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Real America’s Voice
Just the News No Noise with John Solomon and Amanda Head, March 2nd, 2026
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Sarah Carter
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
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John Solomon
Good evening, America. Happy Monday. 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. And I'm always amazed, also always joined by my amazing co host Amanda Head. Now, to say that the world changed dramatically this weekend is an understatement. Yes, Ayatollah Khamenei, a man who presided over 37 years of the 47 years of terror that Iran has inflicted on the world and against the United States. Eliminated in a split second by bombs from the United States, large numbers of the Iranian leadership eradicated by the first rounds of attacks from the air by the United States and Israel. We are going to have comprehensive reporting all throughout the night on that extraordinary operation. I want to get to a couple of things that are quite significant. They just happened in the last hour or so. Marco Rubio and President Trump back to back telling Iran, you know, you ain't seen nothing yet. In other words, the most explosive attacks, the most powerful attacks are still ahead. That's not going to bode well for the Iranians who've already lost a large part of their navy, a large part of their command and control structure, a large part of their commanders in leadership, including several people who were deemed to be successors to the Ayala Tola. They're gone, too. And now more fierce attacks on the way, according to Marco Rubio. Just a little bit ago, in conjunction with that, Marco Rubio announced that he's asking all Americans to leave the Middle East. Wherever you are in the Middle east, it's time to get out, he said. That is something we're keeping a close eye on tonight. Meanwhile, the toll of our heroes, those who are on the front lines of this conflict. A total of six American soldiers now have died in this operation. About 20 who have been injured or wounded in various aspects of the combat. We're keeping a close eye on that. Families are learning the fate of their loved ones just as we speak right now. Now, I want to turn to one other thing because over the weekend you saw ferocious and quick efforts by the Homeland Security Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and others to make sure that we are on the highest alert when it comes to violence on our soil. That violence could come in the form of protests like those that are being waged by far left Marxists on our soil right now, ironically, in support of Iran. I'm not sure what that's about, but there's also the possibility of sleep or sell something that FBI directors past and present have talked about how bad or big is the potential for Iran to strike on our soil. Well, last summer, a lot of people didn't pay attention to this, but I sure did. And I've kept this clip just for this moment. Congressman Tony Gonzalez of Texas was questioning the attorney General, Pam Bondi. Have a listen to, to the question and answer that they got out of this. Last June, there was a report, you
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Bill Pulte
know, of over 1500 Iranian nationals that have entered the country illegally over the last several years. Do we know out of those over 1500, how many of those have been convicted of a crime?
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Amanda Head
Yeah, I don't have the number of the conviction, but it's well over a thousand have entered.
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Sarah Carter
Yes.
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Amanda Head
I don't know if it's quite up
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Sarah Carter
to 1500, but yes, it's well over
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Amanda Head
a thousand have entered our country. And I can tell you we are on high alert.
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Sarah Carter
And everyone is looking at that very closely.
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Bill Pulte
Just some things just don't line up. As far as us, I see the world is on fire now more than ever before.
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Dr. Ali Safavi
Right?
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Bill Pulte
Once again, when this budget was submitted, we were a nation at peace. And now things have changed.
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John Solomon
The world is on fire more than we ever have seen it. And yet we let a thousand Iranians to sneak across the border. We allowed Iran to restart its nuclear program, then gave them money and they kept marching forward even though they were supposed to stop. And now, even in the midst of war, Democrats have kept the Homeland Security Department closed, meaning TSA and others who could fight the potential threat on our soil are not getting paid for doing their job. Right now. That is the Democratic agenda compared to what President Trump is doing right now. With that thought, let me turn to my amazing co host, Amanda Head. She's got some other headlines. What are you tracking, Amanda?
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Amanda Head
Indeed, yes, I'm actually going to stay on Iran because critics continue to question whether President Trump's decision to authorize a coordinated strike against Iran was constitutional. Now, at the same time, the reported death of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has triggered sharp reactions around the globe. But in New York City, crowds of Iranian Americans took to the streets over the weekend, some celebrating and calling for a new future for their country. And supporters have said that this operation sent a direct message to America's adversaries, including Larry Kudlow, the economist. He reacted to it as well. Check it out.
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John Solomon
But can I make one more point? You know, not only all the Gulf states supporting it, the European, the big
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Bill Pulte
European countries finally coming around, but not
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John Solomon
a Peep almost not a peep from China or Russia almost virtually silenced from them. And you know what? Russia's going to think twice about Ukraine. China's going to think twice about Taiwan.
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Bill Pulte
This is a huge change in world
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John Solomon
geopolitics, an enormous change in world geopolitics, Jim.
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Amanda Head
And Larry is right. Our adversaries will think twice before making any moves. And meanwhile, Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York is pushing back, criticizing the administration's actions and raising concerns about the broader consequences.
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John Solomon
This president cannot act in an individual basis, creating walls around the world without coming to Congress. Look, he's breaking his own promise where he said that he would not create wars and having these endless walls going on. And it seems that he's moving in that direction. And I guess that's why he wanted to rename the Defense Department, where we're talking about defending America, to the War Department, where we're talking about going out and having war with everyone, which is what this administration seems to be doing.
