Trump's historic trip to the Middle East and beyond is in full swing, and we're here to break it all down. President Trump's visit to Tel Aviv, Israel, and Jerusalem, Israel and the return of the U.S. to the world stage, and the release of the Palestinian hostages, are two of the most significant diplomatic breakthroughs of his presidency.
00:01:02.800Guys, if we can get that live shot up of Air Force One or whatever the pool feed is giving us right now.
00:01:10.040President Trump holding incredible, historic, just absolutely historic trip today to the Middle East.
00:01:19.980Just departing, and we're told Air Force One is going to be departing in just a few moments here as special coverage continues on Real America's Voice.
00:01:30.260We're picking that up, of course, from the Human Events Daily side.
00:01:33.800We'll be covering in for the next hour, bringing guests in to talk about this historic deal and potentially a reset for relations in the Middle East.
00:01:45.320There you see President Trump signing in at the Knesset, there with Bibi Netanyahu and the Speaker.
00:01:52.980And what we've seen are scenes that in many cases, and look, I was on the early show today with Bannon.
00:02:03.600Folks, what we're seeing is biblical, a potential restructuring of the Middle East, a potential restructuring of geopolitics, and a return of the United States to the world stage.
00:02:16.720For so many years, the United States had receded, had been seen as weak, certainly in the face of the Biden administration.
00:02:23.140Now with President Trump, this is peace through strength.
00:02:29.200We are seeing peace through strength in action.
00:02:31.780And notice, President Trump was able to achieve this not by conducting military raids against Hamas, not by conducting drone strikes in Gaza.
00:02:43.760He was able to get it done through diplomacy.
00:02:46.640And the real, the absolute real credit here goes to that diplomatic team, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, Steve Wyckoff, and then Jared Kushner coming in kind of as the closer for President Trump, along with his daughter-in-law, Ivanka Trump.
00:03:06.480Them holding this incredible meeting there in Tel Aviv and then Jerusalem with the hostages as they were released, I believe 20 living hostages were released.
00:03:16.540Then President Trump flying to Egypt, where he's currently on the ground now.
00:03:22.120And we'll get you that live shot in just a second, where Air Force One is about to take off.
00:03:28.580President Trump just wrapped up speaking there at this incredible meeting.
00:03:33.200Twenty-seven nations gathered together to hear President Trump, and then the photos, the conversations, being there with every single one of the world leaders.
00:03:46.620America's preeminence is now reestablished on the world stage.
00:05:52.760Because tomorrow at the White House, President Trump will be awarding Erica Trump the posthumous Medal of Freedom, the Presidential Medal of Freedom there at the White House.
00:06:06.360And I'll be able to tell you that we are very honored that Human Events Daily, as well as the Charlie Kirk Show, will be broadcast from the White House grounds tomorrow.
00:06:17.260So we're going to be there, of course, for the ceremony.
00:06:20.080And we will be broadcasting this show directly from the White House tomorrow.
00:06:25.360And hopefully I'll be able to get some of the, working out the logistics, but I want to be able to get some of the crew on and maybe some special guests who are there in attendance.
00:06:34.980And then the medal ceremony will be taking place after the end of Human Events Daily tomorrow.
00:06:43.540And how amazing is it that the President of the United States showing the true significance of Charlie Kirk and the true significance of what happened by flying all the way back from a historic peace deal, meeting with Israel, meeting with the Arab world, but now flying all the way back, Air Force One and the entire entourage, just so that Charlie Kirk can get his Medal of Freedom on his birthday.
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00:09:22.760Because if I had not received my resupply last week, I definitely would not have been able to perform this historic day the way that we have.
00:09:32.460Now, I want to bring in, so President Trump taking off there, Air Force One.
00:09:37.280Looks like, logistically speaking, he'll be landing here.
00:10:25.400We were told that Trump was going to give us World War III, but instead he's given us MAGA world peace.
00:10:30.640Jack, I think you hit this right on the head.
