SPEAKER 02 : 0:03

Welcome to Annette on America, hosted by Annette Bybee, God-fearing, freedom-loving mother, college professor, lawyer, talking to you about all things freedom, all things America.

SPEAKER 04 : 0:32

Welcome to Annette on America. This is Annette Bybee, single mom to three teenage girls, college professor, lawyer, and what a show last night. If you did not watch Trump do his thing, you need to watch it. It was quite a show. It really did feel a little circus-like. And I did it as I was trying to grade papers and put kids to bed because it kept going and going. I didn’t expect it to last that long. But I couldn’t look away. So let’s just dive into this. Well, first of all, I want to say one of the first things that I thought about as I was watching it was what a relief. to not watch someone up there who you weren’t sure was going to be able to complete a sentence or they might freeze up or start stuttering or start slurring. It was nice to watch someone in command of themselves. It was a relief. It was a nice change of pace. This is going to be great television, said President Donald Trump amid the remarkable meeting meltdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last Friday. By the way, stick around, because in my second half, I’m going to be talking to the karate sensei that put his… his analysis of that meeting on Facebook from his perspective as a karate sensei and it broke the internet because I saw it and I thought that’s a really interesting take from someone else and then I posted it and then I friended him And then I saw all sorts of reactions, positive and negative on my page. And then I saw somebody else. Somebody else messaged it to me because apparently they’re not looking on my page. And then I started seeing it everywhere. And I thought, geez, what’s going on? This guy’s breaking the Internet. So I reached out to him and he’s going to be on in the second half. So do not miss that. Anyway, the comment came to mind as I watched Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress last night, not a State of the Union because he’s been in office less than two months. At more than 90 minutes, a modern record, it had to be great television. Democrats came prepared to disrupt Trump early and often, interrupting with jeers and boos. Just a few minutes into the speech, House Speaker Mike Johnson intervened with a gaveled call to order. This is when I was like, oh boy, this is going to be an interesting night. I had heard rumors that the Dems were going to pull some kind of stunt. But it was just so stupid. When Democrats continued their obnoxious behavior, he had the sergeant at arms remove Representative Al Green. It soon quieted down for the most part. Because the Dems had these stupid little signs that looked like the unions had made them for them, like little paddles. And I was looking on my phone, like, I cannot read what these signs even say. But apparently they said things like, That’s false or let me find it really quick because my friend was kind enough to tell me what they said and I found a good little meme on Facebook that that someone replaced those signs with but Let’s just see if I can find the signs and I’m almost there Okay. Oh, okay. This one side says false and the other side is a variety. Musk steals, save Medicare. Anyway, so the signs were not terribly effective because they’re little and dumb and they got shut down. And with this Al Green guy, he’s holding up his cane and waving it at President Trump and yelling things at him. Really? Who’s the old homeless guy there? How’d he get in? And I think his beef is, I saw him later in the hallway talking about how President Trump’s going to cut back Medicaid and Medicare, which I have not heard either of those things coming out of Trump’s mouth. So this is a guy that apparently just wants attention. Remember when Democrats lost their minds when Republican Joe Wilson shouted, you lie, at Barack Obama during the State of the Union? Decorum was violated. Norms were destroyed. How could we even go on as a nation? Speaking of norms, many Democrats showed up wearing pink to show that they, quote unquote, support women. The irony, of course, is not a single Democrat voted on Monday to advance a bill banning men from women’s sports. Who wants to tell them that wearing pink doesn’t spare women the indignity and injury of playing sports against men pretending to be women? Yeah. You know, don’t wear your little pink and think that all of us women are going to be on board with you because of that. So I found… I’m on my Facebook page. By the way, you can go and find me and follow me, but… I found a meme I shared and it says, here, we fixed your signs for you. And these signs now say, America last, I voted against women, I love war, I steal from taxpayers, illegals first. So those were more accurate than the ones that were actually being held up by these people. Anyway, Trump also came prepared. From beginning to end, he rubbed Democrats’ faces in his victories and their losses, especially the 2024 election results. Unlike the last president, there was no hypocritical call for unity in his address. Trump won, and he let Democrats know it repeatedly. Well, and why would he speak unity? I mean, even if I were him and if I’d come out and decided I was going to talk unity and I see these people standing out there with their little signs and I have some dude waving a cane at me, yeah, I would probably drop the unity talk right away. So he also reminded the country just how reflexively Democrats oppose everything he says or does. This is my fifth speech to Congress. And once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud. Nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history. or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded. And these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won’t do it no matter what. Five times I’ve been up here, it’s very sad, and it shouldn’t be this way. And all they could do was scowl, hold up their cute little opposition signs, or suck their dentures like Nancy Pelosi. So there’s a picture of the, yeah, they’ve got it on the sign that says false. So they’re all holding up their little false signs. You know, and maybe, just maybe, these people may have a little more credibility if they actually stood up or applauded at times when they should have, but they didn’t. And I’ll get into that in a minute, but I was following this in real time on Facebook and I was, you know, posting and and one of the times i said these democrats appear to be glued to their seats because that is what it looks like and the other thing that occurred to me is that you know usually you’ll have one or two or occasionally you’ll have one or two democrats that will break ranks um and stand if there’s something they should break ranks and stand for but most of the time they all act as a collective just like they see the world as a collective. They don’t look at people as individuals, they don’t look at themselves as individuals, and they feel pressure from each other to act in the collective. So if they’re all sitting, they’re all sitting. No one person is going to stand up and break ranks. And it’s ridiculous because of the things that they did not stand up for or clap for. So that moment when Trump said all that was masterful because then Democrats sat on their hands, or their super glue, when Trump spoke of Lakin Riley and Jocelyn Nungare, two murder