The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1922 - ＂I Got Him First＂ Trump's War In Iran Explained In 5 Mins

00:00:00.000 The United States has launched a preemptive war in the Middle East based on the threat

00:00:04.700 of weapons of mass destruction and the desire to liberate a people from a regime that we wish

00:00:10.360 to change in a country whose name starts with the letters I-R-A. And then one more.

00:00:19.300 Does that sound familiar? Are you having deja vu? Yes. Hold on. Two things here and they

00:00:27.960 kind of oppose each other. But let's just get this straight right off the bat. Yes. It seems

00:00:34.880 crazy that the president who ran specifically against the Bush era regime change wars is now

00:00:44.900 launching perhaps the biggest Middle East regime change war that we've ever seen. Yes. Right off

00:00:51.480 the bat. That's crazy. Here's the second part, though. The craziest part of all of it

00:00:56.960 is that this time it might actually work. I'm Michael Knowles. This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:01:01.800 Welcome back to the show. There's a lot of Iran to talk about. A lot of Iran. We're going to be 0.98

00:01:26.340 running. We're at the end of this show. You'll say, I ran a marathon today talking about this

00:01:31.720 conflict. However, I hope we have time to get to Shia LaBeouf's great interview. One of the

00:01:38.400 greatest interviews I've ever seen in which he talks about his faith, what he would say if he

00:01:42.400 met Jesus. We will get to all of it. First, though, I want to tell you about Cowboy Colostrum.

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00:03:06.660 I want to get into what happened in Iran. I want to get into the political calculation leading up to it.

00:03:12.080 I want to get into the three different camps that you can find yourself in. People seem to think

00:03:17.520 there are only two camps, pro-war in Iran, anti-war. I think there are really three,

00:03:22.720 and I think it tells you a lot about Trump's thinking. I want to get into the grand strategy

00:03:26.400 of it all. Were we dragged into this war? Did we lead this war? What's this war even for?

00:03:31.700 Is it about regime change? Is it about nukes? Is it about freedom? Is it about American interest?

00:03:35.300 I want to get into all of that. However, the first thing I have to touch on

00:03:40.500 is the liberal media's reaction. Because the US and Israel launched the strikes on Saturday.

00:03:50.360 Friday night, no, I guess it would be early Saturday morning, Iran. But we wake up in 0.88

00:03:53.940 the United States on Saturday, this has happened. And it worked. It took out the whole top of the

00:04:01.660 Iranian regime, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. People are saying Ayatollah Khomeini,

00:04:09.600 like the first supreme leader of Iran, but it's Khomeini. Even I mispronounce it,

00:04:15.360 and I've been saying this name for many years. Khomeini, Khomeini, whatever. Doesn't really

00:04:20.420 matter now. We're not going to be talking about him too much longer. Anyway, here is what the

00:04:23.800 Washington Post said in their obituary of the Iranian supreme leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,

00:04:30.980 Iran's supreme leader, is dead at 86. Hold on, let me get to the, hold on. No, it's not the first

00:04:40.000 part. Here it is. With his bushy white beard and easy smile, Ayatollah Khomeini cut a more avuncular 0.75

00:04:50.720 figure in public than his perpetually scowling but much more revered mentor. And he was known

00:04:57.840 to be fond of Persian poetry and classic Western novels, especially Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

00:05:08.940 They will never outdo this one. We thought that the liberal media, I think it was the Washington

00:05:15.940 Post actually, had reached the peak when the leader of ISIS was killed, and they referred to

00:05:22.800 him as an austere religious scholar. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an austere religious scholar,

00:05:29.800 was struck down today. But this, this beats that one by a country mile. With his bushy beard and easy

00:05:37.540 smile, they turned the Ayatollah into jihad Santa Claus. It's unbelievable. Bushy beard, 1.00

00:05:44.460 easy smile. Oh, that affable Ayatollah. He was avuncular, wasn't he? That's a great word. I do 1.00

00:05:52.040 love the word avuncular. He was avuncular, and he loved Persian poetry, and he loved Victor Hugo's

00:05:58.240 Les Miserables. There were actually these tweets from the Ayatollah. I guess, I don't know if the

00:06:03.680 Ayatollah really was much of a reader, but he certainly presented himself as a reader.

00:06:08.020 And there were all of these tweets going around of all the books he'd read. One of them going

00:06:12.120 around yesterday was that he had read Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. So I remember one

00:06:19.120 time I read The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, and I thought, okay, well, now I can confirm two

00:06:23.120 bad things have happened to this man in his life. But that novel's not good. That's a bad novel.

00:06:28.360 And Les Miserables, okay, anyway, I don't think those are the salient facts about the Ayatollah's 0.90

00:06:33.960 life. He is not Jihad Santa Claus. He was the leader of a nation that from its inception,

00:06:41.340 from the beginning of the regime, had been opposed to the United States. The regime begins

00:06:46.020 by taking American hostages, by overthrowing the American ally, the Shah, and then taking American

00:06:51.880 hostages. And they have been declaring jihad against the United States for the 49 or so,

00:06:59.140 49, 46 years of its existence. So Trump launches Operation Epic Fury. He alerted the nation. Here's

00:07:10.120 his telling of the operation.

00:07:12.140 Over the past 36 hours, the United States and its partners have launched Operation Epic Fury,

00:07:20.480 one of the largest, most complex, most overwhelming military offensives the world has ever seen.

00:07:28.400 Nobody's seen anything like it. We have hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including Revolutionary Guard

00:07:36.700 facilities, Iranian air defense systems. Just now, it was announced that we knocked out nine ships plus

00:07:43.920 their naval building, all in a matter of literally minutes. Iran's formerly supreme leader, Ayatollah

00:07:55.140 Khamenei, is dead. This wretched and vile man died like the blood of hundreds and even thousands 0.95

00:08:04.240 of Americans on his hands and was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands of innocent 0.99

00:08:11.360 people all across many countries. The entire military command is gone as well.

00:08:18.880 Okay. So there are three camps on war with Iran. People have been debating this for a long time.

00:08:27.260 And I have been making the case chiefly that probably we should not go to war with Iran,

00:08:33.200 that probably the reward was not worth the cost. However, we have to be very clear about the camps here.

00:08:41.560 Because there are arguments that can be made that cover multiple camps. The three camps, as I see it,

00:08:48.460 are the peaceniks, who are just simply opposed to war. No more war ever again. The peaceniks used to be

00:08:54.800 chiefly on the left. In recent years, you've seen a lot of them on the new right as well.

00:08:59.260 You then have the idealists, the idealists, the neocons, the hawks, who have basically never seen

00:09:09.780 an adversarial country they didn't want to bomb. The kind of people who believe not only should we

00:09:15.780 intervene in pursuit of American interest, but we should intervene in pursuit of American ideals.