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Amanda Head
All right. So as lawmakers debate the decision here at home, the focus is also on the men and women in uniform. And first lady Melania Trump spoke at a UN Security Council meeting offering condolences to the American service members who lost their lives in connection with the conflict. My heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost their heroes, who sacrificed their lives for freedom. Their bravery and dedication will always be remembered. I extend my earnest wishes for a swift and smooth recovery to all those who have been injured. You are in my thoughts and prayers during these challenging times. The US Stands with all of the children throughout the world. I hope soon peace will be yours, John. It is historic for any first lady to speak before that body. But I also just love her tenderness when she's speaking about our troops.
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Chris Lovell
Yeah.
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John Solomon
Very powerful moment today and a very busy Newsday. All right. Well, in the middle of that busy news day, we had a chance to talk to the brand new director of the Office of National Drug Control inside the White House. The White House drug czar. She's a close friend, great reporter now turned drug fighter, Sarah Carter. We talked a lot about it. She just got back from Mexico where they struck those cartel leaders last week. Have a watch to what she told us. Some big news in this interview. Go check it out. I've been very blessed in my life to work alongside of two extraordinary work sisters. One of them you see every day, the amazing Amanda Head right here on the show. Earlier, I got to work in the trenches with Sarah Carter, one of the greatest investigative journalists I've ever seen. Tenacious, courageous, brilliant as always. Today, she is the head of the War on Drugs inside of the White House, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control. We're very lucky to welcome her to the show for the first time. Sarah, great to have you on the show.
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Sarah Carter
Great to be with you, John. Great to be with you, Amanda. Thank you so much for having me.
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John Solomon
All right, you are fresh off a trip down south below the southern border to the great country of Mexico, where we had a big win against the cartels last week. Bring us up to speed on how our cooperation with Mexico is going and what sort of strides we're making against those violent cartels.
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Amanda Head
Yeah.
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Sarah Carter
Thank you so much, John. Yeah. We've made enormous, enormous strides against the cartels, and a lot of that is due wholeheartedly to President Trump's policy in the Western hem, bringing back the focus to the Western hemisphere and targeting these nefarious various organizations that are now designated foreign terrorist organizations. And as you know, John, going way back to 2017, 2018, I had testified in Ohio that these organizations, the cartels, particularly Sinaloa and CJNG Nuevo Generation, need to be designated foreign terrorist organizations. Why? Because we needed to be able to utilize everything in our arsenal against them. And that's exactly what we're doing. I was just in Mexico. I met with the entirety of the Mexican security cabinet, including General Trevilla, who had just lost three special operators, as well as nearly 50 National Guard, which is their Guardia Nacional, in the battle against Oseguera El Mencho, who heads cjng. The battle was very intense. It was fierce. It was in Jalisco. We were there as the battle was ongoing, going. And I can tell you this, the Mexican government is working with us. Why? Because I believe wholeheartedly that President Trump's policy has brought this to the forefront. This is the first time that we will have an opportunity, unlike any time in the past, to target these organizations and work with our neighbors, and they are ready to work with us now. It's not going to be easy. There's going to be bumps along the way. There is a lot of concern about sovereignty. Of course, Mexico has been very adamant about that, but Mexico is doing its part, and this past week was an example of that.
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Amanda Head
Yeah, there you're doing such incredible work down there. I want to ask you about the taking out of El Mencho, because I think for Americans, they saw what happened. They saw the attacks in Jalisco, on Puerto Vallarta, and so they Assumed that this had wide reverberations in Mexico. But when it comes to the impact that it had on other cartel members and their activity, how impactful was that?
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Sarah Carter
Yeah, like this reverberated across all of Mexico. We are sharing intelligence with our Mexican counterparts that is very important. And in this process, we have these incredible operations. The Mexican government was able to target El Mencho. We have been looking for him for quite some time. Remember, this requires actionable intelligence for us to be able to target someone of this magnitude. His nickname is El Mencho the Ghost. And the reason they call him the Ghost is because he was so difficult to locate. It was so difficult to get actual actionable intelligence to target him. And we were able to do that. Everybody now knows pretty much that it was targeting one of his girlfriends and that those officials in Mexico were consistently following information that allowed them to move forward with this operation. I can tell you this. El Mencho died on the road back to Mexico City. He had been captured. He had been. He had been injured, severely injured. He was on his way back to Mexico City with the military, and he died on the road. It was a long, drawn out gun battle. This is the reason why three special operators had lost their life. CJNG lost an enormous amount of armed people. And I want to give you just a little bit of how incredibly resourced CJNG is, because many people have seen the videos that are out there. They're fully armored. They've got armored vehicles. They have weapons sometimes out resourcing our own law enforcement and Mexican military.
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John Solomon
So.
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Sarah Carter
And they also have a great. A great vast communications network, not only for spying on law enforcement, but also for.
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Amanda Head
For.
