The Eric Metaxas Show - #33- Rod Martin

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

Rod Martin reacts to the Maduro extraction story and unpack what it means for Venezuela, cartels, oil, and American power. They connect the fallout to Cuba, Iran, China, Greenland, and the broader Trump doctrine, then pivot into the 2020 election debate, Smartmatic, and what they think comes next in the fight over election systems and the deep state.TODAY'S SPONSORS:Christian Solidarity International: https://csi-usa.org/metaxas/✡️ Help Save Lives in Israel TODAY: https://savinglifeisrael.org/LegalHelp CenterGet Free Legal Help Today: https://legalhelpcenter.com/MyPillow — Save BIG with code ERIC: https://mypillow.comten Boom Coffee— Save 10% with code ERIC: https://tenboom.coffee

Hey there, folks. Let me be the first to wish you a Felice annual new. Felice anion newo, Eric. Chris, are you as astonished as I am at the good fortune? Because, you know, we don't believe in God. So I want to just put it as secularly as possible. The good fortune that we've had already in the new year, Chris, you must be amazed.

As a, you're a Cuban-American. That's right. I am a Cuban-American. It's been amazing. I think it's kind of like when you go to a baseball game and the buddy in front of you and the lineup just hit a home run and you're just getting really excited, say you're on deck. And I feel like as a Cuban American, I'm on deck waiting for, you know,

it's going to happen. The operations. I've got some New Year's predictions. Yeah, what's that? I think Mayor Mamdani is going to be the governor or vice roy of Greenland. Wow. Yeah, a lot of crazy stuff is happening. A lot of crazies.

That was like five leapfrogs ahead of what I want to talk about today. It's just, it's so crazy. First of all, let me frame things a little bit. I've been working very, very hard on finishing my book on the American Revolution. So if I seem punched drunk, the only explanation is I am punch drunk. I don't know which way is up. But we are in a moment going to get very serious. I'm going to be talking with Rod Martin,

great, the amazing, the amazing Rod Martin to go over everything with regard to what just happened in Venezuela and so on and so forth. We're going to get serious. But before we get serious, we're going to get not serious. So, Chris, let's talk about what do we, where do we start? I mean, there's a lot. I've been posting some stuff on Twitter, on X. I posted somebody on a text, a good friend of mine, sent me a little meme of Venezuela's national bird.

And I tried to figure out who made it or whatever, but it was so brilliant. I just put it on my ex account. And it has had already 4,000 retweets. It is, maybe we'll get it up on the screen here. I don't know. but there's so much craziness that you really don't know where to start. I mean, number one, let's start here. The extraordinary extraction.

I like the words, like a word enters the vocabulary. Suddenly we're calling it an extraction. There's an extraction of Maduro. Let's talk for a minute about this. Maduro, I think we get confused sometimes. You know, you see pictures of people. He is one of the most evil men on planet Earth. I mean, imagine if some nasty person broke into your home and raped your children, how would you feel toward that person?

Maduro is that guy. He has done things so wicked. I wouldn't even talk about it on this program. He is an evil, evil person. And he is now in U.S. custody in the city where I'm sitting right now. In New York City, he is in custody by the time this airs today. he will have been arraigned or, I don't know, pick some term. But this is huge news.

But it's huge news on so many levels. You really don't know where to start. The idea that Donald Trump, a real leader, a leader like we've never seen in our lifetimes, any of us, I mean, even Reagan cannot compare to Trump, he seems to have a sense of what he can get away with. He seems to understand that America is tremendously powerful. We are a force for good. The only reason we've been given the great power we have as a nation by God is to use it for good. And he seems to have a freedom about doing that that's fascinating.

So, Chris, I don't know, you and I were talking about some stuff earlier. Yeah, I mean, it's amazing. There's so many layers to what's happening. There's a whole connection of Venezuela to the 2020 election that we should probably talk about. We're going to get into all the serious stuff with Rod Martin in two seconds. But I think that's what's so fascinating is that there's so many pieces to this that here you have, I mean, let's sum it up. Venezuela has been the launch pad for evil in our hemisphere. So China, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, anybody, you name it.

Anybody with power and money who wants to harm. the United States or wants to make a ton of money at the expense of the United States or under the nose of the United States, come down to Venezuela and they got an open door for you. And it is absolute wickedness. And the reason this is an America first thing is because who has suffered? America has suffered. We can break that down. But the people of Venezuela have suffered horribly, so horribly, in case you want a metric, eight million of them have left since communists took over. Eight million of them have left.

