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Cancer Survivor
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John Solomon
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Cancer Survivor
People at work supported me while I was going through treatment by not treating me like somebody who was going through treatment. Treatment sucks. Cancer sucks. Being engaged with work really helped to, oh, I just knew I was going to beat this thing.
John Tillman
Research shows there is a significant connection between the ability to continue to work and cancer recovery.
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We can make work a better place
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for healing, learn more and sign the pledge@workingwithcancerpledge.com.
John Solomon
Good evening, America. Happy Thursday and welcome to the latest edition of JUST THE news. No noise. I'm your host John Solomon reporting to you as always from the Nation's capital, Washington, D.C. here's something we don't say very often. The eyes of the world are going to be on Islamabad over the next 24 hours. Why? That is the city in Pakistan where JD Vance, the Vice president, will lead a delegation of Americans in some high stakes negotiations with Iran. Can they bring this war to an end? Can they end 47 years of heinous hostility by Iran against Americans and Westerners and Israelis? That is what's at stake at the table. Joining the vice president there will be Steve Witkoff, President Trump's special diplomat for all the hotspots in the world and someone close to the president. His son in law, Jared Kushner will also be there. While those preparations were being made for the discussions today, the sort of tenuous, and I want to, I think that's the right word to use tenuous. Cease fire has mostly held in Iran. All right, not a lot of ships going through the Strait of Hormuz. A lot of rhetoric flying around, a lot of confusion about what they think they did and didn't agree to in Iran. But thus far, not a lot of bombs going a generally peaceful day and even some movement by Israel to say, hey, maybe we'll talk to Lebanon to cut out that bombing to give the Iran peace talks with the United States a better chance. All of that playing out before our very eyes. Really high stakes, folks. We're going to be covering this day and night here at Just the news@Real America's Voice. Amanda has been at the White House working this all day. I want to bring her in right now. Amanda, I can't think of a negotiation with perhaps greater stakes for America. The upside or Iran if they don't agree to peace deal, what comes next is probably not going to be something going to be very happy with.
Congresswoman Harriet Agarman
Yeah.
Frank
And I think that's exactly why we have a little bit of a change in sentiment from Israel, because not only is this so important to the future of the United States, it's very important to the future of Israel. And I know that Israel has, you know, they left Lebanon outside of this agreement because of Hezbollah.
John Solomon
Right.
Frank
And so, you know, they created a separation between the Iranian regime for negotiations separate from Hezbollah. But I think that since we see this turning, they obviously recognize that this is. This is a security in the posterity for Israel. It's too important to let this entire thing fall apart just because they are still picking bones with Hezbollah. So it's. It's been an interesting moment. Yeah, it is. It's an amazing moment, and it's an amazing testament to President Trump's negotiation skills. He wrote a book on it, so he should be the good.
John Solomon
You know, wrote a few tweets on it on Easter morning. And I think he got Iran's attention, if I'm being honest. Yeah, I think that's true.
Frank
And, and we've often talked about how President Trump, you know, one of his. His best attributes and one of his sharpest skills when it comes to negotiating is keeping his opponent on their heels.
John Solomon
Yeah.
Frank
And when it comes to President Trump and his very first frenetic dealings with them, I think that they are permanently on their heels until this all is over.
John Solomon
But they may end up in the stone ages soon, so we'll see what.
Frank
Indeed. Indeed. Or turn to glass. So, John, you know, I was in California last week, and I want to highlight something. This is one of those stories that really, as I was driving down certain areas of Van Nuys, actually, I was just shaking my head. California authorities have announced a major crackdown on what they call a massive hospice fraud scheme. Now, five people have already been arrested, with officials warning that more arrest could be on the way. And when you look at the details, it's clear that this is not. This is not small time fraud. Prosecutors say that this was a coordinated operation that used stolen identities to create fake patients. Then they billed Medicaid for hospice care that was never actually provided. So we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, all from a system that is supposed to care for people at the end of their lives. Such a vulnerable time. So what really stands out is that many of these hospice companies were actually licensed by the state of California. So the question, of course, then becomes, how does something like this happen at such a Large scale without raising red flags sooner. Well, officials say that this is part of a much larger problem in California with a surge in fraud cases related to hospice care. So this investigation is far from over. And while it appears that everyday Americans are being left behind by blue states like California and Minnesota, there are some still strong support for President Trump and his administration in their efforts to get our country back on track and make our world safer. Now, while the left and mainstream media continue to undermine the President's America first agenda, let's hear what everyday Americans think about the President's military operation against Iran and the recent cease fire deal. Take a listen.
Dr. Chad Walding
Do you think this ceasefire is a
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product of the President's peace restraints policy?
John Solomon
I do, I do.
Dr. Chad Walding
Because when he went in on day one and took care of the matter, I think he definitely was able to bring some strength through peace in a certain way. So I'm hoping that that can actually transfer into a peace deal, which I'm very confident he'll be able to do.
Justin Fulcher
So I would wager to say there's more behind the scenes that we're aware of and things are just falling into place as planned.
Frank
So wise words from Americans. Americans are always smarter than politicians give them credit for. And they see what's happened.
John Solomon
Yeah, no doubt. Do you see who the prosecutor was in this California fraud case? Ron Bonte.
Frank
Attorney General Bob Bonte.
John Solomon
So why is that important? Because this went on for 10 years or many years, several hundred million dollars. Only now after the Feds and President Trump get going. Remember how this started? We wrote the first stories after Governor Waltz was named vice president nominee by the Democratic Party. We highlighted, then the prosecutors came and questioned us. They went started arresting and prosecuting people. Then Nick Shirley went out. Then Nick Shirley went to California and CBS News went out to California. And now Democrats, used to turn a blind eye to it, are racing to try to beat the Fed to prosecute someone. That's going to be good for the taxpayer long term. Yeah. A little competition is a good thing.