00:10:34.940This is a return to the policy of peace through strength, as advocated by Dwight Eisenhower, supported by Ronald Reagan, and as President Trump pursued in his first term.
00:10:46.060Where not only do we not start any new foreign wars, Trump being the only president in modern times who can claim that, but now solving some of the world's worst skirmishes, worst wars, and so on.
00:11:06.080But this guy's record is extraordinary, not just this incredible peace deal, which kind of brings back the Abraham Accords, which they again told Trump he could not achieve in his first term.
00:11:18.180But with the able assistance in that case, as in this, of Jared Kushner, achieve both historic agreements.
00:11:27.540So there is no greater title that history can bestow than that of Peacemaker.
00:11:34.920Donald Trump now adds this historic agreement to his decision, his ability to get a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, solving the issues between India and Pakistan, getting Thailand and Cambodia to stop fighting Armenia and Azerbaijan, Saudi, Syria, Lebanon, all coming in under the Abraham Accords for better relations.
00:12:00.540Since Donald Trump is an incredible peacemaker, I am not happy that the Norwegian-based Nobel Peace Prize Committee elected to give their award to Maria Corina Machado, not so much as a criticism of her, but other than to say the right thing to do would be for her to ask, or maybe have Marco Rubio ask her, if President Trump can give her the award.
00:12:28.840And then she should hand it back to her, and then she should hand it back to her, and she should hand it back to the president.
00:12:31.640He deserves this award, even though I thought those elitist, globalist freaks at the Nobel Peace Prize Committee would likely not give it to him.
00:12:41.840Well, Roger, I think there's no question there.
00:12:44.660Looking at the way that the president has really restructured, I think, geopolitics and world relations, this reminds me of, and I know you'll appreciate it as well, this reminds me of something that Nixon said when he was in office, where he said,
00:13:03.840the best way for the United States to support Israel is for the United States to have strong relations with Israel's neighbors.
00:13:12.860Roger, what did he mean by that, and is President Trump following that dictum?
00:13:19.420I mean, Nixon went out of his way to improve U.S. relationships with Egypt, with Saudi particularly, with a number of nations in the region.
00:13:31.740Israel was not happy about it at the time, but Nixon felt strongly that the United States had to have better relationships with everybody concerned if there was any way to bring peace, and we could play the role of peacemaker.
00:13:46.140This is what Jimmy Carter did at Camp David, one of the few laudable things that he did.
00:13:51.860So I think that this is just an extraordinary, historic occasion that shows that Trump really is a world-class world diplomat.
00:14:03.660He's negotiated all of these settlements with very able assistance from Steve Witkoff, and obviously, in this case, Jerry Kushner.
00:14:15.260Marco Rubio really is a surprise standout in this cabinet.
00:14:19.920I always liked Rubio's hard line against communism in this hemisphere.
00:14:25.680He's been very tough on Cuba, very tough on Maduro, who is a Marxist narco-thug, very tough, I think, increasingly on Honduras.
00:14:36.980I mean, the Chinese communists are on the move in this hemisphere, too, as well as the more traditional communists.
00:14:43.360Marco has been hard line, and he has very faithfully executed the president's worldview, the president's America first foreign policy, rather than that of the neocons.
00:14:57.260Well, you know, Roger, it was amazing to me.
00:15:02.800So a week ago, we held the Antifa Roundtable in the White House, and I'm there with Andy Ngo and Katie Davis Court and Savannah Hernandez, my colleagues from the Postmillennial and Human Events.
00:15:18.640And there's this moment where I look to my left, and you mentioned Secretary of State, and so I can see the hallway.
00:15:26.840I'm looking down past the East Room into the Executive Mansion hallway, the foyer there on the north side.
00:15:34.040And I see the Secretary of State standing there, and I remembered that he was not going to be in the meeting.
00:15:43.780And I remember that I also saw the vice president, who, of course, didn't end up coming on camera, the bearded vice president, also standing there in the hallway.
