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00:00And we begin thinking long-term, not mid-term.
00:03You know, we got five weeks from an election.
00:05We know that.
00:05Control of Congress is on the line.
00:07You wouldn't understand that.
00:08Every politician in Washington knows it.
00:10Every pollster is talking about it.
00:12This week, President Trump made clear his vision goes beyond November
00:16because he's trying to get things done in two years, which normally take two terms.
00:22As president of the most extraordinary nation in history,
00:25I have no interest in leaving dangers to grow for another day.
00:30I do not believe in letting problems fester.
00:33They only become harder to solve.
00:35So while others have talked, I have acted.
00:39We are solving decades of intractable challenges,
00:42and we are settling years of unfinished business, and we're doing it well.
00:47And I know it's driving some Republicans nuts, but that's his vision.
00:51Look at how it's approached at the border, for example.
00:53He's not waiting for comprehensive immigration reform.
00:56The guy has sealed the border.
00:57He's actually almost done with the wall.
01:00He's finding those people who broke the law, came here illegally.
01:03He is rounding them up, and it's giving some people heartburn.
01:06But that's what he promised to do.
01:08Come here illegally, and you've got to get scooped up.
01:10It shouldn't be okay because Washington failed to fix the system.
01:14That's what he ran on.
01:15That's what he talks about.
01:17And he's taking the same approach to the Capitol itself.
01:19I don't know if you've been to Washington lately, but he's building that new ballroom.
01:23Every president talked about needing an event center.
01:25He's doing it.
01:26He's fixed 48 monuments in D.C., 22 fountains, 1,000-plus graffiti sites.
01:34And the reflecting pool, I understand, is finally getting fixed the right way.
01:38His mantra is clear.
01:40For problems big and small, he's going to identify it.
01:42He's going to fix it.
01:44He's going to do it fast.
01:45He's going to do it in a way to make it last when it comes to trade.
01:49Remember Liberation Day.
01:50The rollout was rocky, no question.
01:52The markets reacted.
01:53The critics, well, they pounced.
01:55But the bigger idea was more important.
01:57Restructure a trading system that Trump believes has short-stained America since World War II.
02:03Not one tariff, not one country, the entire system.
02:07Since then, the administration has secured 20 new trade deals.
02:1120.
02:11You know, some derail, like Canada, I think it'll get back on track.
02:14What is about to be done?
02:16Believe it or not, it's going to be Mexico.
02:17And the one front and center this week is China.
02:19It's obviously the most important.
02:21Has every negotiation gone smoothly?
02:24No.
02:25But the aim isn't the headline for tomorrow or a quick fix today.
02:29It's changing the terms of trade for years to come.
02:32A restructuring while bringing manufacturing back.
02:35Then there's the biggest example of all.
02:38Iran.
02:39With the war dragging on, the pressure is building.
02:41Voters are worried about the cost that they should be.
02:44The price of oil, diesel, fertilizer, it's all going up.
02:47The midterms are right around the corner.
02:48And even some Republicans are saying it's time to bring the war to an end.
02:52The war with Iran needs to end and end quickly.
02:55War is terrible and no one likes war.
02:59The war should end yesterday.
03:00Yep.
03:01Trump knows it.
03:01But as I told you, the election isn't driving this decision.
03:06They're waiting to see how I do in the midterm election.
03:09I gave absolutely no credence and will not give credence to the election when it comes to Iran.
03:17It doesn't even enter my mind.
03:20The only thing that does is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.
03:26His position is that whether a deal comes before November or after November, the objective does not change.
03:33No nuclear weapon.
03:34No ability to fund terror proxies and intimidate neighbors.
03:38Trump is not looking to make this better for now.
03:40And I know it's driving Republicans crazy.
03:42He knows peace in the Middle East is a pipe dream with this Iran team empowered and emboldened.
03:47He's not managing Iran.
03:49He is squeezing them.
03:51He's trying to fix not for now, but forever.
