Latest / Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News / Unpopular War, now what? #10 Brandon Weichert

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Unpopular War, now what? #10 Brandon Weichert · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:24
  Okay, yeah, it's a privilege.
• 0:26
  That's always cool to talk to you, man.
• 0:28
  It's always always good.
• 0:29
  Um, because you're to me, uh, from my perspective, you're a different kind of journalist, uh, in the way that you don't sort of change the way the wind is blowing, you know, like the way the what whatever the political winds are going, and you change your opinion right at the last minute.
• 0:44
  And a lot of cats do that, I find they change.
• 0:46
  A lot of them do.
• 0:47
  Yeah.
• 0:47
  And so, but you sort of say stay steadfast, and I always question you back and try to remind listeners and say, you know, hey, by the way, uh, you know, Brandon is a um, he is a uh uh uh voted for Trump several times.
• 1:00
  Yeah, Trump supporters been mega, he's been a lot of things, just but you've been critical of this thing.
• 1:05
  Uh so let's take it there.
• 1:06
  First of all, let me tell everybody was speaking to Brandon Whitegirt here as a geopolitical analyst, of course, and uh he's the senior national security editor of the uh at 1945.com.
• 1:17
  Very cool.
• 1:18
  Yeah, yeah.
• 1:18
  And uh he's got a whole lot of things going on.
• 1:21
  He's got a uh a book that uh uh that I'm gonna get a copy of BioHacked China's Race to Control Live, because you've been pretty steadfast talking about China, and I want to get some of the thoughts on that.
• 1:32
  Um we're privileged to have him here on the network too.
• 1:34
  He's host of the National Security Hour Wednesdays at 8 p.m.
• 1:37
  And that show is a must uh watch, listen to uh at uh national security hours.
• 1:42
  So welcome in again, my fellow Americans to Project Out Loud, and let's get into this with Brandon.
• 1:48
  Brandon, we spoke uh early March, March 8th, in fact, on our weekend news magazine Viewpoint this Sunday, okay.
• 1:56
  And uh, in fact, that that show was uh titled Regime Change Nation Building Democracy, America's Wars.
• 2:04
  I asked you how Americans are sizing up the war and how does it end?
• 2:09
  And you said, and I quote, I think the president should claim victory tomorrow, uh, because he did get the Ayotola, he did degrade the regime.
• 2:23
  There are things he has done that we can positively say, okay, all right, but this whole obsession with regime change and with unconditional surrender, you know, like okay, this is the stuff of a mania, the mad king level.
• 2:38
  That's good words.
• 2:42
  So I had to go back and get that quote earlier.
• 2:44
  Because I knew you said some pretty interesting things in that program, and I thought we're gonna talk today.
• 2:49
  I gotta get a feel of a sense from you.
• 2:51
  So tell me now with that quote there, uh claiming victory tomorrow.
• 2:56
  And I've actually used that a few times, and you don't even know.
• 2:58
  I've given you credit for saying that actually a few other times on broadcast.
• 3:02
  My buddy Brandon says X.
• 3:04
  And uh, so do you still stay with that opinion and thought as we're now in late April here, and and where are we going?
• 3:11
  What do you think?
• 3:12
  Well, and I and I should remind your audience, and thanks for having me.
• 3:14
  Uh, I should remind your audience that I think like either one or two days before we did that interview, Trump had truth social unconditional surrender and all caps, which of course the reason I was bringing that up.
• 3:27
  That's why I brought that that term up is because that was still so fresh.
• 3:31
  And and I was thinking he's changing the goalposts so much.
• 3:35
  That indicates to me that we went into this war, in my opinion, not well prepared for the kind of pushback the Iranian regime was going to subject us to.
• 3:47
  We assumed that the we would be able to replicate what we did with Maduro in January, and of course, Iran is a totally different animal than is Venezuela.
• 3:56
  The kind of force that was needed, the kind of mission set, the way the regime is arrayed in Iran is very different from what the Venezuelan regime under Maduro was.
• 4:07
  Um, and so that's why I brought that up.
• 4:09
  And I think that we today, nothing has fundamentally changed in terms of what I said back in March, which is we've degraded the regime, we've degraded certain capabilities of theirs.
• 4:21
  Those are tangible things that Trump can say.
• 4:24
  Hey, look what I did.
• 4:25
  I was able to better, you know, secure us from whatever these threats he believed were.
• 4:31
  Um, but ultimately, the the the idea that we're going to have the force structure in place to regime change and get unconditional surrender, the that is gonna require so much commitment on a level that the US military cannot sustain right now.
• 4:50
  I mean, look, the Navy Malcolm is refusing to enter the Strait of Hormoose.
• 4:55
  Okay, that should tell you all you need to know about the limits of American military power today.
• 5:00
  And I'll just conclude with this and tell you your your audience that the United States under Trump uh what whatever happens here will not fundamentally achieve regime change.
• 5:12
  That he keeps saying regime change happened.
• 5:15
  It didn't.
• 5:15
  All we did was switch out the Islamic Republic's old leaders with new leaders of the Islamic Republic.
• 5:22
  So this idea that we're gonna be able to execute regime change is just not it's not practical.
• 5:26
  Well, you you mentioned even before that you you you referenced you don't think Trump was uh briefed properly on this thing.
• 5:33
  Yeah, you know, yeah.
• 5:34
  You mentioned that.
• 5:35
  And um, and I got thinking about that a little bit.
• 5:38
  And but in it, and where does that go to?
• 5:40
  Well, what it means is you you actually have a quote on that uh back then.
• 5:44
  Uh the Iranians are not going to surrender, they have no problem dying for their cause.
• 5:49
  These guys are fanatics and they are ready to die for their God.
• 5:52
  Now, we talk about that a fair amount on this network because I have Intel experts, uh uh military experts and people overseas who uh eat breathe, eat and drink this stuff here all day long.
• 6:04
  Right.
• 6:04
  And we understand that culture.
• 6:06
  So, but Trump had to understand that culture.
• 6:08
  Couldn't I mean he had to understand it?
• 6:10
  No, I think he so here's the problem is first of all, there is a what I have been told in the last month is that there was a group of CIA types in the administration, not political appointees, these are professional intelligence experts who are deeply committed to the idea of getting rid of the Iranian regime no matter what, for a variety of reasons.
• 6:33
  We've got 47 years of bad blood between us and that regime.
• 6:36
  So there you pick your excuse.
• 6:39
  What I was told is that basically a briefing at some point was had in the run-up to the war, which occurred on February 28th, in which a group of CIA types informed the administration that we were reaching a tipping point in American military power projection capabilities.
• 6:58
  What that what basically they were saying is hey, look, if we continue on the trend that we're on, if all things being equal, continue to be the way they are for the next 10, 15, 20 years, America in the next two years will decline militarily at the point that um China is increasing militarily, and there will be no reversing that it will become irreparable.
• 7:00
  Is hey, look, if we continue on the trend that we're on, if all things being equal continue to be the way they are for the next 10, 15, 20 years, America in the next two years will decline militarily at the point that um China is increasing militarily, and there will be no reversing that it will become irreparable.
• 7:21
  So if we don't use what we have now before that moment hits 2027, 2028, then we will never be able to get.
• 7:21
  So if we don't use what we have now before that moment hits 2027, 2028, then we will never be able to get rid of some of these enemies we've got that are allied with China.
• 7:33
  So you had that input for the president, and the president, I think glommed on to that.
• 7:37
  But then you also had the the momentum from the Maduro raid, where I know the president just assumed, well, if I did it with Maduro, and remember a lot of people were saying we couldn't do what we ended up doing with Maduro.
• 7:50
  Um so the president looks at that and says, Hey, we got I can do this.
• 7:53
  I've already shown I can do this, and then also you have the fact that the president is very close with Benjamin Netanyahu and his Lakudnik wing of the Israeli political establishment, and they were just pumping the president full of information saying this will be just like Venezuela.
• 8:11
  Don't listen to the naysayers in the Intel community, because there were people saying that this isn't going to work the way you think, Mr.
• 8:17
  President, but Trump didn't want to hear it.
• 8:19
  And in fact, General Kane, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who is his handpicked guy, tried the day before the war began, tried to tell Mr.
• 8:27
  President, you can't do this, it's going to end up destroying.
• 8:31
  Yeah, he warned them.
• 8:32
  He give them caution.
• 8:32
  I I remember reading the quote on it.
• 8:34
  You're exactly right.
• 8:35
  He did do that.
• 8:36
  Um, you know, he does have and has had uh for a long period of time, a very interesting uh relationship with Netanyahu.
• 8:43
  Uh yeah.
• 8:44
  You've seen the boat done in Mar Lago, buddy along, different things, both as a candidate, even though there was a little uh mistrust there for a little while.
• 8:51
  Yeah, because Trump is one that like loyalty is everything to him, like on every level.
• 8:56
  Once you tend to be one way, but yes, yeah, all right.
