The Benny Show - PANIC: Billions in Fraud Uncovered in California, FBI Arrests Soon | Mass RAIDS on Minnesota Somalis with Guests Rep. Darrell Issa, Mehek Cook and Aaron Kirman

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

Fed prosecutor warns more arrests coming after ‘massive’ fraud found in California homeless services: ‘We followed the money’, California Voter ID Initiative Surpasses 1 Million Signatures, Rep. Darrell Issa, Mehek Cook and Aaron Kirman join the show. Check Out Our Partners American Financing: Save with https://www.americanfinancing.net/benny NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org. APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.327% for well qualified borrowers. Call 888-528-1219 or americanfinancing.net/Benny, for details about credit costs and terms 120Life: “120/Life is a natural drink that supports healthy blood pressure. See better numbers in 2 weeks or your money back by saving 20% with code BENNY at http://www.120life.com/ ” BEAM: http://shopbeam.com/BENNYSHOW , use code BENNYSHOW MASA CHIPS: Go to http://www.masachips.com/BENNY and use code BENNY for 25% off your first order Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, Wednesday, January 7th, 2026, the year of our lord. Federal prosecutors warn that arrests for massive California homelessness services fraud are pending. Mass arrests and FBI raids soon in the state of California as the California voter ID initiative surpasses 1 million signatures. We'll talk about how devastating that will be for scumbagg Gavin News. The era of fraud is collapsing in our country, and it is a wonderful thing to see. The golden era is it finally here? We'll talk with Representative Daryl Issa from California today. Meheka Cook from Ohio, who's also running for office, and she's uncovering an enormous amount of Somali fraud on her own in her home state of Ohio.

And Aaron Kirkman, who is the most successful realtor in the world. He's from the Pacific Palisades. He's leading a protest today against Gavin Newsom in the Pacific Palisades where zero new homes have been built by the fraudulent criminal government of California. Also live on the program will be some huge announcements, I believe, anti-fraud announcements from the Department of Agriculture and from HHS, RFK, and Brooke Rollins and Caroline Levitt will all be live at the top of the hour. And this is The Benny Show. Make sure, ladies and gentlemen, if we are talking about the Palisades Fire and the homes that have been torched to the ground, that you take protection in your home, that you are protecting your finances and protecting them from sharks.

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and your credit card rates are refinanced into something that saves you a lot of money every single year. Call right now. 888-528-1219. That's 888-528-1219 Americanfinancing.net slash betting. Okay, we have some clips, some like really cool stuff. I want to play you this clip of Donald Trump witnessing a exfiltration by Delta Force that happened at Fort Bragg because we were part of the field team operation here, and it's something that is kind of remarkable.

I had no idea that I was witnessing history when we were actually riding on the back of these Humvees. Here's President Trump watching these military black-op helicopters come rolling in at Fort Bragg. And I'm no hero here. We were simply filming in the back of one of the Humvees, but we got a chance to chill out with the Army Rangers and the Delta Force.

operators that were running this operation. This happened in the summer. And as you can see here, the exact same helicopter platforms, the exact same special operators that raided Maduro and his compound that looks actually eerily like what you have here in Fort Bragg. That's me in the back of the Humvee. You can see that, so we're in the back of that vehicle,

right there. And this is the operational. This was happening in July, and I was witnessing from the back of that car right there. Yeah, I just had my camera, right? Like, they'd let me tag along. President Trump was way over here. But I witnessed what was about to happen in Venezuela. This was the dry run.

It's epic. The details of that raid. was remarkable. Little did I know that I was watching the prep for what was about to happen to Nicholas Maduro, the most famous communist dictator in all of the world, most famous and powerful communist dictator in all the world because he sits ashore America. Venezuela is not a real place. I want to just talk through really quickly how important this Venezuelan raid was for us, our hemisphere, and the future of America. something that's near and dear to my heart. Venezuela isn't real. Venezuela is a proxy state. The president isn't real. Stop calling him President Maduro.

He is a proxy president. He didn't win his re-election. He lost any landslide. He lost by millions and millions of more votes. But they use the election rigging technology in order to simply change the tabulations in order to deliver a victory for the dirty dictator. We've seen this play before in a moment.

America, this was the 2020 election. I am now more convinced than ever that Democrats have stolen every election in my lifetime, that every election has been filled with fraud in my lifetime, that Democrats don't win legitimate elections, that places like Minnesota are red states. Minnesota, you can go through and look at the voter rolls. You have something like 200,000 duplicate voters, 100,000 Somali voters, all the vouch voter system. It's all the voucher voter system. It's all rigged, it's all fraudulent, and Democrats still only win by margins of like 100,000 votes. They win in the margins of fraud. This is exactly what happened with Nicholas Maduro.

Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela, not a legitimate leader. Obviously, the entire world saw that, including Democrats. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden put bounties on Nicholas Maduro's head, $25 million, and said, bring us his head will give you, you know, a fortune. Everyone was in agreement that Nicholas Maduro should be taken out of power. Trump just went and did it because he's the main character. Trump did it and it's like just this thing that blew me away yesterday watching this footage saying, wait a second, I was witness.

We were witness and we got to actually produce. Can you grab the actual video that we made at Fort Bragg? We got to actually produce six months ago a insight into the raid that happened. and the team members that were part of that raid is wild didn't docks anyone obviously uh we were just we were there with special forces they were using delta force we were with army rangers i don't believe they're the same guys nonetheless there's the same platforms and it was the same it was a very similar operation with the helicopters uh and obviously we had you know we had uh the F-22 Raptors flying overhead,

major munitions platforms that were being detonated. It's freaking unbelievably cool. Anyway, the point is, is, and this is what we did, there you go, this is what we did at Fort Bragg. There, I am driving in the back of the vehicle as the raid goes down. Look at this. They're blasting the doors off, just like they did to Nicholas Maduro. It's freaking cool, man.

There it is. These are the platforms. So anyway, little did we know. I'm sorry to like just kind of like roll through this live and in on the stream. But this was wild. Why was it so important? Why was it such an honor for us to be able to to witness it in pretend? Well, first off, it's really impressive to see what our special forces go through. But second off, America needed.

this. Venezuela was a colony of China. China had colonized an entire nation, the most oil-rich nation in the world, the most resource-rich nation on earth, so much iron ore, so much gold, so much silver, a lot of Bitcoin, a lot of, I mean, obviously the largest proven oil reserves on Earth, completely and totally colonized by China, it's right offshore of America. Are we just going to allow that to happen? Does America just, like, sit around and tread water

and just pay a bunch of Somalis for fake daycares? Is that the country that we have? That's what we have. We all just have to, like, close our eyes and, like, be told that Lizzo is beautiful and the image of health and then fund a bunch of Somali daycare scammers and health care scammers

and car loan scammers. Is this what the country has been reduced to? No. and then we just let China just colonize all of the countries around us and steal our resources in our hemisphere no damn it this is the first time that americas felt like america in my lifetime america should behave like a superpower superpowers don't let our enemies steal and colonize the most valuable countries in our hemisphere and on our borders and then use those countries to wage war against us what kind of war did venezuela fight against us well a chemical

war they engaged in chemical warfare making fentanyl is a very very difficult process it is a very dangerous process it's a scientifically and chemically heavy process it takes 17 different chemical compounds very hard to find very hard to stabilize to get fentanyl it's very sophisticated that's chemical warfare on our people you can't go into the rainforest and find fentanyl it's not how it works that's a sophisticated chemical warfare biological warfare the destabilization of venezuela led to millions of criminal aliens flooding our borders slaughting our people. Lake and Riley is an example of that, but there are thousands of others. Venezuela was being used to wage war against us by our enemies.

And President Trump just kicked him right in the nut sack. President Trump kicked him the balls and said, you're not going to be doing that. Not an hour hood. And that is inspiring to young people. I'm telling you, zoomers and millennials, they needed to see this because they've only known in America that apologizes for its own existence, for its decline, for its collapse. They've only known land acknowledgments and pronouns and giving back Iraq to the Iraqis. War in Afghanistan forever. We're sorry. surrender to the Taliban, a bunch of third world goat

herders. Oh, and let's bring a bunch of them over here and put them in your neighborhood and then you're going to pay for them forever, 80, 90 percent welfare rates for these people. No politician ever explaining why bringing Somalis with an average IQ of 70, which is borderline mentally handicapped scientifically, an economy and culture built on fraud, built on child brides and inbreeding and secretarian violence and Sharia law bringing over hundreds of thousands of that culture to this country is anything other than a humiliation ritual against you and your ancestors in your country and that is what every administration in my lifetime has done until now this is the first time that America has stood up on his own two feet and said F you we're not going to

let our culture be debased any further. We're not going to allow you to colonize our enemies to colonize the most resource-rich nations in our hemisphere where our boats protect the seas, our planes protect the skies, and China takes all the oil. And what's the first thing that happened? China imports 700,000 barrels of oil per day from Venezuela. Stopped cold. America imports like 100. We redirected all of that oil to America refineries. China can buy from us now. Get bent, 30 commies.

We just went and took another tanker. We have the breaking news here, ALX, if don't mind. We went and took a Venezuelan tanker that was trying to flee to Russia. Americans just boarded it. These little Black Hawk helicopters. I think we have some footage. of this. It's all kick-ass. It just happened seconds ago, just boarded it and yeated the crew and are taking the oil. This is what you do as a superpower. Young people in this country have never

known in America that it's actually proud to be American and behaves like a superpower. It's time for us to behave like a superpower again. Be the masters of our own hemisphere. That's the original Monroe Doctrine from the 19-20s. President Monroe's warning to the European powers at the time is don't you dare colonize anything in the Western Hemisphere. It's ours. This is the new world. You're the old world. And if anything, we're going to start taking your colonies.

And this is exactly what President Trump did. And this is President Trump calling it the Don Road doctrine. Here we go. Here's a photograph of one of those fast-moving helicopter platforms. I don't know exactly what it is. Is it say here, what kind of helicopter it is? Zooming, strafing the tanker and boarding the tanker. Americans are now boarding the tankers and turning them around.

They're ours. It's amazing. Why do you think military recruitment is skyrocketing? Why do you think that young men are now saying, I want to serve my nation? because the nation is starting to knit itself back together, starting to feel like America again, starting to get things under control, make the nation proud. I mean, it's unbelievable what these guys did.

We have some of the clips from that awesome YouTube channel yesterday. It's really cool, really cool. Knocking out the power. President Trump, we just knocked out the power in Caracas. How'd you do it here exactly? This is so cool to see. We finally have the declassified timeline of how U.S. forces breached the heart of Caracas and extracted Nichols Maduro.

Let's start with step one. The setup, this didn't happen overnight. For months, the U.S. had been tightening a naval quarantine around Venezuela. The U.S. General R4 Carrier Strike Group and the U.S. Ewo Jima Amphibious Ready Group were parked off the coast. The pretext was clear. The U.S. designated the Venezuelan government, a narco-terrorist state, specifically targeting the drugs lords, but while the Navy squeezed the coast, intelligence assets were tracking one man.

They waited for a specific window, a moment where Maduro was stationary and vulnerable. Step two? The strike. It began at exactly two in the morning Venezuelan standard time. High above, several F-35 stealth fighters punch a hole through the enemy lines, destabilizing their anti-air defenses. Like these, Russian, is 300 missiles located all over the strategic high-value target. With the skies, cleared, the path opens for Delta Force helicopters to fly straight towards the mission. Here comes the deception as the helicopters flew. The jets started firing with more strikes as it hit Fortuna, the main military base and

command center, and La Karlova Air Base, destabilizing the Venezuelan air support. Report to McGrown described widespread explosions and a sudden communications blackout. The chaos wasn't the goal, it was the cover. The blackout happened in part because of C.I. sabotage on the ground and because of munitions that were dropped over power stations that are very specific munitions size of a Coke can that has radiated aluminum that effectively flames out all electric comms and like and melts them to the ground. Brickin cool tech man, Donald Trump saying, you know, we have a very, we had a very, very, very

specific and exciting way of making sure that Venezuela went dark. If we have that clip, I just saw you load it. Let's go, man. It's just really, it's just really, really, oh, sorry, here you go. Here's President Trump. A nation in the world could achieve what America achieved yesterday or frankly in just a short period of time. All Venezuelan military, capacities were rendered powerless as the men and women of our military working with U.S. law enforcement successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night. It was dark. The lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have.

