Breaking News from Pod Save America - New Report: Trump Plans for Massive Strikes Against Iran

Episode Date: August 1, 2026

Breaking reports say Trump is preparing a major new military escalation against Iran, while Candace Owens pushes a bizarre new conspiracy. Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor break down the latest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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President Trump has ordered a fresh attack on Iran aimed at getting Tehran to surrender that could begin as soon as this weekend and would last a few days. U.S. officials said. CBS News reported that the U.S. and Israel are planning, quote, one of the harshest bombing campaigns to date against energy infrastructure targets in Iran. CBS also says that, quote, there were high-level U.S. discussions on Friday about cutting electricity across Tehran, but no decisions have been made as a Friday afternoon. I guess we're back at war, although not mentioned in the reporting

is how this is going to be any different than the last time we went to war with Iran. Yeah, this should do it. Yeah, just bomb them again. I guess we've, because we've already annihilated them, now we're just going to annihilate them harder. Right. I guess by depriving just thousands and thousands

of civilians of power and electricity, maybe that will force the regime that doesn't treat them well to surrender. Is that what we're guessing? Yeah, cutting electricity would be a war crime. It would kill lots of people because imagine you're in a hospital ICU or you're on a respirator or you're a baby in a NICU. And then all of a sudden the power is cut to the infrastructure keeping you alive. You're now dead.

So that would be the impact of that. I just don't understand. And then did you see that they were going to, he hadn't made a decision yet because he originally didn't want to time it for, he wanted to do it before the markets. Right. He didn't want the markets to. They said they might end it before the markets. closed. So I don't think you can bomb your way to victory over the weekends. You can't just like work a couple weekends. This isn't like a yeah, it's really tough because

we can only go to war when the markets are closed. Also it's the high in Tehran today was 93 degrees. Jesus Christ. In southern Iran, it's a high of 108 degrees. So if we really are cutting off electricity, people are just going to die of heat exposure. Anyway, John, here's President Trump sharing some of his military expertise at the cabinet meeting he held on Friday. Let's watch that. And they were shot at Jordan. And our guys were there. Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing, Big Big Big Bang, Bing.

I don't want to be Biden. That would have been a great sound by then. There were five missiles. And we shot all five there before they got close. I've watched this clip a few times. He doesn't want to be like Biden. What was he talking about? Was it the Bing, Bing, Bing.

I think he was trying to say maybe he didn't do enough bings. If he did four bings and then he said five missiles. Okay, because he's the one who's done bings a million times before. He loves doing bing, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Yeah, he is independently looking like an idiot by saying bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. It's like, that would have been a great sound bite. You know what? You did it. You achieved the sound bite.

Yeah, congrats. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. That's war to him. Great. Yeah, it's all just a joke. It's just, you know, just making sounds, playing war games, going to bomb the hell out of them. they're going to hit back at us, then we're going to keep bombing them. One of these days, one of these days they'll surrender.

And at that cabinet meeting, it started with Pete Hagsath being like, sir, you were so courageous to do this, sir, and just like kissing his ass or two and I've been in anyway. Meanwhile, oil's just going to skyrocket again and gas prices will be high forever. Wonderful. Other breaking news, Tommy, what do we got? On Friday afternoon, huge fuck up from the Trump administration that they have now openly admitted. Justice Department seeks to dismiss Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn. The Trump administration has acknowledged, Janine Piro has acknowledged, in a court document. Damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in June 2026 was the result of flawed installation by the contractor.

The filing says, who would have guessed? It was not until after these documents were produced that the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. first became aware of information showing that the damage was the result. of a botched insulation and not vandalism, as initially represented by the Department of the Interior. So the whole thing is just throwing the Department of Interior under the bus. But then, per the court filings also, a park service engineer sent an alert warning of peeling in the reflecting pool

eight days before David Hearn was seen and arrested near the pool. So they knew they had documentation that proved that it was a botched insulation that did it, and yet they went and arrested this fucking guy anyway. I hope David Hearn sues the shit out of them. And I hope there's a long discovery process and all the internal emails and messages and memos come out about this. And it's humiliating because these guys were obviously lying. Reporters were down at the reflecting pool watching this stuff lift up and float away. And then they just arrest this random senior citizen.

Gene Piro was lying. Trump was lying. Trump was lying. Doug Bergeny Piro like gave this whole, remember the whole press conference? And now she's just admitting in court that they like, it's like a massive, massive fuck up. They also hit Trump's aggressive timeline. from the Justice Department in the filing. The rush to complete the project

led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed. Wow, Todd Blanche. That's not going to go over well. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's... Who was Trump going to kill when he read this?

