Verdict with Ted Cruz - May 05, 2026


BONUS POD： Iran’s Mosquito Fleet Turns Strait of Hormuz into a Battlefield


Episode Stats


Length

16 minutes

Words per minute

173.97

Word count

2,915

Sentence count

158

Harmful content

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

12

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most critical choke points on the planet. Iran has fired on a U.S. warship and threatens to destroy all of our commercial and military vessels passing through it. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the front lines helping those that are desperately in need right now.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.520 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.860 Almost as important as the tax cuts,
00:00:07.160 we've slashed a record number of job-crushing regulations.
00:00:11.020 That includes you, and that includes
00:00:12.400 tremendous numbers of environmental regulations,
00:00:15.900 which stopped your businesses, but they didn't do anything,
00:00:18.480 and they had no impact.
00:00:19.700 If anything, they made the environment worse.
00:00:22.060 But we eliminated 129 old regulations
00:00:25.280 for every new one that was approved.
00:00:27.600 It was supposed to be one in 10.
00:00:30.000 And it's turning out to be 129, one in 129.
00:00:35.180 So we're getting rid of 129 nonsense regulations for every new one that we've had.
00:00:40.820 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:44.800 Good Tuesday morning. Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.
00:00:47.960 And we've got one big story coming out of the White House.
00:00:50.300 First up, Iran says they fired on U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz.
00:00:54.560 This coming as the U.S. sinks not one, not two, not three, not four, but five, no, no, no, six small Iranian fast boats
00:01:04.040 As Trump warns the regime that they can be blown off the face of the earth 0.69
00:01:09.100 Now before we get to that, I want to say something that's really important
00:01:13.080 And that is, do you want to help the people that are still under siege right now in Israel?
00:01:19.200 So many of you have stepped up to help have a huge impact
00:01:22.260 And the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is on the front lines helping those
00:01:27.260 that are desperately in need right now that are in Israel.
00:01:31.120 And because of you, you're having a huge impact.
00:01:34.640 All right, I want to take a moment and I want to talk to you about the incredible impact
00:01:37.980 that you can have for the people of Israel right now.
00:01:41.380 Right now, our Jewish friends are feeling forgotten.
00:01:45.200 There's a Jewish woman named Esther I'd like to tell you about.
00:01:48.500 And her home is in Israel.
00:01:50.600 Esther is living through days and nights of fear.
00:01:53.500 Sirens are sounding, rockets screaming through the sky,
00:01:56.800 long stretches spent in a bomb shelter.
00:01:59.800 She's 84 years old.
00:02:01.960 Esther is elderly.
00:02:03.140 She's fragile and all alone.
00:02:05.080 Now imagine that.
00:02:06.200 No help, no food deliveries, no medical care,
00:02:09.180 no one knocking at the door.
00:02:10.900 It's a war zone.
00:02:11.780 But because of friends like you, Esther is not alone.
00:02:15.720 Now through the IFCJ, they are there bringing her food, meeting her urgent needs, and reminding
00:02:23.280 Jewish people like Esther, you are not forgotten.
00:02:27.020 In times of fear and uncertainty, your compassion brings hope and real help.
00:02:32.580 Esther asks that you hear these words, quote, to those who give, you are doing a very great
00:02:38.100 mitzvah, a good deed.
00:02:40.120 You give from your heart.
00:02:41.940 May God protect you.
00:02:43.980 Friends, I want you to know that your gift to God's people is truly hope-giving and life-saving.
00:02:49.780 So if you've not gotten involved with the IFCJ, please do it now and don't wait.
00:02:55.600 Call 888-488-IFCJ right now.
00:03:00.920 That's 888-488-IFCJ.
00:03:04.700 Or go to ifcj.org.
00:03:07.180 That's ifcj.org.
00:03:09.360 It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
00:03:12.700 Story number one.
00:03:14.000 I want to start by telling you what's happening right now in the Strait of Hormuz.
00:03:18.340 Iran has fired on U.S. warship in the Strait of Hormuz after Trump announced plans to guide ships through the passage.
00:03:27.140 Now, many people don't understand just how massive the Strait of Hormuz actually is.
00:03:33.320 A lot of people think of it as like a simple, easy waterway, almost like the Panama Canal.
00:03:38.240 That is not the case at all. 0.97
00:03:39.820 There's been criticism saying, why can't Trump just take out all these Iranian fast boats?
