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- [00:00]
Narrator/Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Commercial Announcer
Stop settling for weak sound. It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra durable LG X Boom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG XBoom and for a limited time save 25% at LG.com with code fall25. Bring the boom XBoom there's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.
- [00:49]
John Solomon
Where do you see the business actually heading?
- [00:51]
Commercial Announcer
Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co editor in Chief Cynthia Littleton. The only constant in Hollywood is change. Open your free iHeartRadio app store, search Daily Variety and listen now. A new NFL season means a fresh start and fresh styles. @nflshop.com you'll find the latest jerseys, hats and sideline gear to rep your team all season long. From rookies making their debut to legends, NFLShop.com has it all. Score exclusive styles you won't find anywhere else and show up ready for every.
- [01:28]
Congressman Mark Alford
Kickoff and big play.
- [01:30]
Commercial Announcer
Fan like a pro and shop now@nflshop.com.
- [01:35]
Narrator/Host
The US electric grid is approaching a.
- [01:37]
Commercial Announcer
Breaking point as demand soars from data.
- [01:40]
Narrator/Host
Centers and home energy use.
- [01:41]
Commercial Announcer
Our aging infrastructure can't keep up and the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030.
- [01:49]
Narrator/Host
The good news? One solution is already here.
- [01:52]
Commercial Announcer
Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready. Powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn more@probane.com Take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world. The News Agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me, Jon Sopel with Global's award winning podcast the News Agents. Dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs and The News Agents USA listening to the News Agents on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and sign the News agents to start listening.
- [02:37]
Terrence Bates
Ahead on American Sunrise. Today is the day Republicans going on the offensive as Democrats try to play hardball over a deal to keep the government open.
- [02:51]
Commercial Announcer
We're not going to let you take the people's government hostage and then give you everything you want. And that's really the state of negotiation ahead.
- [03:00]
Terrence Bates
Missouri Congressman Mark Alford joins us to discuss the countdown to the shutdown. Plus, War Secretary Pete Hegseth slated to have a meeting with top military brass today. But the real story very well may be that President Trump will be there. So what's expected to come out of this gathering? And the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk had a date with the judge on Monday. Just how much evidence does the prosecution have? Those stories and so much more right now on American sunrise.
- [03:34]
David Brody
Good morning, America.
- [03:37]
Dr. Gina
Welcome to AMERICAN sunrise. Whether it's culture, we have breaking news to share with you.
- [03:43]
Terrence Bates
Politics.
- [03:44]
David Brody
President Trump is joining us live now from Florida.
- [03:48]
Terrence Bates
We've got you covered.
- [03:49]
David Brody
This is what it looks like to be a patriot.
- [03:52]
Terrence Bates
We have to protect the American family.
- [03:55]
Dr. Gina
The American dream is still alive.
- [03:57]
David Brody
Hi, I'm David Brody.
- [03:59]
Terrence Bates
I'm terrence.
- [04:00]
Dr. Gina
And I'm Dr. Gina. Good morning, everybody. I'm Dr. Gina. We are live with you from the Palm Beaches. Let's bring in David Brody. He's in Washington, D.C. terrence Bates in our Denver newsroom. Good morning, gentlemen.
- [04:16]
Terrence Bates
Good morning, Dr. Gina and David. Good morning. Hey, guys. So look, I'm just going to get right to it because all the coverage that you're going to see today is going to revolve around the government shutdown and appropriately so, as it is a big story. But I have to tell you guys, the most interesting story to me is that President Trump is heading to Quantico, Virginia, to meet with generals and admirals. In fact, they're all being flown in from around the world to meet with President Trump and to meet with War Secretary Pete Hegseth. To some degree, it's unprecedented because it's never happened at this scale, at least not that I know of. And so I'm really watching that. I'm curious to see what's ultimately going to come out of it.
- [04:54]
Narrator/Host
David? Yeah.
- [04:56]
David Brody
You know, what's interesting here is that the question becomes why can't we do this on a conference call, so to speak? And so therefore it's in person. The president's going to be there. This is going to be about national defense strategy. I think you're going to see Pete Hegseth lay that out. Obviously, the president set to speak around 9:00am Eastern Time here. We're monitoring that. It's going to be about national defense strategy. But what exactly what announcements will be made, my sense of it is they could say and could start to talk about withdrawing Some bases or personnel from over in Europe. I think that that could be a potential here to basically go with the. What they've always talked about, Gina, America first viewpoint, you know, and of course, pulling out of Europe in some areas would obviously come against a lot of resistance from certain military brass inside the. The Trump administration. So you can already see the Washington Post headlines coming out saying, dissension within the ranks. We'll see what happens here this morning.
- [06:00]
Dr. Gina
Whatever it is, he really wants everybody to see it. You know, I could see President Trump. I could see President Trump saying, hey, great job, generals. Great job, everybody. This is so great. You're so great. America is so great. And turned it into a sort of a military rally. But I could also see him saying, you know what? You're fired. You're fired, you're fired, you're fired. He said he wants to decrease the number of generals. He said that he believes some of this is bloating. You know, maybe he follows through on that. And if he does, I think he wants to control the narrative, if that's where he goes with this. And I'm not saying that's. I don't know anything. I'm not saying that's what I think he's doing. I'm just saying if he does it, he wants America to see his explanation for it, why he does it, and so on and so forth. But whatever it is, he really wants to be sure that America sees it. Because this is, to my knowledge, pretty unprecedented, isn't it?
- [06:52]
Terrence Bates
Oh, absolutely. It's unconventional. And Dr. Jean, I was actually thinking of you this morning as I was writing this. I was like, you know, this is unconventional. And I was like. And Dr. Jean is going to say, well, we've got a president who's unconventional. He does it his way. He doesn't do it the way anybody else does it.
- [07:07]
Dr. Gina
That's right. That's right. But he does like to make sure that he's transparent and authentic with the American public. So whatever he has in his mind that. That this meeting is this important to do something that, as you say, Terrence, is so unconventional, he's going to make sure the American people understand his motives in it. And I think that gives the American people a lot of comfort. Not just those who support him, but those who secretly want to understand his mind. They want to understand where he's coming from, even if they're going to lie about it later to appease their bosses or whatever, at least they're going to really know whatever his reason is for whatever he's doing next. So with that, maybe we should get to the Bible verse. Do you think?
- [07:45]
Narrator/Host
Let's do it?
- [07:46]
Terrence Bates
Absolutely.
- [07:46]
Dr. Gina
Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9 for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. This perhaps is the most important piece of scripture in terms of keeping your head right as you go through life and you reflect on Scripture and God's ways. That is so often we just cannot understand. But I always think that's how being a parent sculpts you. I always think of trying to tell my children things that they still to this day, just this morning, trying to tell my daughter something, thinking, you just don't get it yet, baby, but you will. And when you do, you're going to be like, darn it, Mama was right. That's the vision God gives us. That's why being parents sculpts us that we do not understand what he's doing. But today is the day a deal needs to be reached to avoid a government shutdown. The main sticking point that remains is health care. And Vice President J.D. vance has had this to say about it. Take a listen.
- [08:49]
Commercial Announcer
You will hear a lot from Senate Democrats, from House Democrats about the fact that American health care policy is broken. Well, we know that American health care policy is broken. We've been trying to fix it for the eight months that we've been in office. But every single thing that they accuse about being broken about American health care is policy that Democrats have supported for the past decade. So if they want to talk about how to fix American health care policy, let's do it. The speaker would love to do it. The Senate Majority leader would love to do it. Let's work on it together. But let's do it in the context of an open government that's providing essential services to the American people. That's all that we're proposing to do. And the fact that they refuse to do that shows how unreasonable their position is. I think we're headed to a shutdown because the Democrats won't do the right thing.
- [09:33]
Dr. Gina
For more, let's bring in Missouri Congressman Mark Alford. Congressman, well, what are your predictions as to how this is going to go, aside from the fact that the Democrats are going to blame everything thing on you?
- [09:47]
Congressman Mark Alford
Well, hey, good morning, guys.
- [09:49]
Narrator/Host
Good to see.
- [09:50]
Congressman Mark Alford
Yeah, they always blame it on us. And in past shutdowns, the media has gone along with this. They're not going along with this. This time, they know that. This will be a Schumer shutdown. We did our job two weeks ago. We passed a continuing resolution, a clean CR with a little added extra security money for the three legislative. For the three branches of government, and send it over to the Senate, and they have done nothing with it. But that, of course, is Chuck Schumer's modus operandi to just let things sit there. This will be a Schumer shutdown because in 16 hours and some 50 minutes, the government will not be funded. And that will mean that the 30,000 employees in the federal workforce in Kansas City area. My. My area, they're not going to have a job to go to. And in two weeks, they will not get paid. The pay will run out on October 14th. That's why I think Chuck Schumer's intent on keeping the government shut down probably a week, maybe two weeks to try to make America suffer a little bit. He's got to prove himself to the base, the radical base of his party, because he wants to fend off a challenge by AOC for a Senate primary. And. And he's putting America at risk. He's holding us hostage. We've done our work. We've done the reasonable, rational thing to keep our government open, to give us seven more weeks to get the final appropriations bills done. We have laid foundation, all right? The concrete has hardened. And now they want to bring in a jackhammer and tear the whole thing down.
- [11:22]
Narrator/Host
Absolutely.
- [11:22]
David Brody
And I tell you what, this could last a week, two weeks, whatever. And he's going to get nothing. Schumer's going to get nothing out of it. I mean, it's just a bad play by Democrats for sure. The last One was in 2018, seven years ago. Congressman. President Trump laying out his plan, aiming to end the war between Israel and Hamas and create lasting peace. Take a look at this.
- [11:44]
Narrator/Host
What the future holds for the Palestinians, no one really knows. But the plan that we put forward today is focused on ending the war immediately. Getting all of our hostages back, getting everything back. Hard to believe when you even say it. And creating conditions for durable Israeli security and Palestinian success.
- [12:10]
David Brody
By the way, I wish we would have played the sound bite where he said Abraham Accords. That just cracked me up. I kept watching that over and over again. I loved it. All right, a couple of facts about the plan itself, Congressman. Excuse the long list, but a few things caught my eye here. The proposal includes the return of all of the 48 hostages, living and dead, within 72 hours of signing the agreement. Then, in Exchange they get 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences, and there will be an immediate end of the war. Now, if Hamas agrees, the first step would be a modest Israeli withdrawal in Gaza, then the release of all of the hostages. But if Hamas doesn't agree, then the president obviously said, Bibi, Bibi, excuse me. Has America's backing to go and do what they need to do. Also, congressman, I'm sorry, but there's also a lot more here, including president Trump as the head of this board of peace and this international stabilization force that would patrol Gaza that has me concerned regarding US Involvement in that. But I'm curious to get what you think of the plan and whether or not Hamas will even agree to any of this.