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Sarah Carter
For themselves in order to keep comms going so that they can move in and out of areas when they feel that they are being targeted. So this was a very successful operation against El Mencho. And it sent a message across all of Mexico and frankly, across the ent. Western hem and even in the United States, if we can get El Mencho working together, the Mexicans got him, then they can get anybody else in the pipeline. So the cartels know that now they are exposed that we are working together, that we are targeting them, and that we are going to get them out. And why is this so important? Because it's our children, Amanda and John. This is about our nation. This is about saving our nation and our national security and ensuring that our children are protected from the poison, poison that these people have been pouring across our border and the violence, by the way, that they have enacted in Mexico. So it is up to both of our nations to work together to ensure security for both of our countries. And that was the message that was being delivered on both sides. Both when I spoke to General Trevilla and others, Omar Harfouche, I had an incredible conversation with him, as well as many others in the Mexican security cabinet. We want to protect our nation. Mexico wants to protect its nation. And together we are going to do that. And that has never been seen before, never in the history of our nations in this much capacity. And this is all due to President Donald J. Trump and his focus on the Western Hemisphere, the Dunro Doctrine that has brought everything back home and put America first.
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John Solomon
Yeah, that's extraordinary times. Beyond El Mencho's death, we had almost 100 Mexican cartel members extradited to face justice here. That was the largest extradition in recent memory. But there are other concerns that the cartels, for some reason, keep making more and more toxic opioids, things that are now 20 to 100 times more lethal than fentanyl, which is hard to imagine. Our mutual friend Derek Maltz says he's really concerned about this, that we need an all of government approach on this. Tell us what you're doing to take on the next generation of drugs that are just hitting the streets now.
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Sarah Carter
Such a great question, John. And yes, Derek Maltz, former acting director of the dea, great friend of mine, works special operations group with the doj. In fact, I was just talking to him before we got on the air. Look, he is absolutely right. We need an operation, warp speed for what is happening in our nation. With the poisons that have been pouring across the border and with the enormity of deaths. You know, we have seen the trajectory go down under President Trump. That is as far as, like, we've seen the death rate drop from 2024, September until September 2025. We've seen about a 19% decrease in deaths. But that's still not enough. It's still over 72,000. President Trump and I, we want zero. We do not want to see these synthetic opioids entering our nation. But cleaning out that supply chain is vital. And it's not just coming from Mexico. That means cleaning the supply chain from as, China, India, wherever the precursor chemicals are coming from, we want those out of the supply chain. I've made this very clear in meetings with our Chinese, with the Chinese government. I'm making it very clear now. The United States government has made it very clear to whether, you know, if you're manufacturing, if you're a private industry, in the pharmaceutical industry, if you are shipping precursors, which many of them are dual use precursor chemicals. So some of these chemicals are used in makeup, they're used in soda, they're used in different types of products. But if there is more of those precursors coming than necessary, we want to find out. We want them out of the supply chain. And that's part of what we were doing in Mexico. We were speaking with our counterparts there, ensuring that one of the major projects that we are going to be working on is getting that supply chain clean. And that means putting the onus on private industry as well. John it's part of our strategy. The president's national drug control strategy is to ensure the safety for our children. But every single day, and this is something that Derek Maltz brings up quite often, we find out that they've created a new analog. What we want to do is be able to stop that in its tracks. And that requires cooperation on a grand and global scale. That is how important it is. In fact, right now we're seeing new synthetics hitting our streets in Ohio and Tennessee. And some of these synthetics are 50 times more powerful than fentanyl. And sometimes they're additives to like we've seen carfentanil in the supply chain. This is what we're focused on. This is what we're working on and this is what we're going to get
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John Solomon
out that's such a huge thing, an operation, warp speed like thing to deal with. This sort of scourge will be extraordinary. Sarah, as always a great honor to have you on the show. Always a great honor just to watch you and work. We're lucky to have you in our nation's service. Thanks for joining us.
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Sarah Carter
Yeah. Thank you so much. Looking forward to coming back.
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John Solomon
Thank you. Yeah, let's make that a day for sure. Awesome. All right, folks, we're going to take a quick commercial break. When we come back, a whole lot more, including the head of the finance, Housing Administration. And some exciting news about mortgages. They're going down. That means houses are going to be a little more affordable in the future. Bill Pulte up after the break.
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Amanda Head
Welcome back, everybody, to just the news. No noise. Affordability is a key issue, probably the most important one on everyone's mind heading into into the midterm elections. And thanks to the president's efforts to bring back affordability, houses are now more affordable as mortgage rates dropped below 6% for the first time since 2022. So what's driving this shift and can it last joining Us to discuss this and more is the director of Federal Housing Finance at the finance head Federal Housing Finance Agency and chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Bill Pulte. Bill, thanks so much for being with us.
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John Solomon
Of course.
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Bill Pulte
Thank you, guys. Great to be here.
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Amanda Head
Director, I want to ask you, you know, my home base is Los Angeles, so I've been ice out of the housing market for a lot of other reasons. But talk to us about what this means for people who have not been able to purchase a home. What does it mean as far as accessibility monthly payments?
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Bill Pulte
Well, under Joe Biden, rates were at like 8%, if you can imagine that. Now that we have a five handle on it. You know, they ticked up a little bit today, but, but there were some mortgages out there that were available in the last several weeks for 5.75%. And just psychologically that gives people confidence, you know, and President Trump has restored. People can feel confident again in the economy. They can feel confident that their American dollar isn't going to get depreciated into oblivion. And so thank God we have President Trump. Can you imagine where we'd be at if we had 8% mortgage rates and Kamala Harris as president? It'd be living.
