an alert. rather than that serial inspection, which a lie detector does. More iPhone than telephone booth. Got it. Congratulations on doing that. I mean, you never stop from serving the country now to still trying to help out in the battlefield in the private sector. Alex Martin, CEO of ClearSpeed. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, Brian. You got it. Back in a moment, we're going to do a simulcast with the great Stuart Varnie. Don't move. Learning something new every day on the Brian Kilmeade. Now the Brian Kilmeade joins Fox Businesses Farnie and Company with Stuart Barney, live on your radio and on Fox Business. Here's Brian Kilmeade. Hi, everyone. Stewart Porn is going to be with me in my moment, or I'm going to be with him. We're going to share audiences. And at that time, in the back end, usually leaves me a couple of minutes. You'll be able to take some calls. So if you want to get online now, that'll be great. The President of the United States is giving a press conference as we speak. Todd Blanche is testifying as we speak. And the head of CENTCOM. Admiral Cooper is now talking on Capitol Hill, too. Just look at that. The red ink is still right there. NASDAIC's down 360 points. All right, it's coming up. I keep saying this, 1051. When it's 1051 precisely, Brian Kilmeade will appear where I am appearing right now. Here we go. Two seconds left. Boom, there he is. There's the lad himself. All right. Kilmeid, teen takeover descended into violent chaos at a Chipotle in D.C. Gene Piero's threatened to charge those teens, and she's got a message for their parents. Watch this. I am here to tell you it is going to stop. And parents, I'm talking about you now. We're looking at the parents to make sure that they understand that they are responsible for the upheaval that is going on in this district that is impacting everyone who lives here. We're coming for you and we're coming for your parents.

All right, Brian. What do you think of going after the parents of these teens? A couple of things. It's not just Washington, D.C. I mean, I could put up a map if we had a bigger budget. And I could show you about 12 different cities where I have constant teen surges of these violence and this mob rule and this intimidation and these injuries that took place. In the Chipotle, the video that we're seeing, we're seeing a lot of them beat up on each other. But the whole staff was almost paralyzed in fear. And what Janine Piro says is, I can't just sit back and I let this happen because the teens, some of them real big, intimidating, are overwhelming the number of cops that are there, even if they. come back strong. What I think they got to do is infiltrate their communications, which through the internet, through TikTok, and then beat them to the punch. The parents, usually for the most part, it's not Mr. and Mrs. Johnson sitting at home wondering if their kid is playing after school Little League. I mean, most of the time, these are from broken families. Most of the time, either family's not there or not interested. And I understand the sentiment, but also it's hard to follow up. And not only get the kid. But then find out what the role the parent has. I like the scaring them into getting a hold of their kids. I like the concept and the frustration. But I'm for the curfew. You see these kids out past a certain time, boom, you're back. So the minute you see them begin to gather, you have a reason to go break them up. But this is a problem in every major city. Yes, it is. The one we're into, even Florida, red states too. It's not just blue cities, but it's the one that are leaning on crime that are the problem. I saw a Democrat candidate for the next mayor of D.C. saying that she didn't like curfews. They were dangerous because the streets were patrolled by a national guard and by masked ice agents. She thought the curfews were dangerous for heaven's sake. That's what one candidate is saying. It's unbelievable. Yeah, I mean, it's you can't even get into an argument with these people because they're so illogical. And the thing is, when you get on the debate stage like these D.C. candidates did last night running for mayor, and the one says something more extreme than the other, as opposed to someone sitting there saying, which you just said, Stuart, this is, but this is the idiotic. That's ridiculous. And stop putting down law enforcement. You're afraid of ICE agents on the streets. Are you an illegal immigrant criminal? You should be afraid. But if you have, if you are. not doing anything wrong. Just like you walk past a police officer or a cop car comes by, unless you did something wrong, you're not going to have a problem. Do you think there's something wrong with the World Cup and the high ticket prices? Sure. They've done something wrong? Of course. I think they might have misjudged the market. And I think they got to really understand that people go to Kansas, they go to Boston, they're going to go to New York. And everyday day soccer fans, the working class soccer fan can't even afford this. And they think, well, it doesn't matter. We're going to have so many people coming from the outside. But between what's going on now and maybe a worldwide budget crisis and a sense it may be, which is a wrong sense, it might be inhospitable to immigrants, which is a mischaracterization, which happens in every, which has happened with the BBC and CNN International, maybe even the...

