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Glenn's Show Prep

Rock 'n' roll guy who wasn't supposed to like Glenn joins him for incredibly open dialogue

September 15, 2015
Staff

WRITER

A rock 'n' roll "hero" joined Glenn on radio Tuesday morning to pretty much just talk about life. The topics they discussed included everything from music, fame and fortune to devastating illness, healing and being born again.

Who was the man Glenn called an "absolute legend"?

None other than the original lead singer for the band, Foreigner - Lou Gramm.

Listen to the interview or read the transcript below.

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

GLENN: So my good friend, Pat, has been a friend of mine since the '80s. And -- and one of his heroes truly is Lou Gramm.

PAT: No doubt about it.

GLENN: Yeah, truly one of his heroes. And it was a big day -- it was a big day in his life at about 1992. '91.

PAT: In there somewhere.

GLENN: When Lou Gramm came into town and he came in for an interview. And we were just a couple of jokey --

PAT: Morning show hosts.

GLENN: That Lou Gramm would not remember at all. And I can sometimes make things uncomfortable for people.

JEFFY: No.

GLENN: Especially my good dear friends.

STU: Really?

PAT: Yeah. Are you surprised too?

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: So Lou Gramm is on with us now and I want to see if he remembers us at all. And Pat is hoping that the answer is, not in the least.

PAT: No.

GLENN: How are you, Lou?

LOU: I'm doing fine. And, Pat, your wish came true. I do not remember at all.

PAT: Yes!

GLENN: That's great. Now, the question is, should I remind you?

(laughter)

PAT: I will. I will explain that --

GLENN: You know, he doesn't remember. So leave it alone. Leave it alone. Your shame.

PAT: Yes.

GLENN: Has kind of been forgiven in a sort of.

PAT: That's great.

LOU: No. I've been listening to you, Glenn, for about 20 years.

GLENN: You have been?

LOU: Yes. Absolutely.

GLENN: Shut up. You're not supposed to like us. You're a rock 'n' roll guy. You're not supposed to like us.

LOU: No, no, no. Your political stance and the humor you inject is -- is right up my ally.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: Holy cow.

PAT: That is great.

GLENN: Now, can I ask you a serious question, Lou? When was it when you had a brain tumor removed?

LOU: 1997.

GLENN: Is -- do you think that there's a chance that maybe they rattled some things upstairs, that that's why you like us now?

PAT: Stop it.

LOU: No. I liked you before that.

GLENN: Okay. All right. So, Lou, actually you've gone through an amazing thing. We've talked about this before you came on. You've gone through an amazing thing. First of all, Pat is -- the reason why you're here, Pat sincerely wants to start a campaign to make sure that you get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because we all that --

PAT: That's an atrocious oversight. Ritchie Valens with two songs is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's got two songs.

LOU: Yeah, but what songs they were.

PAT: Yeah. They were good songs. But what songs you guys have, I mean, Foreigner has been around for -- you know, you guys were together for, what, 25, 27 years? Something like that.

LOU: Yep.

GLENN: How many albums did you sell?

LOU: I think the count is somewhere in the mid- to high 70 million.

GLENN: Wow. Jeez.

PAT: Yeah. Yeah, it's huge.

GLENN: Unbelievable. So do you feel -- I mean, Pat is behind himself. We have -- please pray for us, Lou. Because we have to listen to him all the time talk about what the atrocity is that you and Foreigner is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

PAT: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

GLENN: See, this is what happens. Does it bother you at all?

LOU: I somewhat have an idea of why we're not. And there's really not a lot to be done about it.

GLENN: Gosh. Does it have anything to do with you liking our political point of view?

LOU: No, no, no.

PAT: Okay.

LOU: From what I understand, that -- when the bands of our ilk and our time period were getting inducted and we were -- we were overlooked, our management at the time went to see the -- the head of the Hall of Fame and was wondering why -- why we were overlooked because we certainly had the credentials.

PAT: Uh-huh.

