Trump's NATO win, Russia threat, and jobs numbers (07-14-2025--Hour3)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet, And again, thank you so much for your support. Before the show. Began today, Donald Trump was in the Oval Office with the Secretary General of NATO and he well, here, I've got a clip. I'll just play the SoundBite here, Donald Trump talking about Russia, Ukraine, NATO. We've made a deal today and I'm going to have Mark speak about it. But we've made a deal today where we are going to be sending them web and said they're going to be paying for them. The United States will not be having any payment. May We are not buying it, but we will manufacture it and they're going to be paying for it. Our last meeting of a month ago is very successful and that they agreed to five percent, which is more than a trillion. Dollars a year. So they have a lot of money and they have These are wealthy nations. All right, So what he's talking about the five percent there is that the commitment of all NATO countries is supposed to be that you spend I think it's two or two and a half percent of your GDP on military. And that's the whole point is that everybody agrees to this two percent. So you're not getting. Free loaders in your security umbrella. Right. So NATO countries in Europe, Western Europe, they have not been meeting that two percent, and they have been meeting it like my entire life. And so they have been joyed the protection of the United States of America and our military. They have enjoyed that while not spending the money on their own militaries, which makes them harder to defend by America. Right, it's like, hey, guys, we got to go to war. And it's like, whoa, you're driving a truck from the seventies, man, Like, what's happening here? Right? Well, at the last NATO conference, the NATO countries agreed to boost their GDP and some of them have actually gotten to the two percent now, but now they're going to take it all the way at a five percent, which I got to tell you, makes. Me wonder. If they're thinking something is coming. I don't know that, I'm just but the fact that all of a sudden, Europe is like, man, we really need to spend on military after all this time. So they're going to buy the military weapon. They're going to buy stuff from America. They have a lot of money and they want to do it. They feel very strongly about it, and we feel strongly about it too. But we're in for a lot of money and we just we don't want to do it anymore. And we can, but we make the best and we're going to be sending the best to NATO and in some cases too, maybe at Mark suggestion, if we go to Germany where they're going to send early on missiles and they'll be replaced and NATO is going to take care of it's going to be coordinated by NATO, and they're going to work very much with Matt Whitaker, who's right here, is a great ambassador, and Matt's going to be coordinat you better do a good job, Mat, but Matt's going to coordinate. He's a very talented guy. He's going to coordinate. Everything, all right, So there he goes. That was from the Oval Office. This is Philip Wegman. He is a White House reporter for Real Clear Politics. He said. Trump also announced new tariff threats against Russia. Trump said he is quote, I'm very disappointed in President Putin because he believed the US would have a deal on the Ukraine ceasefire. He thought we would have this deal two months ago. The new tariff threat is as follows. If there is not a deal in fifty days, there will be a one hundred percent tariff, which I think is actually lower than what we slept on like our ally Canada I think has been uh no, I'm kidding. But this is in addition to the tariffs that are I think already it were sanctions and stuff on Russia. But whatever, that's the thread. So get to the table. You got fifty days or we're going to slap more tariffs on Russia. But also anybody that is buying Russian oil. I believe that was part of the threat too, So anybody does business with Russia is going to get hit with this tariff. Also, I don't know if it'll work. We shall see. I guess the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutt called Trump's demand that Europe pay for new weapons for Ukraine, which was another aspect of this. Trump's like, if you guys want Ukraine to be armed up, send them your stuff. So now, okay, so you or NATO countries are now going to buy American made weaponry and then they're going to give it to Ukraine. So it's kind of like we're doing it, but we're not. We're just selling the weapons to NATO allies. Now what they do with them after that, that's totally up to them. But the NATO Secretary General he said, this is a quote totally logical demand by Trump. So okay, I guess that's what's going to happen. That was the news that broke shortly before the program began. Also, this. Employment is up since President Donald Trump took office. Overall, the number of employed people in the United States has increased by one point five million since January of this year one point five million, But that number includes both foreign born and American born workers. When you look at just American born workers, the Trump job boom is even better. Over two million more American born workers are working today than we're working in January so American born workers saw two million more jobs. The foreign born workers has fallen by half a million. That gives you your one point five total something something something jobs Americans won't do. Right. The number of employed people in the United States did not get back to its pre COVID peak until July of twenty twenty two when Joe Biden was president, right, and that number was at one hundred and fifty nine million Americans employed. Since then. So if you're if you just like try and the reason why this is con Carol is doing this at the Washington Examiner, and he's bracketing