May 29, 2025 • 31 mins
In this episode, Lisa discusses military and foreign policy issues with Jeremy Hunt, a West Point graduate and former Army Intelligence Captain. They focus on President Trump's strategies regarding Russia, Ukraine, and Iran, contrasting them with the Biden administration's perceived failures. Hunt shares his experiences training Ukrainian forces and highlights the challenges they face. The conversation also covers military recruitment trends, noting an increase under Trump due to a focus on traditional values and national security. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the Truth with Lisabooth, where we get to
the heart of the issues that matter to you. So
today we're joined by Jeremy Hunt. He's a West Point grad,
a former Army intelligence captain, and he's also the chairman
of Veterans on Duty. We'll dive into President Trump's plans
to broker a Russia Ukraine peace steel, also a nuclear
deal with Iran? Can he do it? Can he get
(00:26):
it done? Can he achieve peace? Jeremy also shares insights
on Ukraine's military pete. Heexas's role as Secretary of Defense,
Those rising recruiting numbers. Why did he decide to go
to West Point? What does he make of those numbers?
We know that recruitment numbers are up under this administration.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We'll also talk.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
About how President Trump has changed the way we all
view the military and foreign policy. Plus we'll unpack Secretary
of State Mark or Rubio's visa crackdown on Chinese students.
It's shaking up US China relations. But doesn't it just
make sense? Isn't it just common sense? Stay tuned for
all of that and more with Jeremy Hunt. Well, Jeremy,
(01:08):
it's great to have you on the show first time on,
but we've done out Numbered together and actually ran into
you in the Delta lounge after that day. I was like,
I know him well, So I appreciate you making the time.
So thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Absolutely, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I've been looking forward to joining your shows.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I'm happy to join and talk talk about some things.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
A little bit and maybe going a little bit more
depth today and I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, I will not be in your ear telling you
that we've got to go to a commercial break, so
I obviously we both love TV, but you know you've
got those commercial breaks, so all right, Well, so I wanted.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
To talk to you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I mean, obviously there's a lot going on in the world,
and Joe Biden left everything a complete mess, so there's
a lot of instability that President Trump's trying to address.
He's also just trying to strike out of deals. I mean,
he's been talking about trying to facilitate a deal between
Russia and Ukraine and some sort of ceasefire and whatever
that will look like. He's also trying to negotiate with
(02:09):
Iran and come up with some sort of new nuclear deal. Uh,
you know, looking at both of those, do you do
you think you'll get it done.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Well.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
You know, that's one of the things that a lot
of these kind of talks, it's always, you know, a
little unpredictable when you're dealing with people like Putin, who
you know, did start this war, someone who is you
know constantly, as President Trump said, you know he is
he is not someone you can you're not someone who
can trust. He's someone who you know, in the middle
(02:38):
of these talks, you know, unleash is one of the
worst air raids on Kiev that we've seen just since
the beginning of this war. So, you know, it's a
lot of times it is a little unpredictable. I think
one thing we know about President Trump is that, you know,
he wants peace, he wants to he wants to end
the bloodshed, and his his kind of instinctive nature is
(02:59):
is very you know, someone who wants to be a
peacemaker around the world. And I think those instincts are
really good, and I think that's why we're going to
get different results than we did under President Biden, who was,
as as you mentioned, was a total disaster on all
these issues, and all and many and all these wars
started under his watch. I think when it comes to
Russia and Ukraine, the main thing is going to be
(03:22):
a lot of times, you know, Putin sometimes he does
not respond until he feels the pressure he feels, you know,
when we start bringing on additional uh uh kind of
sanctions upon upon his regime, When he starts feeling that
economic tightness of everything, when he is when the rest
of the world community shuts him out, that's when, you know,
you start to see different results. But unfortunately, a lot
(03:45):
of times when it's you know, just had a conversation
with him and talking to him, you know, he will
say one thing and then you know, as he's talking
to you about peace, he is you know, uh, killing
more and more.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Ukrainian soldiers and literally kidnapping.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I mean, the reports that have come out of Ukraine
are horrendous about some of the war crimes that Putin
and his and his and his armed forces have been
committing against the Ukrainian people.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
And you know, I've been there.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
I was actually when I was an officer in the army,
as you know, I was a former Army intelligence captain,
and when I was in Ukraine, I was there for
about six months and we were training the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
This was back in twenty sixteen, and so Putin had
already invaded Crimea, but he was you know, back then,
we were training for this hypothetical situation in which he
(04:37):
might invade Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And you know, what was you know, just kind of
this what was then just kind of a.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
What could be, you know, ended up being what happened obviously,
And we were there training the Ukrainian armed forces, especially
their intel systems, intel officers on NATO doctrine and so
it was a great it was a great mission. And
I saw that, you know, the many people, they have
a will to fight. They they are not gonna, you know,
give over their country. Many people thought that, you know,
(05:06):
Putin would just roll right through Ukraine. I mean many
are not self included.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
We didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
We had, you know, very much concern about Ukraine's ability
to defend themselves. But they've done, uh, they've had definitely
a valiant effort. And so I think now it's time
to get to peace. And I think you're seeing President
Trump try to deliver.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
On that, yeah, because I mean my mentality has always
been that, you know, obviously, you know, Russia was in
the wrong to invade Ukraine. I mean that's just a given. Uh.
But you know that being said, you know, I don't
think Ukraine can win this thing on their own, and
so we've already, you know, sent an endless bucket of
cash to Ukraine. And it seems that absent of US
(05:49):
and other countries putting boots on the ground and demonstrating
a willingness to fight this war alongside them, like, they
can't win it on their own, and so inevitably lends
Ski is probably going to have.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
To seed some territory.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
You know. Obviously Russia has already invaded Crimean has had
that territory for quite some time, as you pointed out.
And then there's also like the Donbass region that Russia
has invaded and it has occupied since the beginning of
that invasion under Biden, you know, so it doesn't see
him in terms of militarily, this war is winnable for
(06:23):
Ukraine outside of some sort of World War type scenario.
Is that an accurate assessment or I mean I.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Think I think that first off, I mean there's no
appetite too.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I mean American troops are not put in boots on
the ground at all, And I think that you know,
as you said, we've sent you know, tons of aid
over to Ukraine. I do think that President Biden sent
uh you know, lethal lethal aid way too late, and
we saw this build up on their border along you know,
long before h and there's a lot of people who
say that if he had moved quicker to give Ukraine
(06:55):
the resources they need, that this would not have started
in the first place. But that said that, I mean,
you know, one thing that we've seen with President Trump
is that a lot of NATO is stepping up their commitments.
