So glad you're there. It's the Brian Kilmeade coming to you from 48th and 6th in Midtown Manhattan or around the country, around the world. We have a big hour coming your way. We're going to be joined by Lieutenant Colonel Allen West, simulcast with FBN. And then General Michael Linnington, now CEO of the USO. He's now retired but a great friend of the show, did a fantastic job with Wounded Warriors for years. The Pentagon had a press conference today. We had the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Caine, as well as Secretary of Defense, now War, Hegseth, and they were talking about really how great the mission is going. I'll talk to the General about that, but let's get to the big three.
Number three, there is only one solution. Communist revolution. Communist revolution. Yeah, communism is going to win, baby. No King's protest. Yeah, really? Communist revolution? Are you serious? No King's rally shows big numbers and big problems for Dems. What is the message? Communism, socialism, anti-Trumpism. Is that a platform? That's not an agenda for America's greatness, is it?
Number two, we are beyond frustrated at the lack of leadership that's coming out of Congress. Thank God the President enacted an emergency order to ensure the TSA workers are paid, but it's a travesty. Yes. The TSA finally getting a portion of their pay, airport stress lowers and lines decrease a bit, but for now, as long as Congress fails to do a deal and is successful in leaving town, fueling bipartisan anger on both of them. Number one, the Straits of Hormuz will be open when this operation is over. It will be open and it'll be open one way or another. It will be open because Iran agrees to abide by international law and not block a commercial waterway. But we have very clear objectives that we're trying to achieve here.
Operation Epic Fury coming down to the final weeks. What we have left to do and what Iran can do to save itself as our economy wobbles every day the strait stays closed. I don't believe for a second, by the way. I don't believe for a second that the President's going to leave that strait unopened and just say, 'Okay, we're done. We've hit all our targets.' That's not the way he works. I want to get it over with, too. I want the price of oil to go down. But it's not going to go down. So, do not believe that Wall Street Journal story. I know a lot of his aides. They say according to his aides. I don't know what aides they are. But I can't see it because the President wants to win. If he walks away with the strait still closed, that's not winning in my view. What about yours? Let's bring in a great friend to the show, General Michael Linnington, retired now, CEO of the USO. General, welcome back.
Good to see you, Brian. Thanks for having me on.
So, you take big jobs. You know, if you're not running West Point, you are running the Wounded Warriors now with the USO. What is the USO's role when we go to war like this?
Brian, we are the organization that supports our men and women in uniform and their families wherever they go, whenever they deploy. We have 260 locations around the world. Every operational theater, every post, camp, and station in the United States, 21,000 volunteers, 700 full-time staff. This is exactly what we do. What's going on now in the Middle East is we have full-time staff, 50 centers all over the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. And we are supporting the warfighter. And I think what you heard this morning from the Secretary and the Chairman is exactly what our folks overseas revel with, is the opportunity to truly make a difference when America's service members need our support and need the support of the American people.
Brian, it's everything. Everything you can imagine. Think of being forward deployed in a remote location. They need connection. They need the comforts of home. They need a place to call home. What's going on right now across especially Europe and the Middle East is unprecedented. But I will tell you, just as the Secretary said and certainly as I pulse our teammates, they're motivated. I mean nobody likes sitting around doing nothing. This is what we train for. This is why we're forward deployed and just providing a taste of home. Maybe it's a 15-minute break between shifts. Maybe it's a couple hours in a port. If you're on a Navy ship and you're getting resupplied, the USO is there for those sailors, Marines, airmen. Airmen come back from a mission. They want a place to put their feet up, call their spouses, have good Wi-Fi, comfortable chairs, a place to get something to eat, replenish their toiletry kit. That's what we do. And we provide those programs and services, not just overseas, but also in the Indo-Pacific and across the United States. And most importantly, Brian, we keep the unit connected to their families back home. That's what's most important.
And General, a lot of our 50,000 troops are on bases, but yet those bases are still targets. How does that affect your job?
Well, CENTCOM and Army Central Command are very careful not to put our troops in harm's way, and they've evacuated us from the most sensitive locations. Now we leave the USO centers operational with volunteers, usually soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines themselves, and then we resupply the kit they need to keep the center open. They have moved us out of some of the more remote bases in the Middle East that are in missile range certainly, but we are clearly still all over Europe, the deployment centers, the military hospitals and the places where service members continue to flow into the region and where family members flow out of the region with the non-combatant evacuation operations which took place a couple weeks ago. The other thing we're doing, Brian, is we have teammates from the continental United States that have reinforced our presence in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Right now, we have 50 centers in the AO, 38 staffed, 12 unstaffed. We're on every aircraft carrier, six destroyers, and we have staff members here queued up, ready to go over and reinforce if things progress. And you and I, I mean, I certainly don't know what's going to happen, but should things continue to escalate, then we have the resources to go continue to provide that taste of home and comfort and resilience for our service members to keep them in fighting shape.
And General, when I think of the USO, you think of Bob Hope. Do you guys still have an entertainment force?
Brian, we are. In fact, I just went on an entertainment trip not a couple months ago to this very exact region. I mean, the places you and Fox have been covering on the news, I was in many of those locations with an entertainment troupe that went over. Singers, comedians, Vince Wilfork, Super Bowl champion, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mahoney. I mean, we didn't know this was coming, but just to see the resolve and the resilience and the can-do attitude of our service members that are forward deployed and now reinforcing those deployments with tens of thousands of more forces really have grown those facilities where what the USO provides is even more important.
