The Glenn Beck Program

Best of the Program | Guest: Lee Zeldin | 2/13/26

45 min
Feb 13, 20262 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Glenn Beck and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin discuss the largest deregulation action in U.S. history—a $1.3 trillion rollback of EPA greenhouse gas regulations based on recent Supreme Court precedent. The episode also explores how corporate collusion destroyed America's streetcar infrastructure in the 1930s-40s, and analyzes potential geopolitical shifts regarding Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, and U.S. energy dominance.

Insights
  • The EPA deregulation is durable and difficult to reverse because it's grounded in Supreme Court precedent (Loper Bright, West Virginia v. EPA) rather than executive order, making it resistant to future administrations' reversal attempts.
  • Corporate-government collusion can reshape entire societies through incremental, barely-noticed changes—the streetcar destruction shows how private interests can dismantle public infrastructure while appearing to serve consumer choice.
  • Russia's recent signals about potentially returning to dollar-based transactions and SWIFT systems suggest desperation and potential willingness to negotiate Ukraine settlement in exchange for economic reintegration.
  • The historical parallel between the Cuban Missile Crisis (resolved via Turkey missile withdrawal) and current Cuba-Russia tensions suggests Ukraine may be the 'chit' that resolves the current standoff.
  • Regulatory burden invisibly affects consumer prices and product design across industries—vehicle costs, truck delivery expenses, and supply chain efficiency all cascade into cost-of-living impacts.
Trends
Deregulation as geopolitical leverage: U.S. energy dominance and manufacturing competitiveness becoming central to diplomatic negotiations with adversariesSupreme Court precedent limiting executive agency power: Shift from Chevron deference to 'best reading of law' constrains future regulatory expansion regardless of administrationCorporate-government public-private partnerships as hidden policy mechanism: Infrastructure and energy decisions made through collusion rather than transparent democratic processDe-dollarization reversal: Russia and BRICS nations reconsidering dollar abandonment as economic isolation proves costly, suggesting currency weaponization has limitsCost-of-living relief through regulatory rollback: Manufacturers signaling $2,400+ vehicle price reductions and supply chain efficiency gains from deregulationEnergy dominance as national security: Baseload power (coal, natural gas, oil) framed as critical infrastructure during extreme weather, not climate liabilityHistorical amnesia as policy tool: Slow infrastructure dismantling causes populations to forget alternatives existed, enabling replacement with inferior systemsTransactional diplomacy over ideological alignment: Trump administration pursuing business relationships with adversaries rather than permanent alliances or enmity
Topics
EPA Deregulation and Clean Air Act ReinterpretationSupreme Court Precedent and Chevron Doctrine ReversalVehicle Manufacturing Regulations and CAFE StandardsElectric Vehicle Mandate RollbackGreenhouse Gas Emissions RegulationStreetcar Infrastructure Destruction (1930s-1940s)Corporate Antitrust and Public-Private CollusionCuba-Russia Military Aid and U.S. Blockade PolicyUkraine Settlement Negotiations and Geopolitical LeverageDe-dollarization and SWIFT System AlternativesRussian Economic Desperation and Sanctions ImpactEnergy Dominance and Baseload Power StrategyCost-of-Living Impact of Regulatory BurdenHistorical Precedent: Cuban Missile Crisis and Turkey WithdrawalChina-Russia Alliance and Geopolitical Realignment
Companies
General Motors
Identified as one of three corporations (with Standard Oil, Goodyear) that conspired to destroy U.S. streetcar system...
Standard Oil of California
Co-conspirator with GM and Goodyear in dismantling streetcar infrastructure to eliminate competition for gasoline sales.
Goodyear Tire and Rubber
Third conspirator in streetcar destruction scheme, benefiting from shift to automobile-dependent transportation requi...
National City Lines
Holding company secretly funded by GM, Standard Oil, and Goodyear to acquire and dismantle electric streetcar systems...
Ford Motor Company
Referenced regarding F-150 truck sales challenges in EU due to regulatory and tariff barriers, contrasting with U.S. ...
People
Lee Zeldin
EPA Administrator announcing largest deregulation action in U.S. history ($1.3 trillion), eliminating Obama-era endan...