victims thanks to Joe Biden’s open border. They couldn’t even muster anything for DJ Daniel, a 13-year-old cancer survivor who dreams of being a police officer and whom Trump appointed to be an honorary Secret Service agent. That was the sweetest moment. If you didn’t watch it, you should just go back and watch that when the Secret Service agent came out and gave him his little badge, his little ID, and he gave him a hug. Oh, man, I had tears. It was so sweet because he’s this little guy and he’s got his little police uniform on and his dad keeps holding him up so people can see him. But they couldn’t, you know, at least they could have done. If I were a Democrat and I had Trump derangement syndrome, I would at least have the wherewithal to realize I need to do something. And I would have turned and clapped in the direction of this cute kid. And in the direction of these parents of these downed, murdered adult women. Or, you know, when they talked about finding the dude that, the terrorist at Abbey Gate. But no, see, they could have done that, but no, they didn’t. It’s like they had their marching orders and they were following them. Hold up your little signs, but do not stand up, do not clap no matter what. They most certainly couldn’t cheer for Trump’s announcement that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for the bombing in Kabul that killed 13 Americans during Biden’s disgraceful surrender and retreat from Afghanistan. That’s the Abbey Gate terrorist. Republicans don’t behave anywhere near so disgracefully for Democrat presidents. Heck, Democrats didn’t either until Trump derangement syndrome swept them like a plague. And apparently, TDS sucks the brain cells out of your head. Because, again, they should have been standing up or at least applauding for those folks that have nothing to do with Trump. Everyday heroes. Poor people that are victims of Illegal aliens, how do you not clap when you’re standing up for that? Given those observations, I wanted to offer a bulleted list of the accomplishments Trump noted last night. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in four years or eight years, he said, and we are just getting started. Importantly, he noted, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction. So yeah, that’s a nice change of pace. And by the way, this speech had very high approval ratings, like 75% in one poll, 69% in another poll. So you Democrats are on the wrong side of history as you like to put it right now. And I don’t think you helped your side at all with your little sit down on your tuchus all night long shenanigans i think most ems would have said the same thing stand up for the heroes stand up when they talk about when trump’s talking about the farmers or the steel workers you know they couldn’t even clap for them so yeah you didn’t help yourselves all right so here is a list of all the stuff that trump announced that he did I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions. And I hope that a lot of that turns into legislation because as we all know, executive orders can be overturned as soon as the next president comes into office. Illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded. That is awesome. I no longer have this sort of anxiety about all the illegals crossing over. And I think I read someplace today that they’ve deported like 55,000, which is a nice start. I impose an immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on all new federal regulations, and a freeze on all foreign aid. Yes. That’s the least we could be doing, right? I terminated the ridiculous green new scam. I withdrew from the unfair Paris climate accord. We ended all of Biden’s environmental restrictions. We ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate. Hurrah for that. I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization and I also withdrew from the anti-American UN Human Rights Council, yes. I also heard a rumor recently that the WHO may not make it without our financial support. Darn, bummer. I have directed that for every one new regulation, 10 regulations must be eliminated. I’m pretty sure Reagan did something similar. We ordered all federal workers to return to the office. So I kind of feel bad. I feel bad for those who’ve been working from home who are actually working. Because I know and I work from home and it’s the bomb. And I don’t have a problem with people working from home who are actually working. But when your employer calls those shots and President Trump just happens to be the employer of the federal workers. We’ve ended weaponized government. And I’m going to be talking about some of that in my next story. I’ve stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. You didn’t see any clapping from Dems on that one. I signed an order making English the official language of the United States of America. I’m surprised we weren’t already there with that. I renamed the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. And likewise, I renamed for a great president, William McKinley, Mount McKinley again. We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government. That’s what I’m going to be talking about at length after I’m done with this story. We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools. So he says these things and he’s taking action, but With these schools, it really has to be at the local level that that’s happening. So I’m guessing there’s still plenty of critical race theory going on. It’s going to take time to root that out and cutting off federal dollars. I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women’s sports. Amen and amen. I also, okay, we’ll get to it later. A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy. We are opening up many of those power plants right now. That will be great. My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska. I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA and in Ukraine, which we’ll talk about next half hour. I have created the brand new department of Doge. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. He went on at length about how much of the appalling waste and fraud uncovered by Doge mocking such foolishness as he went. We have developed in great detail what we are calling the gold card for immigration. I’m kind of on the fence about that one. I officially designated the Venezuelan prison gang, the toughest gang known as Trenda Aragua, along with MS-13 and the bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. I’m all about that too. My administration has acted swiftly and decisively to restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law, starting at the FBI and the DOJ. You can read that as no more warfare coming from the Department of Justice. i really like this i signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology i also signed an order to cut off all taxpayers funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth and i thought it was probably pun intended when he said cut off all taxpayer funding anyway but he also talked about how i don’t think it’s in here how he wants children to know that God made them perfectly the way they are, instead of making them think that they were born in the wrong body. The US Army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years. In the Middle East, we’re bringing back our hostages from Gaza. There are also many things he still pledges to do from the budget to swamp draining to tax