• 9:00
  All right, well, I guess you're figuring the game out at this point.
• 9:03
  Uh, but uh he is a character, he is a different uh he's a you know, say what we want, Brandon.
• 9:09
  But I and I know you have to know this and I reference it often enough.
• 9:14
  We're dealing with a historical figure, Donald Trump on on a level that the history books will, I mean, they will document all of these things, but we're dealing with a person who is a game changer, and on any level, he's gonna you're gonna have enemies, you're gonna have people that don't like you, and that's part of what I want to talk about today a little bit.
• 9:33
  But uh well, if I can just add real quick for two seconds, yeah.
• 9:37
  I think you have in the United States with Trump, in Russia with Putin, in um Israel with Netanyahu in China with Z, and in Iran with the current cluster of leaders, right?
• 9:50
  I actually think you have world changing personalities at the same time, right now, which is why all of this is happening the way it is.
• 10:00
  Yeah.
• 10:00
  Well, you referenced on one of the recent shows somewhere that we are actually in a world war, yeah.
• 10:06
  And and you have referenced that.
• 10:08
  Not not you, it wasn't in a robust sort of way.
• 10:10
  It was just like, hey, by the way, you know, there's yeah, it was an off-handed remark to Tucker.
• 10:14
  Right.
• 10:15
  There were some interesting things happening.
• 10:16
  Yeah, yeah.
• 10:17
  I I seen I did go back and see pieces of the Tucker Carlson.
• 10:20
  You you recently were on Tucker Cullen, you want Megan Kelly as well.
• 10:23
  Uh very very interesting programs.
• 10:26
  Um, you know, uh, I I don't follow them.
• 10:29
  I don't, I'm not a I'm not a um consumer of their talks.
• 10:32
  I don't, I don't I don't follow a lot of them out there.
• 10:34
  I just I just don't, I don't find it healthy for my own mindset.
• 10:38
  Ignore that on a regulation.
• 10:40
  I I have enough trouble just trying to digest our own network and figure out what people are saying.
• 10:45
  So I don't follow, consume their stuff, but because you were on, I I had to go take a look at the peak.
• 10:51
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:51
  And and you held your own very, very well, very, very well.
• 10:54
  Uh I thought which just reinforced what I already know about you, you know, as far as that goes.
• 10:59
  So that was cool.
• 11:00
  Thank you.
• 11:00
  Uh, and um, but uh, you know, but there's a lot of grandstand, and I I find them in some ways, I find there's a lot of grandstanded in that business.
• 11:09
  Uh, and uh, and and I think I see some of that over there as well.
• 11:13
  But that's okay, that's all right.
• 11:14
  That's part of this medium that we're in.
• 11:16
  Uh, and I'm I'm not here to necessarily criticize these people or what have you, but it's not my brand of cornflakes, is all.
• 11:22
  So I kind of come from a different level of some.
• 11:25
  So that's all.
• 11:26
  But now there's a few things before I get to the domestic agenda, because you said some interesting things there, but before we do that, because I think you have a major point there that I've been very, very nervous about, very very concerned with.
• 11:36
  Here's here's what I want to.
• 11:37
  This is gonna be a little challenging if I can get this out right, and without screwing it up here.
• 11:43
  But um, all right.
• 11:45
  Uh you've got this 47-year regime.
• 11:48
  We we know we know.
• 11:49
  I mean, you admit, as I would admit, as even the others would admit, that Iran is a cancer, has been a cancer.
• 11:55
  I don't know of anybody in the hemisphere here who would think they're not.
• 11:59
  Is that fair?
• 12:00
  Yeah, yeah, that the regime, not the people, but yes, not the people at all, the people are amazing.
• 12:05
  Uh yeah, the Iranian people are uh I just hope that I would say that they're a threat.
• 12:09
  I would say they're a threat to the to the region.
• 12:12
  I would say that they are ideologically a lot.
• 12:15
  If I can just really say here also the the ideological profile of the Islamic Republic, even though it is Islamic, it is very similar to the Soviet Union's sort of ideological profile.
• 12:30
  And so, as much of a problem as we had with revolutionary Soviet communism, we have a similar issue on a smaller scale, thankfully smaller, uh, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
• 12:41
  So I'm that's that's a yes, absolutely, I agree with that.
• 12:44
  Yeah, okay.
• 12:44
  All right, all right, yeah.
• 12:46
  I I I have to believe you do, I mean, I know you enough to know you sense that you know that.
• 12:51
  I mean, facts are facts, data doesn't lie, and we know who they are.
• 12:54
  You've already described their ideology, and you know, what when when your national policy and your mantra is death to America, uh, I mean, that kind of says a little bit there, and that's always on their billboards and signs and whatever they got buildings painted out there with you know all kinds of uh stuff here.
• 13:12
  Again, they they breed this chemistry out to their people, it they brainwash people, it's all indoctrination, it's all brainwashed, they start this this stage, you know, this high long and uh probably in diapers, actually.
• 13:24
  Um right, am I right?
• 13:25
  And then all the way forward.
• 13:26
  Yeah, that there is a strong propaganda push there.
• 13:30
  You say this throughout the region.
• 13:31
  I would also say though, we have a big propaganda problem in the West as well.
• 13:35
  So, you know, I guess that it's you know, it's hard to it's hard to stand on a moral high ground anymore when I look at it.
• 13:42
  Well, all right, you got me now, you got me now.
• 13:44
  All right.
• 13:45
  Uh I'm I'm not going to suggest you now there's a lot.
• 13:47
  Listen, it's throwing what do they say, throwing rocks at glass houses?
• 13:51
  Is that what it is here?
• 13:52
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:53
  Yeah, yeah.
• 13:53
  We we have a lot of uh glass house.
• 13:55
  In our own way, it's obviously different from the way they do it, but we we have our own propaganda.
• 14:00
  No, we have a lot of problems.
• 14:00
  No, we have a lot of problems.
• 14:01
  We have a lot of issues here.
• 14:01
  We have a lot of issues here, there's no doubt about it.
• 14:02
  There's no doubt about it.
• 14:03
  I uh we try to, as patriots, we try to look at things as the best clear lens we can.
• 14:03
  I uh we try to, as patriots, we try to look at things as the best clear lens we can.
• 14:07
  That's right.
• 14:07
  That's right, and some optimistic tone, and and I know I do, and I believe you do as well.
• 14:08
  And some optimistic tone.
• 14:09
  And and I know I do, and I believe you do as well.
• 14:11
  You're a patriot as well.
• 14:11
  You're a patriot as well.
• 14:13
  And um, but we're also honest and critical of what we know we believe to have to be honest and critical about, or yeah, we wouldn't be we the people in the way that we are designed that way to hold them in checks.
• 14:13
  And um, but we're also honest and critical of what we know we believe to have to be honest and critical about, or yeah, we wouldn't be we the people in the way that we are designed that way to hold them in checks.
• 14:25
  A lot of people forget, Brandon, that these characters in these political positions would have you.
• 14:25
  A lot of people forget, Brandon, that these characters in these political positions and what have you, they actually work for us.
• 14:32
  Oh, well, shit, I could have had a V8 there.
• 14:34
  I mean how novel is that approach, but they forget that people do.
• 14:38
  Yeah, that uh people they all think that it's the opposite.
• 14:41
  Most people do believe that somehow, you know, we we're somehow, you know, in line for the federal government, but it really isn't that way at all.
• 14:48
  But yeah.
• 14:48
  We we have fallen far from what the founders and framers had uh far from that branch.
• 14:52
  But let's not go down that rabbit hole.
• 14:54
  Yeah, we'll we'll get lost in there quickly.
• 14:56
  So um, so here's the sense I want to try to get to here.
• 15:00
  So, all right.
• 15:00
  Um, we know they're a cancer, we know they're a problem.
• 15:04
  We know that.
• 15:04
  Now, no one has wrestled with Iran.
• 15:06
  No, no, listen, in my lifetime, and I don't know if you would agree with this or not, but it or in uh in your lifetime, but in my lifetime, I don't recall, I do not see in my mind a president on the national stage who hasn't we could use a lot of adjectives here, who has the wherewithal, the courage, the fortitude, the tenacity, uh, or the testicles, or whatever you want to call it, who has that uh as Trump has.
• 15:33
  I can't think of another one.
• 15:35
  I'm not talking about a statesman.
• 15:36
  Reagan was a statesman, he had a lot of courage and a lot of wherewithal, but he was a statesman.
• 15:40
  This president is not a statesman specifically, he's different.
• 15:44
  He throws a lot of muck out there, and he has a own different way of negotiating and doing things, but it's for his life it's been effective in many, many ways.
• 15:52
  But we don't we've not had a president to this level in our lifetime, have we?
• 15:56
  Um, in terms of how he uh well that the tenacity to to do whatever it is that he's going to freaking do, whether you like it or not.
