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The President's Daily Brief
August 26th, 2025: How China Is Rigging Elections in America’s Biggest City & Coast Guard Mega-Seizure
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- [00:01]
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- [00:38]
Mike Baker
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We'll explain how China is quietly shaping elections in America's biggest city later in the show. The coast guard delivers a 473 million dollar blow, no pun intended, to Latin America's cartels, offloading their largest drug seizure in history. Plus, America's top spy chief slams the brakes on intel sharing, ordering that US Allies be cut out of the loop on Russia, Ukraine, peace talks, which doesn't sound very neighborly. And in today's Back of the Brief, an Israeli airstrike on a hospital in southern Gaza leaves at least 20 dead, including five journalists reporting for international outlets. As you might imagine, the backlash was immediate. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. We begin with a fascinating and yet not entirely surprising report Beijing is quietly manipulating elections in America's biggest city. The New York Times has revealed how the Chinese consulate in Manhattan has quietly mobilized community groups, many of them tax exempt non profits, to sink the campaigns of politicians who dare to criticize the Chinese Communist Party, the ccp. And in their place, they've elevated candidates who tow Beijing's line. Just to be clear, this is unfolding in New York City, home to more than 600,000 ethnic Chinese residents. The consulate's playbook is relatively simple. It leans on so called hometown associations. These are basically clubs built around ties to the same province or town in China. These groups have long hosted parades, banquets and social events. But under Beijing's guidance, they've become political weapons. So if you're a politician or a candidate for office who supports Taiwan, Hong Kong democracy, or any issue that crosses Beijing's red lines, these groups will mobilize against you. They'll smear you on Chinese language social media like WeChat, withdraw invitations to community events, and in some cases even intimidate supporters behind the scenes. It's politics with mafia tactics and the boss is a foreign government. On the flip side, well, if you play nice with Beijing or simply keep quiet, they'll raise money, endorse you, and deliver thousands of votes from their tightly organized networks. Take the case of Yan Ziyang, a US citizen, retired army chaplain and Tiananmen Square dissident who ran for Congress in 2021. Now, Zion thought his history of standing up to China's communist regime would inspire voters. Instead, he was targeted. Federal prosecutors say a Chinese intelligence agent plotted to set him up, possibly with a prostitute, possibly with violence, to derail his campaign. At the same time, leaders of Chinese associations in New York worked to undermine his candidacy and he lost badly. Then there's Yu Wen Chu, a Taiwan born state senator in Brooklyn. In 2023, she attended the reception with Taiwan's president during a stop in New York. That was enough for the Chinese consulate to label her unacceptable. Soon after, hometown groups flipped their endorsements to her Republican challenger, Stephen Chan, who had ties to Beijing's top power broker in the city. Chu lost her re election bid in 2024 and Democrats lost their supermajority in the state Senate. Or consider Yi Chen, who ran for city council. Old photos surfaced of her at a Hong Kong democracy rally. Beijing linked groups recirculated them on WeChat, branding her a radical supporter of Hong Kong independence. She was abandoned by the very community groups that once supported her. Her opponent won and has since appeared at dozens of consulate linked events while funneling more than $300,000 in city funds to to Beijing friendly nonprofits. And it's not just individual candidates. The Times found more than 50 organizations in New York City with ties to the Chinese government that have endorsed or raised money for candidates over the past five years. Many of them are registered charities, 501c3 nonprofits under US law, well, they're barred from direct political activity. Yet they openly campaigned, hosted fundraisers, and coordinated with the consulate. And you may ask yourself, what did the IRS do? That's a good question. They did nothing. Even New York's current mayor, Eric Adams, has benefited. His campaign has been endorsed by at least nine hometown associations linked to the Beijing consulate. One of his former aides resigned amid an investigation into China's role in the last mayoral race. So what's Beijing's endgame? Good question. It's about silencing critics before their voices can spread. The Communist Party doesn't want dissent in Chinese communities abroad because, well, that dissent could embarrass Beijing or even inspire opposition back home. But it's also about the long game. Today's city council member or state senator could be tomorrow's congressman or even a