00:15:53.520And he had his, you know, he had his arms crossed.
00:15:56.960But I could look at the two of them, and they had a certain glint in their eye or perhaps a certain twinkle in their eye.
00:16:02.080And it looked as though they had good news for the commander-in-chief.
00:16:05.820And then, of course, as everyone could see, Secretary Rubio came in, whispered in President Trump's ear that we were close to a deal.
00:16:16.160The president made—Susie Wiles, chief of staff, was incredibly gracious that she gave her seat to Secretary of State Rubio so that he could do that.
00:16:24.400It was an incredible move on her part, complete understanding of protocol.
00:16:28.720And you see this as a working White House.
00:16:32.480It was incredible to be a fly on the wall to that moment in history.
00:16:36.300Yeah, that little soundbite goes down along with that moment that Andy Card, who was then a White House aide, later, I think, Secretary of Transportation, whispered in George W.'s ear that the 9-11 towers—that the towers had been hit on 9-11.
00:16:55.740This is an extraordinary breakthrough.
00:16:58.040We have to hope that, obviously, both sides keep their obligations.
00:17:02.100The freedom of these hostages today is a testimony to the strength and the persistence and the negotiating skill of Donald Trump to bring disparate parties together in the name of peace.
00:17:14.000It is—it is—it is—it is amazing.
00:17:17.780They gave Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize.
00:17:21.380But the only real accomplishment he had, Jack, was killing more human beings with drones than any president in American history.
00:17:27.380I really—I really think the president deserves this award.
00:17:32.500And I would hope that Maria Corina Machado would consider accepting it and giving it to the president, bestowing it to the president.
00:17:39.580Yeah, Roger, that's an incredible idea.
00:17:43.020So she'll get it there, and then I suppose she'd have to bring it to—he could invite her to the White House, perhaps, and have the ceremony there and invite the Nobel Committee as well, why don't he?
00:17:54.760And it's—it would be—it would certainly be a coup.
00:17:57.880But this is a diplomatic coup because what we're seeing now is the return of the United States to the world stage.
00:18:04.540And the United States, of course, had retracted and retreated from the world stage and sort of faded into, I believe, faded into the wallpaper with Joe Biden and his allowance of globalist interests and European interests to really take the lead, specifically as pertains to Ukraine, Russia.
00:18:26.760But then also as pertains to the Middle East, and we saw that in no less an example as the disastrous withdrawal, the retreat from Afghanistan and the killings at Abbey Gate.
00:20:30.080Support our ability to continue this coverage for you, not only of the special peace deal here today, but then tomorrow we'll be at the White House and covering the Presidential Medal of Freedom to my friend, the guy whose show used to come on right before here, Charlie Kirk.
00:20:47.840I want to bring back on Roger Stone now.
00:20:51.440Roger, President Trump made some comments just a few moments ago in Egypt.
00:20:56.480He said they said World War III was going to kick off in the Middle East, but that's not going to happen on my watch.
00:21:05.400So President Trump, he has this incredible ability to simply directly state the obvious and even though you're not supposed to and drive right towards it.
00:21:14.780Roger, do you believe that President Trump's moves here will see a return to stability for the region?
00:21:22.600Look, I think there's going to be bumps along the way because that's how world affairs are.
00:21:28.800But at the end of the day, I think he has achieved what could become a lasting peace.
00:21:38.220And now, obviously, the president probably will turn his attention to getting a final resolution on the struggle between Ukraine and Russia, which is, you know, that's the kind of the last, the biggest hurdle yet to be resolved.
00:21:55.000So I think I think I think the president is on a roll here that is really quite extraordinary.
00:22:01.900He is. He is. He's demonstrated that he completely understands what President Theodore Roosevelt said when he said, speak softly and carry a big stick.
00:22:12.460He's projecting American strength as opposed to deploying American troops abroad.