Donald Trump
President credited with directing EPA deregulation, day-one executive order signaling commitment, and pursuing energy...
Barack Obama
Referenced for 2009 endangerment finding that creatively interpreted Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases, now ...
Al Gore
Mentioned as source of 'bad guesses' and flawed climate science assumptions underlying 2009 EPA endangerment finding.
John Kerry
Referenced alongside Al Gore for flawed climate science assumptions underlying EPA regulations now being rolled back.
John F. Kennedy
Historical reference for Cuban Missile Crisis resolution; credited with toughness but actual resolution involved Turk...
Vladimir Putin
Russian leader whose administration is signaling potential return to dollar-based transactions and SWIFT system, sugg...
Dmitry Peskov
Kremlin spokesperson who stated Russia didn't abandon dollar but was forced to, signaling potential willingness to re...
Hillary Clinton
Referenced for failed 'reset button' diplomacy with Russia; contrasted with Trump's transactional business-focused ap...
Ronald Reagan
Historical reference for Cold War strategy; experts predicted failure but Reagan's approach led to Soviet collapse, p...
Quotes
"This is the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States, $1.3 trillion."
Lee ZeldinMid-episode
"If you want the law to say that EPA should be regulating the heck out of greenhouse gas emissions, that is a topic for a debate and a vote in Congress, not a rogue, unelected bureaucrat at a federal agency."
Lee ZeldinMid-episode
"When something slowly disappears, slow enough, people stop remembering it ever existed."
Glenn BeckStreetcar segment
"Russia didn't abandon the dollar. The dollar abandoned us."
Dmitry Peskov (Kremlin)Cuba/Russia segment
"You don't have permanent allies because things change. People change, countries change, and so what you have are business relationships."
Glenn BeckClosing segment
Full Transcript
Lee Zeldin is joining us on today's show, talking about the rollback that he and Trump did on the EPA regulations. This is a game changer, and this is not something that can be corrected the next time a president comes in. It's not executive order. This is happening because of the Supreme Court. Also, Cuban Missile Crisis 2.0 and a history of streetcars and cool cars, all on today's podcast. Let me tell you about relief factor. Pain has a way of slowly redrawing the borders of your life. You don't notice it at first. You just skip a walk. You pass on a project. You sit down a little earlier than you used to. And before long, things that were normal now are painful, and your new normal is not good. This is what chronic inflammation does. It doesn't always arrive with drama. Sometimes it just stays quietly, turning movement into effort and effort into exhaustion. Relief Factor was designed to support your body's natural response to inflammation. So you're not just masking discomfort for a few hours, but you're actually, you know, giving your system a chance to find a better balance over time. And the track record matters. Over a million people have tried it. 75% of them go on to order more month after month. I'm one of them. get at least a little small piece of your life back and then see if that doesn't grow into bigger bigger piece if you're done dealing with daily pain go to relieffactor.com get their three-week quick start it's relieffactor.com 800 the number four relief 800 the number four relief relief factor.com hello america you know we've been fighting every single day we push back against the lies the censorship the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you We work tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it. But to keep this fight going, we need you. Right now, would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast? Give us five stars and leave a comment because every single review helps us break through Big Tech's algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth. This isn't a podcast. This is a movement. And you're part of it, a big part of it. So if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up, help us push this podcast to the top. Rate, review, share. Together, we'll make a difference. And thanks for standing with us. Now let's get to work. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. Let me tell you a history story here. Lee Zeldin's coming up in just a minute. We're going to talk to him about deregulation. I may, well, he's not in person, so I can't kiss him. but I might have kissed him on the mouth for what happened yesterday. I just love what happened. We think, most Americans think they live in a free market, that this is capitalism, and that is the lie you must dispel. You don't know how much you've been manipulated and how the government has been involved in the manipulation and these big corporations. Let me ask you this. Let me, let me, if I took you back to any American city in city in the 1920s, what would it look and sound like? Most people would think you'd hear the oh, horns an awful lot. Okay. You don't hear engines for the most part. You hear a hum. You hear steel wheel wheels on steel rails. Okay. The whisper of electricity overhead sparked. children stepping off of street corners and they don't have fear of getting hit by cars, workers getting onto street cars without owning anything and just going downtown to work. Shops rise close together because distance doesn't matter because the trolley is coming