Billions sent overseas. Border chaos at home.
Is U.S. support for Ukraine strategic… or just insanity?
In this episode of Stay in the Gray, Ryan Lafield questions what few are allowed to say out loud: is Ukraine aid really about freedom, or is it about money, power, and global posturing? From the Budapest Memorandum to Trump’s “America First” legacy, this one slices through the patriotic sales pitch and asks: who’s really paying for this?
🎙 Topics include:
– U.S. taxpayer funding and Ukraine accountability
– Foreign aid vs. national priorities
– Trump’s tariffs, trade, and geopolitical posture
– The media spin on dissent, loyalty, and war fatigue
It’s not about picking sides—it’s about demanding answers.
🔥 Hit Follow if you think America should stop funding everyone else’s fight.
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction and Controversial Opinions
01:07 - Welcome to Stay in the Gray Podcast
01:41 - The State of the World Today
04:16 - Ukraine Aid: Who Really Benefits?
06:22 - The Oval Office Confrontation
14:17 - The Budapest Memorandum & U.S. Foreign Policy
18:10 - Corruption Allegations & Financial Accountability
19:33 - Is Ukraine Aid Justified?
20:21 - The Endless War Debate
21:14 - Conspiracy Theories & Media Perception
23:16 - Zelensky, U.S. Aid & the Political Divide
24:08 - Trump’s America First Policy: Right or Wrong?
26:46 - Tariff Wars: China, Canada & Mexico
30:59 - Breaking Down Trump’s Policies
37:23 - Conclusion & Future Plans
00:00:01
It seems that if I question Vladimir Zelensky that all of a
00:00:06
sudden I become this Russian sympathizer and I'm backing them
00:00:10
in the war. This bipartisan mindset is why
00:00:15
we're here where we are. Not everything has this side and
00:00:20
that side. I'm sitting here calling both of
00:00:22
those assholes out. You're right now not in a very
00:00:24
good position. You've allowed yourself to be in
00:00:27
a very bad beginning, and he happens to be right about.
00:00:29
From the very beginning of the war.
00:00:31
You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right
00:00:34
now. With us, you start having cards.
00:00:37
Right now you don't have, you're playing cards.
00:00:39
You're playing. Cards, you're gambling with the
00:00:42
lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War
00:00:45
3. $77 billion, you're not doing better than this.
00:00:50
Come on, where is all that money?
00:00:52
This is a war that we're footing the bill for with no end game,
00:00:55
no accountability. Welcome to Stay in the Grave
00:01:08
podcast. I'm your host, Ryan, and I'm
00:01:10
here to bring you raw conversations about life and
00:01:14
those undeniable human truths. We dive into the chaos 1 issue
00:01:18
at a time, blaming comedy, controversy, and the
00:01:22
unexplainable. Get ready for transparent ideas
00:01:29
straight from the Gray areas where most answers are hiding.
00:01:34
So stay curious, stay inquisitive, please stay
00:01:39
laughing, stay in the Gray. Come check it out.
00:01:41
We'll see that. Hey guys, it is March the 10th,
00:01:48
2025. Let's get going.
00:01:53
Let's trigger some more people today, shall we?
00:01:57
I asked myself, what's the point?
00:01:59
Why am I even going to try and talk about these things?
00:02:02
Why am I going to try? And and then I thought, if I can
00:02:04
just get one person who doesn't align with, with some of these
00:02:10
things or somebody that, you know, the exact person I've been
00:02:13
talking about, if I can get one of these people to listen or to
00:02:17
at least say, you know what, man, I'm going to just try and
00:02:20
be better. That's all I want.
00:02:22
Just talk and and go. The world today is just, there's
00:02:27
quite a bit going on. And I'm going to kind of Group A
00:02:31
few of the things together into one topic.
00:02:35
And my topic is kind of twofold. It's, I don't understand why so
00:02:40
many Americans hate this idea of the, of, of putting the United
00:02:45
States first, which is exactly what the new administration is
00:02:49
doing. It's scaring a lot of people.
00:02:52
They, they use the word scare. All it's doing is it's just new.
00:02:55
It's out of the blue, but it needs to happen.
00:02:58
It's a good thing in many of our opinions.
00:03:02
And for those that don't and for those that don't like it and are
00:03:05
uncomfortable with it, I'm just simply asking, why are you so
00:03:09
against this idea of putting the United States first?
00:03:13
The second part to that is, you know, the rest of the world, why
00:03:17
don't they understand that we want to put ourselves first?
00:03:21
Why? I mean, is there another country
00:03:24
out there that doesn't want to put themselves 1st?
00:03:26
And if so, I, I would question that leadership as well if I was
00:03:31
a citizen of one of those countries.
00:03:33
And so that combined, it just doesn't make a lot of sense.
00:03:36
People say the world is laughing at the United States.
00:03:39
No, they're not. The world may be upset and
00:03:42
annoyed because we're not bending over anymore.
00:03:45
The world may be turning up their nose to the idea of
00:03:49
somebody that's finally saying we're not footing the bill.