03:54And what about munitions?
03:56We got to win wars with munitions.
03:57We keep seeing the headlines warning about the capacity of America's defense industrial base.
04:03But Trump is the one building up our arsenal.
04:06The cowards and traitors would love to say the United States is low on munitions.
04:11But that's not true.
04:13We have more munitions than we could ever possibly even think of using.
04:18And we're building them at levels that we have never done before.
04:22In the very near future, massive munition plants will be opening.
04:26There are 18 of them being built by the greatest defense companies in the world right now.
04:3218 under construction.
04:34Yes, he's spreading them out.
04:36There used to be a big four.
04:37Now there's 18.
04:38Not just for more missiles next month.
04:40The capacity to make more missiles for years.
04:43New systems.
04:44And that brings us to maybe the biggest long-term challenge of all.
04:47AI.
04:48The United States is racing China for this technology to transform our economy.
04:52It's also fueling our economy now.
04:55It's going to transform our military.
04:56America, well, we're in the lead.
04:58About nine to 12 months in the lead.
05:00The question is whether we keep that lead.
05:02And at the same time, figuring out how to keep a technology this powerful from becoming a threat itself.
05:09And that can't be answered by a November poll.
05:11That's a debate that will outlive this election and this presidency.
05:14But when he hands off the Oval Office, you can be sure we will still be leading the world on
05:20artificial intelligence or, as he calls it, superintelligence.
05:24These aren't six-week problems.
05:26More like 60-year issues.
05:28And the president appears determined not to hand them to somebody else, Democrat or Republican.
05:33Because this isn't just a midterm plan.
05:36It's not a re-election plan.
05:38It's an American plan.
05:39And joining us now is Fox News contributor from The Wall Street Journal, Kim Strassel.
05:44So, Kim, I know you wrote a lot about this.
05:46You've been in a lot of personal briefings with the president of the United States.
05:48Do you see him thinking big picture like I just outlined?
05:54Oh, yeah.
05:55And, Brian, by the way, this is why Americans voted for the guy, right?
05:59After decades of feeling as though they had politicians that said, oh, I'll solve this, I'll solve this.
06:04Then nothing happens.
06:05They wanted someone who was going to go in and break China.
06:08And, by the way, just to add a couple of more things to the list that you laid out there.
06:13You know, just this week you had Vice President J.D. Vance come out and say they're taking more than
06:17750,000 phantom accounts off of Obamacare.
06:21I mean, this is the fraud that's been sitting there in the United States government for decades.
06:26Nobody's done anything about.
06:28So it causes some disruption.
06:30I think it leaves some voters feeling unsettled.
06:32But stuff is getting done.
06:34The other thing is rare earth.
06:35He's on a two-year plan to get another rare earth.
06:38He's going to mine in this country.
06:39We never should have stopped.
06:41But environmentalists had a lot to do with that.
06:43But now he's cutting deals with Australia and the Far East and Central and South America.
06:47And I'll add something else.
06:49He's cleaning up our own hemisphere for the first time really in my lifetime.
06:53China and Russia are being pushed out.
06:55So is communism.
06:56Cuba's next.
06:59Yeah, it's remarkable.
07:01People on the rare earth things also think they just netted that Greenland deal, which is one of the biggest
07:06sources of rare earths everywhere.
07:08And part of that deal says, hey, you can sell it to us, but you can't sell it to our
07:12adversaries.
07:13That was a big question mark.
07:15And that's done.
07:16Yeah, I mean, this is one of those things that you've done this before.
07:18We're in the middle of the play-by-play.
07:20And you think you understand a presidency.
07:21I think we're going to understand his presidency a lot better two or three years out.
07:25But we're in the middle of it now.
07:27But let me just do something I just told you I wasn't going to do.
07:29Let's drill down on November and midterms.
07:32And let's talk about Alaska.