the COVID numbers because obviously when you shut everything down and close all the businesses, people are out of work, right, And so you then find out when did we get back to pre COVID the pre COVID number, and that was in July of twenty twenty two. And then if you look at that point forward, the Biden economy added three point three million jobs, but only one hundred eighty nine thousand thousand of them went to American born workers. Out of three point three million, one hundred eighty nine thousand went to American born workers. The remaining three point one million new jobs under the Biden economy all went to foreign born workers. Not only have over two million American workers gained jobs since Trump took office, but over the same time period, real wages are up and inflation is down. It's a pretty good economic record right there. That's a pretty good data point. Again, this is all part of what Trump promised, right, and he is fulfilling it. And if you have people that are being deported, and you have people that are self deporting because they're afraid of being deported, it frees. Up the job market. It's also, by the way I've said this, you know, I don't know five years now, there's also going to probably be downward pressure on home prices, more available stock if there are fewer people here illegally, and the number could be anywhere from fifteen to twenty to forty million people, whatever it is. If a lot of these people leave, you know, voluntarily, or they get deported, then that's going to free up housing stock. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You could check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself check dot ground, dot news slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Elmo got hacked. Um, I'm not sure who did it or why. Seems like a four Chan kind of a troll guy, but yes, apparently Elmo the sesame street character. After a lifetime of being tickled, he finally broke and U or no. Somebody hacked his Twitter account and began posting anti Semitic and anti Trump stuff, saying kill all the Jews, demanding Donald Trump release the Epstein files, calling him a defender of Epstein and all this, and then hang on a second, I'm seeing this. Tucker Carlson has booked Elmo for his next podcast. Oh that's okay, that's not true. The the account posted also a photo of Elmo wearing what appeared to be a tinfoil hat as well as a spacesuit whilst on the moon and promoting cryptocurrency. So just just checking all of the boxes. There a spokesperson for Sesame Street. How do you get that gig? Is that your only gig? Like you wake up every day and you're like, you go over to I guess there's an office on Sesame Street. Do they have an actual street? I feel like they built an actual street, right, So maybe you've got like an office there on Sesame Street. And so you go to the office and you just sit there all day being a spokesperson for Sesame Street. What does that gig pay? I gotta feel like there's not a lot that you're doing, you know, I mean aside from days like today, when like the whole world is on fire, much like the Elmo meme where he's you know, standing there and there's all these flames behind him. But that Yeah, the spokesperson said, Elmo's x account was compromised today by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including anti Semitic and racist posts. If this sounds familiar, it's because the same thing happened to Ford Motor Company. Nobody was ever caught in that either. And I do not know what the process is to get back your account or something like that. I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm not sure how long this takes or I mean, obviously Twitter has got to be aware of the of what has transpired now, so maybe they'll help, you know, speed that along, or you know, give access back to the spokesperson who I assume runs the Elmo account. But maybe not. Maybe there's an Elmo spokesperson. Do all of the characters have their own spokes muppets, m But I will say this, there really is a great opportunity for Elmo here, Like if he comes back on and his first tweets are like Internet gold, like, it could really do wonders for you know, Elmo's Q score, and. But I don't know, we'll see how it plays out. Like you could go the Wendy's route. You ever follow the Wendy's Twitter account, which apparently like started like some random intern just started trash talking somebody years ago. I used to read Wendy's tweets on a regular basis because they were hilarious. And then they teamed up at some point years ago with the what was it, the who makes the beef? They're not steaks? Steak them, yeah, steak them's with these beef cold cut whatever. The thing is. I don't know, you even know what you call that thing? Pressed meat slice, right, And those two formed like this alliance kind of and they would just savage all of the other fast food places and stuff, and. They were pretty funny. I don't know what happened to them. Maybe yeah, maybe they got rid of the spokesperson or whoever is running the Twitter account. So there you go. That's why Elmo is an anti semi it's not real. It was a hacked account. But if you see anything about Elmo in the news. That is why. Mark says Elmo wants the Epstein list released because he knows Kermit is on it and he's tired of playing second banana. That's oh, maybe that's maybe that's it. Maybe that is it? What else? Oh? In an ironic twist of epic proportions, a protest was held in Mexico City against gringos who are moving to Mexico City and they are not happy. They violently protested, They vandalized their city. I guess to make it less attractive. Like, dude, we come from America. All of our cities are tagged, like, we got graffiti everywhere. That's not going to dissuade people from moving to Mexico City. Hundreds of people protested against gentrification and mass tourism. So mass tourism, so you just don't even want people visiting. Wait a minute, are you guys? Are you guys like Ashville? Are you like South Ashville, like Mexican Ashville or something, because that's what Asheville hates tourists, the people that move there and they get there for like five years or so, and then they're like, nobody else gets to come here. I'm here. Everybody else just you know, don't come. Just send us your money. That's why I came up with the Cardipult idea, which was to fling the vehicles over the city as they were approaching on the interstate. You flip the vehicle and you just fling it over the city and then as the car is like tumbling through the air, the money falls out lands on the streets in Ashville. I haven't worked on the landing part of the equation yet, but that was the idea of the car to Pult. City leaders never took me up on it, though I don't know why. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety seven in Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. 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Literally are having a protest over gentrification and mass tourism in Mexico City. And of course it was mostly peaceful. But then sometimes fiery. Yes, it evolved into violence when a small number of people began smashing storefronts and harassing foreigners. Masked protesters smashed through the windows and looted high end businesses in the tourist areas of Condessa, Roma, and then they began screaming at tourists in the area graffiti and by the way, this is how you destroy your tourism economy. Like if just in case anybody was wondering, like why would they do that, Like, this is how you do it. Absolutely, if tourists think that they're going to be assaulted when they show up in your city, they're not going to come to your city to graffiti on glass, shattered glass being smashed through with rocks, graffiti said get out of Mexico. Protesters held signs reading Gringos, stop stealing our home and demanding local legislation to better regulate tourism levels and stricter housing laws. Oh, they didn't put this in the NBC News report, but I did see some of the video and one of the popular messages was kill gringo. So but it's not like Mexico has any kind of a reputation for that kind of violence. So it's probably just words. It's probably you know, they don't mean anything by it. It's like the whole death to America thing that Iranians chant literally every single day as part of their forced brainwashing. You know, it's just they love Americans. They just say death to America. It's just something that they do, you know. Marchers then continued on to protest outside of the US embassy and chanted down into the city's metro system, which I believe is their subway. I guess the train system. They are mad about masses of mostly American tourists who have flooded into Mexico's capital in recent years. Were you aware of this? Did you know that Mexico City has become a tourist destination for Americans. I've never been to Mexico. I have never been there. People I know who have been, they have enjoyed themselves. But as I understand it, they're always on like they're like on a resort property. And again my understanding reading different stories over the years, is that the cartels recognize that this is a very lucrative source of revenue, and so everybody is under orders. You know, you leave these tourist areas alone, these resort areas, you don't touch them, because it just it takes in so much money, and it just keeps all the tourists in this one zone. And we won't mess with them. They'll keep giving us money. And if any local gangs get it in their heads to go and make an attack on a resort area. Then they'll have the cartels to answer to. Right, that's my understanding of it. I don't know if that's true. I just remember reading a story about that years ago. Maybe it's changed. I'm just kidding. Oh no, maybe, Okay, maybe it has. I don't know. I doubt it. Though. Tension had been mounting in the city since US digital nomads, they are called digital nomads. They began going to Mexico City in twenty twenty. Hm, twenty twenty. That date sounds familiar. Something important happened twenty twenty. Many of them went to escape. Oh yes, the Corona virus lockdowns in the US. So this is when people moved to Mexico City because they could work from home and so all they needed was an Internet connection. So they moved down to Mexico City. And this created pressure on the housing supply. And obviously if they're working remotely out of Mexico City, but for an American company, they're pulling in an American salary. And now they were able to afford the nicest places in Mexico City. Right, that's now putting pressure on the local housing stock. Also, they fled there to take advantage of cheaper rent prices. Did you see the video that went viral. The other day. I was on vacation, so I don't remember what day it was, but it was some woman. I think she had moved to like Iceland, and she was complaining that she had to It was something like she had to leave once a year. And this is true, by the way. Like I don't know if people are aware of this, or Americans may not be aware of this, but other countries have immigration law and they really do enforce it, like you have to leave their country after a certain amount of time. You don't just get. To overstay your visa like everybody does here, Like they actually have enforcement. This woman was all upset and she's like, you know, I'm not welcomed in the Icelandic society. They look down on me and all this stuff. It's like, this is the this is the cultural narcissism of Americans. And I think people in the West, it's like you think everybody else is like us, and they're not. People are different, Different societies are different. So since twenty twenty, rents have soared and locals have increasingly gotten pushed out of their