Frank
Yeah. And Rob Bonta is exactly the type of person that would be the latest in this pipeline of attorneys general. Pretty much all of his predecessors have sat on this fraud. This is not something I have no disillusion that the state of California did not know that this was happening. Unfortunately, in California you have to triage fraud because there's so dang much of it.
John Solomon
Yeah, yeah. Well, there's a little fire under the derrieres of some of those state officials and that's going to be good because the State and feds working together will recover a lot more money, punish a lot more people quicker, save the American taxpayers some money that they've long been robbed of. All right, we got a great show for you today, and we're going to kick it off with a really good one. She joins us from the great state of Wyoming, one of our favorites here, Congresswoman Harriet Agarman. Congresswoman, good to have you on the show.
Congresswoman Harriet Agarman
It's wonderful to be here, John, thank you.
John Solomon
We love having you on. Next week's a big week. The Democrats are going to try to force a War Power act resolution vote. Tell us where we are, where you are personally on what the president has achieved thus far in Iran.
Congresswoman Harriet Agarman
One of the things that I think that this exposes is that the Democrats are always going to take the side of our enemies. And that is exactly what Iran is. I remember the 1979 Iranian Revolution. I remember how things changed instantly for the women of that country when the Islamic Jihad came in. And they have lived under tyranny for 47 years. And here is President Trump. He is the first president after decades and decades and decades who's been willing to go in and actually rescue them from having to live under the thumb of the ayatollahs. This is also something that we have to understand that we have been paying a terror tax since 1979 as well, just exactly with what Iran has done over the last two weeks with the Strait of Hormuz. They have attempted to hold essentially the entire energy industry or the entire oil and gas industry that many countries depend upon. They have held it hostage for years by threatening to do exactly what they've done, which is block traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. This is a tyrannical country. They have, they are the leaders, the leading state sponsor of terrorism. They have wreaked havoc throughout the region for far too long. And I am incredibly proud of the president for taking action to free the United States, really free the world from this tyranny and also try to provide stability and certainty within that region.
Cancer Survivor
Yeah.
John Solomon
It is a global solution. If he pulls us off, there's no doubt.
Frank
Absolutely. Well, and Congresswoman, there's another aspect of this that I wonder if it will actually hurt Democrats in the midterms. I know a lot of people are saying that this is going to hurt Republicans, especially the longer it gets dragged out. But we all remember the rhetoric of Democrats surrounding the withdrawal from Afghanistan. There was nary a word about the 13 service members at Abbey Gate or it was rare. And the messaging now they are highlighting on every perceived negative of this conflict. Do you think that voters will recognize the hypocrisy there?
Congresswoman Harriet Agarman
And I think that it is more than hypocrisy because they truly are taking the side of what has been an enemy of the world for many, many years. It is stunning to me that the president has actually taken a position that forces the Democrats to defend the government of Iran. And I do think it's going to hurt them in the midterms. I think that things are going to stabilize over there. I think that the president absolutely has a plan of action. I think you're going to see more and more of the oil ships being able to navigate the Strait of Hormuz. And again we hopefully freeing the Iranian people from the tyranny that they have suffered under. And to compare it to Afghanistan is I think an excellent comparison. What what Joe Biden did, one of those brave military members was from the state of Wyoming. We suffered greatly because of the decisions that Joe Biden made. And yet here you compare that or you compare Libya to what we have done in this operation and it's night and day. And I think that that demonstrates the leadership that you receive with the Trump administration as compared to what the Biden administration did place where we haven't seen
John Solomon
much leadership during this conflict. Europe, they left us in the cold even though midway through the operation they learned something very harrowing, something that President Trump was warning Iran had developed mid range ICBMs that could reach the European continent. Still, they don't join our fight. They don't even let us in some cases like Spain, fly over the airspace. Is there a growing appetite in Congress to reevaluate NATO, to maybe shut down some of the bases, pull out entirely? What are the range of options and what's the appetite in Congress right now?
Congresswoman Harriet Agarman
I think that this is for discussion. I don't know that I can give you a definitive answer on that. But what I can say, I think the actions taken by our so called European allies are the result of the mass migration that they have allowed to invade their countries over the last several, many years. I think what you're seeing is that the Muslim population in those countries really have a stranglehold on many of the people that are in leadership. And I think it's playing out in spades right now before our eyes. And I think that this is something that needs to be discussed in much greater detail as to what is the real impact when you import people who are absolutely antithetical to your culture and actually want to undermine the very form of government that you have. What does that mean on the national stage and on the international stage? And I think we're seeing it play out by what our allies have done in relation to this particular conflict.
Frank
Congresswoman, just one more follow up on this. The War Powers resolution vote that's going to be coming according to Minority Leader Schumer next week. What do you make of it? I know we know which direction Democrats are going to go. How many Republicans do you think will side with Democrats and this issue? And Frank, I hate to sound so flippant, but does it matter? Because there have been a lot of military actions in the last 10, 20, 30, 40 years that didn't even come close to that type of vote.
Congresswoman Harriet Agarman
Well, actually 80 years. The last time that there was that Congress declared war was in 1942. So you look at all the conflicts that have taken place since then, Vietnam, Korea, the war on terror. We can go on and on and on. I don't think that it is going to go anywhere. I don't think it should go anywhere. I think that we have to trust our commander in chief for this particular operation and I hope him, I wish him all the success in the world because I think ultimately the world wins.
John Solomon
Congresswoman, before we let you go, EPA's Lee Zeldin's made a lot of progress on regulations that were harming the economy. But there's still a lot of people trying to shut down and thwart one of the great power engines in America, the diesel engine. Tell us a little bit about what progress we've made and where there are still some threats to common sense.