cuts. In the near future, I want to do what has not been done in 24 years, balance the federal budget. Well, I, for one, will believe that when I see it. If anyone can get it done, though, it’s Trump. My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy and we will restore true democracy to America again. We are draining the swamp. The next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody. I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on social security benefits for our great seniors. But that won’t cover everybody. Next would be income and or property tax. I also want to make interest payments on car loans tax deductible, but only if the car is made in America. I’m mixed on that one as well, because I only buy Toyotas and Hondas, and if they’re made here, great, but if not, whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. Thanks to America’s finest policies we are putting into place, we have had $1.7 trillion of new investment in America in just the past few weeks. I have already signed an executive order requiring a mandatory death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer. And tonight I’m asking Congress to pass that policy into permanent law. I am also asking for a new crime bill, getting tough on repeat offenders while enhancing protections for America’s police officers. I can’t really get on board with the death penalty part. Just as a lawyer, there’s too much room for abuse in the system. Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong. I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. Okay, here we go. This is a big lie, and our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you. Really like that line. I am asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art Golden Dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland. We are going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding. And he’s creating a new office of shipbuilding in the White House that offers special tax incentives to bring this industry home. My administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it. Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal. We talked about meeting Greenland. He says, I’m also working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine. I’ll close with his best line of the night, which came regarding the core issue of immigration. Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history. And we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded. Thank you. The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation. Remember that? We must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president. Amen. Mic drop. Unlike the division fostered by Joe Biden and the jeering Democrats, most Americans support Trump’s policies. With few exceptions, he champions popular common sense policies. The public reaction to last night’s address was also largely positive for good reason. So it was a really big, really good night. for president trump and some people are probably wondering why he just had a speech six weeks ago why do we need another one well i would say first of all he’s doing so much so quickly that he needs to get out there and remind people what he’s doing Also to rally his base and to let those on the left and in the center know what he’s doing. Because what he’s doing is mostly very popular, but there are some out there that are falling for the Democrat smears of Musk and just all of it. So he had to get out there. Anyway, I was going to talk about this letter. I’ll just tell you I don’t have time to read this letter because, of course, it always goes really fast in this half. And I want to leave all of next half for my special guest that you do not want to miss, who is the karate sensei who wrote the analysis about Trump and Zelensky in advance and broke the Internet. So you’ve got to stick around for that. But my friend sent me this US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights letter that was sent out and I’ll just give you like the first paragraph. Dear colleague, discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is illegal and morally reprehensible. Accordingly, I write to clarify and reaffirm the non-discrimination obligations of schools and other entities that receive federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education. This letter explains and reiterates existing legal requirements under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution, and other relevant authorities. Anyway, the letter basically goes on to say what I thought all along about this DEI nonsense. Two wrongs do not make a right. You cannot cure racism with more racism. And that’s what DEI basically tries to do. It basically says that you whiteys have been racist and are always racist and are born racist. That’s critical race theory. And we’re going to force you to equalize the playing field and hire certain people of certain races, gender, sexual identity. And we’re going to make you feel bad about yourselves for being a white straight person, especially if you’re a Christian. And my answer is, again, two wrongs don’t make a right. And why can’t we just go with what MLK said? Let’s not look upon someone’s skin color. Why don’t we look at the content of their character? Same thing for gender identity or sexual orientation. How about we just look at whether you’re qualified or not? That’s it. Period. So the Department of Education is basically getting rid of DEI. And it’s about time. And I’m almost out of time. And I wanted to end with, because I’m giving the entire next section to my guest, I’m going to do my Babylon B article early. And this is a funny one. There’s a picture of Hitler and then there’s a picture with a bunch of people listening to him with holding up little signs. And it says, Hitler defeated after opposition party holds up tiny signs on paddles. Berlin. In a shocking turn of events, Hitler was defeated and the Nazi regime, overthrown after the opposition party in Germany held up little paddles with tiny signs on them. The Fuhrer was giving a speech in the Reichstag when suddenly opposing politicians began holding up miniature signs attached to what appeared to be tiny ping pong paddles. Within minutes, Hitler had been deposed and the Nazi regime collapsed. we did it i knew the little signs would work said opposition leader hagen schultz no one can withstand little paddles that say false on them the world is saved according to sources hitler’s iron grip on power began to immediately weaken when the signs saying false were raised Still, it seemed like the Nazis would have been able to hang on to power, but the opposition was not done. They quickly turned their paddles around, revealing another sign that said, Hitler steals, defeating the Nazis once and for all. Which reminds me, by the way, the other thing that the Democrats, the only thing that Democrats did stand up for was they wanted five more years of war in Ukraine. Oh, that was the other thing that Elizabeth Warren, when Trump said, do we want five more years over in Ukraine? And Elizabeth says, yes. And Trump says, well, Volca Huntis wants it. Anyway, if you’ve missed any of this episode or previous episodes, go to AnnetteTalks.com, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, YouTube, yada, yada, yada. Or you can shoot me an email at Annette at AnnetteTalks.com. And let me know what you think. All right. Do not go anywhere. Awesome guest coming up next.