Due to a certain expertise that we have. All right, let's look at, is this the actual extraction? But how did the raid happen? We have to look at step three. Under the cover of darkness and chaos, the Tier 1 operators went to work. But what is the exact unit tasked with the mission? It is the Delta Force, one of the most elite secretive special forces units in the U.S. military. Witnesses in Caracas reported low-flying aircraft skimming the rooftops,

flying well below radar coverage. The team breached a secure compound believed to be a safe house within the massive fort Tuna complex. Resistance from the Venezuelan Presidential Guard was swift but ultimately futile, as the helicopters lay cover fire. The operators moved with surgical speed landing on multiple points. But how exactly the capture and extraction happened?

For this, let's look at step four. Specialized helicopters hovered over the objective to insert the assault team. While dozens of attack helicopters laid down suppression fire, the Delta Special Forces descended and started the search for the high-value targets. How did they find him? Simple. The CIA had planted spy inside Nichols-Maduro close circle. While back in the U.S., Delta Force built an exact replica of his safe house,

rehearsing the raid until they could do it blindfolded. While operators breached the room so fast, his security could not even react to the situation as the sound of flash grenades disoriented the security guards. Using blowtorch, they caught him before he could even lock all the doors. Maduro's shock and awe froze him as Delta Force reached the compound. Nichols Maduro and his wife, Silia floors, were physically secured. This wasn't in negotiation. They were detained and immediately moved to the extraction point. These aircrafts are capable of performing urban extractions from buildings and refueling in mid-air.

Within minutes, they were airborne, leaving Venezuela in airspace and heading to a secure floating staging base in the Caribbean. This is so, I mean, it's just so, it's just so impressive. Obviously, America is now talking about buying Greenland. That's now the, that's now the vibe. Greenland is wanting to meet with Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio is telling Congress that they're going to buy Greenland, that they don't really want to invade it.

But maybe they, maybe they're going to have to. And I just want to do a shout out to the YouTube channel that put together this really cool step by step. It's right here on on your screen. Yeah, AI AI Peli. That is a that really impressive breakdown. Here's the actual channel. It has done millions of views. Country needed this man. You have to have something. You have to have wins. Whether it's a country you're running, whether it's a religion, whether it's a business. People need to believe in something. They need to see winds. They need to see a sense of purpose. They don't want to see all their military gear rotting in the field. They don't want to see all these guys who were highly

trained going and rounding up January 6 pro grandmothers. The guys on Delta Force should be capturing communist dictators, not grandmothers, who waved 25 cent flags from Walgreens when cops let them into the building on January 6th. This is the proper use of American might and the proper channeling of the American Empire. And we are still an empire. If we can keep it. I'm really happy to see this. And to those who don't like it, explain to me why. Explain to me the downsides here. Anyone? I mean, listen, at this point, it's become quite clear that the true enemy of America, is not some other country. Every other country is hilariously bad at this. Venezuela has spent

billions and billions of dollars on Russian radar equipment, on Chinese munitions, on Chinese tech and AI, which by the way, will be obliterated when the oil, the main source of oil for China is now completely cut off. Now we're starting to see Iranian protests taking over cities. The regime in Iran is losing control of cities throughout the nation. It's happening right now in real time. It's a good thing, I would argue. China will lose its main sources of oil. What will happen then? If China doesn't have any oil, the Chinese economy collapses. Chinese AI ceases to function. The BRICS reserve currency that is supposed to fight the dollar doesn't work because it has to be based on some type of natural resource.

The currency has to have something backing it. If China is in wholesale collapse, which it already is demographically, and you could argue economically, it certainly is from a real estate and housing bubble perspective. Chinese economy is faker than anything here in the United States of America. I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, we have on our hands here a resetting of the table. a resetting of the global order, not only in favor of America, but in favor of principles

that this country stands for. And it is a remarkable thing to witness in real time. We shouldn't lose this moment. We shouldn't let petty, bitching, and infighting and distractions keep us from the target. The target is a preservation of this land for our children.

it is their birthright, leaving a stronger and better country than we found it. And we found this nation in shambles, the crown of America lying in the gutter. Trump's picked it up and he's given young people something to believe in again. He's also going to win the Hispanic vote. When I win the Hispanic vote, start locking up dictators that torture Hispanics. It's a wonderful thing to see. It's leading to record optimism and American identity among young people. And it's leading to something to believe in.

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Risk free for two weeks. If your blood pressure doesn't come down, you'll get a full refund. Nothing to lose except your high blood pressure. Use code Benny today at 120 life.com. Okay, we're going to be spending a considerable amount of the resources of the show investigating fraud because, as I've said, every single nation and every single country is just hilarious in their lack of capacity to defend against the true kings of the earth, America. The actual enemy of our country is not. The enemy of our country is not some other nation.

While there are other nations that want to see our downfall, they're hilariously bad at this. No. The enemy of America is the anti-American sentiment and venom. that exists inside of the Marxists that are here already in our country. And they're following a playbook and it's called the Cloward Piven playbook.

This is a playbook for the 1960s that says if we can just get enough welfare programs, you wonder why the 1960s suddenly you saw all these like every welfare program and the world pop up snap and food stamps and Medicaid and Medicare and all these social safety nets, this was the plan.

if you have a country that has a bunch of that has a welfare state instead of a country that says churches and families and communities should take care of each other it's like no the state will take care of you you can destroy that nation if you swamp those systems if they become entitlements then too many people get into the entitlement they'll demand their paycheck the money runs out the system collapses this is the way to bring about whole communism this is the way to bring about full state control. This is a way to end a capitalist system in favor of a communist system.

This is the Cloward Piven strategy. And this is what they are deploying with the Somali daycares, the Medicaid, the Medicare fraud. Big news on that this morning, and our first guest is going to talk about it. Just really quickly here, federal prosecutors warn that arrests are coming

after massive fraud found in California homeless services. We found the money. Federal prosecutors are saying, that they have found billions in fraud in California. Some estimates are up to $250 billion, a quarter of a trillion dollars in fraud. That's why we're heading there next week. Federal prosecutors probing corruption in California's homeless services

promise that more arrests will come after two real estate executives were busted for allegedly bilking taxpayers out of millions. First assistant U.S. attorney Bill Alassai told the post that a coalition of federal agencies uncovered wrongdoing at a staggering scale. It blasted Democrats' colossal failures for letting corruption fester. for years. We followed the money and we very quickly uncovered massive amounts of fraud. The recent indictments of the House executives, Cody Holmes and Stephen Taylor, were just the tip of the iceberg as the duo face accusations that they pocketed

state funds intended for homeless housing, the prosecutor said. That's just the beginning to stretch the surface. We have dozens of other investigations ongoing and expect to bring more charges this month and many more this year. The scam went like this, executives at Shangri-Law Industries embezzled $2 million from a homeless housing program created during the pandemic, uses proceeds for luxury purchases for homes and his girlfriend. This is a Brentwood developer, accused of defrauding lenders, scheme to flip his property into a state-funded homeless nonprofit. it. So the homelessness problem in California is not a problem at all. Look at this photo of this street here. Democrats want homelessness. They need it. They need the homelessness because they need the blight. They need people to see it and feel suffering. The moment you see the

suffering, then that's a opportunity for them to get more money and to defraud that money. They want homelessness to be as bad as possible so that they can bilk the taxpayers and steal it from them. They never want to solve this problem. Why solve the problem that's so profitable? They need homelessness and they need more homelessness. They would rather rule over a state that is in ashes and destroyed that to actually serve the people. So this is what's happening at scale in California. We're going to expose all of it. We'll be heading there next week. someone who's been exposing, this style of fraud in the state of Ohio joins our show live right now.

Meheke Cook is an Ohio attorney and, well, I got to tell you, she's been going viral with quite a few videos trying to walk into some Somali daycares. As far as I know, unsuccessful to this point. Let's go. Mehek, welcome back to the program. Thank you for your work and exposing what's going on in Ohio. Tell me what you found here. We have some of the clips that you provided to our producers to play. So, Benny, I actually narrowed down the scope of daycares to daycares that are open Monday through Sunday.

And you have to ask yourself, when a daycare is open from 6 a.m. to summer claiming midnight, that just raises red flags. So all I was doing was going with the team to knock on a door and ask how much a cost to go there and what the application process is. And I have been met with extreme pushback between assaults where people are physically putting their hands on me and pushing me out of buildings to screaming at me. And I've gotten the police involved because this is what's shocking. Daycares are supposed to be open. They have our taxpayer dollars. These are all funded by the governor's office and the Department of DYS in Ohio. So when you come in as a mother and you say, how much does it cost to be here? You would think they'd have that detail and data of readily available, but they don't. They don't want to answer simple questions. And I have not said that there's fraud. All I'm doing is asking questions. We need sunlight in these types of operations. Ask yourself, Benny, why are these places boarded up? Why are they open from 6 a.m. to midnight? Who exactly is sending their kids there? The fact that they can't answer any just normal basic questions tells you that they're

hiding something. And in particular, the home health care centers is where I started my research here because I have whistleblowers, Benny, that are saying we would not rubber stamp home health care services for the Bhutanese, Somalian, and all these other communities because they don't need it. So they're forum shopping for somebody else to rubber stamp the paperwork and they're committing alleged massive fraud in the state of Ohio. So we have a problem here and we have to get to the bottom of this. And if state officials aren't going to do the work, then I'm going to roll up my sleeves and start getting to work on this and exposing it. Why are they rubber stamping this? It does seem like if you have a name that starts with Muhammad and you apply for a daycare or a home

health care role or a health care company or the Somali Education Resource Center that there's like this wink and a nod that you're just going to get everything that you want right away and nobody's going to ask any questions there's going to be no diligence done you're looking at a 42 million dollar door here 42 million dollars has poured into this organization i believe that's you in front of the door uh nobody's checked that if i venmoed you right now me heck 6001 dollars then the IRS would be breathing down my neck to explain why. Yet $42 million can go to this dump of the door and nobody asked a question about it? Well, let's be honest here. We went to four different addresses for the Somalian Education Resource Center. And finally, the fourth one, voila. You not only saw their

$42 million door, but the rest of the building, most of it was home health care services. Nobody was in there. Nobody really wanted to talk to us. But I'll tell you exactly why these places aren't getting audited. It's because we will be called racist. You already saw it in one of the videos where I got cornered by three Somalian men that said, you're Indian, you're not white. Well, I'm sorry, I don't care what I am. Fraud is not acceptable in the United States of America, but they are shocked that somebody like me, an immigrant, could call this out because they think we're all one and the same. We're not. We're actually American first. If you come to this country, you follow the laws. And if you don't follow the laws, then you're going to get audited and you're

going to get prosecuted. And I hope if you have a visa here, it gets thrown out and you get deported. But it's shocking to me that so many people are terrified still about the racist word. And I have to be honest, Benny, most of these places, the home health care and daycares, they're owned by Somalians. There's no targeting here. This is the nature of the business. This is the business they put themselves in. And when they're unwilling to answer basic questions and you're following me in a building and you're screaming at me, well, I have more questions then. Here's a thing that I can't square, Mack. How is it that you can run a business with no customers, with no clients, with no children? How is it that it's easier to find the foremost powerful communist dictator in our hemisphere than it is to find an actual child in a Somali daycare? Well, I think that there's been an audit process that is just a rubber stamp. I think officials go in. They see.

issues in a daycare, including child record attendance, which is a massive problem in many of these daycares. And then they come back three to four months later. There's no check intermittently. And when I'm reading feces, bottles aren't being washed, unsanitary conditions, how are you even open? How are you even allowed to operate for the state to come back? That's when you get shut down. So there's a process that is wrong here. We have to audit our audit process. That's the problem here. We have a compliance issue. And I did go to a few daycare. where they had children. They invited me in.

