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‘Enemy of the State’: Co-author Talks New Mitch Rapp Thriller Novel

September 07, 2017
Staff

WRITER

Vince Flynn was a best-selling author who gave the character Mitch Rapp to the world in a series of CIA thrillers. Today, co-author Kyle Mills is carrying on the torch by continuing the hit series. His latest novel is “Enemy of the State,” which centers on Rapp’s dangerous journey into Saudi Arabia to investigate the oil-rich country’s connections to terrorism.

“I just think Mitch Rapp is one of the best characters in fiction,” Glenn said on radio Thursday when Mills joined the show to talk about his new book as well as to analyze how the U.S. will react to world events.

In “Enemy of the State,” Rapp is working on his own in Saudi Arabia because the U.S. government can’t be seen plotting against an ally.

“Those redacted pages have a lot of information in them that’s been kept from the American people, and they’re not living up to their agreement to back off of the financing and supporting of terrorism,” Mills, who has been writing Rapp novels since 2014, explained the plot of the new book.

Glenn thought the plot was almost too on point.

“Well, that sounds like total fiction,” he joked.

This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

GLENN: I saw a movie -- I saw a movie, what? Yesterday -- night before last. It's -- it's Vince Flynn's first Mitch Rapp movie. American Assassin. And I -- I just think Mitch Rapp is one of the best characters in fiction now. In case you don't know, Vince is -- was the Tom Clancy, I think, of our day. He was a fantastic writer and a very good friend. And I remember sitting in -- just outside of my apartment in New York City. He and his wife and his daughter came to have dinner with me.

And we sat there. And the whole dinner, he talked about how worried he was about me with George Soros. And this was at the beginning of George Soros putting up a million dollars to destroy me and my career and everything else. And he was -- he just kept focused on that.

Then he said, I want -- I want to go up to your apartment, Glenn. Because we were -- we were going to go and have dessert. And he said, "I want to come up to your apartment. I'd really like to see -- because you really have to secure yourself."

And I said, "Okay." So we go up. And he's -- we're looking out the windows. And he's like, "Possible surveillance point." And I'm like, "Vince, for the love of Pete, I'm not living in one of your books." He said, "I'm just telling you, you're messing with George Soros." We sit down, and we're having some dessert. And he says to me, "I just found out I have cancer."

"Vince, isn't this probably a more important thing to talk about than what we've been talking about for the last 100 minutes?"

I really -- I didn't know what to say to him, other than, "If anybody is going to beat it, you are." Because he was convinced he was going to beat it, every time I spoke to him.

And then he died. He left behind a wife and daughter, just fantastic people. But he also left behind a lot of friends and amazing work.

Now, when he died, a lot of us who were fans thought, "Oh, this character cannot stop." They just made the first Vince Flynn movie: American Assassin. And it opens this weekend. I saw it, and it's absolutely fantastic.

But the series has continued with the guy named Kyle Mills who was selected -- imagine, you know, you're -- you're the replacement in the Beatles for Paul McCartney or John Lennon. And Kyle Mills stepped to the plate. And there's a new Vince Flynn novel out: Enemy of the State.

Welcome to the program, Kyle, how are you?

KYLE: I'm good. Thank you.

GLENN: Some big shoes. And we've talked about this before. Some big shoes that you have to fill. And you've done a fantastic job on it. Tell me about the new book, Enemy of the State.

KYLE: Well, this one is about Saudi Arabia and kind of puts forth whether or not maybe they had more to do with 9/11 than the governments let on.

GLENN: No.

KYLE: And those redacted pages have a lot of information in them that's been kept from the American people.

And they're not living up to their agreements to back off of the financing and supporting of terrorism.

GLENN: Well, that sounds like total fiction.

KYLE: Yeah.

GLENN: We know none of that is true.

What are you basing this on, Kyle, other than those redacted pages? Because, I mean, I love -- I love fiction writers because they -- they have to be accurate. You just have to have more information than -- than you ever let on.

What do you have, or what have you seen that led you down this path?

KYLE: Well, those pages have always kind of fascinated me, and all the other things swirling around about it that it's never been clear. No one has ever said, "Well, this is exactly what happened through the investigations." And we've completely cleared these people.

And I think there's a lot of incentive for the United States, because of its strategic interests. And this has always been the case with Saudi Arabia. We -- it seems like we'll sort of turn a blind eye to just about anything they do.

And so that was kind of what I wanted to play with. And also, because if you read Vince's book, and obviously you've talked to him quite a bit, he and I sort of share a distaste for the Saudis. So I thought it would be fun to explore that a little bit.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. Your dad -- if I'm not mistaken, wasn't your dad one of the investigators on the Lockerbie bombing?

