Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ What does the war in Iran mean for Trump's midterm election prospects？

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Big show today with Joel Pollack. He's going to take us through the

00:00:04.040 Iran war from America's point of view. What will this mean for the midterms? What will this mean

00:00:08.920 for the reshaping of alliances in the region? We'll talk with him all about that. We'll also

00:00:13.660 talk about the interesting politics in California, including something called a jungle primary. Have

00:00:20.480 you ever heard that before? It's a very strange story. I think you'll find it interesting.

00:00:25.020 But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. It's the

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00:01:21.020 tonight what does the war in iran mean for trump's midterm election prospects we'll talk

00:01:39.400 to joel pollack the new opinions editor of the california post it's april 20th and this is the

00:01:45.220 Ezra Levant show. Shame on you, you censorious bug. Well, in Canada, the timing of elections is 0.84

00:02:04.280 something that politicians can manipulate for their advantage. For example, in British Columbia

00:02:09.100 right now. I think the BC New Democrats are contemplating a snap election using the indigenous

00:02:16.140 land title issue to catch their conservative counterparts unprepared. Federally, you see

00:02:22.660 the opposite with Mark Carney bribing MPs to cross the floor to give them an artificial

00:02:28.960 majority government. So many shenanigans around our parliamentary system and its movable election

00:02:34.300 date. In the United States, it's different. They have fixed election dates for Congress, for Senate,

00:02:41.440 and so it's the events that are sometimes manipulated. You've probably heard of the

00:02:45.380 October surprise or even the November surprise, last-minute events that are machinated based on

00:02:51.740 the timing of the elections, and I can't help but think of that given the Iran war that the United

00:02:57.320 States and Israel are so deeply involved with, what they're trying to achieve, its effects on

00:03:02.220 the price of oil and gasoline and so many other things. America, of course, the great power of

00:03:08.500 our age, changing the world, not just within America, but around the world from Venezuela to

00:03:13.600 Iran to perhaps Cuba next. I love the fact that we have so many friends in the United States that

00:03:19.400 we can check in with. So we're not just foreigners pressing our nose up against the glass. And one

00:03:24.320 American we love to talk to has recently switched his career. He is now the opinion editor of the

00:03:30.380 California Post. That's a cousin newspaper to the famous New York Post in New York. I'm talking

00:03:36.000 about Joel Pollack, and he joins us now. Joel, great to see you again, and congratulations on

00:03:40.600 the California Post. Does it have the same flavor as the New York Post, a little bit irreverent,

00:03:46.020 a little bit of a tabloid feel? Yes, exactly right. That's the tone we have. And of course,

00:03:51.680 it's got a bit of a California edge to it, so it's not exactly the New York Post. It does have

00:03:56.220 that same irreverence and the same puns and the headlines and things like that but it is also

00:04:01.700 distinctly californian well i wish you good luck i mean the la times is so left-wing its owner is

00:04:07.920 in some ways a caricature of a left-wing tycoon who made his money you know as a capitalist but

00:04:15.200 now promotes every kooky idea i mean the politics in california is pretty awful but even that place

00:04:21.840 It's almost like they realize they've gone too far in a number of ways.

00:04:25.460 Give us a quick report from California before I ask you some questions about national and international concern.

00:04:32.480 How's it going in the Golden State?

00:04:36.340 Well, it's interesting.

00:04:37.340 You know, you mentioned the L.A. Times.

00:04:39.240 The owner is Patrick Sun-Shiong.

00:04:41.740 And I guess you could describe him as left of center, but he's actually tried to bring the paper back towards the middle, and he has not succeeded.

00:04:49.380 So I think there's a story there as well.

00:04:51.840 in just how difficult it is to bring change to the newsrooms, to bring change to the legislature.

00:04:57.340 But California has a chance.

00:05:00.080 There are elections this year in the nation as a whole.

00:05:03.480 We call them the midterm elections.

00:05:04.760 They are the elections for the House of Representatives.

00:05:07.500 Every single member is up for re-election every two years.

00:05:10.100 And then one-third of the Senate seats are up every two years.

00:05:13.480 But there are also state elections.

00:05:15.300 And here in California, we are going to have a new governor.

00:05:17.720 Gavin Newsom is not running for re-election.