It's so bad that eight million of them have left the country. So I remember years ago, CNN was running stories when the immigration or immigration out of Venezuela was particularly bad, highlighting in Colombia how a lot of the Venezuelan refugees in Colombia were forced into prostitution and other terrible situations just to survive. So the misery, that's the thing that people don't understand about. And, you know, the slope front socialism and the communism is that it's all about sort of spreading the misery around. Like, nobody is actually any better. People are just, you know, the thing that is, that is, you know, distributed. They talk about redistribution of wealth. It really should be called redistribution of misery because that's in practicality what happened.

So as a Cuban American, you know, I visited with a church group to Cuba 25 years ago. And I was told by some of these families that we met with that were in the churches there that if they had a loved one who was a doctor, that it was not uncommon in Cuba to wake up and your loved one was not there in the morning. They had been taken against their will to Venezuela to serve, you know, and dead church servitude for a couple of years as a doctor in Venezuela that was short on doctors. And then the Cuban government would get, you know, free TVs and oil in exchange for these people. So, I mean, imagine that. It's just a level of evil that, you know, on the upside, the installation of Mamdani, what is funnier than to have this 33-year-old jughead? I mean, he's a child.

He's never had a job that his mommy didn't give him. This is true. It's the most, it's a level of lunacy that you really can't even get your head around it, that he would be, quote, unquote, mayor of New York. He knows nothing. He's a Marxist, Jew-hating lunatic. So he gets in power. Dares actually to say, whatever,

you're leaving the coldness of rugged individualism for the warmth of collectivism. Actually, praises collectivism in his opening statements. And five minutes later, Maduro is extracted by some. rugged individualists and put in a holding tank right here in the city where Mumdani is mayor. This is hilarity. This is a movie that you'd make up and you say, that's so stupid, but I'll watch it. There's nothing else on. It's so crazy.

So this is happening. Again, we're going to break it all down in a second with Rod. Is there anything that we should cover before? Yeah, there actually is a little bit of breaking news from the, you know, from the raid today, making sort of the headlines. Oh, I know what you're referring to. We saw, listen, a lot of this stuff you're not allowed to see or you're not allowed to show. I mean, obviously, President Trump saw everything, but you can't, you can't show it. But we have some sources. Legally, we are not allowed to show this, but come and get us, okay? Come and get us. Coward. Come and get us. So we're going to show,

Chris, how do you frame this? What is known as a Delta force, you know, plan this operation for for weeks and they have different abilities that they're allowed to share, but some they're not. But we have a source on the inside. I won't go into the... Well, let's be clear. Our forces work with people on the ground with indigenous actors, quote unquote. And some of the most lethal indigenous, like, ninja force actors in Latin countries are the abuelas. Right. Because.

So what we're hearing from our source is there's a feared sniper who is who is known as the abuela. And apparently with this weapon that is from that part of the world, she's able to hit her target from any. Yeah, this is crazy. This is crazy. But we have the footage. Yeah, yeah. Here's the footage. You know, this is this is kind of what pushed the rate over the line when Maduro saw that they had the abuela sniper as part of our.

our force there, he gave himself up immediately. Yeah. But we're going to play that? Yeah. There it is. Well, I ever before filmed. I have to say the fact that this audience got to see that, folks, you're the first, you're the first human beings to get to see that footage.

And as I said, we don't have any authority. International law says we cannot show you that. And yet we just did. international law says we can't take Greenland. By the way, I'm going to be the viceroy of Greenland. I said Mamdani. I think I'm going to be the viceroy of Greenland. And Momdani is going to be in the cell next to El Chapoying, who's going to be next to Maduro,

who's going to be next to the Ayatollah. I'm pretty sure this is true. All right, listen, we've said some things here. We cannot really, we can't say any more than we've already said. So should we go to Rod Martin to get serious? I think people have had enough of this nonsense. Let's do it. Okay, folks, we're going to go to Rod.

Should I mention... We need to thank everybody before we go. This is, I should have said this first. This is such happy news. Oh, my gosh. We, as you know, we work with CSI, Christian Solidarity International, to free slaves in Sudan. Folks, God bless you who have participated in this.

We've had such a spectacular response. even I've been surprised. What a happy response. This is because of you, whoever you are. God bless you. This is real. This is beautiful. Thank you for participating. If you haven't yet done it, you can go to Ericmetaxis.com and the banner will come up for CSI. It'll be up for another week or so. If you haven't done this, you just, you want to jump on this. This is an unmitigated good that you can do. You can free a slave in Saddam right now. These are usually, usually, almost always Christians who have been enslaved by radical Muslims. And you can do something about it. Go to Eric Mataxis.com. Check it out. We'll be right back with Rod Martin. Hey there, folks. As hard as it may be for us to believe, especially for in America, there are people in other parts of the world who have literally been enslaved because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Some of them for decades. Hundreds of thousands of them have been persecuted and enslaved in the Sudan.