• 16:07
  Sure.
• 16:07
  I would say maybe a handful when people like Teddy Roosevelt, possibly, you know, these sort of you know, larger than life.
• 16:14
  I mean, Trump is a larger than life guy, his entire life is is just you know, yes.
• 16:19
  So I would say not in our lifetime, though.
• 16:22
  Right, right, right.
• 16:23
  Not in our lifetime.
• 16:24
  I just wanted to let people know we are young here.
• 16:26
  Right, right, right.
• 16:27
  Right, but but yeah, no, you're right.
• 16:29
  There he's a rarity, but we also though have to understand that the president, I think, because he doesn't come from a political background, that was one of his biggest selling points.
• 16:41
  But it also means there is a I don't want to say the word naive, I don't think that's the right word, but there is a certain degree of not understanding that there are limits to American power, and that just because you can do something does not always mean you must do that.
• 16:58
  No, you're part you're on target there with that because listen, when you're the CEO of the corporate boardroom, you can do any darn thing you want to do.
• 17:04
  So he brings in that CEO corporate chairman of the board, uh apprentice chairman of the board sort of style attitude, and you're fired, and that's kind of how he is.
• 17:13
  And it does you put you all right.
• 17:15
  It he doesn't have those political stripes, that backdrop.
• 17:17
  He wasn't bruised and through Congress, he didn't go, he wasn't a congressman, he wasn't a government.
• 17:21
  He wasn't in the military.
• 17:22
  It wasn't anything, it wasn't in the military, yeah.
• 17:24
  So yeah, I don't even think he ran for the Boy Scouts or anything or the mosquito control.
• 17:28
  I'm not sure.
• 17:29
  He's never run for any of that stuff.
• 17:30
  He's just jumped into presidential.
• 17:33
  The guy that's what I mean by brazen.
• 17:35
  He's like, who would do that?
• 17:36
  Who would who in their life would I can't?
• 17:39
  There's nobody I could think of that would but the problem now is or the the potential problem is because he's jumped into this particular war, yeah, and again, he has achieved certain things that this is what I was saying to you last month.
• 17:53
  He has achieved certain things that he could easily say, I won, I'm good.
• 17:56
  Right.
• 17:57
  The problem is the longer that he refuses to do this, it's going to impact impact the economy.
• 18:04
  It's already impacting the economy.
• 18:05
  So let's talk about that.
• 18:06
  Going into the midterms, Malcolm, this is a big problem.
• 18:09
  I'm worried too.
• 18:09
  Listen, I'm you're you're you're speaking of the choir here.
• 18:12
  I'm very, very deeply concerned.
• 18:13
  I I had conversations just in the last many days about this and the midterms.
• 18:18
  And I'm very, very deeply concerned.
• 18:20
  Uh, you're seeing these elections, these one off elections that the Democrats are winning, too many of them.
• 18:25
  And it's not just including Mar-a-Lago's district, and here's the I I know, and and we're not talking just by the way, Democrats, we're talking progressive left here.
• 18:32
  We're talking.
• 18:33
  We're talking radical left.
• 18:34
  We're talking progressives.
• 18:35
  We're not talking just, we're not talking John F.
• 18:37
  Kennedy, but Democrats, those are those are a lost breed.
• 18:41
  Uh there's some of them are.
• 18:44
  That's right.
• 18:44
  That's right.
• 18:45
  And they all would have been Republicans if you look at today's stature of these two political bodies.
• 18:49
  Just the left has gone far more that way, and the right has become very much transitioned under Trump with MAGA and America first.
• 18:57
  Now, there's a lot of bruising and damage right now with this war that's happened.
• 19:01
  We'll talk about that because you're the perfect one to talk about that conversation.
• 19:04
  But before before before we go there, before we go to domestic politics for Trump and all of that.
• 19:10
  I just I need to get to this point.
• 19:11
  I'm still not getting to, and that's this.
• 19:14
  Um, so we know Iran has been uh uh a cancer, they've been a real pain in the ass, and then some for 47 years.
• 19:21
  They have killed thousands of Americans.
• 19:23
  We cannot argue those are that these are data points, these are facts.
• 19:27
  We know that now uh Trump ran uh as a non-interventionist, he ran no foreign wars.
• 19:33
  Man, I I can't tell you how many times I heard that from his mouth from his lips.
• 19:37
  That was like Bush with uh right, read my lips, right?
• 19:40
  The the whole lip thing.
• 19:41
  Yeah, I mean, he ran on that.
• 19:43
  He the the party embraced him because uh you know, I'm not part of that industrial military complex, and I'm not wanting to be involved in any of this crap.
• 19:51
  And so I would agree with that, but yet we also have let we we've we have rested our laurels in this hemisphere, as you have pointed out, back to the Monroe Doctrine, and now some are calling the Dunro Doctrine.
• 20:02
  He's got ideas of Cuba as you suggest Greenland and uh Canada, even for God's sakes, you know.
• 20:07
  Uh but uh he's very grandiose and he throws everything out there on the Barbie.
• 20:11
  He just there's no limits to what he'll shear on his inner thoughts, no limits to that at all.
• 20:17
  And he has a way of thinking about this stuff and getting people to chew on it.
• 20:20
  I'm not sure it's always effective because then people sometimes overthink him and he gives too much away sometimes, I believe that could be better served for him and creates enemies quicker than he would need to in many cases, I believe, is happening as well by releasing all that information the board doesn't.
• 20:37
  I always say to myself, Oh my god, don't say that, please, you know.
• 20:40
  And I he says it out there very much, but but but I'm going, I'm getting lost again, a rabbit hole, so I gotta come back.
• 20:46
  And but but that's all true.
• 20:47
  And and and so here's the thing though.
• 20:50
  Um, if we believe at some point, I I have to believe Iran was gonna be a problem at some point for something.
• 20:57
  Now I know people are very our country has there's a large parts of our country now that has become very anti-Israel, it's become very popular now to to be anti Netanyahu, anti Israel.
• 21:00
  Country has there's a large parts of our country now that has become very anti-Israel, it's become very popular now to be anti Netanyahu, anti-Israel.
• 21:10
  I I get a lot of that stuff out there.
• 21:10
  I I get a lot of that stuff out there.
• 21:12
  And of course, to start on the college campuses and all of that stuff with the uh all but it's gone beyond that.
• 21:12
  And of course, to start on the college campuses and all of that stuff with the uh all but it's gone beyond that.
• 21:16
  It's gone into the mainstream, it's gone into people we journalists, uh others, it's it's pretty widespread.
• 21:16
  It's gone into the mainstream, it's gone into people we journalists, uh others, it's it's pretty widespread.
• 21:22
  Uh I'm not one of those.
• 21:22
  Uh I'm not one of those.
• 21:24
  I'm not anti Israel.
• 21:24
  I'm not anti-Israel.
• 21:25
  I'm sorry, I'm not.
• 21:25
  I'm sorry, I'm not.
• 21:26
  Uh so I have my own way of looking at it.
• 21:26
  Uh so I have my own way of looking at it.
• 21:28
  Well, neither neither am I.
• 21:28
  Well, neither neither am I.
• 21:30
  Okay, thank you.
• 21:30
  Thank you.
• 21:31
  And I don't think he's Netanyahu's bitch either.
• 21:33
  I don't believe that.
• 21:34
  Uh, although I think there is a bit of this here going that you've suggested.
• 21:38
  I'm not saying there's not, but that's like any, but but Brendan, that's like any uh any uh uh figurehead on the national stage would do that kind of thing, would look for every favor they could to get it out of there.
• 21:48
  You're right.
• 21:48
  I can't argue that back.
• 21:49
  I'm not arguing that back.
• 21:51
  But but the bigger point is I'm gonna say to you back to Trump leaving there.
• 21:55
  I I was listening to you carefully in these interviews, and I listened to you carefully back a month ago because you're the perfect one in because you come from in many ways the way I think in many capacities, the way we think as Americans and how we are and some capacities, and I and I don't make that comparison lightly, but I do think there are many comparisons to that.
• 22:16
  And I thought about that a little bit, and but yet I'm I'm trying to be as patient as I can to give as much leeway to the president as I possibly can.
• 22:24
  But I have to tell you, I've had some very hot conversations with some very important people in the past days here um who are not happy at all with Trump at all.
• 22:34
  I can't, I'm not gonna say name, but they're they just they're very and I feel and I'm crushed a little bit to see them say what they say, but they really feel that he has stepped into a pile of something at this point, and that we are uh, and he has screwed everything up, and they have really become very depressed.
• 22:50
  The country's not there's no patriotism, people are deflated, the economy sucks.
• 22:56
  Uh the inflation, the energy prices, the gas prices, where's he going?
• 22:59
  What the hell is he doing?
• 23:00
  Yeah, why why is he doing this?
• 23:02
  The non-interventionist, no foreign wars.
