The Mineral Deal Points to One Thing: China

I'm Alex Marlow, Editor-in-Chief of Breitbart News, and I'm in for Charlie as he debates Gavin Newsom today, my governor, sad to say. But it is a huge news day, so it's a great day to be in Charlie's captain chair. First of all, I go through my theory that everything Trump is doing when it comes to foreign policy and international relations is all about China.

It's a unifying doctrine. He is speaking softly and carrying a big stick in this regard, but I talk about all these maneuvers he's making and why it's all about China. Before we get into all things trade, big trade news day, John Carney is here with me. He is our economic and finance editor at Breitbart News. He's a total guru on the subject matter. He will give you all the arguments you need to debate your liberal friends on trade. And then I break down the Bridge Colby confirmation process and why it matters so much to Charlie and why it matters so much to me.

That's it. It's going to be a good show, guys. Buckle up, everybody, because here we go. Charlie, what you've done is incredible here. Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus. I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy. His spirit, his love of this country. He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives. And we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

That's why we are here. Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at Noble Gold Investments dot com. That is Noble Gold Investments dot com. It's where I buy all of my gold.

Go to Noble Gold Investments dot com. Hello, everyone. I'm Alex Marlow, editor in chief of Breitbart News.

Thanks so much to my friend Charlie, as well as producer Andrew for inviting me in today. It is a massive news day today. It's Fat Tuesday. Lent is tomorrow. Mardi Gras is tonight. The State of the Union sort of.

We don't call it that tonight as well. And tons and tons of news. I'm editor in chief of Breitbart News. If any of you are not familiar with me, if you are familiar, thanks so much for helping us at Breitbart be so big and so robust and so strong. It's all thanks to grassroots audiences like these. If I'm new to you, Breitbart is, I would say, the OG MAGA outlet for the anti-establishment media.

I guess MAGA before there was MAGA. And so we love to be the pioneers of this space and are so proud that people like Charlie, who got to start writing for us at Breitbart News, have gone on to do such amazing things. And this is a day, I think, to reflect on how far we've come as a movement.

Donald Trump is playing absolute 4D chess right now. And all of this, and this is what today is going to all be about. We have tariff wars breaking out.

We got a big speech breaking out. All of it is about China. No one understands this, but this is all about China. Let me start with what's going on with these tariffs. Tariffs are now in place on Canada and Mexico, 25% starting today. He's also raising tariffs on China by 10%. Canada has now threatened retaliatory tariffs against us, and a lot of people didn't believe that Trump would go through with it.

They didn't believe that he would actually enact these things because the Republican Party, the conservative movement for so long, has always been allergic to the idea of tariffs. We've always thought that tariffs are just going to raise prices on Americans. What they are is they're a tool used to gain leverage globally. And these nations, Mexico and Canada in particular, have not helped us keep China at bay. One of the things that's going on is fentanyl streaming into our country, starting through Mexico, but also through Canada as well. And these nations have not done a good job stopping it. Americans are dying. Americans are dying at a rate that is not sustainable.

It is hurting the soul of our people. And a lot of this is coming directly from China, and no one is seemingly willing to crack down on it. Trump is doing what he can. He's got the border enforcement going. He's got ice at the border. We're trying to shut things down, but it's not enough. He needs to convince these governments that they need to start helping us out some more. So he's putting the pressure on. A lot of people saw this as a bluff, but you can't only bluff.

You've got to be able to enact these things. And it's a basic negotiating tactic that's going on. So one thing you guys may have seen yesterday is the New York Times story announcing that all the cartels are in such disarray, they're in such dire straits, all because of Trump's crackdowns.

I'm sure that's true to some degree, but a lot of this is planted stuff to try to get Trump to back off. They want Trump to back off these tariffs. They want him to release the pressure.

They want him to be able to start going slow, to calm down. He's not doing that. The market's testing Trump today.

It's down as we're recording the show. We'll see how this goes on. But investors might be trying to control Trump. They don't want him to do this. They don't want him to actually flex America's economic might.

But that's exactly what he's going to do. You might notice throughout the day that we're going to be talking a lot about Ukraine. All of Trump's Ukraine policy, what is it all leading towards? Mineral rights. Why does Trump want these mineral rights?

Because so far in this world, it's dominated by China. China's got all these minerals, and he's trying to get these minerals from Ukraine. We thought that was a done deal, didn't we, last week? But now all of a sudden, maybe it's not.