They said, as long as you don't record us, have the conversation with us. They had children there. Some of them were saying, Mom, it's okay to take care of your child at a daycare, but they were open, they were transparent, and they were willing to talk to me about the process. The ones I have a problem with are when a man is just bum rushing me at a door

and physically assaulting me. There's no children in there, and he's hiding something. Here we have the clip. Actually, my producers just said, look at this. I should go back there. Let's go ahead and see this. Look at this.

Yeah, let's hear it. Get back, get back, get back, get back. Don't touch me, don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Oh, wow. These are the kind of people that you want watching your kids. This is your, this is your classic, the classic, the face of child care right there.

Look at this. Yeah, it's scary, Betty. And I love when people say there's a no trespassing on the door. Look, I'm an attorney, and I'll tell you right now, no trespassing. No trespassing. You need an invitation. But I knocked. There was a click, which means they've unlocked the door. You should lock your doors if you don't want people coming in. And I knocked and I was just going to ask about rates. So to be screamed at berated and then physically pushed, unacceptable. We're just out here asking questions. We never alleged fraud. But it makes you think, what are they hiding? There weren't any children in there. Well, yeah, that's right. I'm a small business owner. If you come to my small business and if you are not trying, to kill us, if you don't have a gun, then expect a warm greeting, right? Like we have a small business. You know, obviously we've dealt with some death threats and so on. And so we do our best to stay, you know, to be secure and protected. But if you go to any other small business in

America, any legitimate business in America, you are going to often be met with, could you become a potential customer of mine. I mean, that's the purpose of all small business, whether you're selling a hamburger or a new sports car. Could, can I bring you in and sell you my services? But if you try and get any of the services from these small daycares, they'll scream at you, assault you, and then call the cops, which I guess like tells you the whole story there, like already, right? Like, that's the whole story. They're not legitimate businesses. Many of them, there's allegations of fraud. And when you have several, police officers that are telling me they have never seen a child go in and out. When the entire

community is doing a wink and nod, I'm asking, why don't we have a stronger audit process? And I just saw that the governor's office did put out a letter through the Department of Youth Services asking for attendance records. Okay, that's a great start. But let me tell you something about attendance records that I found out. You can actually backdate because I asked a really nice lady, a Somalian lady, as I entered, I said, hey, I just have a question. What do you do with attendance records. Let's say I forgot to put my child through the system and log in my phone number and do a facial recognition. She said, oh, we can just backdate that. No big deal. The state allows us to do that. So again, guys, there's so many loopholes here. So there's not only a compliance issue,

there's an audit issue. And then to tell the American public that everything's okay, and this is a cost of business, it's unacceptable in Ohio and every other state. We have continued to rubber stamp and accept the status quo. And if it was your money or my money, by all me, means we can spend it exactly how we want, but this is taxpayer dollars. As we're stretching dollars to pay for our children to go to school and daycare, I mean, I've talked to women, Benny, who want more kids and they're like, how do I afford this? I didn't know I could set up a scam daycare and get paid to sit at my home and just pretend I'm taking care of children. This is insane. And it's not just daycare. It's every welfare system from home health care.

Every time government money goes out, we have done nothing to think about what are the loopholes and who's actually taking advantage of Americans today? And so you have independent journalists and attorneys that are asking questions and suddenly we're met with assaults screaming and then a government that says there's nothing to see here. In conclusion here, how would you fix this in the state of Ohio, state of Minnesota? I think there's obviously the problem has been isolated. We've been able to see these are all fake companies that are, fleecing the taxpayers and stealing the funds. So what would you do to fix it? I think that seems

to be the main question as people begin to sort of spiral. And I don't like seeing it, but it's true. There's like a black pill going on where people are saying, why am I paying taxes? You know, why am I part of this system? Is that the American dream, so that some off the boat, Somali, who hates our country can become a multi-millionaire overnight? That's why I pay taxes for 50 years, work my fingers to the bone, nights, weekends, 30% of my paycheck goes to taxes for these people. No way. Not me. Yeah. So what do you do to fix that?

You're talking to a legal immigrant who came here legally and our family has followed every rule. This is what we do. We get prosecutors involved from the DOJ in the U.S. Attorney's Office who sit down and talk about how fraud is infiltrated because a lot of times when I go to them with the case, they're talking about the loopholes. So I want a session with the U.S. Attorney's Office and DOJ and our legislators to talk about all the loopholes. We need legislative fixes, but we also need prosecutions. If we don't prosecute and put people behind handcuffs, then we're going to continue to face a massive fraud scandal. And lastly, cut off state funding for every single state until we have an audit system that is approved and verified and is a gold standard for every state.

The minute you cut off the funding, Benny, these people are going to self-deport because they really, realize you can't live off my money or your money or anybody else's. They came here because they knew that they could game the system. And if you cut off the funnel, well, they're all going to self-deport. I think that no matter what, like the worst, like being homeless on the streets here is still better than being middle class in Somalia. So there is no such thing in Somalia. So I think I would like to believe you there.

I guess we'll see what happens. But I agree with at least 99% of that. I'm just wondering if anyone will ever choose to self-deport back to the single worst country on earth, Somalia. No politician, Mahak, has ever explained why we have so many Somalians in America, because it's indefensible, right? So, yeah. Thank you for your work. We're proud to be working with you and amplifying your work. Everybody should follow, Mahek, right here. She has 70,000 followers on X.

She's run for office here and there. maybe another political office in your future, we would love to support you in that because we need more voices like yours. Godspeed. Thank you. God bless. Ladies and gentlemen, all of all this talk about food fraud has me a little bit hungry for the food that I eat in my household, which is masa chips. Masa chips. are not fraud, is something that is 100% real. In fact, we just got our new box of Masa chips last night. And they're going like hotcakes in the Johnson household.

They're the only chip allowed in the Johnson household. That's because, well, they are healthy. Seed oils make up 20% of the average Americans daily calories. Seed oils. That's gross. That's like gasoline. Not good for you. has really bad returns for your health, like inflammation and metabolic heart issues.

Ladies and gentlemen, make sure that you are doing something about that. One of the main vectors of seed oils is junk food, and a lot of people eat chips, and they're packed with them. So swap out your bad, disgusting, bad for you chips for something that is good with three ingredients, corn, sea salt, and 100% grass-fed beef at tallow. Masa chips don't just taste better. They're better for you, and you feel great after eating them. Give Maza a try.

Go to MasaChips.com. slash Benny and use the code Benny for 25% off your order. Masa chips.com slash Benny, 25% off your order. All right, ladies and gentlemen, you can also find Masa chips, by the way, at Sprout's Market. I don't live too far from a Sprout's Market. Pick up a bag on the shelf. It's great to see it.

Leading into our next guest, I want to talk a little bit more about the fraud in California. So our friend Steve Hilton was out yesterday with a new report, $250 billion worth of fraud. This makes what's happening in Minnesota looks like child's play. Here's Steve Hilton announcing that he is also leading in the governor's, in the most recent governor's poll of likely voters in California. At close to 20%, it's obviously a jungle primary, and you got a lot of candidates that are in the race right now. Steve Hilton's doing great. Here's Steve's press conference, at least a snippet from you from yesterday.

Gavin Newsom and the corrupt Democrat machine have turned California into califraudia. Califraudia. And what we're announcing today is that based on a review of state budgets, based on an analysis of whistleblower tips to the tip line that we set up on December the 3rd last year, Califraud.com, we estimate that the fraud in California in Gavin Newsom's Califraudia is $250 billion, $250 billion of our money flushed down the toilet. Man, this is crazy. Here's the New York Post article on this. California risks $250 billion fraud.

GOP candidate's claim after collecting whistleblower tips. California could be losing a staggering $250 billion in taxpayer cash through rampant fraud, waste and abuse. Califrodia, tip line damning review of the Golden States bloated welfare system. In parallel with Steve Hilton, we have our own tip line. That's fraud at bennie Johnson.com. Again, we will be heading to California next week to do. an expose

on this and also to investigate ourselves. We've gotten a ton of tips. The tip line has been flooded.

We've gotten thousands of emails and we are going to be heading out with members of the Trump administration

and then doing our own investigation. We go into the Palisades. I think that we're going to be focusing on

homeless funds in California, the Palisades rebuilding funds and on the fraud that has occurred with the

high-speed rail. This is just so hilariously memeable. But to the letter, billions and billions and billions of dollars in fraud, making again Minnesota look like child's play. This was

a fascinating bit on Fox News yesterday about ghost daycares. The same thing that was found in Ohio with Mehek and with Nick in Minnesota and Minneapolis you can recreate it in California here we go researching reports of inspections of daycare centers and I found ghost daycares we're talking about reported enrollment of 27 students but zero kids present when the inspectors

actually arrived ghost daycares that's not unlike what we heard about in Minnesota so California is sort of the Vatican of the left It's the most utopic enactment of leftist policies. So I can only assume this isn't limited to ghost daycares. It's also one of the biggest in population and budget states in the country. So I would have to think there's potential for massive fraud. There's massive fraud. There's the homeless industrial complex.

But back to childcare, we're literally talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that are funding free daycare for children, that are not even being served. It's outrageous. And they're talking about raising our taxes and pushing us out of the state to make it totally completely unaffordable. That is the Restore San Diego chairwoman.

We've been working with her behind the scenes. Also, to get sort of a perspective of fraud before we head out so that we can be very strategic in what we are covering. Christy Nome, not being very subtle, But being quite strategic saying, listen, this is what's going to be the focus of DHS in order to try and fix internally what we have going on in America. As the external has been fixed now, is the focus on domestic policies. We promised you at the end of the last year this was what was going to be happening.

We saw it from the inside with the administration telling us and signaling that this is where they are going to go. And here it is. The governor of California says, bring it on. Oh, we'll be there. We think that this is just the tip of the iceberg. So Minnesota is unbelievable what we've seen, but it is leading us to networks all over the country and overseas, and we're going to follow every single one of them.

Homeland Security Investigations is an incredible team of individuals who go after human traffickers, sex traffickers, but the fraud that we have in our public programs that are tied to California, absolutely. We're going to come to you, Governor Newsom, and we're going to arrest every single individual that has ties to this kind of ceiling of taxpayer dollars and we will hold them accountable.

President Trump yesterday, and we have an excellent guest and we're looking forward to speaking with him. He's getting set right now. Coming up in just one moment, most successful realtor in the world, actually, we'll be joining our program. California voter ID, President Trump,

talking about the massive fraud. If there's fraud from the welfare system, there's clearly going to be fraud in the election system. Here's Trump from yesterday. There's the sign, and he wasn't the president. First of all, the election was rigged. You ought to have voter ID. You would to insist on it.

You want to insist on it. Can you imagine? In California, they not only don't have voter ID, but if an official at the voting booths, which they don't have, by the way, because it's all male, if an official, a voting official, even asks somebody for voter ID. Sir, I'd like to see your identification.