00:05:20.000 he is barred by the state constitution from serving more than two terms so he is going to

00:05:25.280 set his sights on the presidential nomination in 2028 and in the open seat that remains there's

00:05:32.480 a very crowded field and the problem democrats have is that there are too many democrats and

00:05:37.840 we have a strange primary system in california we don't have the parties nominate their respective

00:05:42.960 candidates through separate primary voting processes what we have instead is we call

00:05:47.840 the jungle primary all the candidates are thrown into one common pool and the top two vote

00:05:52.440 recipients advance to the general election this was a kind of reformist idea 15 years ago that

00:05:58.140 was supposed to produce more moderate candidates in fact it's produced the opposite produced more

00:06:02.700 left-wing legislature more left-wing governance than ever before but because there are too many

00:06:07.800 democrats they're splitting the democratic party vote between them and there are only two major

00:06:12.340 republicans in the race so in many polls the two republicans have been in the number one and number

00:06:16.920 two slot which does hold out the possibility though it's still remote that you could have

00:06:22.420 two republicans advance to the general election which would guarantee a republican governor in

00:06:26.500 california so there is a possibility however slim of some change here in california plus there are

00:06:32.240 some ballot initiatives that voters are going to decide like whether you need to show id at the

00:06:37.060 polls in california you do not need to show any form of identification and a lot of our voting

00:06:42.120 happens by mail so it is susceptible at least to the suspicion of fraud and there's a movement now

00:06:48.520 to make voter identification with a photograph a photographic id some proof that you are actually

00:06:54.680 who you say you are and that you're a citizen you registered to vote going to require that the way

00:06:58.640 many other states do and democrats don't like it and you have to ask yourself why i mean is it

00:07:03.780 because they are relying on fraudulent votes i mean i don't know but it is a very important

00:07:08.880 conservative initiative and that may succeed here in california as well well that's incredible i

00:07:13.960 just want to take one more minute on the so-called jungle primary i've heard it described as a sneaky

00:07:18.640 way to literally ban republicans from the ballot because if you know you would assume that if all

00:07:25.520 the republicans and all the democrats were in the same primary that the democrats would be able to

00:07:31.380 because it's california after all have the top two slots at least that's how it was described to me

00:07:35.880 So to see the possibility of two Republicans, it's just so astonishing.

00:07:41.240 It feels like it's boomeranged on them.

00:07:43.760 And my theory, and listen, I'm thousands of kilometers away, so you tell me if this is wrong.

00:07:48.820 There was this candidate who was running for governor as a Democrat, Eric Swalwell, who had an alleged affair with a Chinese spy, and he was always getting into trouble.

00:07:58.620 And recently, a whole bunch of internal dirt on him was released.

00:08:03.380 It's sort of shocking about sexual assault, etc.

00:08:05.880 and he resigned from the race in disgrace i hate to say it but it sure looked to me

00:08:11.540 like the democratic party was saying we've got to nuke a few of our vote splitting candidates

00:08:17.880 we got some dirt on swalwell let's release it now because it's not like these were new

00:08:22.900 allegations i don't know it sounds like the dirtiest politics since obama won his first

00:08:29.440 election in chicago yes the timing is rather odd the accusations are quite severe and swalwell is

00:08:38.660 accused of sexual assault he's now being investigated criminally for rape and there

00:08:43.520 are all kinds of other accusations as well as questions about campaign financing did he spend

00:08:49.080 money on personal expenses and so forth and all that has come out now and you're right it does

00:08:54.360 seem rather suspicious and the democrats could be trying to reduce the number of candidates in the

00:08:58.560 field. It could also simply have been one of his rivals trying to take him out. And many fingers

00:09:03.500 are pointing in the direction of Katie Porter, who was the favorite for a long time until she

00:09:08.420 stormed off the set of a CBS News interview several months ago. She is still in the race

00:09:13.340 and still quite formidable. Although, again, the problem the Democrats have is a numbers problem.

