The Ben Shapiro Show - BREAKING: Trump DEVASTATES Iranian Defenses, Iran Attacks EVERYONE

00:00:00.000 Well, we are in day three of President Trump's military operation in Iran. 0.98

00:00:04.000 It's the most courageous military decision of my lifetime, and we are kicking ass. 0.97

00:00:08.000 The United States military, the Israeli military working in tandem, are kicking the hell out of the Iranian government. 0.91

00:00:14.000 How are they planning on fighting back?

00:00:15.000 Well, they have friends. 1.00

00:00:17.000 They're counting on pathetic, muling Europeans, ridiculous, sad sex. 1.00

00:00:21.000 Democrats just hate Trump and don't care about America winning. 1.00

00:00:24.000 And most of all, they're counting on vicious, parasitical, horseshoe, right-wing isolationists that somehow whine the president into leaving the battlefield. 0.99

00:00:31.000 If you wish to follow a movement led by closeted and not-so-closeted homosexuals, then I guess you could do that. 0.99

00:00:37.000 Or perhaps these people are maybe worth ignoring because President Trump's strength here has truly exposed the peddlers of horses on all sides. 0.92

00:00:46.000 Now, folks, we've been covering this live all weekend long.

00:00:48.000 We're bringing you soup to nuts coverage, the experts, the analysis you want, all of it.

00:00:51.000 You need to go to dailywire.com right now and subscribe so we can continue to do that sort of stuff and bring you the content you love.

00:00:57.000 Dailywire.com, thanks for your help.

00:01:00.000 And I want to start by just reiterating why we are doing this in the first place.

00:01:04.000 The president has made that very clear, but there are a bunch of reasons why we are doing this.

00:01:08.000 Typically, there are a few reasons why you end up pursuing military actions erected at the top of a regime.

00:01:13.000 One is that there's a direct attack from that regime upon you.

00:01:17.000 Now, did Iran attack us?

00:01:19.000 The answer is that since 1979, the number of American deaths that have been caused by Iran and by its proxy terrorist groups, at least 1,000 dead, plus a couple of attempted assassinations on the president of the United States, we are talking military personnel.

00:01:36.000 We are talking diplomats.

00:01:38.000 If you are including Afghanistan, where Iran was shipping IEDs into Afghanistan to help the Taliban, you're talking about at least 1,500 deaths.

00:01:45.000 But if you go all the way back to 1979, when the Ayatollahs took over during the Iranian revolution, you'll remember the first thing that students did is they proceeded to take American hostages at the embassy and hold them for over 400 days.

00:01:59.000 Then in 1983, Hezbollah, which was the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group, Hezbollah attacked the U.S. embassy.

00:02:07.000 They attacked also the Marine Barracks in Lebanon.

00:02:11.000 The total dead in those two attacks alone, 258.

00:02:17.000 That's just in 1983, going all the way back.

00:02:20.000 Then you move forward to 1988 and harassment of shipping in the waterways around Iran of American shipping led the United States in Operation Praying Mantis to sink the entire Iranian Navy.

00:02:34.000 Then throughout the 1990s, Iran pursued a nuclear weapon.

00:02:37.000 They started their pursuit back then.

00:02:39.000 They were unsuccessful in actually obtaining one, but they were starting that pursuit at that time and they were spreading their terror tentacles all over the Middle East. 0.93

00:02:47.000 They were building up their terror proxy groups all over the Middle East.

00:02:50.000 The United States at that point had a dual containment policy toward Iran and Iraq because Iraq, of course, was run by these tyrant Saddam Hussein and Iran was being run by the Ayatollahs. 0.60

00:02:58.000 And the basic idea was they hated one another.

00:03:00.000 They'd engaged in a decade-long war in the 1980s, in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed.

00:03:07.000 The United States' policy was tried to keep both of those contained.

00:03:11.000 It was only semi-successful.

00:03:12.000 In 1996, the Khobar Towers bombing by the Iranian-supported Hezbollah in Saudi Arabia killed 19 Americans.

00:03:20.000 In 2000, the bombing of the USS Cole off of Yemen by Al-Qaeda, supported largely by Iran, 17 killed.

00:03:28.000 And then, of course, from 2003 to 2011, after the breakdown of the Iraqi government, after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Iranian-backed militias took over large swaths of Iraq, or at least resisted American rule of Iraq and killed somewhere between 600 and 1,100 American soldiers.

00:03:48.000 And then, of course, this whole time, Iran was seeking nuclear weapons, spreading its terror tentacles to Lebanon, to Syria, to Gaza, which culminated on October 7th when, of course, Hamas, an Iranian-sponsored terror group, killed 1,200 Israeli citizens and took 250 hostage and prompted a seven-front war on Israel, which ended with Israel basically destroying many of the proxy arms of the Iranian government.

00:04:14.000 All of that finally culminated in President Trump in 2025.

00:04:20.000 You'll recall the 12-day war just last year when there was a direct attack by the Israelis on the Iranians following multiple rounds of missiles shot by Iran directly at Israel.

00:04:32.000 Israel went in to try to take out their nuclear facilities as well as their ballistic missile facilities.

00:04:37.000 And in 12 days, established air dominance, destroyed pretty much the entire air system, air defense system for Iran.

00:04:44.000 And then at the very end, President Trump authorized Operation Midnight Hammer to strike the Fordo nuclear facility and take out their nuclear weapons.

00:04:52.000 Why exactly did all of that happen again?

00:04:54.000 Because Iran has been unendingly, unceasingly antagonistic toward the United States since 1979, as well as the allies of the United States, not limited, of course, to Israel, but also including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain.

00:05:09.000 And you can see that in what has been going on over the course of the first couple of days of this war, where Iran has fired off materiel at a wide variety of countries, pretty much every country in the Middle East, actually, because it turns out that Iran is a threat to the Middle East. 0.88

00:05:24.000 This is a point that President Trump made.

00:05:27.000 He made a speech yesterday morning, on Sunday morning, where he explained that Iran has waged war on civilization. 0.99

00:05:35.000 We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen.

00:05:44.000 And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends.

00:05:49.000 That's the way it is.

00:05:51.000 Likely be more, but we'll do everything possible where that won't be the case.

00:05:56.000 But America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against, basically, civilization.

00:06:07.000 They have waged war against civilization itself.

00:06:13.000 The president of the United States is not wrong about this.

00:06:15.000 So what is the purpose?

00:06:16.000 What is the goal of this war?

00:06:18.000 So really, it's a two-step.

00:06:20.000 Step one basically has been achieved already.

00:06:22.000 Really, in the first three days, and certainly by the end of this week, step one. will have been largely achieved.

00:06:27.000 One, destroying the ability of the Iranian regime to pose an external threat, a threat to other countries and to American interests abroad, and to spread its terror tentacles into South America, into Latin America, into Europe. 0.60

00:06:41.000 That is the goal.

00:06:41.000 The goal, number one, destroy the ability of Iran to project power.

00:06:46.000 So that came in two steps. 0.89

00:06:48.000 First, decapitate the regime.

00:06:49.000 That was the very first thing that the United States, along with Israel, did. 0.98

00:06:53.000 An extraordinary feat of intelligence and military might.

00:06:58.000 The United States, apparently the CIA, working in coordination with the Israeli Air Force, found the place and time at which Ayatollah Khomeini was meeting with a bevy of his top generals, including the chief of staff of the IRGC.

00:07:12.000 That's the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

00:07:14.000 That's basically the Praetorian Guard for the regime.

00:07:17.000 So there's the Iranian army, which is kind of a normal army.

00:07:19.000 And then you have the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is the terrorist apparatus.

00:07:22.000 You'll remember that the head of the IRGC, the terror sponsor of the IRGC, Qasem Soleimani, was killed by President Trump at the very tail end of his first term in office.

00:07:33.000 Well, this strike basically decapitated the top levels of the regime.

00:07:38.000 So successful there.

00:07:39.000 And that decapitation goes on.

00:07:41.000 Top members of the IRGC are being targeted.

00:07:44.000 Top members of the Iranian government are being targeted, including former top members of the Iranian government.

00:07:49.000 I don't know where Columbia University is going to go to get speakers anymore because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was killed in the first couple of days of this war.

