Episode 4481: Tony Katz Today Hour 1 - 03/27/26

0:00The all-new 2026 Toyota RAV4 is here, building on everything drivers know and love about Toyota, with a redesigned look and modern tech that makes life behind the wheel easier than ever. The new RAV4 comes standard as a hybrid, providing smooth, efficient performance for both city streets and longer journeys. Enjoy the legendary reliability Toyota is known for in the all-new 2026 RAV4. Learn and shop more at toyota.com. Toyota, let's go places. Live from the heartland and the crossroads of America. It's Tony Katz today. I have got the Secretary of State in France. He is at the G7 summit. The seven most developed

1:02economies just getting together, having themselves some lunch and talking about how to engage world domination. I don't think that happens, but the lunch part I'm pretty sure about. Tony Katz today, guys, good to be with you. Good to be here. Find everything at Tony Katz.com. Then the president is going to be at the White House. Is it national agriculture day? Is that the official name of the day? There's going to be a conversation with farmers, but you know this is going to be a conversation about Iran and the 10-day pause now. That's right, an additional 10-day pause. Then of course, his executive order is saying we're going to pay the TSA agents. Can you do that via executive order? Direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to pay the TSA agents? Then the next thing, you know, here come Democrats and Republicans to say you know what? We'll fund the DHS. Not the whole of DHS. We won't fund ICE and Border Patrol, but ICE is funded through the one big, beautiful bill. So what really is the loss here? Democrats didn't get any of their reforms yet. Somehow I've got media painting this,

2:03phrasing this, positioning this, that it was a huge win for the Democrats. No one is surprised. The press would do this, huh? Shocking. Shocking indeed. So there is a lot to get into. And when Secretary Rubio starts, I'm going to bring it to him. When President Trump starts, I'm going to bring it to him. But this whole idea of winning and losing, we can break this down a couple different ways. But let's start where we start. If the arguments after not paying Americans for 41 days for doing a job, if the argument after disrupting the lives of Americans, whether they be passengers, whether they be those who work at airports, whether they be those who work for airlines, gate staff or flight attendants or pilots, if after all of this and all the disruptions people had and the issues with hospitality and hotels and restaurant reservations missed and family events

3:06missed. And if after all of that, the big question is, who won Republicans or Democrats? We suck. It's nonsense. This is the argument. Chuck Schumer putting out a statement. I'm so proud of my caucus. We held the line. What line? The line that we support as Democrats, a legal immigrant staying in the country and being opposed to ice being able to operate it all. And if we had our way, we'd get rid of ice altogether. We wouldn't deport a soul because we want those voters. Was that the win, Chuck? I mean, admittedly, you could argue that this is more of a win than the way you make cheeseburgers. But is that the win, Chuck? Because that's the basis. Every single part of what you saw of 41 days and by the way, the House has got to vote and pass what it is that the Senate passed. Every part of this was not about

4:14American's lives, American's future, American's safety, the American economy. It was about allowing people who are here illegally to have the opportunity to engage in voter fraud. Every last bit of it. Oh, call me any name you want. 833 Gottoni. 833-468-8669. I am happy to debate it. When I say debate it, I mean laugh at any commentary that says otherwise. Because there is no debate. And I put forth to you that I think Americans see it. And this is the part where I differ than my colleagues, fellow radio hosts, maybe not all of them, but enough of them. I see a lot of people discussing how Republicans are going to get slaughtered in the midterms, destroyed in the midterms, just eliminated and abused in the midterms.

5:14Maybe standard thought would absolutely bring you there. The party in power is going to lose. I don't think that this is a surprise to anyone. But I have laid out pathways for Republicans to have victory here. In this shutdown, when Democrats started pushing the idea, well, we'll just fund the TSA here. Here's a bill. We'll fund the TSA. Come on. Let's fund the TSA. Let's get these lines short and let's get people going where they're going. Let's fund the TSA. And Republicans said, no, we're going to fund the Department of Homeland Security. We're not going to play this game with you. I said, well, Republicans are going to lose this battle. Because Republicans should have been jumping on this much earlier. They could have taken advantage of it. They didn't because they're not good at doing those things. They're afraid of doing those things, whatever it is. And here come the Democrats with this plan. Well, all right. Democrats are going to steal their thunders. They're going to steal the whole story. And that's it. That was two weeks ago.

