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Now let's bring in Ambassador Bill White, the U.S. Ambassador over to Belgium. Ambassador, how are things going by you? Oh my God, Brian, great to be with you. It's, I don't know, I think we've been doing this together for over 20 years.
First time you're being in Belgium. Yes, that's right. It's an incredible experience. We'd love to have you come over and do a show here about the incredible experience. Uh opportunity we had a couple of weeks ago to visit Bastonia.
Which was the Battle of the Bulge site, and we had 10 US veterans, you know, the guys I used to bring on the show with you from The Intrepid. And the youngest guy was 100 years old, Brian. And he was here talking to the young members of the 101st. There were about 5,000 people that showed up and paid tribute to these great American veterans. And it's a bond that brings America and Belgium so close as friends for all those years, right on that battlefield, is a spiritual experience, really, to be there.
And it's tied to our nations economically, culturally, historically, politically. We now have a government here, Brian Bart de Waivers, the prime minister. He was the mayor of Antwerp for 20 years. And he is as aligned as we could get of a European country with President Trump and our administration to bring us safer, stronger, more prosperous policies. And he gets the whole free, fair, reciprocal trade aspect because Belgium actually we have a trade surplus with Belgium.
We have a one hundred fifty billion dollar trade relationship with Belgium.
So we're doing really well. And I have some good news to announce. I haven't said this on any show, but I'll say to you, we've talked about this over the years with our business relationships: is that I am about. Ready to secure almost fifty billion dollars in deals for the United States from Belgium. These are companies that want to open up in New York and Georgia and West Virginia.
Yes, the investment from Belgium is significant because these are the real entrepreneurs of Europe. They want to do business in the United States. They like President Trump's policies. They wish they didn't have to pay the tariffs. Belgium actually has a trade surplus with us, so if they were not part of the EU, they wouldn't be paying any tariffs.
So all that's been rebalanced and focused, and they've baked that into their pricing, and they want to invest in America.
So now the big question with Belgium, of course the EU and the U.S. have a more favorable deal for the U.S. than it has been in the past, but the tilt has been heavily with the EU. The President says they're a competitive economic, you know, somebody we have to deal with competitively, even though we're allies. When it comes to Belgium, we think about all the money that they have from Russians, who they basically have frozen in their accounts.
Your thoughts about Belgium's reluctance to turn over some of that money over to Ukraine. They're worried about the banking system in general, where people can't feel secure about their deposits, even though Russia is obviously the aggressor in Europe and threatens peace in the region. Do you understand both sides? Yes, no, it's very interesting. It is the center of where assets were frozen.
And that nanosecond of how sovereign wealth money flows through central bank money flows through this operation here called Euroclear. Euroclear actually closes on forty five trillion dollars worth Of business a year. They do a combined global GDP every month. Through their systems.
So, if the money was to be taken out of Euroclare, it would have catastrophic consequences for Belgium. They estimated that Belgium could go bankrupt if there was liability to the nation of Belgium.
So, this other proposal. Just for somebody like me who doesn't have the international banking experience that you have, so it's Russian money that got frozen. Right? They froze in banks. And the question is, can you pull that out?
if it's Russian money. And if that money is pulled out You worry about the Belgium worry about Russian lawsuits that could destroy them? Is that what they're worried about, Russian legal action? Yes, yes. And also, other sovereign nations have expressed grave concern.
We have bankers like Jamie Diamond, Christine Lagarde, who runs the European Bank, she's declined to support this proposal. Georgia Maloney has written a proposal not to support this. But there is a better proposal on the books right now, Brian, and that is to take the headroom of the European Union's budget. This is money they have in case of emergency, break glass in case of an emergency. And they've agreed as a European Union to spend that money on supporting Ukraine.
The other piece to this too, Brian, is President Trump and Steve Witkoff You couldn't have two better dealmakers working on this deal right now to bring an end to this horrible war. President Trump has solved. At least seven of these global wars. The most difficult one, as he said, is this one. He wants the killing to stop.
And to not have that $212 billion in sovereign Russian assets here and in basically the West's control for President Trump to use in these negotiations, I think is a big mistake. He's actually voiced that. Steve Witkoff has told me that would be very dangerous. And I believe this is a better pathway forward because this gives President Trump another tool in the toolbox to bring these two to the table for peace.
So in other words, just leave the money alone, knowing that there's really two aggressive powers in the world, three, Iran, Russia, and China. And Russia obviously showing That they have not worried about any ramifications. They said that sanctions don't affect them. This got their attention, though.
So, do you think that for people who say, well, if you freeze Russian funds, that's not going to be a precedent for anything? Because you're not going to do it to France or others. They're not going to be invading other countries. Yeah, no, it's very true. And the school of thought is that Japan has about $30 billion of sovereign Russian assets.
They are following the same policy that Belgium is. During World War II, we historically seized Emperor Hirohito's money, Japan's money. We actually seized Adolf Hitler's money from Germany, and we did not take that money and use it for our own devices.
