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It’s now being determined whether the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda will become a reality. On Wednesday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sat before the Senate for the first day of his confirmation hearing. If he gets confirmed, he’ll become the new head of Health and Human Services, and with that, bring his stated plans to get harmful chemicals out of American food products, and to begin reforms within the pharmaceutical industry. We’ll discuss this topic and others in this episode of “Crossroads.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.   🔵 Watch the full episode HERE 👇   https://ept.ms/4aEfqD8 Stay Informed. Stay Free. https://www.joshphilipp.com/

In a previous episode, we discussed how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is now sending undercover agents to America to try to destroy the classical Chinese dance company Shen Yun Performing Arts. In fact, two Chinese agents were recently arrested and sentenced to prison for doing just that. However, this was only the tip of the iceberg—as evidenced by the fact that the CCP is having committee-level meetings to discuss strategies to destroy Shen Yun. And so, in order to explore why that is, and what Shen Yun is doing specifically that’s making them such a thorn in the CCP’s side, I sat down with Ying Chen—a vice president at Shen Yun who’s also a conductor in the Shen Yun orchestra. Spanning 30-odd years, her family’s story of persecution is all too common and gives us a glimpse into the realities of modern-day China, where behind the veneer of modern infrastructure and shiny new buildings lurks a sinister ideology that rips families apart and tramples on faith. Views and opinions expressed in this show are of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. 🇺🇸 Epoch Times $1 Full Access Special Offer: https://ept.ms/RomanSale

The Social Security benefits of roughly 3 million U.S. citizens have just gotten a lot bigger. On Jan. 5, President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act into law. Before he signed it, the bill passed both chambers of Congress overwhelmingly—passing in the House in November 2024 with a vote of 327–75, and then later in the Senate with a vote of 76–20. Meaning it enjoyed broad, bipartisan support. What this new law does is eliminate two provisions that have been in place within the Social Security framework for decades: the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset. Let’s go through what these two provisions are, and find out why eliminating them increases Social Security benefits for roughly 3 million people. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. 🇺🇸 Epoch Times $1 Full Access Special Offer: https://ept.ms/RomanSale

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has been advising President-elect Donald Trump’s national security team. At Turning Point USA’s AmFest conference in Phoenix, I sat down with him to discuss key challenges facing the incoming administration, such as how to address Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control of the Panama Canal. “Who’s controlling this very important waterway? It’s the most strategic waterway for the United States of America on the planet,” Flynn says. “China is the dominant player right now between us and them.” Lt. Gen. Flynn says the Chinese regime either owns or controls some component of 80 percent of the largest ports of our hemisphere. “And yet we have people in our government that go ‘Russia, Russia, Russia.’” Watch the video: He argues that although America has always been a benevolent “nation of givers,” it must focus more energy on domestic policy, and that every citizen has a responsibility to engage in local action. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. RUSH TRANSCRIPT Jan Jekielek: Michael Flynn, such a pleasure to have you back on American Thought Leaders. Michael Flynn: Great. Thank you for having me. I’m a huge, huge fan of you personally, and also Epoch Times and just what you guys represent. So thanks. Mr. Jekielek: That’s extremely kind. So what are you doing now? What’s next with this new administration coming in? Mr. Flynn: Part of what I have been doing is, you know, because my background is intelligence, national security, foreign policy, you know, certainly the military. And so I have been working with and advising sort of in a background way, because that’s the way I want to be, you know, as things are now, particularly during this transition, with the national security team that President Trump has assembled, people like Tulsi Gabbard, who I’ve known for a long time. When Tulsi first came in as a first-term Democrat congresswoman from Hawaii, I got to know her then, and we’ve maintained that relationship for a long time, as well as Kash Patel. Mike Waltz is going to be the National Security Advisor. Kash is going to be FBI Director. Pete Hegseth has been nominated to be the Secretary of Defense. I’ve been in touch with Tom Holman off and on and trying to help him navigate. Tom doesn’t need a lot of navigation. Tom knows exactly what he wants to do. Jan, I have a great, great portfolio and network of foreign relations. I work with a lot of militaries around the world. I still have great relationships with many of the countries that want to work with America desperately to be able to do the things that need to be done to protect ourselves from this rise of globalism, because that’s kind of the challenging component of what we face. I don’t think a lot of people understand that. Mr. Jekielek: Tell me this, okay, the Trump approach to national security and foreign policy is peace through strength. That would be fair to say. Mr. Flynn: Absolutely. And that’s exactly what George Washington said. George Washington said that in order to preserve our country, we have to present ourselves as a strong nation. He always believed that because he was a soldier, he was a warrior, and he was a general. Trump, in a lot of ways, has those same characteristics about doing things just using good common sense, but also making sure that the country is strong and presents ourselves as a strong, healthy country because I think that matters. With the advent of bringing Bobby Kennedy into the team, that’s going to be a component of our nation, is not just the health of your body, but health as a nation. With Trump, this idea of peace through strength, is his fundamental idea about how the United States of America needs to present itself around the world. Mr. Jekielek: You’re very skeptical of our military, right? Mr. Flynn: I am. Mr. Jekielek: But you’re also, as I understand it, very supportive of the peace through strength model. And to some people, that might seem incongruous. Mr. Flynn: Yes, an awkward oxymoron. First of all, today is Purple Heart Day. So this day when we’re sitting here together, we recognize it as Purple Heart Day. Purple Heart is someone who’s wounded in combat. So it’s a very special day. And the fact that we’re talking about right now, I tell people that I’m not anti-war, I’m anti-stupid war. And you can take that for whatever you want to take it for. But our country was founded on the idea of being a benevolent nation based on a constitution and an equal and fair justice system for all. And when we project ourselves and what we want to be around the world, we want to be seen as this, you know, this is a great, humble, benevolent nation that is a nation of givers. The people of our country are the greatest givers in the world. They give, give, give to everybody around the world that desperately needs help. We’re always there. But I think now one of the things that we have to look at is we have to look at taking care of our own country. This idea of our peace through strength or who we are as a nation and what we need to do going forward, it’s kind of like the