The Ben Shapiro Show - Why Are Americans Siding With Our Enemies?

00:00:00.000 Do you agree with Chinese dictators Xi Jinping and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin about the world?

00:00:05.000 Are you convinced that America ought to surrender its global power to a multipolar order?

00:00:10.000 If so, you might be a Quizling, a fifth columnist, an America Laster.

00:00:15.000 And there are plenty of them.

00:00:16.000 They've spent years lying about America, about our history, about our foreign policy, about our enemies, about our allies.

00:00:22.000 In the end, the only unifying feature of their bizarre amalgam of conspiracism and untruth is an agenda.

00:00:29.000 an agenda to reduce America's role in the world.

00:00:32.000 Today, we're going to talk about the America Lasters, the people who play defense for Iran and Russia and China, but who go on offense against the allies who fight alongside the United States.

00:00:41.000 What do these people want?

00:00:43.000 What is their actual agenda?

00:00:44.000 And why?

00:00:45.000 Why do they so despise America's dominant role in the world?

00:00:49.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:57.000 To understand the America lasters, we first have to understand a basic reality. 0.95

00:01:01.000 They're liars.

00:01:02.000 They are lying about the nature of reality. 0.98

00:01:04.000 And they have to lie because their lies are the only path toward American defeat, particularly in the current conflict with Iran. 0.90

00:01:11.000 I've been telling you for weeks, those who most ardently oppose President Trump's action are at best misinformed.

00:01:16.000 And at worst, many of them are lying on behalf of the Iranian regime.

00:01:19.000 Their argument has been since the beginning that Iran was not a true threat to America or her interests, that President Trump was bamboozled into the war by lying, nefarious Israelis and domestic American voices.

00:01:31.000 Ooh, that all of this with regard to Iran is overblown, or even that Israel is the bad guy with regard to Iran.

00:01:38.000 Well, over the weekend, Iran blew that entire narrative up. 1.00

00:01:41.000 Over the weekend, Iran demonstrated full scale that all of their defenders were useful idiots or America Lasters. 1.00

00:01:47.000 The fools who claimed that Iran posed no threat beyond the immediate region, well, they were parroting Iranian lies. 1.00

00:01:52.000 Just a few weeks ago, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Arakhi, who is likely not long for this non-72 virgin world, announced that Iran had limited its own missile range to 2,000 kilometers. 0.97

00:02:02.000 That would be 1,200 miles.

00:02:04.000 That would make Iran a threat to the Middle East, but not to the heart of Europe.

00:02:09.000 We have intentionally kept the range of our missiles below 2,000 kilometers.

00:02:14.000 So we don't have that capability and we don't want to do that.

00:02:19.000 Well, top American officials at the time warned it was not true.

00:02:22.000 Here was Senator Tom Cotton with the CIA Director John Ratcliffe last week.

00:02:27.000 Iran has always had a space launch program, which is flimsy cover for the first part of that intercontinental missile program.

00:02:33.000 I haven't seen any Iranian astronauts in space lately.

00:02:36.000 And second, they have medium-range ballistic missiles, which already have a re-entry vehicle.

00:02:41.000 So if you crudely married those two technologies together, I've heard some analysts say that Iran could have had a functioning intercontinental missile to threaten the United States in as few as six months.

00:02:54.000 Would you agree with that assessment?

00:02:56.000 Well, you're right to be concerned about Iran's development of longer-range ballistic missiles, Senator. 0.74

00:03:02.000 If Iran were allowed to develop at the IRBM ranges, which is 3,000 kilometers, it would threaten most of Europe. 0.98

00:03:13.000 Well, over the weekend, U.S. officials announced that Iran had launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, that is a joint U.S.-UK airbase in the Indian Ocean.

00:03:22.000 The missiles didn't hit the target.

00:03:24.000 Diego Garcia is 4,000 miles away.

00:03:27.000 So what does that mean?

00:03:28.000 Well, let's take a look at this map.

00:03:30.000 What you see here is a map of the area of 1,000-kilometer ballistic missile range.

00:03:38.000 That is the interior circle here.

00:03:39.000 And you see that it covers all of the Middle East.

00:03:42.000 It covers parts of India.

00:03:44.000 It goes into parts of Russia.

00:03:48.000 And then you see what the 2,000-kilometer range would look like.

00:03:52.000 And the answer is the entirety of Europe, like all of Europe.

00:03:55.000 If you're audio only just listening to this, the map shows virtually all of Europe in Iranian ballistic missile range based on the attempt to hit Diego Garcia airbase.

00:04:04.000 So the Iranians appear to have been lying, which is not a shock because they lie all the time, the Iranian government. 0.94

00:04:10.000 Just like they've been lying about their nuclear program and their terrorist support all over the region. 0.72

00:04:14.000 And, you know, everything else.

00:04:16.000 The Europeans apparently are within direct missile range. 0.94

00:04:19.000 So what would a world with a burgeoning Iranian nuclear program with intercontinental ballistic missile capacity look like? 0.94

00:04:25.000 Well, that is precisely the threat laid out by President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu over the course of the last several years.

00:04:31.000 They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.

00:04:42.000 You know, Iran talks about death to Israel, death to America. 0.93

00:04:45.000 They just see us as a stepping stone to getting to America with ICBMs, you know, long-range missiles that can be targeted on any American city with nuclear bombs.

00:04:56.000 So we're fighting our battle for sure.

00:04:58.000 We're fighting the free world's battle against the barbarians.

00:05:01.000 An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people. 0.99

00:05:13.000 Our country itself would be under threat.

00:05:16.000 That regime has a built-in DNA, and that DNA says no America and no Israel stands in the way of getting to America. 0.67

00:05:25.000 They want to develop long-range ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads to threaten you and threaten every American.

00:05:33.000 And that's what has been stopped.

00:05:35.000 And it's for the good of all Americans.

00:05:39.000 Now, again, we were told by the America Lasters that all of this was untrue.

00:05:42.000 That was all a lie.

00:05:43.000 And then, of course, the lie was put to their lie by the fact that there was, in fact, a long-range missile that was aimed at Diego Garcia, which is thousands of miles from Iranian territory.

00:05:53.000 Well, the Europeans, who are now apparently under the possibility of an Iranian missile umbrella, they appear to be doing, you know, as usual, not very much, because that's what Europeans do.

00:06:02.000 NATO head, Mark Rudy, keeps providing rhetorical support.

00:06:07.000 The good news is that these 32 countries are following the president's leads on making sure that we free up the strait of Hormuz. 0.98

00:06:15.000 Obviously, the military campaign is still ongoing, so that's why we are working now, these countries together and also with the U.S. to make sure that we assess what, when, and how we can do this.

00:06:27.000 Well, the European support, if it's going to kick in, it ought to kick into high gear now.

00:06:32.000 It seems we're already on the verge of the Arab world stepping in full scale. 1.00

00:06:35.000 The United Arab Emirates presidential advisor Anwar Gargash put out a statement over the weekend: quote: As we confront the brutal Iranian aggression and discover our steadfast strength in resilience and endurance, our thinking does not stop at a ceasefire, but rather toward the solutions that ensure lasting security in the Arabian Gulf.