00:03:44.600 We've, again, decimated their Navy. 0.99
00:03:47.360 But these little fast boats that are almost like small boats that you would see on a lake
00:03:52.040 anywhere you go this summer with a lot of engines on the back so they have speed
00:03:56.580 is exactly what is hitting these vessels.
00:03:59.220 Now, I'm going to do my best to explain to you something that most Americans have not fully understood or grasped
00:04:06.220 because the media has done a terrible job of truly explaining this global shipping sector
00:04:11.820 and the threat to our Navy and commercial vessels
00:04:15.140 and just how easy it is for these small boats to actually hide, all right?
00:04:19.540 So when we're talking about the Strait of Hormuz,
00:04:22.380 and it's important saying it that way is honestly a massive understatement.
00:04:28.000 This is one of the most critical choke points on planet Earth.
00:04:31.500 you have more than 20 percent of the world's oil supply coming through here and that doesn't count
00:04:37.140 all the other vessels from around the world that use the Strait of Hormuz to get things from point
00:04:41.620 A to point B now to put it in perspective at its narrowest point the Strait is about 21 miles wide
00:04:50.880 at its narrowest point that's insane now that is something that if you think about it's really hard
00:04:58.560 to be looking out and watching for all these small boats all the time now the shipping lanes
00:05:04.180 of the massive oil tankers and cargo ships are allowed to use is actually only about two miles
00:05:09.200 wide in each direction that's it it's easy to control that what's hard to control is the other
00:05:15.280 19 miles that you have on the left to the right side or you can divide it up depending on where
00:05:19.800 these ships are it is massive so imagine this you got a gigantic oil tanker then you've got
00:05:26.400 some of the largest objects on Earth moving them.
00:05:28.680 They're forced into essentially a narrow highway on the water,
00:05:32.260 making them very easy targets.
00:05:34.620 And then there are multiple layers of threats that can come after them
00:05:38.240 because they are in this two-mile-wide area, all right?
00:05:41.680 So it makes them sitting ducks.
00:05:43.660 Now, you also can ask the question, why are the shipping lanes there?
00:05:45.940 That's the deepest points, and these ships are huge.
00:05:48.640 And they're way below the waterline, right, because of how much cargo.
00:05:51.840 So that's part of the reason why you have these narrow, basically, highway going through the strait for these massive tankers.
00:05:59.780 All right. Now, Iran's strategy is one that is really tough to deal with. 0.81
00:06:05.740 It's not a go head to head with the U.S. Navy in a traditional fight. 0.97
00:06:09.700 We already did that. They lost. We completely took out their entire Navy of their large ships.
00:06:15.600 We know that. All right. Now they're basically using runabouts.
00:06:18.840 Like the average boat you would be using if you're going out there to go sightseeing on a lake or if you're buying a boat to go skiing behind.
00:06:29.680 That is what they're using now, that size boat, to go after these tankers and these container ships, all right?
00:06:37.240 So this is a lot like just terrorism that we see around the world.
00:06:41.360 It's really hard to find a lone wolf.
00:06:43.120 It's really hard to find one individual that wants to blow up, you know, a car or to blow up a bus or to blow up something in, you know, next to a hotel, like a restaurant.
00:06:52.880 You understand that's what they're doing now in the Strait of Hormuz.
00:06:57.100 They deploy these small, fast attack boats.
00:07:00.020 All right. 0.80
00:07:01.080 They are operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. 0.98
00:07:03.760 They're not stupid. 0.98
00:07:04.700 OK, they're pretty smart. 0.97
00:07:06.440 These boats are designed to be low profile.
00:07:08.400 They're designed to be extremely fast, and they're designed to be highly maneuverable.
00:07:14.680 You could say that these boats are faster and smaller than even the boats that you see that pirates have used to go after ships around the Horn of Africa, for example.
00:07:25.340 They also are armed with heavy machine guns, rocket launchers, and even anti-ship missiles.
00:07:33.220 So this is well-executed, well-thought-out, and they hide well on the sea, all right?
00:07:39.260 So all of that is against, basically, the odds are stacked against us in that way.
00:07:44.380 Now, here's the other thing that's interesting.
00:07:46.280 These boats can run skinny.
00:07:47.940 What does that mean?
00:07:48.620 It means in very little water.
00:07:50.420 They can hug the coastline.
00:07:52.360 They can blend in with normal fishing traffic.
