American Thought Leaders - Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn: Putting ‘Country Before Self’ Is Necessary to Repair America

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has been advising President-elect Donald Trump’s national security team. At Turning Point USA’s AmFest conference in Phoenix, I sat down with him to discuss key challenges facing the incoming administration, such as how to address Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control of the Panama Canal.“Who’s controlling this very important waterway? It’s the most strategic waterway for the United States of America on the planet,” Flynn says. “China is the dominant player right now between us and them.”Lt. Gen. Flynn says the Chinese regime either owns or controls some component of 80 percent of the largest ports of our hemisphere. “And yet we have people in our government that go ‘Russia, Russia, Russia.’”He argues that although America has always been a benevolent “nation of givers,” it must focus more energy on domestic policy, and that every citizen has a responsibility to engage in local action.Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

I talk about Panama Canal all the time. Who's controlling this very important waterway? It's the most strategic waterway for the United States of America on the planet. China is the dominant player right now between us and them. At Turning Point USA's AmFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona,

I sat down with Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, now retired from the U.S. Army, who has been advising Trump's national security team. 80% of the largest ports in South America, either the Chinese own them or they control some component. And yet we have people in our government that go Russia, Russia, Russia. This is American Thought Leaders, and I'm Jan Jekielek. Michael Flynn, such a pleasure to have you back on American Thought Leaders.

Great. Thank you for having me. And I'm a huge, huge fan of you personally and also Epoch Times and just what you guys represent. So thanks. That's extremely kind. You know, I'm going to start. We're, of course, going to talk about, you know, what you're doing now. And, well, why don't we actually start there? Yeah.

So what are you doing now? What's next with this new administration coming in? Part of what I have been doing is, you know, because my background is intelligence, national security, foreign policy, you know, certainly the military. And so I have been working with and and advising sort of in a in a in a background way, because that's the way I like I want to be, you know, as things are now, particularly during this transition, with the national security team that President Trump has assembled. So, you know, from people like Tulsi Gabbard, who I've known for a long time,

when Tulsi first came in as a first-term Democrat congresswoman from Hawaii, I got to know her then, and we've maintained that relationship for a long time, as well as, you know, Cash Patel. Mike Waltz, who's going to be the National Security Advisor. Cash is going to be, of course, FBI Director. Pete Hegseth, who's been nominated to be the Secretary of Defense. Tom Holman, I've been in touch with Tom Holman off and on and trying to help him to, you know, to navigate. Tom doesn't need a lot of navigation.

Tom knows exactly what he wants to do. The challenge is going to be, from my perspective, over my many years of the military and then in my time that I got involved in politics, particularly my military background, though, Jan, I have a great, great portfolio and network of foreign relations. You know, I mean, I work with a lot of militaries around the world. And so I still have great relationships with many of the countries that want to work with America desperately to be able to do the things that need to be done to protect, frankly, to protect ourselves from this

rise of sort of globalism, I guess, because that's kind of the challenging component of what we face. And I don't think a lot of people understand that. Tell me this, okay, the Trump approach to national security and foreign policy is peace through strength. Absolutely. That would be fair to say. Absolutely. And that's exactly what George Washington said. You know, he, George Washington said, you know, basically in order to preserve our country, we have to present ourselves as a strong nation. And he always believed that because he was a soldier. He was a warrior. He was a general. And Trump, in a lot of ways, he has those same characteristics about about doing things, just using good common sense, but also making sure that the country is strong and presents ourselves as a strong, healthy country, because I think that's that matters.

And I think with the with the advent of bringing Bobby Kennedy into the team, that's a that's going to be a component of our nation is not just you know health of your body but health as a nation and i think that trump this idea of peace through strength that is his fundamental idea about how the united states of america needs to present itself around the world you're very skeptical of our our military frankly right but you're also, as I understand it, very supportive of the peace through strength model. And to some people, that might seem incongruous. Yeah, an oxymoron. You know, first of all, today's Purple Heart Day.