00:09:20.440 We need to spread democracy all around the world. And maybe that will have good practical effects

00:09:26.120 in the end. But ideologically, we cannot tolerate totalitarianism or authoritarianism or anything

00:09:33.000 that in any way diverges from Madisonian liberal democracy, if we even still have that.

00:09:37.200 That's the idealist hawkish camp. And then there are the people in the middle

00:09:41.340 who are realists, who are pragmatic, who are, one might even say, America first,

00:09:50.060 certainly in the way Trump means it. I think that's the camp that Trump is in,

00:09:54.580 the camp that wants America to be strong, maybe to help the world order, because we are the global

00:10:01.120 empire, but also to be strong so that we can be strong to benefit the American people.

00:10:07.020 The kind of group that says we need to be tough and intervene around the world so that we get better

00:10:12.380 trade deals, so that Americans stop being threatened when we go abroad, so that our enemies do not

00:10:17.960 advance, enemies like China and Russia. We're gonna intervene sometimes when it's in our interest, 0.90

00:10:25.100 when the intervention can be done efficiently, when the benefit will outweigh the cost,

00:10:30.400 when that's that camp. And so right off the bat, when we're talking about Iran,

00:10:35.520 I'm just gonna write off the peaceniks, the kind of people who say we should never go to war, 1.00

00:10:38.960 war is always terrible or whatever. That's just not a serious opinion. I have friends who hold that

00:10:44.740 opinion on the left and the right, I guess, but that's not a serious opinion. You don't even get

00:10:50.600 to join the conversation if that's your view. I'm reminded of C.S. Lewis's excellent essay

00:10:55.900 against pacifism. I don't think it's a serious moral point of view, but I certainly don't think

00:11:03.100 it's a serious point in statecraft. So write that one off. Now we're left with the realist pragmatic

00:11:09.680 types and the hawks and the idealist and the neocon types. So which is this? I think that the decision

00:11:17.160 to go to war in Iran was not chiefly led by the neocons and the hawks. I think it was a battle

00:11:25.420 from within the realist pragmatic practical camp. When President Trump says America first,

00:11:30.800 he's been clear about what that means from the beginning. Some people want to pretend that America

00:11:35.100 first means America's not involved anywhere in the world and we never use our military and we never

00:11:38.820 go to war. That has never been what Trump has meant by that. Don't forget, when Trump launched

00:11:44.280 America first, this iteration of America first back in 2015, 2016, one of his promises was to

00:11:50.980 go destroy ISIS. So not only did he talk about intervention, he talked about military intervention,

00:11:57.160 not only military intervention, but military intervention in the Middle East. Clearly,

00:12:00.560 what he means by America first is in that center camp. We need to be strong. We need to pursue our

00:12:04.980 interests. We need to be respected on the world stage. So that's the debate. Now, had I been on the

00:12:10.780 National Security Council and nobody invited me, but had I been on it, I probably would have made

00:12:15.940 the argument that the risks were too high, that the benefits were not totally clear, that things

00:12:21.940 could spiral out of control and things could still spiral out of control, by the way. The early few

00:12:27.160 days have been very, very promising. There are a billion things that could go wrong. So I probably

00:12:33.140 would have made that argument. But notably, that would not have been a peacenik argument. And I don't

00:12:38.440 think the argument that Trump is making is some neocon kind of argument. I think Trump's argument

00:12:43.260 is, yeah, yeah, it's high risk, but I can do it. I'm the man who can do it. I'm the man who can get

00:12:51.140 all these benefits for us. I'm going to take the risk. Trump's a risk taker. He's, I won't say a

00:12:58.140 gambler, but because he does it with skill. But Trump's going to come in and say, I have a great

00:13:03.800 record on foreign policy. Look what I did in Venezuela. Look what I did in the Middle East

00:13:08.200 in my first term. Look what I did in Russia, Ukraine. I prevented that war from breaking

00:13:12.340 out until Biden got in. I can do it. And so the debate is not really over ideology. It's not

00:13:19.900 really over even grand strategy preferences, but we'll get to what that means. It's really a debate

00:13:25.400 over. Can this guy, can this guy really affect US foreign policy better than any president in our

00:13:35.560 lifetimes? And we don't know. It remains to be seen. We are in the early days of this war,

00:13:41.480 which President Trump says is going to go on for four weeks, maybe five weeks.

00:13:46.060 Famous last words for some other presidents. However, we have to observe the first few days

00:13:51.380 have been extremely effective, extremely successful beyond most people's wildest imagination. And

00:13:58.960 President Trump has the best record on foreign policy practically in my lifetime.

00:14:05.500 So even if some of us would have said, I don't think it's worth the risk. I don't. I think we

00:14:10.780 should just deal with the Iranian regime, even though we've been at odds with them since 1979.

00:14:16.580 Even if that's the art, it really, there's not a disagreement on strategy here.

00:14:22.060 All the serious people want to get rid of the Iranian regime in an ideal world. The only question 1.00

00:14:27.620 is, can we actually pull this off? Thus far, President Trump is giving us a lot of reason to

00:14:35.160 believe that. Now, what this means is that when we read President Trump's no stupid wars, 0.99

00:14:43.120 no more stupid wars promise from 2016, we heard that. A lot of people heard that as no more wars. 0.99

00:14:51.100 The emphasis was on the word wars. But what President Trump is showing is, no, no, no,

00:14:55.260 the emphasis was on the word stupid. When we say no more endless wars, we heard wars. 1.00

00:15:01.360 The emphasis was on the word endless. I think Pete Hegseth just made that point.

00:15:05.080 I think Pete made a statement maybe this morning. Here's the Secretary of War.

00:15:08.080 To the media outlets and political left screaming endless wars. Stop. This is not Iraq. This is not

00:15:16.840 endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better and so does this president. He called

00:15:24.720 the last 20 years of nation building wars dumb. And he's right. This is the opposite. This operation 0.88

00:15:33.160 is a clear, devastating, decisive mission. Destroy the missile threat. Destroy the Navy. No nukes.

00:15:41.340 Israel has clear missions as well for which we are grateful. Capable partners. As we've said since

00:15:48.820 the beginning, capable partners are good partners. Unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring

00:15:56.280 their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force. 0.91

00:16:01.880 There you have it. This will not be an endless war. This will not be. We're going fast. I think

00:16:06.560 what's confounding a lot of people about this, and again, a billion things could go wrong. But the fact

00:16:11.040 that this worked so effectively, what's shocking to a lot of millennials, certainly to a lot of Zoomers, 0.97

00:16:18.040 maybe even to a lot of Gen X, is that in our lifetimes, we have never seen the United States

00:16:26.740 military truly unleashed. We've always put all these constraints around it. I mean, under Bush,

00:16:33.460 after the initial days of the global war on terror, the U.S. military was told to function basically as

00:16:40.060 an NGO, as some kind of U.N. nonprofit or something to hand out goodies to the locals. They were

00:16:45.660 constrained. Under Obama, they were especially constrained. And so you saw these bungling

00:16:51.320 missteps that were generated really by the political class in Washington, not by the U.S. military.