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Every gift helps. Imagine buying the freedom of a fellow Christian believer. You can do it. Call 888-253-3522. 888-253-3522. Christian Solidarity International provides life-saving resources for persecuted Christians for almost 40 years. 888253-3522. Or go to Ericmataxis.com and click on the banner.

You'll see it. Ericmetaxis.com. Click on the banner. Please give someone the gift of getting their... life back. Provide life and freedom for someone right now. God bless you. Folks, welcome back. Okay, we're going to get very serious right now. I have Rod Martin of the Rod Martin report on with me. Rod, what can you tell us about the extraction we did of Mamdani from a bunker in Greenland? Or am I getting the details?

Well, that would be nice. You know, the operation in Caracas was flawless, could not have gone better. We lost zero lives to capture one of the major drug kingpins of the world. And we have to understand Venezuela that way. It started out as a socialist nightmare, and it turned into a cartel that had captured a country, of which Maduro was the head. and, you know, Delta Force goes in, nabs him without a single life lost. But wait a minute, wait a minute.

If we had done this properly and gone to Congress, there would have been many lives lost because it would have been leaked. Yes, yes. Thomas Massey was on X this morning complaining about exactly that. And, you know, I just marvel at this. First of all, if this were a war, which it isn't, but if it were, the war, Power Powers Act is quite clear that the president has 48 hours to notify Congress after hostilities commence. So everybody pretending that he did something wrong here with regard to Congress is just

smoke and crack. It's ridiculous. Second, he doesn't need a declaration of war to execute an arrest warrant. And that arrest warrant was sought by the Biden Justice Department. Maduro and his wife were indicted by a U.S. grand jury under the Biden administration, and it was Biden's team that withdrew from him any diplomatic community making this arrest possible. Okay, the only question. So the same Democrats who thought that was great are horrified once Trump actually does something about it. I'm going to play the role of George Stephanopoulos and ask some questions here.

So what I don't understand, not that I particularly care, I just ask them. this because, you know, I trust Trump. I trust this administration. But I think there are certain questions that often aren't addressed or clarified. Obviously, when we make an arrest, we can make an arrest anywhere within the United States. But to go into another country, I can see how people would get confused about that. Well, they can get confused, but they need to read the law. I mean, you may disagree with U.S. law, as many people do on many different points, but the law is very clear. We absolutely have the right to do any such thing because the crimes committed were against the United States and against United States citizens. So we really don't care if Al Capone runs to

South Africa. We're going to go get him. And Nicholas Maduro has been running the biggest drug smuggling operation that exists into the United States. Is it the only one? No. Should those other guys be concerned? Yes, ask El Chapo. But it's not just drugs either. As you know, that's one piece of this.

That's certainly the legitimacy of the arrest. But Maduro also is supplying tremendous amounts of oil to the degree that his socialist klepto state can still produce any oil. They're down about 80% in their ability. to produce because they mismanaged their own infrastructure so badly. But that oil goes to Russia and China. So we're cutting off sanctioned oil that is propping up Cuba, propping up Putin, and, of course, helping the communist Chinese.

We were doing everything they can, along with the Iranians and the Russians. Who would even think of the Iranians in the Western Hemisphere? but the Iranians, the Russians, and the Chinese establishing significant military and intelligence presences in the Western Hemisphere operating from Venezuela, which in case anybody missed, it is just across that ocean out there from where I'm sitting. So, you know, we're not talking about something halfway around the world. We're talking about a three or four hour flight. And this has to be dealt with.

The president dealt with it brilliantly. My guess is you're now going to see Cuba in a world of hurt. I don't know how they survive the year. And in addition to that, you're going to see Venezuela transition to the free market democracy that it ought to be. And I don't think that's going to take any meaningful boots on the ground at all. Again, playing the role of George Stephanopoulos, I guess people, well, there's a few things. First of all, we know that there's so many pieces to this. That's, I think, the genius of it on Trump's part.

This is not a win-win. This is a win, win, win, win, win. This is so many things at once. First of all, he is putting the hurt big time to every one of our enemies. Every single one of our enemies. China, freaking out. Iran freaking out. We talk about Iran in a minute, freaking out, Russia, freaking out, whatever. He's, and I think, again, we've never seen this in our lifetimes. We've never seen someone who has the ability to exercise authority and leadership on this level. We've simply never seen it.

Trump knows that he's doing good for the whole world by doing this. And he knows everybody's going to scream. Like I say, excuse me, what about this? What about this? I mean, the UN Security Council, I want to fall on the floor with last. after their meeting to discuss, does anyone in the world care what the UN Security Council care? Especially not since we're just going to veto anything stupid they might do. But I mean, I think Trump, you know, again, when we start thinking, where can we go with this? I think he should bulldoze the UN building into the East River at this point. It's like, come and get me UN Army peacekeepers. it is so preposterous that we have even allowed them to exist on American soil. They are in bed with fugs and dictators.

