D (6:06)

What we wanted to do was show you the expansion of the new Strait of Hormuz area as it's now being, as it's now being contained by the Iranians. For them, this is pivotal, right? This is their ace in the hole. They have control of the Persian Gulf. And now because of what they say are the United States actions, they've actually expanded the control of the Persian Gulf. And there's also a tactical reason why they did this. I want to show you something now. See that city there? Fujairah? That's where one of the main oil fields is for the uae. Now, you see that black line? That's going from there all the way to there? See that black line? That is an oil pipeline. And that pipeline essentially is the UAE's way of getting oil out without having to worry about traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, because the exit for that pipeline was outside of the Strait of Hormuz. So what the Iranians have now done is they've expanded the Strait of Hormuz area that they are control of to go beyond the point where Fujairah is. And that's extremely significant because it means now that they control even more of the output of the hydrocarbons, the oil, the lng, the fertilizer, all the stuff that's coming out of this region, and most particularly the most important region of all, which is the UAE.

C (7:35)

So very interesting there. We want to bring in Colonel Douglas MacGregor now to talk more about all these latest developments. Colonel, great to see you. Thank you for joining us here on the show. I guess maybe we should start with, before we get to the latest with the Strait of Hormuz and any kind of peace talks or whatever's going on there the last few hours in southern Lebanon and Israel's move there, you have pointed out before there was really never, I guess, a ceasefire at all. What do you make of this latest attack?

E (8:04)

Israel, when it entered southern Lebanon, committed to the wholesale elimination of Hezbollah. And they knew that in order to do that, you would have to go in and essentially conduct a scorched earth operation. Well, they did it, but it didn't work. And the problem is that Hezbollah retreated northward and to some extent into the mountains that border the region. And so Israel has got to go in and finish the job. If they don't, their perception is that Hezbollah will return. And so this is now going to be permanently a next territory. And that that's simply a strategic reality for the Israelis. It's sort of like the Golan Heights. You can't give it up. If you do, you put yourself at risk. The Israelis take the same position on southern Lebanon. And of course, this has the salutary effect of making any sort of arrangements with Iran impossible for the United States.

C (9:08)

Well, that's the hard.

A (9:09)

They do it, though. Can they take over all of southern Lebanon? Because usually when they invade Lebanon, the Israeli soldiers leave in body bags. It's very dangerous for them. Do they all of a sudden have the military might for this?

E (9:24)

I think they do, especially if they're willing to carpet bomb the, the whole region. I think they'll level everything. If you want to hold southern Lebanon, you've got to make it years. How do you make it yours? You drive out the population. You destroy any possibility for that population to ever return. I mean, this is sort of the gazification of southern Lebanon, and that's, that's their solution. They've been dealing with the Hezbollah problem since 1982. And everybody forgets that Hezbollah was brought into existence actually by the Israelis themselves. They saw this as a counterbalance to the Palestinian Authority. It's become a monster. They can't control.

C (10:08)

The other thing you just said there is that anytime that we're trying to have discussions or talks with Iran, this happens suddenly. So what do you make of the reporting this morning that there was some sort of a framework of peace that would have kept nuclear ambitions tamped down for 12 years, et cetera et cetera. This framework that was being unfolded this morning, and someone shorted the oil market once again this morning and made tens of millions of dollars before this Axios report came out. Convenient that that report came out and somebody made a lot of money off of that. Anyway, your thoughts on the potential peace talks here and Israel's intervention?

E (10:45)

I'm waiting for someone to trace all the phone calls from the White House before and after these announcements, because I'm convinced that there's somebody in the White House that's well aware of what's coming and they're taking advantage of it. That's just a comment on corruption. I don't think we've ever had this much corruption, this blatant in our history. I could be wrong, but that's what it looks like to me anyway. I think it's. I think it's fair to say right now that whatever they claimed was going on probably wasn't. I don't see much evidence for it. I think we're very close to launching a gain another air and missile offensive against Iran. And again, I don't know that the President sees any alternative to this. I think there is, but I don't think he does. And he's not prepared to announce his imminent surrender, which is effectively what he'd have to do for the Iranians. It's kind of interesting. A few weeks ago, he was demanding unconditional surrender from the Iranians. Right now the Iranians have made it very difficult for him to extricate himself and us from the Persian Gulf disaster without doing effectively the same thing.

A (12:03)

So I'm just struck by the lack of outrage of bombing civilian areas in Beirut. But I guess since we've watched this happen to Gaza for so long, it feels like part of the plan is just quickly murder as many people as you can, because the outrage is there, but nothing's being done about it. Philip recently had said, where is the United nations peacekeeper who would do something about this? And in your estimation, who could even stop it? It's certainly not going to be the United States.

E (12:38)

Well, let me back up a little bit and just say that I think that President Trump, whether he ever intended to do it or not, has boarded the express elevator to hell and he's dragging us into the elevator with him. That's the bad news. Now, what do I mean by that? It's part of what you just discussed. Once he committed us unconditionally to whatever the Israelis wanted to do, he put us in a very, very dangerous position. Every president that's dealt with the Israelis has ended up at some point imposing limits on what they can and cannot do. Because if you don't impose the limits, that means they'll do whatever they want at whatever cost. And they do not regard, you know, legitimate laws of war or anything else. Once they've made up their minds they're going to do something, it's no holds bar. So that was the first mistake. Now, having done that, he's now in a terrible position with regard to the Persian Gulf. It was always a disaster from a purely geographical standpoint. You know, Iran is like a giant fortress. It's surrounded by mountains, and to the south you have these sort of horrible deserts that no one in their right mind wants to march an army across. Nobody's ever successfully conquered the place. Alexander the Great conquered part of it. The Mongols inflicted terrible damage on the place in order to control it. And then, of course, they left. The point is, this is a place we cannot conquer. And that's the most important thing to understand. The Russians made this point to Napoleon about Russia. They did it subsequently many times. We cannot be conquered. And they were right. Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln made the point that we Americans in our continental empire cannot be conquered. The only way we can fall apart is if we attack and kill each other. So I think those things were disregarded right off the bat. And there was no sense whatsoever of the impact on the rest of the world. Right now. The rest of the world, as you just pointed out, Jeff Guary at the Carlyle Group has produced, in my judgment, some of the finest work out there on this subject. And he's raised the alarm bells. And there are still people all over this country that absolutely refuse to see reality that we are going to suffer terribly as a result of this war. We are going to experience at least a severe recession. And the rest of the world is, in many cases, is staring at depression. Now, when I say the rest, I'm not necessarily including China. China. China is actually better prepared to cope with this crisis than we are in many respects. And Americans, again, don't understand that. And the final point is that right now, the entire world, except for the United States, probably a few people in Europe, Great Britain, Australia, maybe Canada, in other words, the Anglosphere. The rest of the world looks at what's happening and says, Iran is an heroic state because it's standing up to the great bully, the United States and Israel. So virtually everyone is sympathetic, and everyone who can help the Iranians is doing so. And so the Iranians have prepared Themselves brilliantly for this next phase, which is now coming. And I think it'll probably start within the next 40, 48 hours.

