Ted Cruz: Trump's First Week, Texas vs. California, Immigration, DOGE, Greenland

[Music] hey everybody welcome back to the all-in podcast we're here at the inauguration of our 47th president Donald J Trump and we have a very special guest joining us on our coverage Senator Ted Cruz from the great state now my great state of Texas welcome to the all-in podcast and welcome to Texas it's pretty great uh where'd you get the boots uh any chance I can get a recommendation here a refer that's easy these are lucazi uh the factory is in El Paso they're handmade there they're beautiful okay uh and and these particular Boots the front of them have the Senate seal on on them

oh that's cool oh that's strong that's um and the back of them that's really great have the come and take it flag whoa which I don't know do you know the history of the come and take it flag I was about to ask you okay since you're a new Texan this is important and he started saying y'all so he's adapting but he needs to learn y'all got to stop giving me a hard time about that okay all right so Texas in the 18 20s and 1830s we were part of Mexico and the dictator of Mexico was General Santa Ana and there's a little town in South Texas called the town of Gonzalez and then General Anna sent an order to the texians which is what we were called

back then texians to hand over their guns and there was a cannon that guarded the city and General San Ana said hand over the cannon and the texians responded by making a flag with an image of the cannon and underneath it the Legend come and take it wow and and they flew it over the town and that was the beginning of the Texas Revolution now the epilogue is San Ana came in with about 6,000 soldiers and he did in fact take the cannon I mean Gonzalez was a tiny little town and the Texas Revolution was very much like the American Revolution we lost every damn battle the Alamo was a Slaughter golad was a Slaughter much like Washington where every battle he

lost and lost and lost and then at San Joo we won defeated Santa Ana General Sam Houston and we became our own Nation the Republic of Texas from 1836 to 1845 says something about resiliency doesn't it it does let me ask you a question um having lived in New York and grown up there now and then done 20 years uh in California now my second year in Texas or starting my second year um it's amazing to me that you're allowed to build things in Texas like homes or factories and the price of home hes has gone down two years in a row and then the other two places I live the price of homes go up every year 10 20% um and then you don't have state taxes um how is all this possible when

you look at it just from first principles how are you able to accomplish so much development in Texas when in California the nimbyism like literally if you want to build yeah it's a great question a cancer W for children they'll stop you because it throws shade on a protected species of flower so California used to know the answer to this 50 years ago California was the economic engine of the country and unfortunately you're cursed by idiot politicians who were destroying this this Mighty economic engine you know none of this is rocket science in in Texas we believe in Freedom we believe in low taxes and low regulations and and to understand the

state Texas was basically founded by a bunch of wildcats who were guys with fourth grade educ a that began drilling holes in the ground and one after the other became the richest man on Earth yeah and and the ethos of Texas you know it was interesting number of years ago I was visiting with with a CEO and an executive team of a company that had moved from California to Texas and they didn't have any Texas ties but they were just fed up with California they moved to Texas so I was asking them they only been in Texas for a couple of months I said all right what's the biggest difference and I thought maybe they'd

say taxes or maybe regulations or maybe lawsuits those were the three things I was going to guess their answer blew me away they said the biggest difference is the culture and what they said is in California if you're in business you're a pariah they said look there's an exception for Tech and an exception for Hollywood if I need more yeah well I mean that was their view but they were not in Tech or Hollywood they they were in sanitation which was not a sexy business mhm and and the way they described it they said if you're at a party and someone asked what do you do and you say I'm a businessman they said people to turn around and walk away and I got to say as a Texan that is

weird I mean we lionize entrepreneurs but California was a pioneering State the Gold Rush what happened because it's you know it's always easy to blame idiot politicians but in a democracy those politicians are elected by the voters so the something where did the voters go that caused this change in that state compared to where the voters went in Texas when they both came from and all of America all the United States all the the states of the Republic came from a a pioneering origin well there is a cause and a fact and you go back to 1987 and 1987 is when Ronald Reagan signed amnesty into place and at the time there were 3 million illegal immigrants living

in the United States and Congress went to the American people said all right we got a deal for you we're going to secure the Border we're going to fix the problem of illegal immigration forever and in exchange we're going to give amnesty to the 3 million people who are here illegally now right and in ' 87 the American people said okay that sounds like a reasonable deal they took the deal MH now we now know what happened which is the amnesty happened but the Border never got secured what did that mean for California the highest concentration of illegal immigrants was in California 1988 California voted Republican the