And that's something that we have not seen in a
long time.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I don't know if I mean, if they've.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Ever come in increased their military spending at this level
this rate in recent history. And so that is a
testament to President Trump, you know, increasing the putting the
putting the pressure on and saying, look, we want to
get this war to an end. And you know, Americans,
we we were you know, we did our part to support,
but we need NATO and Eastern and Europe to to
(07:32):
do their part too. And so I think, you know,
with all that support, you know, Ukraine is going to
as I said, they're gonna they're fighting for their homeland.
So they're going to continue, you know, giving it all
they can. I think that what you're going to see
is is the and and hopefully the appetite in Russia
and at home for this war will continue to wane
and and then eventually, you know, we could see this
(07:54):
come to an end.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But I think that's what everybody is hoping for at
this point.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, but it just seems sort of inevitable at this
point that Zalenzi's going to have to see some territory
to Russia. I mean, there doesn't seem like they're going
to be able to expel them militarily, h you know,
completely from their country. And if you're Russia, I highly
doubt that Putin's going to get out unless he's you know,
getting something from it, like getting something from that exit.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, he's no doubt going to try to get, you know,
something out of this. He's he's looking for an off
ramp to be able to say that, you know, this
war was a success, but it was all worthwhile. You know,
He's looking for some type of way to to try
to claim victory here. And so you know, I am
not a total experts. I have no idea how this
is going to, you know, ultimately end. And I don't
(08:43):
think anyone has a crystal ball to see how this
is all going to play out. But I think that
we are on I think we're on the right track
with you know, a lot of President Trump's you know
comments saying, look, we're we're here to make peace, and
and he wants to make sure that there's that both
sides are willing to do what it takes to get
to the end. And so I think that's a positive development.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
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Speaker 2 (10:28):
Now President Trump's just completely reshaped.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
I think how the Republican Party views foreign policy, like
even being in the Middle East recently, just you know,
the the what was it? The The future of the
Middle East is commerce, not chaos, Like even sort of
using his business acumen to try to forge those relationships
through business development, which is also sort of like a
(10:55):
mutually a mutual security guarantee as well like what he
was trying to do in Ukraine with the mining as well.
And also just you know, peace through strength, right that
maybe we don't need to deploy our troops to still
keep a world order and to still keep that respect
and to still you know, be respected. Has he changed
(11:18):
you know, you just mentioned you know you've served. Has
he changed your perspective on how we engage troops and
how we should use our military? And I know he's changed mind,
but I also didn't serve, So just interested in your opinion.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, I mean I think that I mean, peace to strength.
I think he is.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
It's obviously something that that slogan that started even in
the Reagan era, and for many of us, this isn't
something that we've been you know, talking about for so
long and hoping for that we would have a president
like President Trump who would really actually you know, put
teeth to that and uh. And so that's why, you know,
I think that a lot of the actions that we're
seeing and taken right now with President Trump saying look,
(11:58):
you know, I'll give you a perfect example, and you
mentioned in the Middle East, you know, the hoo Thi's
were attacking American troops, they were attacking uh really vital
shipping lanes.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Uh in, uh in in that part of the world.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And one of the issues that we're seeing is that
even our prices on different products here at home were
we are taking a hit because we can't get products,
you know, through those through those key shipping routes. And
so the hoo Thies were causing all sorts of issues
for the United States, for Europe.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
And here we had President Trump come in and and say, look, actually.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
We're not doing this anymore, and you know, destroyed the
hoo thieas and and we're seeing uh you know a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Of positive results at the end of that. So you know,
he means action.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And I think that when we invest in our military,
give them the support they need. I love seeing the
pay raises to the troops that are included uh in
this this one big beautiful bill as it's called, that
will hopefully be passed at the Senate, hopefully be.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Passed here soon.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
But you know that's those are the kind of things
that takes I think with the build up our military,
invest in our military, uh so that we can keep
apace with the threat I mean, and the threat is
as serious we have China Russia, Iran, North Korea, all
major powers that are are basically coming together. We're seeing
they're kind of coalescing, working together to sow chaos and
(13:17):
to and to really uh defeat the West in the
United States. And so it's I think it's important now
more than ever if you want to have peacely strengths
to make sure that we are strengthening our military or
investing in the and all the different AI and technology
and the drone capabilities, we've got to look at cyber space.
I mean, it's it's on so many different domains. Space
(13:39):
is a major one. If you want our troops to
have GPS signal when they're deployed, you know at anywhere
in the world that GPS signal is often very weak
and can be uh, you know, you can get hacked.
I mean, there's just so many different levels of investment
that we need, and so that's I think what's ultimately
going to keep our enemies at bay is when we
show that we have the capability to fight. And one
(14:01):
thing one of my favorite moments with us, one of
my favorite moments with President Trump was the unleastion the
F forty seven, you know, the new airframe that he's
releasing and that we're going to be producing here United States.
Look that those are the kind of actions that I
think our enemies are taking notes of. And so I
think him and Secretary Hegseth are doing a great job
(14:24):
in terms of showing the world to look, the United
States is not playing around. You might have thought that
the last four years under Biden that you know, we were,
you know, just going to roll over and take whatever
happens around the world.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Is will just accept the status quo. But that that
is over with President Trump in office.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
But I also think in order to be able to
do that, you know, these other nations need to know
that we're serious and that you know, you can't have
peace or strength unless you have the strength, right And
so like under Biden when he made these threads, like
no one believed them obviously as evidence by you know,
putin doing whatever you ones and Iran via Hamas doing
(15:01):
whatever it wanted, or like even Obama when you draw
all the red lines with Syria and Asad was like, okay, whatever,
you know what I mean. It's like you have to
like it has to be believable. And like with Trump,
when you know, when you start out of the gate
in twenty sixteen, dropping the mother Ball bombs and you know,
sending the Tomawk missiles to Syria, or like later in
his presidency taking out cast some solemney Like these guys,
(15:24):
like these bad actors know that like he's not effing
around right, Like it's you know when he when he
makes threats like he will do it.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
That's exactly right. You know.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
They they know that he is not someone who mince
his words and that when he says something, he means it,
and that is so important for America's credibility around the globe.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
No, we're saying, these military recruitment numbers have gone up
under the Trump administration, which is great. You're a West
Point guy, so you signed up to serve. Why did
you sign up to serve? And then also, you know,
why do you think those numbers are up? And how
significant is that?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Yeah, well it's very significant. I'll start with with my
own story. I you know, I didn't grow up in
in a military family so to speak. My grandparents served,
but they passed away when I was really young, so
I didn't really get a chance to talk to them
about it. But you know, in my in the house
that I grew up my parents they told me that
the highest honor is to serve God and serve your country.
