April 10, 2025 • 33 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time. Time time, luck and load. The Michael
Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I mean, I'm going to cut into it. We got
three audio bits I want to cram into this. Number
one is Mark Zuckerberg claims that Meta, which is Facebook,
has never considered sharing your data with the Chinese government. Well,
Sarah Wynn Williams is a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower,
and she confirmed for Senator Josh Hawley that Meta was
willing to store data in China and give the Chinese
(00:39):
government access to your data.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
So I want to just be clear about this here
in this document, Facebook is talking about making Chinese user
data available to the Chinese government because they're going to
store that data in China.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Is that correct correct?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
So when you store that data in China Americans who
exchanged messages or their information with Chinese Facebook users, that
would mean the Chinese government could get access to the
American data as well.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Is that correct? Through the pop servers potentially? Yes?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
And Facebook was willing to take that risk.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yes. There was a lot of discussion about this and
ultimately yes.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I mean, this is extraordinary. This is exactly contrary to
what Facebook has represented for years. Here They're willing to
build data center store data in China. They are willing
explicitly to give the Chinese government access to it, and
if that means that American user data is also compromised,
they're willing to do that too. All for profits in China.
(01:36):
There was virtually nothing they weren't willing to do. Kind
of says it, all, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says, we will take back
the Panama Canal from China's influence.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
United States of America will not allow communists, China, or
any other country to threaten the Canal's operation or integrity.
To this end, the United States and Panama have done
more in recent weeks to strengthen our defense and security
cooperation than we have in decades. That includes our meeting
(02:09):
today and announcements to come. Our relationship with Panama, especially
our security relationship, will continue to grow in the months.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And years ahead.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Our relationship is growing in part to meet communist China's
rising challenge. China based companies continue to control critical infrastructure
in the canal area that gives China the potential to
conduct surveillance activities across Panama. This makes Panama and the
(02:43):
United States less secure, less prosperous, and less sovereign. I'm
going to be very clear, China did not build this canal,
China does not operate this canal, and China will not
weaponize this canal. Together, we will take back the Panama
Canal from China's influence, and we will do this along
(03:08):
with other capable, like minded.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Allies and partners. This is what peace through strength looks like.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
When you look at the trade that goes through the
Panama Canal and the power of that little tiny piece
of real estate, you understand that our nation's security depends
on our control of that space and finally for the
remainder of the segment, because it's beautiful. Victor Davis Hansen
(03:36):
does a be youto ful job of explaining what President
Trump is doing with China in a battle for global power.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
If you listen to anything, let it be this. I
like to talk today about China. It seems to be
on everybody's mind, but explicitly on Donald Trump's mind. That's
the one common denominator that explains his interest on Panama
and not to turn over our key transit from East
to West coast to China. China has no business there,
and the same thing with Greenland. He's worried about the
(04:06):
Chinese having access to the Arctic Circle. He's worried about
their trade surplus. He's worried about circumventing on fair trade
by assembling their products in Mexico. He's worried about them
sending raw product of fentanyl. He's worried about their surrogates,
the sort of mad pit bulls like North Korea and
(04:28):
increasingly Iran that he cuts the leash every once in
a while and says, key being China, go to it
cause chaos. He's worried that China is intimidating countries in
the Pacific and in Asia, some of our strongest friends, Australia,
South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, saying things like the
(04:49):
United States is in decline, you.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Better cut a deal.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
Essentially, they're like Japan in nineteen forty and they're trying
to read fashion something like the Japanese East Asian co
Prosperity sphere that was a mercantile system aimed at the West,
which soon they were to be at war at So
is it all depression and what Trump is saying is
for us to stop this, we've got to balance our budget.
(05:15):
We can't spend three billion dollars a day on interest.
If we're going to do this, we have to have
trade parity. We can't keep running up a trillion a
trillion and a half dollars in trades er plus. And
when he looks at us at home, he says, the
ESG this equity social governance, that we don't look at
productivity and stocks, but whether they're politically correct or dei
(05:37):
and woke, this anti marior it doesn't work. The Chinese
love it. We will not be competitive if we look
at the boarder. You can't have an open border with
thirty million illegal aliens. That is a drag on productivity.
You have to have security. So what he's doing is
in all these areas is identifying the threat that China
poses and why we with an open, transparent and capitalist
(05:59):
society can achieve our pre eminence, our guarantee, our pre
emins if we make changes. And it's not necessarily a
pessimistic picture. I just give you some statistics. Yes, China
has two thousand fighters, we have fifteen hundred. The fighters
aren't the only story. They're bombers, they're logistics plane, they're
intelligence planes. When you look at all of the US
(06:21):
Air Force, we have about fifteen hundred more planes, and
we have over five hundred fifth generation fighters. I think
they only have about sixty. Yes, they are building two
hundred times more ships than we are. Remember, we built
the largest navy in World War Two that turned out
by nineteen forty five, larger than all the navies in
(06:43):
the world. We were building a liberty or freedom mercantile vessel,
big ten twelve thousand ton vessels every five days. We
built three thousand of them. We built one hundred and
twenty carriers of different classifications, so we were the shipbuilder
now China, but when you actually look at our fleets,
we still still have eleven fleet carriers and army groups
(07:09):
Navy groups around them there are over one hundred thousand tons.
They're all nuclear. China has two and it's billing a third.
We have about eighty seven eighty five to eighty seven submarines.
They have about sixty, but every one of ours is nuclear,
not theirs. They only have about six or seven. If
(07:30):
you look at all of these statistics on economics, they
have one point four billion people. We have about three
hundred and thirty five three hundred and forty million people,
but we produce one and a half times of nominal GDP.
That's China. So one American produces one and a half
(07:50):
times more goods and services than his four Chinese counterparts.
If you look at per capita income, we're still ranked
six the nation and the world China seventy three. Americans
had a lot more purchasing power per capita than Chinese.
So what let me put this all together in conclusion,
(08:11):
China is a sendant and we are static. Trump comes
in and he's looking at things at home that will
restore our global pre eminence.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Some don't want to hear it. He'll just go ahead
and say it. Sorry, Michael Very Show, Let's go back.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
January twenty seventeen. President Trump has, in the most improbable
win in the modern era, won the White House, and
he's going in and the battle really begins now because
half the people there can't be trusted, half the people
there are working against him. It has taken all these
(08:52):
years to really find out what was going on. But
there were some loyal folks who were in the trench
is with him and I think back now, you know,
this has been a really soaring administration because President Trump
learned you can't trust those people you got, and he's
gone in with all the momentum. Right, It wasn't like
(09:14):
that back in January twenty seventeen. One of the guys,
probably the guy who was getting beat up the worst,
through no fault of his own. He was just taking
the beating and getting back up with Sean Spicer, the
Press Secretary and communications director, and he's our guest. Welcome
to the programs, hir.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Hey, Michael, good to be with you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
You got to be thinking as you see Carolyn Levitt
up there, going, hey, I didn't have it this easy.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Well, you know, it's funny when you say that.