00:06:54.000 Curbing the nuclear threat, missiles, drones, bullying of the straits, it's conceivable this aggression should turn into a permanent state of threat.

00:07:01.000 In other words, no more stopgap measures, no more kicking the can down the road.

00:07:06.000 Iran appears to be on its last legs.

00:07:08.000 Treasury Secretary Scott Besson appeared on Meet the Press over the weekend.

00:07:11.000 Here's what he had to say: Just to be clear, the command and control system of the Iranian regime is in chaos.

00:07:19.000 This is Hitler's bunker. 0.82

00:07:21.000 Hitler is dead. 0.92

00:07:22.000 Himmler is dead.

00:07:23.000 Goring is dead.

00:07:26.000 Most of what you're seeing are lone wolf activities.

00:07:30.000 The mid-range ICBM that was shot off, these two missiles yesterday, that's out of desperation, Kristen.

00:07:39.000 The Treasury Secretary is not wrong here.

00:07:41.000 According to Axios, U.S. and Israeli intelligence think that the Gayatolla, Moshtaba Khomeini, might still be alive, but they really have no evidence that he is, according to Axios.

00:07:50.000 Quote, a U.S. official said it's beyond weird.

00:07:52.000 We don't think the Iranians would have gone through all this trouble to choose a dead guy as the supreme leader.

00:07:56.000 But at the same time, we have no proof he's taking the helm.

00:07:59.000 Two senior Israeli officials claim the Larajani assassination expanded the power vacuum and that it was being filled mainly by the IRGC.

00:08:05.000 That's the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

00:08:07.000 The IRGC are taking over Iran and they are crazy, a senior Arab official told Daxios. 0.91

00:08:12.000 They are highly ideological and they are ready to die and meet Khomeini Sr. 0.84

00:08:16.000 Iran is in pretty serious trouble and they know it. 1.00

00:08:20.000 And that is why they are doing truly idiotic things, like not at any strategic level. 1.00

00:08:23.000 What they just did over the weekend is really stupid. 1.00

00:08:25.000 Firing a long-range missile that exposes their most far-reaching capacity is a dumb thing to do. 1.00

00:08:30.000 They know they are in trouble and they are throwing anything they can at the wall. 0.60

00:08:34.000 They are hurling spaghetti at the wall at this point.

00:08:37.000 Aside from firing new long-range missiles at American bases in the middle of the Indian Ocean, they also, over the weekend, fired a missile at the center of the old city of Jerusalem, which is where the Dome of the Rock is.

00:08:46.000 That is where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is where the Temple Mount is.

00:08:50.000 Here's footage of an Iranian missile fragment landing in the old city of Jerusalem.

00:08:53.000 I know exactly where this area is.

00:08:55.000 It's a highly trafficked area.

00:08:57.000 People walk in this area all the time.

00:08:59.000 And you can see the missile fragment blowing a gigantic hole basically in the road.

00:09:06.000 That's about 1,200 meters from the Temple Mount itself.

00:09:10.000 They are clearly trying to light the region on fire as a last resort.

00:09:14.000 They're setting the building on fire because they're hoping that the cops won't enter.

00:09:18.000 They also fired missiles at Dimona and Arad in Israel.

00:09:21.000 Those are civilian centers.

00:09:22.000 Presumably, they were trying to fire at Israel's nuclear reactor in Dimona.

00:09:26.000 They missed.

00:09:27.000 Instead, they hid an area between apartment buildings.

00:09:29.000 It wounded over 100 people in this, including children.

00:09:33.000 Here's some aerial footage of what the damage looked like.

00:09:36.000 Again, this is an ultra-Orthodox area.

00:09:39.000 And it was lucky that the missile didn't hit the building directly.

00:09:42.000 It actually hit between the buildings.

00:09:43.000 It did a lot of damage to people anyway who weren't in their mamads.

00:09:46.000 Those would be their safe rooms.

00:09:48.000 Killing civilians, firing long-range missiles, targeting religious holy sites, including Muslim religious holy sites.

00:09:53.000 None of this is the mark of a regime empowered and strengthened and in great shape in this war.

00:09:58.000 It is the mark of a regime on its way out.

00:10:02.000 In just a second, we'll get to Iran's only true point of leverage. 0.95

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00:11:34.000 Now, for those who missed it last week, we are now answering your questions live during the show.

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00:11:47.000 Have we questions from our members?

00:11:50.000 So today in the mailbag, Sarah has found this one.

00:11:50.000 We do.

00:11:53.000 I saw news over the weekend of conflicting intelligence reports about ICBM development in Iran.

00:11:58.000 Apparently, Gabbard testified last year that they weren't developing them.

00:12:01.000 What's the deal?

00:12:02.000 Well, Tulsi Gabbard, as DNI, let us just say that she has not been a boon.

00:12:06.000 So the problem with ODNI, Tulsi Gabbard, is that she has always been oriented very much in an isolationist, sort of quasi-anti-American direction when it comes to foreign policy.

00:12:14.000 And there have been serious questions about how she shades the intelligence.

00:12:17.000 And this makes a big difference.

00:12:19.000 The way that we examine our intelligence information, a bunch of raw information comes into our intelligence apparatus.

00:12:25.000 And then how you analyze that information is sort of a choose your own adventure game.

00:12:29.000 So you'll hear CIA Director John Ratcliffe say things.

00:12:31.000 And then you will hear Tulsi Gabbard, who is the DNI theoretically overseeing the CIA, and they will say two different things.

00:12:38.000 So the question is to whether they are quote unquote developing ICBMs.

00:12:42.000 The question is not really how fast are they?

00:12:44.000 What are they?

00:12:45.000 The question is, could they and what is their intent?

00:12:47.000 And that's difficult to discern based on the raw intelligence.

00:12:50.000 And so that's why you can have two intelligence officials in the same exact administration saying two things that appear to be in direct conflict.

00:12:59.000 Okay, so let's talk about the only hope for Iran. 0.99

00:13:01.000 The only hope left for Iran is that the West gets tired. 0.99

00:13:03.000 And their only true point of leverage remains oil prices, which means really the Strait of Hormuz.

00:13:08.000 President Trump knows that.

00:13:09.000 He's pretty much done with it.

00:13:10.000 That's why Sunday evening he put out the following tweet, quote, peace through strength, to put it mildly.

00:13:15.000 That was on Truth Social.

00:13:17.000 Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says we are already moving to destroy fortifications along the Strait of Hormuz.

00:13:22.000 Again, if you look at sort of a map of the Strait of Hormuz, it kind of looks like this.

00:13:26.000 Well, the sort of northern point of that spear right there on the Iranian shore, that is the territory that Iran has to hold in order to fire drones at shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

00:13:36.000 The United States has been expending resources blowing that stuff out of the ground.

00:13:41.000 What we have done, there has been a campaign to using military assets to soften up the Iranian fortifications along the strait.

00:13:53.000 That's going to continue until they are completely demolished.

00:13:59.000 Well, over the weekend, President Trump pulled out the stops rhetorically.

00:14:03.000 He made a threat on Saturday that basically sent the markets into a tizzy.