body, right? Your body needs to stay fit. Well, our nation needs to stay fit. In order to do that, we have to protect certain institutions and make sure that they’re ready to do the right things when called upon, particularly our military. I love our military. I love our men and women in our military, but we do have some challenges inside of our military right now. There is no doubt about it. I mean, I’m in touch with many, many rank and file within our military and this advocacy for things like DEI, which we call wokeness. People can define that however they want, but the United States military cannot be a social experiment to test things about how people should behave in their lives. Our military serves one purpose for our country, and that is to be prepared and trained and ready to fight and win. And the key word there is to win our nation’s wars when called upon. And what we really don’t want to do is we don’t want to call upon our country or in our military constantly. I spoke here at the Turning Point conference here, this beautiful setup that Charlie Kirk has organized. I spoke yesterday and a lot of young people are here. That’s what Turning Point is known for. There are young people in here, and I spoke to a bunch of them yesterday, that they weren’t born when 9/11 happened, okay? For their entire lives, our nation has been at war. Think about that. Some of them were age 20, some of them were age 21, college age kids. I’m looking at this and thinking, man, you kids weren’t even born when 9/11 happened. Then we went to war in Afghanistan. Then we went to war in Iraq. Now, we’re looking at war in Eastern Europe. We still see the wars in the Middle East. We have the rise of the Chinese Communist Party globally around the world, and they present a constant threat. My point is that we have to recognize that in order to understand the way the world is, we cannot be in this constant state of war, Jan. We just can’t be. We have to return to a place where peace is the norm and war is the aberration. And right now it’s just the opposite. With somebody like Donald Trump, who I have had the opportunity to speak with, and have stayed in touch with. From my very first meeting with him back in 2015, two weeks after he came down the famous escalator ride, his whole thing was, why are we involved in all these wars? Where are we making a mistake? And that’s how we connected. As a military officer, as a general officer, having served our country in wartime, we follow the direction of the commander in chief and the president of the United States. But when you start to begin to look at what’s happening, you go, OK, when does this end? It can end, and it can end on our terms, especially when we’re smart about it and we just use good God-given common sense. Mr. Jekielek: There’s a number of analysts now that I find to be highly credible who say that we actually built the whole Chinese regime, which is our, I don’t know if you agree, but our major strategic threat over everything else. Mr. Flynn: What we have inside of our government right now, and we’ve had, and it’s been rising. If you really understand the depth of the history of our country post-World War II, you know, we’ve had this sort of incremental rise of communism in the United States of America. A lot of people don’t want to recognize that or they kind of go, oh, it’s, you know, but it’s true. Eisenhower gave the very famous warning about the military-industrial complex. But the whole thing wasn’t mature then, Jan. Now, it’s mature. Now we’re in 2024. We’re 75 years later. This communist infiltration into our country is a real threat. When you look at the CCP, you look at China and the politicians can call them adversaries or can call them competitors. Economists can call them economic competitors. As a military guy I look at them as adversaries and an enemy. What if we had ever to address them from a military perspective? People need to understand the shift China has been doing globally. If you really understand their One Belt, One Road Initiative, it’s not just some road from northern China into Europe. It is a global economic, financial, political, and certainly military and information war that they are waging globally in our own hemisphere, in the hemisphere of the North and South Americas, in the Caribbean, and in Central America. Let’s just talk about port facilities. With 80% of the largest ports in South America, in the Southern Hemisphere, of our own hemisphere, either the Chinese own them or they control some component of the largest ports in our own hemisphere. We talk about the Panama Canal. I talk about the Panama Canal all the time. Who’s controlling this very important waterway? It is the most strategic waterway for the United States of America on the planet is the Panama Canal. We built it for a reason way back when the United States did. My bigger strategic point is that China sees itself as the global principal sole superpower this century, and they’ve been rising. The United States of America helped their rear ends out of being basically dominated by imperialism and Japan at that time. In the late 30s into the 40s, Japan conquered everything all the way over to really modern day Pakistan, through the Burma Road. I had an uncle that fought on the Burma Road during World War II and then returned to Burma and spent 25 years of his life in Burma to try to help the people of Burma as a Catholic. Mr. Jekielek: I'd love to hear that story sometime, by the way. Mr. Flynn: I want people to understand that China is the dominant player right now between us and them and the way the world is moving. And yet we have people in our government that go, Russia, Russia, Russia. Russia is actually a declining population. They’re a declining economy. They’re still a world superpower because they have the most nuclear weapons on the planet. We’re talking more about nuclear war than we’ve ever talked about in my entire lifetime, and that includes the Cuban Missile Crisis. We could have a discussion just on China alone. Mr. Jekielek: This is actually really interesting. It’s something that’s been on my mind in a big way for the last few years, what Velina Tchakarova calls the DragonBear alliance. It is obviously highly problematic for the US and the free world. Is it possible to bring Russia out of that alliance? Because it would seem to be a good idea. Mr. Flynn: Again, a little history lesson. There was a China-Russia split a few decades ago which was very important. You have to understand why that happened then. We always have to go back to the history of these nations and these regions. Russia is primarily Eurocentric and wants to have a Eurocentric focus. Because they’re part of the Eurasian continent. But really, Russia sees itself principally as a Eurocentric sovereign nation. If they could have their way, they really don’t want that alliance with China. This current administration that we have still, and even in the past, in other administrations, we’ve seen our nation push Russia into the sphere of influence of China, and we need to change that. It doesn’t mean that Vladimir Putin is a good guy. I don’t want to look at the personality side of this. What I want to look at is the demographics. I want to look at the relationships, the economic relationships, the ideas that we have in common between the American people and the Russian people, and I can talk about that with the Chinese people. Most of the Chinese people don’t like Xi and of course, he’s afraid. But we have to push Xi because it’s the paper tiger, right? Under this coming administration, we need to figure out how we can draw Russia back into a more Eurocentric sphere of influence and how we can have a better relationship. It is a peer-to-peer relationship, because at the end of the day, we’re talking about the two great nuclear powers on the planet, right? So we have to face that reality. But we also need to consider