(16:26):
And those are the things that I always took to heart.
And so I knew when I was in high school
and I joined j R. O t C the high
school Junior OTC program, and you know, walking around our
high school in uniforms of it. It was it was
it was something that you know, my friends made fun
of me for a little while until they realized I
was really serious about this. And I ended up, you know,
(16:48):
deciding I wanted to go to West Point and was
thankful and I had people that worked with me and
got in shape and I was went on to West
Point and I was there for four years, graduated in
twenty fifteen, UH, and I commissioned as an Army Intelligence Captain,
well coachy Intelligence tenant and then rose to the rank
of captain and UH. And you know, during that time,
(17:09):
it was I wanted to first I knew that, you know,
this country has given us.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
So many amazing privileges of freedom.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
I mean, just the freedom to be on this podcast
with you, to say what we think and to be
able to talk and UH, to talk about our government
and not be you know, in fear of of of
you know, being you know, taken off the air, thrown
in jail. I mean, we take those freedoms for granted,
but around the world that is just not the case.
And I know, we know that freedom is not free there.
(17:36):
We just you know, had Memorial Day, and obviously there
are many people that that shed much blood for us
to enjoy these freedoms. And so for me, I wanted
to give back and serve my country, and it was
it was really the privilege of a lifetime to do that.
And and with the recruitment numbers, you know, as you
pointed out the numbers under under President Biden, the numbers
(17:59):
had so low. Every single branch was struggling with recruitment.
And if you ask the Biden administration at the time,
they would just say, oh, well, it's just you know,
the environment unemployment rate is a little lower right now,
so therefore people aren't you know, coming in military as much.
It's just they had all these excuses, you know, the pool,
I mean, and some of those you know, are factors perhaps,
(18:23):
but it wasn't a total answer for how we for
the first time since the advent of the all volunteer
force in the seventies, uh, since we got rid of
the draft. Basically, you know, we had all volunteer force.
Why recrupment numbers were at an all time low since
the advent of.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
The volunteer force, I mean decades low. And so.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Really what we know is that a lot of folks
at home when they're seeing you know, commercials for their
military that are all about a social agenda and all
about you know, you can experiment in any kind of
you know, social agenda you want in the military.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
We will do your surgery if you want to. You know,
if you're a transgender, we'll pay for your surgery. We'll
do all this, you.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Know, we we are also many people at home were
told that the military is somehow racist. You know, if
you recall on one of the first things that the
Biden administration did Lloyd Austin, a Secretary of Defense, one
of the first things he did was do us a
force wide stand down to root out quote unquote white
(19:31):
supremacy and root out extremism in the ranks. And of
course they found nothing because it was a made up story.
It was all for politics, all for you know, really
just trying to virtue signal, I guess for the left,
I mean.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
It was it was a total mess.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
And that's what I think is the real reason why
we saw those numbers drop so low, is that who
wants to join the military to be a part of
a social experiment. You want to join the military to
kill bad guys. And so now we're seeing the total
shift under President Trump and Secretary Except if you even
look at the commercial the ads you see now they're
all about you know, our soldiers, men and women, you know,
(20:08):
killing bad guys. You see our fighter jugey, you see
the whole force of the American military, and it's inspiring.
And I think that's why we're seeing a lot of
the numbers bounce back. And so now a lot of
those recruiting lolls have become a recruiting boom and so
and that all that is under this this administration, so
that it's it's very exciting. Many of us have been
(20:30):
talking about this. I testified before the House Oversight Committee
about this crisis.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
During the Biden administration.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I was on the National Independent Panel from Military Service
and Readiness that then Congressman Mike Waltson appointed me to
and and and you know So we've been talking about
this for a long time. As you know, I'm part
of a group called Veterans on Duty. I'm chairman of
the Board of Veterans on Duty, and we're a five
O one C four policy advocacy organization made up of
(20:57):
veterans who cared deeply about our military and about a
lot of these issues. And this recruitment crisis was something
that we talked about quite a bit, and so now
that we're finally seeing positive results, it is very heartening
for many of us who have been on the front
lines of this effort.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And what were your.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Takeaways in the testimony, because you know, my understanding is
it was getting so bad that like if we had
another major war, like we might not have enough people,
like you know what I mean, Like we're not prepared
in terms of manpower. So you know, what kind of
were your takeaways or that you had learned in the
testimony that that people should know that we're concerning Oh.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Man, I mean, and it's worse back in like you know,
twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, the the I'll give
you an example, we were if you look at the army,
just just the army and again, this was this was
the crisis spread to all the branches. But I'll just
zoom in on the Army, my branch for a second.