wrong message out. A lot of people saying the hotels are too expensive, the transportation is too expensive, and the tickets are too expensive. I hope there's a surge, but so far... Tickets have been lagging a little bit, Stewart, maybe to bring the collective price down and get people filling up those hotels. It's still going to be the most lucrative, the most successful ever, because you've got three countries, more teams in it, more promotion. Fox does it better than anybody else, but it could have been better if I think the tickets were more fan-friendly. How about that? Yeah, well, I'm going if I possibly can. Brian Kilmeade, you're all right. We'll see you again soon. Thank you, Brian. Go get him, Stuart. Thank you. And they're going to name the roster next Tuesday for the American team. And the roster for the American team, I will be there and the players will be available. Most of them anyway, to talk about their chances. I don't know if you guys have seen that ad where, you know, basically they imagine the U.S. winning the World Cup. Why is that crazy when we win everything else who are in contention? Because the rest of the world had about an 80-year head start on us. And we haven't shut to close that gap as rapidly as we hoped. But now we have a situation where our national team has about 11 players playing at the highest level on club around the world. That's good news. That means they're playing and show they can play with the best. The bad news is they're not in America training together. When no one wanted American players, they would just train together. All the time when Tony Miela was in goal and Alexi Lalas and Marcelo Balbo and Kobe Jay Jones and Joe Max Moore and Landon Donovan, when they were running around, they were playing with each other almost all the time. And then they'd MLS started, they still were at home. And then when they started going internationally, by the time they get back. A lot of times they were playing a totally different style of soccer and they keep rotating coaches. So they got a little bit behind. They're about 15th in the world. But they have an excellent chance of getting out of their division of the top seed. They get out of the division of the top seed. They'll play the lowest seat or a wild card in another group. That'll give the best chance to get to the field, the 32, then 16. And once you get to 16, all bets are off. Because there's different ways you can play to keep a better team close. And then you get lucky and confident and team gets hot. scenarios you could look for and possibly have something happen. Because if you want soccer to really grow, Do what the women did. Be the best in the world. And not only that, we were the first in 92. I think China was, Sweden was really good. And then we were the best. And then we lost a couple of times. Then we reasserted ourselves. And then we got another generation and then reassert ourselves. And now this generation of women is the best. The men have never, I don't think ever been even top 10 in the world. That's got to change.

Go to Brian Kilmeade.com. Find out of his evening, May 33, 9, Nevada, in July 11th, and Pensacola, Florida, history, Librian Labs. See ya. Fox News headquarters in New York City, always seeking solutions, never sewing division. It's Brian Kilmeade. All right, from 48th and 6th and Midtown Manhattan, heard around the country. Around the world, this is the Brian Kilmeade. A lot going on, the President of the United States is speaking now, the Head of Central Command, is speaking now, Admiral Cooper, Todd Blanche, is defending of the actions of the Attorney General's office. And the Attorney General's office, as you know, and he has to also defend the work of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and others. So, as well as Pam Bondi. So he's holding his own, but he's used to be under the fire. He's represented Donald Trump forever. Speaking of Donald Trump, he is now speaking of in front of his, the construction site, which is going to be the ballroom for America. And now he's talking about Iran. We'll talk about that this hour with Victor Davis Hanson, a matter of moments, and Lamar Alexander's former senator from Tennessee. So let's get to the big three. Number three. Mark and Dorson. Kamala Harris back in 2020. Well, he made a mistake. Who's a big mistake? We're going to get drugs out. And Mark wanted to be a part of it. And I think Mark was very gracious. He said, this is something that really worked. First time you've seen it. That is Mark Cuban. He was talking about working together, the shark and the apprentice. Cuban combines with Trump to get the nation cheaper prescription drug, which is a winner for everyone and shows Trump doesn't hold a grudge with everyone. Number two. I had long conversations with leadership saying, how can we take ICE and CBP off the table and keep them from threatening the homeland and putting our American constituents at risk? Well, our idea was, is let's do it through reconciliation. So that's what they're doing to try to get DHS funded. And that is Markwayne Mullin. Politics are plenty with impactful primaries and a last ditch effort to fund DHS. The problem, they do not want to give the supplemental funding to the ballroom. We'll discuss. Number one. They come to the table. They're begging to make a deal. Because they're begging to make a deal. I hope we don't have to do the war, but we may have to give him another big hit. We may have to give him another big hit. I'm not sure yet. You'll know very soon. Yeah, that is the president moments ago. On hold for now, but can't be for much longer. I'm referring to the war with Iran. The president was convinced writing a few days ago that Iran was going to get hit. But now the Arab allies have told us that Iran now seriously wants...