Speaker 6 (09:45):
I had a conversation with the President a couple of
weeks back, and he was asking me. He said, you know,
this is just how he operates. He always says, how
do you think it's going? How's everyone doing? And I
said to him, sir, I'm a little jealous. He started
laughing and he's said, why.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Do you say that. I said, because you know, we
came in.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
He was very magnanimous, and he said, oh, that's nice,
and that I said, well, it's true. I think we
we went in for you know, with all the best intentions,
and to your point in your introduction, there were some
people that didn't share that, and they thought that they
either were there to serve their own agenda or to
resist his.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And I think a lot of it was new.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
And I've said to folks before, you know, part of
the thing for me was I actually had this very
fun conversation with him at one point and we're talking
about traditions and how the White House operators that he
looks at me and he said, Sean, I'm going to
be the most traditional president ever. And I was like, oh, cool,
I know tradition. I can that guy got this that and.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
That clearly wasn't the case.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
And and you know, he beats to his own drum
and he has his own style in his way, and
it's just it was it was a learning experience for
a lot of us. And like I said, so, I
I was so super proud to have been part of that.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
But it's different.
Speaker 6 (11:07):
And here's the thing, Michael, I've identified three things, the people,
the process, and the policies.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And you touched on.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
This at the beginning, at the beginning of your segment.
And what I mean by the people is lest time,
he trusted a lot of people that they said, oh
I want to serve in the Trump administration where they're
recommended by somebody, and so he took their workforce, and
they weren't people that were there for the right necessarily intentions.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
This time, the people.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
That he's run on board, he knows, he trusts they
understand the goal at hand, and that's a very different dynamic. Okay,
So that's number one. Then we go to the policies.
He knows exactly what he wants to do and how
to do it. He knows what he wants to fight for,
what he wants to accomplish. And the last is the process,
which is he knows how to do it now not
(11:53):
only the levers of government to pull, but where the
resistance is going to come from. Okay, and that is
important because he sort of if you think about it,
day one, Tom Holman's doing all of these immigration roundups
in what cities to.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Go to, where to find them?
Speaker 6 (12:11):
They didn't just think of this out of thin air.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
It wasn't just you know, maybe we should go to Boston,
maybe we should go to Chicago.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
They knew where to go because they had been spending
four years plotting and planning exactly what they would do
if they got back in office.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
And you see it. It is a well executed strategy,
brilliant in its in its plan and flawless in the execution.
I also think that he brought in you were a
guy that was willing to withstand the slings and arrows.
I think there were some folks who weren't. They were
a little more retiring, a little more reticent, a little
(12:45):
more reserved. Mike Pence was not really, you know, a
battle weary partner for him. He's got guys that really
enjoy going into into the fire, you know, Jay, the
Vans and Pete, heg Seth and Toolsey and each one
of them ready to take on the battle. And I
(13:06):
feel like that allows him, you know, like like a leader,
a president with his generals. It allows him to dissipate
some of that, to spread some of that. Elon takes
a lot of that hatred, and I think that I'd
be curious to know your thoughts, but I think that
has helped him a lot as well.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
One look at the thing that the media gets wrong
Michael Is. They keep saying, oh, he's spouted himself.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
With loyalists, a dog can be loyal that these people
are disruptors.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
These are people who understand the agenda and what the
president wants to accomplish in and are like, great, I
got it. So whether Paul c RFK or Pete heg Seth,
you know Lee Zelvin at the EPA, these guys are
coming in and saying, Okay, we got it, we got
the mission, We're ready to execute and frankly, you're seeing
the results. I mentioned Tom Holman, another guy who's going
(13:59):
in there do this. But there's one thing that I
keep warning Republicans on which is, guys, we've now seen.
You know, Trump got elected, he made a lot of
great things happen. He helped secure the border again, US
Energy independent, and what's Biden do? Undoes all of that
through executive order?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And then what is Trump do?
Speaker 6 (14:19):
He undoes the Biden and reinstitutes a lot of stuff
and then builds on it. And my message to Republicans,
especially in the area of immigration, is if you like
what President Trump is doing, then we need to codify
in law because.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
If you look at where President.
Speaker 6 (14:36):
Trump has gotten pushedback. It's not this resistance that we
had in the first term. It's the courts. And what
are the courts saying. They're saying, well, the law is
clear that X or not clear that why. And so
my point to my fellow Republicans is, if you like
what President Trump did, if you like what he accomplished,
then don't let another president undo it. Codify immigration stuff
(15:00):
and law. Figure out how many business we want, how
many judges, how many CBP or ice agents we want,
set new limits on making us more of a meritocracy.
So we figure out, you know, what kind of immigration
system we want.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
But we keep fudging along and hoping.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
That President Trump's going to stay in office forever. It's
just not you know, as much as we may want
that to happen, it's not going to happen while we
have majorities. And this is the other point that I
try to make to Republicans is I would love to
believe that we're just going to get judged by, you know,
putting points on the board and delivering for the American people.
But we've seen what it takes to get legislation passed,
(15:41):
and god forbid, we lose the House Republican majority, which is.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
You know, tenuous at best.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
We got two more seats last week because that somehow
everybody felt like, oh that was great. I'm like, that's
just two more. We're now down to we're up to
a four seat majority.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yay.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
But if you really want to ensure that things are
going to happen, then use these next eighteen plus months
to actually codify the Trump agenda, especially in immigration in law.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I agree the long term reforms, I think, and that's
how you bring real change instead of an overnight win.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
If that's the war, not the battle.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
We'll continue our conversation with Sean Speiser, former press secretary
and communications director in the first trumpet, I don't care
if somebody decu stakes you, you can shoot at Michael
John Spicer was Press secretary and Communications director under President
Trump in the early days, the tough days, the time
(16:46):
when UH generals loyal to the president were being entrapped
by the FBI, at a time when Jim Comey was
working very hard to try to put Donald Trump in prison,
at a time when the security and deep state apparatus
was working against the president and doing things that are unspeakable.
(17:08):
He has some memories. Shall we say, he's our guests.
Let's talk about the border. Obviously something that y'all worked
on very hard. I have been I must admit, I
have been delighted and at the same time surprised at
the effectiveness and the swiftness with which this thing has
(17:30):
happened and how successful it has been.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Your thoughts, Yeah, I mean there's two things. Just one.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
It proved to me that if you focus on something anything,
it's not necessarily easy.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
But you can get results. Right.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
So, I mean, whether you're trying to get in shape,
or sell something, or in this case, secure the border.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
What happened under.