So this day that we're sitting here together, we recognize as Purple Heart Day. Purple Heart is someone who's wounded in combat so it's a very special day and the talk the fact that we're talking about right now i tell people that i'm not anti-war i'm anti-stupid war and i and there and you know you can take that for whatever you want to take it for but but our country was founded on the idea of being a benevolent nation based on a constitution and an equal and fair justice system for all. And when we project ourselves and what we want to be around the world, we want to be seen as this, you know, this is great, humble, benevolent nation that is a nation of givers. And this country, I mean, the people of our country are the greatest givers in the world. They give, give, give to everybody around the world that desperately needs help.

We're always there. But I think now one of the things that we have to look at is we have to look at taking care of our own country. And I think that this idea of our peace through strength or who we are as a nation and what we need to do going forward, we have some, you know, it's kind of like the body, right? Your body needs to stay fit. Well, our nation needs to stay fit. And in order to do that, we have to protect certain institutions and make sure that they're ready to do the right things when called upon, particularly our military. I love our military. I love our men and women in our military, but we do have some challenges inside of our military right now. There is no

doubt about it. I mean, I'm in touch with many, many rank and file within our military and this advocacy for things like DEI, you know, we call it this wokeness. I mean, you know, people can define that however they want, but the United States military cannot be a social experiment to test things about how people should behave in their lives. Our military serves one purpose for our country, and that is to be prepared and trained and ready to fight and win. And the key word there is win our nation's wars when called upon. And what we really don't want to do is we don't want to call upon our country or in our military constantly. You know, I spoke here about Turning Point here, beautiful setup that Charlie Kirk has organized i

spoke yesterday and a lot of young people are here right i mean and that's what turning point is kind of known for and and there's young people in here and i spoke to a bunch of them yesterday that they weren't born when 9-11 happened okay so their entire lives our nation has been at war. Think about that. So for the entire adult, like some of them were 20, some of them were 21, you know, college age kids. And I'm looking at them and I'm thinking, man, you kids weren't even born when 9-11 happened, right? And we went to war in Afghanistan. Then we went to war in Iraq. Now we're looking at war in Eastern Europe.

We still see the wars in the Middle East. We have the rise of the Chinese Communist Party globally around the world, and they constantly present a threat. So my point is that we have to recognize that, you know, in order to understand the way the world is, is we cannot be in this constant state of war, Jan. We just can't be. We have to return to a place where peace is the norm and war is the aberration. And right now it's just the opposite. And with somebody like a Donald Trump, who I have had the opportunity to speak with him and I have stayed in touch with him. And from my very first meeting with him back in 2015,

two weeks after he came down the famous escalator ride, you know, his whole thing was, why are we involved in all these wars? Where are we making a mistake? And that's how we connected. And to me, it's like I say, as a military officer, as a general officer, having served our country in wartime, you know, I mean, we sort of follow the direction of the commander in chief and the president of the United States. But when you start to begin to look at what's happening, you go, OK, when does this end? And it can end and it can end on our terms, especially when, you know, when we're smart about of analysts that I find to be highly credible who say that we actually, you know, kind of built the whole Chinese regime, which is our, I don't know if you really understand the depth of our the history of our country post-world war ii you know we've had this sort of incremental rise of communism in the united states of america a lot of people don't want to recognize that or they they kind of go oh it's you know but it's it's true eisenhower is the very famous warning right

about the military industrial complex but but the whole, the thing wasn't, it wasn't mature then, Jan. Now it's mature. Now we're 2024. We're, you know, whatever, 75 years later, let's say. You know, and so this communist infiltration into our country is a real threat. And when you look at the CCP, you look at China, because China is a, you know, some the politicians can call them adversary or can call them competitors. And then maybe the the the, you know, the folks that are that look at, you know, economics can call them economic competitors. As a military guy, I look at them as adversaries and frankly, you know, an enemy when and, you know, if we had ever to address them from a military perspective.

And I think what people need to understand is that the sort of the shift of what China has been doing globally. So if you really understand their one belt initiative, right, one belt, one road, whatever you want to call, but the one belt initiative, it's not just some road from northern China into Europe. It is a global economic, financial, political, certainly military, and information war that they are waging globally in our own hemisphere, in the hemisphere of the North and South Americas, in the Caribbean, in Central America. There are large, let's just talk port facilities, right? I mean, like 80% of the largest ports in South America, in the southern hemisphere of our own hemisphere, either the Chinese own them or they control some component of the largest ports in our own hemisphere.