00:03:53
What, why is it up to the United States to do all of these
00:03:56
things? Why is it up to the United
00:03:58
States with the the Paris Accord, with the climate
00:04:01
research, why is it up to the US to pay so much money and the the
00:04:05
top two polluters aren't paying anything?
00:04:08
That's just one example, but I like to back up what I'm saying
00:04:11
with some sort of substance. So let's ruffle some feathers,
00:04:16
shall we? The main example I'm going to
00:04:17
give you today of what I just said is what I call the
00:04:21
Zielinski problem, and it has become a problem when this first
00:04:26
happened a couple of years back in 2022.
00:04:29
I say this when Russia invaded Ukraine.
00:04:32
I'm not saying they didn't. I'm also not a Putin supporter,
00:04:36
which I'll get to. It seems that if I question
00:04:39
Vladimir Zelensky that all of a sudden I've become this Russian
00:04:42
sympathizer and I'm backing them in the war.
00:04:47
This bipartisan mindset is why we're here where we are.
00:04:52
Not everything has this side and that side.
00:04:56
I'm sitting here calling both of those assholes out, but Vladimir
00:04:59
Putin isn't taking all of our tax money.
00:05:02
He doesn't need it. So this is what I'm going to go
00:05:07
into is Zelensky. the United States doesn't want to pay for
00:05:11
this war anymore. And that's what we're doing.
00:05:15
If we continue to give aid and billions to Ukraine, we're
00:05:19
funding a war, a war that that we don't need and one that is.
00:05:24
It's endless. It's not going to stop.
00:05:27
My question is, why does Zelensky want to continue this
00:05:30
war? He had an opportunity to sign a
00:05:32
peace treaty between Putin and then having Donald Trump and the
00:05:36
United States involved. There's a mineral deal that he
00:05:39
had that that could have signed. He could have signed.
00:05:43
And, you know, it's just I have my opinions on why Zelensky is
00:05:50
is is hesitant. He's claiming it's because he
00:05:52
wasn't involved in the discussion.
00:05:54
Well, we don't need you anymore, dude.
00:05:56
You're powerless in this case. You're dependent on money and
00:06:00
funding from the United States and from NATO and from the
00:06:03
European Union. Russia is not.
00:06:07
Guess who we need to stop? You keep saying Russia is the
00:06:09
one that needs to stop the aggression.
00:06:11
OK, well, we're going to Russia. We're going to go talk to them.
00:06:14
You just stay over here. You've done enough or not
00:06:18
enough. But that's my problem.
00:06:20
Which leads me to what happened. We all know.
00:06:23
If anybody's been paying attention, then everybody knows
00:06:25
the lovely discussion, for lack of a better word, that happened
00:06:32
in the Oval Office between our president and Vice President
00:06:36
Donald Trump and JD Vance and President of Ukraine Vladimir
00:06:40
Zelinsky. This guy Zelinsky walked into
00:06:43
the Oval Office and it's all right there.
00:06:45
Everything you know, there's no denying what I'm going to tell
00:06:49
you. It's all fact.
00:06:49
But in my opinion, the opinion part of it is that he walked in
00:06:52
with a little bit of a strut saying me, me, me, give me more
00:06:56
money. Like he was owed something by
00:06:59
the United States. He is not owed something by the
00:07:03
United States. But before we get into it, I'm
00:07:05
going to show you a video. And basically this is the first
00:07:08
time that Zelensky's been told no.
00:07:11
And I and he didn't like it. And so he started spouting off.
00:07:13
I'm going to play this little clip of the meeting and we'll go
00:07:17
from there. But this is basically kind of
00:07:19
where it when it starts getting heated is is when Zelensky is,
00:07:23
in my opinion, this is where you kind of see Trump switch hit a
00:07:26
switch after JD Vance has already done some talking.
00:07:30
So check this out. A lot of questions.
00:07:32
Let's start from the beginning. Sure, first of all.
00:07:34
During the war everybody has problems, even you, but you have
00:07:39
nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the
00:07:43
future. God.
00:07:44
Bless. You don't know that.
00:07:45
God bless you. God bless you.
00:07:47
Don't. Don't tell us what we're gonna
00:07:49
feel. We're trying to solve a problem.
00:07:51
Don't tell us what we're gonna feel.
00:07:53
I'm not telling you. Because you're in no position to
00:07:55
dictate that. Remember this?
00:07:57
You're in no position to dictate what we're gonna feel.
00:08:01
We're gonna feel very good. We're gonna feel very good and.
00:08:05
Very strong feel influenced. You're right now not in a very
00:08:08
good position. You've allowed yourself to be in
00:08:11
a very bad beginning, and he happens to be right about.
00:08:14
From the very beginning of the war.
00:08:15
You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right
00:08:18
now with us. You start having cards right now
00:08:22
you don't have. You're playing cards.
00:08:24
You're playing cards. You're gambling with the lives
00:08:26
of millions of people. You're gambling with World War
00:08:29
3. And there we go.
00:08:32
The last part is is why I stopped it there.