• 23:04
  He lied to the people they say this is stuff that's been said to me in the past 24, 48 hours from some people, and I'm I'm so I'm I've got this in my mind.
• 23:12
  I'm listening to people, and I said, Well, Brendan's gonna be perfect to talk to today.
• 23:15
  So here's what I want to understand.
• 23:17
  At what point all these presidents before have have let Iran go, have let them go, have let them, they've grown, they've become more prosperous, they've uh they've become more lethal uh with the ballistic missiles with the energy we can argue all the day about the nuclear stuff, but in any event, they're definitely on a track to blow people up.
• 23:38
  That's back to your your definition of what that culture is, describes exactly what I'm talking about right here.
• 23:43
  So, if that's the case, when were we going to deal with this regime?
• 23:47
  Would we wait till they released a bomb?
• 23:49
  Would we relate?
• 23:50
  I don't know.
• 23:51
  I'm just asking how how would how and let me rephrase hold on.
• 23:54
  And how would even the the Tuckers and the Megans and the others, because I don't follow them again?
• 24:00
  How would they even have any compassion?
• 24:02
  Would do we wait for them to do something and then say, Oh shit, we should have done something.
• 24:06
  What's the matter with us here?
• 24:07
  Where the hell is Trump when you need him?
• 24:08
  Or do we need some brazen guy on the national stage, take them down?
• 24:12
  I and I'm just playing devil's advocate.
• 24:14
  I'm not saying because I'm on kind of in the middle of this thing, frankly, but I'm wondering when were we gonna do anything?
• 24:20
  Did we need to do anything?
• 24:21
  Do I know I know this is a different conversation than the others have, but did we need to do anything?
• 24:26
  Could we have left well enough alone?
• 24:27
  Could we have let them go for another few years?
• 24:29
  Could we have stayed the hell out of there entirely and just mind our own damn business, which has been lovely?
• 24:34
  That's a hard thing I'm throwing at you here.
• 24:36
  Yeah, but I've been dying to ask you that.
• 24:38
  Yeah, how does all that compute on the stage here?
• 24:41
  Yeah, so I I can't speak for Megan or Tucker or any of them.
• 24:44
  I don't know.
• 24:45
  That mindset I'm talking about.
• 24:46
  You know what I mean?
• 24:47
  That mindset.
• 24:48
  Yeah, okay.
• 24:48
  But I can just speak for myself, and I can tell you I have an entire book outlining how we addressed or should have addressed the threat from Iran, and it was the Abraham Accords, and that was President Trump's crowning achievement.
• 25:01
  I think first term, the first term.
• 25:03
  Uh, that the way Jared Kushner and his buddy Avi explained it to me when I met with them in 2018 at the Capitol Hill Club.
• 25:11
  Uh, the way this discussion unfolded was the idea was they were going to create a framework in the Middle East in the form of the Abraham Accords that would not address the Palestinian-Israeli issue, leave that for another separate discussion.
• 25:26
  But the Abraham Accords were going to bring together Israeli and Arab Sunni power in a both a trade and a uh mutual security alliance that it, you know, they were saying they were loosely saying, like a NATO of the Middle East, not necessarily exactly that.
• 25:44
  But the idea was they were going to bring together the local American partners, the Sunni Arabs like Saudi Arabian and whatnot, and the Israelis in a much closer security and trade cordon.
• 25:55
  And together, those powers would be the basically the the containment powers for putting Iran back in the box that George W.
• 26:05
  Bush and Barack Obama let them get out of.
• 26:08
  Now that is not what has happened, because the whole point of the Abraham Accords, as Trump himself was saying in 2018, was to find a third way from surrendering to the mullahs or from going to war with the mullahs.
• 26:23
  It was to find a third way.
• 26:25
  And the president decided that was not on the table anymore.
• 26:30
  And that okay, fine, there's whatever.
• 26:32
  But I disagree with him on this.
• 26:34
  I think there was plenty of room to restore and enhance those accords.
• 26:38
  Um, I don't believe, I do believe they were developing weapons and nuclear weapons.
• 26:44
  I don't believe they were two weeks away from I don't know how many weeks or months they were away.
• 26:49
  I don't have a strong opinion on it, but I get it.
• 26:52
  I know, I know it was that two weeks away.
• 26:53
  Well, he gets so dramatic with everything he says, everything's dramatic, you know.
• 26:57
  Yeah, he does, but I do I do know some people involved who have been obsessed with the Iranian problem, and they have been saying for 40 years that they're two weeks away.
• 27:07
  So my point is my point is I I think that we had time to rehab the Abraham Accords and to grow them, and that we didn't need to wake up on February 28th and try to start right.
• 27:18
  Yeah, and and had he followed your advice from early in in March that you put out here, uh, he would have already pulled out, pulled it as I referenced something, pull his toys and go and go home kind of.
• 27:28
  Right, and the economic consequences would be mitigated.
• 27:31
  And it wouldn't be the way, and I want to talk about that in a second.
• 27:33
  And I like the way you said uh, and because I totally agreed with your claim victory, because you just did this, this, and this.
• 27:39
  So claim victory, and then get the hell out of Dodge and go back to doing what you're doing.
• 27:44
  I and I and I did appreciate the way you phrase that.
• 27:46
  You know, Brendan, um, uh, I don't know whether it was two weeks, two months, uh, 10 months again.
• 27:51
  Uh, in the same way, I do I don't know.
• 27:53
  Everybody has an opinion on that, and I hear all the opinions and I get it, but I I'm not in the room to know what the hell how many weeks or months they have left.
• 28:00
  So I'm not gonna be voicerous on that point and say it's got to be this or that or the other.
• 28:00
  So I'm not gonna be voicerous on that point and say it's got to be this or that or the other.
• 28:05
  But here's the thing.
• 28:05
  But here's the thing.
• 28:06
  Um, if um if we had not, uh uh, you know, I was surprised he did what he did as well.
• 28:06
  Um, if um if we had not, uh uh, you know, I was surprised he did what he did as well.
• 28:14
  I gotta tell you, when he actually uh attacked, I was uh I was shocked myself.
• 28:14
  I gotta tell you, when he actually uh attacked, I was uh I was shocked myself.
• 28:20
  Was you shocked?
• 28:20
  Was you shocked?
• 28:22
  Uh well, no, I was not shocked because as early as January 15th, I was getting input that he was he was wanting to I had people.
• 28:22
  Uh well, no, I was not shocked because as early as January 15th, I was getting input that he was he was wanting to I had people saying that too, but I still personally was shocked.
• 28:32
  Yeah, no, I was shocked that he committed the way he did.
• 28:35
  I thought he was gonna maybe do some bomb like he did with Syria in the first term.
• 28:39
  Okay, I'm gonna bomb this, and you know, and then we'll we'll be we'll call it.
• 28:42
  He went all in.
• 28:43
  He went all in all in, all in, which is unconditional surrender, as you say.
• 28:47
  That was a bit crazy.
• 28:48
  Odd for him, it's out of character for him.
• 28:50
  That was a little crazy.
• 28:51
  It was a little crazy, the unconditional.
• 28:53
  I get that.
• 28:53
  I mean, they're not going to come out on their knees, they're gonna blow themselves up first.
• 28:56
  I mean, when the hell is that?
• 28:57
  That's right.
• 28:57
  Well, and yeah, and look, they've had 47 years to prepare for this kind of attack.
• 29:00
  Yeah, yeah.
• 29:01
  And that's the worst.
• 29:02
  That's also one of the worst things, if I may, as a professional strategist.
• 29:06
  When you are doing something like this, yeah, you don't want to be predictable.
• 29:09
  You don't want to follow the that's what I said.
• 29:12
  That's what I said.
• 29:13
  Yeah, you're exactly right.
• 29:14
  I'm gonna agree with you because exactly what I said, he's too predictable at times.
• 29:17
  I know everybody thinks he's uncertain and playing 5D chess and all this.
• 29:21
  I do all this time.
• 29:22
  I get that.
• 29:22
  Yeah, uh, but he he is very um very verbose and uh in his conversations and that and I I guess that's his that's his chairman of the board mentality.
• 29:32
  But in the way, also the military, because our our options are so limited, Malcolm, with with this particular strategic problem.
• 29:41
  The military had only a handful of things they could reliably do from a military perspective.
• 29:46
  So the Iranians knew this, and that's why they they were ready and they've been able to go up the escalation ladder every time we've gone up, they've met us, and they keep doing that.
• 29:55
  And this is the so you're we're being predictable because we're hemmed in by our own limits of as a military power, and that's the worst possible way to be is to be predictable in a situation like this.
• 30:06
  Yeah, yeah.
• 30:06
  No, I I hear your loud.
• 30:08
  Even the counter blockade was predictable.
• 30:10
  The the Iranians are not surprised by any of this.
• 30:13
  Uh, I don't know if I agree with that.
• 30:15
  Uh I I think I think and I say that, no, not to be smart guy, but I say that because um they they have never seen uh well, okay.