- [13:15]
Congressman Mark Alford
Well, look, that's going to be the linchpin to all this. Will Hamas finally surrender, give up, release the hostages, and agree to the reforms necessary so that Israel can live in peace with its neighbor? That is the intent from the beginning when Israel went in some two years ago to eradicate Hamas, to free, to liberate the people under their demonic control and to have good neighbors. This is a deal that could work. I don't think it's going to mean u. S. Troops on the ground. I think this peacekeeping force that will go in will be largely made up of Arab countries who want to see good neighbors as well. And now there's talk of Tony Blair, the former prime minister of England, to go in and be a governor of sorts of Gaza to oversee the reconstruction, the rehabilitation and the reformation of that area along the ocean there. Something's got to be done. It's been two long years, guys. This has just gone on way too long. Hamas holds the key to this surrender. Give up the hostages, both dead and alive, and let's move on. Israel needs a good neighbor.
- [14:22]
Terrence Bates
Congressman, before we let you go quickly, want to get back to the shutdown. You're back in your home district. You were telling me earlier that you're going to be visiting some of the rural hospitals in your district, which, of course set off alarm bells with me because funding cuts for rural hospitals is part of what democrats are calling for. So what message do you take to those rural hospitals in your district as this impending shutdown looms?
- [14:46]
Congressman Mark Alford
I'm encouraged. I've visited seven of our 18 rural hospitals so far. We have 54 in Missouri. And that's in part why this $50 billion Rural Transformation Fund was set up to help these hospitals. 25 billion of that will be divided evenly among the states. And then the governors of each state have set up an office to where rural hospitals can apply for grant money for different things that they need to keep their hospitals going. And that's what we're going to be working with. We're going to every hospital trying to figure out what are their needs. They are now coming together, forming alliances and consortiums to where they can have better buying power. It's kind of exciting to see how they themselves are transforming to make sure that they are viable and for the future. And so we're going to be helping them with this process.
- [15:36]
Narrator/Host
Okay.
- [15:36]
Dr. Gina
Congressman Alford from the great state of Missouri, thank you so much for your time.
- [15:41]
Commercial Announcer
Sure.
- [15:42]
David Brody
We love you.
- [15:42]
Terrence Bates
Thanks, Congressman.
- [15:43]
Commercial Announcer
Take care.
- [15:45]
Terrence Bates
Love you. Mean it.
- [15:47]
Commercial Announcer
Hey, I love you guys. See you.
- [15:49]
Congressman Mark Alford
I'm sorry to wear my yellow tie today.
- [15:52]
Commercial Announcer
Peace.
- [15:54]
Dr. Gina
All right, you guys. Coming up next, we check out the hottest headlines from the RAV newsroom with Tbates. Also later, OR suing the Trump administration over deployment of National Guard troops to Portland. How will this all play out? We're going to take a deep dive into that just ahead here on American Sunrise.
- [16:24]
Commercial Announcer
Stop settling for weak sound. It's time to level up your game and bring the boom. Hit the town with the ultra durable LG X Boom portable speaker and enjoy vibrant sound wherever you go. Elevate your listening experience to new heights because let's be real, your music deserves it. The future of sound is now with LG XBoom. And for a limited time, save 25%@LG.com with code fall25. Bring the boom XBoom. There's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.
- [17:08]
John Solomon
Where do you see the business actually heading?
- [17:10]
Commercial Announcer
Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co editor in chief Cynthia Littleton. The only constant in Hollywood is change. Open your free iHeartradio app. Search Daily Variety and listen now. A new NFL season means a fresh start and fresh styles. @nflshop.com you'll find the latest jerseys, hats and sideline gear to rep your team all season long. From rookies making their debut to legends, NFLShop.com has it all. Score exclusive styles you won't find anywhere else. And show up ready for every kickoff.
- [17:47]
Congressman Mark Alford
And big play fan like a pro.
- [17:50]
Commercial Announcer
And shop now@nflshop.com the US electric grid.
- [17:56]
Narrator/Host
Is approaching a breaking point. As demand soars from data centers and home energy use.
- [18:00]
Commercial Announcer
Our aging infrastructure can't keep up. And the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030.
- [18:08]
Narrator/Host
The good news? One solution is already here.
- [18:11]
Commercial Announcer
Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready. Powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn more@probane.com Take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world. The news agents. We're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis. And me, John Sopel with Global's award winning podcast, the Newsagents Dropping daily, covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs. And the newsagents USA. Listening to the newsagents on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search the newsagents to start listening. This news break is brought to you by amac, association of Mature American Citizens.
- [19:08]
David Brody
You're looking at a live picture there. There is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Kane, who is speaking in at Quantico. And there's Pete Hegseth. Actually, let's listen in for a moment. Can we, can we do that real quick? This is in Quantico, Virginia.
- [19:25]
Commercial Announcer
Joint Chiefs, generals, admirals, commanders, officers, senior enlisted, NCOs, enlisted in every member of our American military. Good morning, good morning, and welcome to the War Department. Because the era of the Department of Defense is over. You see, the motto of my first platoon was, those who long for peace must prepare for war. This is, of course, not a new idea. This crowd knows that the origin dates to the 4th century Rome, and has been repeated ever since, including by our first commander in chief, George Washington, the first leader of the War Department. It captures a simple yet profound truth. To ensure peace, we must prepare for war. From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is war fighting. Preparing for war and preparing to win. Unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit. Not because we want war. No one here wants war. But it's because we love peace. We love peace for our fellow citizens. They deserve peace and they rightfully expect us to deliver it. Our number one job, of course, is to be strong so that we can prevent war in the first place. The President talks about it all the time. It's called peace through strength. And as history teaches us, the only people who actually deserve peace are those who are willing to wage war to defend it. That's why pacifism is so naive and dangerous. It ignores human Nature, and it ignores human history. Either you protect your people and your sovereignty, or you will be subservient to something or someone. It's a truth as old as time. And since waging war is so costly in blood and treasure, we owe our republic a military that will win any war we choose or any war that is thrust upon us. Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department. In other words, to our enemies, Fafo, if necessary, our troops can translate that for you. Another way to put it is peace through strength, brought to you by the warrior ethos. And we are restoring both, as President Trump has said, and he's right. We have the strongest, most powerful, most lethal and most prepared military on the planet. That is true. Full stop. Nobody can touch us. It's not even close. This is true largely because of the historic investments that he made in his first term, and we will continue in this term. But it's also true because of the leaders in this room and the incredible troops that you all lead. But the world. And as the chairman mentioned, our enemies get a vote. You feel it? I feel it. This is a moment of urgency, mounting urgency. Enemies gather, threats grow. There is no time for games. We must be prepared. If we're going to prevent and avoid war, we must prepare now. We are the strength part of peace, through strength. And either we're ready to win or we are not. You see, this urgent moment, of course, requires more troops, more munitions, more drones, more patriots, more submarines, more B21 bombers. It requires more innovation, more AI in everything and ahead of the curve. More cyber effects, more counter uas, more space, more speed. America is the strongest, but we need to get stronger and quickly. The time is now, and the cause is urgent. The moment requires restoring and refocusing our defense industrial base, our shipbuilding industry, and on shoring, all critical components. It requires, as President Trump has done, getting our allies and partners to step up and share the burden. America cannot do everything. The free world requires allies with real hard power, real military leadership, and real military capabilities. The War Department is tackling and prioritizing all of these things. And I'll be giving a speech next month that will showcase the speed, innovation and generational acquisition reforms we are undertaking urgently. Likewise, the nature of the threats we face in our hemisphere and in deterring China is another speech for another day, coming soon. This speech today, as I drink my coffee. This speech today is about people and it's about culture. The topic today is about the nature of ourselves. Because no plan, no program, no reform, no formation will ultimately succeed unless we have the right people and the right culture at the War Department. If I've learned one core lesson in my eight months in this job, it's that personnel is policy. Personnel is policy. The best way to take care of troops is to give them good leaders committed to the war fighting culture of the department. Not perfect leaders, good leaders. Competent, qualified, professional, agile, aggressive, innovative, risk taking, apolitical, faithful to their oath and to the Constitution. Eugene Sledge, in his World War II memoir wrote, quote, War is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste. Combat leaves an indelible mark on those who are forced to endure it. The only redeeming factors are my comrades, incredible bravery and their devotion to to each other in combat. There are thousands of variables. As I learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as so many of you did in so many more places. Leaders can only control about three of them. You control how well you're trained, mostly how well you're equipped. And the last variable is how well you lead. After that, you're on your own. Our war fighters are entitled to be led by the best and most capable leaders. That is who we need you all to be. Even then, in combat, even if you do everything right, you may still lose people. Because the enemy always gets a vote. We have a sacred duty to ensure that our warriors are led by the most capable and qualified combat leaders. This is one thing you and I can control. And we owe it to the force to deliver it. For too long, we have simply not done that. The military has been forced by foolish and reckless politicians to focus on the wrong things. In many ways, this speech is about fixing decades of decay. Some of it obvious, some of it hidden. Or as the Chairman has put it, we are clearing out the debris, removing the distractions, clearing the way for leaders to be leaders. You might say we're ending the war on warriors. I heard someone wrote a book about that. For too long we've promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons. Based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so called firsts. We've pretended that combat arms and non combat arms are the same thing. We've weeded out so called toxic leaders under the guise of double blind psychology assessments promoting risk averse go along to get along conformists. Instead, you name it, the department did it. Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading and we lost our way. We became the Woke department. But not anymore. Right now I'm looking out at a sea of Americans who made a choice when they were young men and young women to do something most Americans will not. To serve something greater than yourselves, to fight for God and country, for freedom and the Constitution. You made a choice to serve when others did not. And I commend you. You are truly the best of America. But this does not mean, and this goes for all of us, that our path to this auditorium on this day was a straight line, or that the conditions of the formations we lead are where we want them to be. You love your country and we love this uniform, which is why we must do better. We just have to be honest first. We have to say with our mouths what we see with our eyes, to just tell it like it is in plain English, to point out the obvious things right in front of us. That's what leaders must do. We cannot go another day without directly addressing the plank in our own eye, without addressing the problems in our own commands and in our own formations. This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department. To rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction or gender delusions. No more debris. As I've said before and will say again, we are done with that ship. I've made it my mission to uproot the obvious distractions that made us less capable and less lethal. That said, the War Department requires the next step. Underneath the woke garbage is a deeper problem and a more important problem that we are fixing and fixing fast. Common sense is back at the White House. So making the necessary changes is actually pretty straightforward. President Trump expects it. And the litmus test for these changes is pretty simple. Would I want my eldest son, who is 15 years old, eventually joining the types of formations that we are currently wielding, if in any way the answer to that is no, or even yes, but then we're doing something wrong. Because my son is no more important than any other American citizen who dons the cloth of our nation. He is no more important than your son. All precious souls made in the image and likeness of God. Every parent deserves to know that their son or their daughter that joins our ranks is entering exactly the kind of unit that the Secretary of War would want his son to join. Think of it as the Golden Rule test. Jesus said, do unto others. That's which you would have done unto yourself. It's the ultimate simplifying test of truth. The new War Department Golden Rule is do onto your unit as you would have done onto your own child's unit. Would you want him serving with fat or unfit or under trained troops? Or alongside people who can't meet basic standards? Or in a unit where standards were lowered so certain types of troops could make it in? In a unit where leaders were promoted for reasons other than merit, performance and war fighting, the answer is not just no, it's hell no. This means at the War Department, first and foremost, we must restore a ruthless, dispassionate and common sense application of standards. I don't want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape or in combat unit with females who can't meet the same combat arms physical standards as men or troops who are not fully proficient on their assigned weapons, platform or task, or under a leader who was the first but not the best. Standards must be uniform, gender neutral and high. If not, they're not standards, they're just suggestions. Suggestions that get our sons and daughters killed. When it comes to combat arms units, and there are many different stripes across our joint force, the era of politically correct, overly sensitive don't hurt anyone's feelings. Leadership ends right now at every level. Either you can meet the standard, either you can do the job. Either you are disciplined, fit and trained, or you are out. And that's why today, at my direction, and this is the first of ten Department of War directives that are arriving at your commands as we speak and in your inbox. Today, at my direction, each service will ensure that every requirement for every combat mos, for every designated combat arms position returns to the highest male standard. Only because this job is life or death. Standards must be met and not just met at every level. We should seek to exceed the standard, to push the envelope, to compete. It's common sense and core to who we are and what we do. It should be in our DNA. Today, at my direction, we are also adding a combat field test for combat arms units that must be executable in any environment at any time and with combat equipment. These tests, they'll look familiar. They'll resemble the Army Expert Physical Fitness assessment or the Marine Corps Combat Fitness Test. I'm also directing that warfighters in combat jobs execute their service fitness fitness test at a gender neutral age normed male Standard scored above 70%. It all starts with physical fitness and appearance. If the Secretary of War can do regular hard pt, so can every member of our joint force. Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations or really any formation and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It's a bad look. It is bad. And it's not who we are. So whether you're an Airborne Ranger or a Chairborne Ranger, a brand new private or a four star general, you need to meet the height and weight standards and pass your PT test. And as the chairman said, yes, there is no PT test. But today, at my direction, every member of the joint force at every rank is required to take a PT test twice a year, as well as meet height and weight requirements twice a year, every year of service. Also today, at my direction, every warrior across our joint force is required to do PT every duty day. Should be common sense. Most use units do that already, but we're codifying it. And we're not talking like hot yoga and stretching real hard pt, either as a unit or as an individual. At every level, from the Joint Chiefs to everyone in this room to the youngest private leaders, set the standard. And so many of you do this already. Active guard and reserve. This also means grooming standards. No more beards, long hair, superficial individual expression. We're going to cut our hair, shave our beards and adhere to standards. Because it's like the broken windows theory of policing. It's like when you let the small stuff go, the big stuff eventually goes. So you have to address the small stuff. This is on duty, in the field and in the rear. If you want a beard, you can join special Forces. If not, then shake. We don't have a military full of Nordic pagans, but unfortunately we have had leaders who either refused to call BS and enforce standards or leaders who felt like they were not allowed to enforce standards. Both are unacceptable. And that's why today, at my direction, the era of unprofessional appearance is over. No more beardos. The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done. Simply put, if you do not meet the male level physical standards for combat positions, cannot pass a PT test, or don't want to shave and look professional, it's time for a new position or a new profession. I sincerely appreciate the proactive efforts the secretaries have already taken in some of those areas. Service secretaries. And these directives are intended to simply accelerate those efforts.
- [37:53]
Narrator/Host
Efforts.
- [37:56]
Commercial Announcer
On the topic of standards. Allow me a few words to talk about toxic leaders. Upholding and demanding high standards is not toxic. Enforcing high standards, not toxic. Leadership. Leading war fighters toward the goals of high gender neutral and uncompromising standards in order to forge a cohesive, formidable and Lethal. Department of War is not toxic. It is our duty, consistent with our constitutional oath. Real toxic leadership is endangering subordinates with low standards. Real toxic leadership is promoting people based on immutable characteristics or quotas instead of based on merit. Real toxic leadership is promoting destructive ideologies that are an anathema to the Constitution and the laws of nature and nature's God. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, the definition of toxic has been turned upside down and we're correcting that. That's why today, at my direction, we're undertaking a full review of the department's definitions of so called toxic leadership. Bullying and hazing. To empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing. Of course, you can't do like nasty, bullying and hazing. We're talking about words like bullying and hazing and toxic. They've been weaponized and bastardized inside our formations, undercutting Commanders and NCOs. No more. Setting, achieving and maintaining high standards is what you all do. And if that makes me toxic, then so be it. Second, today, at our direction, we're ensuring that every service, every unit, every schoolhouse, and every form of professional military education conduct an immediate review of their standards. Now, we've done this in many places already, but today it goes across the entire Department of War. Any place where tried and true physical standards were altered, especially since 2015 when combat arms standards were changed to ensure females could qualify must be returned to their original standard. Other standards have been manipulated to hit racial quotas as well, which is just as unacceptable. This too must end. Merit only. The President talks about it all the time. Merit based. Here are two basic frameworks I urge you to pursue in this process. Standards. I call. My staff's heard all about them. The 1990 test and the E6 test. The 1990s test is simple. What were the military standards in 1990? And if they have changed, tell me why. Was it a necessary change based on the evolving landscape of combat? Or was the change due to a softening, weakening or gender based pursuit of other priorities? 1990s seems to be as good a place to start as any. And the E6 test? Ask yourself, does what you're doing make the leadership, accountability and lethality efforts of an E6 or frankly, an 03? Does it make it easier or more complicated? Does the change empower staff sergeants, petty officers and tech sergeants to get back to basics? The answer should be a resounding yes. The E6 test, or O3 test, clarifies a lot and it clarifies quickly because war does not care if you're a man or a woman. Neither does the enemy. Nor does the weight of your rucksack, the size of an artillery round, or the body weight of a casualty on the battlefield who must be carried. This, and I want to be very clear about this, this is not about preventing women from serving. We very much value the impact of female troops. Our female officers and NCOs are the absolute best in the world. But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral. If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result. So be will also mean that weak men won't qualify because we're not playing games. This is combat. This is life or death. As we all know, this is you versus an enemy hell bent on killing you. To be an effective lethal fighting force, you must trust that the warrior alongside you in battle is capable, truly physically capable of doing what is necessary under fire. You know this is the only standard you would want for your kids and for your grandkids. Apply the War Department golden rule, the 1990 test, and the E6 test, and it's really hard to go wrong. Third, we are attacking and ending the walking on eggshells and zero defect command culture. A risk averse culture means officers execute not to lose instead of to win. A risk Averse culture means NCOs are not empowered to enforce standards. Commanders and NCOs don't take necessary risks or make tough adjustments for fear of rocking the boat or making mistakes. A blemish free record is what peacetime leaders covet the most. Which is the worst of all incentives? You. We as senior leaders need to end the poisonous culture of risk aversion and empower our NCOs at all levels to enforce standards. Truth be told, for the most part, we don't need new standards. We just need to re establish a culture where enforcing standards is possible. And that's why today, at my direction, I'm issuing new policies that will overhaul the ig, EO and MEO processes. I call it the no more walking on eggshells policy. We are liberating commanders and NCOs. We are liberating you. We are overhauling an Inspector General process. The IG that has been weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver's seat. We're doing the same with the Equal Opportunity and Military Equal Opportunity policies. The EO and MEO at our department. No more frivolous complaints. No more anonymous complaints. No more repeat complainants. No more smearing reputations. No more endless waiting. No more legal limbo. No more sidetracking careers. No more walking on eggshells. Of course, being a racist has been illegal in our formation since 1948. The same goes for sexual harassment. Both are wrong and illegal. Those kinds of infractions will be ruthlessly enforced. But telling someone to shave or get a haircut or to get in shape or to fix their uniform or to show up on time or to work hard, that's exactly the kind of discrimination we want. We are not civilians. You are not civilians. You are set apart for a distinct purpose. So we as a department need to stop acting and thinking like civilians and get back to basics and put the power back in the hands of Commanders and NCOs. Commanders and NCOs who make life and death decisions. Commanders and NCO's who enforce standards and ensure readiness. Commanders and NCOs, who in this War Department have to look in the mirror. They have to pass the Golden Rule test. My kids. Your kids. America's sons and daughters. So I urge you all here today and those watching, take this guidance and run with it. The core of this speech is the 10 directives we're announcing today. They were written for you. For army leadership, for Navy leadership, for Marine Corps leadership, for Air Force leadership, Space Force leadership. These directives are designed to take the monkey off your back and put you, the leadership, back in the driver's seat. Move out with urgency, because we have your back. I have your back. And the Commander in Chief has your back. And when we give you this guidance, we know mistakes will be made. It's the nature of leadership. But you should not pay for earnest mistakes for your entire career. And that's why today, at my direction, we're making changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records that will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity. People make honest mistakes. And our mistakes should not define an entire career. Otherwise, we only try not to make mistakes. And that's not the business we're in. We need risk takers and aggressive leaders and a culture that supports you. Fourth, at the War Department, promotions across the Joint Force will be based on one merit. Colorblind, gender neutral, merit based. The entire promotion process, including evaluations of warfighting capabilities is being thoroughly reexamined. We've already done a lot in this area, but more changes are coming soon. We'll promote top performing officers and NCOs faster and get rid of poor performers more quickly. Evaluations, education and field exercises will become real evaluations, not box checks for every one of us at every level. These same reforms happened before World War II as well. General George Marshall and Secretary of War Henry Stimson did the same thing, and we won a world war