The Tucker Carlson Show - War Update： Israel’s True Motives, Potential False Flags, and Oncoming Global Crisis

00:00:00.300 Investing is all about the future.

00:00:02.440 So what do you think is going to happen?

00:00:04.360 Bitcoin is sort of inevitable at this point.

00:00:06.880 I think it would come down to precious metals.

00:00:09.440 I hope we don't go cashless.

00:00:11.560 I would say land is a safe investment.

00:00:14.120 Technology, companies.

00:00:15.280 Solar energy.

00:00:16.280 Robotic pollinators might be a thing. 1.00

00:00:18.880 A wrestler to face a robot.

00:00:20.580 That will have to happen.

00:00:22.160 So whatever you think is going to happen in the future,

00:00:25.680 you can invest in it at Wealthsimple.

00:00:27.600 Start now at Wealthsimple.com.

00:00:30.960 It's a safe bet that almost no one involved in the war now ongoing in Iran in the Gulf

00:00:35.980 would like to see it continue much longer.

00:00:37.960 If you were to poll, well, the Iranians or the Americans, basically anybody,

00:00:42.680 how long do you want this to go?

00:00:44.040 Very few people would say, I want it to go a long time.

00:00:46.940 But that doesn't mean it won't go a long time.

00:00:50.100 Unfortunately, it is likely to.

00:00:52.080 It's unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.

00:00:54.980 Of course, that could prove to be untrue.

00:00:58.140 You never know.

00:00:58.940 Oh, it's an utterly dynamic situation.

00:01:01.280 But big picture, there are still a couple of unresolved questions that this war may resolve.

00:01:07.500 This war may be the only thing that resolves them. 0.55

00:01:09.920 And so until there's a consensus on the answers to those questions,

00:01:12.820 it probably is going to continue.

00:01:14.100 What are those questions?

00:01:14.820 Well, the first is geopolitical.

00:01:15.960 And it's the biggest question of all, which is who runs the world, who gets to make the decisions, not simply who's richest, but who makes the rules, who sets the terms.

00:01:24.420 And for most of our lifetimes, there has been no question about that.

00:01:29.700 The answer has been the United States.

00:01:31.040 The United States sets the rules.

00:01:33.060 The United States runs the world.

00:01:34.620 That's been true in the Western half of the world since 1945, when the U.S. emerged stronger and richer than any other nation after the end of World War II.

00:01:42.840 And it's been true since August of 1991, 35 years ago, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

00:01:49.440 The United States has reigned in a unipolar world.

00:01:53.440 That's what they call it.

00:01:53.840 There's just one pole.

00:01:54.860 There's one center of gravity.

00:01:56.460 There's one power center.

00:01:57.960 And that's been the United States.

00:01:59.400 But that has changed over the past several years, maybe decades, certainly since China was admitted into the WTO in 2001.

00:02:07.380 Now it is a multipolar world.

00:02:09.360 You've heard that phrase, no doubt.

00:02:10.580 And that means there are a couple, at least a couple centers of gravity.

00:02:14.220 Really, there are two.

00:02:15.320 There's the U.S. and the constellation of states with which it's allied.

00:02:18.840 And then there is on the eastern hemisphere of the globe, China.

00:02:22.660 And China is now a peer with the United States, at least, almost no matter how you measure it.

00:02:29.640 Population, of course, much bigger.

00:02:31.580 Military power, well, we're not quite sure.

00:02:33.660 But certainly from a technological and industrial output standpoint, at least a peer.

00:02:38.720 And then on a pure economic level, well, China has a bigger economy, a bigger real economy than the United States.

00:02:45.660 So, yes, China is a peer.

00:02:47.200 And so the question is, since you now have two countries that are roughly evenly matched, we think, we never do know until they come into conflict, but they seem roughly evenly matched, who gets to set the terms for commerce and diplomacy and everything else that happens on the globe?

00:03:05.960 Well, if you were to reach a diplomatic solution, there would be, in effect, a power sharing agreement between these two countries.

00:03:11.780 You take the east, I take the west.

00:03:13.480 Here are the terms.

00:03:14.280 But unfortunately, no such agreement, formal or informal, has been reached for a bunch of reasons.

00:03:21.440 It's everybody's fault.

00:03:22.420 But one of the reasons is almost nobody in Washington can get his head around the current, present, obvious reality, which is, no, we don't run everything anymore.

00:03:32.940 We are in competition, not necessarily in conflict, but in competition with this other country that's at least as powerful as we are, called China, different system, language, culture, et cetera. 0.91

00:03:43.760 But at least every bit as powerful.

00:03:46.900 And so you can't make unilateral decisions anymore.

00:03:49.500 It's sort of that moment that many parents face when used to barking orders at their kids.

00:03:53.880 They realize the kid is taller than them and, like, it's a new relationship in some ways.

00:03:58.220 You're always the parent, but you can't just bark orders anymore.

00:04:00.920 That's pretty much where we are with China, or maybe a little past that, actually.

00:04:04.180 And what we've noticed over the past several years is the total unwillingness, the inflexibility of Washington policymakers to just acknowledge the reality.

00:04:14.700 And instead, even as we speak, there's probably some symposium underway in Washington about what will we do if China invades Taiwan?

00:04:24.220 Well, of course, from China's perspective, Taiwan is part of China.

00:04:27.460 It's just sort of run off for the past 75 years, but it's still part of China.

00:04:30.980 That's their view.

00:04:31.620 And the United States, of course, isn't in a position to stop the reclamation of Taiwan. 0.63

00:04:38.260 Let's stop lying.

00:04:39.920 And yet only in D.C. is that not obvious, which is to say people in Washington are still acting like they're running everything unopposed, but they're not.

00:04:49.740 And the rest of the world is looking on and thinking at some point you've got to knock it off and face reality.

00:04:56.800 Now, there are a lot of people in the United States, me included, who would like to live in a unipolar world.

00:05:00.860 And, you know, it's way less fun to be constrained, to have to come to terms with another country before you make a decision.

00:05:07.360 No one wants to do that.

00:05:08.400 No one wants to be challenged.

00:05:09.560 But again, it's sort of not up to us or anyone, the moment that you live in.

00:05:16.940 You're not in charge of reality, actually.

00:05:20.400 And so this is the reality we live in.

00:05:22.740 And the question is, are we going to come to terms with it in a reasonable way, or are we going to be forced through use of arms to face that reality?

00:05:33.220 And it looks increasingly like the latter.

00:05:36.280 Unfortunately, that is not the way to settle matters like this, because you can emerge greatly diminished from those contests and find yourself in a much weaker negotiating position.

00:05:48.520 Better negotiate while you're strong than when you're weak.

00:05:51.240 But our leaders weren't wise or farsighted enough to do that.

00:05:57.340 Seized by hubris, they were dictating terms, like Baghdad Bob. 0.67

00:06:04.120 It's sad, actually.

00:06:04.960 No reason to laugh about it.

00:06:05.800 But that is one of the questions now being decided in Iran.

00:06:09.380 Why Iran? 0.86

00:06:09.980 Well, because these questions are always decided by proxy.

00:06:13.480 No two great powers want to go to war with each other, of course, especially in the nuclear age, because that could mean simultaneous elimination.

00:06:20.020 And no one wants that, at least consciously.

00:06:24.100 And so typically these things play out in third countries, like Vietnam, famously, or Afghanistan for both the Soviets and the United States, or Korea, and now Iran.

00:06:34.920 Iran, which is part of an alliance that includes the other big powers, Russia and China.

00:06:39.720 So they may not be explicitly weighing in, which is to say they're not fighting alongside the Iranians yet.

00:06:45.540 But they're certainly on Iran's side, and they're certainly helping in a multitude of ways, one expects.

00:06:52.340 And a lot, for them, rides on the outcome.

00:06:55.640 And because it does, it makes it harder to settle this thing.

00:06:59.880 So that's the geopolitical, very obvious overlay here.

00:07:03.640 That's why this is not just a debate about whether the Ayatollah has nuclear weapons.

00:07:09.080 Stop.

00:07:09.520 It's much bigger than that, and much more serious than that, and the consequences are much more profound than that.

00:07:15.180 So that's the first.

00:07:16.440 But there is another layer that most Americans are not aware of, but much of the rest of the world is highly aware of.

00:07:23.680 And that is a religious layer.

00:07:25.560 Now, Lindsey Graham is on tape saying to a gaggle of reporters, his bloodshot eyes, his puffy face, God knows what he's been doing, saying explicitly, this is a religious war.

00:07:38.280 This is a religious war. 0.66

00:07:40.060 Now, his motive in saying that, you know, he's not here to answer the question.

00:07:43.260 We can only guess.

00:07:44.500 Is he trying to foment a religious war?

00:07:46.500 Probably.

00:07:47.800 He's an end times kind of guy.

00:07:49.860 But it almost doesn't matter.

00:07:51.140 He's telling the truth for once.

00:07:52.500 This is a religious war. 0.66

00:07:54.180 However, fundamentally.

00:07:57.120 And that is not obvious to most Americans because this is the most secular society, not just the United States, but the West, the English-speaking world, Europe, and the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, in history.

00:08:10.200 There's never been a more godless, to be blunt about it, a more secular society at scale.

00:08:18.580 Never.

00:08:18.980 Nothing approaching this has ever happened, ever.

00:08:21.400 Every society is fundamentally a religious society.

00:08:24.180 It's not explicitly religious except ours.

00:08:26.760 So we lack the terms to describe what we're seeing, and we lack the imagination to think about it.

00:08:34.720 And, well, to quote Jesus, we have the eyes, but we cannot see.

00:08:40.460 We don't see what's happening around us, but the rest of the world very much does see.

00:08:44.660 So you often hear people talk about the Middle East crisis, and they usually mean energy.

00:08:48.240 You know, people want the oil, the gas.

00:08:49.820 But traditionally, when people have talked about the Middle East, they're talking about Jerusalem.

00:08:55.720 We're talking about the holiest spot on earth.

00:08:57.660 Let's be a lot more specific when we say the holiest spot on earth.

00:09:01.200 The holiest spot on earth is something called the foundation stone.

00:09:03.280 The foundation stone is literally a rock in Jerusalem on what used to be called Mount Moriah, which was, at one point, the highest place in the oldest part of Jerusalem.

00:09:13.320 And it's on that spot, on that rock, on that stone, that Jews believe the world began, that the Old Testament or the Jewish Torah tells us that Abraham brought Isaac bound to be sacrificed to God. 0.53

00:09:29.560 And it's on that spot that Muslims believe that the prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven.

00:09:39.220 And, of course, it's right nearby that Christians believe Jesus was crucified and then rose to heaven.

00:09:48.520 So on that spot or right nearby, a lot has happened.

00:09:52.820 But critically on that spot, because it was the place where Abraham brought Isaac, and again, to American ears,

00:09:59.560 this sounds weird, but to the rest of the world, it's like, yeah, everyone knows this, because it's the center of their lives.

00:10:04.580 On that spot, Solomon built his famous temple.

00:10:09.820 Now, in the Torah, it says pretty clearly, and correct me if I'm misreading it, that Jews, followers of God, can only publicly worship God and sacrifice on that spot, in that city, Jerusalem, on that spot.

00:10:27.400 And on that spot was built a temple, the first temple.

00:10:29.780 Now, that was destroyed by the Babylonians, famously. 0.97

00:10:32.440 And then it was rebuilt and later improved by Herod. 0.74

00:10:36.100 And it was, at its completion, I think, the largest building, certainly the largest religious building in the ancient world.

00:10:43.760 And it was in that building that Jesus preached, in what we call the second temple that Jesus preached, the very center of Judaism, building without which you can't really have Torah Judaism.

00:10:54.040 The religion just sort of didn't work without it.

00:10:57.120 By its own terms, in its own book, it said that.

00:10:59.600 And during one of his sermons, in that sermon, Jesus, who Christians believe is God sent to earth, says, this will be torn down.

00:11:11.700 Not one stone will be left standing.

00:11:14.740 And it was shortly after that that he was put on trial in the middle of the night and tortured to death, crucified.

00:11:24.420 As it happened, so that's the religion.

00:11:27.380 Here's the history.

00:11:27.920 About 35 years later, 37 years later, in that range, in 70 AD, Titus, the emperor, the Roman Empire, of the Roman Empire, got into quite a conflict with the Jews of Judea and Jerusalem.

00:11:43.940 And it's complex and incredibly brutal, but the bottom line was, in AD 70, the Romans besieged Jerusalem, finally broke through the walls, and tore that temple stone from stone.

00:12:00.980 Not a single stone left upon another.

00:12:04.860 Really a kind of dedication to destruction that's hard for the modern mind to imagine.

00:12:08.920 We talk about genocide, this genocide that the Romans tried to genocide the Jews for real. 0.69

00:12:14.560 And they succeeded in destroying the temple.

00:12:16.760 And with it, temple Judaism, Torah Judaism. 0.92

00:12:22.020 You can't have the religion that existed before AD 70, after AD 70, because there's no temple.

00:12:30.520 And so this has been an open wound for 2,000 years, and certainly, understandably, people have wanted to rebuild the temple, to build what they call the third temple.

00:12:40.100 For example, to reestablish this religion at its birthplace, there are a couple problems with this.

00:12:48.580 One, exactly 500 years after Titus destroyed the temple in AD 70, in AD 570, a man called Muhammad was born in Mecca and built one of the world's great religions,

00:13:05.980 the world's second largest religion, as it stands today, in a very short period.