what other things are in common. All of the people in the United States intelligence community, they'll listen to this part of the conversation that we’re having, and they’re going to say, see, he’s a Putin puppet. No, what I am is somebody who’s looking to achieve peace, right, and get ourselves away from this notion that we always have to have an adversarial relationship between these people. We don’t. There’s so many good things that we can do. Mr. Jekielek: Obviously, we can’t really do that with Communist China, and a lot of people argue that it’s impossible with Russia now, given everything that’s happened. Mr. Flynn: It’s becoming more difficult. Mr. Jekielek: So you’re optimistic that it’s possible. Mr. Flynn: Yes, I’m optimistic for a couple of reasons. Number one, I’m optimistic that we can figure out with the right leaders how we can develop a strong relationship to slow this train down of war. I mean, world war is real. And we’ve been through a couple of them. We’re in a new century. We’re in the third decade of a new century. We’ve been at war the entire century. So far, the United States of America has been involved or engaged in some level of conflict where people are being, you know, lives are being lost. Right. Here we are on this Purple Heart Day. So I am optimistic that can happen with the right leaders. President Biden hasn’t spoken to President Putin in a couple of years. The old hotline is non-existent. So the number one thing is we have to have leaders who are going to demonstrate courage and they need to reach out to each other and start to have that dialogue. I do think on the Chinese side of things, I think that there is a very intentional effort on Xi’s part to see China, and that’s why he’s designated himself premier for life, basically, because they want to move up their 100-year plan where China is the dominant nation state on the planet this century. They really want to do that. And the Chinese mentality or design of warfare is to really do it without ever firing a shot. So if they’ve influenced enough of the American leaders and the American intelligence community, particularly the intelligence community, to point the fingers elsewhere. Because we don’t hear China, China, China. We hear Russia, Russia, Russia. And yet Russia is in the alliance of China. So we have to figure out geopolitically and geostrategically how we return to a much greater balance here in the world. And the only way that we’re going to do that is to slow this pace that we are heading on right now towards a much more dangerous war. And we need good, strong leaders who are willing to work their way through the noise of the media and through the noise of the, frankly, of the intelligence system that we have that works to undermine and is already, they’re already, they did it in the last Trump administration, they’re already starting to do it again. And that’s why we have to have good leaders at every level inside of those organizations. Because we can do this, Jan. We can achieve peace. It doesn’t mean that you’re not going to have these conflicts around the world, because people, sadly, that’s what happens. But we can achieve peace with the great nation states and live on this planet in a much more refined, natural state instead of constantly being at each other’s throats and trying to go to war. We have to move away from that and move towards more of a place where we have conversations about what needs to be done instead of confrontations about what is being done. Mr. Jekielek: The main challenge I hear to this view is a weak military. I’m not getting the sense that’s what you’re talking about. Mr. Flynn: Yes, definitely not. We have to have a strong military. You know, the only component of our military that’s even addressed in our constitution is the Navy. We don’t address any other components. But we have to have components of strength. Number one, number one, and you know, most people think leadership or economics. I actually think that we have to have common sense. We have to use good common sense. If the American people have anything, they look at something and go, well, that’s not right. So that’s a component of strength in this country because we’re still free to be able to think that way, right? And then the second thing is really the economic strength. Under this administration, we have really just undercut the energy sector completely. And we’ve moved towards nonsensical climate change and global warming and all these things. And I got that. Hey, I surf. I’ve been surfing for over 50 years of my life. I want clean water. I want clean oceans. But economic strength is something that this country needs. Again, it’s like a person who’s working out and trying every day to try to stay healthy. Our country needs components of our body, of our American body, to be strong. One of those is economics. The other component is our military. Does it need to be equal to the economy? No, it’s actually a subset. If our economy is strong, then our military can be strong. Our educational institutions need to be strong. It’s a very weak part of our system right now. Our public school education system is horrible. We put more money into it than any other country, probably the top 10 in the world combined, and yet we’re rated in the lower third. It’s just terrible. Those institutions are like parts of a body that need to be worked out. Once we start to do that and we get the right leaders in there, then we can really make a difference. All of it combined is going to require good, strong leadership who just use good God-given common sense and do the right things based on what the American people want. The message that Americans just sent to the world is we, the people, are now back in charge. But what I’m telling the American people that listen to this great platform of Epoch Times, is that we now have a responsibility, we have a citizen’s responsibility to stay engaged, to stay engaged at the local level. I use this phrase, local action equals a national impact. Donald Trump can’t do this on his own. Every single citizen, I just met a great young lady who just won the superintendent election in one of the biggest counties in our country, a county well known by probably people globally. It’s called Maricopa County. She’s wonderful. She’s bold. She’s brave. She’s super smart. And she knows that she’s going to have a fight ahead of her at the local level. But she made a decision to do more than what she was doing, right? Serve your country. I serve my country. I’m still serving my country. You’re serving. You’re serving in this capacity, Jan. Everybody out there needs to start thinking about what is my responsibility to serve as a citizen at the local level. You serve at the local level, you’re going to have a national impact. That’s what we need to do to stitch this country back together. Mr. Jekielek: What’s really interesting is I feel by doing this, I’m actually serving my country of Canada as well, right? Mr. Flynn: Canada needs it. I mean, Trump joked about the 51st state, but the people of Canada need to understand. I think they do. They have a prime minister that won only by 32% because of the system of government that Canada has. I understand the system of government that Canada probably better than 50% of the people of Canada. So the people of Canada that are listening, I want them to understand, like the people of America, understand the underlying principles of how we are organized as a nation. And we operate, you know, we’re very complex. Our system of government in the United States of Americain is very complex. Our system of government is very complex, federal, state, local, I mean, tribal in many cases. Canada is very complex. You know, and so you have a prime minister that is serving, but not with the majority of the people that voted for him, because they voted for all these other people. So coalitions have to