• 30:23
  I take that back.
• 30:24
  They're the last blockade was similar to that.
• 30:25
  What year was that that was done?
• 30:27
  Uh uh eighty seven, I think.
• 30:30
  I just was reading up on it, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 30:32
  And there was success with that one.
• 30:33
  Uh, although that's also because Iran was weaker back then.
• 30:36
  Remember, we had losses though, too.
• 30:38
  We did have lots of things.
• 30:39
  We did, we did, absolutely.
• 30:40
  Yeah.
• 30:41
  So I I guess your point is taken there.
• 30:43
  I don't know whether they thought he would or not, but he kind of reversed the script on it because they were saying they were going to do all of that.
• 30:49
  Yeah, he did reverse the script.
• 30:50
  Unfortunately, though, the the impact is the same.
• 30:52
  It hurts us more than them at this point.
• 30:55
  Yep, yep, yeah, yeah.
• 30:56
  I hear you.
• 30:56
  All right.
• 30:57
  All right.
• 30:57
  So um uh all right.
• 30:59
  So we've got here, we've got here at a moment here, we've got the domestic politics we're gonna talk about here a little bit here.
• 31:05
  And then I'm still I like where we just went because you're helping me understand a little bit more uh of this um mindset.
• 31:13
  Uh, that you you feel they weren't ready to pull the lever, but we really don't know what we don't know, Brandon.
• 31:19
  I guess is what I'm saying.
• 31:20
  So I tried to give the bet the president the benefit of the doubt a bit here of being a supporter of policies and as a conservative as a constitutional conservative, the things that uh, you know, uh as a patriot and what I brag on, I I understand the here's the thing.
• 31:34
  I think the problem I want to talk to you about in the second part of the broadcast is this.
• 31:38
  You see, here's the problem, and and this is to everybody.
• 31:40
  Here's the problem that Trump has, we all have at this point.
• 31:44
  When you have a man of this caliber who has run as a non-interventionist who has run with no foreign wars, uh, you've heard that a million times in his rallies and what have you.
• 31:52
  He blamed and cursed out every other president before him who was engaged in this, that, and the other thing.
• 31:57
  That is a fact.
• 31:58
  That is a fact.
• 31:58
  Yeah, can't cannot change the stripes of that.
• 32:01
  We can still support a person to be critical of what they do for you who are giving me dropped eyes right now or something, you know.
• 32:07
  But it is the truth, it's a truth.
• 32:09
  And so um, so he, you know, that's all happened.
• 32:12
  And um uh the the president um has done that.
• 32:16
  Now, here's the thing.
• 32:17
  Here's the thing.
• 32:18
  Everybody, America first really got behind this leader.
• 32:21
  MAGA really got behind this leader.
• 32:22
  The Republican establishment really gave him full power to get in there.
• 32:26
  He was able to pick and choose Congress, the whole he didn't he got the whole waddle here, the whole step here.
• 32:31
  He I mean, he really did.
• 32:33
  And so now what happens is now all of a sudden, what really shocked me when we had this affordability thing, the Democrats ran, they've seen an open.
• 32:42
  I mean, these are the these are the biggest rats you could possibly have.
• 32:45
  So they and they're strategic rats.
• 32:48
  So they seen that and they jumped all over it, the affordability.
• 32:51
  Now they've blown up the energy prices, everything's sky high, inflation, everything else is gone.
• 32:55
  People can't afford homes, can't afford anything anymore.
• 32:57
  It's got really off.
• 32:58
  Can't afford it's gotten really out of hand.
• 33:00
  There's no doubt about it.
• 33:01
  I I see things all the time.
• 33:02
  People uh get after us uh email.
• 33:05
  We we know this network knows, and uh so we do all of that, Brendan, and and but but this president uh so he goes ahead, he starts talking Cuba, Greenland, Canada.
• 33:15
  And I thought to myself, now hold on, many.
• 33:17
  I thought to myself when that was happening, I thought, what the hell are you doing?
• 33:21
  Why are you pissing Canada off?
• 33:23
  What are we doing here with Cuba and Greenland?
• 33:25
  What is going on here?
• 33:27
  Uh the what about the price, the houses, the mortgage, the housing industry, the gas prices, the food prices, the uh you know, what about all the stuff that you ran on that people are expecting you to deliver on.
• 33:36
  I started thinking to myself that why are we messing with Canada, Greenland, Cuba, et cetera.
• 33:40
  And then Venezuela, I said, okay, Venezuela, and then he made the move for Venezuela.
• 33:45
  And I thought, OMG.
• 33:47
  I thought he something's happening here.
• 33:49
  Uh and that was another thing that did shock me, and all full confession.
• 33:53
  We heard we seen little things, but I didn't know he was gonna go for the for the gusto on that.
• 33:57
  And he did, he did.
• 33:58
  And then it went well.
• 34:00
  Now, if that had not gone well or something went wrong there, oh my golly, would we have a whole nother conversation now?
• 34:06
  And we this he would have lost Congress, he would have lost everything.
• 34:09
  If something went wrong, right?
• 34:10
  He he was when I say brazen and I said use your adjective of choice, I really mean that.
• 34:16
  I mean, he he's a character like you haven't seen on the world stage to this degree.
• 34:20
  So all that happens, and now what's happened is what I want to talk to you about in part B of this, and amongst other things is this uh what you said and your words, and this was strong, and I and I and I've been I what you said uh struck me because it's what I've been thinking, breathing and talking about over a period of time here.
• 34:42
  You said doing this now destroys Trump's domestic agenda.
• 34:47
  100% period.
• 34:49
  That's it.
• 34:49
  Those quotes from you from Brandon Marker.
• 34:51
  Now, when you think that way, and we put those words out there in that way, and then you think my fellow Americans with the midterm election coming in right now, uh this year, and you see if they take the Congress back, you've just cut he's cut himself right off at the knees.
• 35:00
  Uh this year, and you see if they take the Congress back, you've just cut he's cut himself right off at the knees.
• 35:08
  He will now have that's it.
• 35:08
  He will now have that's it.
• 35:09
  His administration is cut right down.
• 35:09
  His administration is cut right down, yeah.
• 35:11
  It's all over.
• 35:11
  It's all over.
• 35:12
  And they'll they'll waltz right into get because these people are the biggest strategy driven minded people on the planet, the radical left, progressive radical left that owns the Democrat Party now, and they will work themselves now to take 2028, and then we are we're screwed.
• 35:12
  And they'll they'll waltz right into get because these people are the biggest strategy driven minded people on the planet, the radical left, progressive radical left that owns the Democrat Party now, and they will work themselves now to take 2028, and then we are we're screwed.
• 35:30
  We're we're in trouble.
• 35:31
  Well, we got to come back to that.
• 35:33
  But I want to tell people now, Brandon, about you a bit here.
• 35:35
  I want to just brag a little bit on this.
• 35:37
  Yeah, so win in space.
• 35:38
  You got to I went so if you go to America Outloud.news, go up to authors and host, and then go toward the bottom.
• 35:46
  It's all alphabetical and look for Brandon Whitegird right there, W E I C H E R T E C W W.
• 35:52
  Uh Brandon White, you drop right down, get Brandon.
• 35:54
  Go to his page, see his bio, see everything going on here.
• 35:56
  Okay.
• 35:57
  And then uh see, we gotta update your thing from the NSE to the uh uh what you've got to get that updated here.
• 36:04
  All right, we got win in space.
• 36:06
  Um, that's it.
• 36:06
  When did you write that book, roughly?
• 36:08
  Uh well, that one I finished the manuscript in 2019 and it was published September 2020.
• 36:13
  Awesome.
• 36:14
  Okay.
• 36:14
  Oh, that is that is some the one I mentioned are a biohat, China's Race to Control Live, and then the Shadow War, right?
• 36:22
  Iran's quest for supremacy, and then the book on Ukraine is a disaster of our own making, how the West lost Ukraine.
• 36:29
  Yeah, yep, yep.
• 36:30
  Okay, all right, cool, cool.
• 36:31
  So those books will be all there, and you can support to get some of those books, please.
• 36:36
  And see the thing is with Brandon is he's a thinker, he's a thinker, so he doesn't just throw stuff like a lot of these cats.
• 36:43
  Uh, they just throw stuff out to get a like or a follow.
• 36:47
  That's what it is.
• 36:48
  Uh, he doesn't necessarily play that way, but he plays in the I'm not an influencer.
• 36:53
  That's right.
• 36:53
  That's right.
• 36:54
  He plays in an honorable fashion.
• 36:55
  He plays in a from an honorable standpoint, and a strategist is the word you used a little bit ago.
• 37:00
  And I would agree with that.
• 37:01
  You're a strategist, uh, in the way, and a good analyst at that point.