00:13:10.180 His name was Muhammad.

00:13:11.460 He was born in Mecca.

00:13:13.200 He died in nearby Medina.

00:13:15.320 But in the meantime, he built or inspired the building of, within 50 years of his death, one of the great religious monuments in the world,

00:13:23.880 certainly one of the prettiest, called the Dome of the Rock, and it's in Jerusalem on Moriah, in fact, built over the foundation stone.

00:13:31.320 And if you've ever been to Jerusalem, or if you've ever seen photographs of it, you will remember vividly a gold dome.

00:13:38.120 It's called the Dome of the Rock.

00:13:39.480 Why is it called that?

00:13:40.420 Because there's a rock underneath it, the foundation stone.

00:13:43.380 That is built on the site of the second temple.

00:13:46.500 And that's within what's known as the Al-Aqsa complex.

00:13:50.340 There's a mosque next door called the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

00:13:54.900 And that spot is one of three holy places, apparently co-equal holy places, in Islam.

00:14:02.020 Mecca, Medina, Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa.

00:14:05.800 So that is at the very center of Judaism.

00:14:09.260 I mean, physically the center of Judaism.

00:14:11.180 That spot, that exact spot over the foundation stone.

00:14:14.660 And Islam.

00:14:16.060 And it has been occupied by a mosque.

00:14:20.280 A mosque has been sitting there since the 7th century, since the late 600s.

00:14:25.260 Amazing.

00:14:26.160 You may be dimly aware of this.

00:14:27.600 Now, why go on at length about this?

00:14:30.800 Because now is the moment, right now, like this week, is the moment that some people, not a huge number, most people, Christians, Jews, Muslims, are not fully aware of all this.

00:14:42.100 But some people are highly aware of it and would like to begin the process of tearing down the Dome of the Rock, tearing down Al-Aqsa Mosque, and rebuilding the third temple.

00:14:55.600 Now, there are a lot of things to say about this, about its likelihood, the potential effects of it.

00:15:01.240 But first, just a quick side note on the theology of this, from a Christian point of view.

00:15:08.340 Now, it was Jesus who said, this temple will be torn down.

00:15:11.640 Shocking everyone around to me, if it's in the Gospels.

00:15:14.140 It's in at least a couple of the Gospels.

00:15:16.860 And the people who heard it just couldn't believe it.

00:15:18.560 And of course, the people running the temple, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, were gravely offended by it.

00:15:23.460 Why wouldn't they be?

00:15:24.920 But then it happened.

00:15:26.880 Less than 40 years later, it actually happened.

00:15:28.900 He was right.

00:15:29.380 He called it.

00:15:31.200 And so from a Christian perspective, he did that.

00:15:34.600 God called for the structure of the temple.

00:15:36.880 And as Jesus says plainly in the Gospels, I'm the temple.

00:15:41.140 I'm the temple now.

00:15:42.020 The temple will be rebuilt after three days.

00:15:43.740 When I'm resurrected, I am the new temple.

00:15:46.800 It says that.

00:15:49.080 But there has been at least one attempt in the last 2,000 years to rebuild a physical third temple.

00:15:56.520 And it happened in the 4th century.

00:15:59.860 And it happened, without getting too far afield, shortly after the death of Constantine.

00:16:06.260 Now, Constantine was the 4th century Roman emperor who converted to Christianity and very famously turned the Roman Empire Christian,

00:16:13.680 thereby spreading Christianity basically instantly across the West, where it's remained, more or less, ever since. 0.51

00:16:19.380 That was in the 300s, the 4th century.

00:16:22.300 Now, his nephew became emperor not long after he died.

00:16:28.440 And his name was Julian, referred to very often by Christian historians as Julian the Apostate.

00:16:34.260 And he was an apostate.

00:16:35.240 He was the last non-Christian emperor of Rome, of the Roman Empire.

00:16:39.900 And he had been born a Christian, apparently, but he was a fairly enthusiastic pagan polytheist and very aggressively opposed to Christianity.

00:16:51.460 And for that reason, he decided, Julian the Apostate decided in 363 to rebuild the third temple.

00:17:00.840 So it has been tried, for those who are thinking, could this ever happen?

00:17:04.280 Oh, it happened.

00:17:05.760 They tried to rebuild.

00:17:06.540 He spent a ton of money doing it in 363.

00:17:08.460 Inflation makes credit card statements particularly scary.

00:17:12.360 You work 40, 50 hours a week just to buy groceries and gas, things you used to be able to afford without thinking that much about it.

00:17:18.580 Then the banks charge you 20% interest.

00:17:20.720 If the system is designed to keep you underwater, it's working.

00:17:24.400 But there's another option.

00:17:26.320 Our friends at American Financing are doing something the big banks despise.

00:17:29.680 They are helping people.

00:17:31.240 Mortgage rates in the fives, supporting the American dream of homeownership.

00:17:34.640 And they're showing homeowners how to take their hard-earned equity to wipe out high-interest debt.

00:17:40.580 Now, we're against debt in general, but in this economy, most people have no choice at all.

00:17:45.820 So don't go bankrupt and slaving yourself to a lender.

00:17:50.160 Average savings are about $800 a month, and it takes only 10 minutes to talk to a salary-based mortgage consultant.

00:17:56.700 No upfront fees or obligation to see how much you can save.

00:17:59.260 Give American Financing a call, 800-685-5696.

00:18:06.380 That's 1-800-685-5696.

00:18:08.980 Or visit AmericanFinancing.net slash Tucker.

00:18:12.180 America's home for home.

00:18:13.140 So the new year is here, but that does not mean you've got to overhaul your whole life, despite claims to the contrary.

00:18:18.860 You don't have to take drastic measures.

00:18:20.620 Make a few changes here and there, and you'll be a lot better off.

00:18:24.200 And you can start with the snacks in your pantry.

00:18:26.380 Now, products from standard American chip brands are, let's be honest, pretty repulsive.

00:18:31.820 Filled with chemicals that make you feel heavy and bloated.

00:18:34.760 They don't even taste that good.

00:18:36.600 They're not good for you.

00:18:37.660 We recommend an upgrade with masa chips.

00:18:40.320 Masa is the easiest way to eat clean without feeling like you're on a diet.

00:18:44.000 The chips contain three ingredients.

00:18:45.820 That's it.

00:18:46.220 Organic corn, sea salt, 100% grass-fed beef towel, and that is it.

00:18:50.700 No seed oils, no mystery chemicals, just food, actual food.

00:18:53.720 And they're amazing, and you feel great after.

00:18:56.820 You don't feel weighed down.

00:18:59.040 We particularly enjoyed the Kobanero flavor lately, but they're all great.

00:19:03.120 You want to give them a try?

00:19:04.400 Visit masachips.com, M-A-S-A, chips.com slash Tucker.

00:19:08.960 Use the code Tucker for 25% off your first order, or you can click the link in the video description,

00:19:15.400 or you can scan the QR code to claim this outstanding offer.

00:19:19.840 And if you don't feel like ordering online, you can buy them nationwide at your local Sprouts supermarket.

00:19:25.140 Stop by and pick up a couple of bags before somebody else does.

00:19:28.460 Home Loans.

00:19:29.760 What happened next?

00:19:32.200 Well, let's read the account of the only attempt ever made at rebuilding the Third Temple, 0.70

00:19:38.880 and this comes from a personal friend of Julian the Apostate's who wrote it contemporaneously,

00:19:43.520 and we still have it, amazingly, all these years later.

00:19:46.640 I'm quoting,

00:19:48.000 Julian thought to rebuild at an extravagant expense the proud temple once at Jerusalem,

00:19:54.000 and committed this task to Olympias of Antioch.

00:19:57.480 Olympias set vigorously to work and was seconded by a governor of the province.

00:20:01.320 When fearful balls of fire breaking out near the foundations of the building

00:20:06.420 continued their attacks till the workmen, after repeated scorchings, could approach no more.

00:20:12.420 And he gave up the attempt.

00:20:13.880 By the way, just a few months later,

00:20:18.740 Julian, Emperor Julian the Apostate, was killed.

00:20:21.860 You know what he was killed doing?

00:20:23.800 Invading Iran. 0.92

00:20:26.200 Literally invading Iran in 363.

00:20:30.200 Yeah, he was killed doing that.

00:20:32.120 So it was during his invasion of Iran that he decided to rebuild the Temple. 0.64

00:20:37.040 You can't make this up.

00:20:38.100 And we're not making up Israel.

00:20:39.480 And by the way, there was an earthquake at the same time.

00:20:41.420 There are many accounts of what happened when they tried to rebuild it.

00:20:45.340 And all of them describe the earth rending and flames coming out.

00:20:49.720 It all sounds kind of spooky and supernatural.

00:20:52.340 Like it's just too perfect, right?

00:20:54.740 Jesus tears down the Temple and begins this new relationship with God directly through him.

00:20:59.660 No need for a building anymore in Jerusalem.

00:21:01.620 A city he went out of his way not to spend the night in.

00:21:05.280 Walk over to the Mount of Olives, even after the Last Supper.

00:21:08.080 But whatever.

00:21:09.760 And there's this one attempt by a guy who hates Christianity to rebuild the Third Temple.

00:21:13.660 And by the way, the workmen get burned by fire from the ground at an earthquake.

00:21:17.080 And you can sort of laugh at that if you're a rationalist, a materialist, a modern man, until archaeologists discovered that actually there was a big earthquake in the region, Galilee to Jerusalem in 363.

00:21:30.880 So that actually happened.

00:21:33.040 In any case, why the long history lesson?

00:21:35.860 Because it's not history anymore.

00:21:37.140 It's happening right now.

00:21:39.080 Now, there are key players involved in this war, the one happening tonight, who believe that what we're seeing on our television screens and on Twitter will usher in a series of events that begin with the destruction of the Dome and the Rock, Aksa Mosque, and then the rebuilding of the Third Temple, after which the world will end.

00:22:04.780 God will come back.

00:22:06.180 And they mean it.

00:22:07.000 And by they, we mean literally some of the guys fighting the war.

00:22:12.520 So you may have read reports today that commanders in the field of American troops, a lot of them, and who knows if this is true, but it's out there, told their troops on the eve of the outbreak of this war that we're doing this for Jesus because it is Jesus' will that we do this.

00:22:32.600 And that by doing it, we will usher in a series of events that bring about the end of history, the end of time, Armageddon, the last days.

00:22:39.900 It's hard to believe that's true, especially since, by the way, there are a million Christians in Iran.

00:22:47.660 So if you were doing this for Jesus, presumably you would go out of your way not to hurt his followers in the country you're attacking.

00:22:55.340 Did the U.S. government or any government make any attempt to spare the Christians?

00:22:59.020 Are we making an attempt tonight?

00:23:00.180 Of course we're not.

00:23:00.800 And of course, when the smoke clears, ultimately we will find out, just a guess, that Christians suffered disproportionately in this as they do all wars, from the Iraq War to the bombing of Nagasaki, the seat of the Christian church in Japan, et cetera, et cetera.

00:23:16.380 Christians have a way of dying disproportionately in these wars, which tells you something about their real motive. 0.99

00:23:22.440 But in any case, there was a spate of stories suggesting that U.S. commanders told their troops they were doing this for some weird anti-Christian reason, posing as Christianity.

00:23:32.960 But it's not just the U.S. side.

00:23:34.760 Here's an IDF soldier, apparently an American by his accent, describing why he's at war.

00:23:39.120 Watch this.

00:23:40.200 They call this operation the swords of iron.

00:23:46.180 But what are we really fighting for?

00:23:48.040 We're fighting for the right of the Jewish people to exist, be Jewish, practice their religion, and be free.

00:23:59.960 And one day our true leader will come and we'll be united as a whole Jewish nation so we can rebuild the Beth HaMikdash.

00:24:10.400 Beth HaMikdash.

00:24:11.800 Probably mispronouncing it.

00:24:13.560 That's the Hebrew term for the temple, the third temple.

00:24:15.940 We are doing this so we can rebuild the temple.

00:24:18.260 Now, you'll notice he's pulling off patches on Velcro on his IDF uniform.

00:24:22.760 These are not civilian clothes.

00:24:23.740 This is the uniform of the government of Israel, of its military.

00:24:27.540 And he has patches on that uniform, one of which is a symbol of the temple, the third temple.

00:24:34.600 So it just couldn't be clearer.

00:24:35.980 Why are we doing this?

00:24:37.260 To rebuild the third temple.

00:24:38.760 Now, if you think we're just cherry picking this off the Internet, one guy wearing an unauthorized temple patch paid for, by the way, a uniform paid by us, armaments paid for by us.

00:24:50.260 The U.S. taxpayer pays for all this stuff one way or another.

00:24:54.060 The U.S. taxpayer pays for the military of Israel.

00:24:57.540 Boy, does it.

00:24:58.160 If you think we're being unfair and just, like, found one guy, well, here's a bunch of guys.

00:25:04.080 It took us about two minutes on the Internet to find this today.

00:25:06.820 Here is a selection of IDF soldiers.

00:25:09.420 Let's put it on the screen.

00:25:11.200 There you go.

00:25:12.440 And all of them have the same patch.

00:25:13.760 Look for me.

00:25:14.180 Look carefully at that.

00:25:15.180 What is that?

00:25:16.060 That's the temple.

00:25:18.060 That is the third temple.

00:25:20.040 And we'll get to a minute, in a minute, about how this might actually happen and what it would mean for the rest of the world.