because of it. As it happens, when he started the job, Chairman King gave me a frame and a photo to hang in my office. A matching frame and photo hangs in his. It's a photo of Marshall and Stimson preparing for World War II. Those two leaders famously kept the door open between their offices for the entirety of the war. They worked together, civilian and uniform, every single day. Chairman Kaine and I do the same. There is no daylight between us. Our doors are always open. Our job together is to ensure our military is led by the very best, ready to answer the nation's call. Fifth, as you have seen and the media has obsessed over, I have fired a number of senior officers since taking over the previous chairman, other members of the Joint Chiefs, combatant commanders, and other commanders. The rationale for me has been straightforward. It's nearly impossible to change a culture with the same people who helped create or even benefited from that culture, even if that culture was created by a previous president and previous secretary. My approach has been, when in doubt, assess the situation, follow your gut, and if it's the best for the military, make a change. We all serve at the pleasure of the President every single day, but in many ways, it's not their fault. It's not your fault. As foolish and reckless as the WOKE department was, those officers were following elected political leadership. An entire generation of generals and admirals were told that they must parrot the insane fallacy that our diversity is our strength. Of course we know our unity is our strength. They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQI statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they're females, totally normal. They were told that we need a green fleet and electric tanks. They were told to kick out Americans who refused an emergency vaccine. They followed civilian policies set by foolish and reckless political leaders. Our job, my job, has been to determine which leaders simply did what they must to answer the prerogatives of civilian leadership and which leaders are truly invested in the WOKE department and therefore incapable of embracing the war Department and executing new lawful orders. That's it. It's that simple. So for the past eight months, we've gotten a good look under the hood of our officer corps. We've done our best to thoroughly assess the human terrain. We've had to make trade offs and some difficult decisions. It's more of an art than a science. We have been and will continue to be judicious, but also expeditious. The new compass heading is clear. Out with the Shirellis, the Mackenzies and the Millies, and in with the Stockdales, the Schwarzkopfs and the Pattons. More leadership changes will be made of that I'm certain. Not because we want to, but because we must. Once again, this is life and death. The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies. Personnel is policy. But I look out at this group and I see great Americans, leaders who have given decades to our great republic. At great sacrifice to yourselves and to your families. But if the words I'm speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign. We would thank you for your service, but I suspect I know the overwhelming majority of you feel the opposite. These words make your hearts full. You love the War Department because you love what you do. The profession of arms. You are hereby liberated to be an apolitical, hard charging, no nonsense constitutional leader that you joined the military to be. We need you locked in on the M. Not the D, the E or the I. Not the D, E, I or the die of dime. By that I mean the M military of the instruments of national power. We have entire departments across the government dedicated to diplomatic, informational and economic lines of effort. We do the M, nobody else does. And our go fos need to master it in every domain and every scenario. No more distractions. No more political ideologies. No more debris. Now, of course we're going to disagree at times. We would not be Americans if we didn't. Being a leader in a large organization like ours means having frank conversations and differences of opinion. You will win some arguments and you will lose some arguments. But when civilian leaders issue lawful orders, we execute. We are professionals in the profession of arms. Our entire constitutional system is predicated upon this. Understanding. Now seems like a small thing, but it's not. This includes as well the behavior of our troops online. To that end, I want to thank and recognize the services for their new proactive social media policies. Use them anonymous, online or keyboard. Complaining is not worthy of a warrior. It's cowardice. Masquerading as conscience. Anonymous unit level social media pages that trash commanders, demoralize troops and undermine unit cohesion must not be tolerated. Again. 03s E6s6 we must train and we must maintain. Any moment that we are not training on our mission or maintaining our equipment is a moment we are less prepared for preventing or winning the next war. That is why today, at my direction, we are drastically reducing the ridiculous amount of mandatory training that individuals and units must execute. We've already ended the most egregious. Now we're giving you back real time. Less PowerPoint briefings and fewer online courses. More time in the motor pool and more time on the range. Our job is to make sure you have the money, equipment, weapons and parts to train and maintain. And then you take it from there. You all know this because it's common sense. The tougher and the higher the standards in our units, the higher the retention rates in those units. Warriors want to be challenged. Troops want to be tested. When you don't train and you don't maintain, you demoralize. And that's when our best people decide to take their talents to the civilian world. The leaders who created the WOKE department have already driven out too many hard chargers. We reversed that trend. Right now, there is no world in which high intensity war exists without pain, agony and human tragedy. We are in a dangerous line of work. You are in a dangerous line of work. We may lose good people, but let no warrior cry out from the grave. If only I had been properly trained. We will not lose warfighters because we failed to train or equip them or resource them. Shame on us. If we do train like your warriors, lives depend on it because they do. To that point, basic training is being restored to what it should be. Scary, tough and disciplined. We're empowering drill sergeants to instill healthy fear in new recruits, ensuring that future war fighters are forged. Yes, they can shark attack, they can toss bunks, they can swear. And yes, they can put their hands on recruits. This does not mean they can be reckless or violate the law. But they can use tried and true methods to motivate new recruits to make them the warriors they need to be back to basics at basic as well. Of course. And you know this. Basic training is not where mission readiness should end. The nature of the evolving threat environment demands that everyone in every job must be ready to join the fight if needed. A core credo of the Marine Corps is every Marine a rifleman. It means that everyone, regardless of mos, is proficient enough to engage an enemy threat at sea, in the air, or in a so called rear area. We need to ensure that every member of our uniformed military maintains baseline proficiency and basic combat skills. Especially because the next war, like the last, will likely not have a rear area. Finally, as President Trump rightly pointed out when he changed the department name, the United States has not won a major theater war since the name was changed to the Department of defense in 1947. One conflict stands out in stark contrast. The Gulf War. Why? Well, there's a number of reasons, but it was a limited mission with overwhelming force and a clear end state. But why did we execute and win the Gulf War the way we did in 1991? There's two overwhelming reasons. One was President Ronald Reagan's military buildup gave an overwhelming advantage. And two, military and Pentagon leadership had previous formative battlefield experiences. The men who led this department during the Gulf War were mostly combat veterans of the Vietnam War. They said never again to mission Creek or nebulous end states. The same holds true today. Our civilian and military leadership is chock full of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who say never again to nation building and nebulous end states. This clear eyed view all the way in the White House, combined with President Trump's military buildup, postures us for future victories if and we will and when. We embrace the War Department and we must. We are preparing every day. We have to be prepared for war, not for defense. We're training warriors, not defenders. We fight wars to win, not to defend. Defense is something you do all the time. It's inherently reactionary and can lead to overuse, overreach and mission creep. War is something you do sparingly on our own terms and with clear aims. We fight to win. We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our war fighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement. Just common sense. Maximum lethality and authority for war fighters. That's all I ever wanted as a platoon leader, and it's all my E6 squad leaders ever wanted. Back to that E6 rule, we let our leaders fight their formations and then we have their back. It's very simple, yet incredibly powerful. A few months ago, I was at the White House when President Trump announced his Liberation Day for America's Trade Policy. It was a landmark day. Well, today is another Liberation Day. The liberation of America's warriors in name, in deed and in authorities. You kill people and break things for a living. You are not politically correct and don't necessarily belong always in polite society. We are not an army of one. We are a joint force of millions of selfless Americans. We are warriors. We are purpose built. Not for fair weather, blue skies or calm seas. We were built to load up in the back of helicopters, 5 tons or Zodiacs in the dead of night, in fair weather or foul, to go to dangerous places to find those who would do our nation harm and deliver justice on behalf of the American people in close and brutal combat if necessary. You are different. We fight not because we hate what's in front of us. We fight because we love what's behind us. You see, the Ivy League faculty lounges will never understand us. And that's okay because they could never do what you do. The media will mischaracterize us. And that's okay because deep down they know the reason they can do what they do is you. In this profession, you feel comfortable inside the violence so that our citizens can live peacefully. Lethality is our calling card and victory our only acceptable end state. In closing, a few weeks ago at our monthly Pentagon Christian prayer service, I recited a Commander's Prayer. It's a simple yet meaningful prayer for wisdom for commanders and leaders. I encourage you to look it up if you've never seen it. But the prayer, it ends like this. And most of all, Lord, please keep my soldiers safe. Lead them, guide them, protect them, watch over them. And as you gave all of yourself for me, help me give all of myself for them. And amen. I have prayed this prayer many times since I've had the privilege of being your secretary. And I will continue to pray this prayer for each of you as you command and lead our nation's finest. Go forth and do good things, hard things. President Trump has your back and so do I. And you'll hear from him shortly. Move out and draw fire because we are the War Department. Godspeed.
- [64:28]
Terrence Bates
So you were just listening to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth lay out a 10 point plan for improving the military. Foundational in that plan is restoring some of the standards that he says have been lost over the past couple of decades and really getting the War Department back to a war fighting posture. He says that he doesn't necessarily want war, but if war were to happen, the department will be ready and the soldiers will be ready to respond. He of course, was addressing a group of hundreds of generals and admirals who have come in from around the country they are now waiting to hear from President Trump who is en route to Quantico, Virginia to address that group. Let's bring in Dr. Gina David and John Solomon now to talk a bit more about this. John, first of all, welcome to the show. Good to see you. What do you make of what we just heard from the Secretary of War?
- [65:20]
John Solomon
Well, listen, first off, this meeting is unprecedented. I've been a journalist 35 years and I've never seen a meeting like this. I think this is a reset moment in the Pentagon. Hegseth has been in charge for about six months. He's gotten his general structure together, he's got his team together and now he wants to reorient a Pentagon that over the last four to five years drifted towards things like DEI and genderism and transgenderism and not on the core capabilities of war fighting. And during that four year period when there was social engineering going on in the Pentagon, our enemies made enormous gains. The way that Russia is fighting warfare against Ukraine with drones far exceeds our current drone strategies. The way China and Russia both have developed hypersonic missiles ahead of the United States leaves us behind in war fighting. And I think Pete has laid down the gauntlet today, which is the this 10 point plan is designed to get the United States in a position to always maintain its point of supremacy in fighting wars. And that's something that was slipping under the Biden years. Whether it was the Afghan withdrawal, hypersonic missiles or social engineering, our enemies made great gains during the Biden years. And Trump and Hegseth are determined to not let that trend continue.