00:07:55.000 You'll remember the former Iranian president who had threatened to wipe Israel off the map and then welcome to Columbia University to speak.

00:08:01.000 Well, unfortunately, Colombia is going to have to look to other speakers bureau other than the Tehran Speakers Bureau.

00:08:07.000 Secondarily, after decapitating the regime or while doing so, destroying the forward capacity for Iran to make war, that is the other thing that the Trump administration is pursuing.

00:08:16.000 And that means targeting not only its nuclear facilities and its possible future nuclear development, but also its ballistic missile facilities and its possibility of firing ballistic missiles capable of hitting a large part of the Middle East.

00:08:28.000 One of the most amazing things, and we'll go through the operation as the show goes on.

00:08:32.000 One of the most incredible things is the lack of full-scale capacity by Iran to retaliate en masse. 0.76

00:08:40.000 Realistically speaking, what we are watching right now is one of the most competent military operations in all of human history, truly.

00:08:48.000 Because Iran had literally thousands of missiles.

00:08:52.000 It had hundreds of ballistic missiles.

00:08:54.000 And in the opening salvo, the Israeli Air Force, the American Air Force, working jointly, destroyed a huge swath, up to 50% of all ballistic missile capacity in Iran.

00:09:06.000 In fact, the air dominance in the Middle East by the Americans and the Israelis over Iran right now is so complete that it's very difficult for the Iranians to even fire up their ballistic missile launchers.

00:09:17.000 It takes a moment for them to heat up.

00:09:18.000 And you can see the heat signature.

00:09:20.000 And before those things are heating up, the Americans are blowing them out of the water. 0.68

00:09:24.000 It's absolutely incredible.

00:09:26.000 So destroying the Iranians' forward capacity to make war, that is a massive, massive feat. 1.00

00:09:30.000 Now, again, that had really started in the aftermath of October 7th when the Israeli military took it to Hezbollah in Lebanon, took it to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and then during the 12-day war, took it to Iran directly.

00:09:44.000 But remember, it's been a Yemeni, Iranian-backed Houthi terror group that has been harassing shipping in the Suez Canal.

00:09:52.000 Destroying Iran's forward capacity will greatly move the entire region toward prosperity and peace. 1.00

00:10:00.000 So we're going to get into everything that's currently going on on the ground.

00:10:03.000 Plus, we're going to talk about what Iran is doing to try to counter the United States.

00:10:06.000 The answer is they're counting on some very specific Americans.

00:10:10.000 We'll get to all that in a moment first.

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00:11:40.000 President Trump announced Khomeini's death.

00:11:44.000 Iran's formerly supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, is dead.

00:11:52.000 This wretched and vile man had the blood of hundreds and even thousands of Americans on his hands and was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands of innocent people all across many countries.

00:12:08.000 Last night, all over Iran, the voices of the Iranian people could be heard cheering and celebrating in the streets when his death was announced. 0.90

00:12:20.000 The entire military command is gone as well, and many of them want to surrender into saving their lives.

00:12:29.000 They want immunity.

00:12:31.000 They're calling by the thousands.

00:12:34.000 Combat operations continue at this time in full force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved.

00:12:42.000 We have very strong objectives.

00:12:45.000 They could have done something two weeks ago, but they just couldn't get there.

00:12:50.000 Okay, well, what he says right now, President Trump, many people are asking, why attack now?

00:12:55.000 Why do it now?

00:12:56.000 And the answer is opportunity.

00:12:58.000 The fact is the Iranians were apparently rapidly rescaling their ballistic missile capacity.

00:13:03.000 Now, a lot of people talk about the Iranians getting a nuclear weapon.

00:13:05.000 Obviously, that would have been disastrous, not just because Iran has made clear its intent to use nuclear weapons against the Jewish state, but also because once you have a nuclear weapon, as we now notice with North Korea, it is almost impossible to take forward action to stop the militants of a regime, particularly a regime as poisonous as the Iranian regime. 0.78

00:13:28.000 And once you have a nuclear weapon, basically, you can now say to all of your terrorist groups, go to town, because any retaliation and you can threaten nuclear fire.

00:13:35.000 This has been one of the big problems, for example, in the Russia-Ukraine war, is the fear that if we go too hard against Russia, Russia will fire nukes.

00:13:42.000 The best you can hope for is a standstill, never a victory, because of the destruction of the air defense systems provided by Russia and China in the 12-day war.

00:13:52.000 Well, this was a unique opportunity.

00:13:54.000 And that unique opportunity became even more unique after the mass protest began in December by the Iranian people against the regime.

00:14:02.000 President Trump saw a window of opportunity.

00:14:05.000 And again, I'm sort of astonished by folks who are arguing that the best policy when you see a window of opportunity is to sleep, is to go to sleep.

00:14:15.000 One of the beautiful things about being an isolationist is that you always get the counterfactual on your side.

00:14:20.000 You always get to say a military intervention went wrong.

00:14:22.000 But it turns out there are lots of counterfactuals in which actual preemptive warming might have forsworn, might have stopped true genocidal intent.

00:14:35.000 There's so many instances of this throughout history.

00:14:37.000 It boggles the mind.

00:14:38.000 Whether you're talking about the rise of the Russian revolutionaries in the aftermath of the fall of the Tsar in 1917, what would have happened if the West had had the stones enough to actually stop the rise of the Bolsheviks in Russia?

00:14:53.000 Totally different map for an entire century, essentially.

00:14:57.000 Probably World War II doesn't happen.

00:14:59.000 What would have happened if the West had had the strength to actually stop the rearmament of Hitler? 0.91

00:15:04.000 What would have actually happened if the West had, for example, taken out Osama bin Laden in the aftermath of the USS Cole instead of jacking around?

00:15:15.000 It turns out that coherent, solid action, we're not talking here gigantic wars.

00:15:22.000 We are talking about operations like this one, targeted action can provide serious upside and limited downside.

00:15:32.000 And that's what we are talking about right here.

00:15:34.000 That is the counterfactual that we should be looking at right now.

00:15:37.000 Turns out the only counterfactual is not Iraq or Vietnam.

00:15:41.000 Sometimes there are other counterfactuals to examine as well.

00:15:45.000 And that is what President Trump was saying yesterday.

00:15:47.000 He said that the goal here is to ensure security for generations.

00:15:50.000 That is indeed the burden of the United States.

00:15:53.000 We're undertaking this massive operation not merely to ensure security for our own time and place, but for our children and their children, just as our ancestors have done for us many, many years ago.

00:16:09.000 This is the duty and the burden of a free people.

00:16:14.000 These actions are right and they are necessary to ensure that Americans will never have to face a radical, bloodthirsty terrorist regime armed with nuclear weapons and lots of threats.

00:16:28.000 For almost 50 years, these wicked extremists have been attacking the United States while chanting the slogan, death to America or death to Israel or both.

00:16:40.000 They are the world's number one state sponsor of terror.

00:16:44.000 We are the world's greatest and most powerful nation, so we can do something about what they do.

00:16:52.000 I mean, can't say it better than that.

00:16:53.000 President of the United States is spot on again.

00:16:55.000 What he is doing right now is the most courageous thing I have ever seen a president do.

00:17:00.000 He is stepping into the breach.

00:17:01.000 He is smartly recognizing opportunity when it arises, and he is taking strong steps to protect America's future and not only the future of our allies, but the future of the globe.

00:17:12.000 Because let's also be real: want to talk counterfactuals?

00:17:14.000 If the United States does nothing, after the president draws a red line, if Iran continues to rebuild its facilities, if Iran continues to act as the linkage, both in terms of oil and weaponry between China and Russia, if that happens, the chances that America's enemies go on the offensive are so much higher than when they look at America and realize, you don't screw around with the president of the United States. 0.93

00:17:36.000 That was the point the president was making when he said to the IRGC: Listen, it's time for you guys to surrender or die.

00:17:41.000 Those would be your choices.

00:17:44.000 I once again urge the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian military, police to lay down your arms and receive full immunity or face certain death.

00:17:55.000 It will be certain death.

00:17:57.000 Won't be pretty.

00:17:58.000 I call upon all Iranian patriots who yearn for freedom to seize this moment, to be brave, be bold, be heroic, and take back your country.