LOU: And I think there was a slightly heated discussion after that. And we were told that we would never be in the Hall.

PAT: Wow.

STU: Wow.

PAT: So it's essentially pettiness.

LOU: Yeah, I don't think it's based on what we've done.

GLENN: That's really done.

LOU: But a situation that was out of our hands, you know.

PAT: Really sad.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: Can I tell you something, this was -- sometime -- I don't drink anymore, and it's a good thing. But we should have a beer sometime and just talk about that. Because that is almost the same story with me on the Radio Hall of Fame. I've been told that I would never be in the Radio Hall of Fame because of an innocent thing that I said positive about Paul Harvey and it pissed the guy off who was the head of the Hall of Fame. And he -- he went to my people and said, "I just want you to know, Glenn Beck will never be in the Radio Hall of Fame." I'm like, "Okay. Well, we weren't really pushing for it anyway." But okay. Kind of sad.

LOU: Right. Yep.

GLENN: So you had the brain tumor, and you had it removed, and it changed your life. You want to tell me a little about that?

LOU: Well, it was -- it was about the size of a large egg. And it had tentacle-like features that were wrapped around my optic nerve and my pituitary.

So there was -- the optic -- my sight is fine, but my pituitary is damaged. And I need quite a bit of medication to stay functioning. But I feel great. But it was a long recovery. The operation was 1997. And I didn't start feeling about myself until about 2005.

GLENN: Holy cow.

PAT: Did your spiritual change come before that or after that, Lou?

LOU: My spiritual enlightenment came about 1991, when --

PAT: Oh.

LOU: When I was in rehab.

GLENN: What was that like? And what exchanges have happened to you since?

LOU: Well, I -- before I went to rehab -- we had just played -- Foreigner had played Madison Square Garden. Sold out. And there was -- of course, there was a big party afterwards. And I found myself in my hotel room at 3:30, 4 o'clock in the morning, and in -- in a condition that I had been in a number of times before, and I just -- I just felt like I -- I -- I didn't want to be there anymore. And that if -- if this accelerated anymore, that I'd probably be a statistic. And all the lights were off. And I just fell to my knees in prayer and called a friend of mine early next morning, and he booked me a flight to Minneapolis. And I spent 30 days in Hazelden, which changed my life.

GLENN: Did you -- was it unusual for you to fall to your knees and pray? Were you a praying guy?

LOU: I was. But not the desperation that I had that night.

GLENN: So now the Lou Gramm Band, how has your music changed?

LOU: We do all the hits from the Foreigner albums and my solo albums. You know, some of those songs are very suggestive. And, you know, I -- I have to do what I have to do. I can't start eliminating big hits.

PAT: Right.

LOU: But, you know, it does feel a little funny performing them when that was me as a young stud and it's not me now.

(laughter)

PAT: But you also have a complete CD filled with Christian music, right?

LOU: Yes, absolutely.

PAT: And you wrote that?

LOU: Yeah, with some of the guys in the band. It rocks pretty hard, you know. But the message and the tone where it's coming from is from a different place.

GLENN: So you started feeling well again 2006, you said?

LOU: Yeah.

GLENN: And I'm sorry. I'm not obsessive about Pat, I don't know what size pant you wear or anything else like Pat I think does. But have you been back on tour?

LOU: I started touring again in 2005, even when I wasn't feeling well.

PAT: Hmm.

GLENN: Wow.

LOU: Actually I was touring about 2000 with Foreigner. And left that band in -- at the end of 2003.

GLENN: How did you do that? How did you make it?

LOU: It was not easy because, you know -- one of the other things I developed was sleep apnea.

GLENN: Oh, horrible.

LOU: Yeah.

PAT: Wow.

LOU: And it was just -- I -- my short-term and long-term memory was very spotty. So when I had take the stage, I had the lyrics to all the songs written on white paper with a black marker, and it was taped on the floor.

GLENN: Wow.