00:09:18.140 They are just splitting the vote among too many candidates. Just really interesting. Now,

00:09:22.000 want to talk about other things. You know, Donald Trump, since the 1980s, has been talking about

00:09:30.400 Iran, and he has felt that Iran is an enemy that needs to be bombed. I mean, you can find probably

00:09:37.100 10 examples of him saying, here's a clip of him, and I'll just use the mouth for fan. He says he

00:09:44.500 wants to bomb the shit out of him. They want to go after our civilians. They want to kill not only 1.00

00:09:50.200 civilians all over the world and it's going to be stopped it's going to be stopped somebody 0.88

00:09:57.080 criticized me the other day because they asked me what i do and i said i'm going to bomb the

00:10:02.920 out of them it's true i don't care i don't care they've got to be stopped i mean he's been saying

00:10:11.720 this uh since day one um some critics on the isolationist right would say that's not in keeping

00:10:20.440 with his america first don't be don't get involved in foreign wars but i i think trump has been

00:10:26.680 cleared since before he was in politics iran is an existential threat to america and more

00:10:33.760 immediately to israel and europe um how is the u.s led i i don't know if i would quite call it a war

00:10:41.380 because it's mainly right now just shooting like it's just a bombing raid i mean they're having a

00:10:47.680 few unfortunate casualties but there have really been no troops on the ground that we know of

00:10:53.120 tell me a little bit about it is it even a war and has it split the republican party base at all

00:11:00.100 or am i putting too much stock in internet uh far right nicks like tucker carlson

00:11:05.900 Well, it's definitely a war. It's a naval war right now, with the United States Navy blockading all of Iran's ports. And the Iranians say that they are going to use mines and small speedboats and other small weapons to attack any shipping that they don't approve of going through the Strait of Hormuz.

00:11:26.120 So it is a naval war. It is one the United States is winning decisively and one that over time, the United States will continue to win because Iran does not have a way of earning foreign currency unless it goes through its ports. 0.72

00:11:38.620 It has very few overland trade routes. It can't really fly goods out of the country or into the country very easily. 0.82

00:11:44.600 So its currency is facing major challenges. Its inflation rate is through the roof and it simply is cut off from the world.

00:11:53.100 And Trump has imposed that blockade in response to the Iranian attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, again, not by blockading it, but by threatening terrorism, essentially, against global shipping, which only actually hurt the Iranians in terms of their moral case. 0.93

00:12:10.560 they made it clear that they are not to be trusted they're not a power that can be tolerated really

00:12:15.720 because any country that threatens all and sundry attacking global shipping and 0.82

00:12:20.600 neighbors that have never done anything to iran for example flying drones to attack the qataris 0.63

00:12:26.280 and so forth i mean this is this is a very good reason that the regime needs eventually to be

00:12:32.660 replaced and i think that trump is winning this confrontation and the u.s navy is doing what the

00:12:37.780 U.S. Navy does so well, which includes blockades. Of course, it's also an aerial war. There was a

00:12:42.240 first stage of the war that the United States and Israel were bombing Iranian leaders, Iranian

00:12:46.800 nuclear sites, Iranian military targets. And really, the final stage is going to be either

00:12:52.380 a deal that allows the United States to go into Iran and physically, personally remove the remaining

00:12:59.100 Iranian supplies that Iran still has, or there's going to be regime change and the people of Iran

00:13:04.320 will rise up and take control of their own country. But there is no real split in the

00:13:08.680 MAGA movement about this. You look at the polls. Republicans overwhelmingly support the president

00:13:13.220 and overwhelmingly support the war, and they believe it's going well. Democrats, of course,

00:13:17.280 believe the opposite. But of course, Democrats, you know, if Trump cured cancer, Democrats would

00:13:21.360 vote for cancer. I mean, Democrats basically are knee-jerk against anything Trump does.

00:13:27.740 One of the reasons that Democrats have become so anti-Israel lately is simply because Trump

00:13:31.560 is so pro-israel i mean there is the rise of a large muslim voting bloc and the far left and

00:13:37.280 anti-semitism and the democratic party but a lot of it just has to do with this reflexive opposition

00:13:42.320 to all things trump on the republican side the podcasters and so forth they've made a lot of

00:13:47.440 noise on social media but they don't really have a lot of traction with voters yeah you know i think

00:13:52.960 you're right on iran the democrats have often talked tough on iran themselves i mean uh the

00:13:59.740 senior senator from New York himself, I mean, I think every single Democrat senator at one point

00:14:05.300 or another has talked belligerently about Iran. Here's a quick example. Here's Chuck Schumer.