Maybe it's not a done deal. Maybe we don't know exactly what kind of minerals are there. Russia would tell you Ukraine doesn't have that many minerals.

The EU would tell you that they have a lot. But that meltdown that Zelensky had was in the Oval Office that would go down in infamy. Something that completely blew up a deal that was a one foot pot. It was a concession layup and he couldn't get it done. Why was he freaking out? I'm wondering if it had to do those minerals.

I'm wondering if it wasn't just that he lost his fastball, which he certainly did. He didn't have to have this posture that he had in the Oval Office where he was insulting us. He was saying that war is coming to our shores.

All of that was totally unnecessary. But it was partially because he'd been dealing with Joe Biden for all these years where all he would do is get a yes. All these Democrats giving him a yes all the time. Trump doesn't like that. Trump wants to be able to hold people to account and to be able to look him in the eye and get the truth out of him.

He's not getting that from Zelensky. And I got a feeling that Trump was pretty suspicious that maybe these minerals were not exactly what Zelensky was purporting to have. So anyway, Trump is trying to get these nations on their back foot. And the point is that he is not satisfied with the way these governments are dealing with the prospect of China looming into various regions on the earth. They're encroaching in the Arctic. That's why he wants Greenland. They've encroached on Panama. That's why he wants the Panama Canal. All this is going to come out tonight. I want to break down China's relationship with Canada.

This is super important. Because when you look at Canada, Canada has had Chinese secret police in their country. They've had their level four biolab infiltrated by Chinese.

Two Chinese nationals connected the Wuhan lab and infiltrated the Chinese biolab. They have governments, businesses, institutions, political parties, trying to try to interfere in Canada's election to help Justin Trudeau win. So there's a national public inquiry into this and nothing was done about it. There is no significant regulation that's being done to curb China's infiltration into Canada. So they're in Mexico via the Fentanyl. They're in Canada via those ports. They're in Greenland, essentially, via the Arctic. They've got dominance over our minerals throughout the world.

Trump's sick of this stuff. You see this thing that's happened in Vancouver, money laundering of trying to get Chinese money into Canada to try to be able to power through and be able to get things they want. There's a strategy they have called the Vancouver model, where you bring money into a casino and then you can bring it home. They wash money through Canada.

And it's so common that they've actually named the Vancouver model. These casinos, of course, are owned by the government. So who's getting these kickbacks?

You don't know. And they want to come here in the United States. They've already been here. But at least here where we've had these secret Chinese police stations, what's ended up happening is that we've tried to investigate them, at least shut them down. Now, I can guarantee you, not everyone in the US government is happy about that. I'm sure they would love to just take the Chinese cash and move on.

But we've at least tried to deal with it to some degree. We're also looking at the Bridge Colby confirmation hearing today. He'd be the number three guy in the Pentagon. He's a guy that Charlie's really championed in a lot of the America First movement. One thing the Bridge Colby understands is the number one threat is China.

He's also a very serious technologist. He looks at the future. He looks to make sure that we've got the right technology available to counter countries like China who have us way outnumbered when it comes to populations. So this is another thing that is an affront to the American establishment that has been completely content to get rolled by China on trade and to get rolled by China when it comes to dominance in the geopolitical space.

So this is where Trump is fed up with it. And whenever you see the maneuvers Trump is making throughout the day, note whether or not these tariffs, whether or not his pressure is put in Canada and Mexico, whether or not to take it literally or to look at it as a bigger global play to counter our number one geopolitical foe, which is China. Now, a lot of good is going to come from that process. I think we're going to get a lot of favorable deals for America. We're going to reshore a lot of manufacturing in the process. We're seeing all these reports about companies building factories in the United States. We just got word that a new Honda Civic plant is going to be built in the United States. We got word that tens of billions of dollars worth of new pharmaceutical facilities are going to be built in the United States.

These are big deals. These are things that are going to generate tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions of dollars for the U.S. economy. And a lot of it's coming through because people are afraid that if Trump is seen as uncontrollable when it comes to tariffs, and you got J.D. Vance warming up in the bullpen, then they might not be looking at four years of MAGA economic policy, they might be looking at 12 years. And if that's the case, then why would they start building factories and stuff overseas in Mexico, etc., when they could build it here, and then they won't have to worry about any of that. They're not going to have to worry about if the America First team that's currently in the executive branch of the United States, whether or not they're going to make it so that it's untenable to ship in those products into our country without getting tariffed to death.