00:25:29.600 And just to be clear, these are conversations that most Americans, certainly me included, never wanted to have.

00:25:37.420 Everybody's religious beliefs, sincere religious beliefs, when held up to the light of the rational world, to the man-made world, seem a little spooky and crazy,

00:25:46.460 which is one of the reasons that, in the culture some of us grew up in, we don't talk about them in public because they're personal.

00:25:53.460 They're the most personal part of a person.

00:25:57.340 So it is without judgment, by the way, that we're airing this, okay?

00:26:05.320 Just describing it because it is significant to the future of the world, to the future of this war, and to our future as Americans.

00:26:14.980 So how exactly did the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, a military that the U.S. taxpayer pays for, that lots of wealthy Americans send money to, to friends of the IDF,

00:26:27.580 how did all these guys wind up wearing patches suggesting the point of this war was the destruction of one of the holiest places in Islam

00:26:39.600 and the rebuilding of a temple that is totally anathema to Christianity?

00:26:44.060 Like, how did this happen?

00:26:45.820 Well, there are a lot of ways it happened.

00:26:48.080 The main way it happened is because no one in the United States noticed, because it's such a secular place,

00:26:52.620 and as noted, we have eyes but can't see and ears and can't hear,

00:26:55.880 but this has been going on a long time in public,

00:26:58.600 through, in part, the efforts of a group called Chabad,

00:27:02.440 C-H-A-B-A-D, and you may know people who give money to Chabad or run to Chabad, super nice people,

00:27:09.100 engaged in all kinds of charitable activities, drug rehab, you know, there's a lot about Chabad that's really good.

00:27:15.240 But what is Chabad exactly?

00:27:16.660 Well, Chabad, you can look it up, is a very old organization, about 250 years old,

00:27:21.540 and it's a branch of Hasidic Judaism.

00:27:23.340 It's an organization that was overseen for many years by a guy called Rabbi Menachem Schneerson,

00:27:28.500 who was famously in Brooklyn, considered the Messiah by some of his followers,

00:27:33.360 who was a friend of presidents, or certainly someone presidents,

00:27:36.540 visited, he was a very powerful man in the Orthodox and the Hasidic community.

00:27:40.720 And he was the overseer of Chabad, which predated him and outlasted him,

00:27:44.220 but he was its most visible ambassador.

00:27:47.160 And Chabad has been pushing, in a pretty subtle way, unless you look carefully, 0.93

00:27:55.740 for the reconstruction of the Third Temple.

00:28:00.360 And it seems like, from the reading we did recently, that those patches actually came from Chabad.

00:28:06.180 In any case, Chabad is pushing for the building of the Third Temple. 0.95

00:28:11.040 But it's not just Hasidic groups from Brooklyn, and it's not just IDF soldiers.

00:28:14.680 There are, amazingly, a lot of American evangelical leaders, Christian Zionists, 1.00

00:28:22.100 whose main point is rebuilding the Third Temple.

00:28:25.480 Now, how could an American Christian, or any Christian, 1.00

00:28:29.520 call for the building of a temple whose presence, whose inherent presence denies Christ?

00:28:38.100 Who said clearly, and Christians believe this, it's a core point of faith, I am the Temple.

00:28:42.540 You want to speak to God, you speak through me.

00:28:47.420 That's Christianity. 0.86

00:28:48.500 That's the whole religion right there.

00:28:50.040 So if you're a Christian preacher calling for the rebuilding of the Third Temple,

00:28:52.960 you kind of missed the whole point.

00:28:56.240 That's more than apostasy.

00:28:57.940 That's like not even knowing what the religion's about.

00:29:00.180 So it's hard to believe there could be any ordained Christian leaders

00:29:04.260 pushing for the rebuilding of the Third Temple.

00:29:05.840 Oh, but there are a lot.

00:29:07.400 There are a lot.

00:29:08.160 And here's just one.

00:29:08.920 This is Pastor Greg Locke.

00:29:11.380 Listen to this.

00:29:11.960 The Gaza Strip, which has now been cut off by Israel,

00:29:16.920 and rightly so, they should have cut them off a long time ago.

00:29:19.560 I don't care how insensitive you think I am to that.

00:29:21.380 There's six doors in this church you can leave anytime you want to.

00:29:25.600 They've cut them off, you know, electricity.

00:29:27.340 They've cut off the water.

00:29:28.500 They should have.

00:29:29.860 Now, listen.

00:29:30.280 Listen, I'm not for hurting anyone that's innocent.

00:29:34.480 But anybody that supports terrorism is not innocent.

00:29:37.940 You understand that?

00:29:39.240 Israel should make the Gaza Strip a parking lot by this time next week. 0.97

00:29:50.300 Destroy the whole thing. 0.94

00:29:51.460 What they ought to do is evacuate up there on the hill and get a great big missile 0.98

00:29:58.300 and blow that wicked Dome of the Rock plumb off of the spot where it's standing right now

00:30:04.840 so we can get that Third Temple rebuilt and usher in the coming of Jesus. 0.98

00:30:09.320 Boy, it is embarrassing and shameful as an American Christian to hear that

00:30:19.400 and to know that video is from a few years ago.

00:30:21.600 It's been on the Internet.

00:30:22.840 No one bothered to highlight it.

00:30:24.960 Most people weren't even aware this was going on.

00:30:26.700 Oh, it's definitely going on.

00:30:28.500 These are very common views.

00:30:30.620 Seems obvious that Mike Huckabee has them,

00:30:33.100 that a lot of the Christians, John Hagee, do you think just like Israel?

00:30:37.200 They just like Israel a lot.

00:30:38.420 No.

00:30:39.880 These are clerics, so their lives were informed by their religious views.

00:30:43.780 What are their religious views?

00:30:44.700 Well, you just heard it right there from Pastor Locke,

00:30:48.440 who's quite a prominent Christian Zionist.

00:30:50.020 He's not some lone wacko.

00:30:52.720 And there he is with an Israeli flag waving behind him, 0.85

00:30:56.520 casual calls for genocidal violence. 0.98

00:30:58.480 Just blow it up. 0.89

00:30:59.340 Make it a parking lot.

00:31:00.460 Well, two million people live there.

00:31:01.860 What happens to them?

00:31:02.840 They're terrorist sympathizers.

00:31:04.800 That right there is the tell. 0.97

00:31:06.040 This is not Christianity. 1.00

00:31:07.000 Imagine Jesus saying, just kill them all. 1.00

00:31:11.440 They're terrorists. 0.99

00:31:12.960 Is there anything in the gospel that suggests Jesus believed that?

00:31:16.020 No, there's a lot to suggest, in fact, to tell us in very clear terms.

00:31:19.760 He thought the opposite.

00:31:21.100 Of course.

00:31:21.580 But the last part, let's build the third temple and bring about the return of Jesus,

00:31:29.020 is a direct contradiction of core Christian theology.

00:31:33.240 And even people without theology degrees who didn't go to some eminent Bible college can tell you,

00:31:38.180 what?

00:31:38.540 Jesus says, I am the temple.

00:31:41.500 That is not Christianity. 1.00

00:31:43.580 It's not even a close facsimile of Christianity. 0.99

00:31:46.980 It's clearly evil.

00:31:49.600 And it is, in some sense, the driving force behind the efforts to rebuild the third temple.

00:31:56.680 Julian, the apostate, who was the last guy to try it, who died invading Iran, he's not Jewish. 0.97

00:32:04.800 He was a pagan, just like Pastor Locke. 0.94

00:32:07.380 But for some reason, he was the instrument of trying to do this.

00:32:14.500 There are many of these people, and not just in the theological realm, in the political realm.

00:32:21.600 And that's relevant to you, whether you believe in God or not, or are interested in the history of the Abrahamic faiths or not.

00:32:28.260 Global leaders believe this.

00:32:31.840 People you wouldn't expect, and you wonder, what is going on here?

00:32:35.120 It's not to make the hair in your arms go up.

00:32:36.660 Did everyone know there was an effort to rebuild the third temple and the foundation stone, except me?

00:32:43.200 I can't believe I was left out of this conversation.

00:32:45.100 No, all of this took place in public.

00:32:47.400 And if we'd been paying attention or been tuned into that frequency,

00:32:51.540 the spiritual frequency, we've been spiritually sensitive enough to pay attention, we would have known this.

00:32:59.380 But of course, when you grow up in a materialist culture,

00:33:02.180 when the only things you believe are real are the things that can be measured or purchased on Amazon,

00:33:06.800 you tend to miss a lot.

00:33:09.040 And we miss this.

00:33:10.840 Here's the president of Argentina, Javier Mille, who we know personally,

00:33:15.000 at the Western Wall, which is believed by some to be a remnant of the Second Temple,

00:33:21.760 the last stone from the Second Temple.

00:33:26.080 That's the claim.

00:33:27.580 Here he is there, the famous Wailing Wall, saying this.

00:33:31.140 Watch the subtitles.

00:33:31.820 There is a prophecy about the destruction that says that a fox will break into the holiest of holies.

00:33:45.320 There is another prophecy that says that the same place will be rebuilt.

00:33:54.620 Now that I see, with my own eyes, the first prophecy come true,

00:34:05.140 I laugh in joy and full of hope, as the second prophecy will surely come true.

00:34:14.580 So a correction, that doesn't appear to be the Western Wall, and there were no subtitles.

00:34:21.940 You heard him say it through his translator.

00:34:24.520 I laugh and quiver with joy when I think about the Third Temple being rebuilt.

00:34:31.180 Now this is the supposedly, maybe, who knows, Catholic president of an overwhelmingly Catholic country,

00:34:37.540 South American country, wonderful country, Argentina,

00:34:40.000 who got elected and was presented to American news consumers as a libertarian economist

00:34:46.320 who was going to fix their debt problem and get rid of inflation and just make life better for Argentines.

00:34:54.960 And there he is in Jerusalem saying that he's weeping with joy,

00:34:59.460 thinking about the return, the rebuilding of the Third Temple.

00:35:01.940 What the hell is that?

00:35:04.440 You would think that would not even be on his to-do list.

00:35:06.980 If you're running a country as complex and damaged as Argentina and as promising and great as Argentina,

00:35:12.500 but there's a lot of things you've got to do in Argentina if you're running it,

00:35:16.000 but you take time to fly to Israel and say the thing you really want in life is the rebuilding of the Third Temple?

00:35:22.840 What is going on here?

00:35:24.720 And why haven't we talked about this before?

00:35:27.300 Say, before we invaded Iran with troops who say out loud we're doing this

00:35:33.460 to bring about the creation of the Third Temple. 0.88

00:35:36.980 Why weren't the rest of us informed?

00:35:40.800 Now here's a piece of tape you may have seen and that I personally don't want to play

00:35:44.900 since I know the guy and I like him, but it does make you wonder.

00:35:49.380 So this is the current Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, former Fox News employee.

00:35:53.160 Nice man.

00:35:53.800 Very nice man.

00:35:56.740 2018 in Jerusalem.

00:35:58.520 And as someone who knew him well, I can tell you I had no idea that he had such evolved and specific

00:36:06.300 and apparently very informed opinions on rebuilding the Third Temple of all questions.

00:36:14.180 This is not something they teach you in Sunday school in the Presbyterian Church.

00:36:17.760 This is not something that people talk about at dinner in the United States.

00:36:20.520 This is not something our Congress ever mentions, that the President ever talks about.

00:36:25.260 This is considered so esoteric and weird and crypto-historical and religious and kind of culty

00:36:32.360 and what's Chabad and no one ever mentions it.

00:36:36.880 But here's Pete Hegseth, football player from Princeton, going on about it in a way that suggests

00:36:42.960 he's thought a lot about it.

00:36:44.080 This is 2018.

00:36:45.360 Today, Jennifer and I and others had a chance to go see the western wall of the Temple Mount,

00:36:51.300 the western wall tunnels, so much of the old city.

00:36:55.380 And as you stand there, you can't help but behold the miracle before you.

00:36:59.460 And it got me thinking about another miracle that I hope all of you don't see too far away.

00:37:05.000 Because 1917 was a miracle, 1948 was a miracle, 1967 was a miracle, 2017, the declaration of Jerusalem 0.84

00:37:16.800 at the Capitol was a miracle, and there's no reason why the miracle of the reestablishment

00:37:22.620 of the Temple on the Temple Mount is not possible.

00:37:25.120 I don't know how it would happen, you don't know how it would happen, but I know that

00:37:35.760 it could happen.

00:37:39.960 What is that?

00:37:42.760 That's the Secretary of War right now overseeing the war with Iran that people fighting it

00:37:51.300 are starting to say actually is about rebuilding this third temple.

00:37:55.440 It's the same man.

00:37:57.240 Okay, this is the point where you begin to think, maybe we should have talked about this

00:38:02.280 and its implications.

00:38:04.580 And what are its implications?

00:38:08.200 Religious war? 0.94

00:38:09.660 Global religious war? 0.71

00:38:13.760 So the first heavily publicized move by the United States military and the Israeli military

00:38:18.500 in this conflict was to kill the head of state of Iran, the 86-year-old Ayatollah Khomeini,

00:38:27.260 who was replaced today by his son, who's apparently more anti-Western than he was, so I guess,

00:38:32.480 strictly speaking, that wasn't very effective.

00:38:34.640 But if you take three steps back, and no one did because everyone's busy denouncing him as

00:38:38.660 Hitler and the most evil man in the world, and we're so grateful he's dead, 1.00

00:38:42.880 what was the last time the United States military or the Israeli working in conjunction with the

00:38:48.920 Israeli military killed the head of a world's religion?