00:16:56.260 And I think looking at these operations, Venezuela and now Iran, I think a lot of people are just

00:17:01.460 shocked to discover the amazing strength from the perspective of technology and personnel, the just

00:17:09.960 amazing, awe-inspiring force of the United States military, because we hadn't seen that unleashed.

00:17:16.720 And that changes the calculation. So just to wrap up that bit, should we go to war in Iran? Should

00:17:22.060 we not? Obviously, aliyah iakta est, the die is cast. But everyone is debating this from the perspective

00:17:29.040 of ideology. Well, I'm an interventionist and you're an isolationist. Isolationist, which is always a term

00:17:35.240 of derision, always a term of insult. No, I'm a non-interventionist and I'm a liberty-loving

00:17:41.140 America first and you're a warmonger. It's all from ideology. That's not what this is about.

00:17:46.360 The questions that we don't have answers to, frankly, outside of the government,

00:17:50.920 maybe the government doesn't have answers either, but we certainly do not outside the government, is

00:17:54.480 was the threat posed by Iran really that great? We don't really know. The government could be lying 0.96

00:18:03.400 about it. The government might not even know, but we certainly do not know. Was the threat posed by

00:18:07.240 Iran really that great? And two, can we really effectively and efficiently install a friendly 0.99

00:18:16.480 regime in Iran? Those are the two questions. Not should America ever intervene or not should we

00:18:23.920 spread democracy or should it's none of it has nothing to do with any of that. I think from Trump's

00:18:29.260 perspective, certainly from my perspective, those are the two questions. What really was the threat?

00:18:36.040 How effectively really can we install a pro-Western regime? If the threat was high and we can easily 0.99

00:18:42.020 install a pro-Western regime, then obviously this was awesome. This was like the greatest thing ever. 0.69

00:18:48.040 Trump will go down as one of the greatest presidents in American history.

00:18:52.060 Replacing this regime in Iran has been a pretty high American priority since 1979.

00:18:56.380 If the threat was not that high and we get bogged down in an endless war,

00:19:02.720 Trump will have destroyed his legacy and he will go down in much the same way as George W. Bush.

00:19:09.880 That is serious risk that this guy is taking based on his confidence in the United States military and

00:19:16.540 his confidence in his own statesmanship. Say what you will, that takes serious gulians. 1.00

00:19:21.420 Okay, we will get into the reasons for the war, what has happened since. There were protests,

00:19:28.480 according to the liberal media, at U.S. embassies, especially an embassy in Pakistan.

00:19:32.580 There too, you saw the U.S. military unleashed. This ain't the Obama era, guys. This is the real deal.

00:19:38.280 We will get into what happens next and when I can finally get Cuban tobacco to blend into

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00:21:08.020 What are the reasons for war? I want to be real specific. I want to really drill down here on

00:21:13.440 what we're doing. One reason that has been suggested is that Iran was on the brink of a

00:21:18.840 nuclear weapon, something we've been hearing, in my case, almost every year of my life since I was

00:21:25.180 born. What, since the 90s? Really, since the 80s, we've been hearing this. Since before I was born,

00:21:30.460 Iran is on the brink of a nuclear weapon. According to reporting and sources from Capitol Hill and elsewhere,

00:21:37.340 was Iran really on the brink of a nuclear weapon? No. Were they pursuing a nuclear weapon? Yes.

00:21:44.860 Did Trump's military strikes on Fordow last year set back the nuclear program? Yes, obviously.

00:21:51.500 But it couldn't be the case that that was a totally successful operation and Iran was once again on the

00:21:55.820 brink of nuclear weapons. That would be contradictory, but that's not even what was being claimed.

00:22:01.300 Iran was continuing to pursue nuclear weapons. Trump was clearly unhappy with how the negotiations

00:22:08.000 were going. We tried to negotiate with Iran for almost 50 years. They just wouldn't play ball. So 1.00

00:22:13.300 Trump said, okay, well, look, I gave them a serious hit over the summer. They didn't want to play ball

00:22:19.880 after that. I guess I got to take out the regime. So brink of nuclear weapons, probably not.

00:22:24.680 There was another claim that Iran was about to launch an attack on US interests. And so we had

00:22:29.740 to preempt that because they were about to launch a missile attack any day now. There is really no

00:22:34.100 evidence of that at all. I think that is just pure propaganda flying around from where I'm not totally

00:22:40.520 sure. But according to the people who were debriefing Congress on this matter, apparently no,

00:22:46.980 Iran was not about to launch an attack on US interests. Now, you could observe that Iran had already 0.81

00:22:52.760 seriously harmed US interests because Iran has killed about a thousand US troops over the course

00:22:57.960 of its regime, going all the way back to the 1980s and a lot during the global war on terror.

00:23:05.220 And even recently, it's not like it was over 10 years ago. Iran killed three Americans just two 0.56

00:23:10.940 years ago. I think it was January of 2024. So we went in and we blew up the Iranian Revolutionary Guard 0.89

00:23:18.340 headquarters, among other military assets. There's video going all around about this,

00:23:23.240 aircraft carriers and destroyers, and we blew it up. Okay, another cause of the war that's been

00:23:30.940 floated is Israel. Did Israel try to drag us into this war? I think the answer is yes, right? According 0.95

00:23:38.360 to the Washington Post, the answer is yes. According to Washington Post reporting, which again, grain of

00:23:43.360 salt, they're the ones who said that the Ayatollah was Santa Claus. But still, here's their reporting.

00:23:47.200 In the briefing on Tuesday for the Gang of Eight, which consists of leaders of the House, the Senate,

00:23:52.340 and each chamber's intelligence committees, Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated to

00:23:57.400 lawmakers that the mission's timing and goals were shaped by the fact that Israel was going to attack

00:24:02.100 with or without the United States, according to a person familiar with the administration's

00:24:05.680 outreach to lawmakers. So the only debate that seemed to be remaining was whether the US would

00:24:10.080 launch in concert with Israel or if the US would wait until Iran retaliated on US military targets

00:24:15.340 in the region and then engage. So this could mean one of two things. One, this could just be the

00:24:21.840 White House trying to fly some political cover and say, no, it's really Israel. But you know,

00:24:25.820 so therefore we were dragged into this. That would be very much in keeping with a statecraft going back

00:24:31.960 millennia. However, it could be totally sincere that Israel has Mossad agents throughout every Iranian 0.82

00:24:39.600 interest everywhere. The degree of penetration is absolutely astounding. And they said, okay, no,

00:24:45.460 this is it. This is the moment. We got them. They're all going to be in this meeting. We're

00:24:48.240 going to blow them up now. So we're going to go in and you can deal with it. And the problem is, 0.88

00:24:53.220 because the United States is so closely tied to Israel, Iran would not retaliate only by hitting 0.54