00:14:09.720 Take a look. Iran's nuclear weapon program represents a severe threat to American national 0.88

00:14:16.100 interests because their acquisition of nuclear weapons could lead to the proliferation of nuclear 0.91

00:14:21.500 weapons throughout the Middle East and beyond, ending any hopes for a nuclear weapons free world.

00:14:26.940 We've had a lot of divisions between Democrats and Republicans.

00:14:30.800 But on the issue of making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon, we're united.

00:14:38.200 The threat, the specter of an Iranian nuclear weapon can bring Democrats and Republicans together.

00:14:44.300 So I think you're right. A lot of it is, you know, they want to put Trump in a no-win situation.

00:14:48.360 If he's prosecuting the war, they'll accuse him of that.

00:14:50.980 If he stops the war, they'll accuse him of backing down and blinking.

00:14:54.960 they have this phrase taco trump always chickens out uh i think you're right by the way i mean you

00:15:01.000 mentioned chuck schumer in the beginning schumer said trump never follows through on his threats

00:15:05.120 on iran and then trump followed through on his threats on iran and schumer said oh trump doesn't

00:15:09.380 know what he's doing and we need to get out of this war now you know it's nothing trump can do

00:15:14.120 is right except if you actually look at what he's achieved this war is a stunning success for the

00:15:18.300 united states and for israel and for the west but the democrats won't admit it and europe is deeply

00:15:23.360 ashamed of not having participated and the only people celebrating are the israelis in the gulf

00:15:27.580 arab states yeah you know um there's a bit of a realignment going on i think the united arab

00:15:33.240 emirates uh i think this war has brought them in some ways closer to israel they've actually

00:15:38.560 been hit with more rockets than israel i saw a count of it i was sort of surprised to see that

00:15:44.020 uh is that true is the united emirates which has actually had a fairly warm relationship with

00:15:50.900 israel since the abraham accords how would you characterize those gulf states like you say iran's

00:15:56.080 lashing out at everyone in the region including oman which has always been sort of a neutral broker

00:16:01.460 and even hosted talks between iran and the west um can you give me a quick rundown of the the small

00:16:09.900 arab gulf oil rich countries would you say any of them are now actually allied that's too big a word

00:16:18.380 But on the side of Israel, how has the reality of this war and Iran lashing out at them changed the politics there?

00:16:27.480 Well, the Emiratis are closer to Israel.

00:16:30.060 You're correct about that.

00:16:31.380 The Bahrainis and the Omanis are more anti-Iran than they were before.

00:16:35.780 And the Qataris are just bewildered by the Iranian attacks.

00:16:39.020 And the Iranians have tried to argue they're not attacking these nations.

00:16:41.640 They're just attacking U.S. assets, U.S. bases in those nations.

00:16:45.520 But they aren't buying it.

00:16:47.240 And the Emiratis are particularly angry about Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, and they have said that we do not respect Iran's attempt to do it, and we have the right to ship through that strait, and you don't own the entire strait just because your country's on one side of it.

00:17:04.580 Oman is on the other side, and we depend on that strait as well for other things, and so they're very, very angry.

00:17:09.900 Has this realigned things? 0.98

00:17:11.080 I think it has. 0.75

00:17:11.820 I also think it's just united the anti-Iran coalition even more strongly because now they understand that Iran is a threat to all of the states. 0.87

00:17:21.080 Whether you're anti-Israel or pro-Israel, Iran is the real threat in the region. 0.87

00:17:26.520 Now, Europe is an interesting case. 0.98

00:17:28.860 It's almost, if it weren't sad, it would be funny.

00:17:31.820 The difficulties that the United Kingdom has had marshalling any resources.

00:17:37.340 They have some fighter jets in the region, it's true.

00:17:39.520 But they've been trying to send a ship to protect their base in Akritiri, Crete, I think it is, or Cyprus.

00:17:48.260 And the ship, they could only field one ship and it had to go in for maintenance.

00:17:52.340 I mean, the Royal Navy, which once ruled the world, can't muster anything.

00:17:57.200 And they recently had a meeting, the UK, France, and others, of what they would do in the Strait of Hormuz once America wins the war.

00:18:06.240 So they're not there. They're not helping, despite Trump asking for help. But they've got all sorts of plans about what they're going to do when America's done. It's sort of a laugh. I mean, it just, it feels like they're as impotent as Canada, even though I know France and the UK actually do have a bit of an army.