So this morning, you know, they're getting together to discuss or today to discuss this. There's tremendous comedy here. But let's talk about the big picture. The theft. Trump keeps talking about the communist Chavez seized American assets. Exxon Mobile, Phillips Conoco, gigantic American companies that had invested billions in Venezuela. So the communists come in under Chavez and basically take it and then say, well, we'll pay you back and they never pay us back. So they stole what belongs to us.

And every useless president until now has done nothing about this. Well, and this has been arbitrated in multiple international fora. This has been taken to the International Court of Justice every single time the American companies win, and Venezuela just thumbs their nose at them. So, okay, we're not going to apologize anymore for that shockingly expensive U.S. military that you and I pay for every April 15th, actually enforcing the property rights of American citizens. Not apologizing. Sorry. And I know we've had people all over the media this weekend going on.

No blood for oil. Well, first of all, we didn't shed any blood. We lost nobody. And second, yeah, actually, it's America's job to protect the rights of Americans. Now, how does that benefit Venezuela? Well, first of all, it doesn't have to. But it does, and we're proud that it does, because the deal that the socialists abrogated, broke, was a 50-50 split. The Venezuelans provide nothing except access to the oil fields.

The American companies come in, put up all the investment, all the technology, all of the risk. Every bit of risk is on them. and then they split it 50-50 with Venezuela. Okay, how is this bad for Venezuela? And the truth is, we've seen how good it was because since the socialists nationalized those fields, their production has dropped 80%. This is a country that's sitting on the largest proved oil reserves on Earth

and they can't feed themselves. I just read that the worth of the oil in the, Venezuela is 17 trillion. Yes. That we know of. That we know of. And there's really only one market for it because though the Chinese are buying it, and certainly the Venezuelans are using it to subsidize Cuba and the Russians are dependent

on this same shadow fleet that the Venezuelans are using doesn't change the fact that the refineries on Earth best optimized for this. particular kind of oil are all on the U.S. Gulf Coast. So for Venezuela to prosper, they need to be able to sell to the United States. So again, win, win, win, win, win. Well, just to make it simple, right, it's sort of like I buy a big piece of land in Texas. Somebody discovers oil on the land. I, with my writing hands, don't know how to extract oil. No. So somebody comes in and says, listen, we're going to make you very, very rich. We know how to extract the oil.

Give us permission to extract the oil. We will extract the oil. We'll give you 50%. Deal, deal. Everybody becomes a billionaire. It's kind of simple. That's what we do. And if you were in Midland,

you as the landowner would get 20% royalty. Venezuela was getting 50% royalty. There's no way this is unfair. This is not American companies exploiting poor third worlders. No. this was American companies making everybody rich together. And that's the essence of the Trump doctrine. It's the Don Roe doctrine, I believe.

I checked the history books, the Don Roe doctrine. So it's so the thing is that we, I mean, again, you can understand that there's a history, when you think about colonialism, I, you know, I'm writing now about the British Empire and how they really did exploit the people of India. They exploited people. We know there's a history of power being used wrongly, of exploiting people. America is not in the business of doing that at present. I mean, you know, the United Fruit Company or whatever it was,

we have had a past where we've been guilty of some of that. I frankly do not believe that we would stand for it at this point. It's not 1950. It's 2026. We're not interested in exploiting people. What we're interested in doing is helping people get out of the poverty that comes to you when you're under a communist dictatorship and enabling people to govern themselves. So I really do think, you know, it's not like like Rubio is going to become the viceroy of Venezuela. Although they'd benefit from that.

But the point is that, well, When people like Stephanopoulos is asking, you know, so who's running Venezuela? Hey, let's be honest. You know who was running it a week ago? Nobody. Nobody. It was just, it was just in free fall. And as all communist dictatorships are, nobody's running anything.

It's like saying who's running Somalia. Who's running it? Nobody's running it. It's just a bunch of criminals stealing when they have an opportunity. It's an absolute mess. The infrastructure has broken down. So we're not talking about taking over Switzerland here. What we're going to do is go in there, ideally, and help them with their infrastructure,

help them create a government. It was interesting what Trump said about Machado, who won the Nobel Peace Prize recently. Can you talk about that? Well, it's important to remember that Machado didn't win the election. Machado was the opposition leader, but backed a different candidate because she was barred from standing. So when he says she isn't likely to become president, short of a new election, she isn't. I mean, she has no more legitimacy to be president than Maduro did. Now, how do you get to a transition? My guess is because this president doesn't seem very interested