00:22:21.620So President Trump has shown that you can use economic power, diplomatic power and the cultural power, his own cultural power, as well as his role as the president of the United States,
00:22:33.200the man in the bully pulpit to be able to bring these disparate groups together and use this true diplomacy without the need for going to conquest the way the neocons would have or by becoming subservient to these transnational organizations
00:22:49.100and international superstructures like the U.N. or the World Economic Forum, the way that the neoliberals, the Biden Obama era would have us do instead.
00:22:58.800But President Trump and I think you can see that specifically in those meetings there in Israel, but particularly in Egypt, where he's meeting with the world leaders.
00:23:07.880And it seems that each of them has some personal statement that they want to make with him as they're meeting with him.
00:23:13.640They're received very warmly. And I think you can really tell that this is a man who clearly has relationships with all of them.
00:23:19.840He's built with all of them. And that's because, Roger, he spends so much time specifically when he's on Air Force One,
00:23:26.460making phone calls to these world leaders and building those relationships.
00:23:31.300Roger, I think a lot of people, they're asking us, does the president ever sleep?
00:23:35.400No, his energy level is really something to behold.
00:23:38.600Now, he was always nocturnal. I've known him 50 years. He never slept for long periods of time.
00:23:45.820But now he's keeping up this superhuman physical schedule, rushing back from this very important announcement and the release of the hostages and his visit to the Knesset for Charlie Kirk's memorial and to give him the Medal of Freedom, which I very strongly support.
00:24:07.180I'm still in shock about the vicious political murder of our ally and brother, Charlie Kirk.
00:24:14.620But he shows that he keeps his word. His energy level is extraordinary.
00:24:18.960And by the way, not only do I think he not sleep, he doesn't like when others do, because he will sometimes call you at two o'clock in the morning and say, you weren't sleeping, were you?
00:24:26.920No, never, Mr. President. Absolutely not. And and I actually remember just an anecdote that I shared before.
00:24:39.040When we were on that trip to Anchorage for the meeting with Putin, we fly all the way back from Anchorage.
00:24:45.800We're on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base and we're waiting to be to be let off.
00:24:51.160And typically those movements are pretty quick. But then we see the Secret Service sit down, say we've been traveling all day.
00:24:57.360What's the Secret Service sitting down for? Those guys obviously know something is up.
00:25:01.100Then Caroline Leavitt comes back to where we're sitting and says, sorry, folks, we're going to be a few more minutes.
00:25:06.780The president is on the phone. It's two in the morning and he's still on the phone with world leaders and he doesn't want to have to hang up and reconnect.
00:25:14.620So we're going to wait here until the phone call is done. Roger, we sat there for another 45 minutes because he just couldn't stop.
00:25:21.160Stop working. Well, look, he was the most successful developer in Manhattan real estate for a reason.
00:25:27.840He's a dealmaker and he he can be very charming when he needs to be.
00:25:32.160He can be very tough when he needs to be. And he has, as you know, Jack, he has that great quality,
00:25:38.960which is a great asset in the conduct of foreign affairs, unpredictability.
00:25:43.780So and when he threatens to use American power at extreme levels, shall we say, his adversaries don't know whether he would do it or not.
00:25:55.020But as he's told me, if there's a 10 percent chance that I would that I would attack Peking, for example, or Moscow, if they cost me, then that's enough to keep them wondering and keep us at peace.
00:26:08.060So he understands the whole unpredictability. Nixon used this very successfully in the Vietnam conflict,
00:26:14.500sending Henry Kissinger to the peace tables in Paris to say Nixon's a right wing Republican lunatic with his finger on the button.
00:26:22.580If you guys don't give us a deal, he could just nuke the whole lot of you.
00:26:26.020It was it was what Nixon called his exactly right. Roger.
00:26:31.180Roger, we're coming up on a break. I understand you have to run. Thank you for your time today.
00:26:34.940I know we grabbed you on short notice. Where can people go to follow you and get access to everything you're putting out?