00:38:54.040 Is that wise?

00:38:55.240 It's not because we agree with all world's religions.

00:38:56.960 It's not an endorsement of Shia Islam to say maybe we should pause before killing its 86-year-old leader.

00:39:02.620 It is instead an acknowledgment that that might have consequences that affect the United States

00:39:10.860 and Europe and the world, but particularly the United States, since we are the United States

00:39:16.040 and we have children and hope to have grandchildren, and what will be the downstream effects for them

00:39:20.740 when you kill a religious leader?

00:39:23.100 Did killing the religious leader cripple their command and control structure?

00:39:28.180 Were they unable to launch missiles and drones when we killed the 86-year-old Ayatollah? 0.65

00:39:31.740 No, because he knew he was going to be killed.

00:39:35.920 That's why he stayed above ground, apparently.

00:39:37.740 He wanted to be martyred.

00:39:38.680 Now, why would he want to be martyred?

00:39:41.300 Maybe because he wanted a religious war.

00:39:43.920 Why did we kill him?

00:39:45.680 Maybe because we wanted a religious war. 0.97

00:39:49.200 Now, why would we want that?

00:39:50.980 Why would the Israelis, who got us into this war—everyone admits that now, sorry—why would 0.99

00:39:56.960 they want that? 0.96

00:39:58.800 I don't know.

00:39:59.640 Now, think about what would happen if this war leads to the destruction of the Dome on

00:40:07.420 the Rock and the Al-Aqsa complex on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, and we'll explain in a

00:40:12.220 second how that could happen, a war that began with the killing of the head of Shia Islam.

00:40:19.420 What would happen?

00:40:20.380 Well, here are the numbers.

00:40:21.260 There are about 15 and a half million Jews in the world total.

00:40:25.140 There are about 2.5 billion Christians, and there are about 2 billion Muslims.

00:40:31.720 So whatever happens next is not going to be a fight between the Muslims and the Jews because

00:40:38.440 2 billion versus 15 million, not much of a fight.

00:40:44.460 This is likely to be, if not brought under control immediately, or maybe it's too late, a war,

00:40:51.780 a religious war, the one that Lindsey Graham just described, between Muslims and Christians.

00:40:58.240 And it's not going to play out in the Middle East because this is a regional conflict, but as noted

00:41:04.740 at the beginning, it's a global conflict where every big power has a stake in what happens.

00:41:10.880 This will play out globally, and it'll play out in our cities.

00:41:16.900 Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States.

00:41:19.820 There are not that many Muslims in the United States, what, 5 million or something like that?

00:41:22.660 But as the fastest-growing religion, that's enough to cause problems, for sure, in Europe. 0.98

00:41:30.200 65 million Muslims, second-biggest religion in every European country,

00:41:35.320 fastest-growing in every country.

00:41:36.840 Australia, same thing, second-biggest, fastest-growing.

00:41:39.260 New Zealand, same thing, second-biggest, fastest-growing.

00:41:41.600 Canada, same thing.

00:41:43.820 What happens in all those countries, those Christian, Western, white countries? 0.94

00:41:48.740 What happens there if there's the religious war that Lindsey Graham and clearly the Israeli government

00:41:54.860 and some in our government are hoping for?

00:41:57.080 What happens?

00:42:00.040 Those countries suffer more than they have suffered.

00:42:04.300 And so it's possible that the real target here, it's just possible, it's throwing this out there,

00:42:10.820 is not the mullahs in Iran.

00:42:13.540 It's us, as it always has been.

00:42:16.460 But don't take our word for it.

00:42:21.160 Here's a particularly candid and honestly kind of articulate clip from a couple of years ago.

00:42:27.200 This is from August of 2024 from an Israeli rabbi, Joseph Misrak,

00:42:33.120 describing how Israel should take advantage of a then-ongoing conflict with Iran,

00:42:39.480 much less intense than the current conflict we're seeing with Iran,

00:42:41.700 to destroy the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa.

00:42:47.080 Watch this.

00:42:48.160 If it was up to me, the last time when they shot hundreds of missiles,

00:42:52.580 I would pretend that one missile came from Iran and shoot it down.

00:42:57.660 You know?

00:42:58.760 Then all the Arabs would go against Iran, it would be the end of the problems. 1.00

00:43:02.580 You make them fight with each other, this bunch of lunatics. 0.99

00:43:08.380 Never too late. 1.00

00:43:09.640 You deal with a bunch of cowards. 1.00

00:43:13.740 Shoot it down into the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa. 1.00

00:43:18.240 Destroy what's on what the Israelis call the Temple Mount, on the foundations. 0.99

00:43:23.080 Don't destroy it and blame the Iranians.

00:43:26.320 And that has the effect, as you just heard him say, of turning our enemies against each other.

00:43:34.740 Turning our enemies against each other.

00:43:37.280 Although they've refused to recognize it for quite some time,

00:43:40.520 the Europeans are the enemies, the mortal enemies of the Israelis. 0.97

00:43:45.460 That's the Israeli perspective, obviously.

00:43:47.880 Look at the effects.

00:43:48.520 And so, if that were to happen in this conflict,

00:43:55.500 it's not the Israelis who would bear the brunt of it.

00:43:58.000 It's the Europeans, it's the Canadians, it's the Australians, and it's us.

00:44:03.980 And it's the Russians. 0.97

00:44:05.440 20% of Russia is Muslim.

00:44:07.580 All of those countries would be in for serious turmoil and bloodshed,

00:44:13.340 and maybe already this shortly into the war.

00:44:16.560 Turn them against each other, you heard the rabbi say.

00:44:21.140 Now, how could this play out?

00:44:22.020 Very simple.

00:44:23.460 Iran is sending drones and missiles into Israel right now, mostly into Tel Aviv.

00:44:30.800 Is it beyond imagination that in the fog of war,

00:44:36.580 maybe one of those missiles hits the Dome of the Rock, or we're told that it did?

00:44:41.420 And, of course, during war, the first thing you see is censorship,

00:44:45.760 so it's very hard to know what's going on.

00:44:47.140 You're already seeing it today.

00:44:48.640 Is there less or more video available on the Internet today than there was yesterday from this war?

00:44:53.560 Well, there's much less, of course.

00:44:54.560 That's called censorship.

00:44:55.800 They're censoring video of what's actually happening.

00:44:58.860 It happens in every conflict.

00:45:01.220 Every war sets off the same cycle at home, far from the fighting.

00:45:06.460 Censorship and persecution.

00:45:08.960 Censorship and persecution.

00:45:10.600 Persecution of the enemies, real or perceived, or the people prosecuting the war.

00:45:16.020 And censorship of their views.

00:45:18.240 So in that environment, when you can't really know what's going on,

00:45:20.860 it's thousands of miles from here.

00:45:22.540 All of a sudden, the Al-Aqsa complex is just vaporized.

00:45:25.840 Oops, the Iranians did it. 1.00

00:45:27.140 Then we have this debate.

00:45:27.960 It's like a hospital bombing in Gaza.

00:45:29.780 Who did it?

00:45:30.560 Well, it was a booster from a Hamas rocket.

00:45:32.320 Well, how do I know?

00:45:33.140 I wasn't there.

00:45:33.740 All we know is it's gone.

00:45:35.940 Oh, so sorry.

00:45:37.700 Could that happen?

00:45:38.700 Oh, yeah, it could happen.

00:45:40.980 The army is fighting with patches of the Third Temple on their arms, 0.97

00:45:45.260 on their official uniforms.

00:45:47.640 And what happens then?

00:45:48.860 Global religious war.

00:45:50.900 Talk about high stakes.

00:45:52.120 You thought nukes were high stakes.

00:45:54.240 At least nukes are over quickly.

00:45:55.900 There are survivors.

00:45:57.700 A generational religious war?

00:45:59.340 That's worse than any virus and more deadly.

00:46:04.900 That could happen.

00:46:06.820 Do the people in charge know it could happen?

00:46:08.440 Some of them do.

00:46:09.340 They don't seem worried about it.

00:46:10.180 They should be.

00:46:11.760 We should all be worried about it.

00:46:13.000 We should all be noisy about it.

00:46:15.020 No, you can't do that to the world.

00:46:17.880 We hope to give to our grandchildren.

00:46:19.220 Hey, it's a brag, but we're pretty confident this show is the most vehemently pro-dog podcast you're ever going to see.

00:46:27.280 We can take or leave some people, but dogs are non-negotiable.

00:46:30.740 They are the best.

00:46:32.300 They really are our best friends.

00:46:33.680 And so for that reason, we're thrilled to have a new partner called Dutch Pet.

00:46:37.700 It's the fastest growing pet telehealth service.

00:46:41.040 Dutch.com is on a mission to create what you need, what you actually need,

00:46:45.280 affordable, quality veterinary care anytime, no matter where you are.

00:46:49.020 They will get your dog or cat what you need immediately.

00:46:53.620 It's offering an exclusive discount, Dutch is, for our listeners.

00:46:56.660 You get $50 off your vet care per year.

00:46:59.660 Visit dutch.com slash Tucker to learn more.

00:47:02.600 Use the code Tucker for $50 off.

00:47:04.340 That is an unlimited vet visit.

00:47:07.980 $82 a year.

00:47:09.160 $82 a year.

00:47:11.160 We actually use this.

00:47:11.900 Dutch has vets who can handle any pet under any circumstance in a 10-minute call.

00:47:18.900 It's pretty amazing, actually.

00:47:19.980 You never have to leave your house.

00:47:21.260 You don't have to throw the dog in the truck.

00:47:23.660 No wasted time waiting for appointments.

00:47:25.360 No wasted money on clinics or visit fees.

00:47:27.500 Unlimited visits and follow-ups for no extra cost, plus free shipping on all products for up to five pets.

00:47:34.040 It sounds amazing like it couldn't be real, but it actually is real.

00:47:37.760 Visit dutch.com slash Tucker to learn more.

00:47:40.640 Use the code Tucker for $50 off your veterinary care per year.

00:47:44.920 Your dogs, your cats, and your wallet will thank you.

00:47:48.840 In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour.

00:47:57.200 Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields,

00:48:05.440 like software development and information technology.

00:48:08.200 Learn more at aboutamazon.ca.

00:48:12.800 Every family tree holds extraordinary stories, especially those of the women who shaped who we are.

00:48:24.960 In honor of International Women's Month, Ancestry invites you to shine a light on their legacy.

00:48:30.120 Until March 10th, enjoy free access to over 4 billion family history records and discover where they lived,

00:48:36.780 the journeys they took, and the legacy they left behind.

00:48:39.880 Start with just a name or place and let our intuitive tools guide you.

00:48:43.780 Visit ancestry.ca to start today.

00:48:46.280 No credit card required.

00:48:47.540 Terms apply.

00:48:48.020 So what is going on in this war?

00:48:54.360 It's, again, hard to know because of the censorship, but there is a man, an independent analyst called Brandon Weikert,

00:49:01.140 who we think, after spending a lot of time looking at analysis from a bunch of different people,

00:49:05.480 is one of the most informed people in the United States who can speak freely and publicly about what is actually happening,

00:49:12.840 and not just in a conceptual, big-picture way, but in a detailed way, and coming at this with an understanding of the technology in use,

00:49:19.680 the tactics, and the strategies.

00:49:21.520 We've been super impressed, and we think you will be, too.

00:49:24.740 With that, Brandon Weikert joins us now.

00:49:27.240 Brandon, thank you so much for coming on.

00:49:29.360 Thank you for having me, and thank you for those kind words.

00:49:31.900 That was very—I'm very honored.

00:49:33.360 Well, it's true.

00:49:33.940 We've never met, but I've just been watching your stuff recently, and, you know, wars tend to bring out phonies,

00:49:38.760 and people are like, oh, I was on SEAL Team 27, and I know what's going—you know, and they don't know anything.

00:49:42.900 But your analysis has been—

00:49:44.220 I'm just a nerd.

00:49:44.920 I'm just a nerd.

00:49:45.620 Yeah, well, I have been very impressed by your grasp of what's happening.

00:49:49.420 So can you just give us, really quickly, the overview of where we are today?

00:49:53.100 What are the big developments?

00:49:55.060 Well, the big developments, as you saw with Secretary of War, I guess he's calling himself now,

00:50:01.020 Hegseth is—they're transitioning the munitions.

00:50:05.860 So now the claim is that it's been so successful, this air war, they don't need to use what's known as standoff weapons.

00:50:13.820 So think the Tomahawk cruise missile.

00:50:16.320 And they're going to now shift—the Air Force and the Israeli Air Force are going to shift now to flying large sorties of warplanes into Iran

00:50:26.980 and bombing targets with what are known as gravity bombs.

00:50:30.840 And these are things like the Joint Directed Attack Munitions, JDAMs.

00:50:34.740 They require you to be close to the target.

00:50:36.820 So the risk factor to our pilots is now increasing exponentially.

00:50:41.940 But I would just like to posit a theory, and it's just a theory.

00:50:45.420 I actually think the real reason we are doing this shift is not because of realities or facts on the ground that are amenable to the U.S. and Israeli strategic position.

00:50:58.380 I think we are being dictated to by the depletion of our stockpiles.

00:51:04.060 And what I mean by that, I have some numbers for your audience.

00:51:06.840 We all know the Tomahawk cruise missile going back to the Clinton era where he would just pop those things off, you know, as soon as the Lewinsky impeachment got underway.