So, General, were you deployed to Afghanistan? Were you in Iraq, too?
I was 15 months in Iraq and a couple tours in Afghanistan. So what it must be like when people say 603 Americans died at the hands of EFPs in Iraq, that's Iran-sponsored, Iran-deployed, Iran actually fermented all the unrest there that caused the insurgency. When people say that this is really a war of choice. What do you think?
That's why I think we need to get this done. Now this is Mike Linnington, the soldier speaking. I was in Iraq 2003-4 as you mentioned, the EFPs that arrived in theater in '05-'06 when the surge took place. To see the devastation and the loss of life and equipment from state-sponsored terrorism in Iraq at the time was, I mean I still have those pictures in my mind. So I am certainly supportive of the warfighter first and foremost as CEO of the USO but this is something that's been killing Americans for many, many years as you know. And later in 2009 to '11 when I was in Afghanistan the same EFPs that were experimented with in Iraq came to Afghanistan as well as you know.
So I know I was listening to General McKenzie on Face the Nation and he says over the years in his career he's seen countless battle plans on what would happen if we ever went to war with Iran or, you know, all of our consistent enemies. How long have you heard about action plans when it came to taking on Iran from different administrations, different generals?
Brian, I have not been part of those plans. As a colonel, I was focused on the war fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was never a CENTCOM planner or an army planner. I would have loved to have been in the room. I would love to know what the plan is going forward. I am not privy to that. But what I am privy to is the combatant commands have insisted and frankly our partnership with them unlike any other veteran service or military service organization out there. We have a relationship with the department that allows us to be at these posts, camps, and stations, take care of our wounded warriors coming through, and then ultimately provide support should those fatalities occur as they unfortunately have. If things continue to escalate, then the USO has the resources to continue to augment what the department does, and I'm sure the department and the Chairman will not bring any of our civilians or volunteers into the theater until it's safe to do so, just as they have evacuated us from the most highest threat areas over the past couple weeks.
General Linnington, lastly, if people want to support this, the USO, which you're the CEO of, where do they go?
Brian, I would just ask them to go to our website at uso.org. www.uso.org. Listen, the USO, Brian, at the end of the day is really America's connection to sons and daughters that are serving our nation. Take the politics out of it. It was founded in 1941. 85 years later, we're still doing the same thing. And it's keeping America connected to our sons and daughters deployed in harm's way doing our nation's bidding. And that's what I ask people to go to uso.org, find ways to support our men and women that are forward deployed through the programs and services the USO provides.
Got it. Lieutenant General Michael Linnington, thanks so much, General.
Thanks for having me on, Brian.
You got it. So, as I mentioned on Face the Nation on Sunday, usually when the networks book somebody, it's so as to run down whatever the Republicans are doing. I mean, they might have a Republican on. Most of them are anti-Trump Republicans like Don Bacon or Senator Tillis who is somewhat fair, but obviously he's leaving because he got in the crosshairs with President Trump. That was one of the reasons. But that's kind of bad because he would have won that seat again. And I know right now Michael Whatley is doing a good job, but right now he's trailing to Governor Cooper who wants to be Senator Cooper. So I want you to hear what General McKenzie said because he was chairman of the, he was over at CENTCOM for a while and this is what he said. Listen, this is part of a plan that's been in existence for many years. What we're doing right now is we're reducing Iranian ability to target ships in the strait through their short-range missiles, their drones, and other activities. We do that by maintaining air superiority over southern Iran on a 24/7 basis, looking for where these missiles are and striking them relentlessly. Once we reduce those to a very low level, then you'll be able to go in, if necessary, sweep for mines. I'm not certain they put mines in the water yet. I predict eventually they will. It's their nature. But we have the ability to do this. We're on plan. I'll be honest with you, Margaret. I've simulated this many years in many positions at Central Command. We're a little further along than we would have expected to be at this point in all the simulations that I've seen.
So that's General McKenzie who famously was in charge of Afghanistan when it fell apart and he got a call from the Taliban commander outside Kabul and said, 'Everybody has left. Do you want me to go in to get Kabul and take it or do you want me to stay on the outside?' And McKenzie said, 'All we want is the airport.' That I don't think was the best decision. But since that time, I expect when they go to him, he was just going to run down the next administration who was so critical of his operation. And he hasn't because I think he's not only cheering for our success. He's also noticing our success. He does not need to see a satellite photo. He picks up the phone. He probably knows every commander right now in charge. And he knows exactly what's going on. Now, it's tough for the average American because we're not getting a lot of reporters on the ground in Iran. I got some GBN reporters. I was looking at BBC might have somebody, but for the most part, they're not really reporting openly and freely. Country's being destroyed. Yeah. So, their command structure being destroyed right now. They're extremely unorganized, which for the most part's good, but the bad part is it's hard to organize any type of peace talks or ceasefire talks. 18 ships in the Middle East have been attacked. That's enough to keep the strait closed. We got to fix that. 3,000 vessels are waiting to pass through the strait. That's a whole lot of oil, natural gas, and fertilizer. When we come back, I'll be taking your calls. Bottom of the hour, Lieutenant Colonel Allen West. This is the Brian Kilmeade Show.