in invading and spending 20 years occupying anybody, my guess is that the threat couldn't be much clearer, we just indicted and arrested Nicholas Maduro and his wife for conspiracy, and you guys are the co-conspirators. So play ball or you're next. Or else. And there's no question that we can take all of them if we want to, and they know it now. So my guess is you get a managed transition with a lot of kicking and screaming and complaining and everything else. and eventually you get to a freely elected, legitimate government, give it a few months. You know, it took six months after the loss of the Falklands War

for the HUNTA to devolve power on an elected government. I think you see something like that here. You're dating yourself and me by referring to the Falklands War. So let's, for the little children in the audience under 40, let's just explain to them back in a magical time. called the 1980s, there was a woman named Lady Thatcher. Actually, her name was not Lady Thatcher at the time. There was a President Reagan. And something happened in the Falkland Islands, which are they're off of Argentina. Am I right? Yes. Okay. And it was it was kind of a similar thing

where the world was shocked because England, Great Britain, asserted its authority and went in there. Now, you want to talk about why that we went in there? Well, the British had colonized the Falklands a very, very long time ago, 1820s, if I recall correctly. And those islands have never belonged to Argentina in all of history. And there was a military junta in control of the country. They thought that this would buttress their power. It would be a walkover. You know, the British or half the world away, you know, there's,

there's just going to be no problem taking these islands of sheep herders. And I'm pretty sure that they said, come and get us, cowards. We're waiting. Oh, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Exactly that. Just like Maduro. And Mrs. Thatcher did.

She assembled an armada and sailed to the South Atlantic and kicked the Argentines out of a country that, by the way, speaks, you know, like 100% English. They're all English people. So, you know, the idea that the Argentines had any right to this is absurd. Well, needless to say, the political result of that at home was the exact opposite of what the generals had hoped for. They ended up losing power. And pretty quickly, you had a Democratic government. And I'm not going to pretend that it was the best in the world.

But eventually you get to Javier Malai. So, you know, it's better if people get to rule themselves as Venezuela is about to get to do. I would just point out that if I'm going to talk about the Falklands, I have to talk about Taiwan. This is one of the great risks to the CCP. They're not stupid. They read history. They're aware of what happened to the Argentine dictatorship when they failed to take the Falklands. And so when Donald Trump sells Taiwan, the biggest arms package we've ever sold them just last month,

And it's nearly all self-propelled haletsers that are aimed, of course, at landing craft hitting the beaches and high mars that are going to hit them while they're in the foremost astray. You're reducing the risk that China can afford to try. And that's really the aim. We're not going to go attack the three gorges down. We're not going to go, you know, kidnap Xi Jinping. We're going to make the steel more expensive than it's worth. And I think as we see China more and more in that box, you're going to start seeing a better and better trade regime as well.

It was interesting that last month, while the Chinese are very upset about what the Japanese just said about their willingness to defend Taiwan and about the U.S. arms package for Taiwan, they nevertheless put out a feeler about investing in and co-developing the Trans-Alaska pipeline for natural gas that we're about to develop. Why would they do that?

Well, part of the reason is they realize the jig is up. They need energy. They need it cheap. And if they're going to have to deal with the United States anyway, they might as well make money on it. So I think we're seeing them increasingly corralled. We see Russia in an incredible bind here because of what's just happened in Venezuela,

because that same shadow fleet is how they sell the oil that pays for their war. and as you said, all of our enemies are getting a dose of this at once. Hi, everyone. If you were injured in an accident, listen up. We have legal professionals standing by to answer your questions. You can find out if you have a case and how much it's potentially worth. I'm Gina Bellich, along with Super Bowl champ and two-time pro bowler Vernon Davis. So Vernon, tell everyone watching who should call right now. Well, Gina, if you are someone you know were injured in an accident, that was not your fault. Give us a call right now.

You can find out if you have a case and how much money is potentially worth. Thanks, Vernon. You know, the phones have really been busy. So what kind of calls have we been getting? We're getting calls about all types of accidents, from car accidents to slipping falls and so many others. So if you were injured in an accident,

don't go at it alone. Call for a free case review and find out how much your case is potentially worth. Thanks, Vernon. You heard the man call now to find out how much money. you qualify for. Hey there, folks. Quick word from today's sponsor.

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Ladies and gentlemen, it's over. Stick a fork in it. Cuba is over. Now, the question is the details. But the bottom line is we've choked them. They have no, they were relying on Russia. I mean, USSR, that's gone. So they turn, you know, only eyes to Chavez and Venezuela.

And then Maduro, that's gone. So they're being choked. Where do they go? China is obviously freaking out. We haven't even mentioned Iran. I mean, it seems that the Iranian regime, by the grace of the Lord, is going down. What is your sense of how that plays out? That looks true.