00:18:10.000 America is with you.

00:18:12.000 I made a promise to you, and I fulfilled that promise.

00:18:16.000 The rest will be up to you.

00:18:20.000 All righty, so that brings us to step two.

00:18:23.000 Okay, so step one was prevent the external threats from the regime.

00:18:27.000 Turns out decapitating the regime is a great way to do that, and so is destroying its forward capacity to make war.

00:18:34.000 And then you get to the second step: the replacement of the regime.

00:18:38.000 Right?

00:18:39.000 So, replacement of the regime, what's going to happen next, right?

00:18:41.000 That's the big question everybody has.

00:18:42.000 What comes next?

00:18:43.000 Okay, well, first of all, as Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War said this morning, he said, listen, this is not an endless war.

00:18:53.000 It boggles my mind that we are talking about endless war right now.

00:18:56.000 Can I just say that people who are saying that this is an endless war and we are three days in, stop being children.

00:19:04.000 Stop being children.

00:19:05.000 Three days, three days from this administration.

00:19:11.000 Now, listen, I don't think anyone has an obligation to quote unquote trust Trump or trust the president or anything like that.

00:19:16.000 We're citizens, we're not subjects.

00:19:17.000 With that said, if you look at President Trump's record of military interventionism, do you truly believe that this president is going to get sucked into a war involving hundreds of thousands of American troops on the ground? 1.00

00:19:29.000 If you do, you are a moron or a liar. 1.00

00:19:32.000 That is the reality. 1.00

00:19:34.000 If there's one thing above all this president does not want, that is an endless war.

00:19:37.000 Let's face it, Iran has been waging the endless war on the United States for some five decades, but the United States basically did very little for five decades. 0.92

00:19:44.000 President Trump is changing that.

00:19:46.000 The notion that we are talking endless war three days in, my God, the puerile, are we there yet? 0.78

00:19:55.000 Of the online chattering class, insane, insane. 0.77

00:19:59.000 Here's Pete Hegseth bashing people over this correctly.

00:20:03.000 To the media outlets and political left screaming endless wars, stop.

00:20:08.000 This is not Iraq. 0.87

00:20:10.000 This is not endless.

00:20:11.000 I was there for both.

00:20:14.000 Our generation knows better, and so does this president.

00:20:18.000 He called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb, and he's right. 0.95

00:20:23.000 This is the opposite.

00:20:26.000 This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission.

00:20:30.000 Destroy the missile threat, destroy the Navy, no nukes.

00:20:35.000 Israel has clear missions as well for which we are grateful.

00:20:40.000 Capable partners.

00:20:41.000 As we've said since the beginning, capable partners are good partners.

00:20:46.000 Unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force.

00:20:57.000 That's right.

00:20:58.000 That's Secretary of War Pete Hegseth saying it right on the mark.

00:21:02.000 So what does that look like?

00:21:03.000 First of all, prevent the consolidation of a force to stop a people's revolution.

00:21:06.000 So one of the big things that drove all of this, you'll recall if you own a calendar, is that at the end of December, mass protests broke out across Iran because Iran's economy has been totally shellacked by the Trump sanctions and also by the fact that, you know, they are an Islamist hellhole run by radical Shia clerics. 1.00

00:21:26.000 And so because of that, the Iranian real was worthless. 0.99

00:21:29.000 I mean, you're talking about wheelbarrow money, like a wheelbarrow filled with the Iranian real would not buy you a toilet paper roll. 1.00

00:21:36.000 I mean, that's how bad it was over there.

00:21:38.000 So people were out in the streets protesting the regime.

00:21:40.000 And so one of the goals here is to prevent the consolidation of a force or reconsolidation of a force that would stop a people's uprising.

00:21:46.000 And so what you are seeing militarily from both the American Air Force as well as the Israeli Air Force is strikes directed at IRGC facilities that would allow for consolidation points so that they could go out and shoot protesters in the street en masse again.

00:22:00.000 That would be one of the goals.

00:22:02.000 And that, of course, involves step B, hitting the leadership over and over and over and over again, prevent that consolidation.

00:22:07.000 And by the way, the Iranians are already admitting that it's been effective.

00:22:10.000 The Iranian foreign minister went on national TV and basically said that they have lost control of large swaths of their own military.

00:22:19.000 The foreign minister, Abbasar Akhi, here he was saying that the military is effectively independent and isolated.

00:22:25.000 Here he was talking to Al Jazeera, which, of course, Al Jazeera is itself an Islamist outlet.

00:22:32.000 What happened in Oman was not our choice.

00:22:35.000 We have already told our army armed forces to be careful about the targets that they choose.

00:22:44.000 As a matter of fact, our military units are now, in fact, independent and somehow isolated, and they are acting based on instructions, general instructions given to them in advance.

00:23:05.000 That is a tacit admission that the entire line of communication with the top levels is gone because the top level is gone.

00:23:11.000 As President Trump said, the people who he thought we would be negotiating with, those people are also dead.

00:23:16.000 That is not him lamenting that somehow the wrong people were killed.

00:23:19.000 That's him saying that three layers deep, the Iranian government is in serious trouble.

00:23:23.000 And so basically, the IRGC has been relegated to a series of regional state-level actors at this point, meaning not federal and consolidated under the domain of a centralized commanding presence, but instead, it's basically a bunch of independent military forces roaming around.

00:23:40.000 I mean, when they're admitting that and they are two days into the war, two and a half days into the war, that is a pretty shocking admission.

00:23:46.000 And as Lindsey Graham, senator from South Carolina, said on NBC, It is not the job of the United States to pick the next Iranian government.

00:23:55.000 It's up to Iran to pick your leader. 0.95

00:23:57.000 It's not my job.

00:23:58.000 It's not President Trump's job.

00:23:59.000 We're not going to occupy the country.

00:24:01.000 We're going to give the people of Iran a chance to do something they've never had before, chart their own destiny.

00:24:07.000 We're going to take away from any future regime the ability, any future government, the ability to have a ballistic missile program, a nuclear program, or support terrorism.

00:24:17.000 Well, that brings us to the current status of the operations.

00:24:20.000 General Dan Raisenkane, he gave a presser a little bit earlier today with Pete Hagsett, the Secretary of War.

00:24:26.000 And here's what he had to say about where we are right now.

00:24:29.000 This operation was highly classified so that at H-hour, the enemy would see one thing, speed, surprise, and violence of action.

00:24:38.000 The first movers were U.S. Cybercom and U.S. Spacecom, layering non-kinetic effects, disrupting and degrading and blinding Iran's ability to see, communicate, and respond. 0.97

00:24:51.000 At H-hour, the beginning of major combat operations, 0-115 local Eastern Daylight Time, 9.45 local a.m. Tehran time, as dawn crept up across the Central Command AOR, the skies surged to life.

00:25:09.000 More than 100 aircraft launched from land, sea, fighters, tankers, airborne early warning, electronic attack, bombers from the states and unmanned platforms, forming a single synchronized wave.

00:25:22.000 This was a daylight strike based on a trigger event conducted by the Israeli defense forces, enabled by the U.S. intelligence community.

00:25:32.000 The first shooters at sea were tomahawks unleashed by the United States Navy, closed in on Iranian naval forces and began to conduct strikes across the southern flank in Iran.

00:25:44.000 On the ground, forces fired precision standoff weapons, measured, deliberate, precise, and lethal.

00:25:52.000 This was a massive, overwhelming attack across all domains of warfare, striking more than a thousand targets in the first 24 hours.

00:26:02.000 Now, obviously, we have seen some American casualties thus far.

00:26:06.000 We have seen four Americans who were killed in a missile falling in Kuwait, shot by the Iranians.

00:26:11.000 Of course, another four American soldiers who were injured in that fall.

00:26:15.000 Obviously, our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the wounded and to the families of those killed in action.

00:26:21.000 These are the best among us.

00:26:23.000 These are the heroes who are there to do the dirty work.

00:26:26.000 And the attempt by some to turn the brave fighting men and women of the armed services into victims of some sort, like victims of America or victims of bad decision-making, or that's not what they are.

00:26:26.000 They are heroes.

00:26:41.000 They are heroes who are willing to do the hard things no one else is willing to do.