00:08:35
You're gambling with World War Three.
00:08:37
That's my opinion as well. This is not something that we
00:08:40
want to be involved with. This is not something anybody
00:08:42
should want to be involved with. When you talk about putting
00:08:45
boots down on the ground, I'm looking at you, Great Britain to
00:08:49
aid this. These are acts of war.
00:08:52
Do you really want to be involved in this?
00:08:54
Do you really want to to start a World War?
00:08:57
Guess who's going to join Russia, China and North Korea?
00:08:59
Do we want this? I mean, that would be the the
00:09:02
highest of highest in it when it comes to escalating this thing.
00:09:06
But it's not too far off. And guess who's the one person
00:09:09
who wants to stop it? Donald Trump.
00:09:12
And you're bashing him again. Donald Trump is saying, I want
00:09:17
the United States to be first on our priority list, not this war.
00:09:22
Definitely not going to send any bodies over there.
00:09:24
That would be insane. And and everybody's still just
00:09:28
like, oh, why are we not supporting Ukraine?
00:09:31
But why? I also like the thought that it
00:09:35
was funny was like, he's like, I'm not, I know play cards.
00:09:39
I don't know. I thought that was funny.
00:09:40
He's just kind of like didn't know what to say to that.
00:09:42
I'm on the side of our president.
00:09:44
I'm on the side of our vice president.
00:09:46
This was a 40 minute discussion leading up to this point right
00:09:51
here where it got a little bit heated for about 3 minutes.
00:09:55
People aren't remembering that when Zielinski, they think he
00:09:58
was, they were waiting to ambush him.
00:10:00
No, this guy strutted in there thinking he was owed something.
00:10:04
And the US said, no, we don't owe you anything.
00:10:07
But when he arrived, Trump was there to greet him.
00:10:11
Yes, he gave him a a little hard time about his sweater.
00:10:15
And and, you know, he said thanks for dressing up.
00:10:19
I think it's funny. It's a sweater.
00:10:21
Some people say it's some sort of military regalia.
00:10:26
Sure it it might be, but it it definitely doesn't look nice.
00:10:30
It looks like he's just going over for a Christmas dinner with
00:10:33
his family and he's going to wear that fancy sweater.
00:10:37
But anyway. But again, 40 minutes previous,
00:10:40
he got out of the car. Trump greeted him, had a huge
00:10:42
smile on his face. Everything was great until the
00:10:45
United States felt disrespected Trump and Vance.
00:10:48
And it wasn't them being babies. Listen to it.
00:10:51
Think about what he said. He's saying there's a there we
00:10:54
oh, but we have an ocean. So we don't we don't understand
00:10:58
and we're going to we'll feel that wrath if we don't do
00:11:00
something. You'll feel that or else if you
00:11:06
better do this or else is what he's saying.
00:11:09
And Donald Trump doesn't like that.
00:11:11
And he didn't he and he let him know.
00:11:12
And there's nothing wrong with that.
00:11:14
You don't come into the Oval Office and president of the
00:11:16
United States and basically say, yeah, guess what's going to
00:11:20
happen if you don't do this? It just was a bad move.
00:11:23
And instead of people and I say people, I mean, the people that
00:11:28
didn't vote for Donald are opposed to what's happening
00:11:31
right now. Most of the country is like, you
00:11:33
know, hell yeah. Some of them were probably like,
00:11:35
well, I wish you would tone it down a little bit, but come on.
00:11:38
No, no, we're not being pushed around by people anymore,
00:11:41
especially Zelensky in in Ukraine.
00:11:45
So let's move on from that. That's the big thing.
00:11:48
So let's break down the whole thing.
00:11:50
This is my take on the situation over there in Ukraine and the
00:11:55
reason that Zelensky has no cards, as Donald said in this
00:12:00
game, he got a bad hand. We have sent $177 billion, OK,
00:12:08
to Ukraine. And what I'm learning is that a
00:12:11
lot of that is spent outside of actually handing him a check or
00:12:15
Venmo ING him or selling him this money because he came out
00:12:21
and said, well, we only got 77 million of it.
00:12:26
A billion of it. Excuse me, I still can't believe
00:12:29
it's a billion. But we only got this much.
00:12:31
So where's the rest? That's what Solinsky's saying.
00:12:34
First off, $77 billion and you're not doing better than
00:12:37
this. Come on, Where is all that
00:12:39
money? I'm not going to get into that.
00:12:42
Some other people may have some better research abilities than I
00:12:46
do on exactly where that money is.
00:12:48
Most people will tell you it's because that it's counting all
00:12:52
the training and all of the things we do other than the
00:12:55
financial, the actual financial aid that's going directly to his
00:12:59
hands. Regardless, it's a lot, OK, And
00:13:05
we could have sent spent this money on schools, on our
00:13:08
homeless veterans, on our homeless.