Do you come from our country? They put them in jail. Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be the focus in 26. Now that Minnesota is in wholesale collapse, we move to California. And speaking of collapse, let's talk to Aaron Kerman,

who is a Beverly Hills-based real estate agent. He's the CEO of Christie's in Southern California. He's one of the most successful real estate agents in the world. He sold billions of dollars worth of properties. And he's pissed off about what's happening in the Pacific Palisades. He joins us now from the Pacific Palisades. Aaron, welcome to the program. It looks like you have quite the background there. That looks like a ruin. Are you in Europe? It looks like a ruin from some old ancient civilization. It is a ruin from old Europe. It is absolutely terrible what we're seeing here in California right now. It is mass failures on all sides. The state of California has failed

the residents of the Pacific Palisades, and people are pissed. So yeah, you would know a lot about this, given the fact that you've sold, am I correct in this, billions of dollars of real estate in California? To be exact, 24 billion. All right. I'm sure plenty of that in the Pacific Palisades. Is that correct a lot in the palisades this is one of the main areas that we focused on and at one point it was obviously one of the most beautiful communities in the world arguably and so you would know better than perhaps anyone what happened there so why don't we start with that like what exactly happened in the why did things get so bad that hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and billions of dollars has been lost yeah i mean obviously it's a systemic failure on

behalf of the government the government failed the people of the palisades. This fire never should have happened and didn't need to happen. There were no systems in place to protect the people. And as a result, billions of dollars were lost. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes. And not only did it happen,

but the system and the government failed to people because there's been no procedures and no systems in place to get them moving. Because at the end of the day, people want to move back. people want their homes and people want to come back to their communities now we heard last this time last year exactly one year ago to to the day or the week that there would be this unbelievable herculean effort in order to get people building again they would cut all the red tape they'd

fund the constructions and they'd cancel all the penalties and so on and that just hasn't happened is that correct nothing has happened um it's been red tape it's been slow uh there's There's been one house that has a certificate of occupancy today. People are continued to get caught up in red tape. Twelve percent of the people that applied for building permits have gotten them. It's been slow. It's been really terrible and it's been devastating for the community. And the community is demanding that the government step in and actually do what they say

that they were going to do, which is get the red tape out so that they could get home and come back to the community that they love. What do you think is going on here then? Because these are just obvious and egregious lies, right, by Karen Bass and by Gavin Newsom. Nothing but lies. I mean, nothing's been done. To give you an example of one of the reasons people are absolutely furious is measure ULA. And that's a tax that the government taxes when anything sells above, you know, the $4.5 million mark.

And that's a 4 to 5.5% tax. Today, if anybody sells a lot because they can't afford to rebuild, the government is still charging them. at four to five percent tax and it's completely unacceptable and it shows that the government is profiting on people's loss which is devastating for the community and obviously shows that there's a big problem and systemically the things that should have been done are not being done how pissed off are people in this area i mean how angry are your old customers or people that would want to buy or purchase or did purchase real estate here you know how angry are they And I just say this as somebody who gets a lot of emails and a lot of text messages.

Rage is one of the more common terms that I would use, the truly enraged. 100%. And rightfully so. There was one of the largest natural disasters in history in the filesides. And the government had an opportunity to step in, cut the red tape, do what they needed to do to get people moving back into the home and the community that they love. And nothing has been done. And the rage is deserved, and it needs to change, and it needs to change immediately. The government needs to step in, you know, there's a protest today at 10.30, and they're demanding 10 points. And the 10 points are points that should have been done on day one of the fire.

Very simple things. Don't charge, you know, the ULA tax, you know, transparency in the process. Let's make sure that the utility lines are not above ground and below to make sure that other fires don't happen again. Just very basic things, and none of them have happened. And it's very sad that the community has to rally and protest against the government today because of these very basic points that are fundamental issues that should have been done day one when the fire happened. And the fact that they didn't happen is symbolic of total collapse and systematic failure on behalf of California. What is your message to Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass, who were out front promising that this wouldn't

happen and then here you are standing in front of this wreckage a year later and clearly nothing has happened you can see it live in your shot yeah i mean my message is stop lying to the people stand up for what is right help people that actually lost their homes and get the community moving again because it should have been very basic and very simple principles that would have got this community going again and the fact that it hasn't happened is a complete failure on on behalf of politics of California. And that failure needs to change immediately because at the end of the day,

people need housing and California needs housing. And they had an opportunity to really turn this around and they did it. Could you just speak on that issue? Maybe we zoom out from the Palisades and talk about the housing crisis in California. And there's like been a obvious focus on this as a realtor and as one of the more successful realtors on earth.

You know, young people, particularly, need homes and need to seize a part of the American dream. It's imperative for starting of families and getting married, and it's core to our culture. But it seems like that dream is slowly slipping away, and we would like to reverse that. We're working very closely with America First Policy Institute, for instance, in doing that. But I'd like to hear from you, like, what are some of the things that you could see to alleviate some of the downward pressure and the inability of young people in particular to get homes yeah i mean california is facing one of the largest housing crisis in america and it has been for many many many years and all of the policy that they have chosen to go down the path of has done nothing but make the problem worse not

better um you have measure uLA which is that tax but it's not only what they called or dubbed a mansion tax it's any commercial property that needs to be built so instead of developers running to build apartment buildings in California and supply more housing, the opposite effect has happened, and people have decided not to build because the margins are simply too tight. When you put the cost of land, the cost of construction, and then add taxes to that, it's impossible for people to come build. So in a city that needs housing, the city has actually done everything opposite of what they should to help get it moving.

And then on top of it, we have billions of billions of billions of dollars that have been lost. Nobody knows where it's going. Nobody knows what was done for it. And we still see continued and growing homelessness in our city. It's super problematic. And it leads to outrage and nothing but anger. And until policy changes, we're not going to see change. Yeah, it does seem really perverse and malevolent that,

Tens of billions. I think the number that I read from the state auditor is 24 billion has been spent on homelessness, but it seems like homelessness is worse than ever in L.A. Is that correct? It's worse than ever. We see homeless everywhere. I went for a jog this morning in Santa Monica. I saw 35 homeless in the two mile run that I did this morning. And that is simply unacceptable. And the people with California demand better. California is one of the best states in the nation. L.A. is an amazing city. It has so much opportunity. And the fact that we're dealing with problems and these types of problems just shows that there is a failure in terms of government. And government needs to change in order for us to get beyond, move forward and really solve the problems that we're dealing with. Yes. Final parting note to you. I mean, there's going to be a governor's race that's heating up. And, you know, obviously there was there were some candidates that were not far, left-wing. you know, leftists like Karen Bass that we're running in L.A. Do you think that there's a chance that California may finally get so sick of this that the rage may build up and people may actually, you know, choose a different path electorally? I really hope and pray that that's the case. I always say California is one of the best states in the nation and it deserves better. It deserves

better policy. It deserves better government. And it deserves an infrastructure of people that make the right decisions so that it can move forward. Because at the end of the day, it really is a wonderful state with a lot to offer. And instead of seeing people flee the state, we want to see people come back in. We want to see people house. And the palisades is an example of simple policy that could have happened, that could have made things easier for people. And it simply didn't, which again, systematic failure is continuing. And so we have a chance in the future to elect officials that are actually going to make the right decisions on behalf of our state. And I hope that citizens choose wisely. Everyone should go follow Aaron Kerman, who is, again, one of the best real estate

agents, most successful real estate agents on earth. I'm not sure how many in this audience are looking to buy in Beverly Hills or in California. You can't buy in the Palisade, sadly. But this is a man. Like, I also hope, Aaron, that you run for mayor of LA, maybe. Let me, let me correct you. You can find the palisades. With the right policy, we will get things changed. Palisades will be back. California will be great again. And as long as we just get the right elected officials and or changes, we can get there. I love that optimism. Godspeed and good luck with your march today. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, don't sleep on this show.

We have some live, a live press conference from the White House. But you should sleep every night when you go to bed. I go to bed at 9 o'clock. I have a 9 to 5. I do 9 to 5 schedule. I go to bed at 9. And I wake up at 5. And it's awesome.

Get a chance to get a workout in. I sleep like a baby. I have quite a few babies, actually, at my home. And they sleep like babies as well. I have a lot on my mind, and part of the way that I put myself to sleep and into a dark, dark slumber is Beam Dream Sleep. It's the new year. And that means that you should be wanting the thing that leads to the most positive health outcomes. And that is good REM sleep.

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Go to shopbeam.com slash Benny Show. Use Benny Show and get my exclusive offer right now, discount code, Benny Show. You can get their best-selling dream powder for $39 a buck a day. Shopping.com slash Benny Show today. Ladies and gentlemen, our next guest, no stranger to the program, sort of the king of California, as far as we're concerned, Representative Daryl Issa, who's been talking about fraud for, well, let's just say the last 20 years, at least in the state. He's a very successful businessman himself.

Boy, he could, he were in charge. I'm sure he'd fix things. But at the very least, let's ask him about it live right now. Congressman, I think you've been waiting for this day. The boom is about to drop on your home state of California. California, both President Trump in the speech that I'm sure you were at yesterday, talking about California quite extensively, announcing that there will be investigations, and now the federal attorney announcing there will be further arrests in Los Angeles for homeless, fraud, waste, and abuse.

I just want to get sort of your 35,000-foot perspective on this, perhaps a long time coming. It is a long time coming, Benny, and thank you for having me on. And thanks for covering the fact that what Minnesota does, California. California does on steroids. The reality is that they've institutionalized forms of fraud at the state and local level. The fact is that just as we have no check in balance on who gets to vote in our elections, we have no checking of people who apply for government aid, and particularly when that aid includes federal dollars, President Trump is right to make sure that we do the investigations

and that those responsible for throwing away the federal and state tax their dollars are held account. And we're just beginning to do that with the U.S. attorney's actions. Congressman, where would you begin? Where would you advise the Trump administration? I'm sure you're working hand and glove with them on this. Where would you advise them to start when it comes to investigating the fraud in California? Well, I think the best place to look are both the high profile things like what happened to the promise after the Altadena. and Palisades fires to streamline the recovery and to use those federal dollars properly.

You know, the Corps of Engineers did their job expeditiously, the EPA did their job, and now what you have are flat pieces of land, 40% of which have been sold to investors because it's gonna take too long and cost too much for people to rebuild their homes. And by the way, the insurance company that's run by the state that everyone was forced to

isn't paying their. rightful action. So all of those are ones that are particularly important to me. I was there with the president a year ago today after those fires. But having said that, the other part is the dealing with homelessness, vast amounts of money have gone toward homelessness. It is clear that what we've been doing is enabling the drug and corruptions, enabling people to take money for housing people that don't get housed. And just many, one more on this diatribe, there's no check in balance on whether somebody really exists. So you can make filings on behalf of maybe a dozen different names, many of them names you invented,

some of them illegals, and they all get that money and that money flows wherever. So you can just make up people and the state will pay you? Because the state, because the state is decided that illegal immigrants will be paid, because the state has decided that checking is wrong. Basically, there's no requirement for real ID or an equivalent, and that means that you can make people up. And it's clear in many cases that has happened on a wholesale basis, which by the way is very similar to Minnesota.

California is obviously propped up by some pretty profitable industries that are based in California, that started in California, sort of in a different time and a different era. those businesses are being run out of town, and there's a lot of them that are leaving. And there's new billionaires tax that is just wholesale theft of somebody's private property that's now being bloated. And what's your take on that, Congressman? Well, Benny, the first take is every time they say billionaire or millionaire, it ends up being at $300,000 or $400,000 for two college graduates working hard. They end up taxed the same way.

In this case, this 5% one time is intended to hit everyone that hadn't fled before January of this year. I don't think it's going to hold up in court. But having said that, I didn't think that the LA tax on the mansions was going to hold up, but it has. And the transfer taxes that are now being added, Benny, what we're seeing in California with 13.3% income tax and 8.5% sales tax and property tax. that would be higher if not for Prop 13 is the state is now systematically finding new taxes to raise around these the lack of willingness by our voters to go further and it is driving people out and here's the real problem this is a sinking ship this beautiful state as people innovators and and people who create jobs leave what they're doing is saying well now we have a deficit

we have to raise taxes, that is the laffer curve in reverse. And all that's really gonna happen is no amount of raising will balance the budget if, in fact, the best, the brightest, and the job creators continue to leave. And that's what I'm afraid of as a longtime Californian, someone who chose to come to California in the military, well, maybe I was ordered, but chose to remain. And I love my state.