come together for what’s best for Canada and what’s best for the United States of America. I’m a former Democrat. I just left the Democrat Party like three years ago. I grew up as a Kennedy Democrat, you know, sort of the Reagan-era Democrats that voted for Reagan. Our family were Democrats, hardcore. But my mother was right to life, which was interesting prior to the Democrat Party sort of turning on that issue. There’s a lot of people in this country that are Democrats, right? My belief system hasn’t changed. I just changed my party affiliation. That’s why I was such a big fan of Bobby Kennedy when Bobby Kennedy made the very bold, courageous decision to step down and put the country before himself. And that’s my message to everybody that’s listening. We now have to put each of us, you don’t have to be Bobby Kennedy, you don’t have to be General Flynn. Just be yourself, but put country before self and we can get this country back. And it’s going to take an entire coalition of people, not just Republicans and Democrats. I’ve been described as a hardcore Right-wing, fascist, Christian, all kinds of names. I served in our military during a very, very difficult time in war. Five years I’ve spent my life in combat. And so I love this country. I love all people. And I think that’s kind of where Donald Trump’s coming from. And as bad as he’s been described in the woke media, he’s actually a really good guy who loves people. Mr. Jekielek: Let’s talk about your new film. You’ve had a very adventurous life over the last few years, to say the least. You said, I feel blessed to feel alive right now and I can tell my story. I haven’t really given you a chance to do that here today. Please tell us about the film and how people can watch it. Mr. Flynn: Yes, the name of the film is, Flynn, Deliver the Truth. Whatever the Cost. They can go to FlynnMovie.com. And thank you so much for allowing me to just talk about it for a second. FlynnMovie.com. You can live stream it. I think it’s like $3.99. I actually think it should be mandatory viewing for anybody going into the government right now, honestly. But it’s an inspiring story of survival. It is a story of faith, definitely faith and family. And it is a story of corruption, deep corruption in our country, in our government. And it touches everybody. It’s not just Democrats or it’s not just the Left and the Right. It’s the whole system of government that we have that has really kind of overpowered the people of this country that are supposed to be the rulers, right? We, the people, are supposed to be the rulers of our destiny as a republic. And so that’s what the movie really does take you through that. It has emotional highs where you‘ll laugh and it has emotional lows where you’ll absolutely break down in tears when you listen to my wife and listen to my son describe what they went through because the attacks weren’t just on little old General Mike Flynn. It was directed against my family. And I have nine brothers and sisters. My wife has seven. Her mother’s still alive. I have about a hundred nieces and nephews, many of them serving in the military. We have so many cousins. I have one uncle who had 12 children. And so these are people that are in my life that were all impacted because they all know me. You don’t rise to being a general in the army and then being chosen as a national security advisor and be the person that was described and actually to have to do the things that I had to do in order to protect my family. And so watch the film. It’s a great film. Go to FlynnMovie.com. And also, thank you so much, Jan, for having me. Mr. Jekielek: Michael Flynn, it’s such a pleasure to have you on the show. Mr. Flynn: It’s great. I love The Epoch Times. You guys are wonderful.

At Turning Point USA’s inaugural eve ball, I spoke with Tom Homan, Jordan Peterson, Kari Lake, Ben Shapiro, Riley Gaines, Jeremy Boreing, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and his wife, Christie, Enes Kanter Freedom, Robert Davi, Vani Hari, Conor McGregor, Chloe Cole, and Andrew Klavan about their thoughts on Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the first 100 days of his presidency, his foreign policy strategy, and the TikTok saga. Watch the video: Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

“We’re being lied to about chronic disease. That’s 90 percent of medical spending—92 percent of American deaths are chronic disease. Only 8 percent are infectious. And we have this system that profits from that. But what we could do, which is what President Trump and Bobby Kennedy talked about, is get to the root cause.” In this episode, I sit down with Calley Means, co-author of “Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health.” He has been working in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement on a blueprint for reforming the public health establishment. “We’re going to let information out. We’re going to do new research on why we’re getting sick. We’re also going to release the existing research. We’re going to stop infantilizing the American patient. We’re going to trust Americans that they’re trying to make the best decisions for their health and their kids,” says Means. Watch the video: “I really think that the problem with public health in America right now is we’ve relied too much on the experts. We should have expertise, we should have to read science, but we should have it open, and then really unlock flexibility for Americans to make the best decision for their personal situation with their doctors.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. RUSH TRANSCRIPT Jan Jekielek: Calley Means, such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders. Calley Means: I’m pumped to be here. Mr. Jekielek: You were for years a consultant in the food industry, and I guess I want to find out, right now you’re speaking a lot against the practices of the existing food industry. And I want to just find out how you got there. Mr. Means: In D.C., growing up as a young conservative, it was the right thing to just really not question our great industries. I was an intern at the White House for Bush and the Heritage Foundation. I did campaigns. It was just what you did. You went and consulted for the great corporations of America and helped push innovation with pharma and helped push food innovation. I thought it was the right thing to do. I thought I was on the right side. But over years I’ve put together and I think the country has put together, that it’s really corporate capture that is a big issue. There has been this shift from 15 years ago. You would never question these big industries. Now, there is a lot of skepticism that’s very warranted. I definitely put those pieces together while working for these industries. Mr. Jekielek: First of all, how did you transition into working for these industries from government? Mr. Means: It’s a revolving door. It’s what everyone does. When you’re done with the campaign, you go and lobby, you go consult, and you go back and forth. And you find yourself with these public affairs and lobbying firms, and then inevitably at these firms, you’re working with people across the aisle, people that you were competing against during the campaign. You’re working with McCain. I was working with the Obama administration and Obama campaign people to help the biggest spenders in D.C., pharma and the healthcare industry. So you just kind of find yourself there. And everyone’s talking about innovation and helping these industries. I found myself helping food companies pay the NAACP to say that taking Coke and soda off of food stamps was racist. I found myself working for opioid makers and lobbying for pharma to pay off researchers to say that opioids weren’t addictive. The food industry spends 11 times more on nutrition research than the NIH. The lifeblood of scientific research comes from the pharma industry. They’re not trying