Let me just reference Cuba in that connection. The logical players to try to step in and replace the welfare that Chavez and Maduro gave Cuba would be Iran and Russia and China. But that depends on shipments of sanctioned oil. The Chinese don't have any oil, so that's not coming from them. It would have to come from Iran and Russia. Those guys are under sanctions, and Trump just started. capturing Shadow Fleet tankers. So they're not going to be able to get oil to Cuba. Cuba's just

toast. And they couldn't have survived the last 20 years without Chavez and Maduro propping them up. So that is a nascent, Russian, Chinese base of operations, somewhat military, mostly intelligence against the United States that just got a lot harder to maintain in the absence of Venezuela. Now, Iran, as you see, we've got real protests in the streets to a degree that looks regime-threatening. The last time we had something like that, the regime acted in a very bloody fashion within two or three days. This has now been going on for a week, and they haven't acted, which suggests significant regime weakness. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But my guess is we've got a real shot at seeing the restoration of the Shah reasonably eminently.

And that would look like Spain in the 70s. That would look like the transition from Franco to a constitutional monarchy that results in a democracy. And that would be a boon to the world. Iran as a major oil producer that isn't threatening everybody with terrorist groups and nukes is one of our best allies in the world. The Iranian people love America, love America, and there are a shocking number of Iranians in the United States who fled after the fall of the Shah,

but Iran before 79 was also a key ally to Israel. So the entire region gets safer and nobody so much as the GCC, because the other Gulf states are not going to be threatened by a regime led by Reza-Palavi, that's just not happening. So these wars just go away. What is the GCC? The Gulf Cooperation Council.

That's Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Oh, you thought I knew that? And they're neighbors. You thought I knew what that was, the GCC? I assume you know everything. Well, you know, I do. But there's five things I don't know. That was one of them.

And the other four, my producer, Chris, knows. So we've got everything covered. But we're talking about so many things, and that's the delight of all of this, that this is a staggering reset. This is an historical staggering reset. It's like 1776 all over again. You're in a new era. You're in a new world, or at least we're on the verge of a new world, that we couldn't have thought of one year ago. Couldn't have thought of it.

I mean, ladies and gentlemen, a year ago, Biden, the auto pen, was... President of the United States, we have come so far and we know that Trump and his people have been, you know, wargaming this for months to play out how does this, where does this go? How do we set up this and this and this so that when we pull the trigger, these other things fall into place? I mean, the situation with Cuba, the situation with Iran, why do you suppose, I think sometimes that Trump does this, again, just to troll his enemies, to mention Greenland yesterday is just next level beautiful. I mean, I'm kind of what's going on there. Well, the trolling aspect must never be discounted, but the president's dead serious about Greenland.

And the blueprint for that is actually really good for all involved. You know, it's even good for Denmark, even though they won't admit it, because Greenland costs them about a billion a year to get nothing. So it's much to their benefit not to have that problem. But we don't want to annex Greenland. And the president hasn't said this yet, but I assure you this is where things are going. The idea isn't for Greenland to be a state or a territory. The idea is for Greenland to become an independent country with a free association compact with the United States, just like what we have with Palau and the Marshall Islands. These are independent countries who get all the benefits of sovereignty and none of the costs. They don't have to have a military. They don't have to have embassies.

They don't have to pay for any of that. America just takes care of it. So they're outsourcing their foreign policy because three people live there, and that's exactly Greenland situation. There are 57,000 people in the entire Greenland area. So can they afford to have embassies in 195 countries? That's just absurd, and they're dependent on us for defense anyway. So we encourage them becoming independent. We sign a free association compact with them as we have done. done with other countries, and they get their cake and eat it too. And we guarantee that the Chinese and the Russians don't get access to those resources or to those ports. Well, again, this is all like comedic on some level. I have to ask, what do you think

the Macron's in France, the German Starmor in the UK, what do you think? What do you think, what you think they are thinking today? Well, unlike a lot of leaders around the world, they're not too concerned about Delta force showing up at their door, but they are aware that Trump means it. You know, this is the crucial thing. Donald Trump is underlining and highlighting the fact that we really are going to put American interests first, and we're not overly concerned about what white paper the Cato Institute put out last week. saying that we have to follow these 47 steps.

We're going to do what makes sense to the leaders of this country for the benefit of the people of this country. And yes, that will frequently benefit all of these other countries, but it's going to be Donald Trump's view of what benefits them, and you better play ball. So, you know, this has been the Trump doctrine as plain as day ever since the Saudi Arabia trip. You know, he makes the commerce not.

chaos speech. And that was all about, you know, let's all be friends and work together and we can make each other rich. But the undertone was, and if you don't want to play ball, you get Fordo. And that's exactly what's happened. And that's what we just saw this weekend. You get what? Fordo, the bombing of the Iranian nuclear sites. You know, the Iranians could have had a deal too. Chavez, I'm sorry, Majuro could have had a deal too. There was absolutely an effort to get Maduro to just leave the country, and I'm sure we'd set him up in a villa on the French Riviera like we did, Baby Doc Duvalier, and all would have been well for him. But instead, he gets to be tried in a court of law in New York, and he's going to get convicted.