So yeah, you are obviously a successful businessman in your own right. And this billionaire's tax would most likely apply to you. I'm not saying you're a billionaire, but you're just in a, you know, you're in what they would call the 1%. And Bernie Sanders would rage against. And this just seems so communist. It just seems so collectivist that if you look through it and I did some reading on it over the break, it is actually just like property seizure. It's actually just like taking 5%.

And it's not anything having to do with capital. gains. It's not anything having to do with like offsets. It actually is just seizing property from individuals. And I don't know if we've ever seen anything like it, Congressman. Well, Betty, you know, it's a little bit like the inheritance tax where you're taxing somebody on what they've already paid taxes on in many cases. But, you know, repeated taxing because you you didn't get enough the first time. They took 13.3% when you earned it, even if it was long-term capital gains. The federal government took 37%. So that means in California, more than half of your original earnings have already been paid out in taxes. And now they say, well, you know,

what you've accumulated, we need to take 5% of it. And of course, when you die, we'll take another 40%. So the fact is this process of endlessly taxing people based on somehow if you save money, you're bad, is probably the best way to discourage people accumulating wealth. Because if in fact you fall below the margin, you beat the 5%. Well, do we really want to discourage people from saving?

I don't think so, but that's what our governor's doing. Again, I'm fearful that this new tax will stand. And I know that if it stands for a billionaire, it'll stand for a millionaire, because they'll want that 5% wealth tax every time. And by the way, Benny, our state tried to have an exit tax. And years ago, they actually tried taxing retirement, even on people who had left the state.

So this isn't new, but it is getting worse. Goodness gracious. And Gavin Newsom wants to run for president. And he is running for president. Just look at his hair. You know he's running for president. How are you gonna run with this as your record? Well, I don't know.

We have a man who ran for vice president in a state that now is the scorn, but the reality is he knew that he had this corruption, this failure. He knew he was being ripped off when he put himself on the ticket for vice president. So apparently ambition trumps any kind of reality check on whether or not you can survive the scrutiny

of the voters when the time comes. Just a final question. here, Congressman, because it seems like you're that what happened in Minnesota is going to happen in California. We are set to it. We are going to be traveling to California with some members of the Trump administration, but then also doing our own parallel investigation on fraud. I think it'll be very, very easy to uncover. I think it will blow out of the water, anything that was found in Minneapolis. And we have a lot of whistleblowers and a lot of tips from people inside of the federal inside of the government inside of the state government state employees town

officials our inbox is flooded right now tips again broad um do you think that there's going to come a time when californians are going to be sick of this and like an end democrat rule in the state or do you think it's too far gone well for now it's too far gone it takes a while to turns a state like ours around and one of the problems is that you know you mentioned the governor's race I suspect we will elect a Republican governor long before we turn our legislature into being pro-supportive a Republican governor. I was active in 2003 and Governor Schwarzenegger's election. And I saw for seven years the governor never having a working majority to help him do anything

to really turn around the state for long term. And so, you know, when people sometimes say, well, Schwarzenegger didn't make a difference, the voters need to vote down-ticket, too. They need to really make a difference in those who will support just common sense. I don't need them to be Republicans. I need them to use the common sense that criminals should be punished, that higher taxes are not the only way to balance a budget, that throwing away money on fraud is a mistake, that endlessly making it impossible, even to rebuild a home after a budget.

burns down without going back to square one with all new permits and cost doesn't make any sense if you're trying to attack the cost of people living in their homes. Congressman, I know we say it every single show. We hope that you run for governor one of these days. We know that you're beloved in California. You seem to be the only Republican that can not only survive, but just thrive there. And your constituents love you. You shoot straight. And, you know, you were also pretty cool. You're a bomb tech, right? In the military? I can certainly keep all my fingers after working in EOD. There's just kind of how we judge it is, you know, how many fingers and toes do you have left after a few years of bomb disposal. But look, remaining calm will others panic

is one of the challenges in politics. You know, politicians often do two things well, nothing at all and overreact. What California needs is a steady hand. that simply says, here's a problem, let's fix it. If our governor would use his investigative capability and actually go after the waste, make executive orders that said, look, I want you to make sure that if someone makes a claim, you go out there and make sure there's actually a building

and the count on people they claim they're helping matches. That's pretty cheap, and it could save billions very quickly. It could have saved Minnesota. It could, in fact, save many billions of dollars in California. And with the deficit we have, we could use that. We could absolutely use that. I'm sure you were pretty proud of the EOD techs that were with Delta Force over the weekend. Snashing up Maduro.

Trump says they were ready to blow the doors off of a field vault. They didn't need to. They didn't need to because they got them ahead of time. No, I'm very proud of the men and women on the air and the ground. What they did was miraculous. The fact that they came home with no loss of life. just minimum damage to an aircraft, is a show of a lot of things. But most importantly, what it is is to show that this president is willing to assert power

to stem the flow of drugs into this country and around the world. And, you know, the reason that President Maduro is on trial in New York is because of drugs that did get to the United States. And I hope all of your listeners would really understand that you don't get indicted in the United States because cocaine went to Europe, you get indicted in the United States because you've been part of a, since 2011 at least, an organization that helped facilitate drugs that did come to the United States. Yes. I think that we do in fact understand that as the open of the show, how important it is for American Empire to act like a superpower again. And I think there's

the first time in my lifetime that that's really happened. And it's a great to see. It gives young people a lot of hope. It's why military recruitment, And optimism among young people is at record highs for my lifetime. And I think yours, Congressman. Everybody follow the Congressman. Godspeed here. We've got 235,000 followers here on X. For the man who has a plan to save California,

Godspeed and happy new year. Happy New Year. Thanks, Benny. All right, Congress. John, we have our live from the White House address years. 77% of military age of Americans are ineligible for military service because of diet-related conditions. If a foreign adversary sought to destroy the health of our children that cripple our economy to weaken our national security, there would be no better strategy than to addict us to ultra-processed foods.

It's shocking that our own government helped to drive these cataclysmic changes in our diet. The damage is real, it is preventable, and President Trump has ordered it to end. If the United States reduced obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer's, the Japanese levels, we would save approximately $600 billion a year. About 50% of Medicare's projected long-term deficit or $5,000 per family annually. Current policy worsens the problem. 42 million Americans rely on SNAP or common purchases include sugary drinks, candy, and chips. 78% of SNAP recipients are enrolled in Medicaid, and 90% of Medicaid spending goes to chronic disease. These incentives raise health care cause and undermine health.

This must change. A new framework centers on protein and healthy fats, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. And you can see the food pyramid here. It's upside down, a lot of you will say. It was actually upside down before and we just right at it. For the first time, the dietary guidelines directly address ultra-processed foods and set firm sugar limits in federal procurement, driving a significant reduction in added sugar in school meals. I want to thank President Trump for his leadership and the partners committed to ensuring that federal food dollars support real food and better health. Thank you. And I want to introduce my partner and a friend, Brooke Rollins, who is an extraordinary collaborator on this.

Thank you. Well, good morning, everyone. Happy New Year. What a honor to be here. I think this is Caroline's first press conference back. And what a great way to start the new year, 2026. I want to thank Secretary Kennedy, your commitment. to the well-being of Americans is such a blessing to this nation.

We have been working on these new dietary guidelines, really since almost day one. Bobby and I were voted on on the same day and sworn in on the same day, so I think the partnership from Minute One has been real and extraordinary. As Secretary Kennedy mentioned, America is in the middle of the worst chronic health crisis in our nation's history. Over 40% of the roughly 73 million children in the United States have at least one chronic health condition. And nearly 90% of health care spending goes toward treating people with chronic disease. Secretary Kennedy mentioned that, but it is really important to keep underscoring that fact.

This crisis is unacceptable. It prevents Americans from living healthy and happy lives. And for decades, decades under both Republicans and Democrats, federal incentives have promoted low-quality, highly processed foods and pharmaceutical interventions instead of prevention. As a result, nutrient-dense whole foods grown by America's farmers and ranchers have been increasingly displaced. The Trump administration is acutely aware of this danger, and today this announcement is making a major step in doing something about it. Thankfully, the solution is simple and should be non-controversial.

Eat real food. This is the main message of the new dietary guidelines for Americans 2025 to 2030, which encourage households and schools to prioritize whole nutrient-dense foods. That means more protein, more dairy, more healthy fats, more whole grains, more fruits and vegetables, whether they are fresh, frozen, canned, or dried. We are finally putting real food back at the center of the American diet, real food that nourishes the body, restores health, fuels energy, and builds strength. This pivot also leans into the abundant, affordable, and healthy food supply already available from America's incredible farmers and ranchers.

By making milk, raising cattle, and growing wholesome fruits, vegetables, and grains, they hold the key to solving our national health crisis. And President Trump is mobilizing government to ensure families across America have greater access to these healthy foods. In the past 12 months, inflation has slowed and wages have risen for the first time in five years. Under President Trump's leadership, prices for everyday staples are declining and more help is on the way. Recent data show that fruits, vegetables, dairy, and proteins, including eggs, pork and ground beef, becoming even more affordable every day for our American people. American households enjoy the most affordable and abundant food in the world, and today's

release only reinforces that reality. A healthy meal is within reach for all American families. These new dietary guidelines are a framework, which is meant to be customized to meet the needs, the preferences, and the financial status of all American families. For example, a meal including such items as pork or eggs or whole milk or cheese, tomatoes, other fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, whole grain bread, corn tortilla can cost today right around $3 for that meal. $3. And soon USDA will finalize our stocking standards, which means that those businesses at America that take the SNAP benefit, what they are required to stock in order to take that benefit.

By the way, that's almost 250,000 retailers across America, that very soon we will be finalizing that rule that will mandate all 250,000 retailers in America, double the type of staple foods that they provide for America's SNAP households. This means healthier options will be in reach for all American families, regardless of circumstance, at levels never seen before in our country. These dietary guidelines are foundational to so many USDA programs, and their introduction marks the first step in connecting America's schools and dinner plates to the best of American agriculture. Make no mistake, under President Trump's leadership, we are restoring common sense, we are restoring scientific integrity, and we are restoring accountability to federal food and health policy. The new guidelines are all about putting the well-being of Americans first.

exactly where it should have been all along. This is the foundation that will make America healthy again, not just for those of us alive today, but for our children and our children's children and those coming behind. I want to end by saying, God bless American families. God bless the American farmer and rancher, and God bless America. What an honor now to introduce another great partner in this incredible work, and that is Dr. Mehmet Oz.

