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Unknown A
Hello everybody. I am your host, Alad Eli Yahu for Tim Kess the Culture War Channel. And today I'm very excited because we have a very special guest. This is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom l Trust, where at CPAC Today List Trust. Can you take a minute to introduce yourself to our American audience who may not be too familiar with politics over in the uk?
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Unknown B
So I'm Liz Truss, I'm former British Prime Minister. I'm also a former government minister. So I served for 10 years in the British government in many different jobs from Trade Secretary to Foreign Secretary to Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. You got a really exc.
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Unknown B
Also I have a best selling book called 10 Years to Save the west, all about the threat to Western civilization that we face.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. As I understand this is your second seatp back here. You said in your speech, can you tell me a little bit more about your impression of how Americans do conservatism?
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Unknown B
Well, I love it and we want to have a SEP back in Britain because it's so good and I think there are lots of Brits who would want to come to a CPAC event.
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Unknown A
Abutely.
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Unknown B
I think it's really good.
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Unknown A
I think there was one quote that I wanted to get directly from you. You said you hope to see a movement like what we have here with MAG in the United States, in the uk. What would a MAGA movement in the UK look like?
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Unknown B
I think you're already seeing a lot of protests around Britain just because of the terrible state of the country. So we have tractors lined up in Whitehall because farmers are unhappy that the government is trying to have inheritance taxs and take away their legacies. We've got people angry about the COVID ups around the Southport terrorist attack, people angry about the failure to deal with grooming gangs in towns across England. So I think there are lots of people who are not happy with the status quo and they want to see change. And what we saw in America is when that happened, you had the Tea Party Movement, you had the MAGA movement and that is, I think the type of momentum that's needed in Britain to get real change.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. We are coming on the heels off of a very turbulent, exciting election where Donald Trump had his come back. What were your impressions of when Trump managed to win again with a popular vote mandate here in our country on the platform that he did run?
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Unknown B
It was just extraordinary. I believe Trump would win for quite a long time because I saw how Biden and Harris were just completely off the ball with what American people actually Wanted gender, ideology, all the nonsense about the environment and net zero, not, not exploiting America's energy reserves, all the problems with the economy. We had similar issues in Britain and the Conservative Party got annihilated at the election last year. So I was expecting that. But then the assassination attempt was just extraordinary and electrifing in terms of the, the impact it had, you know, the, how close it was and, you know, you couldn't. The whole, you know, the whole campaign, the McDonald's moment there.
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Unknown A
Well, there are multiple assassination attempts. There's a guy, I think, also in the golf course, not too far off from him with a rifle or something.
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Unknown B
So you could just see the momentum building even, even greater. And I, I felt there would be a big, a big Trump victory. Even though people are saying it would be narrow. I thought it would be big.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. Now that he is in office, one of the big things that we've been seeing him do in the United States is Doge and doing a lot of cuts across the board. And Doge is kind of headed by Elon Musk, who Democrats and anti Trumpers have decided to target instead of Trump. Now, even some on the right, like Steve Bann, have called him an oligarch. What are your impressions of Elon Musk and what's going on with doj?
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Unknown B
We, we think Elon Musk is great. He's basically the leader of the opposition in Britain. He's taking on Kir Selma on X. He's fantastic. He's talking about free speech, he's talking about all the issues that affected Britain. He's been raising these issues of the grooming gangs and, and highlighting things that the British media won't talk about. Say we are massive fans or I am a massive fan. And the Doge, you know, the Doge project, actually going into government departments and finding out what they're spending is very, very clever way of finding out what's going on. Because I spent 10 years in government, a lot of time being thwarted by the British bureaucracy who are not, not accountable. They have their own agenda and they spend time trying to delay things. So to have somebody just go straight to the point and say, what money is going out the door? Brillian.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. I know Elon Musk is kind of was very influential in our election. I think he donated something like $300 million to Donald Trump and then obviously bought out X during the election season and was very involved in. Would you like to see Elon Musk get involved more in politics in the uk? I know he has Had a lot of commentary on stuff going on in Britain, but if he's doing those cuts there, there's no reason he can't do them in the UK as well.