Trump has completely reset global economic trade. It's something to be congratulated. We got to stand strong today. A lot of people complaining, a lot of people whining. They don't like what they're seeing. It's a momentary thing.

It's a temporary thing. We're going to get you all the details on today's Charlie Kirk show. History, economics, the great works of literature. Did you study these things in school?

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C-H-A-R-L-I-E for hillsdale.com. Jesse Waters had a great graphic yesterday. Investments in the US under President Trump, $14 billion from Nippon Steel, Japanese company, $20 billion from Hussein, Sajwani. $500 billion over four years from Apple, $500 billion over four years from Stargate, $600 billion from Saudi Arabia, $100 billion from Taiwan Semiconductor, that's a new one. And there's more.

These will keep coming. Pharmaceutical industry again, pouring more money in to the United States, which is huge because a lot of these companies, these patents, you get something approved by the FDA. And then you've got about, I think it's about 10 years on a patent for you to get production going to make money, and then it's going to go generic and you're not gonna be able to make any more money. So it's a big gamble where these pharmaceutical companies build plants. They're now building them in the United States.

Eli Lilly just announced that they're going to be doing, I think, four new plants here. All of that is because they're in fear of Trump's tariffs. So don't freak out.

Do not panic. These are very powerful when it comes to dealing with the Chinas of the world. It's also incredibly powerful when it comes to encouraging American innovation to come back here, American jobs come back here, and the Democrats can be totally powerless against this.

One other thing I think is a huge deal when it comes to Zelensky's panic. This guy calling for security guarantees. You know what security guarantees means? It means we're going to have to go to nuclear war on behalf of Ukraine.

It's essentially what it is. It's even worse than a NATO guarantee. Now, we're never going to get a NATO guarantee. Any of you who've heard any of my content, I think most of Charlie's content, you guys understand this, that Ukraine's always wanting to get into NATO. The Democrats want them in NATO because they just love Ukraine so much. But once you're in NATO, it obliges all of us to go to war with Russia should Russia ever invade Ukraine.

Russia has always drawn that as a red line, and yet the Biden administration and much of the Democrats, even some establishment Republicans, have had that flirtation with Ukraine. Never going to happen. Trump will never allow for it. He's too smart for that. When Zelensky comes in, he starts demanding security guarantees. That means he's demanding war, but it's even worse than the NATO thing because with NATO, at least people had to pay in. Has Zelensky offered to pay in, by the way, if he does get into NATO?

No, probably not. Right? It's just the thought of it is laughable. He needs our money. So here's the thing. He wants us to defend him against nuclear Russia. We're not going to do any of that. But all this comes back to the fact that Donald Trump's policy is putting pressure on all the right people in so many different ways. We're reaping so many benefits from it. If we're going to be seeing the economic boom, it will get here. It's coming.

Just be patient. Those of you who are panicking today, I don't think any of you are, though. I think people understand the level of 40 chess Trump is playing is so much deeper than anything you're seeing from the Democrats. Democrat senators all saying the exact same thing about President Trump and Elon Musk. Do you guys think that the attacks on Musk are working?

Please email me if you've got a thought on this. Aloha to AlexMarlo.com. One thing that's so interesting about the Musk attacks is that it used to just be Trump. They would pick a target, they'd isolate it, personalize it, Saul Linsky style. Now they got Trump and Musk, two people who are kind of untouchable. Musk is world's richest man and also world's most prolific man. He's doing the full DJ Khaled routine with his kids.

Another one. I think he's up to 14 now. Is that true? Is that confirmed he's at 14?

But anyway, the point is that I'm trying to make here is that these guys are very tough to touch. Musk's popularity is very high. Trump's popularity is above water.

It's up to plus 9% in a lot of polls, the highest I've ever seen for him. And so just saying Trump, Trump, Trump like it's a swear word. Musk, Musk, Musk, like it's a swear word, trying to call Musk a Nazi.

They can't hang with this stuff. None of this is going to counter the fact that he's bringing all these manufacturing back. He's provided hope that we're going to get out of all these foreign entanglements. We're finally putting pressure on China. We're finally cracking down on illegal immigration, working to secure the border.

We're going to annex the great state of Canada, or do you think it'll be two states? All right, we got it. Let's play it. 108. Roll it, guys.