We talk about the Panama Canal. I talk about the Panama Canal all I talk about Panama Canal all the time. Who's controlling this very important waterway? It's the most strategic waterway for the United States of America on the planet is the Panama Canal. We built it for a reason way back when the United States did. So my sort of bigger strategic point is that China is, they see themselves as the global principal sole superpower this century. And they've been rising since we, the United States of America, helped their rear ends out of being basically dominated by imperialism and Japan at that time, right?

Late 30s into the 40s, Japan conquered everything all the way over to really modern-day Pakistan, Burma Road. I had an uncle that fought on the Burma Road during World War II and then returned to Burma and spent 25 years of his life in Burma to try to help the people of Burma as a Catholic. I'd love to hear that story sometime, by the way. I know I'm going on about this, but I want people to understand that China is the dominant player right now between us and them and the way the world is moving. And yet we have people in our government that go Russia, Russia, Russia. Russia is actually a declining population.

They're a declining economy. I mean, they're still a world superpower because they have the most nuclear weapons on the planet. And we're involved in a, we're involved in, and we're talking more about nuclear war than we've ever talked about in my entire lifetime, my entire life. And that includes the Cuban Missile Crisis. So, I mean, we could just have a discussion just about China alone. This is actually really interesting. It's something that's been on my mind in a big way for the last few years. I, you know, what Valina Chakarova calls a dragon bear,

right? That alliance, right? Um, obviously highly problematic, right? For the, for the U S and frankly, I think for the free world, is it possible for Russia with eyes open, right? Understanding, you know, what kind of a system it is because, you know, I think some people are kind of mistaken about that. But is it possible for, to bring Russia out of that alliance? Yeah.

Because it would seem to be a good idea. Again, a little history lesson. There was a China-Russia split a few decades ago, right? The Russo-China split. Very important. And you have to understand sort of why did that happen then. And I think that there's some, we always have to go back to the history of these nations and these regions. Russia is primarily a Eurocentric and wants to have a Eurocentric focus.

Okay? Because they're part of, you know, we say the Eurasian continent, right? But it's really, Russia sees themselves principally as a Eurocentric, you know, sort of entity, nation state, sovereign nation. They really don't want, I mean, if they could have their way, they really don't want that alliance with China. This current administration that we have still, and even in the past, in other administrations, we've seen our nation push Russia into the sphere of influence of China. And we want that, you know, we need to change that. You know, it doesn't mean that, you know, Vladimir Putin's a good guy, whatever. I don't want to look at that, the personality side of this.

What I want to look at is, you know, the demographics. I want to look at the relationships, the economic relationships, the military relationships. Really, the ideas that we have in common between American people and the Russian people. And I can talk about that with the Chinese people. The Chinese people, most of the Chinese people don't like Xi. Of course. Xi's afraid. I mean, we have to push Xi because it's the paper tiger, right?

So we need to figure out, and under this coming administration, we need to figure out how we can draw Russia back into a more Eurocentric sphere of influence and how we can have a better relationship. It is a peer-to-peer relationship because we're talking about, at the end of the day, we're talking about the two great nuclear powers on the planet. So we have to face that reality. But we also, what are the other things that are in common? And, you know, all of the people in the United States intelligence community, they'll listen to this part of this, and they will. They'll listen to this part of this conversation that we're having.

They're going to go, see, he's a Putin puppet. No. What I am is I'm somebody who's looking to achieve peace, right, and get ourselves away from this notion that we always have to have an adversarial relationship between these people. We don't. There's so many good things that we can do.

Obviously, we actually can't really do that with communist China, right? And a lot of people argue that it's impossible with Russia now, given everything that's happened too, right? It's becoming more difficult. So you're optimistic that it's possible. given everything that's happened too, right? It's becoming more difficult. So you're optimistic that it's possible. I guess that's... Yeah, I'm optimistic for a couple of things.

Number one, I'm optimistic that we can figure out with the right leaders how we can develop a strong relationship to one, slow this train down of war. I mean, world war is real. And we've been through a couple of them. We're in a new century. We're in the third decade of a new century. We've been at war the entire century so far. The United States of America has been involved or engaged in some level of conflict where people are being, you know, lives are being lost, right?