00:26:39.400They can go to StoneZone.com, StoneZone.com, my hot sub stack at StoneColdTruth.com.
00:26:48.000And then on the radio every day, 8 p.m. Eastern, WABCRadio.com's The Stone Zone.
00:26:54.680That's at WABCRadio.com, 8 p.m. Eastern, five nights a week. Thanks, Jack.
00:27:00.980Thank you, Roger. Historic day. Right back. Human Events Daily, Real America Sports.
00:27:09.400Where is Jack? Where is Jack? Where is Jack? Where is he? Jack, I want to see you.
00:27:20.060Great job, Jack. Thank you. What a job you do. You know, we have an incredible thing.
00:27:25.080We're always talking about the fake news and the bad, but we have guys, and these are the guys who'll be getting police.
00:27:30.720All right, Jack Posobiec, we're back live here. Human Events Daily, we're looking at live shots out of the Middle East right now.
00:27:41.180We're also going through this incredible, incredible situation.
00:27:46.440President Trump securing a historic peace deal, an end to the war in Gaza, the return of the hostages, and normalization, hopefully, for the region.
00:27:56.520I want to bring on now Human Events Opinion Editor, Kenny Cody, because, Kenny, you've been tracking some of the response to these events from President Trump's critics and detractors and others.
00:28:11.080What are they saying about this, Kenny?
00:28:13.500Certainly, this is something that's just an objective and absolute good that everyone has to at least give the president credit for, right?
00:28:22.440Well, the fact that they've been campaigning on peace in the Middle East, how we need to, you know, free Palestine, we need to do all this stuff.
00:28:30.340And during this foreign policy, they can't even give Trump the proper credit he deserves.
00:28:34.620We've got people like Elizabeth Warren, Abigail Spanberger, who's running for governor in Virginia.
00:28:41.100They're all saying how great this peace deal is, how great it is for our world.
00:28:45.140We've got, you know, Israel saying, blessed be the peacemaker that is Donald Trump.
00:28:49.500But these congressional Democrats in our own country who have been using this war to placate and try to morally grandstand on the American people and calling us murderers, calling us advocates for genocide, have been using this war to politically prosper.
00:29:04.720They can't even give proper credit to Donald Trump.
00:29:06.400They'll acknowledge that there is peace, they'll acknowledge how great this peace deal is, how historical that this moment is in our world.
00:29:15.300But they refuse to say President Trump's name.
00:29:17.880They refuse to give credit to the Trump administration.
00:29:20.400And I've got just a three-word answer or a three-word request.
00:29:40.940Say any Trump administration official's name or the president himself's name when you're talking about this peace deal because he brokered it.
00:29:47.640He's the one who stayed up all those countless hours, all those countless minutes, all of those sleepless nights advocating for this peace deal to be had.
00:30:12.800And this is something where, of course, the polarization that we've been talking about for the last couple of weeks really comes to play here because you've got something where President Trump is able to come in.
00:30:25.040And this was something, Kenny, that he directly campaigned on.
00:30:28.000And he said, I will end these wars without putting American troops in harm's way.
00:31:17.340I mean, when you have Western leaders who are giving him credit, the people in Israel, all those in the Middle East that are saying thank you, Donald Trump, for being the peacemaker in this situation, if the entire Western world and even some of the Eastern world are going to give him credit, I think the Palestinian prime minister actually got in a press conference a few minutes ago or about an hour ago and nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
00:31:37.140If you're having these people who are giving credit to President Trump and asking him literally to get the award on Earth that is given to the most peaceful person, even though the committee is corrupt and will never give it to him in his lifetime, if you're having these people get on there and say he deserves credit, you're having newspapers who have his face on the front calling him bless the peacemaker like the Jerusalem Post did today, they're going to be forgotten.
00:31:59.380These Democrats are going to be forgotten as just petty little babies that will not give credit where credit is due to the peacemaker that is Donald Trump.