So I think this would set A pretty cataclysmic precedence of how sovereign wealth funds are moved around the world every day safely and securely. And the better proposition is to have that money sitting there for President Trump so he can use it in the negotiations to resolve this war. And also that Um Consequences for Belgium would be catastrophic, so we have to respect that. You know, Belgium is a great ally of ours. They are doing all of the right things.
They're up their NATO spending to 5%. We have an incredible trade relationship with Belgium. Our ties, because of our veterans' support here in Belgium, saving Belgium twice. World War I, World War II is a very sacred thing.
So it's good to listen to the Belgians when they're saying they're concerned about this because they are doing everything else we ask them to do. And then some. This is Ainslie Earhart. Thank you for joining me for the 52-episode podcast series, The Life of Jesus. A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort, and understanding of the greatest story ever told.
Listen and follow now at Foxnewspodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.
So do you think anti-Semitism is a problem there like it is in so many other places in Europe? Yes, it is. I actually just met with several rabbis who were very concerned after the incident in Australia. I went to one of the major temples here, Brian. These are wonderful, sweet, amazing people and families.
I met over 200 of them at a Shabbat dinner that evening. Brian and I, my husband, went and visited them. We went to the temple. We lit one of the last nights of the candle for Hanukkah together. And I'm going to Antwerp over the next couple of weeks to visit with all of the rabbis and community leaders in Belgium.
We have several problems here with the rise of anti-Semitism. It's a focus of the government, so we're working together with them, but we want to go speak to the Jewish community here in Antwerp and make sure that they know that President Trump and Secretary Rubio care about them and that America cares about them and that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism. If you're not watching, you see. The stream, but Ambassador Bill White joins us. He's a U.S.
Ambassador to Belgium. Ambassador, there's a sense, if you listen to the German leader, that the U.S. is changing its relationships with Europe. And maybe it's overdue. I think so.
For the longest time since World War II, we have been their defense. And that very few were spending even 2% when it came to NATO or others in Europe on their own defense. And Spain still won't commit to doing that. But they're trying to get the message to Japan and Germany. And I think Japan gets it: that, guys, you got to start picking up the pace with your own defense.
We can't watch your back. Whether Russia is an aggressive period or not, You know, us being your defense, we would love to spend less money on defense and put into different programs, but it's not possible. Do you understand that are the Europeans taking it in the right way, or some of them feel as though we're letting them down by changing this relationship? Yeah, I think there's an incorrect appreciation of what President Trump is saying. He loves Europe.
He cares about Europe. He wants them to be successful. You know, their GDP was equal to ours about 10 years ago. We were around a $30 trillion economy. And today, Europe's GDP is down 50%, Brian, from 10 years ago.
Germany, which was the industrialized nation in all of Europe, has a GDP less than West Virginia. And West Virginia, by the way, is Belgium's second largest trading partner.
So these are significant numbers, and they also beg the question on why is GDP down? And this is because of woke policies Compliance, regulation, rules. This is something our ambassador to the EU, Andy Puzzer, is working on successfully to try to reduce. Regulations regarding NATO. Matt Whitaker, our mutual great friend and buddy of ours, has done a great job getting all the NATO countries up to 5% with President Trump's goal of that.
Belgium is. Rising to the occasion, they just announced another billion and a half for 11 new F-35s here in Belgium.
So, yes, they understand that shared burden sharing is very important. They also understand that our focus in Asia is something that we have to deal with as a country. These are the priorities that the President just specified in the national security policy. And Europe understands that they have to take more of a responsibility for defending Europe. And I think President Trump, the greatest supporter of NATO, he's helped to raise.
This will be trillions of dollars at the end of the day that he has raised for NATO's defense of Europe.
So, lastly, real quick. How much does Europe's Economic slump has to do with their obsession with failed green technologies and an overreaction to global warming.
Well, you hit it right on the head, Brian. You should be ambassador over here coming up next because you understand these issues. I say that as a compliment more than a lot of the folks in the media look at these issues. And Europe understands now that these policies have been failed. It's tough for them to swallow the pill and admit it, but they are working on changing some of these laws.
And the rise of political powers in all of these great countries are bringing new, fresh blood to the EU, which I think will be helpful to get a lot of these. They call it simplification, Brian. This is what we call deregulation. They have to get rid of a lot of these policies so that businesses can flourish again in Europe and so that Americans can come and do business as well. A lot of companies I know have pulled out of doing business in Europe because of regulation and compliance and the cost of ESG, you know about this policy, ESG, the environmental, social, government policy, and a lot of the woke policies, those have been.
Pretty much revoked, but there's still some lingering, and that drives business away from Europe. Yeah, absolutely. They've got to go back to nuclear overreaction of what happened in Japan. Ambassador, stay safe. We're lucky to have you over there.
Ambassador Bill White. He's now with Belgium, but he's very much a foot in America. Ambassador, thanks so much. Have a great weekend. Brian, thanks so much.
Happy New Year. And you please come visit. We'd love to do the show here local and live from Bastonia with our veterans next year. Oh, that would be great. Thanks so much, Ambassador.
I appreciate it.