00:51:16.460 4,000 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles are believed to be in the arsenal.

00:51:22.100 We have been draining those since 2022, 2023 in Ukraine at a disproportionate rate.

00:51:28.960 In the last four days of this conflict, we have expended 400 of those systems, which means that's 100 per day with the operational and tempo not ceasing.

00:51:42.280 In 2026, the budget request was only for 59 new missiles.

00:51:48.180 We need several hundreds every year.

00:51:50.780 The reason we're getting such low numbers, Tucker, is because our defense industrial base is broken and we have no business starting a world war or a major regional war as we are in the process of doing.

00:52:02.840 So I believe the real reason the U.S. and Israeli militaries are starting to get more daring and dangerous with their airstrikes is because they cannot afford to blow through the munitions that are already depleting.

00:52:17.120 And it is, in fact, a race to depletion between us and Iran. 1.00

00:52:22.080 And right now, I think the Iranians still have a very sizable, unused, increasingly sophisticated missile arsenal. 0.98

00:52:30.320 Colonel Rob Maness is a friend of mine.

00:52:31.960 He's a former Air Force colonel.

00:52:33.560 He disagrees with me.

00:52:34.720 He says, look, these these missiles that are being popped off by Iran are basically a bunch of dead enders.

00:52:39.360 It's going to fizzle out.

00:52:40.740 And Hegseth made a sort of argument about that today, that there was a decrease.

00:52:44.940 But I actually think that those dead enders, if that's what you want to call them, actually are probably still combat effective. 1.00

00:52:52.760 And that is why we are now having to still continue the war, even though we have blown through these standoff munitions, which really were protecting our people.

00:53:02.120 In fact, I got word from a source of mine who's monitoring this on open source, which it looks like the USS Abraham Lincoln is going to be repositioned to within anti-ship ballistic missile range of Iran.

00:53:15.980 So either the U.S. really believes we've degraded the Iranian capabilities sufficiently, or we're just throwing caution to the wind because we've got to get this thing over before we run out of materials. 0.97

00:53:28.480 And that'll probably start happening this weekend.

00:53:30.360 This is not a surprise to people who watched carefully the few days in the run-up to this conflict where there were uniformed servicemen.

00:53:41.780 I mean, there were flag officers who apparently made this case.

00:53:44.300 That's right, by Sam Mercatier.

00:53:45.420 Yes.

00:53:45.820 Exactly.

00:53:46.360 That we just don't have the munitions to sustain any kind of real conflict.

00:53:51.060 They said that, right?

00:53:52.080 Yeah, in fact, it is my understanding, and this is, again, take from this what you will, it is my understanding that last Friday the order went out at 3.38 p.m. Eastern.

00:54:03.700 Before that, there was a, quote, particularly contentious meeting between General Dan Raisin Cain, who is Trump's hand-picked chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

00:54:14.880 He was pulled out of retirement by Trump.

00:54:17.500 So this is Trump's guy, and Cain tried to get to the word to the president that this thing is not going to go like you think it is.

00:54:24.040 This is not Venezuela.

00:54:25.540 This is a very different operation.

00:54:27.820 And the president, for whatever reason, still decided to ignore the best military advice he got and went forward with this.

00:54:34.920 In turn, Vice Admiral Fred Kotcher, who was an adjutant, basically, to Cain, leaked parts of that meeting to, I think it was Reuters.

00:54:43.780 Now, the question that I've been hearing from people is, was that Kotcher acting on his own volition, or was that, in fact, Kotcher executing some kind of informal order from Dan Cain?

00:54:57.180 Because Cain is, the rest of the military is very, the high level, is very worried about the blowback from this operation.

00:55:05.940 And it is my contention that the permanent bureaucracy is desperately trying to push blame away from itself to the politicians, and even as we're seeing Marco Rubio now, to Israel itself.

00:55:18.260 Which is not how a winning war would look like.

00:55:21.700 There'd be no blame shifting.

00:55:24.440 So, do you have any insight into how the decision was made to kill Iran's head of state slash chief cleric? 0.99

00:55:34.080 And this has not been a conversation anyone's been willing to have, because, of course, the proponents of it have been screaming about how he's Hitler, he's the worst person, if there's any question about whether it's a good idea to kill him, you're an Ayatollah lover, you know, just the normal low IQ crap that you see on Fox News. 0.97

00:55:49.620 But it's a real question. 0.88

00:55:51.340 Like, what was the thinking there?

00:55:53.460 Do you know?

00:55:53.760 So, again, this is all, you know, background and sort of piecing the puzzle together with what I know about how it works up in that horrible city we call D.C.

00:56:05.140 But basically, what it sounds like is the administration used the idea of diplomatic talks to lull Kamani into a false sense of security.

00:56:17.640 We were going into a holy week at that time, and the Iranians wanted, or Kamani wanted to basically come out of his hole. 1.00

00:56:25.720 And he thought, OK, we're going to get a reprieve.

00:56:28.960 We'll kick this down the road until Monday, which I think was March 2nd.

00:56:32.540 They got the word on Friday that, hey, we're open to negotiating.

00:56:36.080 So Kamani and his cadre let their guard down.

00:56:39.760 And at the moment they did, Israeli missiles were fired at a very interesting, it was actually, if I can nerd out here for a second,

00:56:46.640 the Israelis did a very interesting performance with their missile where they fired it into space from, I believe, F-16s or F-35s.

00:56:54.800 It went into the space above Iran and came down at hypersonic velocities, and it came within millimeters of the known position of Kamani.

00:57:04.940 So from a tactical standpoint, yes, it was very technically impressive.

00:57:10.340 But the key thing here was that the U.S. used its honor to lull the counterparty into a false sense of security using our diplomatic word that, hey, we're going to hold off and try to talk to you.

00:57:25.080 And I actually think, and I say this as somebody who's a fan of Steve Witkoff, I actually think Witkoff and probably Kushner were probably in on the whole thing to basically lull the Iranian leader into a false sense of security so we could clip him.

00:57:39.540 And I think, Tucker, I think the assumption was that if we lopped off the head of the regime, Kamani, that the whole thing would implode like a house of cards in about 72 hours,

00:57:51.700 which is why I think Trump didn't really care when Dan Cain was warning him last Friday that, hey, we've got eight days of munitions and CENTCOM before we have to start cannibalizing Indopaycom,

00:58:01.540 and then we have a real crisis on our hands. I think Trump was thinking, we can probably do this at about 24 to 72 hours. We'll get Kamani, the Israelis will, and then it'll all work out. It's all going to work out. 0.90

00:58:14.520 And obviously, nobody took the time to brief the president on, and I could have done it, I wrote a whole book about it, on basically what the Iranians have been doing for pretty much 47 years to harden their regime and to make it relatively survivable.

00:58:31.080 And that is why now we find ourselves, what is it, day four or day five now? And they're already having to panic and change the munition structure because we're depleting them too fast.

00:58:42.300 This is why, by the way, the heads of those defense companies are now being summoned to the White House, because Trump is going to try to read those leaders, the riot act, saying you've got to boost production.

00:58:52.720 And they're going to say to him, sorry, we can't do it because the defense industrial base is both broken and corrupt.

00:58:59.820 I don't know the truth about what you said about the diplomacy as a cover for action lulling Kamani into vulnerability.

00:59:09.880 I have heard just the opposite, that the Israelis are telling everybody that the U.S. knew the strike was going to happen,

00:59:16.780 and they're doing that to shake the faith of any of our partners in the region in our diplomacy and make us sound dissent.

00:59:23.500 That would, well, obviously, like I said, take from this because this is all, you know, I don't have evidence of this to present to you.

00:59:32.220 I don't either.

00:59:32.560 But I find it, just if I can speculate here for a moment, I find it impossible or improbable to think,

00:59:40.460 given the level of fusion between the U.S. and Israeli command and the, I mean, for goodness sakes,

00:59:47.000 there are Israeli officers permanently stationed in the Pentagon, and I was just told by a former CIA case officer at Langley.

00:59:53.720 So, basically, I find it really hard to believe that the administration did not have any involvement in this.

01:00:02.460 Now, they want to say that they didn't, and I think they are saying this because they're worried that there's going to be significant political

01:00:08.140 and possibly legal blowback, you know, over time because this war is, anyway.

01:00:14.500 But, so, I don't believe that particular story when they say, oh, we had nothing to do with it.

01:00:19.320 I think we probably did not have an active role in the sense of bombardment, but I do believe that we were aware of what was going to happen,

01:00:26.400 and I think we probably nudged it along.

01:00:28.420 If that's true, that's one of the craziest things that's ever happened.

01:00:31.320 I mean, we're trying to negotiate an end to the war we've been waging against Russia, which is right at the—

01:00:35.880 Are we?

01:00:36.880 Yeah, well, exactly. 1.00

01:00:38.300 And the Russians aren't stupid. 1.00

01:00:39.860 The Iranians aren't stupid. 1.00

01:00:40.920 Not everyone other than us is stupid, which is our assumption. 1.00

01:00:44.400 They're all a bunch of savages. 1.00

01:00:45.520 They're all Pashtuns, you know, living in the Hindu Kush, but they're not, actually. 1.00

01:00:49.020 They're really smart, and they look at this and, like, why would we enter into negotiations with the same negotiating team that just did this?

01:00:56.840 So, okay, but here's my macro question, which is, what about the safety of the United States?

01:01:02.460 Like, when you kill an 86-year-old leader of a global religion, which Islam is, it's the smaller but still enormous branch of Islam, 1.00

01:01:12.380 you're going to expect to create religious extremism. 0.95

01:01:15.800 You kill the religious leader during Ramadan?

01:01:17.960 Like, was there no one in the room—and I know you're not supposed to say this because it makes you, like, a Muslim lover or something.

01:01:24.960 I just want to say this as a Jesus person, but as an American who wants peace in my own country.

01:01:29.560 Nobody stood up and said, like, hey, what are we doing here?

01:01:34.800 Like, we're going to create a generational war that our grandkids are going to have to deal with at the shopping mall. 1.00

01:01:40.500 Did anyone say that?

01:01:41.580 No.

01:01:42.700 No, I think General Cain was the closest, and he was making sort of a tactical, technical argument.

01:01:49.600 And I have to say, as much as I do like the general, and I do like him, I think he's a decent guy.

01:01:53.720 I think he's gone down in my book a little bit because he didn't resign in protest, because whatever they're saying in public, the logistics—it's like math.

01:02:05.080 It doesn't lie.

01:02:05.920 It's gravity.

01:02:06.700 It doesn't lie.

01:02:07.340 And the logistics are not in our favor if this becomes—Trump said it was a forever war yesterday.

01:02:13.680 Now, he's putting in sneer quotes, but, you know, this could become at least a five- to eight-week war.

01:02:19.880 Hegseth said eight weeks today.

01:02:21.940 And so I'm starting to remember COVID, and two weeks to flatten the curve became, you know, years of, you know, dealing with fallout.

01:02:30.940 So I am very concerned that the president has really bad advisors.

01:02:36.600 These are not people that I think have the best interests of MAGA or America First, the coalition that got him elected, in their hearts.

01:02:46.460 I think these are deep staters masquerading as MAGA lovers. 0.89

01:02:50.960 And I think that this is why we're here.

01:02:53.460 This is one of the most strategically irresponsible moves I've ever seen.

01:02:59.160 And the fact that the president, I don't believe, was informed the truth about what was going to happen and the way it was going to happen,

01:03:07.820 I think now that's why you're seeing the administration expanding the war, talking about giving Kurds weapons and money,

01:03:16.020 and we're going to now expand it into Iraq and destabilize Iraq as if that's another thing we need on our plate.

01:03:22.480 This, to me, is somebody who, this, to me, is a country that has made a very serious mistake with triggering this war, 0.80

01:03:29.360 and now they're just making the mess bigger and bigger and bigger, hoping that they can clean it up once it's totally, you know, out of hand,

01:03:36.480 or maybe they don't even want to clean it up.

01:03:37.860 I don't know.

01:03:38.340 That's speculation.

01:03:38.860 But I do believe that we were involved on some level with what was going on behind the scenes the day that.

01:03:45.520 And by the way, I just want to make something clear.

01:03:47.060 I am very much anti-Islamic Republic of Iran, that regime, all of that. 1.00

01:03:51.740 I'm on the record.

01:03:52.660 People know this about me.

01:03:53.940 So I'm not saying this because I'm mourning the loss of Kamadi, but it is very dangerous what we're doing.

01:04:00.640 And I think that we really damaged America's credibility for a long time, for a long time when it comes to diplomacy.

01:04:06.500 The gold industry bankrolls a lot of conservative media.

01:04:12.540 Much of the gold IRA business is not actually about selling gold at all.

01:04:16.720 It's about selling massively marked up coins to people who trust the voices delivering the pitch.

01:04:22.080 Why is gold a hedge?

01:04:23.560 I've decided to partner with the top-rated precious metals company.

01:04:26.900 The companies have the exclusive control.

01:04:29.620 They can manipulate the price of the coins at any time.

01:04:32.060 That's the dark side of it.

01:04:33.140 What he said was you don't get as much of a loss and they tend to really accelerate when the market goes up, which obviously sounds too good to be true.

01:04:42.820 We know this is happening because we talk to people who work inside these companies.

01:04:46.160 The reality is there is no regulation.

01:04:49.080 And then we talk to people who lost their savings.

01:04:50.980 They were pumping this company and I trusted them.

01:04:53.720 Even as the price of gold rises, it's so crushing.