Speaker 6 (17:55):
Biden is they allow they made the border open.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
People came in. They gave him said it's the people
to come. I tell this story all the time.
Speaker 6 (18:02):
I got a buddy of mine that does a lot
of federal contracting with the State Department, and in the
Trump first term, they had assigned throughout America that said,
you know, the borders closed, don't come. When Biden came
into office, they changed the billboards and it said need help,
here's the phone number.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Right.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
They literally it was a magnet to come into this country.
Kamala Harris might have told people don't. But the reality
is that if you're told, if you do, though, we're
going to give you a hotel room.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
A gift card, free phones, etc. You're going to come.
Speaker 6 (18:29):
They understood they wouldn't get kicked out, they wouldn't be stopped,
and so they came.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
President Trump changed.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
That in a heartbeat, and you know, Tom Homan and
everyone's rounding people up, making it clear that this is
the priority of this president. But you know, it just
showed you how much we are gas lit by the
Biden administration, right who told us, oh, we can't do anything,
there's nothing wrong, there's no criminals here.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Well, if there were no criminals here, how did President Trump.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Just round up all those Trenda de Agua people and
the NS thirteeners, Because you know, under the Biden administration,
they told us our border was secure, nothing was wrong,
and it was clearly a lie.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
It's uh, it's quite interesting. Sean Spicer is our guest.
He was the first UH Press Secretary of Communications director
for President Trump. Let me pull back for our moment
on Trump. Let's talk about Shawann Spicer. How has life
changed for you? What does what does life look like
for you today?
Speaker 1 (19:27):
That's a great question.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
Uh So, when I walked into the White House, I
had been the communications director and the chief strategies for
the Republican National Committee for six years. I'd been around
Washington working for members of Congress. I'd just come actually
off an active duty deployment. Uh So, I, you know,
I was just your typical staffer and then walked into
the Trump White House and got thrown, you know, into
(19:51):
the deep end real quick. And it was a challenging
yet honorific opportunity to serve the country and the President Trump.
And and then look, it was funny afterwards. I did
stuff that I mean, I have had some pretty cool
moments since I left the White House. I still stay
in touch with President Trump. As I mentioned, I talked
to him on the fund the other day. He appointed
(20:12):
me to the Naval Academy Board of Visitors.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
You know, I've got.
Speaker 6 (20:15):
Two shows, The Shawn Spicer Show, airs every night six
pm Eastern on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
So I'm doing stuff, Michael, for the first time.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
I was always somebody else's spokesman, and now I get
to talk about what I think and why I think
things need to get done with the priorities. I've written
four books. You know, I may announce a fifth one soon.
It's been fun to do something when you when your
whole life professionally was focused on you know, even in
the military, it was a public affairs officer, right, And
I've always spoken for other people and entities, and when
(20:45):
you leave and get the opportunity to, you know, launch shows.
I have a show every morning, a live show on
my YouTube channel called The Morning Meeting, where.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
We talk about the issues of the day.
Speaker 6 (20:55):
And it's fun to be able to give people my opinion,
my thought, my insights. Thirty years of politics, and that's
a very different place than I've ever been.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
But I gotta imagine with all of that and enjoying
a little more, you know, taking an extra thirty minutes
on your cup of coffee, or making one more lap
on your morning walk if you so choose, or sleeping
in on occasion if you want. I gotta imagine for
guys like you, having been in it myself, you have
(21:26):
to miss the adrenaline. It's a drug, and I know
there are days that you are missing that and wishing
you were in there in the battle.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
You know what the funny thing about you saying that
was I used to.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
When I left Capitol Hill and went to different places,
I would.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Always say I always I think that I found it.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
Like, I don't know if it's because I have kids
now they're teenagers. It's like, I think my priorities are
a little bit different, having to want to spend time.
And I know it's always like this cliche washing anything.
I love it, don't get me wrong, I will never
I'm so honored that President Trump had me serve as
the White House pres Secretary. But now when I get
(22:09):
to do stuff, like I wake up, like I said,
I have the show every morning it's live for an
hour on YouTube where I walk through with Mark Alper
and a guy named Dan Turntine that we call it
the Morning Meeting. It's very it's just continues to grow
in popularity. Then I do my show that airs at
six o'clock on YouTube, And like I said.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I do a lot of writing.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
I write columns, so I don't it's almost like I've
kind of pivoted my my love for politics into ino
different ways. So now I can actually openly opine about
what I like to do and what I.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Like to say, And so I'm fired up. I get
your point like, I if ten long than it was
a ten year.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
Yeah, ten years ago, I would know what to do.
I used to work crazy hours at the R and C.
And I think people tell me all the time, you know, wow,
you work crazy hours and how do you ever find time?
And it's because I love it. I love of politics,
I love the back and forth. I love you know
that no day is ever the same. That I had
a great team to work with. I mean, but there's
something about like the last few years where I've enjoyed,
(23:12):
like getting to do.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Things like I've had.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
I've had the I was on a reality show as
you might recall, the Aswer the Stars.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I did a Zach movie.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
There's stuff that is a kid from Rhode Island that
my dad sold boats for a living. And to be like,
I can't believe I opened the end. He's for goodness sake.
In twenty seventeen, you do having fun, I mean, and.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
You survived in time because, as you know, a lot
of guys don't walk away from this thing able to
hold their head up. A lot of guys it chews
you up and spit you out. Let me ask you.
You said it's about people.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
But do you know why though.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Here here's why though, because honestly, I don't mean to
sound like I'm not the best at a lot of things,
but I have my priorities straight. And when the opportunity
came to get an off ramp, and I said this
to the President because he had been very gracious he
wanted me to stay in the White House. I was
communications director and White House Press secretary. And I think
(24:09):
it was the President you need you need a fresh start.
And and I.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Knew that that was my offering.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
I honestly believe that God had said to me, Sean,
I'm telling you right now that this is this is
our off ramp.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
And and and.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
And I knew if I stayed longer, it wouldn't And
like I said, here we are eight years later. I
call him, he calls me. He was kind enough to
reappoint me to the Naval Academy Board. He's endorsed all
four of the books that I've written. He literally voted
for me on a reality television show when he was president.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
And I think that is a guy who you know,
he's had my.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Back and and and I just it is so to
your point, Like, part of the thing is that I
feel like I knew when a lot of people in
Washington can't walk away from power. And I knew the
second the day that I said that I was stepping down,
that that was going to change forever I would it
(25:04):
would never be the same again. But I also knew
that if I stayed, it would be the same and
it was not going to go. It's in the world
as we know it, ends of the world.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
John Spicer is our guest, Sean. You know, when I
assess what the President's been able to do, it's it's
in a sort of uh Nixon's first term imperial presidency
sort of manner. And and because he has the House
and the Senate, both of them with a tenuous, delicate,
(25:44):
dangling majority that could change, and a lot of folks
that if they have the chance, would stab him in
the back, but right now have to play along. It
concerns me because if things have to go through the
House or the Senate, we've had We've had pretty good
life so far. But it does concern me. What concerns
you the most for the continued success of this president
(26:07):
in this country, which I know you care so deeply about.