KYLE: On Pan Am 103? Yeah. That happened actually when I was graduating from college. And we found out about it at my college graduation dinner, that he disappeared to Lockerbie. And I didn't see him for a few months after that.

GLENN: How much did that affect your life, having your dad -- being surrounded by military guys and having your dad do that? How much of your life do you think is a continuation of your dad's? Have we lost -- it we lose him? I'm not -- we lost him.

STU: Sounds like we did.

You want to ask me that question, or you want to ask me something? Because I can answer some interesting stuff too. I'm a pretty interesting guy.

GLENN: No. Uh-uh. Have you ever thought about that though, how much of your life is a re-run of your dad's?

STU: I know you have. This is something you've dealt with for a long time. I don't think I have.

GLENN: Is it just me that does that? I mean, I know I overanalyze everything. But I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, on how much -- how much am I like my dad? What is -- how much is a rerun of my dad's life and a continuation of his goals?

STU: That's an interesting question. I don't know how, in the middle of a really cool action thriller movie release interview, you got there. Exactly.

GLENN: Well, because I think it's interesting that he's writing this stuff now, and his dad was -- you know, his dad was on the investigation of the Lockerbie bombing.

So, Kyle, I didn't mean to offend you if I offended you with that question. But have you thought about that of how much of your life is a continuation of -- in some ways, your dad's work?

KYLE: A lot of it. I think that incident really affected me, hearing about the reality of what was going on on the ground there. You know, it's funny because Mitch Rapp, the character starts down his path in the CIA because his -- his girlfriend died on that --

GLENN: Right.

KYLE: And, I mean, hearing the stories of that, it was such a horrific event. You know, people would call my father and say, "There are two kids sitting in their seats in my backyard. They're sitting there holding hands. I really need you to come and get them now." And he had no manpower at that point. They were just flying people in. And he would have to say, "You know, you're going to have to wait. Just close your drapes, we're going to be there as soon as we can."

And in a way, it has kind of a similar effect on me as it did the character, understanding what that thread is and how great it is.

GLENN: Except Mitch went on to kill a whole bunch of people and you started writing books.

KYLE: You know, and that's a lot easier.

GLENN: You do that Saturday morning in your underpants, in your kitchen, where Mitch isn't -- isn't doing that.

When we talk about 9/11, which this book is based on, and Saudi Arabia and everything that's going on. It's the new Vince Flynn book, Enemy of the State. Kyle Mills is the author, and he's with us now.

When we look at that, do you think we will ever find out -- in our lifetime, will we find out what the real involvement was with Saudi Arabia?

KYLE: I don't think so. I think there's such a strong strategic interest and financial interest between us and Saudi Arabia that everything like that gets buried. But, I mean, it's clear -- it's obvious they're huge financiers of terrorism and really creating the schools that put forward that philosophy.

GLENN: The American Assassin talks about a nuclear weapon being used. And I just saw it, what? Two days ago. Great movie. Great story.

But you see nuclear weapons in play and in action. That's something that, really, we haven't really dealt with since I was a kid. Do you think this is something -- as you're playing this out with Kim Jong-un, is this something that we're going to have to start really dealing with? Do you think we'll see this play out?

KYLE: You know, it's such a terrifying situation because it's almost less about Korea than it is about China. They created this problem. They refused to do anything about the problem. And then they prevent other people from doing something about that problem.

And so it just gets worse. And it's on that trajectory. And, yes, I think at some point it will happen.

GLENN: So, Kyle, what -- so what happens? What should we be doing right now in North Korea?

KYLE: I think you have to convince China to rein them in. I just -- I don't see how there's any path to us acting unilaterally or with a Western coalition, like in Korea.

GLENN: Do you believe we go to war with North Korea? Do you believe that's in the cards?

KYLE: No. No. I just don't think it's possible. I think China would come down on us, and we've been there before.

GLENN: I am thrilled to hear that. The name of the book is Enemy of the State, by Kyle Mills. The new Vince Flynn book is out and the new Vince Flynn movie, American Assassin comes out. Have you seen it yet, Kyle?

KYLE: I have.

GLENN: What did you think?

KYLE: I thought it was terrific. I absolutely loved it. I thought Dylan and Michael Keaton did an amazing job. You know, those characters are in my head eight hours a day, and it's exactly what I pictured.

GLENN: I agree with you. And I think it's a new kind of character. I mean, it makes Jason Bourne seem like -- and it was written in the Cold War. This is a whole new kind of approach to a character, and I love it.

Thank you so much, Kyle.

KYLE: Thanks.

GLENN: It's Kyle Mills. Vince Flynn's new book, Enemy of the State. A Mitch Rapp novel. And the new Mitch Rapp movie opens this weekend everywhere.

The great switch: Gates trades climate control for digital dominion

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.

Antifa isn’t “leaderless” — It’s an organized machine of violence

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.