to advance unbiased scholarship. They’re trying to get a result. Mr. Jekielek: Clearly what is it that you discovered and what caused you to find your eyes at the come to God moment. Mr. Means: I left the industry and it didn’t quite feel right. I didn’t put all the pieces together. I became an entrepreneur for the past 10 years. My sister, a surgeon, the star of the family, is from Stanford Medical School and was a NIH researcher. She left the system after realizing she'd never learned at Stanford during residency what actually makes people sick. She was doing surgery all day on inflammation but she’s like she didn’t know why people are getting inflammation. She just knew how to cut it out or to prescribe a drug for it. So she put together this idea that it’s simple but we have a sick care system. You know when you wind it down 95% of medical spending is on managing people that are already sick. So that was really formative to me, helping with that, and then having a child, or my mom abruptly getting a cancer diagnosis and dying. But also hearing that was unlucky, when it wasn’t unlucky. What I put together with my sister is that my mom was on five other medications. Each of these medications and each of these chronic diseases that we’re all dealing with in America are missed opportunities to get to the root cause. If you have high cholesterol, statin doesn’t cure the issue. If you have high blood sugar, you have metformin. If you’re a little depressed, you have SSRI. These drugs are being prescribed like candy right now. It’s making money. It’s very profitable to really ignore the root cause and just be managing these conditions for life. That’s what my sister and I really put together after my mom’s death. We decided to write a book. The thesis of the book is simple. It’s that we’re being lied to about chronic disease. That’s 90% of medical spending. 92% of American deaths are chronic disease. Only 8% are infectious. And we have this system that profits from that. But what we could do, which President Trump and Bobby Kennedy talked about, is get to the root cause. We spend 4.5 trillion dollars on medicine right now. There is a world where that could be steered towards reversing chronic disease, towards incentivizing thriving among the American people. So it’s not about making people eat healthy or making people exercise, but we could be incentivizing those things with our public policy. That’s what we really wanted to divide our lives pushing. Mr. Jekielek: What do you know about how President Trump and Bobby Kennedy ended up having a meeting of the minds? Mr. Means: From being in D.C., I had my political eye on this issue. If I was going to contribute one thing to this, it’s how does the politics reflect the policy we want? There’s no change in America unless you get voters behind it in our system. I could see there were all these parents frustrated with kids getting sick, and all these adults kind of anxious about the fact that we’re dying younger and getting sicker. How do you channel that into a movement? So my sister and I began advocating and went on Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, the independent media. Non-corporate owned media is so important, what you guys are doing. Tucker connected me with Bobby, and I got connected with the Trump campaign through Fox News. We just started sharing ideas. Bobby obviously knows them well, but the Trump campaign was very interesting. Then something happened with the Butler shooting. I was watching the Trump assassination attempt on TV with the blood pouring down his face. It was very emotional. So I called Bobby. There’s a movement that Bobby built where he was getting 20% of the vote around this idea of combating chronic disease. Really the same ideas that Trump talks about combating corruption. And he called Trump that night. A huge part of the MAHA movement was really forged in this conversation just hours after Trump was shot. From my small vantage point, they really bonded. Trump was obviously really thinking about unity, thinking about big ideas, and they had hours of future conversations. And I think there was something special that was forged between them. You see it to this day. They really like each other. Trump really gets it. Bobby was really, I think, able to bring Trump along and explain how sick kids are a great example of the swamp, of the bad incentives that Trump talked about. Then Bobby just busted his butt to help Trump during the campaign. That led to a lot of respect and it led to electoral help. You had the gender gap closed. You had independents vote for Trump for the first time. You had different demographic groups and young people. The MAHA movement really helped politically and that’s what’s giving this movement the power to really take on these interests. Mr. Jekielek: It’s just interesting to me how much stemmed from that assassination attempt, that unbelievably close call, because that was also the moment that Elon Musk decided to officially endorse Trump. Mr. Means: That was one of the most important events in American history, I think. I think this election was one of the most important elections of American history, I think, of my lifetime. And I think the biggest story in the world of our generation is populist backlash against these institutions that have really let us down, experts that have let us down. It’s manifesting throughout the world, right? Trump represents that, and they took a shot at him. And he got up, and he put his fist up, and he said, fight. I mean, it was one of the most extraordinary moments in American history. So that led Elon to support. That led Bobby to make the call. I think a lot came out of that. Mr. Jekielek: How are you involved in all this? Mr. Means: After helping to facilitate the introduction, I stayed close to Bobby in the Trump campaign, participated in events, helped as much as I could with messaging during the campaign. Then I went to Palm Beach with Bobby. What’s cool about this is that Bobby has got an informal group of people that have come to this for the right reasons. They are really passionate about helping kids. In an off-the-record closed-door meeting with Bobby Kennedy in the Trump campaign, there’s no ideology. The questions are, how do we create policies to get transparency? How do we get policies to change the incentives that profit from people being sick? Mr. Jekielek: There are a number of Americans that are honestly concerned. One of the mantras here is he’s going to get rid of the polio vaccine. People are afraid that their children will suffer because of these policies. They actually believe that. I’m not talking about people that are looking to sabotage it for some other reason. Mr. Means: Bobby Kennedy is focused on one thing and one thing only when it comes to vaccines, and it’s getting information to the American people. If there’s one thing that guides Bobby, it’s transparency. Most Americans agree with this, it’s troubling when there’s an attack on information even getting out. I mean, it is true. It is actually wild when you dig into this, how little information is actually out on the vaccines we’re giving our kids, how stigmatized and attacked anyone is for even asking questions. Bobby is going to instruct the NIH with President Trump to do unbiased research on every single area that impacts American public health. That’s what they’re going to do. It’s going to be much, much wider than vaccines. It is a fact that 50% of pharmaceutical trials that underlie FDA approval for the $4.6 billion prescriptions Americans get per year aren’t able to be replicated. We have junk science. Just as a demonstrable fact, the two largest vaccine makers in America have settled $5 billion in criminal penalties. You can have great public health advancements and still be skeptical and continue to do science. That’s the big agenda for Trump. It is about transparency. We’re going