01:04:59.420 Great gold scam.

01:05:01.200 Watch it now at TuckerCarlson.com.

01:05:03.400 People are getting robbed.

01:05:04.740 We're sounding the alarm and we hope you will join us.

01:05:06.720 Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to put up with that for one second.

01:05:10.740 That whole, like, call your patriotism.

01:05:13.140 Some guy working for Israel is calling me unpatriotic in a country.

01:05:15.980 Right.

01:05:16.360 Ancestors found it.

01:05:17.280 I don't think I'm not going to play along with that at all.

01:05:19.660 And it's shocking that they would even be throwing that out there at the most patriotic in the world.

01:05:24.980 I've gotten it.

01:05:25.160 I bet you have.

01:05:25.620 So, let me, I mean, you look at this and it's so heartbreaking and it's so potentially catastrophic that you keep thinking, all right, point made, can we pull back?

01:05:36.980 Can we just pull back and declare victory and go home in the famous phrase?

01:05:40.160 Are we at a place where that's possible?

01:05:42.600 Well, I'm reminded of a 2004 interview that Donald Trump gave to your old colleague, Neil Cavuto.

01:05:49.440 And it was during the Iraq war at the height of the insurgency.

01:05:52.840 And at the time, everybody made fun of Trump, but I thought it was brilliant.

01:05:56.500 Trump told George W. Bush on that interview, he said, listen, just declare victory.

01:06:01.200 Bring everybody home.

01:06:02.660 We got Saddam. 0.97

01:06:03.760 You've won.

01:06:04.580 Let's just call it a day and let the Middle East figure out the mess. 1.00

01:06:08.220 Now, people mocked him at the time, but I actually thought, actually, that's probably the best at that time way out.

01:06:13.620 Well, he could do the same thing right now because get this.

01:06:16.620 He got rid of Kamani. 0.76

01:06:17.980 He got rid of very top, bad IRGC guys.

01:06:21.460 He can claim that.

01:06:23.320 He has done what he can to help the people.

01:06:26.160 There is a way forward.

01:06:27.580 It's a golden off ramp, but he's got to take it in the next probably 48 hours because if he doesn't take it, Tucker, this thing takes on a life of its own.

01:06:37.060 The Iranians are not going to surrender.

01:06:39.220 They're not going to stop popping off missiles.

01:06:41.200 They have planned for this, like I said, for 47 years.

01:06:44.500 Yeah, they're degraded.

01:06:45.720 Yeah, they're hurt.

01:06:46.480 But so are our allies, by the way.

01:06:49.040 And the oil coming out of the region is not coming out of the region.

01:06:52.860 We are now looking at spikes in the price of energy.

01:06:56.440 I saw a report from Seeking Alpha, which is an investment publication, saying that if this continues for four to eight weeks, this could take oil over $200 a barrel.

01:07:06.880 Now, that's recession territory going into a midterm election.

01:07:11.200 Yeah.

01:07:11.280 Well, I think $200 is depression.

01:07:13.620 I mean, well, who knows, right?

01:07:15.100 Now, that's the extreme.

01:07:16.600 Yeah, that's the extreme.

01:07:17.760 But I mean, listen, they're destroying – they're not just blockading the strait.

01:07:22.700 They're destroying the refineries in Qatar, in Saudi Arabia, and the Qataris are saying they're not going to get this stuff online for months, if not years.

01:07:32.600 So that's going to be a gaping hole in the global economy for oil and natural gas.

01:07:38.380 So even if Trump gets a, quote, victory here in Iran – and I don't even know what victory looks like anymore – we're going to be cleaning up this mess economically for many, many years thereafter. 0.75

01:07:48.980 All of that is awful.

01:07:53.240 All of it is –

01:07:53.980 They don't call me Dr. Doom for nothing.

01:07:56.560 All of it is manageable, though.

01:07:58.080 You can imagine working through those problems and convincing yourself that it was worth it somehow, or, you know, you could concoct a story to tell yourself.

01:08:05.980 There are certain things that are not possible to recover from, and one is the use of unconventional, highly destructive weapons that just change the calculation forever.

01:08:19.180 And I worry about that, and everyone I ask about it is, oh, no, no, no, that would never happen.

01:08:24.740 Do you worry about it?

01:08:26.180 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:08:26.920 So – and I think I tweeted about this in the last 24 hours.

01:08:30.480 Trump responded to what I've been writing, and I'm not going to get into how I know that, but he – somebody told him what I've been writing, and he's quite cross with me.

01:08:39.660 And, you know, I'm a three-time supporter of Trump.

01:08:43.040 I'm saying this out of love, you know, not out of hate.

01:08:45.460 But I was told that the statement he made yesterday in the Oval Office was partly – was responding to my claims about the stockpiles, and he said something very specific.

01:08:58.620 He said not only we have enough weapons to fight a, quote, forever war, which, holy cow, but he said that, you know, we're depleted a little bit on the – and I'm paraphrasing – on the lower-level weapons.

01:09:10.760 But we've got enough higher-end and middle-tier weapons to fight forever.

01:09:15.680 Well, the higher-end weapons would be things like, I don't know, low-yield nuclear weapons.

01:09:22.120 And, you know, you don't want to think that an American president would go there, especially over something like this, where we weren't attacked, which we were not.

01:09:31.000 And I'm not a fan of the Iranian regime, and they do support terror, but we were not attacked. 0.87

01:09:36.000 The Israelis weren't even attacked.

01:09:38.300 This was all sort of the machinations of Netanyahu's worst fears.

01:09:42.760 And it is my concern that if we truly are reaching depletion, that we might have an incident where a nuke is used.

01:09:54.460 And, you know, it's not the likeliest, but it's no longer impossible.

01:09:59.680 It's now moved into sort of the realm of it could happen.

01:10:03.000 And the longer this goes on and the more that we run through these stockpiles, and if we start losing planes to some of the remaining Iranian air defense systems, then we're going to have some problems.

01:10:16.320 And I want to also say something about the strategic side.

01:10:19.500 I was on Bannon's show earlier today, and one of the guests was basically saying I was wrong, and maybe I am.

01:10:26.500 Well, you know, who knows?

01:10:27.800 But he was saying that we've got local air superiority, and from there we'll be able to grow out and go farther.

01:10:34.220 And the only reason you get local air superiority is because you've degraded the enemy so much.

01:10:39.320 Well, yes and no, but that's just a small slice of a very large country.

01:10:44.700 They probably, in Iran, if they've decentralized those missile capabilities to the local commander level, anticipating that we would degrade command and control, they likely have hidden and decentralized their air defense capabilities.

01:11:00.240 And that means we have to do sort of a long-term air defense hunt.

01:11:04.220 And in the meanwhile, the Iranians are still combat effective. 1.00

01:11:07.380 And the longer this lasts, the longer that strait is closed down, the more the oil is disrupted.

01:11:13.260 And basically, the more we get to these really nightmare scenarios, in my book I said, a war over Iran will likely trigger a World War III. 0.81

01:11:23.220 Now, that book came out in 2022.

01:11:26.100 I remain convinced that we are at the opening salvo of a true world war, and it's happening because of our actions and the actions of our partner, Israel. 1.00

01:11:37.120 I would say, even more precisely, it's happening because of Benjamin Netanyahu and the hammerlock he has over the American government, including Mossad officers at CIA headquarters and IDF officers at the Pentagon.

01:11:52.560 Yeah, that one came from a – you would know this individual.

01:11:55.640 He's a very famous CIA guy.

01:11:57.220 I got off the phone with him about an hour before I came on with you, and it's scary.

01:12:03.160 I mean, remember, though, Gary Vogler, who wrote a great book for the Libertarian Institute, it was called, I think, Israel was the winner of the 2003 Iraq War, something like that.

01:12:13.280 He was an oil guy working for the Coalition Provisional Authority, and he identified this guy named Mikofsky, who was a Pentagon bureaucrat who ran the Iraq War desk for the first part of the Iraq War in 2003.

01:12:26.040 And he was a Mossad officer, not just IDF, and he was Doug Feith's son-in-law.

01:12:31.320 So, you know, this is – you know, our country is unfortunately not being run entirely by the United States and the American people.

01:12:39.840 No, it doesn't – you don't see a lot of sovereignty.

01:12:41.400 I'll get emails for that one, I'm sure.

01:12:43.080 Well, it's true.

01:12:43.780 It's factually true.

01:12:44.740 And the Secretary of State, God bless him, admitted that two days ago and said we did this because Israel made us do it.

01:12:50.740 Right.

01:12:50.840 They were going to go anyway.

01:12:51.800 Right.

01:12:51.920 So what about the question of hypersonic weapons?

01:12:54.460 You read that Iran has them?

01:12:56.040 They've been given them?

01:12:57.040 Oh, yeah.

01:12:57.740 Oh, yeah.

01:12:58.120 They've got them.

01:12:58.880 In fact, I got an interesting report from overseas yesterday.

01:13:02.360 And again, you know, these are sort of – I take with a grain of salt, but they've been – and when they're right, though, they're really right.

01:13:08.080 This one came from our friends in Russia.

01:13:09.880 So take from this what you will.

01:13:11.060 But the report that I received was a retired Russian general is telling the press over there that he knows for a fact there is a cluster of Chinese high-tech officers or technical officers on the ground in Iran right now perfecting and maintaining Iran's growing – they're still building them – growing hypersonic weapons capability.

01:13:35.380 And the reason is because the Chinese want to test these systems because they're basically very similar to the Chinese ASBM, which, of course, when and if – and I really hope it's if – the war with China erupts. 0.72

01:13:48.720 The first thing the Chinese are going to do after they knock out our satellites and disrupt our electromagnetic frequencies is they're going to use thousands of ASBMs ringed in those man-made islands to either keep our carriers at bay so that we can't launch planes in range or to sink or destroy the carrier's flight deck. 1.00

01:14:09.860 And the Iranians are the – Iran, rather, is the testbed the same way that we've been using Ukraine as a testbed against Russian tech. 0.79

01:14:16.560 And so the Iranians have them. 1.00

01:14:19.740 They're buried in those underground missile cities. 0.51

01:14:22.520 They have not really fired them.

01:14:24.520 I believe they fired four ballistic missiles at the carrier after Kamani was killed.

01:14:30.420 That was a symbolic attack, though.

01:14:32.660 If the Iranians really wanted to go ham on the carrier with a missile swarm, they absolutely could. 1.00

01:14:39.980 The only thing that would be preventing them was if we had degraded their C2 functions enough.

01:14:44.560 And at that time, I don't believe we had.

01:14:46.560 What's the C2 function?

01:14:48.740 I'm sorry.

01:14:49.560 That's command and control.

01:14:50.820 So basically their ability to control their systems and issue commands.

01:14:55.280 That's why before the war began, the Iranians basically – the government said to their local field commanders,

01:15:03.240 we're going to give you permission to take command of your individual missile batteries so that if something like killing Kamani happens,

01:15:09.820 you can just start going and you won't have to call in for orders or for range.

01:15:14.320 And by the way, the Chinese are using their Yaogon – I think it's their Yaogon satellite constellation – to do surveillance of the carrier and of the U.S. air bases in the region.

01:15:25.180 And they are providing increasingly accurate targeting sets to the Iranians.

01:15:30.640 In fact, I believe the reason the Iranian missiles have been so effective in damaging our bases – and boy, have they done a doozy. 1.00

01:15:37.880 It is not being reported accurately.

01:15:39.960 They have done a real doozy to these bases.

01:15:41.960 It's because of the fact that the Chinese are providing direct real-time signals intelligence and electronic assistance to the Iranians.

01:15:52.080 So we're fighting a proxy war with China right now.

01:15:54.820 It's a world war.

01:15:55.780 I mean this is a world war.

01:15:57.200 And the Chinese are more than happy to see us stew. 1.00

01:16:02.020 Now there's this like story that the politicians keep telling us.

01:16:07.660 It's really the Republican side that keeps saying this that, well, you know, we went after Venezuela and we went after Iran and that's going to really kill China because they rely on these countries for their oil.

01:16:17.580 It's not really accurate.

01:16:19.280 The Chinese got less than I think 4 percent of their oil from Venezuela.

01:16:24.140 It was a nuisance, if anything, to lose.

01:16:26.940 If anything, they were sinking more money into rebuilding the refining capacity because the communists had ruined the oil industry in Venezuela over 25 years.

01:16:35.580 And then with Iran, they get at most, I think, I think 14 percent of their oil and natural gas from Iran.

01:16:43.440 What they were doing is the Chinese knew because they could read the room. 0.98

01:16:47.060 They knew we were going in.

01:16:48.700 So what they started doing was shifting their purchases of oil from Iran to places like neighboring Russia and to other Middle Eastern countries.

01:16:59.360 In fact, I think that the largest amount of oil purchased by China in Saudi Arabia occurred two weeks before the war began.

01:17:09.480 So while this will hurt the Chinese, absolutely, economically, it's not going to trigger a collapse.

01:17:16.140 It's not the Chinese were prepared for this just as the Russians were prepared for what we were going to throw at them in 2022. 0.97

01:17:22.520 These regimes have been studying us for years, for years, and they know our pressure points.

01:17:29.840 And, you know, we're like the gentle giant.

01:17:32.020 We're like the lovable giant. 1.00

01:17:33.160 We're just too stupid to realize, you know, these these people are serious and they're killers. 1.00

01:17:38.520 They're killers. 1.00

01:17:39.340 And, you know, we're trying to lecture the world about, you know, transgendered rights in Namibia. 0.98

01:17:44.300 And, you know, these guys are playing hardball and they're playing for keeps.