So, you know, here we are in this Purple Heart Day. So I am optimistic that that can happen with the right leaders. I mean, President Biden hasn't spoken to President Putin in a couple of years. The old hotline, it's nonexistent anymore. So the number one thing is we have to have leaders who are going to demonstrate courage and they need to reach out to each other and start to have that dialogue. I do think on the Chinese side of things, I think that there is a very intentional effort on Xi's part to see China,

and that's why he's designated himself premier for life, basically, because they want to move up their 100-year plan where China is the dominant nation state on the planet this century. They really want to do that. And the Chinese mentality or design of warfare is to really do it without ever firing a shot. So if they've influenced enough of the American leaders and American intelligence community, particularly the intelligence community, to point the fingers elsewhere, because we don't hear China, China, China. We hear Russia, Russia, Russia. And yet Russia is in the alliance of China. So we have to figure out geopolitically and geostrategically how we

return to a much greater balance here in the world. And the only way that we're going to do that is to slow this pace that we are heading on right now towards a much more dangerous war. And we need good, strong leaders who are willing to work their way through the noise of the media and through the noise of the, frankly, of the intelligence system that we have that works to undermine and is already, they're already, they did it in the last Trump administration, they're already starting to do it again. And that's why we have to have good leaders at every level inside of those organizations. Because we can do this, Jan, we can achieve peace. It doesn't mean that there's always going to, you know, you're not going to have these conflicts around the world because people, sadly, that's what

happens. But we can achieve peace with the great nation states and live on this planet in a much more refined, natural state instead of constantly being at each other's throats and trying to go to war. We have to move away from that and move towards more of a place where we have conversations about what needs to be done instead of confrontations about what is being done. And the main kind of challenge I hear to this view is, you know, you're really talking about actually a weak military or something like that.

And I'm not getting the sense that that's what you're talking about. Yeah, definitely not. I mean, that's what you're talking about. Yeah, definitely not. I mean, we have to have a strong military. You know, the only component of our military that's even addressed in our Constitution is the Navy. We don't address any other components. But we have to have components of strength. Number one, number one, and, you know, most people think you know leadership or or or economic. I actually think that we

have to have common sense. We have to use good common sense. I mean if the American people have anything they look at something they go well that's not right. So that's a that's a component of strength in this country because we're still free to be able to think that way right. And then the second thing is really the economic strength. We have, I think, under this administration, really just undercut the energy sector completely. And we've moved towards the nonsensical climate change and global warming and all these things. And I got that. Hey, I surf. I've been surfing for over 50 years of my life. I want clean water. I want clean oceans.

But economic strength is something that this country needs. Again, it's like a person who's working out and trying every day to try to stay healthy. Our country needs components of our body, of our American body, to be strong. One of those is economic. The other component is our military. Does it need to be equal to the economy? No, it's actually a subset. If our economy is strong, then our military can be strong. Our institutions like our education institution needs to be strong. That's another weak,

it's very weak part of our system right now. Our public school education system is horrible. We put more money into it than any other country, probably the top 10 in the world combined. And yet we're like rated, you know, in the lower third. I mean, it's just terrible. So those are institutions and those are like parts of a body that need to be worked out. And once we start to do that and we get the right leaders in there, then we can really make a difference. And to me, all of it, you know, combined is going to require good, strong leadership who just use good God-given common sense and do the right things based on what the American people want. The message that

Americans just sent to the world is we, the people, are now back in charge. But what I'm telling the American people that listen to you and to listen to this great platform of Epoch Times, is that we now have a responsibility. We have a citizen's responsibility to stay engaged, to stay engaged at the local level. And I use this phrase, local action equals a national impact. Donald Trump can't do this on his own. Every single citizen, I just met a great young lady who just won the superintendent election in one of the biggest counties in our country, a county well known by probably people

globally. It's called Maricopa County. She's wonderful. She's bold. She's brave. She's super smart. And she knows that she's going to have a fight ahead of her at the local level. But she made a decision to do more than what she was doing. Right. Serve your country. I serve my country. I'm still serving my country. You're serving. You're serving in this capacity on everybody out there needs to start thinking about what is my responsibility to serve as a citizen at the local level. You serve at the local level, you're going to have a national impact. That's what we need to do to stitch this country back together. Well, and what's really interesting is I feel by doing this, I'm actually serving my country of Canada as well.

