The Interview With John A Castro, US 2024 Presidential Candidate.

On May 4th, 2022, Renaldo McKenzie of The NeoLiberal Post sat down for a first-ever interview with US 2024 GOP Presidential Candidate John Anthony Castro. It was 2-hour long, but dynamic and insightful as we learned about his story from humble beginnings to now a multi-millionaire, successful businessman and Attorney. In fact, it was a breaking interview as we discovered that he was planning on challenging Former President Donald Trump‘s 2024 candidacy by filing a lawsuit against the Federal Elections Commision on the basis that Trump violated section 3 of the 14th amendment. This is a summary of the two-hour long interview with Mr. Castro. The interview was broken-up in two (2) Parts, A and B. In Part A, I led the discussions with some general questions about who John is, his, childhood, and started to explore his platform and his plans for America. In Part B, we continued the interview but included several recorded questions that a few individuals asked me to put to John. The entire interview can be found on The NeoLiberal Round Podcast.

In Part A, he stated emphatically that “the student Loan interest deduction is crap,” because as long as you’re paying student loan, you shouldn’t pay back taxes. Secondly, his company, Castro and Company which started AI Tax (an international Tax law firm) is now valued at $180, 000, 000 (AI Tax stands for Artificial Intelligence in terms of Tax planning). Thirdly, he beautifully highlighted the difference between Democrats and Republicans. He said that Democrats messaging is usually based on the “heart” while the belief is that the GOP bases its arguments on logic and legality. He suggests that there needs to be a balance or a middle ground, and that’s what we need someone who can bring people together and bridge the political and racial divide. (Which in my estimations can only be resolved by “stop thinking Race.” He stated that he is at a very unique position given his experience with life on all sides.

He responded to a question I asked: How do you plan to improve social services while being fiscally responsible? He replied saying that this is possible because as a young man that is of the twenty-first century he has found leveraging technology, as a way to realize those two goals since he has done it with his business which has grown rapidly in just a few years. He went on to say this facilitates the ability to spend less and generate more.

On the matter of information, security and privacy, he promoted the idea of a “Digital Force” like the military and various branches that protects various aspects that can pose threats. In fact, he emphasizes that the 4th Amendment needs to be extended to private companies, so that private individuals can now sue if these companies violate their users privacy and security. What was really telling and interesting was his view that Trump should not be banned from Social Media because this threatens free speech and states that we must explore other ways to discipline individuals who cause insurrections, which he discusses more fully the issue of Trump in Part B.

On the issue of anti-trust, he believes that these laws need to be enforced including enforcement of anti-monopoly laws, & asserted that monopolies are against the de-centralization of power & underscored the importance of the Human not as a Resource, But as Talent, for then we will not think of the human as a way to discard, for then he the human would be treated as family.

We explored the issue of Energy Independence, which is one of his platform plans, where he believes that we have a responsibility as stewards of God’s Earth. He stated that the GOP, use to be known as the party of Environmentalism & Teddy Roosevelt. But that the GOP got derailed equating environmentalism with “Tree Hugging,” which I have said is a result of the poor messaging & the issue of language which John alluded to as well.  He went on to say that we must develop a prudent way of transitioning from coal & oil to solar energy. One way to do so is to grow the super structure, or grid, for the more we grow it, the more we can slowly do without oil & create innovative ways of producing energy that ultimately saves the planet. But it’s a process. 

In Part B, we posed several questions from the public who recorded questions for Mr. Castro. One powerful question came from Zion, a 17-year old young Philadelphia resident who is voting in the next elections. She asked: “what are you doing to promote POSITIVITY, and to move the country forward?” John answered quite interestingly enough reiterating his approach to lead in a bipartisan way; “we all love this country but we all disagree on the means and the goals. Bridging this ideological Divide is the most important aspect of my campaign. I challenged him on this saying, well Mr. Obama tried that at first and failed failed, how do you expect to be any different? John hesitated a bit, then provided an answer that was rather academic and erudite. He said quite intricately that “Obama had power but did not have the courage to use it. It was a missed opportunity on his part.” He went on to say that “Donald Trump on the other hand power but was not afraid to use it … at least he had The courage to use it.” Mr Castro then said, which was quite ingenious and effective, “put Power into action, that’s the problem you know, [people] get into power and wanna keep talking.” 

I posed two more questions I got from two high school seniors: what’s the best way to change our community and to avert turning us into a surveillance state?

John and said quite remarkably saying we need to think of new ways of policing he said he grew up into the hood and at the end of the street was a crack house at the bottom of Elm Street there were active gunfire going off and when we called the police they would take 35 minutes but now I’m living in an affluent area and if there’s a problem and we call the police they arrive in five minutes. John went down to say that there is an inability to provide effective policing we are either over policing or under policing, we are very reactive and need to find a balance.

I followed up with a question: how do we find the balance? 

John responded pointing to his experience, he said that “I am well rounded, I’ve been at the far left, been unionising been a worker, employee and now I’m on the other side. I’m an employer a business-owner. I’ve seen both sides, so, I am at a very unique place to be able to bridge the divide.” With profound passion he said emphatically, l’m a well rounded leader who can find a common ground. I am Conservative but I’ll find a way to pass policies that make it palatable and I will show how it was done with the earned income credit.“ Then as if to switchgears he said “stay away from toxic ideology I believe in republicanism and will find a way that includes the other side and find ways to get them to buy in!” 