00:07:55.280 They can hide along and among the commercial vessels as well.
00:08:00.140 The Persian Gulf, by the way, is very busy.
00:08:02.320 there's constant movement there's legitimate traffic everywhere and that cluster makes it
00:08:08.500 actually easier for these boats to hide among other boats and look like it's one thing on the
00:08:12.780 water when actually it's two things a large boat and a small boat so by the time one of these boats
00:08:17.500 breaks away and then starts accelerating towards a tanker or a navy ship you may have like minutes
00:08:25.020 or even seconds to react because you don't have the radar system that many of us would imagine
00:08:32.200 to see all of these little boats coming at you. Now, just think about the logistics,
00:08:38.200 the physics here. You've got a massive oil tanker that can't swerve or stop. These ships take miles
00:08:44.480 to change course, literally. They're very slow. They're very predictable. And they're very
00:08:50.500 vulnerable in these narrow highway lanes that are two miles wide the iranian boats can swarm
00:08:56.740 meaning they're you're not dealing with one threat you're dealing with five or ten or even 0.91
00:09:00.720 a dozen of them coming from multiple directions at once at one of these takers they practice this
00:09:06.060 they're pretty good at it and it's like trying to defend a convoy of semi-trucks on a two-lane
00:09:12.460 road all right while motorcycles are flying at them in every angle of direction at high speed
00:09:18.140 That is the best analogy that I can give you.
00:09:20.720 Now, you've got roughly 20% of the world's oil supply that's passing through the strait.
00:09:26.020 Any disruption, even a temporary one, sends the energy prices skyrocketing overnight.
00:09:31.320 We've witnessed that.
00:09:32.900 So, now that you understand this, I want to go back to what America did do,
00:09:37.960 and it's pretty impressive in the last 24 hours. 0.99
00:09:41.040 The U.S. has sunk six of these small Iranian boats. 1.00
00:09:45.680 I would refer to them as mosquitoes.
00:09:48.120 And Trump is also now warning the regime that they could be blown off the face of the earth if they don't stop this. 0.61
00:09:55.380 Now, we sank these six small Iranian boats that were deployed to harass vessels that were stuck in the Strait of Hormuz shortly before Trump warned the Islamic Republic that, look, you guys keep this up.
00:10:07.840 I'm going to blow you off the face of the earth and I'm sick and tired of dealing with you.
00:10:11.600 And you guys better reopen the critical waterway and we're going to do everything we can. 0.75
00:10:16.240 Now, Admiral Brad Cooper, who's head of the U.S. Central Command, known as CINCOM,
00:10:20.340 he told reporters Monday afternoon in a press call that while Iran historically has deployed between 20 and 40 small boats
00:10:28.260 to threaten commercial shipping in the strait, he said today we saw just six and we were able to eliminate all of them.
00:10:35.200 He said we have an enormous amount of capacity, capability, and firepower that's now concentrated in and around the strait,
00:10:43.080 including Apache helicopters, Seahawk helicopters
00:10:47.300 and he also emphasized that Iran's military capability
00:10:50.860 has been dramatically degraded
00:10:52.680 which means we've got an upper hand right now on this.
00:10:56.720 Again, that is great news.
00:10:58.920 When you look at the Strait of Hormuz
00:11:00.460 not only does it connect the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman
00:11:03.420 it connects one part of the world to the other
00:11:06.160 and it's massive.
00:11:07.800 It's not small.
00:11:09.120 And I say that so that you understand just how big this is.
00:11:12.280 Now, Monday's strike occurred after Trump announced Sunday evening of this new Project Freedom.
00:11:19.720 It's this initiative to move maritime traffic through the strait since it's been backed up for months from the start of Operation Epic Fury on February the 28th.
00:11:29.800 Iran then came out and warned that it would resist any effort to force open the strait and insisted that any ships attempting to move through the waterway must coordinate with Tehran first.
00:11:41.600 prompting Trump to tell Fox News that the Middle Eastern regime would be blown off the face of the earth again
00:11:47.080 if it attacks U.S. flagged vessels, saying, quote,
00:11:52.020 We have more weapons and ammunition at a much higher grade than we had before, is what Trump said.
00:11:58.660 We have the best equipment. We have staff all over the world.
00:12:02.300 We have these bases all over the world.
00:12:04.460 They're all stocked up with equipment, and we can use all of that stuff, and we will if we need it.