Is it the tariffs? Is is it the financial folks,
is it Chinese intervention? What are the things that you
see on the horizon and you so let's just keep
an eye on that.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
I think the greatest threat we face is from China.
And I think that if we don't like, I think
President Trump needs him majority. We watched this this first
term when he lost the House majority, they spend all
their time in teaching him, obstructing him, and attacking him.
And so I think that people have to understand he
needs to be able to have the runway. As I
mentioned to you a moment ago, like not just to like.
(26:41):
I love what he's doing now, the tax cuts, getting
the border focused, but if we don't codify some of
these things in legislation before, you know, and maintaining a
House and Senate majority, I feel good about the Senate.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Less so about you know.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
So anyway, I actually worry that if he doesn't keep
the majority, it's the it stunts the uh the progress
that we've made.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Uh, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
And and you know, it happened so fast that the
momentum he with which he started, and as you said,
it was it was having a plan that you execute.
You know, you have kids. I don't know if you've
been to youth sports, but I've coached youth sports, and
when the other team is better than your team and
you show up on the first day and you go, oh,
those kids, they've been playing together for years. And I
(27:29):
got a bunch of kids their first year and you know,
oh wow, we we came to the battle and got whipped.
He did that to them, and and it was a
blitz grig. He came in and he just rolled over them.
And now I worry. You know, we've got to keep
that momentum going. And that's my concern. And I know
you've been in that room where you talk about how
to jump start that momentum and get it going again.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
And uh, and that's the key is it stay stay focused.
And I think the president has a focus. You know
that he didn't And again it's not that he didn't,
it's not. I don't feel like this is a slight
to say, but I think he is so much more
driven now. Four years out of office has given him
such different perspective about how to get the job done.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I've never seen anything quite like this. I mean, you know,
we had we've had very few presidencies separated in this way,
and I think once you're in the White House, you
don't get better. We've seen a decline in presidents in
the in the second term, and you're just fending off.
But it's like those years in Siberia. It's much like
when Nixon leaves the vice presidency in sixty and loses
(28:39):
the governor's race in California in sixty two. And from
sixty two to sixty eight, he got better and he
got stronger, and he understood his support and he understood
where his voters were. And I think those four years,
oddly enough, even though he's being dragged to court, I
think Trump did some very deep thinking and I think
he sought some good input. Oh yeah, and he's a
(29:01):
different man today, and he's a better leader because of
He's more effective for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, no question about it, No question about it.
Speaker 6 (29:11):
And so I think the time away, the assassination attempts
were all critical and that thinking.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
When you look at the American public's reaction to Trump,
you know, when y'all came in, he was still a
shock in all guy. People were still sort of frightened
of him. I think people have come to understand, hey,
he can say something. He can threaten something, he can
promise something, he can insult somebody from being fat, it's
gonna be okay. Is it interesting or what's your reaction
(29:42):
to how America has learned to process Trump and understand
that's just who he is.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
Well, this goes to the point you are making. I
think one of the things we've only had at one
time previously in history is that when you're able to
contrast like so normally, you know, I think it's two
consecutive terms and you know, maybe have some you know,
you go, gosh, I wish we had them back or whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
But Trump when he ran.
Speaker 6 (30:07):
Against Biden, they contrasted their policies. You know, Biden got
into office, and then when Trump came in back and
office where Trump was running again, I think people said, okay,
maybe we didn't like some of the style thing, but
we really saw the difference in policies between Trump and Biden,
and we need them back. And that was what I
think was critically different, is that the American people had
a contrast that was so different.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
So I was excited.
Speaker 6 (30:33):
I think it's it can't be overstated how impactful it is.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Having four years between was.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, And but what's amazing, is you know, unlike Reagan,
who comes on to the scene seventy six, Ford holds
onto the nomination in eighty. He comes back stronger, but
he spends those four years in relative peace and quiet
and meetings and this sort of thing. Those weren't four
quiet years. I mean, those were four tough years of
being dragged to court and insulted and threatened. And yet
(31:00):
all the while he was he was reloading. And I
think that I've never seen anything like this. It's a
juggernaut the likes of which I've never seen. You've been
around politics, you know, at the highest levels, but I've
never seen a candidate like this, and I don't see
a candidate in the offing like this. Let me ask
you this, do you think the president is able to
(31:21):
hold his coalition through the entirety of his president and presidency?
Obviously the midterms are going to be important. Who out
there worries you as a break in the facade or
break in in the the consensus?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Well, I don't think any.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
I mean, look, I think it's it's rock solid. You've
seen so many of these folks. We didn't have that
case in the Trumpet, the Freedom Caucus, when we try
to repeal healthcare.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Was was Trump's biggest opponent. And so now.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
Having like you watch just this budget resolution in the past,
you know, the Freedom calc Is, Andy, Andy Harris and
Chip Roy of Texas all you know, eventually came on board.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That was huge.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah, And I what I see is that there his
support is so deep and so committed and so zealous
that you can't just oppose him if you are a
Republican without being punished for it. His support says, hey,
I got it, mess, you got your high minded position,
(32:32):
but we're going to punish you. And I think they've
learned from that and that that's a real impressive way
to govern. It's a consensus government. Well, but see, it's
not just the person.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
Back when I was on the hill for a while
and the early two thousands, Tom Delay with the majority whip,
and people knew not to cross Tom because you know,
he would exact political revenge. Donald Trump. It's not even that.
I think people understand the movement will get you. It's
not Donald Trump. People will will you know, or your
constituents will come after you. And that's that's I think
the big difference.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yeah, I've never seen at any level of government, an
officeholder or candidate whose supporters are so willing to go
to bat for him and and you know, I've seen
that with foreign leaders, but certainly none. And his is
such a committed relationship and he knows it and he
(33:26):
puts it to good use. John Spicer, you are the
best here. Welcome back anytime. Thank you, my man, Thank.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
You appreciate it. Take care of mine els, thank you,
and good night,
It's that time. Time time, luck and load. The Michael
Verie Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I mean, I'm going to cut into it. We got
three audio bits I want to cram into this. Number
one is Mark Zuckerberg claims that Meta, which is Facebook,
has never considered sharing your data with the Chinese government. Well,
Sarah Wynn Williams is a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower,
and she confirmed for Senator Josh Hawley that Meta was
willing to store data in China and give the Chinese
(00:39):
government access to your data.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
So I want to just be clear about this here
in this document, Facebook is talking about making Chinese user
data available to the Chinese government because they're going to
store that data in China.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Is that correct correct?