every few minutes. And so you just grab a trolley and you get there. City is one kind of living machine. It's efficient. It's rhythmic. It's almost elegant. That was America in the 1920s. By the 1930s in America, nearly every major city from Los Angeles to Detroit to Cleveland had an electric streetcar network. Now, I want you to remember this as where every city is trying to to build those stupid rail systems that nobody wants. I just want you to remember that. The United States in the 1930s had more urban rail mileage than anywhere else on earth. We were the leader in streetcars. And then all of a sudden, overnight, vanished. How? I mean, all we want to do now is build light rail systems because they're the best. They're the best. When we build them, nobody rides them. What happened? You look at Paris, Tokyo, Zurich, anywhere else in the world, their trains and their trams, they never died. What killed that here in America? It was a free market. Was it? Was it? Let me tell you the real story on what happened. America chose differently, but I don't think we actually chose. Here, transportation became a private battlefield, private, public-private battlefield. This is where the story turns dark. In the 1930s, there were three giants that were rising, that were changing, and they had money like nobody else. You had General Motors selling automobiles to everybody. You had Standard Oil of California selling fuel to all of those automobiles that people now needed. You had Goodyear Tire and Rubber supplying the rubber touching every single road. These companies were the up-and-comers. These were the ones who had all the money, all the power. Street cars didn't pay anything to those guys. They were competition to those guys. Every electric trolley meant passengers that didn't have to buy cars, wouldn't burn gasoline, and didn't have to buy tires. The streetcar wasn't a vehicle. It was a rival business model to those three companies. So, late 1930s, a new holding company comes up and quietly starts buying up all of the electric streetcar systems across American cities. It was called the National City Lines. okay national city lines they're just we're a streetcar company we're just buying up streetcar companies uh-huh uh-huh what america didn't know at the time behind the national city lines where were they getting their money to buy up all of the streetcar companies gm standard oil and goodyear they would buy the local streetcar company they'd stop investing in the maintenance, then things would start to break down. There'd be problems. And they would then say, we can't fix this system. It's just outdated. And they'd rip out the tracks. Meanwhile, as the train systems that they owned were having these problems, GM, Standard Oil, and Goodyear would come to the cities and say, you know what you need? You need buses. Buses are absolutely going to change the world. You have a city bus lines. They're not going to break down like these old, outdated rail lines. You need buses. And so they replaced all the rail lines with buses. And some cities pushed back. But then suddenly, you know, who's to say that it was bribery? Who's to say it was lobbyists? I am. I am. I'm one to say that. All of a sudden, every city got rid of them. Okay. The permanence of the rail disappear. rails that signals stability buses can be rerouted tomorrow what happened developers stopped building uh dense neighborhoods around the transit so cities sprawled out you know everywhere and that's problem not a problem up to you but the automobile became a necessity it was no longer a choice you live in any city live in live in los angeles used to have the leading streetcar system in America, Los Angeles. It was great. Try getting anywhere without a car in Los Angeles. You can't. You can't. You can take the bus. Good luck with that. So this changed the design of American life entirely. This didn't just change the streetcar industry. This changed our architecture, our city designs, the way we live, the way we commute. This changed lives. and then they put a sticker on it that said Americans just love their cars so you know that I'm not just making this up 1949 federal prosecutors brought an antitrust case okay and the jury came back and found yeah the companies were conspiring they they were a monopoly on the buses and the supplies to the transit systems they had lied They'd use lobbyists and all of this thing. And they came down hard on them. And the judge gave them the penalty. You know what the penalty was for GM, Standard Oil, and Goodyear Tire? $5,000. $5,000. That's like a parking ticket. No one went to prison. The tracks kept disappearing. This wasn't about transportation. Okay. Streetcars created neighborhoods, downtowns built for people instead of parking lots, cities connected by shared movement. Everything the left says they want today was pushed by these giant corporations and pushed out. And now they're using the same tactics to get those cities back. It's not going to end well. Because whenever you're doing things undercover, whenever you're trying to be sneaky, whenever you're not being upfront with the American people and you're letting the elites decide, you've got problems. It doesn't work out well. So the distances grew Dependence on cars exploded Highways carved through urban neighborhoods the American dream was relocated to the suburbs which is fine It's fine. But you didn't choose it. Three companies, through collusion, bribery, everything else, public-private