00:18:22.600 um but there's bad blood you have the the spanish thing they won't allow any uh you know americans

00:18:31.020 to use their base there anymore how i mean to me it it is i suppose you could think it was a stretch

00:18:39.120 for trump to say hey nato come help me fight iran but they've been saying that to america to fight

00:18:45.540 in ukraine i mean this this really feels like a set-off if america spent a hundred billion in

00:18:51.260 Ukraine for a war in another continent that wasn't really their war, couldn't NATO come and at least

00:18:57.280 morally and symbolically give alliance to America, even if they weren't actually doing anything real?

00:19:03.380 Could they at least pretend to be friends? I don't know. Maybe this is a stupid way to think about

00:19:07.640 wars. Who's on your team? Who showed support? But there's something funny going on in Europe. 1.00

00:19:12.400 What do you think? Well, the electoral considerations have to come into play and you have large Muslim 1.00

00:19:18.940 voting blocs in these countries and the european left is afraid of those muslim voters and so it

00:19:25.560 tries to appease them in this way by the way again much of the muslim world is not happy with iran so

00:19:30.820 it's not clear to me there are many votes to be won but there is a knee-jerk response to this again

00:19:35.200 because the united states and israel are seeming to be working together and israel has become not

00:19:39.880 just a pariah state but a target state for many of these european governments i mean prior to the

00:19:43.540 Or you have the Spanish cutting off relations and engaged in a diplomatic spat with Israel completely unnecessarily.

00:19:51.660 And other European nations also taking the same stance.

00:19:54.160 And so I think Europe is caught in a whirlpool that is not going to be easy to leave.

00:20:03.360 This is a ragging down that feeds on itself.

00:20:07.720 And you're seeing it here.

00:20:09.260 I mean, they're completely incapable of defending themselves to the point where some have even seduced that if Argentina wanted the Falkland Islands, they could just take them.

00:20:16.920 Because, as you said, Britain is having trouble putting a navy on the waves.

00:20:20.860 Yeah, I really think that.

00:20:22.360 I mean, studying the Falklands War, I was only 10 when it happened.

00:20:25.820 I was riveted by the newspaper stories.

00:20:28.140 I didn't realize then how important America's role was.

00:20:32.780 America offered an aircraft carrier.

00:20:34.400 America provided an enormous amount of jet fuel.

00:20:37.300 america provided um intelligence i i think the brits could have done it on their own but i know

00:20:44.480 they couldn't do it now they don't have i mean they have two aircraft carriers they're both

00:20:47.800 in port like i think that if argentina grabbed the falklands now and i'm not and i don't want

00:20:53.340 them to and i don't think they should but argentina by the way uh i'm you know interestingly

00:20:59.500 remarkably they said to trump will help however we can i don't think they followed through but

00:21:04.680 at least morally they were in favor it's a very strange time but let's let's bring it back to

00:21:09.860 what we talked about 10 minutes ago you know the price of gasoline is high not as high as it is in

00:21:16.500 europe let's say where they're actually having farmer protests in the streets of ireland but

00:21:21.900 there are some americans who are saying hey we are paying a price at the gas pump and that you

00:21:28.400 know food prices are maybe higher because of it how will this war look in the midterms i mean

00:21:34.360 And sometimes Americans rally around the flag during a war, but this one feels a little different.

00:21:39.620 Well, I think if the war is successful and it does seem to be heading in that direction, then I think it's good for the president and his party.

00:21:45.780 I think the high gas prices are a bit of a problem, although they're not higher than gas was a few years ago.

00:21:52.300 And I think that it may be a lost cause anyway.

00:21:54.980 I mean, Republicans may already be set to lose the House in the midterms just because of the nature of the margin and the redistricting that's gone on.

00:22:01.680 and they may have a tougher fight to keep the senate but i think they will keep the senate

00:22:06.560 but we'll see i think you have to win the war regardless in a way it's almost like you're

00:22:11.880 looking at a politician in trump who doesn't have to be reelected we always wonder what would have

00:22:16.400 been if these men and women didn't have to worry about being reelected now you're seeing it he's

00:22:20.460 doing what he believes is right because he doesn't have to face election again if it hurts his party

00:22:25.260 he's okay with that he's still commander-in-chief i mean obviously not okay in the grand scheme of

00:22:30.120 He'd like to have more control. He'd like to retain control of all three branches of government, essentially.