00:13:11
It'll have to be veterans, but the treatment of our veterans
00:13:13
disgusts me. I know a lot of them natural
00:13:18
disasters, all these things that have been happening and we're,
00:13:20
and we're questioning where our aid is.
00:13:23
Trump and Elon and all these guys are going in there and, and
00:13:26
finding all this frivolous spending.
00:13:28
Well, I, I, I count Ukraine to that list.
00:13:31
We should have been able to give them a, a good a chunk of
00:13:33
change, help them out, help train, do whatever to defend
00:13:36
themselves against an aggressor. And I'm saying that I'm not
00:13:40
sitting here saying they didn't need to defend themselves, but
00:13:44
till what point? And that's what we'll talk about
00:13:46
here. Because the response I get when
00:13:49
I say these things is that we signed a deal.
00:13:53
You know what? I'm going to get to that in just
00:13:55
a second. But this is a war that we're
00:13:58
footing the bill for with no end game, no accountability.
00:14:02
This is Zielinski saying I need more money so that we can fight
00:14:06
in the war. Well, Donald Trump's saying we
00:14:08
don't need to fight in the workers.
00:14:09
I want to shut the war down, and yet he's the bad guy in all
00:14:13
this. I don't get it.
00:14:19
So anyway, the question is why does the United States have to
00:14:24
keep funding Ukraine and quote, UN quote, defending Ukraine?
00:14:28
The argument I'm getting is because of something called the
00:14:31
Budapest Memorandum signed in 1994.
00:14:35
It was a deal then to give up Ukraine, to give up their
00:14:41
nuclear weapons. OK, So what was this?
00:14:44
I have it right here because I didn't feel like memorizing this
00:14:47
shit for you guys. It was between the United
00:14:50
States, Ukraine, the UK, and Russia in exchange for Ukraine
00:14:55
giving up its nuclear weapons. And the signatories pledged to
00:15:02
that would be everybody signing to respect Ukraine's sovereignty
00:15:06
and territorial integrity and not use force or threats against
00:15:09
us. Obviously, Russia's fucking
00:15:12
blown that right up. I get it.
00:15:14
OK, This I'm talking about from our end.
00:15:17
Ukraine had the high the third largest nuclear arsenal in the
00:15:20
world at the time after Russia and the United States, and the
00:15:23
agreement led to the transfer of its nuclear warheads to Russia.
00:15:30
I, I don't, I didn't really research this in 1994.
00:15:32
I was too busy being a teenager. But man, why would you do this?
00:15:37
Why would you hand it over no matter what the deal said when
00:15:39
you're handing it over to Russia?
00:15:41
I mean, you've got all these opinions about Russia and its
00:15:43
leadership and I'm not sure about that deal.
00:15:47
You got all these nukes and you're just going to hand them
00:15:49
over for a, a handshake. And I know that there was pen to
00:15:52
paper, but come on. The promises made to Ukraine
00:15:56
were to respect the sovereignty. Like I said, its existing
00:15:58
borders, refrain from using force or threats, not use
00:16:02
economic pressure to influence their politics, and to seek
00:16:05
immediate UN Security Council action if Ukraine faced
00:16:08
aggression involving nuclear threats.
00:16:11
OK, makes sense. Basically, push back, call out
00:16:15
anybody that breaks any of these things.
00:16:16
Well, that's what we did. That's what we did initially.
00:16:20
You know, our citizens think that putting a fucking Ukrainian
00:16:23
flag as their profile picture is pushback flags around that.
00:16:28
I see whatever that's, that's a personal decision and you can do
00:16:33
whatever you want. But there was pushback and it
00:16:38
was financial from us. It was helping to defend them as
00:16:42
they as they defended themselves from Russia.
00:16:47
And but there was no, no, no, no, nowhere in this did it say
00:16:54
that we had any promised military protection at all.
00:16:58
People want to say that we do and we don't, period.
00:17:02
No, the Budapest Memorandum was not a formal defense treaty like
00:17:05
NATO's Article 5. It was a political agreement.
00:17:09
It did not legally obligate the US.
00:17:11
The UK aimed to send forces or military if the Ukraine was
00:17:16
attacked nowhere. It did obligate the US and UK to
00:17:21
protest these violations, which is why the Western nations and
00:17:24
the United States responded the way they did.
00:17:28
It's simple. So don't come at me and tell me
00:17:32
and all these people that are that have had enough of funding
00:17:36
Ukraine, especially when their leader rejects peace treaties.
00:17:41
It's beyond me. But don't come at me and tell me
00:17:44
that this Budapest memorandum requires us to defend them
00:17:49
physically, because it doesn't. So anyway, obviously Russia
00:17:54
violated it, blah blah blah, the current relevance and all that.
00:17:57
So but that. But that's the big thing there.
00:18:01
And another argument debunked from the people that want to
00:18:05
yell at me. So how about this little nugget?
00:18:10
There were reports and this is where you guys are really going
00:18:13
to get on me. I already mentioned this, that
00:18:15
the the billions of dollars, a lot of those billions of dollars
00:18:19
might not have actually gone to the war efforts.