talks. So wait a couple of days. I think he will. But what will you do next? Let's bring in Victor Davis Hansen, senior fellow Hoover Institute, military historian, and always great to have you on. Victor, welcome back. Thank you for having me, Brian. So Victor, do you think the president was right to pause? It depends on how I don't want to sound like Bill Clinton, but since how we defined pause. For two or three days, yes. But if this initiates another cycle where they kind of come close to what the president wants and they back off, no. Because we've lost about, oh, 35 days. And there's a window that he can still pivot to the economy and everything. But the Iranians are playing that same window along with the Europeans and the American left. supplies talking points about the war. So I think he's going to have to make a decision this weekend. I think they have to come up with something that is absolutely ironclad. Here is the inventory uranium. Here it is. Come and get it. Take it away. We'll keep away. It'll be free to everybody. And if they can't do that, it's just futile to keep talking. I hear you. The last thing I heard, they want reparations. Are you kidding me? And they want to control the straight. I mean, that's a non-starter. Yeah, they're not even interested, Ryan, in hitting Israel anymore because they know that that's futile. So they want to hit, they keep hinting and nodding and winking that we have thousands of missiles in caches and we're going to hit the UAE and Qatar and Kuwait and Saudi and take out, you know, 30% of the world's oil. And that has terrified the Gulf states. And that got their intention. Yeah, so. I got their intention. I don't know if it's true or not their capability. They claim it, but I don't know what their capability is. But if they were to do that, they would pay a high price. You know our military and you know military history. What do you think we've been doing during this ceasefire to analyze what was accomplished and what we should do? What do you think we've been going over? And who had the better advantage during that period, do you think? Well, I think we did militarily. I don't know about politically, but militarily we did because they were bleeding anywhere from $350 million to $500 million in economic losses through the embargo of the country. And that really has hurt them. Those pictures you see that are leaked out of gas lines and people lining up for food. But I think militarily, we're systematically photographing all of the prior... targets and trying to analyze to what degree they have been recouping and rebuilding. And I think we know now that where they are doing it and where they're not. And I think the Israelis have helped. tell us that there's a lot of other industries that are defense-related that we haven't hit at all. And then there's a question of the dual-use bridges and generation plants, something that Bill Clinton had no hesitation in Serbia when he knocked out every bridge on the Danube and bombed Belgrade's power plant. And Obama didn't either. He said he did, but in Libya, if you look back at what he actually did, he took out ports, he took out TV communications, he took out everything.

And we haven't done that yet, but that's something that we could excel. We could also hit the cargo island, not the oil storage or the pipelines, but the loading, the docks, the piers so that they could not sell the oil. And then if there was a regime change in a year or two, that oil would still be there as national income. But there's a lot of options, but I think it's going to have to be a lot more intensive because it's got to be quicker. We can't do it for 30 days. We've got to do it for three, four, five days at the most. tell the world the strait is open and they have no ability to get the enriched uranium. It's sealed. And I think they can do that. When many troops on the ground do I understand it to open the straight, do you think so? I... I think because of the misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, that whatever the military efficacy would be, there's a big military argument that they could secure the corridor near the straits and ensure that those little mosquito boats don't come out. But... There's such a reluctance politically for the American people. And when you say ground troops in the Middle East in an Islamic country, everybody, even though we have, I don't know, 50 or 60 installations in Syria and Iraq still that function pretty well. But that's a big political price to pay. I would try to do it for two or three days bombing and then see what the military says. So, Victor, I just was wondering, would you think the breaking point is? I mean, we're hearing things like the real is worth $1 as like a million reels. We hear there's gas lines in a country that's on an ocean of oil. We know that a lot of people haven't worked. They said they lost about 2 million jobs. So if you look at who's feeling more pain, it seems like the Iranians do. Oh, absolutely. And the president said that the other day. He said, to the hardliners, we have to be honest. Maybe the United States is taking, but we are in crisis. He said that. And the weird thing about this war, it's kind of like the Serbian war. There's no ground troops on the ground, so there's no embedded reporters. The same thing happened with Milosevic. People said Milosevic is going to last forever because we didn't have troops on the ground yet, and then all of a sudden it just collapsed at 72 days. So this thing could just collapse because we have no accurate information other than their propaganda. And then the echoes in the left, global left, on our left, that we're losing the war that's gone south, all that stuff. But I think the real assessment is that it's much worse, and they're really hurting. And I don't know to what degree that's going to instigate some active resistance. The Berlin Wall fell. It took two or three months for the Eastern European company. countries to throw out the communists and took two years in the case of the Soviet Union. So it's a delayed reaction, but I think it's hurt the regime a lot. So to the degree we know what the regime is. Let's talk about who's not helping, and that's all of NATO. Let's talk about Spain not letting its use the bases in Italy, basically the same thing. There's even limitations on what we can do in the UK basis. And...