That's what I want to know. Is it Blanche? Is it Blondie? Because when he gets asked about this, he's going to flip out. Because remember his thing was like, oh, someone kind of 200 gashed and 300-foot gashed and a 400-foot gashed.

Like, he just kept making the story worse. He's going to want to fire someone. Oh, he's going to kill him. somebody. Yeah, somewhat a DOI. Some of the head of the park service, maybe Doug, Doug Bergam. He's pretty rich, so. Yeah, Doug will be fine. That's great. Hopefully there'll be seen accountability there. Speaking of accountability in D.C., let's talk about TMZ. When the news broke that

TMZ was going to D.C., my hope was that it would make members of Congress genuinely nervous that there was a new kid on the block who was gunned for them and going to, like, really go after malfeasance. In Hollywood, If you're a celebrity and you do something wrong, like you're worried about TMZ. They're also really good at, you know, scoops, like celebrity deaths. They have like Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston. The list goes on and on, right? So you could imagine TMZ going to Washington and really shaking shit up.

Let's check in and see how the TMZ and DC project is going so far. Hey, John, a lot of people been saying that you've got BDE. You know BDE. A lot of people being saying, like you walk with confidence. You carry yourself. Only an Aussie. Would ask me that. Right.

You doing okay? I'm doing very good. Thank you very much there. Good to see you too, buddy. Good to see you. Got you around. You too. Okay.

Not quite how I expected. Okay, look, I do want to say, I'm not trying to be a dick to the reporter there. There's nothing wrong with that question. It's actually good to ask politicians questions that are weird and quirky and funny and, like, get them off their talking points. I just also want to see the other side of TMZ, which is I want a recording of a member of Congress berating their staff or acting like a creep at the bottom.

bar or accepting a bribe or like what you know like there's all these sting operations happening by project veritas and stuff like how it's some of that stuff there's a rehab facility somewhere in kentucky yes where Mitch mccanel is go there go there you know that was the same guy did you notice that did you see the clip of when that TMZ guy found osoph in the airport parking garage and started talking because that guy's Australian which is what also was saying and oshoff's mom was australian also have dual citizenship at one point to Australia. And so he was asking him like, what's your favorite thing about Australia, blah, blah? And Asop was like being really nice and trying to talk to him, but he's getting all these

personal questions about his life. And then finally he like locks in, Asoff locks in and just like this, I have a message for Trump about the Iran war. We're just like so on message. Yeah, no, because the reporter asked him about, um, Trump called you peewee Herman or whatever. Right, right, right, right. But he got pee Wee Herman. Pinky Herman.

Pinky Herman. Pinky Herman. Yeah. And then, and then Osoph was perfectly on message. And so this guy like finds him again. And he's like, oh, what about your dick? Which, you got a big dick? Which is in Italy, very funny. It is very funny. And he got a funny reaction.

And it went viral, and we're talking about it. So in some sense, he succeeded. But I want the other side of TMZ. Go. I want, like, remember when, was it, Madison Cothorn was like, I got invited to sex parties. Yeah. People were doing drugs. Like, where's that?

Where's the Matt Gates, you know, shake up? Yeah, because it is, it is both sides of TMZ. Like, TMZ would ask a celebrity a nice question like that. I wouldn't say that's a nice. I mean, I guess it's a compliment. It's funny. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it's a compliment.

You're right. You know? I mean, you could. Sure. Awesome was definitely not expecting it. It wasn't like, hey, you didn't walk up to him, say, John or he's got a small tongue. Right. That would suck.

It would be different. That would be awesome. If I would walk away from that feeling pretty good. You know, I didn't have to answer a question about whether or not I had a big dick. But the way I looked at you suggested that maybe I do. Go to Mitch McConnell's hospital or wherever he is. Get footage. Film through the window.

Like, I look. We got to figure out what going on there. Got to figure it out. Got to figure it out. Do you think, so is the rehab facility in Kentucky? Are we sure about that? I guess it could be D.C. I imagine it's like D.C., Virginia, because we know.

He hasn't been back to Kentucky forever. That's good point. Yeah, I said this again. I've said it before. Say it again, if I'm Andy Beshear, I'm getting on a plane to D.C., I'm buying some flowers and I'm driving around to hospitals until I get into that fucking hotel room. If he doesn't get in.