When I win, I will immediately bring prices down starting on day one. It's all the same script. It's the same script. It's all 22 Democrats. Is this as lazy as it gets?

Yes, it is. And they all think that if they just repeat a message enough, that it'll get through the American public. But don't underestimate this, because this has worked in the past. They did this with the Russian collusion hoax. They did this with the Charlottesville hoax. The find people on both sides myth that never happened. The go find me 11,000 votes, that was another lie that didn't happen. All these things, they are under the impression that if they lie the same way often enough, then enough ignorant people in the public will believe it. The good news is I feel like people have wizened up. They understand that this is all just a game. It's all a ruse to try to get Democrat politics mainstreamed into the American culture. So we still have to be on guard though, to understand don't underestimate your opponents.

It's always a mistake, but it's worth pointing out how lazy these people are, how they have no ability to think outside of some sort of a blob board like situation. That's all they got. It's not very much, but it's a little bit. So I think Trump's got them where he wants them.

We'll see what he has got tonight at the State of the Union. Making America great again starts with making America healthy again. Charlie Kirk here, I lost 40 pounds with the PhD weight loss and nutrition program. And two years later, I haven't gained a pound back. I started the PhD weight loss program because I need to be healthy to keep up with my crazy schedule. Most people start a weight loss program to get healthier. So why is big pharma spending millions to convince you to use their weight loss injections that do just the opposite? They have harmful side effects and lifelong dependency. Take a natural approach that isn't connected to a big pharma bottom line. PhD changes the way you think about food. They custom design a plan that is simple and works with your schedule. You'll learn to quiet cravings and finally release the unhealthy belly fat. You won't be hungry and you'll never take medication. Call 864-644-1900 to schedule your one-on-one consultation or visit myphdweightloss.com.

That is myphdweightloss.com, 864-644-1900. All right, guys, when I play that clip, the content of it is less relevant than I think the optics. They're all doing the same thing. They're all in lockstep. It is the point of the Democrats right now is that they're an inauthentic group of people.

They're trying to get people motivated because they're saying that you're a threat to their various groups and they act in group behavior. They don't like the American individual. Donald Trump's the quintessential American individual. Musk is another one. We're trying to elevate individuals. One of the things I think makes America special is how we empower individuals. Charlie's one of them.

It's just a total classic, a one of a kind. They don't like that. They like this group thing. Making fun of Musk, you guys know that the chainsaw was hilarious. We're taking the chainsaw to government waste.

We are. They're acting like the whole goal is tax cuts. How often does Charlie come on the show talking about tax cuts?

Is it never or rarely? I'm cool with tax cuts. I like tax cuts. It's not what we're all about anymore.

It's not what MAGA is all about. We want to cut waste because what have we been funding in the past? What was the USAID doing?

I've got a few of them in front of me. A transgender opera in Colombia. A transgender comic book in Peru.

Helping in Tajikistan, helping disabled people become climate leaders. Come on, contraceptives in Taliban controlled Afghanistan? Of course, the Taliban got some of that fun cut into for the other condoms that had to go to Mozambique. Remember that dunk on Musk in the Oval Office where they pointed out to Musk that the condoms are going to Mozambique and not to actual Gaza?

It's all crazy stuff. This is what we're cutting. And you don't get a permanent job just because you work for the government. This is the same way in the private sector, you don't get a permanent job. And there's such an outrage that if you can't write down five things you did last week that were productive, then you do not deserve a job.

I think most Americans agree with this, and you have to be lied to by a lot of people very, very often for you to get convinced otherwise. So that's the plan. That's all they got.

I don't think it's very much. All right, do we have John Carney with me? John's our economic and finance editor at Breitbart News. He is also the author of the Breitbart Business Digest, which I co-author with him, but he does the heavy lifting.

That's the open secret. John is, I believe, the single most knowledgeable person on economics. John, it's great to see you in this context. John and I speak, I would say at least once a week, either on my show, The Alex Marlow Show or on our premium membership, Breitbart Confidential at the Breitbart Fight Club. Those of you who support us over there, I really appreciate it. That's where you get an in-depth deep dive with one of my consigliere's at Breitbart News, one of my cabinet secretaries, if you will, every single day.

So those are a blast. John, we have a slightly less time than usual. We've got about 10 minutes here. I want to just start with what is happening today, what has Trump done, and what is the reaction to it, both domestically and internationally?