presidential race as it had for six consecutive years six consecutive Cycles previously right 1988 was the last year California ever went Republican well Schwarzenegger for president oh for president in in the presidential race and so I think the amnesty law played a significant part the federal law changing the voting composition of the state yeah and then and look you guys would know the state politics more but it also seemed to me that you have the public employee unions in California that realized that they could vote themselves more and more of of the large s of democracy right and it um so Jason brought up a really important question to kick this off um I just want to give

you a chance to maybe expand on it which is there are so many examples Texas is one um you can look abroad the UAE as as an example is another where there's a high degree of quality of infrastructure and Y you know civility Social Services education security um but you don't have the traditional taxation right and so how is Texas able to actually keep the wheels on and States like California which has you know $322 billion budget is just completely falling apart how like what is what what happens because you then see everything at the federal level but when you go back to your state you see hey we don't have and and your real estate taxes aren't that much higher are

they than California yeah the real estate taxes are a little bit higher but we have no income tax so it more more than makes up for it yeah yeah 2% one and a half to that's the principal Avenue of Taxation you got real estate taxes and sales taxes or or where the state and and local governments get their taxes uh but no income tax look some of it is government does less uh I mean there's a philosophy that government doesn't have to spend and provide everything government does police and firefighters and Roads and does the basic responsibilities of government right but it's not not engaged in funding every pet project of every politician right

um that's part of it you know you look at across the country I mean it is not a complicated migration pattern that people are fleeing bright blue states with high taxes and high regulations yeah and they are coming to Red states with low taxes and low regulations any safety so we've had it has now been more than a DEC that we have had over a thousand people a day moving to Texas so when I was first elected 13 years ago we had 26 million Texans today we have over 31 million Texans so we've added 5 million Texans in 13 years and and the biggest state folks come from is California it's interesting the migration pattern you

get a lot of California to Texas New Yorkers tend to go to Florida more we get some New Yorkers but but for whatever reason West Coast folks seem to prefer Texas and East Coast folks seem to prefer Florida but I actually think the competition in terms of where we lose people to we lose people either to Florida or Tennessee those are about the only two places if someone's thinking of leaving and I love that competition I want Florida and Tennessee to be out fighting and saying we can create an even better environment for small businesses and jobs and and part of it is the number one reason people come to

Texas is Texas where the jobs are and you want an environment where you have small businesses are doing great but people also want to be safe and and so you know you look at things like like defunding the police or Soros prosecutors that let murderers go yep and that gives people a pretty acute incentive to get the heck out we uh were involved in the recall of Chess budine our podcast and David Sachs our compatriot who couldn't make it um he's he's busy working uh with you guys here um but yeah this this crime issue seems people have seemed to Lost uh they seem to have lost a script on who the state is working for the taxpayers or the criminals and in Texas it it's just

extraordinary that you've figured out that you could prioritize the people not committing crime and not cater to the people committing crime I mean I'm saying this in the most factious way possible but it's just common sense and I think it it feels to me like Californians have had enough and it's just going to take a decade or two to unwind it but let's let's double click on immigration since the the great state of Texas has to deal with this than anybody but this is a land of immigrants we are all immigrants on this land and so that's our tradition in fact you're sitting next to two extraordinary immigrants my my Bes chamat and freeberg what do you believe at this point in

time is America for the Americans are here or do you believe we should be getting the best and brightest to come to this country look absolutely both um I have for a long time describe my immigration views in in four words legal good illegal bat okay um I think most Americans most Texans agree with that and most immigrants yeah look there's a right way to come to this country there's the way you came to this country there's the way my dad came to this country my dad was born in Cuba he grew up in Cuba he fought in the Cuban Revolution when he was a teenager he fought was thrown in prison he was tortured when he was 17 years old and he came to Texas in 1957 he he was 18

couldn't speak English had $100 in his underwear and he washed dishes making 50 cents an hour but he came legally because he had applied to the University of Texas he'd gotten in he came on a student visa and he was an 18e old freshman and he started going to school here and he came legally and he worked and and got a job and went on in time to start a small business and and work was he able to see your success is he still with us he is my dad is 85 oh my God what a dream for him he he is my hero it is he he's an incredible he I will say when you have lost freedom it's personal to you yeah you know people ask sometimes you know why why do you do

politics and and I grew up as a kid I would sit on the floor along with my cousin BBE with my dad and and bib's Mom my theonia and she also she was also imprisoned and tortured in Cuba and we would sit and sit and listen to them tell stories yeah and all I ever wanted to do from when I was three four five years old was was be a freedom fighter I mean it was it's inspiring because what they said and still say and they're both still going strong is is look if the only thing that prevents us from tyranny is having good people in office who will fight for our freedoms and so I