00:18:23
They went to Zelensky and that regime, but did they go to the
00:18:28
war efforts 100%? A lot of people are saying no,
00:18:34
and it's based on different research, different sources,
00:18:39
different whistleblowers from within, if you will.
00:18:44
And, you know, possible money laundering, Swiss bank accounts,
00:18:48
lost funds, those claims. And you know, again, Zelensky
00:18:54
apologist will say that I'm wrong and that there's no proof,
00:18:57
which is fine. I'm not saying that it's that it
00:19:00
is. I'm telling you, these are
00:19:01
things that are being tossed around that could be or could
00:19:05
not be true. But there have been a lot of
00:19:09
these Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, seen driving
00:19:12
multiple fancy luxury cars and acquiring luxurious villas all
00:19:19
over Europe and abroad. These are facts.
00:19:24
You can check them. You can find out ownership.
00:19:27
You can find documentation on these purchases and on these
00:19:32
ownership. Calm down, I've already said my
00:19:36
disclaimer that I'm not claiming this to be 100% accurate.
00:19:40
I'm just saying to think about it and that we should keep our
00:19:43
eyes open when we send anything else anywhere.
00:19:46
Anyway, like I mentioned, there's a percentage amount that
00:19:48
they send directly to Ukraine. There's a percentage amount that
00:19:50
they pay helping them with weapons and training.
00:19:53
And then there's a 15% I believe is is spent globally for this
00:19:57
war. I'm not sure what that means.
00:19:59
What what's beyond directly to them and and then helping them
00:20:03
with weapons and training. I don't know what else that
00:20:04
means. But anyway, the bottom line is
00:20:07
United States, it's waking up a little bit here.
00:20:10
I'm seeing a little bit more pushback on the funding to
00:20:14
Ukraine and and less of this blind fault, this blind help,
00:20:19
this blind aid. I don't want you innocent
00:20:23
Ukrainian people to die. I don't want their soldiers to
00:20:28
die. I also don't want any Russian
00:20:30
soldiers or civilians to die. This is a war between two
00:20:36
leaders and a third leader. Ours, who some people like and
00:20:41
some people hate, are involved. I am not a fan of the of this
00:20:47
war. I'm not a fan of any war and our
00:20:50
president wants to go in there and end it.
00:20:53
So I support that. There's no more money that needs
00:20:57
to be thrown around. It doesn't.
00:21:00
What is he doing with it? What does he need it for?
00:21:03
You can't just sit here. You will lose this war.
00:21:06
If if the US says fine, we'll give you tons of money, but but
00:21:08
that's it. You're going to lose it.
00:21:11
You can only hold off for so long.
00:21:14
The other conspiracy theory, and I don't think it's that far
00:21:17
fetched, would be that Zelensky is afraid to have the war in
00:21:22
because guess what? He's got to hold elections again
00:21:24
or he's going to be called a dictator.
00:21:26
He has to hold elections or else he's a dictator.
00:21:30
And when that war ends, he has no excuse on delaying these
00:21:34
inevitable elections. And I don't think that that the
00:21:38
support in Ukraine is as much as people here believe that it is.
00:21:42
And I think he knows that he's out.
00:21:45
Just a thought. Do what you will with that
00:21:47
thought. But you know, my issue, of
00:21:51
course, like everything else, is as soon as I say these things
00:21:53
and as soon as I question anything, as soon as I tell you
00:21:56
stories about it, as soon as I give you an opinion other than
00:22:00
what the media wants us to do, which is blindly support
00:22:03
Ukraine. As soon as I do these things, I
00:22:05
am now a Putin supporter. I am now a Russian propagandist.
00:22:10
I am now a Russian. I'm a spy or I'm, you know,
00:22:16
sucking on the teat of Vladimir Putin just like Donald.
00:22:19
This is this is silliness, people.
00:22:22
You got to stop. It makes you look stupid.
00:22:25
It really does. I am allowed to sit here and say
00:22:28
Zelensky's this little douchebag and Putin is an asshole.
00:22:32
I can say that they are both. Neither of them are appealing
00:22:36
men. And right now this situation has
00:22:39
our tax money going, our interest.
00:22:42
All these things are happening and we're involved no more.
00:22:47
I just can't make out that dissect that's the word.
00:22:52
I can't dissect that. I either blindly support wasting
00:22:59
our money on Ukraine and I I believe at this point it's
00:23:03
wasting early on. No, now it's wasting if.
00:23:08
Unless I do that, that means I'm over here and I'm Russian and I
00:23:12
believe in communism and all this bullshit.
00:23:15
It's beyond me. If Zelensky wanted peace, he
00:23:20
would have signed the deal that's been offered for peace.
00:23:23
The first priority is to stop the dying, stop the aggression,
00:23:27
stop the killing that would have done it.
00:23:29
Then you deal with everything after that.
00:23:33
There were some things in that agreement that, you know,
00:23:35
people, there were some things that he didn't like.