And then we get to see, what does he really know about Smartmatic? I was just going to say it's amazing. We're almost 30 minutes in. And we have not discussed the stolen 2020 election, which it seems to me is probably behind everything in our going in in Venezuela. The idea would be that, listen, evil actors who hate America have gone into Venezuela. They have done everything you can do to destroy America. They have pumped criminals across our borders. They have pumped fentanyl to kill our young people.

They've done everything they can do, including steal our elections, which you might as well blow up the Statue of Liberty. They have stolen our elections. So if anybody knows about this, there's a guy in Brooklyn right now in a holding tank. Who knows about this? So it seems that... And his wife. It seems that their best bet would be to spill the beans. Now, I tell you, I would expect somebody from the deep state to want to kill them, honestly, at this point.

Very likely. But I don't think it will help them because this is the dagger over the heads of the rest of the Venezuelan leadership. It's like, okay, we just indicted these two for conspiracy. Guess who their conspirators were? all of you. And we can arrest you and bring you to New York with them if you don't play ball. And I don't think Trump could have been any clearer on that point. So, you know, the reality is Venezuela stole its own election. That's well established. Nobody disagrees on that. Kirstarmer doesn't disagree. Joe Biden doesn't disagree. Jimmy Carter didn't disagree.

So we know what they did there. And we know how they did it. and a lot of that was applicable to what was done in 2020. And it's not just those two countries. This scheme has been employed in multiple countries around the world, and it has to stop. And nobody is more laser-focused on that than Donald Trump. So the worst-case scenario, if all of this is wrongheaded, and we're just completely wrong about 2020,

Okay, do you really want voting machines all over the world that are filled with Chinese software? Because that's what we found. There's no question these machines are being operated from Beijing. So just ending that problem is good for the world. Do you think, I'm jumping here, do you think Comey and Brennan and Company and Haspel are going to face justice with regard to all this because clearly they have involvement? Well, I do. And it's difficult if you approach it in a normal fashion because many of the things they did weren't actually crimes. And many of the other things they did are out of the statute of

limitations. So you've got this procedural problem that Cash Patel and Pam Bondi have to grapple with. Now, how are they going to do that? That's actually pretty simple. That's what Cash was telling you middle of the year about this grand conspiracy approach, which if you can establish the basics of that, you can indict all of these people for everything, because that goes back in time to whenever it began, involves everyone who was a part of it and every one of their acts. and the statute of limitations runs from when the last action of the conspiracy took place. So that investigation is going on before a grand jury in South Florida. We should be able to get a fair trial down there,

unlike obviously the Eastern District of Virginia and certainly the District of Columbia. And so you've got a real shot at all of these people. it would not surprise me if part of the information they're looking for is possessed by Nicholas Maduro, and that's going to be an important part of the grand conspiracy investigation. We'll see, but I'm guessing that's true. So all the bad guys are sweating today, all of them. They should be, yes. Do you think Obama is sweating?

He initiated the conspiracy. I mean, that was plain as day. And Tulsi Gabbard couldn't have made it plainer in her presentations on this. So clearly, if Tulsi has anything to say about this, Barack Obama should be afraid. I mean, it's absolutely extraordinary what we're seeing. Again, this is an historical earthquake right now that it's going to take us, you know, decades to sort through the pieces of what we're seeing of what. is happening right now. It's like Mount St. Helens blowing. It is, there's nothing to compare to this right now. I guess, you know, we mentioned Iran. We mentioned Cuba. China. I mean, if you ever

heard a mouse squeak to hear President Xi say, you know, you, I don't know what he said. He said something. They never, China never seemed more impotent than when she said whatever he felt to save face he had to say. Trump didn't respond, probably won't respond, which is itself humiliating to the head of China. Well, it really is. And as you know, East Asian cultures are all about face. So this means more to them than it would to us. The reality is there's not really anything she can do.

And we're in an environment where his range of action is being more and more curtailed by the day. That's why he was willing to accept 47% U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods while only charging the United States 10. You know, he didn't do that out of the goodness of his heart or because he's a bad dealmaker. He did it because he didn't have a choice. The Chinese economy is built on exports. It doesn't function other than by exports. And we are the biggest import market on the planet. We're irreplaceable.

There's no combination of countries that can possibly add up to even a major fraction of the United States when it comes to the need to export to us. So they're already in trouble there. It's just that they got a generation of American leaders to see that as China having power rather than the other way around. Well, Trump sees it correctly. We have created a monster.