The president says, I'm not going to deploy troops into Poland, extra troops into Poland, and I'm pulling 5,000 out of Germany. And you know what the chancellor said, the president's being humiliated with Iran? So having said all that, what would you do next with NATO? I would shift troops to the people that are pro-American and are muscular and believe in deterrent. So I wouldn't take troops out of Poland, but I would take troops out of Germany and put them in Poland. And I'd put them in those eastern European countries that are on the front lines, not because they're going to invasion. I don't believe they're in danger of invasion, but it would send a signal. And I think I'd also tell them. that there's not going to be any more Falklands help to the British in 82. And there's not going to be any logistics and information and reconnaissance for the French and Chad. And there's not going to be any more coalition of the Willing where we get dragged in by France and Britain to go to Libya. And there's not going to be any more coalition of NATO partners and we're going to go into Serbia. And then we get in there and we're doing 90% of the mission. That's all over with. There's not going to be any... extra NATO or individual NATO members who, when they go on these, you know, interventions, they're going to call on us for all of the logistics. The fuel, we gave two million gallons of gasoline during the Falklands. They couldn't have done that operation without us. And we had a whole marine carrier, just idle, ready to go if they lost their single carrier. And that really hurt us because we were all for that because we love Britain. But, you know, the Western Hemisphere was a... is a Hispanic Latino world, and they got very angry at us. And so we paid a price for that. And when we bombed Libya under Reagan, they wouldn't even let us go with the airspace. So it's not new. During the Yom Kippur War, Greece, which is a really great place now, it's really pro-American, but then it had a socialist government. It let the Soviet Union fly over a Greek airspace, but not NATO-American planes. It's a long process and we've got to tell them that if you want to do that, that's fine. But don't call on us on anything other than an invasion from the East and will help the Eastern European countries. I believe believe that we should do that. I think so too. Look, I understand they wanted to be tipped off. They wanted to know details about our plan. But having said that, you could register that complaint and then you could say, okay, what's the mission now? Well, how can I help? And that's what allies do, especially because they did the snapback sanctions on Iran because they knew they were violating their nuclear deal. They knew that they were a problem in the region. So they acknowledged all of that. And then when it came to action, they're scared to death. They're terrified of the 15 to 16% of Islamic populations in Germany. It's getting that close in Britain. And it's over that in some of the British cities. And then they have this crazy left wing.

demographic that you know new green deal radical new green deal radical open borders illegal immigration pro pro amos and terrible fertility 1.3 fertility so they're in they're in batch the thing i think people don't realize the united states if you look at the actual data on agricultural production production fuel GDP technology, leading companies in the world and market. We're so far ahead of China and Europe. It's not even close. And people forget that. And they both have larger populations. 1.4 billion and the European continents, 4.450 million and 340 million Americans are producing 40% more goods in China and 40% more goods and services than Europe. So this idea that they're integral, they're not. I mean, it's nice to have allies. It's nice to get along with China. But ultimately, they have to come to us. And you're absolutely right. All they had to do, the Spanish, the British, the Italians, the French, all they had to do was, say, call up Trump and say, have deep reservations. And I can't publicly support this. But I'm going to privately extend all the airspace and our joint NATO basis because it's in our interest. Instead, they had to get on their megaphones and demagogue it to their own voters. I want you to hear what Bob Bill Gates said as we switch gears to China and Taiwan. This is what he said. I want to see if you back him up on this. Cut 40. I think the chances of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan are pretty low, particularly over the next several years. And partly because she has other options open to him that involve far less risk. So they have surrounded Taiwan with ships and in the air. They have shown their ability to close off maritime and air access to the island. They could create a blockade or a quarantine around Taiwan anytime they wanted what the Taiwanese call an anaconda strategy. Right. And he went on to say they have not fought a war since 79. And they just gutted their leading generals. And I think they got there, what we call a defense secretary, they threw them out. So there's something going on with that government and that military. He's absolutely right. I think when you look at the quality of Chinese air defenses that were supplied to Iran, they were shattered in one or two days by the Israelis and the Americans. And if you look at the spectacular air power... of the United States, the Chinese were looking at that. The targeting was just superb. Everything was, even the downpilot. So they looked at all about the Navy. We have 11 carrier groups. We've been doing carrier operations for 100 years. They have three, and they've only been doing it for 15 years. And when they look at Russia, this big colossus, and it can't take Ukraine, and then they look at the role of drones and missiles and not just...