All right, welcome back everybody. So I had a chance to talk to the CEO of JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan is probably the most successful financial company in the country. $4.4 trillion worth of assets. They're doing a ton of work too for rebuilding the American dream. It's a very hardcore money-based initiative to give people an opportunity that maybe feel like that dream is slipping away. One thing I did talk to him about, other things. One of which is in New York trying to raise taxes and they're doing it again. There's a big movement now evidently in Albany. Everybody's for raising the corporate rate from 7.5 to 9%. And Apollo, which is this huge investment firm, says we're going to be leaving. We're looking for a place over in Florida. Like when they're going to learn, I don't know. But I asked him about Governor Hochul who came out originally and said, 'Hey, if you guys don't want to pay our taxes and be part of it, good riddance, go to Florida.' She has a totally different take. And I played that take. Now she says, 'Do your patriotic duty. Come back from Palm Beach and come into New York.' Here's what Jamie Dimon told us.
Good politicians should realize that you need a competitive state to build and grow businesses. And you've seen, if you look at it, Texas is growing. Florida's growing. They like business. They have incentive systems and taxes that bring in business. And it helps all the citizens of those states, you know, and that's the biggest mistake that somehow punishing business is going to help lower income people. It doesn't. And you've seen people leave and people vote with their feet. It is a free country. They have the right to do it. They're not immoral because they say, 'I worked hard for my money. I want to pass more of it on to my kids.' And we have to be very careful to act like you're immoral because you want to do that.
You got to give an incentive. So, I was stunned to see there's this huge building in New York City. It's going to be a flag. It's going to be as important as the Empire State Building. I really mean that. And you got to see this thing to understand it. I mean, it's got stone. It looks like its own city. And he's so proud of it. He was there every day. He talked about inviting everybody who worked on the building and he invited them up to the 57th floor and they had 2,000 people and their kids and I guess a portion didn't come but 2,000 up there and their kids afterwards. And you talked about everything that involved in building in the city. They got construction workers jobs. They got union jobs. Then they had to bring more people in. They hired more people. Think about everything that's happened, the parking. By building that building, everybody benefited. And ultimately, he feels as though his company absolutely needed it. But he invested in it. At the same time, he's got more people in Dallas because Dallas is a better place to live. More people want to live there. So don't think that he'll stay. JPMorgan will stay, but they're not going to continue to build in a state that says there shouldn't have, has a mayor that says billionaires shouldn't be allowed. Well, he's a multi-billionaire. You know how much he made when he first came out of college? $22,000. His dad was a stockbroker. Didn't know anybody. So, that's what you could have. Not everyone could be CEO of a major financial firm, but whatever it is. And that's why he's doing his initiative. And when it comes to Kathy Hochul, don't just say come back. What is the financial reason to come back?
Hey, it's my privilege to welcome in Jamie Dimon, Chairman, CEO of JPMorgan Chase. He's got a great initiative. We're going to talk about it in a second. Jamie, thanks so much for coming in here. We truly appreciate it.
Right. I'm thrilled. We already had a good day already, so.
I know. Yeah, we already were on Fox and Friends earlier and also I know for a fact you get up at 4:30, you've already read how many papers?
And that's normal. Do you read physical papers or online?
Yeah, I do it online because the physical papers don't come early enough and also they're not updated, right? So I used, and literally until about a year ago was always physical.
So it's Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and the Economist?
No, the New York Post. I got to do it because I haven't read them. Most of the pictures, but New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times in that order and the Financial Times because it covers the world. Other ones aren't very international. Of course, we operate in 100 countries around the world. So, I need to remember what's going on everywhere.
So, we just watched the Pentagon press conference together and people concerned about the economy and where we're at right now. We have gas at $4. We have the market's around 45,000 today. I'm not sure what it's doing right now. Are you concerned about the economy today and what areas please you, what doesn't?
Yeah. Well, I think look, not really. You know, there are some positive things taking place. And when you talk about the economy, there are hundreds of factors that affect it. You know, and gas will be one. It's a negative, you know, for the population, more for the lower income folks than everybody else. But you still have jobs, you still have huge capital expenditures. You still have tax benefits coming to families. So, right now it looks pretty good. But the most important factors, you know, we have huge deficits. We have these geopolitical events. You know, how long this war goes on. Those things can easily change the economy, but for now we don't see it.
Have you felt the difference with a businessman in charge? Even if it's a businessman that makes decisions different from a politician. Have you felt that?
Yeah. I mean, if you talk about the President, yeah, they have some very good people around them. They make decisions. They know the real world. They put some very good people in some of these jobs. We've dealt with Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent. Excellent. A lot of his staff is ahead of time. And I'm not telling I agree with everything they all do, but they're really capable people. I did not know Scott. No.
You know what's interesting is I was listening to David Sacks and he said it's so interesting because we bring up to the President with a problem and he wants to solve it right there. Yeah. Isn't that the way you run things too? How do I solve this? Who do I get on the phone? How do I fix it? Who do I do? That's not really how a politician traditionally focuses. Let's get a meeting together. Let's go to that committee.
Yeah. Yeah. We do, I mean we do lots of analysis and deep dives and facts before we make certain decisions. So I don't actually know his decision process. I'm not in the room but I do know he likes to take action and you know so and that's a wise thing to do.
So, so tell me about what JPMorgan had to do.
And a very important thing I think it's when I look at our government, I think it's important to have people in the government who've been in the real world who've had to deal with, you know, but and that's whether it's doctors, sometimes lawyers, you can't have all economists and lifelong politicians because the real world isn't the same as the theoretical world and, you know, how mankind operates and what regulations actually do to people and what works and what doesn't work and how you deal with bad people. Not everyone's good. You know you and I were talking about how this government was formed by our founding fathers. They were brilliant but they knew that not all men are good. They prepared for how we could prepare for the fact that not all men are good. How do we make sure that the majority doesn't [oppress] the minority and create a civil war type thing. And so yeah so I think it's good to have people with deep experience going back and forth. We used to have much more of that you know 30, 40 years ago and that kind of stopped over time. Much less of it.