Speaker 3 (00:54):
So when you store that data in China Americans who
exchanged messages or their information with Chinese Facebook users, that
would mean the Chinese government could get access to the
American data as well.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Is that correct? Through the pop servers potentially? Yes?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
And Facebook was willing to take that risk.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yes. There was a lot of discussion about this and
ultimately yes.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I mean, this is extraordinary. This is exactly contrary to
what Facebook has represented for years. Here They're willing to
build data center store data in China. They are willing
explicitly to give the Chinese government access to it, and
if that means that American user data is also compromised,
they're willing to do that too. All for profits in China.
(01:36):
There was virtually nothing they weren't willing to do. Kind
of says it, all, doesn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth says, we will take back
the Panama Canal from China's influence.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
United States of America will not allow communists, China, or
any other country to threaten the Canal's operation or integrity.
To this end, the United States and Panama have done
more in recent weeks to strengthen our defense and security
cooperation than we have in decades. That includes our meeting
(02:09):
today and announcements to come. Our relationship with Panama, especially
our security relationship, will continue to grow in the months.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And years ahead.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Our relationship is growing in part to meet communist China's
rising challenge. China based companies continue to control critical infrastructure
in the canal area that gives China the potential to
conduct surveillance activities across Panama. This makes Panama and the
(02:43):
United States less secure, less prosperous, and less sovereign. I'm
going to be very clear, China did not build this canal,
China does not operate this canal, and China will not
weaponize this canal. Together, we will take back the Panama
Canal from China's influence, and we will do this along
(03:08):
with other capable, like minded.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Allies and partners. This is what peace through strength looks like.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
When you look at the trade that goes through the
Panama Canal and the power of that little tiny piece
of real estate, you understand that our nation's security depends
on our control of that space and finally for the
remainder of the segment, because it's beautiful. Victor Davis Hansen
(03:36):
does a be youto ful job of explaining what President
Trump is doing with China in a battle for global power.
Speaker 5 (03:44):
If you listen to anything, let it be this. I
like to talk today about China. It seems to be
on everybody's mind, but explicitly on Donald Trump's mind. That's
the one common denominator that explains his interest on Panama
and not to turn over our key transit from East
to West coast to China. China has no business there,
and the same thing with Greenland. He's worried about the
(04:06):
Chinese having access to the Arctic Circle. He's worried about
their trade surplus. He's worried about circumventing on fair trade
by assembling their products in Mexico. He's worried about them
sending raw product of fentanyl. He's worried about their surrogates,
the sort of mad pit bulls like North Korea and
(04:28):
increasingly Iran that he cuts the leash every once in
a while and says, key being China, go to it
cause chaos. He's worried that China is intimidating countries in
the Pacific and in Asia, some of our strongest friends, Australia,
South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, saying things like the
(04:49):
United States is in decline, you.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Better cut a deal.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
Essentially, they're like Japan in nineteen forty and they're trying
to read fashion something like the Japanese East Asian co
Prosperity sphere that was a mercantile system aimed at the West,
which soon they were to be at war at So
is it all depression and what Trump is saying is
for us to stop this, we've got to balance our budget.
(05:15):
We can't spend three billion dollars a day on interest.
If we're going to do this, we have to have
trade parity. We can't keep running up a trillion a
trillion and a half dollars in trades er plus. And
when he looks at us at home, he says, the
ESG this equity social governance, that we don't look at
productivity and stocks, but whether they're politically correct or dei
(05:37):
and woke, this anti marior it doesn't work. The Chinese
love it. We will not be competitive if we look
at the boarder. You can't have an open border with
thirty million illegal aliens. That is a drag on productivity.
You have to have security. So what he's doing is
in all these areas is identifying the threat that China
poses and why we with an open, transparent and capitalist
(05:59):
society can achieve our pre eminence, our guarantee, our pre
emins if we make changes. And it's not necessarily a
pessimistic picture. I just give you some statistics. Yes, China
has two thousand fighters, we have fifteen hundred. The fighters
aren't the only story. They're bombers, they're logistics plane, they're
intelligence planes. When you look at all of the US
(06:21):
Air Force, we have about fifteen hundred more planes, and
we have over five hundred fifth generation fighters. I think
they only have about sixty. Yes, they are building two
hundred times more ships than we are. Remember, we built
the largest navy in World War Two that turned out
by nineteen forty five, larger than all the navies in
(06:43):
the world. We were building a liberty or freedom mercantile vessel,
big ten twelve thousand ton vessels every five days. We
built three thousand of them. We built one hundred and
twenty carriers of different classifications, so we were the shipbuilder
now China, but when you actually look at our fleets,
we still still have eleven fleet carriers and army groups
(07:09):
Navy groups around them there are over one hundred thousand tons.
They're all nuclear. China has two and it's billing a third.
We have about eighty seven eighty five to eighty seven submarines.
They have about sixty, but every one of ours is nuclear,
not theirs. They only have about six or seven. If
(07:30):
you look at all of these statistics on economics, they
have one point four billion people. We have about three
hundred and thirty five three hundred and forty million people,
but we produce one and a half times of nominal GDP.
That's China. So one American produces one and a half
(07:50):
times more goods and services than his four Chinese counterparts.
If you look at per capita income, we're still ranked
six the nation and the world China seventy three. Americans
had a lot more purchasing power per capita than Chinese.
So what let me put this all together in conclusion,
(08:11):
China is a sendant and we are static. Trump comes
in and he's looking at things at home that will
restore our global pre eminence.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Some don't want to hear it. He'll just go ahead
and say it. Sorry, Michael Very Show, Let's go back.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
January twenty seventeen. President Trump has, in the most improbable
win in the modern era, won the White House, and
he's going in and the battle really begins now because
half the people there can't be trusted, half the people
there are working against him. It has taken all these
(08:52):
years to really find out what was going on. But
there were some loyal folks who were in the trench
is with him and I think back now, you know,
this has been a really soaring administration because President Trump
learned you can't trust those people you got, and he's
gone in with all the momentum. Right, It wasn't like
(09:14):
that back in January twenty seventeen. One of the guys,
probably the guy who was getting beat up the worst,
through no fault of his own. He was just taking
the beating and getting back up with Sean Spicer, the
Press Secretary and communications director, and he's our guest. Welcome
to the programs, hir.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Hey, Michael, good to be with you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
You got to be thinking as you see Carolyn Levitt
up there, going, hey, I didn't have it this easy.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Well, you know, it's funny when you say that.