got to tell you today I I literally jump out of bed every day because I I look at the US Senate and I think it is basically the Roman Coliseum and and you strap on some armor and you grab a battle ax and and you go fight the Barb Varan and and that is that that's an amazing opportunity I I feel blessed and fortunate every day you are in Arena do you think it's become we were talking with ro cona congressman from California earlier uh today and we talked about how there might be good policy put forth by one of the two parties but the other party's intention is always to get more seats get more attention get more votes

and hurt the other party so we end up having conflict over policy do you feel like there's too much of that in DC and a lot of people talk about the you know everything has become too politicized as opposed to you know I always think about the show I love the show the westwing and he always talks about the great debate you know like we never have the great debate anymore we don't talk about the fundamental you know policy decisions we talk about the Republicans said this and so and so it gets personal and it gets political as opposed to like let's all take our hats off and talk about what's the right thing for the

country Doge being a great example in my opinion but I'd love to hear your point of view on how things operate in DC today well well listen I I agree with your point at the outset which is that we need to talk to each other um I worry that we are too polarized and and tribalize that the left only listens to left-wing media the right listens to right-wing media anyone who disagrees you scream at them uh the the sense of community and and that we used to have has been badly badly unraveled you know on social media if someone agrees with you you unfriend them and and we're all in this little Echo chain but we're all Patriots

is the sad part all Americans all Americans but we're we're living in alternate realities and and so look what y'all are doing is really important I'm grateful for this podcast we got to talk to each other um I do a podcast every week called verdict with Ted Cruz we've got about a million unique listeners that listen to the verdict podcast and we do it Monday Wednesday and Friday every week my podcast is beating CNN yeah it's incredible and I think the reason is the same reason people listen to you guys because you're actually talking about issues and you're not just screaming at each other you know it's it's not Jerry Springer go grab a a

chair and fling it at somebody but it's have a real and substantive conversation and I'll tell you one of the things that I've done and enjoyed is I've taken the podcast on the road to college campuses and so couple what has that been like well for example we did one at at Yale a couple years ago and had about 700 students come out and I know how the reaction would be and interestingly enough about a third of the students were left of center and and and I know that because it was right after kataji Brown Jackson was confirmed and I made a reference to that and about a third of

the room began cheering and and I stopped and I said hey look the fact that you're cheering at that shows that obviously we're coming from different places on the political Spectrum I said I want to thank you especially for coming here uh because you may not agree with me on on everything or even most things yeah but but thank you for coming and being part of a conversation and so we did it's about 90 minutes of all Q&A and and we had a rule we said if if you have a hostile question if you have an antagonistic question come to the front of the line and we spent 90 minutes having a real conversation afterwards I I went out with an orthodox Rabbi on campus and and we got a drink and he

said he said Ted you know I've been working on Yale's campus for decades he said this is the biggest group of students I've seen have a positive civil constructive conversation on conservative ideas he said in 20 years there's something about the podcast format where you're taking a little bit of time you're not rushed in six or seven minutes like you are on the weekly shows where I see you all the time uh and and that's sparring yeah and you're just trying to get a message out in three minutes five minutes but here you know you can open it up maybe listen to each other invite guests in with

different opinions learn something uh with the specifically the immigration issue which seems to be the one that's tearing us apart a whole bunch there's so much consensus hey we we want the board to close we want it legal but we also want to bring in a certain number of people and we want a system and uh you know I did my research on this and places that have consensus like Canada uh Japan Australia New Zealand just they they seem to understand that you need to match immigration to the reality of unemployment and which jobs you need but the one criticism I have of politicians which I think you're one of um sadly iest charge yeah is you you you all don't talk about it in numbers we need

this many nurses we need this many doctors we need this many construction people we have 4% unemployment record great job uh to our politicians and helping that out um you know we can bring in two million people this year hey if it goes up to 5% we're going to bring in 1.5 I I wish that the discussion could be more granular and with numbers and you guys could actually say it's not 500 it's 450 because if we were in a business decision here and we do business together and we say hey we have to deploy these resources to get this outcome but it's so contentious and polarized and not fact and number based

why is that on this issue that you guys can't just put some numbers on paper so well look there there are a lot of numbers that matter intensely let's start at one where you talked about low unemployment as you know that number can be deceptive because we also have among the lowest labor force participation we've ever had 62% right now and so there are millions that have just dropped out of the labor force altogether they're not measuring in in Topline unemployment but it's still a real challenge we have healthy young adults who should be working and who are not working why aren't they in your mind is it because they have the resources to

not do that um look I think it and I think it varies state by state but I think when you have a welfare state where you get paid for not working it's bad incentive people end up not working and the statistics are really crushing that if anyone doesn't work for a year the odds of their going back to the workforce drop precipitously that once someone gets the habit of dependency I I've said a bunch of times you know I I try to think of of every policy from the perspective of easing the means of ascent up the economic ladder and I think about you know my dad when when he was a teenage kid in Austin washing dishes thank God some well-meaning liberal didn't come to him and and say