partnerships with governments, they chose that. Because now you need a car to participate in society at all. Okay. America was paving over the rails. While we were doing that, Berlin monetized the trams. Amsterdam expanded their streetcars. Hong Kong kept its electric trams running continuously for over a century. those cities enjoy options that we don't have. They have the light rail, they have walkable districts, mixed transit systems. It just works because they didn't rip the foundation out. They just kept building as the cities transformed. We dismantled our own advantage. And I want you to understand, this is not smoke-filled rooms plotting evil this is more dangerous i think this was incentives and human frailty the companies followed profit that's what companies are supposed to do cities wanted short-term savings the company the national city lines was creating a problem so then the people funding the national city lines could come in and fix the problem and have the answer. Does any of this sound familiar? Consumers wanted freedom, but bribes were given and taken. Collusion between giant corporations happened. They had the money to lobby, to buy, and to bribe. And the legal system, when it finally kicked in, it did virtually nothing. And let me ask you this, see if this sounds familiar. If you had bribed politicians, colluded, lied, misrepresented everything, and you destroyed an entire way of life all for profit, do you think you would have faced a $5,000 fine? Or do you think you would have gone to jail? Does any of this sound familiar? Because that's what has to change. And the only way to change that is to reduce the size of government. They were all selling the same thing, a promise that the future would be easier if we tore up the past. Is that not the promise of corporations and NGOs and lobbyists and big government advocates today? Forget the past. Tear the past. Take the statues down. And we'll have a brighter future. Would it not have served our generation and our children's generation better had the system worked the way it was supposed to and let people actually decide. They may have chosen the same thing, but it would have been their choice, not a manipulation. The streetcar wasn't just transportation. It was a vision on how society could move together. Did you even know about streetcar dominance in America? Did you even know we led the world in this? Did you know we were the envy of the world? Did you know how we went from the trolley and American elites choosing buses over trolleys? I didn't for the longest time. When I found out, I was outraged by it. Once those rails were gone, this is the secret also that you have to pay attention to because it's repeating itself. What did they do? The national city lines. GM said, you know, it's going to be a lot better for the tires, you're going to save more money. Just rip those rails out. You couldn't go back. Okay? One day the trolley came down your street. The next day it was a giant bus. And everybody adapted. And today we don't even know what was lost. And I think that's the biggest trick of it all. When something slowly disappears, slow enough, people stop remembering it ever existed. that's what you're witnessing in real time now with health care and energy over the last 20 years health care has it gotten better since obamacare or worse did obamacare fix the problem or make it worse did it live up to its promise no because that wasn't the real goal look at energy during the biden administration what did the socialist marxist and climate radical politicians lobbyists and NGOs put into the legislation that you couldn't even see until it was passed, the Green New Deal. Not just to close all of the coal-fired electrical plants, but they would receive federal money if they also tore those plants down. Bring up the rails. Bring the coal-fired plants down. I share this with you today because we are destined to repeat history. if we don't know our own history. If you ever notice how hard it is to find something you can trust, not a trend, not a logo, not a story, just something made well, something made to last, made by people who actually care whether it holds up a year from now. They're not just trying to sell you something, but they care and they have the same values. Most clothes, they're not designed to be like they were. Maybe they're designed to be good for a few washes and then they quietly fall apart. That's why I have a lot of respect for American Giant. They built their entire company around the idea that clothing should be tough and comfortable, last, and made here in the United States. And they have spent a fortune bringing machines and manufacturing back to the United States. They work with all American cotton, American factories, American skilled workers who know what they're doing. So buy American today at American-Giant.com. slash Glenn. That's American-Giant.com slash Glenn. Save 20% when you use my name for your first purchase. That's American-Giant.com slash Glenn. Now back to the podcast. You're listening to the best of the Glenn Beck program. I have the man of the hour on. I mean, I have the man maybe of the decade on, uh, maybe of the last 100 years. This guy has just announced yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency is deregulating the largest, single largest deregulation action in U.S. history it changes everything oh yeah I might have to play some sexy music behind it when he's talking because this is just