Speaker 6 (09:45):
I had a conversation with the President a couple of
weeks back, and he was asking me. He said, you know,
this is just how he operates. He always says, how
do you think it's going? How's everyone doing? And I
said to him, sir, I'm a little jealous. He started
laughing and he's said, why.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Do you say that. I said, because you know, we
came in.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
He was very magnanimous, and he said, oh, that's nice,
and that I said, well, it's true. I think we
we went in for you know, with all the best intentions,
and to your point in your introduction, there were some
people that didn't share that, and they thought that they
either were there to serve their own agenda or to
resist his.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
And I think a lot of it was new.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
And I've said to folks before, you know, part of
the thing for me was I actually had this very
fun conversation with him at one point and we're talking
about traditions and how the White House operators that he
looks at me and he said, Sean, I'm going to
be the most traditional president ever. And I was like, oh, cool,
I know tradition. I can that guy got this that and.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
That clearly wasn't the case.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
And and you know, he beats to his own drum
and he has his own style in his way, and
it's just it was it was a learning experience for
a lot of us. And like I said, so, I
I was so super proud to have been part of that.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
But it's different.
Speaker 6 (11:07):
And here's the thing, Michael, I've identified three things, the people,
the process, and the policies.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
And you touched on.
Speaker 6 (11:15):
This at the beginning, at the beginning of your segment.
And what I mean by the people is lest time,
he trusted a lot of people that they said, oh
I want to serve in the Trump administration where they're
recommended by somebody, and so he took their workforce, and
they weren't people that were there for the right necessarily intentions.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
This time, the people.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
That he's run on board, he knows, he trusts they
understand the goal at hand, and that's a very different dynamic. Okay,
So that's number one. Then we go to the policies.
He knows exactly what he wants to do and how
to do it. He knows what he wants to fight for,
what he wants to accomplish. And the last is the process,
which is he knows how to do it now not
(11:53):
only the levers of government to pull, but where the
resistance is going to come from. Okay, and that is
important because he sort of if you think about it,
day one, Tom Holman's doing all of these immigration roundups
in what cities to.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Go to, where to find them?
Speaker 6 (12:11):
They didn't just think of this out of thin air.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
It wasn't just you know, maybe we should go to Boston,
maybe we should go to Chicago.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
They knew where to go because they had been spending
four years plotting and planning exactly what they would do
if they got back in office.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
And you see it. It is a well executed strategy,
brilliant in its in its plan and flawless in the execution.
I also think that he brought in you were a
guy that was willing to withstand the slings and arrows.
I think there were some folks who weren't. They were
a little more retiring, a little more reticent, a little
(12:45):
more reserved. Mike Pence was not really, you know, a
battle weary partner for him. He's got guys that really
enjoy going into into the fire, you know, Jay, the
Vans and Pete, heg Seth and Toolsey and each one
of them ready to take on the battle. And I
(13:06):
feel like that allows him, you know, like like a leader,
a president with his generals. It allows him to dissipate
some of that, to spread some of that. Elon takes
a lot of that hatred, and I think that I'd
be curious to know your thoughts, but I think that
has helped him a lot as well.
Speaker 6 (13:26):
One look at the thing that the media gets wrong
Michael Is. They keep saying, oh, he's spouted himself.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
With loyalists, a dog can be loyal that these people
are disruptors.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
These are people who understand the agenda and what the
president wants to accomplish in and are like, great, I
got it. So whether Paul c RFK or Pete heg Seth,
you know Lee Zelvin at the EPA, these guys are
coming in and saying, Okay, we got it, we got
the mission, We're ready to execute and frankly, you're seeing
the results. I mentioned Tom Holman, another guy who's going
(13:59):
in there do this. But there's one thing that I
keep warning Republicans on which is, guys, we've now seen.
You know, Trump got elected, he made a lot of
great things happen. He helped secure the border again, US
Energy independent, and what's Biden do? Undoes all of that
through executive order?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
And then what is Trump do?
Speaker 6 (14:19):
He undoes the Biden and reinstitutes a lot of stuff
and then builds on it. And my message to Republicans,
especially in the area of immigration, is if you like
what President Trump is doing, then we need to codify
in law because.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
If you look at where President.
Speaker 6 (14:36):
Trump has gotten pushedback. It's not this resistance that we
had in the first term. It's the courts. And what
are the courts saying. They're saying, well, the law is
clear that X or not clear that why. And so
my point to my fellow Republicans is, if you like
what President Trump did, if you like what he accomplished,
then don't let another president undo it. Codify immigration stuff
(15:00):
and law. Figure out how many business we want, how
many judges, how many CBP or ice agents we want,
set new limits on making us more of a meritocracy.
So we figure out, you know, what kind of immigration
system we want.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
But we keep fudging along and hoping.
Speaker 6 (15:17):
That President Trump's going to stay in office forever. It's
just not you know, as much as we may want
that to happen, it's not going to happen while we
have majorities. And this is the other point that I
try to make to Republicans is I would love to
believe that we're just going to get judged by, you know,
putting points on the board and delivering for the American people.
But we've seen what it takes to get legislation passed,
(15:41):
and god forbid, we lose the House Republican majority, which is.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
You know, tenuous at best.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
We got two more seats last week because that somehow
everybody felt like, oh that was great. I'm like, that's
just two more. We're now down to we're up to
a four seat majority.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yay.
Speaker 6 (15:56):
But if you really want to ensure that things are
going to happen, then use these next eighteen plus months
to actually codify the Trump agenda, especially in immigration in law.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I agree the long term reforms, I think, and that's
how you bring real change instead of an overnight win.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
If that's the war, not the battle.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
We'll continue our conversation with Sean Speiser, former press secretary
and communications director in the first trumpet, I don't care
if somebody decu stakes you, you can shoot at Michael
John Spicer was Press secretary and Communications director under President
Trump in the early days, the tough days, the time
(16:46):
when UH generals loyal to the president were being entrapped
by the FBI, at a time when Jim Comey was
working very hard to try to put Donald Trump in prison,
at a time when the security and deep state apparatus
was working against the president and doing things that are unspeakable.
(17:08):
He has some memories. Shall we say, he's our guests.
Let's talk about the border. Obviously something that y'all worked
on very hard. I have been I must admit, I
have been delighted and at the same time surprised at
the effectiveness and the swiftness with which this thing has
(17:30):
happened and how successful it has been.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Your thoughts, Yeah, I mean there's two things. Just one.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
It proved to me that if you focus on something anything,
it's not necessarily easy.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
But you can get results. Right.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
So, I mean, whether you're trying to get in shape,
or sell something, or in this case, secure the border.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
What happened under.