Congresswoman Harriet Agarman
Well, one of the things that happened under the Obama administration is the requirement of using diesel exhaust fluid in our trucks and our tractors and our diesel vehicles and our tow trucks. And it's absolutely been devastating to so many of the important industries, whether it's the ag industry, the trucking industry, the towing industry. In fact, just this week I was with one of the one of the very oldest trucking companies in the state, Wyoming. They've been in business for 145 years. They've actually been in business longer than trucks have existed because they used to use buckboards and haul things out to the oil fields and, and to different things. They said that it used to be that they would get about a million miles on an 18 wheeler engine. It's now down to about 500,000 miles because of the fact that they have to use diesel exhaust fluid. So that does not, that does not provide an environmental benefit. And I have heard many horror stories where people have been stranded because they ran out of def or the system itself in their vehicles malfunction. So I am working to find a way to repeal the requirements that our vehicles be retrofitted so that they have to use diesel exhaust fluid. I know that Lee Zeldin has also been working in that regard, issuing a couple of orders in August and February and March of this year. We're moving in the right direction. We're moving in a common sense direction. But we still have more work to do in light of some of the horrific regulations and requirements put in place by both Obama and and Biden when it comes to actually powering our economy and protecting our industries.
John Solomon
Yeah, such important and just common sense. I mean, if you lose half of your engine life, that is a huge burden on the carriers of America and quite frankly, it gets passed on to us, the consumer. So, Congresswoman, as always, great to have you on the show. We love having you on.
Congresswoman Harriet Agarman
Thank you.
John Solomon
Yeah. What a great conversation as always. All right, folks, we're going to take a quick commercial break. When we come up next, the alliance between the US and NATO. What's next? We were touching on that with the congresswoman. We're going to follow up more with Justin Folger, former Pentagon official, right after these messages. Recently, the Treasury Department released its financial report for 2025 and the media ignored it. Here's what it showed. 6 trillion in assets, 47 trillion in debt, a whole of $41 trillion. The US government is insolvent by its own numbers. This comes after the big beautiful bill added 3 trillion more to the deficit. Interest payments alone now top 1 trillion a year. That's more than we spend on defense now. I spent my career digging into documents the powerful don't want you to see. And what I'm seeing now has me and many others worried. Central banks around the world are buying gold at a record pace. China, India, Poland, they're not waiting around. They know what's coming. I worked with American Alternative Assets to put together a free report called the Big Beautiful Bubble. It lays out the real numbers and what they mean for your retirement. So go to johnlikesgold.com right now to download your copy for free or call 855-GOLD-340. You also get a free gold IRA protection kit showing how to move your 401k or IRA into physical gold without the penalties or without any taxes. But don't wait. Every day you delay is another day your savings are exposed. Call 855-GOLD-340 or visit johnlikesgold.com that's johnlikesgold.com do it for your family. Do it today.
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Martha Stewart
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Cancer Survivor
People at work supported me while I was going through treatment by not treating me like somebody who was going through treatment. Treatment sucks. Cancer sucks. Being engaged with work really helped to oh, I just knew I was going to beat this thing.
John Tillman
Research shows there is a significant connection between the ability to continue to work cancer recovery.
John Solomon
We can make work a better place for healing.
Frank
Learn more and sign the pledge@workingwithcancerpledge.com. Welcome back everybody. We want to continue our discussion on the Iran ceasefire and the future of the alliance between the United States and NATO as President Trump considers leaving NATO. Joining us now is is former Senior Adviser to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, co founder of Ring MD Justin Fulcher. Justin Great to have you back.
Justin Fulcher
Good to be back. Thanks.
Frank
All right, so you have this meeting between President Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Ruda. A little bit awkward there on Marc Ruda is having to defend a group of people who were not willing to come to the table and defend the United States in this. It kind of put Margarita in an uncomfortable situation. What do you make of the rhetoric and I suppose the debriefing that we heard from each of them about that meeting?
Justin Fulcher
Well, it was certainly an interesting meeting. There's definitely a lot of. A lot of tension given the fact that NATO didn't step up during this conflict, plain and simple. And President Trump isn't just applying pressure to Iran. He's applying pressure to the entire system around Iran, and NATO's part of that. And I think ultimately, NATO's really let the US down, especially as it relates to the Strait of Hormuz. And I think what we saw today was, was the NATO Secretary General trying to balance the line with the alliance. But at the same time, President Trump being very, very clear in terms of his disappointment and lack of just support from NATO all around.
John Solomon
Yeah, it was a clear message. And it's so ironic, because in the middle of this conflict, after Europe left us in a lurch, we went and did our own thing. And then Iran fires a missile at Diego Garcia, shows it can reach the European capitals, just like President Trump was warning. And still Europe doesn't come and realize, hey, he is actually taking out an existential threat for us. How does that happen? How does the Europeans realize, oh, my God, Iran has worse weaponry than we knew, they can hit us and. And they still don't want to join us?
Justin Fulcher
Yeah, it's quite baffling. I mean, you would think after Iran displayed some capabilities that Europe may or may not have been aware of and especially could threaten Europe directly, that at least core NATO countries would be doing a lot more to really step up and show support to the United States. I mean, for decades, NATO has operated on this assumption that the US Would carry the load. And that being said, you know, President Trump is completely flipping that on its head, and he's doing this in real time, where the crisis is forcing this inflection point acutely. So I think it'll be interesting to see what comes out after this meeting. But ultimately, I think President Trump has been very clear and Europe should take notice that if they want to continue to have a strong security relationship with the United States, that more can and should be done from their side to make sure that they hold up their end of the bargain.
John Solomon
That's a great point, Justin.
Frank
There are some NATO aligned analysts who say it's not a lack of will, it is a lack of way when it comes to them supporting, number one, is that true? And number two, is that on purpose?
Justin Fulcher
I think that's a convenient talking point to, you know, back away from what's the fundamental purpose of this NATO alliance. And that purpose is that, you know, when there's a global security situation where NATO could step up and assert that role to protect, you know, and serve the United States in this sense, ultimately, you know, NATO should. There's. There's definitely a way, and I think that's a convenient talking point to back away from those obligations.
John Solomon
Yeah, yeah, no doubt. All right. I want to talk about optionality that the President has because it's clear he's going to exercise some of that optionality after this meeting. It seems to me, I don't think a complete divorce seems likely yet, but maybe shutting down some of the bases that are major economic drivers across Europe that, that might send a pretty strong message pretty quickly.