SPEAKER 03 : 27:22

You can hear KLDC from the comfort of your own home. Click the Listen Live button on 1220kldc.com.

SPEAKER 01 : 27:30

This is Carter Conlon. Everyone has a middle story, and many of you are living in yours right now. You’ve moved past the initial romance phase of your new faith in Christ, and just like a newlywed couple who overlook each other’s flaws. But over time, those little habits like socks on the bathroom floor can reveal areas that need growth. David, too, had a middle story filled with challenges. This phase teaches us to love God and trust Him as we all face valleys and enemies in our lives. Even in tough times, remember that adversaries can only use what they have to serve the purposes of God in your life. Embrace your middle story. Recognize the growth that it offers and trust that each challenge shapes you for a greater purpose. Join with many of us from around the world who are praying every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Eastern Time at It’sTimeToPray.com because my brother, sister, more than ever before, it’s now time for you and I to pray.

SPEAKER 04 : 28:39

All right, we’re back. This is Annette Bybee on Annette on America. As promised, I have a special guest, Michael McCune, who I hinted at earlier is a… Michael, are you a sensei?

SPEAKER 05 : 28:57

Yeah, that would be the correct title. I mean, for my students, you would not refer to me as sensei because sensei just means teacher. So only my students would refer to me. I’m often dealing with that with parents that come in and they call me sensei. I said, no, no, no. You can just call me Michael or Mr. McCune or whatever is comfortable for you. I said, my students call me sensei.

SPEAKER 04 : 29:17

All right. Before we dive into the topic, I have a question I’m sure all my guests want to know, and Do you watch Cobra Kai, and what do you think about it?

SPEAKER 05 : 29:29

Oh, my gosh. I love Cobra Kai. The karate is horrific. It’s absolutely horrible and has no realism whatsoever in that regards. But with that being said, it is a phenomenal show. It’s fun. It’s engaging. There’s things I like about it. There’s things I don’t because there’s certain aspects where I feel like they portrayed it in a way that was – negative in some ways i mean you look at the way some of these kids act in the show and it’s not how i would ever allow my students to act because it’s really about personal development you know it’s about right and wrong and loyalty and honor and respect and there’s a lot of stuff on that show that’s that but then it wouldn’t be very entertaining if they just portrayed it that way nobody would watch the show but yeah i love it

SPEAKER 04 : 30:16

Yeah, that was going to be my second question about how true to life it is. So it’s not.

SPEAKER 05 : 30:21

OK. I actually had one of the actors on the show reach out to me and send a little tiny image that said, hey, Michael, this is from Cobra Kai. And we just want to say, hey, thanks for being a fan. And I’ll have to send you that clip. It’s kind of cute.

SPEAKER 04 : 30:36

That’s awesome. Excellent. All right. Well, so as I told my listeners in the last half, over the weekend, we all or a lot of us watched the I don’t know what you call it, news conference. I know it’s weird between Trump and Vance and Zelensky. And a lot of it was cut and you only got part of it. But it was so bizarre that most of us didn’t know what to think of it. Right. Because I’m 56. I’ve never seen anything like that.

SPEAKER 03 : 31:07

Right.

SPEAKER 04 : 31:08

Oh, you know, I go to Facebook like I always do because I spend my life on Facebook. I admit it. And I see a friend has shared this analysis and she says this is I think she said this is my son’s karate instructor and this is his take on the Zelinsky thing. And so I was like, oh, all right. So I read it. I’m like, that’s interesting. So I shared it on my Facebook page and I just it it lit up with comments all over the place on it. And then I saw someone else share it.

SPEAKER 05 : 31:38

And then someone- Yeah, sorry about that.

SPEAKER 04 : 31:41

I enjoy it. And then someone else sent it to me. And then, I mean, I started seeing it everywhere and I thought, oh, okay, this has taken hold. And then I look on your page and I see you’re doing all these other interviews. And then I see that Trump has shared it. So I’m like, okay, there’s something interesting here. So I’m going to read this analysis so the audience knows what I’m talking about. And then I want to try and get into it. You tell us how you came to this from your karate… I want to say it right.

SPEAKER 05 : 32:13

Actually, it’s karate-do.

SPEAKER 04 : 32:15

Karate-do.

SPEAKER 05 : 32:17

All right.

