In this episode, Mike Steger examines the dramatic geopolitical transformation taking place under President Trump's second administration. While many focus solely on the conflict with Iran, Mike argues that the real story is the systematic withdrawal of American troops, the emergence of new regional alliances, the rebuilding of national sovereignty, and the creation of major infrastructure projects designed to reshape the Middle East for generations.
From Iraq's troop withdrawal and Syria's political transformation to Lebanon, Gaza, the Abraham Accords, and new energy corridors stretching across the region, this discussion explores why the conflict with Iran may be only one piece of a much larger strategic realignment. Mike also examines the deeper principles of national development, human creativity, and the American System that he argues are driving this historic shift.
"Our purpose in disclosing this information is not to weaken confidence in election, but to earn that confidence by confronting vulnerabilities and correcting them very, very quickly." - President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸https://t.co/bRU2jrdsI4pic.twitter.com/oRyxeSE6s5
“According to the DHS review…they identified approximately 278,000 NONCITIZENS who are registered to vote in federal elections. Since Democrat states refuse to share their voter files, the number is actually MUCH HIGHER than that.” @POTUS Trump pic.twitter.com/e8rPyveIrx
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 17, 2026
… and manipulation.
— China and other countries have been trying to meddle in our elections.
— Evidence of fraud has been buried.
— Hundreds of thousands of non-citizens and dead people are listed and active on the voter rolls.
Yet, we STILL have elections with no Voter ID, no Proof of Citizenship, and tens of millions of ballots floating aimlessly through the mail.
.@POTUS: "In a rare move, NBC and ABC Fake News have both said that they would not cover this speech... because of the fact that they don’t like the topic, because they know how corrupt our system is and they don't want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of the… pic.twitter.com/gLwanu8gaK
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 17, 2026
… plot. They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going. They want to protect the Radical Left. You can’t have a great country without free and fair elections. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses—they use our public multi-billion-dollar in value airwaves for absolutely no money... all we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting."
.@POTUS: Yet concealing China’s meddling was only the beginning. The third set of documents we are releasing proves that for many years, Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure, including electronic voting machines and ballot-counting… pic.twitter.com/BTSUVdI4yw
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 17, 2026
… systems. They are vulnerable, and they are easily compromised.
Tonight, we are publishing a series of previously-classified U.S. Intelligence Community Assessments and other reports proving that our government has long known these machines are extremely exposed to attack. As one assessment states: “We judge that U.S. adversaries, including at a minimum Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as non-state groups, have the capability to compromise U.S. election infrastructure.” The documents also state: “We assess that centralized election-related data repositories, such as voter registration databases, pollbooks, and official election websites, are most vulnerable to exploitation, and adversaries could use access to these systems to disrupt election processes.”
Tonight, we are releasing all of these findings, spanning from January 2020 to June 2026. This is a cyber threat aimed at the very heart of our democracy.
Many people have questioned whether it could actually be possible to electronically manipulate vote totals or change election results. Today, we are releasing documents that show the CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot by the Maduro regime in Venezuela to do exactly that—conspiring to digitally rig their own country’s elections in 2020. This reporting included precise details about methods the regime developed to digitally alter vote totals in ways that could not be detected even with an audit.
This intelligence underscores why we must take urgent action to ensure that our own systems can never be hacked or compromised.
.@POTUS: Compounding the travesty, the second set of documents we are releasing reveals that members of the Deep State in our intelligence agencies worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China’s sinister election meddling—covering it up from both… pic.twitter.com/uFl4D39HaL
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 17, 2026
… the President and the American People.
U.S. spy agencies began learning about the compromise of voter registration files in 2020, when they discovered that tens of millions of voters’ data in 18 states had been bought, stolen, or hacked by China. Yet those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information hidden. They did not disclose it to me as president, and to the best of our knowledge, they did not inform Congress. In fact, all they kept saying is, “This is the most secure election in the history of our country.”
The coverup of this colossal security breach is even more disturbing in light of additional information showing that China engaged in other election-related activities to undermine my first administration and our 2020 campaign. They did not want Donald Trump to win, and for good reason.
As the documents we are releasing show, CIA reporting explicitly stated, “In mid-2018, the Chinese Communist Party’s policy was to leverage all domestic and foreign elements that were opposed to the U.S. President in an effort to reduce the U.S. President’s votes and make him resign or prevent his re-election. Also in mid-2018, China was working to influence the results of the U.S. mid-term elections, and later, the results of the 2020 Presidential Elections.
Separately, in mid-2019, the Chinese Government’s strategy against the United States was focused on undermining domestic confidence in the U.S. president”—and they did everything possible to do so. Going on, it says “The strategy included efforts to use Chinese contracts with big U.S. companies to influence U.S. business leaders to turn against the U.S. President. The Chinese government sought to identify U.S. journalists who had reported negatively on the U.S. President, and pay them large sums of money to write more negative articles about him. The Chinese Government wanted the U.S. president to lose the next election.” And the reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them, charged them billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs, and built the strongest military anywhere in the world.