07:34Mary Peltola, nine separate former staffers came out and says this woman's got a huge attitude problem, a rage issue,
07:42correct?
07:45Right.
07:45And this is a problem for her.
07:47Look, I don't know how many committed Peltola voters are going to care that much.
07:52But these are the kind of stories when you come out and it says complete mayhem among their staff, people
07:57quitting or being fired.
07:59It suggests a politician that has a lot of problems.
08:02And that matters a lot.
08:03You get some of these middle-of-the-road voters.
08:06They either decide they don't want that or they just decide they're not interested in going out to vote that
08:11day for her.
08:12So that's a real depressor when it comes to turnout for her and I think is a boon for Dan
08:20S. Sullivan, the actual Dan S. Sullivan, the incumbent in the race.
08:24I've got to read this to you.
08:25You're not going to believe it.
08:26It's in your rival newspaper.
08:28It says she is a part of and this is what she said about Planned Parenthood.
08:33One of her angry outbursts, slurs and firings, tumult rocks a key Senate campaign is the headline.
08:39Peltola also disparaged Planned Parenthood, particularly one of its regional board members running for re-election for the 2024 House
08:47seat.
08:48Peltola was frustrated about the organization's scrutiny of her deliberations over how to vote on a defense bill.
08:53She said, quote, I hope Planned Parenthood knows that if we don't win, it's more their loss than ours.
09:00F those bees, she later wrote in a text message to her staff in January 2024 that was viewed by
09:09the New York Times.
09:10She also went on to say, Peltola, I hope she dies of a botched abortion.
09:16She also had a gay slur and made fun of people with maybe who have mental issues.
09:27Yeah, no, look, Mary Peltola has already had some issues up here.
09:33Remember, she briefly served as a House member representing Alaska.
09:39And that was because she won essentially because of Alaska's goofy rank choice system.
09:45So she essentially won by default.
09:48Now, this year, there is a nasty trick going on in Alaska, Brian, where there is this decoy Dan Sullivan
09:54candidate who has purely been put,
09:56clearly been put on the ballot with help from Democrats to try to confuse voters and get them to draw
10:03votes away from the incumbent Dan Sullivan.
10:06But I think all of this adds up to show the desperation a bit of this campaign.
10:11And the problem she has, when she's trashing on kind of loyal, Democratic outside groups, she's got to, she's got
10:17to, it shows the frustration and the problems there.
10:19Kim, I want to get to Texas real quick, because James Tallarico is leading.
10:23If I look at the latest poll, he's up by six.
10:25That's a mayor's survey.
10:27Real clear average up by three over Ken Paxson.
10:30But what Tallarico is doing a little bit different, he's changing all his views.
10:34He now says, I'm going to work with Donald Trump on the border.
10:37I am for oil and gas.
10:39I want to debate Ken Paxson on Fox News with Brett Baier as the moderator.
10:45And he's telling all his Democrats, don't come.
10:48I want to act like a Republican.
10:51Does that, is that a strategy that could be successful in Texas when the others have failed Democrats?
10:58Well, look, I think that what's adding up here in Texas is, remember, this is a red state, by the
11:04way.
11:05And a lot of people who have moved to Texas, too, because they want that kind of politics.
11:09So he's already facing an uphill thing.
11:11And I always question this.
11:12Democrats ran out and they recruited all these people.
11:15Oh, you know, here's a seminarian in Texas and we'll roll him out.
11:20Then people find out what his actual views are.
11:23So now he's trying to cloak those actual past views.
11:26Are Texans going to buy it?
11:28I don't know.
11:29But one of the problems here, too, is, you know, Paxson's having trouble.
11:34There was a very messy primary down there.
11:36And a lot of Republicans are still pretty bitter about that.
11:39So he's got to motivate his base as well, too.
11:41He's getting like 200 million dollars.
11:43They're going to flood the system, see what happens, see what kind of debate that would be.
11:48Kim Strassel, always great to have you on.
11:49Thanks so much.