Justin Fulcher
Oh, certainly. I mean, President Trump, you know, definitely has a lot of options at his disposal. And I can only imagine, you know, all the different scenarios that are being run through right now. I mean, tens of thousands of American soldiers and airmen and Marines and sailors are stationed all across Europe and in many cases have been for decades since World War II. And this has been a fundamental component of keeping Europe safe. And I think ultimately that is a huge card that President Trump could play, especially when Europe is very concerned about the Russia, Ukraine situation and potentially having that conflict expand. And if the US Signals that we may pull out troops from some of these countries, I think that would certainly be a huge wake up call and hopefully it doesn't result in the entire alliance breaking down. But I do think that President Trump has a lot of options.
Frank
The administration has moved from basically we have achieved all of our military goals to speaking about this almost as though it's in the past tense. A month from now. Do you anticipate that that will still be the case, that things will be much improved, this cease fire will hold and will lead to greater negotiations, or will we frankly be right where we are right now?
Justin Fulcher
Well, I think with the enormous military success and incredible display of American power from, from the US Military over the past month, I think it really has forced Iran to the. And I think as these negotiations play out over the next few days, I'm confident that this will be a true shift in the conflict. And I don't think we'll be exactly where we are 30 days from now, because I think it's very clear from Iran's perspective that the US Military can at any point in time operate essentially unchallenged all across the country at any point in time.
John Solomon
Yeah, they also proven they can find any leader they want and kill them. And including those who might be at the table tomorrow. I want to talk a little bit about how much more leverage we've had. I think people go through and say, listen, we've been dealing this dance with Iran for 47 years, but the level of destruction that Iran has endured in the last six weeks is epically different than any other time in American history. How much more leverage does that give to the President in these negotiations and Vice President J.D. vance, who is the lead man on this? And if we had to go back, what would going back in another round cost Iran? I can only imagine what that looks like.
Justin Fulcher
Well, I think despite hitting literally thousands of targets all over Iran successfully, these were focused on very high level strategic military targets. I mean, President Trump was very clear that if Iran doesn't come to the table, that there would be significantly more consequences around energy, oil, infrastructure and, and really just squeezing all aspects of power to constrain Iran. And so I think, you know, it was very obvious that Iran didn't want that to happen. And thus, you know, this ceasefire being agreed to is the result.
John Solomon
Yeah, I think that's right.
Frank
Future of the Straits of Hormuz. I feel like the longer that this drags out and the longer that the openness of the strait is in question, that there will eventually have other countries who are willing to protect their own passage of their own products they are purchasing. Is that true?
Justin Fulcher
I think so. But I think, you know, ultimately this cease fire gives me a lot of optimism that ultimately, you know, goods will continue to flow in unfettered ways through the strait. I mean, we saw some of the first cargo ships going through earlier today and I think we'll see a continuance of that. But ultimately, if this drags on significantly longer, I think that's another way where Europe will be forced to step up and maybe even other countries to secure their commercial shipping
John Solomon
before we let you go. While this is predominantly a conflict between America, Israel and Iran in the military operations, sitting just a little ways off the conflict is Russia, which used to get all of its cheap drones from IRAN and now 90% of those factories are gone. China, which gets most of its cheap oil from Iran, China and Russia have they been weakened by what the United States has already achieved?
Justin Fulcher
I think they have. I mean, ultimately, you know, Iran is a very effective source of, of power to China with, with the cheap oil supplies. And I think that, you know, as China really incorporates what happens in Iran into the strategy, I think they're incentivized to stabilize this quickly. And ironically, while strong adversaries of the United States, I do think China is very incentivized to get the Strait of Hormuz back and oil flowing to them.
John Solomon
That's a great point.
Frank
Absolutely.
John Solomon
It's a big incentive.
Frank
Former senior advisor to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Justin Fulcher, thanks so much for being with us tonight.
John Solomon
Stuff.
Frank
All right, everybody. Coming up next, let's continue our discussion on the Iran ceasefire with Vice president for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Returning to the show again, Victoria Coates.
John Solomon
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Support for the show comes from public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comdisclosures Ever wonder
Martha Stewart
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Cancer Survivor
People at work supported me while I was going through treatment by not treating me like somebody who was going through treatment. Treatment sucks. Cancer sucks. Being engaged with work really helped to oh, I just knew I was going to beat this thing.
John Tillman
Research shows there is a significant connection between the ability to continue to work and cancer recovery.
John Solomon
We can make work a better place
Frank
for healing, learn more and sign the pledge@workingwithcancerpledge.com.
John Solomon
Welcome back, America. We've got a good one. There's so much going on in America. One of the untold stories of the Iran conflict thus far is not only NATO leaving us in alert, but all the Sunni Arab nations have often been a little reluctant to get around anything Israel is doing, coming and becoming perhaps a stronger coalition of the willing than we've seen at any time since the Persian Gulf war won in 1991. It's pretty remarkable. Joining us to make a good sense of that, the Vice President for national Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage foundation and the former deputy national security adviser to President Trump and a great friend of the show, Victoria Coates. Victoria, great to have you back on.
Victoria Coates
Wonderful to see both of you.
John Solomon
All right. There are so many silver linings or unexpected developments in the conflict. I know there's a lot of uncertainty still where this will end, but you've got the Arab Sunnis more aligned with Israel in America than any time I can remember since maybe the invasion of Kuwait and China and Russia losing some assets and some leverage in the region. Walk us through that dynamic now.