00:14:07.000 He said, quote, if Iran doesn't fully open without threat, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 hours from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various power plants, starting with the biggest one first.

00:14:17.000 Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Trump.

00:14:20.000 UN Ambassador Mike Walls on the Sunday shows made clear that President Trump was not joking.

00:14:24.000 Here's what he had to say on CBS with Margaret Brennan.

00:14:28.000 How do you ensure that this doesn't constitute a war crime, which the UN Secretary General said an attack on energy infrastructure could be?

00:14:35.000 How do you make sure this is not mass punishment for innocent people?

00:14:38.000 Well, I think I would encourage and will encourage the Secretary General to point out the 20 to 30,000 Iranians that the regime massacred at scale, the civilian infrastructure that they're attacking.

00:14:53.000 But when you have a regime that has its grips and so much critical infrastructure that's using it to further not only the repression of its own people, to attack its neighbors, and in contravention of UN sanctions, to march towards a nuclear weapon, then that makes those legitimate targets.

00:15:11.000 Well, Walls also added that this was in fact a credible threat that when President Trump says we'll bomb their power plants, he was not joking about this.

00:15:20.000 Is he going to bomb a nuclear power plant or is that off the table?

00:15:24.000 Well, I would never take anything off the table for the president, certainly not on national television.

00:15:30.000 However, there are larger plants.

00:15:32.000 There's one outside of Tehran.

00:15:34.000 There are others outside of other cities that are gas-fired, thermal-powered.

00:15:39.000 I think the important point here is to understand the IRGC, a declared terrorist organization, not only by us, but a number of European countries, controls a huge swath of Iran's critical infrastructure, their economy, and certainly many of their governing institutions.

00:15:57.000 And so to the extent we're degrading their military capability and their defense industrial base, all options should be on the table.

00:16:04.000 And the president's made that very clear.

00:16:07.000 Now, this would be a pretty extreme tactic.

00:16:09.000 Even Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who is hoping for the overthrow of the regime, clearly, came out against that measure, given it would chiefly affect the Iranian people rather than the regime in his mind.

00:16:19.000 Well, in response, Iran is both pretending that the strait is currently opening and also threatening retaliation for any action against Iranian power plans.

00:16:26.000 Mazoud Pazeshkian, who is walking around with an eye on the sky these days, he says the illusion of erasing Iran from the map shows desperation against the will of a history-making nation.

00:16:34.000 By the way, nobody is talking about erasing Iran from the map.

00:16:37.000 They're talking about the fall of a regime that has terrorized 80 to 90 million people for two generations at this point.

00:16:43.000 Threats and terror only strengthen our unity, says Pazeshkian.

00:16:45.000 The Strait of Hormuz is open to all except those who violate our soil. 1.00

00:16:48.000 We firmly confront delirious threats on the battlefield.

00:16:52.000 Right now, Iran is trying to charge people $2 million apiece to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

00:16:57.000 Abbas Iraqi, the foreign minister, he put out a statement, quote, Strait of Hormuz is not closed.

00:17:01.000 Ships hesitate because insurers fear the war of choice you initiated, not Iran.

00:17:04.000 Well, actually, they hesitate because they're afraid that Iran is going to hit their ships with drones.

00:17:08.000 No insurer and no Iranian will be swayed by more threats. 1.00

00:17:11.000 Try respect, says Iraqi. 1.00

00:17:12.000 Freedom of navigation cannot exist without freedom of trade.

00:17:15.000 Respect both or expect neither.

00:17:17.000 Well, now, Iran is also threatening to hit other infrastructure in other countries.

00:17:21.000 In the Middle East, they're threatening to hit energy fields and desalination facilities.

00:17:27.000 The truth is, of course, they've already been hitting infrastructure throughout the Middle East throughout this war.

00:17:31.000 Here's a mere partial list of resources hit by Iran during the current conflict.

00:17:35.000 They hit the Aramco complex at Raz Tanura.

00:17:37.000 They hit the Ras Lafan LNG complex, that would be liquefied natural gas complex in Qatar.

00:17:43.000 They hit the Havshan gas facility and Bab onshore oil facility in UAE.

00:17:47.000 They hit a water desalination facility in Bahrain.

00:17:51.000 Well, as it turns out, the Iranian regime may be talking tough while negotiating their own disarmament with President Trump.

00:17:56.000 On Monday morning, President Trump put out a statement suggesting, quote, all outstanding issues were close to being resolved with Iran through back-channel negotiations.

00:18:04.000 He put out this statement, quote, all caps, I am pleased to report that the United States of America and the country of Iran have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.

00:18:16.000 Based on the tenor and tone of these in-depth, detailed, and constructive conversations, which will continue throughout the week, I've instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.

00:18:32.000 Thank you for your attention to this matter.

00:18:34.000 Now, again, he is only pledging that there will be no hits on the power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period.

00:18:40.000 All the rest of the strikes will continue.

00:18:43.000 So it could have been that President Trump's original statement that came out again Saturday morning on power stations may have been a negotiating tactic to up the ante.

00:18:52.000 So what would a negotiated outcome look like?

00:18:54.000 Well, according to Barack Ravid over at Axios, the administration has set out six terms.

00:18:59.000 One, no missile program for five years.

00:19:01.000 Two, zero uranium enrichment.

00:19:03.000 Three, decommissioning the nuclear reactors at Natan's Isfahan and Fordau.

00:19:07.000 Four, strict outside observation protocols around centrifuges.

00:19:10.000 Five, arms control treaties with regional countries, including a missile cap of 1,000.

00:19:15.000 And six, no financing of proxies.

00:19:17.000 Now, I will admit, to me, this sounds fanciful.

00:19:20.000 Iran is currently saying that they want a permanent ceasefire, right?

00:19:25.000 A commitment never to renew attacks and also reparations for damage done.

00:19:28.000 Like we're going to pay them.

00:19:30.000 And they've said repeatedly in the past they will not commit to ending their nuclear program.

00:19:34.000 And I will say that these conditions appear under-inclusive on their face.

00:19:38.000 There are other nuclear facilities outside of Natan's, Isfahan, and Fordau, including, for example, Pickaxe Mountain.

00:19:43.000 It would require American inspectors on the ground to truly ensure centrifuge monitoring and arms control monitoring as well.

00:19:50.000 Like, who's actually going to testify that Iran is keeping its commitments?

00:19:53.000 And if anyone believes the Iranian government is going to be bound by some sort of arms control treaty, including a missile cap of 1,000, that sounds, again, delusional to me.

00:20:01.000 Iran has already fired approximately 600 missiles in the last three weeks.

00:20:06.000 And again, their entire strategy relies on being able to overpower air defenses because the vast majority of those have been shot down.

00:20:13.000 Well, as of this morning, the Iranian foreign ministry was denying negotiations altogether.

00:20:17.000 So while the president is saying the negotiations are ongoing, the Iranian foreign ministry is saying that's not true.

00:20:22.000 So you have to decide who to believe.

00:20:24.000 They're claiming they backed President Trump down, which seems doubtful.

00:20:27.000 Quote, we deny the statements of U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the negotiations taking place between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

00:20:34.000 The Islamic Republic of Iran maintains its positions against any negotiation before Iran achieves its war objectives.