00:32:19.520I don't really want the acknowledgement from the Democrats because all this does is let them be known as the divisive people that they are embracing violence, they're embracing war, they're embracing this division, and they're slowly becoming, they're very quickly becoming the party of violence, becoming the party of war.
00:32:38.860And now they're going to be the party of pettiness since they can't even give credit to the man that has made this happen, the administration that has made this happen.
00:32:48.980No president of the last few decades could have peace in the Middle East like Trump has got to the start of this phase one, to the rest of these phases to fall into place, and for every country in the Western world to give Donald Trump credit for the peace that he has brought to the Middle East.
00:33:03.580The fact that the Democrats in his own country cannot give him the credit and his enemies overseas are giving him credit is mind-blowing, but it should be noticeable to us, be noticeable to the American people, and be noticeable to voters when they go to the ballot box next November.
00:33:19.980The idea that you have foreign leaders in parts of the world that are no friend of the United States are giving President Trump the credit for this, but his own countrymen, his own fellow countrymen in the political opposition,
00:33:37.160Kenny, while I have you, I did want to also ask about something I said earlier today that I think is important, and I think you'll agree with me, but I want to get your thoughts on it.
00:33:48.280That one thing that I'd like to hear more of, and of course this is the phase one part of the deal, so there's different phases that come in.
00:33:54.580I want to see protections, and this is on a personal level, in any deal that comes out, I want to see protections for the Christian population in these areas.
00:34:02.320That's something that's very important to me, and I think it's very important to a lot of Americans.
00:34:06.360And look, I'm not saying it has to be U.S. troops on the ground, but we know that there were a lot of Christians that were affected by this war.
00:34:12.480We know that there were churches that were hit.
00:34:14.820We know there was damage that was done to a lot of these areas.
00:34:17.820There were Christians who died in some of these bombings.
00:34:29.700You know, like you said, we're just in phase one.
00:34:31.260I think Trump, more than any president of our lifetimes, is protecting the Christian religion.
00:34:35.980He's protecting Christians around the world.
00:34:37.860And we're seeing it happen in so many countries.
00:34:40.000I mean, if you look at Nigeria, there's literally a genocide in Nigeria going on of the Christian population.
00:34:45.140You're having it in so many countries that Christians are being eliminated.
00:34:48.000And Christians have been killed in the crossfire and directly within these bombings between these two entities.
00:34:54.560And if we're able to see Christians prioritized in so many of these countries, because they're either targeted or they're forgotten about in a lot of these foreign conflicts, especially in the Middle East and overseas.
00:35:06.900And I think if any president can do it, if any administration can come and realize that there is a genocide of Christians, there is an attack on the Christian religion, not just in the United States, not just in the Middle East, but all over the world.
00:35:18.300And like I said, in countries like Nigeria, there should be inherent policies, inherent provisions, and inherent protections for Christians in any peace deal that the United States has with any foreign country.
00:35:31.280If we're going to come in and broker these peace deals, we're going to find peace in the Middle East, we're going to find peace in the Ukrainian and Russian war.
00:35:37.360If we're going to broker this, if we're going to be the peacemakers within these foreign conflicts and be the mediators, there should be protections for Christians because oftentimes they are in the crossfire and they're directly attacked.
00:35:51.120Whether that be, you know, like you said, some entities stepping in, some funding, whatever that might be.
00:35:57.780Like you said, we don't necessarily want U.S. troops on the ground, but there should be some provision, some agreement that if we come to this peace deal, we agree to mediate, we agree to be the mediator between two or more entities, there should be inherent protections for Christians within these peace deals.
00:36:18.320And, Kenny, when we look at it, too, look, people have to understand that, you know, we look at this with clear eyes.
00:36:24.160We understand this is the Middle East.
00:36:25.340We understand that these conflicts go back thousands of years, as the president has stated.
00:36:31.300And in many ways, you know, this perhaps will be a lull.