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John Solomon
You know what, there's no doubt. All right, so mortgage rates are the big decide. That one is a quick one. And we got a new Fed chair who seems to intent on pushing them further down. That'll be great. The backside of affordability seems to deal with something that most people don't even know, which is the local regulators, the zoning regulators put an enormous amount of pressure on prices, particularly in blue cities with crazy regulations and all the clean energy stuff. What's the administration tackling there to try to get that regulatory schema down a little bit so it could be more affordable?
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Bill Pulte
We're going to remember is that we are the federal government, right? So we're not the state government. But I think, you know, what Lee Zeldin, for example, is doing in California. And, and hopefully there'll be other situations where we can get involved and be helpful to the extent we can be. But look at what Lee Zeldin is doing. He's taking leadership there from a federal level, at the state level. It's sad, though, that we have to do that because the feds only have so much authority and so much wherewithal to be able to affect states. And that's obviously a good thing in many ways.
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John Solomon
Right?
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Bill Pulte
You want states to have authority. So we're really focused on what we can do. John and you know, there's two aspects to buying a home. It's your mortgage rate and it's your down payment. We're trying to focus on the mortgage rate rate. We've driven that down. And now you'll probably see us come out with some other things that could either affect, you know, people trying to buy that first home. I don't know if we'll get to down payment, but we're going to try to do everything we can to bring real relief to the American people. So stay tuned.
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John Solomon
There be a model federal code that says, hey, we can't impose this, but if you want to be in the goodwill, the government, here's a good idea for.
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Bill Pulte
We are looking at a lot of different things along those veins, but we have to be extremely careful because, you know, we want states rights and obviously these are private companies. But yeah, I think. Stay tuned for more. Look, we are, we are so focused on driving down housing cost prices in this country. Not the price of a home, but the cost to own a home. And so I think you're going to see us unveil a lot of interesting things, whether it's, you know, title insurance, mortgage insurance, mortgage rates. We are going to do everything we can. You know, President Trump is, I mean, look at what he's done in Iran. Look at what he did with Maduro, right? Like, this is a guy who completely thinks outside of the box. He knows real estate, he knows homes. So we are, we are laser focused on it.
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Amanda Head
I want to ask you about one of the big issues facing the American people when it comes to getting accountability, mortgage fraud. And I don't want to make a blanket statement, but I think that it typically happens when you have the upper crust of society, especially politicians, when they have a couple different places where they're domiciled. How important is it for the American people to see accountability when it comes to mortgage fraud? Because I think a lot of people think it's a relatively victimless crime.
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Dr. Ali Safavi
It's not.
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Bill Pulte
No, it's not a victimless crime. And look, there can't be one. Rules for the, and rules for, you know, somebody else. It's just, it's just not fair. And so, you know, where we identify mortgage fraud, irrespective of political party, whether it's Republican or Democrat, if you commit mortgage fraud, that is a problem. And it's like, we either have laws or we don't have laws. And so, you know, obviously you've seen some of our mortgage referrals have led to prosecutions and the like. And look, that's up to the doj, what they want to do. But what we can do is say, look, we want to have a safe mortgage market. We want low cost, and why are we letting people rip off the system? It's complete nonsense. And so whether you see it in Minnesota with what they're dealing with or mortgages, especially politicians, these public figures and these public figures, many of them are lawyers. Why are they lying and cheating on their loan applications? It doesn't make any sense to me.
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John Solomon
It should be set as the gold standard for behavior, not breaking it.
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Bill Pulte
That's remarkable.
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Amanda Head
That's the. Of setting the gold standard for your behavior.
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John Solomon
Yeah, well, it should be. Oh, yeah, I'm saying they were. They should be. They're clearly hard. Let me ask about some other things you can do on that front. There are civil actions that Fannie and Freddie and others can take. You could bar someone from future Fannie and Freddie insured mortgages. You could sue them civilly even though we can't get. If they can't be prosecuted criminally. Do you have some other tools in your toolbox you might be employing?
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Bill Pulte
Yes, we are actually looking at, commencing, I'd say, some fairly interesting civil litigation. But remember, we have to do what's in the best interests of Fannie and Freddie and also work with, to the extent that it involves DOJ and other law enforcement officials, we have to work, you know, properly in that system. But we do actively sue people civilly and we'll probably be making some of those things more public sometime soon. So stay tuned on that.
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John Solomon
Yeah, there's a bookmark for something ahead.
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Amanda Head
Yeah, spring is typically civil and criminal.
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Bill Pulte
The system. We will come after you as hard as we can.
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John Solomon
Yep.
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Amanda Head
As you should. Spring, big home buying season. I know a lot of people are looking at that. They're seeing the mortgage prices under 6% when it comes. When it comes to mortgage rates under 6%, is there a floor for you guys? What's the goal?