SPEAKER 04 : 32:19

I’ll try and remember that. Okay, so here we go. Michael McCune. Many of you probably watched what took place between Donald Trump and Zelensky tonight. Zelensky with two Ys. I think it’s so silly, but anyway. Whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, you might be thinking to yourself, oh, my gosh, Donald Trump just screwed up. However, as a lifelong practitioner of martial arts strategy and philosophy, let me explain the difference between what you believe you witnessed and what actually happened. Donald Trump has been under constant political persecution since the beginning of his first term. Over time, he has learned to be patient and calculated. Tonight, Zelensky was invited to the Oval Office with no suit, by the way. However, both Trump and J.D. Vance knew exactly what Zelensky was going to do. He would use this opportunity in front of the American people to make a power play. Both Trump and Vance anticipated this. When Zelensky began appealing to the emotions of the American people, J.D. Vance stepped in, accusing him of disrespecting Donald Trump. This was brilliant strategy. See, this is a lot of people thought, oh, what the heck? It’s important to understand that Zelensky is trying to gain access to NATO. Trump knew this, but could not allow it to happen. If Ukraine joins NATO, the US would be bound by NATO’s collective defense agreement. An attack on one is an attack on all. now consider the larger implications ukraine and russia despise each other if ukraine were to become a nato member any future skirmish between them would obligate the u.s to enter into direct conflict with russia this would mean world war iii and if that happened china would have to choose a side they would almost certainly align with russia So what you witnessed tonight was a setup. Trump and J.D. Vance knew that the only way to achieve peace was to strategically align, at least on the surface, with Russia. Why? Because Russia would never sign a peace treaty if Ukraine were admitted into NATO. That is why Trump dismantled Zelensky’s argument. And when Zelensky, seeing his play failing, tried to backtrack and offer a treaty, Trump refused. Zelensky’s real intent was clear. He would not agree to peace unless security guarantees were in place. But what was he actually saying? That NATO must accept Ukraine. However, Russia would never agree to peace knowing that NATO, their historical adversary, would surround them. Zelensky, Putin, and Trump all knew this. Zelensky, thinking he had Democratic support, which we found out since then, he had Democrats in his ear before this meeting, basically telling him, go in there and push back on Trump. So you had it right right there. Believed he could make this bold move on live television, but Trump and Vance saw right through it and outmaneuvered him. They knew that in the short term, Democrats and the media would try to use this moment against them. But they also knew they had two years before midterms to prove their strategy was the right one. So they held their ground, brilliantly so. Now, Zelensky will have no choice but to back down and accept Trump’s terms, which we’re also starting to see.

SPEAKER 05 : 35:41

Exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER 04 : 35:42

But here’s the genius part. Trump is actually protecting Ukraine without dragging the US into war. By negotiating a mineral deal, Trump ensures that Americans will be involved in Ukraine’s mining industry. This prevents Russia from launching an invasion because attacking Ukraine would mean endangering American lives, something that would force the U.S. to respond. Trump played both sides like a master chess player. In the end, Zelensky will have no choice but to concede because without U.S. support, Ukraine cannot win a prolonged war against Russia. And once U.S. companies have mining operations in Ukraine, Putin will be unable to attack without triggering massive international consequences. Don’t underestimate Donald Trump. In this game of chess, he’s 10 moves ahead of everyone. Oh, yeah. Nice job there. Still stand by all that?

SPEAKER 05 : 36:44

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I’m already five moves ahead. I’ve already got my next five posts based on what they’re going to do next. So you’ll have to stay tuned for that. Yes, awesome.

SPEAKER 04 : 36:57

And so how does your being, I’m not going to say sensei, a karate… Martial artist.

SPEAKER 05 : 37:04

You can say martial artist is fine.

SPEAKER 04 : 37:06

A martial artist. Being a martial artist, how did that help you kind of… I mean, from that… Obviously, you had some background knowledge because nobody walks into watching that little press conference and walks away with what you walked away with.