not just air drones, but submarine drones and surface drones. The idea for 110 miles, they're going to take 300,000 people under a sea of aerial drones, maritime drones. I think they're double-checking. I think what they're going to try to do is infiltrate, corrupt, and a process of 10 or 20 years absorbed Taiwan through propaganda, economic incentives, funding opposition parties, what they always do. And I think they're confident they can do that. I don't think they're confident they can take it militarily. Would you give, if you're Trump, he called up Victor Davis-Hanson, and he might. So what should I do with that $14 million checked for weapons? What would you tell him? I would get some concessions for it if he's going to hold it. I wouldn't hold it. If he's going to deal, I think right now that what I hear is. He's already done deals with him, that he's allowed Chinese tankers, one or two of them, to leave with oil. And then China has promised not to send air defense shoulder-fired Sam, that's been going around. Because their air defenses are down, but if China would send them, you know, 5,000 Sam, that individual soldiers could shoot, they might get lucky and take down a... a valuable pilot and a $150 million plane. So I think he's doing all sorts of deals, but I think that's kind of a redline. I think strategic ambiguity was the policy, and Trump's pretty much followed that for the last five and a half years. Yeah, I would cash that check and sell them the weapons, and then, of course, pick up the pace in making weapons. Victor Davis-Hanson, oh, is great. You look great. How do you feel? I'm getting better. I'm getting better. Thank you. All right. America's better when you're better. Victor Davis-Hanson, thanks so much. Back in a moment. He just doesn't read the headlines. He breaks them down. Real talk, real news. This is the Brian Kilmeade. He's so busy. He'll make your headspin. It's Brian Kilmeade. We'll have to have a safe country. We have to have a great country. We have to make sure that Iran does he get a nuclear weapon? All of the things that you see me fighting for so hard. And it's always tough. You know, we're negotiating with Iran, and then you have the Democrats. I call them the Democrats putting in a bill that Trump should immediately stop. You know how it is to negotiate with a country where you're pleading them badly? They come to the table, they're begging to make a deal. Because they're begging to make a deal. I hope we don't have to do the one, but we may have to give them another big hit. We may have to give them another big hit. I'm not sure yet. You'll know very soon. Mr. President, let's say they come and say come get the uranium. And we're not shooting. You got coming next week. Unless they say the straight's open. And I think what we give them is phased sanction relief. Fazed sanctionary. and uranium's open and a limit on the ballistic missiles. And of course, no funding the proxies, which is extremely tough to enforce. But you get there, and I'm okay, you'll get across the rest. Of course, 20 years, no enriching or ever. You get there, and I go, Ms. President, yeah, it's so close, don't bomb. But I don't think you get there.

information you want, truth you demand. This is the Brian Kilmeade. Hey, we are back, and it's my privilege to bring in former senator from Tennessee, Lamar Alexander. He was there for a while in Washington from 2003 to 2021, an author of the brand new book, The Education of a Senator from JFK to Trump. Senator, welcome back. Thank you, Brian. Great to see you. Do you miss it? Do you miss being in the fray? Well, I love being there, but, you know, I'm, I've finished. I believe in staying in Washington long enough to get vaccinated, but not infected. So I went home at age 80. I understand. And, and Senator, when you look back now, how has it changed? I mean, did you think since, you know, we look back and think that you guys got more things done in the 60s and 70s and 80s and we're getting done now? It seems like we're always deadlocked. Well, more deadlocked, but not as deadlocked as some would think. I mean, today, for example, I saw a report from the government accountability office that said the FAFSA is fixed. Now, some of your listeners will think, well, that's pretty boring, but it's not to 20 million families who fill out this college age form every year. And in the last month of President Trump's first term, it was simplified. So was the Great American Outdoors passed. last year of his term. So was a law to make it easier to pay songwriters royalties for their music. So it's possible to get things done. But what has happened is after all the social media came in about 2008, it drove politics to the extremes. And there's not much reward for working in the middle to try to get a result, which is really what you're supposed to do when you're in the Senate. But you're saying that it's more now, it's always been like that. No, it's harder now. It's harder now. But you can do it, which was the things that I mentioned. I mean, for example, the Great American Outdoors Act, which President Trump was essential in passing. He said it was the greatest conservation law ever. And most people said since at least Teddy Roosevelt, that was 800 environmental groups and Donald Trump. Now, that's an unholy alliance, have you ever heard of one. But they worked together and got a result. And that wasn't that long ago. So when you look at things that got to get done now, we have a problem solvers caucus just for people that want to figure things out. I mean, we have a situation where DHS is not fully funded. Border Patrol and ICE not fully funded. And we've got to find ways to, you know, they want to pass the Save America Act. And the only way to really do it is get it through reconciliation and try to put it into some type of finance bill. that would pass with the simple 50 votes. And then you have senators out there in the left and right, mostly in the left, that want to get rid of the filibuster entirely. So it doesn't seem like they're just trying to figure out ways not to work with each other, but to get things done.