00:20:40.000 Now, my sources suggest the negotiations have, in fact, been taking place.

00:20:45.000 The Iranians claiming that the negotiations are not taking place and that they back Trump off the ball.

00:20:49.000 That seems like an unwise approach.

00:20:51.000 Now, there are some other possibilities here.

00:20:54.000 It is possible that President Trump is announcing diplomatic efforts in order to show the American people that he's availing himself of all options.

00:21:01.000 So if he has to go even harder, they'll understand he tried to talk this through with the Iranians before we went really, really hard.

00:21:07.000 So say before we take Harg Island, he's showing we tried to talk it through and then we had to do what we had to do.

00:21:12.000 And the most likely reality, of course, is that President Trump put out the statement because he wants to signal to the markets that there will be an end to the war at some point in the fairly near future, and he wants the price of oil to drop.

00:21:23.000 After all, this is exactly what happened last week.

00:21:26.000 You remember, Israel struck an Iranian gas field, South Pars, and America did approve of it.

00:21:30.000 And then the price of oil spiked.

00:21:32.000 And so President Trump said the Israelis did it on their own and that this wouldn't happen again.

00:21:35.000 And then the price went down again.

00:21:37.000 Well, the same thing happened right here.

00:21:38.000 Immediately upon announcing the postponement of those strikes on energy plants, the price of Brent crude dropped from near $110 a barrel to below $100 a barrel.

00:21:47.000 This is the balancing act the administration is trying to play here.

00:21:50.000 They want the Iranian regime to be defenestrated.

00:21:53.000 At the same time, they want to keep the oil prices as low as possible in order to maintain public support for the action.

00:21:58.000 The Trump administration understands the American people will keep supporting what has to be done in Iran so long as it doesn't hit them too hard in the pocketbook.

00:22:07.000 That would be the point, for example, of relieving certain sanctions in order to press down the oil prices.

00:22:12.000 Because right now, the United States is talking about, believe it or not, relieving Iranian oil sanctions in order to allow them to ship oil out, continue to ship oil out, and keep the price of oil down.

00:22:21.000 Here was Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, explaining the sanctions calculus to Kristen Welker and NBC.

00:22:27.000 If the point of the sanctions was to stop funding the Russian war machine, why is the administration effectively rewarding Russia?

00:22:34.000 Again, Kristen, you're missing the point.

00:22:38.000 Which is better?

00:22:39.000 Does Russia get more money if oil goes to 150 and they get 70% of that?

00:22:45.000 That's 105, or if oil stays below 100, so they're getting less money.

00:22:49.000 Our analysis shows, our analysis shows that the maximum extra amount that Russia could get would be $2 billion, which is one day of the Russian Federation's budget.

00:23:03.000 But understood, but they wouldn't have gotten any of that within the US.

00:23:06.000 I don't know.

00:23:07.000 Whoever said that.

00:23:08.000 But would they have gotten any of that information?

00:23:10.000 Whoever does your research, you should get rid of.

00:23:14.000 Okay, so again, the Treasury Secretary is good at this.

00:23:17.000 From the outside, I have to say this looks like a hard strategy to pull off.

00:23:20.000 Every time the administration backs away from hard power in favor of some sort of temporary expedient on oil and gas prices, presumably that embolds the Iranian regime to lever up the economic pain. 0.62

00:23:31.000 If they feel like that is their leverage point, they will use it.

00:23:34.000 Or it's possible that the people in the know, in the Trump administration or in Israel, know something that we don't, that Iran militarily is on its last legs.

00:23:42.000 So it actually doesn't matter very much what they do, that if they have a little bit of extra money, that's not going to save them.

00:23:48.000 So if we can keep the price of oil down while finishing them off, maybe that is the best possible solution.

00:23:52.000 Meanwhile, there is hiding just out of sight the 800-pound guerrilla in the room, and that is the Iranian people. 0.99

00:24:00.000 What happens when the people of Iran take to the streets in the aftermath of all this damage to the Iranian regime?

00:24:05.000 Because make no mistake, that is going to happen.

00:24:08.000 If Iranians took to the streets by the millions before all of this, in the face of the IRGC and Basij, killing them by the tens of thousands, what happens after the United States and Israel have killed all of Iran's top brass and they're hitting all of the field commanders of the Basij in the streets with individual suicide drones?

00:24:26.000 Well, here's U.S. NCOM Chief Brad Cooper talking to the Iranian people saying, don't go yet. 1.00

00:24:32.000 First and foremost, we are attacking the regime in the Islamic Republic, not the wonderful people. 1.00

00:24:38.000 The second piece is continue to heed our advice.

00:24:42.000 We've had multiple messages that have come out that have said, beware, the government doesn't care about you.

00:24:48.000 They're launching missiles and drones from populated areas.

00:24:51.000 You need to stay inside for right now.

00:24:53.000 Third, there will be a clear signal at some point, as the president has indicated, for you to be able to come out.

00:25:02.000 So what is the likely outcome here?

00:25:04.000 Well, the range of outcomes runs from the pretty good to the excellent.

00:25:07.000 Iran's missile and drone capabilities have already been largely destroyed.

00:25:10.000 Its Air Force and its Navy are no longer existent.

00:25:12.000 Its top regime figures are all dead.

00:25:14.000 Even if the U.S. were to walk away right now, Iran would be so much weaker than they were even one month ago. 0.58

00:25:20.000 But the best outcome, in my opinion, is still on the table.

00:25:23.000 Keep slamming them.

00:25:24.000 I think we ought to cut off their oil supply entirely by taking Kharg Island. 1.00

00:25:28.000 Reopen the Strait of Hormuz by wreaking havoc on the coastal areas surrounding the strait.

00:25:32.000 Continue to destroy Iran's military hierarchy. 0.92

00:25:35.000 Open the way for a true domestic uprising.

00:25:37.000 Sure, Iran could theoretically lash out in its death rows still further. 0.89

00:25:41.000 Over the weekend, they apparently initiated, they activated some sort of terrorist cell in London to burn some Hatzalah vans.

00:25:48.000 Hatzalah is a Jewish emergency medical services group.

00:25:52.000 So they activated one of their terror cells to burn some cars.

00:25:54.000 The solution is not to leave the Iranian government in place to do all of this with greater power in the future to develop more missiles to redevelop its nuclear program when President Trump is not in the White House.

00:26:06.000 That would be like arguing we ought not put down a rabid dog because, hey, it might bite us, ignoring the fact that if you leave the rabbit dog alone, that's going to lead to a far greater spread of rabidity and far more damage.

00:26:17.000 Well, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, I think, had an excellent take on all of this in short form on the all-in podcast.

00:26:25.000 I believe that there's a reason we went to war, and I believe at the end of the war, Middle East will be more stable than before. 0.99

00:26:34.000 So why should we be optimistic about a positive outcome in Iran? 1.00

00:26:37.000 Because again, if you flip the table, assume for a second that Iran had been hitting the United States to the tune of killing the president, killing the vice president, killing our entire military infrastructure, destroying our entire missile arsenal, destroying our Air Force and our Navy, and we had basically been relegated to shutting off some of the waterways. 0.78

00:26:54.000 Would that be a win or would that be an L?