00:24:58.940 Israeli interests. They would retaliate by hitting American interests. So if Israel even did act alone, 0.54

00:25:03.560 we would still get dragged into it. That's just how alliances work. America's a global empire

00:25:07.600 empire and Israel is part of the empire. That's how it goes. People can debate whether or not that's

00:25:11.940 a good thing or whether or not the tail wags the dog sometimes, or whether or not our interests are

00:25:16.740 too closely. We can debate that all day. It's just a fact. Just as Judea was a troublesome province for

00:25:22.880 the Roman empire, so too that neighborhood of the world is tricky for us. It seems to be just part 0.99

00:25:29.020 and parcel of the Holy Land. Okay. So that part, I believe Israel was going to do it. Maybe Israel had 0.90

00:25:35.880 very good reasons to do it. Israel's wanted to do it, obviously, for a long time and has struck 0.96

00:25:39.420 various Iranian interests many times. But Rubio says that's why we had to go in to have an early

00:25:45.800 advantage. Now, was it just Israel dragging us into war? According to the Washington Post, no. You know

00:25:51.860 who else was dragging us in? This is a little interesting tidbit. Saudi Arabia. Now, that's odd.

00:25:58.400 This is one of the most distinctly Muslim countries in the entire world. So you got one of the most 0.81

00:26:04.940 distinctly Muslim countries in the entire world, teaming up with the distinctly Jewish country. 0.68

00:26:11.240 Historically, they haven't always gotten along. And both of them, according to the Washington

00:26:15.120 Post, lobbying the United States to go in and attack the other regional power and the other

00:26:20.240 very prominent Muslim country, the Shiite Muslim country, Iran. According to the Washington Post,

00:26:25.380 the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, warned that Iran would come away stronger and more dangerous

00:26:31.520 if the United States did not strike now after amassing the largest military presence in the

00:26:35.660 Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. And this is according to people who were all speaking

00:26:41.860 on the condition of anonymity. So the idea being, look, we built up these huge military assets in

00:26:47.540 the region, much as we did in Venezuela in the lead up to ousting Maduro. And so if you get all the

00:26:53.560 way there and then Iran really won't negotiate, they just keep stalling, they keep putting everything 0.94

00:26:58.420 off. And you don't do anything, then Iran wins the game of chicken. Iran is stronger than it was even 1.00

00:27:02.860 before you sent the USS Gerald Ford and the USS Abraham Lincoln into the region. So according to

00:27:08.920 the reporting, which Saudi Arabia denies, Saudi Arabia says, no, we've been consistent in supporting

00:27:13.900 diplomatic efforts to reach a credible deal with Iran. We never lobbied. We never, no, of course,

00:27:19.040 it's the Saudi regime that for a long time denied that they killed Jamal Khashoggi,

00:27:23.240 who also our media lied to us and pretended was some journalist for the Washington Post actually,

00:27:29.420 but actually he was like a Saudi spy. And anyway, but all of that to say, you can't always take the

00:27:34.540 Saudis at their word. And I believe the reporting that they too were lobbying to hit Iran. And 0.95

00:27:41.640 regardless, Saudi Arabia supports hitting Iran right now. Riyadh has issued a statement calling on the

00:27:49.700 international community, which really means the United States and Israel, to take all necessary

00:27:54.340 and decisive measures to confront Iran. Okay. There are two other people who I think could have 0.98

00:28:01.320 been really pushing us into war. And one of those people is not really talked about, but he happens

00:28:06.260 to be the guy sitting in the Oval Office. First, before we get to that, I want to tell you about

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00:29:27.680 Was it, let's see, was it that Iran was on the brink of a nuclear weapon that we went to war? No.

00:29:34.160 Was it that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons? Yes. Was it that Iran was about to launch an attack on

00:29:38.500 U.S. interests? No. Was it that Iran has already attacked U.S. interests? Yes. Was it Israel? Yes. 0.69

00:29:44.180 Was it Saudi Arabia? Yes. Was it the Iranian diaspora? Was it the Iranians, who tend to be 0.99

00:29:53.800 very pro-Western, who live in the United States and throughout the West, who have been begging for

00:29:59.300 the U.S. to bomb the Mullahs for decades now? Well, according to the crown prince of Iran,

00:30:04.920 whose father, the Shah, was deposed, yes, this is a great moment. And just wait till you see the look 0.70

00:30:12.660 on this journalist's face when Pahlavi talks about how great Trump is for doing this.

00:30:18.320 What is your message to President Trump?

00:30:21.680 My message to President Trump is that I'm here to echo and join millions of my compatriots

00:30:27.800 inside and outside of Iran to thank him for having done and having the courage to do what is not easy,

00:30:35.280 but intervene. And he will go down in the annals of Iranian history as the most celebrated foreign 0.99

00:30:41.040 leader that changed the ballgame and changed the world as a result.

00:30:45.060 In January, there's this great bit there at the end where you get the Reza Pahlavi, the crown prince.

00:30:53.440 He says, you know, yes, Trump is the greatest guy ever. We totally love Trump. And then the 60

00:30:59.020 minutes journalist, he goes, uh-huh. Okay. Uh-huh. All right. Next question. No doubt. The Iranian 1.00

00:31:04.760 diaspora absolutely loves this. And then there's President Trump. And he's the guy. Was it Israel?

00:31:11.640 Yes. Was it Saudi Arabia? Yes. Was it this threat? Was it that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:31:15.940 Well, let's get down to basic decision-making. I think this answer from Trump on the cause of war

00:31:20.940 tells you so much about his decision-making process and his grand strategy.

00:31:27.640 I just spoke to President Trump for several minutes about Iran. I asked him about who is going to take

00:31:32.840 over now that the Ayatollah, the supreme leader, is gone. And his answer was interesting. He said the

00:31:38.240 attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates. He told me it's not going to be

00:31:43.140 anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. I talked to him about the fact that the

00:31:50.500 Iranians had tried to kill him. There was a plot in 2024, an Iranian plot to try to kill Trump. And he 0.53

00:31:58.420 said of the Ayatollah, I got him before he got me. They tried twice. Well, I got him first. As for how long 0.91

00:32:08.320 the war will go on, the president told me we always thought he always thought it was going to be a four

00:32:13.480 or five week deal. That's what he told me, a four or five week operation. He said it could be shorter and he was

00:32:21.980 prepared to go longer. I got him before he got me. That is the talk of a Manhattan real estate

00:32:31.820 developer. That is the talk of a guy who, by virtue of his previous job, had to deal with the mob.

00:32:38.880 That is tough guy talk. Iran has tried to kill Trump. This is not just based on, you know, 0.92

00:32:48.840 intelligence community analysis. A lot of people don't believe intelligence community analysis.