Victoria Coates
This is really what's going to be exciting going forward is all of the assumptions under which we have labored as policymakers, really since 1980, and President Carter establishing the Carter Doctrine, by which the United States would guarantee the free flow of energy out of the Gulf. All that is changing. And what President Trump has done and credit where credit is due, the Iranians have contributed to this by shelling their neighbors indiscriminately and turning everyone in the region against them. What they've done then is gotten all of our partners in the region. So we're talking not just about Saudi Arabia and uae, both of whom have behaved exemplarily in this conflict, but also countries like Qatar. And then they're all lining up with Israel behind the United States. This is the strong coalition. And so going forward, I think what you'll see is those countries, essentially the GCC plus Israel, looking at an alternative infrastructure for energy in the Middle east that bypasses the strait. We won't necessarily be talking about the strait for anything, essentially, but fertilizer at this point, all the rest of the products can travel by pipeline. It'd be nice to take them out by ship through the strait. But if the Iranians are acting up for whatever reason, we're going to have a whole new pipeline architecture across the Arabian Peninsula that will make that meaningless.
John Solomon
Boy, that's huge. Huge.
Frank
Victoria, I want to ask you about another aspect of this. The vice president, who just a few weeks ago the media was saying, where is vice? Where's the vice president? The president has obviously lost confidence in him. And then all of a sudden, he is not only frauds are, but now he is in this very important position, traveling to Islamabad this weekend to head negotiations. It seems that the president, his confidence in the vice president is not shaken at all.
Victoria Coates
No dirty little secret, the president actually has full confidence in the vice president, who has a wonderful staff. I interact with them regularly. You know, the notion that Vice President Vance is some sort of wild eyed isolationist is just wrong. He asks a lot of very pointed questions. He wants to make sure that policymakers are putting America's first. That's as it should be. And he represents the President and the President's views. And so he's taking with him two of the President's campaigns, key people and Special Envoy Witkoff, and then also Jared Kushner, obviously the President's son in law. And they are going to be a really formidable team because for no other reason than the President has given them all of the cards, Iran has lost this conflict by any conceivable metric. The last little piece of leverage they're clinging to is the Strait of Hormuz. And as we've discussed, that is an asset of diminishing value for them. They have nothing else. And so I think the Vice President is ready to drive a very hard bargain. And as he said on the tarmac yesterday, all of those forces the President poured into the region, they're going to hang around, just make sure things go the way we want them to go.
John Solomon
Yeah, that's a pretty big threat if you're Iran because you have no way to defend against those assets anymore. It's pretty remarkable. It seems to me that what could be constructed here is a lot of concessions from Iran on the street security front. And they probably want a pretty good sizable ATM back in return. Is that a good way of looking at what's probably really on the table right now?
Victoria Coates
Well, they need that ATM, John, because they've shut down their Internet now for 37 days. That's not happened in any modern economy. We don't know how much damage that's done. We know that they were complaining mightily about shutting it down for three days in January. What's happened is it's got to be almost close to systematic failure. And speaking of ATMs, all their ATMs are empty. There's no cash left. And if there is cash, it's cash. They're printing in 10 million rial notes which are worth about $7. So the second front of this war is not a ground force invasion of Iran. It's the economic pressure the President's been putting on Iran since the first term, since the maximum pressure campaign, and he's been doing it again over the course of the last year. So they have no recourse and they know it. They have to have the sanctions relief or the country ceases to exist. So I think the basic three points the President has laid no nuclear Weapons, no missiles and no terrorist proxies. Those are pretty basic. That's easy for them to meet. And we've actually taken care of the missiles for them, largely taking care of the nuclear program. So they can just hand over what the president's calling the nuclear dust, the highly enriched uranium, and we can get to a deal here. But then the. The point of all that is that whatever survives that will have the seeds of its own destruction sown into it. That's when the Iranian people can start to insist on reforms that allow them an orderly transition to a freer future.
Frank
That's a great point. I just want to ask you one more about NATO, because this is something, I mean, President Trump has been talking since before he even came down the golden escalator about NATO, NATO's value, or lack thereof, to the United States. Do you think that he would make good on his notion that he would leave NATO?
Victoria Coates
I think the president is going to demand a new NATO for new Europe. And I was not working for Secretary Rumsfeld when he was ambassador to NATO in 1974. I was a little bit younger then, but I read his memos back to Then Secretary Kissinger 50 years ago saying the Europeans were not investing enough in their defense, that we were creating a culture of dependency. That's what President Trump is going to break now. And the countries that do pay, and our Baltic allies, Poland, Romania, our new Scandinavian friends that are in NATO, they're all investing at 5/% of their GDP in their defenses. Those are the countries we should prioritize. And old Europe, they can't defend themselves. The Brits can't get a single destroyer into the theater to help us. Where is the vaunted British Navy? It's nowhere. And so we have to focus on new Europe, the partners that will support us. Hopefully old Europe will get the memo and start to perform better.
John Solomon
Before we let you go, Victoria, I would say that China's had a rough few months. Its energy vulnerabilities exploited and exposed by the Strait of Hormuz being shut down by its oftentimes ally, Iran. Its influence in the Latin America hemisphere significantly reduced. Its gamemanship with Panama didn't go well. And its economy is not faring that well, even by their own numbers. And they tend to inflate their numbers. How much has China been losing in the Trump 2 era?
Victoria Coates
No, it's a rough year. You're absolutely right. For the axis of Evil. They've lost one member in Venezuela entirely. They're about to lose another in Iran. They might Lose a third in Cuba and you now have North Korea distancing themselves from all this, saying, oh, we have nothing to do with Iran, don't come get us. And they should be concerned. I think the president will be looking at North Korea. But what we're going into here, John, is this really critical summit in May with President Trump going to Beijing. Now, Chairman Xi could have canceled that if he cared about Iran. He might have said, oh, because you are starting this conflict with Iran, in solidarity with our Iranian brothers, we're going to cancel the summit. No, they said we want you to come. And then President Trump postponed it. They said, we still want you to come. They want to talk to the strong horse. They want to talk to the guy who's just taken out Maduro, who's about to take out, who took out the ayatollah, who's about to take out Cuba. And so this is a really powerful message to China. We can project power wherever we want. You can't. And so this is really an interesting moment and hopefully we'll have time for lots of discussions going into that summit in May.
John Solomon
It's going to be fun.