Or the hospital room. Andy Bishar could just do a press conference outside the rehab facility. Yeah. Mitch McConnell, come out. have like a little bullhorn, you have to hold the press there. Let's do the say anything. Anyway, as long as we're talking about TMZ, they also got the scoop on Marjorie Taylor Green's wedding,

former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green. Let's throw up those photos. So congrats to MTG and her now husband, Brian Glenn. You might remember Brian as a reporter for Real America's voice. He was the most... No, she was at the craps table. Yeah, he was the most embarrassingly sycophantic dude in the White House Press Corps.

that is until Trump was mean to his girlfriend and they both quit and left town. So, John, they got married in Las Vegas this week. Here's some wedding deets for you. They got married at the Taraza de Soño at the Bellagio. I think the fountains are behind them. It looks beautiful. There you go. It looks gorgeous.

They had dinner at Spago. Nice. I'd like that you have all the details. MTG walked out to the song Ordinary by Alex Warren. They also heard perfect by Ed Sheeran and Flying Me to the Moon by Senate. Natra. Perfect. Great.

Get to the moon via Jewish space laser. And then they played craps roulette and slots. Not a bad wedding. I first read that, I was like, can you imagine if we were in Vegas and all of a sudden at the craps table we see Marjorie Taylor Green in a wedding dress? On a heater. I mean, it would be the best thing ever. Let a ride, Marjorie.

Good for her. That's great. Yeah. Congrats to the happy couple. I was reading the story on the TMC site and it showed like the past, like, you know, you know, it populates with like previous Marjorie. Taylor Green covered. So I clicked it. And it was her in New York getting interviewed about Mitch McConnell. And she called Elaine Chow McConnell's wife, a Chinese spy and said that Mitch was

laying in the hospital like a vegetable. So that doesn't surprise. She hasn't changed. Well, she's on message. Our girl. I've changed. I also have some more big break in news for you, John. Candice Owens got her hands on video evidence that Charlie Kirk's assassin was not Tyler Robinson. Oh no. It was someone else TBD. Check out this explosive never-before-seen footage. A rooftop guy begins a tactical crawl. It's actually known in the military as a lateral crawl. Let's watch that.

Compelling, right? Isn't that him? That's a guy. Isn't that Tyler Robinson? Kind of walking on the roof. There he goes. And I actually do want to show you side-by-side so you can actually see a real military man do that alongside

alongside this person on the rooftop. Let's bring in that side-by-side. Here we go. Come on. Come on. That general action right there is known as a lateral craw. So the smoking gun was a military grade scooch. She's suggesting that this.

She's saying that it was military because he did it like the military, because he scooched like a military. Because he kind of crawled on one hand and two knees. So the other day. That is the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard. Ever heard. The other day, Love and I did one of these, and we talked about kind of asymmetric news stories when it's like one party is like obsessed with a thing and the other side doesn't give a shit.

Like the Fauci Diaries, right, right. This is another. Like, this is all that she has covered for like, God knows how long. And then every once in a while like, she stopped with Bridget McGrath's dick. Yes. Well, mostly. I think she's almost done exclusively Charlie Carr coverage since the assassination. And so everyone's where all I check it.

And you're like, I don't know. Did she crack the case yet? Did she figure something down? And it's shit like that. It looks like that. Does she, has she elaborated on what this all means? Like, does she think that's, does she think that Tyler Robinson was a, was a trained military guy? I think the idea is Tyler Robinson didn't do it.

And it was an op or an inside job. Well, let me show you one of their clip. So who was that on the roof? Well, we don't know. But check out this, um, this Zeprooter film kind of deep dive on whether you can see the gun recoil. Okay. It's the guy who recorded the footage specifically said, told us that he saw no recoil. That's pretty crucial.

He just saw the guy get up and run. And that would be, I would argue, or a lawyer in court, that would be impossible for this specific naked model of gun. So let's watch and see if we, with our eyes, can observe some sort of a kickback. And again, I have to apologize. This is not like Benny Johnson 4K footage, but it's at least clear enough here on your screen that you would be able to discern a strong kickback on a gun from somebody who's just laying down, taking a shot.

Fed timestamps, but... See here. I have 10 more seconds here. Okay, he is up. What? Anybody? Anybody. How does...

I mean. So just for those who are listening and I watching, you can't see shit. It's so far away. It's so pixelated. The frame rate is low, so it's not showing all of the motions anyway. I will just say, like, for a while, and I'm not like a huge consumer of Candace content. But I would say like, yeah, she's crazy and has like horrible, conspiratorial nasty views. But clearly she is talented in some way because she has this big audience.