00:32:54.320 Iran has been pretty open about this. This is not, they weren't hiding the ball here. Iran has tried 0.85

00:32:58.880 to kill Trump on multiple occasions and threatened to kill Trump for a long time. And then Trump comes

00:33:05.180 out. He goes, yeah, he tried to get me, but I got him first. Funny how that works, huh?

00:33:09.920 Now, this tells you a lot about how Trump views the world. First of all,

00:33:20.220 we're struggling to understand this because we think this is war with Iran.

00:33:26.240 This is not war with Iran. And even some of the messaging you're getting out of the White House

00:33:30.360 here, it's not going to be an endless war. It's not going to be like Iraq. It's not going to be this.

00:33:33.900 Even that, I think, kind of misses the point. Trump just told you what this is about.

00:33:38.720 What the first impulse is about, which is, he goes, yeah, Khamenei, he tried to get me,

00:33:44.960 but I got him first. I was talking to a buddy of mine about this last night, and he made an

00:33:50.020 excellent, excellent point. Trump does not believe in institutions. I love institutions. I'm a

00:33:56.120 conservative. I love it. Trump does not believe in institutions, and I got to give him credit here.

00:34:00.560 I think that he has a really good point when it comes to foreign policy.

00:34:04.840 Trump believes in individuals. He does not believe in institutions. He believes in individuals.

00:34:11.540 Had Trump been the CEO of a Fortune 50 company, Trump would believe in institutions a lot more

00:34:17.560 than he does. He would believe in boards and legacies and contingencies. But Trump was the head

00:34:26.560 of the Trump organization. Trump was the reality TV star. Trump was the guy who is a personal brand.

00:34:32.800 And in Manhattan real estate in particular, you're not dealing with institutions. You're

00:34:36.960 dealing with individuals. So we, when we think of foreign policy, we think, okay, we think of the

00:34:43.300 Chinese Communist Party. Trump doesn't think of the Chinese Communist Party. He probably doesn't

00:34:47.600 know what the Chinese Communist Party is. He thinks that's a waste of time. He knows Xi Jinping,

00:34:51.500 and he knows if he can get along with Xi Jinping. He knows how he can get along with Xi Jinping. He knows

00:34:57.080 what can anger Xi Jinping. He knows what can put Xi Jinping into a corner. He's dealing individually.

00:35:02.400 He knows Kim Jong-un. He doesn't know anything about the regime of North Korea. He knows Kim Jong-un.

00:35:08.320 He knows Vladimir Putin. Look at what he did in Venezuela. Did he replace the socialist regime?

00:35:14.700 Did he go in there and replace that socialist party in Venezuela and replace it with the classically 0.99

00:35:20.520 liberal center-right party? No, he didn't do that. He went in. He kidnapped Nicolas Maduro.

00:35:26.960 And then the person underneath Nicolas Maduro, he put in charge. According to reports,

00:35:31.600 he was impressed that she was able to keep up oil exports even amid American sanctions. So he thought,

00:35:37.160 you know, this lady, maybe she can play ball. And then he went in and he said, hey,

00:35:40.920 you're going to run the country now. And he said almost verbatim, if you cross us, we'll kill you. 1.00

00:35:46.960 He said, I'm getting the words a little bit off, but he said, look, I think we can work with her. 0.98

00:35:52.880 But if she crosses the line, it's going to be worse for her than it was for Maduro. Maduro got

00:35:58.080 kidnapped. She'll get murdered. That's the implication. And you know what? That's worked 1.00

00:36:04.480 pretty well. And I suspect that's what's going to happen here. Compare that to George W. Bush in Iraq.

00:36:10.820 George W. Bush in Iraq goes in. We win the military victory. We were at Saddam Hussein in like five

00:36:16.180 minutes. And then what do we do? We disband the Iraqi bath party. We disband the army. We disband 1.00

00:36:23.760 all of these institutions because in the Bush view, the institutions are the problem.

00:36:30.660 We need to spread democracy and Western liberalism. And I don't think that's what

00:36:35.620 Trump's thinking. I think Trump's going to go in. He's going to kill the number one guy.

00:36:39.020 And then he's going to kill the number two guy. Trump had to joke about this. He goes, 1.00

00:36:42.140 yeah, you know, look, some of the guys we were thinking could take over. 0.98

00:36:44.580 Unfortunately, we were so successful, we killed them all. Oops. Guess we're going to have to find 0.98

00:36:49.240 someone new. He's kind of trash talking. He's very good at that. But I think Trump is looking at 1.00

00:36:54.620 regime change in Iran more like the Maduro model. Because there are two potential meanings of regime

00:37:01.000 change. The first potential meaning is you truly change out the regime, the ideology, the party that

00:37:08.480 is powering the government. But the other way that you use regime change in a looser sense

00:37:13.580 is you take out the leader and maybe you leave the party in place. Maybe you leave the ideology

00:37:21.080 such as it is in place. You just put a new guy in and you put a gun to his head and you say, 0.99

00:37:27.640 you're going to play nice. Or you know what's going to happen? We're going to kill you too. 0.62

00:37:32.060 And then we're just going to keep killing you until we get a guy that plays nice. 1.00

00:37:37.560 Capisce? That worked in Venezuela. I suspect that is what President Trump is doing here. 0.98

00:37:46.020 You know, it's funny because all the foreign policy geniuses make fun of Trump. He doesn't

00:37:50.340 understand the nuances of the Shia and the Sunni and the this party and the that party. He doesn't

00:37:56.380 understand the nuances of the Chinese Communist Party and the FSB and the, I don't know. Trump

00:38:03.700 understanding individuals? Talk about a vindication of the great man theory of history. Trump just

00:38:11.060 dealing mano a mano? Seems to have worked out pretty well. And this brings us to the grand strategy here.

00:38:19.460 Trump, what I think he's after is not just revenge or even self-protection for the guy who tried to

00:38:25.620 kill him. I don't think it's just about the oil. I don't think it's about freedom for the people in

00:38:30.440 Iran. I think it's in part about that, but I think it's only about that. I think Trump,

00:38:36.240 I don't think Trump wants to retreat, you know, as an isolationist. I don't think Trump wants to

00:38:41.780 spread democracy around the world. Here is what I think Trump wants. And the Iran strike gives you

00:38:47.180 this perfectly or could give you this perfectly if it doesn't spin out of control. Trump wants to

00:38:52.960 reshape the world order in a way that benefits the United States. The American empire has been 0.79

00:38:59.620 on decline for 25 years, since 9-11. Maybe even before that. You know, we had this huge peak

00:39:05.340 because of the dot-com bubble and the information technology revolution. But we were socially

00:39:10.100 becoming weaker. And after the Cold War, we kind of squandered the post-war dividend. And we're just,

00:39:15.320 we were kind of declining. And then we had the bungle in Iraq and Afghanistan, we start declining.