D (16:09)

Wow.

E (16:10)

And why will it start? Because you cannot keep all these soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines out there indefinitely. They'll lose their edge. They'll wear out. You can't do that. You've got to send them into action or you have to disengage and withdraw. And I see no evidence that we're prepared to do that. And this whole blockade thing was a farce. It never had any chance of success. We're sitting, what, 300 miles, 400 miles, 500 miles south and away from the entrance to the Persian Gulf. We have, comparatively speaking, a handful of ships. We're trying to fly over the area and control it. It can't be done. I mean, you could control some of it, but not all of it. And then this notion that we're telling captains of these tankers that are not insured by Lloyds of London or anybody else at this point, to risk transit, go through the Gulf and then hug the shore next to Oman and risk going aground because that's a very shallow area, was always crazing. This is the final point, and it's the point that Americans really need to understand, and most Americans are not paying attention to this. There is no strategy. There never was. Yeah, there never was. First we start off while we're going to bomb in support of an uprising. That was always nonsense. They said that The Iranians killed 30,000 of their own people. That is nonsense. About 3,400 people died, and of that number, 400 were policemen. Why were they killed in a nation where no one is armed? Because the Mossad and the CIA went in there and distributed arms to members of the resistance, if you want to call them that, in the crowd, and directed them to shoot. And they killed police officers at that point. You had to go in and put down this minor, relatively speaking minor, uprising. I say minor because they painted the picture that there were millions of people in the country ready to overthrow the government violently. And that was not true. It was never true. Then we decided, oh, no, we'll bomb to decapitate. We'll. We'll kill all the key leaders. Because the Israelis said, well, if you kill all the key leaders, they'll fall apart. Why would they say that? Because the Israelis have experienced that previously. In many Arab states, chaos breaks out. There's no one to step in and take over and so forth. That was false. Because Iran is not an Arab state. Iran is a Real country. It's a real nation state. It's been around for 2,000 years. So what did we do? Well, we made the mistake of following that guidance based on that false intelligence, and that didn't work. And having failed at that, we then decided, well, we'll try to destroy the country, we'll inflict pain on them, we'll hit critical infrastructure, and these people will give up. I think President Trump said something like cry uncle. Well, that didn't work. So here we are again. And we fell into the blockade, which was always a farce. It didn't make any sense. Then we said we were going to control the strait. How could we control the strait? You can't control the strait unless you are in a position to stop everything that goes in and comes out. The Iranians can do that.

C (19:24)

Why?

E (19:25)

Well, they border it. They have the longest coastline with the Persian Gulf. They control more than half of it. So the bottom line is we can't control it. And that's now patently obvious to the whole world. So what's the next step? What do you do? Well, the intelligent thing to do is you stand up and say, I, President Trump, have reviewed what we have done thus far. We have undoubtedly done serious damage to Iran, damage it will require years to reverse. But more important, we've also now jeopardized economic stability around the world. We didn't want to do that. I don't want to do that. And I know that countries in the global south, in Europe and Africa, everywhere, need access to fertilizer, feedstock, food, and fuel. We're going to back off. We're going to disengage. And I am suspending all further military action to ensure that those items reach the world that needs it. And we will look for intermediaries in the future who can help us resolve our dispute with Iran without the use of military power. I think if he did that, he. He would be supported here at home, and more important, frankly, to us, in the long run, he would have enormous support overseas. That's the last thing anybody expects, but it's the one thing we need to do. But there's a problem. The problem is Israel, and there is no evidence that the Israelis will comply with that. And they will continue to attack and continue to attack and demand that we support them in the process. So I don't see anything changing for the better.

C (21:12)

Someone in our chat room just said, redacted. Watch the Bibi Files to realize what kind of man you're dealing with in Benjamin Netanyahu. Oh, yeah.

A (21:19)

We have the Tucker Carlson ones. Oh, yeah, it's horrible.

C (21:23)

Well, that's who you're dealing with here. But, and we have, to your point, there's been no strategy, there's been no plan. And President Trump has never laid out to the American people what the goal is in this war. It's moved constantly, it's made no sense. But yesterday, maybe we got the clearest sign yet when he gathered up a group of children for Trump Story Hour to explain why. I mean, imagine your kids going to the White House and you get this sort of BS from the president. Watch.

E (21:49)

Broke every record.

D (21:50)

And now we're going to take a hit because we have to make a journey down to Iran to take the nuclear weapon.

E (21:56)

They would have had a nuclear weapon in within two weeks.

D (22:00)

Remember, we sent that beautiful B2 bomber

E (22:02)

in and we, we blew up their nuclear potential. It was obliterated. For those that are not aware, Colonel,

C (22:12)

it was obliterated that. Imagine telling a group of little children that we.

A (22:16)

That's like a movie.

C (22:18)

Sent in a B2 bomber. I mean, like a comedy.

E (22:22)

Yeah, but give the man credit. He excels at fairy tales and he told an excellent fairy tale.

F (22:27)

Right.

E (22:28)

There's never been a nuclear weapon inside Iran.

A (22:30)

Yeah.

E (22:31)

There has never been a decisive effort to build one. We know that now. Can they do it? They've always had the capacity to do it, but they have not enriched uranium to the plutonium they need to build the bomb. And that is deliberate. They have not fitted any nuclear warheads to any of their missiles. Could they do it? Yes, they can do it. They can turn to any number of nations who would willingly assist them with this. My concern is whenever this ends, it won't just be Iran. I think we're going to see every middle sized power in the world that thinks there's a chance that the Americans and Israelis could attack them, build a nuclear weapon. That's the real result of the stupidity. There's something else going on and nobody's paying attention to it. The relationship now between Russia, China and Iran is very, very important. The Russians and the Chinese have made it abundantly clear they will not abandon Iran to us. When Putin spoke to President Trump on the phone, he was trying to make it clear that if he goes back in and tries to annihilate Iran with air and missile power, it's not going to happen. Neither Moscow nor Beijing will tolerate this.

A (23:45)

Wow.

C (23:47)

We just had a comment here from one of our viewers long, but let me put this up on the screen. Speaking of Russia, 500 Russian Vrba MANPADs were purchased by Iran. Delivery is expected in 2027. Some of these could make their way to the Hez, Yemen area. Will this be a game changer to stop Israel air superiority? Do you want to take that one, Colonel?

A (24:05)

Do you know what that is? I don't.

