BONUS POD: Trump Declares War on ‘Green New Scam’ plus Visa Freeze Targets High-Risk Countries

Summary

Podcast Summary: Verdict with Ted Cruz — BONUS POD: Trump Declares War on ‘Green New Scam’ plus Visa Freeze Targets High-Risk Countries

Date: December 4, 2025
Hosts: Sen. Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
Duration: ~16 minutes (content)
Main Theme:
Analysis and commentary on two major policy moves from the Trump White House: a rollback of automobile emissions standards (framed as targeting the “Green New Scam”) and a sweeping freeze on immigration/asylum from nineteen high-risk countries following security concerns.

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Episode Overview

In this bonus edition, Ben Ferguson hosts (Ted Cruz does not appear in the content segment, despite the show’s title) and walks listeners through two major stories out of the Trump White House. The episode focuses on:

• President Trump’s rollback of Biden-era emission standards and new initiatives aimed at lowering consumer costs, especially for automobiles.
• A sweeping freeze of immigration and asylum claims from nineteen “high-risk” countries, following a violent incident involving National Guardsmen in D.C., with a focus on national security and threats from unvetted migrants.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s “War on the Green New Scam” and Push for Affordability

[03:08–09:14]

• Affordability Moves:
  President Trump announced significant steps to “lower costs for American consumers,” especially regarding car affordability, by terminating Biden’s fuel efficiency and electric vehicle mandates.
  • Quote: “We’re officially terminating Joe Biden’s ridiculously burdensome, horrible, actually CAFE standards that imposed expensive restrictions and all sorts of problems, gave all sorts of problems to automakers.”
    — Donald Trump [04:40]
  • He claims these regulations inflated vehicle pricing by up to 25% and misrepresented consumer preferences for gasoline-powered cars.
  • “Today we’re taking one more step to kill the Green New Scam. As part of the greatest scam probably... the Green New Scam. And it’s a quest to end the gasoline powered car. This is what they wanted to do.”
    — Donald Trump [05:31]
  • Trump frames Biden’s policies as both unaffordable and un-American.
• Narrative on Grocery and Consumer Prices:
  • Discussion extends to general consumer costs (gas, groceries, basics).
  • Ben Ferguson: Emphasizes that Trump’s focus on affordability isn’t just rhetoric — it’s about “making sure the price of ground beef, energy, and basic goods and services go down.” [07:09]
• $2,000 Trump Tariff Checks:
  • Mention of possible direct payments (“tariff checks”) to Americans in the upcoming year, intended to offset inflation and rising prices.
    • Quote: “I think these $2,000 Trump tariff checks need to go out next year…maybe reduce some of the pain of the higher inflationary prices they’re seeing at the grocery store.”
      — Mark Meadows (quoted) [08:00]
  • Push for Trump’s broader theme: putting “Americans first,” cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse,” and reconsidering the national income tax.

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2. Sweeping Visa Freeze After DC Attack

[09:14–16:29]

• Policy Announcement:

  • President Trump freezes asylum and multiple immigration processes for nationals from 19 “high-risk” countries, citing security concerns after an attack on National Guardsmen.
    • List includes: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Cuba, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, among others (nine majority-Muslim nations).
  • The freeze targets all legal migration pathways for those from these countries, pending thorough security reviews and interviews.

• Justification and Critique of Previous Administration:

  • Trump administration contrasts their “no chances” approach to Biden’s which, Ferguson says, “legalized several million” migrants through “quasi-legal” pathways.
  • The freeze is described as broader than previously reported and is characterized as “unprecedented.”

• Targeted Interview and Vetting:

  • The mandate requires thorough national security and public safety review, including re-interviews, for all individuals from affected countries [14:00].
  • USCIS Statement (summarized by Ferguson):
    • “All aliens meeting these criteria undergo a thorough review process ... including a potential interview and if necessary, a re-interview to fully assess all national security and public safety threats.”