00:39:20.000 We had the global financial crisis, we're declining more. We had the Obama years were 0.94

00:39:23.540 really declining. I mean, this is really bad. Then we had Trump come in the first term and kind

00:39:27.880 of staved it off a little bit. Okay. But then Biden, oh my goodness, we just started plummeting.

00:39:32.040 Three million illegals coming in a year. People don't speak English anymore. The economy is on the 0.99

00:39:36.940 brink. It's just collapsing, right? And then Trump comes in. And I think what he wants to do is just

00:39:41.480 reset things. Say, no, no, we can win. I mean, even the shock for many Americans, 50 and under,

00:39:50.660 that the American military actually can succeed and succeed beyond people's wildest expectations

00:39:56.740 when the politicians in Washington don't constrain them. When we fight a war to defeat our enemy

00:40:02.080 and get what we want within the confines, I think, of law and justice. Well, if we have time today,

00:40:08.840 we'll get to some people are arguing that this is an illegal war, whether by the law of the

00:40:13.980 constitution or by international law or by just war theory. I'll try to get to that today. If we don't,

00:40:19.020 we'll get to it tomorrow. But that's what Trump wants to do. And from this perspective,

00:40:24.380 I think it is undeniable at this point. Trump understands grand strategy better than any

00:40:31.440 president in our lifetimes. And the proof of this is Iran's reaction, not at the United States or even 0.79

00:40:38.280 Israel, Iran's reaction to all the Gulf states after this strike. We'll get to that momentarily.

00:40:43.680 February 1st, this weekend, the moment news broke that the U.S. launch strikes on Iran,

00:40:48.940 the Daily Wire went live immediately. I lost my Saturday morning and my wife wanted to kill me,

00:40:53.300 but it was okay. We had to do it. This is a big event. We brought in real experts. 0.90

00:40:56.800 We delivered real analysis. We covered the latest developments as they happened.

00:41:00.460 That kind of live coverage is only possible because of our members.

00:41:03.720 If you value breaking news, investigative reporting, and journalism that helps you understand

00:41:07.420 what is actually happening in the world, go to dailywire.com and become a member today.

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00:41:42.760 My favorite comment yesterday, or no, on Friday, this is from Waylon Jenkins, 222,

00:41:48.780 who says, I got more prison time for a bar fight. It's a shame. Oh yeah, speaking of violence,

00:41:54.040 you talk about this guy, this Antifa guy, showed up to one of my speeches, threw an explosive,

00:41:59.500 seriously injured a female cop. He should have gotten 20 years instead, or more.

00:42:05.200 That's attempted murder. You throw an explosive in someone's face, 0.83

00:42:10.240 and instead he got, I think, two years. Now he's at a halfway house.

00:42:14.120 Pathetic, it's true. You could have gotten more jail time for a bar fight. 0.99

00:42:17.760 Okay, Trump's grand strategy here. It's Iran's response that proves in the early days 0.92

00:42:26.720 the wisdom of this strategy. So right off the top, Iran declares jihad on the United States. 0.97

00:42:34.400 I shouldn't laugh. This is from Visigrad 24. It's breaking. 99-year-old Iranian Grand Ayatollah

00:42:41.780 Nasser Makarem Shirazi has declared jihad against the United States and Israel.

00:42:46.740 Is that really breaking? Would we say breaking? First of all, the guy is almost literally 100 years

00:42:54.460 old. And I'm pretty sure Iran has declared jihad against the United States and Israel for like half 0.90

00:43:01.620 his life. For the whole of the Iranian regime. Breaking news. Iran doesn't like America or Israel.

00:43:10.740 Okay, next response. Drones hitting the Saudi Aramco Ras Tanura facility. This is one of the biggest

00:43:22.320 oil export facilities in the entire world. They process 6.5 million barrels of oil a day.

00:43:29.120 This is apparently 7% almost of global oil supply going through this one facility. Iran hits the Saudi 0.96

00:43:36.100 facility. Iran hits Oman. Iran hits Bahrain. I think Bahrain. Kuwait. Iran's just hitting these 0.98

00:43:46.880 Gulf states. And I think this was probably a pretty bad idea because I think it actually advances Trump's

00:43:55.880 strategy. You don't even have to take my word for it. The Iranian foreign minister has just admitted

00:44:01.920 this was probably not great. Well, there might be a risk. I have been in touch with all of them,

00:44:08.760 as I said, especially with Qatar and Oman foreign ministers. I explained for them what happened in

00:44:14.640 Oman was not our choice. We have already told our, you know, army armed forces to be careful about the 1.00

00:44:24.380 targets that they choose. As a matter of fact, you know, our, you know, militaries, military units

00:44:32.260 are now, in fact, independent and somehow isolated. And they are acting based on instructions.

00:44:41.220 You know, the general instructions given to them in advance. No, no, no. This is all big

00:44:47.100 understanding. You understand. This is all. We did not mean. I know Iran hit Oman. I know this 0.80

00:44:53.180 seemed very bad and hit Dubai. I know. I don't know. I don't know what accent. It's like almost 0.98

00:44:57.780 Russian or something. I don't know. But it is big mistake, Habibi, a big mistake, you see, because 0.99

00:45:02.940 we actually don't have any control over our military now. That's basically his argument. His argument is

00:45:08.420 we have no control over our, over our terror, terrorist slash army forces. This was, this is

00:45:16.380 one of the big risks for Iran because the chief problem of Iran over the last 50 years is that 1.00

00:45:22.180 they've got one foot in the international order and one foot outside of it. In some ways, they're

00:45:26.600 like a real state. In some ways, they're like a terrorist organization. And so one of the problems

00:45:30.200 is when things start to break down, most charitable view of what he's saying is you lose control of

00:45:35.560 your terrorists. In any case, they hit Dubai. Ah, it's not a good look. Oman. I've been, I've been

00:45:42.260 to Dubai and Oman. They're both very nice places to be. Dubai is a little bit degenerate, but you

00:45:47.840 know, people go there, get up to no good. But Oman is a beautiful, beautiful country. And what these

00:45:54.200 countries desire more than anything in my limited experience there, what they desire is to not have

00:46:01.680 terrorism. They really, they don't want any of that. They don't, these are places, especially Dubai

00:46:06.740 and the Emirates, that thrive on tourism, that thrive on international finance and business, being

00:46:14.620 here to give Westerners a nice place to live where they don't have to pay taxes. That's what they thrive

00:46:18.640 on. When missiles start flying, that becomes an existential threat to their polities. And so what's the

00:46:25.880 grand strategy of this all? This, this is where you really, whether you're totally in support of the

00:46:30.260 Iran war, whether you're skeptical of the Iran war, as I continue to be, as I certainly was before,

00:46:35.380 though now the die is cast and we're all in, you know, with our president and he deserves a fair

00:46:40.160 bit of credibility. And in any case, it's our country. But one can keep a healthy skepticism

00:46:45.220 or whether you, whether you're all for it. Regardless, I think you have to appreciate

00:46:51.120 the grand strategy here. Going back to the first term.