Yeah, well, the filibuster, they shouldn't get rid of the filibuster. John Thune's exactly right about that. I mean, the filibuster is what forces a result. In 2015, we passed it off. Obama was president. The Republicans had Congress. We sent most school decisions back to the states. That law hasn't been changed in 11 years. because we worked it out with the Democrats and Republicans so that most senators could vote for it and most people would accept it. That's what we need to do on these issues. And really, we don't need a change of rules in the Senate. We need a change of behavior and allow amendments to come up and then vote on them. So like little things, like let's pack the court if you don't like it. Let's just add two more states on a simple majority. That I imagine rattles an institutionalist like yourself. Well, of course it does, and it's why Republicans shouldn't favor getting rid of the filibuster, because if the Democrats could, I mean, it might, President Trump, like Obama, like Biden, said, I'd like to ram everything through with 51 votes. But if the Democrats were in charge, as they were not long ago, you'll get just what you said. You'd get two more senators from the District of Columbia. You'd get... no state right-to-work laws, you'd get environmental laws and other laws that conservatives don't like. So the Senate and the filibuster are to prevent what the Tockville called the tyranny of the majority back in the early 1800s. But how can people say that, well, the filibuster was something that came out of the civil rights movement or came out early for a different reason than just to be able to force people and work with each other. Where did it emanate from? Well, it emanated from really from the beginning. The Senate has had a rule that says in order to start voting on a big issue, 60 senators have to agree to do it. What that means that, like when I was there, I was working with Patty Murray, a very liberal senator from Washington State. I had to get her agreement or we couldn't go ahead on an education bill. But because I got her agreement, we got a result. So that's why it's useful. So, Senator, looking back at some of the presidents that you remember, who's the first one you work with? And what's your reflection of how they led? Well, Nixon was the first one I worked with. I mean, I worked in the Nixon White House about 50 feet from the Oval Office. I was only 29. I worked for Bryce Harlow, who was Nixon first appointee. Nixon was on his way to being our most consequential president in recent times. I mean, he presided over the end of the Vietnam War, got rid of the volunteer draft, passed the clean air and clean water laws, opened America's relationship with China. But he lied about Watergate and lost the presidency.