Sure. Today is the beginning of tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Trump announced up right after he came into office that he was going to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canada and Mexico unless they did a lot more to help at our border. They need to help on fentanyl. They need to help on illegal immigration. What he said very recently was the announcements they had made were not enough, that the time had run out, and that the tariffs were going on on March 4th today, and that there was no more room for delay at all.

Here it comes. We still don't know exactly will they be 25 percent. That's what he has said, so that's, I think, the best bet right now. But it could come in, perhaps phased in, a 10 percent tariff, maybe climbing up to 25 percent. Maybe Mexico and Canada will do something at the last minute, but I think it's too late. They had a month. The tariffs were originally supposed to go on one month ago. Trump said, I'll give you a month.

Come to me with what you have. They made some announcements about putting troops on the border. That obviously has not been enough, and so Trump is saying the tariffs are going on. There's also a 10 percent tariff that's going on on top of other tariffs on China. But really, what's happening today is a reaction to the Canada and Mexico tariffs.

They're huge trading partners. The stock market does not like this, mainly because tariffs do not really get passed through to customers. You hear that all the time, oh, it's going to raise prices. If it just raised prices, this actually wouldn't hurt the stocks of companies at all because they were just passing through and their profits would remain the same. What we're seeing is actually a confirmation of what we've been saying here at Breitbart all along, that the tariffs tend to be paid for either by the companies that are exporting into the U.S. or by the companies that are importing.

In other words, they hit corporate profits rather than the prices on the store shelves. Canada has reacted very badly to this. They've announced that they are going to put on their own tariffs. That's a foolish thing to do if you are dealing with Donald Trump.

Threatening back is not a good idea. And frankly, they have a lot more to lose in this, and they are going to back down. Mexico is trying to be more cooperative.

They've sort of led the way here. I expect that they may announce some retaliatory tariffs. But in the end, I think both Canada and Mexico realize that a 25% tariff on all of their imports, except for Canadian energy, that gets a smaller tariff, a 10% tariff, will be very, very, very bad for their economies. And I think they'll back off. I don't think we're going to see a trade war. We may see a trade battle for a few days or a few weeks, but not a trade war as people are putting it.

Well, I'm up for it. As of today, the polls show the American people are up for it. We're much more inclined to do this. Why do you think the American people have shifted and they're accepting of this and they want to see this out, at least for now?

That's kind of the general consensus poll-wise. Yeah, I think they've come to the realization that despite all of the rhetoric we heard over the past 25, 30, 40 years, frankly, about free trade, that the world trading system is nothing like free trade. Countries have much higher tariffs than we do. Countries have much bigger barriers to entry, non-tariff barriers, and that the US raising tariffs isn't the beginning of a trade war. It's actually the US responding to a trade war that's been going on for a long time, particularly with the Canadian and Mexican tariffs.

Look, we have a real problem. We had millions of people coming across our southern border. Mexico absolutely has to help us with that, and I think Americans are okay with that. They're willing to say, let's do the tariffs in order to get our border secured. That's a very big priority for the Americans.

We saw that in all the polls. Look, inflation and immigration were the two biggest issues in every poll taken of voters, and so I'm not surprised that they're saying yes, Mexico must help us or they will pay a consequence. One thing that I think a lot of people are probably wondering right now is how much this is going to affect Americans in terms of prices, because this is one of Trump's biggest tasks. He's got to get prices down or at least low inflation. Tariffs don't cause inflation, but they could cause a one-time price hike, and that's something that people are not going to have a lot of tolerance for, especially in the media. I think a lot of people at home are looking for Trump to drive down prices.

So what's the path here? I don't think we're going to see a big price increase. The Atlanta Fed just did a survey, a study, trying to determine how much prices would go up if tariffs were passed through 100 percent or even 50 percent. I frankly think actually any pass through is going to be much lower than that.

But even then, the pass through was very low. So a 10 percent tariff does not result in a 10 percent price increase. A 25 percent tariff does not result in a 25 percent price increase. It's more like a 25 percent tariff if half of that got passed through would result in something like a 0.8 percent price increase.

So it's very, very small. We're not talking about a revival of Biden inflation. We're talking about a price increase that happens perhaps once and then doesn't happen again. Remember what happened during the Biden inflation years. It wasn't just that prices went up when we came out of lockdowns.