Frank
Absolutely. Vice president for national security and foreign policy at the Heritage foundation, one of our favorite folks for wisdom on all things foreign policy. Victoria Coats, thanks so much for being with us.
Victoria Coates
Thank you.
Frank
Absolutely. And coming up next, the Trump administration is pushing back against, against ultra processed, processed foods, thankfully. So what can you do to maintain a healthy diet and get rid of the boxed crap? That and more next.
John Solomon
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Justin Fulcher
When I was diagnosed, all I wanted to do was get back to work. I wanted to get back to that trajectory that I was on. Prior to the cancer. I always felt like I had value.
Dr. Chad Walding
I had a place on the team
Justin Fulcher
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John Tillman
It means everything. Research shows there is a significant connection between the ability to continue to work and cancer recovery.
John Solomon
We can make work a better place
Frank
for healing, learn more and sign the pledge at Working with Cancer pledge dot com. Welcome back, everybody. Now that the food pyramid has been flipped upside down and the Trump administration is p pushing back against ultra processed foods, what can you do to maintain a healthy diet? Joining us to discuss this and more is Dr. Chad Walding. He's the co founder of Native Path. He's also a doctor of physical therapy who has helped millions of people improve how they move, how they feel and how they age. And he has spent years studying what actually keeps the body strong and resilient over time. Chad, great to have you back.
Dr. Chad Walding
Hi, Amanda. Hi, John. So good to be back. Thank you.
Frank
I have to ask you because, you know, we've got this new food pyramid. You've got President Trump and the entire Trump administration, especially RFK Jr. Talking about ultra processed food foods. And it seems like it is striking a nerve with all of the right people. Are we on the right path?
Dr. Chad Walding
I think we are. You know, we've come a long way too, turning the pyramid upside down. And I think what's happening is people are generally just sick and tired of being sick and tired. They're really starting to feel the effects of what happened generation after generation of eating ultra processed refined foods with so much sugar. People up to this point have been feeling the effects of a poor diet. They've been feeling low energy, they've been feeling inflamed, and they've been fed a bunch of pills and they're just fed up with that. So they want something new, they want something different. They're looking for real whole food and real good solutions.
Frank
I want to ask you about our grocery shopping because obviously we want to maintain a healthy diet with respect to keeping processed foods to a minimum. What's the Ideal ratio. Because sometimes it's almost impossible to avoid all processed foods, especially if you like to cook and bake. 80 20. As far as stuff that has a label on it and stuff that doesn't, how do we break it down?
Dr. Chad Walding
I think 8020 is a good rule. And there's a lot of convenience and foods that you can take with you and snack and things like that. But generally when you do go grocery shopping, as often as you can shop on the ends, you know, where the eggs are, where the vegetables, the real vegetables are, the fruits are, the whole, the whole proteins are. Don't go inside the aisles as much and think that that's where you want to get your, your dinners and your lunch and your breakfast. Go on the outside, right? The things on the aisles are there for like dressings and to help make your foods a little bit more tasty. But don't go there first, right? So if 8020 helps you, that's great. And when you're eating, really think about building your plate around protein, right? Protein is the building block. It's the thing that's satiating. It's what boosts up your metabolism. It's a big needle mover in your diet and affects your health. And that's the same way we want to think about collagen, right? The most abundant protein in the body. One of the best things you can do to supplement this modern American diet that we've all been eating to fill in the gaps for what's missing.
John Solomon
I was at dinner with someone not that long ago, and they had, I guess an adult, young adult child who had some sort of skin problem that was related to over hyperactive inflammation. And so the skin was getting sores all the time. They started taking collagen. They noticed a really significant improvement are some of these growing skin diseases. We see a lot of drugs on the market say, hey, we'll get rid of that rash for you. But is there some evidence that collagen can help in the healing of skin sores that are related to inflammation?
Dr. Chad Walding
Well, you know, the skin issues typically come down to irritating foods in the gut, right? Foods that, that are reacting in the gut to get in the bloodstream that didn't show themselves as a skin issue. So we really want to think about that. If you have bumps on your skin or something like that, it's not so much a topical cream that we need to put on our, on our skin that we've been thinking about. It's something that we're eating that's irritating the gut, right? And Typically that's, those are processed foods, those are sugar. Gluten's a big one. Dairy can be problematic for people in many cases. So we want to remove those foods and we want to go back to repairing the gut lining.
John Solomon
Right.
Dr. Chad Walding
And that's where collagen really comes back in, is, is it seals that gut lining. It prevents all these foreign proteins from getting in the bloodstream. Then all of a sudden you can start absorbing the food and the nutrients that you're taking in. And then it's a needle mover.
John Solomon
Right.
Dr. Chad Walding
When you prove your gut is central to the health of your entire body as well as like the health of your brain, your mood, it's all connected to your gut.
Frank
Gut, as I said, I love the collagen. I just started using the greens. I use the berberine now. So many amazing products that you guys have over there. Dr. Chad Walding, co founder of Native Path, always an honor to have you with us, sir.
Dr. Chad Walding
Thank you so much for having me.
Frank
Absolutely. All right everybody. To our viewers, go to getnativepath.com justnews Listen, thousands of customers report less joint pain, stronger nails, younger looking skin, better sleep, improved bone density scans. And I've seen, seen it all as well in my own life as long as I have been using native past collagen. So to try it risk free with a 365 day money back guarantee, go to getnativepath.com justnews that's getnativepath.com justnews we'll be right back. Welcome back everybody. It is our final segment of the night, but our next guest wrote a book about how the radical left controls America, America and what can be done to take back our country. Joining us is political strategist and author of the book the Political Vice, John Tillman. John, welcome to the show.
John Tillman
Great to be with you, Amanda. Thanks for having me.
Frank
Absolutely. We're delighted to have you. But you know, I look at these issues where Democrats are on the wrong side of, you know, 80, 20, 90, 10, 75, 25 issues, the save America act, trans issues, immigration. They are concerned consistently on the unpopular side of these things. And yet you look at midterm polling and they are doing fine and dandy.