00:36:35.900But hopefully it is a way that a structure can be put in place whereby in the president, you see this as President Trump's ability as a businessman to understand that when there are economic interests,
00:36:48.840when there are business interests that are able to be brought to the fore, that this is something that it truly can be win-win for everyone out there.
00:37:10.180And I think that's what makes Trump so great at this is that he considers all these aspects.
00:37:15.140He doesn't necessarily concentrate on solely the war aspect, the economic aspect, the foreign relations, the trade aspects.
00:37:21.100He considers every single impact that could be had either by this war continuing and then you look at the harms or you look at a peace deal and look at the benefits and a cost-benefit analysis.
00:37:32.660He takes that approach to every single thing that he does, and that's what makes him so good at these foreign relations.
00:37:39.280And if there is one thing that President Trump is good at that he has carried over from his first administration is being good at these foreign relations, being good at being a mediator and being good at being the peacemaker as he has been the last few months and this week especially.
00:37:53.400Kenny Cody, go give him a follow over at humanevents.com.
00:38:21.280All right, Jack, we're back live on this historic day here in the United States, but we're also covering what's happening across the world, the Middle East, that region and beyond.
00:38:37.080We're joined by former DOD official Dan Caldwell to go through some of these not only historic scenes, but also an understanding of where perhaps we may be moving forward.
00:38:49.540Dan, thanks so much for joining us today.
00:39:03.700I hear Camp Pendleton is going to be an incredible, absolutely incredible performance there.
00:39:08.300And I believe the vice president is going to be leading it.
00:39:11.120So the highest ranking E4 that we've ever seen.
00:39:14.960The, you know, the scenes that we're seeing out of the Middle East today, you know, there were there was talk over the summer of a wider regional conflict.
00:39:26.740There was talk of Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, you know, completely embroiling the region into a much wider war.
00:39:36.380And here we are just a few months later, three, four months later, with news of a massive peace deal.
00:39:42.240It seems that those who wanted the wider war have really been kind of pushed into a corner.
00:39:47.340What do you think is going on there, Dan?
00:39:50.600I mean, I think that there was a collective recognition in the United States, in the region, particularly among the more moderate Gulf Arab states, and, you know, elements of the Israeli government that recognized that a broader regional war would be disastrous.
00:40:08.260And what we were talking about is really a war that probably would have led to multiple failed states, whether it was Syria, once again, lapsing back into civil war, whether it was potentially Lebanon, and things are still kind of tenuous there going back into civil war because of efforts to disarm Hezbollah or potentially the Israelis trying to stay in the country.
00:40:31.720And then attacks on countries like Qatar, is that that really was an enormous risk to not just our partners in the region, whether they're the Gulf Arab countries or Israel, but also the United States, because that would suck us back in.
00:40:48.080And so that's why I think that this deal was so important.
00:40:53.120There's so many reasons why this is important, but it did take us back from the precipice of something that would have been really bad, not just for the region, but for the United States.
00:41:02.460And I think, you know, look, I'm somebody just like you who's advocated that we need to retrench more from the Middle East.
00:41:08.100It doesn't mean we completely pull back, but that we shouldn't be as involved there.
00:41:12.600But I think that if that happened with 40,000 American troops in the region, it would have been inevitable that we would have gotten sucked back into another major war.
00:41:21.400So, again, that that is something we shouldn't ignore here is that this pulls us back from the brink of yet another generation of our friends and their families suffering in that region.
00:41:35.180Well, that's exactly right. And there were people who and I remember this, that you go back to the summer time frame and there were people who were saying the President Trump needs to go all the way in.
00:41:45.640And this is after that Operation Midnight Hammer. People were saying he needs to go all the way in, go deeper, full on regime change in Tehran, which, of course, would have spiraled all the way out of control.
00:41:57.820It would have required not only the use of those CENTCOM forces you mentioned, but probably the call up of many, many more the same way that we saw in Iraq.
00:42:07.620And, of course, Iran is a country that's a several magnitudes larger than Iraq.