That was the first one I worked for, and that was a big lesson I learned, which is if you make a mistake, Watergate, announce it. Take the blame for it. Fire everybody who had anything to do with it. If he'd done that, he probably would have saved his presidency. Right. JFK, for example, with Bay of Pigs, my fault, even though it was Eisenhower's plan, but he took the blame he moved on. Yeah, right. And we all make mistakes in public life. And the temptation staff will run in and say, well, let's cover this up. Eisenhower had a great story, or Bryce Harlow did. He worked with Eisenhower. He said Eisenhower's cabinet was all divided. They couldn't agree. Finally, Eisenhower said, what would be the right thing to do? And they went around the room and they all said, well, that would be the right thing to do. He said, well, then let's do it. And he announced it. And that was it. Right. And then do you work for President George? Did you work for HW2? I did. I was his education secretary. He was probably our best president at dealing with foreign affairs. When he dealt with the Gulf War, when he presided over the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and he was a real gentleman. I thought Reagan was the president that I worked with who fit the job the best. And one reason he did was because he was willing to have around him a team of rivals, as Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote about Lincoln. He brought in his... opponent, H.W. Bush is his vice president. He bought his opponent's campaign manager to be his chief of staff. And then when he got in trouble with the Randgate later in his term, he brought in Howard Baker, who had also tried to run against him. So he brought in, he wasn't afraid to have advice from people who had once been his adversaries. And he picked people. who had broad experience in Washington, D.C., unlike Jimmy Carter, who came to Washington, not knowing much about it and brought with him a bunch of people who knew less. And it was in his third or fourth year of his presidency before he was able to really get traction. Yeah, I understand that, too. Did Schultz and Weinberger, Kasper Weinberg, also have a rivalry? I suppose they did. I suppose they did. I don't know for sure. So one thing about the way I understand that Reagan approached things is he let people do their jobs. He didn't need to get in the nitty gritty of what they did. His way of managing gave people the sense that he was detached. But what's the reality? Well, no, no, that's right. He was an executive, and he allowed, he pushed decisions out of the White House that didn't belong there and made the decisions that needed to be belonged there. And he stuck to his word. George Schultz, who was the Secretary of State, told me that Reagan's early decision to fire the air traffic controllers, helped him enormously as Secretary of State. He said, Reagan said, if you strike, you're fired.

They struck. He fired them. And Schultz said that told every other world leader for the rest of his term that Reagan would do what he said he would do. Right. So then you have those Clinton years, which is interesting because Republicans in the House really made their voices heard. They played a role. And it looked like from looking back, that was probably the time in which Congress and the presidency worked most together because Bill Clinton really had no choice, right? He had to work with you guys. Well, that's right. No, that's exactly right. And I was talking with Newt the other day that Newt Gingrich was, you know, a big part of that movement of asserting Congress's role in the government. You know, that's the way it's supposed to be. I'd like to see President Trump take more advice from Republican senators. You may, they may not always agree with him. But I found in his first term when I was there, if I disagreed with him on tariffs. And I told him so. He listened. He allowed me to do that. Now, he didn't agree with me. I don't think I ever persuaded him on that. But I told him privately and I told him publicly. But I did it respectfully. You know, I didn't attack him personally and he didn't attack me. So I'd like to see more of that. That's why we have a Senate. And that's why we have a House. They're supposed to assert themselves on these issues. And their advice might be good advice for the president. So what about George W. Bush? George W. was the most normal of the presidents I worked with. I mean, he's the guy you'd have a cigar with on the second floor of the White House balcony most comfortably with or go to a ball game. He wasn't a five beta capa. He wasn't president of the Harvard Law Review. He sometimes mangled his English and his Spanish. But he was the real thing. And he welcomed being born on third base. as an excuse to steal home instead of an excuse for a weekly therapy session. So he was the most normal of the presidents I worked with. And I think he surrounded himself with great people. I mean, okay, Governor Texas, fine. Okay, where's your foreign policy experience? Well, what if I, you know, get Dick Cheney the most experienced and make him my vice president? What if I go out and get Colin Jerome Powell and make him my secretary of state? What if I resurrect Donald Rumsfeld? Now you cannot tell me I don't have experienced people around me, right? That's right, just like Reagan did. Reagan came from governorship of California. He'd never been to the Soviet Union that he campaigned so much about until he got here. But he had an attitude of, you know, bring down the Berlin Wall. And also, people forget, Reagan wanted to get rid of nuclear weapons. His goal was to get rid of them all. And he thought the way to get rid of them was to build up enough strength to force the Soviet Union to agree with him on that.