John Tillman
Yeah, that's kind of the point of the book is that the left understands that winning elections is a propaganda war. And there's the famous term that politics is downstream of culture. What they know is that that means they have to be at the headwaters of the river talking to voters all the time. 24, 7, 365 every year, not just election years. And they use the media, which is one side of the political vice, to indoctrinate and propagandize on issues the other side of the vi, which is the American people. And then meanwhile, at the bottom of the vice, which are elite influencers, they have tremendous control over the comms systems of universities K through 12 education, all the nonprofits, the NGOs, we've learned about corporate communications and all the rest of it. And so there's this constant drumbeat by them among those people who are thinking of voting. But meanwhile, when you take that away and you do the polling on the issues, the issues resound to the right, the political right. But when it comes to the brand of Republican and Democrat, the Republican brand is tarnished because of all that power. I just described putting pressure on the political system, which is a pressurized system.
John Solomon
Yeah, I was lucky enough to get to read this book early, before it came out. It is sensational, John. And there's two things that I walked away thinking about that are unresolved if you're a conservative or Republican. One is the left still controls the cultural machinery in great deal Hollywood music. Now there's some alternatives coming out, but not in scope and scale yet. And then to they literally start running for the next election, the night the first election ends. And so they've got this 24, 74 year continuous machine. Republicans take a break after elections and they may go a year and a half. We've seen that to be pretty consequential in these off year elections where Republicans have underperformed every election since Donald Trump won in November. What is the key? I mean, you nail it in the book, you diagnose the problem. What's the key to solving those two deficits in the election machinery?
John Tillman
Well, I wrote the book to try to get two key aspects of this done. Number one is I think the conservative right needs a skunk works brain trust. And I'm not saying that we should have centralized command and control. The left has centralized command and control. That's why, you see, affordability becomes suddenly the talking point that everybody's talking about. The whole debate going on about right now in Iran. And they have really done an amazing thing to make the American people think we're failing in Iran when we're having one of the greatest successes ever. They have command and control and centralized messaging and it permeates all their distribution channels with the right content that gets people to think Democrats are better than Republicans. The problem on the right is that we're like cats. We don't like to be herded. We're very independent and we don't actually see government as the be all and end all. The left sees the government as their ultimate, ultimate aim. They are after power. Most of the people on the right want to devolve power out of government and back to the people. So we actually need to do is be willing to form a command and control to go on offense on key issues that will properly brand the Democrats as to who they are, who they are when it comes to protecting criminal aliens that are committing violence here in the United States. The whole men playing women's sports, gender transitioning of children wanting to tax us into oblivion and preventing jobs, growth and investment in small businesses. Every issue that are those 80, 20 issues issues, we need to go on offense on those issues. President Trump is the first one in a long time that has been better at going on offense. But most of the time our side is reactive rather than proactive. So that's the one thing. The second thing is part of the reason I wrote the book and I'm sending it out to a lot of my billionaire friends is our investor class, our donor class, who are putting tremendous amounts of money and many, many sacrifices. I do believe we have to continue to invest in the popular culture, the media, entertainment. There's been a huge improvement. Shows like yours, the cable, your news channel and all the rest of it. We've got a huge influx of investments in conservative media. But we have to do more to reach that untethered voter who's in the middle or the soft left who's not going to see these, these channels. And then we have to start to one layer at a time, peel off capacity and popular entertainment as well.
Frank
John, we've just got about a minute left. I think a lot of people notice when conservatives get into office and then they really moderate. Why is that? We got 30 seconds.
John Tillman
That's why I wrote the book and how I started down this journey. Liberal conservatives get into office, they move left. Liberals get into office, they just move further left. Why would there's nobody move to the right? It's because politics is about pressure and the vice of media control, popular culture control and elite influential control applies the pressure. We need to build those capacities. I was just talking about to get our handles on the vice and compete to put pressure in the system to support people doing the right thing and put pressure on people doing the wrong thing.
Frank
Yeah, I hear a lot of people say, where are the conservative George Soros and Neville Singhams and think that that is the type of pressure. It's money pressure. Political strategist and author of the Political Vice. Everybody go check out the book. John Tillman, always a pleasure to have you with us. Oh, John. Jam packed show. A lot of things changing.
John Solomon
Jam packed weekend. What's going on? Jam packed weekend. We got the beyond this Iron Iran negotiations. President's traveling this weekend. So it's going to be a busy weekend for news.
Frank
Yes. And a busy weekend for me. I will be at the White House on Saturday. Saturday. I can't keep my day set. Yes, indeed. Pool reporting on Saturday. So we will come to you with more news. Everybody, head over to JustTheNews.com for all of that. But have a great night and we'll see you tomorrow.
Hosts: John Solomon & Amanda Head
Date: April 9, 2026
Episode Theme:
A deep dive into the high-stakes peace negotiations involving Iran, the evolving state of U.S. relations with NATO and Europe, America’s role in global security, regulatory hurdles in the U.S. economy, and the cultural fight playing out in American media and politics.
The episode centers on new peace talks with Iran, led by Vice President JD Vance in Islamabad, and what this means for the future of the U.S., the Middle East, and the Western alliance. The discussions branch out into the changes in global alliances, domestic fraud scandals, regulatory impacts on American industry, public health, food policy, and the mechanics of political influence in the U.S.
[03:39–05:30]
“The eyes of the world are going to be on Islamabad over the next 24 hours...Can they end 47 years of heinous hostility by Iran against Americans and Westerners and Israelis? That is what's at stake at the table."
— John Solomon [03:39]
[05:30–06:45]
Israel’s Shift: Discussing Israel’s willingness to exclude Hezbollah from the peace talks to enable progress with Iran.
Trump's Approach: Praise for Trump’s unpredictable negotiation tactics.
Quotes:
“It’s been an interesting moment...a testament to President Trump’s negotiation skills. He wrote a book on it, so he should be good.”
— Frank [05:48]
“One of his sharpest skills when it comes to negotiating is keeping his opponent on their heels.”