• 37:04
  Um, now again, I I get him on viewpoint often enough because I just love to have his feedback and I love to bounce stuff off of him to see what's really going on and in his his his thinking because he represents a good a good part now of where where the division is in the uh in the Republican establishment, frankly.
• 37:20
  I wish there wasn't a division, isn't it?
• 37:23
  Exactly.
• 37:23
  100%, 100%.
• 37:24
  Yep, yeah.
• 37:25
  So that's all there as well.
• 37:26
  I want you to take a look at him and support him uh because he he deserves it.
• 37:30
  He deserves to be supported.
• 37:31
  Uh so I gotta say that here, and the books and everything else he's doing here.
• 37:34
  Uh, his show again, I could not be prouder to say that he's on the national security hour.
• 37:39
  And uh that show is kick-ass fantastic.
• 37:41
  I tell you all the time, and I'm gonna tell you again uh because you get all kinds of perspectives every day of the week, 8 p.m.
• 37:46
  Eastern time, but you got military and intel experts, uh, but you get all kinds of uh different thoughts and opinions from people who know stuff.
• 37:54
  Yeah, they know stuff, and you get a good perspective, and it helps us fill the the the cobwebs in on our own minds a little bit to see what are they thinking, how do they know?
• 38:03
  That's 8 p.m.
• 38:04
  Eastern time on iHeart Radio on the America Out Loud Talk Radio Network, and they all go to podcast the following day, by the way.
• 38:11
  On that point, we don't go outside of the show here uh on Project Out Loud, but I do want to mention the shop to you because that's uh that's how we uh do business, and well, that's how we how do we say uh we're a wholesome uh uh um a wholesome network of of interesting people and America Outloud.shop will keep your immune system system wholesome as well.
• 38:33
  I guess that's the connection or something like that.
• 38:36
  But America Rot Loud.shop, use the code out loud in there.
• 38:40
  These are our strategic partners, and they are kick-ass fantastic.
• 38:44
  Um, and I will mention some of the great products from the wellness company that we have a terrific relationship with.
• 38:49
  In fact, I have at the top there of America Out Loud.shop when you go into the page of the wellness company, stay out loud and healthy in the new year.
• 38:56
  I take the ultra NAC, my wife and I do every day, D and I do magnesium complex, the natural immunity, the vitamin D3 and K2, because these are must-haves, and so we take those every day, but they have an incredible product line.
• 39:09
  I've been talking to them lately about doing some special bundles and things uh for us all to stay healthy.
• 39:14
  But the the secret to the shop is out loud, we'll get you the discount.
• 39:17
  And so I highly recommend you take a look at that and see.
• 39:20
  There's also the beer bars in there, the best thing going because that not beer, your drink, but the beer bars, the beer is in the beer, B-E-A-R.
• 39:28
  And uh, but they're made with six natural ingredients, not made with all the crap.
• 39:32
  You can't buy these in a grocery store specifically.
• 39:34
  Well, uh, actually, they do have them on the west coast in the grocery store because they're out of San Diego.
• 39:38
  So I shouldn't say that, but in most places they're not.
• 39:41
  But I'm talking about that gooey crappy stuff with all the uh 20 25 syllable, uh, 25 syllable ingredients you can't pronounce, and you don't want to put that in your body.
• 39:49
  That's stuff that you do because you're hungry, and you go grab one of those things, we're stuff going for you.
• 39:53
  Cancer causing diabetes, cholesterol issues.
• 39:55
  I'm telling you, garbage.
• 39:57
  Watch the ingredients and everything you're eating today.
• 40:00
  RFK Jr.
• 40:00
  is right in that regard, and uh he may be wrong on some other things, but he's right in that regard, and so I'm just saying, and so you want to take the beer bar, and they're very inexpensive and they're phenomenal.
• 40:10
  And by the way, they're great with a glass of wine, by the way, or a little bit of bourbon for happy hour as well.
• 40:14
  Nothing wrong with that either.
• 40:15
  People laugh when I say that, but it is true.
• 40:18
  It is true, it's all healthy.
• 40:21
  It's all everything in moderation, my friend.
• 40:23
  Everything in moderation, right?
• 40:24
  Uh so it's okay.
• 40:26
  You just can't abuse that stuff, but it's okay.
• 40:28
  But anyways, take a look at that as well.
• 40:29
  And there's other cool stuff there, but I'll leave it there.
• 40:31
  Take a look at that on AmericaOut Loud.shop as well.
• 40:35
  Now back to the program here.
• 40:36
  Brandon Whitegird is here.
• 40:37
  Of course, we're um talking a little bit about strategy here and and this year.
• 40:41
  So here's here's where I want to go now.
• 40:43
  Um, so this uh all right.
• 40:47
  Yeah, there's some interesting things too with the polls.
• 40:49
  Um I we got a lot to talk about here.
• 40:51
  Let me first talk about the domestic agenda here.
• 40:53
  All right.
• 40:55
  So everybody here here.
• 40:56
  What here's here's the dilemma we're in.
• 40:58
  When Brandon says doing this now destroys Trump's domestic agenda.
• 41:01
  Okay, his focus has been so much on all of these uh foreign conflicts and things, both in this hemisphere and worldwide.
• 41:09
  And granted, he's trying to create this legacy agenda of his.
• 41:13
  I get, I mean, he's changing the world, I get all of that, but he's taken us with him as well, by the way, whether you like it or not.
• 41:20
  And there is risk involved with some of these things as well.
• 41:23
  Now, some of these things could turn out fantastic.
• 41:25
  I mean, it could be he could become like the greatest thing since we've ever seen in the world.
• 41:30
  If everything came down like a bing and a bing, if you could start landing, Brandon.
• 41:34
  Let me say this if he could start landing some of these planes he has uh on the on the at the airport and get back to domestic politics and the economy, we'd probably have a good shot.
• 41:45
  Uh what's our chances right now coming into uh this whole uh atmosphere of the midterm elections?
• 41:52
  First of all, we see before I go there, though, hold on.
• 41:54
  I'm doing this.
• 41:55
  I gotta there's one thing we got to put before that, Brandon.
• 41:58
  Right now, we see the negotiations are still out in Pakistan.
• 42:00
  In Pakistan, as you're listening to this, this will change, could change any time.
• 42:00
  As you're listening to this, this will change, could change any time.
• 42:04
  So, but as you see things are popping and happening, we don't know.
• 42:04
  So, but as you see things are popping and happening, we don't know, but uh there could be a deal, there could be a deal imminent.
• 42:07
  But there could be a deal, there could be a deal imminent.
• 42:10
  Is that correct?
• 42:10
  Is that correct?
• 42:11
  That's my hope.
• 42:11
  That's my hope.
• 42:12
  Uh, he, you know, the president has sent Whitkoff and Kushner.
• 42:12
  Uh, he, you know, the president has sent Whitkoff and Kushner.
• 42:16
  Uh, the Iranians are there waiting.
• 42:16
  Uh, the Iranians are there waiting.
• 42:18
  Uh, I noticed they didn't send the vice president.
• 42:18
  Uh, I noticed they didn't send the vice president, uh, which tells which tells me they might be getting a deal because I'm convinced that for the longest time Trump has been trying to sabotage J D because he doesn't want J.
• 42:20
  Uh, which tells which tells me they might be getting a deal because I'm convinced that for the longest time Trump has been trying to sabotage JD because he doesn't want JD as the successor.
• 42:31
  Yeah, why why do you stop there a minute here?
• 42:34
  Uh if that's true, and I don't know if it is or isn't why is that?
• 42:37
  Do you think, please?
• 42:38
  You haven't do you have any conclusions or ideas as to why that is?
• 42:41
  I think it has something to do with J D Vance's previous comments 10 years ago, in which he called Trump Hitler.
• 42:48
  I know he's walked it back, but he knew that when he hired the guy.
• 42:52
  I mean, yeah, but but also Trump did not want JD initially.
• 42:56
  Uh he didn't.
• 42:57
  Uh the sons were had great relationships.
• 42:59
  The the sons, but more importantly, Trump wanted Peter Thiel's money and he wanted Elon Musk, and he won at the time, he wanted the tech bros on his side, and that was one of the the deals he cut was to ensure that they had a stake in his political future, Trump's political future.
• 43:17
  He had to give them a stake in the political future.
• 43:19
  That's fair.
• 43:20
  That's fair.
• 43:20
  That's fair.
• 43:21
  All right.
• 43:21
  But but Trump doesn't like JD because JD has always been opposed to foreign wars.
• 43:26
  Yeah, he he gets the sense that JD is not fully on board.
• 43:30
  You know, Trump doesn't like that.
• 43:31
  He wants everybody going in the same direction.
• 43:33
  And as you know, J D Vance is very uh very careful with the words he uses.
• 43:38
  You notice that in public space, very careful not to step on Trump.
• 43:42
  He's weak.
• 43:42
  He comes across as weak.
• 43:43
  People wanted him to, you know, respectfully not fighting.