00:26:46.000 And not only do they deserve, obviously, the full measure of our support, but they deserve the full measure of our respect and honor.

00:26:53.000 Because they're doing something that I didn't do, that a huge percentage of Americans did not do.

00:26:57.000 They're the ones who are doing the thing.

00:27:01.000 Here's President Trump paying homage to them.

00:27:04.000 But the only reason we enjoy the quality of life that we do and the freedom and security is we have done things that others are unable to do.

00:27:16.000 But it's because of warriors who are willing to lay down their lives to do battle with our enemies.

00:27:24.000 And they do battle better than anybody.

00:27:27.000 An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be a dire threat to every American. 1.00

00:27:36.000 We cannot allow a nation that raises terrorist armies to possess such weapons.

00:27:42.000 It would allow them to extort the world to their evil will.

00:27:46.000 Not going to let it happen.

00:27:48.000 We're not happening to us, and we're not going to let it happen to others.

00:27:54.000 Now, meanwhile, three American F-15s were shot down, but not by the Iranians.

00:27:57.000 They were shot down by mistake by the air defense system in Kuwait.

00:28:00.000 All of the pilots are fine.

00:28:03.000 There is footage of these jets sort of almost floating down from the sky.

00:28:07.000 You can sort of see them as they fall down from the sky.

00:28:11.000 The pilots did eject.

00:28:12.000 The pilots are okay.

00:28:14.000 Again, that's a friendly fire incident.

00:28:16.000 As it is worth noting, friendly fire incidents, unfortunately, are a common theme of war.

00:28:20.000 They do happen fairly frequently.

00:28:23.000 It also happens to be true that in terms of the military campaign that is currently being waged, if anyone had suggested that the United States would have established complete air dominance over Iran and taken out the entire top echelon of the Iranian military, as well as Ayatollah Khomeini, that the United States would have been completely dominant in terms of destroying pretty much all the ballistic missile launchers available, ballistic missile facilities, nuclear facilities, and that the total casualty list for the United States would be four dead and four wounded.

00:28:52.000 That would have been an astonishing success of a military operation.

00:28:54.000 Now, undoubtedly, this is going to be a longer operation.

00:28:57.000 Certainly, I'd be shocked if more soldiers are not wounded or killed, because that's the nature of military operations.

00:29:03.000 They're inherently dangerous.

00:29:04.000 But that's exactly why we ought to be paying them homage.

00:29:07.000 That's exactly why we ought to be honoring the men and women of the armed services who are doing the hard work that needs to be done.

00:29:14.000 By the way, here is a map since February 28th of strikes on Iran.

00:29:18.000 Pretty astonishing stuff here.

00:29:20.000 You can see these strikes on Iran all over the country, all over the country.

00:29:24.000 The vast population of Iran tends to be in its west, not in its east, which is why you're seeing fewer attacks toward that portion of Iran.

00:29:32.000 Now, the more important map in terms of what Iran is trying to do is where they're firing in retaliation.

00:29:37.000 And the answer is pretty much everywhere.

00:29:39.000 They're desperate, and you can see they're desperate.

00:29:40.000 They're attacking Dubai, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Riyadh, Tel Aviv.

00:29:46.000 They attacked in Jordan.

00:29:48.000 They're firing missiles at Cyprus.

00:29:50.000 They're basically trying desperately, desperately, desperately to get someone to tell the combined forces of the United States and Israel and its allies to stop.

00:29:59.000 That's really the strategy here.

00:30:01.000 When it comes to what comes next, I know everyone wants to know what comes next.

00:30:04.000 First of all, again, let the president cook.

00:30:07.000 We're three days in.

00:30:08.000 That's first of all.

00:30:09.000 But Neil Ferguson, the historian, he has a great piece over at the free press today in which he says, contrary to the criticism already being aired on both the left and the right, Trump is not reverting to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney's regime change playbook.

00:30:22.000 Regime alteration is the practical consequence of the approach laid out in Trump's national security strategy published late last year.

00:30:29.000 The strategy rules out the deployment of American ground forces other than special forces.

00:30:33.000 It requires a short timeframe for military operations.

00:30:36.000 It will disappoint those who want to fast-track Venezuela and Iran to democracy, but the lesson of Iraq has not been lost on Trump.

00:30:42.000 That's why it misses the point to say Trump claims to be an isolationist and he's starting another forever war.

00:30:46.000 One thing, says Neil Ferguson, I can confidently promise about the U.S.-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic, it will not last long. 0.99

00:30:52.000 That, of course, is exactly right.

00:30:54.000 That's exactly right.

00:30:56.000 President Trump says, by the way, he told The Atlantic that there's still conversations ongoing.

00:31:01.000 Of course, the idea is that he needs to find somebody to negotiate with, and that person has to have authority so as to surrender.

00:31:07.000 That is basically what needs to happen.

00:31:11.000 The president says people have wanted to do it for 47 years.

00:31:14.000 They've killed people for 47 years.

00:31:15.000 Now it's reversed on them.

00:31:17.000 Now, one of the concerns here is about the munitions, obviously.

00:31:21.000 The United States has a limited supply of certain munitions.

00:31:24.000 The Wall Street Journal has a piece on this today.

00:31:27.000 But the point they're making is that actually, again, when I say opportunity arrived, Iran's capacity was greatly diminished by the 12-day war last year, which means that the United States is having to expend less materiel, particularly when it comes to anti-patriots and FAADs, than it normally would have to do.

00:31:45.000 The Wall Street Journal points out Iran's retaliation on Saturday has been more ragged than in the 12-day war when it fired more than 500 missiles and many more attack drones.

00:31:56.000 Israel's announcement that Iran's supreme leader, Aytoh Ali Khomeini, was killed in an airstrike could also hasten an end to the conflict.

00:32:03.000 So, again, all this is unfolding in real time.

00:32:07.000 Iran, meanwhile, has announced a three-member transitional council.

00:32:10.000 It turns out that their meetings are getting kind of small.

00:32:11.000 No one wants to come to the in-person meetings because a bomb might fall on their head.

00:32:15.000 So they've announced a formation, according to Al Jazeera, of a three-member transitional council to handle state duties following Ayatollah Khomeini's death.

00:32:23.000 Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, member of a powerful constitutional watchdog, according to Al Jazeera, was appointed on Sunday to the temporary council.

00:32:30.000 Two other members are President Masoud Pezeshkian, who you remember from his warm interview with Tucker Carlson, and Supreme Court Justice Chief Kholam Hossein Mosseni Ahey.

00:32:42.000 So, what exactly is Iran's strategy?

00:32:44.000 It talks about what the U.S. is doing.

00:32:45.000 What's Iran's strategy?

00:32:47.000 The answer is they are desperately trying to get someone to call off the dogs.

00:32:52.000 They're trying to attack everyone as far as they can see to try to get them to whine to President Trump to stop.

00:32:52.000 That's what they are doing.

00:32:58.000 That's what this is.

00:32:59.000 They don't want to cry, uncle, so they're calling for mommy.

00:33:01.000 They're hoping that mommy stops daddy from doing the thing.

00:33:03.000 That's what's happening right now, which is why they have not just attacked Israel, right, which of course launched the joint attack with the United States. 0.60

00:33:12.000 They attacked Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain, Oman, which was the negotiating center, Syria, and Cyprus.

00:33:22.000 And on Cyprus, they're attacking not just the resources of the United States, they're attacking the resources of France, Italy, and the UK. 0.70

00:33:28.000 What they are counting on is that the world will be stupid enough to take the side of the Iranian regime and say, no, this almost stop. 0.92

00:33:35.000 It almost end. 0.99

00:33:36.000 Because, again, international law is written by the most isly of international institutions, a wretched hive of scum and villainy led by some of the worst people on earth, including the UN chief Antonio Gutierrez, who condemned the attack. 0.96

00:33:50.000 The UN, which can't bring itself to condemn pretty much anything that Islamic terrorists and radicals do, they came out full scale and condemned this. 0.95

00:33:50.000 Truly amazing. 0.95

00:33:59.000 Who gives that?