6:21They didn't steal anything. They didn't steal anything at all. It didn't work. It didn't capture the attention of the American people. There was no drumbeat about this from the American press. It's like it was a non-starter. Democrats had a moment. And it didn't work. And I'm sorry. I'm stuck on the Y. And the only thing I've been able to come to about the Y is the same thing I come to regarding Republicans and Democrats wanting to figure out who won this fight. Who cares? Americans lost this fight and their PO to about it. I think that is correct. I think that's accurate. And if it is, because you could argue that this

7:25is not even a tale, my part, you could argue that I'm just being hopeful and really cute, which I am. I mean, look at this face. Damn, possible. I don't deny that it's possible. But am I wrong? Democrats went down this road. A road that should work for them. And it didn't work for them. Why not? The media should have been all over this, just drilling it into people's heads. They didn't. Why not? Because there's a war going on in Iran. These people are completely capable of doing two things at once. Why not? The only thing I can come to is that it didn't connect. If it didn't connect, they spent 41 days not paying TSA because whatever you think about TSA, I am not a fan. I want privatized security. I don't think they do a good job at all. I think it is a nonsense system where the TSA agents are abusive to the passengers. I think

8:30it's part of the massive problem we have in flight and with America and it has to stop. They have to be. They are the ones who have to be retrained and we have to rethink the entire process. But it's a job and they get paid for it. And now they're not getting paid. What do we expect from them? It would be a silly thing to expect them to still show up on the job and do the thing. 41 days, are you doing that? And Democrats did it joyfully. We're not paying them. All for the sake of illegal immigrants. And that's the narrative that is held. And what I'm saying to you is that the true, I think I've got to write, the winners and losers conversation is what makes us hate them with passion. Winners and losers, Chuck Schumer,

9:34you scummy. No, no, no, no, no, no. Things you can't say on radio. And who do you mean who won? Is that what this is about? You're Randolph and Mortimer Duke and now you had to John Thune a dollar because he won or he ended you won. People's lives are on the line. Quite literally on the line. Who won? But I am not so foolish as to not note that there is a political to all these things. And I guess you could argue that Republicans could have agreed to this a week or so ago, two weeks ago, whatever it is. I guess you could have done, you could say that. But no one's saying that. Democrats said we could fund TSA just by itself and it never went anywhere.

10:38The media did not pound on that, did not push Republicans on that. Ever. It went nowhere. Why? And the only thing I can come to is that America has already made up their minds. Now, which way did they make it up? Did they say this is Democrats fault and just leave the thought process ending there like a dangling participle just hanging in the air? Or did they say these Democrats care way more about illegal immigrants than they do about me? They think they take my vote for granted. They take me for granted. They take everything about us for granted. They really don't care. Maybe it's naivete. But I hope that's the case that people are waking up to the realization that this progressive party cares more about the illegal, more about a power than they do about the people, more about party, more about power than it is

11:41about people, more about control than it is about country. And dear Lord, that is an opportunity for the midterms I did not expect. I don't mean Republicans will necessarily be victorious. I am saying this idea of some great slaughter. Maybe that's people speaking too early when we talk about November. Marco Rubio scheduled to speak after the G7. President Trump is speaking from the White House to farmers and about, I think it's national agriculture day. So everybody gets some beats and we will enjoy. No, no, I meant the food and not not the earbuds. Sorry, sorry, you're going to have to get with Dr. Dre on your own. I'm Tony Katz and this is Tony Katz today. The all new 2026 Toyota RAV4 is here and it builds on everything drivers know and love about Toyota with a redesigned look and modern tech that makes life behind the wheel easier than ever. The 26 RAV4