- [24:31]
Bill Pulte
As low as humanly possible. We have a new Fed chair coming in. You know, Scott Besson has worked with the Fed chair before, so this is a very exciting time for him and the Fed chair to focus on the ten year. Here we focus on the mortgage spread because the 10 year plus the spread is the mortgage rate. So we'll keep driving those down. But I just encourage people, when they go to buy a home, don't just look at the mortgage rate, also look at what the price of the home is. It's very important. And specifically as it relates to location. Make sure you get it in a good location. Because if God forbid, there ever was something in the economy, you want to have a good location. You know, it's an age old thing. Location, location, location. So you get it for a right price, you get it at a good mortgage rate, get it at a good location, you should be pretty good to go. I mean, homeownership was dead under Joe Biden. We need to get it back.
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John Solomon
2008, we all remember the big financial crisis. Freddie and Freddie were right at the middle of that. Give us the state of those two very important mortgage giants. They seem to have pretty solid books right now.
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Bill Pulte
They're solid. They're stronger than ever. President Trump came in and he said people are going to be not working from their home anymore. They're going to be working back in the Office. We had 18,000 people at these two companies, depending on the day, 17, 18,000 people at these companies working from home. You'd go into these big structures, 19, 20 story buildings, nobody was in a vacant, air conditioning spewing everywhere. The cafeteria is full with food, nobody to eat it. It was totally insane. And so we've really brought back discipline, bringing back people to work, and we're going to keep doing it. So I think the businesses will generate more cash than ever in the future. And these businesses are worth, you know, half a trillion to a trillion dollars. The President was turned down very smartly and offered to sell them for 100 billion in his first term, if you can imagine that. And now they're worth five to ten times that. So that's what we get.
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Amanda Head
Some of those workers getting shipped out of state to Alabama.
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Bill Pulte
Some of them are moving to Alabama. Look, we have nothing against California. We do a lot of loans in California and there's Americans in California. But at the end of the day, if these cities are going to be prohibitive to our operations, we have to do what's in the best interest of Fannie and Freddie and Alabama, we're very excited about that, too.
- [26:32]
Amanda Head
Great move. Absolutely. Director Pulte, thanks so much for being with us tonight. Absolutely. All right, everybody, we've got to take a very quick break, but we've got much more for you coming up on the other side, including the U.S. oil and gas association president, dear friend of the show, Tim Stewart.
- [26:47]
John Solomon
Hey, America. The FBI has been warning about a type of real estate fraud on the rise called home title theft. And your equity is the target. Here's how it works. Criminals forge your signature on a single document, use a fake, notary stamp and file it with the county. And just like that, boom. They're on record as owning your home, using your ownership. They then take out loans against your record or even sell your property. And you're not going to know about it until you get a foreclosure or collection notice in the mail. And that's not going to be a good moment. That's why I partnered with Home Title Lock so you can protect your equity. And find out today if you're already a victim, use my promo code code jtn@hometitlelock.com you'll get a free title history report and a free trial. Their million dollar triple lock protection, that's a great deal. Million bucks to protect your home. That's 24,7 monitoring of your title records, urgent alerts to any changes. And if fraud occurs, their US based restoration team will spend up to a million bucks to fix it. Find out why I trust Home Title Lock. Protect yourself like I did. Don't be a victim. Protect your equity today. Go to hometitleock.com and use that promo code code jtn. That's hometed lock.com promo code jtn. Welcome back America. So much to talk about in the energy sector. Gas prices were going down under President Trump's watch. Drilling has been going up. Exporting of liquid natural gas at all time highs. America was on an energized roll. Now the operation in Iran could change things for a few weeks. Helping here to help us understand what the short and long term prospects are is the president the Oil Gas Association, a good friend of our show, our buddy Tim Stewart. Tim, welcome back.
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Tim Stewart
Great to be with you, John. How are you doing?
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John Solomon
We are good. All right, so let's walk through Iran. We'll try to inflict financial pain by striking any ship that's in the their capabilities. They want to create any harm they can to us. How well insulated are we for energy short and long term with an Iran conflict?
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Tim Stewart
You know, it's fascinating. I was checking the numbers this morning on the opening of the markets. You know, Brent and West Texas Intermediate Crude opened at 8% in terms of a one day price shock to the market. John, that opening didn't even register on the top 50. And so I think we're pretty well insulated. There's a lot of reason for that. I mean it's not 1979 anymore. The world change, the prices go modestly higher. There's due to stress in the system. But energy dominance in America provides a buffer. So we're in pretty good shape, I think.
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John Solomon
Good deal.
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Amanda Head
Yeah. Tim, I want to ask you about our other suppliers in that region because Iran has threatened to compromise the Strait of Hormuz and obviously that affects the transportation of it. What happens if it's not able to get to us and those supply containers get full?
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Tim Stewart
Yeah, it is interesting. Again, I think we've got probably, it depends on how long this thing goes, you know, if it can be resolved in a couple days. You know, in terms of the Strait being shut down or the container ships being paused, I don't think you're going to see much impact. If this goes on for longer than 20 or 25 or 30 days, you're going to see some significant impact to the global markets. And again, the US Is not, not completely insulated against that, but you may see a significant increase in global prices and the US Will be a tail on that as well. So it is a cause for concern. I've been telling people all day long this is not just a military issue, it's an insurance issue. And the insurers, the ships have been, they have been sort of laying anchor, waiting to see what happens because their insurers have told them, we're not going to cover you in a wartime and we're not going to pull your wartime coverage. And so they've just sort of laid anchor until things settle down. And they're waiting to see what happens.