Rafael let me take care of you right totally just stay home let me send you a government check don't work so hard at and and it's utterly destructive it it breaks your your self-respect your individual responsibility but it comes from an empathetic Place Center Senator so and and and I know this like in you know in kind of a a liberal setting you see people in need you want to help them and you use government as a tool to help people in need and the fundamental issue is that in many cases that creates an incentive model that makes it very difficult for that solution for that situation to find a solution on its own a market solution and over time it gets

bigger and bigger and bigger and you have cascading effects that I believe we're now realizing in this country with what I estimated somewhere between 40 to 50% of people that are employed in this country employed by government or government um service providers and you're right that much of it is not from ill will and and and but we do need to have a real conversation about what works to lift people into prosperity and and by the way all of us know this in our own life if if your kid let's say you have a kindergarten who's struggling with math there's not a one of us who would do our kids math homework y we know that's not helping them that that

if your daughter doesn't learn to do arithmetic it's going to hurt her for the rest of her life so you've got to work through that problem with her even if itd be easier for you just to finish it for right we know that in our lives um you know the old adage of give a man a fish you feed him for a day teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime right we know that with people we love but yet when it comes to public public policy you have a lot of people who don't think about it more broadly I'll say back in 2017 I I did three different CNN Town Hall debates with Bernie Sanders and listen I like Bernie because he is an Unapologetic socialist yeah and I'm an

apologetic capitalist and we had 90-minute Town Hall debates on on which system was better for maximizing human prosperity and abundance yep and we didn't insult each other neither of us called each other a son of a [ __ ] we talked about the facts and and and I'll point out something let's take socialized medicine it's interesting the as The Advocates of socialized medicine when I pointed out all of the problems socialized medicine produces in every country in which it's been implemented the United Kingdom Canada Bernie's answer was well it wouldn't be that way here so the reality

would not be here every year about 50,000 Canadians come to America on what they call medical tourism because they can't get the medical care they need in Canada and I will suggest to you a question particularly for those of y'all that are are Californians that I love asking Advocates of socialized medicine why didn't California adopt it right you've got a Democrat Governor you've got a Democrat super majority legislature there's no constitutional impediment California could adopt socialized medicine today yep right it's not the mean old Republicans that are stopping them and as you know the legislature looked at it and realized it

would bankrupt them by the way Vermont Bernie's home state they could adopt it and the reason you don't see California or New York or Illinois or Vermont or any blue state in America adopt socialized medicine it wouldn't work doesn't work it wouldn't work and people would flee their state and so their answer is we want to do it to everyone in the entire country so you can't flee unless you're willing to leave America you're stuck and I think what's challenging Senator is that then you have compromises that get you to a point where the federal government has a big enough role in healthcare my opinion is much of the inflation in healthare costs

arises from the federal government's role in the same way that the federal government has a role in student loans that has driven up the cost of education and the federal government has a role in providing loans for housing has also driven up the cost of housing educ education across the board dists the free market but the empathetic solution is we need to provide access to those who can't get it and then at the end of the day it inflates the cost of all of those services and ultimately the quality of the services the roads and I'll give you the anecdote real quick yeah my brother lives in England they just had a child he and his partner and

went to the delivery room and they couldn't get a bed for lab she was in labor they could not get a bed to have the baby I think it took them 36 to 72 hours to actually get into a bed while she was in labor it was the most insane he's calling me he can't get a bed it was I'm like you're living in the fraking UK this is supposed to be one of the wealthiest Nations on Earth that's the outcome of socialized medicine and along the way you get the inflationary effects that we're dealing with in the United States today I'm with you on sorry let's uh you're the quarterback okay quarterback the next two weeks of the Trump Administration well on Monday we're

going to see a flurry of executive orders I think it'll be in the neighborhood 100 executive orders I'm optimistic about them that's the number they're talking about wow it it it's going to be in that neighborhood shocking off and I actually I'm I'm pretty happy about that now look will I agree with all 100 I don't know my guess is I'll agree with the vast majority of them but I don't know everything that's in there so we'll see and in some ways it'll just make it almost impossible for the Democrats to react because where do you focus yes and and and Jamal that's actually a point you know I think back to so my wife Heidi and I met on the

