The Young Turks - Arabian Nights - May 14, 2025

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month Shopify trial and start selling today at ⁠shopify.com/tyt Mark Levin calls the term “neocon” antisemitic. U.S. and Israel in talks over possible U.S.-led administration in Gaza. Trump strikes $600B investment deal with Saudi Arabia, including billions in U.S. defense sales. He also claims he’s “figured out” Big Pharma and blames Democrats for high drug prices. Hosts: Ana Kasparian SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. And today we've got some good news potentially for Palestinians in Gaza, but also some bad news, potentially. So it's a bit of a roller coaster ride of a show today. But I'm really looking forward to sharing the news with you, including some updates on Donald Trump's tour to the Middle East. He gave a speech in Saudi Arabia just yesterday and was very critical

of the very individuals that people like Douglas Murray and Mark Levin, you know, want to protect because they fall into the category of individuals that were attacked by Trump during his speech. I love to see it. And so I'll give you all the details on what's happening foreign policywide and more. We're also going to talk about what's happening here domestically in the United States. So what does that include? Well, we got to talk a little bit about the pharmaceutical industry and how Trump purportedly wants to lower drug prices, although honestly, I'm skeptical because of the way he's going about it, and more importantly, because of the corruption of our Congress by the pharmaceutical lobby. So we're gonna talk about all of that

and give you updates on some of the other news that we covered this week. The other thing I wanted to just quickly mention is that Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois has decided to block a data gathering operation that the Department of Health and Human Services wants to do in their effort to study autism. Is that a good idea? Is it a bad idea? We'll get to the details on that later in the show. But it will be a solo show today. Unfortunately, my co-host had to call in sick last minute. So it's all right. We're going to do the show.

We're going to have a good time. And please write in. Give me some comments so I can interact with you guys in lieu of having a co-host on the show today. All right. Without further ado, let's get to our first story. If Mark Levine is calling the Trump administration anti-Semitic, Steve Wickoff, we're at the end of something and at the beginning of something new. All these years later, you either have to.

like apologize for your role in this catastrophe or defend your role in this catastrophe and talk about how you still really believe it was the right thing to do. But you can't sit here and say you're not an expert and you're a Jew hater if you say the word neoconservative. If you're calling Steve Wickoff an anti-Semite on Twitter, like you know you're losing, right? That loser Tucker Carlson is referring to is conservative talk show host Mark Levin, a well-known neoconservative lunatic whose foreign policy preferences have fallen out of vogue among Republican voters in recent years, for good reason. And while I find their rejection of the warmongers who dragged our young American soldiers into multiple Middle East deployments commendable,

Levin certainly doesn't agree with me. After all, the loudmouth hog was, and still is, a neocon, a disgusting, bloviating one at that. Levin has never been shy about about cheerleading for U.S. military intervention in the Middle East on behalf of Israel. In fact, he's demanding we go to war with Iran on behalf of Israel right now. So it should come as no surprise that Levin didn't appreciate that Middle East envoy, Steve Whitkoff, cited neoconservatives in a critical fashion while expressing his interest in diplomatic solutions to foreign conflicts. Con element believes that war is the only way to solve things, and the president believes that

his force of personality, the way he is going to respond to situations can bend people to do things in a much better way in the interests of the United States government, and I believe in that too. In response to Whitkoff's statement, Levin did what the right often criticizes the left for doing. He weaponized identity to shut down criticism that he doesn't like. In an ex post that, of course, included the video featuring Whitkoff's statements about neo-conservatives, Levin declared that neocon is a pejorative for Jew and ended his comments with an unbelievable.

The only thing that's unbelievable is that Levin tried to play the anti-Semitic card, plus he was wrong to do so. He's wrong in his statement. Neocon has just become a dirty word because no one likes them, which is why Levin's weaponized social media declaration was met with a community note that just simply reads, a neocon is not a pejorative for someone who is Jewish. Yeah. Now before I go off on neocon scum that absolutely have blood on their hands, I just want to take a moment to weigh in on Steve Whitkoff. The real estate developer was chosen by Trump back in November of 24 to be his

incoming administration's special envoy to the Middle East, which to be quite honest with you guys, was concerning because Whitkoff had no diplomatic experience. And with the war on Gaza raging, honestly, I expected the worst from Whitkoff. But I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he began playing a key role in negotiating a ceasefire and hostage exchange. between Israel and Hamas, even before Trump was inaugurated for his second term. Whitkoff's approach was unconventional considering that Israel was part of the equation. According to the Wall Street Journal, Whitkoff sat down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reminded him of all the favors Trump carried out for Israel in his first term,

including the recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and Israel's sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. Then Whitkoff told the Israeli leader that the president has been a great friend of Israel, and now it's time to be a friend back. He then played hardball, telling the Prime Minister that he needed to allow Israel ceasefire negotiators to make decisions, and that if Netanyahu didn't want to work that way, everyone should just pack their bags and go home. What's the point? He also was similarly tough with the Arab side of the deer. Just a day earlier in Doha Qatar, Whitkoff told them it was time for an agreement, not endless diplomatic back and forth. So immediately after the meeting, Netanyahu sent a key aid and the heads of Israel's spy agencies to Doha for an intense week of negotiations that brought a deal which had been more abundant just weeks earlier back into play.