I want you to hear what Kathy Hochul said recently. I thought about you, the Governor of New York.
I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state. Right now, there are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. Okay, cut me the checks. I mean, just if you want to be supportive, but maybe the first step should be go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded.
So, how do you feel about that? First, she said, 'Hit the road if you don't like high taxes.' And now she's saying, 'We need you to come back.'
I think a good politician should realize that you need a competitive state to build and grow businesses. And you've seen, if you look at it, Texas is growing. Florida's growing. They like business. They have incentive systems and taxes that bring in business. And it helps all the citizens of those states, you know, and that's the biggest mistake that somehow punishing business is going to help lower income people. It doesn't. And you've seen people leave and people vote with their feet. It is a free country. They have the right to do it. They're not immoral because they say, 'I worked hard for my money. I want to pass more of it on to my kids.' And we have to be very careful to act like you're immoral because you want to do that.
Do you worry about the mayor who only talks about raising taxes and he doesn't think billionaires should exist?
Yeah. No, I saw that. You know, look, the rich have done very well and I do think it's legitimate to say, you know, that the lower income haven't done very well and that we as society should do something about that. The way to do something about that is to grow the economy, create opportunity, get teach kids in high schools, you know, with certificates that give them jobs and cyber and that's the way you do it. Driving out business isn't the way to do it. Sounds good. So, you know, mayors either learn, you know, look at the mayor of Detroit. He said, you know, they had terrible problem, highest unemployment. He said, 'Anyone who can help me, you know, business, civic society, schools,' and we called him up and said, 'We're in. What can we do?' And we worked with him. And of course, the credit goes to lots of people. He turned the city. That's how you fix a city. And so some mayors learn how to do that and some don't. Some are so wrapped up in the ideology they're unable to, you know, actually figure out what works for the citizens of the place.
And we're going to talk about this when we get back. But the American Dream Initiative is really all about that, isn't it, ADI? What you guys are doing? Yeah. How much money are you putting in? How many programs?
It's a lot. And we didn't announce a number because we don't, you know, a lot of it's mortgages and that goes up and down all the time, but it's mortgages, small business loans, affordable housing, one of the biggest affordable housing lenders in the country, but it's also branches where we bring people in for financial education. And then we also work with local schools. How can you get kids jobs that are high-paying jobs at 18? And that could be, you know, advanced manufacturing, aircraft, cyber, and there are tons of them that are open today all around the country. So to me it's all those things small business, affordable housing, financial education, skills and very importantly we call it vital institutions but we're one of the biggest financers of schools, states, hospitals and cities and you know for governments generally so and that's really important part of the infrastructure what makes society good for people.
And the lower classes, you're right, and we'll talk about in a moment, they have to deal with more crime, they have bad schools and they got to deal with bad healthcare and it's not right and you guys, that's part of the reason why you're taking JPMorgan Chase, which I think is a $4.4 trillion company, and trying to help out the entire country. That is the way you do it patriotically in my view. Jamie Dimon is going to be with us with a few more minutes. You listen to the Brian Kilmeade Show on a great Tuesday. Don't move.
I think the housing market is important here because we see interest rates are rising. We were talking about mortgage rates being below 6% just about a month ago. Now they're heading in the wrong direction. 6.4% about for a 30-year fix. This is a problem for the spring housing market. Already we knew that affordability was tough meaning prices surged during the pandemic. Interest rates surged after that and the affordability has become a problem. So people are now spending about 42% of a median household income on housing. Can I tell you something gang? 5 years ago that was 28%. So when you look at that you say to your young people out there don't kill yourself to buy a house. Sit still. It is not affordable right now. Well, that's Jill Schlesinger on CBS talking about housing and the rates going slightly up. Jamie Dimon's here, CEO of JPMorgan Chase. What's your reaction to that?
Yeah, no, it's fixable. You know, we've been telling the government for years, you know, you and I have spoke about rules and regulations. The excessive rules around mortgages, if anyone's signed a mortgage recently, like the signatures, the papers, the documents, the security increase the cost of that mortgage probably by 30 or 40 basis points. And we've spoken to the government about we should fix that. The other thing is affordable housing is much more expensive than it should be because of usually local zoning. You know, they make it a jobs program. You have to use unions. You can't have a second floor. And so affordable housing like in California is literally 50% more than it would be in Nevada because of their rules. And so if people they give lip service to affordable housing, but then they don't fix it, right? And so there are a lot of things to do to fix these problems. Does it work? And growing the economy. You know, you have already mentioned to me, we have to have growth strategies that would get more income into people's hands, they'd be able to afford more. And it would also if you have more productivity, it's actually deflationary. Good growth can be a little deflationary because you're adding productivity.
Understood. And with the housing market, the Fed says, 'I'm going to stay pat when it comes to interest rates.' Was that a good move?
Yeah. I think I don't think they really have a choice right now. Remember the Fed has to look at data and the data right now says that inflation is still running at 3%. It'd be a little peculiar if they cut it right now but if we continue to grow and you know if gas prices come down eventually yeah they may very well cut rates.