If you look at the Army, the numbers were so low,
(21:58):
we were at thousands of soldiers short. It would be
the equivalent of missing an entire division. So I was
I was third Infantry Division. I was stationed at Fort
Stewart and near Savannah, Georgia, and that entire it would
be like the equivalent of all of Third i D
missing in action if we were to go into a major, uh,
(22:19):
you know, major conflict.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
That is, it was a serious crisis.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
And of course, you know, the you know, the legacy
media didn't want to talk about it, and you know,
they made it sound like, you know, Republicans are just
making up this crisis that we are just you know,
looking for reasons to criticize Biden.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
But as we know, it's in the cover up a
lot of things.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
And yeah, it was actually a very serious crisis that,
thank god, we averted. And and now with President Trumpet office,
we're seeing again all those numbers increasing and I think
I think that's a trajectory that's going to continue because
the Pentagon led by Secretary except is going.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Is returning to lethality. That is the key that the
purpose of the military is to deter fight and win
our nation's wars. That's it. There's no other agenda.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
It's not about social experimentation, it's not about be all
you can be, you know in terms of you know,
diversity is our strength. It's about it's all about the
term uh fighting and winning our nations wars. And so
that is the key. I think that we're going to
see it's gonna win, it's gonna it's really going to
strengthen our military and ultimately to our adversaries going forward.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Do you think he's doing a good job, Pete Hedges
have secretary funds.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I do. I do.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
He is someone who he's been, you know, very much
focused on returning to lethality.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
He's made sure.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
We've gotten rid of all the distractions, all the things
that you know are just you know, when when I
was in the military, you'd have all these ridiculous trainings
and you've got you know, diversity training, You've got all
these different trainings on all these on everything except for
the core mission. And so we would run out of
time when actually training our core, our core tasks and
(24:08):
our military tasks and drills, because we were so focused
on other types of you know, social campaigns that the
you know, the President Biden and others you know, had
had when I was in it was President Obama for
most of that time, but and then President Trumpet towards
the end. But you know, it was all about you know,
these different you know, experimenting, you know, and so that
(24:30):
kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
It was distracting.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
And I think we're seeing with Secretary of Headseth is
returning to our core fundamentals and so and then I
think also we're seeing we're getting rid of a lot
of the civilian bloat that's been kind of plaguing the
military the Pentagon for many years. We have so I mean,
just thousands upon thousands, tens of thousands of DA's civilians
(24:53):
and contractors and folks who you know, many of them
are vital to our mission and were thankful for them,
but a.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Lot of them were not.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
And so we're seeing a lot of kind of relooking
at how we're spending our funds, how we're spending resources,
who you know.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Needs, what we have redundancies.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
We can get rid of those he's making the Department
offense much more efficient, and that's really important, and it
starts with the top down. And he's also enabling commanders
to do what they need to do to train their
soldiers and to be prepared to deploy at a moment's notice.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Before we go.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Obviously, there was a big, big focus on legal immigration
under the by administration, one of the top reasons President
Trump won. But now we sort of have this broader
focus on legal immigration, particularly visas and the revoking of
you know, student visas and various visas. Secondary Mark or
(25:51):
Rubio announced recently that we're going to aggressively revoke visas
for Chinese students.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I mean, doesn't that just make sense?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Like why would we we know that there's been issues
with like Chinese spies here in America, and by the way,
like Russian spies we've had before, So like, what wouldn't
we be very judicious about the individuals we let into
this country from enemy nations or even individuals from countries
and areas of the world that have hostile opinions and
feelings towards America. Like that just to me seems like
(26:22):
common sense.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
It is common sense, and I applaud Secretary of Rubio
with this decision.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
It's been an issue that we've even at veterans on duty.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
We talked about this before, as there are a lot
of students that are coming here on these Chinese visas
who are literally many of them spying on behalf of
the Chinese government. We saw that at different schools, even
in places you wouldn't even suspect, and Whichita came against us,
of all places where my wife's family is from. At
certain colleges there there was evidence of literally Chinese students
(26:54):
there who are agents on behalf of the CCP.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
And so now the left is going to try.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
To make this all about, oh, we're discriminating against you know,
the Chinese people and all this stuff. Now we're dealing
with specifically Chinese citizens and especially those who have ties
to the CCP, who we are just allowing to work
in our work in our universities, sprayed spread a lot
of their you know, a lot of the CCP's talking points,
(27:20):
and also collect information. And so I think it's a
small choice, but remember, and it's not just this. China
is moving on all fronts against our country. I'll give
you a couple more examples right now, there are Chinese
state sponsored so sponsored by the CCP that are these
hackers that are literally able to access our own home
(27:43):
Wi Fi routers. There's a Wi Fi router made by
a company. By the way, all this is is public.
You can see this on it's in several reports about
The Wall Street Journal had an article about this, there
was a congressional hearing about it. There's a company called
tp Link that makes these Wi Fi rasuters and they
are a Chinese founded company.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Most of their operations are still in China. Uh they are.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
And what they are doing is they have these WiFi routers.
So you go and you buy a router and you
put in your home. You know nothing of it, and
what they're able to do is to hack into your router.
And of course it's not your home that they want.
Their target is the United States infrastructure, transportation infrastructure. But
what they're able to do is to shield themselves as
if they and it will appear as just a normal
(28:27):
American citizen home router, but actually they're using that to
preposition themselves to attack American infrastructure, our transportation.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Sector, our water sector, our telecommunications, you name it.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
So there are so many attacks on the United States
that we aren't even seeing or paying attention to. So
we're seeing it with a lot of Chinese students in
the universities. We're seeing it in our in our infrastructure,
with these routers with this teepe link, which, by the way,
teep a link. If you go to Amazon, teepe link
is often one of the first routers you see that
are recommended that they have it. They're selling this the
(29:01):
manufacturing get for cheap. And and by the way, reports
are saying the Department of Justice. Trump's Department of Justice
is now investigating this as well as the Department of
Commerce because they're selling these routers for treat for cheap
to make sure they take over the market, so that
make sure that all the routers in that states are
controlled by a Chinese commuist party. I mean, it's it's
it's their it's their play. And then we saw it,
you know, the spy base. Now they have spy bases
(29:22):
ninety miles off the coast of Florida and in Cuba.
They have seen them expand that of course everybody remembers
the Chinese spy balloons. I mean, it is it's on
all fronts agriculture. They are buying up American farm land,
especially land that is near military bases. They want to
control our food security here in the United States. They've
(29:43):
actually now they want to control a lot of the
inputs that our farmers rely on to grow their crops.
One of the products they use is it's called glyc estate.
They use it to attack weeds. It's a weed killer
and it's and they use it at the major level.
Commercial farmers use that to protect their crops. Well, now
China wants to take over that entire industry, and now
we've seen them do that, and now they're the majority
(30:06):
of those key products, and our farmers need to grow
our prop to grow crops for us here in the
United States. Again controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. So
it's it is a very dangerous time we're in and
I'm so thankful that Secretary Rubio was taking action. We're
seeing and we're seeing it all over government, I mean,
Secretary of Homeland Security is looking at it. I mean,
this is finally people are waking up to this and
(30:29):
it's a significant threat and I think we're finally taking
steps in.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
The right direction. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Absolutely, And then last thing before we go, What can
you tell us about veterans on duty?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah, so we are as I mentioned, we're five on
one C four policy advocacy organization made up of veterans
around the country. Most of us are veterans of the
global war and terrorism, but we have veterans of all
different eras as well, and many of us we care
about these issues about having a strong national security, having
a strong border, making sure our military has the fun
(31:00):
that they need to fight our nation's wars and the
resources they need to do that. We make sure that
we are not as I've talked about doing running experiments
with our military, but actually focusing on lethality and and
so we care a lot about these issues and making
sure that we are our America is strong, stronger than ever,
and that is something we want. As we always say,
(31:20):
you know, we didn't end our service when we took
off our uniform for us. Our service continues and we
do that through through advocacy and advocating for policies that
we will will keep America safe.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Strong and free.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Jeremy Hunt, appreciate you making the time great to patch
up and hope to see you soon.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Thank you, Thanks for having me Lisa, that was Jeremy Hunt.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
We appreciate him for making the time for the show.
Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday,
but you can listen throughout the week until next time.
Welcome to the Truth with Lisabooth, where we get to
the heart of the issues that matter to you. So
today we're joined by Jeremy Hunt. He's a West Point grad,
a former Army intelligence captain, and he's also the chairman
of Veterans on Duty. We'll dive into President Trump's plans
to broker a Russia Ukraine peace steel, also a nuclear
deal with Iran? Can he do it? Can he get
(00:26):
it done? Can he achieve peace? Jeremy also shares insights
on Ukraine's military pete. Heexas's role as Secretary of Defense,
Those rising recruiting numbers. Why did he decide to go
to West Point? What does he make of those numbers?
We know that recruitment numbers are up under this administration.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We'll also talk.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
About how President Trump has changed the way we all
view the military and foreign policy. Plus we'll unpack Secretary
of State Mark or Rubio's visa crackdown on Chinese students.
It's shaking up US China relations. But doesn't it just
make sense? Isn't it just common sense? Stay tuned for
all of that and more with Jeremy Hunt. Well, Jeremy,
(01:08):
it's great to have you on the show first time on,
but we've done out Numbered together and actually ran into
you in the Delta lounge after that day. I was like,
I know him well, So I appreciate you making the time.
So thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Absolutely, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I've been looking forward to joining your shows.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I'm happy to join and talk talk about some things.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
A little bit and maybe going a little bit more
depth today and I'm excited.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Yeah, I will not be in your ear telling you
that we've got to go to a commercial break, so
I obviously we both love TV, but you know you've
got those commercial breaks, so all right, Well, so I wanted.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
To talk to you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I mean, obviously there's a lot going on in the world,
and Joe Biden left everything a complete mess, so there's
a lot of instability that President Trump's trying to address.
He's also just trying to strike out of deals. I mean,
he's been talking about trying to facilitate a deal between
Russia and Ukraine and some sort of ceasefire and whatever
that will look like. He's also trying to negotiate with
(02:09):
Iran and come up with some sort of new nuclear deal. Uh,
you know, looking at both of those, do you do
you think you'll get it done.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Well.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
You know, that's one of the things that a lot
of these kind of talks, it's always, you know, a
little unpredictable when you're dealing with people like Putin, who
you know, did start this war, someone who is you
know constantly, as President Trump said, you know he is
he is not someone you can you're not someone who
can trust. He's someone who you know, in the middle
(02:38):
of these talks, you know, unleash is one of the
worst air raids on Kiev that we've seen just since
the beginning of this war. So, you know, it's a
lot of times it is a little unpredictable. I think
one thing we know about President Trump is that, you know,
he wants peace, he wants to he wants to end
the bloodshed, and his his kind of instinctive nature is
(02:59):
is very you know, someone who wants to be a
peacemaker around the world. And I think those instincts are
really good, and I think that's why we're going to
get different results than we did under President Biden, who was,
as as you mentioned, was a total disaster on all
these issues, and all and many and all these wars
started under his watch. I think when it comes to
Russia and Ukraine, the main thing is going to be
(03:22):
a lot of times, you know, Putin sometimes he does
not respond until he feels the pressure he feels, you know,
when we start bringing on additional uh uh kind of
sanctions upon upon his regime, When he starts feeling that
economic tightness of everything, when he is when the rest
of the world community shuts him out, that's when, you know,
you start to see different results. But unfortunately, a lot
(03:45):
of times when it's you know, just had a conversation
with him and talking to him, you know, he will
say one thing and then you know, as he's talking
to you about peace, he is you know, uh, killing
more and more.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Ukrainian soldiers and literally kidnapping.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I mean, the reports that have come out of Ukraine
are horrendous about some of the war crimes that Putin
and his and his and his armed forces have been
committing against the Ukrainian people.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
And you know, I've been there.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
I was actually when I was an officer in the army,
as you know, I was a former Army intelligence captain,
and when I was in Ukraine, I was there for
about six months and we were training the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
This was back in twenty sixteen, and so Putin had
already invaded Crimea, but he was you know, back then,
we were training for this hypothetical situation in which he
(04:37):
might invade Ukraine.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And you know, what was you know, just kind of
this what was then just kind of a.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
What could be, you know, ended up being what happened obviously,
And we were there training the Ukrainian armed forces, especially
their intel systems, intel officers on NATO doctrine and so
it was a great it was a great mission. And
I saw that, you know, the many people, they have
a will to fight. They they are not gonna, you know,
give over their country. Many people thought that, you know,
(05:06):
Putin would just roll right through Ukraine. I mean many
are not self included.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
We didn't.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
We had, you know, very much concern about Ukraine's ability
to defend themselves. But they've done, uh, they've had definitely
a valiant effort. And so I think now it's time
to get to peace. And I think you're seeing President
Trump try to deliver.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
On that, yeah, because I mean my mentality has always
been that, you know, obviously, you know, Russia was in
the wrong to invade Ukraine. I mean that's just a given. Uh.
But you know that being said, you know, I don't
think Ukraine can win this thing on their own, and
so we've already, you know, sent an endless bucket of
cash to Ukraine. And it seems that absent of US
(05:49):
and other countries putting boots on the ground and demonstrating
a willingness to fight this war alongside them, like, they
can't win it on their own, and so inevitably lends
Ski is probably going to have.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
To seed some territory.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
You know. Obviously Russia has already invaded Crimean has had
that territory for quite some time, as you pointed out.
And then there's also like the Donbass region that Russia
has invaded and it has occupied since the beginning of
that invasion under Biden, you know, so it doesn't see
him in terms of militarily, this war is winnable for
(06:23):
Ukraine outside of some sort of World War type scenario.
Is that an accurate assessment or I mean I.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Think I think that first off, I mean there's no
appetite too.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
I mean American troops are not put in boots on
the ground at all, And I think that you know,
as you said, we've sent you know, tons of aid
over to Ukraine. I do think that President Biden sent
uh you know, lethal lethal aid way too late, and
we saw this build up on their border along you know,
long before h and there's a lot of people who
say that if he had moved quicker to give Ukraine
(06:55):
the resources they need, that this would not have started
in the first place. But that said that, I mean,
you know, one thing that we've seen with President Trump
is that a lot of NATO is stepping up their commitments.