12:46come standard as a hybrid, providing smooth, efficient performance for both city streets and longer journeys while the available all-wheel drive keeps you in command when conditions are unpredictable. The new RAV4 is designed around the way people actually use their SUV from daily errands to weekend adventures while the GR sport model coming soon both a net combined 320 horsepower in a plug-in hybrid drivetrain with a GR tune suspension for an even more responsive, exciting drive. No matter which RAV4 you choose, you'll enjoy the reliability Toyota is known for coupled with the inspiring performance that's unique to Toyota. Shop more and find details at toyota.com. The all new RAV4 from Toyota. Let's go places. Now this brings us to the 10-day pause and how you want to view it. Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, guys, an absolute pleasure to be with you, to be hanging out and doing this thing. It's a fun thing to do. I've done other things. This is

13:50more fun. President Trump saying, you know what? We will extend the pause for taking out energy sites for another 10 days. First, it was, hey, Iran, get your butts to the table, make a deal, and do that in 48 hours, or I am going to blow stuff up just to see it go boom. I'm going to be basically the late Bill Hicks. Hey, what does B12 do? If you've never heard that routine, excellent routine from the legendary Bill Hicks. And so it was a two-day thing. And before the 48 hours was up, came a statement from President Trump. We're talking. There are good things happening. We're starting to work something out here. So let's extend this another five days. And the five days would get us to Friday, which some people would argue is today.

14:54But then the President last night said, things are going so well. We'll extend another 10 days. So any of these oil sites, refinery sites, power plants, etc., 10 days, no strikes on those. It doesn't mean there won't be strikes on others, on other places, on other targets, etc. Now, Trump is trying to avoid hitting these places because he doesn't want to make these oil markets any worse than they already are. You had Brent Crude, which comes out of the oceans, at $111 a barrel. $111 a barrel is higher than you want to be. And has sent gas prices into a place that has people mostly upset. But for the sake of just comparison and people being rational, you have John Fetterman. That's

15:59right. The Senator Democrat from Pennsylvania making sense of the world. Because when you take a look at gas prices, how come nobody ever complained about Biden's term? I checked where gas was a gallon two years ago in 24. And it was around it's 363.65 for a gallon. And the world wasn't on fire. And I remember any Democrats complaining about it. And I gasped up my Jeep when I was in New York at the Sheets. And it was like 374, it's 375 a gallon. You know, so I mean like overall, yeah, gas is higher than it was before this when you are having an military engagement. This of course, you're going to find some fluctuation on it. I checked. He's right. He is absolutely correct. Now, it doesn't change the fact that it's higher. And the media is going to talk about this.

17:01And others are going to talk about this. And Trump is very sensitive to this. And right, rightfully so, rightfully so sensitive to these things. And he doesn't want to exacerbate the issue. So he doesn't want to hit these spots. He doesn't want to make things more difficult. Can appreciate that. He also could be doing nothing more than saying, you know what? I don't have troop positions in place. I've got the USS Tripoli with 2500 Marines. It's making its way from Diego Garcia. I have got other amphibious worships heading their way to Carg Island or maybe some other islands there in the Gulf region. We're going to start taking those. You've got the 82nd Airborne making its way. The Pentagon weighing sending another 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East, which of course gets people worked up in its own way.

18:03The delays from President Trump could mean a whole series of things. And again, I don't have an answer for the key thing, which is, who in the world is he negotiating with? Who? But I would say, and you haven't heard it yet, my conversation with Noah Rothman. It's deep, but it's detailed. Noah Rothman of National Review. And it's to this idea that there are those in media, those on the woke right, they think they know everything and they know what everything means. And they think that they've got this all figured out. And they don't know, I believe the expression to quote Tony soprano is ungats. They don't know anything. They desperately want to have an answer so they can desperately share an answer so they can show their followers exactly how smart they are. And they don't care if they're right or they're wrong.