Do you think there's something you learned from the strait being such a factor now with global energy prices that we change? For example Saudi Arabia has redirected some of that oil through the Red Sea. We know there's a pipeline there that allows them some flexibility. Do you hope we address this?
You know, hindsight's a wonderful thing. There are a lot of things that we should have done differently around security, resiliency, energy. You know, Europe is hugely reliant on liquid natural gas from the US and from Qatar. And so in hindsight, they built one pipeline that goes to the Red Sea, carries 7 million barrels, but you could have built a lot more so that you're not relying on the Straits of Hormuz, but it's too late to do that right now. That would, you know, take years and years to do. So, you know, the lesson is that these people have been threatening the world for a long time. And I shouldn't say threatened because when I hear that word threat, it's like they didn't do anything. No, they actually killed and murdered people all around the world, including Americans. So, on October 7th, when Hamas went into Israel, a lot of Americans died that day. And you know, of course, the Houthis, the Hezbollah, Hamas, you know, they've been fostering terrorism. They've tried here several times. The world should have done something about them. We just found out, look, I don't know what the military knows or the government knows, but we just found out they had a ballistic missile go 3,000 miles. They could hit every capital in Europe.
Yeah, exactly. If they had a nuclear weapon now that it's not just the Strait of Hormuz anymore. It's like and these are killers. These are not people who just want to protect themselves and but and they're fanatics. But Jamie, when we're in nuclear talks, there was a big push back even from the IRGC saying, 'Well, they're not really, they're looking to get a nuclear energy program, not a nuclear weapons program.' And then we find out they were at 60% enrichment and they had six and they...
Yeah, everyone knew they were liars, but again, I still think the government probably knows more than we know right now. And one day we'll probably find out. So I'm not an expert in nuclear proliferation. I do know if you had nuclear proliferation, that's probably the worst thing that could happen to mankind. If they actually had a nuclear weapon, over time, so would Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, a bunch of other countries, eventually South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam. And if you actually have that kind of proliferation, mankind will be in tough shape.
All right, Jamie, I do want for people that are just tuning in right now, one of the reasons you're here today is that you have this initiative going forward, the American Dream Initiative to expand local and economic opportunity. Because right now our numbers that we have that only 32% of the people listening to us right now, Americans, even though we're heard internationally, 32% of Americans believe in the American dream. You want to change that?
Yeah. Well, first they should step back and look at this unbelievable country of ours where, you know, if we open up our borders, billions of people would come here and want to be American. But we should also acknowledge our flaws. It has been framed for the lower income, mostly for the lower income third in our country. Their schools aren't good enough. They're not getting jobs and we should do something about this. This has happened by the way over 40, 50 years even after the war on poverty started. It didn't really work. We have to acknowledge that and do something about it. And this is our part. So we're going to do more mortgages, more education. We have 25% of our branches in lower income neighborhoods. We bring the people in to teach them. We've got a community manager who walks around, gets to know the businesses and the religious institutions. We're going to go from seven, we bank 7 million small businesses to 10, with a thousand new bankers, and we're doing it quite locally. So the first place, and I forgot when I'm going down, is Alabama. We start opening a branch in Alabama. I visited L3, you know, making the THAAD missile down there. So we do things for schools, financial education, skills.
The greatest need. Yeah, we looked at what can we do and it's new to us. So we always learn, we do something. So we learned from Detroit, go in in a very comprehensive way, deal with the governor and the mayor, look what their needs are. The needs are always different locally. It's a bad idea for a big company to say this is what we do and this is how we're going to do it. You know, in certain parts of the country they need other things. And so if you go to Alabama, there's some cities doing great. There's some cities not doing great. And you know, the lesson is have the policies that make it great. And a lot of it's around education.
The one thing we understand, my daughter's a teacher, fifth grade, and the one thing that happens is in lower-class, working-class areas, they pay teachers by the property taxes. And the property taxes, if you live in a working-class area, your property taxes, the revenue is not high. So therefore the teachers get paid less, the schools don't have as great accommodations. Yeah, sometimes states come in and help out, but for the most part, not only are your parents probably making less money, but you also have the work against you. Your teachers aren't getting paid. Logically, you would think the higher paid teachers go to the places that would get more money. That's the American way. So, you see all this happening. This is stacking the deck against people who already have the deck stacked against them. Not making it impossible, but you're just trying to level out the playing field a little bit.
Absolutely. I mean, it's a shame. And I agree with you. Real estate tax was part of that. How we paid teachers is part of that. All these policies we put in place didn't work for a lot of people. So I tell a lot of my friends, you don't worry about your schools, you don't worry about crime, you don't worry about your kids. There's none of that. But you go to an inner city or certain rural areas, they have more crime, less jobs, worse education somewhat because of real estate taxes. And all of us, government and I think business too, should take part of the responsibility saying how can we fix it? We do it mostly commercially. You know, most of what we do, we try to make money in those cities but we bring knowledge and loans and business and we have small business consultants, you know, so if you ever want to start a small business, they help you. Where do you locate a restaurant, what's the best place to do it, how do you sign a lease, how do you get a contract with the federal government.
So where would they find you?
In a branch. There are 5,000 branches around the country. We're in all 48 states now.
And they would walk in and just say, tell me about this, tell me about the American Dream Initiative?