And that's something that we have not seen in a
long time.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I don't know if I mean, if they've.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Ever come in increased their military spending at this level
this rate in recent history. And so that is a
testament to President Trump, you know, increasing the putting the
putting the pressure on and saying, look, we want to
get this war to an end. And you know, Americans,
we we were you know, we did our part to support,
but we need NATO and Eastern and Europe to to
(07:32):
do their part too. And so I think, you know,
with all that support, you know, Ukraine is going to
as I said, they're gonna they're fighting for their homeland.
So they're going to continue, you know, giving it all
they can. I think that what you're going to see
is is the and and hopefully the appetite in Russia
and at home for this war will continue to wane
and and then eventually, you know, we could see this
(07:54):
come to an end.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
But I think that's what everybody is hoping for at
this point.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Yeah, but it just seems sort of inevitable at this
point that Zalenzi's going to have to see some territory
to Russia. I mean, there doesn't seem like they're going
to be able to expel them militarily, h you know,
completely from their country. And if you're Russia, I highly
doubt that Putin's going to get out unless he's you know,
getting something from it, like getting something from that exit.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, he's no doubt going to try to get, you know,
something out of this. He's he's looking for an off
ramp to be able to say that, you know, this
war was a success, but it was all worthwhile. You know,
He's looking for some type of way to to try
to claim victory here. And so you know, I am
not a total experts. I have no idea how this
is going to, you know, ultimately end. And I don't
(08:43):
think anyone has a crystal ball to see how this
is all going to play out. But I think that
we are on I think we're on the right track
with you know, a lot of President Trump's you know
comments saying, look, we're we're here to make peace, and
and he wants to make sure that there's that both
sides are willing to do what it takes to get
to the end. And so I think that's a positive development.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
We've got more with Jeremy. But first, folks, we're saying
something truly disturbing. Anti Semitism is on the rise all
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(09:26):
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Speaker 2 (10:28):
Now President Trump's just completely reshaped.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
I think how the Republican Party views foreign policy, like
even being in the Middle East recently, just you know,
the the what was it? The The future of the
Middle East is commerce, not chaos, Like even sort of
using his business acumen to try to forge those relationships
through business development, which is also sort of like a
(10:55):
mutually a mutual security guarantee as well like what he
was trying to do in Ukraine with the mining as well.
And also just you know, peace through strength, right that
maybe we don't need to deploy our troops to still
keep a world order and to still keep that respect
and to still you know, be respected. Has he changed
(11:18):
you know, you just mentioned you know you've served. Has
he changed your perspective on how we engage troops and
how we should use our military? And I know he's changed mind,
but I also didn't serve, So just interested in your opinion.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Yeah, I mean I think that I mean, peace to strength.
I think he is.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
It's obviously something that that slogan that started even in
the Reagan era, and for many of us, this isn't
something that we've been you know, talking about for so
long and hoping for that we would have a president
like President Trump who would really actually you know, put
teeth to that and uh. And so that's why, you know,
I think that a lot of the actions that we're
seeing and taken right now with President Trump saying look,
(11:58):
you know, I'll give you a perfect example, and you
mentioned in the Middle East, you know, the hoo Thi's
were attacking American troops, they were attacking uh really vital
shipping lanes.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Uh in, uh in in that part of the world.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And one of the issues that we're seeing is that
even our prices on different products here at home were
we are taking a hit because we can't get products,
you know, through those through those key shipping routes. And
so the hoo Thies were causing all sorts of issues
for the United States, for Europe.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
And here we had President Trump come in and and say, look, actually.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
We're not doing this anymore, and you know, destroyed the
hoo thieas and and we're seeing uh you know a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Of positive results at the end of that. So you know,
he means action.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
And I think that when we invest in our military,
give them the support they need. I love seeing the
pay raises to the troops that are included uh in
this this one big beautiful bill as it's called, that
will hopefully be passed at the Senate, hopefully be.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Passed here soon.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
But you know that's those are the kind of things
that takes I think with the build up our military,
invest in our military, uh so that we can keep
apace with the threat I mean, and the threat is
as serious we have China Russia, Iran, North Korea, all
major powers that are are basically coming together. We're seeing
they're kind of coalescing, working together to sow chaos and
(13:17):
to and to really uh defeat the West in the
United States. And so it's I think it's important now
more than ever if you want to have peacely strengths
to make sure that we are strengthening our military or
investing in the and all the different AI and technology
and the drone capabilities, we've got to look at cyber space.
I mean, it's it's on so many different domains. Space
(13:39):
is a major one. If you want our troops to
have GPS signal when they're deployed, you know at anywhere
in the world that GPS signal is often very weak
and can be uh, you know, you can get hacked.
I mean, there's just so many different levels of investment
that we need, and so that's I think what's ultimately
going to keep our enemies at bay is when we
show that we have the capability to fight. And one
(14:01):
thing one of my favorite moments with us, one of
my favorite moments with President Trump was the unleastion the
F forty seven, you know, the new airframe that he's
releasing and that we're going to be producing here United States.
Look that those are the kind of actions that I
think our enemies are taking notes of. And so I
think him and Secretary Hegseth are doing a great job
(14:24):
in terms of showing the world to look, the United
States is not playing around. You might have thought that
the last four years under Biden that you know, we were,
you know, just going to roll over and take whatever
happens around the world.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Is will just accept the status quo. But that that
is over with President Trump in office.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
But I also think in order to be able to
do that, you know, these other nations need to know
that we're serious and that you know, you can't have
peace or strength unless you have the strength, right And
so like under Biden when he made these threads, like
no one believed them obviously as evidence by you know,
putin doing whatever you ones and Iran via Hamas doing
(15:01):
whatever it wanted, or like even Obama when you draw
all the red lines with Syria and Asad was like, okay, whatever,
you know what I mean. It's like you have to
like it has to be believable. And like with Trump,
when you know, when you start out of the gate
in twenty sixteen, dropping the mother Ball bombs and you know,
sending the Tomawk missiles to Syria, or like later in
his presidency taking out cast some solemney Like these guys,
(15:24):
like these bad actors know that like he's not effing
around right, Like it's you know when he when he
makes threats like he will do it.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
That's exactly right. You know.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
They they know that he is not someone who mince
his words and that when he says something, he means it,
and that is so important for America's credibility around the globe.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
No, we're saying, these military recruitment numbers have gone up
under the Trump administration, which is great. You're a West
Point guy, so you signed up to serve. Why did
you sign up to serve? And then also, you know,
why do you think those numbers are up? And how
significant is that?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Yeah, well it's very significant. I'll start with with my
own story. I you know, I didn't grow up in
in a military family so to speak. My grandparents served,
but they passed away when I was really young, so
I didn't really get a chance to talk to them
about it. But you know, in my in the house
that I grew up my parents they told me that
the highest honor is to serve God and serve your country.