- [66:43]
David Brody
So John, actually. Go ahead, Gina. You go, you go.
- [66:47]
Dr. Gina
Well, I was just going to ask you. So what happens now, John? I mean, you know, so we're going to look like military men, we're going to work out like military men, going to go back to the days where being manly was not a bad thing and we're going to uphold a standard. But what does that look like in terms of what happens to the woke people in the military? Do you think they will just get out on their own? Do you think that they will have to force them out? What happens to them?
- [67:20]
John Solomon
Well, I think some will leave just like we saw in the FBI and the Justice Department woksters leaving when they didn't like the direction that, that the President set. In this case, the ethos that Pete Hegseth has set is the compass. And those who don't like the direction of the compass will either bail out or because of these new standards, they'll be held accountable to the new standards and they'll be forced out. But that's how you create organizational change, particularly an organization as big and as resistant to change as the Pentagon. First you set the compass, then you set the standards that weed the wheat from the chaff, and then I think the real work begins where our, where our biggest weaknesses are. Right now, our procurement process has not been able to keep up to the threats that our enemies have created. We're slow in procurement, we're behind. We're always over cost and underperforming on new military equipment. We want to change that. So we've got new fighter jets being built, we've got new war helicopters being built. We've got. We had. We were the leader in drone warfare back during, in the period of 9, 11. We could blow people out of the sky with or from the sky with Hellfire missiles. But today, small, undetectable drones are becoming an important part of warfare, and we weren't building those until very recently. And so after you change the ethos and the compass is set, the procurement processes, the war strategies, the concepts of fighting a war that we're still pretty much in a Cold War posture and how we go about defending ourselves, and I think this administration will change to the 21st century, where China is the preeminent threat.
- [68:54]
Terrence Bates
John, sorry to cut you off here, but we do want to go to the White House. President Trump speaking there just moments ago, as he is now en route to Quantico. Let's listen in.
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Commercial Announcer
How many federal workers do you plan to lay off?
- [69:08]
H
Well, we made you a lot. And, and it's only because of the Democrats. And as you know, they wanted to be able to take care of people that have come into our country illegally. And no system can handle that. And so we're totally opposed on that. But we can't take. We just can't do it. I'd love to do everybody. I'd love to do the whole world, but our country can't handle people that come into our country illegally and they want to give them full healthcare benefits. They want to open the wall again. Can you believe it? I can't even believe it. They're want to open the wall. They haven't taken away boys playing in women's sports. They haven't done that. Men playing in women's sports. It's like they don't change. They lost an election in a landslide and they don't change.
- [69:51]
Commercial Announcer
How long do you plan to give Hamas to respond to the ceasefire proposal?
- [69:55]
H
We're going to do about three or four Days, we'll see how it is. All of the Arab countries, countries are signed up, the Muslim countries, all signed up. Israel's all signed up. We're just waiting for Hamas and Hamas is either going to be doing it or not. And if it's not, it's going to be a very sad end.
- [70:16]
Commercial Announcer
Is there room to negotiate or is this a take it or leave it deal? Is there room to negotiate with Hamas.
- [70:21]
Narrator/Host
Or is this a take it or not?
- [70:22]
H
Much, you know, with Hamas, we want very simple. We want the Haas back immediately and we want some good behavior. And, you know, it's pretty, pretty simple. You don't get similar. Think of it. We've signed every country in the Middle East. This was like an impossible thing. It's never been done before. This is more than Gaza. Gaza was big stuff, but this is. Gaza is a piece of it.
- [70:47]
Commercial Announcer
And if they reject the deal, you said that Israel has your backing to.
- [70:51]
Narrator/Host
Do whatever they need.
- [70:52]
Commercial Announcer
What do you envision that looks like?
- [70:53]
H
Let them go and do what they have to do. They can do it pretty easily. I would let them go and do.
- [70:57]
Narrator/Host
What they have to do.
- [70:58]
H
You know, we've killed about 25,000 Hamas, so certainly they paid a big price for October 7th. And this is a whole new group. You know, they come in and they come in, they keep coming, but this is a whole different group and their leadership has been killed three different times. So they paid a big price. We hope that they're going to have a nice, calm life. Maybe it won't happen, but if it does, it'll be one of the greatest things ever to happen. We'll have actual peace in the Middle East. Are you preparing to take strike against.
- [71:35]
Commercial Announcer
Drug gangs in Venezuela, sir?
- [71:38]
H
We'll see what happens with Venezuela. Venezuela has been very dangerous with drugs and with other things. And they've been very, very dangerous. So we'll see what happens with Venezuela. We had a lot of drugs coming in through water. We call it water drugs, just a simple term. We don't have any boats on the water. There are no boats. There are no fishing boats. There are no anything. So we hit a number of boats. You probably saw that. And since we did that, we have absolutely no drugs coming into our country. Country via water because it was lethal. And now we'll look at cartels. We're going to look very seriously at cartels coming by land.
- [72:19]
Commercial Announcer
In this address. Why gather all the generals in one place?
- [72:23]
H
Well, this is only in esprit accord. You know what a street accord is. This is only a Spirit, we're going to be talking to him. Pete Hegseth is talking right now. I'm going to have to leave because I have to talk to him.
- [72:34]
Narrator/Host
But.
- [72:34]
H
But these are our generals, our admirals, our leaders. And it's a good thing. A thing like this has never been done before because they came from all over the world and there's a little bit of expense. Not much, but there's a little expense to that.
- [72:46]
Narrator/Host
We don't like to waste it.
- [72:47]
H
We'd rather spend it on bullets and rockets, frankly. But this was the one time we had to do a great spiritizing. It's going to be great. I've seen it already. We have every general, every admiral, but we have great people. We have our real warriors over there. And when they're not good, when we don't think they're our warriors, you know what happens? We say, you're fired. Get out. We had some real bad ones last time. You know, I rebuilt the military, the entire military, but I had a couple. And I had unbelievable people to do that.
- [73:18]
Commercial Announcer
You have to.
- [73:19]
H
But I had unbelievable people in there. But I also had some bad ones at the top, like Millie and Mattis and that Jesper, I called him too. Always too late Jesper. He was horrible. So. But I learned because, you know, that was. I was just in there and I put these people in. They were recommended by Rhinos and others. And then I could. What we have now is the best. But even despite that, I rebuilt the military in my first term. We had a great first time. We had the greatest economy ever, and it's being beaten by a lot this time. So I'm going over, I'm going to be meeting. I'm going to be meeting with generals and with admirals and with leaders, and if I don't like somebody, I'm going to fire them right on the spot.
- [74:17]
Terrence Bates
Again, as we said, President Trump now headed over to Quantico, Virginia, where he's going to be meeting with those military leaders. The top generals and admirals that he discussed will, of course take you there live the moment he takes the podium. It's my understanding that he is now on the ground in Quantico and driving on over to the facility where those leaders are. Let's bring back in John, Dr. Gina and David. John. So there's so much to take in. And President Trump meeting with these military general, as he said, to spiritize them, that's just part of it, but it's also happening. And he kind of addressed this during that news conference amid the backdrop of a potential government shutdown, a very likely government shutdown, and this new peace agreement that everyone has signed on to but Hamas in Israel and Gaza. And President Trump saying that, you know, if Hamas doesn't sign on, he's going to let Israel move forward as it needs to move forward in order to quote. Well, he didn't say this, but I'm going to say it myself, handle its business, if you will.
- [75:18]
John Solomon
Yeah, yeah. That's what you call compositing that press conference right there. If I don't like a general because he's not on board with me, he's fired today. If I, if Hamas doesn't like the deal, they'll be eradicated. Take the deal. Live comfortably or get eradicated. If Democrats don't want to lose 200,000 workers in the federal workforce, don't shut the government down today. A level of clarity that President Trump brings in these press conferences, which is, this is where I'm at. No more fooling around. The American people don't want excuse making and dog tail wagging. We want action. And you see today, he sets the compass on all of these issues very, very clearly. And I think that in the next few days, no matter how history plays out, the American people now know where the President stands on each of these issues and why he stands on him. He explains why they remade the Pentagon, why they're doing this meeting today. I don't want to waste the money, it's on travel. But hey, one time getting everybody aligned is important so that we can go back and do the mission right. He's very clear about why he's doing it, what he's doing. And I think that makes the expectation of his enemies and those in his trenches fighting for him a lot easier to carry out because they know exactly where the President stands. And I think that's what you just saw in that little six minute ditty.
- [76:30]
David Brody
John, have you ever seen any sort of speech like we just saw from Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War? I'm going to just read a couple of comments. He said, he said, no more, quote, fat generals. They need to meet the height and weight standards. The male standard only was the, quote, grooming standards. He said, if you don't shave, that's it, you go join the special forces. He said, quote, no more, quote beardos. He said no more walking on eggshells strategy. I just go on. He says, no more identity months, DEI offices, dudes and dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division distraction, gender illusions. We are done with that blankety blank. I mean, I've never quite. I mean, seriously. I mean, this was provocative, and maybe I should put that in all caps.
- [77:29]
John Solomon
Well, listen, I think Pete Hegseth is the perfect emissary of President Trump. President Trump is just as blunt. And I think the Pentagon for the last 10 years, if we're being blunt, drifted into something other than warfare. And, and I think today this was a cardiac paddles moment to all the generals. If whatever Joe Biden and Barack Obama told you the military was going to do, we ain't doing it unless it's war fighting, unless it's protecting the country, unless it's getting in position to defeat our enemies. And I think that sometimes when you're taking a big institution, applying those cardiac paddles quickly and creating the shock standard, that's what he did today. But Pete Hexif talks a lot like President Trump talks. Let's get right down to the brass tacks, and let's not waste any time using euphemisms to describe what we're doing. No more dudes in dresses. I think that's pretty clear what he means by that. So I bet you it's pretty well received. I've known a lot of military people who have chafed under the last four or five years of the Biden administration and the insanity they thought they saw there. You know, there are some woke generals that got through the process and got to the top of the food chain because they were following the DEI transgenderism ideology. They'll probably get squeezed out quickly, but the men and women downstream, I think they like this realignment.
