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- [00:00]
Donald Trump
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:04]
Steve Gruber
This is America's Voice live. And welcome to America's Voice Live. I'm Steve Guru, the pulse of the people. We need somebody that's going to hear the people's voice, the truth the mainstream won't touch. This guy is by definition a globalist. And the stories that matter, Rav's own Ben Berklam.
- [00:23]
Zoran Mamdani
Right up over this hill, I've got Cartel. I see him.
- [00:25]
Donald Trump
I see him. I see him.
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Steve Doolin
Live.
- [00:29]
Steve Gruber
Breaking news right now here on Real America's Voice. These people are domestic terrorists and unapologetic. We're here to take a stand for God and country. Let's feel good. America's Voice live starts now. Welcome to America's Voice Live. I'm Steve Gruber. Today is Friday 21st November in the year of our Lord 2025. Let's get into today's top stories. As always, thank you for joining me here. Unreal. America's Voice. We always appreciate seeing you. Democrat Congresswoman of Michigan. She's a senator, actually. Alyssa Slotkin recently released a video of her along with other progressive liberals calling for US Troops to disobey illegal orders. I'll bring on a legal expert to break down the legalities of that and what's true and what's not. Also, the Senate has continued to delay the approval of President Trump's nomination of former Congressman Mark Walker as the ambassador to the international religious freedom. And while the Senate delays his approval, prosecution has raged on worldwide. More on that as well then later as homeownership drifts further out of reach. President Trump says he's pushing a bold idea to bring monthly payments down. But not everyone seems to like the idea. We'll have an expert to discuss the pros and cons of the 50 year mortgage, that and more. But first I start off with what's happening right now at the White House. That's because President Trump in New York City, Mayor elect Zoran Mandani are meeting at the White House at this very moment and is listed being closed to the press. But if it opens up, then I will bring you full coverage, of course. Mamdani, a 34 year old self proclaimed Democrat socialist, has built his brand on criticizing the President, even calling himself Trump's worst nightmare. But now the nation waits in anticipation to see whether the outspoken mayor elect brings cooperation or confrontation to the table. And then over on Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning socialism. Big vote 285 to 98, with a good number of Democrats 86 and all crossing the aisle to join Republicans and pass the resolution damning socialism. Pretty impressive. Here to discuss this further, retired Air Force colonel and the host of the Rob Manus program, Colonel Manus is here. Rob, nice to see you. Let's start with this vote. I think it's impressive. 86 Democrats said thumbs down the socialism. I mean, I'm kind of surprised by that number. It was a huge number of Democrats coming across the aisle. The ones that stayed over there to the left, I don't know what their future is. What do you think about all this?
- [03:04]
Rob Manus
The troubling part of this vote, there's two things with it, Steve, is that almost 100 Democrats approve of socialism. And any person that understands history and understands socialism knows that it's just the on ramp to totalitarianism, usually resulting in total communist type government. And that's a disaster. It's killed more people in the 20th and 21st century than any other form of government. So that's very troubling. The other thing that I have a problem with this vote with, Steve, though, is that Speaker Johnson needs to get the executive orders of this President of the United States codified in law so they can't be overturned on the first day of the first Democrat presidency if they ever win it again. And that's not happening. So instead of spending time on a showboat like this, he really needs to get that list of executive orders into a one big bill, get them passed, get it to the Senate so the President can get it on his desk. That's just what needs to be done in order to satisfy the voters. Because 2026 has already started, my friend.
- [04:08]
Steve Gruber
It certainly has, Colonel. 2026 midterms are in full swing right now. And that's why I think some of these Democrats, 86 and all, came across the aisle because they see the writing on the wall. If they come out and say, hey, I'm a socialist, hey, I'm all for all this free stuff with your money. I think that gets rejected at the ballot box. And you already know it's gonna be a tight election. No matter how you look at it right now, it's gonna be tight. There are gonna be some competitive races, of course, all the redistricting going on, trying to game the system, of course, as well. These Democrats, I would say 86 Democrats, are. Maybe they're voting on principle, but more likely to me, I think they're running scared. What do you say?
- [04:48]
Rob Manus
Well, they've got to run for office every two years, just like the Republicans in the House. Of representatives to do and look for them to run away from the six crazy seditionist Democrats. And I say that with all sincerity as a person. That was a commander that wielded Uniform Code of Military justice court martial authority. When they put that video out yesterday saying that military personnel should follow illegal orders without specifying an actual order that they say is unlawful, that is just a call for mass insubordination. And it falls right into the definition of the military laws definition of sedition. And that ultimate penalty for that is death. And a lot of those folks are retired military officers that could be called back for court martial.
- [05:35]
Steve Gruber
Well, let me ask you about that. Senator Alyssa Slotkin, sadly, one of mine, she was the first person to appear on this video and she was a CIA analyst. She tries to sell herself as more. She was an analyst. She wasn't a director. She wasn't in charge of much. She was an analyst. Fair enough. And she says she's getting death threats now because of Donald Trump. She blames Donald Trump for the video they sent out and got backlash from stunning. Can you imagine, Colonel, if the Republicans had come out and said Joe Biden, you should not follow his unlawful orders, the meltdown would have been complete, wouldn't it?
- [06:13]
Rob Manus
Their policies and actions killed our friend Charlie Kirk. They almost killed the President of the United States twice. And more of that is probably going to come. How dare they try to blame their actions once again and blame it on people like you, me and the President United States because we believe in the United States of America. This is despicable on their part. As I said, the military personnel should be recalled so that they can be court martialed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The civilians like Slotkin have to be prosecuted and investigated and prosecuted to the max extent of the civilian law, which is up to and including 20 years in prison. And they all have to be held accountable because this really is in the definition of sedition to encourage and advocate for military personnel to be insubordinate. Those are words that are in both laws and it's got to be taken care of.