• 43:47
  Well, but if he get but he knows if he gets at war with the president, he's done.
• 43:51
  Hey, look, he's gonna catch 22.
• 43:52
  It's it is a bitch, isn't it?
• 43:54
  Either way, he's done now.
• 43:55
  You gotta be careful what you wish for, you know what I mean?
• 43:58
  That's right.
• 43:58
  So you would have been better off staying in the Senate.
• 44:00
  You don't think his chances of being uh 28 president are good then?
• 44:04
  Oh, I think it's zero at this point.
• 44:06
  Really?
• 44:06
  I think it's zero for any Republican.
• 44:08
  I think the Democrats have this thing locked up.
• 44:10
  Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.
• 44:12
  Happy to be proven wrong on that, but uh I hope so.
• 44:15
  I have a feeling it's gonna be newsome and spanberger in 28.
• 44:18
  Oh my golly, miss Molly, dear.
• 44:20
  Let's all say a prayer.
• 44:21
  Everybody close your eyes, please and pray.
• 44:24
  Oh man, oh man, you're gonna be kidding me.
• 44:27
  Now, there we've gone to socialist progressive.
• 44:30
  That's a turn, that's a sharp U-turn.
• 44:32
  I don't ever want to make well.
• 44:33
  The 2016 revolution on the right was our last chance to stop it, and because of this war and because of COVID to some degree before, um, the revolution has been, you know, it's been killed.
• 44:45
  And you have an interesting point.
• 44:46
  Interesting point.
• 44:47
  Anyone who's listening and understands what's happened, understand.
• 44:50
  We don't even need to explain the nuances.
• 44:52
  You gotta understand, you know what uh Brandon is saying here with all that.
• 44:56
  It's accurate, you know.
• 44:57
  You can't argue it more or less.
• 44:59
  All right, so but so let's now say that a deal is intermittent uh this intermittent deal is gonna happen.
• 45:06
  Uh uh, whatever, whatever it is, and and something happens on this thing, and then in the next days, uh, whatever it is, I don't know, Brandon.
• 45:13
  In the next days, next weeks, although I'm not sure.
• 45:15
  Well, I'm not convinced either, by the way, that we're definitely getting a deal.
• 45:19
  I don't even know.
• 45:20
  Well, why is Iran going to even do that at this point?
• 45:22
  I mean, well, they need the money, they need the straight open to get that.
• 45:26
  If you're Iran, you've just stood up to the sole remaining superpower in the world, and you survived, and the whole world knows it.
• 45:35
  And not only have you survived, but you are on track one way or the other to help transition, uh, lead the transition away from the sole dominance of the US into some multipolar world.
• 45:48
  Are you speaking about the fact when you say what you just say?
• 45:52
  And uh, are you speaking about the fact that because he's asked for um uh unconditional surrender and get on your knees kind of thing, yeah, and he wants uh that that is a win for Iran because he's been 100%.
• 46:04
  That's what you believe.
• 46:05
  That's what I'm guessing.
• 46:05
  Because 100%.
• 46:07
  Because certainly, listen, the the Iranians only had to achieve one thing, okay, and that was regime survival.
• 46:13
  That's exactly done that.
• 46:14
  We had five or six things we wanted to do at any given time.
• 46:17
  We haven't really done any of them except for maybe getting rid of their navy, right?
• 46:21
  So you have all that over here, and I'm not gonna debate that because it's accurate information, but let me still now point out these other things, as you have pointed out as well.
• 46:30
  I mean, not only have they killed the upper echelon of the that corrupt regime, and then the other and then the next level.
• 46:36
  I mean, a lot of people have been taken out of that thing.
• 46:38
  You've got a lot of people now that don't know what's going on, they don't know left from right there.
• 46:42
  They're they're they're totally disembobulated there in Iran.
• 46:45
  Uh, how close would we ever be back to this idea of getting you don't believe there's any way to get the radical uh core cancer out of there?
• 46:53
  That's not possible, is it?
• 46:54
  The only people who can get rid of the radical core cancer are the Iranian people around the Iranian people.
• 46:59
  It can't, there's no we can't bomb them into democracy.
• 47:02
  We can't, in fact, you know.
• 47:03
  I I this is one of the reasons I was so upset.
• 47:06
  One of the reasons I was so upset with the president is because I actually think that had we never militarily interfered in what was going on on the ground in Iran the last four months.
• 47:16
  I think the revolution might have actually succeeded in overthrowing the the the Iranian regime.
• 47:22
  But because we got involved and we started doing covert assistance with Starlink and whatnot, I think that all allowed for the Iranian regime to crack down as never before, and they were able to target the heads of this of these.
• 47:35
  You think it spooked spooked the leadership?
• 47:37
  Oh, it's it yeah, it completely allowed for them to go after the revolution.
• 47:42
  And they went in the streets and murdered, murdered tens of thousands of people.
• 47:44
  30,000, 20,000, whatever.
• 47:46
  Well, they say 3040, but I had an expert from Iran on oh several weeks ago that said I got news for you.
• 47:51
  You said that real number is upwards of 140,000.
• 47:54
  Well, whatever the actual number is.
• 47:56
  The point is that the regime was allowed to go off the chain.
• 48:00
  They had an excuse now to get rid of all their domestic enemies, and they pretty much did.
• 48:04
  And now, because of how the bombardment of Tehran in particular, we blew up hospitals, whether intentionally or not.
• 48:11
  And I say we I include the Israeli.
• 48:13
  I'm saying we as in U.S.
• 48:14
  we did things that hurt the civilian infrastructure.
• 48:17
  There's now a rally around the flag going on.
• 48:20
  Well, well, and and and then this whole thing where he threatened them the bridges and the dams and the yeah, I mean, that was you know, and annihilating the civilization.
• 48:27
  I mean, this this is the stuff of this is why I say Mad King.
• 48:30
  This is the stuff of lunacy, even if it is just him having fun on Twitter.
• 48:34
  He's not he's not the apprentice, you know, anymore.
• 48:37
  He's the president, and he can't say stuff like that.
• 48:40
  This is the problem front.
• 48:41
  I'm laughing in disgust, really.
• 48:43
  But this is the problem, and so it's so out of it's like an out-of-body experience.
• 48:48
  Like, because you're you're like you don't see world leaders talk in that tone, do you?
• 48:53
  You don't you just don't when you do no, you do you the Iranian Ayatollahs used to talk like that, and we used to say we have a lot of people.
• 48:59
  I don't consider them overly world leader, but I don't know.
• 49:02
  When they're when people do talk like that, we say they're crazy and they have to get out of here.
• 49:02
  When people do talk like that, we say they're crazy and they have to get out of here.
• 49:05
  Exactly.
• 49:05
  Exactly.
• 49:06
  Exactly.
• 49:06
  Exactly.
• 49:06
  Uh, you know, I didn't, I never thought the president would be talking like this, especially this president, because I've always thought you know he wanted to de-escalate the problems.
• 49:06
  Uh, you know, I didn't, I never thought the president would be talking like this, especially this president, because I've always thought you know he wanted to de-escalate the problems.
• 49:14
  I'll just say this also.
• 49:14
  I'll just say this also.
• 49:15
  Um, the the you know, President Trump, when he said that, he didn't realize, I don't think that the Persian civilization is 2500 plus years old.
• 49:15
  Um, the the you know, President Trump, when he said that, he didn't realize, I don't think that the Persian civilization is 2500 plus years old.
• 49:24
  So you are now telling the people of Persia who did don't like the regime.
• 49:24
  So you are now telling the people of Persia who did don't like the regime, the regime.
• 49:29
  The regime is not popular, but you're telling them we're coming to kill everybody.
• 49:33
  But what about the what about okay?
• 49:35
  All right, what about the others, though?
• 49:36
  There, I have also to uh go back on the reports you said you've been hearing this.
• 49:41
  Okay, but there also are plenty of reports where people are ready for that change.
• 49:45
  There was still that uprising there that has happened now.
• 49:48
  Many of them are afraid.
• 49:49
  Well, many of them are afraid to come out their front doors, however, to get their heads blown off.
• 49:53
  So we've scared the hell out of people.
• 49:55
  That's the point I'm making.
• 49:56
  Is that we've we've negated the natural organization.
• 50:00
  That worries me.
• 50:00
  That works.
• 50:01
  Just remember, you're you're you're old enough to remember this.
• 50:03
  This collapse of the Soviet Union.
• 50:05
  I was a kid, but you you were there, you lived that that moment.
• 50:09
  Well, I was I was a young young person, by the way.
• 50:11
  Yeah, I know, right.
• 50:12
  No, I know, but I remember Mr.
• 50:14
  Gorbachev teared down this wall.
• 50:16
  But my my point is is that we didn't have one US troop helping to get rid of the regime in Moscow.
• 50:24
  We we just contained it long enough for the internal contradictions to write it down.
• 50:29
  I know, I know.