conservative and constitutional porn that is about to happen Lee Zeldin joins me in a second first let me tell you about Rapid Radios we assume that communication will always be there when we need it you know we just don't think about it we just expect when we call it rings and we text it sends and then you know if something goes wrong we can reach somebody immediately but that assumption only holds as long as the system holds a major storm a power failure network overloaded you know a dead cell area whatever you realize it's not as dependable as I thought when you really need something dependable get the rad one from rapid radios it's rugged ready to go communication it's designed for real world moments when you don't want to wonder whether your message is getting through you charge it you turn it on you have a direct line of communication it doesn't feel fragile so when things get unpredictable the ability to reach the people you care about the workers that you work with it's not a luxury it's stability rad run the rad one is officially live uh i want you to check it out now rapid radios.com don't wait for the moment you wish you had a backup. Get the radio built for real life. Communication redefined rapidradios.com. Lee Zeldin, I've never had the desire, nor have I ever made out with a man, but today I would consider it. You are the greatest man alive today. Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything that you and Donald Trump have done and announced yesterday. Well, listen, it was a big deal, and we were excited to be there in the Roosevelt Room to announce it. As you pointed out, the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States, $1.3 trillion. And a smart guy like you who's been following Supreme Court cases, and you know the timeline, this has been a long time coming. The left, they created this endangerment finding to hoard power in a very unique interpretation of the Clean Air Act that is not allowed under any best reading of it. And they did trillions of dollars of regulation on mobile sources, airplanes, stationary sources, oil and gas. There's so much control that they hoarded. And we just went out, went right for the root, the endangerment finding, the best reading of the Clean Air Act. We know that this is a durable decision that I signed yesterday after Loper Bright and West Virginia versus EPA and Michigan versus EPA. If you want the law to say that EPA should be regulating the heck out of greenhouse gas emissions, that is a topic for a debate and a vote in Congress, not a rogue, unelected bureaucrat at a federal agency. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I mean, I was just talking to the insiders, you know, during the break, and I said, you know, one reason why a Kia looks like a Genesis and a Genesis looks like a Bentley and the Bentley looks like the Mercedes is that cars can't design. You can't design cars to look any different because the regulations are so heavy. You can't add any drag to any cars, you know, so everything starts to look meh. Uh, and that's just, that's one of the things that I don't think even people even think about, let alone, you know, your lighting, your shower head, uh, your water pressure, uh, the money that you're going to save just because trucks are not going to have to spend as much money. So trucking goes down any idea how much money we're looking at possible savings for the American people. Yes, a new vehicle is going to cost over $2,400 less on average now that this decision has been signed. And on top of it all, as an added bonus, we got rid of the Obama switch, the climate participation trophy for manufacturers of adding that annoying start stop feature in vehicles that make your car die at red light and stop sign That off credit all off credits are gone I mean, you're talking sexy talk. When you're talking about getting that thing out of my car, you had me at hello. How long before we start to see those savings? Immediately. Everything takes time. Yeah, the president came in January of 2025. This was a day one executive order. So as far as signaling to auto manufacturers that the president was focused on it, that was a day one message that was sent. We announced on March 12th that we were going to be pursuing this effort. We did the public comment. We followed all of the rules of the Administrative Procedures Act. I read the final decision before signing it yesterday, and this thing is airtight. I referenced Loper Bright a second ago, the Supreme Court case overturning the Chevron doctrine. When the 2009 endangerment finding was done, the Obama administration, the EPA administrator, was creatively interpreting the Clean Air Act to say, well, if it doesn't say I can't, I guess that means we can. Well, the Supreme Court said in Loper Bright, that's not how it works. You have to follow the best reading of the law. And then I also referenced West Virginia versus EPA as an example, the major policies doctrine. If you're going to do trillions of dollars of regulation, that is something that is for Congress. And as far as this decision itself, it was loaded with so many mental leaps. They said that when carbon dioxide was mixed with five other well-mixed gases, some of them not even emitted from vehicles, that it contributes, not causes, contributes to global climate change. You won't find that in Section 202 of the Clean Air Act. And they say global climate change endangers public health and welfare without analyzing the local and