E (24:07)

Yeah, I know what it is. And it's a Stinger equivalent, you know, similar to what we have, which was a strategic game changer for the mujahideen in Afghanistan. If you reflect on it, is it going to change everything overnight? No. But is it going to make life terrible for the Israelis and Israeli air power? Yes, but that's the other thing that nobody's really talking about. Israel is going to be in very serious trouble when this work recommences. Does anybody think Iran is going to ignore Israel? Iran is going to strike Israel and it will strike it decisively. Israel is going to sustain terrible damage. The global economy will end up taking five to 10 years to recover from this. That's pretty obvious. But I'm more concerned than anything else about our relations, frankly, speaking with China. You know, Trump is about to go to China, and when he goes over there, let's be. Let's be quite frank. If he thinks he can go there, make demands and expect that Xi will comply with what he wants, he's. He's crazy. Beijing's recent announcement that Chinese companies will not abide by U.S. sanctions on private refineries linked to the Iranian oil trade, including the big one, Hengley Petrochemical, signals a sea change right now in our relations with Beijing. Beijing's not going to put up with it. They're sick of us. Washington's foolish war against Iran on behalf of Israel is disrupted energy flows to China. China was willing to go along with us on many things. Not anymore. Now they're tightening trade by expanding export controls on critical minerals and reinforcing their own supply chains and power to shape relations with the world. We need goodwill in China. So much of what we use on a daily basis is imported from China. When that's cut off, and that's where we're headed, there are going to be a lot of very unhappy Americans, and it's going to take us time to try and compensate, if we can compensate at all, given the fact that we don't have the manufacturing base we once did. In other words, the absence of any strategy also meant there was no thinking about the unanticipated consequences of our actions. Nobody bothered to ask the question, well, you know, what happens if this is not over in four or five days, 10 days, two weeks? Are we going to do this forever? Of course not. We can't afford it. It can't be done. Our own economy can't stand it. We can't surge the military power that is required to sustain a presence there. We're just wasting resources and time on something that was never needed. This is not really our war. We're not, you know, Iran is not an existential threat to us. It never was, nor do I think it should ever be. So what do we do? We've got to go back to the drawing board and say, look, it's got to stop. We're going to stop it. This is why. Explain it to the American people. I think the American people will take it in, and I think they'll realize it makes sense.

A (27:17)

Right. I mean, not to let President Trump off the hook, but the stance of the Bush administration, the Obama administration, towards Iran was always nonsensical. Iran reached out many times during those administrations, and each one sort of mocked them. We launched Stuxnet, which is the world's first cyber weapon, on them. It's, you know, Trump is escalating something that we've always done in a bipartisan way, which was decide that Iran is the country we want to go to war with nonsensically. So, I don't know, on Israel's behalf. Right. Like you're saying President Trump is just doing it worse. It's like we're taking the poison straight rather than it being laced inside. The cool factor of the Obama administration when most of us missed it. You know what I mean? Like, it's always been there, but it's horrible now. At least it's out there. At least we know we can sort of watch it happen, watch this poison play out in front of us, and we can all say, we don't stand for this. But it's not subtle anymore.

E (28:23)

A friend of mine who is working in the Department of Defense said to me, everywhere you look, Doug, the dead hand of Israel is around our neck.

A (28:32)

Yeah.

C (28:34)

Terrifying.

E (28:34)

I've never heard anybody say that before in the Department of Defense, but that was his observation.

A (28:39)

Right?

E (28:39)

And I think it's true, because this does not represent our interests. We have no interest in this war.

A (28:46)

Yeah.

E (28:46)

This is antithetical to our interests. It's counterproductive. We're ultimately exactly what I think it was. Calvin Coolidge said, we're about business. That's America. This is destroying us. It's harming us beyond belief.

C (29:03)

We're going to talk more about that in a second on the energy shock. Colonel, if you just stay with us for a quick water break here and, and a quick break and want to come back, talk about what's happening right now in the oil markets, talk about the Strait of Hormuz specifically and what we can expect here in the United States. Also want to get the Colonel's perspective on that Washington Post report this morning, which we had reported here like a month ago about the US Military bases attack. Now they have detailed satellite photos showing just how destroyed much of America's infrastructure in the Middle east is. We'll talk about that in a moment.

A (29:38)

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C (31:08)

Well, a few minutes ago, Ken Griffin, the CEO of the CEO of Citadel, came out and said that energy costs will lead to a global recession. He was emphatic about that. Jeff Keery of the Carlyle Group said people don't understand what we're about to face here, that we are in a deficit right now for oil in the United States and that once the shortages hit, it's game Over. He's never seen anything like this. He just spoke about this a few hours ago. Watch.

G (31:38)

I still say the review, it's going to be sometime the month of May that you're going to end up with Europe hitting tank bottoms. And in the US it's somewhere in that July 4th time period, if not sooner. By the way, the inventories number coming out of the US the ones we got last night, the ones last week, I've never seen anything like that before. You know, the analogy, I think, is like in that movie Jaws when the mayor declares the beaches are open. You can see the fin swimming around, around there. And the fin are these inventory numbers. And I think that it's important to remember that these inventory numbers. Let's define terms a deficit versus a shortage. We have a deficit today, meaning that demand is above supply and we're drawing inventories. It's not a shortage yet. So to answer your question, you have the shortages in places like, you know, Asia, and it's not that bad yet because you're not completely at tank bottoms. But in places like Europe and the United States, you're in a deficit and you don't hit the shortages until you hit tank. Tank bottoms.

C (32:44)

Tank bottoms in July 4th. Already feeling this, of course, across Asia and Europe. We're joined by Colonel Douglas MacGregor now to talk more about this energy shock that we're about to see. Of course, you were talking about Jeff Kerry earlier. Colonel, just your thoughts on what we're about to see from an energy perspective as it relates to what's happening with the war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.

E (33:09)

My friends in India talked to me this morning and told me that oil is $118 a barrel right now. Wow. If you're talking about jet fuel, then it's going to, it's, it's exceeding now $250 a barrel. That's jet fuel. That means that the airlines in many cases are going to go under. Now people will say, well, spirit was already in trouble. That may be true, but I know that Lufthans has canceled thousands of flights. We're going to see much more of that. Anything involved in distillates, lpg, lng, all these things, they're all at premium prices. Everything is going to become more expensive when it tanks. To the extent that Jeff Curie pointed out, imagine what the cost will be in this country as well as overseas. How do you get it across to President Trump that when fertilizer doesn't move, crops don't grow? When feedstock doesn't arrive, livestock don't eat. When fuel doesn't flow, trucks don't run, and trucks run on diesel, and diesel is in very short supply. Heat doesn't show up, air conditioning doesn't work, and food doesn't end up on the shelf. That's really where we're headed right now. And it's all because of the stupidity in the Persian Gulf. Now, you know, when I listened to Secretary Rubio this morning, said, what we really want is a free access and flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Well, Mr. Secretary, that's exactly what you had before you attacked Iran.

C (34:47)

Right.

E (34:48)

Good Lord.

C (34:49)

Now we're going back to what we already had. And that's now, I guess that's now the strategic goal in all of this is go back to where we were before we started, decided to start bombing them.

A (34:59)

Right. I see my feed is full. My sort of Instagram stories are all people who are like, leave Iran alone. I do not want these prices at the pump. They're not buying it. Even if you're President Trump is telling these children, we had to do it, had to be done. They were gonna nuke us all. Nobody buys it. Can you believe what you're seeing? And, you know, you've been through many war propaganda cycles. This seems like the worst.