I then posed another question that came from a senior who was concerned about his health care and had a question for Mr. Castro. He said please leave Medicare where it is and was concerned and wanted to know his position on Medicare.

Mr. Castro responded in a comforting way as if he was speaking to the gentleman directly. He said, “I will leave it where it is.” But will create a national healthcare council resembling the Federal Reserve structure, where banks and governments share an equal stake, but will avoid the mistakes. He pointed to the book, “The Creature of Jekko Island.” He went on, even to recommend further, a “de-factor—single—payer—system, that is privatized that will drive down health-care costs. 

I then asked Mr. Castro what are your greatest fears and his response was quite telling. He said “don’t kill the messenger,” and pointed that during the last Presidential elections it was becoming dangerous as there were several attacks in campaigns by the other side. This was a very important issue because he stated that he plans to censor Donald Trump at the New Hampshire Primary and will bring a suit against him on the second Tuesday of November 2023 for giving aid and comfort to the January 6 insurrection. He went on, ”Donald Trump is poison and toxic” and that “one cannot have poison and toxic when you are bringing people together. One must remove the toxic which is Donald Trump. He believes that Donald Trump bears some responsibility in the insurrection and stated that it was orchestrated or planned days before the insurrection. What was breaking and revealing at this juncture of the interview for us here at The Neoliberal was when he stated that “they were actually trying to overthrow the republic… they were literally trying to overthrow the federal government,” and that this was called the American experiment, (which I (the host) estimate believe resembles the Russian special operation that Russia or Vladimir Putin is conducting in Ukraine right now). 

I asked him what were his greatest inspiration or influence in his life. He stated that he draws inspiration from everyone, as there are values one can appreciate from various peoples. This is important, he continues here saying, “politics is about influencing people and talking to people so that they can understand you.” He also drew inspiration from his older brother where he developed an interest in the anti-globalization movement and the Seattle protest against the IMF and the World Bank and understood how the rigged corporate economy works. He stated that there’s a “false equivalence” in that if you’re against Rigged multi nationalism you’re labelled anti-capitalist. But what we have is not Free Market, but Rigged Multinationalism.” He stated that the capitalism we have today is not the one we have of yesterday (which I interrupted him to say that’s exactly the point I wrote about in my book “Neoliberalism, Gliabalization, Income Inequality, Poverty and Resistance.”) He went on to say that we must Protect our capitalism, alluding to the fact that in the 1970’s there was this consolidation of market power, (in which Walter Licht explored in his book Labor Economic History of America). 

I then posed a final question to Mr. Castro which came from a young gentleman in his late twenties. The young man asked: “how do you stay [pure] and uncontaminated as people usually are bought once they get into  office? 

John responded, revealing that it is why he built his successful company so that he can use the money to finance his campaign and has used most of his personal funds to finance his campaign. 

As we came close to wrapping up the interview, I throw out some other questions around:

1. Community Development: I asked “I study people in community at the local levels and notice that despite the efforts to help and fund small businesses in communities, it’s still not reaching the people who need it. How can we resolve this issue to ensure that these programs reach the targeted population?

He replied: we need to “get our own hands dirty, roll up our sleeves… and monies gets wasted on too much administration. There needs to be boots on the ground!” Further, on this issue he stated that we need to “micromanage agencies from bureaucratic resistance,” which is also an obstacle for many Administrations getting their plans to work at the agency levels. Hence, we will assume that he will ensure that agencies are micromanaged to ensure that his plans are reaching the peoples within communities if elected. 

As we get to the end of the interview, I asked about Elon Musk’s take over of Twitter. He said: “I’m not against it, if anything, good is gonna come from Elon Musk is that he literally forces everybody into the room together… some people are afraid of people who oppose their views…”  which he says is anti-bipartisanship. 

Finally, we ended the interview with a message to those with big dreams and aspirations. He said, “don’t get discouraged with short-term, losses, we need to continue  pushing, constantly staying engaged, don’t give up… having a long-term strategy is [vital] or you will be discouraged, and one must take the losses with the wins!” 

The interview is also on video @

The John A Castro Interview with Rev. Renaldo C. McKenzie on The Neoliberal Round Podcast. 

The NeoLiberal Round Podcast is a created by Renaldo McKenzie for Anchor.fm now Spotify for podcasters. The Podcast is available on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, The Audible, Podvine, Podcasts, iHeartRadio etc. in over 36 countries. Subscribe for free!

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Renaldo McKenzie is an Adjunct Professor at Jamaica Theological Seminary, President of The Neoliberal Corporation, Author of Neoliberalism Book Series, Doctoral Candidate at Georgetown University, Graduated from University of Pennsylvania with a Master of Liberal Arts and a Master of Philosophy and will release his second book int he Neoliberalism series: Neoliberal Globalization Reconsidered, Neo-Capitalism and the Death of Nations, with contributions by Professor Emeritus Dr. Martin Oppenheimer, available August 15th, 2023.

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