- [78:45]
David Brody
I got to tell you, John, get ready for the anonymous sources. Stories coming from the New York Times and Washington Post. The deep state that these generals. I say generals, go ahead, take it, John. They're out for blood now.
- [78:57]
John Solomon
Yeah, some are. And they'll be unemployed quickly. I think the president just said, I don't like you. You're gone. And I think he's proven that. You're going to see the Apprentice Pentagon style pretty soon. You're fired. For anyone who doesn't get on board with this because the stakes are too high. And I think the president understands. Stands up.
- [79:13]
Dr. Gina
Very interesting, this language of we'll return to the highest male standard only. Do you think he'll address women in combat? He's on the record in November 2024 saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective. It hasn't made us more lethal. It has made fighting more complicated. I happen to Agree with him. I don't want anyone to mistake me for making some sort of feminist argument here, but it doesn't matter what I think. What do you think he's going to do about it, John?
- [79:42]
John Solomon
Well, I think based on what he said today, that if a woman can meet the standards of what used to be the male combat war standards, they get in. And by the way, all the men and women who fight in our front lines, regardless of what role they're in, we honor them every day that we are the country we are because of the sacrifices they make. His point is, when you're in the battlefield, you got to meet a standard of victory. And if you can't meet that standard, dude, we'll find another role for you. But I don't think you'll see a diminished role for women in the military. They play an enormous role. But if you're going to be on the front lines of battlefield and you're facing an enemy who has mortal capabilities, you better have those same mortal capabilities. You can't be a little off course just to meet some sort of equity standard. And I think that that's what he's talking about. It's all about being able to win wars. And I think it's such a clear standard. There'll be lawsuits, there'll be anonymous leaks. David's right. The anonymous whisper campaign will start tomorrow. But, but the great thing about this Trump White House, unlike the first Trump White House, they really don't give a rat about what the New York Times and Washington Post report. They care what the people in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Des Moines, Iowa think about. And I think that that's a pretty liberating moment of this administration.
- [80:52]
Dr. Gina
Yeah. And John, just to punctuate what you said, women have always mattered a lot in the military. Before dei, women served very significant roles in the military. It was the DEI that I think threw us so badly.
- [81:06]
John Solomon
That's right. I totally agree. That couldn't be better said. You're right.
- [81:10]
Terrence Bates
Hey, John, you know when you typically look at political speeches or speeches in general, you look at them in terms of style and substance. I think it was a substance filled speech. Even in terms of style, it was interesting. I felt like I was watching a TED Talk to some degree.
- [81:24]
John Solomon
Yeah, that's what the Trump administration is. That's a good way of looking at. But this is a. Listen. This administration has a lot of skilled people who are born in the era of social media. They know how to talk, they know how to signal, they know how to set a Compass. They know how to shock because that's what works on social media. And so in I don't know how long Pete's speech was, but it was a short speech, but it had quite a bullet, a few intellectual bullets fired. And that's, I think, the style of everyone. When you look at the Cabinet secretaries, you look at those meetings where they go around the Cabinet meeting, everybody has to make a stick at point right away. And that's the standard that the president has set for communicating. And in an era where we have lots of noise, you, you couldn't, you couldn't avoid the specifics of what Peter, Pete Hex said. He said it very clear. There's no one in the room who didn't understand what the message was.
- [82:16]
David Brody
And it's not lost on me, by the way, and a lot of us that the American, the big American flag behind him, which made me think of George C. Pat Patton. George C. Patton in that movie.
- [82:25]
John Solomon
I saw you.
- [82:26]
David Brody
Yeah, but, but, but it's true, right? I mean, tell me the visuals don't matter here. They matter. They matter.
- [82:34]
John Solomon
They do. Listen. Part of the DEI transgenderism era, the Biden administration was also an error to try to shift the American idea that we're a globalist fighting force and we have to be alongside our others. And the answer is in Donald Trump's world and the answer the American people gave last November 5th, America First. And I think that flag, as opposed to a United nations flag or some multilateral flag, our troops are fighting an American war first. And it will help our, our allies around the world when it makes sense, when it's in the American interest, by the way. That used to be the standard of foreign policy until the Obama Biden years changed it to some globalist agenda. But the flag is just one of many clear statements that we're in America first military now, as we are in America first administration.
- [83:21]
Terrence Bates
Absolutely. John, always good to talk to you, my friend. Appreciate you.
- [83:24]
John Solomon
Love your show, guys, this morning.
- [83:26]
Dr. Gina
Love your show, John.
- [83:28]
Narrator/Host
Thank you.
- [83:29]
Commercial Announcer
Thanks, guys.
- [83:29]
John Solomon
See you soon.
- [83:30]
Narrator/Host
All right.
- [83:30]
John Solomon
All righty.
- [83:31]
Terrence Bates
We'll talk soon. John, thanks so much again, folks. As you see there on your screen, we're standing by for President Trump to address those top military leaders in Quantico, Virginia. The moment he takes the podium will take you there. We hear that he is on the ground now in Quantico and headed that way. Let's take a quick break. We're back in just two minutes.
- [83:54]
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John Solomon
Where do you see the business actually heading?
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- [86:30]
Terrence Bates
You're looking at a room filled with top military leaders, top US Military leaders who've come in from around the country to hear from President Trump. Just moments ago they got a talk from Secretary of War Pete Hagseth. President Trump, we're hearing, is on the ground in Quantico Virginia and making his way here to the stage again. When he does arrive there, we, of course will take you there to hear his remarks. But again, these are top military generals and admirals from around the country, hundreds of them we're hearing in place for this unprecedented meeting where they will hear from President Trump here in short order. We'll take you there live. In the meantime, we are getting ready for the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Pre market trading looking kind of rough, some red on our board. But again, we'll take you to the opening bell once it happens here in short order. If President Trump is speaking, then we're going to forego that and hear from the president. First, though, let's get you over to David. Okay.
- [87:27]
David Brody
Tv Appreciate it. Let's do a daily dose of dollars and common sense or at least as much as we can before the president speaks. That means Jake Novak is with us, of course, the host of American Sunrise early Edition. Jake? Well, there's something about the possible government shutdown that I know is just killing you. It's all connected to the September jobs report. What do you got? You're shaking your head, Jake.
- [87:51]
Commercial Announcer
Oh, no, David, if there's a government shutdown, we won't get our phony baloney jobs report on Friday morning. What will we do? I hate government economic reports. Even if there is no partisanship involved, they're inaccurate. They're useless. They are just a number that the markets bet on. So I'll make you a deal, Wall street. If you don't get your jobs report Friday morning, I will roll a pair of dice and you can bet on that number because that's about as important important as the jobs report number is it's inaccurate. It doesn't really tell us much. I know it makes money for you one way or the other, but that's only because you've placed a bet. It's meaningless. I am hoping we don't get the jobs report on Friday. It is such a misleading number and doesn't tell us about the things about our economy that we need to know.
- [88:34]
David Brody
Yeah, for sure. By the way, we're doing the picture in picture look this morning, waiting for President Trump to speak any moment now. Jake, by the way, regarding jobs, what about these mass layoffs that President Trump is talking about? Actually, hang on for a second. Let's go to Peter Hagst at the podium in Quantico.
- [88:48]
Commercial Announcer
Well, you've heard from me. So now it's the main event, our commander in chief. I have the privilege every single day of watching him put America first, of ensuring that our war fighters have everything they need. His compass is clear. He's easy to follow because, you know, he has our back. I was thinking backstage, the man who was the commander in chief when the War Department was created was George Washington. The man who was president when the War Department re established as President Trump. And when he found out about this gathering of senior leaders, he said, I would be honored to come in order to address and thank you, the incredible Americans who defend our nation. He has a heart full of gratitude and love for what you do. And we get a chance to see it every day. And I'm honored that this morning, you all firsthand get to see it as well. So, ladies and gentlemen, join me in welcoming the 45th and 47th President of the United States, our Commander in Chief, Donald J. Trump.