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Unknown B
Definitely. What needs to happen in Britain is that we have a very powerful bureaucracy in deep state that's developed over 100 years, although Tony Blair turbocharged it. Tony Blair created a fake, you know, Supreme Court that wasn't really a Supreme Court, that was not accountable. He handed over massive powers to the bureaucracy. So in Britain, what needs to happen is Parliament needs to repeal all of that. So that is not. The executive also needs to be properly organized and politically accountable, which it isn't at the moment, which is more the sort work Elon Musk is doing. And I would love to see him and his you colleagues, what they call the Musk rats. I'd love to see them going into British government departments and actually saying, where is the money going here?
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Unknown A
Absolutely. I wanted to pivot.
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Unknown B
We don't just need Doge, we need. We need a great repeal bill in Britain to get rid of all that bad legislation.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. I wanted to pivot to one of the other big platform items on the Trump agenda and that was to end wars, particularly in the Middle east. And now we're seeing in Eastern Europe. He recently sent an envoy of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Witkoff to Ridya in Saudi Arabia to meet with different Russians to talk about how to end the war. What are your impressions of Trump's envoy meeting with the Russians in Saudi Arabia and just them without any Europeans?
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Unknown B
What's important to me is that Russia doesn't get anything out of pursuing this war against Ukraine. That's what's important to me. Say what I care about is the outcome. If it achieves the right outcome, that's what's important.
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Unknown A
Does, does that like, include the domass? What, what would a victory, not a victory look like for Putin in this?
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Unknown B
I mean, I'm not, you know, I was Foreign Secretary a few years ago, so I'm not consgnizant with what is going on the ground now. But the important point is that Putin is a threat to European security. I very much fear that if he is successful in Ukraine, he will look for more territory that needs to be stopped, prevented. That's what I want the negotiations to achieve.
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Unknown A
Trump raised a lot of eyebrows when he, during these negotiations, he accused Ukraine of starting the war. He also called Zelensky a dictator. Do you agree with either of those statements?
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Unknown B
Well, I've just said I. What I think which is Putin started the war and Putin is the, the threat to European security. He's the one who's invaded a sovereign nation. Having said that, you know, the, the focus has to be on getting the results. That's what I care about. I care about the results.
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Unknown A
Absolutely.
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Unknown B
And Joe Biden was not delivering the results. Joe Biden had no strategy.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. I know Trump's also been talking about kind of his geopolitical strategy, so it seems is to be pivoting out of Europe to focus more on the Asia Pacific. Do you also get that sense? And what do you think the consequences would be for the UK and NATO as a result of that?
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Unknown B
The UK and Europe have completely underspent on defense. And it's another problem with the British government of the British bureaucracy. We need to fix that. We need to be able to defend ourselves and we can't let our economies fall to raqk and ruin, which is what's been happening because of policies like net zero, which was like an entire virtue signaling policy that has destroyed our energy industry, it's destroyed our steel industry. And that, that is fundamentally why Europe is weak is because it's behind America economically in a way that just wasn't, you know, 30 years ago. British GDP per capita was similar to the U.S. it's now $34,000 per head behind. So that just shows you what has gone wrong in Europe. So what we need to do in Europe, and obviously I'm focused on the UK is we need to fix that stuff. We need to frack, we need to get our economy going, we need to cut taxes, we need to cut the size of government.
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Unknown B
That's what makes you strong and secure. And that's the lesson that Europe seems to completely forgotten with a possible exception of some of Eastern Europe. But Western Europe has been an economic disaster zone.
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Unknown A
I guess kind of what my follow up here would be is are you concerned about what the downstream consequences of America sort of pulling out of European affairs would be to the UK and France? So for example, like if the United States became disinterested in supporting Ukraine, the burden would fall on the rest of the Europeans would support them and if not, I guess Russia.
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Unknown B
I think you've got to look at the big picture here, which is we are facing a alliance of authoritarian regimes. China, Iran, Russia, North Korea. There is a. No, there is a strategic decision to be made about how do you, how do you stop that alliance succeeding. Part of it is the economic revival of Europe. I think that's really important. Part of it is improving Asia Pacific defense. But what you don't want is a situation where these allies and you know, China, Russia, Iran, et cetera, are able to work together and play off countries against each other. And what, what there has been of late is a total lack of American leadership. So you've had, you know, Europe, you know, Germany in particular building Nord Stream 1 and 2 to get cheap Russian gas even though they were making themselves beholden to Russia. You've had appeasement of Iran, you know, where Iran's almost in a position to get a nuclear weapon again because of these talks of like reviving the jcpi, et ceca, et cetera.