regional impacts, which is the way that it was always done for decades. you know when you actually dig into what the law says the obama administration decided well i guess we have to change the law they tried to get the votes in congress and then when they couldn't get the votes they said well i guess we're just going to have to do it anyway well fast forward to 2026 game over endangerment finding is gone so um with a lot of the stuff that trump has done because we can't seem to get Congress to really do anything. He's had to do it through executive order, et cetera, et cetera. And then I worry about codifying things. But this one is different because this one's all based on the Supreme Court wins, right? Right. And it's also based off of what the law doesn't allow. This is a best reading of the Clean Air Act, which does not say that we should be regulating an emission to combat global climate change. And you could ignore all of the bad guesses of Al Gore and John Kerry and others. You can replace all of the bad, flawed assumptions on science that were made in 2009 with the most pessimistic predictions that didn't bear out as we look at facts in 2026, regardless of where anyone is on their opinion or the fact on the science debate, the reality is the Clean Air Act does not authorize this, that Congress would have to pass a new law in order to have trillions of dollars of regulation. So yeah, no, it doesn't have to be codified. And quite frankly, because as a Supreme Court precedent, if the pendulum swung one day down the road, some far-left Democrat gets elected president, and they have somebody running the EPA and they're trying to go back to it, the problem is that the Clean Air Act is still going to give them the same problem, and Loper Bright is on the books, and it says you can't just make it up. And now manufacturers can make vehicles that consumers actually want rather than what politicians demand. And when you combine this decision with the resetting of the CAFE standards with Secretary Duffy and DOT and the president, when you combine it with getting rid of the electric vehicle mandate with the three Congressional Review Act bills that Congress passed and President Trump signed, you add the new investments that have been announced, billions of these different manufacturers and the jobs that come with it, It all adds up for a very positive one year for the U.S. auto industry. So is it going to make the U.S. auto harder to sell in places like the EU? Because they've gone full-fledged insane. Right now, I mean, Ford F-150s. I don't think a single Ford F-150, best-selling car in America, has been sold in Europe. And it's not just the size of it. It's all of the regulations and the tariffs that hopefully Donald Trump is really making a real dent in. But if we relax our regulations, will it be harder for us to sell something in Europe? Well, I'm confident that there's going to be more F-150s that are going to get built and less electric vehicles that sit on dealership lots and remaining unsold. Now, a couple of months ago, I was at the G7 Energy and Environment Minister's meeting that was in Toronto, Canada. And I could tell that these European countries are really feeling the strain of how they have chosen to protect the environment over growing the economy. The Trump administration believes that you can protect the environment and grow the economy. the economic cost of the climate goals that they were set are you know it's coming home to to roost right now and these european countries are facing a reality where you know they'll make their decisions uh in the months in the years to come but they clearly are in a really bad place right now and they're and they're rethinking certain policies now how much of that they say publicly versus privately i i don't know we'll see but when i was in that meeting and we were having these conversations, clearly they are feeling the economic pressure of their environmental policies. I have to tell you, I think when America becomes more than competitive, I mean, when we're going in a different direction and it's cheaper and it's better, I just think the, you know, the world needed leadership and the world now has leadership. And I think these countries are going to, they're just going to collapse on their own weight on things like this. One last thing, and he kind of addressed it but i want to make sure because i mean this is conservative heaven right now um but for um middle class lower class democrats this is really good for them as well when you speak to somebody who didn't vote for donald trump and you know thinks that oh this is this is this is gonna you know you're not listening to science this is about more consumer choice this is about having more affordable vehicles and by the way when you make the trucks more affordable that deliver all those consumer goods that you purchase in your daily lives the cost of living across the board is able to go down 1.3 trillion dollars now too often when you start talking millions and billions and trillions you know a lot of people just kind of view it all as the same. These are big numbers. $1.3 trillion is one massive number. When you're talking about $2,400 to purchase a new vehicle, $2,400 less, it's more mobility, more economic mobility. It's the ability to be able to get to work, to get to church. It's the ability to have more money available for health care, for education, and the other costs of life. And I was just asked about fossil