2000 George W Bush campaign and and so we both served uh as young people in the Bush Administration and and I I think there is a Quantum of outrage and I call it the arsonic Quantum of outrage if you remember the beginning of bush 43 one of the first things he did is his EPA revoked a rule on arsenic and for like 6 weeks the media saturated the airwaves with the evil Republicans want to poison our children with Arsenic and I mean it was it dominated forever and they beat The Living Daylights out of him for it now look Monday when you get a 100 executive orders I think that's how much outrage there ish and that arsonic Quantum of outrage

will be directed at everything smeared which makes it very hard for them to oppose anything coherently and directly and gives an opportunity I hope for this Administration what I'd like to see is really delivering on the Mandate of this election the outcomes in November let's ask that what were yeah what were the if you had to distill what are your specific takeaways as the Mandate in priority so number one secure the border and I believe that'll start on January 20th it will start by ending Catch and Release so that when people are apprehended they are detained and they're sent back to where they came

from yeah um I think that will be followed up by going and arresting criminal illegal aliens going and arresting murderers and rapists and child molesters and G and gang bangers I think all of that will roll out very very fast I think there is also a mandate to end the federal government's war on energy on Texas oil and gas um and that will lower prices at the gas pump at the grocery store every Bill people are paying and I think if you look at the top two issues in this election uh it it was illegal immigration and safety and it was inflation in the economy I think we will also see a lessening of the job killing

regulations on small businesses a return to thriving booming economic growth what would those be look there are a host of them energy is is is the easy example where where the the Biden administrations put in over 90 different regulations and executive orders all designed to drive up the cost of energy right so the input gets higher and everybody suffers got it and so I expect I expect pretty much all of those to be reversed hydrocarbon and then subsidies for quote green energy look I I think on energy we ought to pursue all of the above uh beyond that I think I think there is also a mandate on the economic side the 2017

Trump tax cuts are expiring this year we're going to extend them my hope is we make them bigger and Bolder that's going to take some time we'll do that through What's called the reconciliation process and then on on foreign policy I think under Biden we have abandoned and alienated our friends and we've shown weakness and appeasement to our enemies I think that will stop right on Monday as well Senator you just said five things but what you didn't say was Doge so cutting taxes there's an inflation problem there's no way you're cutting taxes and not cutting government

spending and not tampering inflation down don't we have to cut federal spending how important is Doge how real is it is it a marketing gimmick from your point of view how much can actually be done is it a real you know is is this kind of require legislative Authority and it's going to be a longer form process or is there going to be a lot of very quick action so and I'm happy to answer that directly let me just say one thing you just said there um with respect is incorrect yes you said there's no way we're cutting taxes and not cutting spending and having inflation stay down and I just saying that's objectively false because that's exactly what happened in the first Trump

term which is the 2017 tax cuts CBO had these apocalyptic projection y about you're saying tax revenue grow went up as the as the economy grow tax revenue went up every single year after we cut the taxes the revenue from the federal government went up so we cut taxes sadly we did not cut spending yeah um I tried mightily to cut spending but we did not have the votes to do it and inflation still stayed down so the econom is booming yeah you can turn things around look Doge but is there a deficit mandate so I am excited about Doge um Elon is a good friend I admire the hell out of him

I'm thrilled that he's a Texan um you know I've joked with Elon that that that he doesn't just think outside the box he doesn't know there is a damn box that that's a great thing um now Elon calls me periodically going what all right what the hell is this government thing how does this work this way and I'm I'm trying to give whatever guidance I can on that but I think how you deal with uh a disruptor uh in government is going to be an interesting challenge VC is is very smart very creative I will say a couple of challenges right now look I'm excited about Doge I want to see some big bold

creative ideas I'm going to give you two warning signs number one the phrase waste Fraud and Abuse MH anytime someone talks about waste Fraud and Abuse they don't really want to cut government spending you know why because there is no waste Fraud and Abuse caucus there's no one that says I'm for the waste so it's the easy place to go we'll cut the waste if you actually cut real government spending there is always always always a constituency who's pissed off who likes the thing they're getting totally and so you have lots of politicians who say they're going to lose they're going to

lose their votes right somebody will be matad that's right and and so that is a challenge I will say secondly at least in the first term Donald Trump did not campaign as a small government conservative and he did not govern as a small government conservative and in fact I I will relay a story at at the end of the first term you remember we're in covid and and the government is in the business of sending out checks and more checks and more checks to people all over the country andum TR wanted the checks to be even bigger and a lot of the folks in the White House they asked me they said Ted can can you go try to talk him talk him down from this Lynch y that's a tough job so so I went on Air