00:34:00.000 Honestly, I hope that as one of President Trump's actions over the course of the next three years, defund the damned organization. 1.00

00:34:05.000 The UN is a trash heap. 0.99

00:34:07.000 It should be defunded. 1.00

00:34:08.000 We should kick those assholes off American soil. 1.00

00:34:11.000 Just tell them they can take their diplomatic immunity and shove it and take over that very, very wealthy terror. 1.00

00:34:17.000 You know what?

00:34:17.000 Fine.

00:34:18.000 Go to Zoran Mandani and build affordable housing where the UN currently stands.

00:34:21.000 I don't even care.

00:34:22.000 Just get those. 1.00

00:34:23.000 What a trash organization this is. 1.00

00:34:24.000 Here's Antonio Gutierrez representing this trash organization. 0.99

00:34:29.000 National law and international humanitarian law must always be respected. 0.95

00:34:35.000 That is why since this morning, I have condemned the massive military strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran.

00:34:47.000 Wow.

00:34:48.000 With that condemnation, can I also get $5 and a cup of coffee?

00:34:51.000 Who cares?

00:34:52.000 Who cares?

00:34:52.000 I know President Trump doesn't care.

00:34:54.000 So the Iranians are also counting on the Europeans, who are such pansies. 1.00

00:34:57.000 I mean, honest to God, thank God for President Trump.

00:35:00.000 Seriously, the only thing that has injected any spine in them at all is President Trump telling them that they need to man up when it comes to Ukraine.

00:35:08.000 Because, I mean, the spineless codfish that is Kirstarmer.

00:35:12.000 Mean that dude, that dude is a soggy, wet sponge of a human being, Kier Starmer. 0.99

00:35:19.000 What a pathetic specimen he is, the prime minister of the UK. 0.99

00:35:22.000 So, British resources are being attacked in the Mediterranean by the Iranians. 1.00

00:35:26.000 And Starmer is like, We don't like that.

00:35:28.000 We don't like that they're attacking us, but we also don't like that there's an attack taking place.

00:35:32.000 But also, we had told the Americans they can't use our bases. 0.89

00:35:34.000 But now we think that maybe the Americans can use our bases, but we'll yell at them a little while they do it, and we won't give them tea. 0.98

00:35:41.000 We won't give them any tea, and there will be no crumpets.

00:35:43.000 Here's the UK's pathetic Kir Starmer, who can't be out of office soon enough.

00:35:48.000 I want to be very clear: we all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons. 0.84

00:35:58.000 We were not involved in the initial strikes on Iran, and we will not join offensive action now.

00:36:07.000 But Iran is pursuing a scorched earth strategy, so we are supporting the collective self-defense of our allies and our people in the region.

00:36:23.000 So, we won't allow the United States to use our bases to strike at missile centers in Iran, but we'll allow them to shoot down stuff coming the other way. 0.81

00:36:30.000 We won't hit the actual place they're firing from, which is in Iran.

00:36:33.000 We'll just stand here and wait for it to be fired at us because that's what bravery requires.

00:36:39.000 What a doof that one is. 1.00

00:36:41.000 Oh, but don't worry, they're still the French.

00:36:43.000 So, the French, you can count on them to be very French.

00:36:49.000 Their tanks have four gears: three in reverse and one for forward motion in case they're attacked from the rear.

00:36:55.000 Emmanuel Macron put out a statement: The outbreak of war between the United States, Israel, and Iran carries grave consequences for international peace and security.

00:37:03.000 At this decisive moment, every measure is being taken to ensure the security of our national territory, our citizens, and our interests in the Middle East.

00:37:09.000 France also stands ready to deploy the necessary resources to protect its closest partners should they request it.

00:37:14.000 The ongoing escalation is dangerous for all.

00:37:16.000 It must stop.

00:37:18.000 The Iranian regime must understand it now has no other option but to engage in good faith in negotiations to end its nuclear and ballistic program, as well as its regional destabilization activities. 0.77

00:37:26.000 This is absolutely necessary for the security of all in the Middle East.

00:37:29.000 So, in other words, the very last paragraph of that, he says, and then he adds, the Iranian people must also be able to freely build their future.

00:37:37.000 The massacres committed by the Islamic regime disqualify it and demand the voice be returned to the people.

00:37:41.000 The sooner, the better. 1.00

00:37:44.000 What a sad sack bag of horse crap he is. 1.00

00:37:47.000 My goodness. 1.00

00:37:48.000 So, what is he calling for?

00:37:49.000 Iran to come to the table on ballistics and nuclear and to stop its terrorism support and also for the people to be free.

00:37:55.000 But we don't want anyone to do anything to Iran.

00:37:58.000 It would increase the chances of international instability.

00:38:03.000 This is what the Iranians are. 1.00

00:38:04.000 They can always count on the cowardice of the French and the British. 0.98

00:38:08.000 Great stuff happening there.

00:38:10.000 Unbelievably enough, truly unbelievably enough, the people who are the most committed to the war here are the Arab countries in the Middle East. 0.98

00:38:18.000 You understand what's happening?

00:38:19.000 How transformational what's happening right now is?

00:38:22.000 On one side, you have Iran. 0.90

00:38:23.000 On the other side, you have the United States, Israel, Saudi, UAE.

00:38:31.000 That's astonishing.

00:38:32.000 Okay, just recall back in history, back to the first Gulf War, you'll recall that in the first Gulf War, the strategy of Saddam Hussein to escape the wrath of the United States and its allies was to fire scud missiles at Israel.

00:38:45.000 My wife was in Israel at the time when she was a small child.

00:38:48.000 She remembers having to put on gas masks to await the missiles coming.

00:38:51.000 And HW Bush told the Israelis, do not fire back, because if you fire back, then it might break up the coalition.

00:38:58.000 The Saudis might say, hey, we're not going to fight alongside the Israelis in an anti-Saddam coalition.

00:39:03.000 It was a bad move by HW.

00:39:04.000 He should have forced it.

00:39:05.000 But that's not what's happening right now.

00:39:07.000 What's happening right now is that an American-Israeli-led expedition to end the threat of Iran is being joined by the Arab countries.

00:39:17.000 According to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, quote, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia condemns and denounces in strongest terms the blatant Iranian aggression and flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the UAE, Kingdom of Bahrain, state of Qatar, state of Kuwait, and Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

00:39:31.000 The kingdom affirms its full solidarity with an unwavering support for the brotherly countries, its readiness to place all its capabilities at their disposal in support of any measures they may undertake, any measures.

00:39:42.000 So if they decide to go offensive, they're behind it.

00:39:45.000 So again, the strategy here was: what if they fire at the Saudis and the Saudis go to America and they yell at President Trump or whine to President Trump and he stops? 0.87

00:39:51.000 Ain't happening.

00:39:52.000 UAE ain't happening.

00:39:53.000 Bahrain ain't happening.

00:39:54.000 Qatar, they can try, but no one's listening to them since they're half-Iranian proxy anyway. 1.00

00:40:00.000 Remember that time they were our greatest ally in the Middle East and then we couldn't use their air bases to launch attacks into Iran?

00:40:04.000 Yeah, I remember that too.

00:40:06.000 Okay, so what is the final Iranian strategy in the end?

00:40:09.000 The final Iranian strategy in the end is count on the American left and the horseshoe right to join and mirror the principles of the Iranians, which is why Ali Larijani, who is seen by many as the sort of temporary leader of Iran, is now taking to X to tweet, quote, Trump has betrayed America first to adopt Israel first.

00:40:32.000 Who's that addressed at?

00:40:34.000 Who's that addressed at?

00:40:35.000 It's not addressed at Iranians.

00:40:36.000 It's not addressed at Saudis.

00:40:38.000 It's addressed at Americans, and particularly the American horseshoe right. 0.85

00:40:42.000 He is hoping that Tucker Carlson and all of his ridiculous cohorts go to the president and claim that it's not America first who take out America's top enemy in the Middle East for the last five decades who've tried to assassinate the president.

00:40:55.000 That's what, in the end, there's only one ally that the Iranian regime can count on, and it's the American left and the horseshoe right. 0.64

00:41:03.000 That is their true ally.

00:41:04.000 Those are the people they are truly counting on, which presumably is why Chenk Uyghur put out one of the most insane tweets of all time. 0.70

00:41:13.000 Truly, quote, I criticized Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khomeini, a thousand times.