Speaker 6 (17:55):
Biden is they allow they made the border open.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
People came in. They gave him said it's the people
to come. I tell this story all the time.
Speaker 6 (18:02):
I got a buddy of mine that does a lot
of federal contracting with the State Department, and in the
Trump first term, they had assigned throughout America that said,
you know, the borders closed, don't come. When Biden came
into office, they changed the billboards and it said need help,
here's the phone number.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Right.
Speaker 6 (18:16):
They literally it was a magnet to come into this country.
Kamala Harris might have told people don't. But the reality
is that if you're told, if you do, though, we're
going to give you a hotel room.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
A gift card, free phones, etc. You're going to come.
Speaker 6 (18:29):
They understood they wouldn't get kicked out, they wouldn't be stopped,
and so they came.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
President Trump changed.
Speaker 6 (18:34):
That in a heartbeat, and you know, Tom Homan and
everyone's rounding people up, making it clear that this is
the priority of this president. But you know, it just
showed you how much we are gas lit by the
Biden administration, right who told us, oh, we can't do anything,
there's nothing wrong, there's no criminals here.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Well, if there were no criminals here, how did President Trump.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
Just round up all those Trenda de Agua people and
the NS thirteeners, Because you know, under the Biden administration,
they told us our border was secure, nothing was wrong,
and it was clearly a lie.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
It's uh, it's quite interesting. Sean Spicer is our guest.
He was the first UH Press Secretary of Communications director
for President Trump. Let me pull back for our moment
on Trump. Let's talk about Shawann Spicer. How has life
changed for you? What does what does life look like
for you today?
Speaker 1 (19:27):
That's a great question.
Speaker 6 (19:28):
Uh So, when I walked into the White House, I
had been the communications director and the chief strategies for
the Republican National Committee for six years. I'd been around
Washington working for members of Congress. I'd just come actually
off an active duty deployment. Uh So, I, you know,
I was just your typical staffer and then walked into
the Trump White House and got thrown, you know, into
(19:51):
the deep end real quick. And it was a challenging
yet honorific opportunity to serve the country and the President Trump.
And and then look, it was funny afterwards. I did
stuff that I mean, I have had some pretty cool
moments since I left the White House. I still stay
in touch with President Trump. As I mentioned, I talked
to him on the fund the other day. He appointed
(20:12):
me to the Naval Academy Board of Visitors.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
You know, I've got.
Speaker 6 (20:15):
Two shows, The Shawn Spicer Show, airs every night six
pm Eastern on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
So I'm doing stuff, Michael, for the first time.
Speaker 6 (20:23):
I was always somebody else's spokesman, and now I get
to talk about what I think and why I think
things need to get done with the priorities. I've written
four books. You know, I may announce a fifth one soon.
It's been fun to do something when you when your
whole life professionally was focused on you know, even in
the military, it was a public affairs officer, right, And
I've always spoken for other people and entities, and when
(20:45):
you leave and get the opportunity to, you know, launch shows.
I have a show every morning, a live show on
my YouTube channel called The Morning Meeting, where.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
We talk about the issues of the day.
Speaker 6 (20:55):
And it's fun to be able to give people my opinion,
my thought, my insights. Thirty years of politics, and that's
a very different place than I've ever been.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
But I gotta imagine with all of that and enjoying
a little more, you know, taking an extra thirty minutes
on your cup of coffee, or making one more lap
on your morning walk if you so choose, or sleeping
in on occasion if you want. I gotta imagine for
guys like you, having been in it myself, you have
(21:26):
to miss the adrenaline. It's a drug, and I know
there are days that you are missing that and wishing
you were in there in the battle.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
You know what the funny thing about you saying that
was I used to.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
When I left Capitol Hill and went to different places,
I would.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Always say I always I think that I found it.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
Like, I don't know if it's because I have kids
now they're teenagers. It's like, I think my priorities are
a little bit different, having to want to spend time.
And I know it's always like this cliche washing anything.
I love it, don't get me wrong, I will never
I'm so honored that President Trump had me serve as
the White House pres Secretary. But now when I get
(22:09):
to do stuff, like I wake up, like I said,
I have the show every morning it's live for an
hour on YouTube where I walk through with Mark Alper
and a guy named Dan Turntine that we call it
the Morning Meeting. It's very it's just continues to grow
in popularity. Then I do my show that airs at
six o'clock on YouTube, And like I said.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I do a lot of writing.
Speaker 6 (22:29):
I write columns, so I don't it's almost like I've
kind of pivoted my my love for politics into ino
different ways. So now I can actually openly opine about
what I like to do and what I.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Like to say, And so I'm fired up. I get
your point like, I if ten long than it was
a ten year.
Speaker 6 (22:48):
Yeah, ten years ago, I would know what to do.
I used to work crazy hours at the R and C.
And I think people tell me all the time, you know, wow,
you work crazy hours and how do you ever find time?
And it's because I love it. I love of politics,
I love the back and forth. I love you know
that no day is ever the same. That I had
a great team to work with. I mean, but there's
something about like the last few years where I've enjoyed,
(23:12):
like getting to do.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Things like I've had.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
I've had the I was on a reality show as
you might recall, the Aswer the Stars.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
I did a Zach movie.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
There's stuff that is a kid from Rhode Island that
my dad sold boats for a living. And to be like,
I can't believe I opened the end. He's for goodness sake.
In twenty seventeen, you do having fun, I mean, and.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
You survived in time because, as you know, a lot
of guys don't walk away from this thing able to
hold their head up. A lot of guys it chews
you up and spit you out. Let me ask you.
You said it's about people.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
But do you know why though.
Speaker 6 (23:48):
Here here's why though, because honestly, I don't mean to
sound like I'm not the best at a lot of things,
but I have my priorities straight. And when the opportunity
came to get an off ramp, and I said this
to the President because he had been very gracious he
wanted me to stay in the White House. I was
communications director and White House Press secretary. And I think
(24:09):
it was the President you need you need a fresh start.
And and I.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Knew that that was my offering.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
I honestly believe that God had said to me, Sean,
I'm telling you right now that this is this is
our off ramp.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
And and and.