Force One and and I'm sitting there with the president I'm trying to make the case that we don't need these gigantic uh stimulus checks and he goes Ted and I get the back of the hand he goes Ted no one ever lost an election by spending too much money I said yeah but they did bankrupt the country so I did not succeed then well you know what you should have done you should have asked him to keep the same number but just make the check larger and the signature bigger that's a good idea look I I'll go with it he likes are you a small government conservative very much so and is what percent if there if

no one was going to be able to run for reelection what percent of Congress do you think would support a massive reduction in government agencies how much of this really is driven by this kind of I got to get reelected so look it's it's a good versus what I versus what principes tell me yeah listen I I am also a passionate advocate of term limits so so I have introduced uh in every Congress a constitutional amendment that would limit Senators to two terms limit house members to three terms yeah I think term limits would change that dynamic in a very significant way right and the career politicians in both parties

oppose it um look on any big spending bill you unfortunately have a bipartisan Coalition in favor of spending you have essentially all the Democrats and about half the Republicans there about 20 of us who will vote against a trillion dollar spending Bill and and and we are frequently begging our colleagues and to be honest I don't think we will ever see real spending restraint without strong presidential leadership which means it will never come from a Joe Biden or KLA Harris and look if if Elon and beet convince president Trump that he's going to lean in aggressively on on cutting spending great but that hadn't happened

so far what would it take for for the voters to eventually get there because it would require the voters backing a candidate with that message and it seems like no one sees that because what everyone sees is I want to get X and the only way I get X is if I get the government to do X for me yeah look it it varies it takes electing strong leaders so I elections matter and and I engage so so I think I've probably campaigned for more candidates for Senate house and and governorship than any Republican in the country I mean I travel all over the country I endorse candidates and I follow the old Bill Buckley role which is I support the most Conservative candidate who can win yeah

and that varies look look a candidate who can win in Texas is different than a candidate who can win in Maine yeah right and and so but but I can say the problem is you get I can tell you in Texas I mean when I ran 2012 I ran for Senate I'd never been elected before yeah never been elected to nothing yeah literally the last thing I was elected to was student counsil by the way Cham you may not remember this you actually wrote me a check that race I was going to tell that St we looked it up which because we were together in Utah y Peter teal had an event or he does his thing and we had a breakfast and uh Ted was surrounded by sort of a handful of us who were

speaking to him and then what I would say is like every traditional Democrat from Central castle and he went through the firing squad and he came out the other side and I thought wow this this is really great and so then I I was I was very happy to donate well I I was you you were a demned donor back then I was a demned donor but I but see here's the thing like and I think what you're getting what I think what the senator speaks to which is what I agree with is ideology matters and so when you make decisions about how you think the country should run you should stay loyal to that and I

think what happens instead is people stay loyal to a party Y and it's the minute you do that that the whole thing breaks and this is what's broken and I think what the great thing that Donald Trump did was he basically conducted a hostile takeover of the Republican Party undoubtedly yeah and then committed subu and that's the most important thing that happens I mean are reset you don't have to go and kick the COA ring what will they say what will all this infrastructure say what does Sor say all of that is done the whole thing's flipped over hey Senator you that's very powerful I you had an anecdote from me

two nights ago I don't know if you're willing to share it about a convers regarding Denmark and Greenland do you want to tell us what you think uh so happens here look my view on Denmark and Greenland so I did a podcast two weeks ago on Denmark Greenland and Canada and I did all all three of them on my verdict podcast and and I put them in a spectrum let's start with Canada I think the president's Canada remarks we're just trolling I think he was just screwing with Trudeau I think he was sitting at the table and decided you know why are you even country you ought to be a state you should be a governor that I send jcal texts like that all the

time you know I would have paid frankly to be sitting at that table to see Trudeau's face in fact um look it was reminiscent if you remember in the 2016 uh campaign on the debate stage where Trump turned Rand Paul was at the end and he's like why are you even on this stage and what is it with your hair yeah I I mean it was the same sort of comment that was just just messing with him yeah um I put that in one and by the way way that may be the most epic troll of all time because I think that literally pushed Trudeau into resign crazy huh I mean it it's a fair why would he not why would he do that go to Maro I mean such a stupid thing to do he