Both Hamas and Israel agreed to the first round of the deal, which would bring dozens of hostages home and stop the unbearable bloodshed for six weeks. Whitkoff even flew to Israel on January 29th and made a rare entry into Gaza to personally oversee the ceasefire. Now during this time, there was also an increased flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, which of course Israel had purposely been blocking throughout the entirety of the war. Because of that deal, that Whitkoff helped broker, Hamas released 33 hostages, which is 33 more than Israel was able to free through their genocidal war on Gazans. It was also nice to see a change from the Biden-Harris administration, which of course made repeated public statements about how they were pressuring Israel to end the war. In reality, they were doing no such thing. Former Israeli ambassador Michael Herzog told Israeli press that God did the state of Israel a favor that Biden was the president during this period.

We fought in Gaza for over a year and the administration never came to us and said ceasefire now. It never did. And that's not to be taken for granted. I don't take it for granted. I'll never forget. Even Obama official Ben Rhodes excoriated the Biden administration's handling of the war.

It was a choice for the United States to unreservedly back what Israel did for that whole year. That was a choice. It wasn't something that happened because of gravity. It wasn't something that happened because politics inevitably means you support Israel unconditionally. Joe Biden made a choice to provide unconditional military support to this Israeli government and this military operation. And just mouthing words of concern about the scale of loss of law.

life doesn't matter, you made that choice. But look, we didn't even need Michael Herzog's admission about the Biden administration to know that there was no pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire. Because guess what? We have eyes. We can see there were never any brakes on that car. Unfortunately, though, that didn't stop Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from delivering one of the most embarrassing lines of her career.

during the Democratic National Convention last year. She is working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing hostages home. Was she really? Kamala Harris was working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire? No, she wasn't. The fact that Harris was literally traversing the campaign trail with Liz Neocon Cheney in tow should have been a major red flag. AOC chose to ignore it in order to ingratiate herself with the same Democrats that she was elected to fight back against. Anyway, getting back to the fate of the ceasefire Whitkoff helped secure, a real estate developer helped secure, Israel went back to intentionally starving Palestinians trapped in Gaza by March 2nd. Because guess what? Benjamin Netanyahu

who had no interest in moving forward with the second phase of the ceasefire deal and decided to propose a brand new plan which Hamas would, in which Hamas would release hostages in exchange for extending the truce for another 50 days. But it wouldn't bring the war to an end. And look, Netanyahu knew Hamas wouldn't accept the altered deal. And that was the whole point. Now we know without a shadow of a doubt that Israel always intended to expand its military operation to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the Gaza Strip using American bombs that we taxpayers are forced to pay for even as we get crushed by inflation and poor economic conditions. It's disgusting. Additionally, Israel and its allies have been trying to remove Whitkoff from the Trump

administration, including Mark Levin, who tried to call Whitkoff a Jewish individual, by the way, an anti-Semite. Here's more screeching from the dead-eyed loser who wants to send your kids to fight Israel's war in Iran. terrorist regimes. Americans do not like Iran and the regime that runs it. They're terrorists. They keep threatening to destroy us and our friends, the Israelis. I speak for Christians and Jews and others alike. This is the view of the American people. That's number one. Americans hate Hamas. We hate terrorists, butchers, Nazis. We hate men that. kill babies?

I mean, Levin's right, I hate terrorists. Speaking of which, how many babies have been killed by your beloved Israeli government, Levin? Far more than Hamas is killed. Tens of thousands of children have been slaughtered by the IDF during this current round of war. Volunteer American doctors in Gaza came back home and spoke of the dozens of babies who were killed by Israeli snipers. They showed up to the hospital with freaking bullet holes in their heads, two-year-olds.

And we're just supposed to accept that and rally the troops for a brutal war with Iran? Nah. Even before Levin accused Whitkoff of being an anti-Semite, Douglas Murray scoffed at Dave Smith's use of the moniker neoconservative during their debate, if you can call it that, on Joe Rogan's podcast. If we just went in because there was this uprising in 2011 and because we were worried that Gaddafi was about to go genocidal, something that your own, the UK Parliament did an investigation into and found out was just completely wrong. But why is it then that I got four-star general Wesley Clark, Supreme Commander of the NATO forces? Why is it that he told me that he saw the plans in 2001 to overthrow Gaddafi?

and that this was part of a strategy to overthrow seven governments in five years. And all of them except one have been done at this point. So you're telling me, it's a complete coincidence that he saw that the neoconservatives had this plan to overthrow MoMA Kodafi. And then 10 years later, we happened to do it when we have the opportunity. The two aren't related at all? First, nice to hear the end word again. The N-word? Did I say that? No, conservatives.