- [30:42]
John Solomon
Yeah, one day maybe that insurance industry issue will go away because there won't be the threat in the Gulf that there is today. I'm thinking back now to that moment when President Trump struck that deal with the Venezuelan government. 80 million barrels of oil shipped to the United States. That's a pretty big shipment, pretty historic by Venezuela. It seems like the Venezuela chip falling earlier gave us some additional security on our side because Venezuela can also move more oil to us rather than be at loggerheads with us. How important was Venezuela as a precursor to the Iran operation?
- [31:16]
Tim Stewart
It's fascinating to watch how this has played out. I've got to hand it to the President because he's sort of been thinking three or four steps ahead of the rest of the world. You know, the US is the world's top oil producer. We're producing 13 million barrels a day domestically. We're next. We're net exporter overall, and we are bringing in far less imports than we have over the past decades. The most imported crude we bring in is actually from Canada. And then, then Venezuela is only about 250,000 barrels a day. What that has done is that has significantly released, reduced our vulnerability to Middle east disruptions. It's something to be said for almost like it's fortress North America, we've been able to fortify ourselves again against any global unrest, particularly in the Middle East. To the President's credit, that action in Venezuela, which was sort of a forward projection to China and a message to China and then followed up with Iran, really has put China in a difficult position and put the US In a really, really strong position.
- [32:16]
Amanda Head
Tim, I oftentimes talk to you about California because they are kind of this belligerent child when it comes to a state that has the resources, but they want, they won't put them out and they as a result import oil from sometimes dirty countries. But you and I were actually talking about this earlier and it's strange because California's blue state so is, so is New Mexico. But New Mexico is doing a grand job of producing oil. What can be a catalyst to get California to pull its own weight? Can states like Arizona and Nevada be an impetus for that?
- [32:46]
Tim Stewart
Yeah. You know, the big difference in both California and New Mexico have large public lands or public land states. New Mexico obviously, obviously is far more progressive when it comes to oil and gas extraction off the federal lands. California is not. So but the pressure that comes on California is. For decades we've been letting California have be dictating its own energy policy, and I don't think we can afford to do that anymore. If you look at Nevada and Arizona, for example, Nevada gets 88% of its refined product out of California and Arizona is about 40%. And so bad energy policy in California reflects upon the economies in Nevada and in Arizona. And I think there comes a point where the federal impetus needs to weigh more heavily on the California decision makers. I think it's going to be a number of different issues. You know, the shutdown of the refineries is clearly going to have an impact on the California economy and sort of their pipeline constraints they put in place as well. I think we don't have the luxury of just letting California be California anymore. I think we're going to have to have some federal oversight in the work that's in the events that are happening out there there. I think if Arizona, Nevada, the federal government weigh in, the economy starts to feel the pinch of bad California energy policy. That will hopefully move them off the dime a little bit. And then Governor Newsom's running for California. That's a bad policy to have to defend. He may actually be forced to recognize the mistakes of the Past.
- [34:13]
John Solomon
Yeah. It'll be interesting to see if the flip follows the flop. We'll have to wait and see how that goes before we let you go. When you and I were growing up, one of the most feared words or acronyms in the world was opec. Because if they move the needle, everybody paid more at the problem. Today, with Venezuela, Mexico, Canada and America so neatly aligned together, you've come up with a big idea that's not quite opec, but kind of like it. Tell us about it.
- [34:40]
Tim Stewart
Well, it's kind of a joke, you know, it's. Right now, OPEC is OPEC plus. It's the. It's the OPEC countries, plus Russia. So what I. What I propose is an OPEC A plus, which is the exporting countries of the Americas, including Canada, United States, Venezuela, and. And Argentina. And if Mexico and Brazil start to play nice, they can be the plus. It is interesting because that's about 40, 45% of all the global capacity right there. We could theoretically be an offset to what happens in the Middle East. The one caveat, John, is I would make sure that we don't wear white robes. We wear Hawaiian shirts and flip flops, and we have ribs at our meetings.
- [35:19]
John Solomon
That would be fine.
- [35:20]
Tim Stewart
That would be my idea.
- [35:21]
Amanda Head
So I love it.
- [35:22]
John Solomon
Sounds good. It works for me. I'm all in on that, Tim. We always learn so much for you every time you come on. We also smile. You always make us laugh. Great to have you on the show today. Thanks for joining us.
- [35:31]
Tim Stewart
Great to be with you. Thanks, you guys.
- [35:33]
John Solomon
Yeah. All right. How about that? An oil. An oil conference, flip flops and Hawaiian shirts. I'm in on that one. All right, coming up next, we continue our discussion, Iran and what's next for the country with a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of our own, Dr. Ali Safavi, next after these messages.
- [36:01]
Amanda Head
Welcome back, everybody. As we have been discussing today, the president's coordinated attack on Iran nearly destroyed the Iranian regime by taking out Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. So is this the end for the Iranian regime as we know it? Joining us to discuss this and more as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, Dr. Ali Safavi joining us again, sir. Great to see you.
- [36:22]
Dr. Ali Safavi
Thank you very much. Great to be with you.