00:41:17.000 He was oppressing his own people and preventing democracy. 0.94

00:41:19.000 But there's one thing you can't take away from him.

00:41:21.000 He died on his own two feet instead of kneeling to Israel. 0.79

00:41:24.000 That took courage.

00:41:25.000 He didn't bow.

00:41:27.000 I mean, we're now doing the like actual ex-joke, right?

00:41:31.000 We're just doing memes now.

00:41:33.000 You got to hand it to Hitler. 0.88

00:41:35.000 Like, that's where we are now with Chenk Uyghur. 0.92

00:41:37.000 Sure, he was a horrific human being who murdered tens of thousands of his own citizens and reduced them to poverty and spread terrorism all over the region against Arabs, Jews, and Christians alike. 0.95

00:41:47.000 But he did hate Jews an awful lot. 0.68

00:41:51.000 By the way, how many times had Chenk Uyghur ever tweeted about Ali Khomeini?

00:41:54.000 Ever?

00:41:55.000 Zero.

00:41:57.000 Meanwhile, again, they know that they can count on the New York Times, the New York Times obituary.

00:42:02.000 The New York Times obituary for Ali Khomeini.

00:42:05.000 Honestly, the obituaries for Scott Adams from these publications are so much harsher than the obituaries for, you know, like the mass murdering terror leader.

00:42:15.000 Quote, with his spectacles, Palestinian khathiyah, long robes, and silver beard, Ayatollah Khomeini cast himself as a religious scholar as well as a writer and translator of works on Islam.

00:42:25.000 He affected an avuncular and magnanimous aloofness, running the country from a perch above the jousting of daily politics.

00:42:30.000 Wow.

00:42:31.000 But don't worry.

00:42:32.000 The Washington Post obituary, way worse.

00:42:34.000 You ready?

00:42:34.000 It turns out Ayatollah Khomeini is Santa.

00:42:37.000 He's going to come down at your chimney with a Kalishnikov, quote, with his bushy white beard and easy smile. 0.82

00:42:44.000 Wow, bushy white beard and easy smile.

00:42:50.000 And his sexy dad bod.

00:42:52.000 I mean, this is like, what the hell is wrong with you, Washington Post?

00:42:57.000 His bushy white beard and easy smile.

00:42:59.000 What is it?

00:43:00.000 Tinder description.

00:43:01.000 Ayatollah Khomeini cut a more avuncular figure in public and his perpetually scowling, but much more revered mentor. 0.80

00:43:07.000 He was known to be fond of Persian poetry, classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo's Lev Mizrab, as well as long walks on the beach.

00:43:17.000 What the hell? 0.95

00:43:18.000 What is wrong with you, people? 1.00

00:43:20.000 What is wrong with you?

00:43:22.000 Again, count on the left-wing media to do the work of the Ayatollahs. 1.00

00:43:26.000 That is the most bizarre description of a true piece of human shit that I've ever. 0.99

00:43:33.000 I mean, truly amazing stuff there from the Washington Post. 0.99

00:43:36.000 Well done, Obit writers.

00:43:38.000 Wow.

00:43:41.000 Adam Schiff, the senator from California, also helping out.

00:43:43.000 He jumps in.

00:43:44.000 He says, don't worry.

00:43:44.000 The Ayatollah Post is no imminent threat.

00:43:46.000 No imminent threat.

00:43:47.000 Okay, so I'm just going to point out again: the Ayatollah spread terrorism all over the world. 0.98

00:43:52.000 The Ayatollah was not just an imminent threat to Israel. 0.93

00:43:55.000 He's an imminent threat to Saudi Arabia, to Jordan, to Lebanon, to UAE.

00:44:02.000 I mean, like, you know, I love that imminent threat now comes to mean that basically, unless everything has to be an episode of 24, that unless the Ayatollah has planted a bomb at the base of the Empire State Building and Kiefer Sutherland is going to charge in as five seconds to stop the detonation, there's no imminent threat.

00:44:22.000 Adam Schiff, how this guy failed up into the Senate?

00:44:25.000 Well, California is California.

00:44:29.000 No, you're right about the Ayatollah. 0.79

00:44:31.000 He was a brutal dictator. 0.91

00:44:33.000 This is a murderous regime.

00:44:35.000 But at the same time, it posed no imminent threat of attack to the United States. 0.96

00:44:44.000 I'm so tired of Democrats with this nonsense.

00:44:46.000 He was brutal. 0.99

00:44:46.000 He was terrible. 0.99

00:44:47.000 But, you know, it's sad that he's gone.

00:44:49.000 Get over it, guys.

00:44:51.000 Get over it.

00:44:52.000 But don't worry.

00:44:52.000 It's not just, of course, the left.

00:44:53.000 It is, of course, the horseshoe, right?

00:44:55.000 Don't worry. 0.96

00:44:56.000 Tucker Carlson, a true, true coward, true coward, because he won't go directly up against President Trump ever. 0.98

00:45:03.000 He goes and he pretends to be his friend. 0.98

00:45:05.000 He sits across from him in the Oval Office and he tries to wheedle him.

00:45:09.000 And then he goes out and he just undercuts every aspect of his foreign policy and rips on him basically as a tool of the Jews. 0.98

00:45:16.000 And that's essentially what Tucker Carlson is doing. 0.92

00:45:18.000 Jonathan Carl reported yesterday: quote, he told me the president's decision is, quote, absolutely disgusting and evil.

00:45:29.000 Well, at least I know maybe the president will figure out which side Tucker Carlson is on.

00:45:33.000 It turns out it is not the side of the Trump administration.

00:45:37.000 And given his proclivities with other countries, I hope he enjoys his home in Qatar.

00:45:45.000 Marjorie Taylor Greene came out and said, maybe this is all a ploy to cancel the midterms. 0.95

00:45:49.000 Again, why we pretend that this is a human with anything relevant to say is beyond me, truly beyond me.

00:45:56.000 She came to, this is a problem on the right.

00:45:59.000 It's really a problem on the right.

00:46:00.000 Here's how the right, anytime the left responds to a person purportedly on the right by criticizing that person, the right immediately valorizes that person and tries to turn that person into a hero. 0.99

00:46:10.000 So the left originally pointed out that Marjorie Taylor Greene's a moron because she's a moron, but also because she wasn't left-wing. 0.99

00:46:17.000 And the right went, well, if they're calling her a moron, she must be a genius. 1.00

00:46:20.000 Nope. 1.00

00:46:21.000 Nope. 1.00

00:46:22.000 She's just a moron. 1.00

00:46:25.000 But at least, you know, she'll have more time to go to the gym. 1.00

00:46:29.000 That's the most important thing.

00:46:31.000 Tucker Carlson guest list, complete with many people very upset with the president of the United States.

00:46:38.000 Andrew Tate, the alleged and who was treated to a very warm episode on Tucker's show, tweeted out, nobody wants this war.

00:46:50.000 Why do we care what you have to say, Madud?

00:46:53.000 Like, okay.

00:46:55.000 I mean, it turns out the Iranian people want the Iranian regime to go away.

00:46:59.000 It turns out that many people around the Middle East would like it to stop.

00:47:02.000 It turns out that many Americans actually would like for the Iranian regime to stop being a threat to the United States and our citizens. 0.93

00:47:08.000 Or maybe you're just Milo Yiannopoulos, another Tucker Carlson guest, an ambulatory psychotic, who put out a tweet in Arabic saying, Oh, Allah, preserve Ayatollah Khomeini.

00:47:17.000 Oh, Allah, indeed, we place you in their throats and we seek refuge in you, refuge in you from their evils. 0.52

00:47:22.000 Milo, who is a longtime flamboyantly gay man, is cosplaying right now as a newfound Christian while tweeting to Allah for the health of Ayatollah Khomeini. 0.99

00:47:33.000 The clown show Horseshoe Rightman. 0.98

00:47:36.000 And of course, no horseshoe right would be complete without Nazi lover Nick Fuentes. 0.94

00:47:44.000 Here he was calling for open resistance to President Trump.

00:47:48.000 We need in 2026 for this administration to be shut the f down. 0.57

00:47:53.000 What does this administration do other than cover up the Epstein files, embezzle money through government contracts, and bring us to war for Israel?