Oh, that one. I was thinking of a different one. Okay. God, that is embarrassing. Murray amounting neoconservative to the N-word is hilarious because he literally wrote a book titled Neoconservatism, why we need it. I'm not kidding, here it is, you can see a photo of it. I mean, I think it was published in 2006 when neoconservatism hadn't fallen out of favor,

by the way, among the Republican base. But honestly, to Republican voters credit, they were able to accept the fact that the American people were lied to by the neo-conservatives within the Bush administration, that Iraq never had weapons of mass destruction, that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, that we were totally tricked by the neo-conservatives

in the George W. Bush administration to strike Iraq in a preemptive war That was a complete, another freaking disaster. Equating Neocon with the N-word was Murray's way of signaling that anyone speaking out against the horrific death, destruction, and war crimes, Neocons cheerlead in the Middle East should be condemned. It's Murray's way of silencing his opposition, which, much to his chagrin, he's failing at. I'm amused by it. But I assume the family members of the 4,419 American troops who died in Iraq on behalf of

Israel's desires to go to war with Iraq have their own views on neo-conservatives. The problem for folks like Murray and Levin is that the cat's out of the bag. We know too much, Smith clearly knows too much. Levin and Murray can't defend the indefensible, so they just start attacking those with legitimate of, you know, whatever, they're anti-Semites, they don't know what they're doing. They're, they've never been that they're not experts. But it would be great if they were pressured to contend with reality, as Smith brought up while talking to Tucker Carlson. Anybody can read for themselves, the clean break memo, it was written by Richard Pearl and David Wormsirk to Benjamin Netanyahu that was like, look, here is our plan.

And the break was from the peace process. The break was from Oslo. And they go, look, here's the plan. You know how Yitzhak Rabin and all these liberal Jews are saying we have to make peace with the Palestinians so that we can then make peace with the broader Arab world? Well, no, we got a new plan. We're going to break with all of that. We're not doing this land swap thing.

We're not giving the Palestinians a state. What we'll do is we'll have America overthrow all of these other governments. Well, you never have to make peace with the Palestinians. And you can just enjoy domination over the region. But all these years later, you either have to like apologize for your role in this catastrophe or defend your role in this catastrophe and talk about how you still really believe it was the right thing to do. But you can't sit here and say, you're not an expert and you're a Jew hater if you say the word neoconservative.

Smith is right. And the substance of what he's saying should be addressed. I mean, Iraq, Syria, Libya, the list goes on. Also, what I'm not. I would love to know is whether Murray or Levin think Trump is some sort of anti-Semite, given the statements he himself made during his speech in Saudi Arabia just yesterday. It's crucial for the wider world to note this great transformation has not come from Western intervention analysts or flying people in beautiful planes giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs. No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi

were not created by the so-called nation-builders, neocons, or liberal non-profits, like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop. Kabal, Baghdad, so many other cities. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves, The people that are right here, the people that have lived here all their lives, developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions and charting your own destinies in your own way.

It's really incredible what you've done. In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built, and the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves. They told you how to do it, but they had no idea how to do it themselves. Peace, prosperity, and progress ultimately came not from a radical rejection of your heritage, but rather from embracing your national traditions and embracing that same heritage that you love so dearly. Now look, I'm not a sucker. I know that Donald Trump forms his opinions and his policy based on who bribed him last. And Qatar and Saudi Arabia are working overtime at the moment.

And you add the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu is an unsavory, unlikable piece of crap. You can kind of understand why Trump is kind of changing his tune in regard to foreign policy in the Middle East. Now finally, Tucker Carlson himself used to be a raging neo-conservative. And guess what? Now he surprisingly expresses a great deal of remorse that that used to be the case. I mean, I spent my whole life in cable news. It, you know, obviously is in terminal decline. I had all kinds of views. They argued for passionately.

They were totally wrong. I admitted it. I gained perspective and humility in admitting it. It's the only act of liberation that's really possible in this life is freeing yourself from, like, the lies. And the number one lie is I'm God. Yeah. And like I'm omniscient or, you know, was perfectly wise person, whatever.

It's like, you know, you make mistakes. You're a ridiculous primate. We are ridiculous primates. Some more ridiculous than others. But credit where credit is due, not many people change their worldview based on new information. They usually just attack the messenger instead. Smith, Tucker, and anyone else on the right side of the political aisle who loathe neocons are right to do so and they deserve credit for it. Hopefully, the Democratic party wisens up, ditches the Cheney's, and realizes that no one likes a neocon, other than Israel and its allies. We'll be right back. Welcome back to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and I want to stay on the topic of foreign policy, because there's a story that's kind of been developing

over the last several days in regard to the future of the Gaza Strip that everyone should be concerned about, especially Palestinians and Americans. Because while we're hearing some more positive news in regard to Donald Trump's foreign policy in the Middle East, it could be for self-serving reasons. So let's get into it. The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out,

create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Well, the question is, who will the people of the area be? And according to an exclusive report by Reuters, the United States, is in fact weighing the possibility of establishing an American-led provisional government in Gaza. I mean, I feel like the American government is currently having a difficult time governing its own country, but I digress.

So five anonymous sources spoke to Reuters for this story. Here's what we know about it based on their reporting. They told reporters that the proposed provisional government would not have Hamas. nor the Palestinian authority involved at all. Instead, it would be led by an official from the United States. Palestinian technocrats would serve in other roles within the provisional government. And by the way, if that's not bad enough, other countries could be invited to join the government. But Reuter sources did not say which countries.

And obviously, that is very concerning. Now, currently, there's no timeline for how long that government might last after taking control of the Gaza Strip following the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, which make no mistake about it. Donald Trump is still very much gung ho on doing. Now, the sources compared the proposal to the coalition provisional authority in Iraq that Washington established in 2003. That worked out real well, didn't it? Yeah. So the provisional government would oversee Gaza until it's demilitarized and stabilized. Keep in mind that Gaza currently doesn't have a military. Hamas doesn't have a military. I know we keep referring to what's happening in Gaza as a war, but you kind of need two sides with militaries to engage in a war.

In reality, you have a bunch of millions of people trapped in a strip of land who are just being bombed, indiscriminately, killed, indiscriminately. This has been the case for well over a year, and Americans are paying for it. Yeah, that's the current situation in Gaza. Yeah, okay. So last weekend, NBC News reported the following. Trump has been frustrated with Netanyahu's decision to begin a new military offensive in Gaza, which the president sees as at odds with his plan for rebuilding there, and has said the new Israeli offensive in Gaza is a wasted effort because.

it will make it harder to rebuild, according to two sources. Now understand, Trump has never given us any indication that he wants to rebuild the Gaza Strip on behalf of the Palestinians. He wants to obviously establish an American-led government and rebuild the prime real estate in the Gaza Strip for himself. He sees a real estate development opportunity. That's what this is really about. That's probably the most important motivating factor behind Trump's, you know, subtle changes in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East. Another red flag is the fact that right-wing Israeli politicians have come out in support of Trump's proposal. I mean, that's the biggest red flag. Let's keep it real. And his proposal, again, includes forcibly

evacuating, ethnically cleansing, Palestinian civilians from the land that they are entitled to. But behind closed doors, some Israeli officials have also been weighing proposals over the future of Gaza that sources say assumes that there won't be a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza, such as a U.S.-led provisional administration. Among those include restricting reconstruction to designated security zones, dividing the territory, and establishing permanent military bases, said four sources, who include four. foreign diplomats and former Israeli officials briefed on the proposals. The future of Gaza, the future of the Palestinian people who have been suffering in Gaza, who have been experiencing their loved ones get slaughtered in Gaza, the future doesn't look good for them. I want the war to end. Obviously, the motivating factors that influence Trump to want to end the war concern me because it's not really about, you know, ending the bloodshed because it's immoral.

It's about creating a situation in which the U.S. can come in and essentially engage in a land grab. The Israelis very likely think, yeah, yeah, let's make the U.S. think they're going to benefit from this. Obviously, Israel has its own issues with settlers who have been eyeing the Gaza Strip to build settlements for a long time. We've already seen flyers. and advertising material from various organizations, wanting to build settlements in the Gaza Strip. And it's so incredibly frustrating that, you know, you see what's happening as an American who's totally against this, and you feel powerless to stop it. But make no mistake, this is beyond a moral.

I don't think the United States should have any business in governing stolen land that had just been ethnically cleansed of Palestine. Indian civilians. And so far, that's one of the proposals that we're seeing coming from the Trump administration. Doesn't mean it's necessarily going to happen. Trump is a wildcard. He's, you know, his policies are unstable. You never know which way he's going to go in. Remember, he was totally in favor of bombing the nuclear sites in Iran. But clearly, he has totally backed away from that, says he doesn't want any kind of war with Iran. He wants to enter a new nuclear deal, which is great. I hope he does do that. So we don't know if this is actually going to come true, if he's actually going to try to, you know, install some weird American

puppet government that might have some Israelis involved. We're going to have to wait and see. But this doesn't look good. And it kind of informs you a little better on why it is that Trump has soured on Netanyahu. Netanyahu wants to continue the war. Trump wants it to stop so he can rebuild. But who he wants to rebuild for is the most important detail to the story. It ain't for the Palestinians. not come from Western interventionalists or flying people in beautiful planes giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs. No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation builders, neocons, or liberal non-profits,

like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop, cabal, Baghdad, so many other cities. In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built, and the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves. Love that statement from Donald Trump, who gave a speech while in Saudi Arabia just yesterday. Now, you just watched a portion of that speech.

And today he touched down in Qatar. So we want to give you a comprehensive look into this tour in the Middle East, what's coming from it, and whether or not the Trump administration has changed its tone as it pertains to Middle East foreign policy. So let's dive in. So during the speech in Saudi Arabia, Trump made this big announcement about how the Saudis will be purchasing an estimated $150 billion with a B. in American weapons. And look, they're going to spend $150 billion. Let me reword this so it's as

accurate as possible. Donald Trump did a favor for U.S.-based weapons manufacturers who will now receive $100 billion in Saudi money in order to buy said weapons. Okay, these aren't American weapons. Sure, they're made by American companies. We don't benefit from that at all. I want to be clear about that. American citizens don't benefit from that. It is a favor, it is a handout, it is a deal that benefits Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman. You guys get the point.

Okay, anyway, there's more on that. Let's watch Trump talking about it. You know, nobody makes military equipment like us. We have the best military equipment, the best missiles, the best rockets, the best everything. Best submarines, by the way, most lethal weapon in the world. In addition to purchases of $142 million of American made military equipment by our great Saudi partners, the largest ever. So per the White House, the package also includes extensive training and support to build

the capacity of the Saudi armed forces, including enhancement of, Saudi service academies and military medical services. So I got to be honest, as we're watching Israel use these same weapons, these same bombs to brutalize and slaughter innocent civilians in Gaza, it's kind of sick to hear Trump touting the lethality of these bombs and these weapons. But anyway, so the weapons deal is part of a larger, according to Trump, $600 billion investment agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia. But honestly, the details on this are slim. Okay, I have a lot of questions. And unfortunately, at this moment, we don't have enough answers. So though the details are unclear, the agreement

is being touted like it's made up of Saudi investments into American companies, which would benefit American citizens. So the White House states that in Saudi Arabia, President Donald J. Trump announced Saudi Arabia's $600 billion commitment to invest in the United States, building economic ties that will endure for generations to come. Saudi Arabian Datavolt is moving forward with plans to invest $20 billion in AI data centers and energy infrastructure in the U.S. But the White House also admitted that American companies will be investing in Saudi Arabia as well. Google, data, Volt, Oracle, Salesforce, AMD, and Uber are committing to invest $80 billion in cutting

edge transformative technologies in both countries. We've gotten a taste of those cutting edge technologies. Anyway, so it's unclear if that $600 billion figure is like the sum for investment into the US or if it's just like the total sum of investments for both countries. There are a lot of details here that are unclear. Plus, only some of the deals are actually set in stone at the moment. So organizers of the US-Saudi Investment Forum, where the deals were announced, said that 145 deals were signed totaling more than $300 billion, which of course is just half

of the total promoted on Tuesday by the White House. Elon Musk, by the way, was there. He accompanied Trump on the voyage to Saudi Arabia and got some. some cookies out of it. Let's take a look. I think it'll be very exciting to have autonomous vehicles here in the kingdom. Indeed.

If you're amenable. You heard it hear from Elon. He's bringing his robot taxi to the kingdom. Yeah. He has another announcement that he's going to share here. Exactly. So, and I'd also like to thank the kingdom for approving Starlink for maritime and aviation use.

There are Tom and aviation. There you go. There you go. So Elon Musk, of course, was there. I mean, this is, I remember getting invited. It wasn't anything like this, but it was a local political event, a conference. I was asked to go, you know, host a panel discussion there. And, I mean, it was all a charade, like a charade, okay?

Like, it was all fake. It was all just a venue, a platform in which business deals could be made. Okay, there was nothing cerebral about that experience. It was just obvious that all sorts of foreign leaders were coming together in the same location in order to work out business deals. And so that's what this is really about, obviously. That's why Elon Musk was there to see what kind of business he can get out of it. And there were other executives there, including the CEO of Navidia, Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock.

Wow, he took a little break to do a little bit of traveling instead of snatching up all of the residential real estate in the United States. How nice of him. Sam Alton, the CEO of Open AI, was there as well. Who wasn't there was also interesting. So Jeff Bezos, of course, not a fan of Saudi Arabia after the Saudi Crown Prince ordered the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, who was in fact a writer. for the Washington Post, a paper that Jeff Bezos owns. Yeah, he didn't go to Saudi Arabia, and neither did Mark Zuckerberg. He was not present either. So let's pivot to a big announcement that Trump made in Saudi Arabia in regard to his administration, lifting all sanctions on Syria after the leaders of Turkey and Saudi Arabia asked him to do so. And by the way,

Israel, for whatever reason, was urging him against doing this. But Trump did it anyway. In a An Israeli official told CNN that when Prime Minister Benjamin Nanyahu met Trump in Washington in April, he asked the president not to remove sanctions on Syria. But apparently Nanyahu was unable to get his way. And so Trump did pay lip service to the normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia during his time there, but said that Saudi Arabia could, you know, pursue the normalization on their own time. I love it. So Trump even met with interim

Syrian president Ahmed al-Shara. And Trump's meeting with Shara was the first meeting between a United States president and Syrian president in 25 years. So it was a pretty big deal. Obviously, this is the guy who succeeded in toppling Bashar al-Assad's regime. And until recently, Al-Shara

had a $10 million US bounty on his head. But things are different now. Alshara was placed on the U.S. specially designated global terrorist list in 2013 for heading Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, known as Al-Nusra Front and allegedly orchestrating suicide bombings across Syria. Stand-up guy. Now, Al-Shara just led the insurgency and toppled the Assad regime. He requested that al-Shara, Trump did, tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria. deport Palestinian terrorists, normalize relations with Israel, and help prevent ISIS from reemerging. He also said this.

How did you find the Syrian president? Right. Right, I think very good. Young, attractive guy, tough guy, you know, a strong pass, a strong pass fighter. Is that working? But he's got a real shot in pulling it together. He was a terrorist like yesterday. day. But he's a young strong guy. He's a young strong guy. You know, and we wanted, we wanted

Assad gone. He wasn't friendly to Israel. So the United States, along with Israel, you know, help support the rebels in the toppling of Bashar al-Assad. So anyway, look, I just find it hilarious that Israel didn't want the U.S. to lift sanctions on Syria, given the fact that, that Israel wanted the toppling of Bashar al-Assad probably more than any other country. They got their way and they immediately went on to grab hold of Syrian land. That's what they did. It's just amazing to me. You have to kind of see everything. Take a step back and see the bigger picture, right? Because it's not just one story in a vacuum that's going to help you make sense of the foreign policy the United States engages in.

We have someone who was a terrorist, like not too long ago, now serving as the leader of Syria. And because of the fact that he's not Bashar al-Assad, who, by the way, was a brutal dictator himself, but a brutal dictator that Israel didn't like, okay? Now, this new guy, a little friendlier to Israel, and all the rhetoric about terrorism changes when it comes to Donald Trump. Suddenly, what terrorism? He's a young, strong guy. Okay. Look, I don't want war with Syria. Don't get me wrong. It's just, when you literally have American college students being referred to as terrorists by the Trump administration for engaging in their First Amendment rights, protesting, and calling out and criticizing a foreign

government, it just kind of makes you think when that the new leader of Syria who was hitting and abetting al-Qaeda is now being referred to as like some hero, some great, strong young guy, okay, whatever, it's just sick. All of it is really sick when you think about it. I just want to get the hell out of the Middle East. I want to stop spending money on all this nonsense in the Middle East. I really do. Unfortunately, I don't think we're ever going to get out of that. And I just can't stand the announcement of these deals as if it's going to benefit all Americans. Oh, American civilians, we're really going to benefit from Saudi Arabia spending hundreds

of billions of dollars on weapons. That just fattenes the pockets of defense contractors. That does nothing for us. Okay, keep some of the American workers at these companies employed. Great. But I would rather that not be our top export. I would rather we not. export as many weapons, missiles, bombs as we do. But you know, defense contractors have just as much

say and just as much sway over our government as Israel does. So there you go. We're supposed to celebrate, you know, Saudi Arabia spending hundreds of billions of dollars on U.S. weapons. Great. Okay. So a few more details. Trump even met with, so he met with the president, the new president of Syria, the interim president of Syria. I'm sure, you know, they'll have Democratic elections and everything. Any day now, it'll happen. But I also want to talk a little bit about one more thing, Qatar. So Trump did arrive in Qatar today and was greeted by a motorcade that Qatar put together that included two Tesla cyber trucks. Trump announced today that Qatar Airways will be buying 210 Boeing jets, which according to the president is the largest order of jets

in Boeing's history. I don't really give a crap about that at all. But nonetheless, the president boasted that the deal was worth $200 billion. But a fact sheet from the White House said the true number was $96 billion. I don't care how much money it is. I would rather the amount be zero. But there's more money for defense contractors where that came from. Qatar and the United States signed a statement of defense cooperation that includes a $1 billion agreement with with Raytheon for Qatar's acquisition of counter drone capabilities, a nearly $2 billion agreement with General Atomics for Qatar's acquisition of a remotely piloted aircraft system, and $38 billion dollars in potential investments, including support for burden sharing at AI, at AI UD Air Base.

I don't know how to pronounce that, which houses Qatari American and British airmen. In total, the White House said the deals announced by Trump amounted to more than $243 billion between the United States and Qatar. The Trump administration also said the agreements with Qatar were expected to generate an economic exchange of $1.2 trillion, though it was unclear. how the administration arrived at that figure. I can tell you how they arrived at that figure. They took their hand. They shoved it up their own asses and they pulled something out. That's how they arrived at that conclusion. The conclusion I have arrived at is that we need to take a break.

So we're going to do that and we'll be right back. Did he writes in and says, I remember Democrats demanding that New Jersey senator resigned for taking gold bars from Egypt. Where are the Republicans demanding Trump resigned for taking a $400 million plane from Qatar? Did he, first of all, you bring up a really important question. So I'm going to do my best to answer it because there is a difference here. And it's not about morality, believe it or not. I think if Bob Menendez, okay, that's the senator that you were referring to, If he were a popular politician with the Democratic base and Democratic lawmakers knew that they would face significant backlash for calling on him to resign, they wouldn't call on him to resign.

These politicians are total and utter cowards. And so the only reason why Republicans and Congress don't really speak out against Donald Trump, even when they disagree with what he's doing, is because they're afraid of his base. Make no mistake about that. Now, if he's proposing something that his base isn't responding well to, well, in those instances, you might see some backlash, light backlash from Republican lawmakers, but they would never call on him to resign. And so they've been criticizing the notion of him accepting that plane. But again, as you mentioned, and you're correct, they have not called on him to resign. I mean, for him to step down, come on, that would never happen. All right, let's actually get to our next story.

I want to move on to some domestic policy, because, you know, as we shared with you earlier this week, Donald Trump says that he wants pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices. What's really behind that? Is it just lip service? Is he just trying to trick us all? Or is there something substantive behind it? Let's get to the details. For many years, we were taken advantage of by other countries and the drug companies,

but I blame the other countries in a way more. European Union, etc. They were very nasty and very tough to the drug companies. And they would give them a very low price for drug costs in the European nations. And when that price was given, that was it. They wouldn't negotiate it. They said, let America pay for the difference. And now after studying the industry, it's a very complex industry, but I figured it out. And I said, it's not gonna happen. You know, no one knew the pharmaceutical industry could be so complicated. Did you know? I didn't know. No one knew. No, but in all seriousness, don't worry, Donald Trump has it all figured out for us, and he's going to be the cop that stops the price gouging,

allegedly. So there he was during a softball interview with Sean Hannity on Air Force One, of course. This took place last night, touting his new initiative to lower drug prices. And, And look, honestly, our politicians are so pathetic and so bought by Big Pharma, that just hearing a politician, you know, especially a president, call out the price gougers in the pharmaceutical industry, feels nice. What would feel better if something substantive is actually done, so we're no longer price gouged. So Medicare can actually, you know, do the unthinkable, negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices so American taxpayers aren't getting screwed by getting price gouged. Now, the idea of his so-called most favored nation policy is to essentially force drug companies to match the lower prices they charge to other countries for the United States. So we wouldn't pay more than other developed countries. We would be

paying the same amount. So if drug makers don't do it voluntarily, the administration is threatening to directly tie drug prices paid by government programs like Medicare to those paid in other countries. Okay, so we're gonna get to whether he can even unilaterally do that in just a moment, but let me give you some more details because he also said that the US market would be open to imports from other countries and that he would investigate the drug companies that don't comply. My understanding is that we already import pretty much all drugs from other countries because

drug companies have offshore manufacturing of vital, critical, important pharmaceutical drugs to other countries to increase their profits. You know, cheaper labor, higher profits, that happens in this industry as well. But nonetheless, again, like I'm coming in hot. I haven't shared anything negative yet, right? So far everything we're seeing and hearing from Trump on this matter appears on the surface as very positive. It's something that we've been wanting.

The thing is, talk is cheap. So I would love nothing more, much of the chagrin of a portion of this audience, to come on the show and celebrate Trump and the Republicans actually doing something material, something real to lower drug prices. But it ain't happened yet. And keep in mind, he played this game in his first term as well. So no cookies for you until something's actually done. But let me continue. Look, he's obviously correct that Americans are paying far more than other nations for the exact same pharmaceutical drugs. U.S. prescription drug prices are two to three times higher on average than those in other developed nations and up to 10 times

more than in certain countries, according to the RAND Corporation, a public policy think tank. And to add insult to injury, American taxpayers oftentimes fund the research and development of these very pharmaceutical drugs that we're now getting price gouged on. They get grants through the National Institutes of Health. And if we're going to be funding the research and development of these drugs, we should enjoy some of those profits or get a deep discount on those drugs. drugs, but that ain't happening. And that is beyond unfair, beyond unjust. And I'm sure Americans across the political spectrum agree with me on that. No American should be price

gouged on life-saving medication. And the fact that we are is absolutely ludicrous. But anyway, so as we discussed when that executive order was announced, it's not really clear whether Donald Trump has the legal authority to basically enforce an executive order. He can't just unilaterally do everything he wants to do. I don't want to say unfortunately, but it is unfortunate in this current moment that Congress needs to pass legislation. And I say that it's unfortunate because Congress is garbage. Okay, you have hundreds of elected lawmakers who have no interest in doing anything beneficial for the American people. And so they hold these like kabuki theater hearings to get their cute little sound bites that they then spread all all over social media to get a nice little pat on the back as if they're governing.