neighborhoods, particularly in areas like Condessa and Roma, lush areas packed with coffee shops and restaurants. No, so it's the okay, so these it's the swanky places, the swankier places that are getting mobbed by digital nomads and tourists. So am I to understand then that these are like the wealthier Mexican citizens who are mad like they're wealthy by Mexican standards, but they can't compete with the wealth of Americans coming in and they're being forced out of their swankier places. And gosh, it's almost like they got awfuls down there too. But they wouldn't be awfuls. They would be affluent Mexican. I don't know about liberals or females either, but I saw a bunch of dudes, so I don't know. The Mexico City. Protests follow others in European cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, and Rome, all against mass tourism. Okay, duly noted Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Mexico City, you are off my list. I got a passport a couple months back. I got it renewed. Actually, so you're off my list of places to see. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Centrally located between Ashville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions with hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi Fi, grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch. Choose from thirteen cabins, six cottages, two villas, and a great lodge with eleven king sized bedrooms. Cabins of Ashville has the ideal spot for you. For any occasion, and they have pet friendly accommodations. Call or text eight two eight three six seven seventy sixty eight or check out all there is to offer at Cabins of Ashville dot com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Guys, I just had an idea during the break. Mexico City doesn't want any more American tourists, and we are in the process of trying. To get rid of the illegal aliens. What would you be interested in a proposal for a swap? We could do a swap. I don't know, like, I don't know what the numbers would look like. I don't know if it needs to be like a Hamas to you know, Israeli hostage swap, like where you get like a million Hamas fighters for everyone Israeli or something. But we could work on the details. We could get Trump on that. He could make this deal. I think Trump could make this deal. Speaking of illegal immigration, which by the way, is always a word. You know, you never see illegal in any of these immigration stories anymore. They've cleansed this out of the language. Has the media. One of the other things that Beckett Adams noted at National Review, this media trend to report on ICE arrests and deportations in a way that causes maximum reputational damage to the federal agency ICE, while also saying as little as possible, either at the front of the news story or at all in the rest of the story about why the arrests and deportations were made. And that's why you end up with headlines such as this from the Cincinnati Enquirer. Cincinnati children's chaplain detained by ICE. Okay, what the headline doesn't says, Oh, just a Cincinnati chaplain. A children's chaplain. He was an Egyptian national whose asylum status was revoked under the Biden administration, and he was flagged on the FBI's terror watch list during a background check. But just a Cincinnati children's chaplain. Beckett Adams says, it's a larger, if unspoken effort to underreport the seriousness of the charges against certain illegal immigrants and foreign nationals and to oversell their deportations, all in service of a larger narrative that says the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts are sloppy, random, cruel, and haphazard. Nowhere is this apparent attempt at obfuscation and partisan advocacy clearer than in the press's psychotic insistence on referring to foreign nationals and illegal immigrants by the states in which they are apprehended. The Indiana man, the Athens man who happened to be a Venezuelan national who murdered Lake and Riley May. They called him an Athens man. Or this one ice cream man. Yeah, the ice cream man. He was a seventy one year old national who was deported to Beyroot from Michigan for alleged war crimes. But he was just the ice cream man. Harvard researcher. That was another one, Harvard researcher. That's actually a Russian national who was caught smuggling undeclared petri dishes into the United States. What could go wrong with that? There was the Georgetown scholar used to refer to an Indian national whose father in law is a former high ranking HAMAS official. Then there was the veteran who has been in the US since he was four years old and faces deportation. But you got to read seventeen paragraphs into the story before you find out that in two thousand and eight, this veteran opened fire on a house party crowded house party in Colorado Springs, striking a nineteen year old who was five months pregnant. These deportation cases are complex enough as they are, and there are strong legal arguments for and against the various efforts that the administration is undertaking, but it helps nobody to obscure the facts of the matter by downplaying alleged criminal offenses and legal statuses and all while offhandedly referring to illegal immigrants and foreign nationals by the names of the US states and universities and cities where they happened to be residing. This is how you ended up with the. Insane response from the media about this raid on that farm in California where they had child slave labor. If you can't call that out, if you can't recognize that that is a bad thing. You do not want to have. Children working illegally in the country like those kids were trafficked here to work on a farm. Do you what kind of life do you think they are having there? But no, no, you're going to go out there and virtue signal and throw rocks at the cops. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.