01:17:48.320 And I was actually speaking to Brendan O'Reilly, who's probably one of the foremost China scholars, real real world intelligence type scholar practitioner.

01:17:57.280 He wrote a great book called Everybody Is Everyone Is Wrong About China.

01:18:01.240 And I just talked to him this afternoon and he tells me he's convinced that at the end of the day, the real winner of this conflict is China.

01:18:08.600 Of course.

01:18:08.920 That we are going.

01:18:09.640 Yeah.

01:18:09.820 And I think actually this this this conflict, worst case scenario, because you laid out a pretty bleak scenario, too.

01:18:15.700 But worst case scenario is this is the end of American military power for a generation.

01:18:20.720 I mean, I think that's clearly the goal.

01:18:22.980 And that's up to us at this point.

01:18:25.240 I mean, you know, the second you it's the same in a fistfight.

01:18:29.060 Second, you punch someone.

01:18:30.880 Everybody standing around finds out how tough you actually are.

01:18:33.860 Would you say?

01:18:34.540 Would you say?

01:18:35.280 But the second the blows start, it's like we know and you don't always want to reveal that it's better.

01:18:40.460 No, it's better to keep it mysterious, I would say.

01:18:43.140 Same with nudity.

01:18:44.460 Like, you know, none of us look better naked.

01:18:46.840 So but I would.

01:18:47.920 OK, so the hypersonic weapons, missiles, which they possess.

01:18:53.660 Yeah.

01:18:54.540 You suggest they might be deployed against surface craft.

01:18:59.020 Right.

01:18:59.760 Yes.

01:19:00.180 What about Israel?

01:19:01.620 Would any of them wind up?

01:19:03.120 So.

01:19:03.380 Yeah.

01:19:03.560 Yeah.

01:19:03.700 Yeah.

01:19:03.900 So you've got you've got two classes of hypersonics.

01:19:06.520 I apologize.

01:19:07.380 I was fixated on the carrier because I got that text.

01:19:10.300 But yeah.

01:19:11.000 So you've got the you've got the maritime targeting of surface warships.

01:19:16.140 But then you also have what you've seen a couple of times in the last year where the Iranians did deploy hypersonics against Israel.

01:19:23.960 And it did an incredible amount of damage to Tel Aviv, if I remember correctly, in the 12 day war.

01:19:30.000 And I think although this might have been AI, I think in the last 48 hours they deployed another.

01:19:35.540 The Iranians did another hypersonic against Tel Aviv that did a lot of damage. 0.95

01:19:40.300 So the these hypersonic weapons, there is no active defense against them.

01:19:45.200 Our air defense systems cannot.

01:19:48.000 And the problem is it's really what makes them very interesting is they come in fast and then they sort of zigzag unpredictably right before they land.

01:19:56.360 And this is the problem for our AD systems, our air defense systems, because they sort of just track and then go.

01:20:04.120 But if you've got a target coming in and then they, you know, those 80 systems are not because the 80 systems are older and they they're they're based on older generation being able to track incoming regular ballistic missiles.

01:20:16.120 So this is where we get real concern because we I don't think we really know how many hypersonic weapons they've got.

01:20:24.540 I would imagine they've got at least I would say at least 100 or so because they've been just churning them out and the Chinese have been helping them.

01:20:32.240 And of course, the Chinese have overmatched with us in terms of industrial mass production. 0.99

01:20:38.740 What is the damage right now to Israel and to and to U.S. bases in the Gulf, do you think?

01:20:44.140 Well, well, well, the the the bases in the Gulf, you know, I wish I had kept the window open that I was reading, but basically at least three of the bases have been devastated.

01:20:54.840 The fifth fleet headquarters, I am told.

01:20:58.380 And if you look at the satellite imagery that you can find on open source information, it looks like actually the base in Bahrain looks like Gaza.

01:21:05.720 It's completely moonscape.

01:21:07.340 So the the American fifth fleet now, I don't believe I don't know if there's any because I think we might have evacuated that base before this started.

01:21:15.920 So I don't I don't want to say there's casualties because I don't know.

01:21:19.040 But just looking at those satellite images that it looks like that's been flattened.

01:21:24.180 And that's a very expensive base that you and I paid for.

01:21:28.560 And that was the sort of the hub for the U.S. Navy in the Middle East for many years.

01:21:34.260 And it has been completely taken offline.

01:21:36.680 And I have serious doubt.

01:21:38.660 I was talking also to a Middle East expert not long ago, and he was saying that with these bases being obliterated, basically, to use a term, a term, essentially, he doesn't think because he thinks the Arabs are going to be so irate with us for having kicked over this hornet's nest because it is not going to end anytime soon.

01:21:57.540 And his belief is that once the war does end or settles down enough for us to say, hey, we're good, we're done, the Arabs are going to say, you're not building back in our in our countries anymore. 0.76

01:22:08.640 So why would they?

01:22:09.540 We didn't defend them.

01:22:10.920 I mean, that's this is a reciprocal relationship.

01:22:13.220 They're not doing this because they love us.

01:22:15.220 They give us deals on the billions, hundreds of billions in foreign investment in the United States, all this.

01:22:21.580 But in exchange, we promised to protect them and we didn't.

01:22:25.180 That's right.

01:22:25.540 And in fact, there's there's reports and I think they're credible.

01:22:28.820 In fact, the Saudi official was complaining about this two days ago.

01:22:32.020 Basically, whatever air defense systems were in these Arab countries were sent over to Israel.

01:22:37.340 Yeah.

01:22:37.760 And they actually left our own bases and people vulnerable.

01:22:42.280 Our own government did to protect Israeli targets rather than to protect our men and women in uniform.

01:22:47.480 Do you believe that's true?

01:22:48.340 Do you believe the U.S. government prioritized Israel over our own troops?

01:22:52.520 If you had asked me this a year or two ago, I would have said no way.

01:22:55.540 But after seeing that Huckabee interview, by the way, bravo.

01:22:58.980 After seeing that Huckabee interview, I can't imagine how we didn't do that.

01:23:04.200 I mean, it is very clear the United States is being led around the nose right now by its by what should be its proxy.

01:23:10.600 I mean, let's get it real.

01:23:11.400 I mean, it should be, you know, so.

01:23:13.540 They're the housekeeper. 1.00

01:23:14.260 We're the homeowner.

01:23:15.080 Like, what is this?

01:23:15.880 I don't get it.

01:23:16.820 No, I'm serious.

01:23:17.480 I don't understand.

01:23:18.100 I agree.

01:23:18.680 I agree.

01:23:19.200 So I do believe, yeah, we probably did.

01:23:21.380 And the worst part here, one of the worst parts is I have a colleague who's in the Gulf states, and he tells me, he sent me a picture of the warning he got from the State Department to get out.

01:23:33.880 And to cut to the chase, it basically said, you're on your own to get out.

01:23:38.500 Like, we're not doing flights.

01:23:39.920 That's true.

01:23:40.400 And meanwhile, I hear that until 24 hours ago, the British government was evacuating their people, no questions asked.

01:23:47.180 So you mean to tell me that the sole superpower is picking a fight with this missile city that is Iran, and we're not even going to provide exfiltration for our people? 0.83

01:23:57.120 That's not an empire.

01:23:58.480 That's not a superpower.

01:23:59.820 That's a power in decline.

01:24:01.380 That's what the Chinese see, by the way.

01:24:03.180 And the Chinese think their time is at hand because we are committing national suicide with this insanity. 1.00

01:24:10.400 I wish I could disagree.

01:24:13.180 It's one of the saddest things I've ever seen.

01:24:14.720 I wish I didn't have to say these things.

01:24:16.300 I don't take it to join.

01:24:16.800 No, I totally, totally agree.

01:24:18.440 And you think of the men whose lives are going to be taken, Americans, who are like the best people.

01:24:22.760 Already have been.

01:24:24.120 Already have been.

01:24:24.960 And you look at, I think the DOD's only released the hometowns of four of them, I think.

01:24:28.700 But it's like Iowa, a couple from, and it's like the best people we have.

01:24:32.860 These are our people.

01:24:34.840 No private equity kids in that group, I noticed.

01:24:37.020 That's right.

01:24:37.880 That's right.

01:24:38.460 And I just want to just say something.

01:24:40.400 And I probably shouldn't.

01:24:41.840 But I was, as I said, a very early supporter of Hegseth as Secretary of Defense.

01:24:47.960 I thought his takes on hypersonics were good.

01:24:50.320 I thought that he was a warfighter, so he understood in a way that maybe you and I could never understand.

01:24:55.380 But I was mortified by his press conference this morning, the glibness, six Americans are dead because of a political decision that was made.

01:25:05.200 Obviously, I don't expect him to challenge the president on this publicly.

01:25:08.160 But at the very least, it's a solemn day.

01:25:10.440 And we should probably not be acting like this is just another walk in the park because this is not.

01:25:15.920 This is not.

01:25:17.160 This is not going to plan.

01:25:18.780 Now, hopefully, we can pull it out of the fire, whatever that looks like.

01:25:22.020 But right now, this is not going the way we were told it was going to go.

01:25:25.700 It's certainly not the way the president assumed it would go once Kamani was whacked.

01:25:30.380 So the question, I think, is do we commit ground troops, Americans on the ground?

01:25:37.240 They already are.

01:25:38.020 Okay, so explain what you know, if you don't mind.

01:25:41.260 So, again, I don't have any, but just for the record, because I know I'm going to, I have no access to classified information.

01:25:48.060 Right.

01:25:48.320 I am an open source guy. 0.95

01:25:50.160 But I can read a freaking room.

01:25:52.560 And I can tell you right now, if the president went into this air war thinking I'm going to be over in three or four days, I don't have to worry about the stockpiles. 0.86

01:25:59.840 And now he's waking up and going, holy cow, everything's running out, and I've got to keep fighting.

01:26:04.840 He's talking about now opening up a front in Iraq using the Kurds, which is lunacy. 1.00

01:26:08.980 What are the Turks going to do? 0.84

01:26:10.620 Exactly.

01:26:11.240 Well, by the way, the point is, because Israel's next priority is Turkey, so the point is to diminish Turkey. 0.89

01:26:17.920 Yeah, yeah, Michael Rubin's been writing that.

01:26:18.200 Yeah, I know all about that.

01:26:19.100 It's the truest, yeah.

01:26:20.580 Yeah, and so there's that.

01:26:24.780 And then there's the fact that the president wants to be seen as, quote, unquote, winning.

01:26:29.100 And winning means you've got, he's already outlined what the objectives are.

01:26:33.760 And this was also a big bugaboo of mine.

01:26:36.580 War and strategy is about objectives.

01:26:39.520 Attainable political objectives.

01:26:41.260 Clausewitz, war is an extension of politics through other means.

01:26:45.680 Trump came out on Saturday.

01:26:46.920 He's repeated it since.

01:26:48.500 The aims are regime change.

01:26:50.260 The aims are denuclearization.

01:26:52.200 And the aims are getting rid of the ballistic missile system.

01:26:55.460 He's now added on getting rid of the Navy of Iran.

01:26:58.040 So those four objectives, what is the objective of the Iranian regime?

01:27:02.180 Survive.

01:27:02.980 That's all they have to do.

01:27:04.500 Survive long enough because they know, because the Chinese and Russians are giving them the intel, they know that our stockpiles are about to be depleted.

01:27:12.000 So all they have to do is hold out until we have to start cannibalizing Indo-Paycom.

01:27:16.400 And there's going to be a real political fight at that point.

01:27:18.680 I'm told that Indo-Paycom leaders are already raising quite a stink behind the scenes because they know once those systems are gone out of their arsenal, they ain't coming back anytime soon.

01:27:28.780 So the question of ground troops, this gets us to that.

01:27:32.480 I don't believe it would ever be an invasion like Iraq in 03. 0.97

01:27:35.960 First of all, we don't have that capability anymore, which should scare every American because we don't have that capability anymore.

01:27:42.100 Second of all, the way the country is arrayed, Trump is trying to do this in like a light footprint methodology.

01:27:48.740 So he, I think, is going to replicate the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan in 2001, where we sent a bunch of special forces A-teams and CIA paramilitaries, infiltrated the country, linked up with already organized locals.

01:28:05.360 It was the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, this time it'll probably be the Mujahideen-i-Kalk, M-E-K, to try to basically organize a movement with the Kurds coming in probably from the Iraqi side in the, I think it's the north, I think it's the northwest of the country, and will be coming in from the south.

01:28:25.920 And it will kind of link up in whatever's left of Tehran.

01:28:29.060 That's the plan, I think, using air power as an interdiction, like we did, exactly like we did against the Taliban in 2001.

01:28:36.280 Well, first of all, the M-E-K is not the Northern Alliance at its height.

01:28:42.080 It's not.

01:28:43.020 Second of all, you're talking about far greater ground that's going to have to be covered, and a logistics tale that is going, I mean, we're talking like this is not going to work.

01:28:53.600 Then you're going to have to deal with the rugged terrain of Iran.

01:28:56.660 Iran is basically like Switzerland. 0.87

01:28:58.660 It's just surrounded by mountains.

01:29:01.000 It's a desert in the middle.

01:29:02.640 I mean, this is not good geography for the kind of tactics we're talking about.

01:29:07.260 And again, the size matters.

01:29:08.820 This is a much bigger country than Afghanistan with many more people.