And so she knows what she's doing. This is one of the, the dumb. summer things. Even her, even her McGrown conspiracies, she at least weaves the conspiracy together in a more compelling fashion. I don't find it compelling, but more, like, it makes sense to some kind of person out there.

Who's watching that and is like, yeah, she makes a good point. Over one million views streamed 22 hours ago. This person is smoking us on all the podcast charts. But that's, I know, I know, it's crazy. There was not, you couldn't, there's no, you can't see a gun. You wouldn't even

no kickback. Hey, dude. I know you're a Fed and you worked for the fucking feds, but that was a military grade scooch and then there was no recoil. It looked like that in Yahoo. That's going to be next. I'm surprised it's not already. Okay, finally, I know you cover a lot of AI stuff over there.

I do. Offline. Have you come across this clip yet? That's the short summary of my post or my view on the project. play it again do it again play it again that's the short summary of my post

or my view on the project they're both doing it what the fuck who is that it sounds like a bunch of geese taken off what happened I'm so glad you hadn't seen that yet. It's like they're playing off each other too.

You sound like the most joking. Okay. The gentleman on the right is named Leopold Aschenbrenner. I've seen pictures of him on my feet. I knew something was going on with him. The other guy is a podcaster named Dwar Keshe Patel. So Aschen Brenner is a 24-year-old tech investor. He started a hedge fund called Situational Awareness.

It was focused on... doesn't have much of that. It was focused on all AI. He uses his own product. Let's focus on all AI investments up. He raised like hundreds of millions of dollars and he turned it into tens of billions of dollars in value. I think it was like at its peak.

The fund was valued at like $45 billion or something like that with like $20 billion worth of assets under management. This year alone through May, the fund was up 270% after fees. Only Don Jr. does those kinds of numbers. It was up over 1,000 percent. since inception, which I think was in 2024. So fuck us. Yeah, it's big time.

Well, the story takes the turn. One of the reasons they were so successful is because they used leverage. So for every dollar of capital they invested, they borrowed like three or four dollars, right, to juice their returns. But there's a lot of risk there if you're doing leverage investing. So in July, you remember this,

the markets got spooked for a bunch of reasons about AI. There was Chinese developments in AI that made it look cheaper and maybe we wouldn't need as many chips. Right. There were as concerned about all the capital expenditures these companies were making. And a bunch of AI stocks started taking hits and going down. And so the banks that had loaned Sir Honk's a lot over there, money for his hedge fund, started to freak out.

And they are starting issuing margin calls for more collateral. So he had to sell stock, which made the problem worse. And eventually, situational awareness is financial situation got so bad that they had to sell the majority of its public stock portfolio to this massive hedge fund called Citadel. It's like a steep discount. Now, we shouldn't feel too bad for this guy. I think the fund still has $10 billion under management

and lots of private shares and like anthropic and stuff. But it all went down like the week before the kid's wedding. So that must have sucked. Imagine like you're getting married Friday. Guests are showing up Thursday night and you're like cutting a deal with Citadel to fire stale your public holdings. But mostly I just wanted to talk about this

because it does feel like that in miniature could be what the global economy looks like if the AI bubble really bursts. And that scared the shit out of me. Either path, if it's a bubble, the whole global economy is going to be in for a rough ride. If it's not a bubble,

then AI is taking over the future and going to be mass displace everyone's job. So really, there's not... Sort of lose-loose. There's a lot of lose-lose here. Who's winning? There's no... There's no transition

to even a benevolent AI world where it is like everyone's prosperous where that is that is you know uh without huge massive problems what was um Elon what I mean you I must say that work will just be like gardening work will be like gardening yeah well he was also like well we're all going to die in the long term anyway no no we're all dead in the long term is it's actual his literal point was that um in a trillion years or so uh the the universe will be so spread out that there'll be a global cooling in everything will just sort of die off so therefore enjoy the ride. And it's like, but hey, what about the short run? We'd like to survive the short run.

And he's like, me. Yeah, but every, every major economic transformation has like, even the ones that have succeeded, like, have still had a bubble at some point. Like, just like the sheer amount of investing in AI right now is just cannot, they can't keep up. It is crazy. Can we play that clip one more time? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the short summary of my or my view on the project. Who's the lucky lady? The lucky lady. I mean, she doesn't give a shit.

Nope. It's the $10 billion. Take that lot of money. Anyway, thanks for watching this episode of Budz of America here on YouTube. Subscribe and see you guys next week. Bye, everyone.