00:12:09.860 now the president claimed that iran has become much softer in other words you can you can mold
00:12:15.380 them more regarding the peace talks that have stagnated since mid-april now let me also go back
00:12:22.140 to what centcom said all right cooper did not say whether america's strikes on iran's fast attack
00:12:30.840 boats and tehran's claims that it fired at u.s warships constituted a collapse of the fragile
00:12:37.200 ceasefire secured last month so that is again up in the air at this point on what's really happening
00:12:42.920 what cooper did say was this i think the key thing here for us is we're merely there as a defensive
00:12:52.080 force to give a very thick layer of defense to commercial ships and commercial shipping to allow
00:12:59.020 them to proceed out of the Persian Gulf. Now, right now, there are literally hundreds and
00:13:06.740 hundreds of ships that are anchored. You have about 87 different countries now that have ships
00:13:14.800 that are flagged to them that are sitting in the Persian Gulf. CENTCOM said, our job is to give
00:13:22.620 them safe passage. Now, here's what we also know. At least two U.S. ships crossed the
00:13:29.000 Strait of Hormuz on Monday, according to CINCOM, a claim that Iran slammed as quote-unquote
00:13:33.460 baseless, and again, that's nothing but propaganda. I also want you to understand something else
00:13:38.580 about these fast boats that are very sophisticated, all right? They're small. They can hide. It's
00:13:44.320 a very large body of water. They can hide behind other vessels in an attack, and you
00:13:48.100 have virtually no warning these boats some of them are smaller than 20 feet long now a typical
00:13:56.660 boat that you would go skiing behind for your family is usually 22 to 25 feet so a lot of these
00:14:04.200 are smaller than that some of them even have just one engine but still are able to haul it many of
00:14:09.760 them have two and three engines on a very tiny boat and these are calm waters in the street of
00:14:15.080 moves so they're able to just haul it almost like a jet ski I would describe it with just just on
00:14:20.940 top of the water and flooring it now it also remains to be seen how many foreign ships are
00:14:26.480 going to take up Sengkong's offer to move through the strait after a South Korean used carrier
00:14:32.880 reported an explosion and fire on board when it attempted to cross the waterway so that's new news
00:14:39.220 there I guess South Korea didn't want our help they decided to go to loan that didn't work very
00:14:43.900 well for them so what does this mean now it's pretty clear that the president's saying i'll
00:14:50.160 give you a safe passage if you want it you have another boat by the way that suffered a blast
00:14:54.120 early monday while while fire broke out in the engine room of a panama flag cargo ship
00:14:59.220 south korea's foreign minister has also confirmed now trump said that that attack on the namu
00:15:05.360 should push seoul south korea which has 26 ships trapped in the gulf to join u.s and military
00:15:12.380 operations to secure the strait we'll see if they actually do it the president saying this on true
00:15:17.300 social quote perhaps it's time for south korea to come and join the mission other than the south
00:15:22.200 korean ship there has been at this moment no damage to ships going through the strait the
00:15:27.400 president wrote noting that military commanders will speak to reporters on tuesday about all of
00:15:32.720 these operations now along with the south korean ship you had a uae oil tanker that was targeted
00:15:37.980 by an Iranian drone as it tried to cross the strait and caught fire as well so Iran is doing 0.60
00:15:44.140 everything they can to try to hurt the U.S. and to try to shut down the strait that is obvious
00:15:50.160 the president's saying we're not going to have it and then the question becomes what is next 0.88
00:15:54.800 is the president going to go back and start hitting targets and individuals in Iran that
00:16:02.400 is what is really going to be the big question that so many are going to be looking at next
00:16:07.980 What's very clear is the president has made it clear he's not going to be screwed with
00:16:11.640 or held hostage, and America is there to win, and America is there also to give safe passage.
00:16:18.540 That is very clear.
00:16:20.560 So, now we wait, and we see what the president does next, but I have a feeling it's going
00:16:25.140 to be pretty darn aggressive.
00:16:27.240 Quick break.
00:16:27.880 Ben Ferguson, show more coming up.
00:16:29.580 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:16:33.360 Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.
00:16:39.140 And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast, and we will see you back here tomorrow.