00:26:57.000 The reality is that three weeks of heavy bombing runs, completely unfettered by anything like an Iranian air defense, is not a win for Iran.

00:27:07.000 It is in fact an L for Iran. 0.84

00:27:09.000 And what happens next over the course of the next couple of years is going to tell the rest of the story.

00:27:13.000 Well, in just one second, we'll get into the America Lasters.

00:27:16.000 First, the data are in.

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00:27:28.000 I was like, oh, this is fine.

00:27:29.000 I bought it.

00:27:30.000 And then the mattress started sinking in the middle and I started sweat through the night.

00:27:34.000 Well, we switched to a Helix mattress and all of that changed.

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00:27:42.000 That's a far more rational system than just wandering around a showroom and laying down on random beds the way that I used to do.

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00:27:55.000 Again, Helix is made just for me.

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00:28:27.000 Also, today's episode is sponsored by American Beverage.

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00:29:24.000 All right, Savvy, have we more questions from our members?

00:29:27.000 We do.

00:29:27.000 So do you think there's any chance that the conflict in the Middle East will ultimately result in full-scale war over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem?

00:29:34.000 No, I do not think that that is a possibility.

00:29:36.000 I think Iran is trying to initiate that. 0.68

00:29:38.000 Iran, I think, would love nothing better at this point than to blow up al-Aqsa from the outside, blame Israel for it, claim that Israel is going to build the third temple on that territory, and that now all the Muslims all over the Middle East must side with Iran. 0.95

00:29:52.000 I think that was their actual goal in firing missiles at the, I mean, this is insane. 0.51

00:29:55.000 What they're trying to do right now is totally, totally crazy.

00:29:58.000 But do I think they're going to succeed in that?

00:30:00.000 No.

00:30:00.000 Do I think the Israeli government knows what they're trying to do?

00:30:02.000 Yes.

00:30:03.000 Do I think the Saudi government knows what they're trying to do?

00:30:05.000 Yes.

00:30:06.000 The reality is everyone in the region is now allied.

00:30:08.000 Everyone is now allied against Iran.

00:30:10.000 There are rumors over the weekend that the Qataris are doing what they do best, trying to bribe the Iranians, like trying to pay them billions of dollars to allow some shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. 0.75

00:30:19.000 And there's some people playing both sides in the Middle East.

00:30:22.000 But overall, do I think that that is a likelihood or even really a possibility?

00:30:26.000 I do not.

00:30:27.000 Any more questions?

00:30:28.000 How can the Iranian people rise up as long as they don't have guns? 1.00

00:30:32.000 And if we're destroying all of Iran's military capacity, where will a hopefully secular new government get their guns from? 0.80

00:30:38.000 Okay, so the first question is the big one.

00:30:39.000 And I think the answer right now is nobody kind of knows who has guns, who doesn't, and what's going to happen next.

00:30:45.000 So you would presume that there would have to be some storming of some arsenals.

00:30:48.000 We know they're limited weapons.

00:30:50.000 There are some guns.

00:30:51.000 We just don't know who has them or how many.

00:30:53.000 There are the outlying areas.

00:30:54.000 Again, over the weekend, the New York Times reported that the United States has fallen out of love with the idea of Iranian Kurds leading an armed rebellion in the Kurdish region of Iran.

00:31:05.000 We know they have guns.

00:31:06.000 So we will see.

00:31:07.000 We'll see how that plays out.

00:31:09.000 However, I think one of the moves here would be don't disband, for example, the Iranian army.

00:31:13.000 Get rid of the IRGC and the Basij. 1.00

00:31:15.000 Those are the ideological repression machines inside Iran.

00:31:18.000 The Iranian army is devised for the defense of Iran.

00:31:21.000 They are significantly more moderate, supposedly, than the IRGC or the Basij, which is why the IRGC and the Basij exist.

00:31:30.000 So, it's sort of the difference between, say, the German army officers in 1932 versus some of the paramilitary groups that were run by the Nazi Party.

00:31:38.000 So, that's sort of the analogy here.

00:31:42.000 So, those people presumably would not go home.

00:31:44.000 They would continue to do policing functions, for example.

00:31:46.000 Okay, so Chen Sen Huang over at NVIDIA is right.

00:31:49.000 The world will be far better off for what President Trump is doing right now.

00:31:53.000 Because it turns out that what we are doing right now is not just destroying Iran's forward capacity. 0.80

00:31:58.000 We are also reshuffling the deck with regard to global power.

00:32:02.000 We are telling the Chinese that we are unwilling to allow for their global domination or for the rise of a sphere of influence. 1.00

00:32:10.000 We are telling the Russians that we do not wish for them to continue to have massive impact in the Middle East. 0.99

00:32:15.000 A world in which the United States acts as an unchallengeable global hegemon is better.

00:32:20.000 It is better than a world of multipolarity.

00:32:23.000 Multipolarity is an anodyne term for a world in which the tyrannical, evil communist Chinese party flexes its muscles over a large part of the globe, and the tyrannical and evil Russian government does the same in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. 0.87

00:32:35.000 Multipolarity is bad. 1.00

00:32:38.000 It is not morally neutral.

00:32:39.000 It is bad because what it means practically is that China controls a lot more territory and Russia controls a lot more territory.

00:32:46.000 And China threatens our allies and Russia threatens our allies.

00:32:49.000 The chief advocates for multipolarity, unsurprisingly, at this point in time, are the Chinese and the Russians.

00:32:56.000 So, Xi, the dictator of China, explained in 2024 he sought, quote, an equal and orderly multipolar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.

00:33:07.000 And what does he mean by that?

00:33:08.000 That's fancy talk for we want more power.

00:33:10.000 We want our sphere of influence.

00:33:12.000 And when they say they want equal rights, the hell they do. 0.98

00:33:14.000 They don't want Taiwan to have equal rights.

00:33:16.000 They certainly didn't want Hong Kong to have equal rights.

00:33:18.000 Vladimir Putin visited China and said in 2025, he totally mirrored Xi, he said, quote, a unipolar world is unfair.

00:33:26.000 You see, it's unfair if Russia doesn't get its own sphere of influence.

00:33:29.000 Again, this has been a long time Russian belief.

00:33:31.000 Alexander Dugan, who's sort of Putin's brain, has explained this.

00:33:35.000 I've done full episodes exploring what Dugan thinks.

00:33:37.000 He says that the Russian ambition in the world cannot be territorial.

00:33:42.000 It has to be imperial.

00:33:44.000 That basically it can't just be Russia rules its own roost.

00:33:46.000 It has to be that Russia seeks power all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean, which means domination of Europe. 0.80

00:33:52.000 Putin said, quote, it's obvious the world must be multipolar, which means that the actors of international communication and international relations must be equal.

00:34:00.000 There must be no one more equal than the others.

00:34:03.000 A unipolar world must cease to exist.

00:34:04.000 Now, again, recognize this is the Russian government that just invaded Ukraine and seeks to turn it into a vassal state.

00:34:11.000 Now, members of the grievance party, the America Lasters, people who actually really do despise America's history and her present, are openly siding with China and Russia, just as they have with Iran in the current conflict.

00:34:22.000 Tucker Carlson, who has been openly identified by Dugan as an ideological ally, recently told this to The Economist.

00:34:30.000 We can no longer be the sole author of terms, of commerce, of anything.

00:34:35.000 We have to share power with China. 0.96

00:34:38.000 Of course, because of their scale.

00:34:43.000 Tucker's guests make this argument all the time.

00:34:46.000 And just as often, they are Chinese propagandists.

00:34:48.000 Take, for example, Jeffrey Sachs.

00:34:49.000 He's on Tucker's show all the time.

00:34:51.000 He's a true globalist show, meaning he has called for global government.

00:34:54.000 And he is basically an unofficial spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party.

00:34:58.000 Here he is making the case that we ought to cede more power to China.

00:35:04.000 In many ways, the United States cannot compete with China, certainly on manufacturing production across a wide range of industries, can't compete with China in a wide range of diplomatic areas.

00:35:21.000 And this is very disruptive, probably would be intrinsically disruptive because this is a change of power and a change of the international order.

00:35:36.000 And I think we all feel that it's not a temporary phenomenon, but really the end of the U.S.-led geopolitics and even more fundamentally, the end of the Western-led geopolitics.

00:35:52.000 Again, Sachs is a left-wing globalist.

00:35:55.000 He was a big advocate for the idea that America should give up power to China over global warming.

00:36:00.000 Well, Tucker Carlson consistently repeats Sachs's messaging, and he did so over the weekend while interviewing a man he called a prophet.

00:36:07.000 Remember, Tucker's other prophets include holy men like Alex Jones.

00:36:10.000 There's a professor named Zhang Shekin, a Chinese propagandist.

00:36:14.000 I mean, literally a Chinese propagandist.

00:36:16.000 He teaches high school in Beijing, and he's titled a Harvard Researcher, although I can't really identify any of his Harvard research at this point.

00:36:23.000 Maybe it's there, maybe I don't know. 0.74

00:36:24.000 Anyway, here is Tucker speaking with this clown and agreeing that America should give up its hegemonic standing in the world.

00:36:32.000 What I would do is basically sit down everyone, okay, including Russia, China, Iran, and say, it's time for a new world order where we are partners in this relationship, right?

00:36:46.000 Before America was a hegemon, before the U.S. father was the world reserve currency. 0.64

00:36:50.000 But now what we want to do is open a dialogue where everyone is respected, where America is no longer the bully, but a willing partner in creating a new economic order that benefits everyone and not just a few.

00:37:09.000 I think that's the wisest possible advice and probably the only path that preserves civilization.

00:37:16.000 But the one country standing in the way of that is Israel. 0.89

00:37:21.000 So Israel is the tiny country in the Middle East is standing, not the United States, Israel, because Israel, of course, is the one that's blackmailing America into not giving up its global power. 0.88

00:37:31.000 And you should recognize that what he is talking about right there, Tucker with Zhang, what he is talking about right there is what you might call a new world order.

00:37:38.000 You might call it that.

00:37:40.000 Literally a partnership between the United States, China, and Russia to restructure global economics to quote unquote not benefit a few.

00:37:48.000 That's what that is.

00:37:49.000 If you don't find that alarming, it's because you are full-scale ignoring what Tucker Carlson is saying and what Zhang is saying right there.

00:37:55.000 Again, Zhang is a Chinese Communist Party propagandist.

00:37:59.000 We should talk about Zhang for just a moment, because to understand why the America Lasters seem to have such unique power in the online space, we have to understand that the America Last philosophy is rooted in a deep conspiracism about the United States.

00:38:12.000 See, here's the thing.

00:38:13.000 To the untrained eye, the eye of a normie American who grew up in America, who loves America, who was born in America, a world with more American power is a better world, a freer world, a more prosperous world.

00:38:27.000 That untrained eye, when I say untrained, I mean non-conspiratorial eye, might look at the increase of power of America since World War II and see overall unprecedented, unprecedented economic prosperity, the defeat of the Nazi Empire and the Soviet Union, the spread of democratic values, the spread of economic freedom.

00:38:47.000 America Lasters, though, see something else.

00:38:49.000 And again, they are both of left and of right.

00:38:52.000 On the left, they see a worse world since World War II, a world of evil American capitalism destroying local communities of quote-unquote racist military might, overwhelming people of color everywhere. 0.98

00:39:03.000 The story of the world since World War II in the left-wing America last vision is a world of unending tragedy, the failure of the Marxist dream of the Soviet Union, the collapse of a fairer vision to the reality of free markets, the emptying out of left-wing thought in favor of neoliberalism.

00:39:20.000 Well, on the right, the America Lasters see a worse world since World War II as well.

00:39:25.000 A world of evil American capitalism, emptying out the communitarian world of real America.

00:39:31.000 A world of American imperialism spreading vile secularism abroad.

00:39:36.000 A world of false meritocracy providing cover for an emptying out of so-called heritage Americanism, decided by bloodline rather than American ideals.

00:39:44.000 Those are ideals that they consider a sham and a ruse.

00:39:48.000 This would be why America Lasters are fully in favor of the destruction of American power abroad. 0.88

00:39:53.000 But to destroy American power, first you have to change American minds.

00:39:56.000 To do that, you have to explain that a world of increased American power is actually terrible, darker, more evil.

00:40:03.000 And to make that claim, you have to believe a bunch of conspiracies.

00:40:06.000 You have to believe that American meritocracy is actually a lie, that the Declaration of Independence is a lie, that in reality, America is run by a secret coterie of evildoers who manipulate systems and events for their own specific insular benefit.

00:40:22.000 So, you know, that prophet Tucker was talking to Zhang.

00:40:25.000 Here he was explaining his views on America in a recent interview with fellow America Lass hosts over at a podcast called Breaking Points.

00:40:34.000 If you look at the Epsom files, it's clear that we are run by secret societies.

00:40:38.000 It's clear that the world is run by these individuals who have a lot of power.

00:40:44.000 We don't know who they are, but they control the military.

00:40:47.000 They control the national security apparatus.

00:40:50.000 And these people, there are different names for these people.

00:40:53.000 You can call them the Illuminati.

00:40:56.000 And the Illuminati are composed of three major groups.

00:40:58.000 You have the Jesuits who control the Vatican. 0.83

00:41:00.000 You have the September Frankists, which control the modern state of Israel today. 1.00

00:41:04.000 You have the Freemasons, which control the national security apparatus of the United States. 0.94

00:41:09.000 And they believe that Israel, this one in the Middle East, is key to the end times in creating heaven on earth. 0.99

00:41:18.000 So it's almost like a script that they're following, even though it doesn't make any duplicate sense.

00:41:26.000 Wonder why Tucker likes this guy?

00:41:27.000 That is why Tucker likes the Chinese communist propagandas.

00:41:31.000 Now, again, Zhang believes that this big conspiracy ends with wait for it, wait for it, wait for it.

00:41:36.000 I know you won't believe it.

00:41:37.000 Pax Judaica, in which secret societies based in Jerusalem run the world. 0.74

00:41:41.000 Again, he's speaking basically on behalf of the Chinese communist government, which is right now controlling a billion people and trying also to grab hold of Taiwan and threaten American interests not only in the region, but across the world.

00:41:52.000 Here is Zhang explaining the Pax Judaica.

00:41:56.000 This is a theory, all right?

00:41:59.000 So let's assume they knew each other.

00:42:01.000 What they will do together is create a new organization called the Illuminati.

00:42:09.000 And this organization is what controls the world, the Illuminati.

00:42:13.000 Even if he spells it wrong.

00:42:14.000 Now, there is a legend that Adam Washaught, when he created, after he created the Illuminati, he encouraged his followers to infiltrate another organization called the Freemasons.

00:42:31.000 He's right on the 100 members of European society.

00:42:38.000 These are intellectuals like Goethe.

00:42:40.000 These were nobility.

00:42:41.000 These were bankers.

00:42:43.000 And so this is the framework that controls the world.

00:42:47.000 The Illuminati was able to penetrate the Freemasons.

00:42:50.000 So now you have an alliance of the Jesuits, the Jews, the September Frankists, the Catholics, and the Freemasons. 0.95

00:43:00.000 And so this is the Alliance of Secret Societies.

00:43:04.000 This is Tucker Carlson's prophet over here.

00:43:06.000 Zhang's conspiracy is not unique in this day and age.

00:43:09.000 See, the America Last movement relies on unchecked conspiracy theorizing, conspiracism run amok.

00:43:15.000 And thank goodness for them, that conspiracy is not just on the rise.

00:43:19.000 It's on the exponential rise. 0.99

00:43:20.000 Of course, it's not just Candace Owens and her broken brain spewing this garbage. 1.00

00:43:24.000 It's now Joe Rogan, the biggest podcaster on the planet, who increasingly spends his days retailing the same sorts of nonsense directly. 0.98

00:43:31.000 In his last podcast, for example, he is now spreading the theory that Bibi Netanyahu is dead and AIBB is wandering the earth.

00:43:37.000 Like, come on, Joe, you're too smart for this.

00:43:40.000 Don't do this.

00:43:43.000 This is he's got, come on, he can't be dead.

00:43:45.000 He might be dead.

00:43:46.000 His brothers. 0.67

00:43:47.000 See, that's like, look at this.

00:43:48.000 Yeah.

00:43:49.000 Like the coffee, look how turned it is.

00:43:51.000 Come on, man.

00:43:52.000 It doesn't spill at all.

00:43:53.000 It just wiggles to the edge.

00:43:55.000 And then they've also shown that, like, on the register and in some of the signs, the writing's not real.

00:44:02.000 It's very weird, man.

00:44:04.000 Well, all right, Big.

00:44:05.000 We'll drink one for Yahoo.

00:44:08.000 He hasn't been seen publicly in over a week.

00:44:11.000 So he might be gone.

00:44:16.000 By the way, you know where that ends for Joe Rogan in this same podcast, it ends with Joe Rogan.

00:44:20.000 Wait for it going after Erica Kirk because if you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound.

00:44:24.000 Here was Joe Rogan truly doing something terrible over the weekend. 1.00

00:44:28.000 I've heard Erica Kirk's got a dick. 1.00

00:44:30.000 I've heard that one. 1.00

00:44:31.000 Whoa, she seems thrilled right now. 0.63

00:44:33.000 She's an odd duck. 1.00

00:44:34.000 She's a kook for sure. 1.00

00:44:36.000 You ever seen the compilation of her making crazy eyes? 0.94

00:44:38.000 No.

00:44:38.000 There's a video of her making demon eyes, and every time she makes the eyes, the music.

00:44:46.000 Well, she just gets intense. 0.99

00:44:49.000 Disgusting. 1.00

00:44:50.000 Really, really violent and disgusting. 0.99

00:44:52.000 Well, unsurprisingly, Joe now seems to find the views of the America Lasters convincing. 0.99

00:44:56.000 It turns out, if you believe enough nonsensical theories about the evil societies that secretly run America, you end up wanting America because it's run by a secret evil society to reduce its global influence.

00:45:06.000 Now, this phenomenon is present on the right in the form of that grievance party, but it's mainstream on the left, where people like Hassan Piker are welcomed into the highest circles of democratic politics.

00:45:16.000 Hassan Piker, who again holds hands with people like Tucker Carlson when it comes to foreign policy, spent his weekend when he wasn't bloviating about the evils of America attempting to defenestrate the mullahs, giving sensual massages to the Cuban communist government while wearing, I kid you not, $1,500 designer Cartier glasses.

00:45:34.000 The average annual salary in Cuba is currently $156.

00:45:38.000 So he's doing great. 0.96

00:45:40.000 He was in Cuba with the morons over at Code Pink, again, another foreign front group, doing some true poverty tourism. 0.99

00:45:50.000 They held a big concert, Code Pink, over in Havana with kneecap. 0.98

00:46:00.000 And apparently, by the way, the power that was utilized for this concert did not go to local hospitals.

00:46:05.000 Hassan Piker is also staying at a five-star hotel in Cuba, which he says is his moral duty.

00:46:10.000 He must.

00:46:11.000 He must stay at a five-star hotel.

00:46:12.000 You see, that is what good leftism requires.

00:46:17.000 The government has very limited resources, and the American government makes it illegal for Americans to stay wherever they want when they're in Cuba.

00:46:27.000 They have to stay in what they've declared as five-star hotels.

00:46:33.000 Oh, is that how it works? 0.99

00:46:34.000 Is that how it works, you schmuck? 1.00

00:46:36.000 I mean, by the way, cosplaying communism while staying at a five-star hotel wearing $1,500 glasses, this schmuck. 1.00

00:46:42.000 What a ridiculous figure he is. 0.99

00:46:44.000 By the way, it's not even true. 0.96

00:46:45.000 Michael Knowles actually went to Cuba a couple of years ago, and he actually used an Airbnb.

00:46:49.000 So it's not true.

00:46:50.000 And sure, the people don't have electricity in Cuba, but you see, that is just the romance of non-capitalism.

00:46:56.000 That's just how they want it, is the not having of the electricity.

00:47:00.000 I mean, there's like rolling blackouts that take place throughout the day, every day, all around the country, right?

00:47:06.000 11 million people.

00:47:07.000 But today is a beautiful day out here.

00:47:09.000 It's like 75 degrees, sunny.

00:47:13.000 People are partying.

00:47:14.000 People are partying the streets.

00:47:18.000 Wow.

00:47:19.000 What a beautiful life.

00:47:20.000 Well, just to prove the point that third worldism is a philosophy of envy and evil, these moral derelicts, again, spent their time on the impoverished island complaining about Israel during a kneecap concert.

00:47:29.000 So they're there with a government that represses its own people, keeps them in abject poverty.

00:47:34.000 Again, $156 in salary a year.

00:47:37.000 But they're there to chant about freeing Palestine with kneecap.

00:47:49.000 Third world is a man. 0.99

00:47:51.000 It's a thing.

00:47:52.000 Well, it's no shock that all these figures on all sides of the American last movement are radically anti-Israel because Israel actually is a powerful ally acting in concert with the United States.