• Trump’s Remarks on Specific Nationalities:

  • Trump singles out Afghan and Somali migrants for scrutiny, claiming many arrived without proper vetting.
    • Quote: “We had a lot of them coming in on these planes... Many of these people are criminals. Many of these people are people that shouldn’t be here.”
      — Donald Trump [15:01]
  • On Somali migration in Minnesota:
    • Quote: “If you look at Somalia, they’re taking over Minnesota and they are. We got a lot of problems with the gangs, with all of the things taking place in Minnesota.”
      — Donald Trump [15:35]
  • Dismisses the possibility that “good” Afghans or Somalis would be happy about these policies, but pledges to protect American families first.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the “Green New Scam”:
  “Today we’re taking one more step to kill the green news scam. As part of the greatest scam probably... the green news scam. And it’s a quest to end the gasoline powered car.”
  — Donald Trump [05:31]

• On Direct Payments:
  “I think these $2,000 Trump tariff checks need to go out next year...maybe reduce some of the pain of the higher inflationary prices they’re seeing at the grocery store.”
  — Mark Meadows (quoted by Ben Ferguson) [08:00]

• Defensive of Vetting Freeze:
  “We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake.”
  — USCIS statement, quoted by Ben Ferguson [12:00]

• Blunt on Migration Policy:
  “If you look at Somalia, they’re taking over Minnesota... We have an incompetent governor. Dope. We have a dope governor...a lot of problems with the gangs.”
  — Donald Trump [15:35]

• On Unvetted Admissions:
  “Whoever the strongest people were physically, in a way, but whoever the strongest they got on the planes. There was no check in. They just swamped the planes. They took off. We had no idea who they were.”
  — Donald Trump [16:05]

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Important Timestamps

• 02:38 – Trump on Somali immigrants & Ilhan Omar
• 03:08 – Ben Ferguson introduces cost-lowering initiatives
• 04:40 – Trump details automobile standard rollback
• 05:31 – “Green New Scam” rhetoric
• 08:00 – Mark Meadows on $2,000 checks
• 09:14 – Ben transitions to immigration crackdown
• 12:00 – USCIS memo outlined
• 15:01 – Trump on Afghan migrants, vetting failures
• 15:35 – Trump on Somali migration, Minnesota
• 16:17 – Ferguson sums up Trump’s pledge for safety

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Tone and Delivery

The tone is combative, unapologetic, and closely aligned with Trump-era populism. Ben Ferguson provides breathless, supportive commentary echoing White House messaging. Trump’s own soundbites are direct, often inflammatory, and make pointed accusations (“greatest scam,” use of “dope” to refer to governor).

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Conclusion

This episode encapsulates the current Trump administration’s focus on rolling back environmental regulations for the sake of consumer “affordability” and adds a hardline, security-first approach to immigration, using high-profile attacks as catalysts for stricter controls. The rhetoric is campaign-style, combative, and built around direct contrasts with Biden-era policies, with memorable verbal jabs from Trump and strong support from Ferguson throughout.

Listeners are left with the administration’s promise to ease economic pain with both regulatory changes and possible direct payments, while simultaneously tightening the nation’s borders in the name of security.

Transcript

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[Ben Ferguson]

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[Donald Trump]

These Somalians have taken billions of dollars out of our country. They've taken billions and billions of dollars. They have a representative, Ilhan Omar, who they say married her brother. It's a fraud. She tries to deny it now, but you can't really deny it because, you know, it just happened. She shouldn't be allowed to be a congresswoman and I'm sure people are looking and she should be thrown the hell out of our country.

[Ben Ferguson]

You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.

Good Thursday morning. It's nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update. And we've got two major stories for you coming out of the White House. First up, the White House announces that the Trump administration is taking historic action to lower costs for American consumers, including what you're paying for automobiles. We'll have the list for you and what it means to your bottom line in just a moment. Also, in a major announcement, Trump freezing all immigration asylum applications from 19 high risk nations. Why? After the attack on the national guardsmen in Washington, D.C. the president said he had no choice. And we'll give you those countries and what it means as well. It's the 47 Morning Update and it starts right now. President Donald Trump talking about affordability and saying that his administration is taking major action to lower costs for American consumers and make buying a car much more affordable. How is he doing that? By lowering gas emission standards. This on top of the fact he's lowering the price of gasoline and the price of goods and services and the price of eggs and bread and butter and milk. The list is actually getting pretty long. This is making the Democrats go crazy. And the president made it clear from the Oval Office today that he's just getting started when it comes to the issue of affordability. Here's part of what the president had to say today.