scared a lot of people when he got down to that zero game. But I know, but it ended up having them very consequential and worked with the Pope back then and helped to bring down the Soviet Union. At least that's how the story goes. So moving forward, during Obama years, were they tough for you? Yes, they were. Remember, when Obama came in, the Democrats had a sweep. It was 2008. Then we went into the big recession, and President Obama wasn't interested in working, it seemed to me, in a bipartisan way. I mean, he didn't work with Republicans. So we got Obamacare and a lot of liberal things. By the end of his last two years, Republicans had captured the Congress. And I worked with him on two big bills. He called Christmas miracles. One was to send decisions back to the states on K-12 education. Newt said it was... And the Wall Street Journal said it was the most important conservative education bill in 25 years. And then the next year was 21st century cures, which moved medical miracles into patient's lives more quickly. Both of those took a Democratic president and a Republican Congress working together to get a result. And it happened. Senator Lamar Alexander, our guest, he's got a brand new book out. And he really has a PhD in politics. The education of a senator from JFK over to Trump. So Trump takes office, we've never seen anything like it. And when Trump takes office, what does you notice different from the way things were done? With all those different presidents, all the different nuances, what will be Donald Trump known as something no one will be able to replicate? Well, the first thing you notice is behavior. One Republican senator said by noon every day, he's done everything our mother's taught us not to do. And people used to criticize me if or not. enumerating those things. I said, look, I wasn't elected to do that. I was elected. He was elected. People expect us to work together and get a result, and we had a good relationship. What he could do, I suggested in the first lunch I had with him, about five weeks after he was elected, that he could fix the immigration problem. One, the border. which he's now done, to his credit. And two, what do we do about these 12 or 15 million people who are here illegally, but who have been living here 15 or 20 years and followed every law? And I said, Mr. President, you could do for immigration what Nixon did for China. You have enough support. on the right with conservatives and Republicans. If you say we need to do both parts of the immigration bill, you could do that, and that would be what people will remember about you. He said, I'd very much like to do that. Then someone at the lunch objected, and he went on to something else. The second thing I noticed about him was his communication skills. Reagan was the great communicator for his time. Trump leaves everybody in the dust today. I mean, he figured out the social media. He can talk to people in plain English.

He's very good at that. And that's a big part of the presidency. Yeah, I understand. Then we'll see what's going to end now. Now he's got some huge decisions coming forward. And for states like your state, like Tennessee, it is where the people are coming. They're coming to Florida. They're coming to Texas. They're going to Tennessee. And they're going to a lot of red states. This is a huge migration because the blue states have basically made these cities. And in a lot of cases, the entire state. Hard to live in from the taxes to the crime on down. Have you noticed this big change, especially in Nashville? Oh, sure. And Nashville is our most liberal city. I mean, it's a democratic city. But people like to live there. I mean, Nashville's got a big personality. It's fast growing Knoxville, the area where I live in the mountains, smoky mountains, that's really faster growing than Nashville. And so is the rest of Tennessee. And we see at our universities, people at University of Tennessee and at Vanderbilt. from the northeast are coming, students are coming there because they're tired of all the politics in the northeastern schools. Yeah, so things are changing. And of course, that will give you more congressional seats because they'll do a census and they'll realize where people are and they'll have more power. And maybe we'll get this country back on track. Well, that would be good. Yeah, Senator, thanks so much. Congratulations on your fantastic career in your book. Go out and pick it up, everybody. The education of a senator from JFK to Trump. Almar Alexander. Thanks so much. Thank you, Brian. Thanks for your time. You got it. Back in a moment. Understanding our past to protect our future. This is where history meets the headlines. You're with Brian Kilmeade. From his mouth to your ears, it's Brian Kilmeade. It's pretty remarkable seeing you and Mark Cuban up there and the fact that, obviously, Mark endorsed Kamala Harris back in 2020. Well, he made a mistake. It was a big mistake. What does this say about what you two are building here? Well, it says we love people. We love our country. He wants to, he's got a good company, and he's going to do a lot of business with this. And I'm going to get drugs out through Amazon, through the whole group, and we're going to get drugs out. and Mark wanted to be a part of it. And I think Mark was very gracious. He said, this is something that really works. The first time you've seen it. And he had to believe that if he said it about me. You have to understand that. But look, I think I have a lot of respect for Mark, frankly, and I always have. So that is Mark Cuban and the President of the United States talking about Trump X and Mark Cuban's prescription drug plan. There was a discount plan. And he pointed out the question was Mark and Kamala Harris and you guys are standing there together. And he said, well, he made a mistake.

And I'll play more of this tomorrow. But I just think that they both have two programs. There was no politics involved. The president says, how do I lower prescription drugs? He gets this, gets all these people to get. And they said, this is how to do it. Why are they so expensive? This is how to do it. Why were I wasn't able to do it the first time? This is what stood in my way. Why don't I get all these pharmaceutical companies in here and see if we can do a deal? So he does new deals with all of them. And then the program looks a lot like what Mark Cuban created. And when people went up to market said, you created something like this, this Trump acts is a joke, right? And I said, no, I like a lot of it. Next thing you know, they're at a press conference together working together. One can deliver directly. I think the president's Trump RX is going to use Amazon. And what's the goal? Discount prescription drugs. A lot of you don't even know details about it. And it's one of Trump's great legacies if his presidency you're saying now.