just should have been like yeah you know we're our own sovereign country Banks well he was already I think we he go he likes he likes to go with the trend so that was the trend yeah that's what happens when you're a weather v um I will say I I couldn't resist tweeting and said you know trau lasted really long for a son of Fidel Castle which wa no no no keep telling us about can yeah denark Greenland um Greenland on the other hand I think is a very serious policy proposal and and I think there are you know Trump mentioned this in the first term and a lot of people dismissed it oh this is just Trump talking wacky yeah but I think there are

enormous National Security and economic reasons why acquiring Greenland makes a ton of sense and you look at Greenland's location on the Arctic it has incred inedibly prime location on the Arctic if from a national security perspective God forbid we ever get in a shooting war with China or with Russia icbms are coming right over the Arctic right and Greenland is a prime location to deal with that we're also seeing more shipping lanes coming in and around the Arctic and China and Russia are both competing for prized prized access there Greenland makes an enormous sense from that perspective it also makes an enormous perspective from critic minerals and rare earth minerals they

have vast amounts uh and so what I said is look I think we should pursue this seriously I'll tell you I had a conversation this week with the Danish ambassador to the United States um and and look Denmark's a little freaked out by all this conversation Y and and I'll tell you what I told the Ambassador I said listen Denmark is our friend you our Ally you will continue to be our friend and Ally but friends and allies can have conversations we can have and and the Ambassador said well well Greenland's not for sale I said that's fine everything's for sale we're going to have a conversation and and by the way if you maintain that one of the things this has produced is a growing

independence movement in Greenland totally and if you do nothing you may end up getting nothing for Greenland because they break off on the Run totally right now look for it to happen I think you would probably have to have a referendum on Greenland yep I find it quite plausible that the greenlanders about 50,000 of them yeah would say wait a second I get to be an American they P just showed positive results he just did a survey there I mean to to become an American is in many ways the greatest gift we can give anyone on planet Earth totally and the billions in investment if Greenland became an American territory the difference it would make

for greenlanders well Senator we could pay 200 billion dollars for the territory to Denmark they would their federal debt or their National debts about 150 billion they'd have a 50 billion Surplus they could build a pension plan around want that's why we have you could spend another you could spend another 10 billion to put everyone in a great situation for the rest of their life a resident of Greenland and that becomes an American territory and be like a whole new philosophy for us I think we just go right to 60 States let's just make an open offer no but so so it's and and yeah and sorry how does the president of the administration how are they going to tackle this or do you

have any insights into what's going to happen here so look uh Ken Howry you guys know I know is a good friend who has been nominated the ambassador to Denmark I've talked with good friend of yeah talked with Ken just yesterday about this y um I think we need to lean in and try to negotiate both with with Denmark and Greenland um I'm certainly from the Senate going to push it but I wanted contrasted is Canada become going to become a state no but Greenland listen we acquired make it a protractor Louisiana Purchase we purchased from France Alaska we purchased from Russia I mean there's a long history of this totally Puerto Rico next let's go if they want to come on board why not well

it's an American this it's a it's not a state and so Panama I view as kind of in the middle of the two right and and Panama is a little more complicated look I think Jimmy Carter giving away the Panama Canal now remains one of the most spectacularly stupid decisions a president has ever done in office I think it was profoundly harmful to US National Security interest to our economic interest that being said it's been long enough that unwinding it is really tough yeah however president Trump if you listen to what he's saying on Panama he's he's got actually some very

sophisticated legal arguments that he's making number one when we gave the Panama Canal to technically sold it for a dollar uh we had a binding agreement that laid out the terms of that transfer yeah and one argument that President Trump has put forth is that Panama is in violation of that agreement because they have allowed China to effectively seize control of the canal how is that because a Chinese state-owned Enterprise owns a building on one end of the canal and on the other end of the can and should we be at a point of conflict military or other with China it's not ult to imagine those Chinese State own Enterprises

using that location to try to shut down anyone traversing the sounds like they avoided the contract I that's that's a pretty powerful argument the second argument and I had breakfast this morning with with President Trump he had breakfast with all the Republican Senators two and a half hours he gets sworn in tomorrow and he spent two and a half hours stamina stream of Consciousness talking we talked about Pano he's pointing out uh the president said this morning said US Navy ships pay double what any other country's Navy ships pay right he said that that american commercial ships pay 58% more y than other nations pay look we need to drill