00:46:56.220 First term, what is Trump's signature foreign policy accomplishment? It's the Abraham Accords.

00:46:59.980 Where he gets some of the Gulf states to drop the hostilities with Israel. Israel, which is an 0.97

00:47:06.720 American ally. And even if we, even if you don't think they're a great ally, and I think there are

00:47:10.940 arguments that they're a pretty decent ally, but regardless, they are an outgrowth of the American 0.66

00:47:15.420 empire. So to get the Gulf states, and we have allies there too, to drop the hostilities with Israel

00:47:22.700 is a great achievement. But it's still kind of loose. It's kind of nebulous. It started to fray,

00:47:29.660 obviously, during the Gaza war. By getting Iran to fire, not just on Israel, not just on some

00:47:38.960 American bases, but to fire on Dubai, but to fire on Oman, obviously to fire on the huge escalation to be

00:47:46.240 hitting Saudi Aramco. To hit all of that codifies, consolidates, reifies the Abraham Accords kind of

00:47:57.840 abstract alliance into a military alliance. It really begins to reshape the region.

00:48:05.340 And China and Russia have taken serious notice of this. Between Venezuela and Iran, we've just cut 0.68

00:48:10.840 off almost 20% of China's oil. It won't be a huge deal and they can figure it out, but that's a real 0.72

00:48:16.160 hit. The fact that Russia is not coming in to the aid of its client state in Iran tells you that Russia

00:48:22.720 realizes this was a pretty successful move by the United States, and they don't want to get on the

00:48:27.340 wrong side of it. Putin then responds, and within hours of the strike on the Ayatollah, he says,

00:48:33.800 hey, hey, you know that thing you wanted in Ukraine? You know that those security guarantees you

00:48:37.820 wanted in Ukraine? Yeah, we're good with that now. That is a reordering of the world. Again, a billion 1.00

00:48:46.520 things could go wrong and it could tarnish Trump's legacy and all that, but you have to give the guy.

00:48:51.760 He has a keen sense of grand strategy, even if it's not totally conscious. I kind of give him more

00:48:57.520 credit than a lot of people do, but this is a really, really smart grand strategy, and it kind of

00:49:04.780 makes a mockery of the whole foreign policy establishment in D.C. for the last 20, 30 years.

00:49:10.320 There's so much more to get to. I don't care. I'm running a little late today. I don't care.

00:49:13.060 There's too much to get to. I just mentioned Russia accepts the security guarantees in Ukraine.

00:49:19.180 Now you've got Muslims overrunning U.S. embassies in Iraq and Pakistan, but even here, 1.00

00:49:24.120 look, there's video coming out of the attack on the embassy in Pakistan.

00:49:27.440 Notice something different about this attack than attacks on U.S. embassies under people like Obama.

00:49:34.780 They're screaming, running, babbling. Got it. What's going on here? What's going on here? Well,

00:49:49.900 what's going on is these guys show up to the embassy and the Marines just start shooting them.

00:49:56.640 And the way it's being reported, the headlines, I love this. This is Bloomberg and I think Al

00:50:00.160 Jazeera. I can't tell the difference. It said 10 killed in pro-Iran protests at U.S. consulate in

00:50:05.340 Pakistan. Protests. 10 killed in pro-Iran protests at U.S. consulate in Pakistan's Karachi. That was

00:50:12.500 Al Jazeera. It's a protest. It was a protest. Hey, let's take a look at the protesters. Do we

00:50:16.200 have a picture of the protesters? Oh, okay. It's a guy shooting at the Marines. Got it. Okay. It's a guy

00:50:22.820 with a gun. That doesn't, I'm waiting for the WAPO obituary. If this guy got killed, you know,

00:50:27.960 known for his crisp white shirt and keen ability to balance on one leg. This protester was, yeah,

00:50:37.000 I don't, that's not a protest. That's an attack. And under previous administrations,

00:50:43.640 they would have either been constrained or not properly resourced and fortified.

00:50:48.920 Under this administration, though, we have the Marines. And if you try to storm our embassy,

00:50:55.760 we're going to shoot you. We're going to shoot all of you. And that's a tough, I don't really 1.00

00:50:59.080 take pleasure in this. Some people, they, I don't know, they get a little bloodlust up in the war.

00:51:04.200 But you don't, this is a lesson. This is a very tough lesson for people. And it's a lesson that

00:51:09.220 they might not have understood because of the weakness of previous administrations.

00:51:12.580 But this is an important lesson for everyone to recognize. All these people who want to do harm

00:51:19.160 to American embassies or American interests, even at home, this is not Obama. This is not Biden.

00:51:25.200 This is not Obama. If you threaten us, we're going to kill you all. We're going to kill all of you. 1.00

00:51:31.540 Why do you think Putin picked up the phone so fast to try to wrap down the Ukraine war the minute 1.00

00:51:36.420 this hit? He said, oh, Trump will really do it. He'll just go in, kidnap the leader of Venezuela.

00:51:42.840 Based on a legal predicate, by the way, the guy had an arrest warrant out for him, Maduro.

00:51:47.080 Ali Khamenei. We've been talking about getting rid of these people for 49 years.

00:51:51.800 49, 46. I keep forgetting the number. For a long time. And Trump just goes in and does it.

00:51:58.420 And that sends a message to people that this is not Obama. This is not Biden. This probably is not

00:52:05.120 George W. Bush either. We should point out there have been American losses so far. Confirmed,

00:52:10.460 I think there were three. Three American servicemen have been killed so far. There have been some other

00:52:15.700 injuries. You know, obviously awful. We should all say prayer for the repose of their souls and for

00:52:21.760 their families. Also, multiple F-15s were shot down in Kuwait by Kuwait. It was actually friendly fire,

00:52:29.140 you know, not great coordination from our allies in Kuwait. The good news is, well, we lost the airplanes,

00:52:34.420 but all of the pilots ejected safely. So I don't think any American servicemen were killed in this

00:52:41.520 friendly fire, but pretty scary. In any case, we should pray for their families. What comes next?

00:52:48.180 What comes next? I'm hoping maybe we get a little, I don't know, Cuba. We'll talk about that. Trump's

00:52:54.020 actually already hinting at that. But I think Rubio put it very, very well. What we need to recognize is

00:53:00.560 this is not just about Trump getting some oil. This is not just about, you know, spreading democracy

00:53:06.000 even further than it's ever been. This is not just about the world order as we have known it

00:53:12.660 is over. It is passing away, both because of the passage of time, but also, here's the good part,

00:53:21.200 because it was an order that had America in decline. And now there is a new world order

00:53:31.000 that has the possibility of America in ascent again, of American strength again. There's no

00:53:38.860 guarantee that it actually works. But I think Trump's broadest view of the grand strategy is

00:53:43.680 that he's going to make America great again. And a lot of people, even many people on the right,

00:53:48.520 don't think America can be great again because of all sorts of economic and demographic and

00:53:52.640 cultural reasons. But Trump is serious. When he says, I want to make America great again,

00:53:57.200 he's really serious about that. And he'll either do it or he'll go down swinging. Here's Marco Rubio.