It's that they went up and then they kept going up week after week, month after month, year after year. What do you say to people who are trying to dunk on Trump and act like he has no idea what he's doing now because the Dow is down a little bit? For me, from my vantage point, John, it seems like a win-win because we're already seeing all this evidence of people announcing massive levels of expansion into American manufacturing companies staying here because they don't want to get caught up in this trade war.

He's got a few missions here. One of them is to get fentanyl out of our country. One of them is to send a message to these overseas countries that there's a new sheriff in town and you're going to have to stop taking advantage of us.

But what are your top arguments to people who are skeptical of what we're into right now? You just said, look, we have to send the world a message that we're not kidding around about this, that the free ride they've been getting with a broken US trade policy is over. The American people voted against that. I think that's one of the reasons we're seeing these huge investments come in where companies are pledging hundreds of billions of dollars to build in the US because they know this isn't really just about Donald Trump. This is about a change in the way Americans look at global trade. If they just thought they had to get through the next three years and then Donald Trump will go away, they wouldn't be investing hundreds of billions of dollars. They realize that the situation on the ground has changed and that we're not going to put up with what we did basically throughout the Cold War and then afterwards. The global trade regime is changing. Companies are realizing this. Look, yes, stocks are down, but you cannot allow the stock market to determine all of your policies.

Why even elect a president if you're going to do that? I think in some ways, this is a very good test. If we were to back down in the face of stocks going down 1.5 percent, the NASDAQ was down 1 percent right before we went on air. That's a bad day in the market, but it's not a catastrophe. There's no way.

Right. This is not some sort of massive global recession. What are we trying to do here?

We are trying to right some of the wrongs from opening up America to the Chinese market and getting completely rolled. Private student loan debt in the United States totals about $300 billion. About $45 billion of that is labeled as distressed. Why refi refinance is distressed or defaulted private student loan debt that others will not touch? They provide you with a custom loan payment based on your ability to pay. That is why refi dot com. That is why r e f y dot com. If you are a private student loan borrower, this could be a great solution for you.

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When the payments on your distressed or defaulted private student loan is so big that you can't even get a hold of your finances. That is why refi it may not be available in all states. So check it out at why refi dot com. So I'll share with you guys why I'm in for Charlie today. Those of you who caught some of last week's shows and I'm sure you brought up yesterday as well that Charlie is heading to Gavin Newsom's podcast, which is very interesting to me as a Californian.

I live in California most of my life and I'm here now. Newsom is a true charlin. He's one of these people who acts very slick and he acts like he's very confident, knows what he's doing, but has a horrific record. He's always been this way. I've followed his career for an incredibly long period of time because of my interest in politics, over 20 years when he was kind of a junior guy in the Bay Area. He's always had this move where he could give a good speech. He acts very compassionate. He actually understands the issues, but he doesn't actually have a lot of the substance. So I'm very excited to see him debate Charlie who is an expert debater. And I have to say a lot of these freaks that Charlie's been debating on college campuses are probably tougher debaters than Newsom.

So I think Charlie's going to do incredibly well. But I hope what comes up is some of all the horrible things that Newsom has done while presiding over the state during the fires. The fire budgets were cut in my area.

We did not clear brush and then we were lied to about it. We were told that local officials need to figure out all the problems that were going on with regards to fire safety. There have been no new dams built in the state since Newsom has been in public life. No new reservoirs in the LA area. Famously, the reservoir near the Palisades Fire was completely empty for maintenance that was long overdue and had not been completed. But the thing that is most interesting to me is there's no culture of fire safety because people in California have had this approach that we're only going to prepare for the best, we're never going to prepare for the worst. And because of that, we were completely caught off guard.

And now Newsom will have some vocabulary, ingress and egress will come with all these words they learned after the fire had already devastated people's lives. And so he's just a terrible governor. And he will give you the impression he cares, he knows he's doing, doesn't. And he wants to be president. He wants to be president in four years. That's what he's doing.

That's why he's trying to influence your strategy of podcasting. And Charlie's a pro. So I can't wait to see how he does.

And we'll see very soon. All right, I brought up something earlier that is really important that this Bridge Colby confirmation that's going on right now. He was introduced by JD Vance. Vance gave a very positive and upbeat speech. Kind of the highlights were that he is a big character advocate for Colby. Colby is one of these guys where he's a conservative, and he's an America First guy. But he also was correct on things like the Iraq War, which was very important to me when I was kind of realizing that I didn't quite line up with the Republican establishment. My entire adult life, I've been a Republican. I was registered as a Republican when I was 18. And I've never not been a Republican, but it's always been very reluctant.