SPEAKER 05 : 37:21

Yeah, it was pretty obvious to me, again, because Donald Trump truly is a warrior. I mean, if there was any doubts, I mean, you know, after the assassination attempts and he stood up, you know, and said, fight, fight, fight. I mean, that should have solidified any doubts whatsoever that people have that Donald Trump is a warrior. He doesn’t cave. He doesn’t do things under pressure. So he does things very, very calculated. So when you see something that looks a little off, You have to ask yourself, are we really seeing what we think we’re seeing? Or is he pushing buttons to gain something else somewhere else? And that’s how Donald Trump, you know, he’s consistently, you know, throughout his history has played that. You’ll think that a good example would be the tariffs. Right. When the tariffs went into place and they’re saying, oh, my gosh, this is going to be disastrous and all these things. And and, you know, they said, is there anything that Mexico or Canada can do to stop this from going in tomorrow? And this was, of course, you know, a month ago. And he said, no, there’s nothing. So he did follow through with what he did, waited those two days, negotiated, and then those tariffs were gone. So the Democrats were already trying to align behind, oh, we’re going to get him on this. We’re going to get him on this. If you’ll remember Schumer, where he was doing the little thing before the Super Bowl, and he was holding up a beer, and he was holding up, what was it, a guacamole, and this is going to go up. And that was their whole plan about it. And then all of a sudden, by the time that even got there and the Super Bowl was there, the tariffs were already gone. So he’s just – And when I say playing, when I say set up, for example, let me clarify. When I say set up, it wasn’t that the that Zelensky was in on a setup. It was the fact that when Donald Trump goes in a situation with another leader like this, he has to realize, especially when he does it on live TV, which, by the way, nobody else does. Right. Right. He allowed this to take place in real time, but he’s not stupid. So he knows that this could go awry. This could go multiple different directions. And he also knows what Galinsky is ultimately after. So I have no doubts that him and J.D. Vance said they’ve already got contingency plans. If it goes like this, we’re going to do this. If it goes like this, we’ll handle it this way. If it goes this way, and that’s exactly what you saw there, was they seen what Lissinsky was doing, and they had a plan in case he did that, of what they needed to do. So they need to give Zelensky a sort of a political spanking. Yes, it looked bad on Donald Trump to begin with, but people need to understand that Donald Trump’s goal is to end a war. He’s truly just caring about the people, because this war is going to come to an end one way or another, and it’s going to end… in a certain way regardless, and people are not going to be happy about it, and they’re going to call him Putin’s puppet and so forth, very, very predictable. He is in a no-win situation. If he doesn’t end the war, they’re going to nail him in saying, hey, you said you were going to end the war, and you didn’t, and if he does, they’re going to attack the way in which you did it. So for him, it’s a no-win situation, and he knows that going in there, that it’s going to be a no-win. But his goal is that if it’s going to end anyway, and Ukraine cannot possibly win this war, How long do you want to let it play out so we can have this debate and talk about it for another year, if you like, and let another million lives be lost? But then the end result is going to be the same anyway. So do we want to get to that result now and save lives or do we need to let it play out? Because what people don’t realize is that let’s go back to the previous administration was that Joe Biden effectively. financed both sides of this war. He financed Russia and he financed Ukraine. So how he did that was, of course, he gave lots of money and military to Ukraine, but then he tied their hands and says, I’m giving you this military, but you can’t use it. Right. You can’t cross Russian borders with it because that would potentially engage us in a war. So we gave them all this stuff, but they have to wait for Russians to attack them on their side to use it. So it’s a no win situation. And then on the other hand, by Biden cutting out all of the U.S. energy, this now gave – Russia, the opportunity now to make all this money in their own oil industry that would have potentially been crushed because if Americans had continued with this, all these countries that are buying oil from Russia could have bought it from us. Russia would not have had the money to be able to fight this campaign, this war. Unfortunately, whether knowingly or unknowingly, that’s a topic for another subject. The Biden administration ultimately, like I said, fueled this on both sides. So now you have Donald Trump, who’s basically left holding the bag. They created this. You’ll notice they’ll go in there and they’ll say all kinds of nasty, horrible things about Donald Trump about doing this. But where was Joe Biden? Where was he? This went on for three years and he didn’t get them to the negotiating table. So all of these lives and the war itself began under the Biden administration. Trump is just doing his best to put an end to it. So on one hand, they’re going to condemn him because they think that he’s Putin’s puppet and that Donald Trump can somehow wave his magic wand and tell Putin what to do. But that’s not how it works. Putin is his own leader in his own right, and he has his own motives. And Donald Trump simply cannot go in there and say, Putin, this is what I want you to do, and you’re going to do it. We can put sanctions, which we’ve done, but those sanctions were weakened because of the Biden administration’s choice to basically cut the oil production here in the United States. So that weakened our ability to put sanctions on Russia. so ultimately that’s where where we’re at so you know it we had those sanctions and we had that oil production here then donald trump would have much more uh power to be able to go in there and and give a little bit more flex to pushing putin but since we didn’t do that joe biden left donald trump in a very weaker position in that way so he’s going to go in there and he’s going to negotiate this to save lives but unfortunately it’s probably not going to work completely in ukraine’s favor Because Russia is the power player. They’re the big one, right? They’re the most powerful of the two. So you’re not going to get Russia to the negotiating table if Russia doesn’t come out a little bit ahead. Whether it’s a 60-40 or 70-30 thing, there’s no advantage for Russia to negotiate when they’re in the winning position. So they’re going to have to come out ahead, and that’s not going – and you’re going to have – Ukraine’s not going to like it, and the people are not going to like it because they’re going to think that – again, they’re going to say that Donald Trump was a Putin’s puppet, but that’s just not the case. It’s like Canada. It’s like Trump makes the joke, hey, Canada is going to be our 51st state. But simply because he says it doesn’t mean that Canada is going to go along with it. It’s not that way. We’re not a dictatorship. We don’t have – That kind of power. We don’t have power over Canada. We don’t have power over Russia. We don’t have power over Ukraine beyond what we can use our influences. And like I said, so once you understand those things, then you can build a strategy and see likely where this is heading.