00:23:38
Well, there, look, from everything I've read about that
00:23:41
agreement, there was nothing in there that was irrational,
00:23:46
especially after all the money he's taken.
00:23:48
And now he's claiming that, well, these, these were, these
00:23:50
were grants. I never said I'd pay him back.
00:23:52
When there's a clip literally of him literally saying he wanted
00:23:55
to, you know, he'll pay it back. These are, these are loans.
00:23:58
These are, this is credit. Well, dude, you're supposed to
00:24:01
pay credit back. But anyway, I'm going to shift
00:24:06
gears because that's about all I really wanted to say about the
00:24:10
Zelensky stuff. I can say it over and over and
00:24:13
over and over again. I'm having a hard time
00:24:16
understanding why Americans don't like the idea of the
00:24:21
United States first. That's the whole premise of the
00:24:23
show, of this episode. And the reason I'm pausing here
00:24:27
for I'm pausing for effect is because it truly is, it is
00:24:34
beyond me. And, and I'm trying to figure
00:24:37
out how to say it smoothly. It's really simple and I'm not
00:24:40
going to try and fancy it up. You have been indoctrinated to
00:24:44
hate Donald Trump. Anything this man does is no
00:24:49
good to you. He, he gave an example.
00:24:52
He said he could save. He said cure a disease, cure
00:24:55
cancer, cure all these things. And you'd, you'd, you'd say it
00:24:57
was no good. He so again, all these old
00:25:03
episodes are loud. I use the example that you know,
00:25:07
just because it's kind of funny. I can picture him scooping up
00:25:09
these these puppies in a river that they're being washed away
00:25:13
and he jumps in and saves him and it and it would be too slow
00:25:16
or he did it for a photo op or you know it.
00:25:20
Again, this is the kind of rhetoric that comes from his
00:25:23
opposition and I just wish they would tone it down.
00:25:27
I believed when Barack Obama and Joe Biden were sworn in as
00:25:36
president, I disagreed with all of their policies as
00:25:39
passionately as you do. And don't tell me that I didn't.
00:25:43
Just because you're kicking and screaming more doesn't mean
00:25:45
you're more passionate about it. But I sat back and I said, well,
00:25:48
I don't want us to fail, man. I hope they're right.
00:25:51
And I watched and it didn't go very well, but I watched.
00:25:55
I didn't go in every single thing he did go line up and
00:25:59
protest or scream and cry or go on Twitter and start just
00:26:03
yelling at everybody. I've been playing defense on
00:26:06
Twitter for the last since since the election and it's not fun.
00:26:11
And and some people have taken a note.
00:26:13
They're like, this isn't you. And yes, I'm aggressive and
00:26:16
passionate and intense and all those things, but but I don't
00:26:19
believe in just of demeaning somebody and name calling and
00:26:23
all these things. I you've got to have substance
00:26:25
behind it. At the end of the sentence,
00:26:27
there may be a, you know, dumbass here or there and I'm
00:26:30
trying to work on that because that doesn't do anything.
00:26:33
Chances are you probably know it deep down.
00:26:35
You're a dumbass. So I'm having a hard time
00:26:39
understanding why these people are so, how they could just hate
00:26:44
somebody so much. So let's talk about the next
00:26:47
thing that is now just the talk of our country and the next
00:26:52
divisive topic that Donald Trump has implemented, which is the
00:26:55
tariff war. They're calling it a war.
00:27:00
If you want to call what Donald's doing a war, be my
00:27:04
guest. But here's some information
00:27:06
before you do. You know, the main 3 right now
00:27:10
are Canada, Mexico and China. They're really mad about this,
00:27:14
but why? I think it's hilarious.
00:27:18
They've been doing this to us for years, for decades.
00:27:23
As soon as we do it, we're mean. Donald Trump starting a tariff
00:27:28
war with the world. the US is being laughed at it with a big
00:27:32
bully. Are you sure about that?
00:27:35
Go look and see what these countries of tariff does.
00:27:38
Oh, look, I have some right here.
00:27:40
And people will say these numbers are, are they're
00:27:45
embellished for your to support your claim.
00:27:50
I've seen different spots, spots where these are embellished, but
00:27:52
I've also seen some of these aren't.
00:27:55
But even if they're a little bit embellished, they're still
00:28:00
tariffs and they're still on us. And all we've done is match
00:28:04
them. There is not a tariff
00:28:06
implemented that is higher than that country's tariff on us.
00:28:12
Why does that bother you? How about milk from Canada,
00:28:16
270%, cheese 245%, sugar 265%, eggs 163%, poultry 238%?
00:28:26
Need I go on? And again, some of these are
00:28:28
claims that, well, that 270 is a little high because it's this
00:28:32
and this and that adds up to about 2:30, OK, 230%.
00:28:36
How about that in fact take off 100% of all that I just listed
00:28:40
for you and it's still high tariffs.
00:28:45
This country needs to be independent, self functioning,
00:28:52
which it's totally capable of doing.
00:28:54
We don't need you Canada. We don't need you, China.