PAT: Wow. But that's --

GLENN: How did that -- how did that make you feel while you were going through it?

LOU: I knew that I had no business on stage. And -- and I -- I felt like an invalid and that I couldn't be doing the band any good.

GLENN: Now how are you feeling? Now how much of this is -- have you returned full strength now?

LOU: I think so, yeah. Yep. You know, I was taking massive steroids back then too. And put on almost 100 pounds.

GLENN: Holy cow.

LOU: My weight as an adult has been 140 to 145 pounds.

GLENN: 140 -- hang on.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: I think I've gained and lost 140 pounds in the last year. And -- that's what your scale says is 140? Because that's like one leg. Holy cow!

(laughter)

You suck. I don't like you.

LOU: Well, I got a small frame, you know. But taking the steroids, it was incredibly tough to lose anything.

STU: Yeah. Glenn did all of his weight gain without steroids which I thought was pretty impressive.

PAT: It was with food. Something called food.

GLENN: It was medication-related.

STU: Right.

GLENN: It was. It was.

PAT: If chocolate milkshakes are medication, yes. Yes.

GLENN: Thank you. Write another prescription, please.

LOU: Yes.

PAT: Things have been kind of famously chilly between you and McJones.

LOU: Well, they were for a number of years --

PAT: Is it better now?

LOU: -- after I left the band.

Yeah, two years ago, we were both inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. And there was a big ceremony for us and a number of other people in New York. And they asked us to play. They had some studio musicians and background singers and this and that. And so we rehearsed two days before the awards ceremony, and we kind of broke the ice and rekindled a friendship.

GLENN: That's great.

PAT: Oh, that's great. Because it seems like that happens with almost every popular band. Some kind of friction between the band mates.

LOU: Yep. You know, it was -- it was a number of things that I think were -- were just building over the years. And I just -- I just thought I -- you know, I had been with the band over 25 years. And I just thought I had enough, you know.

PAT: How is it now with your brothers? Because aren't two of your brothers in the Lou Gramm Band?

LOU: Well, two were in the band. One is in the band now.

PAT: Okay.

LOU: But it's good. It's good. Everybody in the band is from my hometown of Rochester. So, you know, it's what -- we all fly out of Rochester. We all fly home to hear it. It's good camaraderie. And they're very good players too.

GLENN: Let me ask you this: How difficult is it to be Lou Gramm, the guy from Foreigner that was -- I mean, you're Lou Gramm. And then your body changes. Your life changes. You change. Music changes. And you don't have that -- I mean, even Aerosmith. What's his name. Steven Tyler.

LOU: Yes.

GLENN: He's -- really, maybe it's Steven Tyler. But pretty much, only the people from the Rolling Stones that still will sell out those stadiums and they're still kings everywhere. How do you keep a handle on today, that today is all that's important, yesterday doesn't mean anything. Does that make sense to you. Do you know what I'm saying?

LOU: Yes, I definitely do. And, you know, when you had the success that Foreigner has had for the amount of years that we've had, I mean, radio has changed. Radio is owned by -- most radios are owned by corporations now.

GLENN: Yeah.

LOU: And pretty much, there's not even program directors that there's a set list which is -- which is played over and over again. And it's -- it's not the freedom to put in whatever song they feel like anymore.

GLENN: Correct.

LOU: It's a different beast. And when that changed over, Foreigner and a number of other bands, like Aerosmith and Bryan Adams and people like that, were kind of pushed to the side. And kind of relegated to the -- the oldies stations.

GLENN: I prefer to say classic rock. Oldies are what my dad used to listen to. I listen to classic rock.

LOU: No, you're right. And a whole new slew of artists came in to dominate the top 40 scene.

GLENN: Has it ever played -- I think fame -- honestly fame and fortune, celebrity is one of the worst -- I would not curse my best friend with this. It is -- and I have a very small amount. Has it ever played a game with your head?

LOU: I don't think so.

GLENN: Good for you.