SPEAKER 04 : 44:45

Right. Well, to me, Trump is all about the art of the deal, which is another way of saying he’s a warrior. He’s going to find a way to win. Absolutely. And in this case, he wants peace. He really wants peace. And he wants to make a deal. And so I think Zelensky kind of miscalculated, right, walking in, because when he came to see Biden before, it was like, hey, you know, hand over the money or else we’re going to talk about Burisma, right? And well, there’s no Burisma, there’s no Hunter in the White House anymore. Right. And so I think he miscalculated. And I also think he was sold a bill of goods by some of these Democrat senators who got into his ear, you know, before he went in there. Hey, don’t let Trump sell you on this. Don’t let Trump sell you on this. And so I think he thought going into this live TV show. conference that he’s going to make this like this case for emotions. It was a case to the people. And Trump and Vance kind of cut him off.

SPEAKER 05 : 45:51

He felt emboldened. And that’s why when people were thinking it was rude that he did. It was a necessary tactic because Zelensky went in there with a feeling of emboldenment. And so unfortunately, that’s sometimes what you have to do is you have to knock them down, you know, in order to say, look, you’re not in charge here. You don’t hold the cards here. You’re not going to play us like that. And so unfortunately, like I said, if you’re just watching it from the surface, it looks like Donald Trump was being rude and. Badass was being rude, but it was actually just something that’s necessary in order to get what really needs to be done to bring peace. You know, because we’re talking, you know, millions of lives potentially have already been lost. And the longer this plays out. the more lives it’s going to be. And please also note that Biden was in there during this war for three years and noticed he didn’t bring them into NATO either.

SPEAKER 04 : 46:42

Oh, no. Well, you know, the whole NATO thing, I read an article early on when this war started that basically made the argument that this only started because Biden didn’t say, no, you’re not going to be a member of NATO to Ukraine. The whole thing could have been avoided. But I have a question about this little press conference. Would you say that Trump or Vance basically swept Zelensky’s knee?

SPEAKER 05 : 47:10

Oh, absolutely, yeah. It was a great Cobra Kai move right there, yeah. And the reason he came out and he said it, you remember at the end, Donald Trump came out in an interview and says, Zelensky is not ready to make a deal. And that was the point he was making is Zelensky came there basically to make the play, bring me in NATO. So if you watched following that, when he did an interview with Brett Baer. And he had a common theme that kept coming out. I’m not going to do this without security guarantees. And he repeated security guarantee over and over again. Now, when somebody repeats the same thing over and over again, that tells you exactly what their intention is. And he wasn’t willing to come there and negotiate. He was just saying he was literally giving Donald Trump his demands. And that just wasn’t going to work because that can’t happen. So he had to be squashed. It’s unfortunate that that happens that way. And I’ve just had like I’ve had a Ukrainian lady that’s emailed me a letter. And it was very, you know, she wasn’t, I would say, disrespectful. But she was definitely pointing out the fact that, you know, you don’t know what we’ve been through. And and my response really is, as you’re right, I really don’t. And because I haven’t gone through it. I can sit calmly and rationally, right, and be able to look at objectively and say, look, as much. So what people sometimes feel is like because Donald Trump is not condemning Putin. Well, what did Joe Biden do for three years? He condemned Putin, right? So he never got them at the table, because if you’re Putin, are you going to come to a negotiating table with somebody who’s hostile towards you? So he knew that he had to wait until Donald Trump got in office, not because he’s Putin’s puppet, but because he understands. It’s like I teach my kids in martial arts how to deal with a bully. right and so if you really truly want the bullying to stop you can’t just stand up to the bully you also have to give the bully a way to opt out and keep good face right you can’t destroy the bully because now you’ve got an enemy so what donald trump has to do is is give putin an opportunity to back out and save face. Right. And he has to try to do the same thing with Zelensky also to be able to back out and save face. And that’s what the art of the deal is all about, is understanding you have one that’s the bully. And we’re going to go along with the fact that Putin’s the bully. But you have to allow him to save face or you’re not going to make a deal. And if you don’t make a deal, people die.

SPEAKER 04 : 49:53

Right. And we’re not going to put our boots on the ground. And so, you know, we’re not going to go in there and beat Russia. We’re not going to war with Russia.

SPEAKER 03 : 50:00

No.

SPEAKER 04 : 50:01

The only other option is you have to make a deal. That’s it. And you can’t let Zelensky into NATO. Like you said, we we are not going to have World War Three. We’re just not. And so that’s this is not under Donald Trump anyway. I mean, yeah. Yeah, we probably will have World War Three at some point. But no, not under Donald Trump and not at this point, not over the train. So it just feels like it’s been a big, giant money laundering operation for a long time. And I just wonder how much of that is in Zelensky’s pockets and if that’s why he just wants to keep this gravy train rolling because he’s got so much money coming in too. I also read someplace, and I don’t know if you’ve heard this or not, that during that press conference, Zelensky said something under his breath That was the B word. He was calling Vance a B word in Ukrainian. Have you heard that?