to let information out. We’re going to do new research on why we’re getting sick. We’re also going to release the existing research. We’re going to stop infantilizing the American patient. We’re going to trust Americans that they’re trying to make the best decisions for their health and their kids. I really think that the problem with public health in America right now is we’ve relied too much on the experts. We should have expertise. We should have to read science, but we should have it open and then really unlock flexibility for Americans to make the best decision for their personal situation with their doctors. Right now we don’t have that. The American Medical Association has a stranglehold over American practice of care. This is a pharma lobby group. This is a pharma lobbying group that has the judgment to recommend gender transition surgeries to two-year-olds, which is literally what the American Medical Association does today. They have no age limit on gender transition surgery. This is an industry, a group that we’ve outsourced 20% of the U.S. economy to. This is the Trump MAHA agenda. It’s transparency and it’s trusting patients to make the best decisions for themselves. Science is about asking constant questions. Science is a constant hypothesis. Science is asking taboo unpopular questions. Science is researching areas we’re told not to look into. That science. I believe and I truly believe this and I think it will shock many on the left. The Trump administration is going to go down in history books as a return to science. There has been an absolute war on science for people who say that we can’t ask questions. People say that we should be locking down schools, wearing masks, causing a generation of developmental issues with kids. The war on science has happened from the captured medical industrial complex that profits when people are being sick. The NIH researchers have made billions of dollars of unreported, conflicted royalties from drugs. Every single institution that impacts our health makes money when Americans are sicker. They’re not asking why we’re getting Alzheimer’s. They’re not asking why we die at a four times higher rate of COVID deaths in America than other countries in Asia, right? They’re asking, how can we profit from people being sick? It’s just a demonstrable economic fact that every institution that impacts our health, insurance companies, pharma, hospitals, med schools, profit when we’re sicker. Mr. Jekielek: One would think that should be examined. Mr. Means: Yes, pharmaceutical companies make more money when people are prescribed drugs for long periods of time. Hospitals are fee-for-service. The more patients, the more beds. My friends from Harvard Business School who work in hospitals now, it’s how many beds are you filling, and what’s your capacity of beds, and how many people are in the beds. That’s their economic model. They lose their job if the beds aren’t full. With insurance companies, Obamacare was in its disaster. Obamacare was a sick care bill. It made it that insurance companies can only get 15% profit margin, but they can raise premiums to get that 15%. If you can only take 15% profit margin, but raise premiums to get that 15%, your incentive clearly is for costs to go up, i.e. people getting sicker. There’s no cost controls with insurance. What has happened? Premiums have doubled in the past 10 years. Insurance premiums are the top source of American inflation. Mr. Jekielek: You said that insurance premium increases are the prime source of inflation? Mr. Means: No, the single largest source of inflation. Mr. Jekielek: That’s an astonishing amount because there have been a lot of sources of inflation. Mr. Means: The biggest source of inflation is healthcare. Healthcare is growing. It’s the fastest growing industry in the country and largest. Mr. Jekielek: You’re basically saying that the cost inflation in healthcare is greater than anything else. Mr. Means: It’s by far the largest driver of American inflation. I’ve been looking at reports that are telling me that essentially on average since 2020, it’s about 40%. Multiple sources are telling me that. Mr. Jekielek: Overall inflation? Mr. Means: Yes, exactly. Overall inflation across since 2020. Mr. Jekielek: You’re talking about a massive number. Mr. Means: It’s the largest part of our economy. It’s the fastest growing part of our economy. It’s the fastest growing part of our economy. It’s the fastest growing prices in our economy. You know, again, premiums, healthcare premiums have doubled 100%. They’ve doubled. Mr. Jekielek: Is the healthcare industry going to suffer because of this change in governance? Mr. Means: That’s what they’re arguing. Again, people don’t argue that their industries are profiting from sick kids. They’re arguing that Bobby Kennedy’s policies are going to lead to worse outcomes for their companies. We’re here in Phoenix, Arizona. The biggest building in town is a brand new children’s hospital. You can see it from all over town. It’s a towering monument to failure, in my opinion. When a new children’s hospital is opened, it’s a bipartisan thing, right? The governor comes and cuts the ribbon and says this is going to bring 40,000 new jobs to Arizona, right? They celebrate. It’s in the press. Everyone’s there, and everyone is celebrating. I was recently with the governor of Texas. He’s a good guy. But he was bragging that you could see the Texas Medical Center from space. It’s the biggest complex in Texas. That’s not good. It means there’s more sick kids. The fact that healthcare is so fast growing because we’re getting sick means it’s intertwined with the jobs. The biggest employer in most states is the healthcare system. The fact that we’re getting so sick has made the healthcare industrial complex the most employed industry in the company. It shouldn’t be surprising. I know it’s shocking, but it shouldn’t be surprising that they use the fact that they’re so intertwined with jobs as the argument. Mr. Jekielek: What are the top reforms and line items that could actually shift this and restore a more reasonable set of incentive structures? Mr. Means: Directing the NIH to no longer be a pharmaceutical R&D factory, propelling research, directing them to study what glyphosate is doing, study what atrazine is doing, other food chemicals that we allow that no other country allows, studying various pharmaceutical standards, doing reproducing FDA studies that are underlying the trillions of dollars we spend on pharmaceutical products. So reproducing studies, getting the root cause, getting the science right. Throughout the orgs, but particularly the FDA, getting conflicts of interest out of the agencies. Why is the FDA funded by pharma? The drug approval budget is 75% funded by pharma. Why don’t people have access to better diagnostic technologies? Let’s let patients work with their doctors. Let’s have Medicare money go to food if somebody’s obese instead of straight to Ozempic. Let’s loosen up and make flexible these Medicare and Medicaid standards to help patients make the best decisions with the doctors. What are the principles? Transparency, reducing conflicts, flexibility for patients, medical freedom, and trusting patients. Those are the principles that are going to be guiding a flurry of agency actions from Bobby Kennedy. Mr. Jekielek: The one thing that I’ve been thinking a lot about since COVID is the erosion of the application of the Hippocratic Oath. Have you been thinking about that? Mr. Means: It’s why doctors have the highest burnout and suicide rate of any profession in America. They are hurting patients. Many doctors, most of them, almost all of them got in for the right reasons. We are a criminal system that attracts the best and brightest minds, saddles them with $500,000 in debt, and then throws them into a system where they’re janitors. They are janitors following corrupt American Medical