01:29:12.360 So we're talking about a much longer end commitment on our part.

01:29:17.360 And I think the president knows this, and I think he's sort of like the frog boiling the water, boiling in the water.

01:29:23.360 He's just sort of slowly getting us used to the idea before he has to send troops in because he wants to, quote, win.

01:29:30.520 Well, winning for him is regime change.

01:29:32.300 The regime is not going to change on its own.

01:29:34.320 It's not going to be the people who can do it because they're not organized enough.

01:29:37.360 They're too divided amongst each other.

01:29:38.860 So he's going to need to send in special forces and CIA to basically do the organizing on the ground and to do force multipliers.

01:29:46.720 And I'm sorry to say that the likelihood of this working is very, very low.

01:29:52.880 And now we're talking about being seen in this region as strategically defeated by what we were told was a backward military force in Iran. 0.80

01:30:03.640 The first American to die in the war in Afghanistan was a CIA officer, Johnny Michael Spann.

01:30:07.940 That's right.

01:30:08.560 That's right.

01:30:09.300 Yeah.

01:30:09.540 So these forces, the CIA paramilitaries, special forces, would be deployed to do what?

01:30:19.680 The goal is what here?

01:30:21.360 Well, it's exactly what, well, again, the goal that we are told and that Trump continues to say is regime change, regime change.

01:30:28.320 We don't want the Islamic Republic of Iran in charge anymore. 1.00

01:30:31.640 We want, I don't know, M.E.K. or the Shah's son, who's a lobbyist in northern Virginia.

01:30:38.500 I'm sure he'll do great.

01:30:40.560 Or, you know, any of these other, you know, groups.

01:30:44.160 The thing is, we don't really know.

01:30:45.740 And I think it's very interesting that.

01:30:46.960 Wait, can I just ask a question, is the problem?

01:30:48.840 I mean, I do detect, I don't detect, I notice, it's very obvious, efforts by Israel and its proxies in the United States to foment a religious conflict in our country. 0.99

01:31:01.960 Hate all the Muslims, deport the Muslims, as if that's better than saying hate all the Jews. 0.99

01:31:05.760 It's not better. 1.00

01:31:06.480 It's the same thing.

01:31:07.300 But they're trying to turn religions against each other in our country. 0.85

01:31:12.700 And I see the same, which I resent more than anything I've seen in a long time, because it's not going to make a peaceful country for my children.

01:31:20.060 No.

01:31:20.100 But I see that in this effort.

01:31:23.140 So the idea is, like, they're not allowed to have an Islamic country or something?

01:31:27.280 Like, half our allies are Islamic countries.

01:31:29.240 Like, what kind of country are we calling for?

01:31:31.640 It's their country, no?

01:31:32.600 Let me just clarify.

01:31:33.100 I was just using the official name of the, I don't know if this, I'm sure for some people it is.

01:31:37.920 But they just want to replace it with anyone other than the current crop of leaders.

01:31:43.860 And I believe that that is not possible, because this regime is deeply embedded.

01:31:51.520 So, you know, we killed Kamani, and a dozen new leaders replaced all of these other leaders.

01:31:57.400 This reminded me a lot of the early days of the Ukraine war, when the Ukrainians and the NATO types would be,

01:32:03.700 oh, we killed this Russian commander. 0.92

01:32:05.120 We got this guy.

01:32:05.900 Well, within 24 to 48 hours, the leadership was replaced, and the Russians kept going. 0.92

01:32:10.980 So this is, you know, who knew a nation of 96 million people would find other generals and people to promote, you know?

01:32:16.880 You know, it's like.

01:32:19.520 Well, also, you wonder, like, how much, if you really believe that killing an 86-year-old cleric is going to topple the government,

01:32:26.820 how much do you know about the country, and how much of what you think you know is filtered through some CIA source

01:32:33.100 who wants to be president, like the former king said?

01:32:36.680 Exactly.

01:32:37.480 Like, do we know a lot about Iran?

01:32:39.480 I don't sense that we do.

01:32:41.260 Well, I know a lot about Iran, but, you know, I was boxed out of the administration almost from the beginning.

01:32:46.160 So it's like.

01:32:47.020 Why?

01:32:47.380 And people like.

01:32:48.040 I think, well, I think there's some personnel in the White House that doesn't like me,

01:32:54.340 and I think that they don't like that I don't play ball.

01:32:57.480 And, you know, I moved.

01:32:58.900 I got out of D.C., moved to Florida, and I never looked back.

01:33:02.380 But there are people like me as well who were boxed out who know a lot about these things,

01:33:06.680 and we are not.

01:33:07.360 Can I ask you who, if you can say who, because you're clearly very knowledgeable,

01:33:11.280 you seem sensible, you seem pro-American.

01:33:14.940 I'm going to tell you offline.

01:33:15.900 Who boxed you out?

01:33:16.840 I'll tell you offline.

01:33:18.000 I really don't.

01:33:18.620 I'm really not looking to start a mixture rating.

01:33:20.740 I understand.

01:33:21.460 So, but let me ask you a broader question, which is, and I know the answer, but I won't hear you say it.

01:33:26.800 Was there from the very beginning of this second Trump term an effort to exclude anybody

01:33:31.780 who might conceivably stand in the way of an Iran invasion?

01:33:35.840 Yes.

01:33:36.980 Yes.

01:33:38.220 Even though I, again, again, understand, I hate the regime, you know.

01:33:42.600 I don't like that regime.

01:33:43.680 I'm just not like I'm some lover of, you know, but I was, I was, a friend of mine joked

01:33:48.520 I wasn't sufficiently on board with this program.

01:33:52.720 With this Iran invasion program, Iran war program. 0.80

01:33:55.980 Yeah, because I think it's, this is the stuff of lunacy.

01:33:58.560 And this is literally, this is like the Mad King, you know.

01:34:00.880 This is, this, this doesn't make any, this doesn't make any sense.

01:34:04.340 Yeah.

01:34:04.640 It doesn't.

01:34:05.600 Unless, you know, what you were saying in your monologue, which I think you're probably right.

01:34:09.180 I think that's definitely at play here.

01:34:11.000 Yeah.

01:34:11.400 I mean, I, I just want to be clear.

01:34:12.900 I don't, I don't think that most U.S. policymakers have any idea what the foundation stone is or

01:34:17.560 Al-Aqsa or Dome of the Rock or the Third Temple.

01:34:20.620 This is just so far from the concerns of average people in this country.

01:34:23.900 Even their minders are not paying them to know.

01:34:26.340 Their minders are not paying them to know.

01:34:27.100 Well, that's it.

01:34:27.760 But there are people who do know, and certainly in the region, in the Middle East and the rest

01:34:32.160 of the world, people are religious.

01:34:33.540 They're not Americans. 1.00

01:34:34.620 Like, they care.

01:34:35.600 So these are big questions to people around the world, just not.

01:34:39.360 Well, I care.

01:34:40.300 These, I'm, I'm a Christian.

01:34:41.540 Well, I care too, actually.

01:34:43.180 So let me ask you, since you said that you're constructing most of your analyses through open

01:34:48.020 source materials, you're reading publicly available things on the internet.

01:34:51.280 Have you noticed an effort to clamp down on videos?

01:34:56.940 Okay.

01:34:57.340 Tell us what you've noticed.

01:34:58.400 There's also an interesting effort, Tucker, to, and I think this is coming from our guys,

01:35:03.880 to spread AI videos of what look like war scenes, and then you share it, and then they say,

01:35:11.220 ah, that's AI.

01:35:12.480 We got to get him dinged now.

01:35:14.340 We got to get him, you know, this is all, you know, we have, it is a, Tucker, it is.

01:35:21.100 It's a sad day in this country when we have official, and I have a feeling I know the

01:35:26.580 group that's doing it, we have official U.S. intelligence people being paid with our tax

01:35:32.780 dollars to sit around a basement in Langley or Arlington, Virginia, and harass American

01:35:38.600 citizens online for sharing their opinion.

01:35:41.320 But that is where we are at in this country.

01:35:43.820 That is where we are at.

01:35:45.180 And I can tell you right now, I have been the victim of bot attacks.

01:35:47.920 I have been the victim of cyber attacks in the last 24 hours on my personal email, which

01:35:53.940 I didn't know people had, but apparently they do.

01:35:57.000 We have been, I had to file a police report, in fact, yesterday with my local police on

01:36:01.820 this, ever since coming out in the last week and sharing my opinion.

01:36:06.500 And this is not an organic phenomenon.

01:36:09.120 This is either ours or Israel or the British, you know, because they're always in there somehow. 1.00

01:36:15.580 Or the French, that's right.

01:36:16.840 Or the French, that's right, that's right.

01:36:18.800 So this is, you know, this is where we are.

01:36:20.540 This isn't really America anymore.

01:36:22.500 This is some censorious state.

01:36:24.680 And I thought that we were going to be cleaning that up, but we're instead, we're instead giving

01:36:30.400 the keys to these guys and telling them to go start World War III.

01:36:34.820 I wonder if we're going to see, this is purely speculative, but wars tend to create an environment

01:36:40.460 where there's actual persecution of critics of the war.

01:36:44.520 Well, I was told, and again, take from this what you will, because I have no way of proving it.

01:36:50.480 I was told two years ago that the Biden regime had concocted a list of high-profile MAGA supporters

01:36:57.760 that they were going to basically go to and say, if Kamala had won, say that, hey, you got to leave the country

01:37:05.360 as, you know, you got to get out or we're going to basically prosecute you until you're broke and lawfare.

01:37:10.760 And thank God that never happened, but those lists are still around.

01:37:15.940 And, you know, in 35 months, we have an election coming up.

01:37:20.180 And if this keeps going the way it is, Tucker, I don't think the Republicans stand a chance to win the next election

01:37:26.880 if things keep going the way they are.

01:37:28.580 I don't care if it's J.D. or if it's Marco.

01:37:31.780 Yeah, well, I unfortunately agree with you.

01:37:34.680 Last question, and I hope you'll come back, because I think this has been so smart and knowledgeable.

01:37:38.000 Anytime you need me, I live near you, apparently.

01:37:39.340 Thank you.

01:37:41.260 So here's my question.

01:37:42.860 I saw video, maybe AI, of the governor of California today, Gavin Newsom, saying, point blank, Israel led us into this war.

01:37:53.600 Israel leads us around by the nose. 0.61

01:37:55.240 Israel's committed genocide in Gaza.

01:37:58.240 And we can't, we're not getting anything out of this, and we need to reassess our military support for Israel.

01:38:04.540 Yeah, that's probably your next president right there.

01:38:06.460 Well, and I don't, I know him, and I wouldn't credit a single word he says with sincerity.

01:38:12.000 He doesn't believe anything.

01:38:13.140 But he's smart, and I know that Donald Trump thinks he's formidable.

01:38:16.340 He has said that in public a lot.

01:38:17.940 But, I mean, if that's real, then, I mean, that guy has a shot, do you think?

01:38:24.800 Yeah.

01:38:25.480 Yeah, I think, I wouldn't be surprised.

01:38:27.020 Look, this can all be, I just want to make it clear.

01:38:28.820 This can be reversed in the next 48 hours if Trump declares victory.

01:38:32.140 Thank you.

01:38:32.460 And just gets out, and says, look, I got everybody we needed to get.

01:38:35.420 If the people of Iran can't do it, then they're never going to do it. 0.97

01:38:37.920 You know, this is, it's an easy out.

01:38:40.060 It's a golden off-ramp, Mr. President.

01:38:42.440 It's a golden off-ramp with your name on it.

01:38:44.540 Take it, and you'll be a hero.

01:38:45.360 Can Israel, will Israel allow that?

01:38:49.900 You know, I don't, I probably, they will probably try something.

01:38:53.880 But, you know, I can't dictate what Israel's going to do.

01:38:58.480 All I can say is the president has got to make it clear he's getting out now.

01:39:01.720 We've achieved our objectives.

01:39:03.320 We're done.

01:39:04.360 That's what he needs to do.

01:39:05.700 In terms of Newsom, you know, he will probably be the nominee because he is wily enough.

01:39:15.180 He kind of reminds me of Bill Clinton a little bit in a weird way.

01:39:17.980 Oh, yeah.

01:39:18.360 But I wouldn't be surprised if his veep is, in my old state where I used to live, Virginia,

01:39:24.300 is Abigail Spanberger because the CIA wants to have one of their own sitting in the White House. 1.00

01:39:31.360 Man, that's not democracy.

01:39:33.060 That's really, really dark.

01:39:34.260 I hope you're wrong.

01:39:34.740 No, it's a deep state, man, and we were supposed to dismantle it.

01:39:37.760 Brandon Weikert, that was great, and thank you so much for doing this.

01:39:41.360 Thank you so much for having me.

01:39:43.080 Great to meet you.

01:39:44.140 Thanks.

01:39:44.960 And thank you for joining us.

01:39:46.180 We'll be back next Wednesday.

01:39:46.920 Thanks for watching the Wednesday edition of the show.

01:39:52.060 We stream live every week, Wednesday, 6 p.m. Eastern on tuckercarlson.com.

01:39:57.840 Members can watch the show live, join the members-only chat, and take part in the conversation in real time.

01:40:04.180 We're grateful to be doing it and grateful that you watch it.

01:40:07.380 Thank you.

01:40:07.780 Thank you.

The Tucker Carlson Show - March 05, 2026

War Update： Israel’s True Motives, Potential False Flags, and Oncoming Global Crisis

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript