February 16, 2025 • 29 mins
How durable is the Trump magic? Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on Trump’s foreign policy plans.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Team forty seven podcast is sponsored by Good Ranchers.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Making the American Farm Strong Again.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Team forty seven with Clay and Buck starts now, I
want to lay out a thesis for you. You tell me
whether you buy it or not. We have seen, in
short order, in the last six months seven months, Donald
Trump remake the Republican Party in a more significant fashion
(00:33):
than I think almost anyone has realized. And I understand
because Trump moves so quickly, and because every day is
such a frenzy, sometimes it's difficult to tell what matters
and what is a distraction. And let me give David Axelrod,
probably unexpectedly some credit here.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Buck.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
In the Alabama administration, he coined the phrase nothing burger,
as in a lot of stories bubble up and everybody
gets really focused on them, and everybody's talking about it.
But he would look at that and say, it's a
nothing burger. It's a twenty four hour start with nothing burger.
I think nothing burger existed before him. Clay, I don't
(01:16):
think in the context, in the context of politics, I
never heard anybody else apply the phrase nothing burger. That's
a good question for etymology, as am I pronouncing that
word right etymology experts who initially popularized the phrase nothing burger.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Good question.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Hollywood Gossip columnist Luela Parsons is credited with coining the
term nothing burger in the nineteen fifties, according to Google AI.
All right, so I apologize, play apologize to the Hollywood
Gossip Maven for giving credit to ax Arat. I will
say I had never heard it really used in a
(01:56):
political context. My point on that is a lot of
what Trump coverage consists of are things that are inconsequential
that will not last longer than twenty four hours. And
I think Trump's particular genius is a lot of times people,
when they say something that turns into a story, will
(02:19):
backtrack and focus on it and keep on analyzing it.
Trump just keeps firing.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
He moves forward and sort of as a force of will,
and he forces you to follow him instead of constantly
looking at what's behind.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
He's a very forward thinking person. Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
With that in mind, I don't think there's enough discussion
about how radical Trump has transformed the Republican Party.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Think about this.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Buck Elon Musk votes for Joe Biden in twenty twenty
never endorsed Trump until July thirteenth of twenty twenty, right
after the assassination attempt Tulci Gabbard, who just got confirmed yesterday.
I believe Tulca Gabbard ran against Donald Trump in twenty twenty.
(03:11):
Lifelong Democrat from Hawaii RFK Junior. Until when did he
officially endorse August? Maybe September. I think Omed Malik, who's
a friend of the show, deserves a lot of credit
behind the scenes. This guy is really plugged in, and
he was boys with RFK Junior, and he worked as
(03:32):
hard as he could to help make this union happen.
I think it was an August endorsement where RFK Junior
finally came out and said, I'm on board with Trump.
What do those people represent? Make America healthy again. I
think that's something that everybody out there is like, yeah,
you know what, I wish this nation was healthier, common sense,
(03:55):
balance the budget, bring a diverse coalition of people of
a variety of backgrounds who believe in innate American exceptionalism
and greatness, and remake the Republican Party on the fly
as the party of common sense and the representative of
(04:19):
the everyday average American. I don't think most people are
recognizing what's happening here simultaneously. Buck, It's not just what
you create. It is because we have developed this system
of fifty to fifty. Basically in the twenty first century,
Democrats have gotten used to inherently opposing what Republicans advocate
(04:41):
for and vice versa. And it's not just that Trump
has rebuilt the Republican Party. It's that Democrats as a result,
are increasingly isolating themselves in terms of advocating for small
minority identity groups that do not not represent the larger
American population. For example, yesterday, Democrats show up and introduce
(05:07):
a bill for reparations and argue that America's racist and
that black people need to be paid because of slavery.
They also now only two Democrats, Buck, we're willing to
argue in favor of women's sports only being made up
of women. They won't even allow that to be voted
on in the Senate right now. And we also have
(05:31):
now the attack policy of Democrats being no, no, no.
Federal workers are great. We shouldn't be searching as aggressively
as we are for fraud and waste. I think we
have a building going. I'm not gonna say it's going
to continue. But the momentum we've got going on right
now is the Republicans are building a durable, permanent majority party,
(05:53):
and Democrats are building a permanent, a durable minority party.
And every day Republicans are expanding their coalition and every
day Democrats are decreasing theirs. Now, at some point maybe
sanity returns to the Democrat Party, but out of nowhere
(06:16):
Trump has built an incredible edifice upon which a new
party is being built and based. And it's a coalition
that has a huge tent of just rational, normal, everyday Americans,
many of whom were Democrats until about six months ago.
I mean, I think sometimes you can miss the seismic
(06:37):
impacts because we're looking at all of these twenty four
hour stories. The idea that Tulci Gabbert and Rfk Junior
are in the Trump cabinet, that Elon Musk is basically
sleeping in the White House, all to try to make
America a more exceptional nation.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Buck.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
If we had said this a year ago, a lot
of people would have said, you guys are crazy, There's
no way that's going to happen. Yes, And so the
question that I have for you is do you buy
that a new party is being built? And do you
buy that the Democrats are basically lighting themselves on fire
(07:13):
every day? How does this change the trajectory that we're
on right now?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Well, I think that we knew that it was Trump's
Republican party in the first Trump term, and now there's
been an even further consolidation this time around. Because what
you have is I think I said this before, but
I like the analogy. It's like Trump and his team
did the Rocky training in Siberia before they go up
(07:40):
against Ivan Drago.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
You know, this is the.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Most ferociously focused and talented and relentless Trump Maga movement
that we have ever seen. And that means that Democrats
have a challenge even if they had some of their
old stable.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Of big political names to deal with.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
But it's coming at a time when I think they're
particularly weak, and I think their arguments are particularly weak.
Part of this is that one thing you've noticed, you know, Clay,
you just had the speech on campus, right, and you
dealt with exposing some young college people to arguments they
probably had not heard before. I remember when I was
a college Republican in two thousand. Okay, wow, twenty five
(08:25):
years that's crazy. Twenty five years ago, I was a freshman,
and I remember very clearly, very early on, the recognition
among college Republicans at Amherst then was we know that
we have to be ready to fight, meaning you know, argue,
debate in the classroom, in the study hall, among friends, whatever,
(08:47):
and so we were always lean, mean.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
And ready for action.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Democrats, I think got a combination of crazier and flabbier
intellectually because they had achieved so much information dissemination dominance.
What I mean is because they could kick you off
the Internet, which they did to parlor, because they could
count on all social media platforms to be aligned with
(09:16):
their ideology, to shut down questioning the election, to shut
down questioning masks and lockdowns and the COVID vaccines effectiveness
and all this stuff. I think they just got sloppy,
and I think that as a result, the craziest element
was able to ascend with the Democrat Party, and they
were a particularly weak element when it came to being
(09:39):
able to convince anybody of anything right. So it's like
the virus, so to speak, was able to run rampant
within the Democrats. And now we're seeing what the casualties
of that are politically. So you know, you have the
strongest Trump and the strongest MAGA that we have ever seen,
most consolidated, the most able to bring over converts to
your point about RFKM and TULSI. And at the same
(10:02):
time as you have the weakest Democrat party that we've
seen in my adult lifetime. In twenty five years, this
is the weakest Democrat party we've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Here's a question I want you guys.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I think that the party has been remade, and I
think it's important to think about it. I know many
of you out there listening may not have been traditional
listeners of this program. Question that I think is very
interesting is how do the Democrats eventually align on somebody
to combat it? And I'm kind we talked about this.
I don't know that there's a current office holder who
(10:33):
is charismatic enough to be that person. So think about
that second part of this. How durable is the Trump magic?
How durable is the movement that Trump has built? In
other words, how much of it transfers to whomever the
air is and how much of it is unique to
(10:56):
Trump's own particular brand of what I think you have
to say, is political fairy dust?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I mean, he is a unique.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Political unicorn talent. How much of it transfers. Let's pretend
that JD. Vance is the guy going forward. These are
the things I think in the back of your mind,
big picture that you should be contemplating, because one of
these big things that you have to keep in mind
is as good as Trump is and as many wins
as he is stacking right now, a Democrat with a
(11:28):
pen at the resolute desk can wipe out an awful
lot of this greatness over four years. We have to
stack multiple terms to your point.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
About whether it transfers and whether you know and I
think Trump it was interesting. We didn't discuss this, but
he was asked in a recent interview. I think it
was Brett Baer, is JD. Vance your successor? And he
responded something along the lines of JD is super competent
and capable, but you know, we'll see. And I think
we have to keep that in mind. Whether the not
(11:59):
knots for JD specifically, but just what happens with the
MAGA movement going forward with Trump's Republican Party. A lot
of it will be determined by how successful the next
eighteen months are. The next eighteen months is a continuation
of what we've seen in this first month, then I
think you're just going to have an incredibly robust party
that has a solid majority of the American people behind
(12:19):
it and can count upon a whole bunch of people
to take the torch and move forward with it. You know,
it all depends. Right right now everything looks rosy and great.
We got to see where everything goes. So but I
think the case for optimism right now is stronger for
the Republican Party, for this new Republican Party under Trump overall,
(12:42):
than it has been in a very long time. I mean, really,
the only kind of consolidation I think you've seen among
Republicans that is in any way similar to what we
have now is the immediate aftermath of nine to eleven,
which is very different. That's getting together in the bunker
to fight an existential threat against our way of life
in our society. That's not I think We're going to
tackle the debt and have a booming economy and have peace.
(13:04):
So we're in a different place now under Trump, but
we've had a similar level of consolidation among Republicans that
we haven't seen in twenty plus years.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
You're listening to Team forty seven with Clay and Buck.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
We are joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mister Secretary,
I appreciate you making the time for us. A lot
going on in the world.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Let's jump right into it.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
There's so much we want to ask you about the
start of this Trump administration. The domestic stuff, the executive
orders has got a tremendous amount of focus, but the
president has an ambitious foreign policy agenda that you are
the point person for. Let's just start with if you
could set the table on Russia Ukraine and the reporting
that Trump is eager to have negotiations to end that conflict,
(13:53):
to at least bring about a ceasefire.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Well, the great thing about working for President Trump is
there's not a lot of ambiguity. I mean, he's pretty straightforward,
and he's been campaigning and saying the war would have
never happened if he was president. I believe that to
be true. He said that yesterday too, tootom and putin
by the way, and and he wants it to end now.
He wants to end the war. He's not looking for
just like a pause. You know, he's looking for it
(14:16):
to end and uh. And then it's gonna it's gonna
be hard, uh, and it's gonna have to move in stages.
You know. Maybe it starts with a ceasefire that's not
been agreed to, negotiated, but I'm just saying that. And
then you know, opening things like eight corridors and ensuring
that both sides you know, aren't targeting energy infrastructure. So
we'll see how that plays out. And by the way,
I think the US is not going to happen without Trump.
(14:37):
He's the only one in the world that can bring
it something like this together. But it has to be
a global effort. It's not just US, it's not just
Europe or NATO. I mean, countries around the world are
gonna have to participate. Now, I will say Europe is
going to have to provide if there's going to be
durable security guarantees for Ukraine. Uh, that's gonna have to
be the Europeans who have to be willing to step
(14:58):
up and do that. And but there's a lot of
sensitive issues to talk about, territorial claims, you know, arms
control and things of that nature, language and cultural matters.
All that's going to have to be worked through. And finally,
you know, the US is going to have a stake
in Ukraine's long term independence and that should be anchored
in an ongoing economic interests. You know, whether it's the
(15:19):
ability to hopefully we'll have some newsier soon on that,
the ability to partner with Ukraine a joint venture or
something like that for their mineral rights, you know, all
the natural resources they have, and some of that money
will go back to pay back the US taxpayer for
the billions of dollars and that's been spent there, and
part of it was going to be reinvested back into
Ukraine to rebuild all the destruction that's happened there, you know,
(15:40):
their infrastructure and things like that. But it's a lot
of hard work. But yesterday was the first step in
a long journey that lies ahead. But it's this all
reiterate what the President said that the killing and the
dying has to stop in Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
We're talking to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. There has
been talk that you are going going to Munich and
that there could be conversations potentially as early as tomorrow.
Is that taking place, Will you be traveling to Europe.
What is the procedure under which conversations like these that
could lead to a ceasefire would take place.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Well, first of all, I mean, we got to work
through all that. I will be in Europe tomorrow, be
in Germany, for it was already scheduled to be there.
The Vice President and I'll be meeting with Zelenski and
at some point you know that you will have to
engage with Russian counterparts. So we haven't talked to the
Russians in almost two and a half years. So I
think the president's call yesterday with Ladimir Putin was the
(16:41):
first presidential call of Latimir Putin two and a half years.
So we'll have some work to do in terms of
just rebuilding the lines of communication. We'll have to wait
for the Russians to identify their counterparts and the people
are going to be involved on their end, And obviously
you know we're going to be talking to Ukraine, and
we're going to be talking to all of our allies
and partners in Europe and around the world regarding this
(17:03):
as well. They're going to be involved in all this.
So there's still some work to do and sort of
setting all that up to yesterday was really about confirming
that both Putin and Selensky want the war to end,
and now it's about the work of trying to figure
out how we get there.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
What does that meeting with Zolensky look and feel like
from your perspective?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I mean, I'm just kind of curious.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Are there tons of Ukrainian tons, meaning four or five
Ukrainian leaders alongside of them? Is it jd Vance, you
and maybe heg Seth and Zolensky? What does a conversation
look like tomorrow in Munich?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Well, I know.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
It'll be me and the vice the Vice president and
I and I'm not sure who else. I don't know
if Pete's going to be a part of that, or
he's got a bunch of other things he's working on.
He could be. I mean, he's great, he's doing a
great job. I was just watching him on TV here
a few minutes ago. He's doing phenomenal. And then you
have on the Ukrainian side. My guess is he'd probably
be accompanied by some of his people as well. But
you know, they come and they take a bunch of pictures,
(18:01):
and the press walks out and then we talk about
these things as we've outlined, and we'll hear their point
of view. And the President talked to Zelenski, actually talked
to them close to forty five minutes. And by the way,
some people say, look how much shorter it was. The
difference is with Putin you have to have these translators
and it just takes forever back and forth. You know,
as Zelensky speaks a little English, you know, they're able
to talk and communicate more directly, and it moves a
lot faster. So you know, my senses, it will be
(18:23):
a good meeting. It'll be a productive meeting, will sort
of restate the President's position and view of this moving forward.
We'll hear their input and they have to be a
part of it. Obviously it's their country, you know, so
we're going to be talking to them tomorrow. And like
I said, much of the stuff to be frank, and
I know a lot of people pretend, but let me just
say a lot of this stuff can't happen in front
of cameras and the press. You know, it's got to
(18:43):
be that's not the way this stuff works. I mean,
you have to do it in these meetings. And private
and just walk through it until we have something to announce.
That won't be tomorrow, obviously, but we have a lot
of work ahead.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
We're speaking the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and mister Secretary,
if you could address a little bit of where you
see the Trump administration on Gaza. You know, the comments
that President Trump has made on that recently get a
lot of attention, the possibility of some kind of rebuilding effort,
(19:15):
I know it's very early stage. And then if you
would also just transition into what is the Trump administration
framework for the Mideast more broadly in the next four years?
What are the things that you're trying to accomplish top
of the list.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Well, those two things are related. Let's just talk about
Gaza for a moment. I mean, obviously we've seen what's
happened there. It looked like that ceasefire might fall apart,
you know at some point here because Hamas was saying
they weren't going to release the hostages that were scheduled
to be released. Now I see news reports that that's
back on, and that would be good. But ultimately, whenever
this process ends at some point, then you've got to
figure out Okay, what happens with Gaza. So the president
(19:51):
you know, sitting around everybody, you know, all these countries
say how much they care about the Palestinians, but none
of them want to take any Palestinians. None of them
have a history doing anything for Gaza in that matter.
And so President says, all right, then this is what
we're going to do. You know, we'll we'll take it on.
We'll have to move people around. It's the only plan
out there right now. Now. If someone has a better plan,
and we hope they do, If the Arab countries have
(20:13):
a better plan, then that's great. Then they say they do,
they're going to come up with it. We're going to
look at it, see what it's you know, regarding, and
then what it does. Obviously, I can tell you that
any plan that leaves Humas there is going to be
a problem because Israel is not going to tolerate it.
We're going to be right back where we were. So
but we're going to give them a chance to come
up with a plan. You know, I think they're working
in good faith and not just to pay for it,
(20:33):
by the way, because it's not just if someone's going
to have to go on the ground. I mean, Hamas
has guns, they have weapons. Someone has to confront those guys.
Who's that going to be. It's not going to be
American soldiers. If the countries in the region can't figure
that piece out, then Israel is going to have to
do it, and then we're back to where we've been,
you know. So that doesn't solve the problem. So we're
going to give them time. I know they're getting together.
I think they're meeting in Saudi Arabia in a couple
(20:54):
of weeks, and then they're going to get back to
us with a plan. And it's one of the reasons
why I'm trying traveling after I leave Germany to the
Middle East, to Saudi Arabia, to the UAE and to
Israel to hear from the UAE and Saudi Arabia and
I our partners. We already met with the Egyptian We
talked to the Egyptians this week, We met with the
Jordanians this week, and hopefully they're going to have a
really good plan and to present the president. But right now,
(21:18):
the only plan they don't like it. But the only
plan is the Trump plan. So they've got a better plan,
you know, now's the time to present it. So we're
looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
We're talking to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. You have
served in the Senate for a while. You are an
expert in foreign relations there. What is the difference when
you talk to foreign leaders between Joe Biden as president
and Donald Trump as president? How much different is difference
is it making? And what is the impact in two
(21:48):
fields of war where we're got to cease fire right
now hopefully it holds in the Middle East and another
where hopefully one day in the near future we can
get one. And how much has Trump selection changed the
calculus for foreign leaders?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yeah, you know, Biden and Trump not even in the
same universe, right, I mean, not even in the same universe.
I'll give you a great example. So President Trump said,
you know this hostage thing, you know where these people
are trickling out and now they're saying they're not going
to do it. He says, all right, you don't do it,
that's fine. If it's not done by Saturday, then all
hell's going to break loose, And all of a sudden,
Jima says, well, we're back on that. Deals back on.
So I mean, that's night and day from what we
(22:20):
used to see in the past. I think part of
it is clarity. I mean, he's just very clear. Part
of it is action, he actually does things. And I
think the other point is that we have a president
now in Donald Trump who says, like, this is what
I'm going to do, and then he like he does it.
And you know, a lot of these foreign leaders are
used to American diplomacy, where you sort of talk around
issues and you use flowery language and you say, well,
(22:42):
this is what we might do, this is what we
could do. Trump doesn't work that way. He kind of says,
this is what I'm going to do, and then he
actually does it, and then there's a shock factor at
this point. But I and to some degree, but ultimately
I think the reason why you know, he's the only
person in the world that can end this conflict with
Ukraine and actually he's the only person in the world
that can serve as a catalyst for some structure in
(23:03):
the Middle East that prevents just endless cycles of war,
is because he understands the language of how to put
deals together and that's what he's done his whole life.
Now he's just doing from a geopolitical perspective, and and
he speaks very clearly, very bluntly, and then he acts.
I'm watching on the news right now. I remember he's
They're like, oh, he's not really going to do tariffs,
(23:24):
and he's just announcing reciprocal tariffs out there. So it's
just an enormous advantage because from a foreign policy standpoint,
there's just a lot of clarity. When I talk to
my foreign counterparts, there isn't any ambiguity. They're not wondering
what does he mean or what is he really going
to do? No, they know what he's going to do,
and and it gives us. I think it actually makes
foreign policy better. You know, it makes foreign policy better
(23:45):
when you're when you're predictable, when they know what you're
going to do because you said that's what you're going
to do. When you when you act differently, they countries
are all acting in their own national interests. They'll try
to take advantage of you. They'll try to, you know,
get ahead of you, they'll try to work around you.
You can't do that with Donald Trump. So I would
argue that probably the best job in Washington right now
is to be the secretary of State for Donald Trump.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Mister Secretary, I know you were down in El Salvador
with President Buchalie recently and it's a small country, but
big lessons and I think could be big implications for
Latin America and honestly for any nation state paying attention.
Can you just speak to what seems like something of
a miracle that has occurred because of good governance in
(24:28):
that country and what it means for our relationship, not
just with El Salvador, but you know, with the region
with Latin America.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Yeah, I mean, I bu Kelly is first of all,
he's a big fan and supporter of the United States
and always has been. The Biden people treated him very poorly,
very bad. You know, they treated him very poorly. They
called him a dictator and an autocrat, even though the
guy won like ninety percent of the votes. Is huge popularity.
I mean, the opposition to him and al Savadra was
(24:57):
like a five percent movement, you know. And one of
the things that made him popular is this. You know,
for twenty years in El Salvada, you couldn't live you
really couldn't. I mean, if you owned this, let's say
you were you had a little small stand that out
in a you know, on a street corner or something.
Every week, some young kid would come on a bicycle
and you'd have to pay him the protection money. And
if you didn't, then the gangs would come and you know,
(25:19):
kill your daughter, or kidnap your son, or murder your
husband or whatever. I mean, that's what used to happen.
You couldn't walk, you couldn't be out it after six
pm at night. You couldn't be out in the streets
of El Salvador. So he went and he basically wrapped
up all these gang members and threw him all in
a big prison that he built by the way, in
seven months, and all of a sudden, the crime disappeared overnight.
It's a completely different country, and people love it because
(25:41):
they feel safe. And that's why he's so popular. He
doesn't have to be an autocrat. He's not because he's
popular and so I think it's a great example. But
he's also a good friend of the United States. He
was just treated very badly, very poorly by the previous administration.
But now with President Trump, he's got an ally and
(26:01):
someone we can work with. And they made very generous
offers last week. I mean, they agreed that Obviously they're
going to take all the MS thirteen people in our
country they're from Salar, but they're also going to take
gang members. We send them like trained dot Agua and
those guns. And he also offered something which you probably
won't be able to do just because of our constitution,
but he said, look, if you've got prisoners from the
US and you want to outsource you know, the prison
(26:24):
system to us, and you want to send us some
really bad guys, we've got room in our jrails for
them as well. So very generous offer on this part
of me. No one's ever offered that, So I think
it just shows he's a very pro American president who
was treated very poorly by Joe Biden's administration.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
And just one more for you, mister secretary on Mexico.
What do we want, what can we expect? What are
the goals for this Trump administration, because that's obviously a
critical relationship and there's a room for improvement.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Yeah, so that deal, I mean that situation is broken
up into two pieces. One is tariffs and that the
Treasury and Commerce sectarier are going to be handling that.
And I think how Lutnik will be confirmed here in
a few minutes and when he is in the Senate
and hopefully he'll be taking charge of the tariff piece
of it. They're interrelated, but they're separate topics. And then
I'm working with Pambondi and Christinom on the security piece
(27:13):
of it. You know, our interest is we want to
stop the human trafficking and the migratory trafficking across the
US border. We want the fentanyl to stop, we want
the drugs to stop. We don't want these cartel people
coming over our border. So we're asking them to take
steps even more steps to stop that from happening. And
they are asking us to help them keep guns out
of the hands of these these cartels. A lot of
(27:34):
these cartels they're finding ways to buy guns or whatever
in the United States and they come back the other way.
So we're working on a plan with them collectively. Right
We're going to work together them on their side of
the border, us on our side of the border, so
we can take care of their you know, their gun
running problem, and they can help take care of the
fentanyl problem and the mass migration problem and the cartel problem.
(27:55):
And we're looking to our teams are talking and hopefully
we'll have something positive to announce. And you know, I've
got a great team with Christy and Christy Noman and
Pam Bondi, and we were talking to Pam about it yesterday.
So we've got a good team. And the Mexicans have
a good team. So we're gonna we're gonna work on
that and I think we're gonna have something positive on
that front fairly soon.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Last question for you, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, how
awesome was it watching your son score for the Florida
Gators in a bowl game much less serious? You got
a lot of serious things going on in your life,
but that had to be pretty incredible as a dad.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Yeah, No, of course it is. No, I'm happy. You
know the best part about that for me, it wasn't
the score. I mean, the score is great. He had
other carries he had And let me tell you something.
What happened was that they had this big guy des
Watson in there, and they they'd run him a couple
of plays earlier, and my son said, I know that
we get to the one yard line, they're going to
put that guy in to run it over the goal
line to give him his go away present. So he
said if he saw that open and he hit that
(28:49):
hole so hard he had he knew he had to
score it. Because I got down to the one or two,
he wasn't going to get the ball. But my favorite part, honestly,
was not the score. My favorite part was the way
his teammates reacted to see the end bench come off
and I saw the flags fly, and I was worried,
you know, he had spiked the bomb, like, oh damn,
you know it's gonna but they called it on the
entire Florida bench. The way his teammates reacted, it shows
(29:10):
me that the kid is a good teammate. He works
halrready has the respect and love of his teammates. And
that tells you, I mean, that makes you proud. That's
what I was the proud of stuff. To be honest
with you, that was what I was proud of. Stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Well that's a proud dad moment.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
I know you're out there busting your ass for the
country on a day to day basis, but it's good
to be a dad and get to celebrate some of
those things. Well, appreciate you making the time, be safe
on your trips, and we'll talk to you again soon.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Thank you, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Thank you sir,
The Team forty seven podcast is sponsored by Good Ranchers.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Making the American Farm Strong Again.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Team forty seven with Clay and Buck starts now, I
want to lay out a thesis for you. You tell me
whether you buy it or not. We have seen, in
short order, in the last six months seven months, Donald
Trump remake the Republican Party in a more significant fashion
(00:33):
than I think almost anyone has realized. And I understand
because Trump moves so quickly, and because every day is
such a frenzy, sometimes it's difficult to tell what matters
and what is a distraction. And let me give David Axelrod,
probably unexpectedly some credit here.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Buck.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
In the Alabama administration, he coined the phrase nothing burger,
as in a lot of stories bubble up and everybody
gets really focused on them, and everybody's talking about it.
But he would look at that and say, it's a
nothing burger. It's a twenty four hour start with nothing burger.
I think nothing burger existed before him. Clay, I don't
(01:16):
think in the context, in the context of politics, I
never heard anybody else apply the phrase nothing burger. That's
a good question for etymology, as am I pronouncing that
word right etymology experts who initially popularized the phrase nothing burger.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Good question.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Hollywood Gossip columnist Luela Parsons is credited with coining the
term nothing burger in the nineteen fifties, according to Google AI.
All right, so I apologize, play apologize to the Hollywood
Gossip Maven for giving credit to ax Arat. I will
say I had never heard it really used in a
(01:56):
political context. My point on that is a lot of
what Trump coverage consists of are things that are inconsequential
that will not last longer than twenty four hours. And
I think Trump's particular genius is a lot of times people,
when they say something that turns into a story, will
(02:19):
backtrack and focus on it and keep on analyzing it.
Trump just keeps firing.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
He moves forward and sort of as a force of will,
and he forces you to follow him instead of constantly
looking at what's behind.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
He's a very forward thinking person. Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
With that in mind, I don't think there's enough discussion
about how radical Trump has transformed the Republican Party.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Think about this.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Buck Elon Musk votes for Joe Biden in twenty twenty
never endorsed Trump until July thirteenth of twenty twenty, right
after the assassination attempt Tulci Gabbard, who just got confirmed yesterday.
I believe Tulca Gabbard ran against Donald Trump in twenty twenty.
(03:11):
Lifelong Democrat from Hawaii RFK Junior. Until when did he
officially endorse August? Maybe September. I think Omed Malik, who's
a friend of the show, deserves a lot of credit
behind the scenes. This guy is really plugged in, and
he was boys with RFK Junior, and he worked as
(03:32):
hard as he could to help make this union happen.
I think it was an August endorsement where RFK Junior
finally came out and said, I'm on board with Trump.
What do those people represent? Make America healthy again. I
think that's something that everybody out there is like, yeah,
you know what, I wish this nation was healthier, common sense,
(03:55):
balance the budget, bring a diverse coalition of people of
a variety of backgrounds who believe in innate American exceptionalism
and greatness, and remake the Republican Party on the fly
as the party of common sense and the representative of
(04:19):
the everyday average American. I don't think most people are
recognizing what's happening here simultaneously. Buck, It's not just what
you create. It is because we have developed this system
of fifty to fifty. Basically in the twenty first century,
Democrats have gotten used to inherently opposing what Republicans advocate
(04:41):
for and vice versa. And it's not just that Trump
has rebuilt the Republican Party. It's that Democrats as a result,
are increasingly isolating themselves in terms of advocating for small
minority identity groups that do not not represent the larger
American population. For example, yesterday, Democrats show up and introduce
(05:07):
a bill for reparations and argue that America's racist and
that black people need to be paid because of slavery.
They also now only two Democrats, Buck, we're willing to
argue in favor of women's sports only being made up
of women. They won't even allow that to be voted
on in the Senate right now. And we also have
(05:31):
now the attack policy of Democrats being no, no, no.
Federal workers are great. We shouldn't be searching as aggressively
as we are for fraud and waste. I think we
have a building going. I'm not gonna say it's going
to continue. But the momentum we've got going on right
now is the Republicans are building a durable, permanent majority party,
(05:53):
and Democrats are building a permanent, a durable minority party.
And every day Republicans are expanding their coalition and every
day Democrats are decreasing theirs. Now, at some point maybe
sanity returns to the Democrat Party, but out of nowhere
(06:16):
Trump has built an incredible edifice upon which a new
party is being built and based. And it's a coalition
that has a huge tent of just rational, normal, everyday Americans,
many of whom were Democrats until about six months ago.
I mean, I think sometimes you can miss the seismic
(06:37):
impacts because we're looking at all of these twenty four
hour stories. The idea that Tulci Gabbert and Rfk Junior
are in the Trump cabinet, that Elon Musk is basically
sleeping in the White House, all to try to make
America a more exceptional nation.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Buck.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
If we had said this a year ago, a lot
of people would have said, you guys are crazy, There's
no way that's going to happen. Yes, And so the
question that I have for you is do you buy
that a new party is being built? And do you
buy that the Democrats are basically lighting themselves on fire
(07:13):
every day? How does this change the trajectory that we're
on right now?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Well, I think that we knew that it was Trump's
Republican party in the first Trump term, and now there's
been an even further consolidation this time around. Because what
you have is I think I said this before, but
I like the analogy. It's like Trump and his team
did the Rocky training in Siberia before they go up
(07:40):
against Ivan Drago.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
You know, this is the.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Most ferociously focused and talented and relentless Trump Maga movement
that we have ever seen. And that means that Democrats
have a challenge even if they had some of their
old stable.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Of big political names to deal with.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
But it's coming at a time when I think they're
particularly weak, and I think their arguments are particularly weak.
Part of this is that one thing you've noticed, you know, Clay,
you just had the speech on campus, right, and you
dealt with exposing some young college people to arguments they
probably had not heard before. I remember when I was
a college Republican in two thousand. Okay, wow, twenty five
(08:25):
years that's crazy. Twenty five years ago, I was a freshman,
and I remember very clearly, very early on, the recognition
among college Republicans at Amherst then was we know that
we have to be ready to fight, meaning you know, argue,
debate in the classroom, in the study hall, among friends, whatever,
(08:47):
and so we were always lean, mean.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
And ready for action.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Democrats, I think got a combination of crazier and flabbier
intellectually because they had achieved so much information dissemination dominance.
What I mean is because they could kick you off
the Internet, which they did to parlor, because they could
count on all social media platforms to be aligned with
(09:16):
their ideology, to shut down questioning the election, to shut
down questioning masks and lockdowns and the COVID vaccines effectiveness
and all this stuff. I think they just got sloppy,
and I think that as a result, the craziest element
was able to ascend with the Democrat Party, and they
were a particularly weak element when it came to being
(09:39):
able to convince anybody of anything right. So it's like
the virus, so to speak, was able to run rampant
within the Democrats. And now we're seeing what the casualties
of that are politically. So you know, you have the
strongest Trump and the strongest MAGA that we have ever seen,
most consolidated, the most able to bring over converts to
your point about RFKM and TULSI. And at the same
(10:02):
time as you have the weakest Democrat party that we've
seen in my adult lifetime. In twenty five years, this
is the weakest Democrat party we've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Here's a question I want you guys.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I think that the party has been remade, and I
think it's important to think about it. I know many
of you out there listening may not have been traditional
listeners of this program. Question that I think is very
interesting is how do the Democrats eventually align on somebody
to combat it? And I'm kind we talked about this.
I don't know that there's a current office holder who
(10:33):
is charismatic enough to be that person. So think about
that second part of this. How durable is the Trump magic?
How durable is the movement that Trump has built? In
other words, how much of it transfers to whomever the
air is and how much of it is unique to
(10:56):
Trump's own particular brand of what I think you have
to say, is political fairy dust?
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I mean, he is a unique.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Political unicorn talent. How much of it transfers. Let's pretend
that JD. Vance is the guy going forward. These are
the things I think in the back of your mind,
big picture that you should be contemplating, because one of
these big things that you have to keep in mind
is as good as Trump is and as many wins
as he is stacking right now, a Democrat with a
(11:28):
pen at the resolute desk can wipe out an awful
lot of this greatness over four years. We have to
stack multiple terms to your point.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
About whether it transfers and whether you know and I
think Trump it was interesting. We didn't discuss this, but
he was asked in a recent interview. I think it
was Brett Baer, is JD. Vance your successor? And he
responded something along the lines of JD is super competent
and capable, but you know, we'll see. And I think
we have to keep that in mind. Whether the not
(11:59):
knots for JD specifically, but just what happens with the
MAGA movement going forward with Trump's Republican Party. A lot
of it will be determined by how successful the next
eighteen months are. The next eighteen months is a continuation
of what we've seen in this first month, then I
think you're just going to have an incredibly robust party
that has a solid majority of the American people behind
(12:19):
it and can count upon a whole bunch of people
to take the torch and move forward with it. You know,
it all depends. Right right now everything looks rosy and great.
We got to see where everything goes. So but I
think the case for optimism right now is stronger for
the Republican Party, for this new Republican Party under Trump overall,
(12:42):
than it has been in a very long time. I mean, really,
the only kind of consolidation I think you've seen among
Republicans that is in any way similar to what we
have now is the immediate aftermath of nine to eleven,
which is very different. That's getting together in the bunker
to fight an existential threat against our way of life
in our society. That's not I think We're going to
tackle the debt and have a booming economy and have peace.
(13:04):
So we're in a different place now under Trump, but
we've had a similar level of consolidation among Republicans that
we haven't seen in twenty plus years.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
You're listening to Team forty seven with Clay and Buck.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
We are joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mister Secretary,
I appreciate you making the time for us. A lot
going on in the world.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Let's jump right into it.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
There's so much we want to ask you about the
start of this Trump administration. The domestic stuff, the executive
orders has got a tremendous amount of focus, but the
president has an ambitious foreign policy agenda that you are
the point person for. Let's just start with if you
could set the table on Russia Ukraine and the reporting
that Trump is eager to have negotiations to end that conflict,
(13:53):
to at least bring about a ceasefire.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Well, the great thing about working for President Trump is
there's not a lot of ambiguity. I mean, he's pretty straightforward,
and he's been campaigning and saying the war would have
never happened if he was president. I believe that to
be true. He said that yesterday too, tootom and putin
by the way, and and he wants it to end now.
He wants to end the war. He's not looking for
just like a pause. You know, he's looking for it
(14:16):
to end and uh. And then it's gonna it's gonna
be hard, uh, and it's gonna have to move in stages.
You know. Maybe it starts with a ceasefire that's not
been agreed to, negotiated, but I'm just saying that. And
then you know, opening things like eight corridors and ensuring
that both sides you know, aren't targeting energy infrastructure. So
we'll see how that plays out. And by the way,
I think the US is not going to happen without Trump.
(14:37):
He's the only one in the world that can bring
it something like this together. But it has to be
a global effort. It's not just US, it's not just
Europe or NATO. I mean, countries around the world are
gonna have to participate. Now, I will say Europe is
going to have to provide if there's going to be
durable security guarantees for Ukraine. Uh, that's gonna have to
be the Europeans who have to be willing to step
(14:58):
up and do that. And but there's a lot of
sensitive issues to talk about, territorial claims, you know, arms
control and things of that nature, language and cultural matters.
All that's going to have to be worked through. And finally,
you know, the US is going to have a stake
in Ukraine's long term independence and that should be anchored
in an ongoing economic interests. You know, whether it's the
(15:19):
ability to hopefully we'll have some newsier soon on that,
the ability to partner with Ukraine a joint venture or
something like that for their mineral rights, you know, all
the natural resources they have, and some of that money
will go back to pay back the US taxpayer for
the billions of dollars and that's been spent there, and
part of it was going to be reinvested back into
Ukraine to rebuild all the destruction that's happened there, you know,
(15:40):
their infrastructure and things like that. But it's a lot
of hard work. But yesterday was the first step in
a long journey that lies ahead. But it's this all
reiterate what the President said that the killing and the
dying has to stop in Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
We're talking to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. There has
been talk that you are going going to Munich and
that there could be conversations potentially as early as tomorrow.
Is that taking place, Will you be traveling to Europe.
What is the procedure under which conversations like these that
could lead to a ceasefire would take place.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
What can you tell us about that?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
Well, first of all, I mean, we got to work
through all that. I will be in Europe tomorrow, be
in Germany, for it was already scheduled to be there.
The Vice President and I'll be meeting with Zelenski and
at some point you know that you will have to
engage with Russian counterparts. So we haven't talked to the
Russians in almost two and a half years. So I
think the president's call yesterday with Ladimir Putin was the
(16:41):
first presidential call of Latimir Putin two and a half years.
So we'll have some work to do in terms of
just rebuilding the lines of communication. We'll have to wait
for the Russians to identify their counterparts and the people
are going to be involved on their end, And obviously
you know we're going to be talking to Ukraine, and
we're going to be talking to all of our allies
and partners in Europe and around the world regarding this
(17:03):
as well. They're going to be involved in all this.
So there's still some work to do and sort of
setting all that up to yesterday was really about confirming
that both Putin and Selensky want the war to end,
and now it's about the work of trying to figure
out how we get there.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
What does that meeting with Zolensky look and feel like
from your perspective?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I mean, I'm just kind of curious.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Are there tons of Ukrainian tons, meaning four or five
Ukrainian leaders alongside of them? Is it jd Vance, you
and maybe heg Seth and Zolensky? What does a conversation
look like tomorrow in Munich?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Well, I know.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
It'll be me and the vice the Vice president and
I and I'm not sure who else. I don't know
if Pete's going to be a part of that, or
he's got a bunch of other things he's working on.
He could be. I mean, he's great, he's doing a
great job. I was just watching him on TV here
a few minutes ago. He's doing phenomenal. And then you
have on the Ukrainian side. My guess is he'd probably
be accompanied by some of his people as well. But
you know, they come and they take a bunch of pictures,
(18:01):
and the press walks out and then we talk about
these things as we've outlined, and we'll hear their point
of view. And the President talked to Zelenski, actually talked
to them close to forty five minutes. And by the way,
some people say, look how much shorter it was. The
difference is with Putin you have to have these translators
and it just takes forever back and forth. You know,
as Zelensky speaks a little English, you know, they're able
to talk and communicate more directly, and it moves a
lot faster. So you know, my senses, it will be
(18:23):
a good meeting. It'll be a productive meeting, will sort
of restate the President's position and view of this moving forward.
We'll hear their input and they have to be a
part of it. Obviously it's their country, you know, so
we're going to be talking to them tomorrow. And like
I said, much of the stuff to be frank, and
I know a lot of people pretend, but let me just
say a lot of this stuff can't happen in front
of cameras and the press. You know, it's got to
(18:43):
be that's not the way this stuff works. I mean,
you have to do it in these meetings. And private
and just walk through it until we have something to announce.
That won't be tomorrow, obviously, but we have a lot
of work ahead.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
We're speaking the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and mister Secretary,
if you could address a little bit of where you
see the Trump administration on Gaza. You know, the comments
that President Trump has made on that recently get a
lot of attention, the possibility of some kind of rebuilding effort,
(19:15):
I know it's very early stage. And then if you
would also just transition into what is the Trump administration
framework for the Mideast more broadly in the next four years?
What are the things that you're trying to accomplish top
of the list.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Well, those two things are related. Let's just talk about
Gaza for a moment. I mean, obviously we've seen what's
happened there. It looked like that ceasefire might fall apart,
you know at some point here because Hamas was saying
they weren't going to release the hostages that were scheduled
to be released. Now I see news reports that that's
back on, and that would be good. But ultimately, whenever
this process ends at some point, then you've got to
figure out Okay, what happens with Gaza. So the president
(19:51):
you know, sitting around everybody, you know, all these countries
say how much they care about the Palestinians, but none
of them want to take any Palestinians. None of them
have a history doing anything for Gaza in that matter.
And so President says, all right, then this is what
we're going to do. You know, we'll we'll take it on.
We'll have to move people around. It's the only plan
out there right now. Now. If someone has a better plan,
and we hope they do, If the Arab countries have
(20:13):
a better plan, then that's great. Then they say they do,
they're going to come up with it. We're going to
look at it, see what it's you know, regarding, and
then what it does. Obviously, I can tell you that
any plan that leaves Humas there is going to be
a problem because Israel is not going to tolerate it.
We're going to be right back where we were. So
but we're going to give them a chance to come
up with a plan. You know, I think they're working
in good faith and not just to pay for it,
(20:33):
by the way, because it's not just if someone's going
to have to go on the ground. I mean, Hamas
has guns, they have weapons. Someone has to confront those guys.
Who's that going to be. It's not going to be
American soldiers. If the countries in the region can't figure
that piece out, then Israel is going to have to
do it, and then we're back to where we've been,
you know. So that doesn't solve the problem. So we're
going to give them time. I know they're getting together.
I think they're meeting in Saudi Arabia in a couple
(20:54):
of weeks, and then they're going to get back to
us with a plan. And it's one of the reasons
why I'm trying traveling after I leave Germany to the
Middle East, to Saudi Arabia, to the UAE and to
Israel to hear from the UAE and Saudi Arabia and
I our partners. We already met with the Egyptian We
talked to the Egyptians this week, We met with the
Jordanians this week, and hopefully they're going to have a
really good plan and to present the president. But right now,
(21:18):
the only plan they don't like it. But the only
plan is the Trump plan. So they've got a better plan,
you know, now's the time to present it. So we're
looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
We're talking to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. You have
served in the Senate for a while. You are an
expert in foreign relations there. What is the difference when
you talk to foreign leaders between Joe Biden as president
and Donald Trump as president? How much different is difference
is it making? And what is the impact in two
(21:48):
fields of war where we're got to cease fire right
now hopefully it holds in the Middle East and another
where hopefully one day in the near future we can
get one. And how much has Trump selection changed the
calculus for foreign leaders?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
Yeah, you know, Biden and Trump not even in the
same universe, right, I mean, not even in the same universe.
I'll give you a great example. So President Trump said,
you know this hostage thing, you know where these people
are trickling out and now they're saying they're not going
to do it. He says, all right, you don't do it,
that's fine. If it's not done by Saturday, then all
hell's going to break loose, And all of a sudden,
Jima says, well, we're back on that. Deals back on.
So I mean, that's night and day from what we
(22:20):
used to see in the past. I think part of
it is clarity. I mean, he's just very clear. Part
of it is action, he actually does things. And I
think the other point is that we have a president
now in Donald Trump who says, like, this is what
I'm going to do, and then he like he does it.
And you know, a lot of these foreign leaders are
used to American diplomacy, where you sort of talk around
issues and you use flowery language and you say, well,
(22:42):
this is what we might do, this is what we
could do. Trump doesn't work that way. He kind of says,
this is what I'm going to do, and then he
actually does it, and then there's a shock factor at
this point. But I and to some degree, but ultimately
I think the reason why you know, he's the only
person in the world that can end this conflict with
Ukraine and actually he's the only person in the world
that can serve as a catalyst for some structure in
(23:03):
the Middle East that prevents just endless cycles of war,
is because he understands the language of how to put
deals together and that's what he's done his whole life.
Now he's just doing from a geopolitical perspective, and and
he speaks very clearly, very bluntly, and then he acts.
I'm watching on the news right now. I remember he's
They're like, oh, he's not really going to do tariffs,
(23:24):
and he's just announcing reciprocal tariffs out there. So it's
just an enormous advantage because from a foreign policy standpoint,
there's just a lot of clarity. When I talk to
my foreign counterparts, there isn't any ambiguity. They're not wondering
what does he mean or what is he really going
to do? No, they know what he's going to do,
and and it gives us. I think it actually makes
foreign policy better. You know, it makes foreign policy better
(23:45):
when you're when you're predictable, when they know what you're
going to do because you said that's what you're going
to do. When you when you act differently, they countries
are all acting in their own national interests. They'll try
to take advantage of you. They'll try to, you know,
get ahead of you, they'll try to work around you.
You can't do that with Donald Trump. So I would
argue that probably the best job in Washington right now
is to be the secretary of State for Donald Trump.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Mister Secretary, I know you were down in El Salvador
with President Buchalie recently and it's a small country, but
big lessons and I think could be big implications for
Latin America and honestly for any nation state paying attention.
Can you just speak to what seems like something of
a miracle that has occurred because of good governance in
(24:28):
that country and what it means for our relationship, not
just with El Salvador, but you know, with the region
with Latin America.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Yeah, I mean, I bu Kelly is first of all,
he's a big fan and supporter of the United States
and always has been. The Biden people treated him very poorly,
very bad. You know, they treated him very poorly. They
called him a dictator and an autocrat, even though the
guy won like ninety percent of the votes. Is huge popularity.
I mean, the opposition to him and al Savadra was
(24:57):
like a five percent movement, you know. And one of
the things that made him popular is this. You know,
for twenty years in El Salvada, you couldn't live you
really couldn't. I mean, if you owned this, let's say
you were you had a little small stand that out
in a you know, on a street corner or something.
Every week, some young kid would come on a bicycle
and you'd have to pay him the protection money. And
if you didn't, then the gangs would come and you know,
(25:19):
kill your daughter, or kidnap your son, or murder your
husband or whatever. I mean, that's what used to happen.
You couldn't walk, you couldn't be out it after six
pm at night. You couldn't be out in the streets
of El Salvador. So he went and he basically wrapped
up all these gang members and threw him all in
a big prison that he built by the way, in
seven months, and all of a sudden, the crime disappeared overnight.
It's a completely different country, and people love it because
(25:41):
they feel safe. And that's why he's so popular. He
doesn't have to be an autocrat. He's not because he's
popular and so I think it's a great example. But
he's also a good friend of the United States. He
was just treated very badly, very poorly by the previous administration.
But now with President Trump, he's got an ally and
(26:01):
someone we can work with. And they made very generous
offers last week. I mean, they agreed that Obviously they're
going to take all the MS thirteen people in our
country they're from Salar, but they're also going to take
gang members. We send them like trained dot Agua and
those guns. And he also offered something which you probably
won't be able to do just because of our constitution,
but he said, look, if you've got prisoners from the
US and you want to outsource you know, the prison
(26:24):
system to us, and you want to send us some
really bad guys, we've got room in our jrails for
them as well. So very generous offer on this part
of me. No one's ever offered that, So I think
it just shows he's a very pro American president who
was treated very poorly by Joe Biden's administration.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
And just one more for you, mister secretary on Mexico.
What do we want, what can we expect? What are
the goals for this Trump administration, because that's obviously a
critical relationship and there's a room for improvement.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Yeah, so that deal, I mean that situation is broken
up into two pieces. One is tariffs and that the
Treasury and Commerce sectarier are going to be handling that.
And I think how Lutnik will be confirmed here in
a few minutes and when he is in the Senate
and hopefully he'll be taking charge of the tariff piece
of it. They're interrelated, but they're separate topics. And then
I'm working with Pambondi and Christinom on the security piece
(27:13):
of it. You know, our interest is we want to
stop the human trafficking and the migratory trafficking across the
US border. We want the fentanyl to stop, we want
the drugs to stop. We don't want these cartel people
coming over our border. So we're asking them to take
steps even more steps to stop that from happening. And
they are asking us to help them keep guns out
of the hands of these these cartels. A lot of
(27:34):
these cartels they're finding ways to buy guns or whatever
in the United States and they come back the other way.
So we're working on a plan with them collectively. Right
We're going to work together them on their side of
the border, us on our side of the border, so
we can take care of their you know, their gun
running problem, and they can help take care of the
fentanyl problem and the mass migration problem and the cartel problem.
(27:55):
And we're looking to our teams are talking and hopefully
we'll have something positive to announce. And you know, I've
got a great team with Christy and Christy Noman and
Pam Bondi, and we were talking to Pam about it yesterday.
So we've got a good team. And the Mexicans have
a good team. So we're gonna we're gonna work on
that and I think we're gonna have something positive on
that front fairly soon.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Last question for you, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, how
awesome was it watching your son score for the Florida
Gators in a bowl game much less serious? You got
a lot of serious things going on in your life,
but that had to be pretty incredible as a dad.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Yeah, No, of course it is. No, I'm happy. You
know the best part about that for me, it wasn't
the score. I mean, the score is great. He had
other carries he had And let me tell you something.
What happened was that they had this big guy des
Watson in there, and they they'd run him a couple
of plays earlier, and my son said, I know that
we get to the one yard line, they're going to
put that guy in to run it over the goal
line to give him his go away present. So he
said if he saw that open and he hit that
(28:49):
hole so hard he had he knew he had to
score it. Because I got down to the one or two,
he wasn't going to get the ball. But my favorite part, honestly,
was not the score. My favorite part was the way
his teammates reacted to see the end bench come off
and I saw the flags fly, and I was worried,
you know, he had spiked the bomb, like, oh damn,
you know it's gonna but they called it on the
entire Florida bench. The way his teammates reacted, it shows
(29:10):
me that the kid is a good teammate. He works
halrready has the respect and love of his teammates. And
that tells you, I mean, that makes you proud. That's
what I was the proud of stuff. To be honest
with you, that was what I was proud of. Stuff.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Well that's a proud dad moment.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
I know you're out there busting your ass for the
country on a day to day basis, but it's good
to be a dad and get to celebrate some of
those things. Well, appreciate you making the time, be safe
on your trips, and we'll talk to you again soon.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Thank you, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Thank you sir,
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