Yes. They can ask for it, they can open an account, you know, we run mortgage seminars or investment seminars. And it's all on the web. You can go look at JPMorgan Chase and see what we can do and how we can do it. And look, we want to be a great corporate citizen. We want to build JPMorgan. We want to build America. We're all quite patriotic. This is part of what we think is our job. It was always the job of a bank. It's to finance society to grow and expand and help business. And the other thing people should, your listeners should know, is that capital formation is what drives productivity and growth and jobs. You know, when someone builds a plant somewhere, like they're building this plant which we helped them do in Detroit, a new car plant like the first one in 30 years or something, there's going to be 5,000 jobs in the plant. There are going to be 25,000 jobs outside the plant supporting the plant, you know, from people taking restaurants and...
Exactly. Barbers and but also consultants and electrical and plumbing and, you know, all these things you need to have society. But those 5,000 jobs drive a lot of jobs in Detroit.
Don't you think a lot of these mayors don't seem to understand that? The mayor of Chicago, the mayor of New York City, the mayor of Los Angeles, I don't think they fully understand that.
Yeah. I think there's, my experience with mayors is a lot of them didn't run these big bureaucracies and they got the job and now all of a sudden they're in this job and they have ideas and they sold themselves and they're good politicians. Now you got to run a job at the bureaucracy and good people learn, whether you're a Democrat or Republican, that it's going to be about the schools, the crime, the hospitals, the subways. Getting local business to want to stay there. That's the job. It's not ideology. And so some learn and some don't. And sometimes I'm surprised that they don't because you think they should. Sometimes surprised that they do because you think they wouldn't. But they're blinded. If they're blinded by ideology, it'll almost always fail.
And I know Jamie, you got to go. But my last question is you in the big picture. You're not ready to retire. I know that for a fact. You've said it many times. But at one point, you're always into challenges. If the right opportunity came to serve in government, would you ever, have you thought about running for president? The field is literally wide open on both sides.
Look, obviously it's been mentioned to me a lot. I think it's kind of, when you, I love what I do and remember, I'm not a quick sonic kind of guy. I'm not a quick kind of guy. I think from this perch I could do a lot of stuff to help my country and everyone here and stuff like that. So, so the answer is no. I'm not really thinking about doing that and I applaud the people who do it, but it is hard.
Would you be a Democrat or Republican?
I don't know. I would not be an ideologue of any sort.
Understood. Jamie Dimon, thanks so much and thanks for what you're doing. The American Dream Initiative is now out there. Find your local branch, find out more about it, and see how you can maybe have some resources for the first time in your life to make your life better than whatever it is right now. Jamie, thanks so much for the quality time.
Brian, great day with you. Thank you.
Absolutely. Back in a moment.
What is one action that Donald Trump took that is impossible to do under the Constitution, but he did it anyway?
I can't name specific laws. I'm sorry. I lost a lot of thought on that.
You're a reporter, so why don't you do your homework? Don't ask me.
Legally, he could do that.
He can putting ICE in our cities.
Legally, he could put ICE in cities.
I don't really give a damn about legally. Rename the Kennedy Center.
Which amendment under the Constitution is he prohibited from renaming the Kennedy Center?
I refer you to New York Times. Two days ago they had a list of about 30 items.
So what is one thing from that list?
One thing from that list is, I'm blanking. Yes, you did blank. The no kings rally is far and now we find out that billions, literally billions, were put in from outside sources. And you watching these people in New York City with communist flags. Are you an idiot? You're pro-Bolshevik, you want Stalin is the good old days you want to bring to America or you think, I don't know, was Yeltsin somebody that you really want to get some of those policies going. It works so well in Cuba. It's really fantastic in China and man is it really humming over in Russia. I mean we're seeing communist stuff. Literally the communist party is financing it and the Democrats are more than welcome. They call that a big tent. You can't let communism into your tent. You can't let Islamic extremism into your tent.
It's incredible. But I do want to talk about what's happening in the war right now. We had, the Pentagon had a meeting. I didn't get a lot out of it. The Pentagon had a press conference. Some of the questions were interesting. There's a lot of optimism there that they're finishing off this target. We have to soon find a way to get that strait reopened and get the uranium out. I think both those things got to happen or they got to be secured. How are we going to do that? And what exactly have we done already? I will say that the one problem I have that also shows the success we're having. There really is no one voice. We've killed along with the Israelis 250 of their leaders, including almost all their higher ups. They were down two or three virgins. The current president who we've allowed to live is a so-called moderate among radicals who is for these talks but the IRGC isn't. So what's the sense of talking to the president if the IRGC is still going to act? Now let's see how are they acting. Yeah, they shoot a few rockets to the desalinization plants in Kuwait. I assume that's intentional. What idiocy but go ahead and I'm sure that anyone, any place in Israel they think is a good target. What about Turkey? Yeah, you hit Turkey yesterday. What about the fact that the Strait of Hormuz is so chaotic? You stopped three Chinese ships from coming through. They're the number one benefactor. They're the only people for the most part who have been buying your oil through the sanctions. So if you look at what, and by the way, the UAE is privately pushing the president of the United States to put in ground troops. They want these guys finished off for good. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain feel the same way. I love it. Those are called real allies. NATO, I'll tell you, it's a crisis moment. Spain has blocked the airspace to military flights over Iran, and they're not letting us use our air base. Do you believe this? The Spanish defense minister confirmed the move, saying Spain has denied airspace access and the use of joint US-Spanish bases for any operation tied to the Iran conflict. You know why? They want to be able to get their ships through, and they stand for nothing. They spend 1.4% of their military. They think we're going to watch their back. Forget it. Oil exports have dropped from 2 million a day, and sanctioned oil by the way in Iran, to 1.2. Revenue down from 3 billion to 2 billion as a country. By the way, inflation 120%. Currency collapsed. Public workers unpaid along with the army. Banks have been disrupted. Funds have been frozen in all Gulf state banks. ATMs they say are running dry. Besides that, I don't think we're winning. I love these people. They go, momentum's on their side and this is why they feel emboldened. Really? They feel emboldened by doing what? Yeah, they're definitely putting pain in the world community. Cutting down, shortage of energy. No doubt about it. But it's all temporary. President's going to end that relatively quickly. To me, there's no doubt about that he's going to do that. Some of the people that have stepped forward and said some things is General Jack Keane. Obviously, I thought General McKenzie was fantastic over the weekend. Here's what General Keane said last night. Larry, cut six.