19:05There's always a reason why they can change their mind and somehow no one ever notices that they have changed their mind because they were full of crap earlier. Why is Trump engaging all these delays? I don't know. Is it a misdirection? Is it to get troops there? Is it because he really doesn't want to take out these things because negotiations going, well, we don't know. What is seemingly bothersome to the vast majority of Americans is that they're bothers that they don't know. And this is because we have for the last few decades engaged conversations as here's how we're going to spend these five days and then we're not going to do another thing. Here's what we're going to do is just a little ping, right? Just a little hit, little pinpoint drop. We're not going to do another thing. I like that we don't do that anymore. Or I should say I hope that this is the start of not doing this anymore in the very, very rare instances where we may have to do this. It's okay that we don't know yet. It's okay that the people

20:12that we elected have people in control in positions to be able to do these things because they've planned this out and it is okay that we don't get every bit of information as soon as we want it. It's okay. What's not okay is that when these moves are made, we have a press or we have a woke right or others who want to say, well, he doesn't know what he's doing. Oh, he's bumbling this war. What kind of anti-American nonsense bull garbage is that? And I argue that you are right to despise those people. I do. They are not worth your time, your attention, your love. They ain't worth a damn thing. We do also have to ask ourselves what is winning. That might be another conversation for another day. Keep it here. This is Tony Katz today.

21:14So we'll get more into what's going on with Iran and certainly the funding of the Department of Homeland Security. Tony Katz, Tony Katz today. Guys, good to be here. Good to be with you. Can I share an insane headline with you, crazed, crazed headline? Don't ask me if I made this up. I wouldn't know how to make this up. I wouldn't have the capacity to make this up. Here's the headline. Brother sister, right? A brother and a sister, indicted in alleged IED plot at Florida Air Force tied to a Rand War. One suspect in China. That kid is a headline. And this has to do with a brother and sister who planted an IED Atomic Dill Air Force Base. So this is the Tampa area. Then fled to China.

22:18The son, I believe, is still in China. The sister came back. The mother admitted that the kids did this and she is an ICE custody. The daughter is in custody. I believe of the FBI. The son is somewhere in China. That's the charges against them about unlawful making of a destructive device, possession of an unregistered destructive device, a sentence up to 40 years in prison. I bring this whole story up to say if we're going to discuss who's coming into the country, it can't just be a conversation about Somalis. It can't be. We take a look at what has happened in Minnesota with Somali nationals. We take a look at the fraud and we rightfully say this is wrong

23:22and disgusting and people need to go to jail and anybody here in the country on a work visa or anything else needs to be immediately deported. That is the correct answer. Absolutely the correct answer. I could not in any way agree more. If we are going to say we never allow somebody from Somali in the country again, someone might say to you there could be actual refugees regarding Somalia and you cannot say that everybody who is Somalian is involved in this fraud. Although you can note that a lot of people involved in the fraud are Somalian. There's the difference. If we're talking about the Communist Chinese party, no one connected with the Communist Chinese party can be allowed to own land in the United States, a business in the United States or get any level of visa to go to a university in the United States. As a matter of fact, we need to put an end to all Chinese students coming to

24:25American universities. It's not my fault. I didn't do this. I didn't cause this problem. I'm not the one going into universities with viruses stuffed into my socks like I'm Sandy Burger engaging in experiments. I am not the one planting IEDs near military bases. I am not one who thinks that the buying of land near military bases are anywhere else and launching drones isn't a very unique, if not very possible possibility. This is a national security conversation. I'm not interested in whether or not someone thinks I'm a bigot for it. I don't care. There are Chinese Americans all across America who are your neighbors and my friends, your friends. It's not what I'm talking about.

25:30I'm talking about clear obvious connection to the Chinese Communist Party. Cannot own a business, cannot own land. But when it comes to the students, we have to take the broad brush approach. This has to end. It must end. It is a serious, serious danger. And we can't pretend that somehow the things that we see with our own eyes and the connection points here don't all in one way or another engage connection to what we allow in terms of those who come into the country in a way too loose and goosey kind of way. Now Marco Rubio, he is at the G7 summit and he, speaking to the press afterwards, talking about what it is that he

26:41saw, what it is that he experienced. I would have expected to have heard from him earlier, but he did hit the tarmac. There we go. Let's see if I can bring this to you. Let's see if I'm a trained professional or not. In you, you're watching live coverage. And expect it concluded at the appropriate time here. A matter of weeks, not months. And the progress is going very well. Obviously we have some work to do. We have to finish the job and we are finishing that job. I did describe to our allies, however, that immediately after this thing ends. And we're done with our objectives. One of the immediate challenges we're going to