00:48:02.000 This administration needs to be shut down immediately.

00:48:07.000 Do not vote in the midterms.

00:48:08.000 And if you do, vote for Democrats.

00:48:12.000 This. 0.93

00:48:15.000 Well, you know, if you wish to follow a movement led by people who are escapees from a psych ward and or closeted and not so closeted homosexuals, then I guess you could do that. 0.81

00:48:26.000 I guess that could be, or perhaps these people are maybe worth ignoring. 0.75

00:48:31.000 Perhaps.

00:48:33.000 Now, part of the Iranian strategy, obviously, is to threaten Americans with the possibility of terrorism. 0.99

00:48:37.000 There was a shooting attack on American soil that happened over the weekend.

00:48:42.000 A Senegalese national, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Phlugerville, Texas, shot up a bar.

00:48:49.000 He killed two Americans.

00:48:50.000 He wounded 13 others.

00:48:51.000 He was wearing a sweatshirt that said property of Allah and a shirt underneath with an Iranian flag theme.

00:48:56.000 That is what we know at this point.

00:48:58.000 He did have multiple posts defending people like Candace Owens on his ex-account.

00:49:05.000 Not a gigantic shock. 0.99

00:49:06.000 And of course, he was very upset with what was going on in Iran, presumably, which speaks to the fact that we really should not let people like this in our country, and we are idiots for having done so in the first place. 0.97

00:49:18.000 But yes, obviously, when we talk about the spread of Islamic radicalism and terrorism, it turns out that Iran exporting its ideology all over the world has not been a boon for the globe. 0.96

00:49:29.000 Joining me on the line is Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

00:49:32.000 Senator Cruz, of course, is a big supporter of the president's, particularly when it comes to the current policy with regard to Iran.

00:49:38.000 Senator Cruz, thanks so much for the time.

00:49:39.000 Really appreciate it.

00:49:41.000 Ben, good to be with you.

00:49:43.000 So you are being briefed, obviously, on the situation on the ground in Iran.

00:49:47.000 How is the operation going so far?

00:49:51.000 Well, we're just over 50 hours into it.

00:49:53.000 So far, it has been a spectacular success.

00:49:56.000 Tragically, four service members, American service members, have lost their lives.

00:50:01.000 Four others have been seriously injured.

00:50:04.000 We grieve for that.

00:50:06.000 We pray for their families and the loss of life.

00:50:09.000 But this action was taken.

00:50:11.000 The president ordered this strike because Iran, for 47 years, has been the leading state sponsor of terrorism.

00:50:18.000 They have been the number one funder.

00:50:20.000 90% of the funding from Hamas comes from Iran.

00:50:24.000 90% of the funding of Hezbollah. comes from Iran.

00:50:27.000 90% of the funding of the Houthis come from Iran.

00:50:31.000 Over the last 47 years, the Iranian regime is responsible for murdering nearly 1,000 Americans. 0.99

00:50:39.000 And so President Trump made a clear-eyed decision as commander-in-chief that this ongoing threat for decades, Iran has been actively trying to acquire nuclear weapons. 0.52

00:50:50.000 I believe they were trying to acquire nuclear weapons because they intended to use nuclear weapons.

00:50:55.000 Last year, the president acted decisively to take out Iran's nuclear weapons facilities, but this is now the next stage, which is removing the threat. 0.91

00:51:06.000 In the opening minutes of this conflict, the Ayatollah lost his life, and we have seen systematically the senior military leadership of the Iranian regime removed.

00:51:16.000 I think America is already safer today.

00:51:19.000 And when we see a government in Iran that is not controlled by radical Islamists, that does not have as its guiding principle death to America, that will be a much better outcome for the people of Iran, for the Middle East, but most especially for the United States of America.

00:51:40.000 Now, Senator Cruz, I've heard two chief criticisms that have been leveled against the operation thus far.

00:51:46.000 One, I think, is absolutely nonsensical.

00:51:48.000 As you say, we are 50 hours into a war and you're already hearing people scream forever war.

00:51:52.000 I'm not sure what their definition of forever is, but it usually does not constitute what is three days into a major military operation that the president has suggested will last no longer than a month.

00:52:01.000 And if current rates of victory as they are piling up continue on the battlefield, my guesses will be a lot shorter than that.

00:52:07.000 What do you make of the criticism that we are about to engage in a forever war in the Middle East?

00:52:12.000 Also, we should mention here that Iran has been engaged in a 50-year forever war with the United States.

00:52:19.000 Well, look, I think it's nonsense.

00:52:21.000 And there is a fringe of isolationists, but it is a very small part of the right.

00:52:26.000 It is a very small part of conservatives or the Republican Party.

00:52:29.000 There are some loudmouths.

00:52:31.000 You and I have both engaged with Tucker Carlson, who I think is the loudest of the loudmouths, who is right now relentlessly attacking President Trump, vilifying President Trump.

00:52:44.000 He has spent this entire past year, year plus of President Trump's second term attacking the president's foreign policy relentlessly.

00:52:53.000 Now, he's too much of a coward to actually say President Trump's name, so he attacks the policy instead.

00:52:59.000 But what is amazing is Tucker Carlson's foreign policy is identical to Barack Obama's and Kamala Harris. 0.89

00:53:07.000 All three of them believe in weakness.

00:53:09.000 They believe in impeasement.

00:53:11.000 All three of them put out statements lamenting how horrible it was that Iran, that the Ayatollah is no longer with us.

00:53:20.000 I, for one, am glad the Ayatollah has gone to meet his 72 virgins. 0.97

00:53:25.000 It couldn't have happened a second too soon.

00:53:29.000 And I don't know, I take it kind of personally when psychopaths chant death to Israel and death to America, and then they follow through. 0.96

00:53:37.000 Look, this Ayatollah hired hitmen trying to murder Donald J. Trump. 0.99

00:53:43.000 And President Trump takes it seriously when hostile regimes are killing Americans.

00:53:50.000 And the isolationist fringe, Tucker Carlson et al., they are a small slice of America.

00:53:57.000 President Trump never campaigned as an isolationist.

00:54:01.000 Let's take, for example, Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

00:54:01.000 He is not.

00:54:06.000 Nicolas Maduro led a communist regime in Venezuela, oppressed his people, brought misery to his people, but was one of the biggest narco-traffickers in the world. 0.98

00:54:16.000 He trafficked tons of deadly drugs into the United States that killed thousands and thousands of Americans.

00:54:22.000 And Kamala Harris, just like Barack Obama, just like Tucker Carlson, all wanted to roll over and say we should continue to let Nicholas Maduro murder Americans. 1.00

00:54:33.000 President Trump is not interested in that weakness or appeasement, so he sent in the Delta Force.

00:54:39.000 He arrested Maduro, and Maduro will now die in a federal prison.

00:54:44.000 Now, that is not an endless war.

00:54:46.000 That entire operation took just over two hours, but it is decisive leadership from the commander-in-chief.

00:54:52.000 The same thing is happening in Iran.

00:54:54.000 This is going to take longer than two hours, but we're not going to see sustained ground presence over years.

00:54:59.000 We're not going to see hundreds of thousands of troops.

00:55:01.000 We're not going to see continually escalating casualties.

00:55:04.000 What we will see is very directed force at an objective, which is removing the threat that is killing Americans.

00:55:12.000 Donald Trump puts protecting Americans as his number one priority as commander-in-chief.

00:55:18.000 He is exactly right.

00:55:20.000 You know, Ben, the day President Trump ordered this attack was on Friday.

00:55:24.000 I spent that entire day with President Trump.

00:55:26.000 I was on Air Force One with him, flying from D.C. to Texas.

00:55:30.000 I was then in the beast with him one-on-one.

00:55:33.000 He and I were the only two in the car.

00:55:35.000 We spent the entire time discussing Iran.

00:55:38.000 He was asking my view, and my view was you should act now.

00:55:43.000 You should act decisively.

00:55:46.000 The regime is weaker than it has ever been.

00:55:49.000 If we miss this opportunity, America will be less safe.

00:55:53.000 And I'm proud.

00:55:54.000 I think the president is behaving as a strong and effective commander-in-chief, and that's exactly what he should be doing.