We have been working on this probably ever since they imposed their will. We began executing that war plan. And what does that mean? That means taking down anti-ship missiles at distance, long range ballistic missiles at distance. The Shahid drones can go almost 1,000 miles. So we're going deep into Iran that can access the Straits of Hormuz. And then we're working close in to deal with what, close in mine layers, small boats that could be suicide boats to interfere with shipping. They could fire drones from that small boat as well or fire other kinds of short-range missiles at a boat. All of that is being exercised.
So, and we just got to find a way. There's a plan in place and the president's looking at a few options. Do not believe the Wall Street Journal story that said according to aides the president's looking to get out and doesn't care what happens to the Strait of Hormuz. That would be something I could never support. I don't think his biggest supporters could support that. I think people that don't want him in this would not even support ending it like that. I mean, I'm talking about Republicans or the podcasting world that's critical of the president. Nobody wants it to end like that. The only people that want it to end like that are the Senator Chris Murphys of the world that want to run for president and say this was an epic fail. The Seth Moultons of the world who said we're failing. All I can say is at one point you have to look at the facts. I know everything is polarized and political, but just understand what the military is doing. They're taking this country apart while trying to preserve the lives of the people and lay the groundwork for them to take their country back. You listen to Brian Kilmeade, don't move.
I don't know that there's any evidence that this new iteration of the Iranian regime is any more reasonable than the last one. The new supreme leader, whom we haven't seen publicly at least and reportedly was seriously injured, has certainly given no indication that he's interested in negotiations. Iran has refused or rejected publicly the idea of coming to the negotiating table in good faith and discussing the key issues which led to this war, which is their ballistic missile program, their nuclear program and their support to proxy terrorists in the region. And so the president is delivering this pretty serious threat. And we'll have to see how Iran responds.
Evidently, there's a public Iran and there's a private Iran and now we have new faces. 250 are eliminated, means they're dead. Lieutenant Colonel Allen West joins us now. Dallas County Republican Party chair, American Constitutional Rights Union Executive Director, former Congressman in Florida. Colonel, what's your take on where we're at right now? And how do you feel about what Dan Hoffman said that the new guys are just as bad as the old guys?
Yeah, I have to agree with that. I mean, you can't make a deal with the devil. And I don't care how many devils you kill, they're still all devils. I think the most important strategic imperatives that are facing President Trump and the war department right now, get the Straits of Hormuz open. We cannot have that choke point. We cannot have Iran being able to hold up the flow and the supply of oil to the rest of the world. We have to make sure that again they are not able to, as you see, support these Islamic terrorist organizations to include the Houthis now who jumped in over the weekend and they're threatening the straits there at Bab el-Mandeb which is another global choke point for shipping. And I think the other thing that we have to do is economically hurt them. Now, as far as attacking, you know, desalination plants and things of this nature, I don't want to see us turn the people of Iran against us, and then bring about that suffering. But without a doubt, we need to defang the tiger and make sure that there's a toothless tiger going forward.
And that strait's got to be open and we can't leave. Don't you agree?
Absolutely. It has to be open because I mean, who's going to do it? I mean, what was the point of going in? You can say, yeah, we reduced their ballistic missile capability and threat. Maybe we took out their ICBM threat, their navy, their air force. But the bottom line is we cannot have Iran and his proxy militaries like the Houthis still in charge of two very important global shipping choke points.
So when you look at how this is going, did you see the Pentagon press conference today?
No. I was in the airplane flying back here to Dallas, so I missed it.
So basically, they feel like they're on target. Listen to, I want you to hear what General McKenzie said and he's somebody who has no reason to do anything but call it like he sees it. So this guy, he was on Face the Nation this weekend as people know he was head of CENTCOM. Let's listen.
This is a part of a plan that's been in existence for many years. What we're doing right now is we're reducing Iranian ability to target ships in the strait through their short-range missiles, their drones, and other activities. We do that by maintaining air superiority over southern Iran on a 24/7 basis, looking for where these missiles are and striking them relentlessly. Once we reduce those to a very low level, then you'll be able to go in, if necessary, sweep for mines. I'm not certain they put mines in the water yet. I predict eventually they will. It's their nature. But we have the ability to do this. We're on plan. I'll be honest with you, Margaret. I've simulated this many years in many positions at Central Command. We're a little further along than we would have expected to be at this point in all the simulations that I've seen.