In reality, they don't do anything. Okay, they don't do much. That's for sure. Yeah, they'll raise the debt ceiling because they have to. I mean, it would destroy the global economy if they don't. They'll pass a budget. They'll, of course, increase funding for our military industrial complex. But when it comes to bread and butter issues, when it comes to solving the very real problems that the American people are faced with, Congress doesn't do much. So that's why I say, unfortunately, it is very likely that Trump needs Congress to pass legislation. And I don't really have any hope there because Republican lawmakers opposed including a most favored nation provision in their big, beautiful budget bill. that Trump has been touting. So it seems like it's dead on arrival in Congress.

It's very unlikely Trump is able to lower drug prices unilaterally through executive order. But unsurprisingly, during his interview with Hannity, Donald Trump decided to lay the blame for high drug prices at the Democrats' feet. The pharmaceutical industry is very powerful, and probably the most powerful, considered the most powerful lobby. and the Democrats were making it impossible to lower drug prices. They knew what they were doing. The Democrats never wanted to play ball. They never wanted to do anything. It's the Democrats' fault that people were being ripped off for years and years.

The Democrats fought very hard to keep the prices of drugs very, very high. They really are to blame for this because they should have done something about it. And when the Republicans went with requests, they said, we're not going to approve it. Look, to be sure, Democrats are partly to blame for astronomical pharmaceutical drug prices. They have played a role in aiding and abetting Big Pharma because they're also corrupted by Big Pharma. I mean, just go back to the debates that were taking place among members of the Democratic Party in the Senate as they were trying to pass, you know, Biden's agenda, which was supposed to

allow for Medicaid to negotiate all drug prices. That got watered down because of people like former, luckily Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, people like Kirsten Cinema. So yes, there is some blame to go around and include that blame with the Democratic Party. However, however, in the 2020, 2024 election cycle, Dems took $37.5 million from the pharmaceutical companies and health products industries with 58% of total contributions. Plus, although Big Pharma has supported more Republicans historically, that favorability reversed in 2020. With former Vice President Kamala Harris receiving nearly six times more funding support from pharmaceutical companies in the 2024 election compared to President Donald Trump.

So they're working overtime, bribing everyone to prevent the passage of any legislation, to prevent the action of any presidential administration, that would eat away or cut into their profits. They've got that fiduciary responsibility, everyone, that fun word. You've got to look out for the investors, the shareholders, return on investment, reigns supreme. It's the most important thing in this country. That's why people who freak out about the stock market crack me up. Like what are you, a day trader? Is that why you're freaking out?

Okay, well, you're playing with fire. This country values the stock market more than anything else. Period. End of story. Our politicians are heavily invested in the stock market. They engage in insider trading, I believe, based on information we're not privy to. They base their votes on legislation on whether or not the policy is going to hurt the profits of companies that they're invested in. Stock market's always going to be aight. I'm not worried about that, okay? But to say Republicans have been martyrs. They've been martyrs, everyone, just pushing for lower drug costs. It's just an absolute joke. So in 2022, Congress approved a law allowing Medicare to

negotiate the price it pays for a handful of prescription drugs, starting in 2026. It hasn't even started yet, okay? They pass this in 2022, and it doesn't go into effect until 2026. It's like, Let's hope that someone comes in and reverses this, okay? Pharmaceutical companies are not happy about this. That same year, the pharmaceutical industry's leading lobbying organization contributed $7.5 million to the American Action Network, a group linked to House Republicans, according to an analysis of 2022 tax forms. Okay, so this isn't just a recent thing.

All the way back in 2007, Republican senators blocked another proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. And Trump's not off the hook either. On inauguration day, Trump signed an executive order reversing, reversing initiatives aimed at reducing prescription drug costs for Medicare and Medicaid recipients, expanding the Affordable Care Act, and increasing protections for Medicaid enrol. I would love to live in a world where a politician says something isn't lying about it and actually does it.

But guys, we don't live in that world and we don't have that type of politician in this country, maybe a few in Congress. Like if Bernie Sanders was president, I would totally believe that he would fight to lower drug prices and really fight, not pretend to fight like Biden did. But aside from him and maybe a few others, just know, politicians talking, they're lying. You should never take their word at face value. And so until I see some meat here, until I see a real plan, no cookies for you, Trump. You don't deserve it.

This isn't our first rodeo. You did this in your first term. Either put up or shut up. For us, we're going to take a break. We'll be right back with more.