presidential candidate. By shaping local politics now, Beijing ensures fewer critics rise to national power later. We've seen foreign interference before, obviously from Russia or Turkey or India, to name a few, playing their own games in US Cities. But what's happening in New York is more organized and more deeply rooted. It's not just bots on Twitter or disinformation campaigns. It's face to face in community halls and banquet rooms where entire voting blocs can be shifted with the blessing or the threat from the Chinese consulate. So the question for US Authorities is simple. How long will they let this go on? All right, after the break, the Coast Guard unloads a record $473 million in seized narcotics. And Tulsi Gabbard, the DNI cuts U.S. allies out of the loop, reportedly on Russia, Ukraine, peace talks. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take just a moment of your time to talk about protecting your hard earned assets. Now, you've probably looked around out there in the big wide world and you thought to yourself, hmm, seems to be a lot of turmoil out there in the economy. Well, you wouldn't be wrong. Look, trade wars, tariffs back and forth, a US Federal Reserve that seems a bit at odds with the White House. Uncertainty over unemployment numbers, a volatile stock market. You get the picture. And at Times like these, it's important to think about your assets and how to protect them. And one way to do that is through diversification. And I'm here to suggest to you that you consider diversifying with gold from the Birch Gold Group. They're the precious metals specialists. For decades, gold has been viewed viewed as a safe haven during times of economic stagnation or global uncertainty. And Birch Gold makes it incredibly easy for you to diversify some of your savings into gold. 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- [09:30]
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- [10:00]
Mike Baker
Welcome back to the PDB. The Trump administration has been intensifying their crackdown on the drug trafficking operations of Latin America's powerful cartels, and it looks like the effort is already yielding substantial results. On Monday, the U.S. coast Guard Cutter Hamilton offloaded 76,140 pounds of of illicit narcotics bound for U.S. streets, representing the largest single illegal drug dump in Coast Guard history. The record breaking offload took place at port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and included nearly $500 million worth of illegal drugs, including 61,740 pounds of cocaine. That's a lot of coke and 14,400 pounds of marijuana, according to a report from Defense News. Now, to put that in perspective, it's enough cocaine to potentially kill tens of millions of Americans. At a news conference on Monday, U.S. coast Guard Rear Admiral Adam Chamy explained the 61,740 pounds of coke represent 23 million potentially lethal doses. That's enough to fatally overdose the entire population of the state of Florida, end quote. Officials with the Coast Guard said the contraband was seized during 19 interdictions that took place off the coasts of the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean over the past several months in coordination with the US Navy. The haul broke the previous coast guard record from 2021, when some 61,130 pounds of illegal drugs were offloaded. The seizures followed the deployment of two Navy guided missile destroyers to the region in March by the Trump administration to support the Coast Guard's interdiction efforts with the aim, of course, of curbing illegal migration and drug smuggling. Since January of this year, Coast Guard officials say they've tripled their operational presence in the heavily trafficked waters to better secure America's maritime borders. And you know what? Well, that works. And just last week, the Department of Homeland Security announced the Coast Guard's launch of what's known as Operation Pacific Viper, which will surge additional forces to the eastern Pacific to combat the cartels. Notably, US Attorney General Gregory Kehoe said Monday that much of the sea's drugs offloaded by the Coast Guard were transported by organized crime groups in Venezuela. Oh, here's my shocked face. Particularly the notoriously violent trender Aagua or TDA gang as we've been tracking here on the pdb. Venezuela under the rule of dictator and part time narco trafficker. How does he have time to do both? Nicholas Maduro has become a powerful player in Latin America's criminal underworld, helping to import drugs and facilitate the migration of TDA gang members directly into the U.S. maduro himself was indicted in a New York federal court back in 2020 on federal charges of narco terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. Earlier this month, the Trump administration doubled the reward for the arrest of Maduro, offering $50 million for information leading to his capture. That's, that's got to get the attention of his security detail. The DOJ has described Maduro's government as a, quote, narco terror cartel responsible for sowing chaos on American streets and