- [36:24]
Amanda Head
And, John, it's great to have you. And, you know, we three have had many conversations over the years about freedom for Iran. Those conversations were hypothetical, but now it feels like we are so close, we can taste it. If there's anybody in this town who has their eyes and ears and intelligence coming straight from inside Iran, it is you. So tell us what you're hearing.
- [36:42]
Dr. Ali Safavi
Hearing. Well, quite frankly, the Iranian people, after the massive slaughter back in January, are ever more resolved and determined to bring down this regime. Ironically, during the funeral processions of those who were killed by this regime, their families, you would expect them to be in despair, to have, you know, have a feeling of gloom and grief. But the exact opposite transpired. You saw a sense of resolve and rage. And in fact, in every one of those funeral processions, you saw chance against the regime, against Khamenei. Some were chanting, this is the month of blood. Ali Khamenei will be overthrown. Other chanted, we haven't given martyrs to compromise with the leader, with the murderous leader. So I think, if anything, the people of Iran now feel that Victory Day is drawing closer and closer after 47 years of tormentful, painful years that saw Iran basically submerged in blood and the kind of oppression that they witnessed at the hands of this regime, the economic malice, the runaway inflation, unemployment. And I must say that that amid all of this, the MEK's resistance units were quite active in the country. First of all, Based upon what Mrs. Rajavi said the other day in a statement, that they should take care of the elderly, the young, make sure that they're all protected. And she also called on the parties involved in this conflict to exercise maximum restraint in terms of civilians and in terms of Iran's infrastructure. So in this sense, I think the mood of the country is quite upbeat. You saw in many areas of the capital and other cities, people were very, very happy that Khamenei had been eliminated, obviously. And I think they would have preferred him to be arrested by the Iranian people and put on trial and be held accountable for the crimes that he committed. But that said, now that he's no longer here and spending probably his time in hell, they are happy. They feel that. They do feel a sense of justice being done. So, as you said at the outset of the show, I think Iranians feel that that final victory day is coming, something that they have yearned for for so many years and have paid for with so much blood and treasure
- [39:19]
John Solomon
that they have perseverance for freedom has been an extraordinary and inspiring thing to watch from the ground in Iran against very to circumstances. Ali, give us a sense of how much the command and control structure of Iran was decapitated this week. And you lose Khamenei, you lose the Defense Secretary, lose a lot of the generals and leadership that seems to continue day two or three, and Marco Rubio saying just a few minutes ago, you ain't seen nothing yet. The worst attacks are coming in the next few days. What is the hold on power that the Iranian regime has right now compared to Friday?
- [39:54]
Dr. Ali Safavi
It has severely been weakened. There's no question about it. Of course, the key element of all of this, basically the glue that held the system together with Khamenei and of course, with him out of the picture, I think the regime will scramble to put things together again. They have of course, formed a three man council that will determine who the future supreme leader is, but that's not going to do them much good. This regime is on its last legs and you see why it is doing what it's doing in terms of sending missiles all over the region. It is basically grasping at straws, but that will not help it from going down. So from what we hear, of course, the security forces are disarrayed. There were some unconfirmed reports that some members of the IRGC were fleeing through the border of Pakistan. I saw some video clips of them holding their passports in civilian clothes going. And of course, the command and control has suffered heavily, although of course the regime has brought its plain clothes officers to the streets waving the Iranian regime's flag, basically intimidating the people and to try to prevent them from coming out. But naturally, with the bombing that is going on, of course, because the Iranian people are very careful so that they're not put in harm's way. And that's what Mrs. Rajabi in her statement instructed them to do.
- [41:24]
Amanda Head
Ali, I think so many Americans, they see the human rights abuses and the tyranny that that regime inflicted on the people of Iran. And then they see these images on some news services showing allegedly Iranians who are mourning the death of Khomeini, the death, you know, the falling of the regime, possibly. Who are the these people who are supposedly doing that? Are they, are they family of the regime?
- [41:49]
Dr. Ali Safavi
Well, you know, one very interesting story that we have received from Iran is that the regime has told the families whose loved ones had been slaughtered by the regime that if they want the bodies of their children back, they must come and take part in these processions. You can see how inhuman that is. But be that as it may, the people that you see in the streets, these are people who have been in the service of this regime for so many years. And of course, the regime have paid them handsome salaries to keep them do what they have been doing in all these years. But they are not part of the Iranian people. You know, Iran is a country of 93 million. And if elections in Iran are any indication, during the last presidential election, 92% of all eligible voters stayed away. So you're talking about a very small minority. And the regime brings them to the streets to project power. But even they are demoralized now because Khamenei is no longer there. Some of the key leaders are no longer there. Some of the commanders of the IRGC is no longer there. So at least in the lower echelons of the security forces, the suppressive forces, they are beginning to have second thoughts as to whether they want to tie their fate with the fate of this regime, which is fast moving toward the dustbin of history. So people should not take these pictures serious. Remember that Nicholas Ceausesco had a million people in the streets of Romania, and then the next day he was gone. And even the Shah's regime. I remember at the height of the Iranian Revolution, like, there was a rally in the northwestern city of TABRIZ, like, about 100,000 or 200,000 people showed up, and the Shah said, see, these are my supporters. But we all know what happened to him when he was thrown out of the country and of course, died in exile. So the real picture is entirely different, naturally, with the announcement by the NCRI of the formation of the provisional government based upon Mrs. Rajavi's ten point plan. And basically, you see what the roadmap will be when this regime will be overthrown and when the Iranian people will take the reins of power. There will be free elections within six months of the regime's overthrow, at which point a legislative constituent assembly will be elected. And that assembly will take over the affairs of the country. The provisional government will step aside and they will draft a new constitution. And naturally that will be put to vote. And Iranians will elect their president and the prime minister, whatever form of government might be. But of course, the key point in that is that it will be a republican form of government. No theocracy and no monarchy. These are relics of the past. And I think Iranians have very, very good memories of what the Pahlavi dynasty did to Iran. Reza Shah and of course, Muhammad. And so they have absolutely no appetite to replace the crown. I'm sorry, to replace the turban with a crown. And that was evident in the chants in January where people said, death to the dictator, whether the Shah or the supreme leader.