00:28:57
What have you given us? You give a shitty.
00:29:01
We'll talk about that in a second.
00:29:03
This is funny. I had to write this down.
00:29:05
I wanted to It says if you go and you look this up, there are
00:29:09
so many sources, so many liberal rags that say most of these
00:29:14
tariffs, though, that are placed on the US are in line with the
00:29:20
World Health Organization and NAFTA.
00:29:24
Who cares? Those groups are absurd.
00:29:28
Those deals are terrible. Trump has said as much.
00:29:31
He's out of one of them. I, I, I, I'm not sure if he's
00:29:34
completely out, but he's always claimed that NAFTA was the worst
00:29:37
deal the United States ever, ever signed.
00:29:40
So we don't care about that. And I see why if tariffs against
00:29:46
us and we're not allowed to do it back, is part of NAFTA and
00:29:49
part of a part of these other, other organizations, why the
00:29:52
hell are we doing it? So it's just interesting that
00:29:56
you can look that up and that's what they're giving you.
00:29:59
So again, they're calling this trade war an economic disaster.
00:30:03
If matching the tariffs is an economic disaster, sorry, we
00:30:10
have to look after the United States.
00:30:12
No more handouts, no more taking care of the world, and no more
00:30:16
being taken advantage of. This is called fair trade.
00:30:20
This is what fair trade is. People, like I said, I think we
00:30:23
need to build here. I think we need to manufacture
00:30:25
here. I think we energy independent,
00:30:28
we, we have all the things we need here.
00:30:30
And if that means for a little while we don't get from other
00:30:35
people, so be it. We are capable of, It's not like
00:30:39
we are screwed. We don't trade with the with all
00:30:44
these countries. I just don't see why we're being
00:30:46
we're being a nice guy and playing by everybody else's
00:30:50
rules. That's not that's not what we
00:30:52
need to be doing anymore. And it got out of hand and
00:30:55
finally you got a guy that's coming in here and saying no
00:30:57
more. I just wish that a lot of you
00:31:00
people that hate Donald Trump could see and say, man, I kind
00:31:03
of like how he's and I think some of you do secretly.
00:31:06
I'm going to say that and maybe that pisses you off.
00:31:09
But I think that there are a lot of you, as much as you hate that
00:31:11
guy, are kind of going. I like the way you talked to
00:31:14
Zelensky there or oh, Canada actually has tariffs on us.
00:31:20
I didn't know that. Maybe it's good that we do this,
00:31:24
especially China. How are how are how are people
00:31:27
defending China's tariffs on us and then chastising ours when we
00:31:32
give it back to them? It's hard to believe, but until
00:31:37
you prove me wrong, I suppose I have to believe that you're that
00:31:39
insane. But anyway, here's an example
00:31:44
for you before we move on. You're OK with American dairy
00:31:49
products being tariffed by Canada, right?
00:31:53
Apparently I'm not talking about my like minded friends out
00:31:56
there, you guys, You get it. Talking about the people who are
00:32:00
really upset about these tariffs that we're putting on Canada.
00:32:03
You're OK with the American product being tariffed.
00:32:07
So Trump comes in here and he he matches the tariff on those same
00:32:11
products, helping out the dairy farmers in our country.
00:32:16
How is he a bad guy? I just, I wish I could have a
00:32:20
dairy farmer on here and go explain why this is amazing what
00:32:25
he's doing for this country. Lastly, I was just mentioning
00:32:30
about China. I stopped because I had it all
00:32:32
here. China's been slapping tariffs on
00:32:35
us for a long time and no one wants to talk about that.
00:32:38
They've been stealing intellectual property for a
00:32:41
while. We're kind of talking about that
00:32:44
some TikTok stuff, some things here and there, a drone
00:32:48
sightings, things like that, where China's intellect a
00:32:51
stealing intellectual property and they've been dumping cheap
00:32:54
goods into this country. Give me a break.
00:32:56
You mean to tell me something made in China is really good
00:32:58
high quality? No.
00:32:59
And we're still paying for that shit.
00:33:01
No, no, we're not going to take it, not anymore.
00:33:06
And I'm so proud of that. You don't have to like Trump's
00:33:09
demeanor. You don't have to like the fact
00:33:11
that Elon is doing what he's doing and the way he's doing.
00:33:14
But the end result is good for this country.
00:33:19
So Trump haters, Speaking of somebody like me, I lay out
00:33:25
numbers. I lay out, I show receipts.
00:33:28
I show I break down the logic. I give you an opinion based on
00:33:33
so many different resources, so many different discussions that
00:33:36
I've had with both sides, both, you know, like minded and people
00:33:41
who disagree. Some of them are very
00:33:45
intelligent people and they just maybe again, blinded by their
00:33:49
their their hatred for this guy. And I just wish that I almost
00:33:53
wish that Trump could go behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz
00:33:58
Great. Now there'll be some comparison
00:33:59
to how horrible they are and, and just make these calls, sign
00:34:06
these executive orders, do these things without people know it
00:34:08
was him. Because I guarantee you if Biden
00:34:11
had done half this stuff, it would have been praised by the
00:34:15
very same people who are chastising Donald Trump for it.
