The Ben Shapiro Show - You’re In An Endless TSA Line Because Of The Democrats

00:00:00.000 Folks, if you're traveling today, chances are you're listening to this at the airport in the TSA line, which is endless.

00:00:08.000 And you're probably getting frustrated.

00:00:10.000 You want to know why this is happening?

00:00:11.000 One word, Democrats.

00:00:13.000 I'm going to tell you all about it and more today on The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:00:21.000 The standoff over the funding of the Department of Homeland Security, including TSA, continues.

00:00:26.000 People are waiting hours because of it.

00:00:28.000 According to NPR, the Transportation Security Administration is experiencing the longest wait times ever in its 24-year history because of the ongoing partial shutdown, according to agency deputy administrator Ha Nguyen McNeil.

00:00:42.000 This person told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday that wait times at some major airports have exceeded four hours and that employees at those airports are calling out of work at rates of 40 to 50 percent, according to McNeil.

00:00:54.000 And TSA may even have to close smaller airports due to understaffing.

00:00:59.000 And she worries the agency will continue to lose officers to more steady jobs and fail to attract new talent, which, of course, is not a giant shock.

00:01:04.000 Now, this is crazy talents.

00:01:06.000 It's insanity.

00:01:07.000 And it's happening because Democrats have decided that posturing over ICE is more important than basic safety standards and citizen protections all over the United States.

00:01:15.000 The Senate Majority Leader John Thune is not wrong when he says that Democrats seem to believe that the current shutdown is good for their left-wing base.

00:01:25.000 For them, it's all about politics, and it always has been.

00:01:27.000 You go back to the fall shutdown, the Democrats shut the government down, the whole government down, for 46 days last fall.

00:01:33.000 And if you remember Chuck Schumer's statement that every day gets better for us, and then you have Brian Schatz, a member of the Democrat leadership, and this shutdown saying we are very serene.

00:01:42.000 This is, I mean, I think they're just playing politics with this, have been from the beginning.

00:01:46.000 They think it's really good with their base.

00:01:48.000 Their left-wing base won't take, they won't take yes for an answer. 0.92

00:01:51.000 And so the Democrats are having a hard time taking yes for an answer.

00:01:54.000 But they're going to have to because at some point, people are realizing that it is the Democrats who are blockading and have been blockading funding the Department of Homeland Security now, literally for 46 days.

00:02:05.000 Now, for some reason, Democrats seem to think they can just insult their way to political victory here.

00:02:11.000 This is very simple.

00:02:12.000 The Democrats are shutting down the Department of Homeland Security.

00:02:14.000 Everyone knows this.

00:02:15.000 All they have to do is pass a clean funding bill for DHS.

00:02:19.000 But somehow, Jimmy Kimmel is out there just randomly insulting the new DHS secretary, Mark Wayne Mullen, for the great crime of being a plumber, which is a weird take from Jimmy Kimmel, who was like a shock jock radio sports guy.

00:02:36.000 Why is he commenting on this in this way?

00:02:38.000 Also, I was informed that it's good that AOC was a bartender.

00:02:41.000 So I guess it's bad that a man who was a senator is now running DHS because at one time he was a plumber.

00:02:49.000 Lily Giuliani might not be with us much longer, but don't worry, Trump's got a whole new generation of thinkers lined up, including his newly confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne, Chuck Mike, Bruce Dave Mullen.

00:03:06.000 Maybe Mellon's better.

00:03:07.000 He is the now former senator of Oklahoma.

00:03:10.000 Before he was elected to the Senate, Mark Wayne Mullen was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber.

00:03:17.000 That's right.

00:03:17.000 We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now.

00:03:21.000 I work for Super Mario.

00:03:23.000 Why not Mark Wayne?

00:03:25.000 But honestly, I mean, if Trump is going to keep picking these unqualified people to run the department, why not have more fun with it?

00:03:34.000 I mean, next time, instead of Mark Wayne, how about Lil Wayne for Homeland Security? 0.99

00:03:40.000 Who is writing those quasi jokes for Jimmy Kimmel?

00:03:43.000 I can't imagine why his ratings are really, really, really terrible.

00:03:47.000 Again, I'm not sure why the fact that he was once a plumber and then was elected to the Senate makes him unfit to run DHS.

00:03:55.000 That's a weird take.

00:03:56.000 Well, most Democrats are actually going harder than this. 0.84

00:03:59.000 Brandon Johnson, the ridiculous mayor of Chicago, actually debuted his own snowplow truck festooned with a banner that says on it, abolish ice. 0.58

00:04:14.000 Because he's abolishing like the actual material that is ice, but he also wants to abolish ice. 0.92

00:04:14.000 Get it? 0.92

00:04:20.000 Things are going amazing in the city of Chicago.

00:04:23.000 To all of the residents who participated in our snowplow naming contest, keep speaking up in every way and any way that you can.

00:04:34.000 I look forward to meeting with the Chicago ones who submitted the winning names, and I look forward to seeing our city's pride, our spirit, and even yes, our humor represent us again next year.

00:04:47.000 And so with that, take a moment to, I guess, take in all that you all have been waiting for.

00:04:55.000 This moment is finally here.

00:04:57.000 The snowplow with the most votes, most entries, abolish ice.

00:05:02.000 Thank you very much.

00:05:03.000 Oh my gosh.

00:05:04.000 They had a voting contest in Chicago to name their snowplow, and it was named abolish ice, and he is happy about this.

00:05:10.000 Genius level politicking right there.

00:05:13.000 Meanwhile, Representative Thomas Awazi, Democrat, he's arguing full scale for legalization of illegal immigrants.

00:05:20.000 If you've been here since President Trump became the president on January 20th of 2017, you've been here since that time and you haven't committed a crime but for not having proper documentation, let's figure out a way to legalize you so you can go to work every day, you can pay your taxes, you can raise your family, you can travel freely and not be afraid of being deported.

00:05:39.000 I'm just going to point out, again, Democrats seem to believe that illegal immigrants roaming free is more important than you being able to get to your plane on time. 0.81

00:05:49.000 That is what is happening right now, which is crazy because first of all, they shouldn't be roaming free.

00:05:54.000 They committed a crime in entering the country. 0.99

00:05:57.000 How pathetic is the left on these issues? 0.98

00:05:59.000 The Loyola University of Chicago student newspaper, that's the campus newspaper of the murdered student Sheridan Gorman, issued a formal apology for calling her murderer an illegal immigrant. 0.99

00:06:10.000 I'm not even kidding.