Association billing codes to manage and profit from disease. It’s a disaster. We need to empower doctors. There is no doctor-patient relationship right now. There’s no primary care where they’re really trying to figure out and diagnose what’s going on and make real root cause interventions. They are janitors that have an algorithm and get reprimanded if they go outside that algorithm to prescribe a pill in 15 minutes. And now 80% of Americans are overweight or obese. We have an Alzheimer’s epidemic, a cancer epidemic, every single chronic disease you could possibly think of as an all-time high this year as we’re spending 4.5 trillion dollars on medical care and medical spending is outpacing GDP growth by double. Every single doctor should be speaking out, but we should also change the systems that they operate in. Mr. Jekielek: I have spoken with many doctors during COVID, like your sister, who were seeing some serious problems and trying to mitigate those problems or at least help people. But a lot of people were along for the ride, but they didn’t fully realize it. Mr. Means: That’s letting them off the hook. They’re speaking to you from their house in Paradise Valley with their $3 million mortgage and their vacation house and their children’s private school, which is funded by more patients being sick. That is true. They are band-aiding the disease and profiting from disease and not asking why people are getting sick, if they are on traditional medicine. So the reason they are doing that and the reason fancy doctors with white coats at Harvard and Stanford are able to say that we’re anti-science, talking about healthy eating or root cause interventions like more sunshine or exercise, is because the entire system is propagated on more and more patients being sick. They use these credentials to basically say that we’re crazy for talking about this. I don’t want to fully let them off the hook. They should be aware by now and they should be speaking out. Mr. Jekielek: This transition is being run very differently than past transitions. Can you speak to that? Mr. Means: What is happening right now is literally one of the most important moments in American history. I think it was one of the three most important elections, maybe two most important elections, Trump beating Kamala Harris in American history. What’s happening now is absolutely historic. We’re going to see the biggest flurry of vigor and executive action potentially in American history, at least since the New Deal. There is a mandate from President Trump, not a word of ideology. It’s curing the military industrial complex, the healthcare industrial complex, the education industrial complex. There is a huge directive to be disruptive. This is a once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-century situation happening with the transition. Mr. Jekielek: One would expect there will be some resistance to this process that you’re describing? Mr. Means: There was resistance to an absolutely corrupt and insane continuing resolution that would have generally just been jammed through, that’s giving just Christmas presents to all the special interests. Then the second most powerful and richest person in the world, Elon Musk, called out the BS. They think that they can basically just sneak all these things under CMS code changes, continuing resolutions, and all this minutiae. But now, you have the biggest microphones and most richest people in the world calling that out and scaring and saying that they’re going to spend a hundred million dollars to primary any person who steps out of line. This is a very good thing. What happened with Elon Musk recently by using his weight to kill this continued resolution is absolutely historic. We need more of this. This is what we voted for. We have slithering, unnamed, faceless people that are profiting from kids being sick and have completely co-opted government. What do we have on the other side? We have the richest person in the world shining light on this corruption. We have the American voters who came together and voted for Trump for the first time. Many people who thought they would never vote for Trump, voted for Trump. They gave leverage to this promise of Bobby Kennedy to get kids sick. We’ve got to keep that momentum up. We’ve got to keep getting wins for Trump. Mr. Jekielek: Explain to me exactly what you think actually happened with that continuing resolution, because it seemed to me like it was kind of a popular uprising of people through X, with Elon Musk using his voice quite prominently and others like Vivek Ramaswamy. How do you read what happened exactly? Mr. Means: We’re tired of the BS. The American people are tired of the BS. We cannot do business as usual. Look at that 1500 page bill, it’s an absolute cataclysm. We look at the cynicism of trying to jam it down our throats and have people read it for 15 hours. It’s over. And we just need to stay accountable. This is grassroots action. This is effective grassroots action. You have somebody that is able to communicate directly with people, shining light on things, and it’s rallying people up. We need to keep this level of intensity up through the next four years to support President Trump and transformational change. We are in a great country and we'd be able to talk about this stuff and there’s so much opportunity. But this corporate capture of our institutions, this corruption could bring our country down. Look at the fact that the American Medical Association still pushes COVID shots on six-month olds, the fact that the mental health epidemic is absolutely skyrocketing among kids. There’s a multi-front war on children. I don’t think it’s one person. I think it’s the invisible hand and the fact that our major industries profit from a distracted child. Look at the tech companies. As far as the people that don’t quite get this or still trust the medical system, I honestly am not speaking to them. I’m preaching to the converted. Like everything we do, everything my sister and I do, we’re speaking to the converted. Because if people can continue to get this confidence and this vision, their energy impacts other people. I think Bobby Kennedy’s energy has impacted Trump. This is spreading. It’s unimpeachable. I would want this majority that elected Trump and cares about these MAHA principles and cares about protecting kids to get wins and let that energy spread to more and more people. I want this MAHA thing we’re talking about, this paradigm of health we’re talking about, to be the Overton window for how both sides talk about health. My strategy is to speak to the converted about that. I don’t care about convincing somebody that has a Dr. Fauci candle in their house. They'll turn around eventually, but I have no concern with them right now. Mr. Jekielek: What are you going to be doing in this coming administration then? Mr. Means: Nothing has been announced. I’ve been an informal advisor, helping however I can. My good friends Jay Bhattacharya and Marty Makary are going to be leading the NIH and FDA. Dr. Oz has become a great ally and friend. We’ve got great people in there. I’m trying to support them however I possibly can during this very quick transition period. I don’t have any announcements right now on what I will be doing specifically . Mr. Jekielek: A final thought as we finish up? Mr. Means: It’s surreal being at a conservative conference talking about cleaning up our food supply and about root cause interventions. These were just hippie things five to 10 years ago, and I think it’s really positive that there’s this, really, I think, consensus around getting to the root cause and that things that would’ve been said at a Berkeley rally 10 years ago are now being said at AmericaFest. I think it’s great, and thank you for shining a light on these issues. Mr. Jekielek: Calley Means, it’s such a pleasure to have you on the show. Mr. Means: Thank you.

From AI theft to phishing scams and targeted death threats, Chinese cybercriminals are ramping up their attacks on American security and society. Experts warn that Beijing-backed operatives are aggressively advancing cyber warfare tactics while infiltrating the U.S. tech sector and political landscape. Unpaid Tolls Scam: A New Phishing Threat A new scam is spreading through text messages, falsely claiming recipients have “unpaid tolls” and urging them to make payments. According to security experts, Chinese cybercriminals are behind the scheme, using phishing tactics to steal personal and financial information. These scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, often mimicking legitimate agencies to lure unsuspecting victims. Is China Stealing American AI Research? A major accusation is shaking the artificial intelligence industry—OpenAI claims that DeepSeek, a Chinese AI model, is built on stolen U.S. research. OpenAI asserts it has solid evidence that DeepSeek copied its work without authorization. This revelation has sparked concern among policymakers and tech leaders about China’s aggressive pursuit of AI dominance. The issue has escalated to Washington, where officials and major tech companies are investigating the extent of China’s AI espionage. The U.S. Navy has already taken action, banning its personnel from using DeepSeek over security fears. Former Trump administration officials warn that the U.S. cannot afford complacency, as Beijing’s AI ambitions pose a direct challenge to national security. Death Threats Target U.S. Lawmakers and Falun Gong Practitioners A disturbing new wave of intimidation is hitting American soil. Practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual group persecuted in China, have received death threats via email in the U.S. Some of these threats also target U.S. lawmakers who have voiced support for the group. Experts suspect Chinese operatives or affiliated actors are behind the harassment, part of a broader campaign to silence critics of the Chinese Communist Party. Microsoft and TikTok: Trump Weighs In Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has revealed that Microsoft is in discussions to acquire TikTok, the popular social media platform owned by China’s ByteDance. The potential deal reignites debates over TikTok’s security risks and its impact on U.S. data privacy. U.S.-Taiwan Relations: A Stronger Partnership Taiwan has reaffirmed its cooperation with the U.S., emphasizing that the alliance is mutually beneficial. As China increases its military threats against the island, U.S.-Taiwan relations continue to strengthen through defense collaborations and economic partnerships. A New Vision for the Pentagon Former Army officer and Fox News host Pete Hegseth is outlining his vision for the Pentagon, advocating for a stronger, more strategically focused U.S. military. With growing threats from China and other adversaries, Hegseth argues that national defense must remain a top priority. Tech Markets Bounce Back from AI Selloff After an initial slump triggered by concerns over DeepSeek and AI security, U.S. tech shares have begun to recover. Investors are closely watching how Washington will respond to China’s continued attempts to infiltrate and exploit American technology. As these cyber and political battles unfold, one thing is clear: the U.S. must remain vigilant in protecting its technological edge, national security, and democratic values from foreign threats.

Federal income tax could be coming to an end in the United States. President Donald Trump first floated the idea when he was on the campaign trail, and it now seems he was serious. At a recent event, Trump discussed how the United States could replace income tax by using tariffs instead. We’ll discuss this topic and others in this episode of “Crossroads.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.   🔵 Watch the full episode HERE 👇   https://ept.ms/4jGaYIb Stay Informed. Stay Free. https://www.joshphilipp.com/

The U.S. program to send money to countries around the world as foreign aid has been placed on hold and will be reviewed. This is part of a broader trend to end U.S. trade deficits, make NATO allies pay more, cut United Nations programs not in American interests, and many others. On Friday, the Trump administration froze nearly all foreign aid. The only exceptions to this are military assistance to Israel and Egypt and emergency food aid. We’ll discuss these topics and more, in this episode of Crossroads. Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.   🔵 Watch the full episode HERE 👇   https://ept.ms/3Effygf Stay Informed. Stay Free. https://www.joshphilipp.com/

In just the first week of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, legal challenges are now emerging against his incoming policies. Among the 200 executive actions he came prepared with was an order to restrict birthright citizenship. That order was met with lawsuits from 22 states, and now a federal judge has temporarily blocked Trump’s order. We’ll discuss this topic and others in this episode of “Crossroads.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.   🔵 Watch the full episode HERE 👇   https://ept.ms/4at6WyF Stay Informed. Stay Free. https://www.joshphilipp.com/

The United States is once again colorblind, and a person’s race will no longer be used to give them better or worse treatment in hiring for positions at government agencies—at least not officially. President Donald Trump issued an executive order to end affirmative action for federal contractors. He also directed all federal staff working on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs to be put on leave. And it doesn’t end there. Trump also put an end to the orders and policies of the Biden administration that focused on race politics. We’ll discuss these topics and others in this episode of “Crossroads.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.   🔵 Watch the full episode HERE 👇   https://ept.ms/4aCA0Uj Stay Informed. Stay Free. https://www.joshphilipp.com/

President Donald Trump is now the 47th president of the United States. He has given some previews of his ambitious plans for office, including his 200 Day 1 executive actions. Yet this plan could soon meet with resistance. While the lead-up to the inauguration had been comparably smoother than the 2016 elections, when the nation saw large-scale anti-Trump protests, there’s now talk of how new challenges to Trump’s policies could begin. We'll discuss this topic and others in this episode of “Crossroads.” Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.   🔵 Watch the full episode HERE 👇   https://ept.ms/4jqIQbO Stay Informed. Stay Free. https://www.joshphilipp.com/