Yeah, I do believe him. I mean, he's a former CENTCOM commander. He's speaking from experience. And look, going back to 1997 when I was stationed at Fort Bragg, we ran a simulation exercise with the 82nd. I was a part of supporting going into Bandar Abbas there in the Strait of Hormuz. So all of these things have been war games simulated and planned out for years. And so I believe that yes, without a doubt, we're just what, five weeks into this. We have achieved incredible results in just 5 weeks. And so now you've got to get that strait open. You got to make sure because you do have that air dominance to take out those missile systems. And we have the Navy mine sweepers. They can go in there and make sure that those mines, if they are there, they will be eliminated and taken out. And we have that capability and capacity. So again, I think that right now, you know, the regime change and all this type of stuff not as important as getting the Straits of Hormuz open and economically crippling Iran and making sure that they cannot be a threat by way of these terrorist organizations or their ballistic missile capabilities.
So among our allies that are just MIA is Spain, nobody worse. They won't even spend 2% of their military not even trying. And then they say, we're not allowed to use their air. We're not allowed to use our own bases and we're not allowed to even fly over their airspace. Listen to the secretary of state on Al Jazeera, cut four.
We have countries like Spain, a NATO member that we are pledged to defend, denying us the use of their airspace and bragging about it, denying us the use of their bases. And there are other countries that have done that as well. And so you ask yourself, well, what is in it for the United States? And I've been a big supporter of NATO and one of the reasons why I've been a supporter of NATO is because I believe that these basing rights give us leverage and give us flexibility and operational capability all over the world. But if NATO is just about us defending Europe if they're attacked, but them denying us basing rights when we need them, that's not a very good arrangement. That's a hard one to stay engaged in and say this is good for the United States. So all of that's going to have to be re-examined. All of it's going to have to be re-examined. And I think you have to say, you know what, if Spain's in, then we're out.
Yeah. I mean, I think one of the things you have to look at is a lot of these Western European countries, they have fallen prey to the internal Islamic jihadist threat that they have because they allowed their open borders and this faint of multiculturalism to overtake them. And that's become a huge consideration. But for them to say that as a member of NATO they're going to deny another NATO member the overflight, that's unacceptable. And so I would say that we start looking at where we can shift those bases and take them to someplace else. Those naval bases and air bases as well. So this is a huge challenge for us in our ongoing relationship with NATO because guess what? A lot of that oil that comes out of the Straits of Hormuz, it goes to Europe. It doesn't come to the United States of America, right? And they want to get their discount and they want to be able to get their oil out. So, their relationship with Iran is more valuable to them than their relationship with us. Pretty short-term thinking, I would say.
Lastly, you were in an airport. How long did you wait to get on and off?
It was very easy. I tell you what, you know, we have never had any problems here at Dallas Fort Worth airport or Dallas Love Field. Hats off to the TSA agents here. I know there's been some issues down in Houston, but things are going very well. No ICE agents at the airports that I was at. And Fort Lauderdale airport this morning, zero dark 30 when I was there, things flow very smoothly. So again, thank you to those Americans of the Transportation Security Agency and shame on these elected officials who go around affecting the paychecks of other Americans while they still get paid. That's not leadership.
I don't think it is either. And lastly DHS as you know is out. Chris Coons was said, why did you guys leave? And listen to how he ends this interview. Cut 15.
How do you justify being off for the next two weeks? We're 45 days in. Can Democrats and Republicans keep affording to play this blame game?
You know well that we're not off. We're working every day in our home states. For most of us, this is when we have the time to go up and down our state and to meet with our constituents and listen to their needs, sir. So don't you owe, let me finish. Don't you owe it to them. Thank you all very much. Great.
Yeah. Yeah. I think they saw they were showing pictures of Lindsey Graham down at Disneyland or Disney World, something like that. I don't know. But I doubt these guys are doing a whole lot of work up there. But again, they're still getting paid and they're members of the federal government who are supposed to be keeping us safe but are not getting paid. And I think that the American people would prioritize those Americans like the TSA agents who are doing yeoman's work to keep us safe and secure in the airways over some of these members of the Senate.
All right. And lastly, when it comes to the Senate race, Cornyn and Ken Paxton, it looks like a flat-footed tie right now.
Yeah, it's going to be very interesting and I, you know, the ads are quite disturbing. I wish that people would just talk about policy and what they want to do instead of, you know, being like two gunboats out in the middle of the ocean shooting back and forth at each other. But I think that the edge will end up going to Ken Paxton in the end.
All right. Thanks so much, Colonel Allen West. Appreciate it.
All right. I do want to finish off what we were just discussing, and that is that Congress left town. Whether you think the House was right or the Senate was right, I would think they should come back and work it out. But the president of the United States had to go cut a check from some other area in order to pay the TSA and some of their back pay. Here's Dasha Burns of Politico, cut 19.
You know, the president decided to issue this executive order to pay TSA agents. I said, how long can the White House keep doing that? I mean, there can't be an indefinite amount of funds to do this. And she said, the president can't just keep signing memorandums time and time again when Congress fails to do their jobs. But that was the pain point. The airports were the thing that was pushing both sides to talk to one another. Now, I mean, I just really struggle and my sources that I talked to struggle to see how this gets resolved.
Yeah, I hear you too because look, it's the Democrats who feel they're getting something out of standing up against ICE and the Republicans say, are you kidding me? We got hired to enforce the border and to get illegal immigrant criminals out of this country. We're not giving either. And with the president writing the checks, I think Dasha Burns might be right. When we come back, Steuart Pittman joins us and we join him. Brian Kilmeade.
And with us right now is Benham Ben Taleblu, the FDD senior Iran program director. Benham, thanks so much for joining us.
Great to be with you. Thanks for having me again.