00:56:02.000 Senator Cruz, I've said it's the most courageous political decision probably I've ever seen on foreign policy in my lifetime, what the president is doing right now.

00:56:10.000 The left, of course, is opposing him wholeheartedly.

00:56:12.000 It's amazing to watch so many of them lament the operation while simultaneously saying that they're not big fans of the Ayatollah.

00:56:18.000 They're glad he's dead.

00:56:19.000 But, you know, this is really quite terrible.

00:56:21.000 So, well, I think that in order to get to the Ayatollah is dead, you probably are going to have to actually do the kinds of things that President Trump is doing rather than doing as Barack Obama did and try to hand him pallets of cash and a promise that in 10 years he could go nuclear.

00:56:36.000 You're exactly right.

00:56:38.000 And understand the misguided worldview of the left metastasized.

00:56:45.000 So Barack Obama flew over $1.7 billion in midnight pallets of cash.

00:56:51.000 That was horrific.

00:56:53.000 But I got to say, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took it to the next level.

00:56:56.000 They took it from $1.7 billion to under Biden-Harris, they flowed over $100 billion to Iran.

00:57:06.000 They quite literally funded the Ayatollah.

00:57:10.000 That money, in turn, went directly to Hamas.

00:57:13.000 90% of their funding came from Iran.

00:57:16.000 And it quite literally funded October 7th.

00:57:19.000 It funded the death squads.

00:57:21.000 The Biden-Harris administration, by the way, with the acquiescence, if not support, of just about every single Democrat in Congress, they flooded cash to the Ayatollah.

00:57:32.000 You know what?

00:57:33.000 You don't get to say, I abhor the Ayatollah while you're sending him $100 billion in cash.

00:57:40.000 Actions speak louder than words.

00:57:42.000 There is a reason why most serious national security and foreign policy analysts who look at the Middle East describe Iran as the head of the snake because it is Iran that is spreading their malign poison. 1.00

00:57:56.000 And to give a sense of the reach of it, one of the reasons we took out Maduro is Maduro opened up Venezuela to Iran and Hezbollah, to terror cells here in the Western Hemisphere.

00:58:08.000 And tragically, we saw late Saturday night, early Sunday morning in Austin, the kind of risks we have.

00:58:14.000 What appears to be a terrorist attack, it's still being investigated.

00:58:18.000 But two people in Austin shot at a bar, 13 people wounded, two people killed, 13 people wounded by an immigrant from Senegal wearing a sweater that said property of Allah, wearing a shirt with an Iranian flag on it, with a Koran in his car.

00:58:35.000 It certainly appears to be a terrorist act.

00:58:38.000 And that threat, that's what President Trump is taking seriously.

00:58:43.000 I spoke yesterday to Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, and they are going through all of the communications, all the social media.

00:58:50.000 They're searching his residents, and they are on guard for more terrorism.

00:58:54.000 By the way, I will say, it is particularly shocking that at a time when we know there's an enhanced risk for terrorist attack in the United States, the Democrats have continued to shut down the Department of Homeland Security, the department that is charged with stopping terrorist attacks.

00:59:12.000 I assume we're going to vote again this week on funding the Department of Homeland Security.

00:59:16.000 And my prediction is the Democrats' party line will say, no, we are not going to pay the salaries of the agents and officers charged with stopping terror attacks.

00:59:28.000 Instead, we're going to lament the loss of the Ayatollah.

00:59:31.000 That really is a sign of an ideology that has lost its way.

00:59:37.000 So, Senator Cruz, the other big critique that's been leveled at the operation has been the sort of what comes after critique.

00:59:42.000 And the president has made clear that what comes after is up to the Iranian people.

00:59:47.000 I think that whenever you go into a conflict in which the top of the regime is decapitated, which is what's happening right now, no one knows sort of the answer as to what comes next.

00:59:55.000 But I think one of the big points here is that whatever comes next is going to be better than the consolidated control of the worst regime on planet Earth.

01:00:02.000 And even were things to devolve, unfortunately, into some sort of civil conflict inside of Iran, that would certainly hamper the Iranians' ability as a totality, as a government, to threaten surrounding actors with weapons, nuclear, biological, or otherwise.

01:00:20.000 Well, look, that is a very reasonable question to ask, and it's a reasonable concern to have what comes next, because it is not going to be rosy and simple.

01:00:29.000 We know that from experience.

01:00:31.000 And part of that question comes from America's experience in Iraq.

01:00:36.000 I was not a fan of the Iraq war.

01:00:38.000 If you go back and look at the 2016 presidential campaign, if you set Rand Paul to the side as having a fringe foreign policy view, of the 16 remaining Republicans on that stage, there were only two, Donald Trump and me, who opposed the Iraq war.

01:00:56.000 I think the Iraq war was a mistake. 0.99

01:00:57.000 Why? 0.84

01:00:58.000 Because we took Saddam Hussein, who was a tyrant and dictator, but he was killing terrorists. 0.74

01:01:04.000 He was not attacking America. 0.92

01:01:05.000 He was killing terrorists, and we toppled him. 0.83

01:01:08.000 And in his place, the terrorists took over and began killing Americans.

01:01:12.000 And so I think that objectively made America less safe.

01:01:16.000 I think we did the same thing in Libya. 0.98

01:01:17.000 Qaddafi, again, was a monster. 0.98

01:01:20.000 We came in and toppled him. 1.00

01:01:21.000 And again, the terrorists took over and began killing Americans.

01:01:24.000 My test for whether it is a good national security step or bad one is, does it protect Americans or does it put Americans in greater danger?

01:01:34.000 Reason this is justified and different, I believe, from Iraq, different from Libya, is the Ayatollah was actively murdering Americans and trying to murder Americans each and every day. 0.96

01:01:44.000 And he was using the resources of a nation state to do so.

01:01:48.000 And that threat, I think, is intolerable.

01:01:51.000 The objective, we just saw a Pentagon press briefing in which they focused on many of the military objectives, like taking out missiles, like taking out anti-aircraft weaponry.

01:02:02.000 I think all of those are important.

01:02:04.000 But I think the broad objective should be to remove the threat.

01:02:08.000 And the threat is a government led by radical Islamists whose objective is death to America. 0.75

01:02:15.000 Now, what comes next? 0.83

01:02:16.000 I don't know.

01:02:17.000 I would hope we would see an election and a leader elected in Iran who wants to be friends with America.

01:02:24.000 That would be a great outcome.

01:02:26.000 That is certainly not guaranteed.

01:02:27.000 You know, there are competing groups among diaspora groups in terms of who would lead Iran.

01:02:34.000 Some internally in Iran, some external to Iran.

01:02:38.000 My view, that's a decision for the people of Iran.

01:02:41.000 I don't want to see America with a long-term presence in Iran. 0.87

01:02:44.000 I don't want to see us try to be the government of Iran.

01:02:47.000 Our objective should be focused on, as President Trump puts it, America first.

01:02:52.000 Removing the threat, removing the governmental leaders who are trying to murder Americans.

01:02:58.000 And once we do so, as President Trump has said, it's up to the people of Iran to figure out their leadership and to go forward from there.

01:03:07.000 Senator Ted Cruz, I know you have a busy day.

01:03:09.000 Senator, really appreciate the time and the insight.

01:03:12.000 Thank you, Ben.

01:03:15.000 All righty, guys, coming up, we will be joined by Amit Segal from Israel to report on the situation there and what the goals of Israel are in this war.

01:03:22.000 Remember, in order to watch, you have to be a member.

01:03:24.000 If you're not a member, become a member, use code Shapiro.

01:03:26.000 Check out for two months free on all annual plans.

01:03:28.000 Click that link in the description and join us.

01:03:30.000 Legal sent this list of everything we're not allowed to do in season two.

01:03:34.000 We're going to do all of it.

01:03:36.000 We've got games, more celebrity guests, and yes, the mailbag is somehow worse.

01:03:41.000 If you thought season one was extra, season two, we're doubling down.

01:03:45.000 We're not supposed to be doing this.

01:03:47.000 Exactly.

The Ben Shapiro Show - March 02, 2026

BREAKING: Trump DEVASTATES Iranian Defenses, Iran Attacks EVERYONE

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