Thank you. Congratulations, Secretary Rollin, Secretary Kennedy, and do want to express my appreciation for what the President has done overall to increase the affordability of health care. The biggest accomplishment, perhaps, for the health system, the ability to drop down prices last year was the most favored nation drug prices that Caroline mentioned. These are incredibly effective at reducing the costs, for example, of what the President calls the fat shot, the Olympic GOP1's category of Medicaid. We dropped them dramatically, but the best way to reduce drug spend in America is to not need the drugs in the first place. What you're hearing today with these dietary guideline adjustments are going to be massively effective and not just dropping the need for us to buy these weight loss drugs, but by the expensive drugs for autoimmune problems. We have evidence that food is medicine when it comes to conditions for various mental health issues from Alzheimer's and depression to fundamental realities of how children's learn in school. or in school. So the question then becomes, what is this actually going to do in dollars and

cents? And I had the group at CMS run some numbers for us to try to give you concrete assessments of how much this will drop the spend that the federal taxpayer must make for Medicare and Medicaid. And I'm more optimistic today that ever, that we can address the critical, the fast rising rate of health care expenses in America because of movements like this. Right now, we're increasing health expenditures in America at roughly twice the rate of the GDP growth. We will correct that if we can get America to be healthier because you can't be a wealthy nation without being a healthy nation. So two numbers for you to remember. The first is 30 billion. Why? 30% of health care costs are directly attributable to obesity. I'm not talking about indirect

associated expenses, which are also present, but at a very conservative number, 30% are directly attributed to obesity. That's about $300 billion a year for just Medicare, just Medicare. If we were to affect obesity by 10%, which is an incredibly conservative. and justifiable assumption that has been born out in evidence-based dietary experiments and trials. Just that alone is $30 billion of reduction of expenses for Medicaid, for Medicare rather. That's also obviously correlated with Medicaid reduction

in spending, and Medicaid is a different opportunity. Because in Medicaid, we educate children. 53% of children in America are covered by Medicaid or CHIP. And we have programs to teach kids and their parents what to eat, how to eat, and how to make these dietary guidelines guidelines the Secretary Ronald and Secretary Kennedy have crafted with their teams into practice. It will dramatically change the natural history of how children are able to participate in life. But let me give you even one last number. If we're able to get the average American

who today retires on average at age 61, get them just to work one year longer because they feel so vital, so strong, so bullish about their future because they're feeding their bodies, nutrients that are essential to their high-functioning productivity, we will increase the overall GDP of our nation by trillions of dollars. So we will reduce health care expenses. At the same time, we jazz up the U.S. economy with trillions of dollars created by the productivity of American workers. God bless you both for making the DGA feasible

and making it perhaps the wisest investment we could make in our communities. Marty McCarrie is one of my closest friends, the powerful leader of the FDA who's been taking brave steps along the line and has additional insights. Thanks. Thank you, Dr. Oz. Today marks the beginning of the end of an era of medical dogma on nutrition. For decades, we've been fed a corrupt food pyramid that has had a myopic focus on demonizing natural, healthy, saturated fats, telling you not to eat eggs and steak and ignoring a giant blind spot.

Refined carbohydrates, added sugars, ultra-processed food. This study in JAMA now shows that 60% to 70% of kids are getting their calories from ultra-processed foods. That's an epidemic. We now have a generation of kids addicted to refined carbohydrates, low in protein. They are literally nitrogen negative because we've used old flawed studies that used urine, to estimate body protein metabolism, and they missed the mark. The old guidelines had such a low protein recommendation that we are increasing that by 50 to 100 percent.

Kids need protein. The old protein guidelines were to prevent starvation and withering away. These new protein guidelines are designed for American kids to thrive, and they're based on science, not on dogma. We have 40% of our kids now with a chronic disease. It is not their fault. This is something that is the result of bad advice from the government and a medical establishment that for decades peddled research from a flawed 1960s model. Today we are setting the record straight.

This is not a willpower problem of our nation's kids. This is something adults have done to kids and we're going to fix it. And so, as Dr. Ross said, the best way to lower drug prices is for people to stop taking drugs they don't need. We are going to finally address the root causes of our broken health care system, insulin resistance and general body inflammation advanced by the protein poor, micronutrient poor, ultra-processed, refined carbohydrate diet that kids are addicted to today. And so on behalf of the food and drug administration, we are proud to be a part of this. We are grateful to be contributing to this work. Thank you, Secretary Rollins. Thank you, Kyle Diamantis, are the best deputy commissioner for food at the FDA.

The agency has ever had. This is a historic day in America. Thank you, Caroline. Thank you. Thank you. I hope everyone's inspired to go eat a salad for lunch after this briefing. If anybody has questions on this topic, we will take a few and then we'll get into the topic. We'll start with our new media seat.

If you have a question on this topic today, Jamie Franklin, she comes from the conservator. Why don't you kick us off? First of all, Caroline, congratulations on your pregnancy. We're so excited for you. Matt and moms across the country, including myself, are just so excited by what this administration is doing to make our kids healthy again. But, you know, we do have concerns when it comes to these new states pushing back on a lot of progress that we're making as an individual. administration and particularly we're really excited that you guys were guys and streamlined this vaccine schedule however what we have seen is that these blue states whether it be you know no tax on tips

no tax on overtime or pushing back on immigration they continue to stop your guys as progress so what has been the response from these blue states because as maha mom's enrolling our kids at school this is a big issue and we celebrate what you guys are doing but we want to have it you know even in the blue states as well i mean my hope is that we only released these earlier two days earlier i'm sorry also high in protein that's an interesting that is a good thing to eat everybody they only released or the new uh vaccine scheduled two days ago the vaccine schedule there's nothing compulsory in it. Everybody, I've always promised, I'm not going to take people's vaccines away from them. People who want to get vaccines, everybody who wants them can get

all of the vaccines that were on the old schedule. It will all be paid for by the vaccines for children program or for the insurance the same as before. We release guidelines that we think are optimal to public health. They're the same core vaccines that are required by the European community. And those nations all have much better health outcomes than we do. And they're based on their best science and also on their conviction that when you put too many vaccines of the program, it actually reduces compliance.

It reduces uptake. And so we want to maximize the uptake of vaccines by making sure that Americans know So we are making recommendations that are science-based, that are common sense, that are grounded in science. And right now, that's the best science that we have. And again, there's three categories of vaccine. One is the core schedule, which resembles the European countries. The second is for people who have vulnerabilities for high risk, and that doesn't change at all. And then the third is shared decision-making, which any vaccine,

vaccine that was on the old schedule, you can continue to get. People will make their own choices, and that's what democracy is about. I ask the boss, Caroline, for permission to add a little bit to this because I think it's really important. By the way, Jamie, what a superstar you are. It's so fun to see you in this seat, Jamie Franklin. The Blue State question is a really important one. And for those of us that are running agencies with these programs, I mean, I've talked to a lot of you already about how we have 22 blue states that won't give us their snap data so that we can figure out and ensure that those who really need these programs are actually getting these programs. Clearly, you all

have been writing about Minnesota. California is next. We're looking at New York, some other states. The amount of fraud in all of these programs is absolutely stunning. And the challenge is, I mean, from Medicaid, et cetera, I know Dr. Oz, you've talked a lot about that. This is a significant problem. And I think who's really harmed in all of this conversation and when these blue states aren't partnering with us to try to do this right is we say blue states and red states, but in those states, there are all kinds of our citizenry and that aren't all Democrat or aren't all Republican. We had a poll that just came out that had about 85% of all Americans believe that states should turn their data over on SNAP so that we can figure out where the fraud is

and ensure these programs are going where they need to go. So my request of these blue states and these blue state governors is partner with us. Let us figure out how to do this better. Let us make sure that whether it's the vaccine schedule or the SNAP program or the Medicaid program or the child care program, that we are doing everything we can to protect every tax dollar, but to also ensure those who need it the most, the most vulnerable in our society are getting the programs they need versus those who, A, are not even supposed to be here or B are cheating the system. Thank you, Caroline. One of the changes that was made had to do with alcohol.

Secretary Kennedy or Dr. Oz, could you explain the science behind the new language on not saying two drinks for men and one drink for a woman every day would be healthy and whether or not the industry had an impact on the language of moderation versus just saying alcohol is not healthy and you shouldn't drink it? So alcohol is a social lubricant that brings people together. In the best case scenario, I don't think you should drink alcohol. But it does allow people an excuse to bond and socialize. And there's probably nothing healthier than having a good time with friends in a safe way.

If you look at the blue zones, for example, around the world where people live the longest. Alcohol is sometimes part of their diet. Again, small amounts taken very judiciously and usually in a celebratory fashion. So there is alcohol on these dietary guidelines, but the implication is don't have to have it for breakfast. There should be something done a small amount with hopefully some kind of an event that might have alcohol at it. But they general move away from two glasses of men, one glass of wind. There was never really good data to support that that quantity of alcohol consumption. That data was probably primarily confused with broader data about social

connectedness. Take a couple more. John. Thanks a lot, Caroline. Secretary Rollins, I'm curious about with these guidelines. They're not mandates, their guidelines. What are the practical effects of these guidelines on public schools all across the country? Well, today begins that, thank you, John, it's good to see. Today begins the first day now in a recalibration of the rules, whether it's school lunches, whether it's the SNAP program, whether it's as veterans were mentioned, our prison system, that now we begin the process of implementing and redrafting the rules to reflect what this new dietary guidelines for

Americans actually is doing to our food system. So there is a lot of work to do. Nothing changes overnight. But as I think we've proven this administration moves very, very quickly on all fronts, seven days a week, 365 days a year. And so you'll begin to see some real changes coming very soon. As everyone is aware, for many of our most vulnerable in the margins in our communities, the school lunch is often the best place for our children to get the healthiest meal. Hopefully with stocking standards and reworking snap and the snap waivers we've done, that begins to change too. But right now that is going to be the single most important, from my perspective, move forward is the school lunches and making sure that we're getting the right amount, the best amount, most nutrient-dense foods into the schools.

Thank you. We also mentioned Secretary Rollins cost when you had your remarks a little bit earlier. Is eating healthier more cost-effective? Is it cheaper than just having a diet of processed foods? I had a whole chart to show you, but left it in the back, unfortunately, that yes, indeed, that eating healthy, for the most part, we've got 100 simulations, is actually less expensive. The challenge comes is the access to those healthy foods, especially in parts of America where they have food deserts. They don't have a H.E.B. or a Kroger or a central market. These are all Texan grocery stores, but whatever is similar, similar across the country. But that is why the stocking standards in SNAP are so important. So if you have a economically challenged family, and the only place they're getting their food is the 7-Eleven.

We have a longer-term important policy priority, and that is getting grocery stores into these lower-margin communities. but for now requiring those retailers, those 250,000 retailers across America to double their stocking of healthier foods. That will allow us to immediately get these better foods into all communities, but especially the most vulnerable. Thank you, John. Let me just add something. Brooke and I are working on a program. Affordability is the priority for the president. And we know we have to make it easy and accessible. for healthy foods for every American.

And we believe we can do that. We think affordable food was in reach of every American family. We are working on an education and information program. I will allow American families all over the country to come onto our website and find healthiest foods at the lowest cost for themselves. And also just add this, the idea at

A cheap meal made of processed food is cheap, is an illusion. As you're paying for it on the back end, you're paying for with diabetes, with obesity, with illness. And if you internalize that cause the meal, it would be a tiny fraction of the long-term cost of eating bad food. We'll take one more in the white blazers.

Caroline, Secretary of Kennedy, you mentioned healthy fats, but also ending the war on saturated fats. Can you clarify how much saturated fats Americans should be consuming? I don't know. I already think that since he wrote a book. The old dog by the 1960s when Eisenhower had his heart attack and Ansel Key said it was the saturated fat. That's never been substantiated.

And so that flawed research has become dogma over the years. And eventually the conversation was sidelined. In this new guidance, we are telling young people, kids, schools, you don't need to tiptoe around fat and dairy. You don't need to push low fat milk to kids. And we are maintaining the 10% of calories as saturated fat in the guidance. The real issue is protein, the fact that 60 to 70% of the calories of kids today in America is ultra-processed food. These are the issues that have become giant blind spots where we're now putting attention.

And we hope that there are conversations in every school board and America. In every church and synagogue and house of worship, every home in America will now have conversations. We've got to talk about school lunch programs, not just putting six-year-olds on Ozzympic. Food can be curative. We've got to talk about the microbiome and fiber and healthy whole grains and the good soil that food comes from and the healthy, clean waters and good farming techniques. So that's the focus of this guidance. Thank you. Some of you may be wondering why Dr. Carson is here. He is our national nutrition advisor working alongside secretary kennedy and he's played a big role in this effort so i want to thank you so

much dr carson for being here today and thank all of you for being here today i know you're all very busy people and these people have a lot of questions on things other than diet i'm sure so i'm going to get to work and thank you guys so much for coming thanks everybody thank you so we'll get an actual are we going to get a press conference out of this yes okay all right we already had like a little press conference but here we go this is uh now open questions anyone have any questions That don't have to do with the food pyramid. Rachel, how don't you start? Thank you, Caroline.