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Unknown B
You've had all these strategic failures and these, these countries are all linked and working together. So any think you can kind of separate it in that way. And I think if, if Putin is seen to win out of his invasion of Ukraine, that will send a message to China about American resolve.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. And this will be my last follow up on this. And I guess kind of what I'm hinting at is, is there're concern about the longevity and sustainability of NATO because even people like JD Vance, who recently spoke at a conference in Europe was saying the, the greatest enemy is within.
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Unknown B
I agree with that. That is what my book 10 Years to Save the west is about. It's about the way that these leftist ideologies have taken hold in our elites, you know, the bureaucracies, the corporations, the sort of Davos inspired globalism. It's been a disaster and that is what we need to defeat that. And actually it's in China, Russia and Iran's interest for these, these movements to succeed. The sort of woked movement because it's all about the west questioning itself. And what we should be doing is we should be proud of ourselves and you know, strong in the way that we stand towards the rest of the world.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. We'll ask you your a political question. Not on Europe though. Trump's been making a lot of comments about his interests in the Panama Canal, Greenland, Canada even. Have you heard this rhetoric and what is your reaction to rhetoric like this coming from Trump? I don't know. Are you fearful the UK might be somewhere down on the listing if he keeps going?
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Unknown B
Well, the, in terms of Canada and this sort of wider, wider strategy, there are serious issues with fentanyl incursions coming through Canada to the United States. So my understanding, talking to friends I have in Canada is there was a real issue in terms of the way that Canada has been policing its borders under Justin Trudeau and some of these Bad things that we've been talking about like mass migration, Net zero Trudeau is one of the main proponents of them. So I think that when we're talking about tariffs, we're talking about a broader, broader discussion between Canada and America on those issues, which is it's not a direct concern of the United Kingdom. You know, I'd love to see pressure being put on the United Kingdom on a lot of issues. So why on earth is the UK not producing its own gas? Why are we importing frack gas from America rather than fracking our own gas?
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Unknown B
Doesn't make any sense. Yeah, so I'm all, I'm all for Kir Starma being put under pressure because I think that Britain is heading in the wrong strategic direction but ultimately that that is something British electors will decide.
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Unknown A
Yeah, I know us Americans could be in kind of a bubble. So when TrumpMP announcedce the news of him wanted to take over Greenland we were kind of excited over here. People were kind of ecatic. What were the reactions from the Europeans? Iceland I believe manage well is Denmark.
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Unknown B
Denmark are the why they're in charge of. I don't know the ins and outs of that. And y. I'm closer to the Canadian issue, to be honest.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. There's one last topic I want but.
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Unknown B
I think what all of us recognize is there's been a real lack of American leadership. There's been a vacuum at the White House and that has been. Things have not been going in the right direction as far as China, Russia and Iran are concerned. So that needs to be fixed.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. The last topic I want to hit on was about how there it's be. There's a narrative that there's a sort of a global resurgence of the right.
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Unknown B
Wing needs to happen quicker around the.
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Unknown A
You know, not only in the United States but in Germany and other parts of the world. I guess my question to you is how do you plan to bring that to the UK?
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Unknown B
Well, what we need first of all is free speech. And this is where JD Vance was absolutely right and what he said. European governments are treating George Orwell's 1984 as an instruction manual and that is a disaster for our democracies. So what I'm doing is working on a new free speech media network to take on the censouss to take on organizations like the BBC who are completely biased in their reporting so that people hear the truth about what is going on. And I think that is the way and we've seen the, you know, the independent media in a way that has influenced the US election. That's what I want to see happening in the UK and Europe.
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Unknown A
Absolutely. Well, we're really excited to see what happens over the uk.
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Unknown B
Well, there'be more. There'll be more news soon. There'll be more news soon.
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Unknown A
Re looking forward to.
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Unknown B
Fantastic.
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Unknown A
I'll interview with you then. But was there anything else you want to ment?
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Unknown B
No, that's all good. Thank you very much.
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Unknown A
I thank you.
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Unknown B
Thank you. So can I we It.