00:42:13.240And so you had National Guard troops that are being called up in Iraq for, what, 22 month deployments.
00:42:18.800All of a sudden, these guys who thought that they were just weekend warriors, suddenly you got a tank unit that's out there, you know, barreling towards Ramadi and and people really kind of asking the question, you know, 20 years later, was it worth it?
00:42:34.320Was it worth all the blood and treasure? Now you're looking at Iran, which is a much larger piece.
00:42:38.820Now, that being said, though, Dan, Iran, of course, notably quiet, I would say, over the past 48 hours in terms of all this.
00:42:47.300How do you think the view in Tehran is looking at all of these scenes play out?
00:42:53.000Well, so it's important that that I know, you know, this, that, you know, not all these countries are unitary entities, is that they have factions.
00:43:02.640And within Iran, you know, there's there's hardline factions.
00:43:06.120There's more reform, moderate faction. There's not, you know, like a faction of Jethronian Democrats.
00:43:11.980But but but they're not united in their what they believe should be the foreign policy of Iran.
00:43:19.260But it is you're right to note they're very muted.
00:43:22.020And in fact, I do think there were some members of the Iranian government that made positive statements is that in their mind, they they want to have better relations with certain states in the region, particularly the Gulf Arab.
00:43:36.120And they don't want to be seen doing things that would cause problems for those countries and therefore, once again, put distance between them.
00:43:46.980Is that that's something that really started to happen during the Biden administration is that Iran was repaired its relationships with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
00:43:56.340And they saw that Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region were supportive in wanting this to happen.
00:44:02.300And they didn't want to see be seen undermining it is that in a lot of ways, it's of their interest as well, too, for this to happen.
00:44:09.980And I would note, and I think it was a mistake for the Iranians not to go.
00:44:12.900The Iranians were invited to Sharma al-Siaq is that there are a lot of people in the region that do want to bring them to the table.
00:44:19.980And President Trump has talked about this and and try and work out a deal where not everybody is going to be best friends.
00:44:26.540But Iran is less of an online influence in the region.
00:44:29.800And it's not causing some of the problems that we've seen them seen them do over the past couple of decades.
00:44:34.420That doesn't mean that that we delude ourselves into thinking they're going to be our friends or that they're going to be a democracy.
00:44:41.380You know, President Trump certainly doesn't believe that he used military force against them.
00:44:45.000He killed Soleimani in the first in the first term.
00:44:47.840But it recognizes that, to your point, it is not our interest to have a regime change war, which, as you were getting at, it really would turn into a civil war,
00:44:56.840is that it would turn into a massive failed state that would create problems all over the region, not just in the Persian Gulf, but in South Asia and up into the Caucasus regions most likely as well, too.
00:45:09.780It borders Turkey. It would be a disaster for us.
00:45:13.060So the alternative is is dealing with Iran and some of these improving relations that they have with other countries and regions isn't necessarily a bad thing.
00:45:22.220And again, that's why President Trump several times over the last 24 hours has talked about trying to do a deal with Iran now that we've struck their military sites.
00:45:33.080Well, that's exactly right. And of course, that will be, I think, and as we've said, this is phase one of the deal.
00:45:40.660And we know that President Trump is looking towards his relations towards Iran quite strongly.
00:45:48.200And I'm going to say it, I'll put my chips in.
00:45:51.460I think we see a sit down between President Trump and the leaders of Iran before he leaves office.
00:45:58.600I think that's something that's going to happen.
00:46:00.100I don't know if he's going to go all the way to Tehran or they'll find some middle place, middle ground, maybe Qatar itself, by the way, or Egypt like this.
00:46:09.340But I think I would say that the path is now open for a meeting between the United States and Iran, our political leadership, President Trump and the leaders of Iran, maybe not the Ayatollah, but certainly the political leader.
00:46:24.360And a potential real opening of those relations there that we just haven't seen since we haven't seen since the days of the Islamic Revolution.