Your News Talk America · Show Notes

Monday, May 18, 2026 · Brig Gen (ret) Holt guest hosting

9:06 · Show Open and Monologue

Brig Gen (ret) Holt takes the chair as guest host. He opens with the framing issue of the morning: the CIA appears to be flouting POTUS intent and a standing executive order. Holt rolls audio of a Greg Kelly headline read covering the CIA taking boxes from ODNI.

Setting the table:

• Holt previews the morning's themes and guests
• Audio clip: Greg Kelly on the CIA seizure of material from ODNI
• Frame for the hour: constitutional crisis, or agency operating outside the lines as usual

9:20 · LTC Tony Shaffer on the CIA Raid at ODNI

Last week, a whistleblower account described what looked like a 40 box take by the CIA from a supervisory organization. The reporting has since softened. The word "raid" became "seized." Fox pulled the Jesse Watters interview. Rep Anna Paulina Luna had called for a presser on X.com, then quietly stood it down. Shaffer walks Holt through what the public record actually shows now, and what that softening pattern says about the line between agency and oversight.

Talking points:

• The whistleblower claim: 40 boxes or a select few documents
• The "raid" to "seized" softening across coverage
• Pulled Watters interview and the cancelled Luna presser
• Is this in fact a constitutional crisis

Guest: LTC Tony Shaffer, President of Project Sentinel, podcast host, and Newsmax contributor.

9:35 · Col Towner-Watkins on Deep State History and the Fabian Society

Holt brings on Colonel Towner-Watkins, fellow retired Air Force officer and a top researcher into CIA history and secret societies. The argument: this CIA ODNI episode is not new to American history. Towner-Watkins maps how we got to a place where an intelligence agency has zero trouble operating outside the hierarchy and arguably outside the Constitution.

Around 9:45, the conversation pivots to the Fabian Society, founded in 1884, and how that lineage helps connect the dots between near term headlines and the bigger architecture most observers miss.

Talking points:

• The historical pattern of intel agencies operating off the books
• 9:45: the Fabian Society and the long game
• Tying near term events back to the deeper architecture

10:08 · Trump's China Trip: A+, F-, or Incomplete

Audio clip of the President characterizing the visit as a victory. Holt sets up the harder case: even the CCP Foreign Ministry's own readout pointed to a thin scorecard. Then Gordon Chang takes the question apart.

What was not announced:

• No agreement on Iran
• No agreement on fentanyl
• No trade agreement
• No Taiwan agreement
• No 200 jet deal

Chang on what to watch:

• Whether the meeting moves the Iran file at all
• The Politburo two weeks earlier essentially conceding the country is broke and crafting policy at the expense of an already beaten public
• Any real signs of a better course for US Sino relations

Guest: Gordon Chang, Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute and author of Plan Red: China's Project to Destroy America. gatestoneinstitute.org · Plan Red on Amazon

10:33 · Joshua Philipp on the Summit's Subtext

Joshua Philipp, host of CrossRoads on NTD, joins Holt to read the nuances. Was Xi's Thucydides Trap reference a calculated insult to the United States, or was it Xi quietly acknowledging that China is the power on the decline?

Talking points:

• Philipp's grade for the summit and what he was watching for
• The Thucydides Trap framing: insult, or admission of decline
• What Beijing actually walked away with

11:08 · Medical Crises and Familiar Milestones

Audio clip from Dangerous Intellectuals with Dr Peter McCullough. The pattern in view: Hantavirus, Norovirus, Ebola, and Alpha Gal all surfacing in close succession, with notable mainstream silence. Holt's read is that this looks less like a series of random emergencies and more like a coordinated line of attack. Dr Mary Bowden joins to ground the conversation.

Talking points:

• Is the WHO and the medical establishment trying to resurrect the 2020 pandemic playbook
• The Martinez paper on the Hanta Andes strain and the claim of person to person transmission
• Dr McCullough's view that the Martinez paper was never valid scholarship and should be discarded
• What patients and physicians should be watching for right now

Guest: Dr Mary Bowden, a standout during COVID who stood by her patients and her Hippocratic Oath when the medical establishment moved to cancel her. Author of the forthcoming book Dangerous Misinformation, available now for pre-order. breathemd.org

11:45 · Afterlogue

Holt wraps with a quick recap, encourages anyone who missed a segment to go back and listen, plugs Dangerous Intellectuals Episode 36, and reminds the audience that they can catch him on Newsmax every day. Tee up for the next show and the continued examination of the most pressing issues in the nation.

11:50 · Salute the Troops

A daily moment of recognition for the men and women in uniform who stand the watch.

Powered by your voice.

WGMD and WUSX are likely the only station in the country running DIAL, the real time listener platform that lets you submit questions, tag them to specific segments, and vote on what we cover next. Your questions and your votes directly shape the show on air.

RealNewsTalk.com