(16:26):
And those are the things that I always took to heart.
And so I knew when I was in high school
and I joined j R. O t C the high
school Junior OTC program, and you know, walking around our
high school in uniforms of it. It was it was
it was something that you know, my friends made fun
of me for a little while until they realized I
was really serious about this. And I ended up, you know,
(16:48):
deciding I wanted to go to West Point and was
thankful and I had people that worked with me and
got in shape and I was went on to West
Point and I was there for four years, graduated in
twenty fifteen, UH, and I commissioned as an Army Intelligence Captain,
well coachy Intelligence tenant and then rose to the rank
of captain and UH. And you know, during that time,
(17:09):
it was I wanted to first I knew that, you know,
this country has given us.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
So many amazing privileges of freedom.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
I mean, just the freedom to be on this podcast
with you, to say what we think and to be
able to talk and UH, to talk about our government
and not be you know, in fear of of of
you know, being you know, taken off the air, thrown
in jail. I mean, we take those freedoms for granted,
but around the world that is just not the case.
And I know, we know that freedom is not free there.
(17:36):
We just you know, had Memorial Day, and obviously there
are many people that that shed much blood for us
to enjoy these freedoms. And so for me, I wanted
to give back and serve my country, and it was
it was really the privilege of a lifetime to do that.
And and with the recruitment numbers, you know, as you
pointed out the numbers under under President Biden, the numbers
(17:59):
had so low. Every single branch was struggling with recruitment.
And if you ask the Biden administration at the time,
they would just say, oh, well, it's just you know,
the environment unemployment rate is a little lower right now,
so therefore people aren't you know, coming in military as much.
It's just they had all these excuses, you know, the pool,
I mean, and some of those you know, are factors perhaps,
(18:23):
but it wasn't a total answer for how we for
the first time since the advent of the all volunteer
force in the seventies, uh, since we got rid of
the draft. Basically, you know, we had all volunteer force.
Why recrupment numbers were at an all time low since
the advent of.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
The volunteer force, I mean decades low. And so.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Really what we know is that a lot of folks
at home when they're seeing you know, commercials for their
military that are all about a social agenda and all
about you know, you can experiment in any kind of
you know, social agenda you want in the military.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
We will do your surgery if you want to. You know,
if you're a transgender, we'll pay for your surgery. We'll
do all this, you.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Know, we we are also many people at home were
told that the military is somehow racist. You know, if
you recall on one of the first things that the
Biden administration did Lloyd Austin, a Secretary of Defense, one
of the first things he did was do us a
force wide stand down to root out quote unquote white
(19:31):
supremacy and root out extremism in the ranks. And of
course they found nothing because it was a made up story.
It was all for politics, all for you know, really
just trying to virtue signal, I guess for the left,
I mean.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
It was it was a total mess.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
And that's what I think is the real reason why
we saw those numbers drop so low, is that who
wants to join the military to be a part of
a social experiment. You want to join the military to
kill bad guys. And so now we're seeing the total
shift under President Trump and Secretary Except if you even
look at the commercial the ads you see now they're
all about you know, our soldiers, men and women, you know,
(20:08):
killing bad guys. You see our fighter jugey, you see
the whole force of the American military, and it's inspiring.
And I think that's why we're seeing a lot of
the numbers bounce back. And so now a lot of
those recruiting lolls have become a recruiting boom and so
and that all that is under this this administration, so
that it's it's very exciting. Many of us have been
(20:30):
talking about this. I testified before the House Oversight Committee
about this crisis.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
During the Biden administration.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
I was on the National Independent Panel from Military Service
and Readiness that then Congressman Mike Waltson appointed me to
and and and you know So we've been talking about
this for a long time. As you know, I'm part
of a group called Veterans on Duty. I'm chairman of
the Board of Veterans on Duty, and we're a five
O one C four policy advocacy organization made up of
(20:57):
veterans who cared deeply about our military and about a
lot of these issues. And this recruitment crisis was something
that we talked about quite a bit, and so now
that we're finally seeing positive results, it is very heartening
for many of us who have been on the front
lines of this effort.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And what were your.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Takeaways in the testimony, because you know, my understanding is
it was getting so bad that like if we had
another major war, like we might not have enough people,
like you know what I mean, Like we're not prepared
in terms of manpower. So you know, what kind of
were your takeaways or that you had learned in the
testimony that that people should know that we're concerning Oh.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Man, I mean, and it's worse back in like you know,
twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, the the I'll give
you an example, we were if you look at the army,
just just the army and again, this was this was
the crisis spread to all the branches. But I'll just
zoom in on the Army, my branch for a second.