• 50:29
  All right, so time we have.
• 50:30
  Let's talk about I want to get this to some interesting sound bites here about um uh uh you know, best case, worst case, Brandon.
• 50:38
  Uh, where we are, and I I know you're you're a little pessimistic about the couple of the elections coming up.
• 50:44
  I'm gonna I'm gonna hope you eat one of the mornings soon, you'll get up and have a different happy to eat crow.
• 50:49
  Happy to eat uh not the crow.
• 50:52
  I want you to have a different bowl of cornflakes and come back and tell me differently.
• 50:55
  I'm praying for that point.
• 50:57
  I don't think RFK likes cornflakes.
• 50:59
  I know, I know, I know, but just have a different conversation as I said, you know, Malcolm, we got so how could so let's do this.
• 51:05
  Let's just take let's just step back a minute here, okay?
• 51:08
  Yeah, how could how could we make lemon?
• 51:12
  How could Trump make lemonade?
• 51:13
  Seriously, one, two, three.
• 51:15
  Help let's you and I draw a plan.
• 51:17
  How could we make some lemonade here?
• 51:19
  How could Trump do it right now?
• 51:21
  He's got to end the war tomorrow.
• 51:22
  He's got to end the war now.
• 51:23
  Like we we should have ended the war a month ago.
• 51:25
  He's got to end it now, and he's got to declare victory because he got it.
• 51:29
  Um, and then what he needs to do is pivot, forget about Cuba right now, forget about all the other stuff right now.
• 51:36
  He's got to figure out the president has got to figure out how he's going to get oil the price of energy at the pump down.
• 51:42
  He's got to figure out how he's going to get the affordability crisis down.
• 51:46
  Uh, he's got to figure that out, and that he's got to do it in like the next 90 days.
• 51:50
  And by the way, even then, that's not a guarantee because the problem is with the urea being shut down this long out of the Strait of Hormuz with the fertilizer crisis with the the semiconductor crisis, because they rely on helium to make semiconductors, which are computer chips, all of that has been blocked up for so long that it is now baked into the cake.
• 52:09
  And in the next three to five months, even if we end the war tomorrow, he's gonna be seeing shortages in these critical areas.
• 52:15
  So it's not a guarantee, but not a guarantee.
• 52:18
  But if he doesn't end it now, it's impossible to recover from this before the midterms.
• 52:22
  So, what Brandon is saying right now is is is a is a fantastic uh uh analysis uh to really bring this conversation to a head because it's absolutely correct, and I can feel it in every every part of my body.
• 52:37
  That's this is uh I'm telling you, if he doesn't do what Brandon is outlined right now, because I affirm to believe that is the correct path right now.
• 52:45
  He has and I've said to my wife, I've said to people in my network, others around here, he has got to put if he puts every ounce of energy into the the domestic affairs, and I've said this to you all the I've said just listen, I've said off you you've heard me say this.
• 53:00
  He's gonna have to put every ounce of energy into domestic politics, he's gonna have to put them into that economy.
• 53:06
  It's all about the economy.
• 53:07
  That is the singular thing.
• 53:09
  He's already got victories everywhere.
• 53:11
  He can rest on foreign stuff.
• 53:12
  He's got that stuff already.
• 53:13
  He's got the Bonduro in jail, the Venezuela thing, he's got the energy, he's been fighting if those energy prices can drop dramatically and it can get things people feeling like oh crap, they're okay.
• 53:23
  We got something happening.
• 53:24
  New Fed share comes in, maybe the interest rates come down a little bit, maybe some other things I'm saying, oh, we can breathe again a little bit here.
• 53:30
  Maybe some food prices are a little bit less.
• 53:32
  If some of that in 90 days is an interesting period of time, but let me see.
• 53:37
  You're right on it.
• 53:38
  Uh, even 120 days, July, August, you're that's it.
• 53:41
  That's it.
• 53:41
  You've got to start moving.
• 53:43
  I just I just want to say something though.
• 53:44
  What concerns me, and I'm no fan of Jerome Powell, but what concerns me is the way that oil has been stopped up for so long with the Strait of Hormuz being closed.
• 53:54
  That already, you're I mean, JP Morgan is already assessing that by June we're gonna have 4.5% interest rates minimum.
• 54:00
  And Eric Bowling told me uh last week that he thinks it's gonna be closer to seven percent interest rate, uh, inflation rate, inflation rate.
• 54:07
  Um, if you lower interest rates during a high inflationary environment, you're gonna create stagflation.
• 54:12
  That's right, you're gonna get the 1970s.
• 54:14
  So Warsh coming in, the new Fed chairman, he wants to no matter what, cut those rates.
• 54:18
  So this could actually backfire on this is why this is such a dangerous predicament.
• 54:23
  Well, maybe, but I gotta believe in hope and pray.
• 54:25
  There's enough smart guys in the room there, so that's not going to happen.
• 54:29
  Just right with what you say is accurate, but let's just pray there's enough smart people.
• 54:32
  One thing Trump is is a good economic guy.
• 54:35
  I do believe I used to think that, but I'm sometimes worried when I look at how he stopped up the straight.
• 54:41
  That's the one thing you never do is you don't do anything to block a well.
• 54:45
  I'm gonna tell you why all the gloves were off with him, because he's seen a nuclear bomb in his brain and his mind and a nuclear attack, and he's seen these people as the worst possible thing on the planet earth, and he decided it was time to get those bastards out there.
• 54:59
  I get that and and you know, I I just disagree with him, and I think we're gonna pay the price for it.
• 55:04
  I will just say, even if this thing goes off exactly like Trump thinks where he could end this thing quickly, and yeah, remember George H.W.
• 55:11
  Bush had one of the cleanest victories in war, yeah, in in the modern history of America, and he still lost to the upstart Bill Clinton because he wasn't paying attention to the economy, right?
• 55:21
  But he this is the problem.
• 55:22
  He had the whole thing, I know he was a doofus.
• 55:24
  Um, I'm not a fan of it.
• 55:26
  I understand that, but my point is is that he had a real he had two victories, right?
• 55:30
  He presided over the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he presided over the victory over the world.
• 55:33
  He didn't get credit for that, though.
• 55:34
  Reagan got credit for those.
• 55:36
  I know that, but I'm just saying that the American people didn't care at the end of the day, they wanted the economy, and this is the economy.
• 55:43
  No, you're right, you're right, you're right.
• 55:44
  It's it it it really was all about that, and that's what he lost it on with the taxes and all of the comments he made, and it was too much.
• 55:51
  Yeah, it all comes back to the economy stupid.
• 55:53
  Yeah, it does, it really does.
• 55:55
  And and the Democrats have an inherent advantage now, and I don't think they're gonna be better for the economy.
• 56:00
  Better for the economy.
• 56:01
  But but I I think I think they have an inherent advantage because now they can say, hey, we haven't been in charge, and it's gotten worse.
• 56:01
  But but I I think I think they have an inherent advantage because now they can say, hey, we haven't been in charge, and it's gotten worse.
• 56:08
  And in fact, the Democrats, let me tell you something.
• 56:08
  And in fact, the Democrats, let me tell you something.
• 56:10
  Your audience, the Democrats have been quiet for the last two years, really.
• 56:10
  Your audience, the Democrats have been quiet for the last two years, really.
• 56:14
  Well, they haven't had anything to run on.
• 56:14
  Well, they haven't had anything to run on.
• 56:16
  No, no, no.
• 56:16
  No, no, no.
• 56:16
  That's I disagree.
• 56:16
  That's I disagree.
• 56:17
  I've been you have to understand.
• 56:17
  I've been you have to understand.
• 56:18
  I know a lot of democrat, very powerful Democrats.
• 56:18
  I know a lot of them, very powerful Democrats, and what they're doing.
• 56:20
  And what they're doing.
• 56:21
  They'll say that the next time.
• 56:22
  Okay.
• 56:22
  Okay.
• 56:23
  What they're telling me is that they've got a plan.
• 56:23
  What they're telling me is that they've got a plan as soon as they get power, it's gonna be very nasty for us.
• 56:25
  As soon as they get power, it's gonna be very nasty for us.
• 56:28
  Yeah, well, you see, the
• 56:28
  Yeah.
• 56:29
  Well, you see, the thing I like here and with Brandon is he makes you think, doesn't it?
• 56:34
  Right?
• 56:34
  It makes you think.
• 56:35
  And it's better to make you think than to just everybody agree with everything.
• 56:39
  That's boring as hell, friends.
• 56:41
  So I mean, I know some of you out there uh feel that way.
• 56:43
  You always go to people that think the way you think.
• 56:45
  Uh-uh.
• 56:45
  It's not the way to do it, man.
• 56:47
  Bring everybody into the conversation, have a real conversation.
• 56:49
  That's always better.
• 56:50
  Hey, thank you for joining us on the mission here.
• 56:52
  It's time to get involved and get loud.
• 56:56
  America.