I'm John Batcher, Bill Rajo, my colleague and co-host from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,

and we're going very far away to the island of Guam, a naval and military base for the United

States government, U.S. territory, in the Pacific to speak with Cleo Pascal of the Foundation for

the Defense of Democracy, one of Bill's colleagues

who's been traveling from the Hawaiian Islands to Palau onto Guam. We begin in the Hawaiian

Islands because of the Honolulu Defense Forum. And I mentioned that because there's a new

document from the Trump administration that identifies

its challenges for 2026 and its registration that China's on the offensive.

And in the event of conflict, kinetic conflict with China, all of these islands are going to be

critical and part of the battle zone. Cleo, a very good day to you.

Thank you for joining us. Whatever time of week, Cleo is always ready to comment on these islands

to give them the proper due in Washington. The Honolulu Defense Forum, what did you learn there,

and how does that connect to the new defense document from the Trump administration,

understanding there is a threat in the Pacific?

Good day to you, Cleo.

Good day.

So the Honolulu Defense Forum had a bit of a different tone this year than previous ones,

in that there was a concerted effort to include investment

into the method of outreach into the region.

So understanding that critical infrastructure, critical minerals, are components of defense.

So you had people there, for example, like Kyle Bass, who are involved in rethinking how to integrate some of the economic levers into defense approaches to the region.

And that meant that there were breakout sessions on things like

...