fuels, and the question was asked in a way as if we should be getting rid of it. I mean, just look back at the last few weeks, the temperatures across this entire country. Thank God President Trump has been unleashing energy dominance. Thank God we have baseload power, reliable coal and natural gas and oil that's kept our country warm. The person that you're talking about, that low-income, that middle-income family, that person who's been struggling. Imagine going through the last few weeks without heat. The president's policies, especially when you add them all up, and it's only been one year. We still have three more years of this. There's a lot that's been fixed. There's a lot more to fix. And I'm just really honored to have a part of it. Well, I tell you, Lee, you were on the show, I don't know, about a year ago. And you said you were going to do this. And you said that the president was on it. The president had told me he was going to do this. And it is nice to see politicians and people in government actually do what they say they're going to do. Congratulations. And please congratulate the president on this as well. Great, great news. Thanks, Greg. Thank you. You're listening to the best of Glenn Beck. Need a little more? Check out the full show podcast anywhere you download podcasts. So, Jason, I want to check with you. I saw the poll go up. We just asked the Torch insiders to decide and rank what they wanted to talk about this hour, what they wanted me to start with. And it was Cuba, was it not? Yeah. Well, it's gotten closer, but 55% of the audience want Cuba. The second closest one is Save Act at 42%. So most of them Cuba. Good. We're going to talk. We'll talk about both of those. Let me start with Cuba. Let me start with something small on Cuba. A really important statement came from the Kremlin this week. The spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, he said, Russia didn't abandon the dollar. The dollar abandoned us. Okay. Now, that's an interesting phrase coming from the spokesperson from the Kremlin. Then he said if conditions change and the dollar became practical again countries including Russia might resume using it again Wait a minute What For years, the message out of Russia has been de-dollarization. Okay? Now the message is more, well, we left because we had to, not because we wanted to. Wait. Hold on. reports based on Russian internal proposals suggest Moscow is floating a broader economic cooperation with Washington. If a Ukraine settlement emerges. Okay. If we settle on Ukraine, what Russia is now saying is maybe we can do joint energy projects. Maybe we can jointly invest in different things and have cooperation. And maybe the settlement systems that Joe Biden just blew up, maybe it would include dollar-based transactions again. Wait, what? What? This is huge. Russia has been using the dollar as a weapon for a long time, a long time. And so are we. This is the fundamental principle of bricks and local currencies. Russia was saying that's the future. Okay. But why are you saying you might go back to it? All right. So there's the first piece of the puzzle. Something's going on, and it's tied to Ukraine. Jason, tell me about the Cuban Missile Crisis. What was that about? What happened? Cuban Missile Crisis? Yes. Well, do you want to know like the, just kind of like this is what happened or what series? Yeah, just basically what happened, basically. And I know I'm hitting you off the, I mean, I don't know if I would recall all the details. So go ahead and just off the top of your head, what happened? Don't look it up. Don't stall and look it up. Not looking heads off the computer. So Cuban Missile Crisis was when they were going to start positioning nuclear missiles on Cuba, or at least missiles that could have the range to hit the United States. And that was obviously a red flag for us. But the Soviets were responding to multiple other countries within Europe that already had nuclear capable missiles that could target them. So for them, it was like, this is only fair for us. This was like, oh, nobody. And then it happened. Oh, good, good, good. Do you remember the country that it came down to? Because it came down to one country. Nobody remembers this. Nobody remembers this. But this is what the real argument was about. You're right. It was about, wait a minute, only fair is fair. You got them all up and down our border. You can't have that both ways. We're going to put them off your coast because you can hit us within minutes. We're going to be able to hit you within minutes. And we said, nope. And we think that this all ended. We think this all ended because JFK was so tough. And he was like, I'm putting the ships and you're not going to cross the line. And that's part of it. But there was a deal. We will remove our missiles from Turkey. Oh, yes. And we won't pursue Turkey. Okay. and Turkey was on the border of the Soviet union at the time. And so that was like, that was like putting missiles in Mexico. And so we said, we'll remove these missiles. They're old and outdated anyway. That's what we said. Uh, and so we'll remove those and you remove yours and we'll call it even. And so we both walked away a winner. My question is we gave up Turkey. now we're headed towards another blockade possibly because russia just sent their ships some ships down for aid and everything else down to cuba mexico is doing it some other country is doing it and we've said you're not going in you're not you're