00:06:11.000 So she was murdered, and the student newspaper put out this statement, quote, in the body of the original post, we describe the man who was charged as an illegal immigrant using language provided by the Department of Homeland Security.

00:06:24.000 That language does not align with associated press style, nor does it align with the values of this newspaper.

00:06:29.000 No human's existence is illegal.

00:06:32.000 And we quickly changed our wording to reflect that.

00:06:34.000 We acknowledge the harm such language can cause and the power and importance of the words we choose to use.

00:06:40.000 I mean, this is crazy. 0.97

00:06:42.000 It's all ridiculous. 0.99

00:06:43.000 That's ridiculous. 0.98

00:06:44.000 No one says that a human's existence is illegal, but the term is not illegal human. 0.93

00:06:50.000 The term is illegal immigrant.

00:06:53.000 You immigrated illegally. 0.99

00:06:56.000 That is literally what that term means.

00:06:59.000 But apparently at the student newspaper, they are more concerned about the terminology to address illegal immigration than they are about the fact that an illegal immigrant allegedly murdered one of their students.

00:07:10.000 Well, we'll get to the craziness of Democrats trying to defend the indefensible in just a moment.

00:07:14.000 First, today's episode is sponsored by our friends at American Beverage.

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00:08:00.000 All righty, so the Democrats aren't just defending illegal immigration.

00:08:05.000 They're defending crime wholesale, wholesale.

00:08:08.000 So Philadelphia has been an epic fail when it comes to law and order for years and years and years and years.

00:08:15.000 Remember, just a couple of years ago, we visited the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, which was basically an open air fentanyl market.

00:08:23.000 One of the most horrifying things I've ever seen in person.

00:08:25.000 Well, now the Philadelphia DA, Krasner, Larry Krasner, he is threatening to prosecute ICE agents. 0.97

00:08:32.000 This is how crazy Democrats are.

00:08:33.000 So Democrats, apparently, many Democrats believe that ICE agents ought to be prosecuted, but illegal immigrants ought not. 0.99

00:08:40.000 And you should wait in the line at the airport because of this.

00:08:45.000 Here is the Philadelphia DA.

00:08:48.000 This is how it works.

00:08:49.000 You commit crimes within the jurisdiction that is the city and county of Philadelphia.

00:08:55.000 I prosecute you.

00:08:57.000 That is how it works.

00:08:59.000 No, I don't take a phone call from the president saying let him go.

00:09:02.000 No, the president cannot pardon you.

00:09:05.000 I'll say it again.

00:09:06.000 The president cannot pardon you.

00:09:08.000 And yes, I will put you in handcuffs and I will put you in a courtroom. 0.93

00:09:13.000 And if necessary, I will put you in a jail cell.

00:09:17.000 Okay, so again, he wants to arrest the ICE agents.

00:09:22.000 And Caroline Levitt at the White House pointed out that this is kind of disgraceful that you have state-level actors, local actors threatening to arrest federal law enforcement for enforcing federal law.

00:09:33.000 He's talking to the ICE agents who are handing out water bottles and are helping people move through lines at airports.

00:09:38.000 It's a disgraceful comment.

00:09:40.000 The men and women of ICE are great people.

00:09:42.000 I would encourage this lawmaker whose name I don't know and don't care to know to actually sit down and speak with the ICE agents who are on the ground doing this important work, not just in our nation's airports, but again, to remove violent, dangerous, illegal alien criminals from our country to protect this individual and all of us in this room and Americans across the country from murderers, pedophiles, and rapists who have been allowed into our country by Democrat politicians.

00:10:10.000 Again, she's not wrong. 0.57

00:10:12.000 And of course, the law breaking in Philadelphia, the open law breaking, and also the open anti-Americanism is pretty astonishing.

00:10:19.000 So there's a clip that was rocketing around the internet yesterday that is truly an amazing clip.

00:10:24.000 This is of protesters in Philadelphia.

00:10:26.000 These would be pro-Iran, pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist protesters openly in Philadelphia celebrating the killing of American troops, openly celebrating it.

00:10:36.000 I'm pretty sure we have an immigration problem, folks. 1.00

00:10:39.000 I'm pretty sure our standards are too lax when folks like this are in our country.

00:10:43.000 They should not be.

00:10:45.000 This is what was happening in Philadelphia just the other day.

00:10:48.000 Wherever a U.S. military base that crumbles and for every U.S. soldier who returns home in the casket, we cheer.

00:11:00.000 Hamas, Hezbollah, Osral, all of the racist voices we celebrate. 0.97

00:11:05.000 These popular voices on the ground spend every waking moment in direct confrontation with Zionism and they rely on a strong Iranian state to maintain their fighting capacity. 0.71

00:11:15.000 Okay, so this person, again, is cheering the death of Americans, calling for the death of more Americans, celebrating terrorist groups, and celebrating Iran for supporting terrorist groups.

00:11:26.000 I will point out at this point that even if this person immigrated here, assume that person is not a natural born American citizen.

00:11:32.000 If that person immigrated here and then holds those principles, that person can be deported under current law and should be deported under current law, and so should the people cheering for it. 1.00

00:11:42.000 You are not allowed to come to this country and support terrorist groups.

00:11:46.000 You are not allowed to do that.

00:11:48.000 That is a violation of immigration law.

00:11:49.000 That is falsification of your immigration papers.

00:11:53.000 But for so many of these folks, the law-breaking is the point.

00:11:56.000 The anti-Americanism is the point. 0.53

00:11:58.000 I mean, you wonder on a broader level, why do so many people in the Democratic Party seem so sanguine about a wide open border, about importing people that we can't vet, about allowing the taxpayer to pay for all these bills?

00:12:10.000 The answer is a lot of the people in the Democratic Party are totally fine with anti-Americanism.

00:12:16.000 They like the anti-Americanism.

00:12:18.000 Ilhan Omar, another immigrant we never should have admitted to the United States, given her wild hatred for America and our allies. 0.99

00:12:26.000 Ilhana Omar, she's railing against the war in Iran.

00:12:30.000 And here she was trotting out one of the oldest hackney chestnuts available in the political arsenal.

00:12:38.000 Working families are tired of being told their government can't afford to bomb another country, but cannot afford to feed its children.

00:12:49.000 I am tired too.

00:12:50.000 I've lived through war.

00:12:51.000 I know it is not a game.

00:12:53.000 It is never one-time cost.

00:12:56.000 It cannot be reduced to a soundbite by politicians who have no regard for the cost of human life when it comes to warfare.

00:13:03.000 War is not paid for a dollar alone.

00:13:07.000 It is paid in the lives of young Americans who we sent to fight this war.

00:13:13.000 Her pretending that she gives a damn about American soldiers is really galling, truly galling for a woman who wrote a letter of support to a person who tried to join ISIS to a judge way back when who said that something happened to some people on 9-11.

00:13:28.000 Ilhana Omar has yet to find a terrorist group she cannot find some sort of excuse for.

00:13:34.000 And when she uses this shtick, by the way, this ridiculous shtick, where she suggests that it's the cost of war that she really is opposed to, let me ask a question.

00:13:42.000 If I said you can have all of your social programs, we can fund all of them, but also we're going to do the war in Iran. 0.95

00:13:48.000 Do you think suddenly that she would be in favor of it?

00:13:50.000 It's not an affordability issue.

00:13:51.000 The thing she opposes is attacks on anti-American enemies abroad.

00:13:56.000 All of which, of course, is part and parcel of a third worldist strategy to undermine the United States. 0.81

00:14:01.000 Third worldism is the philosophy that suggests that people suffering in the third world everywhere, that's the fault of the United States, and thus the United States must pay. 0.60

00:14:10.000 Now, the reality is, in the current conflict with Iran, we are kicking the living hell out of the Iranian government, which is a good thing. 1.00

00:14:18.000 It is a thing worth celebrating.

00:14:20.000 For those in the back of the room, here is Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, explaining why.

00:14:26.000 And they all warned about how Iran was dangerous, but they refused to act. 0.97

00:14:29.000 And this president's not someone that's going to refuse to act.

00:14:31.000 He's not going to leave a danger like this in place.

00:14:34.000 He's going to address it, and that is what he is doing.

00:14:36.000 From the very first night of this operation, the president made it very clear.

00:14:40.000 People like this, and now what I'm talking about is not the people of Iran.

00:14:43.000 The people that run this country are radical Shia clerics. 0.99

00:14:46.000 These are religious fanatics. 0.78

00:14:48.000 Look what they are doing now at their weakest point.

00:14:51.000 This is the weakest Iran has ever been. 1.00

00:14:53.000 And look at what they're doing.

00:14:54.000 They're attacking embassies.

00:14:55.000 They're embassies.

00:14:57.000 They're attacking hotels.

00:14:59.000 Imagine what these people would do if they had a nuclear weapon. 0.87

00:15:01.000 That is an unacceptable risk for the world.

00:15:05.000 That, of course, is right.

00:15:06.000 And as the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, pointed out, the Iranians lie about everything, up to and including their possession of long-range missiles. 0.95

00:15:14.000 Two days ago, they shot two failed missiles on a target 4,000 kilometers away.

00:15:21.000 For years, they told the world that their missiles could only range two kilometers.

00:15:26.000 Surprise.

00:15:27.000 Yet again, Iran lied. 0.56

00:15:29.000 And to the world, I say London is 4,000 kilometers from Iran.

00:15:35.000 Washington, D.C. is 3,300 kilometers from Venezuela, another country President Trump did something about that partnered for a long time with Iran.

00:15:46.000 Of course, that is correct.

00:15:48.000 Steve Witkoff, our chief negotiator with the Iranians, remember he was trying to negotiate a deal with them, with Jared Kushner, and then they announced that they wanted to build a nuclear weapon.

00:15:57.000 Well, he reminded everybody of that today.

00:16:01.000 The Iranians have the inalienable right to enrich. 1.00

00:16:05.000 Then we heard they possessed enough 60% enriched material, 460 kilograms, to make 11 atomic bombs.

00:16:15.000 Finally, we heard the following statement: they would not give up diplomatically what we could not win militarily.

00:16:24.000 In other words, they were again miscalculating the success of Midnight Hammer, which was a total success.

00:16:32.000 Well, how well are things going?

00:16:34.000 A statement from Admiral Brad Cooper of CENTCOM, commander.

00:16:38.000 He said, quote, the death of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy commander, Admiral Ali Reza Tangsiri, from an Israeli airstrike makes the region safer.

00:16:48.000 Because a couple of days ago, Israel killed the head of the Iranian Navy, who was commanding all of the shutdown in the Strait of Hormuz.

00:16:57.000 According to Cooper, Tangsiri commanded the IRGCN for eight years, I'd be the Navy, during which time the IRGC harassed thousands of innocent merchant mariners, attacked hundreds of vessels with one-way attack drones and missiles, and killed countless innocent civilians.

00:17:11.000 He was designated a specially designated global terrorist by the United States Treasury in June 2019, with additional secondary sanctions added in 2024 related to drone development.

00:17:21.000 Since the commencement of Operation Epic Fury, again, according to Admiral Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, 92% of the large ships in the Iranian Navy have been eliminated.

00:17:30.000 As a result, IRGC has completely lost their ability to protect power in the Middle East or around the world.

00:17:36.000 Now, at the loss of their longtime leader, the IRGC Navy is on an irreversible decline.

00:17:40.000 U.S. military strikes on the IRGC Navy will continue.

00:17:43.000 Therefore, we call on every Iranian serving in the IRGC Navy to immediately abandon their post and return home to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death. 0.87

00:17:51.000 All righty, so what comes next?

00:17:53.000 Well, President Trump, again, is kind of playing a double game here.

00:17:56.000 He says negotiations are continuing.

00:17:58.000 He says they continue because the Iranians want it, because they have been beat to bleep. 1.00

00:18:02.000 Here was the president yesterday.

00:18:04.000 They want to make a deal.

00:18:06.000 The reason they want to make a deal is they have been just beat-ish.

00:18:11.000 Well, he ain't wrong.

00:18:14.000 The president had announced during these negotiations that Iran had given us a present of some sort.

00:18:19.000 He did announce what that present was yesterday.

00:18:21.000 It turns out what the present is, is basically allowing some Pakistani-flagged ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without harassing.

00:18:28.000 They said to show you the fact that we're real and solid and we're there, we're going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil.

00:18:41.000 This was two days ago.

00:18:43.000 And they'll sail up tomorrow.

00:18:44.000 That was three days ago.

00:18:47.000 And I didn't think much about it.

00:18:50.000 And then I watched the news and they said, a very good anchor, actually.

00:18:56.000 Happened to be Fox.

00:18:58.000 But I watched it and they said, something's unusual happening.

00:19:03.000 There are eight boats that are going right up the middle of the Hormo Strait.

00:19:11.000 Eight big tankers are going loaded up with oil right through.

00:19:14.000 And I said, well, I guess they were right and they were real.

00:19:19.000 And I think they were Pakistani flagged.

00:19:22.000 And I said, well, I guess we'll deal with the right people.

00:19:26.000 And actually, they then apologized for something they said.

00:19:30.000 And they said, we're going to send two more boats.

00:19:33.000 And it ended up being 10 boats.

00:19:36.000 Okay, now, is that a real gift?

00:19:38.000 Or is that the Iranians basically allowing more oil out to Pakistan in order to convince the Pakistanis to play middlemen? 0.81

00:19:44.000 Unclear.

00:19:46.000 President Trump is not letting loose kind of what he is going to do next.

00:19:50.000 Again, the president's strategic ambiguity is more effective than that of any other president in my lifetime, that's for sure.

00:19:57.000 Steve said that they've got enough uranium to make 11 bombs.

00:19:59.000 That's a very scary thing.

00:20:01.000 So, well, I can't talk to you about that.

00:20:03.000 You're asking me a question.

00:20:04.000 You're essentially saying, will I go in and do something?

00:20:07.000 I can't talk to you about it.

00:20:11.000 Well, President Trump did add, he was asked about the fact that there are a lot of Arab allies in the region who are concerned about the United States not sticking around for long enough to truly cripple the Iranian regime permanently.

00:20:21.000 President Trump said, listen, if we decide that we're not going to stay for the moment, it is not as though we do not have airplanes that can fly a very long way very quickly.

00:20:30.000 Well, they'd probably like us to stay, but if we don't stay, look, it's a beautiful thing about airplanes that go 2,000 miles an hour.

00:20:39.000 You can get back there very quickly.

00:20:42.000 If we don't stay, we're going to be protecting them.

00:20:44.000 We know they've been very good.

00:20:47.000 Hey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, in particular.

00:20:52.000 Well, the Arab allies are being useful. 1.00

00:20:54.000 Israel's being useful.

00:20:55.000 And then you have the Europeans. 0.93

00:20:58.000 Yes, the Europeans.

00:20:59.000 We'll get to them in just one second.

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00:23:30.000 Go to shopify.com slash Shapiro.

00:23:32.000 That's shopify.com slash Shapiro.

00:23:36.000 Well, as this conflict continues, a matter that is certainly going to come up for discussion in future months will be our relations with our NATO allies.

00:23:44.000 So far, they have been utterly and completely useless.

00:23:48.000 No shock there.

00:23:49.000 The European Union Vice President, Kaha Kallis, she says that the Iran war has to stop now.

00:23:54.000 Well, ladies, since you and your buddies aren't helping out at all, I think that we don't really need your say in this.

00:24:00.000 I think that your input is zero.

00:24:03.000 Zero.

00:24:04.000 Here she was.

00:24:06.000 From this war, we need to exit from the war, not escalate this further, because the consequences for everybody around the world are quite severe.

00:24:18.000 I could not care less about what the EU has to say on this matter.

00:24:21.000 Honestly, I could not.

00:24:23.000 And we are footing the bill for an enormous amount of the arsenal in Ukraine.

00:24:27.000 I think that's a good thing for us to do.

00:24:28.000 I think it's a worthwhile thing for us to do.

00:24:31.000 We've protected the Europeans for generations.

00:24:34.000 And I think that that's in our interest. 1.00

00:24:35.000 But they are totally useless. 0.98

00:24:37.000 They run for the hills at the first available opportunity. 1.00

00:24:41.000 It's really pathetic. 0.99

00:24:42.000 And then them re-injecting themselves to explain that we need to be part of a negotiation. 1.00

00:24:48.000 The Europeans can kiss our ass. 1.00

00:24:50.000 They are so useless. 1.00

00:24:52.000 They are beyond useless. 0.99

00:24:53.000 Meanwhile, here is Canada's foreign minister, Anita Anand. 0.97

00:24:56.000 Like, we need to hear from the Canadians, America's top hat. 0.99

00:25:01.000 We need to hear from the people who couldn't even beat us at hockey.

00:25:04.000 Kayla, go for it, lady. 1.00

00:25:07.000 Well, I spoke with Marco Rubio on Monday afternoon.

00:25:11.000 We had a lengthy conversation about numerous issues, including the situation in the Middle East.

00:25:17.000 We are very much focused on ensuring the continued dialogue.

00:25:23.000 And I indicated that Canada wants to play a role in this diplomacy to work towards the preservation of civilian life.

00:25:33.000 Canada is a humanitarianist.

00:25:36.000 We have across conflicts put forward humanitarian aid.

00:25:40.000 Haiti, Cuba, Gaza, and in terms of Lebanon, $37.7 million announced just a couple of weeks ago.

00:25:48.000 Wow.

00:25:49.000 With that kind of money, you can buy like seven cups of coffee in Four A. That's incredible.

00:25:53.000 Like really well done, Canada.

00:25:55.000 We need to hear from the people who have been tilting toward the Chinese.

00:25:58.000 Sounds great.

00:26:00.000 Now, you got to feel a little bit for the NATO chief, Mark Rudy, because Rudy is trying to hold together NATO at this point.

00:26:06.000 And he understands that actually NATO probably should be doing something, but the NATO countries aren't actually doing anything.

00:26:11.000 And so he is actually being morally clear here.

00:26:13.000 He says that the president is making the world safer, which is true.

00:26:17.000 It's just he can't get any of the countries that are actually members of NATO to do anything to help because the Europeans really like strongly worded letters and doing nothing and also opening their borders to mass radical Islamic immigration. 0.98

00:26:31.000 They're there for all those things.

00:26:32.000 They're there to chew bubblegum and allow Sharia law to take over their countries. 1.00

00:26:36.000 And they're running out of bubblegum.

00:26:37.000 Well, anyway, here's the NATO chief trying to hold things together.

00:26:41.000 We have seen with North Korea, if we negotiate for too long, you might pass the moment where you can still get this thing done. 0.99

00:26:49.000 And North Korea now has the nuclear capability.

00:26:52.000 If Iran would have the nuclear capability, including together with the missile capability, it would be a direct threat, an existential threat to Israel, to the region, to Europe, to the stability in the world. 0.98

00:27:04.000 So the president doing this is crucial.

00:27:07.000 And I've seen the polling, but I really hope the American people will be with him because he is doing this to make the whole world safer.

00:27:14.000 What that guy said.

00:27:15.000 President Trump is talking about NATO yesterday, and he said, listen, you know, we've been backing your play the whole time.

00:27:20.000 We've been backing you to the hilt.

00:27:22.000 But if you're not there for us, why should we be there for you?

00:27:25.000 Like, alliances, you want to say that we have temporary coalitions of convenience?

00:27:31.000 That's one thing.

00:27:31.000 But you want to claim that you're like a strong ally?

00:27:34.000 You know, you might want to chip in when the chips are down.

00:27:38.000 He didn't have to.

00:27:39.000 I didn't ask him.

00:27:40.000 I just said, just tell me, no.

00:27:43.000 I mean, we're always going to be there.

00:27:46.000 At least we were.

00:27:47.000 I don't know about anymore, to be honest with you.

00:27:49.000 I'd love to be honest.

00:27:51.000 We were always there when they needed help.

00:27:54.000 We always would have been there when they needed help.

00:27:57.000 I mean, think of it.

00:27:58.000 We're there to protect Europe from Russia. 0.98

00:28:02.000 Okay, he is not wrong.

00:28:04.000 So, where do things currently stand?

00:28:06.000 Well, negotiations may be happening or they may not, but the United States must change the status quo in the Strait of Hormuz.

00:28:12.000 That means radically weakening the regime still further.

00:28:15.000 Because here's the thing: if you leave the Iranians in charge of these trades, the oil prices will not go down. 1.00

00:28:20.000 They will just stay precisely where they are forever.

00:28:23.000 If you let the Iranians continue to threaten countries around them, ad nauseum, then all of the geopolitical turmoil currently baked into markets, why the stock market is down, why the oil prices are up, that will stay there forever. 1.00

00:28:37.000 So the Trump administration can still weaken the regime.

00:28:40.000 There are lots of options to do so.

00:28:41.000 The only question is which option President Trump will use.

00:28:45.000 The critics, however, are Legion and as per our usual arrangement, totally dishonest. 0.99

00:28:48.000 Jon Stewart, the pseudo-intellectual, sad clown of the left. 0.92

00:28:52.000 I mean, truly, I'm not sure anyone in modern American media history has been as bad for the country as Jon Stewart. 0.97

00:28:58.000 Truly. 0.96

00:28:59.000 If you go all the way back to that time, he was on Crossfire with Tucker Carlson and Paul Bagala, and he was saying that they ruined America by having kind of normal debate with one another, and then he made his stupid faces on TV for 10 years while playing 30-second clips of folks without any sort of serious conversation about the underlying issues. 0.92

00:29:16.000 If anything ruined media in America and ruined politics in America, it is precisely that approach, the approach of Jon Stewart. 0.75

00:29:24.000 Well, now he's mocking Pete Hegseth because Pete Hegseth talks about American dominance.

00:29:29.000 Here was Jon Stewart.

00:29:32.000 I think your choice of Trump for a second term is an indication of America deciding to go along with its own decline.

00:29:40.000 And the arrogance that you talk about, when you hear that vile Hegseth sort of spraying us with stuff from the Bible and telling us about what to believe and all this stuff, whilst clearly glorifying in the sense of domination and violence of other people. 0.99

00:29:57.000 It's almost sexual for him.

00:29:59.000 It almost feels as though it's erotic.

00:30:03.000 Wow.

00:30:04.000 I mean, that is a horrible thought that I've never had before.

00:30:08.000 Oh, you got to watch him.

00:30:10.000 You got to watch him more.

00:30:12.000 There's a reveling in it.

00:30:14.000 There is a reveling, no doubt about it.

00:30:15.000 Stunning.

00:30:16.000 He came out the other day, no quarter, no mercy, just blatantly saying, like, you know, those things that we came up after World War II to try and prevent the horrors?

00:30:28.000 Yeah, we're getting rid of all that. 0.99

00:30:30.000 What a pathetic human Jon Stewart is. 0.99

00:30:32.000 I have a question. 1.00

00:30:33.000 Are we not supposed to root for the troops to do what they have to do?

00:30:37.000 Are we supposed to pretend that there is nothing incredible about what the United States military is doing?

00:30:44.000 Must we pretend that thing?

00:30:46.000 When the worst regime on earth faces down American firepower, when we watch some of the worst people in modern history be eliminated, are we supposed to pretend that nothing good is happening? 0.98

00:31:00.000 It's just pathetic stuff from these folks. 1.00

00:31:03.000 Truly pathetic. 1.00

00:31:05.000 But that's pretty much all they got at this point. 0.99

00:31:08.000 Well, the critics continue to maintain that somehow Iran, despite being beheaded and thrashing about like a dying snake, is actually somehow winning.

00:31:16.000 So The Economist, which has basically become the Jim Kramer of international politics, Jim Kramer, of course, the financial analyst on CNBC who makes stock picks and is always wrong, like wrong so often that reverse Kramer is an actual trade that you can buy and it outperforms the market by a fairly significant margin.

00:31:33.000 Well, The Economist, they put out a piece on the cover of their magazine called Advantage Iran, which I'm sorry to break it to you.

00:31:41.000 If you think that Iran has an advantage right now, you're out of your mind.

00:31:45.000 You're out of your mind. 0.50

00:31:46.000 Their entire leadership class has been killed.

00:31:49.000 Every major military apparatus they have has been extraordinarily degraded or destroyed.

00:31:56.000 They've been relegated to firing a few ballistic missiles at our allies and harassing shipping in the Strait of Hormuz by firing some drones.

00:32:06.000 They are recruiting 12-year-olds to their army.

00:32:09.000 That is not a joke.

00:32:11.000 Again, 12-year-olds are being recruited to the IRGC right now.

00:32:16.000 Is that the mark of a country that is winning, of a country that has an advantage?

00:32:22.000 Well, here's what the economist has to say: quote: The Islamic Republic has suffered dramatic blows.

00:32:27.000 Many of its leaders and hundreds of civilians are dead.

00:32:30.000 Its air defenses are in pieces.

00:32:31.000 Its Navy and missile launchers are largely gone.

00:32:33.000 And yet the regime endures.

00:32:35.000 As we warned when this war began, its mere survival counts as a victory of sorts.

00:32:41.000 I mean, of sorts is doing a lot of work in that sentence. 0.98

00:32:47.000 You get your ass absolutely kicked by the United States, continuing to exist, quote unquote, counts as a victory of sorts. 0.98

00:32:56.000 Okay. 1.00

00:32:58.000 Well, the economist goes on: at home, the regime's grip is not easing, but has, if anything, been strengthened by the onslaught from America and Israel.

00:33:06.000 Oh, has it been?

00:33:07.000 Has it been strengthened?

00:33:09.000 There's no way to tell this, by the way, because the people have not been freed from their homes to rise up against the regime.

00:33:13.000 Has it been strengthened from two months ago when they murdered 32,000 people in the streets?

00:33:20.000 32,000 people?

00:33:21.000 Has their grip been strengthened?

00:33:24.000 Has it been strengthened by Israeli suicide drones hitting specific IRGC checkpoints?

00:33:31.000 The economist says the hardline revolutionary guards are in control, which they were before.

00:33:35.000 Domestic opponents, whether ethnic separatists or urban protesters, are deathly quiet. 0.68

00:33:39.000 They're deathly quiet, schmucko, because the United States and Israel told them to stay inside. 0.96

00:33:46.000 Literally. 0.98

00:33:48.000 The United States is putting out messages every single day to the Iranian people to stay inside because the bombs are still falling outside.

00:33:55.000 Israel is doing the same thing.

00:33:57.000 Iran's stocks of highly enriched uranium, says the economist, some 400 kilograms, remain untouched, probably still under rubble.

00:34:05.000 Well, I mean, if it's under rubble, then how is it like, how are they better off now?

00:34:10.000 Most strikingly, Iran has established a chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz, blocking exports of oil and gas from the Gulf that account for a fifth of the global oil supply.

00:34:18.000 Now, again, I think the thing to point out here is that it is not as though they did not have that chokehold before.

00:34:23.000 They did.

00:34:24.000 It is not as though in the absence of this conflict, Iran could not flex.

00:34:29.000 Iran had the power to flex, but they were flexing beyond the Strait of Hormuz before.

00:34:34.000 They were stretching with their proxies.

00:34:36.000 They were controlling an entire swath of land between Iran and the Mediterranean Sea via Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.

00:34:44.000 The economist says, even though its proxies are weaker than before, Iran still has cards to play abroad.

00:34:49.000 Again, every, I love the caveats.

00:34:52.000 The caveats are really astonishing here.

00:34:53.000 So, sure, I mean, their whole military has basically been sure their leadership is sure, their proxies are weaker.

00:34:58.000 Sure, their navy is mostly underwater, but they're really winning.

00:35:01.000 They have the advantage.

00:35:04.000 And says The Economist, nor is Israel really any safer than before.

00:35:09.000 Benjamin Netanyahu is thrilled by the sustained attack on Iran. 0.86

00:35:13.000 First of all, you got to love The Economist, which refers to Netanyahu by his Hebrew name.

00:35:19.000 Ben Yamin is just Benjamin in the Hebrew.

00:35:22.000 Yeah, you got to love The Economist.

00:35:24.000 Very subtle.

00:35:25.000 Nor is Israel really any safer than before. 0.98

00:35:27.000 Benjamin Netanyahu is thrilled by the sustained attack on Iran. 0.86

00:35:30.000 Yet Iranian missiles have penetrated Israeli airspace, killing civilians.

00:35:34.000 The nuclear threat from Iran has not been eradicated. 0.97

00:35:36.000 Okay, so I talk to people in Israel all the time, all the time.

00:35:41.000 Going forward, those people feel a lot safer than they did before the war, given the fact that Iran's ballistic missile launchers have been degraded by at least 75%, given the fact that Iran's proxies have been degraded in the extreme.

00:35:57.000 I mean, how degraded is Hezbollah at this point?

00:35:59.000 Hezbollah is so degraded in Lebanon.

00:36:00.000 That was their chief proxy, the Iranian chief proxy in the region. 0.87

00:36:04.000 Hezbollah is so degraded that Israeli troops are strolling over the border with Lebanon and simply pushing their way up to the Latani River, which is like one-third of the way up the country.

00:36:14.000 And they're holding that territory and not giving it back to Hezbollah. 0.64

00:36:18.000 And as for the nuclear threat from Iran, it has not been eradicated. 0.97

00:36:21.000 It's been set back a fair bit considering all the scientists are dead.

00:36:24.000 All the leadership is dead.

00:36:25.000 All of their nuclear facilities have been bombed.

00:36:28.000 And at best, the uranium that has been enriched is under rubble, as the economist itself admits.

00:36:34.000 Without regime change, says the economist, the ballistic missile threat will return, requiring Israel to strike Iran every few months.

00:36:40.000 Most worrying for the Jewish state, its long-standing ties with America may be under strain.

00:36:44.000 So basically, the only thing that is apparently a problem is that Israel's relationships with America may be understrained.

00:36:51.000 I'm old enough to remember when it was understrain under Joe Biden because I am more than one year old.

00:36:59.000 Iran feels it has the upper hand over Mr. Trump, says The Economist.

00:37:02.000 It has shown that it is more capable than America of both inflicting pain and withstanding it. 0.70

00:37:06.000 Mr. Trump must agree to a full ceasefire, must.

00:37:09.000 The United States must agree to a full ceasefire with a country that we are grinding under our boots. 0.94

00:37:16.000 Like, what in the hell?

00:37:17.000 We have to agree to a ceasefire. 0.68

00:37:18.000 We do?

00:37:20.000 We, a country that has suffered in military terms, minimal retaliation, truly minimal retaliation from the enemy.

00:37:30.000 We have to agree to a ceasefire.

00:37:32.000 We, the United States.

00:37:33.000 And then we also have to compel Israel to abide by it. 0.75

00:37:35.000 So it's not enough that we have to agree to a ceasefire.

00:37:38.000 We have to force the Israelis to also not go after Iranian ballistic missile rebuilding and nuclear weaponry. 0.58

00:37:46.000 Talks on reopening the strait, says the economist, and steering Iran away from its nuclear program will be bitterly difficult.

00:37:54.000 So we have to preemptively ceasefire.

00:37:55.000 Preemptive surrender, say the Europeans.

00:37:58.000 In the least surprising news of the day, preemptive surrender.

00:38:02.000 Yeah, that's the way you win wars.

00:38:03.000 Again, none of this makes any sense at all.

00:38:06.000 If we leave the Iranian government in place, I have a question. 0.86

00:38:08.000 How does that make oil prices lower?

00:38:10.000 Do we just trust the Iranians that they're not going to harass the shipping? 1.00

00:38:13.000 Is that how this works?

00:38:15.000 How doesn't the market price of the possibility of an Iranian shutdown at any time for any reason get priced in? 0.96

00:38:22.000 Giving Iran more leverage is a fool's errand. 0.77

00:38:24.000 And preemptive surrender, preemptive ceasefire on the basis that Iran is harassing shipping. 0.63

00:38:31.000 Man, The Economist, geniuses over there.

00:38:35.000 The reality is the president has a lot of tools in his arsenal.

00:38:39.000 If the war were to end today, the United States would have so significantly degraded Iran's capacity that Iran would be on its last legs anyway.

00:38:46.000 That is the reality.

00:38:48.000 As we've been discussing for days, the Iranian economy does not exist.

00:38:53.000 It does not exist.

00:38:55.000 The Iranian government was trying to hold the real to an exchange rate against the dollar of 42,000.

00:39:00.000 They tried it for years, and then they had to give up the ghost in January, and it immediately skyrocketed from 42,000 rials per US dollar to 988,000 reals per US dollar.

00:39:14.000 Right now, there is no price for reals.

00:39:16.000 They do not exist.

00:39:18.000 And that is because of the damage that we have dealt them.

00:39:22.000 So again, the notion that we are losing, that we're on the wrong side here.

00:39:26.000 We're on the wrong side.

00:39:27.000 We can't outlast them.

00:39:28.000 Maybe we can't outlast them.

00:39:29.000 If we can't outlast them, it'll be because of the cowardice of places like The Economist.

00:39:34.000 I think the most important line there is that Iran has shown it is more capable than America of both inflicting pain and withstanding it. 0.63

00:39:42.000 They've certainly not shown they're capable of inflicting pain beyond the United States.

00:39:45.000 That is absolutely false.

00:39:46.000 But the only arguable thing in this piece is the argument made by The Economist that Iran has shown that it's more capable of withstanding pain.

00:39:53.000 The Iranian government.

00:39:55.000 If that's true, it's only because places like The Economist attempt to make the West incapable of withstanding even the most minute and temporary sacrifice on behalf of a long-term victory.

00:40:09.000 All right, well, meanwhile, in terms of victory, cultural victory, the New York Times reported yesterday that the International Olympic Committee has now banned trans athletes.

00:40:16.000 Again, I'm old enough to remember when this was a terrible, terrible thing that we must have men fighting women, for example. 0.99

00:40:24.000 According to the New York Times, the International Olympic Committee has barred transgender athletes from competing in the women's category of the Olympics and said that all participants in those events must undergo genetic testing.

00:40:37.000 The decision, the most consequential since Kirsty Coventry was elected last year as the first woman to serve as president of the IOC, followed a board meeting and months of speculation over the organization's policy on one of the most contentious issues facing global sports.

00:40:50.000 The rules will be applicable starting at the next Olympics in LA in 2028.

00:40:55.000 Again, shows how culture has moved.

00:40:56.000 Culture has radically shifted.

00:40:58.000 There was a time when we were the only company in America who said that men were men and women were women, and we refused to use the preferred pronouns.

00:41:05.000 And we were basically treated as outcasts by social media companies.

00:41:09.000 Major social media companies tried to shut down our capacity to disseminate information over it.

00:41:13.000 And now, even the Olympics is saying, hey, by the way, no men competing with the ladies.

00:41:18.000 That is a big cultural victory.

00:41:19.000 Okay, other sort of cultural news while we're at it.

00:41:22.000 A lot of people seem very upset about the new HBO trailer for Harry Potter.

00:41:25.000 So my kids are very, very into Harry Potter.

00:41:27.000 My daughter loves Harry Potter.

00:41:29.000 In fact, one of her bot mitzvah gifts from a friend was a signed copy by J.K. Rowling of book two of the Harry Potter series.

00:41:35.000 My nine-year-old son just finished reading all of the Harry Potter books inside the last six weeks.

00:41:39.000 So my kids are very, very into Harry Potter and they love the movies.

00:41:43.000 They really enjoy them, love the John Williams score, all of it.

00:41:45.000 HBO just put out a trailer for their new relaunching of Harry Potter.

00:41:51.000 And there are a lot of people who are super down on this.

00:41:53.000 I got to say, I'm not.

00:41:55.000 I think it looks fine.

00:41:56.000 Here we go.

00:42:01.000 I told you.

00:42:06.000 You are a normal boy.

00:42:12.000 And you're going to start acting like one.

00:42:17.000 You think you're something special?

00:42:21.000 There is nothing special to you.

00:42:33.000 I've always wanted to know about my parents.

00:42:38.000 Your parents were the kindest, bravest people I ever met.

00:42:43.000 They were funny and clever.

00:42:46.000 And they stood up for what they believed was right.

00:42:51.000 The next time I see you, we'll be in Hogwarts.

00:43:13.000 I think we can expect great things from you.

00:43:24.000 See who you are.

00:43:26.000 Harry Potter?

00:43:52.000 I mean, at least they're not doing what some of the other mainline IP is doing here by totally destroying itself.

00:43:59.000 This all looks fine.

00:44:00.000 Okay, so what's the thing everybody's upset about? 0.51

00:44:02.000 So the thing everybody is upset about is Papa Esidu, I believe that's this person's name, as Severus Snape, because Papa Esidu is black.

00:44:14.000 Now, I get it.

00:44:16.000 This annoys people because there's actual physical descriptions in the books of the characters.

00:44:20.000 Like Snape, for example, is described as having greasy black hair and a hooked nose and sallow skin.

00:44:25.000 So, you know, like Alan Rickman, which is who played him in the original movies.

00:44:28.000 And there are, in fact, black characters in the books.

00:44:31.000 A couple of the students are openly described as black in the books.

00:44:33.000 I think one's named Blaze Sabini or something.

00:44:36.000 There's one called Dean Thomas in the books who are actually black.

00:44:40.000 I got to say, I can't get supremely worked up over this.

00:44:44.000 I cannot.

00:44:45.000 Like, there's certain race switching that actually makes a difference because it is integral to the character.

00:44:49.000 I'm not sure that Snape being white is integral to the character. 0.91

00:44:53.000 I've said this before about other sort of mainstream figures.

00:44:57.000 Like I've said before that if you make James Bond a woman, you totally destroy the series. 1.00

00:45:01.000 But if James Bond were to be black, it wouldn't destroy the series in any way.

00:45:04.000 I kind of feel the same thing here.

00:45:06.000 I don't think it makes pretty much any difference.

00:45:08.000 So am I upset?

00:45:10.000 I am not upset about the Harry Potter of this, about the relaunch Harry Potter.

00:45:13.000 The same is not true with the Lord of the Rings nonsense that is going on.

00:45:17.000 So according to the New York Times, the New York Times is reporting in a video announcement with the Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson posted on Wednesday, Stephen Colbert revealed he has been developing a new movie based on early chapters of J.R.R. Tolkien's novels that were largely omitted in Jackson's original trilogy.

00:45:34.000 So I guess it's just a bunch of Tom Bombadil.

00:45:35.000 Is that what's happening over here?

00:45:37.000 I guess that's the idea.

00:45:39.000 They did a video announcement together, Peter Jackson and Stephen Colbert.

00:45:42.000 Why is Stephen Colbert writing Lord of the Rings?

00:45:45.000 Like, go write something original, my dude.

00:45:48.000 Stephen Colbert is like the, as the, why can't you find somebody who is even philosophically aligned in any way with J.R.R. Tolkien to write it?

00:45:58.000 It makes a bit of a difference.

00:45:59.000 It really does.

00:46:00.000 You want to talk about changes that make like Stephen Colbert, ideologically, philosophically, holds zero in common with J.R.R. Tolkien, so far as I'm aware.

00:46:09.000 And yet, I guess because he likes the property and he's famous, they're doing this routine.

00:46:13.000 I mean, first of all, I'm not even sure why we're doing a sequel to Lord of the Rings, who is the antagonist in this sequel.

00:46:18.000 Here they were announcing it.

00:46:21.000 Hello.

00:46:24.000 Hi, Peter.

00:46:24.000 Hey, Stephen.

00:46:25.000 Hi.

00:46:25.000 How are you?

00:46:26.000 How are you doing?

00:46:27.000 Good.

00:46:29.000 I like all your talking stuff on the wall there.

00:46:32.000 That's, yeah, that's helpful.

00:46:34.000 This is part of the collection.

00:46:36.000 So I was just explaining to the folks about the next Tolkien movie after Hunt for Gollum and the fact that we've partnered up with you to develop the script.

00:46:46.000 So, yeah, I'm pretty happy about it.

00:46:52.000 Why are we part?

00:46:53.000 Why?

00:46:53.000 Why Stephen Colbert?

00:46:54.000 I mean, I guess he's out of work.

00:46:55.000 Maybe he was really cheap or something, but I cannot understand for the life of me, for the life of me, why precisely Stephen Colbert would be writing a Tolkien movie.

00:47:05.000 This seems like the worst idea ever.

00:47:07.000 And I believe that the idea of it is Mary and Pippin and Sam, after Frodo is gone, like they come back years later, is my understanding.

00:47:16.000 And they are now going to basically relive.

00:47:19.000 It's basically like the bucket list.

00:47:20.000 It's like a bunch of old hobbits walking around the shire and remaking the journey as they get old, which sounds terrible.

00:47:29.000 It is hard for me to imagine, actually, a worse idea than this.

00:47:32.000 And again, I love Peter Jackson.

00:47:34.000 I think Lord of the Rings, the original trilogy, is one of the great film achievements of all time.

00:47:38.000 I love it beyond measure.

00:47:39.000 I know pretty much every line from memory.

00:47:42.000 So as a lover of the original movies, no, the answer is no on that one from me, dog.

00:47:48.000 Well, folks, I touch on everything from politics to culture here in the Ben Shapiro show mailbag.

00:47:53.000 So we're going to take some of your questions.

00:47:55.000 Be sure to send your questions in.

00:47:57.000 This segment is sponsored by our friends over at Pure Talk.

00:48:01.000 Riley asked, how do we counter the narrative the conflict with Iran is a strategic failure when the mainstream news is mostly slanted against it?

00:48:08.000 Specifically, claims that the administration expected a Venezuela-style rapid collapse, failed to account for the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and ignored the resulting economic fallout.

00:48:16.000 I just don't see the evidence of this.

00:48:17.000 You have people who are like, well, they didn't see what was coming.

00:48:20.000 Did they not?

00:48:21.000 Did they not?

00:48:22.000 We're 26 days in.

00:48:24.000 What evidence do we have that they had never gamed out the Strait of Hormuz?

00:48:28.000 Seriously, that they're all shocked by what happened in the Strait of Hormuz.

00:48:31.000 Now, again, I think what happened here is that Iran was a target of opportunity.

00:48:34.000 They took some contingency plans off the shelf and immediately went to work.

00:48:38.000 And then, you know, things don't always go according to plan, but this idea that somehow we are strategically under the thumb of the Iranians because they're harassing shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. 0.52

00:48:49.000 Why?

00:48:50.000 Like, that was totally unpredictable.

00:48:52.000 What's the deal?

00:48:53.000 David says, hey, Ben, do you see it as likely the U.S. takes over the Strait of Hormuz indefinitely to ensure free travel and to have a strategic choke point to China and control it?

00:49:00.000 Like we used to have the Panama Canal.

00:49:02.000 That would not be surprising to me at all.

00:49:03.000 And frankly, that seems worth the cost.

00:49:05.000 You control that strategic choke point.

00:49:07.000 That seems kind of important to push China off of the Taiwan Strait, which is another strategic choke point where China has significantly more sway.

00:49:14.000 China can't do much in the Strait of Hormuz, but they can do a lot in the Taiwan Strait.

00:49:19.000 Daniel says, hey, Ben, I'm a recruiter with the Tennessee Army National Guard.

00:49:22.000 One of the more common things we come across as recruiters is young men and women who have been brought over to the country illegally by their parents and have been here their entire lives at minimum.

00:49:29.000 For somebody to process in the military, however, they need to have a green card.

00:49:32.000 Do you agree that there should be something in place for them to be able to process in the military, especially with their situation?

00:49:38.000 Yes, I do.

00:49:40.000 If people are willing to come here and make sacrifices that I myself did not make, I'm going to be hard-pressed to explain why, in fact, they should not be allowed to become citizens.

00:49:52.000 All righty, folks, the show continues for our members right now.

00:49:54.000 I'll be taking more of your questions, but remember, in order to be able to watch that and hang out with us and be best friends, you have to become a member and use code Shapiro at checkout.

00:50:02.000 Try two months free on all annual plans.

00:50:04.000 Get the link in the description and join

The Ben Shapiro Show - March 27, 2026

You’re In An Endless TSA Line Because Of The Democrats

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