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Steve Gruber
Yeah, it's in the, it's in the Constitution, 14th Amendment if I read this correctly. Let me ask you about this Mark Kelly, the senator from Arizona, one of the two senators on there, not just Alyssa Slotkin, four other members of Congress. Mark Kelly is a veteran. One of the members of Congress are veterans. I keep hearing people say, well recall them to the military and court martial them. Is that actually something that could happen?
- [07:31]
Rob Manus
Well, Kelly himself is a retired United States Navy captain in 06, like I am a 06 colonel in the air Force. Retired and retirees are subject to the ucmj. So he could be recalled and prosecuted under the sedition article. It's Article 94, Treason and Sedition of the Uniform Code of Military justice and should be because this is the highest level of this type of negative activity that could result in people in the military taking the wrong action based on legal orders. Again, the important part here is not that they said and pointed out that military personnel don't have to obey unlawful orders. We teach them to not obey unlawful orders. They have a duty to do that, but they also have a duty to obey lawful orders. And this group, their big error was they did not identify any unlawful order that they don't want people to follow. So that tells you that they are just putting a smear out there and they're telling these young military military personnel that they're going to have their backs use watch. If one of them actually does something, they will run away from it as quick as possible. Because not one of these people stood up for the hundred thousand, nearly 100,000American military service members that were damaged and harmed by the COVID vaccine order that Joe Biden put out through his Secretary of Defense, then Lloyd Austin, and that was the actual unlawful order. And not one of them said anything. Not they don't have anybody's back. They have committed a grave crime and are doing grave damage to the United States.
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Steve Gruber
Colonel, how, how close are we to the precipice? When you, when you see members of the United States Senate, members of Congress coming out and telling the military, you know, you don't have to follow orders and there's a guy on the front line, he's an infantryman, whatever. I think that's an unlawful order. I mean, the ability for the military to be effective has to be the unification, the unity of that group moving whatever hostile area they're in, right? You've got to have cohesiveness. Always. This, this disrupts it. But here's my bigger question. I've never really given this much consideration until I started seeing tapes like that, that the United States could find itself in some sort of a, you know, a breakdown, a civil war, civil unrest, look where we are. We see things that you mentioned Charlie Kirk, you mentioned Donald Trump being shot, all of these things. We're in a dangerous place, aren't we Colonel?
- [10:01]
Rob Manus
We are in a dangerous place, Steve. You know, and this is just a continuation of the divide dividing tactics and strategy that the Biden administration used with diversity, equity and inclusion and wokeism indoctrination in the military. It comes out of Marxism, the critical theory. And this is another way to do it along. It's another step along the way. To divide the American people and divide the United States military is one of the last steps before what's called a color revolution actually takes place where the duly elected leader, legally elected leader, ultimately abdicates from their position and the left takes over. That's where we're at in this process.
- [10:44]
Steve Gruber
Yeah. Let me ask you about, let's go back to Mamdani being at the White House here. Democratic Socialist, Socialist, communist. I think they're all interchangeable, to be honest with you. I think it was very smart of Donald Trump to say, you know what closed press today. He did not give Mamdani the platform to play games and get the gotcha moment that he would like to have had in the Oval Office. I think that was a brilliant move just to say, yeah, we're not going to play that game today. What do you think?
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Rob Manus
Oh, I think it is too, you know, because Mandani is not just there by himself. He's got his cadre of 100% almost of the press besides you guys, and maybe one or two other independents. 99% of the press team in there are communists just like him and they fully support his effort to turn New York City into some kind of crazy place where you won't be able to be prosperous, you, you won't be able to live safely and you won't be able to continue to have children and raise a family, because it will not be a place that you can do that once Mendamani is done with it. But eventually sanity will reign and the voters will come back to the table and vote for freedom again, I guarantee.
- [11:58]
Steve Gruber
Well, I hope that's true. I think it hinges on the economy. I think that the president, once he gets done cleaning up the messes around the world, hopefully he can get this 28 point deal in between Ukraine and Russia. But he will need to pivot to domestic policy to secure the midterm elections. I'll give you the last word here.
- [12:15]
Rob Manus
Yes, sir. He's got to pivot to domestic policy. He already has. He's been working on it since he before he even got into office. We know that. Look, this is the Biden economy. This is the Biden danger that he placed on the American people. And Donald Trump and his team have been working things like inflation and prices and energy, those kinds of things very hard since before they got back into office and prices continue to come down. But it's a slow process. But we have to keep reminding people that this is a Biden economy. The Biden administration created this economy, and Donald Trump is going to be the one to get us out of it. And if the people that are in the Congress, that are Republicans, will step up to the plate and do their job, we'll be able to keep the Congress in 2026 and continue this process. But if they don't, we'll lose it. And Donald Trump will be a truly lame duck.
- [13:10]
Steve Gruber
Colonel, next time you come back, make sure you have an opinion on something, would you please? Appreciate you always. Thanks, Rob. Always good to see you. All right, after the break, Democrat Congresswoman, it's Senator Alyssa Slotkin. I've gotten that wrong twice now. I recently posted a video of her and other Democrats calling for the US Military to disobe orders from the Trump administration. I'll bring on a legal expert next to break the legalities on America's Voice Live.
- [13:40]
Donald Trump
Run a business and not thinking about radio. Think again, because more people are listening to the radio and iHeart today than they were 20 years ago. And only iHeart broadcast radio connects with more Americans than TV, digital, social, any other media, even twice as many teens than TikTok. And that reach means everything.
- [13:59]
Steve Gruber
Just think about the universal marketing formula.
- [14:01]
Donald Trump
The number of consumers who hear your message times the response rate equals the results. Now let's get those results growing for your business. Radio's here now more than ever. And iheart's leading the way. Think radio can help your business. Think iheart streaming, podcasting and radio where the reach is real. Let us show you@iheartadvertising.com that's iheartadvertising.com or call 844-844 iheart one more time. Just call 844-844, iheart and get radio working for you.
- [14:44]
Steve Gruber
Well, as you know, the Trump administration has been working hard to try to stem the flow of narcotics into this country. And I don't care which side of the aisle you're on, that's something most Americans should support. Unless, of course, you're a senator like Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan, who recently posted a video along with Mark Kelly of Arizona, senator there and four other Democrats in Congress telling U.S. troops they should disobey unlawful orders without giving a definition of that said, if President Trump issues illegal orders, well, you shouldn't follow them. See for yourself. We want to speak directly to members.
- [15:21]
Donald Trump
Of the military and the intelligence community who take risks each day to keep Americans safe. We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now. Americans trust their military, but that trust is at risk.
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Steve Gruber
This administration is pitting our uniformed, military.
- [15:36]
Donald Trump
And intelligence community professionals against American citizens like us.
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Steve Gruber
You all swore an oath to protect.
- [15:42]
Donald Trump
And defend this nation constitution.
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Rob Manus
Right now, the threats to our constitution.
- [15:46]
Donald Trump
Aren'T just coming from abroad, but from.
- [15:48]
Steve Gruber
Right here at home.
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Rob Manus
Our laws are clear.
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Steve Gruber
You can refuse illegal orders.
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Donald Trump
You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution. We know this is hard and that.
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Steve Gruber
It'S a difficult time to be a public servant.
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Donald Trump
But whether you're serving in the CIA, the army or Navy, the Air Force.
- [16:08]
Steve Gruber
Your vigilance is critical.
- [16:10]
Donald Trump
And know that we have your back. Because now more than ever, the American people need you. We need you to stand up for.
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Rob Manus
Our laws, our Constitution, and who we are as Americans.
- [16:21]
Steve Gruber
Don't give up.
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Rob Manus
Don't give up.
- [16:23]
Donald Trump
Don't give up. Don't give up the ship.
- [16:27]
Steve Gruber
Don't give up the ship. Joining me now to discuss this, attorney and U.S. army veteran himself, Steve Doolin. Mr. Doolin, nice to see you here today. Let's talk about this from a legal perspective. Well, you know, let's talk about from a veterans perspective. What do you think when you see that?
- [16:47]
Steve Doolin
Well, the first thing that occurs or occurred to me the first time I saw it was we have a Supreme Court who is tasked with telling us what the Constitution means or having an opinion and rulings on what the Constitution means. They've been at it for more than two centuries and we still don't have every nuance figured out. We can still debate the constitutionality of a number of things and it's just patently unfair to try to put it upon frontline service members to decide in every instance what might be constitutional. That's the first thing that occurs to me as a lawyer and a law professor. The second thing that occurred to me as a veteran is I remember when we had training back in the 80s when I was in on something called Saida subversion and espionage directed against the army, which is the branch I served in. And this sounds like subversion speaking. They said we're speaking directly to the military members and you can refuse to obey unlawful orders, which is true, but it's also misleading in the sense that it's a huge risk for a service member to do so. They are tap dancing on the edge in my opinion. I know some have said that they went over the edge But I feel like they're tap dancing on the edge of encouraging mutiny, which is to refuse to obey lawful orders, because knowing whether a specific operation is constitutional or not is really beyond the scope of what you can expect from those service members. So this sounds like subversion to me. This sounds like maybe something that Yuri Besmanov tried to warn us about many years ago. The defected Soviet KGB member who talked about the stages of preparing a society for revolution. And the first two stage, first three stages were demoralization, destabilization and crisis. And the difference is they take progressively less time. And so it sounds like maybe somebody's trying to get this crisis stage started where you've got the military in partial. Stir it up, that kind of thing. Right, stir it up.
- [19:14]
Steve Gruber
Yeah, stir it up. Mutiny, the Constitution. And two words here, I want to be clear about insurrection. This is not because insurrection by definition is an armed activity.
- [19:27]
Steve Doolin
Right.
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Steve Gruber
But it says in the Constitution, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion. Rebellion sounds a lot like mutiny, the word you just used, right?
- [19:37]
Steve Doolin
Well, possibly. Mutiny is pretty specific to the military though, right? So rebellion, for example, the Confederate States of America engaged in rebellion during the Civil War. They flat out said, we're no longer part of the United States of America. That's overt rebellion. When you're talking about mutiny, that's got a military connotation. And of course, you know, we all know about mutiny on the bounty, and a lot of people associate it as a purely naval term, but there have been mutinies in the other branches as well. And it implies mutiny implies that there's some kind of a concerted action. It takes more than one soldier to commit a mutiny generally. But one soldier disobeying an order certainly creates legal problems for himself. And so, you know, we had this training when I was in. The training's been in existence since shortly after the My Lai massacre back in 1968, which was certainly a war crime, certainly horrifying. An entire village was wiped out. A village of non combatants was wiped out by a unit of the U.S. army. And the what's made clear to everyone since then is using the Nuremberg defense, which is what the high ranking Nazis used during their war crimes trial after World War II, which is following orders. That's not a defense. Right. So we have to have a moral compass when we're serving in the US Military. And we have to not commit crimes that are clear atrocities, violations of the law of war. But what is going on here is there's this conflation, this blurring of the line to, oh, well, if you don't like the policy and you want to say that in your opinion it's unconstitutional, you don't have to obey. Well, the individual soldier or sailor who does that does that at great peril to himself because it's really a defense used at a court martial. So you're already in the process of a court martial when you raise this as a defense.
- [21:40]
Steve Gruber
You're on your way to a military tribunal, a court martial. It says here in the Constitution no person shall be a senator or representative Congress if you engage in rebellion. To me, that's pretty close to rebellion there. They're calling for people not to follow the orders of the civilian government of the United States when it comes to military activities. I mean, you're right. They're right on the line. If they're not across it, I'll give you the last word.
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Steve Doolin
Well, at least, at the very least, it's an attempt to politicize the military. And what we're supposed to have here in our country under our republic is civilian control of the military. And as has been famously quoted for decades now, elections have consequences. So the people of the US Elected a commander in chief of the military. And that's also in your pocket Constitution there in your hand. And that means that we've got a duly elected commander in chief who's giving orders. And we don't have room in military situations for policy debate, particularly in the heat of battle.
- [22:48]
Steve Gruber
Yeah. Now when bullets are flying and bombs are dropping, we don't have time for that nonsense. And if you pull a stunt like that, you're going to get people killed and you're going to end up in a court martial. Steve Doolin, thank you.
- [23:00]
Steve Doolin
Thank you.
- [23:02]
Steve Gruber
Greatly appreciate it. All right. Before we go to break, I want to tell you about a new show premiering right here on Real America's Voice this weekend, the Right news Show en Espanol, hosted by Javier Negray. It'll premiere Sunday at 8 o' clock Eastern. Be sure to tune in again. That's this Sunday, 8 o' clock Eastern. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back on America's Voice live. And welcome back to America's Voice live. Employment data has grown increasingly muddled in recent months. And depending on who you talk to, the job markets either shaky or appears to be improving. On the flip side, many people who don't have jobs say they're being pushed to their limits, barely scraping by between paychecks. And with the Federal Reserve slow walking and taking any Meaningful action on interest rates, that financial pressure continues to build, it seems. My good friend Eric Bollock spoke to precious metals expert Philip Patrick on this topic. Here's what they had to say.
- [24:00]
Donald Trump
Even though it's things are fluctuating everywhere. The stock market just crashed over the last few days.
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Rob Manus
Gold is holding its own above $4,000.
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Donald Trump
An ounce, 4,070 as we speak. While a resilient asset class gold has.
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Philip Patrick
Become, it certainly has and the growth is unprecedented. Gold's up over 60% for the year. Silver up over 85%. Like I've said, I think in the past, as you know better than most, gold doesn't typically do that. Right. It's not 60% growth annually asset. I think it's a reflection of changing fundamentals. We're seeing a shift around the globe and move away from government debt towards sound money. And gold's picking up on the back of that. So I think this is the beginning of what will be a long bull run. And I think ultimately gold has just been underpriced for a long time and we're starting to see its value as a monetary asset again and we expect it to Continue. It's why JP Morgan is saying gold could easily hit $8,000 an ounce. Goldman Sachs say it's going to hit 6 now next year. So, you know, investment banks are rapidly upping their prediction and it's a reflection of a very, very strong market.
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Donald Trump
I'll tell you what another good reflection on gold is, and I'm involved in both. I own a lot of gold, but I also own a lot of cryptocurrencies.
- [25:22]
Rob Manus
Primarily Bitcoin and Ethereum.
- [25:24]
Donald Trump
However, others, and these have seen a monster meltdown, a moving of funds out of, out of these, these asset classes. But gold hasn't seen that.
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Rob Manus
Why do you think gold's been resilient.
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Donald Trump
Where crypto has not?
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Philip Patrick
Yeah, I think crypto is the canary in the coal mine. Ultimately, when we look at sort of risk profiles, crypto is considered on the higher end. So we're seeing a flight to typically. What would be safety? The problem is there's not that much safety. Right. Anyone holding bonds or CA has been losing in real terms to inflation. So the traditional safe haven assets aren't working and gold's getting that pickup as well. It's the same premise or same rationale for central banks. They're holding dollars which are losing to inflation, they're dumping dollars and buying gold. It's the same thing happening here. But like I said, crypto for me is the Canary in the coal mine. Typically the riskiest sectors start to see liquidations and then it follows on from there. So yeah, gold's getting a pickup and I think it will continue to do so.
- [26:26]
Rob Manus
I've owned gold my whole life.
- [26:27]
Donald Trump
I own physical gold. Right. The actual coins and bars of gold. The question is now you can move.
- [26:33]
Rob Manus
An ira, a traditional IRA with other.
- [26:35]
Donald Trump
Assets in it, stocks, bonds, et cetera.
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Rob Manus
Into gold. Yeah.
- [26:39]
Donald Trump
And how is that process and how.
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Rob Manus
Does Birch do it?
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Philip Patrick
It's really simple. It's clearly defined under IRS tax code. We can set up a new Iraq. Clients can roll over any portion of an existing IRA or eligible 401k. No tax implications or.
- [26:54]
Donald Trump
Very important to say that. Say that again. Say that.
- [26:55]
Rob Manus
They're very important. So if an IRA that you don't.
- [26:57]
Donald Trump
Pay taxes on for dozens of years.
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Rob Manus
Or whatever, when you roll it over.
- [27:01]
Donald Trump
Into gold, you don't have to pay.
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Rob Manus
The tax and then reopen an ira.
- [27:04]
Donald Trump
You'Re literally continuing the tax free status of all that asset that has grown.
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Philip Patrick
Typically, yeah, it's exactly that. No tax implications or penalties. It is a lateral move in the eyes of the irs. We move one IRA to, to another. They can purchase physical precious metals, tax deferred within the retirement account. We can do traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, whatever the structure is, we will mirror it. And like I said, we can place physical, tangible metals in those accounts with gold's performance, with silver's performance. It's hard to be in this climate.
- [27:37]
Donald Trump
And so you're actually investing in physical.
- [27:40]
Rob Manus
Gold on behalf of the IRA account.
- [27:42]
Donald Trump
So it's not a paper transaction, it's actual physical, very quickly.
- [27:47]
Philip Patrick
Absolutely physical. Held in brinks in the client's name off balance sheet. We could go out of business. The holders could. The client owns the tax deferred in.
- [27:57]
Rob Manus
The very, very important point.