Speaker 6 (24:23):
And I knew if I stayed longer, it wouldn't And
like I said, here we are eight years later. I
call him, he calls me. He was kind enough to
reappoint me to the Naval Academy Board. He's endorsed all
four of the books that I've written. He literally voted
for me on a reality television show when he was president.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
And I think that is a guy who you know,
he's had my.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Back and and and I just it is so to
your point, Like, part of the thing is that I
feel like I knew when a lot of people in
Washington can't walk away from power. And I knew the
second the day that I said that I was stepping down,
that that was going to change forever I would it
(25:04):
would never be the same again. But I also knew
that if I stayed, it would be the same and
it was not going to go. It's in the world
as we know it, ends of the world.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
John Spicer is our guest, Sean. You know, when I
assess what the President's been able to do, it's it's
in a sort of uh Nixon's first term imperial presidency
sort of manner. And and because he has the House
and the Senate, both of them with a tenuous, delicate,
(25:44):
dangling majority that could change, and a lot of folks
that if they have the chance, would stab him in
the back, but right now have to play along. It
concerns me because if things have to go through the
House or the Senate, we've had We've had pretty good
life so far. But it does concern me. What concerns
you the most for the continued success of this president
(26:07):
in this country, which I know you care so deeply about.
Is it the tariffs? Is is it the financial folks,
is it Chinese intervention? What are the things that you
see on the horizon and you so let's just keep
an eye on that.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Well.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
I think the greatest threat we face is from China.
And I think that if we don't like, I think
President Trump needs him majority. We watched this this first
term when he lost the House majority, they spend all
their time in teaching him, obstructing him, and attacking him.
And so I think that people have to understand he
needs to be able to have the runway. As I
mentioned to you a moment ago, like not just to like.
(26:41):
I love what he's doing now, the tax cuts, getting
the border focused, but if we don't codify some of
these things in legislation before, you know, and maintaining a
House and Senate majority, I feel good about the Senate.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Less so about you know.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
So anyway, I actually worry that if he doesn't keep
the majority, it's the it stunts the uh the progress
that we've made.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Uh, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
And and you know, it happened so fast that the
momentum he with which he started, and as you said,
it was it was having a plan that you execute.
You know, you have kids. I don't know if you've
been to youth sports, but I've coached youth sports, and
when the other team is better than your team and
you show up on the first day and you go, oh,
those kids, they've been playing together for years. And I
(27:29):
got a bunch of kids their first year and you know,
oh wow, we we came to the battle and got whipped.
He did that to them, and and it was a
blitz grig. He came in and he just rolled over them.
And now I worry. You know, we've got to keep
that momentum going. And that's my concern. And I know
you've been in that room where you talk about how
to jump start that momentum and get it going again.
Speaker 6 (27:54):
And uh, and that's the key is it stay stay focused.
And I think the president has a focus. You know
that he didn't And again it's not that he didn't,
it's not. I don't feel like this is a slight
to say, but I think he is so much more
driven now. Four years out of office has given him
such different perspective about how to get the job done.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I've never seen anything quite like this. I mean, you know,
we had we've had very few presidencies separated in this way,
and I think once you're in the White House, you
don't get better. We've seen a decline in presidents in
the in the second term, and you're just fending off.
But it's like those years in Siberia. It's much like
when Nixon leaves the vice presidency in sixty and loses
(28:39):
the governor's race in California in sixty two. And from
sixty two to sixty eight, he got better and he
got stronger, and he understood his support and he understood
where his voters were. And I think those four years,
oddly enough, even though he's being dragged to court, I
think Trump did some very deep thinking and I think
he sought some good input. Oh yeah, and he's a
(29:01):
different man today, and he's a better leader because of
He's more effective for sure.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, no question about it, No question about it.
Speaker 6 (29:11):
And so I think the time away, the assassination attempts
were all critical and that thinking.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
When you look at the American public's reaction to Trump,
you know, when y'all came in, he was still a
shock in all guy. People were still sort of frightened
of him. I think people have come to understand, hey,
he can say something. He can threaten something, he can
promise something, he can insult somebody from being fat, it's
gonna be okay. Is it interesting or what's your reaction
(29:42):
to how America has learned to process Trump and understand
that's just who he is.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
Well, this goes to the point you are making. I
think one of the things we've only had at one
time previously in history is that when you're able to
contrast like so normally, you know, I think it's two
consecutive terms and you know, maybe have some you know,
you go, gosh, I wish we had them back or whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
But Trump when he ran.
Speaker 6 (30:07):
Against Biden, they contrasted their policies. You know, Biden got
into office, and then when Trump came in back and
office where Trump was running again, I think people said, okay,
maybe we didn't like some of the style thing, but
we really saw the difference in policies between Trump and Biden,
and we need them back. And that was what I
think was critically different, is that the American people had
a contrast that was so different.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
So I was excited.
Speaker 6 (30:33):
I think it's it can't be overstated how impactful it is.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Having four years between was.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, And but what's amazing, is you know, unlike Reagan,
who comes on to the scene seventy six, Ford holds
onto the nomination in eighty. He comes back stronger, but
he spends those four years in relative peace and quiet
and meetings and this sort of thing. Those weren't four
quiet years. I mean, those were four tough years of
being dragged to court and insulted and threatened. And yet
(31:00):
all the while he was he was reloading. And I
think that I've never seen anything like this. It's a
juggernaut the likes of which I've never seen. You've been
around politics, you know, at the highest levels, but I've
never seen a candidate like this, and I don't see
a candidate in the offing like this. Let me ask
you this, do you think the president is able to
(31:21):
hold his coalition through the entirety of his president and presidency?
Obviously the midterms are going to be important. Who out
there worries you as a break in the facade or
break in in the the consensus?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Well, I don't think any.
Speaker 6 (31:41):
I mean, look, I think it's it's rock solid. You've
seen so many of these folks. We didn't have that
case in the Trumpet, the Freedom Caucus, when we try
to repeal healthcare.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Was was Trump's biggest opponent. And so now.
Speaker 6 (31:56):
Having like you watch just this budget resolution in the past,
you know, the Freedom calc Is, Andy, Andy Harris and
Chip Roy of Texas all you know, eventually came on board.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That was huge.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Yeah, And I what I see is that there his
support is so deep and so committed and so zealous
that you can't just oppose him if you are a
Republican without being punished for it. His support says, hey,
I got it, mess, you got your high minded position,
(32:32):
but we're going to punish you. And I think they've
learned from that and that that's a real impressive way
to govern. It's a consensus government. Well, but see, it's
not just the person.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
Back when I was on the hill for a while
and the early two thousands, Tom Delay with the majority whip,
and people knew not to cross Tom because you know,
he would exact political revenge. Donald Trump. It's not even that.
I think people understand the movement will get you. It's
not Donald Trump. People will will you know, or your
constituents will come after you. And that's that's I think
the big difference.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yeah, I've never seen at any level of government, an
officeholder or candidate whose supporters are so willing to go
to bat for him and and you know, I've seen
that with foreign leaders, but certainly none. And his is
such a committed relationship and he knows it and he
(33:26):
puts it to good use. John Spicer, you are the
best here. Welcome back anytime. Thank you, my man, Thank.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
You appreciate it. Take care of mine els, thank you,
and good night,
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