LOU: I came from Rochester. Very small town. My mom and dad, you know, Italian descent. And the -- my first glimpse and desire to have that kind of fame is when I saw The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.

GLENN: Wow.

LOU: And that's what spurred me to not make music a hobby, but my life's calling.

GLENN: Yeah. Lou, it is great to talk to you. And Pat now has your phone number. We've traced the call.

(laughter)

LOU: Well, you're welcome to give me a buzz any time.

GLENN: God bless you.

LOU: I have a book out too.

GLENN: Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know about it.

PAT: Yeah, your autobiography, right?

LOU: Yeah, it's called "Jukebox Hero: My Five Decades in Rock and Roll."

GLENN: Great. Great song.

STU: It's an amazing story.

GLENN: Amazing story. I will pick it up today and start to read it. And I know Pat has already read it. But thank you, Pat, for informing me he had a book out. Lou, thank you very much.

LOU: Great to talk to you guys.

GLENN: Great to talk to you.

"Jukebox Hero" is the name of the book.

From Pharaoh to Hamas: The same spirit of evil, new disguise

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone footage out of Gaza isn’t just war propaganda — it’s a glimpse of the same darkness that once convinced men they were righteous for killing innocents.

Evil introduces itself subtly. It doesn’t announce, “Hi, I’m here to destroy you.” It whispers. It flatters. It borrows the language of justice, empathy, and freedom, twisting them until hatred sounds righteous and violence sounds brave.

We are watching that same deception unfold again — in the streets, on college campuses, and in the rhetoric of people who should know better. It’s the oldest story in the world, retold with new slogans.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage.

A drone video surfaced this week showing Hamas terrorists staging the “discovery” of a hostage’s body. They pushed a corpse out of a window, dragged it into a hole, buried it, and then called in aid workers to “find” what they themselves had planted. It was theater — evil, disguised as victimhood. And it was caught entirely on camera.

That’s how evil operates. It never comes in through the front door. It sneaks in, often through manipulative pity. The same spirit animates the moral rot spreading through our institutions — from the halls of universities to the chambers of government.

Take Zohran Mamdani, a New York assemblyman who has praised jihadists and defended pro-Hamas agitators. His father, a Columbia University professor, wrote that America and al-Qaeda are morally equivalent — that suicide bombings shouldn’t be viewed as barbaric. Imagine thinking that way after watching 3,000 Americans die on 9/11. That’s not intellectualism. That’s indoctrination.

Often, that indoctrination comes from hostile foreign actors, peddled by complicit pawns on our own soil. The pro-Hamas protests that erupted across campuses last year, for example, were funded by Iran — a regime that murders its own citizens for speaking freely.

Ancient evil, new clothes

But the deeper danger isn’t foreign money. It’s the spiritual blindness that lets good people believe resentment is justice and envy is discernment. Scripture talks about the spirit of Amalek — the eternal enemy of God’s people, who attacks the weak from behind while the strong look away. Amalek never dies; it just changes its vocabulary and form with the times.

Today, Amalek tweets. He speaks through professors who defend terrorism as “anti-colonial resistance.” He preaches from pulpits that call violence “solidarity.” And he recruits through algorithms, whispering that the Jews control everything, that America had it coming, that chaos is freedom. Those are ancient lies wearing new clothes.

When nations embrace those lies, it’s not the Jews who perish first. It’s the nations themselves. The soul dies long before the body. The ovens of Auschwitz didn’t start with smoke; they started with silence and slogans.

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

A time for choosing

So what do we do? We speak truth — calmly, firmly, without venom. Because hatred can’t kill hatred; it only feeds it. Truth, compassion, and courage starve it to death.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage. That’s how Amalek survives — by making you fight him with his own weapons. The only victory that lasts is moral clarity without malice, courage without cruelty.

The war we’re fighting isn’t new. It’s the same battle between remembrance and amnesia, covenant and chaos, humility and pride. The same spirit that whispered to Pharaoh, to Hitler, and to every mob that thought hatred could heal the world is whispering again now — on your screens, in your classrooms, in your churches.