E (35:27)

Well, it certainly is. At least as bad as I remember in Vietnam. You know, it took took us a long time to figure out that contrary to popular belief, we weren't really stopping communism in Vietnam, that this was actually a civil war that we'd involved ourselves in. You know, here's the most important question. Who is governing our country? Got to answer that question. And for whom are the people in Washington governing the United States? Now? Our founders, you know, answered that question pretty clearly, actually, unambiguously. They said, the government of the United States derives its legitimate power from the consent of the govern, not from foreign sources, foreign courts, foreign treasuries, foreign governments, foreign interests. It comes from the American people. And go back to what you said, Clayton. He's never talked to the American people about this war. And when he did, as sort of a sideshow, when he spoke on the State of the Union and he mentioned Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. And like trained seals, everybody stood up on both sides of the aisle and clapped.

A (36:45)

Right.

E (36:46)

Even though there was no such animal in Iran.

C (36:49)

Right. Well, that's the question.

E (36:51)

Who is in charge?

C (36:52)

Yeah, who is in charge? Here's a question from Southern Griffsky. I'm gonna put this up on the screen says, how will you guys feel if Trump succeeds? He campaigned on no new wars. An Iran with no nuclear power is a better world. Otherwise China or Russia would have sold them nukes. What are your thoughts on this? I mean, I'll just say, I don't know, that Iran having its own nuclear power to support its own people is an affront to the world. I think that it would enrich and help the Iranian people. I think I would be fully supportive of them having their own nuclear power to power their buildings and infrastructure. But if Trump succeeds, how will we feel? What does success mean to you?

A (37:30)

Well, I thought we already did succeed because we blew their nuclear power weapons.

E (37:36)

They're obliterated.

C (37:36)

Yeah, go ahead, Philip.

F (37:38)

Well, that question, like, defeats itself because if he campaigned on no new wars, this is, he didn't step into this already in, in process. Wasn't like he just walked into a war in progress in Iran. He started it already. You can't, you can't succeed. You can't succeed and then start no new wars argument. You already lost that argument.

C (38:00)

Colonel, what do you make of that question?

E (38:02)

Well, first of all, India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons. We have not gone to war with either state. We have always had concerns about Pakistan because it has been, in many respects, a hotbed of radical Islam. But thus far, the Pakistani military has been very professional, exercised close control over those weapons. We know that North Korea has nuclear weapons. We also know that the North Korean dictator has been told in no uncertain terms by President Xi of China and for that matter, President Putin, if you initiate a war with someone and use a nuclear weapon, as a result, we will not support you. However, if you are attacked, that's a different story. So contrary to everyone's public criticism and insistence that North Korea could attack us at any time, it's very clear they're not going to attack us because they don't want to be obliterated, and they know that's what would happen. But they've also been told by the two nations that have acted in their behalf not to do it. So I agree with you, Clayton. If Iran develops a nuclear capability, that's Iran's business. Iran has not opened a war against anybody for over 200 years. It has not tried to expand its borders at anybody's expense for over 200 years. I think we're going to live in a world in the future that's going to be different from what we think it ought to be. It's a collection of states that have clear and unambiguous interests. And the big issue for everybody is going to be resource sovereignty. Everybody is now going to be very concerned that they have on hand all of the things that are essential to their survival. And that means energy. Energy in all forms and all types.

C (40:00)

Resource sovereignty. I think you're absolute, man. You hit the nail on the head. Forget this unipolar world order. It is really shifting to this multipolar world order where they need to protect themselves. Go ahead, sir.

A (40:11)

I guess when I think about who could actually do that, Africa has aligned itself greatly with China. They will have more access than they have now with sort of the crappy relationship they have with the United States and our sort of.

C (40:25)

And France.

A (40:26)

Right. Europe is the one place, I think, that cannot do it, that cannot be resource sovereign. And, you know, they're just going to be dragged through the mud. I don't see how Europe can survive. I don't see how NATO can survive something like this. I do. I don't know. What do you think of that? That was sort of my Nieder grant.

E (40:44)

Setting aside the possibility that the aliens that we talk about periodically operating aircraft that we can't explain may land and ultimately share with us the secret to relating light, gravity and magnetism, then I guess you're right. Europe is going to have more difficulty than most, but not totally hopeless. Right now, the largest cache of rare earths in Europe thus far has been discovered just a few hundred feet offshore from. From the Norwegian coast. We know there are tremendous stores of energy, rare earths and other critical minerals in the Arctic. And the other thing is, remember that one of the reasons we ended up in this terrible position now with Russia is that we, as led by globalists, and unfortunately, President Trump has not turned us around, although he promised to do so, convinced everybody that you shouldn't buy cheap energy from Russia because Russia's real insidious plan was to conquer you. Well, that was always nonsense. There's no money in territorial imperialism. I thought everybody figured that out. That's a dead end. Governing other people's nations is both wasteful, counterproductive, doesn't work well because people want to govern themselves so much better to do business. Germany has been practically destroyed, deindustrialized, because under its own leadership and ours, what have they done? They've cut themselves off from Russia's cheap gas. And we know historically that cheap energy, cheap credit are linked. If you don't have cheap energy, you can't get cheap credit. And that's what we're seeing happen. Slowly but surely with each passing day, you'll hear. You'll hear, people will finally speak up and say, have you noticed the bond yields are rising? Yeah, they're rising. And we have a $39 trillion sovereign national debt. And how is that amassing with each passing month, with each passing year? It's unsustainable. So you need the cheap energy. If you got cheap energy, you're also combating inflation. We are in a terrible mess right now because we've killed the two. Cheap energy and cheap credit. No, cheap credit means you can't refinance. And right now, all the private equity, big private equity firms are in trouble, blackrock and a host of others, because they can't refinance. They're trying to borrow money to become liquid because none of their. Very few of their assets are liquid. They need liquidity. The banks need liquidity. How do you get it? You borrow it, but you can't borrow at higher and higher interest rates. So we're headed for a giant steel reinforced concrete wall. It's coming. And I don't see how we avoided at this point. And I think that will be the end of President Trump, and I think it'll be the end of his administration. It may ultimately be the end of the government that we see right now in Washington, period. Because. Because, let's face it, President Trump has done something that, as we saw during the State of the Union, everybody on the Hill supported. Now, not everybody. There were a few lone rational actors, but the point is, Washington is in this with both feet.

C (44:15)

You know, we got this question here. I can't believe I'm going to ask this question, Colonel, but one of our viewers, thank you for your super chat. Says, would we have been better off with Kamala? Thank you for your thoughts on this and just want to show you this Times of Israel article published during the campaign. During the campaign, Harris told Jewish voters, all options are on the table to stop Iran from going nuclear. It was very vocal about basically going to war with Iran even if she was elected. So, I mean, and now she's the front runner. If you look at the latest polling numbers for the 2028 election, she is now the front runner for the Democratic side. I mean, it's like, I don't know, man. What do you make of this? Would we have been better off with her?

E (44:58)

If that's remotely true, I suggest that we immediately make Natalie our candidate.

C (45:04)

Yes.

E (45:04)

Save us from Kamala.

A (45:07)

All right.