00:22:36.600 But he knows that might not happen. He knows that the changes that he puts in place have to last into Democratic administrations, whether in 2028 or much later.

00:22:46.440 So I think Trump is taking the right approach to all this.

00:22:49.300 He's basically saying, look, what is the right thing to do on Iran?

00:22:52.920 Not really looking at the political consideration just yet.

00:22:55.780 Although I do know there are people in the White House who are deeply worried about the high gas prices and what effect they could have.

00:23:01.780 I'm trying to understand the China angle here.

00:23:04.180 And again, that's something that Donald Trump has been talking about for decades, even before he got into politics.

00:23:10.100 China was, and I think still is, the number one purchaser of Iranian oil.

00:23:15.160 And it got it at a steal because the Iranian oil was subject to sanctions.

00:23:18.340 So only China and India and some others would buy it at a deep discount.

00:23:24.300 China was also a big buyer of Venezuelan oil, if I'm not mistaken.

00:23:27.360 I know Venezuela always sold to Cuba, too.

00:23:30.920 America has now taken over the oil industry in Venezuela, and we're not sure how it's going to end in Iran.

00:23:37.000 Is there a China angle to cutting off the choke points of oil to America's largest rival? 0.83

00:23:45.380 Well, I think that's a major achievement, first of all, that the United States has shown you is capable of blockading Iran, cutting China off. 0.87

00:23:52.560 But look at all of the other straits where the United States has now established a presence. 0.86

00:23:57.860 The United States has naval mates across from the Bab al-Mendab where the Houthis have been firing and shipping.

00:24:03.280 You don't hear much from the Houthis nowadays, even though the Iranians are threatening to use them.

00:24:06.880 You've got various other streets that the U.S. Navy is either moving into or where American control has been cemented in some way.

00:24:15.100 The United States controls the choke points of international trade once again.

00:24:18.140 And it has done so by moving, as you hinted earlier, I think, from one important oil supplier to the next.

00:24:27.340 We've got the Maduro presidency in Venezuela.

00:24:30.140 The regime is still there, but eventually now it's now an American functionary.

00:24:34.720 And it's now to Iran. 0.70

00:24:37.060 And ultimately, the idea is to cut China off from cheap energy that it's enjoyed for the better part of two or three decades.

00:24:42.920 I should tell you up here in Canada our prime minister has positively talked about pivoting

00:24:49.380 towards China just over the weekend Mark Carney did an incredible nine-minute televised commercial

00:24:56.480 where he said that our proximity to the United States is now a problem our reliance on the

00:25:02.080 American market is now a problem he's flown to Beijing and talked about a quote new world order

00:25:08.220 he's called to china a partner he came back from china without investment in hand but promising

00:25:14.440 china to allow 49 000 chinese made electric vehicles a year into the canadian market

00:25:19.300 i'm worried that while donald trump is going around the world flipping countries from china

00:25:26.360 and russia's columns into american columns canada i don't know if it's i don't know maybe it's just

00:25:31.480 rhetorical maybe it's just to whip up anti-americanism for his own domestic political

00:25:36.760 needs but i've never seen this kind of anti-americanism before even during pierre trudeau

00:25:42.780 the marxist himself he never was this overtly hostile to america i don't know is this even

00:25:49.340 registering in the states i mean maybe it's it's so unimportant compared to everything else people

00:25:54.960 are noticing it but more with a kind of raised eyebrow as if this is somewhat humorous i mean

00:26:00.540 how are you going to detangle yourself from the united states canada has a very long border with

00:26:05.540 the U.S. Most major population centers are near the American border. There's a huge amount of

00:26:11.260 cross-border trade. I don't think Carney is credible on any of these points. And I don't

00:26:16.640 think he's succeeding very well. He certainly hasn't left a good impression in the United States

00:26:20.280 with his attitude toward the war. Canada benefits if Trump is successful. So why not be supportive

00:26:26.080 rather than trying to cut through and cut apart the relationship? Last question. I really appreciate

00:26:32.060 your time today um i'm interested in the the american future after trump and i know there's

00:26:40.080 some people who float the idea that trump would run another time and they have their complex