not pulling into port whether we do a blockade or not, I don't know, but this field, it just felt very, very similar to me. And I was talking to a friend of mine and he said, uh, Turkey, like what Turkey? That was the end of the Cuban missile crisis. Is it possible that Cuba, that this Cuban thing will be solved by what we do and solve in Ukraine, just like we resolved last time with Turkey. Is it possible that all of this, because they know Donald Trump wants to control this hemisphere and the last time this happened, Russia gave it up, but we had to give up something. I'm wondering what the deal is going to be, because now he's talking about, okay, maybe we can use the U S dollar again. Maybe we can use the SWIFT system again. They were rebuilding. Remember, we're going to rebuild something. We're going to build something brand new to compete against that. Now he's saying, well, we might use that. What's happening? Does that make any sense to you, Jason? Yeah, so are you thinking that this new economic weapon, basically, that they're considering with Russia is part of this standoff, basically? refresh my memory on what are you talking about new economic weapon with uh so this is what hit with me with the russia story was because they so if you think back during the ukraine war when that first you know broke out they had already wanted to get off the dollar but it was even more essential after we showed them that their money did not matter in this system that was you know the post-Bretton Woods system. So we could control, we could make money just go away if we wanted to. So for Russia, they were like, we have to get off the dollar. That was everything they've been trying to do. Now, this is what doesn't make sense about this for me, is now they're saying, wait a minute, let us back in, but we don't want you anywhere near Ukraine. I mean, it almost seems like suicide on their end. So they really must be desperate. I don't know. Uh-huh. Well, A, I think they are really desperate. I think this has exposed them to be the paper tiger that we never thought they were. But they have survived, and they've survived because of the ally with the Axis powers, if you will, China and Iran and everything else. So they're doing that. But now they're talking about doing trade deals with the United States, talking about oil deals with the United States and coming back on our dollar. And it all hinges on Ukraine. That's my point. Yeah. Is I think Ukraine is that is the chit on the table. i i i think wrong but i think no no i i think i completely agree with you and wouldn't this be a crazy development especially in the historical reference i mean the cold war eventually flipped and the soviets were outnumbered once china was flipped over off their side over to the u.s side how crazy would that be if it was exactly opposite russia gets flipped because of ukraine Russia gets flipped and they now go against China. Interesting. And I could see that actually happening. And it would be fascinating to see how, I mean, what the left is going to say. I mean, you know, I remember in the 80s, the left used to just say, Ronald Reagan, he's a monster. He's going to get us all killed and vaporized and everything else. And it worked out the exact opposite. But it took longer than this is taking. You know, this is recent memory now. You didn't have to wait nine years for that thing to begin to fall apart. And this is falling apart right now. And every single expert, which seems to be the theme of today's show, stop listening to the experts. Every single expert has got us into this trouble. And now the guy who's bucking all of the experts and going an opposite direction seems to be collapsing everything in our favor. it's fascinating to me because I, I think you're right. I think this could end with, uh, Russia not being a trusted ally by any stretch of the imagination, but by being somebody we can do business with. This is, this is, this, this is what Washington wanted us to do. Um, and our founders wanted us to do. You don't have permanent allies because things change. people change countries change and so what you have are business relationships you do trade with people and you use that trade to strengthen or weaken relationships but you're friends with everybody okay you try to be that's what donald trump is doing we're not going to you know hillary clinton's like gave her the reset button remember that we're best friends we're never going to be friends with putin we shouldn't want to be friends with putin but we should want to be able to do business with Putin and have some sort of a relationship where we're not throwing the whole world into chaos. And that's exactly what the left was doing under Biden, throwing the entire world into chaos and pitting each other against each other. Why? Go back to how does every great empire end. Every great empire ends the same way in world history with all of the other countries. There is always a rising power and a falling power. Whatever the great power is that is falling because it's exhausted itself one way or another and made too many mistakes, there's a new rising power that's coming up. And so there's always a war right towards the end because they're like, take them. They're weak. Take them out now. But notice China's not doing that because they're weak themselves. Everyone in the world, I've said this to you over and over again, this is unique in all of human history. This has never happened like this before.