The president has been adamant that he is now in charge of Venezuela. But Delti Rodriguez said the government of Venezuela runs for country, no one else saying, quote, there's no external agent governing Venezuela. So which one is it? Let me just be very clear. This is the first time that I've addressed Venezuela from the podium since being back and since the historic and incredibly successful military operation, law enforcement operation conducted by our United States.

military that you all saw and the world witnessed last week. The skill, the might of the United States military and our country under the leadership of this president is on full display to the rest of the world. And let's just set the record straight. There isn't another military in the world who could have pulled off this operation. There is not another president in the world or in our nation's history who had the courage to authorize such a mission. And I think the world has taken notice that America is truly back. With respect to Venezuela, the Trump administration led by Secretary Rubio, the vice president and the president's entire national security team, is in close correspondence with the interim authorities in Venezuela. We obviously have maximum leverage

over the interim authorities in Venezuela right now, and the president has made it very clear that this is a country within the United States, the Western Hemisphere, close by the United States that is no longer going to be sending illegal drugs to the United States of America. It's no longer going to be sending and trafficking illegal people in criminal cartels to kill American citizens as they have in the past. And the president is fully deploying his peace through strength foreign policy agenda. So we're continuing to be in close coordination with the interim authorities and their decisions are going to continue to be dictated by the United States of America. Just one follow up when you talk about that leverage there.

Venezuelan government fully committed to turning over its oil to the United States indefinitely, and what happens if they do not? Well, as you saw the president announced last night, this was a deal. This was a deal made by the president and his team with the Venezuelan interim authorities. This will benefit both the American people and the Venezuelan people. And Secretary Wright and the Department of Energy are working with the interim authorities and also with the private oil industry to execute on this historic energy deal. That's not only good for the United States, but it's also going to revive the prosperity, the safety, the security of both the United States and Venezuela as well. Ed. Following up on the oil part of this, the 30 to 50 million barrels of oil,

how exactly is that going to work? You're getting it out of Venezuela into the United States? Yes, that's exactly right. So as you know, Ed, as the president announced last night, this was the sanctioned oil that was basically just sitting in barrels, sitting on ships because of the effective quarantine of the United States of America. And the interim authorities have agreed to release that oil to the United States, so it will be arriving here at home very soon. The United States government has already begun marketing Venezuelan crude oil in the global marketplace for the benefit of the United States engage the world's leading commodity marketers, key banks to execute and provide financial support for these crude oil and crude product

sales. All proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil and products will first settle in U.S. controlled accounts at globally recognized banks to guarantee the legitimacy and integrity of the ultimate distribution of proceeds and those funds will be dispersed for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people at the discretion of the United States government. It sounds like it requires a lot of private sector engagement and agreement from the oil industry and the banking industry. Do you have that yet? There's a lot of private sector engagement that's happening right now. As you know, Secretary Wright, our energy secretary who's heading up this big project is in Florida today meeting with some of these oil executives. And as we confirm,

earlier. They will also be at the White House later this week. So they are absolutely eager to invest. They're eager about these opportunities. And the Secretary Wright is a very well-knowledgeable guy when it comes to oil and energy, and he's the perfect man for the job. Another corner of the world. I'll go ahead. So just to follow up on the oil, 30 to 50 million barrels is an initial trunk, if you will, and then what happens after that? I won't get ahead of the plans that the president and his team are currently speaking with the interim authorities about. But rest assured, there is a long-term plan here. Secretary Rubio and the entire team are working diligently on,

and this is just sort of the first action that you all are seeing. Ed. So in order to get these oil companies to invest billions in Venezuela, how will the U.S. reassure that their workers will be safe in Venezuela? Could there be troops involved? At this point in time, as you know, there are no troops on the ground in Venezuela. The president, of course, reserves the right to use the United States military if necessary. It's not something he wants to do.

Diplomacy is always the first option, as you saw. He tried that with Nicholas Maduro, but unfortunately he was an illegitimate dictator and an unserious person. And so President Trump authorized this law enforcement operation, and now Nicholas Maduro is sitting in a prison cell in New York. So certainly the president is going to do what's in the best interests of the American people, and that includes workers from our energy and oil industry as well. With that meeting tomorrow, with that meeting tomorrow, what is that?

is the message the president is going to give to the oil executives and what does we want to hear? Well, the meeting is on Friday, and it's just a meeting to discuss, obviously, the immense opportunity that is before these oil companies right now. Stephen. Caroline, and congratulations again. Thank you. The New Yorker had a story yesterday on the vice president, and it questioned his, quote, notable absence on Venezuela, and the subheadline asked, was the vice president's exclusion

from the operation in Venezuela in expression of his anti-execision? anti-interventionist ideology or political calculation. Would you be able to discuss the vice president's role in Venezuela policy? I did see that report in the New Yorker, and quite frankly, I laughed out loud because it's very clear. It's a fake report that's trying to so distrust in division amongst the president and his team. Let me just be very clear. The vice president has been involved in all policy. He is the right hand man of the president on all policy matters, including Venezuela policy. He was, of course, read in and deeply involved in this operation from the very beginning. And he was present on the night of the operation via secure communication at a different location as to not damage the

operational secrecy of this mission. That was so incredibly important to ensure that this mission could be carried out successfully without endangering our troops. Sure. The U.S. seized tanker recently. Russia specifically asked the United States not to seize that tanker. Does this action risk a larger conflict with Russia? I believe you're referring to the Bello 1 tanker that was seized this morning. The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security in coordination with the Department of War did announce that seizure this morning for violations of U.S. sanctions. I've spoken about the enforcement of our sanctions policy at the podium. prior to the new year. And this administration is going to fully enforce the sanction policy of

the United States. The vessel this morning was seized in the North Atlantic pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court after being tracked. And this was a Venezuelan shadow fleet vessel that has transported sanctioned oil. And the United States of America under this president is not going to tolerate that. I would also just add the vessel had a judicial seizure order in the crew. So that means the crew is now subject to prosecution for any applicable violation of federal law, and they will be brought to the United States for such prosecution, if necessary. Kelly. Caroline, happy new year to you.

Thank you. I'd like to talk to you about a couple of things real quickly. The first question about the Venezuelan people. As you know, there's some 8 million Venezuelans here, some of them celebrating in the streets. There are Venezuelans on the ground who are concerned about their safety. What does the Trump administration, what is it doing to actually? help people in Venezuela understand that they will be secure throughout this transition. I think the fact that this president actually followed through on the long-held promise of the

United States of America, the bipartisan promise to take down the illegitimate Maduro regime should give assurance to the Venezuelan people and also Venezuelan Americans who fled this communist regime for a better life here at home, that this is a president who is serious about taking down illegitimate regimes and who is also serious about securing the security of the United States of America, including the Venezuelan American people. And I would just add that this is something that not just Republicans and President Trump have talked about for a very long time, but it is also something that Democrats have advocated for. In 2020, Chuck Schumer said that at the time President Trump had not brought an end to the Maduro regime. The Maduro

regime is more powerful today and more entrenched today than it was when the president began. Now you hear Chuck Schumer out there saying this is reckless. The American people and the Venezuelan people should be in fear. But this is something that Chuck Schumer has long advocated for. Senator Chris Van Hollen, same thing, had said that the United States is going to use its leverage and influence to push for negotiations to transition to the truly elected leader. This was under President Biden. We know Maduro and his cronies don't want to go quietly into the night. The U.S. needs to work to ratchet up the pressure. Now, Senator Holland says it's an illegal act of war to get rid of Nicholas Maduro. So the hypocrisy is really astounding

here. And thank you for giving me an opportunity to point it out. Kayla, I mean, sorry. Go ahead. Yes. So their reports of the administration is demanding that Venezuela cut ties with China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba. Can you confirm? I'm sorry? A report that the administration has essentially demanded that Venezuela cut ties with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba. Can you confirm that? Well, those alleged demands were made in a classified briefing by Secretary Rubio, and I know that there's a lot of leaks coming out of these classified briefings, so I'm not going to confirm or deny or get into what the secretary has said in classified settings to members of Congress. But I think that the administration has made it

quite clear to the interim authorities in Venezuela that this is the Western Hemisphere, and American dominance is going to continue under this president. that the U.S. could potentially buy Greenland as one potential option on the table. What would such an offer look like? Is there anything monetarily you could provide in detail there? Well, that's something that's currently being actively discussed by the president and his national security team. And I would point out that the acquisition of Greenland by the United States is not a new idea. This is something that presidents dating back to the 1800s have said is advantageous for America's national security. The president has been very open and

with all of you and with the world that he views it in the best interests of the united states to deter russian uh and chinese aggression in the arctic region and so that's why his team is currently talking about what a potential purchase would look like jackey karlane why not rule out taking it by military force um i know that past presidents and past leaders have often ruled things out they've often been very uh open uh open uh open about ruling things in and basically broadcasting their foreign policy strategy to the rest of the world, not just to our allies, but most egregiously to our adversaries, that's not something this president does. All options are always on the table for President Trump as he examines

what's in the best interests of the United States. But I will just say that the president's first option always has been diplomacy. Again, look at Venezuela. He tried ardently to strike a good deal with Nicholas Maduro, and he told him, I will use the United States military, and you will not like it if you don't take such a deal. And look at what happened. With respect to Iran, the president said the same thing, right? He tried to have serious interest in a deal with the Iranian regime with respect to their nuclear capabilities. They were not interested. And so Operation Midnight Hammer happened, which was another remarkable military success under the leadership of this commander-in-chief. So the president keeps his options open. But to pull him,

is always the first. Just one additional follow on that. Does the president recognize Denmark's ownership as part of the kingdom? Because there have been some Republican senators questioning, you know, the claim that Denmark has to Greenland. Is the president in that camp with them, you know, questioning the legality of... I have not heard him. Question it personally, but you're welcome to ask him yourself next time you have the chance.

And these are being lifted for Venezuela. We've got to lift some sanctions to let the oil. come in. Can you talk about that just very briefly? Yes. So the U.S. is selectively rolling back sanctions to enable the transport and the sale of Venezuelan crude and oil products to the global markets. Yes. Caroline. Annie. Thank you. There are some reports from Venezuela that the country's leaders are cracking down in the population, specifically suppressing public expression of support from Maduro's

Austria. Is that kind of behavior consistent with what the president wants to see, how the president wants to the leaders to take on the population. It would not be consistent, and I'll let the president's national security team speak further on that. I know they are well aware in tracking. Kelly. Two questions. One, on the seas vessels, the bell of the Sophia, can you tell us where they're headed,

what happens to any existing cargo, and you reference personnel, but potentially facing the prosecution. That's one thing I'd like to follow on. Yes. Okay. And on Annie's question, if I could also ask, does the administration believe that the interim regime should release all political dissidents and prisoners and return detained Americans. That's not a question that I've personally spoken about the to the president with.

So I will let him answer that question. I don't want to make new policy at this podium today with respect to Venezuela. With respect to the two ships that you mentioned, I spoke with you about the Bella 1. There was another vessel this morning, the Sophia, that in coordination with the Department of War, the Department of Homeland Security apprehended it. This is a stateless, sanctioned, dark fleet motor tanker, and this occurred without incident. This vessel was operating in international waters and conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. The U.S. Coast Guard is escorting the Sofia to the United States for final disposition to answer your question, Kelly, directly.

This was through Operation Southern Spear. The Department of War is unwavering in its mission to crush illicit activity in the Western Hemisphere. And as the president has repeatedly stated, we're going to defend our homeland and restore security and strength across the Americas. Dasha. Thank you, Caroline. Thank you and happy new year. Thanks. Two questions, one on Venezuela, one on Greenland.