00:34:18
And that's somebody to think about.
00:34:20
And don't tell me I'm wrong, but I mean, we do all that.
00:34:24
And again, it's, it's like I said on the on one of the last
00:34:27
episodes about the memes and him being Cheeto and all that.
00:34:29
So bad orange man and bad this, there's all these nicknames and
00:34:33
disrespectful and Cheeto and wow, wow, wow.
00:34:38
There's no logic behind it. I just beg you to quit whining
00:34:43
about every single decision that he makes.
00:34:48
Sit back. It's been not even two months.
00:34:53
Sit back. Come at me.
00:34:55
And you know, six months is even a little bit fast.
00:34:58
Come at me in a year, but I'll I'll do six months.
00:35:01
Check back in this summer and just see kind of where we're at.
00:35:08
Just see where we're at. Let it happen.
00:35:11
It's not good for your blood pressure.
00:35:13
It's not good for mine to to hear you say it.
00:35:18
I need to be. I need to just laugh.
00:35:20
I need to just laugh at you, but I won't.
00:35:24
I'll try and continue to talk to you because that's what I do.
00:35:29
But I've said it before and you hate when I say it.
00:35:31
You said it to me though. The last election, people spoke,
00:35:37
we voted for Donald. He's in there.
00:35:39
He's doing what we voted for. Nobody regrets the vote.
00:35:42
That's some other narrative that's been spewed out.
00:35:44
No one regrets this vote. Everybody that voted for him, he
00:35:48
was very transparent on what he was going to do.
00:35:51
America first. He said it since day one. the
00:35:54
United States is first. It's the voice of the people.
00:35:58
It's this and this and that. He's distributed power and
00:36:01
decision making to the states. I mentioned that on the last
00:36:05
single show I did. He's letting your voice be
00:36:08
heard. And most of us, because it's
00:36:13
proven in the by the election, want the same thing.
00:36:16
Let's take care of our country and then we'll talk over here.
00:36:21
We're not going to be taken advantage of any more.
00:36:23
We're going to be a country that is powerful and, and does our
00:36:27
own thing and, and takes care of its people and, and where people
00:36:32
want to come back here again because of prosperity and
00:36:35
because of the American dream. Yes, I want people lined up to
00:36:38
come to this country. Contrary to what you say when
00:36:42
you hear I voted for Trump. I want people to come here the
00:36:45
right way. And I think that when this
00:36:47
country gets back to where it is, it'll be even even more
00:36:49
sought after and it'll attract great people who want to
00:36:52
contribute to the society, to be American and to make it great
00:36:57
again, if you will. But if you're unwilling to chill
00:37:03
out, go to Canada. Trudeau and his new the new
00:37:08
Prime Minister pick, which by the way, they picked him without
00:37:12
an election. I thought that was interesting.
00:37:14
Go up there and then you can enjoy all those tariffs they put
00:37:17
on the United States for so many years.
00:37:23
Thank you for listening to this. You know, I feel like it's
00:37:26
another rant, but I just don't understand the anti this, this
00:37:31
notion that that looking after us first is a bad thing.
00:37:36
And I think that it's something that if you take anything away
00:37:39
from this, you can, you can get on me about my sarcasm and, and
00:37:43
that might have turned you off. I tend to be a sarcastic person
00:37:46
and, and frankly, I'm kind of just worn out and tired, so I
00:37:49
don't really care. But my intent is sincere, which
00:37:57
is I want people to understand why so many of us, the majority
00:38:03
are excited about this. We're not bullies, we don't
00:38:08
this, we're not racist, we're not this, we're not all these
00:38:10
things. We just want to take care of our
00:38:12
country and get it to where it needs to be.
00:38:15
And we believe this is a way to do it.
00:38:17
It's as simple as that. So I'm glad to be back.
00:38:21
We're rolling with season 5. Hope you enjoyed Manny and
00:38:23
Mitch, the Army combat veterans I had on and I'm going to have
00:38:28
them back because you could just talk and talk about their
00:38:30
experiences while deployed and and being shot at and blown up.
00:38:34
Mitch, I was blown up four times.
00:38:37
Jesus, what they eat even whether you know the trust
00:38:39
issues in the in their squads and all those things.
00:38:42
It was very interesting. So if you haven't checked it
00:38:44
out, go back episode of 5/2. And then and then I, I plan on
00:38:48
doing a lot more of that. I'd like to get out of the
00:38:50
politics part of it. I'd like to go back to fun
00:38:53
stories and fun news and humanity as a whole and talk
00:38:56
about, you know, these hard truths that are kind of spinning
00:39:01
around us every day. But man, when this Trump start
00:39:06
yelling at each other in the Oval Office, you can't not talk
00:39:09
about it, right? So stay curious, stay laughing,
00:39:16
stay in the grave. Love you guys.