E (45:08)

I think we can say with absolute certainty that no, we would not have been better off. And I'LL tell you why. When Kamala Harris on numerous occasions demonstrated that she could not string coherent sentences together, that she was essentially an empty suit that cackled whenever provoked, the Zionist billionaires that ultimately put Trump into office turned away from the Democrats. Remember when they had Biden there, they got what they wanted. If Biden had run again, of course he couldn't do that because he was non compass menace. But if he had, I'm sure they would have supported Biden instead of Trump. But once it became clear that Kamala was the one, everyone ran for the exit doors right away because they knew they were dealing with someone who was dangerously stupid and ignorant. So that meant you got to support Trump, but you had to extract promises from President Trump. And one of the key promises was very simply, Israel gets whatever Israel wants.

C (46:11)

Yeah, that's it doesn't matter who's in charge, it seems, you know, you could have Ron Paul. That'd be the only chance. Maybe, maybe a Thomas Massie. Colonel, I wanted to ask you, I mentioned before the break this Washington Post report this morning. I'm sure you saw it. Brandon Weickert had reported this, I think on Tucker Carlson's show. I think he was maybe the first to report this. We also had sources that covered this as well. We covered the injury aspect of this story, which was the devastating attacks on American infrastructure in the Middle East. A lot of the military bases there largely destroyed, a lot of infrast infrastructure destroyed. This was, of course, kept from the American people. And then now the Washington Post comes out with this report and it's suddenly like front page story, like exclusive. The Washington Post is now telling us what Brandon Weickert reported, what we reported here on all the injury and death numbers. But now the Washington Post is reporting it, so we got that stamp of approval. Colonel, what do you make on first of all on the story and then on the actual Middle east infrastructure, the US Military bases and how devastated they may or may not be?

E (47:18)

Well, I was castigated for telling everyone within the first few days that 27 of our bases had been struck and largely destroyed.

C (47:26)

Yeah, they were saying you were lying. You were a liar.

E (47:29)

Yeah, right, exactly. So I can tell you now, having seen the satellite pictures, I mean, we've got a lot of commercial satellite photography, so you can't hide this sort of thing for very long. And I think that's probably why the CIA decided to tell the Washington Post, go ahead and release this, because otherwise the Washington Post would repeat whatever lies they told them to tell. And it's pretty obvious that these, these bases are finished. And if we were ever to get back into the Gulf region, which I highly doubt at this point, we would not want to have to rebuild all these bases. It would cost us billions of dollars. We can't afford it. And right now, who in their right mind among the Gulf states is going to try and fund it? I mean, right now, the last man standing is not really the last man standing, but the last one continuing to pitch for the US Israeli alliance is the uae. And the UAE is in a lot of trouble. And that's one of the reasons over the last 24, 36 hours, you've seen strikes go in to target places in the uae. The UAE is seen as a not so terribly secret Trojan horse for Israel, and the Iranians are sick of it. So I think two things we need to take away from this. First of all, yes, the bases are destroyed. They're done, they're finished. Number two, these Emirates are probably not going to make it through this war either. And that is dependent upon whether or not we decide to renew the war against Iran, which I think we will, sooner rather than later. I don't see how they survive. Their artificial constructs, perhaps even more artificial than the rest in the Arabian Peninsula. They can't export the oil. They can't generate the income that they have historically. You know, there's 67 million or there were 67 million people living from the Iraqi border east down to the border with Oman. That's a lot of people. They can't stay there anymore because they're going to lose their desalination plants. They're going to lose oil infrastructure because the Iranians have made it clear that if we attack them again, they are going to do that because I'm sure we will hit their desalination plants as well. I don't think there's much question about that.

C (49:47)

Yeah, well, Colonel, I guess we'll let you go here. I know Larry Johnson, friend of the show Larry Johnson, saying May 7 is a date that he's been hearing for a possible restarting of this war. You said about 48 hours for some sort of a new strike. Is that can. Is that what we can expect? Some sort of.

E (50:06)

None of us? Well, Larry has excellent sources. I cannot say with absolute certainty it starts tomorrow. All I'm saying is that we're on the precipice and you've got a lot of people out there, soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. You could only cut squares in the ocean for so long. You can only burn fuel for so long. You can only sit on strip alert for so long. And you've got an estimated 15,000 light infantrymen, Marine and army, and, you know, I wouldn't want to be in that part of the world this time of year. I don't know if you've been over there, but it's like 140 degrees in the shade. It's crazy. Yeah.

A (50:43)

Right.

E (50:44)

So you have to do something or

A (50:46)

not, but do something to get them killed. Like, I think I'd rather, you know, sit there and get a sunburn. Yeah.

C (50:55)

Get a sunburn than do something.

A (50:57)

Right.

E (50:57)

And, you know, the larger question, Natalie, to go to your point, is if we. If we leave, if we say that's enough on humanitarian grounds, this must end, and we don't, we just get out, what happens? Well, Israel is going to be very unhappy. They're going to have a lot of trouble surviving. Let's be frank. You can't tell all your neighbors you're subhuman and then expect them to embrace you. So I think Israel's in a lot of trouble, but we're not. We'll survive this. We can get back. Back to something important. And let's focus on our country. We don't need to invade Cuba, for God's sakes.

C (51:36)

Yep, that's next.

A (51:37)

Yeah, don't want to do that either. Not available for that.

C (51:40)

Well, I hope people are. I hope Americans. Americans need to wake up. They need to wake up to what you're saying. We are heading into a dark time right now. Unless we reverse course immediately. Colonel, thank you so much for your insights and analysis as always.

A (51:56)

And for the record, I'm not running for any office. I go to bed at 9:30. I cannot be up. I cannot be up for two.

F (52:05)

I was already looking on Ticketmaster or wherever. I was going to order tickets to that debate because I want to go to that debate, but I guess it's

A (52:11)

never gonna me against who.

C (52:13)

Oh, my God.

E (52:14)

Kamala, whatever you do, don't drink heavily, okay?

A (52:19)

I don't.

C (52:20)

She's got that going for her. Kamala has to bring a big bottle of wine. Colonel, great to see you as always. Thank you so much, sir. Thanks, Doug.

A (52:27)

All right.

E (52:28)

Yeah.

A (52:28)

No, you guys, remember I put forward the Eff it party. That's like. You can take that and run with it. I'm not going to lead it. I go to Costco on Fridays and I go to bed at 9:30, so I don't have it in me. I campaign for anything.

F (52:43)

I have time. I'll run But I'm not leaving my office, so they'll just have to know what I look like.

C (52:48)

You could be the first virtual president.

F (52:50)

Yeah, there you go. I'll be like the Gorilla's Only President edition. I'll just be a. I'll make a cartoon monkey of myself or something and Daft Punk, right?

C (52:59)

You just, like, show up some. No one knows who you. What you are, what you look like. Actually, that's a great question.

A (53:05)

Clayton and I couldn't be politicians.

C (53:06)

Could you imagine the first. I bet there's going to be an AI President at some point. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine?

A (53:14)

Yes, I can.