down into those facts but on the face of it I think there's a powerful argument that that's inconsistent with the terms of the agreement and is the final outcome of this that we get total control of the Panama Canal back probably not I think that's a high lift but in many ways I think Trump is negotiating on price and I could easily see an outcome where both Navy ships and commercial ships that are American pay much much lower rates number one and number two critically that we get China the hell out of the canal and and that if we accomplish those two that would be a massive improvement from us interest have you um I'm sure you've been paying attention uh beyond the things that

you've been a part of the confirmation hearings can you give us the sort of blowby blow of where you think things have gone well where there was room for improvement whether there's going to be some spotty weather ahead look I've been really happy so far um I think the array of cabinet nominees has been very very strong were there a couple that were you thought going in we have to this one will be a little bit harder than the other and well look clearly the most bumpy was Matt Gates and and they withdrew Matt Gates yeah um he was not going to get confirmed there there were multiple Republican Senators who were going to vote now right um but I will say I mean they withdrew that nomination

pretty quickly was strategic they sent him up the hill to take the first two and Pam Bondi seems amazing Pam Bondi is going to be terrific she's going to get confirmed easily I think right now every Trump cabinet nominee gets confirmed that's great um Pete hegi is clearly who they're shooting at the most um I don't think they've scored real blood I I did a whole podcast on the Heth uh confirmation hearing where it spoke volumes that the Democrat virtu virtually all of the Democrat attacks were personal attacks based on Anonymous charges typically with no evidence and with no one coming forward and putting their name on it and

they had virtually nothing to say about the job to which he'd been nominated and what he intends to do as the Secretary of Defense I I think that that fundamentally is a flawed strategy I so I think everyone gets through right now do you think that you'll see any Democrat Senators support any of the candidates yes um Rubio so Rubio will get 90 votes he could get north of 95 votes it'll be a huge bipartisan vote for Rubio John Radcliffe for CIA he'll get significant bipartisan votes Shan Duffy at Transportation he'll get a bunch of bipartisan votes uh Howard lutnick at Commerce my guess is he'll get

bipartisan votes although he hasn't had his hearing yet so we'll see so there will certainly be some Pam Bondi I think Pam is terrific Brook Rolland Brook will get bipartisan votes part of it is all right let's take Shawn Duffy so I chaired the confirmation hearing for Shawn Duffy secretary trans Transportation it was a Love Fest why was it a Love Fest because everyone wants a bridge or a road in their state so if you're a Democrat you're like wait you're Santa Claus and you're giving out hundreds of billions of dollars I want some and so everyone wants it and so Brook Rollins at at Department of Agriculture again everyone wants stuff for a and farmers in their state so in

that sort of role it's easy for it to be a Love Fest Pam Bondi even though she did very well I'd be surprised if Democrats vote for just the nature of attorney general in this politicized environment my guess is I think of the committee the D's are going to vote no but I think Pam will hold every Republican and so I I think she she gets through easily Bobby Senator I think he makes it through I spent an hour with him it'll be interesting this is I was talking with him about this W will any Democrats vote for him obviously he's been a Democrat his whole life until like 12 minutes ago they hate him and they really they do

view him as a Judas for daring to to change all of us it's still look J K too you look at like red Dy number three you look at what what Bobby is doing I'm I am re what I more change before he's become AJ secretary the food system is so screwed like let him cook let's see what he can do and his willingness to take on corruption Corruption of of big pharmaceutical compan get in bed uh with big government that they perpetuate their monopolies using government power so I I talked to Bobby for example about a bill that I've I've been fighting for a long time that I call the results act the results act says that if any pharmaceutical any medical device is

approved in another major developed country so approved in Canada or Japan or the EU that the FDA has 60 days to approve it here or it's deemed automatically approved by operation love it brilliant I I'm going to fight for I have been fighting for that but I think now I'll have an HHS secretary that that agrees with it and I do think if you look at these cabinet nominees the most striking characteristic of virtually all of them is that they're change agents that they're going to fundamentally disruptors and and that's exciting we need that all right listen your people have been trying to for 20 minutes but you know what let the man cook I got to

tell the president our bestie Phil helm youth every time he sees you comes back to our game says what a great poker player what a gentl he drops your name I can get him on the phone right now I told him call him right now he never does it he was 100% right you are amazing great to have you on the you are tempting me with poker chips I mean we're going to get you in a game I know you don't make it to California much but when you do come play just so you know the boots play and we need scotch and a cigar and and I am perfectly happy happy maybe we'll go playing often I can't stand all these gang balls where everyone's in in tuxedos but but but but

my happy place is sitting around the poker table man you're going to fation and good scotch so great to have you and uh congratulations on the big win and thank you for your service appreciate it thank you very much thanks a lot thank you that was great