[Donald Trump]

My administration is taking historic action to lower costs for American consumers, protect American auto jobs and make buying a car much more affordable for countless American families and also safer. We're officially terminating Joe Biden's ridiculously burdensome, horrible, actually CAFE standards that imposed expensive restrictions and all sorts of problems, gave all sorts of problems to automakers. And we're not only talking about here, we're talking about outside of our country because nobody could do it. Nobody wanted to do it. And it was ridiculous. Very expensive. It put tremendous upward pressure on car prices combined with the insane electric vehicle mandate. Biden's burdensome regulations helped cause the price of cars to Soar more than 25%. And in one case, they went up 18% in one year. Today we're taking one more step to kill the green news scam. As part of the greatest scam probably. Well, other than Russia, Russia, Russia and a few others, I could name the greatest scam in American history. The green news scam. And it's a quest to end the gasoline powered car. This is what they wanted to do, even though we have more gasoline than any other country by far and people want the gasoline car. They want everything. They want electric, they want any, they want to have lots of alternatives. But they do want the gasoline car. Right now it's leading away by a lot. The, the car business is a very interesting business, but we want to keep it that way.

[Ben Ferguson]

One of the most interesting things about what the President said at the White House is he is looking at all areas and trying to find ways to, to help Americans. Affordability is the number one priority of this administration. Which brings us to Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff was asked today about what he believes is the timing of the $2,000 Trump tariff checks and when they could go out. Take a listen to what he had to say about that big victory as well.

[Donald Trump]

Says affordability. That's the top thing. But listen to what President Trump said about affordability yesterday. And you know, there's this fake narrative that the Democrats talk about affordability. They just say the word. It doesn't mean anything to anybody. You just say it. So which is it?

[Trainer Games Commentator]

Yeah. So I would probably tend to be more with president here than, than Congressman elect.

[Donald Trump]

That's a wise choice.

[Trainer Games Commentator]

Here's the reason, but here's the reason why is is this is not about affordability as much as it is about getting the prices of groceries down, the price of energy down. When we start looking at that, affordability is an abstract term that's very difficult. What do we need to do? We need to make sure the price of ground beef goes down. We need to make sure that the average man or woman going into the grocery store and purchasing is actually seeing the price of those things go down. I can tell you the President and Kevin Hassett and others are laser focused on that. But I think the other thing that should be coming out that actually will make things, if you want to use the word affordable, I think the Trump checks, I'm in favor of that. As a conservative member, some of my colleagues and friends are not for that, but I think these $2,000 Trump tariff checks need to go out next year. That will be, that will be something that actually others can spend the money and maybe reduce some of the pain of the higher inflationary prices they're seeing at the grocery store.

[Ben Ferguson]

So even Mark Meadows saying, I think the $2,000 Trump tariff checks will go out next year. Which brings us to the president's total goal. Whether it's gas, whether it's grocery prices, whether it's car prices, whether it's the cost of basic goods and services. The president wants you to feel like you're in control and winning in America's economy. He also mentioned as well that he wants to get rid of the income tax and the tariffs are helping us move towards that. And then there's the issue of the national debt, which the White House also says they're looking to help tackle that issue as well, which goes back to what President Trump ran on, putting Americans first and cutting out waste, fraud and abuse. And now we're witnessing just how successful the president is starting to become on a major issue.

Now, story number two, President Donald Trump.