You've repeatedly at the podium called the current leadership in Venezuela interim leadership. There are Republicans and Democrats alike that say they want to see elections in Venezuela. The president had said it's too soon to do that right now. But is there a timeline for elections in Venezuela? Is he committed to seeing that this year, for example? just said the president has answered that question. So I will reiterate what the president has said a few times now to all of you, which is that it's too premature and too early to dictate a timetable for elections in Venezuela right now. Carolina, you've just talked to Jackie about diplomacy first,

right? The dates have repeatedly said they're willing to collaborate on all of the concerns that the president has, whether it's more troops, mineral rights, intelligence sharing. Why does the president feel he needs to own Greenland and put out the threat of military action when, And this could be done through diplomacy. Well, who said diplomacy isn't taking place behind the scenes, Dasha? I mean, the president is interested in diplomacy. His national security team is as well. And, of course, he's always willing to pick up the phone for everybody and hear out their concerns.

But the president is the president of the United States of America. And he's always going to be very clear about what he's views as being in our nation's best interest. Reagan. Thanks, Caroline. I have a question for you of Venezuela. And then I'd love to ask you about Minnesota and Tim Walz. Sure. On Venezuela, I'm wondering, does the administration hope to start sending more Venezuelan migrants back home or have them self-deport if the situation of the country improves? As far as I'm concerned, the policies of the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security have not changed.

All those illegally present in the country are subject to deportation. And I would just like to add, you know, how we got here. The president was very clear on the campaign to the American public. And it's one of the many reasons they resoundingly reelected him back to this office that he was not only going to crush foreign drug cartels, but that he was not going to stand by and watch as the illegitimate Venezuelan regime was sending illegal criminals and gang members and rapists and murderers to our country, which happened to the tune of thousands under the previous administration in president. And so there could be nothing more America first than this operation that took place. last week. And I would just remind all of you in this room that there were innocent Americans like Jocelyn Nungerre who lost their lives at the hands of dangerous Venezuelan criminals who were sent here by the Maduro regime. And that has been the president's North Star and guiding principle throughout his entire policy since January 20th. Do the administration believe that Tim Walz potentially dropped out of the governor's race

because he could be under criminal investigation? I don't know. if there's a criminal investigation. If there was, I wouldn't be able to comment on it from up here, to be honest with you. But I think Tim Walls probably dropped out of the race because he realizes he no longer has the support of the people of his own state, which is a remarkable downfall, considering he was the number two on the Democrat Party's ticket just about a year ago. When it comes to Minnesota, the fraud that we have seen, the wide scale of fraud is really remarkable. It's egregious. I would encourage every single journalist in this room to go to Minnesota and to cover it yourselves. As for the Trump administration, we have officials

who have been on the ground almost every day. Secretary Nome was there yesterday. Secretary Bessent will be traveling there later this week to talk about the fraud and to do a roundtable on this very topic. And I would just like to leave you with an update. To date, the Department of Justice has charged 98 total defendants in several Medicaid fraud and related case programs. 64 were convicted. And 85 of the 98 charged were of Somali descent. The GOJ has also issued over 17,700 subpoenas, executed over 130 search warrants, and they have now added more attorneys to their office there to absorb the case flow. DHS is on the ground going door to door, conducting large-scale criminal and HSI investigations. They have also sent approximately 2,000 agents to Minneapolis to assist with law enforcement and immigration enforcement.

As I said, Secretary Nome was on the ground yesterday. The Department of Health and Human Services has also begun requiring a justification and photo evidence for all child care related payments nationwide, and they required Minnesota to conduct a full audit of all child care centers. They also froze $185 million in funding to Minnesota. And Dr. Oz, who was just here, also notified Governor Walls. They're going to begin auditing Medicaid recipients and deferring payments on claims based on waste, fraud, and abuse. The Department of Labor is also conducting a targeted review of Minnesota's unemployment program. Department of Agriculture requiring Minnesota to conduct recertification for SNAP recipients, and HUD has launched investigations into the public housing.

SBA has also suspended nearly 7,000 borrowers amid suspected fraudulent activity. So with all of that, rest assured, this is an all-hands-on-deck effort from the entire administration to get to the bottom of this and to ensure that the ripping off of taxpayers in the state of Minnesota, and it won't just be Minnesota. It'll be any state across this country where FOD has taken place, and we are protecting law-abiding, tax-paying American citizens. Phil. Thank you, Caroline. Just to follow up on Greenland, there are treaties already on the books that give the United States access to the island that can construct and maintain military bases there.

We can house personnel on the island. The U.S. has control of landings, takeoffs, anchorages, et cetera. So I'm curious if you could just spell out for the American public. What specifically would the U.S. gain by taking control of the green lines that the U.S. doesn't already have access to right now? More control over the Arctic region and ensuring that China and Russia and our adversaries cannot continue their aggression in this very important and strategic region. And there would be many other benefits as well.

that again, the president and his national security team are currently talking about. Jeff, I'll give you another one. Welcome. A broad to stand that question on foreign policy. Are you concerned about increasing tensions with Russia because of the tanker of seizures? And how does the U.S. action in Venezuela impact the ongoing relationship with China and the president's relationship with President Xi? I think the president has very open, honest, and good relationships with both President Putin of Russia and also President Xi of China.

He has spoken with them numerous times, as you know, since coming to office about a year ago. And I believe that those personal relationships are going to continue. But as for the president and the United States, he's going to enforce our policy that's best for the United States of America. And with respect to these ships, seizures, that means enforcing the embargo against all dark fleet vessels that are illegally transported. reporting oil and only legitimate commerce to answer your question much earlier, Rachel, determined by the United States is going to be permitted. And that's the policy of this administration, and he's not afraid to implement it. One more stand back.

Just one more stand back. I just think of the last one. I remember asking the president at the beginning of his term if he was committed to Article 5 and NATO, and he said yes, has his stance on NATO or his commitment to NATO changed? Did you see his statement earlier today? He said, we will always be there for NATO, even if they are not there for NATO. us and I think that answers your question directly. Yes. Just to just to follow up on much up saying there are a little question to commit that if any NATO members are attacked

against the United States. Again, the president addressed this directly himself this morning after seeing the coverage from all of you in this room on television and he made it very clear. We're always going to be there for NATO even if they have not done right by the United States of America and they have not they have finally increased their defense spending at the request of this president, but it was only because of this president that they did that. I'll take a couple more. Michael, go ahead. Thank you, Caroline. Happy hearing. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. You too. One on health care, one on Mexico. On health care, the president says he wants Republicans to be flexible on the Hyde Amendment in order to

ask health care legislation. What is the White House's message to pro-life voters who say federal funding for abortion goes against their values? Well, the president did not change the administration's policy. It was President Trump, who signed an executive order protecting the high-end amendment. It's the Trump administration that has taken multiple actions on various fronts to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not funding the practice of abortion. What the president was saying yesterday was Republicans and frankly Democrats too need to show a little bit more flexibility so we can actually get something done with respect to the issue of health care. Republicans have amazing ideas. The president himself, as we

spoke about earlier, has launched this most favorite nation drug pricing initiative, has cut good deals with big pharma. He wants to see Republicans, and Democrats, too, if they're willing, codify those executive orders into law so that these good deals can remain and these prices can continue to be lowered long after this president and this dealmaker-in-chief is gone. Presidents talked a lot about health savings accounts and giving more money back to the health care consumer rather than to these giant insurance companies. And he's been very outspoken and tough on them too. And I think you'll see more and hear more from him directly on that issue. So he wants to see Congress get something done with respect to health care. And that was the

point that he was driving home yesterday. To go, Caroline. President Trump says the drug cartels are running Mexico. What action does he need to see Mexico's president Claudia Scheinbaum take to prove that she's in control of that country and control of those cartels? And does the White House believe she's able to do that without U.S. intervention? Look, I think the president was speaking very candidly and frankly about the reality on the ground in Mexico. Haley. I'm going to ask you about the seas tanker Zbella.

There were reports before this that Russia had sent a submarine to disported. Was there any engagement with that submarine? And then was the deconfliction alignment of Russia used ahead of 40? Again, this was a Venezuelan shadow fleet vessel that is transported, sanctioned oil. The vessel was deemed stateless after flying a false flag, and it had a judicial seizure order. And that's why the crew will be subject to prosecution. Mary.

Mary. On Columbia, the president is talking to the weekend and it suggested that he would be open to an operation there. Should the president of Columbia be expecting Delta Force any time soon? And then I have a one to go on California. That would be a very unwise question for me to answer to weigh into. What's your next question? On California, can you share any more about the fraud investigation? The president said that there was one who's being investigated and where's.

again this is going to be a all hands-on-deck government-wide effort the president has directed all agencies across the board to look at federal spending programs in not just minnesota but also in the state of california to identify fraud and to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law all those who have committed it take one more sure thank you caroline yesterday was the five-year anniversary of january 6th but democrats and mainstream media continue to push their big lie that was an insurrection and that police officers died that day. The reality is that four Trump supporters died on January 6th and two women were killed by January 6 police police. Everybody knows Ashley Babbit was shot in cold blood by Capitol Police Officer Michael Byrd, but there was another

woman. Her name was Roseanne Boyland from Georgia, and she was pepperball, gas, and ultimately brutally beaten with a stick by January 6 police officer, Lila Morris. The Biden administration and mainstream media lied and told Americans Roseanne Boyland died of her overdose on Capitol steps. family is now asking for an investigation. Is the administration aware of the circumstances of her death, and will there be an investigation, finally? Well, for investigation, I will have to defer you to either the FBI or the Department of Justice, and I'm sorry to have to do that. But with respect to all of the facts that you just laid out, the White House relished the opportunity yesterday to actually create a new website to share the facts with the American public, but also all those in this room.

We knew the media would be covering January 6th quite a bit because they think it's something that the American people are still believing their lies on. They think it's something that still helps their case against this president. Obviously not, or else he wouldn't have been reelected in an overwhelming fashion in November of last year. And so I would encourage everyone to take a look at the website. It's quite well done. And thank you all very much.

It's great to be back with you. Thank you. Well, hot damn. Caroline Levin. On fire. Saying, we are going to seize all of your oil belongs to us. We drink your milkshake. That Tim Walz canceled his own political career due to crippling fraud and that Gavinuzum is next in line.

And that there is a full and whole of government approach to combating the fraud in those two states, but across the nation as well. Along with the resetting of the food pyramid, which my wife is really excited about. We have been lied to for a very long time about what's healthy in this nation. And so let us just decamp here because we have a travel day. We will be in Washington, D.C. tomorrow. There will be no live stream tomorrow. We will be in D.C. for meetings with R.F.K., Jr., actually, and a number of others from the administration. So let me just say this.

The healthiest way to save your nation, and the easiest way to save your nation is to be safe. spiritually healthy and centered and is why of course at the end of every single show we end with a verse of the day something to be uplifted about is that church attendance is skyrocketing right now as his belief in God among young people this tracks with of course the moment that we are living in where young people are having faith in America once more is something that we intend to pursue with extreme aggression in ensuring that we have a future in this country. It's what the show is all about. So here we go.

Verse of the day, Jeremiah 22, 3. Do justice and righteousness and deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor. That's precisely what the point of this program is. The oppressor is the godless, Marxist, and communist that has a stranglehold in places like California and Minnesota. This is why exposing the fraud, the corrupt. and the destruction in those states will serve as a warning sign to the country. And it already has, ladies and gentlemen, this is how we win. Thank you for fighting alongside of us.

The best part about the show every single day is that, well, in the end, we do. In fact, win. It's your boy, Benny. See it. run dry it don't mean much guess in which day

Camel my chopper your keys your gold your life your kingdom staring down the barrel is a price for doing freedom guess what

Guess what? Everything will be okay. It's one day. One day. It's on day. The biggest ships in the sea, all owned by the oldest kings, and their dying legacy,

media delways. So will the penny. show come to mind a salt from lives for fun leave the gold and bring the gun we sail for number one the salt from lids for fun leave the gold and bring the gun we sail for number one the biggest ships in the sea all owned by the oldest king