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Steve Gruber
Now if you want to learn more about diversifying your savings with gold, then text the word America. The number 989-898 today claim your free information kit on gold. Again, text the word America to the number 98. 98. 98. Do that today. Coming up after the break, the Senate has continued to delay the approval of President Trump's nomination of former Congressman Mark Walker as the ambassador to the international religious freedom. And while the Senate delays his approval, persecution has raged on worldwide. Details coming up. Back in April of this year, President Trump nominated former Congressman Mark Walker to fulfill the role of ambassador at large for international religious freedom. Our good friends over at the Daily Caller have been reporting on this important story and they explained that Walker is still awaiting that he be formally confirmed by the Senate. All while Christians are facing persecution all over the world. Nigeria comes to mind as well as facing blasphemy laws in the Middle east and Asia. In fact, the Daily Caller spoke to the White House Press office who told them that the president believes this appointment will be critical and important, protecting Americans of faith. I'd encourage you to go read some more over at the Daily Caller because they've been doing some great work and reporting on this topic of religious freedom here and around the world as well. So why is the Senate taking so long to get this done? Calling in to talk about this is the nominee to be ambassador at large for international religious freedom, Mark Walker. Mark, thank you for being here.
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Mark Walker
Oh, listen, it's a privilege to be thank you for the, thank you for the opportunity and appreciate that this topic is important to you.
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Steve Gruber
You're being stonewalled, it seems, Mark, they're not letting you through. Why?
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Mark Walker
Well, you know, I, I don't know that we have concrete, specific reasons. I know that they have, I guess I was reading 300 appointments and, and I'm sure there's a few other ambassadors that are still waiting. But I guess the point that we're trying to make from an expediting standpoint is, you know, you have people around the world. This particular position was created in 1998 and I, Sam Brownback, had it in the first Trump administration. And we're ready to get started to be able to get out there and advocate for people around the world. And look, I'm grateful that we have a president who cares about these families, these boys and girls who are being persecuted, kidnapped and worse in some of the regions. And so we are anxious to take our team of about 30 individuals there in the State Department and start being the, as the law says, the principal adviser to the secretary of state and to President Trump.
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Steve Gruber
Let me ask you about Nigeria and other regions around the world. In Nigeria is pretty well documented. Tens of thousands of Christians have been murdered, burned out of their homes, churches burned to the ground. But it's not just Nigeria, is it, sir? This is happening around the world is.
- [30:59]
Mark Walker
In fact, I'm Studying there's about 19 countries where we have seen an upswing in the religious persecution. Of course you have your outlanders, which are just, it's complete death in places like North Korea and even some places and in other third world areas. But along the African region if and I'll try to share the weeds. But it's two basic approaches Here one, you have all these Islamist groups that are Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, Iswap and others, they come in and lay waste. They pillage and rape and kidnap and ultimately torture people to death. In the other places where you have an Asia, in the Middle east, it's more blasphemy laws that if you were to share your faith or talk about your faith, it could be a five, seven, up to 15 or 20 year prison sentence. So those are two approaches. And one of the reasons that we want to get out there and start meeting with these presidents or prime ministers or parliaments is to be able to push back and advocate for these people of faith, much like President Trump has, as well as Secretary Rubio has done for his entire career.
- [31:59]
Steve Gruber
You know, we talk about Nigeria, like I said, but it's also places like Syria. It's also China. What can be done in places like China where Christians are persecuted routinely.
- [32:12]
Mark Walker
Two weeks ago, for the first day, China made a move that we haven't seen.
- [32:21]
Donald Trump
And I wanted to congratulate the mayor. He really ran an incredible race against, you know, a lot of smart people, starting with the early primaries against some very tough people, very smart people. And he beat him and he beat him easily. And I could congratulated him. And we talked about some things in very strong common like housing and getting housing built and food and prices and the price of oil is coming way down. Anything I do is going to be good for New York. If I can get prices down, it's good for New York. And we've got them down, way down from last year. We have. As you know, I've been saying to a lot of people, Walmart said that Thanksgiving this year is exactly 25% less than last year. So that's good for New York, good for everybody. But I just want to congratulate, I think you're going to have, hopefully a really great mayor. The better he does, the happier I am. I will say there's no difference in party, there's no difference in anything. And we're going to be helping him to make everybody's dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York. And congratulations, Mr. Mayor.
- [33:29]
Zoran Mamdani
Thank you, Mr. President.
- [33:30]
Donald Trump
Thank you.
- [33:30]
Zoran Mamdani
I appreciate it.
- [33:31]
Donald Trump
Please.
- [33:32]
Zoran Mamdani
I appreciated the meeting with the president. And as he said, it was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers. The 8.5 million people who call our city their home, who are struggling to afford life in the most expensive city in the United States of America. We spoke about random. We spoke about groceries, we spoke about utilities. We spoke about the different ways in which people are being pushed out. And I appreciated the time with the President. I appreciated the conversation. I look forward to working together to deliver that affordability for New Yorkers.
- [34:05]
Donald Trump
Thank you very much. Any questions, please? President Trump.
- [34:08]
Zoran Mamdani
President Trump is Stephen Nelson from the New York Post.
- [34:10]
Donald Trump
I've got a question for you and then also one for Merrill. Sure.
- [34:14]
Steve Gruber
For you.
- [34:14]
Donald Trump
You referred to Mr. Maldani as a commonist. He described compliance. You feel that way.
- [34:19]
Zoran Mamdani
And also, will you do anything to stop him from arresting Prime Minister Netanyahu if he visits New York?
- [34:25]
Donald Trump
Well, we didn't discuss your second part of the question. And on your first part, I mean, he's got views a little out there, but who knows? I mean, we're going to see what works or he's going to change also. We all change. I change a lot. Change a lot from when I first came to office. It's now quite a while ago, square quite a while. My first term was great. We had the greatest economy in the history of our country. We're doing even better now. We're doing much better now than we did even the first term. And I can tell you some of my views have changed. And we had discussions on something. I'm not going to discuss what they were, but that I feel very confident that he can do a very good job. I think. I think he's going to be. I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually, and some very liberal people. He won't surprise him because they already like him.