27:41face is in a run that may decide that they want to set up a polling system in the streets of our moves. Not only is this illegal, it's unacceptable. It's dangerous for the world. And it's important that the world have a plan to confront it. The United States is prepared to be a part of that plan. We don't have to leave that plan, but we're happy to be a part of it. But these countries have a lot of state. Not just the G7 countries, but countries in Asia and all over the world have a lot of state and should contribute greatly to that effort to ensure that neither the streets of our moves are frankly any international waterways should ever be something that's controlled or told by a nation state or by a terrorist government like the one that exists in Iran today in that terrible, radical, terrible regime. So there seem to be a lot of buy-in to that concept. There's a lot of work happening right now. The UK has played a prominent role in bringing that together, but other countries as well. And it seems to be a lot of acceptance of all that. And our allies and partners here, at least to me, seem to be appreciative of updates on our operation and an understanding of what lies ahead over the next few weeks.

28:42Now, the question is, as President Trump really, like, ripped into it to NATO about not being of help, which, you know, we talked about it here. You can't have started this fight against Iran and then expected these European nations to come join you. They don't want to be seen as like stragglers. It's Johnny come lately. It's just following the leader. Being told what to do, they have the strength that they have to exhibit to their own people, right? And let's not deny that. It's pretty important stuff. Then when the UK had an opportunity to lead with the British Royal Navy to strengthen and free up the strait of her moves, well, that was an opportunity to lead. So you got to give people that. It's very, very important indeed. But the idea that European nations, where they get their oil through the strait, they need to be more participatory, is correct about that. Okay.

29:46How seriously is the United States considering deploying ground troops? And in those couple of weeks, will you, what exactly will you do? I won't discuss military tactics. I don't think anyone in our system is going to talk to you about what we have planned or what we intend to do. And there's obvious reasons for it. But to the extent it has to do with like military tactics and plans, I would refer you to the Department of War, and the Department of War is probably going to tell you they can't tell you anything. So other than to say that we have objectives, I told you what those objectives are. And we are very confident that we are on the verge of achieving them very, very soon. You said them were upset or off put at all by the President's comments. They never act that way in front of me. Maybe they say that to you guys and maybe they say that in other interviews or when they go on the press. But not in front of me, they don't. I never get that. On the contrary, these meetings are oftentimes about thanking America for the role we've played in trying to bring peace and Sudan. The recognition that the President played a key role in ending

30:46what was happening in Gaza. Recognition of the role we've played in stabilizing Syria. Recognition, despite what they may have said in the press, that what we did in Venezuela was good for the world and good for our region and the Western hemisphere. A recognition of the role we've played in setting up along with others like Canada, the gang suppression force in Haiti. So and appreciation for the mediating role we've tried to play in this war between Russia and Ukraine. So I don't know. I mean, you guys asking these questions like if I go into these meetings and these people are angry, no one there seems to raise their voices or say anything negative. And if they did, I would remind them, but I don't need to, but I would remind them of the role America's played over the last year has been a very productive role and very helpful to them. And I would just say this and I said this yesterday, I'll say it again now. Iran is God, not the Iranian people, the Iranian people are normal people. They deserve way better than what they have, which is a radical shea clerical regime that has basically taken that country's wealth and used it not to build roads and bridges, not to build healthcare systems or universities, not to build a better and more prosperous country. They've used the wealth of that country because sponsor terrorism,

31:50build rockets, build drones, build missiles, build sea mines. That's what they've done with it. Try to kill people all over the world. And this has to be dealt with. That country was a threat for 47 years, okay? That regime has been trying to kill and has been killing Americans all over the world for 47 years. We have a president that was not able to allow that to continue unfettered. So when we are done, Iran was already weak. When we are done with them here the next couple weeks, there will be weaker than they've been in recent history and they will not be able to hide behind those weapons to break out and get a nuclear weapon, which would be crazy. For these people to ever get nuclear weapons would be crazy. Look what they're willing to do with the weapons they have now. They hit embassies, they target hotels, they try to kill civilians, they splash out at all their neighbors. Imagine these radical lunatics had a nuclear weapon to threaten the world with. And then of course they murder their own people. So you've got Marco Rubio answering the questions there about the meeting with the G7, which I, you know, the press saying, are you feeling a lot of pressure? Haven't we, haven't we learned this already?