These are exact quotes from CIA reporting—the name of the person doing the quote is under review. But it gets even worse. Raw intelligence obtained by the FBI in 2020, yet buried by rogue bureaucrats, stated that China’s activities even included an attempt to manufacture illegal ballots for Joe Biden.
Documents show that during this period, dozens of significant CIA and NSA reports about China’s election targeting were kept out of the Presidential Daily Briefing. One email among intelligence analysts admitted they had ‘deliberately massaged’ the Presidential Daily Briefing to withhold information regarding Chinese activities related to the election. Another official inside the FBI wrote that she was running ‘a shadow government’ to keep intelligence about China’s election meddling from becoming known. Other officials who witnessed such efforts perceived the motivations to be blatantly political.
Recently, we found significant numbers of burn bags, information given by President Barack Hussein Obama to be burned. These bags were supposed to be incinerated, but it never happened. We believe this was not done purposely, but rather through incompetence. But the findings are stunning.
Today, I am asking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the CIA to investigate how and why such crucial information was hidden, to fire those involved in the coverup, and to file criminal charges, if appropriate, against them.
HOLY SHIT
Trump says intel shows China paid US journalists to write negative stories about the Trump administration
Wow! FBI official actually wrote in an email they were running a “shadow government” to keep President Trump and the public from knowing about China’s election meddling in 2020 pic.twitter.com/My2Q9Ftz1M
Nikki Floris, who was then in the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, wrote this email in 2020 stating she was "basically running a shadow government" by hiding information from President Trump.
According to her LinkedIn, she's now the 'Director of Insider Risk' at Microsoft. https://t.co/ZCHDANMyLL
White House declassified emails showing that NSA members deliberately hid intel assessments from President Trump in 2020 that China was trying to influence the election in favor of Biden:
"They show that over a period of years starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People’s Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history—resulting in China’s illicit acquisition of 220 million U.S. voter files." https://t.co/DDsEsQotRR
For decades, far-left terrorists have attacked private citizens, government officials, police and law enforcement, businesses, and critical infrastructure in the U.S. and overseas.
Secretary Rubio hosted the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism – under President Trump’s leadership this @FBI has been proud to support this important work through National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM) 7, focusing federal law enforcement to investigate… pic.twitter.com/AIn0aX29Hl
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) July 16, 2026
… and disrupt organizations engaging in political violence and terrorism. The FBI is aggressively and successfully targeting the financial networks funding their operations and holding them accountable with our partner agencies – we simply follow the money.
Warner Bros is going under. That's why they're selling. Low IQ communists know NOTHING about economics, so they lie that a Paramount acquisition will shed jobs. WB is already slashing jobs! If they don't sell, ALL the jobs go away. My goodness this scammer is so dumb. https://t.co/I5VWKvmqjd
Today, President Trump directed USTR to impose a 25% tariff on most Brazilian imports. Let there be no confusion about why: President Lula and his government have not negotiated with the US in good faith.
His economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians. For…
… the past year, Lula has put his own ego ahead of making a deal for the welfare of the Brazilian people, and these tariffs are the price for that.
For decades, Brazil’s unreasonable acts, policies, and practices have harmed U.S. commerce, including by unfairly advantaging Brazil’s producers over their American competitors and by restricting access to one of the world’s top export markets. For example:
— United States Trade Representative (@USTradeRep) July 16, 2026
… Deforestation: Brazil’s deforestation practices make it more difficult for the U.S. logging industry to compete fairly in global markets. A staggering 91% of deforestation in the Amazon was illegal harvesting between 2023 and 2024. Illegally sourced timber products contribute to distorted global prices, resulting in the devaluation of U.S. wood products, with illegally sourced timber estimated to reduce legally sourced timber prices by 7% to 16%.
There is also evidence that some sub-central levels of Brazil’s government are taking steps to eliminate or roll back tax and other public- and private-sector incentives designed to discourage deforestation.
Continue reading for more non-reciprocal, pervasive trade practices.
The Chancellor of UC San Francisco testified under oath that a "vast majority of pregnancies are in women." Implying some pregnancies occur in men.
When asked directly whether a non-biological woman has ever had a baby, he refused to answer. This… pic.twitter.com/mNk8f1eCDa
— Jenn Pellegrino 🇺🇸 (@JennPellegrino) July 14, 2026
… is the head of one of the top medical schools in the country.
The doctors, nurses, and surgeons trained under him will be treating your family for the next 40 years. And he cannot bring himself to say a man cannot have a baby.
Transgender ideology has captured American medicine. Not enough people are talking about it.
If your doctor can't emphatically say that men cannot get pregnant, I implore you to find a new doctor.