- [90:22]
Narrator/Host
Thank you very much, Pete, and great job you're doing, too. Fantastic job. I've never walked into a room so silent before. This is very. Don't laugh. Don't laugh. You're not allowed to do that. You know what? Just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud. And if you want to do anything you want, you can do anything you want. And if you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank. There goes your future. But you just feel nice and loose. I. Okay. Because we're all on the same team. And I was told that, sir, you won't hear. You won't hear a murmur in the room. I said we had to loosen these guys up a little bit, so you just have a good time. But I want to thank Secretary Hegsett and General Kaine, General Raisin Cain for a reason. They call him that. When I heard his name, I said, you're the guy I'm looking for. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and so many others in this room who together represent the greatest and most elite fighting force in the history of the world. The United States military. We're very proud of our military. I rebuilt the military during my first term. It was one of the greatest achievements. We had the greatest economy in history, and I built the military. Those are the two things I say more than anything else. And I also kept us safe at the borders. We had very good borders. We didn't have people coming in from jails and prisons and everything like took place over the last four years. They'll never forget what happened to this country over the last four years with the incompetence There could be no higher honor than to serve as your commander in chief. It is a great honor. I look at you. You're just incredible people. Central casting, I might add. To each and every one of you, I thank you for your unwavering devotion to the armed forces and to the country that we've all sworn a sacred oath to defend. We all have that oath, every one of us. I'm thrilled to be here this morning to address the senior leadership of what is once again known around the world as the Department of War. I know Pete spoke about it. He gave a great speech. I thought, great speech. I don't want him to get so good. Good. I hate that. You know, I hate it. I almost fired him. I said, you can't. I don't want to go on after that now. He gave. He gave a great speech, but he talked about Department of War. We were sitting there. I said, didn't it used to be called the Department of War? And he goes, yes, sir. They changed it, like in the early 50s. So we won the First World War, we won the Second World War, we won everything in between and everything. Everything before that. We only won. And then we went away, woke. That was probably the first sign of wokeness, and we changed it to defense instead of war. And I said, what do you think? How do you think if we change your back, would that be a nice idea? And Pete loved it immediately. Some people thought about it, you know, they gave it a little thought, but in the end, we did it. And I have to be honest, it's so popular, it's. I thought would be met with fury on the left, but they're sort of giving up. I must be honest with you. They've had it. They've had it with Trump. They've been after me for so many years now. Here we are. Here we are. Come to the White House anytime you'd like. No, they'd given up bad. A lot of bad people. But all over, that's been so popular. It's been very popular. I really thought that we were going to have to sort of fight it through. There's been no fight. There's been no fight like what I call the Gulf of America. The Gulf of America, because to me, it was always the Gulf of America. I could never understand. We have 92% of the frontage, and for years, actually 350 years, they were there before us. It was called the Gulf of Mexico. I just had this idea. I'm looking at a map, I'm saying we have most of the the frontage. Why is it Gulf of Mexico? Why isn't it the Gulf of America? And I made the change, and it went smoothly. I mean, we had a couple of fake news outlets that refused to make the change. And then one of them, ap took us to court and we won. And the judge, who was a somewhat liberal judge, said the name is the Gulf of America. Because apart from refused to call it the Gulf of America, they wrote, they're not a good outfit, by the way, they call it the Gulf of Mexico. I said, no, the Gulf of America is the name. And the judge actually said that. In fact, you can't even go into the room because what you're doing is not appropriate. The name is the Gulf of America. Google Maps changed the name. Everybody did. But AP wouldn't. And then we won in court. How about that? Isn't that so cool? As Secretary Hexa beautifully described, the name change reflects far more than the shift in branding. It's really a historic reassertion of our purpose and our identity and our pride. That's when we go with the word war. And, you know, we want war because we want to have no wars. But you have to be there, and, you know, sometimes you have to do it. I have settled so many wars since we're here. We're here almost nine months, and I've settled seven. And yesterday we might have settled the biggest of them all, although, I don't know. Pakistan, India was very big. Both nuclear powers. I settled that. But yesterday is. Could be the settlement in the Middle east that hasn't happened for 3,000 years. I said, how long have you been fighting? 3,000 years, sir. That's a long time. But we got it, I think, settled. We'll see. Hamas has to agree, and if they don't, it's going to be very tough on them. But it is what it is. But all of the Arab nations, Muslim nations, have agreed. Israel has agreed. It's an amazing thing. It just came together. War is very strange. You know, you never know what's going to happen with war. The easiest one of them all is Putin. I said, number one, it's a war that would have never happened if I were president. President. If the election weren't rigged. If I were president of that war, it would have never happened, not even a little chance. And it didn't happen for four years. But I knew Putin very well, and I thought that would be easy because I know him so well. Well, that one turned out to be the hardest of them all. We had some that were not settleable. And they all got settled. So if this works out that we did yesterday with the Middle east, then that's more than a war. That's lots of war. That's all combined. That's a lot of wars. Many of you were over there in many different capacities in many different countries. That was a. That's a big. That's a big part of the earth. But if that works out, it would be eight plus. I could give myself two or three for that one. And then we just have the one to settle, and we have to settle it up with President Putin and Zelensky, going to get them together and get it done. But the only way we can do that is through strength. I mean, if we were weak, they wouldn't even take my phone call. But we have extreme strength. We had the horror show in Afghanistan, which is really the reason I think, that Putin went in, he saw that horror show by Biden and his team of incompetent people, and that showed. I think it gave him a path in. I wasn't there any longer. I watched that and was so, so horrible. I think it was the most embarrassing day in the history of our country. And now we're back, and that's it. We're not going to have any of that crap happen. I can tell you. That was terrible, so terrible. Together, we're reawakening the warrior spirit, and this is a spirit that won and built this nation. And from the cavalry that tamed the Great Plains to the ferocious, unyielding power of Patton, Bradley, and the Great General Douglas MacArthur, these are all great men in this effort. We're a team. And so my message to you is very. I am with you. I support you. And as President, I have your backs 100%. You'll never see me even waver a little bit. I don't hear it so well. Together, over the next few years, we're going to make our military stronger, tougher, faster, fiercer, and more powerful than it has ever been before. I rebuilt our nuclear, as you probably know, but we'll upgrade that also and just hope we never have to use it. We have to hope we never have to use it, because the. The power of that is so incredible. I see things. I don't think they'd show it to you. I really wouldn't want them to show it to you. But when you see the result of what's left, you never want to use that. Never, never, ever. We were a little bit threatened by Russia recently, and I sent a submarine, nuclear submarine, the most lethal weapon ever made. Number one. You can't detect it. There's no way. We're 25 years ahead of Russia and China in submarines. Russia is actually second in submarines. China's third. But you know, they're coming up. They're coming up. They're way lower in nuclear, too. But in five years they'll be equal. They're coming up. And you don't have to be that good with nuclear. You could have 1/20 what you have now and still do the damage. That would be, you know, that'd be so horrendous. But I announced that, you know, based on his mention of nuclear, and it was really a stupid person that works for him mentioned the word nuclear. I moved a submarine or two, I won't say about the two, over to the coast of Russia just to be careful, because we can't let people throw around that word. I call it the N word. There are two N words, and you can't use either of them. Can't use either of them. And frankly, if it does get to use, we have more than anybody else. We have better, we have newer, but it's something we don't ever want to even have to think about. But when somebody mentions that that submarine started immediately thereafter and it's just lurking, but I'm sure we're not going to have to use it. But it's an amazing. It's undetectable, totally. Ours is. Theirs isn't. Theirs are totally detectable. We can detect them easily. We go right to the spot. But we have genius apparatus that doesn't allow detection. It doesn't allow detection at all by anybody above water or below water. It's incredible. We're way ahead of everybody on that and other things as a result of the exciting renewal of the spirit of our armed forces. And that's what it is. It's really reaching that spirit, unprecedented heights. Over the past eight months, new enlistments, I'm so proud of this, have surged to record highs, the highest we've ever had. And we used to have recruiting shortages. If you remember, about a year and a half ago, I was at the beginning stage of a campaign and things came out that you couldn't get people to join the armed forces. And by the way, the police, also fire department. I always put the fire department in because they're great. They're great. And I got 95% of their vote, too. That helps. When you get 95% of their vote, you always have to mention them, but they're great and they're brave in our inner cities, which we're going to be talking about because it's a big part of war now. It's a big part of war. But the firemen go up on ladders and you have people shooting at them while they're up in ladders. I don't even know if anybody heard that, but. And I said don't talk about it much, but I think you have to. Our firemen are incredible. They're up in one of these ladders that goes way up to the sky rescuing people. And you have animals shooting at them, shooting bullets at firemen that are way up in death territory. You fall off that letter, it's over. It's over. They don't even have to inspect you when you hit the ground and you have people shooting bullets at them in some of these inner cities. We're not going to let that happen. So I always mention the firemen because that's actually a big problem we have. They are unbelievable. Like you. They're unbelievable people. For the first time on record in 2025, the Navy, Air Force and Space Force all met or surpassed their recruiting goals three months early. That never happened before. And the army did even better. Congratulations. Army. They met everything. And these were the highest standards because were making it larger. So these were much higher standards that you had four years ago. Three years ago during the sleepy Joe Biden era. And the army did it four months early. And you remember a year and a half ago, they said the big story is that we're way behind with the Army, Air Force, the Navy, the Marines were way behind Coast Guard and even Space Force. I love Space Force because that was my creation. You know, when you create something, I love it. And the people we put in there were good. I got that right. We put in great people initially and we've really dominated. We really dominate in that sphere. Now we, we're way behind China and Russia, and now we dominate. Space Force turned out to be a very important thing. I said from the beginning, you know, when Biden came into office, he wanted to terminate. He said, and this thing called Space Force, so we could get rid of that. And he got hammered by the people in this room for even suggesting it, because it's very important, one of the most important. And as time goes by, it'll get more and more important. But we're now at 106% of our recruiting targets for the year, and that's the best in far more than a generation. And for the Marines, morale is so strong that the Marine Corps will meet its 2026 retention targets before the end of October, which never happens. And that's the earliest it's ever happened in the history of our country. And it makes you feel good. You know, I felt guilty. I'd go make a speech in front of never. People like you, you are the. You are the leaders. But people, soldiers. And I felt embarrassed because there'd be stories about, you know, you couldn't. We couldn't fill up our army, navy, air force. We couldn't fill them up. And it was headlines, his headlines. It was during Biden's four years. The auto pen. I call him the auto pen. It's. How would you like to have your thing signed by an auto pen? You know, when I have a general and I have to sign for a general because we have beautiful paper, the gorgeous paper. I said, throw a little more gold on it. They deserve it. Give me. I want the A paper, not the D paper we used to sign a piece of garbage. I said, this man's going to be a general, right? Yes. I don't want to use this. I want to use the big, beautiful, firm paper. I want to use the real gold writing. When you talk about the position, and they're beautiful and. But how would you like to have that where some kid sitting in the back office is having it signed with an auto pen. I thought about it, and I thought about you people first, admirals, generals. I said, somebody works as his whole life. He gets into maybe the academies or wherever, but however he got there. And you go through years of work and now you become an admiral or a general or whatever. And when you do, the president of the United States signs your commission, as you know, and that commission is beautifully displayed. And I sign it. Actually, I love my signature. I really do. Everyone loves my signature, but I signed it very proudly. And I always think to myself, how can you have an auto pen sign this? It's just so disrespectful to me. It's just totally disrespectful. And it turned out that almost everything he did was signed by auto pen, except for when he gave his son Hunter pardon. He signed that one. And that's actually the worst signature I've ever seen. That was the pen. The auto pen looks much better. But as leaders, our commitment to every patriot who put on the uniform is to ensure that American military remains the most lethal and dominant on the planet, not merely for a few years, but for the decades and generations to come. For centuries, we must be so strong that no nation will Dare challenge us. So powerful that no enemy will dare threaten us, and so capable that no adversary can even think about beating us. And we've had it recently. I had. India and Pakistan were going at it, and I called them both. And in this case, I used trade. I'm not going to trade with you. Used to nuclear nations, Big nuclear. No, no, no, you cannot do that. I said, yes, I can. You go into this fricking war that I'm hearing about, you know, actually, they just shut down seven planes. Seven planes. It was starting. There was a lot of bad blood. And I said, you do this, there's not going to be any trade. And I stopped the war. It was going. It was raging for four days, but that was just the beginning. And we stopped it. It was a great thing. And the Prime Minister of Pakistan was here, along with the field marshal, who's a very important guy in Pakistan, and he was here three days ago. And I didn't even realize it as beautifully as he said it, but he said that to a group of people that were with us. Two generals, but a group. He said, this man saved millions of lives because he saved the war from going on. And that war was going to get very bad. Very, very bad. President Trump saved millions and millions of lives. That was a bad war. And I was very honored. I loved the way he said it. Susie Wiles was there. She said that was the most beautiful thing. But we saved a lot of them. Saved a lot of them. Even in Africa. We saved the Congo with Rwanda. They've been fighting for 31 years. 