Yeah. Right? Which is very interesting. Because while... Canada needs it. I mean, you know, Trump joked about the 51st state. But the people of Canada need to understand. I think they do.

I mean, you have a president, a prime minister, that I think he won only by like 32% because of the system of government that Canada has. And I think we need, so I understand the system of government that Canada has probably better than 50% of the people of Canada. So the people of Canada that are listening, I want them to understand, like the people of America, understand the underlying principles of how we are organized as a nation. And we operate, you know, we're very complex. The United States of America, our system of government is very complex. Federal, state, local, I mean, tribal in many cases. Canada is very complex. The United States of America, our system of government is very complex. Federal, state, local, I mean, tribal in many cases. Canada is very complex. You know, and so you have a prime

minister that is serving, but not with the majority of the people that voted for him because they voted for all these other people. So coalitions have to come together for what's best for Canada and what's best for the united states of america and these coalitions like we talked about prior you know i'm a former democrat i i just left the democrat party like three years ago i grew up as a kennedy democrat you know sort of the the reagan era democrats had voted for reagan i mean you know i mean that's our family was democrats hardcore my mother was but my mother was right to life, which was interesting. Prior to the Democrat Party sort of turning on that issue.

And so there's a lot of people in this country that are Democrats. Right. And I still have a my belief system hasn't changed. I just changed my party affiliation. That's why I was such a big fan of Bobby Kennedy when Bobby Kennedy made the very bold, courageous decision to step down and put country before self. And that's my message to everybody that's listening. We now have to put each of us. You don't have to be Bobby Kennedy. You don't have to be General Flynn. Just be yourself.

But put country before self and we can get this country back. And it's going to take an entire coalition of people, not just Republicans and Democrats. I mean, I've been described as a hardcore right-wing, you know, fascist. I mean, Christian, I mean, all kinds of names. But if people meet me and they get to know me, I actually am, you know, I mean, I served in our military during a very, very difficult time in war. Five years I've spent in my life in combat. And so I love this country. I love all people.

And I think that's kind of where Donald Trump's coming from. And as bad as he's been described in sort of the woke media, he's actually a really good guy who loves people. Well, so as we finish up, I wanted briefly to talk about your new film, Flynn. It's not that new. It came out in April. I mean, you've had a very adventurous life over the last few years, right, to say the least. And I just want to quote something you said. You said, I feel blessed to feel alive right now and I can tell my story.

I haven't really given you a chance to do that here because I got so interested in your other thoughts. But maybe briefly tell us about the film and how people can watch it. So the name of the film is Flynn. Deliver the truth, whatever the cost. They can go to FlynnMovie.com. And thank you so much for allowing me to just talk about it for a second. FlynnMovie.com. You can live stream it.

I think it's like $3.99. And so, yeah, I actually think it should be mandatory viewing for anybody going into the government right now, honestly. But it's an inspiring story of survival. It is a story of faith, definitely faith, and family. And it is a story of corruption, deep corruption in our country, in our government. And it touches everybody. It's not just Democrats or it's not just the left and the right. It's the whole system of government that we have that has really kind of overpowered the people of this country that are supposed to

be the rulers, right? We, the people, are supposed to be the rulers of our destiny as a republic. And so that's what the movie really does take you through that. It is it is any it has emotional highs where you'll laugh and it has emotional lows where you'll absolutely break down in tears. When you listen to my wife and listen to my son describe what they went through, because the attacks weren't just on little old General Mike Flynn. It was directed against my family. And I have nine brothers and sisters. My wife has seven. We have her mother still alive. We have 100.

I have about 100 nieces and nephews, many of them serving in the military. We have so many cousins. I have one uncle who had 12 children. And so these are people that are in my life that were all impacted because they all know me. You don't rise to being a general in the Army and then being chosen as a National Security Advisor and be the person that was described and actually have to do the things that I had to do in order to protect my family. And so watch the film. It's a great film. Go to FlynnMovie.com.

And also, thank you so much, Jan, for having me. Well, no, Michael Flynn, it's such a pleasure to have had you on. It's great. I love Epoch Times. You guys are wonderful. Thank you all for joining General Michael Flynn and me on this episode of American Thought Leaders. I'm your hostkelleck.