And part of it is because our political class, our establishment has always been so irresponsible. The Paul Ryan's of the world, the Mitt Romney's of the world, the Bush's, the Cheney's, all these people, you got the impression that they were in it for the wrong reasons, and their values were not exactly where I was at. And when very smart conservatives started to explain to me just what a quagmire and a boondoggle the Iraq and Afghanistan wars had become, how much was being wasted, and how much of the money was being misallocated in places that would enrich certain people in our consulting class, this was very informative to me.

It changed my worldview a lot. And Rich Colby is one of those guys. He's one of those guys who's understood that for a long time.

And a lot of you are in Charlie's audience, you guys are the hard cores, you know this stuff to be true. But having grown up in the George Bush era of Republican politics, we were all sold these wars. And even some of us who were 17, 18 years old, being told how important it was for America to go to Afghanistan, Iraq, and spend all this blood and treasure.

This was a guy who was a conservative who was there, who was holding up his hand and politely saying, no, that's not it. That's not what this is all about. And those are the type of guys who need to be in our Department of Defense. They're, I think, going to make it more likely, guys like Colby, guys like Hegseth, who are going to make it more likely that we're going to have a recruiting boon for this country, where we're going to be able to have some of the best and brightest because they're going to have confidence. Confidence is going to be restored. Look at it about how people talk about vaccines now.

The overselling the coronavirus vaccine made it so that there's going to be massive skepticism of even basic medical stuff that it was presumed to be true. One thing that Colby can do is he can, I think, reassure people that there are adult safe pair of hands who are involved in our major foreign policy decisions, as well as defense decisions, the way we're spending our budgets, where we're focusing on things that will hold accountable the people who have been part of this establishment permanent political bureaucratic class in Washington. We got some audio of him from his hearing. Let's play some of this.

Let's play, let's play cut 105. Let's see what that sounds like, guys. I would like to begin by expressing my deep gratitude to President Trump for nominating me for this role. I'm committed to implementing his vision of a defense and foreign policy of putting Americans interests first and of peace through strength. I'm deeply honored by the president's confidence in me. Thank you in particular to Vice President Vance for his exceptionally kind introduction and his confidence. I am profoundly honored by his support and presence here today. OK, great. We got one more.

Let's play 106, please. And my nomination comes at a time as this committee has eloquently laid out of deep peril for our country. Peace and the protection of American interests in the world cannot be assumed. There is a real risk of major war and we cannot afford to lose one. I recognize these realities in my bones. It is my great hope that we can get through the coming years peacefully with strength in ways that put us and our alliances on a stronger and more sustainable footing. If confirmed, I would do all in my power to make it so.

Yeah, it's all great stuff. And it's all the America First focus is what we want. And the peace through strength approach is what we want. And I feel like that if this has been the crucial thing that has been lacking, I think why the marrying of America First with Doge is so important because a lot of what we need to be doing as a country in order to be prepared for the next war is to make sure that the funds that we are extracting at gunpoint from taxpayers is not going in the pockets of people like the Lloyd Austin's of the world who are in a revolving door from places like Raytheon into our Defense Department, and then back presumably to some board to make a bunch of money.

That's not what it's about. It's about making sure we have the cutting edge technology, that we have the best intelligence, that we have integrity with the American people so that the money is being spent in a wise way, and that we're focusing on the things that are the true threats to us. And we have the technology updated so that we can take on not just foes from the past, but what is coming next for this country. I like these forward thinking guys, people who've had a track record of getting stuff right before the rest of us. Those are the type of people you want in the room. And so that's why people that I know, the people that I trust, are excited about this appointment. I think that's why Charlie has wrote so hard for Bridge Colby, why people like Don Jr. and others.

J.D. Vance, of course, introduced him today with, I thought, a very poignant speech. All this is good stuff.

And it shows you that America First is not just some campaign promise. This is the real deal. Thanks, everyone, for listening. If you want to support me, please subscribe to The Alex Marlow Show and head over to Breitbart.com and join our Fight Club, which is our premium membership. All that would be really terrific and a great way to support some real fighters who've been in it for a long time and creating content that hopefully you'll all enjoy. Thanks again to Charlie and Andrew and the whole crew. I love doing the show and I'll talk to you next time.