undermining public safety throughout the country. Just last week, the White House dramatically escalated the military pressure on the Maduro regime, deploying three Aegis guided missile destroyers carrying some 4,000 marines to the waters off the coast of Venezuela, backed by spy planes and a submarine. But Maduro, as despots and narco traffickers are want to do well. He remains defiant. The dictator ordered the deployment of more than 4 and a half million militia members around the country to assist their armed forces in response and declared that, quote, no empire will touch the sacred soil of Venezuela, end quote. Now, to be fair, I think only a dozen or so citizens actually responded to Maduro's call for mobilization of militia members. It was not an Overwhelming response by all accounts from inside Venezuela. Okay. Turning to the war in Ukraine, Director of National Intelligence the DNI Tulsi Gabbard has barred America's closest allies, reportedly from accessing US intelligence on Russia, Ukraine peace efforts. In a move that could rattle the foundations of the Five Eyes alliance. A memo dated 20 July first reported by CBS News last week slapped a no foreign label, meaning no foreign dissemination on all analysis tied to the peace talks, cutting off Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand from assessments that they've long received as part of the partnership. Now, I should point out, no foreign is a label that has been used for a very long time within the intel. Multiple U.S. officials confirmed the order, stressing that the only scraps exempted were materials already in the public domain. Even inside Washington, the directive shrank the circle, limiting distribution to the offices that produced the intelligence. To be clear, operational and military intelligence for Kyiv remains unaffected. But when it comes to US information regarding the Russia, Ukraine peace negotiations, such as they are, Gabbard has reportedly sealed it off from foreign eyes. We should note, however, that DNI spokeswoman Olivia Coleman moved quickly to push back on the account a day after the CBS News report went public, insisting that the reporting was false and saying in a post on X that quote, US intelligence sharing relationships with our allies have never been stronger, end quote. Now that is not the same as saying that the US is sharing intelligence on the peace talks with our Five Eyes partners and that the reporting is wrong. It just says the alliance is strong. Former officials warned that such a sweeping carve out, if it happened, could gut the trust that has underpinned the Five Eyes alliance for nearly eight decades. Sam Vinograd, a former Homeland Security official, said shutting out partners could have a chilling effect. If our partners believe they're being shut out, they could take similar steps or even create new structures without us, end quote. Now the truth is what actually happens within the intelligence this community is yes, we have our very closest allies and the Five Eyes alliance is very important. But is there intel that the US withholds from that alliance or that New Zealand withholds from that alliance, or the UK or Canada or Australia? And the answer over the years has always been yes. The risk, she added, is that our closest allies may start conducting their own separate conversations. Well, they do, even on issues that strike at America's core national security interests. Stephen Cash, a former CIA officer, echoed those concerns, noting the Five Eyes pact was designed to build a common intelligence picture among democracies facing adversaries like Russia. He explained, quote, among the reasons for the default is the expectation that we and the other four are all sitting on the same side of the table with some other adversary on the other side, end quote. For context, the alliance's roots trace back to a secret 1946 pact between Washington and London that was forged in the shadow of Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech and later widened to include Ottawa, Canberra and Wellington. Nearly 80 years on, some experts fear that Gabbard's directive risks dimming one of the West's most enduring lights of cooperation. But not everyone is ringing alarm bells. Ezra Cohen, a former Pentagon intelligence chief, argues that such restrictions are far from unusual. He's not wrong. He explains, quote, there's a lot of information we do not share even with our five eyes partners. And it works in reverse. Pointing to UK only and Australia only classifications, Cohen added, our interests are not always aligned. He stressed that marking intelligence no foreign is common when interests diverge. And he's not wrong. The no foreign classification again has been around for generations. The debate comes at a time, though, when the prospects for peace still appear to be low. Last week, Moscow launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian President Zelensky condemned the attacks as proof that the Kremlin remains unmoved by the recent summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin. Well, he's not wrong either. Coming up next, in the back of the brief another tragedy in Gaza. An Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in the enclave killed at least 20 people, including five journalists working for major news agencies. More on that story when we come back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, let's be honest. Most of us on occasion are often tired or, or stressed or we're dealing with some kind of physical pain, you know, the aches and pains, particularly from a good workout. So what do we do? Well, typically we power through because the last thing we want is yet another prescription, right? And let's face it, not much in that medicine cabinet ever actually works as advertised. So that's why I'm happy to tell you about this great company, CB Distillery. Now, their CBD products are helping so many people, myself included, might I add, sleep better feel more relaxed and ease everyday pain. And the best part, it's all made with premium quality natural ingredients. Now they've got a full range of solutions for stress, for sleep, for pain after exercise. Get this, even for CBD for pets, their soothing relief balm as an example is a huge customer favorite and so are their sleep products. And I going to second that on the relief balm after a tough workout. It is excellent. Excellent. It's a game changer. So if you're tired of being tired or stressed or you just want to feel better, check out CBD from CB Distillery and right now you can save 25% off your entire purchase. That's right, I said 25%. Visit CB Distillery and use promo code PDB. It's that simple. That's CB distillery.com promo code PDB again CB distillery.com specific product availability depends on individual state regulations in today's Back of the Brief in what is now among the deadliest incidents involving members of the media since Hamas started this current conflict with Israel, Jerusalem admitted that its forces struck the Nasser hospital complex twice in southern Gaza on Monday, killing five journalists and at least 20 others. According to the Palestinian Authority controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health. Israeli forces launched the back to back strikes on the Khan Yunis Hospital within minutes of each other. The so called double tap strike first tore through the facility's fourth floor and balcony before then in a second strike, hammering ambulance crews and emergency responders rushing to the scene. The balcony has been used by reporters to cover the fighting from an elevated vantage point of the city. Among those killed were journalists working for Reuters, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, the Middle East Eye, and a freelancer. Reuters Footage from the hospital posted online shows plumes of smoke curling over the medical complex as first responders carried away the dead and wounded. Hours later, the IDF conceded it had, quote, carried out a strike in the area of the hospital. An IDF spokesman acknowledged civilian casualties, including journalists, but stressed Israel was operating in what he called a, quote, extreme complex reality, end quote. Well, that's not incorrect, but of course it doesn't excuse the incident. The spokesman insisted Israel does not deliberately target civilians and has opened an inquiry into the strikes. He accused Hamas of using hospitals and other civilian infrastructure as cover for terror operations. That's, of course a confirmed practice of the Iran backed group. An Israeli security official with direct knowledge of the strike, who requested to remain anonymous, said the IDF identified what they believed was a Hamas surveillance camera on the hospital roof and authorized its destruction with a drone instead. Two tank shells were fired, first killing the journalists, then the medics. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called the deaths a quote, tragic mishap. He said Israel, quote, deeply regrets the killings and values the work of journalists and medical staff, promising a, quote, thorough investigation. President Trump, pressed by reporters in the Oval Office, said he was unaware of the incident at the time responding, quote, I didn't know. I'm not happy about it we have to end that whole nightmare. Fierce condemnation came fast. The Foreign Press association blasted the incident as, quote, among the deadliest Israeli attacks on journalists working for international media since the Gaza war began. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres weighed in, too, with his spokesman saying journalists and medical staff must be protected, quote, at all times and allowed to do their jobs, quote, without interference, intimidation or harm. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, prior to Monday's strike on the hospital, Israeli munitions had killed at least 192 journalists since the start of the war. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily brief for Tuesday, 26 August. Now if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me@pdbhirsttv.com and to listen to the show ad free. Well, it's easy. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.