Will you join it, or will you stand against it?

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Bill Gates ends climate fear campaign, declares AI the future ruler

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The Big Tech billionaire once said humanity must change or perish. Now he claims we’ll survive — just as elites prepare total surveillance.

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

Hesham Elsherif / Stringer | Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why the White House restoration sent the left Into panic mode

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

Presidents have altered the White House for decades, yet only Donald Trump is treated as a vandal for privately funding the East Wing’s restoration.

Every time a president so much as changes the color of the White House drapes, the press clutches its pearls. Unless the name on the stationery is Barack Obama’s, even routine restoration becomes a national outrage.

President Donald Trump’s decision to privately fund upgrades to the White House — including a new state ballroom — has been met with the usual chorus of gasps and sneers. You’d think he bulldozed Monticello.

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s ‘visionary.’

The irony is that presidents have altered and expanded the White House for more than a century. President Franklin D. Roosevelt added the East and West Wings in the middle of the Great Depression. Newspapers accused him of building a palace while Americans stood in breadlines. History now calls it “vision.”

First lady Nancy Reagan faced the same hysteria. Headlines accused her of spending taxpayer money on new china “while Americans starved.” In truth, she raised private funds after learning that the White House didn’t have enough matching plates for state dinners. She took the ridicule and refused to pass blame.

“I’m a big girl,” she told her staff. “This comes with the job.” That was dignity — something the press no longer recognizes.

A restoration, not a renovation

Trump’s project is different in every way that should matter. It costs taxpayers nothing. Not a cent. The president and a few friends privately fund the work. There’s no private pool or tennis court, no personal perks. The additions won’t even be completed until after he leaves office.

What’s being built is not indulgence — it’s stewardship. A restoration of aging rooms, worn fixtures, and century-old bathrooms that no longer function properly in the people’s house. Trump has paid for cast brass doorknobs engraved with the presidential seal, restored the carpets and moldings, and ensured that the architecture remains faithful to history.

The media’s response was mockery and accusations of vanity. They call it “grotesque excess,” while celebrating billion-dollar “climate art” projects and funneling hundreds of millions into activist causes like the No Kings movement. They lecture America on restraint while living off the largesse of billionaires.

The selective guardians of history

Where was this sudden reverence for history when rioters torched St. John’s Church — the same church where every president since James Madison has worshipped? The press called it an “expression of grief.”

Where was that reverence when mobs toppled statues of Washington, Jefferson, and Grant? Or when first lady Melania Trump replaced the Rose Garden’s lawn with a patio but otherwise followed Jackie Kennedy’s original 1962 plans in the garden’s restoration? They called that “desecration.”

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s “visionary.”

The real desecration

The people shrieking about “historic preservation” care nothing for history. They hate the idea that something lasting and beautiful might be built by hands they despise. They mock craftsmanship because it exposes their own cultural decay.

The White House ballroom is not a scandal — it’s a mirror. And what it reflects is the media’s own pettiness. The ruling class that ridicules restoration is the same class that cheered as America’s monuments fell. Its members sneer at permanence because permanence condemns them.

Julia Beverly / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump’s improvements are an act of faith — in the nation’s symbols, its endurance, and its worth. The outrage over a privately funded renovation says less about him than it does about the journalists who mistake destruction for progress.

The real desecration isn’t happening in the East Wing. It’s happening in the newsrooms that long ago tore up their own foundation — truth — and never bothered to rebuild it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Trump’s secret war in the Caribbean EXPOSED — It’s not about drugs

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The president’s moves in Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia aren’t about drugs. They’re about re-establishing America’s sovereignty across the Western Hemisphere.

For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.

The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.

While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.

Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.

Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

Beyond Venezuela

Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.

Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.

PEDRO MATTEY / Contributor | Getty Images

All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.

It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.

Trump’s Monroe Doctrine

Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.

Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.