00:54:02.960 The world is changing very fast on a verse. The old world is gone, frankly, the world I grew up in,

00:54:09.640 and we live in a new era, geopolitics. And it's going to require all of us to reexamine what that looks

00:54:15.260 like and what our world is going to be. And we've had many of these conversations that are private,

00:54:21.060 many of our allies, we are our allies. And we need to continue to have those conversations.

00:54:26.280 And I think Saturday, hopefully, and the meeting's live there when we'll listen to them.

00:54:29.540 Okay, before we go, I know I'm running late. I don't care. I have to get to Shia LaBeouf. I

00:54:32.900 promised we'd get to Shia LaBeouf. This is an interview going around. It has nothing to do with

00:54:35.540 Iran. Shia LaBeouf, though, he's led a colorful life. He converted. He had a religious conversion

00:54:42.200 some years ago and converted to Catholicism. It was retaken with the traditional Latin mass.

00:54:46.700 And then recently, around Mardi Gras, he apparently went on a little bit of a bender

00:54:50.320 in New Orleans. I think he was in jail. He had to go sleep it off or something.

00:54:55.300 And then he just, out of the blue, gave this interview.

00:54:59.080 What would you say to Jesus if you could meet him? I wouldn't say sh**. 0.98

00:55:04.680 Really? Nah. But I'll kiss. 0.99

00:55:07.980 I kiss. I kiss him. I kiss his feet. I don't want to say nothing.

00:55:23.480 Chill out with these questions, Andrew.

00:55:25.340 My bad. I didn't know it was going to make you emotional.

00:55:27.440 Yeah, I'm a real Catholic, bro. A real one.

00:55:29.600 I just thought you had thought about it.

00:55:30.620 Nah, I'm a real one, bro.

00:55:32.760 I want to believe in something. 1.00

00:55:34.900 Well, hey, bro, you got to hit your head into the wall hard enough where you just go, f**k it. 1.00

00:55:40.840 It's the only way, dog. 1.00

00:55:42.240 That's how you find God?

00:55:43.220 Yep, for me.

00:55:44.740 For the hard-headed ones, yeah, you got to go hard.

00:55:47.580 What do you think was the real-life equivalent of you smashing your head on the wall? 0.99

00:55:50.580 I put a gun in my mouth. I was ready to kill myself, blow my brains out, writing letters. 1.00

00:55:54.680 Yeah. 0.99

00:55:55.140 I had dark days. For real, gone. I'm ready to go.

00:55:58.400 Why didn't you do it?

00:55:59.160 But why didn't I do it? Because I'm p*****g and also my mom. 0.88

00:56:03.040 So God bless her. She kept me alive that night. 0.95

00:56:07.100 This interview is magnificent.

00:56:08.960 I'm not sure if it was ethical to interview him in this way because he's clearly going through something pretty hard right now.

00:56:14.600 And so, you know, probably should pray for Shia and, you know, he should, you know, process this probably out of the public.

00:56:23.800 But in a way, I'm glad he gave the interview because it's really touching in many, many ways.

00:56:29.340 He goes off on all sorts of other questions.

00:56:31.120 He's asked about homosexuality.

00:56:33.680 He talks about Martin Luther.

00:56:35.920 It's a lot.

00:56:36.520 But I love this interview, and I love his response.

00:56:42.120 First of all, his answer is totally right.

00:56:44.420 What would you say if you met Jesus?

00:56:45.800 He said, I'd say nothing.

00:56:47.040 I'd just, I'd kiss him.

00:56:49.160 What would you do?

00:56:50.300 You'd adore God.

00:56:51.960 Of course you would.

00:56:52.920 Of course you would do that.

00:56:53.840 That's what you should do anyway.

00:56:55.280 He says, I'm a real one.

00:56:56.480 He's not saying I'm perfect.

00:56:57.740 He's not saying I'm holier than thou.

00:57:00.060 Certainly not.

00:57:00.500 The whole time, he's speaking in the context of what a sinner he is. 0.65

00:57:06.360 It's all the ways he's screwed up his life.

00:57:09.260 But we all listen to, I don't know, I certainly listen to a lot of apologists, theologians,

00:57:17.620 people speaking, especially from an intellectual perspective about God and Christ and the truth

00:57:23.580 of Christianity.

00:57:24.160 And I find it very, very edifying.

00:57:26.300 And that can have great apologetics effects, great evangelical effects.

00:57:31.640 Shia LaBeouf's answer in that one minute clip might have even more stronger evangelical

00:57:41.000 force than like every modern apologist.

00:57:43.860 It just resonates with people because even if you've not been exactly at the place Shia LaBeouf

00:57:51.400 was, we've all been to some version of it, some proximity to despair.

00:57:58.120 And we all have the longing for God because we're human beings.

00:58:02.720 And it was great.

00:58:05.560 Shia LaBeouf is, for all his flaws, for all of his flaws, because of all of his flaws,

00:58:16.720 he is a very, very powerful evangelist.

00:58:21.020 Okay, the rest of the show continues.

00:58:22.120 Now, you do not want to miss it.

00:58:22.860 Become a member.

00:58:23.280 Use code NOLS Canada.

00:58:23.940 You really have to check out for two months free on all annual plans.

00:58:25.860 Tomorrow, we make war. 0.99

00:58:48.200 I think it's a desperate plan and foolish. 0.98

00:58:51.260 I would save my people from destruction. 0.98

00:58:57.000 So should you.

00:58:58.600 This new faith is glad of his judgment.

00:59:01.000 He's waiting on a miracle.

00:59:02.560 And why do you tell me this?

00:59:04.360 Because I think you can give him one.

00:59:06.980 If I lead you into victory, Uther, the men of Britain will proclaim me king.

00:59:11.980 He seeks our deliverance from God when he could so easily just give it to us with his own hands.

00:59:18.420 Not long ago, you offered me the Fisher King sword.

00:59:21.260 I have always believed you were meant to be, High King.

00:59:24.640 How many lives must be lost before you accept the power you were born to wield?

00:59:29.960 For Britain!

00:59:30.560 For Britain!

00:59:39.060 How are we to drive out 15,000 Saxon with only two and a half thousand men? 0.98

00:59:45.840 Today, Britain dies!

00:59:57.820 Yes!

00:59:58.260 The Pendragon Cycle.

01:00:01.920 Rise of the Merlin.

01:00:03.180 Now streaming.

01:00:04.380 Only on Daily Wire+.

01:00:05.780 We'll be right back.

The Michael Knowles Show - March 02, 2026

Ep. 1922 - ＂I Got Him First＂ Trump's War In Iran Explained In 5 Mins

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