- [45:19]
Amanda Head
Yes, absolutely. Dr. Ali Safavi, you have fought so long for this, and we've had so many conversations. We knew it would. We knew that it had the best chance under President Trump. So I'm so glad that we are talking about this. Thanks so much for being with us tonight.
- [45:33]
Dr. Ali Safavi
Thank you very much. And thank you for giving me the opportunity not only this time, but in all these years. It's great to have friends like you.
- [45:40]
Amanda Head
Absolutely. We love having you on. All right, everybody, Coming up next, as the conflict with the Iranian regime persists, the discussion will focus on the impact of war on on US Soldiers and what's being done to support our veterans. More on that after this break. Welcome back, everybody. Whether it is limited engagement or conflict or full blown war, the toll of that falls squarely on the shoulders of the men and women who serve this country and put their lives on the line. So naturally, that is a part of this conversation about Iran as well. So joining us now to discuss this is CEO and founder of Lovell Government Services and retired United States Marine Corps Major Chris Lovell. Chris, thanks so much for being back with us.
- [46:26]
Chris Lovell
Thanks, Amanda. Great to be on again with you.
- [46:29]
Amanda Head
Yeah, we love having you. And I have to ask you, you know, Americans are still fatigued from OEF and oif, so they see what's happening in Iran and they're a little bit leery of it. Talk to us about the impact in the veterans community.
- [46:44]
John Solomon
Sure.
- [46:45]
Chris Lovell
You know, you know, obviously we, we've gotten the terrible news that six service members have have passed and I think we have over 18, last count, that are injured in a kind of a counterattack after our initial salvo into Iran. But you know, these six family members, they're going to get, you know, their family members back home, whether they're parents or their spouses, they're going to get knocks on the door. Right?
- [47:10]
John Solomon
Right.
- [47:11]
Chris Lovell
And you know, the casualty assistant officers are going to be in for an emotional roller coaster.
- [47:19]
John Solomon
Right.
- [47:19]
Chris Lovell
They're going to have to tell them that their spouse or their child has passed. And what a lot of people don't realize is that the military is committed to these families. Regardless of the branch of service, they're committed to these families long term. A lot of these casualty assistance officers still stay in touch with these family members that one time they had to step onto the porch and knock and give the terrible news. But for other service members that are watching the news and for the family members that have lost service members in conflict, it brings up a lot of memories. They come back, they're vivid. And our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to these families as they're just in A daze, really? Really. And so a lot of people don't realize that there's a lot of things that have to happen once, you know, a loved one's past service member, you know, there's, you know, there's the funeral planning, there's logistics. People don't realize that, you know, some of these people, some of these spouses have young children. And so, you know, the military member's spouse has to deal with the shock of. And the just kind of they're in a daze over the news and. And they've got young children. They may have pets. And so, you know, the casualty assistant officers are going to kind of be wary of their needs, you know, even just basic getting meals. And so, you know, I think it's important to, you know, come around these families, be physically present for them. A lot of people ask me, they're like, what do you do when a, you know, what do you say to a, you know, a Gold Star family when they've lost someone? What do you say? And I always respond is just be physically present, sit with them, grieve with them, listen more than you talk and acknowledge their grief. And then also really be, you know, be cognizant and pay attention to the little things of daily life that may get missed while they're dealing with this tragic loss. Like, yeah, they may need a meal. Right. If you're, if you're in the community and you can pass them a meal. And then also think about, you know, the Gold Star families who have lost loved ones in the past. This brings up a lot of vivid memories for them. So it's okay to check in on them, too. I remember, you know, Lance Corporal Jason Fry passed in October 6th of 2005. He was from Landisburg, Pennsylvania. And I remember, you know, I wasn't a casualty assistance officer, but I helped his mother and father with a memorial gear.
- [49:48]
John Solomon
Great.
- [49:50]
Amanda Head
Sometimes that's all they need. They just need a little help. Chris, I'm so sorry. Yeah. We're running up against the end of the show. Yeah. Thank you so much for being with us tonight, Chris Lovell. All right, everybody, that's going to do it for us tonight, but we'll be back here tomorrow night, 6pm Eastern.
- [50:04]
Sarah Carter
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