— Frank [06:25]
[06:45–10:02]
“The question, of course, then becomes, how does something like this happen at such a large scale without raising red flags sooner?”
— Frank [06:45]
[10:29–18:07]
Iran & Democrat Strategy: Hageman frames Democrats as “taking the side of our enemies,” recalling the Iranian Revolution and its consequences for women and the world.
Comparison to Afghanistan: Hypocrisy in media coverage and withdrawal from Afghanistan compared to current Iran efforts.
NATO & Europe: Critique of European reluctance; mass migration’s influence on foreign policy.
War Powers Act: Skepticism about the impact of the upcoming congressional vote—historical context provided (last actual war declaration was 1942).
Regulatory Issues: Diesel Fluid: Damage to American trucking from Obama/Biden-era “diesel exhaust fluid” rules.
Quotes:
“Here is President Trump. He is the first president after decades...who's been willing to go in and actually rescue them from having to live under the thumb of the ayatollahs.”
— Rep. Hageman [10:45]
“What Joe Biden did...it's night and day [compared to Trump's current actions].”
— Rep. Hageman [12:40]
“If you lose half of your engine life, that is a huge burden on the carriers of America.”
— John Solomon [17:53]
[21:52–31:18]
NATO’s Weak Response: President Trump dissatisfied with NATO’s lack of support during the Iran conflict.
Potential U.S. Actions: Options range from closing military bases to scaling down troop presence in Europe, signaling a reassessment of transatlantic priorities.
Europe’s Reluctant Security Posture: Discussion on whether European (in)action is due to will or capability.
Iran’s Diminished Capabilities: The U.S. has delivered an unprecedented level of damage to Iran’s strategic infrastructure, shifting balance in region; Russia & China weakened as indirect consequence.
Quotes:
“For decades, NATO has operated on this assumption that the US would carry the load. President Trump is completely flipping that on its head.”
— Justin Fulcher [24:02]
“If the US signals that we may pull out troops...that would certainly be a huge wake up call.”
— Justin Fulcher [26:05]
[35:36–44:50]
Sunni Bloc Moves: Unusual unity—GCC (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar) lining up with Israel and the U.S. against Iran.
New Energy Infrastructure: Prospects for pipelines to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, rendering Iranian threats less significant.
VP JD Vance’s Role: Despite media skepticism, President Trump trusts Vance to lead negotiations; Iran’s regime is out of options after economic, military blows.
On NATO: Prediction that “New Europe” (Baltics, Poland, Romania, Scandinavia) will replace “Old Europe” as U.S. security priorities.
On China: Trump’s actions have diminished China’s influence worldwide; summit with Xi Jinping upcoming.
Quotes:
“What President Trump has done... is gotten all of our partners in the region... all lining up with Israel behind the United States. This is the strong coalition.”
— Victoria Coates [36:42]
“They have to have the sanctions relief or the country ceases to exist.”
— Victoria Coates [40:00]
[49:58–54:02]
Trump’s Food Policy: Administration pushing back against ultra-processed foods; new food pyramid.
Practical Advice: “80/20” rule for minimizing processed foods; focus on whole proteins and collagen for gut & skin health.
Quotes:
“People are just sick and tired of being sick and tired... They want something new, real whole food and real good solutions.”
— Dr. Chad Walding [50:17]
"When you prove your gut is central to the health of your entire body—it's all connected…"
— Dr. Chad Walding [53:39]
[54:58–60:03]
How the Left Wins: Through controlling culture, media, and educational levers—“politics is downstream of culture.”
Right’s Response: Conservatives need to organize (even if decentralized) and invest more heavily in media/entertainment/culture to shift public opinion and support candidates after elections.
Quote:
“The left understands that winning elections is a propaganda war… politics is downstream of culture.”
— John Tillman [55:21]
“The left has command and control... The problem on the right is that we’re like cats. We don’t like to be herded... We need to be willing to form a command and control to go on offense on key issues…”
— John Tillman [57:18]
On Trump’s Iran Policy:
“They may end up in the stone ages soon, so we’ll see what happens.”
— John Solomon [06:43]
On the State of Fraud in California:
“Unfortunately, in California you have to triage fraud because there’s so dang much of it.”
— Frank [09:40]
On Europe’s New Political Reality:
“The Muslim population... really have a stranglehold on many of the people that are in leadership... when you import people who are absolutely antithetical to your culture... What does that mean on the national stage and on the international stage?”
— Rep. Hageman [14:19]
On America’s Leverage:
“President Trump was very clear that if Iran doesn’t come to the table, there would be significantly more consequences around energy, oil, infrastructure... squeezing all aspects of power to constrain Iran.”
— Justin Fulcher [28:45]
On China’s Shrinking Influence:
“This is a really powerful message to China. We can project power wherever we want. You can’t.”
— Victoria Coates [44:38]
On Political Messaging:
“Republicans take a break after elections and they may go a year and a half. We've seen that to be pretty consequential in these off-year elections where Republicans have underperformed every election since Donald Trump won in November.”
— John Solomon [56:24]
| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |------------|--------------| | 03:39–05:30 | Iran peace negotiations overview | | 05:30–06:45 | Israel, Iran, & Trump’s diplomacy discussed | | 06:45–10:02 | Hospice fraud scandal in California | | 10:29–18:07 | Rep. Hageman: Iran, Afghanistan, NATO, Diesel regulations | | 21:52–31:18 | Justin Fulcher: NATO rift, Iran talks, Russian/Chinese impact | | 35:36–44:50 | Victoria Coates: Arab-Israeli bloc, energy, VP Vance, NATO, China | | 49:58–54:02 | Dr. Chad Walding: Processed foods, diet, collagen health | | 54:58–60:03 | John Tillman: Political/Media culture wars, GOP strategy |
This summary provides a rich, accessible recap of the episode’s most pressing themes and insights. The hosts and guests maintain an urgent, conversational yet detailed tone throughout, focusing on the twin tracks of high geopolitics and domestic policy/culture.