00:26:45.300 constitutional theories about that how that would happen i don't think it's going to happen and trump

00:26:49.000 turns 80 this year i just i mean he's got a lot of energy but i just don't see it happening

00:26:54.100 um i think the two favorites uh on the republican side to go up against gavin newsom are usually

00:27:01.560 mentioned jd vance the vice president and marco rubio the secretary of state and and i tell you

00:27:07.900 trump has put a lot of praise on rubio and i think with good reason um i don't know how jd vance is

00:27:15.800 doing he was allied more with tucker carlson but he just recently let go of tucker carlson's son

00:27:20.780 from his personal staff buckley carlson was working for jd vance i don't know if that's

00:27:24.900 relevant at all but if you had to look into the future um what what would you think or maybe

00:27:31.760 there's another name that hasn't emerged yet but what do you think of the 2028 prospects

00:27:36.200 for a post-trump republican party it's too early to say but i do think the president is playing

00:27:42.880 vance and rubio off against each other perhaps in a healthy way a kind of team of rivals sort of way

00:27:48.280 he has brought vance into the diplomatic process with the iran war he sent him to lead american

00:27:54.680 negotiations in Pakistan. And by all accounts, Vance did a very good job. So he's got these

00:27:59.880 two potential rivals, both handling foreign policy. Of course, they both also have many

00:28:05.240 different jobs. Rubio famously is also the national security advisor, doing many other

00:28:09.440 things as well. And J.D. Vance, yes, he had some trouble with his Tucker Carlson connection.

00:28:14.580 Buckley Carlson used to work for him. There's another Buckley Carlson, not to be confused,

00:28:18.440 by the way. Buckley Carlson is Tucker Carlson's brother. So Tucker's son and his brother,

00:28:22.980 same name and irony is of course buckley chased the extremists out of the republican party out

00:28:28.200 of the conservative movement so why the brother was really a rabid anti-semite on social media

00:28:34.920 uh why why do you think that's appropriate i don't know but anyway it's it's really a fringe

00:28:40.640 phenomenon and i i do think probably the association became a problem for jds but

00:28:46.220 it's hard to see which one of them will come out on top um if you had to predict for the iran war

00:28:54.280 you said there's two ways it can end regime change or somehow america goes in and removes

00:28:59.400 the nuclear materials i'm waiting for the ordinary iranian people to stand up i mean i don't know

00:29:06.240 uh i'm waiting it's been months do they is it a likelihood i'm sure the cia is busy on the ground

00:29:13.780 But I just, I'm worried that those two options you outlined won't happen and that Trump will, quote, declare victory, which he's done several times, and just go home without achieving a permanent solution.

00:29:28.440 And then we just know that, no, I mean, if Trump doesn't finish the job, I don't think any other American president, especially a Democrat, would.

00:29:36.040 What do you think about the fact that we're two months in and they haven't risen up? 0.86

00:29:42.060 The people, the Shah's son, no one's done it. 0.96

00:29:47.140 Well, they have no Internet.

00:29:48.700 I mean, the Iranian regime has blocked them from speaking with one another.

00:29:51.800 So in order to help them rise up against the regime, you have to provide them a way to communicate with each other.

00:29:57.100 So I think all of that is in the words.

00:29:58.780 But the war is still here, and Trump suggested right from the beginning that he was not going to encourage people to go into the streets while there was still active fighting going on.

00:30:07.420 And there's still active fighting going on if it's in the Persian Gulf, but that still might be dangerous enough to keep Iran on a war footing and to keep Trump from openly encouraging people to take back their country, as he said.

00:30:19.680 So I think they just don't have the means yet, but I think the means will be coming.

00:30:23.460 well maybe we need to drop a hundred thousand star links into that country joel pollack great

00:30:29.360 to catch up with you and what's the website for people to check out the california post

00:30:33.120 just californiapost.com or nypost.com slash ca right on great to talk with you thanks for

00:30:39.380 spending so much time with us thank you there is joel pollack he is the opinion editor of the

00:30:44.780 california post the west coast uh version of the new york post in that city well that's our show

00:30:50.900 for the day until tomorrow on behalf of all of us here at rebel world headquarters to you at home

00:30:56.300 good night and keep fighting for freedom

Rebel News Podcast - April 21, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ What does the war in Iran mean for Trump's midterm election prospects？

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