32:53It's like the whole Greenland debate. Publicly, they're all up in arms. You can't take Greenland. We're going to stop you from doing this. We're going to have a talk with you privately. Oh, God, they, they, they, they, they pray quietly to themselves in the dark corners that the United States get some control of Greenland so they can have Operation Golden Dome or I should just say the Golden Dome working on their behalf to protect them from the Russians and the Chinese regarding hypersonics. They already know Iran can throw a missile 2,500 miles and hit them. What kind of thing is this? Of course they want the US to have some control of Greenland. They may not say it out loud, but they say it in private. Right? They know it's in their best interest. No, they're not screaming and yelling. And as we have seen from, from the region, the Arab States want Iran gone. Me, why do I want Iran gone? I want the regime gone,

33:55so there's no more terrorist threat. And I would like to have five minutes of not talking about the Middle East. Boy, can dream, can he? Meanwhile, President Trump has started speaking there at the White House. He's got a bunch of farmers in town. I'm going to bring that to you in full. So I'm just going to hit a little pause on that and I'll bring that to you in in the next hour because you know he's going to bring up Department of Homeland Security. You know he's going to bring up the war and I assume he's going to say the price of beef. What's with that? I'm assuming that's what's going to come up. So I will bring that all to you. We'll take the quick break. I'm Tony Katz and this is Tony Katz today. The all new 2026 Toyota RAV4 is here. Building on everything drivers know and love about Toyota with a redesigned look and modern tech that makes life behind the wheel easier than ever. The new RAV4 comes standard as a hybrid, providing smooth, efficient performance for both city streets and longer journeys. Enjoy the legendary reliability Toyota is known for in the all new 2026 RAV4. Learn and shop more at toyota.com.

35:01Toyota, let's go places. Let me finish up with some questions that are being sent to the Secretary Marco Rubio. Tony Katz. Tony Katz today and I'm staring incredulously at this tweet from Kate Santeles or is it Santeles? She's with Axios and what she wrote is that House Speaker Mike Johnson has met with the Freedom Caucus in the House. Remember what the Senate passed to fund Department of Homeland Security? Get TSA agents paid? First we should be clear. That doesn't happen if President Trump doesn't say here's an executive order. Hey Homeland Security pay the TSA agents, which I have no idea if you can even do that. Right? Congress has the power of the purse. How do you write an executive order to get people paid? I don't know, but neither here nor there. The president was making action and I caused the Democrats to engage a

36:05reaction, which was to say, okay, we'll pass this version. That's my take. So what she is reporting is that Mike Johnson agreed with the Freedom Caucus to instead of putting the Senate passed bill on the floor, put on a 60 day continuing resolution that funds all the Department of Homeland Security, including ICE and Border Patrol. There's there is no way that's happening. There's no way that's happening. First, if it's happening and House have Trump's approval that he wants to extend this out and he thinks he can get TSA agents paid, that has to be a fundamental to this. You can still get TSA agents paid and you can pass a CR to fund everything while you all take time to work it out, putting pressure back on the Democrats, but not putting people's lives and livelihoods at risk. That is a political win. But I can't imagine Trump wants to do that,

37:13especially when you can pass anything regarding Border Patrol funding via reconciliation and not need any Democrats. So we are not done. We are not done with this fight. Meanwhile, President Trump, he's in front of a whole bunch of farmers doing, well, there's a lot of cowboy hats, farmers and ranchers. And the President speaking to them, I will bring that to you coming up in a little bit. Keep it here. I'm Tony Katz. This is Tony Katz tonight. The Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are built to keep going, backed by Toyota's reputation for legendary reliability, stepping to a Tundra with the available I Force Max hybrid engine, delivering impressive torque and serious towing power or take a look at Tacoma with an available power liftgate. So gear goes in fast and the adventure keeps moving. Toyota trucks are built to last year after year, mile after mile. So drive one home today. Visit Toyota.com for more Toyota.

38:19Let's go places.