10 million people dead. I got that one done and very proud of it. So if this works out, we'll have eight. Eight in eight months. That's pretty good. Nobody's ever done that. Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They'll give it to some guy that didn't do a damn thing. They'll give it to a guy that wrote a book about the mind of Donald Trump and what it took to solve the war. Said he'll get the Nobel Prize, will go to a writer now, but we'll see what happens. But it'd be a big insult to our country, I will tell you that. I don't want it. I want the country to get. Should get it, because there's never been anything like it. Think of it. So if this happens, I think it will. I don't say that lightly because I know more about deals. Anybody. This is what my whole life was based on. And they can change, and this can certainly change, but we have just about everybody. We have one signature that we need, and that signature will pay in hell if they don't sign. I hope they sign for their own good and we create something really great. But to have done eight of them is just, like, such an honor. And then we have Putin and Zelensky, the easiest one of them all. I said, that one I'll get done. I thought that was going to be first. The other was much harder. Some of them, Azerbaijan was. This was going on for 36 years. They said, it's not solvable, sir. You can't. Don't do it. I said, I will do it. I will do it. And I got on the phone with the two countries. They were great. They were great. I knew immediately. I knew as soon as I started talking to them, we're going to solve that war. We did. Now they're so happy. Now they're friends. Once said, he's been president for 32 years. 22 years, he said, you know, for 22 years, I did nothing but kill his people. They were in the room together at the Oval Office, and they started off spread like this. I have the beautiful Resolute desk, and one was here and one was here. You couldn't get further away. That's the furthest I've ever seen two people in front of me. And as the hour went by, they got closer, closer, closer. And at the end of the hour, we had it done. And they hugged and hugged and hugged. And I said, that's so nice, and you're going to remain friends. And I spoke to them, one of them, the other day, he said, no, he's now my friend, but for 22 years. He's been the head of Azerbaijan for 22 years. And the other guy, great guy, too. 7. And, you know, that war, that was a war that was not solvable. He said, for seven years. The other one said, for 22 years, all I did was kill his people. That's all I've done. I said, well, we're going to put a stop to that. So we solved that. So it's a great thing. It's a great feeling. You know, you're saving Kosovo and Serbia. You're saving so many lives doing this, if you can do it. But our people deserve nothing less than the very best, and we're never going to let them down. And if we can solve wars, instead of you having to fight wars, wouldn't that be wonderful? Right? Wouldn't that be wonderful? That's why one of the first executive orders I signed upon taking Office was to restore the principle of merit. That's the most important word other than the word tariff. I love tariffs. Most beautiful word. But I'm not allowed to say that anymore. I said tariff is my favorite word. I love the word tariff. You know, we're becoming rich as hell. We have a big case in front of the Supreme Court. But I can't imagine, because this is what other nations have done to us. And we have, you know, great legal grounds at all, but you still have a case. It'll be very bad. Something happened. But I said my favorite word in the English dictionary is the word tariff. And people thought that was strange. And the fake news came over and they really hit me hard on it. They said, what about love? What about religion? What about God? What about wife, family? I got killed when I said tariff is my favorite word. So I changed it. It's now my fifth favorite word. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. But they hit me hard. But it is. I mean, when you look at, we've taken in trillions of dollars. We're rich, rich again. And they'll never be when we finish this out. There'll never be any wealth like what we have. Other countries were taking advantage of us for years and years. You know that better than anybody. And now we're treating them fairly. But the money coming in is, we've never seen anything like it. The other day they had 31 billion, that they found $31 billion. So we found $31 billion. And we're not sure from where it came. A gentleman came in, a financial guy. I said, well, what does that mean? He said, we don't know where it came. I said, check the tariff shelf. No, sir, the tariffs haven't started in that sector yet. I said, yes, they have. They started seven weeks ago. Check it comes back 20 minutes later. Sir, you're right. It came from tariffs. 31 billion. That's enough to buy a lot of battleships, Admiral, to use an old term. I think we should maybe start thinking about battleships. By the way, you know, we have A secretary of the Navy came to me because I look at the Iowa out in California and I look at different ships. The old pictures I used to watch. Victory at sea. I love victory at sea. Look at these admirals. It's got to be your all time favorite. Black and white. When I look at those ships, they came with the destroyers alongside of them and man, nothing was going to stop. They were 20 deep and they were in a straight line and there was nothing Going to stop them. And we actually talk about, you know, those ships. Some people would say no, that's old technology. I don't know, I don't think it's old technology when you look at those guns. But it's something we're actually considering. The concept of battleships, nice 6 inch side, solid steel, not aluminum. Aluminum that melts if it looks at a missile coming at it starts melting as the missiles about two miles away. Now those ships, they don't make them that way anymore. But you look at it and your secretary likes it and I'm sort of open to it. And bullets are a lot less expensive than missiles. A lot of reasons I should take a vote. But I'm afraid to take that vote because I may get voted out on that one. But I tell you, it's something we're seriously considering. There were powers, there were big powers. They were just about as mean and scary as you could be. So we're looking at that. One of the biggest cases that we won was the decision of the United States Supreme Court to allow us to proceed on the word merit. Merit. So those two words are right up there. So this is, I would say, the opposite if you ask for a definition, the opposite of political correctness. We went through political correct where you had to have people that were totally unfit to be doing what you're doing for many reasons I won't get into them, but for many reasons they were unfit. Now it's all based on merit. That was such an unbelievable decision. I didn't expect we were going to win that one. We went in, we said we need it. We went in for colleges, you know, where kids with a C average are getting into the best colleges and the kids with ache averages won't get in. And kids with the highest boards and the highest marks and the best marks couldn't get into the best schools. And people that had not good boards and not very good marks, I mean, okay, but nothing special. They were getting into our best colleges. I said this is just crazy. We can't run. You can't run a country like this. And it was lingering for years and it got to the Supreme Court and we won that decision. Merit, Everything's based on merit. You're all based on merit. We're not going to have somebody taking your place for political reasons because they are politically correct and you're not. We take the people that are going to do the best job. That's all. It's very simple. And that's the way our country was built. We were built on merit. We got away from it for a long time and everyone understands it. And it was done, it was approved. I give great credit to the Supreme Court because I thought they had tremendous courage. I didn't think they'd do that. That was tremendous. I give them maybe for that decision almost more than anything, because it's a hard decision to make. It's really hard. The apparatus of our country was not set up for merit. It was set up for political correctness. And you can never be great if you're going to do that. And we're going to be greater than we ever were before. We're bringing back a focus on fitness, ability, character and strength. And that's because the purposes of American military is not to protect anyone's feelings. It's to protect our republic, and it's the republic that we dearly love. It's to protect our country. We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom. And we will be a fighting and winning machine. We want to fight. We want to win, and we want to fight as little as possible. You have to count on people like me to keep you out of wars, because we don't want to go into wars. Many of the wars that I just told you about, we could have entered those wars and settled them in a different way. Lose a lot of our troops and we could have settled them, I guess, differently. Maybe not, actually. You might not have been able to settle them. We just would have been in the middle of a lot of. A lot of firepower. But when we do need it, you're going to be so ready and you know it. But very importantly with that goal in mind, I've committed to spending over 1, $1 trillion on our military in 2026. And that's the most in the history of our country. $1 trillion. That's a lot of money. I hope you like that. Ma' ams and sirs, I hope you like it. That's a hell of a lot of money. We have the best of everything. Every branch is seeing major investments. And as I announced in the Oval Office in March, we are rapidly moving forward with the first ever sixth generation fighter jet. I didn't name it. I did not name it. Boeing came in and they said, sir, this is our submittal. It's the greatest fighting jet ever done. And you know, they're testing all these planes, all the companies are testing. And this one tested like through the roof. And they said, we like to name it the F47. I said, let me think about it then after thinking for about two seconds, I said, okay, you know what that means? 47. I'm 47. So I'm 45, 46, and 47. If you think about it, I just don't want the credit for 46. I don't want to have their open borders and people coming in from all over the world, including jails and mental institutions. I don't want that on my record, but I like having it. We're investing tens of billions of dollars in modernizing our nuclear deterrence capabilities like never before. And we've begun construction on what we call the Golden Dome Missile Defense shield. It'll be the most sophisticated in the world. You watched it do well until they had some problems at the end with a little bit of a lack of ammunition, defensive ammunition, but they've got that taken care of. But I tell you, it's. What we're doing is so good, and we deserve it. You know, we help other countries with it. We don't have it ourselves. And Canada called me a couple of weeks ago. They want to be part of it. To which I said, well, why don't you just join our country? You become 51, become the 51st state, and you get it for free. So I don't know if that made a big impact, but it does make a lot of sense. It actually makes. Because they're having a hard time up there in Canada now because, as you know, with tariffs, everyone's coming into our country. We have more investment than we've ever had before. $17 trillion coming in. As an example, in four years, Biden didn't have 1 trillion. We have 17 trillion more than that in eight months coming in. And they're coming in from Canada, Mexico, from Europe, from all over AI Auto plants. Everybody's coming back to the United States. Under my budget, we will be expanding the US Navy by at least 19 ships next year, including submarines, destroyers, assault ships, and more. And it's going to be much more than that as we go along, because we basically don't build ships anymore. We do build submarines, but we don't build ships. Do you know, in the Second World War, they were freighters and different types, but we were doing a ship a day, and now we don't do ships. And I'm not a fan of some of the ships you do. I'm a very aesthetic person, and I don't like some of the ships you're doing. Aesthetically, they say, oh, it's stealth. I said, that's not stealth. An ugly ship is not necessary in order to say you're stealth. By the way, the B2 bombers were incredible. That is stealth. They went into that. I was with General Kane and every and Pete were in the, we call it the war room. But we're watching them go in and they were totally untouched. They were not seen. They were literally not seen. They dropped their bombs, they hit. Every single one of them hit its target. It was total obliteration. Cnn when we came back, fake news cnn. Oh, their camera just went off. You know their camera. Every time I mention they turn the camera off because it's never stop settling for weak sound.
- [123:33]
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John Solomon
Where do you see the business actually heading?
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This is an iHeart podcast.