If you look at the Army, the numbers were so low,
(21:58):
we were at thousands of soldiers short. It would be
the equivalent of missing an entire division. So I was
I was third Infantry Division. I was stationed at Fort
Stewart and near Savannah, Georgia, and that entire it would
be like the equivalent of all of Third i D
missing in action if we were to go into a major, uh,
(22:19):
you know, major conflict.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
That is, it was a serious crisis.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
And of course, you know, the you know, the legacy
media didn't want to talk about it, and you know,
they made it sound like, you know, Republicans are just
making up this crisis that we are just you know,
looking for reasons to criticize Biden.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
But as we know, it's in the cover up a
lot of things.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
And yeah, it was actually a very serious crisis that,
thank god, we averted. And and now with President Trumpet office,
we're seeing again all those numbers increasing and I think
I think that's a trajectory that's going to continue because
the Pentagon led by Secretary except is going.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Is returning to lethality. That is the key that the
purpose of the military is to deter fight and win
our nation's wars. That's it. There's no other agenda.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
It's not about social experimentation, it's not about be all
you can be, you know in terms of you know,
diversity is our strength. It's about it's all about the
term uh fighting and winning our nations wars. And so
that is the key. I think that we're going to
see it's gonna win, it's gonna it's really going to
strengthen our military and ultimately to our adversaries going forward.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Do you think he's doing a good job, Pete Hedges
have secretary funds.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I do. I do.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
He is someone who he's been, you know, very much
focused on returning to lethality.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
He's made sure.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
We've gotten rid of all the distractions, all the things
that you know are just you know, when when I
was in the military, you'd have all these ridiculous trainings
and you've got you know, diversity training, You've got all
these different trainings on all these on everything except for
the core mission. And so we would run out of
time when actually training our core, our core tasks and
(24:08):
our military tasks and drills, because we were so focused
on other types of you know, social campaigns that the
you know, the President Biden and others you know, had
had when I was in it was President Obama for
most of that time, but and then President Trumpet towards
the end. But you know, it was all about you know,
these different you know, experimenting, you know, and so that
(24:30):
kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
It was distracting.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
And I think we're seeing with Secretary of Headseth is
returning to our core fundamentals and so and then I
think also we're seeing we're getting rid of a lot
of the civilian bloat that's been kind of plaguing the
military the Pentagon for many years. We have so I mean,
just thousands upon thousands, tens of thousands of DA's civilians
(24:53):
and contractors and folks who you know, many of them
are vital to our mission and were thankful for them,
but a.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Lot of them were not.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
And so we're seeing a lot of kind of relooking
at how we're spending our funds, how we're spending resources,
who you know.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Needs, what we have redundancies.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
We can get rid of those he's making the Department
offense much more efficient, and that's really important, and it
starts with the top down. And he's also enabling commanders
to do what they need to do to train their
soldiers and to be prepared to deploy at a moment's notice.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Before we go.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Obviously, there was a big, big focus on legal immigration
under the by administration, one of the top reasons President
Trump won. But now we sort of have this broader
focus on legal immigration, particularly visas and the revoking of
you know, student visas and various visas. Secondary Mark or
(25:51):
Rubio announced recently that we're going to aggressively revoke visas
for Chinese students.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I mean, doesn't that just make sense?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Like why would we we know that there's been issues
with like Chinese spies here in America, and by the way,
like Russian spies we've had before, So like, what wouldn't
we be very judicious about the individuals we let into
this country from enemy nations or even individuals from countries
and areas of the world that have hostile opinions and
feelings towards America. Like that just to me seems like
(26:22):
common sense.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
It is common sense, and I applaud Secretary of Rubio
with this decision.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
It's been an issue that we've even at veterans on duty.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
We talked about this before, as there are a lot
of students that are coming here on these Chinese visas
who are literally many of them spying on behalf of
the Chinese government. We saw that at different schools, even
in places you wouldn't even suspect, and Whichita came against us,
of all places where my wife's family is from. At
certain colleges there there was evidence of literally Chinese students
(26:54):
there who are agents on behalf of the CCP.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
And so now the left is going to try.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
To make this all about, oh, we're discriminating against you know,
the Chinese people and all this stuff. Now we're dealing
with specifically Chinese citizens and especially those who have ties
to the CCP, who we are just allowing to work
in our work in our universities, sprayed spread a lot
of their you know, a lot of the CCP's talking points,
(27:20):
and also collect information. And so I think it's a
small choice, but remember, and it's not just this. China
is moving on all fronts against our country. I'll give
you a couple more examples right now, there are Chinese
state sponsored so sponsored by the CCP that are these
hackers that are literally able to access our own home
(27:43):
Wi Fi routers. There's a Wi Fi router made by
a company. By the way, all this is is public.
You can see this on it's in several reports about
The Wall Street Journal had an article about this, there
was a congressional hearing about it. There's a company called
tp Link that makes these Wi Fi rasuters and they
are a Chinese founded company.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Most of their operations are still in China. Uh they are.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
And what they are doing is they have these WiFi routers.
So you go and you buy a router and you
put in your home. You know nothing of it, and
what they're able to do is to hack into your router.
And of course it's not your home that they want.
Their target is the United States infrastructure, transportation infrastructure. But
what they're able to do is to shield themselves as
if they and it will appear as just a normal
(28:27):
American citizen home router, but actually they're using that to
preposition themselves to attack American infrastructure, our transportation.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Sector, our water sector, our telecommunications, you name it.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
So there are so many attacks on the United States
that we aren't even seeing or paying attention to. So
we're seeing it with a lot of Chinese students in
the universities. We're seeing it in our in our infrastructure,
with these routers with this teepe link, which, by the way,
teep a link. If you go to Amazon, teepe link
is often one of the first routers you see that
are recommended that they have it. They're selling this the
(29:01):
manufacturing get for cheap. And and by the way, reports
are saying the Department of Justice. Trump's Department of Justice
is now investigating this as well as the Department of
Commerce because they're selling these routers for treat for cheap
to make sure they take over the market, so that
make sure that all the routers in that states are
controlled by a Chinese commuist party. I mean, it's it's
it's their it's their play. And then we saw it,
you know, the spy base. Now they have spy bases
(29:22):
ninety miles off the coast of Florida and in Cuba.
They have seen them expand that of course everybody remembers
the Chinese spy balloons. I mean, it is it's on
all fronts agriculture. They are buying up American farm land,
especially land that is near military bases. They want to
control our food security here in the United States. They've
(29:43):
actually now they want to control a lot of the
inputs that our farmers rely on to grow their crops.
One of the products they use is it's called glyc estate.
They use it to attack weeds. It's a weed killer
and it's and they use it at the major level.
Commercial farmers use that to protect their crops. Well, now
China wants to take over that entire industry, and now
we've seen them do that, and now they're the majority
(30:06):
of those key products, and our farmers need to grow
our prop to grow crops for us here in the
United States. Again controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. So
it's it is a very dangerous time we're in and
I'm so thankful that Secretary Rubio was taking action. We're
seeing and we're seeing it all over government, I mean,
Secretary of Homeland Security is looking at it. I mean,
this is finally people are waking up to this and
(30:29):
it's a significant threat and I think we're finally taking
steps in.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
The right direction. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Absolutely, And then last thing before we go, What can
you tell us about veterans on duty?
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Yeah, so we are as I mentioned, we're five on
one C four policy advocacy organization made up of veterans
around the country. Most of us are veterans of the
global war and terrorism, but we have veterans of all
different eras as well, and many of us we care
about these issues about having a strong national security, having
a strong border, making sure our military has the fun
(31:00):
that they need to fight our nation's wars and the
resources they need to do that. We make sure that
we are not as I've talked about doing running experiments
with our military, but actually focusing on lethality and and
so we care a lot about these issues and making
sure that we are our America is strong, stronger than ever,
and that is something we want. As we always say,
(31:20):
you know, we didn't end our service when we took
off our uniform for us. Our service continues and we
do that through through advocacy and advocating for policies that
we will will keep America safe.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Strong and free.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Jeremy Hunt, appreciate you making the time great to patch
up and hope to see you soon.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Thank you, Thanks for having me Lisa, that was Jeremy Hunt.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
We appreciate him for making the time for the show.
Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday,
but you can listen throughout the week until next time.
Host
Lisa Boothe
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