C (53:14)

First, I couldn't be any worse than what we. What we have. So I'd probably vote for that. It'd be. It'd be totally. It'd be totally programmed by Palantir. You'd have your first pal president.

F (53:27)

You're starting to see more of it on Reddit. But people. People are now starting to. When someone asks a question on Reddit, people are just giving absolute wrong nonsense answers and then upvoting it to the very top of the. Of the list so that when somebody searches that question, that's the answer that comes by, because AI is starting to pick that up because it's scrubbing Reddit. So that, like. So the one. The one. I saw something today was like, somebody asked a question about something and like, the. The answer was something about hydrochloric acid in your urethra. And like, that. Basically, that's just. It's becoming a bit of a trend on Reddit and it's hilarious.

C (54:01)

That's funny. They're fighting back against AI.

A (54:04)

All right.

E (54:05)

I mean, I just wonder what book.

A (54:07)

Go ahead.

C (54:08)

What book the AI would swear in on. That's. Yeah, good question. The Satanic Bible?

E (54:14)

I don't know.

F (54:14)

IRobot.

C (54:16)

Yeah, iRobot. Yeah, the foundation by Isaac Asimov or something like that.

A (54:21)

Yeah. I mean, the AI would have no scandal, right? No mistress. Yeah, Nothing.

C (54:28)

So, I don't know.

A (54:29)

No human flaws.

B (54:30)

Yeah.

A (54:31)

Interesting. All right, coming up. Oh, you want to say something?

C (54:35)

No. I was gonna say thanks to the tens of thousands of you watching on Rumble on YouTube on X. So, yeah, in fact, you know, we. We stream live on X as well. And perhaps I don't give them enough love over there, but we are live on X as well, streaming there, so we've got a couple thousand of you watching us on X. So hello to all of our folks on X. Thank you so much. Glenn, though on X, said this. Glenn Tamir. Said, I can't imagine why Israel bombed Lebanon. Pray tell, you sure that Israel didn't attack Hezbollah, or does that not fit your narrative with four question marks tells you all you need to know? No, they say, of course, that they are attacking Hezbollah. But when you attack indiscriminate apartment complexes, are you going after specifically just the head of Hezbollah? You're trying this assassination target, which is what they were trying to do, and you collateral damage also?

A (55:25)

Glenn, don't be a dumb ass. Israel says that they give notice of the places that they are going to bomb. They did not do that on April 8, but they say they usually do. They do that by sending out text messages to people who maybe don't have great cell reception. And they do it within a short period of time, three minutes. So if you are Hezbollah, you can watch for those messages and get out of there. There's no reason to bomb a civilian apartment complex.

C (55:55)

Right. So killing children, Hezbollah. Okay, just so the narrative. We don't have a narrative on the show, by the way. We are vehemently anti war and vehemently anti imperialism. So when these countries want to expand their territory and take over other countries and kill indiscriminate children and women for their own Greater Israel Project, we are vehemently against that.

A (56:15)

Yeah.

C (56:15)

So just so you know, and if, by the way, Iran was expanding its presence and invading Israel and carrying out multiple attacks around the world and trying to carry out terrorist attacks all over the world, we would call that out. But that hasn't happened. That hasn't happened. And they haven't attacked the United States, despite what the rhetoric is and the narratives coming from Marco Rubio's mouth as well. But anyway, I just wanted to say that. Okay, hey, we've got more news to get to. We're going to talk about Melania Trump and Epstein. This story is crazy. And we're not gonna give it away. We wanna tell it. Cause Derek Brose is gonna join us to deep dive these connections. Remember a few weeks ago, and Melania, just randomly, without even telling President Trump she was gonna do this. They didn't even know about. The press corps didn't even know about it. She comes out and holds a press conference about Epstein connections. Like what? Well, once you start to peel this onion back, it gets very, very stinky. We're gonna talk about that. Very stinky.

A (57:09)

Very stinky.

C (57:10)

We're gonna talk about that and so much more. So thank you everyone, for subscribing to the channel. It's free to subscribe, but first we're going to tell you about our friends over at Thrive. All right? So if you're smart enough to know when something's not working, like when you can't focus at work, when you're dragging by 2pm or when your stomach starts to feel like fighting you after every meal, here's the thing. These aren't random symptoms. Your gut impacts everything from your digestion to your brain function to your energy levels. That's why we love Just Thrive's probiotic. Unlike other brands that make big promises but fall apart in your stomach. This is why I love these guys. You guys gotta pay attention to this. JustThrive is the only probiotic clinically proven to arrive in your gut 100% alive. Sometimes when you're walking through like Costco or Sam's Club or whatever and you see those probiotics that have been sitting there on the shelf, I often think like they're supposed to be alive when it hits your body. You think this stuff sitting on these store shelves is alive?

B (58:08)

No.

C (58:08)

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A (59:14)

We also want to tell you about our friends at Connect Invest because we've talking, we've been talking ad nauseam about how the US dollar is going to continue to decline in value. So if you are keeping your savings in a savings account, that money is going to be worth less in very short order. Well, you can invest it in performing assets and our friends at Connect Invest can show you how. If you go to redacted.inc./invest, you can join the thousands of investors who are growing their wealth by investing in real estate. Real estate backed notes. So you are pooling your money with other investors in order to invest in real estate projects, either commercial or residential. You can choose the term so either 6, 12 or 24 months and then you can sit back and just earn 9% annually with short term real estate back notes. So you can invest in real estate without actually having the headache of owning real estate. No tenant calls, no toilet fixes, is you're in a pool of great investors with who are making great investments. So you can invest as little as $1,000. If you do, you get a $50 sign up bonus. There's no guests, no stress, no momentum or just momentum. Your money should start winning immediately. So claim your $50 bonus and start earning today. Go to redacted.inc/invest one more time redacted.inc invest if you don't have a plan for your savings to retain value when this market crash, when this economic crash comes for us, you guys, it's time to think about this because savers are losers, especially when the government continues to pervert the economy. So again, one more time, redacted.inc invest recently, First Lady Melania Trump held a press conference and she said she had never had anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. It was a totally out of the blue moment and we don't know what it was about. Specifically, she said she had never been friends with Epstein. She said that she and the president were invited to the same parties from time to time and that it was just overlapping social circles which is common. Okay, well, investigative, investigative journalist Derek Bro says there's more to it. He says there have been connections between Melania and her longtime friend Amanda Ungaro, who posted this just before the first Lady's announcement. So who is Amanda Ungaro? Well, she was close friends with Melania before she was deported with the help of her ex husband, Paulo Zampoli. Now, incidentally, Zampoli was appointed by President Trump recently as the special envoy for global partnerships. How does this all connect to Epstein? Derek Brose joins us today to tell the story. Thank you so much for joining us.

B (62:09)

Hey, thank you for having me on again, Natalie.

D (62:10)

I appreciate it.

A (62:11)

Always a pleasure. So let's walk through this Ungaro relationship because he is still close to the Trumps and he does have the power apparently to get his ex wife deported. And she has been making waves in international press. And not surprisingly, the US press has been ignoring her. So can we just sort of start from the beginning at who she is, the Brazilian model and then her connections?