Also promised Americans when he was running for election that he was going to keep you safe, that he was going to secure the border and he was going to make sure that we didn't have terrorists coming into this country across that open border. Many that came across, many that we're concerned about now, including sleeper cells. And we have seen some of these recent attacks on National Guardsmen, on ICE members. And the president is now saying it is time for us to take a look at why we're letting in so many people from so many parts around the world where we know they're a hotbed for terrorism. Which brings us to this. President Donald Trump's deputies have now shut down the legal migration pathways for people from 19 countries, pending the completion of security checks and interviews. The Trump administration is making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best. That coming from the U.S. citizenship and Immigration Services Agency, which went on to add this. We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake. The Trump administration is reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to aliens from countries of concern. Now, the freeze is unprecedented, is what a former agency official said to CBS News. The new guidance indicates that the immigration crackdown directed by Donald Trump following last week's shooting of the National Guard members is much broader in scope than previously reported. The policy is a huge shift from Joe Biden's presidency as well as which sought to legalize several million wage cutting, rent spiking illegal immigrants. Biden's deputies and judges pushed their migrants through many quasi legal pathways, including friendly asylum reviews, deportation freezes and the award of temporary protected Status and humanitarian parole like it was candy on Halloween. The Trump shutdown is now freezing asylum claims for all who want to avoid deportation as well. It also shuts down paperwork proceedings, green card approvals and naturalization ceremonies from people from 19 high risk national populations who entered the United States under President Joe Biden's watch, clearly many of them unvetted. The freeze also applies to migrants from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Ecuadorial, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Cuba, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, to name a few. Nine of the countries are predominantly Muslim. Most of the countries are small and backward, but four of them Afghanistan, Venezuela, Iran and Somalia have large populations in the United States. Kristi Noem, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has hinted the list may be expanded and at least one report says 10 additional countries may be added very soon now the policy is not a complete shutdown despite much demand for a total freeze. The shutdown policy does not include migrants from Mexican and Central American countries, which together account for a large share of recent migrants. It also exempts migrants from India, which has had a huge population of 5 million legal, illegal and quasi legal migrants via complex networks of companies into white collar jobs, trucking jobs and hotel related jobs sought by Americans throughout the United States. The U.S. cIS announced the policy on Tuesday afternoon via a memo to staff saying this memorandum mandates that all aliens meeting these criteria undergo a thorough review process including a potential interview and if necessary, a re interview to fully assess all national security and public safety threats along with any other related grounds of inadmissibility or ineligibility. Their letter also said that the individual should go by a case by case review. An assessment will be done of all relevant information and facts. The USCIS will also conduct a comprehensive review of all relevant policies, procedures and operational guidance for compliance and accuracy and needed improvements during this time. The guidance outlines the adjudicated hold procedure, requirements and processes for the review. The interview or re interview of affected aliens. The USCIS personnel are instructed to prioritize national security and public safety concerns and ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations during the adjudication process. All findings must be documented in accordance with established protocols to support any subsequent determinations or actions. President making it clear as he was also asked about this at the White House today and here's what he had to say You've made changes for Afghanis ability to apply for asylum. Do you blame all Afghans for this one man?

[Donald Trump]

No, but we've had a lot of problems with Afghans because they had a lot of them coming in on these planes. Again, I show you this picture. We had a lot of them coming in on these planes that are, look at them. There was no checking. They just poured into the plane. And many of these people are criminals. Many of these people are people that shouldn't be here. And many of them have been gotten out. I mean, we've gotten out some. A lot of the people that, you know, we've taken a lot of them out of here, but they came in. Yeah, I know this deal. Sorry. Many are wonderful.

[Ben Ferguson]

Yeah, I'm sure I said many are here legally though. What should they think in terms of their.

[Donald Trump]

Well, they can't be happy. Okay. They can't be happy because what's taking place between that. If you look at Somalia, they're taking over Minnesota and they are. We got a lot of problems with the gangs, with all of the things taking place in Minnesota. We have an incompetent governor. Dope. We have a dope governor. They can't be happy about what's going on. And if you talk about the Afghans, you know there's a problem because so many bad ones came in on the planes. They just walked in. Whoever the strongest people were physically, in a way, but whoever the strongest they got on the planes. There was no check in. They just swamped the planes. They took off. We had no idea who the. Who they were.

[Ben Ferguson]

So think about what the President just said there. He had no idea who they were. But what the President is guaranteeing you now is they're going to do everything they can to make sure they find out who they are and keep you and your family safe.

Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit. Subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast and we will see you back here tomorrow.

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