00:48:02.000 Israel has spent decades building its military power, sharing intelligence and tech with the U.S., destroying incipient threats to the West, from the Iraqi nuclear reactor back in the 80s to the Syrian nuclear reactor in the mid-2000s to Iranian proxies and now the Iranian government.

00:48:16.000 And all these people despise Israel for it.

00:48:18.000 Hassan Piker, Tucker Carlson, and propagandists for the Chinese government, all on precisely the same page.

00:48:25.000 How little must you think of America to believe that those governments, China and Russia, ought to have more influence in the world and that this would somehow be better for the world and America?

00:48:35.000 American hegemony is the best thing for the world. 0.74

00:48:39.000 It is we who keep the trade routes open, ensuring freedom of the seas and the trade that provides the lifeblood of the global economy.

00:48:46.000 It is we who stand down the world's most evil regimes, achieving the world's most dangerous weapons.

00:48:51.000 It is we who support the rise of allies who share our values.

00:48:54.000 It is we who prevent the spread of perverse, cancerous power emanating from imperialist tyrants of communist and fascist persuasion.

00:49:04.000 The alternative world, the one that the America Lasters want, is dominated by the same people who ran the one child program and who currently throw dissidents in concentration camps to linger and die like Jimmy Lai. 0.92

00:49:15.000 A world run by people who currently chuck their political opponents from the roofs of buildings or poison them with nuclear materials, as the Russians have done, while allying with regimes that murder people who oppose radical Islam and supporting radical Islamic terror all over the world. 0.74

00:49:31.000 No American should be indifferent to the rise of our enemies globally.

00:49:35.000 Well, meanwhile, closer to home, the Democratic shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security continues to wreak havoc with our travel system.

00:49:42.000 Here's some footage of two to three hour lines at the Atlanta airport over the weekend.

00:49:47.000 Again, this is not the actual, this is not like lines to get on the planes.

00:49:52.000 These are the lines to get to security.

00:49:55.000 I mean, look at those lines.

00:49:56.000 They're just astonishing lines.

00:49:57.000 And again, this is because Democrats just won't fund the Department of Homeland Security.

00:50:01.000 Craziness.

00:50:02.000 Well, Elon Musk actually offered to pay TSA salary.

00:50:06.000 He said, I'd like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country.

00:50:13.000 Democrats, however, are perfectly happy with keeping people miserable in their travel lives.

00:50:19.000 Schumer's new gambit is he's only going to threaten to fully fund TSA, but not the rest of ICE, not DHS.

00:50:26.000 He says Republican senators will be forced on the record they can either vote to fund TSA for good or be fully responsible for its continued shutdown.

00:50:33.000 So basically, he now wants to blackmail the American people by saying he will not fund TSA unless he is able to defund ICE.

00:50:41.000 So the White House has responded by saying, well, why don't we just go get ICE agents to do TSA's job?

00:50:46.000 I know there are a lot of people freaking out about this.

00:50:48.000 I'm just going to point out.

00:50:49.000 I mean, listen, we've all been through TSA a thousand times at this point.

00:50:53.000 Do we really think that ICE agents are incapable of doing TSA's job?

00:50:57.000 That stellar, stellar job training over at TSA?

00:51:01.000 That is something that ICE agents just cannot handle.

00:51:03.000 Here was Tom Homan over the weekend.

00:51:06.000 How much of a plan does it mean to guard an exit to make sure no one comes through that exit?

00:51:11.000 We're talking about security options.

00:51:13.000 And these officers are well trained in security.

00:51:16.000 And they're well trained in identification.

00:51:19.000 And look, we're going to do what we can to help TSA move those people to the line.

00:51:24.000 Now, the real question here is why Democrats continue to shut down the DHS.

00:51:27.000 What are they talking about?

00:51:28.000 What happened in Minneapolis is over.

00:51:30.000 What are they trying to achieve?

00:51:32.000 As Tom Holman points out, Democrats would love policy change, but this is not actually a policy issue.

00:51:37.000 Just fund DHS, man.

00:51:39.000 I truly believe this isn't really a policy issue.

00:51:42.000 I mean, we have the same policies in place we had during Obama and Biden and Clinton and Bush one and Bush two.

00:51:50.000 So the policies really hasn't changed.

00:51:52.000 It's the execution of those policies that we're talking about.

00:51:56.000 And look, we're having good conversations, but more conversations need to be had because we certainly can't surrender ISA's authorities and their congressionally mandated jobs.

00:52:10.000 So we're having no discussions.

00:52:11.000 It's really about policy execution more than policy.

00:52:16.000 Yeah, I mean, again, he is right about that.

00:52:17.000 Again, we want our TSA agents back at work.

00:52:19.000 It is the Democrats who are stopping this from happening.

00:52:23.000 And meanwhile, there was a bad headline for the Trump administration over the weekend.

00:52:27.000 President Trump is busily winning one of the great victories in American history, I believe, in Iran.

00:52:31.000 It's reshaping the world map. 0.94

00:52:33.000 That's why what he was doing over the weekend, slamming Robert Mueller after Mueller's death, is wrong and morally foolish and also wildly counterproductive.

00:52:40.000 So Robert Mueller, of course, was the man who was in charge of the Mueller report. 0.55

00:52:43.000 That was the Russiagate investigation that was a complete dud and a waste of time.

00:52:47.000 Trump put out a statement on Truth Social, quote, Robert Mueller just died.

00:52:50.000 Good. 0.89

00:52:51.000 I'm glad he's dead. 1.00

00:52:52.000 He can no longer hurt innocent people. 1.00

00:52:53.000 That, yeah, no, I'm going to go no on that, dog.

00:52:56.000 That's a two thumbs down from me.

00:52:58.000 Do not like a bad thing to say, pretty obviously.

00:53:01.000 Okay, one final note.

00:53:03.000 There was another good move from the White House.

00:53:05.000 Over the weekend, the White House installed a new statue of Christopher Columbus using pieces of a monument destroyed by rioters in Baltimore in the BLM fever of 2020.

00:53:13.000 You remember this?

00:53:13.000 In Baltimore, they knocked over a big statue of Columbus and shattered it, and then they dumped it into the Baltimore Inner Harbor.

00:53:19.000 So the Trump administration retrieved some of the pieces and had the new statue commissioned and built.

00:53:24.000 And it is installed outside the Eisenhower executive building is what it looks like.

00:53:29.000 Now, you remember that when the statue was torn down in 2020, the Baltimore then mayor, a guy named Jack Young, said the monument, quote, may represent different things to different people.

00:53:38.000 He said, we understand the dynamics that are playing out in Baltimore are part of a national narrative. 0.99

00:53:43.000 Well, that national narrative was stupid. 0.99

00:53:45.000 I am glad that national narrative is over. 0.98

00:53:47.000 Christopher Columbus is, in fact, a hero of a Western civilization.

00:53:51.000 And it is a good thing that Western civilization came to the Americas.

00:53:54.000 All right, folks, the show continues for our members right now.

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00:54:02.000 And we answer way more of your questions afterward.

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The Ben Shapiro Show - March 23, 2026

Why Are Americans Siding With Our Enemies?

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