B (62:37)

Absolutely. So she is, as you said, a former Brazilian model. She was originally, you know, the Epstein connection starts from the beginning of her career. She was 15 years old when she was first brought to the US on Epstein's plane. And her modeling agent at that time was Jean Luc Brunel of the M Squared M2 modeling agency. For those who've been following the Epstein saga and the Epstein network for years, you've probably heard that name. He was sort of the French connection to this. And as I point out in the article, Jean Luc Brunel has actually been under suspicion and had accusations of abusing young girls and models going back to 1988, when 60 Minutes actually put out a report called American Girls in Paris. Of course, nothing ever came of it. And he continued on abusing people and continued to be a part of Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell's network. He was later on arrested shortly after Jeffrey Epstein, and we are told he also allegedly killed himself while waiting to go to trial in a French prison. But it was him who brought Amanda Ungaro over to the US On Epstein's plane. She says she saw Jeffrey Epstein, saw a bunch of young girls around him, didn't really know who he was. She doesn't claim to have any sort of interaction or that she was abused by him. But it was through that connection that she ended up meeting her future husband, and now ex husband, Paolo Zampoli, who is an Italian businessman who is also involved with the modeling world. As the recent Epstein files and emails have shown us, that Paolo Zimpoli actually was trying to buy a modeling agency called Elite Management with Jeffrey Epstein. And this was reported decades ago. But now we have email confirmation of this showing them discussing this. That never happened. But. So Paulo Zimpoli himself, he's involved in the modeling world. She's brought over. She eventually goes back to Brazil as a young girl. And you can even find, I think it's a Vanity Fair Fair article from the early 2000s where Paulo Zimpoli references an unnamed young model, Brazilian model who he was falling in love with. And he said she was, you know, only 17 at the time, and he was sending her Easter gifts and flowers and presents, and he couldn't wait for her, you know, to be of age. And nobody thought it was odd at the time, I guess, but that ended up being her you know, they ended up getting married and they now have a child together. And during that time, Paolo Zimpoli and Amanda Ngaro, as you showed a moment ago with some of the pictures, there's dozens and dozens of pictures. I don't think these are just random kind of. They hung out at a party one time. They seem to be very close. And Amanda Ungaro's words, the, the Secret Service would bring her son birthday gifts from Melania. They would hang out, they spent a lot of time together. And Amanda Ngaro, as you mentioned there, the day before this random press conference from Melania, she started tweeting out, posting, not only tagging Pam Bondi and others, but saying to Melania directly on some of her various Twitter accounts, on the first lady accounts, saying, you know, I know your secrets. You know, I'm going to expose you. She since deleted some of those tweets, but there are still others that are up. She does have a Twitter account. She has only retweeted a few people. You can go, if you go to her account, you can look at her replies and sort of see the different comments she's made. But she has started to speak up to international media. She gave interviews to O Globo in Brazil, to El Pais and Spain. And then most recently she's done interviews for the network rai, which is the Italian sort of state media that has been doing this ongoing series on Paolo Zoli because of course, he's an Italian citizen. The first episode of that was called the Epstein War. The second one that came out last weekend was called the Shark. And there was another one that just came out this weekend, but it was not specifically related to Amanda and Garo. And it's in those interviews that Amanda is now saying that she believes that there is a pact between Melania and Paolo Zampoli specifically to basically look after each other and cover up each other's potential crimes. And the, the sort of underlying claim here is that Jeffrey Epstein was the one who actually introduced Donald Trump to Melania Trump. Now, of course, in that press conference, Melania has said this is false. She's actually been sued suing different people. She sued a book publisher in the UK. She sued the Daily Mail back in 2016 because they said that she was, she used to be a high priced escort. This is when Trump was first running and she successfully sued them and got that article taken down. But Milan. But Amanda is suggesting that there may be some truth to this claim that Epstein introduced the two of them. And actually in the Epstein files, Epstein himself says this in one of the emails. But the official story, according to the Trumps, is that was Paulo Zoli at a party that introduced the two of them, and that's what they're sticking by. But it appears, at least according to Amanda, and there was also a recorded, a leaked phone call where Paulo Zoli himself mentions some type of agreement. He said he signed a confidentiality agreement and basically he would never turn his back on the Trumps, that, you know, they helped reward him with jobs in the first administration and now in the second administration for him speaking up and defending Melania. And he references a pact or an agreement. And so we don't have the solid details, the solid evidence yet, but signs are definitely pointing in the direction that Melania or both, maybe Melania and Donald Trump made some type of agreement with Paolo Zimpoli. And again, Amanda Ngaro is claiming it's related to the truth about who introduced Melania to Donald Trump. And Paolo in this leaked call seems to reference that as well. And I just want to make one other quick note here for those who might be hearing this and so say, okay, Derek, what does this have to do with, you know, the, the price of food or the price of gas? How is this going to affect my daily life? This just sounds like a bunch of rich people gossip or celebrity gossip. I understand that. But I think if you really put this into the context of what we're discussing here, if Jeffrey Epstein and his network, which we know is connected to intelligence, most likely Israeli intelligence, and was all around the world abusing people through fashion and through modeling, if it was Jeffrey Epstein and that network who brought Melania over or at least played a role in that, and then introduced the now current president of the United States to her, and she is now the first lady of the president of the United States, that's a pretty high level for this network to have infiltrated. And I think that's, that's really the concern here is the implications of if it's true that Epstein was the one who introduced Melania to Donald Trump, and if it's true that Paolo Zimpoli was indeed involved in some sort of pact to cover that up to defend the Trumps. Because after that press conference, just as one more example, he said, I'll testify in US in front of US Congress, I'm willing to share my story. So he's been a loyal friend to them and repeating this story over and over to make sure people know I'm the one who did it. And it is potentially that they are just covering up for what really happened.

A (69:11)

Right. And so recently, Paolo Zampoli had his ex wife deported. So that I guess you could wonder. Here's the question. I'm not the assertion, but the question. Did he try to take her and move her far away from the United States where she can't say what she needs to say? Obviously the Internet doesn't work that way, but it would be convenient. Now, he said that, you know, all I did was I didn't do anything. But the New York Times reported that he did call Department of Homeland Security. He says she's a liar because all Latin ladies are liars. That's incredibly offensive to me as Latin. But okay, what do you think was. Can you explain that bit a little bit better than I just did?

B (69:59)

Yeah, sure. So, as you mentioned, the New York Times a couple months ago, they reported that Paolo Zampoli, according to their sources within ice, had called some had called an official and said, hey, this case of this woman, Amanda Ungaro, is very important to the President, very important to the White House. Now, Amanda had already been previously arrested last year in 2025 with her, I believe it's her, her new husband. They were running a clinic in Miami and they were arrested allegedly on fraud charges for doing cosmetic surgery without a license. Now, those claims haven't been, you know, adjudicated in court, but Amanda has stated on social media that those charges are completely trumped up and that that was basically the doing of Paulo and using his connections to get them to come after her in order for her to get arrested and then for him to say, hey, this lady's in, in jail. The president and the White House would really love this case to be sped up. And so it's potentially that she would have been deported anyways based on those charges and those accusations. They officially say she had an expired visa, but it definitely appears that Paolo Zimpoli at least expedited the process. And he does admit that he called ice. He just claims he didn't tell them to get rid of her. He just said he was checking on the case because, you know, the. I think one of the worst parts of it is that they do have a son together, a young son. His name is Giovanni. And you can see it appears like in my perspective, Paulo's and poly is kind of using him as a prop. He uses him a lot of his Twitter post and showing him there. And also I think it might be a way to sort of jab at Amanda like, hey, I've got our son here because obviously, since Amanda was deported to Brazil, she does not have custody of her son. Now Paulo is Paulo's and police flying around Italy and other places and has their son with them. So if this, these other pieces of the puzzle are true, that there was a pact and that it somehow relates to Epstein introducing Melania or something else that we might not even be aware of at the moment, then, yes, it's convenient for him to get his ex wife deported and say, see, she's not a fit mother. She's being deported by ice. You know, I need full custody of my son. And, and I will also say that just as of this morning, I noticed there's another researcher on Twitter. His name's Anthony Andrews. I think he also has a substack. He's been talking about this as well. And he actually just received a cease and deceased desist letter about four days ago from Palo Zimpoli's attorneys threatening him with, you know, further action, legal action, if he doesn't take down all of his tweets about Paulo Zimpoli and issue a public apology. Now, I haven't received anything like this yet, but it just shows you a sign that he's. He's definitely very aware of the chatter that's going on. And, and I don't think he has any legal grounds. People have freedom of speech to say what they want. I don't. Anthony Andrews doesn't seem to be just making things up. He's reporting and asking the same questions that I am here, which I think are based on evidence. You know, if. If Amanda's giving interviews to the Italian media, saying she believes, based on her experience as a friend of Melania, knowing both the Trumps and this being her ex husband, that there was a pact, that there was agreement. She specifically said something to the effect that, you know, after the Trumps came into office, then Paulo's and Poly got a boost and, you know, they started getting all this love from them, but now Melania is essentially turning her back on her. That's how she's framing it. And then again, I will mention that the second report from Italian media includes a leaked audio of a phone call that Palos and Poly is having with another friend where he's specifically discussing this and he's talking about some arrangement. If I can. Let me just quote him real quick so I don't misquote him. He says, I wrote the document for the President and for the First Lady. They used it for the speech. This is in reference to the Daily Mail. Lawsuit back in 2017 with the Daily Mail. We just won an enormous case. An enormous case. I can't talk about it because I have a confidentiality agreement and I still have to cash the check we won last week. I am in this country thanks to President Trump. He gave me a job. I started in real estate, built myself a nice house. I would never betray a friend. So, you know, take that how you will. We'll see if Amanda speaks further. I have heard some whispers in the wind that she is potentially going to be is trying to speak to some US Politicians to see if she can be brought in front of the US Congress for a hearing in front of a committee. We'll see if that pans out, but that's where it's at right now. And I think that this, again, we can't prove for certain, but I think this might be a piece of the puzzle. When all of us were wondering, why did Melania just give this random press conference? She was kind of in the shadows and nobody was really talking about her. If anything, she brought more attention to this. And the mainstream media reports that Trump didn't even know she was going to give that press conference. Who knows how much of that is true? But either way, this situation with Amanda Ungaro may be part of the reason why she chose to speak up right now.

A (74:37)

Right. I mean, it just makes me feel like what you resist persists. You talked about how in 1996, when Melania was brought over as a model on a contract, she was sponsored by Paolo Zampoli and she was awarded the so called Epstein Visa. Can you please explain that?

B (75:00)

It's actually the Einstein. Einstein.

A (75:02)

Oh, sorry. Einstein Visa. Sorry, I read it wrong.

B (75:04)

Maybe it should be renamed.

A (75:06)

Exactly.

B (75:08)

But so that Einstein Visa is, as it, the name implies, supposed to be for really brilliant people, not only academically, but I did look further into it and it says people who are excelling in their fields, and it doesn't mention anything about excelling in the field of modeling. I mean, not to say that couldn't qualify, but it seems very odd for people that this specific visa, which is supposed to be for people who are the brightest and brilliant minds in the academic world and science and even in sports and things like that. So I guess you could kind of stretch it and say, well, she was this elite model and so she qualified under the Einstein visa. But there have been questions for years about how that happened and who, who pulled what strings. But, yes, Paolo Zimpoli was her original sponsor to help her get into the United States. And so, and again, what I'm about to say is complete speculation at the moment. There are definitely other people on the Internet who will claim this is true. I don't think we can prove it, but there has long been suspicion that Melania was one of potentially Epstein's victims, brought over and as a model and eventually, you know, introduced to Donald Trump and now in the White House. Now again, that may be where some of this, this rabbit hole leads eventually. But at the moment we have Epstein himself saying that he's the one who introduced them. We have this discussion of a pact between Melania and Paulo Zimpoli, both in his, you know, talking about a confidentiality agreement and his ex wife saying that she believed there was a pact based on everything she saw. And there's also another confidential source that was in the FBI and the FBI document dumps recently that also mentions Melania being introduced to Trump by Epstein. So at this moment, it's he said, she said. But I think that, you know, the questions are not answered and hopefully Amanda will be willing to speak up soon. I will also note, as I do in my article, she has been hinting that she has a book coming up soon. And so some of her detractors or critics are saying, oh, she's just, you know, trying to drag this out for book sales or something. I don't know. I don't claim to know, but she seems to be preparing to speak up more. She, she posted recently a picture of herself at the gym, said the comeback begins now. So who knows what she's preparing for. Like I said, there's been whispers of her potentially getting in front of US Congress. I don't know what that would entail since she was deported by ice, if they can legally bring her back now or what that exactly would look or if it would just be a remote interview as some of the media has been doing. But I plan to stay on this. And the article that we're covering today, people can find it@theLastAmericanVagabond.com and I plan to follow if they're are any more updates.

A (77:36)

Right. Here's a screenshot of it. It's called the Zampoli Melania Pact. Amanda Ungaro Epstein connections and the leaked phone call. Thank you so much for bringing this to us. It's, it's tricky, but there are smoking guns here that we are owed answers. So thank you. Derrick Bros, always a pleasure.

B (77:56)

Thank you.

A (77:57)

All right, well that's going to do it for us today on redacted thank you so much for joining us. We will be back tomorrow same time with live content and of course we have content for you all throughout the weekend. So if you are not already subscribed to the channel, please do on whatever platform that you like. Also make sure you hit the bell notification to make sure you get any kind of updates for whenever we publish new content. We will see you here tomorrow. Thank you so much for being here on Redacted. Bye everyone. Want to be a star? No problem. Anyone can shine on TikTok post your first video today. Real life, real story, real you. Download TikTok and get started. Need a new couch?

B (78:40)

A bigger TV?

A (78:41)

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