We have built a barbarous communist superpower for no good reason at all. And we've given them the means to develop the kind of military necessary to really turn that kinetic. And every single Trump action, it does not matter where in the world, it does not matter if it's domestic or foreign, every Trump action is taking account of that in a containment strategy not that different from George F. Kennons with the aim of not attacking China, not bombing China, but making it too expensive for China to bomb anybody else.

And that puts them in a box where they have to play nice. And again, the net result of that can be we all get rich together. There's a limit on that, though, for China, which you have been brilliant at articulating for a very long time, which is the demographic collapse that comes from decades of forced abortions under the one-child policy. we now see the lowest adult cohort in China at about 50% of the numbers of the cohort just ahead of it. There's no way to pull out of that tailspin. China's on track to lose 75% of its population by the end of the century. And the truth of the matter is that that hits sooner than later

because you're going to have this huge bubble of retirees that have to be supported by an ever-shrinking number. of young people, and there's just no way to solve that problem. So it's true. We see the dark factories that, you know, they're called dark because you don't need lights. It's all robots. And you don't need people to run them. Okay, that's fine, but that just doubles down on your export economy without any new consumption in China because robots don't buy cars and houses. And so their solutions actually make it worse. I was going to say there's another dynamic before we go. This applies to Iran and China both.

There has been Christian revival. You know, again, this is underground in Iran, in China. Gigantic Christian revival in Iran, in China. Those people have been praying. It seems to me that China is on the ropes, that China, that she is probably hoping to hang on to power. I mean, that's really all he can do at this point, but it's not looking good. So I wouldn't be shocked if we see Christians emerge in Iran, in China.

I don't know when this is going to happen, but I just have a sense that things are playing out along these lines because we have to, we don't have time to get into it right now. but ladies and gentlemen, in case you're wondering, the best of, you know, capitalism, the free markets, the best of a free nation where people govern themselves, that all comes from Christian roots. There is no other way you get there. You cannot get there with the Enlightenment, with some secular equation. You cannot get there and you will not get there. America came into being because of Christian faith, our liberties, including religious liberty, to not believe in the Christian faith, comes from the Christian faith. All of this stuff leads to all that other good stuff. And I think we're seeing some of this played out. And again,

I just find it comedic almost that Mamdani has just become mayor of New York City as all of this stuff is happening around the world. I don't know what's going to happen with him. I predict he will fail tremendously by the grace of God. Rod, before we go, any final thoughts? There's so much here. I just want to talk to you for days. I just want to say it's going to be a great year, you know, barring, you know, the sweet meteor of death or something. You know, we're about to have, we're about to have an incredible supply side boom. This is already happening. You see it in the GDP numbers in Q3 and Q4. You know, that's going to start touching everyone from the tall to the small as we reduce housing prices and food prices, and we create all these new jobs that are

going to come from $18 trillion in new investment in manufacturing in America, which they all told us could never, ever come back. Well, yes, it can, and it is. So this is going to be a great year for every American except Zohan Mundaami, and my guess is it's going to be a great year for Republicans in November. I forgot to say, happy super centennial. This is the super centennial year of the United States of America, folks. This year will be, you know, like 1861, like 1776. There's a new birth of freedom happening.

I think that Lincoln spoke those words prophetically. A new birth of freedom happening, and we get to see it. It is a war. We're in a war, but God has created us for, this hour to be warriors for his purposes in history, praise his name. Rod Martin, just a joy to speak with you, my friend. Thanks for being here. And you. Happy New Year. During the horrors of the Holocaust, Corey Ten Boom and her Dutch family, as told in her classic book, The Hiding Place, risked everything to shelter Jewish neighbors in their home. They were betrayed and sent to

concentration camps, yet Corey survived and went on to preach forgiveness and hope around the world. That same redemptive spirit lives on in Ten Boom Coffee. Working with Agro Cafe and Israeli AgTech Company, Ten Boom Coffee helps farmers around the world increase their harvests by 60%, improving both the quality of their beans and the quality of their lives. So every cup you pour becomes part of a legacy, one that stands for courage, kindness, and redemption. Visit 10 Boomcoffee.com. That's 10 Boomcoffee.com. Taste this. goodness that changes lives, use the code Eric, and say 10Booncoffee.com, use the code Eric. This Christmas, as we celebrate the Supercentennial coming up, Supercentennial 250th, there's no way,

better no way to support it than by supporting my friend, an American hero, Mike Lindell. He's one of the main sponsors on this program. He's the man behind Mike Pillow. He put his money where his mouth is. Some of you know this. If you've watched the program, he stood up for the kind of. country. He was unfairly canceled by the big box stores. So I want us to stand with him. So please go to mypillow.com. Use a promo code Eric to save big on pillows, sheets, slippers, everything you need

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