- [35:13]
Zoran Mamdani
And Mr. Mondani, it sounds like you had a productive discussion, but just days ago, you referred to President Trump as.
- [35:20]
Donald Trump
A despot who had betrayed the country. You said I would be his worst nightmare and accused him of having a fascist agenda. Are you planning to retract any of.
- [35:30]
Zoran Mamdani
These remarks in order to improve your relationship? I think both President Trump and I, we are very clear about our positions and our views. And what I really appreciate about the president is that the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers. And frankly, that is something that could transform the lives of the 8.5 million people who are currently struggling under a cost of living, cost of living crisis, with one in four living in poverty. And the meeting came back again and again to what it could look like to lift those New Yorkers out of struggle and start to deliver them a city that they could do more than just struggle to. Just struggle to afford it, but actually start to live in it.
- [36:07]
Donald Trump
And I've been called much worse than a despot. So it's not. It's not that insulting.
- [36:13]
Steve Gruber
Maybe.
- [36:14]
Donald Trump
I think he'll change his mind after we get to working together. Yes, please. Yes, please. Mr. President, Andre Mushka from MTV Lebanon. Good. I would like to ask you a question about the Middle east regarding. You said that Hezbollah and Lebanon. Lebanon is not in a good position. And Lebanon now is the final unresolved after Gaza and Syria. Given your assessment, what you say for the Iranian today. Lebanon.
- [36:39]
Zoran Mamdani
And what is your next move to push toward disarmament?
- [36:44]
Donald Trump
Sure. Well, we are pushing for total disarmament of Hamas and frankly, everybody else. And we actually have peace in the Middle East. As you know, the cake of Saudi Arabia just left yesterday. We had some great meetings. And he's made a contribution toward the United States of more than a trillion dollars. We have now over $20 trillion coming in. No country has ever had anything like that. Not even close. If you go to $2 trillion or $1 trillion, it's a lot. We have 20 or $21 trillion. I think that Hezbollah has been a problem in Lebanon. Big problem. Problem. We're working with Lebanon. We're working with everybody in the Middle East. That's another thing I think we have in common. We want to see peace in the Middle east. And we actually have now, for the first time, peace in the Middle east after 3,000 years. And now we're going to refine it. And I think you're going to see some very positive things happen. There is a potential to invite the Lebanese president. Oh, sure. Oh, I would do that. Absolutely. And if the mayor would like to be here for that meeting, because I know he feels very strongly. I think you feel very, very strongly about peace in the Middle East.
- [37:49]
Zoran Mamdani
We desperately want it. And that's something that I shared with the president, that when I spoke to New Yorkers who had voted for the president last November on Hillside Avenue and Fordham Road, I asked them why. I heard again and again, two major reasons. One was that they wanted an end to forever wars. They wanted an end to the taxpayer dollars. We had funding violations of human rights. And they wanted to end to address the cost of living crisis. And I appreciated the chance to discuss both of those things.
- [38:13]
Donald Trump
You said a lot of my voters actually voted for him. One in ten. And I'm okay with that. I'll do that. I'll sign it Give it to me. I'll sign it in a minute. That's pretty good. Mr. President. Mr. President, please. You threaten to send federal troops to New York City. You both have differences when it comes to ICE agents in New York City. Mr. Mavdani called ICE a rogue government entity. I wonder how you reconcile your differences.
- [38:40]
Steve Gruber
On both of those issues.
- [38:41]
Donald Trump
Well, I think we're going to work them out. And I think that if we have known murderers and known drug dealers and some very bad people, you know, we want to get them out and the mayor wants to have peace. We discussed this at great length, actually. Maybe more than anything else, he wants to have a safe New York. Ultimately, a safe New York is going to be a great New York. If it's not safe, no matter how well we do with pricing and with anything else, we can talk about anything you want. If you don't have safe streets, it's not going to be a success. So we're going to work together. We're going to make sure that if there are horrible people there, we want to get them out. I think he wants to get them out maybe more than I do. So we'll work together. We discussed it at great length. Yes, please.
- [39:23]
Zoran Mamdani
Yeah.
- [39:24]
Donald Trump
Two questions, if I may want for.
- [39:25]
Philip Patrick
You, Mr. President from BBC in a second. But first of all, for the mayor.
- [39:29]
Donald Trump
Elect, you're both from different parts of the political perspective.
- [39:33]
Philip Patrick
You're both populists, though.
- [39:34]
Donald Trump
And I just wonder to what extent the president's campaign style, his techniques, his.
- [39:40]
Steve Gruber
Social media use inspired any part of your campaign.
- [39:43]
Zoran Mamdani
Mr. Well, I actually told the president that, you know, so much of the focus of our campaign has been on the cost of living crisis. And when we asked those New Yorkers who had voted for the president, when we saw an increase in his numbers in New York City, that came back to the same issue, cost of living, cost of living, cost of living. And they spoke about the cost of groceries, the cost of rent, the cost of Con Ed, the cost of childcare. And too often politicians are looking to lecture to New Yorkers what they should care about as opposed to listen. And when we spoke to those voters who voted for President Trump, we heard them speak about cost of living. We focused on that same cost of living. And that's where I am really looking forward to, to delivering for New Yorkers in partnership with the president on the affordability agenda.
- [40:24]
Donald Trump
And I think we have to work a little bit. We talked about Con Edison. We have to work a little bit on getting the prices because, you know, we've gotten fuel Prices way down. But it hasn't shown up in Con Edison and we're going to have to talk to them, you know, if we're sending them fuel at a much lower price than it was a year ago, which is true, we have to get Con Edison to start lowering the rates.
- [40:45]
Zoran Mamdani
Absolutely.
- [40:45]
Donald Trump
And if I may, last week you told me you were pushing ahead with your plans to sue BBC for up to $5 billion. You were going to speak to Prime Minister Starmer as well. Is there any progress or any updates on those issues? Well, we get along very well with the Prime Minister. We made a deal with uk. I like him, he's a fine person. And, you know, I think they have some big energy problems. You know, they've got windmills all over the place. They're going to have to start using other methods because their energy is out of control. Talking about in the uk, it's out of control and he's got that problem. He's got a big immigration problem, as you know, and he's got a big energy problem and we talk about it. He's a good man. Prime Minister is a good man.
- [41:27]
Philip Patrick
You had a chance to speak this week.
- [41:29]
Donald Trump
I haven't spoken this weekend, President Zelensky, about your claim. I've spoken with their people. We have a plan. It's horrible what's happening. It's a war that should have never happened. It would have never happened if I was president and it's a shame and I thought they should have acted quicker. But it's a cold winter and a lot of the, A lot of the. You talk about utilities, but a lot of the big energy producing plants have been under attack, to put it mildly, to put it nicely. Yeah, we have a. A way of getting peace. We think we have a way of getting peace. He's going to have to approve it. So sad. So many people. You know, last month they lost 25,000 soldiers. This is something. We haven't seen anything like this since the Second World War. They're averaging six or seven thousand a week between the two of them, dead soldiers. And it goes on and on. And I think they're getting reasonably close, but it's. I don't want to predict. I would have said. That would have been one of my early ones. I did eight peace deals of countries, including India, Pakistan. You could even go. In fact, they're coming here in a week or two, go to the Congo and rwanda. That was 110 million people dead. And we worked something out on that. But so many. And the one I thought would have been for me, because I have a very good relationship with President Putin. I thought that would have been maybe quicker, but it's. It does take two to tango. And now you just see all the death. And, you know, it doesn't affect us other than the fact that we don't want to see all those people that really. It's on the other side of the ocean. It's a war that should have never happened. It did happen. I blame the person also sitting right behind this desk. This is a war that should have never happened, and it wouldn't have happened if I were president. But we're trying to save a lot of lives. We're losing. They're losing 25. Think of that. 25,000 lives over the last short period of time. That's Ukrainian and Russian. And it's a shame what happened to the president. I want to ask the mayor elect about a House resolution just passed overwhelmingly to condemn social media, including with 86 Democrats, all of House Dem leadership, and the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, despite his endorsement of you. What's your reaction to that?
- [43:55]
Zoran Mamdani
I have to be honest with you. I focused very little on resolutions, frankly. I've been focusing on socialism. I understand. I think the focus is on the work at hand. I can tell you I am someone who is a democratic socialist. I've been very open about that, and I know there might be differences about ideology, but the place of agreement is the work that that needs to be done to make New York City affordable. That's what I look forward to.
- [44:13]
Donald Trump
And I want to clarify your answer to Steven Nelson. He asked about your comment calling the president a fascist, and your answer was, both President Trump and I have been clear about our positions and our views. Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?
- [44:29]
Zoran Mamdani
I've spoken about.
- [44:30]
Donald Trump
That's okay. You can just say yes. It's easier. It's easier than explaining a keto. But I wanted to ask you also about this Ukraine plan. President Zelensky said today that his country would risk either giving up his partner or giving up its dignity. There's been criticism that this deal. You mean he doesn't like it? It's unclear. He was sort of tenuous. He'll have to like it. And if he doesn't like it, then, you know, they should just keep fighting, I guess. You know, the suggestion that he made, though, was that if he doesn't accept. Accept it, that the US Would pull back its support for Ukraine. Is that, well, at some point, he's going to have to accept something you know, he hasn't accepted. You remember, right in the Oval Office not so long ago, I said, you don't have the cards. Don't forget, I inherited this war. I would have never. This war never would have happened. I inherited this war. And I thought he should have made a deal a year ago, two years ago, the ultimate deal would have been if it never started. That would have been the good deal. That could have been done, too, if you had the right president. But you didn't have the right president. Mr. President, the cost of living is something that you and Mr. Mondani seem to agree on. Democrats have run New York City for a long time. Mr. Mamdani, do you see Democrat policy specifically as being a problem? And I'd like that to be a question of oath.
- [45:55]
Zoran Mamdani
Look, I think that there are many things in our city where we have to own the responsibility of it. Things that existed long before the president was the president. And those are also part of the message of our campaign was to take on a broken politics of the past. And I ran against a number of candidates who represented different versions of that past. And what we found time and again is that working people were left behind in the politics of our city. And what we're looking to do is put those people right back at the heart of our politics so that we don't have a situation where we're in the wealthiest city in the history of the world and yet one in five can't even afford $2.90 for a MetroCard.
- [46:30]
Donald Trump
You know, we had some interesting conversation and some of his ideas really are the same ideas that I have. But a big thing on cost, you know, the new word is affordability. Another word is just groceries. It's sort of an old fashioned word, but it's very accurate. And they're coming down. They're coming down high. They were, you know, we had, both of us, we had the highest inflation in the history of our country the last four years under the Biden administration. And we've got inflation down now to a normal number. It's going to go even a little bit lower than that. Katie, do you have something? Mr. President, thank you so much. Mr. Hamdani often talks about New York.
- [47:07]
Zoran Mamdani
City being covered by international law that they call international law, doesn't often talk.
- [47:13]
Donald Trump
About the U.S. constitution.
- [47:15]
Zoran Mamdani
What is your response to that?
- [47:18]
Donald Trump
Well, I don't know what you're referring to. In terms, it could be covered by international law, local law, it's covered by a lot of laws, but it's covered by US Law. Are you referring to anything in particular? He just says that they're a city that endorses and enforces international law. Is that at all? No. I don't know. Would you want to, do you want to respond?
- [47:41]
Zoran Mamdani
I think what I've shared with the President is our desire to not only follow the laws of our own city, laws that protect New Yorkers, but also a desire for consistency in our politics across the board. And that's something that we've talked about and something that I know many New Yorkers want.
- [47:55]
Donald Trump
So you work with ice.
- [47:58]
Zoran Mamdani
We discussed ICE and New York City. And I spoke about how the laws that were that we have in New York City allow for New York City government to speak to the federal administration for about 170 serious crimes. The concerns that many New Yorkers have are around the enforcement of immigration laws on New Yorkers across the five boroughs. And most recently, we're talking about a mother and her two children. How this has very little to do with what that is.
- [48:22]
Donald Trump
Mr. Monte, what we did is we discussed crime more than ICE per se. We discussed crime. And he doesn't want to see crime and I don't want to see crime. And I have very little doubt that we're not going to get along on that issue. He wants to and he said some things that were very interesting, very interesting as to housing construction. And he wants to see houses go up. He wants to see a lot of houses created, a lot of apartments built, et cetera. And you know, we actually, people would be shocked. But I want to see the same thing thing.
- [48:54]
Zoran Mamdani
Mr. Montgomery, anti Israel protesters Jack.
- [48:57]
Donald Trump
Mr. President, I wanted to know one of the policies as well that Mayor Lake Mondame talked a number of times about on the campaign was shifting the tax burden for property taxes from what he called minority communities to white based communities and putting more taxes on white people. I also noticed that in your acceptance speech you didn't mention, didn't mention anything about America or Christians or white people in general. And so I didn't know if that was one of the policies that you guys had spoken about.
- [49:27]
Zoran Mamdani
We focused on affordability. We focused on the cost of living crisis. What I will say is that I am very much interested in property tax reform because what we see right now in New York City is a system that is so inequitable that it can't even stand up in court. And the President and I spoke about the importance of not only building more housing, but also making sure that regulation of housing is something that is manageable to actually get through and not the cause of yet another weight that we see in our state.
- [49:52]
Donald Trump
But to be clear, you're continuing this idea of race based property taxes.
- [49:55]
Zoran Mamdani
Mr. No, to be very clear, that's what you said. No, the use of the term was a description of neighborhoods, not a description of intent.
- [50:02]
Donald Trump
So you intend to tax the whiter neighborhoods more?
- [50:04]
Zoran Mamdani
No, we intend to create a fair property tax system because we want a New York City that is not only fair and equitable, but also one that every New Yorker can forth.
- [50:15]
Donald Trump
Please go ahead, Mr. Mandani.
- [50:17]
Zoran Mamdani
Anti Israel protesters just targeted a synagogue in New York. Are you concerned about Jewish New Yorkers.
- [50:23]
Donald Trump
Feeling welcome and safe in the city and President Trump? You've threatened to cut off federal funding to New York City. What policies would prompt you to do that? Would that be city run grocery stores? Would it be something else? Well, I think if we didn't get along, whether it's cut off or just make it a little bit difficult or not give as much, we want to see, I use the term, we don't want good money going after bad. And we just, we don't want that to happen. I don't think that's going to happen. I did say, you know, subject to what, what policies are being said. We had a meeting today that actually surprised me. He wants to see no crime, he wants to see housing being built, he wants to see rents coming down. All things that I agree with. Now, we may disagree, how we get there, the rent coming down. I think one of, one of the things I really gleaned very, very much today, he'd like to see him come down, ideally by building a lot of additional housing. That's the ultimate way. He agrees with that and so do I. But if I read the newspapers and the stories, I don't hear, I don't hear that, but I hear, I heard him say it today. And I think that's, that's a very positive step. No, I don't expect, I expect to be helping him, not hurting him, a big help, because I want New York City to be great. Look, I love New York City. It's where I come from. I spent a lot of years there. Now I'm right here. We took a big setback with a mayor that we had, Dame de Blasio. I thought it was a tremendous setback for the city. I think this mayor can do some things that are going to be really great. Okay, how about you? You go ahead, please. You're a billionaire. You have different address nowadays than you Used to.
- [52:02]
Steve Gruber
But you used to call New York City home.
- [52:04]
Donald Trump
Would you feel comfortable living in New York City under a Madagi administration? Yeah, I would. I really would. Especially after the meeting. Absolutely. What makes you comfortable? We agree on a lot more than I would have thought. I think he's. I want him to do a great job, and we'll help him do a great job. You know, he may have different views, but in many ways, you know, we were discussing when Bernie Sanders was out of the race, I picked up a lot of his votes, and people had no idea because he was strong on not getting ripped off in trade and lots of the things that I've practiced and been very successful on, tariffs, a lot of things. Bernie Sanders and I agreed on much more than people thought.
- [52:44]
Philip Patrick
And.
- [52:44]
Donald Trump
And when he was put out of the race, I think quite unfairly, if you want to know the truth, many of the Bernie Sanders voters voted for me, and I felt very comfortable, frankly, in seeing that and saying that, and, you know, it just turned out to be a statistical truth. But, no, I feel very comfortable. I would be. I would feel very, very comfortable being in New York, and I think much more so after the meeting. Yes, please.
- [53:11]
Zoran Mamdani
Thank you.
- [53:11]
Donald Trump
Mr. President, I have a question for you, but a very quick one for the mayor. Why did you fly here? Aren't trains greener?
- [53:19]
Zoran Mamdani
I'll use every form of transit, and I want to make sure that they're all affordable in New York City. And that's why making buses fast and free is a centerpiece of our career.
- [53:25]
Steve Gruber
There is a bus.
- [53:26]
Rob Manus
Well, but.
- [53:26]
Donald Trump
I know. But if you flew, that's a lot quicker, too. This is an iHeart podcast.