H.R. McMaster

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133 appearances 4 recordings 4 series first heard Jan 2025 last heard May 2025

H.R. McMaster’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Honestly with Bari Weiss · H.R. McMaster on Trump: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly · 16 Jan 2025 podcast

He's a military veteran who's led with distinction in special forces. And he understands defense and national security issues extremely well. One of the subcommittees that he led also in the House was a subcommittee on China's influence on the Western Hemisphere. So he's gone deep into a lot of these critical issues He's going to be a fantastic pick. He is a fantastic pick.

His deputy, Alex Wong, is extremely effective as well. I mean, it's hard to take exception with the Secretary of Commerce or Treasury or the Interior, Doug Burgum. So this is, I mean, this is really kind of an A team in a lot of ways. But what does concern me, to get to your question, is will it be harmonious? Probably not harmonious, right, in the Trump administration. But who concerns you, too?

Well, what concerns me are people who kind of- No, what concerns you, but who concerns you?

There are people who are coming into the administration who are in that kind of retrenchment. All of the ills of the world were due to neoconservatives, right? Who got us involved in all these endless wars. And that's really what's put our constraint on our country. And

You know, and we have to, you know, so a lot of people who got labeled as kind of the neoconservatives, they got, they're already kneecapped and out of the picture, right?

I think so, yeah, I think so. It's hard to say like where they're more powerful, but I think some of the appointments reflect it. But I think overall, if you have the senior people in the cabinet and national security advisor, the head of the NEC, National Economic Council, who are determined to bring the president options, to give him best analysis, you can work this out.

Differences of view are okay. I think that's good. You want to have a debate in front of the president. I think what really is a disservice to a president is when you have a group of people who form kind of a cabal to end run things. Like the Neoconservatives. And to manipulate.

I'm really optimistic, by the way, because I do think that Trump, for all his faults and everything, he has a very positive agenda that I think could unleash the potential of our economy. So even if you don't like a lot of what Trump does, deregulation, you've got to be for that. You've got to be for streamlining government. I think he's going to try to invigorate our industrial base.

And what I've been trying to say to our friends abroad is, hey, don't try to Trump-proof the world, man. Right? Because a lot of what you care about, energy security, Chinese economic aggression, supply chain resilience, your own industrial basis, that's what Trump cares about. Partner with him on it. Let's work together on it.

So I think you're starting to see a little bit of that attitude with the visits to the Royal Court in Mar-a-Lago. And so I'm hoping that that does, that generates a sense of optimism in the free world, which is what we need these days, right? And when I look at us, When you look at us from the outside, we're ugly, right? Everything's in the open, right? We're divided and everything.

It's vitriolic at times. But those dictatorships, they're actually very brittle. They look strong from the outside, but they're very brittle. Look at how weak Russia is. Look at China's economy right now and the difficulties that they have. Iran. I mean, North Korea, really?

I mean, so I would say we should be much more confident in who we are as Americans and in our future and in future generations.

That was fantastic.

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