SPEAKER 05 : 50:53

Yeah, I did. I heard something about that. I didn’t follow up on it to see if it was if it was accurate or not, because to me, the speculations, for example, on Monday laundry and all these things is interesting. And it runs into the you know, again, I try to stay away from the conspiracy theories. Now, mind you, I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy. But you can’t make your point or your case on something that you can’t verify or prove so i i keep those things under my breath so to speak and look at what really needs to be done so the focus just needs to be done that donald trump is doing what he needs to do to save lives and bring this to the end and in order to do this it’s going to require a negotiation and in a negotiation no people no two two people in a negotiation get exactly what they want but You have to look at who’s the powerhouse in the negotiation and you have to give them more. So Putin is going to have to have a little more or there’s no reason he could just write it out. He could just let this thing play out in millions more of Ukrainians and even Russians will die. But the end result is still going to be you’re not going to defeat Russia.

SPEAKER 04 : 52:02

Mm hmm. Well, and like Trump said, they have they’re having to conscript people in Ukraine. So it’s not like they have as many people to throw at this war as Russia does. And so Ukraine’s going to lose eventually. Right. Why not?

SPEAKER 05 : 52:18

You know that, you know. So this is what I say to people. I said, you know, I said, look, if if you knew, for example, let’s just play that. theory thing right let’s say ukraine knew that they have a secret shelter where they’re devising a new weapon that when this weapon comes to play it will change the balance of power then you could say okay let’s keep this thing going right for another month we’re going to have this up and ready in 30 days so you know tell your people hey we’ve got this under control give us 30 more days we got this new weapon that’s going to change the balance of power now you have a shift now you have a new communication But right now, there isn’t any of that. So based on what there is now, Ukraine at this moment has no way to shift that balance of power.

SPEAKER 04 : 53:04

Right.

SPEAKER 05 : 53:05

And so they want to bring in, you know, they’re angry. And I get it. They’ve lost, you know, husbands and children and wives and schools and all of these things. And they’re angry. And I’m sure they want a certain degree of revenge. And they feel that, oh, my gosh, if we negotiate, Russia could just come back and do this later. And that’s what made… Trump so brilliant by saying, hey, give us your mining rights to this. We’ll put our people in there. So even though you’re not in NATO, you’re still going to get some guarantees for your safety because Russia doesn’t want to go in now and bomb an area and harm Americans because now it could bring Americans into it without actually bringing it in through NATO. So it’s it was just a brilliant strategy. And it’s unfortunate that, you know, some people are so caught up in their Trump derangement syndrome that they just can’t step back for a minute and look at what’s right, because anybody I don’t care whether you’re a Democrat, Republican or an independent. Nobody can can be in favor of millions of people dying. And so all these people that are that are fighting and pushing to keep this going, they’re literally being responsible for those lives that are dying.

SPEAKER 04 : 54:14

Maybe Elizabeth Warren wanted to continue in that speech last night. I was like, really? The one thing that the Democrats applauded was Ukraine, the war in Ukraine continuing. It’s like, really? Yeah. It’s a weird thing that that’s happened now that all of a sudden the Democrats have all decided to line up en masse and say, yeah.

SPEAKER 05 : 54:34

Because it’s the only thing they have that’s uniquely theirs. The war started under the Biden administration. They have funded it under the Biden administration. So this is something that’s uniquely passionate to them. But again, they can’t win. So it’s wonderful to be able to sit back and say, yes, we’re for you. We’re going to keep sending you money because it’s your people who are dying, not mine. And that’s the unfortunate part.

SPEAKER 04 : 54:58

And we’ve got about a minute left. It looks like Zelensky has caved, and he says he’s willing to come over and sign that agreement any time now, at least on the rare earth minerals. I don’t know about the rest if he’s all the way there, but you were right in your prediction that he had his knee swept, so he’s now caving.

SPEAKER 05 : 55:18

Yeah. He had to. Yeah.

SPEAKER 04 : 55:21

Well, we look forward to looking you up. Michael McCune, can everyone see you on Facebook? Is your page public or do you need to be friends?

SPEAKER 05 : 55:31

No, it’s a public page now. I was not a social media guru. Again, this thing went… kind of viral a little fast. So I didn’t even have an ex account or an Instagram account. I do now, but I haven’t even figured out how to use it yet. But yeah, they can just go to Michael McCune on Facebook. And a lot of people have I’ve had over 20 million views in the last several days.

SPEAKER 04 : 55:51

So yeah, you have broken the Internet.

SPEAKER 05 : 55:55

And another 20 million off of the Chit Chat group that’s been there and another eight to 10 million off of True Social. So, and I don’t even know how many off of X. They’re estimating that there’s been at least two or 300 million people, viewers worldwide. And so it’s been a little wild.

SPEAKER 04 : 56:14

Awesome. Well, enjoy the ride. We will be watching. Michael McCune, thank you for joining us today. Annette on America.

SPEAKER 05 : 56:22

Oh, thanks, Annette. The pleasure is mine. You’re welcome.

SPEAKER 02 : 56:29

Thanks for listening to Annette on America. And join her again next week as she talks all things freedom, all things America.

SPEAKER 03 : 56:38

This has been a Crawford Media Group production.